Both Sides of the Table
JULY 29, 2009
The post is part of a series called “Pitching a VC&# – the outlines is here. You’ve been trying to raise VC for months. You’ve obviously talked with several funds to hedge your bets. You finally get your first term sheet. Time to celebrate! But wait. What? They’re giving me 48 hours to sign the term sheet or it expires?
socalTECH
JULY 13, 2009
This morning's interview is with Mark Suster , a venture capitalist at GRP Partners (www.grpvc.com). GRP has just recently closed on a new $200M fund, and Mark has been one of the more active venture capitalists in the Los Angeles area in recent months. Mark has also been quite active mentoring entrepreneurs, We caught up with Mark to hear about what kinds of investments GRP is looking at nowadays, his view on the software-as-a-service market, and how best to approach him with a pitch.
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SoCal Tech Calendar
JULY 30, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009 -- MIT Enterprise Forum San Diego. Networking event. This has become the chapter's signature event, and is widely recognized as the premier networking event for San Diego's technology and biotechnology community. With more than 500 founders and executives of growth companies, business development personnel, investors, service providers, this industry networking social creates an opportunity for technology sector leaders and entrepreneurs across all segments to connect i
socalTECH
JULY 8, 2009
Pasadena-based Evolution Robotics , an Idealab-backed firm developing robotics software, said today that it has won a federal contract from the U.S. Navy Office of Naval Research, which is worth nearly $1M. According to Evolution Robotics, the contract covers research on scaling visual recognition for maritime domain awareness. Visual recognition algorithms are one of the key parts of Evolution's robotics software, and are being deployed commercially with firms such as NTT DoCoMo.
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socalTECH
JULY 14, 2009
Los Angeles-based Riot Games , a venture-backed developer of online video games, announced Tuesday that it is will be releasing its first title--a free, online, multiplayer game called League of Legends. According to the firm, the new game will be supported by virtual currency and ability to customize and modify content within the game. Riot Games, which is venture backed by Benchmark and Firstmark, said the game will be released in September of 2009, running on Windows PCs.
socalTECH
JULY 22, 2009
Irvine-based Blizzard Entertainment , which operates the popular World of Warcraft online, massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORG), has signed on director Sam Raimi for an upcoming movie based on the game. According to Blizzard and Legendary Pictures, Sam Raimi--who directed the Spider-Man trilogy, plus is known for his work on the cult film The Evil Dead--will direct a major motion picture based on Warcraft.
Southern California Tech Central brings together the best content for technical professionals in Southern California from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
socalTECH
JULY 27, 2009
Los Angeles-based Wi-Fi network operator Boingo Wireless has extended its deal with Verizon for another four years, the firm said today. Financial details of the contract extension were not disclosed. The two have been partnered for the last six years, with Boingo providing access to its network of Wi-Fi hot spots to Verizon's customers. The firm has a network of more than 120,000 individual hotspots in airports, public areas, and elseswhere.
socalTECH
JULY 14, 2009
Compton-based Belkin International , a maker of electronics accessories, disclosed this morning that it has hired on a Chief Information Officer, Deanna Johnston. Belkin snagged Johnson from Ingram Micro, where she was Vice President of Information Technology. Belkin said that Johnston will lead the globalization of the firm's IT infrastructure and applications portfolio.
socalTECH
JULY 7, 2009
Los Angeles-based SodaHead.com , an online site focused on a combination of news discussion and questions and answers, announced today that the firm has connected the site to Facebook, Twitter, and Yahoo. According to the site, it has added the ability for users to automatically distribute questions and news articles to their online friends and followers, by providing login information to their social ntweorking accounts.
socalTECH
JULY 6, 2009
Santa Monica-based Miles Electrical Vehicles --now known as Coda Automotive--has raised around $11M in additional funding in an ongoing, $40M funding round, according to a regulatory filing from the firm today. In the filing, the firm said it has now sold $24M in equity out of a $40.3M raise, up from $13.5M the firm had raised as of March. Source of the new funding has not been released.
socalTECH
JULY 2, 2009
Santa Monica-based internet advertising firm the Rubicon Project said Thursday that the firm has officially opened up its London offices, and hired on a Director to handle UK publishers. Rubicon--which appointed a International VP just last month and said it would be setting up shop in London--said that it has recruited Justin Thomas as Director of UK Publisher Development for the new office.
socalTECH
JULY 27, 2009
Today's interview is with William Chow , founder of Los Angeles-based Mobophiles (www.mobophiles.com), Mobophiles has developed technology which allows any software-as-a-service application or web site, including enterprise applications like Microsoft SharePoint and Salesforce.com, to work even when a user is not able to connect to the Internet, if a service is down, connections are intermittent, or slow--something potentially strategic to SaaS firms looking to displace desktop applications.
socalTECH
JULY 24, 2009
Irvine-based Neudesic , a systems integrator focused on Microsoft products, announced this week that it has acquired the hosting operations of Avitiva, a Seattle provider of Microsoft SharePoint hosting. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The firm said the acquisition will offer its clients customizable and managed SharePoint hosting, and that it would hire Avitiva's Chief Software Architect and team along with the buy.
socalTECH
JULY 23, 2009
It's somewhat unusual in this economy to find companies who are seeing strong growth, so we were intrigued recently in running into BlackLine Systems (www.blackline.com), a firm which develops software for helping in the financial reporting process. We spoke with Therese Tucker , CEO and founder of the Calabasas firm. Therese is the former CTO at SunGard Treasury Systems, and has a wealth of experience in the financial software market.
socalTECH
JULY 31, 2009
West Hollywood-based Yammer , the corporate microblogging site inspired by Twitter, is moving from the Los Angeles area to Silicon Valley, according to founder David Sacks. According to Sacks, the entire firm--including its engineering team and executive staff--is moving to the Bay Area, to be closer to the startup scene in Silicon Valley. Sacks said that Geni, which spun out Yammer, remains in West Hollywood.
socalTECH
JULY 29, 2009
Los Angeles-based startup Knowledge Genie is launching a new, online site today which allows people to publish, share, and sell their knowledge online. The startup, headed by authors and husband-and-wife team Milo and Thuy Sindell, allows book authors and other experts to follow some basic steps to take their expertise and convert it into an online, organized knowledge base--which the firm calls a "genie.
socalTECH
JULY 29, 2009
In a major deal, search portal provider Yahoo and software giant Microsoft said that the two companies are in a deal where Yahoo will replace its own search engine technology with that of Microsoft--with potentially huge repercussions to Yahoo's Southern California search engine marketing operations. Yahoo and Microsoft said that Yahoo will use the technology behind Microsoft's Bing search engine to power all of the web search aspects of its web site, with Yahoo taking over premium search advert
socalTECH
JULY 28, 2009
Pasadena-based Central Desktop , which operates an online team project management service, said today that it has added John Greathouse to the firm's board of directors. Greathouse is a venture partner at Rincon Venture Partners, a faculty member at UC Santa Barbara, and has also previously served as an executive at Citrix Online, Callwave, and Computer Motion.
socalTECH
JULY 23, 2009
Los Angeles-based Mobile Messenger , a firm which provides technology for managing mobile media distribution and billing said this week that it has named Michael Iaccarino as CEO of the firm. Current CEO and founder, Steve Taylor, becomes EVP Strategy. Iaccarino was most recently at Epison, and also served at KPMG and Price Waterhouse. Mobile Messenger provides mobile entertainment and marketing services to its clients.
socalTECH
JULY 22, 2009
Los Angeles-based people search engine MyLife.com has snagged technologist Ian Siegel as the firm's new Chief Product Officer, the firm said today. Siegel was most recently at Pictage, and also served as VP of Web Development for Rent.com, in addition to serving earlier as VP of Web Development at Stamps.com. Sigel reports to MyLife founder Jeffrey Tinsley. according to MyLife, Siegel will be responsible for extending the consumer experience on the site.
socalTECH
JULY 21, 2009
San Diego-based Advanced Telemetry , a developer of energy monitoring systems, said today that it has closed a Series B investment round for the company. Size of the round was not disclosed. The firm said the round was led by Quercus Trust, and also included 21Ventures. Advanced Telemetry said the funding will go to increase production and expand sales channels for the firm's products, which are used by retailers to monitor their energy usage.
socalTECH
JULY 21, 2009
La Jolla-based Ortiva wireless , a developer of mobile video products, announced today that it has appointed Mark Eger as the firm's Vice President, Sales, Americas. Eger was most recently at PacketVideo, and has also served at Motricity, Littlefeet, Ericsson, and Qualcomm. Eger will report to SVP of Worldwide Sales, James Edson, who the firm added in June.
socalTECH
JULY 20, 2009
Santa Monica-based Demand Media , the well funded Internet content startup headed by Richard Rosenblatt, the former chairman of MySpace, has acquired the domain name Demand.com. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Demand Media acquired the domain name from Phoenix-based inter123, a firm owned by Jeffrey Peterson, former founder of Quepasa.com.
socalTECH
JULY 15, 2009
Layoffs at personal finance software maker Intuit are set to hit a number of the firm's Southern California locations. Mountain View-based Intuit, which said in June that it would be laying off about 4 percent of its staff, disclosed through California WARN notices recently that it is laying off employees in Calabasas, Woodland Hills, San Diego, and Westlake Village as part of an overall, company-wide reduction.
socalTECH
JULY 7, 2009
Los Angeles-based People Media , which operates an online network of vertically focused dating sites, has been acquired by IAC's Match.com. According to Match.com, it will pay $80M in cash for People Media, which operates 27 dating sites, including BlackPeopleMeet.com, SingleParentMeet.com, SeniorPeopleMeet.com, BBPeopleMeet.com and LDSPlanet.com. People Media was owned by American Capital Ltd.
socalTECH
JULY 31, 2009
San Diego-based Entropic Communications , a developer of multimedia-over-coax semiconductors, reported yetserday that it has linked up with systems-on-a-chip provider Sigma Designs. The two said they will develop high definition, MoCA compliant cable TV and IPTV set-top box reference designs. Both firms' develop components that are used in those set top boxes.
socalTECH
JULY 31, 2009
Los Angeles-based Stamps.com reported its results Thursday, saying that the firm had net income of $1.0M on revenues of nearly $20.2M in Q2, essentially flat year to year compared with $1.3M in income on $21.4M in revenues for the similar quarter last year. The company saw a steep drop in its revenues from its personalized photo product, PhotoStamps, which was down 31% to $2.0M in sales.
socalTECH
JULY 31, 2009
San Diego-based Qualcomm reports today that it is extending the deadline for the firm's wireless business plan competition, its Qualcomm Ventures QPrize Business Plan Competition, to August 21st. The firm said it is extending the deadline for the prize to allow additional entrepreneurs to enter the prize, which will provide $550,000 in seed funding to entrepreneurs developing wireless technology in North America, Europe, China, and India.
socalTECH
JULY 30, 2009
Canoga Hills-based Topanga Technologies , a stealth-mode developer of energy efficient lighting for the industrial, commercial, and general lighting market, has raised $6M, according to a regulatory filing from the firm. No details on the funding have been released by the company. Topanga has previously raised funding from Khosla Ventures. Tags: cleantech lighting energy capital venture technologies topanga.
socalTECH
JULY 30, 2009
Encinitas-based Verve Wireless , which develops tools for mobile publishing, said Thursday that it has named Bill Ganon as its Chief Revenue Officer. Ganon joins the firm from BG Associates; he has also served at GoldSpot Media, QUALCOMM--where he was involved with both MediaFLO and Eudora--and Newsweek, among other companies. Verve's software tools are used by newspaper publishers and other local publishers to create their own mobile optimized site for cell phones.
socalTECH
JULY 30, 2009
Los Angeles-based EQAL , said this morning at Twiistup that the firm is launching a new, social publishing tool it is calling Umbrella, focused on independent producers, celebrity talent, and online personalities. According to EQAL, its new platform is focused on helping those producers and talent to create their own web sites, with features such as blogs, discussions, forums, and user profiles, as well as links to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
socalTECH
JULY 30, 2009
Irvine-based Cortex Pharmaceuticals , which is developing treatments for sleep apnea, reported this morning that it has received $2.0M in a Series F, convertible preferred stock financing from an unnamed, single institutional investor. The firm said the private placement would be used for working capital and general corporate purposes. Rodman & Renshaw LLC was the placement agent for the transaction.
socalTECH
JULY 30, 2009
Hawthorne-based SpaceX reported late Wednesday that the firm has completed qualification testng for the firm's first stage tank and interstage on its next generation, Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The firm said the testing was conducted at the firm's Texas testing facility. SpaceX said that the company's own testing means that the two components of its Falcon 9 meet NASA's human rating safety requirements, part of its milestones to its first Falcon 9 flight sometime this year.
socalTECH
JULY 30, 2009
A analysis released by Ernst & Young this week finds that clean technology investments are up significantly this quarter, rising 73% to $572M from last quarter. According to the analysis, based on data from Dow Jones VentureSource, clean technology investments were up significantly from Q1, but still down 59% in terms of capital from Q2 of 2008, which was the second-highest quarter for cleantech investments on record.
socalTECH
JULY 29, 2009
San Diego-based PowerGenix , which develops rechargeable batteries based on Nickel-Zinc (NiZn) technology, announced today that its products are now available under its own brand at online retailers Amazon.com, GreenBatteris.com, and DepotEco. PowerGenix, which is backed by $60M in funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, Advent International, Angeleno Group, Braemar Energy Ventures, Granite Ventures, OnPoint Technologies and Technology Partners, said the branded products will be available in fou
socalTECH
JULY 29, 2009
Agoura Hills-based THQ has swung back into the black, saying Tuesday evening that it had net income of $6.4M on sales of $243.5M for its fiscal first quarter, on the strength of the firm's new UFC 2009 Undisputed title. The positive results compared with a loss of $27.2M and sales of $137.6M last year for the same quarter. The quarter, which ended June 30th, reversed a string of big losses and declines for the company over the last year, which resulted in major layoffs and studio closures at the
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