Factual Founder CEO Gil Elbaz discussed about big data technology
If you have not heard of NewCo, it is like the Coachella of the tech industry. Basically, innovative companies open their doors to the public and introduce their products and network with attendees. So if you want to meet and interact with emerging tech entrepreneurs, the NewCo Festival is your chance. NewCo LA was held on Nov. 9-10. The festival offers face-to-face meetings inside companies of your choice and insights from some of the most successful leaders in tech. This year’s festival included Twitter and Google as host companies. Other start up and innovative companies making big waves included Bouqs, Awesomeness TV, Crowdfunder, Jetpack and Dollar Shave Club. Even representatives of the Office of Mayor Eric Garcetti was present to encourage the development of LA as a tech hub.
Factual Office at Century City
With so many companies making presentations I could not visit them all. I chose to attend conferences for Factual, a data driven company and Dollar Shave Club. Factual’s hip office is located in a high rise building in Century City. The session was opened by Factual Founder and CEO Gil Elbaz. Elbaz discussed the value of quality data and how startups are utilizing big data to innovate and disrupt a variety of industries.I was impressed by how organized the NewCo event was. When I registered for the Factual session, they sent me a text from time to time about details of parking, etc. The session was well attended and there was a lot of interaction between techie audiences and the CEO.
John Battelle interviews Michael Dubin co-founder of Dollar Shave Club at the DSC headquarters
Next up, was Dollar Shave Club. Driving from Century City to Playa del Rey took me an hour because of the ridiculous traffic. Dollar Shave Club hosted the VIP Kickoff and Reception for LA Newco. DSC is a men’s grooming brand dedicated to helping men live smarter and earn more success through high-quality personal-care products, technology and content. The company began in March 2012 with a simple vision – deliver high-quality razors for a couple bucks a month. And the rest is history. Now Dollar Shave Club is worth about $150 million and continues to grow.
NewCo Los Angeles kicked off the event at Dollar Shave Club headquarters
The program was hosted by NewCo Founder John Battelle. After the session I asked Battelle about his expectation about the event and the outcome of the second LA NewCo and he said, “My expectations were pretty high for the second year in Los Angeles. This is the first year that we had a fully paid model and so you never know. The event was great last year but there’s only one ticket where they could pay which is to go to VIP and that was it. This year people really showed up and I’m really pleased. It’s gonna get bigger and bigger. I could feel it.”
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