Santa Monica-based Tsavo Media, the new startup founded by Userplane founder Michael Jones, has launched a new division, focused on search engine marketing. The firm announced the division Tuesday afternoon, saying that its new Tsavo Agency will provide search engine marketing and content monetization services for companies. The new unit comes shortly after Tsavo Media's acquisition of Better Inc, which runs search engine marketing business. Jones said in a statement that the new division will focus primarily on text ad placement, and makes the firm's internally developed

Santa Monica-based Tsavo , the online media company which owns Manolith, Twirlit, Kidglue, and Nibbledish, has lost its Vice President of Product and Design, Mike Macadaan. Macadaan is well known in the Los Angeles technology community for creating and running Twiistup, the popular Los Angeles technology networking and startup showcase event. According to Macadaan, this week is his last Macadaan's departure closely follows the departure of Tsavo founder and CEO Michael Jones, who recently became COO of MySpace. Tsavo develops content-focused web sites which apply technology

When I drill down on that term, you can see why with posts like: Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals Lops A Third Of Company THQ Lays Off 100 Employees, Closes San Diego Office Citrix Cuts 10 Percent; Santa Barbara Hit And it's also interesting to see what geographies are being associated with "Layoffs" more often than others: Layoffs Woodland Hills Layoffs San Diego Layoffs Santa Monica Layoffs Los Angeles I guess this is a sign of the times. The Scott Sanfilippo Interview Media Optimization Firms Are Red Hot In Southern California in 2009 Proliferate

What if you can’t get funding for your startup? Before launching Tsavo , his current startup, Mike Jones funded a startup through consulting work. Do you have any advice for a startup that can’t raise money? If you have a good concept that you really want to pursue, and there’s absolutely Here’s an edited excerpt from his interview. But it is a substantial distraction and a lot of people might not either have the discipline to do it or the stomach for it.

Michael bootstrapped userplane and sold it to AOL, then went on to found Tsavo . Along the way he’s invested in and advised startups like GumGum and Dogster . They may not be metric businesses when you initially start and you’re just building your software, but at some point it becomes about new users per day, new signups per day, etc. ( Can’t see video? Try this. )

I recently interviewed Michael Jones, founder of Tsavos . Since he’s also a top startup adviser and angel investor, in addition to asking him about Tsavo, I asked him how about how and why he advises companies. I asked about the vision behind Tsavo: To see Here’s an edited transcript of some of what he told me. (Download Download the full program for more.)

One of the recent trends in the technology industry here in Los Angeles is the use of "coworking" spaces--flexible workspaces where companies can rent open office space. Chang is looking to open up two to three more similar spaces in the next year. The existing space on Wilshire is heavily used by meetups, business networking groups, as well as local startups, and we thought we'd talk with Jerome to better BLANKSPACES (www.blankspaces.com) -- which is on Wilshire Blvd.--is is the brainchild of architect Jerome Chang.

They only have a few tickets left for $195, after that they go up to $250 so  grab yours now . Startonomics is a one-day workshop designed by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs on how to create simple, actionable metrics; and how to use them to make better product and marketing decisions for long-term growth and startup success. This guy has sold more companies than the Internet has lolcats. Hotrentrepenuer Debbie Landa and Deal Maker Media are bringing Startonomics  to Los Angeles. This time around they’ve assembled their best speaker lineup ever , I can say this