📅 RSVP Raising VC for “Deep Tech” Startups in Southern California | Innovate Pasadena | Friday Coffee Meetup

RSVPed Interested in Attending https://www.meetup.com/Innovation-friday-coffee-meetup/events/255836761/
Fri, Nov 2, 2018, 8:15 AM at Cross Campus Pasadena Embark Ventures is a pre-seed and seed stage fund focused on “deep tech” - companies with proprietary and highly defensible technology that is a strong competitive barrier. Particularly interested in cyber-security, robotics, advanced manufacturing, materials, and bio/med tech but open to other opportunities that have a highly technical/proprietary core. We invest early (generally first institutional round) with check sizes between $250k and $1M typically. Most of our companies are pre-product, and our goal is to get them to first customer/revenue on our round of financing. Will discuss the Southern California eco-system for “deep tech” startups and bridging the gap between R&D and engineering Peter Lee is the Founding Managing Partner at Embark Ventures, a seed stage venture capital fund based in Los Angeles focused on “deep tech” companies in industries such as robotics, advanced manufacturing, and cybersecurity. Prior to entering venture capital, he was the VP of Product at a venture backed startup in the digital media space. Peter was a manager with McKinsey and also worked as a product manager at Microsoft. Peter earned his BS and MS at MIT, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

📺 Workplace Happiness is Your Best Business Strategy | Valerie Alexander | Innovate Pasadena | YouTube

Bookmarked Workplace Happiness is Your Best Business Strategy by Valerie AlexanderValerie Alexander (YouTube)

According to Gallup, American employers lose $450-550 billion a year by failing to create positive corporate cultures that foster accomplishment, autonomy, and appreciation in the workplace.

Employee Unhappiness leads to:
• Higher turnover
• Excessive absenteeism
• Poor customer service
• Theft
• Workplace bullying and violence
• Increased workers compensation claims
• More on-the-job injuries

…and a myriad of outcomes that have no line item in the budget, but still reduce productivity throughout the workplace. Engagement, job satisfaction and worker happiness matter to the bottom line.

This talk will give employees and managers the skills to create a positive work environment through simple adjustments and practices anyone can do, no matter the workplace. Whether in an office, a hospital, a restaurant, classroom or construction site, these techniques work!

In the U.S., the average loss due to unhappiness and disengagement is $3,500 per employee per year. When it comes to happiness, is your workplace above or below average? Can you afford to let it stay that way? Make happiness a priority in your workplace today, and reap the rewards tomorrow.

I remember quite enjoying this talk at Innovate Pasadena by Valerie Alexander about two months ago. They’ve kindly taped it and released it on YouTube for everyone who missed it. If you’re an executive or leader within your company, it’s highly worth your time to absorb these ideas and implement them into your company culture. I’d also submit that it’s worth your personal time as well.

Perhaps not surprisingly, happiness is worth it’s weight in gold in the workplace.

📅 RSVP for Innovate Pasadena Friday Morning Coffee Meetup: From Intrapreneur to Entrepreneur

RSVPed Attending Innovate Pasadena Friday Morning Coffee Meetup: From Intrapreneur to Entrepreneur

Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 8:15 AM at Cross Campus Pasadena

Jeff Keltner began his career at IBM. After 3 uneventful years, he moved to Google to help launch the Google Apps (now GSuite) business. After running the Education team for 4 years and growing the business to 70% market share, he transitioned to help launch the Chromebook product line and drove the go-to-market strategy.

But 6 years and 2 major launches were at Google was enough. Following this 6-year stint helping launch new businesses at Google, he joined other Xooglers to help launch Upstart the first lending platform to leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to price credit and automate the borrowing process. He is now leading Powered by Upstart, Upstart’s new white label offering for banks.

The transition from employee to intrapreneur to entrepreneur may seem daunting - but it’s easier than you think. Come hear about Jeff’s story and the lessons you can take away from his experiences.

Jeff joined Upstart after spending 6 years at Google. He launched and built the Google Apps for Education business, growing market share from zero to almost 70% in its first four years. Jeff spearheaded marketing efforts for Google Apps in Global 2000 accounts and led sales, business development, and go-to-market strategy for the launch of Chrome devices in the education and enterprise sectors. He spent several years in direct sales at IBM, always exceeding quota, and was a founding engineer and led UI developer at SSB Technologies. Jeff holds a BS in Computer Systems Engineering from Stanford University.

📅 RSVP to Innovate Pasadena Friday Coffee Meetup: Ghosted

RSVPed Might be attending Innovate Pasadena Friday Coffee Meetup: Ghosted
Fri, Oct 12, 2018, 8:15 AM People often dream of moving on from their corporate job to start their own "thing". This often includes the hope that they can do something better for the world then what they are doing for the corporation. We will cover the good, bad and ugh-ly of making the transition from the corporate world to making a difference through social entrepreneurship.
Checked into Cross Campus Old Pasadena
Attending the weekly Innovate Pasadena Friday Coffee Meetup to hear about The Future of Healthcare: Digital Health Becomes Personal.

Update after the talk
The presentation was interesting, but awfully dull. There was nothing I wasn’t aware of and nothing truly groundbreaking on the tech side. It’s actually a bit more of the same from the perspective of someone trying to use an app to improve public health. The futility of the process reminds me a lot of the issues that the edtech sector faces with people trying to innovate in education. Everyone seems to be falling into the same old traps and ultimately not making the massive difference they’re looking to effect.

It rarely, if ever, happens, but the presenters literally jammed out of the room before the event was completely over. Many were shocked by it.

RSVP for The Future of Healthcare: Digital Health Becomes Personal | Innovate Pasadena | Meetup

RSVPed Attending The Future of Healthcare: Digital Health Becomes Personal

Fri, Oct 5, 2018, 8:15 AM at Cross Campus, 85 N. Raymond Avenue, Pasadena, CA

While AI, VR, and AR are now revolutionizing healthcare from the operating room to medical education, most of this technology’s influence on the sector is not yet consumer facing. Wellness and activity apps abound, but true personalized health is not yet a reality. Stayhealthy CEO, John Collins, has been at the forefront of healthcare tech since 1998.

Today, Stayhealthy has partnered with Augmently, a leading creative tech agency, to leverage AR as a way to personalize healthcare by targeting the greatest health challenge of our time—excess body fat. Obesity is now the number one cause in the U.S. of cancer (in women), number two cause of cancer in men as well as for type 2 diabetes. If nothing is done to address this problem—and now with 70% of Americans considered overweight with excess fat—it has the potential of bankrupting the US economy. Educating and engaging consumers through patented biometrics technology with patented AR holds the promise of transforming the healthcare landscape by empowering individuals to make a difference in attaining wellness.

📅 RSVP: Friday Coffee Meetup–The Future of Augmented Reality | Innovate Pasadena

RSVPed Attending Friday Coffee Meetup: The Future of Augmented Reality

Friday, September 21, 2018 from 8:15 AM to 9:30 AM

Until recently, augmented reality has been the stuff of science fiction. In 1956, Philip K. Dick’s “The Minority Report” predicted the coming of AR as literally being able to have information at your fingertips. Like Dick’s AR display, the 1977 hologram image of Princess Leia in Star Wars is now a reality. That said, the first appearance of AR actually goes back to 1862 and the concept of Pepper’s Ghost, an illusion effect made for amusement parks and museums. In the early 1950’s, Pepper’s Ghost was used in the early development of the teleprompter.

📅 RSVP yes to Workplace Happiness is Your Best Business Strategy by Valerie Alexander

RSVPed Attending Workplace Happiness is Your Best Business Strategy by Valerie Alexander

Fri, Aug 24, 2018, 8:15 AM

According to Gallup, American employers lose $450-550 billion a year by failing to create positive corporate cultures that foster accomplishment, autonomy and appreciation in the workplace.

Employee Unhappiness leads to:
• Higher turnover
• Excessive absenteeism
• Poor customer service
• Theft
• Workplace bullying and violence
• Increased workers compensation claims
• More on-the-job injuries

…and a myriad of outcomes that have no line item in the budget, but still reduce productivity throughout the workplace. Engagement, job satisfaction and worker happiness matter to the bottom line.

This talk will give employees and managers the skills to create a positive work environment through simple adjustments and practices anyone can do, no matter the workplace. Whether in an office, a hospital, a restaurant, classroom or construction site, these techniques work!

In the U.S., the average loss due to unhappiness and disengagement is $3,500 per employee per year. When it comes to happiness, is your workplace above or below average? Can you afford to let it stay that way? Make happiness a priority in your workplace today, and reap the rewards tomorrow.

Valerie Alexander

RSVP to The challenges of scaling a technology group

RSVPed Attending The challenges of scaling a technology group

Fri, Aug 17, 2018, 8:15 AM

What are the challenges of scaling your technology company or your technology group in a technology driven company? Lessons learned from the front line. Beyond slogans, fads and beautiful articles written by smart people from top consulting companies.

In this brief presentation, Israel Ben-Ishai will share with you what he learned from many years of experience scaling technology groups as a leader and from the last five years as a consultant, coach, and mentor.

Some of the questions Israel will attempt to answer are:
- How does one take the initial innovation and market success to the next phase of operational success?
- How do you scale your organization, technology, processes, and people?
- How do the great agile principles, and mindset scale when you grow at today's high speed and confront some of the business realities?