Watch: Three Health Companies Pitch Investors in Our Startup Pitch Showcase

Annie Burford

Annie Burford is dot.LA's director of events. She's an event marketing pro with over ten years of experience producing innovative corporate events, activations and summits for tech startups to Fortune 500 companies. Annie has produced over 200 programs in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City working most recently for a China-based investment bank heading the CEC Capital Tech & Media Summit, formally the Siemer Summit.

Watch: Three Health Companies Pitch Investors in Our Startup Pitch Showcase

On Thursday, May 7th, we featured three emerging healthcare startups founded in Southern California as part of our biweekly Virtual Pitch Showcase.

Dr. Mickey Pentecost, co-founder and ceo at Diadem Biotherapeutics, Jennifer Saxton, founder and CEO at Tot Squad and Brian Conyer, co-founder and CEO of GIBLIB presented a high level overview on their products and services to angel investor Spencer Rascoff and Jay Goss, general partner at Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health.

dot.LA Virtual Pitch Showcase: Healthcare Startups in Southern Californiawww.youtube.com



About the Companies

Diadem Biotherapeuticsis developing novel, engineered exosomes that control immune cells to treat inflammatory diseases. They're more powerful than biologics and more affordable, stable, and doseable than cell therapies. For cells to communicate at a distance, they use secreted vesicles called exosomes. Originally thought to be cellular garbage, exosomes are now a hot new area for therapeutics.

Tot Squad's mission is to help make parents' lives easier by connecting them with the experts they need, virtually and in-person. From birth-related services like doulas to safety services like car seat installation, Tot Squad is here to deliver peace of mind to parents, from pregnancy to the playground. Because every parent needs a squad. Now, you can have your pressing parenting needs answered virtually via our live video link with trained experts, or we can dispatch these same experts to your home for more personal communication, depending on where you live. Thorough background checks, certification checks and training mean our continued mission of providing the best in child-related care is now available to you with the ease of a click of a button.

GIBLIBcurates and create high quality educational videos from expert physicians at the leading academic medical centers and stream the library on-demand to medical professionals globally. GIBLIB was founded in 2016 with the vision of providing all health care professionals access to the most knowledgeable experts in medicine. To get started, our founders, Brian Conyer and Jihye Shin, set out to assemble the best academic partners to feature in the educational videos, the most talented creatives in video production to produce Hollywood studio quality content, and the smartest software engineers to deliver the most innovative streaming technologies capable of reaching a global audience.


About the Judges

Jay Goss is a general partner at Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health

​Jay Goss, General Partner at Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health

Jay is a General Partner at Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health, a leading seed-stage healthcare-focused venture capital fund in Southern California. The fund's investment thesis is that after 40+ years, healthcare is transitioning away from fee-for-service to value-based payments, and with that comes a massive amount of disruption. There will be no shortage of clinical operations and business challenges to solve in the coming decade, and entrepreneurs are already coming out of the woodwork to solve these problems. Moreover, countless business models are now for the first time commercially viable because the healthcare industry is embracing value-based payments. The fund counts among its investors 50+ healthcare senior executives, eager and extremely able to add value to the early stage companies in which the fund invests.

Prior to launching Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health, Jay operated dozens of early stage companies all over Southern California.

Spencer Rascoff is co-founder and executive chairman at dot.LA

Spencer Rascoff, Co-Founder, Executive Chairman at dot.LA  

Spencer Rascoff is an entrepreneur and company leader who co-founded Zillow, Hotwire and dot.LA, and who served as Zillow's CEO for a decade. He is currently executive chairman of dot.LA and a board member at TripAdvisor. In the fall of 2019 Spencer was a Visiting Executive Professor at Harvard Business School where he co-taught the "Managing Tech Ventures" course. In 2015, Spencer co-wrote and published his first book, the New York Times' Best Seller "Zillow Talk: Rewriting the Rules of Real Estate."

Spencer is the host of "Office Hours," a monthly podcast on dot.LA featuring candid conversations between prominent executives on leadership, diversity and inclusion, and startups.

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🎤 What Do Snoop Dogg And Anduril Have In Common?
Image Source: WWD

🔦 Spotlight

Happy Friday Los Angeles!

Snoop Dogg’s role at the 2024 Paris Olympics highlights a groundbreaking synergy between celebrity influence and high-impact innovation, much like Anduril’s disruptive advancements in defense technology (hear us out). In order to convey the impact of Snoop Dogg’s presence in the 2024 Paris Olympics, we thought it would be appropriate to do it littered with VC and tech jargon. Snoop Dogg’s presence at the 2024 Paris Olympics exemplifies a disruptive innovation with expansive market appeal. As NBC’s special correspondent, he’s leveraged his unique personal brand to create a high-impact engagement strategy that delivers exceptional viewer retention and engagement metrics. By integrating his “gangsta rap” roots with family-friendly content, Snoop has achieved a synergistic blend of authenticity and relatability, driving record-breaking ratings and optimizing cross-platform visibility. His involvement—from elite equestrian gear to athlete interactions—demonstrates a scalable model for enhancing brand partnerships and maximizing audience touchpoints. Snoop's strategic pivot not only redefines celebrity influence but also sets a new benchmark for leveraging cultural icons in a way that drives growth and amplifies impact across diverse demographics. As Snoop puts it, “My mind on my money and my money on my mind”—a statement that deeply resonates with the MVP of the 2024 Paris Olympics and the venture capital community.

Speaking of high-impact innovation and money, Palmer Luckey’s defense tech startup, Anduril, has raised $1.5 billion and unveiled its new AI-powered manufacturing platform, Arsenal, aimed at producing tens of thousands of autonomous weapons annually. This funding, led by Founders Fund and Sands Capital, underscores a shift in military strategy towards high-tech, low-cost systems and rapid production capabilities. Inspired by tech giants like Apple and Tesla, Anduril's Arsenal platform and expansion efforts, including a new factory, are designed to address critical US military shortages and support the Pentagon’s focus on scalable, autonomous defense solutions amidst evolving global threats. Both Snoop Dogg and Anduril, based in the OC/LA area, embody how innovation and influence can reshape industries, proving that groundbreaking advancements and cultural impact are thriving on the West Coast.


🤝 Venture Deals

LA Companies

  • Agrovision, a company that grows and sells premium fruits like blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and table grapes, raised a $100M funding round at a $1b valuation from Aliment Capital, and others. - learn more
  • LeafAgriculture, a farm data management startup, raised an $11.3M Series A led by Spero Ventures, with Cultivian, Radicle Growth, and SP Ventures also participating. - learn more
  • Curio, a web3 game development company, raised a $5.7M Seed Round. Bain Capital Crypto and SevenX Ventures co-led, and were joined by OKX Ventures. - learn more
  • ProRata.ai, a startup that collaborates with media and music companies to ensure proper attribution and revenue sharing for content used by AI platforms, raised a $25M Series A. Investors included Mayfield, Revolution Ventures, Prime Movers Lab, and Idealab Studio. - learn more
  • Anduril, the Costa Mesa-based defense tech startup, has closed a $1.5B Series F that values the company at a whopping $14 billion co-led by Founders Fund and Sands Capital. - learn more
  • Filmustage, a startup that has built an AI-powered platform designed to enhance the film pre-production phase, raised a $1.5M Seed Round led by Raw Ventures. - learn more

LA Venture Funds

  • 1AM Gaming led a $5M Seed Round for DSTLRY, a startup that offers a marketplace for buying, reading, and reselling digital comics. - learn more
  • Casa Verde led a $2M Seed Round for Growlink, a Denver company whose tech, including IoT controllers, sensors, and cultivation software, is specifically designed to optimize cannabis growing operations. - learn more


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💰Bankruptcy to Billion Dollar Sale: Impressive LA Startup Success Stories

In the wake of the latest jobs report and its impact on the stock market, we thought it might be refreshing to shine a light on some LA startup success stories. Los Angeles has long been a fertile ground for interesting startups, fostering innovation and entrepreneurship across various industries. Among its success stories are Ring, Riot Games, SpaceX, Dollar Shave Club, and Fabletics—each of which has made a significant impact in its field.


Image Source: Amazon

Ring, originally conceived as DoorBot, was created in 2013 by Jamie Siminoff in Los Angeles, California, with the goal of revolutionizing home security. The idea sparked in 2011 when he kept missing deliveries because he was in his garage and hadn’t been able to hear the doorbell, leading him to create a smartphone-connected doorbell that allowed homeowners to see and communicate with visitors remotely. Despite initial struggles, including being on the verge of bankruptcy and a rejection on Shark Tank, where Siminoff sought $700,000 for a stake in the company, the exposure from the show propelled sales and visibility. In 2014, the company rebranded to Ring, and its innovative products, including the iconic Ring Video Doorbell, quickly gained popularity, ultimately leading to its acquisition by Amazon in 2018 for approximately $1 billion, marking a significant milestone in the smart home industry.


Image Source: Riot Games

Riot Games was founded in September 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill in Santa Monica, California. The inception of Riot Games was driven by Beck and Merrill's shared vision to create a game that emphasized longevity and continuous player engagement. With an initial funding of $1.5 million from family and angel investors, they set out to develop League of Legends, a game that would go on to redefine the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) genre and become a cornerstone of the esports industry. The company’s commitment to a player-first approach and its innovative free-to-play model, which generated revenue through in-game purchases, quickly garnered a massive following. Riot Games' headquarters in West Los Angeles became the birthplace of a global gaming phenomenon, solidifying its status as a major player in both game development and esports.


Image Source: SpaceX

SpaceX was born out of Elon Musk's ambitious vision to reduce space transportation costs and enable the colonization of Mars. In 2002, after selling his stake in PayPal, Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) in a small office in El Segundo. The company's humble beginnings in the heart of Southern California's aerospace industry were marked by skepticism from established players. From this Los Angeles base, SpaceX would go on to revolutionize the space industry, developing reusable rockets and becoming the first private company to send astronauts to the International Space Station, all while maintaining its significant presence in the region for nearly two decades before announcing plans to move its headquarters to Texas in 2024.


Image Source: TIME

Dollar Shave Club was founded in 2011 in Venice, California, by Michael Dubin and Mark Levine, who were inspired by their frustrations with the high cost of razor blades. The duo's innovative approach combined a subscription model with a humorous marketing strategy, launching with a viral YouTube video that showcased their product in a lighthearted manner. This video quickly garnered millions of views and led to an overwhelming response, crashing their website shortly after launch. Dollar Shave Club's success not only disrupted the traditional razor market dominated by giants like Gillette but also paved the way for a new wave of direct-to-consumer brands, ultimately culminating in its acquisition by Unilever for $1 billion in 2016.


Image Source: Fabletics

Fabletics, the popular activewear brand co-founded by actress Kate Hudson in 2013, began its journey in Los Angeles, California. The company was established with the vision of providing stylish and high-performance athletic apparel that caters to a diverse range of body types and lifestyles. Fabletics operates on a unique membership model, allowing customers to access exclusive discounts and personalized shopping experiences. Since its inception, the brand has rapidly expanded, launching various product lines, including men's apparel and scrubs, and has become known for its collaborations with celebrities like Kevin Hart and Khloé Kardashian. Fabletics has successfully positioned itself as a leader in the activewear market, emphasizing inclusivity and community engagement while revolutionizing the way consumers approach fitness fashion.

From redefining home security to revolutionizing gaming, these LA startups showcase the city's extraordinary ability to innovate across a diverse array of industries.


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'Not All VCs Have Turned MAGA'— Tech VC’s Bold Support for Kamala Harris
Image Source: Politico

🔦 Spotlight

Several prominent tech investors, including Mark Cuban, Reid Hoffman, Vinod Khosla, and Spencer Rascoff of 75 and Sunny, along with more than 500 others have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the 2024 presidential election through an initiative led by Seattle investor John Schilling. This pledge, which also includes key LA-based firms like Backstage Capital, Bonfire, MaC Venture Capital, and Upfront Ventures, signals a unified effort among tech leaders to support Harris's candidacy. The pledge highlights their commitment to pro-business and pro-entrepreneurship values while emphasizing the importance of democratic institutions.

The pledge states: “We the undersigned are Venture Capital investors, founders and tech leaders who pledge to vote for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. We spend our days looking for, investing in and supporting entrepreneurs who are building the future. We are pro-business, pro-American dream, pro-entrepreneurship, and pro-technological progress. We also believe in democracy as the backbone of our nation. We believe that strong, trustworthy institutions are a feature, not a bug, and that our industry - and every other industry - would collapse without them. That is what’s at stake in this election. Everything else, we can solve through constructive dialogue with political leaders and institutions willing to talk to us. In this pivotal moment, we are united in our support for Vice President Kamala Harris. We invite you to join us.” Additionally, the pledge clarifies, “This pledge is not a declaration of your politics or party alignment. It just means you intend to vote and support Harris for President in this election.”

For Los Angeles, this initiative highlights a significant shift in how tech leaders are engaging in political advocacy. With LA being a major center for innovation and venture capital, the involvement of these high-profile investors and firms signals a powerful alignment against conservative trends and states “Let’s show founders that not all VCs have turned MAGA,” reflecting a broader trend of progressive political support in the tech industry.


🤝 Venture Deals

LA Companies

  • ZeroTier, a network security startup, raised a $13.5M Series A led by Battery Ventures, with Bonfire Ventures, Anorak Ventures, Grand Enterprises B.V., Airbridge Equity Partners and First In Ventures also participating. - learn more
  • Look North World, a video game studio and publisher dedicated to the Creator platforms, raised an additional $2.25M Seed Funding led by London Venture Partners and others. - learn more

LA Venture Funds

  • Supply Change Capital led a $3.5M Seed Round for Terrantic, a two-year-old Seattle startup whose platform helps growers, packers, and food processors optimize yield, throughput, and quality by analyzing existing data. - learn more
  • Mantis Venture Capital participated in a $20M Round Extension for Haus, a startup whose marketing measurement platform uses causal attribution to determine the effectiveness of marketing efforts. - learn more
  • Caden Capital Partners participated in a $45M Series C for Rhombus, a startup whose platform enables businesses to deploy and manage security devices, offering features like real-time notifications and advanced analytics while also integrating with existing systems. - learn more

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