Both Sides of the Table
OCTOBER 26, 2020
Today we’re announcing that my partner Kara Nortman is becoming Co-Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures and I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to welcome her to her new role. As with all promotions, the reality is that Kara was already acting as a senior leader at our firm and also in the industry at large. She had all of the skills and traits we sought?
TechCrunch LA
OCTOBER 2, 2020
Grindr, one of the world’s largest dating and social networking apps for gay, bi, trans, and queer people, has fixed a security vulnerability that allowed anyone to hijack and take control of any user’s account using only their email address. Wassime Bouimadaghene , a French security researcher, found the vulnerability and reported the issue to Grindr.
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L.A. Business Journal
OCTOBER 12, 2020
In many areas of the world, there may be no more precious commodity than water — and that’s especially true in Los Angeles.
Berkonomics
OCTOBER 29, 2020
Some businesses are built around a single idea. . And sometimes that idea is just too small a slice of the big picture to be interesting to investors. There was a recent investor event where I was keynote speaker, on stage only after several panels of experts had wowed the audience with their predictions and observations. One of the panelists made a point that resonated with me.
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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.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 19, 2020
Most of the time, I’m all about providing encouragement and inspiration to entrepreneurs. They need it and they deserve it, because entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of our economy. But every so often, I try to give them a reality check, just to keep their feet on the ground and their nose to the grindstone. A few years ago, I enjoyed one of Guy Kawasaki’s first books, “ Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition.
socalTECH
OCTOBER 6, 2020
Los Angeles-based Draper Goren Holm , a new venture capital fund founded by Tim Draper, Alon Goren, and Josef Holm, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $25M in its very first fund. According to the firm, its Fund 1 will make seed and Series A investments in the fintech and blockchain startup world. The fund was announced at the LA Blockchain Summit, which is virtual this year.
Southern California Tech Central brings together the best content for technical professionals in Southern California from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
TechCrunch LA
OCTOBER 5, 2020
Companies that have leveraged technology to make the procurement and delivery of food more accessible to more people have been seeing a big surge of business this year, as millions of consumers are encouraged (or outright mandated, due to Covid-19) to socially distance or want to avoid the crowds of physical shopping and eating excursions. Today, one of the companies that is supplying produce and other items both to consumers and other services that are in turn selling food and groceries to them
L.A. Business Journal
OCTOBER 12, 2020
Social platforms and media content creators in Los Angeles are leveraging their influence to encourage voting by Gen Z and millennial audiences as registration deadlines approach.
Berkonomics
OCTOBER 15, 2020
Investors love it when entrepreneurs draw little or no money from their startups. It extends the cash available for research and other necessary fixed costs and gives the fragile, young company more “runway” to get to breakeven. What are you worth to the business? But when forecasting the ultimate viability of a business, many times an entrepreneurial founder uses a low, unsustainable salary rate for him or herself in order to show early breakeven.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 5, 2020
I still know some entrepreneurs who boast of simply following their gut instincts, rather than listen to anyone or any data, to make strategic decisions. We’ve all worked with autocratic leaders in large companies who seem to thrive in this mode. They all forget or ignore the high-profile failures that have resulted from some single-handed business decisions.
socalTECH
OCTOBER 8, 2020
Amazon and Rivian , the electric vehicle developer with operations in Irvine and Carson, California, have revealed Amazon's first electric delivery vehicle, which Amazon plans to roll out as part of its climate efforts. According to Amazon, it plans to roll out its electric delivery vehicles as early as 2022, with 100,000 on the road by 2030. Amazon said it is looking to be net zero carbon by 2040.
Xconomy
OCTOBER 5, 2020
Amid the bombast of Tuesday’s presidential debate, viewers caught some discussion about the response to the coronavirus pandemic and efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. In the crosstalk, the president made an unsupported claim that we are weeks away from having vaccines. It’s true that some pharmaceutical companies are already manufacturing their COVID-19 vaccine candidates for broader use.
TechCrunch LA
OCTOBER 1, 2020
Google today announced a few updates to Live View, the augmented reality walking directions in its Google Maps app that officially launched last year. Live View uses your phone’s camera and GPS to tell you exactly where to go, making it a nice addition to the standard map-centric directions in similar applications. The new features Google is introducing today include the ability to invoke Live View from the transit tab in Google Maps when you’re on a journey that includes multiple mo
L.A. Business Journal
OCTOBER 29, 2020
Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. will move jobs to Van Nuys Airport from Long Beach as part of a streamlining and modernizing of its customer service.
Berkonomics
OCTOBER 8, 2020
The biggest error in planning may not be spreadsheet calculation error. Or cost estimation. It is most often missed assumptions about the market, the competition, the speed of adoption, or other critical metrics you’ve researched, or selected, or even just guessed at to create your plan. Sources for your data. Where did you get the data to drive your assumptions of market size or market share?
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 4, 2020
One of the biggest impediments to starting a new venture is the “ terror barrier ,” as popularized by Bob Proctor, a 85-year-old millionaire and world renowned entrepreneur. This is the imaginary barrier that always seems to appear at the critical point where we would step out ahead of peers or competitors, but fear causes us to stop short. Everyone has a comfort zone, or level of risk, where they feel in control.
socalTECH
OCTOBER 22, 2020
Los Angeles-based Belkin is rolling out a new, 60W wall charger based on new gallium nitride (GaN) technology, which promises to make wall chargers much smaller than they are now. According to Belkin, its BOOST CHARGE PRO USB-C PD GaN Wall Charger charges such USB-C PD enabled devices as the Google Pixel 5, iPad Pro or Macbook Pro. The company says the new gallium nitride technology makes its chargers 53 percent smaller than standard laptop chargers; the company says it is one of the first major
TechCrunch LA
OCTOBER 28, 2020
MarketerHire , a Los Angeles-based startup backed by a slew of executives from some of the city’s hottest startups, launched its new service matching freelance marketing experts with open jobs listed on its platform. . “Today’s startup economy depends on the expertise of industry specialists as much or more than full-time generalists,” said Nick Green, co-founder and CEO Thrive Market, MarketerHire customer and investor, in a statement.
L.A. Business Journal
OCTOBER 26, 2020
Rocket builder Relativity Space Inc., a Long Beach-based startup, signed a contract to build a 3D-printed rocket for aerospace and defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. as part of an upcoming experimental NASA mission.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 21, 2020
Every dark cloud has a silver lining. Driven by the current pandemic, smart entrepreneurs of all ages are jumping into the fray with new ideas, new recovery strategies, and discarding outmoded business models. I see it most in the newest generation of entrepreneurs (Gen-Y), who were shocked out of entitlement into action by an economic downturn. Donna Fenn, in her book from the last decade, “ Upstarts!
socalTECH
OCTOBER 29, 2020
El Segundo, California- and Austin, Texas-based Slingshot Aerospace , a developer of situational awareness technology that brings together imagery and data from satellites, drones, airplanes, and other sensors, has raised $8M in its Series A funding, the company said this morning. Slingshot Aerospace said the funding was led by ATX Venture Partners, and also included Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Techstars Ventures, and Okapi Venture Capital, along with angel investors Keith Masback (
SoCal Tech Calendar
OCTOBER 21, 2020
Tuesday, October 27, 2020 --.
TechCrunch LA
OCTOBER 27, 2020
“We’re building a decentralized ghost kitchen,” is a sentence that could launch a thousand investor calls, and Alex Canter, the chief executive officer behind Ordermark , knows it. The 29 year-old CEO has, indeed, built a decentralized ghost kitchen — and managed to convince Softbank’s latest Vision Fund to invest in a $120 million round for that the company announced today. “We have uncovered an opportunity to help drive more orders into restaurants through t
L.A. Business Journal
OCTOBER 26, 2020
Hawthorne-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp. sent 60 more Starlink satellites into orbit using the company’s Falcon 9 rocket during an Oct. 18 launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
StartUp Beat
OCTOBER 13, 2020
Tech enthusiasts from around the globe can make the last three months of the year count by tuning in to a great variety of inspiring events that take place on online platforms. The post Top virtual tech events to end 2020 on a high note appeared first on StartUp Beat.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 10, 2020
People with a victim mentality should never be entrepreneurs. We all know the role of starting and running a business is unpredictable, and has a high risk of failure. For people with a victim mentality, this fear of failure alone will almost certainly make it a self-fulfilling prophecy. I’m sure you all know someone who is the perennial victim. The problem is that most of these people aren’t likely to accept your assessment, so it’s hard to help them.
socalTECH
OCTOBER 26, 2020
Santa Monica-based fitness and nutrition content provider Beachbody announced it has launched a new, running program for its customers, with the goal of getting its customers to be able to complete a 5K on day 30. The new program, "30 Day Breakaway" is being made available through Beachbody's "On Demand" platform. Pricing ont he new program was not announced.
TechCrunch LA
OCTOBER 28, 2020
In a move to shore up institutional support in what’s likely to be it’s last fundraising as a private company, the Los Angeles-based mobile gaming behemoth Scopely has raised $340 million in its latest eye-popping round of funding. Acting as if there’s not still a global pandemic raging throughout the world, some of the largest institutional financing firms like Wellington Management, TSG Consumer Partners, CPP Investments, and funds managed by BlackRock poured more money into
L.A. Business Journal
OCTOBER 12, 2020
Pasadena-based CodeSpark Inc. wants to teach kids to code even before they can read.
Xconomy
OCTOBER 13, 2020
Gossamer Bio’s lead drug, an experimental treatment for asthma and allergies, has failed in two mid-stage clinical trials but the biotech sees enough in the data to pursue further development in a severe form of asthma and it wants to talk with regulators about advancing the compound to a larger Phase 3 study. The Gossamer drug, GB001, was tested as a treatment for eosinophilic asthma, a form of the respiratory disorder characterized by high levels of white blood cells called eosinophils.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 12, 2020
Some entrepreneurs start polling venture capitalists for that multi-million dollar investment before they even have a business plan. That’s like trying to sell part of something to a stranger for big money when you haven’t fully defined it yet. It won’t work, it costs time and money, and hurts your credibility when you need them later. Every entrepreneur needs help and support along the way, from developing the initial idea, to selling off the successful business (exit strategy).
socalTECH
OCTOBER 26, 2020
Newport Beach-based OnSite Waste Technologies has raised $3.5M in a Series A funding round, according to the company. The funding round was led by Mark IV Capital, which also is based in Newport Beach. The startup says it is developing technology for immediate sterilization of medical waste. The firm reported the funding was oversubscribed. Onsite Waste Technologies is led by CEO Brad Barnes; the company is aiming its onsite sterilization technology at long-term care facilities, family practices
SoCal Tech Calendar
OCTOBER 12, 2020
Thursday, October 15, 2020 -- Virtual Tech Happy Hour. Startup Coil. The State of the L.A. Tech Ecosystem Updates on startup fundings and major news; Expert Discussion and QandA Hiring and Getting Hired During a Global Pandemic.
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