🔦 Spotlight

Courtney Reum boasts quite the assortment of descriptors: 45-year-old American venture capitalist, Paris Hilton’s brother- in-law, entrepreneur, best-selling author, former Goldman Sachs investment banker, and now, professional soccer player. The former D1 soccer player at Columbia University, embarked on an unlikely journey to join a soccer team, Länk FC Vilaverdense, in Portugal's second division. With the help of Corey Woolfolk, a biotech executive and ex-pro player, Reum pursued his dream of playing professional soccer, targeting clubs in Turkey, Scandinavia, and Portugal. Vilaverdense took a chance on Reum, enticed not only by his sports skills but also by a substantial loan he offered to ease the club's financial strain, along with potential future investments and access to his business network.

To prepare for his debut, Reum invested heavily in a 10-week crash course involving intensive training, coaching, and medical care. Despite already being in good shape, he underwent specialized soccer-oriented strength and conditioning, overcoming injuries and utilizing services like cold plunges and body vibration therapy. Training was rigorous, with former pros guiding him as he balanced his venture capital duties, scaling back some hours at his LA-based firm, M13. On Sunday, May 5th, Reum was brought onto the field at minute 86 for his pro debut during the match against Torreense. Though his future involvement with the team remains uncertain, he will stay in Portugal until the end of the season.

🤝 Venture Deals

LA Companies

• Kino, a digital movie platform provider, raised a $2.35M Pre-Seed Extension led by ARK Venture Fund. - learn more
• Restaurant365, a company that provides a software platform for restaurants to manage accounting, inventory, payroll, and employee scheduling, raised a $175M Funding Round at a $1+ billion up valuation led by ICONIQ Growth, with KKR and L Catterton also contributing. - learn more

LA Venture Funds

• Ankona Capital co-led a $35M Funding Round for Canopy, provider of accounting software. - learn more
• Type One Ventures participated in a $5.6M Pre-Seed Round for Active Surfaces, a developer of flexible solar panels. - learn more
• Starshot Capital, a climate-focused VC firm based, raised $35m for Starshot Fund I for companies working toward ambitious decarbonization goals. - learn more

🔦 Spotlight

After announcing its partnership with the PGA of America earlier this year, LA-based Sensible Weather, a climate finance platform, has now introduced its Weather Guarantee program in collaboration with 23 distinguished golf facilities in Myrtle Beach, managed by Founders Group International, Caledonia Golf & Fish Club, and True Blue Golf Club. ⛈️⛳️

This guarantee allows golfers to protect their rounds from undesirable weather by offering a reimbursement if rain is forecasted on the day of play. Sensible Weather assessed a need in the golf community, surveying 1,000 golfers and finding that 97% of avid golfers expressed interest in Weather Guarantees. The initiative addresses the increasing impact of disruptive weather on outdoor activities like golf by specifically aiming to simplify operations for golf courses, enhance golfer satisfaction, reduce last-minute cancellations, and generate additional revenue for facilities.

The success of this venture can be attributed to Sensible Weather first identifying a need by the golf community followed by a thoughtful strategic approach. Sensible Weather brought Golf Professional, Ben Tyler, on board to ensure effective communication of the opportunity and exceptional customer service required to make the partnership a success. To implement the Weather Guarantee, Sensible Weather collaborated closely with Tee Time Central, a booking platform, to integrate the feature directly into their checkout process. Golf facilities using Tee Time Central for their online bookings can easily activate Weather Guarantees.

The expansion to golf courses adds to Sensible Weather’s growing market and customer base over the past year. In September, Sensible Weather secured an investment from AMEX Ventures adding to its list of investors that includes Wonder Ventures, Infinity Ventures, and Industry Ventures. Sensible Weather is partnered with over 3,500 businesses and has received $22 million dollars in investments. Since it began offering Weather Guarantees in 2021, they have sold over 55,000 guarantees. That’s the tee! ☕⛳🏌️

Check out our previous coverage of Sensible Weather here.

🎉 Don’t forget about our referral contest this month! 🎉

Competition Status: 🔥 It’s heating up! Number of referrals to beat is 8 with less than a week remaining.

Gif by trt_network on Giphy

The contest is simple: whoever refers the most friends to dot.LA using our referral program by October 31st will get a coffee and conversation with Zillow, Pacaso, and dot.LA co-founder Spencer Rascoff, where you can pitch him, get business advice, or just shoot the breeze. This is a great opportunity for any current or future entrepreneur, so good luck referring! ☕️☕️☕️

P.S. If you’re not based in LA, you can hop on a Zoom instead 💻

🤝 Venture Deals

LA Startups

• Greater Good, a provider of primary care for seniors, raised a $20M Series A led by Flare Capital Partners, and joined by LRVHealth, Health Velocity Capital, Martin Ventures and Optum Ventures. - learn more
• LegalMation, a developer of generative AI solutions for high-volume litigation, raised a $15M Series A led by Aquiline Capital Partners and joined by insiders Motley Fool Ventures, REV Venture Partners, Key Venture Partners, Quick Set and Brentwood Investments. - learn more

LA Funds

• Sony Innovation Fund participated in a $12M Series A for Noodle Cat Games, a Salt Lake City-based game development studio. -learn more
• Griffin Gaming Partners participated in a $20M Series A for Neon Machine, a Seattle-based developer of first-person shooter games. -learn more
• Fika Ventures participated in a $14M Series A for Siro, a sales intelligence tool meant to help sales managers more actively and efficiently coach their sales reps. -learn more

Built for founders, by founders: Rho, the consolidated finance automation platform designed to help you scale.

Founders, we know how much you are handling at once. Operating multiple platforms for each facet of your finances should not be getting in the way of running your business.

Leave managing your finances to Rho, so that you can focus on growing your business. Whether you have just raised your first round of funding and need help managing your funds, or you are a start-up looking to diversify your capital, Rho is the only finance automation platform that lets organizations manage all spend and cash in a single system.

Rho is your trusted and reliable financial support that can help you diversify and manage your cash efficiently. Manage all your cash and spending in one system:

• Cash Management: Enterprise-grade banking where you can streamline your finances and manage multiple entities from one platform. With Rho’s sophisticated treasury management, put your idle cash to work and keep your cash secure with FDIC-insurance up to $75 million.
• Spend Management: Control spend before it happens with Rho corporate cards. Streamline post send reporting by digitizing your expense policy and eliminating expense reports. Pay all your vendors in one workflow.
• Accounting Automation: Reduce time-to-close and reconcile seamlessly. Integrate directly with your ERP.

“Rho has made it their mission to help companies like ours. By giving us the ability to loop corporate cards and expense management into one place…we’ve been able to close our book smooch faster each month and automate our spend from end to end.” - Dr. Squatch.

Join other startups like Dr. Squatch, Sundae, Canvas, and Runway that are making finance frictionless with Rho.

✨Featured Event (11/9)✨

RECURRING REVENUE CONFERENCE on November 9th in Culver City

Southern California's premier SaaS and Subscription conference, this one-day event draws 600+ top founders, executives, investors, and Cloud experts. Experience a dynamic program with 20+ sessions, including leading industry speakers, fireside chats, breakout sessions, and roundtable discussions. This year's insights span AI, metrics that matter, scaling strategies, making a pivot, the changing role of the CFO, what investors are looking for, and more. Keynotes include ChowNow and HackerOne CEOs. Attendees will enjoy plenty of networking time during breakfast, lunch, coffee cart breaks, and cocktails on the patio. Join us on November 9th at the Culver City Hilton to learn from industry leaders.

Learn more and register using DOTLA229 for a discounted ticket rate of $229 (regularly $399): bit.ly/3EitWB5

Early-stage founders get a discounted ticket rate ($59). Apply here today!

📅 LA Tech Calendar

Saturday, October 28th

• Mental Health Innovators Social- Saturday afternoon in Venice join a diverse community of founders, investors, researchers, clinicians and creators who are building the future of mental health.

Sunday, October 29th

• Hack Sunday: Machine Learning Together- Join a weekly hack day where builders connect to learn, collaborate, and stay connected while creating.

Wednesday, November 1st

• Community Conversation about AI - Join AIandyou in the South Bay for the country’s first public conversation about AI and how it impacts everyday life, in coordination with the City of Torrance. Congressman Ted Lieu will be a special guest at the event.
• AI Revealed: Demos & Drinks - Join Startup Coil and The KINN Wednesday night in Venice for some casual networking and fun AI demos.
• Rooftop Startup, Business & Tech Networking LA - Join founders, investors, tech explorers and others Wednesday night in Venice for networking and startup pitches at a rooftop bar.

Thursday, November 2nd

• Los Angeles Tech Networking Event - Join other tech enthusiasts in Playa Vista onThursday night for a laid-back networking event that's all about fostering connections.

📙 What We’re Reading

• Celebrity-backed baby brand Hello Bello files for bankruptcy. - read more
• Fisker cuts price of its Ocean Extreme EV by more than 10%. - read more
• Activision Blizzard’s long-serving CEO will step down following the Microsoft acquisition. - read more
• NBCUniversal ad and studio revenues tumble, Peacock reaches 28M Subscribers. - read more
• Snap beats Wall Street expectations as revenues and users rise. - read more