We’ve been building tech communities for quite a few years now and 4 years ago Cox Business stepped up and asked how they could help. At first, like you, I wondered how a cable company could help. And then I dove into their company and realized that for 122 years, they’ve been most...

The latest Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies is out and 106 OC companies are on it. I dove deep into the data to categorize what kinds of companies these are, what industries they are in, and any other trends I could find. First and foremost — and not shocking to anyone —...

It’s been a busy year for OC companies going public. With 12 companies that went public in 2021 so far, (three in July alone) compared to six total in 2020, this will definitely be a record year. What’s great is to see the diversity of industries represented in OC’s public companies — from...

Electric vehicles are making some real noise. Irvine-based Rivian just raised $2.5B more in funding from Ford Motors and Amazon, amongst other investors. Also in Irvine, Cox Automotive has invested previously, and parent company Cox Enterprises has invested over $1B in cleantech and sustainability...

Summertime is seeing a steady flow of fundings, especially in the consumer space! B2C is even hotter now that hybrid life has become the norm, especially for anything for the outdoors and have a technical connection to your phone or subscription/recurring business model. OC is poised to do well...

I’ve spent the last few years learning and sharing in tech communities. I’ve looked for other local leaders to share notes and to answer questions like “How do we grow our local talent pools?” Or “How do we find more local capital to invest in local companies?” By looking at how...

Summer is here, and it couldn’t come at a better time now that we are returning to some normalcy. While the economy continues to rebound, the housing market has been crazy, with tech companies like Zillow, Houzz, and Better.com increasing their presence in OC. OC is also home to Corelogic’s...

Happy June! In another strong signal of our local software ecosystem, public analytics software maker Alteryx is launching a $50M venture fund. The deep analytics roots and talent in OC is producing a number of early stage startups and now local capital will help fund them. This is a great win for...

The headlines have been full of ransomware hitting major companies, hospitals, and infrastructure. Due to today’s cyber climate, we have become numb to it unfortunately. Yet Southern California has been the epicenter of great cybersecurity technology and therefore is on the front lines of...

As we drive into May, I’m pretty pumped to see the auto scene alive, well and innovating in OC. While HAAS Motors of Lake Forest is building SUVs, the automaker is still working on a US manufacturing site. This adds to Hyundai, besides the local electric vehicle makers we’ve mentioned in...