socalTECH

JUNE 24, 2013

A lot of heads turned Monday after Venice-based Snapchat , the instant-photo messaging service known for its self destructing chats, announced a huge, $60M round at a huge valuation. Among the reasons given in a blog post from IVP, defending its investment in Snapchat: the firm loves LA. READ MORE>>.

Snapchat 145

Snapchat Invest Electronic Arts Venice 145

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 28, 2014

billion active mobile users monthly as of March 31, 2014, while Twitter has 255 million active users. And this gives way for mobile messaging apps. There’s Snapchat that uses photos and then instantly disappears after 10 seconds, and then there’s the up-comer, Emojli , that uses tiny cartoonish icons for engagement.

Snapchat 82

Snapchat Social Media Social Network Media 82

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2014

I wrote about this in a blog post last year titled “ It’s Morning in VC ” but I never made the full deck available until now. The opportunity set is much bigger than ever (50x more users, 10x time online, mobile, social, credit-card enabled, global) … when things work they work faster and at an unprecedented scale.

Venture Capital 362

Venture Capital Capital Startup Writing 362

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2019

I don’t feel like canceling LinkedIn just because occasionally a well-meaning but slightly not-clued-in person from a faraway place wants me to be their personal mentor, answer 3-questions for their high-school entrepreneurship project or take a sales pitch for their recruiting services. By the way, I don’t spell check my blog posts either.

Email 250

Email Writing Conference Mobile 250

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

Product is simply about defining a physical good or service that would be valued by consumers of the product more than existing alternatives based on functionality, quality and/or price. While many tech startups do this intuitively (say, SnapChat thinking it would be much better if our photos out partying disappeared) it still happens.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 27, 2015

For example, it used to be that marketing via social media meant banner ads on Facebook, buying search engine results, and sponsoring blog entries, but these don’t suffice anymore. They are going to Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Snapchat. In a recent book on social media by Jim Tobin, “ Earn It. When the glass is only.04%

Social Media 101

Social Media Media Marketing Snapchat 101

socalTECH

JULY 20, 2015

Los Angeles-based Flipagram (www.flipagram.com) has created a potent and wildly viral mobile app, which combines photos, music, and video to create addictive, engaging mini slideshows of your life. Gripe worked well as a social service, but it just didn't work as a business. Those are all instant networks.

Flipagram 100

Flipagram Social Network Networking Blogging 100