socalTECH

DECEMBER 12, 2013

Los Angeles-based Snapchat confirmed it has raised $50M in a Series C funding Wednesday, as the hot, instant photo messaging app developer reportedly turned down a $3 billion offer from Facebook and has decided to continue on as an independent company. Snapchat has now raised $125.0M Snapchat has now raised $125.0M in funding.

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Snapchat Los Angeles Mobile Report 185

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2016

For the past few months I’ve been doing nearly daily “Snapstorms” or short videos with startup advice released on Snapchat. Among the most comical things to me in the past few years is just how much it annoys some people that I use Snapchat. I remember the same disdain from people when I started blogging or using Twitter.

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Snapchat Blogging Venture Capital Writing 200

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

Venice, California-based Snapchat said Tuesday that it has settled a dispute with Reggie Brown , the fellow Stanford University student who had claimed that he came up with the idea for Snapchat. snapchat lawsuit reggie brown legal settlement social media' Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. READ MORE>>.

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Snapchat Ideas Social Media Venice 166

socalTECH

JANUARY 2, 2014

Venice-based social photo messaging service Snapchat had a major security breach over the holidays, when at least 4.6 Snapchat has not yet responded to the reports on the leaked data. snapchat social mobile startup instant photo messaging security' The breached data was apparently published via a post to Reddit.

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Snapchat Venice Mobile Tool 168

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 6, 2013

A new lawsuit, targeting Venice, California-based Snapchat --the hottest company to emerge out of the area''s high tech startup cluster in recent years--says that the company''s founders stole the idea for the company from him after forcing him out of the company early on in its history. READ MORE>>.

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Snapchat Social Network High Tech Venice 170

socalTECH

OCTOBER 25, 2013

Los Angeles-based mobile app developer Snapchat is in the midst of a new funding round, which values the company at more than $3.6 AllThingsD reports that the firm--which just raised $60M in June --is looking for more money, upping its valuation from $800M to $3.6 snapchat valuation venture capital mobile social teenager startup'

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Snapchat Southern California Funding Venture Capital 171

socalTECH

AUGUST 27, 2014

Venice-based Snapchat is in the midst of raising a new round of funding, led by storied venture capital investor Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which valued the company at close to $10 billion, according to a report. The report also said that Snapchat has around 100 million monthly active users now using its messaging service.

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Snapchat Report Social Network Funding 168

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 21, 2013

Snapchat , the Venice Beach-based startup which has been taking the mobile world by storm with its "self destructing" mobile photos, has just officially launched video into its Android app, just days after announcing a Series A funding round. SnapChat announced $13.5M

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Snapchat Venice Mobile Funding 153

socalTECH

OCTOBER 28, 2013

How much is Los Angeles-based Snapchat really worth? The report last week that Snapchat is raising a new funding round at $3.5 snapchat valuation venture capital mobile social teenager startup' READ MORE>>.

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Snapchat Venture Capital Los Angeles Mobile 147

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2016

Yesterday I wrote a primer on how to use Snapchat for my peer group of “over 30” people who don’t yet “get” Snapchat. Today I want to talk briefly about why I believe Snapchat is an important media company. Snapchat is performing off the hook on all fronts.

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Snapchat Advertising Media Platform 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

There are certain topics that even some of the smartest people I talk with who aren’t startup oriented can’t fully grok. It’s common cocktail party chatter to hear people confidently pronounce that some well known startup is sure to blow up because, “How could they succeed when they’re not even profitable!”

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Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

Let me start with the obvious baseline that most people probably know instinctively: Los Angeles is the 3rd largest technology startup ecosystem in the US. Given how efficient markets are when a large market like LA starts to blossom it attracts capital pretty quickly. LA By The Numbers. But even this is changing.

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Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Google 376

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2014

I hope to publish that deck and a full write up in the next 10 days in partnership with Dan Primack at Fortune (if my write up doesn’t suck, I guess ;-)). Think DropBox, Airbnb, Pinterest, Maker Studios, SnapChat, Tinder). Startup Lessons' But I’ll save this data and analysis for the next post.

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Venture Capital Capital Startup Writing 362

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 11, 2021

Photo by Vanna Phon on Unsplash Customer acquisition is the lifeblood of many startups from e-commerce to gaming to marketplace companies, among others. Most of these startups spend the lion’s share of their marketing budget in today’s social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Snap, TikTok and so on because?—?no no surprise?—?that’s

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Product Platform Advertising Acquisition 424

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 30, 2016

By now if you follow me on Twitter you probably know that I do near daily “Snapstorms” or a collection of short videos (usually < 5 mins in total) with entrepreneur advice on Snapchat. You can follow me on Snapchat at msuster. Snapchat for my “original run” and I’ll also store each video to be watched later.

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Snapchat Course Media Venture Capital 150

socalTECH

MARCH 5, 2014

Add another, Southern California company to the exclusive list of billion-dollar plus startups here. billion startup--which puts it in the ranks of only three other startups here known publicly to have passed the $1 billion mark in terms of valuation. READ MORE>>.

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Southern California SoCal Snapchat Startup 154

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Do you need a board when you first start you company? If you haven’t raised any money or if you raised a small round from angels or friends & family I would suggest you avoid setting up a formal board unless the people who would join your board are deeply experienced at sitting on startup boards.

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Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 28, 2016

Venice-based Snapchat 's newest product--Snap-recording sunglasses--is the result of the work of another, Los Angeles startup--Vergence Labs--which was quietly acquired by Snapchat back in 2014. READ MORE>>.

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Snapchat UCLA Venice Startup 100

socalTECH

DECEMBER 14, 2016

Venice, California-based Snapchat said on Tuesday that it has launched a new group chat feature , called Groups , which lets up to 16 people communicate through the service. The new feature also includes ways to quickly start 1:1 chats with members of the group. READ MORE>>.

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Snapchat Venice Startup Services 100

socalTECH

OCTOBER 15, 2014

The Disney Accelerator , the startup accelerator sponsored by Walt Disney and being run by TechStars, had its demo day Tuesday, showing off the nine companies to emerge out of the accelerator. Disney offered up up to $120K in investment capital, access to entrepreneurs and executives at Disney, and other resources to its startups.

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Class Startup Seed Funding Entertainment 185

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2014

A few years ago I started calling the local tech ecosystem down here #LATech. In fact, many people know I grew up in NorCal and still have a 650 area code on my mobile phone. Startup Lessons' I had an agenda. We graduate more engineers in our greater region than anywhere else in the US. LA has a serious technology scene.

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Startup Santa Monica Snapchat Yahoo 318

socalTECH

DECEMBER 28, 2016

the parent company of Snapchat, has reportedly acquired Israeli startup Cimagine Media. Venice-based Snap, Inc. , The deal is reportedly worth between $30M and $40M. Cimaging Media develops augmented reality technology. The acquisition was first reported by a local Israeli financial daily. Cimagine was founded in 2012. READ MORE>>.

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Snapchat Media Report Venice 113

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 2, 2017

the parent firm behind Snapchat , has joined up with R/GA Marketing --which helps run the Dodgers Accelerator in Los Angeles--to launched a new startup accelerator, the R/GA Marketing Tech Venture Studio with IPG. Venice, California-based Snap Inc. , READ MORE>>.

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Snapchat Startup Venice Advertising 100

socalTECH

JUNE 22, 2017

the parent company of Snapchat , has acquired social app startup Zenly , in a deal reportedly worth $250M to $350M in cash and stock. Snapchat just rolled out a new, location sharing feature for Snapchat based on Zenly's technology, but will continue to operate Zenly as an independent service. READ MORE>>.

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Snapchat Report Venice Services 113

TechCrunch LA

MAY 12, 2020

This morning, Snap joined a host of startup accelerators shifting its demo day online amid the COVID-19 quarantine. With its third class of startups, Yellow, Snap’s in-house startup accelerator that launched in 2018, brought investors and founders together in private slack channels after a live-streamed presentation.

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Invest Startup Artificial Inteligence Class 237

socalTECH

MAY 27, 2015

Venice-based Snapchat , the high flying, high profile startup led by Evan Spiegel, is planning an IPO, according to Spiegel, who talked about the company's IPO plans at a conference on Tuesday. The plans for an IPO are not a surprise, given the ultra high valuation that Snapchat has been getting in its latest private funding rounds.

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Snapchat Venice Conference Funding 100

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 26, 2016

Venice-based Snapchat might be the darling of the technology startup scene, but there are at least three, privately held startups--and maybe, more--in Southern California who recently passed $100M in revenues, according to a look through recent announcements.

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Snapchat Southern California OpenX SoCal 100

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 19, 2020

The new batch of startups coming from across the U.S. — hailing from Mexico City, this startup makes mini games in augmented reality for brands and advertisers. Since launching the platform in 2018, startups from the Snap accelerator have gone on to acquisition (like Stop, Breathe, and Think, which was bought by Meredith Corp.)

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Artificial Inteligence Social Network Los Angeles Snapchat 331

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

If you live in LA please turn up to vote on Tuesday. Consider the case of LegalZoom, one of our cities great startups. In 2010 the City of Los Angeles started trying to crack down on tax receipts of Internet startups allocating them to the least favorable gross-receipts tax bracket taking up their city tax by 500%.

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Los Angeles Legalzoom Angel Cornerstone OnDemand 325

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 9, 2015

Venice-based ephemeral messaging app Snapchat is being wrapped into yet another, murder investigation , this time in the Pittsburgh area--after a teenager apparently took a Snapchat photo with the body of a murder victim. legal crime startup messaging ephemeral murder snapchat' READ MORE>>.

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Snapchat Venice Startup Services 100

socalTECH

APRIL 15, 2020

Los Angeles-based mobile streaming video startup Quibi will not be launching a series about Venice, Californi-based Snapchat , according to a report from Variety. Quibi had said last year at SXSW that it would film a series based on the script "Frat Boy Genius" by Elissa Karasik.

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Snapchat Report Venice Los Angeles 113

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2016

Many first-time founders seek advice when thinking about what ideas would be great for a startup company and receive the wrong advice that you need to focus on a billion-dollar idea. There are very few ideas that are obviously a billion-dollar idea from the start. So what should you do? But you need to understand venture economics.

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Venture Capital Startup Capital Ideas 150

socalTECH

JANUARY 17, 2014

in the quarter and social media darling Snapchat raised $50.0M. billion invested across 3,995 deals for the year, which is up 7 percent in terms of dollar amount, and 4 percent more in deals than 2012. For the year, a total of $2.51 billion was invested across Southern California''s technology industry. For Q4, $8.4 READ MORE>>.

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Southern California Venture Capital Orange County Tech Coast Angels 246

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. Most experienced VCs won’t push you to give up founder control at this stage of the business nor should they. As You Start to Mature. In the Early Days. You’ll get empathy. Experience.

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Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

socalTECH

MAY 25, 2016

A report published this week--which heavily relies on third party assumptions, back calculations, and analysis of regulatory filings--says that Venice, California-based Snapchat is out looking for $200M in funding again, this time valuing the company around $20 billion.

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Snapchat Report Venice Funding 133

socalTECH

APRIL 20, 2016

Venice, California-based Snapchat has set up an a new office in Texas, to help it recruit talent to help develop its software, according to a report Tuesday. The report says that Snapchat has opened up an output in Dallas, in part to tap into that area's local tech startup community and low cost of labor.

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Snapchat Venice Report Software 100

socalTECH

MARCH 11, 2015

Think Snapchat is only for swapping disappearing messages? The startup--which already has been trying to stake a claim in the news discovery business --now is also apparently trying to get into the live sports broadcasting area. Snapchat has not yet announced any details on the reported deal. READ MORE>>.

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Snapchat Hollywood News Report 100