Sat.Nov 10, 2012 - Fri.Nov 16, 2012

article thumbnail

CMO CTO COO Equity and Compensation

SoCal CTO

I was just asked about a particular startup situation (seed stage, CMO hire, non-founder) and particularly what compensation and equity is appropriate. I know a lot more about CTOs specifically CTO Salary and Equity Trends 2009-2011 , Visualization of Startup CTO Equity and Salary Data , Startup CTO Salary and Equity Data , but I've previously written about the issues with Equity for Early Employees in Early Stage Startups.

CTO Hire 329
article thumbnail

Deloitte Announces Local Fast 500 Winners

socalTECH

The annual ranking of the fastest growing companies by Deloitte , the 2012 Deloitte Technology Fast 500, was released today, showing a healthy list of Southern California companies in growth mode. Topping the list for Southern California was EdgeCast Networks , the content delivery network headed by Alex Kazerani, which showed an astounding five year growth rate of 21406%.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

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

article thumbnail

Avoid Death By PowerPoint – Create Slides That Don’t Suck

InfoChachkie

As a venture capitalist, I am asked to provide feedback on a fair number of PowerPoint and Keynote slide decks. I usually only have time to perform a cursory review. Even so, I find myself repeatedly making the same recommendations, which I have codified below. If you haven't already subscribed yet, subscribe now for free weekly Infochachkie articles!

Slides 258
article thumbnail

Turn “process” into “game.”

Berkonomics

Most of us are driven by the competitive spirit, the desire or need to win. It reinforces self-worth, provides closure at the end of a good effort, and energizes us during the effort to achieve. Many of us as managers – and our employees as workers – are driven by process, actions required to achieve a result. And many of these actions are repetitive to a fault, contributing to boredom and ultimately to restlessness and desire for something new, in or out of the company.

Metrics 176
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

Startup Weekend Los Angeles

SoCal Tech Calendar

Sunday, November 18, 2012 -- Startup Weekend Los Angeles. Ever wondered what it takes to be an entrepreneur? The professional and personal challenges, the high and lows, the failures and the success? Startup Weekend is a global grassroots movement of active and empowered entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures.

article thumbnail

TheBouqs Looks To Upset Flower Delivery

socalTECH

A new, Los Angeles startup, TheBouqs , headed by a former ShoeDazzle executive, has just launched, hoping to upset the often confusing (and expensive) online flower delivery market. The startup has launched a service which delivers flowers for a flat, $40, including shipping, with options for subscriptions and scheduled delivery. The service is the brainchild of John Tabis, who formerly was VP of Brand, Strategy, and Corporate Development at ShoeDazzle, and also served at The Walt Disney Company

Pricing 256

More Trending

article thumbnail

Mindshare LA and UCLA Present: “From Whence We Came…” Live!

Tech Zulu Event

TechZulu is honored to bring you the very first Mindshare LA from the West Side! Live this thursday November 15, at 8:30pm. For those who may be unfamiliar with Mindshare LA, over the years Mindshare has become a mecca for intellectuals, artists, scientists and other progressive characters to broaden their perspective and find community in this vast city.

UCLA 84
article thumbnail

Startup Weekend Los Angeles

SoCal Tech Calendar

Saturday, November 17, 2012 -- Startup Weekend Los Angeles. Ever wondered what it takes to be an entrepreneur? The professional and personal challenges, the high and lows, the failures and the success? Startup Weekend is a global grassroots movement of active and empowered entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures.

article thumbnail

Sixty-four Southern California Firms On Technology Fast 500

socalTECH

Earlier this week, Deloitte released its latest list of the top 500 growing technology companies, in its 2012 Technology Fast 500. list. A very healthy list of Southern California companies made the list, with a total of 64 companies in the region ranked in the list. The full list follows: 13 EdgeCast Networks 21406% Santa Monica Alex Kazerani 15 Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 18798% San Diego Pedro Lichtinger 22 Phone Power 7642% Winnetka Ari Ramezani 23 TeleSign Corporation Software 7534% Marin

article thumbnail

Crossing the Chasm is a Major Startup Challenge

Startup Professionals Musings

Everyone in the business world has heard of the old bestseller by Geoffrey A. Moore titled “ Crossing the Chasm ,” but most entrepreneurs have no idea how it relates to them. In fact, it’s all about the “focus” required to get early stage technology products across the deadly chasm from early adopters to mainstream customers. Most investors and startup professionals expand this concept of focus to apply to key issues of every aspect of strategic and tactical planning in a startup.

Startup 101
article thumbnail

Fan Appz Launches Personal Marketing Platform To Help Brands Convert Fans Into Loyal Customers

Tech Zulu Event

Fan Appz, a Santa Monica headquartered firm founded in 2010, and a Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer (PMD) today Tuesday launched its Personalized Marketing Platform, a next-generation social media marketing solution set to help firms convert fans into customers and increase repeat purchases by turning good customers into great ones. Speaking on the launch Jon Siegal, Founder & CEO, Fan Appz Inc said, “The fun of counting Likes, comments and retweets has faded.

article thumbnail

TEDxPasadena

SoCal Tech Calendar

Saturday, November 17, 2012 -- TEDxPasadena. Experience an inspirational TED Event focused on creating an invigorating, purposeful life at TEDxPasadena Salon. Following up on our successful inaugural event last Fall, TEDxPasadena presents its first Salon focusing on ?Living a Life of Purpose? where we?ll explore the power of possibility for individuals, groups, and communities.

124
124
article thumbnail

Curating The Web Using PublishThis, with Matt Kumin

socalTECH

If you're a web publisher, or even a brand developing your own outreach to customers through a newsletter or microsite, how do you efficiently gather and curate all of the news and information out there? Right now, it's a manual process--unless you're using the tools from Los Angeles-based PublishThis (www.publishthis.com). The firm has created a tool which uses software and semantic search to help in the whole process of curating content.

Web 237
article thumbnail

7 Keys to Positioning Your Competitors to Investors

Startup Professionals Musings

Every entrepreneur should spend plenty of time thinking about competitors, and how they relate to your business, but you need to be very careful what you say out loud about them to your team, your investors, and your customers. What you say speaks volumes about how you think about your startup, how smart you are, and your personal integrity. I’ve spent hours talking to startup founders, and heard a thousand startup pitches, and I always listen carefully to what is said (or not said) about compet

Startup 100
article thumbnail

ResearchGate, Social Network For Scientists Acquires Scholarz.net

Tech Zulu Event

We covered ResearchGate here on TechZulu sometime back. To give you a quick refresher ResearceGate is a professional network for scientists. And they have news that they are expanding. According to the latest news from the company, ResearchGate has acquired Germany based Scholarz.net , an academic and reference management, knowledge management network founded in 2008 by economist and political scientist Dr.

article thumbnail

Startup Weekend Los Angeles

SoCal Tech Calendar

Friday, November 16, 2012 -- Startup Weekend Los Angeles. Ever wondered what it takes to be an entrepreneur? The professional and personal challenges, the high and lows, the failures and the success? Startup Weekend is a global grassroots movement of active and empowered entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures.

article thumbnail

Fan Appz Launches Social Media Marketing Product

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based Fan Appz , which is headed by Jon Siegal, said today that it has launched a new social media marketing product. The firm said its Personalized Marketing Platform is aimed at brand, to help them turn their fans into customers. Fan Appz said it differs from other, social media marketing products because it is focused on helping brands close a sale.

article thumbnail

5 Entrepreneur Antidotes to Negativity in a Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

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

Startup 99
article thumbnail

Pinterest Launches Secret Boards For Holidays

Tech Zulu Event

Pinterest has launched secret boards for use this holidays. According to Pinterest Software Engineer Evrhet Milam , “The holidays are a time for being with family, sharing great meals, and, of course, surprising your favorite people with a special gift. That’s why we thought the holidays were a perfect time to test one of our most frequently-requested features: secret boards!

article thumbnail

BIO SCIENCE ALLIANCE, Science and Innovation Interest Group

SoCal Tech Calendar

Friday, November 16, 2012 -- BIO SCIENCE ALLIANCE, Science and Innovation Interest Group. Personalized Genomics. Speaker: Grant Bitter, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Genomic Express, Inc. Contact Jan Fang at jan@biosciencealliance.org.

113
113
article thumbnail

Laffster's Mock The Vote Hits Android

socalTECH

Mock The Vote , the mobile, political satire application developed by Venice-based Laffster , has just launch on Android, giving political news fans another platform to get the latest, humorous take on politics. Laffster, headed by Daniel Altman, has been applying algorithms to the world of digital content, surfacing the most interesting and timely political news from its partners, presented in a humorous fashion.

News 219
article thumbnail

Don’t Look For Investors for All the Wrong Reasons

Startup Professionals Musings

There is so much written these days about how to attract investors that most entrepreneurs “assume” they need funding, and don’t even consider a plan for “bootstrapping,” or self-financing their startup. Yet, according to many sources , over 90 percent of all businesses are started and grown with no equity financing, and many others would have been better off without it.

article thumbnail

Bored At Your Place Of Work? Try LifeSwap

Tech Zulu Event

We know what it is to love our jobs, we spend the whole day in office and don’t want to leave. But there are friends who seem to hate every minute that goes buy during their working hours. Now a new startup called LifeSwap wants to end that frustration. Explore Great Companies & Jobs. LifeSwap is a new way for great people to explore great companies and jobs.

article thumbnail

Driving Purchase Decisions in the Social Media Era

SoCal Tech Calendar

Thursday, November 15, 2012 --. Driving Purchase Decisions in the Social Media Era. TCOSC Marketing and Sales Executives Society. Social media is evolving rapidly and is dramatically altering how purchase decisions are made. As a marketer, this means that your ability to influence purchase decisions will be increasingly determined by what customers' social networks think about your product - in real-time.

article thumbnail

SkinMedica Acquired By Allergan For $375M

socalTECH

Carlsbad-based SkinMedica , the developer of aesthetic medicine products, is being acquired by Irvine-based Allergan in a $350M deal, the two said today. Allergan said it will buy SkinMedica $350M up front, plus up to $25M based on future sales goals. The deal does not include the SkinMedica Colorescience aesthetic make-up line, which the two said will be spun out by SkinMedica into a new business.

article thumbnail

10 Tips to Help a Business Leader Quit While on Top

Startup Professionals Musings

For most business leaders, their current role is not where they intend to stay until they die. At the right time, they all intend to make a graceful exit, and leave while still perceived to be on top of their game. The challenge is how to know and exit gracefully when the right time has come, without trauma to either the company or themselves. I haven’t seen much insight on this subject, so I was intrigued by a new book “ Leaving on Top: Graceful Exits for Leaders ,” by David Heenan, a business

Tips 83
article thumbnail

Tech Coast Venture Network $25K Pitch Competition

Tech Zulu Event

Tech Coast Venture Network is rounding up the finest entrepreneurs to compete for $25,000 in cash prize in their Survivor 7 Pitch Competition this Thursday, November 15th. The event will be held in Chapman University and has attracted over 30 companies that have submitted their pitch videos online. In the past, the competition allowed anyone to participate in the initial round of 30-second pitches to investors and experts.

article thumbnail

Interactive and Mobile Local Media: Trends and Opportunities

SoCal Tech Calendar

Thursday, November 15, 2012 -- Interactive and Mobile Local Media: Trends and Opportunities. Mobile LAVA is pleased to welcome top BIA/Kelsey analysts Matt Booth andMichael Boland to share authoritative insights into the top trends, marketevents, companies and case studies that are driving current and future opportunities in interactive and mobile local media.

Mobile 113
article thumbnail

Fan Appz Launch Social Media Marketing Product

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based Fan Appz , which is headed by Jon Siegal, said today that it has launched a new social media marketing product. The firm said its Personalized Marketing Platform is aimed at brand, to help them turn their fans into customers. Fan Appz said it differs from other, social media marketing products because it is focused on helping brands close a sale.

article thumbnail

Ten of Southern California's Top Software Companies

SoCal Delicious

Southern California is often criticized for having too many startups which only revolve around brand, celebrity, ecommerce, and. marketing, and not enough of the traditional, software-and-algorithm intensive startups you'd expect to see in Silicon Valley. However, that's not always the case. We've identified ten of the more technically interesting companies working on software in Southern California, using our unscientific, unproven, and undoubtedly biased informal polling.

article thumbnail

If it Didn’t Happen on Twitter it Didn’t Really Happen. Here’s Why

Both Sides of the Table

I wrote this post a long time ago. When I did it was a little too close to home for a company to have me publish it. Much time has passed. And I felt it was instructive still so I thought I would publish. I decided to water down some details to protect the innocent. But both stories are still accurate. I hope it still resonates. A while back I received a frantic phone call from the CEO of a company in which I invested.

Press 336
article thumbnail

Cracking QR Codes

SoCal Tech Calendar

Wednesday, November 14, 2012 -- Cracking QR Codes. AMA Los Angeles. QR CODES - they are everywhere! Are they just a trend? Or do they have a practical application to help grow and effectively market one's business? Jeff Gottschalk, CEO of GottyCode sides with the latter. Join the AMA Los Angeles for this ?must see? event on how to effectively use QR codes in your organization!

AMA 113
article thumbnail

DogVacay Lands $6M In Series A

socalTECH

DogVacay , the online marketplace which lets pet owners connect with others to find dog boarding, has raised $6M in a Series A round, the firm announced this morning. The funding came from Benchmark Capital, and comes on top of earlier, seed funding from First Round Capital, Science Inc., and others. As part of the funding, Benchmark's Bill Gurley joins the company's board of directors, and Bob Kagle at Benchmark will become and advisor to the company.

article thumbnail

7 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Asking For Money

Startup Professionals Musings

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 a success if you hate what you are doing, and you don’t have a plan to use it. I suggest that there are several other questions even more important than the money one.

article thumbnail

Memories of an Unconnected Era: Searching for Sugar Man

Both Sides of the Table

Many people reading this will be digital natives. These are people who don’t remember an era in which we were unconnected. There is no doubt that technology brings benefits to our lives and I have been a heavy user of tech since I was 13 (in 1981). I was connecting to online communities as a teenager on a 9,600 baud modem which is considerably slower than you can even imagine connecting today.

Email 310
article thumbnail

Elevator Pitch Competition

SoCal Tech Calendar

Wednesday, November 14, 2012 -- Elevator Pitch Competition. MIT Enterprise Forum of the Central Coast. You only get one chance to make a good first impression. This maxim has special meaning for entrepreneurs seeking funding. Venture capitalists and angel investors are busy people with hectic schedules. They hear hundreds of pitches a month. If and when an entrepreneur gets an audience with an investor, his or her case for why this venture is better than any other must be clear, concise and comp