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Having time to think about “leadership” at most startups feels like a luxury. It feels like something you could turn your attention to once you have tens of millions of dollars and a large staff to run operations and you could step back from it all and think about how to lead. The reality of most startups is about survival. And because running a company requires money to fuel staff and offices and acquire customers and the like, much of the time spent in early days at a start feels l
You may not know that you have access to many “free” sources of social media contacts to help you in your marketing effort. The first semi–secret source is your LinkedIn contact list. You probably thought it was proprietary to LinkedIn, or at worst, available only when sending messages through LinkedIn to your list. I have thousands of LinkedIn contacts and am willing to assume you have a large number as well.
Santa Monica-based TaskUs , the outsourcing firm founded by Jaspar Weir and Bryce Maddock, said today that it has just passed up 5,000 employees. The company--which had just over 1,000 employees in 2014, and started with a mere 5 employees in 2011--says it now has five outsourcing centers in the Philippines. TaskUs has seen rapid growth due to its focus on back end office functions for many, "unicorn" startups, and such customers as Tinder, Savings.com, Wikipedia, Gilt Groupe, and many, many oth
A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. It was a decade ago that I led the sale of Expertcity (creator of GoToMeeting) to Citrix. During the early 2000’s, my team grew the company to one of the largest SaaS businesses of its day, with sales of $70 million. In November of 2015, Citrix announced that it will spin out the “GoTo” Division, of which GoToMeeting remains the flagship product, as a standalone public company.
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.
This silent feud between Seth David and I had been pretty one sided, until now. Like Ice Cube and Dr. Dre use rap lyrics, Seth and I use social media instead. We recently parted ways and agreed to do so amicably. After being what I assume is the subject of one or more of Seth David’s emotionally charged blog posts, I’ve decided it’s time to respond.
CapLinked , a secure enterprise sharing and storage provider, today has announced a new round of funding totaling $3.5 million. The round is led by Subtraction Capital, and includes investments from PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel , Indicator Ventures, and venture debt lender Western Technology Investment (WTI). The California-based team plans to use the new round to grow their team, marketing efforts, and further grow the company.
What drives economic inequality in the US? Should we be concerned about the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few at the expense of the many? I am not writing about this out of the blue – this seems to be the topic of the day in my social stream based on blogs written, retweets rendered and attaboys handed out. I found the conversation a bit disconcerting.
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What drives economic inequality in the US? Should we be concerned about the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few at the expense of the many? I am not writing about this out of the blue – this seems to be the topic of the day in my social stream based on blogs written, retweets rendered and attaboys handed out. I found the conversation a bit disconcerting.
Using old email lists for the first time is like eating really stale doughnuts. The taste is pretty bad, and the side effects could be disastrous. Email companies like Constant Contact, Mail Chimp and many others all have strict rules they follow to avoid being caught in spam hell, with their servers blacklisted and worse. Each has automated software watching over your uploads of new lists.
There's a large number of on-demand services which have been appearing recently, to help people deal with almost every aspect of their life. One of the latest is Los Angeles-based Helpr (www.helpr-app.com), which recently launched to help parents find babysitters for their children. Becka Klauber Richter is co-founder of the startup, and spoke to us about the company, which she co-founded with Kasey Edwards.
A version of this article previously appeared Forbes. Long before author Stephen King sold over 350 million books, he was a budding entrepreneur. In order to pay his college tuition, young Stephen created a sole proprietor startup with a very entrepreneurial pricing structure. Leveraging his core competency, Stephen cranked out term papers for his fellow students.
Patience, it’s not only a virtue, it’s a requirement for success. Rarely does anything build and become valuable over night and usually, if it does, it will fall as fast. A good idea can mature to a great idea and a great business but it requires attention, nurturing and more importantly, patience. But most important is your ability to stay the course.
Los Angeles Uber riders, rejoice. UberX is finally coming to LAX. The company announced that as of 8 a.m. tomorrow, riders will be able to request and get picked up by UberX cars. This comes exactly one month after Lyft launched at LAX, which was originally announced by LA’s Mayor Eric Garcetti. Uber and Lyft had battled for months with the airport and the LA city council to reach… Read More.
In the VC insider baseball world a discussion has gone on about “VC platforms” over the past 5 or so years. While firms define platforms differently, let’s just say they are the services that a VC offers outside of investment capital and partner time on boards or providing intros. Examples of VC platform services include: recruiting, marketing, design support, inside sales reps, consulting, accounting services and so forth.
No–one needs to tell you that mobile readers now outnumber desktop readers for your message. A recent Experian marketing survey revealed that 52% of all email opens are from mobile devices, and that 38% of all clicks are from mobile devices. Experian looked at three hundred brands and 21 billion emails – a few more than you or I have as a resource for our marketing intelligence.
Are you one of the unfortunate folks who have had to clear out of Porter Ranch due to the giant natural gas leak? Los Angeles-based on-demand, self storage service Clutter said Thursday that it will offer up three months of storage to residents have have been asked to evacuate during the methane leak disaster. The company said the offer comes after it heard the local, Public Storage in Porter Ranch has been completely booked by residents leaving the area.
A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. It is no secret that the number of private companies with valuations in excess of one billion dollars has skyrocketed since the start of 2014. As show in CBInsight’s chart, the number of such “unicorns” created during the first half of 2014 was roughly equivalent to the number created during the prior three years.
Everyone recognizes a great leader when they work with one, but most leaders don’t know what to look for in themselves that will drive that perception by others. In my experience, there is no magic gene involved, just simple good habits executed consistently and convincingly until everyone around you wants to follow your example. This leading by example is easy to say, but not so easy to put into action.
Interested in meeting early-stage accredited investors in Los Angeles? Then register for the FundingPost Investor RoundTable on February 4th, 2016 at 2:00pm. FundingPost has hosted 300+ sold-out venture events in 23 cities over the past 14 years. At the LA Angel Investor Roundtable, the panel of investors will focus on pitching to early-stage investors, and what it really takes to get them to write you a check!
Spoiler alert: MCNs don’t exist. They are a figure of your imagination. 20 months ago we sold Maker Studios to Disney for $500 million in cash plus a large earn out. From the day after we sold the company until today I felt it was important that I not comment too much publicly about online video even though I continued to work actively in the sector and made five more investments.
There is so much information being shot at us daily via social media streams that we should monitor and control that which pertains to our business – and do so with some level of expertise. There are tools to inform you when your company name or personal name is mentioned. Google Alerts can be set for any parameter and then be set to deliver your results daily or more often using Google.com/alerts.
Over the last week or so, we've featured the reflections of our readers on 2015 and what it has meant for Southern California's technology industry. Our last contribution comes from Hamet Watt , a venture capitalist at Upfront Ventures (www.upfront.com). What was the biggest news for you or your firm this year? Hamet Watt: Upfront Ventures raised a brand-new $300 million fund, Upfront V.
rhubarb studios, the Los Angeles-based venture studio that helps entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life, announced that it raised $1 million in seed funding. This money will be used to further grow the studio and amplify resources for [build], rhubarb studios ’ three-month immersive coaching program which takes startups from conception to series A.
Most entrepreneurs, and members of any small team, naively assume that the key to their success is hard work, dedication, and long hours in the business. In reality, their effectiveness is usually more related to how well they develop their work relationships with peers and business leaders. First they need to decipher correctly every relationship as a workship, friendship, or foe.
HQ is excited to present the first event in our Living Room Series. Join us for a home-cooked meal, workshop, and salon-style discussion on the topic of ‘User Experience Beyond the Screen.’ The event will be small and hands-on, and it is for entrepreneurs, designers, developers from a range of backgrounds to encourage diverse dialogue from a variety of perspectives.
I’ve been spending a lot more time on Facebook as a blogger than I ever did. So I thought it was worth explaining why. And I’m going to cross post this entire post on Facebook as an experiment rather than just posting a link on FB and trying to drive people to my blog. If you want to follow me on Facebook I’m here. So if you’re reading this on Facebook (or on my blog!
I was an infamously odd student in business school and law school. I never bought books, rarely went to class, and hardly studied for exams. But I did spent those four years starting businesses and courting many mentors to help me along the way. Instead of studying for my classes, I’d set up new meet & greet meetings with successful alums. At the end of every meeting, I’d ask, “Would you consider being my mentor?
In an unusual twist for the car sharing market, a new, Los Angeles startup-- WaiveCar --said today that it has launched a new, mobile phone-driven car sharing program in Santa Monica and Venice, which lets drivers drive cars for free. The startup said the free car usage comes thanks to sponsors, who have plastered their advertising on the startup's automobiles.
TechZulu is excited to invite you to the 2016 Startup and Entrepreneur Forecast taking place Thursday, February 11 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Cross Campus in Santa Monica. We will have amazing panelists from Crosscut Ventures, Machine Shop Ventures, Techstars, and more to be announced soon who will share their insights and forecast for startups in 2016.
Welcome to another challenging new year ahead! You’ve probably already made your resolutions for 2016, but if not, I suggest a renewed commitment to finding happiness and satisfaction in your chosen business lifestyle. After all, most of us spend more hours in this role than any other, and life is too short to spend most of your life unhappy. If you haven’t tried it, one way to be happier at work is to be an entrepreneur, according to a classic study by the Wharton School of Business a while bac
Redlands-based GIS and mapping software developer Esri has launched a new product, which takes aim at enterprise users of Google Earth. According to Esri, its new ArcGIS Earth software is a free, desktop based interactive globe which allows users to visualize, explore, and understand spatial data, letting users work with 3D and 2D map data. Esri said the new offering is part of an effort to help support current Google customers and partners, who were using Google Earth Enterprise (Google Earth E
Auto maker Toyota , which is headquartered in Torrance, says this morning that it is announcing how it plans to leverage artificial intelligence research in its next generation vehicles. Toyota, which has not yet revealed the details of the announcement, said the effort comes out of the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), a research and development enterprise focused on artificial intelligence for automobiles, robotics, and scientific discovery.
Los Angeles-based HopSkipDrive , the kids' ridesharing service which is led by Joanna McFarland, said today that it has raised $10.2M in a Series A funding. The funding was led by FirstMark Capital, and also included Greycroft Partners and Pritzker Group Venture Capital, along with prior investors Upfront Ventures, BBG Ventures and 1776. The ridesharing service--which taps screened, childcare providers to drive children around town for busy parents--also said it has named the former GM of Uber i
Los Angeles- and Berlin-based eKomi , a developer of software to solicit ratings and reviews from e-commerce customers, has added Anastassia Lauterbach to its board of directors. Lauterbach has served on the boards of Dun & Bradstreet, Kaspersky Labs, Intel, and Star Alliance, and been an executive at Qualcomm, Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile International, Daimler Chrysler Services, and McKinsey & Co. eKomi is led by Michael Ambros, and says it is headquartered in Berlin and Los Angeles with
A big Los Angeles area construction and engineering firm, AECOM , said Tuesday that it has been selected to build the first, Hyperloop test track, for a competition being run by Hawthorne-based SpaceX. AECOM said it is building a six-foot diameter, steel tube track which will run nearly one mile, adjacent to SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorn, as part of the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition.
Santa Monica-based venture capital investor March Capital Partners is the lead investor in a developer of cloud networking technology, VeloCloud Networks , as part of a new $27M funding round for that company. VeloCloud, which is based in Silicon Valley, said the new Series C funding was led by March Capital Partners, and also included Cisco Investments, New Enterprise Associates, and Venrock.
San Diego-based Emotient , a developer of facial expression recognition software, has been acquired by Apple , Apple disclosed on Thursday. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Emotient, which was backed by Handbag and Intel Capital, had developed applications for Google Glass and other platforms to be able to tell what a person was feeling based on their facial expression.
In a boost to LA's clean technology industry, energy storage products developer sonnen said this week that it has set up its U.S. headquarters in Los Angeles, to help increase its market presence in the United States. The company, which designs battery-based energy storage devices which use LiFePO4 batteries to capture solar power and supply that power back to a home in the evening, said it will be manufacturing its devices in California.
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