C-Suite Quarterly

HAWAII GETAWAYS SUZANNE GOIN NEXTGEN 10

INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY LOS ANGELES

WINTER 2017

CHRIS DAVIS HOW LOOT CRATE GREW 66,661% AND EMERGED AS AMERICA’S FASTEST GROWING COMPANY

Cover

+

THE OTHER

FASTEST GROWING COMPANIES IN LOS ANGELES

including DOLLAR SHAVE CLUB RENDER MEDIA ZIPRECRUITER SPOKEO

In Review CSQ’S 2016 LA VISIONARIES SUMMIT

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Photography may not represent amenities and conditions, as they are artist renderings. Amenities, features, and concierge services are subject to change without notice. Certain services and amenities may have fees associated with them. We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of Equal Housing Opportunity throughout the nation. We encourage and support an affirmative advertising and marketing program in which there are no barriers to obtaining housing because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.

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C-Suite /’si- sɥit/ (noun, adj.): 1. A combination of all C-level executives, or officers with “chief” titles, such as CEO, CFO, etc.; 2. The senior executive HQ in a business organization; 3. A title bestowed to the collective of leaders driving economic, policy, and social change.

Visionaries

WINTER 2017 - VOL. 9 NO. 1 INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY EDITION

LA’s FASTEST GROWING COMPANIES

Meet the VCs

54Eva Ho

A former Google and YouTube executive is leveraging connections to launch $40M venture capital firm, Fika Ventures

55Powerplant Ventures

Meet the new farm-to-table VC firm, where Mark Rampolla, T.K. Pillan, and their partners are investing in plant-centric, better-for-you companies including Juicero and REBBL

70Chris Davis

56Mike Jones

TOC - Features

The co-founder & CEO of America’s fastest-growing company, Loot Crate, unpacks his secret to success and why Los Angeles is the ideal home for his $100M+ startup

One of Los Angeles’ most impactful tech minds, the Science, Inc. CEO was the first investor in Dollar Shave club and continues to identify industries ripe for disruption SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR

58Chris DeWolfe

65Harrison Tang

The Myspace co-founder is making waves in the “gamer-tainment” space as Jam City hits over a quarter billion in revenue

How Spokeo, the people search engine, is achieving triple-digit growth

66Ian Siegel

ZipRecruiter, the hundred milliondollar matchmaker for workforce talent

67Vic Belonogoff

The country’s second fastest-growing media company, Render Media, is capitalizing on the popularity of shareable content - 10 -

68 Michael Dubin The founder

& CEO of Dollar Shave Club is playing a pivotal role in the future of Los Angeles as he builds on the momentum of his $1B Unilever deal

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

THE DATEJUST The archetype of the modern watch has spanned generations since 1945 with its enduring functions and aesthetics.

It doesn’t just tell time. It tells history.

Polacheck’s

OYSTER PERPETUAL DATEJUST 36

rolex

oyster perpetual and datejust are

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trademarks.

C-Suite /’si- sɥit/ (noun, adj.): 1. A combination of all C-level executives, or officers with “chief” titles, such as CEO, CFO, etc.; 2. The senior executive HQ in a business organization; 3. A title bestowed to the collective of leaders driving economic, policy, and social change.

Contents

WINTER 2017 - VOL. 9 NO. 1 INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY EDITION

// Desirables 24 Travel Make the most of your travel time with these picks 26 Bar Cart The ultimate accessories for crafting the finest libations 28 Style Winter’s top wearables 30 Air Clay Lacy Aviation CEO Brian Kirkdoffer on partnering with his mentor, Clay Lacy

32 Land CSQ&A with Giacomo Mattioli on Los Angeles’ impact on Ferrari around the world, plus LA Auto Show highlights, Porsche’s expansion, and a trio of new releases 38 Water A recap of Best in Show at the 2016 Monaco Yacht Show 40 Buying Time A collection of especially innovative timepieces on

40

your wrist and on your desk

TOC - Departments 46 // Destinations

78 Market Update Openings and updates in Chicago, New York, and Beijing

80 New York Minute Our tips for where to stay, shop, and sleep on your winter trip to New York City

52 // Innovation & Technology 46 Of Note Updates and analysis on some of the region’s most exciting tech companies including Snap Inc and Modal VR

82 Domestic Hawaii: Explore the lush garden isle of Kauai...

84 Golf Getaway ...and say Aloha to world class golf and some of Hawaii’s most exclusive private residences on the Big Island

86 Going Global The business and culture of Japan, where innovation and tradition meet

84

48 Opinion

The City of Angels Is Flying High

By Howard Marks, StartEngine

51 Exits & Acquisitions

A look at 2016’s most important and impactful deals–from Dollar Shave Club and NantHealth to Blackline Systems and The Trade Desk

- 12 -

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

86

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We’ve saved you a seat.

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L AGU NA BE AC H

L O S C A B O S ( O p e n i n g L a t e 2 0 17 )

C-Suite /’si- sɥit/ (noun, adj.): 1. A combination of all C-level executives, or officers with “chief” titles, such as CEO, CFO, etc.; 2. The senior executive HQ in a business organization; 3. A title bestowed to the collective of leaders driving economic, policy, and social change.

Contents

WINTER 2017 - VOL. 9 NO. 1 INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY EDITION

118

120

// Culture & Taste

114 Of Note Our culture calendar

examines two exhibits at a pair of the city’s premier arts destinations

116 Lifestyle Report An analysis

on the impact of technology on the consumer from leadership at JetSuite, Nolet’s Gin, and Paul & Shark

118 Proprietor’s Profile 2016’s

120 Fine Dining Some of the city’s best food is being plated in new restaurants from Downtown LA to Venice 122 Business Lunch / Happy Hour

90 Our roster of experts tackles trends in environmental investing, technology acceleration, digital commerce, and patents & trademarks 92 T’Shaka Lee on Innovation & Hypergrowth 94 Scott M. Sachs, CPA on Digital Commerce 96 James Harwood, MBA, SPHR on Corporate Culture

Our picks for can’t-miss spots for mid-day meetings or end-of-day drinks

98 Kevin S. Parikh and Edward C. Wilson-Smythe on Technology Acceleration

124 Required Reading The power of

100 Bruce Munster on Climate Change

TOC - Advisory

James Beard Outstanding Chef Suzanne Goin is leaving her mark on the culture of LA through Lucques, a.o.c., and a newfound partnership with the Hollywood Bowl

the digital age, a biography of Silicon Valley success and failure, the twists and turns of the startup world, and reaching higher for success

102 Dr. Brennan Spiegel on Digital Innovation 104 Carol A. Polevoi, LMFT, CBS, CPC on Staying Focused 106 William Mark Levinson on Effective Hiring 108 Steven C. Sereboff on Patents & Trademarks 110 Jason Hughes on Commercial Real Estate

143 Departments

016 Masthead 018 Editor’s Note 20 Contributors 143 The Network 152 People & Company Index - 14 -

127

Report: CSQ’s Visionaries Summit, a

two-day live event bringing together the region’s best and brightest across industries to network, inspire, and educate

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

On the Cover: Chris Davis

Location: Loot Crate HQ Los Angeles, CA Photo: Neil G. Phillips

Saks

DIOR HOMME Beverly Hills 9634 WILSHIRE BLVD. 310.275.4211

PUBLISHER & EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

David L. Wurth

CONTENT

ADVERTISING & MARKETING

Matthew Seukunian EDITOR-AT-LARGE Jason Dean

Colleen Faggiano, Dorie Leo

MANAGING EDITOR

ACCOUNT MANAGERS

SENIOR EDITORS

Allison Dean, Elyse Glickman

DIRECTOR, SALES & MARKETING Dana Santulli-Muhlgay MARKETING COORDINATOR Sarah Czerwinski MARKETING ADMINISTRATOR Chris Coronel

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Ryan Byers, Brittany Fuisz, Bryan McKrell, Tony Principe ART DIRECTOR

OPERATIONS MANAGER, OPERATIONS & FINANCE Tiffany Weatherman OPERATIONS CONSULTANT 1100 Media ACCOUNTANT Stan Arutti LEGAL Steven C. Sereboff, Scott Barlow DISTRIBUTION Right-Way Distribution

Lyle Sinkewich

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Allana Baroni, Ben Bloch, Martin Booe, Jessica Ferguson, Tyler Garing, Ruth Hackman, Valerie Hartman, Kirk Hawkins, Ben Kuo, Hannah Levy, Howard Marks, Whitney Vendt, Andrea Zarczynski

Masthead INTERNS

Ali Angle, Allison Drury

C-SUITE ADVISORS

C-SUITE MEDIA ADVISORY BOARD

James Harwood, Jason Hughes, T’Shaka Lee, William Mark Levinson, Bruce Munster, Kevin S. Parikh, Carol Polevoi, Scott M. Sachs, Steven C. Sereboff, Dr. Brennan Spiegel, Edward C. Wilson-Smythe

Larry Braun, Jim Freedman, Diana Kessler, Paul Kessler, Steve Lehman, Robin Richards, James Segil, Irv Zuckerman

GRAPHIC DESIGN

INQUIRIES

Ashle Imbriale

advertising@csq.com advisory@csq.com EDITORIAL editorial@csq.com EVENTS events@csq.com REPRINTS reprints@csq.com SUBSCRIPTIONS csq.com ADVERTISING

PHOTOGRAPHERS

ADVISORY

Neil G. Phillips, Ben Steinberger SPECIAL THANKS

Chuck Davis, Tara Roth

CSQ.COM

CSQ / C-Suite Quarterly is published four times per year by C-SUITE MEDIA, Inc. It is mailed to C-level executives, business owners, and ultra high-net-worth residential communities as well as distributed at upscale locations throughout Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

C-SUITE MEDIA MAILING ADDRESS PO Box 8696, Calabasas, CA 91372

C-SUITE MEDIA HEADQUARTERS 21700 Oxnard Street, 7th Floor, Woodland Hills, CA 91367

All rights reserved. CSQ and C-Suite Quarterly are registered trademarks of C-SUITE MEDIA, Inc. No articles, illustrations, photographs or any other editorial matter or advertisements herein may be reproduced without permission of copyright owner. C-Suite Quarterly and C-SUITE MEDIA, Inc. does not take responsibility for the claims provided herein.

Printed in the U.S.A.

- 16 -

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

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EDITOR’S NOTE INNOVATION & TE CHNO L O G Y

C-SUITE QUARTERLY

Editor’s Note

IN LA, TECH TALKS

W

here the heck do I start?

With so much innovation happening around us at seemingly light speed, it can be a challenge not only to fully fathom the technology, but also understand the current and prospective applications. What we do know is that Los Angeles is continuing to develop as a legitimate global tech hub that is inspiring and attracting entrepreneurs, graduating and retaining engineers, and attracting and rewarding investors who come to the “beach” to make dreams a reality.

The convergence of media, tech, gaming, entertainment, and exceptionally creative minds makes for a melting pot of innovation. In terms of diversity in tech culture, all roads lead to Los Angeles – the thirdlargest city economy in the world.

The people are the driving force. We have vision – for our community and the world – and a historical creative resume to think through who to collaborate with and how to get to the production outcome of interest. That is really exciting. In fact, I’ve never been more excited to be a part of the Los Angeles tech ecosystem, where the value placed on innovation and entrepreneurship by city leaders has resulted in the first publicly owned coworking incubator in the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) downtown, which is now consulting cities throughout the world on how to do the same.

The fact is, innovation and entrepreneurship are net job creators and the local environment has evolved into one teeming with new projects, - 18 -

capital flow, and opportunity for those seeking it. Overcoming challenges along the way, we’ve built an infrastructure where the probability of success is higher than ever and the furthering of our world is happening next door. Literally.

This edition marks another milestone as we head into our 9th volume with the Fastest Growing Company in America and its founder, Chris Davis, on the cover (p. 70). Downtownbased Loot Crate is a banner reflection of merging the old subscription model with tech and specifically an e-commerce platform with digital viral media to get the message out.

The company has grown more than 66,000% in three years. Similar is Michael Dubin of Dollar Shave Club (p. 68), who completely disrupted the razor-blade business with his creative approach to marketing, culminating with the hilarious YouTube viral video that introduced the brand to a captive audience. Taking that likeability and progressive subscription model to sell razors to the street Michael was able to pool a lot of the investment capital from Los Angeles.

Now, a few years later resulting in the billion-dollar exit to Unilever.

These two celebrated examples of success in the region are a few on the Deloitte annual list of both National and LA’s Fastest Growing Companies.

This list and other interviews with the founders / driving forces behind the companies listed begin on page 60. We also spotlight another crop of up-and-coming leaders with our NextGen 10 in Innovation & Technology (p. 52). Howard Marks,

once again, offers his assessment of why Los Angeles shows no signs of losing its Midas touch in tech innovation (p. 48).

While you learn more about the people and companies that are driving LA tech, make plans to appreciate some of the finer aspects within – and beyond – this region. Aviation pioneer Clay Lacy and his mentee Brian Kirkdoffer (p. 30) are keeping private air travel current, and we take you to Hawaii for some of the most exclusive golf the 50th state has to offer (p. 84). Finally, our C-Suite Advisors address environmental investing, technology acceleration, and digital commerce among other relevant topics (p. 90).

As we look ahead to 2017 I look back fondly on one of our proudest achievements in 2016, the CSQ Visionaries Summit. Throughout this two day event some of the region – and world’s – brightest minds and creative talents collaborated on ideas to drive our communities – both locally and globally – forward. Within the issue you will find our post Summit report and highlights.

Here’s to a continued upward trajectory in 2017.

Editor’s Note

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

Cheers!

David Wurth

How are you going to reach ve leaders can’t be wrong. your 2017 business goals?

Have you given thought to your professional development for 2017? Or how an investment in yourself can prove to be an investment in your business with significant returns? A Vistage peer advisory group is a place where CEOs come together to

process issues and grow as leaders. Vistage uses a structured, thorough, and efficient approach to help members think through the dynamics of a challenge.

Success depends on surrounding yourself with the right people. We raise your chances of success by surrounding you with peers with successful track records. We challenge each other to do things that aren’t always comfortable, confronting our fears in order to grow as leaders.

vealed ho r the w rate of panies.

in 16 al ed to nd model by s over chieve orks.

Vistage

*2015 Dun & Bradstreet study

Average compounded annual growth rate for company revenues (CAGR)

Vistag em comp ember an grow their b ies usines 3x fas t e r their c than s ompe tition.

* Vistage CEO member companies who joined in 2009-2013 and were active members in February 2015. CAGR for Vistage member companies calculated from year of joining Vistage through 2014. CAGR for D&B U.S. companies based on 2009-2014 revenues. All U.S. companies had >=$5M annual revenue, >=25 employees. "Vistage Member Companies" D&B sample size: 1,900. "Total U.S. Companies" D&B sample size: 900.

Inquire today by visiting vistage.com/laceogroup

calling 858.509.5861 or email lauren.foster@vistage.com.

age.com.

Source: Dun & Bradstreet, 2009-2014

CON T R I BU TO RS

Martin Booe is a veteran freelance

writer whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and the International HeraldTribune. He has ghost-written three published books, including a New York Times bestseller. A former rock critic, Booe is also an avid guitarist and songwriter who can be found performing around Los Angeles and elsewhere.

“Billion-Dollar Blade Man,” p. 68

C -S UI TE QUARTERLY

Allison Dean is an editor and writer who has held editorial positions at Sage Publications, Reed Elsevier, Jossey-Bass/Wiley, and Penguin Group. Dean earned her TEFL Certificate in Barcelona and taught English abroad before returning to her native California. She graduated as salutatorian from Pepperdine University, earning her B.A. in English literature.

“Say Aloha to Paradise,” p. 82

Benjamin F. Kuo is the founder of SOCALTECHLLC, and the publisher of socalTECH.com, an online resource with real-time news updates on high tech companies across the entire Southern California region, with interviews with entrepreneurs, updates on venture capital funding, major business deals, and more. Kuo has a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California and has worked in a variety of management and development positions at high tech firms in both Southern and Northern California.

“Exits and Acquisitions,” p. 51

Contributors

Contributors Howard Marks is the co-founder and CEO at StartEngine, the leader in Online Public Offerings.

Marks was the founder and CEO of Acclaim Games, a publisher of online games now part of The Walt Disney Company. Before Acclaim, Marks was the co-founder of Activision Blizzard and Chairman of Activision Studios from 1991 until 1997. As a games industry expert, Marks built one of the largest and most successful games studios in the industry, selling millions of games. The 2015 “Treasure of Los Angeles” recipient awarded for his work to transform Los Angeles into a leading technology city, Marks is also a member of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s technology council. He has a B.S. in computer engineering from the University of Michigan.

The City of Angels Is Flying High,” p. 48

- 20 -

Neil G. Phillips was born and raised in London. By his late teens, Phillips took interest in photography, set up his own developing room at his home, and began studying war photojournalism, documentaries, and sports photography. Years later, Phillips moved to Los Angeles and became a successful stunt performer in movies such as Lincoln, The Amazing Spider-man, and The Green Hornet. Phillips also has worked as a rigger and grip on over a hundred movies and commercials as well as rigging several concerts for such bands as The Rolling Stones, U2, and Metallica. Phillips has since moved back to his true calling, photography.

“Brainstorming Inside the Box,” p. 70

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

Tony Principe is a principal and president of Westcord Commercial Real Estate Services. A 30-year veteran and top producer, Principe has handled in excess of 7 million square feet of property, totaling in excess of $3.5B in sales. He is also co-managing partner of T.R. Funding, LLC and has developed and redeveloped over 50 commercial properties in both Los Angeles and Ventura Counties. Principe lives in Thousand Oaks with his wife, Jennifer, and has two children, Jeremy and Andrew.

“Ferrari’s Uptown Expansion,” p. 32

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4 748743873 C 8O 3CMMO O CO MMO MMO N SN N WAY S SWAY WAY C ALABASAS, C ALABASAS, C ALABASAS, C AC A C 91 A931903120320 2 8 18818-2 812 -2 82-2 2-9 224 -9 26-9 456456 5 w www. w w. w w. inko w inko w inko p topm to peto mtrm ey. trecy. troy. cmocm om D R.D R. M D RAT M . TM AT HEW AT T HEW T HEW ALPERT ALPERT ALPERT O .O D..OD..|D.DR | |DR . JDO . RJO S. HJO SUHA SU HC AUO ACRO C BE ROB NREBN O EN .D O..D O .D |. .D | R|D . RG D. RAG .R A G I NE RAI NE RHI NNE HE HNE R SNY RESRY IS ASYN IA S IN O AN .D O..D O .D. .

Desirables - Intro

DESIRABLES

TRAVEL

24

BAR CART

26

STYLE

28

AIR

30

Throughout his career, Clay Lacy Aviation Founder Clay Lacy (p. 30) has flown more than 300 aircraft and logged more than 50,000 flight hours. He is pictured here in 1970 with his air race winning plane, an N64CL. / claylacy.com

LAND

32

WATER

38

BUYING TIME

40

DESIRABLES TRAVEL

C-SUITE QUARTERLY

ALL THE WAY UP

Our can’t-miss travel companions – whether you’re embracing the cold or escaping it

Chinon Bellami HD-1

Release your inner Spielberg this winter with the Super 8 style Chinon Bellami HD-1.This classically inspired, hand-held movie camera is equipped to make you and whatever you’re shooting look good.

The Bellami HD-1 marries the tried and true with the state-of-the-art technology featuring its triggershaped shutters, interchangeable lenses, and full HD digital processing. Film in color, monochrome, sepia or using the built-in image processor to add distinct style and flare to your story. Start your casting call today.

Starting at $1,000 / chinon.jp

FOCAL Utopia Headphones

These dynamic headphones by Focal are breaking barriers–sound barriers.

Considered the preeminent audiophile headphones, the Utopia boast openbacked, full-range speaker drivers.The first-of-its-kind system also isn’t lacking in style, fashioned with a lambskin leather headband and carbon-fiber yoke. Bragging easy customization with stereo jacks and connection cords, the Utopia is fit for audio occasions from studio recordings to Sunday afternoon relaxation. Use the optional stand component to display your wearable works of art in any space.

Starting at $4,000 / focal.com

Hone Type 15 Razor

Winner of the 2016 IF World Design Gold Award, the Hone Type 15 Razor truly encapsulates the art of shaving. A modern update on the double-edge safety razor, this three-part, hand-made system adds elegance to an everyday chore. Simple and sleek, the Type 15 is made to be a timeless companion, wearing and aging uniquely with its user.Textured and weighted for optimum grip, the razor is finely tuned to ensure flow and maneuverability.

Starting at $65 / hone-shaving.com

Desirables - Travel Patagonia Black Hole™ Duffel Bag and Timberland Nantasket Waxed Canvas Duffel

Leica X-U

Designed for the repercussions and risks of the daring globe-trotter, the Leica X-U camera is ready to capture life’s richest moments without compromise.

Waterfalls, desert storms, blizzards, and deep sea dives do not intimidate the waterproof, shockproof, and dust-sealed body. Not only tough, the Leica X-U is also tender, intelligently capturing each frame with a APS-C CMOS sensor for unmatched picture quality and a 23mm prime lens for speed. Leica X-U is the perfect adventure companion.

Starting at $2,950 / us.leica-camera.com

- 24 -

If a pro-traveler knows one thing, it’s how to pack accordingly.This goes for the luggage as well. Chasing the cold? Gather your gear into the 60L Patagonia Black Hole™ Duffel Bag shielded in highly waterproof laminate, packed with padded base protectants, and calibrated with internal compression. Headed for the heat? Check out Timberland’s Nantasket Waxed Canvas Duffel, 100% waxed cotton canvas that’s ready for back-toback trips or cross-continent adventures. $129 / patagonia.com $249 / timberland.com

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

Resort at Pelican Hill

DESIRABLES BAR CART

C-SUITE QUARTERLY

MODERN MIXOLOGY

Resolve to enhance your hosting skills in 2017 with the help of this bar cart and accessories

HANDCRAFTED WALNUT & BRASS BAR CART

by Chris Earl

RABBIT TABLE-TOP CORKSCREW WINE OPENER

by Rabbit TEARDROP CARAFE

by Tiffany & Co.

Whether for active entertaining or elegant display, this made-to-order cocktail cart serves up class. One hundred percent hand-crafted by Los Angeles designer Chris Earl, the multilevel, wheeled structure is comprised of two tempered glass shelves supported by a finished walnut frame. Brush brass detail and railing add a mid-century flair and polish. Earl believes furniture is not only an object in a room but also a representation of the proprietor: functional, graceful, and timeless. $1,650 / trnk-nyc.com

Modernize the way you serve your wine with this delightful duo.The Rabbit Table-top Corkscrew Wine Opener puts the ease in entertainment with a specialized tilt-platform positioned to stabilize the bottle while the simple, sleek lever uncorks the bottle without losing your grip. Best of all the system is equipped to accommodate 750 ml or 1.5L bottles. Now open, your wine is ready for some deep breathing. Pour your libations into your stainless steel Teardrop Carafe by Tiffany & Co. as a trophy of your seamless ceremony. $149, $2,700 / crateandbarrel.com / tiffany.com

Desirables - Bar Cart JAPANESE 5-PIECE 24KT GOLD-PLATED CLUB BAR SET

by Yukiwa Every master craftsman has his instruments of choice to get the job done with excellence.These are the tools you’ve been missing. Precisely crafted for ergonomic dexterity, the set of five elegant pieces brags professional-grade 24-karat gold-plated stainless steel that doesn’t compromise function or finesse.The set includes a 20 oz mixing glass, barspoon, 1 oz and 2 oz seamless jigger, hawthorne strainer, and 3-piece 18 oz cobbler shaker – ideal for the Japanese hard shake. $288 / trnk-nyc.com

THE GLENLIVET XXV SCOTCH WHISKEY

by The Glenlivet This complex and full-bodied single malt scotch whiskey proves that the proof is in the process.

Steeped in tradition, each cask is aged for at least 25 years in specialized oak where fruit, spices, and seasonal ingredients marinate before being transferred to sherry casks for a flavorful finish.

The Glenlivet XXV offers the aroma of dark chocolate and sultana grape with a silky palate laced with cinnamon notes and a long finish.

The 750 ml bottle is engravable, making it the perfect gift. $616 / reservebar.com

- 26 -

SPARTE CHAMPAGNE BUCKET

by Hermès

The coming of the new year can only mean one thing: champagne. Before you crack the bubbly, you will want the Sparte Champagne Bucket nearby.The silver-plated Hermès container marries supreme quality with a suave, casual aesthetic. Featuring a natural cowhide handle, the nearly ten-inchdeep bucket is the ultimate receptacle for your celebratory bottles.Take some time to cheers to this year’s resume of successes and toast to 2017’s accomplishments to come! $4,200 / usa.hermes.com

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

Travelstore

DESIRABLES STYLE

DRESSING THE PART Winters in Southern California can be unpredictable, making the flexibility of your wardrobe paramount. Luckily, we’re here to stretch you out with must-have shoes, outerwear, and accessories for the rare blistery night.

Outstanding Outerwear

Desirables - Style

ZIP-FRONT PUFFER CARDIGAN

by Moncler

HOODED KNIT BLOUSON

by Armani

/ $795 Neiman Marcus Westfield Topanga

/ $895 Armani Beverly Hills

Fashionable Footwear

ICARUS LEATHER SNEAKER

by Brunello Cucinelli / $925 Saks Fifth Avenue Beverly Hills

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GIANNI DOUBLE-MONK STRAP LOAFER

by Tom Ford / $1,890 Tom Ford Beverly Hills

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

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All the Right Accessories

PINDOT CLASSIC TIE

by Burberry / $195 Bloomingdale’s Beverly Center

GRAPHIC PRINT SILK SCARF

by Gucci

/ $290 Gucci Beverly Hills

Desirables - Style

BUCKLEY LEATHER SMALL TRAPEZE BRIEFCASE

by Tom Ford / $3,080 Tom Ford Beverly Hills

DOT SILK TIE

by Canali

/ $160 Bloomingdale’s Beverly Center

CLINT SUNGLASSES

by Tom Ford / $395 Wink Optometry, Calabasas

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

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Photos cour tesy of Clay Lacy Aviation

DESIRABLES AIR

Desirables - Air THE KEY TO SKY-HIGH SUCCESS A conversation with Brian Kirkdoffer, Clay Lacy Aviation's CEO, on the life lessons, mentorship, and inspiration aviation pioneer Clay Lacy bestowed upon him

BY KIRK HAWKINS

B

rian Kirkdoffer has traveled all around the world several times. He has met business titans, world leaders, and A-list celebrities. The Seattle-area native never would have lived a life many can barely comprehend in their wildest dreams if it weren’t for a good relationship with his flight instructor when he was just a teen.

The 50 year old is now the president and CEO of Clay Lacy Aviation in Los Angeles. Growing up near Seattle, Kirkdoffer was surrounded by flight. His dad was a pilot. His mother flew for more than 50 years.

He was surrounded by neighbors who worked at Boeing. It’s safe to

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say flying is in his blood. Kirkdoffer started flying when he was 14, and it quickly became a passion.

Three months before his graduation from the University of Washington, as he was planning to make a move east to work on Wall Street, a family friend, Clay Lacy, who helped teach Kirkdoffer how to fly, offered him another job opportunity that combined his interests in business and flying. “Come fly for me. You’ll get a chance to fly all over the world,” Kirkdoffer recalled as part of the pitch. Co-piloting Learjets and working in business development for the company that had 25 employees at the time was intriguing CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

enough for Kirkdoffer and he signed on. “It was just a great, fun company,” he said.

Enhanced Role

Originally anticipating he would stay with the company for just two years, Kirkdoffer is now closing in on 27 years and recently became majority owner of the company, which employs 400 people. He rose through the ranks from that dream entrylevel job opportunity to director of marketing, general manager, and vice president.

Kirkdoffer’s career trajectory follows the successful evolution of Clay Lacy Aviation from the first providers of charter jet flights west of the Mississippi into an asset management and logistics company that today manages more than $1B in assets and provides everything from the pilots, interiors, and avionics to customers across the country and around the world. Kirkdoffer says their private aircraft operation is the most cost-effective in the world and their portfolio continues to grow.

The company is in the ideal position

1

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to acquire, merge or even add more assets. “The secret to our success is we offer value throughout each of our service liens and the synergy for the client is unmastched. The value we can give to an aircraft owner is better than anyone else,” Kirkdoffer says.

Close Relationship

Those changes to the business might never have happened if it weren’t for the close relationship Kirkdoffer had with Lacy, who gave him a chance to begin managing their clients’ aircraft. “You can do it but I don’t want to have any calls from owners or any issues,” Kirkdoffer says he was told.

And he never had to share any concerns as the program, quite literally, took off.

Kirkdoffer says Lacy instilled strong values of integrity and customer service in him. Their company’s flight mission is for their customers to feel like they are on a magic carpet ride, providing exceptional service as all the hard work of the travel happens behind the scenes. Positive feedback keeps him energized, and Kirkdoffer says he loves exceeding client expectations.

“We’re gonna do whatever it takes to make you happy. We’re just hoping you tell a friend or two,” Kirkdoffer says.

Kirkdoffer and his core team have grown together in a family-like atmosphere that likes to promote passionate people from within.

Receptionists have been promoted to run charter departments and mechanics have been elevated to pilot the planes. Kirkdoffer is most proud of a mechanic who was the first

recipient of the Clay Lacy scholarship who now works as a pilot, after 22 years with the company.

A LOOK AT CLAY LACY, BRIAN KIRKDOFFER, AND THE COMPANY THEY’VE BUILT TOGETHER

Expanding Empire

Founder, Clay Lacy Aviation AGE 84 RESIDENCE Los Angeles 12 Age at which Clay Lacy began flying 41.5 Years of incident-free flying during his career as a pilot for United Airlines (retired 1992) 300+ Types of different aircraft he has flown 29 World speed records set 50,000+ Flight hours logged

Headquartered at a new $15M facility and the longest single tenant at Van Nuys Airport, Clay Lacy Aviation is also in New York, Seattle, and 12 other locations across the country.

Each year, the company logs 10,000 aircraft movements and fly an average of 20,000 hours.

Kirkdoffer is pleased with the focus and attention that new Los Angeles World Airports CEO Deborah Flint has on Van Nuys Airport where there are more private jets than anywhere in the world, he says. An airport that remains in high demand for business and leisure travelers, the Van Nuys Airport is a place where Kirkdoffer has met many luminaries, from presidents to titans of industry and religious leaders. “The most interesting people in the world come through corporate aviation at some point. It’s fun to be involved,” he says.

Innovation is key for Clay Lacy Aviation to grow, says Kirkdoffer.

“We’re willing to take a risk from a financial and brand standpoint, that doesn’t risk safety.” In fact, the company was the first of its kind to put wireless internet in their aircraft.

Kirkdoffer says historical lows for fuel and financing prove that there’s never been a better time to own a corporate jet. “The asset values and the prices of the airplanes have never been lower. Manufacturers have overproduced. Now they’re cutting production and giving great discounts.” 

CLAY LACY

BRIAN KIRKDOFFER President & CEO, Clay Lacy Aviation AGE 50 RESIDENCE Los Angeles FAMILY 2 children

CLAY LACY AVIATION

HQ Van Nuys FOUNDED 1968 EMPLOYEES 400+ # OF PLANES IN FLEET 87 # OF CITIES SERVICED Clay Lacy Aviation fly

globally but have offices or aircraft physically located in 14 cities 2015 REVENUE $135M SIZE OF VAN NUYS HQ 21.65 acres; 200,000 square feet of hangar space; 125,000 square feet of office space

Desirables - Air

1/ Clay Lacy (left) with Clay Lacy Aviation’s current president and CEO Brian Kirkdoffer in 1995 2/ Clay Lacy (left) with actor and UNICEF’s first ambassador-at-large, Danny Kaye. Kaye would receive the French Legion of Honor in 1986 for his years of work with UNICEF 3/ Among his most notable accomplishments, Clay Lacy revolutionized air-to-air cinematography with Astrovision, a system of periscopes mounted to the top and bottom of an airplane’s fuselage

2 CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

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FERRARI’S AMERICAN DOMINANCE Native Italian Giacomo Mattioli’s plans to bring popularity of highest grossing Beverly Hills Ferrari dealership to Westlake Village

BY TONY PRINCIPE

&A Giacomo Mattioli Ferrari Maserati Beverly Hills Ferrari Westlake Village Born and raised in Modena, Italy, Mattioli was hired by Ferrari’s legal department in the late 1980s after law school to help with the licensing of Ferrari products. In 1995, Mattioli became dealer development manager for North America and by 1998 Mattioli arranged the purchase of the Beverly Hills dealership from the factory, which he has made the largest-grossing Ferrari dealership in North America. CSQ sat down with Mattioli on the heels of his Ferrari empire’s expansion into Westlake Village, where a new full-service Ferrari dealership has just opened.

1

Westlake Village is a fantastic location and community and it affords us the opportunity to enjoy beautiful drives in the canyons and it is very much in line with what Ferrari deserves and what the community deserves.

Endurance Racing, culminating at the top level of racing with Le Mans.

Desirables - Land - Giacomo

CSQ What sets Ferrari as a manufacturer apart from its competition?

GIACOMO MATTIOLI People forget that Enzo Ferrari never wanted to build an industrial empire, he wanted to go racing. Today, the true passion the people see in the product comes from the people in the factories that still carry Enzo’s passion. It is this passion coupled with the Ferrari experience being very visceral–from sight to sound to how the car feels when handling the road.

CSQ In addition to your locations in Beverly Hills, the South Bay, and Silicon Valley, what attracted you to Westlake Village?

GM We wanted to reach out and have more territorial coverage stretching from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara.

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CSQ How do Ferrari sales compare in Los Angeles to other parts of the world?

GM California is the strongest market in the United States and the United States is Ferrari’s largest market in the world. While Ferrari does not disclose sales by dealership, I can tell you that Los Angeles is the biggest Ferrari market in the world and that Ferrari Beverly Hills is the single largest dealership in the world.

CSQ For some Ferrari owners, driving the car is not enough. What racing services do you offer?

GM We very much encourage our clients to experience the car’s true performance in a safe environment and there is no safer environment than the racetrack so we encourage our clients to attend Ferrari driving schools. We have schools in North America and in Italy. On site at these schools we bring in coaches and full support teams, the same team we use when we race at the professional level. Our clients can go through all the different phases from the driver development program, the Ferrari Challenge, GT Racing, Sprint Racing, CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

CSQ With government regulation to make automobiles more environmentally friendly, how will Ferrari adapt and mold their strategy over the next 10 years?

GM First and foremost, our CEO recently announced that in several years all Ferrari cars will be hybrids.

On the racing side, the technology we are using in Formula One right now is based on a Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS). This system dramatically improves the emissions of the vehicle. Beyond KERS we are on the cutting edge of technology that will keep improving the product line. 

FERRARI IN THE USA Examining market rankings across the U.S. and in Los Angeles U.S. #1 market globally CALIFORNIA #5 market globally LOS ANGELES #1 market within the U.S. BEVERLY HILLS #1 dealership in the world

1/ Exhibition space within the Enzo Ferrari Museum in Ferrari’s hometown of Modena, Italy. The museum is home to more than 26,000 square feet of history, taking visitors as far back as Enzo’s birth in the late 1890s

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DESIRABLES LAND

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WHERE THE AUTO SHOW MEETS THE TECH SUMMIT

The 2016 LA Auto Show continues to embrace technology, offering a sneak peek at the newest in automotive debuts and innovative advances that will shape the way we commute and live LOS ANGELES AUTO SHOW 2016 BY THE NUMBERS

50+ Thought leaders on stage 60 Vehicles unveiled in Los Angeles 5,000 Media professionals from 50 countries in attendance 170 Brands exhibiting throughout the show 1,000,000 Square feet of exhibit and activation space COMPANIES FEATURED ON PANELS Notable companies whose executives participated as keynote speakers and panelists throughout the show

Desirables - Land - Auto Show

Amazon Alexa Facebook Ford Motor Company Hyperloop One IBM Watson Lyft McLaren Applied Technologies Porsche

TAKEAWAYS FROM SPEAKERS “We are attending the first major automotive show [AutoMobility LA] in the world that isn’t just about cars.”

- Mark Fields, President & CEO, Ford Motor Company “Data is the new oil…[It] has the potential to radically change the way we think about the driving experience: as consumers, as automakers, as technologists, and as citizens of our communities.”

- Brian Krzanich, CEO, Intel WORLD VEHICULAR DEBUTS

A sampling of the brand debuts in 2016 cars Alfa Romeo Stelvio Jaguar I-Pace Concept Jaguar XKSS Continuation Lexus Sriracha IS Mercedes-Benz AMG E63 Sedan Mercedes-Benz Maybach S65 Cabriolet MINI Electric Countryman Nissan Rogue: Rogue One Star Wars Limited Edition Porsche 911 RSR Porsche Panamera Long Wheelbase Porsche Panamera 6-cylinder Volkswagen Passat GT Concept

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PORSCHE PARKS EXPERIENCE CENTER IN LA The automotive brand opened a new $60M experience center and motorsports headquarters in Carson, Calif. offering race track experience, a museum, and conference space

F

ollowing the success of Porsche’s $100M experience center and North American headquarters (opened in Atlanta in May 2015), Porsche has expanded their permanent American footprint, opening a second such center in Carson, Calif.

The $60M, 53-acre complex is the new home of Porsche Motorsport North America, featuring a driver development track with eight educational modules totalling 4.1 miles of track. Also on site is Restaurant 917 – named after the iconic racecar that gave Porsche its first ever win at the 24-hour Le Mans – as well as a state-of-the-art business center and 6,000 square feet of event space.

Porsche’s interest in bolstering its California presence stems from strong sales figures on par with entire nations across the world. According to Porsche, if California were a country, it would be Porsche’s fifth largest market–accounting for 23% of Porsche vehicles sold in the United States.  CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

AEG Premium Seating

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TURNING THE CORNER A pair of 2016 standouts and one of 2017’s most enticing models offer the best in speed and sophistication

2016 ASTON MARTIN DB11

The long-awaited sequel to the Henrik Fiskerdesigned DB9 from 2003, the DB11 is following in the tire tracks of one of Aston Martin’s most successful and beautiful models to date.

MSRP $211,995 ENGINE 5.2 liter twin-turbocharged V-12 TRANSMISSION 8 speed automatic with

paddle shifters

MAX POWER 600 hp at 6,500 rpm 0-60 3.8 secs TOP SPEED 200 mph

Desirables - Land - New Cars Aston Martin Beverly Hills

2017 PORSCHE 911 TURBO S The new and approved 911 models (especially the turbo) offer a tighter design, newer and more enhanced features, and 20 more horsepower than previous iterations.

MSRP $188,100 ENGINE 3.8 liter, 6 cylinder TRANSMISSION PDK 7 speed transmission MAX POWER 580 hp at 7,200 rpm 0-60 2.8 secs TOP SPEED 205 mph

Rusnak Porsche Westlake Village

2016 JAGUAR F-TYPE SVR COUPE

The fastest Jag since the XJ220 supercar of the 1990s, Jaguar’s Special Vehicle Operations division spent two years developing the SVR, preparing her to play ball in the big leagues.

MSRP $125,950 ENGINE 5 liter, supercharged V-8 TRANSMISSION 8 speed automatic MAX POWER 575 hp at 6,500 rpm 0-60 3.5 secs TOP SPEED 200 mph

Galpin Jaguar

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CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

Paul & Shark

MADISON AVE | RODEO DRIVE | LAS VEGAS | AVENTURA MALL

DESIRABLES WATER

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JEWEL OF THE MEDITERRANEAN The 230-foot long Galactica Super Nova took home two prizes at the 2016 Monaco Yacht Show — Finest New Superyacht and Best Exterior Design

GALACTICA SUPER NOVA

BUILDER Heesen Yachts ARCHITECTS Van Oossanen & Heesen Yachts LENGTH 229 ft. 8 in.

SLEEPS 12 MAXIMUM SPEED 29.9 knots RANGE (AT 12 KNOTS) 4,000 nautical miles ENGINE CONTROL Rolls Royce control system

Desirables - Water

BY TYLER GARING

F

or all the dramatics and theatrics from around the globe, the Monaco Yacht Show was a welcome respite for the rich and famous.

According to Forbes, Warren Buffett– backed NetJets had 97 flights chartered into Port Hercules in Monte Carlo where the most extravagant of the world’s fleets lie in wait.

Leading the way in Port Hercules this year was Heesen’s Galactica Super Nova, the largest Heesen-built ship to date. Following in the wake of Heesen’s award-winning Galactica Star, the Super Nova has 3,800 square feet of deck space, an infinity pool, a touch-and-go helipad, and its own beach club. In addition to her elegance she boasts impressive power, utilizing a fast displacement hull to reduce resistance by nearly 20 percent and a Rolls Royce central booster jet for enhanced agility.

In addition to Heesen’s oneof-a-kind vessel, the Galactica Super Nova, the show was home to more than 100 luxury yachts and nearly 50 superyachts. This year’s show offered visitors a glimpse of the newest speedboat from Aston - 38 -

MONACO YACHT SHOW Martin, a new Car Deck featuring the usual suspects–Bentley, Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Rolls-Royce, among others–and a bevy of submersibles including California-based SEAMagine’s Aurora, which has been used by National Geographic and the BBC for film expeditions. 

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

1991 First year of the Monaco Yacht Show 46 New superyachts debuted in 2016 125 Luxury yachts on display in 2016 32,000 Visitors in 2016 $1.4B Acquisition cost in 2005 by Informa of IIR

Holdings, the parent-company of the Monaco Yacht Show

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DESIRABLES BUYING TIME

TIMELY INNOVATIONS Innovation can be defined in many ways when applied to timekeeping.

Time does not change, yet it is perpetually in motion and a constant measure of each moment that we are alive. The ability to capture time is elusive, but

the effort to measure it never ceases.

Each of these examples is harnessing innovation in a different way, looking to deliver the measurement of time in a more unique and accurate display of engineered beauty.

BY BRYAN MCKRELL

Desirables - Time

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OVERSEAS WORLD TIME

By Vacheron Constantin

The Overseas models, from the oldest watchmaker in Geneva, provide the ability to customize a plethora of features, but in a very understated way. The uncrowded dial is available in three different finishes with four different color variations. The self-winding calibers allow the traveler to keep the watch wound and accurate even while dashing between time zones. The interchangeable bands are available in three different metal bracelets or a multitude of leather options, giving the watch the ability to go from flight to board room to dinner and beyond while never looking out of place. The exhibition backs remind you of the value of your investment, but it’s the Hallmark of Geneva that reminds you that you are wearing history. / $37,000 Vacheron Constantin, Beverly Hills

TONDA CHRONOR ANNIVERSAIRE

By Parmigiani

Desirables - Time

The chronograph movement is one of the most difficult to master in watchmaking because each measurement in the series is directly linked to the others. If one calibration of the movement is off, it sends a ripple effect through the entire movement, destroying its accuracy. For its 20th anniversary, Parmigiani has created a fully integrated chronograph movement, constructed of solid gold and containing a split second hand. The amount of precision needed to construct this movement is a testament to the incredible watchmaking skills of the brand. Previously known for having some of the highest levels of finishing detail in the industry, it is no surprise that Michael Parmigiani has placed his signature on the back of the visually stunning movement. / $135,000 Feldmar Watch Company, Los Angeles

HOROLOGICAL MACHINE NUMBER 8

By MB&F

Max Busser and his friends have once again produced an eye-catching masterpiece of creative ingenuity and stunning aesthetics. Inspired by the Can-Am racing series of the 1970s and ’80s, 49 people from 11 different companies came together to produce this timepiece. The two chrome roll bars outlining the face of the watch are reminiscent of the roll bars present on the Can-Am series race cars with the back of the watch displaying dual oil sumps. The piece is encased with one solid piece of crystal, providing many different viewing angles of the watch. The watch’s traditional face displays the winding rotor in cobalt blue, with the time referenced through rotating numerical disks on the top of the piece. Completely unique, this piece features one of the most eye-catching displays of timekeeping ever produced. / $82,000 Westime, Beverly Hills

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DESIRABLES BUYING TIME

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PLANET OCEAN CO-AXIAL MASTER CHRONOMETER GMT

By Omega

This new and highly inventive model of the Seamaster line derives its name from the total darkness found 300 meters below the ocean’s surface. The case is 100% ceramic with only the faintest hints of white gold, orange accents and white stitching to highlight the darkness of the piece. A newly fashioned screw-in case back contains a patented Naiad Lock that helps to achieve a fantastic water resistant seal that is tested to 60 bar. Inside the case is a self-winding Omega Master Chronometer movement with a 60-hour power reserve and a rhodium plated rotor.

Measuring a massive 45.5 millimeters across with two crowns, the face will be easy to see even at the greatest depths. / $11,700 OMEGA, Beverly Center

COSMOGRAPH DAYTONA

By Rolex

The stainless-steel Daytona has long been one of the most desirable models in the Rolex lineup of watches. This latest version of the watch has been fitted with a black ceramic bezel that harkens back to the legendary 1965 model that garnered the brand a great deal of notoriety. The Cosmograph contains a self-winding proprietary Rolex chronograph movement that is titled Superlative – a reference to the heightened brand standard that the movement must be accurate to within two seconds in each twenty-four period. The black bezel can be paired with a white face and contrasting black dials or a black face with contrasting white dials. The 40-mm case maintains the fashionable yet understated ethos of the Rolex brand and continues the legendary legacy of fine watchmaking. / $12,000 Polacheck’s Jewelers, Calabasas

Desirables - Time

ATMOS 568 DESK CLOCK

By Jaeger-LeCoultre

Designer Marc Newsom has collaborated with legendary watchmaker JLC to produce a visually stunning desk clock that draws the eye like an ar tistic masterpiece. Encased in a large Baccarat crystal cabinet, the movement appears to be floating in the cube with all its gears and par ts on display. The transparent face is tastefully decorated with brilliant blue markers while the contoured hands ar tfully integrate a full moon phase, and a more subtle dial displaying the months of the calendar. A few gold accents produce a richness of depth and color to highlight the technical wizardry that is achieved by the movement, which is bolted to the back of the case but appears to be floating within the cube. The Atmos movement is powered by a sealed capsule of gases that expands and contracts with different variations of temperature. This expansion and contraction winds the drive spring of the watch, requiring no human intervention to keep the clock running. The gear trains of the movement, which are entirely on display, require no oil because of the precision of their design. Even the smallest variations of temperature in one’s office will keep the watch working perfectly for years. / $28,000 Polacheck’s Jewelers, Calabasas

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CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

I NTRODUCI NG

PREMI UM SEATI NG AT SANTA ANI TA Thebes ts eat si nt hehous ear ewai t i ngf oryou.

Enj oypr i vat e,l uxur yaccomodat i onsi nyourowns ui t ewi t hf i nedi ni ng,per s onal wager i ngconci er geands pect acul arvi ewsofwor l dcl as sThor oughbr edr aci ng.

285W.Hunt i ngt onDr i ve,Ar cadi a,CA |( 626)5746383 |s ant aani t a. com

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INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY OPINION 48 THE CITY OF ANGELS IS FLYING HIGH

by Howard Marks LISTS 51 EXITS & ACQUISITIONS 52 NEXTGEN 10

Innovation & Technology - Intro

60 LA’S FASTEST GROWING COMPANIES VISIONARIES 54 EVA HO Fika Ventures 55 MARK RAMPOLLA & T.K. PILLAN Powerplant Ventures 56 MIKE JONES Science, Inc. 58 CHRIS DEWOLFE Jam City 65 HARRISON TANG Spokeo

The unsuspecting lobby of Loot Crate’s Los Angeles headquarters welcomes even the most amateur comic book aficionado. Tucked in behind the lobby lies 500,000 square feet of warehouse space, dedicated to supply chain management and order fulfillment.

Photo: Neil G. Phillips

66 IAN SIEGEL ZipRecruiter 67 VIC BELONOGOFF Render Media 68 MICHAEL DUBIN Dollar Shave Club VISIONARY OF THE YEAR 70 CHRIS DAVIS Loot Crate

INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY OF NOTE

BRIEFINGS, UPDATES, AND ANALYSIS

A look at the notable news of some of Los Angeles’ newest, biggest, and most impactful tech companies and projects

SANTA MONICA-BASED SOLARRESERVE SECURES $5B PROJECT IN NEVADA DESERT

Piggybacking on their $900M Crescent Dunes project, SolarReserve announced in October 2016 that it would be building ten solar thermal plants in Nye County, Nevada–225 miles north of Las Vegas–for $5B.

The solar plants will directly address the growing electricity demands of the California markets, generating roughly 7 million megawatt hours annually.

The project, comprised of ten towers, will be the largest of its kind in the world and SolarReserve executive Kevin Smith told the LA Business Journal that the company will be able to save costs on this project due to advances in technology and improvements to their supply chain in addition to economies of scale. / solarreserve.com

Innovation & Technology - Of Note

THE PORT OF LOS ANGELES & GE ARE MAKING SENSE OF BIG DATA

Taking a cue from their neighbors to the north, The Port of Los Angeles – the largest container port by volume in the United States – is partnering with General Electric and launching a pilot program aimed at organizing the big data surrounding the port’s seemingly endless moving parts.

Set to begin in early 2017, the three-month program will combat the issues the port faces in logistics and data allowing all parties involved to see cargo information two weeks in advance as opposed to the current timeline of two days.

“This is groundbreaking. Never before have we had the ability to find and share information like we’re aspiring to do today,” Gene Seroka, executive director of Port of Los Angeles, told Business Insider. “The rest of the world is very excited to see where this can go. It’s very scalable to solve problems in other parts of the world.”

GE has launched a new division called GE Digital and opened a new office in Silicon Valley that employs 1,700 people. GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt added that GE has spent nearly $2B in acquisitions as part of this plan. / portoflosangeles.org HYPERLOOP ONE’S CONTINUED GROWTH

In preparation for the world’s first demonstration of a full Hyperloop system, Los Angelesbased Hyperloop One raised an additional $50M in October, 2016. This $50M of funding brings the total financing raised by Hyperloop One to $150M since founding in 2014.

In addition to new funding, Hyperloop One announced the on boarding of former Uber CFO Brent Callinicos as Chief Financial Advisor as well as the expansion of their North Las Vegas property. Hyperloop One is continuing to build out their 100,000-square-foot metalworking facility and 137-acre test site as they gear up for a highly anticipated test run.

Hyperloop co-founder and executive chairman Shervin Pishevar noted the impact Callinicos’ will have, saying that “Brent has participated from a front row seat in the growth and development of some of the most iconic companies in the world,” adding that he “saw his contributions first hand at Uber when it scaled from 300 to 3,000-plus employees.” / hyperloop-one.com - 46 -

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CALTECH’S $115M GIFT FROM AROUND THE WORLD

TECH TITAN ORACLE MOVES INTO SANTA MONICA WITH RECORD-BREAKING DEAL

In a manner fitting of a script circling Starbucks in Hollywood, Caltech is the recipient of a new $115M donation that will support the higher learning institution’s ability to study the brain. Tianqiao Chen and Chrissy Luo, a couple in Singapore, were watching the news when they saw a CalTech scientist help a quadriplegic use his thoughts to control a robotic arm.

The result, inspiring to say the least, was the man sipping a drink unaided using his arm for the first time in more than a decade. Chen and Luo were so inspired they flew to Pasadena to meet with Richard Andersen, the scientist in question, in person.

Silicon Beach is going to be getting somewhat busier as Malibu-resident Larry Ellison’s Oracle Corporation moves into the neighborhood.

According to the Santa Monica Observer, Oracle purchased a 316,000-sq.-ft. property on Colorado Avenue for $368M or $1,165 per square foot, making the purchase one of the priciest in Los Angeles history.

The building – currently occupied by Viacom – was sold by Invesco, Ltd. and the Worthe Real Estate Group and the new owner is Office Block Investment on behalf of Oracle, America, Inc.

Their $115M gift will support the construction of the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience at Caltech which will bring together biology, engineering, chemistry, physics, and computer science to tackle brain function in an integrated and comprehensive way.

Though based in Redwood City, Calif., Oracle is a Santa Monica tenant (the company leases 200,000 square feet at the Water Garden across the street from its new purchase) and this move can be seen as a sign of the company doubling down on Los Angeles’ burgeoning innovation and technology ecosystems. / oracle.com

Chen and Luo founded Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited in 1999, ultimately becoming the largest online entertainment developer and publisher in China. They have invested $1B in research universities in 2016 in an effort to advance brain research. / caltech.edu

ALL EYES ARE ON SNAP, INC

When Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown launched Snapchat in September 2011, Facebook had not yet purchased Instagram, Tencent had not yet purchased Riot Games, Loot Crate had not yet been founded, and Dollar Shave Club had yet to raise its seed round of funding.

In a little more than five years, Snap, Inc. (as the company is now known) and Evan Spiegel have emerged as – arguably – the most important company and founder in the history of Los Angeles tech. In summer 2016 it was reported that Snapchat users watched 10 billion daily videos and in the U.S. alone, Snapchat has more than 150 million active daily users, including 41% of the highly coveted 18-to-34-year-old demographic.

Innovation & Technology - Of Note

With a projected revenue of $1B in 2017, Snapchat raised $1.8B in financing last summer, valuing it at around $18B, and Spiegel and company show no signs of slowing down. The company rebranded itself as Snap, Inc. and doubled down on their branding introducing their first piece of hardware – Spectacles – which are being marketed and sold organically in New York City.

Looking ahead to 2017 Bloomberg is reporting that Snap, Inc. is looking to raise as much as $4B in its initial public offering, valuing the company as high as $35B. With figures this lofty it’s safe to say that no matter which lens or filter you’re looking through, you should be watching Snap, Inc. / snapchat.com

NOLAN BUSHNELL’S NEWEST VENTURE – MODAL VR – IS THE LATEST IN EXPERIENTIAL ENTERTAINMENT

Nolan Bushnell, the American inventor and Atari founder, is back on the cutting edge of science and technology as the co-founder of Los Angelesbased Modal VR, a virtual reality platform for businesses.

Bushnell and Co-founder Jason Crawford (who also serves as Modal VR’s CEO) built Modal VR to enable companies to create interactive virtual reality experiences that are both life-size and large-scale. Whether turning an empty soccer field into a dystopian laser tag environment or offering multiple users a shared virtual tourism experience, Modal VR will be utilizing both hardware and software as part of their platform.

“We think this is the next generation of VR,” Bushnell said in an interview with Venture Beat. “We want to help enterprises solve problems by looking at them from another point of view.”

Once built, Modal VR sets up in a matter of minutes, is completely wirelessly, and can house multiple users sharing the same experience.

All in all, this allows Modal VR to offer users experiences in themed entertainment, interactive attractions, tourism and real estate experiences, and more. / modalvr.com CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

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I N N OVATION & TE CH NO LO G Y O P- E D

Innovation & Technology - Marks THE CITY OF ANGELS IS FLYING HIGH The capital of media and the most entrepreneurial city in the world is quickly morphing into the capital of technology, shaping entirely new industries

BY HOWARD MARKS

V

isitors who come to Los Angeles always complain about the traffic.

This makes sense because they do not know how to plan their day and avoid it altogether. We Angelenos do.

We spend our days planning meetings around the insane traffic. Traffic exists as a consequence of the success of the city.

Think about it. If the city’s traffic decreased to a tolerable level, everyone in the country would move here. It is your guess as to what happens next.

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Today Los Angeles has its own Zeitgeist. It is living the dream. It is paradise. Yes, our traffic is among the worst in the country, but our creativity has also ascended to new heights. Yves Saint Laurent worldwide design studio is now in Los Angeles. Why is this important? Well, think about this: A top haute couture designer is creating its collections inspired by the Angeleno culture. Anytime you fire up Instagram and watch cool people hanging out in cool places, you are watching Los Angeles.

Kim Kardashian, Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Connor, Captain Sparklez and hundreds more YouTube and reality stars all hanging out in the same city. I know, we get our fair share of LA haters, but, then again, why did our 10M+ population grow by 1.1% last year?

Technology has always been part of the LA story. The first telecommunication satellite; the first email sent out of an office at UCLA; from Internet monetization via pay for click, the brainchild

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

of Bill Gross, to contextual website ads invented by Gil Elbaz, and now ubiquitously used by Google and basically everyone else. Add to this new names such as Snap, Inc. (formerly Snapchat), Dollar Shave Club, The Honest Company, JustFab, MeUndies, etc. Snap, Inc. deserves a special award because it is quite possible it will be our first Internet mega hit. Beyond a unicorn, this one is a dragon and rumored to be going public at a whopping $25B market cap.

This Angeleno company is redefining media and with it an entire industry.

Welcome to the new capital of social media. Another whale is Riot Games, which publishes League of Legends, the largest game in the world, and has by itself created eSports, a new category of its own with dreams of becoming bigger than the NFL. Activision Blizzard (of which I am the co-founder) is second in this tsunami with Call of Duty and many more titles. Welcome to the new capital of electronic sports. Oh and I forgot, we now have our own NFL team working its way into a $2.5B stadium. The old meets the new. Welcome back the LA Rams after 32 years. We did not just wait, we founded a new industry.

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The Great LA Financial Disappearing Act

Los Angeles has a new best friend.

Capital. One of the biggest complaints you hear in Silicon Beach is about the dearth of available venture capital in our city. Yes, venture capitalists have flown on Southwest to come in and write checks to Snap Inc., Dollar Shave Club, and The Honest Company; however, they are not coming on strong. It is merely a trickle. Given the size of Los Angeles and its diverse cultures and creativity, you would think more would want to invest in our city. Well, we have news for these Sand Hill folks who would rather

also located in downtown from 1929 until 1986. The '80s were good to Los Angeles and capital was plentiful. It is hard to pinpoint exactly what happened, but seminal events such as the bankruptcy of Drexel Burnham Lambert, which although it was technically headquartered in New York, was led

by Michael Milken in Beverly Hills who singlehandedly created the junk bond market and was responsible for raising capital for hundreds of firms including Turner Broadcasting and Golden Nugget Resorts. This innovation in capital formation was born right here in LA and even though Drexel was liquidated in

Technology has always been part of the LA story. The first telecommunication satellite; the first email sent out of an office at UCLA; from Internet monetization via pay for click, the brainchild of Bill Gross, to contextual website ads invented by Gil Elbaz.

the most important bill he signed and not the controversial Obamacare. Why am I saying this? Entrepreneurship is probably the most important part of our economy - always was and still is. However, during the 2007 Great Recession the number of new companies formed shrunk and the amount of money invested by venture capital firms imploded. It took a few years for our economy to recover but even today we see fewer companies being formed every year than prior to 2007.

What gives? It is simply access to capital.

We cannot downplay the importance capital offers to building companies and creating new jobs.

The JOBS Act has two very important rules: the first one is the Regulation A+ which is a revival of an old rule which was not used anymore. This new facelift is important. Companies can now raise up to $50M directly from the general public without using a broker dealer or any investment bank. This new rule, as I dub it, the Online Public Offering (OPO), is experiencing tremendous growth with companies raising millions in capital.

This rule eliminates the expensive and often impractical costs of raising money from the public. The Blue Sky rules, which require companies to register in every state where they intend to offer shares, is eliminated. The requirement to use a broker dealer to sell the shares is eliminated. This is truly revolutionary. The only downside is companies need to stomach around $100,000 in costs to pay lawyers and CPAs and wait 3 months for the SEC to qualify the offering. However, the gift just keeps giving with the second important rule called Regulation Crowdfunding, which allows companies to raise $1M directly from the general public; and this time costs are in the thousands with virtually no delay in launching the offering. Since last May, 42 companies have collectively raised over $10M, and this is just the beginning.

OPOs have raised over $100M since June of 2015 when this all started.

Innovation & Technology - Marks fly private to Hawaii than Southwest to Burbank: competition has just arrived.

Let’s actually be a little more brutal and honest than that. The status quo is no longer acceptable and investing in white Stanford graduate males is just not interesting anymore. The crowd is going to replace you the venture capitalist and use their immense wisdom to decide who gets to raise capital. This may sound crazy, but it is not. The democratization of capital is going to start right here and right now in LA. It is interesting to know that in the '80s, Los Angeles had a thriving capital markets community. We had brokerage houses, banks, and bankers all headquartered here. The Financial District, also sometimes called Wall Street of the West, held corporate headquarters for Bank of America, Farmers, Merchants Bank, the Crocker National Bank, California Bank & Trust, and International Savings & Exchange Bank.

The Los Angeles Stock Exchange was

the early 1990s, the impact it had on how companies raised capital is enormous. Banks and brokerage firms were purchased and merged into national conglomerates and local capital just went down the drain. This happened all over the country, of course, not just in Los Angeles. Consolidation in multiple industries spurred by innovative financing techniques led to the big companies getting bigger and centralizing operations.

Combined with the trend towards global outsourcing, a number of once vibrant business communities found themselves struggling. To compete in this brave new world of limited access to funding, startups were forced to adapt or die.

Jump from the 1990s to today and we are about to see a brand new capital formation industry created in Los Angeles make its mark, signifying the return of capital creation in a form that is something completely different. In April 2012, Obama signed the JOBS Act and no one really noticed. It is probably going to be

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

LA Is the Crowd Whisperer

The crucial insight behind the adoption of the JOBS Act is that the power of the crowd can enable non-wealthy investors to turn the tables and invest on an even footing with wealthy “accredited� investors, who in the past were, by and large, the only ones able to take advantage of opportunities to invest in promising startups. In the rules for Regulation CF,

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I N N OVATION & TE CH NO LO G Y O P- E D

the collective “wisdom of the crowd” is cited as the means by which a large number of investors can decide if they want to make relatively small contributions to fund a company. In statistics, the value of increasing the amount of inputs to improve the accuracy of a calculation derived from a set of data is well-appreciated. The same principle underlies the power of crowdfunding, enabling a large number of non-accredited investors to benefit from pooling their collective knowledge together when it comes to making decisions about which OPOs are deserving of funding.

Los Angeles is going to play a pivotal role in the new Online Public Offering industry, with firms such as Crowdfunder, Flashfunders, and StartEngine (of which I am the CEO) helping dozens and soon hundreds of companies raise the capital they need. Los Angeles is the right town for OPOs because they require marketing in order to generate interest among potential investors from the general public. Remember, there are no brokers involved. Imagine selling a house without a real estate broker. This is exactly that. Companies sell shares directly and without any intermediaries. However, this means they need to market themselves. Good news is that in Los Angeles

there is no lack of video production firms, social media marketing agencies, online marketing platforms, and influencers. Talking about influencers is important because most YouTube stars live in Los Angeles. This includes Captain Sparklez (a co-founder with

It will be easier to raise money here than in Duluth, Georgia or Ann Arbor, Michigan. My point is the new way to raise capital is to do it through marketing and social media and this is today a forte of the town of Los Angeles.

Fashion, brands, social media, tech-

Los Angeles is going to play a pivotal role in the new Online Public Offering industry, with firms such as Crowdfunder, Flashfunders, and StartEngine ... helping dozens and soon hundreds of companies raise the capital they need.

Innovation & Technology - Marks me at XREAL), Michelle Pham, and of course the Kardashians. These influencers can make a crowdfunding campaign go viral. This means they can help raise capital for companies. This makes Los Angeles the go-to town to raise money.

A sampling of Los Angeles companies and brands shaping the region

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CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

nology, space, transportation – we have it all. This kind of leadership does not exist elsewhere. This is why LA is flying higher than any other city. The crowdfunding revolution can help it fly higher still. 

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I N N OVATION & TE CH NO LO GY E XI T S & ACQ UI SI TI O NS

Another Big Exit Year for LA A recap of some of the largest deals and other notable transactions in 2016

BY BEN KUO, FOUNDER, SOCALTECH.COM

The year 2016 was an interesting one for the Los Angeles area startup community. In February, local venture capitalist Mark Suster warned that the local startup community was “ready for a crash,” saying there was a “reset” of the startup industry, and there were widespread worries among both entrepreneurs and investors on what the future of startups in the region might be.

However, the rest of 2016 ended up proving naysayers and worriers alike wrong, with what has turned out to be one of the best exit

years for Southern California, and in particular, Los Angeles.

Six regional companies have had IPOs since CSQ’s issue last year: BlackLine Systems, Fulgent Genetics, The Trade Desk, NantHealth, Everbridge, and Impinj. In addition, Dollar Shave Club had a $1B exit.

Here’s the list of all of the Los Angeles area exits in 2016 (plus for those publicly traded, market cap as of 10/28/16):

LOS ANGELES’ LARGEST MARKET CAPS & EXITS IN 2016

Innovation & Technology - Exits NANTHEALTH $91M IPO at a $1.56B market cap NantHealth, led by serial entrepreneur and billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, was the highest valuation ever for a biotech company at its IPO, $2.6B — although its shares have slipped since its debut.

BLACKLINE SYSTEMS IPO at a $1.1B market cap Blackline Systems, founded by Therese Tucker, took a boring and tedious part of accounting — the financial close — and automated what had been the bane of many a newly minted accounting grad: pen-and-paper and Excel spreadsheet reconciliation of accounts. Tucker bootstrapped BlackLine until Silver Luke Sumeru took a strategic stake in the company in 2013.

DOLLAR SHAVE CLUB $1B acquisition by Unilever Dollar Shave Club, led by Michael Dubin, was literally built upon a viral video – one by Dubin himself, extolling the virtues of the company’s subscription razors in a comedic video debut. The company became so successful in marketing its razor service that it was eventually sued by Gillette when Gillette’s razor sales were negatively affected.

OTHER NOTABLE IPOS, EXITS, AND ACQUISITIONS AURRION $165M acquisition by Juniper Networks CONNECTIFIER Acquired by Linkedin EVERBRIDGE $90M IPO at a $391.4M market cap FAMEBIT Acquired by Google FULGENT GENETICS $37.8M IPO at a $158M market cap HELLOSOCIETY Acquired by The New York Times IMPINJ $67.2M IPO at a $455.4M market cap

THE TRADE DESK $84.M IPO at a $994.85M market cap Relatively unknown except in the online advertising industry, The Trade Desk grew from a few desks at the Ventura Ventures startup incubator to the largest technology company in the City of Ventura. Jeff Green, the founder of The Trade Desk, is a serial entrepreneur who sold his last company to Microsoft.

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

KURION $350M acquisition by Veolia ORBITERA $100M acquisition by Google TOUCHCOMMERCE $215M acquisition

by Nuance

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I N N OVATION & TE CH NO LO GY NE XT G E N 1 0

NEXTGEN

10

TOM ALEXANDER Founder & CEO PK4 Media

Introducing the 2017 Innovation & Technology NextGen 10. As the local strength and global impact of Los Angeles’ innovation and technology entrepreneurs and companies grows, so too does the strength and impact of our NextGen 10. This year’s group, compiled with the help of some of the city’s brightest minds and creative talents (including Anthony Pritzker and Chuck Davis), features an eclectic mix of founders, CEOs, and other C-Suite executives whose companies have reshaped the way we live our lives today and continue to mold how we will live them tomorrow. We’re proud to introduce, recognize, and honor the 2017 Innovation & Technology NextGen 10.

STEFANIE BOTELHO Founder & CEO Fitzroy Toys

MICHAEL BROUKHIM Co-CEO / Co-founder FabFitFun

RACHEL BULLOCK COO Render Media

GABE GREENBAUM Partner Pritzker Group Venture Capital

Innovation & Technology - Next Gen 10 AGE 35

AGE 30

AGE 31

AGE 36

RESIDENCE West LA

Harvard Business School RESIDENCE West Hollywood COMPANY HQ Downtown LA COMPANY FOUNDED 2014 INDUSTRY Retail Technology MENTORS Jason Lehmbeck, David Lee, Chris Ahearn, and Chuck Davis

Stanford Law School RESIDENCE West Hollywood COMPANY HQ Los Angeles COMPANY FOUNDED 2010 INDUSTRY eCommerce MENTORS My co-founders, Daniel Broukhim & Katie Kitchens; my parents AWARDS & HONORS Steven J. Sample Teaching Award at USC School of Cinematic Arts; Harvard College’s Thomas T. Hoopes Prize for research on ethical consumption

University; Brandeis University RESIDENCE West Hollywood COMPANY HQ Los Angeles COMPANY FOUNDED 2011 INDUSTRY Digital Media MENTORS Pat McKee, a publisher at McGraw-Hill where I worked my first 4 years in Los Angeles AWARDS & HONORS #2 fastest-growing media company in the nation on the 2016 Inc. 5000 list; #33 nationally and #2 in Los Angeles on the Deloitte Fast 500 list

APP I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT

APPS I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT

Slack

LinkedIn and Uber

EDUCATION UC San Diego COMPANY HQ El Segundo

COMPANY FOUNDED 2009

INDUSTRY Digital Advertising

MENTORS While no specific mentors, I have learned much from so many people.

AWARDS & HONORS Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2015 Semifinalist; Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 Award Winner 2015; 2-Time Forbes Most Promising Company; 3-Time Inc. 500|5000 Award Winner; 3-Time LA Business Journal Fastest Growing Minority-Owned Company; 3-Time LA Business Journal Fastest Growing Company

EDUCATION Harvard College;

AWARDS & HONORS

2016 Forbes 30 under 30 in Enterprise Technology; Interop/ InformationWeek Elite 100; 2016 Pearl Award APP I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT

Instagram. It’s my favorite way to source new makers and stockists for our marketplace.

WHY LA TECH IS EXCITING

The incredible growth and collaboration in the LA tech scene

LA tech feels like a small world and there is a strong sense of community focused on collaboration, partnership, and shared growth.

TECH COMPANIES / PEOPLE

TECH COMPANY ADMIRED

ADMIRED Jeff Bezos, Jeff Weiner,

Alibaba for spearheading B2B e-commerce

APP I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT

Things App (my to-do list) WHY LA TECH IS EXCITING

and Apple

LAST THING BEFORE BED Read

to decompress

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EDUCATION Harvard College;

EDUCATION Wake Forest

WHY LA TECH IS EXCITING

WHY LA TECH IS EXCITING

Limitless ambition thanks to companies like SpaceX and Snap, Inc. It’s hard to put a ceiling on what we can build in LA.

There are fewer preconceived notions about who can and should do what, which results in a “let’s try it” attitude. There’s a real sense that the sky’s the limit.

TECH COMPANIES / PEOPLE ADMIRED Amazon & Jeff Bezos,

SpaceX/Tesla & Elon Musk

LAST THING BEFORE BED Read

LAST THING BEFORE BED

Make a to-do list for the next day and disconnect

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

TECH COMPANIES / PEOPLE ADMIRED Gil Elbaz at Factual, The

Honest Company, Snap, Inc.

AGE 38

EDUCATION Washington University in St. Louis; Northwestern RESIDENCE Santa Monica COMPANY HQ West LA COMPANY FOUNDED 1996 INDUSTRY Venture Capital MENTORS Partnership at PGVC; my parents AWARDS & HONORS Crains #Tech50; Techweek 100 APPS I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT

Amazon Prime Now, LinkedIn, Uber, Wunderlist WHY LA TECH IS EXCITING

The growing talent pool, with increasingly diversified skillsets, disrupting multiple industry verticals TECH COMPANIES / PEOPLE ADMIRED Jeff Bezos and Amazon

for dynamic thought leadership and continuous innovation; Facebook, Google, and Elon Musk for his boldness in tackling some of the world’s largest problems

LAST THING BEFORE BED

LAST THING BEFORE BED

Read (which sometimes keeps me up all night

After tucking in my son and saying goodnight to my wife, I look at my calendar and think about ways that I might be more effective and helpful in the days ahead.

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JAMES ILIFF Co-founder & Chief Creative Officer Survios

YAIR RIEMER CMO CareerArc

JUSTIN REZVANI Founder & CEO theAmplify

JEN RINGEL Director of Product ZipRecruiter

JULIE YOUNG Co-founder SH//FT

Innovation & Technology - Next Gen 10 AGE 26

EDUCATION USC

RESIDENCE Sawtelle (Japantown) COMPANY HQ Culver City

COMPANY FOUNDED 2013 INDUSTRY VR, Gaming

MENTOR Eric Klein of Lemnos

Labs

AWARDS & HONORS 3 Proto Awards in 2014; GDC Narrative Award in 2013 APPS I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT

I can live without a phone; it’s nice to unplug at every opportunity.

WHY LA TECH IS EXCITING

It’s the nexus of entertainment, the perfect place for the VR revolution. We have everything at our fingertips for creating this new medium together.

TECH COMPANY ADMIRED

Valve LAST THING BEFORE BED

Listen to a meditation app or read a science fiction novel

AGE 33

AGE 28

AGE 34

RESIDENCE Sherman Oaks

RESIDENCE Venice Beach

RESIDENCE West Hollywood

COMPANY FOUNDED 2009

COMPANY FOUNDED 2013

MENTOR Robin Richards

MENTORS David Jones, Mike

EDUCATION Vanderbilt

EDUCATION Cal Poly Pomona

COMPANY HQ Burbank

COMPANY HQ Culver City

INDUSTRY Internet

INDUSTRY Branding Technology

AWARDS & HONORS Spoken

Rezvani (my father), and Emma Cookson AWARDS & HONORS College of Business Administration Class of 2011 Graduation Speaker; California State Assembly Certificate of Recognition 2011; Student of the Year International Business & Marketing Department in ‘09-’10

on vast range of topics locally and nationally including at SXSW in Austin and Techfire in Los Angeles; also sit on the board of Medgar Evers College in NYC APP I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT

Waze WHY LA TECH IS EXCITING

Seasoned entrepreneurs and VCs to collaborate with, a mayor that supports innovation, and top talent from local colleges and universities TECH COMPANIES ADMIRED

Amazon, Netflix, WhatsApp LAST THING BEFORE BED

Write in my 5 Minute Journal

APP I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT

Instagram WHY LA TECH IS EXCITING

The collaboration and community.

Everyone I have met is so supportive to help grow and collaborate on work to help the city and industry.

EDUCATION Harvard

COMPANY HQ Santa Monica COMPANY FOUNDED 2010 INDUSTRY Technology

MENTOR When I was at MTV, I spent 6 years working with the company’s EVP David Gale.

APP I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT

Spotify - more specifically, a country playlist I’ve been cultivating for the past 5 years WHY LA TECH IS EXCITING

I’ve had two polar opposite tech experiences in LA - first at a very small, struggling startup and now at rapidly expanding company in hyper-growth mode. The fact that there’s room for both of those to exist is exciting.

WHY LA TECH IS EXCITING

The opportunity to innovate storytelling using technology. This is especially true in the VR/AR space where creators and technologists are working together to immerse people within stories.

TECH COMPANIES / PEOPLE

Sandberg, Crypton Future Media, 8i, Tencent

LAST THING BEFORE BED

Watch an old episode of Law & Order - any will do but SVU is obviously preferred

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

APP I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT

Google Maps

I’m constantly delighted by all of the ways that Amazon continues to make my life easier.

Ben Horowitz LAST THING BEFORE BED

EDUCATION The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania RESIDENCE Pico-Robertson COMPANY HQ Los Angeles COMPANY FOUNDED 2015 INDUSTRY Nonprofit MENTORS Erik Rydholm, Tom Gardner, Nonny de la Peña, Ollen Douglass AWARDS & HONORS Sundance Film Festival Official Selection 2016

TECH COMPANY ADMIRED

TECH PERSON ADMIRED

Reflect on my day and ensure I completed the intentions I set out from the morning. Set my alarm to ensure I will get at least 7 hours of sleep, key to having an amazing day.

AGE 24

ADMIRED Scooter Braun, Sheryl

LAST THING BEFORE BED

Turn on the same audio book I’ve been listening to for six months and then proceed to (once again) pass out before I’m able to retain any of it

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I N N OVATION & TE CH NO LO GY E VA HO

Meet the VCs | seed round| EVA HO [LOS ANGELES]

OPTIMIZING TECH JUNCTURES Eva Ho teamed up with TX Zhuo to launch Fika Ventures and upgrade LA’s entrepreneur landscape

BY ANDREA ZARCZYNSKI

D

iverse international cultural experiences as a child set the stage for Eva Ho’s rise to venture capital visionary. As a recent general partner at San Francisco-based Susa Ventures venture capital technology fund since January 2013, she strategically invests in founders whose products are building value and defensibility through data, network effects, and economies of scale.

For the past seven months, Ho has also been working with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and his administration to define long-term economic growth initiatives supporting the city as a launching pad where entrepreneurs and start-ups can thrive.

“I think that my early experience, my background has had great influence over almost every aspect of my life,” Ho says.

“So much of it is my family, my father.

He was really a true explorer.”

Ho learned from her father to continually seek out new learning opportunities and identify the positive in every challenge, specifically racism, economic struggle, and culture shock, all of which Ho encountered as a child.

Home-schooled in a desolate African desert, Ho grew up to be a shy, curious girl. She immigrated at age seven with her parents and siblings to the United States, where the family lived in a housing project in Boston. Struggling to build a life for the family, Ho’s parents connected with social services and took labor jobs at a local restaurant.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in biology from Harvard in 1994, Ho earned an MBA from the Cornell University Johnson Graduate School of Management in 1998. She then moved to Los Angeles, and her entire family followed.

Ho was working as director of strategy

for Stamps.com in 2000, when the tech company began to fizzle. Seeking new opportunities, she arranged a meeting with Applied Semantics co-founders Gil Elbaz and Adam Weissman, and joined their company as director of marketing the same year. After Applied Semantics was acquired by Google in 2003, Ho assumed a new job as senior product marketing manager for Google and YouTube, and her business relationship with Elbaz endured.

“They’re really unique and special guys, and dreamers,” Ho says about Elbaz and Weissman. “They described their vision to me…I was kind of enamored by the picture that they painted.

Almost two decades later, we are still working together.”

In 2008, Ho began exploring venture capital as a potential next move. Several large funds approached her, but she declined the offers.

“My DNA is very much entrepreneurial...I didn’t feel that I could make those firms truly my own,” says Ho, who was more interested in starting other companies at the time.

After dipping into a few angel investments, Ho decided in 2012 to formalize the investments with the launch of Susa Ventures. After learning many new lessons at Susa, she felt ready to commit to running a multi-fund franchise as a long-term, professional investor.

With support from the Susa team, Ho recently left the company to start Fika Ventures with long-time friend Tianxiang (TX) Zhuo, who most recently served as managing partner of Karlin Ventures (an affiliate of Karlin Asset Management private investment firm).

The new fund is planned to launch in early 2017 with a second round of raising $40M underway.

EVA HO General Partner, Fika Ventures AGE 44 EDUCATION B.A., Harvard University; M.B.A.,

Cornell University

RESIDENCE Los Angeles PASSIONS OUTSIDE THE OFFICE Photography,

Innovation & Technology - Fika

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CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

running, and travelling to cold, faraway places

FIKA VENTURES

PARTNERS Eva Ho, TX Zhuo FOUNDED 2016 HQ Los Angeles VALUE OF FUND $40M

“Every entrepreneur who has met Eva raves about their interactions with her and holds her in the highest regard,” says Zhuo. “While a lot of this is attributable to her sheer wit and deep problem-solving skills in challenging situations, the thing that comes through the most is her sincerity and how she goes above and beyond to help them in every situation.”

Based on past experience, Ho and Zhuo choose to support founders in Business to Business and marketplaces, among other spaces. Ho says that while Los Angeles has long supported consumer-oriented tech companies like Snap Inc., now tech-heavy infrastructure ventures are on the rise, and those are the types of initiatives that Fika Ventures will back.

“Los Angeles is an incredible place to be,” says Ho, who remains inspired by nonprofit founders in her social circle.

“We could leverage so many great things in the city now to produce super useful products and tools in the civic, philanthropic, as well as the private sector.” 

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I N N OVATION & TE CH NO LO GY POW E R PL A NT VE NTURE S

Meet the VCs | seed, A ROUND| POWERPLANT [MANHATTAN BEACH]

MODERN MERCENARIES ON A PLANT-SLANT MISSION One of LA’s newest VC funds was launched by four founders whose previous ventures–Veggie Grill and Zico Water–have them ahead of a booming trend

BY JESSICA FERGUSON

S

ometimes a revolution is born out of a boardroom, and sometimes it is the product of a lunch break. It was the latter for Zico Coconut Water founder Mark Rampolla, whose frequent lunchtime visits to his local Veggie Grill led him to invest both in the business, and with its cofounders – Kevin Boylan and T.K. Pillan.

Today the three “plant-slant” entrepreneurs have debuted their $42M plantcentric investment fund, Powerplant Ventures, with partner Dan Beldy.

What brought the team together, aside from a mutual affinity for vegetarian fare?

“We all shared a philosophy about life and the role business can play as an impetus for social change in the world,” says

To make that positive global impact, the four knew they must first find (and fund) companies with shared values, unique products, and capable leadership. “We want people who are really interested in making a positive impact on the world but who are also practical executors,” says Rampolla. “It’s not just do-gooders. It’s not just missionaries. It’s also mercenaries–people hell-bent on seeing their vision come to life.”

Unfortunately, in a world where 97% of entrepreneurs will ultimately fail, Rampolla recognizes the urgency for innovators who actually understand the realities of what it takes to build a business while changing the world. He says,

While the firm is currently only investing in companies within the United States, it views the impact of its American projects on a global scale. And the group sees that impact starting with and springing from Los Angeles. “LA is a natural hub for us.

We’re all based here. We all value our families and our community connections.

We don’t want to give those things up,” says Rampolla, adding that LA is one of the world’s most important consumer markets as well as one of the largest, most progressive food markets on the planet.

When asked whether their initial interest was sparked by their desire to promote healthy and sustainable food options or to disrupt the entire modern food system, Rampolla says, “Fundamentally, there are a lot of ways to affect change in the world and the way we do it is to prove to investors and institutions that there is an opportunity to disrupt this food system ... for the better of people and of the planet.”

From Zico to Veggie Grill, from Powerplant to plant-slant diets, the four investors are confident this recently rising trend is just the beginning, and they are making it their mission to empower other upstarts who share the same vision for a sustainable, plant-centric, better-for-you future. 

Innovation & Technology - Powerplant We want people who are really interested in making a positive impact on the world but who are also practical executors.

Rampolla. After selling Zico, he dabbled in some angel investing in the health and wellness arena, discovering a love for the space. He and his Powerplant partners saw a great deal of plant-based brands breaking through the mainstream market, and they firmly positioned themselves ahead of that trend.

“All of these developments were epitomizing where consumers and the industry was heading,” says Rampolla. “We all shared a thesis that this was a financial and business opportunity, but it was also very much a decision about the impact we all wanted to make on the world.”

“We look for an entrepreneur who has a 30,000-foot vision of the way the world is changing, but a ground-level, practical plan to get it done in the first six months.

That’s a rare combination.”

Logistically, Powerplant Ventures reserves 5% of the fund for early stage, pre-revenue seed investing, but typically, they look primarily at emerging growth companies.

“For us, the ideal stage is between $1 million and $10 million in revenue, where a company has proof of concept,” says Rampolla.

“They’ve gotten traction in one market or consumer base or channel, but they are trying to figure out the next phase of growth.”

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

POWERPLANT VENTURES

PARTNERS Mark Rampolla, T.K. Pillan,

Kevin Boylan, Dan Beldy FOUNDED 2015 HQ Manhattan Beach VALUE OF FUND $42M INVESTED $15M

NOTABLE PORTFOLIO COMPANIES

Beyond Meat, Hail Merry, Juicero, REBBL MISSION

To support visionary companies that leverage the power of plants to deliver better nutrition in more sustainable and ethical ways - 55 -

I N N OVATION & TE CH NO LO GY MI KE J O NE S

Meet the VCs | seed, A,B,C round| MIKE JONES

THE SCIENCE BEHIND STARTUP SUCCESS- Mike Jones Innovation & Technology [SANTA MONICA]

From DogVacay to Dollar Shave Club, Mike Jones has backed some of the region’s biggest tech disruptors

BY ALLANA BARONI PHOTOS BY NEIL G. PHILLIPS

T

he name sets the stage for the Science, Inc. experience. Founder and CEO Mike Jones says the company believes in startups with a formulaic methodology of growth. “I look for businesses where they have positive economics, we can leverage paid marketing dollars in order to grow them, [and] there is a system around them with some level of predictability which is much more attuned to a scientific method rather than random ideas.” Jones understands the mindset of an entrepreneur looking for startup capital, as he has been starting businesses since high school; the music / pop culture magazine he started during college eventually grew into national distribution.

By the time Jones was a senior in college, he had transitioned into running PBJ Digital, building websites and software with his two partners in Eugene, Oregon. When his wife, Jennifer, was accepted into grad school in Los Angeles, Jones moved PBJ to Southern California. He eventually sold his share of the company, then gathered three - 56 -

24-year-olds and started Userplane, a service that powers chat experiences for dating and language learning sites.

In 2006, Userplane was acquired by AOL for $40M. “AOL was my first job. I entered the company as an SVP to oversee Userplane and social initiatives,” he recalls.

After about two years at AOL, Jones switched gears and transitioned into investing. “I was one of the few people in LA who knew how to build and sell tech businesses, and became networked within the early-stage tech community in LA as a very active angel investor.”

Jones also spent time in private equity with American Capital, where he participated in acquiring a company, running a company, and joining the board of a company. All three were sold, giving Jones valuable insight into the private equity markets.

Famously recruited out of private equity to run Myspace, Jones took over as CEO with two other guys as a trifecta of management to recover the growth of Myspace. “When it became clear that CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

Facebook was going to win the social battle, we broke up the pieces of the company and sold it off for News Corp,” he says.

The goals of Science are threefold: First, identify great entrepreneurs, get their products live, and find them supporting funding to build their dreams.

The second is to drive growth for these businesses, and third is to realize the enterprise value of the businesses through private transactions or IPOs. What does Jones look for in early stage companies seeking his expertise? “We have a strategy that identifies disruptable markets in areas that we think the world will need.

We call them disruption spheres of interest,” he says.

One example of the Science thesis concerns commerce arising from traditional brands’ lack of customer interaction. “When you have a product you buy all the time and are deeply loyal, it felt odd to me that the brand would never know your name. The magic of direct to consumer wasn’t just getting it delivered through an online purchase – the magic

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is actually having a brand that connected with you as an individual and recognized you as an individual customer,” explains Jones.

Dollar Shave Club reflects the success of the commerce thesis. Science was the first to invest in the direct-to-consumer subscription razor company, which sold to giant Unilever for $1B in July 2016.

The company’s founder Michael Dubin met Jones through a friend. “I saw a big, bold prospective in the men’s grooming market with a distinctive vantage point.

I loved his brand, it sounded like a good mission, so I decided to go on the mission together with Dubin,” he says.

The ingredients of a valuable entrepreneur change from sector to sector and firm to firm, but Jones has identified the through-line for Science to be those who are personally connected to the problem, working for reasons way beyond financial reward, highly receptive to advice and guidance, curious by nature, and understand the problem they’re tackling. These entrepreneurs may not know the exact solution but they understand the problem. “I look at early-stage companies and entrepreneurs as putting smart people on boats, setting them in a direction, and hopefully they find the territory they are going after. Never have we executed exactly on the business plan set out; it’s more like, do we have a great captain of this boat?” To Jones, a good captain is not only effective at bringing together great team members and selling others on their vision but is also personally connected. “We are always coming in pre-revenue, and always bet on the entrepreneur first,” says Jones.

Science partner Peter Pham, who has deep Silicon Valley connections, spends all his time socializing their businesses

with Valley investors. Jones points out that LA continues to develop better concepts and smarter content, and is pursuing more meaningful businesses than in previous years. Companies with substantial wealth and multi-billion dollar valuations are now staying in LA; Riot Games, Snap, Inc., Cornerstone OnDemand, and Dollar Shave Club are great examples of valuable companies that started, and stayed, in LA. “It’s a great time to be investing in LA,” Jones confirms. “No doubt, LA understands content and brands, and the creative nature of connecting consumers to brands.”

Jones is particularly excited about

FameBit helps build personal businesses by connecting YouTube and Instagram influencers with brands looking for promotion.

Jones thinks that the sector providing entertainment for phones has room for a large shift in strategy and growth - a moment where you could build a major media company through mobile apps, Facebook Live, Instagram, and Snap, Inc. Over the past 18 months, Science has invested more than $5M in its mobile asset base, giving it a unique understanding in driving adoption and consumption within mobile apps for entertainment and content.

The magic is actually having a brand that connected with you as an individual and recognized you as an individual customer.

Innovation & Technology - Mike Jones three main sectors: content for phones, content-driven commerce, and marketplaces. Science continues to build businesses in the social marketplace sector where they can put people with talent to work in new ways. Through the DogVacay app, for example, you can earn income by taking care of other people’s dogs if you love dogs. Or, through the Handstand app, if you are a personal trainer, you can participate in a marketplace that drives more business.

Jones’ joy and support system is his wife and two children. He loves his life in Malibu and is completely fulfilled by his family life and his Science life. But be clear, don’t mess with his Amazon account. He says of all the tech that he could do without, he’d rather give up his Google search than surrender his Amazon. “It changed my physical life–wow, you gave me time back!” Time for Jones to pursue his passion of helping people follow their dreams...through Science. 

MIKE JONES CEO, Science AGE 41

EDUCATION University of Oregon RESIDENCE Malibu FAMILY Wife; two kids PASSIONS OUTSIDE THE OFFICE Traveling,

surfing, snowboarding

CAN’T-MISS EVENTS Annual Lobby Conference, Recode, kid’s soccer games

SCIENCE, INC. FOUNDED 2011 EMPLOYEES 60 # OF PORTFOLIO COMPANIES 25 NOTABLE INVESTMENTS Dollar Shave Club,

FameBit, HelloSociety, DogVacay FUNDS RAISED $40M CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

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I N N OVATION & TE CH NO LO GY CHR I S D E WO L F E

1/ DeWolfe (left) with Jam City co-founders Aber Whitcomb (middle) and Josh Yguado (right)

MOBILE MEDIA MASTERMIND Innovation & Technology - Jam City [CULVER CITY]

Myspace co-founder and CEO of Jam City Chris DeWolfe has taken two LA-based tech companies past the $250M mark

BY WHITNEY VENDT

CHRIS DEWOLFE CEO, Jam City AGE 50 EDUCATION B.S., University of Washington; M.B.A., USC RESIDENCE Los Angeles FAMILY Two daughters PASSIONS OUTSIDE THE OFFICE Being a dad, animal rescue, hiking CAN’T-MISS EVENTS CES, SXSW, Zeitgeist, Casual Connect, Fortune Brainstorm Networks: USC alumni events, EY Network AWARDS / HONORS EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, USC’s Alumnus of the Year Award JAM CITY [FORMERLY SGN] FOUNDED 2010 HQ Culver City EMPLOYEES 500 2015 REVENUE $250M NOTABLE PRODUCTS Top-grossing signature

mobile games Cookie Jam, Panda Pop, Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff, Marvel Avengers Academy, and more

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C

hris DeWolfe didn’t initially set out to be an entrepreneur, but in retrospect, he sees he had behaviors that would lead him in that direction. As a kid he started his own yard work business with his brother; he sold popcorn and peanuts for the Portland Beavers minor-league baseball team; and he took on leadership positions in high school and sports. Eventually he began taking entrepreneurship classes and building business plans at USC. “That’s when I really got the bug,” he says. “My first real company was a marketing company called Response Base–an ad network where we bought and sold media and products. We had about 50 people in the company and sold it within a year and a half.” But what DeWolfe would become known for was his next company: Myspace.

Co-founded in 2003 by DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, Myspace was designed as a digital space for musicians to share music with their fans. It quickly grew into a social media giant, reaching 106 CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

million accounts by 2006. DeWolfe guided Myspace as CEO until 2009, at which point he and Myspace CTO Aber Whitcomb teamed up with former 20th Century Fox executive Josh Yguado to build mobile gaming company SGN (rechristened Jam City in September), which is on track to make $350M in revenue for 2016.

Very few people–Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey, Mark Cuban, Steve Jobs–can boast of having taken two companies past the $250M mark, but money and notoriety have never been what drives DeWolfe. “What has always motivated me is consumers playing, using, and consuming a product that our company has developed. In the early days when we had 50,000 users on Myspace, I would get so excited when I heard someone mention the name ‘Myspace’; and later on when we had 500,000 users, I could go into a college computer center and every single screen would be Myspace.”

This love of building and watching a company grow meant that DeWolfe was

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already thinking about what to do next in 2009 when his time at Myspace was coming to an end. Though not a musician himself, he considered pursuing something in the music realm, which would have been a natural progression.

“Myspace had a music label and the largest music catalog ever built and licensed – bigger than Spotify has now,” he says.

“In addition to every major music act, we also had every indie in the world.”

But, having also just finished negotiating streaming rights between Myspace and the major music companies, DeWolfe was burned out.

“The music companies weren’t happy with the deal that we ended up with, we weren’t going to make money on it, and the musicians didn’t know how they were going to make money on it. It was an ecosystem where no one was making money and no one could figure out why.”

As he considered what other creative spaces he might explore, games seemed like an open opportunity for innovation, particularly if he could find a way to democratize games and make them accessible to the masses.

In 2006, DeWolfe spent time in Japan working on a joint venture between Myspace and telecom giant SoftBank Group, founded by billionaire Masayoshi Son. The two discussed gaming and how the future lay in mobile at a time before app stores and smartphones were available. Japan was ahead of the curve with 50 percent of social network logins coming from mobile devices. The games available to them were more than just bricks breaking, and it quickly became clear to DeWolfe that accessibility and democratization of game playing would soon be a worldwide phenomenon. It wouldn’t be until 2009 that the connectivity and additional power needed on mobile devices reached the United States, but by then DeWolfe had already entered the gaming industry through his company SGN.

titles, we immediately acquired expertise in a new and very lucrative type of game experience.”

Jam City Co-founder Josh Yguado, whose association with DeWolfe goes back years, calls his partner “an entrepreneur to the core who has been building successful businesses from the ground up his whole life. And together we’re creating a business that’s greater than ourselves. Oh, and we have a pretty good time doing it, too–and that doesn’t hurt.”

Jam City’s corporate culture of teamwork extends beyond the office as well -

like they take away from work, they actually serve to strengthen collaboration.

People who may not work together on a daily basis get a chance to interact and build friendships.

DeWolfe finds it particularly valuable for executives like himself to participate in volunteer activities. “I may work with one of our artists or game designers and we may be painting a wall together and I learn something about them. Then the next time that person has an idea, they’re going to feel free to come to me.” This open-door attitude allows for mentorship opportunities, something DeWolfe

It was an ecosystem where no one was making money and no one could figure out why.

Innovation & Technology - Jam City a value DeWolfe actively encourages.

“We have a common objective toward social causes outside of the company. We built a house for Habitat for Humanity.

We cleaned up the Ballona Creek together and picked up a ton of trash.” He also brings employees along to Union Rescue Mission in Downtown LA, one of the largest homeless shelters in North America. Though these activities seem

sees a need for in LA. “I enjoy mentoring entrepreneurs at the college level, and speaking about social causes.” DeWolfe sees a real need for mentorship in LA, especially as Silicon Beach continues to expand. Engineers and business students in particular benefit from cross-pollenating, and guidance from active professionals like DeWolfe, can be the difference between success and failure. 

We Make Games

SGN, short for Social Gaming Network, announced its name change to Jam City in September, to more accurately reflect the playful nature of their games.

Jam City is also a nod to their top games Cookie Jam and Juice Jam. All of Jam City’s games are currently made and distributed in-house, with the goal of having their games grow in the marketplace for decades as top franchises.

DeWolfe expects their next acquisition will be with a leader in a new genre. “We know what we’re good at–making puzzle games. We’re good at Hollywood storytelling games. When we bought TinyCo and its Family Guy and Marvel Avengers

1

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

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I N N OVATION & TE CH NO LO GY FA ST E ST G ROW I NG CO MPA NI E S

Fastest Growing Companies THIS YEAR’S HONOREES OF DELOITTE’S 2016 TECHNOLOGY FAST 500TM REFLECT LOS ANGELES’ STRONG PRESENCE IN THE TECH SPACE

Deloitte Fast 500 - Intro

FOR MORE THAN 20 YEARS, DELOITTE HAS RECOGNIZED COMPANIES – PUBLIC AND PRIVATE, LARGE AND SMALL – WHO COMBINE TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, AND RAPID GROWTH TO DISRUPT THE TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY. THESE 30 LOCAL COMPANIES ARE RESHAPING THE TECH SCENE THROUGHOUT THE REGION AND BEYOND.

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CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

REGIONAL RANKING

#

NATIONAL RANKING

#

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26 358

28 405

Prodege CEO Chuck Davis

30 491 PRODEGE, LLC Operator of an online rewards community SEGMENT Customer Information Services INDUSTRY Online Communities % GROWTH 124 CEO Chuck Davis FOUNDED 2006 HQ Redondo Beach MOST RECENT FUNDING $60M at

$285M valuation in April 2014 led by Technology Crossover Venture

VC FUNDING HISTORY

$60M at $285M valuation in April 2014 COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS

Founded by Josef Gorowitz and operated

by CEO and CSQ Visionary Chuck Davis, Prodege, LLC was created as a way for charities to fundraise through private search engines. Since then, the company has transformed into a leading online rewards program, specializing in market research, lead generation/ e-commerce marketing, audience development, rewards, shopper marketing and mobile solutions. Prodege, LLC includes brands for both consumer and enterprise: Swagbucks, SodaHead, nCrave and ProdegeMR. / prodege.com

29 437 CHROME RIVER TECHNOLOGIES, INC. Provider of an online platform to automate accounts payable operations SEGMENT Business Support Services INDUSTRY Accounting % GROWTH 146 CEO Alan Richeimer FOUNDED 2007 HQ Los Angeles EMPLOYEES 108 MOST RECENT FUNDING

$100M at $343M valuation in June 2015 led

by Great Hill Partners VC FUNDING HISTORY

$3M at $22.5M valuation in May 2012; $17M at $69M valuation in Dec. 2013; $100M at $343M valuation in June 2015 / chromeriver.com

25 349

OPENX SOFTWARE LTD.

BIOIQ

ECOSENSE LIGHTING

Digital and mobile advertising technology

Provider of home test kits and corporate wellness products for detecting diseases

Provider of LED lighting solutions for architectural and commercial applications

SEGMENT Customer Information Services INDUSTRY Healthcare Services % GROWTH 199 CEO Justin Bellante FOUNDED 2005

SEGMENT Electronics & Computer

SEGMENT Business Support Services INDUSTRY Advertising & Marketing % GROWTH 162 CEO Tim Cadogan FOUNDED 1998 HQ Pasadena EMPLOYEES 356 MOST RECENT FUNDING $25M at

$130M valuation in Dec. 2012

VC FUNDING HISTORY

$5.5M at $26M valuation in June 2007; $15.5M at $52M valuation in Dec. 2007; $10.4M at $43M valuation in May 2009; $20M at $74.6M valuation in May 2011; $25M at $130M valuation in Dec. 2012

VC FUNDING HISTORY

$13M at $64M valuation in Oct. 2011; $15M at $88M valuation in Aug. 2013; $25M at $142.7M valuation in Dec. 2014 / ecosenselighting.com

24 339 SMART ACTION BIOIQ CEO Justin Bellante

Deloitte Fast 500

27 367

HQ Santa Barbara EMPLOYEES 54 MOST RECENT FUNDING

$8.8M at $40.5M valuation in May 2016

CAPRICOR THERAPEUTICS, INC. Developer of cardiac stem cell treatments to regenerate the heart SEGMENT Biopharmaceuticals INDUSTRY Biotechnapeutics % GROWTH 191 CEO Dr. Linda Marbán FOUNDED 2005 HQ Beverly Hills EMPLOYEES 7 MOST RECENT FUNDING

Devices

% GROWTH 205 CEO Mark Reynoso FOUNDED 2008 HQ Los Angeles EMPLOYEES 55 MOST RECENT FUNDING

$25M at $142.7M valuation in Dec. 2014

COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS

OpenX is a global leader in driving superior monetization for publishers through digital advertising. With efficient and programmatic advertising markets, OpenX is able to drive optimal value for both buyers and sellers ultimately bolstering the digital economy.

OpenX clients include Coca-Cola, EA Sports, eHarmony, Simplifi, imgur, Forbes, Newsweek, Earthlink, Univision, and Merriam-Webster. / openx.com

Hardware

INDUSTRY Electronic Components &

VC FUNDING HISTORY

$2.5M at $15M valuation in Feb 2008; $0.4M at $6.5M valuation in July 2009; $1M at $12M valuation in July 2010; $1.2 M at $15M valuation in May 2015; $8.8M at $40.5M valuation in May 2016; / bioiq.com

INDUSTRY Software % GROWTH 216 CEO Tom Lewis HQ El Segundo

/ smartaction.com

23 328 INOGEN INC Provider of portable oxygen concentrators used to deliver supplemental long-term oxygen therapy TICKER INGN SEGMENT Medical Devices & Equipment INDUSTRY Therapeutic Devices % GROWTH 227

$6M at $23M valuation in March 2012 VC FUNDING HISTORY

$3M pre-valuation in Dec. 2006; $2.8M at $15M valuation in Jan. 2010; $6M at $23M valuation in March 2012 COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS

Centered on the discovery, development and commercialization of top-grade therapeutic devices and practices, Capricor Therapeutics focuses therapies and technologies that alleviate and treat cardiovascular disease. Specifically, Capricor’s lead product candidates target the prevention and care of heart attacks, genetic disorders, dystrophy, and ultimately heart failure. The company operates based on a comprehensive research foundation comprised of academic partnerships with leading scientists at top-tier research institutions. / capricor.com

Inogen founders (L to R) Brenton Tayler, Alison Bauerlein, and Byron Meyers ring the NASDAQ Closing Bell in November, 2015

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

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I N N OVATION & TE CH NO LO GY FA ST E ST G ROW I NG CO MPA NI E S

CEO Raymond Huggenberger FOUNDED 2001 HQ Goleta EMPLOYEES 354 MOST RECENT FUNDING

VC FUNDING HISTORY

$4M at $17.5M valuation in June 2007; $21.2M at $62.8M valuation in Oct. 2007; $5M at $38.4M valuation in Mar. 2009; $9.5M at $100.6M valuation in Sept. 2009; $18.4M at $176M valuation in Nov. 2010; $101.5M IPO in April 2014 / rubiconproject.com

Inogen completed an initial public offering at a $330.7M valuation in January 2014 offering 4.4M shares at $16 per share VC FUNDING HISTORY

$0.25M at $1.2M valuation in May 2002; $6M at $8.5M valuation in July 2003; $6M at $19.6M valuation in June 2004; $7M at $34M valuation in July 2005; $22.3M at $47.8M valuation in July 2006; $12.6M at $54M valuation in Oct. 2007; $3M at $52.8M valuation in Feb. 2009 $9.6M at $38.7M valuation in Feb. 2010; $20M at $96.6M valuation in March 2012; $70.59M initial public offering at a $330.7M valuation in Jan. 2014 / inogen.net

Spokeo CEO Harrison Tang (second from the right) at the 2016 CSQ LA Visionaries Summit

21 309

18 265

SPOKEO

INVOCA

INDUSTRY Software % GROWTH 239 CEO Harrison Tang HQ Pasadena

Provider of enterprise inbound call marketing solutions

/ spokeo.com

20 283 SIENTRA, INC. Provider of plastic surgery implantable devices for cosmetic and reconstructive surgery

SEGMENT Business Support Services INDUSTRY Advertising & Marketing % GROWTH 277 CEO Mark E. Woodward FOUNDED 2007 HQ Santa Barbara EMPLOYEES 100 MOST RECENT FUNDING

$30M at $218.5M valuation in Mar. 2016

Deloitte Fast 500

Blackline Systems CEO Therese Tucker

22 323 BLACKLINE SYSTEMS, INC. Provider of enterprise financial software applications TICKER BL SEGMENT Software INDUSTRY Business App Software % GROWTH 233 CEO Therese Tucker FOUNDED 2001 HQ Woodland Hills EMPLOYEES 155 MOST RECENT FUNDING

Blackline completed an initial public offering in Oct. 2016 offering 8.6M shares at $17 per share

VC FUNDING HISTORY

In 2013 private equity company Silver Lake Semeru purchased a majority stake in the company for approximately $220M COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS

A leader in financial corporate performance management, BlackLine Systems, Inc. provides unified cloud software with the ability to automate and oversee a company’s the finance and accounting process from start to finish. Success stories include ebay, Dow, Nasdaq and Coca-Cola. / blackline.com

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TICKER SIEN SEGMENT Medical Devices and Equipment INDUSTRY Therapeutic Devices % GROWTH 265 CEO Jeffrey Nugent FOUNDED 2003 HQ Santa Barbara EMPLOYEES 93 MOST RECENT FUNDING

Sientra completed a $75M initial public offering at a $237M valuation in Oct. 2014 offering 5M shares at $15 per share VC FUNDING HISTORY

$1M at $1M valuation in June 2006; $82M at $92M valuation in April 2007; $63M at $131.2M valuation in Mar. 2012; $75M IPO at $237M valuation in Oct. 2014 / sientra.com

VC FUNDING HISTORY

$3.5M at $14.9M valuation in Mar. 2009; $3M at $24.6M valuation in Nov. 2010; $3M at $33.2M valuation in Nov. 2012; $21.7M in Dec. 2013, valuation withheld; $30M at $218.5M valuation in Mar. 2016 / invoca.com

17 225 THE RUBICON PROJECT, INC. Provider of an Internet advertising technology platform SEGMENT Business Support Services INDUSTRY Advertising & Marketing % GROWTH 335 CEO Frank Addante

Provider of telephone-based, Internet fraud prevention and authentication services

$49.4M at $233.3M valuation in April 2014 VC FUNDING HISTORY

$29M at a $105M valuation in May 2012; $49.4M at $233.3M valuation in April 2014 / telesign.com

16 223 INVITEMANAGER

INDUSTRY Software % GROWTH 344 CEO Tony Knopp HQ Calabasas

/ invitemanager.com

15 158 FASTPAY

INDUSTRY Digital Content &

Media & Entertainment

% GROWTH 541 CEO Jed Simon HQ Los Angeles

/ gofastpay.com

14 154 SECOND SIGHT MEDICAL PRODUCTS, INC. Provider of implantable visual prosthetics to restore some functional vision to blind patients SEGMENT Medical Devices and Equipment INDUSTRY Therapeutic Devices % GROWTH 555 CEO Will McGuire FOUNDED 1998 HQ Sylmar EMPLOYEES 126

19 278 TELESIGN

SEGMENT Business Support Services INDUSTRY Security Services % GROWTH 267 CEO Aled Miles & Steve Jillings FOUNDED 2005 HQ Marina Del Rey EMPLOYEES 200 MOST RECENT FUNDING

Invoca’s Santa Barbara headquarters

Rubicon Project CEO Frank Addante FOUNDED 2007 HQ Los Angeles EMPLOYEES 344 MOST RECENT FUNDING

The Rubicon Project completed an initial public offering in April 2014 offering 6.77M shares at $15 per share

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MOST RECENT FUNDING

Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. completed an initial public offering in Nov. 2014 offering 3.4M shares at $9 per share VC FUNDING HISTORY

$5M at $34M valuation in Nov. 2009; $16M at $103.8M valuation in Dec. 2011; $29.5M at $67.4M valuation in July 2012; $31.5M IPO in Nov. 2014 COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS

Second sight develops, manufactures and markets surgically implantable visual prosthetics, retinal prosthesis, for the legally blind and severely visually impaired. / secondsight.com

CEO Robert Berman HQ Los Angeles

Lionsgate, MTV, Paramount, Saturday Night Live, Netflix and Universal. / zefr.com

/ ituscorp.com

9 104

6

ZIPRECRUITER

SEGMENT Software % GROWTH 931 CEO Ian Siegel HQ Santa Monica

Provider of an analytics and monetization platform for online content

/ ziprecruiter.com

8

79

SPEAKR INC. 13 139 NORIBACHI CORPORATION Provider of LED lighting SEGMENT Electronics and Computer

Hardware

INDUSTRY Electronic Components &

Devices

% GROWTH 619 CEO Farzad Dibachi FOUNDED 2007 HQ Harbor CIty

/ noribachi.com

12 137 TONGAL, INC. Provider of a platform for creative content SEGMENT Customer Information Services INDUSTRY Online Communities % GROWTH 631 CEO Rob Salvatore FOUNDED 2008 HQ Santa Monica EMPLOYEES 74 MOST RECENT FUNDING

$0.05M at $25.6 valuation in Dec. 2015 VC FUNDING HISTORY

$15M at $64.7M valuation in Dec. 2012; $5M at $74.6M valuation in Sept. 2014; $0.05M at $25.6 valuation in Dec. 2015; / tongal.com

11 109 AXS

INDUSTRY Industry Digital Content &

Media & Entertainment

66

GUMGUM

Promoter of brands through social networkbased influencers

INDUSTRY Media and Content % GROWTH 1447 CEO Ophir Tanz FOUNDED 2007 HQ Santa Monica EMPLOYEES 101 MOST RECENT FUNDING

$26M at $200M valuation in May 2015 VC FUNDING HISTORY

SEGMENT Business Support Services INDUSTRY Advertising & Marketing % GROWTH 1,216 CEO Marco Hansell FOUNDED 2010 HQ West Hollywood EMPLOYEES 18 MOST RECENT FUNDING

$2.9M at $25.2M valuation in Sept. 2014 / speakr.com

$1M at $9.3M valuation in July 2008; $2.6M at $13.4M valuation in July 2009; $7M at $48M valuation in Oct. 2011; $26M at $200M valuation in May 2015 COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS

First in its field, GumGum is credited with the invention of the In-Image advertising category, a form of smart advertising that uses context to match and place advertisements in proximity to existing relevant images. The company’s campaigns have been seen by more than 400 million users. With an 81 percent view rate, GumGum delivers engagement 10 times greater than traditional display ad options. In

Deloitte Fast 500

7

75

ZEFR, INC.

Provider of a SAAS platform for online content SEGMENT Business Support Services INDUSTRY Advertising & Marketing % GROWTH 1,281 CEO Richard Raddon & Zach James FOUNDED 2009 HQ Venice EMPLOYEES 20 MOST RECENT FUNDING

5

62

SONOSIM, INC.

INDUSTRY Medical Devices % GROWTH 1,579 CEO Eric Savitsky, M.D. HQ Santa Monica

/ sonosim.com

4

55

THE TRADE DESK Provider of data-driven market solutions SEGMENT Business Support Services INDUSTRY Advertising & Marketing % GROWTH 1,836 CEO Jeff Green FOUNDED 2009 HQ Ventura EMPLOYEES 387 MOST RECENT FUNDING

The Trade Desk completed an initial public offering in September 2016 offering 4.6M shares at $18 per share VC FUNDING HISTORY

$2.4M at $6.6M valuation in Mar. 2010; $0.8M at $8.5M valuation in Dec. 2010; $1.7M at $12.3M valuation in June 2011; $20M at $46.7M valuation in Feb. 2014; $60M at $160.4M valuation in Mar 2016; $84M initial public offering in Sept. 2016 COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS

$30M at $194.2M valuation in Feb. 2014 VC FUNDING HISTORY

$3M at $19.7M valuation in Nov. 2010; $7M at $32.8M valuation in June 2011; $18.5M at $80M valuation in July 2012; $30M at $194.2M valuation in Feb. 2014

addition to In-Image advertising, GUMGUM offers Visual Intelligence services, a real-time visual listening platform that identifies and analyzes images. / gumgum.com

GumGum CEO Ophir Tanz

Winner of the 2015 Greater Los Angeles Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of the Year in Media, Entertainment & Communications, The Trade Desk co-founders Jeff Green And Dave Pickles continue to lead in realtime bidding (RTB) platform that provides access to media and advertising buyers for display, television, video, social media, mobile, etc. With products like omnichannel targeting, data management platform,

COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS

ZEFR is able to harness technology social media platforms and then search, select, monetize and merchandize the optimal video content for movie studios, music labels and media agencies such as AMC,

% GROWTH 857 CEO Bryan Perez HQ Los Angeles COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS

/ axs.com

10 108 ITUS CORPORATION

INDUSTRY Electronic Devices &

Hardware

% GROWTH 874

ZEFR’s Venice, CA headquarters

The Trade Desk’s Ventura, CA headquarters

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

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I N N OVATION & TE CH NO LO GY FA ST E ST G ROW I NG CO MPA NI E S

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and HD reporting, The Trade Desk is a sophisticated solution for aggregators and advertisers looking to take their campaigns to the next level. / thetradedesk.com

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Dollar Shave Club’s Venice, CA headquarters

RENDER MEDIA Provider of implantable visual prosthetics to restore some functional vision to blind patients

2

25

DOLLAR SHAVE CLUB

INDUSTRY Digital Content & Media &

Provider of a monthly delivery service for shaving and grooming

Entertainment % GROWTH 3,238 CEO Vic Belonogoff HQ Los Angeles / rndr.com

SEGMENT Retailers INDUSTRY Specialty Retailers % GROWTH 4,186 CEO Michael Dubin FOUNDED 2011 HQ Venice EMPLOYEES 173 MOST RECENT FUNDING

The first box shipped by Loot Crate in 2012

1

Acquired by Unilever for $1B in Aug. 2016 VC FUNDING HISTORY

Dollar Shave Club’s Venice, CA headquarters Render Media Co-founder Eytan Elbaz and CEO Vic Belonogoff

MOST RECENT FUNDING

1

LOOT CRATE

$18.5M at a $100.4M valuation in June 2016 led by Upfront Ventures

Provider of a fan-base commerce platform

COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS

Officially dubbed the nation’s Fastest Growing Company in 2016 by Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500, Loot Crate is the emerging subscription box, e-commerce company. Today, Loot Crate ships to over 65,000 subscribers in 35 countries during their regular production schedule. / lootcrate.com 

SEGMENT Retailers INDUSTRY Clothing & Accessories % GROWTH 66,661 CEO Chris Davis FOUNDED 2012 HQ Los Angeles EMPLOYEES 380

$1M at $5.25M valuation in Mar. 2012; $9.8M at $49.5M valuation in Nov. 2012; $13M at $81M valuation in Sept. 2013; $50M at $206.8M valuation in Sept. 2014; $90.7M at $630M valuation in June 2015; $1B acquisition by Unilever in Aug. 2016 / dollarshaveclub.com

Deloitte Fast 500

BREAKING DOWN LA’S FASTEST GROWING COMPANIES INDUSTRY BREAKDOWN

A BRIEF HISTORY OF FUNDING

An examination of the industries the 30 fastest growing companies

A compiling of the money raised and the value of exits by the 30 fastest growing companies over the years

SOFTWARE

$1200M

$900M

DIGITAL CONTENT, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT $600M

MEDICAL DEVICES

$300M

$0

ENERGY TECH

ELECTRONIC DEVICES

2002

2003

2004

2002 $25K 2003 $6M 2004 $6M 2005 $7M

2005

2006

2006 $26.3M 2007 $140.8M 2008 $3.5M 2009 $31.9M

2007

2008

2009

2010

2010 $41.7M 2011 $64.8M 2012 $242.3M 2013 $295M

2011

2012

2013

2014

2014 $484.9M 2015 $217.9M 2016 $1,201.3M

PUBLIC COMPANIES BIOTECH

Of the 30 fastest growing companies in the LA region, 7 of them have gone public 1983 Itus Corporation 2008 Capricor Therapeutics Inc. 2014 Inogen, Sientra, Rubicon Project, Second Sight Medical Products 2016 Blackline Systems

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2015

2016

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I N N OVATION & TE CH NO LO GY H A R R I SO N TA NG

[PASADENA]

VERIFIED CONNECTIONS Harrison Tang may have launched Spokeo in Silicon Valley, but he’s built the company into one of the most profitable tech startups in the region since relocating to Pasadena in 2008

BY VALERIE HARTMAN

HARRISON TANG Co-founder & CEO, Spokeo AGE 34 RESIDENCE Arcadia

EDUCATION B.A. & M.A. (electrical engineering),

Stanford University

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ollege friends. Trial and error.

A road trip. And most important, an intense will to move forward no matter what. All these elements played a part in Spokeo’s success, according to Co-founder and CEO Harrison Tang.

Launched in 2006 as a social network aggregator, Spokeo has evolved into a people search engine with multiple business and consumer applications, including fraud prevention and identity confirmation for contacts made through social media.

“Spokeo uses Spokeo to fight fraud,” says Tang with his infectious affability. In addition, the company is also a leader in out of the box initiatives, including a recent event.

“No one had thought of marrying a recruiting event with a dating hookup, but it turned out to be amazing. It takes that mentality to do something different and valuable.” And that’s the essence of Spokeo.

Perhaps one of the most compelling things about Tang is that this is the first and only job he has had so far. Spokeo has evolved from a company literally run out of his parent’s basement at various times with four college friends, to what is now a $78M venture with over 200 employees. Those college friends? They are still very much part of the core of the company.

“I’m very lucky that at Stanford they picked these perfect teammates.

The competitive advantage I had in grabbing talent over Google was literally the peer pressure.”

FAMILY Wife; two young sons

HONORS / AWARDS Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of

the Year Los Angeles (2015)

College roommate and co-founder Mike Daly is his polar opposite, but Tang credits this as one of the reasons their working relationship works so well. Daly loves ’60s rock and was a soccer captain; Tang is a violin guy and isn’t big on sports.

“The biggest lesson I learned at Stanford is about attitude,” Tang says.

“I am not afraid of problems because solving problems isn’t about knowing the answers right away. It’s about the attitude, the process, and the methodology of how you find the answer.”

Tang is also quick to point out that his family, in particular his father, helped drive Spokeo’s success. “The most important thing he said to me was that success is not about how smart you are, it’s not about your IQ, it’s about who lasts until the very end. He said, ‘Just do everything you can to survive.’ And we did. If we didn’t survive in 2008 with the way the economy was, then we wouldn’t be here today.

“In retrospect, we were a little ahead of the curve,” Tang says, referencing Spokeo’s decision in 2008 to employ a subscription model at the same time everyone else was offering free services. “The business model change in 2008 was definitely one of the big pivotal moments for us,” he says.

Spokeo is the rare case of a tech company that got its start in Northern California but eventually decided to put its long-term roots down in Southern California. “Pasadena is a great place to be,” says Tang, and

he points to how much creative talent there is in the area. “Pasadena doesn’t get as much attention as Silicon Valley but it actually has a lot of engineering heritage behind it.”

Tang is proud of the company’s culture, and at times waxes philosophical. “We stand for innovation, transparency, and respect. Culture isn’t just about what you see. What

Deloitte Fast 500 - Harrison Tang

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

Solving problems isn’t about knowing the answers right away. It’s about the attitude, the process, and the methodology. you see is a reflection of what you believe in. In Chinese there is a saying that in a group of three people, there’s always one mentor. In other words, mentors are all around us at all times.”

Spokeo continues to push the envelope. Tang tells us that they are working toward becoming a people intelligence platform. “I don’t know whether these things will work or not but we definitely have to try,” he says. We will be watching to see what’s next.  - 65 -

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I N N OVATION & TE CH NO LO GY I A N SI E G E L

[SANTA MONICA]

FINDING THE NEEDLE IN THE HAYSTACK Ian Siegel has built ZipRecruiter into a staffing resource that has revolutionized recruiting

BY KIRK HAWKINS

IAN SIEGEL Co-founder & CEO, ZipRecruiter AGE 43 EDUCATION Oberlin College RESIDENCE Venice FAMILY Wife; two kids CAN’T-MISS EVENTS Siemer Summit, LA Tech

Summit

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hat grew out of a frustrating experience hiring talent six years ago is now a company with more than 500 employees in offices around the world.

As the technology available for job seekers evolves, so does ZipRecruiter CEO Ian Siegel, as his company makes big plans to disrupt recruiting even more.

ZipRecruiter has had tremendous growth in 2016 and, after changing its product strategy from delivering volume to quality, is making plans for that growth rate to accelerate in 2017. “I used to say we sell haystacks. We don’t sell needles. Now, we’ve moved into the needle business,” Siegel says.

Prior to 2016, Siegel says, employers would post jobs and ZipRecruiter would surface a number of quality candidates over the course of 30 days. Now, when an employer posts a job, Siegel says ZipRecruiter sifts through the job descriptions and matches them with the resumes of more than 10 million job seekers each month. Those job seekers are notified by text or email that a position that fits their skillset is available, and in less than an hour, the employers receive their resumes. It’s a process Siegel calls the Magic Five: “Fundamentally this changes the experience you’re having with recruiting because you’re used to posting a job and then waiting before you can start interviewing candidates.

Now, you post a job and while you’re sitting at your computer you’re seeing candidates popping up on your screen!” As a result, recruiting is a now a real-time exercise. Hiring

employees used to take up to eight weeks, but Siegel says Magic Five is now compressing that process into seven days. “The market has responded with great positivity to the improvements we’re making. The velocity of employers signing up for our service has doubled this year and it’s still accelerating,” he says.

Siegel credits specialization as instrumental in ZipRecruiter’s growth.

He points out that it took discipline to find the proper specialists as

9 104 feedback.” Both leadership skills are reinforced by Siegel’s mentor, Jeff Zwelling. Siegel met Zwelling at a networking event where Siegel says the serial entrepreneur peppered him with questions about ZipRecruiter’s features. A ZipRecruiter customer at a marketing analytics company called Convertro at the time, Zwelling ultimately became Siegel’s in-house guru as ZipRecruiter’s Chief Operating Officer.

ZipRecruiter competes with the largest job company in the world, Indeed, and old school blue chips Monster and CareerBuilder. Siegel predicts LinkedIn and Glassdoor will also soon join in the midst of a substantial technological paradigm shift driven by job seekers using mobile devices.

In less than three years, Siegel expects 90% of job seekers will be using mobile devices to find new jobs. The second change is more complicated and involves fine tuning ZipRecruiter’s algorithm with what’s called deep learning to make better matches for job candidates. As part of that process, ZipRecruiter now asks employers to add skills required for various jobs.

“We are crowdsourcing information necessary to train the algorithm. As a result of it, our algorithm gets smarter every day,” Siegel says.

Still to come from ZipRecruiter, Siegel says, is an “Am I qualified?” feature that he hopes will provide further guidance for job seekers, instructing them on the quality of their resumes and how to better present themselves. Siegel’s definition of success? “Success to me is when job seekers enjoy the process of searching for a job and employers enjoy the process of finding talent.” 

Deloitte Fast 500 - Ian Siegel

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We are crowdsourcing information necessary to train the algorithm. As a result of it, our algorithm gets smarter every day.

ZipRecruiter grew from 85 to 400 employees. “It forces you to look into the mirror and think, are you the right guy? I need to put a lot of faith and trust into people we are hiring who are better at certain things than I will ever be,” Siegel says.

The secret to Siegel’s success is the New Year’s resolution he keeps year after year to listen better. “I really try to listen to as much feedback and wisdom as I can from peers and mentors,” Siegel says. He also practices “in the moment, honest CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

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I N N OVATION & TE CH NO LO GY V I C B E L O NO G O F F

[LOS ANGELES]

CONTENT THAT MATTERS Render Media CEO Vic Belonogoff is giving the big guys a run for their money when it comes to creating the kind of shareable content that people want

BY HANNAH LEVY

VIC BELONOGOFF Co-founder & CEO, Render Media

3

33

AGE 41 RESIDENCE Los Angeles EDUCATION B.S., UCLA PASSIONS OUTSIDE THE OFFICE Music and sports;

“I’ve been playing guitar and piano since the age of 10” CAN’T-MISS EVENTS Outside Lands, SXSW

L

ike so many others, Vic Belonogoff’s story begins with an unexpected twist. “My introduction to digital media was as random as it ever comes,” Belonogoff explains.

In 2005 Belonogoff was working at a biotechnology company in Los Angeles when his roommate came home one night with a proposition.

The roommate, Eytan Elbaz, a friend from UCLA whose AdSense platform was acquired by Google in 2003, had plans to take over a friend’s domain portfolio and only twenty-four hours to convince his roommates to scrape together enough cash to do so with him. Miraculously, he did.

Within the span of a day, Belonogoff became a one-third owner of a domain portfolio, which he co-managed in his spare time and sold two years later for a decent gain.

After selling the portfolio, Belonogoff and Elbaz turned their attention to the next big thing: online content. At the end of 2010, Eytan’s brother Gil (CEO of Factual) introduced them to Opposing Views, an online structured debate forum that had run out of money. Gil, an investor in the company, suggested they bite– which they did. The rest is history.

Today, Render Media is the nation’s second fastest-growing new media organization and includes four distinct properties covering everything from politics to cooking.

Under Belonogoff’s direction as CEO, Render’s flagship property, Opposing Views, transformed into an unbiased news site and shifted growth efforts from SEO to Facebook, building

from a modest following of 30,000 to over 30 million monthyl visitors in 2016. Render Media’s latest property is Cooking Panda, a multi-platform online destination for food content, which launched in late 2015 and has since amassed a social following of more than 10 million fans.

“Our success is because we changed our whole concept, and asked ourselves: What does our audience want to watch, what do they want to read?

If you do that, you’ll be successful.”

2014. A lot of these are recent graduates, many of them young creatives snagged from Hollywood production lots, with a keen eye for viral trends.

But Render’s content creation is also a deeply data-driven process. Videos, which have become the cornerstone of the Render’s content strategy, are rigorously vetted by analysts and iterated on.

Because, arguably, content creation is always changing. And for Belonogoff, piloting ideas can be as cheap as $500 on half a day’s filming.

It’s still sink or swim, only learning to swim is fast and the threat of sinking is far less expensive.

“We have an advantage over established media companies that have been around for a very long time just because they don’t move as fast,” Belonogoff reasons.

Right now, Belonogoff is keeping an eye (and an ear) on branded content. “Branded content, I believe, is going to replace a lot of the ad dollars that went into TV commercials,” he explains. “Our audience, they’re all carrying TVs in their pocket all the time.”

In Belonogoff’s estimation, one of his most recent branded video campaigns received more than 10 million views. That’s the same exposure as a spot on a popular television show but for ten times less money.

For Belonogoff, it’s a matter of reeducating brands about meaningful content. “I want to create the content that, if the channel were to disappear, [viewers] would be heartbroken. That’s a huge part of success – more than clickthrough.” 

Deloitte Fast 500 - Vic Belonogoff Branded content... is going to replace a lot of the ad dollars that went into TV commercials.

This new model has catapulted Render Media into the digital big leagues, alongside media goliaths Vox, Buzzfeed, and Tastemade, all of which are generously venture-backed.

“I think what makes us kind of unique and special is that we bootstrapped this entire business. We’ve raised less than $4 million since we’ve been around and we’ve never needed a new round. We’re profitable now, because we’re very smart about how we hire people,” Belonogoff says.

Today, the company employs 38 full-time employees, up from 10 in CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

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I N N OVATION & TE CH NO LO GY MI CH A E L D UB I N

2

25

MICHAEL DUBIN Founder & CEO, Dollar Shave Club AGE 38 EDUCATION Emory

University

RESIDENCE Venice PASSIONS OUTSIDE THE OFFICE Sailing, traveling HONORS / AWARDS

1

Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Los Angeles (2016); Fortune 40 Under 40 (2015)

Deloitte Fast 500 - Michael Dubin

[VENICE]

BILLION-DOLLAR SHAVE CLUB Michael Dubin basks in the afterglow of his renegade Dollar Shave Club’s acquisition by Unilever

BY MARTIN BOOE

W

hat a difference five years can make in a life. That’s how long it’s been since Michael Dubin started Dollar Shave Club out of his Venice, Calif., apartment on not much more than a wing and a prayer—and, of course, a now-historic YouTube video that showcased Dubin’s own dead-on deadpan humor talking to dudes about an issue of utmost importance: shaving. Dubin brought a fauxreligious intensity to the argument that there were better ways to get your shaving razors than standing by the locked case in a drugstore until somebody took pity on you, then getting fleeced at the register.

His pitch won many converts. So many, in fact, that the Samson that

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took on the Goliath—Procter & Gamble, owner of Gillette—was acquired to the tune of a reported $1B earlier this year

by Unilever, the British-Dutch consumer goods conglomerate that owns more than 400 brands worldwide. While Dubin himself is reported to have pocketed a cool $90M, you won’t find the 38-year-old sleeping in and wandering around in sweats with a four-day beard growth.

Keeping the Blades Sharp

Ask Dubin what’s the biggest change in his life as a result of DSC’s acquisition by Unilever earlier this year, and it’s clear that he’s sticking to business.

“Fundraising for DSC used to consume 20 to 25 percent of my year,” Dubin told CSQ. “Now that we’re part of the Unilever family I get to spend that time running the business. It’s going to make a meaningful difference in our success.”

When Dubin released the nowfamous YouTube video in March 2012, he could not have foreseen the megalithic splash that the subscription-based razor supply company outcome would CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

make. The zany video went viral and an avalanche of orders ensued — 12,000 in the first two days. The company’s website, DollarShaveClub, went on tilt in the first hour. Dubin didn’t invent the subscription-based business model, but he certainly brought fresh insight into its potential. He joined convenience, price point, and an in-your-unshaven-face slogan (“They’re not good. They’re f****** GREAT!”) to a product that most guys regard as a necessary evil. This approach cut through the competition like a platinum scythe. In what seemed like a matter of minutes, Dollar Shave Club stood out from the big razor brands like Schick and Gillette.

Let’s Talk About What?

DSC’s second video pried a bit deeper into men’s bathroom habits. Entitled “Let’s Talk About #2,” it set out to promote the launch of “One Wipe Charlies.” You have to hand it to a guy who can successfully market baby wipes to men, or for that matter even bring up the subject without getting taken out to the parking lot for a smack-down.

But all joking aside, Dubin attributes the company’s success to truth. “Getting into the locked razor case at the store is an inconvenient experience,” he says. “That’s true, right? Then we take that truth and

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stretch it to the absurd. This type of relatable humor we’ve developed has been translated across our brand on everything from our videos to our monthly box packaging.”

A Perfect Match

Dubin got the idea for DSC when he met a friend of a friend at a party in 2010. They talked about the high cost of shaving. Dubin decided to do something

Dubin’s nearly primal communication abilities were what impressed investors early on. He’d been a page at NBC and honed his content chops as a news producer for digital news properties. He also did an eight-year stint in improvisational comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade in New York City, background he has said underpinned his ensuing success.

“People tend to remember things when they’re musically presented, and com-

Los Angeles is a city of storytellers and creative excellence. DSC is a brand that needs to stand out by telling its story in creative ways, so there’s a fit. Also, it’s become a lot easier to acquire talent in LA given the success of our peers.

about it and laid the groundwork for the company in January 2011, bootstrapping Dollar Shave Club with $37,000 of his own money to pay for product, web development, and marketing. Then came a $100,000 boost from LA’s Science incubator. Three months later the brand was prepared to target select investors who together have invested $163M since the 2012 launch. The company’s main offices are in Venice.

edy is a form of music,” Dubin once said.

“When you’re launching a new business and sharing a new idea, if you can get people to remember it, there’s obviously a better chance at success.”

Other than the massive cash infusion, Dubin’s plan for DSC is to stay the course. “DSC remains an independently run entity, so we’re going to continue on the growth trajectory we’ve been on: finding new and innovative ways to help

guys take better care of themselves.”

IPO, anyone? “Haha, no.”

Time to Shave?

Los Angeles is making its mark as a formidable tech hub, thanks to an abundance of success stories like Dollar Shave Club, Loot Crate, Dog Vacay, and many more. Dubin prizes his Los Angeles-area location for its combination of high tech know-how and the power of its creative energy.

“Los Angeles is a city of storytellers and creative excellence,” Dubin says.

“DSC is a brand that needs to stand out by telling its story in creative ways, so there’s a fit.” Dubin believes the Los Angeles talent pool has reached critical mass, thanks to “the success of our peers.”

One of Dubin’s favorite fellow success stories is Me Undies, online purveyor of fine underwear. “Their product is very comfortable, and I always appreciate the challenge of taking life’s basics and making them interesting again.” Also, he says, it’s easier to get talent to move here knowing they can make a whole career (and a life) in Los Angeles without having to worry about being stranded in a barren location if things don’t work out.

Things are definitely working out for Dubin. On such a large scale, in fact, you have to wonder what it’s like when the final contract on a billion dollar deal has been signed. So what’s the first thing he did after finalizing the deal with Unilever?

“I called a close friend, trying to comprehend what had just happened,” Dubin says. “Then I slept for a few days.” 

Deloitte Fast 500 - Michael Dubin

1/ Michael Dubin standing tall within the Dollar Shave Club HQ 2/ Only 5 years old, Dollar Shave Club employs more than 300 people in Venice, CA

2

Photos: Kori Stanton

3/ On approach to the Venice headquarters of Dollar Shave Club

3

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I N N OVATION & TE CH NO LO GY CHR I S DAVI S

[LOS ANGELES]

BRAINSTORMING INSIDE THE BOX CHRIS DAVIS HAS BUILT LOOT CRATE INTO A $116M STAR IN LOS ANGELES’ BURGEONING E-COMMERCE MARKETPLACE BY TAPPING INTO A CORE AUDIENCE OF MILLENNIALS WHO PROMOTE AS THEY CONSUME

Deloitte Fast 500 - Chris Davis

BY JASON DEAN PHOTOS BY NEIL G. PHILLIPS

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Deloitte Fast 500 - Chris Davis

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team of ace storyboard artists could not have imagined a more fitting backdrop for such heroic exploits. Since bursting onto the e-commerce landscape back in 2012, LA-based Loot Crate has scaled to dizzying heights of success, borne out by the company’s impressive 66,661% growth over a three-year period. Founded by Chris

CSQ visited with co-founder and CEO Davis at Loot Crate’s headquarters near Downtown Los Angeles, shortly after the startup landed atop the Inc. 5000 list of Fastest Growing Companies in America in fall 2016. It was a privileged glimpse into the creative energy that is exploding off the walls – and into the box – every day at Loot Crate.

Our customers say, ‘I trust you to do something awesome with my subscription money. So come back and wow me.’

Davis and Matthew Arevalo, the firm has forged an array of partnerships and exclusive licensing deals with blue-chip companies such as LucasFilm, Disney, Nintendo, and WWE.

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Just what is Loot Crate? Imagine a generous hunk of Comic-Con delivered to your doorstep every month. A subscription-box service, Loot Crate curates a themed selection of pop culture

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I N N OVATION & TE CH NO LO GY CHR I S DAVI S

CHRIS DAVIS Co-founder & CEO, Loot Crate AGE 31 HOMETOWN Arcadia RESIDENCE Los Angeles FAMILY Wife PASSIONS OUTSIDE THE OFFICE

items that cater to fans of Marvel and DC comics, gamers, sci-fi and horror buffs, anime collectors, and devotees of top shows such as Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, Stranger Things, and Westworld, and other entertainment franchises that are subject to avid binge-watching. The company counts more than 650,000 subscribers in 35 countries, at $13.95 and up (not including shipping). A vast number of these subscribers, which the company affectionately terms “Looters,” post reactions to each month’s offerings via social media. (A search of “Loot Crate unboxing” yields 319,000 results on YouTube.) The company’s 2015 revenue was $116M. The firm has skillfully stamped its brand on social media with timely, clever takes on current pop culture.

“It’s the best of fandom, with the brand talking to you as an equal and a peer,” says 31-year-old Davis, offering his explanation of why Loot Crate has connected so deeply and rapidly with its audience. (One recent example of the wickedly clever (and slick) content being created in-house is the parody trailer

Northern Exposure

Born in Arcadia, Calif., Davis grew up in the Bay Area, returning south to attend Claremont McKenna College, also the alma mater of both his parents.

After graduating, Davis landed back in Silicon Valley, getting his first exposure into content licensing with VuClips, an introduction to the ins and outs of negotiating and building relationships with entertainment companies. In 2010 Davis came back to LA to pursue his entrepreneurial dream. He joined a business incubator, The Founder Institute, where his idea for a digital home services platform morphed into Gamer Food, the world’s first performance snacks specially formulated (with generous amounts of caffeine and taurine) to optimize video game performance and enjoyment. A side project shared with Davis’ brother Michael (a content producer for Maker Studios at the time) and three others, the snack company unveiled products with snappy names such as Seeds of Victory, Nuts of Destruction, and Cashews of Chaos. The endeavor, while never profitable, provided an op-

Deloitte Fast 500 Chris Davis Bootstrapping is great for discipline, but Gaming, attending conventions

LOOT CRATE

FOUNDED 2012 HQ Los Angeles EMPLOYEES 300 # OF DAILY SHIPMENTS 70,000 # SUBSCRIBERS 650,000 2016 AWARDS / HONORS

Inc. 500 ‘s Fastest Growing Private Company (#1) Entrepreneur 360 Index (#38) Deloitte Technology Fast 500 (#1) MOST RECENT FUNDING

$18.5M in June 2016 STARTING SUBSCRIPTION COST $13.95 WHAT’S IN THE BOX Themed geek and gamer gear ranging from collectible action figures to apparel WHAT ELSE YOU CAN GET Select boxes available à la carte along with undies, socks, and tees / lootcrate.com

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you spend a lot of time thinking about cash flow.

for DC Comics’ super anti-hero saga Suicide Squad, reimagined as if Quentin Tarantino had written, cast, and directed it.)

Davis is on his game and focused, as any CEO of a nine-figure company would be while describing the rapid scaling of his not-yet-five-year-old business. Obligatory workplace-casual attire aside, the animated tone in Davis’ voice leaves little question that his days are spent doing a lot of different things, none of which feel like work. “We have a laid-back culture in terms of who you are and how you dress,” he says. While Loot Crate employees may include professionals from a mix of industries, including entertainment, consumer products, gaming, and data science, there is one common thread that brings them together. “You have to be passionate about some kind of fandom, world-class at what you do,” says Davis.

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

portunity to glean additional insight into the intricacies of licensing deals, says Davis.

Even if Gamer Food was not the right vehicle, Davis knew he was onto something in terms of attracting, engaging, and captivating an audience. He stepped back and reimagined the concept into what would become Loot Crate. “I went to a hackathon,” he recalls. “I brought the concept [and] had some early ideas around it, but I had done no development or logo.” Hackathons are composed of a mix of entrepreneurs bringing their own concepts to pitch and other creatives who want to contribute their ideas to someone else’s vision. Eight people joined Davis’ team that weekend. One of them was Matthew Arevalo. The two formed a quick bond. “Everyone else had day jobs they went back to,” recalls Davis. “I immediately recognized Matt would be an awesome partner on this.”

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Arevalo has orchestrated community engagement on a scale that could rival much bigger companies in the entertainment space, a key ingredient to Loot Crate’s success. “There are no shortcuts on the road to success,” says Arevalo, co-founder & chief experience officer.

“The early days were filled with late nights and favors, as we scaled to meet the needs of fans.”

“We were posting behindthe-scenes footage of us packing the boxes the first month,” says Davis. “As soon as a new [Snapchat] channel came up, we were there, talking to people.” Obtaining customer feedback has always been a priority, with between three and four million subscriber surveys having been completed and returned over the years. “We have everyone rate every box they get,” he says. “There’s a lot of dialogue with our members and our team. A lot of that data drives our product-line expansions.”

An Entrepreneurial Climate

The LA region – blessed with deep creative resources within the tech and entertainment industries – has been a spawning ground for innovative startups (e.g., The Honest Company, Dollar

Shave Club, Thrive Market, Black Tux, DogVacay) that are connecting with their respective audiences and building brand loyalty in novel ways. “The LA ecosystem is really great; people just want to see LA companies do well,” en-

between Irvine and Van Nuys. Apparel is big in the region as well. “Then you have the studios and the game companies – it was like a perfect storm” for Loot Crate, says Davis.

In December 2014, that perfect

Right now, we’re added to the ecosystem, so we work with retailers, existing consumer products brands, and the entertainment and gaming companies. We’re not seen as competitors but a new consumption model.

thuses Davis. “We got a lot of good time with really sharp people.”

The Port of Los Angeles, the busiest in the U.S. in terms of container volume, is another reason the region is such an attractive base of operations. Eight of the world’s biggest toy companies, including Mattel, are headquartered or have offices

storm presented an urgent dilemma when an International Longshore and Warehouse Union strike temporarily interrupted the flow of goods into the port. Product that was supposed to be rolled into the following month’s subscriber crate was stuck on one of the freighters, and the company’s integrity

Deloitte Fast 500 - Chris Davis

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

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I N N OVATION & TE CH NO LO GY CHR I S DAVI S

was in jeopardy. Because the contents of a Loot Crate change every month, the key becomes how to make each crate better than the last. The one consistency is that every box shipped includes six distinct items that complete a Loot Crate. To Davis, the prospect of either shipping late or shipping an incomplete crate with an explanation was a “lose-lose” proposition. “We always talk about trust being so important,” Davis says. “Our customers say, ‘I trust you to do something awesome with my subscription money. So come back and wow me.’ ” Luckily, the strike was re-

out,” Davis explains. “We launched on July 21 and we’re shipping August 20.”

The first month, 250 people signed up – 50 of those on the first day. “It was immediately, we have these subscribers, let’s figure out how to put a box together.” Mobilizing to fulfill those 250 orders was a frenetic exercise down to the wire. “It took 12 of us eight hours to pack and ship,” he says. “We had hand-folded tissue paper and crinklecut and taped all four sides. Efficiency was low.” The company invested in equipment to improve efficiency on the warehouse side. Davis has a friend with

thank-you on our Facebook page,” recalls Davis. “We were also working with creators who were sharing it [and] journalists in the tech space. It was a weird product, but everyone [said], ‘This is cool.’ ” Eventually, Disney, Columbia, Paramount, and others began to take note. “We were working a lot with the licensees and the product companies that had worked but had the licenses.

Studios were like, ‘Who’s this interesting company? This is growing really quickly, we’re seeing it all over social.’

Junior people within the companies were subscribing.”

Loot Crate ramped up operations, bringing in a team with experience in entertainment licensing, getting advice on partnering with studios, and making sure that licensing and IP use agreements were fair and equitable. “Now it’s an ongoing dialogue,” Davis says of Loot Crate’s relationships with various studios. “We’re seeing what their content calendar looks like. And then our designers, we have licensing deals with them, so we’re able to plan really far out. If you’re Disney, you’re three to five years ahead.” It’s a far cry from the early days, when the content for each Loot Crate was finalized just three to six months ahead of shipment.

Greg Bettinelli, a partner at Upfront Ventures, was an early believer in Davis and Loot Crate. “Chris has a keen understanding and awareness of the opportunity to surprise and delight fandom categories in a very authentic

Deloitte Fast 500 - Chris Davis

People see us investing in the product, which feels like we’re investing in them.

solved before alternative solutions had to be pursued.

The Power of “Word of Web”

Since the first order was placed in July 2012, consistency has been a core value at Loot Crate. When the company made the commitment to start taking subscriptions, the clock started ticking.

“We have 30 days to get the product

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an eco-friendly product in the subscription space, who provided additional guidance.

The company garnered scant press early on, but “word of Web” was immediate. Exposure on various social media sites was contributing significantly to the impact Loot Crate was having on its target demographic, 18-to-34 males.

“Everyone who signed up got a personal

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yet sophisticated way,” says Bettinelli.

“He sees Loot Crate as much more than a ‘stuff-in-a-box’ category player. He wants to be the defining fan-centric commerce platform.”

In June 2016, Loot Crate raised $18.5M in a round of Series A funding led by Upfront Ventures.

Says Bettinelli: “I saw a powerful platform for building and driving fan engagement that can be applied to countless high-affinity verticals.” The deal also involved Breakwater Investment Management, Time Inc., M13, Sterling VC, and Downey Ventures, the latter of which is the startup investment arm of Team Downey, the production company founded by actor Robert Downey, Jr. and Susan Downey. Prior to that, Loot Crate was self-funded. “Bootstrapping is great for discipline, but you spend a lot of time thinking about cash flow,” acknowledges Davis. Aware of its potential, Davis decided early on that having liquidity was less important than having a strong balance sheet.

Unite and Inspire

The Loot Crate mission, as stated on a plaque that hangs over a threshold in the offices, is “to unite and inspire the world through the universal language of fandom.” The menu of offerings has expanded considerably since the original single monthly box was launched.

Today, “looters” can order Loot Crate DX (a high-octane “serious” enthusiast package), Loot Anime, Loot Gaming, Loot Pets, and Loot Wear, each with subcategories that cater to specific areas of interest. There’s even Loot For Her, featuring themed clothing and accessories for women. There are also partner and limited-edition crates as well as the Loot Vault, where popular items from previous crates can be purchased individually. Specialty boxes fetch up to $74.99, and subscriptions offer plans of 1, 3, 6, or 12 months. Each box has a themed playlist on Spotify, and the company produces a monthly interactive game, a print magazine, and sci-fi shorts that it posts to YouTube.

“All the products are essentially exclusive now,” says Davis. Retail value of the cumulative contents of the original box has almost doubled from $35 to $65. “People see us investing in the product, which feels like we’re investing in them.” According to Davis, the only direct competition Loot Crate currently faces is the level of subscribers’ discretionary income; there are no other companies occupying the unique space

that Loot Crate has carved for itself.

“I think that’s why we’ve been able to scale so quickly,” he says. “Right now, we’re added to the ecosystem, so we work with retailers, existing consumer products brands, and the entertainment and gaming companies. We’re not seen as competitors but a new consumption model.”

One thing that dismays Davis is companies that go dark rather than being responsive to customers when something goes wrong. “I see a lot of companies that under-invest in customer support on the community side. People want to talk to you,” he says, referring to the transparency that is increasingly becoming an expectation for the modern consumer. “Companies will shut down if they make a mistake. Gaming companies either handle this really well or really poorly. Just tell people what’s up.”

Fans for Life

Meeting Marvel Comics’ former president and chairman Stan Lee was an experience Davis counts as his personal fandom highlight. Lee, 93, created Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, and other popular characters that continue to entertain audiences to this day.

On that note, Davis is cognizant of the special bond that occurs between parent and child when a bit of pop culture is passed down from one generation to the next. Certain items that go into each Loot Crate are, in a distinctly oddball way, cute for kids. “We’ve gotten a lot of interesting anecdotes,” offers Davis. For a recent horror-themed crate, one of the included items was a cuddly, plush doll depicting Leatherface, the nightmareinducing antagonist from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The character was reimagined to be cute and whimsical rather than dark and terrifying. “We got photos of parents tucking their kids into bed, snuggling with Leatherface. It’s kinda fun,” he says with exuberance.

“That’s what you come to Loot Crate for.”

Companies such as Amazon and Google that are scaling operations to enormous levels while promoting an authentic sense of community earn Davis’ utmost respect. “We feel big at 300 people,” observes Davis. “How do you run a company of 10,000 people and keep the vibe and energy up?” It’s a question Davis may very well have to answer himself if Loot Crate’s current trajectory continues. 

WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

In addition to Loot Crate, Los Angeles companies from Santa Monica to Downtown Los Angeles are capitalizing on consumers’ interest in the subscription model THE BOUQS

HQ Venice FOUNDED 2012 MOST RECENT FUNDING

$12M in February 2016

STARTING SUBSCRIPTION COST $40 WHAT’S IN THE BOX Team-selected or custom-

ordered seasonal flower arrangements

WHAT ELSE YOU CAN GET Bouquets and

arrangements à la carte / thebouqs.com

DAILY LOOK

HQ Los Angeles FOUNDED 2011 MOST RECENT FUNDING

$2.5M in April, 2013

STARTING SUBSCRIPTION COST $40 for your

monthly stylist, $75 to $350 for th eitems chosen for you WHAT’S IN THE BOX Each box contains 7 to 11 exclusively hand-selected items WHAT ELSE YOU CAN GET Entire looks (outfit, accessories, and shoes) à la carte / dailylook.com

DOLLAR SHAVE CLUB

Deloitte Fast 500 - Chris Davis

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

HQ Venice FOUNDED 2011 MOST RECENT FUNDING

$1B merger with Unilever in August 2016 STARTING SUBSCRIPTION COST $1 WHAT’S IN THE BOX Razor with 4-5 cartridges WHAT ELSE YOU CAN GET Aftershaves, shaving cream, face wash, shampoo, hair gel, lip balm, moisturizer and travel bags / dollarshaveclub.com

FABFITFUN

HQ Beverly Hills FOUNDED 2010 MOST RECENT FUNDING

$3.5M in October 2015

STARTING SUBSCRIPTION COST $49.99 WHAT’S IN THE BOX Samplings of full-size

premium beauty, fashion, fitness, wellness, and home products / fabfitfun.com

LOVE GOODLY

HQ Los Angeles FOUNDED 2015 MOST RECENT FUNDING

$400k in June 2015

STARTING SUBSCRIPTION COST $29.95 WHAT’S IN THE BOX Nontoxic beauty, eco

lifestyle, and wellness products

/ lovegoodly.com

WINC

HQ Los Angeles FOUNDED 2012 MOST RECENT FUNDING $17.5M in August

2016

STARTING SUBSCRIPTION COST $39 WHAT’S IN THE BOX 3-4 Wine selections / winc.com

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Cross Campus

Destinations - TOC

DESTINATIONS

MARKET UPDATE

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NEW YORK MINUTE

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DOMESTIC

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Shibuya Crossing, one of Tokyo’s (p. 86) most famous attractions, is the convergence of 10 automobile lanes. With each changing of traffic lights during rush hour some 2,500 people cross through the scramble. / gotokyo.org

GOLF GETAWAY

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GOING GLOBAL

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DESTINATIONS MARKET UPDATE

C-SUITE QUARTERLY

The CSQ Traveler’s Newswire Hotel openings, airline route expansions, and other happenings across America

BY ELYSE GLICKMAN

CONRAD BREEZES INTO CHICAGO

This November, the Magnificent Mile became all the more so with the debut of the 20-story, 287-room property Conrad Chicago. Although Conrad draws on its historic legacy as the pinnacle of the Hilton Hotel group, the experience of a stay also puts a heavy emphasis on the architectural and technological innovation for which Chicago is known. Hotelier Laurence Geller teamed up with designer Pierre-Yves Rochon to repurpose an existing space, creating an ambiance by weaving together residential and contemporary luxury, along with influences of the ’60s and ’70s modernism of architects Warren Platner and Mies van der Rohe.

One property highlight that greets guests at the front door is the new complimentary high-tech Conrad 1/3/5 experience with its Virtual Reality Enhanced Concierge, allowing a business or leisure traveler to sample Conrad Chicago’s 1/3/5 experiences, with 360 video and Oculus headsets. Business travelers will also take note of three concept restaurants from globally acclaimed chef Richard Sandoval; 24 suites with generous hospitality areas; 10,000 square feet of conference and event space with state-of-the-art technology, the Conrad Concierge smartphone app, and a private Fisker luxury house car offering complimentary drop-off service within a two-mile radius. / conradhotels.hilton.com

Destinations - Market Update

PAINTING THE TOWN “REDBURY”

If Los Angeles-based SBE can make it anywhere, they’re going to make it in New York. The hospitality group opened The Redbury New York, the third property in this SBE brand, in October following its successes in Hollywood and South Beach.

The historic space, built in 1903, is ‘60s-inspired and comes with handpicked hospitality amenities and trendy on-site restaurant Marta (from Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group). The hip enclave also encompasses 265 guest rooms and 7,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting and event space.

Offset by dramatic windows, Juliet balconies, and a scenic outdoor terrace, the multi-functional ballroom converts into two modular meeting room set-ups, which sets the stage for company retreats, seminars, and conferences.

The location, at 29th Street between Madison Avenue and Park Avenue South, is close to New York’s ‘Tin Pan Alley,’ a landmark music recording and publishing area where the American music industry thrived during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. / theredbury.com

AMERICAN AIRLINES: FROM OUR CITY TO THE FORBIDDEN CITY

The 2016 Presidential Election was not the only intense competition between two larger-than-life figures. Last year, Delta Airlines and American Airlines competed to win the last available LAX - Beijing (BJS/PEK) route permitted by the tightly regulated U.S.- China market. Despite Delta being a favorite to win the coveted slot, the U.S. Department of Transportation gave a decisive victory to American after two years of campaigning and of the airlines trading barbs over which one was best fit to do the route. American projected the new Beijing flight route would be launched sometime this year.

The Department of Transportation told Bloomberg in a statement that the potential benefits of selecting American, adding a third U.S. competitor to the West Coast-Beijing market, outweighed the benefits that would be achieved through selection of Delta. / americanairlines.com - 78 -

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

Koss Resource

DESTINATIONS NEW YORK MINUTE

C-SUITE QUARTERLY

New York Minute When the Big Apple beckons, enjoy the winter at these choice destinations

BY BRITTANY FUISZ

STAY

Mandarin Oriental {Columbus Circle}

Any connoisseur of views will find splendor in floor-to-ceiling windows at the Mandarin Oriental overlooking Central Park. Offering dazzling bird’s-eye views of the city, the hotel occupies the top floors of the Time Warner Center, home to world-class shopping and restaurants. At the touch of a button, the elevator whisks you down to the third floor where you can enjoy dinner at the three Michelin star Per Se, indulge in chocolates from La Maison du Chocolat or pop into Boss to grab that tie you forgot to pack. A 14,500-square-foot spa is the ideal place to rejuvenate in the city that never sleeps, complete with a lap pool overlooking the Hudson River. Dinner at Asiate, the in-house restaurant, is not to be missed. Panoramic views combined with the Chef ’s tasting menu make for a very memorable evening. Golden Osetra Caviar starts the meal off splendidly, followed by equally delectable tuna sashimi, Maine lobster, and grass fed Wagyu beef. The towering wine wall will be calling your name, so opt in for the wine pairing and revel in your surroundings. / mandarinoriental.com/newyork mo_newyork

DINE

Tempura Matsui {Murray Hill}

It is easy to miss the entrance of this Japanese tempura haven, located on East 39th. The small space evokes feelings of a Japanese home and focuses on the art of tempura in the finest form. Mr. Masao Matsui is said to have created the thinnest-possible tempura batter after working on his craft for 30 years in Japan. The tempura bar has nine seats and there are three private booths for tables of two or four. All the tempura is prepared at the tempura bar, right in front of guests. The multi-course meal is served just as it would be in Japan with a small sakizuke (an appetizer like the French amuse-bouche), followed by sashimi, and then exquisite tempura on a variety of fish, vegetables, and seafood. Each ingredient shines through the delicate batter, perfectly tender and piping hot. Highlights included the pumpkin and scallop. Diners are then served a rice course. I opted for the Ten-don, shrimp tempura, and rice served in a thick dashi sauce. Dining at Tempura Matsui is an experience that involves all the senses and truly embraces tempura as an art form.

Recently, they opened for lunch. / tempuramatsui.com tempuramatsui

Destinations - New York Minute

SHOP

Maison Kitsuné {Flatiron}

Paris comes to New York via Maison Kitsuné, the brand that combines love of fashion and music by Gildas Loaëc and Masaya Kuroki, co-founders and creative directors. The contemporary looks are influenced by Paris and Tokyo. Modern, comfortable pieces are chic but also laid-back with an added element of fun in unique colors, fabrics, and imagery. / shop.kitsune.fr kitsune

DESTINATION: ONLINE Visit csq.com/nyminute to find out about additional New York Minute selections.

EAT

SHOP

STAY

{Flatiron District} / sugarfishsushi.com

{SoHo} / odinnewyork.com

{Midtown East} / thebernichotel.com

Sugarfish

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Odin

The Bernic

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

our experience brings you in, our people bring you back.

Since 1942, our accountants have counseled medium- and small-sized businesses with the best in accounting, tax and financial advisory. Today, we focus on the same goals: meeting our clients’ needs and exceeding their expectations.

Gish Seiden

Audits/Reviews/Compilations • Tax and Accounting Management Advisory • Financial Consulting • Specialty Services

Accounting for the past, planning for the future.

21700 Oxnard Street, Suite 850, Woodland Hills, California, 91367 818.854.6100 |

gishSEIDEN.com

DESTINATIONS DOMESTIC

1

Say Aloha to Paradise- 48 Hours Destinations

The lushest of the volcanic islands that constitute Hawaii, Kauai is a place of enchantment, adventure – and flex time

BY ALLISON DEAN

A

n isolated volcanic archipelago in the Central Pacific, the state of Hawaii is world renowned for its lush tropical foliage, spectacular beaches, and distinctive landscape.

Eight major islands – Hawaii, Oahu, Maui, Kauai, Lanai, Molokai, Niihau, and the uninhabited Kahoolawe – several atolls, and multiple inlets comprise the Hawaiian islands.

Home to some of the world’s most spectacular golf courses and picturesque beaches, the 50th state is a world-class destination that receives more than 8 million visitors annually.

Whether your travels take you to sunny Kailua-Kona or lush Hilo on the largest island of Hawaii, to the state capital and biggest city of Honolulu which graces Oahu’s south shore, to the forbidden Niihau where time is said to stand still, or to gaze at the rugged cliffs of Kauai’s famed Na Pali Coast, Hawaii is a tropical treasure trove that promises a journey of - 82 -

adventure, beauty, and discovery.

Just 2,500 miles away from LA, Hawaii is easily reachable via an approximately 5-hour flight into the primary airport, Lihue (LIH). The smaller Princeville airport in Hanalei accommodates smaller private aircraft. Kauai is served daily

by Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, U.S. Airways, and United Airlines. Carriers like ElJet (which flies to the Big Island, Maui, and Oahu) or chartered planes through companies such as Clay Lacy Aviation or Sun Air Jets will take your journey to paradise up a notch.

The Allure of the Garden Isle

Kauai earned its nickname, the “Garden Isle,” for its dense covering of lush tropical rainforest. The island is the fourth largest island in the archipelago and while also the oldest, it remains the least developed. Sunny Poipu in the south contrasts with the rainier CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

Princeville area on the island’s northern coast. Rain, which fuels the spectacular waterfalls that spill off the craggy mountains, mostly occurs overnight, allowing maximum enjoyment of daylight hours.

The island’s reputation as Hollywood’s tropical back lot has flourished over the years. Movies such as King Kong, Jurassic World, and Avatar have woven the magic of Kauai’s rugged coast into their storylines, taking advantage of the majestic beauty of the Na Pali Coast’s dramatic 4,000-foot cliffs and craggy pinnacles. Reachable only by helicopter, boat, or foot, the coast is known for the multitude of rainbows that grace it year-round. The Poipu Sunset Sail offered by Cap’n Andy’s up the na pali coast is a rousing journey complete with sea spray, rainbows, and a delicious meal.

Popular hiking destinations include the Nounou Trails traversing the Sleeping Giant mountain range and the magnificent, 14-mile-long Waimea Canyon, where waterfalls etch the passage of millennia into red rocks overgrown with tropical foliage. Little compares to the sight and sound of the azure waves lapping the golden, red, black, and green sands that grace Kauai’s many lovely beaches, including Ke’e Beach, Tunnels Beach, and Hanalei Bay Beach. Whether you surf the Hawaiian waves at Polihale State Park or paddle

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up the river to view breathtaking Wailua Falls (a double-tiered waterfall located just north of Lihue), the great outdoors beckons in a way unlike anywhere else in the United States.

A New Star Rises in Paradise

Nestled within the 450-acre Hōkūala Resort, the brand new Timbers Kaua‘i Ocean Club & Residences rise at the very edge of the Pacific, boasting an unimpeded oceanfront view of the natural amphitheatre at the entrance to peaceful Kalapaki Beach. Panoramic views of verdant mountains, endless ocean, and enchanting shorelines with sandy beaches await guests at this new oceanfront resort on the island’s southwestern edge. Members and guests enjoy complimentary airport transportation to Hōkūala, where they will find an inviting hale (Hawaiian for “home”) away from home.

The private resort enclave is ringed by a coastal trail featuring shady bike paths winding between rare rainbow eucalyptus trees and other beautiful tropical foliage dotting the expansive grounds. Enjoy the harmony of sky, sea, and land as you climb aboard a water gondola to sail across Hōkūala’s unique inner waterway. Lounge by the twotiered infinity pool and have a snack at the bar and grill. Take advantage of the state-of-the-art fitness center complete with motion studio and outdoor yoga lanai, or play a set at the Hōkūala Tennis Garden. End the day by indulging in a tropically inspired spa treatment before dining at the Ocean Club.

Housing options range from 2,464 square feet to 4,319 square feet, and all offer open floorplans with spacious lanais, gourmet kitchens, luxurious bathrooms, and state-of-the-art audio, visual, and lighting among many amenities. The residences look out at the Pacific Ocean as well as the Jack Nicklaus Signature design Ocean Course, which features the longest stretch of waterfront golf on the islands.

Deemed one of the world’s twelve most beautiful courses by MSN Travel, the can’t-miss championship Ocean Course has been recently renovated, making its string of holes hugging the Pacific even more impressive. The current Hōkūala Golf Club will be replaced in 2017 by a new clubhouse on the lagoon with a world-class practice facility.

Personalized concierge services are available, graciously rendered by Adventure Ambassadors in the spirit of aloha that embodies the true Hawaiian experience. In addition to hosting weddings, anniversaries, and family celebrations, Hōkūala also hosts corporate outings, meetings, and retreats. Reward your team with a custom golf event or discuss corporate strategy poolside or on a fishing boat or yacht. The attentive team at Hōkūala will see to every detail. / timberskauai.com

Numerous restaurants, each with their own island flavor, cater to locals and visitors alike. At Plantation Gardens Restaurant and Bar, diners enjoy delicious homemade cuisine while gazing out over an orchid garden - seated in the open-air dining room or on the lanai of Poipu’s Kiahuna Plantation Resort, built on the grounds of the manager’s estate of Hawaii’s first sugar plantation, Koloa Plantation. The restaurant can be reserved for weddings, special events, and meetings from groups of 10 to 120. / pgrestaurant.com World-class shopping mingled with authentic homemade Hawaiian products delight visitors seeking the perfect gift. If you want to rub elbows with the locals or take a bit of local flavor home, stop by one of the many farmer’s markets. Pick up some tropical flowers and organic produce – the volcanic Hawaiian soil yields some of the world’s best – and try a bit of shave ice or white pineapple phrostie, the tasty gourmet salts and rubs from Salty Wahine, and the mouthwatering scones from kō bakery. / kobakery.com / saltywahine.com

Exploring Kauai’s Wonders and Beyond

Destinations - 48 Hours Dine and Shop in Tropical Style

In Kauai, the fruits of the land and sea are put to good use with regional cuisine that is much more varied and flavorful than a simple mango or bowl of poi.

Once you set foot on Kauai and begin to realize its splendor, you may never wish to leave. But the entirety of Hawaii is easily accessible. Westjet, go!, and Island Air provide interisland flights for island-hopping should you choose to take your journey to the next level. 

HISTORIC HAWAII

900 Year first explored by Polynesians 1778 British explorer James Cook arrives 1898 Joins U.S. as the Territory of Hawaii 1959 Becomes 50th state 1/Located on Kauai’s North Shore, the Na Pali coast is 17 miles of serene green spectacle 2/ The entire 450-acre property consists of Hókúala, a Timbers Resort; Timbers Kauai Ocean Club & Residences; and the Jack Nicklaus-designed Ocean Course

HAWAII BY THE NUMBERS 1.45M Total Population 953,207 Oahu 144,444 Maui 65,689 Kauai 7,400 Molokai

2

3,193 LanaI 130 Niihau $61.5B GDP

3/ An aerial view of historic Hókúala 4/ The welcoming view at the newest addition to the Timbers Resort family

MAIN EXPORTS / INDUSTRIES

Tourism, military, bottled water, prawns, coffee, macadamia nuts, sugar cane, papaya, pineapples 8.3M Annual Visitors in 2015 3

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DESTINATIONS GOLF GETAWAY

Destinations - Golf Getaway

1

Verdant Greens

More than a long drive from the mainland, Hawaii’s Big Island is nonetheless an acein-the-hole when it comes to world-class links

BY RYAN BYERS

L

ocated minutes from Kona International Airport, Kohanaiki is rapidly being recognized as Hawaii’s most hidden gem. Once you step foot on the 1.5 miles of pristine beachfront property on the Kona Coast of Hawaii’s Big Island, you may never want to leave. Sprawling over 450 acres, Kohanaiki was designed with a laid-back, casual atmosphere in mind along with sustainability and preservation and world-class amenities, all resulting in one of Hawaii’s best private communities.

The centerpiece of Kohanaiki is the out-of-this-world 18-hole championship golf course, designed by the famed course designer Rees Jones. Jones has earned the nickname “The Open Doctor” as he is - 84 -

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responsible for the redesign of 7 different courses in preparation for U.S. Opens. The par 72 championship golf course with five different sets of tees offers players a wide variety of challenges that can range from 5,126 yards all the way up to 7,329 yards from the tips. With panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean throughout the course, you will find it hard to concentrate on your golf game at times. These ocean views become up close and personal upon reaching the green of the par-5 12th hole, which is the beginning of a 6-hole stretch that plays right along the beach and offers some of the best golf the island has to offer. Kohanaiki’s signature 16th hole, a par 3, is set so close to the ocean that you might mistake the beach behind the green as a bunker that comes into play.

The conditions are impeccable; the course is laid out with SeaDwarf Seashore Paspalum grass, which looks and plays so perfectly that it will make you feel as if you are playing on artificial turf. With three comfort stations located on the course, offering just about any snack you could imagine (including home-made salads, jerky, and sandwiches, along with a margarita machine, beer, and fine wine on tap, as well as refrigerators filled with many other refreshments), you are assured to have everything needed to fuel the perfect round of golf.

“I’ve been involved in the redesigns of seven U.S. Open venues,” states Rees Jones. “I have a keen eye to determine the difference between a good course and a great course. Kohanaiki is unprecedented.

Everything at Kohanaiki exudes quality and its management team is the best in the industry. Everyone from Joe Root (President) to Marty Keiter, the director of golf, has a sense of how to do things right.”

Kohanaiki is the ideal playground for golfloving homeowners.

Jones conquered outrageous environmental challenges in the design of the Kohanaiki golf course. The course was laid out through black lava fields, much of which is historical Hawaiian preservation, including over 200 anchialine ponds that are a mixture of salt and fresh water that connect to the ocean through lava tubes in the rock. The level of water in the ponds rises and falls with the tide and provides homes for plants and creatures alike. Along with the ponds, Hawaiian cultural sites, and historic trails, another natural nuance that Jones had to overcome was building around an old corral just off the 17th tee box that once was home to donkeys that transported goods up and down a mountain to the east where the residents lived. Needless to say, this all creates a very unique golf experience, and the way that Jones strategically laid out the track makes it seem as if the course was always a natural part of the land.

1/ The Kohanaiki course twists and turns through more than 100 acres of ancient lava flows, blue oceans, and more than 200 anchialine ponds 2/ Designed by Rees Jones the course offers players professional caddies, golf instructors, and a state-of-the-art TrackMan performance system 3/ The view alongside the Kohanaiki driving range comes standard

3

The new Kohanaiki Clubhouse recently opened in December 2016. In what arguably could be considered the greatest clubhouse in the state of Hawaii, architect Shay Zak left nothing to the imagination. The 67,000-square-foot, two-story clubhouse offers a multitude of amenities to its members and their families including pools, spas, state-of-the-art gym, bowling alley, arcade, movie theater, recreation center, cigar lounge, and wine and cheese room, to name a few.

guaranteed to have the perfect pairing at The Beach Restaurant.

There are a few unique housing options spread throughout the property that are considered their own communities at Kohanaiki, each offering its own character and architecture ranging in size from 3,000 to just over 5,000 square feet. The Zakdesigned Custom Hales feature a modern interpretation of Hawaii’s first architecture. The Hale ‘Alani Homes are built with western red cedar stucco exteriors and copper standing seam roofing for a very unique look. The Hale Mai’a Townhomes are two-story duplex town homes offering a relaxed traditional Hawaiian beach house feel. And then there is the ultimate option at Kohanaiki, the custom-built home sites. Lots range from one-half acre to over one acre, and are built by Hawaii’s mostrenowned home designers.

With all that Kohanaiki has to offer, it is hard to imagine any other place to live on the Hawaiian islands. / kohanaiki.com

Destinations - Golf Getaway Outdoor Explorations Beyond Golf

Golf is just the beginning of the possibilities for outdoor recreation at Kohanaiki.

Located below the magnificent beachfront, resort-style pool is the Adventure Team.

Whether it be deep-sea fishing, boating, sailing, surfing, canoeing, standup paddling, scuba diving or snorkeling, the Kohanaiki Adventure Team is always ready to make memories for members, their families, and guests who want adventure on the water. Along with coastal hiking and fitness courses, you could also get your exercise at the first-class tennis facility. As General Manager George Punoose says, “The key word used while on property at Kohanaiki is fun.” With near-perfect weather year round, you will never run out of outdoor fun at Kohanaiki.

Along with the Ohana Pool and the Adventure Team activity center, the Beach Club is also home to the indoor-outdoor Kohanaiki Beach Restaurant as well as the magnificent Beach Bar located directly on the private beach. Here you can take in the spectacular ocean views while enjoying a signature cocktail. While dining at the Beach Restaurant, you can indulge in the great spread created by executive chef Patrick Heymann. Heymann uses the freshest locally sourced ingredients, including product grown on-property at Kohanaiki’s organic farm as well as fish caught in Kohanaiki’s backyard, the Pacific Ocean. With a wine list that will amaze even the finest wine aficionado, you are CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

The Perfect Getaway Overlooking Wailua Bay, the Hilton Waikoloa Village Hotel is a 62-acre beachfront getaway on the Big Island. The 1,240room resort is surrounded by gardens, exotic wildlife, breathtaking waterfalls, and tremendous beach views. Waikoloa offers 14 different restaurants and lounges, 3 pools, and a 4-acre saltwater snorkeling lagoon with the island’s only interactive dolphin program.

Just across the road from the Hilton Waikoloa are two championship 18-hole golf courses. Waikoloa Beach golf course is a par 70, 6,558-yard layout designed by famed course designer Robert Trent Jr. The Kings Course, which shares the same clubhouse, is a bit more challenging. A par 72, 7,074 yard track, the Kings Course was designed by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish. Both courses offer amazing ocean and mountain views. With everything the Hilton Waikoloa Village has to offer, it is the perfect Hawaiian getaway destination.  - 85 -

Photo: Elyse Glickman

DESTINATIONS GOING GLOBAL

1

The Imperial March

concierge desk staff at the Horizon Club work overtime to help guests find various locations around town, decipher Tokyo’s complex street address system, and translate your needs and queries to ensure no appointment gets missed. The Horizon Club’s breakfast and happy hours include a delectable array of champagne, wine and spirits, gourmet nibbles and breakfast (don’t miss their “Royale” take on eggs Benedict with caviar and lobster).

Other Shangri-La amenities include a fully stocked fitness room (including free rental of shoes, swimwear, and clothing), Chi Spa, and marvelous mixology by Jun Okubo. Nadaman Restaurant, a favorite among Japanese executives throughout Japan (a la “Ruth’s Chris”), delivers a truly “locavore-meets-luxury” experience with flavors not watered down for Western palates. Italian anchor restaurant Piacere recently shifted gears with the addition of executive chef Andrea Ferrero, who updated the main dining room menu and added a nighttime tapas bar for informal gatherings. / shangri-la.com/tokyo Travelers looking to delve into a definitively Japanese hospitality should book a few nights at Hoshinoya Tokyo, a retreat that is both an escape from big-city surroundings and a jumping off point for deeper exploration into Japan. Each floor has its own lounge, and full floor buyouts are available.

Guests remove their shoes upon entering the hotel, are served formal tea

Destinations - Going Global

While Tokyo perennially inspires and excites, a journey into pristine rural areas like Tokushima reveals Japan’s calmer side and a reverence for nature

BY ELYSE GLICKMAN

T

okyo and Japan are synonymous with technological precision, innovation, work ethic, and the economic strength that’s made the country a powerhouse among nations over the last six decades. Deeper exploration, however, allows Japan’s bustling capital city of Tokyo and quietly majestic Tokushima to present a wonderfully compelling dichotomy of historic and futuristic.

Flying High Over Tokyo

Japanese culture places a high value on hospitality, and it shows up in a variety of settings in Tokyo. There’s the east-meets-west glamour of the Conrad Tokyo, and the Shangri-La Tokyo’s consummate pan-Asian - 86 -

sophistication. In 2015, western business and leisure travelers received a new and unusual lodging option: the Japanese-owned Hoshinoya Tokyo, which fuses the calm of a traditional ryokan (a home-style inn arising in Japan’s Edo period, 1603–1868) and the arty modernity of a boutique hotel.

Travelers can count on the Conrad Tokyo, a part of the Hilton family, for elegant event spaces, spectacular inhouse fine dining restaurants (Collage, China Blue and Kazahana), lavish breakfast buffet and menu (the Croque Madame is a revelation), and a wonderfully managed executive club with delicious nibbles from all the restaurants. / conradhotels3.hilton.com The Shangri-La Hotel remains one of Tokyo’s best addresses. For starters, there’s the location adjoining Tokyo Station, hub of most of the nation’s train lines – including the convenient Yamanote line that runs a loop around the city and stops at essential cultural attractions and neighborhoods such as Ueno Park and the National Gallery, the Meiji Shrine, Harajuku, Ebisu, and Shinjuku. It also straddles the buzzy Yaesu neighborhood and the Marunouchi business district.

The property is delightfully intimate in its scope and service. The business/ CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

C-SUITE QUARTERLY

service at check-in, are encouraged to wear full kimonos, and experience the rooftop onsen (hot springs pools).

Breakfast is served in Kaiseki (multicourse) style – a scaled up bento box with beautifully turned out courses. / hoshinoyatokyo.com/en

About Town

Hiring a conference interpreter for a corporate gathering is a smart investment. However, a guide who can do that as well as take visitors places beyond the convenient Yamanote line is even better. Our guide, Yukie Nobutsune, brought depth and a local perspective to the Imperial Palace East Garden, Tokyo National Museum, the over-1,000-year-old Narita-san Shinshō-ji Temple, and Asakusa Street. However, she also spirited us through the Tokyo University of the Arts campus into the Yanaka neighborhood (a glimpse of pre-WWII Tokyo interspersed with arty boutiques and antique dealers). The area is also home to the Asakura Choso Museum, a former family home showcasing sculptures, sketches, and photos from the artist and his daughters. Nobutsune also recommended the Sumo Museum and neighboring Edo-Tokyo Museum, concentrating on Edo-era Tokyo history, the performing arts of the time, and the complex structure and culture of the Shogun class.

There’s no shortage of bartending creativity in hotel bars, including Peter Restaurant at the Peninsula Tokyo.

However, to impress your colleagues with your bar savvy, you’ll need to whip out your Google Maps to chart out the city’s it-bars. Takuya Itoh and Rogerio Igarashi Vaz are the brains behind Bar Trench and Bar Tram (small-axe.net) in trendy Ebisu, featuring nuanced cocktails deftly blending Eastern and Western spirits and recipes. In Shibuya, Gen Yamamoto (genyamamoto.jp/bar_tokyo/English. html) transforms bartending into theater in his reservations-only, eight-seat venue. Codename Mixology (r.goope.jp/spirits-sharing + Google Translate) offers cozy ambiance and wonderful made-to-order and barrelaged libations in its three locations.

Bar Benfiddich is a celebration of whiskey in its many glorious forms, including the new breed of Japanese distillates.

The trick to finding Tokyo’s hidden gems among restaurants is to follow one’s nose to uncover such finds as financial district izakaya Hounen Manpuku (hounenmanpuku.com) and Curry Tsukemen Shuichi (1-9-2

Ebisu-Nishi, Shibuya-ku), where diners can pay in advance at a vending machine. As both the Tokyo address system and some local fare may be intimidating for even the most seasoned traveler, Arigato Japan (arigatojapan. co.jp) has Tokyo (along with Kobe, Kyoto, Osaka, and other cities) covered through its food tours. It also offers cooking classes often booked for memorable team-building activities.

Getting Back to Japan’s Roots

One way to experience the Okayama, Kagawa, and Tokushima prefectures as the Japanese do is to book at hotels created for the Japanese market.

Setouchi Kojima Hotel is a fine choice for foreign execs interested in meeting with central Japanese companies, in a space resembling an ocean liner. The veteran Japanese business/convention property has good food and elevated views of the Seto-Ohashi Bridge, Seto Inland Sea, and Takamatsu City.

Smaller groups looking for charm can book a night or two at Tsurugata Ryokan in the Bikan Historical Quarter of Kirashiki. The cultural center of the area is the delightful Ohara Museum of Art, noted for its superb collection of paintings by El Greco, Monet, Matisse, Gauguin, Renoir, and Asian historic and contemporary art.

Kirashiki is also the heart of the Japanese denim industry. A block of the historic Bikan quarter is lined with several artfully merchandised jean boutiques. Serious jean connoisseurs shopping for innovative, top-tier pairs can plan a stroll down Kojima Jeans Street. Here, denim flourishes at the shops of Japan’s major denim labels, and trend-setters can get first crack at cutting-edge styles (that also happen to be extraordinarily flattering).

Takamatsu City, the gateway to the Seto Inland Sea, offers ferries to several free-standing island communities that collectively stage the Setouchi Trienniale International Art Festival and individually offer glimpses into Japan’s quiet maritime village lifestyle, unretouched temples, and historic buildings when the festival is not on. While Ogijima Island gained YouTube fame for its cat population, the exquisite Bistro Iori also puts the island on the map. The tiny restaurant reflects the inventiveness of the various Setouchi Trienniale installations in terms of how small spaces can integrate Eastern and Western ideas. You are essentially in the (owner) Maeda family living room, dining on European fare crafted from ingredients harvested steps from the establishment and rooted in Mr. Maeda’s experience as a chef for a top Osaka restaurant.

Once off the return ferry in Takamatsu City, engineering and art buffs should pop into the Miyoshi Lantern Shop. Here, 11th-generation craftsman Masanobu Miyoshi carries on the tradition dating back to 1610 of defying gravity with wood and paper.

While watching Miyoshi in action is impressive, his creations demand thorough examination. The fragile, three-layered “Ippon Gake” lanterns are a marvel of physics. The Hotel Hanajukai is also a wonderfully multilayered delve into exclusively Japanese surroundings. It features suites with private onsens, as well as excellent Kaiseki meals and sake selection.

As the population thins out and the valleys widen, treasures of Japanese history, food culture, and past technological accomplishments reveal themselves. In Mima/Wakimachi, a 17th-century trading center built into

Destinations - Going Global

2 CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

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C-SUITE QUARTERLY

DESTINATIONS GOING GLOBAL

1/ Some of Japan’s hidden beauty can be found outside her city center’s including the Iya Valley in the Tokushima Prefecture 2/ A suite offering at the Shangri-La Hotel Tokyo 3/ One of Tokyo’s oldest temples, the Sensoji temple was built in 628. Today it rests at the end of one of the city’s busiest shopping avenues where locals and tourists alike can sample delectable street fair 4/ As of 2013 Tokyo had the largest GDP by metro area in the world at $1,699B followed by New York City at $1,558B and Los Angeles at $858B

3

JAPAN BY THE NUMBERS

126.3M Total Population 13.6M Tokyo Metro 2.7M Osaka 1.5M Kobe 790,000 Tokushima Prefecture LARGEST JAPANESE COMPANIES Hitachi Electronics,

Destinations - Going Global

Honda Motors, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, Softbank, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, Toyota

4

a bank of the Yoshino River, much is being done to preserve the houses distinguished by their stately udatsus (originally built as a firewalls between houses) as well as the indigo dyeing craft that drew merchants from all over Japan. Those techniques are today being applied to Japan’s premium denim industry.

As one drives deeper into the mountains of the Iya Valley, the scenery begins to resemble Edo-era screens and paintings. Opportunities for unforgettable hiking trails abound around the Oku-Iya Double Vine Bridges as well as areas surrounding the Obokekyo Mannaka hotel (remodeled rooms have stunning views of the Iya river and décor best described as Japan meeting Finland). Small groups can also refuel at places like Tsuzuki Soba Atelier, where its spirited owner offers classes in how to craft fresh noodle and serves delectables like venison tempura and hand-pressed tofu.

Tougenkyo-Iya Mountain Village, nestled in remote Ochiai, offers Japanese home-style stays at their most calming and sense-stirring.

The transformation of eight historic

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thatched roof farmhouse cottages was accomplished under the direction of American Japanese preservationist and historian Alex Kerr. Kerr and the Chiiori Trust organization focused their attention on restoring structures’ traditional architecture.

From there, luxury furnishings, picture windows, luxury bath goods, heated floors, and kitchen appliances were brought in to make a retreat or leisure stay a “heaven on earth.” While there is nary a shop in sight, meals based on requests from visitors at the time of the booking are often full-blown family-style feasts based on centuries-old recipes. Rates run $350 to $500/night, depending on how many people will be staying in a cottage.

Some will prefer the pulse and newness of one of the world’s most dynamic cities, while others will appreciate the calm of rural settings and the collective embrace of nature.

Regardless, there is no arguing there’s nothing quite like Japanese culture, where innovation and creativity in their many forms, past and present, never cease to inspire. 

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

TOKUSHIMA PREFECTURE TOP INDUSTRIES Chemicals,

electrical equipment, specialty foods, paper, apparel (including ultra-premium denim and indigo dyeing), tourism

MAJOR EXPORTS Automotive, electronic equipment, medical

& technical equipment, iron and steel, plastic, oil, rubber

876 meters (2,874 ft) Length of the Ōnaruto Bridge, a suspension bridge connecting Minamiawaji, Hyogo on Awaji Island with Naruto, Tokushima Prefecture. In good weather, you can spot the Naruto Whirlpools below the bridge.

145 MINUTES The time it takes a Shinkansen “bullet” train to transport passengers from Tokyo to Osaka, at approximately 270 kilometers per hour. The trip costs about $140 US. 37.32M

Record number of travelers flying into Tokyo’s Narita Airport in 2015 ESSENTIAL INFO GETTING THERE All Nippon Airways (ANA), Japan Airlines (JAL), Asiana / JFG-E.JP Web site for the Japan Federation of Certified

Guides, where you can book experienced English-speaking guide and conference translators

ECBC Essential travel carry-on luggage that makes security stops and transporting supplies to meetings a breeze, from Narita and Haneda Airports to the trains. / ec-bc.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT / jnto.go.jp/eng / gotokyo.com

Distinction Gallery

The C-Suite Advisory section is comprised of the best of the best in each respective field.

Spanning multiple industries, these tenured advisors are engaged to share their expertise on topics helpful and relevant to the C-Suite professional both for business and in life.

ACCOUNTING

92 A Celebration of Innovation T’SHAKA LEE PARTNER DELOITTE & TOUCHE LLP Los Angeles, CA

94 Embracing the DCX SCOTT M. SACHS, CPA

REGIONAL MANAGING PARTNER - WEST REGION & EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBER COHN REZNICK LLP Los Angeles, CA

CSA - TOC CONSULTING

96 Can Corporate Culture Be Innovative?

JAMES HARWOOD

FOUNDER & PRESIDENT TOTAL HR La Crescenta, CA

98 The Technology Cartel’s Twilight KEVIN S. PARIKH

GLOBAL CEO & SENIOR PARTNER

EDWARD C. WILSON-SMYTHE PARTNER AVASANT Los Angeles, CA

FINANCE

100 Environmental Leadership & Impact Investing BRUCE MUNSTER

MANAGING DIRECTOR - PRIVATE WEALTH MANAGEMENT MERRILL LYNCH PBIG Los Angeles, CA

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CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

HEALTH & WELLNESS

102 Digital Health Applications DR. BRENNAN SPIEGEL

DIRECTOR OF HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH CEDARS-SINAI HEALTH SYSTEM West Hollywood, CA

104 Why Breathe?

CAROL A. POLEVOI, LMFT, CBS, CPC OWNER / CLINICAL DIRECTOR COUNSELING RESOURCE CENTER Agoura Hills, CA

LEGAL

CSA - TOC 106 Picking the Right Legal Horse WILLIAM MARK LEVINSON PARTNER & CO-CHAIR FINANCIAL SERVICES FOX ROTHSCHILD LLP Los Angeles, CA

108 Intellectual Property Fundamentals for Startup Investments STEVEN C. SEREBOFF

PARTNER SOCAL IP LAW GROUP LLP Westlake Village, CA

REAL ESTATE

110 The Failed Evolution of an Industry JASON HUGHES

PRESIDENT & CEO HUGHES MARINO, INC. CORPORATE REAL ESTATE ADVISORS Los Angeles, CA

For information on becoming a C-Suite Advisor, please contact us at advisory@csq.com C-Suite Media is an executive leadership publisher and does not recommend or endorse investment, legal, insurance, or tax advisors. The listing of any firm in the CSQ Advisory Program does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement by CSQ magazine of any such firm and is not based upon CSQ magazine’s experience with or prior dealing with any advisor. The information presented for each advisor is the sole responsibility of the advisor. CSQ makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of such information, assumes no liability for any

inaccuracies or omissions therein, and disclaims responsibility for the suitability of any particular investment recommendation or strategy for any person. Nothing contained in CSQ magazine constitutes or should be construed as any form of investment, legal, insurance, or tax advice or as a recommendation to buy, sell, hold, or trade any securities, financial instruments, or assets.

Readers are advised to consult their legal, financial, insurance, and tax advisors prior to making any investment or pursuing any investment strategy.

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

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ACCOUNTING AUDIT SERVICES

| INNOVATION & HYPERGROWTH |

A Celebration of Innovation

An examination of Los Angeles’ fastest growing companies and their effect on the region

T’Shaka Lee

Southern California Emerging Growth / Venture Backed Company Practice Leader Deloitte & Touche LLP Los Angeles, CA T’Shaka is the Emerging Growth / Venture Backed Company Practice Leader for Southern California for Deloitte. He has more than 16 years of professional experience in advising clients on financial reporting, operations, and compliance including tax, mergers and acquisitions, finance transformation, IPO readiness, and shared service center and center of excellence design and implementation.

For more than 22 years, Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 program has recognized the fastest growing public and private technology, life sciences and energy tech companies in North America. These tech companies are on the cutting edge and are using technology to transform how business is conducted and / or our quality of life. Making the list is no small feat, considering in order to make the current year list, companies needed a growth rate in excess of 120%. With this context, we should all feel proud that the

we do business is powered by the sustained innovation and growth of these companies. For the third time since program inception, the honor of the fastest growing company in North America went to a So Calbased organization – this year’s winner is Loot Crate.

While software continues to be the leading sector for technology growth based on the winners, we have observed an increasing trend in the So Cal marketplace of fast growing digital content/media/entertainment companies spurning growth, with

CSA - Scott Sachs

PHONE

213/553.1606 EMAIL

tshakalee@deloitte.com WEBSITE

deloitte.com ADDRESS

555 W 5th St. Suite 2700 Los Angeles, CA 90013

The So Cal ecosystem of innovation and growth is a demonstrably solid contributor to the growth and positive economic impacts of the North American landscape.

So Cal ecosystem is thriving. This year, we celebrated 41 companies being recognized on the FAST 500 list and 11 companies are in the top 100. Additionally, 21 of the companies that we recognized are new to the FAST 500 list. Our winners demonstrate impressive growth year after year, as evidenced by 14 of our So Cal-based companies being recognized for two or more consecutive years, with almost half being recognized as a winner previously.

The strength of the region in which

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CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

25% of our So Cal winners being in this sector – all of these companies were founded less than 9 years ago and 7 of them are newly recognized FAST 500 winners.

We discussed several topics with our FAST 500 winners and had the following observations and takeaways:

Business Focus

The majority of the companies are focused on revenue growth with cost management, a prioritization of the

North American geographic region as the primary marketplace, and aspirations for measured international expansion. All of the companies have a positive business outlook for 2017.

customer’s quality of life experience; and a willingness to fail, fail quickly, learn, and repeat often.

The So Cal ecosystem of innovation and growth is a demonstrably solid

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While software continues to be the leading sector for technology growth based on the winners, we have observed an increasing trend in the So Cal marketplace of fast growing digital content/internet media/ entertainment companies spurning growth, with 25% of our So Cal winners being in this sector – all of these companies were founded less than 9 years ago and 7 of them are newly recognized FAST 500 winners. : +

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CSA - Scott Sachs Top Business Challenges

The challenges expressed are interestingly fairly consistent: investments in information systems and technology (including timing, selection, and amount); maximizing digital technologies for growth; difficulties in finding, competing for, and retaining skilled talent across a broad range of needs; and financing and working capital management, including having the applicable liquidity and access to capital to fund growth.

Keys to Success

While there are many paths to success and the approach to developing and growing the business has nuanced across the winners, observations may likely suggest the following are elements that have been instrumental: a passionate executive team that believes in their services/products; a strong board with relevant experience to help set strategy and direction for management; a service or product that makes life easier or enhances the

contributor to the growth and positive economic impacts of the North American landscape. Congratulations to all of the FAST 500 winners that continue to create opportunities and keep the So Cal market vibrant.

Please join me in celebrating our winners and we all look forward to continued success as they endeavor to be repeat winners.

This publication contains general information only and Deloitte is not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor. Deloitte shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this publication. Copyright Š 2016 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.

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CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

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ACCOUNTING CORPORATE

| DIGITAL COMMERCE |

Embracing the DCX Five tips on how to capitalize on the digital customer experience and maximize profits

Scott M. Sachs, CPA

Regional Managing Partner West Region & Executive Board Member CohnReznick LLP Los Angeles, CA Mr. Sachs’ career includes significant experience in both initial and secondary public offerings, debt and equity financing, and acquisition and divestiture analysis. He is actively involved in such organizations as the Boys & Girls Club of the West Valley, the Los Angeles Jewish Home, the Girl Scout Council, The Entrepreneurship Institute, and Junior Achievement. Scott is also a member of the Ernst & Young LLP Alumni Association of Southern California board of directors. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, Mr. Sachs is a member of Certified Public Accountants and the California Society of Public Accountants.

PHONE

818/205.2609 EMAIL

In today’s technology-focused world, a company’s ability to attract and maintain customers requires them to leverage digital tools and channels. By doing so, they become empowered to create exciting, personalized consumer experiences. From apps that allow consumers to purchase coffee without opening their wallets, to the ability to hail a taxi cab without calling anyone, changing customer expectations have forced the evolution of the digital customer experience DCX).

share in today’s expanding global economy will heavily depend upon proper DCX execution.

Why the Customer Experience Matters

JetBlue. Apple. Zappos. These and other companies have been lauded for their ability to build customer loyalty and, in turn, significantly grow their revenues.

But what these companies have really done successfully is to forge an intimate relationship with their customers to

CSA - Deloitte

Seventy-seven percent of U.S. online adults say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with a good experience.

scott.sachs@cohnreznick.com WEBSITE

cohnreznick.com ADDRESS

1900 Avenue of the Stars 28th Floor Los Angeles, CA 90067

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Put simply, DCX is the product of all digitally enabled interactions between a company, its prospects, and its customers over the duration of their relationship. And every company in every industry needs to understand that the bar has been raised. Their ability to compete effectively and build market

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

drive engagement. And the key to building customer intimacy is to deliver a superior customer experience.

The case for this is simple. Every time a prospect or customer interacts with a business, in what are generally called “touch points,” he or she forms an impression of that business. When

all of the impressions are aggregated, they form an experience. By placing customers at the center of the business model and architecting engagement and servicing systems to deliver desired customer experiences, companies build a strong competitive advantage that pays off. The latest research on the topic proves just that: Better customer experience drives revenue growth.

Doing DCX Right

There are many studies on the customer experience and DCX. Different

tasks for the company looking to sell to them. Although companies may think they know their customers, studies show that 80% of consumers believe that brands really don’t know them as individuals.

Consistency.

Most customer interactions happen during a multi-event, multi-channel journey. As customers switch channels, both within digital and outside of it, they expect to receive the same level of quality. Customers get frustrated by

Companies that help consumers simplify the purchase journey have customers who are 86% more likely to purchase their products and 115% more likely to recommend their brand to others.

Convenience.

Companies that help consumers simplify the purchase journey have customers who are 86% more likely to purchase their products and 115% more likely to recommend their brand to others. High effort levels are viewed by customers as a significant barrier to a healthy business relationship.

Personalization.

Consumers are acknowledging that businesses can influence shopping behaviors by delivering relevant messaging and making shopping experiences more personal. 86% say personalization plays a key role in their purchasing decisions. In exchange for personalized offers and services delivered to the Smartphones or e-mail addresses, consumers are willing to share personal information - provided they can maintain a sense of control over it.

CSA - Deloitte / open

studies point to different sets of experience attributes that are most important depending on industry characteristics, the nature of targets, and current customers. Here, we have identified five “universal” attributes that we believe make for an optimal customer experience, especially when digital strategies are being employed.

Identification.

Consumers today are more diverse, more connected, and more powerful than ever before, making identification and micro-segmentation one of the most important and challenging

inconsistent experiences. A whopping 78% of consumers say they opted out of a transaction or intended purchase because of a poor quality experience.

Responsiveness.

Seventy-seven percent of U.S. online adults say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with a good experience. Whether it is an FAQ section of a website that provides instant answers to basic questions or a live chat feature that addresses the long waiting times, today’s consumers expect to receive instant answers and fast issue resolution.

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

What’s Next?

At the end of 2016, 89% of companies expected to compete mostly on the basis of customer experience. This is up from just 36% four years ago.

The digital customer experience is no longer just about accessibility and ease-of-use; it is about connecting, inspiring, engaging, and co-creating with customers.

Businesses must design and execute the DCX rapidly by staying flexible and open to continuous feedback from customers and users. It may seem overwhelming at first, but there are frameworks, methods, and technologies to facilitate the process in a cost-effective, iterative manner.

To succeed in the digital age, companies around the world must understand what their customers truly desire–a personalized customer experience. The future demands it.

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CONSULTING HUMAN RESOURCES

| CORPORATE CULTURE |

Can Corporate Culture Be Innovative?

The key to innovation in corporate culture begins and ends with your vision

James Harwood, MBA, SPHR

Founder & President Total HR La Crescenta, CA James Harwood is the founder and president of Total HR Management, a company providing strategic and administrative HR management solutions with an exclusive focus on the small business market. Total HR Management provides a variety of HR services on an outsource basis. Mr. Harwood has more than 20 years of experience as an HR executive and consultant working with Fortune 500 companies, nonprofit corporations, and small businesses. In addition to overseeing HR administration departments including payroll, benefits, workers compensation, and more. Mr. Harwood has an extensive background in human resources management, employment law, and organizational development. He enjoys helping organizations enhance overall employee satisfaction and worker productivity and consults on leadership practices, management development, employee satisfaction, and performance management. Mr. Harwood is a certified senior professional in human resources.

He holds a Master of Arts from Pepperdine University and a Master of Business Administration from Claremont Graduate University.

PHONE

818/248.0049 EMAIL

james@totalhrmgmt.com WEBSITE

totalhrmgmt.com

The short answer to the very complicated question in the title is yes. Company corporate culture can indeed be innovative. In 2017 and beyond, corporate culture will continue to be the hot topic of the day. Why? Because employees are better informed, are willing to leave for a “better opportunity,” and ultimately want to feel good at work.

Executives are finally taking note and need a plan.

begin to take notice. But by then it may be too late; the genie is now out of the bottle. They try company picnics, hire so called “experts,” and even go to the extreme of replacing their entire human resources department – if they have one. It’s much more difficult to fix a bad culture than start out from the very beginning with a vision, a plan, and a clearly defined roadmap of how to get there.

Culture-Intended vs.

Unintended

Have a Culture Vision

CSA - Avasant Let’s face it, every company has a

It’s much more difficult to fix a bad culture than start out from the very beginning with a vision, a plan, and a clearly defined roadmap of how to get there.

culture, a feel – intended or not. In my experience, I’ve noticed most companies kind of wing it, go about their day, their creative process and simply hope for the best. It’s typical when a proverbial bomb goes off (a lawsuit, disgruntled workforce, tremendous project load) that C- levels

LOCATION

2626 Foothill Blvd.

Suite 220 La Crescenta, CA 91214

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Knowing how to create AND maintain a sellable product or service

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is simply not enough anymore.

Creating and maintaining a creative, fun, and productive team is just as, if not more, important than your company’s deliverable. Working with a team of professionals who can help you take care of your employees lets them know you care and have your

ThePerfect LTCSolutiontm

Manage above the line by holding people accountable to what they expect of themselves, what they’ve agreed to and the greater purpose-the company vision.

Contact me to discuss a very unique offering.

ThePerfect LTCSolutiontm provides:

• LIFETIME Benefits “stuff” together. Your employees are always watching. They watch what

you say, how you say it, and if you back it up with action and integrity.

The Cost of a Bad Hire

Hiring talented individuals that embrace your vision, your culture, and your company’s goals is essential to your success. We all know that the cost of hiring the wrong person can be expensive. The cost of turnover is that nebulous thing that we all tend to ignore, but we cannot ignore it any longer. Sure, the “bad hire” may cost us in the traditional sense: a job done poorly, the production line backs up, angry customers; but the cost of hiring negativity is the deadliest of all.

Negativity can and does spread like wildfire and needs to be addressed on the front end- not with an HR fire extinguisher. When people apply (I like to call it audition) to work for your organization, do the necessary background screening, personality profiling, and group interviewing to make absolutely sure this individual is a good fit. It takes a little more effort on the front end but always pays off in the long run.

in your company’s vision.

Manage above the line by holding people accountable to what they expect of themselves, what they’ve agreed to and the greater purpose – the company vision. This eliminates any surprises during reviews and terminations.

People rarely remember what was said, but they always remember how you made them feel.

Be present by communicating effectively, setting clear goals and by putting things in writing.

Establish regular performance and incentive reviews. Your team needs to be recognized for their contribution and accomplishments to the organization.

Champion your team with more than just talking points. Your employees do pay attention to the integrity of your action, not just your rhetoric.

Remember that we judge ourselves by our intentions and judge others by their actions and behavior.

Notice you are always “on stage.” Your employees watch the way you walk, the way you talk, and even the way you eat your sandwich. Be comfortable, but aware.

Be consistent by sticking to your culture plan, showing your team and clients, you are committed, care, and do have a vision.

• Optional Cost of Living

Adjustment (3%)

• 10-pay, 20- pay or Single-pay options

CSA - Avasant / open

Quick Culture-Vision Tips

Create and maintain a positive work environment where people can bring their individuality and contribute to the company’s vi- sion. This can be a good thing if they have a positive attitude, the talent necessary, and the belief

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

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• Backed by A+ rated carrier

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70% of Americans

will need some type of Long Term Care.

Whats your plan?

Corporate Strategies Inc Martin Levy, CLU, Principal 1 800 914 3564 www.Corpstrat.com Ca. Lic 0C24367

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CONSULTING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

| TECHNOLOGY ACCELERATION |

The Technology Cartel’s Twilight

Kevin S. Parikh

Global CEO & Senior Partner Avasant Los Angeles, California

Edward C. Wilson-Smythe Partner Avasant Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PHONE

310/643.3030 kevin.parikh@avasant.com edward.wilson-smythe@avasant.com WEBSITE

asavant.com ADDRESS

1960 E. Grand Avenue Suite 1050 El Segundo, CA 90245

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The direction and pace of human evolution over the past two decades has been founded on the singular force of technology hyper acceleration. Since 1995, the power of computing has increased over 50 fold while the cost has been reduced to a third; the pace of content creation has increased over 500 times, the availability of content at any given time by 10,000 fold, and the speed

impact of proprietary, inflexible, and incompatible technologies has led to an environment where enterprise technology has become wasteful, expensive, failed, and obsolete – a betrayal of the possibilities ushered in by the last generation of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Some of the primary challenges with current models include: 1.

The Continued Squandering

1995, theMunster power of computing has CSAincreased -Since Bruce over 50 fold while the cost has been

Kevin S. Parikh is a thought leader on digital and business transformation. He has published numerous white papers, articles, and texts on the subject and authored a book on digital enterprise transformation. Kevin also advises both private and public sector clients on risk management, corporate governance, and service and vendor negotiations. Prior to joining Avasant, Kevin led the global sourcing practice for Gartner Consulting. He has a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Science from the University of California Davis and received his J.D. from American University.

Edward C. Wilson-Smythe has more than 20 years of consulting experience with a proven track record of advising C-level clients and senior government policy makers that develop and execute digital business strategies which leverage emerging trends in technology and business models to enable the digital enterprise and accelerate the digital economy. He specializes in strategies related to the application of technology for transformation of core business operations and development of new business models.

EMAIL

Atoning the original sin of technology hyper-acceleration

reduced to a third; the pace of content creation has increased over 500 times, the availability of content at any given time by 10,000 fold, and the speed of content dissemination by over 3.5 billion times.

of content dissemination by over 3.5 billion times.

The convergence of innovation and enterprise which made this unprecedented proliferation of technology possible, however, was marred by an original sin which, in under a generation, has unraveled much of its progress and impact. The first wave of widely available technologies remained a closely guarded and proprietary preserve of innovators and entrepreneurs, who eventually morphed into the corporate colossuses of our time. The cumulative

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2.

of Enterprise Value. The most prevalent manifestation of the challenges with current models is in the stubbornly high cost of enterprise technology, driven by continued and increasingly inefficient spending on non-essential technologies, when by all measures these costs should be declining as rapidly as they did in the last 20 years.

The Rise of Unacceptable Costs. When enterprises do rouse themselves from

3.

the stupor of self-inflicted complexities related to technology operations and lifecycle management, they are faced with the second and most egregious adverse impact of current models. While almost all business strategy is now predicated upon technology innovation, this becomes prohibitively expensive when confronted with the complexity and inflexibility of traditional technologies which make up the bulk of enterprise investments.

A Track Record of Failure. In cases where enterprises decide to proceed with technology initiatives despite, or more likely due to ignorance of, these high costs, the success rate is abysmal. The old adage among a certain breed of technology managers, thrown around without questioning the inherent defeatism and absurdity of the premise, was that technology initiatives could meet two of cost, schedule or quality objectives, but not all three.

Obsolete at Birth. A fourth chapter in the saga of traditional technology revolves around the ultimate manifestation of the irrelevance of current models – “obsolete when implemented” technology solutions. Long planning, acquisition, and execution time frames for traditional technology initiatives mean it takes 30-36 months on average from initiation to execution.

have grown accustomed to wasteful, expensive, failed, and obsolete models, and accept suboptimal results within the constraints imposed by these models as somehow being evidence of success.

1.

2.

The Fatigue of the Abused.

Long-suffering enterprise business leaders are beginning to take a stand against the failed assumptions and planning principles of the past and are beginning to see technology, with its inability to meet business needs for accelerating change, as a barrier to innovation.

The Open Technology Revolution. Driven by a frustration and in many cases deep ideological disagreements with the current models, and spurred on by the growing demand for alternatives, a new generation of technology solutions is emerging.

Relationships That Work. The final piece which completes the picture is the emergence of strategic relationships between enlightened clients and a new generation of technology firms, which provide open technology platforms and related services predicated upon flexibility, ongoing modernization, and alignment to business priorities, at low or no cost.

open, flexible, and business-aligned model, restoring technology to its original promise and purpose of driving innovation. There remains, however, securely ensconced in the middle-management permafrost of enterprises, a large group of decision-makers and influencers who have a vested interest in perpetuating traditional technology and service models as a way to prolonging their relevance. The days of supremacy of this particular species are numbered. Over 75% of senior business executives are actively exploring new technology relationships and are increasingly the decision makers, forcing the dinosaurs to evolve or go extinct.

The Insurgent Manifesto

Enterprises, technology companies, and service providers need to take tangible actions to challenge traditional models and the forces of incumbency and inertia, based on providing tangible, practical solutions to business leaders clamoring for change. This change needs to be rooted in five key philosophies:

CSA - Bruce Munster

4.

The Emerging Challenge

While current technology models have built into their very fabric the near certainty of inefficiency and failure, they have sustained their dominance, primarily due to the lack of credible alternatives. Enterprises

3.

We anticipate that by 2020, business-aligned contracts and zero cost models will form the majority of technology relationships, adding to the vast supermajority of relationships based on open and flexible technologies.

Asteroids and Dinosaurs

The market is uniquely positioned at an inflection point away from the discredited models of the previous generation, and toward a truly

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Learn to say no; speak truth to power; insist on openness; increase velocity of innovation; and put the enterprise back in enterprise technology.

Together we can usher in the end of an era known as much for the promise of technology hyper acceleration as for the potential that was never achieved, an era when decentralized innovation and enterprise was corrupted into the concentration of power and control.

The inevitable rise of open technologies in an as-a-service economy will finally reconcile the contradiction between innovation and inflexibility.

The declining financial fortunes of traditional technology models will accelerate into an eventual demise.

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FINANCE PRIVATE BANKING

| FISCAL CLIMATE CHANGE |

Environmental Leadership and Impact Investing In an increasingly globalized world and economy, investment leadership financially and environmentally are more important now than ever

Bruce Munster

Managing Director – Private Wealth Management Merrill Lynch Private Banking & Investment Group Los Angeles, CA Bruce Munster is a principal of the MPF Private Wealth Management Group, an M&Afocused advisory practice within the Private Banking and Investment Group at Merrill Lynch. Located in Los Angeles, the MPF Private Wealth Management Group manages more than $1.9B for 50 families, as of December 31, 2016. Bruce has garnered a number of national honors as a Financial Advisor. On Wall Street named him to its 2014 list of the “Top 40 Advisors Under 40” (#7 nationally).

The Financial Times distinguished Bruce as one of the Top 400 Financial Advisors in 2014.

And REP Magazine honored Bruce as one of the Top 40 Wirehouse Advisors Under 40 in 2014 (#11 nationally). Bruce earned his B.S. in Business Management and Marketing from Cornell University. He and his family support several charitable organizations including Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Woodbury University, Food on Foot and Cornell University Wrestling. Bruce lives in Pacific Palisades with his high school sweetheart, Therese, and their three children: Samuel, Bruce Jr., and Haifa.

We live in a rapidly changing world, but one thing that won’t change anytime soon is the reality of climate change. Climate change has already resulted in a 1o increase in average Earth temperatures, which has shifted weather patterns and reduced access to potable water around the globe. The Paris Climate Accord was an acknowl-

begun to implement meaningful change. Bank of America was named to Fortune’s 2016 Change the World list, as one of 50 companies that has made an important social or environmental impact through its profit-making strategy and operations.

Since 2007, we have provided $53B in low-carbon financing to support a

CSA - Carol Polevoi

Bank of America was named to Fortune’s 2016 Change the World list, as one of 50 companies that has made an important social or environmental impact through its profit-making strategy and operations. Since 2007, we have provided $53B in low-carbon financing to support a wide range of projects, including solar, wind, water, and biofuel to name a few.

PHONE

310/407.4960 EMAIL

bruce.munster@ml.com WEBSITE

ml.com

ADDRESS

2049 Century Park East Suite 1100 Los Angeles, CA 90067

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edgment by 190 countries that climate change is not a political or economic issue; the intent of the accord is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping the global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius.

While politicians around the globe are only beginning to acknowledge this existential threat, some forwardthinking companies have already

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wide range of projects, including solar, wind, water, and biofuel to name a few. We expanded that commitment last July when we became one of the first companies to sign on to the White House’s American Business Act on Climate Pledge. We increased our environmental business commitment to provide $125B toward environmental business initiatives by 2025 through lending, investing, capital raising,

advisory services, and developing financing solutions for clients around the world.2 And in 2014, Merrill Lynch signed the United Nations supported Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI) which is an international network of investors working together to understand the implications of sustainability for investors, and support signatories in incorporating these issues into their investment decisionmaking and ownership practices.3 Bank of America continues to be the No. 1 underwriter of green bonds and issued our second green bond for $600M. The bond will help to fund renewable energy, including wind and solar, and energy efficiency projects, such as lighting retrofits.2 This type of Impact Investment highlights how we

created a dynamic range of investment approaches in an attempt to generate both financial returns and positive measurable social impact. Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) are an example of an innovation in finance and a new type of investment that aligns our client’s wealth with purpose. While this innovation is relatively recent, we see an opportunity for certain investors to dedicate a portion of their portfolio to address specific social purposes that have the potential for investment returns and social impact.5 As part of A Transforming World, BofA Merrill Lynch’s Global Research identifies long-term themes correlated with Impact Investing that may be considered as market conditions change. Investing behind themes

Bank of America continues to be the No. 1 underwriter of green bonds and issued our second green bond for $600M.

Social impact investing is a relatively new and evolving investment opportunity which is highly speculative and involves a high degree of risk. An investor could lose all or a substantial amount of their investment.

Merrill Lynch makes available products and services offered by Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (MLPF&S), a registered broker-dealer and Member SIPC, and other subsidiaries of Bank of America Corporation (BofA Corp.)

Investment products and services may be available through a relationship managed by U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management, or through a relationship with MLPF&S. Certain U.S. Trust associates are registered representatives with MLPF&S and may assist you with investment products and services provided through MLPF&S and other nonbank investment affiliates. MLPF&S is a registered broker-dealer, Member SIPC and a wholly owned subsidiary BofA Corp. U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management, operates through Bank of America, N.A., and other subsidiaries of BofA Corp.

Any information presented in connection with BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research is general in nature and is not intended to provide personal investment advice. The information does not take into account the specific investment objectives, financial situation and particular needs of any specific person who may receive it. Investors should understand that statements regarding future prospects may not be realized. BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research is equity research produced by Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated and/or one or more of its non-U.S. affiliates. BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research does and seeks to do business with companies covered in its research reports. As a result, investors should be aware that the firm may have a conflict of interest that could affect the objectivity of this report. Investors should consider this report as only a single factor in making their investment decision.

The Private Banking and Investment Group is a division of MLPF&S that offers a broad array of personalized wealth management products and services.

Both brokerage and investment advisory services (including financial planning) are offered by the Group’s Private Wealth Advisors through MLPF&S. The nature and degree of advice and assistance provided, the fees charged, and client rights and Merrill Lynch’s obligations will differ among these services. Investments involve risk, including the possible loss of principal investment. The banking, credit and trust services sold by the Group’s Private Wealth Advisors are offered by licensed banks and trust companies, including Bank of America, N.A., Member FDIC, and other affiliated banks. Investment products: Are Not FDIC Insured Are Not Bank Guaranteed May Lose Value MLPF&S is a registered broker-dealer, a registered investment adviser, Member SIPC and a wholly owned subsidiary of BofA Corp.

CSA - Carol Polevoi / open

can use innovative finance to address the crisis of climate change.

In 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized Bank of America for our leadership in addressing the climate change crisis.

The green projects that we support are an integral part of Bank of America’s culture of sustainability. Bank of America has already reduced our carbon footprint and water consumption by more than 1/3 since 20124 and in September, set the goals to achieve carbon neutrality, purchase 100% renewable energy, reduce landfill waste by 35% and greenhouse gases (GHG) by another 50%.2 Impact investing is more than a powerful trend, it is a structural shift.

The rise of the conscious consumer is also evidenced in investing patterns whereby ‘doing well’ and ‘doing good’ are no longer mutually exclusive.

Merrill Lynch and US Trust have

such as Water, Sustainable Assets, Alternative Energy, Food Security, Energy efficiency & Clean Tech take a Goals Based Investing conversation much further. investors no longer have to choose between doing well or doing good, as impact investing and transformational finance presents an opportunity for the potential to do both.

1 2 3

NY Times

Bank of America Report, 2016

Bank of America 2015 Business Standard Report 4 5

Bank of america Report, June 2016

Bank of america Report, October 2016

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HEALTH & WELLNESS INNOVATIONS

| DIGITAL INNOVATION |

Digital Health Application The unique challenges of applying digital innovation to the medical field

Dr. Brennan M. Spiegel

Director of Health Services Research Cedars-Sinai Health System West Hollywood, CA Dr. Spiegel also directs the CedarsSinai Center for Outcomes Research and Education, where he oversees a team that studies how digital health technologies like wearable biosensors, smar tphone applications and social media can be used to strengthen the patientdoctor bond, improve outcomes and save money. Beyond developing digital health innovations, Dr. Spiegel’s group conducts psychometric, health-economic, epidemiologic and qualitative research across a wide range of healthcare topics. As a member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Field Advisory Committee, Dr. Spiegel is also focused on developing valid and reliable endpoints for clinical trials.

His research team receives funding from the National Institutes of Health, Rober t Wood Johnson Foundation, U.S. Depar tment of Veterans Affairs and other industry sources.

Digital health is transforming medicine at a breathtaking pace: wearable biosensors, mobile health applications, and electronic health records have revolutionized data collection and processing, allowing low-cost, quick delivery of data from patients directly to healthcare providers, administrators, and analysts. Modern technologies have the potential to dramatically transform health care for the better. It may be tempting to rush in and invest or develop new products in the medtech space, but you can’t just walk

settings. We spend a lot of time placing digital devices on patients and we’ve seen what happens next – it’s not always what we expect.

The very first patient I approached for our study was a 45-year-old woman who had metastatic lung cancer. We approached her with a set of VR goggles, explained how the technology might help with pain management, and described how the experience might offer a temporary “escape” from the hospital. She looked at us silently and unblinkingly,

CSA - Dr Spiegel

PHONE

310/423.3277 WEBSITE

cedars-sinai.edu EMAIL

brennan.spiegel@cshs.org LOCATION

8723 W. Alden Drive Steven Spielberg Building Los Angeles, CA 90048

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Applying technology in a medical setting comes with unique challenges. You must work closely with, patients, providers, and families. into digital health technology and expect it to work on the front lines of clinical care.

The mistake many entrepreneurs make is thinking that their tools and experience will apply to healthcare as well, which is rarely the case.

Health care is unlike any other industry in the world. It requires rigorous research and a level of care that no other industry demands. As Director of Health Services Research for Cedars-Sinai Health System, my focus is on applying digital health science to strengthen the patientdoctor bond, improve outcomes, and save money. Currently our team has partnered with Applied VR and Samsung Healthcare to test the use of virtual reality (VR) technology to manage pain in hospital

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then politely turned down the VR. She died days later. In this case the technology was not appropriate to the situation. There is a very human element to health care, and what may sound like a fantastical voyage to a healthy person may be an unwelcome intrusion to someone with advanced illness.

There are many practical examples of times technology is inappropriate. In our study, 83% of patients with seizures, nausea, stroke, motion sickness, and dementia were medically ineligible to even attempt to use VR. Some patients were in isolation for infection control. We have to be extremely careful about not spreading infection in vulnerable patients.

Sometimes the device itself becomes

a barrier. Activity monitors like FitBit may be comfortable or even fashionable in normal situations, but for a patient with joint pain or swelling, wearables can cause additional discomfort. Switching the location of wear may not work either: for example, activity monitors designed to be worn on the ankle may make patients feel like they are wearing parole monitors. These findings may be obvious in retrospect, but our presuppositions about how “easy” or unobtrusive a device might be are easily challenged in practice.

Sometimes the data collected doesn’t align with predicted results. Take for example data collected from a 72-year-old woman who tested an activity monitor as she underwent treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. As her pain decreased, theoretically her activity should have increased.

But the sensors reported the opposite: the better she felt, the less she moved. She explained to us that her true passion was

writing – a stationary activity that she had been prevented from pursuing because her joints would become stiff and painful, forcing her to get up and move. As the pain receded, she was now able to sit for long stretches at a time and write. Only by understanding the relationship between her pain and lifestyle were we able to put the results into context.

Negative data can be clinically useful in other ways as well. I recently evaluated a young woman with severe abdominal pain. She had been extensively tested and all results were negative. Doctors suspected she was suffering from psychogenic pain so we decided to try VR: nothing happened. Her pain broke straight through the illusion. The failure was so absolute that it caused us to re-think her diagnosis. If it were psychogenic we would have expected at least a minor response. We dug deeper and ultimately found a rare but treatable

condition in which the major blood vessels in her abdomen were being crushed by a ligament on her diaphragm. Her pain had a striking physical cause, and the failed VR response forced us to look harder and find it.

Applying technology in a medical setting comes with unique challenges. You must work closely with all the stakeholders, patients, providers, and families, then meticulously study and test these interventions. It is a worthy pursuit and has enormous potential to improve treatment outcomes, relieve pain, educate patients, offer alternative therapies, and reduce the length of hospitals stays. What we’re doing here at Cedars-Sinai can be a model for others: partner with medical institutions, spend time with patients, interview patients about their experiences, improve devices based on patient feedback, and strive to understand and interpret the data accurately.

CSA - Dr Spiegel / open

MAKE YOUR VIRTUAL A REALITY FOR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION, LEADING COMPANIES CHOOSE SOCALIP.COM CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

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HEALTH & WELLNESS STRESS MANAGEMENT

| STAYING FOCUSED |

Why Breathe?

A “life hack” can instantly help you be more present, focused, productive, and creative, with stamina and energy to spare!

Carol A. Polevoi, LMFT, CBS, CPC Owner / Clinical Director Counseling Resource Center Agoura Hills, CA

Carol A. Polevoi has been a mental health specialist for over three decades. She spent more than two of them as owner and clinical director of the Counseling Resource Center in Agoura Hills, where she works with individuals, families, couples, groups, and businesses. Ms. Polevoi is a licensed psychotherapist, certified as an Integrative Body Psychotherapist (IBP) and teacher, biofeedback specialist, and professional coach. She specializes in mind/ body therapy, stress management, wellness and professional coaching, relationships and trauma.

Prior to her current practice, Ms. Polevoi spent fifteen years in corporate lending as a manager and trainer, and five years in education as a teacher and counselor. Ms. Polevoi provides support and innovative therapeutic interventions to help clients relieve physical and psychological pain as well as resolving troublesome patterns of behavior.

It’s as simple as paying attention to how you’re breathing.

While it’s not something we often pay enough attention to, how you breathe (drawing each breath into the lungs and releasing it) can have a significant effect on your physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

What’s more, it can reveal a great deal about your personality, how you’re choosing to show up in the world.

Shallow, timid breathing—when we hold our breath or don’t take in enough air to oxygenate our bodies so they function properly—can reflect a sense that we don’t deserve to feel alive, take up space, be successful. This type of breathing contributes to low self-esteem, difficulty making decisions, not being assertive, feeling unsure or ungrounded, and a tendency to see the glass as half-empty.

CSA - Total HR

Research shows that breathing practices are powerful tools for getting present, focused, increasing well-being, and maximizing one’s potential.

PHONE

818/889.3905

For example:

EMAIL

carolpolevoi@gmail.com WEBSITE

carolpolevoi.com ADDRESS

5923 Kanan Road Agoura Hills, CA 91301

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If someone is exerting a lot of effort to inhale and exhale, they’re communicating a feeling (to themselves and others) that life is a struggle, that nothing comes easy, that you have to work hard to get anywhere in life.

People with uneven breathing patterns—a short breath in and a short breath out—may be prone to anxiety or even panic attacks.

They’re unsure of themselves, feel stuck, and may have a difficult time moving forward in life.

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A common one that most of us are guilty of—holding our breath and not relaxing the lungs enough to exhale—can actually limit our happiness and creativity. Constricting the breath can signal not letting go or delegating for fear of losing control.

On the other hand, breathing deeply—taking in as much oxygen as possible and expanding the lungs to the fullest—creates feelings of positivity and confidence, a zest for life, and a sense that you deserve to be alive and successful. You are not afraid to explore or take risks. Life feels full of expanded possibilities

and you have the vision, focus, and energy to create whatever you put your mind to.

Two useful types of breathing exercises are: High Charge Breathing for activating the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) when you need energy, alertness, and mental focus and Belly Breathing to activate the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) when you want to relax, feel calm, and avoid being reactive.

“Cancel, cancel.” Or visualize putting those thoughts in a canister, putting a lid on it and placing it on a shelf, to be retrieved at a more appropriate time. This will help you stay attuned to your body, focused on your breathing rather than in your head.

If you feel light-headed, it means there’s an imbalance in the ratio of oxygen to carbon dioxide. Your

project, going into a meeting, or giving a presentation Helps reduce pain and de-activates pain centers in our brains

Place one hand on your upper chest and one hand on your lower belly, just below your waistline. The hand on your chest should not move as you breathe, while the hand on your belly

High Charge Breathing

Stimulates the SNS that excites the body and activates the mind Helps for being more present, relational, attentive, and able to concentrate on the task at hand Boosts motivation, creativity, and productivity Strengthens capacity to change or regulate emotions by accessing and amplifying feelings, sensations, and emotions in the body Aids in assimilating and processing information to make better decisions (great for the ADD- or ADHD-challenged mind) Allows the brain to disconnect when stepping back, permitting a change in perspective that avoids impulsive reactions to situations Increases energy and endorphins that help alleviate depression and increase motivation, optimism, and happiness

While it’s not something we often pay enough attention to, how you breathe (drawing each breath into the lungs and releasing it) can have a significant effect on your physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

CSA - Total HR

Begin by relaxing your shoulders.

Keep your eyes open and breath deeply into you lungs, expanding them as fully as you can.

Notice that when you’re consciously breathing, you tend not to concentrate on random thoughts swirling in your head or feel pain, agitation or stress in your body. You’ll feel more relaxed, alert, and alive.

If your thoughts persist, try saying

body probably isn’t used to so much oxygen from breathing so deeply, so build up to it slowly. Try starting out with five breaths and see how you feel before adding more breaths.

If you get light-headed or feel a bit woozy, ground yourself by putting both feet flat on the floor and start looking around the room and naming out loud the objects and colors you see (e.g., “white dog, red flowers”).

This will help you stay present and grounded in your body.

Belly Breathing

Stimulates the PNS that calms the nervous system Relaxes tension and anxiety in the body; calms the mind Produces feelings of well-being and centeredness—great exercise to do before tackling a tough

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

should move rhythmically as you inhale and exhale. Your eyes can be open or closed. As you breathe slowly in through your nose, visualize the breath going into your belly as if you were blowing up a balloon. Hold your breath for a count of five. Then push the air out of your mouth as if the balloon is deflating, for a count of five. Hold for a count of five as you relax your shoulders and body. Inhale again…

You can alternate with five belly breaths and five high charge breaths to stimulate the SNS and PNS. Research shows that breathing practices are powerful tools for getting present, focused, increasing well-being, and maximizing one’s potential.

Remember: Breathe!

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LEGAL CORPORATE

| EFFECTIVE HIRING |

Picking the Right Legal Horse Questions to ask yourself when hiring an attorney

William Mark Levinson

Partner & Co-chair Financial Services Industry Practice Fox Rothschild Los Angeles, CA William Mark Levinson is a seasoned attorney primarily advising and guiding individual and corporate clients through a range of corporate, securities, real estate, and financing transactions. Levinson was nominated by “The M&A Advisor” as an award finalist for a complex public company spin-off that was listed on the NYSE and named to the Los Angeles Business Journal’s “Who’s Who in Real Estate Law” in 2013. Levinson is a trusted advisor known for his effective negotiating approach and routinely counsels financial institutions, real estate development companies, investment banks, entrepreneurs, and individuals.

A graduate of Brandeis University and Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law, Levinson resides in Calabasas and is the proud husband of Carrie and father of Emily, Lauren, and Max.

Choosing an attorney can be a daunting task. There are countless lawyers to choose from, most of whom are bright, hardworking, and ethical.

How do you choose the right lawyer for you and your matter? As one looks beyond the number of names on the letterhead, and the aesthetics of the office, consider the following three key issues.

goals. A lawyer that understands your business will be one who can identify helpful strategies which promote and produce success.

2. Effective lawyers need to be hard-working and responsive.

Technology has transformed law firms and lawyers. The speed with which services need to be delivered and the emphasis on rapid response

CSA - Mark Levinson

PHONE

310/228.2133 EMAIL

mlevinson@foxrothschild.com WEBSITE

foxrothschild.com LOCATION

1800 Century Park East #300 Los Angeles, CA 90067

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It is also important to recognize, in a transaction with multiple lawyers and parties, a single lawyer can play a pivotal role in determining whether a problem is solved and whether a transaction ‘closes.’

1. Does your attorney understand your business goals and have the background and expertise to be your advisor? Whether one’s goal is selling a business, borrowing or lending money, resolving intellectual property issues, estate planning, or otherwise, it is important to find a lawyer that understands, or will take the time to learn about, the complexities of your business. If a lawyer does not truly understand your business, they will be less able to quickly sizeup challenges and hurdles that may arise as you pursue your business

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has changed dramatically since 2000.

In 1982, when I began my practice in New York City, I would receive a letter – by U.S. Mail – or overnight delivery service – and have a few days to digest the contents, consider the issues, research, and fashion a response. Later, I remember working with fax and telex machines (the original Twitter) to communicate with clients and parties around the country and the world. With telex machines, every letter cost money and messages were a clever stream of symbols and abbreviations!

Now, of course, email and text have supplanted facsimile machines, and response time has shrunk to minutes or seconds! While technology makes your practice more efficient, it also means that you will be best served by a lawyer who is committed to working for you at a rapid, and sometimes stressful, pace.

3. Effective lawyers need to be excellent listeners, practical and demonstrate an unrelenting perseverance when working to achieve a client’s objectives. Effective lawyers check their egos and listen to their clients and all parties to a transaction. Whether one agrees with all that is said or not, it is crucial to understand what drives all parties in a transaction and where agreement resides. By listening well, one maximizes the opportunity to have

a “meeting of the minds” when negotiating deal points, drafting documents, or otherwise reaching consensus. Finally, by listening and understanding all points of view, one can work and achieve goals far more efficiently and at less cost to the client.

It is also important to recognize, in a transaction with multiple lawyers and parties, a single lawyer can play a pivotal role in determining whether a problem is solved and whether a transaction “closes.” Lawyers with strong business experience and strong communication skills are often the ones that think creatively and find “out-of-the-box” solutions that enable deals to reach the finish line.

Is it possible to learn all of the above information before hiring an attorney? It is not easy, but it is

worth the effort. Here are five practical tips for ensuring you explore your options effectively.

Meet with your prospective attorney in person and talk in depth about your business goals.

Develop an understanding of the attorney’s experience and business acumen.

Consider the attorney’s tenacity, creativity and problem-solving abilities Ask for examples of when these traits were tested.

Finally, consider whether your rapport with the attorney is strong. After all, he or she will be far more than your scrivener. This attorney will be your sounding board, your problem solver, and your trusted counselor.

CSA - Mark Levinson / open PARTNER MARKETING BRAND STRATEGY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT INVESTMENTS

you are not alone

Regardless of the industry, together we’ll work to find the right partners and organizations to assist in the growth of your business

LOS ANGELES WASHINGTON DC NEW YORK LONDON GUANGZHOU

wurthco.com CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

818/287.7400 | info@wurthco.com - 107 -

LEGAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

| PATENTS & TRADEMARKS |

Intellectual Property Fundamentals for Startup Investments The danger signs and myths that angels and accredited investors should be mindful of when examining intellectual property

Steven C. Sereboff

Partner SoCal IP Law Group LLP Westlake Village, CA When business, technology, and IP law intersect, Steven Sereboff is an exper t relied upon by multibillion-dollar multinationals, medium-sized public and private companies, and growthoriented star tups. His practice focuses on how business can best leverage patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and copyrights. Sereboff and his team help clients manage IP risks, mitigate and resolve IP disputes, secure IP rights throughout the world, and get IP deals done. Sereboff earned a BSEE from the University of Maryland and his law degree from Boston University.

As Managing Director of a venture capital firm, I apply a set of pragmatic principles when considering investing in a startup.

Most important to me are the market and the management team. Of course, as an intellectual property attorney for more than 25 years, I also look at the startup’s IP situation. Most people are surprised, however, that I usually do not much care about IP for a startup, and in fact often reject deals when the startup has worked hard to lock up their IP rights. I have applied this unconventional approach as both an investor and a lawyer, and am

options available, it makes sense to tailor IP strategy and tactics to the stage of the business and to its markets.

Typical angel investors gain expertise from success with their own mid-sized and larger businesses. While some of that expertise can help guide an angel’s views about what a startup should be doing with IP, usually it is better to recognize that a startup’s strategy should be much different from that of a mid-sized or large company. Furthermore, the right strategy for one market cannot determine the strategy for a different market.

CSA - Steven Sereboff

PHONE

805/230.1356 EMAIL

ssereboff@socalip.com

With a wealth of IP options available, it makes sense to tailor IP strategy and tactics to the stage of the business and to its markets.

WEBSITE

socalip.com LOCATION

310 N. Westlake Blvd.

Suite 120 Westlake Village, CA 91362 1332 Anacapa Street Suite 201 Santa Barbara, CA 93102

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happy to share some of these insights with others. This article therefore address three topics: (1) what an investor should expect to see in a startup, (2) some danger signs, and (3) some IP myths.

Even experienced angel investors can find intellectual property law complex and mysterious. IP law covers numerous types of rights, and each is predicated upon varied and dynamic public policies.

IP rights apply to businesses varying in size from sole proprietors to the largest of international conglomerates. IP rights also apply to a variety of markets, including technology, entertainment, chemistry, and health care. With a wealth of IP

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

5 Critical IP Items That an Angel Should See in Almost Every Startup 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Trademark filing on the company name and product or service name.

Between one and three patent applications, and probably just provisionals.

Contracts signed by the founders assigning all IP to the company.

Contracts signed by each employee and contractor assigning the IP they create to the company.

Good domain names, App Store names and/or Facebook handles corresponding to their core brands.

5 Danger Signs an Angel Should Watch for in a Startup 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Founders retain IP rights.

IP rights are in a separate holding company.

Money wasted on too many patent filings.

Money wasted on too many trademark filings.

IP litigation, especially as plaintiff.

6 Myths About IP and Startups

Myth 1. There must be freedom of operation.

At seed and Series A stage, this usually does not matter.

Series B stage or later will consider it and resolve the issues.

Most startups fly under the radar because of the enforcement costs and value.

Myth 2. Patents are all pretty much the same.

Patent application (pending) is not the same as a patent.

Provisional application is not the same as a regular application.

Design patent is not the same as a utility patent.

Patent pending has no real value, but it can provide good optics.

Myth 3. You only need to read the title and the abstract to know what the patent covers.

It’s the claims that count.

The text and drawings are secondary to the claims.

Even expert patent attorneys can struggle to understand what a patent covers.

Myth 6. Trademarks are less important than patents.

Bad branding reflects poor decision-making.

Trademark suits usually will come earlier than patent suits.

In the long run, the brand is usually more important than the technology.

Myth 4. The opinion of the company’s IP counsel is meaningful.

It usually is a “Reader’s Digest” version.

It usually is taken out of context by management and often quoted without permission.

None of these are absolutes, and in some situations these points could be completely wrong. Companies often spend many years in startup mode, and that too can require bending of the rules.

Likewise, a super angel might want to bend the rules.

In closing, if you got this far, it suggests that this article has been interesting and helpful. That leads to another plum – invest with people you know and trust, and especially people who bring expertise to the due diligence process and can help contribute more than just money to the startup’s success.

Myth 5. Patents provide startups with a competitive advantage.

Rarely are startups in a position to enforce their patents.

Mostly, patents are there for when the business has become mid-sized, and that’s usually after the angel exits.

Enforcing patents costs millions and takes years.

CSA - Steven Sereboff / open

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Zin Bistro.indd 1

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12/14/16 11:19 PM

REAL ESTATE TENANT REPRESENTATION

| COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE |

The Failed Evolution of an Industry How changing the way the game is played can revolutionize commercial real estate

Jason Hughes

President & CEO Hughes Marino, Inc. Corporate Real Estate Advisors Los Angeles, CA Jason Hughes is president, CEO, and owner of Hughes Marino, a tenant representation company with offices in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, and the Bay Area. Hughes Marino is committed to only representing tenants in their lease and purchase transactions of commercial space throughout California.

Jason founded Hughes Marino in 2011 and previously was president of Irving Hughes for over 20 years. In 2013, Jason helped draft California’s real estate broker agency disclosure bill which was signed into law and states commercial tenants must now be advised in writing when a broker represents both tenants and landlords, creating a potential conflict of interest.

For far too long in the world of commercial real estate, the customer has not come first. Deep-pocketed industry manipulation allows brokerage companies to represent both landlords and tenants in negotiations—an obvious conflict of interest.

State legislation was recently passed, and a tenants’ rights group is being formed to address the problem. For now, though, those are small steps in the journey required to create a more balanced playing field.

can be more efficiently utilized to grow the business—and help create flexibility for growth or contraction.

But at the end of the day, it’s the company renting the space that is the customer. That company pays rent, which allows the landlord to pay the mortgage, property managers, lawyers, CPAs, real estate brokers—and to make a profit for itself. Without a tenant paying rent there would be no profit or revenue for the landlord to afford a building in the first place.

It’s a simple concept. Somewhere

CSA - Jason Hughes

PHONE

The ugly truth is that the majority of the commercial real estate industry doesn’t want evolution.

310.277.3211 213.689.3211 EMAIL

jason@hughesmarino.com WEBSITE

hughesmarino.com ADDRESS

11150 Santa Monica Blvd.

Suite 850 Los Angeles, CA 90025 555 West Fifth Street 35th Floor Los Angeles, CA 90013

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The Basics

The commercial real estate industry is made up of landlords and tenants. Landlords own buildings—and tenants rent space in them to operate businesses. Some tenants also own their buildings—which is called being an “owner/user.” But most companies rent space—for a dry cleaning business, a law firm, a biotechnology company, a warehouse distribution center or many other uses. Renting saves companies upfront capital that

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

many decades ago, however, the cognitive link to appropriate customer service never evolved.

The History

Commercial brokerage was created 130 years ago to help landlords sell and lease properties, and years later tenant representation also became part of the industry. A practice known as dual agency describes a brokerage representing landlords and tenants at the same time—even though those interests are polar

opposites. Conveniently, a little more than 100 years ago, the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) was created to support these landlords and their professionals—including brokers. Even before BOMA, landlords had the advantage in real estate transactions—as commercial real estate was their business.

Tenants, on the other hand, treated office space as a “need to have” to operate non-real estate companies.

For tenants, leasing and purchasing office space was not their expertise.

But rental dollars paid for the industry to flourish. BOMA exacerbated landlords’ already unfair advantage by aggregating its voice—similar to a union. They then had landlord vendors, like architects, manipulate findings for the benefit of the landlords that funded them. That’s why there have been numerous revisions in the last 20 years that magically have “grown” space sizes within existing buildings, every time, by being more creative in their squarefoot measuring guidelines. The same space that was 10,000 square feet 25 years ago is now 12,500 square feet, or more. Artificially making space grow by 25 percent is not easy, but with enough money and clout, BOMA made it happen. Meanwhile, tenants—the ultimate customers—have been shortchanged.

tens of millions of dollars for these dual-agency brokerage companies.

Meanwhile, tenants consistently get taken advantage of economically, legally, and flexibility-wise.

They have no bargaining position to thwart BOMA. Thus, they have no voice and protector—except for tenant representation companies that exclusively represent tenants in lease and purchase transactions. These companies are specialists—not generalists—and have resolved to eliminate the industry-wide conflict of interest in representing landlords while also representing tenants.

The ugly truth is that the majority of the commercial real estate industry doesn’t want evolution. Landlords benefit when tenants aren’t properly represented—and dual-agency companies (CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, JLL, Newmark, etc.) have no reason to shed light on the massive conflicts—as it would be biting the hand that feeds them. Dual-agency companies make double the commission when the tenant isn’t represented independently (another ugly truth when tenants think they might save money by not having a broker represent them). In fact, tenants inadvertently reward the landlord broker by doubling the commission while he or she works completely for the landlord’s benefit. If you are a tenant, the notion that bigger is better is ridiculously backward when it comes to real estate brokerage.

It’s a David and Goliath story. The Goliath brokerage companies and their landlord clients heavily influence the industry narrative. This side of the coin benefits from the status quo. Meanwhile, the Davids of this story are similar to the IEX trading exchange in Michael Lewis’ Flash Boys. This exchange was created to slow down high-frequency traders so they don’t have an unfair advantage against everyone else in the marketplace. Mr. Lewis explains that despite a very clear and coherent explanation, and a description of how the markets work (along with real-life

examples of market manipulation), it astonished him how few journalists wanted to cover the story. He said it seemed like most journalists felt it was “almost easier to spread a lie in financial journalism than it is to get the truth across. It’s a problem.”

The same is true in commercial brokerage.

Hope Ahead

Not all is lost. I’ve made it my personal crusade over the past 25 years to change the industry. In 2014, I was responsible for getting California’s legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown to sign Senate Bill 1171 into law—dubbed the Dual Agency Disclosure Law. It went into effect January 2015, and was a baby step for transparency in commercial real estate brokerage disclosure. In early December 2016, California’s State Supreme Court upheld an Appellate Court ruling on Horiike v. Coldwell Banker stating that dual agents have an inherent conflict of interest—and went so far as to encourage Sacramento to modify the laws on dual agency in the state. Given the murky nature of dual agency, I am hopeful that our lawmakers will rule for fairness and transparency for the underrepresented side of real estate transactions and outlaw dual agency altogether.

Meanwhile, I’m in the process of creating an anti-BOMA nonprofit for tenants to aggregate buying power. The organization is called the Association for Commercial Tenants (ACT). The idea is to aggregate tenants’ rights to fight things like artificial BOMA space re-measurements and broker dual-agency misrepresentations. Until the customer demands independence above all else, the industry has little reason to change. Tenants and buyers need to start showing they care through action. Join ACT (actrealestate.org; available in Q1 or Q2 2017) or hire a tenant representation company—and stop getting taken advantage of by a stale industry.

CSA - Jason Hughes

Checking the Balance

Unfortunately, the vast majority of commercial real estate brokerage companies still primarily represent landlords. While most industries have evolved to become more customer centric, brokerage companies spend most of the time helping landlords, as that is where the big money is. Not only does Wall Street reward consistent earnings (like asset management fees, property management fees, financing fees, appraisal fees, and landlord leasing fees), but these large international landlords have millions of square feet of work to dole out around the world, creating recurring income streams in the

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Culture & Taste - TOC

CULTURE & TASTE

OF NOTE

114

LIFESTYLE REPORT

116

PROPRIETOR’S PROFILE 118

FINE DINING

120

One of Los Angeles’ most exciting new restaurants, Kali (p.120), is the vision of Kevin Meehan - a descendant of L’Orangerie where he worked with Ludo Lefebvre and Patina where he worked with Joachim Splichal. Kali is as quintessentially Californian as the name would indicate. / kalirestaurant.com

BUSINESS LUNCH / HAPPY HOUR 122

REQUIRED READING

124

CULTURE & TASTE OF NOTE

C-SUITE QUARTERLY

EXHIBITS & PERFORMANCES

Unwrapping the LA Art Scene

BY SARAH CZERWINSKI

Call Them as You See Them

Society’s Most Marginalized Groups Annenberg Space for Photography {Century City} Through January 26 Photographer and filmmaker Timothy Greenfield-Sanders is renown for his personal portrayal of celebrities and politicians. His series “Identity,” now displaying for the first time in completion at the Annenberg Space for Photography, is thought to be one of the most vulnerable to date. The complete collection of 151 portraits brings the viewer face to face with members of society who have been categorized in marginalizing lists: The Black List, The Latino List, The Women’s List, The Out List, and The Trans List. These subcategories feature recognizable figures, pillars of the entertainment industry, including Chris Rock, Neil Patrick Harris, Margaret Cho, Janet Mock, Betsy Johnson, and Pit Bull. Greenfield-Sanders hopes the exhibit will humanize, embrace, and redefine labels as we celebrate a society that is evolving beyond rigid categories. / annenbergphotospace.org

Culture & Taste - Of Note LACMA Unwrapped

A Continuation of Birthday Gifts for the Museum’s 50th LACMA {Los Angeles} Through April 2 The largest museum in the western United States has garnered an equally large celebration. Founded in 1965, the museum is in its half-century of establishment, but the party did not stop at 50 years. “L.A. Exuberance: New Gifts by Artists” is a cumulation and extension of “50 for 50: Gifts on the Occasion of LACMA’s Anniversary.” A display of more than 60 gifts in honor of 50 years, the art community has come together to lavish the museum with a slew of noteworthy presents. The offertory is comprised of works

by Edgar Arceneaux, John Baldessari, Uta Barth, Larry Bell, Tacita Dean, Sam Durant, Shannon Ebner, Charles Gaines, Ken Gonzales-Day, Glenn Kaino, Friedrich Kunath, Sterling Ruby, Analia Saban, James Welling, Mario Ybarra Jr., and Brenna Youngblood. / lacma.org

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CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

LUNCH | DINNER | BRUNCH | PRIVATE DINING | CATERING | HAPPY HOUR | LIVE MUSIC LOUNGE

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CULTURE & TASTE LIFESTYLE REPORT

C-SUITE QUARTERLY

The CSQ Lifestyle Report CSQ COMMUNITY BUSINESS LEADERS DISCUSS: The impact of technology on the consumer and how that is shaping their business decisions.

Culture & Taste - Lifestyle Carl Nolet, Jr. President & CEO Nolet’s Gin

“Our Nolet Family Distillery has been progressive since 1691.

We continue to respect tradition while infusing modern sensibility into everything we do. We just introduced a Ketel One Virtual Reality experience that leverages cutting-edge technology to transport users directly into the heart of Ketel One Vodka. Seeing is believing. The experience transports users from their home or local bar to the lively city of Schiedam, Holland. My family believes it is a privilege to open the distillery doors, physically or virtually, inviting all to see the care, attention, and expertise that goes into perfecting our products.”

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Velma Sepulveda General Manager Paul & Shark Beverly Hills

“Paul & Shark understands the importance of utilizing technology to enhance the customer’s experience and brand awareness. Through our website, mobile app, and presence on social media channels we are able to keep our clients excited about our seasonal trends. The customer’s experience is enhanced through various portals that highlight garment advancements such as three in one Kompact technology or E.M.W. shield protection. We also understand the importance of providing outstanding customer service. We are always striving to create a memorable shopping experience. This all inclusive customer experience is what facilitates long-term loyalty for Paul & Shark.”

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

Alex Wilcox CEO JetSuite

“In April of 2016, we launched JetSuiteX, reintroducing speed to aviation! This rapid-transit experience offers the ability to get from your car to your plane in just 15 minutes, avoiding all the hassles of commercial air travel, but at about the same price. Flights depart from private jet terminals, so the experience is far faster and more comfortable, with no airport terminal delays, security lines, bag fees, gate waits, or long walks through terminals. Passengers can easily book online or with the JetSuiteX app and can arrive 15 minutes before departure time. Expanding the JetSuite product offering with JetSuiteX has placed us at the forefront of innovation in our industry and in our customers’ eyes.”

Brentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 114 Deli

Northridge 818-886-5679 / Westlake Village 805-557-1882 / brentsdeli.com

CULTURE & TASTE PROPRIETOR’S PROFILE

Outstanding In Her Field 1/ Goin won the James Beard Outstanding Chef Award in May 2016.

The previous Los Angeles-based winner was Nancy Silver ton in 2014.

2016 James Beard Outstanding Chef Winner Suzanne Goin has diversified her Lucques Group portfolio via an exclusive partnership with the Hollywood Bowl and her impact and influence on the culture of Los Angeles has never been greater

2/ Goin (right) with business par tner Caroline Styne and husband David Lentz at the 2016 LA Loves Alex’s Lemonade event 3/ The bar at Lucques

1

BY MATTHEW SEUKUNIAN

L

Culture & Taste - Proprietor’s

ike something out of a Nora Ephron movie, Suzanne Goin grew up in a house that valued food – at a restaurant and in their own kitchen – and in her adolescence Goin found herself (with the help of her sister who waited the tables and washed the dishes) catering her parent’s dinner parties with the help of Julia Child’s The Art of French Cooking.

Goin is still cooking today (perhaps you are as well, out of one of her two cookbooks and not Julia’s) though pinning down which kitchen she is standing in has become rather difficult. The Lucques Group, a partnership between Goin and her business partner Caroline Styne, is comprised of Lucques, a.o.c., Tavern, four locations of The Larder, and the newest addition to the crowded umbrella, a culinary partnership with The Hollywood Bowl.

Goin’s professional career has seen her zigzag the globe in a “there-and-backagain” manner that would prove trying for anyone, this writer included. Raised in Los Angeles, she grew up enjoying restaurants the way her friends enjoyed Disneyland. “To me, restuarants were this magical place where you were transported to a different world for a couple hours,” she recalls.

Goin, raised by two doctors, notes that being a chef wasn’t viewed as a profession growing up and despite her passion for cooking, she attended Brown - 11 8 -

University (though she did sneak in a summer internship at Ma Maison before moving East). Throughout her collegiate years, Goin would work at one of Providence’s most renowned restaurants, Al Forno where – as she recalls – “it slowly seeped into me that this is what I wanted to do.”

Stumbling upon a crossroads after graduation, Goin decided to pursue food.

Itching for a mentor, Goin would write Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in San Francisco a letter one night, hoping for the best. Sure enough, Waters’ assistant gave Goin a call and invited her out to San Francisco (the zig).

Goin would work at Chez Panisse for two years before heading to Paris (the zag) where she would cook in several places, most notably at L’Arpege with culinary icon Alain Passard. Upon her return stateside Goin would cook in Boston (the zig) under chefs Jody Adams and Todd English before ultimately returning home to Los Angeles where she would cook with Joachim Splichal at Pinot Bistro and Nancy Silverton at Campanile (the zag).

When asked about the benefit of working under some of the culinary world’s most iconic chefs, Goin notes that it has its perks, “learning how people’s minds work and seeing other ways of thinking … being in more places CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

4/ Grilled chicken paillard with chickpeas and shaved fennel at Lucques

and seeing more styles and cultures of restaurants helps inform who you are in the end.”

Of all the culinary pit stops, perhaps the most transformative was the two years she spent at Campanile where, as she puts it, she “did everything but own the place.” Goin recalls being the executive chef for her last year and being in charge of hiring and firing, menus, schedules, food costs, labor costs, and so on.

It was this experience at Campanile that pushed Goin and made her realize she was ready to open her own place.

Introduced to her business partner Caroline Styne, the duo would spend more than a year looking for the right space before finally opening their first restaurant, Lucques, in 1998.

The case then, as it is now, is that Goin and Styne compliment each other in the best of ways. Originally a front of house (Styne) and back of house (Goin) dynamic, the two have evolved and grown and today make almost all decisions together according to Goin, who adds, “we work through things together and are very much in sync … I think we’re as strong a team as we’ve ever been and now that we’ve hit a stride I can’t imagine doing any of this without her.”

Lucques was an instant success and in 1999 Goin was named one of Food and

2

Photo: Shimon and Tammar Rothstein

Photo: Rob Stark

C-SUITE QUARTERLY

3

However insane it has been, when Dudamel gets up there and you’re standing under the stars on a summer night in LA, it’s pretty fantastic.

4

Culture & Taste - Proprietor’s

Wine’s Best New Chefs. As Lucques grew in reputation and momentum built, it became increasingly difficult to secure a reservation, allowing the bar to develop a personality of its own – ultimately inspiring Goin and Styne to expand and open their second restaurant, a.o.c.

“We struck upon this idea of an old school wine bar that was a meeting place where guests could have tastes of wine and I could play around with cheese and charcuterie,” Goin notes describing her vision for a.o.c. adding that the second property was “a way to explore a different style of eating and different kinds of foods while also going through the design process again … it was terrifying but exciting.”

The success of Lucques was replicated at a.o.c. and ultimately the expansion would continue onto the westside with Tavern. Through the success of multiple properties across the city, Goin was a bona fide culinary star by the time she was approached by Sodexo about a potential culinary partnership with the Hollywood Bowl.

The first thing Goin did? Like any good partner would do, she told Styne.

With both partners being Los Angeles natives who grew up loving the Bowl, they couldn’t help but explore the possibility. Goin and Styne sent in their proposal a first time, had a sit down with the team, sent in another proposal, had

a second round of meetings (with tastings this time) and in August 2015 won the contract. The Lucques Group is now in charge of all food and beverage at The Hollywood Bowl – comprised of three restaurants, box services, two marketplaces, and more.

The 2016 Bowl season was their first and having spoken to Goin a few weeks after they wrapped, she is sure to note just how much work it was but that the hands-on work put in this summer will pay dividends moving forward. “So much of this first year was figuring out how it worked having Black Sabbath one night, then The LA Philharmonic, the Hall & Oates,” she explains, adding that “however insane it has been, when Dudamel gets up there and you’re standing under the stars on a summer night in LA, it’s pretty fantastic.”

With a life spent in the kitchen and nearly 20 years plating some of Los Angeles’ most unforgettable dishes, Goin still gets excited about her first love, “the food and the cooking” and is still driven forward by her passion to “do something new and finding influences around me.”

One such passion and influence, is Alexandra Scott, the courageous little girl who was able to raise $1M for cancer before passing away at age 8 in 2004. Goin and Styne, along with Goin’s husband David Lentz, brought the Philadelphiabased charity (Alex’s Lemonade Stand CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

Foundation) out west after attending an Alex’s Lemonade Stand event in Philadelphia.

“There is something inherently in a chef’s nature, we like to give and feed and nurture,” Goins notes looking back on the seven years of work they’ve done here in Los Angeles in support of Alex, her family, and the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation.

The local event has grown drastically in size, scope, and scale, ballooning from 18 chefs year 1 to 55 chefs and more than 50 wineries in 2016. Year to date, LA Loves Alex’s Lemonade has raied $4.2M and as Suzanne puts it, “it’s probably one of the most rewarding – if not the most rewarding – thing I’ve done.” 

SUZANNE GOIN AGE 49 RESIDENCE Los Angeles FAMILY Husband David Lentz; three children: twins

Alexandra and Jack, Charles

FAVORITE NEIGHBORHOOD RESTAURANTS

Pizzeria Mozza, Petit Trois, Jimpachi Sushi

THE LUCQUES GROUP FOUNDED 1998 # OF EMPLOYEES 615 (full-and part-time) PROPERTIES Lucques, a.o.c., Tavern, The Larder at

Tavern, The Larder at Maple Drive, The Larder at Burton Way, the Larder at Tavern at Tom Bradley International Terminal, Lucques Catering, Larder Baking Company, Hollywood Bowl Food & Wine - 119 -

CULTURE & TASTE FINE DINING

In With the New

In a city rife with dining options, four newcomers stand out from the crowd by offering diners new tastes in familiar neighborhoods

BY BRITTANY FUISZ

Culture & Taste - Fine Dining Kali

Los Angeles Modern American

Photo: Rachel Jacobson

Owners Kevin Meehan (formerly of Patina and Bastide) and Drew Langley (former wine direction at Providence) have teamed up to focus on contemporary California cuisine that is modern and approachable, just like the space they have occupied on Melrose.

Warm rosemary rolls are too good to skip. Served after you order with a bit of creamy butter and salt, they are light and go down easily.

The duo has already received acclaim for the wheatberry risotto, unique with this thicker grain infused with garlic and topped with cheese. Cavatelli pasta is rich, served with arugula, peppercorn, and crème fraÎche. Mains range from duck with carrot, coffee, honey, and cocoa to a red snapper with tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, and purslane.

The best bite of the night is the meringue gelato with shavings of candied egg yolk on top.

The wine list is worth pursuing and cocktails are ingredient-driven. Open for lunch and dinner. / kalirestaurant.com

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CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

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C-SUITE QUARTERLY

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Sushi of Gari

Chez Tex

Living in LA, we have no shortage of sushi. Whether you are a purist and like your sushi simply on a bit of rice or you prefer the bells and whistles of the trendy sushi with rolls, tempura flakes, and every combination imaginable, this city has something for everyone.

Most of us fall somewhere in between.

We want the best quality fish possible, but we also want flavor. We want something unique that is artfully created and beautifully presented. Luckily, you will find this and more in the new Sushi of Gari that opened in May in Hollywood.

Sushi of Gari hails from New York City, where chef Masatoshi Gari Sugio created his own brands of sauce in an effort to aid the enjoyment and taste of delicate fish.

In 1997 he opened his first restaurant on the Upper Eastside of New York. Since then, Gari has opened four additional restaurants, all serving his unique sauces and signature toppings.

The small space is located on Hollywood Blvd with pale woods and the focus being the sushi bar.

This is sushi unlike you’ve ever had it before. Each bite of fish is meticulously sourced and designed, like art or a fine piece of jewelry. Reserve a spot at the bar and sit back and enjoy the show.

Deep red bluefin tuna is topped with creamy tofu puree and sesame chili oil. A pale peach salmon is topped with sweet onion sauce and seared tomato. Japanese red snapper is served with arugula, toasted pine nuts, crispy lotus root, and wasabi olive oil. Blowtorched fresh squid is topped with sea urchin sauce. Each bite seems to be more remarkable than the last. The fish is in perfect harmony with the exquisite toppings. Also open for lunch. / sushiofgari.com

First-time restaurateurs Hayley and Jesse Feldman may be new to the dining arena, but they’ve hit a homerun with the elegantly modern Chez Tex on Main Street in Venice.

While the name evokes thoughts of Tex-Mex cuisine, the food is much more French than Mexican and one dish after another reminds you how less is more when you have phenomenal ingredients under the direction of Chef Ashkan “Ash” Ghassemzadeh, formerly of Republique.

Grass-fed beef tartare with chili, scarlett grape, and aioli comes with perfectly charred thick pieces of bread. A fairytale pumpkin salad with red Russian kale and pomegranate was a welcome taste. Mains are equally wonderful, particularly the salmon in tomato dashi with chives.

Peaches and cream was delightfully unique and light, as tiny green peaches are served on a bed of thick, luscious cream. Chocolate mousse is heavenly and rich. A short but well thought out wine list makes your evening even more enjoyable. Also open for lunch. / cheztex.com

Hollywood Sushi

Venice Modern American

71 Above

Downtown Los Angeles Modern American Thanks to one of the city’s newest and most exciting openings, 71 Above, you can now gaze down about Los Angeles from nearly 1,000 feet while enjoying a multi course dinner by Chef Vartan Abgaryan.

The meal is elegant from the start, seasonal and always right for a special occasion. Try the squash with whipped panna cotta, pomegranate, fried sage, and pumpkin seeds (it’s earthy and subtly sweet) and the octopus (very tender) with mustard, pickled pearl onions, and herbs.

Also worth diving into is the wild, striped bass (loaded with flavor) served with cauliflower, harissa, raisins, pine nuts, and preserved lemon.

Desserts – like the pineapple and passion with brown butter, rum, tarragon, cream cheese, and lime as well as the pumpkin dessert with kabocha squash mousse and ice-cream with brown sugar fluff and candied spiced pecans - are all quite modern and should not be passed up.

Be sure to book a table at the window or the Chef’s table to really enjoy the whole experience. / 71above.com

Culture & Taste - Fine Dining

1/ Kali Chef Kevin Meehan capitalizes on California’s vibrant colors and bold flavors producing dishes that look as good as they taste

Photo: Rachel Jacobson

2/ A Sushi of Gari offering of tuna with tofu puree and sesame chili oil

5 CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

3/ Making the most of their location, Chez Tex’s ceviche offering is one not to be missed 4/ The impressive interior at 71Above 5/ Seasonal and market fresh offerings from Kali can be expected year round - 121 -

C-SUITE QUARTERLY

INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS LUNCH / HAPPY HOUR

Closing Over Cocktails

Midday or after work meet ups benefit from the strong, savory flavors of the city’s diverse palate

BUSINESS LUNCH Photos: DYLAN + JENI

ZIN BISTRO AMERICANA Westlake Village THE VIBE Drawing inspiration from the uniquely American Zinfandel Grape, Zin Bistro Americana offers guests a fire-lit patio, and lakefront dining with some of the best views the region has to offer.

THE BITE You can’t go wrong with any of their sandwiches or salads (more than a dozen of each are featured on the menu) but we recommend you try the fish and chips of Zin’s Shepherd’s Pie. THE SIP Guests can select from more than 100 bottles of wine, ranging from the California classics to the undiscovered New Zealand varietals.

OUTDOOR SEATING? Yes PRIVATE MEETING SPACE? Yes, with glass walks overlooking Westlake. / zinwestlake.com

GEORGIE Beverly Hills THE VIBE Following in Scott Conant’s Scarpetta shoes, Georgie is the first Los Angeles restaurant of Chef Geoffrey Zakarian, one of America’s most successful chefs, restaurateurs, and food TV personalities.

THE BITE Snack on the homemade tahini and eggplant spreads before indulging in lunch favorites including the lobster roll, falafel sandwich, or Prince Edward Island Mussels. Be sure to give the veal meatballs a try as well.

THE SIP Offering guests cocktails of the shaken and stirred variety, try the (shaken) Georgie Gerber with tequila, lime juice, agave nectar, egg white, and Gerber’s baby food or the (stirred) Cherry Blossom Sazerac with Suntory Toki, cranberry bitters, and a rinse of Maraschino Cherry liqueur.

OUTDOOR SEATING? Yes PRIVATE MEETING SPACE? Yes; the “Chef ’s Table” room accommodates up to 15 guests and a second room accommodates up to 10. / georgierestaurant.com

Culture & Taste - Happy Hour

HAPPY HOUR TAVERN Brentwood

HAPPY HOURS 3-7pm daily THE VIBE Brought to life by James Beard award-winning Suzanne Goin and Caroline

Styne, Tavern consists of a full service dining room, marketplace, and bar tucked into the heart of Brentwood.

THE BITE We suggest you put together your own surf n turf combination, rolling with any duo of tempura battered fish, pork shoulder, grilled shrimp, and crispy ribeye.

THE SIP A strong selection of whites, reds, and rosés are featured along with all draft beers and select Tavern cocktails. Try the Greenhound (Vodka with grapefruit and cucumber).

OUTDOOR SEATING? While not directly outdoors, the Tavern offers guests seating within a glass-ceilinged atrium.

PRIVATE MEETING SPACE? The atrium, seating 20 to 30 guests, can be reserved. / tavernla.com

BROKEN SPANISH Downtown Los Angeles

HAPPY HOURS 5:30-7:30pm M-F THE VIBE The product of LA-native and UCLA graduate Chef Ray Garcia, Broken

Spanish is an amalgamation of his Los Angeles meets Latin upbringing. The resulting restaurant, full of vibrant colors, feels like home.

THE BITE Though the menu is limited, the rabbit meatballs, chile-lime check necks, and lentil tostada are packed with flavor and rich in history.

THE SIP Skip the beer and wine specials and indulge in a Super Barrio Smash Bros. with Bourbon, lemon, mint, and Aztec Mole syrup.

OUTDOOR SEATING? No PRIVATE MEETING SPACE? Yes, seating anywhere from 30 to 50 people. / brokenspanish.com

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CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

Patina Group

E X T R AO R D I N A RY C U I S I N E | L A N D M A R K LO C AT I O N S | G E N U I N E H O S P I TA L I T Y From Los Angeles’ best steakhouse, LACMA’s favorite outdoor patio, and the most romantic restaurant in downtown, Patina restaurants have provided L.A. with award-winning cuisine for over two decades.

®

W W W. PAT I N AG R O U P.C O M

C-SUITE QUARTERLY

CULTURE & TASTE REQUIRED READING

Networks, Chaos, and Disruption This quarter’s can’t-miss page turned include an analysis of the effect of networks and connectivity on our lives, the secret sauce behind social media, a humorous look at startup culture by a Silicon Valley writer, and a call to action from the founder of ZICO Water.

BY TYLER GARING

The Seventh Sense: Power, Fortune, and Survival in the Age of Networks

Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley

Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble

Antonio García Martínez Harper 533 pp.

Dan Lyons Hachette Books 272 pp.

High-Hanging Fruit: Build Something Great by Going Where No One Else Will

THE PLOT A

THE PLOT Written by a former Wall Streeter, Twitter advisor, and Facebook product manager, Chaos Monkeys unspools the frantic evolution of social media and digital online marketing, revealing how both are invading our lives and shaping our futures.

THE PLOT Lyons, a magazine writer for more than two decades, is acrimoniously let go one day out of the blue in 2012 and is forced - in his 50s - to transition. Disrupted is the story of how Lyons winds up at HubSpot, a Cambridge, Mass. marketing-software firm with a valuation around $2B and profits that don’t exist.

THE PLOT A call to arms from one entrepreneur to another, Rampolla writes High-Hanging Fruit as an argument that you can reach higher - you can build a strong business, be profitable, and still find time to make the world a better place.

Culture & Taste - Required Reading Joshua Cooper Ramo Little Brown 352 pp.

New York Times bestseller, Ramo’s title delves into the forces shaping our world – terror, refugees, a teetering global economy – and notes that this is the age of complexity and confusion. Parsing the noise and identifying the networks we live within, Ramo teaches how “to look at any object and see the way in which it is changed by connection.”

Interconnecting people, computers, and machines, new networks are constantly emerging with myriad information. Ramo offers a historical guide to the future as it pertains to technology, foreign policy, the economy, and more.

THE MEAT

THE TWIST Speaking provocatively and profoundly, Ramo reminds the reader that through first-world technology and high-speed Internet we have been “murdering the exotic” so we shouldn’t be surprised when “the exotic shows up and murders us right back.”

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THE MEAT Written

in two halves, the book first takes the reader inside the world of Venture Capital where we meet lawyers, angel investors, and venture firms while the second part explores Martínez’ time at Facebook, concerned with the companies that have emerged from startup culture (Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft) and their combined $300B market value.

THE TWIST A

Ph.D. student in physics at Berkeley, Martínez joined Goldman Sachs to model pricing for credit derivatives (a task he would move to Silicon Valley to perform, valuing the attention of Internet users).

THE MEAT A frightening analysis of America’s start-up technology culture, Lyons peels back the curtain and shows the difference between fun and stupid. Through the cliches - ping-pong tables, seemingly never-ending snacks, bean bag chairs, and HEART (the corporate culture acronym short for Humble, Effective, Adaptable, Remarkable, and Transparent) - Lyons is able to pivot and take his experience from the start-up world to the television studio.

THE TWIST Lyons shares his uproarious story of moving from tech journalist to humorous blogger (as Fake Steve Jobs) to producer and writer of HBO’s Silicon Valley, making the reader smile page after page.

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

Mark Rampolla Portfolio 240 pp.

THE MEAT Now at the helm of a plant-centric Venture Capital fund aiming to promote better diets, healthier foods, and a cleaner environment, Rampolla’s book tells the behind-the-scenes story of ZICO’s rise in the beverage space and explains how his passion for social good came together as he pushed harder and tried to tackle something most considered difficult.

THE TWIST Disinterested in his job and wanting to do something bigger and better for the world as a whole, Rampolla drew on his passion for coconut water (hanging overhead) which he discovered while working for the Peace Corps.

That passion turned into ZICO Coconut Water, which he sold to the Coca-Cola Company in 2013.

Patina Group PATINA BRINGS YOUR E X TR AO R D I N A RY C U I S I N E I L A N D M A R K LO C ATI O N S G EN U I N E H OS P ITA LIT Y Â Delivering world-class catering fused with impeccable service, Patina Restaurant Group brings together masterful event planners, innovative chefs, and unparalleled culinary expertise. Discover the Patina experience for your next event.

W W W. PAT I N AG R O U P.C O M

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Inspiring Ideas Connecting Leadership Building Community

Summit Report - Intro Forging Partnerships Uniting Los Angeles

VISIONARIES SUMMIT REPORT

[Sponsors] CSQ thanks all of this year's sponsors and partners, without whom this event would not be possible P R E S E N TI N G

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S U M M IT H OST

V I P H OST

Summit Report - PSS THOUGHT LEADER

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C S Q . C OCSQSummit.com M / WINTER 2017 - Q1

[Opening Keynote]

DR. PATRICK SOON-SHIONG CEO, NantWorks

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r. Patrick Soon-Shiong opened the CSQ LA Visionaries Summit by giving a 30,000-mile view of Cancer Moonshot 2020, his bold undertaking to obliterate a disease that has baffled medical researchers since the days of Hippocrates himself.

Soon-Shiong is Los Angeles’ wealthiest individual and CEO of NantWorks, its Culver City campus acting as Ground Zero for the good doctor’s sweeping vision to merge health care, commerce, technology, and digital entertainment, while developing new cancer therapies using semiconductors and super computing. The South African–born surgeon, researcher, philanthropist, and entrepreneur launched into a fascinating PowerPoint presentation that covered some of the most vexing dilemmas in the medical industry, from information sharing to evolving our understanding of cancer to a point that we can shift cancer diagnosis from a death sentence to a manageable, non-life-threatening condition.

This Medical Manhattan Project, as Soon-Shiong calls it, has its roots in an article he wrote for The Huffington Post in 2014. The focus was using big data to cure disease, lower costs, and centralize health information. Soon after, he sponsored a three-day meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, bringing leaders together to ponder subjects such as, “How do we bring together the big pharma companies to work together: the Amgen, Glaxo, Celgenes of the world - how do they work together? We wanted to bring the FDA to the table [to accelerate the development and release of new medications]. We can’t wait ten years for something to happen.”

Soon-Shiong described his cancer “vaccine,” which operates on the

fundamental concept that we now have the technology to harness the body’s own recuperative powers to maximum efficacy. He detailed with clinical precision the medical riddles that continue to unfold as inquisitive minds dig deeper into them. “You and I,” he told the audience, “we all have in our body the biological factory to make the drug that will treat cancer.” Then he added, “The other scary thought is that you and I, as we all sit here, are producing cancer cells in our bodies right now and it’s a natural phenomenon of human life. It’s a conceptual paradigm shift that our

this technology should not be just for the rich,” he stressed. “We want it to be open to all of LA County.”

In response to a question from the audience on raising capital for his endeavors, Soon-Shiong answered, “We contributed $1 to $2 billion through the organization, and I’ve contributed my own capital – $1.5 billion of my own capital. We built an infrastructure that the [government] should have built. A supercomputing infrastructure.”

The enormity of this endeavor requires context, which Soon-Shiong incorporated via a social media metric: “To do tissue

We all have in our body the biological factory to make the drug that will treat cancer.

Summit Report - Nikias immune system is protecting us.”

Cancer Moonshot 2020 endeavors to bring the commercial world and medical societies together, heightening collaboration and, by default, the accelerating the pace of medical advancement, and increasing the effectiveness of new treatments. Vice President Joe Biden, whose son was diagnosed in 2013 with brain cancer, sought out Soon-Shiong and the two struck up a friendship. Soon-Shiong described writing the white paper that would eventually become known as Cancer Moonshot 2020 and sharing it with Biden, who would not only enthusiastically support it but also would create the White House’s Cancer Moonshot using much of the same conceptual framework, with SoonShiong’s blessing.

A resident of Los Angeles since 1980, Soon-Shiong spoke of his benevolent feelings toward the city and his commitment to enhancing the future.

He owns portions of the Los Angeles Times and the Lakers basketball team, and he gave the $100M underwriting guaranty that was responsible for the reopening of Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital. “We struggled [to ensure] that

CSQ .COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1 CSQSummit.com

scan from the patient, it generates 750 billion bits of data per patient, which means you needed to create an infrastructure four to six times the number of YouTube video downloads per day. (There are 4 billion YouTube video downloads per day.)

Soon-Shiong’s philosophy on treating cancer still has skeptics among those in his field. “To this day, I cannot convince some of my oncology friends to not give maximum tolerated dose,” he said. “What we’ve done [in the fight against cancer] that’s completely wrong in my mind is try to treat the cell when in fact we need to treat the host,” Soon-Shiong said. “The host is the patient.”

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[Innovation & Technology] // The Evolution of LA as a Biotech Hub DR. C.L. MAX NIKIAS President, USC

U

SC President C.L. Max Nikias has a lot riding on his shoulders. Responsible for 21 schools at the university and the education of 44,000 undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals, he also oversees 25,211 faculty, staff, and student workers. He has a university budget of $4.2B and research expenditures of $691M. Let’s also not forget about USC athletics and roughly 371,000 living and often boisterous alumni.

At the LA Visionaries Summit Nikias gave an animated presentation on the Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience, made possible by a $50M gift to the university from noted surgeon/inventor/philanthropist Gary Michelson. Nikias noted that biotech has grown 200% in just the last 5 years and will continue to grow. He believes that the greatest growth of the sciences will be in medicine, biology, and biotechnology. We now have the potential to work wonders against cancer, Alzheimer’s, and a host of health problems in extending human life and adding to the quality of it. This will also offer expansion of new jobs in areas considered to be supportive hubs, with the ecosystem, facilities, and funding necessary to grow.

“LA has been on the sidelines as the revolution has gotten underway,” stated Nikias. “LA is home to two of the three greatest biology hubs in San Diego and San Francisco, but LA has been far, far behind. What Silicon Valley has been to the era of electronics, LA has the strength to be to the era of biotech. We have top medical centers, clinical hospitals, and venture capital, so we have everything we need. The only thing that has been lacking has been the will to build the necessary eco-system,” said Nikias. Collaboration between training centers, communities, and organizations is key, he said. “We graduate close to 5,000 scientists in the LA basin every year [much due to aerospace],

yet we no longer have the industry to keep this brainpower in our region.” There is $1.1B invested into the biotech sector, but only $45M in Los Angeles. This gap creates “a brain drain,” in which graduates move north or south due to lack of ecosystem (facilities and infrastructure). He went on to say that while 49 business startups in biotech last year spun off from USC, not one of them stayed in Los Angeles.

Nikias believes that to reverse this trend, we need an ecosystem of venture capital development, access to facilities for research and clinical trials. USC is already the largest private employer in LA and they hope to build a biotech park in East

What Silicon Valley has been to the era of electronics, LA has the strength to be in the era of biotech.

Summit Report - Cedars Sinai

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Los Angeles, specifically in Boyle Heights, which could provide space for established corporations, training, and incubators for new ideas. A number of biotech companies, investors, and others have already lined up to participate in the development of the biotech park. Nikias believes if we can spur the development of a larger biotech corridor, it could mean upwards of 30,000 jobs in east Los Angeles. He closed his proposition to the conference audience and general LA community by stating, “Dreams have deadlines,” as other cities are moving forward with the same goal. “If LA is not to be left behind, which already it is, we must move quickly. For our part, USC has committed to build a biotech park without any cost to the taxpayers.” Nikias makes a strong argument that now is the time to act, so that we may harness science and engineering brainpower to create everlasting growth and infuse new life into our neighborhoods.

C S Q . C OCSQSummit.com M / WINTER 2017 - Q1

[Innovation & Technology] // The Future of Health Care MODERATOR DR. SHLOMO MELMED, Cedars-Sinai PANELISTS DR. BRUCE GEWERTZ, Cedars-Sinai DR. ROBERT BALOH, Cedars-Sinai DR. EDUARDO MARBÁN, Cedars-Sinai DR. BRENNAN SPIEGEL, Cedars-Sinai

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n the panel, “The Future of Health Care,” some of CedarsSinai’s leading medical experts shared breakthroughs ranging from cellular regeneration and robotics surgery, to the expanding role of virtual reality to support patient experience and recovery. U.S. News & World Report named Cedars-Sinai to the “Honor Roll” in the Report’s “Best Hospitals 2016-17,” and the surgeons on hand provided a captivating glimpse into medical progress happening in Los Angeles.

Moderator and Dean of the Medical facility Dr. Shlomo Melmed first introduced Dr. Eduardo Marbán, the Director of Cedars-Sinai’s heart institute and a world pioneer in heart stem-cell technologies. “There are only approximately 2,000 transplants done each year due to limited donor availability,” noted Marbán, “and we do 132 of those at Cedars.” Marbán explained that when a heart is damaged by a heart attack it sometimes has irreversible damage. Using healing cells that are in the healthy parts of the heart, taking them out of the normal zones and putting them into the injured zones can tilt the balance toward repair and away from scar formation, which can promote regeneration or rebuilding of the heart.

Next, Dr. Robert Baloh, a neuromuscular expert, spoke about neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS. “What the future is we don’t know, but we do know that the instance of these diseases are increasing,”

said Baloh. With breakthroughs in technology and stem cell research, it is now possible to take skin cells, turn them into other cells, and make a “brain in a dish,” while they’re alive to make copies of their brain and test prognoses. “One can then combine genomics to create personalized therapies for these diseases,” said Baloh.

Dr. Bruce Gewertz, Cedars-Sinai’s Chairman of Surgery, spoke about advances in surgery robotics. The primary goals when approaching surgery are shorter recovery times (often without hospitalization), smaller incisions (or none at all), and durable relief of symptoms or longer life. With continued technological advances, Gewertz suggests that open surgery will dramatically decrease in favor of vascular surgery and that robotic technology will eventually expand to every field in heart and cancer surgery.

Dr. Brennan Spiegel, who leads health services research with a focus on digital medicine, explained how virtual reality is already starting to improve patient care. Spiegel demonstrated that while Cedars-Sinai offers private rooms, patients still suffer physically, emotionally, and socially. He suggested that the experience of being a patient in the hospital room is not healing in itself, but perhaps even detrimental to health. Spiegel suggested that tests have shown applications of virtual reality to be therapeutic. With virtual reality, Spiegel said, we can transform our patients to vacations, performances, even “swimming with blue whales or taking helicopter rides over Iceland.” This relaxes the patient, helps them to have fun and relieve stress during their stay. Spiegel pointed to tests that have demonstrated that pain can go down after VR. Spiegel closed by saying that if we can shave the length of stay by just a small percentage, the technology and treatment should pay for itself.

Summit Report - Deloitte

CSQ .COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1 CSQSummit.com

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[Innovation & Technology] // LA’s Fastest Growing Companies MODERATOR KRISTOPHER KAUFMANN, Partner, Deloitte PANELISTS ERIC CHAN, CFO, Loot Crate JOHN GENTRY, President, OpenX IAN SIEGEL, Co-founder & CEO, ZipRecruiter HARRISON TANG, Co-founder & CEO, Spokeo

O

penX President John Gentry hit an important point while discussing the city’s rich history of tech. “Tech businesses are human capital businesses,” he said.

“People sometimes think they’re about hardware but they’re not – they’re about people.” Having the potential to make a bigger impact at a smaller company can outweigh other factors.

Spokeo Founder Harrison Tang said that Los Angeles has “a very unique opportunity to actually combine the strengths in media, content, e-commerce, and mega-blocks of technology.”

Tang cited Snapchat as “the perfect example of how LA can leverage its strengths and combine with the technology infrastructure that we have today and build unique value propositions for the user.”

ZipRecruiter Co-founder and CEO Ian Siegel mentioned the patina on a set of Silicon Valley companies that draws talent to them. “That’s one of the measures of success that LA lacks, and when we get there, which is happening, that’s going to do wonders for drawing talent to LA,” he said. Eric Chan, SFO of Loot Crate, discussed the challenges of finding and retaining the right talent, especially in areas like engineering and lead generation.

“We have great companies here that are all competing for the same resources,” Chan said.

Tang pointed out that in a city of storytellers like LA, “what we need to do is create better storytelling around the technologies.”

Siegel added, “One of the truths about our industry is there’s no price for failure, so everyone encourages you to try to launch your business. What takes real courage is having the audacity to go long.”

Despite its upsides, Los Angeles does have challenges, especially with regard to commuting issues. Whether Metro limitations or the constant traffic, employees seek convenience and thereby limit employers seeking talent. Loot Crate, located in East LA, has encountered this challenge to expansion.

Pasadena-based OpenX recently opened a Culver City office to

We have one long-term advantage – whether it’s Lady Gaga, Ashton Kutcher, Kobe Bryant - there are a lot of people with a lot of money who…want to invest in tech, and that’s good for the LA ecosystem.

- Ian Siegel

Summit Report - Investments

tap into the talent on the west side. Siegel pointed out that every city has its challenges, mentioning a recent visit to a partner in San Francisco where he discovered the purpose of the loudspeakers on their building was to chase away the homeless at night with classical music.

Chan mentioned that many Silicon Valley companies like Google and Facebook are placing big bets in Los Angeles, saying, “The convergence of media, entertainment, and tech is actually happening at a much faster pace and I could actually start to see some of these companies being based out of LA as a result.”

Siegel added, “We have one long-term advantage – whether it’s Lady Gaga, Ashton Kutcher, Kobe Bryant - there are a lot of people with a lot of money who…want to invest in tech, and that’s good for the LA ecosystem.” He believes that given LA’s inherent advantages, in ten years it will be the other Silicon Valley, or Silicon Beach. Tang agreed, saying, “This diverse culture we have in LA is going to be the key ingredient in making LA not just the next big tech hub but actually a bigger tech hub than Silicon Valley.”

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[Real Estate & Finance] // Investments Roundtable MODERATOR BRUCE MUNSTER, Managing Director, Merrill Lynch PBIG PANELISTS ANNE MATHIAS, Managing Director, Guggenheim Investments ANTHONY PRITZKER, Managing Partner, The Pritzker Group JEFF STIBEL, Vice Chairman / Partner, Dun & Bradstreet / Bryant Stibel

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nne Mathias, Anthony Pritzker, and Jeff Stibel approach investing with different objectives and goals in mind, but their financial outlooks are remarkably similar.

Engaged by moderator Bruce Munster’s provocative and incisive queries, the three discussed a wide range of issues that touched on liquidity, interest rates, automation, world population, team building, and the importance of being willing to fail.

As a global investment strategist with Guggenheim Partners, Mathias has her finger on the pulse of the global markets and macroeconomy. Pritzker and Stibel, on the other hand, are enmeshed in the operational logistics of managing a portfolio of public and private companies. The Pritzker Group has VC and equity interests in manufacturing, services, and health care.

Stibel recently announced the formation of Bryant Stibel, a VC entity he formed in partnership with former NBA great Kobe Bryant. Still, the overlap in the panelists’ perspectives was considerable in terms of anticipating where the financial markets are heading in the next few years.

Stibel and Bryant rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange shortly after announcing their venture in August 2016.

“Kobe and I met four years ago,” explained Stibel. “He was thinking through a transition from sports into business. I had done one from science into business and then into investing.

As we talked more and more, we realized we shared the same model for success as far as what it means to succeed.” The goal has always been to direct attention toward their investments rather than who was running the show. They even brought 15 of their portfolio CEOs to the NYSE bell ringing with the goal of getting them as much press leverage as possible. “Kobe’s main focus is on storytelling, brand building, and design,” said Stibel.

“And that’s where we pull him in. He is truly part of the team.”

In the manufacturing sector, the economics of replacing people with machines is increasingly becoming a matter of sustaining a business. With his manufacturing businesses

relying increasingly on automation to stay competitive, Pritzker explained that a highly advanced, two-armed robot can be purchased for $60,000. Offsetting the reality of machines replacing people is the fact that for the first time in history, the workingage population is shrinking. “Our system for a thousand years has been predicated on an increasing population size,” pointed out Mathias. “Japan lost a million people in the past five years – the largest loss without a disease or a war, ever.” Stibel pointed to a silver lining in terms of raising standards once the plateau of maximized efficiency has been achieved: “As we’ve shifted from pure physical to mental work, we’ve seen opportunities where we can shift from efficiency to quality.”

Each speaker offered thoughts on the pros and cons of liquidity. Both Pritzker and Stibel have most of their assets in illiquid sources. Stibel said the fact that he did not have the ability to easily liquidate certain assets during the recession of the late 2000s ended up benefiting him as his interests weathered the storm and recovered quite nicely.

Despite growing concern that another recession is imminent, Mathias remained skeptical. “We’re not likely to see a recession until late 2018 or early 2019,” she predicted. “In our view, it’s not going to be the kind of recession we saw last decade. That’s a once-in-a-generation type of event.”

So where should investors be putting their capital in the coming years? “Invest in people,” advised Stibel. “Invest for longterm, not short-term gains.” Added Mathias: “We like to include more securitized products … like asset-backed securities, portfolios of bank loans. Being an active investor is more important than ever.”

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[Real Estate & Finance] // LA Real Estate’s Leading Legacies MODERATOR DR. RICHARD GREEN, Director, USC Lusk Center for Real Estate PANELISTS JAIME LEE, CEO, Jamison Services REON ROSKI, Managing Director, Majestic Realty NADINE WATT, President, Watt Companies aime Lee’s father successfully transitioned from his medical practice to real estate, initially founding Jamison Services as a side business nearly two decades ago. She joined the family business full-time while going to law school and today is president of the company. Her three younger brothers are also actively involved in the family business.

Majestic Realty Co., the largest privately held realtor in America, was started in 1948 by Managing Director Reon Roski’s grandfather. Reon worked as a lawyer for nearly two decades before her father asked her to come into the company about seven years ago.

Nadine Watt is the third generation in a family of developers – Watt Companies was founded nearly 70 years ago by her grandfather – and current President of the Commercial Division.

Watt initially went into the film business before joining the family business 17 years ago.

The three women shared their insight about real estate as a generational business in Los Angeles.

Lee noted the ability to be nimble and adjust to market needs on a daily basis as a distinct advantage. “The ability to adapt is crucial for real estate these days, especially in Los Angeles,” she said. Watt pointed out that working in a closely held family company is advantageous in that you can never get fired, but you still have to face your family regardless of whether they are happy with your decisions.

“We are more cautious about who we’ll partner with because we have a long-term horizon, and we don’t want to be forced to sell,” Roski offered. “You never know where the market’s going to be – it’s cyclical. Real estate is very unique and can’t be treated as a commodity.”

Watt discussed the latest phase of the entertainment industry’s ever-present impact on local real estate. “Content is king.

You can shoot a movie on an iPhone now, you don’t need big production space, anybody can air anything, and no one’s going to the movies anymore.” She anticipates that big box spaces like movie theaters will soon be obsolete and need to be repurposed.

Roski sees the landscape for industrial real estate as constantly evolving. Warehouse distribution facilities moved from wanting multiple small buildings around the country to having one large facility to now needing two or three huge warehouses in various locations. “With retail, there’s less and less [demand for space], because everybody’s online,” she notes.

Lee commented on the future of Koreatown: “We’re seeing a huge influx of people due to the proximity and central location... which is why we’ve focused a lot of our ground-up projects in that area.” Moderator Green agreed, noting that LA is the number five city in the world for institutional capital funding for real estate.

Regarding one thing each would change about LA’s real estate

market, Lee tackled outdated zoning codes. “LA is not keeping up with the housing demand and rental rates are continuing to rise,” Lee says. For Roski, making California more corporate and development friendly would be top priority. Watt is similarly concerned about making the regulatory environment more business friendly, and, as the chair of the Los Angeles Business

You never know where the market’s going to be – it’s cyclical. Real estate is very unique and can’t be treated as a commodity. - Reon Roski

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Council, expressed concern about legislation on the November ballot that would place a two-year moratorium on developing in Los Angeles. If passed, she warned, “it will exacerbate our housing and jobs problems and have a tremendous impact on the city,” she says. “The city could fall way behind in technology and development.”

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[Sports & Entertainment] // 2024 Olympics in LA - What It Takes INTRODUCTION RENATA SIMRIL, President & CEO, LA84 Foundation KEYNOTE GENE SYKES, CEO, LA 2024

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ollow the Sun! That’s the ambition of the LA 2024 Olympic Committee led by Chairman Casey Wasserman, CEO Gene Sykes, and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. “LA 2024’s vision, which we call Follow the Sun, is about the creative, optimistic, and innovative culture of California, and how we can harness that culture, and unique assets for the good of the games, and of the Olympic movement,” says Sykes speaking at this year’s CSQ LA Visionaries Summit. Five candidate cities initially bid to host the 2024 summer Olympic games. Hamburg and Rome withdrew, leaving Budapest, Los Angeles, and Paris in the running. On September 13, 2017, the host city will be announced at the 130th International Olympic Committee Session in Lima, Peru.

Los Angeles previously hosted the Games of the X and XXIII Olympiad. Now, LA is in a competitive campaign to persuade a majority of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), that Los Angeles should host the 2024 games. The world’s most complex production of events is entered by 206 countries, with 11,000 athletes, in 43 sports, comprising 310 medal events. Then, two weeks later, the Paralympics is entered by 160 countries, with 4,300 athletes, encompassing 500 medal events.

When asked about the biggest challenge facing Los Angeles, Sykes explained, “The IOC doesn’t know who we are [the LA 2024 team]. Our strongest competitor is Paris, whose leaders are well known to the IOC, and include a three-time canoe medalist. We are seen as outsiders telling the Olympic movement to bring the games here.” LA 2024 intends to overcome unfamiliarity by mitigating risk. Unlike any other city in the world, Los Angeles is nearly camera ready. LA’s

existing infrastructure alleviates seven years of prolonged construction anxiety, allowing organizers to focus on the most important aspect of hosting the games – the experience of the athletes, residents, visitors, spectators, and fans worldwide.

Although Budapest event venues would spread across

We know firsthand the impact an Olympics games can have on a city, that’s why we are working hand-in-hand with LA 2024 to drive our collective interests in bringing the Olympic games back to LA. - Gene Sykes

Summit Report - Future of Content Hungary, a considerable drawback, Budapest would argue they are the one city, in central Europe, that should host.

“Hungary has been involved in the Olympic movement since 1896, Budapest would maintain that it’s their turn,” remarked Sykes.

Paris is considered LA 2024’s biggest competitor. “Paris will do what they say they can do, Paris will always figure it out, it has determined leadership. They hosted the 1924 games, inviting the IOC to set a centennial games in Paris,” said Sykes. But the city of lights has two weaknesses: its political uncertainty pending the May 2017 elections, and concern about the general level of security throughout Europe, the perception of security being the largest factor.

Renata Simril, President and CEO of the LA84 Foundation, the legacy of 1984 Los Angeles Olympic games, (considered the most financially successful modern Olympics), explains the influence of an Olympics games. The 1984 Los Angeles Olympic games created a $93M surplus. The LA84 board, Peter Ueberroth, Joan Payton, and Lew Wasserman, intended to spend down the surplus, but over 32 years have substantially grown it. “The endowment has invested more than $220M in the Southern California economy, impacted 3 million kids, 220 nonprofit partners, and supported 75,000 coaches. We know firsthand the impact an Olympics games can have on a city; that’s why we are working hand-in-hand with LA 2024 to drive our collective interests in bringing the Olympic games back to LA.”

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[Sports & Entertainment] // The Future of Content MODERATOR STEVE LEHMAN, Chairman, Business Rockstars PANELISTS ALKI DAVID, Founder & CEO, FOTV Media Networks ZACH JAMES, Co-founder & Co-CEO, ZEFR DAVID RENZER, Chairman, Spirit Music Group JOSH YGUADO, Co-founder & President, Jam City, Inc.

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lki David really knows how to make an entrance - and an exit. The founder of FOTV Media Networks was enveloped in a ring of fire just after introducing a live performance ensemble by Jimmy Kimmel, a dancing ballerina, a vehicle spinning in place, and a concert with a huge crowd, all of which appeared seemingly out of nowhere. While the performances looked nearly live, they were actually holograms, as was David himself, which consummated in his unique exit. The Future of Content panel, moderated by Steve Lehman, examined the evolution of content development and distribution businesses for music, film, TV and game content in today’s market.

Alki David’s FOTV Media Networks may be known by many for its holographic technology and shows, including Coachella’s famous 2Pac performance with Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, and rights to show other legendary artists such as Whitney Houston, Bob Marley, and Buddy Guy. FOTV Media Networks owns the world’s largest private film and television library, the world’s largest live streaming TV and VOD platform, has cable TV channels in the U.S., Europe and other distribution platforms for music and video content. “We take a very tra-digital kind of approach to what we’re doing, we’re integrating both broadcast, traditional broadcast, cable, we’re integrating our online, we have a very large audience in our filmon and VOD platforms.” He went on to explain where he sees effective revenue

TV still has so much of the attention of the advertisers for money, but we know that time spent is 50% for digital. When the content is getting more valued in digital, you’ll see more of the money there.

- Zach James

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models in his space. “There are far more ways to consume content and Holograms sit at the top of our food chain; it’s our premium content.”

Music industry veteran David Renzer spent 15 years running Universal Music Group. Now, as Chairman of Spirit Music Group, he is building a global independent. On the topic of whether content is still king, Renzer wondered aloud what good Spotify or iTunes would be without content. He noted that technology companies have become increasingly important to the health of the business between strength of the platforms and how much they’re contributing to the rest of the industry’s bottom lines.

Josh Yguado, co-founder and president of Jam City, Inc. (formerly SGN), commented on the quality versus quantity of content as it’s evolved. TV is just better than it was 20 or 30 years ago, he said, and it will be the same in the gaming space.

He said that with new content always being generated, much of which is free, consumers won’t play it or pay for it if they don’t like it, because there are so many options. He went on to explain that only about 10% of their customers pay, and that’s enough as they are primarily focused on the freemium model.

Venice-based ZEFR builds software that helps cut through all the virtual noise to effectively reach intended audiences.

Co-founder Zach James said that every medium will replace the one before it and that today, content is being uploaded at high volumes on social platforms because that is where the audience is. He suggested that it’s transitioning at a dramatic pace from TV to digital. “TV still has so much of the attention of the advertisers for money, but we know that time spent is 50% for digital.

When the content is getting more valued in digital, you’ll see more of the money there.”

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[Sports & Entertainment] // Building Teams and Company Culture NED COLLETTI Senior Adviser to the President, Los Angeles Dodgers

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he concept of the underdog is intertwined with every sport. Thirty-four years ago, a man raised in a blue collar Chicago family, the first to go to college, was the ultimate underdog. Ned Colletti had no roadmap, no one to sponsor him, but became a highly respected executive honored with Major League Baseball’s Robert O. Fishel Award.

Colletti’s overarching message was that a positive culture is necessary for any team to achieve success.

After directing a nine-year run that saw the club win four division titles and reach the postseason five times, Colletti’s GM tenure left him with the perspective that he fell short on creating a front office with a well-rounded, positive company culture. “When you ask someone to do a project or work in a certain aspect of your company or household, and the look on their face says, “How does this help me?” instead of “I’m all in, all the time,” then there is a problem. I could not find enough executives to buy into the all for one and one for all philosophy; many had their own goals in mind, rather than working for the good of the group. I fell short as a leader in not being able to get them to buy into it.”

In hindsight, Colletti says if he was starting over today,

he would make sure he was setting the right path, and be better at who he hired, and how they reflect the personality of what he hoped to build. Reiterating that culture is about leadership he emphasized the importance of seeking counsel from people who possess wisdom and won’t tell you what you want to hear, but what you need to hear.

“If you are the leader, you cannot separate yourself from the rest of your workforce. Be clear on expectations,” explained Colletti. He is also concerned with how an employee in jeopardy is treated – in many cases there is a great lack of communication. “You’re only as strong as your weakest link,” he said. Colletti thinks that beyond communication, a leader should also exhibit the fundamentals: passion, compassion, humility. Be passionate about your work, have humility, and also be compassionate toward others. You have no idea what the person sitting next to you is going through.

In sum, the thrust of Colletti’s message is, “culture is who you are, who your company is, how it relates to people, and what the core and the soul of your group is. A good culture is imperative; without it you have no chance.” 

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[Philanthropy, Art, & Culture] // The Impact of Philanthropic Passion MAKING GOOD ON A PROMISE

YOUTHFUL CHANGE

ANDY BALES, CEO, Union Rescue Mission

U

HENRY ELKUS, Founder & CEO, Helena

nion Rescue Mission has a policy to never turn away women or children at its door. The Mission’s CEO, Rev. Andy Bales, speaking at the CSQ LA Visionaries Summit, encouraged business leaders to consider that the city’s aspiration of attracting tech companies, winning the bid to host the 2024 Olympic games and influencing in the world, requires effectively addressing homelessness in Los Angeles.

More than a third of the nation’s continually homeless live in California, with Los Angeles County having the nation’s largest homeless population. Women and children now make up 40% of all people experiencing homelessness. The significant numbers of people on the streets of LA, especially women and children, are there because there is nowhere else to go. The Mission is the only downtown shelter, and practically the only shelter in all of LA, that welcomes single women, women with children, fathers with children, and two-parent families with children, says Bales.

Right now the shelter houses 710 women and children, and over 500 men.

Bales unveiled plans to create satellite missions throughout LA, a model he calls Hope Gardens Family Center. The first sits on 71 acres in the foothills of Sylmar, Calif. Considered a transitional housing campus for single women and children, and permanent supportive housing for senior women, Hope Gardens provides counseling, training, encouragement, and real help to transition from homelessness to independence within 12 to 36 months.

Intellectual diversity is the driving force behind Helena, a think tank and nonprofit whose mission it is to answer the question: What is the best way to come up with solutions to big problems and then implement those solutions? Founder Henry Elkus is changing the way we think about philanthropy, solving global problems, and positively impacting the world.

Governments and organizations have been sitting important people around a table to solve complex problems and implement solutions for hundreds of years. Elkus found interesting and challenging components surrounding this practice, so he created Helena to gather some of the most influential people in the world across generations and fields to come together and change the world. The organization is based on three tenants: include young people in the conversation, embrace intellectual diversity, and collaborate on an ongoing basis.

Society today recognizes young people as influential and bona fide world leaders. Much of that is attributed to the digital age, which allows people to create businesses and topple governments from their basement, explains Elkus. “Almost half the world population is under the age of 25, so logic would follow that if you’re going to have conversations about changing the world, or a conversation about creating impact, you should include young people in that conversation.”

Elkus defines innovation as one person of a certain skill set collaborating with someone of a completely different skill set. A proprietary exchange of information occurs between these two parties. This intellectual diversity is a catalyst for solving complex problems by combining ideas from different fields of expertise.

Helena’s 30 members, half under the age of 25, collaborate in a sustained, ongoing basis. Members include Deepak Chopra, General Stanley McChrystal, actress Chloë Moretz, Brian Grazer, and North Korean dissident Yeonmi Park. One of the organization’s inaugural projects is The Helena Prize – a search for the person under 30 with the most promising technology to reduce greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere.

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[Philanthropy, Art, & Culture] // LA’s Cultural Evolution MODERATOR BETTINA KOREK, Founder, For Your Art PANELISTS RACHEL S. MOORE, CEO, The Music Center DR. TIMOTHY POTTS, Director, J. Paul Getty Museum DR. LAURA SKANDERA TROMBLEY, President,The Huntington

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he leadership of three prominent cultural institutions shared the stage, speaking of innovative projects and exhibitions that are giving Los Angeles a fresh identity in the arts. As moderator Korek pointed out at the onset, “One in six jobs in LA is connected to the creative economy.”

While that may include film, TV, and all forms of the arts, it’s nonetheless a formidable number that illustrates the symbiotic relationship happening between the city and its residents.

Seeking to break down the old notion that The Music Center is the white castle on the hill, The Music Center’s CEO Rachel Moore mentioned “Sleepless,” a late-night museum event with cocktails, music, and beanbag chairs throughout the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion that draws a diverse group of 20- to 40-something participants and that Moore considers indicative of what’s happening across the city, with organizations changing up the way they use space and doing new things to attract audiences.

Timothy Potts, director of the Getty, talked about Pacific Standard Time I, a Getty-conceived project that first took place from 2011-2012, and the upcoming PST II which will run 20172018. PST I entailed Getty Foundation grants of more than $10M issued to 60 museums, with 80 partners, focused on aspects of LA art from 1945-80, the era when the city’s identity in the modern period emerged. “Out of the program came a huge suite of art from those decades,” Potts said of one of the most widespread, largest artistic enterprise ever.

Laura Skandera Trombley spoke of the Huntington Library’s transformation over the past century from a secret garden of sorts to a humanities scholar’s paradise to a place now visited by over 750,000 visitors annually. “In fact, at a time when you see attendance declining across the country, we’ve seen ours increase by 50,000 over the past five years,” she said.

Trombley frames this demand as a great sign of the health of LA’s cultural organizations. One of the Huntington’s current exhibitions, which opened November 1, is a collaboration with NASA that features a nautilus-shaped steel sculpture shaped with speakers hooked up to operating satellites, enabling visitors to hear the music of the spheres inside the sculpture.

All three panelists agreed that the region’s cultural future is bright. Potts pointed out that the audience itself is becoming one of the curators, and cultural institutions want to delight audiences. “Whatever our endowments, you can be sure the ambitions for our institutions go beyond what our current endowments can support.”

Moore pointed out that despite the poor job the performing arts have done historically of articulating their value to the community, the arts provide an arena for civic engagement, transform lives, and shape the workforce of the future. “In this incredibly divisive time where people are pulling into their own little worlds, the arts can really help us see that we are more similar than different and that is a good thing in creating community.”

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[Philanthropy, Art, & Culture] // The Importance of Inclusion HOST RACHEL LEVIN, President, Fundamental GUEST DAVID BOHNETT, Founder, Baroda Ventures

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avid Bohnett, CSQ’s 2015 Visionary of the Year in Philanthropy, Art and Culture, sat down for the closing conversation of the CSQ LA Visionaries Summit with Rachel Levin, founder of philanthropic consulting firm Fundamental. Bohnett, who founded the first social networking site (GeoCities.com, which he sold to Yahoo! In 1999 for $3.5B), now heads Baroda Ventures, a VC investing in tech startups. Through the David Bohnett Foundation, he is a prolific funder of the arts and social equality and social justice causes.

RACHEL LEVIN You fund arts & culture, LGBT issues, voting rights, research and policy around gun violence -- a wide list of pressing issues facing us today. What is the throughline of those pieces?

DAVID BOHNETT The funding and activism that I do are under a brand of improving society through social activism -- funding organizations, and causes that give people a sense that they have the ability to contribute, and make a difference in these areas. Whether the issue is marriage equality, gun violence, arts & culture, or civil engagement, I’m looking to fund organizations that are working hard for legislative and policy changes, and also working hard to bring people into the movements.

is a luxury despite the research indicating how it important art is to learning. What is the disconnect between seeing art as a luxury versus an urgent, true social justice rights issue?

DB That’s something we can all do something about because it has to do with raising the level of the discussion about the importance of the arts. I’m on the board of the John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts, our national performing arts center. What most people don’t know is that the Kennedy Center is the memorial to President Kennedy, who believed that art defines much of who we are as a society. Where is that dialog today among our political leadership? It’s our responsibility and opportunity speak out about bringing the importance of the arts back into our society.

That is what will bring about change.

RL Is there a hallmark investment that you are particularly proud of, and what is it about that investment that has you see it in that light?

DB I’m particularly proud of the 20-year effort to secure marriage equality, not only because of the significance of the marriage equality decision, which was a multi-decade effort, but also the example that sustained effort, and a long term view, will lead to significant, and lasting social change.

Diversity and inclusiveness can also create a society where more and more people have access to the arts - it takes money, effort, and time, but those significant changes can come about.

Summit Report - David Bohnett

RL How does your experience as someone who founded a technology startup, and many other businesses, influence your philanthropy?

DB The consistent thread is leadership. Whether it’s a startup tech company, an established corporation, a company about to go public -- or whether it’s a performing arts center like the Wallis Annenberg Arts Center in Beverly Hills, or the Music Center downtown, to me there is no difference between a talented arts leader, and a talented tech entrepreneur. They bring the same skills to the table. The separation between for-profit and nonprofit no longer exists, each organization exists to serve its own purpose, but the talent and requirements for leadership are completely identical.

RL As a funder of arts and culture, what is your viewpoint of that field in LA? DB Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Director and Artistic Director, advocates that music is a fundamental human right. There is an awareness amongst our art institutions that we have to create programming, and content that is relevant to the diverse LA population.

Inclusiveness starts with the product that is put on the stage.

Our arts, and culture leaders understand that we need to fundamentally change our offerings to appeal to the broadest audience.

RL In a city like Los Angeles, and the state of California, the creative capital of the world, there still exists a sense that art

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144 VISIONARIES SUMMIT VIP KICKOFF DINNER 146 VISIONARIES SUMMIT & SPIRIT OF THE COMMUNITY AWARD RECEPTION 148 2016 LOS ANGELES TECH SUMMIT

149 2016 DELOITTE FAST 500 AWARDS 150 POWERSHARES QQQ TOURNAMENT BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA GREATER LA GOOD CHARACTER GALA

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CSQ’S LA VISIONARIES SUMMIT VIP SPEAKERS DINNER ON THE EVENING PRIOR TO CSQ’S LA VISIONARIES SUMMIT, A COLLECTION OF THE REGION’S BRIGHTEST MINDS AND IMPACTFUL COMMUNITY AND INDUSTRY LEADERS DINED IN THE PENTHOUSE AT BEVERLY WEST

Michael Polenske, Rachel S. Moore

BEVERLY WEST RESIDENCES BEVERLY HILLS SEPTEMBER 19, 2016

The Network - Summit VIP Dinner

C-Suite Quarterly kicked off the festivities surrounding our third annual LA Visionaries Summit in the penthouse of Beverly West Residences - one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious addresses.

On the evening prior LA Visionaries Summit, the VIP Dinner served as an opportunity for the Summit’s speakers, moderators, panelists, and sponsors to congregate over dinner, drinks, and entertainment while having a more formal opportunity to connect prior to the Summit.

Guests that evening were treated to Dom Pérignon upon arrival, cocktails courtesy of Hennessy Paradis Imperial and Nolet’s Reserve Gin. Entertainment came courtesy of The Music Center, highlighted by a modern rendition of Madame Butterfly by the esteemed Suzanna Guzman.

The evening’s five-course meal was prepared by Chef Jason Fullilove. Attendees included Eric Chan, CFO, Loot Crate; T’Shaka Lee, Partner, Deloitte; Rachel S. Moore, President & CEO,The Music Center; Anthony Pritzker, Managing Partner,The Pritzker Group; Reon Roski, Managing Director, Majestic Realty.

Partners and sponsors of the evening included Blackbird Vineyards, Dom Perignon, Emaar Properties / Beverly West Residences, Hennessy Paradis Imperial, Karma Automotive, The Music Center, Nolet’s Reserve Gin, and Peroni.

Reon Roski, Jaime Lee, Richard Green, Nadine Watt

Dario De Luca, Josh Yguado

Dom Perignon & Hennesy Paradis Imperial

Henry Elkus

Nolet’s Reserve Gin

PHOTOGRAPHER

Albert Evangelista, Ben Steinberger EVENT CONTACT

Dana Santulli-Muhlgay, dana@csq.com

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C-SUITE QUARTERLY

Eric Chan, Steve Lehman

Eric Jencks, Jeff Hyland, Dario De Luca

Alki David, Andy Bales

T’Shaka Lee, Kris Kaufmann

A sampling of the evening’s culinary offerings

The Network - Summit VIP Dinner The Karma Revero

Wine Sponsor Blackbird Vineyards

Bruce Munster, David Renzer CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

Michael Polenske

“Madame Butterfly” by Suzanna Guzman. Cour tesy of The Music Center - 145 -

THE NETWORK

VISIONARIES SERIES

CSQ’S LA VISIONARIES SUMMIT RECEPTION & INAUGURAL SPIRIT OF THE COMMUNITY AWARD EVENT HONORS PATRICK SOON-SHIONG AND VISIONARIES IN PHILANTHROPY, ART, & CULTURE FOLLOWING THE CONCLUSION OF CSQ’S LA VISIONARIES SUMMIT, A RECEPTION WAS HELD ALLOWING ATTENDEES, SUMMIT SPEAKERS, AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE CSQ COMMUNITY TO CELEBRATE THE TWO-DAY EVENT’S PROCEEDINGS. THE RECEPTION WAS HELD IN PATRICK SOON-SHIONG’S HONOR, AS HE WAS PRESENTED WITH THE 2016 SPIRIT OF THE COMMUNITY AWARD Patrick Soon-Shiong

The Network - SoC Reception

MONTAGE HOTEL BEVERLY HILLS SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

C-Suite Quarterly’s inaugural Spirit of the Community Award honored Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, our Visionary of the Year in Philanthropy, Art, & Culture.

Soon-Shiong is one of the city’s beacons of hope and a testament to all that Los Angeles has become. Innovative and charitable, groundbreaking and foundation-building, Soon-Shiong has gone above and beyond to improve the circles he walks in – both personally and professionally.

Soon-Shiong received his award and spoke to the work his company NantWorks is doing locally, throughout the country and the world, the impact of CSQ on the region, and his vision for what lies ahead. Soon-Shiong specifically spoke to his Moonshot 2020 plan by which he hopes we will win the fight against cancer by the year 2020.

The evening brought together attendees and participants from the LA Visionaries Summit and members of the CSQ Community including previous Visionaries, NextGen leaders, and C-Suite Advisors to celebrate Patrick and acknowledge the other Visionaries honored in CSQ’s 2016 Q4 Philanthropy, Art, & Culture edition including Calvin Lyons, CEO, Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro LA,Tara Roth, President,The Goldhirsh Foundation, and Dr. Timothy Potts, Director, The J. Paul Getty Museum to name a few.

The evening’s brand partners were The Macallan, Nolet’s Gin, and Peroni. Summit Sponsors Included Blackstone, Cedars-Sinai, Cohen and Steers, David Bohnett Foundation, Deloitte, FOTV Media Networks, Guggenheim Partners, Karma Automotive, Mainstay, Merrill Lynch PBIG, Montage Beverly Hills, The Music Center, nion Rescue Mission, USC, Vectis, and Watt Companies. Brand Partners Included CCG LA, LA Auto Show/Automobility LA, and Wilshire Media Systems.

Calvin Lyons, Andrew Tennenbaum, Marje Johnston, Cal Johnston, David Wur th

Dr. Timothy Potts, Bettina Korek

PHOTOGRAPHER

Albert Evangelista, Ben Steinberger EVENT CONTACT

Dana Santulli-Muhlgay, dana@csq.com

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Mahsa Zeinali, John Rhee CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

C-SUITE QUARTERLY

Union Rescue Mission staff, Andy Bales (center)

Kelli Nakayama, Jake Wood, Rachel Sumekh, Tara Roth, Calvin Lyons

Cur t Castagna, Annette Castagna, Brian Counsil

The Network - SoC Reception Paul Moore, Rachel Fine, Guest

Brittany Fuisz, Justin Fuisz

Enter tainment cour tesy of The Music Center

Anne Mathias, Sandy Choi

Bettina Korek, Mary Leslie, Jeremy Rosenberg, Tara Roth CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

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THE NETWORK

PARTNERSHIP

LA TECH SUMMIT FAIRMONT MIRAMAR HOTEL & BUNGALOWS SANTA MONICA EVENT SUMMARY LA Tech Summit is an annual event

organized by Cornerstone OnDemand (NASDAQ: CSOD) to showcase the technology ecosystem in Los Angeles. Set in one of the fastest growing and most diverse technology hubs in the United States, the LA Tech Summit brings together industry-leading executives, entrepreneurs and professionals to celebrate and support the unique innovations being built in Los Angeles.

NOTABLE ATTENDEES Miles Beckett, CEO, Silversheet; Greg Bettinelli, Partner, Upfront Ventures; George Boutros, CEO, Qatalyst Partners; Chris Davis, CEO, Loot Crate; Kyle Hill, CEO, HomeHero; Eric Jaffe, COO, ChowNow; Jerry Jao, CEO, Retention Science; Mitch Lasky, General Partner, Benchmark; David Lyman, CEO, Betterview; Ben Marcus, CEO, Airmap; Adam Markowitz, CEO, Portfolium; Matt Mazzeo, Managing Partner, Lowercase Capital; Adam Miller, CEO, Cornerstone OnDemand; Jake Paul, Internet personality; Nathan Schuett, CEO, PRENAV; Ian Siegel, CEO, ZipRecruiter; Neville Spiteri, CEO, Wevr; Matthew Stoudt, CEO, AppliedVR; Brendan Wallace, Managing Partner, Fifth Wall; Brent Weinstein, Partner, UTA;TX Zhuo, Managing Partner, Fika Ventures SPONSORS The eventâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Platinum Sponsor is Qatalyst Partners. Gold Sponsors are Intrepid Investment Bankers, Pritzker Group Venture Capital and Silicon Valley Bank. Silver Sponsors include Bessemer Venture Partners, Credit Suisse, Cresa, Goldman Sachs, Nasdaq and PWC.The event is hosted by Cornerstone OnDemand.

Lindsay Blakely, Chris Davis

Mayor Eric Garcetti

Adam Miller

Adam Miller and Mayor Eric Garcetti

Paige Craig, Mark Mullen, Jesse Draper

The Network - LA Tech Summit

EVENT CONTACT

Denise Balbin, latechsummit@csod.com

Kristina Shen, Jerry Jao, Adam Markowitz, Ian Siegel - 14 8 -

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

Anthony Pritzker

C-SUITE QUARTERLY

PARTNERSHIP

2016 DELOITTE TECHNOLOGY FAST 500 CASA DEL MAR HOTEL SANTA MONICA Hilary Miller, Eytan Elbaz, Vic Belonogoff, Rachel Bullock, Guests

Guest, Karen Ber tolli, Nicole Durden,Erik Savitsky, Matt Scribner, T’Shaka Lee

EVENT SUMMARY The

Deloitte Technology Fast 500 is the leading technology awards program in North America (U.S. and Canada) with 2016 being its twenty-second anniversary. The 2016 Fast 500 award is based on percentage of revenue growth from fiscal year 2012 to 2015. Combining technological innovation, entrepreneurship, and rapid growth, Fast 500 companies—large, small, public, and private—span a wide variety of industry sectors and are leaders in hardware, software, telecom, semiconductors, life sciences, and emerging areas such as clean technology.

These companies are on the cutting edge and are transforming the way we do business today.

NOTABLE ATTENDEES Chris Davis, CEO, Loot Crate, Chuck Davis, CEO, Prodege, Dan Murray, CFO, Dollar Shave Club SPONSORS Aon, Cresa, CSQ, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Netsuite, RGP EVENT CONTACT Michelle VandenBroeck, mvandenbroeck@deloitte.com

The Network - Deloitte Fast 500

Deloitte Fast 500 winners

Marc Hansell, Christopher Celona, Felipe Jardim CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

Chuck Davis, Stacey Olliff - 149 -

THE NETWORK

C-SUITE QUARTERLY

POWERSHARES QQQ CHAMPIONSHIP

PARTNERSHIP

SHERWOOD COUNTRY CLUB THOUSAND OAKS The inaugural PowerShares QQQ Championship took place at Sherwood Country Club in October 2016 with the top PGA TOUR players competing in the first of three Playoffs to finish the 2016 season. Fans enjoyed a free Community Champions Day where they observed golfers and celebrities, enjoyed food trucks, and participated in golf clinics.The tournament raises charitable funds primarily for Sherwood Cares Foundation and also provides complimentary access for youth under 18 and military.

EVENT WINNER Tom Pernice, Jr. EVENT CONTACT Alex Mallen, alexmallen@pgatourhq.com EVENT SUMMARY

Miguel Angel Jimenez

Wayne Gretzky, John Daly

Fred Couples

Tom Pernice, Jr.

The Network - Powershares/Boy Scouts THE GREATER LOS ANGELES AREA COUNCIL BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA GOOD CHARACTER GALA MILLENNIUM BILTMORE HOTEL DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES EVENT SUMMARY The event honored John H. Semcken III,

Vice President, Majestic Realty Co., who has been involved with the Boy Scouts of America for almost 20 years. Semcken personifies what the Scouts stand for, good citizenship and outstanding moral fiber with a dedication to others.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER Randall Stephenson, Chairman and CEO of AT&T and National President of the Boy Scouts of America EVENT BENEFICIARIES The local Boy Scouts of America Council also acknowledged its Second Century Society, whose members have made philanthropic gifts of $25,000 or more. All the proceeds from the event benefit the Greater LA Area Council NOTABLE ATTENDEES Ed Roski, President and Chairman, Majestic Realty Co.;Thomas Jankiewicz, SVP & CEO, Keck Medicine of USC; John Stankey, President and CEO AT&T Entertainment Group; Stephen Silk, Senior Managing Partner, Eastdil Secured; Dan York, EVP Programming and COO, DirecTV; Stacy Huff, Executive Director, Boy Scouts of America National Foundation SPONSORS Presenting sponsors were Kennedy Wilson and Majestic Realty; Platinum sponsors were Payden & Rygel, Steve and Sue Silk, Charles Tharnstrom of Merrill Lynch EVENT CONTACT Diana Bates, 213/413.4400 and diana. bates@scouting.org

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Mercedes Mor ton, Renee Hunt

John H. Semcken, III

Tim Greenleaf, Gerry Mor ton

John H. Semcken III, Randall Stephenson, Mark Ridley-Thomas, Ed Roski

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

BERNHARD LANGER

TOM PERNICE JR.

2016 CHARLES SCHWAB CUP CHAMPION

2016 POWERSHARES QQQ CHAMPION

Powershares

TICKETS, HOSPITALITY & PRO-AM SPOTS ARE NOW AVAILABLE RESERVE YOUR SPOT FOR 2017.

SHERWOOD COUNTRY CLUB, THOUSAND OAKS, CA | FALL 2017

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT WWW.GOPSQQQ.COM OR CONTACT ALEX MALLEN, (818) 284-4820, ALEXMALLEN@PGATOURHQ.COM

PEOPLE & COMPANY INDEX

C-SUITE QUARTERLY

Who’s In? An index of editorial content for this issue PEOPLE

COMPANIES COMPANIES

Adams, Jody ..................................118

Lacy, Clay .......................................30

71 Above......................................... 121

Maison Kitsune .............................. 80

Alexander, Tom..............................52

Langley, Drew .............................. 120

a.o.c................................................ 118

Mandarin Oriental ........................ 80

Anderson, Tom...............................58

Lee, Stan ......................................... 75

American Airlines .......................... 78

MB&F .............................................. 40

Arevalo, Matthew........................... 71

Lefebvre, Ludo ..............................113

American Capital ........................... 56

Modal VR .........................................47

Beldy, Dan ......................................55

Lentz, David ..................................119

Annenberg Space for Photography.... 114

Myspace .......................................... 56

Belonogoff, Vic ...............................67

Lyons, Dan.................................... 124

Aston Martin................................... 38

NantHealth ......................................51

Bettinelli, Greg ............................... 72

Martinez, Antonio Garcia ............ 124

Aurrion ............................................51

Nolet’s Gin ..................................... 116

Bothelo, Stefanie ............................52

Mattioli, Giacomo ..........................32

Blackline Systems ...........................51

Oblong Industries .......................... 46

Boylan, Kevin .................................55

Meehan, Kevin ............................. 120

Avasant Foundation ...................... 110

Omega ............................................ 42

Broukhim, Michael ........................52

Miyoshi, Masanobu ........................87

Baby2Baby...................................... 66

Oracle ..............................................47

Brown, Jerry .................................. 111

Murphy, Bobby .............................. 47

BlackLine........................................ 55

Orbitera ...........................................51

Brown, Reggie ................................ 47

Newsom, Marc ...............................42

Broken Spanish .............................122

Parmigiani .......................................41

Bullock, Rachel ..............................52

Nolet, Jr., Carl ................................116

Career Arc....................................... 53

Patagonia ........................................ 24

Bushnell, Nolan.............................. 47

Passard, Alain................................118

Chez Tex ........................................ 121

Paul & Shark .................................. 116

Busser, Max .................................... 41

Pham, Peter .................................... 57

Chinon ............................................ 24

PK4 Media ...................................... 52

Callinicos, Brent..............................46

Pillan, T.K. ......................................55

Clay Lacy Aviation ......................... 30

Porsche Motorsport North America 34

Crawford, Jason .............................. 47

Ramo, Joshua Cooper .................. 124

Conrad Chicago .............................. 78

Powerplant Ventures ..................... 55

Daly, Mike ......................................65

Rampolla, Mark ..................... 55, 124

Constantin Vacheron ......................41

Pritzker Group................................ 52

Davis, Chris ....................................70

Rezvani, Justin ...............................53

Delta Airlines ................................. 78

Render Media ................................. 52

Davis, Michael ................................ 72

Riemer, Yair ...................................53

Dollar Shave Club ...............51, 56, 68

Rolex ............................................... 42

DeWolfe, Chris ...............................58

Ringel, Jen ......................................53

Everbridge .......................................81

SBE .................................................. 78

Downey, Jr., Robert ....................... 73

Sandoval, Richard. .........................78

FabFitFun........................................ 52

SGN ................................................ 58

Downey, Susan .............................. 73

Scott, Alexandra ............................119

Famebit ............................................51

SH/FT .............................................. 53

Dubin, Michael................... 51, 57, 68

Sepulveda, Velma .........................116

Fika Ventures ................................. 54

Snap Inc. ..........................................47

Earl, Chris .......................................26

Seroka, Gene ..................................46

Fitzroy Toys .................................... 58

Elbaz, Eytan....................................67

Siegel, Ian .......................................66

Focal................................................ 24

Spokeo ............................................ 65

Elbaz, Gil ............................48, 54, 67

Silverton, Nancy............................118

Fulgent Genetics .............................51

Survios ............................................ 53

Ellison, Larry .................................. 47

Smith, Kevin ..................................46

Gamer Food .....................................72

Susa Ventures ................................. 54

English, Todd.................................118

Son, Masayoshi ..............................58

General Electric.............................. 46

Sushi of Gari .................................. 121

Feldman, Hayley ...........................121

Soon-Shiong, Patrick .................... 51

General Electric.............................122

Tavern ............................................122

Feldman, Jesse ..............................121

Spiegel, Evan .................................. 47

Habitat for Humanity .................... 59

Tempura Matsui ............................. 80

Flint, Deborah ................................ 31

Splichal, Joachim ..........................118

Heal ................................................. 46

The Trade Desk ...............................51

Garcetti, Eric ..................................54

Styne, Caroline ..............................118

Heesen Yachts. ............................... 46

theAmplify ..................................... 53

Goin, Suzanne .............................. 118

Sugio, Masatoshi Gari ...................121

HelloSociety ....................................51

Timberland ..................................... 24

Green, Jeff....................................... 51

Tang, Harrison................................65

Holler .............................................. 46

TouchCommerce.............................51

Greenbaum, Gabe ..........................52

Tucker, Therese.............................. 51

Hyperloop One............................... 46

Unilever .....................................51, 68

Greenfield-Sanders, Timothy ......114

Water, Alice ...................................118

Impinj ..............................................51

Union Rescue Mission ................... 59

Gross, Bill........................................48

Weissman, Adam ...........................54

Jaeger-LeCoultre ............................ 42

United Airlines ............................... 30

Ho, Eva............................................54

Whitcomb, Aber ............................59

Jam City, Inc. .................................. 58

Upfront Ventures ............................72

Iliff, James ......................................53

Wilcox, Alex ..................................116

JetSuite........................................... 116

Userplane ....................................... 56

Immelt, Jeff ....................................46

Yguado, Josh ...................................58

Kali .................................................120

Upfront Ventures ............................72

Young, Julie ....................................53

Karlin Ventures .............................. 54

Zhuo, TX .........................................54

Kurion ..............................................51

Zwelling, Jeff ..................................66

LACMA........................................... 114

Jones, Jennifer ................................ 57 Jones, Mike ..................................... 57 Kerr, Alex .......................................88

Issue Index

Kirkdoffer, Brian ............................30

Loot Crate ....................................... 70

Note: Bold numbers indicate starting page of extended article.

Lucques ......................................... 118

SolarReserve .................................. 46

VuClips ............................................72 Yukiwa ............................................ 26 Zico ..........................................55, 124 Zin Bistro Americana ....................122 ZipRecruiter ............................. 53, 66

The Lucques Group ....................... 118

COMING IN SPRING 2017 VISIONARIES IN REAL ESTATE & FINANCE

LA’S MOST INNOVATIVE OFFICES NEW AND NOTABLE GROUNDBREAKING DEVELOPMENTS

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CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

C-SUITE QUARTERLY

BUSINESS DIRECTORY

ADVERTISERS DIRECTORY AEG Premium Seating staplescenter.com

Corporate Strategies, Inc. corpstrat.com

Marathon Coach marathoncoach.com

Santa Anita Park santaanita.com

Baltaire Restaurant baltaire.com

Cross Campus crosscamp.us

Montage Beverly Hills montagebeverlyhills.com

Socal IP Law Group LLP socalip.com

Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Los Angeles bgcmla.org

Distinction Gallery distinctionart.com

Montage Insurance Solutions montageinsurance.com

Ten Thousand tenthousandlosangeles.com

The District by Hannah An thedistrictbyha.com

Patina Restaurant Group patinagroup.com

TravelStore travelstore.com

gish SEIDEN LLP gishseiden.com

Paul & Shark paulshark.it

Vistage vistage.com

Hughes Marino hughesmarino.com

Polacheck’s Jewelers polachecks.com

Wilshire Media Systems wilshirehe.com

Karma Automotive karmaautomotive.com

Powershares QQQ Championship gopsqqq.com

Wink Optometry winkoptometry.com

Koss Resource kossresource.com

The Resort at Pelican Hill golfpelicanhill.com

WurthCo wurthco.com

Luxe Hotels luxecollection.com

Saks Fifth Avenue saks.com

Zin Bistro Americana zinwestlake.com

Brent’s Deli brentsdeli.com Burgess burgessyachts.com Chivas Ultis chivasultis.com City National Bank cnb.com Clay Lacy Aviation claylacy.com CohnReznick LLP cohnreznick.com

ELITE C-SUITE ADVISORS Business Directory James Harwood TotalHR 818/248.0049 james@totalhrmgmt.com

William Mark Levinson Fox Rothschild 310/228.2133 mlevinson@foxrothschild.com

Carol A. Polevoi Counseling Resource Center 818/889.3905 carolpolevoi@gmail.com

Jason Hughes Hughes Marino 619/238.2111 jason@hughesmarino.com

Bruce Munster Merrill Lynch Private Banking and Investment Group 310/407.4960 bruce.munster@ml.com

Scott M. Sachs CohnReznick LLP 818/205.2609 scott.sachs@cohnreznick.com

T’Shaka Lee Deloitte & Touche LLP 213/553.1606 tshakalee@deloitte.com

Kevin S. Parikh Edward C. Wilson-Smythe Avasant 310/643.3030 kevin.parikh@avasant.com

Dr. Brennan Spiegel Cedars-Sinai Health System 310/423.6784 brennan.spiegel@cshs.org

Steven C. Sereboff SoCal Law Group LLP 805/230.1356 ssereboff@socalip.com

EXECUTIVE C-SUITE ADVISORS Majid Abai Concepts Rise 424/320.0524 majid.abai@conceptsrise.com

Robert Dalie Oppenheimer & Co. 310/446.7501 robert.dalie@opco.com

R. Todd Doney CBRE 213/973.4113 todd.doney@cbre.com

Vlad Vaiman California Lutheran University 805/493.3892 vvaiman@callutheran.edu

Will Chuchawat Sheppard Mullin 213/617.5555 wchuchawat@sheppardmullin.com

Doug De Groote De Groote Financial Group 805/230.0111 doug@degrootefinancial.com

Danone Simpson Montage Insurance 818/676.0044 danone@montageinsurance.com

Alex Voxman Latham & Watkins LLP 213/485.1234 alex.voxman@lw.com

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

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I N N OVATION & TE CHNO LO G Y C- SUI T E Q UOTE D

C-Suite

QUOTED

Practical advice and anecdotes from this edition’s Visionaries in Innovation & Technology

“Pasadena doesn’t get as much attention as Silicon Valley but it actually has a lot of engineering heritage behind it.”

Harrison Tang, p. 65

“Fundraising for DSC used to consume 20 to 25 percent of my year. Now that we’re part of the Unilever family I get to spend that time running the business.”

Michael Dubin, p. 68

“We have an advantage over established media companies that have been around for a very long time just because they don’t move as fast.”

Vic Belonogoff, p. 67

“The LA ecosystem is really great; people just want to see LA companies do well. We got a lot of good time with really sharp people.”

Chris Davis, p. 70

“The crowd is going to replace you the venture capitalist and use their immense wisdom to decide who gets to raise capital….

The democratization of capital is going to start right here and right now in LA.” Howard Marks, p. 48

“We look for an entrepreneur who has a 30,000-foot vision of the way the world is changing, but a groundlevel, practical plan to get it done in the first six months. That’s a rare combination.”

Mark Rampolla, p. 55

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“I look at early-stage companies and entrepreneurs as putting smart people on boats, setting them in a direction, and hopefully they find the territory they are going after. Never have we executed exactly on the business plan set out; it’s more like, do we have a great captain of this boat?”

Mike Jones, p. 56

C Suite Quoted “We have a strategy that represents areas that we think the world will need. We call them disruption spheres of interests.” Mike Jones, p. 56

“Myspace had a music label and the largest music catalog ever built and licensed – bigger than Spotify has now. In addition to every major music act, we also had every indie in the world.”

Chris DeWolfe, p. 58

“[Gil Elbaz and Adam Weissman] are really unique and special guys, and dreamers. They described their vision to me…I was kind of enamored by the picture that they painted. Almost two decades later, we are still working together.” Eva Ho, p. 54

“We were working a lot with the licensees and the product companies that had worked but had the licenses. Studios were like, ‘Who’s this interesting company? This is growing really quickly, we’re seeing it all over social.’ Junior people within the companies were subscribing.” Chris Davis, p. 70

CSQ.COM / WINTER 2017 - Q1

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