Alex Kehr is making an anti-NextDoor, the community site where neighbors moderate each other and swap information from missing pets to petty crimes.
Nextdoor, Kehr argues, is far too "negative" — it's often filled with posts about suspicious dog-walkers and stolen packages. Some critique the platform as a breeding ground for misinformation and fights over local politics.
"Citizen and Nextdoor are so crime and safety-focused that they don't really make you love where you live," says Kehr, the company's founder and CEO. "They make you fear where you live."
In September, Kehr released a beta version of Superlocal for some 3,600 Los Angeles residents. The social app is set up as a cross between Instagram and a sanitized Nextdoor. Members can direct message each other, read articles on the home feed and share their own content on the "neighbors feed." Members can also opt-in for a daily newsletter or, as Kehr puts it, "The Skimm, but for local news."
By December, he says, 60% of beta users were active users. Last week, he launched the platform in 14,000 cities and over 187,000 neighborhoods across the U.S.
Curating Local News
Using RSS feeds, the platform compiles trending stories from free publications in each user's city. In L.A., you'll see articles from outlets like LA Eater, LA Magazine and LAist. Think feel-good headlines like "Local Teen Catching Big Waves at Maverick Beach" and photo essays from Valentine's Day. There's also coverage on the pandemic and California's vaccination rollout.
The app links out to each article directly — Kehr's way of contributing to ad revenue — and publications with paywalls don't show on the app. Eventually, Kehr wants to create partnerships with outlets to create content exclusive to Superlocal.
But ultimately what Kehr wants to do is take out derisive debates, the politics and the crime — the very conversations that drive much of social media.
"The problem is that people want crime information," said Karen North, a professor of digital and social media at USC Annenberg. "People want to know if there's a danger of a power outage or a planned protest. They want to plan their lives and know what to expect."
Local news, she said, includes both "the good and the bad."
Kehr admits he can't completely filter out talk about crime and safety content completely. He's not trying to censor users. But, he says, he's built in functions that are meant to guide Superlocal members "in the right direction."
The strategy is akin to what TikTok announced last week to stem misinformation by flagging videos with unsubstantiated content. Users who try sharing those posts will see a prompt reminding them the video is flagged.
Superlocal users who draft posts about crime will see a similar warning note. "Please be very thoughtful about what you post to safety," the alert reads. The app also asks users to list their full names. And to avoid bullying, each user can see who checks out their profile, a feature LinkedIn offers for premium subscribers.
"It potentially replicates walking down the street and making eye contact with people," Kehr says. "Maybe that's a subtle reminder that these are your neighbors, you might actually see them in real life."
'There's Got to Be Other Ways'
The 31 year old has been building a slew of community-focused apps since high school. As a sophomore, he created a website dedicated to posts about missing relatives after Hurricane Katrina. FindKatrina was featured in WIRED and the New York Times.
Then came an app to design and trade WhatsApp stickers. It hit #1 in Brazil's app store in 2019 and, before retention rates dropped, Kehr was raking in $125,000 every month from subscriptions. The app eventually morphed into Pop, a group messaging platform that, to Kehr's surprise, took off among freshmen at UCLA and Syracuse looking for weekend parties. But when demand for group chats dropped at the onset of COVID, Kehr pivoted.
The Santa Monica startup last March raised $1.5 million from a handful of investors that Kehr won't disclose. But, he names General Catalyst, Slow Ventures, M13 and Science Inc., where he is a founder in residence, as backers on his LinkedIn profile. He's planning to go out for another round next month.
"I think NextDoor is dominant, but it's not the clear winner," Kehr says. "They've proven the market, but they're kind of slow moving. They've never had competition. I thought it was a good target."
Founded in 2011, NextDoor has raised over $210 million in funding. The platform is live in 11 countries and 270,000 neighborhoods globally though the company did not respond to an inquiry about its monthly active users.
Kehr points to Pinterest — with a market value of $52 billion and climbing revenue — as one social platform that continues to attract users and make money while being "a pretty positive place."
"You don't really see people yelling at each other about politics," Kehr says. "It's not the same behavior as on Facebook and Twitter. I know controversy is good for retention, but I feel like there's got to be other ways."
Under his bed, Kehr is storing a stack of paper door tags that advertise the app. Next weekend, he'll walk door-to-door in his Venice neighborhood to let people know Superlocal is now live. It's a marketing trick he got from Nextdoor.
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At a time when the clinical health care workforce is suffering from burnout and attrition in the wake of the pandemic, Regard’s technology looks to alleviate some of the pressure on health care workers. The startup’s AI-enabled software is integrated directly into a provider’s system and uses an algorithm to analyze patients’ medical records, allowing physicians to more easily diagnose them.
Since launching its flagship product in 2020, Regard’s technology has been used on more than 30,000 patients, according to the company. The startup charges health care providers around $500 to $700 per month for access, co-founder and CEO Eli Ben-Joseph told dot.LA, with its customers including Torrance Memorial Medical Center, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and roughly a dozen other hospitals across the U.S.
“We’re building something that’s a game-changer for doctors,” Ben-Joseph said. “It’s helping them catch medical conditions that they would have missed. So regardless of market conditions, we’re able to have value and I think investors saw that and got excited.”
Co-founders from left to right: CEO Eli Ben-Joseph, CTO Thomas Moulia, and COO Nate Wilson. Courtesy of Regard
Founded by pre-med students Ben-Joseph, Nate Wilson and Thomas Moulia in 2017, Regard got its start through Cedars Sinai’s Techstars-backed accelerator program. It was at the accelerator program that Ben-Joseph observed physicians’ workflows and saw the need for a product like Regard’s; he recalled noticing how doctors would constantly pop in and out of a patient’s room, shuttling between the patient and a computer where they could enter data and notes.
“I think that’s why so many doctors are burning out now, as they just don’t have software that really enables them,” Joseph said.
Ben-Joseph—who coupled a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering from MIT with a master’s in computer science from Stanford—noted that Regard’s technology can automatically detect up to 50 of the most common medical conditions, including heart failure, diabetes, obesity, depression and anxiety.
“We have a 90% accuracy rate at the minimum,” he said. “Physicians will look at our software and accept it, but it’s not perfect. We tell physicians to treat it like the relationship [with a] medical student.”
This year’s focus will be different from the typical accelerator: Startups in this group will test their products directly with companies active in the ocean economy for four months, collecting data on what works, what doesn’t and further developing proof of concept. Braid Theory will help these startups come up with their business plan and pitches, and connect them to investors and potential partners in the field. In return, it takes an equity warrant that can be converted after three years.
The startups joining Braid Theory typically span industries like port logistics, aquaculture and energy, all of them aiming to test their technologies and untapped opportunities of the burgeoning industry. The accelerator’s goal is to bring those companies from pre-revenue into commercialization.
And all of them are looking to solve challenges within the blue economy ecosystem, many of which have also been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. With 31% of all goods floating across the ocean to and from the U.S. pass through the Port of L.A. and the Port of Long Beach, COVID-19 strangled supply chains and increased the volume of goods handled at L.A. 's premiere dock by nearly 16% between 2020 and 2021. This created numerous logistical challenges for the dwindling workforce at the nation’s busiest ports while increasing emissions.
“The thing that we're trying to think about are ways in which we can leverage biological systems and software to make more immediate changes in markets that have a low barrier to entry,” Braid Theory co-founder Jim Cooper said of accelerator’s approach to addressing a wide range of climate and logistical issues.
Cooper founded Braid Theory with his colleague Ann Carpenter after the pair left PortTechLA, a maritime and logistics incubator that shuttered in 2016. The two wanted to create an accelerator for port and ocean startups that went beyond logistics and took into account other promising sectors of the ocean economy, including sustainable fish and plant cultivation as well as tools to make the shipping sector more efficient.
Jim Cooper co-founded Braid Theory with his former colleague from PortTechLA, Ann Carpenter.Image courtesy of Braid Theory
Accelerators like Braid Theory are attempting to fill a void in the blue economy ecosystem. Despite being home to several universities with robust maritime research centers and a giant port infrastructure that could be better optimized, few startups survive in Los Angeles due to a lack of early stage funding, according to a 2020 report from the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation. The accelerator provides funds and lab space and investor connections to nascent startups tackling a wide range of ocean-related problems.
The same report found that ocean startups, particularly early-stage ones, have a difficult time getting funding to accommodate the need for expensive lab equipment like centrifuges, chillers and pipettes. Startups in the blue economy space are primarily funded through federal and state dollars, NGOs and philanthropies, and competitions. But while angel funding has historically been slow to trickle into blue economy startups, some are starting to take note of the size of the market. In the first cohort, eight out of 12 startups received federal funding and investor funding with the help of Braid Theory.
The accelerator’s first graduating class included Florida-based Tampa DeepSea Xplorers, which makes seafaring autonomous vehicles that can scrape the bottom of the ocean and collect data faster for researchers to use as they study climate change impact or source for different medicines. Irvine-based ReCreate Energy is another graduate, which sources algae to create a more sustainable bio-crude oil that can be used at gas and oil refineries. While FlashQ, a Canada-based AI platform, is trying to reduce truck congestion and the emissions caused by them at the port by creating a scheduling platform that optimizes waiting and shipment times.
“The key is the opportunity, the opportunity was there,” Mimi Carter, a biotech investor with the Pasadena Angels, said of the business opportunities in the ocean market. “We saw a market that was unaddressed and is still an emerging market.”
A cluster of cranes at the Port of Long Beach.Photo by DJANA 575/ Shutterstock
To Carter’s credit, L.A. County boasts 75 miles of coastline that the LAEDC expects by 2023 will produce more than $80 billion in regional output, make roughly $50 billion in gross county product, and create over 200,000 direct and indirect jobs, according to a 2020 report. And, according to the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation, economic and job growth in this sector relies heavily on the creation and implementation of new technologies, making angel investors necessary players in bolstering the ocean economy.
“Not only do we want to be investing in a sustainable product, but someone we count as a first mover,” Carter said of her investment approach. Already, groups like the Pasadena Angels and Techstars L.A. have made investments in the space. Reece Pacheco, a blue economy angel investor, is quietly working on a new venture fund around the blue tech space that hasn’t been announced yet.
“What we're starting to see is there are entrepreneurs who are either coming up through these research firms, or there are entrepreneurs who have cut their teeth elsewhere but care about the ocean,” Pacheco said.
There’s also Braid Theory’s neighbor (and landlord), AltaSea, the nonprofit research hub that has facilitated a number of partnerships with companies across the world.
“We do want to become the leading destination for the blue economy in terms of technology, finance, the education pathways it takes for students to get into these jobs in the future, and then the actual workforce development for the jobs of the future,” said Terry Tamminen, the new CEO of AltaSea.
Braid Theory’s makeshift shipping container-turned-lab is next door to a slew of other startups and projects in the blue economy space. USC researchers are incubating bubbling cauldrons of kelp that could create biofuels and alternative food sources. While Oceanographer Robert Ballard, who found the Titanic wreckage in 1985, set up a sea exploration program a few doors down.
“The ocean is more than a destination for tourists and a place for Jacques Cousteau and David Attenborough to go diving,” Tamminen said. “It's actually something right at our doorstep that we need to protect for our own survival, but it’s also an economic opportunity.”
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