Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 26, 2014

'Mark. You disappeared? What the fork happened to you? And what’s up with this crazy new blog design? Well … more on that next week. I will tell more. But for now … Every year we run a big VC, LP & Tech Summit in Los Angeles (this year downtown) to showcase the best of our community and invite others from around the country. Our event this year will feature many portfolio companies and also emerging LA tech companies such as Tinder & Whisper.

Startup 290

Startup Blogging Venture Capital Los Angeles 290

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 25, 2014

'Jon Kraft --a serial entrepreneur, who was one of the founders of music service Pandora, and has served at Idealab, UberMedia, Big Stage, and a number of other startups here, has a new mission: helping children find their full potential, by connecting them with activities that match up with their personality and passions, through his new startup, Thrively (www.thrively.com).

Help 252

Help Idealab Activity Startup 252

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

'Craig Harris, Co-Founder and CEO of HG Data , knows first-hand that it is possible to recruit top talent, without the benefit of a lot of cash or equity. Early in his career, Craig spent nearly 4 years with the Peace Corps in Paraguay, creating an agro-forestry farm that remains in operation over 20-years later. Entrepreneurs can learn much from successful, yet cash-strapped organizations, such as the Peace Corps and the Marines, especially when it comes to attracting, retaining and motivating

Startup 233

Startup Organization Education Equity 233

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'By Frank Peters. I became an entrepreneur because I had to. My life in Corporate America wasn’t going so well. I never got fired, but I did quit one job the day before I was to be let go. I used my employee discount that last day to purchase a Compaq luggable computer and drove with my brother to Las Vegas. Now, this would be questionable therapy for anyone who just became unemployed, except we were heading to Comdex , the annual computer show that would eventually grow huge as would th

Startup 204

Startup Software Review UCLA Sales 204

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

Eric Greenspan

FEBRUARY 26, 2014

'First, I’m a huge Guy Fieri and Triple D fan and in general, the Food Network. An old friend Susie Fogelson works there and I was actually on the Food Network’s Private Chefs of Beverly Hills “Glamping” episode. Not too long ago, Guy did a show in my home town of Santa Barbara. In short, he blew it (and I mean that in a nice way as he missed some of our finest DDDs).

Santa Barbara 188

Santa Barbara Beverly Hills Networking 188

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 26, 2014

'Los Angeles-based startup airline Surf Air , which has made a splash with frequent travelers between Southern California and Silicon Valley, is extending its footprint, saying Wednesday that it intends to launch service between Southern California and Las Vegas, starting next month. The company--led by Wade Eyerly--offers up membership-only, all-you-can-fly service, which has been popular with technology executives and investors flying between Silicon Beach and Silicon Valley.

Southern California 203

Southern California Startup Hawthorne Burbank 203

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

'Startup secures $300,000 seed round. Pushup Social, a startup that lets you add a social network to an existing website, has raised $300,000 to build out its technology and launch this Spring. “Our early investors saw the potential right away,” said Pushup Social CEO Dan Lohman. “As we get closer to completing the beta and move toward a global launch, we will be raising a significant amount of additional funds and I’m confident future investors will see that same potential.”.

Social Network 105

Social Network Networking Advertising Sites 105

Eric Greenspan

FEBRUARY 26, 2014

'First, I’m a huge Guy Fieri and Triple D fan and in general, the Food Network. An old friend Susie Fogelson works there and I was actually on the Food Network’s Private Chefs of Beverly Hills “Glamping” episode. Not too long ago, Guy did a show in my home town of Santa Barbara. In short, he blew it (and I mean that in a nice way as he missed some of our finest DDDs).

Santa Barbara 100

Santa Barbara Beverly Hills Networking 100

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 25, 2014

'Ventura-based The Trade Desk , the real time, demand-side advertising platform developer led by Jeff Green, has raised $20M in a Series B funding, the company said today. The new round was led by Hermes Growth Partners, and also included prior investor IA Ventures. According to The Trade Desk, Alex Kayyal of Hermes will join the company''s board as part of the funding.

Ventura 190

Ventura Advertising Demand Platform 190

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 28, 2014

'Real innovation in the business world is still rare. As I’ve said before, everyone talks about innovation, but the majority of new business plans I see still reflect linear thinking – one more social network with more features, another smartphone app for marketing, or one more platform for faster e-commerce. Historic changes and great successes don’t come from linear thinking.

Ideas 105

Ideas Tips Organization Entrepreneur 105

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 25, 2014

'Today, we have Vince Leung, co-founder and operating CTO of MentorMob. After a successful run through NYC-based Kaplan Edtech accelerator program (powered by Techstars), the team at MentorMob have been gearing up for a 2014 re-launch; same MentorMob name, but as Vince tells us, with a more community-based focus (don’t worry, a little more on that later).

Startup 99

Startup Competition Entrepreneur Google 99

Eric Greenspan

FEBRUARY 26, 2014

'First, I’m a huge Guy Fieri and Triple D fan and in general, the Food Network. An old friend Susie Fogelson works there and I was actually on the Food Network’s Private Chefs of Beverly Hills “Glamping” episode. Not too long ago, Guy did a show in my home town of Santa Barbara. In short, he blew it (and I mean that in a nice way as he missed some of our finest DDDs).

Santa Barbara 100

Santa Barbara Beverly Hills Networking 100

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 26, 2014

'What happens when you put a camera and other sensors on a vehicle to help improve driver safety? Apparently, it makes it possible to predict with some accuracy the probability that a driver will wind up in a collision--well before it happens. San Diego-based Lytx , which develops driver monitoring systems used by business fleets, says its system has a 70 percent success rate in accurately identifying probability a driver will wind up in a collision before it actually occurs.

Artificial Inteligence 182

Artificial Inteligence Statistics San Diego Help 182

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 22, 2014

'With the Identity Theft Resource Center® reporting a 30% increase in privacy breaches in 2013, there seems to be a growing population out there worried about all the people intent on hurting them. Why is everyone so paranoid these days? My plea to entrepreneurs is to recognize these concerns as an opportunity, to make people’s life better, rather than stoke the fires.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Technical Review Startup Social Network 100

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

'Private equity investment firm Blackstone said Friday that it is expanding its university entrepreneurship program, Blackstone LaunchPad , to Southern California. Blackstone''s charity arm, the Blackstone Charitable Foundation, runs the program, which aims to introduce entrepreneurship as a "viable career option" to university studnts, across five other parts of the country.

Southern California 182

Southern California SoCal UCLA USC 182

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'Over the years, one of the go-to conferences in the region for technology executives was the exclusive, invite-only Montgomery Conference -- an annual, private investment pitch conference run by investment banking firm Montgomery & Co. The conference was known for a very exclusive attendee list (almost entirely CEOs, founders, and VCs, both from here as well as Silicon Valley), and the opportunity to hear what both startups and some of the technology industry''s hottest public companies wer

Conference 178

Conference Santa Monica Invest Google 178

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 28, 2014

'Local angel investment group Maverick Angels is merging its membership base into the much larger Tech Coast Angels , according to members of the groups. The move has not yet been announced by either group--however, Maverick Angels has been advertising an event about the "launch of our new company" in March, implying some big changes for the angel group.

Tech Coast Angels 173

Tech Coast Angels Angel Coach Press 173

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

'San Diego-based venture investor Avalon Ventures has scored an exit this morning, after IBM said it has acquired Boston-based Cloudant , a developer of a NoSQL-based, cloud-based database. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Cloudant had been backed by Avalon Ventures, Devonshire Investors, In-Q-Tel, Rackspace, Samsung, and Toba Capital, and had only raised around $14.0M in funding.

Avalon 173

Avalon IBM IBM San Diego 173

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 28, 2014

'San Diego-based cybersecurity developer Websense announced Friday that it is officially moving its headquarters to Austin, Texas, and moving 470 jobs to the city. The move-- which was announced earlier this month by Texas Governor Rick Perry--comes after a concerted effort by Texas to convince Websense, and its new private equity owners Vista Equity, to relocate its headquarters.

San Diego 170

San Diego Layoffs Equity Activity 170

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 26, 2014

'Lynda Weinman , the co-founder of online video education site Lynda.com , is one of the angel backers in a funding round for online education-technology news publisher EdSurge. EdSurge said this morning that it had raised $1.5M in a funding round, from a number of investors--including Lynda Weinman, who bootstrapped Carpinteria-based Lynda.com into one of the largest online video education sites in the industry, and one of the region''s unsung success stories.

Education 168

Education News Venture Capital Invest 168

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 26, 2014

'Los Angeles-based medical device startup Bruin Biometrics said this morning that it has raised $10.0M in a new fundign round, to go towards its biometric sensing products. The startup develops a sensor which can be used to detect inflammatory changes associated with wounds, and another which monitors the health of joints and prosthetic implants. The company said the funding will go towards marketing, completing clinical trials, and continued R&D.

Los Angeles 164

Los Angeles Capital Funding Startup 164

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

'Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal , which offers up local, online marketing services for small and medium sized businesses, said this morning that it has released a chunk of software to the open source community, to help others develop cross-platform, mobile apps. ReachLocal said its open source framework, LigerMobile, was originally developed to power its ReachEdge mobile app for Android and iOS.

ReachLocal 164

ReachLocal Framework Woodland Hills Mobile 164

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 28, 2014

'For our pitch today, we have an interview with Taher Scherzay , founder of Thaeres (www.thaeres.com), a Los Angeles area startup developing subscription and recurring payment processing services. Scherzay was previously the CTO at CrowdGather, and also had founded social media software firm FavRav. What is Thaeres about? Taher Scherzay: We launched Thaeres last July.

Startup 159

Startup Oracle Customer Custom 159

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

'European advertising platform developer Adform said today that it has set up a new sales and support office in Los Angeles, as it looks to expand into the United States. Adform, which says it supplies technology to European media agencies, trading desks, advertisers and publishers, said the new office is part of an effort to offer U.S.-based clients access to its programmatic platform.

OpenX 159

OpenX Advertising Platform Los Angeles 159

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'Sony Electronics said Wednesday that it is cutting approximately 1,000 employees in the United States, part of a global cut of 5,000 employees, a move which will affect 400 of the company''s employees in San Diego. Sony also said it will close 20 of its retail, U.S. Sony Stores in the move. Sony said the cuts were made to position the company in the "best possible place for future growth".

San Diego 157

San Diego Layoffs Sales Company 157

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 28, 2014

'Santa Monica-based Bitium announced Friday that it has raised $6.5M in a Serie A funding, to go towards its app management, single sign-on, and analytics tools. The startup--which was founded by Scott Kriz and Erik Gustavson--said the round came from Polar Partners, Amplify, Resolute VC, Double M Partners, Social Leverage, Karlin Ventures, Lazerow Ventures and Rob Glaser.

Software 153

Software Santa Monica SaaS Venture Capital 153

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 28, 2014

'Irvine-based Adaptive Medias , the developer of programmatic advertising technology which acquired StartEngine''s Ember back in December, said Thursday that it has named Bryan Nguyen as its Chief Technology Officer. Nguyen has previously served at MyBuys.com and Traffic Marketplace. One of Adaptive Medias'' largest shareholders is Ben Padnos, the Internet entrepreneur behind such companies as DONE!

Media 153

Media Chief Technology Officer Advertising Entrepreneur 153

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'Pasadena-based Wallaby , the developer of software to help consumers maximize the points and benefits of their credit card spending, is powering an online tool for travel rewards website ThePointsGuy.com , the two are announcing this morning. Financial details of the deal were not announced. The two said that they are launching TPG Maximixer, a web-based product which helps recommend credit cards to consumers, tuned to an individual''s purchase habits.

Tool 153

Tool Pasadena Google Web 153

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 26, 2014

'Pasadena-based OpenX has just launched a new, mobile ad exchange, which it says is the first, mobile-first native ad exchange. OpenX said its new Native O|X exchange allows app developers and publishers to apply programmatic buying to popular, native, in-stream ad formats, with such features as approving sources, and filtering and reviewing ads. OpenX said that it has more than 300 pre-screened partners who currently have access to inventory on its native ad exchange.

OpenX 153

OpenX Mobile Screening Pasadena 153

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 25, 2014

'Irvine-based security software developer SecureAuth has launched a new, cloud-based two-factor authentication service, according to the company. According to SecureAuth, its new service allows companies to implement two-factor access control to their applications, without having to invest in on-premise hardware. The company said its service costs $2 per user plus a $2,500 one time setup fee, and differentiates itself by ensuring that all personally identifiable information is stored in corporat

Services 153

Services Software Development Invest Software 153

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 25, 2014

'Los Angeles-based venture investor Upfront Ventures has re-upped its investment in Palo Alto-based Deliv , which provides same-day delivery services to local mall retailers. According to Deliv, it raised $4.5M in a round of investment from mall operators Simon Property Group, General Growth Properties, Macerich and Westfield, as well as prior backers Upfront Ventures and RPM Ventures. upfront''s Greg Bettinelli has been overseeing its investment in Deliv.

Los Angeles 153

Los Angeles Invest Services Angel 153

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

'Burbank-based Doremi Labs , a developer of digital video playback hardare, servers, format converters, and other products, has been acquired by Dolby Laboratories , the two said late Monday, in a deal worth $112.5M after earn out. According to Dolby, it will pay $92.5M in cash plus an additional $20M in contingent consideration over the next four years.

Burbank 153

Burbank Hollywood Content Acquisition 153

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

'San Diego-based driver safety systems developer Lytx reported this morning that it has scored a big win with freight and shipping company Con-way Freight. Financial impact of the win was not disclosed. Lytx--until recently known as DriveCam--develops video-based vehicle monitoring systems. Lytx said Con-way Freight has rolled out its systems to more than 8,500 vehicles.

San Diego 153

San Diego Report Help Develop 153

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'Santa Monica-based TrueCar , the online car pricing site--which has made its name from revealing the full pricing details behind local car purchases--said this week that it had acquired a brand, new domain-- True.com. However, the company didn''t announce the price it paid for its shiny new domain name. That said, the price--like the price of cars that TrueCar provides through its service--isn''t a secret: apparently, TrueCar paid $350,000 in cash for its domain name.

Truecar 150

Truecar Southern California Santa Monica Pricing 150

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 25, 2014

'Burbank-based Walt Disney Studios has launched a new, cloud movie service this morning, called Disney Movies Anywhere. According to Walt Disney, the new service--available via iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and the web--allows users to purchase and watch movies from Disney, Pixar, and Marvel. Disney said its new service will feature over 400 digital titles.

Services 149

Services Burbank Hollywood Content 149

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 28, 2014

'Los Angeles-based Surf Air , the startup which has been pioneering a membership-drive, all-you-can-fly airline providing a link between Southern California and Silicon Valley, as well as a number of other locations, told its members this week that it has named Jeff Potter--former CEO of Frontier Airlines--as its CEO. Founder Wade Eyerly is stepping down.

Southern California 147

Southern California Email Los Angeles Startup 147