The 2020 dot.LA Startup Awards
Voting has ended for the awards. Thanks to everyone who participated. Watch them live as part of the dot.LA Summit. Tickets are available here.
We are so excited to announce the nominees for the inaugural "dot.LA Startup Awards 2020," a celebration of the most innovative people and companies in LA's startup and tech community. The event will be hosted live on Wednesday, October 28th to close out the dot.LA Summit. We will recognize L.A.'s rising tech companies and leaders.
Vote for who you think should win each category!
Descriptions for each nominee are below.
The winners will be announced live at the dot.LA Summit.
Pivot of the Year: Celebrating startups that changed their business model and strategy in the face of adversity
Curative: Founded in January '20 with the initial aim of developing a new test for sepsis. The company pivoted to COVID-19 testing in early March as supply chains became strained and the need for a new testing process arose. Curative now processes 1 million tests per week.
Quantgene: The company typically offers AI-powered blood test systems for early cancer detection. But as the COVID-19 pandemic persisted, the company leveraged its computing systems and logistical skills to build a new business line with Hollywood studios and individuals seeking antibody tests.
Swoop: Before the pandemic, Swoop was a high growth marketplace startup focused on group transportation: connecting consumers with limousine charter operators. When their group transportation business and the events industry halted, they developed software that limousine charter operators, their suppliers, could utilize.
PRISM Bags: This company planned to launch their signature product, a woman's work bag. Once COVID-19 hit, they were able to pivot and go to market with a new offering: a small mini bag well suited for woman SIP during a pandemic - with pockets for masks etc.
WELL Health Inc.: Funded and engineered the Rapid Release Program in March '20, which allowed health systems to manage urgent COVID-19 patient communications at scale. The program helped health systems create "virtual waiting rooms" so that patients could wait in their cars, instead of a crowded waiting room, for appointments.
Social Justice Award: Recognizing individuals who championed the distribution of opportunity in tech
Alejandro (Alex) Guerrero, Principal at Act One Ventures: Spearheaded the Diversity Term Sheet Rider, giving under-represented investors and founders better access and connections in the venture world. As of mid-September, 21 firms have adopted the Rider.
Candace Walker, Co-Founder of Just US app: Created a hands-free voice control app that notifies your designated contacts when you've been stopped by police.
Derek Smith, Founder of Plug-In South LA: Created a tech startup community and accelerator program for entrepreneurs from under-represented backgrounds; produced the Urban Tech Connect conference.
Lolita Taub, Co-Founder and GP at The Community Fund: First-generation Latinx operator and investor that launched a $5 million early-stage fund to invest in community-driven companies.
Miki Reynolds, Executive Director, Grid110: Leads a no-equity, LA-based accelerator for underrepresented founders; "Whether it's navigating the social unrest in our country or launching a program specifically for founders in South LA, she is an expert at bringing people together"
Rising Entrepreneur: Celebrating emerging entrepreneurs who have a pioneering spirit and promising future
Cristina de la Peña, CEO & Founder of Synapbox: Her company has booked $1.2m in pre-launch revenue; her product empowers content creation with 'audience non-conscious behavior analysis and AI.' As the world moves to a more content based society, knowing 'what' works and 'why' it works gives you the power to compete for audiences' attention.
Jessica Nouhavandi, Co-CEO of Honeybee Health: Jessica's company is adding transparency to the Pharma industry. Honeybee has been accredited in nearly 40 states.
Ksenia Yudina, CEO of UNest: As a solo female founder, Ksenia has raised a Seed Round, Seed extension, and Series A Round from investors like Tim Draper and Anthos Capital to democratize college savings and investing tools for parents. She also recently led her company's acquisition of LittleFund, which doubled UNest's user base.
Morgan Debaun, Founder of Blavity: Morgan has created a next generation media company to serve Black consumers. She has penetrated the VC markets - which is a unique challenge for women of color, and become part of the fabric of the start-up ecosystem.
Robert Luo, CEO & Founder of Mi Terro: Robert founded a sustainable fashion startup that creates usable products with materials that would otherwise go to waste. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, Forbes Under 30 Scholar, and the youngest entrant into the Entrepreneur Hall of Fame at USC Marshall School of Business.
Rising Startup: Celebrating startups that are growing, innovating, and delivering new products/services to market
Openpath: A property-tech firm that recently announced a $36 million raise to accelerate its disruption of keycards and bring its touchless-entry technology to more doors, gates, elevators and lobby check-ins.
Pipe: A new platform that offers non-dilutive financing to SaaS companies through an instant cash advance against the full annual value of software subscriptions. In June, Pipe raised $60 million in equity and asset financing as an extension to its February Seed Round of $6 million.
PlayVS: Connects online games with official school administration and branding, elevating Esports from hobby to school-sponsored activity. So far schools in 23 states have signed up, and Parnell said they're on track to get every state in the US on board by 2022. $96 million in total startup funding through Series C Round.
Outer: 1-year old D2C outdoor furniture brand grew sales by 21x from Q1 to Q2 2020; the #1 fastest growing DTC brand according to SimilarWeb. Raised $4.3 million Seed Round from Mucker Capital.
Wave: Entertainment technology company that turns performers into digital avatars and puts them on virtual stages. Wave hosted The Weeknd Experience on TikTok in August, which pulled in more than 2 million total unique viewers. Raised $40 million to date.
Entrepreneur of the Year: Celebrating an entrepreneur who has made a notable achievement this year.
Alex Canter, CEO and Co-Founder of Ordermark: software company helping restaurants operate better; expanded virtual kitchen endeavors, bringing on thousands of restaurants nationwide to make delivery-only meals under Ordermark's brands.
Andrew Peterson, CEO and Co-founder of Signal Sciences: Sold his company to Fastly in August for $775 million: the largest enterprise tech exit for an LA startup. Fastly is also setting up a $50 million retention pool of RSU's to give out to Signal Sciences employees.
Doug Hirsch and Trevor Bezdek, Co-Founders and Co-CEOs of GoodRx: Founded company in 2011 that has helped Americans save more than $20 billion on prescription drug expenses. Built a new model for healthcare, grew the business over many years, and finally IPO'd in 2020.
Imran Khan, Co-Founder and CEO of Verishop: Launched social-commerce app with 600 brands/sellers, 1 year after founding the company. Raised $30 million at a valuation of around $100 million
Shivani Siroya, CEO and Founder at Tala: Named to Forbes 40 Under 40; Led company's growth, extending $1 billion in micro loans to 4 million customers in emerging markets. Last valued at $700 million.
Startup of the Year: Celebrating a company that has shown great development and potential to impact the global community.
GOAT: Fast-growing global luxury shoe and apparel retailer. 30 million members. Raised $100 million Series E Round at $1.75 billion valuation. Launched first brand campaign during NBA Playoffs.
GoodRx: First Los Angeles tech company to go public this year. Market Cap is $22 billion (as of 10/06/20). Prescription marketplace platform earned $54 million in profit for the first six months ending in June, a 74% increase.
Headspace: Raised $100 million in debt and equity. 65 million users in 190 countries. Downloads have doubled since March. Headspace for Work product has seen a 500% increase.
Scopely: Acquired FoxNextGames from Disney in January. Raised $400 million Series D in March at $1.9 billion valuation and is in talks with investors to raise at least $200 million at $3 billion valuation.
TikTok: #1 top grossing app on iOS App Store globally in Q2 2020. The hit mobile app hit 53.5 million weekly average users in the US (100 million MAU) in Sept., up 75% from the start of the year. Valued between $20-$30 billion.
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Minutes into filling out my absentee ballot last week, I was momentarily distracted by my dog Seamus. A moment later, I realized in horror that I was filling in the wrong bubble — accidentally voting "no" on a ballot measure that I meant to vote "yes" on.
It was only a few ink marks, but it was noticeable enough. Trying to fix my mistake, I darkly and fully filled in the correct circle and then, as if testifying to an error on a check, put my initials next to the one I wanted.
Then I worried. As a reporter who has previously covered election security for years, I went on a mini-quest trying to understand how a small mistake can have larger repercussions.
As Los Angeles County's 5.6 million registered voters all receive ballots at home for the first time, I knew my experience could not be unique. But I wondered, would my vote count? Or would my entire ballot now be discarded?
<p>There are reasons enough to worry about mail-in-ballots counting, even without the appearance of fake ballot boxes and the unfounded rhetoric that has filled the nation's airwaves over the last months. After all, much of the information I found online told me to notify a poll worker if I made an error. Alas, no poll worker at home.</p><p>"I don't think your experience is unique, and it's exacerbated by how big L.A. is," said Eddie Perez, election administration and technology expert with the nonpartisan, nonprofit <a href="https://www.osetfoundation.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OSET Institute</a>. "These experiences are happening across the country [as] many voters are voting by mail the first time and they don't know what to do. It's a microcosm of all of this change."</p><p>Part of the problem was that I didn't receive my sample ballot beforehand and so didn't engage in the practice round I typically do. Worse though, the instructions that came with my ballot said nothing about what to do if you accidentally make the wrong choice. The only advice is to call a phone number or go online and request a new ballot. Does that mean the whole thing won't count? But it was such a small mistake.</p><p>"That's a failing right there, the fact that they didn't include it on the instruction sheet," said Perez, who previously worked for Hart Intercivic, voting technology company, and has made thousands of ballots in his career. He noted that in Colorado, the instructions for how to correct a mistake are on the ballot instructions.</p><p>I called the phone number, but couldn't get through to a person. I then sent an email to a recommended public address asking if my ballot was "spoilt" and if I needed a new one.</p><p>Then, for hours into the night and through early the next morning I searched the vastness of the internet for an answer.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://dot.la/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUxMjgwOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxODEyMTM1NH0.eGBNQueLJopk_XhIaWqmpFPgnsHuEk1qVeQmRMH-DY4/image.jpg?width=980" id="3663d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3a4af8f33f024f411c8cfef27e2678a1" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
My distractingly sweet dog, Seamus.
Photo by Tami Abdollah
<p>Someone <a href="https://www.kvue.com/article/news/investigations/defenders/can-i-correct-a-mistake-on-my-mail-in-ballot-with-wite-out/269-3f248b3a-ee4d-41ec-94bd-a0af4a8670d3" target="_blank">asked about whether you could use whiteout</a> to blot out the mistaken choice. The consensus online seemed to be "no" that the ballot could seem tampered with. One <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/all-opinions-are-local/wp/2018/01/02/its-an-invalid-ballot-period/" target="_blank">Washington Post opinion article from 2018</a> argued that any efforts to rectify a ballot should invalidate it entirely. <a href="https://www.kqed.org/news/11840343/how-to-make-sure-your-mail-in-ballot-isnt-rejected-in-california#mistake" target="_blank">Another recent article by KQED said</a> that you should put a line or X through the wrong choice and that would be fine. Sadly, I'd already made a different mark by the proper choice. I read <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/4-common-mistakes-that-could-get-your-mail-in-ballot-rejected-and-how-to-make-sure-your-vote-is-counted-11601579628" target="_blank">stray marks can also be a problem</a> and invalidate the ballot. Are initials considered stray marks?</p><p>Kim Alexander, president of the nonprofit, nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, empathized, noting that "vote by mail shifts the responsibility of getting it right from poll worker to a voter, and that's a big change. It's not insignificant" or easy, and the rules usually differ between counties.<br></p><p>The next morning I called the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's helpline and was connected to a worker whose garbled voice seemed to match my emotions. I presented my dilemma.</p>
<p>"Hmmm it doesn't say anything about that here," the worker told me. "I'll have to put you on hold."<br/></p><p>After several more minutes of terrible hold music, she told me her connection was bad because she was working from home, and she would call me back. It didn't happen.</p><p>When I called the registrar's office back, I was told there was a 35 minute wait for a human being.</p><p>The worker who called me back told me that the specific measure I improperly filled out would not get counted, but the remainder of my votes should. I asked if my initials would present as stray marks and invalidate my ballot, and she said it shouldn't.</p><p>Over the course of those two days, I wondered if it was best to get the ballot sent in early even if one measure didn't count, or if I should just go vote early in-person.</p><p>Because Los Angeles County ballots go through an optical scanner, I wondered whether a human being would review the ballot or if any discrepancy is tossed. There is little reporting about how the county handles mail-in ballots, especially at scale. Is there a human being who reviews the process? A bipartisan team? How technically savvy is the scanner and what exactly can it differentiate?</p><p>The registrar's office never replied to repeated official calls and emails for answers to those questions.</p><p>Perez, the elections expert, told me that in his experience a mistake should not invalidate the entire ballot and that most modern digital scanning technology "should flag contests with questionable marks and present them to human reviewers" who can discern the voter's intent and make sure it's properly recorded.</p><p>Both Perez and Alexander also introduced another potential wrinkle I had not even thought about: In some states having personally identifiable information on a ballot — possibly like my initials — could invalidate the ballot because state laws could see that personal information as a violation of the secrecy of the ballot. Ack!</p><p>Perez said part of the problem with mail-in ballots is that unlike the traditional Election Day infrastructure, unless election officials make proactive efforts to provide more details, there is less knowledge about how votes are processed and counted when they are mailed in.</p><p>"It places a really big burden on the election officials [to] have resources to answer all these questions," Perez said. "How are you ensuring you have good factual information and you're passing it to all the worker bees you just hired?"</p><p>Neither Perez nor Alexander could say for sure what would happen with my initials on the ballot. Both thought it <em>should </em>probably be fine, but perhaps it would violate vote secrecy.</p><p>"You stumped the band," said Alexander, who added she was considering updating their own FAQ for voters.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://dot.la/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUxMjgxNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NjQzNTgwOX0.SiflyT6B6FbAoPLrIrMVk01oeGw7_HIsZS7b4jQc7Lc/image.jpg?width=980" id="ef35d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="54ab7d5c08029f153009ed6bc7ef15cd" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<small class="image-media media-caption focus-visible" data-focus-visible-added="" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">My sadly imperfect ballot.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Photo by Tami Abdollah</small></p><p>There are many more ways to make a mistake when mailing in your ballot, in one fashion or another. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/a45421048cd89938df7c882891a97db5" target="_blank">The Associated Press reported</a> this summer that "more than 100,000 mail-in ballots were rejected by California election officials during the March presidential primary." Among those were 27,525 which didn't have a signature or didn't have a signature match the one on record. A friend of mine was one of those, and she trekked out to vote early and in-person because she couldn't recall what her on-file signature looked like.<br/></p><p>I had no issues with my signature, it's been the same for decades, but I felt a little bereft over my supremely non high-tech problem. I continued to cull through the interwebs.</p><p>It was only much later, after searching diligently online by various keywords, that I stumbled upon a seemingly definitive answer in the latest version of <a href="https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/uniform-vote-counting-standards" target="_blank">California's Uniform Vote Counting Standards</a>. It turns out, whiteout, check marks, X marks and even writing "no" or "yes" can help confirm the vote you meant to cast. It's unclear what the optical scanner can do or whether the county has a human involved in the process though. And there was, sadly, nothing about whether initialing a choice would invalidate the secrecy of my ballot or be considered an invalid "random marking."</p><p>My angst was alleviated when the decision was taken out of my hands. The registrar's office emailed me back, and without answering my question about if the ballot would have been counted, they told me a new one would arrive in five days.</p><p>The reply did open up a whole new line of unanswered questions. I mean, is the existence of a second ballot invalidating? I emailed back: "What happens to my old ballot? How do I get rid of it?"</p><p>(The first ballot is automatically suspended to issue a second one, I later learned. And you can tear it up or put it through a paper shredder.)</p><p>And still, the question remains — what if I had mailed in that ballot.</p><p>Alexander also went down the rabbit hole with me, emailing me on a Saturday morning that she "woke up annoyed by our collective inability to answer" the question. She dug around and found that a <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB183" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2011 California law known as the "Doodle Law"</a> would have likely been applied in my case. <a href="http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/sen/sb_0151-0200/sb_183_cfa_20110824_171242_asm_floor.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">It states</a> that rather than reject a ballot that is marked in a way to identify a voter, that election workers separate and duplicate the ballot (without the problematic identifier) like for other defective ballots, before running it through the scanner.</p><p>So there it is, my vote would have probably counted if I had mailed in my ballot. But now I'll be sending a brand new on instead. In the end, it's clear that the state and local authorities have tried and are trying their best to ensure that all mail-in ballots count regardless of very normal human mistakes (see <a href="https://dot.la/voting-by-mail-tips-how-to-avoid-pitfalls-2648194341.html" target="_blank">this sidebar</a> on how to up those chances).</p><p>But my takeaway lesson from all this is that it's probably <a href="https://dot.la/voting-by-mail-tips-how-to-avoid-pitfalls-2648194341.html" target="_blank">best not to make a mistake in the first place</a> when voting by mail, oh, and maybe put your dog in a separate room while you vote.</p><p><em>___</em></p><p><em>Hit me up if you have any other election and voting-related questions. My DMs are open on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/latams" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Twitter @latams</em></a><em> You can also email me at tami(at)dot.la, or ask for my contact on Signal, for more secure and private communications.</em></p>Related Articles Around the Web
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Less than seven months after launching, the high-flying streaming service Quibi has shut down.
Despite a sold-out advertising slate, deals with A-listers and a $1.75 billion war chest from high-profile investors the former Disney executive and founder Jeffrey Katzenberg couldn't make the short-form mobile video platform stick.
<p>Katzenberg called investors on Wednesday to tell them Quibi would shut down, ending one of Hollywood's most high-profile streaming endeavors by a storied executive. The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/quibi-weighs-shutting-down-as-problems-mount-11603301946" target="_blank">first reported</a> the news. </p><p>Shortly after, Katzenberg and the company's CEO, Meg Whitman, published a post on Medium acknowledging the news and blaming it on a combination of the pandemic and the execution. </p><p>"Quibi is not succeeding," they wrote. "Likely for one of two reasons: because the idea itself wasn't strong enough to justify a standalone streaming service or because of our timing."</p><p>The two said they would return cash to shareholders and look for buyers for their remaining assets.</p><p>"While the result was not what any of us wanted, we did accomplish a number of things and we are very proud of what the talented Quibi team has built with the blood, sweat, and tears that they poured into this business over these past two years," they wrote.</p><p>Katzenberger had tried to sell Quibi to tech giants such as Apple, Facebook and NBCUniversal, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/quibi-explores-strategic-options-including-a-possible-sale-11600707806" target="_blank">The Information</a> reported. All passed. He also considered taking the company public to raise additional funds, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/quibi-explores-strategic-options-including-a-possible-sale-11600707806" target="_blank">according to the Wall St. Journal</a>. That didn't pan out either.</p><p>"Our failure was not for lack of trying; we've considered and exhausted every option available to us," Katzenberg and Whitman wrote.</p><p>Launched on April 6, with dozens of short-form original series, Quibi executives said they did not intend to compete with Netflix or Hulu. Instead, they hoped targeted viewers on their mobile devices for short-form content, aiming to catch them while they were waiting in line or looking for a quick entertainment fix in between other moments. But the company failed to catch on and faced fierce competition by YouTube, Facebook and other short-format video platforms that millennials and Gen Z have already adopted.<br/></p><p>Katzenberg had previously blamed lackluster user reach on the pandemic and the stay-at-home culture it created for putting an end to the commutes and time spent waiting in line where they hoped to meet their audience.</p><p>"The circumstances of launching during a pandemic is something we could have never imagined but other businesses have faced these unprecedented challenges and have found their way through it. We were not able to do so," he and Whitman wrote.<br/></p><p>Another disadvantage was the astronomical production costs for creating the content, were reported to be up to $100,000 each minute. Quibi had signed on stars <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/06/arts/television/quibi-shows-stars.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">like Chrissy Teigen, Tyra Banks and Tom Cruise</a>.</p><p>But with no hit show or catalog of familiar flicks, Quibi struggled. Plus, it arrived in the middle of the pandemic when mobile users were stuck at home, not waiting in lines or riding public transit.<br/></p><p>Quibi attracted investment from some of Hollywood's biggest players including the Walt Disney Company, 21st Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., NBCUniversal, Viacom Inc and Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.</p>
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