Both Sides of the Table
JULY 19, 2015
Yesterday I saw two biopic films: “ Amy ” about the life of Jazz sensation Amy Winehouse who died of alcohol poisoning at the age of 27 and “ Montage of Heck ” about the life of Kurt Cobain , the grunge-rock generational voice who died of an overdose of heroin and valium at the age of … 27. It was a heavy day, for sure.
socalTECH
JULY 20, 2015
Los Angeles-based Flipagram (www.flipagram.com) has created a potent and wildly viral mobile app, which combines photos, music, and video to create addictive, engaging mini slideshows of your life. The company recently raised $70M in funding to further expand its app and team, from such impressive investors as Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Index Ventures.
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Berkonomics
JULY 23, 2015
When you think of patents, you think of added value to the corporation in the form of protection of its intellectual property. In fact, many corporations spend millions developing surrounding patents to form what is known as a “patent thicket,” much like Brer Rabbit jumped into to protect himself against his detractors in the briar patch. Investors like to see patents or patent applications as evidence of intellectual property value and barriers to entry.
InfoChachkie
JULY 20, 2015
A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. When you can live where you want to live and make money doing what you love to do, you are, by my definition, a screaming success. Six outstanding entrepreneurs have created this sweet flavor of success in one of the most beautiful places on earth – Santa Barbara, California. Santa Barbara has become a high-tech startup mecca, rivaling cities many times its size.
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.
Startup Professionals Musings
JULY 24, 2015
As the number of sites on the Internet floats around one billion, the challenge with every new startup is to be found and stand out. More important, if someone does find your site, the content better be enticing enough for them to come back. Blogging is one of the best ways to do this and build a brand, even before you have a product or service. In this age of relationships, you, the entrepreneur, are a very important element of your new brand, and it’s never too early to start marketing the val
socalTECH
JULY 20, 2015
Los Angeles-based Flipagram (www.flipagram.com) has created a potent and wildly viral mobile app, which combines photos, music, and video to create addictive, engaging mini slideshows of your life. The company recently raised $70M in funding to further expand its app and team, from such impressive investors as Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Index Ventures.
Southern California Tech Central brings together the best content for technical professionals in Southern California from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
socalTECH
JULY 21, 2015
The Tech Coast Angels , Southern California's most active organized angel group,said today that it had its most active Q2, and had a record number of deals and dollars invested in the quarter. The group said it invested a total of $4,546,338 in 17 total deals in Q2 2015, the most invested since the group's inception in 1997. The TCA said that it also had a five exits in the quarter, of CRISI Medical Systems, Mindbody, Olive Medical, Thermark and WiSpry.
socalTECH
JULY 23, 2015
Los Angeles-based mobile games studio SGN , which is led by former MySpace founder Chris DeWolfe, has raised $130M in a funding round from Netmarble Games. SGN said that Netmarble Games is the number one mobile games publisher in South Korea. SGN said it will use the investment to expand its market presence in Asia, including making game studio acquisitions, and also working with Netmarble Games to help bring the firm's titles to the Western market.
socalTECH
JULY 23, 2015
Wade Eyerly , the founder of Los Angeles-based membership airline Surf Air , has raised $7.5M for a brand new, membership-only airline called Beacon --this time, on the East Coast. Beacon said Wednesday that the funding was led by Romulus Capital, and also included from MiVentures, Western Technologies Investment, and others. Beacon is initially planning to fly between Boston and New York City.
socalTECH
JULY 20, 2015
Los Angeles-based Jukin Media , the viral clips licensing company led by Jon Skogmo, is on track for $10M in annual revenues, the company disclosed Monday. The company--which dropped the number in an interview with the WSJ--finds and licenses all kinds of viral clips, which it licenses to TV programs, websites, and also publishes through YouTube and other channels.
socalTECH
JULY 20, 2015
Thousand Oaks-based Teledyne Technologies said Monday that it has scored a $15M conttract, to supply space-based imagery to NASA. According to Teledyne, its subsidiary, Teledyne Brown Engineering, won the multi-year contract to supply the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) with a hyperspectral remote-sensing imagery instrument, to be based on the International Space Station (ISS).
socalTECH
JULY 21, 2015
San Diego-based lifesciences equipment maker Illumina said Monday that it has named Sanjay Chikarmane as its new Senior Vice President and General Manager, of its Enterprise Informatics business. Chikarmane was most recently at SAP, and also has served at HP and BEA Systems, and has more than 20 years of experience in the business. Illumina said that Chikarmane will head up development and commercialization of products and services aimed at turning genomic data into actionable information for re
socalTECH
JULY 23, 2015
San Diego-based Events.com , the startup led by Gregg Parise which helps event organizers with their events and event registration, has raised a new funding round, and acquired EventsOnline. EventsOnline is a provider of registration for the endurance market. Events.com says it has now raised over $17M in funding. Events.com--which has a significant number of former Active Network executives and employees--helps events with registration, communications, social media marketing, and more.
socalTECH
JULY 24, 2015
Los Angeles-based online trending news site Opposing Views said Thursday that it is now seeing an average of more than 23 million unique visitors per month, up from around 14.4 million unique monthly visitors last year, and 2.8 million in 2013. The website features trending, viral news stories and photos and video news. Opposing Views originally got its start as a site featuring stories with balanced stories from opposing political and other groups, but has since transitioned into trending conte
socalTECH
JULY 23, 2015
Los Angeles has a new, startup accelerator in town, thankss to talent manager Troy Carter , who announced on Thursday that he has launched SMASHD LABS , to help accelerate companies in the area of entertainment & culture. According to Carter, the new accelerator--which will launch on September 14th--will invest $50,000 in each of 5-7 participating companies, and also help tie those companies with brand partners and mentors.
socalTECH
JULY 23, 2015
Los Angeles-based Prevoty said this morning that it has named Roger Thornton, the Chief Technology Officer at Alienvault, to its board of directors. Thornton is also the founder of Fortify Software, which he sold to HP in 2010. Prevoty develops runtime application security software. Prevoty is led by Julien Bellanger, and is backed by US Venture Partners, Plus Capital, Double M Capital, Core Ventures Group, Inventures Group, Daher Capital, Digi Venture Fund and Karlin Ventures.
socalTECH
JULY 22, 2015
Pasadena-based X1 , which develops electronic discovery and search software, said Tuesday that it has launched a new, hosted version of its software for its customers. The software--which previously only was available as a local, desktop PC installation--is now accessible via the cloud. X1 said it has partnered with D4 and Duff & Phelps for the offering, which makes the software available in a hosted environment.
socalTECH
JULY 21, 2015
Los Angeles-based FameBit , which helps brands connect with YouTube influencers, has launched a new effort to create original content and shows. According to FameBit, its first series, FilterFreeTV , is a digital talk show covering the questions and answers that millennials are dealing with on a daily basis. FameBit said the show will include YouTube influencers Tiffany Ma, RJ Aguilar, Raya, and Kayla (aka ydoll).
socalTECH
JULY 21, 2015
San Diego-based MicroPower Technologies , which develops wireless, video surveillance systems, said yesterday that it has launched a new certification and training program for its partners. MicroPower said its online certification and training is aimed at helping resellers gain the technical expertise on its products. MicroPower said resellers who complete the course gain access to marketing collateral, presentations, and preferred pricing.
socalTECH
JULY 21, 2015
Los Angeles-based Maker Studios is shutting down Blip , the online website which had developed, produced, and distributed web series from up-and-coming creators. Maker Studios told users of Blip in an email that it will be shutting down Blip in August, and that users will need to export their videos elsewhere. Maker Studios acquired Blip in 2013 , originally as an alternative to distribution of content on YouTube.
socalTECH
JULY 24, 2015
Los Angeles-based Akana --until recently, SOA Software--said on Thursday that it has launched a new products. Akana said it has launched Envision, an API analytics platform that helps customers understand how their APIs are performing and being used in their businesses. Pricing on the new product was not announced. Akana develops tools that help companies understand the various software APIs in use in their companies.
socalTECH
JULY 23, 2015
San Diego-based Qualcomm confirmed it is making major cuts at the company late Wednesday, saying that it has launched a strategic realignment plan to help it improve performance. Qualcomm is cutting its workforce by 15 percent in the move. Qualcomm said it is taking "aggressive actions" as a part of that plan, which it says will eliminate approximately $1.4 billion in spending at the company.
socalTECH
JULY 21, 2015
Los Angeles-based viral web clips company Jukin Media says that it is now expecting this year's revenues to be closer to $20M, rather than the earlier $10M reported here Monday. According to a representative at Jukin Media, the numbers quoted in an article this week were old, and it now is expecting to surpass that number by a "substantial margin". Jukin finds and licenses viral content -- think "hero cat" -- making it far easier for television shows and others to license that viral content for
socalTECH
JULY 20, 2015
Hawthorne-based SpaceX , the commercial rocket and spacecraft developer led by mogul Elon Musk, is planning on releasing plans on how the company hopes to recover from a catastrophic launch failure on June 28th. According to Musk, he plans to hold a call at noon discussing how the company plans to return to its launch operations. The launch failure looks to be the biggest challenge that Musk has faced with SpaceX, which until the failed mission to the ISS had a flawless record with eighteen succ
socalTECH
JULY 20, 2015
Van Nuys-based Electro Rent , which provides rental, leasing, and sales of electronics test and other equipment, said today that its CFo, Craig Jones, is retiring from the company. Jones--who is 69--has been at the company for 26 years. Electro Rent said that it has named Allen Sciarillo, its Vice President of Finance, as acting CFO; Sciarillo has been at the company since 2006.
socalTECH
JULY 24, 2015
Los Angeles-based podcast advertising network operator Midroll Media has been acquired by E.W. Scripps Company. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. Midroll helps link up advertisers with podcasters--including such high visibility podcasts as "WTF with Marc Maron". Midroll was founded by Jeff Ullrich, and had been bootstrapped.
socalTECH
JULY 24, 2015
Los Angeles-based Opoli , a smartphone-driven ride service, said it has partnered with BYD Motors , to deploy 50 emission free electric vehicles in San Diego in Opoli's fleet. Opoli sad that it will use BYD's all-electric crossover in late summer, specifically for airport shuttles at the San Diego International Airport. Opoli said it only recently launched its services in San Diego.
socalTECH
JULY 22, 2015
Beverly Hills-based William Morris Endeavor , the talent agency and sometime investor in technology startups, has seen an exit out of its venture activity this morning, over at Chaotic Moon. Chaotic Moon and Accenture said this morning that Chaotic Moon has been acquired by Accenture, to help boot Accenture Interactive. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.
socalTECH
JULY 22, 2015
San Diego-based biotechnology firm Ignyta said this morning that it has named Bernard Parker as its Chief Commercial Officer. Parker had been Head of the EMEA Pharmaceuticals Franchise for the Alcon division of Novartis, and also has served at Sandoz, and also served at Bain & Company. Ignyta is developing treatments for cancer. READ MORE>>.
socalTECH
JULY 22, 2015
Los Angeles-based online advertising automation provider Rubicon Project is opening up a new office in Washington D.C., and is looking to target politic ad spend, the company aid today. Rubicon Project said it has opened up a new office in Washington, D.C., specifically to support political campaign and advocacy advertising. The new office will be led by Theresa Mueller, who was previously at Rocket Fuel focused on political ads.
socalTECH
JULY 21, 2015
San Diego-based Qualcomm is set to announce major layoffs, according to multiple reports , which say the chipmaker is planning to cut more than 10 percent of its workforce. The layoffs are expected to be announced during Qualcomm's earnings call. Qualcomm has not officially announced the layoffs yet, which are expected to hit from 3,000 to 4,000 employees.
socalTECH
JULY 20, 2015
Los Angeles-based mobile gaming startup Scopely has hired on a new General Manager and VP of Product, the company said last week, hiring on Bernard Chen to the position. Chen was most recently at Kixeye, heading up Battle Pirates and War Commander as Kixeye's General Manager. Scopely is backed by Evolution Media Partners, Knoll Ventures, Greycroft, The Chernin Group, Sands Capital Ventures and Double M Capital.
socalTECH
JULY 20, 2015
San Diego-based Sorrento Therapeutics announced late Friday that its Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, George Uy, is leaving the company. Sorrento said that Uy is leaving the company to become CEO of a startup. Sorrento Therapeutics said Uy would provide strategic advice to the company as a consultant after his departure. Sorrento Therapeutics is developing yreatments for cancer, and has a significant number of licensing and technology deals with Dr.
socalTECH
JULY 22, 2015
Los Angeles-based RealtyMogul.com said late Tuesday that it has named Timothy Li as its new Chief Information Officer. According to RealtyMogul.com, Li was most recently EVP and General Manager of Consumer Lending for loanDepot, and also had served at Quick Bridge Funding, Think Finance, JPMorgan Chase, and Intel Corporation. RealtyMogul is an onlie marketplace for real estate investors.
socalTECH
JULY 20, 2015
Elon Musk , founder and CEO of Hawthorne-based SpaceX , said Monday afternoon that the explosion of the company's rocket last month was due to a broken strut, which held a helium tank to the rocket's second stage. The failure resulted in a catastrophic explosion of the company's Falcon 9 on June 28th. Musk says that SpaceX hopes to recover from the issues, and resume cargo missions to the International Space Station (ISS) as soon as September.
Startup Professionals Musings
JULY 22, 2015
The most valuable assets of a new startup are the people on the team, and the most challenging task of the entrepreneur and team leaders is to spend their leadership time and energy productively. Cash isn’t always the scarcest resource startups have to invest – more often it’s the leadership capital of under-experienced and over-stretched entrepreneurs and co-founders.
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