socalTECH

DECEMBER 22, 2010

For the next couple of weeks, we are sharing the opinions of some of the top influencers in Southern California's high tech community. We asked the same five questions of a variety of top technology entrepreneurs, investors, and others, to hear what they're thinking about, and are sharing it here over the next two weeks.

GRP Partners 170

GRP Partners Southern California Technical Review High Tech 170

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 19, 2014

Last year, we compiled our first list of the socalTECH 50 : our attempt to pick fifty people here in Southern California''s technology industry who represent some of the best of what the region has to offer, and which we though people ought to keep an eye on. Interested in sponsoring the awards?

SoCalTech 166

SoCalTech Acquisition Truecar Southern California 166

socalTECH

DECEMBER 31, 2018

Editor's note: As we head into the new year, we've been featuring reflections on 2018 from notable investors, entrepreneurs, and others from Southern California's technology community. You'll be able to browse all of those contributions here.

Capital 113

Capital Venture Capital News Patents 113

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2014

Geographically our strategy is to fund about 50% of our deals in Southern California (from San Diego to Santa Barbara) and 50% of our deals on a national basis. As I like to say when asked, “For entrepreneurs you generally need to go to 2-3 cities max and probably pitch 5-15 investors. Was it hard to raise the fund?

Venture Capital 396

Venture Capital Funding Technical Review Startup 396

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 17, 2010

We have many seasoned entrepreneurs who have built successful companies here and made a lot of money for investors and themselves. But LA is not Silicon Valley and we don’t need to aspire to be so. Entrepreneurs in LA spend a lot of time commuting up to the Valley. For some, it’s a nightmare.

Company 290

Company Companies Technology Startup 290

socalTECH

JULY 13, 2009

Mark has also been quite active mentoring entrepreneurs, We caught up with Mark to hear about what kinds of investments GRP is looking at nowadays, his view on the software-as-a-service market, and how best to approach him with a pitch. You know Zag, herein town, and more recently our new car investment, TrueCar.

GRP Partners 157

GRP Partners Southern California Santa Barbara Rustic Canyon 157

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

I love cars--I grew up in SoCal, and my father was really into cars, and didn't have sons. You've also got a deal with TrueCar, correct? We did a bunch of research into services like TrueCar, and how they presented things, played with those services, and so on. Tara Weingarten: That's a really cool thing.

Truecar 204

Truecar Writing Edmunds Sites 204

socalTECH

AUGUST 4, 2011

Every so often--particularly in Southern California--you run into a serial entrepreneur, with multiple successes and great track record-- yet, who very few people are aware of. Locally, those are companies like LegalZoom, GameFly, TrueCar, and ShoeDazzle. Jeff Zwelling is one of those.

Startup 210

Startup Marketing Customer Custom 210

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

We were talking about a company, Factual (disclosure my firm is an investor), which was founded by one of LA’s most talented Internet entrepreneurs, Gil Elbaz , who as co-founder of Applied Semantics (purchased by pre-IPO Google for $102 million and now Google AdSense) is responsible for a large portion of the Internet’s monetization.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Southern California Google Startup 313

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

I raised money as an entrepreneur, like you, in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005 for two different companies. I never suggest that entrepreneurs just randomly pitch VCs. You’ll never make a great entrepreneur. So your journey to fund raising begins by strengthening your relationships with other entrepreneurs.

Develop 366

Develop Development Funding Venture Capital 366