Like many people these days, I spent much of my 20’s and early 30’s thinking about work & fun and not too much about “the future.” Like characters from one of my favorite novels “ The Unbearable Lightness of Being ” life seemed very light. MORE

Fifth Wall Ventures plans to launch an accelerator program aimed at companies valued under $20 million in the real estate tech space, the firm announced Wednesday MORE

Genomics startups are increasing in number and quality, so much so that three-year-old Illumina Accelerator has expanded with its latest class to accommodate five of them. Xconomy got an early look at the specialty accelerator’s sixth cohort, which includes a company named for a butterfly and the accelerator’s first digital health startup. MORE

Starting back in 2015 and throughout much of 2016 people started commenting that my blog had become a lot more political. I guess I didn’t see it quite that way. MORE

It was not long ago that the apps on our smartphones were, by today’s standards, basic. They played music, allowed us to text, and the very pioneering apps tracked our daily step count and sent us news alerts. That all changed with social media , and now everyone is glued to their phone’s screen. MORE

El Segundo-based Internet Brands , which is owned by private equity investor KKR, agreed this morning to acquire WebMD in a deal worth approximately $2.8 billion. According to WebMD, Internet Brands will pay $66.50 per share in cash for all of the outstanding shares of WebMD common stock. The deal is expected to close in Q4 of 2017. WebMD operates a popular online health information site. Internet Brands is run by CEO Bob Brisco. KKR acquired Internet Brands in 2014. READ MORE>>. MORE

Close. You can take this headline as a rule, not an exception. You’ll recognize the truism, “No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy” first stated by German Field Marshall von Moltke way back in the 19 th century. Our variant of the “battle plan” truism is important to internalize. MORE

With content management systems like WordPress , getting a site up and running is no big deal. But apart from building traffic, what I find most challenging is incorporating a lead capture strategy that will actually generate some blog subscribers. MORE

Tuesday, August 1, 2017 -- SIGGRAPH 2017. The annual SIGGRAPH conference is a five-day interdisciplinary educational experience in the latest computer graphics and interactive techniques, including a three-day commercial exhibition that attracts hundreds of companies from around the world. The conference also hosts the international SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival, showcasing works from the world's most innovative and accomplished digital film and video creators. MORE

This story is part of an ongoing Xconomy series on A.I. in healthcare. These are heady times for using artificial intelligence to extract insights from healthcare data—in particular, from the tidal wave of information coming out of fields like genomics and medical imaging. MORE

Know your market and competition, or don’t spend a dime on anything else. I love absolutes – statements with no wiggle room for gray-area responses. Well, here is one of those, and it deals with market research first and foremost. Close. Let me tell you a short story at my own expense. MORE

Austin —For businesses that ship anything from mayonnaise to car parts, a change in temperature or an unexpected storm can mean bigger problems than just rotten eggs or stalled repairs. In this age of “just in time manufacturing,” entire factories might need to halt production if the right parts aren’t delivered, potentially costing thousands of dollars in delays. That’s a problem that Austin-based Riskpulse says its data service can help resolve. MORE

Thursday, July 27, 2017 -- AI.LA New Realities Expert Panel #1. Hear experts in the fields of AI, robotics, virtual, augmented, and mixed realities talk about the future. Why attend? Debunk the hype around AI Explore the intersections between VR and Artificial Intelligence Gain insight on the most entertaining advancements in new technologies Discuss biases in data and creator when developing an AI. See [link] (more MORE

Tesloop ride sharing service expands, SpaceX’s Dragon capsule lands on Earth with animals and space station equipment, and Headspace raises $36.7 million MORE

It's fairly unusual to see an apparel company with venture backing, and particularly unusual to see one with the strong lineup of investors that LA-based Jaanuu (www.jaanuu.com) has behind the company. MORE

Walt Disney Co. announced Tuesday that e-sports company aXiomatic was one of 11 companies chosen to participate in the 2017 Disney Accelerator program MORE

Irvine-based aesthetic medical device developer Syneron Medical announced late Monday evening that it has become a private company, in a $400M go-private deal with Apax Partners. According to Syneron Medical, funds advised by Apax Partners paid $11.00 per share in cash for the company. The deal had originally announced on April 3rd. 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. MORE

Monday, July 31, 2017 -- TEDxUCLA Salon: From Struggle to Success TEDxUCLA Salon How do you turn struggles into success in the field of technology? How do you succeed as a female in a male-driven industry? How can government catch up with the rapid growth in technology? Join us as we explore these hot topics and learn from experts in the field. MORE

Adam Riggs-Zeigen has come a long way since 2013, when he co-founded San Diego’s Rock My World and introduced the mobile app RockMyRun to provide upbeat music playlists to motivate smartphone-equipped runners. “We MORE

Long-haul commuting is better in a Tesla. That’s the theory behind Tesloop of Culver City, a car service which ferries passengers on highway trips between 50 miles and 200 miles around Southern California in Tesla Inc.’s s Model X or Model S cars MORE

Elon Musk claims ‘verbal approval’ for hyperloop route from NY to DC, Falcon Heavy launch has “good chance” of failure says Elon Musk, and Hulu signs 3,000-episode distribution deal with 20th Century Fox MORE

Wednesday, August 2, 2017 -- SIGGRAPH 2017. The annual SIGGRAPH conference is a five-day interdisciplinary educational experience in the latest computer graphics and interactive techniques, including a three-day commercial exhibition that attracts hundreds of companies from around the world. The conference also hosts the international SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival, showcasing works from the world's most innovative and accomplished digital film and video creators. MORE

Alcohol delivery service Saucey raises $5.4 million, Snapchat signs content production partnership with Formula One and Open Listings raises $6.5 million MORE

There's been a revolution in the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the last few years, by both startups and large companies, to help in a large number of areas. Tim Grace , who co-founded San Diego-based PointPredictive with Frank McKenna and Joe Jackson, is a startup veteran, who sold BasePoint Analytics to CoreLogic in 2009, and is a former executive from HNC Software. MORE

Hiring your first few employees can often be as hard as choosing your cofounders. Especially in the early days of your startup, when you’re often only months from running out of money, hiring the wrong person can be disastrous. Yet it’s hard to accurately vet potential candidates. MORE

West Hollywood-based Hutch , the home interior design app developer led by Beatrice Fischel-Bock, has raised a $10M round of funding from Zillow Group , the company said this morning. Hutch, lets users take a picture of room us‌ing its mobile app, and lets users apply "filters" on how they might redecorate the space. As part of the funding, Zillow's Spencer Rascoff joins the company's board. READ MORE>>. hutch zillow venture capital home interior design MORE

There’s no denying that BB-8 was the star of the most recent installment in the Star Wars universe, Rogue One. What you might not realize is that the adorable droid was the brain child of Sphero, a robotics and digital technology company and an alumni to the Disney Accelerator program. MORE

Asian goods e-tailer Yamibuy has raised a $10 million Series A round led by GGV Capital of Beijing, according to a Monday press release MORE

The first ever approval of a new kind of cancer immunotherapy called CAR-T is one step closer. MORE

So, you have a great new product or service that you and your associates love. Early adopters should climb all over each other for a look. But what have you done to test the concept against the realities of the marketplace? MORE

Independent media network WelkerMedia is launching the world’s first no-equity and not-for-profit acceleration program with a focus on digital activism, social impact and creative projects. How It Works. MORE