Wednesday, August 1, 2012Coloft Launches Seminar SeriesLooking for more help to get your startup off the ground? Coloft, the co-working space in Santa Monica, said Wednesday that it has launched its own series of seminars aimed at startups, ranging from help on social media, to business development, to pitching investors. The Coloft Academy's presenters include such Los Angeles entrepreneurs as Tyler Crowley (This Week In Startups), Chance Barnett (Crowdfunder), Shannon Drake (JustFab.com), Robyn Ward (Glossi.com), and many others. Coloft joins a nu (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, August 1, 2012(Full story)
Weplay Signs Denny's Sponsorship Deal In New YorkWeplay, the online social media site focused on youth sports, has inked a sponsorship deal with the owner of thirty local Denny's restaurants in New York, to sign up local sports teams for the platform, the company announced Wednesday. The Los Angeles company, which is headed by Lane Soelberg, said that 30 Denny's restaurants in the Rochester, Syracuse and Buffalo, New York area will sponsor 200 local teams with free, premium sites on the service. As part of the effort, they will launch a "Game (More info...)
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United Online Plans Split With FTDIt looks like the odd marriage between United Online's communications, online content and media businesses with FTD, the company's flower delivery service, is about to end, after the company said Wednesday afternoon that its board has approved a plan to split the two into two, independent public traded companies. According to United Online, it will split the domestic and international operations of FTD and Interflora into one company, with the remainder of the firms--which includes brands such a (More info...)
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Spotify Heads To LA To Promote Music ServiceOnline music service Spotify has chosen to kick off a live music tour to promote its service, next week in Los Angeles, according to a report today from Mashable. The tour is apparently set to start on Wednesday, August 8th in Silver Lake, with a concert from YACHT and The Henry Clay People. Los Angeles is the first stop of a tour which will eventually end up in San Francisco, Portland, St. Louis, New Orleans and Miami. Spotify operates an online, streaming music service. Spotify's tour is being (More info...)
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POP Charger Passes $91K In DonationsIs crowdsourcing donations a reasonable alternative to seed funding? Based on the experience so far of POP Charger, the Kickstarter project being run by local entrepreneur Jamie Siminoff, it seems to be. According to the project's page Wednesday morning, it has now racked up over $91,000 in pledges (and growing), nearly double the project's initial $50,000 goal--an amount that brings it clearly into seed territory, without any need to give away equity. The POP project is an effort to develop a (More info...)
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Independa Links With Wireless Health Monitoring FirmSan Diego-based Independa, the remote healthcare monitoring service aimed at helping the elderly live independently longer, is continuing to expand out its partnerships with equipment makers, saying today that it has linked with IDEAL LIFE, a developer of wireless health monitoring products. Independa, which is headed by Kian Saneii, said that it will integrate IDEAL Life's wireless scales, glucometers, pulse oximeters, blood pressure cuffs, medication dispensers and a wireless hub into its solu (More info...)
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Hulu Sets New Season For Misfits, Booth At The EndLos Angeles-based Hulu, the online video streaming service, said Tuesday that it will air new seasons of two series, "Misfits", and "The Booth at the End". Misfits is a UK series, which is seeing its fourth season running on Hulu and Hulu Plus. The series had been launched by Hulu in partnership with BBC Worldwide Americas last year, and according to the firm is one of its most popular shows on Hulu. The series is one of a number of international titles, which have bypassed television and got di (More info...)
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Brian Norgard On Chill's New Front PageHow do you crack the code and make online video easier to find and use? Last week, Los Angeles-based Chill (www.chill.com) made a stab at that, debuting a new front page meant to guide user to the most interesting videos on the web, through an easy-to-use interface. Brian Norgard, co-founder of Chill, sat down with us to talk about the new front page, and also how the company has made a name for itself with a highly product focused, agile development of its service. Chill is venture backed by K (More info...)
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Latest Amazon Studios Project: Orange CurtainAmazon Studios, the original content effort run by Amazon.com out of Los Angeles, said today that the latest project added to its development slate is "Orange Curtain", focused on gun runners who live in Orange County, set against the backdrop of the 1992 riots in Los Angeles. Amazon said it the script comes with a $10,000 option extension payment. The new project was created by Robert Moreno and Jason Stentz. Amazon has been looking to tap into the creative talent in Los Angeles, by soliciting (More info...)
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Factual Releases C#/.NET DriverLos Angeles-based Factual, the startup headed by Gil Elbaz, which is developing a massive cloud-based database of location and other data used by mobile and web apps, has further expanded its software language support. The firm said Tuesday that it has release a driver for C# and .NET, Microsoft's libraries and object oriented software language. Factual said the driver can be installed into Visual Studio on Windows. The new API allows developers in C# and .NET to access the firm's API and large (More info...)
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MyLife Launches Social DashboardLos Angeles-based MyLife.com is further expanding its services this morning, saying that it has launched a new, "social dashboard" product which helps users centrally manage all of their social and email accounts. MyLife said its new service, available via Web, iOS, and Android, allows users to centrally manage social media updates in one place, in addition to sending and receiving email from a number of services. The new service comes as a result of the acquisition of Threadsy in March by MyLif (More info...)
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CapLinked, Startup America Tie On Startup FundraisingLos Angeles-based CapLinked, which operates an online platform for managing fundraising by startups, has linked with the Startup America Partnership. According to CapLinked, it will make its premium capital raising and investor reporting tools available to the more than 8,500 startups enrolled with Startup America. Startup America is the effort launched last year to spur the creation of startups nationwide. CapLinked's site allows companies to manage due diligence documents, shareholder communic (More info...)
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Magic Ruby Takes On The Second ScreenBurbank-based Magic Ruby, a new service aimed at the social television segment, said today that it has launched to help provide revenue for advertisers, content creators, distributors, and app developers. The firm said it will offer up its own advertising network aimed at second screen applications, plus tools and application development specifically around the second screen. The service said it is a business unit of Second Screen Solutions, and is backed by Technicolor.
posted on Wednesday, August 1, 2012(Full story)