socalTECH

OCTOBER 15, 2014

The Disney Accelerator , the startup accelerator sponsored by Walt Disney and being run by TechStars, had its demo day Tuesday, showing off the nine companies to emerge out of the accelerator. Disney offered up up to $120K in investment capital, access to entrepreneurs and executives at Disney, and other resources to its startups.

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Class Startup Seed Funding Entertainment 185

TechCrunch LA

JANUARY 14, 2019

Brud , the company behind the virtual celebrity Lil Miquela , is now worth at least $125 million thanks to a new round of financing the company is currently closing. Last year the company scored at least $6 million from investors, including Sequoia Capital , BoxGroup and other, undisclosed, investors. And he’s not alone.

Social Media 261

Social Media Content Media Artificial Inteligence 261

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

” I hear it when I visit LPs (the people who invest in VCs) all across the country, “Yeah, I haven’t been out there for a few years but I keep hearing that something is going on there.” Both are massively funding other LA tech companies through what Fred Wilson once defined as “recycled capital.”

Entrepreneur 376

Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Google 376

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2014

Last week displayed the best of LA last week for a gala event of all of Upfront’s portfolio companies + the CEOs of many of LA’s top technology companies + 75 VC firms from LA, SF, NY & Boston + 25 LP Funds + the Chairman of Yahoo! LA has a serious technology scene. And I’m proud of that, too. Maker Studios.

Startup 318

Startup Santa Monica Snapchat Yahoo 318

socalTECH

DECEMBER 27, 2016

Brad Brooks: The biggest news from TigerText this year is that we're evolving from what was a pure secure messaging product to a comprehensive clinical communications platform. Brad Brooks: Locally, I think Snapchat's IPO is going to spawn a massive ecosystem in the Southern California tech community.

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Southern California Social Media News Entertainment 113

socalTECH

JUNE 8, 2020

Our interview today is with Scott Grimes , the CEO of Los Angeles-based Stackin' , which operates a text-based, financial messaging platform. How did the company start? Scott Grimes: Ultimately, we are a text messaging platform build on top of Twilio. Stackin recentlyraised $12.6M What is Stackin'? What's your background?

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Content Social Media Startup Artificial Inteligence 124

socalTECH

MARCH 11, 2014

Venture Partners, Shasta Ventures, First Round Capital and Richmond Park Partners--so we thought it would be great to catch up with co-founders Rich Raddon and Zach James to hear more about what the company is working on now. Rich Raddon: As you know, we originally started out as a different company, MovieClips, at the very beginning.

Hollywood 159

Hollywood Help Media Content 159

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 16, 2013

Previously known as GRP Partners, Upfront Ventures has focused on early stage investments since 1996. Their roster of success includes numerous pioneering tech companies, many of which continue to be industry leaders today — Overture, BillMeLater, CitySearch, and more. Get to know them now before they become household names.

Startup 111

Startup Snapchat Venice Social Media 111

socalTECH

AUGUST 17, 2020

We have a couple of thousand retailers and a product catalog of 80 million products, and every day, people are posting their photos and videos to Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter. The second part of our app is Know It, which is a video on demand platform. Retailers will pay them for those recommendations.

Help 113

Help Commerce Platform Orange County 113

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 30, 2016

I understand this instinct for more capital and I have two very different personal experiences: In my first company we raised an A-round of $16.5 million and in my second company we raised only $500,000 by choice. You will build out features or expend to platforms — often before you have enough market feedback to warrant it.

Startup 292

Startup Software Review Pricing Entrepreneur 292

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 10, 2019

Image via Pixabay After a frustrating meeting with a small business client recently who didn’t “have time” for social media, I was surprised to find evidence on the Internet that up to one quarter of small business owners are still hesitant to invest time, money, and effort into a social media strategy. Do your homework before you begin.

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Social Media Media Tool Startup 99

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

Or you know the other one — the one where Snapchat lost $2 billion in just one quarter. 70–80% of the costs of most startups are employee costs so what you’re really talking about when a company is unprofitable is that they are growing their staff ahead of their revenue. Two-f **g-billion! What a disaster!

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 9, 2016

Csathy was most recently CEO of Manatt Digital Media, and also was President and CEO of Sorenson Media, CEO of Sightspeed, President and COO at MusicMatch, in addition to serving at companies like Universal Studios and New Line Cinema. We are an innovation, investment, and advisory firm. The word firm is not even a word we like.

Media 100

Media Blogging Hulu Invest 100

LATechDigest

MAY 13, 2016

Up to seven companies will be selected for this year’s program, which launches right after Labor Day, and wraps in the middle of November. Trakfire : a platform that enables its community to curate the best music from emerging artists, the third company founded founded by 19 year old USC Iovine Young Academy sophomore Arjun Mehta.

Mentor 75

Mentor Venture Capital Draper USC 75

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

Today Upfront Ventures is announcing that we’ve backed Rebecca Kantar ’s startup Imbellus , a company designed to assess human potential and ultimately change the way we teach children. We led a $4 million investment along with Thrive Capital, GLG and Sound Ventures. How does one come up with the right idea to start a company?

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Design Ideas Startup Writing 150

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 17, 2016

Launched in July of 2006, Twitter was a platform that experienced consistent and steady growth for many years. They hit the coveted one million user milestone and within two years a billion tweets had been sent on the platform. In fact, Twitter was one of the first mobile social media platforms. It had strong platform usage.

Platform 40

Platform Startup News Content 40

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2016

From the day after we sold the company until today I felt it was important that I not comment too much publicly about online video even though I continued to work actively in the sector and made five more investments. We had a studio and invested in content creation. YouTube AND other platforms. We sold brand integration.

Content 150

Content Snapchat Platform SEO 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2017

It’s hard to remember that in 2012 it was still hard for LA VCs to persuade investors into funds that LA was a viable market for great venture capital funds or convince many VCs that LA was a market worth investing dollars into startups. They always ask whether I see this as threatening as Upfront Ventures. Are you kidding me?

Riot Games 191

Riot Games Los Angeles Technical Review Venture Capital 191

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 12, 2016

Why Invest? And while my relationship with Chuck was critical to my investment, so too was the leadership of Trevor Templar , the Chief Revenue Officer. In all my time investing I have never seen such a senior revenue officer join a company at this stage. Why Invest? The reason is simple. The reason is simple.

Software 105

Software Mobile Artificial Inteligence Oracle 105

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2015

Once a buyer decides they want to make a purchase the first thing most companies will do is check out what other options are out there to make sure they’re not making an uninformed decisions. I built my first software company in the early days of SaaS and there were few models to go by. How responsive are they to your needs now?

Sales 150

Sales SaaS Startup Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2016

Mitu Network is the largest digital media company for Latinos in the US and also targeting Mexico and South America. The first generation of short-form online video companies seemed to be a bit of a land grab as online video companies were mostly “horizontal” in that they produced video of nearly any genre that could drive views.

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Company Companies Netflix Content 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2017

It conjures up a range of emotions anytime I’ve privately expressed my opinion to thought leaders in our industry that I believe it is one of the most innovative companies in digital media. In fact, the platforms weren’t always so quick to crack down as many of them benefitted financially. Wasn’t Jonah worried about “platform risks?”

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Buzzfeed Media Content News 210