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News Corp Buys Social News Agency Storyful For $25 Million

Stop me if you’ve heard this one:

An American company, an Irish company, and a British billionaire walk into a bar…

We all know what happens next, right?

On Friday, Rupert Murdoch’s New Corp announced the acquisition of Dublin startup Storyful, a social news agency that collects real time content from users and figures out what’s real and verifiable. Then, they buy and license that content to news agencies, providing them with user generated content they can actually trust. (Warning, if you click through to the Storyful website, take some Dramamine first. Trust me.)

We’ve all seen–and complained about–news reporting during big crises. During the Boston Marathon bombing, CNN wrongfully reported an arrest hours before one was really made, a move that could have endangered citizens of Boston. Last year, when tragedy hit Sandy Hook Elementary School, news organizations misidentified the shooter, accusing the wrong brother. And that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

These kinds of mistakes are common in 24/7 news media because everyone is trying to be first, and that can cause carelessness.

Storyful founder and CEO Mark Little see the problem in a different way, though. Sure, there’s a lot of social media noise around the news, but that actually gives journalism a new layer of reality.

“I watched the Arab Spring unfold on YouTube and saw an authenticity I had rarely seen on TV news,” Little writes on the Storyful website. He goes on to say, “Storyful is dedicated to helping news and communications professionals everywhere use social media to make their newsgathering, reporting and storytelling shine.”

And now they’ll be doing that from under the News Corp umbrella.

The plan is for Storyful to continue to run as a separate business unit, operating from its home in Dublin. The company will continue to license content to its current clients, including News Corp competitors like the BBC and ABC News.

Robert Thomson, Chief Executive at News Corp, said this in a statement:

“Storyful has become the village square of valuable video, using journalistic sensibility, integrity and creativity to find, authenticate and commercialise user-generated content. Through this acquisition, we can extend the village square beyond borders, languages and platforms.”

The acquisition will also allow Storyful to expand its products and services.

“We will be working to productise the core discovery technology that powers Storyful,” Little told me in an email. “We want to build the tools that power all social newsrooms. We are also focusing in 2014 on brand newsrooms, developing content solutions for the marketing, advertising and PR industries.”

Now, it’s no secret that Rupert Murdoch and News Corp aren’t always very popular. A simple Google search will show you that. In particular, many feel that News Corp cares more about getting a story out than making sure they report the truth, which could stand in contrast to Storyful’s efforts to verify everything.

As I researched, I noticed some pretty disdainful comments on the Storyful blog about the acquisition and asked Little about them. He (digitally) shrugged it off.

“I’m really happy with the reaction to our news, which has been overwhelmingly positive. I’ve seen the generalisations about News Corp that don’t correspond with the reality I’ve come to know. Again and again, every News Corp executive I’ve met stresses the importance of the verification work we do. Nothing changes on that front.”

How To Get Your Content Shared

Tailwind

What’s one of the best parts about marketing and sharing content online? This content has the potential to go viral, which means you have a chance at some free publicity plus the chance at reaching users that you wouldn’t normally reach.

While that sounds great, it’s a lot easier said than done. You may find yourself wondering why the awesome content you’re creating isn’t getting as many shares as you would have hoped. Obviously, having solid content that is worth sharing is important, but there is more to it than that. We’ve provided a few tips that you can follow in order to get a kick-start on getting your content shared. Keep reading to get the ball rolling!

Draw Them in With Your Visuals

There’s a reason you keep hearing that people are drawn to visual content online. Time after time, it’s been proven that people interact most with posts that include great visuals. So go ahead and add big, high quality photographs, infographics, and other great images to your work. Even if your company isn’t a part of the most visual industry, you can still easily pull quotes from your content to create graphics for users to pin, tweet or share. Just make sure to combine the right amount of text and graphics so that your audience is drawn in, while knowing what the content has in store for them. If something is able to catch your audience’s eyes, they’ll believe that it will catch their friends’ eyes as well.

Encourage Feedback

Any time that you share something, encourage feedback from your fans on what they liked, what they think you could do differently or any other comments they might have. Not only will this encourage more buzz and conversation centered on you and your topic, but also it will make your fans feel like they have helped you and been a part of your thought process, as if they have a stake in your brand. This makes it much more likely that they will want to share the things that you generate in the future with their own audiences.

Volunteer to Write Guest Blogs

A great way to introduce yourself to a new audience, is by creating content for other sites. Reach out to other companies, create alliances and offer to produce a guest blog here and there. This will be a great chance to network with other brands and create connections that can lead to more helping and shares in the future. Plus, as we said earlier, it will get your information out to a broader audience, while providing the potential for even more people to see and share it.

Show Appreciation

So, someone has interacted with your content… your job with them must be done right? Wrong. Marketing online is about more than getting one share or like. It’s about fostering long-term relationships with your audience. One share is great, but developing a relationship with your audience members that compels them to share even more of your content is better. You’d be surprised how far a simple, well thought out comment or thank you goes with someone who has interacted with your brand. It provides them with the incentive to interact more and more. Another great way to show appreciation? Check out their website or profile to see if you can share anything of theirs to return the favor.

Remember, all of these items are important, but don’t ever sacrifice the quality of your work. Whatever information you put out there should be correct, helpful, and consistent with your brand voice. That (along with the tips above) will give your content a great shot at reaching all types of people.

*This post originally appeared on the Tailwind blog.

14 Hot Gifts For Your Co-founder

We don’t demand much in the startup world. Pizza. Coffee. $1 billion exit. Really, we’re very easy to please.

But come Christmas you might want to find a little something special for your ~~ever-present pain-in-the-ass~~. Er, co-founder. I mean, you’ve put them through a lot in the last year. Late night meltdowns, last minute product changes, schizophrenic phone calls that are both wildly jubilant and overwhelmingly depressed. (I know, y’all are feeling a little sorry for Nick right now, aren’t ya?)

Anyway, here are a few things to consider when picking a gift for the people who got you here:

Is it cheap? The exception, of course, is if you just closed a huge funding round. Then it’s time to pony up, cheapskate.
Is it personal? You know these people as well as–or better than?–their spouses do. Generic gifts won’t cut it.
Is it funny? A few laughs will always lighten the mood, and funny gifts will keep giving throughout the year.

Okay, with those guidelines in mind, here are our 12 gift ideas for your co-founders:

1. Coupons–Real, actual coupons or the homemade “good for a bottle of Scotch when we hit it big” variety. Cheap, and you can make them as personal or funny as you like!

2. Startup t-shirts from weBRAND—My personal favorite is here. They have lots of pithy sayings about startup life that will have you all nodding your heads.

3. Access to Vooza—Yeah, this is totally free, but remove the hassle by putting in your co-founder’s email address for them. They’ll thank you, I promise.

4. Everywhere Else Memphis tickets–Sign up for our newsletter to get first dibs on discounted tickets. It’ll be the best thing you do for your startup in 2014.

5. A flask–These vary in price, but they’re easily personalized and made funny. And, what better accessory for ~~spring break~~ SXSW?

6. A good bottle of bourbon–For that flask, y’all. Alternately, you can just have a company party and finish off the bourbon. That’ll make some memories.

7. iTunes gift cards–While gift cards may not seem personal, they can often be the best gifts. If you have some spare cash, throw in a new pair of ear buds so you don’t have to listen to their crappy music anymore.

8. A new whiteboard–This one’s obvious, right?

9. Equity

10. Or a paycheck might be nice.

11. A surprise meeting with Fred Wilson–You’ll be the favorite co-founder for all eternity.

12. Forget your co-founder and give a lavish gift to their significant other. Let’s face it. You kinda owe them, don’t you?

13. Your favorite startup audiobook they’ve been refusing to listen to. It probably won’t come off as passive-aggressive…

14. Therapy–So, this ain’t cheap, but let’s face it. It’s one of those gifts they really need and won’t get for themselves.

The actual gift doesn’t really matter, though. The most important thing this time of year is to let your co-founders know how awesome you think they are and how you couldn’t do this without them. That way, hopefully, they’ll stick around next year, too!

While y’all are at it, can someone please let Nick know he can’t go wrong with jewelry or bourbon? Thanks!

AIRTAME Blows Past Crowdfunding Goal To Create Wireless HDMI

Recently, I a friend of mine was crowdfunding his next album on Kickstarter. The page debuted, and we all watched anxiously for a month as the funds trickled in. He was always relaxed and calm about it, but his wife would quietly tell me, “I’m so worried!”

The final day of the campaign, Seth still lacked almost half his goal. My husband and I were traveling at the time, but I kept the campaign site pulled up on my phone and hit refresh somewhat obsessively. We were out having drinks with friends when I interrupted the conversation, wildly bouncing in my seat and waving my phone in my husband’s face.

“They did it!!” I yelled, right there in the lobby of the fanciest hotel in town. “They reached their goal!!”

(Don’t worry. I ignored the stares.)

My friend’s story isn’t uncommon. Most crowdfunding campaigns fail, and I’ve personally witnessed several succeed, but come right down to the wire.

That’s not the story for these guys.

The Copenhagen-based startup is making a wireless HDMI dongle that will stream content from your computer to your TV. With 29 days left in their Indiegogo campaign, they’ve already almost doubled their goal.

AIRTAME looks a lot like Chromecast. Like the Google product, it plugs into the TV and uses Wifi to stream content. Chromecast can pull content from smartphones and tablets, but AIRTAME doesn’t have that capability. Yet, anyway.

However, AIRTAME does allow for wireless connections to projectors and to other PCs. Use cases for this include the ability to see a professor’s presentation right on your computer while you take notes or the ability to share presentations across screens during a meeting.

“We believe that everyone should be able to connect to the TV in the living room or the projector in the conference room–wirelessly,” co-founder Brian Kyed said in a statement announcing the Indiegogo campaign. “Therefore AIRTAME works with Mac, Windows, and Linux–so no one is left to use screen cables anymore.”

Considering the massive amount of support AIRTAME has received, it’s a safe bet there’s some demand for their product. Of course, reaching your goal does not a successful campaign make. Many hardware companies hit snags when it comes time to deliver, and we have yet to see if AIRTAME will fall in that camp.

There’s also the whole competing with Google and Apple thing. Not impossible, but very, very hard. My favorite in the TV streaming race is Apple TV because of the licensing deals they are working out with companies like Disney and ESPN. I also kind of love that it’s not dependent on my computer.

AIRTAME could really stand out, though, if they let the TV streaming thing go and focus on the business, classroom, and presentation uses of the product. None of the competition works quite the same way.

The Indiegogo campaign is still live, and last time I checked they still had a few openings in the beta test. That particular perk sold out so fast, they decided to open up another round of it.

5 Predictions For Equity Crowdfunding In 2014

Equity crowdfunding (ECF) will change considerably by the end of 2014. The introduction of Title II of the JOBS Act on September 23, 2013 gave entrepreneurs the ability to publicly advertise their need for funding. Title III is expected to become law in the spring of 2014 and will provide entrepreneurs with a much greater investor pool, as unaccredited investors will then be able to participate in ECF.

Once the JOBS Act is passed in its entirety, ECF will become the predominate method entrepreneurs use to raise capital for their endeavors. With these major shifts in the financial markets, some important occurrences are predicted to emerge throughout the year, with the top five being listed below.

2014 Predictions in Crowdfunding

1) Up to $1 billion in equity transactions will occur worldwide in 2014 based on industry trends from the past two years.

The 2013 crowdfunding report by Massolution stated that around $5.1 billion in transactions occurred globally in 2013. That’s around a 100 percent increase from 2012 when $2.6 billion was raised. The report also stated that $204 million was from ECF. Assuming that the global crowdfunding market will again experience a 100 percent growth rate next year, and regulations will allow for more people to participate in ECF, ECF could produce between $500 million to $1 billion transactions in 2014. This is especially true as more investors realize the potential ROI in ECF.

2) Equity crowdfunding will become a global phenomenon as countries begin to utilize it to maintain their economic competitiveness.

In some countries such as Finland, the United Kingdom, and Italy, ECF is already legal. The United States is also well on its way to legalizing ECF by adopting Title III of the JOBS Act. This law will allow almost any investor to participate in ECF sometime next year. Global participation in ECF will eventually occur as more countries develop laws to deal with the legal matters revolving around ECF.

A new report produced by Richard Schwartz for the World Bank estimates that the annual total market potential of the entire crowdfunding industry would average around $300 billion by 2025. China’s potential could reach $47.6 billion, while Europe and central Asia could reach $13.8 billion.

3) Title III of the JOBS Act will be implemented by the SEC by mid-year in the US, but will be slowly embraced by the industry due to its complexities for platforms and users.

The SEC proposed rules for Title III of the JOBS act on October 23rd. Once approved, it will allow non-accredited investors to participate in equity crowdfunding. Title III will introduce a new crowd to ECF; however, due to regulations and limits on how much an entrepreneur can raise, it will not be used as much as Title II in 2014. For example, it is likely that entrepreneurs who use Title III will only be able to raise $1 million in funding, and crowdfunding platforms will be required to register with the SEC. Title III will eventually be noted as a major milestone for the crowdfunding industry, just not in 2014.

4) In North America, more than half of companies using equity crowdfunding platforms will use the new Title II rule to advertise their need for funding.

Title II of the JOBS Act was introduced earlier this year on September 23, 2013. It lifted the 80-year-old ban on general solicitation, allowing business owners to publicly advertise their need for funding. According to EquityNet’s data, about half of the new companies listed on the site are utilizing Title II to reach a broader audience of investors. More entrepreneurs will likely begin to adopt this rule in 2014.

5) Many ECF platforms will no longer be in operation by the end of 2014.

The market share will eventually gravitate to the leading platforms with the largest populations and most advanced crowdfunding tools. This means that as 2014 progresses, the industry will experience a shakeout. Some sites may have difficulty complying with new regulations. Other sites may decide may wait for regulations to become finalized. Either way, situations like these are challenging for any company operating in the crowdfunding industry. In fact, sites like fimbex and crowddiligence are already no longer in operation. More will follow by the end of 2014.

Judd Hollas is a pioneer in the field of crowdfunding with multiple patents granted for web-based capital marketplace systems. He is the founder and chief inventor of EquityNet and continues to lead the Company’s efforts to create and introduce innovative new products and services.

Fred Wilson Tells The Secret To Landing His Investment

When you’re talking about top tier venture capital firms, you can’t really leave out Union Square Ventures. The New York firm has invested in some pretty big names: Twitter, Foursquare, Etsy, Kickstarter…

Actually, that list could continue for the rest of this article, and I still wouldn’t name all the strong companies USV has invested in. Yet, despite a long list of impressive investments, the firm only hands out money to roughly 8-10 companies a year.

So, how does a startup get the attention of a top tier VC firm like Union Square?

Thanks to blogging, speaking investors like USV’s Managing Partner Fred Wilson, that’s actually not hard to discover anymore. But, last week, Wilson gave a talk at Le Web that outlined their investment strategy.

Ok, so he was supposed to talk about his predictions for the future.

“As if I had a crystal ball or something,” he told the audience.

Instead, Wilson outlined the 3 major trends he is watching and the 4 areas within to those trends that he’s particularly interested in. Right there, on the stage of LeWeb, Wilson made it very clear what his investment goals are. And, since he’s investing real money in these areas, it’s safe to assume they are where he expects to see massive growth in the next 10 years.

Wanna know what they are?

Networks
Undbundling
Smartphones

Networks:

Wilson is very bullish on networks, and he started with the analogy of old newspapers. Editors decided what to cover, assigned reporters, and reporters got the stories. Now, thanks to networks like Twitter, people decide what’s news and what isn’t.

Besides media and content, though, he points out other industries that are now being disrupted by networks: hotels by Airbnb, Hollywood by Kickstarter, and education by Codecademy and the like.

Unbundling:

“People are starting to deliver much more focused services–best of breed services–and you can buy them a al carte.”

Wilson pointed again to newspapers, which used to house all the global, national, and local news one person could want in a day. Now, of course, we go to many different sites that focus on being the best in their given vertical.

He then talks about several industries that are experiencing unbundling: banking, education, and entertainment.

Smartphones:

Well, obviously. Mobile is exploding (well, maybe not yet). But, it’s going to. Wilson calls us all a “node on the network,” and in a hand-raising poll of the audience, most attendees would choose to have only their smartphone, if they had to choose between that and a computer.

The connection of the “nodes on the network” impact industries like transportation (Hailo), banking (Dwolla), and even dating (Tinder).

There, on the stage of Le Web, Wilson laid out all the “secrets” to getting in with Union Square Ventures. If you have a startup that’s innovating in one of these big trends, it looks like you have some phone calls to make.

Scrappy Startup Exhibit A: Freshdesk

It’s kind of an “Are you kidding me?” story.

A couple of years ago Girish Mathrubootham was just browsing Hacker News when he came across a comment complaining about customer service platform Zendesk. The commenter pointed out that there was a huge opportunity for someone to swoop in and take away Zendesk’s market dominance.

A couple of months later he and his new cofounder Shan Krishnasamy quit their comfy jobs and committed to Freshdesk full time. They brought 4 other employees with them, even though they had raised no money at that point. Before long they built a product, incorporated in the US, and raised some capital from Accel Partners and Tiger Global. The company built out a platform that allowed companies to offer exceptional customer service with a lot less internal hassle.

Things were going spiffy.

Until, last December when someone hopped on Twitter and called the company an “unethical troll.” In several weird twists, another Twitter user attacked Freshdesk’s Indian ethnicity, the CEO of Zendesk jumped in and called the 6 month old competitor a “rip-off,” and it was discovered that the original attacker was actually a blogger paid by Zendesk.

Okaaayy…

I’ll hand it to Freshdesk, though. A little controversy never seems to hurt, and the blatant attacks from their biggest competitor did nothing to dampen their 2013. This year Freshdesk unveiled a freemium model, swearing that prices would never change, and announced free services certain startups. (Including, by the way, all attendees from Everywhere Else Cincinnati.)

In 2013, the young company also announced that they had reached 10,000 customers. Those enterprise customers include companies like Goodreads, Hugo Boss, Stanford School of Medicine, The Atlantic, and Pearson.

I can imagine that many of the founders’ friends and family thought they were crazy for quitting comfortable jobs to explore this idea. (We’ve all been there, haven’t we?)

It seems the gamble is paying off for Freshdesk, though. They still aren’t quite as big as their rival, which is rumored to be considering an IPO next year. But, they obviously have the bigger company running a little scared if Zendesk is attacking them so publicly.

Not that Freshdesk seems too worried. They just keep delivering a great product and giving back to the startup community. Sometimes it doesn’t matter if you’re first in an industry, as long as you’re the best.

Are We Looking At The Next Snapchat?

Hey, have you heard the one about the startup that’s been at it for 5 years without raising significant money? Then, they close a $3 million Series A from Asia’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, on the exact day their new mobile app hits #1 in the App Store.

Oh, and they didn’t actually have to pitch that investor from Horizons Ventures because he came to them.

That’s the true story of Bitstrips, the popular Facebook app that’s been clogging your feed with personalized comic strips.

When I hopped on a call with CEO Jacob “BA” Blackstock, I congratulated him on the round and all the buzz they’d gotten lately. I commented on the crazy week or so he must be having.

“Yeah,” he laughed. “But I finally got some sleep, so that’s good.”

Blackstock has been drawing since he was six, and he remembers making comics with and of his friends as he grew up. Consider it an analog version of the current Bitstrips product. The current digital product has been around in some form for 5 years or so and experienced some popularity. In fact, Horizons Ventures’ Li Ka-shing was an avid Bitstrips user, which is why he wanted to invest in the first place.

The picture above is an excerpt of the startup’s comic-strip blog post from last week.

Then they decided to go mobile.

The launch was executed in stealth mode. In fact, the team launched Android first and saw a few downloads, but nothing outrageous. A month later, the app appeared in the App Store.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Almost overnight Bitstrips was the #1 app not just in the US, but in 40 countries. (And, no, it hasn’t even been translated from English yet.) Within 2 months there were 30 million avatars created, and millions of Bitstrips are made every day. Even some well-known news anchors are getting in on the fun.

“It amazes me that we haven’t even translated it yet, but people all over the world are using it,” Blackstock told me.

Needless to say, the team in Toronto that launched an app in stealth mode wasn’t quite ready to handle the growth.

At first they experienced some challenges with servers and such. Then the complaints started coming in from Facebook users. Feeds were now filling up with random Bitstrips comics. The app was so popular, users were using it too much!

What a problem to have.

Now, with funding in the bank, Blackstock is focusing on building the team and updating the app. They have already expanded the sharing options to include Twitter, Instagram, and text, as well as released some holiday comics that can be customized.

According to Mashable, Bitstrips is following a “users now, monetize later” strategy. Since most consumer-facing apps take this approach, it’s certainly a familiar play. For now, Blackstock and the Bitstrips team see it as a way for people to connect with each other in a new and interesting way, which also sounds vaguely familiar.

Is it possible we’ve already found the next Snapchat?

5 Obvious (But Overlooked) Ways To Deliver Great Customer Service

Craig Baldwin, Sqrl

Just Doing Your Job

Glad that’s out of the way.

Good, great, even amazing client service is not black and white. Above average client service results from a willingness and interest that each accountant or professional has in their client’s well-being, experience, and results. According to the American Express 2012 Customer Service Barometer 66% of clients are willing to spend more with a business they believe is delivering excellent client service. The same report indicates 48% of people tell others about good client service all the time. 57% always tell their friends about poor service. If you mess up, word will travel fast. Just thank the world of social media for that one.

Professionals who deliver client service make their living on that one thing. And just like customer service, brands and businesses thrive when service of all kinds is more connected and personal. Delivering good client service is all about going beyond, adding just a little bit extra each and every time. Here’s 5 tips on delivering good client service from our team:

1. Send a surprise to each new client

First impressions are huge. At our accounting firm, we used to send cupcakes to every new client. But choose anything that’d be a nice surprise to your client. Last week we received bow-ties from a new contact. Bow-ties!

2. Be proactive on potential issues

It’s one of the most painful things to do when serving clients, but letting them be aware of issues or potential issues as soon as possible is always the way to go. It shows integrity, honesty, and how much you care about the success of their company or project. Just like ripping off band-aids, count to 3 and rip off at 2!

3. When problems arise, make it an opportunity

The first action at any restaurant when you have an underwhelming experience is to have an item removed from the bill. Perfect! But it’s almost commonplace these days, so in order to really get your attention the server would have to one-up a free appetizer. While breakdowns can be scary, and sometime results in a loss of client, they can also be a total game-changer for the relationship if you give it your best shot.

4. Be personal

Handwritten notes, family conversations, and beers with clients is always an impactful experience. Take away the work at-hand and you have two people who have to deal with each other socially. You can’t make friends with every client, and some won’t want to, but it always makes the relationship that much better.

5. Set expectations upfront

So many issues begin with miscommunication, which can typically be avoided by setting engagement or project expectations upfront. Because life is always easier when everyone is on the same page.

Craig Baldwin loves delicious BBQ and cool tech.

A version of this post was originally posted on the Sqrl blog.

Toronto-Based Slyce Raises $6 Million To Help You Shop

Does this ever happen to you:

You see someone with something you’d like to own, but when you get online to search for it, you can’t quite articulate what it was?

With the new Slyce platform, you can just snap a picture of the item and find out where to purchase it. In a lot of cases, you’ll also be able to buy it right away.

While this sounds cool from a consumer standpoint, think about what this could mean for retailers. Suddenly, shoppers can find you more easily than ever before, right when they are in the mood to buy what you’re selling. For the niche, unique retailers, a platform like Slyce could mean a huge boost in business.

We’ve talked about the Big Instincts Group before. If even one of their most recent bets pan out, they’ll definitely be a company to watch.

Our Q&A with the Slyce team is below:

What does your company do?

Slyce is a visual search platform that allows Users to instantly purchase items in the real world simply by taking a picture with their smartphone.

Slyce will exist as both an independent consumer application, and a white label solution which can be integrated with existing retailer technologies. Using advanced visual recognition on smartphones as well as through a desktop application, Slyce is enabling retailers to be there at a consumers exact point of interest and ultimately changing the way retailers and consumers search and purchase items.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Cameron Chell and Erika Racicot are Co-founders of Slyce and are also co-founders of venture-creation firm, Business Instincts Group . The pair have been working together for over 5 years. Cameron is considered one of the original founders of the Application Service Provider industry, and founded the original cloud computing company, FutureLink. Erika is the operational driver at Slyce and has a background in operations and marketing, working in industries ranging from technology to hospitality to politics.

Where are you based?

Slyce’s headquarters is located in Toronto, but they also have offices in Minneapolis and Calgary.

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

The Toronto startup scene is arguably the largest in Canada. There is a strong, supportive community with incubators, accelerators, events, meetups and genuinely smart and innovative people. There are a numerous great startups which call Toronto home, and we’re excited to be involved in that community.

What problem do you solve?

For any consumer who has seen something they love and then struggled to clearly articulate that item in a search query, Slyce visual product search is the multi-dimensional and intuitive answer to their prayers. For retailers, the Slyce image recognition technology can be adapted in innumerable ways to facilitate all kinds of innovative functionality. For the first time, Slyce enables retailers to engage and transact with consumers at their very point of interest.

Why now?

Smartphones are becoming our most trusted and adored possession and taking pictures with them, part of our daily life. Approximately 350 million photographs are uploaded just to Facebook every day! People take pictures of items they want, or clothes they like, and with the Slyce platform we help them discover where exactly they can purchase that item and enable them to do so almost instantaneously. The way the offering is structured means Slyce competes both in the visual search arena, and the social shopping sector. With mobile shopping accounting for 39% of all online traffic during this holiday season, there is a clear opportunity to get deeply involved and grow the shopping experience.

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

Over the past 12 months Slyce has raised just over $6 Million in financing and just last week announced the acquisition of another visual search tech startup, Hovr.it.

What are your next milestones?

Upcoming milestones will be in customer acquisition and product development. We will be closing another round of financing early in 2014 and are currently looking to expand our Toronto team in order to scale quickly and effectively.

The Gig City Launches National CO.STARTERS Program

Small business is the backbone of our economy.

We’ve all heard it. Over and over (and over) again. But is it true?

Earlier this fall a report from the Kauffmann Foundation suggested that it may not be. Tech companies do actually drive economic growth, so that’s good news for the startup ecosystem. But, we all know what a risky game starting up is, and we can’t always trust that tech companies will continue to grow like they have in recent years.

Still, startup founders and investors have learned a lot about developing businesses. Wouldn’t it be great if we could apply some of those lessons to other segments of the economy? The term “intrapreneur” defines employees of large corporations that push for innovation and change. Is there something similar for small businesses?

There will be soon, if the CO.STARTERS program in Chattanooga, TN has anything to say about it. Last month the program, based out of startup engine The Company Lab, announced a national expansion of their brand of small business development.

“There is a new approach to business in the high-growth startup world,” CO.STARTERS Director Enoch Elwell said in a statement. “Through CO.STARTERS we’ve adapted and applied those highly effective proven methods to micro-business, bringing together a community where these founders can thrive.”

Those of us in the startup world almost consider these techniques cliche now. Things like the lean startup method, customer-focused iteration, pivoting quickly to meet market demand–these things are so common they’re not even really debated any more. But that’s not true for the small business world, where entrepreneurs can labor for years before realizing they’ve missed the market.

With the national launch, CO.STARTERS is offering its curriculum in 3 different formats. The core curriculum covers the basics of business building, regardless of location. The urban and rural (coming soon) take that core curriculum and add in layers that will address the unique situations in each of those areas.

The CO.STARTERS program has already been adopted in cities around the country like Phoenix, Cincinnati, and Fort Wayne, Indiana. To find out more about CO.STARTERS check out their website.

Mobile First? Apparently Not In 2013, According To Mattermark

I love helping our clients look for promising deals, and I’m starting to recognize certain patterns for exceptional signals of growth that go beyond what our UI exposes in an obvious way. The most surprising thing the data has revealed lately is how few startups have widely used mobile applications.

Of the 200,000+ companies in our database just 6,386 received a mobile growth score, indicating they are or have been ranked in Apple’s iOS App Store in the United States sometime in the past six months. Of this group, only 1,180 are the flagship application of a venture-backed company.

Context: Challenges of Building Product for Mobile

Investing in the growing mobile startups is highly competitive, but finding a promising deal feels a lot like searching for a needle in a haystack. For all the noise being made about going “mobile first” this strategy doesn’t seem to be working (or happening) at the majority of companies we are tracking. Andrew Chen’s piece from August 2012, which went viral again earlier this week, titled “Mobile App Startups Are Failing Like Its 1999″ explains the challenge:

Startups today have a super high bar for initial quality in their version 1. They also want to make a big press release about it, to drive traffic, since there’s really no other approach to succeed in mobile. And so we see startups burn 1/3 to 1/2 of their seed round before they release anything, it becomes really dangerous when the initial launch inevitably fails to catch fire. Then the rest of the funding isn’t enough to do a substantive update.

Context: Challenges of Distributing Products for Mobile

Relatively few startups have applications that are ranked in the App Store, and those who do often spend significant marketing dollars to keep them there. For early stage folks without that kind of budget anything short of an immediate hit will struggle for exposure, while an organic hit can catapult these companies to multi-billion dollar valuations seemingly overnight.

Here are the top 10 fastest growing mobile apps of EVERYTHING we are tracking, based on the Mattermark mobile growth score:

Bitstrips [MM: 669] – Turn yourself into a cartoon character, make comic strips to share with friends. (No known funding)
Notegraphy [MM: 852] – combine words and graphics to create beautiful notes to share (July 2013 $260K seed round)
24me [MM: 378] – automate your calendar and tasks (No known funding)
Paprika [MM: 338] – recipe management (No known funding)
Vinted [MM: 1699] – P2P marketplace for clothes (No known funding)
Bandcamp [MM: 239] – publishing platform for musicians (December $10 Series A from True Ventures, unknown amount)
uSpeak [MM: 67] – mobile language learning (July 2012 Seed round from Great Oak Ventures Capital, undisclosed amount)
Anomo [MM: 65] – anonymous social networking app (June 2013 $355K seed round)
TheFind [MM: 369] – mobile ecommerce (July 2007 $15M Series C from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures and Bain Capital Ventures)
SaveUp [MM: 156] – rewards for saving money and paying off debt (July 2012 $5M Series A by True Ventures and BlueRun Ventures, $7M total funding to date)

While many debate the accuracy of these valuations, they are missing the broader point. Few startups know how to do mobile distribution at a price point that makes sense for advertising-supported (or zero revenue) consumer applications, so anything short of a massive breakout hit carries the risk of ending up a huge money-pit for marketing dollars.

What About B2B Mobile Applications?

Ah yes, these rare unicorns. With my fantasy mobile fund I would aggressively go after any B2B mobile application with the slightest hint of organic traction and some previous funding (but not more than $10M) – these criteria whittle the list down to just 147 companies, and if you only want positive mobile growth scores the list is reduced further to just 40 prospects.

I think this is where we’ll find our next unicorns. Want to check some of them out? Here are top 10 on my list for B2B applications on the iPhone, ranked by Mattermark’s mobile growth score:

CoTap [MM: 751] – workplace mobile messaging (May 2013 $5.5M Series A from Charles River Ventures & Emergence Capital Partners)
Droplr [MM: 513] – simple secure file sharing for business (October 2013 $478K seed round lead by Seven Peak Ventures)
Spotflux [MM: 294] – mobile security (March 2012 $1M Series A from New Atlantic Ventures and Kima Ventures)
ClassDojo [MM: 1308] – behavior feedback platform for teachers and students (August 2012 $1.6M seed round from Ron Conway, Kapor Capital, StartFund, General Catalyst, Lerer Ventures, NewSchools Venture Fund and SoftTech VC)
Attendify [MM: 667] – event attendee engagement app (September 2013 $200K seed round)
Certify [MM: 38] – travel and expense management for SMBs (October 2009 $1.9M angel round from Irving Levin, Joe Proto, Esther Dyson, and William Benedict)
Weekdone [MM: 431] – team task management dashboard (November 2013 $200K round from Kima Ventures, $360K raised to date)
QuickMobile [MM: 442] – enterprise event management and planning (May 2013 $3.2M round from BDC Venture Capital, total funding $8.8M to date)
LightArrow [MM: 28] – organization applications (March 2013 $1M seed round)
FullContact [MM: 578] – contact information management (July 2012 $7M Series B from 500 Startups, Foundry Group and David Cohen, $8.8M total raised to date)

Testing out a B2B mobile application can be tough, because it requires much more effort to get going. Unlike consumer apps, where at least some of your friends have likely already joined, with B2B applications you are often the first one. Loading in tasks, projects, schedules, plans, goals, and then getting someone else in the work context to test it out with you can pose a challenge. To fill in the UI and actually get a “real” testing experience takes more time than making a profile and posting a silly picture… and so most people won’t. Which is why for investors willing to expend the time and attention, these types of applications offer an unfair advantage.

mattermark

Do you invest in mobile startups? Purchase our Mobile Startup Report for $999 to receive a spreadsheet of 6,386 startups with mobile growth scores. Data points include app store rankings, estimated downloads, investors, investment amounts and dates, growth stats for web and social, industry categorization and more. BUY REPORT >>

Danielle Morrill is the co-founder and CEO of Mattermark, the Bloomberg for startup investors. Mattermark tracks the growth signals of more than 200,000 private comapnies. The Mattermark newsletter is also one of Nibletz’s top 5 resources for startup newbies.

*This post originally appeared on the Mattermark blog.

TiqIQ, the Kayak for Ticket Sales, Launches On Mobile

Last week Rafat Ali posted on LinkedIn about “mediata” startups. Mediata startups combine data and media:

“What if data *is* media?” Ali asks.

New York-based TiqIQ has been operating along those lines since 2009. The company works as a ticket selling platform for live events around the country. TiqIQ aggregates the best prices across several secondary platforms like eBay, TicketsNow, Vivid Seats, ScorBig and primary sellers like Ticketmaster.

“Think Kayak.com for live events,” VP of Marketing Brett House told me over the phone. “We scour the web for the best tickets available so fans don’t have to. All they have to do is show up and have a good time!”

TiqIQ utilizes the ticket market pricing data to produce original content on events and fan-demand. They are able to see trends across the market, going back as far as 5 years. The articles are then published across their network of 1,500 fan blogs and websites, like this article on the crazy Iron Bowl that put Auburn in the SEC Championship game.

Their publishing partners are impressive, including Forbes.com, Bleacher Report, Grantland, Huffington Post, Village Voice Media (with 14 properties nationwide), and high affinity sites, like the largest SEC blog in the country: Saturday Down South.

TiqIQ has seen lots of growth since its inception and landed a $1.7 million Series A early last year. Now they’re looking to grow even more with the launch of a new mobile site.

Actually, the site launched quietly about 3 months ago. Since then, they’ve seen a 303% growth in the mobile conversion rate and double the overall traffic. In just 3 months.

I’d say that’s “high growth.”

The fully responsive mobile site is clean and simple. You can allow it to see your location and immediately pull up all the local events. Just like on the website, you can also personalize the mobile site so that you only see sports or events you’re actually interested in. (Yes to football games. No to basketball. Just for instance.)

Of course, it makes complete sense that mobile ticket sales would do well. Mobile shopping overall is having a year, and as consumers get more comfortable (and the experience gets better) TiqIQ can only expect that to grow.

Which is why in the next couple of months they’ll also add content to the mobile site. They are going for that extra “stickiness” that will keep fans on the site long enough to buy tickets after reading about how scarce they are to a particular event.

So now TiqIQ is not only a media/data company but also a content/commerce company. Two hot trends that find a pretty interesting home in live event ticket sales.

TiqIQ doesn’t have the name recognition of, say, StubHub, but the disdain in House’s voice as we talked about the competition indicates that they aren’t too worried about that.

And let’s face it, with growth like that and more features to roll out, the guys at TiqIQ probably aren’t worried about too much these days.

Except maybe which bowl game to go.

Tech Companies Call For Government Reform–And It’s About Damn Time

Reform government surveillance

Last night a website called Reformed Government Surveillance went up, supposedly signed by the biggest names in our business.

AOL
Facebook
Google
LinkedIn
Microsoft
Twitter
Yahoo

The big tech companies called for responsibility on the part of the government, outlining 5 principles that they think will keep the government accountable.

Limiting governments’ authority to collect users’ information
Oversight and accountability
Transparency about government demands
Respecting the free flow of information
Avoiding conflicts among governments

This matters to you as a user of all these networks, because while the government still claims to be looking for terrorists, it’s not hard to imagine a future in which it uses our information for other means. (Dystopian fiction, anyone?)

It also matters to the Nibletz community because we are a group of founders and investors that inherently aren’t a part of the big companies who signed this letter. As our startups grow, the government is likely to turn to our data just as it does to the companies listed above. If they–with their money and manpower–don’t have the political will to resist government intrusion, how will the young guys be able to do it?

But–there’s always a but, isn’t there?–let’s also remember that these are companies, not benevolent individuals. None of these companies, except maybe Twitter, are really considered “innocent” when it comes to users’ data, and plenty of people are skeptical of the amount of information profit-seeking entities have on ordinary citizens.

We all know it’s a part of 21st century life, but that doesn’t mean we blindly trust companies that make a very, very smart PR move.

It has been over a month since Google engineers gave a very public “Fuck you” to the NSA, and beyond some chatter, nothing else has been said. Users have been calling for this kind of action on the part of the tech companies–and more.

While we champion startups outside of Silicon Valley, we all recognize that the companies in this letter are the leaders in our field. We look to them for inspirational success stories, and most of our companies are built on technology and platforms they created.

The question now is, will they continue to lead, or will they stop with a letter on a website?