The tech world’s “Valley Girl” has moved into the L.A. scene with the purchase of the tech blog Lalawag.
Jesse Draper, host of Silicon Valley web series “The Valley Girl Show,” announced earlier this month that she had acquired Lalawag from founders Sean and Laurie Percival. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The husband-wife team shut down the blog, which had been covering the ins and outs of L.A.’s tech community for two years, in September. With the birth of their daughter and Sean Percival’s new job at MySpace Inc., the couple didn’t have time anymore.
When Draper, daughter of Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper, heard that they were looking for a buyer, she saw an opportunity to expand her media company, Valley Girl Inc., from the webcast. Her plan is to publish blogs in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley and New York.
On her “Valley Girl Show,” she poses as a pink-clad, ditzy Valley Girl to interview bigwigs of the tech world.
“It’s a fun talk show for business guys,” said Draper, whose subjects have included Ted Turner and Elon Musk. “I want to celebrate them for being fun people, too.”
Draper, who lives in Santa Monica but has so far produced the show in the Bay Area, will relaunch Lalawag on Nov. 18. She plans to hire new bloggers for the site, expand coverage to include new-media companies, and add features such as interviews and company profiles. But she won’t stray from Lalawag’s focus on L.A.’s tech startup community. The Percivals will be contributing to Lalawag, too.
“If you get rid of the founder, you get rid of the brand,” Draper said. “We want to keep Sean and Laurie.”
Capital Company
When Eric Jackson and Christopher Grey launched CapLinked in 2009, they used their own technology to get their startup off the ground. That’s because CapLinked, a social networking website for companies raising capital and their investors, helped them communicate with the family and friends who financed them.
CapLinked, which launched to the public last week, helps companies plan fundraising deals and manage paperwork with investors online. It also lets them stay in contact with investors and send them updates on the company.
Jackson, former head of marketing for PayPal, and Grey, founder of private equity firm Crestridge Investments, came up with the idea for the Manhattan Beach company from their own challenges finding investors and managing investor relations.
The website has more than 500 users, including photo management software company Film Solutions and angel investor Paige Craig.
Jackson said the site is meant to take the “pain and paperwork” out of funding deals. Right now, it is free for anyone to use. They plan eventually to adopt a freemium model where the basic service is free and upgrades can be purchased.
CapLinked’s site is set up so that only a company’s investors can see their financial information.
“It’s a walled garden for you and your investors,” he said. “But it allows for a constant flow of communication that’s often lacking when raising funds.”
Hispanic Expansion
Break Media, a Beverly Hills online entertainment company, has launched a website targeting Hispanic men.
The site, TuVez.com, will provide videos about sports, entertainment, gaming and culture for the target audience.
“It’s a huge emerging demographic that hasn’t been tapped to its whole potential,” said Jonathan Small, the company’s senior vice president.
TuVez.com launched Oct. 13 in English, and Small said he plans to add a Spanish-language option.
TuVez, which means “check it out” in Spanish slang, adds to Break’s eight other video sites catering to men 18 to 34, including online men’s magazine MadeMen and car racing-themed All Left Turns. The company also operates an advertising division.
Cloud Acquisition
A recent acquisition by two L.A. investors is bringing application developer ELC Technologies to Santa Monica from Portland, Ore.
Kamran Pourzanjani, chief executive of product review website BestCovery.com, and Omid Rahmat, former chief executive of Internet publication Tom’s Hardware, purchased ELC from founder Jonathan Siegel for an undisclosed price.
ELC specializes in cloud computing applications for cell phones and websites. Pourzanjani and Rahmat, who both live in Los Angeles, also hope to take advantage of Santa Monica’s proximity to media and entertainment companies to build applications for mobile and web platforms.
“The future of the web is going to be more dynamic and interactive,” Rahmat said. “This technology is ideal for media and entertainment companies.”
Staff reporter Natalie Jarvey can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225 ext. 230.
