Blog

Virtual Wish List
‘All I Really Want’ Brings Back the Joy of Giving

Original post by Joann Pan via Mashable

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: All I Really Want

Quick Pitch: Make virtual wish lists on AllIReallyWant.meand receive gifts you won’t want to return.

Genius Idea: All I Really Want is an item aggregator — like a simplified Pinterest — where you can list anything from shoes, school supplies, your favorite charities, vacation packages and practically anything else.

We’ve all received sweaters that don’t quite fit and pants we are afraid to wear in public. Yes, it is the thought that costs, but knowing exactly what will make people happy will make for better birthdays and holidays. All I Really Want takes the mystery out of gift giving.

A simple and practical CMS lets you curate a variety of lists. You can create a birthday present wish list, a Valentine’s Day list for a significant other or more specific lists for things like school supplies.

READ MORE

February 21, 2012 | Techmeetups

Groupon Buys Start-Up Hyperpublic

Original post by Jennifer Booton via FoxBusiness

Groupon (GRPN: 19.84, -0.42, -2.07%) has bought two-year old startup Hyperpublic for an undisclosed amount, snagging the location-based technology company as the daily deals market continues to expand.

“We are so proud to announce that Hyperpublic has been acquired by the rocket ship that is Groupon,” the company said, adding that the acquisition is a “huge win” for its small team and investors.

Groupon didn’t publicly announce the deal but confirmed it to FOX Business in an e-mail.

A spokesperson for the publicly-traded daily deals site said Groupon is “investing in harnessing local data as part of its product strategy.”

READ MORE

February 20, 2012 | Techmeetups

Five Startup Tips From Bill Gates

Original post by John Greathouse via BusinessInsider

Note: This is an installment in the Iconic Advice series. Other installments include: Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Mark Cuban, Richard Branson, Walt Disney, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Dell and Larry Ellison.

For more than 30-years, Bill Gates has been at the pinnacle of the software industry. Like Steve Jobs, Michael Dell and Larry Ellison, he is one of the few startup Founders who remained at the helm of their respective companies throughout their entire maturation process.

In addition, like Steve, Michael and Larry, Mr. Gates also failed to graduate from college. I explore this peculiar entrepreneurial career path in further detail in THIS entry.

If you haven’t already subscribed yet,subscribe now for
free weekly Infochachkie articles!

1. Great Startup Ideas Come From Everywhere

“At Microsoft there are lots of brilliant ideas but the image is that they all come from the top – I’m afraid that’s not quite right.” [Tweet this quote]

Much like political leaders, corporate executives are often given too much credit, as well as too much blame. Effective startup leaders allow ideas to percolate from within their company, rather than attempting to monopolize the ideation process. They also internalize their professional failures while externalizing their team’s successes.

READ 2 TO 5 HERE

February 20, 2012 | Techmeetups

‘Third-World’ Strike Swells
New York Discount: Israel Overnight

Original post by Tal Barak Harif via Businessweek

Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) — Israeli stocks traded in New York trailed their Tel Aviv counterparts by the most since November after a general strike closed the local bourse and plans to help Greece avoid default threatened to unravel.

The benchmark TA-25 Index dropped 0.2 percent to 1,114.54 at 11:27 a.m. in Tel Aviv as markets traded for the first time since Feb. 7 after the strike ended. Stock trading started at 10:45 a.m., a one-hour delay, and will close at 5 p.m., a half hour later than usual. The Bloomberg Israel-US 25 Index of the largest Israeli companies traded in New York fell 3 percent last week after the TA-25 retreated 0.4 percent during three days of trading. The 2.6 percentage point lag was the biggest since the five days ending Nov. 18. Perrigo Co. dropped 0.4 percent last week after the Tel Aviv shares climbed 3.7 percent during the same period, extending the discount to $4.97, the biggest among dually-traded companies.

“The strike isn’t a good thing for Israel, it kind of gives the image of a third-world country,” Gadi Beer, the manager of the Amidex35 Israel Mutual Fund, said by telephone from Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. “When the Israeli market reopens the local stocks will probably close the gaps after missing two days of trading.”

Global stocks fell last week, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index snapping a five-week rally, as Greece’s governing coalition party pushed back against German demands for deeper budget cuts to prevent financial collapse. Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos secured approval from his Cabinet to submit laws for new budget measures designed to secure a second rescue package for the country, a government official said Feb. 10.

READ MORE

February 19, 2012 | Techmeetups

Startup Looks to Rock Funding World

Original post by Kent Bernhard, Jr via Portfolio.Com

The Rock the Post team is still small, but cofounder Tanya Prive has big plans to disrupt the funding world.

ANew York startup that combines social networking for business with crowdfunding has landed a little bit of funding of its own.

Rock the Post, launched in November, has pulled in $700,000 from an international cast of angel investors and plans to use that money conservatively to fund its operations, cofounder and chief technology officer Tanya Prive told Portfolio.com.

“Just because we’ve raised $700,000 doesn’t mean we’re making that,” Prive, 27, said. “We’re going to be very, very conservative. Ideally, we’re here for the long run, so that’s what we’re going to plan to do.”

Prive sees the funding, announced January 31, as just the first step in a plan to build Rock the Post into a social network that “erases the intermediary figure in business interactions around the world.”

To do that, Prive, her cofounder—whom she said couldn’t be named until the summer—and their team in New York have created a platform that allows entrepreneurs to reach outside their close networks of friends and family to connect with strangers who can help them in their businesses, with money, advice, or all of the above.

“It is like dating for entrepreneurs,” Prive said.

Prive’s company fits into a trend that includes such startups as Kick Starter, Rockthehub, and Startup Addict—all of which are looking to make it easier for other startups to find funding for their projects by tapping into online social networks. Congress is considering legislation to make it still easier for such crowdfunding networks to get rolling.

READ MORE

February 18, 2012 | Techmeetups

Westport-based
Software Startup Bags $1M in Equity Funding

Original post by Patrick Barnard via westportpatch

The State of Connecticut, through theConnecticut Innovations Inc.’s Seed Investment Fund, and Intersection Health Partners, aWestport-based private equity investment firm, have reportedly committed to a combined $1 million equity stake in Westport healthcare information startup MyCare Inc.

MyCare reportedly offers a proprietary search engine tool that allows healthcare workers to access and analyze data in any electronic medical record in near real-time. The company claims its software, which is EMR system “agnostic,” is ideal for deployment across a range of platforms and devices including tablets and smartphones, which are taking a more prominent role in healthcare.

READ MORE

February 18, 2012 | Techmeetups

Seedcamp London: the other Dragons’ Den

Original post by James Silver via the guardian

Zanda Donaldson, left, and Emmanuel Eribo, who are seeking investment in StyleChi, their 'loyalty-based' fashion retailer. Photograph: Katherine Rose for the Observer

In a former retail space, just yards from Soho’s sex shops and market stalls, Britain’s next wave of technology entrepreneurs are checking in for one of the biggest days of their lives. Clutching coffees and smartphones or iPads, the mostly young men in shirts, sweaters and jeans mingle awkwardly with the 120 investors and industry experts, who have come to hear them pitch their business ideas, offering advice in intensive mentoring sessions afterwards. A lucky few might also walk away with the prospect of financial backing.

Seedcamp London – to give this nerve-jangling day its formal title – has become a landmark occasion in the tech scene’s calendar. At least 250 hopeful startups, from as far afield as Portugal and Finland, applied to this year’s event, with just 22 (albeit a record number) invited to take part. Launched in 2007, Seedcamp is arguably Europe’s leading early-stage mentoring and investment programme for tech startups and has backed a total of 60 companies.

While that number is modest (compared with its Silicon Valley equivalentY Combinator, which invests in around 60 every year), the fund’s investment is viewed as a golden ticket. Not only do “Seedcamp companies” receive an investment of €50,000 but, more importantly, they gain access to a network of more than 1,200 mentors, including many of the industry’s leading players, and are taken on a meet-and-greet tour of investors and founders in every US tech hub from Boston to San Diego.

READ MORE

February 18, 2012 | Techmeetups

14 Asian Startups That Caught Our Eye This Week

Original post by Willis Wee via PO

It is post-conference week but our team has been continuing with our work on the blog. In the last seven days, we have had a couple of Asian tech startups on our radar, specifically from China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Philippines, India, and Singapore.

For folks who are interested in investing or partnering with these startups, drop us an email — hello[at]penn-olson[dot]com – anytime. No promises, but we’ll try our best to be a bridge.

And if you’re a tech startup based in Asia hoping to be featured, kindly send us your pitch here.

1. Jumpsurf | Singapore

For frequent travelers, getting internet access can be a pain in the arse. It just takes way too much time and effort. Some hotels charge ridiculous sums for internet access and the process of getting a local unlimited 3G SIM card can be pretty daunting (Yes, even in Singapore!). Siva Sai, founder of Jumpsurf has a possible solution for the problem. If you have US$148 to spare, you can grab a Jumpsurf mobile modem, which contains a SIM card that automatically detects user’s location and provides them with the relevant Internet …

2. Tabbang | India

Have you ever wanted to have Twitter feeds or customized tabs on your Facebook page? With Tabbang, you now can. This India-based startup has created a suite of applications for small businesses who are having trouble with technical details on Facebook. Hiring a good developer is tough, and often expensive too. In contrast Tabbang, for now, is a free service. To use it, all you have to do is authenticate your Facebook page so Tabbang can provide you with a simple drag and drop creator. Tabbang has a list of interesting …

READ 3 TO 14 HERE

February 16, 2012 | Techmeetups

Silicon Valley won’t dominate the tech world forever

Original post by MARTIN BRYANT via TNW

Yesterday I published a piece about Newry in Northern Ireland, which is looking to help boost its economy by encouraging a startup ecosystem. A little later, a post entitled ‘You will not be the next Silicon Valley, please stop trying‘ appeared over on Pando Daily, in which the author decided pull a bunch of Irish stereotypes out of the bag to attack the idea.

Now, I could detail everything that’s wrong with the article, but the comments there do a perfect job of ripping it apart. It certainly missed the point of what’s happening in Newry. Indeed, if Trevor Gilbert, author of the Pando Daily piece, had looked beyond the Emerald Valley incubator’s name he’d see that in no way is it trying to be the next Silicon Valley. It would be unrealistic to suggest that any location has a chance of replicating the startup ecosystem in northern California – at least for a few generations.

Why should people stop trying to build the next Silicon Valley, though? What is Silicon Valley if it’s not a strong, established, sustainable ecosystem with generations of successful entrepreneurs? Why would anyone not want that?

Now, it’s easy to get caught up in ‘The next Silicon Valley!’ hype when someone is trying to sell stakeholders on a bid to encourage tech startups to move in to an area. Selling yourself as that is the route to disappointment and disillusionment when Ron Conway hasn’t booked a flight to your provincial industrial estate within three years. However, successful startup hubs around the world don’t try to copy Silicon Valley – they look at what it has done and modify it to local circumstances.

READ MORE

February 15, 2012 | Techmeetups

Startups pass on Silicon Valley
to find their fortunes in New York

Original post by Ryan Kim via GIGAOM

Though Silicon Valley has lured away plenty of startups, (cough, Facebook), New York is becoming a magnet of its own, attracting companies that want to build their businesses amid the bright lights of the big city. In the past couple of months, New York has drawn former San Francisco startup Qwiki, PlaceIQ from Colorado and recent 500 Startups graduate Snapette, which started in Boston before spending the past half of a year in Silicon Valley.

These are just a few recent transplants, but they show how New York increasingly makes sense as a headquarters for certain startups, especially those with ties to finance, fashion, media, retail, advertising and increasingly big data and location-based services.ConsumerBell relocated to New York from the Bay Area in May, and Take The Interview, which started in Boston, is moving as well. The relocations fuel the continuing momentum behind New York, which has eclipsed Boston in the number of VC deals and is now becoming a destination for big companies like Facebook, which announced an engineering campus in New York, and eBay, which bought Hunch and plans to build out a New York office.

Close to brands and retailers

I talked with Snapette founder Sarah Paiji about why she chose New York after building a lot of connections in Silicon Valley and Boston. She said despite the presence of Facebook and Google in the Bay Area, it made more sense to be near brands and retailers, which are mostly based in New York. Snapette, which recently moved into Dogpatch Labs, is a kind of Pinterest for the real world, with users’ supplying images of products that can be found in nearby shops.

“We are about fashion and shopping. We want to drive foot traffic into local stores. We also take a lot of meetings with brands and retailers and we have over 30 boutique partners in New York. In Palo Alto, it just doesn’t make as much sense to stay,” Paiji said.

PlaceIQ, a Boulder, Colo., location startup, also announced a move to New York in December, saying it wanted to be closer to partners and customers and the general ecosystem. PlaceIQ has built a vast database of locations down to the block level that can be used by advertisers to better target consumers without tracking them individually.

READ MORE

February 13, 2012 | Techmeetups