Tuesday, September 13, 2011Geni Debuts New Service, Geni PlusWest Hollywood-based Geni is expanding the number of paid tiers of its service, saying Tuesday evening that it has launched a new tier of its service, Geni Plus. The family tree and family history site said the new Geni Plus family tree research service is aimed at "casual genealogists", and will cost $4.95 a month. The new tier is below its Pro ($12.95/month) service, and according to the company comes as a result of "community feedback". Geni said in early August that it was limiting some of (More info...)
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RF Surgical Systems Gets $12MRF Surgical Systems, a developer of systems used to keep track of surgical sponges during surgery procedures, announced Tuesday that it has raised $12M in funding. The firm--which has its R&D facilities in San Diego--said the round was led by Split Rock Partners, and also included prior investors Menlo Ventures and Stanford University. The company's RFID-based systems are used to track surgical sponges, to prevent issues with losing those sponges within patients. The firm's headquarters are in B (More info...)
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Insights and Opinions: Jobs, Entrepreneurs, and the Simple Solution
Our Insights and Opinions piece today is from Ryan Blair, a Los Angeles based serial entrepreneur, and author of Nothing to Lose. Blair penned this open letter to President Obama about how to create jobs.
Dear President Obama,
I heard your rhetoric on the jobs market, and as a man who has created many jobs I can tell you that you’re focused on the wrong people, and the wrong initiatives. The unemployment issue isn’t going to get solved by giving billions in subsidies to people al (More info...)
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Calacanis: Yahoo Should Buy Mahalo For $150MHow much is Santa Monica-based Mahalo worth? According to Jason Calacanis, in a blog post, $75M to $150M. In a list of 10 acquisitions he suggested Yahoo make "on day one", Calacanis--not one to shy from self promotion--said that Yahoo could acquire Mahalo for $75M to $150M, with a chance of closing a deal at greater than 50%. Calacanis said his firm--plus fellow instructional videos site Howcast--are the "only two brands...really attacking the free education space." Calacanis gave his list of c (More info...)
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JetSuite Raises $7.0MIrvine-based JetSuite, a new private jet service startup running Embraer Phenom 100 private jets, has raised $7.0M in a funding round, according to a regulatory filing by the company. The funding included Tony Hsieh, the founder of Zappos.com. JetSuite's headquarters are across the street from John Wayne Airport. JetSuite's CEO is Alex Wilcox, who was a founder of JetBlue and Kingfisher Airlines; the firm's President is Keith Rabin, who was at hedge fund Verity Capital. JetSuite opened up its h (More info...)
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trueRSVP Takes On Online Event PlanningLos Angeles-based trueRSVP, a new startup founded by a trio of University of Southern California students, is launching today, looking to provide better online event planning. The startup, which is backed by OrganicStartup, the venture acceleration effort of angel investor Scott Sangster, said it is looking to provide real estimates of how many people will attend an event, increasing the accuracy of RSVPs. trueRSVP is launching at the DEMO Fall 2011 conference today. trueRSVP uses priority invit (More info...)
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Fisker Auto Unveils New Vehicle, The SurfIrvine-based Fisker Automotive the hybrid auto firm headed by Henrik Fisker, unveiled its newest model today at the Frankfurt Auto Show. Fisker said the new vehicle is an electric vehicle (EV) with and extended range. Fisker said the new vehicle will be available in the 2013 model year, and is a crossover between a sports car and a station wagon. The new EV will start at between $95,900 and $108,900.
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Tech Coast Angels Launches Angel NetworkThe Tech Coast Angels, the largest angel investment group in Southern California, as well as the United States, said today that it has launched a new network which will syndicate deals between the firm and other angels. The angel group said the new Angel Syndication Network ties together the Tech Coast Angels, Golden Seeds, and the Band of Angels, and will make it easier for entrepreneurs to get funding. The groups said the network will reduce the need for due diligence when presenting startups (More info...)
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Interview with Jonathan Simkin, SwoopThatAs the school year kicks off for college students, one of the big tasks of the year is buying books for their courses. One startup, SwoopThat (www.swoopthat.com)--started by a recent college grad Jonathan Simkin--has made it much easier to buy books for student, by pulling up books based on a student's schedule. We spoke with Jonathan about the advantages of SwoopThat over existing sites.
What's SwoopThat?
Jonathan Simkin: What makes us unique from other sites, is we're here to help stude (More info...)
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Demand Media Upgrades PluckSanta Monica-based Demand Media, the online publishing firm, said today that it has made a "major extension" of its Pluck software. Pluck helps brands manage their online communities. Demand Media said its Pluck platform now includes 14 pre-built social applications, including forumes, ratings, polls, reviews, blog applications, galleries, contests, and more. The firm also said the platform has "Pluck Engines" to provide widgets to boost participation and features to its platform. Companies usin (More info...)
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uSamp Updates Market Research ServiceEncino-based uSamp, the provider of online, web-based sampling and polling services, said today that it has enhanced its self service SampleMarket service. According to the firm, the enhanced service allows users to add multiple suppliers of survey respondents to their market research projects, including both SampleMarket-sourced panelists as well as external sources; new toools to remove duplicate, fake, and other low-quality respondents from research samples; and more. uSamp's services are use (More info...)
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AnyMeeting Names VPHuntington Beach-based AnyMeeting, the developer of a free web conferencing and webinar services, is announcing today that it has named David Gerken as Vice President of Business Development. Gerken was previously the founder of BuzzDash, and also had served at Net Effect Systems and Ask Jeeves, where he was COO of Ask Jeeves, U.K. and Ireland. Gerken also was at Mirror Image Internet. Anymeeting is headed by Costin Tuculescu, and offers up free online meetings; the firm is angel backed by the P (More info...)
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