An interesting debate has been bouncing around the Internet over the last week about “Killing Hollywood”–where not a few folks in Silicon Valley (spurred by SOPA) have called for Silicon Valley doing its best to put “Hollywood” out of business. The problem, I think, is that there is a clear delineation between “Hollywood”–the old business [...]
One argument I hear quite frequently–usually from venture capitalists from Silicon Valley–that one of Southern California’s advantages is at the intersection of entertainment and technology. Interestingly enough, as a daily observer of the startup world here I don’t find quite as many technology-plus-Hollywood startups around. Yes, you run into content startups (online video / production [...]
Pasadena-based BigStage Entertainment, the software firm developing technology to easily create avatars based on digital photos, just rolled out a public beta of the firm’s technology this morning. BigStage’s beta, which requires the download of a browser plug-in, allows users to upload three digital photos of themselves and create an three dimensional avatar. The firm’s [...]
When I ask people here in the high tech industry about where the convergence of entertainment and technology are happening, I hear a lot about the application of technology (and particularly the Internet) to distributing content. In most cases, it’s content companies looking to take advantage of new Internet technology — video streaming, user generated [...]
I’ve gotten a lot of response from my interview earlier this week with Richard Wolpert, about his new venture fund — which is backed by William Morris, Accel Partners, Venrock, and AT&T. It turns out, Richard also has his own blog — albeit mostly personal observations rather than info for entrepreneurs and others — althought [...]
I was greeted this morning by an email from a Silicon Valley group, promoting a event in Los Angeles, and was disappointed to read that they were looking to bring “Silicon Valley to the land of silicone.” It was most likely in jest, but I’ve recently been running into entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and others from [...]
There’s been more than enough written on the public launch of the NBC/News Corp. venture Hulu today, and perhaps I’m in the minority; but looking over the titles streaming out of Hulu, I’m suddenly realizing that network television lost me long ago. Out of the dozens of TV shows available — either as episodes, or [...]
Yet another venture firm has turned their eyes toward the new media sector, with the latest — Saban Capital — hiring VantagePoint’s Craig Cooper to head up new media investing in Southern California. Cooper said the fund “will scour the U.S. and international markets for opportunities across all investment stages” in an interview with the [...]
Interesting quote in VentureWire this morning from David Siminoff of Venrock on their new Southern California media fund: “L.A. is just not the place you go for cutting-edge semiconductors, but it’s the place for storytellers,” Venrock General Partner David Siminoff said. “I have a feeling deal flow will lean toward the storytellers.” The quote shows [...]
The William Morris Agency and venture capital firms Venrock and Accel are reportedly creating a new, digital media fund to invest specifically in startups in Southern California, according to the New York Times. The new fund is going to be overseen by former RealNetworks executive Richard Wolpert. (Wolpert is a Southern California resident, and was [...]
Thoughts and commentary from Benjamin F. Kuo, publisher of socalTECH.com.
