Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 12, 2018
Many people will write the history on why Ring became an enormously successful company and why it became a real-world unicorn in a world when many startups are anointed that merely on paper. Since I had a ringside seat to the company before it really existed all the way through the end I thought I’d offer my version and what I think it means for our future.
TechCrunch LA
SEPTEMBER 21, 2018
In the days leading up to TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2018, The Economist published the cover story, ‘Why Startups Are Leaving Silicon Valley.’ The author outlined reasons why the Valley has “peaked.” Venture capital investors are deploying capital outside the Bay Area more than ever before. High-profile entrepreneurs and investors, Peter Thiel, for example , have left.
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L.A. Business Journal
NOVEMBER 1, 2018
Los Angeles’ technology sector is growing, according to a recent study from real estate brokerage firm CBRE Group Inc.
Berkonomics
SEPTEMBER 13, 2018
This is one of my favorite insights, since I lived this one in a positive exit from my computer business. Types of business buyers expanded. Most people will tell you that there are two kinds of eventual buyers for your business: financial and strategic. A financial buyer will analyze your numbers, past and forecast, to the n’th degree, and calculate the price based upon the result, after carefully comparing your numbers with those of others in the same and similar industries.
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.
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 9, 2018
You had an amazing meeting with an investor. Your product demo crushed. The dialog was great. They told you how much they loved your space. The meeting was only supposed to last 45 minutes but you ran 90. The assistant tried to end the meeting twice but was shoooshed away. You race back to the office to tell everybody how well it went and you wait for the follow-up call to have a partners’ meeting or talk about term sheets or at least dip into due diligence.
TechCrunch LA
OCTOBER 7, 2018
If investors at some of the biggest technology companies are right, the next big restaurant chain could have no kitchens of its own. These venture capitalists think the same forces that have transformed transportation, media, retail and logistics will also work their way through prepared food businesses. The Battle Is For The Customer Interface. Investors are pouring millions into the creation of a network of shared kitchens, storage facilities, and pickup counters that established chains and ne
Southern California Tech Central brings together the best content for technical professionals in Southern California from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
InfoChachkie
JANUARY 8, 2018
A version of this article first appeared in Forbes. Steven Johnson, author of How We Got To Now , analyzes technological breakthroughs, looking for patterns that allow entrepreneurs to identify “How We’ll Get To Tomorrow.” One of the key myths that he destroys is that of the lone inventor who experiences a Eureka moment. Slow Hunches Lead To Breakthroughs.
socalTECH
FEBRUARY 2, 2018
Los Angeles-based TS2 Holdings , a strategic business development firm focused on the technology industry, said on Friday morning that it has acquired three companies, including Neohire South , RockIT Recruiting , and Hero.jobs. Neohire South is a recruiting company with offices in Santa Monica and Tarzana, RockIT Recruiting is a tech recruiting company based in San Francisco, and Hero.jobs is a recuiting software company based in Santa Monica.
SoCal CTO
DECEMBER 3, 2018
The LA CTO Forum recently conducted a survey to find out what our Chief Technology Officer (CTO) members saw as their biggest challenges heading into 2019. We received over 250 responses that provides a pretty good insight into the top CTO challenges. The rating scale was 1-5 with: Not a challenge A small challenge Somewhat a challenge Definitely a challenge Keeps me up at night We provide both an Average and a Scaled Rating that gives much higher weight to 4s and 5s and discounts 1s and 2s.
Eric Greenspan
OCTOBER 22, 2018
Woke up and there it was, my book cover. She just made it and sent it to me. I looked at it for a bit and started thinking about writing it. Then I did. I published the initial draft this past weekend and it’s now available for pre-order on Amazon. It’s interesting how the headline mentions “mindset” as that’s what happened here.
Tech.Co
JANUARY 15, 2018
Today, I’m excited to announce that Tech.Co has been acquired by MVF , an international publishing and tech company. MVF was founded in the UK by five friends in 2009, and has driven incredibly fast growth over the past 9 years. They opened an office in Austin, Texas and have expanded their workforce to over 400 staffers. Most importantly, we like them.
TechEmpower
JUNE 6, 2018
Now in its fifth year, the TechEmpower Framework Benchmarks project has another official round of results available. Round 16 is a real treat for anyone who likes big numbers. Not just in measured results per second (several metric crap tonne), but in number of tests measured (~1830), number of framework permutations tested (~464), number of languages included (26), and total execution time of the test suite (67 hours, or 241 billion microseconds to make that sound properly enormous).
TechEmpower
FEBRUARY 14, 2018
What better day than Valentine's Day to renew one's vow to create high-performance web applications? Respecting the time of your users is a sure way to earn their love and loyalty. And the perfect start is selecting high-performance platforms and frameworks. Results from Round 15 of the Web Framework Benchmarks project are now available! Round 15 includes results from the physical hardware environment at Server Central.
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 19, 2018
Why you should never have a data room?—?the most counter-intuitive fund-raising advice you’ll ever get I’m about to offer you some fund-raising advice that flies directly in the face of what most conventional wisdom will tell you. If you stick through to the end I’m guessing I can persuade most of you. Let me start out with my premise: “Data rooms are where fund-raising processes go to die.
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 13, 2018
This is part of a series of advice for founders who need to raise money from venture capitalists. The first in the series is “ Lemons Ripen Early ,” which also has a link to other posts. The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed.
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 30, 2018
One of the hardest things about the fund-raising process for entrepreneurs is that you’re trying to raise money from people who have “asymmetric information.” VC firms see thousands of deals and have a refined sense of how the market is valuing deals because they get price signals across all of these deals. As an entrepreneur it can feel as intimidating as going to buy a car where the dealer knows the price of every make & model of a car and you’re guessing at how much to pay.
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 24, 2018
If you’ve read any of my ongoing series on fund raising from venture capitalist (episode 1?— ?controlling your psychology ) you no doubt have heard me say that raising capital is a sales & marketing process. You company is the product and you’re selling an equity ownership in your company but much more broadly you’re selling trust & confidence that you’re going to build something enormously valuable and that you’re going to be enjoyable to work hand-in-hand with over the coming decade of
TechCrunch LA
MARCH 9, 2018
“It feels like investing in Uber when it first launched.” That’s what one investor said of the hot new Santa Monica, Calif.-based startup, Bird — an electric scooter company that’s now in the process of raising as much as $100 million on a $300 million valuation, according to several people with knowledge of the company’s […].
TechCrunch LA
MARCH 9, 2018
“It feels like investing in Uber when it first launched.” That’s what one investor said of the hot new Santa Monica, Calif.-based startup, Bird — an electric scooter company that’s now in the process of raising as much as $100 million on a $300 million valuation, according to several people with knowledge of the company’s plans.
TechCrunch LA
APRIL 17, 2018
The mayor of Los Angeles confirmed earlier reports that SpaceX will build its largest rocket, the BFR, at the Port of Los Angeles. The company intends to build a manufacturing facility on an 18-acre site at Berth 240 and use waterways to transport the massive rocket. SpaceX says the BFR is simply too big to be transported by roads. Announced last September SpaceX intends for the reusable BFR to eventually replace its Falcon 9 and Falcon 9 Heavy rockets.
TechCrunch LA
MAY 2, 2018
The massage-on-demand service Soothe seems to be rubbing investors the right way with the close of a new $31 million round of funding. The Series C round from late stage and growth capital investment firm, The Riverside Company , caps a busy first quarter for the massage service. It also relocated from Los Angeles to Las Vegas; named a new chief executive; and announced new geographies where its massage booking platform is now available. .
TechCrunch LA
JANUARY 31, 2018
What began as a movement among couture culturati with the success of Rent the Runway has moved into everything from cars (Porsche's got a subscription service ) to construction equipment and furniture. Well, the Los Angeles-based startup Joymode has just raised $14 million to be the subscription service for nearly everything else. .
TechCrunch LA
JANUARY 31, 2018
What began as a movement among couture culturati with the success of Rent the Runway has moved into everything from cars (Porsche’s got a subscription service ) to construction equipment and furniture. Well, the Los Angeles-based startup Joymode has just raised $14 million to be the subscription service for nearly everything else. Read More.
TechCrunch LA
MAY 19, 2018
W hen young adults leave the parental nest, they often follow a predictable pattern. First, move in with roommates. Then graduate to a single or couple’s pad. After that comes the big purchase of a single-family home. A lawnmower might be next. Looking at the new home construction industry, one would have good reason to presume those norms were holding steady.
TechCrunch LA
FEBRUARY 22, 2018
What started with an esports team is now quickly becoming an esports empire, backed by some of the biggest names in sports and money managers for entertainment family dynasties and Hollywood power brokers. Vision Esports LP, the esports conglomerate launched by Stratton Sclavos, Rick Fox and Amit Raizada has just closed on a $38 million […].
TechCrunch LA
JANUARY 29, 2018
Los Angeles is becoming one of the more interesting destinations for startups and the investors that provide money for venture capital firms to place bets on young companies are increasingly starting to take notice. New funds are launching in Los Angeles at a pretty feverish clip, and the latest to plant its flag in the […].
TechCrunch LA
APRIL 12, 2018
The city of Glendale, Calif. seems like an unlikely place to grow one of the next billion-dollar startups in the booming Los Angeles tech ecosystem. Located at the southeastern tip of the San Fernando Valley, the Los Angeles suburb counts its biggest employers as the adhesive manufacturer Avery Dennison; the Los Angeles industrial team for the real estate developer CBRE; the International House of Pancakes; Disney Consumer Products; DreamWorks Studios; Walt Disney Animation and Univision. “
TechCrunch LA
JANUARY 29, 2018
Los Angeles is becoming one of the more interesting destinations for startups and the investors that provide money for venture capital firms to place bets on young companies are increasingly starting to take notice. New funds are launching in Los Angeles at a pretty feverish clip, and the latest to plant its flag in the city is Bonfire Ventures, which just closed a $60 million vehicle for… Read More.
TechCrunch LA
MAY 15, 2018
My boss’ boss’ boss was on CNBC this morning touting Verizon ‘s new 5G services and naming Los Angeles as the second city in America to be treated to a commercial rollout of the new networking technology. “I think we’re a lot closer than people think,” says Verizon chief executive Lowell McAdam of the nation’s move to the higher-speed 5G networks. “We’re locking in on four this year,” McAdam said of the cities that will receive 5G tech
Berkonomics
APRIL 5, 2018
I expect that you have a story about how insurance saved you lots of money in your past. As usual, I have a story to make your hair stand on end. But first: here’s a fact. Business insurance is one of the more poorly managed mitigation of risk in small and many medium sized corporations, often because of failure to assign the responsibility to an individual or department, and sometimes just from the willingness to bet against the event and save cash.
TechCrunch LA
DECEMBER 4, 2018
One of Europe’s most popular fitness applications is poised to flourish in the U.S. market with the help of several Los Angeles-based investors. Freeletics , headquartered in Munich, Germany, is today announcing its first round of private capital after bootstrapping since 2013. The $45 million Series A was co-led by FitLab, Causeway Media Partners and JAZZ Venture Partners, with participation from Courtside Ventures, Elysian Park Ventures and ward.ventures.
L.A. Business Journal
SEPTEMBER 20, 2018
A Pasadena robotics and artificial intelligence outfit that’s been using a robot to fry chicken tenders at Dodger Stadium just gave the bots an upgrade to include the frying skill.
Both Sides of the Table
FEBRUARY 25, 2018
If I had just one wish for VCs it would be that they would preview the Ted Bunch “Man Box” talk at the Upfront Summit at their Monday Partner Meetings. I would love it if startup leadership teams would preview it to their executive leadership. We need to learn from women and listen to them. We also need to start having a conversation amongst men about how men talk and behave and about the silence that leads to consent if we’re going to make necessary changes.
TechCrunch LA
MARCH 27, 2018
The smash dockless scooter rental startup, Bird , is expanding beyond its Southern California nest with a new rollout in San Francisco, San Jose, Calif. and Washington, DC, the company said today. And as his company makes its migration across the country, Bird chief executive Travis VanderZanden is determined not to make the same mistakes that bedeviled his former bosses at Uber.
TechCrunch LA
DECEMBER 13, 2018
Apple has announced a major expansion that will see it open a new campus in North Austin and open new offices in Seattle, San Diego and Los Angeles as it bids to increase its workforce in the U.S. The firm said it intends also to significantly expand its presence in Pittsburgh, New York and Boulder, Colorado over the next three years. The Austin campus alone will cost the company $1 billion, but Apple said that the 133-acre space will generate an initial 5,000 jobs across a broad range of roles
Both Sides of the Table
JUNE 13, 2018
One of the hardest things to know when you’re new to fund raising is what you’re supposed to send to an investor, when and will they keep your information confidential. As a VC and former entrepreneur let me offer you some advice. (This is part of a series on how to improve your fund raising game. The first post & the full outline if you click the link.
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