Both Sides of the Table
MAY 19, 2013
'On Tuesday Los Angeles will elect a new mayor. And while Eric Garcetti is leading in the polls by 7%, according to recent articles a victory is not certain. LA needs Garcetti. He would be the first tech mayor of our city. He understands our issues as a community and vows to help keep LA Tech on the map. From his opponent I have heard crickets in the past year.
SoCal CTO
MAY 21, 2013
'I''m spending more of my time recently working with non-technical startup founders who are having challenges with their software/web/mobile development teams. I thought it would be worth capturing some basic notes about what signals founders commonly are seeing that cause them to call me, what those signals might be indicating, and what might make sense to do as a founder if you are seeing some of these signals.
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socalTECH
MAY 20, 2013
'There has long been a disparity between the number of startups founded and started by women, and those founded by men. Plus--with a majority of venture investors being men--it''s often difficult to break through the invisible curtain between that "old boys" network and women founders. However, a new effort, ChicksStarter , is trying something new, to help one lucky startup--with a female founder--avoid all of that.
InfoChachkie
MAY 20, 2013
'A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. According to Tige Young, Founder and CEO of Tui Tai Expeditions , entrepreneurs should de-emphasize ROI and focus on a more accurate measure of wealth, Return On Life. I became acquainted with Tige, when I was researching examples of exemplary online customer service. In the resulting article , I describe Tige''s deft handling of online trolls via the deft use of social media.
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Both Sides of the Table
MAY 19, 2013
'My internal compass has always steered me strongly toward the belief that founders who can scale with their startup companies are better to back that founders who eventually need to hire a CEO. I have talked about this publicly a great deal – how I prefer “missionaries” over “mercenaries.” But lately I’m more swayed by the wise words of Reid Hoffman.
Berkonomics
MAY 23, 2013
'Here is a simple economic truth. Fixed overhead continues to eat into your cash month after month. It doesn’t differentiate facile, efficient businesses from slow, disorganized, quality-challenged ones. If it takes eighteen months to get a new product out the door and into the market, and if a product’s gross margin is ten dollars but the corporate overhead is a million a month, it will take the sale of 67,000 more units to break even than if it were to take only six months to market.
Southern California Tech Central brings together the best content for technical professionals in Southern California from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
InfoChachkie
MAY 20, 2013
'A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. According to Tige Young, Founder and CEO of Tui Tai Expeditions , entrepreneurs should de-emphasize ROI and focus on a more accurate measure of wealth, Return On Life. I became acquainted with Tige, when I was researching examples of exemplary online customer service. In the resulting article , I describe Tige''s deft handling of online trolls via the deft use of social media.
Eric Greenspan
MAY 24, 2013
'When I was a kid, there was beer and pot. I left Palm Springs for High School in Ohio; perhaps the best choice my mother ever made. She sent me to live with my dad. We’d never really met. It was a tough time but that’s not what this story is about. It’s about drugs, illicit ones and the fact that they are EVERYWHERE in our schools.
Startup Professionals Musings
MAY 23, 2013
'One of the toughest decisions for a startup is how to price their product or service. The alternatives range from giving it away for free, to pricing based on costs, to charging what the market will bear (premium pricing). The implications of the decision you make are huge, defining your brand image, your funding requirements, and your long-term business viability.
socalTECH
MAY 21, 2013
'One of the largest concentrations of technical talent in Los Angeles is in Glendale, at YP -- staffed with a surprising number of Los Angeles startup vets. How did what was a staid publisher of phone books become a hotbed of online talent? We caught up with Darren Clark , the CTO of YP--and a veteran of Spotrunner, Overture, and Yahoo--to hear the story of how the company spun out of AT&T last year, and has now become one of the biggest, online advertising companies out there, and how it''s
Frank Addante
MAY 21, 2013
'The #1 thing the best engineers are motivated by is a CHALLENGE. And the bigger the challenge, the more motivated the engineer. So, it’s safe to say that engineers like to build things to solve problems. It’s also important to note that “coders” (I hate this term, btw) are not engineers, but engineers are coders. This is like paralegals and lawyers.
Eric Greenspan
MAY 20, 2013
'This weekend I went to see my 16 year old son play basketball. I brought his little 3 year old brother from another mother. At the game was my older son’s mom. As soon as we arrived, my little one ran into her arms and never left her side for both games. She even has a carseat in her car for him. Reminder, its not her son but it is the brother of her only son and that makes us family, right?
Startup Professionals Musings
MAY 20, 2013
'Successful startups are all about turning ideas into action quickly and efficiently. These actions must be the hard part, since entrepreneurs always seem to come to me with ideas, and ask me for help on the actions. That has always seemed strange to me, since the magic is supposed to be in the ideas, and the actions are the same for every business.
socalTECH
MAY 21, 2013
'Two, Southern California markets-- San Diego and Irvine --are among the top ares for engineering job demand, according to a report today. According to jobs listings site Monster.com , San Diego was number four in the nation (behind Houston, San Jose, and Chicago), and Irvine was number eight, for the number of job listing for engineers posted over the last 120 days.
Frank Addante
MAY 21, 2013
'What would your company do if you declared a day without email or instant messenger? Businesses ran before email. Sure, not as efficiently, but I often wonder if that forced better prioritization. Remember – activity doesn’t equal results. We haven’t turned email off for a day here at Rubicon (yet); but we have taken a different step. Once a month, we now have RTT (Real-Time Talking) Events at our office.
Tech Zulu Event
MAY 21, 2013
'ParkMe has launched its Android app in a move that will enable motorists using Android devices easily locate parking spaces near them. The team announced, “Park your car smarter and faster with ParkMe, the world’s largest and most accurate database of parking info. Download our free award-winning parking app, now available on Android to find the cheapest, closest parking around!
Startup Professionals Musings
MAY 22, 2013
'We all know at least one entrepreneur who always gets things done, and appears unstoppable in his quest. All of you probably know many others who talk incessantly about their great ideas, but never seem to even get started, or they give up at the first obstacle. What are the attributes that make an entrepreneur unstoppable, and is it possible for people to learn to be unstoppable?
socalTECH
MAY 21, 2013
'One of the largest concentrations of technical talent in Los Angeles is in Glendale, at YP (www.yp.com) -- staffed with a surprising number of Los Angeles startup vets. How did what was a staid publisher of phone books become a hotbed of online talent? We caught up with Darren Clark , the CTO of YP--and a veteran of Spotrunner, Overture, and Yahoo--to hear the story of how the company spun out of AT&T last year, and has now become one of the biggest, online advertising companies out there,
Frank Addante
MAY 21, 2013
'We’ve spent a lot of time at Rubicon building a strong engineering team and technology platform to scale (25,000+ CPUs; trillions of transactions; petabytes of data). Now, we’re focusing on building a people and business platform for scale. Our goal is to hire more than 100 people this year. Next year, we’ll likely hire even more people. And, because we’re profitable, we can redeploy our earnings as capital for growth and innovation.
Tech Zulu Event
MAY 20, 2013
'New Google+ announced in last week’s Google I/O. Last week, Google hosted their annual developer’s conference Google I/O , announcing some exciting new products and releases that will likely change the world in the few years to come. And of course, one of the products that were heavily discussed about was Google+. Google+ is like the Bing for Microsoft.
Startup Professionals Musings
MAY 18, 2013
'I’m fully convinced that both inspiration and perspiration are always required in a startup. Yet many people seem to be stuck on one end or other of this equation – all perspiration with no dream, or all inspiration with no reality. Success is the right balance of both for fun and profit. Aspiring entrepreneurs ask me why their great idea hasn’t sold; they talk about it endlessly, and they expect others to do the development, finance, and marketing work for them.
socalTECH
MAY 22, 2013
'Online business resource site Docstoc is in a big expansion of its services today, with the launch of a brand new service to help businesses connect with products and vendors. The Santa Monica site, which is led by Jason Nazar, said it has launched ExpertCircle , an online platform which lets businesses find recommended products and vendors, based on endorsements, critiques, and reviews around everything from business insurance to productivity software.
Frank Addante
MAY 21, 2013
'Automation does not just mean auctions. Many companies do not have “unsold” inventory that they put up for auction – and automation applies to them, too. This is an even more important – and larger – opportunity in the market. Think about travel. Before a company called Sabre Systems came along, booking a flight was a very manual process.
From the Venture Trenches
MAY 21, 2013
'Serial entrepreneur Jason Calacanis. In a recent update on LinkedIn Jason Calacanis recommended raising money on the promise of an idea, before a company launches its product. He reasons that prior to launch an investor cannot discount your valuation based on sluggish historical performance. The valuation will be based on how well you can sell your idea.
Startup Professionals Musings
MAY 21, 2013
'The business world has been watching this emerging generation with trepidation, and a lot of people haven’t been sure who would be the winners, and who would be the losers. Can Gen-Y, much less the new Generation Z (1995-2010), survive as entrepreneurs, and do they have the passion and commitment it takes to run a startup and attract investors? My own perspective is that the recession was good for Gen-Y (Millennials), because it forced them to face reality, often for the first time in their lif
socalTECH
MAY 22, 2013
'Qualaroo , a developer of website conversion and analytics software which helps web businesses improve the experience and conversion of their visitors, has launched a new product. The company--founded by Sean Ellis, Eugene Mandel, Alex Sherstinsky, and Jason Meresman--said today that it has launched a new "Convert" product which helps website owners convert a higher percentage of their website visitors to customers.
socalTECH
MAY 21, 2013
'Santa Monica-based app testing and anlytics developer Burstly has opened up access to its mobile monetization platform, extending access to its SkyRocket product via a self-serve offering. Burstly announced the move this morning, in addition to reorganizing its corporate structure around its multiple mobile app services. SkyRocket--formerly known as the Burstly monetization platform--helps application developers cross promote their new applications, encourage in-app purchases, and other related
socalTECH
MAY 20, 2013
'Over the last few years, the various social networking services out there have started to carve out a better definition of their userbase. For example, Facebook (mostly) being for friends and social acqaintances, and LinkedIn (mostly) for work related contacts. However, on the work side, LinkedIn isn''t for everyone, according to a new, Irvine-based startup, Kaleio.
socalTECH
MAY 20, 2013
'Encino-based uSamp , which develops online survey and sampling technology, is courting mobile app developers with a new software development kit. The firm said it is looking to help app developers to monetize their apps, by integrating the company''s mobile survey tools into their software. uSamp said integrating the SDK will help app developers add an additional revenue stream to their apps, and also learn more about their members.
socalTECH
MAY 22, 2013
'Los Angeles-based Nimble has made a major update to its social, customer relationship management software, adding a pile of new features and enhancements to the software. The startup--headed by Jon Ferrara, who also founded one of the original leaders in the CRM software space, Goldmine--said that its new Nimble 3.0 release includes a new dashboard feature called the "Today Page" with key dates and milestones (birthdays, job changes) with contacts; better search tools; automated contact reminde
socalTECH
MAY 21, 2013
'Santa Monica-based Enervee , the online energy-efficiency and product shopping service, which makes it easy for consumers to compare the energy usage of consumer electronics products and household appliances while shopping, has started integrating Amazon product offers. The company said it has started with televisions, but will be integrating the Amazon product API into the rest of its categories over the next few weeks.
socalTECH
MAY 23, 2013
'UberMedia , the Idealab-backed startup best known for its Twitter client software, has recast itself as a mobile advertising firm, saying yesterday that it has launched a new mobile advertising product called UberAds. According to UberMedia, its new UberAds product analyzes social media signals to figure out consumer intent, and combines that with geo-location and dynamic ads to increase ad performance.
socalTECH
MAY 22, 2013
'Los Angeles-based YouTube network Fullscreen has bolstered its team--and media credibility--with a new hire, the company said Wednesday. Fullscreen said it has hired Tim Mohn, the co-creator of the HBO GO app, and former Vice President of Technology for NBCUniversal/Comcast as its new Senior Vice President of Engineering. Fullscreen, which is headed by George Strompolos, said that the move will help it push Fullscreen''s technological innovation to the "next level".
socalTECH
MAY 22, 2013
'Search engine technology provider SRCH2 has bolstered its enterprise search tools with the addition support for 40 languages, the company said today. The company, which is headed by Dev Bhatia and backed by such investors as TenOneTen Ventures, Data Collective, and others, said its latest release even supports both simplified and traditional Chinese.
socalTECH
MAY 21, 2013
'Los Angeles-based online sports site WePlay has been acquired by online amateur sports team management provider TeamSnap , TeamSnap announced this morning. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. WePlay, which had raised $15M in funding, offered up online sports community, team management, and social components aimed at amateur youth sports teams.
socalTECH
MAY 21, 2013
'Los Angeles-based GumGum has snagged a media agency network executive as an advisor, the firm is announcing today, for its in-image advertising platform. GumGum said it has appointed Carl Fremont, the Global Chief Digital Officer at MEC, which it says is one of the world''s largest media agency networks, to its advisory board. GumGum''s advisory board also include David Sacks, the CEO of Yammer; Michael Jones, the former CEO of MySpace, and Vince Thompson, the Managing partner at Middleshift.
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