TechEmpower
MAY 28, 2020
Round 19 of the TechEmpower Framework Benchmarks project is now available! This project measures the high-water mark performance of server side web application frameworks and platforms using predominantly community-contributed test implementations. Since its inception as an open source project in 2013, community contributions have been numerous and continuous.
Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 31, 2020
June 2019 (left) and November 2020 (right) I’ve been reluctant to write this blog post because historically I don’t like talking about weight. But I’ve been promising to publish how I lost 65 pounds in the past 18 months without any fad diets or gimmicks to try and be helpful to others. I have a plan, I know it works and for the friends and family who have followed what I’ve done they’ve equally lost a lot of weight.
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TechCrunch LA
OCTOBER 2, 2020
Grindr, one of the world’s largest dating and social networking apps for gay, bi, trans, and queer people, has fixed a security vulnerability that allowed anyone to hijack and take control of any user’s account using only their email address. Wassime Bouimadaghene , a French security researcher, found the vulnerability and reported the issue to Grindr.
L.A. Business Journal
NOVEMBER 23, 2020
Tech jobs are growing at a rapid clip in Los Angeles, fueled by an increasing appetite from local companies as well as industry leaders that are expanding their presence here.
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.
Berkonomics
NOVEMBER 19, 2020
Remember when? Back when we were all trying to figure out the real value of traffic on the web, investors – and acquiring companies – got a bit crazy with metrics used to value acquisitions and investments. Since in most cases, there was no revenue in many of these companies, all trying to gain market share at any cost, we had to invent the metric to use.
socalTECH
JANUARY 22, 2020
Los Angeles-based Acquicent , the startup which is developing a marketplace that allows users to invest in "museum-grade" collectibles such as art and vintage automobiles, is announcing this morning that it has added Kevin Conroy, CEO of ConroyMedia and former director of Sotheby's, as both an advisor and ivnestor. Conroy was on the board of Sotheby's from 2016 to 2019, and also had served as MGM's President of Digital from 2016-2018, Univision's Chief Strategy and Data Officer from 2009-2016, a
Southern California Tech Central brings together the best content for technical professionals in Southern California from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Startup Professionals Musings
NOVEMBER 21, 2020
Finding your sweet spot as an entrepreneur needs to start with a meaningful personal purpose that is also a business opportunity. Some people are so passionate about a cause that they forget to consider the lack of business potential, while others are so enamored with profit that they jeopardize their ethics. Both ends of this spectrum fail to bring long-term satisfaction or success.
Both Sides of the Table
OCTOBER 26, 2020
Today we’re announcing that my partner Kara Nortman is becoming Co-Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures and I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to welcome her to her new role. As with all promotions, the reality is that Kara was already acting as a senior leader at our firm and also in the industry at large. She had all of the skills and traits we sought?
TechCrunch LA
NOVEMBER 11, 2020
New research has found that San Francisco and London have become two of the world’s leading hubs for VC investment into tech solutions that address one or more of the 17 UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), more commonly referred to as “Impact Tech” They are followed by Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Shanghai and Beijing. Tech solutions for such pressing issues as the climate crisis and social inequality have seen a 280% increase in global VC investment from 2015 to 2020, while inves
TechCrunch LA
JANUARY 26, 2020
The Los Angeles startup community is joining the rest of the world in mourning the death of NBA superstar, entrepreneur and investor Kobe Bryant who was killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, Calif., shortly before 10 a.m. on Sunday. Reports indicate that Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant, and seven other passengers were on board a helicopter traveling to Bryant’s basketball training facility Mamba Academy.
TechCrunch LA
OCTOBER 5, 2020
Companies that have leveraged technology to make the procurement and delivery of food more accessible to more people have been seeing a big surge of business this year, as millions of consumers are encouraged (or outright mandated, due to Covid-19) to socially distance or want to avoid the crowds of physical shopping and eating excursions. Today, one of the companies that is supplying produce and other items both to consumers and other services that are in turn selling food and groceries to them
TechCrunch LA
FEBRUARY 19, 2020
Yellow , the accelerator program launched by Snap in 2018, has selected ten companies to join its latest cohort. The new batch of startups coming from across the U.S. and international cities like London, Mexico City, Seoul and Vilnius are building professional social networks for black professionals and blue collar workers, fashion labels, educational tools in augmented reality, kids entertainment, and an interactive entertainment production company.
TechCrunch LA
NOVEMBER 23, 2020
Boulevard , a spa management and payment platform, has raised $27 million in a new round of funding despite a business slowdown caused by the COVID0-19 pandemic. Founded four years ago by Matt Danna and Sean Stavropoulos, Boulevard was inspired by Stavropoulos’ inability to book a haircut and Danna’s hunch that the inability of salons and spas to cater to customers like the busy programmer could be indicative of a bigger problem.
TechCrunch LA
DECEMBER 10, 2020
Swell Energy , an installer and manager of residential renewable energy, energy efficiency and storage technologies, is raising $450 million to finance the construction of four virtual power plants representing a massive amount of energy storage capacity paired with solar power generation. It’s a sign of the distributed nature of renewable energy development and a transition from large-scale power generation projects feeding into utility grids at their edge to smaller, point solutions dist
TechCrunch LA
MARCH 6, 2020
Chinese gaming giant Beijing Kunlun has agreed to sell popular gay dating app Grindr for about $608 million, ending a tumultuous four years under Chinese ownership. Reuters reports that the Chinese company sold its 98% stake in Grindr to a U.S.-based company, San Vicente Acquisition Partners. The app, originally developed in Los Angeles, raised national security concerns after it was acquired by Beijing Kunlun in 2016 for $93 million.
L.A. Business Journal
DECEMBER 21, 2020
SpaceX closed out a record-breaking year of launches with the completion of its 26th mission for 2020.
Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 5, 2020
I am due to speak at the SaaStr conference next week: Wednesday, March 11th at 10:45 AM. I had originally signed up to talk about the “VC Market Trends” overall but it seemed inauthentic to speak about VC funding without addressing the virus in the room. So I wrote a brand new deck outlining some Upfront views on what we may see in the funding markets ahead.
L.A. Business Journal
APRIL 13, 2020
Pray is among a fortunate handful of companies whose businesses have actually benefited from the statewide shutdown. The platform's monthly active users grew 50% from February to March.
TechCrunch LA
SEPTEMBER 10, 2020
It seems Los Angeles is becoming an enterprise software hotspot. LA saw its first big enterprise exit in recent memory with the recent acquisition of Signal Sciences for $775 million, and less than a month later a hometown startup, Britive has raised $5.4 million from LA’s own venture fund, Upfront Ventures and a clutch of security experts. LA gets a big SaaS exit as Fastly nabs the Culver City-based Signal Sciences for $775M.
TechCrunch LA
FEBRUARY 11, 2020
Hyundai Motor Group said it will jointly develop an electric vehicle platform with Los Angeles-based startup Canoo, the latest startup tapped by the automaker as part of an $87 billion push to invest in electrification and other future technologies. The electric vehicle platform will be based on Canoo’s proprietary skateboard design, according to the agreement that was announced Tuesday.
TechCrunch LA
NOVEMBER 3, 2020
“If it smells, that’s how they’re going to receive it.”. While that claim would likely make most D2C founders cringe, for founder Chris Alston, it’s part of the magic of his company, Mov. The upstart, based in Los Angeles, connects fans to the game-worn apparel of their favorite athletes through a sweepstakes-style model. And in the market of sports memorabilia, authenticity (even if it includes sweat, blood and tears) is everything.
TechCrunch LA
JULY 17, 2020
From a partnership with the Russian company 3D Bioprinting Solutions to make chicken meat replacements using plant material and lab cultured chicken cells to an expansion of its Beyond Fried Chicken pilots to Southern California, KFC is aggressively pushing forward with its experiments around the future of food. In Russia, that means providing 3D Bioprinting with breading and spices to see if the company’s chicken replacements can match the KFC taste, according to a statement from the comp
TechCrunch LA
OCTOBER 1, 2020
Google today announced a few updates to Live View, the augmented reality walking directions in its Google Maps app that officially launched last year. Live View uses your phone’s camera and GPS to tell you exactly where to go, making it a nice addition to the standard map-centric directions in similar applications. The new features Google is introducing today include the ability to invoke Live View from the transit tab in Google Maps when you’re on a journey that includes multiple mo
L.A. Business Journal
JULY 13, 2020
The idea of artificial intelligence may conjure up images of robots and mechanical automation, but for businesses, the technology’s applications are much more wide-ranging.
L.A. Business Journal
NOVEMBER 23, 2020
There’s no shortage of audio streaming apps, but Santa Monica-based startup Vurbl Media Inc. is betting that its newly launched player can compete with established platforms like Spotify.
L.A. Business Journal
NOVEMBER 16, 2020
It may seem redundant to say that a company focused on creating virtual reality experiences is ahead of the curve, but that’s precisely the case for West Adams-based Survios Inc.
L.A. Business Journal
OCTOBER 12, 2020
In many areas of the world, there may be no more precious commodity than water — and that’s especially true in Los Angeles.
L.A. Business Journal
SEPTEMBER 14, 2020
While plenty of tech companies are interested in filling up consumers’ feeds, some are more interested in feeding consumers.
L.A. Business Journal
JULY 15, 2020
Video-sharing platform Triller, which is owned by Century City-based Proxima Media, has completed the acquisition of Halogen Networks.
TechCrunch LA
NOVEMBER 16, 2020
Beyond Meat has launched two new versions of its Beyond Burgers, the company announced today. The two new options will be available on store shelves in 2021, but will be on offer at a two-day pop up event in Los Angeles for folks to try. The new Beyond Burger patties are designed to mirror the options of beef in the market with the presentation of a lower fat patty option and a new version of its higher fat content option that the brand promises will be its “juiciest” patty for the &
TechCrunch LA
DECEMBER 8, 2020
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Tuesday that he has moved to Texas, confirming months of speculation that the billionaire would leave California, a state of which he has become increasingly critical. Musk confirmed the move during an interview at the The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council annual summit. His remarks confirmed a CNBC report that Musk had told friends of his intent to move to Texas.
TechCrunch LA
DECEMBER 8, 2020
Cybersecurity insurance startup At-Bay has raised $34 million in its Series C round, the company announced Tuesday. The round was led by Qumra Capital, a new investor. Microsoft’s venture fund M12, also a new investor, participated in the round alongside Acrew Capital, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Munich Re Ventures, and Israeli entrepreneur Shlomo Kramer, who co-founded security firms Check Point and Imperva.
TechCrunch LA
SEPTEMBER 7, 2020
Reducing consumption by expanding the notion of the rental economy and giving people access to tools and equipment has been something of a startup holy grail for some time. It’s a model that’s worked famously well for fashion and accessories ( just ask investors in Rent the Runway ), but has had not had the same resonance for white label goods.
TechCrunch LA
AUGUST 12, 2020
Uber could be forced to shut down its ride-hailing app in California for several months if a court doesn’t overturn a recent ruling that classifies its drivers as full-time employees, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in an interview with MSNBC. “It’s hard to believe we’ll be able to switch our model to full-time employment quickly,” Khosrowshahi said, noting it would force the company to temporarily shut down.
TechCrunch LA
MAY 13, 2020
So, an eight-year product veteran from Facebook and an internationally renowned barista walk into a coffee bar… It’s not a joke. It’s the origin story for Taika , a new startup that’s aiming to bring natural stimulants to the masses through its juiced up coffee-beverages. The two co-founders, Michael Sharon, an eight-year veteran of Facebook’s mobile product division, and Kalle Freese, a champion barista (it’s a thing) and the co-founder of Sudden Coffee are o
TechCrunch LA
DECEMBER 8, 2020
Opendoor has opened the door, so to speak, for startups to apply their technical expertise in search, marketplaces and audience segmentation to rethink the very antiquated and analogue world of property. Today, a startup that is doing this in the specific area of distressed property is announcing a round of growth funding to ramp up its team and expand its business.
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