April, 2017

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Why Great Executives Avoid Shiny Objects

Both Sides of the Table

The modern world is filled with constant distractions. Only those with maniacal focus on results and a willingness not to engage in every activity achieve extraordinary results. As executives we’re all seemingly accessible at any moment to anybody via email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Text. We are over-intro’d and at the same time under-resourced in terms of staff to handle the barrage of in-bound requests.

Activity 297
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GumGum Jumps Into Publishing With New Site

socalTECH

Santa Monica-based GumGum , the developer of computer vision and artificial intelligence software focused on the advertising industry, has jumped into the online publishing business, saying it has started a new online publication call The Visionary. GumGum said it will publish original and curated content, a newsletter, awards and more focused on artificial intelligence and computer vision.

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Here are ten vision tests for your success

Berkonomics

Your vision for success must be solid and flexible enough to pass several critical tests if it is to guide a business enterprise to greatness. Here in brief are ten tests for your successful vision. Try these on for size, and test yourself for attractiveness to the marketplace, to investors and to history. Ten tests for your successful vision. Is your market identifiable and accessible?

Patents 291
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Silicon Beach Report April 20: L.A. Seed Funding Falls Sharply in First Quarter

L.A. Business Journal

L.A. seed funding falls sharply in first quarter, Brian Lee and Ron Burkle-backed medical apparel Startup Jaanuu raises $5 million from retail execs, and Nasty Gal founder Sophia Amoruso’s dramatic biopic releases Friday on Netflix.

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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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Finding Startup Developers - First Email Contact

SoCal CTO

Here is the most recent version of an all too common email inquiry from a startup founder. I've removed the two words that described the market - otherwise this is verbatim. I'm working on a start up idea in the XXX market with my partner and we are currently looking for full stack developer to join us as a technical co-founder. We have been reading about the LA CTO Forum and we thought it would be a great place to find him/her.

Email 150
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ZipRecruiter Hackathon 2017

SoCal Tech Calendar

Saturday, May 6, 2017 -- ZipRecruiter Hackathon 2017. Can you help someone find their dream, future, or next job? Got a concept HR would love? Have an awesome idea you can’t wait to share? ZipRecruiter is hosting its first-ever Hackathon, and we want to see what great minds can build when they come together to compete for some amazing prizes. Calling all programmers, designers, project managers, and more.sign up t today!

Design 100

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TeleSign Acquired By BICS For $230M

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based TeleSign , which uses phone calls and related information for mobile identity management, authentication, and other cloud services, has been acquired by Brussels-based BICS , in a deal worth $230M in cash plus unspecified earnout. BICS said that TeleSign has annual revenues of around $100M. As part of the deal, BICS said that TeleSign will continue to operate independently as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, led by current CEO Aled Miles.

Mobile 247
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Have you set your life and business goals?

Berkonomics

We’ve spent several weeks discussing your vision for success, and whether you could be the next Ford, Jobs or Musk. Now it’s time to make this more tangible, more real – by attaching personal goals to this vision we’ve created together for you. So, your vision tells the world what you want to be as you contemplate how you will change the world for the better.

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Silicon Beach Report April 6: Hyperloop One Asks Public to Suggest U.S. Routes, Selects 11 Regions for Further Study

L.A. Business Journal

Hyperloop One asks public to suggest U.S. routes and selects 11 regions for further study, on-demand doctor app Heal adds Obama’s Secretary of Navy to board, and Virgin Galactic planning for test space launch before end of year.

Study 170
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5 Public Speaking Opportunities To Make Your Company

Startup Professionals Musings

As a mentor for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs, I talk to a fair number who may have a great vision and a strong engineering background, but have a negative interest in the role of public speaking in business. In fact, they often claim to be part of the survey group that fears public speaking more than death, but I’m not sure how anyone could validate that survey.

Company 97
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LA CEOs presents: Drones ? Today, Tomorrow, The Future

SoCal Tech Calendar

Thursday, May 4, 2017 -- LA CEOs presents: Drones – Today, Tomorrow, The Future. This CEO and CFO only breakfast will focus on Drones and led by Dan Burton Founder and CEO of DroneBase, the world's leading drone services company with 15,000+ commercial drone flights in over 40 countries. Dan was an early user of military and commercial drone systems, serving as a Marine Infantry Officer in Iraq and Afghanistan and building / piloting commercial drones starting in 2012.

Services 100
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The Xconomy Roadmap: Top 15 Innovation Areas to Watch (and Disrupt)

Xconomy

View the Slideshow It is a time of great transitions in the technology and business world. Key advances in areas like machine intelligence, agriculture, and healthcare seem poised to transform society—and everyday life. But it can be hard to keep up with the latest news in fields as disparate as cybersecurity, food tech, and cancer therapeutics—let alone understand the context around these developments and how they might relate to each other.

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Trump Takes Aim At CrowdStrike

socalTECH

Irvine-based cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike appears to be the latest victim of unsubstantiated "facts" from the current White House administration, as President Trump inferred that the company, incorrectly, is owned by a "very rich Ukrainian". The company is actually backed by Google Capital, Rackspace, Accel Partners, and Warburg Pincus. CrowdStrike's founder is George Kurtz, who founded Irvine's Foundstone, and later sold it to McAfee.

IBM 189
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Could you be the next Ford, Jobs or Musk?

Berkonomics

Well, it’s a fair question. Note that none of these three famous innovators were inventors like Thomas Edison, but visionaries who find a new marketplace or niche – or how to reach the mass market in new ways. Leaders and companies that innovate new products, services and methods of delivery are the ones that stand out in a crowded business world, especially when attempting to gain recognition among the throngs of competitors visible on the web.

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Elon Musk’s Boring Co. Machine Revealed in Picture

L.A. Business Journal

Elon Musk’s budding tunneling company, Boring Co., showed signs of progress on Thursday as an employee posted an image of what appears to be the company’s first boring machine.

Company 189
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Smart Entrepreneurs Favor People-Centric Leadership

Startup Professionals Musings

Every business needs repeatable processes to grow and thrive, but modern business processes need the right people to make them efficient and productive. In addition, today’s customers judge a company by perceived people relationships through social media, phone conversations, and sales experiences. The right people make productive processes, not the other way around.

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Developing International Relationships into Business Advantages

SoCal Tech Calendar

Tuesday, May 2, 2017 -- Developing International Relationships into Business Advantages. CONNECT. The world is becoming ever more closely connected and smart companies are building international relationships to take their business further, faster. Mexico and San Diego have built a strong, synergistic partnership based on proximity, shared goals to build a better economy, and building complementary assets.

Develop 100
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Approved Opens for Business with $1M and Digital Mortgage Platform

Xconomy

Following a six-month trial of its digital mortgage platform, San Diego-based Approved has officially launched its Web-based software for home loan applications. In a recent statement , the 20-month-old startup also said it has raised $1 million in what co-founder and CEO Andy Taylor calls a “pre-seed round.” “Our goal is to create a platform [for both lenders and borrowers] that is just as frictionless as possible,” Taylor said at the downtown EvoNexus incubator, where he has been working

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Here's One Tech Company With No Gender Issue: LA's Evite

socalTECH

With all the hand wringing in the tech industry over gender balance and equity, here's one company that apparently has no issue: LA-based Evite , the online invitations service. According to Evite, women currently make up 59 percent of its total employees, and 52 percent of its senior leadership roles, which includes its technical positions. Evite said that women head up its Product, Analytics and Data Infrastructure, Mobile Development, Testing and Advertising Operations, in addition to HR Lega

Evite 179
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Vision for your future success is EVERYTHING!

Berkonomics

I love absolute statements. And this is one of my favorites. You’re at the ignition stage of your newest business venture. Of course, you have a vision for what you will do to change the world. Let’s stress test that vision and sharpen it further to help insure your success. First, if your vision is limited and you will be happy with a successful local dry cleaning enterprise or small restaurant around the corner, you are not the target for this effort to help entrepreneurs build great busine

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Belgium Telecom Company BICS to Buy TeleSign for $230 Million.

L.A. Business Journal

TeleSign Corp. of Marina del Rey, a developer of user authentication software, announced on Tuesday that it had agreed to be acquired for $230 million in cash by telecommunications company BICS of Belgium.

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4 Chasms And 5 Customer Types That Kill Entrepreneurs

Startup Professionals Musings

Everyone in the business world has heard of the old bestseller by Geoffrey A. Moore titled “ Crossing the Chasm ,” but most entrepreneurs have no idea how it relates to them. In fact, it’s all about the “focus” required to get early stage technology products across the deadly chasm from early adopters to mainstream customers. Most investors and startup professionals expand this concept of focus to apply to key issues of every aspect of strategic and tactical planning in a startup.

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Radix Collective Independent PR Summit

SoCal Tech Calendar

Thursday, April 27, 2017 -- Radix Collective Independent PR Summit. The Radix Collective Independent PR Summit is a one-day business conference created by independents for independents who want to grow their business and network with peers. Whether you call yourself freelance PR, a consultant, or have a solo-agency, the PR Summit features business topics at the core of importance to any Independent PR Pro.

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Want to Communicate Your Science? First, Step Back

Xconomy

Think for a moment about the words and phrases that life science researchers and executives use on a daily basis. I’m talking about the seemingly simple phrases like “investigational drug,” “novel target,” “immunotherapy,” “clinical trial,” “in vitro,” and “therapeutic window.” There are hundreds more. Those of us who work in life sciences are comfortable with phrases like these in our daily lives.

Press 76
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Validated Expands In SoCal

socalTECH

Validated , a new startup which offers up a mobile app which lets consumers earn transportation credits for parking, ridesharing, mass transit, and more for dining and shopping at stores, is in an expansion to Southern California today. The company--which was just featured on Shark Tank last Friday--said it has launched in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Monica, as part of a nationwide expansion beyond its home market in Seattle and Portland.

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Getting Your Head in the Game for Fund Raising

Both Sides of the Table

When you run a startup you’re always on borrowed time. You have cash in the bank, a monthly burn rate and a “cash out” date that few in the company truly comprehend. I’ve never met a founder who wasn’t acutely aware of his or her ticking time bomb and the sense that failure and humiliation is a real possibility. It’s why so few can really start a business from scratch.

Funding 238
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Musk Reveals Multistoried Tunnel System Concept in Video

L.A. Business Journal

Elon Musk revealed a conceptual video of a multistoried tunnel system under the city of Los Angeles, which he aims to build with his startup Boring Co., at a TED conference in Vancouver, Canada, on Friday.

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7 Key Steps From a Million Dollar Idea To a Business

Startup Professionals Musings

Based on my own experience as a startup investor, and feedback from like-minded friends, we all get pitches for at least ten startup ideas for every one new business plan. New business founders need to remember that investors fund business implementations, not ideas. In fact, investors will tell you that ideas are worth nothing, outside the context of a real team with a real plan.

Ideas 74
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Growth Capital Conference

SoCal Tech Calendar

Thursday, April 27, 2017 -- Growth Capital Conference. Network with capital sources, advisors, deal makers and 100 entrepreneurs seeking capital and counsel. DEAL DISPLAYtm showcases growing firms needing capital. View products, online demos. Hot Networking Breakfast at 7:00 AM sharp!

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Lymber, Founded in Early 2016, Surprised by Mindbody’s Buyout Offer

Xconomy

Lymber was barely a year old when Mindbody (NASDAQ: MB ) announced recently that it acquired the San Diego mobile app developer. Lymber, named as a 2017 Xconomy San Diego startup to watch , has developed a technology platform that enables mobile users to book openings in fitness and wellness classes. “We’re basically an Expedia for fitness and wellness studios,” Lymber co-founder and CEO Doug Hecht told me by telephone after the Mindbody deal closed.

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New App, JobFlare, Looks To Sharpen Your Brain--And Maybe Get You A Job

socalTECH

A new app, JobFlare , developed by Los Angeles-based Criteria Corp. , is hoping to tap into the enthusiasm of consumers for games--which just might attract employers. According to Criteria, which has been offering up pre-employment testing services to employers since 2006, its new cam allows job seekers to play a set of six, 90-second brain games, which it says are "scientifically crafted" to test key talents and cognitive abilities.

Email 170
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Hyperloop One Asks Public to Suggest U.S. Routes, Selects 11 Regions for Further Study

L.A. Business Journal

After receiving proposals from more than 2,600 individuals, downtown’s Hyperloop One has selected 11 U.S. regions to study financing and construction of potential Hyperloop systems.

Study 171
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Chris Sacca Retires from Startup Investing

L.A. Business Journal

Prominent seed-stage startup investor Chris Sacca announced in a blog post titled “Hanging up my spurs” on Wednesday that he has retired from venture capital investing.

Invest 174
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How Liferay Grew To More Than $100M After Starting In A Church Basement

socalTECH

Diamond Bar-based LifeRay (www.liferay.com) is a company that not too many people have heard of, but which is used to run the websites for such well known organizations like Toyota, T-Mobile, Coach, Fujitsu, Allianz, and Sesame Street. And, even more impressively, it's now seeing more than $100M in annual revenues--without ever having taken any institutional or venture capital.

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Silicon Beach Software's Dark Castle Revived Online

socalTECH

Dark Castle , the popular 1980's video game for the Macintosh developed by San Diego's Silicon Beach Software , has been revived--this time, on the web--as part of a trove of throwback Apple Mac software products released by the Internet Archive. Users who miss the enthralling, black-and-white adventures of hero Duncan in battling the Black Knight can now play the entire game in their web browser.

Software 165
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Fiber-optics Company’s Sale a Crowning Moment

L.A. Business Journal

Crown Castle International Corp. agreed last week to acquire downtown telecommunications firm Wilcon Operations in a $600 million deal with private equity firm Pamlico Capital.

Sales 160