socalTECH

FEBRUARY 11, 2015

West Hollywood-based Laurel & Wolf , a startup which offers up an online marketplace to connect people with top interior designers, disclosed Wednesday that it has raised $5.5M in funding. The funding included $4.4M in a Series A funding, along with $1.1M in seed funding. READ MORE>>.

Design 100

Design West Hollywood Draper Seed Funding 100

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

Los Angeles-based gaming startup Midnight announced this morning that it has raised $7.5M in its seed funding round.

Chief Technology Officer 113

Chief Technology Officer Seed Funding Platform Entertainment 113

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

Los Angeles-based Jemae , a fashion startup which offers up designer products which help benefit humanitarian projects, said Wednesday that it has raised $1.3M in a seed funding round. The funding came from strategic investors JS Apparel, Inc. and Katmandu, Inc. READ MORE>>.

Seed Funding 100

Seed Funding Startup Design Los Angeles 100

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 14, 2020

A pitch to offer artists a way to give geo-fenced, live events to fans around the world has brought the new Los Angeles startup Moment House $1.5 million in seed funding. I was drawn to the unique design-driven approach because that’s what is needed to create a new category here.”.

Los Angeles 173

Los Angeles Entertainment Seed Funding USC 173

TechCrunch LA

MAY 13, 2020

It’s the origin story for Taika , a new startup that’s aiming to bring natural stimulants to the masses through its juiced up coffee-beverages. I’ve experimented with them myself and experimented with them on my partner and started this larger beta program.” ” Image Credits: Taika (opens in a new window).

Startup 284

Startup Los Angeles Seed Funding Product 284

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 17, 2017

Tortuga Logic , a new startup focused on chip-level cybersecurity technology whose founders include professors from UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara, has raised $2M in a seed funding, the company disclosed on Thursday. The seed funding came from Eclipse Ventures.

Software Review 124

Software Review UCSD Santa Barbara San Diego 124

socalTECH

OCTOBER 10, 2013

In what is a fairly unusual move, last week, Tradesparq (www.tradesparq.com), a Chinese startup in the area of B2B trade information, said it was planning on setting up its operations here in Southern California, as part of an expansion and scaling of the company. Michael Kleist: We started in 2010. What is Tradesparq?

Southern California 170

Southern California Startup SoCal CTO Hire 170

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 15, 2020

Orange County-based Violux , a startup developing ultraviolet light (UV-C) home cleaning devices, announced this morning that it has raised $1.2M in a seed funding round. The funding was led by Okapi Venture Partners, and also included Unlock Ventures and Envoy Ventures. Violux is led by CEO and co-foudner Sean Clottu.

Orange County 113

Orange County Funding Seed Funding Design 113

socalTECH

OCTOBER 30, 2020

Los Angeles-based SUMA Wealth , a startup which operates an online platform designed to help U.S.-born, born, Millennial Latinos with financial literacy, has raised a round of funding, the company announced this week. According to the company, it received a pre-seed funding round from a number of female investors.

Venture Capital 113

Venture Capital Funding Seed Funding Los Angeles 113

socalTECH

MAY 3, 2012

ventura-based NetPlenish , the mobile shopping service startup headed by Dave Compton , said today that it has launched with $1.9M ventura-based NetPlenish , the mobile shopping service startup headed by Dave Compton , said today that it has launched with $1.9M

Ventura 140

Ventura Compton Startup Seed Funding 140

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 19, 2018

According to Wildfire Sytems this morning, Wildlink is a platform designed for monetizing social messaging and digital communications, which rewards consumers for making word-of-mouth recommendations to others. The startup is backed by Mucker Capital, which led a $2M seed funding round in the company in 2017.

Seed Funding 113

Seed Funding San Diego Platform Email 113

socalTECH

JULY 19, 2012

Los Angeles investor Baroda Ventures , the venture capital arm of David Bohnett, has re-upped on online fashion and e-commerce site Fab.com , in a big, $105M third round of funding for that site. Baroda has been an investor in Fab since its seed funding back in June of 2010. Bohnett is the founder of Geocities.com.

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Funding Seed Funding Commerce Social Network 178

socalTECH

AUGUST 8, 2017

Los Angeles-based Triple , a startup developing augmented reality applications, said today that it has launched a new app to let users shop for furniture--and see how that furniture looks like in their home or office. Triple has received seed funding from Foundation Capital. Triple was founded by Chris Heinrich and Alex Edelman.

Seed Funding 150

Seed Funding Los Angeles Design Capital 150

socalTECH

JULY 9, 2013

The IdeaLists , a new startup which operates an online marketplace for creative talent, has raised $1.7M in a seed funding round. The funding came from Double M Capital, Pegasus Capital, Siemer Ventures, 500 Startups, Clark Landry, Paul Bricault, and others. READ MORE>>.

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Seed Funding Venture Capital Design Capital 200

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

Not just Tinder, Dollar Shave Club, Riot Games, CornerStone OnDemand and the companies you’ve heard of but there are large successes that are less well known but now very large startups businesses like Ring, Zip Recruiter, GumGum, Laurel & Wolf and too many other great companies to mention.

Dollar Shave Club 321

Dollar Shave Club Cornerstone OnDemand Riot Games Venture Capital 321

socalTECH

JANUARY 15, 2013

It's a new year, and another batch of accelerator startups, as Demo Day season in Los Angeles kicks off this week. The first Demo Day of 2013 in Los Angeles is tomorrow, as MuckerLab launches its latest class of startups; fellow Los Angeles accelerator StartEngine has its first 2013 demo day scheduled for January 30th.

Seed Funding 217

Seed Funding Class Los Angeles Mentor 217

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 15, 2015

million in seed funding since its founding in 2012. The curated design and photography-driven entertainment site is where GIFs and memes intermingle with stunning photography, video and the ability to purchase in app. Ellis describes himself as a lifelong product guy, and lover of design and photography. I am drawn to it.

Seed Funding 40

Seed Funding Funding Commerce Social Media 40

socalTECH

APRIL 15, 2014

A new startup, Tikr , has been offering up a mobile app to make sure you''re never behind on following what''s next. The startup--founded by Nick La Maina, Kurt Braget, and Kevin Donovan--says its tool is designed to bringing information on future releases and upcoming events to communities of people very soon.

Seed Funding 187

Seed Funding Tool Mobile Design 187

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2023

contributes more than $25 billion to fund 70,000 startups every year. In fact, there are a few key sites to help you find angels, including AngelList and Gust , but these don’t tell you very much about how angels work, and how to find the right ones for your startup. Look to grants and strategic partners for seed funding.

Venture Capital 106

Venture Capital Angel Seed Funding Invest 106

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

Can getting a car be as easy as opening up an app, scanning your driver's license, and inputting your credit card? Fair (www.fair.com), the latest startup by serial entrepreneur Scott Painter , does just that, letting users shop for a car, get approved, and pay for a car through a month-to-month payment--with no long term committment.

Startup 124

Startup Truecar Pricing Entrepreneur 124

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

DiCaprio has already made a number of investments in startup companies that have done very well for the Academy Award-winning actor. And the two investments highlight themes of consumer innovation and sustainability that are a through-line across the startup commitments DiCaprio has made public, according to CrunchBase.

Capital 188

Capital Funding Los Angeles Invest 188

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2010

Here are some recent great posts that I’ve come across that generally fall in the intersection of startups and CTOs. They have a related post: Designing startup metrics to drive successful behavior | For Entrepreneurs , but I think that looking at my Startup Metrics post provides a bit broader set of metrics to consider.

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Pricing Acquisition Customer Custom 150

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 6, 2020

I have started to publish a version of the newsletter on TechCrunch. I will repeat my appeal from last week: Maybe you’re a startup founder, a safety driver at an autonomous vehicle developer, a venture capitalist, engineer or gig economy worker. The on-demand shuttle startup raised $400 million, TechCrunch learned.

Layoffs 136

Layoffs Startup Newsletter Santa Monica 136

From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 30, 2013

Amplify’s close mentoring is by design. But like a Darwinian experiment, the extent to which these gifts are utilized remains entirely up to each individual entrepreneur. We heard how Jeff transitioned from a start-up founder to an institutional investor when he helped found Amplify towards the end of 2011.

Web Design 103

Web Design Social Media Seed Funding Design 103

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 29, 2019

When ProGuides pulled the covers off of its service earlier this year, the young Los Angeles-based startup intended to give gamers a way to train with professional and semi-pro esports players from around the world. million in pre-seed funding last June. “Our tagline is ‘Play with pros’ now,” says Wang.

Coach 180

Coach Seed Funding Training Platform 180

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 31, 2012

LA-based company, Chewse has joined 500 Startups in Silicon Valley, making it the first starup from LA to join the prestigious accelerator program and seed fund. 500 Startups fifth accelerator batch is a selection of international startups with 15 percent of the total originating outside the U.S.

Startup 68

Startup Seed Funding West Los Angeles Class 68

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

But many have no insight or connections to the ethereal angel investment community, which actually funds more startups then all other venture sources combined (over $25 billion annually). Angels are typically current or former entrepreneurs who want to bring more than money to your startup. Most share expertise as well as money.

Angel 106

Angel Startup Venture Capital Seed Funding 106

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

When to start PR? I’m generally not a believer in too much PR until you have a product built or at least well designed. This is somewhat changing in the world of crowd funding where people actually raise money so that they can build products but at a minimum your product design ought to be complete and ready to execute.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

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. We caught up with Artin Nazarian , the firm's co-founder, and chatted about what the company is hoping to do. Then, worry about the design.

Social Media 174

Social Media Seed Funding Startup Design 174

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2021

contributes more than $25 billion to fund 70,000 startups every year. In fact, there are a few key sites to help you find angels, including AngelList and Gust , but these don’t tell you very much about how angels work, and how to find the right ones for your startup. Look to grants and strategic partners for seed funding.

Angel 126

Angel Funding Venture Capital Seed Funding 126

Tech.Co

MAY 9, 2017

Taylor returned home and dove into learning web development and design on his own. He ended up building a digital agency that did everything from custom apps and web development to branding and digital marketing. Taylor started pushing out content through social media and share what was happening in the industry.

Startup 70

Startup Web Development Design Education 70

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. . “Up until now, robotic actuation was mostly about super rigid, super stiff, super strong, repeatable actuation, mostly for manufacturing.

Los Angeles 207

Los Angeles Angel Artificial Inteligence CalTech 207

socalTECH

JULY 1, 2013

A couple of weeks ago, a brand new, startup incubator launched in town--with a slightly different focus, on biomedical technology. He sat down with us to tell us more about the incubator, plus why--having started an equivalent of what would be called accelerator today, but during the dot com days--he''s a fan of a different model today.

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Incubator Startup USC Tech Coast Angels 217

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

We seed funded a company a few years ago called Parachute Home that has grown 180% CAGR (compounded annually) and is now doing tens of millions of revenue with very little capital raised. What started as sheets now has dozens of SKU’s. where would you even start in terms of product selection?

Product 296

Product Course Customer Custom 296

socalTECH

OCTOBER 30, 2013

Those services work on volume, and the designs you can send--and which you receive--are from a limited selection, not at all personalized to the recipient, and for the florist delivering the flowers, provides slim margins and no opportunity to build a customer base. How does a startup like your fight such a dominant industry?

Beverly Hills 157

Beverly Hills Technical Review Design Startup 157

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

As I’ve written about recently, at Upfront Ventures we started talking a couple of years ago about wanting to fund stuff with more meaning. I think this is a combination of being realists as venture capitalists that outsized returns in our funds must come from taking on bigger, more impactful projects that can move markets.

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire IP 418

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 17, 2012

I had met Richard at a MaiTai tech networking trip of kiteboarders in Maui and ended up traveling again with her later that year with a fragment of the group to explore the tech scene in Australia. You have to come check out the startup scene here in Toronto (for I am a bad Canadian, and have not visited most of my country).

Startup 109

Startup Incubator Seed Funding Platform 109