Wednesday, March 12, 2014Four Founders of Hot Startups With Links To Southern California
Anyone who has been in the technology industry for awhile has heard that oft repeated myth, that most startup founders in Silicon Valley are from Stanford. There's also a similar argument, that if Southern California could only attract more of the students who go to school in the region's many top universities, we'd have more of our share of the next generation of technology startups. Here are four startup founders, who are among the hottest companies in the technology world, who got their sta (More info...)
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Domain Associates, Versant Get Another IPO ExitTwo, Southern California venture investors have scored another paired exit today, after South San Francisco-based Achaogen debuted on the NASDAQ Global Market as AKAO. Both Domain Associates and Versant Ventures had an exit via another, biotech IPO-->of molecular diagnostic maker Veracyte--just six months ago. Achaogen was trading around $14.17 this afternoon, after debuting at $12.00 per share. Achaogen had set an initial IPO pricing range earlier of $10.00 to $12.00 per share. Domain Associate (More info...)
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Tinder Plans Celebrity Verification ProgramLos Angeles-based mobile dating app developer Tinder is looking to clamp down on users creating fake celebrity accounts on the service, by launched a new verification program. According to a report from the Hollywood Reporter, the company is ramping up efforts to make the platform usable by real celebrities, because users widely regard celebrities on the service to be fake. According to the report, the program will be similar to Twitter's checkmarks, Twitter's program to verify that "key individ (More info...)
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Launchpad, MuckerLab Among Top Accelerators, Says ReportA report released this week at SXSW says that Launchpad LA and MuckerLab are among the top accelerators in the United States, based on the valuation of their portfolio companies, exits, number of companies still in operation, and other factors. According to the ranking--made by Professor Yael Hochberg of the MIT Sloan School of Management and Professor Susan Cohen of the University of Richmond--ranked Launchpad LA as number four in the nation, and MuckerLab as number five in the nation, behind Y (More info...)
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Funny Or Die's Latest Star: President ObamaLos Angeles-based online humor site Funny Or Die has a new hit on its hands: a suprise episode of Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis with President Barack Obama, where the two trade jabs and Obama plugs the Healthcare.gov site. The episode has the potential to upset the popularity of Funny or Die's breakout hit, "The Landlord", racking up more than 12 million views in the last day for the online content company. In the video, the two trade insults as Obama talks about his national health i (More info...)
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TaxJar Gets $600,000 For Sales Tax SoftwareSan Diego-based TaxJar, a developer of online software which helps manage sales tax payments for online retailers, said this morning that it has raised $600,000 from angel investors. TaxJar said that the angels involved in the seed funding included Dan Rose (VP Partnerships, Facebook), Harris Barton (H Barton Asset Management), Roy Rubin (Co-founder, Magento), as well as others. TaxJar offers up a cloud-based product which helps automate sales tax handling for sellers selling on such sites as Am (More info...)
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Beats Music Raises As Much As $100M In New FundingSanta Monica-based Beats Music, the subscription-based, music streaming service, has raised between $60M to $100M in new, equity financing, according to reports. Bloomberg, citing three people with knowledge of the deal, said that the funding is part of an effort to challenge Spotify for exclusive music rights. Beats Music has not yet announced details of the funding. The funding apparently came from Jimmy Iovine, Dr. Dre and Access Industries, as well as other existing investors.
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TAPP Scores Funding From Eric Schmidt For Subscription VideoLos Angeles-based TAPP, a new startup co-founded by Jeff Gaspin, the former Chairman of NBC Universal Television, and Jon Klein, former president of CNN/U.S., said this morning that it has scored funding from a number of high profile investors. TAPP said that its investors include Discovery Communications, Demarest Films, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, as well as Ken Moelis, Peter Ezersky and Michael Huber. Details on the funding and backing of the startup were not anounced. According (More info...)
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PatientSafe Solutions Gets $3M Strategic InvestmentSan Diego-based PatientSafe Solutions announced this morning that it has received $3M in a strategic investment, from TELUS Ventures. PatientSafe, which develops mobile, electronic health records systems, said the new funding comes along with an exclusive reseller relationship with TELUS Health, whichw ill resell the company's products in Canada. PatientSafe is led by Joseph Condurso.
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Nimble Launches New Contact Summary FeatureSanta Monica-based Nimble, the developer of cloud-based, contact and relationship tracking software, said this morning that it has launched a new feature to provide a "smart summary" feature providing a detailed background summary on any contact. Nimble's new feature pulls in publicly available information--such as biographies, company information, educational background, investments, and more--for any contact, to help users gain better insights into their contacts. Nimble said the new feature i (More info...)
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Glip Adds Bitcoin SupportLos Angeles-based Glip, the developer of productivity and team management tools, said today that it has begun accepting Bitcoin payments for subscriptions to its service. According to Glip, it has begun accepting Bitcoin payments for subscriptions to its platform, which start at $5 per user per year. Glip target sits service towards businesses and small teams, providing document sharing, shared calendars, task management, and other features.
posted on Wednesday, March 12, 2014(Full story)