socalTECH

JUNE 4, 2015

West Hollywood-based Orbitera , a developer of a cloud-based software product to help companies the sales of cloud-based software and services, including managing leads, trial subscriptions, billing, and operations, has raised $2M in a seed funding round. The company disclosed the funding Thursday. READ MORE>>.

West Hollywood 100

West Hollywood Sales Seed Funding Incubator 100

socalTECH

OCTOBER 20, 2010

San Clemente-based Poptent , a firm which operates an online site which allows brands to source crowd-generated commercials, web videos, and other video content from users, has raised at least $3.0M in a recent funding, according to a regulatory filing by the firm Wednesday. According to the filing, the firm has raised $3.0M

Hollywood 124

Hollywood Equity Venture Capital Content 124

socalTECH

AUGUST 22, 2012

funding round, according to a regulatory filing from the firm. Details on the new funding have not yet been announced by the company. The site produces original content for the web, both on its own site as well as distributed through other sites, including Wainy Days, Horrible People, You Suck at Photoshop, and other series.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Content Web Sites 150

socalTECH

AUGUST 15, 2011

According to Serious Business , it has raised a second round of seed funding from Brave New Ventures to fund the effort. The firm said it will work with creative talent to "produce television formats with a web sensibility" and also help develop digital platforms into TV and digital projects.

Entertainment 157

Entertainment Funding Seed Funding Web 157

socalTECH

MARCH 19, 2009

Los Angeles-based Buzznet , which operates a network of web sites focused on celebrities and pop culture, announced this morning that it has raised $12.5M According to the company, the funding round was led by Focus Ventures, and also included Anthem Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Redpoint Ventures, and Sutter Hill Ventures.

Buzznet 100

Buzznet Anthem Redpoint Hollywood 100

socalTECH

MAY 10, 2012

Moviepilot.com , which runs a movie recommendation and discovery website aimed at covering movies before their release, said today that it has raised $7M in a Series B funding, to expand the German firm into the U.S. As part of the funding, Moviepilot is setting up an office in Los Angeles, and has moved its CEO, Tobi Bauckhage, to LA.

Los Angeles 168

Los Angeles Angel Venture Capital Startup 168

socalTECH

JUNE 25, 2009

West Hollywood-based Citysearch , the local reviews and directory service of IAC, has taken an unusual approach to finding its next business idea: it's running a contest which asks its users to submit a "brilliant" idea for web and mobile applications. Tags: citysearch business contest idea venture capital equity.

CitySearch 113

CitySearch Ideas West Hollywood Equity 113

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2012

ZestCash, founded by Douglas Merrill, former CIO of Google [Hollywood]. Deviant Art, led by Angelo Sotira, which is one of the largest online communities on the Internet [Hollywood]. Think about venture capital. Those that were around 30+ years ago never had to think about branding – there were hardly any other VCs.

Startup 304

Startup Venture Capital Los Angeles Woodland Hills 304

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 9, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC.&#. I recently wrote a blog post here in which I argued that the best VC meetings are discussions and not sales pitches. I hope that when you’re presenting to a VC this will give you some sense of what might be going on in our minds. Both presenters are anonymized.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Advertising Yahoo 288

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2010

We held a 90-minute demo session where 150 of LA’s VC’s and senior technology executives watched the LPLA V2 group present in small groups of 12-15 each. The VC’s & executives were then asked to make “commitments&# (in writing) to 3-5 of the companies that they felt they could make some sort of contribution to.

Company 276

Company Companies Startup Southern California 276

socalTECH

DECEMBER 17, 2008

Anne Walls and John Singleton are co-founders of WordHustler (www.wordhustler.com), a local Hollywood startup looking to help writers connect with publishers. In their case, people write their scripts on a web site, and when they're done, they can submit them to contests with a single click. What's the whole idea behind WordHustler?

Writing 209

Writing Hollywood Startup Sites 209

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. That would mean that the increased number of new business startups will lead to a “funding gap&# of deals that can’t get financed. I avoided much of this. Why should you care?

Invest 299

Invest Angel Technical Review Venture Capital 299

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

Redpoint Ventures is one of the venture capital firms which has straddled both Northern California and Southern California, with offices in both locations. We can also write checks as large as $35M out of the Omega Fund. People can come in and have a coffee. Fouad ElNaggar: Anyway they want to. I respond to everybody.

Redpoint 154

Redpoint Southern California Cornerstone OnDemand Invest 154

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 17, 2010

Last week, Los Angeles-based MOVIECLIPS.COM (www.movieclips.com) announced the firm's Series A funding round, worth $3M, from Shasta Ventures, First Round Capital, and a number of Silicon Valley angels. How is this different than the movie clips floating around the web now? Fascinating story. more) READ MORE>>.

Startup 190

Startup Los Angeles Content Hollywood 190

Jason Nazar

MARCH 22, 2011

He just pounded out design and code for a few weeks and got Plancast up on the web and users adopting his product right away. In Los Angeles we are at a disadvantage because the founder(s) often have no experience in building consumer web applications. Challenge #3 – There Needs to Be More Institutional Capital in Los Angeles.

Company 111

Company Companies Startup Twiistup 111

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 14, 2009

Giving you the ability to chat in realtime with all your friends around the web right from TechZulu. ( VentureDea l - VentureDeal is a venture capital database that provides the latest information about venture-backed technology companies, venture capital firms and transactions in the United States.

Stickam 60

Stickam Content Draper Web 60

socalTECH

JULY 20, 2011

Earlier this month, Los Angeles-based HitFix (www.hitfix.com) an online news site focused on entertainment, announced it had raised $2M in a funding round. There are trade publications such as Variety, Hollywood Reporter, and Deadline at one end, and gossip celebrity news at the other end. Why the new funding round now?

News 173

News Entertainment Startup Bertelsmann 173

socalTECH

MAY 24, 2011

I actually worked in the offline business world until Web 1.0. We're also self funded, and absolutely have no need for venture capital. I had requests from friends to put them on an email, or give them a calendar reminder when a band was playing, and one thing led to another, and I started the site.

Social Media 241

Social Media Startup Sites Advertising 241

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 9, 2009

The emergence of a new era of technologies, collectively known as Web 3.0, Also known as the semantic web or linked data, web 3.0 is a web in which data is linked to allow for more meaningful, actionable insight to be extracted. is funded by: Y Combinator, Alsop Louie Partners and Draper Associates.

Technical Review 40

Technical Review Stickam Web Conference 40

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

Last year I was on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley meeting with one of the most prominent venture capital firms in the country. The VC partner, somebody I greatly respect said, “Yeah, we like Gil and what they’re doing. Funding is different outside of Silicon Valley. Let me use LA as an example. Los Angeles.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Southern California Google Startup 313

socalTECH

JANUARY 5, 2009

Los Angeles-based Image Metrics (www.image-metrics.com) recently landed a $6.5M, Series B funding round for the firm's facial animation products. Mike Starkenburg: Prior to doing this, I was a venture partner at the Sprout Group. One of those venture investors was Saffron Hill, which is involved here. We're that close.

Metrics 100

Metrics Startup Sales Newsletter 100

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I'm Tired of Creating Your Content - Babbling VC , November 12, 2010 Jeff triggered this post in regards to his Check-in Fatigue on Foursquare. I’d been around the web long enough to remember the dozens of companies before YouTube that tried to create crowdsourced video sites and failed. By doing the job. Where is it?

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

SoCal Delicious

MARCH 1, 2010

Surprisingly, Hollywood hasnt played a major role in the formation of new companies, which have tended to be in less glamorous though more lucrative areas like lead-generation and service (with obvious exceptions like JibJab and Hulu, a joint venture of Fox and NBC). My fund was an early investor in Overture.

Los Angeles 50

Los Angeles Company Companies Angel 50

SoCal Delicious

OCTOBER 8, 2012

Venture capitalist and hedge-fund manager Peter Thiel—PayPals co-founder and Facebook s. When I arrived in Hollywood, everybody had written a screenplay," he says. In the end, he sold an $8 million home in the Hollywood Hills to the entrepreneur. Wealthy Investors Flock to Puerto Rico. Now, everyone has an app.".

Los Angeles 44

Los Angeles Software Review Technical Review Journal 44

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

Steve Blank , January 25, 2010 10 Tips for Adding Game Mechanics to a Non-Gaming Service - ReadWriteStart , September 21, 2010 Startups & VCs: Learn How to Design, Market, & Eat Your Own. - First Principles.

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378