Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2012

For the past several years I’ve undertaken many initiatives to “get more organized,” which basically means to make another attempt at implementing and running a solid task list that I can share with others with whom I collaborate. I seem to be really good at kicking off well-structured lists, but less good at “working them.” I know there’s no real point in creating a task list if you’re not actually going to open it up and parse through tasks.

Technical Review 332

Technical Review Tool Organization Startup 332

socalTECH

AUGUST 1, 2012

How do you crack the code and make online video easier to find and use? Last week, Los Angeles-based Chill (www.chill.com) made a stab at that, debuting a new front page meant to guide user to the most interesting videos on the web, through an easy-to-use interface. Brian Norgard , co-founder of Chill, sat down with us to talk about the new front page, and also how the company has made a name for itself with a highly product focused, agile development of its service.

Startup 254

Startup Guide Redpoint Content 254

Berkonomics

AUGUST 9, 2012

Over the years I have heard many stories from entrepreneurs, students, news reporters, even my children, all telling me that they could not get someone’s attention they wanted or needed until they used the words, “Help me.” The simple request is disarming, enlarging the object of the request to a status of importance in respect to the questioner that is difficult to ignore.

Help 217

Help Training Report Class 217

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 20, 2012

Rapidly and repeatedly hiring star employees is a competitive advantage. Although this is a core competency that must be honed over time, there is a cadre of SaaS hiring tools that the world’s leading tech companies deploy to their advantage. No matter how rapidly a startup is growing, it can never afford to sacrifice employee quality as a means of achieving its hiring goals.

SaaS 209

SaaS Tool Startup Screening 209

Advertiser: Aggregage

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.

Company

SoCal Tech Calendar

AUGUST 3, 2012

Monday, August 6, 2012 -- Digital LA, TCIO and UKTI are teaming up in London for a panel on how the Olympic Games are using digital and social media. This year's Games has been called the most digital / social / mobile yet, with BBC streaming on Facebook, games-related apps, athletes using Twitter, and more. We'll discuss how startups and other digital partners have created games-related apps and digital tools.

Social Media 140

Social Media Tool Mobile Media 140

Eric Greenspan

AUGUST 6, 2012

On Tuesday of last week, I hung this on my wall. I received it rolled in a tube from this year’s TED conference. I didn’t even look at it for the first four months. When I did, I realized it had to be on my wall, ASAP! Three days later, I walked into a meeting that changed my life and provided me with an opportunity to LIVE MY LIFE in a way I’ve never been able to do before.

Writing 122

Writing Startup Conference Organization 122

socalTECH

AUGUST 8, 2012

Santa Monica-based Fundable (www.fundable.com) is a newly launched, crowdfunding site which is headed by local entrepreneur Wil Shroter. Recently, an interesting project popped up on the site--a a 2D to 3D conversion project , from the inventor of the original, LCD projector, Gene Dolgoff. Dolgoff has a fascinating background--he invented the first LCD projector, he helped inspire Star Trek's Holodeck, and he also is a serial entrepreneur who took his company public on the NASDAQ in the 90's.

Startup 252

Startup Sites Patents Outsource Development 252

Berkonomics

AUGUST 23, 2012

There is a major trend shaping up that is worldwide, already identified by hundreds of thousands of startup and small business CEOs. By carefully recognizing and focusing upon the very core of the business, these CEOs are allocating their scarce cash resources to hire the best talent they can find to support that core business, and then reaching out to partners, independent contractors, and other small businesses to provide all other functions.

Patents 159

Patents Training Advertising Resource 159

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 27, 2012

Note: This is an installment in the Iconic Advice series. Other installments include: Jeff Bezos , Steve Jobs , Mark Cuban , Richard Branson , Walt Disney , Mark Zuckerberg and Michael Dell. Make no mistake, successful entertainers are entrepreneurs. They must compete with tens of thousands of other performers who are all pursuing the same customer dollars.

Tips 204

Tips Startup Entertainment Entrepreneur 204

SoCal Tech Calendar

AUGUST 3, 2012

Tuesday, August 7, 2012 -- Revolutionizing Music Education With Chromatik. Huge Los Angeles. Digital education startup Chromatik has made a strong debut in Southern California with its unique approach to learning, practicing, and performing music.

Education 133

Education Southern California Los Angeles Startup 133

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2012

Every startup founder feels the pressure of the thousands of things that need to get done, all seemingly at the same time. There is just not enough time! The real solution is better productivity and less procrastination, to put you back in control of your business. You need to spend time on important things, as well as the urgent. Many entrepreneurs waste too much time on low-priority administrative tasks, procrastinating on higher priority but tougher tasks, resulting in last minute crises, and

Product 117

Product Entrepreneur Email Customer 117

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2012

I recently read Brad Feld’s thought provoking piece encouraging founders to sit on the board of another startup company. I found it thought provoking because I’ve always believed startup founders need extreme focus on only their company to succeed. We live in an era where the press espouses the entrepreneurs who have five startups. I’m not one who has subscribed to the “superman founder” narrative.

Startup 294

Startup Carson Summary Press 294

socalTECH

AUGUST 9, 2012

Los Angeles-based Postcard On The Run , the developer of mobile apps which let people send their mobile phone photos to people as real, printed postcards, has raised $1.8M in an ongoing funding round, according to a regulatory filing from the company. The filing indicates the company is in the midst of raising $2.3M in a round. Postcard On The Run is the startup headed by former MySpace exec Josh Brooks.

Mobile 242

Mobile Los Angeles Funding Software 242

Berkonomics

AUGUST 2, 2012

An executive’s job is not easy, nor is there much time in a typical day for outreach of any kind. Especially in a growing company, the CEO is drawn into daily process issues by all of his or her direct reports, often responding to questions and problems, leaving little time for strategic thought. And that behavior results in leaving little time for outreach to the most critical possible component in your chain – your key customers.

Customer 159

Customer Custom Course Email 159

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 6, 2012

This article originally appeared on Forbes HERE. As part of UC Santa Barbara’s Distinguished Lecture Series, serial entrepreneur, CEO Coach and Author Lex Sisney shared a preview of his newly released book, Organizational Physics: The Science of Growing a Business. As Co-Founder and CEO of Commission Junction, Lex grew the company from two employees to become the de facto leader in the world of affiliate marketing, beating Google in the process.

Organization 203

Organization RSS Google Examples 203

SoCal Tech Calendar

AUGUST 7, 2012

Wednesday, August 8, 2012 -- KickstartLA in Hollywood! io/LA Welcomes Function LA and LA Tech Happy Hour to introduce Kickstart LA. We will be gathering at io/LA in Hollywood along with 5 of LA's biggest Kickstarter.com successes ever. The panel will discuss what it takes to not just meet your crowdfunding goals, but to find success on a huge scale without needing banks or investors to get you there.

Entertainment 124

Entertainment Design Hollywood 124

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 16, 2012

It has always surprised me that founders were so quick to fight over how many board members there were and so quick to agree to have as many board observers as people wanted. I have always been vehemently against board observers and wrote some of the reasons in this previous post. But over the past couple of years I’ve slightly modified my views, which I’d like to explain: The Case Against Board Observers.

Summary 289

Summary Venture Capital Help Course 289

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 23, 2012

This is one of the best episodes of This Week in VC for a long time. I had the chance to speak with Andrew Siegel who runs corp dev & strategy for Condé Nast (aka Advance Publications). In case you don’t know, they are one of the biggest media companies in the world. They are best known for their magazine titles such as The New Yorker, Wired, Vanity Fair and Vogue.

Media 285

Media Company Companies Venture Capital 285

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 29, 2012

Nate Redmond is the managing partner of Rustic Canyon Partners – he’s probably one of the youngest managing partners of a major fund you’ll meet. And no wonder, lately he and his partners are on a tear, investing out of their $200+ million VC fund. They recently exited their investment in Gaikai for $380 million while their rival OnLive (who had raised > $200 million) just went through bankruptcy.

Rustic Canyon 279

Rustic Canyon Venture Capital Southern California Userplane 279

socalTECH

AUGUST 6, 2012

Santa Monica-based Demand Media (www.demandmedia.com) has seen its share of ups and downs as one of the highest visibility technology and media companies to come out of Southern California's technology ecosystem in recent years. The company went from a venture backed high tech startup to an IPO as a publicly traded firm, and over its time has battled the perception of being a "content farm", suffered through Google and its Panda update, and now has emerged as a major content partner for Google,

Demand 240

Demand Media eHow Content 240

socalTECH

AUGUST 8, 2012

There's been a lot of press about the name "Silicon Beach"--the name the local community has taken up to describe the high tech renaissance happening in Santa Monica and surrounding cities in Los Angeles. However, until now, there hasn't been a mobile app to go with the name. However, a stealthy, local mobile developer--better known for their Santa Monica focused local business guides--apparently has released the first app to try to provide information about the Silicon Beach startup scene, Sili

Santa Monica 235

Santa Monica High Tech Press Guide 235

socalTECH

AUGUST 6, 2012

At least six, Southern California companies -- Nimble , ParkMe , Quarterly , Beachmint , Chromatik , and Dollar Shave Club -- have been named as one of Entrepreneur Magazine's 100 Brilliant Companies list today, a healthy share of the publication's annual look at the best ideas, hottest industries, and innovators. Entrepreneur's list included the Southern California startups across a number of areas -- tech, apps, travel, geek chic, invention, retail, social media, and music/art.

Dollar Shave Club 231

Dollar Shave Club Southern California Entrepreneur Company 231

socalTECH

AUGUST 30, 2012

Los Angeles-based Fliptu , the social media promotion startup headed by Jeremy Gocke, says it has started to line up a significant number of artists, bands, celebrities, and lifestyle brands for its service today. The service--which is still in beta--said it has added 50 high profile artists, brands, celebrities, and lifestyle brands reaching over 75 million fans and followers.

Social Network 223

Social Network Startup Social Media Media 223

socalTECH

AUGUST 17, 2012

Modern Meadow , a firm whose founders were previously co-founders of San Diego's Organovo , has scored funding to make manufactured, 3D printed meat a reality. The funding came from Breakout Labs and The Thiel Foundation, Breakout Labs said Thursday. Modern Meadow is looking to developing "high value, food grade animal protein"--including meat and hide--using 3D bioprinting technology.

Funding 220

Funding San Diego Ideas Technology 220

socalTECH

AUGUST 15, 2012

A team for the California Institute of Technology has scored the top prize, and $100,000, in a major technology effort--funded by Bill Gates--to reinvent the toilet. Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, announced an effort to help advance the technology of toilets, saying that current flush technology is "irrelevant, impractical and impossible for 40 percent of the global population".

CalTech 217

CalTech Organization Technology Invest 217

socalTECH

AUGUST 27, 2012

It's an intensely competitive market in developing games for the iPhone and other mobile platforms, with thousands and thousands of titles competing for attention from users. How do you figure out how to get past all of that noise, and create a popular title? We had the chance to speak with William Volk , Chief Creative Officer of Playscreen (www.playscreen.com), who talked how his company is looking to crack the code with Crickler 2: Daily Word Puzzle , which is among the most popular puzzle ga

Mobile 216

Mobile Startup Software Review Platform 216

socalTECH

AUGUST 28, 2012

Culver City-based Wittlebee , the children's clothing subscription firm headed by Sean Pervical and backed by Science, Inc., has acquired a clothing company, Cottonseed Clothing Company , the firm announced today. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Cottonseed Clothing Company is a provider of t-shirt and apparel for kids. Wittlebee said the acquisition will allow it to offer Cottonseed Clothing's product exclusively through its service.

Culver City 215

Culver City Company Companies Acquisition 215

socalTECH

AUGUST 8, 2012

Realtime , a startup developing technology to help power real-time web applications, said today that it has raised $100M, launched in the U.S., and opened up a new office in Santa Monica. The firm, which was previously known as Internet Business Technologies, said that it has developed a language, xRTML, that helps convert existing, static HTML into real-time, live web applications.

Santa Monica 214

Santa Monica PHP HTML JavaScript 214

socalTECH

AUGUST 3, 2012

One of the big questions in the content world has been: what's the right formula to make content creation profitable on the Internet? And, how do programs like YouTube's recent push to help fund original content channels on the site helping? We spoke with John Mudge , CEO of iBN Sports (www.ibnsports.com), to learn more about the Lake Forest-based company's success in making content pay on the Internet, and how his company's relationship as one of YouTube's Premium Channels is helping with that

Content 212

Content Google Southern California Orange County 212

socalTECH

AUGUST 31, 2012

A new online service, FollowMaid , is looking to neaten up your Twitter account, by automatically pruning out spammers and find new people to follow by keyword. The new service--created by Pacific Palisades software development firm Etronica--is aimed at both individuals and businesses. According to Etronica, the new service automatically scans Twitter accounts, and is designed to help social media managers better manage their Twitter followers.

Pacific Palisades 207

Pacific Palisades Help Social Media Software Development 207

socalTECH

AUGUST 23, 2012

Chip giant Intel is looking to bolster its mobile talent with a new office in San Diego, and has just begun posting a number of new jobs in the location. Intel--which said it was opening an office in San Diego earlier this month--now lists a significant number of engineering positions focused on HSDPA and LTE. Intel explained earlier this month that it would be setting up the office as part of its Mobile and Communications Group, to bolster its operations in Munich.

San Diego 204

San Diego Mobile 204

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 13, 2012

Successful Olympic athletes share a number of common qualities with entrepreneurs; including boundless energy, uncompromising tenacity and a willingness to innovate. Such innovations include new training routines, inventive diets, and novel gameplay tactics. Entrepreneurs are well served to pay particular attention to two of the most innovative Olympic athletes: Dick Fosbury and David Berkoff, the former of which I discuss in the following 2-minute video.

Startup 198

Startup Competition Activity Class 198

socalTECH

AUGUST 7, 2012

San Diego-based Telcentris , the developer of cloud-based communications and voice services, said this morning that it has named Pertti Johansson as its Executive Vice President, overseeing Global Business Development. Johansson was previously at Powerwave Technologies, Monitise Group, and also was President, Europe/MEA at Qualcomm. Johansson also has served at Motorola.

Develop 197

Develop Development San Diego Social Network 197

socalTECH

AUGUST 23, 2012

Los Angeles-based MYMUSAIC , a new startup, said this morning that it has just closed an angel funding round, and launched an online software service to turn photos and music into movies. The startup did not provide details on its angel round. MYMUSAIC's site allows users to import photos from Facebook or upload them from a persona library, select music, and then automatically creates a video matched to the tempo and beat of that music track.

Services 196

Services Funding Los Angeles Sites 196

socalTECH

AUGUST 16, 2012

Huntington Beach-based AnyMeeting , which develops free web conferencing and online meeting software, reported this morning that it has released a new feature which lets users share any YouTube video into their meeting, and has also hit a milestone of 200,000 registered users. The site--which uses advertising to offset providing web conferencing services at no charge--said the new YouTube video feature lets users copy and paste the URL of any YouTube video into a conference, including allowing f

Tech Coast Angels 193

Tech Coast Angels Pasadena Angels Conference Pasadena 193

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 8, 2012

The following guest post is from Laurie Barkman, Marketing Lead at The Resumator , a SaaS applicant tracking system and hiring platform trusted by many of the fastest-growing companies in the world, including: Pinterest, Tumblr, Hootsuite, Klout, Posterous, Bitly, Atari and Mashable. I am a Board Member and an investor in The Resumator via Rincon Venture Partners.

Entrepreneur 191

Entrepreneur RSS Conference Training 191