Both Sides of the Table
JANUARY 31, 2011
This post originally appeared on TechCrunch. One of the most common questions that entrepreneurs who meet me for the first time like to ask is, “Do you miss being an entrepreneur? Aren’t you ever tempted to go back and do it again?”. The obvious answer is yes. When it’s in your blood, it’s in your blood. I guess it’s kind of like crack (not that I know from experience).
SoCal CTO
JANUARY 5, 2011
Some really great stuff in 2010 that aims to help startups around product, technology, business models, etc. You can find some of the monthly ones in the following: Top 57 Online Startups Meets Technology Meets Product Posts for November 2010 Top 30 Startup Technology and Product Posts for September 2010 Top 40 Startup Posts for August 2010 Top 30 Startup Posts for July 2010 Top 30 Startup Posts in June 2010 Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts
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socalTECH
JANUARY 7, 2011
Huntington Beach-based Freebinar , a provider of free, web conferencing services, is looking to fill the new hole left by free web conferencing service Dimdim , with its own ad-supported service. Freebinar told socalTECH today that it is looking to help users of Dimdim, which was just acquired by Salesforce.com and stopped allowing new user signups this week.
InfoChachkie
JANUARY 6, 2011
Company : FindTheBest. Messenger : Kevin O’Connor , Co-Founder of FindTheBest, former Co-Founder and CEO DoubleClick (sold to Google, $3.1B, seed investor ISS (sold to IBM, $1.3B), co-founder ICC (sold to DCA $25mm). Pull Quote: “If you are smart, competitive, hard working and passionate about what you do you will have the best experience of your life.
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.
Berkonomics
JANUARY 9, 2011
How many of us have “hired” independent contractors over the years, a bit worried over the gray area between employee and contractor as defined by the IRS? I’ve experienced the results of a wrong decision, and the IRS and state agencies are not forgiving in their pursuit of penalties, interest and most damaging, assessing a company with both the employer and employee taxes when reclassifying the person as an employee.
SoCal Tech Calendar
JANUARY 3, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011 -- State of the Capital Markets. ACG 101. The economic upheaval of the past several years had made it difficult for companies of all sizes to find the capital needed for growth and shareholder liquidity. As the economy is moving towards recovery and the capital markets showing even stronger signs of improvement, what can we expect from the capital markets in 2011?
Southern California Tech Central brings together the best content for technical professionals in Southern California from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
socalTECH
JANUARY 27, 2011
Santa Monica-based BetterWorks , a stealth mode startup headed by well known angel investor Paige Craig, has raised around $1.5M in a funding round. The funding actually occurred in late December, over the holidays. BetterWorks said that it is focused on allowing business owners to "create rewarding work environments quickly, easily and affordably".
InfoChachkie
JANUARY 24, 2011
Messenger : Kevin O’Connor , Co-Founder of FindTheBest , former Co-Founder and CEO DoubleClick (sold to Google, $3.1B, seed investor ISS (sold to IBM, $1.3B), Co-Founder ICC (sold to DCA $25mm). Value Prop Twitter Style : FindTheBest is: “An objective, socially curated comparison engine that allows you to find a topic, compare your options and decide what’s best for you.”.
Startup Professionals Musings
JANUARY 1, 2011
Welcome to the New Year 2011! You’ve probably already made your resolutions, but if not, I suggest a renewed commitment to finding happiness and satisfaction in your work. 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 recent survey in the UK , and an older one in the US.
Tech Zulu Event
JANUARY 28, 2011
The question, why can’t you replicate this for e-commerce sites? This is the fundamental problem Curebit.com is trying to solve. Create conversations about products you love and get rewarded. This will increase traffic and revenue for the underlying e-commerce site. Visit TechZulu for full story.
Both Sides of the Table
JANUARY 23, 2011
One of the most frequent questions entrepreneurs ask about when they raise a little bit of money or are getting close to launching their first product is whether they should hire a PR firm. There is obviously no black-or-white answer, but I’ve tried everything from working a large international agency, to hiring in-house people to doing it myself.
SoCal Delicious
JANUARY 25, 2011
socalcto
socalTECH
JANUARY 3, 2011
Los Angeles-based Invested.in , the startup developing software for crowd-funding projects, said last week that it has rolled out a new API and affiliate program. Invested.in provides both an online site for finding funding for projects and ideas, as well as a related white label software platform to create your own crowd-funding site. The company is headed by Alon Goren.
InfoChachkie
JANUARY 31, 2011
Messenger : Ian Siegel , Co-Founder |CEO ZipRecruiter , Former Executive Product and Technology roles at: MyLife, CitySearch, Stamps.com, Rent.com and Pictage. Value Prop Twitter Style : ZipRecruiter enables employers to post to multiple free job boards with one submission – the fastest way to get a job online across the web. If you haven’t already subscribed yet, subscribe now for. free weekly Infochachkie articles!
Startup Professionals Musings
JANUARY 21, 2011
Entrepreneurs are a notoriously stubborn (some say confident) group of people, so I see many of them making the same mistakes that predecessors have made. Thus I’m convinced that it’s useful for all of you to step back from time to time, and listen to some sage advice from people who have been there and enjoyed success. Recently, as I was perusing a new book by Robert Jordan, titled “ How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights ” I saw some wisdom and inspiration that made sense.
Tech Zulu Event
JANUARY 25, 2011
Bryan Elliot is at is again and bringing one of the marketing and new media industry leaders Seth Godin back to Orange County. Last year Bryan hosted an amazing event with Seth Godin where he gave a lecture about “How to be Indispensable” based on his book, “Linchpin: Are You Indispensable.” This time around Seth Godin will be giving a talk based around the best-of from his best selling books.
Both Sides of the Table
JANUARY 11, 2011
If you want a very quick primer on all the stuff nobody ever tells you about raising venture capital check out this video where Mark Jeffrey & I break it down on This Week in VC. A summary of what we discussed is below: Not 100% in order of the video, but close. All of this is covered in more detail on the TWiVC video above (and much of it is covered in text on this blog on the “ Raising VC &# tab). 1.
Both Sides of the Table
JANUARY 18, 2011
What a sweet feeling it was last week to see the launch of the photo sharing site Pose , whose application targets shoppers of apparel. If you don’t know it and own an iPhone (soon Android) please check it out. What I’d like to do is tell you the story of how the investment came to be, what my thesis is / was and share some thoughts on macro trends.
Both Sides of the Table
JANUARY 6, 2011
It’s clear that if you use Twitter wisely it can have an impact on how you physically experience your world. You have to put effort into building meaningful connections and contributing back but if you do the rewards can be handsome. Here’s my story. Every year I spend the December holidays in Annapolis with my in-laws. My second son Andy’s birthday is December 28th so we spend his birthday Back East every year.
Both Sides of the Table
JANUARY 13, 2011
I recently filmed a show for This Week in Venture Capital in which I talked about how to prepare for a VC meeting: whom you’ll meet, who should attend from your side, what materials you should bring and how you should run the meeting. I wrote the summary notes in this blog post. That notes only told part of the story. Bijan Sabet – investor & board member in some small companies you might have heard of like Twitter, Tumblr, Boxee & OMGPOP – took issue with the whole n
Both Sides of the Table
JANUARY 20, 2011
I was having a chat with an entrepreneur who I really like and who I try to mentor from time-to-time. He has an interesting business and one that has a viable shot at being an innovative & profitable business. One problem. He’s struggling to raise money. This is extra frustrating in an era in which all you read about is how frothy the VC / funding market is these days.
socalTECH
JANUARY 14, 2011
For our Friday interview, we thought we'd catch up with Los Angeles-based MarketShare , the Elevation Partners-backed software provider, to hear where the firm is nowadays. MarketShare recently launched a rebranding effort for the company, and is in the midst of a major hiring and expansion phase. We spoke with Wes Nichols , the firm's co-founder and CEO.
socalTECH
JANUARY 18, 2011
This morning, Pasadena-based Perfect Market (www.perfectmarket.com) announced a new, $9M round of funding for the firm's technology, which is used to help publishers monetize their content. We caught up with Julie Schoenfeld , the firm's CEO, to hear about how the firm's offerings have evolved, an interesting comparison of the firm's software to what Demand Media is doing, and what this new funding will go towards.
socalTECH
JANUARY 21, 2011
A University of Southern California professor with a specialty in robotics is one of eleven individuals being honored by President Obama next week, as part of the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring. According to the White House, Obama will be awarding Maja J. Mataric , who is a Professor of Professor of Computer Science, Neuroscience, and Pediatrics at the University of Southern California, at a ceremony at the White House next week.
socalTECH
JANUARY 24, 2011
For this morning's company profile, we thought we'd connect with ShareSquare (www.getsharesquare.com), a newly funded Los Angeles startup focused on QR barcodes -- 3D barcodes -- focused on musicians and entertainers. ShareSquare recently received a $150,000 seed round of funding form angel investors Paige Craig, John Frankel of ff Assett Management, and Hacker Angels' Jeff Miller and Roy Rodenstein, among others.
socalTECH
JANUARY 5, 2011
Aliso Viejo-based e-commerce retailer Buy.com is expanding into wine sales, the firm said today, via a partnership with Wine.com. According to Buy.com, the new online wine shop will include hundreds of wines from all regions and varietals, offering nearly 1,500 listings in the new wine store. Details on the partnership between Buy.com and Wine.com were not announced.
socalTECH
JANUARY 12, 2011
It's been a very busy for coupon and deal sites over the past few months, with a giant, $950M round of funding for Groupon, and the acquisition of at least three locally headquartered coupon and deal sites--LogicBuy.com, NextCoupons.com, and DealPerk--in the last month. For some perspective on the industry, as well as to learn more about the company, we spoke with Loren Bendele , CEO of Los Angeles-based Savings.com (www.savings.com).
socalTECH
JANUARY 3, 2011
To start off the year, we are publishing our first interview for the season with Jamie Siminoff , the CEO of Los Angeles-based Unsubscribe.com , an online service which helps you unsubscribe from unwanted newsletters and email lists. Jamie tells us the interesting story behind how the company started plus how the company managed to quickly land investor interest.
socalTECH
JANUARY 26, 2011
In last night's State of the Union Address , President Obama plugged an effort at Pasadena's California Institute of Technology to develop a way to convert solar energy, carbon dioxide, and water into fuel. The reference, which Obama described as "a way to turn sunlight and water into fuel for our cars," appears to be a reference to research just announced this month from Dr.
socalTECH
JANUARY 19, 2011
New jobs data released today by nonpartisan research foundation Next 10 , finds that green job growth surged in California over the lsat few years, despite the economic crisis. According to data released by the group, job employment in the green sector grew three times faster than total employment in California, accounting for 174,000 jobs. The report, based on data from January 2008 to 2009, found the Los Angeles Area had 23 percent of green employment in the state, and 22 percent of green busi
socalTECH
JANUARY 20, 2011
Encino-based uSamp , the online surveying, sample, and panel firm headed by Gregg Lavin and Matt Dusig, has scored a major win with Kiplinger, the firm revealed this morning. uSamp said the Kiplinger organization has chosen the firm to power a custom, online market research panel under the Kiplinger brand. Financial details of the win were not disclosed.
socalTECH
JANUARY 10, 2011
Los Angeles angel investor Paige Craig is part of a new round of funding for Internet web influence tracker Klout. Klout said today that it had raised $8.5M in a funding round, led by Kleiner Perkins' sFund, which also included Greycroft Partners, as well as prior investors Paige Craig, ff Asset Management, Tom McInerney, Bobby Yazdani and Howard Lindzon.
socalTECH
JANUARY 28, 2011
Los Angeles-based Oversee.net , the Internet marketing and domain firm headed by Jeff Kupietzky, announced this morning that it has acquired ShopWiki , which operates a network of shopping comparison websites. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. ShopWiki was backed by Generation Partners, and was based in New York. According to Oversee.net, ShopWiki will become a wholly owned subsidiary of the firm, and operate as a part of its Vertical Markets division.
socalTECH
JANUARY 11, 2011
Sherman Oaks-based Advertise.com , the search marketing provider headed by Daniel Yomtobian, said Tuesday that it has expanded into email marketing. The firm said it has launched a new Email Content Network offering, which will connect advertisers ads with email updates to consumers. Advertise.com said that advertisers can choose a category or vertical market, and use its systems to tap into a network of opt-in email publishers, automatically matching ads with users.
socalTECH
JANUARY 18, 2011
For today's Insights and Opinions article, we have an article from Ryan Born , CEO of AudioMicro , on his experience fundraising in Los Angeles. In an article that is sure to spur many comments and a few flames, Ryan gives his opinion on the 3 Things to Avoid When Fundraising in LA. It’s been over 3 years since I moved to LA and started what I’ll call the Los Angeles Venture Capital “fundraising scene&#.
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