Both Sides of the Table
JANUARY 25, 2014
'Tom Perkins is one of the founding members of the venerable venture capitalist firm Kleiner Perkins. He just had his Mitt Romney moment and his name will forever be etched in the collective consciousness of the tech community for this terribly insensitive and tone deaf letter to the Wall Street Journal. The headline of Mr. Perkins letter to the WSJ?
socalTECH
JANUARY 28, 2014
'Think Southern California''s tech industry is all about fashion, Hollywood, and content? If you look at the last few weeks of deals here, you might be surprised: it''s almost been entirely enterprise software. Yesterday, TigerText , a developer of enterprise, secure texting tools, raised a big $21M funding and last week, the big funding round was for Kareo , which raised $29.5M for its cloud-based medical offices software.
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InfoChachkie
JANUARY 27, 2014
'A version of this article previously appeared in The Wall Street Journal. Entrepreneurs typically embrace celebrity investments, while most sophisticated investors prefer to avoid famous entertainment or sports personalities on the cap table. What’s the cause of this incongruence? If you haven''t already subscribed yet, subscribe now for free weekly JohnGreathouse.com articles!
Startup Professionals Musings
JANUARY 25, 2014
'Don’t charge the hill until you are “ready.” This probably seems obvious to military types, but I see entrepreneurs violating this rule all the time. They approach key potential investors way too early, trying to talk their way up the hill, with no supporting business plan, and before they have a support team around them. Needless to say, they usually get shot down, and get no second chance.
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Tech Zulu Event
JANUARY 30, 2014
'In 2005, Lenovo first burst onto the scene by acquiring IBM’s PC line, namely the brand recognition of the Thinkpad line. Last week, they announced the acquisition of IBM’s x86 server business for approximately $2.3 billion. And now they’ve just shocked the world by announcing their plans to purchase Motorola Mobility from Google for about $2.91 billion.
socalTECH
JANUARY 27, 2014
'Think Silicon Valley has a lock on billion dollar startups? A recent analysis by the Wall Street Journal uncovers a surprising number of Southern California startups in the billion dollar valuation -- led by Hawthorne-based SpaceX , with a $4.8 billion dollar valuation at its last round. The chart of valuations shows that there are three companies which made the cut for being venture backed, having raised money in the last three years, and are still privately held.
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Startup Professionals Musings
JANUARY 26, 2014
'Your marketing launch is the most important element of startup success these days, to get customer attention in this world of information overload. Yet it is the one element that too many entrepreneurs focus on only as an afterthought. Everyone assumes their product or service is so great that “word-of-mouth” will carry the day for them. Even great products need great marketing “content” to fuel the ascent of their online message.
Tech Zulu Event
JANUARY 30, 2014
'Last night when my friend showed up to my house I answered the doorbell through my phone while still down the street picking up dinner. I told her I would be there in a few minutes, and unlocked the door to let her into the house – all from my phone. As she walked in, the scene became alive as lights shined a golden orange hue, and the TV flipped on with Pandora Streaming.
socalTECH
JANUARY 31, 2014
'reQall , which develops intelligent assistance software which runs on such platforms as Google Glass, has launched a new app for the Sony SmartWatch, the company said this morning. The company--which has a significant presence in Ventura--said its new context-aware software helps users manage their email and text messages, prioritizing messages and tracking when users are in meetings or otherwise unavailable. reQall is led by Rao Machiraju, formerly Principal Scientist at Apple Computer, where
socalTECH
JANUARY 29, 2014
'Mojave-based commercial spaceflight developer XCOR Aerospace has raised $14.2M, part of an ongoing $20.0M funding round for the company, according to a regulatory filing from the company. The equity funding has not yet been announced by the company. XCOR has previously raised funding from Silicon Valley angels Esther Dyson, Pete Ricketts (co-owner of the Chicago Cubs), and Stephen Fleming (ATV Partners).
socalTECH
JANUARY 27, 2014
'Free broadband access and phone service provider FreedomPop announced this morning that it is ramping up its customer support efforts, and has opened up a new online customer support forum. The Los Angeles-based company--which offers up free, broadband and phone service--albeit with bandwidth, texting volume, and minute limits--said the new forum will offer up support from users and its team members.
socalTECH
JANUARY 28, 2014
'Los Angeles-based Chideo , a new startup that is looking to help raise money for charities, launched today, saying that it has come up with a way that celebrities can connect with fans and help raise money for charity. The startup, which says it was founded by Todd Wagner, lets celebrities generate exclusive videos on the platform, and allows fans to vote on the kinds of video they''d like to see a celebrity create.
socalTECH
JANUARY 30, 2014
'Los Angeles-based Glip , the startup developing cloud-based tools to help teams manage projects, plans, documents, and other more, said today that it has integrated its service with Google Drive and Dropbox. The tie allows Glip customers to share their content in both of those online storage services. Glip, which is led by Peter Pezaris, offers up a social conversation platform tied into project and task management, shared calendar, document sharing, and other team features.
socalTECH
JANUARY 30, 2014
'Famous Birthdays , the Santa Monica-based startup which features exactly that--the details on the birthdays of famous people--said today that its traffic has now grown to over 3 million uniques and 11 million page views a month. The company-- led by Evan Britton --also said that about 43 percent of its traffic is now coming from smartphones. The site focuses on offering up profiles and birthdays of famous people, including actors, musicians, politicians, authors, athletes, and more.
socalTECH
JANUARY 28, 2014
'Los Angeles-based technology incubator and studio Science --headed by former MySpace CEO Mike Jones--has launched a new startup in the Internet marketplace area, called HomeHero this morning. HomeHero offers up a way for families to find and hire in-home, senior caregivers for aging family members, allowing them to browse vidos of those caregivers, view references, reviews, and more.
socalTECH
JANUARY 27, 2014
'Santa Monica-based TigerText , the developer of secure, enterprise real time messaging systems led by Brad Brooks, announced this morning that it has raised $21M in a Series B funding round. The new funding was led by Shasta Ventures, and also included OrbiMed, Reed Elsevier Ventures, and TELUS Corporation, along with prior investors Easton Capital, New Leaf Venture Partners, and New Science Ventures.
socalTECH
JANUARY 30, 2014
'Los Angeles-based YouTube content network Fullscreen , which is led by George Strompolos, disclosed Thursday that it has issued $7.8M in equity--related to a merger and acquisition, most likely the acquisition of Supernova (better known as Viddy ) earlier this month. The disclosure came via a regulatory filing. Details on the equity offering have not yet been announced by the company.
socalTECH
JANUARY 30, 2014
'Are you tired of jostling with other electric vehicle drivers for that one charging spot at work? Monrovia, California-based Aerovironment is looking to make any parking spot a charging spot, with a new product it is calling the Turbocord. According to Aerovironment, its new, portable plug-in-charger comes complete with a 20-foot cord, and supports both 120 or 240 volts -- and at 240 volts can charge a fully electric car in less than six hours.
socalTECH
JANUARY 27, 2014
'Los Angeles-based online storage and backup provider IDrive is continuing to enhance its service, saying last week that it has launched a new, database backup service aimed at small and medium sized businesses. The cloud storage provider said its new IBackup service specifically backsup up MS SQL Server, MS Exchange Server, Oracle Server, and MS SharePoint Server databases for users.
socalTECH
JANUARY 30, 2014
'AnyMeeting , the developer of web and video conferencing software aimed at the small business market, said today that it has launched a new, web conferencing product called AnyMeeting Company Pro. According to the company, the new tool provides set price access to its services to companies with up to 50 employees, allowing companies to purchase a plan which covers all of their employees at a fixed price.
socalTECH
JANUARY 30, 2014
'Lynda.com , the online video education site which offers up a large library of video tutorials in computer software, business skills, design, and other areas, is in a big expansion today, saying that it has started offering up its products in Southeast Asia. According to the company, it has begun offering up its service to corporate and academic institutions in Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.
socalTECH
JANUARY 27, 2014
'Santa Barbara-based Resonant, Inc. , the Superconductor Technologies spinout which is developing radio frequency filters for the mobile industry, has filed for an IPO, saying that it is looking to raise up to $14.0M in an IPO on the Nasdaq Capital Market. The IPO offering is being underwritten by MDB Capital Group. Resonant said it is developing a new technology called Infinite Synthesized Networks to build RF filters, used to filter radio signals for things like mobile phones.
socalTECH
JANUARY 31, 2014
'Irvine-based BlueCava , a developer of a cross-screen advertising platform, said Thursday that it has raised $13M in a new funding round. According to the company, the second round of funding came from S3 Ventures, Performance Edge Partners and Zeitgeist Capital. BlueCava helps companies manage targeting of consumers on smartphones, tablets, the Internet, and more.
socalTECH
JANUARY 30, 2014
'La Jolla-based Quippi , which sells a gift card aimed at international money transfers, has raised $2M in a funding, the company disclosed today. The funding came from Avalon Ventures. Quippi operates a service--aimed at the Mexican market--which allows people in the U.S. or Mexico to buy gift cards, and share those gift cards via a PIN number with friends or family in Mexico.
socalTECH
JANUARY 29, 2014
'San Diego-based solar power installer OneRoof Energy --which is venture backed by Black Coral Capital, GDF SUEZ Energy North America, Hanwha International, MS Solar Holdings--said Wednesday that it has opened up access to an application programming interface (API) for its home energy management, automation, and solar solutions. OneRoof said that the APIs will allow service providers to integrate its residential solar into their businesses, helping them to design, sell, and manage solar electric
socalTECH
JANUARY 28, 2014
'Two Los Angeles television stations -- KLCS (Channel 58) and KJLA (Channel 57.1 Digital) -- are in a bid to share the bandwidth they are currently occupying , as part of an industry experiment on opening up new spectrum for commercial, mobile broadband. According to widespread reports, the move is part of an industry effort to study the feasibility of sharing TV airwaves and opening up more bandwidth for wireless carriers--who are hungry for more 4G bandwidth.
socalTECH
JANUARY 28, 2014
'Santa Monica-based Mahalo , the startup led by tech celebrity Jason Calacanis, apparently is shifting its focus to a new effort called Inside.com , focused on mobile news. According to Calacanis, Inside.com will offer up curation of news via a mobile app, aimed at highlighting the top news stories for users and summarizing the key facts of those stories.
socalTECH
JANUARY 31, 2014
'Irvine-based online real estate marketplace Auction.com anounced yesterday that it has named a former Adobe Systems VP as its new Senior Vice President of Corporate Development. The company said it has named Paul Weiskopf--formerly Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Adobe Systems--into the VP role, to help the company with its growth plans.
socalTECH
JANUARY 31, 2014
'Los Angeles-based private equity investor The Gores Group has acquired a maker of high performance lasers for the medical, dental, and aesthetic medicine market, the company said Thursday. According to The Gores Group, it is buying a controlling interest in Fotona d.d. , based in Ljubljana, Slovenia, via its Small Capitalization Partners investment fund.
socalTECH
JANUARY 30, 2014
'Los Angeles-based NewsCrafted , a company which provides elementary and middle schools with professionally designed, high quality newsletters -- including content, has raised $1.1M in an angel financing round, the second angel round for the company. According to the company''s investors, the funding comes on top of an earlier, $1.25M in angel funding for the company.
socalTECH
JANUARY 30, 2014
'Los Angeles-based music software startup Topspin has laid off a "significant" amount of staff, according to reports , with a majority of the company''s staff getting the pink slip. The startup offered up web-based apps to help artists and labels reach their fans. Topspin is venture backed by Foundry Group and Redpoint Ventures. Topspin did not detail the reason for the layoffs, or how many employees were affected by the move.
socalTECH
JANUARY 29, 2014
'Irvine-based nuclear and hazardous waste remediation technology developer Kurion , which is venture backed by Lux Capital, Firelake Capital Management and Acadia Woods Partners, said this morning that it has acquired Vista Engineering Technologies , an engineering, design and technology firm. Kurion said the deal triples the company''s employees, and gives it ownership of Vista Engineering''s entire technology, patent, and trade secrte portfolio.
socalTECH
JANUARY 29, 2014
'Newport Beach-based semiconductor foundry TowerJazz reported this morning that it has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract with the United States Air Force, and its Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Paterson Air Force Base (USAF/AFRL). TowerJazz said the five year, multi-million program will go towards improving its technology and manufacturing to support aerospace and defense customers, and specifically for a system for manufacturing Large Format Read Out Integrated Circuit (ROIC
socalTECH
JANUARY 29, 2014
'Clean technology investor NGEN Partners , which is based in Santa Barbara, is one of the lead investors in a new funding round for urban farming company BrightFarms , which was announced Tuesday. According to BrightFarms, it has raised $4.9M in a Series B financing round, led by NGEN Partners, Emil Capital Partners, as well as others. BrightFarms is working on the concept of "urban farming"--by financing, building, and operating greenhouse farms in urban areas, it looks to cut down on the costs
socalTECH
JANUARY 28, 2014
'Camarillo-based analog and mixed signal semiconductor manufacturer Semtech said late Monday that it is in the midst of a restructuring, and has cut approximately 6 percent of its workforce. Semtech did not say how many employees the move impacts. According to Semtech, the job cuts came due to a "significant reduction" in demand for its products in the second half of its fiscal 2014.
socalTECH
JANUARY 28, 2014
'San Diego-based Sightly said this morning that it has raised $1.7M in a seed funding, to go towards its video advertising technology. The funding was led by Mack Capital, and also included Tomorrow Ventures and 500 Startups. Sightly said it is developing video advertising technology to help target video ads with locally relevant messaging, delivering them to users across different kinds of devices.
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