Sat.Jul 13, 2019 - Fri.Jul 19, 2019

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Trefoil Therapeutics Raises $28M and Eyes the Clinic for Cornea Drug

Xconomy

Trefoil Therapeutics, which is developing treatments for diseases that affect the cornea, the outermost layer of the eye, has raised $28 million to move its lead drug candidate into human testing. The company is developing an engineered form of fibroblast growth factor-1 proteins (FGF-1) as a treatment for corneal diseases such as Fuchs’ dystrophy , which gradually causes endothelial cells within the cornea to die, leading to blurred vision that can eventually necessitate a corneal transplant.

Design 59
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Thinkful Offers Up Stipends For LA Technology Students

socalTECH

Looking to boost your skills and get a job in the technology industry? Thinkful , a New York company, says it has started accepting applications from people in Los Angeles for its "living stipend" program, which pays students $1500 a month to pay for things like rent, gas, and food while they take the company's technology training--in exchange for a portion of their salaries when they graduate.

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UK-based women’s networking and private club, AllBright, raises $18.8 million as it expands into the US

TechCrunch LA

AllBright , the London-based women’s membership club backed by private real estate investment firm Cain International , has raised $18.8 million to expand into the U.S. The company’s new round was led by Cain International and was designed to take AllBright into three U.S. locations — Los Angeles, New York and Washington, DC. The company said that the new facilities would be opening in the coming months.

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Tech in the Sun: Summer Networking Party

SoCal Tech Calendar

Saturday, July 20, 2019 -- Tech in the Sun: Summer Networking Party. StartOut LA and Podshare present "Tech in the Sun: Summer Networking Party" a intergenerational networking event for new and seasoned entrepreneurs. Join us for our summer networking party as we help both new and seasoned entrepreneurs build business relationships in the Los Angeles Technology Ecosystem.

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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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Hire for your core. Partner for the rest.

Berkonomics

A trend for businesses large and small. There is a major trend shaping up that is worldwide, already identified by hundreds of thousands of startup and small business CEO’s. By carefully recognizing and focusing upon the very core of the business, these CEO’s are allocating their scarce cash resources to hire the best talent they can find to support that core business, and then reaching out to partners, independent contractors, and other small businesses to provide all other functio

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Video Interview: Dr. Masaru Rao and Brynley Lee, Basilard Biotech

socalTECH

Our video interview today is with Dr. Masaru Rao and Brynley Lee, who are in the midst of forming Basilard Biotech , a spinout of UC Riverside. Dr. Rao is an Associate Professor at the UC Riverside Bourns College of Engineering, and Brynley Lee is CEO-in-Residence at UC Riverside's Office of Technology Partnerships. READ MORE>>.

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More Trending

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Growth Capital Conference

SoCal Tech Calendar

Thursday, July 25, 2019 -- Pitch to and Network with Investors: Angels, VCs, High Net Worths, Strategic Partners and 100 entrepreneurs seeking capital and counsel. DEAL DISPLAYtm showcases growing firms needing capital and counsel. View products, videos, online demos. Hot Networking Breakfast at 7:00am sharp!

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9 Elements Of Every New Venture That Investors Expect

Startup Professionals Musings

New entrepreneurs are always looking for a shortcut in getting their venture story and plan across to investors, and closing on the funding they need. An effective tool I see used more and more, as a prelude to a more detailed business plan, is the Business Model Canvas , first introduced by Alexander Osterwalder back in 2008. It forces you to bridge the gap between idea and execution.

Activity 100
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Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator Debuts First Class

socalTECH

The Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator , the new, space-themed startup accelerator run by Techstars in Los Angeles, has announced its inagural class, naming ten companies that will participate over the next three months in its startup accelerator program. The startup accelerator is being supported by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Lockheed Martin, Maxar Technologies, SAIC, Israel Aerospace Industries North America, and the U.S.

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Signal Sciences Expands in Culver City

L.A. Business Journal

Web security firm Signal Sciences Corp. celebrates its fifth anniversary this year, and the startup has quickly grown from a six-person operation in a Venice apartment to a 150-strong workforce rapidly outgrowing office space.

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Blockchain and Advertising: State of the Industry

SoCal Tech Calendar

Tuesday, July 23, 2019 -- Blockchain and Advertising: State of the Industry. It's been a few years since the initial fan-fare around blockchain for advertising and marketing-based solutions. What started as a topic that agencies and brands were largely clueless about has evolved into one that major players are investing in and providers are rolling out real solutions and case studies.

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10 Innovation Myths For New Venture Founders To Avoid

Startup Professionals Musings

Most people think innovation is all about ideas, when in fact it is more about delivery, people, and process. Entrepreneurs looking to innovate need to understand the execution challenge if they expect their startup to carve out a profitable niche in the marketplace, and keep innovating to build and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage. Everyone thinks they know how to make their innovation into reality, but I can’t find much deep research on the subject.

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GumGum Sports: Lost Opportunity For Sponsors At Women's World Cup

socalTECH

Santa Monica-based GumGum Sports , which uses computer vision technology to analyze the value of sponsorship of sporting events, says that the recent matches at the World Cup, featuring the U.S. Women's National Team, was a lost opportunity for the tournament. According to GumGum Sports, its analysis found that the stadium wall below the stands--which was unsold, with no sponsor logo present--could have netted a sponsor $1M per match in value, and given a World Cup partner the greatest return on

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HyreCar Announces Pricing of Second Stock Offering

L.A. Business Journal

Downtown-based digital car-sharing marketplace HyreCar Inc. announced July 19 it will sell an additional 3.5 million shares to raise capital to expand its staff and technology offerings.

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Fundraising Basics: How to Understand and Negotiate a Term Sheet with Caroline Cherkassky and Kelly Laffey

SoCal Tech Calendar

Tuesday, July 23, 2019 -- Fundraising Basics: How to Understand and Negotiate a Term Sheet with Caroline Cherkassky and Kelly Laffey. Topics that will be covered include: Type of financing: convertible notes vs SAFEs vs priced equity rounds Convertible notes and SAFEs: caps, discounts, and other key terms Priced equity rounds: economic provisions, voting rights, and other key terms.

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Bio Roundup: Opioid Exposé, Gilead’s Gambit, Life Science IPOs & More

Xconomy

The opioid crisis reaches all corners of the nation, and newly released data this week revealed how the growth of the epidemic tracked with a massive increase in the production and distribution of these drugs. From 2006 to 2012, the number of pills distributed to pharmacies increased by more than 50 percent. In total, 76 billion pills flooded the market.

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ZEFR Sells Rights Management Assets To Vobile For $90M

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based ZEFR has sold its rights management and content-flagging assets--RightsID and ChannelID--to Vobile Group , a provider of video content protection, measurement, and monetization, in a deal worth $90M, the two companies annoucned late Thursday. According to Vobile, it will open up a new office in Los Angeles as a result of the acquisition, with approximately 100 employees.

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Fifth Wall Raises $500 Million Fund to Invest in Tech for Real Estate Industry

L.A. Business Journal

Venice-based Fifth Wall Ventures has raised more than half-a-billion dollars for a new fund, among the largest ever raised in Los Angeles.

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Masters of Game Design Speaker Series w/ John Zuur Platten

SoCal Tech Calendar

Thursday, July 18, 2019 -- Masters of Game Design Speaker Series w/ John Zuur Platten. Join Writer and Game Designer John Zuur Platten (Jurassic World Evolution, Pokemon Go, Ingress, Summoner Wars) in a conversation with NYFA's Scott Rogers (God of War, author of Level Up! The Guide to Great Game Design) as they discuss John's career as AAA game creator.

Design 100
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10 Ways Your Startup Co-Founder Is Like A Good Spouse

Startup Professionals Musings

As a long-time business advisor and angel investor, I’m a believer that “two heads are better than one” in building a new business. Very few entrepreneurs have the range of skills and experience to be the solution creator as well as business creator, or operational as well as sales leader. The challenge is to recognize and recruit that ideal partner match early with minimal cost and risk.

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Techstars Los Angeles Launches 2019 Class

socalTECH

Techstars Los Angeles , one of the startup accelerators run by Techstars in Los Angeles, has announced its 2019 class. According to Techstars, ten companies were selected for the startup accelerator, which kicked off this week. The companies will have their Demo Day on October 15th. According to Techstars, the companies in the Los Angeles class this year include AlgoPay , a peer-to-peer financial network for the unbanked in the Middle East; DASH Systems , focused on aerial logistics and cargo; F

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100 Thieves Raises $35 Million, Plans New Headquarters

L.A. Business Journal

Esports company and team manager 100 Thieves raised $35 million in a Series B round to fuel its expansion and the development of a new Los Angeles headquarters.

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Could Facebook’s Crypto Break Financial System? Congress Airs Fears

Xconomy

In late 2017, a federal watchdog unit assigned a working group to keep an eye on cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, and to sound an alert if those alternate currencies showed signs of becoming a risk to the stability of the US financial system. Soaring prices of Bitcoin and other so-called digital tokens were attracting investments from speculators hoping to get rich quick—but these virtual coin values were also known to drop just as suddenly, the US Treasury Department’s Financial Stabilit

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Use Key Strategic Elements To Avoid Business Plateaus

Startup Professionals Musings

One of the biggest challenges I find for new business owners is for them to move from working in the business to working on the business. You are so engaged in building and selling your product or service, that you “don’t have time” to focus on strategy and the next round of changes for the business to survive and grow. The result is a business plateau that hits you like a ton of bricks.

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SpaceX: Leaking Component Cause Of Destruction Of Crew Dragon

socalTECH

Hawthorne-based SpaceX has released the results of an investigation into the destruction of its Crew Dragon in April, during a static fire engine test, blaming a leaky component for the failure. The failure on April 20th occurred during a test of SpaceX's vehicle propulsion systems, which were designed to detect system level issues prior to an "In-Flight Abort" test of the space capsule.

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Snap Poised for Continued Growth

L.A. Business Journal

Snap Inc. will report second quarter 2019 earnings July 23, and analysts and shareholders expect the company’s finances to continue improving.

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San Diego Roundup: Qualcomm, Philter, Stella Labs, VC Funding & More

Xconomy

Comic-Con International may be holding everyone’s attention this week, but the tech community has stayed busy amid all the action (and increased traffic). Let’s catch up with the latest tech news in San Diego. —San Diego’s AON Devices was among 10 startups selected to compete at a recent pitch competition hosted by the corporate venture capital arm of Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM ).

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What the 5 Stages of Grief Teach Us About Technology

Startup Professionals Musings

How many times have investors heard startups start their pitch by touting that their technology is “disruptive?” What entrepreneurs forget or don’t realize is that most customers are wary of all technology, educating the market on new technology is expensive, takes a long time, and people buy problem solutions rather than technology. Investors will likely wait for more traction.

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HyreCar Raises $10.5M In Public Offering

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based HyreCar , a publicly listed, carsharing marketplace operator (Nasdaq: HYRE), says it has priced an offering of 3.5M shares of its common stock, at $3.00 per share. The stock offering will provide the company gross proceeds of $10.5M, which it says it will use to expand sales and marketing, customer support, and technology investments to continue to grow its platform.

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Silicon Beach Report July 15: FX Plus Shut Down by Disney

L.A. Business Journal

FX Plus to stop service; J2 Global acquires more subsidiaries; SpaceX, NASA discover cause of rocket launch failure

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With $17M, Illumina Ties, Prenatal Tests Firm Cradle Genomics Debuts

Xconomy

Another company headed by former Illumina executives has launched, fueled with a $17 million Series A round from investors including a local venture capital firm. The new firm, Cradle Genomics, is seeking to commercialize improved non-invasive prenatal tests, which analyze blood from a pregnant person to determine whether a fetus will be born with an atypical genetic makeup.

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City of San Diego Increases Support for San Diego Startup Week 2020

Startup San Diego

Startup San Diego is proud to announce that the City of San Diego will again be helping to fund San Diego Startup Week (SDSW) next year, increasing its funding from $35,000 to $50,000 for SDSW 2020 and ensuring the early-stage planning of our signature annual event. This timing is perfect. We just finished SDSW 2019, […]. The post City of San Diego Increases Support for San Diego Startup Week 2020 appeared first on Startup San Diego.

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VARRAM Launches Robot To Play With Your Dog, Cat When You Are Away

socalTECH

Too busy at work to spend time with your dog or cat? Does your dog get separation anxiety? Maybe a robot can help--at least, that's the thought of Los Angeles-based VARRAM , which announced this week that it has launched a "pet fitness robot". Varram said its robot is "specially designed to keep dogs and cats mentally and physically engaged", by automatically interacting with your pets while you are away.

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Silicon Beach Report July 18: There’s a New Podcast Studio in Town

L.A. Business Journal

KPCC creates podcast venture; Hulu to carry NASA programs; Netflix pushes mobile in India

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Genmab, Mirum Pharma & Fulcrum Raise $653M in Wall Street Debuts

Xconomy

Initial public offerings took a brief summer break the week of Independence Day, but healthcare IPO activity resumed this week as three more companies joined the US public markets. Here’s a recap of the biotech companies that priced IPOs Wednesday evening. —Genmab is different from the other life science companies that joined the public markets this week.

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City of San Diego Increases Support for San Diego Startup Week 2020

Startup San Diego

Startup San Diego is proud to announce that the City of San Diego will again be helping to fund San Diego Startup Week (SDSW) next year, increasing its funding from $35,000 to $50,000 for SDSW 2020 and ensuring the early-stage planning of our signature annual event. This timing is perfect. We just finished SDSW 2019, […]. The post City of San Diego Increases Support for San Diego Startup Week 2020 appeared first on Startup San Diego.