2017

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Understanding What’s Going on in #LATech

Both Sides of the Table

Upfront Ventures was created 20 years ago as one of the original VC funds in Los Angeles. Back then only 15% of our dollars were invested locally whereas today 50% of our dollars are invested in LA. 10 years ago we found ourselves trying to persuade LPs and VCs that it was worth spending more time getting to know the LA market and now the most common refrain that I hear from them is “there really is something going on in LA.

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Envoy launches in LA aiming to bring EV car sharing to real estate developments

TechCrunch LA

Looking to make EV car sharing the next perk for real estate developers, Envoy, a new Los Angeles startup has launched its first pilot. Initially, they’re starting with one apartment building and a fleet of two cars in an LA apartment complex. But, what the young startup lacks in reach, it makes up for in gumption. Founded by two real estate developers, Aric Ohana and Ori Sagie, the… Read More.

Develop 329
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Tesloop Ride Sharing Service Expands

L.A. Business Journal

Long-haul commuting is better in a Tesla. That’s the theory behind Tesloop of Culver City, a car service which ferries passengers on highway trips between 50 miles and 200 miles around Southern California in Tesla Inc.’s Model X or Model S cars.

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TeleSign Acquisition By BICS Closes, Deal Value Rises To $335M

socalTECH

Marina del Rey-based phone verification and user authentication service TeleSign is now officially part of BICS , after the official close of the acquisition, BICS said today. The deal was originally announced in April. BICS said it paid $230M, however, March Capital Partners, one of the investors in TeleSign, said that as a result of additional cash and earn out the deal now has a total valuation of $335M.

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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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Will tech kill your job?

Berkonomics

Close. Stop me if you’ve heard this story before. “My job as a (newspaper publisher telephone installer, stockbroker, travel agent, retail store manager) is safe as this economy continues to grow.” Yup. Thought so. We are in a decade of creative destruction that will affect most everybody. And the prime motivators of this massive destruction are the same class of entrepreneurs and innovators that have done it before.

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When Your Legs Start Shaking, Just Keep Talking

Eric Greenspan

Back in 2001, I started my 3rd company out of my 3rd bedroom in my newly rented townhome on the beach after separating from my oldest son’s mother. I had no choice. I had just sold my last company and I needed to keep busy. I built and built and built and one day, I wrote a business plan and sent it off for review to an angel funding group. I pitched 4 locations, including Hawaii.

Startup 222

More Trending

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What’s the Business Model for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare?

Xconomy

This story is part of an ongoing Xconomy series on A.I. in healthcare. These are heady times for using artificial intelligence to extract insights from healthcare data—in particular, from the tidal wave of information coming out of fields like genomics and medical imaging. Yet as innovations proliferate, some age-old business questions have come to the fore.

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7 Steps To Finding Investors Aligned With Your Values

Startup Professionals Musings

One of the most common complaints I hear from new business owners and startups is about the pain and difficulty raising capital. The “venture capital” model is the only option they know, where they feel they get no mercy, giving up equity and control. Based on my experience with startups, I’m a strong believer that there are far better alternatives available, if you think outside the box.

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Uber adds LA to flying taxi test cities, demo flights slated for 2020

TechCrunch LA

Uber has inked a partnership with Nasa over its flying taxi plans and says now it’s aiming to get demo flights up and running in Los Angeles by 2020. Read More.

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Why Great Executives Avoid Shiny Objects

Both Sides of the Table

The modern world is filled with constant distractions. Only those with maniacal focus on results and a willingness not to engage in every activity achieve extraordinary results. As executives we’re all seemingly accessible at any moment to anybody via email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Text. We are over-intro’d and at the same time under-resourced in terms of staff to handle the barrage of in-bound requests.

Activity 297
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What Happens When Startups Turn from Their Innovation Stage to Operational Excellence?

Both Sides of the Table

Nearly every successful tech startup I’ve observed over the past 20 years has gone through a similar growth pattern: Innovate, systematize then scale operations. An alternate outcome that I also unfortunately observe in some cases are companies who had extreme early success with an initial product adoption but failed in key areas that limited the growth and therefore the ultimate financial outcomes.

Startup 286
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GumGum Jumps Into Publishing With New Site

socalTECH

Santa Monica-based GumGum , the developer of computer vision and artificial intelligence software focused on the advertising industry, has jumped into the online publishing business, saying it has started a new online publication call The Visionary. GumGum said it will publish original and curated content, a newsletter, awards and more focused on artificial intelligence and computer vision.

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Hackers Steal Client Data From Line 204 Studios

L.A. Business Journal

Line 204, a Hollywood film and television production and rental company, said today hackers had stolen its client database. The extent of the breach is still being determined.

Hollywood 277
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Here are ten vision tests for your success

Berkonomics

Your vision for success must be solid and flexible enough to pass several critical tests if it is to guide a business enterprise to greatness. Here in brief are ten tests for your successful vision. Try these on for size, and test yourself for attractiveness to the marketplace, to investors and to history. Ten tests for your successful vision. Is your market identifiable and accessible?

Patents 291
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Think like a general! Create strategies and tactics now.

Berkonomics

If you have been following the last several weeks of these postings, then now we’re getting organized. There are many ways to express the road map for your enterprise. One of the most popular was used by the U.S. Army late in World War II, and adopted by many high profile businesses such as Texas Instruments after the War. The structure combined the listing of the goal with a series of strategies and then tactics, each designed to support each other, each measurable and made public throughout

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Ex-Uber data chief Kevin Novak joins LA-based startup Tala in big win for LA ecosystem

TechCrunch LA

Kevin Novak, the architect of Uber's dynamic pricing technology and the head of its data team, has joined the Los Angeles-based financial services startup Tala as its new head of data.

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Passport, the technology business for city transit systems, raises $43 million

TechCrunch LA

Passport, company that's managing much of the technical aspects of how people pay to use public transportation resources in cities like London, Miami and Los Angeles, has just raised $43 million. The money, from Bain Capital Ventures, will go to help the company expand its payment and transaction services nationally and internationally.

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With the Los Angeles tech scene exploding, CrossCut Ventures raises $125 million to invest

TechCrunch LA

CrossCut Ventures, a Los Angeles-based seed investment firm has just closed its fourth (and largest) fund with $125 million in new cash. It’s been a long road for the firm’s three co-founders, who have been investing in Los Angeles since 1997. In that time they’ve seen the city’s technology scene evolve in fits and starts, but now, with companies like Snap, Dollar… Read More.

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Niche marketing works. Here’s how.

Berkonomics

Close. How many of us throw away marketing dollars because our paid efforts reach an audience that is much larger than the target or niche audience we need to reach? Whether it be for publications, social marketing, or even those once-necessary postal mailers, we have tools now that were not available just a few years ago. So, let’s up our marketing knowledge first with a few short answers to marketing questions….

Marketing 266
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Does your business need money? Read this!

Berkonomics

The subject of raising money is critical to many businesses and a passing option to others, depending upon the capital efficiency of the enterprise. Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). For you who fit that description, nice work.

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Have you set your life and business goals?

Berkonomics

We’ve spent several weeks discussing your vision for success, and whether you could be the next Ford, Jobs or Musk. Now it’s time to make this more tangible, more real – by attaching personal goals to this vision we’ve created together for you. So, your vision tells the world what you want to be as you contemplate how you will change the world for the better.

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Startups: What are your odds for success?

Berkonomics

Well, the numbers don’t lie, even if there are several sources of these statistics. Starting a company is HARD – in so many ways. And risky too. I read several years ago, that the average startup restaurant lasts only about a year. Ouch! Here I am a professional investor in early stage companies, and I attempt to find those with the greatest chance of success and growth in value over time.

Startup 266
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Silicon Beach Report May 23: Real Office Centers, Co-Working Tenants Evicted from Santa Monica Office

L.A. Business Journal

Real Office Centers, co-working tenants evicted from Santa Monica office, Snapchat launches custom group stories, and Pepsi to label millions of cans with Snapchat codes.

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Ex-Uber data chief Kevin Novak joins LA-based startup Tala in big win for LA ecosystem

TechCrunch LA

Kevin Novak, the architect of Uber’s dynamic pricing technology and the head of its data team, has joined the Los Angeles-based financial services startup Tala as its new head of data. Read More.

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Passport, the technology business for city transit systems, raises $43 million

TechCrunch LA

Passport, company that’s managing much of the technical aspects of how people pay to use public transportation resources in cities like London, Miami and Los Angeles, has just raised $43 million. The money, from Bain Capital Ventures, will go to help the company expand its payment and transaction services nationally and internationally. Read More.

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Education technology meets its limits

TechCrunch LA

This week has been a good one for those who like to talk about the limits of technology. Over in the UK, a prankster managed to fool Trip Advisor into naming his shed the #1 ranked restaurant in London. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, a city struggling to manage several wind-fueled wildfires, the L.A.P.D. has asked drivers to refrain from using navigation apps because they’re steering… Read More.

Education 266
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Are you ready to take on an office lease?

Berkonomics

Rent your first office with caution. . Several years ago, I became involved with a Southeast Asian company looking to expand into the United States. During the discussions with the CEO about hiring North American managers, he made it clear that he wanted us to find a first-class office facility from which to start the search process, and proceeded to name cities that attracted him.

Startup 256
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Everything changes from concept to release.

Berkonomics

Close. You can take this headline as a rule, not an exception. You’ll recognize the truism, “No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy” first stated by German Field Marshall von Moltke way back in the 19 th century. Our variant of the “battle plan” truism is important to internalize. A product at the concept stage contains feature-functionality that customers may not want or be willing to pay for, or which just might not work well enough for release to the public.

Customer 256
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Don’t rest until you test!

Berkonomics

So, you have a great new product or service that you and your associates love. Early adopters should climb all over each other for a look. But what have you done to test the concept against the realities of the marketplace? Have you developed a prototype, alternate pricing schemes, even a PowerPoint mock-up to show to potential buyers? I would be very, very nervous without testing the product in the market as early as possible, ready to make changes and enhancements before committing to prod

Resource 256
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Could you be the next Ford, Jobs or Musk?

Berkonomics

Well, it’s a fair question. Note that none of these three famous innovators were inventors like Thomas Edison, but visionaries who find a new marketplace or niche – or how to reach the mass market in new ways. Leaders and companies that innovate new products, services and methods of delivery are the ones that stand out in a crowded business world, especially when attempting to gain recognition among the throngs of competitors visible on the web.

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Vision for your future success is EVERYTHING!

Berkonomics

I love absolute statements. And this is one of my favorites. You’re at the ignition stage of your newest business venture. Of course, you have a vision for what you will do to change the world. Let’s stress test that vision and sharpen it further to help insure your success. First, if your vision is limited and you will be happy with a successful local dry cleaning enterprise or small restaurant around the corner, you are not the target for this effort to help entrepreneurs build great busine

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Will you be happy at your finish line?

Berkonomics

Have you figured out what you want to have, or to be, when you reach the end of your personal run in this business life? It is a fair question. Most of us work in our businesses, either as managers or owners, and rarely step outside to think about how this will end in a perfect world. Investors call this discussion “exit planning” and of course they include themselves in the.

Course 256
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Avoid the race to zero…

Berkonomics

When do you sell your company? Obviously we all want to sell at the top. And there is the problem. How do you know when you are at or near that right point to sell for maximum value? Those of us in the business of calculating (guessing) this mythical peak in value often make the same mistake as our entrepreneurs. We hang on just a little bit longer, expecting continued or accelerating growth and value as in previous periods of the same.

Pricing 210
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Consumer internet startups go mainstream outside of Silicon Valley

TechCrunch LA

In the past year, New York has reached a tipping point as consumer-facing startups proliferate and similarly Los Angeles is gaining notice with the success of Snap and Dollar Shave Club among others.

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Consumer internet startups go mainstream outside of Silicon Valley

TechCrunch LA

In the past year, New York has reached a tipping point as consumer-facing startups proliferate and similarly Los Angeles is gaining notice with the success of Snap and Dollar Shave Club among others. Read More.

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TeleSign Acquired By BICS For $230M

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based TeleSign , which uses phone calls and related information for mobile identity management, authentication, and other cloud services, has been acquired by Brussels-based BICS , in a deal worth $230M in cash plus unspecified earnout. BICS said that TeleSign has annual revenues of around $100M. As part of the deal, BICS said that TeleSign will continue to operate independently as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, led by current CEO Aled Miles.

Mobile 247