February, 2020

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Snap accelerator names its latest cohort

TechCrunch LA

Yellow , the accelerator program launched by Snap in 2018, has selected ten companies to join its latest cohort. The new batch of startups coming from across the U.S. and international cities like London, Mexico City, Seoul and Vilnius are building professional social networks for black professionals and blue collar workers, fashion labels, educational tools in augmented reality, kids entertainment, and an interactive entertainment production company.

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Why Meg Whitman is Betting on Quibi as“The Da Vinci Code of Content”

Both Sides of the Table

Every year, a personal Upfront Summit highlight is getting to sit down with experts in a field I care about. Sometimes that’s venture capital generally (like last year’s conversation with Reid Hoffman ) and sometimes it’s in a space where I’ve invested (like mobility and city innovation with Bird’s Travis VanderZanden , one of our portfolio founders.

Content 244
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BYD Delivers First Buses as Part of Anaheim Order

L.A. Business Journal

BYD Motors Inc., a downtown-based electric vehicle maker, delivered to Anaheim the first two electric buses of a previously announced 40-bus order, BYD announced Feb. 24.

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Does your company have a “dirty cap table?”

Berkonomics

How it happens. When you seek professional investors, whether organized angels or venture capitalists, one of the early questions you are asked is “How have you financed the business so far?” Investors love to see entrepreneurs who have used their own money to ignite their businesses. But often, entrepreneurs turn to others for initial capital. Describing that capital using the phrase “friends, family and fools,” or “FFF,” has become as common as to be trite.

Company 156
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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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Seqster Gets Investment From Takeda

socalTECH

San Diego-based Seqster , which develops software used f[link] health data management, said today that it has received an investment from Takeda Pharmaceuticals. Size of the investment was not announced. According to Seqster, it will use the new funding to accelerate adoption of its technology, which is used for managing clinical trials and patient engagement.

Invest 169
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5 Startup Challenges That Derail Many Entrepreneurs

Startup Professionals Musings

As a mentor to entrepreneurs, I tend to see many of the same obstacles appearing in every new startup, and since I don’t want to appear to be a downer , I’m not sure how to properly warn people ahead of time to be on the alert for these challenges. In fact, since most entrepreneurs are eternal optimists anyway, they would never believe any negative scenarios could happen to them.

Startup 131

More Trending

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SCALE 18x

SoCal Tech Calendar

Thursday, March 5, 2020 -- SCALE is North America's leading open source community conference. Held annually in the greater Los Angeles area the conference draws over 3500 attendees from around the globe.

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Star Gazer

L.A. Business Journal

Steve Isakowitz is president and chief executive of Aerospace Corp., the nation’s only federally funded research and development center focused on aerospace.

Research 264
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CoronaVirus and small business: A discussion about economics

Berkonomics

By Harley Kaufman, guest author. Note from Dave: Harley is an old friend and avid reader of BERKONOMICS. With a background in management and technology, he gives us something to think about regarding today’s top-of-news subject. Addressing the issue to small and medium businesses. The CoronaVirus (Covid19) could potentially cause some real disruptions in the US generally and, specifically, to the small and medium sized businesses that probably make up the bulk of your readership.

News 156
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Amazon Eyes Alexa Team Hiring In Santa Barbara

socalTECH

Amazon is in a major expansion in Santa Barbara, with plans to hire as many as 300 people in a new, three story downtown location, all working as part of the Amazon Alexa team. Amazon's new space, at 1001 State Street, is expected to draw workers from UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and other local universities, as well as from the region's existing supply of technology companies.

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10 Manageable Risks That An Entrepreneur Should Take

Startup Professionals Musings

There is an old saying that good lawyers run away from risk, while good businessmen run towards risk. Entrepreneurs see “no risk” as meaning “no reward.” In reality, all risks are not the same. Many risks can be managed or calculated to improve growth or provide a competitive edge, while others, like skipping quality checks to save money, are recipes for failure.

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Max Q: SpaceX gets ready for first human flight

TechCrunch LA

Max Q is a new weekly newsletter all about space. Sign up here to receive it weekly on Sundays in your inbox. This week turned out to be a surprisingly busy one in space news — kicked off by the Trump administration’s FY 2021 budget proposal, which was generous to U.S. space efforts both in science and in defense. Meanwhile, we saw significant progress in SpaceX’s commercial crew program, and plenty of activity among startups big and small.

SpaceX 272
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SoCal Startup Day

SoCal Tech Calendar

Wednesday, February 26, 2020 -- SoCal Startup Day. We are proud to announce the first annual SoCal Startup Day. We will have a jam packed day of festivities, exhibitors, investors, keynotes, fireside chats, activites, food trucks and cocktails, and the biggest startup event Orange County has ever seen! If you are looking to network and connect with Southern California's top startups, seeking funding, or just curious about the startup community, this is the event for you.

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Media Draws a Crowd in Silicon Beach

L.A. Business Journal

As digital media continues to evolve, and as entertainment plays an increasingly crucial role in the category, Silicon Beach has developed into an essential location for big and ambitious companies.

Media 244
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How about personal guarantees for company debt?

Berkonomics

Is the guarantee still required today? More than ever, the banks and lenders today require personal guarantees from entrepreneurs, and even from CEO’s of angel or some VC funded businesses. Starting and running a small or growing business can be a challenge to the most confident and optimistic entrepreneur. And the process of borrowing money or financing asset purchases can be an eye-opener for those who are not used to today’s lender and seller aversion to grant easy credit.

Company 156
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Ingram Micro Grows Ecommerce Efforts In Canada

socalTECH

Irvine-based Ingram Micro , the big computer and technology distributor and provider of technology and supply chain services, said that its strategic business unit, Ingram micro Commerce & Lifecycle Services , is seeing record growth of its Canadian e-commerce business. The company said it saw an 87 percent increase in apparel/footwear orders and a 25 percent increase in consumer electronics in Canada in 2019.

Commerce 147
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6 Challenges In Penetrating The New World Of Services

Startup Professionals Musings

Selling services has always been about relationships, but the challenges of building relationships with services clients have exploded. Customers today extrapolate their relationships not only from personal contact, but from every aspect of their interface with your company, including web site and social media interactions, access to peer reviews, as well as the actual services experience.

Services 128
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SpaceX alumni are helping build LA’s startup ecosystem

TechCrunch LA

During the days when Snapchat’s popularity was booming, investors thought the company would become the anchor for a new Los Angeles technology scene. Snapchat, they hoped, would spin-off entrepreneurs and angel investors who would reinvest in the local ecosystem and create new companies that would in turn foster more wealth, establishing LA as a hub for tech talent and venture dollars on par with New York and Boston.

SpaceX 173
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Scripps Research’s Calibr to Test “Switchable” CAR-T in Clinical Trial

Xconomy

Scripps Research is charting new territory with its Calibr division, a drug discovery and drug development group within the research institute that is advancing its own experimental treatments. This week Calibr announced it had received the agency’s go-ahead to move a CAR-T cell therapy it has been evaluating for the treatment of certain blood cancers, including relapsed/refractory B-cell malignancies such as non-Hodgkin lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, into human testing.

Research 116
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AllVoices Harassment Reporting App Raises $3 Million

L.A. Business Journal

AllVoices, an app that enables employees to anonymously report harassment and other workplace issues, raised $3 million in seed funding.

Report 260
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Some thoughts about office politics

Berkonomics

Where’s the threat? It is hard to separate this kind of advice from economic lessons in running a business, when office politics can threaten a business in ways that are subtle, but sometimes just as devastating as economic shocks or continuing poor management. Examining the petri dish. Most any office with more than one level of management (more than ten employees) can become a Petri dish for office politics.

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GumGum Gets $22M More For Advertising AI Software

socalTECH

Santa Monica-based GumGum , which develops artificial intelligence software for the advertising and media market, has raised $22M more in a funding round, the company said on Thursday. According to the firm, the new $22M funding came from Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, NewView Capital, and Upfront Ventures. All three of those investors are existing investors in the company.

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7 Ways Growing Companies Drift From Startup Thinking

Startup Professionals Musings

Every new venture that survives the first five years starts to drift away from their entrepreneurial thinking, and assumes they have achieved the path to longevity. In fact, even within Fortune 100 companies, almost 90 percent have encountered growth stalls or flirted with failure, or worse, in the last 50 years. No company can afford to lose the agility, flexibility, and innovation of a startup.

Startup 128
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Bird is testing Bird Pay, which lets users purchase items from local businesses using its main app

TechCrunch LA

Another on-demand transport app is making a move into payments to expand the existing relationship with its customers (and subsequent margins that it makes from serving them). Bird today announced the launch of Bird Pay, a service that will let people use its app to purchase items from local participating businesses alongside renting scooters. The service is being tested first in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, the company said.

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Two Big Pharma Alliances End in Nixed Deals. Here’s What Happened.

Xconomy

Pfizer and Merck are each cutting ties with a smaller clinical-stage biotech after experimental drugs being developed under separate alliances fell short in human testing. Pfizer (NYSE: PFE ) is walking away from a partnership with GlycoMimetics (NASDAQ: GLYC ) a Rockville, MD-based company developing drugs for diseases where carbohydrates play a role.

Develop 109
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Silicon Beach Bash

L.A. Business Journal

While Silicon Valley remains home for many technology industry heavyweights, Los Angeles is rapidly gaining ground as a hub for both startups and established firms.

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Where’s your sense of urgency?

Berkonomics

It is human nature to start in a new position with enthusiasm, lofty goals, new ideas, and a heightened awareness of those around us and their ideas for the business. After time in our job positions. And it is an unfortunate truism that most of us become a bit stale in our jobs after some time, even if we are most successful at it and appreciated by all who work for or with us.

Ideas 156
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ringDNA Acquires Sales Podcast, Hires Podcaster As Head Evangelist

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based ringDNA , the venture-backed startup which is developing artificial intelligence tools to help sales teams, says it has acquired a popular podcast focused on sales. According to the company, it has acquired the sales podcast "Accelerate!", which is run by Andy Paul, and will appoint Paul as its new Head of Revenue Performance Evangelism.

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6 Ways To Make You An Entrepreneur Before The Product

Startup Professionals Musings

Many of the entrepreneurs I advise or invest with spend considerable time on the Internet, keeping up with technology, customers, and competitors, but very few feel the need for an early personal presence. In fact, some totally avoid it, assuming their product or solution will speak for itself later. They don’t realize that you need to build positives early, to offset any negatives later.

Product 127
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Max Q: How to build a Starship

TechCrunch LA

Max Q is a new weekly newsletter all about space. Sign up here to receive it weekly on Sundays in your inbox. Busy week for SpaceX – across funding, space tourism, and next-gen spacecraft. There’s also a space station resupply mission coming up that it’s getting ready for, and signs ( this time literally ) continue to suggest that its first human spaceflight mission is imminent.

SpaceX 153
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Lundbeck’s Alder Bio Bet Pays Off With FDA Approval of Migraine Drug

Xconomy

A migraine drug that Lundbeck added to its pipeline via its nearly $2 billion acquisition of Alder BioPharmaceuticals won FDA approval on Friday. The drug, eptinezumab (Vyepti), is part of a new class of antibody therapies developed to prevent migraine attacks before they start. These drugs block calcitonin gene-relate peptide (CGRP), a protein associated with the onset of migraine pain.

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Parsons Opens Satellite Facility Near Torrance

L.A. Business Journal

Parsons Corp., the multibillion-dollar engineering and infrastructure firm, is opening a new facility in L.A. County to pursue the rapidly expanding space satellite business.

Torrance 147
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Amore Kitchen

Startup San Diego

We sat down with Chef Angela, owner of Amore Kitchen. Learn more about the challenges she's faced as she went from school teacher to business owner. The post Amore Kitchen appeared first on Startup San Diego.

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Amazon's Bezos Spends $165M For Beverly Hills Mansion

socalTECH

In the latest move by a tech billionaire into the neighborhood, Jeff Bezos , the founder of Amazon , has paid a record $165M for a mansion in Beverly Hills. The mansion had previously been owned by David Geffen, who had owned the property since 1990. It's unclear how much the move will benefit Southern California's technology industry, as many other tech moguls with property in Beverly Hills have not necessarily gotten involved with the growing technology industry here despite having residences

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10 Timeless First Principles Of A Prosperous Business

Startup Professionals Musings

In this world of constant change, new technologies, and a thousand cultures, it’s evident and somehow comforting to me that the basic rules for business prosperity really haven’t changed in the last hundred years. Business success is still more about the people than the technology or idea involved. As an angel investor and a mentor to entrepreneurs I still see this every day.

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Max Q: A SpaceX spin-out sounds great

TechCrunch LA

Max Q is a new weekly newsletter all about space. Sign up here to receive it weekly on Sundays in your inbox. Two rocket launches were set to take off Sunday , including one from Wallops Island in Virginia and another from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The first is a relatively standard (but still exciting — we are talking about rockets here, very little is “standard”) ISS resupply mission, and the second is a major scientific mission from NASA and the ESA called the “Solar

SpaceX 142