Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 18, 2014
'This week. On the phone … Me: So, you raised venture capital? Him: Yeah. We raised a seed round. About $1 million. Me: At what price? Him: It wasn’t priced. We raised a convertible note. Me: With a cap? Him: Yes, $8 million. Me: Ah. I see. So you did raise with a price. It’s just a maximum price. You’ll find out the minimum when the next round is raised.
socalTECH
SEPTEMBER 15, 2014
'In the age old world of real estate, it''s often referrals, friends, door to door visits, and sometimes shopping carts which help connect home buyers and sellers with local real estate agents. However, Los Angeles-based Agent Ace (www.agentace.com) thinks is has a much better way to find the best real estate agent for you: software algorithms. We spoke with Mazen Fawaz , founder and CEO of the startup, to learn why the company thinks it can do a much better job of finding you a real estate agen
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InfoChachkie
SEPTEMBER 29, 2014
'A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. My article 5 Time-Tested Success Tips From Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos was so well received, I am sharing five more pearls of wisdom from Mr. Bezos. If you haven''t already subscribed yet, subscribe now for free weekly JohnGreathouse.com articles! 6. Let Your Competitors Chase The Quick Buck.
Berkonomics
SEPTEMBER 11, 2014
'Know the cost to move from your existing platform, and estimate the switching costs for moving from a competitor’s product or service to yours. Offer incentives to existing customers to stay, and for competitor’s customers to switch. Protect your base with incentives to stay that are intangible – such as membership in an insider’s club, access to special deals not available to others, and attention from the executives at the top.
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.
Eric Greenspan
SEPTEMBER 16, 2014
'iOS 9 iPhone 7 Wish List. My iOS 8 iPhone 6 Wish List is here. I didn’t get what I wanted. Here is my iOS 9 wish list for 2015: 1. I want to be able to choose a folder when I download apps. Enough trying to find the app and dragging it over several pages to the right folder. iOS 9, it’s time! 2. I’d love it if I had the option to sync my iPhone in iOS 9 and iPad desktops and layouts.
Startup Professionals Musings
SEPTEMBER 24, 2014
'Many new entrepreneurs are so excited by their latest idea that they can’t resist contacting every investor they know, assuming the investor will be equally excited and want to contribute immediately. Others will work hard on a business plan, and then mail it indiscriminately to every potential investor they can find on the Internet. Both of these approaches are a waste of your time and theirs.
Southern California Tech Central brings together the best content for technical professionals in Southern California from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
socalTECH
SEPTEMBER 12, 2014
'Need an app to help you keep track of your favorite places? Santa Monica-based Favrit said this week that it has launched its new app, which helps people save, organize, and share their favorite places. The startup is led by Anke Audenaert, and said its team was behind JumpTime, a content optimization software product that was sold to OpenX in 2013.
InfoChachkie
SEPTEMBER 8, 2014
'A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. Imagine the creativity and innovation you could unlock if you operated your company like a Grateful Dead concert. It may sound crazy, but it''s possible, once you create a culture in which your employees are: collaborative yet autonomous, inspired and not managed, and motivated by a collective higher purpose.
Berkonomics
SEPTEMBER 4, 2014
'By Dave Berkus. Entrepreneurism is all about risk. Sometimes, you can reduce your personal risk by taking in other people’s money, starting with a contract from a customer, purchasing a going business, or spinning off an existing revenue-generating portion of an existing business. Even then, the risks of having enough cash to fund daily operations or growth can be daunting.
Tech Zulu Event
SEPTEMBER 2, 2014
'The University of Southern California (USC), is famous for its games program. Widely known for outputting amazing video game talent, USC is considered one of the top schools for learning to make games in the nation. And video games have become a HOT topic. All the conversation and buzz is always around the big video game hits that are coming out. Halo.
Startup Professionals Musings
SEPTEMBER 20, 2014
'Technical entrepreneurs love their technology, and often are driven to launch a startup on the assumption that everyone will buy any solution which highlights this technology. Instead, they need to validate a customer problem and real market need first. Don’t create solutions looking for a problem , since investors ignore these, and customers other than early adopters are hard to find.
Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 13, 2014
'I wrote a version of this post four years ago but given the hectic nature of today’s tech markets I thought it was worth revisiting and updating. Canceling meetings is a part of modern day life. I seem to get so over programmed that if I ever want to have a “break-out” unplanned trip somewhere I seem to have to reschedule meetings.
socalTECH
SEPTEMBER 4, 2014
'There are an awful lot of Internet music services out there nowadays--how does a startup try to compete with all that noise, and do it ad-free? Los Angeles-based Radical.FM (www.radical.fm) thinks it has a new formula for Internet streaming, and can take on Pandora and others in head to head competition. We spoke with founder and CEO Tom McAlvey about the company.
InfoChachkie
SEPTEMBER 2, 2014
'A version of this article previously appeared in The Wall Street Journal. During the early part of the 20 th century, New York City’s Tin Pan Alley was the epicenter of American popular music. During its heyday, Tin Pan Alley musicians devised an inexpensive yet effective method to obtain free, expert advice – they played their songs to elderly doormen.
Berkonomics
SEPTEMBER 25, 2014
'It doesn’t happen by accident. Not every new game site is a Club Penguin or Minecraft. Not every social network is a Facebook or Instagram. Not every texting application is a Twitter. What are the elements needed to focus upon in making the attempt to take a product viral? Intrigued by the thought, I recently made a list. It was as much in reaction to my getting blank stares from entrepreneurs when I asked that question as it was for me to better understand the problem itself.
Tech Zulu Event
SEPTEMBER 12, 2014
'If you haven’t noticed yet, Apple decided to shove U2′s album down your throat. And I’m not exaggerating! Ok.maybe a little. But seriously, go check. Depending on how your iCloud is setup, their latest album will most likely be in your Music app, ready to play or in the ether of your iCloud, available to download. Yesterday, I picked up my 13 year old daughter from school and as we’re driving home she asks, “Who is U2?
Startup Professionals Musings
SEPTEMBER 7, 2014
'As an angel investor and a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m always disappointed to see founders who seem stressed out most of the time, and more annoyed than energized by the abundance of challenges they see in building their startup. The entrepreneurial lifestyle is a tough one under the best of circumstances, and it’s one you have to love in order to succeed.
Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 15, 2014
'Venture Capital is a tricky industry. If you’re funding the same stuff as everybody else and if you started your activities when the clues were obvious you’re much less likely to drive enormous returns. When Fred Wilson funded Twitter I guarantee you it wasn’t obvious that it was a billion dollar idea. Far from it. Many questioned whether it could survive under the fail whale, inevitable competition from Facebook, founder fighting, fights with 3rd-party developers let alone be
socalTECH
SEPTEMBER 29, 2014
'Los Angeles-based Dollar Shave Club , the subscription e-commerce startup led by Michael Dubin, has raised $50M in a Series C funding round, the company disclosed this morning. The funding came from Technology Crossover Ventures. The company''s prior backers include Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, New World Ventures, Science Inc., Shasta Ventures, and Venrock Associates.
InfoChachkie
SEPTEMBER 15, 2014
'A version of this article previously appeared in the Wall Street Journal. I consistently remind my UC Santa Barbara startup students that for most people, money is not a sustaining motivator. They might start a venture with the money as a primary goal, but money alone generally isn''t an adequate catalyst. For this reason, I encourage my young entrepreneurs to fully understand what they will "make" at their venture, beyond monetary riches.
Berkonomics
SEPTEMBER 18, 2014
'Plans don’t often work as devised. We are not always smart about the market or the product. Great teams are not bound by their original product or marketing plan. Greatness finds one definition in management’s ability to “pivot,” or change the plan in reaction to its early response from the marketplace. Investors celebrate teams that quickly find the flaws in the original plan and reallocate resources in another direction before more wasted effort.
Tech Zulu Event
SEPTEMBER 17, 2014
'TZ Tech Crawl is back and teaming up with Social Media Week Los Angeles! !! Come take a tour of some of the hottest LA Tech companies located in Santa Monica. Why not stop by for a quick beer, game, snack or just say hi at one of the many Silicon Beach tech companies from 6pm to 10:30pm? Have a free beer or beverage, drop off a resume, see the office space or just kick back.
Startup Professionals Musings
SEPTEMBER 22, 2014
'Some entrepreneurs forget that they can’t use people the same way they use technology to build a startup. Inventors, for example, are skilled in manipulating technology, but may have little interest or experience engaging people to make an effective team. Unfortunately, startups are not one-man shows, so entrepreneurs need to study leadership as much as they study technology.
Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 20, 2014
'Recruiting. It is the bane of every startups existence because it takes up so much time, it is so competitive to sign people and it feels like unproductive time because it’s not moving the ball forward on product, engineering, sales, marketing, biz dev, fund raising. It consumes time and energy and the payoff doesn’t come for a long time.
socalTECH
SEPTEMBER 24, 2014
'What happens when you apply big data and computer science to digest all of that social data being fed into Twitter and other social platforms--and cross match that to location information? Los Angeles-based Tilofy (www.tilofy.com)--out of USC''s Viterbi Startup Garage--is doing just that, helping to highlight what is going on around you, by absorbing all of that location data out there at any particular time and place.
Steve Reich
SEPTEMBER 14, 2014
'You hear about extreme outcomes all the time—the huge exit or a company shutting down. Recently, I got to observe a much more rare event: a company exiting at a modest valuation. The impact on both the team and investors was illuminating. The company in question built mobile apps for a particular sport, and had 3 million downloads with nearly 2 million active users.
Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 28, 2014
'By all measures the past year has been successful. Teams that I’ve backed have sold their companies to Disney, Apple and AOL for substantive amounts of money. Founders have done very well, our fund has done well. Exhibit: Champagne and celebrations. But the truth is that selling a company doesn’t always feel like a celebration as a VC. Not being a baby about it – my job is to return money to LPs.
socalTECH
SEPTEMBER 19, 2014
'Can software algorithms help drive more user engagement and video views for publishers? According to Los Angeles-based FEM (fem-inc.com), video recommendations can make a significant difference in how long a user spends on a website or app. Rachel Payne , the CEO and one of the co-founders of FEM, is a veteran of Google, and is taking her experience there and applying it into the video recommendations and engagement area.
socalTECH
SEPTEMBER 16, 2014
'Startups related to the many University of California campuses in Southern California may soon have a new source of funding: The University of California itself, via a new, $250M venture capital. According to UC President Janet Napolitano, the UC Board of Regents is voting this week on approving the $250M fund, UC Ventures , which is expected to launch in 2015.
socalTECH
SEPTEMBER 12, 2014
'If you''re looking at Hawthorne-based rocket firm SpaceX as the next big IPO in Southern California, you might have to look again. Founder and CEO Elon Musk said this week that he doesn''t have any intention of taking SpaceX public, because the "goals of SpaceX are very long-term, which is to establish a city on Mars." The remarks, which were made at a conference in Tokyo, were first reported by Bloomberg.
socalTECH
SEPTEMBER 4, 2014
'Are you an alternative currency mogul, wishing you could directly spend your Litecoin or Dogecoin cryptocurrency for an airline ticket? Calabasas-based travel booking site CheapAir.com says that it has begun accepting those two cyber-currencies -- which are similar to Bitcoin -- for booking airline flights, hotels, and train seats. CheapAir.com--which has been accepting Bitcoin since November of 2013--says it has seen sales of more than $1.5M for Bitcoin sofar, and is hoping the expansion of pa
socalTECH
SEPTEMBER 29, 2014
'Los Angeles-based streaming television site Hulu has inked a deal to stream every episode of South Park , the site said over the weekend, According to Hulu, all seventeen seasons of South Park--over 200 episodes--are now available on Hulu. The site also said that new episodes from the current season, season 18, will be available the day after they air.
socalTECH
SEPTEMBER 26, 2014
'Santa Monica-based Activision Blizzard reported a win in court late Thursday, saying that the United States District Court, Central District of California has invalidated all patent claims asserted by McRO, Inc. dba Planet Blue. McRO had sued Activision over the use of lip synchronization and facial expression technology in Call of Duty, Skylanders, and StarCraft II.
socalTECH
SEPTEMBER 22, 2014
'Los Angeles-based marketing technology provider Shopzilla said this morning that it has officially chanced its company named to Connexity , to help highlight the shift of the company from comparison shopping to technology driven marketing solutions. Shopzilla said the change comes as it looks to highlight the range of marketing capabilities it has for retailers and brands, which are now a majority of its revenues.
socalTECH
SEPTEMBER 11, 2014
'Venice, California-based Gem said this week that it has launched a new, Bitcoin platform specifically aimed at developers. According to Gem, it offers up a platform which can be used to secure Bitcoin and other digital currencies, using such techniques as multi-factor device authentication, fraud and identification monitoring, offline key backup, and more.
socalTECH
SEPTEMBER 22, 2014
'Los Angeles-based CurbStand , a startup which develops an iOS app to help users find and pay for valet parking, has raised $3M in a funding round, the company said this morning. The startup--led by Serge Gojkovich--said the funding came from an un-named, private investor. The company said the funding will go to expand its executive staff, launch its operations outside of Los Angeles, and further develop its product.
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