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March 11 2012
Nike To Open First-Ever API To Developers At Backplane’s SXSW Music Hackathon
Screen shot 2012-03-10 at 9.08.54 PM
Last month, Jason wrote about the announcement that Backplane -- the new interactive, visual platform that's part Pinterest, part Tumblr and Ning -- will be using its star power to stage an unusual event at SXSW: A music hackathon. The startup, which is backed by Lady Gaga along with a host of Silicon Valley VCs, is hosting its so called "SXSW Managers Hack," a unique event for SXSW and music tech. The hackathon will be judged by music industry veterans, like Scooter Braun (the guy who helped bring you The Bieber), President of Jay-Z's Roc Nation Jay Brown, and Lady Gaga's manager (and Backplane Co-founder) Troy Carter, as well as reps from Spotify, Pandora, and SoundHound.
Screen shot 2012-03-10 at 9.08.54 PM
Last month, Jason wrote about the announcement that Backplane -- the new interactive, visual platform that's part Pinterest, part Tumblr and Ning -- will be using its star power to stage an unusual event at SXSW: A music hackathon. The startup, which is backed by Lady Gaga along with a host of Silicon Valley VCs, is hosting its so called "SXSW Managers Hack," a unique event for SXSW and music tech. The hackathon will be judged by music industry veterans, like Scooter Braun (the guy who helped bring you The Bieber), President of Jay-Z's Roc Nation Jay Brown, and Lady Gaga's manager (and Backplane Co-founder) Troy Carter, as well as reps from Spotify, Pandora, and SoundHound.
Paul Graham Wants You To Build A New Search Engine, Inbox, Or Be The Next Steve Jobs
paulgraham
As a founding partner at Y Combinator, Paul Graham has seen more startup pitches than the average Joe. In a new essay, called "Frighteningly Ambitious Startup Ideas", Graham makes the case that the ideas with the most disruptive potential also happen to be frightening due to the sheer ambition that they would require from entrepreneurs to turn them into reality. Yes, there is an amazing amount of talent in Silicon Valley; there has been for years, and there will be for years to come. While the tech industry continues to produce world-changing hardware, software, and consumer web companies, there is a sense that the current landscape is lacking the kind of deep innovation that once defined the industry. Last September, at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, Max Levchin and Peter Thiel went so far as to say that innovation today is actually “between dire straights and dead.”
paulgraham
As a founding partner at Y Combinator, Paul Graham has seen more startup pitches than the average Joe. In a new essay, called "Frighteningly Ambitious Startup Ideas", Graham makes the case that the ideas with the most disruptive potential also happen to be frightening due to the sheer ambition that they would require from entrepreneurs to turn them into reality. Yes, there is an amazing amount of talent in Silicon Valley; there has been for years, and there will be for years to come. While the tech industry continues to produce world-changing hardware, software, and consumer web companies, there is a sense that the current landscape is lacking the kind of deep innovation that once defined the industry. Last September, at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, Max Levchin and Peter Thiel went so far as to say that innovation today is actually “between dire straights and dead.”
March 10 2012
DiCaprio-Backed Mobli Pushes Major Revamp for SXSW
mobli
Not to miss an opportunity to make an impression upon hipsters, Mobli is going to squeeze all the juice it can get out of SXSW with a major app revamp, and a party in Austin to boot. Mobli, which counts Leonardo DiCaprio as one of its investors ($4M funding to date), is dubbing the new version, 'Mobli 2.0'. Personally I feel they should have gone with 'The New Mobli' — zing! Besides a Pinterest-inspired interface, the new version packs a major upgrade to the camera, along with a set of features to edit, touch-up and enhance photos, all bundled under a new section in the app called, 'Darkroom'. Rebuilt from the ground up, the new camera now includes real-time tilt-shift and even real-time video filters. Focus can now be locked and white balance set. This is on top of the 18 brand-new photo filters, superimposed gridlines and a self-timer.
mobli
Not to miss an opportunity to make an impression upon hipsters, Mobli is going to squeeze all the juice it can get out of SXSW with a major app revamp, and a party in Austin to boot. Mobli, which counts Leonardo DiCaprio as one of its investors ($4M funding to date), is dubbing the new version, 'Mobli 2.0'. Personally I feel they should have gone with 'The New Mobli' — zing! Besides a Pinterest-inspired interface, the new version packs a major upgrade to the camera, along with a set of features to edit, touch-up and enhance photos, all bundled under a new section in the app called, 'Darkroom'. Rebuilt from the ground up, the new camera now includes real-time tilt-shift and even real-time video filters. Focus can now be locked and white balance set. This is on top of the 18 brand-new photo filters, superimposed gridlines and a self-timer.
At SXSW? Because Paul Carr Is, Launching His Book Today At Bookpeople In Austin
Screen Shot 2012-03-10 at 8.32.11 AM
Jack McKenna here, checking in from South By Southwest to support my old buddy Paul Carr. He may have told me off not so long ago, despite my fine work here over the years. But, we've talked it out and patched things up. You know how things go with bloggers. Anyway, Paul is also in Austin right now, launching the US edition of his book 'The Upgrade: A Cautionary Tale of a Life Without Reservations.' He's doing a reading this afternoon at 5 pm at Bookpeople, (603 N. Lamar, Austin, Tx). I'll be there, and apparently some 'characters' from the book are going to be in the audience too. Also, as Paul tweeted a few days ago… I'm going to spare you the tweet embed, actually. Let's just say the guy is shameless.
Screen Shot 2012-03-10 at 8.32.11 AM
Jack McKenna here, checking in from South By Southwest to support my old buddy Paul Carr. He may have told me off not so long ago, despite my fine work here over the years. But, we've talked it out and patched things up. You know how things go with bloggers. Anyway, Paul is also in Austin right now, launching the US edition of his book 'The Upgrade: A Cautionary Tale of a Life Without Reservations.' He's doing a reading this afternoon at 5 pm at Bookpeople, (603 N. Lamar, Austin, Tx). I'll be there, and apparently some 'characters' from the book are going to be in the audience too. Also, as Paul tweeted a few days ago… I'm going to spare you the tweet embed, actually. Let's just say the guy is shameless.
Cater2.me May Be Feeding Your Favorite Startup
cater2me logo
Startup Cater2.me is trying to answer one of the rarely-discussed challenges facing any company that wants to keep a large workforce happy — feeding them meals that aren't boring. Cater2.me was founded in late 2010 and has already attracted some positive press attention. Now, its client list includes some startups worth bragging about, such as Yelp, Eventbrite, Tagged, Square, Dropbox, Twilio, Causes, Posterous, and Heyzap. The company is serving 40,000 lunches a month (including many to non-startups, of course.)
cater2me logo
Startup Cater2.me is trying to answer one of the rarely-discussed challenges facing any company that wants to keep a large workforce happy — feeding them meals that aren't boring. Cater2.me was founded in late 2010 and has already attracted some positive press attention. Now, its client list includes some startups worth bragging about, such as Yelp, Eventbrite, Tagged, Square, Dropbox, Twilio, Causes, Posterous, and Heyzap. The company is serving 40,000 lunches a month (including many to non-startups, of course.)
March 09 2012
Mobcaster Crowdfunds Its First TV Season
mobcaster
It's famously difficult to get a TV show on the air — much less one that still matches your initial vision. That's why startup Mobcaster has launched a new platform where creators can ask fans directly for the financial support needed to produce their shows. The startup just had its first funding success story — The Weatherman, an Australian-produced comedy about, yes, a weatherman, which just raised the funding for its first season. The production company set a goal of $72,500, and it raised $73,975. (As the team notes at the beginning of the pilot episode, traditional television episodes cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, so that's a tiny budget for a full season.)
mobcaster
It's famously difficult to get a TV show on the air — much less one that still matches your initial vision. That's why startup Mobcaster has launched a new platform where creators can ask fans directly for the financial support needed to produce their shows. The startup just had its first funding success story — The Weatherman, an Australian-produced comedy about, yes, a weatherman, which just raised the funding for its first season. The production company set a goal of $72,500, and it raised $73,975. (As the team notes at the beginning of the pilot episode, traditional television episodes cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, so that's a tiny budget for a full season.)
A Better Live Wiki: HackPad Could Be Your SXSW Backchannel
Screen Shot 2012-03-09 at 1.45.37 PM
There are lots of apps for finding the right people and parties at South By Southwest this year, but what about, you know, actually going to panels and sharing your thoughts about them? Well, there's Twitter for short-form public sharing, and messaging apps like GroupMe for group chats. But HackPad has a more serious idea: actually taking notes about the panels and keynotes you go to, with other people who care. It sounds dangerously productive for the fun-oriented event. And it is -- this is one of the better live group word-processing products I've seen in a while.
Screen Shot 2012-03-09 at 1.45.37 PM
There are lots of apps for finding the right people and parties at South By Southwest this year, but what about, you know, actually going to panels and sharing your thoughts about them? Well, there's Twitter for short-form public sharing, and messaging apps like GroupMe for group chats. But HackPad has a more serious idea: actually taking notes about the panels and keynotes you go to, with other people who care. It sounds dangerously productive for the fun-oriented event. And it is -- this is one of the better live group word-processing products I've seen in a while.
Stride, A CRM System Salespeople Will Hate (But Freelancers Will Love), Launches Into Beta
stide-logo
Stride, a new CRM system designed to meet the needs of freelancers and small business owners, is launching into private beta today. The product, which was born out of an actual need for a more simplified CRM system, is focused on efficiency, not a complex feature set. It's not for adding contracts, managing cases, or allocating tasks to a team of salespeople. Instead, Stride is about deal-tracking and high-level metrics only. "For salespeople, this app is going to make them cringe," says Stride co-founder Andrew Dumont.
stide-logo
Stride, a new CRM system designed to meet the needs of freelancers and small business owners, is launching into private beta today. The product, which was born out of an actual need for a more simplified CRM system, is focused on efficiency, not a complex feature set. It's not for adding contracts, managing cases, or allocating tasks to a team of salespeople. Instead, Stride is about deal-tracking and high-level metrics only. "For salespeople, this app is going to make them cringe," says Stride co-founder Andrew Dumont.
Clouds & APIs: Mayor Lee Unveils The San Francisco Open Data Cloud
Screen shot 2012-03-09 at 11.12.23 AM
With 30,000 tech jobs already in town and more (hopefully) on the way, San Francisco has been making a big push to make its city as friendly as possible to entrepreneurs. In January, we saw Mayor Ed Lee, Ron Conway, and former TechCrunch CEO Heather Harde launched sfCITI, a committee which focuses on hiring -- both placing and training competent programmers and just generally bringing smart people into San Francisco's workforce. Last month, the city complemented its hiring committee by announcing a new initiative again aimed at making the city more relevant to its chief industry, called the 2012 Innovation Portfolio, which helps founders, as Eric wrote at the time, do everything from "completing the paperwork for creating a company, to giving developers new access to city data, to actually testing out tech products at City Hall itself."
Screen shot 2012-03-09 at 11.12.23 AM
With 30,000 tech jobs already in town and more (hopefully) on the way, San Francisco has been making a big push to make its city as friendly as possible to entrepreneurs. In January, we saw Mayor Ed Lee, Ron Conway, and former TechCrunch CEO Heather Harde launched sfCITI, a committee which focuses on hiring -- both placing and training competent programmers and just generally bringing smart people into San Francisco's workforce. Last month, the city complemented its hiring committee by announcing a new initiative again aimed at making the city more relevant to its chief industry, called the 2012 Innovation Portfolio, which helps founders, as Eric wrote at the time, do everything from "completing the paperwork for creating a company, to giving developers new access to city data, to actually testing out tech products at City Hall itself."
Resumes Are Bullshit. HireArt Is Better.
HireArt_logo
HireArt, a newly launched Y Combinator-backed company, is working to solve a major problem that all employers face today: resumes are bullshit. Job candidates often like to fluff up their experience, and sometimes they even outright lie about their abilities. Other times, potentially great employees are overlooked because they have unorthodox backgrounds that don't match up with what an employer thinks they need in terms of experience. Sometimes these kinds of things are realized during the in-person interview. Unfortunately for many employers, they often don't discover how much a particular candidate may have oversold themselves until they've been hired and can't perform to expectations. With its new applicant screening system, HireArt thinks it may have a solution: have the employees actually do the work first.
HireArt_logo
HireArt, a newly launched Y Combinator-backed company, is working to solve a major problem that all employers face today: resumes are bullshit. Job candidates often like to fluff up their experience, and sometimes they even outright lie about their abilities. Other times, potentially great employees are overlooked because they have unorthodox backgrounds that don't match up with what an employer thinks they need in terms of experience. Sometimes these kinds of things are realized during the in-person interview. Unfortunately for many employers, they often don't discover how much a particular candidate may have oversold themselves until they've been hired and can't perform to expectations. With its new applicant screening system, HireArt thinks it may have a solution: have the employees actually do the work first.
After Legal Scare, PinClout Becomes PinReach
pinreach
PinClout, the analytics service for Pinterest whose name prompted a cease-and-desist letter from Klout, has renamed itself as PinReach. Shortly after the service launched about two weeks ago, it received a letter from Klout's attorney demanding that PinClout change its name because it was "confusingly similar." When I spoke to co-founder Chris Fay last week, he said he would indeed be changing the name, mostly just to avoid a costly legal fight — but he and his co-founder were still settling on their actual choice.
pinreach
PinClout, the analytics service for Pinterest whose name prompted a cease-and-desist letter from Klout, has renamed itself as PinReach. Shortly after the service launched about two weeks ago, it received a letter from Klout's attorney demanding that PinClout change its name because it was "confusingly similar." When I spoke to co-founder Chris Fay last week, he said he would indeed be changing the name, mostly just to avoid a costly legal fight — but he and his co-founder were still settling on their actual choice.
February 29 2012
NimbleCommerce Revamps Daily Deals For MediaNews Group
nimblecommerce
Startup NimbleCommerce wants to become the daily deal platform for media companies (often the traditional ones that are struggling to make money online), and today it's announcing a big customer — Digital First Media, which manages the MediaNews Group (the second largest newspaper chain in the United States) and the Journal Register Company. Altogether, Digital First says it reaches 57 million Americans in 18 states. Its newspapers include The Denver Post, The Salt Lake Tribune, and the San Jose Mercury News.
nimblecommerce
Startup NimbleCommerce wants to become the daily deal platform for media companies (often the traditional ones that are struggling to make money online), and today it's announcing a big customer — Digital First Media, which manages the MediaNews Group (the second largest newspaper chain in the United States) and the Journal Register Company. Altogether, Digital First says it reaches 57 million Americans in 18 states. Its newspapers include The Denver Post, The Salt Lake Tribune, and the San Jose Mercury News.
ReportGrid Launches Precog To Help You Turn Big Data Into Smarter Apps
best-smart-free-iphne-apps
Back in October, ReportGrid raised $750K from investors like Launch Capital, David Cohen, Walt Winshall, Doug Derwin, and Ed Roman -- not long after it graduated from TechStars' summer program in Boulder. The interest in ReportGrid was due to the fact that the company offers data analytics as a service (or DAaaS, if you prefer), providing companies with nifty scalable cloud database and visualization engine. In this way, it's meant to be a turnkey, hosted alternative for developers to save them from having to build their own.
best-smart-free-iphne-apps
Back in October, ReportGrid raised $750K from investors like Launch Capital, David Cohen, Walt Winshall, Doug Derwin, and Ed Roman -- not long after it graduated from TechStars' summer program in Boulder. The interest in ReportGrid was due to the fact that the company offers data analytics as a service (or DAaaS, if you prefer), providing companies with nifty scalable cloud database and visualization engine. In this way, it's meant to be a turnkey, hosted alternative for developers to save them from having to build their own.
EmployInsight Grabs $1M For Its Employee Measurement Platform (And NYSE As Its First Client)
employinsight0logo
EmployInsight, a web-based platform for measuring and quantifying employees' "soft skills" in the workplace, has raised $1 million+ from Founder Collective, Launch Capital, Sean Glass, Phil Bronner, Jarrod Yuster, David Cohen, Gus Fuldner and other angels, the company is announcing today. The startup is also revealing one of its first enterprise clients, and it's a big one: the New York Stock Exchange is up-and-running on EmployInsight's first product, a hiring application called HireInsight.
employinsight0logo
EmployInsight, a web-based platform for measuring and quantifying employees' "soft skills" in the workplace, has raised $1 million+ from Founder Collective, Launch Capital, Sean Glass, Phil Bronner, Jarrod Yuster, David Cohen, Gus Fuldner and other angels, the company is announcing today. The startup is also revealing one of its first enterprise clients, and it's a big one: the New York Stock Exchange is up-and-running on EmployInsight's first product, a hiring application called HireInsight.
Tello Raises $2.7M From True Ventures To Give Businesses Consumer Feedback On The Fly
tello
Tello,, a SaaS and mobile app that allows customers to give businesses realtime feedback on customer service, has raised $2.7 million in new funding led by True Ventures and Bullpen Capital. The company, which debuted at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2010, previously raised $1 million in seed funding from Dave McClure, True Ventures, Founder Collective, Chris Sacca, Aydin Senkut, Russ Siegelman, Marc Goines, Ron Conway, Naval Ravikant, and Shervin Pishevar. On the consumer side, Tello is a free web and mobile service that aggregates ratings for businesses (business listings are aggregated from Localeze) from across the web and allows users to post comments about their experience at a business. Users can provide feedback on specific employees, recommend an employees and share a positive or negative story about the employee. Via iPhone and Android apps, users can select a specific business, choose and employee at the business and rate the service with a thumbs up or a thumbs down.
tello
Tello,, a SaaS and mobile app that allows customers to give businesses realtime feedback on customer service, has raised $2.7 million in new funding led by True Ventures and Bullpen Capital. The company, which debuted at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2010, previously raised $1 million in seed funding from Dave McClure, True Ventures, Founder Collective, Chris Sacca, Aydin Senkut, Russ Siegelman, Marc Goines, Ron Conway, Naval Ravikant, and Shervin Pishevar. On the consumer side, Tello is a free web and mobile service that aggregates ratings for businesses (business listings are aggregated from Localeze) from across the web and allows users to post comments about their experience at a business. Users can provide feedback on specific employees, recommend an employees and share a positive or negative story about the employee. Via iPhone and Android apps, users can select a specific business, choose and employee at the business and rate the service with a thumbs up or a thumbs down.
February 28 2012
Startups: Durham Wants You In Their Smoffice
thesmofficewindowWALL copy
Durham (a city in North Carolina) is looking to vitalize their already burgeoning startup scene by giving away the "World's Smallest Office," a moniker I once reserved for my attic bathroom but can now be rendered unto a bit of space in the front of a Cafe in Durham's beautiful Downtown. Although the office shown above appears to be more like a monkey cage than a formal workspace, the Smoffice (as it's called) will be available to one small startup for six months. The startup will also receive living space in downtown Durham and (this is just conjecture) a supply of Scuppernong grapes, known also as North Carolina's state fruit.
thesmofficewindowWALL copy
Durham (a city in North Carolina) is looking to vitalize their already burgeoning startup scene by giving away the "World's Smallest Office," a moniker I once reserved for my attic bathroom but can now be rendered unto a bit of space in the front of a Cafe in Durham's beautiful Downtown. Although the office shown above appears to be more like a monkey cage than a formal workspace, the Smoffice (as it's called) will be available to one small startup for six months. The startup will also receive living space in downtown Durham and (this is just conjecture) a supply of Scuppernong grapes, known also as North Carolina's state fruit.
Groupon Acqhires Uptake To Build Out Palo Alto Office
uptake logo
Groupon is acquiring travel startup Uptake. Liz Gannes at AllThingsD broke the news. We spoke to a source with knowledge of the deal who confirmed the details of the AllThingsD report. The purchase price was apparently between $10 and $20 million.
uptake logo
Groupon is acquiring travel startup Uptake. Liz Gannes at AllThingsD broke the news. We spoke to a source with knowledge of the deal who confirmed the details of the AllThingsD report. The purchase price was apparently between $10 and $20 million.
What’s Happenin’ Youse East Coast Staaht Ups? We Want To Hear From You!
westcoast-eastcoast_72dpi350x225pxl
With all this fuzz and fizzle going down with TC inside politics, departures, and whispered depictions of TC as a sinking ship populated by the shambling walking dead, rats clawing through our brainpans and dropping out onto our laps as our fingers shamble across our filthy, befouled keyboards, low groans of agony and anger gurgling out of our deepest, darkest spaces, I thought it would be a good idea to go over some of the things we're focusing on here on the site and offer a bit of guidance for start-ups looking to make it in Boston, DC, NYC, and Hilton Head, North Carolina. We're a very SF/Valley-centered blog, but what are New York, Washington, Virginia, and/or Florida? Chopped liver? I think not. What about Chicago, Atlanta, and Scranton? They may not have In-N-Out, but by gum they do have hamburgers just as good as those found in Palo Alto.
westcoast-eastcoast_72dpi350x225pxl
With all this fuzz and fizzle going down with TC inside politics, departures, and whispered depictions of TC as a sinking ship populated by the shambling walking dead, rats clawing through our brainpans and dropping out onto our laps as our fingers shamble across our filthy, befouled keyboards, low groans of agony and anger gurgling out of our deepest, darkest spaces, I thought it would be a good idea to go over some of the things we're focusing on here on the site and offer a bit of guidance for start-ups looking to make it in Boston, DC, NYC, and Hilton Head, North Carolina. We're a very SF/Valley-centered blog, but what are New York, Washington, Virginia, and/or Florida? Chopped liver? I think not. What about Chicago, Atlanta, and Scranton? They may not have In-N-Out, but by gum they do have hamburgers just as good as those found in Palo Alto.
ClassPager Lets Teachers Quiz and Remind Students Via SMS
ClassPager Logo
Why ban phones from the classroom when you can harness them? Bootstrapped startup ClassPager today launches its Twilio-powered SMS system that lets teachers and professors efficiently send their students quizzes and reminders, and receive answers and feedback. ClassPager can re-engage bored or shy students, and show teachers who's falling behind. The 30-second set up provides a classroom code students can text to participate, so teachers and students don't actually have each other's phone numbers. That means better grades with no prank calls and no inappropriate advances.
ClassPager Logo
Why ban phones from the classroom when you can harness them? Bootstrapped startup ClassPager today launches its Twilio-powered SMS system that lets teachers and professors efficiently send their students quizzes and reminders, and receive answers and feedback. ClassPager can re-engage bored or shy students, and show teachers who's falling behind. The 30-second set up provides a classroom code students can text to participate, so teachers and students don't actually have each other's phone numbers. That means better grades with no prank calls and no inappropriate advances.
iZettle Launches In The Nordics, UK Launch On The Cards
5749761765_b7e08cb344_b
iZettle, the Swedish mobile payments startup that basically competes with Square, has gone live on the App store in the Nordic markets today (Denmark, Norway and Finland). It's making 5,000 card reader devices available in each country. They've also appointed a UK managing director, Stewart Roberts. Stewart was former Director of Global Innovation at Barclaycard. A launch in the UK is therefore all but confirmed. Unlike square, iZettle's card reader is a chip and pin, which makes it more secure than Square. However it doesn't have quite the same advantages, as its reader uses Apple's proprietary connector so it has to pay Apple for the license on that.
5749761765_b7e08cb344_b
iZettle, the Swedish mobile payments startup that basically competes with Square, has gone live on the App store in the Nordic markets today (Denmark, Norway and Finland). It's making 5,000 card reader devices available in each country. They've also appointed a UK managing director, Stewart Roberts. Stewart was former Director of Global Innovation at Barclaycard. A launch in the UK is therefore all but confirmed. Unlike square, iZettle's card reader is a chip and pin, which makes it more secure than Square. However it doesn't have quite the same advantages, as its reader uses Apple's proprietary connector so it has to pay Apple for the license on that.
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