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I think I’ve read Paul Graham’s post on “ Startup = Growth ” three or four times now. And of course on Twitter I’ve seen the Tweets, ReTweets and superlatives on what a great post it is. Viewing the article through the lens of a venture capitalist there’s much to agree with under the mantra of “growth!” And when you read the article carefully it allows for a period of discovery in your business.
A major hack on domain name registrar GoDaddy appears to have taken out a huge number of internet sites -- including local startup Goodreads. GoDaddy hosts millions of domain names, as well as provides web hosting services itself, but it's unclear how many sites were affected by the outage. The outage has been blamed on hacking activity. It's unclear how many of Southern California's startups were affected; Goodreads was simply one of the few web services which posted a status on Twitter to info
From a venture capitalist’s point of view, there are no “trick” questions. However, certain questions can be tricky for an entrepreneur to answer. Below are five common questions an entrepreneur will encounter when seeking venture funding. These questions, which manifest themselves in numerous forms, all share a common underlying objective: to divine your motivations, expectations and desires.
Who is responsible for the vision that drives the company? This is arguably the primary job of the CEO, with agreement from the board. Many entrepreneurs after taking outside investment defer to their board for matters of direction that include setting the vision, as well as executing the plan. Here is a general rule: The CEO sets the sails and points the ship, creating the vision for the company.
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.
Saturday, September 22, 2012 -- Bootcamp for Aspiring TEDx Speakers (and others) in SoCal. The popularity and virality of TED Talks has raised the bar dramatically for any and all presentations. Whether you're preparing to speak at TED, MindShare, TEDx, or another industry event, you need to up your game. Your competition certainly has! If your goal is only to improve the way you present at group meetings or on sales calls, learning the TEDx format is going to put you in a different league.
When my friend’s small business was struggling a while back, I suggested he add some social media marketing initiatives, and his answer was that he was “too busy.” His business has since closed, but his mindset is still out there. According to a recent Harvard Business Review article , only 60% of companies today use social media for marketing, and only 12% of those feel that they are using it effectively.
This article originally appeared on TechCrunch. Recently I wrote a post arguing to make the definition of a Startup more inclusive than that to which Silicon Valley, fueled by Venture Capital return profiles, would sometimes like to attach to the word. Today I’d like to talk about what startup communities outside of Silicon Valley look like, how they emerge and what makes them take hold.
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This article originally appeared on TechCrunch. Recently I wrote a post arguing to make the definition of a Startup more inclusive than that to which Silicon Valley, fueled by Venture Capital return profiles, would sometimes like to attach to the word. Today I’d like to talk about what startup communities outside of Silicon Valley look like, how they emerge and what makes them take hold.
These days, it's not unusual for a handful of tech and startup mixers and events to be going down on the westside. Still, there was something special about the Nextspace @ Amplify Grand opening on Wednesday night. Something very, established about it. I've lived in Los Angeles for ten years now. And when you live in a city that long, you're bound to find yourself at a Hollywood, celebrity-driven party.
The following guest post is from some of my former UC Santa Barbara students. I thought this post might be of interest to some of my readers, as it offers a glimpse into my approach to teaching entrepreneurship. . Fall quarter of Sr. year proved to be a crucial time for the progression of brightblu – Ben, Sid, and Taylor see this as the period that sparked their entrepreneurial passion.
This one comes straight from football. From experience and from information about the competition, a coach creates a playbook that contains detailed plans for actions or plays that the entire team must know without question and execute without pause in order to win games and advance toward the playoffs. What is different about you as a manager? If you manage with your team knowing the intended results of each action, and if the members of the team have not honed their skills at execution of th
Friday, October 5, 2012 -- Startup Weekend Santa Clarita. Startup Weekend is a global grassroots movement of active and empowered entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures. It is the largest community of passionate entrepreneurs with over 400 past events in 100 countries around the world in 2011.
This article initially appeared on TechCrunch - with a minor update highlighted in red below. Ah. We’re back to discussing convertible debt again. This time by the efforts of Adeo Ressi to introduce a new kind of structure called “ convertible equity.” I applaud all efforts by people to take on this issue and especially be Adeo who – let’s be honest – was really the first champion of trying to make the VC world more transparent by launching TheFunded, which d
You know the old saying about trust … “It takes years to build and seconds to destroy.” And once destroyed it is very difficult if not impossible to repair. You need to be the guardian of your own reputation. You need to constantly ask yourself whether your actions in rapidly scaling an online community are worth the potential downsides of destroying trust amongst your users.
If you were on Twitter on Saturday you might have noticed a lively discussion with Dave McClure, Fred Wilson, Chris Dixon and myself. And a few others. Luckily there are tools like Storify – so you can actually see a synopsis here. I recently wrote about my views that startups rounds should be priced. If you do an uncapped note it’s bad for the investor.
What do you get when you take the creative minds behind JibJab.com , the Venice-based online humor content developers--known for its hilarious videos of everything from politics to everyday life--and apply that to kids entertainment? You get Storybots , a brand new, online service with the sensibility of JibJab's comedic content cross pollinated with kids educational entertainment.
A new, Santa Monica-based startup, AMP , is hoping that crowdfunding will bring its bookmarking site and file exchange site for those interested in sustainability to life. The startup--started by Sarah McKinney and John Lehnert--said it turned to IndieGogo for fundraising as a way to scale its site past beta. The site--in part, inspired by sites such as Santa Monica's DocStoc--hopes to become a place where people working on environmental and social progress can connect with others and other info
Have a legal question? A new, Los Angeles startup, myRight , is hoping to help users with some basic legal questions, through a new service geared around asking users questions-and-answers about their legal questions. The startup, part of the StartEngine accelerator, asks users a series of questions around different topics -- things like security deposits, wills, gun control -- helping users to learn more about different topics, and also referring them to more detailed information sources and la
In a world where we are overwhelmed with social updates ("had a turkey sandwich for lunch", "just went for a walk"), how do you cut through all that noise and actually learn about important things going on in your personal networks without spending 100 percent of your time on Facebook or other sites? A new, Los Angeles startup, EverySignal looks to be tackling that problem with its new service.
What would Sesame Street look like, if it was created in the world of smartphones, tablets, and YouTube? It might look a little bit like StoryBots (www.storybots.com), the new kids educational and entertainment service just launched by JibJab (www.jibjab.com). We caught up with Gregg Spiridellis, one of the founders of JibJab, to hear about Storybots.
Online e-commerce giant Amazon.com will start collecting sales taxes from California residents at midnight today, as a result of a deal the firm made with the State of California last year. The move--which has been widely reported to have spurred a last minute buying binge from Californians--comes as a result of aggressive move by the legislature to recoup lost taxes from out-of-state e-commerce sales.
One of the most interesting things about the Wall Street Journal's list of top startups in the U.S.? The number of IPOs of companies on the Journal's list from 2011 from Southern California matched the number of IPOs of Silicon Valley companies. Of the list of 50 startups, both San Diego's ServiceNow and fellow San Diego firm Active Network has IPOs last year, out of only a total of six IPO exits from the WSJ's list.
Los Angeles-based NationBuilder , a startup developing an online set of tools for political candidates, said over the weekend that it has tied in with a tool which does a background check on candidates. The firm said it has integrated Candidate Check , a service which allows political candidates to show their own, "Candidate Trusted Seal" showing they've been vetted by a third party source, including information on employment history, military records, criminal background, and more.
San Diego-based Zui , the kids friendly Internet portal which runs KidZui, has been acquired by Saban Brands , Saban said this morning. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Saban Brands said the buy will strengthen its position in kids entertainment. As a part of the acquisition, Saban said it will establish a new physical presence in San Diego, and add 12 employees to its organization.
Insteegram , the online service which lets users buy high quality t-shirts imprinted with their favorite Instagram photos, said this morning that it has launched version 2.0 of the service, and opened up the ability of some of its users to sell their T-Shirts from the site. The Los Angeles startup, which was founded by Edward Park, said it is letting select number of users activate their store and start selling T-shirts to their friends and others, while earning money on the side.
Tired of that same-old, boring photo slideshow? How do you create a better, more exciting presentation of your photos? MYMUSAIC (www.mymusaic.com), a Los Angeles startup, thinks it has figured that out, and recently launched a service which automatically matches photos to the beat of music, creating an online video of your photos and music. We spoke with founder Alec Meikle to learn about what the service offers and how it's different than what's available from other software.
ParkMe , the provider of parking information and mobile applications founded by Sam Friedman and Alex Israel, has inked a deal to provide its parking database information to navigation provider TomTom. TomTom announced the deal Tuesday, saying the information will be used to provide location information for parking garages and lots, as well as contact information in its map products.
How do you get help with that plumbing project you're working, or some minor assistance with that auto repair? A new, iPhone app-- FixUp --debuted today to try to help users with those kinds of questions, saying it will connect users to a network of skilled, service professionals via iPhone video. The app--the brainchild of Los Angeles-based StartupMinds--lets users connect with local professionals, such as plumbers, electricians, and others--to get expert answers to simple issues for a negotiat
Business Plans are dead. Most sophisticated investors ignore them, focusing their attention on an entrepreneur's pitch and presentation materials, financial forecast and executive summary. As noted in Entrepreneurs Shouldn't Pitch Their Ideas To Venture Capitalists , most sophisticated investors place their bets on people rather than opportunities. As such, the primary goal of your executive summary is to open the door to an in-person meeting.
How early is too early to teach your kids a programming language? Never too early, apparently. A Los Angeles software developer has created a Ruby-based programming software package-- Kidsruby --which allows children to learn how to develops software in the Ruby programming language. The free software--which runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux--provides a visual tool which lets kids learn all about programming.
San Diego-based Telcentris , which offers up cloud communications services, said today that it has opened up a new data center on the East Coast. The company--which runs VoxOx and VoxOx In Business, two unified communications services--said the new data center is at an Equinix colocation facility in New York. The firm said the new data center is its first on the East Coast.
SpaceX , the privately held, Southern California developer of spacecraft and rockets, said Friday that NASA and the firm have announced October 7th, 2012, as the target launch date for its first resupply mission to the International Space Station. According to SpaceX, the launch of its Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft will be 8:34 p.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral.
San Diego-based Sense4Baby , a brand new starting spawned out of the West Health Institute, has licensed a wireless fetal monitoring system from West Health, and moved into that firm's new incubator. West Health Institute also said that Sense4Baby has received a "significant" funding commitment from the West Health Investment Fund. Sense4Baby is developing wireless, remote fetal monitoring systems, which are designed to allow an OBGYN to monitor the health of a mother and her baby remotely, avoi
It looks like all that bacon paid off. Los Angeles-based Scopely , the startup co-founded by Eytan Elbaz , Eytan Elbaz , Walter Driver and Ankur Bulsara, which is developing social and mobile games, said this morning that it has raised $8.5M in a new, seed financing round, from Anthem Venture Partners, The Chernin Group, Greycroft Venture Partners and New Enterprise Associates (NEA), as well as angels.
Los Angeles-based BeachMint , the online e-commerce and celebrity startup, has quietly let go of some staff this Friday, in what an insider called a "slight trim" of the firm's employee base. News of the layoffs first hit began circulating right before noon. BeachMint has not commented on the moves, which is believed to have hit around a dozen employees.
San Diego-based Nik Software , the developer of a popular set of photo filters and plug-ins for photo editing, has been acquired by Google. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Nik Software has its corporate headquarters in San Diego, and also has operations in Germany. The firm's photo filters connect into Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, and Aperture, and includes such products as Dfine, Viveza, HDR Efex, and more.
What is the biggest issue that local event organizers--health and family fairs, sports events, and so on--have? Los Angeles-based Planana (www.planana.com) found out it's getting sponsors for their events. Anna Sergeeva is co-founder of the company, and tells us how the firm pivoted from its former life as trueRSVP, focused on event RSVPs, into instead helping event organizers round up sponsors.
Technology giant Microsoft has detailed its new Los Angeles production studio, officially announcing that it has created a new production studio headed by former CBS Network Television Entertainment president Nancy Tellem. Microsoft said the studio will develop interactive and linear content for Xbox and other devices. Microsoft said the effort is part of an effort to "collaborate with the creative community" to create content for the Xbox brand.
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