Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

I’ve become fond of saying “if I had a dollar for every person who told me just how much they loooooved Kara Nortman, I’d have a 10x fund.” Kara said “no” because she wanted to start her own company, which she did and I backed. Leadership is about recognizing your next generation of talent and helping lift them up. I’m only 52!

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socalTECH

DECEMBER 22, 2015

Wolpert is also a longtime angel investor in Southern California's technology industry, helping to run technology accelerator Amplify, investing in countless startups, working with Accel Partners, and having been Chief Strategy Officer of RealNetworks, President of Disney Online, among other positions.

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Southern California SoCalTech News Technology 100

TechCrunch LA

JULY 29, 2020

After raising $15 million in financing from one of technology’s most successful global investment firms, the Los Angeles-based consumer goods rental company Joymode is selling itself to an early-stage retail investment firm out of New York, XRC Labs. “From day one, my belief was Joymode was going to be huge or dead.

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socalTECH

DECEMBER 22, 2015

Wolpert is also a longtime angel investor in Southern California's technology industry, helping to run technology accelerator Amplify, investing in countless startups, working with Accel Partners, and having been Chief Strategy Officer of RealNetworks, President of Disney Online, among other positions.

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Southern California SoCalTech News Technology 100

TechCrunch LA

JULY 29, 2020

” That’s the way Nick Desai, the co-founder and chief executive of the Los Angeles-based startup Heal describes the future of traditional healthcare delivery. To date, the company has linked patients with over 200,000 home visits from doctors since its launch in 2015. “The doctor’s office is dead.”

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socalTECH

JANUARY 19, 2016

San Diego-based life sciences maker Illumina has participated in another investment round for San Francisco-based DNA synthesis startup Twist Bioscience , in a new Series D funding for that company. Nick and Joby Pritzker (via Tao Invest), Paladin Capital Group, Yuri Milner, Boris Nikolic, plus others. READ MORE>>.

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TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 3, 2021

Grocery delivery startup Good Eggs is announcing that it has raised $100 million in new funding, and that it’s planning to launch in Southern California in either the summer or fall of this year. And it sounds like he isn’t in a rush to launch in a bunch of new markets. ” Good Eggs CEO Bentley Hall.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2015

Even if you work every day in the world of new-venture funding, as I do, the options are confusing, and their meanings seem to change on a regular basis. Crowdfunding is rapidly becoming the major source of funding for seed-stage startups. Business accelerator funding. Startup incubator seed funding.

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socalTECH

DECEMBER 6, 2017

Los Angeles-based venture investment firm CrossCut Ventures (www.crosscut.vc) announced this morning that it has raised its fourth fund, CrossCut 4 , a brand new, $125M early stage investment fund. We spoke with one of the firm's four Managing Directors, Clinton Foy , about the big new fund and its investments.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Let me start with the news that I’m excited to share with you. Investment experience (5 years a VC at Battery Ventures). Startup CEO experience (Founded P.S. Startup CEO experience (Founded P.S. XO along with my good friend Soleil Moon Frye. billion IPO), Envestnet (Chicago, $1.25

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Venture Capital Startup Outsource Development CitySearch 408

socalTECH

AUGUST 7, 2014

Los Angeles has been in the midst of a technology boom over the last few years, with many of high profile startups growing in the area. We spoke with Bryce Maddock , founder of TaskUs, about the company and how it has been providing the manpower behind a lot of LA''s technology startups. So, what is TaskUs?

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TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 5, 2020

Today, one of the companies that is supplying produce and other items both to consumers and other services that are in turn selling food and groceries to them, is announcing a new round of funding as it gears up to take its next step, an IPO. Source tell us it is now between $400 million and $500 million.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2016

We use this try to draw some context that informs our funding decisions. Of course we fund companies in good markets and bad. In venture our goal is to fund companies over a 10-year+ time horizon, which is the time it takes to build truly transformational companies. VC survey data 2016 from Mark Suster.

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socalTECH

MAY 25, 2016

Santa Monica-based March Capital Partners (www.marchcp.com) has just announced a brand new, $240M venture investment fund, led by longtime venture investing veterans Jim Armstrong, Sumant Mandal, Gregory Milken and Jamie Montgomery. What is the investment focus for this fund?

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Southern California Capital Funding Invest 113

socalTECH

APRIL 14, 2016

Southern California startups raised $810.5M billion raised in Q4, and even lower than Q1 of 2015, when $2.01 billion raised in Q4, and even lower than Q1 of 2015, when $2.01 in funds invested, across 47 deals; Orange County had $158M invested across 15 deals; and San Diego had $253.5M was invested.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 6, 2023

With the advent and growth of crowdfunding over the past few years, many entrepreneurs have predicted the demise of angel investment groups and venture capital organizations. Way back in 2015, the Kickstarter Pebble smartwatch raised $20.3 Have you ever wondered what professional startup investors think about all this?

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 4, 2016

.” There are a lot of data points that one can observer to get a sense of the venture capital markets – both LP fundings into venture and VC financings of startups. They point to some widely known facts: financings & valuations are up massively over the past 7 years and non-VC money has entered the system.

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Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

VC funding. We love capital efficiency until we love land grabs until we abhor over funding until we get huge payouts and ring the bell for more funding until we attract every non-VC on the planet to invest in startups until it crashes and we start the cycle all over again none the wiser. Same as I felt.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

With the advent and growth of crowdfunding over the past few years, many entrepreneurs have predicted the demise of those demanding angel investment groups and venture capital organizations. Way back in 2015, the Kickstarter Pebble smartwatch raised $20.3 Have you ever wondered what professional startup investors think about all this?

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Equity Statistics Platform Entrepreneur 164

Xconomy

JANUARY 24, 2018

Katerra , a building construction startup inspired by the efficient practices of electronics manufacturing, announced today it has raised $865 million in a Series D fundraising round led by the SoftBank Vision Fund. The company was co-founded in 2015 by Michael Marks, the former CEO of contract electronics manufacturer Flextronics.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2015

Angel investors and venture capitalists are looking for startups with real products and a proven business model, ready to scale. If you need funding for these early stage activities, I have some suggestions on better strategies to follow. It’s still considered high risk for investment, since manufacturing and quality issues are likely.

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TechCrunch LA

JANUARY 29, 2020

Kleiner Perkins , one of the most storied franchises in venture capital, has already invested much of the $600 million it raised last year and is now going back out to the market to raise its 19th fund, according to multiple sources. Kleiner Perkins gets back to early-stage with its $600M 18th fund. We went out to market to LPs.

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socalTECH

OCTOBER 15, 2014

San Diego-based Qualcomm said this morning that it has launched a new, San Diego startup accelerator, which is being powered by Techstars. Qualcomm said it will invest a total of $1M in funding to support program participants, and will initially select 10 companies to participate in the program. READ MORE>>.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2015

As a startup advisor, when I suggest cooperating with competitors, most entrepreneurs initially think I'm crazy or suggesting something illegal. And growth is the lifeblood of every startup. And growth is the lifeblood of every startup. Coopetition relationships lead to positive investments and buy outs.

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socalTECH

AUGUST 29, 2016

Los Angeles-based startup studio Science Inc. has backed a startup, Plows & Mowz offering up an on-demand marketplace for snow plowing and lawn care. in a funding round, which came from Science plus undisclosed angels. The investment is the first one announced since the successful acquisition of Science Inc.

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Dollar Shave Club Demand Los Angeles Acquisition 100

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2015

We recently released the video sharing app Ferris and announced that Upfront Ventures led the funding in the company in our seed round of $2 million and I personally joined the board. So Why Did We Invest? Second, videos that we do share end up in fragments across Facebook, Instagram, cloud services, email or text messages.

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Tech.Co

NOVEMBER 29, 2017

Mega startup campuses, the latest trend in coworking, are spreading their wings in Europe. As the founding head of Campus London , Google’s first physical hub for startups and now home to over 80,000 registered members, I thought it would be interesting to share the latest developments in this space from my perspective.

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Xconomy

MAY 8, 2017

Austin —Dell Technologies is publicly unveiling a venture capital investment arm that has been quietly investing in startups since the operation was run by EMC, the data storage giant that Dell agreed to acquire for $67 billion in 2015. Read more » Reprints | Share: UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS.

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Venture Capital Capital Technology News 77

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

But many have no insight or connections to the ethereal angel investment community, which actually funds more startups then all other venture sources combined (over $25 billion annually). By definition, angels are accredited investors, who invest their own money for a percentage of the business.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2015

Entrepreneurs often ask me why investors expect financial projections for a new startup even before the product is built and while the market is still being defined. You shouldn’t invest in an undefined business. I recently saw a startup projecting $50 million in revenue for the first year.

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Tech.Co

APRIL 24, 2018

But if you’re a startup founder, you too have the chance to find your own moment in the spotlight. Over the past decade, startups that have been part of the Startup of the Year programs have made new partnerships, grown into household names, and collectively raised billions of dollars in funding.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 24, 2015

As the number of sites on the Internet floats around one billion, the challenge with every new startup is to be found and stand out. In this age of relationships, you, the entrepreneur, are a very important element of your new brand, and it’s never too early to start marketing the value of your expertise, insights and ideas.

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Blogging Startup Search Engine Optimization Social Media 110

Xconomy

JANUARY 12, 2018

Drone startup SkySpecs announced this week that it has raised an $8 million Series B funding round. A lot has happened since we last caught up with Danny Ellis , SkySpec’s co-founder and CEO, in 2015. A lot has happened since we last caught up with Danny Ellis , SkySpec’s co-founder and CEO, in 2015.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

My good friend Adam Lilling and I started Launchpad more than 5 years ago . I had witnessed a number of early-stage tech startups in LA raise seed capital from the Bay Area and relocate. By 2011 the market had started to change dramatically. Adam had a full time startup and then was doing consulting (he later raised a VC fund).

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socalTECH

JANUARY 13, 2017

Venture capital investment dollars declined in Q4, to $12.7 billion invested across 1,736 companies, according to the new Pitchbook-NVCA Venture Monitor , the new report tracking venture capital investment across the U.S., as the venture market eased off its torrid funding pace. READ MORE>>.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 7, 2015

One of the big questions that every entrepreneur struggles with is how much funding they should request from investors in the first round. If you have a good idea, but haven’t started yet, only friends, family and fools will likely be interested. Can you justify your use of funds to this investor?

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

At the Upfront Summit in early February, we had a chance to have many off-the-record conversations with Limited Partners (LPs) who fund Venture Capital (VC) funds about their views of the market. However, they have been sending VCs far more investment checks in the last ten years than they’ve gotten back as distributions.

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