Friday, March 16, 2012


Crosscut Ventures Raising Second Fund
Los Angeles-based Crosscut Ventures, the early stage, venture capital investment firm run by Rick Smith and Brian Garrett, looks to be kicking off a new fund, according to an SEC filing this week. Details on the fund size were not included in the filing, and the firm has not commented on the filing. Crosscut Ventures invests in digital media businesses, and has invested in such companies as GraphEffect, Postcard On The Run, ShoeDazzle, Zadspace, GumGum, DocStoc, CircleStreet, Verve Wireless, amo (More info...)
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Los Angeles Ranks 6th In Tech Job Pay Survey
Los Angeles ranks number six in a recent survey by Irvine-based recruiting firm CyberCoders. The firm, which provides technology recruiting services nationwide, found that the average salary for technology jobs in Los Angeles was $97,705. That was below San Jose ($119,412), San Francisco ($112,739), and New York ($104,192), as well as Washington, D.C. ($99,618) and Boston ($99,099). The company said it analyzed more than 3,000 technical job titles around the nation to develop the rankings.
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Givit Overwhelmed By FlipShare Users
San Diego-based Givit, the online video sharing service kicked off by VMIX Thursday, reported last night that it is seeing "temporary delays" due to overwhelming demand for the service. The company said, in a blog post, that the response was "overwhelming" for the service, which caused its services to be a "little slow". Givit announced yesterday that it would help former Cisco FlipShare users to port their videos over to its own, online video sharing and storage site. Cisco is in the process o (More info...)
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YouMail: Ditch Unwanted Callers Forever
Are you really, really tired of getting calls from that telemarketer, or your ex-boyfriend? Well, you can now permanently make it so they can't call you--if you're using the newest Android app from YouMail. Irvine-based YouMail makes a voicemail replacement system, which includes a number of nifty enhancements, including voice transcription, personalized greetings, and much more. The latest feature to emerge from the firm: permanent call blocking. YouMail explains that its new feature allows use (More info...)
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Essential Learning Acquired By Vista Equity Partners
San Diego-based Essential Learning, which develops interactive education and learning software for behavioral and community health, substance abuse, corrections, developmental disability and child welfare organizations, has been acquird by private equity firm Vista Equity Partners. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Essential Learning said that its existing senior management team will continue to lead the organization, with co-founder and President Lorraine Watson retiring. Essential (More info...)
posted on Friday, March 16, 2012(Full story)

AnyMeeting Launches Instant Meeting Service, AnyMeeting Now
Huntington Beach-based AnyMeeting is trying to make it easier for people to try out its free webconferencing service with a new feature called "AnyMeeting Now". The newly launched feature allows users to instantly start a free web conference session, even without creating an account on the service. AnyMeeting said the new service--available via a "Start A Meeting Now" button on its home page--is aimed at encouraging new users to experience its free web meeting service. AnyMeeting is venture back (More info...)
posted on Friday, March 16, 2012(Full story)