TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 16, 2020

Derek Norton and Jeremy Milken have known each other for twenty years. Over their longtime personal and professional relationship, the two Los Angeles-based serial entrepreneurs have invested in each other’s companies and investment firms, but never worked together until now. Milken is taking the plunge into institutional investing, joining Norton as a partner in Watertower Ventures just as the firm prepares to close on a $50 million new fund.

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Berkonomics

AUGUST 20, 2020

So, you’ve found the buyer, received a letter of interest, signed it, and exclusively tied your company up for a period to complete the deal. Everyone on the board is anxious to close this. You’ve committed time to do whatever is needed. You’ve informed your top management of the pending but still secret deal and they know they will be impacted and are a bit skittish.

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Press Pricing Email Activity 177

socalTECH

AUGUST 18, 2020

Are you a renter, tired of landlords always claiming damages and never returning your security deposit? San Diego-based Deposit Defender says it has launched a new app, which helps renters photo-document rental property inspections, in order to prevent future loss of their security deposits. According to Deposit Defender, its app includes a comprehensive checklist and photo-taking protocols that accurately document the condition of a rental property before renters move in, and was developed by e

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Help San Diego Screening Pricing 203

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2020

In my experience, consummate entrepreneurs tend come up with more startup ideas than they can ever implement, and some of the ideas may not even make business sense. But how does any entrepreneur know which ideas to implement, and which ones are best left behind? After all, most great breakthroughs, like a computer in every home, seemed like a crazy idea before Steve Jobs and Bill Gates made it happen.

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Technical Review Ideas Patents Startup 173

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

L.A. Business Journal

AUGUST 17, 2020

Hawthorne-based Swoop Inc. wants to bring digital order and ease of use to the group transportation industry, a fragmented market populated with small operators who keep their books manually.

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Platform Hawthorne Marketing 130

Xconomy

AUGUST 18, 2020

A Phase 1 trial testing a Poseida Therapeutics cell therapy in men with prostate cancer is on hold after a patient enrolled in the study died of liver failure nearly three weeks after receiving the treatment. The San Diego company, which has touted its product candidates as safer than early-generation versions developed by other companies, announced the FDA’s decision to pause the study on Monday.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 16, 2020

As an angel investor and a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m always disappointed to see founders who seem stressed out most of the time, and more annoyed than energized by the abundance of challenges they see in building their startup. The entrepreneurial lifestyle is a tough one under the best of circumstances, and it’s one you have to love in order to succeed.

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Startup Entrepreneur Activity Ideas 171

L.A. Business Journal

AUGUST 17, 2020

Igor Vaks, the founder and chief executive at Culver City-based Social Edge Inc., doing business as CreatorIQ, understands that his company’s complex platform can be difficult to describe to potential investors.

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Platform Culver City 130

Xconomy

AUGUST 20, 2020

Presented by Xconomy, the 100% digital Xcelerate Keynote Series at Biotech Week Boston on Monday, Sept. 21 places a spotlight on life science leaders who are breaking new ground with methods and solutions in R&D, planning, and production that are improving patient outcomes. As the industry navigates uncertainty, the keynote speakers will help drive your business forward by sharing insights on how their sectors are adapting to challenges, combating disruptive forces, and preparing for what th

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Help Product San Diego Blogging 98

socalTECH

AUGUST 21, 2020

Los Angeles-based OpenX said this week that it has launched a new product, Apollo, which it says helps publishers maximize their programmatic revenue. The company said the new tool integrates with the open source Prebid offering, allowing such features as configuration management and a/b testing capabilities. Pricing on the new tool was not announced.

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OpenX Product Advertising Tool 113

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 15, 2020

Young entrepreneurs often are so excited by new technology or their latest invention that they forget to translate it into a value proposition that their customers or potential investors can understand and relate to. They become frustrated with investors, senior executives, and even customers who don’t seem to “get it,” with the result that everyone loses.

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Technology Social Network Training Startup 165

L.A. Business Journal

AUGUST 17, 2020

Hawthorne-based Swoop Inc. wants to bring digital order and ease of use to the group transportation industry, a fragmented market populated with small operators who keep their books manually.

Platform 130

Platform Hawthorne Marketing 130

Xconomy

AUGUST 20, 2020

Two biotechs this week topped the $100 million mark in their respective initial public offerings, both of which were able to offer more shares than planned. One, a company with nearly nine month’s-worth of revenue from a newly commercialized drug and the other, an early-clinical stage oncology drug developer, illustrate the range of biotech companies eliciting public investor interest this summer.

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socalTECH

AUGUST 21, 2020

Irvine-based American Medical Technologies , a provider of wound care program for Long Term Care facilities, has been acquired by a group of private equity companies. According to American Medical Technologies, it was acquired by One Equity Partners and The Silverfern Group. Financial details of the buy were not announced. AMT says it has been providing its services since 1994, and serves residents in more than 6,250 facilities nationwide.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2020

As a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I often feel the frustration of someone trying to build a startup in the wrong place and time, and wrongly attributing their struggle to personal limitations. It may not seem fair, but passion and commitment alone are not enough to make your startup successful – every business needs critical resources and favorable location-specific conditions.

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Resource Startup Capital Mentor 131

L.A. Business Journal

AUGUST 17, 2020

The clock is ticking for TikTok.

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Activity 246

Xconomy

AUGUST 21, 2020

While business is historically slow in August, this month seems to be bucking the trend, just like so many other unexpected developments in 2020. Perhaps life sciences executives have been less distracted by summer excursions this year in a world in which the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly curtailed travel. This week two pharmaceutical companies announced major acquisition agreements collectively valued at more than $10 billion, and a trio of biotechs—one with preclinical programs, an

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Acquisition Develop Development San Diego 76

socalTECH

AUGUST 21, 2020

Uber and Lyft has received a stay on an injunction late Thursday, staving off a complete shutdown of both of the services at midnight. An appeals court in California granted the two companies the stay, holding off the injunction which would have forced the two companies to reclassify all of its drivers in the state to employees. California had passed AB5, an attempt to force Uber and Lyft to treat its drivers as employees last year--but neither company has made any moves to comply with the law;

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2020

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Investors check your burn rate to assess your efficiency, and project your remaining runway before you run out of money and into a brick wall. Don’t wait until you are almost out of cash before managing every dollar spent, or looking for the next refueling from investors. Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young.

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Search Engine Optimization Outsource Development Social Media Equity 124

L.A. Business Journal

AUGUST 17, 2020

TrueCar Inc., the Santa Monica-based online car-buying marketplace, has managed to gain investors’ trust even as it adjusts to the market under Covid-19.

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Truecar Santa Monica Sales Marketing 130

SoCal Tech Calendar

AUGUST 21, 2020

Thursday, August 27, 2020 --.

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socalTECH

AUGUST 20, 2020

Irvine-based HireRight said this week that it is adding COVID-19 screening to its menu of offerings, on top of existing background check, drug testing, education verification, and other services. According to HireRight, the new COVID-19 antigen testing is being made available via its Drug & Health Screening services. HireRight said its test option is one of the COVID-19 antigen tests which has received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the FDA, and which uses a saliva sample.

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Steve Reich

AUGUST 17, 2020

Bankers have a huge asset on their balance sheet that they are not managing: the traffic that flows daily to desktop and mobile Digital banking platforms. Non-bank Digital marketers spend fortunes to generate “organic traffic”—meaning people who come to their platforms because they are interested in the content, rather than arriving after clicking on an ad.

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Technical Review Startup Platform Commerce 59

socalTECH

AUGUST 20, 2020

Irvine-based IT distributor Ingram Micro Commerce & Lifecycle Services , the arm of Ingram Micro which helps companies manage IT asset disposition, says it has teamed up with Closing The Loop, a sustainable solution provider that extracts electronic waste from developing countries and ensures that it is responsibly recycled, to remove the phone weight-equivalent of its employee notebooks from e-waste streams.

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Commerce Help Services Marketing 113

socalTECH

AUGUST 20, 2020

Ridesharing service Lyft announced in a blog post on Thursday morning that it is immediately suspending its services in California, in response to a recent ruling that said the company--as well as Uber--must treat its drivers as employees. According to Lyft, it will suspent its rideshare operations at 11:59pm PT in California. Lyft said the move was made because the requirement to employ its driver is "not a switch that can be flipped overnight" and that it would require the company to "overhaul

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socalTECH

AUGUST 19, 2020

Riverside-based FarmSense has launched an artificial intelligence-powered, automated, pest monitoring system, aimed at helping farmers monitor insects to make crop and pest control decisions. The company--which has received $7.5 million in academic funding, including Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Awards, the Vodafone Wireless Innovation Award, and multiple National Science Foundation Awards--says it has created a new digital sensor to automate the process of real-time insect classification

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socalTECH

AUGUST 19, 2020

Los Angeles-based real estate loan marketplace PeerStreet announced on Wednesday morning that it is launching a new fund, called the Peer Street Credit Opportunity Fund LP , which will provide another way for its customers to diversify, expand, and customize their real estate debt portfolios. PeerStreet said the new fund will allow people to take advantage of opportunities in distressed debt, warehouse financing and subordinate investments.

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socalTECH

AUGUST 19, 2020

Los Angeles-based Sootchy , which develops an app to help family and friends of students help students avoid student debt, said on Wednesday it has launched a new mobile and desktop college savings platform. According to Sootchy, its service lets parents set up and manage a 529 account in their state, and lets parents, friends, family, and acquaintances contribute to a child's 529 college savings plan.

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socalTECH

AUGUST 19, 2020

Los Angeles-based LinQuest , a developer of space systems for the defense and intelligence market, reported on Wednesday that it has received $76M from the U.S. Space Force's Space and Missile Systems Center. LinQuest said it will be the prime contractor to support a satellite communications (SATCOM) effort for the U.S. Space Force. READ MORE>>.

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socalTECH

AUGUST 18, 2020

Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX has once again successfully launched another set of Starlink satellites into space on Tuesday morning, breaking a re-use record for the first stage of a Falcon 9 booster rocket in the process. SpaceX launched 58 Starlink satellites and three Planet SkySats in the launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, at 10:31AM EDT.

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socalTECH

AUGUST 18, 2020

Santa Barbara-based Sonos is getting some additional competition from Google's Nest , as Google announced new, whole-home music features to its products. According to Google's Nest, it is now launching multi-room control, so its users can group together speakers, Smart Displays, and Chromecasts into multiple rooms, which can all be controlled together.

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socalTECH

AUGUST 18, 2020

Hawthorne-based SpaceX has raised another, $1.9 billion in funding, according to Reuters , which says the funding was disclosed in regulatory filings. Source of the new funding was not announced. The new funds reportedly value SpaceX at $46 billion, according to Bloomberg. SpaceX recently launched two astronauts into space for NASA, and just set a new record for re-use of a Falcon 9 booster Tuesday morning.

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SpaceX Report Funding Hawthorne 113

socalTECH

AUGUST 18, 2020

Long Beach-based Ways2H , a developer of waste biomass-to-hydrogen technology, says it has partnered with Massachusetts-based Local Power , to develop hydrogen-fueled community microgrids for Community Choice Aggregators and municipalities.The two said they have partnered to develop community microgrids powered by renewable hydrogen produced from waste, plus solar and battery storage.

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socalTECH

AUGUST 18, 2020

Los Angeles-based software developer SmartAction , which develops conversational, AI-powered virtual agents for contact centers, said this morning that it has named Gary Davis as its CEO. Davis was previously the company's President, and earlier had served as Chief Operating Officer. SmartAction is backed by private equity firms Staley Capital and TVC Capital.

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socalTECH

AUGUST 18, 2020

Los Angeles-based Slope Agency , a marketing firm focused on TikTok and founded by Y-Combinator alumni, says it has acquired Los Angeles-based Abacus Growth , a marketing agency focused on TikTok. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. According to Slope Agency, Abacus Growth was focused on running TikTok ads, and counts such clients as Forbes, LEGO, and Gravity Blanket.

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Los Angeles Acquisition Marketing Angel 113

socalTECH

AUGUST 18, 2020

Los Angeles-based electric vehicle manufacturer Canoo is going public via a reverse merger, in a move that it says will provide it with approximately $600M to help support production and launch of its electric vehicles. According to Canoo, it has entered into an agreement with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Hennessy Capital Acquisition Corp.

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