Benjamin Kuo’s Blog

Speaking of videos,  the rise in interest in both video and video podcasts on the Internet is playing to the strengths of Los Angeles, in terms of the production talent and actors. There’s enough “latent talent” that has been attracted to Los Angeles, trying to get into Hollywood, that it’s much easier to find folks who know how to film, produce, direct, and star in whatever might tickle your fancy. Provided the economic model holds up, I suspect the area here has a serious competitive advantage in the future of online video simply because of the access to talent. There’s been enough said about all of the content being produced for the web (everything from projects like Lonelygirl15 to Eisner’s Prom Queen)–but you’re even seeing efforts here which you might expect out of Silicon Valley — for example technology-industry video blogs like BoingBoing TV (from DECA, here in SoCal); WebbAlert - out of Los Angeles; and Mahalo Daily.

It’s late Friday, so here’s a (somewhat silly) clip that features Frank Addante, CEO of the Rubicon Project, an LA Internet advertising startup, making fun of some LA stereotypes. (Frank co-founded L90, StrongMail, etc. — Rubicon is funded by Clearstone Ventures).

There is a great chart (embedded below) buried in a report from SVB Analytics, looking at companies that were funded from 1992 through 2007, and whether they were acquired, went out of business, or had an IPO.

(via thealarmclock)

There are two upcoming award opportunities for local high tech companies that you should be aware of, both of which provide an excellent opportunity for people to get the word out to the world, local employees, and others about their firms.

The first is the Entretech PwC Enterpreneurship Awards, which is honoring companies in three categories: Startup, Emerging, and Growth firms. The deadline for this is December 12th.  Companies in the Los Angeles area can apply for this one.

The second is Technology Council Industry Awards, which recognizes both companies and people across a number of high tech categories. The deadline to apply for this award is January 18th.  Companies anywhere in Southern California can apply here.

I’d highly recommend applying to both of these awards, as it’s a great opportunity for local companies.

(Mass of intertwined disclaimers: I’m involved as a board member and/or advisor with both Entretech and the Technology Council and these awards events; PwC, a sponsor of the Entretech PwC Entrepreneurship awards, is also a sponsor of socalTECH; the Technology Council is sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank, also a sponsor of socalTECH; and socalTECH has been a media sponsor of the Technology Council awards in the past.)

Paidcontent posted a story earlier this week on an effort to raise a $150-200M venture capital fund, from the Creative Artists Agency and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Brian Garrett and Rick Smith (who were at Palomar) are reportedly ivolved. No official world on where the fundraising actually is; I had lunch with Brian Garrett earlier this summer to talk about his effort to put together a new-media focused fund, but at that time they hadn’t yet closed any funding.

There are quite a few venture firms who are in fundraising mode right now in Southern California, including Zone Ventures, which is — interestingly enough — also affiliated with DFJ. Zone was fairly focused on the entertainment industry when it first started; that fund’s big win was DivX.

Off topic, but I found this article on Microsoft’s “foul-mouthed” Santa very amusing. Microsoft had a software project which would respond to instant messaging queries — part of its Windows Live Messenger Agent program, which allows software developers to create an “agent” which will respond to instant messages on Windows Live. Unfortunately this one wasn’t exactly “kid friendly.”

There are a number of ELIZA-style agents for the service, which uses user inputs to provide some ongoing dialogue with a user. Most are not truly artifical intelligence, but simply cleverly programmed software that doesn’t incorporate real AI techniques.

It’s somewhat amusing that all the computer 101 projects I was doing in high school (heck, before I was even in high school) seem to have cropped up as real, money making Internet services. (Who ever thought you could create something like eHarmony–essentially a souped up computer dating service–based on what has been around since the 60’s as a perennial computer science project?)

As most of you know, we regularly feature guest articles from folks in the Southern California technology community, who would like to lend their advice and give their opinions to our audience.

Our latest is More on The Channels for Raising Equity from Sid Mohasseb, who is a Tech Coast Angel and very active in mentoring early stage companies. It’s posted in our Startup section. Sid gives some of the positives and negatives with angels, friends and family, venture capital, and other sources of startup funding.

Silicon Alley Insider, a publication much like socalTECH for New York (run by Henry Blodget of Dot Com Bubble fame), just published a list of the most influential folks in New York’s digital business. I’ve kept my own personal list for some time, and have been tossing around the idea of doing something similar for Southern California.

Who would you include in a Southern California focused list of the power players?

Bernard Moon, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who was most recently at GoingOn Networks, just posted an interesting item talking about “shadiness” in Silicon Valley — specifically, the tendency of entrepreneurs to mention they are friends of notable people, or “in” with a venture firm, or otherwise to try to gain some credibility — when they’re not.

Although it’s not nearly as bad here, I do see this frequently in startup PowerPoint decks. In particular, I see this in the number of times I see companies including big name companies (Google, Yahoo, Oracle, and Microsoft come to mind) as “potential customers” or part of their pipeline. Anyone doing any kind of due diligence generally finds out how real this is, so it’s not of any benefit, and in fact a detriment, if you truly are looking to find funding, built partnerships, or sell your product (or to get good coverage in a technology publication)

I also occasionally have entrepreneurs tell me (always before they’ve raised a round of funding) that they’re talking to Sequoia, or some of the bigger firms down here, Redpoint/Clearstone/Mission Ventures/etc.–and found out that “talking” means that they’ve handed a card to an associate. Not very impressive, folks.

The Mercury News posted an article this morning on how companies in Silicon Valley are dumping cubicles for “open” offices. Having worked closely with many software, hardware, marketing, and sales teams–and having endured “open office” layouts a few times myself–I just shake my head this.

Having been both in the trenches and managing teams, I found consistently in my own experience that — particularly with the intense focus necessary in hardware and software engineering–having a quiet place to work, without distractions, is a key part of having a productive team. Open office spaces — although they might be great for times when you’re working on very collaborative projects or “creative” endeavors — are always loud, always distracting, and terrible for focusing on things. I recall spending lots of times shuffling people around offices, to try to make sure that the noisier folks — for example, sales people making sales calls — were not someplace they would be distracting the productive software engineers. Even within an engineering group, having an open plan makes it difficult to work — for example, if the guy next to you keeps pestering you with questions, your boss keeps glancing over your shoulder because he’s sitting behind you, etc. Plus, there’s that person who is now a great buddy with a desk next to yours, who you have been trying to avoid all year at the watercooler because they just have to tell you that story about their weekend one more time.