Sat.Aug 11, 2012 - Fri.Aug 17, 2012

article thumbnail

Trello versus Asana

Both Sides of the Table

For the past several years I’ve undertaken many initiatives to “get more organized,” which basically means to make another attempt at implementing and running a solid task list that I can share with others with whom I collaborate. I seem to be really good at kicking off well-structured lists, but less good at “working them.” I know there’s no real point in creating a task list if you’re not actually going to open it up and parse through tasks.

article thumbnail

Modern Meadow Gets Funding For 3D, Printed Meat

socalTECH

Modern Meadow , a firm whose founders were previously co-founders of San Diego's Organovo , has scored funding to make manufactured, 3D printed meat a reality. The funding came from Breakout Labs and The Thiel Foundation, Breakout Labs said Thursday. Modern Meadow is looking to developing "high value, food grade animal protein"--including meat and hide--using 3D bioprinting technology.

Funding 220
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Startup Lessons From Olympic Innovators

InfoChachkie

Successful Olympic athletes share a number of common qualities with entrepreneurs; including boundless energy, uncompromising tenacity and a willingness to innovate. Such innovations include new training routines, inventive diets, and novel gameplay tactics. Entrepreneurs are well served to pay particular attention to two of the most innovative Olympic athletes: Dick Fosbury and David Berkoff, the former of which I discuss in the following 2-minute video.

Startup 198
article thumbnail

The Virtual Manager: It’s all about your performance.

Berkonomics

It is hard to hide incompetence behind appearance or personality when you are a virtual manager. In a virtual environment, people measure you mostly by your actions, and remember only the most recent good work you’ve done for them and for the organization. Today, many companies hire great managerial talent who commute from a remote home location. Often, such senior managers start with a four-days-here, one-day-from-home plan that slowly degrades to two then sometimes three days operating remote

Email 149
article thumbnail

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.

article thumbnail

Should You Really Sit on Other Boards When You’re a Startup Founder?

Both Sides of the Table

I recently read Brad Feld’s thought provoking piece encouraging founders to sit on the board of another startup company. I found it thought provoking because I’ve always believed startup founders need extreme focus on only their company to succeed. We live in an era where the press espouses the entrepreneurs who have five startups. I’m not one who has subscribed to the “superman founder” narrative.

Startup 294
article thumbnail

Caltech Team Wins Top Prize, $100K In Bill Gates' Toilet Tech Effort

socalTECH

A team for the California Institute of Technology has scored the top prize, and $100,000, in a major technology effort--funded by Bill Gates--to reinvent the toilet. Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, announced an effort to help advance the technology of toilets, saying that current flush technology is "irrelevant, impractical and impossible for 40 percent of the global population".

CalTech 217

More Trending

article thumbnail

What Is The TCA Looking For In Digital Media and Consumer Products Startups?

SoCal Tech Calendar

Monday, August 20, 2012 -- What Is The TCA Looking For In Digital Media and Consumer Products Startups? Join Barbara Seymour Giordano and TCA members Jody Dunitz and Roulee Marcus as we delve into what it takes to launch successful digital media and consumer product startups. Special Guests, Raulee Marcus and Jody Graham Dunitz. See [link].

Media 113
article thumbnail

Rethinking Board Observers – The Role of the “Silent Observer”

Both Sides of the Table

It has always surprised me that founders were so quick to fight over how many board members there were and so quick to agree to have as many board observers as people wanted. I have always been vehemently against board observers and wrote some of the reasons in this previous post. But over the past couple of years I’ve slightly modified my views, which I’d like to explain: The Case Against Board Observers.

Summary 289
article thumbnail

How Kidworth Is Spurring Kids To Become Entrepeneurs, with Rudy DeFelice

socalTECH

How do you make it easy for kids to learn how to be entrepreneurs--and not only learn about it, but actually go out and create a business? Los Angeles-based Kidworth (www.kidworth.com) is looking to both help kids learn about entrepreneurship, and more importantly, make it easy for them to set up an online store, sell their services or products, and even handle things like collecting payments via credit card.

Startup 196
article thumbnail

These 10 Key Elements Make a Business Plan Fundable

Startup Professionals Musings

People ask me if they really need ANY business plan, unless they are looking for an outside investor. In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Things that make it investment-grade for outside investors will also benefit you, since you are the ultimate investor.

article thumbnail

TEDxSantaMonica Salon Event

SoCal Tech Calendar

Thursday, August 23, 2012 -- TEDxSantaMonica Salon Event. Join TEDxSantaMonica for a salon-style event as we explore how local Santa Monica people are transforming the community and inspiring others. See [link].

article thumbnail

Hallo | Just Say Hallo with Social Voice App

Tech Zulu Event

Who doesn’t like to save a little dough on texting? Well for those with limited texting plans anyway. The Hallo app from Developer Hallo, Inc. will allow you to do just that and much more. Compatible with the iOS and Android Hallo allows you to send quick voice messages privately to individuals and groups or publicly to followers within the app as well as to Facebook and Twitter.

article thumbnail

AnyMeeting Rolls YouTube Feature, Hits 200K Users

socalTECH

Huntington Beach-based AnyMeeting , which develops free web conferencing and online meeting software, reported this morning that it has released a new feature which lets users share any YouTube video into their meeting, and has also hit a milestone of 200,000 registered users. The site--which uses advertising to offset providing web conferencing services at no charge--said the new YouTube video feature lets users copy and paste the URL of any YouTube video into a conference, including allowing f

article thumbnail

The Best Entrepreneurs Ask The Dumbest Questions

Startup Professionals Musings

I’m a big fan of the old adage "There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers." We have all heard questions that begin, "This may be a dumb question, but …" used effectively by smart people who are not afraid of risking ridicule by challenging a questionable assertion from an intimidating speaker. Most people in business seem to expect their leaders just to give orders.

article thumbnail

Startup Business Development

SoCal Tech Calendar

Thursday, August 23, 2012 -- Startup Business Development. Coloft Academy. Are you a Founder and want to learn more about growing your venture via partnerships and alliances? Or are you interested in a job in Business Development at a Tech or Internet company? We will kick off this session distilling what Business Development actually means at an early stage company, and then we will discuss what it entails as the company grows.

Develop 113
article thumbnail

Viddy #Splashmob | Balls, Bikinis, Boards plus personal Snoop Dogg & Justin Bieber Vids

Tech Zulu Event

Viddy , called by many as the new Twitter, but for video, had a #splashmob this weekend at Santa Monica Beach. They partnered with Uber to drive people to and from the event. Uber is an easy to use door to door car service knocking out the need for taxi cabs like bumper cars. After enjoying the heat wave in the ocean bouncing Waboba balls on the water, yes the balls bounce on water!

article thumbnail

PageWoo Finds Funding

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based Pagewoo , the mobile advertising startup founded by Holden Steinberg and Jason Crilly, has quietly scored a round of funding, which was disclosed by the Tech Coast Angels this morning. Financial details of the angel funding round, which closed earlier this year, have not been announced. Pagewoo--which is in private beta--was part of Howard Marks' StartEngine incubator earlier in the year.

article thumbnail

An Entrepreneur Needs to Count Friends Carefully

Startup Professionals Musings

The Internet and social media have totally destroyed the meaning of the word “friend” and even changed it from a noun to a verb. On Twitter and Facebook, many young people follow hundreds of friends before age twenty, all without ever having physically said or heard a word from most of them. Facebook users with “whale” status (5,000 friends), are not even rare any more.

article thumbnail

LA Mobile Arts Festival

SoCal Tech Calendar

Thursday, August 23, 2012 -- LA Mobile Arts Festival. The LA Mobile Arts Festival is a week long display of art originated through the lens of an iPhone and celebrating what become known as iPhoneography. Much more than citizen photography, iPhoneography is true and real art.

Mobile 113
article thumbnail

Data Collective | New Dawn for Big Data Entrepreneurs

Tech Zulu Event

A tweet by Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer on August 9th caused a stir in the tech scenes. A new venture fund had been launched, not because it was her husband’s but it was a totally unique and different fund and a timely move. The Thursday launch of Data Collective demonstrates the increasing uptake of Big Data and signals a new door for entrepreneurs building Big Data companies.

article thumbnail

FitKit Launches Personalized Nutrition Service

socalTECH

A new, Los Angeles startup, FitKit --started by a team of doctors and computer science students at UCLA--is launching today, looking to help make nutrition advice personal for online users. The company, which was incubated in the StartEngine accelerator, said it is offering up an interactive, lifestyle assessment which will help users identify nutrial deficiencies, gain the advice of two nutritionists, and provide personalized, nutritoin product recommendations based on users' lifestyles.

Services 185
article thumbnail

Entrepreneurs Now Start Hyperlocal Then Go Global

Startup Professionals Musings

Even though the world is getting smaller, due to easy global connectivity, people still feel alone if not well-connected locally. There is also more going on in every location, so this personal need and super sensitivity to the local community has spawned a new breed of Internet startups, called “hyperlocal.” The term first appeared at least five years ago, but the model is now very common.

article thumbnail

Social Media 101

SoCal Tech Calendar

Thursday, August 23, 2012 -- Social Media 101. It's time to learn how social media can help you get to the next level personally and professionally. Learn about the basic apps such as Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin while also learning how Google Reader, Quora, and IFTTT can help you be more productive and find more clients! Experience a new co-working space in El Segundo as we will be hosted by the Action Factory.

article thumbnail

Knowmia | Win Win for College Students, Parents & Teachers

Tech Zulu Event

Knowmia is a newly launched online video learning tool founded by two ex Flip Video co-founders and staff, Ariel Braunstein and marketing executive Scott Kabat. Knowmia crowdsources and sorts best video lessons for college students from top teachers and helps parents or guardians follow their child’s college performance. The founders mostly encourage credentialed teachers to sign up and post their video lessons freely with the help of a free Knowmia Teach iPad app.

article thumbnail

Movieclips Becomes ZEFR, Raises $18.5M

socalTECH

Venice-based Movieclips , the online movie clips site and content site founded by Zach James and Richard Raddon, said today that it has raised $18.9M in a Series C funding round, and has rebranded itself as ZEFR. The new funding round was led by U.S. Venture Partners, and also included MK Capital, Shasta Ventures , SoftTech VC, First Round Capital , Richmond Park Partners , and Machinima CEO Allen DeBevoise.

Venice 178
article thumbnail

10 Keys to Maximizing Personal Gain From a Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

Everyone knows that that startups are risky, but they also expect that the job will be exciting and potentially very lucrative (think early employees at Facebook and Google). Yet we have all heard stories about the high turnover, unstructured work environment, lower base pay, and unpredictable expectations from the top. Assuming you are lucky enough to get hired, what can you do to survive, and even stand out above the rest in this environment?

Startup 92
article thumbnail

LA Mobile Arts Festival

SoCal Tech Calendar

Wednesday, August 22, 2012 -- LA Mobile Arts Festival. The LA Mobile Arts Festival is a week long display of art originated through the lens of an iPhone and celebrating what become known as iPhoneography. Much more than citizen photography, iPhoneography is true and real art.

Mobile 113
article thumbnail

Airtime Gets Some New Features

Tech Zulu Event

Airtime is testing new features to make it the best video network ever. The new video posts and revamped buddy lists will enable users to share live experiences with their friends. Airtime was launched on June 5 th as the first live video network by founders Sean Parker, Shawn Fanning and Joey Liaw. At the time the founders said Airtime was the most efficient, easy to use, browser-based video chat service between friends using their existing Facebook networks.

Google 64
article thumbnail

LA Technology Scene: StartEngine Entrepreneurs Mix It Up With Mentors

socalTECH

It's a warm summer night in Westwood and 35 entrepreneurs are mingling with a collection of the new SoCal silicon-set. StartEngine , the startup accelerator, which launched earlier this year with ten hopeful businesses, is now in the middle of its third and largest class to date. At a recent Mentor Mixer for the accelerator, held last Thursday, the group ran through pitches and mixed and mingled with mentors.

Mentor 178
article thumbnail

Good Entrepreneurs Practice Communication Secrets

Startup Professionals Musings

Effective communication is an absolute requirement for successfully starting a business, but it doesn’t come naturally to many entrepreneurs. Communication is considered a social skill, and inventors and engineers, for example, are not known to be social butterflies. Founders have to communicate their ideas and products to investors, business partners, and the rest of the team.

article thumbnail

IP Law: Protect Your Killer Idea, or Get Killed

SoCal Tech Calendar

Tuesday, August 21, 2012 -- IP Law: Protect Your Killer Idea, or Get Killed. Protecting IP is crucial to the success of your business. But, how do you do it? And what happens if you?re careless? This workshop is designed to teach entrepreneurs the practical implications of protecting intellectual property. Jim Kidston, Partner at Parsus LLP, will talk about securing IP, licensing IP, common pitfalls, and how and why to protect your IP (both by law and by contract).

IP 113
article thumbnail

Google Confirms Motorola Mobility 4000 Layoffs

Tech Zulu Event

Google has confirmed the firing of 20 percent of Motorola Mobility employees. A company it bought in May. The company will also close a third of its offices worldwide. According to Google’s SEC filing on the 3rd this month and signed on the 13th 2012 Google will go ahead with and reduce the motorola unit’s 20,000 employees by 4,000 with two thirds of the cut in the US.

Layoffs 63
article thumbnail

ViSalus, Headed by LA Tech Entrepreneur, Files For $175M IPO

socalTECH

ViSalus , a nutritional supplements maker co-founded by Los Angeles-based, technology entrepreneur Ryan Blair, has filed for an IPO, saying that it is looking to raise up to $175M in an IPO. Exchange and other details of the IPO have not yet been set for the company, whose corporate name is FVA Ventures. ViSalus was co-founded by Ryan Blair, who also founded PathConnect, a Los Angeles social networking site; SKyPipeline, a broadband fixed wireless company in Los Angeles; and 24x7 Tech, a technol

article thumbnail

6 Key Drivers To a Long-Term Competitive Advantage

Startup Professionals Musings

One of the toughest and yet most important questions you will be asked by savvy potential startup investors is “What is your sustainable competitive advantage?” Yet many entrepreneurs, maybe in their passion for their new product, gloss over this one, or even announce that they have no competition. Think about each of the three words for the full meaning of the phrase.

article thumbnail

Public Agencies

SoCal Tech Calendar

Tuesday, August 21, 2012 -- Public Agencies Can Afford Your Tech Services In Spite of the Economic Downturn! Learn from this workshop how to use grants and other "revenue neutral" funding to assist public agencies in acquiring your service or product.

Services 113
article thumbnail

Tech Coast Angels Invests $4.5M In First Half Of 2012

socalTECH

The Tech Coast Angels said today that it has totalled up its investments for the first half of 2012, and found that it invested $4,571,000 in direct investments--as part of $10M in funding--for 17 companies. The angel investment group, which is the largest in Southern California, as well as the nation, said firms receiving funding from the group included Active Life Scientific , Cadence Biomedical , Cashie Commerce , Cognition Therapeutics , Emerald Logic , ExtendCredit , Gemmus Pharma , GridTes