TechCrunch LA

APRIL 27, 2021

Clio , a software company that helps law practices run more efficiently with its cloud-based technology, announced Tuesday it has raised a $110 million Series E round co-led by T. Historically, legal practice management software was limited to server-based solutions designed for enterprise businesses — not small law firms, Newton said.

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Platform Equity SaaS Los Angeles 244

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

Fast forward to almost exactly one year later, and a lot has changed for the payments and software startup. Since its 2017 inception, SpotOn has been focused on providing software and payments technology to SMBs with an emphasis on restaurants and retail businesses.

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Technical Review Software Review Invest Acquisition 296

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 9, 2019

I fund startups for a living and before that I ran two software startups that I founded. We see companies that do large acquisitions and have to figure out how to consolidate companies and staff. I’ve spent countless hours looking at historical finances, budgets, forecasts and future projections.

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Product Software Review Technical Review Startup 214

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

When people talk about “online food delivery” services, chances are that they’ll think of the Uber Eats, Instacarts and Getirs of this world. “We are still the first mover in this space,” Xu said when I asked him in an interview about rivals. It is currently is the company’s biggest customer.).

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Startup Platform Software Los Angeles 249

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

However, savvy startups can leverage LinkedIn to create a customer acquisition and a churn reduction tool. Not knowing about a paper they have published, a talk they have given, or a job change they’ve made is just laziness. However, in some cases, especially with its larger customers, the company displaces a competitor.

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Custom Customer Software Review Technical Review 100

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 25, 2015

I have written about the deceiving nature of early successes before – in particular in the SaaS or B2B world leading to a phenomenon called “shelfware.” This is why I loved Brad Feld’s recent post about the “ illusion of product / market fit.” Success for many is ephemeral.

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Product Startup Metrics Technical Review 150

socalTECH

OCTOBER 2, 2012

We thought it might be interesting to talk with one of the fund's managing directors, Jeb Spencer about the fund's success in technology investments, plus how it managed to raise another fund in this kind of environment, plus its unique goal of getting companies to an acquisition--and not an IPO.

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Acquisition Software Review Technical Review Equity 168

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

It seems Los Angeles is becoming an enterprise software hotspot. LA saw its first big enterprise exit in recent memory with the recent acquisition of Signal Sciences for $775 million, and less than a month later a hometown startup, Britive has raised $5.4

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Los Angeles Chief Technology Officer Culver City Angel 308

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

After operating in stealth mode for about two years, First Resonance , a company founded by former SpaceX engineers, is finally showing the world their software toolkit designed to let manufacturers make things using the processes employed by their former boss.

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SpaceX Tool Los Angeles Design 248

socalTECH

MAY 8, 2014

Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. Lettuce said it will continue to offer up its products to customers, and will provide more about the company''s "joint vision" and new product development efforts with Intuit after the transaction closes. Some reports are pegging the acquisition at around $30M.

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Acquisition Los Angeles Report Software 178

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2020

Every aspiring entrepreneur I know is talking about the fact that there are over 2,000 billionaires in the world today, and how their innovative idea could make them one of the next ones. I suggest looking for painful problems to solve, rather than “easier to use” or “nice to have” solutions, for customers with money.

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Outsource Development Social Media Software Review Custom 154

TechCrunch LA

JULY 23, 2019

On Tuesday, Haptik announced it has acqui-hired Convrg, a Los Angeles-based startup that develops chatbots, to serve customers in North America. Many players including Coca Cola, Oyo, Samsung, Tata Group, and KFC use Haptik’s chatbots in their customer support services. 60% of all software is bought in the U.S.,

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Los Angeles Angel Startup Google 209

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Saturday, February 17, 2007 About this Blog Ive been thinking about doing a blog with my thoughts on technology and whats happening in the Los Angeles area technology scene for a while, but it was Ben Kuos recent start of a blog that inspired me to actually go ahead and do it. Thanks Ben.

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Blogging CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire 150

socalTECH

JULY 15, 2015

A few weeks ago, Los Angeles-based enterprise expense reporting software maker Chrome River (www.chromeriver.com) took a significant venture funding round--worth $100M--to help expand the company's growth in the enterprise software market. What does Chrome River's software do? Dave Terry: We've been very fortune.

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Software Report Startup IBM 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2022

As a startup, you need to use your limited resources to excel at a few core things for your best customers, in order to stand out and get the momentum going. He talks in detail about ten of the key challenges that Facebook faced in their growth, to move from a tiny social media upstart to one of the most successful companies in the world.

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Startup Social Media Metrics Custom 144

Berkonomics

JUNE 4, 2015

When I hear a company pitch a business model which I believe has the potential to acquire a customer once, and keep the customer paying for a multi-year period without further marketing expense, my ears perk up. Typical examples are software as a service (SaaS) models, or any kind of content-driven subscription model.

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Acquisition Custom Customer SaaS 120

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

emerge and are there any lessons to be gained about the future? Listening to young people talk about social networking as a new phenomenon is a bit like hearing people talk about a remake of a famous song from my youth as though it was the original version. At it’s peak AOL had about 27 million US subscribers.

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Social Network Networking Web 2.0 Startup 318

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 5, 2020

When people talk today about buying food, alongside traditional grocery stores and other physical food markets, they increasingly talk about grocery delivery companies, restaurant delivery platforms, meal kit services and more that make or provide food to people by way of apps. ” I don’t doubt that he means it.

Technical Review 343

Technical Review Startup Marketing San Diego 343

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

There has been a lot of public debate over the past several weeks about whether it’s a good thing to be “gross margin positive” or not and commentary always reminds me that some people at startups don’t quite understand financial metrics or even how to think about which ones are healthy. Customer acquisition cost.

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Metrics Startup SaaS Course 150

Tech.Co

MAY 6, 2022

Now, it's dramatically expanding capacity in another area, fulfillment, with the acquisition of Deliverr. It's the biggest acquisition in Shopify's history. The two companies are a great match, according to Shopify's press release about the deal. Shopify is paying $2.1 Why Shopify Wants Deliverr. Sign up to the Tech.co

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Networking Press Newsletter Startup 123

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2021

For example, I once worked for a small software company selling a sophisticated enterprise workflow solution. All this was done without damaging anyone’s credibility, or stealing customers. It’s very unusual for two competitors to have exactly the same strengths – in development, marketing, distribution, or customer support.

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Startup Outsource Development Examples Custom 173

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 2, 2009

As noted in Pour and Stir Part I , the key to the successful execution of this strategy is managing the following equation: The cost to acquire a customer < lifetime value of a customer. Decreasing Your Customer Acquisition Costs. Unattributed – There is no such thing as organic customers.

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Custom Customer Advertising SEM 164

socalTECH

JANUARY 23, 2020

For our interview today, we talked with Eric Friedrichsen , the CEO of Emburse , a developer of expense management and accounts payable software which has major operations in Los Angeles. For those who haven't heard of Emburse, talk about what you do? We are focused on giving employees all of their time back.

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Platform Report Los Angeles Technology 124

socalTECH

OCTOBER 31, 2012

For ThinkNear , it looks like the whole process paid off in less than two years, after the Los Angeles company went from the TechStars accelerator just last June, to a healthy acquisition by TeleNav earlier this month for $22.5M. Congrats on the acquisition! How did the acquisition come about?

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Startup Acquisition Doc Ideas 225

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

I did a presentation this week at Coloft that looked at how Non-Technical Founders can go about getting their MVP built. Purpose of an MVP and Defining the Right MVP I've really not talked as much about this in my blog even though its hugely important. The second bullet, getting feedback from customers is most often not valid either.

Technical Review 338

Technical Review CTO Hire CTO Coach Software Review 338

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

There is excitement about the possibilities of real change and an infectious “naive optimism” about how everything is possible. There is nothing more pure than building a product, putting it out in the world and seeing paying customers using your product and in some cases loving it. How profitable is my product or service?

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Custom Customer 286

Steve Reich

JUNE 11, 2012

This is not an article about the high moral purpose and the nobility of listening to your customers. It is an article about how to make your company worth a fortune by listening to your customers. They obsess about having the best search out there. It gives the best customer experience of any phone.

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Custom Customer Software Review SaaS 97

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 15, 2019

We caught up with Skyler to hear about HeyTutor, which already has 25 employees and is growing rapidly. HeyTutor is about connecting people hyper-locally. Now we're in over 100 cities and have over 10,000 clients, 10,000 tutors, and a platform which is working very efficiently, and gives the customer what they want.

Startup 113

Startup Venture Capital Beverly Hills Acquisition 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2020

Bill was relentless in his focus on getting the software PC DOS project delivered, while continually challenging us with new business models. Let me be a bit more specific on how follow-up trumps ideas for success in the key challenges of a startup, or any small business: Networking with investors, partners, and customers.

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Ideas Entrepreneur Startup IBM 122

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

and the subsequent acquisition sprees of companies like Google, Yahoo!, It has also brought about my favorite new term – Ramen Profitable. So, definition: when I talk about a business plan I’m not talking about a 40-page Word document outlining your market approach. portfolios. Going to charge less?

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Web 2.0 Venture Capital Web Technical Review 334

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 1, 2013

We spoke with CEO and founder Jack Bicer --just back from DEMO--to learn more about the app and why he thinks the company has the solution to e-commerce shopping cart abandonment. Explain what your service/app is all about? About 12 percent of those shopping carts are abandoned because they''re too complex or it takes too long.

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Startup Symantec Commerce Software 214

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 1, 2010

San Diego-based Active Network said this week that it has signed the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) and Saint Paul Parks and Recreation, the two largest parks and recreation organizations in Minnesota, as a customer. According to Active, the two organizations are using its software to manage and automate their daily operations.

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Activity Networking San Diego News 164

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

Look for validation from your mainstream customers. No matter how passionately you believe that everyone needs one, and positive feedback from friends and early adopters (false positives), before you invest in scaling the business, make sure you set and meet good metrics in cost of customer acquisition, recurring sales, and margin.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Case Study Mentor Software Review 131

socalTECH

MARCH 8, 2013

Now, Frost has set up shop buildling out a whole series of companies in the industry, and we caught up with him to learn more about the companies (Predixion Software, Cirro, Lineage, Kumo, etc.) I've been a serial entrepreneur for about 20-odd years, and I didn't want to sit at a big company. It's been great.

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Incubator Startup CTO Hire Ideas 208

SoCal CTO

MARCH 13, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Tuesday, March 13, 2007 8 Ways the Internet has Changed Software Marketing Great post - 8 Ways The Internet Changed Software Marketing - is an interesting take on how different it is these days to market software. Good stuff. Posted byTony Karrer at 6:58 AM 1 comments: Jon Miller said.

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CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire Software 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2015

“the ecommerce company gained fauxmentum by raising artificially high amounts of venture capital and spent lavishly on customer acquisition despite long payback periods and questionable LTV” __. But can sensible management team even do anything about it? __. faux·men·tum. fōˈmen(t)əm,fəˈmen(t)əm/.

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Startup Marketing Custom Customer 150

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Curious to learn more about the pain and joys of bootstrapping a business, I sat down with Jim Semick, the company’s Co-Founder and Chief Strategist. Who is Mr. Semick and what is ProductPlan all about? We build product roadmap software – it’s a SaaS company based here in Santa Barbara, California. It’s chaotic.

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Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115