Sat.Feb 22, 2020 - Fri.Feb 28, 2020

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BYD Delivers First Buses as Part of Anaheim Order

L.A. Business Journal

BYD Motors Inc., a downtown-based electric vehicle maker, delivered to Anaheim the first two electric buses of a previously announced 40-bus order, BYD announced Feb. 24.

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Bird is testing Bird Pay, which lets users purchase items from local businesses using its main app

TechCrunch LA

Another on-demand transport app is making a move into payments to expand the existing relationship with its customers (and subsequent margins that it makes from serving them). Bird today announced the launch of Bird Pay, a service that will let people use its app to purchase items from local participating businesses alongside renting scooters. The service is being tested first in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, the company said.

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Does your company have a “dirty cap table?”

Berkonomics

How it happens. When you seek professional investors, whether organized angels or venture capitalists, one of the early questions you are asked is “How have you financed the business so far?” Investors love to see entrepreneurs who have used their own money to ignite their businesses. But often, entrepreneurs turn to others for initial capital. Describing that capital using the phrase “friends, family and fools,” or “FFF,” has become as common as to be trite.

Companies 156
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ringDNA Acquires Sales Podcast, Hires Podcaster As Head Evangelist

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based ringDNA , the venture-backed startup which is developing artificial intelligence tools to help sales teams, says it has acquired a popular podcast focused on sales. According to the company, it has acquired the sales podcast "Accelerate!", which is run by Andy Paul, and will appoint Paul as its new Head of Revenue Performance Evangelism.

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Can You Ask for Office Rent Relief? How to Manage Your Lease During COVID-19

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.

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Parsons Opens Satellite Facility Near Torrance

L.A. Business Journal

Parsons Corp., the multibillion-dollar engineering and infrastructure firm, is opening a new facility in L.A. County to pursue the rapidly expanding space satellite business.

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Max Q: How to build a Starship

TechCrunch LA

Max Q is a new weekly newsletter all about space. Sign up here to receive it weekly on Sundays in your inbox. Busy week for SpaceX – across funding, space tourism, and next-gen spacecraft. There’s also a space station resupply mission coming up that it’s getting ready for, and signs ( this time literally ) continue to suggest that its first human spaceflight mission is imminent.

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RepairSmith Acquires CarDash

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based RepairSmith , which offers up mobile automobile repair, has acquired CarDash , a startup which offers up car repair and maintenance services. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. CarDash offered up its service in the Bay Area, providing same-day valet service to transport cars to and from repair ships. CarDash had raised $5.3M in total funding, and came out of YCombinator in 2017.

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PlayVS Dials Up Riot Partnership

L.A. Business Journal

Riot Games Inc. has become the exclusive organizer of PlayVS Inc.’s high school “League of Legends” seasons and championships.

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8 Guiding Principles To An Enviable Employee Culture

Startup Professionals Musings

With today’s interactive social media and the real-time Internet, both customers and employees see inside your company easily, so you can’t hide your real company culture. At the same time relationship perceptions have become the biggest drivers to customer loyalty and employee engagement. Thus in every business, big or small, culture can make or break your success.

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With cinnamon, fruit and mint-flavored nicotine gum, is LA’s Lucy Goods the next Juul?

TechCrunch LA

David Renteln, the Los Angeles-based co-founder of Soylent and the co-founder and chief executive of new nicotine gum manufacturer Lucy Goods , thinks there should be a better-tasting, less-medicinal offering for people looking to quit smoking. That’s why he founded Lucy Goods, and that’s why investors, including RRE Ventures, Vice Ventures and FundRX joined previous investors YCombinator and Greycroft in backing the company with $10 million in new funding. “We reformulated nic

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Catasys Expands AI Healthcare Tool To New States

socalTECH

Santa Monica-based Catasys announced this morning that it is expanding its artificial intelligence and technology-enabled healthcare products with a "leading national health plan" into Colorado, Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Louisiana. Name of that national health plan and financial impact was not announced. Catasys said the expansion of its OnTrak-A solution makes the product available in 28 states, as well as Washington, D.C.

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SpaceX Ramps Up Constellation Efforts

L.A. Business Journal

Since Hawthorne-based SpaceX began its ambitious Starlink project in late 2018, the company has launched roughly 300 small satellites into low Earth orbit.

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7 Ways For Businesses To Work Less And Enjoy It More

Startup Professionals Musings

Successful businesses are all about getting results, not just working hard. As a new business advisor, I hear facts all the time about how hard an entrepreneur is working, but often have a hard time getting them to quantify results. You must never stop looking for ways to get more traction with fewer personal hours, and more productivity, efficiency, and momentum from the team.

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Lundbeck’s Alder Bio Bet Pays Off With FDA Approval of Migraine Drug

Xconomy

A migraine drug that Lundbeck added to its pipeline via its nearly $2 billion acquisition of Alder BioPharmaceuticals won FDA approval on Friday. The drug, eptinezumab (Vyepti), is part of a new class of antibody therapies developed to prevent migraine attacks before they start. These drugs block calcitonin gene-relate peptide (CGRP), a protein associated with the onset of migraine pain.

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Flock Freight Finds $50M

socalTECH

Solana Beach-based Flock Freight , a startup which develops software which uses algorithms to pool multiple, less-than-truckload freight shipments together so they can take advantage of full truckload pricing, has raised $50M in a Series B funding, according to the company. The funding was led by SignalFire and GLP Capital Partners. The startup, which is led by CEO Oren Zaslansky, said the funding will go to expand its flagship product, FlockDirect, as well as for partnership with carriers throu

Pricing 124
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Headspace Expands Office Space

L.A. Business Journal

Santa Monica-based meditation app developer Headspace has expanded, bringing its total Bergamot Station presence to 22,000 square feet.

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7 New Dimensions Of Market Value In This Digital Age

Startup Professionals Musings

As a startup advisor, I see too many entrepreneurs get distracted by technology or their favorite cause, and then wonder why they can’t find an investor, attract customers, or build a long-term business. Every startup needs to start with an honest assessment of how they provide customer value, and how that translates into a sustainable business return for stakeholders and growth.

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The Montgomery Summit

SoCal Tech Calendar

Thursday, March 5, 2020 --.

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Pipe Picks Up $6M For SaaS Financing

socalTECH

A new, Los Angeles-based fintech startup, Pipe , said this morning that it has raised $6M in its seed funding round, to launch a new platform which offers up financing to subscription-based, software-as-a-service companies. The funding was led by Craft Ventures, and also included Fika Ventures, MaC Ventures, Naval Ravikant, WorkLife Ventures, Liquid2 and The Weekend Fund.

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Is Musk Considering Tesla-SpaceX Project?

L.A. Business Journal

Industry experts speculate that SpaceX founder Elon Musk could tap his aerospace company’s communications technology to support a key element of his automotive company, Tesla Inc.

SpaceX 130
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7 Leadership Strategies To Rev-Up Your Team Vitality

Startup Professionals Musings

Most startup ideas begin in the mind of an individual, but an idea is not a business. It takes a team, with effective leadership, to build a business. Many aspiring entrepreneurs default to team leadership by domination and control. Yet in my experience, the best entrepreneurs quickly learn the art of people connection. They connect and inspire the right people to achieve more with less.

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SCALE 18x

SoCal Tech Calendar

Thursday, March 5, 2020 -- SCALE is North America's leading open source community conference. Held annually in the greater Los Angeles area the conference draws over 3500 attendees from around the globe.

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Cornerstone OnDemand Acquires Saba For $1.395 Billion

socalTECH

Santa Monica-based Cornerstone OnDemand has acquired fellow talent and human resources management software developer Saba , in a deal worth approximately $1.395 billion, the company said on Monday. Cornerstone OnDemand said that Saba, which has approximately 3,300 clients, has a complementary product portfolio to the company. The firm is paying a combination of cash and stock for Saba, and expects the deal to be complete in the second quarter of 2020.

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NGM Bio’s NASH Drug Shows Promise, Shares Rise on Early Phase 2 Data

Xconomy

In what looks to be a transformative year for potential treatments of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, the liver disease better known as NASH, another biotech has revealed that its experimental drug appears to improve the condition compared to a placebo. NGM Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: NGM ) revealed preliminary data on Monday showing that 22 percent of patients who received its experimental NASH drug, aldafermin, as part of the last of four cohorts enrolled in its Phase 2 study of the drug met a c

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6 Benefits of Outsourcing and Freelancing In Startups

Startup Professionals Musings

One of the most stressful and unanticipated challenges that comes with starting a new business is hiring and managing employees. Many entrepreneurs I have mentored make big mistakes in this area, by hiring low-cost friends and family, with minimal skills or training, and expecting them to have the same work ethic , passion, and business knowledge as the founder.

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The Montgomery Summit

SoCal Tech Calendar

Wednesday, March 4, 2020 --.

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Snap Buys Assets Of Ill Fated AR Startup Daqri

socalTECH

Venice, California-based Snap has acquired the assets of ill-fated augmented reality (AR) hardware developer Daqri , according to a report today. Financial details of the asset acquisition were not announced. According to Protocol, the acquisition was of "certain Daqri assets" and around two dozen employees. Daqri had raised around $300M for the development of its own, augmented reality headset and technology.

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Bio Roundup: COVID-19 Trials, Esperion’s Approvals, NASH News & More

Xconomy

Clinical trials have historically hewn to a rigid format. A trial is designed, conducted according to that design, and then results are analyzed. Making changes in the midst of the study was a no-no. In recent years, regulators have showed openness to clinical trial designs intended to make drug testing more efficient. We’ll get to see an example play out in tests for a coronavirus infection treatment.

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New Startup Series Announced

Startup San Diego

Get to know Alexa-Rae Navarro, Startup San Diego's Executive Director. Learn more about her background in the non-profit sector and her passion for startups. The post New Startup Series Announced appeared first on Startup San Diego.

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Oblong Gets Win With Major Mining Firm

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based Oblong Industries , the developer of futuristic data collaboration and virtual meeting tools--which is owned by Glowpoint, Inc.--said this morning that it has scored a big win with an un-named, global mining, metals, and petroleum company. Name of the customer, and financial impact of the win were not announced. According to Glowpoint, the un-named customer has deployed Oblong to a new office complex in Southeast Asia.

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Gretel Gets Seed Funding For Data Sharing Startup

socalTECH

San Diego-based Gretel has raised a seed round of funding, to go towards its development of software which helps developers and engineers access and share anonymized data for developing applications. The funding was led by Moonshots Capital, and also included Greylock Partners and Village Capital. The startup is led by Alex Watson, who serves as founder and CEO.

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Dray Alliance Finds $10.2M More

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based Dray Alliance , which operates a on-demand, short haul container delivery marketplace, has raised $10.2M in funding, via a Series A funding, the company said this week. The funding was led by Matrix Partners, and also included Moving Capital, Craft Ventures, Act One Ventures, and Wonder Ventures. The funding brings the company's total raised to $14.7M, including an earlier seed funding the company raised a year ago from Craft Ventures.

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Calidi Biotherapeutics Expands Advisory Board

socalTECH

San Diego-based Calidi Biotherapeutics , which is developing oncolytic virus-based immunotherapies for cancer, has expanded its Scientific and Medical Advisory board, saying this morning that it has added COL (retired) George E. Peoples, MD, FACS to its list of advisors. Peoples is Founder of the military Cancer Vaccine Development Program (CVDP) and the oncology-focused clinical research organization, Cancer Insight, LLC, according to Calidi Biotherapeutics, and now serves as Professor of Surge

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Fifth Wall Raises New, $100M Retail Fund

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based venture investor Fifth Wall has raised a new, $100M venture capital fund, which it says will invest in "emerging brands and retail concepts". The new $100M Retail Fund is backed by real estate owners and service providers, including Acadia Realty Trust, Cushman & Wakefield, Macerich, and Nuveen Real Estate. Fifth Wall said this new fund includes more than 50 corporate strategic investors.

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DoorDash, The Cheesecake Factory Offer Up Free Cheesecake Offer

socalTECH

Calabasas-based restaurant chain The Cheesecake Factory and door-to-door delivery service DoorDash are ramping up efforts to get people to order from the restaurant at lunch, with a free cheesecake offer, the two said today. According to The Cheesecake Factory, any of its customers who order more than $15 or more through DoorDash through March 25th will receive one slice of any of its 30 flavors of cheesecake.

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Encantos Links With Teachers With Educator In Residence Program

socalTECH

Culver City-based Encantos , the venture-backed developer of family entertainment education brands which raised $2M in January , says it has launched a new program which links the company with educators, the companys said today. Encantos said its new "Educator in Residence" program will connect the company with educators around the world who are "inspiring 21st century kids to learn 21st century skills.

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