March, 2017

article thumbnail

Fewer words, greater effect.

Berkonomics

I have a good business friend, an experienced manager and teacher with a Harvard MBA, whose deep thinking creativity and intelligence are admired by many. But he dilutes his effectiveness with wordy PowerPoint presentations. It has become a long running joke between us, as I often remind him that most of us have a very limited attention span and ability to recall important points from a presentation.

Writing 243
article thumbnail

Get your pitch applications in for the Boulder Micro-Meetup

TechCrunch LA

A reminder that I’ll be holding a micro-meetup at Boomtown on Broadway in Boulder, Colorado on Wednesday, March 29th at 7pm. You’ll have 2 minutes to pitch in front of two local judges and then 2 minutes of questions. No slides, no props, no costumes (Ok, maybe costumes.) Boomtown is at 2060 Broadway B1 in the basement. To get there, park around Spruce and Broadway and it’s… Read More.

Slides 213
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Trending Sources

article thumbnail

How This Founder Wants to Apply Her Technology to Help Save the Planet’s Resources

Both Sides of the Table

There are so many moments from the Upfront Summit that I want to share with you — it just takes time to watch through all the videos, do write ups and still do my day job. One of the most exciting thinkers at Summit was Rebecca Kantar, the founder of Imbellus. I was excited to see her perform on stage because I’ve long been telling people how crazy smart, ambitious and talented she is but I was excited for people to hear for themselves.

Resource 213
article thumbnail

Embark Ventures Raising $50M Venture Capital Fund

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based Embark Ventures , a new venture capital fund led by Yipeng Zhao and venture capitalist Peter Lee, is raising a $50M venture capital fund, according to a recent SEC filing by the firm. The filing says the firm has so far raised $45M out of a $50M target in the fund, from six limited partners. Embark's website says it is focused on pre-seed and seed stage investments in Internet and software companies.

article thumbnail

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.

article thumbnail

Celebrities Become Well-Known as Tech Funders

L.A. Business Journal

Firms have grown familiar in helping celebrities put their money on the next rising-star startup.

Help 186
article thumbnail

Why Skateboarders Suddenly Became Scary Good In The Mid-80’s

InfoChachkie

A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. Skateboard legend and award-wining filmmaker Stacy Peralta recently shared a compelling insight as part of UC […]. The post Why Skateboarders Suddenly Became Scary Good In The Mid-80’s appeared first on John Greathouse.

114
114

More Trending

article thumbnail

See you tonight at the Boulder Micro-Meetup

TechCrunch LA

A reminder that I’ll be holding a micro-meetup at Boomtown on Broadway in Boulder, Colorado tonight at 7pm. You’ll have two minutes to pitch in front of two local judges and then two minutes of questions. No slides, no props, no costumes (Ok, maybe costumes.) Boomtown is at 2060 Broadway B1 in the basement. To get there, park around Spruce and Broadway and it’s in the… Read More.

Slides 170
article thumbnail

The Snap IPO Happened. What Next LA?

Both Sides of the Table

Mayor Eric Garcetti at Upfront Summit, February 2017 I first sat down with then councilman Eric Garcetti on the Ides of March 2012 — almost 5 years ago exactly. He was running to be the 42nd mayor of Los Angeles and he outlined his vision to “open up the city government to technology and innovation” if he were elected. He wanted to bring the same level of technology focus and energy that Mayor Bloomberg had brought to New York City.

article thumbnail

Raken Gets $2M For Construction Reporting Software

socalTECH

San Diego-based Raken has raised $2M in a funding round, for the company's construction reporting and compliance software. The funding was led by Rincon Venture Partners , and also included Eniac Ventures and Spider Capital. Raken is led and was co-founded by CEO Kyle Slager and CTO/CPO Dr. Sergey Sundukovskiy. The company develops cloud-based software used to help monitor construction project progress and compliance, and was founded in 2013.

Software 171
article thumbnail

Tele-Therapy Startup iExhale Raises $1.86M

L.A. Business Journal

Telemedicine startup iExhale announced that it closed a $1.86 million seed round led by New York’s Dorilton Capital on Thursday.

Startup 186
article thumbnail

Objective Sports: An Indicator Of Startup Success

InfoChachkie

A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. I recently had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Kobie Fuller, current Partner at Upfront Ventures and […]. The post Objective Sports: An Indicator Of Startup Success appeared first on John Greathouse.

Startup 125
article thumbnail

Downtown Los Angeles Tech Mixer Networking At Pez Cantina

SoCal Tech Calendar

Thursday, April 6, 2017 -- Downtown Los Angeles Tech Mixer Networking At Pez Cantina. Join Us For A Night Of Tech Networking At Pez Catina in Downtown Los Angeles! Support women entrepreneurs and join the fastest growing tech networking and startup community in Los Angeles! Meet new people and participate in lively discussions with outstanding names in the Los Angeles tech community.

article thumbnail

Global Crossing Founder Winnick Takes Majority Stake in Streaming Service Qello

L.A. Business Journal

L.A. billionaire and former telecommunications mogul Gary Winnick has a new tech venture.

Services 170
article thumbnail

Santa Monica’s DogVacay Purchased by Rival Rover.com

L.A. Business Journal

Santa Monica pet-sitting app-maker DogVacay was purchased Tuesday by Rover.com for an undisclosed sum, according to the companies.

article thumbnail

Facebook’s Use of Cloned Snapchat Features May Step on Snap’s Growth

L.A. Business Journal

Snap may have little legal recourse as Facebook scores big with cloned Snapchat features.

Snapchat 165
article thumbnail

Zadara Storage Expands Support To AWS Beijing

socalTECH

Irvine-based enterprise storage services provider Zadara Storage said today that it has expanded its support for Amazon Web Services storage regions, to AWS Beijing. Zadara said the expansion comes in a partnership with Futong, which will make Zadara's VPSA Storage Array at the Sinnet Technology Co., Ltd, data center. Zadara said the region is its sixth AWS region internationally.

Web 164
article thumbnail

Soylent Unveils AI Bot, Starts Accepting Bitcoin

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based food alternative developer Soylent has rolled out a new chatbot, called "Trish", and started accepting Bitcoin from its customers. According to Soylent, its new "nutrition-obsessed artificially intelligent spokesperson" will appear both on its virtual store on its site, as well as other channels, including broadcast, digital social, and beond.

article thumbnail

Flippy The Robot Takes Over Burger Flipping At Pasadena Restaurant

socalTECH

Remember those days of flipping hamburgers as your first job in high school? It looks like those days might be at an end, as a local startup, Miso Robotics , and hamburger chain CaliBurger have unveiled a new robot, "Flippy", which uses artificial intelligence to grill burgers in Pasadena. CaliBurger, which so far as rolled out the robot just to Pasadena, says it plans to roll out the AI-driven robots to more than 50 restaurants worldwide by the end of 2019.

Pasadena 160
article thumbnail

Water Planet: Our Seed Investor Is Kevin Costner

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based Water Planet , which develops water treatment membrane technology originally developed at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), revealed today that its seed investor is none other than actor Kevin Costner. The company said that Costner and his business partner, Rod Lake, were actually the company's founding investors back in 2011.

UCLA 157
article thumbnail

Local Roots Shows Off Mobile, Indoor Farming Technology

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based Local Roots Farms , a startup located at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI), says it is showing off a traveling, indoor farm at SXSW, which showcases its hydroponic technology. Local Roots said its farm is built inside a 40 foot shipping container, which is designed to grow leafy greens equal to five acres of land, with up to 99 percent less water than conventional agriculture, and without the use of pesticides and herbicides.

article thumbnail

cloudvirga Raises $15M More For Mortgage Automation Tools

socalTECH

Irvine-based Cloudvirga , a developer of automated mortgage lending software, announced this morning that it has raised $15M more in a Series B funding. The funding was led by Incenter, a Blackstone Group portfolio company. The company said the funding goes to scale its technology and product offerings. The company has now raised $22.5M in total. Cloudvirga was founded by Bill Dallas, Kyle Kamrooz and Mark Attaway.

Tool 156
article thumbnail

Interview with Clark Landry, Maple Media

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based Maple Media (maplemedia.io) recently announced a big, $30M funding from Shamrock Capital, to assemble a collection of mobile applications in the utility, productivity, games and entertainment verticals. We caught up with co-founder Clark Landry to chat about his new startup, which he co-founded with Michael Ritter. What's the idea behind Maple Media?

Media 153
article thumbnail

E-sports Teams Draw Ppro Players With Money, Management

L.A. Business Journal

Gamers have become hot commodities as e-sports teams make a play for a bigger audience.

150
150
article thumbnail

State Leaders Unveil Transportation Package with Hikes in Diesel, Gas Taxes

L.A. Business Journal

Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders on Wednesday unveiled a $5 billion-a- year plan for road and highway projects, to be funded chiefly by steep hikes in taxes for diesel fuel and gasoline, and a new tax on vehicle registrations.

Funding 149
article thumbnail

EDF Renewable Services Ups Contracted Capacity to 10 Gigawatts

socalTECH

San Diego-based renewable energy services firm EDF Renewable Services , the operations and maintenance arm of EDF Renewable Energy, says it now has 10 gigawatts of capacity under contract. The company said its North American business has over 500 people in 27 U.S. states, four Canadian provinces, Mexico, and Chile servicing renewable energy installations.

Services 149
article thumbnail

Esri Wins Oak Ridge National Laboratory

socalTECH

Redlands-based GIS software maker Esri said on Thursday that it has been selected by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), to help support that lab's users. According to Esri, the deal with ORNL gives the lab's users access to spatial analysis tools in the ArcGIS platform. Financial impact of the deal were not announced. Esri said the deal is the first, major enterprise agreement between the company and a Department of Energy (DOE) laboratory.

Research 149
article thumbnail

ServiceTitan Raises $80 Million Series B.

L.A. Business Journal

ServiceTitan, a Glendale-based provider of business software for home service businesses, announced Wednesday it closed an $80 million Series B funding round.

Glendale 147
article thumbnail

Interview with Derek Norton, Watertower Ventures

socalTECH

Earlier this week, Derek Norton , a long time advisor to the media, Internet, and technology industry in Los Angeles, announced a brand new venture capital fund called Watertower Ventures (www.watertowerventures.com). We sat down with Derek to learn more about the new $5M fund and what it's all about. Tell us about the new fund? Derek Norton: I just closed on a new fund, worth $5M, which I raised from a group of high net worth, high profile LPs.

Invest 145
article thumbnail

inVia Robotics Rolls Out Warehouse Automation System

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based inVia Robotics has rolled out a new robotics system, aimed at warehouse automation, specifically aimed at e-commerce retailers and fulfillment providers. According to inVia, its new inVia Dynamic Automated Storage and Retrieval System (AS/RS) is designed to deliver toes, trays, and others to pickers, packers, and replenishers in warehouses, to help lower human travel time and liability in warehouse aisles.

Commerce 141
article thumbnail

Urban Farms Gain Ground as Way to Generate Produce, Improve Properties for Tenants

L.A. Business Journal

Restaurateurs, art galleries, and developers are among the growing number of Angelenos seeing urban farms bear fruit.

Develop 140
article thumbnail

Jam City, Family Guy Roll Out New Mobile Game

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based mobile game developer JamCity , and the animated series, Family Guy , said this morning the two have teamed together to launch a new mobile game called Family Guy: Another Freakin' Mobile Game. The game was created in collaboration with Twentieth Century Fox Television, and has just started pre-registering fans for the new title. According to Jam City, the new game lets players "help Peter Griffin save Quahog--one drink at a time", and is not for kids or the "easily offended".

Mobile 140
article thumbnail

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Starts Passenger Capsule Development

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT), one of three companies working on the Hyperloop concept in Los Angeles, announced this morning that it is beginning development of a full-scale, passenger capsule for its Hyperloop systems. HTT said the capsule is being developed at its R&D center in France. The capsule will be developed in conjunction with technology partner Carbures S.A., which focuses on the aeronautics and aerospace market.

Develop 140
article thumbnail

WebPurify Launches Image Moderation Service

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based WebPurify , which provides online content moderation services, said it has launched a new, automated image moderation service to help screen user generated content for nudity. According to WebPurify, its automated intelligent moderation (AIM) service uses machine learning and computer vision for real-time automated moderation of images for its clients, and is in addition to its existing human moderation services.

Services 140
article thumbnail

SoCal's Big New Crop Of Venture Investors And Funds

socalTECH

Are you an entrepreneur, looking for capital here in Southern California? It's turning out to be a great time for entrepreneurs looking for funding in the region, with not only high profile exits of such companies as Snap Inc., but a bunch of new, early stage investors looking to seed or fund the next big tech success story. Here's a rundown of some of the venture capital investors who have set up shop in Southern California, plus those with big new funds, which have been announced so far since

article thumbnail

Watertower Ventures Raises $5M Investment Fund

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based Watertower Ventures has raised a new, $5M investment fund, which will focus on companies in the Internet infrastructure, next-generation e-commerce, digital media, gaming, augmented reality and artificial intelligenec, and consumer Internet areas. The fund, led by longtime technology advisor Derek Norton , is backed by a long list of local LPs from the digital media, entertainment, and technology areas.

Invest 138
article thumbnail

Qualcomm Backs Borqs International

socalTECH

Beijing- and Bangalore-based Borqs International Holdings , a developer of Android devices, announced this morning that it has receive a strategic investment from San Diego-based Qualcomm Ventures. Size of the funding was not announced. According to Borqs, Qualcomm joins existing investors Intel Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, SK Telecom China Fund, Keytone Ventures and GSR Ventures in backing the company.

San Diego 138