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

On the third Wednesday of every month I co-chair a meeting called the SoCal VCA (venture capital alliance), which represents participants from all of the top venture capital firms in Southern California as well as prominent members of the Tech Coast Angels (TCA).  We meet to discuss trends in the industry and to find ways to work together to help with SoCal deal syndication – somethings that happens automatically on Sand Hill Road in NorCal due to proximity. Montgomery & Co Projects Deal Volume to Grow by 167% in Just 2 Years with No End to Growth in Sight

Acquisition, Band of Angels vs. Tech Coast Angels, Facebook vs. Tags: Investing SoCa IPO vs. MySpace, Stanford vs. CalTech, Polished vs. Scrappy, 3rd time CEO vs.

Acquisition, Band of Angels vs. Tech Coast Angels, Facebook vs. IPO vs. MySpace, Stanford vs. CalTech, Polished vs. Scrappy, 3rd time CEO vs. 1st time CEO, 10M Pre vs.

Angel investing in startups is probably the most challenging form of private equity there is. Having been involved with the Tech Coast Angels for the last 10 years I have seen 150+ companies funded and very few successes. Unless you are full time investor looking at business plans all day long or have some particular domain expertise, angel investing will turn into a charitable tax exercise for you. One thing I have learned over that time is that about 90% of the investors in each company "didn't know what they didn't know". Why? However, the angel successful

Last night I attended a DealMaker Media (whom I love because they always host such great discussions) panel on raising angel money moderated by Dan Gould and with panelists Rob Hayes (First Round Capital, more seed or A round than angel), Scot Sangster (with OrganicStartup and the best spokesperson for Tech Coast Angels that I have met to date), Tom McInerney (TGM) and Jarl Mohn (who invests on his own “account” and whose track record is truly humbling). recently wrote a post on angel financing covering the topic of convertible notes but

Southern California's top startups showed up in force Friday at the Westin South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, for the Technology Council of Southern California's annual VentureNet conference. (socalTECH The conference, held at the Westin South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, featured pitches by eight different companies vying for the attention--and pocketbooks--of venture capitalists. socalTECH was a media sponsor of the conference). The day started with a keynote by John Suh of Legalzoom.com, and topped off with a pitch from David Sacks -- CEO of Geni.com, and also CEO of Geni spinoff

Luis Villalobos, founder of the Tech Coast Angels, passed away yesterday , leaving a huge whole in Southern California’s technology and angel community. Luis — who regularly emailed me when I was  late sending out my daily email — exemplified some of the traits which make So Cal’s angel community an asset to entrepreneurs here. Tags: Angel Investing No, it’s not the investment dollars, it was the advice, guidance, mentoring, and help he gave countless entrepreneurs. Not only have I seen what Luis has done with local startups,

Need office or Tech Space? PricewaterhouseCoopers' Vision To Reality Program for Emerging Tech Companies Safire Los Angeles-based executive search for emerging growth companies Stradling Sponsoring socalTECH's Orange County High Tech Report. Stubbs Thanks to all of our sponsors, who make our coverage of Southern California's technology industry possible: Sponsors Redpoint

For today's Insights & Opinions section, we're sharing a brief piece that Jeff Cohn , a well known consultant to angel and venture investors in town--and who was previously Investment Screening Director for the Tech Coast Angels--wrote about his view of Southern California's current VC investment market in his blog , which he's let us repost here. Contrary To make matters even more difficult almost 90% of VCs based in SoCal in 1999 are now gone while our beachhead entertainment companies have a terrible track record at making early stage investments and