Vote for Your Favorite Startup in Our Pitch Showcase Competition
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.
We are pleased to announce the second round of our early-stage Startup Pitch Showcase competition.
Over the last few weeks, we asked our readers to nominate early-stage startups based in Southern California. We received over 100 nominations and have narrowed down the list to six startups. These companies are vying for a chance to advance to pitch at the finale, which will be broadcast live at the dot.LA Summit 2020, with special guest judges and a grand prize.
Now, we want your thoughts on the most promising, innovative, forward-thinking startups that can make a difference in users' everyday lives.
Of the three startups featured here, one will go on to pitch at our Startup Pitch Showcase finale later this month. Watch the videos below and let us know which it should be!
To get started, hit the "Watch and Vote" link below!
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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.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUxMjgxNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMzM2MzgwOX0.6b-LH137anXm8YHupyAsvRkC2XXvygJ6fZRBIA7PoZ4/image.jpg?width=980" id="09c34" 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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Have you always dreamed of scarfing down a Dodger Dog while sitting in your pajamas on your couch? You're in luck. The Los Angeles Dodgers have teamed with Postmates and Home Team Kitchens to deliver stadium grub to your doorstep.
There are certain rules in life. You consume a giant tub of popcorn and a large soda when you go to the movies, a bowl of chili when you're skiing, and a hot dog and all manner of other sodium rich foods in order to distract you from the dullness of a four-hour baseball game. But this is 2020, where any normal rules have long since gone out of the window and people are craving for any way to have a taste of pre-pandemic days – as long as it can be done from the safety of their home.
<p>
Using Postmates or its competitors, one is free to choose from a vast selection of food - sushi from Sugarfish, chicken burgers from Howlin' Ray's, tacos from Guisados. So I was curious to know why anyone would want to order items they normally get only because they are confined to the stadium with nowhere else to go.
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"It's comfort food and the kind of thing we need these days," said Mike Jacobs, founder and CEO of Home Team Kitchens.
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Interestingly, the Dodgers starting working on a plan to deliver food in February, before the coronavirus starting causing havoc in the U.S.
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"The coronavirus accelerated what we thought was a cool brand extension for us," said Tucker Kain, president of Dodgers Business Enterprise, who sees delivery as a good way to keep front of mind for fans. "We want to build a bridge with fans in a meaningful way given that the live experience isn't available."
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The Dodgers and Home Team Kitchens think people will want stadium food even when they are not watching a game. "It's great food to have if you're watching Netflix or if you're at work and you want a big serving of nachos," Jacobs said.
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The program quietly soft-launched on opening day and started marketing this week when the Dodgers travelled to Houston. Food is prepared out of a single ghost kitchen in Hollywood, but there are plans to expand it to 25 locations throughout Los Angeles so deliveries can be faster and fresher. Jacobs also wants to partner with sports bars to open several dine-in options.
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"Demand has been greater than my projections," said Jacobs. "It's double what I was expecting. We're hiring new staff and expediting getting more locations. It's a lot of Dodger Dogs." (Dodger Dogs have also been available in <a href="https://www.thinkbluela.com/2016/05/ampm-offering-dodger-dogs-at-most-la-area-locations/" target="_blank">select ampm locations</a> since 2016.)
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://dot.la/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUyNDE4NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNTAwOTk2NX0.H5r2hCYHfTdX_nkmiVeaufHfkFixx5_sg5wyYAbaJtM/image.jpg?width=980" id="18ae5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6af354760b8b8543f62e0e143a73cf08" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
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<strong>Super Dodger Dog</strong><br/>
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They don't call it a cold dog and unfortunately the dog was not even lukewarm. Maybe I should have stuck it in the microwave? I missed the warm foil wrapped version from the ballpark but once I doused it in the ketchup and onions provided, it wasn't bad.
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://dot.la/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUyNDE4Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMjQ2MzAyNn0.DmCQfy12Xo6SSx5kq6TglQketGcdVuFrM-EDEneU4cE/image.jpg?width=980" id="5dfdd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a3aff51a468314985c4109d699d78398" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
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<strong>Carne Asada Helmet Nachos</strong><br/>
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At $15.95, this was my splurge of the night, but I could not resist eating out of a batting helmet and the portion size could probably feed a whole family. The tortilla chips were soft but fortunately not soggy, covered in cheese and generous chunks of asada. But again, the dish was cold so instead of getting the hot cheese you get at the stadium, it had coagulated into globs.
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://dot.la/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUyNDE4OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNTE0OTM1Nn0.IUJU6IsfQ7JJmRdsaZCPvy6L-gGtRucUt_BvPgiHt1w/image.jpg?width=980" id="7452e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="51334e4d3735e3e81fd8b59a5b2dfbeb" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
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<strong>Brooklyn Dodgers Blue Gelato</strong><br/>
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I was excited to order this because it was advertised as coming in a mini Brooklyn Dodgers helmet but instead mine came in a much less exciting white plastic cup. At least this was the correct temperature though. Proving it's easier to keep cold things cold than hot things hot, the gelato was surprisingly cool and creamy. I took a few small bites and then stuck it in the freezer — one thing you can't do at the ballpark.
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<strong>The game</strong>
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Couldn't tell you. I don't get Spectrum SportsNet so I was planning to watch on ESPN, but the game was blacked out there. (I later read the Dodgers won 4-2 in a 13 inning thriller.)
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<strong>Overall</strong>
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Eating a cold Dodger Dog at home is an experience everyone should try at least once, but probably no more than that. Delivering warmer food would definitely help, but we are lucky enough to have a lot of great restaurants to choose from in L.A., so the next time I spend $50 on stadium food will be at the stadium.
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<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://dot.la/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUyNDE2OS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MDI0NzgxOH0.sAV-ur1c6RZHmxFo4ttFIcXABZI8usSdRc3bxejC7-Q/image.png?width=980" id="eed06" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="03245fa6ebd2ee5610e209a383e58fb0" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
What It's Like Ordering a Dodger Dog at Home
<p>Yesterday, as the Dodgers were preparing for their final game against the dreaded Astros, I opened up Postmates and ordered $30 of food (which came to $50 after taxes, fees, and tip.) Here's how it went.<br></p><p>No standing in line or worrying about missing an at-bat. First pitch was scheduled for a little after 4 p.m. I placed my order at 3:16 p.m. Postmates said my food would arrive no later than 4:20 p.m. to my apartment in downtown L.A. That turned out to be slightly optimistic, as I didn't get a text until 4:24pm notifying me that my order had arrived.<br></p><p>Jacobs sighed when I told him how long it took for me to get my order.</p><p>"We're hoping for 30 minutes, but it takes some time to get that right," he said, adding that with more locations the wait times will come down and the food should be hotter.</p>From Your Site Articles
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