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.
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.
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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
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socalTECH
MARCH 15, 2018
Westlake Village-based Pray.com , which develops social networking applications for religious communities, has raised $14M in a Series A funding, the company said this week. The funding was led by TPG Growth, and also included Science Inc. and Greylock Partners. The startup, led by CEO Steve Gatena, has been based at California Lutheran University's Hub101 Incubator, and received a stealth seed funding round last year from Science and Greylock, which had not previously been announced.
L.A. Business Journal
JANUARY 18, 2018
Los Angeles was named by Amazon as one of the 20 finalist cities for the Seattle e-commerce giant’s second headquarters.
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Startup Professionals Musings
SEPTEMBER 26, 2018
One of the big decisions every aspiring entrepreneur has to make is when to quit your current job to devote yourself fulltime to your new startup. Some of you are so committed to the new passion that you quit your day job early, and dedicate all your time and resources to the new venture. Others wait until the new business starts to generate revenue and profit before making the move.
Xconomy
NOVEMBER 21, 2018
If we want to create jobs and economic opportunity here in the U.S., we’re going to need immigrants. Not only have they pioneered our country’s greatest achievements, bringing you everything from hot dogs to YouTube, but today they serve at the cutting edge of our foremost industries. Nowhere is this more true than in the field of artificial intelligence, where foreign-born innovators created many of the technologies now changing the way we live, work, and play.
Berkonomics
NOVEMBER 1, 2018
So, you are close to selling your company, and counting the profits a bit early. Well, that’s human nature. Here’s a thought for you to recall later when and if the event happens. Remember those who got you there. And for tax reasons, remember them before the closing of the deal, so that you can do so by sharing a bit of your proceeds without paying personal income tax upon those amounts.
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
FEBRUARY 22, 2018
At the recent Upfront Summit my partner Stuart Lander had the opportunity to show some California Love and interview three of the wealthiest Bitcoin owners, each of whom were some of the earliest owners in the asset class and who haven’t sold any of their holdings. It’s an extraordinary story ranging from Jaime who studies cryptography in college to Bryan who was early in selling products on Silk Road to Steven owns 179,000 Bitcoin worth more than $2 billion.
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
FEBRUARY 28, 2018
There has always been tension between CPG (consumer packaged goods) companies and the retailers who sell their products to consumers. If a consumer will pay a fixed price for a product or service then the battle over who gets the margin in any sale is between the person who merchandises a product and the person who manufactures it. This is an age-old marketplace tension where leverage often determines the value captured.
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
Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 8, 2018
Upfront Ventures has a deep-seated commitment to equality in funding & building diverse teams across all ethnicities, nationalities and genders. We do this not just because it’s the right thing to do but also we believe it will help drive large and differentiated returns. In 2017 we began inserting an “Inclusion Clause” into our term sheets because we believe that the culture one establishes at the earliest stages of one’s business will set out the course of how it will grow and develop.
TechCrunch LA
FEBRUARY 14, 2018
Alongside co-founder and longtime partner Stephan Ango, Jesse Genet has built a business with Lumi that’s already been profitable, and has just raised $9 million in venture funding to boost its growth. Read More.
Berkonomics
OCTOBER 18, 2018
Loyalty is a hard-earned commodity. There are several times when stakeholder loyalty is tested to the limit. For employees, a late or missed payroll is the ultimate test of corporate loyalty, divorced even from an employee’s ability to make do without a paycheck. For investors, a subsequent down round at a lower valuation than the last, or an exit opportunity at a loss are all opportunities for the affected stakeholder to show a side that can sometimes shock an entrepreneur or CEO.
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.
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
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
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
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
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.
Berkonomics
MARCH 8, 2018
Give one percent equity to each outside board member vesting over four years of service. Many early stage CEOs and board members have asked for some guidance regarding pay and time commitments for board members. Here is my best advice, based upon many boards and many years. Pay early stage board members of companies that are not lifestyle businesses one percent of the fully diluted equity in the form of an option that vests over four years of service.
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.
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
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
MARCH 6, 2018
WHOOP, the company behind the Tesla of health tracking and sports performance wearables, has raised a whopping $25 million in a new round of funding. The round was comprised of a slew of prominent investment firms and individual investors including the Durant Company, the National Football League Players Association, former NBA commissioner David Stern, Twitter […].
TechCrunch LA
JUNE 28, 2018
This week, both Microsoft and Google made moves to woo Hollywood to their cloud computing platforms in the latest act of the unfolding drama over who will win the multi-billion dollar business of the entertainment industry as it moves to the cloud. Google raised the curtain with a splashy announcement that they’d be setting up their fifth cloud region in the U.S. in Los Angeles.
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