Monica Selby - 8/16 - Serious Startups

Gui.de Relaunches to Bring Video to Publishers Great and Small

There are good media pitches. I get them every day, and I love engaging with companies who are innovative and smart.

And then, there are GREAT media pitches that have me clicking reply right away.

Serial entrepreneur Freddie Laker, Jr is a master at pitching the media. When he contacted me about his startup Gui.de, I laughed, I clicked through, and I replied. Now, I’m writing the article.

Gui.de has already been working in the text-to-video space since 2012. The original product was consumer-focused, using virtualized avatars to read the news of the day. Unfortunately, they had a problem. The avatars were–well–creepy.

“It was fun, but extremely polarizing,” Laker told me. “People that hated it really hated it. One friend said the avatars would haunt his dreams. It’s some kind of psychological thing that people hated the avatars.”

Seeing as how they weren’t in the scaring business, Laker realized they needed a pivot. So last week, they relaunched with a product aimed at publishers instead of consumers.

The problem with producing good video rarely lies in the shooting or even editing. Rather, it’s incredibly time consuming to research and pull all of the pictures, maps, and other images from the Internet to accompany the story. Guide automates that process, using access to creative commons materials to tell a visual story. The product works well for fact-based content, but by Laker’s admission struggles with local or abstract articles.

Guide does still use computer voices for the free model of the product, but publishers can also add human voiceover, eliminating the creepy avatar problem of the earlier product.

Guide is based in Miami, but Laker was in New York when I talked to him, “shaking his tin cup,” as he says. I couldn’t help but ask, “Why not just base the company in New York?” The city is the home to the many, many publishers, and it seems the investment community would be easier to access.

Laker’s answer surprised me. “Talent.”

In his years in Miami, Laker has found and recruited the best tech talent in the city. While many entrepreneurs everywhere else struggle to find good tech talent, Laker shrugged off that suggestion.

“The best way to attract A-list talen,” he told me, “is to challenge them.”

Guide videos, while looking simple, are complex systems of programming that coordinate images, natural language processes, and editing. It’s enough to keep his developers busy for awhile, he says.

The new Gui.de product launched last Monday, and when Laker and I spoke on Friday, he said there were already 400 publishers using the platform. 30 of those had converted to full paying customers.

Some of those publishers are big, but Laker really sees opportunities for his product with smaller publishers who may not have the money for video departments. While the Internet initially democratized journalism, he says the growth of video gives bigger publications more of an advantage.

Gui.de, he says, can re-democratize digital journalism.

The company has already raised $1.5 million from investors like the Knight Foundation, Omar Epps, and Laker’s former employer Sapient.

Survey Says: Low Salaries Equal Startup Success

There’s a fair amount of debate about how much founders should pay themselves. In 2008 Peter Thiel famously said that the lower a CEO’s salary was, the more likely the startup was to succeed:

The CEO’s salary sets a cap for everyone else. If it is set at a high level, you end up burning a whole lot more money. It aligns his interest with the equity holders. But [beyond that], it goes to whether the mission of the company is to build something new or just collect paychecks.

Not that collecting paychecks is a bad thing. Other experts argue that when founders take too little money, they can be distracted by the needs of every day life. This is particularly true when founders have children depending on their paycheck to do little things like–you know–eat.

Earlier this week Compass published some data on this very question. Their survey data indicates that startups who pay their founders on the low side are more likely to succeed than ones who pay high salaries.

Additional research showed that, globally, 73% of founders pay themselves less than $50,000/year. This included funded, as well as non-funded, startups. Even in Silicon Valley, most founders pay themselves less than $50k and a vast majority less than $75k. Despite the high cost of living there, the Compass survey indicates that most founders are far from living large.

Despite the opinion of some, this data would indicate that cost of living does matter in the life of a startup. Possibly a lot. Considering that the average age of a founder is 40, not 20 as the outliers in the industry might lead us to believe, it’s safe to say that most entrepreneurs have family and life obligations that demand a decent salary. Even younger entrepreneurs can benefit from a lower cost of living, making their seed stages last longer when they aren’t based in a high-cost tech hub.

The moral of the story? You know we’re the voice of startups everywhere else, and that means we think it’s awesome to build a company outside Silicon Valley. There are a lot of factors that go into a location decision, but when $50,000 is a good salary even in Chicago (instead of near poverty in the Valley), why wouldn’t you consider it?

After all, if Peter Thiel says it…

Speaking of everywhere else:

23 Accelerators Give Their Best Tips on Getting In

Love ’em or hate ’em, accelerators are popping up all over the country. The best ones offer mentorship, business development, and access to connections founders just wouldn’t have on their own.

But, getting into an accelerator can often be difficult. The process is simple enough, but what is it that really puts a team above the competition? What are accelerators looking for when they sift through all the applications for their newest cohorts?

Well, wonder no more! We asked some of the top accelerators everywhere else for their #1 tip for standing out in the crowd. Check out what they have to say:

TechStars Austin

Be concise in your application and communication. Toil over every word, the more you can remove the better, but also realize that buzz words contain zero information content. Don’t try to be impressive, just try to be understandable and you’ll stand out.

Jason Seats, Managing Director, @seats

Start Co, Memphis

We look for diverse, fierce, coachable, and execution oriented teams first and foremost . . . that is 95% of our selection process. And it should be a team. While we have taken a couple in the past, being a solo founder is a negative selection criteria.

Eric Mathews, Co-founder, @ecmathews

Velocity Indiana, Inc

The tongue and cheek is Cash. And to make sure you follow the instructions. The real answer would be to make sure you express passionate enthusiasm for your idea.

Tony Schy, Managing Director, @tschy

Gigtank, Chattanooga, TN

“Convince us that you’ll be able to close sales or establish pilot projects during GIGTANK with customers in a rapidly growing market.”

Mike Bradshaw, Executive Director, @MikeBinChatt

TechStars, Boulder

Be different so you get noticed!

Nicole Glaros, Managing Director, @nglaros

AlphaLab, Pittsburgh

Be focused and specific. Don’t talk in generalities or use a lot of buzzwords or catch phrases. Be specific about the market problem you’re solving (and tell it from the customer point of view). Be specific in describing your solution (or proposed solution) and why it’s truly unique. Be focused in describing how you’ll acquire customers and market your product. But don’t mistake “specific” to mean “lots and lots of detail” – clarity and focus are still critical.

Jim Jen, Executive Director, @jimcjen

Amplify.la

“Think big and solve a problem that’s worth solving and wear your passion on your sleeve.”

Paul Bricault, Co-founder, @pbricault

Jumpstart Foundry, Nashville

“I suggest that candidates network their way through our mentors. They are all naturally predisposed to root for startup founders and are clearly listed on the JSF website. If you can’t sell them on your concept then you will have an even harder time with real customers.”

Vic Gatto, Founder & CEO, @Vic_Gatto

UpTech, Cincinnati

My advice… have a sincere passion for what you are doing. Not only will your passion get investors excited about your idea but it will get you through the gut wrenching moments of being an entrepreneur.

Amanda Greenwell, Program Manager, @GlamHippie

Launchpad LA

Get a strong referral from a founder we’ve already funded.

Sam Teller, Managing Director, @samteller

NMotion, Lincoln

Demonstrate your passion for the problem you’re trying to solve and show us that you’re the team that can solve it. At NMotion we’re looking for teams that know why you’re applying to an accelerator beyond capital. Teams that demonstrate an ability to work hard, experiment, and take advantage of the connections, community, and curriculum an accelerator brings usually rank high on our list.

Brian Ardinger, Managing Director, @ardinger

VentureSpur, Oklahoma City

If you want to give yourself the best chance of acceptance, spend some time reviewing the program and mentors on our website, including our focus areas and blog – and have a coherent reason why your startup needs to leverage our accelerator to grow quickly and how you’d make effective use of the resources provided. Startup teams that do this put themselves ahead of the pack!

Kraettli Lawrence Epperson, Managing Director & Co-founder, @klepperson

TechStars Boston

Demonstrate you have a team that can learn quickly and cares.

Katie Rae, Managing Director, @ktrae

FlashStarts, Cleveland

Demonstrate the ability to iterate rapidly. Our application process is iterative. Apply and we will provide feedback. Respond and we will provide more feedback. On day in May we will cut a $25,000 check and accept you into our Summer Program. Continue the process throughout the summer and we might cut a $250,000 check (follow-on funding amounts vary. In 2013 the amount ranged form $0 to $300,000).

Charles Stack, Founder/CEO, @cstack

LaunchHouse, Cleveland

The number 1 tip for being accepted into LaunchHouse Accelerator is having industry expertise, consistent customer development, and the team to execute.

Todd Goldstein, CEO, @ToddGoldstein

Straight Shot, Omaha

The most important thing to be able to demonstrate is how the founding team is uniquely qualified to solve the problem their business aims to address. Being able to connect a founding team’s personal and professional experiences with the market that’s being pursues is a great indicator of the ability to execute and generate the momentum necessary to quickly grow and scale.

David Arnold, Managing Director, @David_M_Arnold

TechStars Chicago

Pro Tip to help you get into Techstars Chicago: Be able to demonstrate an ability to execute and iterate a ton in a short amount of time. We love teams that are smart, open minded, coachable and can out execute the competition. Submit your application early, add updates as you make progress and gain learnings and execute, execute, execute!!

Troy Henikoff, Managing Director, @TroyHenikoff

SeedSumo, College Station

Prove you move quickly – if your team is strong and concept is solid, the last thing we look for is movement. Are you testing things already? Prove it to us. The ball should already be rolling…fast.

Bryan Bulte, Managing Director, @bultebryan

SURGE, Houston

My #1 tip for entrepreneurs: Clear demonstration of commitment. SURGE’s entire business model is designed so that everyone – investors, mentors, sponsors – is aligned with the same goals as our entrepreneurs. We are 100% committed to entrepreneurs and they come first in everything that we do. We believe in entrepreneurs having skin in the game. We do. We are the largest investors in SURGE and our entrepreneurs. We expect our founders to reciprocate and be 100% focused on the business they are pitching to us. If they are not, we know that customers will not buy. Investors will not invest. Thus, breaking our entire model. We don’t want part-time or hobbyist entrepreneurs. We want the real deal.

Kirk Coburn, Founder/Managing Director, @kirkcoburn

Impact Engine, Chicago

Passionate entrepreneurs that are ACTION oriented.

Chuck Templeton, Managing Director, @ctemp

Healthbox, Boston

“Be candid about your areas for improvement – we are here to help, mentor, build, guide and connect!”

Ateet Adhikari, @health_box

Dreamit Ventures, Austin

I’d say to include a video pitch (not a 20-min demo recorded at another event, but a quick elevator pitch about the company and a bit about each team member). Doesn’t require high production value – phone is fine. Better to see team members talking than one of those cartoons with an automated voice reading a script. It’s not the most important thing (obviously the fundamentals of the team/business matter most) – but it’s unique and effective,

Kerry Rupp, CEO, @kerry_rupp

gener8tor, Madison, WI

Demonstrate traction. The marketplace doesn’t lie—tell us about your customers, users and revenue.

Troy Vosseller, Co-founder, @troyvosseller

Everywhere Else is Back and Coming to Tennessee

It’s been months in the making, but we’re finally ready to announce:

Everywhere Else Tennessee is back!

That’s right: 3 days of startup excitement is heading to the historic downtown Memphis April 30th – May 2nd!

From our speakers and our sponsors to our Startup Avenue alumni and all of you, watching the Everywhere Else community grow over the past year has been nothing short of incredible.

You have taught us so much since our inaugural event in Memphis, and with the help of your feedback and support, we know this is going to be our best yet!
We’ve kept all the things that made you fall in love with our Everywhere Else events in the first place, but we know you’re going to love the changes, too.

Don’t fix what’s not broken:

World Class Speakers–At our past events, we’ve had some of the the world’s top entrepreneurs and investors grace our stages and connect with our community including the likes of:

Joe Medved, Partner at Softbank Capital
Scott Case, Founding CTO of Priceline.com
Andrew Warner, Founder of Mixergy
Wil Schroter, Founder & CEO of Fundable
Dave Knox, Co-founder of The Brandery
Bill Harris, Former CEO of Paypal & Intuit
and many, many more.

At Everywhere Else Tennessee, you can expect the same caliber of speakers. We’ll be announcing the 25+ speaker line up over the upcoming weeks. Let just say it’s so good, even we’re a little giddy.

Meaningful Connections–The Everywhere Else conferences have always been great places to make real connections with both the community and our speakers. You’ve actually told us this is one of the main reasons our events are so special.
Besides our daily programming, we’re throwing 3 amazing parties, where you’ll be able to connect with other entrepreneurs, investors, and speakers from all over the country.

Affordable–There are a lot of good startup conferences out there. And you’re free to sell your kidney to attend them, too.
Everywhere Else continues to provide the same quality of content and connections, but we’re doing it at a much lower price so we can provide access to entrepreneurs at all stages of the journey.

Where we’re stepping it up:

Southern Flair: I speak from experience when I say there’s nowhere like the South, y’all! We’ll be shining a spotlight on the Memphis startup scene and the entire South throughout the conference.
We’re celebrating the best Memphis has to offer, including trips to some historic Memphis nightlife spots and sweet BBQ, plenty of BBQ.

Quality Over Quantity: Our last two conferences were big! That was lots of fun, but this time around we want to really focus on facilitating quality connections that will help you move the needle.

No more convention centers for us. 409 South Main is in the heart of the historic South Main Art District and right on the trolley line. It’s wood-y and creaky in all the ways old buildings should be. You’re gonna love it!

We’ll only be releasing 400 tickets total this go round (1/3 of what we did last year) and it’s guaranteed to sell out!

Startup Avenue: We’ve had our Startup Avenue before, of course, with over 100 startups participating to date, but in 2014 we’re focusing our efforts on highlighting only the best startups in the country.
Not to say our previous alumni haven’t been amazing. They’ve gone on to raise over a combined $10m this year alone!

Now startups will apply for a table, and we’ll select only the most promising ones to showcase at Everywhere Else Tennessee. Startup Avenue startups will also have the opportunity to pitch our investor panel for a chance to win the title of Heavyweight Startup Champion of Everywhere Else.

Think your startup has what it takes? Check out the full details and apply here!

Your first shot at tickets!

Early adopter tickets are $150, and they’re on sale right now! We had an amazing response from our newsletter subscribers yesterday. These tickets are going fast, and we only have a limited number. Don’t be left out!

Reserve Your Spot Now ->

Don’t worry though if you do miss out. We’re only releasing a few early adopter tickets, but there will be more chances to participate. This is what pricing will look like for our 3 day conference:

$150 – limited number of “early adopter” tickets
$225 – regular ticket price
$300 – “laggards” tickets
$400 – day of tickets

Love for our amazing partners

We’ve been very fortunate to have the support of some awesome organizations that truly are the ones that make this possible. We use each and everyone of their services and could not recommend them any higher.

Please help us say thank you by checking each one of them out, sending them a tweet or just saying hi at the conference.

Many more announcements here soon to come!

It’s still not too late for your organization or company to become a partner as well, please shoot Nick a quick email at Nick@nibletz.com for more details.

Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange “Comes” to SXSWi in March

Yesterday SXSW announced that controversial figure Julian Assange will take the stage via satellite interview on Saturday, March 8. He will engage in a “live conversation” with The Barbarian Group’s Benjamin Palmer.

On the off chance you’re unaware of this saga, Assange is the founder and editor-in-chief of Wikileaks, started in 2006 but made famous in 2010 when the site posted American diplomatic cables containing classified information. Living in England at the time, Assange was served a European Arrest Warrant from Sweden on charges of rape and sexual assault. When his appeals to English courts were finally defeated in June 2012, Assange took refuge, saying he feared that Sweden was just trying to turn him over to the US.

Presumably, he will be addressing the SXSW crowd from his current residence in the Ecuadorian embassy.

Whatever your thoughts on the twists and turns of this case, the inclusion of Assange in the SXSW lineup is perfect timing. Since his publication of classified documents, Americans have become familiar with terms like PRISM, MUSCULAR, Edward Snowden, and the NSA. We’re also suddenly aware that before too long the government could even know what temperature we like our homes to be.

Considering all the discussion of privacy and government encroachment, it’s safe to say Assange’s session will be well attended.

You can find a full lineup for the 2014 SXSWi here.

Ro-buddy Bridges the Gap Between Raspberry Pi and All Out Hacking

The concept of robots has fascinated humans for a long time, even as far back as ancient Greek myths.

But, now, as technology advances rapidly, there are lots of people who think a robotic future is just around the corner.

The founders of Australian startup Robological fall in that camp. And they’re doing their part to usher in that future by creating Ro-buddy, a motherboard/Android app that will allow kids to quickly create their own robots, no coding required (for now).

The team is in the final days of their Indiegogo campaign. Check out our Q&A with the founder Damith Herath below.

What is your startup called?

Robological

What’s the story behind your idea?

The foundation of what would become the software framework for Ro-buddy was laid as early as 2010 when the founders worked on an Australian government (Australian Research Council) funded research program called the Thinking Head Project.

However, the Eureka moment came when we volunteered to teach robotics to primary school kids at a few local schools. In brief, the story goes like this – having been academics for sometime and partly forgotten our own childhood, we’ve gravely underestimated the creative and tech prowess of the 10 year olds we were teaching robotics – setting the bar so low, they surprised us by coming up with creative ideas for robots and wanting to create sophisticated robots of their own. Only armed with toy robots at the time, we quickly realized that these kids need something more sophisticated as a starting point, but at the same time not too complicated to dishearten them. Working on this challenge over the last year or so we realized that combining the software framework we’ve already developed (which was used by artists for creating interactive art/robot projects) in an Android App with a tightly integrated hardware platform would achieve this end goal.

The combination of an App and the hardware enables anyone to build custom control interfaces using a drag-n-drop interface on an Android device without writing a single line of code. In addition our hardware could directly interface with the Raspberry Pi enabling users to make use of additional computing power and wireless connectivity provided by the Pi.

We’ve seen a lot of parents purchasing Raspberry Pis for their kids in the hope they’d get hooked on to programming and hacking. But most get discouraged by the steep learning curve at the beginning. Ro-buddy bridges this gap by enabling easy connectivity and providing an out of the box experiences for these kids so they’re not discouraged at the beginning of the computing journey.

In a nutshell, Ro-buddy helps you to concentrate on your creative idea rather than the hardware/software needed to realize it.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Damith Herath – A roboticist with a PhD in Robotics

Christian Kroos – A cognitive scientist with a PhD in Linguistics

Zhengzhi Zhang – A software engineer with an MSc in Engineering.

Where are you based?

We’re based in Sydney, Australia

What’s the startup scene like where you are based?

There’s a fairly vibrant startup community in Sydney and it is quite active and growing at the moment. However, investors are still hedging their bets mainly on traditional industries such as mining. In particular, there’s very little enthusiasmfor high tech startups that involve hardware like ours.

How do you see people using Ro-buddy once it’s developed?

As mentioned earlier, Ro-buddy is a great way to build robots and other things with minimal programming effort – for example someone who bought a Raspberry Pi and then never really managed to use it to build something because of the initial learning curve – Ro-buddy provides a great entry point.

It is a great way to combine your Android device and hardware to create robots, toys, school projects etc. Having a tightly integrated hardware/software system enables people to concentrate on their creative side rather than the software/hardware aspects, which are usually the realms of geeks.

Another great way to use Ro-buddy is to give a new lease of life for your old RC toys. You could easily replace your old RC toy car’s electronics with a Ro-buddy board and start controlling it with an Android device! In combination with a Raspberry Pi you could even turn it into a spy bot or a semi-autonomous vehicle using the Python API that comes with Ro-buddy.

Where do you see the field of robotics going in the next 10 years?

We’re heading for a very interesting decade of robotics.

We personally believe that this period is similar in nature to the beginnings of the PC revolution. We’ve seen new companies like Re-think bringing robotic manufacturing to a new level and many other successful startups appearing on the map. There’s also crowd funded robotic projects like Romo. Mind you we were engaged in a similar project slightly before Romo that used the software framework mentioned earlier – A project in collaboration with a renowned artist – Stlearc

Increasingly we’ll see human friendly robots entering the day-to-day use in unconstrained public environments. They’ll be in different shapes, sizes and form but would be fairly ubiquitous. Also, the Internet of Things will play a major role in this period.

What are some of the milestones your startup has already reached?

Ro-buddy is only the beginning for us. We are committed bringing the knowledge gained from working on the Thinking Head project and turning it into useful and commerciallyviable robotic products. So far, we have been able to assemble a great team to develop critical software and hardware. We’ve also been able garner the help of a few key industry/academic leaders in Australia to act as our mentors.

For example, Prof Chris Drane who is a serial entrepreneur on his own right is one of our mentors.

What are your next milestones?

First priority is to complete the Ro-buddy project and deliver on our promises to our backers. In tandem we’re working on another robotic project – which is in stealth mood at the moment.

Also, we’re exploring the possibility of using Ro-buddy on industrial strength applications.

Once we have these working prototypes, we’ll be looking at potential partnerships, funding and/or investment opportunities.

Where can people find out more? Any social media links you want to share?

Web: http://ro-buddy.com

Twitter: @RobologicalCo (https://twitter.com/robologicalco)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Robological

Branch Sells to Facebook for “Around” $15 Million

Want to know how quiet your critics?

Well, you buy them up of course!

This morning The Verge broke the story that Facebook is acquiring New York-based startup Branch for $15 million. While early reports indicated that the Branch team expected to be building out their product at Facebook, a Techcrunch update clarified that a Facebook rep says the acquisition is for talent only.

Branch is (was?) a link-sharing service that allowed you to have conversations about anything on the Internet, then publish those conversations on a blog or website. Most recently it launched Potluck, an iPhone app that allowed you to discover news bites and talk about them with friends in-app.

Last year, Branch CEO Josh Miller wrote a popular post on Medium calling Facebook an “irreversibly bad brand.” He pointed to the fact that his teenage sister makes a point to visit the social network as little as possible. Our CEO Nick Tippmann had a similar experience with younger siblings, where he was informed that “Facebook is for old people.”

A few weeks ago, however, Miller wrote that he was “bullish on Facebook.” Still, bullish or not, the post offered some–ahem–healthy criticisms of his future employer on things they could do to improve the News Feed. There’s little doubt, given the length of time it takes to make an acquisition, that Miller wrote the more recent post while in talks with the social network.

Fair enough. Even after a $2 million raise, Miller and his cofounders are most likely experiencing their first day as millionaires today, and they have nice jobs at Facebook to add to the deal.

Branch isn’t the only startup trying to disrupt the way we consume news. Quibb is another popular (if exclusive) service that allows industry professionals to share links and discuss them. And then, of course, there’s always Twitter, which seems to work well for everyone. Branch is hoping to bring Facebook back to the news game.

Perhaps we’ll be seeing fewer cat memes in 2014?

The “Must-Attend Conference for Entrepreneurs” Everywhere Else Tennessee is headed back to Memphis this Spring. We’re releasing the first 50 tickets for 50% off exclusively to our newsletter subscribers on Jan 14th. Don’t miss your shot by signing up here!

32 Most Influential Investors of 2013 (Outside Silicon Valley)

Investors. We love to talk about them, to watch what they’re doing, to know who they’re talking to. Even for startups choosing to bootstrap, investors can often have a lot of influence in the way you think about markets and ideas.

But, who should you listen to?

To help you figure that out, we made a list of the most influential investors to watch in 2014. With so many out there, we had a few criteria we used to decide who to include:

Outside of Silicon Valley. Obviously, Nibletz is the voice of startups everywhere else! While we pay close attention to lots of Valley investors, like Paul Graham and Dave McClure, this list is specifically for investors who choose to live/invest everywhere else.
We looked at CB Insights’ most active investor list from 2013.
We considered the founders of active funds that are creating some buzz in the investing world.
Personal brand. A lot of investors are active on Twitter or blog regularly. We took into account how each investor’s personal brand is growing.

Lists like these are always subjective, of course, but these are the investors we’ll be watching in 2014. (And you should, too!)

Alexis Ohanian–@alexisohanian

Co-founder of Reddit and New York based investor Alexis Ohanian is a prolific angel investor. His investments include Couple, Teespring, Crowdtilt, and Hubspot.

Andy Dunn–@dunn

Andy Dunn is the co-founder and CEO of Bonobos and Red Swan. He’s based in New York, and his investments include Birchbox, Coinbase, Warby Parker, TaskRabbit, and Hailo.

Andy Weissman–@aweissman

Andy Weissman is also a partner at New York’s Union Square Ventures. He’s also the founder and COO of Betaworks. His investments include Twitter, Path, Codecademy, Bit.ly, Tweetdeck, Tumblr, and StockTwits.

Andy White–@leanstarter

As a Partner in the Vegas Tech Fund, Andy White lives and breathes Las Vegas. His investments show that: BoomStartup, DropShip, AngelList, and 500 Startups, among others.

Bijan Sabet–@bijan

Based in Boston, Bijan Sabet is another blogging VC with good industry knowledge. He’s the founder of Spark Capital, and his investments include Foursquare, OMGPOP, Tumblr, Twitter, and Runkeeper.

Brad Feld–@bfeld

If you’ve been around the startup space for a minute, you’ve heard of Brad Feld. He literally wrote the book(s) on startup culture. Based in Boulder, his investments include Makerbot, Fitbit, Zynga, Mile High Organics, and Yesware.

Brad Keywell–@bradkeywell

As the cofounder and director of Groupon, Brad Keywell has been around the Chicago scene for awhile. As a cofounder and managing partner of Lightbank, he continues to invest in the area. His investments include Udemy, Zaarly, Boomerang, and Benchprep.

Charlie O’Donnell–@ceonyc

Charlie O’Donnell is a New York based investor at Brooklyn Bridge Ventures. He blogs at This is Going to Be Big. His investments include GroupMe, Refinery29, editorially, and Chloe + Isabel

Chris Hollod–@chrishollod

LA-based Chris Hollod manages A-Grade Investments, theVC fund Ashton Kutcher, Guy Oseary, and Ron Burkle. His major investments include Foursquare, Uber, Zaarly, Warby Parker, Chegg, Flipboard, and Dwolla.

Chris Sacca–@sacca

Chris Sacca spends his time in Truckee, CA, where he’s the Managing Director of Lowercase Capital. He’s a prolific investor, but some of the big names include Uber, Kickstarter, Turntable.fm, Instagram, Path, Charbeat, and Facebook.

David Cohen–@davidcohen

As a founder/CEO of Techstars, David Cohen is well known for championing startups everywhere else. He’s also a blogging VC. A few of his investments include Twilio, Uber, Bondsie, and GroupMe.

David Tisch–@davetisch

David Tisch is former Techstars director, and he now helps run and invests through the Box Group. His diverse investments include Fab.com, ID.me, Boxee, IFTTT, AngelList, Kitchensurfing, and Skillshare.

Eric Hippeau–@erichippeau

Eric Hippeau was once the CEO of The Huffington Post. Now the New York-based investor is a partner at Lerer Ventures. His investments include Buzzfeed, Yahoo, The Huffington Post, and PandoMedia.

Fred Wilson–@fredwilson

With his daily blogging about all things in the industry, it’s a no-brainer that Fred Wilson would land high on the list. Wilson is a managing partner at Union Square Ventures in New York. His portfolio includes Twitter, Zynga, Etsy and Disqus.

Greg Bettinelli–@gregbettinelli

Greg Bettinelli is a venture partner at LA’s Upfront Ventures. He’s also the cofounder of the MuckerLab accelerator and has worked in leadership at eBay, StubHub, and HauteLook. His investments include Foodzie, Chromatik, and Trunk Club.

Izhar Armony–@izhararmony

General Partner at Boston-based Charles River Venture, Izhar Armony has also had some big hits. He invested in Twitter and Yammer. His portfolio also includes Zynga, Zendesk, and Qualcomm.

Jeff Bussgang–@bussgang

Jeff Bussgang is a cofounder of UPromise and literally wrote the book on VC (Mastering the VC Game). The Boston/New York-based investor has invested in oneforty, Simple Tuition, Crashlytics, and SavingStar, among others.

Joanne Wilson–@thegothamgal

The wife of Fred Wilson is a businesswoman and investor in her own right. Like her husband, she regularly blogs about startup life. Her angel investments include Daily Worth, Kitchensurfing, littleBits, LE TOTE, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Lover.ly

Joe Medved–@joevc

Joe Medved is a partner at Softbank Capital and an adviser at the Brandery. He also gave one of the most informative talks at Everywhere Else Cincinnati in October. Joe’s investments include Rap Genius, Thumb, CrowdTwist, and FlightCar,

Jonathon Perrelli–@perrelli

Another fan favorite at Everywhere Else Cincinnati, Jonathon Perrelli is an active investor in the DC Tech scene. His investments through Fortify VC include Introhive, Social Tables, Fleksy, and The Trip Tribe.

Jonathon Triest–@jtriest

Detroit-based Ludlow Ventures is “angel and seed stage investing without the ego.” As the Managing Partner, Jonathon Triest’s investments include uBeam, EatSprig, Chalkfly, and AngelList.

Josh Kopleman–@joshk

While Josh Kopelman is technically in the Valley, First Round Capital has offices in New York and Philadelphia, and they’ve been so influential in seed stage investing, we couldn’t leave them out. Kopelman’s investments include LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Path, and Mint.

Josh Linkner–@joshlinkner

Josh Linkner is the author of the book Disciplined Dreaming and the founder of Detroit Venture Partners. He blogs here. His investments include Miso Media, Stylecaster, UpTo, and Quikly.

Lee Hower–@leehower

Once on the founding team at LinkedIn, Lee Hower is now the cofounder and partner at Next View Ventures. He also blogs regularly about what he sees happening in the industry. Based in Boston, his investments include Swipely, Goodsie, thredUP, and Crunched.

Mark Hasebroock–@dundeevc

Mark Hasebroock was another awesome speaker at Everywhere Else Cincinnati. As a member of the Dundee Venture Capital team, he’s invested in Graphicly, TripleSeat Software, and MindMixer.

Mark Suster–@msuster

Mark Suster is well-known in the startup world for his blunt take on everything, but as an entrepreneur-turned-VC, he’s seen a lot. He shares his opinions and wisdom at his blog, Both Sides of the Table. His investments include Treehouse, awe.sm, MakeSpace, and DealMaker Media.

Michael Arrington–@arrington

The TechCrunch founder now blogs at Uncrunched and invests from Seattle and the Valley. His many years in the industry has made him an astute and vocal fixture. Arrington’s investments include PandoMedia, Zaarly, Couple, and Codecademy.

Mike Brown, Jr–@mikebrownjr

New York-based Mike Brown Jr is a General Partner at Bowery Capital. His investments include Codecademy, Newscred, About.me, Bit.ly, and Betaworks.

Mo Koyfman–@mokoyfman

Mo Koyfman is a General Partner at New York’s Spark Capital. His investments include Skillshare, Warby Parker, Kitchensurfing, Aviary, and FundersClub.

Nitesh Banta–@nbanta

Nitesh Banta is an investor at General Catalyst Partners and the founder of Rough Draft Ventures. Based in Boston, some of his investments include Airbnb, Hubspot, KAYAK, Warby Parker, and Thumb.

Shari Redstone

Shari Redston is the cofounder and managing partner of Advanceit Capital. She was a media executive and currently holds the Vice Chair positions on the boards of Viacom and CBS. Advancit Capital has invested in Skift, Oyster, Bottlenose, and Newscred.

Steve Case–@stevecase

The co-founder of AOL is now a regular startup champion and investor. He founded his VC firm, Revolution. His investments include Zipcar, Runkeeper, Uber Media, and LivingSocial.

Sock 101 Brings You Another “Of the Month” Club

Kansas City-based Sock 101 has had a big first year.

They figured out how to make professional, high quality $7 socks, launched as a side project, completed a Kickstarter campaign, and finished a huge holiday season. With a big 2013 behind them, they are looking grow even more during 2014.

The company already had a sock of the month club, but with new designs and colors, they’re ready to expand the offering. For $9/month (which includes shipping) customers get a pair socks delivered to their door. Each design will be appropriate to the month: Mardi Gras in February, green in March, Christmas-y in December, etc.

Sock 101 isn’t the only sock of the month club. Sock Club offers a similar service, but at a $12 price point.

Sock 101 cofounder Jason Grills sees two big differentiators besides price, though:

Sock 101 manufactures their own socks instead of sourcing them from other manufacturers. This is important because it lets the company fully control the sock quality.
While the Sock Club has some fun styles, Sock 101 focuses on being fun, but professional. These are socks you can wear to the office. “Socks are the new tie,” Grills told me over the phone.

Besides their sock of the month club, though, Sock 101 is also focusing on growing through corporate clients. It turns out, having matching socks is a thing. Local organizations like the Kansas City Convention and Visitors Bureau placed a huge order and sells the socks to tourists as well as wearing them to work. National startups like Influence & Co also joined in the fun, ordering matching socks for the whole team.

Grills told me they were also in talks with several multi-million dollar national corporations, but he wouldn’t disclose their names just yet.

The thing thing that has surprise Grills the most is the enthusiasm customers have, the excitement they display over their socks. He says the company regularly gets pictures of customers and their socks posted to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

“It’s a fun company,” Grills said. “We’re not creating a new technology that’s going to change the world, but we’re bringing smiles to people’s faces.”

The “Must-Attend Conference for Entrepreneurs” Everywhere Else Tennessee is headed back to Memphis this Spring. We’re releasing the first 50 tickets for 50% off exclusively to our newsletter subscribers on Jan 13th. Don’t miss your shot by signing up here!

New York’s Aereo Raises $34 Million Series C, Faces Supreme Court

TV streaming company Aereo announced this week that it had raised an additional $34 million in funding. Current investor IAC led the round, with participation from Gordon Crawford, Himalayan Capital Management, and others.

Aereo operates by setting up a data center in each of its cities, equipped with tiny antennae that receive and record free broadcast TV signals. Users essentially license an antennae, paying $8-12/month to stream free TV shows to any of their devices.

“Aereo experienced tremendous growth in 2013, and we expect 2014 to be another blockbuster year,” CEO Chet Konojia said in a statement. “Last year at this time, Aereo was launched in only New York City. Today Aereo is available in 10 markets and will grow to 15 by the end of the quarter…Aereo has scaled very quickly in 365 days and this additional funding will allow us to maintain this rapid pace of growth. We are thrilled to have a world-class group of investors who believe innovative, cloud-based technologies, like Aereo, are the future.”

It’s true that Aereo has scaled pretty quickly for a company that’s basically charging people for free TV. They’re in major cities all over the country, including Miami, Atlanta, Boston, and Denver.

They’re also having a hard time staying out of the courts.

It turns out that broadcasters don’t like having their signals stored in another company’s centers and redistributed via the cloud. Aereo gets around this by housing thousands of tiny antennae in its data centers and “licensing” them to individual users. In essence, it works just like a DVR, but in the cloud and to any device you have.

So far, the courts have ruled in favor of Aereo, but on Friday the Supreme Court will hear the case broadcasters are bringing against them.

$34 million on Monday. Supreme Court on Friday.

That’s one hell of a week.

Not that legal troubles seem to slow growth for many ambitious startups. Airbnb and Uber have both had their share of legal woes, but nobody can deny the explosive popularity of both services. Founders of disruptive startups take court appearances as a matter of course, and it often provides good media coverage for them. Aereo’s Konojia is no different.

No, legal issues aren’t the biggest hurdle Aereo needs that $34 million to jump. With Apple TV, Chromecast, AIRTAME, Hulu, Netflix and even direct competitor Nimble TV all trying to reinvent the way we watch TV, there is plenty of competition out there.

Not that healthy competition ever stopped a determined entrepreneur either.

The “Must-Attend Conference for Entrepreneurs” Everywhere Else Tennessee is headed back to Memphis this Spring. We’re releasing the first 50 tickets for 50% off exclusively to our newsletter subscribers on Jan 13th. Don’t miss your shot by signing up here!

Calling All Pot Startups: A Venture Fund Just for You

It’s been a week since recreational marijuana became legal in Colorado. After years of lobbying, an historic vote in 2012, and a year of haggling over the details, weed enthusiasts lined up to ring in the new year at the new retail stores. Iraq War veteran Sean Azziriti bought the first bag.

A whole new (legal) industry, with the expectation of almost unlimited growth in the coming years as more states legalize…sounds like the perfect scenario for startups.

That’s what High Times Magazine thinks, too.

The 40-year-old magazine is a staple in toker culture. Besides the print magazine and website, the company also hosts the Cannabis Cup in cities across the United States and Amsterdam. Even during the hottest years of the war on drugs, High Times published issues and continued to host events.

And now they’re supporting startups.

The High Times Growth Fund will raise money to “invest in compelling businesses across all areas of the rapidly growing domestic cannabis market.” The HTG Fund is looking to raise $100 million and wants invest $2-5 million in each company.

“What we are looking to do is provide capital and credit to companies that are established and have grown and reached their potential as much as they can without access to traditional capital markets,” fund managing director Michael Safir told the Denver Post.

He went on to say that fund will consider growers, but the main focus will be on ancillary companies.

“If you are running a cannabis business, you aren’t getting (a Small Business Administration) loan, you don’t have bank accounts,” he said. “It’s hard to grow when you don’t have the tools.”

While the HGT Fund will operate like a venture fund, there are other organizations handling the angel side of things. The Arcview Group operates an angel network for accredited investors to invest in cannabis startups. They estimate the industry growing by 64% in 2014, and that’s without mass legalization at the state level.

All the buzz around marijuana this week tends to forget one thing, though. It’s still against federal law to grow, possess, or smoke it. While it’s assumed federal authorities will turn a blind eye to users and companies within states that have legalized, no one really knows for sure yet. That kind of instability may make it difficult for some investors to take the risk right now.

Of course, more and more Americans are in favor of legalization, making it seem inevitable. Perhaps this is the perfect time to get in the business.

The “Must-Attend Conference for Entrepreneurs” Everywhere Else Tennessee is headed back to Memphis this Spring. We’re releasing the first 50 tickets for 50% off exclusively to our newsletter subscribers on Jan 13th. Don’t miss your shot by signing up here!

Memphis-based Start Co Brings Entrepreneurship to Everyone

There’s a lot of buzz in the startup world about how startups stimulate job growth. A healthy company that employs dozens to hundreds of people works wonders for a local economy and culture. See Zappos and Las Vegas.

With that in mind, a lot of organizations are popping up in different regions with the goal of encouraging entrepreneurship and stimulate economic growth. We’ve written a lot about Start Co, recently about their partnership with the Ohio-based Jumpstart America.

Yesterday, Start Co and Jumpstart America unveiled a plan to increase entrepreneurship in the Memphis area. Called MEMx the plan includes several regional leaders in business and the local community.

Memphis regularly lags behind the rest of the nation in economic indicators, and much of the money injected into the city are “poverty dollars.”

Start Co and their partners are determined to change that.

“MEMx plan partners have an aligned vision to advance entrepreneurship in Memphis through this new approach that encourages an entrepreneurial mindset and appreciation across the community,” Start Co’s co-president Andre Fowlkes said in a statement. “To help Memphis establish the building blocks of a thriving economy, it’s absolutely critical that we’re deliberately inclusive in our efforts.”

MEMx will seek to build on Memphis’ unique strengths and opportunities, find the region’s entrepreneurial potential, and continue to learn how to best grow the Memphis economy. The next steps include fundraising and expansion of some current initiatives already in place, like the local accelerators, which are currently accepting applications.

In the startup tech world, we often get very focused on individual companies and their products. Start Co is unique in that they are thinking about how to best help their city first and are leveraging local tech entrepreneurs to do it.

At Nibletz, we are very familiar with the city of Memphis and the Memphis startup scene. It’s a great city, with so many exciting growth opportunities. In recent years the food scene and the live music scene have both exploded, bringing health and vitality to areas that many people had given up on. The success of MEMx could help Memphis grow its economy as quickly as its culture has grown in the last few years.

By the way, there’s another great startup event happening in Memphis this spring:

The “Must-Attend Conference for Entrepreneurs” Everywhere Else Tennessee is headed back to Memphis this Spring. We’re releasing the first 50 tickets for 50% off exclusively to our newsletter subscribers on Jan 13th. Don’t miss your shot by signing up here!

What You Can Learn About PR from Dave McClure

Agree or disagree with him all you want, Dave McClure knows how to make a scene. He’s notorious for speaking his mind and saying what everyone else is thinking, but no one else will say.

Last night, Dave posted the tweet above to reach out to women founders for the Women 2.0 PITCH event. Women 2.0 CEO Shaherose Charania replied to his tweet with a laugh and a <3.

Soon after Dave’s tweet, though, New York investor Sarah Kunst replied:

Regardless of who you think is right and wrong in this situation, we can all learn a lot from the way Dave McClure handled the it.

Engage your critics

It would have been easy for Dave to ignore Sarah’s tweet. Or at least acknowledged it and gone about his evening. As a big investor in women, unsexy, and startups everywhere else, McClure hardly needs to justify his own thoughts on women in tech.

Instead, he spent most of the night talking to and retweeting his harshest critics. One woman he retweeted said she had lost respect for him and 500 Startups.

Now, personal attacks are one thing, but calling out the company is another. Again, it would have been easy for Dave to ignore or dismiss this tweet about his accelerator, which had nothing to do with his personal Twitter account. Instead, he gave his critic a platform and announced to all his followers that the 500 Startups brand was being doubted.

Throughout the evening, Dave asked questions and tried to understand the criticism. I don’t know of anyone who thinks he’s sexist, but he quickly admitted that if he offended one woman, he might very well have chosen his words incorrectly.

Which leads us to the next lesson:

‘Fess up and try to fix it

Immediately, Dave admitted that he could have been wrong. He explained what he meant, but he listened to the people criticizing him and learned from how they felt. After a couple of hours of this, he tweeted:

Same heart, different words. After understanding the problem, Dave didn’t try to defend himself or stand his ground. He changed his wording so that the most women would hear the message.

He ‘fessed up and tried to fix it. (Here’s looking at you, Snapchat.)

The other lesson learned from Dave McClure about good PR? A little controversy goes a long way. You all know about the Women 2.0 PITCH event now, don’t you.

Shopify Kicks Off 2014 by Going Mobile

Yesterday Canada-based Shopify announced the launch of Shopify Mobile.

The new app allows merchants to manage their store from their phone. From posting products through the app to completing the sale, the idea is to allow merchants to manage their store from anywhere.

The app isn’t just for small merchants, either. It’s fully integrated with Shopify POS, which allows physical stores to use the service. The new Shopify Mobile will give retailers the ability to modify descriptions and inventory in-store, as well as become a second register on busy days.

“With Shopify Mobile we’ve completely overhauled our popular iOS app and baked in some exciting new features that are going to help you increase sales–right from the palm of your hand,” the company says on its blog. “This is an important step forwards toward creating a commerce platform that enables our merchants to sell their products anywhere, whether it’s online, in the store, or on the go.”

(For those who are interested, the Android app is coming soon.)

Shopify already powers thousands of online stores, allowing merchants access to all the tools they need to design and market their digital storefront. The platform can be used by small at-home businesses or large companies looking to go online. Merchants can choose from a variety of plans, starting at $14/month for someone who is just exploring e-commerce. Some of Shopify’s largest customers include Tesla Motors, Gatorade, and Amnesty International.

This blending of small sellers and big commerce is what makes Shopify such a valuable company. And, investors definitely see the benefits. Last month they announced a $100 million Series C round, which added OMERS Ventures and Insight Venture Partners to previous investors Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital, Georgian Partners, and Felicis Ventures.

The growth of mobile is all the buzz, but there hasn’t been much evidence that startups are actually developing for the platform. With startups like Shopify launching big on mobile now, the move from desktop may actually becoming more of a reality.