Catch Up With This Week's Startup News With Our Video Recap
Lots happened in the L.A. tech and startup community this week. dot.LA chief host and correspondent Kelly O'Grady takes you through the key stories:
- COVID: iFoster Helps Save Semester for Foster Youth, UCLA Projects Economy Will Take 3 Years to Recover
- Media: Cameo CEO Talks Disrupting Entertainment Industry, Atom Tickets Optimistic About Movie Theaters' Future
- Startups: 'Anti-Superficial' Dating App S'More Launches in L.A., Relativity Space Gains West Coast Launch Site
- HelloOffice Bets on Returning to Offices with $20M Series A
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Even Disney CEO Bob Chapek is surprised by the success of Disney Plus.
"What we didn't realize was the non-family appeal that a service like Disney Plus would have," Chapek said Monday, speaking at a Morgan Stanley tech conference. "Over 50% of our global [subscribers] don't have kids, and that is the big difference."
<p>In April 2019, Disney forecast it would have 60 to 90 million subscribers by 2024 for the service that launched in November of that year; today it already has over 95 million. The Star Wars and Marvel superheroes universes have complemented Disney's more traditional animated features that are aimed squarely at school-age children. </p><p>The company has ratcheted up its 2024 forecast to 150 million Disney Plus subscribers, and to 260 million including its international offering, Star.</p><p>Disney Plus' over-performance inspired a "commensurate" rise of investment in content, Chapek said. In December <a href="https://dot.la/disney-plus-2649444543.htmlhttps://dot.la/disney-plus-2649444543.html" target="_self"><u>Disney showcased a head-spinning array of new shows and movies</u></a> set to roll out in the coming months and years. </p><p>"We stepped on the throttle pretty heavily," Chapek said. </p><p><a href="https://dot.la/disney-plus-2649444543.html" target="_self"><u>Disney also undertook a major restructuring</u></a> to center the organization around streaming.</p><p>As streaming ascended, Disney's parks plummeted, shuttered by the pandemic. Once those reopen, Chapek, who previously led the parks division, said he sees huge value in the customer insight that they will bring in conjunction with streaming. </p><p>"We've never really had the two perfectly aligned where our parks are cranking and our DTC business is anything but embryonic. Well, that moment's about to come," he said. "And so we feel really enthusiastic about what's going to happen when we take one plus one and make it three."</p>
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There's about to be a slew of board level positions open for women this year.
Under California state law, public companies such as Warner Music Group must have three female board members, if their board has six or more members, by the end of the year. There are over 600 public companies in California that will need to fill a total of about 600 board seats with women, estimates Betsy Berkhemer-Credaire, chief executive of 50/50 Women on Boards.
<p>"More women are getting on boards in the state of California now than ever before," said Berkhemer-Credaire, who was instrumental in pushing the 2018 state law. </p><p>The bill does not apply beyond California, but it's being noticed by corporate America, she said. </p><p>Of the 221 board seats at the 25 largest companies that went public last year, 64 of them were held by women, according to a study released last month by 50/50 Women on Boards. That amounts to 24% of all the board seats, and is almost a 2% increase from the previous year.</p><p>Only one company, a business analytics group from New Jersey, Dun & Bradstreet, had no female directors when it went public last year. Six other companies went public with only one woman on board.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTcwNDUzNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMDA5MjIxMn0.bPbpZXSXfj-wg-7VXFWhPF-VRSptIiDGSPKCXnNkF1o/img.jpg?width=980" id="c6150" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="63b6d64839a7950fe0618d692dbdc090" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1312" data-height="1906" />
Betsy Berkhemer-Credaire is the chief executive of 50/50 Women on Boards.
<p>Though the gains appear small, it marks a 10% increase of female board members in the top 25 IPOs since 2015. The national average of women on boards across Russell 3000 companies — an index of the largest U.S. companies — is 22.6%.</p><p>In 2020, for the first time, IPOs did better than established public companies in terms of female representation on their boards.</p><p>Two of the 25 largest IPOs of 2020 were from Southern California — GoodRX and Warner Music Group. Both companies meet the bill's requirements, but Warner Music Group will have to make room for another female board member by the year's end in order to meet the requirement for this year. Neither of the companies responded for comment.</p><p>Berkhemer-Credaire said getting on a board depends on personal and business connections and relationships. Women in Los Angeles, she said, are at an advantage because there are so many promising startups and private companies that could go public.<br></p>
<p><span style="background-color: initial;">"What's unique about Los Angeles is it is entrepreneurial. There are more opportunities to be on boards of private equity-owned firms that are pre IPO, or startups that are quite pre-IPO," said Betsy Berkhemer-Credaire, chief executive of 50/50 Women on Boards.</span><br/></p><p>Berkhemer-Credaire said there have been a few similar laws in other states, which she characterized as "watered down" versions of California's bill. She doesn't expect any additional legislation to follow.<br/> </p><p>But late last year, Nasdaq filed a proposal with the Securities and Exchange Commission that would require all companies listed on its stock exchange to have a female director and a director that is LGBTQ+ or an underrepresented community within the next four years. Companies with five or fewer board members are only required to have one director from a diverse background.</p><p>California also passed another bill late last year that additionally requires a board member from an underrepresented community, "who self-identifies as Black, African American, Hispanic, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, Native Hawaiian or Alaska Native, or who self-identifies as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender." </p>Related Articles Around the Web
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Rocket Lab, a Long Beach manufacturer of small rockets used to launch satellites, plans to go public through a SPAC merger that will value the company at $4.1 billion.
The move could position Rocket Lab, which hopes to eventually send people into orbit, as a larger player in space travel.
<p>The deal with Vector Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company, is slated to close in the second quarter. Rocket Lab will be traded on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol RKLB.</p><p>The merger is expected to generate $750 million in cash — including $320 million from Vector about $470 million of PIPE led by San Francisco-based Vector, BlackRock, Neuberger Berman and other investors. </p><p>"This milestone accelerates Rocket Lab's ability to unlock the full potential of space through our launch and spacecraft platforms and catalyzes our ambition to create a new multi-billion-dollar business vertical in space applications," founder and CEO Peter Beck said in a press release. </p><p>Since its first orbital launch in 2018, Rocket Lab has conducted 18 launches and delivered 97 rockets into orbit for customers including the National Reconnaissance Office and NASA. Beck told <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/01/rocket-lab-ceo-spac-deal-a-supercharger-for-growth.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNBC</a> that the company founded in 2006 was "on a very methodical path to a traditional IPO" before pivoting to a SPAC merger. </p><p>On Monday, Rocket Lab also unveiled its new 8-ton payload rocket called Neutron that it hopes will eventually carry astronauts, putting the company in direct competition with Hawthorne-based SpaceX. While its first vehicle, Electron, holds up 300 kg (660 lbs), this second model is designed for larger commercial and government payloads. The two-stage launch vehicle will carry up to 8,000 kg to low Earth orbit and is expected to debut in 2024. </p><p>Beck told CNBC that the company aims to ensure the Neutron is "certifiable for human spaceflight."</p><p>The capability to carry astronauts could put Rocket in closer competition with SpaceX, whose Falcon 9 was certified for human spaceflight by NASA last year. </p><p>Rocket Lab currently operates two launch sites, <a data-linked-post="2644994218" href="https://dot.la/rocket-lab-launches-secret-payload-from-new-zealand-for-u-s-spy-satellite-agency-2644994218.html" target="_blank">in New Zealand</a> and Virginia, and is looking to build a new factory to support "large-scale" Neutron manufacturing. That move will usher in hundreds of new jobs, according to the company. </p><p>Electron is the second most launched rocket in the U.S. annually and the fourth most launched globally, according to the company. </p><p>"Rocket Lab solved small launch with Electron," Beck said in a statement. "Now we're unlocking a new category with Neutron."</p><p>Vector's chief investment officer, Alex Slusky, will also join Rocket Lab's board along with Sven Strohband of Khosla Ventures, David Cowan of Bessemer Venture Partners, DCVC's Matt Ocko and independent director Mike Griffin. </p><p>"Rocket Lab is ideally positioned to continue to capture market share in the rapidly expanding space launch, systems and applications markets," Slusky said in a statement announcing the news.</p>
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