Both Sides of the Table
JANUARY 2, 2014
'Many startups these days are started by young, technical or product founders who are in the idealistic phase of their lives and careers. Thus I hear many talk about “radical transparency” when virtually ever experienced operator in my inner circle talks knowingly about that naiveté. It’s not that I don’t love idealism – I was young once, too!
InfoChachkie
DECEMBER 30, 2013
'A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. Note: This is part II of a series exploring the power of mentorships. Access part I HERE. Mentor relationships are not immune to the laws of human interactions. They require judicious and consistent nurturing to be sustained. Without active management on the part of the protégé, the meetings with their mentor will become less frequent and less impactful, ultimately accelerating the end of the relationship.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
socalTECH
JANUARY 2, 2014
'It''s never a great time: you figure out you have a legal problem, and need to find a lawyer. But, how do you start? The old way was difficult, time consuming, and often expensive; referrals, calling up lawyers, going through initial consultations. To shortcut what has been an antiquated way of connecting consumers with attorneys, Los Angeles startup LawKick (www.lawkick.com) has created an online, easy way to match up clients with lawyers, through a set of simple questions and answers about di
Berkonomics
JANUARY 2, 2014
'My dad was a smart businessman, even if not formally trained. He occasionally gave me advice that turned out to be more than wise, looking back at subsequent experience and events. His personal teaching event was a typical experience, as I reflect now upon the tens of partnerships I have counseled over the years. Most often, one partner remained active as another partner drifted away from the business, no longer carrying the weight anticipated at start-up.
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.
Eric Greenspan
DECEMBER 30, 2013
'The Better Business Bureau was created by and for business. It’s not a government agency. It once had a true purpose and provided protection to consumers. Today, in my opinion, it’s a business that makes its living off of coercing other businesses to become a member. If you don’t, they give you a low rating based on, well, I’m not sure what.
Technology Council
JANUARY 1, 2014
'I have the opportunity to work with a large number of sales teams and to see what makes for highly successful ones and ones that struggle. In my experience the #1 determining factor in sales team success is whether the company has the right sales people on board or not. There are 10’s, if not 100’s, of different sales jobs in the market and like numbers of different types of sales people fit those jobs.
Southern California Tech Central brings together the best content for technical professionals in Southern California from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 29, 2013
'As a mentor for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs, I talk to a fair number who may have a great vision and a strong engineering background, but have a negative interest in the role of public speaking in business. In fact, they often claim to be part of the survey group that fears public speaking more than death, but I’m not sure how anyone could validate that survey.
Eric Greenspan
DECEMBER 30, 2013
'The Better Business Bureau was created by and for business. It’s not a government agency. It once had a true purpose and provided protection to consumers. Today, in my opinion, it’s a business that makes its living off of coercing other businesses to become a member. If you don’t, they give you a low rating based on, well, I’m not sure what.
Technology Council
JANUARY 1, 2014
'By Charles J. Curto, Managing Principal of Tech Coast Equity Group. At a meeting of the Technology Council’s Entrepreneur Society, David Knecht, Partner with the CPA and management value consulting firm of Milam, Knecht & Warner, presented Building Corporate Value: The Five Keys. Below are take-aways from his presentation. David began by emphasizing that the basis […].
socalTECH
JANUARY 3, 2014
'In the world of many online television, movie, and video sites, scores of music streaming services, and other entertainment content, it''s often a difficult task to find what you really want to watch, listen to, or read. How do you aggregate all that together in one package? One new, Los Angeles startup-- Laudville (www.laudville.com)--recently launched its service to try to tackle that huge task, of bringing your content together.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 31, 2013
'If an entrepreneur doesn’t find themselves in over their head at least 20% of the time, they are probably not pushing the limits, not taking enough risk, and probably not working on an idea that’s worth doing. The challenge in to know when and how to ask for help, and not let bravado and ego mask anxieties. The best people know when they don’t know, and know how to find the right help.
Tech Zulu Event
JANUARY 2, 2014
'When a loved one passes away, their legacy is left behind. The wills and other private forms belonging to an individual are easily lost, causing undue stress and conflict between family members. As technology advances, many things are going digital and some are only offered as an online component. Emails, documents, and even tax forms are handled online, making it difficult for families to retrieve them, or even know they existed in the first place.
Technology Council
JANUARY 1, 2014
I have the opportunity to work with a large number of sales teams and to see what makes for highly successful ones and ones that struggle. In my experience the #1 determining factor in sales team success is whether the company has the right sales people on board or not. There are 10’s, if not 100’s, of different sales jobs in the market and like numbers of different types of sales people fit those jobs.
socalTECH
DECEMBER 30, 2013
'Santa Monica-based Manalto has raised $1M in a seed funding round, for the company''s social media content management software. According to Manalto, the funding came from Europlay Capital Adivsors, Raven Capital, as well as high net worth individuals from Australia. The company splits its operations between Santa Monica and Australia. The company said it is developing "social ERP software" aimed at large enterprises and franchises, helping companies to manage their marketing on Facebook.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 28, 2013
'Throughout my career in small companies and large, I’ve always been appalled by the number of people who seem to complain all of the time. These people don’t seem to realize that they are hurting themselves, as well as other people’s productivity, and the company they are working for. I’ve always thought that I might be overly sensitive, until I saw an old survey done by badbossoloy.com , which claims that a majority of employees spend 10 hours or more a month complaining or listening to others
Tech Zulu Event
DECEMBER 31, 2013
'“Innovation to me is new ways of connecting people, especially people who are not yet connected. ” - Jeff Gomez. Trance media consists of some of the best music known to the world. It’s also a great means of watching people actually go into trances. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), neither of these is Jeff Gomez of Starlight Runner ’s area of expertise.
Technology Council
JANUARY 1, 2014
By Charles J. Curto, Managing Principal of Tech Coast Equity Group. At a meeting of the Technology Council’s Entrepreneur Society, David Knecht, Partner with the CPA and management value consulting firm of Milam, Knecht & Warner, presented Building Corporate Value: The Five Keys. Below are take-aways from his presentation. David began by emphasizing that the basis […].
socalTECH
JANUARY 2, 2014
'Los Angeles-based coupons and deals site Savings.com said this week that it''s getting on board the ban of plastic bags in Los Angeles--a new law which went into effect on January 1st--by giving away reusable totes in Los Angeles. Savings.com said it will be handing out free, re-usable grocery totes all next week at the Vons at 4030 S. Centinela Ave. in Culver City, as part of a promotion of its new grocery coupon app, Favado.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 30, 2013
'The first question most people seem to ask when contemplating a new startup is where they will get investor money. That’s certainly a valid question, but all the money in the world won’t make your business work if you don’t have a plan to use it, or hate what you are doing. I suggest that there are several important questions before assuming that funding is the gate to your success.
socalTECH
JANUARY 2, 2014
'Los Angeles-based fantasy sports gaming company Rivalry Games is aiming at NFL fans, saying this week that it has launched a new, cash contest option for players of the company''s Android and iPhone games. According to Rivalry Games, it has added cash contests to its games, which allows its users to play for actual dollars during NFL or college games.
socalTECH
JANUARY 2, 2014
'Venice-based social photo messaging service Snapchat had a major security breach over the holidays, when at least 4.6 million user names and phone numbers on the service were publicly published to the Internet. The breached data was apparently published via a post to Reddit. A number of security firms have published online tools to help users figure out if their data was exposed in the hack.
socalTECH
JANUARY 3, 2014
'Venice-based social messaging phenom Snapchat has locked down its Find Friends features, saying that it has improved security on the feature, after reports of the widespread release of around 4.6 million phone numbers and usernames from the service. Snapchat''s Find Friends service had allowed Snapchat users to enter the phone number of their friends to get their username, a feature which had been abused by hackers to ferret out the list of Snapchat users and their phone numbers.
socalTECH
JANUARY 2, 2014
'The fate of bankrupt electric auto developer Fisker Automotive continues to be in flux, as a report today from the Boston Globe said that Chinese company Wanxiang Group is looking to make a bid on Fisker Automotive, and has asked a judge to open up auctions for the remains of the company. Fisker has been working its way through bankruptcy , with plans most recently to sell its assets to Hong Kong''s Hybrid Tech Holdings.
socalTECH
JANUARY 3, 2014
'In an odd dual posting by two of Southern California''s up-and-coming startups, Los Angeles-based StackSocial and fellow Los Angeles startup FreedomPop exchanged public love letters on their blogs yesterday. StackSocial''s post, Why We Love FreedomPop went up at about the same time as FreedomPop''s post 5 Reasons We Love StackSocial , with each going on and on about the benefits of the other company.
socalTECH
JANUARY 3, 2014
'Santa Barbara-based Yardi , the developer of real estate management software, reported another win Thursday, this time with real estate investment trust BRE Properties. Yardi said that BRE is using its Yardi PopCard software for improving its apartment leasing process. Financial impact of the win was not announced. Yardi''s software is used for leasing and customer releationship management.
socalTECH
JANUARY 3, 2014
'Los Angeles-based CheckAlt , the provider of remote deposit capture and e-check services, mobile payment, and other related services, has added three credit unions as customers, the company said this week. CheckAlt said that the FAA Federal Credit Union, University of Nebraska Federal Credit Union and Valley Credit Union have tapped a solutions from CheckAlt, iParse, and CU Wireless for mobile deposit.
socalTECH
JANUARY 2, 2014
'DAR.fm , the San Diego radio recording startup founded by MP3.com''s Michael Robertson, told its users over the holidays that it would start restricting automatic downloads on the radio recording service to Pro level users, as a part of a push to get more users to sign up for its subscriptions. The service--which lets users record radio broadcasts automatically and play them later on the web, iPad, or other devices--said it would offer up upgrades to the "Pro" level of service to its current fr
socalTECH
JANUARY 2, 2014
'Aliso Viejo-based semiconductor developer Microsemi announced this morning that it has launched a brand new chip. According to the company, it has launched a diode bridge, used to power wireless LAN access points, small cells, small switches and routers, and other devices. The new, MOSFET-based full-bridge rectifier device is used for Power-over-Ethernet (poE) and Power-over-HDBaseT (PoH) applications.
socalTECH
JANUARY 2, 2014
'Santa Monica-based online matchmaking site eHarmony rolled out its own Rose Bowl float yesterday, saying that it is the "first dot com" to have a float in the Rose Parade. eHarmony''s float, "Everlasting Love", featured Natalie Cole singing her song "This will be", as well as couples who met via eHarmony. eHarmony''s float was created by Phoenix Decorating Company, which also designed the floats for HGTV, Rotary International, Trader Joe''s, and many others. eHarmony did not say how much it cos
socalTECH
JANUARY 2, 2014
'San Diego-based medical technology firm CareFusion said this week that it has completed its acquisition of the Vital Signs division of GE Healthcare in the U.S., China, and other geographies. The deal was worth $500M, and was funded through cash on hand. CareFusion said that so far it has paid $470M to GE Healthcare, with the balance due on completion of the acquisition of a number of Vital Signs'' remaining international operations.
socalTECH
JANUARY 2, 2014
'Los Angeles-based online backup and cloud storage provider IDrive is targeting consumers with a New Year''s resolution push, saying that users ought to sign up for the company''s service as part of their New Year''s resolutions. IDrive, which provides a number of different online storage and synchronization plans, offers up its services starting at $25 per year.
socalTECH
JANUARY 3, 2014
'Los Angeles-based online live entertainment marketplace ScoreBig.com has promoted David Goldberg to CEO, and shifted co-founder and CEO Adam Kanner to the role of executive Chairman, the company said Thursday afternoon. Goldberg was previously Chief Strategy Officer for the company, and has been an advisory board member for the company since it was founded in 2009.
Expert insights. Personalized for you.
385 
Let's personalize your content