Author Archives: Preccelerator™

Preccelerator Company nēdl Places in Top Three Finalists for PILOT Innovation Challenge

Congratulations to SAM Preccelerator company, nēdl, for taking third place and a $20,000 prize in the PILOT Innovation Challenge held in Palo Alto earlier this month. The PILOT Challenge is an innovation initiative of the National Association of Broadcasters that “recognizes creative ideas that leverage technological advances in the production, distribution and display of engaging content.”

To read the full article visit here.

About PILOT
PILOT is a coalition of innovators, educators and advocates dedicated to advancing broadcast technology and cultivating new media opportunities. PILOT propels broadcast television and radio into the future. It provides a platform for innovation, an engine for incubation, a venue for testing new technologies and a forum for broadcaster education. Learn more at www.nabpilot.org.

About nēdl
nēdl uses proprietary Speech Recognition to let you search within 100,000+ live news, sports, talk, and music broadcast streams to find what you want and listen to the stream or add your unique voice to the global real-time database for instant discovery. Visit www.findnedl.com

To learn more about the Preccelerator® Program, contact Heidi Hubbeling, COO at (310) 746-9803 or hhubbeling@100.26.91.60

Introducing the Startup Superhero Video Series! – This Week Featuring Jonathan Tavss on “Utilizing Mentorship”

Stubbs Alderton & Markiles and the Preccelerator Program are proud to announce the launch of their Startup Superhero Video Series – featuring SA&M Attorneys, Preccelerator Mentors, and entrepreneurs on topics specific to entrepreneurship and lessons learned throughout the journey.

This week we’re featuring Preccelerator Mentor Jonathan Tavss of Kaleidoko, Inc. as he chats about “Utilizing Mentorship.” Jonathan Tavss is an award-winning entrepreneur, marketer, strategist, and content creator with more than two decades of experience leading content creation, distribution, product development and global marketing for international entertainment studios, Media firms, CPG brands and service corporations.

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Transcript

Heidi: Jonathan, what do you see being the most important benefit to the Preccelerator companies in regards to mentorship?

Jonathan: I guess the one that just sticks out the most is connections. Right? It gives you resources that you might not otherwise have. What I have seen, are the companies that really succeed, are the ones that take advantage. It’s almost like a secret thing, the fact that there’s so many mentors here, there’s so many people that you can call upon. That in and of itself is something that people aren’t used to. A. having the people to talk to and, B. knowing what to ask of them. It’s interesting because in success you will have a lot of people coming in wanting to be an advisor. Can I be on your board? Wanting to do all that kind of stuff and in this secure environment you can work with different advisors on different things, even advisors that do similar things to each other, to really get a sense of how you are going to work best with them.

Heidi: With your personal background, with your professional background what perspectives do you bring as a mentor

Jonathan: I think it really is tied to what Kaleidoko is all about, which is to brand holistically. How you position, but it’s not just about the marketing. It’s how you set up your company to be able to deal with change that is constant. With Kaleidoko we usually work with later stage companies and so it’s a matter of going in and seeing what fundamental bricks were not placed as they were rushed to deliver to clients’ needs. We go in with that fresh look we really fill in those bricks. What I deal with for these participating companies is to help them be mindful of those fundamental pieces that you need to be able to set up for your company so that you can be successful moving forward into the future.

Heidi: If you could give one piece of advice to the companies based on your breath of experience, what would that be?

Jonathan: I think it would be to have your eye’s wide open all the time. As a founder you’re really heads down, running that sprint to get to where you’re trying to go. You have got to keep your eyes open to see what’s happening culturally, what’s happening technologically. Mentors, advisors, board members, or employees will come up with different ideas. So, it’s a matter of really capturing that. Also, something that I find interesting; there’s a lot of companies out there that set off to do a certain thing and as they were developing that certain thing. They found, this pot of gold, that they were just creating to help them deliver, what they thought was a value, but the real value is over here. So, not that you’re trying to go right, left, all over the place. What you want to be doing is to be able to keep your eyes open. What is that IP? What is that certain thing that might be a different direction, but that might be your real winner?

Heidi: One last question. What is your favorite thing about being a mentor at the Preccelerator. What does it give to you?

Jonathan: I got involved because I really wanted to find a way to give back. Being that I am also a university professor you know I have always just been of the “how can I help other people” mindset. This was just a great opportunity to be able to do so and meet a lot of really great people. Both on the company side and the mentor side. There’s some really strong participants all over the place. That’s why I was really excited to be a part of it.

Heidi: Very much appreciate you.

Jonathan: Thanks.

Jonathan Tavss
Kaleidoko, Inc.
www.kaleidoko.com
jonathan@kaleidoko.com

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To learn more about the Preccelerator Program, contact Heidi Hubbeling at hhubbeling@100.26.91.60.

Introducing the Startup Superhero Video Series! – This Week Featuring Chris Bechtel on “Driving Growth For Early-Stage Startups”

This week we’re featuring Preccelerator Mentor Chris Bechtel of Growth Engine Labs as he chats about “Driving Growth for Early-Stage Startups.” Chris is a growth consultant, start-up advisor, customer acquisition and sales coach, former SaaS CEO, and marketing executive. Chris brings 20 years of sales and marketing expertise, specializing in demand generation, marketing automation, pipeline optimization, content marketing, and sales technologies. Chris has extensive experience in B2B, internet and SaaS technologies working with start-ups, growth stage organizations and brands to maximize the results of their digital marketing, PR and revenue generation activities through the use of content and technology.

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Transcript

Heidi: What do you think is the most important thing for driving growth for early stage companies?

Chris: I think really, the most important thing is really the market. Being in the right section of the market, really focused on customer needs. I think that most start-ups, start with a hypothesis. It usually comes from personal experience, but people often forget there’s many potential buyers of that start-up’s initial idea. There’s a problem, there’s a pain that needs to be solved and think sort of the biggest barrier is not really focusing on the right growth segment within that market. So, I think first and foremost it’s about making sure you’re in a strong market, where the customer’s segments under served. I think then it’s really about that focus. It’s really about focusing on the right section of the market, really understanding who you are marketing to and that’s really going to dictate the value proposition to use and what channels you use to acquire them.

Heidi: Going back to barriers, talk about the most common barrier to early stage success.

Chris: I think really the same it’s about focus. With every entrepreneur, it’s both a blessing and a curse to have that creative mind. To be able to come up with unique solutions to common problems. But, then the barrier often comes from overthinking and questioning all those ideas and then not actually being able to focus because essentially every start-up is a hypothesis and then when it comes to marketing that hypothesis those are also a set of hypotheses. The key is focusing and prioritizing a series of tests.

Heidi: For early stage start-up, how do you find the right people to surround them with to provide attraction and growth.

Chris: I think that’s a great question, and one that often many founders struggle with. In terms, of how do I have a co-founder, who’s my initial founding team? A lot of it starts with what’s the stage that you’re in? What kinds of people? Do you have people, you know, if you’re already at product market fit and you need people to scale? You will need people who have had experience really scaling. In the early days, you needed people who could do many things and are willing to do many things and are able to then also focus on those core things and get us to the next stage of validating product market fit and identifying the actual acquisition channels that are going to help us get to that next stage. Hopefully get some more capital to start scaling.

Heidi: Finally, what’s your favorite thing about being a mentor here at the Preccelerator? What drove you to join us?

Chris: Well, first of all it’s a great community. There’s great people here and I just really love helping people. That’s why I do what I do I think and helping people get clarity. Because people have so much passion, but it’s hard, it’s really, really hard. So, I love the joy in people’s face when they sort of get clarity, at least what I’m supposed to focus on for the next week or two and get unstuck. I think that’s really what I enjoy the most about being here at Stubbs.

Heidi: Yeah, community and that sense of empathy, among advisors, mentors, and other entrepreneurs that are advising. It’s been really important and greatly beneficial. Thank you for being here.

Chris Bechtel
Growth Engine Labs
cbechtel@growthenginelabs.com

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To learn more about the Preccelerator Program, contact Heidi Hubbeling at hhubbeling@100.26.91.60.

SAM Preccelerator® Company nēdl Named Finalist in PILOT Innovation Challenge

SAM Preccelerator Company nēdl, an app that allows radio listeners to use speech recognition to eliminate the need to go station-to-station to find specific news, sports, talk and music, has been named among the 12 finalists for the PILOT Innovation Challenge. PILOT is an innovation initiative of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). The PILOT Innovation Challenge recognizes creative ideas that leverage technological advances in the production, distribution and display of engaging content.

To read the full press release visit here.

To learn more about the Preccelerator® Program, contact Heidi Hubbeling, COO at (310) 746-9803 or hhubbeling@100.26.91.60

SAM Preccelerator® Company RentSpree Featured on Built In LA

SAM Preccelerator Program company RentSpree, an apartment listing website that allows renters to submit multiple applications and non-damaging Transunion credit reports, was featured this week on Built In LA’s Tech Roundup announcing that is has entered into a partnership with Michigan-based real estate tech giant ZipLogix. ZipLogix is the recognized industry standard for electronic real estate forms and transaction management.

To read the full article on Built In LA and learn more about RentSpree click here.

To learn more about the Preccelerator® Program, contact Heidi Hubbeling, COO at (310) 746-9803 or hhubbeling@100.26.91.60

Check out RentSpree below:

SAM Preccelerator Alumni Tina Hay of Napkin Finance Featured Speaker at “Hypothesis Driven Management”

Women In LAVA and Pivotal Labs are excited to announce
a joint strategy-focused event on October 24, 2017 :

“Hypothesis Driven Management: Learn how to reduce risk
and create the product customers want.”

This is a hands on, experiential session which will take you through the initial stages of assessing the next steps for your company and potential product launch.

Event details:
Monday, October 24, 2017
6-8:30pm

Pivotal Labs
1333 2nd St., Suite 200
Santa Monica, CA 90401

Here’s a brief description of what you will experience:

Workshop Objectives and Agenda:

Building new products will always be challenging and never without risk. However, the processes for creating the right solution, increasing market fit and reducing time to market have evolved significantly over the last decade.

Learn how to:

Identify your biggest risk
Create an approach for reducing that risk
Leverage your customers to test your new approach
Generate better insights about your user that will inform all future development

You will work along side two successful entrepreneurs: Jennifer Beall Saxton, CEO of Totsquad and Tina Hay, CEO of Napkin Finance, who will share their experiences as they built their companies and made essential pivots along the way.

Napkin Finance is a multimedia company that grew out of our own needs for a better way to learn and understand finance.
We developed our platform as a quick and easy resource on everything you need to know about money in 30 seconds or less. Our mission is to empower our readers to manage their money and understand basic financial concepts in a simple, fun and engaging way. In addition to Napkins, we have grown into a wide range of products and features including: Videos, Life Events, NapkinGrams, and Podcasts. Most importantly, Napkin Finance has become a community of ideas and concepts that has empowered our readers to fully understand the complexity of personal finance. Money isn’t boring and educating yourself about it shouldn’t be either!

For more about the Preccelerator® Program or to apply, contact Heidi Hubbeling, COO at (310) 746-9803 or hhubbeling@100.26.91.60

SAM Preccelerator Announces Seventh Class of Companies

The Preccelerator® Program, a Santa Monica, CA based accelerator program for early stage startup companies in the digital media and technology space, announced today that it has added its seventh class of companies featuring four innovative startups.

In 2012 Stubbs Alderton & Markiles launched the first-of-its kind Preccelerator® Program to provide select start-ups with co-working space, mentorship, sophisticated legal services, a full curriculum, user testing sessions, and access to a strategic perks portfolio with the objective of helping grow a founder’s idea from business concept to a funded company. The Preccelerator has 6 month terms, and adds new companies every 3 months for overlapping terms. Over the past five years, 22 companies have graduated the Program, of which 18 have received funding totaling over $9M.

Preccelerator® Program Class 7 companies include:

nēdl uses proprietary Speech Recognition to let you search within 100,000+ live news, sports, talk, and music broadcast streams to find what you want and listen to the stream or add your unique voice to the global real-time database for instant discovery. Visit www.findnedl.com

Emerging Visual Realities (EVRealities) delivers 360^o Video/Virtual Reality content directly to you. Current events and topics that turn our world – captured in VR – are delivered directly to your editorial and content team for licensing. EVRealities’ global creator community streamlines VR content creation and discovery for your editorial team to develop compelling VR stories for daily publication. An EVRealities membership provides full access to our WebVR gallery, delivery of fresh content, and licensing packages. WebVR previews allows your distributed teams to go beyond the thumbnail and experience the emotional composition of content from anywhere in the world, with or without a headset. Visit www.evrealities.com

LineForLine is a SaaS platform for music promotion that gives artists the ability to share parts of their songs as lyric video clips. These audiovisual snippets of lyrics with sound are intended to be shared as a form of music discovery and promotion. With a growing demand for visual content, the LineForLine team believes these clips are the best way to accomplish their mission of helping people listen and connect to the message of an artist’s music. Visit www.lineforline.com

Ca$het – CA$Het is a multi-services platform (MSP) that allows users to identify, curate, and monetize products in movies and TV shows. We believe that the entertainment industry creates tremendous value by associating characters and products on screen. The emotional impact created when actors and products interact has been impossible to monetize due to a lack of a suitable mechanism and marketplace. We aim to change that through our platform. CA$Het provides a mechanism to quickly and accurately identify on screen products while simultaneously creating the marketplace where they can be purchased. (Coming Soon!)

For more information about the Preccelerator® Program, visit www.preccelerator.com

About Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP

Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP is a Southern California based business law firm with robust corporate, public securities, mergers and acquisitions, entertainment, intellectual property, brand protection and business litigation practice groups focusing on the representation of, among others, venture backed emerging growth companies, middle market public companies, large technology companies, entertainment and digital media companies, investors, venture capital funds, investment bankers and underwriters. The firm’s clients represent a broad range of industries with a concentration in the technology, entertainment, videogame, apparel and medical device sectors. The firm’s mission is to provide technically excellent legal services in a consistent, highly-responsive and service-oriented manner with an entrepreneurial and practical business perspective. These principles are the hallmarks of the firm. For more information, visit https://preccelerator.com.

About the Preccelerator® Program

The Preccelerator® is a novel platform offered to select start-up companies out of the Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP Santa Monica office that provides interim office space, sophisticated legal services, education, networking, mentorship and $250,000 in usable perks from Google Cloud for Startups, Amazon Web Services, and HubSpot among others, with the objective of helping grow a founder’s idea from business concept to funded startup. The program also retains more than 50 active strategic mentors providing free office hours and discounted services, and provides over 50+ educational workshops and networking events each year. The Program expanded in 2017 to accept a greater number of companies in more formalized classes, depending upon where the companies are in their evolutionary growth, expand benefits to accepted companies, and will look to make strategic investments backed by strategic angel investors. To apply to the Preccelerator, visit www.www.sparkxyz.io/competitions/152.

Contact:

Heidi Hubbeling
Chief Operating Officer, Preccelerator® Program
hhubbeling@100.26.91.60
310-746-9803

Preccelerator® Program Company RentSpree Joins zipLogix™

Congratulations to Preccelerator® Program Company RentSpree for their new partnership with zipLogix, a software app for electronic real estate forms and transaction management. This new partnership integrates RentSpree’s application process with zipForm® Plus to streamline the rental application process for real estate agents and tenants. RentSpree’s Online Rental Application gives you direct access to applicant’s current and previous employment information along with salary, reference information, and additional sources of income.

“This alliance will effectively create a standardized rental application process for all real estate professionals,” said Michael Lucarelli, co-founder and COO of RentSpree. “Together with zipLogix™, we’ll be able to reduce exposure for rental litigation by creating a paper trail of due diligence and an outline for best practices.”

To read the full press release on visit here.

Check out RentSpree below:

For more about the Preccelerator® Program or to apply, contact Heidi Hubbeling, COO at (310) 746-9803 or hhubbeling@100.26.91.60

SAM Preccelerator® Featured in Accelerator Alley at TechDay LA-September 14th!

SAM Preccelerator encourages you to attend TechDay LA & visit our booth in Accelerator Alley

TechDay brings together the entire tech community, industry leaders, new startups, investors, and tons of press.

TechDay LA is returning for its third year as LA’s largest startup event on September 14th in Downtown LA. Get to know over 300 startups who are pushing the boundaries of innovation and changing the world as we know it! Use this as your opportunity to find your next job, connect with the startups you already use, or find new products to integrate into your everyday life. The best part is, it’s totally free to attend!

TechDay Los Angeles,
September 14th, 2017
10am-5pm
The REEF, 1933 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90007

#TechDay #TakeOnTechDay

About the Preccelerator® Program
The Preccelerator® is a novel platform offered to select start-up companies out of the Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP Santa Monica office that provides interim office space, sophisticated legal services, education, networking, mentorship and $250,000 in usable perks from Google Cloud for Startups, Amazon Web Services, and HubSpot among others, with the objective of helping grow a founder’s idea from business concept to funded startup. The program also retains more than 50 active strategic mentors providing free office hours and discounted services, and provides over 50+ educational workshops and networking events each year. The Program expanded in 2017 to accept a greater number of companies in more formalized classes, depending upon where the companies are in their evolutionary growth, expand benefits to accepted companies, and will look to make strategic investments backed by strategic angel investors. To apply to the Preccelerator®, visit www.www.sparkxyz.io/competitions/152. The next class of companies begins Nov. 1, 2017.

For more about the Preccelerator® Program or to apply, contact Heidi Hubbeling, COO at (310) 746-9803 or hhubbeling@100.26.91.60

Preccelerator® Program Announces Demo Day for Its Sixth Class of Companies and Fifth Anniversary Celebration

Los Angeles Digital Media Tech Accelerator, SAM Preccelerator®, Gears Up for Its Sixth Demo Day and Fifth Anniversary Celebration

Santa Monica- August 23, 2017 The Preccelerator® Program, a Santa Monica, CA based accelerator program for early stage startup companies in the digital media and technology sector, announced today that it will be holding its Class 6 Demo Day on Sept. 13, 2017 where four promising startups will present their ideas to the investment and entrepreneurial community.

In addition, the evening will celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Preccelerator® Program that was founded in 2012. A party on the patio will be held immediately after the Demo Day presentations. To register, click here. Since 2012, the Preccelerator has fostered the growth of 32 companies: 10 which are current, 22 that have graduated, with 18 receiving funding totaling over $9M.

Stubbs Alderton & Markiles launched the first-of-its kind Preccelerator® Program to provide select start-ups with co-working space, mentorship, customized curriculum, sophisticated legal services, user testing sessions, and access to a strategic perks portfolio with the objective of helping grow a founder’s idea from business concept to a funded company. The Program provides these benefits to as many as 10 promising young startups in separate growth tracks.

The Preccelerator® Program demo day presenting companies include:

Animate Objects – Animate Objects (AO), an augmented reality and virtual reality development company, is excited to announce the launch of ARGO, the gamiﬁed Augmented Reality (AR) location platform. ARGO adds AR enhanced infotainment, commerce, and analytics that drive engagement and commerce at “Destination Venues”-like theme parks, resort, shopping malls, as well as in-the-wild. Guests are engaged and incentivized while site operators use ARGO’s real-time dashboard to manage, monitor and analyze their properties and visitors.

RentSpree – Most apartment searches involve numerous resources, multiple applications, and too many added fees. Rather than spending massive amounts of time and money applying for individual Los Angeles apartment rentals with separate companies, they’ve created a streamlined system. Simply fill out one application, pay an inexpensive application fee, and receive a soft credit check, sparing you unnecessary damage to your budget and credit score. Best of all, their one-stop application allows you to spend more time exploring your favorite listings, and gives our renters a distinct advantage in a competitive market.

Tapp That App – Tapp That App is a new social, app discovery platform that allows you to see the favorite apps of people you follow on Twitter. From family and friends to professionals and celebrities, you’ll be able to see which apps they love most. But more importantly, you’ll be able to share the apps that you love with your followers and the world. Beyond star ratings, Tapp That App lets you find the apps that matter to the people who matter to you.

Swoppit – With recycled fashion now top of mind, Swoppit offers Generation Z women 15-24 the perfect social marketplace. Here, they swap fashion with friends. Swoppit provides Gen-Zers a terrific way to both expand their community and gain access to a far wider selection of style. It’s an easy, fun experience that doesn’t pollute the market. For Gen-Zers, looks count, opinions matter and Swoppit offers them the chance to refresh their closet whenever they like. Swoppit has been founded by a 16-year-old Gen-Zer that understands the market and is driven to make it a success.

For more information about the Preccelerator® Program, visit www.preccelerator.com.

About Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP
Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP is a Southern California based business law firm with robust corporate, public securities, mergers and acquisitions, entertainment, intellectual property, brand protection and business litigation practice groups focusing on the representation of, among others, venture backed emerging growth companies, middle market public companies, large technology companies, entertainment and digital media companies, investors, venture capital funds, investment bankers and underwriters. The firm’s clients represent a broad range of industries with a concentration in the technology, entertainment, video games, apparel and medical device sectors. The firm’s mission is to provide technically excellent legal services in a consistent, highly-responsive and service-oriented manner with an entrepreneurial and practical business perspective. These principles are the hallmarks of the firm. For more information, visit https://preccelerator.com.

Contact:

Heidi Hubbeling
Chief Operating Officer, Preccelerator® Program
hhubbeling@100.26.91.60
310-746-9803