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XHow Two Friends Crowdsourced a List to Help L.A. Tech Workers Find Jobs Amid COVID-19
Rachel Uranga is dot.LA's Managing Editor, News. She is a former Mexico-based market correspondent at Reuters and has worked for several Southern California news outlets, including the Los Angeles Business Journal and the Los Angeles Daily News. She has covered everything from IPOs to immigration. Uranga is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and California State University Northridge. A Los Angeles native, she lives with her husband, son and their felines.

As COVID-19 layoffs cost friends and families jobs, Liora Simozar, a product manager at Clutter Inc., and her friend Ranika Kejriwal, put together a crowdsourced list of open tech and startup jobs in Los Angeles.
Simozar and Kejriwal, who head the local chapter of Women in Product and both have jobs, started their nascent effort in a Slack group in early March figuring many of their 500 members would be impacted. Eventually, they blasted it out to hundreds of their contacts and now have nearly 200 local employers looking for candidates on their crowdsourced list. Similar efforts have been playing out across the tech world as others release lists among friends and colleagues.
It's been a reprieve in an otherwise grim job market as companies like Bird and ZipRecruiter slashed their workforce in abrupt and sometimes brutal manners.
"It's tough being a laid off, you go through a lot of different emotions," said Simozar. "I felt a real sense of urgency because when you are losing your job, you are losing your health care benefits and this is a health crisis."
More than 26 million people have filed for unemployment since the pandemic halted normal life. Last week, USC researchers estimated 1.3 million workers in Los Angeles County alone have lost their job since mid-March. Startups and tech companies have seen a reversal of fortunes, cutting jobs that once seemed secure and eliminating six-figure positions. But, the downturn has helped some big tech and smaller thriving companies pick up hard-to-catch talent.
The spreadsheet by Simozar and Kejriwal, who works on Tinder's product team, posts positions for engineers, product designers and data analytics from companies like Jessica Alba's Honest Company, the board game maker Exploding Kittens and Northrupp Gruman. The lists are being shared on LinkedIn, among friends and within tight-knit networks.
"I think a lot of people are encouraged by how many companies are still hiring through the crisis," she said.
One advantage to the list the two put together is that its local companies, as opposed to other ones that include jobs across the county.
"We got more high-quality candidates from this list than from LinkedIn or AngelsList," said Sam Byker, founder and chief executive of downtown-based Atticus, a tech firm aimed at making legal representation more accessible. The firm closed a $4.5 million seed round in December and is more than doubling its 8-person staff. The pandemic has stoked demand for the firm's services. A lot of the company's work is helping disabled people qualify for government benefits and demand tends to spike during downturns.
"It is always hard for us to find candidates that are the right fit," he said. "We are on a lot of platforms but at the end of the day, it was that google sheet that got many of our best applicants."
A few candidates who reached out through the sheet are going through the interview process. "There are a few folks that we are really excited about," he said.
Karan Talati said he turned to the list when he had to layoff two of his eight employees at First Resonance, a small startup that builds software for aerospace manufacturing.
"We have had to make these hard decisions that we don't want to," he said. "Most of our investors have been spending time with portfolio to make sure they are set for surviving and that means cost cutting where needed and unfortunately that means people."
He offered the employees severance and insurance, but he has been sending them leads and lists like this one in hopes that his former employees would find a job.
"If we have to part ways with people that we care about, hopefully can land as quickly as possible," he said.
Jerry Nickelsburg, the director of UCLA's Anderson Forecast, said the good news is that the region's tech sector — which spans an array of industries from logistics to restaurants to software — will likely recover.
"Are there firms in every sector that are struggling and have laid off staff? The answer is yes, but there also are firms in many sectors in finance, in some of the tech businesses, we see it in the distribution of goods that have actually added some employees. Still, not nearly enough," he said. "The tech sector has been growing and growing very rapidly in L.A., and then greater L.A. and Orange County as well over the last decade. Our expectation is that that will continue."
Meanwhile, even those lucky enough to find jobs after a layoff have a bit of survivor's guilt.
"The reality is, I feel super guilty that I gave notice right before layoffs happened, which ended up saving me from said layoffs," wrote recruiter Ashlyn McIntosh about her new job. "Here's the thing my amazing former manager and now friend for life Darren Stewart reminded me of: I hire people for a living. If I keep going, more people have jobs, meaning less people are living in anxiety."
Just days before the posting she watched her 17-person recruiting and human resources team at PatientPop dwindle to three after the company laid off about a quarter of its staff in a round of COVID-19 layoffs, she said. The data science team was also wiped out she said, noting that those are difficult positions to fill.
The company did not respond to a request for comment.
McIntosh who now works at TeleSign said she's seen a rush of applicants to jobs. Other recruiters, who she once competed against, are now calling her and sharing job applicants that they would have guarded before the pandemic. Hard to fill positions now have candidates clamoring.
The dire circumstances have reshuffled the job market for those with the right skills and it has also opened up talent that wasn't accessible before.
Matt Alling, who runs headhunting firm Marius Group, said that in some ways he has felt like a first responder dealing with so many people that have been laid off. Although about 80% of his clients froze hiring, the rest are hiring more than usual and keeping him busy.
"If we averaged 30 new candidates a day, now we are imputing 200 people a day," he said. "We have been working double time to connect with really good candidates."
Companies like Chinese-owned startup ByteDance is looking to hire 10,000 new employees, Bloomberg reported last week. The company's app TikTok is based in Culver City and has been advertising jobs. Other big tech companies like Amazon and Apple have been on a hiring spree as they see an opportunity to pick up hard to find talent.
Arteen Arabshahi, vice president at Jeffrey Katzenberg's WndrCo, which develops and operates consumer technology businesses, said he has seen it play both ways. On the other side are companies sharing lists of employees that have been laid off in hopes of placing talented workers.
"Everyone is trying to make the best of a terrible situation," said Arabshahi, who oversees the firm's venture arm. "These types of initiatives have been really helpful for smaller businesses that are trying to hire. These are amazing for those companies.Do you have a story that needs to be told? My DMs are open on Twitter @racheluranga. You can also email me.
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Rachel Uranga is dot.LA's Managing Editor, News. She is a former Mexico-based market correspondent at Reuters and has worked for several Southern California news outlets, including the Los Angeles Business Journal and the Los Angeles Daily News. She has covered everything from IPOs to immigration. Uranga is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and California State University Northridge. A Los Angeles native, she lives with her husband, son and their felines.
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'Esports Winter’ is a Myth, Local Gaming Execs Say
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.
Last year, global venture capital investment in esports dropped by more than 40%. Investors have been rapidly selling off teams and franchises, and the industry has witnessed a consistent decline in ad spend. This has prompted many critics to coin the term “esports winter,” referring to a fall-off in the industry, an indication that VCs believe their investments didn’t achieve success as expected.
A recent article in The New York Times highlighted two major esports leagues that recently divested from their teams: Madison Square Garden sold its team CounterLogic Gaming to NRG in April, while Team SoloMid sold its League of Legends Championship Series team in late May.
Arguing that the industry still has potential for growth, several gaming executives at a LA Tech Week panel said that instead of an “esports winter,” the industry was experiencing a period of “normalization.” The panel at SoHo House in West Hollywood featured Brian Anderson, CEO of Culver City-based esports outfit FlyQuest Sport, Gene Chorba, head of developer relations at Roku and Felix LaHaye, founder of United Esports.
“I'm actually very skeptical of the claim of an esports winter,” Anderson said. “I think that what I'm seeing in the market right now, ultimately, is just a lot of venture capital firms that deployed capital into the eSports space that are not generating the returns that they were looking for, and have now done the press junket and are labeling it an esports winter.”
“In reality,” Anderson said, “esports, in my view, is alive and well.”
Anderson said there were a lot of “unrealistic expectations” around esports since it became popular in 2016, and the current decline was a sign that the market was correcting itself. “This is a necessary pain point that any nascent industry is going to go through as it matures and develops, and I think that in, let's say, 24 months, 36 months, esports will be in a much better financially sustainable place,” he said.
“I think we're having a little bit of a normalization,” Chorba said. “We saw the entire economy was being shot to the moon, with nothing behind it… we were seeing valuations of companies, public and private, that just didn't make sense for what they were building.”
Other tech industries have experienced a similar “normalization” in recent years. Cryptocurrencies, NFTs and big tech have all seen a downturn in recent months after being flooded with VC interest for many years.
According to the panelists, the existing viewer base for esports was a clear sign that the industry still had potential for growth. “There's still a ton of attention on professional video games. There's still so much grassroots fan support,” Anderson said. “As long as organizations and developers are able to figure out how to actually monetize that fan base, I think esports is still alive and well and here to stay for a long time.”
According to Insider Intelligence in 2022, there were 532 million esports viewers globally, with nearly 30 million viewers in the U.S.; this is expected to increase to 34.8 million by 2026.
Chorba explained that the reduction in ad spend and brand deals in esports shouldn’t worry investors because these crucial revenue streams have slowed down for other industries as well. “Ad-supported is hemorrhaging money and really just trying to wait out what's really a bad economy right now,” he said. As more people stop paying for cable, Chorba said, eyeballs will move onto streaming sites like YouTube or Twitch to watch gaming content.
LaHaye and Chorba said that one of the reasons for the decline in esports investments could be that executives and VCs are running esports companies like tech or SaaS companies. “As a matter of fact, they are not tech companies. They are ad-supported entertainment products,” LaHaye said.
By taking their companies to IPOs too early, certain esports companies ruined their chances in the market, LaHaye added. “There's also a downswing that's done by a rush to [go] public,” he said. “There are some fairly poor business models in esports that are going through a rougher time.”
“[Game publishing] is a hit-making business,” LaHaye said. “I think there tends to be confusion between what is a fundamental issue for the esports industry itself and some business models within the esports industry being bad business.”
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Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.
L.A. Tech Week has brought venture capitalists, founders and entrepreneurs from around the world to the California coast. With so many tech nerds in one place, it's easy to laugh, joke and reminisce about the future of tech in SoCal.
Here's what people are saying about day four of L.A. Tech Week on social:
Day two of #LATechWeek was so much fun at the @dotLA event—I ran into old friends and somehow I keep running into my H-Town people. The music and vibes by @dnice were so dope! @Techweek_#techweek23 🎉💃🏻🎶 pic.twitter.com/77E6EbfoGk
— Christina 💜 (@Themetamaven) June 8, 2023
It was terrific fun to see my #LongLA guy @spencerrascoff and his entire awesome @dotLA team show out for our entrepreneurial economy last night! @Miguel@AustinEkeler#PledgeLA team ❤️🫶🙌🥳🎉 we’re all building thr foundation of LA’s next 50-100yrs right now! 🌎🥳 Energy &… pic.twitter.com/hJwwpb4iNm
— Rob Ryan (@IAmRobRyan) June 8, 2023
Exciting energy at LA’s Earliest Stage Investors and Founders rooftop sunset mixer #LATechWeek
hosted by @fikavc@MaCVentureCap@blingcapital@amplifyla@techweek_pic.twitter.com/HWmhOmfm7N
— WeAreLATech📍Los Angeles 🌊 (@WeAreLATech) June 8, 2023
Thanks to the whole #musictech & LA Tech community for mayking #latechweek as fun as it gets at our MAYK HAUS AI MUSIC PARTY & ARTIST SHOWCASE. We had a blast! C U next year! @a16z@KatiaAmeri@Techweek_pic.twitter.com/OqxDPMHLHK
— stefan👄🇺🇦📍music’verse (@stefan_mayk) June 8, 2023
Swinging into the world of VC like a perfectly timed forehand! #InvestorTennis is the newest way to network while staying active. 🎾💼 #LATechWeek@Techweek_@Expert_Dojo@PropelVC@a16zpic.twitter.com/MpfERkjlLw
— Taissa Maleh™️ (@tmaleh9) June 8, 2023
gm LA tech week ✌🏽🌴 pic.twitter.com/DJD22bfE2D
— Tyler Denk 🐝 (@denk_tweets) June 8, 2023
A huge thanks to @upfrontvc and @nickbkim for a great rooftop breakfast event on Day 4 of #LATechWeek! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/UEEixSdzw5
— Tech Week (@Techweek_) June 8, 2023
#LatechWeek: Reconnecting post-Covid! Delighted to engage with inspiring women founders, collaborators, and climate/ESG investors! pic.twitter.com/qZu7BG6O6Z
— Aalia Mauro (@aaliamauro) June 8, 2023
It was inspiring to see so many bright, self-aware, energetic, young founders dedicated to:
doing things right
not compromising
sharing valuable insights
aspiring to better the world
Everything is cyclical.
Gen Z founders and founders event #LATechWeekpic.twitter.com/bgbLcNIuhu
— Kayla Cho (@0xkycc) June 8, 2023
gathered XR folks for #LATechWeek w/ @pearvc & crowdsourced predictions:
1) 40% expect regular headset wear on planes in 2025
2) 60% think the first @Apple#VisionPro app to reach 1M DAU will be made by a co that already exists
3) 90% say Apple will beat @meta to 100M DAU... pic.twitter.com/pwtBGpbuen
— Keith Bender (@keith__bender) June 8, 2023
halfway thru LA tech week, and I can confidently say Los Angeles has the best, most fun, and diversified tech + VC scene in the country. It's not debatable at this point
— Cass (@cassidyjrdnn) June 8, 2023
Sound baths with the sounds of the ocean at #LATechWeek 😌 pic.twitter.com/KSoV5JIFAr
— Tech Week (@Techweek_) June 8, 2023
Thank you to everyone who attended our Creator Economy Panel, co-hosted by @unitedtalent VC and @CooleyLLP, at #LATechWeek! And a special thanks to our panelists @CHRISELLEtweets, @MrEddieHuang, and @justinkan! @Techweek_#TechWeekpic.twitter.com/LlkNMQL4Nw
— GOLD HOUSE (@GoldHouseCo) June 8, 2023
Yes, @terryarbaugh and I I did ride @BirdRide scootere 16.6 miles to make it to an #LATechWeek event on time. This pic shows the first leg. We had to swap scooters due to dead batteries 🤣 pic.twitter.com/w3smaciAUd
— Connor Bush (@TheBushFromLA) June 8, 2023
Last night we hosted a #hardwaremeetup at our office for #LATechWeek.
It was an excellent event. Speakers Rahul Dhond from @firstresonance shared his journey in manufacturing and Karthik Gollapudi talked about his experience developing Dragon Flight software at @SpaceXpic.twitter.com/j30epg0gHk
— Duro (@durolabs) June 8, 2023
Going back to Cali! #LATechWeek!
Attending:
- @a16ztxo Demo Day
- @founderfamilia & @VCFamilia panels and after party
- Speaking at @3XPgg Gaming Expo and @DcentralCon@hackapreneur
If you would like to connect, please feel free to hit me up!#startup#founder#web3#nftpic.twitter.com/OPiyV9XMOm
— Jonathan G. ₿lanco 🛠🦄 (@jgproduct) June 8, 2023
We wrapped up our #LATechWeek day in the one-of-a-kind Budman Studios art gallery for "AI Music Showcase & Party," immersed in the future of music + AI! 🎶 pic.twitter.com/qm3VfY9mnW
— Tech Week (@Techweek_) June 8, 2023
Great sunset soirée by the beach. only in Silicon Beach. 🏖️ let’s https://t.co/qEYeXtxCqe ! #LATechWeek@Techweek_pic.twitter.com/5BOU9iRoqc
— stefan👄🇺🇦📍music’verse (@stefan_mayk) June 8, 2023
We had so much fun celebrating #LATechWeek with our friends from @amplifyla & @techweek_ 🌴
If you've been listening to our World Music 🎧 playlist, what has been your favorite track?#GoGlobal#TechWeekpic.twitter.com/W6tfYWuMLy
— GoGlobal (@goglobalgeo) June 8, 2023
Best part about LA Tech Week? LESS events. MORE intimate spaces with quality humans.@brexHQ Wired. Iykyk pic.twitter.com/nTmgAiShkg
— Jeanine (@JeanineSuah) June 8, 2023
In LA for #LATechWeek with Black Meta Agency tap in and let’s build! #Web3#Tech#VR#AppleXR#AppleMR#Fintech#Blockchain#NFT#Crypto#bmaweb3#lifeandtimesofhj -
Let’s rock!!! pic.twitter.com/VZKqwK9lou
— Howard R. Jean 🇭🇹 • DC • NY (@howardrjean) June 8, 2023
This is me at LA Tech Week
(my 49 year old body can no longer keep up 2023 founders) pic.twitter.com/ISSHdjrQEK
— Ed @ HelloStartup.LA (@hellostartupla) June 8, 2023
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LA Latino/a Founders On Why Authenticity Matters in Tech
Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.
As one of the most diverse cities in the world, Los Angeles is home to almost 5 million people who identify as Hispanic or Latino/a. Yet, many feel they still lack representation in the city’s tech space.
“I can safely say that last year’s LA tech week hosted all of the events on the west side, and very few were focused on telling Latino and Latina entrepreneurial stories,” said Valeria Martinez, investor at VamosVentures. “We wanted to change that this year.”
The event, titled “The East Side Story –– Latino/a Founders and Funders in LA,” was held at Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) in the vibrant Arts District with participation from VamosVentures, LatinxVC, VCFamilia, Supply Change Capital, and LEEAF.
The event was centered around stories about the Latino/a community told by its members. “Storytelling is the most powerful tool we have as human beings,” said restauranteur Bricia Lopez. “We are all here because of the stories that were told to us and the stories that were read to us.”
Lopez’s father migrated to Guadalajara, Mexico because he heard a story about a better life on the other side of the border. While he didn’t have the opportunity to see that “better life,” Lopez wants to share his story with the world in the hopes of inspiring others to share their stories.
“I think for many generations, we were the gatekeepers holding us back from telling our own stories,” Lopez said. “But we are now empowered to share our stories and when we talk about wanting to hear stories from us, it's because we want a mirror into the possibility of who we can become. To me that was how powerful a story is.”
With over 400 RSVPs and a packed house that ranged from founders and investors to vendors and aspiring entrepreneurs, the event brought light to a community hungry for stories they can connect and relate to.
Fanny Grande, CEO of Avenida Entertainment Group, said that on-screen stories about the Latino community are very limited. This lack of representation inspired her to start her production company that aims to empower independent creators.
“The advances of technology, social media and the new generation being very vocal about how they want to be represented gives me hope that things are going to change,” Grande said.
One way Avenida Entertainment Group champions its creators is by providing tech solutions to help fund and produce projects. At the event, Grande announced that her production company plans to launch an English-language streaming service for Latinos to provide visibility to these projects.
“A lot of our clients are so happy that not only did they get their projects made, they're going to be seen by the community who funded the project,” she said.
Patty Rodriguez, co-founder of publishing company Lil’ Libros, aims to give representation to the Latino/a community by publishing bilingual children’s books.
Rodriguez said that entrepreneurship was never a part of her vocabulary while growing up. She also had no experience in publishing before she started her business, but she believed that “we belong on these platforms.” For her, the greatest moments are opening the doors for Latino/a authors and seeing copies of their books at major bookstores.
“It's so beautiful to see your dreams come true and you're working every morning to see them,” she said. “It's wonderful to see them at Target, Barnes & Nobles across the country.”
Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.