February, 2016

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Performance competition is a good thing

TechEmpower

We love this! If you've not been watching the ASP.NET team's community standups , you have missed some surprisingly transparent, interesting, and oftentimes funny updates from a major web application framework development team. Every time I watch one I marvel, this is Microsoft? Clearly we're seeing a new Microsoft. If you're not watching, you would have also missed how much emphasis the ASP.NET team is putting on performance.

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Spotting, Nurturing and Mentoring Talent – The Power of Troy Carter

Both Sides of the Table

I recently sat down with Troy Carter to talk about what he does and why he believes it is applicable to venture capital. The “what” is well known in LA circles – Troy discovered a little known young singer named Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta aka Lady Gaga and helped her launch her career. The “what” Troy Carter does also led him to be an early investor in Uber, Lyft, Dropbox, Warby Parker and several other great startups of the last era.

Mentor 202
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Above all, consider the corporate gate keeper.

Berkonomics

Looking for an entrance into a VC, an angel group, a bank, a CxO for a sales opportunity, or any other entity? There are always gate keepers whose job it is to filter out the inconsequential or inappropriate, and allow through those with most promise. That said, gate keepers can and do block some great opportunities before the decision maker even has a chance to use his or her expertise to evaluate.

Ideas 156
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Machinima Pays NYAG $50,000 Over Undisclosed Endorsements

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based Machinima has paid a penalty of $50,000, in a settlement with the New York Attorney General, over the use of paid, undisclosed endorsements on its gaming content network. According to New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, earlier this month, Machinima paid gaming expert influencers to endorse Microsoft's Xbox One, paying two of those endorsers $15,000 and $30,000 for producing YouTube videos, and another larger group of influencers a total of $25,000 for views on vide

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Can You Ask for Office Rent Relief? How to Manage Your Lease During COVID-19

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.

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Mark Suster On Falling Valuations And LA’s Tech Scene

TechCrunch LA

TechCrunch sat down with Mark Suster, managing partner at Upfront Ventures. One of the most active investors in Los Angeles, Suster spoke of how local startups are able to draw upon the city’s creative talent to bring content, commerce and communication platforms to the next level. He also commented on falling tech valuations. “By any definition we’ve been in a funding… Read More.

Commerce 100
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Get Free Drinks, Upgrades And Smiles When You Travel

InfoChachkie

A version of this article previously appeared Forbes. A very good friend of mine has heard me tell many a tale of trips in which I have scored free drinks, gratis hotel and car rental upgrades and various travel freebies. However, without experiencing my stories first hand, he always suspected there was a degree of embellishment involved to make my stories a bit more entertaining.

Class 116

More Trending

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MakeSpace Raises an Additional $17.5 million and Unveils Strategy to Make Public Storage the Next Blockbuster Video

Both Sides of the Table

MakeSpace , the leading provider of next-generation storage for consumers, today announced an additional $17.5 million in funding on TechCrunch led by Harmony Partners and Upfront Ventures to double its footprint of 3 cities (New York, Chicago & Washington DC) to 6 in 2016. We raised this capital in what has increasingly become a difficult market for fund raising so I’d like to share with you some details on how we get it done.

Startup 238
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The one question to stop them in the trade show aisle.

Berkonomics

Wouldn’t it be magic if we could find one (unique to us) question to ask people passing the booth or table as they pass in the aisle of the trade show? I asked a number of exhibitors that question recently, and received some surprising responses, along with tips for “reeling them in…”. “Is your mom OK?” was offered by one who said it always worked for him.

Tips 156
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Tritech Software Buys The Omega Group From Trimble

socalTECH

San Diego-based Tritech Software , a developer of software for the law enforcement, public safety, fire, and emergency medical services (EMS) industries, has acquired The Omega Group , a developer of cloud-based mapping and analytics software for the market. The Omega Group was owned by mapping and GPS software developer Trimble. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced.

Software 116
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How To Expand Your Marketplace To LA

TechCrunch LA

“The theme of LA is diversity.” That is what DoorDash’s Kevin Huang told me in our conversation about how expanding on-demand marketplaces into LA differs from other markets. As an LA-based enterprise and marketplace investor, one of the most common questions I get from entrepreneurs is how to expand marketplaces into LA. While this includes all the usual difficulties of… Read More.

Demand 100
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Digital Summit LA [ LOS ANGELES ]

Tech.Co

Digital Summit Los Angeles is a premier digital strategies forum transforming the future of the digital commerce ecosystem – including Marketing, UX & Design, Search, Content, Mobile, and more. Every company with a customer base faces the same challenge – how do we keep up with our competition amidst the myriad of digital channels and peer-to-peer communication available to consumers?

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15 interesting startups to watch in 2016

Jason Nazar

What will be the next big thing that everyone talks about? I’ve been asking around and looking at companies, trends, and what else is going on to put together the following list of startups worth watching in 2016. Read at Venture Beat.

Startup 76
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The Full Dataset on What VCs are Thinking About Funding in 2016

Both Sides of the Table

Every year at Upfront we try to analyze the venture markets. We try to look at the sources of capital, the valuations, exits and trends. We use this try to draw some context that informs our funding decisions. Of course we fund companies in good markets and bad. In venture our goal is to fund companies over a 10-year+ time horizon, which is the time it takes to build truly transformational companies.

Funding 235
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Marketing and big data: Finding that needle in the haystack

Berkonomics

We once measured our audience using demographic buckets, especially with the use of age groups, gender, and financial ability as keys. Classic marketing teaches us that this is the best way to define our audience, and to make appropriate pitches that will elicit favorable response from the target audience. Still true, but with a big twist. Using big data that has been mined for specific information, we can now market to individuals within classes, some of whom will not fit the stereotype and wo

Marketing 156
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OpTerra Energy Opens Office In San Diego

socalTECH

OpTerra Energy , an energy services companies owned by French utility services operator ENGIE, said it has opened up a new office in Solana Beach, to address sustainability needs in the region. OpTerra says it helps private- and public-sector facilities with reducing energy consumption and energy usage, including in the K-12, higher education, local government, and commercial and industrial customers.

San Diego 109
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Investors Love To Fund Solutions That Are Scalable

Startup Professionals Musings

Investors will tell you that they love to put money into startups that are scalable, and ready to scale. But what does that really mean? Simply stated, it means that your business has the potential to multiply revenue with minimal incremental cost. Ready to scale is when you have a proven product and a proven business model, about to expand to new geographies and markets.

Funding 67
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Black Box Tech Can Only Help Young Drivers

Tech Zulu Event

“Black boxes” were originally devices that are installed in airplanes to record two things: sound in the aircraft, and aircraft computer data. This information is generally extracted in the instance of a plane crash in order for pilots to try to figure out what exactly happened. Now, the technology is being installed in most new automobiles in order to track driving, which would help people lower their insurance costs exponentially.

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5 Great Ways to Completely Reinvent Your Company

Frank Addante

In my more than 20 years serving as a CEO and/or Founder, one thing I have learned is that change is the only constant. But then why is it so difficult to bring about, even in the most forward-thinking organizations? The simple truth is that it’s human nature to resist change. Change is threatening because it’s associated with uncertainty, self-examination, and a loss of control.

Company 40
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So What is The Right Level of Burn Rate for a Startup These Days?

Both Sides of the Table

There is much talk these days that startup valuations have decreased and may continue to do so and that the amount of time it takes to fund raise may take longer. As I have pointed out in previous posts , 91% of VCs surveyed believe prices are declining (30% believe substantially) and 77% believe that funding will take longer than it has in the past.

Startup 222
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Big data: Information is NOT knowledge

Berkonomics

Say that you have a log file of every contact to your website. Or that you are a cell phone company with a multi–billion record log file of every call made from every location to every number dialed using your network. You can accurately state that you have big data at your fingertips. But it is useless in this raw, usually unstructured form. Adding context to data takes this information and creates actionable knowledge.

Tool 146
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SpaceX Scrubs Mission For Third Time

socalTECH

Hawthorne-based SpaceX scrubbed the launch of its latest mission for the third time on Sunday, after a boat wandered into the launch zone and the U.S. Air Force had to scramble a helicopter to get the boat to move; at the same time, a low thrust alarm sounded on its Falcon rocket. This is the third delay for the company's mission to launch the SES-9 into orbit.

SpaceX 109
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Entrepreneurs Need More Relationships And Fewer Friends

Startup Professionals Musings

Successful entrepreneurs understand the difference between a good business relationship with more people and having more friends. In fact, the focus on social networking platforms, starting with Facebook, has destroyed the meaning of the word friend and even changed it from a noun to a verb. It’s now common to have hundreds or thousands of friends online -- but no relationships.

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Driver Monitoring Technology: Pros and Cons

Tech Zulu Event

Computer aided driver monitoring technology or Telematics is radically changing the future and outlook of the automobile industry. Telematics based insurance is also known in the industry as black box technology based on the way it works. In this new technology, a small black device gets attached to your vehicle for purposes of recording the speed, distance for purposes of tracking the vehicle in the event of an accident or theft.

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5 Great Ways to Completely Reinvent Your Company

Frank Addante

In my more than 20 years serving as a CEO and/or Founder, one thing I have learned is that change is the only constant. But then why is it so difficult to bring about, even in the most forward-thinking organizations? The simple truth is that it’s human nature to resist change. Change is threatening because it’s associated with uncertainty, self-examination, and a loss of control.

Company 40
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The One Video Every Silicon Valley Investor Should Watch

Both Sides of the Table

There was so much great content at the Upfront Summit but I think one held a special place in minds of most people I talked to – our panel on diversity led by my partner Hamet Watt (<– what? you’re not following him?). The message of the panel was very clear – “We don’t need your help. We want to partner with you to make money.” And I’ll elaborate on this but I wanted to start first with an important quote from Magic, said with a very positive

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Think about Performance Before Building a Web Application

TechEmpower

“It was running fine.” In our performance consulting work, we often hear variations of the following: “Our web application was running fine with a few hundred users. Now when we run a promotion with our new partner and get a thousand users coming in at one time, it grinds to a halt.”. We’ve heard this from startup founders, product managers, development team leads, CTOs, and others who see their product gaining traction, but simultaneously see performance falling off a cliff.

Web 286
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Redfin Takes Tech-Centric Real Estate To Santa Barbara

socalTECH

Redfin , a tech-centric real estate brokerage firm based out of Seattle, said late last week that it has expanded into Santa Barbara and parts of Ventura County, bringing its website and mobile app into the Santa Barbara and surrounding areas. Redfin employs real estate agents who are paid based on client satisfaction rather than commission, and is centered around iOS, Android apps, and a website, all geared towards clients more comfortable with technology than people.

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10 Setup Steps To A Compelling Startup Presentation

Startup Professionals Musings

The average length of a funding pitch to Angel investors is ten minutes. Even if you have booked an hour with a VC, you should plan to talk only for the first fifteen minutes. The biggest complaint I hear from investors is that startup founders often talk way too long, and neglect to cover the most relevant points. Or they get sidetracked by a technical glitch due to poor preparation.

Startup 64
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Startup Grind 2016 – “Make Friends, Not Contacts”

Tech Zulu Event

Community. My biggest take away from Startup Grind Conference 2016 is how genuinely the organization is committed to uniting and helping startups accelerate together on a global level. Being that I devote my life connecting quality people in the LA tech ecosystem with WeAreLATech , I know how rare it is to find people like Derek Andersen. Derek Andersen founded Startup Grind, he moderated many of the fireside chats at Startup Grind Conference 2016 on the main stage and gave opening and closing

Startup 46
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What are the Technical Performance Requirements for your Startup?

SoCal CTO

By far the most popular post on this blog is 32 Questions Developers May Have Forgot to Ask a Startup Founder. It was originally written in 2011 and has had amazing staying power. While I’ve updated it a few times, it continues to get at important questions that startup founders need to be asking. I find myself sending it to startup founders all the time – maybe just slightly less than Free Startup CTO Consulting.

Startup 150
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Why Uber Should Go Public

Both Sides of the Table

“It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except all those others that have been tried” – Winston Churchill. At the Upfront Summit this past week there was an electric interview of Fred Wilson led by well-researched and artful Dan Primack of Fortune Magazine that ended up making news. The newsworthy moment was when Fred expressed his view that companies like Uber should go public.

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Confessions Of A VC: Crap – Why I Passed On Uber’s Seed Round

InfoChachkie

A version of this article previously appeared on Entrepreneur.com. Did I passed on Uber’s seed round? No. It’s worse than that. I never even bothered to listen to Travis’ pitch, even though I was repeatedly offered the opportunity. I then passed on Uber’s A Round as well, which I thought was valued too high, in light of the company’s progress. Too bad, as the initial funding round has increased over 4,000 times in value, making a $250,000 investment worth more than $1,100,000,000.

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MNX Global Logistics Acquires 3PL Aero Express

socalTECH

Irvine-based MNX Global Logistics , a provider of transportation and logistics services, said this morning that it has acquired 3PL Aero Express , a logistics provider in Singapore that serves the aviation and aerospace sector. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. MNX said that 3PL Aero Express Logistics (AEL) serves the specialized aviation and aerospace sector, and uses Singapore as its maintenance, repair, and overhaul hub.

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10 Steps To Becoming A Thought Leader In Business

Startup Professionals Musings

Successful entrepreneurs often start with a “random” idea, but they quickly focus their efforts and follow a “system” to organize their startup and maximize the clout of their activities. Too many entrepreneur “wannabes” never get past the idea stage, or strike out randomly in many directions, hoping that their passion will convince people to follow them and make their business grow.

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Startup Optimization: Reduce Your Hardware Cost with Chromebooks

Tech Zulu Event

Are you looking for a top-notch computer model to use throughout your business venture? Of course it’s important to equip your partners and employees with the best technology to do their jobs, but it’s also important to find computers that are easily portable and affordable for your current budget. With all those demands, it’s no surprise that many ventures (and a whole lot of schools) are turning to Chromebooks to get the job done.

Startup 43
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Framework Benchmarks Round 12

TechEmpower

Round 12 of the ongoing Web Framework Benchmarks project is now available! A race against the clock. Recently, we were notified that the physical hardware environment we have used for Rounds 9 through 12 will be decommissioned imminently. This news made Round 12 unusual: rather than wait until we can equip and configure a new environment, we decided to conclude Round 12 while the current environment remained available.

Framework 267