Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 6, 2010
This past October I was honored to be invited by Steve Blank to speak at Stanford for their Enterprise Thought Leader (ETL) series. The topic I chose to speak about was “lessons on starting a company&# but I created the sub-title in class “a Silicon Valley heresy&# since my goal was to slay many of the myths I believe exist right in the heart of Silicon Valley!
socalTECH
DECEMBER 6, 2010
Think your company is popular on Facebook? Think again. Burbank-based Walt Disney reported Sunday that it has just surpassed one hundred million fans across its network of Facebook pages. According to Disney, those fans are spread across more than 200 official Disney brands, property, and character pages, which the firm has been creating on Facebook since August of 2009.
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InfoChachkie
DECEMBER 9, 2010
Community Organizer Saul Alinsky categorized people into three classes; (i) the Haves, (ii) the Have A Little, Want Mores and, the (iii) Have Nots. He wrote Rules For Radicals to instruct, “…the Have Nots on how to take it away” from the Haves. Mr. Alinsky preached that wealth was relatively static. In Alinskyland, if you were a Have Not, your only alternative to attain wealth was to take it away from a Have, preferably with the assistance of Government-sanctioned coercion.
Berkonomics
DECEMBER 6, 2010
Use stock options and warrants to pay for service only rarely. Earlier, I stated that stock options are the currency of early stage business. This truth is obvious when a start-up has no cash. For this insight, we will assume a business is perhaps well beyond start-up and growing, but that cash is tight, used for growth and for working capital as earned.
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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.
Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 5, 2010
This blog post originally appeared in serialized form here on TechCrunch. This version is the shorter, ADHD version. If you came here via a direct link you might want to check out the more detailed full version on my blog, which is here. Social Networks: Past, Present & Future. I recently spoke at Caltech at the Caltech / MIT Enterprise Forum on “the future of social networking,&# the 30-minute video is here and the PowerPoint presentation is here on DocStoc ).
socalTECH
DECEMBER 9, 2010
Altadena-based Melanoma Diagnostics , a developer of technology for the diagnosis and prognosis of malignant melanoma using genetic markers, is in a deal to sell its technology to Myriad Genetics , a publicly traded provider of molecular diagnostics products. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.Myriad said it will gain the right to commercialize all tests derived from Melanoma Diagnostics' technology, in exchange for both upfront fees and contingent payments.
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Berkonomics
DECEMBER 9, 2010
This insight seems obvious to most anyone. But it is a fact that business insurance is one of the more poorly managed mitigation of risk in small and some medium sized corporations, often because of failure to assign the responsibility to an individual or department, and sometimes just from the willingness to bet against the event and save cash. Business package policies are inexpensive and rather comprehensive tools that should be contracted by all companies with any assets to measure and prot
SoCal Tech Calendar
DECEMBER 10, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010 -- SoCalBio Holiday Dinner. Come to enjoy an evening of networking and good food in a relaxed environment; and learn about new bioscience industry developments in Southern California.
socalTECH
DECEMBER 8, 2010
Pasadena-based Cramster , the online homework help site started by Aaron Hawkey, Robert Angarita and Kaveh Golabi, has been acquired by Chegg , Chegg announced today. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Chegg said the acquisition will add to Chegg's textbook rental and course planning services. Cramster is an online community of users interested in discussing homework; getting homework help; and practicing for tests.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 4, 2010
I’m convinced that people who have fun at work are more innovative, as well as happier. I don’t have any big scientific studies to prove this, but in my considerable business experience, I haven’t seen many successes come out of a group of fearful pessimists or unhappy people. As I was looking through the literature, I did find evidence that many strong business leaders, like John D.
Tech Zulu Event
DECEMBER 10, 2010
Last Thursday night, December 2nd, was not your average Thursday night in LA. Not just because it was yet another sold-out Startup Nights but because it was the 6th LA Startup Nights, and was attended by some of LA’s best in the tech space, as well as, marked a turning point for Startup Nights. Visit TechZulu for full story.
SoCal Tech Calendar
DECEMBER 8, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010 -- Venture Funding in Green Technologies. LAVA. LAVA special event focused on Green Tech companies and Green Tech investing. There will be an extra session from 9am -10am for attendees that will focus on green start-ups and the introduction of the Green LAVA special interest group, following the traditional panel session. Moderated by John Babcock, Partner, Rustic Canyon Partners.
socalTECH
DECEMBER 10, 2010
Santa Monica-based GoodReads , the online book discussion community run by Otis Chandler, is seeing a nice uptick in its traffic after the launch of Google's eBook store Monday. GoodReads is prominently featured on all of Google's eBook pages, with reviews from GoodReads users showing up under the various titles available under Google's bookstore. Google launched its eBook store Monday, offering up titles for electronic book readers, the iPhone and iPad, the Nook and Sony readers, as well as And
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 6, 2010
By Joe Bockerstette As an angel investor who has considered hundreds of startup opportunities, the concept of a value proposition may be the most misunderstood and taken for granted element that I see in newly formed startups. While entrepreneurs freely throw around the term “value proposition,” they rarely offer a thoughtful explanation for the “value” their business is providing and, more importantly, an understanding of who their real customer is and what valuable benefit their customer perce
Tech Zulu Event
DECEMBER 10, 2010
Amidst your Friday product releases and celebratory beers to cap a great week, I wanted to remind you that SXSW Accelerator applications are due TODAY! Similar to DEMO and TechCrunch Disrupt, the Austin-based conference is holding a showcase to feature the most exciting startups around. There are categories for Innovative Web Technology, Social Media and Social Networking Technology, Entertainment Technology, News Technology, and Music Technology.
SoCal Tech Calendar
DECEMBER 8, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010 -- AccessEN Holiday Party. Please come and join us for our holiday party and annual toy drive. PLEASE BRING ONE UNWRAPPED TOY FOR OUR FAMILIES IN NEED.
socalTECH
DECEMBER 9, 2010
Last night, Santa Monica-based Factual (www.factual.com), the data provider and data tools firm, announced a big, $25M funding round from Andreessen Horowitz and Index Ventures. The firm is headed by Gil Elbaz , who is known for co-founding Applied Semantics, the firm which invented Google's AdSense product. We caught up with Gil to hear more about the round and what he's hoping to do with the large amount of capital Factual has just raised, as well as how the firm's technology is being used by
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 7, 2010
It’s not uncommon for me to see a startup business plan “mission” to be the “premier brand” for their product, yet their marketing budget in the financials is trivial. This combination will almost certainly get your plan tossed by potential investors, who understand all too well the need and cost for marketing in today’s environment. When questioned, founders usually mention word-of-mouth, viral marketing, and a top quality product.
Tech Zulu Event
DECEMBER 8, 2010
TechZulu had the pleasure of being a partner of this years past 5th annual ITVFest a few months back. We have watched it grow for quite some time now and every year just keeps getting better and better. Visit TechZulu for full story.
SoCal Tech Calendar
DECEMBER 10, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010 -- CommNexus Presents:Managing a Crisis in the Age of Social Media. The way people find out about breaking news has changed significantly in the past several years. From real time Twitter updates, to eyewitness news to iReports, how media outlets source and broadcast stories has changed as well. First-hand accounts from everyday people involved in an incident are not just relayed through the media, they are posted directly to the world through social media outlets suc
socalTECH
DECEMBER 9, 2010
A recently released study by TechAmerica, an advocacy group for the high tech industry, finds that Los Angeles ranks sixth among the top 60 cities in the United States for high tech employment. The TechAmerica CyberCities report, which was released Wednesday, found that New York led the nation in high tech employment, with 316,971 workers, followed by Washington, DC. (292,969 workers), San Jose/Silicon Valey (225,575 workers), and Boston (219,798 workers).
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 5, 2010
Smart people only visit and buy from credible and memorable websites. In the past, if your startup had a website presence, the company was credible by definition. In today’s world, a website is necessary but not sufficient for credibility. Dreamers and gamblers have found out that if the website isn’t validated as credible, it’s probably a scam, and everyone loses.
Tech Zulu Event
DECEMBER 9, 2010
After launching in 2009, Mobile Roadie has become the premier platform for anyone to create and manage their own mobile application. Visit TechZulu for full story.
SoCal Tech Calendar
DECEMBER 8, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010 -- Southern California Venture Network (SCVN) Professional General Mixer. The Southern California Venture Networks (www.SCVN.org) invites you to meet, mix and mingle with other like-mined entrepreneurs at the next professional mixer in the Irvine Spectrum. Start-up tabletop opportunities available.
socalTECH
DECEMBER 8, 2010
Hawthorne-based SpaceX , the commercial rocket firm headed by technology mogul Elon Musk, has had a successful launch of its Falcon 9 rocket, according to NASA this morning. NASA said that the Falcon 9 successfully launched at 10:43 a.m. EST, from the Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral. The flight is the first demonstration flight for the Falcon 9 for NASA, which is looking to use the Falcon and its corresponding Dragon capsule to resupply the International Space Station.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 8, 2010
Too many entrepreneurs still believe the urban myth that you can sketch your idea on a napkin, and investors will throw money at you. Every investor I know is frustrated with the poor quality of the business plans they get. This is sad, since “how to write a business plan” is a frequent topic found in every business journal, and a common title in the business section of every book store.
Tech Zulu Event
DECEMBER 8, 2010
Tech Coast Angels is the largest angel investor group in the US, with nearly 300 members and $100M personally invested in startups over the last decade. Some of their major hits include Sandpiper Networks (acquired by Digital Island for $630M) and Green Dot (NYSE: GDOT). And in recent years, they’ve been involved in some interesting SoCal startups such as Zag, SodaHead, and Vokle.
SoCal Tech Calendar
DECEMBER 8, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010 -- Broads Circle Reception with First-time Author Megan Lisa Jones. Jones is Director, Hadley Partners, Inc. and an Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Semifinalist for her new novel, Captive.
socalTECH
DECEMBER 6, 2010
Santa Monica-based SolarReserve , the developer of utility scale solar power projects, claims today that it is proceeding with purchases of long-lead materials and equipment on its Crescent Dunes and Rice Solar Energy projects. The firm--which is still waiting on Department of Energy (DOE) loan guarantees--said the purchases are ahead of DOE-supported financing and are a "key milestone" in its construction of its power plants.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 9, 2010
Most startup founders know exactly what they want to design and sell, and they are personally convinced that everyone will buy one. Yet they often fail to realize that their view is likely biased, and will be instantly discounted by potential investors. Business plans with no “industry expert” data on your target opportunity size and growth are routinely rejected.
Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 5, 2010
This blog post originally appeared in serialized form here on TechCrunch. This post has a bit more than the serialized version, but if you prefer an even shorter version I created the ADAH version , which is < 50% the length. I recently spoke at Caltech at the Caltech / MIT Enterprise Forum on “the future of social networking,&# the 30-minute video is here and the PowerPoint presentation is here on DocStoc ).
SoCal Tech Calendar
DECEMBER 5, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010 -- Fires, Earthquakes, Climate Changes: Technology's New Role. OCTANE. A number of advanced systems in computing and observations have been installed at Chapman University that are either operational or in advanced development. Chapman's philosophy is that advanced systems in both hardware and software are needed to address challenges that face today's society, and California and the western states in particular.
socalTECH
DECEMBER 8, 2010
Los Angeles-based Xfire , the online gaming site headed by John Maffei, said Wednesday that it has launched a beta of Xfire Arcade, the firm's virtual game wagering service today. Xfire--which is owned by Titan Gaming--said the Xfire Arcade will allow users to compete head to head in casual games, and wager virtual currency on match outcomes. Xfire said the new service awards prizes on a daily and weekly basis to users, and also allows users to use gWallet to earn virtual currency to enter tourn
socalTECH
DECEMBER 9, 2010
Hawthorne-based SpaceX , the commercial spaceflight firm headed by Elon Musk, has revealed the contents of the firm's Dragon capsule. The firm--which made history Wednesday by successfully launching and returning a payload to earth from orbit as a commercial entity--said today that the payload of its Dragon Capsule was a wheel of cheese, in a tribute to Monty Python.
socalTECH
DECEMBER 7, 2010
Santa Barbara-based BioIQ , the diagnostic testing and screening service provider headed by Justin Bellante, said Tuesday that it has simplified access to personal health records on the site. The firm--which offers up home test kits and screening to employers and health plans--said it now allows users single-click downloads for its test results from its health dashboard.
socalTECH
DECEMBER 10, 2010
Pasadena-based PostUp , the Twitter advertising startup created by Idealab, said last night that it has launched Twidroyd Factory , a new customization product for the Twidroyd Twitter client for Android. According to PostUp, the new Twidroyd Factory allows users to customize the appearance of the application using special "themes", which are tuned to how users use the Twidroyd application.
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