socalTECH
DECEMBER 19, 2019
In what appears to be the season for stories on how easy it is to gain unauthorized access to cameras from Santa Monica-based Ring , a report published Thursday from Techcrunch says over 1,500 passwords for Ring cameras are available on the "dark web" giving full access to Ring cameras. The "dark web" is the part of the Internet, where anonymous transactions allow for trading of often compromised and hacked information.
TechCrunch LA
DECEMBER 17, 2019
Airbnb has well and truly disrupted the world of travel accommodation, changing the conversation not just around how people discover and book places to stay, but what they expect when they get there, and what they expect to pay. Today, one of the startups riding that wave is announcing a significant round of funding to fuel its own contribution to the marketplace.
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Xconomy
DECEMBER 18, 2019
More than 250 miles above the Earth’s surface aboard the International Space Station, a first-in-kind study of neurodegenerative disease is expected to reveal never-before-seen cell interactions. The National Stem Cell Foundation (NSCF) is funding the study, which is the result of a bi-coastal collaboration between the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute and Aspen Neuroscience, a San Diego startup developing personalized cell therapies for Parkinson’s disease.
L.A. Business Journal
DECEMBER 17, 2019
Wavemaker Partners and Launch co-led a $2.1 million seed funding round for software company Balloon.
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.
socalTECH
DECEMBER 20, 2019
Our video interview today is with Brad Rice , the CEO and founder of Homepie (www.homepie.com), a very early stage startup working on a marketplace to buy and sell homes, without an agent. READ MORE>>.
TechCrunch LA
DECEMBER 20, 2019
Burst , the subscription dental care service, with the pretty, pretty toothbrushes, has now added a sleek dental floss product to its monthly kits. The Los Angeles-based dental hygiene company, which has raised at least $20 million in financing from the growth capital investment firm Volition Capital, takes a different approach to reaching consumers than competitors like Quip.
Southern California Tech Central brings together the best content for technical professionals in Southern California from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
L.A. Business Journal
DECEMBER 20, 2019
After several years of investing quietly, BAM Ventures is making some noise, generating headlines in November with its largest exit to date when Mid-Wilshire-based ecommerce software developer Honey Science Corp. was sold to Paypal Holdings Inc. for $4 billion.
socalTECH
DECEMBER 16, 2019
Vector Launch , a startup which was developing rockets for small satellite launches which had its engineering headquarters in Huntington Beach, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and will sell some of its assets to Lockheed Martin, according to legal filings from the firm on Friday. The company also has laid off most of its 150 or so staff. Vector had suspended its operations in August and parted ways with its CEO.
TechCrunch LA
DECEMBER 16, 2019
When “Law and Order” ended its twenty-year run in 2010, it had already cemented its place as one of the longest-running television dramas in history. Its success was a testament to the enduring popularity of a good mystery. Mining that same well of a demand for whodunnits, a roughly one-year-old Los Angeles-based startup called Solve has raised $20 million in financing to update the genre for a new generation of media consumers.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 16, 2019
Every entrepreneur believes that their product or service is memorable, and that every customer will quickly see the advantage over competitors. Yet true product differentiation in the eye of the customer is rarely achieved. According to an old but still relevant survey by Bain & Company , 80% of businesses believe they have differentiated offerings, but only 8% of customers agree.
L.A. Business Journal
DECEMBER 20, 2019
Although it takes place at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show is a key event for technology companies and startups based in Los Angeles.
socalTECH
DECEMBER 20, 2019
Monrovia-based biopharmaceuticals developer Xencor announced on Friday morning that it has naed a new member of its board of directors. According to the company, it has appointed Dagmar Rosa-Bjorkeson, the former Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and Development Officer at Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals to its board. Rosa-Bjorkeson also previously served at Baxalta, and also had served at Novartis for 17 years, serving is such roles as Vice President and Head of its multiple sclerosis bu
TechCrunch LA
DECEMBER 18, 2019
Meet GIGXR , the new owner of all of the assets of Pearson Immersive Learning Group , a subsidiary of the education and media publishing giant, Pearson. Formed specifically to roll up Pearson’s virtual and augmented reality assets, GIGXR is helmed by David King Lassman, the founder of streaming media company Vyclone and the Southern Californian venture capital firm White Hart Ventures.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 18, 2019
Most aspiring entrepreneurs are convinced that the strength of their initial idea somehow defines them as a leader, as well as the success potential of their derivative business. In my experience, it’s a lot more complicated than that. It takes leadership ability, as well as a good idea, to make a successful entrepreneur, and great leaders evolve from key leadership decisions along the way.
SoCal Tech Calendar
DECEMBER 16, 2019
Tuesday, December 17, 2019 -- LAVA Healthcare Presents: The ins-and-outs of celebrity partnerships and how it can increase your company's value. Brand endorsements from celebrities and athletes have been proven to have a powerful economic impact on stock prices (Forbes 2016). With the advent of social media, these partnerships have become more accessible to even small businesses.
socalTECH
DECEMBER 20, 2019
Los Angeles-based InStride , a developer of a service which allows employers to help their employees earn degrees online, says it has added new programs from Harvard Business School Online. Fiancial details of the deal were not announced. According to InStride, Harvard Business School started its online programs six years ago, and now has seen nearly 70,000 participants who have completed courses in one of their programs.
Xconomy
DECEMBER 18, 2019
About one year ago Illumina agreed to splash out $1.2 billion on Pacific Biosciences, a rival maker of DNA sequencing technology. Now the Federal Trade Commission is looking to block the deal, and says it was meant to steamroll a competitor and maintain Illumina’s “monopolist” position atop the industry. The San Diego-based genomics giant (NASDAQ: ILMN ) dominates the market when it comes to technology for sequencing, or “reading,” the genetic code.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 14, 2019
Don’t bash the competition. Every investor knows how vulnerable a new startup is to competitors, so investors always ask about your sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. How an entrepreneur answers this question speaks volumes about their knowledge of business realities, customers, confidence, and their ability to handle investor funding.
Southern California Edison Blog
DECEMBER 19, 2019
According to Gartner researcher, Andrew Lerner, the average cost of network downtime is approximately $300,000 an hour. But that’s just the average. Additional studies reveal that business characteristics, such as industry and risk tolerance, can move that number as low as $140,000 to as high as $540,000 per hour of network downtime. When it concerns your business, reliable network uptime isn’t just a luxury – it’s a necessity.
socalTECH
DECEMBER 19, 2019
Santa Monica-based Culture Genesis , the venture-backed "digital studio" funded by Mucker Capital, betaworks, plus actor T.I., Grand Hustle founder Jason Geter, and NBA star Baron Davis, has acquired All Def , the media and content company which was founded in 2013 by hip-hop's Russell Simmons. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. According to Culture Genesis, the acquisition is the company's first.
Xconomy
DECEMBER 16, 2019
Organovo raised millions of dollars from investors to fuel its goal of developing 3D “bioprinted” human tissues for use in people with end-stage liver disease and other life-threatening illnesses. But the San Diego company fell short of bringing its lead regenerative medicine program into clinical trials , and now it is charting a course as a vehicle for privately held cancer drug developer Tarveda Therapeutics to join the public markets.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 20, 2019
With the current strong economy I’m seeing a continued resurgence of entrepreneurial spirit, and more startup activity than ever before. I believe the days of the “job work” mentality are thankfully waning, with more people looking to get satisfaction by making the world a better place, rather than just tolerating brain-numbing work to fund enjoyment elsewhere.
Southern California Edison Blog
DECEMBER 17, 2019
Switched Ethernet enables organizations to meet bandwidth needs by leveraging the support of numerous dedicated station segments to maximize the efficiency of the available cable. An extremely reliable network solution that boasts high-quality. connections with ultra-low latency and fast re-routing capabilities, ethernet services typically offer organizations more advantages than disadvantages.
socalTECH
DECEMBER 19, 2019
In a continued series of reports critiquing Santa Monica-based Ring , a new report--from the Verge--says that there's a lot more that Ring could do to ensure camera security , including checking to make sure users aren't using previously compromised passwords, making sure users aren't logging in from an unfamiliar IP address, and doesn't send users notifications when there are logins from unfamiliar devices.
Xconomy
DECEMBER 20, 2019
As national politics dominates the news in the final days of the decade, we at Xconomy are wrapping up the year with some big moves by the FDA, including an approval of the first drug OK’d reduce heart risk in patients with high triglycerides who are already taking statins. Holidays don’t provide immunity to bad news, however, and some companies, like Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD ) and its investigational NASH drugs, didn’t get the clinical trial results they hoped for.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 15, 2019
Winning customers as an entrepreneur in a startup has many parallels to a young army trying to penetrate some formidable new and unfamiliar territory. You need a strategy as well as a goal, and you need to pick your battles well. Even in this age of purpose before profits, a business won’t survive by pretending there are no competitors out there to worry about.
socalTECH
DECEMBER 19, 2019
Xperi , the parent company of Calabasas-based audio technology developer DTS , has merged with set-top box technology developer Tivo , the two announced this morning. Xperi and Tivo said that they have agreed to combine in an all-stock transaction, with an enterprise value of approximately $3 billion. The two said that, after close, Xperi shareholders will own approximately 46.5% of the combined business, and TiVo shareholders will own approximately 53.5%.
socalTECH
DECEMBER 19, 2019
Santa Monica-based GoodRx , a venture-backed startup which runs a prescription drug pricing marketplace, has named Jody Mulkey as the company's Chief Technology Officer. Mulkey is a veteran of Southern California's technology world, and was most recently Chief Product Officer at Aspiration, was CTO of Ticketmaster for five years, and also was at Shopzilla (now Connexity) for 14 years.
socalTECH
DECEMBER 19, 2019
Los Angeles-based advertising technology developer and advertising marketplace operator Rubicon Project has merged with Telaria , a fellow online advertising company, in a stock-for-stock exchange. According to the two companies, they are in a stock-for-stock merger at an exchange ratio of 1.082 shares of Rubicon Project (NYSE:RUBI) common stock for each share of Telaria (NYSE: TLRA) common stock.
socalTECH
DECEMBER 18, 2019
Michael Lynton , the LA-based angel who is Chairman and CEO at Sony Pictures, and also chairman of Snap, Inc., is one of the backers in a new startup focused on workforce diversity. According to Jumpstart , it raised $8.5M in a Series A funding round, which was led by Sequoia Capital, and also included Lynton and Joshua Steiner (Castleton Commodities International).
socalTECH
DECEMBER 18, 2019
El Segundo-based Beyond Meat , which develops plant-based burgers and protein, is extending its deal with CKE , the parent company of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's , to offer up new offerings for breakfast. According to the companies, Carl's Jr. and Harde's will now offer up plant-based Beyond Meat options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Beyond Meat's burgers have been featured at Carl's Jr. now for a little less than a year, something with CKE attributes to "an uptick of new customers" at the quick
socalTECH
DECEMBER 18, 2019
Our interview this morning is with Joel Milne , the CEO of Los Angeles-based RepairSmith (www.repairsmith.com), a startup offering up mobile automobile repair. We spoke with Joel about how the company is trying to reinvent the car repair experience. Milne is a serial entrepreneur, and last had been running ScoreBig. RepairSmith is backed by Daimler AG.
socalTECH
DECEMBER 18, 2019
Monrovia-based biopharmaceuticals developer Xencor announced this morning that it has named Allen Yang, M.D., Ph.D., as its new Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. Yang was most recently Senior Vice President, Head of Clinical Development, and acting Chief Medical Officer at Jazz Pharmaceuticals. The company said that Yang will be responsible for leading clinical development strategy and overseeing clinical operations for Xencor's portfolio of XmAb antibody drug candidates, includin
socalTECH
DECEMBER 18, 2019
LA Bioscience HUB , a nonprofit which advocates for the bioscience industry in East Los Angeles, has joined forces HATCHspaces , a group developing real estate for emerging life science companies. According to the two, LA Bioscience Hub will help HATCHlabs become a "more active participant" in the effort to develop the bioscience industry, particularly in El Sereno.
socalTECH
DECEMBER 18, 2019
El Segundo-based FDH , hardware and replacement parts to commercial and defense aircraft manufacturers, subcontractors, and others, has announced another acquisition--its second this week--of BTC Electronic Components. BTC Electronic Components is a Wake Forest, North Carolina-based distributor of connectors and accessories focused on aerospace, military and industrial end markets.
socalTECH
DECEMBER 18, 2019
Venice, California-based GIGXR , a new startup, has acquired the assets of Pearson Immersive Learning Group , a unit of publishing firm Pearson, and raised $1M in a seed funding round, the company disclosed today. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. GIGXR is led by CEO David King Lassman, who previously founded Vyclone. Pearson's Immersive Learning Group develops two virtual reality titles based on Microsoft's Hololens, which are used for VR and AR training in hospitals, nursi
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