Sat.Oct 16, 2010 - Fri.Oct 22, 2010

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What Tech Entrepreneurs Could Learn from Chamillionaire

Both Sides of the Table

On why you should be an entrepreneur, “A lot of people do what they have to do. You want to get yourself to a position where you can do what you want to do&# (Chamillionaire). Last night I co-hosted a dinner at Soho House in Los Angeles with some of the most senior people in the media industry with executives from Disney, Fox, Warner, media agencies and many promising tech & media startup CEO’s.

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Is life moving faster now or does it simply move faster as you age?

Eric Greenspan

Jackson Greenspan, 6 months. It’s hard to believe that my newborn is not so new anymore. The past 6 months went by faster than any I can ever remember. Jackson keeps getting bigger and the days keep getting shorter. The older I get, the faster life seems to wiz by. I’m pretty sure I used to pray to be older and for a day to finally end. Now, I just want one more minute or another week or the past 10 years back.

News 228
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Activision, Jeep Tie On Call Of Duty Black Ops Wrangler

socalTECH

Although creating films and cross licensing videogame titles is not new to the videogame industry, it looks as if Santa Monica-based Activision Publishing and automotive maker Jeep have taken the trend of taking videogames into other product areas to a new area today: a new, Call of Duty: Black Ops-themed Jeep Wrangler. Jeep and Activision said this morning that the two are in an exclusive partnership, where Jeep will create a 2011 Jeep Wrangler Call of Duty: Black Ops Edition.

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Some People Are Indispensable, But No One Is Irreplaceable

InfoChachkie

Reginald Martinez Jackson was a perennial major league baseball all-star throughout most of his 21-year career. Reggie earned the nickname “Mr. October” because of his consistent ability to hit home runs during clutch situations in playoff and World Series games, which contributed to his teams winning five Championships. He was also often referred to as a “hotdog” for his self-promotional antics and lackadaisical on-field play.

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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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Skate Where the Puck is Going

Both Sides of the Table

Anyone who works in the venture business or frankly just lives in Silicon Valley will be used to hearing a buzz word rise up out of nowhere to capture the technology zeitgeist and find its way into every entrepreneur’s product development plan or every aspiring entrepreneur’s pitch deck. I call this “the puck at your feet&# because it’s not where the industry is heading but rather where the industry is today.

Startup 296
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Feed your board with constant care and attention.

Berkonomics

Plan 10% of your time for board relations. Most all leaders new to the CEO position underestimate this time requirement. It is good for the company when the CEO shares concerns, threats and opportunities with the board. The rule of “no surprises” works well for the longevity of a CEO. But there are always surprises. CEO’s should communicate with members of the board if not a committee of the whole as soon as possible when threats to the corporation arise.

More Trending

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A Showcase of San Diego Clean Technology Companies

SoCal Tech Calendar

Tuesday, October 26, 2010 -- A Showcase of San Diego Clean Technology Companies. The CommNexus EcoCom SIG has organized an ensemble of 10 local and innovative companies where cleantech plays a major role in their business. These companies are putting the spotlight on diverse uses of technologies that span the gamut from battery free energy storage using ultracapacitors, satellite imaging for remotely controlling irrigation, low power chip design and wireless technology protocols for bidirectiona

San Diego 124
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Five Steps To Social Media Success for Startups

Startup Professionals Musings

Everyone is talking about how social media can help you jumpstart your business at no cost, and experts are springing up on all sides to help you do it at a high cost. So who do you believe, and what are the keys to success for your startup? I’ll put my money on one of the originals in the social media marketing game, my friend Lon Safko, who just published his Second Edition of the bestselling book, “ The Social Media Bible.

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The Immersive Technology Summit Live

Tech Zulu Event

Join us this Thursday as we present to you the world's first summit on Immersive Technology. It will be held at the Los Angeles Center Studios to showcase the pioneers of Immersive Tech and collaborate on themes of innovation, applications, and future development. Visit TechZulu for full story. Tags: Arts & Entertainment Retail & Consumers Video Andy Tong Harold Tan immersive Technology imtech Kevin Wong Nathan Makino.

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San Diego Clean Technology CEOs Line Up Against Proposition 23

socalTECH

The fight over Proposition 23, the California referendum coming to the polls to overturn AB32, has more backers today, from a group of 30 San Diego CEOs. According to The Green Chamber of San Diego County and those CEOs, they are urging San Diegans to vote no on Proposition 23, saying that the effort to repeal the state's Clean Energy Law would be "be harmful at best and devastating at worst" to its business community, neighborhoods, and the California economy.

San Diego 196
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Survivor 6

SoCal Tech Calendar

Thursday, October 28, 2010 -- TCVN Survivor 6. Who will SURVIVE all three rounds with our investors and win a bundle of prizes? Heres your chance to compete for serious investor attention and valuable prizes. EVERY company in attendance will have the opportunity to make its 30-second pitch to our panel of investors. 15 companies will then be invited back as sub-finalists to return to the podium to make a 2 minute pitch.

TCVN 113
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Building a Startup is Like Prospecting for Gold

Startup Professionals Musings

Startups are tough. For every entrepreneur and every gold prospector, there are more opportunities to fail than to succeed. Yet experts say that quitting too soon is a prime cause of failure in both endeavors. No one knows how many business founders quit digging when they are only three feet from the gold. Way back in 1937, an author name Napoleon Hill first released a classic book called “ Think and Grow Rich ,” which started with a real story of a man named Darby prospecting for gold, who gave

Startup 94
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The Future of Television & The Digital Living Room

Both Sides of the Table

Dana Settle & I are hosting a dinner tonight (10/20/10) with some of the biggest companies in entertainment to talk about the future of television, film & digital media. Michael Ovitz , the co-founder of CAA will be the keynote speaker. Nobody can predict 100% what the future of television will be so I won’t pretend that I know the answers.

Content 386
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Insights: 21 Strategies for Generating Irresistible SEO Benefits

socalTECH

For today's Insights and Opinions article, where we feature insightful articles and opinions from the Southern California technology community, we have a piece from Dustin Luther , chief storyteller and founder of social media consultancy 4realz.net. Dustin gives his 21 Strategies for Generating Irresistible SEO Benefits : It's pretty easy to blow thousands of dollars (even tens of thousands of dollars) on a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy that barely gets any results.

SEO 189
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Growth Capital Conference

SoCal Tech Calendar

Thursday, October 28, 2010 -- Growth Capital Conference. Network with capital sources, advisors, deal makers and 50 entrepreneurs seeking capital and counsel. DEAL DISPLAY tshowcases attractive firms needing growth capital. View products, videos, on-line demos. See [link] (more).

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Investors Are Looking for the Startup Dream Team

Startup Professionals Musings

Every investor is looking for the “dream team” of executives to put his money on. Often I find that experienced investors flip to the management page of a business plan, even before they read the product description. That’s how important the people are. What are investors looking for in the CEO and the rest of the top executives? Been there, done that, and won.

Startup 93
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Skinit Names New CEO

socalTECH

San Diego-based Skinit , the developer of personalized, protective skins for electronic devices, said this morning that it has named Bob King as the new CEO of the firm. The company, which is fresh off a $60M investment injection from ABS Capital Partners and Norwest Equity Partners, said King joins the firm from Corporate Express, where he was CEO.

San Diego 183
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UCSB Ties With Google, Intel, Others On Terabit Networking Effort

socalTECH

The University of California, Santa Barbara said Wednesday that it has launched a new research center, focused on developing next generation, terabit-speed networks. UCSB said the new Terabit Optical Ethernet Center (TOEC) has partnered with Google, Verizon, Intel, Agilent Technologies and Rockwell Collins on the research effort, and will focus on developing a technology to enable 1 Terabit Ethernet over optical fiber network by 2025, and 100 Terabit Ethernet by 2020.

Google 182
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Intuit: Half Of Americans Still Using Spreadsheets, Checkbooks

socalTECH

Westlake Village-based Intuit Financial Services , the arm of personal finance software maker Intuit, said Tuesday that it has published a survey showing that about one third of Americans are now using online banking software using online products, up from 27 percent a year ago. However, Intuit Financial Services--which was Digital Insight until Intuit's acquisition in 2007--also said that it also discovered that half of Americans are still just using spreadsheets and checkbook registers to mana

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VIZIO Takes Rose Bowl Sponsorship

socalTECH

Irvine-based VIZIO , the manufacturer of HDTVs, is taking the presenting sponsor for Rose Bowl Game through 2014, according to the Tournament of Roses , ESPN , and VIZIO today. According to the three, VIZIO will be the presenting sponsor of the game through 2014, and will be the title sponsor of the 2014 BCS National Championship Game. The game will be called the "Rose Bowl Game presented by VIZIO" and the 2014 BCS National Championship game will be known as the "2014 VIZIO BCS National Champion

Sites 174
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CLRS Technology Acquired By Solta Medical

socalTECH

Costa Mesa-based CLRS Technology , a developer of personal care products for treating acne, has been acquired. According to acquiring firm Solta Medical , it is acquiring CLRS for the payment of approximately $1.1M of debt, plus potential future payments based on revenue and operating income through 2011. CLRS develops a device, CLAR, which uses light and heat to treat acne.

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Los Angeles Firm Sells Sex.com For $13M

socalTECH

A Los Angeles company, Escom LLC , has sold domain name Sex.com for $13M, according to a report today from The Register. Citing documents filed in a California court, the report said that the domain was sold to Clover Holdings Ltd.--a stealthy, offshore firm--one of twelve bidders on the domain. Domain name broker Sedo had said in July that it was the exclusive brokerage firm representing the domain.

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FindTheBest Takes On Product Comparisons

socalTECH

Looking to take on comparisons between products, services, and other information, a new startup, FindTheBest.com , has emerged in Santa Barbara. The startup--which bills itself a "comparison engine"--is headed by DoubleClick founder Kevin O'Connor , an active technology investor and industry notable. FindTheBest.com offers up all kinds of comparisons, such as comparisons of the features of the Amazon Kindle vs.

Product 170
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MaestroDev Names President

socalTECH

Manhattan Beach-based MaestroDev , the developer of private cloud computing software, has officially named Doug Dennington as the firm's new President. Dennington was most recently Director, Open Source Sales at Progress Software and IONA Technologies, and was also a member of the founding team at Simula Labs, LogicBlaze, and Gluecode. MaestroDev develops software used to automate building and deploying applications to the private cloud, and is the latest startup of Winston Damarillo, the founde

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Venture Firms Line Up To Oppose Prop 23

socalTECH

A long list of California venture capital investors have joined to oppose Proposition 23, the California ballet initiative coming up in the polls, which looks to halt the state's recently passed AB32 clean energy law. The list includes Costa Mesa-based clean technology venture investor SAIL Venture Partners , as well as a number of the most active clean technology investors in Southern California firms, such as Nth Power , Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers , Venrock , and MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventu

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Demand Media Snags Jeff Dossett

socalTECH

Jeff Dossett , the former CEO of adventure travel site AdventureLink and former SVP at Yahoo, has reportedly joined Demand Media as SVP of Content Partnership Development. According to a report from the WSJ's AllThingsD, which first reported the move, Dossett will focus on content distribution. Dossett had left AdventureLink sometime in September, as the firm was being sold by its lenders.

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Steamboat Invests in Chinese Web Analytics Firm

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based Steamboat Ventures , the venture capital arm of The Walt Disney Company, has invested in a Chinese startup which provides web, video, and search analytics, Gridsum Technology. According to Gridsum, Steamboat led its Series A. Size of the funding round was not disclosed. As part of the funding, Steamboat's Perry Chui and Alex Hartigan join Gridsum's board.

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GameSalad Boosts Users

socalTECH

Los Angeles- and Austin-based GameSalad , the developer of software tools for creating iPhone and other Apple iOS games, said this week that it has had its most successful week ever for the company, signing up more than 1,200 new users in the past week or so. The firm said the signups came after its launch of GameSalad Direct, the firm's Apple iOS publishing service.

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Cocodot Rolls Out Printed Cards

socalTECH

Hollywood-based Cocodot , the online invitation card site headed by former MySpace exec Shawn Gold, has rolled out new, printed invitation cards, according to the firm's website. According to Cocodot, it has started offering printed version of the company's invitation cards, starting at $37.25 for a 25-card minimum. The new cards include free, online versions of those same cards.

Evite 160
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Vederi Sues Google Over Google Street View

socalTECH

A Pasadena-based company, founded by Caltech Ph.D's, is suing Google for patent infringement, based on its Google Street View feature, according to IP law firm Christie, Parker & Hale LLP. According to the firm, Verederi LLC , a company founded by Enrico Di Bernardo and Luis Goncalves, have sued Google saying that its Street View product infringes on four of the company's patents.

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Brand Affinity Technologies Ties With Pepsi

socalTECH

Irvine-based Brand Affinity Technologies , the celebrity endorsement and marketing firm founded by Ryan and Chad Steelberg, said today along with Pepsi that they have tied together in a new relationship. The firms said that PepsiCo will use BAT's platform, and that Pepsi will be the first sponsor of BAT's new netBAT content experience. Financial details of the relationship were not disclosed.

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SAIL Venture Partners Boosts Ice Energy

socalTECH

Costa Mesa-based clean technology investor SAIL Venture Partners has boosted a maker of energy storage technology, as part of a big round for Ice Energy. According to Ice Energy, a Colorado maker of equipment which uses equipment which shifts energy produced at off-peak hours to peak power demand times, SAIL was one of a number of investors in a $24M, first close of a Series C funding round.

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Open Angel Forum Expands To Seattle

socalTECH

The Open Angel Forum , the angel investment group started by Jason Calacanis , the CEO of Santa Monica-based Mahalo , is expanding into Seattle with a new event in November. According to Andy Sack, who heads up the TechStars business incubation effort in Seattle, Calacanis and other angel investors are holding their first Seattle chapter meeting on November 10th.

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Poptent Confirms $3M Funding

socalTECH

San Clemente-based Poptent , an online site for crowdsourced video content for advertisers, has raised $3M in a Series A investment round, it new investor has confirmed. According to Los Angeles-based MK Capital, it made the investment in Poptent, led by partner Yair Landau. As part of the funding, MK Capital said Poptent has hired Andy Jedynak as CEO.

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LegalZoom Adds Former Yahoo President Decker To Board

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based LegalZoom.com , the provider of online legal documents, said today that it has added Susan L. Decker, the former President of Yahoo!, to the firm's board of directors. Decker was president of Yahoo from 2007 to 2009, and served as CFO of Yahoo from 2000 to 2007. Decker also has served at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, and currently sits on the boards of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Intel Corporation and Costco Wholesale Corporation.

Legalzoom 150
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Local Firms Rank In Deloitte Fast 500

socalTECH

Deloitte & Touche announced its national Fast 500 winners today, the firm's annual list of fastest growing technology firms in the nation. The highest ranking firm in Southern California was Tustin-based Radient Pharmaceuticals , which was number 12 nationally with 12,669% five year growth. San Diego's Halozyme Therapeutics was number 13 at 10657% growth; Irvine-based Spectrum Pharmaceuticals ranked 23, with 6490% growth; and Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal , was ranked #34, with 4,489% reve