The first-ever Silicon Beach Fest attracted more than 2,000 attendees from LA, San Francisco, San Diego, Santa Barbara, New York, Toronto, and London to celebrate LA startups and entertainment with panels, parties, pitch fests, hackathon, and beach games: volleyball, basketball and surfing lessons in Santa Monica and Venice on June 21-23.

Retail therapy has long been a rich country’s rite of passage. Although, the way we indulge our retail therapy is changing as quickly as our smartphones. This Black Friday we reached record retail sales at traditional brick-and-mortar stores, yet the merging Cyber Monday is proving to be a fighting younger brother. Up 33% this year, according to the Washington Post, online commerce is trending upwards from $175 billion in 2007 to a projection of $335 billion in 2012 (Forrester Research).

Can you feel it folks? Cause I can. Excited to announce MuckerLab, a new startup accelerator and member of the TechStars Network, launched today in L.A. It’s a three-month program providing its selected startups with $21,000 in seed funding, plus the typical incubator benefits like shared office space, legal assistance, infrastructure and hosting, and mentorship from a network of advisors.