I hear a lot of horror stories about investors. Many are misunderstandings. Some are just outright false. Then there are those that are true. Sadly, there are a lot of those. This kills companies. I’ve watched great entrepreneurs with brilliant ideas sink because they’ve been fucked around and because they made poor choices. I wanted to write something that will help people. Here… Read More
Digital media company Issuu has been trying to offer a better way to present content online. Now it’s a promising a better way for teams to work together on creating that content too, with the launch of a new product called Collaborate. Issuu, for those of you who don’t know, allows publishers to create digital publications. They may resemble glossy magazines, except freed from… Read More
Getting around, drinking and dining at the Kentucky Derby this year should prove a lot easier for fans and employees. According to Churchill Downs’ General Manager Ryan Jordan, the famed horse racing venue on Friday launched a Churchill Downs Racetrack app, powered by VenueNext, to give attendees a better experience on-site. The new app, available for iOS and Android devices, will let… Read More
Home Chef, one of several startups delivering recipes and ingredients to take some of the hassle out of home cooking, is announcing that it has raised $10 million in Series A funding. Founder and CEO Pat Vihtelic told me that Home Chef stands out from similar-sounding companies in a couple of ways. The big one is flexibility — customers get to choose their meals from 10 overall choices… Read More
There’s an epidemic in Canada. That epidemic is a mentality that leaves top talent with no option but to leave the nation’s borders and with them, everything they learned. It undervalues breakthroughs developed and paid for by Canadian taxpayers. It’s a mindset that resents the success of others. It’s a bad case of tall poppy syndrome. Read More
Some of the most influential and successful companies in the game have come out of startup studios. Just look at Giphy, Reserve, and Operator. But what makes a startup studio successful? At Disrupt NY in May, we aim to find out. Betaworks’ John Borthwick, Expa’s Naveen Selvadurai, and Human Ventures’ Heather Hartnett will be joining us for a panel called “How A… Read More
French startup Sqreen wants you to rethink how you deal with security for your web-based apps. With little effort, Sqreen can inspect, track and fix security holes, acting like a shield. You won’t have to change your workflow as Sqreen plugs to your existing app. Read More
Mobile ticket sellers GameTime added a new feature to their app this week that could draw more supply of concert and sports tickets to their marketplace. Designed to make it easier for users to sell old-school printed tickets via mobile, the “snap and sell” feature in GameTime feels something like check scanning in mobile banking apps. A user who clicks the “sell”… Read More
The League, the dating startup that’s maybe-maybe-not elitist, is launching version 2.0 in a new city — Los Angeles. Founder and CEO Amanda Bradford said The League has already rolled out the updated app to users in its existing markets, New York and San Francisco, without much fanfare. Today, however, marks the official launch, as well as the addition of its first city in nearly… Read More
Calling it an “un-pivot,” Biz Stone is bringing back Jelly, the Q&A app he created in 2013. Launching today, the new and improved Jelly remains close to its roots, but with an added twist. This time, everything is anonymous so you can ask what you really want to know. Referring to the new Jelly an “on-demand search engine,” Stone said that one lesson he learned… Read More
You know entrepreneurship has gone mainstream when a local Shark Tank hits cable TV. I was approached by the Shark Tank production team in Mexico to recommend startups for the show. I sent some names of candidates that had not yet received institutional capital nor angel investment and could benefit from the exposure — at their own risk. As entrepreneurship and reality TV collide in… Read More
Bnbsitter is another startup operating in the Airbnb and short term rentals ecosystem. However, unlike property-management style concierge services, such as London-based Hostmaker, which charge an on-going management fee, the Paris-based company offers something more akin to an on-demand platform for concierge. Read More
Two and a half years ago Bitlock set out to crowdfund a smart bike lock at a time when hype around connected devices was surging and goodwill in crowdfunding platforms was buoyant. Since then both categories have taken some confidence knocks and served up disappointments aplenty. So what happened? Did Bitlock ship, and if so, did its smart device live up to expectations? What problems did it… Read More
Communication startup Mast Mobile is launching on Android — specifically the Samsung Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge. The news is part of a broader partnership with Samsung, which has made a minority investment of undisclosed size in the company. In addition, Mast said it’s launching the first commercial integration with the Samsung Knox Cloud SDK, which… Read More
Deliveroo, the on-demand delivery service for restaurant food, has begun investing in its own kitchen space, as a means to help solve the supply-side problem and expand the offering. Dubbed RooBox, the startup has launched an off-site kitchen initiative that is bringing restaurant brands to areas of London that have a large residential population but are currently underserved in terms of… Read More
Xola, a software platform that manages booking and marketing for tour providers, is venturing deeper into international markets after closing a $5 million Series A. The funding was led by Rakuten Travel, which is Japan’s largest online travel agency, and contributed half of the round. Read More
Anyone who has been a long-time user of Coinbase knows that the cryptocurrency startup hasn’t exactly always made it easy to buy Bitcoin. In the early days you had to link your U.S bank account, verify it via two small deposits, and still wait up to five days for the Bitcoin to be sent to your wallet each time you made a purchase. Then, the company added instant purchases (which… Read More
French startup Drivy has raised another $35 million (€31 million) from Cathay Innovation, Nokia Growth Partners and existing investors Bpifrance, Via-ID and Index Ventures. If you don’t already know Drivy, the company wants to rethink the way car rental works today. Read More
So you wanna buy a startup? But how do you get the deal signed and roll their team into yours? Consulting behemoth Ernst & Young wants to have the answers and rule M&A advisory services in Silicon Valley. So today it acqhired Tasman Consulting, Bay Area specialists in integrating acqhires and acquisitions into their new parent companies. Tasman’s founders Niki Lee and Shari… Read More
Eden, the on-demand tech support company turned office support service, has today announced the launch of the platform in Oakland. That means that Eden’s service now covers all of the Bay Area, from Oakland to San Francisco to the Peninsula, including Palo Alto and Mountain View. Eden launched almost a year ago out of Y Combinator accelerator. Back then, Eden offered on-demand tech help… Read More
Online lending company Affirm has announced it is acquiring Sweep, an app-based personal finance tool. The move comes just two weeks after Affirm raised a $100M Series D round, which was partially raised to help the company expand into new product categories outside of lending. Specifically, Max Levchin, co-founder and CEO of Affirm, acknowledged that users will most likely never be… Read More
Twist Bioscience, a startup making and using synthetic DNA to store digital data, just struck a contract with Microsoft and the University of Washington to encode vast amounts of information on synthetic genes. Big data means business and the company able to gather a lot of it is very valuable to investors and stockholders. But that data needs to be stored somewhere and can cost a lot for… Read More
The Indian government has taken several steps to make filing taxes online easier, but the process can still be, well, taxing. ClearTax wants to make it easier. The startup, a Y Combinator alum, just raised angel funding of $1.3 million. Investors include Max Levchin (this is the PayPal co-founder’s first investment in India), Scott Banister, Neeraj Arora, Naval Ravikant, and Ruchi Sanghvi. Read More
Better sprint outside, because now Uber can charge you a $5 or $10 no-show fee if you’re just two minutes late for your ride. Previously, people got a five-minute grace period to get to the car after it arrived, or to cancel their trip after they sent a request, without getting penalized. But now, Uber is telling some users to “Request When You’re Ready” or face fees… Read More
So you’re a techie and a foodie. You’re having dinner and your phone buzzes to let you know you can pay for the meal you’re enjoying right from an app. It’s then you realize there’s something going on in restaurant tech. 