Last month we Launched Los Angeles Tech and in the announcement we provide the Hot List for the first half of January 2009. 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

An opportunity like that is usually one in a million but with the Perfect Pitch Conference taking place in Los Angeles, it’s now a very real possibility. Some notable members of the LA tech community will be speaking, moderating, or presenting at the conference and we’d like to wish them all good luck. Mark Suster – Partner – GRP Partners Sir Richard Branson is known for being a successful entrepreneur. Ten minutes alone with the guy could probably change your life if you used it correctly.

GRP Partners ' Mark Suster attended Jason Calacanis' new LA-based Open Angel Forum and shares his perspective with critique of the Tech Coast Angels . Link to Mark's blog . ...Tags: Tags: in the New

We brought together Peter Cowen of Groundwork Equity , Mark Suster of GRP Partners , Rick Smith of Crosscut Ventures , and Richard Yen of Saban Ventures -- all of who will be on the judging panel for the Tech Coast Angel's Fast Pitch on February 24th, to give us a their hints and tips about pitching to venture capitalists. One thing I like to look for is some barrier to entry, whether that is technology, or partners, or great entrepreneurs who understand the space. For this morning's interview, we thought we'd try something different, and put together a virtual panel of venture capitalists to give us a few tips on pitching your company.

Zag has previously received venture capital from such firms as Anthem Ventures, GRP Partners, the Tech Coast Angels, Capricorn Management, Capital One, and Arcturus Capital. Santa Monica-based Zag.com , the online automobile buying service headed by Scott Painter, is reporting today that it had what is calls its "strongest sales so far this year" in June. The firm--which provides its car buying service as a private-label offering through affiliate groups such as the AAA and USAA--said it had 20% sales growth in June, and 15% growth on average for the previous

Zag has previously received funding from Anthem Ventures, Arcturus Capital, Capital One, Capricorn Management, GRP Partners, and the Tech Coast Angels. Santa Monica-based Zag , which has developed an automobile configuration and buying service for affinity organizations like credit unions and automobile organizations, has a funding round of undisclosed size. A

Zag is venture backed by Anthem Ventures, Arcturus Capital, Capital One, Capricorn Management, GRP Partners, and the Tech Coast Angels, along with USAA. Santa Monica-based Zag , which has developed an automobile configuration and buying service for affinity organizations like credit unions and automobile organizations, has raised around $32.4M in a funding round.

The Tech Coast Angels is gearing up for its annual Fast Pitch event, which lets entrepreneurs tune their “elevator pitch” and present to a panel of venture capitalists and angels, later this month. The group has Mark Suster of GRP Partners , Richard Yen of Saban Ventures , Michael Rotgin of Shelter Capital Partners , and Richard Wolpert of the Mail Room Fund this year, and is now taking applications to pitch .  I’ve pointed to it before, but Frank Peters has a good archive of one of the last winners — Leads360 — on his podcast web site.

No updates for Other & Indirect Job Networking Opportunities SoCal Networking Event Organizations Name: Networking For Professionals (NFP) Sites: www.networkingforprofessionals.com , Industry Insights Blog , Success Square/Coaching Blog , Events Blog , City Chat Blog , twitter.com/nfp_biznetwork Updated 2/22/10 by Todd Zebert Name: (Los Angeles) Geek Dinner Frequency/Location: From Heather "I officially closed it down at the end of last year for a variety of reasons: I was burned out on organizing and the LA geek community had changed." Updated