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This article originally ran on TechCrunch. Chris Anderson wrote a really influential book some years ago called “ The Long Tail ” that shaped how many people think about emerging Internet markets. If you haven’t read it you should consider adding it to you library. It was especially influential in my mind in thinking about media. At the simplest level you can think about markets in terms of the number of times media is consumed and/or purchased by people plotted against the tot
HIGHEST DEGREE OBTAINED BY AMERICA'S 400 RICHEST PEOPLE Source: Forbes Magazine, Jan 2012. According to a January 2012 Forbes article, nearly 16% of the 400 most affluent Americans do not have a college degree. When one considers the 400 richest people on the entire planet, the percentage of non-college graduates doubles. Shocking? Hardly. PayPal Co-founder Peter Thiel has granted 24 people under 21 years old $100,000 each, with plans to allocate additional scholarships in coming years.
Are you one of the folks who spent this afternoon changing your LinkedIn password, after a password leak at the popular business social networking site? If so, Los Angeles-based MySocialCloud has a feature for you: an automatic, random password generator. MySocialCloud said it has had a feature which allows users to create extremely secure passwords for the passwords stored at the site, to help prevent issues like the one which occurred at LinkedIn.
I've done four Free CTO Consulting Sessions in the past month with startup founders who all had run into variations of the same problem. They didn't feel they had visibility into timelines and costs for development of their software. They couldn't plan their business. Investors and early customers were becoming worried about the ability of the founder to deliver.
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.
We have grown more than a bit weary of most advertising, no matter in what form. We are constantly bombarded by ads in multiple types of media, to the extent that we most often tune them out unless particularly entertaining from the first moment. Dave’s book: Positioning. In my keynotes on trends in technology, I often lead into one of the trends with the proposition that we have left the information age and are solidly within the age of recommendation , pointing to the fact that 69 perce
Monday, June 18, 2012 -- How Investors Really See Your Startup. SCV Startup. Ever wonder how an investor would view your startup? How do they make decisions on what to invest in? How do they decide how much to invest? If you read Tech Crunch it seems like every startup is raising capital.that's far from the truth. Less than 1 0.000000e+00ven get close.
“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.”. Eleanor Roosevelt – US Diplomat & Wife of President Franklin Roosevelt. As an entrepreneur, I helped create companies which achieved two IPOs and two trade sales totaling $385 million. During those same 15-years, I made innumerable mistakes. Entrepreneurship is best learned experientially , both directly and through the experiences of others.
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“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.”. Eleanor Roosevelt – US Diplomat & Wife of President Franklin Roosevelt. As an entrepreneur, I helped create companies which achieved two IPOs and two trade sales totaling $385 million. During those same 15-years, I made innumerable mistakes. Entrepreneurship is best learned experientially , both directly and through the experiences of others.
There is a large menu of startup accelerators in the Los Angeles, but one of more established efforts in the area is LaunchpadLA ([link] The effort actually started as an informal mentoring program, but has grown and expanded to follow the accelerator model. We caught up with Sam Teller , who is directing efforts at the accelerator, to help fill entrepreneurs in on where the program fits in the world of technology and startup acceleration.
Look out, Pinterest -- Pasadena-based LoveIt is looking to unseat the popularity of the photo sharing site, with its new platform, and $6M in funding. LoveIt, headed by former PriceGrabber President Ron LaPierre, said today that it raised a Series A round from Juvo Capital and PG Ventures, to bolster its "visual curation and sharing platform." The firm said its allow individuals and groups to discovery, collect, organize, and share photos with their friends, and has already inked deal with major
Los Angeles-based CapLinked , the online service which helps startups manage their fundraising process, announced this morning that it has linked with half a dozen startup accelerators to help those firms' companies help raise their funding rounds. CapLinked said it has tied with Launchpad LA , Science , 500 Startups , Tech Wildcatters , Amplify , and LaunchBox Digital on its invitation-only program, which allows startups enrolled in those accelerators with access to the firm's premium TEAM acco
Are users willing to check into local businesses with another, mobile check-in product? That's what Los Angeles-based MergeLocal (www.mergelocal.com) is looking to find out, by offering up points which can be converted to real cash, when users check into local businesses. We caught up with co-founder Michael Wong , who told us about how the company is looking to change the model for local check-ins, and also help businesses with getting the word out about their services.
Santa Monica-based BlockBeacon , a new, venture backed startup developing mobile applications to help connect users with local restaurants and bars, has released a new iPhone app aimed at helping locals discover interesting, socially active places nearby. The startup--backed by Resolute.vc--also said it is expanding beyond Santa Monica to include all of California.
This article originally appeared on Forbes HERE. Philo Farnsworth created a technology which underlies one of the 20 th Century’s most ubiquitous products, yet he died a man of modest means and is relatively unknown today. Philo was an inventor, not an innovator. He was primarily motivated by the educational potential of his invention, not the wealth it might generate.
Southern California has seen a big increase in interest in space recently--particularly with the success in the last few weeks of one of the area's highest profile, venture backed startups, SpaceX , delivering a spacecraft to the International Space Station. However, the region's spaceflight roots run deep, with one of the anchoring institution being the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
How do you cut out all of the effort required to discover, find, and book venues for your event, wedding, or conference? That's what Santa Monica-based EventUp (www.eventup.com), one of the first companies to emerge out of Santa Monica-based Science Inc. , is trying to figure out. The firm just announced its seed funding round, from the founders of Groupon as other last week, and has launched into Chicago as its latest market.
For this morning's Insights and Opinions , section, where we feature the voices of Southern California's technology industry, we have an article from Howard Marks , the co-founder of Los Angeles startup accelerator StartEngine and co-founder of gaming giant Activision. Howard asks why there is a discount for Los Angeles tech startups, in terms of valuation.
I am constantly surprised when speaking with entrepreneurs and CEO’s who act puzzled and a bit flustered when I ask, “So what is your mantra? Tell me about your company in ten words or less.” Almost every one begins a long explanation of their business that is nearly impossible to follow, let alone recall a few moments later. And each lost an opportunity to tell their story in a memorable way that has power and boosts their enterprise value in the minds of the listener.
How do you sort through all that social media activity you are driving, and figure out who really cares about what you're posting? Santa Barbara-based Likeabilitee (www.likeabilitee.com) has come up with a new, highly visual service which makes it very easy for you to analyze and understand how people are engaging with your social media posts on Facebook.
Crowdfunder , an online site offering up a platform to help startups raise money for their firms via crowd funding, is dangling $25,000 in a contest open to Los Angeles companies. The firm, headed by Chance Barnett, said that its new crowdsourced startup contest, called CROWDSTART LA , will award $25,000 in funding for the company judged the most popular via votes on the site.
Ken Rutkowski , the well connected Los Angeles founder of networking group METal International and KenRadio , has a new platform for his musings on technology and media, on a new show on KFWB. KFWB NEWS TALK 980 said that it is launching Business Rockstars , hosted by Rutkowski, on Monday, June 18th, weekdays from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. Rutkowski is a fixture around Southern California's technology industry, and had been involved in the Founders Institute's Los Angeles efforts.
A new, grassroots effort by Alex Benzer, Tara Tiger Brown and Sean Bonner, Represent.LA , is looking to map out the Los Angeles startup community, by plotting out the list of startups, incubators, accelerators, and others in the community. Brown says that the site is a way to "promote the LA tech scene and strengthen the community bonds that span across a wide distance and many freeways.
How do you go about getting a company product--and company--funded through crowdsourcing? Is it even possible, and what are the pitfalls involved? To learn a bit more, we sat down with Patrick O'Neill , the founder of olloclip (www.olloclip.com), the developer of a popular iPhone accessory, a lens which fits directly on your iPhone. Olloclip managed to fund and start the company based on crowdfunding, and is one of the most popular projects that has been funded through Kickstarter.
Did you ever wish you had a more visual, easy to use way to identify which of your social media posts on Facebook are getting the most interest from your friends and others? A new service, Likeabilitee , is looking to do just that, by plotting your social media activity against an easy to use, visual interface. The new service--created by by Mark Sylvester, the founder of IntroNetworks--is in private beta.
A report today says that the hugely successful flight and mission by SpaceX may open up the doors for that firm to gain a new customer: the U.S. military. The report , from Reuters, says that the third successful flight by SpaceX means that the firm has met one of the first requrements to fly military satellites into space. SpaceX already has a long line of satellite launches in its books, and the firm recently announced a plan to launch large satellites into space for Intelsat, with a new rocke
On Tuesday, the latest startup out of Science Inc. , the startup studio headed by former MySpace CEO Mike Jones, launched. Uncovet (www.uncovet.com), headed by Heather Lipner , said it would help consumers discover the most sought-after items from up-and-coming designers, vintage finds from select high-profile brands and home products. The company is the sixth from Science, and we thought we'd chat with Heather about the new company.
How do you take the fashion tastes and preferences of consumers, and harness that to create your own, collaborative fashion brand? Allison Beal and Brian Garrett are trying to figure that out with their new, Los Angeles startup, StyleSaint (www.stylesaint.com). Garrett was most recently a venture capitalist at Crosscut Ventures, who helped identify and fund ShoeDazzle--co-founded the company with Beal, a fashion industry insider who was introduced to Garrett by prolific Los Angeles angel investo
Los Angeles-based Leads360 , which develops sales automation software, said this morning that it has named Mark DuVall as its Chief Technology Officer. DuVall joins the company from LiveOffice, which was recently acquired by Symantec. DuVall also has served at such firms as TRW, and has more than 29 years of experience in the industry. Leads360 develops software which is used to help manage sales leads for companies.
San Diego-based AirHop , the developer of software focused on small cell communications networks, has scored a deal with Texas Instruments , to incorporate its products into TI's small cell, System-on-a-Chip (SoC) products. The two companies aid that they are collaborating to integrate AirHope's eSON, advanced self-organizating network (SON) software on TI's KeyStone-based SoCs.
San Diego-based ServiceNow has proven that the market for initial public offerings is still strong this morning, opening up at $23.08 in its first day of trading on the NYSE. The firm priced its IPO above estimates, at $18.00 per share, Thursday evening. ServiceNow is now publicly trading as NOW. The firm had earlier estimated an initial pricing range of $15.00 to $17.00.
Westlake Village-based Row 44 , the provider of inflight Wi-Fi and entertainment services headed by John LaValle, announced today that it has raised $45M more in financing. The round came from Advanced Inflight Alliance AG (AIA) and prior investor PAR Capital Management. Row 44 said the funding will go towards broadening the firm's offerings and expand its infrastructure.
A group of high tech executives from Los Angeles and the Silicon Beach ecosystem spent some time early this week talking with senior Obama Administration officials in Washington, D.C., to talk about job creation, the economy, and innovation. According to the group Business Forward, which connects businesses with government leaders, over fifty Southern California executives, including Miles Beckett of EQAL, Diego Berdakin of Beachmint, Paul Bricault and Oded Noy of Amplify, Jonathan Bischke of En
Aliso Viejo-based CitizenHawk , the venture backed developer of online brand protection services, said today that it has launched a social media monitoring tool. The firm, which is backed by Maveron, said that its new tool allows companies to monitor what people are saying about them and their brands, on popular social networking sites. Cost of the new tool was not announced.
The acquisition of Los Angeles-based Savings.com is apparently worth over $100M, plus an unspecified additional amount based on future performance of the firm, according to new numbers provided to the press by acquiring firm Cox Target Media. The acquisition price is a healthy return for the investors in Loren Bendele's company, which include U.S. Venture Partners and Rustic Canyon Venture Partners, which invested around a total of $12M in Savings.com.
How do you go about meeting investors? One key are is learning how to network. In our Insights and Opinions section this morning, Matt Crowley , a startup attorney and author of Getting in the Game: Guiding Your Startup Through the World of Venture Capital and Angel Investors , talks about networking skills. Networking skills aren't obvious. Networking for business is a real challenge for most of us.
Another collision between the long history of political deals in Los Angeles, and the city's growing high tech industry surfaced this week, after the Los Angeles City Council decided to halt a contract to provide free Wi-Fi in LAX to a Florida firm, in an uncompetitive process. The LA City Council, in a 13-0 vote, decided this week to stop the Board of Airport Commissioners from awarding a contract to Advanced Wireless Group, after protests by Councilman Joe Buscaino and Dennis Zine.
Santa Barbara-based Make It Work , the in-home, information technology support firm headed by Eric David Greenspan, has shut down. The firm told its customers and partners that as of June 25th, the firm has halted operations and is in the process of closing the business. Make It Work was known for its fleet of bright red Mini Coopers. Make It Work was backed by Frontera Capital, Somera Ventures, and the Tech Coast Angels.
It appears that it's exit season in Southern California, as Internet advertising firm Adconion appears to be on the brink of an IPO filing. A report this morning says that Adconion's paperwork is ready, and that the firm is poised to file its S-1 any day now. Adconion, although based in London, has significant operations in Los Angeles, and the firm's founding investors include Los Angeles investors Clark Landry (chairman of GraphEffect), Tyler Moebius (founder and CEO), Fred Krueger and Evan Ri
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