Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

Picking a VC is hard. So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. Most VCs are book smart. VCs should be more of a coach than proscriptively telling you what to do. You want a VC who will spar with you but then STFU and let you get on with things.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 11, 2013

Venice Beach-based Snapchat , the developer of a popular mobile application which lets users take "self destructing" mobile photos of themselves that they can send to friends, has raised $13.5M The funding came from Benchmark Capital, led by Mitch Lasky. in a Series A funding, according to multiple reports.

Snapchat 153

Snapchat Venice Mobile Report 153

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

socalTECH

JANUARY 29, 2016

Los Angeles-based Naritiv , a new startup developing a network of content creators for Snapchat, has raised $3M in a funding round, the company said Thursday. The startup--founded by Dan Altmann and Eric Posen--says it is enabling the creation of mobile-first content for Snapchat and other social network platforms.

Snapchat 100

Snapchat Content Social Network Class 100

socalTECH

MAY 29, 2015

Venice-based Snapchat has raised $537.6M The new investors reportedly include Alibaba, Fidelity, York Capital, and Glade Brook Capital, and the funding has widely been reported at valuing the company at around $16 billion. Snapchat has now raised north of $1.15‎ billion. billion).

Snapchat 100

Snapchat Southern California Funding Venice 100

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.

Class 185

Class Startup Seed Funding Entertainment 185

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

MARCH 11, 2014

In fact, many people know I grew up in NorCal and still have a 650 area code on my mobile phone. 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!

Startup 318

Startup Santa Monica Snapchat Yahoo 318

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 19, 2013

Josh Brooks , OnTheRunTech.com dba Post Cards On The Run (Los Angeles, mobile apps). Sean Callahan , SlimSurveys (San Diego, mobile apps). Greg Cohn , Burner (Los Angeles, mobile app). Sam Friedman , ParkMe (Santa Monica, mobile apps). Melani Gordon , Taphunter (San Diego, mobile apps).

Southern California 279

Southern California SoCalTech Dollar Shave Club Santa Monica 279

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

” in 2014 the data seems pretty conclusive because LA has now become the fastest growing tech startup region by numbers of companies being started and those of us here have noticed this pace accelerating. Given how efficient markets are when a large market like LA starts to blossom it attracts capital pretty quickly.

Entrepreneur 376

Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Google 376

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. Most experienced VCs won’t push you to give up founder control at this stage of the business nor should they. In the Early Days.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 16, 2013

Venture Capital: Upfront Ventures. 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.

Startup 111

Startup Snapchat Venice Social Media 111

LATechDigest

MAY 30, 2016

Mobile App Hackathon (-6/4). Here’s what’s new in LA’s tech space: SNAPCHAT Raises $1.8B MARCH CAPITAL Opens LA Shop with $240M Fund ( link ). FAST COMPANY Hosted Its Creative Conference. UCLA ANDERSON Hosted a VR / VC Event. Thursday June 2. QuePasa DTLA. LA Datatech Monthly MixR. Friday June 3.

Belkin 45

Belkin UCLA Funding Pasadena 45

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. THRONE , the mobile peer-to-peer marketplace for the $85B sneaker and streetwear industry, which prior to joining SMASHD had received $25,000 from DreamIt Ventures.

Mentor 75

Mentor Venture Capital Draper USC 75

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 15, 2014

I was at a dinner recently in Chicago and the table discussion was about building great companies outside of Silicon Valley. It’s not the great companies you build, it’s the silent killer of those that should have been build locally and weren’t. Locally we call it “the Snapchat effect.”

Company 369

Company Companies Startup Snapchat 369

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 30, 2016

By now if you follow me on Twitter you probably know that I do near daily “Snapstorms” or a collection of short videos (usually < 5 mins in total) with entrepreneur advice on Snapchat. You can follow me on Snapchat at msuster. Snapchat for my “original run” and I’ll also store each video to be watched later.

Snapchat 150

Snapchat Course Media Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 12, 2016

Part I, Team) Tact was founded by Chuck Ganapathi , who was formerly the SVP of Products at Salesforce.com having led initiatives like their chat product, CRM and mobile. In all my time investing I have never seen such a senior revenue officer join a company at this stage. Why Invest?

Software 105

Software Mobile Artificial Inteligence Oracle 105

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2017

Currencies only began in earnest about 2,500 years ago and ever since have been a great enabler of democracy and social mobility, not the other way around. When you achieve economies-of-scale advantages it doesn’t benefit you to help newer companies draft off of your infrastructure to rise and compete against you. Enter blockchain.

Course 280

Course Startup Framework Marketing 280

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. Some, of course, agree with me that BuzzFeed has been and continues to be the gold standard innovator in digital media to emulate. But I digress.

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Buzzfeed Media Content News 210