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XAre We In a Tech Bubble? Majority of Top LA VCs Say 'Yes'
Harri is dot.LA's senior finance reporter. She previously worked for Gizmodo, Fast Company, VentureBeat and Flipboard. Find her on Twitter and send tips on L.A. startups and venture capital to harrison@dot.la.

Many leading Los Angeles-based venture capitalists believe we are in a tech bubble, but that's not necessarily slowing investments, according to dot.LA's quarterly survey of top Southern California-based investors.
dot.LA asked dozens of venture capitalists about the pace of new deals that crossed their desks, their outlook on the U.S. economy and other trends in the industry. The results offer an up-close look at how VCs see the market.
Of those who responded to the perennial question — Are we in a tech bubble? — 62.1% percent said yes.
Bubble talk is all but inevitable when valuations and deal counts soar, as outside cash pours into the startup scene, and as trillion-dollar market caps grow commonplace among tech giants. But what is a bubble, exactly?
A bubble appears (and subsequently bursts) when assets such as tech stocks or housing rapidly increase in value and then crash back down to Earth.
The Dot-Com bubble refers to the frenzied rise and collapse of emerging internet companies in the late 90s, many of which did not have profits to match their sky-high valuations. When the market crashed, tens of thousands of workers lost their jobs and the NASDAQ shed 75% of its value, hitting personal and institutional investors alike.
Of those investors who felt we were in a bubble, 56% said they were being more cautious as a result, while 38.9% responded that it had "no impact" on their investing strategy. One VC said they set a "high bar for high priced deals" as a result.
The vast majority (80%) of investors surveyed also indicated they saw higher valuations in the third quarter of 2021 compared to the prior quarter. And a slim majority (53%) said their deal flow increased during the same period. Rising startup value and a boost in deals aren't indicative of a tech bubble on their own, but the trends at least suggest a feverish market.
"Yes, early stage deals have increased in valuations and round sizes have grown considerably in the last 18 months, but I'm not convinced this is a 'bubble,'" said Kelly Perdew, managing partner at Moonshots Capital, a seed stage firm focused in part on veterans with $160 million in assets under management. "There really is more demand (and more capital has to be put to work) so prices are going up across the board. But companies are building faster, moving faster, and disrupting faster. And the winners are being rewarded. I don't believe that is ever going to stop."
Minnie Ingersoll, partner at the early-stage venture firm TenOneTen and host of the LA Venture podcast, sees the market differently — though with similar enthusiasm. "We may be experiencing a bubble around valuations for technology startups but it is simultaneously a revolution for entrepreneurship that is here to stay," said Ingersoll.
"I think anything could happen with the astronomical valuations we are seeing but I think our relationship with work has been reshaped permanently and we are building a society where everyone is empowered with tools and support to be an entrepreneur," she said. "This will have radical implications for how we live and work and I do not think we will go back to single-threaded careers," she added.
While VCs literally have a vested interest in the industry's enduring success, they aren't alone in seeing the upside of a frothy tech market. For one, tech bubbles haven't proved as destructive as, say, the U.S. housing bubble, which preceded the Great Recession. Plus, the Dot-Com era and other frenzied investments in new tech have brought about technological progress, as William Quinn, who co-authored "Boom and Bust: A Global History of Financial Bubbles," pointed out earlier this year.
Still, plenty of livelihoods hang in the balance as fast-growing tech companies disrupt industries and ramp up headcounts, while personal investors clamor for a piece of the action.
More Q3 Survey Takeaways: Startup Hiring and the Pandemic
Of the VCs surveyed, 90% said their portfolio companies boosted headcounts in the third quarter compared to the previous quarter. And 93% said they expected their portfolio companies to increase headcounts in Q4.
However, most VCs surveyed (57%) said the pandemic and its aftermath had an impact on their portfolio companies' ability to retain people.
The same percentage of VCs also said they do not think the greater U.S. economy has recovered from the ongoing pandemic.
And when asked about a return to physical offices, 62% of VCs indicated they had embraced a hybrid program, while just over 20% said their team planned on staying remote.
Want the results of our quarterly VC Sentiment surveys in your inbox? Subscribe here.
Lead image and graphics by Candice Navi.
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Harri is dot.LA's senior finance reporter. She previously worked for Gizmodo, Fast Company, VentureBeat and Flipboard. Find her on Twitter and send tips on L.A. startups and venture capital to harrison@dot.la.
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Tech Is Upsetting the Table at This Year's Upfronts
Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
Are the upfronts turning into TV execs’ personal “Black Mirror'' episode?
The annual feeding frenzy—in which C-suite television executives auction off highly-viewed (and costly) advertising time slots— is changing as new streaming behemoths shake up the market. The event often gives viewers and industry watchers insight on what shows are poised to become cultural phenomena, but that too seems to be disrupted at this year’s proceedings.
It’s been two years since major networks and television players convened in New York for a week, and it’s clear that technology is going to change a lot about how the process works.
Streaming, a popular way to view content, doesn’t follow traditional ad slots the way broadcast does. Nonetheless, last year ad-enabled streaming services–including Peacock and Hulu–slurped up a large slice of ad dollars. But this year may prove a turning point, as services like HBOMax and Disney Plus begin tinkering with ad-laced streaming, and Netflix promises to quickly roll out an ad-supported subscription tier. Large networks like ABC and NBC will have to start competing with streaming for the favor of companies and their ad money.
Another thing changing the market: the ads themselves. With more data at their fingertips, streaming services can offer far more personalized and targeted services than their network counterparts. Netflix and Disney collect mountains of data that can gauge what ads are most relevant to their viewers. That’s a huge plus for advertisers, even if streaming services like Disney restrict what kind of ads it will show.
Legacy TV companies have already taken note. NBCUniversal took great pains at Monday’s pitch meeting to offer their Peacock streaming service as an example of a dual streaming-and-broadcast model and lambasted streaming services that once showed disdain for advertisers and ad breaks.
“At those companies, advertising could seem like an afterthought… or even worse, a new idea for a revenue stream, but not here,” NBCUniversal’s ad sales chief Linda Yaccarino said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “At NBCUniversal, advertising has always been an asset for our business… designed to enhance your business.”
Adding to the instability, Nielsen ratings, which has been the universal standard for measuring viewership, is being challenged. The company’s ratings were once the gold standard used, in part, to determine the time slots and networks that had the most viewers (and which became the most coveted by advertisers).
Last year, Variety reported major networks complained that the company was likely undercounting viewership due to pandemic-related restrictions, like being unable to go into peoples’ homes and making sure the data-collecting technology was properly working. In its wake, software-enabled startups have popped up to better gather data remotely.
Washington-based iSpot.tv received a $325 million investment from Goldman Sachs after acquiring similar companies including El Segundo-based Ace Metrix and Temecula-based DRMetrix. Pasadena-based tvScientific raised $20 million in April to glean adtech data from smart tvs. Edward Norton’s adtech firm EDO raised $80 million in April and booked a deal with Discovery ahead of the upfronts.
Nielsen also lost its accreditation with the Media Ratings Council, and without a standard ratings guide for the industry, navigating the upfronts will be a far more uncertain and nebulous process for both networks and advertisers.
With tens of billions of dollars on the line, advertisers are demanding more than just well-produced shows networks and streaming services alike—sophisticated ad placements is the name of the game.
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Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
Explore Los Angeles Like a Tourist with Atlas Obscura's New Guide
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Samson is also a proud member of the Transgender Journalists Association. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter at @Samsonamore. Pronouns: he/him
The Los Angeles Tourism Department partnered with curiosities and travel website Atlas Obscura for a first of its kind digital interactive map of L.A. County’s top attractions, just in time for the summer influx of tourists.
Visitors to L.A. – or locals looking for a fun reason to leave their apartments – can scroll the interactive map on a browser or download the app.
Image courtesy of the L.A. Tourism Dept.
The “Discover Los Angeles” map can be broken down by neighborhood or by a series of “guides,” which all feature as part of the larger promotional campaign roll-out known as the Explorer’s Guide to L.A
Atlas Obscura and the Tourism Department also published a hardcover edition of the Explorer’s Guide, along with several other speciality breakout guides, including the Meeting Planners Guide, artistic Visitor’s Map and, for those with more expensive tastes, the L.A. Luxury Guide to the city’s pricier pursuits. The paper versions of the guides have QR codes for travelers to scan and take information with them on the go.
This year’s collaboration with Atlas Obscura gives the Tourism Department’s previous guide a much-needed update – it was previously a whopping 136-page PDF document created in 2020.
The Explorer’s Guide includes a mix of places you’d expect to see on the map, like Griffith Park and the museum at the La Brea Tar Pits. It also has some unlikely spots sourced from Atlas Obscura’s network of local explorers who recommended their favorite places to visit: the Palos Verdes Peninsula, Venice Canals or the Watts Towers, a stunning, monumental public art exhibit of mosaic steel towers that was built by one Italian immigrant over a 34-year period.
30 neighborhoods are discussed in the guide, from classic tourist destinations like Hollywood and beach cities like Santa Monica and Venice to lesser-known but still exciting enclaves like Leimert Park, Frogtown and Little Ethiopia. There’s also several maps for specific interests – taqueria lovers will find new spots to nosh with the taco map, and there’s also a map of the Downtown Arts District, spots to stargaze and sports venues.
“For myself and the writers and editors on this project, many of them L.A. natives, getting to write and curate the official visitors guide to the city of L.A. was an absolute dream,” Atlas Obscura co-founder Dylan Thuras said in a statement. “We hope that these guides will inspire all the curious travelers arriving in L.A., to try new things, as well as providing new adventures for longtime L.A. residents. There is really no limit to what L.A. has to offer.”
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Samson is also a proud member of the Transgender Journalists Association. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter at @Samsonamore. Pronouns: he/him
Tech Groups Push Back Against Texas’ Controversial New Social Media Law
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.
Two groups representing social media giants are trying to block a Texas law protecting users’ political social media content.
NetChoice—whose members include the Culver City-based video-sharing app TikTok—and the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court, the Washington Post reported Friday. HB 20, which went into effect Wednesday, allows residents who believe they were unfairly censored to sue social media companies with over 50 million U.S. users. Tech companies would also have to integrate a system for users to oppose potential content removal.
The law, which was initially signed by Governor Greg Abbott in September, was previously barred by a federal district judge but was lifted by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans. NetChoice and CCIA claim the law violates the First Amendment and seek to vacate it by filing the application with Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.
“[The law] strips private online businesses of their speech rights, forbids them from making constitutionally protected editorial decisions, and forces them to publish and promote objectionable content,” NetChoice counsel Chris Marchese said in a statement.
The two lobbying groups also represent Facebook, Google and Twitter. The latter is undergoing its own censorship conundrum, as Elon Musk has made it a central talking point in his planned takeover.
Tech companies and policymakers have long clashed on social media censorship—a similar law was blocked in Florida last year, though Governor Ron DeSantis still hopes it will help in his fight against Disney. In the wake of the 2021 insurrection in the capital, Democratic lawmakers urged social media companies to change their platforms to prevent fringe political beliefs from gaining traction.
Conservative social media accounts like Libs of TikTok have still managed to gain large followings, and a number of right-wing platforms have grown from the belief that such sentiments lead to censorship.
Having citizens enforce new laws seems to be Texas’ latest political strategy. A 2021 state law allows anyone to sue clinics and doctors who help people get an abortion, allowing the state to restrict behavior while dodging responsibility.
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.