SoCal CTO

MAY 17, 2011

I was just talking with someone who's new to Los Angeles and wanting to connect into the Los Angeles Startup Community. I will do my best to keep this up to date. Los Angeles Startup Community Posts/Articles Here are some interesting articles and posts on the ecosystem around startups in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles 188

Los Angeles Southern California Startup Angel 188

socalTECH

JULY 16, 2013

Launchpad LA , one of the more high profile startup accelerators in Los Angeles, has opened up applications for its next class. Launchpad LA offers up a $100,000 investment, free office space in Santa Monica, mentoring and access to resources, and much more to companies.

Mogreet 183

Mogreet GRP Partners Class Santa Monica 183

socalTECH

JULY 31, 2013

The startup, which is backed by Upfront Ventures (which also just went through a renaming effort, from GRP Partners), did not say exactly why it decided to rename itself. The start is led by Gabe Gottlieb. Grossman will specifically head up the company''s growth and rebranding efforts, according to the company.

GRP Partners 168

GRP Partners Santa Monica Startup Advertising 168

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

Launchpad LA today announces it will accept applications for its third class of Los Angeles-based tech startups. We have significant VC commitments (listed below) – every entering company will get $50,000 in funding, mentorship from top VCs and successful entrepreneurs plus free office space. Each company will receive $50,000.

Venture Capital 287

Venture Capital Funding Startup GRP Partners 287

socalTECH

JANUARY 18, 2013

Los Angeles-based Pop Up Pantry , the LaunchpadLA incubated gourmet food delivery startup, is shutting down, according to a report. The report, from PandoDaily, said that the company shut down due to the high costs of delivering food anywhere in the country. in a funding round from GRP Partners and Crosscut Ventures.

Report 185

Report GRP Partners Incubator Los Angeles 185

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

Over 500 startups applied last quarter to Launchpad LA’s accelerator, but only eight were chosen. Meet the Graduates: · Connectifier, which connects recruiters to potential job candidates, consists of 4 ex-Google employees and local angel investor, Terrence Yang, has dubbed Connectifier one of the best startups of 2012.

GRP Partners 96

GRP Partners Startup Tech Coast Angels Bertelsmann 96

socalTECH

JANUARY 9, 2014

Los Angeles-based mobile food ordering startup ChowNow has raised $708,414 as part of a new funding round, according to regulatory filing by the firm this week. Details on the funding have not yet been announced by the company.

GRP Partners 170

GRP Partners Venture Capital Mobile Los Angeles 170

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

I am super excited to announce that today is a day of lots of new things for my partners & me: A new fund, a new office and a new brand. Let’s start with the fund. Santa Monica is the place where the highest concentration of early-stage startups are created if you consider also the contiguous geography of Venice Beach.

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Funding Santa Monica Venture Capital Startup 343

socalTECH

JUNE 23, 2020

according to a regulatory filing filed by the company this week. Upfront Ventures started raising $250M in a growth fund, Upfront Growth II, back in June of 2019, and raised its last core fund, Upfront VI, back in June of 2017. Upfront Ventures--formerly known as GRP Partners--has been in existence for 24 years now.

GRP Partners 113

GRP Partners Funding Venture Capital Los Angeles 113

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2013

It is with great pleasure that I can finally announce that we have added Greg Bettinelli as a partner at GRP Partners. He had joined a young startup in LA called HauteLook and was interested in getting to know the local tech community. So I started introducing him to portfolio companies.

Venture Capital 360

Venture Capital GRP Partners Startup Invest 360

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 11, 2013

Silicon Beach Fest is gearing up to showcase the most promising startups and visionaries from across LA’s growing startup entertainment ecosystem. Mark Suster of GRP Partners and Launchpad was confirmed to keynote along with Nely Galan of Galan Entertainment, the first Latina president of Telemundo.

GRP Partners 88

GRP Partners MyLife Dollar Shave Club Santa Monica 88

socalTECH

JANUARY 8, 2013

Two, Internet-enabled communications startups, FreedomPop , and TextPlus said this morning that they are working together to introduce a 100 percent free mobile data, text and calling service, by combining plans and technology from the two companies. READ MORE>>.

GRP Partners 157

GRP Partners Startup Mobile Los Angeles 157

socalTECH

MAY 29, 2013

Los Angeles-based social, celebrity advertising startup Adly confirmed the company''s recent $2M funding round today, officially announcing the funding from GRP Partners and Siemer Ventures.

Funding 170

Funding GRP Partners Social Media Advertising 170

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Continuing my series of posts that I’ve been collecting that live at the intersection of Startups and being a Startup CTO : Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March here are the top posts from May 2010. It is to out friend. Enjoyed this post? Disruptive. We get it! I Be specific.

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

socalTECH

JUNE 11, 2013

Los Angeles-based mobile food ordering startup ChowNow has raised $1.19M more in an ongoing funding round, according to a regulatory filing by the firm last week. ChowNow is venture backed by Daher Capital, Double M Partners, GRP Partners, Karlin Ventures and Velos Partners. The round is targeted at $2M.

GRP Partners 174

GRP Partners Incubator Mobile Venture Capital 174

socalTECH

APRIL 25, 2013

Los Angeles seems to be cementing itself in as the capital of celebrity and e-commerce, with the latest deal being Moonfrye , a new, "celebrity mom" startup featuring Soleil Moon Frye, best known to the rest of us as Punky Brewster. The new startup revealed today that it has raised $2.5M READ MORE>>.

Activity 178

Activity GRP Partners CitySearch Commerce 178

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

I’m very excited to be finally be able to announce that this week we’ve added Sam Rosen to our ranks at GRP Partners in the role of entrepreneurs-in-residence – EIR. I became aware of Sam several years ago as I started noticing his name repeated in the comments section of my blog. Sam in the perfect example.

Startup 372

Startup Course Ideas Invest 372

socalTECH

AUGUST 3, 2016

The scholarship also includes a conference call with DogVacay CEO Aaron Hirschhorn--who, aside from his experience starting DogVacay, previously spent his days vetting startup ideas as a venture capitalist. The company says it plans on another scholarship competition next year.

GRP Partners 100

GRP Partners Conference Venture Capital Ideas 100

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 8, 2012

A Silicon Valley startup is looking to take on Pop Up Pantry in its home market of Los Angeles, saying today that it has raised a funding round which will go towards expanding in Los Angeles, as well as Seattle and New York City. Munchery said it raised $4M in a Series A from e.ventures for the effort.

GRP Partners 208

GRP Partners Los Angeles Course Services 208

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2010

We’re here for Greycroft’s CEO Summit – a gathering of the CEO’s of their portfolio companies with guest speakers covering topics including how to build your team, PR, customer development, etc. Get your product/market fit working before you ramp up your costs (or raise too much money). I’m going to save that for a future blog post.

Startup 279

Startup Venture Capital Tips Custom Development 279

socalTECH

APRIL 15, 2010

for the quarter, up from both Q4 of last year as well as the comparable Q1 quarter in 2009, according to the latest numbers from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the NVCA. in Q1, up from $588.033M tallied by the report in Q4 of 2009, and up significantly from the $320.2M Southern California venture capital investments totaled $686.5M

Southern California 208

Southern California Orange County Invest GRP Partners 208

socalTECH

JUNE 10, 2013

However, Silicon Beach Fest , the upcoming conference which combines both the local high tech community as well as the entertainment industry, seems to be emblematic of the spirit and energy which has become apparent recently in the local startup scene. Last year''s event attracted more than 2,000 attendees. READ MORE>>.

Conference 205

Conference GRP Partners Entertainment Southern California 205

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. Great companies are comprised of great individual point people or functional leaders. There are plenty of great leaders who work really hard and work for big companies. I was recently on TWiST with Jason Calacanis.

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital CTO Hire 293

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

The round was led by GRP Partners, and also included angels such as Dave McClure, Dave Tisch, Ben Smith (Merchant Circle), Brian Lee (ShoeDazzle, LegalZoom), Jason Calacanis, Evan Rifkin, Jennifer Lum, and Jay Weintraub. GRP's Mark Suster said the round was worth $3M, with GRP putting up most of the funds.

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Services Funding GRP Partners Legalzoom 229

socalTECH

AUGUST 19, 2009

This morning's Insights and Opinions article comes from venture capitalist Mark Suster of GRP Partners , who shares some of the most common mistakes he sees startups making. Sometimes they're working full time at a company or sometimes they've already left their employer and they're bouncing around ideas with friends.

GRP Partners 124

GRP Partners Startup Venture Capital Ideas 124

socalTECH

JULY 26, 2012

Los Angeles-based Pop-Up Pantry , one of the companies in the Launchpad LA accelerator, has disclosed a $1.7M seed funding round, led by GRP Partners, CrossCut Ventures, Adam Goldenberg (JustFab), and Michel Daher (of Daher Foods). Pop-Up Pantry has been in beta since April. READ MORE>>.

GRP Partners 145

GRP Partners Funding Seed Funding Course 145

SoCal Tech Calendar

DECEMBER 3, 2010

Thursday, December 9, 2010 -- If the Venture Model is Broken, Whos Funding All These Startups? What is the new business of investing  startups are getting funded at rapid speeds, if venture is broken, whos doing the investing? Dealmaker Media LA.

GRP Partners 100

GRP Partners Clearstone Funding Startup 100

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 27, 2012

The latest startup out of Santa Monica-based technology incubator Science, Inc. The new company has raised $500K from Battery Ventures. The new startup is headed by Steve Goldstein, the former Senior Vice President and General Manager for ProvideCommerce. Don't know what to make for dinner? READ MORE>>.

Services 159

Services GRP Partners Santa Monica Incubator 159

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 21, 2011

Santa Monica-based Gumgum , the celebrity image licensing and advertising startup headed by Ophir Tanz, has appointed a new VP of Sales, the firm told socalTECH today. The company said it has appointed Brennan Beyer as its new Vice President of Sales. Beyer joins the company from SocialVibe, where he also served as VP of Sales.

Sales 140

Sales GRP Partners Santa Monica SoCalTech 140

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 24, 2012

I wrote a blog post on how to work with lawyers at a startup nearly two-and-a-half years ago. If you don’t have much experience in working with law firms at a startup it’s a good primer. In that post I talked about how to select a law-firm for a startup. Startup-focused. It was very widely read.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Startup Los Angeles GRP Partners 299

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 16, 2013

Today’s startup innovators come from about six hours south of Silicon Valley. Previously known as GRP Partners, Upfront Ventures has focused on early stage investments since 1996. Previously known as GRP Partners, Upfront Ventures has focused on early stage investments since 1996. Silicon Valley?

Startup 111

Startup Snapchat Venice Social Media 111

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2010

I’m very pleased today to announce that I invested, on behalf of GRP Partners, in Burstly alongside Rincon Venture Partners , an early stage VC in Southern California whith whom we love to work (and were our co-investors on RingRevenue ). Let’s start from the highest level that will not be rocket science.

Mobile 282

Mobile Invest Company Companies 282

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

Startups are hard. Working hard together at a big company just isn’t the same. You join teams that got good write-ups on TechCrunch, have great VCs, have star CEO’s, whatever. Who came in the office at 2am when the servers crashed – even on the night of the big company party. We tell startup stories.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

socalTECH

DECEMBER 14, 2010

Beverly Hills-based Snowball Factory , the startup behind awe.sm , the url shortener and analytics service, tweetpo.st , which updates Facebook from Twitter, and other tools, has raised $500,000 more, according to a recent regulatory filing by the firm. It's unclear if Suster's involvement is a personal investment or an investment of GRP.

Beverly Hills 162

Beverly Hills GRP Partners Yahoo Invest 162

socalTECH

APRIL 15, 2010

Los Angeles-based Launchpad LA , the startup mentoring effort spearheaded by GRP Partners' Mark Suster, is announcing this afternoon that it has selected 10 startups for the second season of the program. Luanchpad LA's last class had thirteen companies, of which eleven received venture funding and where one was acquired.

Class 188

Class GRP Partners Mentor Incubator 188

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

Los Angeles-based startup Little Black Bag , a new e-commerce startup backed by GRP Partners and DCM, said this week that it has launched its online shopping site--a play on the Japanese concept of "fukobukuro".

GRP Partners 124

GRP Partners Commerce Los Angeles Sales 124

SoCal Tech Calendar

MARCH 25, 2011

He joined GRP Partners in 2007 as a General Partner after selling his company to Salesforce.com. He focuses on early-stage technology companies. Mark is a UCSD graduate and writes one of the best startup blogs on the Internet. Mark Suster is a 2x entrepreneur who has gone to the Dark Side of VC.

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GRP Partners UCSD SoCal Southern California 100