This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
It seems Los Angeles is becoming an enterprise software hotspot. LA saw its first big enterprise exit in recent memory with the recent acquisition of Signal Sciences for $775 million, and less than a month later a hometown startup, Britive has raised $5.4 million from LA’s own venture fund, Upfront Ventures and a clutch of security experts. LA gets a big SaaS exit as Fastly nabs the Culver City-based Signal Sciences for $775M.
In a world of Tinder, Match, and dozens of other online dating applications, is there room for another approach to dating? Constance Curtis , the Founder and CEO of The List (www.getthelistapp.com), thinks so, and tells us about her startup's efforts to bring the world of matchmaking to the modern worldand how her own frustration with online dating let to her startup.
Willingness to take a risk is the hallmark of a serious entrepreneur. That’s why one of the first questions that potential investors ask is “How much of your own money, and friends and family, have you put into the new business?” If you won’t risk yours, you won’t get investors to risk theirs. A few years ago I was impressed with the classic book “ When Turtles Fly ” by Nikki Stone, an Olympic champion, which explains this well.
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.
My immediate family members were entrepreneurs from as far back as I can trace. Dad was a jeweler, then a furniture store owner. Mom wrote books and articles from her college days until she could no longer see the keyboard. One grandfather owned and maintained his apartment houses. The other was a grocer, then a jeweler. My entrepreneurial start.
If Lumen Bioscience achieves its goals, patients will be able to take its drugs the same way some people supplement breakfast: a spoonful heaped onto a bowl of cereal or mixed into juice. The startup harnesses spirulina, protein-rich cyanobacteria touted by many health enthusiasts as a “superfood.” Lumen CEO Brian Finrow (pictured above, right) acknowledges spirulina’s health benefits, but that’s not why his company embraces it.
Reducing consumption by expanding the notion of the rental economy and giving people access to tools and equipment has been something of a startup holy grail for some time. It’s a model that’s worked famously well for fashion and accessories ( just ask investors in Rent the Runway ), but has had not had the same resonance for white label goods.
Sign up to get articles personalized to your interests!
Southern California Tech Central brings together the best content for technical professionals in Southern California from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Reducing consumption by expanding the notion of the rental economy and giving people access to tools and equipment has been something of a startup holy grail for some time. It’s a model that’s worked famously well for fashion and accessories ( just ask investors in Rent the Runway ), but has had not had the same resonance for white label goods.
Los Angeles-based software company QualityWorks said this week that it is offering up a free, bootcamp for people in the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) community, to learn about software testing. According to QualityWorks, it is running a free, six-week Agile Testing Bootcamp aimed at helping individuals with non-technical backgrounds gain high-paying, high-demand technical jobs in software test.
Investors invest in people, not ideas. Customers buy from people, not companies. Employees rally for a great leader, not a brand. As an entrepreneur, you need relationships to succeed. That means relationships with team members, investors, customers, and vendors. One of the best ways to build a good relationship with anyone is to make them feel important.
So, you’ve successfully sold your business and have received enough money from the sale to become financially independent, no longer having to work for a living. That is a comfortable place to be, and it is one experienced by more and more people, especially in technology-based businesses. And what’s next? Most successful sales of businesses, again especially in the technology arena, enrich younger entrepreneurs and stock-option holders who are under fifty years of age.
Dyne Therapeutics, a company developing genetic medicines for rare muscular disorders, has raised $233 million in an IPO that topped the preclinical-stage biotech’s projections. Late Wednesday, Dyne priced its offering of about 12.3 million shares at $19 each. The Waltham, MA-based biotech had previously planned to sell 10.3 million shares in the range of $16 to $18 per share.
In this case, money, it really is the shoes. GOAT , the proprietor of online and physical retail locations for reselling the collectible kicks and kits that are the currency of street cred and cultural cool among the youths, is now worth a whopping $1.75 billion thanks to $100 million in new financing. It’s a big number, and a big day, for the Los Angeles-based startup.
Facing a Sept. 20 deadline from the White House to find a buyer for its U.S. operations, TikTok parent company ByteDance Ltd. has accepted a bid from Oracle Corp.
Los Angeles-based online greeting card provider JibJab --which got its start originally via a viral political video--is dipping back into politics, saying that it has launched a new effort to bring out voters. According to JibJab, it has released a new video encouraging people to vote, and has partnered with Rock the Vote to encourage youth to vote.
Traditional marketing says you have to “push” your message out to customers, over and over again, to get you remembered. A more effective approach in today’s Internet and interactive culture is to use “pull” technology to bring customers and clients to your story. You pull people in by providing new content with real value on your website at least every few days.
Now you have worked for months to get this deal to the closing, anticipating the wire transfers to the shareholders that will come any minute. This could change your lifestyle and give you that much needed pause in your life you have been looking forward to. How it happens today. All the documents were signed in a rolling series of emailed scanned or DocuSign signature pages during the past week or more, with each party signing their own set, never having to be in the same room to sign the sin
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has no cure and few available treatments but the past decade has revealed new knowledge about the pathology of the disease. Libra Therapeutics is turning that research into potential therapies, and it now has $29 million to advance its work. While the exact causes of many neurological disorders are unknown, Libra President and CEO Isaac Veinbergs says one common thread is toxic proteins.
After operating in stealth mode for about two years, First Resonance , a company founded by former SpaceX engineers, is finally showing the world their software toolkit designed to let manufacturers make things using the processes employed by their former boss. It’s a suite of software products that can allow for more flexible manufacturing processes and one that can handle the pressures of remote monitoring for companies making hardware in the age of social distancing brought on by the CO
Aliso Viejo-based artificial intelligence software developer BrainChip says it is opening up a new software development center in Hyderabad, India, which it says will provide software and firmware development for its systems-on-a-chip technology. According to BrainChip, the new software development center initially will be staffed by five software engineers and local management.
One of the reasons that now is the time to be an entrepreneur is the explosion of startup assistance organizations, usually called incubators or accelerators. According to the International Business Innovation Association ( InBIA ), there are over 2,200 of these locations worldwide, and new online versions springing up all over the place, like Founders Space in Silicon Valley.
Many CEOs have asked me if I felt an investment banker adds value if the buyer has already been identified. How investment bankers behave. Investment bankers sometimes slow the process by requiring a cloud-based “data room” and “deal book” to be prepared containing considerable information about a company to help a buyer. Deal books are expensive to create.
Ovid Therapeutics and Takeda Pharmaceutical joined forces three years ago to develop a small molecule into a potential epilepsy drug. That research is starting to pay off as the companies now look ahead to pivotal studies testing that compound in several inherited forms of the disorder. On Wednesday, New York-based Ovid (NASDAQ: OVID ) reported Phase 2 results showing that the molecule, soticlestat, reduced the frequency of epileptic seizures in CDKL5 deficiency disorder (CDD) and chromosome 15q
Darkstore, the tech-driven fulfillment solution to enable e-commerce companies to offer same-day delivery, has just released a consumer-facing app called FastAF. Right now, the app is only available in Los Angeles. FastAF is built on top of Darkstore, which already has relationships with a number of brands that store their products in Darkstores for same-day delivery.
Santa Monica-based Cornerstone OnDemand , which develops employee development software, says that a survey it has run has found that 50 percent of employees it surveyed desire time off to study their ballot before they vote. Cornerstone OnDemand said it ran a survey with YouGove, which provides public opinion and data, finding 80% of adults typically spend less than two hours to learn about their ballot--and could use additional time off to study their upcoming ballots.
For decades, efforts to satisfy customers have been built around demographics – capitalizing on race, ethnicity, gender, income, and other attributes. Today, in this age of pervasive social media and two-way communication, the focus needs to get beyond demographics into personalities. Customer personalities define customer experience, and sets what they love, and what they hate.
Grail is set to be acquired for $8 billion by Illumina, the gene sequencing giant that formed the cancer diagnostics developer and spun it out as a separate company four years ago. The announcement comes less than two weeks after Menlo Park, CA-based Grail revealed its plans for an IPO to support commercialization of its first test next year. The deal announced Monday is a cash and stock transaction.
Leonardo DiCaprio is making a significant commitment to the Los Angeles-based investment firm, Struck Capital , as part of the actor’s commitment to building LA into a tech development powerhouse. It’s part of what Struck Capital founder Adam Struck called a vision of making Los Angeles “a leading hub for innovation to save the world.” Struck Capital, which is currently investing out of a $55 million second fund, would not disclose the size of DiCaprio’s stake, but
Facing a Sept. 20 deadline from the White House to find a buyer for its U.S. operations, TikTok parent company ByteDance Ltd. has accepted a bid from Oracle Corp.
Our interview today is with Andrew Schydlowsky , the CEO and founder of Santa Barbara-based TrackStreet (www.trackstreet.com), a startup which is backed by Okapi Capital, The Cove Fund, Early Light Ventures, SaaS Venture Capital, and Stage Venture Partners. Andrew spoke to us about TrackStreet's brand protection software and artificial intelligence efforts.
A continuing question I hear from young entrepreneurs is whether a university degree is important to startup success, or just a distraction in achieving their purpose in the world. They are quick to point out that many of today’s top entrepreneurs, including Evan Williams (Twitter), Bill Gates (Microsoft), and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), dropped out of school to get on with their dreams.
Tuesday, September 15, 2020 -- We believe that diverse ideas from all walks of life can help expand the realm of possibility for the entire world. The Urban Tech Connect // Forward Conference is helping bridge the gap of diverse ideation in technology. You can expect: Fine tune your fundraising and marketing strategies Target angels and VCs to raise money Overcome your fears and insecurities as a founder of color Develop tactics for product growth Tap into Job Opportunities in Tech Learn more ab
The Xcelerate Keynote Series has added Moderna CMO Tal Zaks to the expert lineup of speakers set to present next Monday, Sept. 21. As you likely know, Moderna is one of the front-runners in the COVID-19 vaccine race, and we look forward to adding his insight to a packed agenda focused on innovative solutions during this time of uncertainty. The half-day online event also includes senior leaders from Amgen, BIO, Eli Lilly, Takeda, Alnylam, and UCB, featuring discussions on regulatory guidance, pi
Verishop , the Los Angeles online retailer founded by former Snap executive Imran Khan, launched a little over a year ago to change the way people shop online. Now the company is launching a new initiative called “Verified Shops” which looks to change the way that up-and-coming retail brands can sell their wares. . As direct-to-consumer and upstart brands look for new ways to sell, they’re increasingly turning to online partners to grow their businesses.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 5,000+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content