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'Five-and-a-half years ago I first met Chamillionaire at a tech conference in LA. I saw him on stage at the event talking about how he used social media to engage audiences. This was 2009 and his understanding of audience engagement was far beyond anything I was hearing from most people at that time. I reached out after the event to learn more. We started hanging out a bit and discussing technology and entrepreneurship.
'Despite the widespread impact of software today on our lives, there are a number of areas of computer science research which have had a difficult time in being translated into practical, every day usage. One of those areas is game theory--the use of computer simulations to predict the behavior of multiple people or entities, and how they will behave together, most famously depicted in that 1980''s movie, War Games.
'A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. Rose Broome, Founder of HandUp is rocking the non-profit world. HandUp allows donors to hyper-focus their donations to individuals with specific needs. This is a game changer for the homeless. Rather than panhandling for spare change, HandUp, with the help of its partners, allows people in need to create a video which tells their story.
'When we accept the work commitment from a person we hire, we make a pact with the new employee that often stops at agreeing to pay for service rendered and to provide a safe working environment. There should be more than that. With some people you hire, you know you are just renting their services as they pass through your organization, aimed at a higher calling.
Office leases are one of companies’ largest expenses, and if your whole team is working from home with no clear end in sight, you may be wondering what to do about your lease.
'An entrepreneur is literally “one who creates a new business.” The best new businesses are ones that have never been done before, so mastering creativity and recognizing creativity are key skills and mind-sets. But how does one recognize and nurture creativity in a person or team? In researching this question, I found a book by Bryan Mattimore, “ Idea Stormers: How to Lead and Inspire Creative Breakthroughs ,” which outlines well eight attributes of the most creative people, which seem to match
'*. What is the role of a VC for entrepreneurs? I suppose it can be different for every founder and for different VCs but I’d like to offer you some context on what I think it is and it isn’t. I was recently contacted by an entrepreneur who was consider a few different business models for his company. I barely know the guy (or his markets) but he wanted me to weigh in one “which market I thought he should pursue.” I responded. “I can’t tell you that one approa
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'*. What is the role of a VC for entrepreneurs? I suppose it can be different for every founder and for different VCs but I’d like to offer you some context on what I think it is and it isn’t. I was recently contacted by an entrepreneur who was consider a few different business models for his company. I barely know the guy (or his markets) but he wanted me to weigh in one “which market I thought he should pursue.” I responded. “I can’t tell you that one approa
'Think you see some suspicious drones overhead in the San Fernando Valley? No, they''re not filming a movie for Hollywood , nor are they the LAPD spying on your criminal activites. They are not even a local unmanned aerial vehicle maker testing their products. No, apparently-- according to a report --they are a Singapore startup''s effort to sell your information to marketers.
'A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. Underdogs have a romantic appeal. Western societies relish fables which celebrate the victories of those who were expected to lose. Sophisticated entrepreneurs harness the power of their venture''s underdog status, driving their teams to be unabashedly passionate risk takers who refuse to acknowledge failure as an option.
'Unless your job is to teach, attempting to tell your direct reports HOW to do the job you’ve asked or ordered them to do will be a disincentive, will remove some of the authority you’ve delegated, and definitely reduce their motivation to act and lead. Think for a moment of sometime in the past where someone directed you to do a job, then launched into a lengthy explanation of how you should do it.
'Even though I love technology, I always cringe when an entrepreneur starts his investor pitch to me by touting his new technology. They have forgotten that new technologies are perceived by most customers as causing more pain than the problems they eliminate. I chastise these startups to highlight the solution created by the technology, rather than highlighting the technology.
'I received a press pass to DeveloperWeek 2015 last week in order to attend the “Advice to Live by from Women Developers” career panel moderated by the lead of Dice’s engineering team, Jennifer Petersen. Erin Craig of Wolfram, Dominique DeGuzman of Twilio, Ana Martinez of Zendesk and Maira Benjamin of Pandora all joined in the conversation to discuss their experiences in pursuing careers in software engineering.
'*. I recently wrote a post talking about how some VCs meddle in operating company decisions or some executive teams are too reliant on VCs to jump in and make hard calls for them. Fred Wilson also wrote on a similar topic in his usual more succinct manner , with a great quote being: “One thing I know for sure is that those who advise and invest in startups cannot and should not meddle in the day to day decision making.
'Philz Coffee , the Silicon Valley coffee chain which has a single outpost outside of the Bay Area--in Santa Monica has raised $15M to expand its footprint, the company said Wednesday. The funding came from Cowboy Ventures, Crunchfund, Maynard Web, Snoop Dog, and a number of other angels. Philz opened an outpost in Santa Monica last year, due to the demand of Silicon Valley venture investors and executives who were spending an increasing amount of time in "Silicon Beach".
'A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. In 1862, Charles Darwin predicted that an insect with an extraordinary tongue must exist by observing an orchid which stores its nectar at bottom of long stem. Darwin surmised the anatomical structure of the phantom insect based on the mechanics required to pollinate the flower. 130-years later, scientists discovered X. morganii praedicta, a moth with a freakishly long tongue which fed on the orchid’s pollen.
'Ever had a manager above you who said one thing and did another? At least once? Or in a pattern of repeats? Well, you’re not alone. Did you think less of that person for it? Would you follow that manager to the ends of the earth? Well, almost everyone has had multiple such experiences with a senior manager. And most people think less of that person than before.
'Intuitively, many entrepreneurs and businesses believe that the key to faster growth and success is more products, features, and markets. Since we all have limited resources, and can’t add more hours to the day, the result is usually more things done poorly, rather than a few key things done better than anyone else. The message here is focus , reiterated by every advisor and investor.
'The most common question I get running a college talent startup is: “What is the entrepreneurship culture like in schools? And what is the talent like?” Most people agree that Stanford’s entrepreneurial spirit and talented students played a pivotal role in the growth and success of Silicon Valley. Many believe the same culture will be essential to the success of growing Southern California’s own startup culture.
'A shortened, better edited and with nicer pictures version of this post first appeared on TechCrunch. But if you want it in it’s full V1 glory read on … You’ve never been a CEO but might like to be one some day. But how? Nobody sees you as a CEO since you’ve never been one? I wrote this conundrum and the need to take charge of how the market define your skills in my much-read blog post on “ personal branding.” If you don’t create the message about your
'Online dining ordering service GrubHub has acquired Aliso Viejo-based Restaurants On The Run , the provider of restaurant delivery services which serves Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orange County, San Diego, Houston, Seattle, Las Vegas and Tulsa Oklahoma. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. The acquisition was announced on Thursday, as part of a major strategic shift by GrubHub to not only enable to-go orders for restaurants, but a shift where GrubHub itself will deiver those orders.
'A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. Some of the all-time greatest business deals involve entrepreneurs who viewed the scope of their negotiations in terms of decades, rather than years. Too often, entrepreneurs negotiate deals which consider a relatively short-term time horizon. This tendency is understandable, as most business negotiations address near-term objectives, such as driving incremental revenue or acquiring customers.
'Empowering your direct reports with the reasons for your orders gives them incentive to act, motivation to accept authority, and purpose behind action. I try to teach this with the simple phrase that is the headline of this insight. Think of the last time someone above you in your business or personal life gave you an order to do something that seemed either illogical or of low priority – to you.
'Even if you ignore all the hype around crowdfunding, there can be no doubt that it is a real alternative for entrepreneurs to achieve visibility and funding today. According to articles on Entrepreneur last year, there are now almost 1,000 crowdfunding platforms in existence, currently estimated to add more than $65 billion and 270,000 jobs to the economy.
'Photo courtesy of James Theophane via Flickr. We all want to make things easier. That’s what the Internet does. And apparently, that’s what mobile applications do better – just ask the fast-growing number of app users. This is the consequence of the switch from desktop and laptops to mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. A recent study by Nielsen showed that an average American adult spend some 34 hours per month using mobile internet on smartphones compared to 27 hours via persona
'I live in LA and fund startups. So you can imagine that I see a lot of video startups. Most will fail. I repeat the same mantra to every one I see. “You can’t build a large online video company. You have to build a large online tech company that distributes video.” I try to explain this to every team I see and I’m not being flippant.
'Residential solar installation company Sunrun , which is based in San Francisco, said on Wednesday that it is opening up a new solar design engineering center in Irvine, where it expects to hire at least 50. Sunrun said the new design engineering center will create customized system designs for its customers around the country, and will include everything from system designers to technical support.
'My long-time friend Jason Lemkin is on the verge of launching a spectacular SaaS conference called SaaStr this week. What Jason has achieved in no time flat in VC is astounding. Without inventing the browser he has single-handedly created a personal VC brand on a shoestring. And as I’ve written about before – building a personal brand is extremely important in today’s competitive job market.
'*. Phone calls. Millennials are allergic to them. I have this conversation Sofa King often that I’m sure each reader who has met me will think I’m talking specifically about you. I’m not. Well, I am. But not only you. Email is efficient. You can crank out asynchronous thoughts, orders, questions, commands and comments. I email often.
'A report, published this morning, says that hard drives from Lake Forest-based Western Digital , as well as those from fellow hard drive companies Maxtor, Samsung, IBM, Micron, Toshiba, and Seagate--had secretly been compromised by a secretive hacking group linked to the US intelligence community. The report said that the hard drives had been embedded with spyware, deep within the firmware of those products, in order to support the US spying program.
'Los Angeles-based Ebyline , which had operated an online marketplace for freelance writers, has been acquired by IZEA. Financial details of the acquisition were not announced. IZEA is an online social content and sponsorship services. Ebyline said it plans to slowly move its technology over to IZEA''s platform, and would continue to offer its services.
'Los Angeles-based b> YP , the provider of business search and local marketing services, said today that it has launched a brand new product. YP said it has launched ypSearch , a new product aimed at small business owners, which both provides search ads on YP''s properties, as well as on major search engines. The company said the tool not only lists ads on its own properties, but also delivers those ads to Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
'A new, Los Angeles-based startup, MomStamp , recently said it has launched, to help mother connect with their extended network and better get referrals from "friends of friends" to local service providers. The startup, which likens itself to "Angie''s List and Yelp meets Facebook", said is backed by Brian Lee of The Honest Company/ Bam Ventures, Adam Miller, CEO of Cornerstone OnDemand, and artists Shepard and Amanda Fairey.
'Remember Elon Musks''s HyperLoop --the grand idea for transporting people from Los Angeles to San Francisco at 800 mph? A new, Los Angeles startup, Hyperloop Technologies has emerged-- with $8.5M in funding --to bring those dreams to life. Hyperloop Technologies said today that it received that funding round from Sherp a Ventures, Formation 8, Zhen Capital, David Sacks, and Peter Diamandis, as well as former White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina, and plans to raise another $80M in a fun
'Glendale-based energy investor Coronal Group said Thursday that it has acquired HelioSage Energy , a developer of utility scale solar power projects. Financial terms of the asset sale were not announced. Coronal Group said it has created a new company, Coronal Development Services LLC, adding more than 300MW of solar power projects to its portfolio, and another 1.5 GW of projects in development.
'On demand ride service Uber said Thursday that it is launching its carpooling service, uberPOOL , in Los Angeles, in an effort to help residents help reduce traffic and pollution in the city. uberPOOL matches up UberX riders, letting them share rides along the way to their destinations, matching similar trips together and offering up lower fares for riders, better fares for drivers, and with a side effect of less traffic and less pollution.
'If you are like us, a huge number of the conference calls you participate in are enabled by a company called FreeConferenceCall.com , which has enabled free conference calls for millions of startups and large businesses alike. But, how can the company offer up free conference calling services, and what''s the story behind the service? FreeConferenceCall.com is a Long Beach company which was founded by David Erickson.
'Los Angeles-based online advertising technology developer Rubicon Project > has just passed the $100M mark, reporting yesterday that its 2014 year end revenues were $125.3M. The company said it is expecting 40 percent year-over-year revenue growth in 2015. The details came as the company released its fourth quarter results, where it reported net income of $1.4M on revenues of $41.8M for the quarter.
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