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An edtech startup called Entity Academy — which provides women with training, in areas like data science and software development; mentoring; and ultimately job coaching — has raised $100 million on the heels of strong growth of its business, and an ambition to improve that ratio.
Despite what you might think, you are never too old to benefit from the helpful guidance of a mentor. Jason Nazar, Co-Founder and CEO of Docstoc , and a self-professed "Mentee Whore," discusses his secrets to finding and keeping a mentor in this compelling article. and set up meetings with people that you want to be like.
Bob Wood has been a mentor to dozens of professionals during his long career in public service. As noted in You''re Never Too Old (Or Too Successful) For A Mentor , Bob has become not only my mentor, but also my friend. Establishing a mentor relationship is emotionally akin to asking someone out on a date.
I have never been more optimistic about the impact that the tech startup community is having on cities in America or about the role that cities outside of San Francisco / Silicon Valley can play in our future. Changes in the Startup Ecosystem. Open source computing, which reduced costs to start a company by 90%. And on and on.
We’ve grown accustomed to a professionalism where we know when a work issue comes up we can count on each other for a quick Sunday call between family time. The most active person responding negatively said, “so an ENITRE industry is undervaluing their services? They often won’t stick up their hands to be recognized.
I recently sat down with Matt Coffin , the founder of LowerMyBills, which sold for $400 million but was very nearly a bankruptcy only a few years early, and talked “startups.&#. Matt is one of the most transparent, focused & honest startup guys you’ll meet. Later they became big business in Financial services lead-gen.
Although Los Angeles has become a hub for the high tech startup world, Surprisingly, one of the things which hasn't happened in the Los Angeles area is any huge, successful venture acceleration programs. Dan Dato: The quickest way to describe it is it's a Techstars-like, YCombinator-like startup accelerator. What is Upstart.la?
In recent months, a dozen accelerators and incubators have emerged in the Southern California area, looking to help take the new generation of technology startups to funding and beyond. which programs are--and aren't--worth looking at has become very difficult, if not impossible, for startup entrepreneurs. Start Engine.
For the first 5 years of my career I was a “bottom up&# thinker and worker. I know it might sound a bit esoteric so let me explain: I started my career as a programmer. I started by doing billing systems. This is bottom-up planning. The wisest mentor I ever had was Ameet Shah , my partner on several projects.
David Carter and Allen Hurff are two startup veterans, who believe they have a new formula to help create early stage, technology companies, through their new "startup studio", Zuma Ventures (www.zumavc.com). We sat down with David and Allen to learn more about how the company wants to change how startups are created.
Today, we share the thoughts of Greg Monterrosa ,a startup community leader who is currently Startup Weekend organizer, facilitator, and mentor and was a former Founder of MyLLC.com and Hub101. The continued growth of startup communities in Los Angeles. What was the biggest news for you/your company this year?
What is Startup Boost , and how is it looking to help early stage startups in Los Angeles? We recently sat down with Matt Stodder , Co-Director of Startup Boost/Los Angeles, and Blake Caldwell , Global Director of Startup Boost, to learn more about the program, what it offers up to startups.
As a mentor to startups, I see more startups that are really an individual professional, marketing themselves as a consultant or freelancer in this new gig economy. Of course, entrepreneurs delivering services have existed for some time, including business consultant, independent contractor, and freelancer titles.
Great content again in September that meets at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. Your service: the game. Chris Dixon , September 12, 2010 My most useful career experience was about eight years ago when I was trying to break into the world of VC-backed startups. Status / reputation.
He had joined a young startup in LA called HauteLook and was interested in getting to know the local tech community. So I started introducing him to portfolio companies. He co-founded a prominent accelerator in Los Angeles called MuckerLab , that has produced a number of impressive companies and he mentored more than 20 of them.
One of the reasons that now is the time to be an entrepreneur is the explosion of startup assistance organizations, usually called incubators or accelerators. Most of these are non-profits, set up by a university to commercialize new technologies, or a municipality to foster business development for the local economy.
Some entrepreneurs start polling venture capitalists for that multi-million dollar investment before they even have a business plan. It’s helpful to think of startups as proceeding through several stages, which I have defined a long time ago from a funding perspective. Don’t waste your resources on the wrong ones.
MuckerLab , the Los Angeles startup accelerator headed by Erik Rannala, is presenting its newest startup class today in a Demo Day. MuckerLab's prior class included such hot Los Angeles startups as SurfAir, Retention Science, Wallaby, and InstaCanvas. READ MORE>>.
What's the latest craze in startups in Southern Califonia? It looks to be startup accelerators. In just the last few weeks, at least five different incubation/acceleration efforts have booted up in the region. The group is a member of the TechStars Network, and boasts a who's who of successful local CEOs and investors.
One of the most original, subscription startups to come out of Southern California's tech accelerator boom emerged last week, looking to disrupt not just another retail sector or e-commerce category, but something else entirely: the airline industry. Wade Eyerly: Basically, it's a flat fee, subscription, all-you-can fly private plane service.
That's what Los Angeles-based MergeLocal (www.mergelocal.com) is looking to find out, by offering up points which can be converted to real cash, when users check into local businesses. What's your background, and how did you decide to start the company? What is MergeLocal? There's an awful lot of check-in sites out there.
I’m fully convinced that both inspiration and perspiration are always required in a startup. Those at the other extreme don’t look up from the grindstone long enough to notice whether all their work is producing sweat equity or just sweat. Starting a business may be fun, but it’s not easy. Start even before the product is ready.
The data consistently confirms that: (i) venture capitalists are typically not adventuresome, and (ii) most startups lack the three intoxicating factors which cause venture capitalists to pull out their checkbooks. This concentration is partly due to natural causes – successful startups spawn other successful startups.
One of the great joys of doing the web series This Week in VC every week is that I get to spend time with great people debating the issues of our day including how our industry is evolving as well as insights into how companies got started, got their initial traction and dealt with adversities. We then spoke about startups.
Startups are hard. You join teams that got good write-ups on TechCrunch, have great VCs, have star CEO’s, whatever. We tell startup stories. Our founder, Yves Sisteron, was my mentor and board member at my first startup. You’ve heard that a million times. Those that we survive with become family.
Last week, a group of four angel investors here announced their plans to create a new, accelerator program to spur the creation of an entrepreneurial community in the area around new startups. We spoke with two of the founder of K5Launch, Amir Banifatemi and Kai Tao, to learn more about their efforts to startup its accelerator here.
There are now a large number of online, peer-to-peer marketplaces which all aim at one thing; helping connecting people with others, so that they can offer their services or goods (a room for rent, a ride, a vacation timeshare, a dog sitter, etc.) We caught up with Steven Cox , the company''s CEO, to learn more about the company.
As a mentor to entrepreneurs, I tend to see many of the same obstacles appearing in every new startup, and since I don’t want to appear to be a downer , I’m not sure how to properly warn people ahead of time to be on the alert for these challenges. Each of these can go astray as follows: Your product or service hits unexpected snags.
Make Mistakes On Someone Else’s Dime – My students are sometimes surprised that I advise them to first work in an industry in which they have an interest, rather than starting a company right out of school. This tactic is especially relevant at a startup, where everyone must wear multiple hats. ", not “How much will I earn?”
Los Angeles-based startup accelerator MuckerLab , which is headed by Erik Rannala, has tapped Brea-based Dreamhost , the web hosting company, as the "official" web hosting and application hosting provider for the accelerator, the firm is announcing today. Dreamhost has been in the area since it was founded in 1997. million domain names.
One of the biggest complaints you hear from both entrepreneurs and investors in Los Angeles, is the lack of a credible, visible startup accelerator in the Los Angeles area. We caught up with Erik to hear more about MuckerLab, and its efforts to grow the Los Angeles technology ecosystem. Erik, thanks for the time.
My biggest takeaway this year was truly understanding the strength and cohesion of the Los Angeles startup community. There was no monetary reward for those who participated (and Startup Boost does not take fees or equity from the companies that we help). What was the biggest lesson you learned this year?
Almost every entrepreneur starts their journey by developing a solution, based on their idea of a new technology or required service. One answer is for the developer to find a partner, like Steve Jobs, who is a leader to build and run the business, and two heads in a startup are almost always better than one.
One of the most stressful and unanticipated challenges that comes with starting a new business is hiring and managing employees. I just finished a new book for entrepreneurs, “ Secrets to a Successful Startup ,” by Trevor Blake, which makes the same points, based on his own real-life experience with three successful startups.
Southern California has had its share of new startup accelerators launch in the last few months, however, few people here have actually experienced an accelerator firsthand. Alex Benzer: I'm actually building two startups. SocialEngine is four years old, and that's the startup we applied to TechStars with.
One of the biggest myths I have found in the entrepreneur community is that every startup needs one or more outside investors for credibility and success, and perhaps is even entitled to at least one. Draw up a list of the best prospects, and put together your best story for follow-up. But don’t wait for them to contact you.
He had an idea for a startup that would help consumers better book service jobs and would take on Service Magic, which he believed had a business model that could be disrupted. I acted as the occasional mentor, advisor and coach to Ethan. In the same year they won Business Insider’s Startup competition.
Los Angeles-based business accelerator StartEngine has aligned itself with hosting firm Peak Hosting , the two said Wednesday, where members of the StartEngine business accelerator will gain $12,000 woth of credit for 12 months of hosting services from the firm. and Joyent. and Joyent. READ MORE>>.
Ironically, as a startup investor and mentor, I have seen too many failures caused by just the opposite – too much money spent too soon, taking time to get product perfection, and assuming customers will wait. How many times have you actually made up work to keep an idle person busy? Create new kinds of solutions.
The challenge is to retain the same sense of urgency, energy, commitment, and readiness in a mature company that you felt during the startup stage. Most importantly, this is not just in the products and services you offer, but in the way your company operates. Set-up for success and don’t set-up for failure.
One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” On the other hand, there are many additional creative options available for starting a business that you might not find for buying a car, home, or other major consumer item. Solicit venture capital investors.
Kevin O'Connor: I've been doing venture since my first deal in 1995, and have been investing on and off since I moved to Santa Barbara in 2001, under the name O'Connor Ventures, and did that full time until 2009, when I started Graphiq, and switched back into doing another company. What types of companies are you making investments in?
Koffler is a member of the Tech Coast Angels, and heads up Koffler Ventures, a firm which provides advice and C-level experience to startups; Morris is at Vistage International, the Tech Coast Angels, as well as GKM Ventures, Sutro & Co., Tags: startups university research mentoring network tech.
Some entrepreneurs start polling venture capitalists for that multi-million-dollar investment before they even have a business plan. It’s helpful to think of startups as proceeding through several stages, which I have defined a long time ago from a funding perspective. Don’t waste your resources on the wrong ones.
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