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Daily Newsletter - Day 1 (Manual)

We're Live!

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We're Live!

Our website is up! and already it has been busy. Though we're thrilled to be getting started, we — like the rest of our city — are crestfallen at the loss of Kobe Bryant, a brilliant leader and a budding venture capitalist with so much promise. Senior reporter Ben Bergman's profile of Bryant and his role as a mentor to the city's burgeoning startup culture is a must-read.

For today's lead piece, we asked L.A.'s top VC's what they see in the city's future. Also, we preview this week's Startup World Cup and the Montgomery Summit in Australia. Meanwhile, veteran journalist Lawrence Ingrassia looks at how direct-to-consumer companies like El Segundo's eSalon and L.A.'s Dollar Shave Club are changing the market.

Stay with us as we get better acquainted with our new website and with you, our new audience. Let us know if you have story ideas, questions or concerns. And stay tuned! 

Today's stories

dot.LA interviewed some of the city's top VC's to ask where they are putting their money and what they think will shape L.A.'s startup scene at the beginning of the new decade.

"Kobe was a legend on the court and just getting started in what would have been just as meaningful a second act," former President Barack Obama tweeted Sunday. Bryant's career as a venture capitalist was tragically cut short.

In an excerpt from "Billion Dollar Brand Club," journalist Lawrence Ingrassia tells the story of how collecting consumer data with super-charged algorithms transforms retailers into household names. And some of the questions companies ask can be quite personal -- "How long is your hair? How much gray do you have?"

"If you have a trillion dollars in a room, you'll find something to do together." The Montgomery Summit, held annually in Santa Monica, has a scaled-down version in Australia this week.

The most cut-throat competition for startups isn't happening in a shark tank — it's being played out in an auditorium at Pepperdine University. Contestants include an emergency device alerting that someone is drowning and a robotic kitchen assistant named "Flippy."

Continuing its recent acquisition strategy, Santa Monica-based Bird announced Monday it has acquired Berlin based Circ, the leading shared e-scooter company in Europe and the Middle East. With the deal, Bird will add 300 employees to its operations.

Drybar Products LLC, was acquired last week for roughly $255 million in cash by El Paso, Texas-based Helen of Troy Limited, a designer, developer and worldwide marketer of consumer brand-name housewares, health and beauty products.

Hundreds of Amazon's staffers, from delivery drivers to secretaries, are calling out the e-commerce titan for its climate policy and an HR rule that prevents them from speaking publicly about the company's carbon footprint. Can Jeff Bezos deliver a compromise that can keep the peace -- and satisfy Hollywood?