From The Vault: Bill Gurley Drops Knowledge on Startups, Venture Capital And Scaling

Spencer speaks with Ian Cinnamon, the CEO and co-founder of Culver City-based startup Apex, which manufactures productized, configurable satellite buses for the expanding space industry. As access to space becomes democratized, Apex's is poised to offer its scalable solutions to both commercial and government customers. 

Prior to Apex, Ian founded Synapse, a startup that built AI systems for the defense and security worlds, which he helped grow before it was acquired by Palantir.

Ian is an alumnus of the Y Combinator accelerator program and received his undergraduate degree from MIT and MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. (Disclosure: dot.LA co-founder Spencer Rascoff is an investor in Apex.)

In this episode, Howie talks about starting his first company, taking part in the Y Combinator accelerator, and how selling his company Etacts to Salesforce led him to innovating and creating products with enterprise clients in mind. Liu is a graduate of Duke University.

In this episode of Office Hours, Spencer speaks with L.A.-based entrepreneur Shiloh Johnson, the CEO and founder of ComplYant, a digital tax assistant tool. The technology platform offers small business owners and entrepreneurs an easy way to handle business taxes. The fintech startup was originally bootstrapped by Johnson, who as a Black female founder thought she'd be overlooked by VCs. Since then, Shiloh raised $5.5M in seed funding through Techstars’ Los Angeles program.

Growing up as the son of a nationally renowned veterinarian, Brandon knows first-hand the importance of having access to experts when your pet is sick. In 2018, Werber launched Airvet, a Beverly Hills-based digital health company for pets. Airvet works with employers and business partners to make sure pet parents get affordable and fast access to virtual vet care via video and chat. (Disclosure: dot.LA co-founder Spencer Rascoff is an investor in Airvet.)

Spencer speaks with Isa Watson, the Founder & CEO of Squad. Watson, author of the upcoming book, "Life Beyond Likes: Logging Off Your Screen and Into Your Life." In the book, she raises awareness around how social media has impacted our daily lives, self-worth, and real life relationships. With so much of our lives lived online, Isa argues, we’ve never been more connected—or disconnected—from what’s most important to us. It’s time to let go of our curated online worlds and get beyond our need for likes. As the founder of Squad, an audio- focused app, Watson created a fun and easy way to stay in touch with your best friends everyday—away from the distractions of traditional social media.

Diankha Linear, CEO of Community, an SMS marketing platform for business, speaks with Spencer in this episode of Office Hours. Ms. Linear was an officer and early executive team member at Convoy, serving as General Counsel and corporate secretary—overseeing one of Seattle’s largest VC transactions with a Series D Round of $400M, among other roles in the startup. Diankha comes from a strategy and leadership background, built on her years of military education and training with the Army and as a Judge Advocate General (JAG) officer.

Ms Linear spent nearly a decade in leadership roles at Nordstrom and Expeditors International of Washington. Her early career was spent at big firm antitrust, complex commercial, constitutional, and employment law counsel. Diankha is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the University of Washington. (Disclosure: dot.LA co-founder Spencer Rascoff is an investor in Community.)