Sat.Nov 20, 2021 - Fri.Nov 26, 2021

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$588M Sixth Street Viaduct Replacement Project Passes Key Milestone

L.A. Business Journal

It may be the largest construction project in Los Angeles history, but until recently, construction work related to the Sixth Street Viaduct replacement bridge had mainly been a local affair, rarely intruding on Angelenos’ larger consciousness.

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Recognize your five critical business risks.

Berkonomics

If you could predict a crisis within your business before its occurrence, wouldn’t you move to prevent or reduce its impact? Making such predictions is a skill that can be developed, and here’s one method of doing so. First let’s eliminate external risks for this conversation. Of course, there are external risks that cannot be controlled or predicted but can be planned for as well – natural disasters, sudden political or economic events that rattle the entire economy, and more.

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Neurophth Gains $60M For Gene Therapy Efforts

socalTECH

San Diego-based Neurophth, a gene therapy company, has raised $60M in a Series C funding round, the company said today. The funding was co-led by CMG-SDIC Capital and Sequoia Capital China, and also included Sunshine Insurance and China Merchant Bank International Capital. According to the company, the funding will go towards its lead clinical program, enrich R&D pipeline and programs through business development and continue to expand the its gene therapy manufacturing platform.

San Diego 182
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How And Where To Connect To The Entrepreneur Universe

Startup Professionals Musings

I often recommend business networking as the most effective way for a startup founder to find investors, advisors, and even key executive candidates. But what if you are an introvert, or new to this game, and don’t know where or how to start? The answer is still the same, but I have learned over the years that there is an etiquette to this process, just like there is for social networking.

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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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United Airlines Opens $352 Million Hangar Facility at LAX

L.A. Business Journal

A lot of focus on the $14 billion makeover of Los Angeles International Airport has been on improvements that passengers will see, but new facilities are also emerging behind the scenes.

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EV-Maker VinFast Moves to Playa Vista, Plans US Expansion

L.A. Business Journal

Last week was a busy one for VinFast. The EV-maker, a subsidiary of Vietnam-based VinFast Trading and Service Co., moved into a 15,000-square-foot space in Playa Vista to set up its U.S. headquarters.

Services 246

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QLess Acquired By Private Equity Investor

socalTECH

Pasadena-based QLess, which develops software for managing virtual customer waiting lines, said on Tuesday evening that it has been acquired by Palisades Growth Capital, along with a syndicate of un-identified family offices. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. QLess powers virtual check-ins for virtual lines, where people can check in and receive SMS updates about wait times.

Equity 140
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LifeVoxel.AI Snags $5M

socalTECH

San Diego-based medical visualization software developer LifeVoxel.AI announced this morning that it has raised $5M in a seed funding round. Source of the funding was not announced, however, the company said the round came from medical and radiology specialists, strategic medical technology investors and family offices. The company's CEO and co-founder is Sekhar Puli.

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6 Ways To Expand Your Thinking To The Next Big Thing

Startup Professionals Musings

Many of the startup investors I know are disappointed that so few of the startup ideas they see are really innovative or disruptive. Most of us are incremental or linear thinkers , and we miss the really big opportunities, like the next smartphone or space travel. That ability to “ see around the next corner ” seems to be limited to a very few entrepreneurs, such as Steve Jobs and Elon Musk.

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10 Ways to Ensure Creative Ideas and Results at Work

Startup Professionals Musings

Creativity in business is the key to innovation, and in this era of rapid change, can mean the difference between your long-term business success and failure. Unfortunately, in my role as a business advisor, I still find too many owners who fall into the rut of rejecting creativity to minimize change and keep costs down. They don’t realize that it may be keeping revenues down as well.

Ideas 132
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Prolacta Bioscience Adds Board Member

socalTECH

Duarte, California-based Prolacta Bioscience, which provides human-milk based nutritional products for premature and critically ill infants, said this week that it has added Dr. Anne Beal as a member of its board. Beal is the founder and CEO of AbsoluteJOI Skincare. Beal also is a director at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and previously served as deputy executive director for the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and president of the Aetna Foundation, and was a faculty member at both Harvar

Duarte 113
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Pacaso Expands To Santa Barbara

socalTECH

San Francisco-based real estate startup Pacaso, which was founded by former Zillow executives Austin Allison and Spencer Rascoff, said this week that it is expanding its platform to Santa Barbara. The startup helps people co-own and buy luxury second homes. Rascoff is based in Los Angeles. According to Pacaso, the company has begun hiring a regional team in the area.

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NASA, SpaceX Launch Asteroid Intercept Mission From Vandenberg

socalTECH

NASA and SpaceX successfully launched a test mission to intercept an astroid last night out of Vandenberg Air Force Base, north of Santa Barbara. The launch--which was visible up and down the California coast around 10:25pm--will test a known asteroid to see how it can change that asteroid's course. The "Planetary Protection" mission launched a spacecraft--the DART--built and managed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.

SpaceX 113
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Tastemade Launches New Subscription, Event Services

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based media company Tastemade has launched a brand new set of services this week, called Tastemade Makers and Tastemade Experiences. The new services let creators create their own subscriptions and sell event tickets. The first--Tastemade Makers--is aimed at "chefs, mixologists, artisans, photographers, designers" and others, who can create subscription packages to offer up exclusive content, secret recipes, tips & tricks, recommendations and reviews, and more to their fans.

Services 113
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Interlaced.io Buys Three18

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based Interlaced.io, a managed IT services provider, said last week that it has acquired Three18, another local managed IT services company, also based in LA. FInancial terms of the acquisition were not announced. The two companies both serve businesses in the LA and elsewhere across the US. Interlaced said the buy is the first for the company, but that is is pursuing other acquisitions.

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Viridos In Algae Biofuels Effort With ExxonMobil

socalTECH

La Jolla-based Viridos (formerly known as Synthetic Genomics) said it has signed a joint development agreement with ExxonMobil, with the intent to bring its low carbon biofuels towards commercial levels. Financial details of the deal were not announced. Viridos was foudned in 2005 and has been working on synthetic, engineered microalgae intended to improve the production of biofuels.

Product 113
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FarmSense Harvests $2.2M In SBIR Funding

socalTECH

Riverside-based FarmSense, a developer of "smart sensors" for the agriculture market, has raised $2.2M in Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding. According to the company, the funding will go to ongoing biosecurity research, including the impact of Japanese Beetles and Gypsy Moths as invasive species. The agtech startup says it is developing a sensor which helps farmers identify harmful insects in their fields, in real time.

Riverside 113
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Triller Buys Thuzio

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based social video sharing app Triller announced this morning that it has acquired Thuzio, which runs business-to-business premium influencer events and experiences. Financial terms of the buy were not announced. According to Triller, it will use the acquisition to grow its live event programming. Thuzio was founded in 2012 by former NY Giants great Tiki Barber and entrepreneurs Mark Gerson and Jared Augustine, and offers up access to figures in the sports, entertainment, culinary, a

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Ford, Rivian Abandon Plans For Joint EV

socalTECH

In a small post-IPO setback for Irvine-based Rivian, automaker Ford said Friday that Ford and Rivian have abandoned plans to jointly develop an EV together. Rivian had its IPO last week. According to reports, the move came due to the difficulty of marrying Ford and Rivian's hardware and software together. Ford made a $500M investment in Rivian in 2019.

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Canoo Flees LA To Arkansas

socalTECH

Electric vehicle maker Canoo--which is still very early in producing its own version of an electric car--said late last week that it is moving its headquarters and manufacturing to Bentonville, Arkansas. The publicly listed company hit the public markets in late 2020 via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The company has shown off a number of renderings of potential, high tech vehicles, but does not plan to bring any vehicles to market before Q4 of 2022.

High Tech 113
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TikTok TV Rolls Out In North America

socalTECH

Social video sharing app developer TikTok--which has offices in Los Angeles--said this morning that it is rolling out TikTok TV, its "smart television" app in the US and Canada. According to the company, the app is now available on Google TV and other Android TV OS devices, LG Smart TVs, and Samsung Smart TVs. The app runs on TVs, letting viewers see the most liked and viewed videos, across a range of categories.

Google 113
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Don’t Let Daily Business Challenges Turn You Negative

Startup Professionals Musings

A “downer” is defined here as someone who seems to dwell on the negatives of every business challenge, and loves to highlight bad news or potential problems. No matter how smart or experienced this person may otherwise be, things must change or they will kill your startup. I’m not talking about someone who has an occasional bad day, but rather people who when asked, “How are things?

Startup 129
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Cast & Crew To Acquire The TEAM Companies

socalTECH

Burbank-based Cast & Crew, which provides payroll software and services to the entertainment industry, said last week that it has signed a deal to acquire The Team Companies, a developer of payroll and production management services to the advertising, music and concert tours and live events industries. Financial terms of the deal were not announced.

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Dating Apps Introduce Digital Currency, More Ways to Engage Online

L.A. Business Journal

The world is changing quickly for singles looking for love online.

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7 Steps To Develop A Team With A Long-Term Advantage

Startup Professionals Musings

Every business founder knows the need for a culture that promotes continuous innovation, an entrepreneurial spirit, and one that creates sustainable value across all functions in the business. Yet most don’t really know how to create that environment, or assess when they have achieved it. They only know in retrospect too late when they don’t have it, and the business is in crisis mode.

Develop 135