Tag Archives: Stubbs Alderton & Markiles

SA&M Preccelerator ® Program Announces Milestone Tenth Class of Companies + Location Move!

To accommodate this growth, Stubbs Alderton & Markiles’ accelerator, The Preccelerator, is moving to expand its coworking space for companies in Santa Monica.

LOS ANGELES, Calif., August 6, 2018 (Newswire.com) – The Preccelerator® Program, a Santa Monica, California-based early-stage startup accelerator focused on digital media and technology companies, announced today that it is moving its Santa Monica offices as a result of its growth as it adds its milestone tenth class of companies featuring six innovative startups including AlgoPay, CheckPlis, HaloLoop, Screen Door Labs, Star Metrics and UNOMI.

The new Preccelerator office, located at 1316 3rd Street Promenade Suite 107, both increases the co-working space for the in-house companies and increases event space. The Preccelerator strategically remains in the heart of Santa Monica to provide a technology hub that is close to many valuable educational and networking events, tech culture and other resources to facilitate their growth. The expansion also demonstrates the continued commitment to the Los Angeles tech community that Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP is well known for. To celebrate the tenth class milestone and new office, the Preccelerator will host an open house in September.

In 2012 Stubbs Alderton & Markiles launched the first-of-its-kind Preccelerator® Program to provide select start-ups with co-working space, mentorship, sophisticated legal services, curriculum and access to a strategic perks portfolio with the objective of helping grow a founder’s idea from business concept to a funded company. Over the past six years, 37 companies have graduated the Program, of which 26 have received funding totaling over $11.5M.

Scott Alderton, managing Partner of Stubbs Alderton & Markiles and Chairman of the Preccelerator commented, “When we founded the Preccelerator in 2012, and convinced 3 fledgling startups to move into our space and work with us, we had no idea we could end up where the Preccelerator is today. We conceived this model of offering co-working office space in conjunction with sophisticated startup legal services. We now offer that plus access to over 100 seasoned mentors that actively assist in growth and success, a sophisticated curriculum, access to our network of investors through investment strategy sessions, Meet the VC Luncheons, Demo Day and targeted investor introductions, plus a robust Preccelerator Perks Portfolio with over $450,000 worth of discounted services and benefits to help our cohorts succeed and cut overhead expenses. To say the very least, I’m incredibly proud of what our team has created, and the leadership we demonstrate every day in the Los Angeles tech community.”

Preccelerator® Program Class 10 companies include:

AlgoPay is a borderless e-bank that enables refugees to store and withdraw payments from anywhere. Along with not having access to standard payment systems like PayPal, a majority of refugees also have no place to store their income. On the macro-scale, there’s a borderless population of 67 million unbanked individuals, and on the micro-scale, some of the world’s most vulnerable people are carrying all of their savings in cash with no place to manage funds. AlgoPay operates like both an e-wallet and an ATM. Users can store their income in AlgoPay’s digital wallet, and similar to Western Union, they can withdraw payments at any Algo vendor location— totally bankless. Algo Pay is currently running pilots in Turkey + Jordan and have signed a partnership with UpWork as the first user of Algo’s payment network.

CheckPlis believes people should feel like they are visiting friends when they go out for a meal or drinks. It’s all about the experience. Checkplis is a mobile app integrated into POS systems enabling customers to pay, tip and split the check themselves, all from their phones. Checkplis increases table turnover and efficiency for restaurants and bars and simplifies the checkout experience for consumers.

HaloLoop is a Santa Monica based mobile software company that is reinventing the way people and religious organizations engage with each other. We are a marketplace and live streaming service where people can help others connect to live religious services and donate.
Screen Door Labs created ARescue, an Augmented Reality team communication software for “boots on the ground”. Built for first responders, the system organizes and displays data onto AR glasses. First responders have access to 2D and 3D maps, as well as geotags and video, feeds from drone operators and other responders. ARescue allows first responders to work safer, respond faster, and communicate better as a team.

Star Metrics is an entertainment analytics platform and suite of tools designed to make the casting, financing and forecasting process easier for content creators. With StarMetrics, users can easily discover new talent and understand the value of actors, directors and other entertainers across many data points, such as international appeal, social media reach, or box office impact. StarMetrics provides predictive intelligence and analytics that empowers creators, advertisers, investors and other stakeholders to succeed in an increasingly global and complex content marketplace.

UNOMI is a SaaS for animators and video game developers. UNOMI leverages advanced voice recognition and motion capture technology that automates a lot of the most time-consuming aspects of animation production. Our voice recognition software understands human speech in multiple languages. This allows animators to easily create the speech of multiple 2D and 3D animated characters and for some, UNOMI gives them the ability to create content on a daily basis. UNOMI’s motion capture software will give content creators the ability to easily track human movement within their home or studio, which will eliminate the need to rent expensive motion capture studio space and equipment. Large-scale animation studios will be able to drastically reduce costs allowing them to create more content in a significantly shorter amount of time. UNOMI will also be releasing an Augmented Reality and VR, 3D object plugin for Adobe software which will allow users to easily implement and animate 3D objects quickly and easily. Each UNOMI software will be intuitive, which will eliminate a learning curve for most users.

For more information about the Preccelerator® Program, visit
www.preccelerator.com.

About Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP
Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP is a Southern California-based business law firm with robust corporate, public securities, mergers and acquisitions, entertainment, intellectual property and business litigation practice groups focusing on the representation of, among others, venture- backed emerging growth companies, middle market public companies, large technology companies, entertainment and digital media companies, investors, venture capital funds, investment bankers and underwriters. The firm’s clients represent a broad range of industries with a concentration in the technology, entertainment, video game, apparel and medical device sectors. The firm’s mission is to provide technically excellent legal services in a consistent, highly-responsive and service-oriented manner with an entrepreneurial and practical business perspective. These principles are the hallmarks of the firm. For more information, visit http://stubbsalderton.com.

About the Preccelerator® Program
The Preccelerator® is a novel platform offered to select start-up companies out of the Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP Santa Monica office that provides interim office space, sophisticated legal services, education, networking, mentorship and $450,000 in usable perks from Google Cloud for Startups, Amazon Web Services, and HubSpot among others, with the objective of helping grow a founder’s idea from business concept to funded startup. The program also retains more than 100 active strategic mentors providing free office hours and discounted services, and provides over 75-plus educational workshops and networking events each year. The Program expanded in 2017 to accept a greater number of companies in more formalized classes, depending upon where the companies are in their evolutionary growth, and expanded benefits to accepted companies. To apply to the Preccelerator, visit www.preccelerator.com/application.

Contact:
Heidi Hubbeling
Chief Operating Officer, Preccelerator® Program
hhubbeling@stubbsalderton.com
310-746-9803

SA&M Encourages You to Attend “Flying with Unicorns” LAVA Awards Celebration 2018 – July 11

“Flying with Unicorns”

LAVA Awards Celebration 2018

Santa Monica Museum of Flying
Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Agenda

5:30pm        Attendee Check-in + Networking Dinner
7:30pm         Fireside Chat with Unicorns
8:15pm         Dessert and Hall of Fame Award

You’ll see…
A Fireside Chat with Los Angeles’s recent Unicorn Exits from Startup to $1BB+

Celebrate Hall of Fame Honoree

Hemi Zucker and J2 Global – Extraordinary Growth and M&A Activity.

Hemi Zucker is a Managing Principal of OCV Partners. OCV is a $260 Million Los Angeles-based venture fund that invests in, owns, and operates companies in the information technology, e-commerce, media & telecommunications & the life sciences sectors with the objective of creating sustainable long-term value.

Hemi joined OCV Partners in 2018 to replicate his success as the CEO of j2 Global that he co-founded in 1996 in New York City and moved it to LA in 1997. Under Hemi’s management j2 Global reached $4.5 Billion Market Cap, $1.25 Billion Annual Sales in over 50 countries. Hemi and j2 were super acquisitive and it’s M&A activity yield a record of 161 acquisitions during his 21 years.

Hemi is now bringing his M&A, operations and deal making experience to OCV Partners one of LA’s largest Venture Funds.

Why You Should Attend

Connect with Startup CEOs, Venture Funded Companies, Venture Investors and thought leaders shaping the future of Los Angeles’s technology ecosystem.

Presented by

We hope to see you there!

SAM Client FitTrace Announces Collaboration with GE Healthcare

Stubbs Alderton & Markiles client FitTrace™, a leading cloud-based body composition analysis and reporting software company, announced a joint marketing collaboration agreement with GE Healthcare. As a global leader in dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and quantitative ultrasound (QUS) technology, this collaboration integrates the reliability and versatility of GE Healthcare’s DXA technology with cloud-based reporting, sharing and advanced analytics capabilities from FitTrace to equip sports and fitness communities with actionable information to enable them to be smarter athletes.

To read the full press release on visit here.

About FitTrace™
FitTrace™ is a software company based in Los Angeles, CA that provides cloud based body composition analytics solutions for the sports performance and metabolic health industry. The FitTraceTM body composition software app allows users to store, access, compare, and analyze body composition results on the cloud for anytime, anywhere access and enable better health monitoring by sports performance professionals and athletes.
Learn more at: www.fittrace.com

SAM Client Champion Technology Forms Strategic Partnership with R9B

Stubbs Alderton & Markiles client Champion Technology, the provider of a next-generation expert system and analytic platform, DarkLight^®, announced it is forming a strategic partnership with R9B. R9B (root9B, LLC), is a leading provider of cybersecurity products and services. The companies will form a technology partnership to leverage DarkLight’s knowledge framework to optimize and cross-correlate data sets.

To read the full press release visit here.

Stubbs Alderton attorneys representing Champion Technology are Scott Alderton and Jonathan Friedman.

About Champion Technology Company’s DarkLight
DarkLight is a next-generation cybersecurity analytic and automation platform. Driven by artificial intelligence (AI), this groundbreaking solution is a force multiplier which leverages the logic, knowledge, and reasoning of security analysts to deliver human-quality results, at scale. To learn more, please visit www.darklightcyber.com.

For more information about our Venture Capital and Emerging Growth Practice , contact Scott Alderton at salderton@stubbsalderton.com

Startup Superhero Video Series! – This Week Featuring Marc Kenny on “Selling Your Business”

Stubbs Aderton & Markiles and the Preccelerator Program are proud to announce the launch of their Startup Superhero Video Series – featuring SA&M Attorneys, Preccelerator Mentors, and entrepreneurs on topics specific to entrepreneurship and lessons learned throughout the journey.

This week we’re featuring Stubbs Alderton & Markiles attorney Marc Kenny on “Selling Your Business.”

Marc Kenny is a partner at Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP. Marc’s practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, private securities offerings, cross-border transactions, and other strategic transactions representing private equity funds, independent sponsors, family offices as well as public and private corporations.

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Speaker: Marc Kenny

Moderator: Heidi Hubbeling

Heidi: Talk to me a little bit about your background, how you got to be in mergers and acquisitions and private equity. Also, how you came to be with the firm.

Marc: Sure, I have been practicing for a little over twenty years, specializing in mergers and acquisitions, representing private equity funds, financial sponsors, family offices, corporate strategic and a range of transactions, both here in LA, London and in Silicon Valley. I came to the firm recently after working at another large firm over the years.

Heidi: One of the things we are going to talk about today is with mergers and acquisitions on the seller side, we are going to talk about the ins and outs of that. What are some of the preliminary considerations that a business needs to think about when they go to sell their business.

Marc: I usually start when I meet with an owner who’s interested in selling. I usually start with a series of questions to understand a little more about how they are approaching the process. I ask them “why are you interested in selling?” “Do you intend to stay with the business after the sale?” “Can the business operate efficiently without you? If not, why not?” “What gaps do you have in managing the team?” “Are there family members or members of the management team who want to continue in the business after the sale?” On the operational side I also ask them, the financial history of the firm over the past 3-5 years of what their growth prospects are going forward. If there is customer concentration, I ask them about that. If they are in a regulated space I ask them regulatory issues they have had over the past few years. Going forward, what kind of regulatory issues they see having in their horizon.

Heidi: It’s a complicated process, a lot of people don’t quite understand. It’s not like selling personal property or your home. Can a business do this alone? Or do they need a team to back them up?

Marc: Yes, selling your company is a process that is complicated and intense – I often say it’s a marathon that feels like a sprint. The challenge for a business owner is to run an effective sales process and at the same time managing its business. Don’t jeopardize the business because you have been distracted on the sales process. A way for them to do that is two things: one is they have to assemble an internal team at the company – a small group that you can rely on and have confidence in to work with you on the sales process and at the same time. The goal is for you to keep running your business. The better your business grows during this process the more leverage you have with the buyers. In order to do that, you have to hire outside business advisors. Particularly, outside advisors that have done lots of M&A transactions. Second, you’d be well advised to hire external advisors who regularly work on M&A transactions. You need an investment banker, accounting firm, wealth management advisor. For all involved in a sale, it’s important to seek the advice of a wealth management advisor, investment banker – not only will a great banker get you in front of the right prospective buyers (strategic or financial), they’ll also be able to create a story that corresponds with your historical financial performance with your potential for future growth. And then law firms again, you may have used law firms for real estate, company contracts, but you need to have lawyers who are adept in M&A transactions.

Heidi: Internally what should these businesses do to prepare themselves. Both the owners as well as the team to prepare themselves for this kind of transaction.

Marc: The goal is to become “transaction ready” before engaging with the buyers. By “transaction ready” I mean you have looked both at the good, the bad, the ugly with your business. You should be very honest with yourself about the business, as financial, then as legal, etc. Really the reason for that is if you provide accurate information, to position correctly with your buyer, you will increase the confidence with your prospective buyers and increase the value of your company. We recommend “sell side” due diligence to basically start as if you were the buyer and you start with your management team and the external counsel or advisors, you start going through the due diligence list. Make sure that all the intellectual property in the business you own, that material customers contracts are all in order and they are not due to be terminated soon, that all regulatory issues have been resolved, confirm you have proper documentation for all stock issuances and equity grants. Again, it is a very exhausting process and that is the reason why you need to have external advisors to help you through the process to help you focus on your business.

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To learn more about the Preccelerator Program, contact Heidi Hubbeling at hhubbeling@stubbsalderton.com.

Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP Preccelerator® Program Announces Its Ninth Class of Companies

LOS ANGELES, Calif., March 28, 2018 (Newswire.com) – The Preccelerator ® Program, a Santa Monica, California-based accelerator program for early- stage startup companies in the digital media and technology space, announced today that it has added its ninth class of companies featuring three innovative startups.

In 2012 Stubbs Alderton & Markiles launched the first-of-its- kind Preccelerator® Program to provide select start-ups with co-working space, mentorship, sophisticated legal services, curriculum and access to a strategic perks portfolio with the objective of helping grow a founder’s idea from business concept to a funded company. Over the past five years, 37 companies have graduated the Program, of which 24 have received funding totaling over $11.2M.

Louis Wharton, President of the Preccelerator states, “Class 9 is representative of the diverse Southern California tech ecosystem, showcasing fintech, e-commerce and social connectivity. We’re thrilled to partner with these founding teams as they accelerate development and deployment of their market solutions.”

Preccelerator® Program Class 9 companies include:

PayClub, Inc. – Payclub is the easiest way to organize and collect money with a group. Payclub can be used for any type of group, which we call “clubs.” Payclub enables you to manage the entire process directly from your phone with a few simple taps, empowering groups to come together and gain insight without the need for spreadsheets or outdated systems. Whether you are collecting for your club or organization, to planning that next getaway with friends, Payclub will help bring both your group’s finances and the people who matter most, together. Based out of Los Angeles, CA, the team is founded by tech, financial, and sales veterans who had a deep need for a solution to managing funds together. It’s time to #JoinTheClub.

Loved Lots, Inc. – Loved lots offers the best in premium
pre-loved baby goods in one safe and easy to use marketplace. Buyers enjoy the best selection of top-of-the-line baby gear and Sellers benefit from a marketplace of Buyers who know the value of quality baby goods. We’ve eliminated awkward cash exchanges and offer a variety of shipping and delivery options to fit your needs. Rest assured with our Buyer and Seller Protection Programs and feel good knowing that a portion of each sale goes to help children and families in need.

Fork & Spoon, LLC – Connect. Cook. Share. Creating a culinary delight for someone is one of the most genuine expressions of care. Fork & Spoon revolutionizes the dating app paradigm by combining the joy of a home cooked meal with the convenience of a mobile app. Realize or extend your passion for cooking and experience what it’s like to Fork & Spoon. Put a spark in your day by sharing your culinary adventure stories and even your #kitchenfails with our unique community. Welcome to a place where relationships start with the magic of sharing.

For more information about the Preccelerator® Program, visit www.preccelerator.com.

About the Preccelerator® Program
The Preccelerator is a novel platform offered to select start-up companies out of the Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP Santa Monica office that provides interim office space, sophisticated legal services, education, networking, mentorship and $350,000 in usable perks from Google Cloud for Startups, Amazon Web Services, and HubSpot among others, with the objective of helping grow a founder’s idea from business concept to funded startup. The program also retains more than 50 active strategic mentors providing free office hours and discounted services, and provides over 50-plus educational workshops and networking events each year. The Program expanded in 2017 to accept a greater number of companies in more formalized classes, depending upon where the companies are in their evolutionary growth, expand benefits to accepted companies, and will look to make strategic investments backed by strategic angel investors. To apply to the Preccelerator, visit www.preccelerator.com/application.

Contact:
Heidi Hubbeling
Chief Operating Officer, Preccelerator ® Program
hhubbeling@stubbsalderton.com
310-746-9803

SAM Encourages You to Attend LABIC’s ICO Panel Discussion on March 29, 2018

Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP and SAM attorney Shanita Nicholas encourage you to attend:

LA Black Investors Club
ICO Panel Discussion
Thu, March 29, 2018
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

Join the LA Black Investors Club 501(c)(3) in a lively panel discussion with three startups venturing into their own ICOs. Businesses include ZEN, TrustaBit.io and the eSports Amateur Competitor’s League.

Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP
1453 3rd Street Promenade #300
Santa Monica, CA 90401

WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

Six Stubbs Alderton & Markiles’ Attorneys Listed as 2018 Southern California Super Lawyers

Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP is pleased to announce that six lawyers have been named to the 2018 Southern California Super Lawyers. Super Lawyers is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The patented selection process includes independent research, peer nominations and peer evaluations.

Super Lawyers Magazine features the list and profiles of selected attorneys and is distributed to attorneys in the state or region and the ABA-accredited law school libraries. Super Lawyers is also published as a special section in leading city and regional magazines across the country. Lawyers are selected to a Super Lawyers list in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP would like to congratulate the following attorneys named to the 2018 Super Lawyers list –

Scott Alderton is a founding partner of the Firm, Managing Partner, and a member of the Firm’s Executive Committee. Scott is co-chair of the Firm’s Venture Capital and Emerging Growth Practice Group and chair’s the Firm’s Interactive Entertainment and Video Games Group. Scott advises both public and private clients across a number of industries, including technology, manufacturing and distribution of goods in commerce, finance, the Internet, interactive video games, and new media industries.

Kevin D. DeBré is the chair of the Firm’s Intellectual Property & Technology Transactions Practice Group. Kevin advises entrepreneurs and companies that use intellectual property to build their businesses. Kevin has particular expertise in structuring and negotiating technology commercialization and patent licenses, strategic alliances, research and development collaborations, trademark licensing and brand merchandising agreements and manufacturing, distribution and marketing arrangements. He also counsels clients on compliance with data security and privacy laws and regulations.

Jeffrey F. Gersh is a Partner of the Firm. He has litigated, arbitrated, or mediated complex business and commercial matters, for both plaintiffs and defendants, whether individuals, public or private corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies and/or its members, shareholders and partners, involving various types of disputes, including contract matters, trade secrets, intellectual property (trademarks, copyrights and trade dress) negligence and fraud, employment, real estate, license agreements, the apparel and garment industry, and general business matters.

Daniel Rozansky is a Partner of the Firm in the Business Litigation Practice. Dan concentrates his practice on entertainment, privacy, First Amendment and complex business and real estate disputes. Dan’s areas of focus are entertainment finance, anti-SLAPP motions, unfair competition, trade secrets, intellectual property, surreptitious tape recording, reality television, profit participation, rights of privacy and publicity, real estate, partnership disputes and First Amendment issues. He represents clients both at the trial and appellate levels in state and federal court on a wide array of issues.

Michael Sherman is an accomplished trial lawyer in high-stakes, “bet-the-company” litigation, and has represented both large and early-stage companies as well as entrepreneurs in all facets of business and complex commercial litigation. He has evenly split his litigation practice on both the plaintiff and defense side of cases, has first-chaired numerous trials in complex matters in industries as varied as energy, securities, healthcare, environmental, consumer products, technology, project development/finance, advertising, real estate and apparel, and is highly skilled in class actions and unfair competition law.

Joe Stubbs is a founding partner of the Firm, and a member of the Firm’s Executive Committee. He is co-chair of the Firm’s Venture Capital and Emerging Growth Practice Group, and of the Firm’s Mergers and Acquisitions Practice Group. Joe practices in the areas of corporate and securities law, emphasizing the corporate representation of both publicly-held and privately-held emerging growth and middle-market companies, venture capital and private equity firms, angel investment groups and investment banks.

The official Super Lawyers 2018 publication can be read in its entirety here.

For more information about Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, contact Heidi Hubbeling at hhubbeling@stubbsalderton.com or (310) 746-9803.

Startup Superhero Video Series! – This Week Featuring Preccelerator Mentor Mark Wald on “Mentor Partnerships & Financial Modeling with BallParq.io”

Stubbs Alderton & Markiles and the Preccelerator Program are proud to announce the launch of their Startup Superhero Video Series – featuring SA&M Attorneys, Preccelerator Mentors, and entrepreneurs on topics specific to entrepreneurship and lessons learned throughout the journey.

This week we’re featuring Preccelerator Mentor Mark Wald as he talks about “Mentor Partnership & Financial Modeling with BallParq.io.”

Mark is an innovative problem solver who values simplicity, efficiency, and collaboration between people and organizations, with strong experience in financial modeling and data analytics to inform and support quick decisions on complex issues. Specific experience developing, deploying, and supporting new technologies to thousands of retail locations using 3rd party logistics and service providers. Professional specialties: Financial strategy & fundraising, sourcing business opportunities, conserving resources, enabling people, satisfying customers, analyzing complex data.

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To learn more about the Preccelerator Program, contact Heidi Hubbeling at hhubbeling@stubbsalderton.com.

Startup Superhero Video Series! – This Week Featuring Preccelerator Mentor Andrey Kudievskiy on “Startup Teams & Tech”

This week we’re featuring Preccelerator Mentor Andrey Kudievskiy as he talks about “Startup Teams & Tech.”

IT executive, Serial entrepreneur, CEO and Founder at Distillery.com, and named one of the 25 Inspiring Entrepreneurs to Watch in 2017 by Inc. Magazine. Andrey Kudievskiy started his career in tech at the age of 19 while working on his degree in computer science. Within five years Andrey had established his first company and played a key role in creating a successful cloud synchronization startup that was sold to a Fortune 500 company. A serial entrepreneur and talented developer in his own right, he is currently focused on enabling other entrepreneurs to build businesses and continuing Distillery’s expansion in the U.S. and international markets.

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Transcript

Speaker: Andrey Kudievskiy

Moderator: Heidi Hubbeling

Startup Superhero Series Featuring Andrey Kudievskiy on “Startup Teams & Tech”

Heidi: Tell me a little bit about yourself and your background and a little bit about Distillery.

Andrey: Absolutely! Distillery is a full-service software development company located here in Santa Monica. We like working with startups as well as enterprise clients. Now we are focusing on stack technology design and development. A little bit about myself, you can tell by my accent, that I came from Russia. Just a few years ago, not knowing anyone here in the States, I had a burning desire to build a business and to help other companies succeed in the area where I have a lot of knowledge and assist in technology. That’s how Distillery started – and so far, we have been successful. This year we got on the Inc. 5000 list for the fastest growing companies in North America. I hope that we position ourselves for the next year as well.

Heidi: Congratulations on that, that’s a huge honor! You are one of the mentors of the program and Distillery, in the Los Angeles tech scene, is one of the premier agencies for startups. What do you like most of working with startups? I know you are one of the mentors of program. Distillery is one of the most well-respected agencies in Los Angeles and you work with a lot of entrepreneurs. What do you like most?

Andrey: Sure, I like working with startups because you can quickly see the value of the work you do. You can see the results of your work. When you meet someone, let’s say your friend on the street and you ask them to “hey can you show me your phone” and see the application I have developed and you can say “wow!” That is just pure happiness. That is when I feel my life is accomplished. Versus working with enterprises when you can work with them for years and years for one of the projects. When it’s released its just a small part of something huge, you don’t really feel like you’ve contributed enough.

Heidi: It doesn’t feel as impactful. When you work with younger stage startup you feel like you become part of their team. On that note, some of the advice that you give with startups. What advice do you give them when they are selecting a stack? What kind of stack do they need to select to be most successful?

Andrey: For technology stack as startups, what I like to say is that they don’t need to overthink it. All the companies who try to build something big in the beginning they go all in. They don’t test the market. They don’t really know what it is. It’s rather important to release something, test the market, see if people use it and then adjust as needed. When people do something enterprise scale for a startup, they spend months and months for development and end up being behind the time curve. So, they are late to the market. We try to build something at a scale you need right now. Something small, go to the market test it. Do the alpha version, the beta version do the public release later. Then at the end when you see that your idea is valuable, its fine to go and rebuild some of the parts. You will lose 50% of your time on building something with the right technology stack, but then this product will do better in the market.

Heidi: What are some of the pros and cons of hiring an internal vertical team versus hiring a team like Distillery, an outside tech team?

Andrey: I think the ideal scenario is when there is a combination. A tech team that will help you on stuff and you have an extension. A company like Distillery who would just help you move faster. When you don’t have enough resources, you cannot move fast enough or maybe some parts of the projects are simply outside of your core expertise. That’s when bringing an agency would be meaningful. It would help you. Outsourcing everything and giving control to an agency doesn’t seem right to me.

Heidi: I think so, because when you outsource without having a technical strategist that is overseeing development internally. If you don’t have that person that is vested in your idea and you fully outsource then you just have somebody whose just project-based developing it. When they’re done, they walk away from the project and walk away from your idea.

Andrey: You must have a vision. You must be able to provide a clear direction. Of course, the digital part of it that you choose. They need to be comfortable adding something to your idea. Advising, according to their expertise what to do and what not to do. At the same time, I feel that getting a technical co-founder for the team really does miracles.

Heidi: Absolutely, so let’s go back to the Preccelerator a little bit. Not to be self-serving, but we really appreciate you as a mentor and you’ve provided great value thus far with your mentorship. What are some of your favorite things about working with the Preccelerator and working with our companies.

Andrey: Well, first thank you so much for having me. The Preccelerator is an amazing group of people and amazing group of potentially big startups and companies, that I see will really grow. To me the value is talking to those young entrepreneurs, seeing them to be in my shoes 5 years ago maybe three years ago depends on how fast they will grow. And exchange knowledge, bounce some ideas around. I also like helping people. That keeps me motivated. When I see that I prevented one person from making the same mistake that I made 5 years ago. That’s the best I can do.

Heidi: I think that’s the definition of true wisdom. When companies take advice from somebody that has already been through that cycle, through that path. Rather than making those mistakes on their own. That’s very valuable. Appreciate you being here and we will see you all at the next startup superhero series.

Andrey Kudievskiy
Distillery
andrey@distillery.com

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To learn more about the Preccelerator Program, contact Heidi Hubbeling at hhubbeling@stubbsalderton.com.