Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 3, 2015
In our industry we always talk about funding big ideas or funding things with more meaning. It’s something Yves Sisteron & I have been talking about for years at Upfront Ventures. Today we’re proud to talk more about Grove Labs – we really hope you’ll quickly check out this innovative product and we think many of you will be as impressed with Grove as we have been.
Berkonomics
NOVEMBER 12, 2015
This one is attributed to Rod Adair, the famous oil and gas fire suppressing expert. And boy, does it apply to most of us and our offerings. “Quality” products and services should not be positioned as “cheap,” or your potential customers will question your message from the start, and will be more critical of the delivered product than if offered as one or the other, but not both.
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TechEmpower
NOVEMBER 23, 2015
Round 11 of the ongoing Web Framework Benchmarks project is now available! We'll keep this blog entry short and sweet. The highlights for Round 11. Three new languages are represented in Round 11: Crystal , D , and Rust. Meanwhile, the total number of frameworks has increased by 26. The new frameworks are: silicon (C++). aleph (clojure). pedestal (clojure). crystal-raw (crystal). moonshine (crystal). vibed (d). jawn (java). mangooio (java). koa (js). sails (js). clancats (php). limonade (php). a
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 19, 2015
Who are the top 50 people to watch in Southern California? We've attempted to do that for the last three years, trying to ferret out exactly who the people--not companies--are to watch in the region's technology industry. It's a thankless, unforgiving, made more difficult in that there are no repeats on this list from our prior two years (many were nominated), and our specific exclusion of serial entrepreneurs (who make up a big chunk of Southern California's startup activity), and our exclusion
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InfoChachkie
NOVEMBER 16, 2015
Brian Epstein, the Beatles’ Manager, was tenacious and ambitious, but he was musically inept. Brian was instrumental in establishing the Beatles’ career, but he had no input on the band’s production of music. In the same way, investors can be immensely additive to an entrepreneur’s journey, as long as they know the limits of their ability to help. Effective startup investors guide management’s decision process, but ultimately they support the team’s decisions.
Startup Professionals Musings
NOVEMBER 1, 2015
Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Unfortunately, the market is changing so fast these days that any upward climb can level off quickly, as the core business growth begins to stall. This S-Curve, with no correction, can quickly lead to disaster.
Southern California Tech Central brings together the best content for technical professionals in Southern California from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Berkonomics
NOVEMBER 5, 2015
A friend of mine recently told me his story of how his very career rests on his credibility with his major supplier–partners. He stated that everything rides upon his credibility when he declares that he can produce a quality product on time, especially when his competition has faltered attempting to do so. There’s little news in that statement. Until you hear of the stories of those who destroyed a good thing with one badly executed promise, or one lie, or one slip in quality or delivery.
Tech.Co
NOVEMBER 12, 2015
When Los Angeles, CA was listed as the fastest-growing tech startup region in 2014, many guesses were raised about the root cause of its success. Could it be the large number of new companies? Is it the culture or community atmosphere? But trying to boil it down to a single trait minimizes its impact. No, to see the strength of Los Angeles’ startup scene, you must look at the whole story.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 18, 2015
Santa Monica-based CARD.com , the online financial services provider led by Ben Katz, is announcing this morning that it has raised $9M in a growth capital facility, from Columbia Pacific Advisors' Growth Capital Strategy and Fenway Summer Ventures. The company offers up a prepaid MasterCard which can be customized with a user's favorite brands and characters, from the Walking Dead and Family Guy, to Sesame Street, Star Trek and the Care Bears.
InfoChachkie
NOVEMBER 9, 2015
A version of this article previously appeared on the Wall Street Journal. As crazy as it sounds, surfing has made me a better investor. The sport involves a surprising amount of downtime between sets. During the many hours I have stood in anticipation of the next wave (as noted in You’re Never To Old To Learn To Surf , I’m an old guy on a standup paddle board), I have come to realize that surfing and investing share a number of surprising corollaries.
Startup Professionals Musings
NOVEMBER 8, 2015
Many new entrepreneurs are so excited by their latest idea that they can’t resist contacting every investor they know, assuming the investor will be equally excited and want to contribute immediately. Others will work hard on a business plan, and then mail it indiscriminately to every potential investor they can find on the Internet. Both of these approaches are a waste of your time and theirs.
Tech Zulu Event
NOVEMBER 5, 2015
500 Startups officially announced their Batch 15. Among them is one of our very own REACH NeXT alumni Mahmee ! We were stoked when we partnered with 500 startup for REACH NeXT and now are over the moon that they selected one of our winners. Congrats to the Melissa Hanna and the rest of the Mahmee team! Also, 500 startups officially open their applications for Batch 16 on AngelList.
Berkonomics
NOVEMBER 19, 2015
Customer empowerment is moving so fast nowadays that many of us are running to just catch up. Yet if we don’t or can’t, it is a sure thing that someone else will. Blame the Internet for this rise in customer expectations. But don’t close your eyes to the fact that your customers have grown to expect your products or services in the form of…. ‘WHAT I want, WHEN I want, and WHERE I want.’.
Tech.Co
NOVEMBER 23, 2015
It’s a fact: young people are becoming more socially conscious these days. Speaking as one of them, we want to buy from brands that represent our values and give back to the community in some way, even if it’s just a few dollars donated to a charitable cause. The problem is, we’re at the stage of our careers where we don’t have a lot of expendable income that can be allocated towards charity.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 13, 2015
Culver City-based video game publisher Scopely was ranked number two in the nation in the latest Deloitte Fast 500 ranking, as one of two Southern California companies among the top ten in the nation for growth. The rankings--which ranked companies by percentage revenue growth between 2011 and 2014--put Scopely's revenue growth at 19,569 percent in that period, making it number two in the nation for revenue growth.
InfoChachkie
NOVEMBER 23, 2015
A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. There are a number of reasons why Rincon Venture Partners passed on Twilio’s Seed Round. In retrospect, our decision was both perfectly rational and completely lame. VC's love to talk about their successes. However, they seldom acknowledge their mistakes. Exceptions exist, such as the highly self-aware Paige Craig, who recently described how he missed out becoming Airbnb's first investor.
Startup Professionals Musings
NOVEMBER 6, 2015
Surviving as an entrepreneur requires unbridled passion, enthusiasm and a certain naiveté in the face of many unknowns. Young people are more accustomed to facing a new world each day, so they don’t worry about it, and usually actually relish the new adventure. Once the rest of us reach a certain age, we know too many things that can go wrong, so we avoid the path entirely.
Tech Zulu Event
NOVEMBER 2, 2015
As a first-timer at Oracle OpenWorld , I’ve been quite impressed by the sheer number of people thronging Howard Street, Moscone Center and the local San Francisco area in business-suits and professional attire. As tech conferences go, I have certain friends that might refer to such an event as “ Salaryman Con.” Keynote presentations on Cloud, SaaS, Mobile, Big Data, CRM, HCM and more continue to herald “disruptive innovation to empower enterprise collaboration.” Is
Berkonomics
NOVEMBER 26, 2015
We’re talking about brand strategy here. Not advertising, and certainly not an easy grasp for amateur marketers. So how developed is your company’s brand? Is your message clear, concise and consistent? There is a process used by professionals to get to clear messaging. It starts with “discovery,” the process of finding the strengths of the company in the minds of all stakeholders.
Tech.Co
NOVEMBER 5, 2015
When Jacob Salamon and Jared Bauer met each other freshman year at UT-Austin, they were sitting in an astronomy class. As the two got to talking, it came out that Salamon was in the business school while Bauer attended the film school. They became fast friends, and Salamon talked about how it’d be fun to move to Los Angeles and make movies with Bauer some day; neither of them had any expectation, at the time, that they’d collaborate on Wisecrack , one of the most successful YouTube v
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 11, 2015
Santa Monica-based secure messaging provider TigerText has raised $50M in a Series C financing, the company said this morning, to help it with its growth efforts. The new round was led by Norwest Venture Partners, and also included Invus Group, Accolade Partners, plus Shasta Ventures, OrbiMed, and Reed Elsevier. TigerText is a provider of secure messaging apps, which help enterprise companies ensure compliance with a range of privacy and records laws.
Frank Addante
NOVEMBER 23, 2015
Part of being CEO and Founder of a company is learning to navigate the different tasks, people and opportunities that are constantly competing for your time. That’s the nature of the beast. The discipline lies in being strategic about your schedule to maximize your time and productivity. Below are 10 strategies that have helped me become more productive: 1.
Startup Professionals Musings
NOVEMBER 18, 2015
One of the business ironies that many entrepreneurs have learned the hard way in the past is that ideas which are truly disruptive carry the highest risk of failure, take the longest to gain traction, and thus are the least likely to get external funding. So some entrepreneurs stick with incremental solutions, avoiding more transformational or adaptive solutions implying disruptive change.
Tech Zulu Event
NOVEMBER 19, 2015
LA is one of the most unique places in America for innovation and we get some of the biggest venture capitalist not only in LA but in the world! LA Tech may be the second largest tech hub in the world, however its only a matter of time before its number 1! Checkout out latest coverage from the LA Tech Summit 2015 conference. The post LA Tech Rising at LA Tech Summit 2015 appeared first on TechZulu.
Jason Nazar
NOVEMBER 1, 2015
I’ve been a part of dozens (maybe hundreds) of product launches And in each of these cases I ask my team to put together a simple dashboard of a small set of metrics for our paid and free products that let me know the success of our efforts. For startup entrepreneurs, you can also track these metrics with Google analytics. Paid Product Metrics.
Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 16, 2015
I had a bunch of topics teed up now that I’m back in LA after 2 weeks of constant travel. I felt excited to write because it’s a cathartic outlet for me and saves me from doing email. But no words would come out this weekend. After watching the terrorist activities in Beirut and Paris and blog post seemed trite. It’s terrible that a group of Islamic extremists is having some success in perverting the Muslim religion in an attempt to divide the rational world of moderate people.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 5, 2015
For our interview today, we sat down with Kevin Anderson , one of the co-founders of Los Angeles-based Appetize (www.appetizeapp.com), the developer of a cloud based enterprise point of sale solutions for venues and events. Appetize is backed by the Guggenheim, the 49ers Family Office, WME SVP of Music Marc Geiger, Roar Entertainment and others; the company recently announced deals with Live Nation and the Sacramento Kings, and is part of the Dodgers Accelerator.
Frank Addante
NOVEMBER 23, 2015
Part of being CEO and Founder of a company is learning to navigate the different tasks, people and opportunities that are constantly competing for your time. That’s the nature of the beast. The discipline lies in being strategic about your schedule to maximize your time and productivity. Below are 10 strategies that have helped me become more productive: 1.
Startup Professionals Musings
NOVEMBER 9, 2015
A popular myth these days is that successful entrepreneurs must attract investors to get their businesses going, when the reality has been that more than 80 percent of new businesses are started and grown with no outside investment at all. In fact, there is plenty of evidence that too much money can undermine a startup more quickly than squeezing pennies.
Tech Zulu Event
NOVEMBER 10, 2015
TZ #TechCrawl is back this month and heading to Santa Monica as part of LA Startup Week ! Come take a tour of some of the hottest LA Tech companies located in Santa Monica! Starting Point. Swing by Expert Dojo to pickup your name tags. The first wave of crawlers will begin promptly at 6pm. Walking Diretions here: [link]. Powered by Bizzabo. 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 10:00pm?
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 3, 2015
Redlands-based Esri and Microsoft said Monday that the two are working together to incotae Esri's location services into Microsoft's Azure IoT Suite. Financial details of the collaboration were not announced. The two specifically said they'd offer rich location and geo-spatial services within Microsoft's Internet-of-Things sotware, the Azure IoT Suite.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 10, 2015
A report Tuesday in the Financial Times said that investment giant Fidelity has written its investment in Los Angeles-based Snapchat by 25 percent, citing data from a Morningstar report. Snapchat--arguably, the most visible "unicorn" startup in Southern California--had been valued at $15 billion in its last fundraising round. It's unclear why Fidelity wrote down the value of its investment in the disappearing messaging service.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 9, 2015
A new, Carpinteria-based startup, Click2Jet announced late Friday that it has launched a brand new, online marketplace to help users book private jet charters. According to Click2Jet, it is offering up an online service which helps uses with real time search and booking for jet charters, starting with Los Angeles and San Francisco. The new startup is led by John Andruilli, Jr., and says it has relationships with charter jet operators Clay Lacy Aviation, Dreamline Aviation, Sun Air Jets, Global E
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 11, 2015
It was an unusual sight at Dodger's Stadium on Tuesday evening, at least for baseball fans, as a different Dodger's team took the field: the first class of the LA Dodgers Accelerator , an effort by the team to help incubate and accelerate startups in the sports and sport-related areas. The event transformed Dodger's Stadium into a place for not baseball pitches, but startup pitches, with ten different companies pitching their companies to a large audience of investors and others in the technolog
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 9, 2015
A new study, published by researchers at the University of Southern California , says that positive emotions are more contagious than negative ones on Twitter. The study--which came out of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering's Information Sciences Institute--correlated the tweets spread by users with the prior positive or negative tweets, based on what had appeared in those same users' stream the prior hour.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 3, 2015
Los Angeles-based Alelo , which develops computer-aided training and simulation for the U.S. Department of Defense, says it has received a new set of contracts to provide cultural awareness training for the Levant, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Financial details of the new contracts were not announced. Alelo said its new cultural awareness training courses help the U.S. military to develop skills to trust and cooperation from local armed forces and civilian populations.
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