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Some Thoughts on Branding Startups and Communities

Both Sides of the Table

World-class education including Caltech, USC and UCLA. ZestCash, founded by Douglas Merrill, former CIO of Google [Hollywood]. He was one of the first guys that I know who laid out his stall and said I want to do “big data” investments that take advantage of the explosion of data now available on the web.

Startup 304
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Can You Really Build a Great Tech Firm Outside Silicon Valley?

Both Sides of the Table

We have world-class universities like Caltech, UCLA, USC and more. That sets us up nicely for the next phase of the web. Douglas Merrill, the former CIO of Google, is building his next company, ZestCash in LA. But LA is not Silicon Valley and we don’t need to aspire to be so. Funding is different outside of Silicon Valley.