Berkonomics
MARCH 9, 2017
Well, the numbers don’t lie, even if there are several sources of these statistics. Starting a company is HARD – in so many ways. And risky too. I read several years ago, that the average startup restaurant lasts only about a year. Ouch! Here I am a professional investor in early stage companies, and I attempt to find those with the greatest chance of success and growth in value over time.
TechCrunch LA
MARCH 24, 2017
A reminder that I’ll be holding a micro-meetup at Boomtown on Broadway in Boulder, Colorado on Wednesday, March 29th at 7pm. You’ll have 2 minutes to pitch in front of two local judges and then 2 minutes of questions. No slides, no props, no costumes (Ok, maybe costumes.) Boomtown is at 2060 Broadway B1 in the basement. To get there, park around Spruce and Broadway and it’s… Read More.
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Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 2, 2017
There are so many moments from the Upfront Summit that I want to share with you — it just takes time to watch through all the videos, do write ups and still do my day job. One of the most exciting thinkers at Summit was Rebecca Kantar, the founder of Imbellus. I was excited to see her perform on stage because I’ve long been telling people how crazy smart, ambitious and talented she is but I was excited for people to hear for themselves.
socalTECH
MARCH 16, 2017
Los Angeles-based Embark Ventures , a new venture capital fund led by Yipeng Zhao and venture capitalist Peter Lee, is raising a $50M venture capital fund, according to a recent SEC filing by the firm. The filing says the firm has so far raised $45M out of a $50M target in the fund, from six limited partners. Embark's website says it is focused on pre-seed and seed stage investments in Internet and software companies.
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L.A. Business Journal
MARCH 17, 2017
Firms have grown familiar in helping celebrities put their money on the next rising-star startup.
InfoChachkie
MARCH 8, 2017
A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. Skateboard legend and award-wining filmmaker Stacy Peralta recently shared a compelling insight as part of UC […]. The post Why Skateboarders Suddenly Became Scary Good In The Mid-80’s appeared first on John Greathouse.
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
MARCH 29, 2017
A reminder that I’ll be holding a micro-meetup at Boomtown on Broadway in Boulder, Colorado tonight at 7pm. You’ll have two minutes to pitch in front of two local judges and then two minutes of questions. No slides, no props, no costumes (Ok, maybe costumes.) Boomtown is at 2060 Broadway B1 in the basement. To get there, park around Spruce and Broadway and it’s in the… Read More.
Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 6, 2017
Mayor Eric Garcetti at Upfront Summit, February 2017 I first sat down with then councilman Eric Garcetti on the Ides of March 2012 — almost 5 years ago exactly. He was running to be the 42nd mayor of Los Angeles and he outlined his vision to “open up the city government to technology and innovation” if he were elected. He wanted to bring the same level of technology focus and energy that Mayor Bloomberg had brought to New York City.
socalTECH
MARCH 6, 2017
San Diego-based Raken has raised $2M in a funding round, for the company's construction reporting and compliance software. The funding was led by Rincon Venture Partners , and also included Eniac Ventures and Spider Capital. Raken is led and was co-founded by CEO Kyle Slager and CTO/CPO Dr. Sergey Sundukovskiy. The company develops cloud-based software used to help monitor construction project progress and compliance, and was founded in 2013.
L.A. Business Journal
MARCH 9, 2017
Telemedicine startup iExhale announced that it closed a $1.86 million seed round led by New York’s Dorilton Capital on Thursday.
InfoChachkie
MARCH 1, 2017
A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. I recently had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Kobie Fuller, current Partner at Upfront Ventures and […]. The post Objective Sports: An Indicator Of Startup Success appeared first on John Greathouse.
Berkonomics
MARCH 16, 2017
So, what do you think is more important? The quality of your management team, or the plan you execute toward success? Checking with professional investors from angels to VC’s, the answer appears to be near unanimous: the quality of the proposed or actual management team comes in a strong first, before the attractiveness of the business plan itself. The quest for a great management team is not a fluke, but rather a result of backward looks at the failure rate from past investments by those same
SoCal Tech Calendar
MARCH 31, 2017
Thursday, April 6, 2017 -- Downtown Los Angeles Tech Mixer Networking At Pez Cantina. Join Us For A Night Of Tech Networking At Pez Catina in Downtown Los Angeles! Support women entrepreneurs and join the fastest growing tech networking and startup community in Los Angeles! Meet new people and participate in lively discussions with outstanding names in the Los Angeles tech community.
Berkonomics
MARCH 30, 2017
Most senior and middle level managers will understand when a subordinate comes to them to resign and begin a new business. But all will immediately question whether the new business will compete in any way with their enterprise, and react to the future entrepreneur in either of two very distinct ways based upon those fears. Even more suspicious is the action of an employee who resigns suddenly without notice or explanation.
Berkonomics
MARCH 2, 2017
As an early stage investor, the first test for me is whether “my” entrepreneur is flexible in both the plan and execution of his or her vision (since from experience almost everything about a business plan changes over time), and whether s/he, no matter what age or experience, is coachable. Doctoral theses have been written on this subject. Early stage investor groups often list these traits at or near the top of their list when filtering opportunities for investment.
L.A. Business Journal
MARCH 9, 2017
L.A. billionaire and former telecommunications mogul Gary Winnick has a new tech venture.
L.A. Business Journal
MARCH 29, 2017
Santa Monica pet-sitting app-maker DogVacay was purchased Tuesday by Rover.com for an undisclosed sum, according to the companies.
L.A. Business Journal
MARCH 10, 2017
Snap may have little legal recourse as Facebook scores big with cloned Snapchat features.
socalTECH
MARCH 21, 2017
Irvine-based enterprise storage services provider Zadara Storage said today that it has expanded its support for Amazon Web Services storage regions, to AWS Beijing. Zadara said the expansion comes in a partnership with Futong, which will make Zadara's VPSA Storage Array at the Sinnet Technology Co., Ltd, data center. Zadara said the region is its sixth AWS region internationally.
socalTECH
MARCH 7, 2017
Los Angeles-based food alternative developer Soylent has rolled out a new chatbot, called "Trish", and started accepting Bitcoin from its customers. According to Soylent, its new "nutrition-obsessed artificially intelligent spokesperson" will appear both on its virtual store on its site, as well as other channels, including broadcast, digital social, and beond.
socalTECH
MARCH 7, 2017
Remember those days of flipping hamburgers as your first job in high school? It looks like those days might be at an end, as a local startup, Miso Robotics , and hamburger chain CaliBurger have unveiled a new robot, "Flippy", which uses artificial intelligence to grill burgers in Pasadena. CaliBurger, which so far as rolled out the robot just to Pasadena, says it plans to roll out the AI-driven robots to more than 50 restaurants worldwide by the end of 2019.
socalTECH
MARCH 23, 2017
Los Angeles-based Water Planet , which develops water treatment membrane technology originally developed at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), revealed today that its seed investor is none other than actor Kevin Costner. The company said that Costner and his business partner, Rod Lake, were actually the company's founding investors back in 2011.
socalTECH
MARCH 9, 2017
Los Angeles-based Local Roots Farms , a startup located at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI), says it is showing off a traveling, indoor farm at SXSW, which showcases its hydroponic technology. Local Roots said its farm is built inside a 40 foot shipping container, which is designed to grow leafy greens equal to five acres of land, with up to 99 percent less water than conventional agriculture, and without the use of pesticides and herbicides.
socalTECH
MARCH 27, 2017
Irvine-based Cloudvirga , a developer of automated mortgage lending software, announced this morning that it has raised $15M more in a Series B funding. The funding was led by Incenter, a Blackstone Group portfolio company. The company said the funding goes to scale its technology and product offerings. The company has now raised $22.5M in total. Cloudvirga was founded by Bill Dallas, Kyle Kamrooz and Mark Attaway.
socalTECH
MARCH 6, 2017
Los Angeles-based Maple Media (maplemedia.io) recently announced a big, $30M funding from Shamrock Capital, to assemble a collection of mobile applications in the utility, productivity, games and entertainment verticals. We caught up with co-founder Clark Landry to chat about his new startup, which he co-founded with Michael Ritter. What's the idea behind Maple Media?
L.A. Business Journal
MARCH 3, 2017
Gamers have become hot commodities as e-sports teams make a play for a bigger audience.
L.A. Business Journal
MARCH 29, 2017
Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders on Wednesday unveiled a $5 billion-a- year plan for road and highway projects, to be funded chiefly by steep hikes in taxes for diesel fuel and gasoline, and a new tax on vehicle registrations.
socalTECH
MARCH 27, 2017
San Diego-based renewable energy services firm EDF Renewable Services , the operations and maintenance arm of EDF Renewable Energy, says it now has 10 gigawatts of capacity under contract. The company said its North American business has over 500 people in 27 U.S. states, four Canadian provinces, Mexico, and Chile servicing renewable energy installations.
socalTECH
MARCH 10, 2017
Redlands-based GIS software maker Esri said on Thursday that it has been selected by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), to help support that lab's users. According to Esri, the deal with ORNL gives the lab's users access to spatial analysis tools in the ArcGIS platform. Financial impact of the deal were not announced. Esri said the deal is the first, major enterprise agreement between the company and a Department of Energy (DOE) laboratory.
L.A. Business Journal
MARCH 15, 2017
ServiceTitan, a Glendale-based provider of business software for home service businesses, announced Wednesday it closed an $80 million Series B funding round.
socalTECH
MARCH 16, 2017
Earlier this week, Derek Norton , a long time advisor to the media, Internet, and technology industry in Los Angeles, announced a brand new venture capital fund called Watertower Ventures (www.watertowerventures.com). We sat down with Derek to learn more about the new $5M fund and what it's all about. Tell us about the new fund? Derek Norton: I just closed on a new fund, worth $5M, which I raised from a group of high net worth, high profile LPs.
socalTECH
MARCH 1, 2017
Los Angeles-based inVia Robotics has rolled out a new robotics system, aimed at warehouse automation, specifically aimed at e-commerce retailers and fulfillment providers. According to inVia, its new inVia Dynamic Automated Storage and Retrieval System (AS/RS) is designed to deliver toes, trays, and others to pickers, packers, and replenishers in warehouses, to help lower human travel time and liability in warehouse aisles.
L.A. Business Journal
MARCH 31, 2017
Restaurateurs, art galleries, and developers are among the growing number of Angelenos seeing urban farms bear fruit.
socalTECH
MARCH 23, 2017
Los Angeles-based mobile game developer JamCity , and the animated series, Family Guy , said this morning the two have teamed together to launch a new mobile game called Family Guy: Another Freakin' Mobile Game. The game was created in collaboration with Twentieth Century Fox Television, and has just started pre-registering fans for the new title. According to Jam City, the new game lets players "help Peter Griffin save Quahog--one drink at a time", and is not for kids or the "easily offended".
socalTECH
MARCH 21, 2017
Los Angeles-based Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT), one of three companies working on the Hyperloop concept in Los Angeles, announced this morning that it is beginning development of a full-scale, passenger capsule for its Hyperloop systems. HTT said the capsule is being developed at its R&D center in France. The capsule will be developed in conjunction with technology partner Carbures S.A., which focuses on the aeronautics and aerospace market.
socalTECH
MARCH 13, 2017
Los Angeles-based WebPurify , which provides online content moderation services, said it has launched a new, automated image moderation service to help screen user generated content for nudity. According to WebPurify, its automated intelligent moderation (AIM) service uses machine learning and computer vision for real-time automated moderation of images for its clients, and is in addition to its existing human moderation services.
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