September, 2016

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Why I Backed a 24-Year-Old Trying to Assess Human Potential

Both Sides of the Table

Today Upfront Ventures is announcing that we’ve backed Rebecca Kantar ’s startup Imbellus , a company designed to assess human potential and ultimately change the way we teach children. We led a $4 million investment along with Thrive Capital, GLG and Sound Ventures. The news blogs will cover the what, how and how much but I want to focus on the “why” and try to be instructive of what I think makes for a great A-round startup.

Design 270
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Russian Firm’s Bid For Rocket Launcher Comes Under Fire.

L.A. Business Journal

Russian private aviation holding company CJSC S7 Group’s purchase of Sea Launch, a rocket launch company that operates out of the Port of Long Beach, is making waves in the Southern California aerospace industry, with a legal challenge by the Boeing Co. and concerns about the Russian company’s involvement.

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How ContractSafe Wants To Help You Get Your Legal Docs In Order, With Ken Button

socalTECH

For a lot of companies�and their management and legal teams-- managing the reams of paperwork involved with legal contracts is a big, disorganized mess. To address that disaster, Ken Button and Randy Bishop�two veterans of the startup industry�created ContractSafe (www.contractsafe.com), a new online service aimed at helping companies to tame that mess and manage and store their contracts in the cloud.

Doc 235
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Eye of the needle? Why worry over your bottlenecks.

Berkonomics

Think for a minute whether there is any process or person that could be classed as the eye of the needle in your organization. Is there anything, process or person, that stalls the flow of work from start to finish? A CEO once told me that she was ‘the eye of the needle’ in her organization, purposely controlling quality of service and making sure all of her direct reports let her know of each . decision and action they undertook.

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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.

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These High School Dropouts Crushed It With Some Simple Growth Hacks

InfoChachkie

A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. Novelist and High School Dropout Louis L'Amour knew the importance of seemingly unimportant people (AP Photo). “Growth hacking” is one of today’s most overused terms, yet despite its trendiness, it predates the Internet by centuries. Entrepreneurs have been seeking clever shortcuts to spur their growth and circumvent their competitors since the dawn of commerce.

Education 133
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Artificial Intelligence.Friend or Foe? - MIT Enterprise Forum of the Central Coast

SoCal Tech Calendar

Wednesday, September 21, 2016 -- "Artificial Intelligence. Friend or Foe?" Explore the Unfolding Mystery of AIs Impact of Humanity. MIT Enterprise Forum of the Central Coast. Is humanity at the dawn of a new age of enlightenment, inspired by benign AI enabled tech; or on an unalterable path to computer driven subservience to AI powered, self-aware machines?

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Fender Turns to Hollywood, Internet to Lift Sales

L.A. Business Journal

Guitar maker Fender looks to crank the volume on sales with a new outpost in Hollywood.

Hollywood 218
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Indeed Prime On Why Los Angeles Is A Hot Technology Jobs Market

socalTECH

Most of the insiders and hiring executives in Los Angeles know how hard it is to find technical talent in Los Angeles�but not all realize it's not because of lack of talent, but because of very high demand. Last week, job search service Indeed launched a new service in Los Angeles, called Indeed Prime , hoping to jump into the market for finding talent here to address that issue.

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How to simplify your commission structure

Berkonomics

Is your commission structure so complex that even you must have help understanding it – and calculating a commission on a pending bid? Sales people are incentivized by money. They usually are able to calculate what’s in it for them before they make the final presentation and ask for the order. But what if the commission plan is so complex that even the people who should be most excited cannot understand or calculate the winning numbers?

Sales 202
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This Startup Hacked LinkedIn To Recruit Customers & Reduce Churn

InfoChachkie

A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. Businesses typically use LinkedIn to recruit employees. However, savvy startups can leverage LinkedIn to create a customer acquisition and a churn reduction tool. In particular, one of Rincon Venture Partner’s portfolio companies, SimpleLegal, has had so much success mining LinkedIn for customers that the CEO was initially reluctant for me to name his company in this article, fearing his competitors will mimic their common sense, yet cleve

Customer 127
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TCVN Fireside Chat with Scott Jarus

SoCal Tech Calendar

Thursday, September 29, 2016 -- Crowd-funding – Tales from the trenches: Observations from a combatant. TCVN. Much has been anticipated about crowd-funding and its impact on capital formation. Come hear serial entrepreneur and transformational leader, Scott Jarus, share his experiences and perspective of raising capital as a CEO of both public and privately-held companies.

TCVN 124
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How Do VCs Choose Their Investors (and should entrepreneurs care?)

Both Sides of the Table

I recently read a blog post by Beezer Clarkson, Managing Director of Sapphire Ventures about why entrepreneurs should care about from whom their VC funds raise their capital. I spent a bunch of time thinking about this position — especially since Beezer is an investor in Upfront Ventures. There are a lot of things I think entrepreneurs should care about when raising from a VC: How big or small their fund is?

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Tesla Motors to Build 20MW Battery Storage Facility for SoCal Edison

L.A. Business Journal

Southern California Edison has selected Tesla Motors Inc. to build a 20-megawatt battery storage facility in Mira Loma for an undisclosed amount.

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Foursquare Opens First Office In LA

socalTECH

Location-based information service Foursquare said on Monday that it has opened up its first office in Los Angeles, in Playa Vista. According to Foursquare, the new office will help it meet explosion in demand, in part due to local local automotive, entertainment, CPG and QSR customers. The company said that Lindsay Aston, Matt Bontaites and Karen Lurry will lead the new office.

Journal 185
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Hire on ability. Fire on fit.

Berkonomics

This is not necessarily the way we intend to behave as managers, but our headline reflects the reality of most experiences when viewed in retrospect. We carefully vet the potential hire for experience required. Ninety days or longer later, if that person is terminated by management, it often is for actions resulting from the person’s relationship with others in the organization more often than failure to perform the specific task for which the person was hired.

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The 5 Criteria That Matter When Evaluating A College Entreprenurial Program

InfoChachkie

A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. A friend recently asked me to give his startup-minded daughter some advice to help her vet undergraduate entrepreneurial programs. As I thought about the characteristics that comprise a great program, I identified five criteria that a prospective entrepreneurial student can use to evaluate the efficacy of a collegiate entrepreneur curriculum.

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First Time Entrepreneur Workshop

SoCal Tech Calendar

Saturday, September 24, 2016 -- First Time Entrepreneur Workshop. LAVA. Matt Crowley from Crowley Corporate Legal Strategy is teaching another great First Time Entrepreneur Workshop with the LA Venture Association (LAVA) on Saturday September 24th in Encino. He will be teaching about valuation, dilution, intellectual property rights, working with co-founders, and a variety of other topics that are critical for startup founders to master.

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ZUM: On-Demand Rides and Child Care for Busy Parents

Tech.Co

Kids require a lot of attention , and if we ourselves are not available to give that extra care to our kids, we are keen on finding someone who we trust would do a great job. Trust is a huge factor in relegating childcare to others; we need to feel the connection, and believe that our kids are in safe hands and that the person doing the job is willing and capable of giving the utmost possible care.

Demand 112
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Digital Resolution

L.A. Business Journal

ArbiClaims believes it has settled on a successful strategy in providing speedy online arbitration

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Here's Who Is Funding Companies In Southern California Today

socalTECH

Are you a startup looking to find funding in Southern California? It's often tough to figure exactly who the venture capital funds are who are funding startups in the area. However, for members of socaltech.com, it's a click away with our real time analysis of venture funding flows. Here are the venture firms who have been most active in SoCal (Santa Babrara - Los Angeles - Orange County - San Diego) in the last twelve months, based on the number of deals: 1.

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A simple test: “Are we managing like jerks?”

Berkonomics

Are we who issue orders to associates or employees ever acting as jerks? We’d never like to think so, or we wouldn’t do it in the first place. If someone is saying “This is confusing to me” when you’ve given an instruction or order, there are a number of ways to respond. Of course it may be appropriate to explain your reasoning, or ask what part of the instruction is confusing.

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Colorado’s Webroot Buys CyberFlow Analytics, Expands in San Diego

Xconomy

Not long after ViaSat (NASDAQ: VSAT ) acquired San Diego-based LonoCloud in 2013 , former LonoCloud executives Tom Caldwell and Hossein Eslambolchi met for coffee at the Specialty’s Café and Bakery in University City. Eslambolchi, who had served as a LonoCloud advisor and CEO, told Caldwell he had an idea for a cybersecurity startup that would use analytic software and machine learning technology to monitor the data flowing in and out of networks for anything that looks out of the ordinary.

San Diego 110
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First Time Entrepreneur Workshop

SoCal Tech Calendar

Saturday, September 24, 2016 -- First Time Entrepreneur Workshop. LAVA. Join us for our next First Time Entrepreneur Workshop! Matt Crowley from Crowley Corporate Legal Strategy is teaching another great workshop with the LA Venture Association (LAVA) on Saturday September 24th in Encino. He will be teaching about valuation, dilution, intellectual property rights, working with co-founders, and a variety of other topics that are critical for startup founders to master.

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10 Tried-And-True Strategies For Funding New Ventures

Startup Professionals Musings

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” I always answer that there isn’t any magic, and contrary to the popular myth, nobody is waiting in the wings to throw money at you, just because you have a new and exciting business idea. On the other hand, there are many additional creative options available for starting a business that you might not find for buying a car, home, or other major consumer item.

Funding 107
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Virgin Galactic Begins Test Flights of Commercial Spaceship

L.A. Business Journal

Virgin Galactic’s commercial spaceship, VSS Unity, took to the skies above the Mojave Desert on Thursday, the craft’s first test run since its predecessor SpaceShipTwo crashed and killed one of its pilots in 2014.

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LumaTax Raises $2M For Small Business Tax Reporting Software

socalTECH

LumaTax , a new startup has offices in both San Diego and Seattle, Washington, has raised $2M in a funding, the company said on Thursday. The funding came from Madrona Venture Group, Greycroft Partners, and angels. LumaTax develops software which can be used by small businesses to automate the paperwork required for paying sales taxes. The company is initially launching its product in California.

Software 176
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Certona Scores $30M In Growth Funding

socalTECH

San Diego-based Certona , a developer of personalization software which uses machine learning and predictive algorithms, has raised $30M in a combined growth investment and minority recapitalization. The funding came from private equity investor Primus Capital. Certona said the funding will go towards growing market share, product development, and expanding services and support.

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Cyberflow Analytics Acquired By Webroot

socalTECH

San Diego-based cybersecurity software developer CyberFlow Analytics , which develops software to analyze network traffic to locate cyber threats, has been acquired by Webroot , Webroot said on Monday. Financial terms of the asset deal were not announced. Cyberflow's software was used for identifying network anomalies in IPv4 and IPv6 traffic. Webroot said it will incorporate CyberFlow's technology into its products, initially in custom integration and evaluaation, with full availability and fur

San Diego 173
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Everbridge Raises $90M In IPO, Sees Pop On Market Debut

socalTECH

Everbridge , a developer of emergency notification tools which was founded and still has major operations in both Glendale and Pasadena, has had an IPO, raising $90M for the company and marking another major, SoCal linked technology startup exit in what has been a busy year for deals. Everbridge is now trading on the NASDAQ Global Market as EVBG. The company is backed by ABS Ventures, Daughty Hansen & Co., Second Alpha Partners Fund, Eastward Capital Partners, PMC Financial Services, and oth

Glendale 173
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LeisureLink Shuts Down All Operations

socalTECH

LeisureLink , the developer of vacation rental booking software which was started in Pasadena, has shut down all of its operations, and laid off all of its staff. In a letter to partners, LeisureLink said all employees of LeisureLink are being terminated and the platform turned off, after its management was unable to raise additional equity to fund the company.

Pasadena 170
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LeisureLink Suspends Service, Stops Accepting Reservations

socalTECH

LeisureLink , which develops vacation travel booking software and technology, and was started in the Los Angeles area, appears to have halted its service, telling its partners on Friday that it has suspended accepting new reservations as well as modifying existing reservations. The company--which is still backed by a number of Southern California investors, including the Tech Coast Angels--had merged with VacationRoost.com back in 2013, and moved its headquarters to Utah.

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DataScience Debuts New Data Analysis Platform

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based DataScience , the data analytics software developer led by Ian Swanson, has rolled out its data analysis platform, the DataScience Cloud. The new software is aimed at data science teams in the enterprise. DataScience said its platform supports connect any time of data source to data sciences sources, including databases, distributed filesystems, software-as-a-services; includes visualization tools and data browsers; connections to an API; and more.

Platform 168
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ContractSafe Launches New Cloud Storage Service For Legal Docs

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based ContractSafe is taking on the online, legal documents storage market, and has launched a new online legal document storage service. The startup says its service is already being used by California Pizza Kitchen, Living Spaces and Ross Organics. ContractSafe is led by Ken Button; the company says its founders have previously worked at Intuit, Winston & Strawn, O'Melveny & Myers, and Verengo Solar, and is backed by BearTree Partners LLC.

Doc 168
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EcoATM Gets New CEO After Private Equity Acquisition

socalTECH

San Diego-based ecoATM has appointed David D. Maquera as its CEO, after the completion of the company's acquisition by private equity investor Apollo Global Management. Apollo paid approximately $1.6 billion for ecoAtM's parent company, Outerwall , which it is splitting back into three separate companies--Redbox, Coinstar, and ecoATM. David Maquera had been serving as President of Outerwall's ecoATM business, which allows consumers to turn in their old cell phones for cash payments. ecoATM says

Equity 166
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Philz Coffee Looks Beyond California With $45M Funding

socalTECH

Philz Coffee , the Silicon Valley coffee chain which has been in a massive expansion in Southern California in the last few months, announced on Tuesday a $45M Series C funding round. The company said the big investment round was led by TPG Growth. As part of the funding, Jim COulter and Sanjay Banker, both of TPG, join the company's board. Philz Coffee is about to open its first location in Glendale this week, just opened a location in Huntington Beach , and opened a location in Hollywood in Ju

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Wpromote Launches Scholarship For Students In Digital Marketing

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based digital marketing agency Wpromote said on Monday that it has launched a new set of scholsrships, which will go to students interested in digital marketing. According to Wpromote, the new scholarships--which will be awarded bi-annually--will total $3,000, with the first award in December of this year. The company will award a $1500, $1000, and $500 scholarship to students who are in high school, undergraduate school and graduate school, and are open to students of all majors and

Marketing 165