Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

Tracy DiNunzio isn’t your typical Silicon Valley startup founder. She’s a painter and a self-proclaimed Bohemian. She did her first tech startup after the age of 30. And she didn’t start her company in Northern California. Tracy built her company, Recycled Media , out of necessity. She hasn’t raised any venture capital. She drove her company to profitability before paying herself a modest salary.

Startup 363

Startup Entrepreneur SEO Venture Capital 363

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 6, 2012

As part of UC Santa Barbara’s Distinguished Lecture Series, Jason Nazar, Co-Founder and CEO of Docstoc , recently shared ten lessons that emerging entrepreneurs can learn from superheroes. Jason’s inspiration for this 6 ½ minute talk was a blog entry he wrote in 2008, which went viral within the startup community. You can check out Jason’s original entry HERE.

Entrepreneur 279

Entrepreneur Startup eBook Course 279

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 10, 2012

Early stage investors have been arguing over this for years. Do they bet on the entrepreneur (jockey) or the business idea and plan (the horse)? This is serious stuff. If you are looking for money, this question will certainly come up in one form or another when you approach professional or organized angel or VC investors. My answer always varies as I examine each deal, sometimes deferring and passing on an investment because of an uneasy feeling about the ent

Venture Capital 240

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Summary Incubator 240

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 9, 2012

In recent months, a dozen accelerators and incubators have emerged in the Southern California area, looking to help take the new generation of technology startups to funding and beyond. However, with the proliferation of incubators, the difficulty in figuring out. which programs are--and aren't--worth looking at has become very difficult, if not impossible, for startup entrepreneurs.

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Southern California Incubator Guide Startup 246

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.

Company

SoCal Tech Calendar

FEBRUARY 24, 2012

Thursday, March 1, 2012 -- Please join PwC, the Los Angeles Venture Association, and a distinguished panel of venture capitalists and industry experts for their insight into results of the MoneyTree Report. The MoneyTree Report is a quarterly study of venture capital investment activity in the United States. As a collaboration between PwC and the National Venture Capital Association, based upon data from Thomson Reuters, it is the only industry-endorsed research of its kind.

Press 124

Press Venture Capital Study Report 124

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2012

Most aspiring entrepreneurs believe their initial idea and inspiration requires the most important creative thinking. Experienced entrepreneurs will tell you that the initial idea is the easy part, and it’s the later implementation, and the competitive business marketing that are the real creative challenges. There is a tough balance here to achieve, since a large portion of starting and running a business requires analytical, logical thinking.

Ideas 109

Ideas Entrepreneur Patents Training 109

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

Note: This is an installment in the Iconic Advice series. Other installments include: Jeff Bezos , Steve Jobs , Mark Cuban , Richard Branson , Walt Disney , Mark Zuckerberg , Michael Dell and Larry Ellison. For more than 30-years, Bill Gates has been at the pinnacle of the software industry. Like Steve Jobs, Michael Dell and Larry Ellison, he is one of the few startup Founders who remained at the helm of their respective companies throughout their entire maturation process.

Tips 275

Tips Startup IP Santa Barbara 275

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 3, 2012

From the time we learn to manipulate our parents from the crib to the present day, we learn to negotiate to obtain our wants and needs. As we grow, we negotiate constantly with our parents, then with our peers. As we enter the business world, we negotiate with our bosses and our subordinates. We negotiate with our suppliers, customers, investors, and even our auditors.

Pricing 214

Pricing Sales Tool Entrepreneur 214

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

Southern California has had its share of new startup accelerators launch in the last few months, however, few people here have actually experienced an accelerator firsthand. One of the few who has is Alex Benzer ,the co-founder of Silverlake-based SocialEngine (www.socialengine.net) and Fanmix (www.fanmix.com). We heard form Alex to learn how SocialEngine was bootstrapped to $1.4M in sales last year, what he learned from his experience at TechStars, and where he's going with Fanmix.

Startup 242

Startup CTO Coach Blogging Social Media 242

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 1, 2012

Amidst the media frenzy surrounding Facebook’s S1 filing to go public, some people took pause today to reflect on what the IPO could mean for the social networking giant. Among them, Stephan Paternot shared an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg – through his Facebook profile no less – urging the young billionaire to “prepare for the beginning of the end of truly bold, innovative risk taking.” Who is Stephan Paternot, and why is his advice so relevant?

Social Network 110

Social Network Yahoo Media Networking 110

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

The days when you locked and loaded your career in school, and then blasted away down that same narrow path the rest of your life, are gone, never to return. Career survival today requires thinking and acting like an entrepreneur starting a business, staying nimble and resilient, willing to pivot, and supersensitive to the market realities of supply and demand.

Startup 108

Startup Entrepreneur Demand Competition 108

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 11, 2012

Negotiations. We all think we’re good at them. Most people aren’t that good. For many the idea of negotiations is “let’s split the difference 50/50.” In some situations this is the right answer. In many cases it’s not. I learned many of my negotiation techniques through experience. But I did read a couple of books on the topic that were useful: 1.

Pricing 305

Pricing Startup Examples Writing 305

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 13, 2012

Note: This is Part V in the Startup Team Building series. Read Part I HERE , Part II HERE , Part III HERE and Part IV HERE. You may not realize it, but your adVenture’s Core Team, the senior executives who make the key decisions which drive the company’s strategic direction, is akin to a primitive tribe. Primitive tribes and your startup both entail a small number of people banded together to battle an uncaring, hostile world.

Startup 255

Startup Tool Venture Capital Conference 255

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 24, 2012

I cannot tell you how many times I have seen executive summaries of business plans in which the entrepreneur seeks $5,000,000 to build the business. First, few startups can use that much money today with all of the virtual services available and increasingly inexpensive methods of development, prototyping and marketing. Second, almost no professional investor will consider putting that much into a startup until there is proof of market demand, product viability or some other mitigation of failur

Resource 180

Resource Invest Summary Startup 180

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

Steve Jillings has a long track record of running successful startups in Southern California, ranging from such companies as FrontBridge Technologies (sold to Microsoft in 2005 for over $200M) and Vantage Media (acquired in 2007). Steve is now in charge of Marina Del Rey-based TeleSign (www.telesign.com), which has quietly become a huge force in providing authentication services to nearly every major Internet service out there.

Marina Del Rey 238

Marina Del Rey Startup IP Web 238

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

It’s often referred to as Spring Break for Geeks, and for good reason. I’m talking, of course, about South by Southwest (SXSW), Austin’s annual film and music festival that in recent years added an interactive component. It’s the place where geeks go to cut loose, share their knowledge, test new concepts and network like crazy.

Conference 95

Conference Course Email Networking 95

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2012

Every engineer who has invented some new technology, or is adept at creating solutions, believes that is the hard part, and it should be a short step to take that solution to market as an entrepreneur. In reality, that short business step embodies far more risk, and a poor technology solution is not near the top of most lists of common reasons for business failures.

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur Oracle Customer Custom 104

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 26, 2012

I recently wrote a post about negotiating with suppliers called “ The End of the Mexican Road.” The post talked about how to find the lowest acceptable price & terms in a deal through testing. In the post I made clear that I believe that all negotiations should seek to find fair deals where both parties can feel good about the outcomes.

Development Team Review 293

Development Team Review Software Review Pricing Startup 293

Frank Addante

FEBRUARY 16, 2012

Communication has been streamlined to short messages. Your management should be too. I’m a big fan of short, concise, summarized communication. Twitter’s revolution of 140-character messages inspired me to create a similar management reporting format that I have found to be very effective. Each week, I ask each of my direct reports to provide a weekly report with the following information.

Framework 56

Framework Report 56

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 17, 2012

I love this statement from John Tukey, coiner of the word ‘bit’ to describe a single switch of digital micro-data. Tukey was a statistician, one you would expect to describe events in terms reeking with precision. Instead, Tukey implored us to think in terms of relevancy, cause and comparisons to known events. And all this ethereal talk makes me think of how we investors and entrepreneurs are often led to search for instances in which our plan can be wrong, based upon a past measure.

Invest 180

Invest Entrepreneur Company Companies 180

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 28, 2012

A new study released Tuesday from Ernst & Young finds that the State of California led the nation in terms of its attractiveness to renewable energy investments in 2011. According to the report, which ranked U.S. states for investments in wind, solar energy, geothermal energy, California led the nation in energy projects. The report said California's favorable regulatory environment, offtake prices, and incentives ranked the state first in wind energy and installation of solar energy project

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Study Report Invest Pricing 227

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 8, 2012

To begin our recap of last week’s winter TZ Spotlight , we’d like to say our list of thank yous. Thank you to the supporters who told their colleagues and friends about the event, to our attendees for the attention towards the center of the room, to our supporting sponsors, our Spotlight judges, and to Bill Gross, our inspirational keynote speaker for the evening.

Technical Review 94

Technical Review Idealab Startup Mobile 94

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2012

Every organization, no matter how small, has one or more people who are quite simply obnoxious, and they drain energy from everyone and can strangle your company. Sometimes they are also intellectually brilliant, or closely related to the boss, so there is no easy way out. In fact, they may even be the boss. So if you find this article taped to your desk, it may be time to look in the mirror.

Company 101

Company Companies Organization Help 101

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 13, 2012

Sean Percival, best known for founding Los Angeles tech blog lalawag, in addition to his work as an executive at MySpace, has booted up a new effort--Santa Monica-based Wittlebee , a new, online subscription service for baby supplies. The new effort emerged this week, revealing that it is backed by Science, Inc. , the digital business incubator/studio headed by former MySpace CEO Mike Jones.

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Santa Monica Startup Commerce Incubator 217

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 3, 2012

How do you come up with a compelling, mobile videogame title? Jonathan LaCour , founder of Playzon , decided that he'd tap into the collective genius of students looking to get into the videogame industry, and is taking the top student-developed gaming titles from one videogame school and turning them into mobile games for the iPhone, Android, and Facebook.

Startup 217

Startup Mobile Venture Capital Resource 217

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 24, 2012

The Los Angeles area is fast becoming the content hub for online video site YouTube , a position that takes advantage of both the LA region's long history in the entertainment business, and the rise of a slew of startups producing content specifically aimed at the YouTube audience. According to a property developer in Playa Vista, YouTube has signed an 11-year lease for a 41,000 square foot office building in the location.

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Los Angeles Content Angel Hollywood 213

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 13, 2012

A couple of weeks ago, twelve companies moved into the new downtown San Diego, EvoNexus incubator--which is run by CommNexus. Running that effort is Kevin Hell , the founder of DivX, who we caught up with to learn more about EvoNexus and how the group is trying to help grow technology startups in San Dieog. We'd love to learn about EvoNexus and what you are doing - can you talk about the program a little bit?

Incubator 212

Incubator San Diego Technical Review Development Team Review 212

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 27, 2012

Los Angeles-based Total Immersion , the developer of augmented reality technology, is looking to apply its technology to the game development market, the firm said Monday. According to the firm, it is enabling game developers using game tools from Unity Technologies to use its augmented reality platform on both Apple iOS and Windows. The beta release of D-Fusion for Unity is aimed at allowing game developers to allow users to interact with real-world objects, to incorporate them into games.

Develop 209

Develop Development Advertising Los Angeles 209

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

Los Angeles companies are looking to help get the word out next week about their companies--and the area--at SXSW , the annual technology and music festival held in Austin, Texas, a group of companies said Wednesday. In an effort to help brand the growing Los Angeles technology scene, a number of local companies said they are organizing a Silicon Beach Showcase , where local LA startup will be showing off their products and introducing people to companies.

Santa Monica 208

Santa Monica Los Angeles Organization Media 208

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 22, 2012

Ever wish you had a better way of sharing your favorite recipes with family and friends? Wish that cookbook for your church, school, or club could enter the modern age? Los Angeles-based BakeSpace.com , the online social networking and recipe site, has a new product for you. The company, which is headed by Babette Pepaj, is launching a new, cookbook publishing tool which allows users to create their own, native iPad cookbooks, which can either be given away for free, and sold online or through t

Services 207

Services Social Network Web Tool 207

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 22, 2012

Camarillo-based Cool Planet BioFuels , the developer of technology to convert biomass to gasoline, is claiming a "major breakthrough" in its technology. The company said it has been able to produce 4,000 gallons of acre biomass-to-gasoline conversion in its pilot testing, which it says is about twelve times the yield than current, corn ethanol production levels.

Technology 205

Technology Develop Development Product 205

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 22, 2012

Los Angeles-based FlowTab , the developer of a smartphone application which allows users to order food and drink from their smartphone, has scored the top position in a competition hosted by Glendale-based startup incubator/office space Voivoda Labs. Voivoda Labs said that Flowtab was judged the top startup out of 15 companies which pitched their firms to investors and judges on Tuesday evening.

Competition 205

Competition Startup Glendale Incubator 205

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 10, 2012

In November, Michael Jones, the former CEO of MySpace, announced his plans for Science Inc. (www.science-inc.com), a new technology studio aimed at building new businesses in Los Angeles. This week, the firm launched two companies--EventUp (www.eventup.com) and MeUndies (www.meundies.com)--the first companies to come out of the group. We spoke with Michael about those companies he is launching as part of Science, and how they came about.

Beverly Hills 203

Beverly Hills Incubator Commerce Los Angeles 203

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

Pasadena-based Guidance Software , which develops digital forensics and e-discovery software, said Tuesday afternoon that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire CaseCentral , a developer of electronic discovery software. Guidance Software said it will pay $17.1M for CaseCentral, with up to $33M in earn out. The deal is split between $8.3M in cash and $8.3M in Guidance Software common stock.

Software 202

Software Pasadena Acquisition Services 202

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 9, 2012

A new startup incubator and coworking space in the Los Angeles area-- Voivoda Labs --said this week that it is looking to looking to vet new startups in the area to join its newly built incubator in Glendale. Voivoda Labs--headed by Val Babajov, the former CEO of WebMessenger--said it is looking to vet around 15 startups via a pitch event later this month, to help secure investment for the winner.

Glendale 196

Glendale Incubator Tech Coast Angels Keiretsu 196

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

Santa Monica-based social marketing firm GraphEffect said this morning that it has opned up new offices in both New York City and Chicago, as the company continues to expand its staff. The venture-backed firm, which is venture backed by Lerer Ventures, Thrive Capital, Founder Collective, Rincon Venture Partners, CrossCut Ventures and Baroda Ventures, said it has appointed three new directors in the locations, as well as added a over a half dozen other staffers in recent weeks.

Social Media 196

Social Media Press Santa Monica Media 196