Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Nearly every successful tech startup I’ve observed over the past 20 years has gone through a similar growth pattern: Innovate, systematize then scale operations. Understanding how your company will change as you move through these phases is critical if you hope to scale to a large business one day.

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TechCrunch LA

JUNE 10, 2020

Team up with Black firms already doing the work. HBCUvc, which we first wrote about in 2017, currently holds a number of programs to help Black and Hispanic students enter the world of tech, from fellowships to micro-grants. Among the strategies? Joining the donor circle is the best way to get involved in HBCUvc.

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Equity Technical Review Venture Capital Blogging 220

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 12, 2018

seems like an unlikely place to grow one of the next billion-dollar startups in the booming Los Angeles tech ecosystem. But it’s here in the (other) Valley’s southernmost edge that investors have found a startup they consider to be the next potential billion-dollar “unicorn” that will come out of Los Angeles.

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Glendale Los Angeles Startup Technical Review 271

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 8, 2021

In a small industrial park located nearly halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, one company is claiming to have hit a milestone in the development of a new technology for generating power from nuclear fusion. Now, the company said, it has achieved the necessary temperatures to make its reactors commercially viable.

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Technology Artificial Inteligence Google Orange County 354

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 23, 2019

Less than a month after rebranding as Canoo , the startup electric vehicle company formerly known as Evelozcity is on the hunt for $200 million in new capital. The company, which will make its vehicles available through a subscription-based model, already has 400 employees and just announced new key hires along with its rebranding.

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Outsource Development Startup Outsource San Diego 191

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 21, 2020

The company sent an email to customers Tuesday that after examining the business, the car-sharing industry and COVID-19, it decided to shutter the service permanently. GM confirmed to TechCrunch that it has started to wind down Maven. The company confirmed that all operations should be concluded by later this summer.

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Los Angeles Technical Review Email Services 215

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

Fast forward to almost exactly one year later, and a lot has changed for the payments and software startup. Today, SpotOn said it has closed on $300 million in Series E financing that values the company at $3.15 SpotOn is paying $415 million in cash and stock for the Los Angeles-based company. Image Credits: SpotOn.

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Technical Review Software Review Invest Acquisition 296

Tech.Co

JANUARY 4, 2018

It doesn’t matter if you start a company in a coworking space, a dorm room or on your couch, the struggle to build a tech business in this day and age is real. For many founders, getting noticed by investors, potential customers, incubators and other companies, is a necessity to take your product to the next level.

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InfoChachkie

MARCH 2, 2019

Though she was the de facto leader of the company, America of the last century was not ready to accept a female led company. Thus, she agreed to name the startup after her husband and his friend Harold “Matt” Matson, resulting in the name Mattel. In 1955, the company’s net work was $500,000 ($4.6

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TechCrunch LA

MARCH 24, 2020

Polestar has started production of its all-electric Polestar 2 vehicle at a plant in China amid the COVID-19 pandemic that has upended the automotive industry and triggered a wave of factory closures throughout the world. COVID-19 has affected how Polestar and its parent company operate. Image Credits: Screenshot/Polestar.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 14, 2022

That challenge is a major business opportunity, as well as a risk, for startups. I know companies who collect sensitive data from consumers all the time, and still seem to keep a trusted image (Amazon.com, Ebay). There are others, like Norton LifeLock , acquired in 2017 by Symantec for $2.3 Don’t take shortcuts on these.

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Custom Customer Technical Review Symantec 137

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 15, 2021

Another travel startup that found itself scrambling to pivot as the COVID-19 pandemic took off is now announcing a huge round of funding after finding its feet and proving that it can grow, even under adverse circumstances. Los Angeles-based AvantStay has been around since 2017 and had only raised $25 million in the last four years.

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Platform Invest Los Angeles Funding 139

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 15, 2019

Skyler Lucci is co-founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based HeyTutor (www.heytutor.com), a startup which has created an online platform which connects and matches students with in-person tutors. The company recently raised a round of funding from Santa Barbara-based ScOps Venture Capital. What is HeyTutor? Here's the reason why.

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Startup Venture Capital Beverly Hills Acquisition 113

socalTECH

AUGUST 1, 2019

Rich Branning is the CEO and co-founder of Sweep (www.sweepcrew.com), a company that handles logistics, maintenance, and other heavy lifting required for on-demand scooter companies like Bird, Lime, and others. Rich Branning: We started Sweep in the Fall of 2017, when Travis first dropped scooters at the First Street Promenade.

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TechCrunch LA

JUNE 18, 2022

Things have already plunged so quickly at the signal of a recession that insiders fear a lengthy bear market could hit crypto far more brutally than expected — tearing tokens to lows far below the highs of the 2017 bull run. Without the promise of riches or with reduced interest in blockchain-based exclusivity, where will consumer demand go?

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Newsletter Platform Capital Marketing 278

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2017

His title “ The On-Demand Brand: 10 Rules for Digital Marketing Success in an Anytime, Everywhere World ” characterizes the challenge of demanding attention from a new generation of consumers who want what they want, when they want it, and where they want it. That’s giving up control, with some risk, to get control.

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Marketing Demand Startup Customer 82

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2017

In the old days, every entrepreneur dreamed of easily taking their startup public, and making it big. Today the rate of startups going public (IPO – Initial Public Offering) is up from the dead zone, but is still half the rate of 15 years ago. Startups going public are laid open to competitors and critics.

Startup 87

Startup Technical Review Report Entrepreneur 87

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2017

The canvas is a visual chart with elements describing your value proposition, structure, finances, and customers, to help companies identify and align business activities. Channels have to be identified through which a startup creates awareness, induces evaluation, enables purchase, and executes the delivery of the value proposition.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2017

This movement, coupled with free websites and apps, makes it possible for almost any technical person to start a business. This Maker Movement has now spread across the world, spawning hundreds of events and companies, including Maker Faires, Makerspaces, Hackerspaces, and Maker Film Fests.

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Ideas Outsource Development Startup Education 61

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 10, 2018

As a business advisor, one of the things I see most often as a drag to productivity and growth is employees who, despite their best efforts, can’t change things that they know are hurting the company. Yet every CEO I know believes that his team is motivated and empowered to make the business better for both customers and the company.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2017

So how did a company that provides storage grow so fast (we’ll exit 2017 with 10’s of millions in recurring revenue), why is it so defensible and is it really a tech startup? If you buy that Amazon is a tech startup then essentially you’ve already answered the question. We’ve been delighted with 8VC as a co-investor.

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Technical Review Funding Software Review Artificial Inteligence 268

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 10, 2017

It's a line from an old movie "Field of Dreams" which is still leading to the demise of too many startups, led by entrepreneurs who really started their business to build an exciting new product or service. Use demand generation services , as required, to build the relationship and nurture them into paying customers.

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Startup Sales Customer Custom 64

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 3, 2019

That challenge is a major business opportunity, as well as a risk, for startups. I know companies who collect sensitive data from consumers all the time, and still seem to keep a squeaky clean image (Amazon.com, Ebay). There are others, like LifeLock , acquired in 2017 by Symantec for $2.3 and this black eye won’t soon go away.

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Technical Review Symantec Social Network News 78

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2017

But then, this is an emotional need every single professes a demand for (not to mention the 40 percent of applicants who are already married). Before you step into this space with a first-time passion, you might want to check the list of over 200 companies already there. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 05/04/2017.

Ideas 87

Ideas Sites Social Network Startup 87

socalTECH

MARCH 2, 2016

We caught up with co-founder and CEO Vic Belonogoff to learn more about Render Media, whose flagship site is Opposing Views. Vic Belonogoff: We are a digital publishing company. He was a co-founder of Applied Semantics, which started the AdSense technology, which they sold to Google in 2003. Tell us about Render Media?

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Media Content News SEO 100

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 20, 2017

Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, once predicted, “When the rate of change outside the company is greater than the rate of change inside, the end is near.” Yet in my role as business advisor, I often see companies naively ignoring this reality. Shifting demographics changes customer needs and expectations.

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Demand Technical Review Pricing Customer 54

Xconomy

DECEMBER 28, 2017

ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest World Finals 2017. ICPC World Finals 2017, held in Rapid City. In 2017, it was in Rapid City, South Dakota. It was always sort of shocking to people, even on a national level, when they would hear [that Rapid City was hosting ICPC 2017],” Jensen said. Paducah, Kentucky.

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Coach Technical Review Carson Networking 75

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2017

In addition, today’s customers judge a company by perceived people relationships through social media, phone conversations, and sales experiences. As a business advisor and investor in new startups, I see how difficult it is to make any process work, no matter how well designed, if the team is dysfunctional.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 8, 2017

When starting his first company, he routinely stayed up until two in the morning reading about new software, and went seven years without a vacation. Even after many years running his company, retiring, and returning, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz still gets into the office by six in the morning and stays until seven PM.

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Startup Entrepreneur Satisfaction Writing 59

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2017

We all have to communicate and collaborate with other people at work, but most of us start out instinctively trying to maintain an emotional distance from others in the work environment. Yet the 2017 Office Romance Survey by Vault, Inc. Yet the 2017 Office Romance Survey by Vault, Inc. More vulnerable emotionally.

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Startup Course Competition Social Media 53

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2017

For example, you probably never knew that both Facebook and YouTube started out as dating-site experiments, but pivoted to something more unique when that experiment failed due to an apparently over-crowded market. He and I both believe that the key to high growth in any company is a learning culture, led from the highest executive levels.

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Coach Mentor Organization Entrepreneur 57

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 7, 2017

We are living in a new generation of business, where customers drive the experience, and highly engaged employees are required to keep up with customer expectations. We have all heard the examples of the great new company cultures, popularized by Google, Zappos, and Facebook, which seem to imply that company perks are the secret to success.

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Entrepreneur Customer Custom Coach 59

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 15, 2017

I’m always amazed that, in my role as a business advisor, bad customers somehow seem to gang up on certain businesses. These authors are experts on customer service and customer experience, having helped hundreds of companies of all sizes. Being unreasonably demanding of others. Or is it the other way around?

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Customer Custom Demand Pricing 89

Tech.Co

APRIL 11, 2018

Areas such as Oakland and San Francisco saw rent increases as high as 40 percent between 2015 and 2017. Plenty of workers have had enough: In the final quarter of 2017, according to real estate company Redfin , more residents left San Francisco than any other major U.S. cities in the final quarter of 2017, with 10.4

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Tech.Co

APRIL 7, 2020

While most companies are able to continue operating with employees remote working, what about those businesses where the office itself is the revenue model? One such business is LABS, a shared office space company that has eight locations in London, plus one in Tel Aviv. LABS Community Approach. LABS (@LABS_Worldwide) April 7, 2020.

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Newsletter News Geni Email 153

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 8, 2016

The reasons companies elect to sell exclusively offline differ, but they often center on managing channel conflict with their retail partners. Founded in 2011, Z Supply, LLC has created five women’s fashion brands with a sixth brand and extension into Men’s, launching Spring 2017.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 5, 2017

I can assure you that percentages of foreign companies looking here is even higher. It’s more than competing with giants like Amazon and Alibaba, your business in downtown mid-America can easily be crushed by a similar company on the Internet in Europe. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 03/21/2017.

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