Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 18, 2012
It’s 4.50am. Sunday morning. And I couldn’t sleep. I have much on my mind since I just returned from a week on the road. 5 days. 3 cities. Late night Mexican food. Beers. Airports. Delays. I left on a Sunday. I had to miss a full day with my family, camping in the mountains. I returned home Friday night at 10pm – too late to see my kids.
SoCal CTO
NOVEMBER 14, 2012
I was just asked about a particular startup situation (seed stage, CMO hire, non-founder) and particularly what compensation and equity is appropriate. I know a lot more about CTOs specifically CTO Salary and Equity Trends 2009-2011 , Visualization of Startup CTO Equity and Salary Data , Startup CTO Salary and Equity Data , but I've previously written about the issues with Equity for Early Employees in Early Stage Startups.
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socalTECH
NOVEMBER 9, 2012
Who are the top tech companies to work for in Los Angeles? Despite a huge number of companies, we found there are a number which. popped up consistently in an informal (and highly non-scientific poll) of a number of readers, executive recruiters, and others in the Los Angeles area, who cited growth, brand, profitability, and other factors in their suggestions to us of the top companies.
InfoChachkie
NOVEMBER 19, 2012
This article previously appeared in Forbes. Note: This is an installment in the Iconic Advice series. Other installments include: Jeff Bezos , Steve Jobs , Mark Cuban , Richard Branson , Walt Disney , Mark Zuckerberg , Michael Dell and Larry Ellison. Oprah Winfrey is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of her generation. Raised by her grandmother in rural Mississippi until age six and then by her mother, who worked as a maid in Milwaukee, Ms.
Advertiser: Aggregage
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.
Berkonomics
NOVEMBER 29, 2012
You may have been a Girl Scout or a Boy Scout in your youth. Certainly you are aware of the top rank in each – the Gold Award for girls and the Eagle badge for boys. Scouting teaches leadership and even if we were not members in our youth, there are lessons for us all. For example, the Boy Scouts of America motto is “Be prepared.” And from that comes training in first aid, disaster preparation, and outdoor skills, planning for events and outings, and any number of simulations or practice runs
Startup Professionals Musings
NOVEMBER 24, 2012
As a mentor for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs, I talk to a fair number who may have a great vision and a strong engineering background, but have a negative interest in the role of public speaking in business. In fact, they often claim to be part of the survey group that fears public speaking more than death, but I’m not sure how anyone could validate that survey.
Southern California Tech Central brings together the best content for technical professionals in Southern California from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
SoCal CTO
NOVEMBER 19, 2012
One of the recommendations I make all the time to startup founders, is to find other founders who have tackled similar problems as yours and talk to them about how they solved these problems. As an example, I'm working with two sets of founders who are both going to be dealing with Getting Started with a Two-Sided Market Business - they are variants of two sided markets, but have similar characteristics.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 14, 2012
The annual ranking of the fastest growing companies by Deloitte , the 2012 Deloitte Technology Fast 500, was released today, showing a healthy list of Southern California companies in growth mode. Topping the list for Southern California was EdgeCast Networks , the content delivery network headed by Alex Kazerani, which showed an astounding five year growth rate of 21406%.
InfoChachkie
NOVEMBER 5, 2012
I always walk away smarter after speaking with Steve Blank. In addition to being a thought leader within the Lean Startup Movement , Steve is also a professor at Stanford and Berkley. However, many people are not aware that prior to entering academia, Steve was a wily and creative marketing entrepreneur. If you haven't already subscribed yet, subscribe now for free weekly Infochachkie articles!
Berkonomics
NOVEMBER 8, 2012
Dictators are not great leaders in the long run. People follow such leaders by fear, rarely by devotion. Employees want to have a stake in their own destiny, and above all want to understand why actions are taken which affect them, even if the outcome is not in the employee’s favor. The best leaders are those who share problems and alternative solutions with their direct reports, then seek consensus in decisions as a result.
SoCal Tech Calendar
NOVEMBER 25, 2012
Saturday, December 1, 2012 -- AngelHack Fall 2012 LA. Ready to take your big idea to the next level? Then join us for LA's next AngelHack, where winning teams will receive 6-8 weeks of mentorship and be flown into Silicon Valley for a weekend of events including a Global Demo Day to A-list investors and media, Site visits to, Google, Facebook, Google Ventures, VIP dinners, and ragging parties with the Valley startup community.
Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 5, 2012
For the past three years I have been pounding the table as loud as I can about the future opportunities in digital video. The concise guide is here. My narrative has stayed pretty simple: People in the US watch 5.3 hours of TV per day. People read for less than 30 minutes. You will not fundamentally change consumers media consumption habits. So you tell me what the future of the Internet will be?
Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 5, 2012
This article originally appeared on TechCrunch. It is election season. So it’s tempting to think this is going to be a partisan post – it is not. I use George Bush vs. Al Gore as allegory and I’ve been using it with entrepreneurs for years to sink in a simple point about how to communicate with the market. I use it because I believe in the power of visual and memorable stories to sink into the consciousness.
Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 4, 2012
I recently wrote about the 12 tips to building successful startup communities. After a recent discussion I had with Steve Blank it made me remember that I had left off one of the most critical factors – a culture of failure. I remember this lesson well. I lived in London from 1997-2005 and for 6 of those years ran my startup based out of London.
Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 13, 2012
I wrote this post a long time ago. When I did it was a little too close to home for a company to have me publish it. Much time has passed. And I felt it was instructive still so I thought I would publish. I decided to water down some details to protect the innocent. But both stories are still accurate. I hope it still resonates. A while back I received a frantic phone call from the CEO of a company in which I invested.
Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 9, 2012
Later today I’m presenting at the annual Rincon Ventures Summit in Santa Barbara. Startup Exits: A Primer from msuster. I thought you might like to see an advance copy of what I’m going to cover. I speak privately a lot about getting an exit at a startup. I haven’t spoken publicly about it much but since Rincon asked – I agreed.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 28, 2012
Andrew Connell is the CEO of DinnerDate.com , a startup which has been in beta in San Diego for the last few months, and is just now expanding out to new markets. The startup--created by Robert Earl (Founder and CEO of Planet Hollywood), Grant Hosford (formerly of eHarmony), and Connell (formerly of Nokia)--is using the Internet to arrange group dates at local restaurants, to connect people in person and offline.
InfoChachkie
NOVEMBER 13, 2012
As a venture capitalist, I am asked to provide feedback on a fair number of PowerPoint and Keynote slide decks. I usually only have time to perform a cursory review. Even so, I find myself repeatedly making the same recommendations, which I have codified below. If you haven't already subscribed yet, subscribe now for free weekly Infochachkie articles!
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 14, 2012
A new, Los Angeles startup, TheBouqs , headed by a former ShoeDazzle executive, has just launched, hoping to upset the often confusing (and expensive) online flower delivery market. The startup has launched a service which delivers flowers for a flat, $40, including shipping, with options for subscriptions and scheduled delivery. The service is the brainchild of John Tabis, who formerly was VP of Brand, Strategy, and Corporate Development at ShoeDazzle, and also served at The Walt Disney Company
InfoChachkie
NOVEMBER 26, 2012
This article previously appeared in Forbes. Citrix's CEO, Mark Templeton, recently shared his insights regarding achieving personal and professional success as part of UC Santa Barbara’s Distinguished Lecture Series. The underlying theme of Mark's talk was: "Success Isn't What Happens To Other People - It Can Happen To You.". Mark knows a bit about success and what it takes to reach the top of one's industry.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 16, 2012
Earlier this week, Deloitte released its latest list of the top 500 growing technology companies, in its 2012 Technology Fast 500. list. A very healthy list of Southern California companies made the list, with a total of 64 companies in the region ranked in the list. The full list follows: 13 EdgeCast Networks 21406% Santa Monica Alex Kazerani 15 Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 18798% San Diego Pedro Lichtinger 22 Phone Power 7642% Winnetka Ari Ramezani 23 TeleSign Corporation Software 7534% Marin
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 15, 2012
If you're a web publisher, or even a brand developing your own outreach to customers through a newsletter or microsite, how do you efficiently gather and curate all of the news and information out there? Right now, it's a manual process--unless you're using the tools from Los Angeles-based PublishThis (www.publishthis.com). The firm has created a tool which uses software and semantic search to help in the whole process of curating content.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 20, 2012
A new report issued this morning from the Startup Genome has ranked Los Angeles as the third top startup ecosystem, only behind Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv. The Startup Genome is an effort to benchmark startups against other startups, and figure out the keys to startup success. At number three, Los Angeles beat out Seattle (4), New York City (5), Boston (6), and other technology centers in the ranking.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 13, 2012
Los Angeles-based Fan Appz , which is headed by Jon Siegal, said today that it has launched a new social media marketing product. The firm said its Personalized Marketing Platform is aimed at brand, to help them turn their fans into customers. Fan Appz said it differs from other, social media marketing products because it is focused on helping brands close a sale.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 8, 2012
How do you make travel a more rewarding experience--particularly if you're traveling with kids? Go Trexx (www.gotrexx.com), which is based in Mission Viejo, think it's by engaging kids with mobile applications which provide background information, helps to build excitement, and gets kids involved in traveling to different destinations. We spoke with founder and CEO Samantha Lurey on how her startup is trying to make travel with kids--and eventually, adults--more fun, by providing location-based
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 8, 2012
San Diego's TVC Capital has made another investment in a growing software firm, this time in Washington State. Limeade , a developer of software-as-a-service tools to manage employee wellness programs, said today that it has raised $5M in a funding round from TVC, which it will use for innovation and servicing its customers. Steven Hammerslag of TVC has joined Limeade's board of directors.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 26, 2012
Venice-based ZEFR , the online content provider headed by Zach James and Richard Raddon, has reached 1 billion monthly views of its content, the firm revealed Monday, as part of an invite to supporters to celebrate the milestone. The company--formerly known as MovieClips--offers up content from partners such as Universal, Warner Bros., Paramount, MGM, Miramax, Columbia, and others, for online distribution.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 2, 2012
Are you someone who'd like to save money, energy, and maybe the environment while shopping for your new television, appliance, or other electronic product? If so, how do you figure out what the better choice is when you're making those purchase decisions? In a bid to try to make it easier for consumers to figure that out, Enervee (www.enervee.com) recently rolled out a new tool to provide an "Enervee Score" to help rate products on their energy efficiency and cost--and is now trying to get manuf
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 27, 2012
JibJab , the online humor and greeting card service run by Evan and Gregg Spiridellis, has scored a major coup, releasing a new card out of its "Starring You" line of personalized video greeting cards based on Gangnam Style. The new Gangnam Style Video Card features a user's head inserted directly into the original, viral Gangnam Style video, which can be sent to your friends and family (for free, in the case of this video).
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 19, 2012
A report this morning from Business Insider says that Irvine-based Specific Media , the parent company of MySpace , is seeking to raised $50M to turn MySpace into a "Spotify killer". The report says that Specific Media is hoping to re-launch MySpace as a competitor to both Pandora and Spotify, two popular streaming music services. Specific Media is now known as Interactive Media Holdings.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 6, 2012
What's the best way to get your small or medium sized business online? And, how do you do that without a huge development budget and time? Los Angeles-based Gumiyo (www.gumiyo.com) has been developing mobile websites for SMBs and publishers for a number of years, and recently started to offer up self-service tools to make it easy for those customers to create cross-device mobile websites.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 8, 2012
Laguna Hills-based Vessix Vascular , a deveveloper of percutaneous radiofrequency (RF) balloon catheter technology being targeted at treating hypertension, has been acquired by Boston Scientific Corporation , the two said this morning. The deal is worth an aggregate value of $425M, and includes $125M in an upfront playment plus up to $300M tied to clinical and sales-based milestones.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 8, 2012
A Silicon Valley startup is looking to take on Pop Up Pantry in its home market of Los Angeles, saying today that it has raised a funding round which will go towards expanding in Los Angeles, as well as Seattle and New York City. Munchery , which features new menus from local chefs, and delivers those to users for between $10 and $15 a meal, with the user finishing off those meals at home or work in a microwave or oven.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 7, 2012
A new, Los Angeles startup is looking to disrupt the women's fashion market and women's shoes--and it's not who you think. Sole Society , a startup offering a personalized, high fashion shoes, has quietly been building a brand looking to disrupt the entire model of how women's fashions reach the market--and is one worth watching. The startup has some very impressive credentials, and is headed by Brett Markinson, one of the co-founders of HauteLook , and is backed by Vince Camuto, founder of fash
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 19, 2012
In a major launch, Santa Monica-based TrueCar , the online new and used car pricing website, said it has launched a redesigned website and new ad campaign. TrueCar, which is headed by Scott Painter, said it has launched a $7.7M advertising campaign developed by Santa Monica's DW+H, to help position it as a national brand. The ad launch comes as part of a redesigned website, which it says emphasizes providing "fairness for both buyers and sellers.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 20, 2012
A report this morning from AllThingsD says that Yahoo is on the prowl for companies, and has been looking at Maker Studios. The report comes after reports that Yahoo is considering an acquisition of TVGuide from Lionsgate, in a deal worth $20M. AllThingsD said that Yahoo's M&A point person has been looking at Los Angeles-based Maker studios as part of its efforts to bolster Yahoo's properties.
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