Spotlight: LA Tech | One Year, Recap, and Thank You!
Many thanks to everyone who participated in last night’s Spotlight: LA Tech at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. In addition to the 330+ students, entrepreneurs and investors in attendance, the event also achieved over 45,000 views on the TechZulu live stream. If you missed it, or simply want to relive the moment, check out the rebroadcast above.
Please join us in congratulating this quarter’s Spotlight companies:
Earbits is an online radio platform where artists, labels and concert promoters bid for airtime on a per-song-played basis, and use the exposure to sell their music, event tickets and more. It’s the first performance-based marketing platform specifically designed for the music industry.
Mingle is a networking service that uses location to discover and create relevant connections.
ParkMe (Formerly Parking In Motion (PIM)) is a provider of dynamic and real-time parking data. PIM offers comprehensive coverage in 500+ cities in the US, Canada, and Europe by providing rates, hours, entrance points, and occupancy information. Additionally, the database includes on-street meter and sign restrictions in the top 26 US markets.
GumGum was founded in 2007 when a team of seasoned Internet entrepreneurs realized web site publishers were missing out on valuable revenue by not monetizing their image-based content. As a result, the team transformed the advertising industry with the creation of the first in-image ad network. This groundbreaking model gives publishers a completely new monetization stream and provides brands the opportunity to reach highly targeted mass audiences.
In addition, Howard Marks unveiled Start Engine, a new LA incubator focused on helping entrepreneurs become successful in 90 days. Of course, the evening wouldn’t have been complete without our fireside chat with Mike Jones, serial entrepreneur and former CEO of MySpace. Individual clips will be posted soon.
This marks the fourth installment of TechZulu Spotlight: LA Tech and the one year anniversary of the series. Thank you all for your continued support in highlighting the many innovative technologies emerging in Southern California!
Again we would like to thank all the amazing sponsors and supporters of TechZulu for making this all possible.
Making Spotlight: LA Tech Fall Possible
Diamond Sponsor
CallFire provides Voice and SMS Solutions to over 40,000 customers including political groups, non-profits, insurance agents, small business owners, and marketers. Headquarted in Santa Monica, CA, CallFire is dedicated to providing high-availability systems, intuitive user interfaces, furious developer support, and unparalleled customer care in order to transform how companies do business.
Gold Sponsor
Howard Marks is a 30-year industry entrepreneur, having co-founded juggernaut Activision as well as Acclaim Games. After its acquisition by Playdom, he was most recently head of the Acclaim studio and Sr. VP, Strategic Planning at Disney Interactive Media Group. Howard is now CEO of Gamzee, a new social game company building games for the new Facebook mobile platform. Last week Howard announced he has formed Start Engine, an incubator located in Westwood and focused on helping entrepreneurs become successful in 90 days.
Community Sponsors
upStart.LA is a startup accelerator based in Los Angeles that helps tech entrepreneurs get their business up and going. We offer an intensive three-month program and provide up to $18,000 of seed capital, extensive mentorship and a shared work environment to help entrepreneurs go from idea to product to fundable business. Applications are now open for the January 2012 program.
The Hybrid Group is passionate about making useful things with technology. Based in Los Angeles, we are software developers and designers that specialize in Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, Cloud Computing, Mobile Development, Application Design, and most importantly, helping you solve problems.
We’ve also created Kanbanpad, the happiest project management tool on Earth, and Clutch, which helps track projects from 15 different systems all in one place.
Treatsa hand delivers fresh baked cookies, brownies, and more throughout Los Angeles. Every item is delivered the very same day it’s baked and you can taste the difference. Treatsa provides a great alternative to ordering online flowers as a gift. Treatsa also offers corporate services and can be used for client gifts, employee rewards, or to sweeten an office meeting. Check out Treatsa and send a
fresh baked gift basket today, straight from the oven to your door.
Demeter Interactive is a digital marketing and communications firm based in Los Angeles, California. The firm has a strategy-based approach with a strong focus on technology and high-quality content. Co-Founded by Jesse Bouman and Gaia Dempsey, the company serves technology startups and companies with a focus on sustainability.
Tech Coast Angels is actively seeking great startups to fund. Providing more than just money, TCA brings connections, knowledge, mentoring and operational assistance to bold early-stage entrepreneurs with game-changing ideas.
The Coloft is a space for entrepreneurs, independents, startups, programmers, designers, professionals, and awesome people in general. Because putting all of us together results in amazing things –together we are even more brilliant than we are alone.
Idealab continues to explore a range of technology frontiers. New models for improving the search experience are at the core of several companies currently growing inside of Idealab. Moving beyond the Internet, we have spawned companies with breakthrough technologies in robotics, renewable energy and automotive design and production among others. Idealab also continues to partner with leading venture capital firms and other strategic investors to provide the resources to maximize the potential of these companies.
Mindshare LA was founded as means to elevate the public discourse and to provide a welcome change from the typical bar scene.
The brand promise is to service curiosity and to help provide a sense of belonging in one of America’s iconic cities.
Giving out discount codes for (gs), (dv), or (ve) servers and a few extra goodies to all who signup for the event!
(mt) Media Temple, Inc. is a web hosting and virtualization service provider headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Since 1998, the company has provided businesses around the world with reliable, professional-class services to host websites, email, business applications, and other rich Internet content.
ProjectFresh was founded in 2002 as a platform to launch projects and companies that have a shared set of goals:
- To galvanize community and to promote cross-pollination.
- To inspire and facilitate personal and cultural growth.
- To explore how new technologies impact society.
We achieve these goals by designing experiences that mix disciplines, such as Mindshare LA; bringing together people with diverse skills to create unique companies like Syyn Labs; or twisting together the unexpected, as in the charitable-meets-public-improv exploits of The Tuxedo Tyrants.
CitySourced is a real time mobile civic engagement platform. CitySourced provides a free, simple, and intuitive platform empowering residents to identify civic issues (public safety, quality of life, & environmental issues, etc.) and report them to city hall for quick resolution; an opportunity for government to use technology to save time and money plus improve accountability to those they govern; and a positive, collaborative platform for real action. A picture tells a thousand words and CitySourced makes it snap.
Chill is a place for people to watch video together. We’ve been saying all along, “everything is better with friends,” and this applies to watching video. And the thing is, you already know this to be true. How many times have you swiveled your laptop around to show friends or colleagues a funny clip on YouTube? Or emailed a video clip to a sibling or friend across the country just to put a smile on their face? It happens every day. This is exactly the analog behavior we’re attempting to mimic on Chill.
Our goal is to create a simple, fun and social environment for people to express themselves through the sharing of video.
