Molly Wright
This is the first installment of Moves—a weekly feature highlighting job and career changes around the Los Angeles and Southern California tech ecosystem.
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Anne Devine and Rose Rogers have joined electric vehicle battery manufacturer Romeo Power as chief operating officer and chief people officer, respectively. Devine arrives from auto parts maker UGN, while Rogers previously worked at aerospace components manufacturer Ducommun.
Rob Leff has joined content technology platform Nativo as chief financial officer. Leff previously held the same role at media measurement startup VideoAmp.
Alex Morrison has joined Pearpop, which helps creators collaborate with social media platforms, as chief marketing officer. Morrison joins the startup from advertising agency Grey West, where he served as global partner and president.
Soo Hong has joined fintech startup Sunbit as chief people officer. Hong previously led people and talent operations at National Veterinary Associates, WeWork and Tinder.
Evelyn Krasnow has joined furniture rental startup Fernish as its new chief marketing officer; she has previously held positions at Bird, Seedling and Berkin. The company has also hired Jorge Montoya as vice president of operations; John Praino as the vice president of partnerships; Sydni Gethner as head of sales; and Tessa Peshke as head of multifamily.
Evan Fitzpatrick and Rajiv Makhijani have been appointed to new roles at audit, risk and compliance platform AuditBoard. Fitzpatrick joins as senior vice president of AuditBoard’s CrossComply product from Bain Capital, while Makhijani was promoted from within and will serve as AuditBoard’s senior vice president of emerging products.
Marketing firm Gimbal | true[X] has appointed Lauri Baker as its senior vice president of partnership strategy. Baker joins from Pause Commercials, where she served as partner and chief operating officer.
Marina del Rey-based venture capital firm Fifth Wall has hired Virginia Drennen, Clay McFarlane and Gaby Yo to vice president positions in value creation, real estate technology and the investment team, respectively. Fifth Wall has also hired Sarah Liu as partner of real estate technology, Cedric Char as senior associate of climate technology, and Mike Foell as the senior finance manager. Oliver Harrison will serve as the company’s new senior associate of Europe, MIchael New will serve as the principle of capital formation and G.M. Nicholas Vik will become a partner and head of strategy.
Stefanie Schwartz has joined creator-focused video distributor Jellysmack as global head of platform partnerships. Schwartz was most recently executive vice president and general manager of Viacom Digital Studios.
Jeff Holland has joined electric vehicle manufacturer VinFast as director of communications. He previously served as director of global communications for Karma Automotive.
Ryan Pollreisz has joined video game developer Imagendary Studios as studio manager. He arrives from Sony Pictures Imageworks, where he served as vice president of artist management.
Ready, Set, Food!, a startup that helps prevent children from developing food allergies, has hired Laura Michelson as senior director of brand marketing and Emily Peltzer as vice president of manufacturing and operations. Michelson joins from cannabis company PLUS while Peltzer arrives from flower retailer The Bouqs Company.
Autonomy—the Santa Monica-based automobile subscription platform until recently known as NextCar—is getting into electric vehicles via Tesla’s popular Model 3.
The startup, which provides customers monthly vehicle subscriptions for an all-in price that includes insurance and maintenance costs, said Thursday that it will offer the Tesla Model 3 as part of a range of electric and zero-emission vehicles.
NextCar, which was launched in 2020 by former TrueCar CEO Scott Painter, rebranded as Autonomy late last year after acquiring the defunct Hewlett-Packard software brand and its intellectual property. Having recently raised $83 million in debt and equity financing, Autonomy is now ramping up its push to market by including the best-selling electric car in history.
Autonomy customers will be able to subscribe to a Model 3 for a three-month minimum term, and then on a month-to-month basis afterward. Fees range anywhere from $550 per month (with a $5,500 start fee) to up to $1,000 per month (with a $1,000 start fee), plus a $500 security deposit. The service will initially be available only in California.
“Electric vehicles have reached a tipping point, and it’s clear that the Tesla Model 3 is this generation’s [Toyota] Prius,” Painter, who serves as Autonomy’s CEO, said in a statement. He said Autonomy’s subscription model is meant to appeal to consumers in an era when “financial responsibility and the avoidance of debt” has prompted many to reconsider purchasing a car.
The startup also pitches an easy-to-use user experience enabled through its mobile app; it says customers can order a vehicle in only 10 minutes by providing their driver’s license and payment information, while the process of picking up the car or getting it delivered to them should take no more than 20 minutes. They can also manage their subscription through Autonomy’s mobile app.
Autonomy isn’t the only way drivers can get their hands on a Tesla short-term. In October, Hertz announced that Teslas would comprise more than 20% of its rental car fleet by the end of 2022 after it ordered more than 100,000 vehicles from the Elon Musk-led automaker. The news saw Tesla’s market capitalization surge above $1 trillion.
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Filmhub—a Santa Monica-based company cutting out Hollywood’s middle-man to allow filmmakers to distribute their content straight to streaming services—has raised $6.8 million in seed funding led by Silicon Valley venture giant Andreesen Horowitz.
The round included participation from investors including 8VC, FundersClub, Eleven Prime, Rupa Health CEO Viswanathan, Candid CEO Nick Greenfield and Codecov CEO Jerrod Engelberg, TechCrunch reported.
Filmhub provides filmmakers with a way to distribute their work directly to big-name streaming services like Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV without relinquishing their rights. The startup was co-founded in 2016 by Klaus Badelt, a composer and producer who has written scores for films such as “Gladiator,” “The Thin Red Line” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.” Filmhub co-founder and CEO Alan d’Escragnolle told Deadline Hollywood that Filmhub’s goal is to empower filmmakers through “ownership and monetization opportunities”.
Should Filmhub continue to grow in reach and viability, it could mark a major shift away from the traditional studio model, where filmmakers are often forced to surrender the rights to their work. Filmhub aims to solve this by offering filmmakers a no-frills, 80/20 revenue split with no upfront payment. The startup’s model also speaks to the growing power of streaming services, with viewers increasingly ditching their cable boxes in favor of the 200-plus streaming platforms available in the U.S. as of last year.
Filmhub is also finding synergies with like-minded startups in its hometown. It recently partnered with Struum, a Los Angeles-based platform that has been dubbed “ClassPass for streaming” and compiles content created by smaller video streaming services under its own subscription.
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