TechCrunch LA
JANUARY 13, 2017
2016 was a good year to be a tech startup in LA, and, with the $25 billion planned public offering for the city’s startup darling, Snap Inc., coming up, the future’s so bright entrepreneurs might want to wear… Spectacles. Last year saw the city reap windfall exits from the acquisition of companies like Dollar Shave Club, and has a number of promising e-commerce companies… Read More.
Berkonomics
JANUARY 12, 2017
I recently experienced an amazing effort of outreach by a vice president of a large national customer asking for a meeting with the product development team of a critical supplier, one of “my” companies. The goal, the VP stated, was to “see if these guys are battle hardened veterans that have dealt with the real-world product and delivery problems” of a nationally important customer.
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socalTECH
JANUARY 10, 2017
Los Angeles-based nonprofit fundraising and crowdfunding software platform developer MobileCause has raised $15M in a Series B funding, according to the company. The funding came from growth equity firm Level Equity. As part of the funding, Levil Equity's Sarah Sommer has joined the company's board. MobileCause said the new funding will go towards "aggressive" product innovation and expansion in the US and internationally.
L.A. Business Journal
JANUARY 13, 2017
Another big L.A. player is diving into the digital world of e-sports, hoping to grab a piece of a market that is expected to grow to $1 billion as early as next year.
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.
SoCal Tech Calendar
JANUARY 13, 2017
Thursday, January 19, 2017 -- SplashX LA. On Thursday, January 19, SplashX LA will present local entrepreneurs, media, civic leaders and world-class investors representing more than $10M of capital under management at the cozy TechStyle Fashion Group HQ in El Segundo, CA SplashX is a short and sweet 3-hour twilight tech talk and mixer, where valuable lessons and inspirations are shared by influential leaders in innovation.
Xconomy
JANUARY 9, 2017
Millions of consumers who used to type their search questions on a laptop or the tiny keys of a smartphone are now simply telling a tabletop device what they want. Signs are that the Amazon Echo and Google Home—both equipped with smart voice assistants—will turn out to be blockbuster sellers of the holiday gift season of 2016. I think that’s a big deal.
Southern California Tech Central brings together the best content for technical professionals in Southern California from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
L.A. Business Journal
JANUARY 13, 2017
Sony Entertainment chief executive Michael Lynton, 57, will step down from his post to focus on his position as chairman of the board of Snap Inc., according to news reports from The New York Times, Deadline.com, and others.
SoCal Tech Calendar
JANUARY 12, 2017
Tuesday, January 17, 2017 -- SiliconBeach Professionals - JAN 19TH 2017 Mixer at Viceroy by Google. Silicon Beach is the epicenter for the Digital Elite and a hotbed for tech start ups. Most importantly it is taking place in our backyard. We are here to connect LA's brightest and most innovative young minds. See https://www.eventbrite.com/e/siliconbeach-professionals-jan-19th-2017-mixer-at-viceroy-by-google-tickets-30089376134.
Startup Professionals Musings
JANUARY 8, 2017
Starting and building a company is all about leadership – formulating an idea, building a unique plan based on vision and experience, and forging a path over and through all obstacles. Yet the image of leadership in business is at an all-time low, according to national leadership experts, considering the political debacles, record business bankruptcies, and executive fraud cases.
socalTECH
JANUARY 12, 2017
San Diego-based driver safety systems developer Lytx said this morning that natural and organic food distributor KeHe Distributors has been using its DriveCam video safety service. According to Lytx, KeHe is using its DriveCam video safety system to help its drivers stay engaged on driving, and has been since 2013, to cover its nearly 595 drivers and 489 vehicle fleet.
L.A. Business Journal
JANUARY 12, 2017
The flow of venture capital dollars invested into Los Angeles-area companies fell 16.3 percent from a high of $4.17 billion in 2015 to $3.49 billion last year, according to a report by Dow Jones Venture Source.
SoCal Tech Calendar
JANUARY 12, 2017
Wednesday, January 18, 2017 -- South Bay Monday Club. Email fredvmc@earthlink.net.
Xconomy
JANUARY 13, 2017
The holiday period is a great time for reflection and then behavior modification – often referred to as resolutions. While a bit artificial to the logical engineer, this opportunity can be helpful. This year, my favorite insight came from a former student and employee, Elliot Cohen, co-founder of PillPack. While thinking about the major aspirational goals for the upcoming year that motivate me to get out of bed every morning with high energy and purpose – such as getting my second book out
socalTECH
JANUARY 10, 2017
Los Angeles-based venture investment firm Moonshots Capital , which is led by Kelly Perdew, has seen a big exit via the acquisition of San Diego's Harvest.ai by Amazon Web Services. The deal, which has not yet been formally announced, was reportedly worth around $20M. Moonshots and fellow investors, including Trinity Ventures, had invested only $2.3M in Harvest.ai, which develops cybersecurity software aimed at data loss prevention.
L.A. Business Journal
JANUARY 13, 2017
Head of Sony Entertainment, Michael Lynton, steps down to become Snap chairman, Rubicon shares soar after rumor of a sale, RadPad acquired after rough 2016, and more.
Startup Professionals Musings
JANUARY 7, 2017
I’m sure we have all seen entrepreneurs with high levels of passion and confidence touting an idea that seems to make very little sense to us. Of course, we never see ourselves in this mode, yet we need to recognize that all humans see reality differently through a built-in set of “cognitive biases,” based on their own unique background of experiences, training, and mental state.
Xconomy
JANUARY 10, 2017
Venture capital firms didn’t exactly take their foot off the accelerator, but the pace of VC investments continued to weaken in the three months that ended in December, extending a slowdown that began in July, according to two venture reports issued today. The deceleration followed a strong start to venture activity during the first half of 2016, but was chalked up as a “return to normalization” in the Venture Monitor report released by Seattle-based PitchBook and the National Venture Capital As
socalTECH
JANUARY 9, 2017
San Diego-based MatriSys Bioscience , which is developing treatments for treating skin and dermatologic conditions, says it has raised $1.5M in a funding round from the Tech Coast Angels. The lead investor in the investment was Jeff Friedman, MD, Ph.D., who is head of the TCA's Life Sciences Committee. The company's technology is based on skin microbiome research developed at the University of San Diego, in the labs of Professor Richard Gallo.
L.A. Business Journal
JANUARY 13, 2017
Apartment listing service RadPad of Venice was bought by tenant-screening service LandlordStation of Dallas for an undisclosed amount, following a tough year that included layoffs and court battle with Craigslist.
Startup Professionals Musings
JANUARY 11, 2017
We have all had to work with annoying team members in business. If you are not their manager, it’s tempting to just walk away, tune them out, or react sharply, but these reactions are not appropriate for managers, and are equally ineffective for peers and team mates. Remember that annoying doesn’t mean non-productive – these may be top performers, with critical business skills.
Xconomy
JANUARY 11, 2017
Correlation Ventures, a co-investing venture firm that uses analytic software to optimize its decisions, said today it has raised $200 million for its oversubscribed second fund. The firm, which has offices in San Diego, Palo Alto, and New York, said it now has $366 million in assets under management. Investors in the fund include college endowment funds, pensions, funds of funds, and family offices, according to a statement from the firm.
socalTECH
JANUARY 9, 2017
Thousand Oaks-based Amgen announced this morning that it has made a $30M investment in a German company developing cancer immunotherapy, Immatics Biotechnologies GmbH. According to Amgen, the deal could potentially be worth over $1 billion in milestone payments plus royalties. Immatics Biotechnologies is developing cancer immunotherapies focused around target discovery and T-cell receptors, which the two said they are combining with Amgen's bispecific antibody platform, in order to create novel
L.A. Business Journal
JANUARY 13, 2017
Beverly Hills hopes to get on board with federal testing of autonomous vehicles
Startup Professionals Musings
JANUARY 9, 2017
The average business person fights a customer culture shift, rather than looking for it. For them, change means new risk and extra costs, but it also means new opportunity for growth. In fact, some of the best, including Steve Jobs, actually drove culture change rather than waiting for it to happen. What are the lessons that the rest of us need to learn to see and survive these shifts?
Xconomy
JANUARY 9, 2017
New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo is planning to use some of the cash from his recently announced $650 million biotech initiative on Manhattan’s biggest life sciences problem—lack of lab space. Cuomo will put $17 million in state funding towards a new biotech startup incubator that will be situated in the New York Genome Center in Lower Manhattan.
socalTECH
JANUARY 11, 2017
TP-Link , which develops wireless networking equipment, hardware for the smart home market, and more, said it has moved its headquarters to Brea, California. The company, which previously was based in San Dimas, said its new headquarters in Brea has more than 26,350 square feet, and will house more than 75 employees in sales, marketing, and product management.
L.A. Business Journal
JANUARY 9, 2017
Court approves British company’s bid for bankrupt Nasty Gal, SpaceX delays rocket launch one week, telemedicine platform SnapMD raises $3.25 Series A extension, and more.
Startup Professionals Musings
JANUARY 13, 2017
A good entrepreneur is not necessarily born a good salesman. In fact, they are often the opposite, more focused on building things rather than selling them. Yet, in today’s world of information overload, marketing and selling skills are critical to the success of every startup. The alternative “If we build it, they will come” approach has long been relegated to the field of dreams , after Kevin Costner’s movie by the same name.
Xconomy
JANUARY 11, 2017
GoFundMe, the Redwood City, CA-based fund-raising platform for charities and nonprofits, has acquired CrowdRise , a Detroit, MI-based rival founded by entrepreneurs Robert Wolfe and Jeffrey Wolfe, and Hollywood philanthropists Edward Norton and Shauna Robertson. Financial terms were not disclosed in a statement issued Tuesday by GoFundMe. Brad Damphousse and Andy Ballester founded GoFundMe in San Diego in 2010.
socalTECH
JANUARY 12, 2017
Correlation Ventures , a venture capital investment firm with offices in San Diego, Palo Alto, and New York City, said this week that it has raised $200M in a new investment fund. The company said the second fund was oversubscribed, and brings its total assets under management to $366M. Limited partners in the new fund included endowments, pensions, funds of funds and family offices, according to the firm.
L.A. Business Journal
JANUARY 11, 2017
SpaceX explains plans to land three boosters at once, inside LA 2024’s social media strategy for winning the Olympics, and Global Eagle fully rents out a satellite.
socalTECH
JANUARY 12, 2017
Chino, California-based J2 Innovations , a startup developing building automation and operating systems for connecting and controlling devices, is one of ten early stage companies that are joining a clean tech startup incubator run by Wells Fargo. Well Fargo said that J2 Innovations is one of ten startupss who are each receive up to $250,000 in cash, and in-kind technical assistance to advance their technologies, plus access to Well Fargo's real estate for beta tests.
socalTECH
JANUARY 12, 2017
Los Angeles-based venture capital investor Crosscut Ventures has reportedly started approaching limited partners (LPs) for investments in a new fund, its fourth. Crosscut's last fund, Crosscut Ventures 3, was worth $75M. The report, from the Pro Rata newsletter, said there's "a chance" that the new fund will be double in size of the last fund. Crosscut has not yet filed regulatory details on the new fund.
socalTECH
JANUARY 10, 2017
In a further boost to the growing e-sports industry, movie studio Lionsgate announced this morning that it has made an investment in the e-sports franchise Immortals. Size of the investment was not announced. Immortals is the team which is backed by such investors as Michael Milken, Steve Kaplan OakTree Capital, Memphis Grizzlies), Greg Milken, Allen DeBevoise, CrossCut Ventures, Clinton Foy, and many, many others.
socalTECH
JANUARY 9, 2017
Los Angeles-based SnapMD , which develops telemedicine software and technology, announced this morning that it has added $3.25M in a Series A financing extension. The company said the funding brings its total raised to $9.15M. The startup, led by President and CEO Dave Skibinski, said the new funds go to expand its sales and marketing efforts, and drive revenue through its channel partner programs.
socalTECH
JANUARY 13, 2017
San Diego-based renewable energy developer EDF Renewable Energy says that it recently put a 225 megawatt, wind farm--which is supplying electricity to Google--into operation. EDF Renewable Energy said the Great Western Wind Project , which is based near Woodward and Ellis counties in Oklahoma, went into commercial operations on December 21st. All of the power at that plant is going to Google, under a long term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for the output of the wind farm.
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