Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2017

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup founders dilemmas in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. People may jump into the lifestyle to be their own boss, achieve great wealth, start a new trend, or all the above.

Entrepreneur 57

Entrepreneur USC Statistics Equity 57

socalTECH

JUNE 30, 2010

Last week, Los Angeles-based Stroome (www.stroome.com), a new startup originally spawned out of a project at the USC Annenberg School of Communications, won $200,000 in the 2010 Knight News Challenge. Tom Grasty: Essentially, we started off as a graduate school project at USC. We grew out of an interesting use case.

Journal 187

Journal USC News Startup 187

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MAY 2, 2013

Despite a growing technology industry here in Southern California, local investors and entrepreneurs tell us there''s still a shortage of local, venture capital. I was just at USC yesterday, and they''re really focused on great things in science in engineering. What''s the best way for entrepreneurs to approach you?

Invest 159

Invest Technology Startup Venture Capital 159

socalTECH

MARCH 26, 2012

The Los Angeles startup is looking to help connect travelers with local guides and hosts. We met at USC, and we had traveled a lot with study abroad programs. However, we felt the pain that everywhere you go, particularly on tours, you end up ushered around places by people who are always trying to sell you things.

Startup 199

Startup Idealab USC Ideas 199

socalTECH

OCTOBER 14, 2010

The group--which was started by Richard Koffler and John Morris , two well known investors in Los Angeles--has been trying to help connect CEOs with interesting university and other technology projects. That technology is coming out of USC's biomedical department, which is part of its School of Engineering.

Networking 215

Networking Research Startup USC 215

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 2, 2011

At the Technovation Challenge LA Pitch Night hosted by Iridescent , we saw six teams of high school girls from various Los Angeles City Schools pitch a number of mobile app ideas to a panel of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. Seek out similar academic competitions and programs. Don’t take no for an answer. Find a hero.

Technical Review 82

Technical Review Entrepreneur Software Review USC 82

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 21, 2014

Sifting through the crowd, it was easy to see sweatshirts with Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, USC and many other universities. Varadh Jain , an organizer who is part of Bruin Entrepreneurs, commented, “We did have some problems which are common to hackathons – like wifi and food but overall we were thrilled the way we executed.”.

UCLA 108

UCLA Los Angeles Snapchat USC 108

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

Having time to think about “leadership” at most startups feels like a luxury. The reality of most startups is about survival. If people don’t know the mission there is no way to achieve the objective and you end up with a team pulling in 100 different directions – even if only by small amounts.

Startup 150

Startup Coach Course Invest 150

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SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

Los Angeles-based Tilofy (www.tilofy.com)--out of USC''s Viterbi Startup Garage--is doing just that, helping to highlight what is going on around you, by absorbing all of that location data out there at any particular time and place. We spoke with Ali Khoshgozaran , founder and CEO of the company, to learn more about the startup.

USC 236

USC Southern California Organization UCLA 236

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 15, 2014

Of course this can be done and of course I am a big proponent of the rise of startup centers across the country as the Internet has moved from the “infrastructure phase” to the “application phase” dominated by the three C’s: content, communications and commerce. ” But I think this misses the point.

Company 369

Company Companies Startup Snapchat 369

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 11, 2014

Balance is also an extremely important factor among a founding startup team. Just like starting a company as a sole founder, it is possible to excel without a partner, it''s just a lot harder. Outside of the startup world, there is a partnership which has served humankind well since the beginning of time  marriage.

Startup 257

Startup Santa Barbara Competition Journal 257

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 22, 2014

SoCal startup Moving Analytics is tackling this global problem. Through simple design, extensive sensing mechanism research, and behavioral science principles, Moving Analytics is carving out its own innovative niche in a heavily competitive space by providing a simple solution for highly sedentary people. A walking interview?

USC 104

USC Southern California Activity Study 104

socalTECH

OCTOBER 23, 2012

One of the biggest complaints that local entrepreneurs have with Los Angeles has been a dearth of local sources of venture capital. However, the recent surge in startup activity has attracted a lot more capital into the area, including a significant amount of capital from LA's latest fund: Karlin Ventures (www.karlinvc.com).

Funding 253

Funding Startup Invest Commerce 253

socalTECH

AUGUST 20, 2009

As I watched my kids' eyeballs move over, as well as looked at the research data and advertising data which saw TV's share shrinking, I started looking into new media. I saw that kids seem to get bored by kids sites by age ten or eleven, and then they start moving onto sites that shouldn't be online and really aren't appropriate for children.

Media 150

Media Tech Coast Angels Social Network Content 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

We were talking about a company, Factual (disclosure my firm is an investor), which was founded by one of LA’s most talented Internet entrepreneurs, Gil Elbaz , who as co-founder of Applied Semantics (purchased by pre-IPO Google for $102 million and now Google AdSense) is responsible for a large portion of the Internet’s monetization.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Southern California Google Startup 313

socalTECH

JUNE 2, 2014

Last month, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti created a new program, aimed at growing, assisting and sustaining entrepreneurs in Los Angeles. The new "Entrepreneur-in-Residence" program has appointed its first, two, EIRs--Krisztina "Z" Holly and Amir Tehrani.--both It''s not going to look like manufacturing as we knew it.

Los Angeles 216

Los Angeles Startup USC Angel 216