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Weekly Tech Recap: Can a Scientist Make a Good Startup CEO?

Weekly Tech Recap: Can a Scientist Make a Good Startup CEO?

October 02, 2021

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Being a CEO, especially at an early-stage bioscience startup, requires extensive knowledge on how to raise capital and budget for unforeseen events. Beyond that, executives need to know how to tiptoe through painstaking FDA regulations. It's a full-time job that could force an entrepreneurial scientist to step back from the research that keeps their company running.`

A new incubator based in Redondo Beach is on a mission to turn more scientists into successful CEOs. What's the formula? Bioscience reporter Keerthi Vedantam has this inside look at Brazen Bio's biotech incubator. And don't forget to take our Twitter poll.

➡️ BallerTV. Its deal with streaming startup Nextpro will soon allow it to cast games from nearly 400 top youth soccer and lacrosse operators into people's homes.

➡️ Thankful. The Venice-based maker of an automated customer service platform raised $12 million in Series A funding and it aims to use AI to provide better customer service.

➡️ Snafu Records founder Ankit Desai believes the music industry is overdue for a change in how it discovers, promotes and scales artists' careers — and he's using artificial intelligence to do it.

➡️ Genies is hiring former Snapchat employees in attempt to build an engineering powerhouse.

➡️ Clinical trials moved online during the pandemic, like everything else. New data show the change resulted in less bias in drug trials. Now, one of the providers of those virtual trials, Lightship, has raised $40 million to keep them going.

➡️ Santa Monica-based Future Acres, maker of a four-wheeled autonomous carrier aptly named "Carry," has partnered with seed developer Sun World International in a bid to bring its robot to more fruit farms around the world.

➡️ A major battle is brewing behind the scenes in Hollywood, between streaming giants and a labor union that represents the workers who operate cameras, dress actors, build sets and clean toilets for their productions. A crucial vote is happening this weekend.

➡️ Disney CEO Bob Chapek has hinted he wants to bring a new type of industry into the Mouse House: Sports betting.

➡️ A global chip shortage for electric vehicles will mean a big spike in business for the German semiconductor producer Infineon Technologies, which has its U.S. headquarters in El Segundo.

Need a podcast recommendation this weekend? Here are some new pods we have for you:

🎙 Jigsaw puzzles were her way to relax. Now, it's her way of supporting female artists. Kaylin Marcotte joined the Behind Her Empire podcast this week to talk about creating her startup JIGGY, a brand that turns female artists' work into jigsaw puzzles. Listen on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts.

🎙 Investor Shane Kelly saw the disruption happening in the tech industry during the pandemic. For him, it opened avenues for new markets to evolve. Listen to Kelly on the LA Venture podcast as he talks about new tech, the entertainment industry and what he learned while being a mentor. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

🎙 Rick Smith grew up in Illinois, studied at Harvard and is now a co-founder of Crosscut Ventures. Smith joined LA Venture to talk about how he found himself working as a venture capitalist. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

➡️ The FAA grounded all Virgin Galactic space flights following the journey that brought its founder, Richard Branson, to space. This week, it released findings revealing that the July 11th launch of the SpaceShipTwo went off course while landing.

➡️ Economists warn of a state that is becoming increasingly unequal as tech entrepreneurs' personal wealth grows while low-income residents fail to see gains, according to a UCLA Anderson report published this week.

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