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Can You Really Build a Great Tech Firm Outside Silicon Valley?

Both Sides of the Table

We were talking about a company, Factual (disclosure my firm is an investor), which was founded by one of LA’s most talented Internet entrepreneurs, Gil Elbaz , who as co-founder of Applied Semantics (purchased by pre-IPO Google for $102 million and now Google AdSense) is responsible for a large portion of the Internet’s monetization.

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This Week in VC – Scott Painter, CEO of Zag & TrueCar

Both Sides of the Table

He didn’t tell it in the video but, ever the entrepreneur, Scott started a business to take couples up on a “mile high club&# flight on airplanes as a way of getting all of his miles logged to get his next class of airplane license that required a certain number of hours logged. It’s part of what makes him so likable.

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Want to Start a Technology Company in LA?

Both Sides of the Table

And we’re left with a city with idyllic weather, major commerce, the media center of the world, and a great emerging technology scene. We have many seasoned entrepreneurs who have built successful companies here and made a lot of money for investors and themselves. As a result many funds are OK with big bets.

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