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Want to Start a Technology Company in LA?

Both Sides of the Table

LA produced Applied Semantics that created AdSense and was bought by Google. LA was a leader in lead generation (LowerMyBills), comparison shopping (PriceGrabber, Shopzilla), social networking (MySpace … I know, I know – Facebook won – but it was still a big business).

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Twiistup 6 Highlights

Both Sides of the Table

LA not only produced the obvious – MySpace – but also created the whole category of sponsored search (Overture), AdSense (Applied Semantics), Local Search (City Search), comparison shopping (PriceGrabber, Shopzilla) and lead generation (LowerMyBills).

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Can You Really Build a Great Tech Firm Outside Silicon Valley?

Both Sides of the Table

We were talking about a company, Factual (disclosure my firm is an investor), which was founded by one of LA’s most talented Internet entrepreneurs, Gil Elbaz , who as co-founder of Applied Semantics (purchased by pre-IPO Google for $102 million and now Google AdSense) is responsible for a large portion of the Internet’s monetization.