Friday, June 11, 2010GotCast Reports User NumbersLos Angeles-based GotCast, the online casting and talent site run by Alec Shankman, announced Friday that it has reached 400,000 users on its site. The firm said it has now hosted over 6,000 castings on the site. GotCast allows anyone to submit their talent profile to Hollywood producers and others, who are casting television, modeling, and other appearances. GotCast said it has recently powered talent calls for NBC, VH1 Storytellers, and Hautelook.com. Shankman was most recently head of Alterna (More info...)
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Calacanis Boosts ThumbtackJason Calacanis, the CEO of Mahalo, host of This Week In Startups, and angel investor, is one of the angel investors in Bay Area startup Thumbtack.com. Thumbtack said today that it received $1.2M in angel investor from Calacanis, along with a long list of Silicon Valley angels, for its local services marketplace. Other investors in the firm include Scott & Cyan Banister (PayPal & Zivity), Joshua Schachter (Delicious), Jason Calacanis (WebBlogs & Mahalo), Mark Britto (Amazon), Scott Faber (Ingeni (More info...)
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AqueSys Snags $7.5MIrvine-based AqueSys, a medical device firm which is working on a proprietary surgical device for the treatment of glaucoma, has raised $7.5M of a $35M funding round, according to a regulatory filing by the firm today. Source of the new funding was not disclosed. The firm has previously raised funding from Accuitive Medical Ventures and The Innovation Factory; the Innovation Factory indicates on its web site that AqueSys had raised $6.9M in a Series A and had been working on a Series B worth $9. (More info...)
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Insights and Opinions: How To Network In 10 Easy StepsFor our Insights and Opinions section this Friday morning, we have How to Network in 10 Easy Steps, from angel investor Frank Peters, of the Frank Peters Show. Frank, who podcasts every week on topics of interest to entrepreneurs, angel investors, and venture capitalists, talks about mixer events, such the Open Angel Forums from Jason Calacanis, and similar entrepreneur mixers from the Tech Coast Angels--and how to best take advantage of them.
Earlier this week, there was a meetup nearby in A (More info...)
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Otonomy Raises $10MSan Diego-based Otonomy, which is developing treatments for Meniere's disease, said today that it has raised $10M in a Series A financing round. The round came from Avalon Ventures. According to Otonomy, the funding will go towards supporting the ongoing clinical trial for its compound, to initiate IND studies for a second compound, and early-stage development of a third program. Otonomy is headed by Jay Lichter, who is also a managing director at Avalon Ventures. Otonomy's first product is a su (More info...)
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Microsemi Appoints Marketing, Sales VPIrvine-based Microsemi announced Thursday that it has appointed Russell Garcia as Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales. Garcia was most recently CEO of Wispry, and also has served at u-Nav Microelectronics, Texas Instruments, and Silicon Systems. Garcia will report to James J. Peterson, President and CEO of the firm. Microsemi is a manufacturer of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits.
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