Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

Having time to think about “leadership” at most startups feels like a luxury. It feels like something you could turn your attention to once you have tens of millions of dollars and a large staff to run operations and you could step back from it all and think about how to lead. The reality of most startups is about survival. And because running a company requires money to fuel staff and offices and acquire customers and the like, much of the time spent in early days at a start feels l

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Berkonomics

DECEMBER 31, 2015

We think of media advertising as either paid or free – placed by paying a fee or by a PR firm or by you at no placement cost, especially when you provide editorial content beneficial to the publisher. But this new era of Internet advertising has given rise to two more forms you should know and use in addition to the two traditional types above. Owned media comes from the databases you own, such as your company’s web site, email.

Social Media 176

Social Media Newsletter Advertising Media 176

socalTECH

DECEMBER 28, 2015

As is a tradition for socaltech, we feature reflections on the past year from those in the community all during the last week of the year. For today's contribution, we have the thoughts of Arteen Arabshahi , a venture capitalist at Karlin Ventures (www.karlinvc.com). What was the biggest news for you or your firm this year? Arteen Arabshahi: While Karlin Ventures has had an excellent first few years as a firm seeing over 6 exits and making 40+ investments within 3 years, what was most exciting i

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SoCalTech Venture Capital Invest News 160

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 28, 2015

A version of this article previously appeared Forbes. One of the reasons I know way more about online sales taxes than I ever thought I would is due to Rincon Venture Partners’ investment in TaxJar , one of the leaders in this emerging space. Taxes may not be fun, but I am proud to be affiliated with a company that takes much of the pain out of the process.

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Sales Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review 122

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

DECEMBER 27, 2015

Every morning when you wake up, treat it like it’s your first day, and like it’s your last day, on earth. Forget all that’s happened badly. Remember all you’ve learned, but remember only what lifted you and helps drive your passion. Take the day on like it might be your last and you want to complete as much as possible before your eyes slam shut.

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Help Entrepreneur 111

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 1, 2016

Welcome to another challenging new year ahead! You’ve probably already made your resolutions for 2016, but if not, I suggest a renewed commitment to finding happiness and satisfaction in your chosen business lifestyle. After all, most of us spend more hours in this role than any other, and life is too short to spend most of your life unhappy. If you haven’t tried it, one way to be happier at work is to be an entrepreneur, according to a classic study by the Wharton School of Business a while bac

Entrepreneur 69

Entrepreneur Satisfaction Study Writing 69

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 31, 2015

Launching a new business is exciting, but it doesn’t come with any guarantees. The good news is we know what attributes successful startups tend to have in common: they produce a product or service that meets a specific need, they thrive on the uncertainly of startup culture, and they don’t run out of cash. We can’t give you a recipe for success, but here are 10 ways to lower your startup’s expenses and free up capital in 2016.

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Startup Cloud Computing Tool Pricing 43

Jason Nazar

JANUARY 1, 2016

I was an infamously odd student in business school and law school. I never bought books, rarely went to class, and hardly studied for exams. But I did spent those four years starting businesses and courting many mentors to help me along the way. Instead of studying for my classes, I’d set up new meet & greet meetings with successful alums. At the end of every meeting, I’d ask, “Would you consider being my mentor?

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Mentor Startup Class Study 41

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2015

Does it really take a few flaws to make a great entrepreneur, or are the rest of us just confused about what a perfect business person is all about? In the past I’ve written about the positive attributes of great entrepreneurs , so this time I thought I would focus on the negatives that I see often, and I challenge you to find someone that has all the positives and none of the negatives.

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Entrepreneur Startup Demand Customer 59

socalTECH

DECEMBER 28, 2015

Los Angeles-based Surf Air says it has now reached a total of 2,500 members at the subscription airline, double the number of members it had last year. The startup also said it now has a total of 80 daily flights between its 12 California destinations. Surf Air charges $1,750 per month for its most basic subscription, although it is planning to increase its subscription cost on January 1st.

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High Tech San Diego Los Angeles Email 133

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 29, 2015

Technology is constantly evolving and maturing. It moves from a nascent, undefined entity to one that is widely accepted and becomes so commonplace that we wonder how we ever functioned without it. Mobile and cloud are two prominent examples of such a journey. From businesses to individual consumers, everyone is connected to everyone, everywhere, all the time.

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Technology IBM IBM Networking 40

socalTECH

DECEMBER 31, 2015

Los Angeles-based video story app developer Flipagram said Wednesday that it added more than 1,000 signed, musical artists to its "Flipagram Verified" platform, letting those artists make their music available to Flipagram's users. Flipagram--which develops an app which lets users create musical slideshows using mainstream, popular music acts as their soundtrack--said over 800 of those artists joined in the second half of the year.

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socalTECH

DECEMBER 30, 2015

All this week, we're featuring reflections on the past year from movers and shakers in the community. Today, we have the thoughts of Jeb Spencer of TVC Capital (www.tvccapital.com), a software focused growth equity fund which just raised a new fund, and has had some great success in the market. TVC Capital has also been a big supporter of socaltech over the years.

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socalTECH

DECEMBER 30, 2015

Sidecar , which was attempting to compete against Uber and Lyft in the Los Angeles area, and recently switched over to focus on on-demand delivery services, is shutting down, according to the company's CEO. According to Sunil Paul, CEO of Sidecar, it will cease both ride and delivery operations at 2PM Pacific Time on December 31st. Reason for the shutdown was not given by Paul.

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socalTECH

DECEMBER 28, 2015

San Diego-based Qualcomm announced this morning that it is in a patent licensing deal with Chinese company QiKu Internet Network Scientific (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. According to Qualcomm, the licensing deal allows QiKu to develop, manufacture and sell 3G WCDMA and CDMA2000, and 4G LTE subscriber units for use in China. Financial deatils of the license were not announced.

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Patents San Diego Networking Develop 109

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 28, 2015

Can you imagine an entrepreneur who is actually afraid of success? None will ever admit it openly, but I’m a strong believer that actions or lack of action speaks louder than words. In my years of advising startups, I’ve seen too many cases of seemingly irrational actions, or just freezing with that “deer in the headlights” look when it’s time to make a critical move.

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Startup Entrepreneur Resource Help 57

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2015

Great technology leads to innovative solutions that are possible, but not necessarily great businesses. Rube Goldberg illustrated this principle many years ago in cartoons, but I still find inventors that are creating solutions today looking for a problem. In addition, every solution has to fit into the current political, cultural and economic environment to make it a viable business.

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Technical Review Product Activity Technology 54

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2015

Many passionate entrepreneurs fight to add more features into their new products and services, assuming that more function will make the solution more appealing to more customers. In reality, more features will more likely make the product confusing and less usable to all. Focus is the art of limiting your scope to the key function that really matters for the majority of customers.

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Startup IBM IBM Social Media 62