Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2020

One of the quickest ways to become an entrepreneur these days is to develop and publish a smartphone app. You provide the free app in the App Store that gives subscribers mobile access to your service. The price of entry can be less than $10,000, so the competition is huge and growing rapidly. Make your app support all platforms.

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Mobile Develop Development Platform 126

socalTECH

AUGUST 6, 2013

The LAUNCH Fund , the angel investment fund of Los Angeles angel and entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, is looking to invest $200,000 in startups who present at two of the events being run by Calacanis over the next couple of months, according to an announcement by Calacanis Tuesday.

Invest 147

Invest Funding Startup Conference 147

SoCal Tech Calendar

NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Thursday, November 15, 2012 -- Mobile LAVA: Mobile Local Media Opportunities and Challenges. Mobile LAVA welcomes BIA/Kelsey analysts Matt Booth and Michael Boland to share their insights into the trends, market events, companies and case studies that are driving current and future opportunities in interactive and mobile local media.

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LAVA Mobile Media Case Study 100

socalTECH

OCTOBER 6, 2017

Hopscotch, led by Laurence Sotsky , has built software which enables sports teams, venues, and others to rapidly create mobile apps for their fans. We caught up with Lauren to hear about Hopscotch, and why teams and schools are turning to the company to power their mobile apps. What is Hopscotch? What do your apps do?

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Mobile Platform El Segundo UCLA 162

socalTECH

MARCH 29, 2019

The fund--led by Carmen Palafox, Noramay Cadena, and Shaun Arora--says it has so far made investments into 16 companies since 2015. Make In LA offers up a startup accelerator program specifically geared towards hardware startups an entrepreneurs, and is currently taking applications for its sixth class, which will officially start in August.

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Capital Funding Startup Venture Capital 191

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 14, 2011

A group of Southern California businesses are attending the Entrepreneurs Festival taking place in Tech City UK , looking to potentially set up shop and foster business partnerships in London. Today marks the start the festival, an effort to establish a center of technology entrepreneurship in England.

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Southern California Entrepreneur Mentor Mobile 180

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 16, 2019

” Kindbody operates a fleet of vans — mobile clinics, rather — where women receive a free blood test for the anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), which helps assess their ovarian egg reserve but cannot conclusively determine a woman’s fertility. But are these really high retail prices sustainable long term?

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Mobile Pricing Social Network Los Angeles 167

socalTECH

OCTOBER 28, 2020

Two, Los Angeles-area venture capital investment funds have gotten backing from PayPal , as part of a new effort by PayPal to support Black and Latinx-led venture capital funds. led by Austin Clements and Ajay Relan; and VamosVentures , led by Marcos C. Slauson & Co.

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Funding Venture Capital Los Angeles Invest 113

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 21, 2011

When I first got into VC I decided I better have some investment themes. My macro theme was “great entrepreneurs&# who mapped to my belief system about the kind of entrepreneurs I wanted to work with. Two big themes have emerged in my head in the past 3 years: offline / online integration and mobile computing.

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Mobile Advertising Media Marketing 329

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

Leonardo DiCaprio is making a significant commitment to the Los Angeles-based investment firm, Struck Capital , as part of the actor’s commitment to building LA into a tech development powerhouse. DiCaprio has already made a number of investments in startup companies that have done very well for the Academy Award-winning actor.

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Capital Funding Los Angeles Invest 188

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 5, 2014

I did a study for a large European mobile operator on whether they should bid for 3G spectrum and if so how much was it worth. For me, after nearly a decade in the trenches of being an entrepreneur I felt I was un-brainwashed from trying to pretend I had all the answers. And I encourage entrepreneurs to triangulate as well.

Entrepreneur 337

Entrepreneur Startup Technical Advisors Venture Capital 337

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

I invested in LA-based Gogii , one of the fastest growing, most exciting mobile social networking companies you’ve never heard of and maker of a product called textPlus. I only recently invested and I only got here through persistence. The opportunity came up to invest in this one and I pounced. More on that later.

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Gogii Invest Blogging Activision 310

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2019

My friends who “grew up” with lifetime careers in General Motors, Exxon Mobil, or even IBM, are now often too embarrassed to even mention it. On the other hand, everyone wants to be an entrepreneur. His focus is on entrepreneurs in America, but what he says applies to every other country as well. Next wave of economic expansion.

Entrepreneur 87

Entrepreneur Offshore Technical Review IBM 87

socalTECH

MARCH 16, 2017

Are you an entrepreneur, looking for capital here in Southern California? It's turning out to be a great time for entrepreneurs looking for funding in the region, with not only high profile exits of such companies as Snap Inc., Managing Director: Ryan Blair Investment interests: Companies which leverage direct-to-consumer model.

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Southern California Artificial Inteligence Funding SoCal 138

socalTECH

AUGUST 15, 2014

Many online business today have a big problem: users are increasingly coming to their websites as mobile users, not desktop users, which means lower ad revenues and conversions. How do you make those mobile users just as profitable as desktop users? All of the sudden, there was a growth in users coming from mobile platforms.

Mobile 124

Mobile Web Artificial Inteligence Technical Review 124

Tech.Co

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

Climbing the ranks for our Los Angeles, CA region, Mobile Therapy was one of two semifinal winners. If they come out on top, Mobile Therapy can expect prizes and support from Tech Wildcatters, 500Startups, Consumer Electronics Association, Crowdfunder, Techstars, American Airlines, and more! Habra: Practice, practice, practice.

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Competition Mobile Technical Review Startup 123

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 21, 2010

One of the investment themes I’ve been focused on in the past 3 years has been Performance-Based Marketing. When I started investing the US advertising market was $300 billion with only 10% of it ($30 billion) of it being online and measurable. Internet consumption is obviously growing massively on mobile devices.

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Advertising Invest RSS CPC 284

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 7, 2020

Launched by Karen Rodgers O’Neil, a longtime marketing executive, and Daniel Perrone, a serial entrepreneur and technology executive whose previous company, BroadMap, was acquired by Apple; The Shed hopes to take the rental model that Home Depot has turned into a billion dollar business line and take it to the masses.

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Startup Product Demand Los Angeles 285

socalTECH

DECEMBER 16, 2019

For our interview today, we have Noramay Cadena , a Partner at MILA Capital , who spoke to us earlier this year about the venture capital investment firm and what it looks for in entrepreneurs. Noramay Cadena: We're investing at the intersection of tech, manufacturing, supply chain, and logistics. What is MiLA Capital?

Capital 100

Capital Invest Venture Capital Entrepreneur 100

socalTECH

APRIL 18, 2014

So, we were surprised to learn about the backing that Los Angeles-based mobile app provider TRUCKAST (www.truckast.com) has from investor Gary Winnick (who co-founded Global Crossing). We caught up with CEO Todd Davis to learn why the company and its investors think mobile apps for construction are the next big thing. What is Truckast?

Mobile 133

Mobile Startup Oracle Los Angeles 133

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

” It’s the most common refrain I hear from investors and even entrepreneurs these days. ” I hear it when I visit LPs (the people who invest in VCs) all across the country, “Yeah, I haven’t been out there for a few years but I keep hearing that something is going on there.” for $565 million to Excite.

Entrepreneur 376

Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Truecar 376

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

They have marked-up paper gains propped up by an over excited venture capital market that has validated their investments. Logic tells me the following: It is hard to make money angel investing. Too many angel deals just means more to watch and invest in for the ones that do succeed (if the VCs can get in at reasonable prices).

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Invest Angel Technical Review Venture Capital 299

socalTECH

AUGUST 2, 2013

How do you keep up with everything that''s happening with your favorite interests, brands, and personalities on your mobile phone? Yapert raised a funding round a few weeks ago from the Tech Coast Angels, Desert Angeles, and Pasadena Angels for its mobile apps, which consolidates news and information about your favorite interests.

Mobile 159

Mobile Startup Entertainment Tech Coast Angels 159

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2022

One of the quickest ways to become an entrepreneur these days is to develop and publish a smartphone app. You provide the free app in the App Store that gives subscribers mobile access to your service. The price of entry can be less than $10,000, so the competition is huge and growing rapidly. Make your app support all platforms.

Develop 138

Develop Development Platform Mobile 138

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 19, 2020

Snap says that those 10 companies were receive $150,000 in equity investments, mentorship from Snap and others, space in Los Angeles, as well as other support.

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Class Venice Los Angeles Equity 127

socalTECH

OCTOBER 17, 2016

We caught up with Mike last week to hear from him why he thinks Science has managed to get some good success out of its companies, the importance of having a multi-year outlook for any startup, especially an early one, and the most important traits he thinks entrepreneurs need. Are you still investing and creating new companies?

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Dollar Shave Club Entrepreneur Startup Google 100

socalTECH

JUNE 29, 2017

Fund size: $400M (Fund VI) Managing Partners: Mark Suster, Yves Sisteron Partners: Greg Bettinelli, Kara Nortman, Kobie Fuller, Kevin Zhang Investment interests: Seed or A-Round investments with a median check size of $2.8 Managing Director: Bill Maris (formerly of GV/Google Ventures) Investment interests: Health care investments.

Southern California 178

Southern California Venture Capital Capital Artificial Inteligence 178

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2014

How an entrepreneur answers this question speaks volumes about their knowledge of business realities, customers, confidence, and their ability to handle investor funding. Leading with this answer will likely terminate any further investment opportunity with this investor. Don’t bash the competition. Being negative is never the answer.

Entrepreneur 110

Entrepreneur Competition Patents Resource 110

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2014

One of the business ironies that many entrepreneurs have learned the hard way in the past is that ideas which are truly disruptive carry the highest risk of failure, take the longest to gain traction, and thus are the least likely to get external funding. Great entrepreneurs aren’t just dreamers, they are doers.

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Entrepreneur Startup Cloud Computing Ideas 107

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2013

is already well above the dot.com bubble of 15 years ago, although we have slipped a bit this year from the high point of 320 new entrepreneurs out of 100,000 adults in 2011. Thus a record number of entrepreneurs (and employees) are getting rich. Social media is a boon for entrepreneurs and startups.

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Startup Entrepreneur Social Media Satisfaction 109

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 5, 2019

We did our first close in the summer of 2014, and over the first nine months we raised our fund and started investing. Fund I was fully deployed by June 30th of 2017, and we went out to raised Fund II, which was a wet close, where you invest as you close. Those investments have really broken out. They're all big winners.

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Funding Capital Artificial Inteligence Startup 160

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2013

If you are an entrepreneur today, and not using social media to promote your business, you are missing out on a huge opportunity. Most social media outlets don’t require a subscription charge, but they certainly require an investment – in people, in technology, your reputation, and your time. Find the right tools to analyze the ROI.

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Social Media Media Entrepreneur Metrics 101

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2022

A major chunk of this activity is provided by the newer class of “super angels,” who often look more like micro-VCs, except that they are investing their own money. Individual angel investors and crowdfunding have been adding to the momentum, some say exceeding VCs in total amount invested.

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Guide Venture Capital Funding Class 136

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

These are industries where structural impediments to technology adoption have only recently been broken down by the advent of incredibly powerful mobile devices. “It would present a huge opportunity for a variety of climate tech sectors, ranging from clean electricity to carbon management to vehicle electrification.”

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Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 21, 2018

According to the 2017 Kauffman Startup Activity Index , the share of new entrepreneurs who started businesses to pursue opportunity rather than from necessity reached 86 percent, more than 12 percentage points higher than in 2009 at the height of the Great Recession. Thus a record number of entrepreneurs (and team members) are getting rich.

Entrepreneur 66

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media Satisfaction 66

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2023

It’s still considered high risk for investment, since manufacturing and quality issues are likely. While all forms of technology research and development will always be required, entrepreneurs need to understand that the funding for these efforts comes from many different sources, depending on the stage.

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Resource Ideas Funding Research 102

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

I use George Bush vs. Al Gore as allegory and I’ve been using it with entrepreneurs for years to sink in a simple point about how to communicate with the market. Most Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs I know are more like Al Gore. It is election season. He has a message he wanted to get across and he did so in a folksy manner.

Entrepreneur 370

Entrepreneur Startup Press Venture Capital 370