Berkonomics
NOVEMBER 12, 2015
This one is attributed to Rod Adair, the famous oil and gas fire suppressing expert. And boy, does it apply to most of us and our offerings. “Quality” products and services should not be positioned as “cheap,” or your potential customers will question your message from the start, and will be more critical of the delivered product than if offered as one or the other, but not both.
InfoChachkie
NOVEMBER 9, 2015
A version of this article previously appeared on the Wall Street Journal. As crazy as it sounds, surfing has made me a better investor. The sport involves a surprising amount of downtime between sets. During the many hours I have stood in anticipation of the next wave (as noted in You’re Never To Old To Learn To Surf , I’m an old guy on a standup paddle board), I have come to realize that surfing and investing share a number of surprising corollaries.
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socalTECH
NOVEMBER 13, 2015
Culver City-based video game publisher Scopely was ranked number two in the nation in the latest Deloitte Fast 500 ranking, as one of two Southern California companies among the top ten in the nation for growth. The rankings--which ranked companies by percentage revenue growth between 2011 and 2014--put Scopely's revenue growth at 19,569 percent in that period, making it number two in the nation for revenue growth.
Tech.Co
NOVEMBER 12, 2015
When Los Angeles, CA was listed as the fastest-growing tech startup region in 2014, many guesses were raised about the root cause of its success. Could it be the large number of new companies? Is it the culture or community atmosphere? But trying to boil it down to a single trait minimizes its impact. No, to see the strength of Los Angeles’ startup scene, you must look at the whole story.
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
NOVEMBER 8, 2015
Many new entrepreneurs are so excited by their latest idea that they can’t resist contacting every investor they know, assuming the investor will be equally excited and want to contribute immediately. Others will work hard on a business plan, and then mail it indiscriminately to every potential investor they can find on the Internet. Both of these approaches are a waste of your time and theirs.
Tech Zulu Event
NOVEMBER 10, 2015
TZ #TechCrawl is back this month and heading to Santa Monica as part of LA Startup Week ! Come take a tour of some of the hottest LA Tech companies located in Santa Monica! Starting Point. Swing by Expert Dojo to pickup your name tags. The first wave of crawlers will begin promptly at 6pm. Walking Diretions here: [link]. Powered by Bizzabo. Why not stop by for a quick beer, game, snack or just say hi at one of the many Silicon Beach tech companies from 6pm to 10:00pm?
Southern California Tech Central brings together the best content for technical professionals in Southern California from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 10, 2015
A report Tuesday in the Financial Times said that investment giant Fidelity has written its investment in Los Angeles-based Snapchat by 25 percent, citing data from a Morningstar report. Snapchat--arguably, the most visible "unicorn" startup in Southern California--had been valued at $15 billion in its last fundraising round. It's unclear why Fidelity wrote down the value of its investment in the disappearing messaging service.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 9, 2015
A new, Carpinteria-based startup, Click2Jet announced late Friday that it has launched a brand new, online marketplace to help users book private jet charters. According to Click2Jet, it is offering up an online service which helps uses with real time search and booking for jet charters, starting with Los Angeles and San Francisco. The new startup is led by John Andruilli, Jr., and says it has relationships with charter jet operators Clay Lacy Aviation, Dreamline Aviation, Sun Air Jets, Global E
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 11, 2015
It was an unusual sight at Dodger's Stadium on Tuesday evening, at least for baseball fans, as a different Dodger's team took the field: the first class of the LA Dodgers Accelerator , an effort by the team to help incubate and accelerate startups in the sports and sport-related areas. The event transformed Dodger's Stadium into a place for not baseball pitches, but startup pitches, with ten different companies pitching their companies to a large audience of investors and others in the technolog
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 9, 2015
A new study, published by researchers at the University of Southern California , says that positive emotions are more contagious than negative ones on Twitter. The study--which came out of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering's Information Sciences Institute--correlated the tweets spread by users with the prior positive or negative tweets, based on what had appeared in those same users' stream the prior hour.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 10, 2015
Sean Percival , who was once among Silicon Beach's most visible startup entrepreneurs and activists, is taking his experience starting companies in Southern California to Norway--as the head of a new, seed stage venture fund. 500 Startups said today that it is raising a $15M, seed stage fund for Norway, covering Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Oslo, which will be headed by Percival, who ran technology gossip site Lalawag, and also had served at Docstoc, Tsavo Media, Wittlebee, Science Inc., Mahalo, a
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 9, 2015
In what was one of the neatest pieces of technology shown at last month's Disney Accelerator in Burbank, an artificial intelligence startup, Imperson (www.imperson.com), showed how it is working on an effort to bring Miss Piggy to life on social media � making it possible for you and I to have a real, life, back and forth conversation with Miss Piggy and other characters.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 13, 2015
If you're a mobile app developer, who do you keep your users engaged and returning to use your app every day? One technique has been creating real life, loyalty and rewards to users for their activity. Culver City-based Lootsie (www.lootsie.com) has createe a product which ties together those loyalty reward programs with the advertising and marketing efforts of brands, to help both those mobile developers and marketers.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 11, 2015
Santa Monica-based VideoAmp , which says it is developing a "screen optimization platform" aimed at the TV and video ecosystem, said today that it has raised $15M in a Series A funding round. The funding was led by European investor RTL Group, and also included Anthem Venture Partners, Simon Equity Partners, Third Wave Capital, Wavemaker Partners, ZenShin Capital, and Startup Capital Ventures.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 10, 2015
Amazon.com said this morning that it has just launched restaurant delivery using its Prime Now app in Los Angeles, in select LA zip codes. Amazon said that the new service makes Los Angeles its third and largest city where it is offering up its restaurant delivery. The company said that right now, it is offering up delivery in Santa Monica, West Los Angeles and Venice, with additional neighborhoods including Culver City, downtown, and Hollywood coming online soon.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 10, 2015
Irvine-based cloud-storage provider Zadara Storage reports this morning that it has been selected by a German electricity and gas company, RWE, as a customer. According to Zadara, its Virtual Private Storage Array (VPSA) products have been selected by RWE to replace an existing, EMC installation, to support SAP and a number of other applications. Financial impact of the win was not announced.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 13, 2015
Playa Vista-based BEZALEL , one of the companies to emerge out of the USC Viterbi Startup Garage, said this week that it has launched a new, Kickstarter campaign to fund production of its universal, wireless charging case for the iPhone. According to Bezalel, its case allows the iPhone to be charged using Qi and PMA wireless charging stations, the types of wireless chargers being deployed at Starbucks, Delta Airlines, McDonald's and in Toyota and GM cars.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 9, 2015
Faraday Future , a mysterious, electric car company based in Gardena, uncloaked last week, saying it will spend $1 billion on creating a new, U.S. manufacturing facility to build electric vehicles aimed at rivaling Tesla Motors. The startup says it is looking at California, Georgia, Louisiana and Nevada for the location of its factory. The mysterious company apparently is backed by a Chinese billionaire , already has more than 400 employees, and has not revealed any details on its vehicles.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 9, 2015
Los Angeles-based 3D movie technology provider RealD announced this morning that it has agreed to be acquired by private equity investor Rizvi Traverse Management , in a deal worth approximately $551M. According to the two, Rizvi Traverse will pay $11.00 per share in cash for RealD, taking the company private. RealD said its board, over the past year, has been in a "comprehensive review of strategic alternatives" for the company.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 12, 2015
Santa Monica-based Panjo , which operates an online marketplace for automotive and sport enthusiasts, said this morning that it has raised $4.6M in a Series A funding round. The funding came from Spark Capital, along with The New York Times Company, Fabrice Grinda, Lerer Ventures, BDMI, BEENOS Partners, Mucker Capital and Mesa. Panjo was founded by Chad Billmyer, Juan Vasconez, and Tom Gerken.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 9, 2015
San Diego-based venture investor Avalon Ventures , along with biopharmaceuticals firm GSK said this morning that the two companies are spinning out a new company, Iron Horse Therapeutics , backed by $10M in funding. According to the two, the new company will focus on treatments for amyotropic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The companies said that Iron Horse will also receive R&D support from Avalon and GSK (GlaxoSmithKline), as well as R&D and mentoring support from COI Pharmaceuticals.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 12, 2015
Los Angeles-based TeleSign , the provider of phone verification and mobile identity technology led by Steve Jillings, said Wednesday that it has partnered with Swisscom, the Switzerland-based telecom provider. According to the two, they will link to develop and deliver new identity services, to help improve online account security, verify financial and e-commerce transactions, and prevent fraud.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 12, 2015
Laguna Beach-based NextVR announced this morning that it has raised $30.5M in a Series A funding, to help extend its virtual reality broadcasting technology. The funding was led by Formation 8, and also included Time Warner Investments, Comcast Ventures, Peter Guber, RSE Ventures, The Madison Square Garden Company, and Dick Clark Productions. Brian Koo of Formation 8 will join the company's board with the funding, with Time Warner Investments' Scott Levine joining as an observer.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 13, 2015
San Diego-based treasury management software developer Kyriba has opened up a new office in Amsterdam, to help serve the Benelux and Northern European region, the company said late Thursday evening. According to Kyriba, the office is the company's tenth. Kyriba said its newest customer in the region is security software company AVG Technologies N.V.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 13, 2015
Los Angeles-based Tumbleweed , a new startup founded by Shaun Neff and Cisco Adler, said Thursday that it has launched a brand new news app, specifically aimed at Milllennials. The new app, which is available on iTunes , condenses breaking news into a bite sized image with text and stickers, which can be shared and edited by users. The company said it is looking to "crack the Millenial news code" to get the younger generation interested and talking about news.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 13, 2015
Irvine-based Alphaeon , a developer of healthcare and beauty products, has raised a Series B funding round from Sailing Capital, H&S Ventures LLC, Longitude Capital and Chow Tai Fook Enterprises. Size of the funding was not announced by the company in its announcement, however, the amount was placed at $70M by Fortune. Alphaeon is led by James Lui.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 12, 2015
Camarillo-based analog and mixed signal semiconductor maker Semtech Corporation reports this morning that it has deployed its LoRA RF networking technology in Belgium and Luxembourg. Semtech said its LoRA network is being used for an Internet-of-Things network in the two countries, by Proximus, a large telecom operator. Financial impact of the win was not disclosed.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 11, 2015
Santa Monica-based Activision has released the results of the launch of its latest Call of Duty title, Call of Duty: Black Ops III , last weekend, saying that the title saw $550 million in sales worldwide. Activision bragged that the launch was the biggest entertainment launch of 2015, overtaking even theatrical box office, music and book launches. In terms of Call of Duty launches, however, the sales were significantly less than the $1 billion it racked up in 2013 on day one for its last, big C
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 11, 2015
Irvine-based Broadcom said late Tuesday afternoon that its shareholders have approved the acquisition of the company by Avago Technologies Limited. Broadcom said the deal still needs antitrust. and other regulatory approvals in certain jurisdictions and other customary closing conditions. Avago said it would pay $37 billion to acquire Broadcom in May of this year, in a combination of cash and stock.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 11, 2015
San Diego-based Amplyx Pharmaceuticals announced this morning that it has raised $40.5M in a Series B funding round. The company, which is developing treatments for fungal infections, said the funding was led by RiverVest Venture Partners, and also included New Enterprise Associates, BioMed Ventures and individuals. Apmlyx has compounds in both Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 10, 2015
In the second, on-demand marketplace aimed at private jet travel to launch in the last few days, Los Angeles-based VolJet says it has launched a new marketplace, to help consumers book private jet travel. The startup, led by Susan Sloan, said it has created an online system which combines both private jet and commercial airline travel, aimed at luxury air travelers.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 10, 2015
Irvine-based industrial printing hardware manufacturer Printronix has agreed to sell of its Thermal/AIDC business line to TSC Auto ID Technology Co., Ltd. , the company said Monday. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. According to Printronix, TSC will acquire all intellectual and branding rights to Printronix' Industrial Thermal stationary and mobile printers, barcode verification, RFID, and PrintCart product lines, in a company that will be called Printronix Auto-ID Inc.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 10, 2015
Playa Vista-based electronics accessory maker Belkin said this morning that it is launching a new line of in-car chargers, specifically aimed at high end, luxury cars. Belkin said its new Car Power Valet and Dual Car Power Valet chargers work on the iPhone, iPod, and iPad, and adjusts the amount of power needed using an embedded chip for those different devices.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 10, 2015
Aliso Viejo-based Microsemi reports this morning that the board of directors of PMC-Sierra has acknowledged the company's cash and stock offer for PMC is a "superior proposal", and is now looking at Skyworks Solution for a counter offer. Microsemi has offered up $9.04 in cash and 0.0771 of its common stock for eah share of PMC. Skyworks prior offer was $10.50 per share, all in cash for PMC.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 10, 2015
Lake Forest-based ReVision Optics , which is developing vision-correcting, corneal inlays, said it has reached a milestone in its efforts to win FDA approval. According to ReVision, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted and deemed fileable the company's premarket approval (PMA) submission for its Raindrop Near Vision Inlay, which is aimed at correctig presbyopia.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 9, 2015
Match Group , the parent company of Tinder , said this morning in a regulatory filing that it expects its IPO at between $12.00 and $14.00 per share. The company is looking to list on the NASDAQ Global Select Market as MTCH. Match Group, which is based in Dallas, Texas, is a unit of IAC, and not only runs Tinder, but also Match, OkCupid, PlentyOfFish, Meetic, Twoo, OurTime and FriendScout24.
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