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I came off of a few tough weeks at work. In part that’s why you’ve heard less from me recently. I had some good days and bad days like most of you. I had a very big negative surprise which I’ve mostly worked through but will take time. And I’ve had some good moments, too, for sure. But through all of this I’m always reminded that in tough times some people pull up their socks and help get the job done while others turn to being critics: Even some who don’t act
We think of media advertising as either paid or free – placed by paying a fee or by a PR firm or by you at no placement cost, especially when you provide editorial content beneficial to the publisher. But this new era of Internet advertising has given rise to two more forms you should know and use in addition to the two traditional types above. Owned media comes from the databases you own, such as your company’s web site, email.
As is a tradition for socaltech, we feature reflections on the past year from those in the community all during the last week of the year. For today's contribution, we have the thoughts of Arteen Arabshahi , a venture capitalist at Karlin Ventures (www.karlinvc.com). What was the biggest news for you or your firm this year? Arteen Arabshahi: While Karlin Ventures has had an excellent first few years as a firm seeing over 6 exits and making 40+ investments within 3 years, what was most exciting i
Photo courtesy of Santa Barbara Independent’s recent Techtopia Issue. A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. Serial entrepreneurs agree that it is best to communicate with investors on an eighth grade level. To illustrate this point, former DoubleClick Founder and current CEO of Graphiq Kevin O’Connor often begins his talks to entrepreneurial students by asking the following question.
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 talk a lot about college entrepreneurs here at Tech.Co, but what about the younger generations? That’s right, I’m referring to high school students. Specifically, two high school seniors in LA, Dillon Rosenblatt and Tyler Makhani, recently built out an app called Tutors , a platform for on demand tutoring. During the first marking period of their senior year this fall, the app officially went live so that students and parents might find a tutor at roughly 70 to 90 percent cheaper and faster t
Every morning when you wake up, treat it like it’s your first day, and like it’s your last day, on earth. Forget all that’s happened badly. Remember all you’ve learned, but remember only what lifted you and helps drive your passion. Take the day on like it might be your last and you want to complete as much as possible before your eyes slam shut.
Like many of you I read in awe last week about the accomplishments of the Washington Post since Jeff Bezos acquired the company two years ago. The killer chart is below: In the article it raved particularly about the WaPo’s amazing mobile app and how Bezos personally intervened to get the team to improve loading times – whatever the short-term costs. “His focus on customer experience has become a near mandate within the news operation.
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Like many of you I read in awe last week about the accomplishments of the Washington Post since Jeff Bezos acquired the company two years ago. The killer chart is below: In the article it raved particularly about the WaPo’s amazing mobile app and how Bezos personally intervened to get the team to improve loading times – whatever the short-term costs. “His focus on customer experience has become a near mandate within the news operation.
Years ago I led a deal and invested in a company that looked like it had lots of promise to disrupt the women’s clothing industry with special algorithms and an online store. But something had bothered me from the very start – unsalable inventory.you trusted the data. You see, women’s clothing is subject to fashion changes so frequently that inventory becomes obsolete quickly.
Attention Muppet fans! Did you ever wish you could talk to Miss Piggy on a one on one chat? Miss Piggy has been offering up one-on-one, live chats via Facebook Messenger all this week--part of the first deployment of technology from the Disney Accelerator. According to Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media Labs , The Muppets Studios and Disney Accelerator company imperson , Miss Piggy offered up live chats both Monday and Wednesday, and will also do so on Friday between 10am and 11am PS
A version of this article previously appeared Forbes. One of the reasons I know way more about online sales taxes than I ever thought I would is due to Rincon Venture Partners’ investment in TaxJar , one of the leaders in this emerging space. Taxes may not be fun, but I am proud to be affiliated with a company that takes much of the pain out of the process.
You know the drill. Once a city has spoken with Google about bringing Fiber into their hood, there’s a process for the city to go through. A lengthy one. Checklists. The whole nine yards. Two new cities are exploring Fiber with Google and they are Chicago and Los Angeles. Yes, San Francisco has been skipped again and I’m going to go cry into my slow internet from Comcast.… Read More.
Image via Pixabay Making more sales quickly today is no longer about selling. It’s all about getting customers to make a buy decision. Customers are more in control of their buying decisions than ever before, with the wealth of alternatives and information available online, and interactive access to sources they trust via social media. They don’t want to be pushed into a sale, but they love to be pulled in by what is important to them.
The #1 radar detector is the Valentine 1. A great gift of the speeder in your life. Looking for the gift for the speed racer in your life? We all have one. You know, the person with the lead foot. While I wouldn’t generally endorse speeding, I definitely can’t get behind anyone accruing those pesky little tickets that can only be absolved by the payment of cash.
Credit Dr. Mark Goulston with this headline. Mark teaches that there is a process to innovation that can be summed up with these four words. In fact, he states, that’s exactly how Steve Jobs described his “aha moment.” So let’s paraphrase Mr. Jobs as we describe this process. Jobs was invited to Xerox Parc research facility and – against the better judgment of the research coordinator – shown three projects the engineers were working on.
San Diego-based Younity is announcing this morning that it has raised $8M in a Series A funding, for its cloud-based media storage service. The funding was led by Marker LLC, and also including Draper Associates and PROfounders Capital. Younity said it has now raised $11.25M in total. Younity, which is led by Erik Caso, said the new funding will go towards improving its app, for hiring, and office expansion.
A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. Who makes more money, entrepreneurs or venture capitalists? I recently came across an interesting Quora response from a friend and one of my favorite co-investors, Jason Lemkin. If you haven't already subscribed yet, subscribe now for free weekly JohnGreathouse.com articles! The Answer: “Yes and No”.
How do we make the right business decisions? There are 4 factors to consider whenever we have opportunity cost. 1.) Potential Upside 2.) Likelihood of Success 3.) Effort Involved 4.) Strategic Value.
As an angel investor, I hear many entrepreneurs making negative comments about competitors or asserting they don’t have any competitors. They don’t realize that knocking competitors is assessed as a weakness and denying that you have any competition suggests there is no market for your solution. The smart approach is to find competitors to highlight your strengths.
Bezalel , the company devoted to empowering mobile device users to discard the power cord, has launched a Kickstarter campaign November 10 – December 15 to fund production of the first universal wireless charging case for the iPhone. The initial 400 pre-orders on Kickstarter for Bezalel’s Latitude iPhone case will be manufactured and delivered in time for Christmas!
If we never advertised, we’d never sell anything. Right? Perhaps right, but there are three major types of advertising, some requiring large outlays of cash, some not. First, you can advertise your brand so that people recognize it when they see it in later materials. Second, you can make a call to action, using an ad to bring people to your place of offer, buy your services or product, or take advantage of a special incentive.
Pasadena-based CodeSpark , the startup developingmes which teach kids how to code software, has released a big new product release, according to the company. The startup, led by CEO Grant Hosford, said it has added a new feature called "Foo Studio", which lets kids make and share games with others. CodeSpark's software teaches the basic of software coding--even for kids as young at five.
As is the tradition at socaltech, over the holidays we publish contributions from some of the movers and shakers in the community, with their reflections on the past year and their thoughts on the upcoming year. Today's thoughts are from Lawrence Ng , who founded Oversee.net, and just launched the OnRamp Fund (onrampfund.com). What was the biggest news for you or your firm this year?
“Broadcast the message and they will come!” “Segment my broadcast and I will have better response.” Both of these time–honored methods of reaching our customers have worked for as long as there was print and radio–TV to get the message out. And both have become increasingly obsolete as new channels of reach have evolved, allowing direct and personal contact with our potential customers, and better yet, free and near–free forms of marketing just for the asking.
Los Angeles-based District2 , a startup which is developing a business-to-business marketplace for fashion suppliers and designers, has raised a round of equity funding, from Saandaga Capital Corporation. Size of the funding was not announced. The startup wa part of the Stubbs Alderton & Markiles Precellerator program. District2's online marketplace helps fashion designers find suppliers, ranging from screen printers, dye houses, factories, and others to bring their designs to life.
Hawthorne-based SpaceX , the commercial rocket and spacecraft developer led by Elon Musk, is planning to attempt its next rocket landing test on solid ground, at Cape Canaveral, according to NASA. A NASA official said SpaceX will fly its Falcon 9 back to Cape Canaveral after its next launch, rather than attempt another ocean platform landing of its rocket in the Atlantic Ocean.
Action camera maker GoPro said Tuesday that it has tied with the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (UCLA TFT), to launch a program to provide students with GoPro cameras and accessories to create content, and where it will also provide guided workshops, education, and one-on-one mentorship to students. According to GoPro, the link with UCLA is an extension of its university program--originally launched at USC in October --and also includes a deal with the NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
Los Angeles-based Surf Air says it has now reached a total of 2,500 members at the subscription airline, double the number of members it had last year. The startup also said it now has a total of 80 daily flights between its 12 California destinations. Surf Air charges $1,750 per month for its most basic subscription, although it is planning to increase its subscription cost on January 1st.
Interested in seeing the wide ranging--and scary--impact of human caused climate change? Redlands-based geographical information systems provider Esri has rolled out a highly visual, stunning collection of maps called the Atlas for a Changing Planet Story Map , illustrating the impacts of climate change on the earth. Esri said its interactive maps illustrate the earth's natural and human systems and how they have changed, and will change, over time.
Los Angeles-based video story app developer Flipagram said Wednesday that it added more than 1,000 signed, musical artists to its "Flipagram Verified" platform, letting those artists make their music available to Flipagram's users. Flipagram--which develops an app which lets users create musical slideshows using mainstream, popular music acts as their soundtrack--said over 800 of those artists joined in the second half of the year.
Santa Monica-based Crew32 , a stealth startup founded by Docstoc founder Jason Nazar, Betterworks, Geni, and Yammer co-founder George Ishii, and InvestedIn and MySpace co-founder Yadid Ramot, has raised $5.2M, as part of an ongoing $6.0M funding round, according to a regulatory filing by the firm on Thursday. No details on the startup have yet been announced.
As is the tradition at socaltech, over the holidays we publish contributions from some of the movers and shakers in the community, with their reflections on the past year and their thoughts on the upcoming year. We'll be publishing these between now and the new year. Our first for this year is from Richard Wolpert , founder of HelloTech (www.hellotech.com), an in-home, technology and IT support service.
Beverly Hills-based 3D movie projection technology developer RealD reports that it has won a patent infringement ation against competitor MasterImage, after a U.S. International Trade Commission investigation and ruling. According to RealD, the US ITC has reached an initial determination, which concludes that RealD's patents were valid and infringed by MasterImage.
Santa Monica-based customer support outsourcing provider TaskUs --which is based in Santa Monica, but has a vast operation in the Philippines--said it has opened up a new office in Melbourne, Australia. TaskUs said the enw sales office comes as a result of signing a deal with Australian online lending company Nimble, and a plan to grow its operations in Australia.
Elon Musk , the billionaire technology mogul behind SpaceX, has put some money behind--surprisingly--an effort to help developer artificial intelligence research. Musk--who has voiced his concerns over artificial intelligence taking over the world and threatening humankind--is one of the backers of a new, nonprofit research company called OpenAI. OpenAI says its goal is to advance digital intelligence in a way that "is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to genera
San Diego-based crowdfunding site GoFundMe announced this morning that donations on the site totaled $1.09 billion, which the company said puts the company on par with the top ten of America's largest charities. The site, which is led by Rob Solomon, let anyone contribute to different crowdfunded project--ranging from charitable efforts to personal projects and appeals.
All this week, we're featuring reflections on the past year from movers and shakers in the community. Today, we have the thoughts of Jeb Spencer of TVC Capital (www.tvccapital.com), a software focused growth equity fund which just raised a new fund, and has had some great success in the market. TVC Capital has also been a big supporter of socaltech over the years.
As is the tradition at socaltech, over the holidays we publish contributions from some of the movers and shakers in the community, with their reflections on the past year and their thoughts on the upcoming year. We'll be publishing these between now and the new year. Our first for this year is from Richard Wolpert , founder of HelloTech (www.hellotech.com), an in-home, technology and IT support service.
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