This week's release of a list of their "Top 100" venture capitalists by AlwaysOn -- based roughly on number and dollar amount of successful M&A and IPO deals between October 1, 2005 to September 30, 2009--seems to have skipped local Southern California venture capitalists, with only one Southern California VCs listed. Tags: southern california venture capital alwayso According to the list, just Jim Gauer of Palomar Ventures , made the cut. AlwaysOn highlighted Gauer's involvement in firms AlterPoint, Network Physics, RealOps, and Cerebra

In 2005, Majid coauthored "Data Strategy" a book designed to help streamline information management within organizations. He is a former chairman of the Business Software Alliance, and currently is Chair of the LA Chapter of the Technology Council of Southern California. Just a quick note that I'll be moderating a Technology Council Event : Social Networking as a Business Strategy May 19, 2009 - Culver City Social networking media are used on a daily basis to grow businesses and expand career opportunities. Individuals use social networking sites such as LinkedIn

Alumni events 2 updates and 14 new in SoCal Networking Event Organizations . New ideas in SoCal Educational Networking & Job Search Organizations . New items and updates in Other & Indirect Job Networking Opportunities SoCal Networking Event Organizations Name: Media Leaders (LA) Review: I attended towards the en of their event at Bodega Wine Bar in Santa Monica. Weekly updates! Please let me know if know of other items to add, or if you have any feedback on events. Sorry I missed last week; this week is extra value (same low cost).

Southern California's venture capital numbers for Q4 slipped, as did numbers nationally, according to numbers released over the weekend by Dow Jones VentureSource. According to the report, Southern California's venture capital totals slipped for the first time since 2003, down more than 18 percent annually, to $3.2 billion--that drop represented the weakest quarter in SoCal in 5 years, according However, Southern California's IT industry actually saw an increase in investments, bucking a national downturn in IT industry investments. According to

A new study of the financial outcomes for Southern California venture-backed companies in the IT sector finds that approximately $48 billion in value has been created by those companies over the period 1995-2009. The study found that the greatest values for Southern California venture-backed firms were created by companies operating in Online Services (51%), followed by Communications and Networking (15%), Software (10%) and Semiconductors (9%). The study, conducted by Jon Funk of OceanRoad Partners , includes data from socalTECH.com's proprietary venture database , Dow Jones/VentureSource, and Greg Martin of Redpoint Ventures . Funk

The city has, however, quietly been home to some of the most successful online companies to date, including CitySearch (sold to Ticketmaster for $260 million in 1998), Overture (acquired by Yahoo for $2 billion in 2003), eHarmony and LowerMyBills (bought by Experian for $330 million in 2005). And thats not even counting MySpace, which Rupert Murdoch famously paid $580 million for in 2005. RSS ); Why You Should Start a Company in...

Matt Coffin , the founder of Los Angeles-based LowerMyBills and an active angel investor in Southern California, has joined venture capital firm Split Rock Partners as a Venture Advisor, the venture firm said this week. Split Rock was an investor in LowerMyBills, which Coffin sold to Experian in 2005 for $380M. Split Rock, which is based in Minneapolis, said that Coffin will work with the firm to identify promising investment opportunities, as well as to help advise its existing portfolio companies. Coffin also has invested as an angel in Billshrink, Buscape, CyberRain,

As a way of thanking you for your good work, we'll give you a free ticket good for one day admission to a Walt Disney World® or Disneyland® theme park. " Summary Follow these links to find the updates, and follow further for the full listings. 8 New and 4 Updates in SoCal Networking Event Organizations . No updates for SoCal Educational Networking & Job Search Organizations . Send me your new, updated, or reviews of networking events and organizations. The Notable & Where I'm Going... Tell them you heard about it from Todd's blog! I'll be speaking (yes, yours truly) on “Effective Networking for Entrepreneurs” at the GroundUP Business Group 's Tuesday, March 9th 7-8:30pm, at Zephyr Coffee House, 2419 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91107 .

Xdrive itself was actually a Southern California startup, and was acquired by AOL in 2005. Los Angeles-based ElephantDrive is targeting users of AOL's Xdrive service, the online data storage service that AOL said it is closing in January. According to ElephantDrive CEO Michael Fisher, the company will provide free file transfer from Xdrive to ElephantDrive for users, as well as a 30-day free trial account.

A few months ago, Peter Lee --a venture local capitalist who has served at firms such as Prism Ventures and Clearstone Ventures Partners--joined a relatively unknown venture firm here in Southern California, Baroda Ventures (www.barodaventures.com). He made a lot of money from those deals, so in 1999 he set up Baroda Ventures. We caught up with Peter earlier this week to get the background on Baroda, and to talk a little about the firm's investment goals. We're We're familiar with Baroda, but for our readers who haven't heard of Baroda Ventures, talk about the story