TechCrunch LA

JULY 3, 2018

Founded by some of the men responsible for the biggest hits in online marketing (like the Dollar Shave Club commercial that launched what became a billion dollar acquisition ) think that its time to take technology where it’s never gone before — into targeted, direct mail campaigns using the best ad-targeting that money can buy.

Dollar Shave Club 232

Dollar Shave Club Chief Technology Officer Advertising Los Angeles 232

socalTECH

MAY 15, 2019

in its seed funding round, to help it expand its development of personalization technology for online grocers. According to Halla, the funding was led by E&A Venture Capital, an early stage food industry investor, and also included SOSV. The company said it has now raised a total of $1.9M READ MORE>>.

Artificial Inteligence 133

Artificial Inteligence Seed Funding Venture Capital Los Angeles 133

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 16, 2019

Originally called Dopamine Labs, the company was founded in 2015 to bring some of the same technologies that social media companies like Facebook used to boost engagement to a broader range of applications. Previous Boundless investors including Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund and Esther Dyson will join Thrive Global’s cap table.

Artificial Inteligence 226

Artificial Inteligence Seed Funding Startup Screening 226

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2010

Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition | For Entrepreneurs , February 2, 2010 Looks at the critical equation around customer acquisition cost vs. customer lifetime value similar to what I discussed in Startup Metrics but in more depth. Great stuff.

Pricing 150

Pricing Acquisition Custom Customer 150

socalTECH

AUGUST 3, 2015

Walnut, California-based WizRocket , a developer of mobile ad technology which helps companies better profile and target customers, has raised $8M in a funding round. The funding came from Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners. The funding comes on top of an earlier, unannounced $1.6M seed funding from Accel.

Walnut 100

Walnut Seed Funding Los Angeles Mobile 100

socalTECH

MAY 17, 2013

In some what-did-our-spam filter eat-recently funding news, Santa Monica-based Privlo recently raised $2.1M in a seed funding round, for its online marketplace for private mortgage loans. Privlo, which was founded by Michael Slavin, said the new funding came from QED Ventures. READ MORE>>.

Chief Technology Officer 215

Chief Technology Officer CitySearch Ticketmaster Santa Monica 215

socalTECH

MARCH 19, 2013

in a seed funding round, which included local high profile technology executives Ted Meisel, Gil Elbaz, Sean Moriarty, Jarl Mohn, along with Siemer Ventures. Rexter , a brand new, Pasadena startup looking to put business contact management on steroids, said today that it has raised $1.5M READ MORE>>.

eHarmony 193

eHarmony CalTech Seed Funding Pasadena 193

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

The world around us is being disrupted by the acceleration of technology into more industries and more consumer applications. Technology solutions are now used by authoritarians to monitor and control populations, to stymie an individual company’s economic prospects or to foment chaos through demagoguery. What Has Changed in Financing?

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

socalTECH

JANUARY 2, 2020

Every year, at the end of the year, we share some reflections on the past year from our readers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, sponsors, and others in the local technology community. With customer acquisition costs (CAC) rising significantly across most products, one company experimented with a few low-cost initiatives.

Capital 100

Capital SoCal Southern California SaaS 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 3, 2023

Most of these are non-profits, set up by a university to commercialize new technologies, or a municipality to foster business development for the local economy. A few are still trying to make a profitable business out of nurturing startups, but it’s a challenge to make money when your customer startups don’t have many resources to give.

Organization 92

Organization Incubator Startup Resource 92

socalTECH

JUNE 25, 2013

in seed funding to make it happen. in a seed funding round, from Quest Venture Partners, Siemer Ventures, and angel investors, including Mich Mathews (former CMO of Microsoft), Dennis Phelps (Institutional Venture Partners), Andy Dunn (Bonobos), and and Brian Spaly (Trunk Club). And, it now has $1.1M READ MORE>>.

Seed Funding 124

Seed Funding Venice Pricing Funding 124

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 19, 2018

million in seed funding to begin building a manufacturing facility and expand its presence in Los Angeles as the city continues to grow as a hub for robotics and automation. . Barnehama was tight-lipped about the specifics of the technology that Elementary is using for its robotic stack. Elementary Robotics has raised $3.6

Los Angeles 207

Los Angeles Angel Artificial Inteligence CalTech 207

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2020

Most of these are non-profits, set up by a university to commercialize new technologies, or a municipality to foster business development for the local economy. A few are still trying to make a profitable business out of nurturing startups, but it’s a challenge to make money when your customer startups don’t have many resources to give.

Resource 159

Resource Startup Incubator Seed Funding 159

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 18, 2022

Crypto lending protocol Celsius isn’t fire burning, but it did freeze all customer withdrawals this past weekend , citing concerns about its own liquidity amid “extreme market conditions.” Molecule , a platform where DAOs can back medical research projects, secured $13 million in seed funding led by Northpond Ventures.

Newsletter 278

Newsletter Platform Capital Marketing 278

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2023

That means you need to lead with your credentials, rather than your disruptive technology. Every angel looks to scale the business after you have funded product design, perhaps with friends and family. Angels need to see a proven business model, with a working prototype and preferably a real customer or two.

Venture Capital 106

Venture Capital Angel Seed Funding Invest 106

socalTECH

DECEMBER 30, 2016

This holiday season, we are again sharing the reflections on 2016 from Southern California's technology ecosystem. of seed funding and launching our popular subscription service for kids ages 4-10. What's your favorite technology gadget, device, or innovation you ran across this year?

Education 172

Education eHarmony Southern California Idealab 172

socalTECH

DECEMBER 28, 2017

During the holiday season, our tradition over the last few years has been to post reflections on the past year and some predictions from Southern California's "movers and shakers" in the technology industry. Are there any technology innovations, gadgets, devices, software that particularly caught your eye in 2017?

Capital 124

Capital Southern California SaaS SoCal 124

Tech.Co

DECEMBER 28, 2022

The Palo Alto-based company uses emerging artificial intelligence (AI) technology to tackle pressing questions in cancer care. By using breakthrough technology to solve one of the world's longest-standing problems, Valar Labs has the potential to bring cancer care forward by leaps and bounds. Wander's apex came in 2022, however.

Startup 118

Startup Artificial Inteligence Platform Newsletter 118

socalTECH

MAY 28, 2015

Almost everyone of a technical bent in the technology industry is familiar with that old routine: your parents, your friends, and your neighbors inevitably calls you for free technical support. It's not some brand new category where you're a startup hoping to find paying customers. How does HelloTech work?

Demand 100

Demand Technical Support Startup Seed Funding 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 21, 2023

Negotiate an advance from a strategic partner or customer. Find a major customer, or a complimentary business, who sees such value in your idea that they are willing to give you an advance on royalty payments to complete your development. Another common example is exchanging equity for legal and accounting support.

Startup 106

Startup Capital Equity Funding 106

SoCal CTO

APRIL 2, 2012

Hiring seems to be the preferred use of seed funds (by investors and founders), whereas I'd prefer a focus on customer acquisition. They most often really just need either a Part-Time CTO or Technology Advisor , and then some combination of hiring and/or outsourcing (on-shore or off-shore).

CTO Hire 205

CTO Hire Outsource Development CTO Coach Develop 205

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

Invoca is now doing 10s of millions in recurring revenue and is growing > 75% year-over-year but it took the first 3 years to really build out the technology and acquire our initial enterprise clients. If I use Invoca as an example: we handle tens of millions of phone calls for customers who want to drive sales calls into call centers.

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2015

Asking for early-stage money before you have customers and revenue will likely kill your credibility with real investors. Seed-stage, meanwhil e, is technically that critical period when you need funding to do solution- and business-model development, to prove that your new product or service works, before you try to sell it to customers.

Funding 104

Funding Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding 104

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2020

Negotiate an advance from a strategic partner or customer. Find a major customer, or a complimentary business, who sees such value in your idea that they are willing to give you an advance on royalty payments to complete your development. Another common example is exchanging equity for legal and accounting support.

Funding 174

Funding Startup Equity Examples 174

socalTECH

AUGUST 29, 2014

Who are your customers? Mauhan Zonozzy: Our end user is the consumer, but our customers are media companies. In short, we provide a toolset that allows customers to create clips not just for video sites, but for sites like Instagram and Vine, and put that in the hands of consumers. How are you financed and backed?

Content 113

Content Los Angeles Seed Funding Hollywood 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2021

That means you need to lead with your credentials, rather than your disruptive technology. Every angel looks to scale the business after you have funded product design, perhaps with friends and family. Angels need to see a proven business model, with a working prototype and preferably a real customer or two.

Angel 126

Angel Funding Venture Capital Seed Funding 126

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

We have integrated technology to allow our matchmakers to work more efficiently, so we can scale very well. We're innovating with technology, creating a more scalable and efficient way for matchmakers to work. Another big thing that I've learned, which is really useful, is about acquiring customers. What are they reading?

Startup 203

Startup Entrepreneur Southern California Netflix 203

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

We worked on a lot of really cool technologies. We really knew what worked, what didn't in robotics, and knew how to apply that technology. Now, we're giving the solution to a lot of our customers to be able to support that growth, to support the requirements so people don't have to do that shopping themselves.

Westlake Village 113

Westlake Village Startup Commerce Seed Funding 113

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

When a product is truly unique and demanded a retailer willingly promotes and sells it en masse in part because it does get margin on the good but also because it brings customers in the door who spend on other products. Ariel understood her customer?—?the So Why Does This Matter? the modern buyer of home products?—?better

Product 296

Product Course Custom Customer 296

socalTECH

MAY 18, 2011

Earlier this month, Los Angeles-based MySocialNightLife.com (www.mysocialnightlife.com) announced a seed funding round, and its technology platform for the nightclub and bar industry. In addition, we though we'd connect this to social media, as a forward-facing view for customers. What is MySocialNightLife all about?

Social Media 174

Social Media Seed Funding Startup Design 174

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

An impressive number of new VCs have been created – most of them with new seed funds. I do believe that we are in structural change where technology will increasingly play a bigger role in all facets of life so the long run up for tech is promising through all of these cycles. And importantly we’ve had revenue.

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

Fair recently raised $16M in a seed funding round, from Javelin Venture Partners, Charles River Ventures, Foundation Capital, Sherpa Capital, Moonshots Capital, and others. At the end of the day, to really deliver a completely unique and excellent customer experience, we found you need to underwrite the transaction itself.

Startup 124

Startup Truecar Pricing Entrepreneur 124

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2018

Most of these are non-profits, set up by a university to commercialize new technologies, or a municipality to foster business development for the local economy. A few are still trying to make a profitable business out of nurturing startups, but it’s a challenge to make money when your customer startups don’t have many resources to give.

Incubator 87

Incubator Startup Resource Seed Funding 87

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Customers heavily adopted in-person returns. We saw the steady stream of customers Nordstrom Rack was getting from HauteLook shoppers, and we realized that we could do that same thing with any retailer. Customers expect the retailers to pay for those returns, they expect returns to be free, and they expect outbound shipping to be free.

Training 100

Training Custom Customer Software Review 100

Tech.Co

MAY 9, 2017

Working in the film and event industry for many years, Taylor Freeman decided to put his career on hold and travel around Europe reflecting on what is important and discovering his true passion, technology. “My He ended up building a digital agency that did everything from custom apps and web development to branding and digital marketing.

Startup 70

Startup Web Development Design Education 70

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2016

Most of these are non-profits, set up by a university to commercialize new technologies, or a municipality to foster business development for the local economy. A few are still trying to make a profitable business out of nurturing startups, but it’s a challenge to make money when your customer startups don’t have many resources to give.

Incubator 106

Incubator Startup Help Resource 106

socalTECH

MARCH 8, 2013

On the customer side, we have companies like Samsung, GE, Kaiser Permanente, Accenture. We now have seven companies, and have our own venture fund as well, and we'll be doing four or five for the next few years. It's created this perfect storm, where there's all kinds of new technology and challenges, which are slowly being fixed.

Incubator 208

Incubator Startup CTO Hire Ideas 208