Author Archives: Preccelerator™

Preccelerator Program Pizza and Pitch Day!

Big shout out to our Preccelerator companies that participated in this month’s Pizza and Pitch day!  A mock pitch session was organized for each company to present to their peers and mentors and receive constructive critiques.  A great success!  Prizes were given for pitching the closest to the alotted time frame, best PowerPoint presentation, and the People’s Choice award.   A big “thank you” to Preccelerator mentor Mark Wald of Supporting Strategies for sitting in as a guest judge today.  For more information about the Preccelerator Program, contact Heidi Hubbeling, Director of Operations, at hhubbeling@100.26.91.60 or (310) 746-9803.

CardBlanc

CardBlanc

District2

District2

GoGet!

GoGet!

LockAware

LockAware

Peer Office

Peer Office

Preccelerator Program - Hard at Work!

Preccelerator Program – Hard at Work!

Prize Winners for Time Frame and People's Choice! District2!

Prize Winners for Time Frame and People’s Choice! District2! From Left: Cassie Betts, Heidi Hubbeling, Sean Fitzpatrick

Rally Networks

Rally Networks

Team(You)

Team(You)

Verde Circle

Verde Circle

SAM Preccelerator Program Presents: “Technical Debt: The Silent Startup Killer” with Evan Dorn

Join Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP
For this Exclusive Event!

 

 

“Technical Debt:
The Silent Startup Killer”

 

Taking out a loan or using your credit card offers short-term advantages in return for long-term costs — debt and interest. Short term decision-making with software has equivalent consequences: ‘get it done by Friday’ often leads to bad code that will accrue interest by making all future tasks take longer.

Programming teams are always under pressure to deliver quickly, so the effect is universal. The resulting ‘technical debt’ is just as deadly to your bottom line as financial debt, but isn’t visible on any balance sheet and so is hard to manage well. Ignored or misunderstood by leadership, tech debt often progressively worsens until the software becomes unmanageable and the company fails.

Learn how technical debt happens, the risks it poses to your company, and how to control and manage it. This talk is aimed more at a management audience than a technical audience.

 

Thursday, October 15, 2015
 
5:30pm-8:00pm
 
**Food, Drinks & Networking Included!**
Register!

 

 

 

 

Featuring

A former engineer and scientist, Evan Dorn is now a 20-year web development veteran who has been part of over 50 web development projects including a dozen startups. His company, Logical Reality Design, Inc. specializes in fast builds of startup MVPs and rescues of troubled software projects that have gotten into the weeds with poor code or poor process. Evan is a boardgame fanatic and devoted lover of Pasadena. He received his Ph.D. in Computation and Neuroscience from Caltech and has resided in the area for 18 years.


   

Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP
1453 3rd Street Promenade, Suite 300
Santa Monica, CA 90401

Parking
4th Street/Broadway ramp or in the Santa Monica Place Mall

We hope to see you there!

SAM Preccelerator Program Presents: “PR for Startups” with Jessica Engholm – ESSE PR

Join Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP
for this exclusive event!

 

 

“PR for Startups”

 

ESSE PR’s founder Jessica Engholm will be providing an in-depth presentation and discussion on how startups can best utilize public relations.

Jessica will address the notorious questions that startups really want answered:

What type of companies need PR? When is it needed? What is the ROI? How much does it cost? Will it increase sales? How long will it take to see results? How should a startup select an agency?

The program will also include an overview of public relations strategies and tactics,  how PR differs between mature companies and startups, DIY methods versus professional services, and the ESSE PR program developed specificaly for startups.


Thursday, September 17, 2015

 

5:30pm-8:00pm

 

**Networking with food and drinks to start!**

 

***SAM Partner Scott Alderton to pass the
Heart Centered Tech Award to This Month’s Honoree***

 

Register!

 

Featuring

 

Jessica Engholm, Founder, ESSE PR

 

ESSE PR’s Jessica Engholm, best known for avant-garde PR tactics, has worked with some of today’s most revered consumer brands, startups, technology, and entertainment entities. To name a few: HBO, Dove, Wells Fargo, PG&E, celebrities including Al Pacino and Ricky Gervais, Sarah Jessica Parker, as well as non-profits: Boys & Girls Club, Alzheimer’s Research for a Cure, Special Olympics, and UCSF Hospital.

Jessica is the founder and principal of ESSE PR, an agency aiming to redefine standards and practices of public relations. Based out of San Francisco and Santa Monica, ESSE PR has scaled to a network of more than150 publicists since 2009. ESSE’s clients, both established companies, as well as startups in Silicon Valley and Silicon Beach, are regularly featured in media majors including Fortune, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Tech Crunch, NY Times, and more.

ESSE’s owner, Jessica Engholm has been nominated for PR Week’s 40 Under 40, and is a recipient of PR News’ Platinum Award for digital campaigns.

More information on ESSE can be found at www.essepr.com

Additional Career Highlights of Jessica Engholm:

  • September 2012: Secured a partnership between The Officecreator Ricky Gervais and and the the technology startup CloudTalk. Developed a respective campaign that resulted in more than 500 M media impressions, 500,000 product downloads, as well as an API integration with Twitter.
  • March, 2014: Facilitating a partnership between fashion icon Sarah Jessica Parker and a Los Angeles based jewelry e-commerce company WeTheAdorned, resulting in 300 M media views pre-launch.
  • October, 2014: With relevant clients and experience with Silicon Valley startups and venture capitalists, Engholm was tapped as a PR and technical advisor to the HBO series Silicon Valley, Season 2. 

 

 Sponsored by

   

Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP
1453 3rd Street Promenade, Suite 300
Santa Monica, CA 90401

Parking
4th Street/Broadway ramp or in the Santa Monica Place Mall

We hope to see you there!

Announcing FlashFunders Exclusive Partnership With Intuit’s QuickBooks Small Business Center

 

Complete Guide to Equity Financing

 

SAM is proud to announce that FlashFunders has established an exclusive partnership with Inuit’s Quickbooks Small Business Center.  As part of that partnership, Quickbooks and FlashFunders present, “The Complete Guide to Equity Financing.”

To view an informative PDF featuring video interviews and in-depth articles from FlashFunders execs and industry experts, click here.

For more information about FlashFunders, visit www.flashfunders.com

 

SAM Preccelerator Program Presents: “Networking for Capital” with Len Lanzi

Join Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP
for this exclusive event!

 

networking-for-latino-mbas-lam-social-club1

“Networking for Capital”

 

This session will focus on techniques and ways to network in the VC and Angel Community.  We will interact and share best practices on business development and promoting your start-up.

 

Thursday, August 20, 2015

5:30pm-8:00pm

 

 **Networking and Startup Demos!**

SAM Preccelerator Program participants will have demo tables where they
will showcase their companies. Check them out!

 

Featuring

Len Lanzi

Len Lanzi, Executive Director,
LA Venture Association, (LAVA)
 
Len Lanzi is Executive Director of LAVA, and has over 20 years of non-profit organization management and fund development experience. In his role, he works with the LAVA board of directors to direct the strategic plan and organize educational and informational programs about the venture business environment in the greater Los Angeles region.
Sponsored by
SAM-High-Res-Logo-1
1453 3rd Street Promenade, Suite 300
Santa Monica, CA 90401
Parking
Ramp #5 on the Corner of 4th and Broadway
or at the Santa Monica Mall
We hope to see you there!

SAM Preccelerator Program Presents: “Social Media for Business” with Fife Star Media

Join Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP

for this exclusive event!

 

 

“Social Media for Business”

 

Facebook! Twitter! Instagram! Snapchat! Oh My! What’s a business to do? Which of these Social Media tools fits your specific business needs? If you don’t have the right answer or are simply guessing, you need this event!

We’ll guide you through the ever-changing waters of the world wide web (Remember when we actually called it that?) because what you did last month doesn’t always fit today’s trends.

This interactive session is designed to help focus your social media output, understand your target audience, learn proper engagement strategies and discuss best practices for Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest for Business.

We’ll help you:

1.  Understand how to identify your Social Media Target Audience
2.  Learn About Engagement Strategies
3. Discuss Best Practices for Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest for Business

 

 

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

 

5:30pm-8:00pm

 

**Food, Drinks & Networking Included!**

 

Register-150x150.jpg

 

Featuring

 

 

 

Brian Fife –  Take one part passionate wordsmith and add a dash of possible obsessive compulsive disorder. Add in a keen ear for finding a voice, vision and brand in between the clutter. Mix with a shaker of rum and you’ve got the mad science recipe for Fife. In between his fascination with the internet, finding new music and the written word, he builds Fife Star Media’s client base through wit and charm. (At least, that’s what we tell him. It’s honestly just perseverance and initiative.)

Heather Davis – Social Media isn’t just a hobby for the special events and programs supervisor turned digital marketing manager with a Pinterest addiction, it’s her passion. A glimpse at her photo blogs and Instagram account of her adorable one year old little man and a shih tzu with a big personality, will show you how everyday is an adventure in Heather’s world. She brings creativity, out of the box ideas, as well as unique perspective and experience to every client and project, usually with DIY instructions written on the latest chalkboard painted weekend project.

Fife Star Media is a collective of like-minded entrepreneurs, focused on working directly with businesses that need a visually dynamic and expressive online presence to capture new clientele. We bring individual expertise in social media, creative writing, web & graphic design as well as Google AdWords & Local Reputation solutions. As a team, we build your brand by solving the web based problems nearly all businesses face in a detailed and creative fashion. Our clients are businesses who either lack the time or acumen to manage and build their online image.

 

 

   
Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP
1453 3rd Street Promenade, Suite 300
Santa Monica, CA 90401
Parking
4th Street/Broadway ramp or in the Santa Monica Place Mall
We hope to see you there!

SAM Preccelerator Program Companies Showcase at TechDay LA 2015

Several Preccelerator Program companies showcased their businesses at the first annual LA TechDay LA at the California Market Center on Thursday, June 18th.  Companies included Rally, Verde Circle, Team(You), and SAM joint venture FlashFunders.

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TechDay is a massive science fair for startups. Startups have the opportunity to show off their products to thousands of consumers, the highest caliber investors, hordes of press, the most sought after talent, and the greatest pool of tech enthusiasts looking to celebrate emerging venture.

For more information about the Preccelerator Program, contact Heidi Hubbeling at hhubbeling@100.26.91.60 or (310) 746-9803.

SAM Joint Venture FlashFunders Makes Entrepreneur’s Brilliant 100 Companies to Watch List!

FlashFunders logoCongratulations to SAM Joint Venture FlashFunders for their being listed in Entrepreneur’s Brilliant 100 Companies to Watch list!

Flashfunders is a no-fee equity investment platform that streamlines the fundraising process by offering entrepreneurs SEC-compliant documents and FDIC-insured escrow accounts, saving them thousands in legal fees.

To view the full article on Entrepreneur.com, click here.

 

SAM Preccelerator Program Company CardBlanc Featured as Finalist in IDEO and MasterCard Challenge

Card-blanc-homepage2

We are very proud to announce that our Preccelerator Program company CardBlanc is being featured as a finalist for the IDEO and MasterCard challenge: “How might we use the power of communities to financially empower those who need it most?”

View the Napkin Finance presentation:

https://openideo.com/challenge/financial-empowerment-challenge/refinement/napkin-finance-everything-you-want-to-know-about-money-in-30-seconds-or-less

CardBlanc is a virtual debit card that unlocks an effortless and secure mobile shopping experience. We are simplifying the process for teens to buy, and parents to provide control and supervision in a mobile environment. Napkin Finance is the brain-child of CardBlanc.

Congratulations Tina and Team! We’re rooting for you!

About IDEO –  IDEO is one of the most prominent design firms in the country. They create products for IKEA, Microsoft, HBO, among others.  They designed the first Apple mouse. Here is a video about them on 60 min: http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/how-to-design-breakthrough-inventions-50138327/

 

SAM Preccelerator Company Swggr Announces a Preferred Equity Offering on FlashFunders

swggr homepage

Swggr –  fashion love child of Instagram and Pinterest, is the first app designed to empower Millennial’s by providing a platform to directly style and share purchasable looks with friends all while getting rewarded! When users share styles from their virtual closet, they rack up points redeemable for discounts and exclusives from their favorite brands and retailers. TO INVEST OR LEARN MORE PLEASE VISIT: www.flashfunders.com/swggr