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  on LA Startups & Tech  

Decerry Donato is dot.LA's Editorial Fellow. Prior to that, she was an editorial intern at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

Oral hygiene is crucial to staying healthy, yet in 2021, 76.5 million Americans did not have dental insurance. COVID-19 only exacerbated those concerns.

With its affordable pricing, hassle-free visits, and tech-enabled teeth cleaning and whitening services that launched earlier this year, West Hollywood-based Pearline Health, a salon-style dental studio, is removing barriers to traditional dental cleanings.

Pearline was founded in 2022 by Dr. Jamie Sands—a Los Angeles-based dentist of over 20 years—and Carolyn Yashari Becher, an Iranian-American entrepreneur who co-founded HopSkipDrive. They saw the lack of access to dental care and linked up after their Beverly Hills high school days to offer affordable and efficient teeth cleaning services.

“Jamie saw an opportunity to increase access,” Yashari Becher told dot.LA. “Then when I came on board, the two of us used technology as a way to increase efficiency across an antiquated system.”

Patients typically fill out paperwork before every visit to a traditional dentist. At Pearline, guests can book the appointment on their phone, then fill out the necessary paperwork prior to their visit–eliminating the extended wait time and allowing for a hassle-free experience.

Pearline can have up to 90 sessions per day at full capacity and only sees patients 18 and over. Whether a guest chooses a cleaning or a whitening treatment, it will still only cost them $99 per session and the appointment only takes 30 minutes out of their day.

Left to right: Co-founders Carolyn Yashari Becher and Dr. Jamie Sands. Courtesy of Pearline Health

Yashari Becher said one of the reasons they can keep their costs so low is because there isn’t a dentist present at the studio full time. Yashari Becher confirmed that’s what usually drives up the cost in a traditional setting.

Dr. Sands said that most people come to Pearline for cleaning. Pearline’s proprietary software then allows the guest to walk in and out in under an hour. Patients that enter the studio for a whitening session, have a “before” photo of their teeth made, then following the session an “after” photo is made and uploaded to Pearline’s system. For cleanings, 5 photos are taken.

If there are any concerns, the patient will receive an email offering an opportunity for a free consultation. From there, Dr. Sands performs the exam via tele-dentistry.

“By allowing our cleaning specialists who are all registered dental hygienists to work independently under Dr. Sands' supervision,” Yashari Becher said, “we're able to keep our costs down for our guests.”

Aside from high costs in the industry, another issue that drives people away from accessing dental care is fear and anxiety related to going to the dentist. But studies show that there is a direct correlation between dental hygiene and overall health, including stroke, Alzheimer’s and heart diseases. Dr. Sands said that 50% of the population chooses to not get their teeth cleaned, and according to the Journal for Dental Hygiene (JDH), 50-80% of people in the U.S have some level of dental anxiety.

Pearline is unlike a typical dental office with clunky, loud equipment, scrubs and harsh lights. On entering the studio, customers are greeted by natural bright light and inviting phrases are found throughout its refreshing interior, including the legend, “I’m on plaque patrol,” which is written on the backs of each dental hygienist’s jumpsuit.

A Pearline patient receiving dental services. Courtesy of Pearline Health

In addition to its seamless booking platform, guests have access to past visits, health history, check-in and receive post-appointment recommendations via smartphone.

Guests who select the 30 minute whitening service are sent home with a kit that includes a whitening pen and tray. In order to reach optimum color, the individual may apply the whitening pen for up to six weeks. The team said that a majority of their guests, however, would prefer to come back to the studio and have the dental hygienist perform the whitening procedure.

While Dr. Sands and Yashari Becher bootstrapped the company, Pearline is currently raising a pre-seed round with investors including former CEO of Credo Beauty Dawn Dobras, Joseph Miller of Runyon Group, and other prominent dentists in town. Drybar co-founder Cameron Webb is also an advisor for the company.

Currently, the only location available is in West Hollywood, but the team has plans to open up five new locations across the Los Angeles area by the end of 2025.

Pearline Health still wants their guests to see general dentists for annual exams and x-rays. But the co-founders said Pearline was created to prevent larger problems from taking place and improve the community’s overall health.

Decerry Donato is dot.LA's Editorial Fellow. Prior to that, she was an editorial intern at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.

When avatar startup Genies raised $150 million in April, the company released an unusual message to the public: “Farewell.”

The Marina del Rey-based unicorn, which makes cartoon-like avatars for celebrities and aims to “build an avatar for every single person on Earth,” didn’t go under. Rather, Genies announced it would stay quiet for a while to focus on building avatar-creation products.

Genies representatives told dot.LA that the firm is now seeking more creators to try its creation tools for 3D avatars, digital fashion items and virtual experiences. On Thursday, the startup launched a three-week program called DIY Collective, which will mentor and financially support up-and-coming creatives.

Similar programs are common in the startup world and in the creator economy. For example, social media companies can use accelerator programs not only to support rising stars but to lure those creators—and their audiences—to the company’s platforms. Genies believes avatars will be a crucial part of the internet’s future and is similarly using its program to encourage creators to launch brands using Genies’ platform.

“I think us being able to work hands on with this next era—this next generation of designers and entrepreneurs—not only gets us a chance to understand how people want to use our platform and tools, but also allows us to nurture those types of creators that are going to exist and continue to build within our ecosystem,” said Allison Sturges, Genies’ head of strategic partnerships.

DIY Collective’s initial cohort will include roughly 15 people, Sturges said. They will spend three weeks at the Genies headquarters, participating in workshops and hearing from CEOs, fashion designers, tattoo artists and speakers from other industries, she added. Genies will provide creatives with funding to build brands and audiences, though Sturges declined to share how much. By the end of the program, participants will be able to sell digital goods through the company’s NFT marketplace, The Warehouse. There, people can buy, sell and trade avatar creations, such as wearable items.

Genies will accept applications for the debut program until Aug. 1. It will kick off on Aug. 8, and previous experience in digital fashion and 3D art development is not required.

Sturges said that the program will teach people “about the tools and capabilities that they will have” through Genies’ platform, as well as “how to think about building their own avatar ecosystem brands and even their own audience.”

Founded in 2017, Genies established itself by making avatars for celebrities from Rihanna to Russell Westbrook, who have used the online lookalikes for social media and sponsorship opportunities. The 150-person company, which has raised at least $250 million to date, has secured partnerships with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group to make avatars for each music label’s entire roster of artists. Former Disney boss Bob Iger joined the company’s board in March.

The company wants to extend avatars to everyone else. Avatars—digital figures that represent an individual—may be the way people interact with each other in the 3D virtual worlds of the metaverse, the much-hyped iteration of the internet where users may one day work, shop and socialize. A company spokesperson previously told dot.LA that Genies has been beta testing avatar creator tools with invite-only users and gives creators “full ownership and commercialization rights” over their creations collecting a 5% transaction fee each time an avatar NFT is sold.

“It's an opportunity for people to build their most expressive and authentic self within this digital era,” Sturges said of avatars.

The company’s call for creators could be a sign that Genies is close to rolling out the Warehouse and its tools publicly. Asked what these avatar tools might look like, the startup went somewhat quiet again.

Allison Sturges said, “I think that's probably something that I'll hold off on sharing. We will be rolling some of this out soon.”

Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.

Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.

California lawmakers have killed a bill that would’ve made it illegal for social media giants to addict children to their apps.

The legislation, AB-2408, died Thursday in the Senate Appropriations Committee, the bill’s author, Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham, told dot.LA. The measure would have let government attorneys sue tech titans like Culver City-based TikTok and Santa Monica-based Snap for deploying designs or features that allegedly help hook kids to their platforms.

In a statement, Cunningham said the committee’s chairman, Sen. Anthony Portantino, “made the unilateral decision” to halt the bill in its tracks. Cunningham’s statement did not provide a reason for Portantino’s apparent decision. A spokesperson for Portantino, a Democrat whose district includes parts of Los Angeles County, did not immediately return a request for comment.

The tech industry lobbied hard against the bill, contending that it would impose “immense liability” on social media companies and permit courts to decide which features they can and can’t deploy. In confirming the bill’s demise, Cunningham, a Republican from San Luis Obispo, made a wry remark about the tech industry’s lobbying prowess.

“I believe that this idea would be overwhelmingly supported if presented directly to the voters, as it would be prohibitively expensive for social media companies to take every California voter on a Tech Caucus junket in Napa,” Cunningham said.

A representative for TechNet, a trade group representing social media firms like Meta and Snap, did not return a request for comment.

The proposal was part of a growing political effort to rein in big tech and address concerns that social media is damaging to children. The bill’s supporters took issue with a host of well-known product features, such as push notifications and endless content feeds, which they argue help get children addicted to social media.

The bill has evolved quite a bit since Cunningham and Democratic Assemblyperson Buffy Wicks unveiled it in March. Initially, the proposal would have clarified that, under current law, parents could file lawsuits against social media companies for addicting children. The full Assembly approved that version of the bill by a 51-0 vote.

But after lobbying by tech and business groups, lawmakers overhauled it. The latest version would have made it expressly illegal for social media platforms to addict children, but only allowed government attorneys to file lawsuits to enforce the law. The bill wouldn’t have prohibited parents from bringing their own cases—as some have already done—but judges would’ve had the final say regarding a social media company’s liability.

Proponents of the bill, which included children’s advocacy groups, expressed dismay.

In a statement, Jim Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, said: "Today's decision by the California State Senate to hold AB 2408 is a big loss for kids and families and sends the wrong message about the urgency with which we need to hold big tech accountable for addicting kids to their platforms.”

Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.

Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.

LA Tech Week—a weeklong showcase of the region’s growing startup ecosystem—is coming this August.

The seven-day series of events, from Aug. 15 through Aug. 21, is a chance for the Los Angeles startup community to network, share insights and pitch themselves to investors. It comes a year after hundreds of people gathered for a similar event that allowed the L.A. tech community—often in the shadow of Silicon Valley—to flex its muscles.

From fireside chats with prominent founders to a panel on aerospace, here are some highlights from the roughly 30 events happening during LA Tech Week, including one hosted by dot.LA.

DoorDash’s Founding Story: Stanley Tang, a cofounder and chief product officer of delivery giant DoorDash, speaks with Pear VC's founding managing partner, Pejman Nozad. They'll discuss how to grow a tech company from seed stage all the way to an initial public offering. Aug. 19 at 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Santa Monica.

The Founders Guide to LA: A presentation from dot.LA cofounder and executive chairman Spencer Rascoff, who co-founded Zillow and served as the real estate marketplace firm’s CEO. Aug. 16 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in Brentwood.

Time To Build: Los Angeles: Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) hosts a discussion on how L.A. can maintain its momentum as one of the fastest-growing tech hubs in the U.S. Featured speakers include a16z general partners Connie Chan and Andrew Chen, as well as Grant Lafontaine, the cofounder and CEO of shopping marketplace Whatnot. Aug. 19 from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Santa Monica.

How to Build Successful Startups in Difficult Industries: Leaders from Southern California’s healthcare and aerospace startups gather for panels and networking opportunities. Hosted by TechStars, the event includes speakers from the U.S. Space Force, NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, Applied VR and University of California Irvine. Aug. 15 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. in Culver City.

LA Tech Week Demo Day: Early stage startups from the L.A. area pitch a panel of judges including a16z’s Andrew Chen and Nikita Bier, who co-founded the Facebook-acquired social media app tbh. Inside a room of 100 tech leaders in a Beverly Hills mansion, the pitch contest is run by demo day events platform Stonks and live-in accelerator Launch House. Aug. 17 from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. in Beverly Hills.

Registration information and a full list of LA Tech Week events can be found here.

Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.

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