socalTECH

JULY 7, 2010

One complaint we sometimes hear from venture capitalists visiting Southern California for the first time, is the difficulty of finding experienced entrepreneurs and executives. socalTECH.com has mined its proprietary database of high tech companies and entrepreneurs and identified just a few of the repeat entrepreneurs to watch in the region. Here are eight Southern California companies and the experienced, successful entrepreneurs heading up their efforts, who haven't had any problems finding i

Southern California 228

Southern California Entrepreneur SoCal Mahalo 228

Berkonomics

JULY 3, 2010

Business coaches come in all sizes and shapes. You’ll have a relative willing to devote time, a school friend with business experience, professionals who charge for the service, investors with a reason to promote your success and more. But by far the best coaches are those that have lived through the process you’re going through and built successful enterprises in your same industry.

Coach 179

Coach Organization Resource Equity 179

InfoChachkie

JULY 7, 2010

In 1980, following the breakup of the American band The Eagles, Don Henley was asked when the group would reunite. His response, “When hell freezes over.” Surprisingly, hell froze over 14-years later, when The Eagles launched a highly lucrative tour and TV special. According to Guitarist Glenn Frey, “We never broke up, we just took a 14-year vacation.&#.

Startup 150

Startup IP Entrepreneur Software Review 150

SoCal Tech Calendar

JULY 7, 2010

Tuesday, July 13, 2010 -- TechAmerica South Bay HR Executive Strategy Roundtable Dinner Series-Building Powerful Relationships with Your C-Level Team. Have you ever wondered why you have an effective working relationship with some of your company executives, and not others? Learn how to "read" executives and tailor your relationship-building techniques to each individual and situation to improve your results.Bring your Company Executives so everyone can achieve more as a team!

Company 113

Company Companies 113

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

socalTECH

JULY 9, 2010

The good news for content creators in Hollywood and elsewhere trying to make it on the Internet: YouTube , the video sharing site owned by Google, said today that it has just launched a new program which will invest five million dollars for new content partners. According to site, its new YouTube Partner Grants program will invest in new and emerging YouTube partners for those partners to invest into their product budgets.

Content 213

Content News Hollywood Sites 213

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 3, 2010

Yesterday I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. After exchanging a couple of notes, I concluded that she was more likely a victim of item #1 on my reject list, rather than a drought on seed funding.

Software Review 95

Software Review Startup Seed Funding Funding 95

SoCal Tech Calendar

JULY 9, 2010

Thursday, July 15, 2010 -- How Virtual Goods Are Transforming the Game Industry. TCOSC. With the explosion of social and mobile gaming and the estimated $1.6 billion virtual good market in 2010, a paradigm shift is occurring as it relates to the monetization of game related entertainment. Game consumption has reached extraordinary levels on Facebook and Smart Phones and these games are often initially offered for free or near free.

Technology Council 100

Technology Council TCOSC Entertainment Mobile 100

socalTECH

JULY 9, 2010

Monrovia-based Green Dot , the provider of prepaid debit cards, has set pricing on its IPO, saying in a filing Friday that it estimates and initial public offering price of between $32.00 and $35.00 per share. The firm is set to list on the NYSE as GDOT in the offering, which would net the firm around $154M at $35.00 per share. Green Dot filed for an IPO in February, and is backed by Sequoia Capital, TTP Fund, and the Tech Coast Angeles.

Pricing 213

Pricing Tech Coast Angels Monrovia .Net 213

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 7, 2010

Many people believe that good entrepreneurs are naturally born, rather than trained or experienced in the art of business. I believe there is a natural born component required, but often I tend to agree with Peter Drucker, who said “It’s not magic, it’s not mysterious, and it has nothing to do with genes. It’s a discipline, and like any discipline, it can be learned.

Entrepreneur 92

Entrepreneur Paramount Startup Training 92

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 8, 2010

So you bought an iPhone 4 and all is well until you give it the death grip and try to make a phone call. Engadget gets a response from Apple stating: "Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone.

Tool 60

Tool Mobile Software Help 60

SoCal Tech Calendar

JULY 9, 2010

Thursday, July 15, 2010 -- CommNexus Presents: Wireless Health What Does Healthcare Reform Mean to San Diego Businesses? The recently passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (or healthcare reform law) is attempting to insure more Americans, lower costs and impose new taxes on medical devices. How does the enactment of this far reaching legislation change the way San Diego wireless health and life sciences companies conduct business?

San Diego 100

San Diego Company Companies 100

socalTECH

JULY 8, 2010

Los Angeles-based Titan Gaming , the online gaming technology firm backed by the who's who of Southern California's angel investors, said today that it has added EA's Keith McCurdy and Affinity Media's Brock Pierce to its board, as well as appointed a number of executives. McCurdy was previously at Electronic Arts, serving as Vice President of Technology, and was behind the company's online division and massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) efforts.

Electronic Arts 200

Electronic Arts MyLife THQ Clearstone 200

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2010

I hear many executives and professionals in large corporations talking about their dream of jumping ship, and becoming an entrepreneur. What they don’t realize is that the longer they wait, the more big-company habits they are acquiring, which will make their eventual decision harder and entrepreneurial efforts less and less likely to succeed. Certainly, the longer they wait, the greater the variety of excuses they will find for why now is not the time.

Entrepreneur 92

Entrepreneur Company Companies Training 92

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 6, 2010

Tired of constantly switching between applications and checking into every geo-location service out there? Some people use Foursquare others use Gowalla and a few others use different services out there as well. It gets a bit difficult to let your friends know where you are when they do not all use the same service. So Check.in answered our woes with the "One check in to rule them all".

HTML 58

HTML Services Web Activity 58

SoCal Tech Calendar

JULY 9, 2010

Thursday, July 15, 2010 -- AgilePalooza Los Angeles. AgilePalooza is a community event presented by VersionOne. A fun, low-cost event linking internationally recognized coaches and trainers with the local software development community, AgilePalooza is a day of collaboration, education and advancement of agile methods. See [link] (more).

Los Angeles 100

Los Angeles Angel Coach Education 100

socalTECH

JULY 6, 2010

An analysis of Q2's venture capital deals and investment activity in Southern California find that venture capitalists invested around $1.6 billion in the area in Q2, up slightly from around $1.4 billion invested in Q1, and up from $1.0 billion in Q2 of last year. The analysis was based on tracking of venture capital, angel, and private equity deals by socalTECH.com, which maintains its own proprietary database of local and national venture capital deals and dealmakers.

Southern California 195

Southern California Westlake Village Invest Tech Coast Angels 195

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2010

Your startup is gone, it’s never coming back, and you are in mourning. An entrepreneur whose business fails grieves similarly to anyone who has lost a loved one. The pain of losing a business is not only about a significant loss of income, but can send an entire identity into turmoil. Most entrepreneurs define themselves by their business projects. They calibrate self-worth by what they accomplish or do not accomplish.

Startup 91

Startup Entrepreneur Activity Invest 91

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 7, 2010

Blackboard Inc. announced today that it will be acquiring both Elluminate Inc. and Wimba Inc. Elluminate and Wimba offer advanced virtual classroom technology that allows education institutions to hold synchronous live courses over the Web, including audio, video, white board and social learning capabilities. The technologies are used to supplement traditional courses, to support full distance learning courses, and to facilitate a variety of other collaborative interactions including virtual of

.Net 49

.Net Education Course Acquisition 49

SoCal Tech Calendar

JULY 9, 2010

Thursday, July 15, 2010 -- CommNexus Presents:Semiconductor Opportunities for AMI. A panel of Smart Grid and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) experts will share their insights into new markets and opportunities. The panel will focus on wireless communication technologies required to connect electric, gas and water meters to the Utilities' networks.

Demand 100

Demand Networking Technology Marketing 100

socalTECH

JULY 6, 2010

A new report released this morning from PricewaterhouseCoopers says that U.S. IPO activity nearly tripled in the second quarter. According to PwC, IPO deals nearly tripled in the second quarter, compared to last year, with 39 IPOs raising $5.1 billion for the three months ending June, compared with only 12 IPOs raising $1.6 billion in Q2 of 2009. Those IPOs bring the total number of IPO deals to 66 in the first six months of the year, raising $9.2 billion on the markets, compared with only 14 de

Activity 190

Activity Report Acquisition Marketing 190

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2010

Once you are able to achieve some real “traction” with your business (paying customers, revenue stream), it may seem the time to relax a bit, but in fact this is the point where many founders start to flounder. All the skills and instincts you needed to get to this level can actually start working against you, and you fail to scale. Investors often say that successfully navigating the early stages of a startup requires lots of street smarts, guts, and luck.

Startup 91

Startup Entrepreneur Coach Mentor 91

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 5, 2010

In the era of Skype, web conferencing tools and collaboration software conventional wisdom says that distributed startup teams can be just as effective as those that are in person. Conventional wisdom is wrong. Or more precisely the people espousing the benefits of distributed startups teams are often distributed and therefore self rationalizing it.

Technical Advisors 335

Technical Advisors Outsource Development Offshore Startup 335

SoCal Tech Calendar

JULY 8, 2010

Wednesday, July 14, 2010 -- How to Be an Entrepreneur Superhero. Startups Uncensored. We are also going to be offering 2 companies the opportunity to give a 3 min pitch on their business to the investors and startups uncensored crowd. If you are interested in applying to pitch your company at this months event email jason [at] docstoc with your business plan deck and information about your company, stage, and current status.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Email Startup Company 100

socalTECH

JULY 6, 2010

Pasadena-based TweetUp , the Twitter advertising startup out of Idealab, said today that it has acquired Twidroid , which develops its own Twitter client for Android phones. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. According to TweetUp, the buy also includes the acquisition of popurls , an online site which aggregates the most popular items from Twitter, Digg, YouTube, Delicious, the New York Times, and other news and social media sites.

Idealab 189

Idealab Social Media Acquisition Pasadena 189

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 6, 2010

Can you believe all the talk these days about Web 3.0? I’ve been doing some research to assess how much of it is reality, since I have to admit that I seem to have missed the clues to the transition to Web 2.0, and I’m determined that it won’t happen again. After some work, I’m still convinced that much of the Web 3.0 buzz is hype, but things are changing on the Internet, and bits and pieces of Web 3.0 are appearing.

Web 88

Web Web 2.0 Doc Examples 88

socalTECH

JULY 9, 2010

La Jolla-based Synthetic Genomics , a firm founded by DNA sequencing inventor J. Craig Venter and funded by Draper Fisher Juvetson, Meteor Group, Biotechonomy LLC and Plenus, S.A., BP plc, and ACGT Sdn Bd, said this week that it has inked a deal with ExxonMobil Research and Engineering, to develop next generation biofuels using photosynthetic algae developed by the company.

Draper 178

Draper Research Funding Develop 178

socalTECH

JULY 8, 2010

Los Angeles-based GameFly , the videogame rental service which is waiting in the IPO wings, revealed Thursday afternoon that its yearly revenues have hit $101.5M in its fiscal year ended March 31, 2010. The privately held firm, which is looking to IPO on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol "GFLY", revealed the revenue numbers in an updated S-1 on Thursday afternoon.

Los Angeles 178

Los Angeles Capital Services Marketing 178

socalTECH

JULY 9, 2010

Irvine-based WaterHealth International , a developer of water purification and disinfection systems, has upped its funding to $22.1M, as part of an ongoing $35.0M funding round, according to a regulatory filing by the firm Friday. Source of the new funding was not disclosed, however, the round involved Sail Venture Partners and The Dow Chemical Company.

Funding 170

Funding Venture Capital Capital Product 170

socalTECH

JULY 7, 2010

Los Angeles-based PriceGrabber , the online shopping comparison site now owned by Experian, said this week that it has released a free Android application. According to PriceGrabber, the new app allows users to scan barcodes, read product reviews, and make purchases from the mobile device. The device supports scanning of product UPC codes, and then pulls up pricing comparisons from retailers, allowing users to purchase that product from online merchants directly from the app.

Software Review 168

Software Review Mobile Los Angeles Pricing 168

socalTECH

JULY 6, 2010

Aliso Viejo-based LenSx Lasers , a developer of laser technology used for cataract surgery, has been acquired by Alcon , Alcon said late Tuesday. According to Alcon, it will pay $361.5M in cash for LenSx shareholders, plus up to $382.5M in contingent payments based on milestones and revenues. LenSx is backed by Versant Ventures, SV Life Sciences, InterWest Partners and Venture Investors.

Acquisition 160

Acquisition Technology Develop Development 160

socalTECH

JULY 7, 2010

Los Angeles-based HauteLook , the heavily backed private fashion sales website headed by Adam Bernhard, said today that it has hired on three new executives on the heels of its recent, $31M Series C funding. The firm said it has added Arthur Lewis as General Merchandising Manager, Tim Davis as Director of Men's Merchandising, and Vicky Kalish as Director of Food and Wine.

Sales 154

Sales Report Email Los Angeles 154

socalTECH

JULY 6, 2010

Irvine-based Kelley Blue Book , a provider of data on new and used cars, said today that it has linked with online personal finance site Mint.com. According to the firm, its Kelley Blue Book Values will be integrated into the Assets and Goals features on Mint.com. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. The data will be used to determine the worth or debt of automobiles owned by users.

Sites 154

Sites 154

socalTECH

JULY 6, 2010

Greenplum , a software firm developing database clustering software used for the data warehousing business, has been acquired by EMC. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition is the end of a long road for Greenplum--originally based in Sherman Oaks--and its investors, which includes San Diego's Mission Ventures. The firm, which first appeared in Los Angeles in 2001 as Metapa, was backed by such firms as Dawntreader, EDF Ventures, Hudson Ventures, Meritech Capital Partners,

Sherman Oaks 153

Sherman Oaks Mission Ventures San Diego Acquisition 153

socalTECH

JULY 9, 2010

San Diego-based MeLLmo , developer of the Roambi mobile software for viewing business data and information, said today that it has updated the Roambi app for Apple's new iOS 4. The firm said the updated app includes sharing of files via SMS messaging, ability to schedule calendar meetings, support for multitasking, and more. Roambi is available for free on the App Store, and connects both into free and enterprise versions of its publishing service.

San Diego 150

San Diego Mobile Software Services 150

socalTECH

JULY 9, 2010

Last month, Glendale-based VidMe (www.videme.com) announced that it had launched a private, video sharing service with backing from Applied Minds and Will Hearst, one of the partners at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. Applied Minds is the stealthy research and development outfit backed by Kleiner Perkins and also based in Glendale. To understand what opportunity the firm sees in the market, we chatted with Greg Siegel , the firm's founder and CEO.

Innocal 150

Innocal Glendale Entertainment Sites 150

socalTECH

JULY 8, 2010

For today's Insights and Opinions article, we have a piece from Marc Averitt , a venture capitalist at Okapi Venture Capital , who talks about the importance of choosing counsel carefully. Hi, my name is Marc and Im a recovering attorney. Well, maybe I should say reformed instead. Actually, while I like to make jokes at my former professions expense, a good number of my friends are attorneys (or ex-attorneys) and I am privileged to work closely enough with some of them on a weekly basis so

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Capital Services 150