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MetaProp NYC kicks off the second class of its real estate accelerator with lease marketplace Flip | Anthony Ha | 2,016 | 5 | 3 | If you need (or just want) to get out of the lease on your apartment, a startup called can help you do it — and you might even make money in the process. The company , and now it’s joining as the “anchor startup” for the second class at , an accelerator for real estate startups. Flip co-founder and CEO Susannah Vila told me that “the idea behind the company is that a lease has value locked into it.” To give lease holders access to that value, Flip has created “a marketplace where people can learn what it’s actually worth.” So the person currently in an apartment can post their lease and how much they’re willing to sell it for. Then pre-screened applicants who want early access to apartments before they hit the rental market can browse the listings, reach out and schedule a visit. The company says that since the launch, there have been 1,500 leases listed and more than 300 of them have been “Flipped.” Villa added that she’s realized that people who need to get out of a lease ASAP (whether it’s for personal or professional reasons) might actually be willing to pay to have someone take it over, so now lease holders can offer a reward instead of charging a price — apparently that now represents 20 to 30 percent of the leases on Flip. Flip also partners with property managers who can offer Flip as an amenity to clients who want to be in a more flexible lease situation. The service is only available in New York City right now, but Villa said, “The core of the model, that the tenant can find his or her own replacement, is 100 percent legal everywhere” across the United States. So there’s opportunity for geographic expansion. As a result of joining MetaProp NYC, Flip will receive $250,000 in additional funding and participate in its 22-week accelerator program. Apparently there was an existing connection there, since the accelerator’s co-founder Zachary Aarons was an early investor in Flip. “Flip is exactly the kind of company we want to work with: strong team, great technology, and a massive addressable market,” said MetaProp NYC General Manager Monika Wysocki in the announcement release. “We’re also incredibly excited to have our first female founder in the program.” Although the accelerator is already unveiling the first company in its second class, it’s . |
Adobe acquires Livefyre | Frederic Lardinois | 2,016 | 5 | 3 | Adobe today that it plans to acquire , the service that’s probably best known for its online commenting system. On top of this service, the company also offers a number of tools for brands to engage with their audiences as well, which is likely what Adobe was most interested in. Adobe plans to integrate Livefyre into its , its content management service for building web sites and basic mobile apps. ” Livefyre will be part of Adobe Experience Manager and integrated across Adobe Marketing Cloud to make user-generated content available across all eight digital marketing solutions,” the company writes in today’s announcement. Livefyre says its customers include the likes of CNN, The Coca-Cola Company and Major League Baseball. Given the company’s reach, chances are quite a few of its customers are also currently Adobe customers as well (through its Experience Manger, but also its Marketing Cloud). Livefyre was founded in 2009. At the time, it was mostly a straightforward commenting platform. Over time, the company then added marketing tools on top of this, but at its core, the service is still about user-generated content (and most of that content is still generated in the comments sections of the blogs that use it). To go beyond comments, Livefyre also acquired the and launched its product to curate user-generated content and republish it. The company a total of $67.3 million since its launch. Adobe in its last $47 million round (as did Salesforce), so the two companies were already quite familiar with each other. “As the leader in digital experiences, Adobe helps brands create amazing content with Creative Cloud and then deliver and optimize those experiences using Adobe Marketing Cloud,” said Aseem Chandra, the vice president for Adobe Experience Manager and Adobe Target, in today’s announcement. “With this acquisition our customers will be able to unify the best social media content with branded experiences created in Adobe Creative Cloud and community-driven content in Adobe Behance and Adobe Stock.” Livefyre says its services will continue to work as usual for the time being. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but Adobe says it expects the deal to close within the next few months. |
The key to global empowerment is technology | Tanner Taddeo | 2,016 | 5 | 3 |
With the exponential growth in technology, the world has seen not only profound change in various industries, but also a fundamental shift in the structure to our global society. To unwrap this bit of jargon, let’s look at the intersection of human rights and technology. The fundamental nature of human rights is to allow individuals to exercise their autonomy, liberty and free will, insofar as it doesn’t infringe upon the rights and liberties of others. Broadly speaking, governments are supposed to provide the protection under which the citizenry can freely exercise such will. Historically, sovereignty has been the golden rule that must not be violated, regardless of what actions take place within the confines of a given territory. This has given authoritarian leaders the freedom to rule as they please. But with the advent of Right to Protect, deriving from , the emerging customary law opens the door for countries to yield their sovereign rights if they fail to uphold and protect basic human rights. While this is a monumental leap for international law and human rights, it still begs a more practical question: Outside of rhetoric and tough speak, how can we empower individuals living in countries that lack adequate civil societies to bolster state institutions, have a say in the national dialogue, usher in an era of accountability and transparency to the political system(s) and exercise their human rights? The answer seems to reside in technology. Take for example , a company that runs an open-source tech platform developed to map outbreaks of violence in Kenya. Here, technology is used as a means of an emergency tool for individuals to report, monitor and evaluate violence in given communities. Such technology is helping facilitate a decline in community violence and abuse toward women. In countries where access to capital is lacking because of inadequate financial institutions, micro-loans and peer-to-peer money transfers have allowed small business to not only spring up, but also local economies. To put the potential in perspective, the estimates that “up to 84% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa are either un-served or underserved, representing a value gap in credit financing of US$140- to 170-billion.” In countries where systemic subjugation and deprivation is run-of-the-mill, individuals using the power of are showcasing to the world the gross negligence of their government(s) and forcing world leaders . While civil society, rule of law and regulatory mechanisms surely cannot spring up overnight, the world does not have the luxury to wait and watch its slow evolution. Technology can circumvent traditional processes and empower individuals through networks, information and digital trade. Technology emboldens the notion of human rights, quite literally, with the touch of a hand. The question is, will governments around the world back the inevitable tide of technology or will they cling to tradition? |
Mark Zuckerberg celebrates the end of WhatsApp ban in Brazil | Kate Conger | 2,016 | 5 | 3 | Access to WhatsApp has been restored in Brazil, roughly 24 hours after telecom providers began in response to a court order. A judge in the Brazilian state of Sergipe ordered local phone carriers to block access to WhatsApp for 72 hours, but his ruling was overturned on appeal. Mark Zuckerberg celebrated the end of the countrywide ban and called on Brazilian citizens to support legislation that would prevent a ban from happening again. “WhatsApp is now back online in Brazil! Your voices have been heard once again. Thank you to our community for helping resolve this,” Zuckerberg wrote in a . “That said, the idea that everyone in Brazil can be denied freedom to communicate the way they want is very scary in a democracy. You and your friends can help make sure this never happens again, and I hope you get involved,” he added, calling on Brazilian citizens to show up before the nation’s Congress tomorrow and support the introduction of laws that would prevent courts from blocking services like WhatsApp. “Brazilians have been leaders in connecting the world and creating an open internet for many years. I hope you make your voice heard now and demand change,” Zuckerberg wrote, linking to an hosted by the Internet Freedom Caucus. He also linked to a against the WhatsApp block, which calls on Brazil’s Congress to support a free and open Internet and has already garnered over 100,000 signatures. Prior to yesterday’s ban, WhatsApp access was last cut off in December. That block lasted only 12 hours and was the result of a similar dispute over government demands for WhatsApp data. WhatsApp has argued that it cannot provide the data because it is encrypted. A WhatsApp spokesperson told TechCrunch that banning the service “punishes more than 100 million Brazilians who rely on our service to communicate, run their businesses, and more, in order to force us to turn over information we repeatedly said we don’t have.” During the block, Brazilian users turned to other encrypted messaging platforms like Telegram and iMessage, and used VPN services to access WhatsApp. |
Craig Wright will publish “extraordinary proof” that he is Satoshi | John Biggs | 2,016 | 5 | 3 | Another day, another confirmation that the shadowy figure called Satoshi Nakamoto is indeed Craig “Verbal” Wright. This time Wright himself claims that he will offer “extraordinary proof” that he is Satoshi. This means, we can assume, he will sign messages using Satoshi’s private key. He writes: So, over the coming days, I will be posting a series of pieces that will lay the foundations for this extraordinary claim, which will include posting independently-verifiable documents and evidence addressing some of the false allegations that have been levelled, and transferring bitcoin from an early block. For some there is no burden of proof high enough, no evidence that cannot be dismissed as fabrication or manipulation. This is the nature of belief and swimming against this current would be futile. You should be sceptical. You should question. I would. As you recall, yesterday claimed the mantle of Satoshi after providing seemingly solid proof to two bitcoin insiders as well as a tortured – – proof on his website. The resulting folderol made national news and the general and vocal consensus is that Wright is not telling the truth. If and when Wright proves that he is Satoshi, presumably by using the he showed two researchers, Gavin Andresen and Jon Matonis, I think the world will finally stop caring. In the end it does not truly matter if Wright is Satoshi but proof should clear his name and clarify the entire matter once and for all. It will be interesting to see where this rabbit hole leads, if anywhere, and it will be good to finally grab the mythical Keyser Söze of once and for all. |
Venerable audio company Bowers & Wilkins bought out by Gideon Yu’s EVA Automation | Devin Coldewey | 2,016 | 5 | 3 | Bowers & Wilkins, an audio gear brand that has been familiar to millions , has been bought out by EVA Automation, a two-year-old company that has never released a product. Yet the old company’s name and CEO will remain. You’re not going to hear about a weirder deal today. EVA Automation is the company founded by Gideon Yu, currently an advisor at (formerly, but not currently at Khosla Ventures, as I wrote mistakenly earlier), but well known from his involvement in various top-tier funding rounds at major tech companies, from Square to Facebook. The mission at EVA is to “reimagining the audio/video experience by making products that will change how people interact and think about the home.” That’s proving difficult, it seems: EVA has no products to speak of. Solution: buy a company that does! Actually, strange as it may sound, the deal seems to suit several parties. Bowers & Wilkins is an old-school manufacturer, and a partnership with a bleeding-edge automation company could make for, as they say, powerful market synergy. And as mentioned, EVA needs a product. “We will have much, much more to announce when the time is right about our vision and our products,” . “In the meantime, we will continue to work hard on developing a truly special, highly integrated, and easy to use home A/V experience that I know you’ll love.” Not only that, but it sounds like Caledonia Investments was ready to jump ship; it for $24M and change as part of the deal. As it would probably result in a mutiny if a baby company that’s never shipped anything took over management of a decades-old industry mainstay, Bowers & Wilkins CEO Joe Atkins will keep his role, though he’ll by necessity be parting with a considerable amount of his 60 percent share in the old company. Yu will be Executive Chairman. It’s an odd deal but perhaps one that will lead to prosperity for all involved. Though it may be a while before you see the results of this partnership. |
Moovit transit app integrates with Uber | Kristen Hall-Geisler | 2,016 | 5 | 3 | The local transit app announced today that it will soon be integrated with the ride-sharing app in 131 cities in 22 countries. This is kind of the chocolate and peanut butter of urban travel. uses official transit data plus crowdsourced data to give riders the best information about potential routes. Is the train running slow? Take the bus or find a bike sharing service. Is your regular bus line caught in traffic? An alternate route may be faster. With integration, ride sharing becomes yet another option for managing local trips. One of the tricky factors for public transit is “the first and last mile.” Buses and trains can serve huge swathes of a metro area, but they are not door-to-door services. In the best cases, it’s a quick walk from your front door to the nearest station, but sometimes it’s a trek, especially as you get farther from the city center. integration with Uber can make public transit a more viable option. A recent study by the found that people who use ride sharing services like Uber and are more — not less — likely to use public transit. They also own fewer cars than people who don’t use ride sharing. The study found that many people who combined transit and ride sharing put off buying a car, decided not to buy one at all, or even sold their car with no plan to replace it. At first public transit authorities were worried that ride sharing would take people away from using trains and buses. But that turned out to not be the case, according to Mantill Williams at APTA in a phone interview. “What they’re taking away is driving alone or taking a taxi,” he said. “Our goal is to provide our users with the best possible experience on public transport, but there are times when it’s quicker for users to get around via car,” said Nir Erez, Moovit CEO in a press release. “By now offering the option to order an Uber for all or part of a journey, we’re able to give our users even more freedom in deciding how they want to get from point A to point B.” |
Prete splits from Treat to bring unlimited blowouts to SF | Sarah Buhr | 2,016 | 5 | 3 | is a new blowout startup launching today in San Francisco and Los Angeles that wants to hook you up with unlimited hair styling. No cuts, color or anything else, just as many blowouts as you want for $129 a month. Some of you may recall about a similar blowout service coming to SF called Treat that wanted to use established salon space for unlimited blowouts. Treat gained a lot of inbound interest and I actually before it was set to launch in the Bay but the startup remained in beta and never quite opened up to all those on the waiting list. Prete is a pretty similar idea from the co-founder of Treat, Nina Ojeda. Execution is everything and that didn’t seem to be happening with the other co-founder (even Treat’s website doesn’t seem to be working properly), so Ojeda split. “When I briefly worked with Treat, it was clear we had very different visions about how the company should be structured and ultimately saw very different directions in the market,” Ojeda told TechCrunch. Sometimes co-founders don’t work out. Instead of giving up, Ojeda decided to start her own thing and she’s now launching that thing with a curated list of “animal cruelty-free” salons in both SF and LA today. Prete also works on a membership basis. Not everyone can join, which Ojeda says allows Prete to “keep the integrity of the salons and our members.” So to get into this service, you’ll need to have a current member invite you. The service helps salon owners by filling in appointment slots that are not being used, helps customers looking for appointments without the hassle of scheduling at Drybar or another pure blowout salon and helps Prete keep overhead low because the startup doesn’t have to build any store fronts. There’s a lot of options to the pricing structure for Prete. Membership is free for $35 per blowout or you can choose to pay $129 a month for as many blowouts as you and the salon can handle. You may also choose to upgrade to the $49 annual fee to make blowouts $29 each time. Compare that to Drybar’s $40 a pop, with additional for extras like a hair mask or certain style. There’s also a membership version for $75 for two blowouts a month, or $37.50 each. Prete, like Treat, also plans to launch a mani/pedi service soon for $59/month unlimited. No idea if this idea will take off but I did have quite a few friends asking me what was going on with the Treat beta launch. Prete also uses a similar model to Uber and Airbnb and the stylists I spoke with are hopeful it brings them some new customers. In any case, it’s nice to know this startup can at least get itself up and running. |
Google enables HTTPS for all Blogspot sites | Frederic Lardinois | 2,016 | 5 | 3 | Google today made HTTPS connections for all of the sites on its Blogspot domain. Google for Blogspot last September, but at the time, it was an opt-in feature. Starting today, encrypted connections are enabled by default. It’s worth noting that this only applies to Blogspot blogs that fall under the .blogspot.com domain. HTTPS is currently not available for blogs that use custom domain names. Blogspot users — and there may be more of them out there than you expect, given that it still ranks as the on Alexa — will also be able to automatically redirect all of their users to the HTTPS version of their blogs. By default, Blogspot will still offer both access over HTTP and HTTPS. Because many blogspot templates and widgets may , it’s probably worth testing both versions before making the full switch to HTTPS. It’s worth noting that started offering HTTPS support for all the sites on its network and recently introduced , too. If you run your own blog, the efforts of the Let’s Encrypt initiative also now make it easier to get the right certificate to , too. |
Spotify ditches the controversial ‘hamburger’ menu in iOS app redesign | Sarah Perez | 2,016 | 5 | 3 | Spotify is one of the more popular music streaming apps, but it’s not necessarily the most beautifully designed (that was , unfortunately). Navigating through the various sections of its app took a lot of tapping, and often wasn’t very intuitive. Today, Spotify is attempting to improve its interface with a redesign, arriving first on iOS, that puts its key sections in a bottom navigation bar instead of a sidebar menu. Farewell, hamburger menu. You won’t be missed. The new navigation bar features the same key sections that were previously in the sidebar menu, including Home, Browse, Search, Radio and Your Library. And when you’re playing a track, the song title, artist and player controls will now appear above this bottom bar for easy access. While a minor change in the grand scheme of things, it’s not one made lightly at a time where an app’s popularity is determined more so by user engagement and retention rather that its App Store ranking. And navigation by way of hamburger menu has been Many in the industry believe that the menu – which consists of three horizontal lines, aka the “hamburger” – is not intuitive for users and not an efficient menus of navigating through an app because it requires that people first click the menu before being able to click the link or icon that takes them to their intended destination. There’s also the argument that hamburger menus of features because everything they contain is hidden by default. TechCrunch’s Josh Constine “the devil,” saying that what’s out of sight, is out of mind. In other words, when a company ditches the menu entirely, it’s taking a fairly deliberate position that says, “this does not work.” Spotify would hardly be the first to do away with the hamburger menu. Facebook notably to a tab bar after a ton of user testing, and many other apps soon followed. Spotify also based its decision on extensive testing, we’re told. The company tested the tab bar on iOS to see how it impacted user engagement. It found that users with the tab bar ended up clicking 9% more in general and 30% more on actual menu items. The tests also revealed that reducing the number of options in the tab bar to five increased the reach of Spotify’s programmed content, the company says. Before rolling it out more broadly, Spotify tested the tab bar with both new and existing users to make certain there were no negative effects. It found that the new bar encouraged users to explore more types of content (e.g., Spotify-programmed, self-programmed etc.) without impacting retention, engagement or consumption time metrics. New users also engaged more with the navigation menu in their first sessions than they did when the hamburger menu was present. The results of this final test convinced Spotify to make the change public, it says. While these results hold true for iOS, Spotify is not yet convinced that Android users will react similarly. The company believes that each platform’s user interface should be sympathetic to the operating system guidelines, and should be examined individually. In May, Spotify will begin testing of a new navigation model on Android, but the company is unsure what the results of those tests will be. The goal is to launch a new, Android-suited navigational interface by July. The new tab bar will be available to all iPhone users (iOS version 5.3.0 or higher) in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Austria and Sweden starting today, and will be rolled out to additional markets and platforms in the months ahead. |
Instagram crams more ads in less space with Video Carousels | Josh Constine | 2,016 | 5 | 3 | What’s more lucrative than a video ad? Multiple videos in a single ad. To help businesses show different sides of their products in vivid motion, today Instagram is launching video ad carousels. It’s a savvy way for the company to give advertisers more flexibility through horizontal space so as not to further clutter the vertical scrolling feed. Now the can feature videos or a mix of clips and photos, not just still images as before. The carousels just need to have three to five pieces of media inside, and the videos can be up to 60 seconds. Users will see the first slide by default in their feeds, but can swipe to reveal the rest. Airbnb (above), Macy’s, and Taco Bell will be the first brands on the format. Here you can watch all three of their video carousels back to back to back: Instagram tells me the photo carousels have already “seen solid results.” And with video the biggest craze in marketing, now it can feature more moving ads without destroying the flow of organic content. between August and February. In essence, the ads can be a bit like Snapchat Stories, stringing together different moments and perspectives. They make sense for the short attention span world of mobile. Instead of users getting bored with one long clip and scrolling past, they can swipe to essentially fast-forward to ad different scene. |
Uber denies plans to kill surge pricing in the U.S. | Sarah Buhr | 2,016 | 5 | 3 | Despite the today, Uber says it does not have plans to nix surge pricing in the U.S. It did away with surge in Delhi, India, but has the feature there as well. An earlier report from claimed Uber would be doing away with surge, a feature on the Uber app that bumps prices up in a particular area when there’s high demand for rides. Surge pricing benefits drivers by helping them earn more cash from Uber. It also benefits the company by getting more drivers to a high demand area to service riders faster. So it really doesn’t make sense the ride-hailing company would get rid of the feature. “Uber is always looking for ways to better predict supply and demand in a city. But this story is not accurate,” Uber told TechCrunch in a statement. “We have no plans to end dynamic pricing. While we understand that no-one likes to pay more for the same trip, it’s the only way to ensure that passengers can always get a ride when they need one.” According to Uber, its engineering lead Jeff Schneider told NPR the surge works on a machine learning algorithm to predict areas more prone to driver demand and should get better over time, not that surge was ending. Uber will likely get rid of surge at some point in the future as it deploys self-driving cars, but, for now, drivers can safely rely on that extra bump in pay. NPR has since with an editor’s note at the bottom, including a transcript of the conversation where Schneider doesn’t correct the reporter when she mentions Uber getting rid of surge: |
Meet the Disrupt NY 2016 speakers and judges | Anna Escher | 2,016 | 5 | 3 | is right around the corner. The event starts on May 9th and we’re delighted to reveal the agenda. The lineup is stellar and for the first time, we will be hosting in Red Hook, Brooklyn at the . We say this every year, but this is set to be our best Disrupt NY yet. The conference kicks off on May 9th and is a packed three days that feature inspiring entrepreneurs, savvy investors and TechCrunch’s world renowned . At the end of it all, one startup will take home $50,000 and the coveted Disrupt Cup. is the YouNow founder and CEO. He is a pioneer in participatory media, with more than 20 years of experience creating apps and companies in the user-generated content space. He will be speaking at 1:40 PM on Tuesday, May 10. leads the Bay Area offices for Bain Capital Ventures, where he focuses on early-stage application software and SaaS investing. Prior to joining Bain Capital Ventures in 2003, Ajay was head of sales and marketing at Trilogy, where he grew annual revenues to $300 million. He will serve as a judge for Startup Battlefield. is the founder and managing director of Greycroft LLC. A longtime innovator and advocate for venture capital, Alan entered the industry in its formative days with the creation of Patricof & Co. Ventures Inc., a predecessor to Apax Partners today, one of the world’s leading private equity firms with $35 billion under management. He will serve as a judge for Startup Battlefield. is the co-founder and CEO of Giphy, the popular GIF sharing site. His latest startups include Artspace, an ecommerce destination for contemporary art, and The Fridge, a private social network acquired by Google. He will be speaking at 9:05 AM on Monday, May 9. is a venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital who works with consumer internet, enterprise and mobile companies. Alfred currently sits on the board of Achievers, Airbnb, Houzz, Humble Bundle, Kiwi, Romotive and Stella & Dot. He will serve as a judge for Startup Battlefield. is the CEO and co-founder of Modern Meadow, the Brooklyn-based startup that is harnessing design, biology and engineering to produce the world’s first sustainable biofabricated leather. Andras previously co-founded Organovo (NYSE: ONVO), which commercialized 3D bioprinting to create human tissues for pharmaceutical research and medical applications. He will speak at 1:00 PM on Wednesday, May 11. is a partner at Union Square Ventures. Andy began his career in the Internet in the mid-90s. Prior to joining USV, in 2007 he co-founded betaworks, which both created and invested in social, real-time applications and services. He will be speaking at 10:05 AM on Monday, May 9. is an American actor, stand-up comedian, screenwriter, author, and director. He is also co-founder of The List App. He is most widely known for being a writer and executive producer of The Office, in which he also played Ryan Howard. He will speak at 2:00 PM on Monday, May 9. is co-founder and CEO of Maple. He has experience leading teams in operationally demanding environments and has also spent time in consumer growth equity investing. Most recently, Caleb was an entrepreneur-in-residence at Primary Venture Partners. He will be speaking at 10:05 AM on Tuesday, May 10. is a partner at Paradigm, a strategy firm taking a data-driven approach to helping companies build stronger, more diverse and inclusive organizations. Romero has a Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford University and is an expert in “learning mindsets” – the beliefs that lead people to engage with their work and persist through challenges. She will be speaking at 11:50 AM, on Monday, May 9. , of the New York Knicks, is a nine-time NBA All-Star and has been an All NBA team member six times. He has been a member of the United States Olympic men’s national team three times. He is co-founder and partner of Melo7 Tech Partners, which invests in and develops opportunities primarily in early stage digital media, consumer internet and technology ventures. He will be speaking at 11:15 AM on Wednesday, May 11. is a YouTube sensation with 2.5 million subscribers and over 400 million views. Neistat is also the co-founder of Beme, a video-editing social app. He will be speaking at 11:10 AM on Tuesday, May 10. is the Managing Partner with Precursor Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investments on investing in strong teams in the business to business and business to consumer software markets. Prior to founding Precursor, Charles was a Partner with SoftTech VC, one of the most active seed stage investors in Internet and mobile startups. He will serve as a judge for Startup Battlefield. is the sole Partner and Founder at Brooklyn Bridge Ventures. The fund makes seed and pre-seed investments and was the first venture firm located in Brooklyn–where he was born and raised. He will serve as a judge for Startup Battlefield. is a managing director and member of the general partnership of Venture Investment Associates. He is a member of the firm’s investment committee and has responsibility for the management of relationships with the funds’ managers and its limited partners, as well as the identification and development of new relationships for the firm. He will be speaking at 10:05 AM on Monday, May 9. is the founder and CEO of the virtual reality technology company Vrse, and founder and creative director of virtual reality production company Vrse.works. An accomplished visual artist, Milk began his career creating music videos for Kanye West, Arcade Fire, Beck, Jack White, U2, Johnny Cash, Gnarls Barkley, and many more. He will be speaking at 2:20 PM on Tuesday, May 10. is the CMO of The Honest Company. Chris is responsible for the Company’s marketing activities including brand, creative, media,
ecommerce, analytics, PR and social marketing. Prior to joining The Honest Company in
2015, Chris was the Global Vice President of Marketing, Media & Mobile at Electronic Arts (EA), a leading global video game company. During his five-year tenure, Chris oversaw marketing and media for EA products in console and mobile gaming, including EA SPORTS Madden, The Sims, Battlefield & Plants vs. Zombies. He will speak at 10:05 AM on Wednesday, May 11. is the CEO and co-founder of Viv. Previously, he was the co-founder and CEO of Siri after spinning the technology out of Stanford Research Institute in 2007. He will be speaking at 11:30 AM on Monday, May 9. serves as the chief of staff and technical assistant for Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel. Brown is responsible for providing strategic and operational support to Brian and Intel’s management committee members. Brown is Intel’s chief diversity & inclusion officer, leading the Global Diversity & Inclusion team. She will be speaking at 11:50 AM on Monday, May 9. (pictured left) worked for NBC News in Washington, DC where she covered politics for “Nightly News” and the “Today” show. In 2010, Weisberg moved to New York to produce for MSNBC’s “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell.” In 2012, Weisberg launched theSkimm with co-founder Carly Zakin from their living room couch. They will be speaking at 9:45 AM on Monday, May 9. is the CEO and founder of Bolt Threads, previously known as Refactored Materials, Inc. He has led the company through four years of technology development, growth and financing. He will speak at 1:00 PM on Wednesday, May 11. is a co-founder at NextVR. Cole has co-authored 26 patents related to virtual reality and stereoscopic technology and three patents in adaptive computer learning technology. Before NextVR, Cole was CEO at LearningSoft, an educational technology company. Early in his career he founded Studiotronics, a digital imaging company that produced Colorset scanning software. He will be speaking at 5:05 PM on Monday, May 9. is a Partner at Venrock in New York. David focuses on early stage venture investing in internet and digital media companies. His active investments include Dstillery (formerly Media6Degrees), Smartling, Dollar Shave Club, YouNow, Amino and Burner. He will serve as a judge for Startup Battlefield. is widely referred to as the “architect” of President Obama’s two presidential campaign victories. After serving as the campaign manager in the 2008 presidential election, he served inside the White House as Senior Advisor to the President. He now serves as a Chief Advisor for Uber. Plouffe currently serves on the Board of the Barack Obama Foundation and is a member of the Uber Board of Directors. He will speak at 2:40 PM on Tuesday, May 10. is the Managing Partner of BoxGroup, a New York City based seed-stage angel capital firm. He is also the co-founder and Chairman of Shop Spring, a mobile marketplace for shopping as well as TechStars, a venture fund looking to invest in suitable startups. He will serve as a judge for Startup Battlefield. is the co-founder and COO of Coffee Meets Bagel. Kang’s work spans from strategy & business development to marketing, research and investing/finance. She started her career at Avon Products as analyst for U.S. Strategy & Business Development in New York. She will be speaking at 10:50 AM on Wednesday, May 11. joined NEA in 2012 and focuses on early stage consumer internet and enterprise companies. Prior to joining NEA, Dayna was an investor at North Bridge Venture Partners in Boston where she focused on seed and early stage consumer internet and SaaS investments. She will serve as a judge for Startup Battlefield. Dev Flaherty is a co-founder of The List App. Dev is the CEO and Co-Founder of The List App. Originally from Brooklyn, Dev earned his B.S. in Civil Engineering from Stanford University before diving into the world of technology startups. Before founding The List App with B.J. Novak last year, Dev was SVP of User Experience at Fab.com, and prior to that part of the Boston-based co. WHERE, which was acquired by eBay/PayPal for $135M in 2011. He will speak at 2:00 PM on Monday, May 10. is a Partner at Greycroft Partners and is based in the firm’s New York office. Prior to joining Greycroft, Ellie worked in a similar role evaluating investment opportunities at Lowercase Capital. Ellie also worked at Cisco in Corporate Development doing acquisitions, investments, and strategy within the unified communications, enterprise software, mobile, and video sectors. She will serve as a judge for Startup Battlefield. is a Senior Engineer at Slack Technologies and advocate for diversity and inclusion in tech, and expanding access to tech education. She joined Slack in 2015, where she focuses on Build and Release Engineering. She will be speaking at 11:50 AM on Monday, May 9. is a Director of Product at Facebook who leads the product teams in charge of Media (Video, News, Influencers) and Advertising in News Feed. Most recently, she launched Live videos, videos and video ads that autoplay in News Feed, and Instant Articles. She was also in charge of simplifying Facebook’s ad product suite from 27 ad formats to only 7. Fidji joined Facebook from eBay. She will speak at 1:25 PM on Wednesday, May 10. has been a venture capitalist since 1987. He currently is a managing partner at Union Square Ventures and also founded Flatiron Partners. He will be speaking at 9:05 AM and 2:00 PM on Tuesday, May 10. is a serial entrepreneur and prolific angel investor. He currently runs a $4mm per deal seed fund via AngelList that is crowd-sourced from 500+ influential Silicon Valley angels and is recruiting partners to join him. He will serve as a judge for Startup Battlefield. is the CEO and co-founder of Human Ventures — a start-up studio in NYC that co-founds innovative technology companies that make life easier and more fulfilling. Heather leads the core team at Human that supports each portfolio founder with the early stages of building. She will be speaking at 11:30 AM on Tuesday, May 10. led early stage investments in Yelp, Pinterest and LinkedIn, and has earned a reputation for spotting fledgling stars while others miss them. His success has made him a staple of Forbes’ “Midas List” of technology investors. He will serve as a judge for Startup Battlefield. is an actress, activist, mother, wife and entrepreneur. Known throughout the world for her acting career, the mother of two daughters launched The Honest Company in January 2012. In an industry consumed by toxic and harmful products, The Honest Company responds to the need for safe, effective, and affordable products for the home, children, and babies. She will speak at 10:05 AM on Wednesday, May 10. is the Founder and Executive Director of Red Hook Initiative (RHI) in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Under her leadership RHI has developed a model for social change and youth development that empowers community members to become agents of change in their own lives and neighborhood. She will be speaking at 5:40 PM on Tuesday, May 10. started out in retail, eventually moving to the wholesale arena. She then transitioned to the media side of the technology world, before once again reinventing herself as an investor. She is currently an active angel investor with a portfolio of over 90 companies such as Food52, Catchafire, Vengo, Nestio, Captureproof, Makers Row, Le Tote, and Union Station. She will serve as a judge for Startup Battlefield. is CEO and co-founder of betaworks. Betaworks is an internet studio that builds and invests in companies across the social, data-driven media internet. Companies that betaworks has built include Giphy, Dots, bitly and Chartbeat, betaworks acquired and re-launched Digg and Instapaper. He will be speaking at 11:30 AM on Tuesday, May 10 and will serve as a Startup Battlefield judge. is the CEO and founder of Betterment. Passionate about making life better, and with his experience from his career of advising banks and brokers on risk and products, he founded Betterment in 2008. He will be speaking at 11:55 AM on Tuesday, May 10. is the founder and Managing Partner of Ludlow Ventures where he has invested in over fifty technology companies. He will serve as a judge for Startup Battlefield. has been an active entrepreneur and investor in the Internet industry since its commercialization. Josh co-founded First Round Capital in 2004 to reinvent seed-stage investing. Since that time, the firm has invested in over 300 emerging technology startups – becoming one of the most active venture capital firms in the country. He will be speaking at 10:05 AM on Monday, May 9. is a Partner at Collaborative Fund, an early-stage venture firm headquartered in New York. Collaborative Fund has backed such companies as Lyft, Hopscotch, AltSchool, Blue Bottle, Earnest, Sweetgreen, and Skillshare. He will serve as a judge for Startup Battlefield. leads a team focused on making investments and developing partnerships in the advanced manufacturing ecosystem at GE. Karen comes to GE with two decades of experience in developing technology based businesses and venture investing. She will serve as a judge for Startup Battlefield. is the CEO of HackerOne, Inc. the leading vulnerability coordination and bug bounty platform. Previously, Marten was the CEO of Eucalyptus Systems, acquired by Hewlett-Packard where he served as head of the cloud business. He will be speaking at 9:25 AM on Monday, May 9. is a General Partner in the Spark Capital Growth Fund. She specializes in working with world-changing entrepreneurs to design, build and scale transformative consumer products and companies. She will serve as a judge for Startup Battlefield. is a retired United States Air Force four-star general and former Director of National Security Agency, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He is currently a principal at the Chertoff Group, a security consultancy founded by former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. He will be speaking at 2:05 PM on Wednesday, May 11. runs the Echo, Alexa, and Appstore teams at Amazon, overseeing product strategy technology development, business development, and business operations. George joined Amazon in 1997 as VP of Business Development at Junglee, an Amazon subsidiary. Since that time, he held multiple roles including VP of Appstore, Games, Cloud Drive and Mechanical Turk, VP of Global Payment Services, VP of Digital, VP of AmazonLocal, and VP of HR. He will be speaking at 9:25 AM on Tuesday, May 10. is the Chief Technology Officer for the Mayor’s Office of New York. Tantoco has led emerging technology initiatives including artificial intelligence, e-commerce, virtualization, online marketing and mobile applications. Tantoco holds four US patents on intelligent workflow and is a speaker and author on mobile, security, big data, and innovation. She will serve as a judge for Startup Battlefield is a Senior Staff Attorney on the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s digital civil liberties team. In addition to his focus on free speech and privacy litigation, Nate works on EFF’s Who Has Your Back? report and Coders’ Rights Project. He will be speaking at 9:25 AM on Monday, May 9. is Co-Founder & Co-CEO of sweetgreen, a destination for simple, seasonal, healthy food. The brand’s strong food ethos, embrace of passion and purpose, and investment in local communities has enabled sweetgreen to grow into a national brand with more than 39 locations across the East Coast and California. He will be speaking at 10:05 AM on Tuesday, May 10. is a Managing Director at 1776, a global incubator and seed fund focused on industries impacting essential human needs. Prior to 1776, she served as Chief Digital Officer and Deputy Secretary for Technology for New York State under Governor Andrew M. Cuomo from 2014-2015 and as ChiefDigital Officer for the City of New York under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg from 2011-2013. She will serve as a judge for Startup Battlefield. is the president and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the trade association for interactive marketing in the United States. The IAB represents over 600 leading media, marketing and technology companies. Its members include Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, The New York Times, Walt Disney Co., NBC Universal, CBS, Cars.com, and scores of other ad-supported digital companies, which are responsible for selling more than 86% of online advertising in the U.S. He will be speaking at 10:50 AM on Monday, May 9. is the founder of Her, the largest app for lesbian, bisexual and queer women. Her mirrors the way women meet and talk in real life, with a social space for group conversations, shared content and an easy way to connect with others about the things you care about most. She will be speaking at 10:50 AM on Wednesday, May 11. ’s professional mission is to help women reach their financial and professional goals. She is the CEO and Co-Founder of Ellevest, a soon-to-be-launched digital investment platform for women. She is the Chair of Ellevate Network, a many-thousand-strong global professional women’s network. And she is the Chair of the Pax Ellevate Global Women’s Index Fund, which invests in the top-rated companies for advancing women. She will be speaking at 9:05 AM on Wednesday, May 11. is the founder and CEO of Modsy, a home design app that allows you to visualize design ideas in the context of your own home. Previously, Shanna was a partner on the investing team at Google Ventures. Her career has focused on the intersection between design and technology, especially in the realm of 3D technology platforms. She will be speaking at 5:05 PM on Monday, May 9. is an award-winning journalist, documentarian, news anchor and producer. At the forefront of the biggest breaking news stories of the past two decades, O’Brien is one of the most sought-after journalists today. In June 2013, O’Brien launched Starfish Media Group, a multi-platform media production and distribution company dedicated to uncovering and producing empowering stories that take a challenging look at the often divisive issues of race, class, wealth, poverty, and opportunity through personal narratives. She will be speaking at 9:25 AM on Wednesday, May 11. is an entrepreneur, technology commentator and enthusiast, and software and internet investor. He is currently a Partner at General Catalyst. He has previously worked with Accel Partners and Insight Venture Partners. He will serve as a judge for Startup battlefield. oversees all of Google’s Ads and Commerce products, which include search, display and video advertising, analytics, shopping, payments, and travel. Joining Google as an engineer since 2003, he’s been an integral part of the growth of AdWords and Google’s advertising business. He will be speaking at 12:20 PM on Tuesday, May 10. is Head of Product for Messaging at Facebook. Prior to Facebook, Stan was VP of Growth and Global Strategy at PayPal after a company he co-founded, IronPearl, was acquired in 2013. Stan also co-founded several other successful companies including Jiff, NFX, Ooga Labs, and Wonderhill. He will be speaking at 10:30 AM on Tuesday, May 10. is co-founder and partner of Melo7 Tech Partners, LLC, which was founded by Carmelo Anthony and Stuart Goldfarb to invest in and develop opportunities primarily in early stage digital media, consumer internet and technology ventures. Stuart and Carmelo have also partnered in other ventures, including the award-winning Vice Sports Clubhouse. He will be speaking at 11:15 AM on Wednesday, May 11. is the founder and President of BBG Ventures, an early-stage investment fund for women-led tech start-ups. She will serve as a judge for Startup Battlefield. was the Co – Founder & CEO at Viber Media Inc. Currently, Marco has started a new ride-sharing service, Juno. He will be speaking at 9:25 AM on Tuesday, May 10. is the founder and CEO of Kik, a chat network with more than 240 million registered users and 40 percent of U.S. teens. Founded in 2009, Kik is headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, and has raised $120.5 million from investors including Tencent and Union Square Ventures. He will be speaking at 11:35 AM on Wednesday, May 11. founded Eyeo GmbH 2011 in Cologne with Wladimir Palant to help run Adblock Plus, the world’s most popular browser extension, and to develop additional software that provides users more control over their surfing experience. He will be speaking at 10:30 AM on Monday, May 9. is CEO of AOL Inc., a leading global media technology company headquartered in New York City and operating in over 20 countries worldwide. He will be speaking at 2:00 PM on Tuesday, May 10. is the CEO and Co-founder of DoorDash, an on demand-delivery company that enables delivery in areas where it was not previously possible. Starting with restaurants, DoorDash is building the infrastructure and logistics platform to allow any local merchant to deliver. He will be speaking at 9:45 AM on Wednesday, May 11. joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 2006. He focuses on hardware-related investments – “HardTech” – such as enterprise IT infrastructure (data storage, networking, compute), disruptive digital devices (wearables, mobile, consumer electronics), IoT solutions, drones, 3D printing, semiconductors and sustainable technology investments. He will serve as a judge for Startup Battlefield. is the CEO and co-founder of the dating application Bumble. Before Bumble, she co-founded Tinder and was the VP of marketing for two years. After her departure, she saw a missing link in online responsibility. She had hopes to create a platform for kindness. She will be speaking at 10:50 AM on Wednesday, May 11. |
Instacart, PlateJoy partner to deliver recommended groceries to dieters | Lora Kolodny | 2,016 | 5 | 3 | The makers of a virtual nutritionist app, have partnered with to offer same-day delivery of the foods that they recommended to users through the PlateJoy app A subscription to PlateJoy costs $59 for six months. Users get food recommendations for themselves and family, cooking tips and recipes, and access to a personal nutritionist they can consult through PlateJoy. Founder and CEO said that the $10 per month cost of PlateJoy compares to fees of about $150 to see a nutritionist for just one session and a one-week meal plan. She added, “Dieting has gotten a bad rap, but diet-related changes could curb health care costs in the country by more than $70 billion dollars, according to USDA estimates.” The PlateJoy app asks users for 50 different data points about their health and taste preferences before churning out recommendations. Its “personalization quiz” asks about users’ favorite ingredients, allergies, the size of their family, weight loss goals, schedule and more. The meal plan PlateJoy generates for users is then formed around users’ self-reported needs and preferences. While it offers dieting advice, PlateJoy is not certified as a mobile medical app. The CEO declined to comment on the terms of the Instacart partnership, including whether PlateJoy gets a cut of sales in exchange for leads or new customers it generates for its partner. Both companies are backed by Y Combinator. Instacart also powers for major stores like Whole Foods Market, Costco and gourmet grocers Andronicos. Via PlateJoy, users will pay the cost of ingredients plus a $7 delivery fee, typically, Bognet said. In a press statement, PlateJoy said it would now become competitive with meal-kit delivery startups such as , or others. However, foods shipped via Instacart to those who order through PlateJoy will not be pre-measured or prepped and ready to cook. PlateJoy has raised approximately $2 million in funding from investors including Y Combinator, Foundation Capital, 500Startups, Sherpa Ventures, and individual angels including Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, actor and musician Jared Leto and Joanne Wilson. |
Designer Fund, which backs startups founded by designers, has raised $20 million | Connie Loizos | 2,016 | 5 | 3 | , a San Francisco outfit that looks to invest in seed-stage startups that feature designers on their founding teams, has raised $20 million in funding from unnamed individual investors, most of them successful designers looking to support the next generation. The four-year-old firm was founded by Enrique Allen and Ben Blumenfeld, who remain its only general partners. Previously, Allen was a designer at 500 Startups and Facebook’s fbFund; Blumenfeld was meanwhile a design lead at Facebook for more than five years. The two met at the , which studies how computer design can change human behavior. When Blumenfeld left Facebook to take a sabbatical, the two decided to form Designer Fund. “We saw a lack of capital that really understood and valued design at the early stages,” explains Allen, who notes that Airbnb’s founders at first because few understood how two design students could rethink and expand the travel market. Enter Designer Fund, which began largely as the angel fund of Allen and Blumenfeld and has now raised outside capital to provide to companies in chunks of between $250,000 to $1 million. (“We thought that rather than writing $50,000 checks and rallying our friends around certain companies, it made more sense to pool our money,” Allen explains.) Investors have reason to be optimistic about the effort. Among the companies the duo has backed previously are the payments infrastructure company the payroll service the online behavioral health coaching company and , a growing network of non-profit schools led by former Googler Max Ventilla. All have raised significant amounts of money and remain highly valued as privately held companies. Designer Fund’s newest bets sound interesting, too. Among them is , a company whose app helps freelancers manage their workflow (we in TechCrunch last month), and , whose design tools helps users create prototypes in new ways. None of Designer Fund’s bets have led to an exit just yet, so it’s a little soon to guess at its odds of success. Still, Allen and Blumenfeld seemingly have an ace up their sleeve, and that’s , a professional development program for designers. The two developed the program shortly after forming Designer Fund, armed with the belief that the classical education that most design students receive is good but is mostly applicable to print and physical objects, and that working in tech requires different thinking. Companies like Slack, Pinterest, and Dropbox have since paid an undisclosed amount to enroll their own designers in Bridge, which typically runs nine months and includes one intensive quarter of regular workshops and talks with top designers, followed by more occasional dinners. “It’s a unique way that we can add material value” to the local design community, says Allen. The program probably doesn’t hurt when it comes to deal flow, either. Indeed, , which publishes beautiful interactive instructional e-books, sent several of its designers through Bridge. Later, when two of those employees struck out on their own to form a startup, Designer Fund backed them. That company is , a startup whose technology turns email interactive without a lot of plug-ins. Its other investors include Harrison Metal, Floodgate, and renowned angel investor Ram Shriram. |
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Ellen Pao, Freada Kapor Klein and others form tech diversity and inclusion war room | Megan Rose Dickey | 2,016 | 5 | 3 | A giant war room of diversity advocates in Silicon Valley has formed under the name . The effort consists of former Reddit interim CEO Ellen Pao, Pinterest engineer Tracy Chou, Kapor Capital Partner Freada Kapor Klein, Slack engineer Erica Baker, ReadySet founder Y-Vonne Hutchinson, angel investor Susan Wu, Cathy Labs CEO bethanye McKinney Blount and Atipica CEO Laura I. Gómez. “Project Include started as dinner brainstorming sessions on how to make tech meaningfully more diverse,” Pao said in a release. “Today we’ve joined forces to provide CEOs with comprehensive tools–frameworks, research, metrics, and recommendations–for diversity and inclusion. And the early feedback we’ve heard repeatedly from CEOs is, ‘I wish I had had this earlier.’” Project Include, a non-profit organization, aims to be a resource for people to implement change around diversity and inclusion in the tech industry. The project is focused on small to mid-stage startups, meaning anywhere from 25 to 1,000 employees, . Project Include’s set of recommendations for CEOs, leaders and managers at startups aim to help them both foster and accelerate diversity and inclusion inside their respective companies. The goal is to get startups to commit to tracking diversity and inclusion, and ultimately share that data with the tech community. What you see above is the result of a roughly 85-page document on best practices for startups to become more inclusive. If you decide to explore , for example, you’ll see recommendations like “commit to inclusivity in the company culture,” “include transparency in company values and culture” and “define and share clear compensation bands.” Project Include also offers recommendations for VC firms like applying metrics to portfolio reports and valuing the effort it takes to go into diversity and inclusion efforts. One section that really hits home for me is around . The last couple of years have been filled with diversity reports with stats around gender, race, POC and women in leadership positions and technical roles, and so on. In the last few months, we’ve started seeing stats around LGBTQIA populations at companies as well as representation of people with intersectional identities, such as POC and female, or POC and LGBTQIA. But we have yet to see any sort of standard best practices emerge for reporting diversity and inclusion, until now. “The wrong metrics can present a misleading view of system health, and optimizing against them can produce distorted outcomes,” Project Include states. “There is danger in vanity metrics, which provide good optics but lack significance. For example, some companies include non-engineers in their definitions of their engineering teams, artificially inflating their diversity numbers with groups that are usually more diverse. Internally, this can erode trust with employees who see a lack of diversity on their teams, and can delay identifying and addressing problems, while externally, it can lend a company artificial weight as an industry leader.” That said, Project Include recommends companies prioritize the following : With the following : If you want to hear more about Project Include, I’ll be talking to Erica Baker next week at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC. |
Microgravity contest takes students and experiments on the vomit comet | Nitish Kulkarni | 2,016 | 5 | 4 | FOX’s show is teaming up with Arlington, Va.-based , which operates weightless flights from U.S. airports. The reason they’re collaborating: to create the ultimate consolation prize for college students who were just too young to apply to NASA’s latest astronaut class. The show, a part of FOX’s “Xploration Station” series, which focuses on STEM education for youth, is hosting a with a pretty cool prize. Contestants who demonstrate interest in space exploration and submit the most interesting basic science experiment to be performed in microgravity will win a ride and get to perform their experiment on a Boeing 727 aircraft while weightless. Science experiments in microgravity are incredibly fascinating, with even basic experiments yielding beautiful and cool results, like the spherical blue flames that researchers have been producing for years to great effect. Unfortunately, as cool as that looks, the competition’s rules have decided to err on the side of caution. To ensure contestants’ safety, experiments cannot involve glass, power tools or weapons, and any liquids in use must be both approved for flight and completely contained. To add to that, the experiment also cannot involve drones of any kind, preventing college freshmen from settling petty physics questions that often ask about objects thrown into the interior of moving vehicles. Applicants must also be enrolled in a learning institution and can apply on the competition’s that, in addition to a description of their experiment, must explain why they should be chosen for the flight. Applicants need also share their thoughts on space exploration’s importance. “The student who wins will gain experience in communicating scientific ideas to the public in an entertaining and educational way,” said , the show’s producer and host. Calandrelli is also a space writer at TechCrunch. Sending student science experiments into microgravity isn’t new, but this is one of the first times students will get the chance to go weightless along with their test setups. competition sent experiments designed by pre-college students into orbit to the International Space Station in 2011 and 2012. One interesting constraint for these newest contestants will be the short burst of microgravity that flight in the ZERO-G 727 provides, as opposed to the continuous weightlessness that, say, orbital flight can achieve. The aircraft flies in a series of 15 continuous parabolas, with each parabola yielding about 30 seconds of microgravity as the aircraft is around the apex. The parabolas start at 24,000 feet, with the aircraft pitching up 45 degrees to the horizon until the apex at 32,000 feet. During the ascent, passengers will feel 1.8 times the force of gravity, hence the competition’s requirement that applicants be in good physical shape. In fact, a ride on the company’s aircraft, which includes parabolas that simulate Martian and Lunar gravity, typically costs $4,950 retail before tax. Applications for the Student Astronaut Contest close on Sunday, May 15, and winners will be announced the following week. |
No one organizes any crime on Slack, apparently | Kate Conger | 2,016 | 5 | 4 | Slack released its today, revealing that it has received a grand total of one government request for user data. Just one. The number is somewhat remarkable when compared with the rest of the industry. Facebook recently announced that it from U.S. agencies over a six-month period. Google disclosed 12,002 requests for user data from the U.S. in its most recent . Even Uber fielded some law enforcement requests for its users’ data — in six months. But the single-digit transparency report isn’t unusual for Slack: Last year, in its first-ever transparency report, Slack revealed that it had received zero government requests. Of course, Facebook, Google and Uber all serve far more people than Slack does — but Slack, which hosts 2.7 million users, is no slouch. When asked why their numbers (or number, really) might be so low, a representative for Slack told TechCrunch that the company hasn’t done an analysis on the number of requests received so it couldn’t be sure what a standard number might be. “We think the number may be low because Slack is a relatively young company,” the representative added. So maybe law enforcement just hasn’t noticed Slack exists yet. Or maybe the kind of crime being facilitated on Slack — because, realistically, someone has to have used one of the most popular organization tools on the market to organize a crime by now — isn’t drawing significant law enforcement attention. But as Slack’s userbase continues to grow, it’s likely that law enforcement interest in obtaining Slack messages will as well. Slack has added 500,000 users alone. And Slack messages are a tempting target for law enforcement. As WhatsApp, iMessage, and other chat services debut end-to-end encryption that limits access to message data, Slack messages are encrypted only in transit. Slack isn’t eager to hand over data to government agencies, though. “In releasing this report, we want to reiterate our position of opposing government-mandated ‘backdoors,’ especially any government demands for access to user data that would compromise our users’ security,” Slack said in a announcing the transparency report. The company also announced that it had not provided any data in response to its single request. And even if you are using Slack to chat about how to rob a bank or pull off a ransomware attack, Slack isn’t peeking over your shoulder to monitor that content. “As a business tool, Slack leaves administration of the team to account owners and does not proactively screen content,” a representative said. |
Periscope mimics FB Live by letting you permanently #Save replays | Josh Constine | 2,016 | 5 | 4 | Periscope added its biggest missing feature today in a move that could make it more palatable to brands and social stars, and help it compete with Facebook Live. You can now replays of your broadcasts by including #Save in their title. You still can delete them later if you want. Previously, broadcasts disappeared after 24 hours. Periscope’s CEO Kayvon Beykpour took to… Periscope to . He’s calling it a public beta, and is seeking user feedback as Periscope plans to build better native control for permanently displaying broadcasts, including the option to decide something should be permanent after your broadcast ends. Beykpour also said Periscope is actively developing controls for people who want to keep their broadcasts up for shorter periods of time but not forever. #Save-d broadcasts will be visible in a user’s profile, as well as wherever else they appear, and links shared externally like on Twitter will stay permanently active. The CEO also wished a fond farewell to Katch, a third-party tool for saving Periscopes and sharing them elsewhere. The startup shut down last month after running out of funding.
Previously, many professional content creators and brands were turned off by the ephemeral bits of Periscope. The 24 hour life span made it easier to feel natural on camera and not worry about fumbling for words or not looking perfect. But it meant creators’ hard work would vaporize, making it feel less worth undertaking. Now, creators and average users might feel more inclined to jump in front of the camera. Permanent replays are still optional if you want to shoot something disposable and off the cuff. Yet the feature addition removes a talking point for Facebook Live, which touted the added reach the optional permanence of its replays offered. With the platforms being equal to this regard, the differentiator is now more about audience size. Periscope is strapped to Twitter and its 300 million+ user base. But still, you can only broadcast from Periscope and can’t start one from within Twitter. Facebook Live exists entirely inside Facebook’s hugely popular 1.6 billion+ user app. That means creators seeking reach may still opt for Facebook over Periscope. But Twitter and Periscope’s real-time nature make it better for current events, and now broadcasts can exist both in the moment, and for eternity. |
Oculus snags Fitbit exec Hans Hartmann as new COO | Lucas Matney | 2,016 | 5 | 4 | is bringing a new COO aboard as it perhaps looks to double down on tightening things up logistics-wise. COO will be jumping ship and joining the virtual reality company owned by Facebook, according to a from Oculus CEO . Hartmann, who was with Fitbit since 2011, will be replacing founding COO Laird Malamed, who Iribe says will be “taking on a new executive role helping [Oculus] scale the business to bring virtual reality to millions around the world.” I'm excited to welcome our new COO Hans Hartmann! He brings decades of hardware, manufacturing and supply chain experience to Oculus. — Brendan Iribe (@brendaniribe) CEO Brendan Iribe’s note that Hartmann has “decades of hardware, manufacturing and supply chain experience” is undoubtedly good news given the supply struggles that the virtual reality company has endured with the launch of their Rift VR headset, which is still struggling to keep up with pre-orders. |
Fitbit shares tank after reporting a weak outlook amid rising competition | Matthew Lynley | 2,016 | 5 | 4 | is not having a good day, with the stock crashing more than 11 percent after reporting its first-quarter results. Here’s the rub: its guidance for the second quarter came in light. light. Industry watchers were expecting the company to report earnings around 26 cents per share, while the company put its outlook at earnings between 8 cents per share and 11 cents per share. That’s a pretty big miss, and another indicator that the company will be facing some challenges in the wearable market. Fitbit is facing a ton of increasing competition, not only from Apple with the Apple Watch, but from international manufacturers like and the usual competition from . Fitbit’s usual strategy has been to go after the fitness-tracking market with a portfolio of devices, but recently it’s somewhat diverged from that with the launch of a smartwatch. Naturally, given Fitbit’s previous success, a shift in strategy may not be very welcome to investors looking for continued growth in the company — and a strong return. All this has forced Fitbit to find more unique ways to prove to consumers that it is the best option when it comes to fitness tracking. One recent example was an integration with the , in which users can . It’s novel use cases like these that might propel the company above the competition, but so far we haven’t seen any kind of dramatic success on that front. This isn’t the first time the stock has been crushed as indicators point to a more challenging environment for the fitness-tracking device company. Fitbit went after the smartwatch market, and investors . Last quarter, the company once again missed expectations on its outlook — sending the stock down dramatically again. Here’s the quick rundown of the report: Though, to be sure, the company beat its own expectations of $420 million to $440 million in revenue for the first quarter. So whether or not this signals another lowball for the company remains to be seen, but in sum, it’s a big whiff for investors looking for some indication that the company is coming from a point of strength when it comes to the wearable market. In the past six months, Fitbit shares are down more than 50 percent. [graphiq id=”69h7aFdq0Ch” title=”Fitbit Inc. (FIT) Stock Price – 90 Days” width=”600″ height=”492″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/69h7aFdq0Ch” link=”http://listings.findthecompany.com/l/17807102/Fitbit-Inc-in-San-Francisco-CA” link_text=”Fitbit Inc. (FIT) Stock Price – 90 Days | FindTheCompany”] |
How consolidations will play out in the transportation, food and entertainment industries | Arthur O'Keefe | 2,016 | 5 | 4 |
Out of the ashes of its predecessor the is born. People forget that the exists because rational people with good vision see opportunity. Often the vision is “spot on,” but expectations of velocity of transformation and adoption are inflated, leading to over-investment that subsequently must be rationalized. no of exploring a bubble in technology. In general, they share a fear of a return to dot-com failures like and a coming tide of . I would argue that the world has already been transformed, and there is no bubble in the purest sense. Despite going for growth and market share over profit, many of these companies have created real value, and, instead of massive flameouts that leave everyone burned, I think we are going to see a wave of beneficial consolidation and rationalization in that appropriately have seen exceptional venture capital funding: , and . This does not mean that companies will disappear or die, but rather that many merge or be consolidated, which enable leaders in these to achieve sustainable scale and grow to do even bigger and better things. Let’s take a deeper look at what this could look like. From and to the rise of like and , media industry watchers are confused about where people go for once the digital dust settles. With that in mind, it’s easy to see that companies in with strong brands and existing audiences can capitalize on the changing landscape by extending their brand with complementary services to win over consumers. For instance, take , the marketplace that connects theaters selling movie tickets to consumers searching for reviews, tickets and show times. Despite owning the movie ticket market since launching in 2000, Fandango saw a blistering over the previous year. While Fandango has been coy in its , one could infer from that the company look to capitalize on this spectacular momentum by creeping further down the value chain, which it has already begun to do by expanding into reviews . By doing so, Fandango would be following the example of , to make the natural progression from someone enjoying a musician on the site to someone buying tickets to their concert. For decades, we’ve seen a , which has led VCs to pour into delivery startups. Barriers to entry, like agreements with local partners, payment models and demographics, make it hard for companies to capture new customers away from a dominant platform. Overall, this has led to one breakout company per region — and a smattering of competitors vying for the other spots. This dynamic, combined with thin margins that have forced folks like the viability of the business model itself, has led competitors trailing a regional leader to sell off and consolidate their capital in the markets where they have a lead. For instance, bought several companies — for — and partnered with one-time rival to gain further scale. And in February 2016, Just Eat and Rocket Internet further drove consolidation as in Spain, Italy, Brazil and Mexico, allowing Rocket to focus efforts on further scaling its key markets across Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Following the precedent set by and and , the consolidation increase stateside with M&A that supports existing products and features. Except, the consolidation take place one step up the chain, with model leaders acquiring smaller players as the fundings waters shallow and folks like slash valuations. There are many ways this could , but it could look like acquiring ( ) or to supplement its own delivery . could reasonably buy (and also ) since Yelp is basically an extension of search, and doing so would bolster Google’s own reviews (pouring data from Yelp into Google reviews) while also leveraging as a delivery backbone. Throughout ’s meteoric rise, it has used its massive war chest only once for M&A. It bought , a mapping company. Because Uber has been able to raise extraordinary sums of money, it’s been able to forego the regional M&A consolidation that’s going on in the delivery industry (presumably because it believes it can offer cheap enough rides for long enough that it simply outlast competitors, even in China alone). Like with / , / and / , Uber buying deCarta is another good example of a company buying a complementary company to expand its range of services. By moving mapping in-house, Uber doesn’t have to rely on Google for logistics infrastructure, and can scale its company in incredible directions, like delivery ( ), more traditional UPS-type delivery ( ) and even sell its to other companies like . However, even if Uber itself doesn’t start buying competitors, faced with Uber’s aggressive expansion of services and cash reserve, we see more startups consolidate, , to increase market penetration and offer more services. I wouldn’t be surprised if bought , if not just to stick it to Uber and take a bigger share of Uber’s home turf, San Francisco. Consumers win. As inefficiencies are ironed , the winning companies be able to innovate new products and features. And even investors win. Many acquisitions are stock deals, and, as such, patient investors can have a second swing at the ball as part of a larger and more surefooted company better positioned for growth and profitability. Food for thought: What do you foresee for , and tech in 2016? Beyond these , where do you foresee consolidation taking place in the coming years? |
Free Code Camp survey reveals demographics of self-taught coders | Devin Coldewey | 2,016 | 5 | 4 | If you’ve ever wondered who exactly is signing up for all these free learn-at-home coding classes and tutorial websites, (which is one of them) has kindly with regard to various basic demographics and some more code-centric items. Some of the stats are expected (few women — around 1 in 5 surveyed) and a few are surprising — for instance, only 18 percent said they’d like to work for a startup. Thirty-eight percent don’t plan on specializing in UX, backend stuff or other specific disciplines, which they might want to revisit later. And they’re all over the world — mostly the U.S., with India a close second — but the long tail comprises 167 more countries. Could be useful information as-is, but you can also download the whole set , or wait for Free Code Camp to publish its planned interactive visualizations over the next few weeks. |
Why Zuck is funding the evolution beyond cookie-cutter education | Josh Constine | 2,016 | 5 | 4 | see how each student requires a unique inspiration and learning style. Yet with classroom sizes ballooning and teachers underpaid, there’s no way for students to get the dedicated attention they need. Luckily, technology could offer the adaptive education guidance pupils need to succeed. That’s why in December Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan announced the $45 billion , with a major focus on education. Today, former U.S. deputy secretary of the Department of Education James H. Shelton III to lead the CZI’s education wing and its two pillars: underserved communities and personalized learning. Zuckerberg used the concept of personalization to create the most popular online source of information: the Facebook News Feed. Today during a Facebook Live chat, he explained just why personalization is critical to the future of education: There’s very clear data that when a student has a very personalized approach to their education, where the most personalized approach is you have a one-to-one tutor or mentor that you’re spending your time with, then the education results are just significantly better than when you’re in a classroom learning at the same pace as all the other students in the same way as everyone else who’s there. So what we really want to do, and strive to help teachers do over the next 10 or 20 years, is get to the point where every student in every classroom can have the same kind of education that you would have if you were working with a one-on-one tutor. The reality is every student learns a little bit differently. Some people like working in groups. Some people like reading on their own, or doing practice problems, or playing learning games. Some people like talking to teachers. Some people just like learning on their own. And then people work at their own pace. So in every classroom, there’s going to be students who grasp a concept really quickly and in the time that they’re now waiting for other students to understand that, they could have been learning more and getting ahead in different areas. And then at the same time there’s students for who a concept may be particularly hard for them. And if they only have the same amount of time as everyone else to learn that, then they might get left behind and miss some foundational step which is necessary to understand later concepts, and get left behind after that.
In the video above, both Chan and Zuckerberg discuss teachers that revealed to them the potential of personalized learning. Priscilla recalls a robotics teacher who she calls “completely transformative” to her life. Mark explains that a math teacher named Mr. Fung “taught me about the way that I think about things and the way I process problems…I try to think about what the space of the answer might be and estimate things in order to try to get closer and closer to what the answer would be. And I didn’t understand that about myself.” Providing this kind of education would be impossible to scale solely with human teachers. Yet Chan and Zuckerberg are already experimenting with employing technology to propel personalized learning. They to the Redwood City School District and some of its students. Chan meanwhile runs The Primary School, a holistic K-12 school and healthcare program pioneering new approaches to child development. The family also run Zuckerberg Education Ventures. It’s made investments in , which lets students hold their phone’s camera over a textbook or assignment, have the content scanned using machine vision and be shown tips and study guides about the topic at hand. Another startup called surfaces news stories about current events in various reading levels appropriate for different students, and provides comprehension quizzes. With Zuckerberg’s ample financial resources, you can imagine the CZI developing or funding software that assesses a student’s learning style and adapts to whether they grasp concepts better through a particular combination of voice, text, images, collaboration, individual work, practice or creativity. Then it could monitor understanding of each topic, and adjust the pace of instruction so they’re never forced to proceed while still confused. Zuckerberg Education Ventures-backed Volley app Shelton has the experience to make this happen. He previously led education programs for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and was president of , a public company that brings colleges’ courses online. “Where I really plan to start is by doing a lot of listening and learning. There are a lot of people doing great work around the country,” Shelton said, countering some flimsy criticism lobbed at Zuckerberg about barging into to areas others have researched for years. While computers have inched into classrooms, to date they’re used more like glorified calculators. They haven’t fundamentally changed the one-size-fits-all education style. But with a combination of philanthropy and technology, computers could grow into responsive teachers’ assistants so each student is taught the way they learn best. |
Robot surgeon outperforms human colleagues doing same procedure | Devin Coldewey | 2,016 | 5 | 4 | It’s another victory for the machines: and robot-assisted human operators in a soft-tissue procedure, bringing us that much closer to automated medical care (and the ). The Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR) was designed at the Children’s National Medical Center as an attempt to bring automation to soft-tissue surgery, a field where the versatility and spatial skills of human surgeons have long made them essential. “As surgeons, we usually do three things,” said lead researcher Peter Kim, of the Sheikh Zayed Institute in a press call, “we use our vision and we use our hands for dexterity and then we use our mind as cognition to make judgment and then carry it out. We improved on all these things.” STAR uses advanced computer vision tech that uses fluorescent markers and 3D cameras to get a detailed view of the surgical site. It then chooses from a variety of surgical techniques programmed into its database, and carries out the action with, naturally, machine-like precision, speed and efficiency. You can , if you don’t mind the whole exposed innards thing. In the experiment, the same procedure (bowel surgery on a pig — not glamorous, but a representative testbed for operations on humans) was performed by STAR, by human experts and by humans assisted by a Da Vinci surgical robot. The result: victory by STAR on a number of metrics. Despite dynamic scene changes and tissue movement during surgery, we demonstrate that the outcome of supervised autonomous procedures is superior to surgery performed by expert surgeons and RAS technique. (from the abstract) It should be noted that humans had to assist the robot in certain tasks here and there, but that’s to be expected; it’s supervised autonomy, after all — humans need to be on hand in case technical difficulties crop up, like a power failure or failed part. In other words, it’ll be a while before you can get in a -style surgery pod (and thank god for that, for several reasons). The future, or at least the future envisioned here, is one of harmony and cooperation between humans and robots. “Even though we take pride in our craft at doing surgical procedures, to have a machine or tool that works with us in ensuring better outcome safety and reducing complications would be a tremendous benefit,” Kim said. “With the right partner,” he added later during a question and answer period, “some or all of this technology can be incorporated into the commercially available, clinically applicable tools — probably within the next two, no more than three years.” The paper describing STAR’s success was in the journal . |
Tesla hits the accelerator, aims to build 500,000 cars a year by 2018 | Matthew Lynley | 2,016 | 5 | 4 | says it is expecting to hit its goal of producing 500,000 cars annually — including the Model S, Model X and Model 3 — two years earlier than expected, meeting that expectation by 2018. All this is coming ahead of a critical next year for Tesla with the expansion of its line of vehicles with the Model 3 and . Tesla also said it is re-affirming its plan to deliver 80,000 to 90,000 new vehicles this year. That means it’s going to have to have a roughly 5x increase in production capability in the next two years, a pretty ambitious target to hit given some of the troubles it’s had with its previous models. Still, given the number of reservations for the Model 3, that might not be too far out of reach. The company made the announcement as part of its first-quarter earnings report, where it slightly beat analyst expectations and sent the stock up around 5 percent. Tesla said it expects to produce around 20,000 vehicles in the second quarter this year. The company said it has 325,000 reservations for the Model 3. Tesla also said volume Model 3 production and deliveries will start late 2017. Tesla’s past few months have been a mixed bag. The company . It has a baseline distance of around 215 miles per charge, though Musk said the company hopes to exceed that. It’s probably Tesla’s most important launch yet, bringing the company’s vehicles down-market to a more affordable (sort of) price range. At the same time, in April, the company said it would recall 2,700 Model X vehicles over . That’s not necessarily the only hiccup with the Model X, . There were also . And to make things a little worse, Bloomberg ahead of mass production of the Model 3. That news alone sent the stock down around 4 percent. The company’s stock has been overall pretty flat, down around 3 percent on the year. Tesla’s jump today essentially reversed losses on the day following reports of executive departures. After the report, shares jumped as much as 7 percent before leveling off. Tesla beat what industry watchers were looking for in terms of the amount of money it made, posting a loss of 57 cents per share. Analysts were expecting a loss of 58 cents per share on revenue of $1.6 billion. Tesla brought in $1.6 billion in revenue, in line with what was expected for the company. [graphiq id=”e2k7udHkCl7″ title=”Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) Stock Price – 1 Year” width=”600″ height=”492″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/e2k7udHkCl7″ link=”http://listings.findthecompany.com/l/12234646/Tesla-Motors-Inc-in-Palo-Alto-CA” link_text=”Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) Stock Price – 1 Year | FindTheCompany”] |
Winter brings opportunities for the wise and frugal | Ben Narasin | 2,016 | 5 | 4 |
One of my seed portfolio founders called for advice recently. He’d raised a Series A from a Tier 1 VC and was ahead of plan, but his investor suddenly wanted him to cut spending: on SEM, on PR, on whatever he could. He wanted to know why, and how to think about it. Firms have portfolios to manage. The older the firm, the larger the portfolio. To make sure their portfolio is as healthy as possible, they often apply the same directives to conserve portfolio company cash in times of uncertainty and maximize flexibility over time. Firms know their companies that need to raise this year will have a harder time than before, so the longer each company can last on its own, the longer the portfolio can last and the more reserves exist for those that need, and deserve, help. In good times there’s lots of breathing room, which supports big portfolios. In leaner times everyone focusses on living off the oxygen they have, and there isn’t always enough to go around. I am already noticing what a huge benefit it is to be a focussed, boutique firm with a concentrated portfolio in the land of the large and prolific. I’m doubly lucky because as a new partner I can almost exclusively focus on the future and the new it will , as I will soon suggest you do. Cutting fat is always good. PR firms for early-stage startups are almost always fat. SEM, without a business model to convert it, is also fat. Look at your spending; there’s lots of fat. Burn and fat go together. Lean and strong go together, too. Don’t think of cutting costs as a forced financial diet, think of it as you are funding in advance. Fast today to feast tomorrow. Very soon things are going to get a lot cheaper and easier to access; people, ad inventory, office space, acquisitions. I can tell you from experience, the money you save today will go a lot further tomorrow. I have said for a long time we were not in a bubble that would burst, but a balloon that would deflate. I stand by that view. It won’t be as bad this time, but it will parallel the past. I founded in 1993 and took it public in 1999. Then the world came to an end. We had plenty of cash, but no more path to profitability (we were profitable pre-IPO). We had to cut; but what I learned that can benefit you was what I saw as a seller, not as a spender. We had pioneered the concept of cost-per-click and charged a dollar. When the bubble burst, everyone simultaneously needed revenue and flooded the market with inventory. Existing sellers cut prices to compete. Soon we were begging for quarters-a-click. The same thing was true for service industry folks, employees and anything and anyone that had enjoyed the largess of easy investment-dollar-fueled spending. Every dollar you save today not only makes your company stronger, it leaves you with a dollar to do the work of two or more tomorrow. For the brave, and supported-by-their-board, this is an opportunity not to obsess but to progress. Not headlessly, but logically and . |
NextVR gets ready to drop the bass with live VR concerts | Lucas Matney | 2,016 | 5 | 4 | After dedicating tons of energy (and loads of bandwidth) to live streaming sporting events in stereoscopic VR, NextVR is moving to its next major market: live virtual reality concerts. has announced a major partnership with Live Nation to live stream “hundreds” of concerts and events to their virtual reality platform. This high-profile partnership continues to show just what a strong early foothold NextVR is getting in the live event VR-streaming space. Earlier this year, the company announced a multi-year deal with Fox Sports to broadcast live sporting events from the network. NextVR has already raised $35.5 million in funding from investors, including Comcast Ventures and Time Warner Investments. NextVR joins a VR concert space that’s definitely young, but also is being explored by some other virtual reality startups like . The company detailed that they’re upgrading their “proprietary 3D VR audio platform” as they shift to begin streaming a subject matter that’s inherently focused heavily on pulling the most realistic sound experience possible. The platform is currently only available on the GearVR, but NextVR says “new platforms” will be coming soon to the service. P.S. I’ll be interviewing on Monday at Disrupt NY, so check out our or to the conference! |
Uber taps global leaders for new public policy advisory group | Kate Conger | 2,016 | 5 | 4 | Uber announced today that it has assembled an advisory board from around the globe to help guide the company on public policy as it continues to expand into new markets. The board includes members from every continent except Africa and Antarctica. Uber now operates in 70 countries but, although it’s grown rapidly, its expansion has been rocky at times. Last month, the company for $100 million. It also , from most of the European countries where it was initially offered after it sparked destructive protests. These are the kinds of growing pains that the company hopes its will help it to avoid. Uber’s new public policy advisory group includes: The roster is less of a road map of where Uber plans to go and more of a look at where the company has been — Uber already operates in all of the countries represented on the new advisory board. But Uber expects that its advisers will offer regional insights beyond the borders of the United States, Peru, Brazil, India, Australia, Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands. Clockwise: Ray LaHood, Melody Barnes, Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, Neelie Kroes and Professor Allan Fels. The board will help Uber navigate as it expands into new countries — but it seems that Uber has its eye on shaping yet-to-be-established public policies that will govern the ridesharing economy. Uber chief adviser David Plouffe noted that, only a few years ago, California was the only place that had regulations in place for ridesharing. “Today more than 70 jurisdictions in the U.S. do, and many other places around the globe are following suit, including in Australia, Canada, India, the Philippines and Mexico,” Plouffe wrote in a announcing the new group. Uber has sparred with regulators in California and beyond, often facing hefty government fines, and it’s easy to imagine why the company wants to avoid this moving forward. Plouffe referenced his company’s brash reputation in the post: “Uber has a reputation for getting straight to the point (sometimes a little too quickly),” Plouffe wrote. He said he hoped the board’s advice would be “equally direct.” The advisory board held its first meeting earlier this week. “We had vibrant discussions about every aspect of our business and the unique challenges and opportunities Uber faces around the world,” Plouffe added. |
Teachable raises $2.5 million to help instructors teach outside the confines of course marketplace | Lora Kolodny | 2,016 | 5 | 4 | New York-based has raised $2.5 million in a seed round of venture funding to help instructors of anything set up their own branded storefronts for selling courses and connecting with learners online. The company’s technology lets instructors teach courses online in any subject without having to commit their proprietary materials and personal brands to a single platform. While edtech investments earlier flowed to marketplaces like Lynda.com, Udemy, Skillshare or Masterclass, Teachable is taking another tack. Formerly known as Fedora, compares itself to Shopify, and other course marketplaces to Etsy. Founder and CEO Ankur Nagpal said “We think of ourselves almost as an anti-marketplace since teachers use us to build their own sites. They control pricing, payments and their entire customer list — there is no centralized repository of classes for students to browse.” With 18 employees today, Teachable makes a majority of its revenue from instructors who opt to use its software on a subscription basis. Subscriptions cost from $39 to $299 a month. A free version of Teachable is available to instructors. The startup takes a $1 fee and 10 percent of every sale for courses instructors share on the platform. If an instructor makes a course freely available to students online, Teachable doesn’t charge them at all. The company has won over some famous customers, including , known for her starring role in the Matrix and, more recently, her work on the Jessica Jones Marvel TV series. To get paid by students who flock to their sites and courses online, teachers can connect their Teachable site to either their own bank account or a PayPal account. New investors in Teachable include: Accomplice, AngelList founder Naval Ravikant and Learn Capital. Earlier investors included Sincerely founder Matt Brezina, Maiden Lane Ventures, Winklevoss Capital and others. The company will use the funding for hiring, product development, sales and marketing. |
Farfetch grabs another $110 million for its fashion marketplace | Romain Dillet | 2,016 | 5 | 4 | is growing like crazy as the company just secured $110 million. The London-based startup has become a dominant e-commerce player in the fashion space. Farfetch runs a marketplace that connects high-end fashion retailers with customers. But the company doesn’t plan to stop there. Today’s was led by Temasek, IDG Capital Partners and Eurazeo. Existing investor Vitruvian Partners also participated. Farfetch also secured a $50 million credit line to boost its growth. Previously, the company $86 million in March 2015. In 2015 alone, Farfetch managed $500 million in transaction value. And because of its marketplace approach, the company takes a cut on every transaction. But Farfetch isn’t anything like eBay or Amazon Marketplace. The company focuses on fashion brands and wants to help them seamlessly integrate offline and online transactions in a unified experience. That’s probably also why Farfetch has been working on a white label platform solution. As you can see on , you can purchase high-end shoes directly on the company’s website. Behind the scene, Farfetch runs the show. While Farfetch doesn’t manage inventories, the startup can connect directly to your inventory and provides impeccable customer support with in-store pick-ups, same-day deliveries in major cities, pick-up service if you want to return an item and more. So for a small fashion brand, using Farfetch’s platform could make it much easier to start selling online. You don’t need to make compromises and allocate part of your inventory to the online platform. As usual, the company is going to use today’s funding round to conquer the world. Farfetch wants to invest in its own marketplace and its white label platform solution. And this is smart, as off-site growth could be a big market for Farfetch given that fashion brands already know how to talk with loyal customers. |
SpiroCall measures lung health over any phone — no app necessary | Devin Coldewey | 2,016 | 5 | 4 | Sometimes you see an application of technology that’s so innovative and helpful you can’t believe it exists in this age of narcissistic and short-sighted startups. SpiroCall, a service that lets anyone in the world call a toll-free number and have their lung health evaluated over the phone, seems too good to be real — but it’s real, and it’s . Lung disease causes hundreds of thousands of deaths per year, and chronic conditions like asthma affect millions more — and the problem is worse in remote areas, where the doctors and equipment needed to detect such conditions are difficult to reach, if they’re present at all. “There’s a real need to have a device that allows patients to accurately monitor their condition at home without having to constantly visit a medical clinic, which in some places requires hours or days of travel,” said Mayank Goel, a doctoral student on the project team at the University of Washington, . SpiroCall replicates the functioning of one of the key tools in assessing lung function — the spirometer. By measuring how much air the lungs hold, how much they expel and how they act and sound while they do so, much can be determined. And the developers of SpiroCall made it possible to check all that just by breathing out into a regular phone. “We wanted to be able to measure lung function on any type of phone you might encounter around the world — smartphones, dumb phones, landlines, pay phones,” said Shewak Patel, a UW professor on the team. In 2012, when the project was just starting, it was a smartphone-only app. But over the last few years the team has taken the data from more than 4,000 patients in the U.S., India and Bangladesh and made the service, essentially, cloud-based. Users call a 1-800 number and, when prompted, simply exhale hard, emptying their lungs of air. This sound is analyzed at a central location and the necessary statistics are returned to the phone in the form of a text. That’s really all there is to it. In tests, the readings came within 6.2 percent of readings from a commercial spirometer, which is within the accepted margin of error. A 3D-printed “whistle” was also designed to amplify the exhalations of people who are too ill to make much effort, or if the microphone isn’t sensitive enough. “The variation in phone/mic quality definitely affects the performance of the system, but we perform regular diagnostic tests,” wrote Goel in an email to TechCrunch. The system needs to know the make and model of the phone, but that’s simple to address. If this sounds like the kind of thing that can and should be deployed worldwide — you’re right! The team is hard at work on making that happen, but medical devices can’t be hurried out. “Our current clinical trials are laying the groundwork for our FDA 510(k) clearance. We expect to start the formal data collection for the clearance later this year,” wrote Goel. “There is a significant amount of commercial interest around the technology in terms of licensing as well as collaboration.” It certainly has the makings of a successful university spin-off company, but it’ll be some time before it can be deployed in anything other than an experimental capacity. The team will present its most recent paper — detailing the process of analyzing a patient’s breathing over the phone and all its attendant algorithms and noise reduction techniques — at the Association for Computing Machinery’s conference this weekend. . |
null | Frederic Lardinois | 2,016 | 5 | 3 | null |
GoPro hitched a ride on a rocket and the video is incredible | Emily Calandrelli | 2,016 | 5 | 4 | Today, GoPro released some pretty incredible footage of a suborbital rocket launch that climbed to 396,405 feet at speeds as high as Mach 5.5. Check out the footage below. The launch in the video took place from Spaceport America in New Mexico on November 6, 2015, with a 20-foot tall SpaceLoft-10 sounding rocket from Colorado-based launch provider . It was the company’s fourth mission for NASA’s , which selects “promising new space technologies from industry, academia and government, and provides them access to relevant environments for flight testing.” As the launch begins, the rocket immediately starts spinning rapidly. This is known as spin-stabilization, a common strategy used for some satellites or rocket launches to control altitude. Like a spinning top, motion about one axis on a rocket can be controlled if it’s spinning fast enough. At 60 seconds into the flight (1:17 in the video), the mission successfully releases the nose fairing and ejects the 11 pound re-entry capsule known as Maraia. The Maraia capsule as seen from the nose fairing / Image courtesy of UP Aerospace NASA’s Johnson Space Flight Center designed and built the Maraia capsule, which begins to enter the Earth’s atmosphere around the 2:38-minute mark and safely touches down at the end of the video. With the suborbital launch, NASA tested the entry, descent and landing capabilities for the Maraia Earth-return capsule. In a , NASA stated that the capsule is expected to become an “inexpensive, autonomous International Space Station-based vehicle to provide on-demand return of small scientific and engineering payloads.” “The new payload deployment capability from UP Aerospace was successfully demonstrated, opening the opportunity for future entry, descent and landing technologies to be tested and matured under Flight Opportunities.” Paul De Leon, NASA Flight Opportunities Program campaign manager In addition to testing the Maraia capsule, the UP Aerospace mission included four technology experiments from NASA Ames Research Center, Purdue University and New Mexico State University. All experiments and the Maraia capsule were recovered intact on the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range. |
Google launches Slides Q&A to help presenters connect with their audiences | Frederic Lardinois | 2,016 | 5 | 4 | Google is launching today, a new feature for . With Slides Q&A, presenters can get questions and general feedback from their audience — and audience members can vote for their favorite questions. Slides Q&A is rolling out globally today. Presenters who want to use it will see a button in the Slides presenter view to kick off a Q&A session; on mobile, this feature will be behind the “audience tools” button. After that, a link to the custom Q&A for this presentation will appear above the presentation. Google says it recently tested the new feature during a presentation by winner Shree Bose at its New York office. Her talk in front of 200 middle-school students generated 170 questions. While this was probably not your typical audience, I can definitely see how this feature could make more efficient the Q&A session after a presentation, especially at events where you can assume that everybody in the audience has access to a smartphone or laptop. Not everybody wants to walk up to a microphone and ask a question in front of a huge audience, after all (and the people who do are often a bit too happy to be in front of that audience…). Other tools like or text-message voting services like can also bring similar Q&A features to any presentation, but these solutions are often a bit pricey and aren’t quite as well-integrated into a tool like Slides. If all of this looks familiar, by the way, it may be because Google once offered a . Before it , Moderator offered a similar crowdsourced Q&A service, though with a focus on gathering questions ahead of major events. Besides Q&A, Google also added two new features to Slides that should make giving presentations with the service a bit easier. The first is the ability to present slides to Hangout from an iPhone and iPad; the second is the introduction of a virtual on the web for those who present from a computer. The updates are rolling out globally to the Slides apps on and now. |
Instagram Business Profiles to feature ‘Contact’ buttons, directions and more | Sarah Perez | 2,016 | 5 | 4 | Instagram had confirmed that it was developing business profiles – basically, the Instagram equivalent to a Facebook Brand Page. Now, we’re able to see what these profiles look like as they’ve been spotted in the wild. The profiles, which are currently being tested with a small group of users, offer a variety of useful features for those who run a business account on Instagram, including a “Contact” button, access to maps and directions, and the ability to categorize the business by type. The screenshots of the business profiles were first posted by the blog . The most visible difference between the business profile and a personal one is the new, white “Contact” button at the top of the screen, to the left of the “Follow” button. When pressed, a pop-up menu appears offering directions to the business or the ability to email the account. It’s interesting that Instagram is choosing to allow businesses to receive traditional emails instead of relying on Instagram’s own messaging system – but that also makes sense, as many businesses today prefer email. In fact, they will often provide this information directly in their Instagram bio. [gallery ids="1317044,1317043"] Users are also able to get directions to the business from this same menu, the site reported. This will be especially useful in the case of local retailers who have, to date, been working around the inability to include business information like this by putting their location in their bio. Plus, users are able to click on the location tag in order to launch a map interface. The business pages are categorized, too, similar to how Facebook Pages list the type of business underneath their name. This is useful in terms of letting consumers know what kind of business is represented, but it could also help Instagram to curate its feed in the future, or even in its “Explore” section. The business profiles have not yet launched broadly, so it’s not likely that most users will see them in their Instagram feeds at this time. An Instagram spokesperson confirmed the profiles, saying that “we are testing new business tools coming to Instagram in a few months.” What those further tools may be is not a mystery, however – the company had previously these profiles were in the works, along with features that would allow brands to track how their posts are doing, plus the ability to buy ads from a mobile device. These are critical features in terms of allowing businesses to maintain a real presence on Instagram’s site, and make their accounts stand out to consumers. In recent months, Instagram has been increasing its focus on its advertising, and in particular , as well as its ability to work with businesses, as it begins to follow in parent company Facebook’s footsteps. Today, Instagram has targeting the service’s , but it has yet to cater specifically to the smaller businesses who could potentially become an advertisers, if given the right tools. Instagram would not confirm a launch date for the tools or further details, but we should know more in the near future. |
New York’s ff Venture Capital has raised a new, $54 million fund | Connie Loizos | 2,016 | 5 | 5 | New York-based venture firm , has raised $53.8 million for its fourth seed-stage venture fund, according to an that shows fundraising began in the fall of 2014. The firm had closed its third seed-stage fund fund in January 2014 with $52 million. Since then, ff Venture Capital has hired two new partners, including Adam Plotkin, who was formerly one of its entrepreneurs-in-residence, and Michael Faber, who’d spent nearly two decades as a general partner with NextPoint VC. Earlier (and remaining) partners with the firm include its founder, John Frankel; Alex Katz, who does double duty as the firm’s CFO; and David Teten, who previously cofounded a short-lived data mining and analytics company called Navon Partners. Some of ff Venture’s biggest exits in recent years include the learning software maker Cornerstone OnDemand, which went public in 2011; ThinkNear, a hyper-local mobile ad company that to Telenav in 2012 for undisclosed terms; and Omek Interactive, which to Intel for $40 million in 2013. The firm has also seen two of its portfolio companies sell this year. In February, the car service app Whisk to the cloud and mobile commerce company Deem, and last week, Livefyre, a portfolio company focused on brand engagement, was by Adobe. Terms of both deals weren’t disclosed publicly. ff Venture Capital (the “ff” stands for founder friendly) employs 30 people, including recruiting, PR, and investor relations staff to assist its portfolio companies. Some of those that remain privately held are , , , , and . Indeed, according to a source familiar with the firm’s plans, ff Venture Capital is still in the fundraising market, with plans to raise a separate “opportunities” fund to invest in the best-performing companies in its existing portfolio. The idea is to invest in 15 of the roughly 85 startups the firm has funded to date across its four early-stage funds. |
EchoPixel’s breakthrough VR tech lets doctors look inside your body | Josh Constine | 2,016 | 5 | 4 | Think of tech like InnerSpace but instead of actually minimizing scientists and shooting them into your body to find disease, the medical imaging startup lets doctors pinpoint problem areas from CT, MRI, and ultrasound scans using 3D glasses and a special display. But with EchoPixel and 3D glasses, internal organs pop off the screen like holograms so doctors can virtually examine a patient from any angle. EchoPixel could radically improve healthcare while reducing time and costs for hospitals and patients. It’s one of the most promising ways virtual reality is making in-roads in healthcare. EchoPixel achieves this technological feat by employing the 300 million 3D radiology scans performed in the U.S. each year. But instead of flattening them onto a 2D screen, its real-time, interactive 3D imaging system allows doctors to peer into every corner and crevice of your body. Information can be tailored for specific procedures, and doctors are able to zoom in and pull out something that doesn’t look right from your body scan, or 3D print the image to have a working model for further study. A weird bump or lesion on your intestines is easier to find and examine, for example. The 3D tech’s ability to virtually enlarge tiny parts of the body is especially helpful for treating newborns. Clinical studies showed doctors were able to find up to 90 percent more congenital heart defects amongst newborns in 40 percent less time. It’s also much quicker to size medical devices like stents because doctors can examine in 3D the place they’ll go. One trial showed sizing time reduced from 40 minutes to just 2. EchoPixel refers to the tech as interactive VR, even though it’s not like Vive or Oculus. In fact, it’s more convenient. Instead of having to strap on and off a VR headset in the middle of a procedure, doctors can just glance to the side and see the 3D image of what they’re working on. The startup this year raised a $5.8 million seed round, and is now selling three-year subscriptions to its technology for $25,000 a year. Other companies in the space include and RealView. EchoPixel already has the go-ahead from the FDA, and will now seek approvals for Europe and Asia. Eventually, doctors could let precise robots do the incisions while they control them via EchoPixel a few feet away. We got to try out the new technology on a recent visit to EchoPixel’s Palo Alto, California headquarters, as well as interview one of the doctors now using the product, UCSF’s Dr. Judy Yee, who’s been able to catch potentially cancerous lesions in the gut with EchoPixel. Check out the video above to see how this technology could speed up productivity in the hospital and help save more lives. |
SpaceX successfully landed another rocket on a drone ship | Emily Calandrelli | 2,016 | 5 | 5 | SpaceX successfully launched the Japanese communications satellite, JCSAT-14 on their Falcon 9 rocket at 1:22am EST today from Cape Canaveral, Florida. After the launch, the company soft-landed the first stage of the rocket on their drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” – the second time this has ever been done. Landing confirmed. Second stage continuing to carry JCSAT-14 to a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit. — SpaceX (@SpaceX) On April 8 , SpaceX made their first rocket recovery on that same drone ship. Tonight’s landing, however, was even more impressive. The odds of a successful soft-landing were slim due to the mission requirements for this particular launch. Rocket reentry is a lot faster and hotter than last time, so odds of making it are maybe even, but we should learn a lot either way — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) JCSAT-14, which is designed to last 15 years, needed to be placed into geosynchronous orbit at an altitude of 22,000 miles. This is much higher than SpaceX’s last launch when they successfully recovered their rocket on a drone ship after sending space station supplies to low earth orbit (LEO) at around 250 miles. JCSAT-14 / Image courtesy of Space Systems Loral The SpaceX co-hosts noted that because today’s rocket needed to travel to such a high altitude, the first stage was coming in much hotter, at around 2 km/s, than standard LEO launches where the rocket will return at about 1 km/s. Successful JCSAT-14 deployment from Falcon 9 / Screenshot from SpaceX live feed JCSAT-14 is a satellite from the SKY Perfect JSAT Group, the largest satellite operator in Asia. Once in orbit, the satellite will be used to provide television and communication services. Illustration of JCSAT-14 / Image courtesy Space Systems Loral Tonight’s launch was the fourth successful flight for SpaceX so far this year. To date, SpaceX has completed two successful rocket recoveries on a drone ship and one rocket recovery on a landing pad on stable ground. The next important step, of course, is reusing a recovered rocket, which Musk has stated they hope to do in the next three or four months. Aiming for relaunch in 3 to 4 months, pending detailed examination and 10X refiring of a returned booster — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) |
I’ve got a few questions for virtual reality filmmakers | Lucas Matney | 2,016 | 5 | 5 | So, I’m sitting aboard a flight to Boston at the moment. I just finished a bout of midterms at Northwestern University that allegedly went well enough for me to make it through undergrad. I have an $8 beer in my hand that Spirit Airlines is using to subsidize their garbage service, but more importantly, I’m grappling with a lot of questions surrounding reality and stuff. Where I’m heading is critical to my current musings; tomorrow, I’m joining some of the more innovative and technologically progressive documentary filmmakers and academics in the country at MIT OpenDocLab’s VR filmmaking conference to get a better sense of where the VR filmmaking industry thinks that it’s headed. Virtual reality has massive implications for film, but in spite of the excitement surrounding the epic, livable experiences that will be offered, there’s more than a little uncertainty surrounding how exactly the industry gets itself to that point. VR is in the odd early adopter phase right now where it’s really hard to judge the stickiness of certain ideas because people with VR headsets are more willing than most to give apps and pieces of content the benefit of the doubt. This makes it an awesome place for developers to experiment but also makes certain strategies misleadingly viable as people are willing to prioritize notoriety over genuine utility early on. It’s a bit like when the iPhone App Store first came out and people were downloading the Zippo and Koi Pond apps by the thousands, they were interesting, but obviously not all that sustainable. There are more than a few questions to parse in this regard. Well-made virtual reality content is undoubtedly powerful and will, by most filmmakers’ admissions, dominate the future of the immersive video content that consumers absorb. There are a lot of roadblocks, however, on the way to what many see as the cosmic inevitability of this platform dominating film. Here are the questions I’m grappling with as I now wait for Spirit to find me a Moscow Mule. True virtual reality filmmaking is divided into categories which differ depending on the role the viewer is taking. The questions filmmakers ask here are: will the viewers be active participants or passive observers? Can they influence the outcome of the experience or are they effectively just along for the ride? More broadly, what are the viewer’s constraints within this reality? It’s here where the line between video game and film gets really, really blurry. When you’re giving your viewer the opportunity to influence the story line in a deep capacity, you’re doing more than presenting them with a static screen viewpoint, you’re giving them a complex, easily malleable environment in which they can experience another person’s life. Can this still even be considered film? Game engines like Unreal and Unity may end up playing just as important a role in VR filmmaking as high-end cameras do. As tech evolves, 360-degree light field cameras could construct navigable real world environments and allow game engines to fill in the textured details, allowing us to be on set and walk behind characters or through doorways to explore realistic representations. In the meantime, filmmakers and documentarians are left determining what makes sense and what’s too much to ask for on the part of the user. These shifting paradigms fit in much less snugly when it comes to documentaries though. How can something be a true representation when part of it is being manufactured? Where are the ethical lines? Immersion in virtual reality heavily involves recreating the five senses and mastering motion to direct our attention. While the major headsets out right now from Oculus, HTC and Samsung/Oculus rely only on motion tracking, sight and hearing, companies are already working on full body suits that let you “feel” reality and smell sensors that let you sniff your surroundings. Soon, eye-tracking will give us the opportunity to attract eye-contact from AI participants, and eventually, expression-tracking will allow us to convey emotions to those around us as well. The sophistication of the human mind is the limit to where these sensors could take us. Some of the stuff is wacky, but one thing that’s clear is that there’s still a long road ahead in learning how to direct attention in VR. Is all of this worth it though? Do we really need to be intimately involved in a story to the point of having a tongue sensor cueing us in to whether our burger was prepared medium-well? Probably not, but this does highlight the idea that filmmakers might be captive to the influences and whims of headset and input designers as the tech evolves. With TV, new upgrades brought more pixels, but with VR, new models will bring VR closer to regular R. Filmmakers as well as camera manufacturers are going to have to adapt quickly to figure out what new sensors will give them the cutting edge advantage and what is largely just wasted effort. This question is a little more broad across VR, yet no easier to answer. People are often craving entertainment when they’re back from work and are a little physically drained, but VR thrives when people are transposing high physical activity into wild virtual scenarios. That could mean walking around and reaching for things with their hands, or standing and spinning around to observe virtual environments. How lazy will we really become though? When various input mechanisms give us the option to be slobs, that’s what we indubitably gravitate towards. I didn’t have a Nintendo Wii for two weeks before I was playing Wii tennis by flicking my wrist while I was laying down on the couch with a bowl of chips sitting on my chest. The may not be something we want to flock towards, but the path of least resistance finds a way in any technology and it’s altogether unwise for content creators to force users down less efficient avenues of taking action. Right now, VR film is in the same kind of “neato” phase where people who try it are deeply impressed just because virtual reality is new and fresh. After a few dozen lengthy pieces of content are experienced and the neck pain sets in, the notoriety wears off a bit though, and it becomes clear that while there’s undoubtedly massive potential, stories aren’t being optimized for VR all that well at the moment. The common refrain of VR skeptics is that VR is stupid and bulky at the moment and while the underlying tenants of VR/AR/MR may hold true, it’s simply too early for us to be getting this riled up about it. They’ll show you the fervent conversations regarding Google Glass from five years ago and suggest that this is all just another case of Silicon Valley folks getting too absorbed by their own soothsayer senses of futurism. Even if this is the case, does it really matter? Won’t developers and entrepreneurs just be more ready for the advent of stacked realities when they arrive? The concern here really isn’t on the part of the people investing their livelihoods in the platform, but on the part of the consumers half-heartedly reading headlines. Their attention is worth a lot more in this case and any false alarms could mean a tougher time getting the ball rolling next time. An undeniable truth is that virtual reality is currently being shoved down the throats of a lot of people that haven’t even had the chance to try it. Even many of those who ordered an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive headset within minutes of the first crop going on sale still haven’t even tried it. What I mean by this is that it’s still terribly early in this industry and people who think VR is going to replace the TV or movie theater in any way within the next five years are smoking something pretty choice. Nevertheless, virtual reality is exciting so many people right now because it really represents what many, myself included, see as the next shift in computing. Augmented reality may usher in a true quantum leap in productivity, but VR gives us an avenue to achieve next-gen entertainment and the ability to transport ourselves into different modes of thought and environment— a couple of things that are pretty fundamental to modern film. Where we get depends a lot on the willingness of consumers to suspend disbelief and approach VR films and documentaries not only as a new type of content but as a new method of embracing their senses. I’ll be posing a lot of questions (hopefully more succinctly) this weekend to VR filmmakers and I’ll keep you updated on whether these questions get answered. Then next week, you can keep up with the TechCrunch team at Disrupt NY where, among a ton of other things, we’ll be chatting with high-profile and I’ll be hosting a panel of some chatting about the future of VR content. |
Skoog 2.0 brings wireless connectivity to the multi-use educational musical instrument | Brian Heater | 2,016 | 5 | 5 | “The key was to create an instrument for all children,” explains Skoog co-inventor Dr. Ben Schögler. “That includes kids with disabilities, whether physical or learning disabilities. It was made to be an inclusive instrument, because musical instruments are beautiful, they’re fantastic, but they’re difficult to play.” Born out of Edinburg University in 2006, with help from funding by the U.K.’s National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), is a small, squishy musical instrument that’s simple by design. “A lot of electronic instruments are really just versions of their acoustic counterpart,” says Schögler. “But if the computer is making the sound, the interface can be anything you want. We stripped it back and were looking for an object that’s intuitive enough to be used without having to be explained.” The result is a small cube with five sides monopolized by big, brightly colored half-circles, buttons that serve as a sort of analog to a string or piano key, triggering sounds determined by a connected computer, not unlike a MIDI controller. The company launched the first Skoog in 2012, after receiving an initial VC round two years prior. It was strange and somewhat rudimentary, but the product’s simplicity landed it on the radar of classrooms — special education departments in particular. To date, the first-generation product has a user base of around 2,000, a modest number, but enough to have gained the notice of Apple, which began promoting it as an accessibility device through its retail channels. That same year, the company began work on a new version of the product, swapping the USB for wireless, as part of an attempt to embrace the growing use of iPads in special education curriculums. In late 2015, Skoog took the product to Indiegogo, raising funding for the 2.0 version, which, along with the aforementioned wireless connectivity also features in-app integration with music services like iTunes and Spotify. The app automatically recognizes and matches the song’s key, so users can play alongside it. The Skoog 2.0 hits retail stores today for $300, bringing with it the promise of potential use cases outside of the educational world. Schögler points to retirement communities that have experimented with the device for use with patients suffering from dementia. And then, of course, there’s . The company is also exploring avenues outside of music. “It is a tactile, multidimensional controller,” says Schögler. “It could be used for things like gaming, but that requires us to get the API out. We’re a small firm and we’ve been working on the app, but we’ll be looking to release that as soon as we can. “ |
Sean Parker’s Airtime acquires WebRTC video chat wizards vLine | Josh Constine | 2,016 | 5 | 5 | It takes some serious engineering magic to build low-latency group mobile video chat and simultaneous content viewing. That’s why app acquired vLine, which offered video chat infrastructure to SaaS companies. Founded in 2010, vLine was backed with from Kleiner Perkins and Harrison Metal. vLine’s team will join Airtime’s Palo Alto office. The teams first started working together months ago to prep for Airtime’s second coming, but now they’re making the buyout official. vLine had already its platform and stopped taking customers late last year. that “When we first met Sean Parker it was clear he had a vision that resonated with ours: that the proliferation of smartphones and increasing network bandwidth and coverage provide the foundation for a world where real-time video will give rise to new ways of communication and experiences.” The six-way video chat experience falls apart if the different feeds are delayed. Suddenly everyone’s missing chunks of the conversation or talking over each other, and it’s impossible to recreate the brisk pace and comedic timing of an in-person conversation. Airtime is designed to produce the feeling of human “togetherness,” but that requires some hardcore lifting by the technology in the background. Airtime’s president Daniel Klaus told me in a statement that “Unlike simple streaming applications that can tolerate latency on the order of seconds and leverage existing content delivery networks, the new Airtime platform has to provide latency on the order of milliseconds to facilitate real-time group communication anywhere in the world.” Nailing this global WebRTC platform on mobile is critical, considering that Airtime was plagued with technical issues when it In an while Parker demoed it to a big audience full of reporters at its star-studded launch event in New York City in 2012. It took several tries to get a video call to Snoop Dogg to go through. That was despite Airtime having . If vLine can help Airtime get the back end sorted, the question remains whether the app will gain traction. While the product is fun and could be addicting with enough close friends on it, few in the Silicon Valley ecosphere have been talking about it since the launch two weeks ago. Parker told me he knows that building communities takes time, and he’s willing to play the long game. But as Marc Andreessen has said, succeeding in social can be as tough and unpredictable as capturing lightning in a bottle. Airtime is firmly aligned with the trends of messaging and video consumption. Yet even with all of Parker’s resources, it will be a battle to convince clusters of friends to make Airtime their digital clubhouse. |
Only humans, not computers, can learn or predict | Joab Rosenberg | 2,016 | 5 | 5 |
announced in late January that a computer designed by Google’s defeated a human master in the ancient Chinese board game, “Go.” This impressive achievement once again raised the expectations for a predicted future in which computers will have artificial intelligence, with worldwide touting this anticipated future. One of the major questions raised in response to DeepMind’s achievement is what are the outer limits, if any, of intelligent machines? In November of last year, Dr. Kira Radinsky, a computer scientist and “machine learning” expert, argued in the that computers will be able to accurately predict the outcome of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Feed the computer enough data on a number of “parallel universes,” she wrote, and the computer will be capable of observing the implications of each of these universes and then find patterns, allowing predictions to be made about the future of the conflict. While this argument, in theory, sounds plausible, computers are not “creative,” do not “learn” and cannot “predict.” Computers can only be tasked with making inductive predictions based on past experiences. They can then seek complex correlations in the databases in order to present them as “Actionable Insights.” No matter which side of the debate one falls on, DeepMind’s achievement requires us to reexamine in a more accurate way what learning and prediction actually mean. There are two main obstacles that prevent machines from learning and predicting in the way humans do: Firstly, as mentioned above, because computers can only be tasked with making “inductive” predictions based on past experiences, the future they predict will always be a continuation of the past behavior of the actors whose behavior they are examining and trying to predict. What that means is that the predictive powers of computers will work nicely in cases where reality does not change dramatically. However, it will fail in any case where there are dramatic, unpredictable, changes in the future. Secondly, it is well known that correlation does not equal causation. While computers may be very good at finding correlations with high statistical levels of confidence, they also can’t judge whether or not the correlations are real or ridiculous. For example, the website presents such correlations, citing (with a very high level of confidence) the correlation between U.S. government spending on science and the number of suicides by hanging. The more data computers collect, the more spurious the correlations are that can be found. Only human agents, however, because they have the ability to understand and grasp meaning, can distinguish between meaningful and meaningless correlations. Additionally, humans, unlike computers, have a unique capacity to not only learn from the past, but to also invent a new future, giving us the ability to imagine a future that does not yet exist. For example, technical inventions demonstrate humanity’s capacity to invent a future that is intrinsically different from historical experience. Only humans could have dreamt up the complex technologies that we have come to take for granted. Computers, on the other hand, do not posses any capacity to imagine a different future. Given the fact that humans do have this inherent capacity and ability to imagine and create, future changes in markets or geopolitical conditions (that are mostly due to human actions) cannot be predicted based simply on past events. When factored into something as complex as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war against ISIS, the futures markets or the financial industry, the human element can significantly swing the outcome — and the predictions of a computer will fail to identify the new situation. If one wants to predict future human behavior, human analysts must be deployed to study the data and get to the right conclusions. Computers will not suffice. For example, if Abu Mazen gives up his demand for the right of return for the refugees, while it may run contrary to public opinion, as well as represent a complete betrayal of all his previous statements and beliefs (hence it will not be predictable from something like Facebook sentiment analysis), given the fact that he has the free will to do so, he can reverse direction, effectively changing the course of the entire discussion. This brings to mind reversal on his longstanding insistence that he would not withdraw Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, something that he ended up doing in the summer of 2005. Machines do not have the capacity to predict such radical deviances from what is expected to occur, while human analysts will portray different scenarios and argumentations in favor and against varied outcomes. The machine versus human debate has actually divided big data analytics experts into two camps. The first camp is led by “machine learning” and “predictive analytics” experts who argue for a future in which computers will possess real “artificial intelligence,” while the second camp argues that only human analysts can reliably make conclusions based on the vast amounts of data collected and stored by humanity. The most prominent company promoting such a view is , a $25 billion company founded by PayPal alumni. Palantir is developing big data analytics software whose main purpose is to assist human analysts in studying big data. Similarly, in his book , venture capitalist states that “while computers can find patterns that elude humans, they don’t know how to compare sources or how to interpret complex behaviors. Actionable insights can only come from a human analyst.” The author of this article stands firmly within this camp, arguing that human capabilities far transcend anything computers can achieve. |
SAP announces new partnership with Apple to expand iOS in the enterprise | Ron Miller | 2,016 | 5 | 5 | announced a broad partnership with Apple today to bring iOS to SAP’s enterprise customer base. The announcement comes almost two years after . Steve Lucas, president for SAP’s Digital Enterprise Platform says while it’s natural to see similarities between the two deals — two large enterprise companies making a deal with Apple — he says there are major differences. For starters, he says SAP is firmly an enterprise software company and it has built a cloud platform to access all of the software it has developed, whether its core ERP product, SuccessFactors or Concur. He says having that core certainly is a differentiating factor in his view. Still there are similarities too. As with IBM, SAP has been working closely with Apple to bring its profound design sense to this endeavor. The objective of this partnership is no less than to revolutionize work on the iPad and iPhone, Lucas says. It’s no secret that Apple wants a bigger piece of the enterprise market and these kinds of agreements help solidify their enterprise position and drive Apple hardware sales inside companies that were traditionally PC shops — and hence more often considered Microsoft territory. These agreements have been driven in large part by the enormous popularity of the iPhone and the iPad. As employees have brought these devices into the workplace, it has forced companies to accommodate their requirements including building custom apps for them. When you combine this inside large organizations, these companies need a deeper understanding of iOS devices and how to use that to help drive that transformation. Apple CEO Tim Cook with SAP CEO Bill McDermott. Photo Credit: SAP has announced several programs to help push iOS to its customers starting with a new set of apps for the iPad and iPhone that take advantage of data stored in SAP tools. It’s also providing an iOS SDK for SAP HANA, its in-memory database product, allowing organizations to not only use the apps that SAP is building, but also giving them the opportunity to build their own custom apps using data stored in HANA. “We are approaching the building out of these apps entirely differently, largely due to the way Apple thinks about app design. I believe firmly they will fulfill the mission of revolutionizing work on iPad on iPhone,” Lucas told TechCrunch. Finally, much like IBM it wouldn’t be a deal without an educational component to round it out, so SAP is also offering SAP Academy for iOS as a training ground for SAP programmers to learn to use the HANA iOS SDK. Lucas says the company is absolutely committed to this educational effort and it’s not something they will announce and go away in a few months, but a program that he sees lasting well into the future. While you might not see a natural fit between SAP and Apple, when the IBM partnership was launched in 2014, it certainly raised some eyebrows too, but by the end of last year — and that number has surely increased since then. In fact, SAP is also planning on building 100 apps. The apps and the SDK are not yet available, but they say they should start to trickle out in Beta later this year. Many of the apps are in progress, according to Lucas, but they are not ready to ship yet. Apple also signed last summer. |
Ultra-cute bugbots cooperate to climb a step together | Devin Coldewey | 2,016 | 5 | 5 | Anything is possible if we all work together — and no one gets left behind. That is the lesson these tiny “VelociRoACH” robots taught me today. The name stands for velocity robotic autonomous crawling hexapod, which really says it all. They were designed by roboticists at , where a number of other nature-inspired machines and materials have also been created. The tiny insect bots aren’t particularly new, but this cooperative behavior is. Graduate researcher Carlos Casarez was fascinated by the behavior of Australian jumping ants, which work in pairs or more to cover difficult terrain. If ants can do it, why not small hexapodal robots? It was decided that two bots should attempt to get over an obstacle bigger than themselves, and which neither could scale on its own. The VelociRoACHes were equipped for the job and a series of “primitives” established. First, the front bot scrambles up the obstacle, getting its front legs up. The rear bot attaches to the front one with a magnet, then gives it a boost up the step. The front bot then moves forward and the rear bot winches itself up while running frantically. Then it detaches the magnetic tether (with a little kiss) and they’re ready to go again. You can see it all in the video, and really, the whole process is just about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen robots do. Hell, even the illustrations are cute. The experiment isn’t just academic, either. Small, cheap robots like these could be deployed by the dozens or hundreds in, say, disaster areas, where techniques like this one (or potentially three or more units working together) could help them navigate rubble and other obstacles. With the right sensors, they could also work together to map out a building or piece of land. And it’s not particularly hard to think of terrifying Terminator-esque applications. For now, though, the cooperative process is still a little touch and go — the video you see is only the successes from a handful of attempts; each “primitive” fails about half the time because the robots are so basic. “In the future, we plan to improve the reliability of the cooperative step climbing behavior by adding closed-loop feedback control involving robot-to-robot localization, connection contact sensors, and IMU/motor torque information from each robot,” . He also speculated on the possibility of robot chains of 10 or more, or cooperation between ground and air bots — . The paper detailing the multi-bot climbing technique will be presented later this month at in Stockholm. |
YouTube VP Matt Glotzbach graduates to CEO role at Quizlet | Lora Kolodny | 2,016 | 5 | 5 | , the makers of popular web and mobile study tools, hired a new CEO, Matt Glotzbach, former Vice President of Product Management at YouTube. Glotzbach led the creation of YouTube’s music subscription service, and fan-funding business platforms. But Quizlet will not be his first education-focused initiative. A 12-year Google veteran, he was part of the founding team of Google apps for education. The new Quizlet CEO said he was motivated to jump into edtech full-time after seeing his own two kids embrace apps including Minecraft for learning even though their schools weren’t formally using them. He views Quizlet as a “peer powered learning network,” that is analogous to YouTube because all of the study sets within Quizlet are all user-generated. “You bring your content here, and the platform helps you learn better and faster, and get better grades,” Glotzbach said. “If you are a content creator, you’re in control. You can make your content available to the public or keep it private.” The materials uploaded into Quizlet’s site or app are turned into games, some more pared down, interactive flashcards or quizzes, and others that feel more like vintage video games. The company recently released a game that teachers can use with groups of students in a classroom, dubbed . There are more than 125 million user-contributed study sets on Quizlet today. And the site and apps see over 20 million monthly active users. Quizlet was self-financed from 2007 to 2015. It raised a $12 million Series A round of funding in November last year. At the time he closed the Series A round founder Andrew Sutherland said he wanted to bring on a CEO who could help Quizlet scale rapidly to international markets. So it’s no surprise that globalization and mobile tech will be an immediate focus for Glotzbach. He said, “If we want to expand the Quizlet platform so that billions of people have access to these learning tools around the world, we need to lean into our mobile experience. Another 1 billion people will come online over the next 5 years, and their first computer will be a smartphone.” Asked whether Quizlet intends to use video as part of its platform any time soon, or partner with YouTube, Glotzbach said, “There’s certainly customer demand for it. But there’s nothing on the road map.” |
A closer look at Samsung’s connected Family Hub Refrigerator | Brian Heater | 2,016 | 5 | 5 | Imagine for a moment that you’re a fly on the wall of a Samsung executive board meeting. It’s pretty easy to imagine why the Family Hub Refrigerator seemed like a great idea. Someone probably said something about leveraging the smart home and disrupting the kitchen and they were off to the races. And sure, there are certainly pieces of the fancy new smart refrigerator that make a lot of sense. Take the trio of cameras that line the inside of the door, snapping a shot of the fridge’s contents when it closes. That, coupled with wireless connectivity, means that Family Hub owners can take a quick look at the contents of the fridge via a mobile app. As someone who regularly forgets about half of my shopping list when confronted by buzzing overhead lights and endless condiment aisles, I would definitely use the feature on a regular basis. There are, however, a few shortcomings with what is a strong contender for the fridge’s best feature — namely, the fact that it doesn’t cover the entirety of its interior, instead hitting three shelves and missing the doors completely. But the cameras are really just a side note to the Hub’s main event. When the appliance was first unveiled back at CES, the press took to calling it a refrigerator with a tablet built into the door. At a press event in New York City today, the company attempted to do some damage control against the perception, insisting that it is, in fact, a lot more. Samsung reps really hammered home the three product cornerstones of family, food and entertainment (why the aforementioned boardroom didn’t opt for a third F of “fun” is beyond me). The “family” bit pertains to the screen’s functionality as digital refrigerator magnets, i.e. the sharing of pictures, notes and calendars. The “food” bit is pretty self-explanatory, while the “entertainment” part pertains to the device’s built-in speakers for playing third-party apps like Pandora, as well its ability to mirror video from Samsung’s smart TVs. Maybe the Family Hub is, in fact, more than just a refrigerator with a tablet built in, but it’s hard to look beyond the fact that pretty much everything you can do on the fridge screen you can do on a standard tablet, including the aforementioned entertainment options and the ability to order food from places like Fresh Direct. There are, as , some notable downsides to combining the two, the big one being that refrigerators are built to have much longer life cycles than tablets, meaning you’re stuck with that basic touchscreen functionality for as long as you keep the fridge. There will be updates, of course, both over the air and through a hardwired USB port hidden behind the door. But the operating system has some key limitations. It’s that old Samsung standby, Tizen, making the current app selection extremely limited. The company promises to roll out more apps in the future, which users will be asked to opt into or out of, rather than just downloading individually through an app store. Samsung is likely on to something with the addition of connectivity that offers compelling features like remote monitoring, but the overall execution still feels mostly like a novelty. A novelty that starts at $5,800. But if that all sounds appealing, you can pick one up starting today. |
Launcher lets you create iOS widgets that display or hide based on day, time or location | Sarah Perez | 2,016 | 5 | 5 | You may remember as the once-banned iOS widget that after its approval, The problem Apple had with the app, seemingly, is that its sole existence was to be a widget provider — the app by itself didn’t offer any standalone functionality beyond widget configuration. Today, Launcher is out with its first significant update since its App Store return more than a year ago, with a new version that introduces support for multiple widgets that can also be customized to display or become hidden based on day, time and location. Wait, multiple widgets that can appear or disappear based on various user-configured settings? That’s very clever. (Side note: Apple, please don’t ban Launcher 2.0.) Launcher, in case you missed it the first time around, is a type of iOS widget that allows you to add shortcuts to apps and various tasks (like placing a phone call or posting a tweet) right in the iOS Notification Center. Thanks to its precedent-setting debut on the iTunes App Store, it opened up the market to other developers who wanted to make more functional widgets capable of launching apps and taking actions, such as and These apps offer a different way of using the applications installed on your phone — instead of having to hunt for them by swiping through screens, or calling them up through Spotlight Search, you simply tap on a button in the Notification Center. The app can also save you time, as it lets you configure workflows and add one-touch actions to the Notification Center like “call your wife,” “get directions home,” message a friend, call for an Uber, launch your favorite playlist, and much more. In the new version of Launcher, the app now lets you organize these actions and shortcuts into groups each contained in their own widget. In other words, you could have a widget of apps you use at home, another for work or you could separate your most-often used shortcuts from the rest in a separate widget. What’s really interesting here is that Launcher lets you control whether its individual widgets are displayed or hidden based on the day of the week, time of day or location. In other words, you could make your “Home” widget group only appear when you were at home, or set your “Work” widget to only appear Monday through Friday. You could make a group of shortcuts that only appear when you’re at the gym, or in a particular city. (Unfortunately, you have to manually create your geofences by dragging a circle around on a map.) You could make thematic groups, like a widget for Music apps and tasks, for example. You can customize the name of each widget and icons — making them round or even creating your own icons. Plus, the app’s latest version lets you backup and restore your widgets via iCloud Backup. The app itself is a and supports up to 8 launchers on iPhone and up to 12 on iPad in a single widget. But not all of its features are available for free. If you upgrade to the Pro version, you can have up to 35 launchers per widget, and you can configure their size, or even hide their labels to make them more compact. In addition, Pro users can access dynamically updating “magic launchers” that let you see things like current and future weather conditions, ETAs to destinations, Uber time estimates, battery, CPU, memory and disk space usage on your device and more. The Pro version is $4.99 but is currently discounted to $2.99. Meanwhile, a $2.99 upgrade to unlock up to five more widgets is also available. This also lets you configure the widgets based on time and location, and back them up. Both feature sets are available for $4.98. That pricing is a little confusing, but like Launcher itself, it’s aimed at the power user who knows exactly what they want to do. [gallery ids="1317579,1317578,1317580,1317581,1317574,1317575,1317576,1317577"] Launcher’s creator Greg Gardner says that the app has been installed on more than 2 million devices so far. It has more than 300,000 monthly active users and more than 100,000 daily active users. As to whether it’s going to get banned, well… who knows? The app was in review for four days, which is slower than usual, says Gardner. “I hope that means that they got a good look at it and decided it was acceptable. I’m confident at least that it didn’t accidentally slip through this time,” he says. |
TrapTap maps speed traps and more | Kristen Hall-Geisler | 2,016 | 5 | 5 | , which has raised over $200,000 on Kickstarter with about a week to go, alerts drivers to speed traps, school zones, speed zones, and red light cameras by blinking red, green, or blue. But it’s not a radar detector; it’s more like connected car training wheels. TrapTap says it has mapped every school zone and red light camera in 60 countries. You stick the little round puck on the dashboard and connect it to an app on your phone via Bluetooth so it can use the GPS. Then, when you’re at an intersection with a red light camera or near a school zone, the puck glows red. But that’s not all — there’s also the tapping part. When you notice a speed trap set up along the highway, you double tap the device. This “sets the trap” and uploads the location to TrapTap, which then lets other drivers behind you know there’s a cop with a speed detector hiding behind the next hill. On the other hand, if you’re driving along and the puck glows blue but there’s no sign of smokey, another double tap will let the system know the trap has cleared out. Like more sophisticated live mapping services, such as , TrapTap uses algorithms to weed out false positives. The more data the system receives, the more reliable the information will be. The TrapTap Kickstarter campaign shows that people are willing to provide — and receive — this data. More than 2000 units have been claimed already, raising more than three times the campaign’s goal of $64,316. The retail price will be set at about $180. And batteries are included. |
eBay acquires AI-powered big data processor Expertmaker | Devin Coldewey | 2,016 | 5 | 5 | eBay announced today that it is acquiring Expertmaker, a Swedish company that specializes in analysis of big data with a machine-learning twist. Expertmaker was founded in 2006; in its own words, the company’s “genetics-inspired multi-AI approach, extracts hidden value in your data.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. So if you have a ton of noisy data, as eBay most certainly does, these are the guys who can wrangle it and produce something useful. One application hypothesized by eBay is filling in product info that might otherwise not be listed. A toy, for example, might not have color, age range, or material in its description, but that data can be found elsewhere and applied so shoppers can sort by those categories. The online retailer is actually already a client, and apparently liked the milk so much they decided to buy the cow. (Unfortunately, there are no startups that prevent news writers from clumsily repurposing common idiom.) Lars Hard, Expertmaker’s founder, will continue on as head of the team, though the company will operate under eBay’s Structured Data initiative, which is led by Amit Menipaz. The rest of Expertmaker’s employees will, mercifully, be allowed to continue working from their office in . The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it should be finalized in Q2 FY16, so expect details then. |
Amazon poaches AI guru from Xerox PARC to work on Alexa virtual assistant | Steve O'Hear | 2,016 | 5 | 5 | Amazon has hired Xerox PARC employee and artificial intelligence (AI) researcher Ashwin Ram to head up AI R&D for Alexa, the e-commerce behemoth’s virtual assistant. Ram first about his appointment on Tuesday, and a spokesperson for Amazon has now confirmed the hire but declined to offer any further comment. The veteran computer science researcher worked at PARC for the last five years, most recently holding the role of Area Manager & Chief Innovation Officer, Interactive Intelligence & Augmented Social Cognition, according to LinkedIn, where he worked on apps and technology related to health and well-being. Excited to join to lead AI r&d team for Alexa, the conversational agent that powers . — Ashwin Ram (@ashwinram) Ram is also an adjunct professor for the College of Computing at Georgia Tech, where he ran the Cognitive Computing Lab for 8 years up until 2011. It was in that role that he led research in AI and cognitive science. According to Wikipedia, his projects focused on AI for computer games and virtual worlds, consumer health and wellness, and educational technologies. Specifically, this included “knowledge-based machine learning, case-based reasoning, cognitive modelling, and natural language processing”. And even though Ram’s role at Amazon appears to be R&D focused, heading up the team developing the AI side of Alexa (the tech giant’s “conversational agent” that powers Amazon Echo and other devices), he has entrepreneurial form too, having founded three companies. They are Enkia Corporation (acquired by Sentiment360 in 2011), Inquus Corporation, which operates online social learning network OpenStudy, and medical information company Cobot Health Corporation. |
Fintech doesn’t just disrupt banks, it makes them platforms | Josh Constine | 2,016 | 5 | 5 | It’s easy to move your money between banks. What’s annoying is moving your apps. There’s been a recent explosion of fintech products in spaces like stock trading, wealth management, payments, loans, remittance and insurance. It’s been fueled by a massive uptick in venture investment in private fintech companies, which hit $13.8 billion in 2015 , (Update: $19 billion including private equity, mutual funds, and angels). That’s up 58 percent from 2014 and over 1,000 percent since 2010. There’s no doubt these startups disrupt particular services that the big banks provide or facilitate. If startups in all these spaces succeed, they could nip at banks’ revenue opportunities. Still, banks largely make their profits investing consumers’ money rather than on tertiary services. But what many of these startups have in common is that they all rely on connecting to your existing bank to fund your accounts with them or receive money. Rather than shun the startups, the incumbents have built bridges to let you hook fintech products into your bank accounts. The result is that while banking is changing rapidly, you might be more reluctant to change which bank you use, according to several fintech founders and VCs I spoke to. Even down on the credit and debit card level, e-commerce products from Amazon to Uber have added friction to switching banks. You’d have to go in and update your accounts in each of these apps. Now if I lose a credit card, I’m more inclined to tell my bank I accidentally destroyed it so they send me a replacement with the same card number to avoid the hassle. Now fintech is doing the same with apps jacked directly into your bank account. That could allow banks to focus more on new customer acquisition and upselling than retention, because users are inherently becoming entrenched with their existing bank. Meanwhile, each individual fintech startup sees the banks as frenemies. They might compete over one service specifically, but as whole, the banks are their partners. Down the line, as the startups seek to expand into adjacent markets, that tenuous alliance might change. But for now, the banks that get it love the fintech startups more than you’d guess. |
City carpooling service Via picks up $70M further funding, another $30M to come | Steve O'Hear | 2,016 | 5 | 5 | bills itself as an ‘on-demand transit company’ and in some ways is competing with Uber, specifically within the city carpooling space. Today the company announced $100 million in Series C funding, when actually only $70 million of that has closed, with, we’re told, another $30 million in strategic investment to come in the coming weeks. Who that will be from, Via isn’t saying. What we do know is that the C round is being led by Pitango Growth, with participation from a number of other VCs and family offices including Poalim Capital Markets and C4 Ventures. Ervington Investments (the investment vehicle of Russian mogul Roman Abramovich), Hearst Ventures, and 83North also participated. The funding, when it fully closes, will bring Via’s total investment to $137 million. “Via is creating the public transit system of the future,” said Daniel Ramot and Oren Shoval, co-founders of Via, in a jointly canned statement. “With existing transportation infrastructure straining and in some cases failing to meet rising demand across the globe, Via’s dynamic bus system offers cities a smart solution to traffic congestion and emissions. We’re delighted to have secured significant backing for our vision: eliminating single-occupancy vehicle trips by creating a mass transit system powered by advanced algorithms and data.” That Via’s founders refer to the car pooling service, which currently operates in New York City and Chicago, as a “public transit system” fits with how the company is attempting to differentiate itself from ride-sharing competitors and official public transport: by using data and smart algorithms it wants to be nearer a price point of taking a bus but with the flexibility a private hire vehicle. Or as Via co-founder Ramot TechCrunch in April last year, “we’re positioned in a unique space between a bus and an Uber.” That mean that a people-carrier in the Via network will typically hold between 5 and 8 people, with a ride rarely only being taken by a single user. The startup claims to able to achieve this by dynamically matching passengers with available seats instead of entire vehicles, while its smart routing enables passengers to be picked up and dropped off “in an endless stream, without taking riders out of their way to accommodate other passengers”. |
Netflix now lets you control how much data it uses when streaming from your smartphone | Sarah Perez | 2,016 | 5 | 5 | Netflix this morning a new way for consumers to control how much data its app uses when they’re accessing the service by way of a mobile device. In the updated version of the iOS or Android application, there will be a new setting called “Cellular Data Usage,” where you’ll be able to switch off the automatic, default setting then choose either a higher or lower data usage setting, depending on your personal preference. An unlimited data option is also available in this area, which is found under the “App Settings” menu. The company says that by default, Netflix lets users stream around three hours of TV shows and movies per gigabyte of data, which equates to about 600 Kilobits per second. It came up with this setting based on its testing on cellular networks, where it found that this provided a balance between offering good video quality without causing users to go over their data caps or incurring overage fees. Putting this setting in consumers’ hands is a notable move by Netflix, whose streaming service today accounts for a decent portion of mobile data usage at times. However, it’s not the main source of mobile data when it comes to video. While is due to Netflix and other streaming services, Sandvine’s on internet usage in 2015 puts YouTube at the top of the list when it comes to video services’ consumption of mobile users’ bandwidth. That said, Netflix still made the charts, accounting for 3.44 percent of downstream traffic and 3.22 percent of upstream traffic on mobile networks in North America. (YouTube dominated at around 20 percent for both downstream and upstream traffic, for comparison’s sake). News that a mobile “data saver” feature was in the works was previously announced. The company at Mobile World Congress 2016 that it would arrive as a forthcoming update on both the iOS and Android applications sometime this year. The feature was also briefly spotted in the wild, This caused some temporary confusion as consumers thought they would be able to test out this and other features ahead of the public launch. In addition, some Netflix users said at the time they were already seeing a mobile data feature on their device at that time, while others did not. (This was likely due to bucket tests on Netflix’s part.) Netflix says the new feature is available now in its updated iOS and Android applications and will only be applicable when you’re on a cellular network – the setting won’t come into play when you’re tethered or streaming over Wi-Fi. Eddy Wu, Director of Product Innovation at Netflix, mentioned that there are a few caveats to keep in mind with regard to the feature, saying: “We are always working on ways to improve picture quality while streaming more efficiently, so bitrates could change over time. As with all streaming, actual data usage can vary based on your device capabilities and network conditions. Your mobile carrier also may impact the actual data usage even if you elect a higher setting in the Netflix app.” In light of that comment, it’s worth pointing out that Netflix is already one of the services that’s included in T-Mobile’s Binge On program, where video usage won’t count toward consumers’ data caps. But of the data streams (at ), unless consumers opt out. |
null | Sarah Buhr | 2,016 | 5 | 4 | null |
Spotify-backed Soundtrack Your Brand launches in U.S., inks global deal with McDonald’s | Ingrid Lunden | 2,016 | 5 | 5 | As Spotify continues to grow its and expand the services it , one of its side bets is making inroads in another route to music streaming riches. Spotify-backed and co-founded , which streams music in business locations, is launching in the U.S. And to mark the news, it’s also announcing that it has signed a big global deal: it is now working with McDonald’s as the provider of streaming music services across the fast food giant’s footprint of more than 36,000 restaurants and other venues. But do not read this as Spotify signing a deal with McDonald’s: it turns out that the global agreement’s music content will be fulfilled by at least two other providers, PlayNetwork (also an investor) and Omnifone. The news comes as we have also learned that Soundtrack Your Brand has raised more money. The company — co-founded by Spotify’s former head of business development and a founder of Beats Music (acquired by Apple) — has confirmed to us that it has now raised $20 million from “its owners” (previously it had ). In addition to Spotify, the of the service are Northzone, Creandum, Wellington and TeliaSonera (essentially, a selection of the main backers of Spotify itself); and PlayNetwork, a competitor to MoodMusic (Muzak owner). $20 million, of course, is modest compared to Spotify, which has raised $1.6 billion and is valued at over $8.5 billion. But the bigger parent company faces challenges: not only are the economics of the consumer streaming business problematic; but there is fierce competition from the likes of Apple and Google — not to mention pure-play digital music companies. Meanwhile, something interesting is developing on the smaller B2B front: the market has largely not been touched for years — many businesses still use CD’s or antiquated recording systems — but it’s one where companies are willing to pay for services. And if a company can leverage technology to provide analytics and commercial insights on how a venue’s audio system impacts the business, then there is an opportunity to make revenues through more than one channel. The McDonald’s deal is a framework agreement. Soundtrack Your Brand has been named as the provider for streaming services to McDonald’s locations. But as the company operates on a franchise model, it will mean that SYB will have to sign direct deals with locations for installations to go ahead. There is already some groundwork for this following through: before the global deal, SYB already started to work with McDonald’s in Sweden (along with other companies like Starbucks). There, it’s already installed in some 60% of all McDonald’s in the country. Ola Sars, SYB’s CEO, says his company is already running pilots with some of the largest franchises outside of Sweden. Those who do sign up get “boxes” that can be installed with existing speakers and other equipment, and when these are hooked up online, they will get customised streams of music, along with a Spotify-like app-based experience in which employees and customers can interact with the music player as a jukebox for the 21st century. And there is a bigger analytics and big-data play here as well. Businesses can get analytics on how music — and whatever else they choose to stream, be it promotions or whatever — interplays with customer activity, as a route to developing playlists that keep places jumping (and people eating and enjoying themselves). The McDonald’s deal is interesting because it marks another stage of evolution for Soundtrack Your Brand, as it develops a more autonomous product that is not completely pinned to Spotify and continues to forge ahead with the concept of a B2B music streaming business. Originally , it marketed itself as Spotify for Business, co-founded by Spotify itself. The logic for being tied to Spotify this way was two-fold. First, it was being funded by Spotify, essentially as an arm’s-length project to see how well a B2B strategy could be developed, without clouding the growth and focus of the core team at Spotify. Second, it was based solely on streaming music from Spotify. However, the McDonald’s deal has surfaced an issue, which is that Spotify is not available in every country where McDonald’s is present. So now, Soundtrack Your Brand will be working with more than one provider: added to the list now are PlayNetwork (its other strategic investor) and Omnifone. |
Drawbridge raises $25M as it takes its cross-device tech beyond advertising | Anthony Ha | 2,016 | 5 | 5 | , a startup that helps businesses identify when a single person is using multiple devices, has raised $25 million in Series C funding. Every time I write about Drawbridge, I’m contractually obligated to mention that the company is , Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. For this round, Drawbridge went back to Sequoia to lead, with Kleiner and another previous investor, Northgate Capital, also participating. More than three years have passed since Drawbridge raised . (It has now raised more than $45 million total.) Founder and CEO Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan told me she hadn’t necessarily planned to wait that long before fundraising again, but “the timing was just right for us,” because the company needed time to broaden its strategy, bring on more customers and see the idea of cross-device targeting become “far more mainstream.” Speaking of broadening its strategy, said the funding will allow Drawbridge to “double down” on its expansion beyond ad-tech. The company was one of the first to work on creating a cross-device graph that allowed advertisers to use data to target consumers across laptops, mobile phones, tablets and more. But now Drawbridge has begun offering this technology to non-advertising customers, too. After all, one of the big advantages for a company like Facebook is its data about consumers across devices. (Facebook can determine this thanks to user logins, while Drawbridge has to use a “probabilistic” approach that combines statistical models with user behavior to determine when multiple devices are likely to belong to one person.) Sivaramakrishnan is looking to offer that kind of knowledge to other companies for purposes like for website personalization, fraud detection and marketing automation. “The opportunity that Drawbridge is going after is: How do we use this fundamental asset to power so many different services?” she added. “That’s where our investment is going, into identifying these categories. We’re going to invest int it from a product perspective and a sales perspective.” The company says that in the last quarter of 2015, it — and about half of that didn’t come from advertising. Recent partners include M&C Saatchi Mobile, Oracle and Lyft. Drawbridge also has global plans. While it already has a small team in London, Sivaramakrishnan said she’s looking to expand in both Europe and Asia. |
A few words on chatbots | Natasha Lomas | 2,016 | 5 | 5 | A new wave of technology is preparing to crash down upon the unsuspecting consumer. Chatbots are surging towards our conversations at breakneck speed! No, not the kind of chatbots that have been around for donkeys’ years, adding robotic interjections to irreverent chatrooms when the Internet was a niche playground just for nerds. This new brainy breed of algorithms will, we’re told, be leveraging the power of advanced AI to engage and delight humans with unprecedented conversational smarts. People will be taking to robots like never before! They’ll want to chat with bots like they chat with their buddies, . Behold the looming chatbot singularity! Ok, so much for the hype. Here’s my take: this latest wave of chatbots will not live up to their paradigm shifting billing. And those chatbots that impress will not really be doing much chatting. Or else will turn out to be Mechanical Turks — ie they will have actual people intelligently pulling the strings behind the scenes. Witness, for instance, Facebook employing humans as the connective tissue behind its — to plug what are evidently still very sizable gaps in its algorithmic intelligence. Yes, even Mark Zuckerberg, the tech world’s poster boy developer-turned-platform-king himself, isn’t confident enough to let his advanced AI try his users’ patience on its own. Move fast and break things clearly has limits when it comes to sparkling conversation. Another example: Apple’s Siri squarely failing to dent the universe. The best you can say of Siri is it sometimes serves up some pre-programmed sass. Pre-programmed of course. Search tech is of course wildly popular, and with good reason: it’s efficient. Or it can be. Any new search technology that works well — whether you can type questions, or show it a picture to find similar shots, or ask for stuff verbally (a la Amazon’s Alexa) — has the power to win friends and influence people. (And when I say ‘works well’, I mean performs your search speedily/effectively and does not waste your time with dumb responses.) But are chatbots lining up to be an efficient wrapper for search? — especially if companies delude themselves that chatty robots are a golden opportunity to spam spam spam their users like they’ve always dreamed they can can can. Messaging app Telegram, for example, which has had its chatbot platform live since last June, is already trying to remove friction from the chat process by reducing how much people have to type in order to interact with these robots. So already its pushing for less-chatty-chatbots. It is also . So it’s not exactly sounding like an emergent AI intelligence is about to spring forth and transform human-machine interactions quite yet. I for one am not holding my breath to better hear the wit of these robot overlords. Nor does it sound like people are falling over themselves to spend lots of time conversing with robots. Most of the bots on Telegram’s platform don’t have many users yet. And the early interest looks to be sparked by developers rushing in — because they’re being told bots might be the next big thing… That’s hype doing its devilish work, not evidence of consumer demand. Sure, if you want to do something super simple like, say, find a YouTube URL (so you can share it with another human in an existing chat) then an embedded algorithm that lets you @it in the same messaging thread — to trigger a search and deliver the results back to you — be useful. Like a keyboard shortcut is useful to the people who bother to figure out which keys they need to press. Although it’s arguably also a bit weird to start chatting with a robot in the middle of talking to an/other human being/s. But utilitarian bots are not the kind of champion conversationalists we’re being billed to expect. That sort of ‘chatbot’ is really just a search box clad in a little messaging fancy dress. In my view, chatbots are best thought of as an attempt to bolt-on additional utility to their host platform — as a way to keep users on said platform for longer. And to keep the conversation/content flowing (see: chatbots on Slack, for instance — work productivity? Pah! Here’s a new you can discuss with your colleagues instead…). If a user can book a restaurant in the same messaging thread where they are discussing going out for dinner with their friends then, in theory, there’s no need for the humans to break off their conversation to go figure the organizational stuff out. Although you can’t expect to keep people locked inside your walled garden forever or things start to get pretty dystopic. But perhaps the greater incentive for platforms when it comes to chatbots is they hold out the promise of being able to generate more conversation than might have otherwise occurred between the humans. To act as conversation starters/primers. And/or conversational maintainers. This notion meshes well with Facebook’s needs to encourage people to share more personal stuff, for example, given that . While the primer scenario could work on a dating platform, say, with bots delivering potted ice-breakers to get conversation flowing between strangers. Point is, conversation is already stilted and artificial on a dating platform so a little extra robot isn’t going to seem any more awkward. Really, then, chatbots’ mission statement, if they had one, should be something along the lines of: ‘Keep the humans talking to each other for longer’. Consider the following two lists… 1) Some technologies humans usually hate: 2) Some technologies humans generally appreciate: So to which list do the impending wave of chatbots belong? Well, that depends. Purely human-powered ‘chatbots’ (if I can stretch the term for a moment) which make it super simple for a human to have a question/complaint thoughtfully addressed by another human are certainly going to be appreciated. And in case it’s not clear, I’m talking about Twitter here, where a short form text-based platform is utilized as a very efficient layer for fielding and managing customer service complaints (yes, far better than websites, email, even phone calls given the typical waits involved — at least it is for now, with (presumably) a lower volume of queries being addressed by lots of enthusiastic, human employees. (Albeit, if Twitter manages to grow its user base it might actually result in less responsive customer service via Twitter… ) Twitter triumphs in customer service (for now) because it’s just about the the fastest way a human can to talk to another human who works in a faceless corporate’s customer service department. In short Twitter humanizes companies. But of course humans being paid to talk to other humans is not a technology that scales massively like software scales, and so the big push for chatbots… And then there are basic algorithms doing what algorithms do best (and do better than humans): which is to say sifting large volumes of data and quickly retrieving specific results. Aka search. These algorithms are of course going to continue to be useful. And if you want to describe a search box that can be addressed inline within a messaging thread as a ‘chatbot’ then sure, such ‘chatbots’ may well thrive — although really it’s just another way to perform a search. There is also an educational challenge worth noting here, given that people won’t necessarily know how to command search in this more chatty guise. So even here, it’s not necessarily plain sailing for these info-retrieval ‘chatbots’. There’s another risk too; that the companies putting micro search engines inside chatbot interfaces will be far too tempted to lard them with extraneous nonsense, thereby reducing the effectiveness of the core search in the process. Ergo, back to the spam problem. But a search alternative is not really how chatbots are being billed. Perhaps it’s just overly effusive marketing at this nascent stage of the latest chatbot wave but we’re being told to expect sassy and useful conversationalists. Powerful, prescient capabilities. Search with a personality. Data retrieval machines that know what we like better than we do. Algorithms with a quasi-human heart. Robots you’ll want to chat to in the same way you talk to your friends. And mostly that sounds like pure fantasy. Thing is, humans want meaningful connections with other humans. From machines our chief desire is utility — whether to link us to the data we need or the people we desire. And unless or until a general AI can be developed that is, in mental and emotional terms, indistinguishable from human intelligence those needs are not going to change. So why on earth would we want to be chatted up by artificial algorithms? For the foreseeable future it seems pretty clear robots will remain plenty robotic. Still largely running along their pre-programmed rails, even if they can learn to change gears a bit more often on their own. And that means we won’t want them trying to chat us up. Rather we’ll want them to listen and obey. To understand our specific request — order me a cab to X, book me a table at Y, bring me Z etc etc — get it done hyper efficiently, and then get the hell out of our way. Meanwhile our tolerance of algorithmic tardiness and stupidity is only going to decrease. Any AI gains will quickly be assimilated and taken for granted. The quality bar keeps rising when your baseline comparison is the elastic intelligence of the human brain. Efficient, function-focused chatbots might make sticky extra appendages for messaging platforms — to keep users engaged for a little longer. But people won’t be staying because they love talking to the robots, it will be because the algorithms have saved them time to spend talking to other humans. Make no mistake chatbots are not going to win our hearts and minds. The best they can hope for is to please us by performing a task so quietly and quickly we don’t even notice they’re there. |
Casey Neistat’s video app Beme has finally left beta and is now on Android | Fitz Tepper | 2,016 | 5 | 2 | When Casey Neistat launched his new social networking app Beme last Summer, nothing was really ready yet. The product was underdeveloped, the team understaffed, and users weren’t exactly sure why they needed a version of Snapchat where the only main difference was that you had to cover the iPhone’s proximity sensor to record. But none of this really matters when you have a devoted following of millions of daily YouTube viewers ready to download and use your new app, like .
So for a while the product blossomed. , celebrities were recruited to evangelize the platform, and all was good. But eventually growth slowed, and an undeveloped product finally caught up to Beme, which was still being referred to internally as a beta. So at some point the team made a decision to slow down, re-strategize, and rebuild the platform so the product was actually strong enough to keep users engaged. But here’s the hard part. Casey’s YouTube career was flourishing (swelling to almost 3,000,000 subscribers), which meant tens of thousands of new viewers who would download Beme each day. Any other startup would jump for joy at these numbers, but Beme wanted to be able to put their heads down and work towards releasing v1 and an Android version as fast as possible. So Casey stopped talking about Beme in his vlogs, stopped showing Beme HQ in the office, and generally went mum about the company. This led to the internet going crazy with ideas – did Beme run out of funding, did Casey quit, or did the idea just flop? The reality was that the team was trying to keep growth low while building out the new product, so a decision was made for Casey to temporarily stop talking about Beme on his channel. While Beme’s general concept of un-previewed recording is the same, the app has a bunch of enhancements that better the overall viewing experience. The main page is an Instagram-style scrolling view, that lets you swipe from video to video. Previously, you had to tap on the video’s name to watch it, Snapchat style. Each user also has a profile page with a brief bio description and grid of all their past videos. Videos can now also be watched an unlimited amount of times, meaning you can scroll through a user’s old videos to get a feel for what their life is like. But if you were a fan of the app’s reaction feature don’t fret, because you can still view freeze-frame selfie reactions that users submit on the platform’s videos. Recording can now be done via a button on the screen (in addition to the proximity sensor). While the screen will still go black when you’re taking a video, the on-screen controls should make it easier to get a better shot. Essentially the app feels fresh, more useful, and actually like a v1 product. The UI is still slightly confusing (but less so than the beta version), but this is almost what gave Beme its original charm. The new iOS update can be downloaded , and the Android update is available in the store. Plus, next week, where we’ll talk more about the new Beme update and how it came to be. |
Uber’s partnership with Alipay goes global | Kate Conger | 2,016 | 5 | 2 | Uber today expanded its partnership with Alipay, a Chinese payment app owned by Alibaba that boasts 450 million active users. The partnership will allow Chinese travelers to pay their Uber fares using Alipay in any of the 68 countries where Uber does business, and allow riders to hail Uber cars directly from the Alipay app. Uber China’s collaboration with Alipay has grown steadily over the past few years, with plans for this first announced in January. Alipay has been an accepted method of payment for Uber rides on the Chinese mainland since 2014, and Uber began accepting Alipay in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan earlier this year. “This is one of the most important partnerships Uber has ever done,” said Emil Michael, senior vice president of business at Uber, calling Alipay “the most innovative payment company that really exists in the world.” Processing Alipay payments has been a crucial component of Uber’s explosive growth in China, where the ride-sharing company went from just one percent of the market in early 2015 to roughly 33 percent by the end of that year. Many Chinese consumers don’t use credit cards but instead rely on their Alipay accounts as their primary payment method. With Uber’s global expansion of its Alipay partnership, Chinese riders can continue to pay through Alipay wherever they are instead of obtaining a dual-currency credit card. Because of Chinese consumers’ reliance on Alipay, “It was very important and very natural for us to extend our partnership with Alipay globally,” said Zhen Liu, Uber China’s senior vice president of corporate strategy. Liu said that the need for an expanded partnership between Alipay and Uber was illustrated during Chinese New Year. Uber recorded a tenfold increase in the number of rides Chinese Uber passengers took in other markets between Chinese New Year 2015 and 2016. Under the new partnership, Chinese travelers abroad will automatically see the Uber icon inside their Alipay wallet and will be able to hail and pay for rides directly from Alipay. When they return home, this option will vanish and users will need to return to the Uber app to order a car. In India, Uber will leverage Alipay’s existing relationship with the Indian payment platform Paytm to expand its global reach. Uber’s Michael declined to discuss the financial terms of the arrangement, saying only that Alipay typically takes a cut of its users’ transactions and this deal would be no different. “The only thing unique about this is, Alipay went from taking payments in 15 countries to 68 countries, so it’s really the scope,” Michael said. |
Evan Hansen departs Medium to become editor in chief at Periscope | Anthony Ha | 2,016 | 5 | 2 | More changes at publishing platform Medium: Evan Hansen, who’s been overseeing the company’s editorial strategy, is departing. Hansen joined Medium three years ago. (He was previously editor in chief at Wired.com.) His role has been described variously as senior editor, and . Looks like he’s sticking with the theme of leading editorial at a tech company — he’ll be editor in chief at Twitter’s livestreaming platform Periscope. , Hansen doesn’t say much about his new role, but he wrote; “I still love the written word and Medium, but I honestly can’t think of many things more exciting than helping build a new platform with mobile phones and real time video.” Fusion’s Felix Salmon that this was in the works and suggested that this made sense as part of a broader shift at Medium, as the company that is constantly asked “Are you a platform or a publisher?” comes down squarely on the side of being a platform. (Steven Levy — like Hansen, an alum of Wired — is to leave his role as editor in chief at Medium’s tech site Backchannel and return to Conde Nast.) This also comes after Medium announced that a number of independent publishers are and that it has . |
The future of digital lead generation | Dmitri Saveliev | 2,016 | 5 | 2 |
Lead generation has come a long way. According to , assuming, of course, that we accept that the Roman trade market was the original lead generation platform for traders. The way in which leads were developed during Roman times was through word of mouth. By spreading information via word of mouth, people with a network of connections trade information and recommendations based on experience. This still happens today. You may ask your neighbor who they hired to remodel their kitchen or ask a friend which doctor they suggest you visit, but do you seek references for many other reasons? You probably don’t. As technology advances, the way in which leads are acquired also changes. Nowadays, when you need to buy something specific you rely on the Internet. It is the ultimate convenience, even easier than asking someone you know, and accessible to you wherever you are — at home, at work or on the go. Now that the way in which we seek information has changed, the way in which we receive information is different, as well. Before understanding how far we’ve come today, and where we’re going, we must understand where lead generation started. in the early 18th century (slightly in Europe). This was the first way for information to be spread throughout society in an organized and official manner. As the public’s demand for free information grew, newspaper owners realized the opportunity to charge for advertisements. The readers were enjoying the ability to access information, and the advertisers found a new outlet for generating leads. At the end of the 18th century, technology continued to progress. New printing technology allowed the opportunity for advertisers to , creating an additional way to reach targets and generate leads. Around the 1830s, and, by 1860, billboard advertising established itself as a separate industry. In 1864, breakthrough telegraph technology was leveraged to reach wealthy American households with marketing messaging. While this was mostly spam, it was still a valid lead generation model and resulted in the classification of two advertising extremes: spam and relevant. According to magazine, 78 percent of today’s emails are spam. This coincides with the , where 20 percent of adequate emails naturally generate 80 percent of spam emails. The was broadcast on WEAF in New York in 1922; in 1941, the went on air; in 1950, the became popular. The list of new lead generation models continues, with each new model more sophisticated than the next. Call-center marketing arose in the 1960s, and, in 1969, the first Super Bowl commercial became available, followed by infomercials in 1984. The next evolution was the introduction of computers and, later, personal computers (in the mid-1980s). This was the beginning of a revolution: desktop publishing in 1985, the introduction of CRM systems in 1990, the first web page in 1991, the first web banner in 1992, the first search engines and online marketplaces appearing in 1995, Internet viral marketing in 1996, the creation of Google in 1998, social networks in 2003 and in 2005. Almost each year after 2004 we have witnessed a new avenue for lead generation. Smartphones created the opportunity to broaden reach and access individuals directly, mobile apps allow for brands to engage with consumers in an entirely new way and social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter create an opportunity for brands to target specific consumers based on their likes and dislikes. If we look at the number of years between each step of lead generation models, we see the following pattern: 1700, 100, 50, 34, 58, 19, 9, 10, 9, 5, 5, 1, 1, 3, 1… 1. The pattern suggests that the intervals between the evolutionary steps in lead generation models are shrinking in a progressive manner — and in a mirrored parallel with technological progress. Yet technology not only shapes the form of lead generation models from the marketer’s point of view, but also from the consumer’s point of view, raising new trends and demands. In other words, technological abilities are dictated by innovation. However, the implementation of technology is dictated by entrepreneurs, who, based on research or a want to innovate, invent solutions that in turn grants them large valuations. , established in 2009, introduced their : “Uber is calling itself a ‘lead generation’ app that connects buyers and sellers — in this case, people who want rides and drivers who sell them. So Uber and other ride-hailing services are actually similar to eBay and Etsy. Lead generation platforms such as Uber similarly coordinate transactions between drivers and passengers,” Professor Justin McRary, an expert hired by Uber. This model is brilliant. Not only did it prove to be extremely profitable and in terms of speed of growth, but it created an anthropological shift in the behaviors of society, which resulted in the spread of and the . So what are the impacts of the “ ?” About 53 million, or 34 percent, of American workers are now freelancers, and technology is one of the key forces helping the majority of them find work, according to a recent , a freelance platform. Technology and entrepreneurs shape the market so consumers can benefit from competitive prices. Each new competitor must present supreme or diverse value in order to have a sustainable business model and service. In other words, the quality of the leads should be better or the cost should be reduced. This technology, which combines freelance or on-demand work, can result in top financial achievements. This is a testament to companies such as Uber ($62 billion) and Airbnb ($25.5 billion), who lead the stable of . But what about smaller companies? What about the other startups that utilize this same lead generation model? , a startup that seed round, empowers consumers by providing information to users in their search for a new car. This service compares a variety of makes and models of different vehicles, while allowing consumers to see what dealers are offering in their area and at what price. Consequently, dealers receive qualified leads while the consumer receives the best deal. The service is free for consumers and available for purchase by dealers who desire to be in the system. Thanks to carwow’s technology, dealers are forced to adjust to market conditions that are favorable to the customer. It is clear from carwow’s success over the past six years, and completion of Series B funding, that this lead generation model is effective. , which received in funding, is another company empowering car buyers. The service helps consumers purchase used vehicles at the best possible price, while providing dealers with the most qualified leads. The basis of the idea is that cars are sold at the best prices at auction; however, under U.S. law, vehicles from auctions can only be purchased by licensed dealers. This forces consumers to purchase only the vehicles that dealers have in stock. MyDealerOnline’s technology links vehicle auctions to dealers. This enables dealers to present vehicles from auctions directly to consumers in order to eliminate the need for dealers to buy first. According to an Edmunds , 100 percent of smartphone holders use their phones for car shopping activities, including comparing prices. With MyDealerOnline’s technology, dealers can present their offering directly to a consumer’s smartphone, tablet or desktop. Now, consumers can learn about the best deals from auctions and utilize sales professionals that can get them the best price. Other companies from the same industry take advantage of this model, as well. raised nearly in their mission to provide qualified leads to people who want to sell their car directly to other individuals, completely eliminating the need for a dealer. Beepi knows that a major barrier for this type of transaction is the vehicle registration process — which is why their business model provides the guarantee of cash back in order to streamline the process and help close more deals. Many industries have made improvements to their lead generation models, as can be seen by these automotive and hospitality examples. Other unconventional examples are with companies who sell private jets, operate research laboratories, lend money and supply home improvement services. , the growing jet company in the world, works essentially like Uber for the sky. Jet operators find qualified leads, while consumers receive instant prices for a private jet or seat on a shared jet. While you’re at it, why not also book a room in a fancy hotel? allows users to find and book hotel rooms, with one small twist: Those who use Recharge can book rooms for any period of time, even just for 10 minutes to use the shower or for 30 minutes to take a quick nap. Hotels are now finding guests at a relatively high rate per hour, while users are easily finding the convenience they seek. Convenience from these lead generation services not only gets you to your hotel and finds you a room, but can make sure you are well fed during your visit! Try using , the app that delivers food from participating restaurants directly to your door. Private jets, 10-minute hotel rooms and food delivery — why stop there? If you are a scientist and need to rent a lab, may be of interest to you. After receiving , Science Exchange has created a marketplace for researchers to find the right lab services for them, considering most don’t have the resources, time or money to create their own laboratory. These laboratories are now able to receive leads stemming from private, academic, government and manufacturing segments of the pharmaceutical industry seeking to outsource their research. And it’s a proven success — the company has grown 500 percent in the past year. As of a result of consumers being educated by a range of companies, from Uber to Netflix, the shopping habits of purchasers have evolved. According to a report from 2011, individuals have moved toward the “Multichannel Shopping” pattern, where consumers shop from one to five channels in order to identify the best solution in each industry and for each product. In 2011, 65 percent of U.S. shoppers already used at least two channels, and 21 percent use four or more channels to shop online. As can be seen in the chart above, 72 percent of U.S. consumers consider themselves sophisticated consumers who check four or five online channels to find the best deal. In 2011, forecast the following: “It is clear from our results that retailers need to better align their business operating models with consumer sophistication and expectations. Closing this gap will require a significant increase in agility and flexibility by retailers, driven by a deeper understanding of their customers… The successful retail business model of the future will be different from that of the past. The winners will be those who have recognized these trends and who are building agile organizations capable of delivering experiences that are consistent across channels with recognizable and comforting similarities, and are also consistently impressive and up-to-date.” A wave of startups and organizations aim to be at the forefront of consumer trends — providing the best offerings and, as a result, becoming industry leaders. Tens of thousands of startups of all sizes are established each year — some successful, some not, but all of which aim to introduce solutions that become the reference point for future companies. An example of a reference point company is Amazon. Amazon was launched in 1994; with it started the , changing the world of e-commerce and retail while creating something for other sites to emulate. Amazon supported every industry and sold more than . Amazon provided a service unlike any other at the time, offering customers complete information on products and prices, and convenience. attract with this new model? “Amazon defines active customers as accounts that have made a purchase in the past 12 months. Active customers generally have valid credit cards on file. With roughly 244 million in that category, Amazon more than doubles eBay’s PayPal payment service, which has 110 million active customers, but it sits behind Apple, which has 800 million customers with iTunes accounts,” according to . Today we shift between two extremes of lead generation models: one which consumers are empowered and the other where consumers are disempowered. Take for example taxi apps; . The only place they are relevant is where there is no Uber or similar service. Everyone knows ridesharing services defeat taxis in several categories, including ride cost, car quality, app service, payment, etc. Most importantly, drivers choose to work for rideshare companies as opposed to electing to work as a taxi in the same way that riders choose Uber over taxis. This is a win-win model, or an empowering model. The resources for rideshare drivers are unlike any other. This is why ridesharing companies consider themselves “ .” Because of the transparency of the technological platform, combined with big data, drivers are presented with information to increase lead conversion for the most desired areas for pickup, which, if targeted, will result in drivers making more money. The services also share information about how rates vary at given times and when prices are surcharged during busy hours or when events are occurring. Drivers also have constant access to their ride history, being able to easily see where they’ve driven, who they’ve picked up and what they’ve earned. A lot of value. The taxi app model is disempowering; the riders have no real advantages. While they do have access to an app, there is less availability of drivers and the overall service is poor when compared to Uber or Lyft. Additionally, taxi drivers are required to have a license, which limits the number of available drivers, making it harder for riders to find a cab. Drivers of cabs are also not provided the same resources as those who work for rideshare apps. They cannot track their rides and are not provided information about how to improve their personal business in order to make more money. The taxi apps are like a parallel solution to simply calling a cab rather than an innovative solution that actually solves problems for riders or freelance drivers. This is almost a lose-lose model, where riders suffer and drivers remain unprofitable, a true disempowering model. The same insight can be derived from hotel registration apps compared to Airbnb. The startup benefits homeowners and those seeking accommodations, and the service itself profits 6-12 percent per transaction. These parties are choosing to pool their resources to provide a means to satisfy each correspondent, thereby empowering each individual. Lead generation models have evolved throughout history as a result of new technology and ever-changing consumer trends. The computer and Internet age enabled a significant increase to the pace at which new lead generation models were introduced to the world. What once took hundreds of years to change, then weeks, then days, now takes hours to improve. The innovation occurring daily is empowering both businesses and consumers alike. Today’s can best be described as: free listings, pay per impression, premium listings, discounted deals, pay per interaction and pay per transaction. The problem we are seeing is that everyone is using the same lead generation model and competing in the same space. What we can learn from the past is that entrepreneurs need to be adaptable to the continuously evolving technology and embrace change in order to remain competitive and excel in their respective industries. |
Venture investments in new manufacturing technologies could reshape American industry | Jonathan Shieber | 2,016 | 5 | 2 | A wave of venture investment into new manufacturing startups looks set to transform American manufacturing. While the foundations for these companies may have been laid in cities like Boston, New York and San Francisco, the startups that are driving this next industrial revolution hail from more unlikely hubs of technology innovation in the smaller urban centers of the Sun Belt and the Southeast. These include cities like Lexington, Ky., in states whose economies were ravaged by the 2008 financial crisis and see redemption in the entrepreneurial energy of startup businesses. New industrial processes, such as may have a tremendous effect on the U.S. economy. Roughly 33 percent of the economy is fueled by manufacturing and it’s one of the arenas that has been most resistant to incursions from the technology world. Now, all of that is changing for several well-documented reasons. The cost of hardware and infrastructure to support the application of technology in manufacturing has come down dramatically even as organizations are looking to improve efficiency by collecting more data on their processes and determining where there are costs to be saved. Supplying that information and those services are businesses like , a Lexington-based startup that recently raised $8 million in new financing led by the Colorado investment firm, . Founded by chief executive Drura Parrish, an architect turned manufacturing entrepreneur, MakeTime is an online capacity utilization marketplace for machining. The company provides a way for computerized machining companies to offer their manufacturing services for customized parts during times when those machines would typically sit idle. By distributing those orders across a number of different manufacturers during their down-times, MakeTime potentially provides a way for companies to do larger production runs at lower prices. Parrish cites his company’s emphasis on using data to provide better pricing information and deeper insights into the true costs of manufacturing as one of the keys to MakeTime’s success. Both additive manufacturing (3D printing) and subtractive manufacturing (machining) are set to play a large part in the future American economy. The machine-tool market is currently $70 billion, and while 3D-printed products were only worth roughly $5.2 billion last year, that number is expected to reach $550 billion by 2025, Driving that value will be early-stage startup companies like CloudDDM and MakeTime, and more mature 3D printing services companies like the New York-based and its earlier-stage compatriot in the Big Apple, . If the Lexington-based MakeTime is a company making traditional manufacturing cheaper, more efficient, and better able to meet the needs of just-in-time (or on-demand) industrial processes, then just 72-miles-away in Louisville, is trying to make its own mark on the manufacturing business with 3D printing. Backed with $2.5 million in financing from CloudDDM uses its own 3D printers and CNC machines to make parts for customers in plants located minutes away from UPS’s logistics hub in Louisville. “UPS sees the writing on the wall,” says CloudDDM executive Mitch Free. He explained that the company’s supply chain business is aware that as manufacturing becomes more on-demand, companies will either look to manufacture parts on premises and as-needed, or potentially expect their logistics provider to significantly cut down the time to get a part. Just as UPS is experimenting with 3D printing as a way to improve its position in the logistics market, GE Appliances (now owned by the Chinese durable goods manufacturer Haier) has made its own 3D lab in Louisville for prototyping new products with FirstBuild. Initially, a collaboration between General Electric and Local Motors (a Phoenix-based manufacturer of 3D-printed cars), FirstBuild takes the principles of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding that the company toyed with as a , and uses them to develop prototypes of new household appliances. A critical component of that process is the use of 3D printers. When GE was getting ready to release its nugget ice machine, several of the initial components were made with 3D printers, so the company could bring the product to market more quickly. “FirstBuild has been a real amazing win,” said Karen Kerr, a senior managing director with GE Ventures. “And a great win for how the ventures platform is really helping to transform how we do business with GE.” Earlier this year Kerr told me that General Electric was working toward launching a similar initiative called NextBuild, which would take the rapid prototyping ethos from the FirstBuild program and apply it to the company’s industrial businesses. Other mammoth-sized industrial companies are joining GE and throwing their weight behind . Earlier this year the company raised an undisclosed amount from in what was the first publicly disclosed investment from the newly launched venture firm. “Ultimately it’s going to benefit us all,” says MakeTime’s Parrish. “The goal of this whole game is to democratize the manufacturing floor to make things faster, better, and cheaper for a generation of entrepreneurs.” To make that happen, he adds, the whole manufacturing chain will need to be digitized. “It’s all going to play a part in Just in time or on-demand manufacturing,” he said. “We all rise up and we march to the hallowed ground and we bring our manufacturers home to the promised land.” |
High schooler’s 3D printed ‘mini-brain’ bioreactor accelerates Zika research | Devin Coldewey | 2,016 | 5 | 2 | A “mini-brain” infected with Zika. The red dye indicates vulnerable progenitor cells. What are you planning on doing this summer? Probably not designing a revolutionary new bioreactor with which a thousand “mini-brains” can undergo testing. You’re probably not designing a bioreactor at all! But New York high schooler Christopher Hadiono did just that, and his powerful and efficient 3D-printed machine is now beginning to make waves. Hadiono during a summer internship in the lab of Johns Hopkins neurology professor Hongjun Song. The SpinΩ, as it’s called, is cheap and versatile, as Song and others demonstrate in a recent paper. Mini-brains themselves aren’t a new idea: they’re basically tiny collections of stem-cell-derived neurons that can be experimented on as if they were developing brains. They’re not perfect, but they’re useful, and the more you have, the better. Most of Hadiono’s bioreactor can be created in an ordinary 3D printer, though of course it must be augmented with the precision parts needed to perform experiments. Not only is it cheaper to make ($400 versus about $2,000 for a commercial platform), but it’s more compact, and only a tiny amount of nutritive fluid needs to be used for each one. The result is that for a fraction of the cost, you can fit 10 times the number of mini-brains inside a standard incubator. “I was shocked,” Song told , which reports on autism-related developments. “We did not think that even a biotechnology graduate student could make this into a reality.” Song didn’t wait long to put the device into action: He and others recently that not only details the engineering of the SpinΩ itself (including ), but also an experiment that appears to strengthen the link between Zika infection and microcephaly. Other labs are also getting in on the SpinΩ fun and building their own, Song confirmed to TechCrunch in an email. There has also been interest from equipment makers in licensing or otherwise employing the system. Don’t worry — Hadiono is still involved, and his name is on the patent application. |
Africa Roundup: More VC to Jumia’s parent, Konga Launches Nigeria’s PayPal, M-Kopa Solar lights homes with M-Pesa | Jake Bright | 2,016 | 5 | 2 | Just when we thought Africa Internet Group’s (AIG) 2016 VC haul couldn’t get larger, French mobile giant million. This followed earlier rounds totaling $326 million ( ) that brought the e-commerce venture’s equity to $1.08bn, making it Africa’s first startup unicorn. Orange joined other investors, such as Goldman, MTN, and AXA. They’re betting on AIG’s model to deliver goods and services to Africa’s digital retail market–expected to tally by 2025. In addition to AIG flagship Jumia, the Nigeria based company operates 8 other e-ventures across 22 African countries. With this kind of big dollar, big name backing the pressure is on AIG’s ventures to show profits some quarter soon. On African e-commerce, we can’t overlook —Jumia’s biggest Nigerian competitor founded by prolific Harvard MBA Sim Shagaya. The digital shopping site is backed by roughly $100 million in VC and has been deploying it to wire e-commerce in Africa’s largest economy. In April it launched , effectively Konga’s PayPal to Ebay. It was actually a bit of of the payment service, adding new features and “extending KongPay to…consumers outside of Konga.com’s platform,” said current CEO Shola Adekoya. This aligns with Shagaya’s vision (shared with me in a 2014 conversation) on Konga’s mission “to create a 21 century operating system” to better connect buyers and sellers in Africa’s longstanding trading culture. In addition to offering a payment method for transactions on Konga.com, KongaPay’s “Me-Commerce” option will allow “any business” in Nigeria to create their own “QR payment” code from a mobile phone image. Now social networks including Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp will have a new payment option in Africa, claims Konga. In the context of PayPal’s rise, this could be Africa’s leapfrogging over PCs to mobile for P2P digital payments. Pretty cool. We’ll circle back with Konga on KongaPay progress. Coding accelerator , which trains African programmers and places them at global IT companies, held a in April (that I moderated) for a cross section of NYC’s investor community. Speakers included Andela’s , VOD startup ’s CEO Jason Njoku, CEO Chris Folayan, and , CEO of digital media company Ventures Africa. The most salient takeaway was the growing interest in Africa’s tech scene among U.S. business actors—as evidenced by the event’s packed attendance. A sampling of the questions, however, reveals this interest is still accompanied by plenty of skepticism. Most of it (at the Andela event) was centered around the baseline infrastructure to do tech in Africa (broadband access, electricity, logistics) and the operating environment (namely political stability and corruption) in key tech markets, such as Nigeria. We’ll see if some exits, acquisitions, and IPOs in the future do more to prove the African tech thesis to the U.S. business community. On IPO potential, check out the on power startup M-KOPA Solar, which is lighting low income homes through mobile money leasing. Co-founder and CEO Jesse Moore made it clear the company is more than just a social venture. He and co-founders Nick Hughes and Chad Larson believe the M-KOPA can generate revenues worthy of a billion dollar valuation and a future IPO. Already backed by $52 million in VC the company offers solar-power home systems targeted at lower-income and rural customers without electricity. M-KOPA’s baseline box-kit comes stocked with a solar panel, multi-device charger, lights, radio and a pay-as-you-go SIM card. Clients pay it off through small payments on mobile money platforms such Safaricom’s . Currently in 330,000 households in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, M-KOPA recently expanded in Ghana and plans to enter new African countries in the near future toward 1 million users. And…stay tuned for the in May in Kigali, Rwanda. There’s plenty of African tech going on at the WEF and in Rwanda. We’ll report on some of it. |
SoundCloud turns on ads and Go premium subs in the UK and Ireland | Ingrid Lunden | 2,016 | 5 | 2 | Now that has inked licensing deals the big music rights holders, the startup is wasting no time rolling out subscription services and advertising to a wider number of markets to better monetize its 175 million users and compete better against the likes of Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music and the rest. The music-streaming company — sometimes referred to as the YouTube of audio for its wide array of user-generated content — is today expanding its premium subscription service to the U.K. and Ireland, a month after first As with the U.S. version of Go, users will have ad-free access, plus a Spotify-style selection of millions of premium tracks alongside the wider SoundCloud catalog of music and podcasts — some 125 million tracks in all for a fee of £9.99 or €9.99 per month after a 30-day free trial (the U.S. version costs $9.99 per month). One month from the launch of Go, SoundCloud is not giving away much about how it has been received so far in the U.S., the only market where it has launched so far. “The o At the same time, to pick up more audience, Wahlforss said SoundCloud is looking for ways of leveraging its social media credentials. (On SoundCloud, in addition to being able to follow people, you can tag tracks with your own insights and respond to comments from others, creating a kind of conversation unique to the platform.) The company has been working with Twitter to make audio content playable in-stream (most recently, SoundCloud started ). And Wahlforss also brought up Snapchat as “a super interesting company” for being “very real time and authentic, how we want and like SoundCloud to feel as well,” and for being compatible in another way, too: “There are SoundCloud and Snapchat both do. No comment on whether the two are working together, but this sounded like a very strong hint that if they are not already, SoundCloud wants to be. And for those who opt to listen to SoundCloud for free, brace yourselves for ads of many formats. SoundCloud said these will include audio spots; in-stream “native” ads; promoted profiles; and creator partnerships. I asked SoundCloud to clarify what “native ads” will look like and it seems that “native” in this case will not necessarily be a revival of advertising jingles by musicians. “Brands are choosing either existing tracks from creators or may be able to inspire a track, but it won’t be a direct endorsement,” a spokesperson told me. Regardless, the main idea, it seems, is to not just put in more advertising, but to do it in a way that ties in the artists themselves — 12 million and counting on the SoundCloud platform today — so that if they choose, they can use ads as an extra revenue stream alongside whatever royalty deals they may have in place around their actual music and other audio content. Alongside the ability to track music and choose what tracks are part of SoundCloud’s free and paid tiers, the ads become something that artists can also control. “The introduction of advertising will ensure listeners can continue to experience for free, as well as offer creators the opportunity to be paid for the work that they share,” the company noted. This is also an attempt to respond to a wider issue around streaming services like SoundCloud (and others), which have been criticized and by some artists who believe that they are not getting paid fairly for their work. Ads and subscriptions are SoundCloud’s latest efforts to generate revenues, after initially starting out with . Aimed at creators rather than consumers, Pro comes in two tiers of $7 and $15 per month and gives people the ability to upload more than the standard 12 hours of audio, plus analytics and more content controls. |
Shopping Quizzes is a quiz-based recommendation engine for e-commerce sites | Fitz Tepper | 2,016 | 5 | 2 | A key tenet of e-commerce is the recommendation engine. If implemented correctly, it can be a major sales driver for online retailers. However, most sites normally just implement a basic engine that guesses what shoppers want, without any input from the shoppers themselves. has created a recommendation engine that actually asks shoppers what they’re looking for, instead of relying on guesses obtained from their browsing history. Here’s how it works: An e-commerce proprietor will enlist Shopping Quizzes to analyze their product categories and write custom quizzes tailored for a category of product. For example, a site may ask for a quiz designed to help users choose a black dress. The startup will then craft a quiz that asks questions like “cocktail or day dress,” “sleeveless or sleeves” and “fitted or loose.” Then, based on a shopper’s answers to all these questions, the engine recommends three top choices that fit all the shopper’s parameters. On the surface, this sounds basic. But the company explained that due to the exponential nature of the questions, a four-question quiz can eliminate more than 90 percent of the wrong products, leaving a much higher chance of the shopper finding one they actually want to buy. But does this actually increase sales for the site? According to Shopping Quiz’s numbers from their beta, yes. One A/B test found that shoppers prompted to use a quiz generated 22 percent more sales than the shoppers who didn’t see a quiz. Any online shopper knows quizzes aren’t new. However, Shopping Quizzes claims to differentiate itself by only asking questions directly relevant to a shopper’s end goal. So while other quizzes may decide that a shopper is preppy or casual and offer a range of products based on that conclusion, each shopping quiz will only recommend three specific products that the shopper already indicated they are interested in purchasing. But this help doesn’t come cheap. The company charges anywhere from a lofty $999 for one quiz a month, to an ever more daunting $2,999, which gets a site four quizzes per month. At these prices, Shopping Quizzes definitely isn’t the right solution for your handcrafted Etsy store. But, if you run a legitimate e-commerce operation and think your large, disorganized inventory is turning off hundreds or thousands of potential customers, this may be the answer for you. |
Tesla’s bioweapon mode is a stroke of genius for developing markets | Haje Jan Kamps | 2,016 | 5 | 2 | Tesla today of how effective its particulate filters are. Spoiler alert: They are so good, not only do they clean up the air inside the car, they make the world the car cleaner, too. It may not be obvious why this matters: The company is aiming squarely at a very specific type of customer, which may be the company’s way into markets like China and India. Let’s be frank for a second: Cabin air filters are nothing new; they’ve been rolled out in luxury cars since the late 1970s, and across a broader number of vehicles from the mid 1980s onward. HEPA filters in cars are more novel, not least because for this level of filtration to work, the car must be pretty air-tight to begin with, which traditionally hasn’t been a priority in automotive design. Tesla’s Bioweapon Defense mode is able to scrub a near-lethal dose of pollution down to untraceable in a matter of minutes. Impressive. Note also that the pollution level outside the car dropped significantly. It’s hard to see adding HEPA filters in the first place, but can adding a layer of one-upmanship on top of that with a Bioweapon Defense Mode button be seen as anything other than a spectacular PR stunt? What nobody seems to have done so far is ask Tesla is making such a big deal out of it. The Tesla blog post offers some hints of the most obvious kind. Talking about bioweapons is a way to catch the headlines (just look up there! I fell for it, too!), but the real talking point is that by using industrial-grade particulate filters, the Tesla Model S and Model X are spectacularly well-suited for use in environments where pollution is off the charts. Of course, the current Tesla models are a lot of things, but one thing they ain’t is . Put the two together, and you get a Venn diagram of Tesla’s target audience here: People who have access to significant amounts of money and who suffer from tremendous amounts of pollution. Around 7 percent of the are in the U.S., which is the first piece of the puzzle: Creating cars that are particularly well-designed for your home market is just common sense — especially if you’re an electric car company who inherently has a horse in the race when it comes to making a statement about pollution. Looking at the rest of the data is far more interesting, however, and offers some clues as to why this matters to the car manufacturer: India, China, Turkey, France and Germany all feature heavily in the top 1,000, and, while not all markets are equally affluent (average GDP per capita varies wildly between these countries), there is no denying there is a large number of people who can afford — and do buy — luxury cars in all these countries. If we’re looking just at the countries that suffer from the most severe amounts of pollution, the data changes dramatically. In the graph below, I’m looking only at cities that are registering at above the WHO’s recommended 25 µg/m³ in the “most polluted” data. It comes as no surprise that pollution has a choke-hold on China’s economy, with a recent report suggesting that . India is also struggling tremendously; the country has the dubious honor of claiming 13 of the 20 slots in the top most-polluted cities in the world. Only today, a , exploring just how bad the air quality is in cities like Delhi, Patna and Gwalior. What’s interesting about both of these markets is that they may just be perfect target markets for the sort of thing Tesla is trying to accomplish. I believe that thinking “Hey, the HEPA filters make Tesla great for polluted places” is the wrong way of looking at it: It’s the other way around. Tesla was looking at the markets where it wants to make a huge splash, and added the advanced filtration precisely these markets are struggling with severe pollution problems. As I mentioned, HEPA filters in cars are nothing new, but the marketing around them has usually been subtle and understated, not to mention slightly negated by the fact that that giant, gas-chugging SUV you are driving may well have the cleanest passenger compartment in the world, but you’re still driving around and being part of the problem. By being a purely electric car company, Tesla is able to take the high road and offer something unique to an emerging class of wealthy individuals: People who care both about the air they breathe and about not being part of the problem. In the world of luxury cars, Tesla is priced relatively averagely: There are a lot of different cars to choose from in this segment, and having a strong differentiating factor will make a tremendous different. Being an EV is only a small part of the appeal, doubly so in markets such as Beijing, Hong Kong, Delhi and Doha, where the Venn diagram of rampant pollution and concentrated wealth are at their peak. |
Michael Dell reveals new branding scheme for the Dell-EMC conglomeration | Ron Miller | 2,016 | 5 | 2 | Michael Dell today revealed the new names, and yes we are talking multiple names, for the artist formerly known as the . EMC will be deprecated for the main branding Dell Technologies, but will live on for the enterprise brand Dell EMC while the client services business will be called Dell, Inc. according to multiple reports. Confused? I’m sure you’re not alone, but Dell was reportedly very excited about the new brands as he spoke about them on stage at EMC World in Las Vegas today. I suppose when you spend $67 billion, a few extra names makes sense — more names for your buck. Other brands like VMware, Virtustream, RSA and Pivotal will also reportedly live on. If you aren’t familiar with the deal, it has gone through some twists and turns, but last October Dell surprised the world by announcing in what’s believed to be the largest technology acquisition in history. It involves a mountain of debt, approximately $40 to $50 billion, depending on which reports you believe, and it will likely require selling off pieces of both companies to pay the deal. We’ve already seen , formerly known as Perot Systems, to NTT Data for $3.05 billion and . We’ve seen while rumors swirl , ahead of finalizing the sale to Dell. We’ve seen since the deal was announced, . We might not have seen the last of these various side deals ahead of the closing. With that much debt, it’s clear . It’s entirely possible we will see it sell off at least part of its stake while maintaining majority control in VMware. EMC owns approximately 80 percent of VMware, which operates as an independent company. Dell believes by combining with EMC and getting bigger, it will put it in a position to compete in the enterprise market. It’s not clear that’s a valid thesis or if Dell can justify the debt for buying EMC. Only time will tell if it got a reasonable return on its investment. What we didn’t know until today is what the new company will be called. It’s worth noting that the deal still isn’t official, but it is expected to finally go through some time later this year if there are no other glitches or shoes dropping, that is. |
null | Nitish Kulkarni | 2,016 | 5 | 5 | null |
Tastemates helps you find people who like what you like | Anthony Ha | 2,016 | 5 | 2 | If you’ve ever forged a connection with someone because you had the same favorite movie or TV show or book, a new startup called has built a social network around that experience. Or as CEO Jon Vlassopulos put it, “We’re trying to codify serendipity” — those surprising moments of, “Oh my God, I can’t believe anyone else likes that as much as I do!” What does that look like as a product? Well, users are asked to swipe to indicate their taste in entertainment — specifically, indicating whether they liked a given movie, TV show or music. Then, as the app gets a better sense of what you like, it will recommend other things you might like. And it will bring up the activity of users with similar tastes, so you can say whether or not you agree with their opinions and even connect directly. As Vlassopulos showed me the app, particularly the ways you can filter the other users you see based on things like age and gender, my mind immediately jumped to dating: Is this meant to be a more natural way to connect with potential dates, based on interests rather than just swiping through photos? After all, when you connect with someone on Tastemates, the app even recommends ways to start a conversation based on shared interests. “I wouldn’t say that,” Vlassopulos told me. Not that he’s ruling out dating as a use case, but he said it’s more about finding your tribe, whether that’s for a romantic connection or otherwise. And in his view, being a general social app makes it better for dating, too: “Would you rather go to a party that’s a ‘singles party’ or a regular party and there are singles there?” Vlassopulos also put a big emphasis on using data that’s explicitly shared in the app — from an advertising perspective, Tastemates doesn’t need to guess what your interests are, because that’s exactly what you’re revealing. That approach extends to the updates you see. Instead of just using “a black box of algorithms” (as Vlassopulos put it), there’s a slider that lets you determine how similar people have to be before they show up in your newsfeed. In some ways, the swiping experience reminded me of , but Tastemates seems to place a stronger emphasis on the social experience, particularly on connecting with people you don’t already know. Of course, you can already share your interests on the big social networks, but Vlassopulos argued that this has been a much less important part of their experience over time. Consider, for example, how prominent your favorite movies and bands were in the Facebook profile of 10 years ago, and how that’s now mostly hidden and ignored. The message seems to have resonated with social media veterans, since Tastemates is backed by current and former Facebook employees, including Michael Sharon, and Friendster founder Jonathan Abrams. (Other investors include WME’s Dan Porter, Machinima founder Allen Debevoise and Ticketmaster CTO Jody Mulkey.) Tastemates is currently available for Android. Vlassopulos said the team is also working on an iPhone app, but he’s particularly excited about Android because of its international reach and because “Google has been very good to work with.” |
Shyp rolls out its new packaging pricing model to all customers | Matthew Lynley | 2,016 | 5 | 2 | Shyp has finished rolling out a new packaging pricing model to all its customers that includes variable shipment pricing based on the packaging that the company provides. Shyp is still playing around with its business model and, to be sure, over time these tweaks will add up. The unit economics of on-demand services aren’t quite as simple as a $5 fee (plus postage) and require a more granular approach, rather than a one-size-fits-all model. This isn’t the only change Shyp has made to its business model over time — it . Of course, all this is constantly subject to change as Shyp works to figure out the best way to make money without alienating its user base. The new pricing has been rolling out to batches of customers over the past four months, but today the company finished rolling it out and laid out the new pricing in a blog post. Shyp began rolling out the new pricing to its customers around January. The company that it would begin more modular pricing for its packaging around that time. The remaining customers were notified via email about the new pricing today. Basically, for larger or more-fragile packages, the packaging cost will be more expensive. This, of course, makes a lot of sense — it’s harder and more expensive to ship a bike than it is to ship a laptop or a small set of silverware. And Shyp couriers have to be more careful with fragile packages, which is more time- and resource-intensive. So it’s not surprising that the company would make some changes to its shipping model as it looks to become profitable in the cities in which it operates. The final rollout coincided . Customers who package their own shipments still won’t pay for packaging fees, and will instead just pay the $5 for the cost of the at-home pickup and insurance. A Shyp representative said that since rolling out the new packaging fees, the company has seen a 10 percent conversion increase among users who have had the pricing update. That means users who have had charging for packaging, and an explanation for what the costs are, in-app sessions convert to an actual pickup an additional 10 percent of the time. The company credits this to being confident about the packaging, a representative said. Shyp has also signed a number of large-scale deals that will help improve its shipment volume. Shyp recently formally integrated with eBay, in which it allows sellers to ship their packages through its pickup service. Shyp’s shipments will still be free for eBay sellers until June 30, and nearly half of the people who used the integration during the pilot had never sold on eBay, the company earlier said. Existing sellers shipped 60 percent more products during the pilot, the company said. All this is in search of ways to improve the company’s business model, which has proven to need a somewhat different approach to reach profitability than its original pitch. The company recently pulled out of Miami, though it told Fast Company in an earlier article that . Shyp — and if it’s going to justify that valuation, it’s going to need to continue tweaking its business model as it searches for a way to become a profitable, long-lasting company. |
Videorama makes editing mobile video actually fun | Sarah Perez | 2,016 | 5 | 2 | Smartphone users shoot a lot of video, but turning those videos into something special still takes a lot of work. A newly launched app called aims to solve that problem by offering a powerful video editor that’s also super simple to use. In other words, you don’t need to be a video pro in order to do things like trim videos, add text overlays, music, or special effects. Aimed at beginners to video editing as well as social media marketers hoping to capitalize on Instagram’s , Videorama is like the video equivalent to graphic editors like Canva or PicMonkey. While the former two services let you create your own graphics for sharing on social media and elsewhere, Videorama is about taking your video footage, then spicing it up before putting it in front of a wider audience. The app is fast and straightforward to use. You can combine your photos and video together, if you choose, trim videos, and preview your changes in real-time. A larger feature set is available via in-app purchase, however. You can pick which features you want to buy individually – for example, while full HD support is free, many overlays cost $0.99 as do special effects and music packs. But the app provides a robust starter kit, so you don’t feel like there’s nothing to do in the app without forking over money. That said, there are a tons of these premium packs available, which let you do things like add explosions, electric bursts, magic spells, weather effects like rain or snow, and much more. You can also make your movie look like old black-and-white footage, or make it look like it’s burning, among other things. And you can buy music packs or import your own tunes. A movie fonts pack is also available for $0.99. Removing the watermark costs $2.99, which is the most expensive in-app purchase. Videorama comes from a two-person indie developer team based in Istanbul, Apperto, who previously created for making typographic art. That app was featured by Apple and saw over a million downloads in a year. This new app is their big follow-up, they told TechCrunch. “We’re cinema geeks and we always dreamt of an app where you can add Hollywood-style explosions, magic spells, weather FX etc to your home-made movies,” explains Apperto co-founder Sarp Erdag. “We combined the idea with the style of a desktop quality video editing suite and the result came out to be Videorama.” The app quietly launched around a month ago, but it has seen 130,000 downloads over the last five days thanks to being featured on the iTunes App Store. The team has not taken investment, but has received acquisition and partnership offers following its release from big brands, we understand. Videorama seems to be most competitive with apps like Cameo, the video editor Vimeo bought back in 2014 . However, where Cameo is largely focused on editing video that’s then uploaded to its own network, Videorama isn’t associated with a particular brand. Its videos are instead easily shared to Facebook, Instagram, email, messaging, or elsewhere, via iOS’s share sheet extension. The app itself is a free download with optional in-app purchases. |
Insurance brokerage is broken | Whitney Arthofer | 2,016 | 5 | 2 |
I’ve worked on a number of projects over the past year as an MBA Associate with the General Catalyst team. One of my principal areas of focus has been a deep dive into the emerging field of insurance technology startups, piggybacking GC’s early work in the space with investments like , , , , and . As we , working closely with the GC team across both coasts, we developed a framework for thinking about the state of the sector today and the most exciting opportunities going forward: online aggregators and brokers, new direct-to-consumer brands and new models. In even just the last few weeks, it seems the excitement and momentum around the insurance tech sector has continued to accelerate. Coming off huge growth in 2015, early-stage insurance tech deal activity is expected to set new records in 2016, with 24 seed or Series A deals just two months into the year. There’s now an insurance technology industry conference, , bringing together relevant stakeholders. We are seeing the most innovation and activity in online aggregators and brokers, and thought it timely to share some thoughts on the space. Given that insurance is fundamentally about the trading of information (consumer data for a policy product), if you think about it, the most logical and near-term place for technology disruption should be found in distribution. Looking at any industry where we make big purchase decisions that involve the trade of information — buying a home, car, plane ticket — the Internet has become the key facilitator. Yet, across product verticals, in-person agents have remained the primary distribution channel with dominant penetration: commercial (~99 percent), life (99 percent), homeowner’s (94 percent) and auto (73 percent). Source: A.M. Best: IIABA market share reports On many levels, it makes sense that agents have remained so entrenched in the market — they can be an incredible source of value creation. Insurance policies are complex financial instruments. Consumers want to purchase products through a trusted channel and be coached through complicated decisions. Insurance carriers want to validate the customers to whom they are selling, and so have limited the degree to which customers can complete transactions online. And as time has passed, agents have become more and more ingrained as the key sales channel, making it easier for carriers to “kick the can” down the road, delaying the transition online rather than disrupting their entire distribution model. One thing that is often overlooked is just how much money these agents make. In 2014, insurance agents made $325 billion in commission revenue ($300 billion in commission spend by insurance carriers plus $25 billion in fee spend by consumers). And because of their critical role as an intermediary in closing policy sales, agents make significant operating profit margins (~12 percent), which increase with the complexity of the product. Source: “Agents of the Future — Evolution of P&C Insurance Distribution.” McKinsey, 2015. But as with every other industry, we are beginning to see the Internet enable a new world of comparison shopping, online transactions and streamlined customer service for the insurance consumer. A handful of factors are driving this evolution: Online comparison shopping is the new norm for everything from diapers to plane tickets to real estate. And with the rise of the millennial buyer, the insurance industry needs to find new ways to sell to audiences that are used to being reached and interacted with very differently. Improvements in UI create a better shopping experience, more sophisticated analytics enable carriers to price and fulfill policies online and smartphones set expectations for mobile native solutions that remain with the customer everywhere they go. The agent workforce is on the brink of retirement, and less in touch with consumer demands in a digital world. With greater employee churn and pressure to cut costs, companies are increasingly shifting the purchase burden to employees. As consumers become more responsible, and individual plans win share over group plans, online aggregators should become more compelling. Businesses like Alibaba in China and Check24 in Germany ($100 million + EBITDA with expansion into insurance, consumer financial, credit products) are evidence that consumer brands can be built to compare and buy these types of utility products. We saw this transition from in-person agents to online distribution in travel — with , , and many more — and are seeing the beginning of this evolution in insurance. Source: “Agents of the Future — Evolution of P&C Insurance Distribution.” McKinsey, 2015. As we think about what it will take to succeed as an online insurance broker, we see a few table stakes requirements for success: Best-in-class customer acquisition and engagement (content + advice) to build the brand and consumer trust as an intermediary. Ability to facilitate the full transaction online; sophisticated CRM for personalization, retention and cross-sell; and expansion to mobile native. For lines that are more complex with large insured sets — deep product expertise, dedicated support and claims management (mimicking the best of what offline agents offered). It’s worth noting that it is eliminating its comparison tool for insurance and financial products. As a search product, Google never really veered away from its standard GoogleCompare UX or invested as a curator of content. Their experience seems to highlight the importance of consumer engagement and interactions discussed above, as well as the operational complexity of integrating with carriers. Thinking more deeply about the specific categories of players, we see three types of online brokers beginning to emerge, each with its own set of success factors. The greatest barrier to online distribution has been the carrier’s ability to automate a complex underwriting process online (without paper documentation or in-person interaction to validate customer information). However, new technology adoption and data sets are changing this dynamic. We now have sophisticated telematics and driving data for auto insurance. And in the not-so-distant future, you can imagine a Homeowner’s policy with underwriting supported by satellite or drone imagery to view the property, as well as risk data by cross street. It makes sense that the simplest products (where tech has already enabled automation of underwriting) have been the first to shift distribution online. We’ve seen a lot of early activity in auto insurance aggregators ( , , ), where sophisticated predictive modeling enables seamless comparison shopping. While these players are gaining an early foothold, in the long term, we believe the winning hand in online aggregation will be a multi-product player. One way of thinking about this that came out of internal conversations with GC Managing Director, , relates to the difference in purchasing behavior for aspirational versus compulsory products. When you think about opportunities to create a search platform online — the Zillows, Airbnbs, Indeeds — the brands that have succeeded are typically focused on single categories where the item you’re shopping for is something you talk about and are really excited about. As consumers, we spend time researching and comparing purchase decisions when they are emotional and say something about our identity. However, given the painful buying process and commoditized nature of the insurance product, consumers derive little intrinsic joy from shopping for insurance. Instead, the real value proposition will come from creating a single, aggregate destination — to complete the entire buying process and deliver a service experience as quickly and painlessly as possible. The brand value will come from the efficiency of “getting it done” rather than the aspiration of acquiring the product. An online aggregator in insurance that can holistically make the experience better across multiple categories has huge potential. Because some verticals (like auto) are more prepared for the online transition, it makes sense that many players have come out of the gates to nail a single product, with plans to cross-sell over time. We have also seen companies like tack on other personal lines with low direct penetration (renter’s, pet insurance) where customer acquisition cost and cross-sell opportunities are relatively cheaper. Others, like , are using mobile native to leverage camera and location functionality for better lead capture and less work for the consumer. Key challenges consumer-focused online brokers may face: There has been a lot of excitement and buzz around commercial insurance brokerage, largely catalyzed by the stratospheric rise of . As a company, Zenefits focuses on facilitating benefits and personal lines (health, disability products) and sells into HR. We see another tremendously exciting opportunity in the commercial space, with products like general liability, directors/officers and cybersecurity insurance that are more focused on corporate risk and have a different buyer in the COO, chief compliance officer or CTO function. Any business generally needs to purchase upwards of 5-7 different types of insurance to get started. These policies are typically sold over the phone, through PDFed documents with a similarly clunky claims management process. Compounding the problem, carriers of commercial lines are more regional and fragmented, so corporations often have to herd cats to purchase adequate coverage. A significant part of the opportunity here is to digitize and curate that experience into a streamlined workflow. As with personal lines in the consumer space, a player that can serve as a single throat to choke and trusted source can be incredibly helpful. We’ve seen a handful of players emerge in this space to provide price comparison and various policy management tools — notably , , and (which will serve as a Managing General Agent, a model we will discuss in later posts). One particularly attractive feature of commercial insurance is the maintenance revenue. Today, one agent makes the initial sale, capturing the upfront commission. However, after the transaction, the actual policy management is still highly competitive. Other agents actively try to steal this business to become the “agent of record” to earn a fat maintenance margin over the life of the policy. If companies can use technology to build a better way to capture those customers, and the associated maintenance revenue, there is an opportunity to access an annuity revenue stream with a relatively small amount of work. So what we’re looking for in SMB is someone who can build a system to: We’ve seen a handful of interesting companies in this space, each with creative and slightly different approaches. Some are acquiring SMBs through SEO, recognizing certain milestones that trigger businesses to purchase insurance. Others are giving away software and solutions like claims management as a way to acquire customers and make the relationship sticky. Players with deep hooks in SMB (e.g. Zenefits, Intuit, Gusto) through payroll or benefits management as a base for expansion may also be well positioned. While strong secular trends suggest the disintermediation of the in-person agent over time, new software solutions may help some maintain staying power. Considering other industries that have made the transition online, many tech-enabled solutions have helped optimize (rather than displace) existing infrastructure (think for real estate brokers). In the more commoditized insurance products, technology may enable brokers to achieve the scale and efficiency necessary to operate profitably. In complex lines that require more sophisticated underwriting and consumer education, we see tech delivering creative ways to differentiate on service. We’ve yet to see specific solutions in this space, but believe there is real potential, and welcome submissions for companies that are considering how technology might empower the in-person broker of the future. One idea we’ve discussed is whether there is a way to build a marketplace for agents, enabling each to promote her/his own business and scalably acquire customers. Historically, independent brokers have struggled with customer acquisition in a fragmented market. With flat commissions and pressure on margins, the need to grow scale and increase to a more regional or even national focus is growing. Building a marketplace model that enables agents to get licensed and reach customers across state lines, with ratings and reviews to differentiate, might prove valuable. Because insurance products are relatively commoditized, the challenge would be in developing a model that has more durable network effects where brokers differentiate outside of price. While geography might be the premise for lead sharing in a marketplace model, another potential lead-sharing opportunity in this space could evolve through virtual teams that own the full stack of insurance products. We can imagine a model where teams of specialized agents across different product lines participate in referral sharing, and also leverage shared back office services for operational efficiency. In this way, agents can achieve scale and amortize the customer acquisition cost while still maintaining specialization in more complex lines. Finally, the emergence of more bespoke, niche insurance products is creating opportunities to enable agents with analytics to more effectively consult clients and support the
underwriting process. Given the complexity of cyber insurance, today, large carriers like AIG ultimately do the underwriting while companies like Accenture perform assessment and prep. There is a category of software that’s become general cyber risk assessment, understanding the shared vulnerabilities of companies and creating a risk score. We can see agents armed with software solutions from cybersecurity companies that deliver highly customized assessment and underwriting. A similar example of this model is a company called , which provides analytics tools for brokers to assess and price flood insurance risk. While many factors are driving the tipping point in the online distribution of insurance, the thread that ties it all together is actually a simple one: changing demographics. The millennial generation has tremendous buying power, and will soon become the industry’s primary customer, whether in consumer or commercial lines. Insurance companies cannot expect to sell the same way to a cohort with fundamentally different purchasing habits and expectations. Players that can find new ways to sell insurance products — to new audiences that are used to buying products differently — are poised to capitalize on a huge opportunity. |
Bessemer Venture Partners Byron Deeter on success in SaaS | Harry Stebbings | 2,016 | 5 | 2 |
Following an introduction from Jason Lemkin, last week I had the chance to catch up with of . Deeter puts successful SaaS models into two main buckets: companies that adopt the “SaaS for X” model, taking something done by other companies, even other software companies, and doing it better; and companies that do things that are only possible with the cloud and with mobile enterprise. Deeter notes that Bessemer has backed both types of company, and has had great returns from both. The defining feature of successful SaaS companies in his mind is not the model they adopt, but whether they are able to achieve “efficient growth.” For Deeter, efficient growth means from Series B onwards at least a dollar of ARR growth for every dollar of net burn. As companies mature, this also means drawing more from the existing customer base and relying less on new customers. This is the reason for the growth in customer success managers and teams, as companies look not just to reduce churn but consistently up-sell and deliver better results to their existing customer base. In Bessemer’s analysis, this efficient growth has always been rewarded by the market, but as cash becomes more constricted, particularly at the late stage, this efficiency will become more and more important, Deeter said. At the early stage he predicts that VCs, including Bessemer, will not drastically change what they look for or how they deploy cash, but later-stage companies will be punished for inefficiency.
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Chegg acquires Imagine Easy Solutions, the company behind EasyBib, BibMe and Citation Machine | Frederic Lardinois | 2,016 | 5 | 2 | The online textbook service today announced that it has acquired for $42 million. Imagine Easy is behind online bibliography and research tools like (which was also its first product) and similar tools like , and , most of which it acquired in the last couple of years. Imagine Easy also offers teaching tools for helping students develop reading and writing skills through its and products. Chegg will pay $25 million up front and $17 million in deferred payments — with another $18 million of potential payments over the next three years that depend on whether the team meets its goals. In the last 12 months, Imagine Easy’s bibliography and research tools powered about 240 million sessions and EasyBib alone saw more than 7 million unique users in March 2016, Chegg tells me. In total, all of these services together have helped students from mangling more than 1.4 billion bibliography entries. Imagine Easy’s business model is based on a mix of subscription fees and revenue from online advertising on its sites. Chegg makes it easy to buy, rent and sell textbooks and e-textbooks online. But sooner or later, some pesky professor (or, these days, more likely a teaching assistant or ), is going to ask you to do some research and write a paper based on what you’ve learned. To make matters worse, you’ll probably have to attach a bibliography, too. Thankfully, tools like make that pretty easy these days, so you don’t really have to worry about the difference between Chicago-style, APA-style and MLA-style bibliographies anymore. While these tools are clearly Imagine Easy’s most visible services, Chegg today noted that the company’s tools for teaching writing skills are also an important reason for acquiring the service. “We know that writing is one of the biggest pain points for students today, with about one quarter of all college freshmen required to take remedial writing courses and employers rating less than 30% of recent graduates as being well prepared written communicators,” said Dan Rosensweig, Chairman and CEO of Chegg, in today’s announcement. “Inability to write at the college level is a leading indicator of which students will eventually drop out, a situation that adversely impacts both the student and the school. With this acquisition, Chegg now has the ability to serve the millions of students who depend on writing help every day, in particular those students required to take remedial writing classes.” |
Uber is facing a nationwide class-action lawsuit | Megan Rose Dickey | 2,016 | 5 | 2 | Less than a month after , another one has popped up. This time, the suit pertains to all current and former Uber drivers in the United States, except for those in California and Massachusetts. The suit, filed yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Chicago division, asks the court to classify Uber divers as employees rather than independent contractors, “recover unpaid overtime wages and compensation,” reimburse expenses, and pay the tips that “were earned but stolen by Uber or were lost” due to Uber’s communications and policies. This nationwide case is very similar in nature to the two Uber recently settled in California and Massachusetts. In those two cases, the settlements determined that Uber drivers in those states will remain independent contractors. As TechCrunch previously noted, , with the biggest being $100 million in payments to the 385,000 drivers represented across both cases. This nationwide class-action suit is in its early days, but I imagine we might see a relatively similar outcome as the ones in California and Massachusetts. It’s worth noting that it took over three years for the California case to reach a settlement, but the fact that a precedent has recently been set, this case probably won’t take nearly as long. “Nearly 90 percent of drivers say the main reason they use Uber is because they love being their own boss,” Uber said in a statement to TechCrunch about the lawsuit. “As employees, drivers would have set shifts, earn a fixed hourly wage, and lose the ability to drive with other ridesharing apps—as well as the personal flexibility they most value.” [h/t ] |
Even your connected car will need antivirus software | Kristen Hall-Geisler | 2,016 | 5 | 2 | Connected cars can talk to each other (vehicle-to-vehicle, or V2V), and they’re starting to be able to talk to the city they’re driving around (vehicle-to-infrastructure, or V2I). That also means baddies can potentially talk to our cars, as we’ve seen in the experimental . But hacking isn’t the only danger, because wherever there’s a computer, there’s certain to be a computer virus lurking. This is the problem is working to address. Granted, there aren’t many viruses being spread from car to car right now, since connectivity in automobiles is still new. But Argus VP Yoni Heilbronn notes in an email interview that by 2020, around 70 million of the 90 million cars projected to ship that year will be connected. While a virus on your computer means someone could steal and misuse your data, which is bad enough, when it happens in your car, there’s potential for physical harm. That’s still no reason to give up on cars completely and commute on a big-wheeled velocipede bicycle; car companies and tech companies have been working together for a few years now to solve the problem. “There is no silver bullet to cyber security,” says Heilbronn. “You’ll want multiple ‘bullets.'” That includes security that’s baked into the hardware along with layers of software security. “If the software that is baked in is able to be updated remotely, then it is a powerful tool for a car maker or fleet manager,” Heilbronn says. Consumers won’t necessarily know that Argus or other security software is on board their new connected car unless they ask, since it’s ultimately the auto manufacturer who is responsible for the safety and security of the vehicle. “Although the consumer may not know we’re there,” Heilbronn says, “like the Greek myth, will be the watchful eyes making sure the system is doing what it is supposed to do and absolutely nothing more.” As security needs and standards change, you might soon be able to buy Argus software for your car just as you would McAfee or Kaspersky for your computer. Aftermarket security could become important soon, since we’re already bringing all kinds of vulnerabilities into the car ourselves. Take the “dongles” that fit into the OBD II port under the dashboard. These often come from insurance companies for usage-based rates, or there are units like the I tested that tracked my driving habits and vehicle stats. These devices communicate with the outside world, which means the outside world could communicate with them. “Since the dongle is physically connected to the automobile and to its internal network,” according to Heilbronn, “any malware that successfully breaches the dongle’s security measures or its communication link could potentially inject malicious code onto the vehicle’s CAN Bus [the protocol automobiles use to let on board microcontrollers communicate] and cause unwanted effects to vehicle operations.” Note that as of now, he still says “potentially,” so that’s encouraging. But about two years ago, Argus did indeed find a vulnerability in a Zubie device, showing that it could be remotely attacked to take full control of the vehicle. Argus made a responsible disclosure to Zubie, which fixed the issues and . Connectivity is more than just hooking your phone up to your car wirelessly (that’s another potential vulnerability, by the way). V2V and V2I communications are going to be key technologies for autonomous automobiles. Making sure those communications are trustworthy is yet another consideration to add to the conversation as we drive forward. |
The InBody Band fitness tracker can measure your body composition | Jordan Crook | 2,016 | 5 | 2 | Most fitness trackers are all about numbers. How many steps did you take? How many flights of stairs did you climb? How many projected calories did you burn? But there is one number (an important one, if you’re a health nut) that is left out of almost every fitness tracker on the market: BMI. The , made by a South Korean company that makes professional-scale body composition tools, is one of the first trackers for the consumer market that will tell you about the makeup of your body. But when you strap on a fitness tracker, is that what you want? While other companies like Apple and Fitbit are working to make products that look like fitness gear, InBody doesn’t seem to have made style a priority. The InBodyBand looks like every first-gen fitness tracker, bearing a striking resemblance to the FitBit Alta. It comes with a polymer band, and the display is long and skinny, though rather thick against the wrist. That is presumably to make room for the electrodes (which measure body composition) and for the battery, which is supposed to last one week on a single charge. I found that it lasts closer to five days then a full week. The Band charges via microUSB. The LCD display is bright and easy to read, though bright sunlight may make things more difficult. Users can simply press the button to the side of the display to run through their daily metrics, and of course, check the time. It’s worth noting that the display is not an always-on display, so you still need to press the button to check the time. In other words, this isn’t a great watch replacement. The InBodyBand comes in five different colors — black, grey, maroon, pink, and orange — each with silver flourishes near the display. As I mentioned, the InBodyBand does everything you’d expect out of a fitness tracker — measuring steps, calories burned, distance traveled, and sleep — and does it well. However, that type of functionality is rather boring in 2016. But the InBody Band also measures body composition and heart rate using special electrodes on the inside of the device. Users can test this by holding the band against the skin, which takes under a minute. The heart rate test takes even less time (under ten seconds). The electrodes send a small current through the body and measure voltage, giving information back about the composition of the body. The app then makes suggestions about how to be more healthy, whether it’s losing fat or building more muscle. Though this method isn’t quite as accurate as professional-grade machines, which can cost in the thousands of dollars, it is not meant for an exact read-out as much as a long-term look at changes in body composition. For that, the InBody Band does exactly what it’s supposed to do. The tests are quick and painless, and you can see slight changes over time in BMI. That said, these tests don’t seem like a daily necessity, especially considering that there are smart scales on the market that can perform the same tests. [gallery ids="1315630,1315629,1315628,1315627"] InBody displays this information through the InBody app. The app also lets you specify which activities you were doing during various activity spikes in your records, much like FitBit’s latest devices. However, the FitBit is able to determine your activity based on motion, where the InBody Band requires manual input of this information. Oddly, the app doesn’t record heart rate information. Instead, your read-out shows up on the display for a few seconds and disappears forever. If this is a stat you’re looking to track over time with detailed records, you’re looking at far more work than simply pressing a button. Finally, the app offers text notification alerts that vibrate on the Band itself. Both the hardware and the software perform up to par. While I wish the screen was brighter in direct sunlight, the battery life on this guy was more than acceptable and it seems accurate (when weighed against info from my other fitness trackers). I also found that the ability to track my body fat, muscle, etc. was fascinating if generally unnecessary. There’s no real problem with the InBody Band, per se, but I’m not sure I’m the type of person who needs BMI tracking, especially for this price. For the true fitness aficionado, the InBody Band might represent a worthwhile option. It offers a deeper look at the body and how it responds to various activities, foods, etc. However, it’s hard to line up the InBody Band with other fitness trackers like a FitBit for the more casual user. The design is rooted in fitness and not style, and the extra information around BMI may not be useful to casual users. Plus, the costs $180, which places it in an awkward space between a true smart watch (with built-in fitness tracking abilities) and far cheaper fitness trackers that cover all the basics like steps, calories, etc. |
Reshaping human health and changing lives through gene editing | André Choulika | 2,016 | 5 | 20 |
Gene editing is going to fundamentally change our lives and how we traditionally think about health throughout the first half of the 21st century. Gene editing is going to change the way people are treated by curing the roots of diseases instead of merely treating the symptoms. It’s going to change the way we think about what we put into our bodies, as gene editing will put healthier food on our plates without polluting the planet. This food will not only be safe to eat, it will also meet the environmental challenges related to sustainable growth and climate change. As a result, people will no longer focus on whether or not we should engage in gene editing from an ethical standpoint. The question isn’t “When will gene editing become a significant reality for the majority of the world?” The truth is, this is neither science fiction nor a prediction — gene editing is happening now, as evidenced by the first cancer patient having been treated by TALEN®-based gene-edited T-cells. Additionally, this fall, fields across the United States will harvest TALEN®-based gene-edited soybeans and potatoes. There are even gene-edited pigs and hornless cows that are currently walking around the barnyard. The landscape in gene editing is anything but clear, but the recent emergence of new gene-editing technologies, with new players in the space, has led to an inevitable ethical debate. For example, three early clinical-stage startup companies, all based on technology, have struck major alliances with big pharma and biotech companies: ( ), ( and ) and ( ). While these alliances are important, the long-term successes of these companies depend upon their ability to deliver on their promises. Turning CRISPR innovations into approved and effective drugs is a core focus, and it will still take years of more hard work before an effective, approved drug will result from these efforts — if at all. Additionally, and are two other well-established companies that operate in the gene-editing space. Precision Bio, which has so far used its ARCUS gene-editing technology to advance the research efforts of its biotechnology partners, is now aiming to use its technology to develop its own products. Sangamo is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that is researching ways to commercialize , which modify a cell’s DNA at a location, thereby correcting or disrupting a specific gene. Its lead therapy, SB-728, is a potential functional cure for HIV/AIDS, and recent published data further support the company’s ongoing progress, which has been described as a major step toward immunological functional control of HIV. All of this brings us to the subsequent ethical debate, which centers on the potential threat of gene editing, specifically gene-edited humans. It’s important to remember that took place more than 35 years ago through a process that was immediately transposable to humans, and this has not led to any wave of transgenic humans. The same goes for the ability to knock out genes in human embryonic stem cells, cloning humans after Dolly the Sheep technology or using human to create new clones. The fear of gene editing — and the concerns around what people could do through gene editing — isn’t based on any kind of rational fact. People often ask: “What is gene editing? Should I be concerned about this. What happens if ill-intentioned people get their hands on this technology?” The answer is complicated. Technologies such as cell phones and social media have fundamentally changed global society. For the vast majority, these changes have been for the good, even if bad people misuse them. Gene editing is similar to this; it is a fundamental change in the way we look at the basic building blocks of life. It provides us with the ability to rethink how we treat diseases, how we grow our food and how we think about ourselves as humans. The ultimate act of civilization was initially thought of as growing plants and breeding animals, hence genetic selection and cloning. Cloning, or selecting the best breeds, was initially done to improve survival. Since then, humans continued to perfect this technology. With a population that’s close to reaching more than 9 billion humans on the planet, much of our survival may depend on the strength of gene editing. Furthermore, who cares today if a person is the result of in vitro fertilization? Do you remember the debate on this in the 1970s? This is no longer a debate. 2015 was a pivotal year, and gene editing is now transforming our lives in very real ways. The first leukemic patient — who could not be saved by any other therapy — was injected with a gene-edited product candidate at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in the United Kingdom. She was the . According to experts at the European Medicine Agency, this is the most complex product they have ever seen. It is the result of very sophisticated reprogramming of T-cells — adding some genes while suppressing others — to convert T-cells into a powerful cancer-killing machine. This product can be produced by the thousands, stored long-term, provided to hospitals around the world and given to any patient who is in medical need. Today, this may be complex to produce, but it is simple to administer to patients. Tomorrow, it has the potential to become a standard in medicine. 2015 was an equally positive year for commercial agriculture, as gene-edited harvests across the United States were abundant, making it conceivable for gene-edited potatoes and soybeans to make it to consumer plates within two years. For the previous 50 years, the focus of plant breeding was increasing yield that resulted in greater productivity but included increased use of herbicides and pesticides. Until recently, the health of consumers was not a focus, resulting in a negative impact of mass agriculture and the rise of organic agriculture. Today, organic agriculture represents less that 10 percent of current U.S. production. Nevertheless, with a growing population and an ever-diminishing cultivation space (not speaking about global warming, sustainability or equitable growth), a strong demand for healthier products and respect of nature is a paradox that can be solved either by economic shrinkage or technology. This upcoming harvest is the first step to finding an answer to this margin squeeze, and sets the stage for a new route to human expansion and sustainable development. Again, it is not a question of if or when gene editing will happen; rather, it’s whether or not we would like to be the first to make it happen. As President Obama stated in his most recent State of the Union address: “Let’s make America the country that cures cancer once and for all.” This came one day after the launch of the effort, led by big pharma and biotech companies. But we don’t have to wait until 2020 to administer a treatment that eliminates cancer cells. We are well on our way with gene editing. |
SPiN ping pong club premieres its San Francisco location | Felicia Shivakumar | 2,016 | 5 | 20 | It’s no secret that San Francisco tech loves ping pong. Table tennis has become a must-have for programmers stepping away from their computers to blow off steam. Indeed, it’s most startups first luxury purchase. According to a recent in The Wall Street Journal, a dip in table tennis sales is also an indicator of when cash flow is low. It’s an interesting move for SPiN to open now as tech funding is becoming harder to come by. Today in San Francisco, opens its doors to their fifth location (it would’ve been the sixth if the chain hadn’t shut down in Dubai due to a much milder drinking scene). With 19 STIGA tables, two bars, a VIP lounge and an outdoor patio, SPiN is a competitive force by day and bougie club by night. SPiN opens at 11 AM and encourages a family friendly environment during the day before the drinking crowd rolls in. Like other SF bars, SPiN is adults-only in the evening and closes at 2 AM. SPiN’s menu features fancy cocktails and gourmet finger foods customized for the location by local chef Mike Betancourt. “We started in the most innocent, unassuming way,” says SPiN co-founder Jonathan Bricklin. “We bought a ping pong table for our loft in New York City. It very slowly turned into a weekly party. It was dorky ping pong players and then we got a beer sponsor, and a vodka sponsor, and then we had the coolest party in lower Manhattan. And a lot of famous authors, musicians, and crazy mixtures of celebrities would somehow show up at our parties. It created this very memorable and fun vibe and it showcased ping pong in this really fun way that really hadn’t been done at the time. So one thing lead to the next. We started meeting with investors and Susan Sarandon came to one of the events and with her enthusiasm it really all came to life.” Centrally located in the heart of SOMA, SPiN SF is next door to Moscone and the new MOMA. SPiN quite literally sits between art and tech. The space is littered with art by California-based artists, including and , widely known for his Obama “Hope” campaign poster. Price-wise, SPiN is on par with, if not slightly cheaper than, , the original hipster activity-based bar and lounge in San Francisco. With the popularity of , and now SPiN, there is a proven market for businesses in SF that combine fun with family activities and gourmet bar food and booze. “Anyone can play. It doesn’t discriminate on height or physical size. It’s a very democratic sport,” says Bricklin. “It’s much more engaging than billiards or bowling, which are very successful social games. Ping pong is its own thing. It’s a silly game for kids but also an Olympic sport.” Also notable is the company’s commitment to including the local community. Thanks in large part to their co-founder, actress and activist Susan Sarandon, SPiN has partnered with the to offer ping pong programs for local underserved youth. The San Francisco location is also carbon neutral, offsetting emissions into local ecological programs. [gallery ids="1325905,1325910,1325912,1325908,1325909,1325911,1325906"] Personally, SPiN was a bit too much of a scene. Maybe I’ve lived in SF for too long or I’m not quite cool enough to get it. But the atmosphere felt a bit over the top to me. That said, I can see how its location, food and classy cocktails offer the perfect mix of socialization and stress-relief for the many, many tech employees working nearby. |
Nokia confirms another 1,000 layoffs in Finland | Ingrid Lunden | 2,016 | 5 | 20 | As a late Friday coda to this week’s news of Nokia’s , today Nokia quietly confirmed it is laying off 1,032 employees in its home market of Finland. The cuts will come across all business units, with half out of its HQ in Espoo. The majority of cuts will happen by this summer. On top of putting the news out in the evening on the very last day of the week, the announcement was downplayed by being released . The layoffs are the conclusion of a formal process that started in April, when Nokia said it would in the country. At the time, some reported that the cuts were part of a wider cost-cutting process that would globally in the wake of Nokia’s merger with Alcatel Lucent and a bid to cut some €900 million ($1 billion) by 2018. Nokia has never commented on the larger number of layoffs but did confirm in its that it it was embarking on a “headcount reduction” between now and 2018. As of December 2015, the company . The layoffs are a difficult but inevitable progression of a bigger shift at the company as it has moved from being the world’s biggest mobile phone maker into one that focuses primarily on networking technologies as well as developing and licensing IP related to that and its historical business. This week’s news attests to that shift: When Microsoft sold Nokia’s phone business to HMD and Foxconn’s FIH earlier this week, Nokia inked a for brand and IP assets. In other words, as Nokia continues to pare down and shift the business, it doesn’t need the same workforce it used to. Small silver lining: Nokia says that it’s still offering laid-off employees access to the Bridge program that it at the beginning of its massive downsizing wave. Options include a small amount of funding for a new venture if you want to try your hand at your own business, or consulting to help place you in a job if you do not, plus other assistance. Hundreds of ex-Nokians have taken up the company on the offer to date. |
Elizabeth Warren takes on the ‘so-called gig economy’ in speech | Devin Coldewey | 2,016 | 5 | 20 | Senator Elizabeth Warren has some choice words for Uber, TaskRabbit, Alfred and all the other companies taking part in the “so-called gig economy,” as she put it in a speech Thursday for the . She isn’t against them by any means, but urged both the companies and lawmakers to make labor-friendly changes: “No worker should fall through the cracks.” In her speech, the Senator praised the role of technology in advancing industry and challenging our expectations. But, right on cue, the other shoe dropped. Here’s the deal: Innovations improve our lives & create new wealth. But policy will determine if workers share in that wealth. — Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) “Companies like Lyft and Uber have often resisted the efforts of those same workers to access a greater share of the wealth generated from their work,” read a transcript of the speech. “Their business model is, in part, dependent on extremely low wages for drivers.” “Low” is, of course, relative: Uber drivers tend to earn about $15-20 per hour, but must pay for their own gas and maintenance, among other things. It can be a good deal, but scales poorly. (That’s one reason why, until the problem is fixed through other means, .) And when you bring in the lack of benefits and job security, the job starts looking a lot less like a “real” job. But this is hardly a new problem, Warren pointed out. The gig economy didn’t invent any of these problems. In fact, the gig economy has become a stopgap for some workers who can’t make ends meet in a weak labor market. The much-touted virtues of flexibility, independence, and creativity offered by gig work might be true for some workers under some conditions, but for many, the gig economy is simply the next step in a losing effort to build some economic security in a world where all the benefits are floating to the top 10%. The Senator followed this with a number of suggestions for how to improve the lot of workers who find themselves working two or three 1099-type jobs, without overly dampening the positive effect and innovation these services bring. I’ve condensed them below for your convenience (free of charge). First, expand the “safety net” full-time workers have to at least partially encompass the rest. Next, streamline and enforce labor laws. Having invoked the image of the Industrial Revolution, with its unregulated and lethal factories, earlier in her speech (though sensibly; no TaskRabbit workers have been ground up in mills — yet), Warren suggested the moment is at hand for a major shift in regulation to accommodate these new industries while also protecting the people who work in them. “Just as this country did a hundred years ago, it’s time to rethink the basic bargain between workers and companies,” she said. “As greater wealth is generated by new technology, how can we ensure that the workers who support this economy can share in that wealth?” |
Twitter and Betaworks are teaming up in a new fund | Matthew Lynley | 2,016 | 5 | 20 | We’re hearing from multiple sources that there’s a new fund coming out of Betaworks, and Twitter is chipping money into it. Twitter is investing at least $10 million in the new fund, according to one source. We don’t know the total size of the venture. In the past, Betaworks has focused on smaller seed investments and has stayed away from outsized funds. . We weren’t able to learn if there are any additional participants. There’s already a connection between Betaworks and Twitter. Betaworks previously invested in two companies that were acquired by Twitter: TweetDeck and Summize. Twitter , in which Betaworks founder John Borthwick was an investor — through Betaworks. s, for $40 million in 2011. It also . We don’t know if this is a new Betaworks fund, or a new separate fund altogether. Getting into a fund with Betaworks makes sense for Twitter given the firm’s track record of supplying Twitter with some decent acquisitions and funding companies in that part of the Twitter “ecosystem,” expanding how the product is used. While TweetDeck hasn’t necessarily been a huge grab for scale, it’s adored by Twitter power users and businesses for managing their Twitter presence — something that could keep its most active (and loudest) user base satisfied as it makes changes to the classic Twitter experience. TweetDeck, for example, still returns Tweets in reverse time order, while the new Twitter timeline includes an algorithmic touch to surface tweets that aren’t necessarily in time order. There’s another aspect here as well. Twitter and Betaworks can target companies that will be closely tied to Twitter’s services. That would help Twitter keep a close tie with startups that could potentially compete with it or cannibalize it down the line. For Betaworks, there’s a benefit to getting into a new fund that includes Twitter. By default, it gives those startups in the portfolio more exit options: Twitter will already hold a stake and might consider additional investment — or an acquisition. Betaworks has had a decent string of success lately, tapping into viral services that have found sticky usage on social platforms. Giphy — — has popular integrations with both Slack and Twitter. It’s also an investor in Howdy, one of the first bots launching on the Slack platform, which also picked up a new investment from Slack’s bot fund. Twitter already has its own investment fund — Twitter Ventures — which was previously led by Mike Gupta and has made a handful of strategic investments in startups developing services that work directly with Twitter. It’s not clear how a Betaworks partnership would work with that existing entity. Twitter partnering with another group on a new fund may be a first for the company, but it’s not unprecedented. Many larger business have investment arms that tap into startup incubators as a way of growing their exposure to new tech and talent and to widen their platforms. TechStars worked, until recently, with Disney and still partners with a lot of other larger companies. Funds like this help larger companies get to the front of the line when they want to acquire companies, and gives them insight into tools that might naturally fit into their portfolio of services. Coincidentally, this week Google also confirmed its own startup fund and incubator — We’ve reached out to Twitter and Betaworks for comment, and will update the post when we hear back. |
Startup spending guide: Where to spend money | Ryan Angilly | 2,016 | 5 | 20 |
We’ve all come across numerous “Top 100 resources for startups”-type posts at least once as we Google our way to entrepreneurial success. But after reading just one of them, it’s not hard to go from “I have no idea what’s out there” to “I have no idea how to choose” … Oh good: Only 14 helpdesk options from which to choose. I’ve been building software products for close to a decade: and apps; and enterprise products; software that’s sold via self-service credit card swipes and software where lawyers have to be engaged for each sale. In each of these instances, I’ve come across a question I hear regularly being echoed by entrepreneurs: “When should I start paying for X?” The near-ubiquity of this question underscores a larger, more philosophical question that many early-stage entrepreneurs all seem to have: “How do I efficiently deploy my capital such that I’m correctly walking that line between frugal and efficient?” Keep reading if this sounds like it’s up your alley, because in this series, I’m going to take you through my very opinionated to answering that question. In this first installment we’ll focus on what early-stage startups need to on. Next time we’ll continue the narrative by discussing which needs of early-stage can be met by using some of the great free software that’s out there. We’ll wrap up the series by enumerating some areas where entrepreneurs frequently want to despite there being little, or even negative, ROI. To get started, we’ll need to agree on how to define an “early stage .” For the purposes of this series, I’m going to define an early-stage as a company that can fall into any of the following buckets: MRR is less than $10,000 Number of recurring paying customers is less than 40 Number of six-month-old recurring paying customers is less than 50 percent of total customers All paying customers had a prior personal relationship with a member of the company The goal of this definition is to identify companies whose business is still in a state of flux. Over the years I’ve found companies that fall into any of these buckets tend to be in such a state. Those companies need to be extra careful integrating tools that may not satisfy their needs as they mature. The following are areas where early-stage startups need to in the early days. The underlying thesis is that these are not areas where you can afford to do things on the cheap. You may find other, free ways to do things in these categories, but, based on my experience, eventually you’ll come around and wish you had spent a little bit more up front to avoid a headache later on. You need email, calendaring and shared docs; is the go-to suite. You could save a few bucks by using a service like , but in almost every instance the trouble it causes is not worth the $5/person/month for Google Apps. Compared to other third-party services you’ll pay for, this is probably the biggest bang for your buck you’ll get. Regardless of size, it is paramount to have a handle on your finances. Some accountants will charge as little as ~$65/hour and only need one hour per month to keep your books clean. At the very least, sign up for and link your company bank account to it. For ~$13/month, you can’t go wrong. Check it once a month. If you’re accepting credit cards, is the way to go. There are other companies that offer great products, but when it’s early on in the life of a business, the quality of Stripe’s documentation and support will far outweigh the cash saved through lower fees you may be able to get from other providers. Do not do payroll on your own. Even if you’re only paying three people once a month, something like (formerly ZenPayroll) is more than worth it. They have great reporting, manage direct deposits and withholdings and automatically generate tax forms at the end of each year. You’re going to need a CMS for all sorts of reasons — blogging, hosting white papers and e-books, landing pages and lead capture, even a knowledge base. There are a lot of sexy blogging platforms out there, including things like . For each one, you’re bound to find several passionate blog posts describing how “XYZ is the best blogging platform.” Just use . As all other things in this article, once you break out of the “early-stage ” classification that we defined earlier, you can specialize as much as you want, and another tool may serve you better. But in the early days, you’re going to want to experiment, and WordPress is the best way to give you the flexibility you need to do those experiments. It’s also cheap; for just $5/month you can run your own WordPress box on . You need to buy an SSL certificate. is making strides providing free SSL certificates, but as of writing this, there’s still a lot of effort involved to get it working. Get a $9.99 SSL cert that works on and and be done with it. You may be tempted to buy a wildcard certificate for $99/year. Unless you know for sure that you’ll be using subdomains for each of your customers, just get the $10 version that doesn’t support subdomains. You can always buy another certificate for for $10 if needed — and still be $80 ahead of the game. You need to run your application somewhere. is free for very low usage, but it gets real expensive real fast and comes with some interesting caveats around something called that is worth taking a look at. is still the best bet for cheap hardware (as low as $5/month for a small server), but more mature products may want to start on , or , where things like cross-datacenter load balancing is needed. If you think CDNs are only for big companies or for high-traffic sites, think again. In an era where up to 20 percent of a B2B product’s traffic can come from mobile devices (source: Ramen’s own data), having a CDN can be a huge boon when it comes to improving the experience of those mobile users. While and are great options, even simply using (which isn’t technically a CDN) can greatly speed up your application’s performance. Database hosting is one area where there are different ways you can go; you just need to the time weighing your options and figure out what works best for your situation. At Ramen, we run our own cluster. It consists of three machines and costs about $320/month to operate. We currently store ~58GBs of data. For comparable hosting at a company like we’d be $ ,100/month. That might sound like a no-brainer, but the devil is in the details. That $320/month doesn’t factor in the time it takes me to swap out a DigitalOcean server in the cluster when an SSD goes out to lunch. Nor does it take into account the time it takes me to upgrade the underlying DigitalOcean servers when our storage needs exceed the disk size of the current servers. Your database is probably going to be the most expensive of your infrastructure. It also has the potential to be the thing that increases in cost the quickest before your revenue catches up. If you have someone on your team with strong technical skills in this area, you’re probably best off running your own database in the beginning, but your mileage here will vary — big time. That’s it for now. In the next installment we’ll look at places where free software is the way to go in the early-stage, including things like code hosting, CRM, status page, monitoring and customer feedback. |
Checking the market’s temperature with Bain’s Ajay Agarwal | Connie Loizos | 2,016 | 5 | 20 | leads the West Coast team for , which he joined 13 years ago. Because he he has seen some market zigs and zags, we met him for coffee this week to talk about what he’s seeing in the market right now. Our chat has been edited for length. AA: It used to be that 90 percent of our team was on the East Coast, in Boston and New York, and 10 percent was here, but it’s about 50/50 at this point. And I’d say 40 percent of our [Bay Area] startups are south. There are a lot of machine learning companies in Sunnyvale and Mountain View and Los Altos, and that’s a big area of interest for us right now. AA: whose team comes from LinkedIn. If you think about it, we have all these peer-to-peer marketplaces bringing together strangers, whether they are drivers or babysitters. But the state of the art — background checks — is a flawed process. A lot of information has been digitized, but there are still plenty of counties where, if you’ve committed a crime, they’ll have a physical record alone. So you’d have to send a courier to all of the places where someone has lived to get the information you need, which is expensive. Meanwhile, Trooly can figure out much more about someone and do it quickly using data science and machine learning. It can figure out any content that has been written by you or about you and whether it’s in any way objectionable. It can verify if the information you send someone is accurate and distinguish between a typo and whether you’re trying to fool someone [on an application]. For every person who fails a background check, we find a person who passed a background check and should not have. AA: We’ve backed Rent the Runway and Jet.com, in part because we’d gotten to know the founders [earlier in their careers]. We also have a lot of experience in e-commerce technology, having funded numerous companies that are almost arms dealers to next-gen e-commerce players. We were in the A round for Kiva, for example [the warehouse robotics company by Amazon in 2012]. AA: Yes, we’re totally separate, and half of what we do is early stage; the other half is growth stage. We’re run very autonomously, though we get a huge benefit from being part of the Bain network. Those connections into companies is massive. When Kiva had six terms sheets and was trying to determine who to pick, we introduced the company to the head of distribution at Staples, who said Staples was likely to become a customer and became one six months after we invested. AA: The best entrepreneurs still have lots of choices. The deals we’re pursuing are still very highly competitive. What has changed are valuations expectations are more reasonable. Before, a lot of terms sheets were happening in days, too. Now, it feels like a couple of weeks. |
Metadata raises $2M to help advertisers target users who resemble their existing sales leads | Anthony Ha | 2,016 | 5 | 20 | Ad-targeting startup announced it has raised $2 million in seed funding. Co-founder and CEO Gil Allouche said the company’s technology offers an effective way for businesses that sell to other businesses to find and target new potential customers through advertising. Companies connect their Salesforce and other CRM accounts, then Metadata uses third-party data to help them target their ads at people who are similar to the existing customers and prospects. Allouche said Metadata isn’t looking at everyone in the sales database, but rather qualified leads who have actually expressed interest in your product: “It makes our targeting very, very effective.” “We want to be the one place where [B2B businesses] can essentially have their demand generation machine on auto pilot,” he added. “With every new campaign, they just click on Amplify That, put their goal or their budget and it automatically works in the background.” Advertisers include Cisco, Comcast and UBM. As for where the ads actually run, Metadata runs search and social campaigns. Allouche said the startup’s also exploring banner advertising, but it turns out that Facebook is “surprisingly, an extremely effective channel.” The funding (which was also revealed in ) was led by Hillsven Capital, with participation from Greycroft, , Right Side Capital Partners and various angel investors. |
Lenovo video teases return of Motorola’s iconic RAZR flip phone | Devin Coldewey | 2,016 | 5 | 20 | Motorola’s RAZR surely stands as one of the most recognizable phones of yesteryear (although myself I preferred the ) — and while the brand has been desultorily maintained for Verizon’s dubious benefit, a suggests a more serious throwback device is nearly at hand, so to speak. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVzE1YS9UWM “Flip back to the Razr days of yesteryear and get ready for the future,” the video description reads. I choose to interpret that as an unambiguous statement of intention to bring back the brand. Will it be a flip phone? How awesome would that be? But I doubt it. A cool flip cover, maybe, but let’s be honest, that weird little numpad was never particularly good, though it did look cool as hell. Hopefully they didn’t just redesign the logo and stick it on their next mid-range Android device in a bid to attract the nostalgia market. Let’s be honest, though, that’s also a possibility. June 9 is the day we’ll find out — that’s Lenovo’s Tech World event, and we’ll doubtless see plenty of other interesting gadgets. Tune in then for our coverage. |
Gillmor Gang LIVE 05.20.16 | Steve Gillmor | 2,016 | 5 | 20 | – Robert Scoble, Keith Teare, Dan Farber, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor. Gillmor Gang’s Facebook page G3’s Facebook page |
FlashFunders relaunches with crowdfunding support with the pass of Title III of the JOBS Act | Jordan Crook | 2,016 | 5 | 20 | In the wake of the , crowdfunding equity platform FlashFunders has relaunched its site with new features. The new features allow users to crowdfund investment under Form C, which allows for up to $1 million in a single Series from anyone, not just accredited investors. on the scene a little under one year ago, offering a web-only way to raise money from investors, automating the entire process that a securities lawyer would traditionally handle. As of Monday, with the launch of Title III, FlashFunders is opening up the crowdfunding portion of its website. Founder and CEO Vincent Bradley says that the true differentiating factor is FlashFunder’s flexibility. “We’re the only platform that lets users be agnostic with their fundraise,” said Bradley. “They can raise a traditional Form D with a preferred term sheet from accredited investors, and open up the round to the crowd at the same time. It’s a different security and a different term sheet, and might look like the company is raising capital from one offering, but it’s really multiple offerings at the same time.” The company is also registered with the SEC as a transfer agent, meaning that FlashFunders users don’t have to pay extra for any third-party involvement. Bradley also noted that dozens of equity crowdfunding platforms have opened up since Monday, and predicts that there will be more than 100 in the next month. But a year’s worth of experience in the Form D space should help FlashFunders position themselves against competition. FlashFunders takes 5 percent of all crowdfunding under Title III, and offering the Form D product for free. You can learn more about FlashFunders . |
Paul Bragiel is back with a new venture firm | Connie Loizos | 2,016 | 5 | 20 | Paul Bragiel, the venture capitalist who at qualifying for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics as lone member of the Colombian cross-country ski team, is forming a new, San Francisco-based venture firm with his brother, Dan. According to an , they are targeting $10 million for their debut effort. The outfit is called . We’ve reached out to Paul Bragiel and will update this post if/when we learn more. The CEO of brothers previously cofounded , a six-year-old seed fund based in San Francisco. Paul has also served as cofounder and advisor to two farther-flung venture funds: Golden Gate Ventures, which , and Nairobi-based Savannah Fund, established to zero in on founders in Sub-Saharan Africa. A third I/O Ventures cofounder, Ashwin Navin, meanwhile is CEO of , a publisher of smart TV apps and analysis. Aber Whitcomb, a cofounder and the CTO of Social Gaming Network, also lists himself as an early and continuing partner at I/O Ventures. I/O Ventures hasn’t been terribly active in recent years, but the 40 or so investments it has made include the ride-share juggernaut Uber and , which makes game development tools. |
Google’s new 360-degree short ‘Pearl’ puts you in the passenger seat with dad and daughter | Devin Coldewey | 2,016 | 5 | 20 | It’s Friday, so you can probably spare a few minutes to watch a heartwarming little 360-degree animated film, the latest in This one, entitled “Pearl,” takes place entirely inside a beat-up ’80s sedan, and traces the story of a girl and a guitar. It made its debut at the end of Google’s at today. Directed by , an Oscar-winning animator who’s worked on a number of big recent CG films, “Pearl” has a sort of lo-fi charm to it. I was reminded of both the stylized earnestness of and the old-school flat-shaded rotoscoping of and . It’s no coincidence that games came to mind — “Pearl” isn’t captured in 360 the way an ordinary video is. Instead, it is an actual 3D environment being rendered in real time — in a game engine that Google’s ATAP team has reduced to less than a megabyte. “Apparently that’s hard,” quipped Osborne on stage. His job, of course, was to craft a story, not an engine — something that can be difficult when the user can look anywhere and choose not to pay attention to what might be important story elements. Osborne, a confessed “control freak,” decided to create a “road trip musical” and restrict the viewer to the passenger seat, from which vantage he could inconspicuously frame action by using the car’s natural geometric elements. As with other 360-degree compositions, you might miss a few things the first time round — that’s by design, really. As Google’s Spotlight Stories tech lead Rachid El Guerrab said before introducing Osborne, this is a major challenge. “When you’re immersed in a story, it’s all around you,” he said. “How do we tell you where to look? How do we prevent you from getting lost or missing an important part of the story?” He showed a few techniques for guiding the user’s attention — changes in music, helper characters that bring you back the action’s focus, and so on. But the only real solution seems to be multiple viewings — and in order to accommodate that, it’s worthwhile for the director and team to make sure there’s content in all directions. This is, of course, not every director’s preference, and what some see as advantages provided by 360 may hamper the style of others. “Pearl” seems to strike a balance between traditional and 360-degree composition — make it full screen (hit one of the high resolutions, too) and see how you like it. |
Google’s ATAP is bringing its Project Soli radar sensor to smartwatches and speakers | Frederic Lardinois | 2,016 | 5 | 20 | Every year at I/O, Google’s ATAP division, which is responsible for turning some of the company’s crazier ideas into products, organizes its own small keynote. This year, the company offered updates on a number of projects, including , its attempt at building a very small radar sensor that can translate hand movements into digital signals for building new user interfaces for wearables. After last year’s I/O demo, the team focused on bringing the project to developers. It first shipped a developer kit to about 60 developers last year. The team said it was encouraged by how those developers used the sensor; they built object recognition tools, musical instruments and more. The early kit, though, was really only usable in a controlled environment. It used too much power and while the sensor was small, it did need a fully powered desktop or laptop to run it. That’s obviously not useful, so the team challenged itself to run on a smartwatch. To do that, the team redesigned the chip with Infineon to reduce power consumption 22 times — down from 1.2 to 0.054 W now. The footprint is now also 3x smaller. Radar typically takes a lot of computational power, but this new version is now 256x more efficient and can still run at 18,000 frames per second. With all of this work, the team was able to build Soli into a smartwatch (“And it can even show time!”). This means you can interact with the watch without touching it — and you can use basic gestures to interact with it. In a demo, the ATAP team showed how you can scroll across messages with pretty amazing precision by just holding your hand over the watch and move closer and further away. You can even use a virtual dial gesture to interact with the watch face — basically just like you would use an analog watch. The ATAP team noted that this means you can show more information on the screen, simply because you don’t have to account for the finger covering up the watch face. The team noted that Soli isn’t just meant for smartwatches, though. Working with Harman’s JBL brand, the team worked on building prototype speakers with a built-in Soli radar that allows you to control the speaker. The sensor can see up to a distance of 15 meters, so you could control your speaker from a distance, too. To further seed the development community, ATAP is going to launch a new beta-quality dev kit for developers next year. Sadly, it’s unclear when we’ll see the first products with the Project Soli technology will arrive in stores. But just like ATAP on bringing its Project Jacquard smart fabrics to market, it will likely do the same with Soli, as well. |
null | Kate Conger | 2,016 | 5 | 2 | null |
Google demos Project Ara developer unit, plans for a 2017 commercial release | Brian Heater | 2,016 | 5 | 20 | It’s been a little while since we’ve heard much about , but Google wasn’t going to let an I/O go by without shedding a little more light on the much discussed (and formerly Moto-centric) modular smartphone platform. After highlighting the latest updates from Projects and y showed off an impressive working developer edition of the phone to an enthusiastic crowd of Google diehards, who were audibly excited at the phone’s plug and play capabilities. The device has basic smartphone functionality built into its frame, along with six modular “generic” slots capable of supporting any and all of the modules. Google Engineering Lead Rafa Camargo demoed the system by plugging a camera module in and taking a photo of the audience almost immediately. “Step one, plug in a module,” Camargo told the crowd. “Step two, use it.” The system can eject the modules electronically with a simple voice command like, “okay Google, eject the camera.” That one got arguably the biggest applause line of the demo. The company is starting off with basic modules, including things like speakers and the aforementioned camera, but is already looking into non-standard phone functionality like secondary displays, helped along by an impressive list of co-conspirators, including, Samsung, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Panasonic, Toshiba , Harman and E Ink. “It’s not just a smartphone,” Camargo told the audience, “but a purely modular computing platform.” [gallery ids="1325618,1325619,1325606,1325612"] The developer version of Ara is set to start shipping later this year. The package includes the phone and “a few modules.” Google is also working on a consumer version of the modular handset due out at some point next year. |
13 TechCrunch stories you don’t want to miss this week | Anna Escher | 2,016 | 5 | 20 | This week, announcements from Google’s annual I/O developer conference dominated tech headlines. But Oracle and Google are back in court, Apple unveiled a new redesigned store in SF and we learned that Amazon may start selling its own groceries soon. These are the stories you don’t want to miss. TechCrunch the Google I/O keynote from the Shoreline Amphitheater event. But in case you don’t have time to read through our play-by-play coverage, we . Highlights included the unveiling of smart home speaker , two new apps called and , , Android VR’s concept and . Everything you need to know about the Google I/O keynote in under 2 minutes http://tcrn.ch/207LBz3 Posted by on Wednesday, May 18, 2016 Apple announced a bombshell (formerly Didi Kuaidi). Oracle and Google continue to that Oracle claims Google owes it for using its Java code in Android’s mobile platform. It all started , when Oracle first sued Google over the company’s use of 37 Java APIs in its Android OS. This time, the two companies are arguing over . “When Sun established Java, they established it as an open source thing,” Alphabet CEO “We didn’t pay for the free and open things.” A report claimed that of common household items like coffee, diapers and other perishable groceries. Governor Doug Ducey of Arizona , a law that prohibits cities from banning the listing and and HomeAway. Another big investor . The Berkshire Hathaway holding company that it owns around 9.81 million shares of Apple — worth around $1.07 billion at the end of the quarter — as Apple shares have taken a huge dive in the past year. Uber had a few updates. The company announced it is , and , a feature that lets riders view family members’ rides in real time. A LinkedIn hack from back in 2012 is still causing problems for its users; in the most recent data dump from the hack. . Coding school 42 announced . Lora Kolodny wrote about Dedrone, a company that just raised $10 million for a system that monitors the skies and . Leaked screenshots followed Instagram’s former announcement that in the form of audience demographics, post impressions, reach and more. Brian Heater concluding that the device shows promise, but is mostly a non-starter. Crunch Network contributor Basel Farag argued that coding is not the new literacy in |
Google and Levi’s team up on a “connected” jacket that lets you answer calls, use maps and more | Sarah Perez | 2,016 | 5 | 20 | At Google’s I/O conference today, Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) research unit offered an update on its interactive textiles project . ATAP’s Ivan Poupyrev announced that the company was collaborating with iconic clothing company, Levi’s, to launch a “connected” smart jacket aimed at urban cyclists that will allow wearers to do things like control their music, answer phone calls, access navigation and more, all by tapping and swiping on the jacket’s sleeve. Google’s partnership with Levi’s was first announced last year, but the two companies hadn’t yet disclosed how the clothing maker would implement Project Jacquard’s technology. In case you missed it previously, this project involves weaving multi-touch sensors into clothes in order to make what you’re wearing the new…well…”wearable” computing device. The idea with this new Levi’s Commuter jacket, explained the company, is to make something that’s both fashionable to wear while also representing a practical implementation of the technology. Today, cyclists often have to fuss with their phone while commuting on busy streets, which is dangerous. With Levi’s Commuter jacket, they’ll instead be able to just touch their jacket’s cuff, using gestures to control various functions they would otherwise need to pull out their phone to do. The jacket will be a part of Levi’s Commuter collection of clothing, which is largely aimed at urban dwellers who ride bikes to navigate their city. A Jacquard tag is embedded in the jacket’s sleeve, making this functionality possible, and it can be pulled out and charged via USB. This tag connects with the LED, haptics, battery and the woven sensor in the garment. The connection points for the tech cleverly takes advantage of the jacket’s button-hole to look less obtrusive. In addition, the platform includes a mobile application that connects your smart clothes to the cloud. Here is where consumers will control the apps that work with the connected garment. Plus, the company stressed, you can use the Levi’s jacket like any other article of clothing — wad it up, throw it in the wash, etc. “There’s a unique challenge in creating a smart clothes platform — fashion and technology have to work as one but there’s inherent tension between the two,” said Poupyrev. “Technology is fragile, garments… are not.” In addition to controlling native phone functions like calls, as well as Google Maps and Google Play Music, Google says the jackets will interoperate with third-party services. That means you’ll be able to use the touches to control your Spotify music, for example, or a connected fitness app, like Strava. APIs will also be made available. During a demo on stage at the event, the companies showed off how the jacket worked. For instance, running fingers up and down the cuff controlled the music volume. Another feature, “Compass,” was accessed with a swipe. After doing so, a voice assistant informed the wearer, Levi’s VP of Innovation Paul Dillinger, of their next meeting time and how long it would take to arrive. While the demo went off well, you could see there was a slight stiffness on the cuff where the sensors were woven in, and a bit of a bulge. It’s unclear how comfortable that will be — or how attractive. Google says it plans to work with other apparel makers in the future to expand Jacquard’s reach, including athletic clothing companies and those who design business wear. (Though not mentioned out loud, Cinta’s logo briefly appeared on one slide during the presentation during the partners discussion.) Perhaps of most interest is that this jacket isn’t some far-off pipe dream, as it turns out — it will “launch” into beta testing this fall, then become publicly available in spring 2017, says Google. Pricing info was not offered. |
Indiegogo improves crowdfunding with a stamp of approval for hardware projects | Haje Jan Kamps | 2,016 | 5 | 20 | One of the biggest challenges of a hardware crowdfunding campaign is delivering in a timely fashion. knows that better than most, and is teaming up with to help entrepreneurs deliver products through engineering assistance and go-to-market support. The move is continuing the crowdfunding platform’s hard push to beat Kickstarter as the go-to platform for gadgets and electronic products, positioning itself as a full funding-to-production platform. “We’re very excited as Arrow strengthens our commitment to helping entrepreneurs turn their ideas into products as quickly as possible,” said Indiegogo CEO David Mandelbrot. “We’ve seen an incredible amount of growth among tech and IoT projects on Indiegogo and we think that’s because we’re developing new ways to help entrepreneurs with support beyond funding, and this Arrow collaboration is a great example of that.” Canary’s Indiegogo campaign became a tremendous success, and was delivered with Arrow’s help a while back. Before committing to help, Arrow will assess Indiegogo campaigns for their technical feasibility, manufacturability and is-this-a-good-idea-in-the-first-place-or-will-it-die-the-fiery-death-of-crushed-entrepreneur-dreams (okay, I may have made up that last part). Campaigns that are receiving the Arrow treatment receive a special Arrow badge signifying that the campaign has an army of Smart People behind it, which in theory should increase its chances of delivering successfully. Over the last year, Indiegogo has introduced new services meant to support entrepreneurs beyond the crowdfunding stage of their business, including , which enables campaigns to continue accepting pre-orders after their crowdfunding efforts end, and , which is Indiegogo’s leap into e-commerce, offering a service for business owners to sell products that are ready to ship. Solar Roadways was successful on Indiegogo and went on to deliver with Arrow’s help. Integrating with Arrow is a tremendously interesting move from Indiegogo’s side, but it remains to be seen whether it’s a good business decision; the introduction of the Arrow badge could potentially create a two-tier system, where campaigns with the badge find it easier to get funding and campaigns not so adorned wither away, unloved and alone. Arrow and Indiegogo aren’t strangers to each other; the tremendously successful and Indiegogo campaigns both turned to Arrow for delivery help and both are well on their way to delivering on their $2 million-plus Indiegogo campaigns. The new initiative, Indiegogo says, merely formalizes the existing alliance between the two companies. The new alliance is a shrewd move for both companies. Arrow gets its stamp of approval from Indiegogo and the pick of a tremendous deal-flow well above what its competitors (such as , who founded as part of its deal-flow generation strategy) could dream of. Indiegogo also wins, by playing to the hearts of entrepreneurs and backers alike in actively working to improve the delivery ratio of its successful projects. It is unclear whether the Arrow deal is exclusive, but my hope is that this deal is the first step. Indiegogo could do a lot worse than establishing a support marketplace for high-quality businesses to help newly minted entrepreneurs make the most of their crowdfunding dollars in the pursuit of delivering their dream products to the eager public. |
Fitbit finally gets design with the Alta sports tracker | Jordan Crook | 2,016 | 5 | 20 | trackers are all about motivation. I used to go for a run every single day, and then quit, and then went to yoga every single day, and then I did nothing every single day. Now, a little older and a little more sore, I find myself worried less about working out all the time and more focused on eating healthy and taking enough steps throughout each day. This can be relatively difficult to monitor without the right combination of hardware and software, and it can be even harder to take those extra 2,000 steps in a day when there happens to be nowhere specific that I need to go. That said, the kept me motivated and moving throughout the time of my review without making me feel like I was wearing sports gear all the time. But that isn’t without a few caveats. The Fitbit Alta is a relatively unobtrusive little wrist-worn device. It has a long, rectangular screen with easily interchangeable bands. These bands come in plastic (for working out), as well as options in leather and metal. Notably, the Alta is sleeker and slimmer than any other wrist-worn tracker Fitbit has released thus far. In fact, the metal version might even pass for a regular fashion accessory, depending on who’s looking. Of course, this makes a lot of sense considering who Fitbit has found itself in the ring with — big brands like Apple and Fossil are also competing in the health tracking space alongside Misfit and Garmin. The entire industry is looking to give users something they actually want to wear and that doesn’t look like fitness gear. In other words, design is becoming increasingly important in terms of competition and the Alta has succeeded in scoring some fashion points. The most important feature of the Fitbit Alta is its scratch-resistant OLED display. Thanks to a built-in accelerometer, the Alta automatically shows you the time as soon as you turn your wrist to look at the display. Of course, this doesn’t work as well as you’d hope. Without a very emphatic twist of the wrist, you’ll be left tapping twice to wake up the Alta. From there, a single tap on the display lets you run through all your daily stats, including steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned and active time. To be clear, this isn’t the type of touch display that you see on your iPhone. There is no capacitive touch to let you interact with information on the screen. Instead, it’s simply tap sensitive and you really need to use some gusto in those taps. The screen is also relatively difficult to see in bright sunlight. [gallery ids="1325536,1325537,1325538,1325539"] The Alta is splash resistant, which means you shouldn’t worry about little things like washing your hands. Unfortunately, however, you can’t shower or swim with the device. As you’d expect, the Alta uses Bluetooth to deliver call and text notifications. While this is useful, my main caveat with this feature is that text notifications are cut off after a rather short character limit, making it difficult to understand longer texts. It also switches quickly from one notification to another when someone sends multiple texts, so you end up reading “what do you think?” without knowing what the first and second texts said. That said, you can’t respond on the Alta itself, so it doesn’t make that big of a difference in the overall quality of the device. Fitbit has also added software that automatically understands when you’re working out, as opposed to just bopping around with your friends, and tries to log that. You can, of course, go into the app and specify what type of workout you’re doing (from basketball to running) to get more accurate results. Which brings us to performance. The Alta does need a bit of fine-tuning with that display, but the software behind the device is slowly evolving into something far more useful. While simple data-gathering might have worked for the first-generation devices of the fitness tracking industry, users now need devices that can be proactive in their approach to our health. One small step toward this is the Alta’s workout reminders. Each hour, the device will buzz and tell you that you need to get up and move. SmartTrack is another important step, as it knows what you’re doing by your very movements, giving Fitbit more accuracy in tracking your exact stats based on activity. Moreover, the ability to add a goal weight in the app and track calories eaten gives users a good look into what they need to do, on a daily basis, to achieve their weight goals. If you burn more calories than you eat, you’re losing weight. Of course, that premise is simple, but the math behind it can be annoying on a daily, or hourly, basis. Fitbit’s food database contains dishes from a number of popular restaurants and grocery items so you’re getting a good idea of your caloric intake. But perhaps most importantly, Fitbit’s battery life is right in the sweet spot. The device lasts an entire week (with active sleep tracking) before it needs a charge, letting people settle in to the Alta experience. The Alta is clearly a step in the right direction for Fitbit, both by way of proactive software and style. But a little tweaking — primarily on the display — could make a big difference in user experience. $130 is an easy opening price point, though the metal and leather bands will add to that initial cost. Still, I think the Alta is one of Fitbit’s best products yet, and is a great option for the casual athlete. You can check out the . |
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