TechEmpower
MAY 2, 2013
'We’ve posted Round 4 of our ongoing project measuring the performance of many web application frameworks and platforms. As with previous rounds, the developer community has contributed several additional frameworks for Round 4, bringing the total to 57! This round adds Bottle (Python), Dancer (Perl), Kelp (Perl), MicroMVC (PHP), Mojolicious (Perl), Phalcon (PHP), RingoJS (JavaScript), Spark (Java), and Wai (Haskell).
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 15, 2013
'No. The one word the best entrepreneurs never accept. I said it. Now let me walk you through a broader story because avoidance of the word in and of itself will seem cliche. Stay with me. When I was little I had a role model for entrepreneurship – my mom. She was a natural leader. She was president of the UJA in Sacramento. From this I saw civic involvement and leadership first hand.
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socalTECH
MAY 28, 2013
'In real life, you can just about bargain a price for anything you want to buy--a car, a house, even that new stereo from your local electronics store. But, online, that''s not the case. To bring that ability to name your own price on products, Los Angeles-based Greentoe (www.greentoe.com) recently launched, allowing consumers to name their own price to retailers of everything from electronics to baby products.
InfoChachkie
MAY 6, 2013
'A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. Jim Andelman, my Partner at Rincon Venture Partners , aptly describes the genesis of the Series A crunch, stating that: "Over the next 12-to-18 months, a lot of good companies that have been Seed financed are going to have a tough time raising a Series . A from a new outside lead. This is due to a fundamental disconnect between the increased activity of high-volume seed investors (that fill out lots of Seed rounds) and the relatively smal
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Berkonomics
MAY 16, 2013
'Surely you’ve heard the buggy whip analogy. A business making those necessary items ignored the signs of progress and found itself without a market. Perhaps that happened to sword smiths upon the invention of the rifle, and certainly to the makers of cassette tapes upon the dawn of the CD. fast payday loans for every one. I found myself in the middle of such a slow-rolling change twice in my career.
SoCal CTO
MAY 21, 2013
'I''m spending more of my time recently working with non-technical startup founders who are having challenges with their software/web/mobile development teams. I thought it would be worth capturing some basic notes about what signals founders commonly are seeing that cause them to call me, what those signals might be indicating, and what might make sense to do as a founder if you are seeing some of these signals.
Southern California Tech Central brings together the best content for technical professionals in Southern California from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 25, 2013
'By now you will likely have read Andy Dunn’s scathing post about Venture Capitalists in which he decries the industry’s masses. I read Andy’s post with a knowing smile on my face. After all, I am no stranger to the publicly expressing the frustrations of dealing with the downside of this industry as I wrote about in 2006 when I was an entrepreneur.
socalTECH
MAY 7, 2013
'Los Angeles-based venture capital investment firm DFJ Frontier has significantly bolstered the company''s team, saying Tuesday that it has added Merrill Brown --former founder of MSNBC--as a Venture Partner. DFJ Frontier said that Brown will be based in New York, and will work both on the East Coast and the Northwest. Brown was most recently at the Montclair State University School of Communication and Media, but prior to that also had served at Journalism Online (acquired by RR Donnelley); Rea
InfoChachkie
MAY 13, 2013
'A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. With no industry connections or family ties, talent agent John Ferriter applied basic entrepreneurial principles to reach the pinnacle of Hollywood''s elite. You can watch John describe his surprising Hollywood journey in the following 20-minute excerpt from his recent talk at UC Santa Barbara.
Berkonomics
MAY 2, 2013
'As a manager, you have a number of critical tasks that are general to your position as opposed to specific to your industry. These include ensuring the continued health of the organization, setting the moral compass for your stakeholders, providing for succession by training and documenting, leading the effort in compliance of regulations and safety needs, and … elimination of all possible bottlenecks that impede the efficiency of your organization.
Eric Greenspan
MAY 9, 2013
'First, let me preface by saying that I’m not being compensated in any way by the company I’m about to talk about. This is a true story. I rarely see such a change in my life from simply reading a book, but this is one of those times and I had to share it. Here’s the story: I’m a single dad of two boys, 16 and 3. They have different moms, which makes it even more challenging.
Startup Professionals Musings
MAY 13, 2013
'The universal challenge of every startup founder is to get everything done that needs to get done, and still have a life. Even outside of business, everyone wants to accomplish more, while working less. I’ve been a student of these techniques for some time, but some time ago I saw a great summary that seems to pull all the key principles together. Stever Robbins, known on the Internet as the Get-It-Done Guy, outlines his strategies in his book “ 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More.
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 27, 2013
'Rob Bailey is the CEO of DataSift. He wrote a post this long weekend on how he manages the board of DataSift. You should read it. In his post he asserts, “You get the VCs you deserve” and the corollary “You get the performance out of your board that you deserve.” His argument is as follows. Spend time building investor relationship long before you raise money. .
socalTECH
MAY 1, 2013
'In what looks to be a stunning quick exit for one of Southern California''s new YouTube networks, Awesomeness TV has been acquired by DreamWorks , in a deal worth as much as $117M. DreamWorks said that it will pay $33M in cash, plus pay out up to $117M if Awesomeness TV meets certain earnings targets. The acquisition is one of the fastest exits ever for a local, content-meets-online company--AwesomenessTV had only just raised $3.5M in a Series A in August of 2012, from such investors as MK Capi
InfoChachkie
MAY 20, 2013
'A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. According to Tige Young, Founder and CEO of Tui Tai Expeditions , entrepreneurs should de-emphasize ROI and focus on a more accurate measure of wealth, Return On Life. I became acquainted with Tige, when I was researching examples of exemplary online customer service. In the resulting article , I describe Tige''s deft handling of online trolls via the deft use of social media.
Berkonomics
MAY 9, 2013
'Great executives and managers seem to intuitively know what they don’t know. But it is not at all uncommon to not even know what questions to ask. How do you avoid being sideswiped by the new product you never saw coming, or by the “black swan” event no-one ever thought of – that might threaten your business? Speaking with a roundtable group of fellow associates, most all of them CEOs, we addressed this question and spent an hour brainstorming how to protect against just such a lack of
Eric Greenspan
MAY 24, 2013
'When I was a kid, there was beer and pot. I left Palm Springs for High School in Ohio; perhaps the best choice my mother ever made. She sent me to live with my dad. We’d never really met. It was a tough time but that’s not what this story is about. It’s about drugs, illicit ones and the fact that they are EVERYWHERE in our schools.
Startup Professionals Musings
MAY 6, 2013
'In sports, mental toughness is defined as the ability to focus on and execute solutions, especially in the face of adversity. If anyone in business ever needed mental toughness, it’s an entrepreneur. Investors tell me that startup success is all about execution, all while facing determined competitors and overcoming customers’ resistance to change.
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 4, 2013
'When I was new at Venture Capital I was trying to figure out the business. It was a fun period for me because everything was new and I was curious. What kind of deals should I be doing? What stage? What price? With which other investors? Should I focus on geographies or industries? Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan?
socalTECH
MAY 7, 2013
'Tired of fighting for that extension cord in the parking lot? Carpinteria-based Lynda.com , the online video learning and instruction company, has added a new perk for its employees: the addition of an electric car charging station at its office. According to Lynda.com, it has become a partner in the Department of Energy''s Workplace Charging Challenge, an effort to increase the number of employes who offer charging for plug-in electric vehicles.
InfoChachkie
MAY 27, 2013
'A version of this article previously appeared on Inc. Last week, Divshot turned a simple April Fool''s Day joke into a marketing coup, generating nearly 6,000 Tweets and over a thousand Beta customers. Unlike many viral marketing events, the company''s latest guerilla marketing stunt was not luck. As noted in Hacking Hacker News , the company previously dominated the mindshare of the web development community by facilitating the spread of a random posting on Hacker News.
Berkonomics
MAY 30, 2013
'When you were a kid, surely at one time or another, Mom or someone reminded you to “play nice” when you got a bit rambunctious with your friends. I was reminded about this by Mark Wayman, a friend and reader, who applied this statement to his recruiting environment. He called out those people who focus upon executives who burned bridges with threats and lawsuits, instead of just picking up their toys and moving on after a bad business breakup.
Eric Greenspan
MAY 7, 2013
'Mommy bloggers are one of the most influential social networking resources that lead to increased awareness and sales. Their stamp of approval can put the spotlight on any product or service and can open doors to new markets and opportunities. Their influence is strongest in the area of child education, products aimed at children or parents, parenting, and many other family oriented industries.
Startup Professionals Musings
MAY 17, 2013
'Being a risk taker in business is not the same as being reckless. Nevertheless, the word “risk” has a negative connotation to most of us, implying danger and possible loss. For true entrepreneurs, risk is viewed as a positive, with its implied challenge to overcome the unknown and hitting the big return. In fact, risk is an integral part of life, as well as every business, yet so few people learn to manage it properly, or even want to think about it.
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 13, 2013
'For the past 5 years or so Google, Facebook and a handful of tech industry giants have been quietly buying scores of early-stage startups for their talent. And to keep up with the Jones’s it seems that Yahoo! has now employed the same strategy. And who cares, right? A couple of tech giants throw millions around in either cash (for which they have hoards) or part with some publicly traded stock.
socalTECH
MAY 10, 2013
'Four years ago, Los Angeles-based Adly (www.adly.com) launched to much fanfare as one of the first local startups to tie into the brand-new, Twitter micro messaging platform. We caught up with CEO Walter Delph to hear how the promise of social media advertising has measured up to reality, and what that means for brands and marketers today trying to leverage the new reality of social conversations.
InfoChachkie
MAY 20, 2013
'A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. According to Tige Young, Founder and CEO of Tui Tai Expeditions , entrepreneurs should de-emphasize ROI and focus on a more accurate measure of wealth, Return On Life. I became acquainted with Tige, when I was researching examples of exemplary online customer service. In the resulting article , I describe Tige''s deft handling of online trolls via the deft use of social media.
Berkonomics
MAY 23, 2013
'Here is a simple economic truth. Fixed overhead continues to eat into your cash month after month. It doesn’t differentiate facile, efficient businesses from slow, disorganized, quality-challenged ones. If it takes eighteen months to get a new product out the door and into the market, and if a product’s gross margin is ten dollars but the corporate overhead is a million a month, it will take the sale of 67,000 more units to break even than if it were to take only six months to market.
Eric Greenspan
MAY 14, 2013
'As a newfound Dad Blogger and experienced marketer, I’ve begun offering a great new service that has been greeted by the Mommy Blogger community with great interest and the manufacturers of great products have responded equally well. So, because I’m a dad, a customer service enthusiast, product evaluator and entrepreneur, I’ve decided to build a business around it.
Startup Professionals Musings
MAY 23, 2013
'One of the toughest decisions for a startup is how to price their product or service. The alternatives range from giving it away for free, to pricing based on costs, to charging what the market will bear (premium pricing). The implications of the decision you make are huge, defining your brand image, your funding requirements, and your long-term business viability.
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 4, 2013
'When I was new at Venture Capital I was trying to figure out the business. It was a fun period for me because everything was new and I was curious. What kind of deals should I be doing? What stage? What price? With which other investors? Should I focus on geographies or industries? Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan?
socalTECH
MAY 14, 2013
'You often hear the advice: do one thing, and do it well. That one thing, in the case of Los Angeles-based FamousBirthdays.com , is creating an online resource all about--you guessed it--famous birthdays. We caught up with founder Evan Britton about how his company has created the top site in the Internet niche of celebrity birthdays, and how that intense focus on a single niche--and user experience- has paid off for the company in terms of user engagement and growth.
InfoChachkie
MAY 27, 2013
'A version of this article previously appeared on Inc. Last week, Divshot turned a simple April Fool''s Day joke into a marketing coup, generating nearly 6,000 Tweets and over a thousand Beta customers. Unlike many viral marketing events, the company''s latest guerilla marketing stunt was not luck. As noted in Hacking Hacker News , the company previously dominated the mindshare of the web development community by facilitating the spread of a random posting on Hacker News.
Tech Zulu Event
MAY 6, 2013
'The TZ Tech Crawl is heading back to Santa Monica for the first time in 2013! For those of you who may have missed out you can checkout what Mediapost and D&B had to say about it: TZ Tech Crawl Takes Participants on a Tour of Silicon Beach. 2012 TechZulu Tech Crawl – Technically Awesome. A tour of some of the hottest Silicon Beach companies. Why not stop by for a quick beer, game, snack or just say hi at one of the many Silicon Beach tech companies from 6pm to 11pm?
Eric Greenspan
MAY 20, 2013
'This weekend I went to see my 16 year old son play basketball. I brought his little 3 year old brother from another mother. At the game was my older son’s mom. As soon as we arrived, my little one ran into her arms and never left her side for both games. She even has a carseat in her car for him. Reminder, its not her son but it is the brother of her only son and that makes us family, right?
Startup Professionals Musings
MAY 25, 2013
'I’m convinced that people who have fun at work are more innovative, as well as happier. I don’t have any big scientific studies to prove this, but in my considerable business experience, I haven’t seen many successes come out of a group of fearful pessimists or unhappy people. As I was looking through the literature, I did find evidence that many strong business leaders, like John D.
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