Both Sides of the Table
FEBRUARY 25, 2019
I’ve sat on many boards over the past 2 decades and seen my share of high-functioning boards and low-functioning boards. Here are some observations I have from this exposure: If a company moves from strength-to-strength with predictable outcomes, easy financings, low staff turn-over, limited competitive threats then the composition of the board probably doesn’t matter as much.
TechCrunch LA
FEBRUARY 25, 2019
With an angle on a long-neglected part of the shipping industry — the short-haul movement of cargo from docks to logistics centers — Dray Alliance is joining a growing startup scene for logistics businesses based in Los Angeles. With some of the nation’s largest ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, the Southern California region is now fertile ground for businesses hoping to tackle what amounts to a trillion-dollar industry.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
socalTECH
FEBRUARY 25, 2019
Southern California startup founder Isaac Saldana --who co-founded SendGrid --is hoping to help other entrepreneurs create companies , after the $3 billion, all-stock acquisition of SendGrid by Twilio in October. According to Techstars, it appointed Saldana Chief Technology Officer for Techstars Studio , which will help members of the the startup accelerator "rapidly envision, validate, and launch disruptive startups.
Xconomy
FEBRUARY 25, 2019
Section 32, the venture capital fund based in San Diego’s Cardiff-by-the-Sea community, has raised nearly $200 million for its second fund. A document filed with securities regulators Friday shed light on comments made the previous week to Xconomy by Section 32 founder Bill Maris, who started the firm in 2017. Maris on Feb. 15 confirmed that Section 32 had raised a second fund , but declined to share the amount that had been raised.
Advertiser: Aggregage
Office leases are one of companies’ largest expenses, and if your whole team is working from home with no clear end in sight, you may be wondering what to do about your lease.
socalTECH
FEBRUARY 25, 2019
Los Angeles-based Fisker , the newly reborn electric vehicle manufacturer led by Henrik Fisker, said on Monday that it has added former U.S. Representative, Richard (Dick) Gephardt as an advisor to the company. Gephardt, who previously was a member of the board of Ford Motor Company, has been a consultant to Fisker over the last five months, according to the firm.
Startup Professionals Musings
FEBRUARY 25, 2019
Although I hear more and more about “global warming,” and the many ways we are destroying our environment, I still don’t see many global business winners in this space, comparable to Facebook and Amazon. Al Gore, by just talking about it, still seems to be leading the way in monetization, having amassed an estimated net worth reported recently as around $300 million.
Southern California Tech Central brings together the best content for technical professionals in Southern California from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Xconomy
FEBRUARY 25, 2019
Novartis has agreed to pay $150 million to Ionis Pharmaceuticals and Boston-based Akcea Therapeutics for the rights to a clinical-stage drug meant to treat patients with abnormally high levels of a protein that is considered a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The experimental drug, known as AKCEA-APO(a)-LRx by Akcea and TQJ230 by the Swiss pharma giant, was discovered by Ionis , which is based near San Diego in Carlsbad, CA, and developed jointly by Ionis and Akcea.
socalTECH
FEBRUARY 25, 2019
A new report , issued on Monday, says that Hock Tan , the CEO of Broadcom ; Robert Iger , the CEO of The Walt Disney Co. ; Stephen Milligan , the CEO of Western Digital ; and Robert Kotick , the CEO of Activision Blizzard , are among the 100 most overpaid CEOs. The report--from the group As You Sow--ranked CEOs based on total shareholder return (TSR) and where the most shares were voted against the CEO pay package.
socalTECH
FEBRUARY 25, 2019
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is looking to hold Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in contempt for violating a settlement Musk made last year with the SEC, due to a tweet earlier this month where Musk talked about production numbers for Tesla's vehicles, according to a report on Monday from Bloomberg. The action comes as a result of a tweet on February 19th where Elon Musk talked about Tesla making around 500,000 vehicles in 2019.
socalTECH
FEBRUARY 25, 2019
Santa Monica-based Super League Gaming , which operates its own e-sports competition site and community, is headed for the public markets, hoping to raise as much as $31.36M for the company, according to a regulatory filing by the firm. The company--which hopes to list as SLGG on the Nasdaq Capital Company--said it had a net loss of $20.62M for the year ended December 31, 2018, on sales of $1.04M.
socalTECH
FEBRUARY 25, 2019
Los Angeles-based Dray Alliance , a startup focused on on-demand, short haul container delivery, has raised $3.5M in a seed funding round, the company said on Monday. The funding came from Craft Ventures, the venture funding company run by David Sacks. Dray Alliance is led by CEO Steve Wen. The company says it provides AI enabled rate quoted for intermodal and drayage for freight forwarders and import/export shipper, and has thousands of drivers or drayage trucking companies in Los Angeles &
socalTECH
FEBRUARY 25, 2019
Aliso Viejo-based Smith Micro Software has rolled out a new product aimed at wireless carriers, which allows carriers and retailers to control on-screen demos at their retail stores. According to Smith Micro, the new product, ViewSpot, let those carriers show consistent promotional campaigns, device pricing specs and comparisons, and special in-store offers.
socalTECH
FEBRUARY 25, 2019
Western Digital , the storage- and memory-maker which has significant operations in Orange County, has just unveiled a new, 1TB UHS-I microSD card, which it claims is the world's fastest 1TB flash memory card. According to Western Digital the new 1TB SanDisk Extreme card has a MSRP of $449.99, and will be available at select retailers in April. The company also is offering up a smaller, 512GB version of the card for $199.99.
socalTECH
FEBRUARY 25, 2019
The ill-fated Amazon Prime Air airplane, operated by Atlas Air which crashed outside Houston, Texas on Sunday, started its day in the Inland Empire at Ontario International. According to flight records, the ill-fated Boeing 767--which crashed into a swamp near George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston--started its day at 2:26 a.m. Pacific Time at Ontario before heading to Miami; the flight was on its way back from Miami to Houston when it crashed.
Expert insights. Personalized for you.
269 
Let's personalize your content