Sat.Aug 08, 2015 - Fri.Aug 14, 2015

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Look for your strategic buyer first.

Berkonomics

Dave’s note: John Huston is founder and past manager of the 300+ member Ohio TechAngel Funds and a past Chairman of both the Angel Capital Association and the Angel Resource Institute. . By John Huston. While you are busy building your high growth venture, you may have occasionally thought about which large companies might be the ultimate buyer of your company – a buyer that could optimize your idea, customer base, and team.

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The Honest Company Raises $100M In Series D

socalTECH

Santa Monica-based The Honest Company , which provides baby care, personal care, home care, and other healthy lifestyle products, said this morning that it has raised $100M in a Series D funding round. The funding round came from Glade Brook Capital Partners LLC, along with AllianceBernstein L.P. (AB) pllus existing investors Fidelity Management & Research Company, Wellington Management Company LLP and Institutional Venture Partners.

Company 185
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How To Make (Almost) Anything Go Viral

InfoChachkie

A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. There are two schools of thought regarding how to make anything go viral. In The Tipping Point , Malcolm Gladwell emphasizes the importance of the messenger. In contrast, Jonah Berger’s Contagious: Why Things Catch On proclaims that a properly structured message makes the messenger inconsequential.

Tips 183
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Why PR?

Tech Coast Venture Network

As long-time PR pros and communications advocates, we’ve grown accustomed to questions like “What is PR?” or “Why do we need PR?”. By definition, public relations (PR) is the practice of managing the spread of information between an individual or an organization and the public; but the strategic communication process that occurs in today’s PR world requires so much more than just information management.

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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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Why You Must Really Know Yourself Before A Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

If you're an aspiring entrepreneur, you need to take a hard look at yourself before leaving that regular paycheck. Don't assume you will be happier and make more money starting the business of your dreams. The good and the bad news is that as an entrepreneur, you won’t have a manager charged with directing your efforts or peers helping you implement, and your new team will be quick to tell you only what you want to hear.

Startup 108
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RadPad Dangles $10K Bounty For Job Referrals

socalTECH

Los Anngeles-based RadPad , the online job marketplace led by Jonathan Eppers, said Wednesday that it is offering up a $10,000 referral reward to anyone who helps land the company an engineer. RadPad--which is backed by such investors as Altpoint Ventures and Goldcrest Investments said the new reward comes because engineering talent is still at a premium in Southern Californi, due to the rise of many startups here, including Tinder, Snapchat, Whisper, Flipagram, Parachute, RealtyMogul, Reformati

Flipagram 143

More Trending

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Start-ups…The Ultimate Risk-Reward Game.

Tech Coast Venture Network

In my youth I read a Jack London tale about a scruffy teen who hung around the wharf in Oakland. He did whatever work he could find as he was alone, no family or resources. The time line was in the 1930’s. Not a great time in American history. The Great Depression, the Dust Bowl and other circumstances made just living very difficult. Not all this teen’s activities were above the law.

Startup 116
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How Great Entrepreneurs Spell Continuous Innovation

Startup Professionals Musings

As a startup investor in this age of the entrepreneur, I see many more startups, but innovation is still hard to find. The most common proposals I hear are for yet another social networking site ( over 200 active ), or another dating site (now over 2500 in the US alone). Startups which display real innovation, such as alternative energy sources and new medical treatments, are still rare.

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Coding Dojo Expands To Burbank

socalTECH

Coding Dojo , the operator of a coding bootcamp program, says it has opened up a location in Los Angeles, at a location in Burbank. The company--which offers up a 14-week development program to teach students coding skills--says its location in Los Angeles is the third for the company. Coding Dojo also has locations in Seattle and Silicon Valley. Coding Dojo said it specifically set up shop in Los Angeles, because of its growing tech sector.

Burbank 142
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Here Comes New Ideas from BPM

Tech Zulu Event

While the global economy has proved to be fertile soil for launching small to mid-sized businesses, there has never been a time in which the competition in the small business arena has been as intense as it is currently. The exceptional level of competition has forced business owners to look for ways to improve their competitive edge, and one of the most effective ways of doing this is to enhance efficiency by improving overall business processes.

Ideas 67
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10 Examples of Companies With Fantastic Cultures

Tech Coast Venture Network

Having great company culture is no longer just an option. Today’s workers consider it as much as they consider salary and benefits. In fact, fantastic company culture is almost expected along with other traditional benefits. While the culture that works for one company might not work for another , you can learn a lot from companies who are doing it right, and get started on company culture hacks of your own. 1.

Examples 116
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8 Ways To Prepare Your Startup For Obstacles Ahead

Startup Professionals Musings

Too many entrepreneurs tackle starting a business as a random walk into a business minefield, and they count on their street smarts, thick skin and pure determination to get them to their destinations alive. That does work once in a while, usually with some serious collateral damage, but a less painful approach is to prepare and plan for each step along the way.

Startup 101
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Surf Air Expanding To Sacramento On August 24th

socalTECH

Santa Monica-based Surf Air , the all-you-can fly, membership airline, says it plans to start its service to Sacramento on August 24th, according to the company. Surf Air--which announced the plan to expand to Sacramento earlier in the year--charges as little as $1750 a month for its service, which flies members between Southern California, the Bay Area, and elsewhere on commuter turboprops.

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Tinder Loses New CEO

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based mobile dating app developer Tinder said late Wednesday that its brand new CEO, Christopher Payne, is leaving the company, and that it will reappoint Tinder founder Sean Rad as CEO. Greg Platt, Chairman of The Match Group--Tinder's parent company--will become Executive Chairman. According to Tinder, the move came because of a mutual agreement that Payne was "not the right long-term fit" for the company.

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DexCom, Google Team On Diabetes Management

socalTECH

Sa Diego-based continuous glucose monitoring device developer DexCom , and the life sciences team at Google , said this morning that the two have partnered together to jointly develop products for diabetes management. According to the two, they will jointly develop a series of products, which incorporate Google's miniaturized electronics with DexCom's glucose sensors.

Google 138
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United Online Names EVP, General Counsel

socalTECH

Woodland Hills-based United Online said Friday that it has named Mark Harrington as the company's new Executive Vice President and General Counsel. Harrington was most recently Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary of Guidance Software, and also has served at Intel Corporation, Trillium Digital Systems, Munger, Tolles & Olson and Ticketmaster.

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Cold Genesys Finds $10M For Cancer Immunotherapy

socalTECH

Santa Ana-based Cold Genesys , a company developing oncolytic immunotherapy products, said last week that it has raised $10M in a Series B funding. The funding came from Ally Bridge Group and WI Harper Group along with Whitesun Healthcare Ventures and Song Hong Fang. Cold Genesys is developing viruses which are designed to selectively replicate in tumors (but not normal tissue) and to elicit an immune response against cancer cells.

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Vinny Smith's Toba Capital Backs WSO2

socalTECH

Irvine-based Toba Capital , the venture investment firm founded by Quest Software founder Vinny Smith, has made an investment in open source application development software developer WSO2. WSO2, which is based in Palo Alto, said it raised $20M from Pacific Controls and Toba Capital this morning. Toba Capital has investment in such companies as Sauce Labs, Alteryx, TeamSnap, and others.

Capital 135
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Qualcomm Buys CSR For $2.4 Billion

socalTECH

San Diego-based Qualcomm said this morning that it has completed a $2.4 billion acquisition of CSR plc , a developer of Internet-of-Things an automotive semiconductors. CSR plc. is the parent company for Cambridge Silicon Radio. Qualcomm said it will rename Cambridge Silicon Radio Limited as Qualcomm Technologies International, Ltd. Qualcomm said the buy will help foster growth at the company, particularly in the areas of connectivity, audio technologies and systems-on-chips for the Internet-of-

San Diego 135
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FindTheBest Becomes Graphiq, Shifts Into Visualization Tools

socalTECH

Santa Barbara-based FindTheBest , which got its start offering up lists and ways to compare the merits of a myriad of different things (products, colleges, you name it), has rebranded itself as Graphiq , and has refocused on the visual tools behind FindTheBest's original service. The startup--led by technology veteran Kevin O'Connor (who founded DoubleClick)--now is offering up its visualizations of data to web publishers.

Tool 135
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USC, 2U Launch New Online Nursing Degree

socalTECH

The University of Southern California and online degree program operator 2U said last week that they are planning to launch a new, online degree in nursing. The two said they plan to develop and online Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) for aspiring family nurse practitioners. The two said the new program is expected to start in fall of 2016. The program will also include in-person clinical rotations. 2U already powers a number of online degree programs for USC.

USC 135
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Zadara Wins Gilt

socalTECH

Irvine-based cloud-based storage service provider Zadara reported Tuesday that it has signed up online shopping site Gilt as a customer. Financial impact of the win was not announced. Zadara said that Gilt has deployed its storage-as-a-service with Amazon Web Services, rather than expanding a current on-premise HP 3PAR storage array. Zadara's storage service uses on-site storage appliances which connect into the cloud, handling storage and caching of the data into various cloud services.

Sites 131
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PatientSafe Solutions Names CFO

socalTECH

San Diego-based PatientSafe Solutions , which develops mobile healthcare software, said Tuesday that it has named Balaji Sekar as its Chief Financial OFficer. Sekar was most recently interim CFO for Sutherland Global Services, ahd had worked as CFO of Sutherland Healthcare Solutions. PatientSafe is venture backed by TELUS Ventures. READ MORE>>.

San Diego 131
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Insteon Ships Software With Toshiba Laptops

socalTECH

Irvine-based home automation and control software and device maker Insteon announced today that its software will ship with all of Toshiba's new laptops, by the end of the month. According to Insteon, the deal allows Toshiba customers to control the company's Insteon Hub out of the box. The deal covers Toshiba's consumer laptops running Windows 10. Insteon develops software and a device that lets users control smart home devices, such as lights, alarms, and connected thermostats.

Software 131
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Soothe Scores $10.6M For On Demand Massage Service

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based Soothe has raised $10.6M for an on-demand, massage service, the company said this week. The funding was led by The Riverside Company. Soothe currently lets customers in the Los Angeles and a few other areas book a massage from a network of independent massage therapists. The startup is led by Merlin Kauffman. Soothe says it plans to be in every major city in the USA within 24 months.

Demand 125
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Tinder Takes Aim At Vanity Fair Article

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based Tinder has taken to ranting on Twitter to protest yesterday's article in Vanity Fair about the app's outsized influence on dating and hookups. Tinder--which called the Vanity Fair article "one-sided journalism"--posted dozens of tweets attacking Vanity Fair's author and taking issue with the article, which focused on the "hookup" nature of many of Tinder's connections.

Journal 125
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Will Schroter's Startups.co Buys, Will Restart Zirtual

socalTECH

Startups.co , the startup led by former Southern California entrepreneur Will Schroter, has acquired defunct virtual personal assistant service Zirtual , and will restart the service. Startups.co--which is based in Schroter's hometown of Columbus, Ohio--said it will restart Zirtual, which suddenly shut down this week. Schroter spend a significant amount of time in Los Angeles, having started up Affordit, GotCast, Unsubsribe.com, and Fundable, as well as invseting in a number of other companies.

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Ixia Gets Customer Win With Mellanox

socalTECH

Calabasas-based Ixia , the manufacturer and developer of network testing hardware and software, reported a win Tuesday at Infiniband and Ethernet networking equipment maker Mellanox. Ixia said that Mellanox wil luse its products to verify the functionality of new, 100GbE products, including network adapters, switches, cables, and transceivers. Financial impact of the win was not announced.

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United Online Sells Classmates For $30M

socalTECH

Woodland Hills-based United Online said this morning that it has sold its Classmates subsidiary, to Intelius Holdings , for a mere $30M in cash. According to United Online, the sale is a "great outcome" for the company, and will allow it to add additional capital to its other existing businesses. United Online said that Classmates was a non-strategic asset for the company.

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Broadcom, Avago Clear Hart Scott Rodino Hurdle

socalTECH

Irvine-based Broadcom and fellow semiconductor developer Avago Technologies Limited said this morning that they have passed the waiting period required under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976. The companies said the expiration of the HSR Act waiting period satisfies one of the conditions of the proposed acquisition of Broadcom by Avago , which was announced in May.

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Prevoty Links Into Splunk

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based application security monitoring software developer Prevoty announced Monday that it has launched a new software tool for Splunk. Prevoty--which is venture backed by US Venture Partners, Plus Capital, Double M Capital, Core Ventures Group, Inventures Group, Daher Capital, Digi Venture Fund and Karlin Ventures--says its new Prevoty Application Monitoring and Protection (AMP) App for Splunk helps enterprises gain visibility into attacks on their production applications.

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Entertainment Partners Acquires Ease

socalTECH

Burbank-based Enntertainment Partners , a provider of payroll an dproduction management services for the entertainment industry, and Ease Enertainment Services , a provider of technology to the industry, said Thursday that Entertainment Partners will acquire Ease. Financial details of the buy were not disclosed. Ease develops a cloud-based system for handling budgeting and schedling, managing production information, document administration, script distriction, as well as production and accountin

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Why PR?

Tech Coast Venture Network

As long-time PR pros and communications advocates, we’ve grown accustomed to questions like “What is PR?” or “Why do we need PR?”. By definition, public relations (PR) is the practice of managing the spread of information between an individual or an organization and the public; but the strategic communication process that occurs in today’s PR world requires so much more than just information management.

article thumbnail

Start-ups…The Ultimate Risk-Reward Game.

Tech Coast Venture Network

In my youth I read a Jack London tale about a scruffy teen who hung around the wharf in Oakland. He did whatever work he could find as he was alone, no family or resources. The time line was in the 1930’s. Not a great time in American history. The Great Depression, the Dust Bowl and other circumstances made just living very difficult. Not all this teen’s activities were above the law.

Startup 100
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10 Examples of Companies With Fantastic Cultures

Tech Coast Venture Network

Having great company culture is no longer just an option. Today’s workers consider it as much as they consider salary and benefits. In fact, fantastic company culture is almost expected along with other traditional benefits. While the culture that works for one company might not work for another , you can learn a lot from companies who are doing it right, and get started on company culture hacks of your own. 1.

Examples 100
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Wil Schroter's Startups.co Buys, Will Restart Zirtual

socalTECH

Startups.co , the startup led by former Southern California entrepreneur Wil Schroter, has acquired defunct virtual personal assistant service Zirtual , and will restart the service. Startups.co--which is based in Schroter's hometown of Columbus, Ohio--said it will restart Zirtual, which suddenly shut down this week. Schroter spend a significant amount of time in Los Angeles, having started up Affordit, GotCast, Unsubsribe.com, and Fundable, as well as invseting in a number of other companies.