socalTECH

DECEMBER 2, 2016

Los Angeles-based Joymode , the new startup led by Joe Fernandez which is hoping to people to invest in experiences, not stuff , is hoping to show off its new service with a pop-up shop in Sunset Junction next week. Fernandez is a serial entrepreneur, who previously founded Klout.

Santa Monica 100

Santa Monica Snapchat Los Angeles Services 100

socalTECH

MARCH 16, 2017

We are going to write checks of between $100,000 and $500,000, and we are going to invest in what we are calling first institutional capital. Where are you planning making investments? Derek Norton: We're investing in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and New York. Our investment thesis we refer to as the connected consumer.

Invest 145

Invest Funding Capital Startup 145

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 30, 2016

I was reminded of this yesterday watching my friend Justin Kan on Snapchat with this 10-second reminder, “No matter how much you raise at your company you’ll end up spending it in 12–24 months” https://medium.com/media/8594cb16d022a083932b0f3d60b79ebd/href I would probably amend it to say 12–18 months.

Startup 292

Startup Software Review Pricing Entrepreneur 292

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2014

We have a large number of highly talented engineers and entrepreneurs now developing companies in our local market. I’m super proud of the work produced by Gravity , a local #LATech company I invested in who was recently sold to AOL for $90 million. Some were warranted – others weren’t. Maker Studios. FullScreen.

Startup 318

Startup Santa Monica Yahoo Snapchat 318

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2016

Because I work so closely with video companies I’ve been very vocal with startups I’ve backed about the need to invest in high-quality video to help support a brand. Let it serve as a reminder to me that as ever what really matters as a VC is finding truly talented entrepreneurs early and getting behind their vision and not vice-versa.

Dollar Shave Club 150

Dollar Shave Club Venture Capital News Snapchat 150

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 19, 2013

Evan Spiegel , SnapChat (Los Angeles, mobile app). Internap , PricewaterhouseCoopers , Demand Media , Stubbs, Alderton & Markiles LLP , Oracle , Cresa Partners , UK Trade & Investment , PIXT , and many others. event socaltech50 awards entrepreneur entrepreneurship feature dfr2013'

Southern California 279

Southern California SoCalTech Dollar Shave Club Santa Monica 279

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

But it still takes VC to scale a business (thus large capital into industry winners like Uber, Airbnb, SnapChat, etc). Limited Partners or LPs (the people who invest into VC funds) have taken notice as 2014 is by all accounts the busiest year for LPs since the Great Recession began. .”

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

socalTECH

JUNE 8, 2020

in a funding round led by Octopus Ventures, and also which also included Experian Ventures, Cherry Tree Investments, Dig Ventures, Mucker Capital, Unlock Venture Partners, TechStars and Wavemaker Partners. We also work with high yield savings and investment, and also have an investment partnership. Stackin recentlyraised $12.6M

Content 124

Content Social Media Startup Artificial Inteligence 124

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 27, 2013

17, entrepreneurs, investors, civic leaders and other key players in the tech industry will gather at the historic Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, Calif. startups attracting over $847 million in investment funds in 2012 alone, the city’s diverse resources are often too separated. 3 startup ecosystem in the world, with L.A.

Los Angeles 101

Los Angeles Angel Startup Venture Capital 101

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

I rarely talk to any startup entrepreneur or VC who doesn’t feel it and somehow long for simpler times despite the benefits we all enjoy from increased enthusiasm for our sector. For entrepreneurs there’s too much money sloshing around. We are experiencing a frenetic time. My general advice is to do less.

Software Review 150

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Invest 150

socalTECH

DECEMBER 27, 2016

Brad Brooks: Locally, I think Snapchat's IPO is going to spawn a massive ecosystem in the Southern California tech community. Brad Brooks is an accomplished entrepreneur with a successful track record of investing in, building and scaling companies in the technology and media spaces. READ MORE>>.

Southern California 113

Southern California Social Media News Entertainment 113

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 19, 2015

Phillipe Browning , SnapChat. The socalTECH 50 is aimed at identifying and highlighting the top 50 people in the technology industry here, who are most likely to create the next big thing, produce the next big exit, or influence the industry in a significant way. Julien Bellanger , Prevoty. Chad Billmeyer , Panjo. Howard Brown , RingDNA.

SoCalTech 100

SoCalTech Lootcrate Southern California Snapchat 100

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

We led a $4 million investment along with Thrive Capital, GLG and Sound Ventures. I speak a lot on college campuses and entrepreneur events and amongst the most common things I’m asked to talk about are: What do VCs fund? But only truly talented entrepreneurs show the grit required to respond rapidly to a changing environment.

Design 150

Design Startup Ideas Writing 150

TechCrunch LA

JANUARY 14, 2019

“The way I look at it… a lot of it is going to be like any kind of content studio,” says Peter Rojas, a partner at the New York investment firm Betaworks Ventures. Flinn got exposure to the virtual media world while at Rothenberg Ventures, the now defunct fund that invested in virtual reality and augmented reality.

Social Media 261

Social Media Content Media Artificial Inteligence 261

LATechDigest

MAY 23, 2016

Taiwan-US Investment. **. SNAPCHAT Preparing Its Own Algo ( link ). SNAPCHAT to Redesign Discover Channel in June ( link ). NFTE Hosted Their Annual Entrepreneur Competition. Thursday May 26. Investor Fest (-5/27). LA Tech HH. Big Data UG. LAdobe 10th Anniv. Tracy Chou (Pinterest). Friday May 27. Innovate Pasadena.

Snapchat 45

Snapchat Class Santa Monica Venice 45

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2016

Whether you are talking to peers, competitors or investors, you as an active entrepreneur will be judged on your familiarity with today’s startup and funding jargon. In that context, I offer you my latest collection of popular investor-to-entrepreneur terms and concepts. Prime examples include Uber, Airbnb and Snapchat.

Startup 57

Startup Software Review Equity Invest 57

SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 9, 2016

We are an innovation, investment, and advisory firm. Peter Csathy: I'm an entrepreneur, a builder of companies. Does this include investments or an investment fund? Snapchat started as a communications company, but it too is transforming itself into a media company. The word firm is not even a word we like.

Media 100

Media Blogging Hulu Examples 100

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 15, 2017

Identify the total investment required for profitability. A very common mistake of early stage startups is to request a small investment to get started. But some of you will surely say “What about Facebook and Snapchat, who focused on growth first and are clearly successful?” Even Snapchat is now trying hard to generate revenue.

Snapchat 55

Snapchat Startup Course Yahoo 55

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 6, 2017

In the entrepreneur world, most of the energy I see is focused on the current opportunity bubbles, now including anything mobile, the new sharing economy (Uber, Airbnb), or yet another social media app (Snapchat, WhatsApp). As a result, entrepreneurs often spend unwisely, or chase a bad idea way too far without measuring results.

Ideas 55

Ideas Snapchat Social Media Entrepreneur 55

socalTECH

MARCH 11, 2014

Zach Games: Rich and I were trying to build a big software company here in LA, and in order to that, you need people who are invested in the ecosystem. We wanted their late stage investing experience, and their experience in social software, which they have through Buddy Media and other companies they have invested in.

Hollywood 159

Hollywood Help Media Content 159

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

With small amounts of money invested (sub $3 million) the risks are reasonably low for most VCs and the consequences of bad decisions or decisions a VC has limited say in is tolerable. And here’s an important point that I think modern entrepreneurs often forget: Investors are “co-owners” of your business.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

Or you know the other one — the one where Snapchat lost $2 billion in just one quarter. I often ask entrepreneurs to consider, “What’s your objective? If there was strong market demand for their product then this investment might pay off handsomely. Two-f **g-billion! What a disaster!

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

LATechDigest

MAY 13, 2016

In addition to advising the companies on various core business practices and ways to improve their products, SMASHD LABS worked to create experiences that set them apart form other accelerators, in order to enrich its entrepreneurs with different ways to approach their businesses and their products. To apply to SMASHD Labs, visit [link].

Mentor 75

Mentor Venture Capital Draper USC 75

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2017

Most of the guidance you see for entrepreneurs is aimed at those who are selling a product (Apple, Tesla, Xiaomi), or selling a service (Uber, Airbnb, Snapchat). The “product” value is difficult to quantify, the costs are nebulous, and entrepreneurs have to clone themselves to scale the business.

Social Media 56

Social Media Pricing Technical Review Statistics 56

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

So common are founder tensions that my intervening is a weekly occurrence and it’s so common that if I ever write about it I’m sure that instantly every company I’ve invested in and every company in which I’ve been an informal advisor thinks I must be writing about them. FourSquare. Everywhere. It’s not you.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

” Case in point: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, SnapChat. I with every entrepreneur would forward that article to their favorite journalist so we could stop having this conversation of “yeah, but company so-and-so isn’t profitable!” This is certainly one Path you can take if you have the right background.

Venture Capital 412

Venture Capital Startup Funding Snapchat 412

socalTECH

AUGUST 17, 2020

Our interview today is with serial entrepreneur Neel Grover , the CEO and founder of Indi (indi.com). We have a couple of thousand retailers and a product catalog of 80 million products, and every day, people are posting their photos and videos to Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter.

Help 113

Help Commerce Platform Orange County 113

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

The starting point of product IS marketing, which is what a lot of young entrepreneurs that never studied business don’t realize. While many tech startups do this intuitively (say, SnapChat thinking it would be much better if our photos out partying disappeared) it still happens. So, yes, you can buy a best seller.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 15, 2014

I then got my MBA at University of Chicago so I secretly pull for local entrepreneurs as long as they don’t make me visit in the Winter any more. And consider Snapchat – one of our hometown favorites as they’re based in LA (Venice Beach). Locally we call it “the Snapchat effect.”

Company 369

Company Companies Startup Snapchat 369

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 13, 2013

Which I have shown to do, but anybody who invests in tech, invests in team. ML: Being an entrepreneur, especially with very little resources is like a rollercoaster. ML: I do mentor and advise a lot of young entrepreneurs, especially from USC since I went to that school. It’s a huge challenge for me.

Technical Review 87

Technical Review Mobile Startup Los Angeles 87

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 16, 2016

Computer Vison Startup Nanit If you follow me on Snapchat ( msuster ) you might already know that I’ve been looking at and investing in a number of companies in the computer vision space. Today I am so excited to announce our latest investment in the category —  Nanit  — which is a smart baby monitor.

Invest 150

Invest Course Startup CTO Hire 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

I don’t need to tell you what else is LA … SnapChat, Whisper, Tinder. We have invested $17.3 One measure of CincyTech’s overall impact is that in 2013, its portfolio companies represent 80% of total seed and early stage capital invested in Southwest Ohio. All great communication companies. KickStarter?

Startup 390

Startup Venture Capital Capital Funding 390

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2017

It’s hard to remember that in 2012 it was still hard for LA VCs to persuade investors into funds that LA was a viable market for great venture capital funds or convince many VCs that LA was a market worth investing dollars into startups. They always ask whether I see this as threatening as Upfront Ventures. Are you kidding me?

Riot Games 191

Riot Games Los Angeles Technical Review Venture Capital 191

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

I’d like to explain as best I can my opinion on what is going on because most of what I hear from entrepreneurs is not only wrong but is reminiscent of what I heard in 1997-2000. ” “This will be great for VCs and bad for entrepreneurs.” What is the True Sentiment of VCs? ” “Sure, prices are dropping.

Startup 150

Startup Company Companies Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 23, 2015

Like many entrepreneurs, the founders of Crosscut quit their well-paid jobs in the belief that LA’s moment was about to arrive and they spent years on low (sometimes no) salaries to prove it. It will help more early-stage entrepreneurs get funded locally and not move out of our great ecosystem thus avoiding the silent killers.

News 150

News Funding Venture Capital Dollar Shave Club 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2015

When I counsel startup entrepreneurs I give them my blunt dose of reality, “If you can’t easily identify target leads who have a problem you can solve then hang up your cleats – you’re not going to succeed.” VCs all say: We are entrepreneur friendly. We are hands on. We work with other top-tier VCs.

Sales 150

Sales SaaS Startup Venture Capital 150