Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2018

Use the minimum viable product concept to get revenue early, and allow market and product pivots at minimal cost. Rather than set a date-driven repayment schedule, tie investment returns to a percentage of new product revenue, or a plan to convert the debt to equity.

Tips

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 1, 2017

The company said the new funding will to expand its sales force and bring new skin cancer products to the market. READ MORE>>.

Funding

socalTECH

AUGUST 23, 2017

CALIENT manufactures 3D, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology used in optical switching, particularly in the data center market. According to the two, Chunxing buys a controlling stake in the company, and will also provide manufacturing services to CALIENT as part of the acquisition. CALIENT said it will remain in Goleta.

Santa Barbara

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

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.” Back then only 15% of our dollars were invested locally whereas today 50% of our dollars are invested in LA.

Dollar Shave Club

socalTECH

JULY 18, 2017

Syneron Medical makes fat reduction devices used in the aesthetic medicine market. As part of the go-private deal, Syneron said that Geoffrey Crouse has been appointed CEO of the company, and also has joined its board. Crouse is the former CEO of Cord Blood Registry, and was COO of Immucor, among other experience. READ MORE>>.

Funding

Tech.Co

MAY 18, 2017

Ross Organic is a specialty distributor in the personal care, home care, and industrial cleaning markets. Omaze uses the traditional auction-giving model by offering everyone the chance to make donations, driving new levels of awareness and raising more money for charities. Ross Organic. ServiceTitan. StackCommerce.

Los Angeles

Berkonomics

JULY 17, 2025

These are so succinct, so well defined, so precise that everyone in sales and everyone involved in marketing must be able to answer these three questions without pause, and convincingly. It would pay you to work over this set of questions in a special session with sales, marketing and senior management in the room at once.

Sales

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

As a product or service you can often trade short exclusivity periods for the retailer’s willingness to spend marketing dollars promoting your product or give you better merchandising in the physical or virtual store. It is on this last point where Amazon is best positioned to dominate markets. So Why Does This Matter?

Product

socalTECH

JULY 3, 2017

Los Angeles-based YP.com , the provider online directories and services to help businesses get their companies online which has been remade by a number of technology executives into a provider of local business marketing and automation software, has been acquired by competing directory provider Dex Media.

Media

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 13, 2018

Los Angeles-based parking marketplace Pavemint wants to make parking in Los Angeles like a musical--quite literally.

Social Media

Tech.Co

JULY 12, 2017

Through software integrations with smart TV manufacturers, Samba recognizes content and associated viewership patterns making TV audiences more addressable and measurable while helping marketers activate cross-screen campaigns and maximize their impact.

Artificial Inteligence

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

What You Can Learn From Public Markets It doesn’t really take a genius to realize that what happens in the public markets will filter back to the private markets because the ultimate exit of these companies is either an IPO or an acquisition (often by a public company whose valuation is fixed daily by the market).

Venture Capital

L.A. Business Journal

APRIL 13, 2021

Tagger Media, the Santa Monica-based developer of a software platform for influencer-based marketing campaigns, has raised $8.5 million in Series A funding.

Media

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 28, 2020

MarketerHire , a Los Angeles-based startup backed by a slew of executives from some of the city’s hottest startups, launched its new service matching freelance marketing experts with open jobs listed on its platform. . Brands can typically fill their open positions in as little as 48 hours, the company said.

Marketing

socalTECH

MARCH 24, 2021

Los Angeles-based Worth Network, a new software startup, is aiming to help marketers reach more consumers via organic Instagram posts, the company said today. The company says it has built software that identifies a brand's best customers on social media and converts them to marketers by paying them to post organic Instagram stories.

Networking

Berkonomics

MARCH 4, 2021

Over the years, as I managed my several computer companies as CEO or executive chairman, I made the decision to go to market with a brand-new product that had never before been exposed to my customer’s marketplace. Changing the rules to fit the market. As a product marketing effort, it was a failure.

Artificial Inteligence

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 6, 2022

Last week, we talked about about the “de-stonkifying” of the market. The company’s stock tanked by more than 26 percent, representing a $230 billion reduction in market cap and a $31 billion drop in Zuckerberg’s personal net worth. Hello friends, and welcome back to Week in Review ! Image Credits: TechCrunch.

Marketing

L.A. Business Journal

NOVEMBER 15, 2021

s market value doubled to about $4.7 billion over the last couple of weeks with investors reacting positively to the Sawtelle-based EV charging station network’s quarterly results along with news of expanded collaboration with General Motors Co. and Uber Technologies Inc.

Marketing

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 22, 2021

Every business I know is intimately familiar with outbound marketing, or pushing your message out to customers through email, newspaper, and television advertising. Only a few really understand the process and value of inbound marketing, for pulling customers to your brand. Pull marketing is less expensive than push marketing.

Customer

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 7, 2021

But LA-based performance marketing agency MuteSix didn’t wait that long to build its business around scaling DTC brands. If you have growth marketing agencies or freelancers to recommend, please fill out our survey !). Why do you think that performance marketing is the right fit for DTC?

Commerce

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 8, 2022

The platform is going after marketers with a Canva-style drag-and-drop interface. That’s because the startup is hoping to capture the wave of marketers who are warming up to AI tools to assist their job. “Videos are powerful — just imagine if marketers can send emails with talking human avatars instead of plain text.”

Generative AI

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 11, 2021

Most of these startups spend the lion’s share of their marketing budget in today’s social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Snap, TikTok and so on because?—?no founders, marketers, investors?—?and no surprise?—?that’s that’s where the customers are. For these companies, it looks like a rosy picture. Why Did I Invest in Trust?

Product

Berkonomics

MARCH 31, 2022

The obsolete marketing message. And both have become increasingly obsolete as new channels of reach have evolved, allowing direct and personal contact with our potential customers, and better yet, free and near–free forms of marketing just for the asking. Today’s marketing tools and methods. Revert to “old school” marketing.

Marketing

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2023

I second his list of top innovation challenges and strategies to capitalize on untapped global startup opportunities: Create new markets rather than disrupt existing ones. But for many other innovative startups in emerging markets where shocks are frequent, a focus on sustainability and the longer view are more key to success.

Capital

Berkonomics

MAY 5, 2022

The post Mailing lists, email marketing, errors, oh my! The days of spam mailings to spam lists are gone, and we have all benefited by the enforcement of laws in many countries, especially in the United States. Follow the rules and suggestions above, and your doughnuts will not be stale. And you’ll not suffer a stomachache or worse.

Email

TechCrunch LA

MAY 3, 2022

The other side of the business is a new monthly subscription service for stylists that helps them market their handcrafted wigs, beauty and other digital products and services. Winters explained that the driver for the new funding was technology and product development on the marketplace, marketing and stylist acquisition.

Tool

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 5, 2020

When people talk today about buying food, alongside traditional grocery stores and other physical food markets, they increasingly talk about grocery delivery companies, restaurant delivery platforms, meal kit services and more that make or provide food to people by way of apps. ” I don’t doubt that he means it.

Technical Review

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 19, 2021

Earlier this month, Los Angeles became the latest city to task its various departments with prepping a feasibility study for deploying new software and monitoring technologies to better account for its carbon footprint.

Los Angeles

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

I often tell people that in some ways it’s easier to build great companies in down markets. ” But as entrepreneurs you don’t get to sit these years out and as investors we don’t get just let a few years pass and return back to the market. .” One needs to be in during bull markets and bear markets.

Software Review

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2022

Yves Sisteron , Stuart Lander & I (depicted in the photo below) have worked together for more than 22 years now and that has taken us through many cycles of market enthusiasm & panic. Photo by Scott Clark for Upfront Ventures A question I often hear is “how is Upfront changing given the current market?” The answer is: not much.

Startup

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 3, 2021

And while the grocery delivery market has become increasingly competitive, Hall argued that Good Eggs stands out thanks to the quality and breadth of its products — 70% of its products are locally sourced, and it often delivers them within 48 hours of harvesting. And it sounds like he isn’t in a rush to launch in a bunch of new markets.

Southern California

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 10, 2021

Overall, Klarna is live in 20 markets, has more than 90 million global active users and more than 2 million transactions a day conducted on its platform. Klarna has entered six new markets this year alone, including France and New Zealand, where it just launched this week. in markets such as New York and Los Angeles.

Los Angeles

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

As a result of the IPO window shifting we saw a massive inflow of public-market capital into the latest stages of venture. In this post I set out to explain why the seed market emerged as its own category in the first place and why it’s declined as of late. ( The “A Round” of my startup in 1999 was $16.5

Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

The Valley has obsessed with a quick up-and-to-right momentum story because we were thought to live in “winner take most” markets. But markets have changed and I think investors, founders and experienced executives who want to join later-stage startups can all benefit from playing the long game. It literally drove FOMO.

Venture Capital

TechCrunch LA

JULY 17, 2020

As the company said, there are no other methods available on the market that can allow for the creation of complex products from animal cells. Beyond Fried Chicken first appeared on the market last year in Atlanta and was made available in additional markets in the South earlier this year. ” Image: Beyond Meat. .

Southern California

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

That’s a reason why some are quick to portend “a new bubble” but this post sets out to show that would be a misunderstanding of the market and in fact by historic levels this may be amongst the best times to invest in seed and early-stage funds. More on that later. If you look even more closely you’ll see just how skewed the data really is.

Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 5, 2020

I had originally signed up to talk about the “VC Market Trends” overall but it seemed inauthentic to speak about VC funding without addressing the virus in the room. So I wrote a brand new deck outlining some Upfront views on what we may see in the funding markets ahead.

Funding