Thursday, September 26, 2013


socalTECH: Help Us Identify The 100 Up-And-Comers In Southern California's Tech
Who are the top 100 up-and-comers in Southern California's technology industry? We're looking to identify those in the technology industry across all sectors who are most likely to create the next big thing, produce the next big exit or to influence the industry in a significant way. socalTECH is looking to honor the future of our industry here through identifying our list of the "Socaltech 100", which we will announce in a few months--after taking suggestions and nominations from our readers, (More info...)
posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013(Full story)

The Drones Are Coming: 3D Robotics Hovers Into $30M Series B
Unmanned aerial vehicle company 3D Robotics announced Thursday that it has raised a huge, $30M funding round for the company, which was founded by Chris Anderson and Jordi Munoz. The San Diego company aid the funding round was led by Foundry Group and True Ventures, and also included O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures and SK Ventures. 3D Robotics develops both software and hardware which can be used to create your own drones. Anderson is the former Editor-in-Chief of Wired magazine. The company had rai (More info...)
posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013(Full story)

socalTECH Jobs: Hot Technology Jobs at DreamHost, Telesign, Condusiv, and more!
Looking to join some of the most promising high tech companies in Southern California? Check out socalTECH's online Job Board, where we let our members post their jobs for free. Some of the most recent listings: Financial Analyst, DreamHost The Financial Analyst’s primary functions include data base query, financial planning, data analysis, and reporting of DreamHost’s financial activities. This role has a heavy emphasis on retrieving information and reports from various data bas (More info...)
posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013(Full story)

EdgeCast Snags Former eHarmony Exec As New CFO, Expands In Europe
Santa Monica-based content delivery network operator EdgeCast Networks said this morning that it has added a new CFO, plus has added a new office in London. According to EdgeCast, it has named John Powers as its new CFO, and has appointed former CFO Mike Kleiman as its new COO. In addition to the new appointments, EdgeCast said that co-founder and chief revenue officer Phil Goldsmith has relocated to London, as part of an expansion by the company to Europe. Power had most recently been the CFO o (More info...)
posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013(Full story)

Kickstarted Launches Site For Successfully Crowdsourced Projects
Kickstarted, a new online community focused on successfully crowdfunded projects, launched today, in an effort to connect the organizers of crowdfunded projects from such sites as IndieGogo, Kickstarter, and other projects with customers. The Los Angeles area startup is hoping to make it easier for crowdfunded projects to find additional customers for their projects, by streamlining request for samples, communication via email, Facbeook, Twitter, SMS, and more. The site was founded by Candice Ge (More info...)
posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013(Full story)

Karlin Ventures Backs Gyft
Los Angeles venture capital investor Karlin Ventures has made another investment this week, as part of the $5M, Series A round for Gyft, a mobile gift startup. Karlin joined A-Grade Investments, Social+Capital Partnership, Karlin Ventures, Haas Portman and David O. Sacks in the investment round. Gyft's service lets users upload and store all their plastic gift card in electronic form, and use them both online or in the store. It's been a busy week for Karlin, which also invested in StrikeAd's (More info...)
posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013 (More)(Full story)

Burner Gets $2M
Burner, the Los Angeles startup which lets users create one-time, "burnable" phone numbers for temporary use, has raised $2M in a seed funding, the company said today. The funding came from Founder Collective and Venrock, as well as 500 Startups, angel David Cohen, and TenOneTen. David Frankel of Founder Collective, and Marissa Camprise of Venrock have both joined the company's board with the funding. Burner's mobile apps are being used for creating temporary phone numbers when listing ads on Cr (More info...)
posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013 (More)(Full story)

WanderWe Aims To Connect You With Weekend Getaways, Trips
Looking for a weekend getaway? WanderWe, a new, online travel site from Los Angeles-based Oversee.net, said today that it has launched, to help travelers find and book short trips, within a 500 mile radius of home. The new site says it allows travelers to find short trips, based on distance from home, budget, and the kind of experience they'd like to have, and was specifically designed for tablet browsing. Oversee.net said the new site came about as part of an internal incubation effort at the c (More info...)
posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013(Full story)

JumpStartFund Taps SpaceX Vet, Engineering Expert For Hyperloop Effort
There's been a lot of buzz about tech mogul Elon Musks's idea behind "Hyperloop"--a concept to make transit between Los Angeles and San Francisco in only minutes, using 800 mph, aluminum pods. However, Musk's idea has only been that--an idea--with no plans to actually implement the transportation system. Los Angeles-based JumpStartFund wants to change that, and said today that it has tapped two notable engineers to head up crowd-sourcing on its site for the concept. JumpStartFund said it has tap (More info...)
posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013(Full story)

JustFab Raises $40M More
Los Angeles-based e-commerce site JustFab announced this morning that it has raised another $40M in funding in a Series C funding. The funding was led by Shining Capital, in addition to the company's existing investors. The new funding comes just a few short weeks after the acquisition of ShoeDazzle by JustFab. JustFab provides subscription-based, fashion products, including shoes, handbags, and clothing. JustFab has now raised $149M in funding. The company is reporting it will be just shy of $4 (More info...)
posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013 (More)(Full story)

YouTube Takes Cue From AudioMicro With Stock Music
Los Angeles-based AudioMicro has long been a pioneer in offering up royalty-free, stock music effects to video creators. Now, it looks like Google has finally recognized the need for a royalty-free audio like AudioMicro's, and has created its own royalty free music service tied to the video service. YouTube said it provides more than 150 royalty-free instrument tracks in its new YouTube Audio Library. AudioMicro offers up a far more extensive library, with 65,000 royalty free stock music tracks (More info...)
posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013(Full story)

Shutterkeep Launches Unlimited Photo Storage For Creative Pros
Shutterkeep, a new, Los Angeles startup, said this morning that it has launched a new, unlimited photo storage service targeted at photographers and other creative professionals. Shutterkeep said its service is unique in its support for RAW format photographs and preservation of photos in their original resolution. Most online photo storage services are aimed at consumers, and typically re-size or limit the resolution of the photos stored in those services, making them of limited use to professi (More info...)
posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013(Full story)

Cross Campus Plans Shifts To New Location
Santa Monica-based coworking space Cross Campus said Wednesday that it is shifting its space to a new location at the corner of Colorado Avenue and 10th street. According to Cross Campus, it has outgrown its current coworking space, and the new location will also give it access to the upcoming Expo line. Cross Campus said the move is part of an expansion move for Cross Campus, both in Southern California and nationally. Cross Campus has been one of the major centers for after hours startup event (More info...)
posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013(Full story)

Novatel Wireless Targets Home Offices With New Device
San Diego-based Novatel Wireless is targeting home offices with a new, 4G LTE Internet device, the MiFi Home. Novatel launched the new product yesterday, saying the device can replace both wired voice and Internet connectivity for homes, small offices, and remote work station--turning any 4G LTE connection into a broadband and telephone connection. Novatel said the MiFi Home will provide wireless carriers an alternative to bundle voice and data rate plans and services for the home and small offi (More info...)
posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013(Full story)

Western Digital Loses CFO
Irvine-based disk drive manufacturer Western Digital said today that its Chief Financial Officer, Wolfgang Nickl, is resigning. According to Western Digital, Nickl is becoming CFO at ASML Holding N.V. in the Netherlands. Nickl had been CFO of Western Digital since August of 2010, and had served for nearly 18 years at Western Digital. WD explained that Nickl will be departing in November, and that it has begun conducting a search for a new Chief Financial Officer.
posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013(Full story)