Because I was the Acting CTO for eHarmony at it's start, I quite often get introduced to people who have an idea for a startup company that is based on some kind of matching algorithm. They describe the company as the eHarmony of careers, clothes, jobs, college, tutoring services, doctors, service companies, investments, etc. In fact, you can get a good idea In eHarmony's case, it was the friction of finding a compatible marriage partner. In the case of college matching, it's the complexity of what college matches best with the person's needs.

RSS ); Why You Should Start a Company in... Los Angeles By: Laura Rich February 26, 2010

The latest comScore Media Metrix ranking of top growing Internet properties shows that, among Southern California's Internet companies, Gorilla Nation , ProFlowers , and eHarmony saw big gains in their Internet traffic in February. million visitors; and eHarmony, the number one personals site for February, up 82 percent with 5.0 According to comScore's February 2010 numbers, GN Kids, Gorilla Nation's kids-focused online ad network, was number six in terms of percentage change in unique visitors -- up 241 percent between January and February. The report said that GN Kids

Social networking sites and microblogs are used not only to build company brands, but to foster productivity; social media tools help build communities around the question, "What are you working on?" Companies also use social networking sites in the hiring process, and increasingly, to do innovative advertising (such as the recent Jack in the Box campaign). This Panel will 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.

Southern California is a hotbed of technology companies that are leaders in their sector. This includes MySpace, CitySearch, Ticketmaster, eHarmony, and thousands of lesser known technology companies. high-tech community like this also has many bloggers and Web-based news outlets that cover our companies, venture capital, and events -- plus a number of advisers who help technologies entrepreneurial companies grow. A It's been difficult to keep up on all aspects of the technology sector in Southern California.

He recommends that early stage companies get input from people who know the funding process, know the vertical, etc. eHarmony for start-up / advisor relationship Andrew Warner from Mixergy posted - Before Looking for Funding, Get an Advisor . That's great advice. Of course, it's sometimes hard to find advisors.

Santa Monica-based SharesPost , which has created on online marketplace for sellers and buyers of private company stock, reported to its users late Friday that the firm now has sales of LinkedIn, Linden Lab, Tesla Motors, and SugarCRM going into escrow. The firm--which launched in early June--also said that that it now has offers to sell Facebook, Tesla, XDx, eHarmony, and LindenLab shares, as the firm's marketplace starts to gear up. The firm also bolstered its research, posting reports on all of those firms, and also reported that it had over 4,000 users sign up in its first two weeks.

Monster Worldwide, the leading purveyor of online jobs, purchased the company in 2004. You had match.com, you had americansingles.com, and eHarmony, and those are great. If there's a company that we're interested in we can quickly scroll through a bunch of their work and see whether we like them or not. Here's an easy way to vote for this interview on Hacker News. --Andrew Andrew

In 1986 I started an advertising and public relations firm to serve software and hardware companies, which became a marketing consulting business ( www.Allen.com ) when I moved to L.A. One of the places where eHarmony really took off was on radio. Of course, part of the reason that I went to you when I started thinking about visible networking is that you run a company that's right in the middle Cliff Allen is someone I've known for quite a few years and he's a go to person for me when I'm thinking about issues around marketing, sales, technology, startups and networking. Of course, when I started thinking about Visible Networking , I immediately went to Cliff to check in to see how he's doing and to get his feedback, thoughts and ideas on the concept. Cliff, remind me about your background? My first career was spent building radio and television stations, then running the programming side of those businesses.

Santa Monica-based SharesPost , which operates a secondary marketplace for privately held company shares, is expanding the amount of third party research on its market. According to the firm, it has added Blueshift Research and Liquid Scenarios as providers of private company research and data to its subscribers. SharesPost's site features in-depth analysis of privately held firms such as Facebook, Twitter, The firm also features research from Next Up! Research and VC Experts.