Pinterest, the social pinning website that has been public less than two months is to be valued at $500 million, so says private financial data companyPrivCo. Little back story first before we go into why this is what will be proven as the Tech company that causes the bubble to burst in Silicone Valley.
Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.
Comments Off on New Revelations Of Naveen Selvadurai Separation From Foursquare0LikeLike 2,225
On Sunday we reported Naveen Seladurai one of the co-founders of Foursquare had left the company. We believed the statements made by both Foursquare and Naveen in their respective blogs. However, Business Insider is telling a different story how things went down and the new story is quite different than what was told to the public at first. Originally, we were led to believe he left under his own will as he wrote,
It was three years ago at South By Southwest in Austin Texas when the world started hearing about this neat little app that allowed you to check-in to places. That app of course was FourSquare. In both 2010 and 2011 and again as we go into SXSW 2012, app developers from around the world have flocked to Austin to see if they could become the next FourSquare.
Now, FourSquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai has announced he is leaving the company. Selvadurai has said he doesn’t know what he is doing next. We are very curious as to why he’d want to leave such a succesful start up.
Last year at SXSW 2011, both co-founders, Naveen Selvadurai and Dennis Crowley gave a key note at SXSW Interactive that was standing room only.
Crowley has often received most of the credit for starting Foursquare. His brother once said in an interview with the Silicon Alley Insider, that life was always a game for the elder Crowley and that FourSquare was an expansion of that.
Perhaps we will see Sevadurai behind another successful start up, but for now, he’s checked out.
Comments Off on Sneak Peak – Greatest Toy in the Universe Needs A Name!0LikeLike 1,759
What would you call this toy if you had a chance to choose? It’s not everyday that we come across a toy that is so cool and awesome that we would still play with it no matter how old we get. This remote-controlled super spider battle bot thingy is just what I wish I had as a kid. Sure there were several fun and exciting toys that we had when we were kids to play with, but none of them come close to how epic this toy is. With all the unique ammo you can fire with it and the customizable battle armor and even that epic exploding armor/body shielding it has for multiplayer battle action, its bound to offer some great times for kids of all ages.
Watch the video and be ready to be WOWed with this Sneak Peak Greatest Toy in the Universe!
and
Now that you’ve seen the awesome remote-controlled super spider thingy, What should it be called? Do you have any great ideas you think should be added to the feature list that you want to contribute? Be sure to leave your suggestions in the comments on the YouTube page for Jaimie to see. Who knows, maybe your name or idea will be chosen and added to the feature list.
UPDATED: I was lucky enough to get Jaimie Mantzel’s attention and have him answer a few questions.
1. What is your favorite feature about the 6-legged robot right now?
“My favourite feature about the robot is that it can change direction without having to turn around. It makes maneuvering tight corners very easy.”
2. If time and money weren’t issues, what feature(s) would you add to the 6-legged robot?
“If time and money weren’t an issue, I’d make the robot 10 stories tall, and turn it into a walking fortress science school. …a fortress of happiness, though. It would only squirt water. Nothing that actually hurts anyone. It would run on solar, and wind power too.”
3. How long have you been working on this robot?
“I built the first one of these 6 legged robots 12 years ago. I called it a “spider tank”. It was made of coat hangers, duct tape, and junk that way lying around. It didn’t walk very well, and the construction was very sloppy, but it proved the basic mechanism works. Since then, I’ve made several more, and each has improvements over the previous. The current toy version is the Spider Tank Mark 6. …being the 6th significant version. I didn’t count the ones that didn’t have any major improvements.”
4. What other projects are you involved with?
“Other projects I’m involved with:
With Wow! Stuff, I’m building a realistic tarantula, and stag beetle. They also really walk. No wheels included. :-)
I’m also working on a 15ft wide “spider tank”. Its called the “Giant Robot Project”, and I’ve been documenting it on YouTube. The Giant Robot took its first steps a little over a year ago. I still have some work to do on it, but I’ve been too busy in the last year to do much.
I also started the “Adventure Builders Club” which is based around a set of 8 positive virtues. They are the principles I use in my everyday life to achieve goals, and maintain happiness. Its full of all kinds of cheesy sayings, and ideas, but I’ve found that quite often, the most cheesy and embarrassingly silly ideas are the best ones.
I could list about 10 other things I’m working on, like saving money to buy and island, making plans to start a science school. I’m always working on things to make my world, and the world in general better. I imagine that if every human had the intention of making the world better, it would be quite an amazing place, ad we could trade in most of our problems for awesomeness. :-)”
Thank you Jaimie Mantzel for taking the time for my questions.
Comments Off on 2 Kickstarter Projects Raise One Million Dollars Each On The Same Day0LikeLike 1,970
If you’re not familiar with Kickstarter, it’s a crowd sourced platform for seed investments of projects. It originally started as a launching pad for musicians who were trying to fund album and video projects.
An artist or band would make a kickstarter page for their next endeavor. Say the project would cost them $5000 for a limited cd run, art, photography and studio time. The artist or band would provide telethon type incentives for people and fans to pledge to donate money to the project.
For example my little brothers band with a decent sized local fan base used kick starter for an album project. They needed $4000. For a $10 pledge the donators (fans) would get a free copy of the cd delivered to their home once complete. For a $20 pledge they would autograph the CD. For a $100 pledge they would meet the fans backstage and so on and so forth. 50 fans pledged enough money to reach the $4000 goal. Once they reached the goal the funds were secured via credit card (that had been given when the donator pledged) and all the money was gathered and delivered to the band.
Comments Off on Surprise Surprise: Greg Kumparak Joins Pando Daily0LikeLike 1,720
Greg Kamparak photo: Kamparak's Google+
The exodus at AOL owned TechCrunch continues. Earlier this week it was leaked that TechCrunch’s mobile editor, Greg Kumparak, was leaving TechCrunch. At the time Kumparak announced his departure he didn’t say he was going, but of course the obvious place was PandoDaily.
PandoDaily is the new start up focused site that was started by former TechCrunch editor Sarah Lacy. Michael Arrington’s CrunchFund led an angel round for the new site that was over 2.5 million dollars.
Lacy announced a couple of weeks ago that PandoDaily was holding monthly meet ups. The first of which was tonight. Arrington was the featured guest and had a fireside chat with Lacy. It was also announced that Kumparak was joining the PandoDaily team tonight.
Path co-founder Dave Morin takes the high road today, after the news that your complete contact list is being uploaded to their servers. This morning a developer named Arun Thampi released an article titled: Path uploads your entire address book to their servers. Included in the article were a number of screenshots and detailed instructions to replicate his findings. Though there is no time stamp on the article, the first comment was left by Dave Morin, instead of ignoring or running from the issues he chose to immediately respond. First with the comment:
Arun, thanks for pointing this out. We actually think this is an important conversation and take this very seriously. We upload the address book to our servers in order to help the user find and connect to their friends and family on Path quickly and effeciently[sic] as well as to notify them when friends and family join Path. Nothing more.
We believe that this type of friend finding & matching is important to the industry and that it is important that users clearly understand it, so we proactively rolled out an opt-in for this on our Android client a few weeks ago and are rolling out the opt-in for this in 2.0.6 of our iOS Client, pending App Store approval.
Comments Off on We Go One On One With Apsalar To Find Out How They Are Changing Mobile Gaming Forever0LikeLike 1,629
We were able to sit down with Apsalar, a Mobile Engagement Management company, as well as walk through the company’s offices. Right off the back when walking in, the look is prototypical start-up, with no cubicles, only desks in the open, relaxed, yet get-work-down type of feel. However, unlike most start-up companies, Apsalar has within a year evolved in a way most take longer to do. Originally, the company gave Mobile Game developers the ability to see cohorting stats weekly; they are now providing the same type of information daily to enhance what developers are looking for. When asked, Michael Oiknine stated,
Comments Off on Start Up: Nicira Disrupting Network Providers With Software Defined Networks0LikeLike 1,678
As more and more companies move to cloud based servers there’s a huge market for cloud based server companies. Many cloud based providers turn to huge companies with huge server centers to get their information in the cloud.
A company called Nicira is using an old software trick originally used by spy agencies to challenge some of those traditional network providers. With their technology called “Software Defined Networks”
Software defined networks and virtualized servers basically trick servers into doing the taks of several. Virtualized machines run on cheaper components and cheaper semiconductors driving down the cost of hardware.
Comments Off on Start Up Camp 5 At IT Expo East0LikeLike 1,495
Tonight five Telecom, IT and mobile focused early stage start ups are going ti have the chance to pitch their ideas in order to get funding. They are pitching at the ITexpo East going on now at the Miami Beach Convention Center.
All five start ups will get five minutes a piece to give their best elevator pitch. One company will walk away with the investment that they need to expand their company and ideas.
Comments Off on Cloudera A Start Up To Keep An Eye On0LikeLike 1,870
Cloudera is only 3 years old. It has the makings of becoming a billion dollar company in the near future. They provide customer support and tools that take advantage of an open-source platform called Apache Hadoop that they distribute. Cloudera offers many ways your company can take advantage of Hadoop including categories like E-tailing, Financial Services, Government, Health and Life-Sciences, Retail/CPG, Telecommunications and Web and Digital Media Services. In 3 years time they have already landed some big named clients such as Adconion, AdGooroo, Aggregate Knowledge, AOL Advertising, Apollo Group, Inc., Concurrent Computers, Explorys Medical, First Life Research, Groupon, Huron Consulting Group, JiWire, Klout, NAVTEQ, Opower, Rackspace US Inc., Samsung, Trends Micro Inc., Trulia, Tynt and the C.I.A. among many others.
In 3 years time Cloudera has built up their investments to reach over $75 million and growing. Cloudera has partnered up with Acer, AMD and Aster Data. One of Clouderas Co-founders Amr Awadallah told Business Insider “We are building this to be a huge, huge company,” he also said “My preference is to go public but it could be a big suitor taking it.” Who could be the big suitor? Dell perhaps? Whichever suitor chooses Cloudera, it is no doubt that Cloudera is a start-up to keep your eye on.
Comments Off on Clio Raised $6 Million In Its Series B Round Of Financing0LikeLike 2,180
Clio is a cloud based legal management software that has gained speed in the startup sector. They have recently raised $6 million in its Series B round of financing to use for hiring more staff and marketing its services. Acton Capital Partners, existing investors and Point Nine Capital were the investing parties that helped make it happen in this round.
Co-founders are
Jack Newton (CEO) – An experienced business leader, software developer and entrepreneur, Jack provides strategic vision for Clio, and is helping to raise the profile of cloud computing in the legal profession.
and
Rian Gauvreau (COO) – Rian combines his years of experience with law firm IT with his in-depth software development experience to help create software law firms love to use.
“Completely web-based, Clio is a practice management system that is specifically designed for solo practitioners and small law firms. Your important client data is securely accessible anywhere—from your PC, your Mac, and even your iPhone.”
Clio pricing is $49 a/month for Attorneys and $25 a/month for Support Staff. A very affordable option for any lawyer looking to tidy up their schedules, billing and many other business related needs on the go or in the office.
After a bumpy road in IPO land Groupon is back to acquiring companies and expanding the base of their product line. Groupon is far and away the largest group deals site on the net. Groupon started as a local deals buy in site and since then has grown to a user base of 155 million users, 23 million of which are active participants.
Groupon recently launched a new concept called Groupon Goods that sells cameras, electronic and other goods to their user base. Now it looks like they are looking to expand their social presence.
Mertado lets consumers find and buy products through social networks like Facebook.
“Mertado has shown a great level of innovation in the social commerce space — for example, the launch of Mertado TV, combining lifestyle video content and product selection,” a Groupon spokeswoman told the Chicago Tribune. “We’re looking forward to leveraging the team’s expertise.”
“Groupon has been a pioneer in social commerce in many ways, and when we started talking with them, it became extremely clear that they shared the same set of values as us,” Mertado told users and investors on their website.
Comments Off on Capsule Is Your One Stop Event Shop App For Android And iPhone0LikeLike 1,875
The group event space is becoming a crowded one, you’ve got e-invite for inviting, or eventbrite for ticketing, you have several group texting apps and others for group email. You’ve got Facebook events and some people even use Myspace for events still (I know Myspace….).
When Capsule’s co-founders Cyrus Farudi and Omri Cohen got together they didn’t want another group event app to add to all the others, they were looking for something to replace all the others. Capsule is that app.
According to Capsule’s founders in an interview with the Los Angeles Times they set out to cover the entire life cycle of a group event from start to finish. “No one has that complete solution over the marketplace, and I think that’s one thing that sets us apart,” said Farudi in the interview to the LA Times, formerly of Flipswap. Capsule “solves the event life-cycle management problem.”
The less than a year old start up came after the two founders collectively attended 14 weddings and nine bachelor parties in one year. They are based in the Manhattan Beach area of Los Angeles which is being dubbed “Silicon Beach”.
Nick Tippmann
Kyle
Neil Lund
Cameron Wright
