InfoChachkie
OCTOBER 15, 2012
A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. One the most frequent questions asked of me by entrepreneurs is, "How can I become a Venture Capitalist?" The inquiry is common because being a VC is (to an entrepreneur, at least) a sexy job. You control substantial amounts of capital, have tremendous autonomy, a flexible work schedule and you get to play Santa by bestowing financial gifts upon worthy entrepreneurs.
socalTECH
OCTOBER 18, 2012
Sports fans: how do you prove you're the master of sports knowledge and sports predictions? What's the best way to claim your position among your friends as tops in the world of everything sports? How about an online game? We spoke with Jon Knarreborg , co-founder of Bragstr (www.bragstr.com), a new Los Angeles startup, about how the company's new social game lets you prove your sports knowledge and prediction skills by challenging your friends in a virtual fantasy league, revolving around wager
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Berkonomics
OCTOBER 18, 2012
“He’s not in right now.” “I am going to the doctor at that time.” “I paid only two dollars a unit to your competitor.” Whether not true and used to avoid hurting someone’s feelings, or whether used to gain an advantage in a negotiation, these little business lies are acceptable because they achieve their intended result without actually hurting the other party.
SoCal Tech Calendar
OCTOBER 19, 2012
Thursday, October 25, 2012 -- SoCal Microsoft Tech User Group. Have you noticed the buzz around Microsoft Lync? Are you curious as to why so many are incorporating this tool? Do you have a set of final questions you need answered before making the final commitment? We have just the event for you! The next SoCal Microsoft Technology User Group will be focused solely on Lync!
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.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 16, 2012
When I started mentoring entrepreneurs and startups a few years ago, I anticipated that I would get mostly tough technical questions, but instead I more often hear things like “Where do I start?” I find that the basics are actually the hardest to answer, just like your parents found out when they first tried to fill you in on the “facts of life” a long time ago.
socalTECH
OCTOBER 16, 2012
textPlus , the maker of the popular texting application by the same name, said today that it has raised $18M in a new funding round, led by The Raine Group. Prior investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, Matrix Partners and GRP Partners also participated in the funding. In addition to the new funding, the company also said it has acquired Los Angeles-based Jarvus , which develops an app to people capture and share experiences, events and moments together. textPlus, which is based in Marina Del
Southern California Tech Central brings together the best content for technical professionals in Southern California from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
SoCal Tech Calendar
OCTOBER 14, 2012
Saturday, October 20, 2012 -- Cross-Border Entrepreneurship Conference, a unique event to learn how to fund expansion of your business into Mexico. TECMA and Chapman University.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 13, 2012
New entrepreneurs who want to survive, and optimize the growth of their startups, need to think globally, and act locally, from day one. This approach, popularly known as “glocalization,” means you have to design and deliver global solutions that have total relevance to every local market in which you operate. Recognizing this is as much about culture as about language, ensures an understanding of regional motivators, cultural taboos and local customs – so that your solutions are ideally designe
socalTECH
OCTOBER 16, 2012
Users of Apple's new iPhone 5 and iOS 6 have another vendor supporting Apple's new wallet feature, Passbook today, as Goldstar , the Pasadena-based provider of half price live entertainment tickets announced integration with the feature. Goldstar, which offers last-minute bargains on live events like concerts, theater, comedy, sports, and other entertainment, said that Goldstar's mobile website and "will call" purchase confirmations are now Passbook compatible.
Tech Zulu Event
OCTOBER 15, 2012
Every conference is different. The format, the layout, the presentation, the venue, the motives of people attending and presenting. The one common thread is interaction with people. Even if you’re the shiest of shy, you’re bound to interact with at least one person while you’re there. This was my second TCDisrupt conference, however my first attending as press.
SoCal Tech Calendar
OCTOBER 19, 2012
Sunday, October 21, 2012 -- Digital LA - Oktoberfest @ Alpine Village. Join us in celebrating Oktoberfest at Alpine Village, the authentic village and beer garden in Torrance which hosts the biggest Oktoberfest in SoCal. See [link].
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 19, 2012
I have met several young people in business recently who believe that they are natural born entrepreneurs, and actually seem to feel that traditional training and experience may be a detriment to their success in this new world. I concede that natural born components do exist, but more 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.
socalTECH
OCTOBER 17, 2012
The option deals are coming fast and furious at Amazon Studios , the effort being run here in Los Angeles to develop content for Amazon Prime and other platforms. Amazon Studios said this week that it has optioned two new comedy series, including Support, centered around a band's life on the road, and The Face and The Heel, focused on the world of wrestling.
Tech Zulu Event
OCTOBER 17, 2012
Armed with a degree in Marketing and Business from University of Ulster in Northern Ireland and an Operations experience from Ireland, UAE and Egypt , Ciaran Connolly, 36 teamed up with Ernist Turdubaev 33, with a Master of Arts – Retail and Government Sector to launch ProfileTree. At the moment, Conolly heads the startups social media team in Egypt while Turdubaev looks after Russian countries and translation of the site.
SoCal Tech Calendar
OCTOBER 19, 2012
Thursday, October 25, 2012 -- Eat. Drink. Connect with Los Angeles hottest startups on Thursday, October 25th at the WOKCANO in Santa Monica. Come mix and mingle up close and personal with some of the hottest startups in LA. Check out what they?re doing now, what the future holds and how they?re setting the trends. Whether you are looking for investors, a mentor, advice or just simply connecting for opportunities - this event is for you.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 18, 2012
If you want people to invest in your idea, then my best advice is first write a business plan, and keep it simple. Don't confuse your business plan with a doctoral thesis or the back of a napkin. Keep the wording and formatting straightforward, and keep the plan short. For minimum content, see my article “ These 10 Key Elements Make a Business Plan Fundable.
socalTECH
OCTOBER 18, 2012
The latest numbers from the PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree report finds that companies here in Southern California raised $695.4M in funding in Q3, up in terms of dollars from Q3 of last year, when $670.9M was raised. In terms of deals, the quarter was actually down from last year, with 79 deals completed in Q3 of this year, versus 91 in Q3 of 2011.
Tech Zulu Event
OCTOBER 19, 2012
The West Coast biannual AdAge Social TV conference took place in Beverly Hills earlier this week. Elite media giants, agencies and brands flew in from around the country to discuss the rapidly changing and complex ecosystem evolving between the primitive television and social engagement union. Social media giants Twitter and Facebook were both on hand to present their latest findings of their contributions to social television.
SoCal Tech Calendar
OCTOBER 19, 2012
Thursday, October 25, 2012 -- 10th International System-on-Chip (SoC) Conference and Exhibit. The Conference provides an outstanding platform for sharing and disseminating ground-breaking research, innovative product announcements, and informative technical tutorials, and it has established itself as the forum for debating emerging challenges and possibilities in System-on-Chip, ASIC, EDA, IP, analog design and integration, NoC, SiP, embedded CPUs and DSPs, embedded memories, testing, verificati
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 14, 2012
In working with entrepreneurs and other business people over the years, I often hear stories of entrepreneurs who were so close to success, but somehow let it slip through their fingers. They could always give a rational excuse, like the market changed, but somehow it seemed that they were actually afraid of success, so they subtly undermined their own efforts.
socalTECH
OCTOBER 18, 2012
Ad Hoc Labs, the developer behind the Burner mobile app, has just scored a round of angel funding. Size of the round was not disclosed. Burner is a mobile app which allows users to create disposable phone numbers, which they can hand out to people for one-time or temporary use. The funding came from 500 Startups, David Cohen, Ted Rheingold, Robert Goldberg, Kevin Slavin, Ric Calvillo, and others.
Tech Zulu Event
OCTOBER 16, 2012
A TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2012 Finalist, Gyft said it was giving away $250k in free gift cards on its launch but that’s not what they are up to now. Gyft, headquartered in San Francisco, California, is a digital gift card platform that simplifies managing our gift cards and Lingham promises that we are gonna ditch the plastic and use our mobile devices to store, send and redeem cards.
SoCal Tech Calendar
OCTOBER 18, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012 -- 16th Annual Softec Symposium - Tech Pitch! Want to.Watch Tech Pitches Live? Hear Investors' Critique? Attend Tech Pitch. Tech Pitch is a unique opportunity where select entrepreneurs with tech-related businesses will pitch their ideas to a live panel of active investors, in front of a live audience.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 15, 2012
Every time I hear about a new startup that is in stealth mode, I wonder what problem they are hiding from whom. Of course they pretend that they are trying to avoid alerting competitors prior to launch, but too often it becomes an excuse to move slowly in a world that’s all about getting to market fast. I believe stealth makes sense for large companies who can be sued for “pre-announcing” a new product to stall the market or kill a competitor.
socalTECH
OCTOBER 16, 2012
Los Angeles-based Nimble , the developer of cloud-based, customer relationship management (CRM) and contact management tools, has hired a new VP of Engineering, the company said today. Nimble said it has hired Brandon Vallade, former Vice President of Technology at Fox Digital Media to the position. Nimble said that Vallade had headed up the 40-plus digital media team building websites and mobile apps for FOXSports.com, FOX.com, AmericanIdol.com and other Fox Network Group digital properties.
Tech Zulu Event
OCTOBER 17, 2012
Mobile Camp LA will be held on Thursday, October 18th, through a collaborative effort organized by User Groups in the Los Angeles Area including LA-UX, iPhone LA, OC Hackerz, Future Salon Network, Android dev LA and many more. The all day event will be held at LA Mart in Downtown Los Angeles with an amazing guest of expert speakers, in different rooms in various topics of your interest.
SoCal Tech Calendar
OCTOBER 18, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012 -- 10th International System-on-Chip (SoC) Conference and Exhibit. The Conference provides an outstanding platform for sharing and disseminating ground-breaking research, innovative product announcements, and informative technical tutorials, and it has established itself as the forum for debating emerging challenges and possibilities in System-on-Chip, ASIC, EDA, IP, analog design and integration, NoC, SiP, embedded CPUs and DSPs, embedded memories, testing, verificat
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 17, 2012
I’m not much of a television person, but my family loves one of the popular “reality” shows, called “ So You Think You Can Dance ,” so I’m sort of forced to watch it every week on Fox. Over time, I’ve concluded that even startup entrepreneurs can learn a few things from this one. Of course, you must ignore the pomp and circumstance of the TV staging.
socalTECH
OCTOBER 16, 2012
A conference being held this week by the OpenStack cloud software group has surfaced what looks to be a surge in cloud-based companies in Southern California, including a number of startups. OpenStack is a new group which is focusing on establishing a standard set of applications and configurations for allowing enterprises and developers to run their cloud-based apps in a standard way across different ISPs, based on open source software spun out of Rackspace.
Tech Zulu Event
OCTOBER 16, 2012
After a $13.9 million in Series A funding and a launch in Chicago, Getaround , is coming to a city near you to help residents make money from sharing their cars even on a full time basis, thanks to its beta service Getaway. Peer-to-Peer Car Sharing Service. The peer-to-peer car sharing service is already available in Austin, Portland, San Diego and in San Francisco where it was founded and headquartered.
SoCal Tech Calendar
OCTOBER 17, 2012
Tuesday, October 23, 2012 -- The San Diego Tech Coast Angels present Early-Stage Valuation. Program Overview: This interactive workshop educates and empowers angel investors, entrepreneurs, and others interested in access to capital on a variety of ways to value pre-revenue companies. It will explain three valuation methodologies: the Venture Capital Method, the Scorecard Method and the Risk Factor Summation Method.
socalTECH
OCTOBER 17, 2012
The popularity of setting up a startup on Silicon Beach is pushing up office rent on the Westside of Los Angeles, according to an article from Businessweek posted Tuesday. The article says that office space is getting more expensive in areas like Venice, due to the number of startups moving into the area, and the activity of companies like Google, accelerators like Amplify, startups like StackSocial, and others.
socalTECH
OCTOBER 16, 2012
Los Angeles-based web hosting firm Media Temple , which is led by Demian Sellfors, has launched a new cloud service around the OpenStack cloud standard, the firm said this morning. Media Temple said its new Helix private cloud service--powered by Morphlabs and Dell--lets businesses run their own private clouds. OpenStack is an emerging standard which provides a standard way to deploy cloud applications, making it easier for companies to move their apps between private and public clouds, and betw
socalTECH
OCTOBER 15, 2012
Science, Inc. , the startup incubator headed by Michael Jones, has debuted another fashion-related startup out of its incubation efforts this morning. Los Angeles-based TopFloor revealed today that it has raised $6M in a funding round, from Polaris Ventures, Google Ventures, Crosslink Ventures, and Rustic Canyon Partners. The firm is building a celebrity influencer based fashion and e-commerce site, geared around flash-sales of products.
socalTECH
OCTOBER 17, 2012
License123 , the business licensing information site operated by Docstoc.com , is looking to make it easier for businesses in the City of Los Angeles to apply for the city, county, and state permitting paperwork for various kinds of businesses. According to LA Councilmember Eric Garcetti, people can now visit his website and gain access to the service, where businesses can apply for the relevant businesses licenses for free in Los Angeles.
socalTECH
OCTOBER 19, 2012
The latest numbers from the PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree report finds that companies here in Southern California raised $695.4M in funding in Q3, up in terms of dollars from Q3 of last year, when $670.9M was raised. In terms of deals, the quarter was actually down from last year, with 79 deals completed in Q3 of this year, versus 91 in Q3 of 2011.
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