September, 2017

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Consumer internet startups go mainstream outside of Silicon Valley

TechCrunch LA

In the past year, New York has reached a tipping point as consumer-facing startups proliferate and similarly Los Angeles is gaining notice with the success of Snap and Dollar Shave Club among others.

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Fire fast, not last.

Berkonomics

Close. Here is one that takes a real leap for a younger manager or CEO to believe. After hiring someone with all the attendant enthusiasm followed by the training and learning curve, if an employee shows signs of weakness in the job or problems dealing with contemporaries, it is the natural tendency for most of us to go first into coaching mode, and reset the observation clock to see if our excellent coaching does the job.

Coach 243
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Venice’s System1 Raises $270 Million

L.A. Business Journal

Venice advertising technology firm System1 announced on Monday that it had completed a $270 million financing round led by New York-based Court Square Capital Partners.

Venice 214
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StartEngine Plans New Equity Crowdfunding Campaign, For Itself

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based StartEngine , the equity crowdfunding site led by serial entrepreneur Howard Marks, told its supporters on Friday that it is planning to launch a new, equity crowdfunding effort: for itself. According to StartEngine, in an email to investors in earlier equity crowdfunding efforts on its site, that in the coming weeks, StartEngine will be offering its own shares to investors.

Equity 187
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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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Graphene Super-Capacitors -The Key to Hybrid Electric Vehicles

SoCal Tech Calendar

Wednesday, September 13, 2017 -- Graphene Super-Capacitors -The Key to Hybrid Electric Vehicles. Clean Technology Council. Keynote from Richard Kaner, Ph.D. He holds 23 U.S. patents and published over 350 technical papers. Graphene is 200 times stronger than steel, one atom thick, transparent, non-polluting and economical. Richard reviews how graphene will improve e-vehicle performance and energy storage.

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Omnia Brings Wireless Car Charging to the iPhone 7 and 6 [ Review ]

Tech.Co

Early this month Apple announced two new iPhones, the iPhone 8 and iPhone X. One of the biggest changes besides to the design on both was the addition of wireless charging using QI technology. With the addition of wireless charging you’d simply place your phone on a charging pad and it would start to charge, and some even support fast charging.

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Hire as if your survival depends upon it.

Berkonomics

Aside from visionary management, this is your most important job. Close. Many of us go through the motions of hiring to fill a position, trying to use our intuition and skills to find the best candidate for the job. Sometimes we use consultants or recruiters; often we use internal talent to fill most positions. And over the years, we students of business success have learned that there is a science to the hiring process that continues through the life of an employee’s tenure with the company.

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Silicon Beach Report Sept. 20: Venice’s System1 Raises $270 Million

L.A. Business Journal

Venice’s System1 raises $270 million, SpaceX asks FCC to make exception for low-Earth satellites in subsidized internet program and Overwatch League announces three new teams.

SpaceX 202
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HAAWK Finds $2.5M For Rights Management Startup

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based HAAWK , a new startup focused on rights management, copyright enforcement, and content monetization, has raised $2.5M in a seed financing round, according to the company. The funding was led by Rincon Venture Partners, Wavemaker Partners, Frontier Venture Capital, and Apex Ventures. The startup, led by serial entrepreneur Ryan Born, said it also acquired a range of assets from Dart Music.

Startup 177
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How Machines Understand Text - NLP, Machine Learning in Practice

SoCal Tech Calendar

Thursday, September 28, 2017 -- How Machines Understand Text - NLP, Machine Learning in Practice. We have a great session planned that will use two case studies of Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning to explore opportunities that businesses have with understanding text. Come join us for a moderated session led by Dr. Jon Morra as he guides us through in depth use cases of NLP and their applications in predictive analytics.

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How Facebook Videos Can Boost Your Social Media Campaign

Tech.Co

The popularity of video in marketing has risen in recent years. Here at Sparkhouse in southern, California, we aren’t aware of a decrease in literacy (though the replacement of emoticons for words might say otherwise), but perhaps it tickles a certain part of the brain that enjoys the easiness of visual stimulation over reading all those words on that tiny screen.

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Two new handhelds will help you relive the golden age of gaming

TechCrunch LA

Whether you’re an older gamer who remembers the Atari 2600 and Sega Genesis with great fondness or a doting grandparent who doesn’t remember exactly what the grandkids wanted (the Nintendo Swamp or something?), the new AtGames portable consoles will either excite you to no end or cause deep disappointment. These crazy little consoles contain dozens […].

Help 235
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Are you mentally equipped to depend upon others?

Berkonomics

Close. I guarantee that there comes a time when growing businesses outgrow the original span of control of the entrepreneur. It is a critical period, and is a test of the entrepreneur’s desire and ability to delegate. And I found from experience – after investing in many other entrepreneurial businesses over the years – that this stage typically occurs first at about twenty employees or $3 million in net revenues (or gross profit) for most any kind of company.

.Net 243
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County Looks to Lead on Amazon Headquarters Proposal

L.A. Business Journal

The Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. and L.A. County Board Chair Mark Ridley-Thomas want the county to spearhead regional efforts to attract Seattle-based Amazon Inc.’s second headquarters, according to a letter obtained Tuesday by the Business Journal.

Journal 193
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Kohl's To Sell Amazon Devices In Some LA Stores

socalTECH

Department store operator Kohl's announced this morning that it will begin selling Amazon.com devices, including Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Amazon Fire TV, and Fire tablets, and more, at dedicated spaces within its stores. Kohl's said it will dedicate sections of its stores--manned by Amazon.com employees--to sell the high tech gadgets, starting at 10 "select" Los Angeles and Chicago stores.

High Tech 164
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Orange County VC and Angel Investor Conference

SoCal Tech Calendar

Thursday, September 28, 2017 -- Orange County VC and Angel Investor Conference. FundingPost. Interested in meeting and pitching to early-stage Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists in Orange County? Register for the FundingPost event on Thursday, September 28th, 2017. At our next event, the panel of investors will focus on Early-Stage Venture Investing: How to meet investors, pitch them, and what it really takes to get them to write you a check!

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Why Hollywood is Joining the Video On-Demand Market

Tech.Co

The idea of video on demand has been around since as early as 1990 when GTE partnered up with AT&T to create the first VOD system. It relied on the use tapes as the source of video streams. Two years later in 1992 VOD servers were capable of supplying previously encoded digital video from disks and dynamic random-access memory (DRAM). Fast Forward to the present day and look how far VOD has been driven by a vast number of separate technological wonders.

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Two new handhelds will help you relive the golden age of gaming

TechCrunch LA

Whether you’re an older gamer who remembers the Atari 2600 and Sega Genesis with great fondness or a doting grandparent who doesn’t remember exactly what the grandkids wanted (the Nintendo Swamp or something?), the new AtGames portable consoles will either excite you to no end or cause deep disappointment. These crazy little consoles contain dozens of Atari or Genesis games.

Help 230
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Biomed Incubator Watershed Develops Tech for IDing Medical Devices

Xconomy

San Antonio — A biomedical product developer, Watershed Idea Foundry, has created a method of identifying medical devices that have been implanted in the body that uses 3-D printing and its own software. The technology, which Watershed calls structural encoding, prints 3-D codes onto small metal markers that are frequently included in medical devices, which help locate an implant in the body with an X-ray or MRI.

Incubator 108
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On the Go in L.A.: 121C

L.A. Business Journal

Ryan Olliges' startup, 121C Inc., was founded to exploit the market inefficiency, and has signed multiyear contracts with undisclosed local rocket manufactures to buy carbon scrap and recycle the material into skateboards and longboards.

Marketing 182
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Cie Digital Labs Names Entrepreneur In Residence

socalTECH

Irvine-based Cie Digital Labs (CDL) said this week that it has named Jim Davis as the company's new Entrepreneur in Residence. Davis previously served at at eBay and Pepsi, and is Managing Partner at early stage venture capital investor Rezven Partners. Cie Digital Labs, led by Anderee Berengian, recently has focused on helping brands and also startups take their ideas and turn them into new technology ventures.

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How To Get Your Startup Funded - Tips From Entrepreneur and Renowed Angel Investor Jason Calacanis

SoCal Tech Calendar

Tuesday, September 26, 2017 -- How To Get Your Startup Funded - Tips From Entrepreneur and Renowed Angel Investor Jason Calacanis. Jason Calacanis founded Silicon Alley Reporter, Weblogs Inc, Mahalo, and Inside.com. He turned down a $20 million offer for Silicon Alley Reporter. Then the dotcom bubble burst, and he wound up with a net worth of negative $10,000.

Tips 100
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Spend the Money and Bring On the Right People

Tech.Co

If you don’t have the right team and hire the best people for the job, your company will go through more hills and valleys than you’ll want. We talked with Adam Mendler, CEO of The Veloz Group what he’s done to hire the best people and how his team has helped his business grow. What’s business advice helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today?

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10 Negatives That Still Make Going Public A High Risk

Startup Professionals Musings

In the old days, every entrepreneur dreamed of easily taking their startup public, and making it big. Today the rate of startups going public (IPO – Initial Public Offering) is up from the dead zone, but is still half the rate of 15 years ago. Smart entrepreneurs are just now starting to look at this option again, due to its unpredictability and the challenges of running a public company.

Startup 87
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Low-Hanging Fruit Gone, Ag & Food Tech Investors Pay More for Deals

Xconomy

Food delivery startups are catching on with more consumers, and that demand is whetting investor appetites. The $400 million that grocery delivery startup Instacart raised in March marked the largest deal for a U.S. food technology company in the first half of the year, according to new data from online investment marketplace AgFunder. San Francisco-based Instacart’s Series D round also led the way for California, which tops all states in deals made and dollars invested in agriculture and food t

Demand 96
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Silicon Beach Report Sept. 25: Video Game Voice Actors End 11-Month Strike

L.A. Business Journal

Video game voice actors end 11-month strike, Snapchat’s new augmented reality effect transforms the sky and OpenX acquires two advertising technology companies.

OpenX 183
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Interview with Bruce Huang, UCLA Silicon Beach Innovation Lab

socalTECH

Companies are always complaining about how hard it is to find the right employees, and how technical talent is hard to find. Yet, you have many students, graduating with technical skills, who just don't know how to make it into a company. How do you bridge the gap between students and employers? The UCLA Extension recently launched a program called the Silicon Beach Innovation Lab , aimed at that gap.

UCLA 159
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Silicon Beach Networking Mixer At Wurstkuche in Venice

SoCal Tech Calendar

Wednesday, September 27, 2017 -- Silicon Beach Networking Mixer At Wurstkuche in Venice. Join the fastest growing startup and tech community in Los Angeles! Meet new people and participate in lively discussions with outstanding names in the Silicon Beach community. Register immediately for an early bird ticket.

Venice 100
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Is Managed Wavelength Service or Dark Fiber Right for Your Business?

Southern California Edison Blog

In today’s market, enterprises of all sizes require high-performance network capacity that is customizable to their bandwidth projections and overall IT capabilities. At SCE Carrier Solutions, our team of experts knows that no two organizations are alike; as a result, we work with our customers to pick a fiber optic solution that best suits their particular needs.

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7 Ways To Be The New Venture Leader Investors Seek

Startup Professionals Musings

In the beginning all businesses are just people playing out an idea. It’s never the other way around – there is no idea so big that it doesn’t need people to make it succeed. Investors know this, hence the saying “Bet on the jockey (founder), not the horse (idea).” A great jockey is a great role model. Like it or not, everyone looks to the entrepreneur as the jockey role model in a new business.

Ideas 78
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Northrop Grumman Adds to Growing Cybersecurity Hub in San Antonio

Xconomy

San Antonio —Northrop Grumman, the military contractor that makes everything from cybersecurity systems to fighter planes, has signed a five-year lease on a new property at Port San Antonio, where officials are trying to entice more cybersecurity businesses to move. Northrop (NYSE: NOC ) is going to occupy a 7,700 square-foot building at the Port, which was established as a public entity to attract new businesses and jobs to San Antonio by redeveloping an old 1,900-acre Air Force base.

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Activision Blizzard to Open Burbank E-Sports Arena

L.A. Business Journal

Activision Blizzard of Santa Monica plans to open an e-sports arena in Burbank to play host to a variety of video game tournaments including the Overwatch Contenders Playoffs and Hearthstone Championship Tour in October, the company said Thursday.

Burbank 162
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LiveStream Acquired By Vimeo

socalTECH

Beverly Hills-based Livestream , a provider of online live video broadcasting tools, has been acquired by online video service Vimeo , Vimeo announced on Tuesday. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. Vimeo is owned by IAC. Livestream had raised around $14.7M in total investment, and ites investors have included Gannett Co. and others.

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Los Angeles VC and Angel Investor Roundtable

SoCal Tech Calendar

Wednesday, September 27, 2017 -- Los Angeles VC and Angel Investor Roundtable. FundingPost. Interested in meeting and pitching to early-stage Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists in Los Angeles? Join FundingPost for our 400th Conference on Wednesday, September 27, 2017! See [link].

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How to Choose a Hotel When Traveling for Business

AllTopStartups

Are you planning a business trip? Are you in the process of comparing hotels, knowing that you need to make the right decision in a timely manner? It doesn’t matter… The post How to Choose a Hotel When Traveling for Business appeared first on AllTopStartups.

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7 Action Items For Introverts Starting New Ventures

Startup Professionals Musings

You can’t win as an entrepreneur working alone. You need to have business relationships with team members, investors, customers, and a myriad of other support people. That doesn’t mean you have to be a social butterfly to succeed, or introverts need not apply. It does mean that you need to look, listen, and participate in the business world around you, and network through all available channels, like business-oriented social networks online (LinkedIn), local business organizations (Chamber of Co

Startup 75