Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

I’m very excited to be finally be able to announce that this week we’ve added Sam Rosen to our ranks at GRP Partners in the role of entrepreneurs-in-residence – EIR. It’s the first EIR that we’ve had in the years that I’ve been with the firm and I hope will be the start of our investment in this program. And it’s the latest in a series of investments we’ve made in building out our practice as the LA technology market continues to grow robustly and

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socalTECH

JANUARY 17, 2013

The last few years in Los Angeles has been a heady one for the technology startup community, with hundreds of new startups, and a tangible enthusiasm in the air along Silicon Beach. Along with that growth, there have been a host of coworking and similar service provider cropping up to serve the community, offering up office space and more to local startups and other businesses.

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InfoChachkie

JANUARY 14, 2013

If you have your eyes and ears open, you can discover sales lessons in unexpected places, including the cable TV show, Say Yes To The Dress. I do not consume much TV content, other than cable news. However, my wife is a major fan of fashion oriented "reality" TV shows, including Say Yes To The Dress (Say Yes). In my ongoing quest to be a wonderful husband, I have watched some of these shows with my lovely bride (sorry, I draw the line at Project Runway ).

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Berkonomics

JANUARY 17, 2013

My brother, Barry, passed away recently. A world famous architect, he is credited with the design of over 600,000 homes worldwide. He had been named one of the world’s top 100 architects by Architectural Digest, and one of the ten most significant figures of the 20th century by Residential Architect. He was quite a role model as a big brother, five years my senior.

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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

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2013

It’s January. Happy New Year! My last post was December 17 – nearly a month ago. I miss blogging because it serves as a great repository for me of my current thinking, as a way of organizing my thoughts and clarifying what I think and as a conversation started with so many of you (as Hunter Walk elegantly said, “Blog not to show how smart you are, but in the hope of soliciting feedback from smart people.

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socalTECH

JANUARY 17, 2013

The latest numbers from the PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree report were released today, finding that a total of $683.7M was invested across Southern California in Q4 of 2012. That total was less than the $859.6M raised by companies in Q4 of 2011, and less than the $701.18M raised by companies in the region in Q3 of 2012.

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Southern California Orange County GRP Partners Venture Capital 237

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2013

When someone introduces me to an “idea person,” I automatically jump to the down-side conclusion that this person doesn’t do follow-up. Of course there are people who are great at getting things done, but haven’t had an original idea in their life. Great entrepreneurs, like Bill Gates, are great at both. I was with IBM in the early PC days when Bill worked with us to provide PC DOS and other software.

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Ideas Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review 110

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 18, 2013

A traffic jam of expensive cars lined up to pull into the packed parking lot of MuckerLab for its second graduating class demo day. The large gathering of top investors spilled out of the office into the surrounding sidewalk and swelled with buzz and speculation of what the 10 newly formed companies had to offer. Some flew in from overseas, different states and from Silicon Valley to attend.

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Class Startup Tech Coast Angels CTO Coach 100

socalTECH

JANUARY 15, 2013

Playsino , the social casino games and app developer headed by Brock Pierce, said Tuesday that it has released iPhone and iPad versions of its Bingo World app. The free-to-play apps are on the Apple iTunes App store. Playsino, which is based in Santa Monica, is a developr of casino focused games, which are available both on mobile platforms and on sites like Facebook.

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SoCal Tech Calendar

JANUARY 14, 2013

Sunday, January 20, 2013 -- San Fernando Valley Startup Weekend. Startup Weekend is a global network of passionate leaders and entrepreneurs on a mission to inspire, educate, and empower individuals, teams and communities. Share ideas, form teams, and launch startups.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2013

Many entrepreneurs I know don’t realize that the language they learned in the corporate world, or even their recent MBA class, won’t get them ahead in the startup world today. Even if you have heard some of the new terms, but can’t explain how, when, and why they are relevant to your startup, you may be in jeopardy. As a reality check, try this quick test of your entrepreneur savvy.

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Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 15, 2013

Frustrated by tradtional recruitment agencies, Greg Schneider , came up with the idea for Hiringbounty.com. Hiring Bounty, based in South Africa is a startup that allows one to reccommend a friend for a job and earn bounty if the friend is hired. Greg, inspired by his frustration with traditional recruitment agents constantly targeting him for positions he was ill suited for and at times no clue about says he decided to do something about it when he finally landed a job suiting his skills.

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socalTECH

JANUARY 14, 2013

What is a hackerspace, and why might having them available in the area help the tech community? The idea is a community space where people can come together, learn something from one another, build that electronics project, software, or even arts and crafts, in a supported environment. One hackerspace coming together in Los Angeles, LA Makerspace (www.lamakerspace.com) is being put together by Tara Tiger Brown.

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SoCal Tech Calendar

JANUARY 12, 2013

Friday, January 18, 2013 -- San Fernando Valley Startup Weekend. Startup Weekend is a global network of passionate leaders and entrepreneurs on a mission to inspire, educate, and empower individuals, teams and communities. Share ideas, form teams, and launch startups.

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San Fernando Startup Education Ideas 124

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2013

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.

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Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 12, 2013

techzulu posted a photo: via Instagram instagr.am/p/UaGkmRuLDm/.

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socalTECH

JANUARY 16, 2013

The massive, $103M funding round for Carpinteria-based Lynda.com might have been a surprise for some, except perhaps readers of this publication, who over the years have gotten a glimpse of the growth rate of the company in recent years. The firm--which said it has been profitable since 1997 in its announcement this morning--disclosed that it now has over $100M in annual revenues, and 400 employees.

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SoCal Tech Calendar

JANUARY 12, 2013

Friday, January 18, 2013 -- LAVA Healthcare January 2013 meeting. About LAVA Healthcare. No one disputes that the U.S. healthcare system is a mess that has been deteriorating for decades. Many argue that increasing legislation and regulation will worsen the problem, others argue its the best solution. LAVA Healthcare is an ongoing conversation about how we might fix the mess applying innovation across a wide range of dimensions including technology, business models, patient involvement, offshore

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2013

The number of startups getting seed funding in 2012 jumped by 65% over the previous year to a total of 1749, according to a recent report by CB Insights. “Seed investments” are early stage financings (typically less than $1.5 million) made by either Angels or venture capitalists, or both. This is great evidence that the recession drag on funding new startups is behind us.

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Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 12, 2013

techzulu posted a photo: via Instagram instagr.am/p/UZs0HPuLEy/.

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socalTECH

JANUARY 15, 2013

It's a new year, and another batch of accelerator startups, as Demo Day season in Los Angeles kicks off this week. The first Demo Day of 2013 in Los Angeles is tomorrow, as MuckerLab launches its latest class of startups; fellow Los Angeles accelerator StartEngine has its first 2013 demo day scheduled for January 30th. The two are just a couple of the accelerator groups in the region which have been the driving force in early stage startup activity and funding, by providing mentoring, early stag

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SoCal Tech Calendar

JANUARY 18, 2013

Thursday, January 24, 2013 -- 2013 Startup Forecast. TechZulu is excited to invite you to the 2013 Startup and Entrepreneurial Forecast taking place on Thursday Jan. 24 7pm at The ROC in Santa Monica. We have a line up of amazing speakers who will share their insights and forecast for startup trends in 2013. Topics of discussion will be Saas, Cloud, Mobile, Gaming, Social Markets, what surprises are coming for 2013, creating value with your company, hiring problem solvers, and building sensible

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2013

Every startup wants to be a predictable success, yet so few ever achieve this enviable position. In reality, getting there is not a random walk, and requires an understanding of the stages that every business must navigate and the organizational characteristics necessary at each stage. Les McKeown, in his book “ Predictable Success ” outlines these stages and characteristics for any business.

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Entrepreneur Slides Framework Resource 97

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 12, 2013

techzulu posted a photo: via Instagram instagr.am/p/UZr24oOLDz/.

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socalTECH

JANUARY 18, 2013

Scopely , the Los Angeles-based gaming startup headed by Eytan Elbaz, has snagged yet another Zynga veteran for the firm, the firm said Friday morning. Scopely said it has hired on Andy Kleinman, former Zynga GM, as its Chief Business Officer. Kleinman was most recently General Manager of Latin America for Zynga, and also founded EMEPE3.com, the first and one of the biggest online music websites in Spanish.

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SoCal Tech Calendar

JANUARY 18, 2013

Thursday, January 24, 2013 -- January Forum: Business Incubators or Business Accelerators? Tech Coast Venture Network. Incubators and accelerators are real options for entrepreneurs interested in starting and growing their new ventures. With accelerators being the new kid on the block, there seems to be significant confusion about the differences between the two.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2013

I’m sure you have all been frustrated at least once by not being able to get the Internet domain name you want for your company. Who owns all of these names, and should you ever buy one for a premium? The simple answer is that if you want to be found on the Web, the perfect domain name can be well worth a few thousand dollars, but don’t pay a fortune for one.

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Startup Pricing Tips .Net 87

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2013

The tech community has become more politically active over the past 5 years and this is a good thing. We live in a representative democracy and organizing, having a voice and expressing views is critical to our functioning democracy. One of the most visible, active and admirable leaders of this movement is Ron Conway and he describes this in this post on TechCrunch.

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socalTECH

JANUARY 18, 2013

A new, Los Angeles startup, Causora , said this week that it has launched a new online marketplace to help users convert their passions and skills into charitable donations. The startup allows users to offer up their services--anything from math tutoring, cooking lessons, yoga lessons, to making a video-- with anything earned from those efforts going to a charity of their choice.

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SoCal Tech Calendar

JANUARY 17, 2013

Wednesday, January 23, 2013 -- Presenting and Speaking to Succeed. Coloft Academy. If you've got a passion to share, if you're raising money, if you're in sales, if you communicate at all, you need to raise your game. The popularity of TED talks, the omnipresence of video cameras and the virality of great video content has raised the bar dramatically for any and all presentations.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 14, 2013

We all know that every startup is risky. No risk means no reward. Yet every investor has his own “rules of thumb” on what makes a specific startup too high a risk for his investment taste. You need to know these guidelines to set your expectations on funding. Of course, if you intend to fund the business yourself, or have a rich uncle, external investment funding concerns are not a problem.

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socalTECH

JANUARY 18, 2013

If you're a Southern California startup, it's most likely you're going to find funding from local, Southern California startup funds, right? Maybe not. According to data from the latest PricewaterhouseCoopers/NVCA MoneyTree report, the funding for Southern California's startups in Q4 of 2012 came from a total of 124 different venture groups, only 26 of which (20%) were actually based in Southern California.

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socalTECH

JANUARY 17, 2013

If you own and operate a restaurant, how do you quickly, easily, and inexpensively accept and handle online orders? It's a huge development task to develop your own mobile application, connect into Facebook, and create an online ordering system--unless you use the software from ChowNow (www.chownow.com), one of the newest startups to get funding here in Los Angeles.

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Mobile Startup Platform GRP Partners 197

socalTECH

JANUARY 17, 2013

NextSpace , the co-working space developer which has locations in Culver City and Venice, announced this morning that it has raised $825,000 more in a funding round, to go towards expansion in Northern California. NextSpace is one of a number of coworking spaces to open in the Los Angeles area recently, with a space colocated with the Amplify LA accelerator (NextSpace @ Amplify) plus a location in Culver City.

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socalTECH

JANUARY 17, 2013

If you're a mobile-savvy, technology professional on the go in Los Angeles--but who never has time to clean your apartment or house--the latest Bay Area import, Pathjoy , has your number. The Y Combinator startup is launching into Los Angeles this morning with its mobile inspired, maid service, letting users not only book, schedule, and manage their cleaning appointments online, but also offering affordable rates for the services of a cleaner.

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Services Startup Los Angeles Mobile 193

socalTECH

JANUARY 16, 2013

In the quest to re-make the business of publishing and journalism, there's been a lot of hand wringing and debate over the merits and complexities of online paywalls. One Los Angeles startup is helping the industry to figure it all out, with its software, which helps online publishers easily implement online paywall and subscription plans. Now, MediaPass signed up another big customer for its software this week, Weekly World News.

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News Journal MyLife Software 187