Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 9, 2013

The other day I was at a Mercedes dealership. Unfortunately my wife was hit head on in December by a woman who lost control of her car. It was time to get a new car and my wife’s requirements were: The safest thing on the road. As many air bags as possible. I researched the pricing of the car at TrueCar – not because we’re an investor – but because it gives you complete price transparency over what other people in your area paid for a car.

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Conference Technical Review Truecar Software Review 398

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 25, 2013

A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. Someone on Quora recently asked me to answer the following question: Why Do Digital Entrepreneurs Hate MBAs? As I stated in my Quora answer, "hate" is the wrong word. Tech entrepreneurs' consternation with MBAs does not rise to the level of loathing. Rather, entrepreneurs' frustrations are often due to an incongruence between an MBA's expectations versus the value they can deliver to a startup.

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Entrepreneur Technical Review Case Study Class 279

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

A big group of local, Silicon Beach startups and established tech companies have signed up to showcase the Los Angeles high technology world, according to a list released today by Silicon Beach Sunday. The group said its event, being held on March 10th in Austin, will celebrate the diversity of technology companies in Silicon Beach and Los Angeles, and feature a sample of companies from the region showing off their products.

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Cornerstone OnDemand SoCalTech Sample Guide 263

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 21, 2013

So, we’ve discussed why it is important to build consensus in an organization in most every major decision. To do so, a CEO must be able to relinquish some degree of power, overriding decisions made by consensus only with some thought and certainly with an explanation to those involved. A manager secure in the position should never fear empowering direct reports to make decisions that fall within the resources allocated to them and within the budget agreed to with them.

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Report Organization Course Resource 185

Advertiser: Aggregage

Office leases are one of companies’ largest expenses, and if your whole team is working from home with no clear end in sight, you may be wondering what to do about your lease.

Company

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. I often get asked about the real alternatives to bridge this valley, and there are some good ones I will outline here.

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Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 9, 2013

We’re excited to announce TechZulu is coming back to Austin, Texas for South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive 2013! We had so much fun last year speaking with entrepreneurs, startups , panel speakers and making new friends , we decided we just had to do it again this year. So we’re gathering some friends an opening the TechZulu Trend Lounge ( #TZTL ).

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InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 11, 2013

A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. Because of the rapid pace with which Venture Capitalists review investment opportunities, they must employ pattern matching techniques which include identifying common fundraising deal breakers. Fortunately, most deal breakers can be avoided, with a bit of pro-active thought and deft execution.

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Technical Review Entrepreneur IP RSS 264

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 22, 2013

There's a new, startup incubator in town in West Los Angeles--this time, launching out of Loyola Marymount University and its College of Business. According to the school, it has launched the The LMU CBA Business Incubator , a brand new startup incubator focused on companies in the technology and consumer products area. The incubator--which is being managed by Dr.

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Incubator LMU West Los Angeles Startup 258

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

Almost all of us in our leadership roles are looked upon to provide clues for behavior by those who look up to us, whether family members or subordinates in the workplace or even those we associate with as peers, suppliers, or customers. In your business and personal life, there will be moments that will define you forever in the eyes of those you might not be aware are watching.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2013

Steve Jobs was one of those entrepreneurs who seemed universally either loved or hated, but not many will argue with his ability to innovate in the technology product arena over the years. He was instrumental in creating Apple, which has pioneered a dazzling array of new products, and even surpassed Microsoft, to become the world’s most valuable technology company.

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Ideas Entrepreneur Design Guide 120

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

For 5 years, BIL has been a boon for those of us who enjoy learning, socializing with likeminded individuals and playing fun science games without paying a $6000 entrance fee ala TED. In case you haven’t heard, BIL is the tech oriented, community based non-origination that throws an Ad-HOC conference that runs concurrently with TED (March 1-3) every year.

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Long Beach Conference Resource Activity 106

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

This article originally appeared on TechCrunch. By now many of you know the Harlem Shake but what you may not appreciate is the broader trend behind the video and it has mirrored my general views on how TV will work in the future. Harlem Shake is a YouTube phenomenon that in just 2 weeks has gone from nothing to on air on both Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert and collectively the Harlem Shake has been viewed around 200 million times.

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InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 4, 2013

A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. Venture Capital is a game of pattern matching. Whenever a VC assesses a potential investment opportunity, they attempt to match the entrepreneur(s), their solution, and intended markets with a pattern they have previously encountered. If you haven't already subscribed yet, subscribe now for free weekly Infochachkie articles!

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Technical Review Startup Venture Capital RSS 244

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 20, 2013

Are you tired of the same old tourist guidebooks, and wish you could really find those unique, local attractions in a city? Newly launched Crash is hoping to help solve that problem, by surfacing "photo-worthy" locations around you in its mobile app--sourced from its users. We spoke with Erick Laubach , the founder of Crash--which is backed by famed startup incubator Idealab--to hear about how the company is hoping to tap the power of the crowd to help others find interesting, local attractions.

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SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

I did a presentation this week at Coloft that looked at how Non-Technical Founders can go about getting their MVP built. It had a passionate group of 50 people attending. I promised to do this post as a follow-up to the session to provide additional links and information. It should also give a sense of what I covered to people who were not there. Here is the outline of the talk and some links from prior posts that talk to the issues that I discussed in the talk.

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Technical Review CTO Hire CTO Coach Software Review 338

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2013

Entrepreneurship is all about leading – leading customers to a new product or service, leading a startup team to peak performance, and leading a new business to the market opportunity, while providing maximum return to stakeholders. Most entrepreneurs feel they have innate leadership talents, but struggle with how to nurture these abilities and measure their effectiveness.

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Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

Celebrating five amazing years of LA tech. That’s right. We all work hard, now it’s time to play hard. TechZulu and Digital LA are turning five this month and we couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate than with all of you. After all, you are LA tech, and this party is just as much a celebration of how far this community has come…and how far it’s yet to go.

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Technical Review Santa Monica Media News 104

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

Let me not bury the lede. I’m super excited to announce that GRP Partners led the investment in Ethan Anderson’s new company MyTime (link has LA-based merchants but will give you a good feel for the product). I am taking the lead from GRP and we also invested alongside a number of friends including Dave McClure, Dave Tisch, Ben Smith (Merchant Circle), Brian Lee (ShoeDazzle, LegalZoom), Jason Calacanis, Evan Rifkin, Jennifer Lum, Jay Weintraub and a whole host of other angels.

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CTO Coach Google CTO Hire GRP Partners 359

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

A version of this article previously appeared on Inc. Someone on Quora recently asked me to answer the following question: How can I avoid repeating the big job disappointments of my past? This caused me to ponder some of my career choices. As I thought about my past career missteps, I had to admit to myself that in each case there were clear warning signs that I chose to either discount or ignore entirely.

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socalTECH

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

Los Angeles-based Retention Science , the developer of big data analytics software for online marketing, announced today that it has launched a new "Retention Score", which it bills as a Klout Score of e-commerce. The score allows online stores to see, at a glance, what their performance is with customer retention. Retention Science said the score looks at customer churn, customer engagement, customer sentiment, and repeat purchase rate to let businesses get an idea of how they are doing with cu

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Commerce Los Angeles Customer Custom 242

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 15, 2013

Surely you’ve been exposed to articles, courses and lectures about various styles of management, and how each is appropriate for some companies and for some levels of organization and at some times. For example, a consensus-building leader works well in that style until someone yells “fire!,” and the emergency requires a dictatorial style of management to act quickly, protecting lives.

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Organization Report Education Course 166

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 20, 2013

The days are gone when a techie or a genius could build things in his garage and customers would find and buy the product, based purely on the “wow factor” of the technology. New technologies are everywhere today. People have seen so much that they are blasé, or actually fear pure technology. They want a personable brand, before they will consider the product.

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Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

This is an interview with Lars Perkins, as he talks about his new app and the new features in the works! Relive is a smart photo-sharing app that allows users to easily share photos privately, amongst close friends and family. Founded by Larks Perkins, a serial entrepreneur, filmmaker, inventor and avid photographer, Relive hopes to solve the problem of privacy in the social photo sharing space.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 2, 2013

It’s February now. That means a slew of companies will be preparing to launch their new products or announcing their companies at the annual SXSW conference in Austin, Texas. I get asked often how to best launch at SXSW. What strategies to use, how to get attention, how to become “hot.” I get asked many PR questions which is why I started this stream of posts on PR at Startups.

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Technology Council

FEBRUARY 14, 2013

By MBAOnline.com Women In Tech by MBAOnline.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License Filed under: Technology Tagged: technology, women.

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Technology 127

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 11, 2013

A new study, issued today by the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future , says that the majority of Americans still don't think pulling a cell phone out at a meal is appropriate. The study found that 62 percent of Americans feel that it's not at all appopriate to have a cellphone on the table during dinner, with 76 percent saying that texting is not all all appropriate, 80 percent panning browsing on the web, and 84 percent saying you shouldn't talk on the phone at a meal.

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socalTECH

FEBRUARY 28, 2013

Santa Monica-based content delivery network (CDN) provider EdgeCast said this morning that it doubled its revenues in 2012, and now has more than 225 employees. The privately held firm did not disclose its revenues, however, the firm has previously been reported to have had revenues of between $50-100M in revenues in 2011, and $15-20M in revenues in 2009.

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Steamboat Ventures Santa Monica Hulu Content 240

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

How do you figure out which of your users matter most in your social applications and games, and help that to improve social interaction and engagement in your apps? Redondo Beach-based NinjaMetrics has just scored some funding for exactly that, in the first part of a Series A funding round, worth $750,000. The new funding comes from Yuri Pikover (Xylan, 5Square, Access360), along with the Tech Coast Angels' Ace Fund, along with other angels.

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Metrics Redondo Beach Tech Coast Angels Tool 234

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Two, Southern California researchers were awarded the nation's top honor for their contributions to science and technology Friday, as President Obama awarded twelve researchers the National Medal of Science, and eleven inventors with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation at a ceremony at the White House. Dr. Frances Arnold , a professor at the California Institute of Technology , was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, and Dr.

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socalTECH

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

Spreeify.com , a brand new, Los Angeles startup, said last week that it has launched a brand new, social shopping site, centered around free giveaways and shopping deals. The startup, led by Ruben Dua, said it combines product giveaways with social shopping, to help merchants gain customers. The firm lets users browse for and shop for women and men's apparel, accessories, home decor, and gadgets.

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socalTECH

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

BLANKSPACES , one of the original, coworking facilities in Los Angeles, is returning to Santa Monica's 2nd Street, according to CEO Jerome Chang. Chang said that its 2nd St. location will again be operating as BLANKSPACES. As part of the relaunch, Chang said that it has partnered with a new, $500K investment fund focused on mobile apps and games to help provide money to members (via Vak Sambath); will be launching a series of office hours to help with in-person, one-on-one discussions (with John

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socalTECH

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

MyTime , which operates an online service focused on online deals for appointment-focused businesses like chiropractors, personal trainers, housekeeping, and more, has raised a round of funding to expand its service beyond Los Angeles. The round was led by GRP Partners, and also included angels such as Dave McClure, Dave Tisch, Ben Smith (Merchant Circle), Brian Lee (ShoeDazzle, LegalZoom), Jason Calacanis, Evan Rifkin, Jennifer Lum, and Jay Weintraub.

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Services Funding GRP Partners Legalzoom 229

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 11, 2013

What's the best way to find local tourist locations? How about a mobile app which taps the power of its users to find cool and unique spots in their city? Newly funded and launched startup Crash --backed by Idealab--said today that it has launched its iOS-based attraction discovery app and website. The startup, led by Erick Laubach, said that the application lets anyone be their own tour guide, and explore attractions which "make a city unique.

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Idealab San Diego Incubator Guide 228

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 15, 2013

NASA said late Thursday that it has set a new date for the next SpaceX resupply mission, and is targeting Friday, March 1st for the resupply flight to the International Space Station. Space Exploration Technologies, the commercial rocket and spaceflight firm based in Hawthorne, and headed by technology mogul Elon Musk, has seen huge success in its goal of developing its rocket and spacecraft technology to deliver supplies--and eventually, people--to space.

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socalTECH

FEBRUARY 15, 2013

Science Inc. , the technology startup incubator and studio headed by former MySpace CEO Michael Jones, has raised around $30M in funding from Hearst Ventures , the venture capital arm of Hearst Corporation, Hearst said this morning. Science Inc. and Hearst did not disclose terms of the deal, but AllthingsD said the investment was worth $30M and gave Hearst a twenty percent stake in Science.

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Rustic Canyon Incubator Venture Capital Entertainment 223

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

Gradient X , the online mobile marketing and advertising technology developer backed by GRP Partners, Rincon Venture Partners, Crosscut Ventures, Founder Collective, Double M Capital, Baroda Ventures, Siemer Ventures, and others, has snapped up some talent from OpenX with its latest hire. Gradient X said this morning that Stephan Cunningham has been named Vice President of Marketplace Operations, heading up the firm's client, partner and vendor relations, first and third-party data management, i

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OpenX CTO Hire GRP Partners CIO 223