Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

Upfront Ventures was created 20 years ago as one of the original VC funds in Los Angeles. Back then only 15% of our dollars were invested locally whereas today 50% of our dollars are invested in LA. 10 years ago we found ourselves trying to persuade LPs and VCs that it was worth spending more time getting to know the LA market and now the most common refrain that I hear from them is “there really is something going on in LA.

Dollar Shave Club 321

Dollar Shave Club Cornerstone OnDemand Riot Games Venture Capital 321

TechCrunch LA

MAY 2, 2017

Looking to make EV car sharing the next perk for real estate developers, Envoy, a new Los Angeles startup has launched its first pilot. Initially, they’re starting with one apartment building and a fleet of two cars in an LA apartment complex. But, what the young startup lacks in reach, it makes up for in gumption. Founded by two real estate developers, Aric Ohana and Ori Sagie, the… Read More.

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Develop Development Startup Los Angeles 329

L.A. Business Journal

JULY 3, 2017

Long-haul commuting is better in a Tesla. That’s the theory behind Tesloop of Culver City, a car service which ferries passengers on highway trips between 50 miles and 200 miles around Southern California in Tesla Inc.’s Model X or Model S cars.

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Culver City Services Southern California 321

socalTECH

OCTOBER 31, 2017

Marina del Rey-based phone verification and user authentication service TeleSign is now officially part of BICS , after the official close of the acquisition, BICS said today. The deal was originally announced in April. BICS said it paid $230M, however, March Capital Partners, one of the investors in TeleSign, said that as a result of additional cash and earn out the deal now has a total valuation of $335M.

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Marina Del Rey Acquisition Commerce Sites 290

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

Berkonomics

JUNE 22, 2017

Close. Stop me if you’ve heard this story before. “My job as a (newspaper publisher telephone installer, stockbroker, travel agent, retail store manager) is safe as this economy continues to grow.” Yup. Thought so. We are in a decade of creative destruction that will affect most everybody. And the prime motivators of this massive destruction are the same class of entrepreneurs and innovators that have done it before.

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Artificial Inteligence Class Coach Education 295

Eric Greenspan

OCTOBER 19, 2017

Back in 2001, I started my 3rd company out of my 3rd bedroom in my newly rented townhome on the beach after separating from my oldest son’s mother. I had no choice. I had just sold my last company and I needed to keep busy. I built and built and built and one day, I wrote a business plan and sent it off for review to an angel funding group. I pitched 4 locations, including Hawaii.

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Startup Santa Monica Funding Email 222

Xconomy

JULY 2, 2017

This story is part of an ongoing Xconomy series on A.I. in healthcare. These are heady times for using artificial intelligence to extract insights from healthcare data—in particular, from the tidal wave of information coming out of fields like genomics and medical imaging. Yet as innovations proliferate, some age-old business questions have come to the fore.

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Artificial Inteligence Startup San Diego IBM 110

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2017

One of the most common complaints I hear from new business owners and startups is about the pain and difficulty raising capital. The “venture capital” model is the only option they know, where they feel they get no mercy, giving up equity and control. Based on my experience with startups, I’m a strong believer that there are far better alternatives available, if you think outside the box.

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Technical Review Equity Capital Entrepreneur 88

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 8, 2017

Uber has inked a partnership with Nasa over its flying taxi plans and says now it’s aiming to get demo flights up and running in Los Angeles by 2020. Read More.

Los Angeles 346

Los Angeles Angel 346

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2017

The modern world is filled with constant distractions. Only those with maniacal focus on results and a willingness not to engage in every activity achieve extraordinary results. As executives we’re all seemingly accessible at any moment to anybody via email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Text. We are over-intro’d and at the same time under-resourced in terms of staff to handle the barrage of in-bound requests.

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Activity Blogging Email Startup 297

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2017

I am so proud and humbled to be able to formally announce that Upfront Ventures has raised its 6th venture capital fund in the past 21 years. Upfront VI is our latest core fund and is $400 million to invest in early stage entrepreneurs. This brings our combined funds under management to nearly $2 billion. A huge thank you to all of the Limited Partners who have entrusted us with your capital, time and reputations.

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Funding Venture Capital Santa Monica Invest 287

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Nearly every successful tech startup I’ve observed over the past 20 years has gone through a similar growth pattern: Innovate, systematize then scale operations. An alternate outcome that I also unfortunately observe in some cases are companies who had extreme early success with an initial product adoption but failed in key areas that limited the growth and therefore the ultimate financial outcomes.

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Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2017

Like many people these days, I spent much of my 20’s and early 30’s thinking about work & fun and not too much about “the future.” Like characters from one of my favorite novels “ The Unbearable Lightness of Being ” life seemed very light. My first son was born the day before my 35th birthday so the decade that followed was very heavy and consequential.

Carson 286

Carson Email Writing Startup 286

socalTECH

APRIL 4, 2017

Santa Monica-based GumGum , the developer of computer vision and artificial intelligence software focused on the advertising industry, has jumped into the online publishing business, saying it has started a new online publication call The Visionary. GumGum said it will publish original and curated content, a newsletter, awards and more focused on artificial intelligence and computer vision.

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Artificial Inteligence Newsletter Sites Santa Monica 255

L.A. Business Journal

OCTOBER 30, 2017

Line 204, a Hollywood film and television production and rental company, said today hackers had stolen its client database. The extent of the breach is still being determined.

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Hollywood Product Company Companies 277

Berkonomics

APRIL 13, 2017

Your vision for success must be solid and flexible enough to pass several critical tests if it is to guide a business enterprise to greatness. Here in brief are ten tests for your successful vision. Try these on for size, and test yourself for attractiveness to the marketplace, to investors and to history. Ten tests for your successful vision. Is your market identifiable and accessible?

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Patents Pricing Ideas Marketing 291

Berkonomics

MAY 18, 2017

If you have been following the last several weeks of these postings, then now we’re getting organized. There are many ways to express the road map for your enterprise. One of the most popular was used by the U.S. Army late in World War II, and adopted by many high profile businesses such as Texas Instruments after the War. The structure combined the listing of the goal with a series of strategies and then tactics, each designed to support each other, each measurable and made public throughout

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Organization Metrics Demand Resource 275

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 8, 2017

Kevin Novak, the architect of Uber's dynamic pricing technology and the head of its data team, has joined the Los Angeles-based financial services startup Tala as its new head of data.

Los Angeles 278

Los Angeles Startup Pricing Services 278

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 20, 2017

Passport, company that's managing much of the technical aspects of how people pay to use public transportation resources in cities like London, Miami and Los Angeles, has just raised $43 million. The money, from Bain Capital Ventures, will go to help the company expand its payment and transaction services nationally and internationally.

Los Angeles 278

Los Angeles Technology Resource Capital 278

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 6, 2017

CrossCut Ventures, a Los Angeles-based seed investment firm has just closed its fourth (and largest) fund with $125 million in new cash. It’s been a long road for the firm’s three co-founders, who have been investing in Los Angeles since 1997. In that time they’ve seen the city’s technology scene evolve in fits and starts, but now, with companies like Snap, Dollar… Read More.

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Los Angeles Invest Angel Funding 268

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 9, 2017

Close. How many of us throw away marketing dollars because our paid efforts reach an audience that is much larger than the target or niche audience we need to reach? Whether it be for publications, social marketing, or even those once-necessary postal mailers, we have tools now that were not available just a few years ago. So, let’s up our marketing knowledge first with a few short answers to marketing questions….

Marketing 266

Marketing Advertising Resource Social Media 266

Berkonomics

AUGUST 2, 2017

Well, if you’ve had a computer long enough, it has certainly happened to you. Power surges, power outages, surges upon reinstatement of power, low or high voltage from your utility (brownouts or surges.) I’ve had all of these over the years and lost equipment from motherboards to microcells. And I’ve lost data due to sudden power loss. I have worried over every wind storm or thunderstorm.

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Software Review Screening Writing Activity 266

Berkonomics

JULY 6, 2017

Know your market and competition, or don’t spend a dime on anything else. I love absolutes – statements with no wiggle room for gray-area responses. Well, here is one of those, and it deals with market research first and foremost. Close. Let me tell you a short story at my own expense. In 1994, (I know a long time ago), I invested over a million dollars into a company whose entrepreneurs had a vision that I bought into for many reasons, not the least of which was that I had industry experience

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Competition Research Summary Pricing 266

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

The subject of raising money is critical to many businesses and a passing option to others, depending upon the capital efficiency of the enterprise. Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). For you who fit that description, nice work.

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Venture Capital Class Invest Equity 266

Berkonomics

MAY 4, 2017

Have you ever driven a car that had no speedometer? I had that thrill when a student at the Richard Petty Stock Car School of Driving at a motor speedway in California. With a wide track, angled aggressively at the curves, and being told to hug the wall on the straightaways, there was little reference available to a novice driver as to speed. I followed my instructor’s car closely, but still could not tell anything about my speed, so that I could neither compensate for lags behind the leader n

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Metrics Screening Email Customer 266

Berkonomics

APRIL 27, 2017

We’ve spent several weeks discussing your vision for success, and whether you could be the next Ford, Jobs or Musk. Now it’s time to make this more tangible, more real – by attaching personal goals to this vision we’ve created together for you. So, your vision tells the world what you want to be as you contemplate how you will change the world for the better.

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Satisfaction Email Examples Report 266

Berkonomics

MARCH 9, 2017

Well, the numbers don’t lie, even if there are several sources of these statistics. Starting a company is HARD – in so many ways. And risky too. I read several years ago, that the average startup restaurant lasts only about a year. Ouch! Here I am a professional investor in early stage companies, and I attempt to find those with the greatest chance of success and growth in value over time.

Startup 266

Startup Statistics Tech Coast Angels Study 266

L.A. Business Journal

MAY 23, 2017

Real Office Centers, co-working tenants evicted from Santa Monica office, Snapchat launches custom group stories, and Pepsi to label millions of cans with Snapchat codes.

Santa Monica 227

Santa Monica Snapchat Report Customer 227

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 8, 2017

Kevin Novak, the architect of Uber’s dynamic pricing technology and the head of its data team, has joined the Los Angeles-based financial services startup Tala as its new head of data. Read More.

Los Angeles 268

Los Angeles Startup Pricing Services 268

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 20, 2017

Passport, company that’s managing much of the technical aspects of how people pay to use public transportation resources in cities like London, Miami and Los Angeles, has just raised $43 million. The money, from Bain Capital Ventures, will go to help the company expand its payment and transaction services nationally and internationally. Read More.

Los Angeles 267

Los Angeles Technology Resource Capital 267

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 8, 2017

This week has been a good one for those who like to talk about the limits of technology. Over in the UK, a prankster managed to fool Trip Advisor into naming his shed the #1 ranked restaurant in London. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, a city struggling to manage several wind-fueled wildfires, the L.A.P.D. has asked drivers to refrain from using navigation apps because they’re steering… Read More.

Education 266

Education Technology Los Angeles Angel 266

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 2, 2017

Rent your first office with caution. . Several years ago, I became involved with a Southeast Asian company looking to expand into the United States. During the discussions with the CEO about hiring North American managers, he made it clear that he wanted us to find a first-class office facility from which to start the search process, and proceeded to name cities that attracted him.

Startup 256

Startup Class Email Tool 256

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

Close. This post is longer than usual. For those negotiating equity allocations it covers some of the most complex issues to address in the process. I just couldn’t reduce it to far fewer words… Dave. Here is the warning: The execution of partnership equity allocations and of a good incentive program using equity is often mismanaged, damaging the corporate capitalization structure and even affecting the outcome of subsequent investment into the company.

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Equity Class Pricing Sales 256

Berkonomics

JULY 20, 2017

Close. You can take this headline as a rule, not an exception. You’ll recognize the truism, “No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy” first stated by German Field Marshall von Moltke way back in the 19 th century. Our variant of the “battle plan” truism is important to internalize. A product at the concept stage contains feature-functionality that customers may not want or be willing to pay for, or which just might not work well enough for release to the public.

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Customer Custom Writing Product 256

Berkonomics

JULY 13, 2017

So, you have a great new product or service that you and your associates love. Early adopters should climb all over each other for a look. But what have you done to test the concept against the realities of the marketplace? Have you developed a prototype, alternate pricing schemes, even a PowerPoint mock-up to show to potential buyers? I would be very, very nervous without testing the product in the market as early as possible, ready to make changes and enhancements before committing to prod

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Resource Pricing Organization Product 256

Berkonomics

APRIL 20, 2017

Well, it’s a fair question. Note that none of these three famous innovators were inventors like Thomas Edison, but visionaries who find a new marketplace or niche – or how to reach the mass market in new ways. Leaders and companies that innovate new products, services and methods of delivery are the ones that stand out in a crowded business world, especially when attempting to gain recognition among the throngs of competitors visible on the web.

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Artificial Inteligence UCLA Web Patents 256