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Pasadena-based Big Stage Entertainment , the venture-backed startup which is developing photo-realistic avatar technology, has exited its beta and officially launched its site. BigStage is venture backed by Mission Ventures, Selby Ventures, and the Tech Coast Angels, and is based on research from the University of Southern California; the firm's CEO, Phil Ressler, was formerly a venture capitalist at Clearstone Ventures, and the firm was co-founded by Jon Snoddy and Jon Kraft, who also helped co-found music service Pandora. The firm said the official launch will allow users to create what the firm calls an "@actor" -- a 3D avatar which can be inserted into movie and TV clips, music videos, still images, and elsewhere.

The goal is to create a place where it's relatively easy to find current content and highly relevant content surrounding Los Angeles Technology. This technology allows us to see what is hot. So here's the Hot List for 1/1/2009 - 1/15/2009 Top 5 Posts The 7 Ways to Get Traffic on the Web Why You Need To Lead A Tribe - Seth Godin LA Gets Dugg, Hammered, Screwed How To Get The World Excited About Your Business I'm happy to announce the launch of the Los Angeles Tech Content Community . This is the beginning of a content community that collects and organizes

Pasadena-based Big Stage Entertainment , which develops 3D, avatar creation technology, has signed on a virtual world as a licensee of its technology. Big Stage said that photo-realistic, 3-D virtual universe Blue Mars 2150 has licensed its 3-D, facial modeling technology. Big Stage is venture backed by Mission Ventures, Selby Ventures, and the Tech Coast Angels. Financial impact of the win was not disclosed. Blue Mars 2150 is an effort to show what life on Mars might be like in the future, and is being supported by museum exhibits, television, and other efforts,

It’s like messing with either venture capitalist Beau Laskey , at Steamboat Ventures, or Ted Alexander at Mission Ventures–both of whom are ex-Navy SEALs Ha! The first time I’ve ever–in many long years–posted an article with the words “kidnap” and “extortion” in one of our articles. (Yes, Yes, it’s just

How is the instability on Wall Street affecting local venture capitalists? According to some local Southern California venture investors, it absolutely is affecting how they are thinking about the investment environment. John The biggest single issue is probably more psychological, than anything, "Robert Kibble, Managing Partner of Mission Ventures told us, explaining, "the result will be--and already is--that venture capitalists are going to be more cautious, which is they are going to be less likely John Babcock, a Managing Director at Rustic Canyon, told us that "while panics are a regular part of free markets, we are definitely into uncharted territory here in terms of the size and speed of the government response to prevent systemic market failure. "

Talk us through how the person using your product is benefiting through your technology.  Don’t: I spotted my fellow VC Leo Spiegel (from Mission Ventures) who had spoken previously to the same group and asked about his experiences. My choices – talk about the VC industry and where it is heading (which is what the dean asked me to cover), talk about how to start companies (which is partly what Lada Rasochova , the director of the entrepreneurship program Most people suck at presenting to big groups.  It’s It’s a shame because the ability to nail

The funding came from Mission Ventures and Okapi Ventures. Transaction Wireless said the funding will go towards sales and marketing expansion, technology development, and customer deployment. Leo Spiegel of Mission Ventures and Marc Averitt of Okapi Ventures have joined the firm's board as part of the funding. San Diego-based Transaction Wireless announced this morning that it has raised $2.25M in a Series A funding. According to the firm, it is developing mobile infrastructure for relationship marketing, including mobile POS and mobile gift cards.

Pasadena-based Big Stage Entertainment , which is developing technology for creating 3D avatars, said Tuesday that the firm has hired on Patrick Barry as the firm's Vice President of Content Alliances. Big Stage Entertainment is venture backed by Mission Ventures, Selby Ventures, and the Tech Coast Angels and based on technology spun out of the University of Southern California. Big Stage said that Barry joins the firm from SK Telecom, where he was Senior Director of Corporate Development and Strategy. Barry has also served at Brilliant Digital, Warner

The funding came from its existing investors, Mission Ventures and Okapi Ventures. The company said the new funds will go towards ongoing technology and customer deployment and sales and marketing. Tags: transaction wireless venture capital mobile gift card marketin San Diego-based Transaction Wireless , a developer of mobile gift card and other mobile marketing products, announced this morning that it has raised an additional $2M in funding. Transaction Wireless develops a stored value, gift card platform which allows users to purchase products using their mobile