How a potato chip entrepreneur in Lebanon became a big supporter of L. A. tech start ups. Michel Daher was running a fast growing potato chip company in Lebanon when he got caught up in the euphoria of the late 1. Silicon Valley tech boom. He bought shares in a block of tech companies that went public at the time, and he sold some stock before online business models fizzled and the market tanked. Parachute Ups Software' title='Parachute Ups Software' />But more important for Los Angeles, the hoopla around tech got Daher to meet with Yves Sisteron and Steven Deitz through a mutual connection. Sisteron and Dietz were partners at the venture capital firm now known as Upfront Ventures, and they needed cash for their second fund to invest in start ups. Test Drive Le Mans Dreamcast. Daher obliged. Since his first check in 2. Daher, 5. 6, and his son, Mark, 2. Upfront Ventures funds but also in several other Southern California investment funds and start ups. What is it Parachute is changing how you buy one thing you use every day your sheets. It produces highquality bedding from a factory in Italy and then. With the launch of the Xbox One X only a few months away Microsoft needs an interim win to keep people interested in the console that is currently in a very distant. Though their efforts havent been well publicized, the Dahers have become among the biggest supporters of Los Angeles tech companies behind the scenes. They are fantastic because they bring both a global perspective and true operating experience because they are entrepreneurs themselves, Mark Suster, managing partner at Upfront Ventures, said in an email. Some of Daher Capitals three dozen investments include mobile games start up Seriously, media company Mitu, advertising software firm Steelhouse, bedsheet seller Parachute Home and online marketplace for clothing Tradesy. Each of the companies is in the Los Angeles area. Earlier holdings have made Daher Capital money. It had investments through and alongside Upfront Ventures in area companies that went public or sold in deals valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, such as Maker Studios and True. Car. Mark Daher said his family has taken a step back from directly investing in start ups as they focus on increasing efficiency at Daher Foods. The Lebanese company is known for Master potato chips, Pops nuts and crackers and Sitos tortilla chips. Theyre distributed across 1. Middle East, with Dahers owning the entire process from farming to processing to distribution. The elder Daher started the company in the early 1. He had returned to his hometown after working abroad, saying that he wanted to bring jobs to the region, which had been known for its potato farms. After the U. S. stock market crash following the tech run up around 2. Daher was unfazed, his son said. He believed the ideas were not necessarily wrong, Mark Daher said. An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition or process. The invention process is a process within an overall engineering and product development. Michel Daher and his son, Mark Daher, have invested in dozens of wellknown startups and funds in the L. A. region. Fight goes on as reviews site allAgents may now reinstate Purplebricks reviews which Purplebricks still insists could be fakes. Continue Reading. Get breaking Finance news and the latest business articles from AOL. From stock market news to jobs and real estate, it can all be found here. They were just early. But getting meetings or agreeing to investment terms with Silicon Valley venture capitalists was difficult. Thats about the time when the Los Angeles opportunity came up. Dahers bet that Los Angeles would become an important market for technology companies has proved right in recent years. UPS/PowerChute-screenshot03.jpg' alt='Parachute Ups Software' title='Parachute Ups Software' />Rincon Venture Partners and Double M Capital have raised cash from the Dahers. And regulatory filings show that Jim Andelman and Mark Mullen, partners at the firms, recently teamed up to launch Bonfire Ventures, a new investment company that has Daher Capitals backing. Dfx Audio Enhancer Free Download With Crack here. Daher Capital has been an incredible long term partner and co investor with us in Los Angeles, Double Ms Mullen said in an email. Mark Daher says he and his father are known for moving fast when getting an offer to invest and for being accommodating toward entrepreneurs. He credits his fathers boldness for making their efforts work. I dont know if a lot of family investment offices have the same risk appetite as we do, said Mark Daher. He built himself from the ground up, and usually people like him have a high appetite for risk taking. The younger Daher started learning how to develop software on his own as a child. He said he bought a discussion board for coders, Linux Forums, for 5,0. He started to focus on Daher Capital and the venture capital portfolio in 2. The Dahers lend help when asked. For example, theyve provided insights about setting up international operations, they said. Theyve learned the hard way to reject investment terms that seem too expensive and thus are unlikely to produce sizable returns. Theyve taken their Los Angeles strategy to India in recent years. Daher Capital invested with a couple of venture capital firms Lightbox and Kalaari Capital in hopes that the relationships lead to opportunities to invest directly in companies. The elder Daher continues to invest in publicly traded companies across sectors such as tech, finance, commodities and food. Not being located in Los Angeles or India has been a limiting factor, Mark Daher acknowledges. But its something that he has no immediate plans to address. The hope is to cut through increased competition and return to normal investing flow in Los Angeles by this time next year, Mark Daher said. We will continue to be very long L. A. and put our money where our mouth is, he said. We think L. A. has massive potential still to go. Lexus partners with Vntana for augmented reality marketing. A girl at Dodger Stadium watches her hologram catch baseballs in a virtual glove. VntanaLos Angeles start up Vntanas original plan was to allow those unable to attend a concert to instead watch life size holograms perform in front of them. Vntana had developed technology to record scenes, stream the video and play it back in a way that resembles 3 D. But the company realized that for now, the people willing to pay would be advertisers looking for new ways to market. Thats how a small booth ended up at the Lexus Club at Dodger Stadium. Similar displays have appeared at Staples Center, Petco Park in San Diego and elsewhere. At Dodger Stadium, fans step up to a display, see their virtual self on the screen and move their arms to catch baseballs flung at their digital avatar. Participants get an email with a video recapping their hologram experience. The setup is sponsored by Lexus. More than 1,4. 00 people have tried it this season, more than double the number that participated in previous Lexus booths each of the last two years at Dodger Stadium. The prior installations were a baseball swing analyzer and green screen based experience. The hologram display also has drawn more interest than Lexus driving videos in virtual reality headsets. When you put on googles, its a fun but stagnant experience for fans, said Diana Davis, assistant general manager for Lexus Western area. With Vntana, we can send the experience back to them via email. It lasts longer. Its the shelf life. The company uses collected email addresses for marketing purposes if consumers provide permission. Hopefully well be able to integrate this at many more venues and hopefully at the dealerships, Davis said. She suggested that the next technology challenge could be going from catching baseballs to feeling as if youre driving a Lexus vehicle in different settings. The more you can personalize experience to what consumers are interested in, the more relevant consumer data you can capture, Davis said. Elsewhere on the Web. Bumble, a dating app founded by a former Tinder employee who settled a sexual harassment lawsuit against the company, recently declined a 4. Tinders parent company, according to Forbes. Apple is in talks to locate its movie and TV division at Culver Studios in downtown Culver City, according to the Financial Times. El Segundo may convert its golf course to a high tech Topgolf facility with more amenities, according to the Beach Reporter. Microsoft Claims to Be Talking to Sony About Playing Nice. With the launch of the Xbox One X only a few months away Microsoft needs an interim win to keep people interested in the console that is currently in a very distant second place to Sony. Which is why it is no surprise that Xbox Marketing Manager Aaron Greenberg told Game. Reactor it was talking to Sony about the potential for crossplay between the two consoles. Crossplay is the term applied to allowing gamers to play with other gamers regardless of what console they have chosen to bring into their homes. Its a kind of holy grail for gamers stuck on the less popular console as theyre often not able to play with friends, and because a small userbase means fewer people to play with in general. With a reported 3. Xbox Ones sold since launch Microsoft well behind Sony, which claims to have sold 6. PS4s since launch. After more than a year of rumors and teases and dorky Xtreme code names, Microsofts latestRead more Read. Given that Microsoft is a little behind, enticing gamers with the tease of potential crossplay makes a lot of sense. Greenberg, who was in Cologne, Germany at Gamescon, the largest gaming convention in Europe, told Game. Reactor, Its a customer first focus and I think thats where the industrys going. He specifically pointed to the ability to play Minecraft across multiple devices, including the Xbox One, i. Phone, and Nintendo Switch. But as for Sony itself Greenberg said, Were talking to Sony. We do partner with them on Minecraft and of course wed like to enable them to be part of that one community, and unite gamers. Were hopeful that theyll be supportive of it. Yet it makes very little sense for Sony to join the team and unite all gamers across consoles. Its certainly not a profound philosophical stance we have against this. Weve done it in the past, Playstation global sales and marketing head Jim Ryan told Eurogamer back in June. Were always open to conversations with any developer or publisher who wants to talk about it. Unfortunately its a commercial discussion between ourselves and other stakeholders. Thats because right now its the best selling console available and one of the reasons people continue to buy into it is because its the de facto choice if a person wants to play games with their friends. Language Tools there. Playing nice with the competition simply isnt in the companys best interestwhile it could be a potential boon for Microsoft. Game. Reactor, ht Windows Central.