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
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of talking to Samir Kaji on the Venture Unlocked podcast about a wide range of topics that we as venture capitalists think about everyday, including: How to build a generational firm?—?retaining partner talent and finding the complimentary networks and skillsets firms need to succeed over time The state of venture today and how COVID crammed 10 years of technological change into one accelerated year The human psychology of decision making and one book I think
Century City-based TrillerNet, the owner of short-form video platform Triller, is preparing to file a confidential direct listing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in July that values the company at more than $5 billion, according to a source familiar with the plans.
Even as NFT sales dip below their most speculative highs, startups aiming to tap into their potential are still scoring big funding rounds from investors who believe there’s much more to crypto collectibles than the past few months of hype. Mythical Games , an NFT games startup based out of Los Angeles, has banked a $75 million raise from new and existing investors betting on the startup’s aim to expand the ambitions of their first title and locate a substantial platform opportunity
Newport Beach-based Ankona Capital, a new, venture capital company founded by Josh Harmsen, Brian Mesic, Newth Morris, and Jared Smith, has raised $66M in its first, venture capital fund. The company says it invests between $5M to $10M in early, growth-stage B2B software companies which are already generating $5M to $15M in recurring revenues. Ankona says its portfolio companies already include several companies, including Canopy, Cordial, GoSite, SOCi, VideoAmp, and Zingle.
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.
Many budding entrepreneurs struggle mightily with that first step – out of their comfort zone and into the unknown. They keep asking people like me whether the time is right, and the truth is that there’s never an ideal time to start your own business. It’s like starting a personal relationship, if you wait for exactly the right time, you’ll never do it.
Shopify is planning to strike a blow at Amazon by entering the affiliate marketing space. An ecommerce giant with huge clout in bricks-and-mortar store retail, too, Shopify can boast to having more than one million retailers using its platform. Now, Shopify has apparently approached major publishers including Complex and Vox Media as well as getting Buzzfeed to sign on to the new program.
On Funding?—?The Denominator Effect I recently wrote a post about funding for investors to think about having a diversified portfolio , which I called “shots on goal.” The thesis is that before investing in an early-stage startup it is close to impossible to know which of the deals you did will break out to the upside. It’s therefore important to have enough deals in your program to allow for the 15–20% of amazing deals to emerge.
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.
On Funding?—?The Denominator Effect I recently wrote a post about funding for investors to think about having a diversified portfolio , which I called “shots on goal.” The thesis is that before investing in an early-stage startup it is close to impossible to know which of the deals you did will break out to the upside. It’s therefore important to have enough deals in your program to allow for the 15–20% of amazing deals to emerge.
Pasadena-based energy technology company Heliogen Inc. has raised a total of $108 million in two funding rounds to help develop its industrial solar energy technology, the company announced June 15.
This Thursday, Apple will mark the opening of a new store in downtown Los Angeles. The space occupies the newly renovated Tower Theatre, which opened in DTLA’s Broadway Theater District in 1927. Among other milestones, the 900-seat theater was the first in LA to be wired for the talkies, hosting a premier of “The Jazz Singer” that same year.
Santa Barbara- and New York-based Lead Edge Capital, a private equity investor which focuses on growth stage investments in technology companies, said on Wednesday that it has raised $150M in a new fund. According to the company, the new fund will be used for public equity investments. Lead Edge Capital said the new fund brings the company's total capital under management to over $3 billion.
By definition, all of you entrepreneurs are leaders, by taking the initiative to start a new company. Yet I have learned over the years as a startup advisor that all business leaders are not the same. Some are great product leaders and innovative technologists, others are leaders in creating new business models , a few can assemble great teams , but only the rare exception can do all three.
You know what a startup is, right? Or at least you have an idea of what a startup is like to work in? Long hours in co-working offices with CEOs fresh from university with big ideas and a lot of vague, nebulous chat about platforms. Don't forget the pizza parties and deskside beers funded by a seemingly endless stream of venture capitalist money, either.
On Funding?—?Shots on Goal Being great as a startup technology investor of course requires a lot of things to come together: You need to have strong insights into where technology markets are heading and where value in the future will be created and sustained You need be perfect with your market timing. Being too early is the same as being wrong. Being too late and you back an “also ran” You also need to be right about the team.
Elon Musk’s Boring Co. is about to get its first real-world test as its 4-mile, $52.5 million tunnel loop opens to the public this week underneath the huge Las Vegas Convention Center campus.
Just over three months after its last funding round, European fintech giant Klarna is announcing today that it has raised another $639 million at a staggering post-money valuation of $45.6 billion. Rumors swirled in recent weeks that Klarna had raised more money at a valuation north of $40 billion. But the Swedish buy now, pay later behemoth and upstart bank declined to comment until now.
Santa Monica-based Revolution Prep, an academic testing and tutoring preparation company, has scored private equity funding from Apax Digital Fund. Size of the funding was not announced. According to Apax Digital, the new funding will go to expand Revolution Prep's offering and to increase access to its online tutoring services. The companies said that Revolution Prep has been in the business for over 20 years, and has served more than 1 million families.
I often hear the popular notion that successful entrepreneurs are built from a single heroic insight or a single innovation. This is just plain wrong. The business world is a symphony of players and elements that only works when everything interconnects harmoniously. Continuous innovation and continuous learning are required for any sustained connection and success.
It is hard to coach or teach leadership in a few paragraphs. But let’s try by limiting this short insight to a list of the five principal tactical skills of a great leader. These are not the strategic visionary skills, like leading companies through risky product launches, or steering the course through economic storms where leaders become oversized personalities for their superhuman efforts.
Shopify has announced a new scheme for all of its App Store developers. Developers will not pay any commission on the first $1 million that they make in a given year. This scheme starts on August 1st of 2021. Before this scheme, Shopify used to charge 20% on every sale made through its service, but now, smaller businesses will take the whole value of the sale, with Shopify's cut of 15% only kicking in once the annual $1 million threshold has been passed.
Beverly Hills-based livestreaming platform LiveXLive Media Inc. will acquire New York-based artist development company Gramophone Media Inc. by the end of June.
Tuesday, June 29, 2021 -- Plug and Play Downtown Los Angeles Launch. Plug and Play has partnered with the LA Area Chamber, Alliance for SoCal Innovation and Downtown Center Business Improvement District to turn Downtown LA into the next urban innovation hub. Plug and Play will be opening their Los Angeles location at the TENTEN Wilshire building which innovated on the live, work, play all-in-one-place lifestyle.
The Alliance for Southern California Innovation said on Thursday that it is launching a new program, the SoCal Venture Pipeline. According to the company, the new program will provide companies that have demonstrated clear market traction and provides targeted introductions to venture funds. The program is being funded by Silicon Valley Bank, with additional program support from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and KPPB, LP.
If you are one of the many professionals still trapped between jobs by circumstances outside your control, or are about to dump the loser job you have now, you should be actively defining and starting your own business, in parallel with looking for that ideal job. Let me explain why this is a win-win deal, no matter what the outcome. You have probably secretly always wanted to run your own show, but with an existing job, never took the time to consider a startup.
There are lots of ways to measure a great leader. Here are three that should resonate with you as leader and with those who follow you. These qualities are applicable whether you are leading your company, a board, or a group of people – and certainly are aspiration targets for you if you are measuring yourself against the best. The first quality in a great leader is to have laser focus. .
PayPal has announced price hikes for some of its merchant fees. The new changes, which take effect in August, will see fees rise from 2.9% to as much as 3.49% for some PayPal Digital Payments. These changes could have big impacts on some small businesses. However, it's not all bad news, as charity transactions will drop below 2%. Here's a closer look at the fees and the changes that PayPal will be making.
Venice-based virtual reality software company Specular Theory Inc. secured a $4.5 million contract with the Defense Department to expand development of its training products for the Air Force.
Tuesday, June 29, 2021 -- Long Beach Small Business Online Networking Event. The Long Beach SBDC is hosting a virtual networking event on Tues. 29/6/2021 at 4:30pm PDT for business owners interested in exchanging ideas. See [link].
Vince Steckler, the former CEO of cybersecurity software developer Avast, has unexpectedly died in a car accident in Irvine, according to the software developer. According to Avast, Steckler passed away in a tragic car accident in Irvine, California, on June 15, 2021, at the age of 62. Steckler was active in the Orange County community, having recently donated $10.4M to the University of California, Irvine, with $5M going to the Center for Responsible, Ethical and Accessible Technologies within
Many people seem to have the sense that ethics are spiraling downward in business, and unfortunately most startup professionals and entrepreneurs I know don’t believe they can make a difference. They don’t realize that if they don’t take an active role in the solution, they really become part of the problem. I do believe that most business people want to do the right thing, but many just don’t have the skills to develop an unemotional ethical position, or confidence to act on their ethical belie
Reorder your priorities for maximum impact. There are two reasons to consider reordering your priorities to attack your most critical issues first, before the easiest ones to knock off the list. First, you are fresher at the start of a day, and your best efforts should come when you are best prepared to address these issues. Remember how easy it is to put off those final decisions at the end of a tiring and long day?
Startup tech businesses used to land on the scene with big ideas about how their tech could change the world. Facebook, for example, decided in 2008 that its mission was to “help you connect and share with the people in your life.” The vision was grand and amorphous, with no clear indication of how or why Facebook would carry out its mission.
Wednesday, June 23, 2021 -- Viterbi Startup Garage: Oceanside Chat: Cleantech 2.0: What Every Entrepreneur Needs To Know. Who: Aaron Fyke (Founder and Managing Partner of Thin Line Capital). What: Energy/Sustainability, Greentech, Cleantech, Climatetech - these are all names attempting to group together the multi-trillion dollar opportunities that deal with our energy system, our built infrastructure, and our global economy, as it moves to a low-carbon and more sustainable future.
Los Angeles-based XPRIZE, which operates a number of competitions aimed at encouraging advancement in key technology areas, says a Grand Prize Winner has been named in the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE Competition. According to the organization, the prize--first launched in 2016--goes to Zzapp Malaria, with second place going to Aifred Health, and a runner up prize to Marinus Analytics.
Probably every one of you who has a business and a website have been approached through email or personal contact, and asked to spend money on paid search results (appear on the first page of search results, despite low SEO rank). What most people don’t realize is, according to recent statistics , despite top positioning, only a quarter of sites selected comes from paid search.
How easily it happens…. Sometimes it is easy for someone to make a statement that, in the enthusiasm of the moment or to make a point, crosses the line between fact and fiction. Sometimes it seems to you to be just an unimportant little stretch of the facts. An estimate of the number of customers, of the amount of traffic to your website, of the numbers of products sold or hours spent in development – there are thousands of areas where a number sounds better when it is larger.
Enterprises trying to manage their own network often face challenges related to unreliable service, a lack of in-house expertise, and time-consuming maintenance. Local managed network services providers (MNSP) understand the communities they serve and their clients’ individual problems, promoting their business objectives by providing network solutions they can depend on. .
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.
375 
Let's personalize your content