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XTechstars LA Class of 2020; What It's Like to Run an Accelerator During a Pandemic
Ben Bergman is the newsroom's senior finance reporter. Previously he was a senior business reporter and host at KPCC, a senior producer at Gimlet Media, a producer at NPR's Morning Edition, and produced two investigative documentaries for KCET. He has been a frequent on-air contributor to business coverage on NPR and Marketplace and has written for The New York Times and Columbia Journalism Review. Ben was a 2017-2018 Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economic and Business Journalism at Columbia Business School. In his free time, he enjoys skiing, playing poker, and cheering on The Seattle Seahawks.

When the founders who lead the ten young startups selected for the 2020 Techstars LA class begin their three month accelerator program Monday, they won't be gathering in the Mid-Wilshire office and shaking hands as every other class has done. Like the rest of us, they will be working at home because of the coronavirus. Dinners, meetings, socializing, and mentoring sessions will all be online.
"A big part of the magic of the program is the relationships that are from proximity and from everyone working together in the same space and so what we're doing is we're endeavoring to create as much as that connection in the virtual world as possible," said Anna Barber, managing director of Techstars LA.
Barber is a big fan of Post-it notes and remembers several occasions where she's helped a founder arrive at an epiphany during a whiteboard session. That will not be possible this time around, but Barber wanted to try to replicate the experience as much as possible, so last week she and program manager Alex Karevoll rented a U-Haul truck and delivered whiteboards, Post-its, markers, and snacks to the new class, crisscrossing the city from Santa Monica to Encino and East L.A.
"We wanted to bring the Techstars experience to people at home," said Barber. "It was cool to see the different parts of L.A. that people are coming from."
Coronavirus means many elements of Techstars will be different this year, though the basics remain the same; Ten startups will receive three months of intensive mentoring and then present at a Demo Day in October (which Barber still hopes will be in-person). Techstars invests $120,000 for a 6% cut of equity.
Techstars LA companies have gone on to raise an average of more than $2 million of outside capital after the program. Standouts from the previous three classes include Slingshot Aerospace, Blue Fever, Stackin, Fernish, Liquid,Dash Systems and Finli.
The health and wellness category is dominant in this year's class with teams tackling teletherapy for intersectional communities, cancer care coordination, breast milk testing to optimize infant nutrition, and remote evaluation of ADHD and learning differences. Media and e-commerce companies include an esports analytics platform, a podcasting services provider, a platform for college creatives to connect with brands, and a fashion and beauty marketplace for Latinx consumers.
Nine companies include women, Black or Latinx founders, with six in the CEO seat and there are six mixed gender founding teams. Barber says diversity has always been important for Techstars LA, both because it is vital for building the kind of inclusive ecosystem she wants in L.A. and also it is simply good business.
"I've always been a believer in the idea that diversity produces better investing outcomes," said Barber.
Barber usually narrows down the ten selections from hundreds of applicants with lots of face-to-face meetings to get a feel for founders, but this time she has met almost none of them.
"It was a challenge for me," said Barber. "I am a founder-focused investor and so much of that is about getting to know people and build a strong personal relationship with them and also understanding who they are and what motivates them and I feel like it's very hard to make those connections over video."
Despite the limitations of running a remote accelerator, Barber is trying to find the silver linings, such as being able to get speakers and mentors who would not ordinarily have the time to fly to L.A. She is also using Sococo, an online platform that simulates a virtual office.
"If you want to talk to someone, you can just enter the room in the virtual office that they are in and talk to them," Barber said. "It takes longer to build connections in a remote setting, but we can still do it," she said.
All but one of the startups in this year's class is headquartered in Los Angeles. Some like, Thrive Education, the remote provider of ADHD and learning differences, only recently relocated from the Bay Area.
"We think it's important for us to be based in LA," said Jack Rolo, Co-Founder & CEO of Thrive Education. "A lot of startups, if they have the choice, are wanting to locate outside of the Bay Area. L.A. is expensive but it's still cheaper than living in the Bay Area. It will help us have a longer runway."
Rolo is hoping to come out of Techstars in a position to raise a seed round in October. "Our product works but it's not polished just yet," he said. "We want it to be perfect."
CLLCTVE, which is the platform for college creatives to connect with brands, is relocating from Syracuse this week.
"We're very excited for L.A.," said Kelsey Davis, founder and CEO of CLLCTVE. "When you think of diversity and creativity, L.A. is a representation nationally of that space."
Davis says Techstars LA was the only accelerator she seriously considered. "For us it just felt so right," said Davis.
Davis, 23, who is Black, wore a sweatshirt during an interview with dot.LA conducted via Zoom with the phrase "Black tech. Green money" emblazoned across the front. She says she is pleased to see the tech world finally having long overdue conversations about race and she says she won't squander the opportunity. Her goal is nothing short of building a LinkedIN for Generation Z.
"Now that we're here we have to roll up our sleeves and do the hard work together," said Davis. "If I'm given half of what everyone else is given, I'm going to take it twice as far."
Get to Know Techstars' 2020 Class
Pod People
Pod People is a full-service podcast production and staffing agency with a network of over 700 audio professionals across the globe.
JoyHub
JoyHub 's enterprise software integrates multifamily operator systems into a single, centralized data platform.
Ayana Therapy
Ayana Therapy provides online therapy for minorities with an emphasis on intersectionality.
CLLCTVE
CLLCTVE is a platform connecting college creatives with brands targeting Gen-Z consumers.
Lactation Lab
Lactation Lab provides breast milk analysis and personalized recommendations for mothers to optimize their child's health and nutrition.
Preveta
Preveta is transforming cancer care by arming clinicians with data and insights to improve outcomes, and blazing a trail for providers to deliver value-based care.
Shop Latinx
Shop LatinX is the leading fashion and beauty lifestyle brand with products designed by and for the Latinx community.
Sike Insights
Sike Insights powers remote teams to work better together. Our first product, Kona, is an AI-powered Slackbot that helps you communicate.
StatsHelix
StatsHelix is a B2B gametech company focused on esports and streaming.
Thrive Education
Thrive Education provides remote tele-assessments for learning differences (LDs) such as dyslexia, ADHD, and autism.
Meet the Techstars L.A. Class of 2020!www.youtube.com
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- Watch Techstars LA's 2020 Class Demo Day - dot.LA ›
- Watch Techstars LA's 2020 Class Demo Day - dot.LA ›
- Like Etsy, But for Latinos. Shop Latinx Makes a Debut - dot.LA ›
Ben Bergman is the newsroom's senior finance reporter. Previously he was a senior business reporter and host at KPCC, a senior producer at Gimlet Media, a producer at NPR's Morning Edition, and produced two investigative documentaries for KCET. He has been a frequent on-air contributor to business coverage on NPR and Marketplace and has written for The New York Times and Columbia Journalism Review. Ben was a 2017-2018 Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economic and Business Journalism at Columbia Business School. In his free time, he enjoys skiing, playing poker, and cheering on The Seattle Seahawks.
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Users With Disabilities Can Rent an E-Scooter in Long Beach for Free
Bird is launching its disability-accessible e-scooter and wheelchair program in Long Beach.
Starting this week, users with disabilities can pull up the app, choose one of four electric vehicles adapted to their needs and get it delivered to their hotel or home—all for free. The service is fully subsidized for the day.
The announcement was part of the electric vehicle-focused 2022 Electrify Expo taking place at the Long Beach Convention Center Friday.
“Bird wants to give back,” said Brian Buccella, VP of public policy at the Santa Monica-based startup.
Buccella spoke with Long Beach Community Outreach Specialist Tony Cruz about the partnership between the city and Bird.
Cruz is a former U.S. Olympian and pro cyclist. In 2009, he became the city’s “bike ambassador,” championing new cycling infrastructure and active transportation. Now, he works with everything from e-scooters to micro-transit.
“And now the running joke at City Hall is ‘Anything with wheels on it, just give it to Tony. He’ll figure it out.’”
Cruz described the city’s adoption of e-scooters as a “baptism by fire.” According to him, one of the biggest issues the city has faced is e-scooters blocking accessibility features like curb ramps.
“Our staff does an annual presentation to our commission for disabilities. And this has been the number one pain point for them: ‘We have sight impaired [people], [we] have disabled [people]. How are you going to fix this for us?’,” he said.
Bird is rolling out the adaptive vehicle program in partnership with Scootaround, a mobility scooter and wheelchair rental company based in San Diego. The program started as a pilot in the Bronx. Currently San Diego and San Francisco also offer the program in California. Long Beach will be the first municipality in L.A. County to take part.
Bird is launching its disability-accessible e-scooter and wheelchair program in Long Beach.Image courtesy of Bird
Long Beach launched its micromobility pilot in the Fall of 2018. Almost two years into its permanent shared permit program, the city has four operators: Bird, Lime, Veo and Razor. Unlike the city of L.A., Long Beach has a closed market for companies operating within its borders. The vehicle cap is currently 600 for e-bikes and 1,000 for e-scooters. Operators pay a permit fee of $25,000 per year and $100 per vehicle.
In an effort to clean up city sidewalks, Cruz said Long Beach is also rolling out a “forced parking” program, requiring riders to park at pinned locations in e-scooter and e-bike apps.
Long Beach’s approach follows a national trend of micromobility companies and municipalities partnering to implement new technology and protocol to address cities’ pain points. Last month, Bird and Lime trumpeted their new parking technology that uses Google Street View to verify and enforce correct parking.
With location data accurate “within 10 centimeters,” according to Buccella, companies should be able to do more, including curbing sidewalk riding and maintaining geofencing around restricted areas. (Critics have contended in the past that the amount of data collected by cities and companies, crucial to these programs, could pose a threat to riders’ privacy.)
As Long Beach continues to expand its mobility offerings, Cruz said he wants companies to succeed while also addressing concerns about safety and accessibility.
“Their success is the city's success as well. We're not here to over-regulate, we're here to work together.”
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Disney Raids Apple To Bolster Its Metaverse Strategy
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
Disney has poached a top gaming executive from Apple to oversee the media giant’s foray into the metaverse.
The Burbank-based company has hired Mark Bozon to be its vice president of Next Generation Storytelling creative experiences, Variety first reported on Friday. In that role, Bozon will play a key part in crafting Disney’s strategy for the metaverse—the loosely-defined term for immersive, virtual reality-aided online experiences.
Mark Bozon, VP of Next Generation Storytelling creative experiences.
Courtesy of The Walt Disney Company
Bozon arrives as Disney has looked to beef up its metaverse team in recent months. In February, the company promoted Mike White to senior vice president of Next Generation Storytelling & Consumer Experiences group—a cross-divisional initiative encompassing its wider metaverse ambitions. It has also looked to boost its operations around NFTs, the digital assets verified by blockchain technology that could play a big role in the metaverse.
Bozon spent 12 years at Apple, most recently serving as games creative director at the tech giant’s Apple Arcade video game service, according to his LinkedIn profile. He will report to White at Disney, where he will be responsible for leading the Next Generation Storytelling group’s creative vision and building a team focused on “interconnected consumer experiences across immersive new storytelling canvases,” a Disney spokesperson told dot.LA.
That echoes what Disney CEO Bob Chapek told CNBC in February, when he described the metaverse as “a third dimension of the canvas that we let our creative people paint.” Chapek noted that the company could parlay the digital realm across its wide array of assets, from film and media to theme parks and resorts. Thus far, Disney’s moves include bringing augmented reality to its theme parks and selling digital artwork using its vast trove of intellectual property.
“If the metaverse is the blending of the physical and the digital in one environment, who can do it better than Disney?” Chapek said.
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
You Can Watch TikTok’s New Live Comedy Series For $5
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
TikTok is entering the world of streaming with a new subscription comedy series.
Creator Jericho Mencke, who has nearly 2 million followers on TikTok, will host the series exclusively on the Culver City-based video-sharing app’s live platform, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “Finding Jericho” will consist of eight 30-minute episodes featuring comedic interviews with celebrities and other creators. Content creator collaboration platform Pearpop is producing the series, which will stream on both Mencke and Pearpop’s TikTok accounts.
The series will feature comedy sketches and interviews with TikTok creators like Griffin Johnson, Sloane Veronico and Wasil Daoud in the style of “Nathan For You” and “The Eric Andre Show,” TechCrunch reported. The first episode premiered on Thursday evening, with the remaining episodes airing live on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9 p.m. PT. While the first two episodes are free, users will have to pay $4.99 to access the rest of the series.
First launched in 2020, Los Angeles-based Pearpop boasts celebrity investors including Snoop Dogg and Kevin Hart. The platform was intended to help influencers monetize their content by collaborating with other creators through videos, comments and audio clips.
“Finding Jericho” comes as TikTok has increasingly embraced subscription models to monetize its platform. Last month, the company began beta-testing LIVE Subscriptions, which allows users to directly subscribe to content from their favorite creators.
Other social media companies have also experimented with long-form content, though results have been mixed. In February, Meta shuttered IGTV—Instagram’s stab at original shows—to focus on Reels, its short-form TikTok competitor. YouTube Originals, which was available through that platform’s subscription service YouTube Red, was phased out in January. Snapchat, meanwhile, continues to invest in its original content—having pilfered TikTok stars like Addison Rae and the D’Amelio sisters for its shows.- Instagram Is Combatting Reposted TikTok Clips With a New ... ›
- YouTube, TikTok Amp Up Creator Monetization Race - dot.LA ›
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.