November, 2019

article thumbnail

Heliogen’s new tech could unlock renewable energy for industrial manufacturing

TechCrunch LA

Last Monday a group of millionaires and billionaires took a trip to an industrial site in Lancaster, Calif. to witness the achievement of what could represent a giant leap forward in the effort to decarbonize some of the world’s most carbon intensive industries. For Bill Gross, the founder of Idealab and brains behind the excursion, the unveiling was simply the latest in a string of demonstrations for new technologies commercialized by his nearly three-decade old startup company incubator.

Idealab 205
article thumbnail

SpaceX Starship Prototype Reportedly Explodes In Texas

socalTECH

A prototype of a SpaceX Starship, which is undergoing testing in Texas, reportedly exploded during pressure testing on Wednesday afternoon. A live stream of the site, in Boca Chica, Texas, showed the top of the SpaceX Starship MK1 prototype being blown off with smoke billowing from the prototype spacecraft. SpaceX has yet to issue a statement on what might have gone wrong with the prototype Starship.

SpaceX 113
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

BYD Sells 130 Electric Buses to LADOT

L.A. Business Journal

BYD Motors will deliver 130 electric buses to the L.A. Department of Transportation, the company's largest order yet.

Company 222
article thumbnail

Why recurring revenues increase your company’s value

Berkonomics

The massive shift in revenue models in recent years. Have you noticed how many web apps and content have turned into subscription services during the last several years? Call it the Netflix effect. Application developers once considered their products as licensed in what would closely be allied to a single sale. Until someone realized that recurring revenues were much more highly valued by the subsequent buyers of similar businesses and investors, and that loyal users would be willing to pay

article thumbnail

Can You Ask for Office Rent Relief? How to Manage Your Lease During COVID-19

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.

article thumbnail

Honey Acquired by PayPal for $4 Billion

L.A. Business Journal

PayPal Holdings Inc. paid $4 billion to acquire Mid-Wilshire-based ecommerce software developer Honey Science Corp.

article thumbnail

Gloria brings international soccer scouting into the 21st century

TechCrunch LA

Lionel Messi, who’s still arguably the greatest soccer player in the world , signed his first contract with FC Barcelona when he was thirteen years old. Although he grew up in a small town in central Argentina, he had captured the attention of some of the world’s most famous soccer teams when he was only eleven years old. While Messi’s rags to riches story is the stuff that sports dreams are made of, it’s impossible for the world’s best teams to get a window into al

More Trending

article thumbnail

Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health Hits 25 Investments

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health , the venture investment fund focused on healthcare, which is led by John Nackel, Jay Goss, Eric Marton and Kwame Ulmer, says it has just completed its 25th investment--all made in the last 18 months. According to the firm, it believes its pace of investments makes it one of the most active healthcare venture investors in the country.

Invest 200
article thumbnail

Five Questions With a16z’s Vijay Pande on AI and Making New Drugs

Xconomy

In startup world these days, the word “biotech” is increasingly accompanied by “computational” and two, two-letter initialisms: AI and ML. Those tools—artificial intelligence and machine learning, respectively—have been around for decades, but in recent years have become faster and cheaper, accelerating their use by those in the business of discovering and developing new drugs.

article thumbnail

What is the real goal for our management and company?

Berkonomics

Often, we joke together as managers of companies or of people that our goal is “world domination” or “to crush the competition.” But no matter how stated, the primary goal of an enterprise is to make money. The three measures of progress. How do you measure progress toward such an undefined goal? We measure it by profit or revenue in dollars. But that is a number in a vacuum without at least two other measures: return on investment (ROI) and percentage of net profit to revenue.

Company 156
article thumbnail

Solar Startup Heliogen Looks to Power Plants, Refineries

L.A. Business Journal

For decades, solar technology experts have sought to generate electricity. But Pasadena-based Heliogen has a new technology that swaps fossil fuels for solar energy in industrial applications.

Pasadena 263
article thumbnail

A Culture Of Purpose In Business Leads To Doing Well

Startup Professionals Musings

Many entrepreneurs still don’t understand that building a business culture today of doing good, like helping people (society) and planet (sustainability), is also a key to maximizing profit. Employees and customers alike are looking for meaning, not simply employment and commodity prices. Every company needs this focus to attract the best minds and loyalty in both categories.

article thumbnail

Daily Crunch: Twitter will delete dormant accounts

TechCrunch LA

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here. 1. Twitter will free up handles by deleting inactive accounts. “As part of our commitment to serve the public conversation, we’re working to clean up inactive accounts to present more accurate, credible information people can trust across Twitter,” the company said.

Netflix 243
article thumbnail

Interview with Anthony Citrano, Acquicent

socalTECH

Our interview this morning with an entrepreneur is with Anthony Citrano , the founder of Los Angeles-based Acquicent (www.acquicent.com), a startup which wants to make it as easy for you to invest in museum-grade collectibles such as classic cars and art, without having to invest millions of dollars in those assets. Anthony previously was a VP at Verizon and EdgeCast.

Startup 189
article thumbnail

CTOs on Emerging Technologies and Business Transformation

SoCal Tech Calendar

Thursday, November 21, 2019 -- CTOs on Emerging Technologies and Business Transformation. AITP-LA. A distinguished panel of technology executives will share in-depth views of emerging technologies having transformative impacts to our world and implications going forward. Jeffrey Sullivan, CTO, Cloud Fax, J2 Global Paul Barros, CTO of Currency Drew Tennanbaum, CTO of Atom Tickets Tony Karrer, Founder and CEO of TechEmpower, Founder and CTO of Aggregage.

AITP 100
article thumbnail

Over-promoting employees. Recalling the Peter Principle

Berkonomics

Remember the Peter Principle? Funny how good messages come back in new forms after years of languishing out in the ether. Dr. Laurence J. Peter in The Peter Principle : Why Things Always Go Wrong wrote in the early 1960’s of the “lateral arabesque,” describing how companies promote incompetent employees sometimes by sending them to another department or division to get them out of the way of progress.

Email 120
article thumbnail

Fintech Startup Altruist Raises $8.5 Million

L.A. Business Journal

Venice-based startup Altruist Corp. raised an $8.5 million Series A round.

Venice 327
article thumbnail

7 Tips For Building Millennials Into Next-Gen Leaders

Startup Professionals Musings

Millennials have come a long way in business since I started writing about them nearly ten years ago. They started out as that spoiled generation of kids, born between about 1982 and 2004, who had everything, and could care less about business. Today they are in every business, and will likely comprise 50 percent of the workforce by 2020. Their success is now vital to our success.

Tips 127
article thumbnail

LA warns of ‘juice-jacking’ malware, but admits it has no cases

TechCrunch LA

Los Angeles’ district attorney is warning travelers to avoid public USB charging points because “they may contain dangerous malware.” Reading the advisory , you might be forgiven for thinking that every USB outlet you see is just waiting for you to plug in your phone so it can steal your data. This so-called “juice-jacking” attack involves criminals loading malware “on charging stations or cables they leave plugged in at the stations so they may infect the pho

Research 215
article thumbnail

ringDNA Adds AI-Powered Sales Coaching

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based ringDNA , which develops artificial intelligence software for the sales market, has added a new sales coaching product that uses artificial intelligence to help improve sales teams. According to ringDNA, its new conversational intelligence product, ConversationAI, provides sales talking points, call context, social etiquette, sentiment, and other various techniques that win more deals, based on its analysis of over more than 130 mimllion sales conversations.

Coach 187
article thumbnail

Preccelerator Workshop: Pivoting with Constraints w/ Jim Cooper, Braid Theory

SoCal Tech Calendar

Tuesday, November 19, 2019 -- Preccelerator Workshop: Pivoting with Constraints w/ Jim Cooper, Braid Theory. Pivoting with Constraints Direction and position of a company's pivot, relative to risk and other factors, strongly affects how a startup progresses through barriers and objects in the market. These constraints can be difficult for a startup to identify, navigate and adjust to.

Customer 100
article thumbnail

Annual reviews or constant feedback?

Berkonomics

Here comes a controversial subject. How often do you take the time to rate your direct reports? Is it worth the time and effort when measured from the perspective of the company and of the employee? In terms of time, this can be expensive and disruptive to you and your direct reports. In terms of value…well let’s examine that. What metrics will you use to fairly evaluate each direct report?

Metrics 120
article thumbnail

Fisker Previews First Electric Vehicle

L.A. Business Journal

Torrance-based electric vehicle developer Fisker Inc. will debut its first fully electric sport utility vehicle in January 2020.

Torrance 203
article thumbnail

8 Work Trends Driven By New Ventures And Competition

Startup Professionals Musings

The new era of highly connected and interactive technology is changing not only how business employees interact with customers, but also how they interact with each other, and with their company. I am happy to see reports that young companies are leading the way in these trends, on both the customer and the employee side. Both are required to stay competitive.

article thumbnail

Elon Musk will reveal Tesla’s ‘Cybertruck’ all-electric pickup on Nov. 21

TechCrunch LA

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday that the company will unveil its all-electric “cyber truck” Nov. 21 in Los Angeles near the serial entrepreneur’s other company SpaceX. The date just so happens to coincide with the LA Auto Show. However, this is a Tesla event and not associated with the auto show in downtown Los Angeles. Cybertruck unveil on Nov 21 in LA near SpaceX rocket factory. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2019.

SpaceX 186
article thumbnail

Alexa Can Now Order You A Chipotle Burrito

socalTECH

Newport Beach-based fast food chain Chipotle is making it easier for you to order its burritos and other items, through a new link into Amazon Alexa , the company said on Thursday. Chipotle said that it has launched a Chpotle skill for Alexa, which allows its members to reoder their favorite meals for either delivery or pickup. According to Chipotle, users can download Amazon Alexa and enable the Chipotle skill, and link their Chipotle profile and reorder at any time.

article thumbnail

18th Annual Wine Tasting and Fundraiser - Advancing Women in Tech

SoCal Tech Calendar

Thursday, November 14, 2019 -- 18th Annual Wine Tasting and Fundraiser - Advancing Women in Tech. Join us on November 14 as we honor an amazing group of women in technology! This annual event, hosted by the non-profit Advancing Women in Technology, will include: --2019 AWT Scholarship Presentations --Rising Women and Outstanding Executives in Technology Honorees --Wine Tasting, Light Reception --Keynote speech by Colleen Berube, Zendesk Chief Information Officer --Silent Auction for tickets to t

AWT 100
article thumbnail

Daré to Add Microchip-Based Birth Control to Women’s Health Portfolio

Xconomy

The list of activities our smartphones can control grows daily. Transfer money? It’s simple. Order groceries? That, too. Turn off the bedroom lights? Check. How about contraception? Advancing new forms of birth control is a central focus at Daré Bioscience (NASDAQ: DARE ), a San Diego-based biopharma company that’s built a pipeline of experimental devices and treatments tailored for women’s health.

San Diego 110
article thumbnail

EVGo Expands Leaf Partnership with Nissan

L.A. Business Journal

Sawtelle-based EVgo Services has expanded its existing relationship with Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., offering free charges to Nissan drivers at any of its charging locations.

Services 130
article thumbnail

10 Early Business Strategies That Can Lead To Failure

Startup Professionals Musings

Starting a new business is a serious undertaking. Yet many aspiring entrepreneurs I know approach it as a fun project, get-rich quick scheme, or perhaps an expensive hobby. Others quit their day jobs and commit everything to their new passion, without regard for their own well-being, or the welfare of others around them. Neither of these approaches bodes well for success.

Startup 127
article thumbnail

Venture capitalists ‘like and subscribe’ to influencers

TechCrunch LA

Danielle Bernstein is just 27 years old, but she’s been running her own business for 10 years. First it was street-style photography, then came the launch of her popular fashion blog WeWoreWhat. Next she took to Instagram, a new social media platform that quickly became the most effective tool in a blogger’s toolkit. With new followers — today her account, @weworewhat , has 2.2 million — came opportunities to monetize her influence.

Platform 170
article thumbnail

Video Interview: Dr. Paul Witman, California Luthern University

socalTECH

Our video interview today is with Dr. Paul Witman , Director of the MS-Information Technology Program at California Lutheran University (www.clu.edu), which recently added a new cybersecurity certificate to its program. READ MORE>>.

article thumbnail

Disrupt or Get Disrupted : A Founders Guide To 5G

SoCal Tech Calendar

Tuesday, November 12, 2019 -- Disrupt or Get Disrupted : A Founders Guide To 5G. Verizon 5G Labs and Startup Boost are partnering to demystify 5G and to discuss how it will impact founders and investors alike. Bringing together some of the best minds in the space for a fireside chat and interactive panel, the event will take place at Verizon's brand new 5G labs for an evening of learning and networking over food and drinks.

Guide 100
article thumbnail

PhoenixMD Adds Seed Funding to Test Experimental Breast Cancer Drug

Xconomy

Phoenix Molecular Designs, a biotech developing kinase inhibitors to treat cancer, has brought in an undisclosed amount of financing—boosting its total seed funding raised to $12 million. The San Diego-based biotech says the proceeds will help fund the Phase 1/1b clinical trial of its lead candidate, PMD-026, an investigational cancer drug being developed to treat an especially deadly form of breast cancer.

article thumbnail

Frame.io Plans LA Space

L.A. Business Journal

New York-based video editing software developer Frame.io Inc. has raised a $50 million Series C round and will use part of the funding to gain a foothold in the L.A. market.

article thumbnail

8 Techniques For Shining A Light On Your Blind Spots

Startup Professionals Musings

Most of us have blind spots in our ability to build a business, due to lack of experience, too much ego, over-confidence, or unjustified faith in a subordinate. Only a few of the entrepreneurs I have worked with in a decade of consulting are smart and humble enough to recognize that they don’t know what they don’t know, and have an effective process for shining a light on their blind spots.

article thumbnail

Audi’s next all-electric vehicle, the e-tron Sportback, is a “coupé” SUV

TechCrunch LA

Audi revealed Tuesday evening in Los Angeles the e-tron Sportback as the German automaker begins to chip away at its plan to launch more than 30 electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids by 2025. The e-tron Sportback reveal ahead of the LA Auto Show follows the launch earlier this year of Audi’s first all-electric vehicle, the 2019 e-tron. Audi has delivered 18,500 of its all-electric e-tron SUVs globally since March 2019 when the vehicle first came to market.

Design 162