The Orange County Chapter of the Tech Coast Angels is promoting a program to help jumpstart small companies, O.C. Tech Coast Angels, the new program will provide seed funding, strategic planning, and execution of day-to-day functions of startups. The San Diego branch of the Tech Coast Angels launched their own TCA Seed Track effort way back in December of 2006, initially focused on both technology and biomedical firms; SeedTrack, building off of earlier efforts by the group's San Diego and other chapters. According to the

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

Irvine-based eGuardian , a provider of service aimed at protecting children on the web, has partnered with safety education firm i-SAFE, according to investor the Tech Coast Angels. eGuardian develops technology for verifying the age, gender, and location of children on web sites. Tags: eguardian safety tech coast angels angel investment isaf i-SAFE SAFE is a nonprofit which educates consumers about Internet safety.

The Tech Coast Angels said today that the angel group invested in seven new deals, and seventeen follow-on deals in 2009, a total of $4.7M The group said that as part of those deals, its portfolio companies raised an additional $57M in funding from venture capital groups and other angel investors. The group--the largest angel group in Southern California, and one of the largest nationwide--said in investments. Last year, the TCA said it invested in 15 first-time fundings in firms, and 16 follow-on funding rounds.

San Diego-based MicroPower Technologies, which develops technology for ultra-low power wireless video, has scored a Series A funding round from the Tech Coast Angels. An investor in the firm told socalTECH.com that the company's technology is targeted at a wide variety of applications, such as wireless video security monitoring. The firm's technology is expected to last Financial terms of the investment round were not disclosed. The Series A funding round will go towards final development of the firm's prototype demo systems.

I'm happy to announce the launch of the Los Angeles Tech Content Community . The goal is to create a place where it's relatively easy to find current content and highly relevant content surrounding Los Angeles Technology. To be clear Los Angeles Tech is a jump off point. This is the beginning of a content community that collects and organizes the best content from blogs and web sites. The content comes from other places.

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.

Digital Family Reunion is bringing all of the LA Tech/Business/Media scene together next month, for a nice holiday party at the Skirball Center! On Thursday, December 11th from 5:00pm to 10:00pm, the Digital Family Reunion (DFR) is bringing the Southern California technology and business communities together for the holidays at the Skirball Cultural Center. Join us for this unique business networking event, which includes a leadership Howdy Campers! It should be a blast having so many great LA communities together, sharing their thoughts and having some great holiday fun!

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, and includes

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).  No doubt a tech M&A banker would have a bias to say that the world ahead looks rosy, but however you want to put a spin on the next 2 years I think you’ll find this data very interesting and useful.  Where Montgomery & Co Projects Deal Volume to Grow by 167% in Just 2 Years with No End to Growth in Sight