Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Joker Broker Laughstub Takes Twiistup 7 'Wild Card' Demo
LaughStub.com's Scot Richardson and Nasi Peretz, the winners of Twiistup's Wild Card Demo Night. (Lisa Borodkin/LAist)
A comedy club ticketing business, Laughstub.com, will be laughing all the way to the Skirball Center on Thursday, as winner of the "Wild card" competition for a Showoff spot at Twiistup 7.
Twiistup 7 kicked off at UCLA's Anderson School of Business Wednesday night with a keynote speech from Samasource founder Leila Janah and a rapid-fire, round of presentations from 8 hopeful startups vying for a spot among the Twiistup 7 Showoffs.
UCLA's Anderson School co-sponsored Twiistup's Wednesday night event. The Wild Card presentation provided a mini-business school lesson for the entrants and the mixed crowd of Twiistup attendees and Anderson MBA candidates. After each pitch, moderator Mark Suster provided constructive feedback on each entrepreneur's presentation, earning him the nickname of Twiistup's "Simon Cowell" for his cruel-to-be-kind approach. Further in the "Idol" vein, the Wild Card winner was determined by audience text-message vote.
Support for LAist comes from
Laughstub.com prevailed over online personal trainer FitOrbit to take the Wild Card spot as a Twiistup 7 Showoff. Both the comedy club ticketing business and the personal trainer service reflect Twiistup's identity as LA's tech startup showcase, taking homegrown local industries to the next level with technology.Laughstub is the brainchild of Scot Richardson, a 8-year veteran comedy club producer, created over the past 8 months with Chief Technology Officer Nasi Peretz. Laughstub plans to be a LiveNation or Ticketmaster for comedy clubs, providing web ticketing services to the 60,000 people per night who see live comedy. Along with ticketing, Laughstub also provides web design, sharing, discovery, email list and calendar services.
Narrowly missing the cut was Nick Desai's 15-month old startup FitOrbit, which matches users with personal trainers through a web interface.
Other Wild Card entrants were social stream analytic Citizennet, event photo aggregator site WeFridge (email your Twiistup 7 photos to "twiistup@wefridge.com" for a demo), social auction site Bidsie, location-based Twitter client Social Guides, document markup and management application Ignite and distributed FTP software product Transfolia.
Laughstub joins the other 10 Showoff startup companies as Twiistup 7 continues Thursday at 9:00 a.m. at the Skirball Center. Twiistup's daytime speaker discussions and presentations will be followed by Twiistup's signature Hollywood premier-style party, this time with a "Casino Royale" theme. Tickets available at the door or through Eventbrite.
Photo of Twiistup Producer Francisco "The Man" Dao by Lisa Borodkin/LAist
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.
Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.
Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.
Chip in now to fund your local journalism
(
LAist
)
Trending on LAist
-
With less to prove than LA, the city is becoming a center of impressive culinary creativity. -
Nearly 470 sections of guardrailing were stolen in the last fiscal year in L.A. and Ventura counties.
-
Monarch butterflies are on a path to extinction, but there is a way to support them — and maybe see them in your own yard — by planting milkweed.
-
With California voters facing a decision on redistricting this November, Surf City is poised to join the brewing battle over Congressional voting districts.
-
The drug dealer, the last of five defendants to plead guilty to federal charges linked to the 'Friends' actor’s death, will face a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison.
-
The weather’s been a little different lately, with humidity, isolated rain and wind gusts throughout much of Southern California. What’s causing the late-summer bout of gray?
Best of LAist