TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 7, 2019

Waymo, the autonomous vehicle company under Alphabet, has started creating 3D maps in some heavily trafficked sections of Los Angeles to better understand congestion there and determine if its self-driving vehicles would be a good fit in the city. For now, Waymo is bringing just three of its self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans to Los Angeles to map downtown and a section of Wilshire Boulevard known as Miracle Mile.

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Los Angeles Angel Google Design 37

L.A. Business Journal

OCTOBER 9, 2019

Electric vehicle startup Canoo and Chief Executive Stefan Krause were sued for wrongful termination by former communications lead Christina Krause.

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Startup 145

socalTECH

OCTOBER 9, 2019

El Segundo-based Image Metrics , a developer of computer vision and facial analysis and tracking tools, has rolled out a new platform for implementing augmented reality (AR), which it calls LUNAR. According to Image Metrics, the new tool is aimed at marketers, helping them to implement augmented reality (AR) effects for marketing initiatives. The company said the new platform helps brands avoid the "cost prohibitive" tools from existing social media platforms like Snapchat and Facebook, as well

Metrics 140

Metrics Platform El Segundo Snapchat 140

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 10, 2019

Let’s get personal. Do you think you’re much better than a marginal leader? Well, here are a few tests for you to help come to an answer. And a few tips for you if you fall a bit short. Why do people follow their leader? 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

Tips 120

Tips Organization Education Course 120

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.

Company

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 8, 2019

Just weeks after Canoo took the wraps off of its electric vehicle , the Los Angeles-based startup and co-founder Stefan Krause has been accused of gender and marital discrimination, harassment, breach of contract, and wrongful termination in a lawsuit filed Tuesday. The lawsuit, which was filed by Christina Krause, the company’s former head of communications and Stefan Krause’s wife, was first reported by The Verge.

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CTO Hire Startup Los Angeles Design 198

L.A. Business Journal

OCTOBER 11, 2019

El Segundo-based data center management company ServerFarm purchased 5NINES Global Holdings Oct. 10.

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El Segundo Company Companies 127

Xconomy

OCTOBER 8, 2019

Scientists, no matter how sexy the research they’re conducting, aren’t immune from the administrative minutiae of office life. Such tasks steal time away from researchers’ main objectives. However, that wasn’t the problem San Diego startup LabFellows was looking to solve when it launched in 2014. Founders Julio de Unamuno IV (pictured) and Tim Ryan saw an opportunity to serve small research groups and nascent biotechs by offering fully outfitted lab space—think WeWork, plus Bunsen burners.

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San Diego Research Startup Help 112

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 7, 2019

Shuttle startup Via and the city of Cupertino are launching an on-demand public transportation network, the latest example of municipalities trying out alternatives to traditional buses. The aim is for these on-demand shuttles, which will start with six vans branded with the city of Cupertino logo, to provide more efficient connections to CalTrain and increase access to public transit across the city.

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Demand Networking Platform Los Angeles 168

L.A. Business Journal

OCTOBER 10, 2019

Smart lock technology company Nexkey raised a $6 million Series A led by Santa Monica-based Upfront Ventures.

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Santa Monica Technology Company Companies 113

socalTECH

OCTOBER 9, 2019

Los Angeles-based nonprofit XPRIZE --which runs prize competitions to help advance technology and solutions to world problems--said on Tuesday that celebrity Pharrell Williams has won the top prize in its latest "Visioneering 2019" annual gathering. According to XPRIZE, the concept for a new XPRIZE--from the Charter Communities XPRIZE team--won the top prize among 50 XPRIZE designs that were proposed during the gathering.

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Competition Los Angeles Design Ideas 164

Xconomy

OCTOBER 9, 2019

Five years ago, the big tech incubator Y Combinator started to welcome life sciences companies into its sizable startup classes, which had previously nurtured entrepreneurs in information technology almost exclusively. That opening to biotech startups in 2014 was controversial at the time. Some observers simply wondered what kind of guidance a deeply tech-focused accelerator could offer to biology lab scientists messing with live cells and tissues, and facing lengthy development times for new me

Incubator 108

Incubator Class Artificial Inteligence Startup 108

SoCal Tech Calendar

OCTOBER 10, 2019

Wednesday, October 16, 2019 --.

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LAVA Venture Capital 100

L.A. Business Journal

OCTOBER 8, 2019

Cannabis retailer MedMen Enterprises Inc. terminated an agreement to acquire pot cultivator PharmaCann.

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socalTECH

OCTOBER 8, 2019

Los Angeles-based Linksys , the connect home and networking division of Belkin , has rolled out a new, in-home motion sensing technology, which will alert users of motion in their home--without the installation of other hardware. The new system appears to use the variation in Wi-Fi signals to detect when there is motion within the range of the Linksys mesh network.

Technology 124

Technology Belkin Research Networking 124

Xconomy

OCTOBER 10, 2019

Sixteen years ago, Kim Witczak’s husband died by his own hand, turning her world upside down. He had just begun taking an antidepressant off-label for insomnia, and she believes an undisclosed side effect of the drug drove him to suicide. Compelled to act, she became an advocate for tougher safety standards. Witczak now sits on the FDA advisory committee that debates the merits of experimental psychiatric drugs that companies bring to the agency for approval.

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Marketing San Diego Study Design 98

SoCal Tech Calendar

OCTOBER 8, 2019

Monday, October 14, 2019 --.

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L.A. Business Journal

OCTOBER 11, 2019

Triumph Aerospace will close two factories in Hawthorne and Torrance and lay off 250 employees beginning in December.

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Torrance Hawthorne 100

socalTECH

OCTOBER 8, 2019

Ventura-based The Trade Desk announced this morning that it has named Sandeep Swadia as its new Executive Vice President, Chief Data and Trust Officer. Swadia was most recently CEO of White Ops, a company in the digital advertising fraud prevention area, and according to The Trade Desk, has more than 20 years of experience in the technology and media industry.

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Ventura Incubator Advertising Platform 124

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 11, 2019

Every entrepreneur and business leader believes that he or she has the full trust of their team and their customers, and in fact most do in the beginning. In my experience, most business professionals still believe in the old proverb, “ trust but verify.” In this context, that means you trust your leaders initially, but you look for signals that your trust in them is deserved and reciprocated.

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Mentor News Summary Coach 98

Xconomy

OCTOBER 7, 2019

Oxygen’s importance in cellular processes has long been known. But the work to understand how cells sense and adapt to changes in oxygen levels has led to medical insights and potential treatments for anemia, cancer, and more—and today, it has turned into the 2019 Nobel Prize in Medicine. William Kaelin Jr., Sir Peter Ratcliffe, and Gregg Semenza are credited with identifying the molecular machinery that regulates the activity of genes in response to changes in oxygen levels.

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Study Activity San Diego Blogging 80

L.A. Business Journal

OCTOBER 9, 2019

Pasadena-based Thin Line Capital raised a $5 million seed-stage fund to support clean technology and eco-friendly startups.

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Capital Funding Pasadena Startup 100

socalTECH

OCTOBER 7, 2019

El Segundo-based The OIX , a fintech company that is developing tax credit and incentives management software, has named technology startup veteran Laurence Sotsky as its new CEO, according to the company. Sotsky was most recently head of venture-backed, mobile application development startup Hopscotch. According to The OIX, Sotsky was selected after an extensive search in Los Angeles.

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El Segundo Entertainment Los Angeles Mobile 124

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2019

Some people are not cut out to be entrepreneurs. This is a good thing, or the business world would be chaos, with everyone trying to do their own thing. So what about you? How do you know if you should be running your own company, or concentrating on that queue of work that someone else has built for you? I’ve hit this before, but I still hear from too many unhappy entrepreneurs.

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Startup Entrepreneur Satisfaction Organization 97

Xconomy

OCTOBER 7, 2019

This summer Nestlé Health Science sold Prometheus Laboratories , a gastrointestinal disease diagnostics unit it had acquired eight years prior, to a low-profile San Diego biotech called Precision IBD. About a month ago, Precision—a drug and diagnostic developer that’s focused, as its name suggests, on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)—changed its name to Prometheus Biosciences and tapped a former Salix Pharmaceuticals executive as its new CEO.

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San Diego Develop Development Companies 56

L.A. Business Journal

OCTOBER 7, 2019

Santa Monica-based M13 led a $3.3 million seed round for property rental startup Doorstead.

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Santa Monica Startup 100

socalTECH

OCTOBER 7, 2019

El Segundo-based The OIX , a fintech company that is developing tax credit and incentives management software, has named technology startup veteran Laurence Sotsky as its new CEO, according to the company. Sotsky was most recently head of venture-backed, mobile application development startup Hopscotch. According to The OIX, Sotsky was selected after an extensive search in Los Angeles.

El Segundo 124

El Segundo Entertainment Los Angeles Mobile 124

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 7, 2019

Most business leaders I know clearly understand the difference between legal and illegal activities, but often are not so clear on the line between ethical and unethical. Unfortunately, there is no universal code of business ethics , written down and enforced by some external governing body. We all have to rely on our own interpretation of what will maintain a working level of trust between all constituents.

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Examples Custom Customer Activity 93

Xconomy

OCTOBER 11, 2019

Congrats to this year’s Nobel Prize winners in medicine … although, we have to ask: For the US researchers who are honored, isn’t there something crushing about a call in the middle of the night from Sweden, interrupting a dream about the perfect protein-protein interaction? Wouldn’t it be more logical for the committee to wait until it’s breakfast in America?

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Research San Diego Blogging 49

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2019

Los Angeles-based Exploding Kittens , the developer of the popular card game of the same name, has raised another $30M in funding, the company said on Thursday. Exploding Kittens said the funding came from TCG Capital Management, which is an affiliate of The Chernin Group. The company said the financing will help finance continued growth. The company--founded by Elan Lee and Matthew Inman--initially had crowdfunded the card game, only later raising additional capital.

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IP Los Angeles Capital Funding 113

socalTECH

OCTOBER 10, 2019

Los Angeles-based private equity investor Atar Capital has acquired New Jersey-based Keypoint Intelligence , Atar Capital said on Thursday. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. Keypoint Intelligence provides data analytics, laboratory testing and advisory services for the global digital imaging industry. Atar Capital said that Keypoint Intelligence is based in Fairfield, NJ, and also has offices in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Japan.

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Capital Equity Acquisition Los Angeles 113

socalTECH

OCTOBER 10, 2019

Huntington Beach-based Rocket Lab said on Thursday that it has been issued a Launch Operator License from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which will allow it to launch multiple Electronic missions--without having to re-apply for every mission. According to Rocket Lab, the license covers launches from its launches from its Launch Complex-1, which is in New Zealand.

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socalTECH

OCTOBER 10, 2019

Brea, California-based TP-Link , which develops networking products for both the consumer and business market, has rolled out two new, low cost routers at Walmart. According to TP-Link, its new Wi-Fi routers, the Archer AX3000 and Archer AX1500 support 802.11ax, the Wi-Fi 6 standard. The AX1500 costs only $69.99, and the AX3000 costs $129.99. The more expensive AX3000 offers up higher dual-band speeds, up to 3Gbps, plus more capacity for devices than the lower cost AX1500, with 1.5 Gbps speeds.

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Networking Marketing Product Develop 113

socalTECH

OCTOBER 10, 2019

San Diego-based Mercato , which provides delivery of items from independently owned grocery and specialty food stores, has launched a new program that offers up unlimited free, same-day grocery delivery from local grocery stores. According to Mercato, its new Mercato Green program provides unlimited free, same-day delivery via a membership program. Pricing on the new grocery delivery service was not announced, and the company's website does not make it clear what the program costs.

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San Diego Pricing Funding Invest 113

socalTECH

OCTOBER 10, 2019

Los Angeles-based Blizzard Entertainment is facing major pressure from fans, after it banned one of the competitors in its Hearthstone e-sports league for expressing his support for protestors in Hong Kong. According to Engadget, Blizzard is "considering its options" as its fans have reacted negatively to its banning of Ng Wai Chung, known as Blitzchung, for his support for Hong Kong protestors on a post-game interview.

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Entertainment Los Angeles Angel 113

socalTECH

OCTOBER 9, 2019

Virgin Orbit , one of the space launch startups backed by The Virgin Group, is planning an effort to launch small satellites to Mars, the company said on Wednesday. Virgin Orbit, which is based in Mojave, says it has teamed up with a Poland-based satellite company called SatEvolution , to create a new consortium dedicated to launching a commercial small satellite mission to Mars.

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Startup Develop Development Companies 113

socalTECH

OCTOBER 9, 2019

In an unauspicious start, Los Angeles-based electric vehicle startup Canoo --which just barely announced its plans for a self driving, electric vehicle--has already been dragged into a legal morass, after the CEO's wife and former head of communications sued the company alleging discrimination, harassment, breach of contract, and wrongful termination.

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Startup Los Angeles Design Marketing 113