summit graphic dot.la
Join on us on our preview night, which begins with a VIP cocktail reception, three fireside chats and a pitch competition. First, we have 2021’s “Entrepreneur of the Year” Alex Israel of Metropolis Technologies, who will be doing exclusive one-on-one interviews with Arena Club co-founder Brian Lee, followed by two-time Dodgers All-Star Shawn Green.
After that, dot.LA co-founder Spencer Rascoff will host a discussion with Julia Boorstin about her new book, "When Women Lead."
Finally, we wrap up the evening with our annual Pitch Competition, hosted by Fenwick. The winner will be announced the next day, during the main event!
Get ready for a big day by exploring the Bond Exhibit at the Petersen Museum while enjoying a quick breakfast, then head on over to the main stage, where dot.LA co-founder and CEO Sam Adams will be joined by sweetgreen founder Jonathan Neman to discuss L.A.'s historically unique relationship to health food and salads... and what Angelenos eating habits can tell us about the future of sustainable eating.
Also on the main stage will be our Web3 panel on virtual avatars, hosted by reporter Samson Amore. Panelists include Tricia Biggio from Invisible Universe, Asid Malik from Jadu, and MELON CEO Josh Neuman. The panel will provide a chance for startups working on avatars to explain how we could navigate the web and interact with each other using our digital proxies.
Following that, Sam Adams will host another restauranteur and Los Angeles staple, Alex Canter from Canter's Deli and Nextbite, followed by a panel on tackling the housing crisis in Los Angeles hosted by dot.LA reporter Decerry Donato. This panel will discuss tech’s impact on developments in the industry, including how tech can be used to address affordable housing, homelessness and innovation in a rapidly changing market and be hosted by Crate Modular's Jaren Grady; Deputy Mayor of Budget and Innovation of the City of Los Angeles Jeanne Holm and Ross Maguire of Azure Printed Homes.
Wrapping up the morning we have three breakout rooms, which include a workshop on Scaling Your Leadership, hosted by Evolution and moderated by Evolution Managing Director and Co-founder Matt Auron, featuring panelists Janine Davis, Carolyn Jones, and Erik Kellener. Following that, Pacific Western Bank will host a breakout session called Funding Growth Beyond The Term Sheet. Attendees can also sit in on a panel on Creators, Curators, and Community Builders, hosted by dot.LA writer Lon Harris and featuring guests Jon Bodenheimmer from Spotter, Evan Britton from Famous Birthdays, Jamie Gutfreund of Whaler and Rosie Nguyen of Fanhouse. The panel will focus on the creator economy and how Big Tech money has changed the way influencers monetize their brands.
After a two-hour lunch, we'll return with three more breakout rooms. First up is Charging Up Clean Mobility, hosted by dot.LA writer David Shultz and featuring Paul Gioupis from Zeem Solutions, Ramy El-Bartrawi from EV Mobility and Scott Painter from Autonomy. Following that we have Revolutionizing Online Marketplaces moderated by Grace Kangdani from Bank of America and sponsored by Zoolatech, featuring panelists Roman Kaplun from Zoolatech and Dan Dan Li from Popshop Live. And finally we have Equity in the L.A. Ecosystem, featuring Kojuan “Ko” Trinidad-Williams of L.A. Tech and featuring panelists including Stuart McCalla from Evolution, Marcos Gonzalez from Vamos Ventures, Derek Smith from Plug In South LA and Aisling Carlson from Diversity VC.
At 3 p.m., join Spencer Rascoff as we close out our conversation portion of the day in talks with Dana Settle, managing partner at Greycroft, for Founders & Funders: The Artistry Between Transformative Entrepreneurs and Key Investors. The two will discuss the unique relationship between founder and anchor VC in the world of high-growth startups.
Our last main stage panel will be Health in the Post-Roe Era, moderated by Kathryne Cooper of Jumpstart Nova. This panel seeks to address the discrepancy in intent and action from investors in the tech, and financial sides of reproductive health care, while also sharing developments in health tech for those living in the Post-Roe-Era. Panelists include Crystal Adesanya from Kiira Health, Kiki Freeman of HeyJane, Cindy Adam of Choix, and Dr. Jessica Nouhavandi, co-CEO, co-founder and lead pharmacist of Honeybee Health.
Following that, dot.LA will be presenting its annual Startup Awards, and announcing the winner's of the previous night's Pitch Competition. Enjoy appetizers and cocktails as we close down the evening with a mixer hosted by dot.LA, and chat with our editors and journalists about the future of LA Tech.
Register today for dot.LA's Summit 2022, we can't wait to see you there!
dot.LA Summit 2022 would like to thank its official sponsors, including: Bank of America, Fenwick, Metropolis, Zoolatech, Pacific West, Evolution, TriNet, RSM, Satellite Teams, Coda Search, iWallet, CoMotion, ELIQS, Popl, Curbivore, Not Flat Photos and WeWork.
The event kicked off with a conversation with JoyHub co-founder and CEO Elizabeth Braman, who announced the data aggregation and business intelligence platform will soon change its name to Revolution RE. Prior to starting JoyHub, Braman spent time at crowdfunding real estate platform Realty Mogul as senior managing director.
Braman said the inspiration for creating JoyHub came from the problems she saw in the real estate industry around the lack of data consistency and the overwhelming amount of data that real estate operators of apartments and rental properties have to make sense of. She saw a need for a tool that could simplify the data for real estate companies so they could use it effectively.
“I learned that legacy technology created a lot of problems," she said. "Proptech and all these new innovative solutions were compounding the problem by creating massive amounts of data silos.”
dot.LA CEO Sam Adams and JoyHub co-founder and CEO Elizabeth Braman at dot.LA's Proptech Salon on May 10, 2022.Photo by Briland Graves
With any new venture or startup, there’s always a risk of it failing, she said:
“Anyone who tells you that starting a company during a pandemic is easy is not being truthful,” she said, adding that she was lucky that she was able to work with a team she already knew well from her first startup experience.
For much of the rest of the startup community, times are looking more challenging than they were not long ago.
“The high-gross C, D unicorn-type companies are having a very challenging time raising up rounds," dot LA Executive Chairman Spencer Rascoff said. "And A and B—not so great.”
Rascoff offered some advice to young companies hoping to weather the storm.
“Realistically, you should try to tighten your belt as much as possible to extend the runway as long as possible so that if you can't get a round done this year, you prioritize survival over growth," he said. "Because there'll be time for growth later.”
Another hot topic in proptech was virtual real estate. The concept of the metaverse has grown in popularity as new virtual environments go online. Celebrities like Snoop Dogg already own land in some of these new worlds. In December, one of his fans purchased a plot of land for $450,000 just to be the rapper-entrepreneur's virtual neighbor.
dot.LA CEO Sam Adams and Chairman Spencer Rascoff at dot.LA's Proptech Salon on May 10, 2022.Photo by Briland Graves
As an investor, Rascoff said he’s skeptical about buying land in the metaverse.
“The big reason why I'm overall skeptical of this is for some of these things, you need counties to play ball,” Rascoff said. “But it's fun and interesting to talk about how title might be disruptive through blockchain.”
The night was capped with a question from dot LA CEO Sam Adams:
“If given a million dollars to invest, where would that money go?”
Braman said she would have to diversify and choose cannabis along with venture funds.
Rascoff admitted his answer was less exciting, but said he'd would use the money to buy a “basket of growth tech stocks that are at two-to-five-year lows.”
Correction: An earlier version of this post misspelled StayOpen co-founder Andrew Swerdloff's last name.
