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Shared wisdom: Year-end thoughts from some of the industry’s best
I often stop and reflect on how blessed I am to have access to the minds of some of the greatest investors and entrepreneurs across the startup and technology landscape. Sure many of the choicest morsels are shared off the record over a quiet cocktail, or cup of coffee, but many of the most sought after influencers... -
Former Best Buy chief needed just four months to earn “Worst of 2012″ award
There’s bad and then there’s bad. You’re bad if you’ get a worst CEO of 2012 award. You’re bad if you manage to do it based on the four months you worked this year before getting the axe. But if any company’s executive suite could pull it off, it’s Best Buy, the perennially dysfunctional electronics retailer. The company’s... -
HopeMob cuts fees from the online giving equation
Imagine harnessing the power of a mob (not the kind led by Tony Soprano), with its sheer scale and frenzied passion, and channeling it for good. That’s the basic mission behind HopeMob, a flash-mob inspired crowdfunding site for charitable causes. But with the Internet littered with crowdfunding and charitable giving options, HopeMob Founder and lauded social media... -
Veteran LA law firm opens a Silicon Beach office and launches a pro-bono “Precelerator”
As startup ecosystems evolve and mature, validation of their viability comes in waves from entrepreneurs, investors, and service providers alike. Over the last 18 months, Los Angeles has gone through a transformation that saw the formation of a vibrant beachfront startup community, euphemistically called Silicon Beach, and the arrival of a half dozen accelerators, several new dedicated early-stage…
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We all talk about recruiting “A Players,” but that’s not how the Valley actually works
We all know that we need to recruit “A players,” or as Mark Zuckerberg calls them in the case of Facebook, “100X programmers.” It has become a well-worn cliche. But despite the massive delta between As and Bs, Silicon Valley seems content to ignore its own advice.
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Sacca: Betrayals at Twitter cut deeper than junior high
“It’s all fun and games until you raise a series B.” So reads the title of an unpublished blog post written by super angel investor Chris Sacca. The title could apply to Twitter, a company Sacca is very familiar with. But it also extends to nearly everyone going through the hell and elation of company building.
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Island evacuation: How I was abandoned by tech in a (near) natural disaster
The moment I heard a local radio disc jockey say, “Please refer to the emergency information section of your Yellow Pages for additional tsunami preparedness information,” I knew the Hawaiian island of Maui was not prepared for a major disaster. And because it wasn’t, neither were my fiancee Stephanie and I. For one, there was no local Yellow Pages in our car,…
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Systrom on Andreessen Horowitz: Of course I was furious, but it made everyone work harder
No one likes to be told that the thing they’re the most passionate about isn’t worthwhile. Least of all, an entrepreneur who’s pouring their soul into a venture in lieu of taking a more cushy traditional job. Instagram founder Kevin Systrom admits to being “furious” when Andreessen Horowitz passed on giving follow-on funding to the company, due to conflicts in…
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Systrom: Building a product is very different from building an organization
Being the founder doesn’t necessarily mean having to be the one writing the code. With a few fledgling startups under his belt, Instagram founder Kevin Systrom went to Stanford to major in graduate computer science, thinking he would ultimately end up as an engineer. When he got his first C+ in one of his major classes, “it was completely demotivating,”…
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Returning CEO Brian Lee Cuts ShoeDazzle Headcount By As Much As 40%
Less than a week after founder and former CEO Brian Lee retook the reigns of subscription ecommerce giant ShoeDazzle, it appears that the executive is wasting no time in making his presence felt. We’ve heard from multiple sources today about massive layoffs at the company, with some putting the figure as high as 40 percent of all employees.
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Me and the Apple Customer Service Rep: A Brief Love Story
[caption id="attachment_43068" align="alignleft" width="315"] One of these two customer service reps probably thinks I’m awesome[/caption] Apple gets a lot of things right, from devices to software to its retail experience. You can now add to that list “excellent customer service through online chat”. (But then, why are you even keeping a list, weirdo?) Through a combination of laziness and not wanting…
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Roozt Launches “One Member. One Meal” Initiative to Feed America’s Hungry
Roozt is a socially conscious online marketplace for cause related lifestyle brands that lives by the motto, “Bringing Sexy Back to Giving Back.” Since its launch in March of this year, the company has been content to sit in the background itself, instead focusing on telling the story of its brand partners, each of which directs a portion of…
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Patent Trolling, Shell Corporations, and Alleged Fraud in the Shadow of the Hollywood Sign
RPost, a peculiarly-named Los Angeles “startup,” and its founders control patents that they allege Amazon, Paypal, and Belgian-banking cooperative SWIFT have violated. These patents are potentially worth billions of dollars because they may be central to much of the way the online payments industry operates today. The case has been winding through the courts and if RPost (no relation…
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The New Yorker Gets Banned from Facebook, Why? Because Nipples
The New Yorker, a bastion of longform journalism and literary fiction that also happens to tell jokes and include some smutty cartoons on the side, had its Facebook page dedicated to those sexy smudges temporarily banned. Why? Because nipples.
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Platforms Are For Pussies
From the first conversation our new Senior Editor, Mark Ames and I had about NSFWCORP, it was clear he and I shared a similar view of the future of journalism (with jokes). Really there was no question that Ames belonged at NSFWCORP or that it was my job to figure out the logistics of making that happen. The…
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WITN: Not Safe For Work Corporation Launches! At Last!
Mark this day in your calendar — 4th July — the day when the Future Of Journalism (With Jokes) officially began. Yes, two full months after we published the Pilot issue, Not Safe For Work Corporation is ready to begin its full publishing schedule. Right now in fact. Subscribers who took part in the Pilot can log in
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HP versus the headwinds, part 17
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Iran-backed hackers escalate attacks against US
US officials say energy companies are believed to have fallen victim to cyberattack assaults by Iran-backed hackers. The hackers were unsuccessful in manipulating oil and gas pipelines, which is what officials suspect they were attempting to do, but one former official told the Wall Street Journal that they got “far enough to worry people.” [Source: Wall Street Journal]
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Molecule-sorting material could lower gas prices
Technology Review reports on a new molecule-sorting material that could lower gas prices and reduce the need for cancer-linked additives. During the refining process, gasoline molecules are sorted by size to achieve certain octane levels. But this new hydrocarbon-sorting material would remove many steps from the process thus making gas less costly to produce. [Source: Technology Review]
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DHS: 3D-printed guns may be "impossible" to stop
According to a memo obtained by Fox News, the Department of Homeland Security warns 3D-printed guns may be “impossible” to stop: “Significant advances in three-dimensional (3D) printing capabilities, availability of free digital 3D printer files for firearms components, and difficulty regulating file sharing may present public safety risks from unqualified gun seekers who obtain or manufacture 3D printed guns.” The memo closes with, ” [Source: Fox News via Venture Beat]
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The Selena Gomez of SoCal’s tech industry
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3D-printed tracheal splint saves child's life
3D printing. It’s not just for guns. In fact it’s hardly for guns at all. Will 3D printing save more lives than it ends? That’s not a stretch to say. The latest milestone comes out of the University of Michigan, where a team built a tracheal splint that allows a child with a collapsed windpipe to breath again. [Source: New England Journal of Medicine via Gizmodo]
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Watch: Google Hangout on immigration reform
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For Skillz, real money gaming is all about skill
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Study: Religious cities watch a lot of porn too
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Yahoo design chief to depart
Tim Parsey, Yahoo’s SVP of user experience design, will step down for reasons unclear, sources told AllThingsD. He has been a part of many of the company’s major redesigns, including the homepage, Flickr and email. [Source: AllThingsD]
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Pandora beats Wall Street expectations
The streaming music service reported total revenue of $125 million, with $16 cents a share. Analysts had predicted revenue of $123.9. Total mobile revenue grew 97 percent year over year. [Source: Pandora]
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Pixel Press turns your doodles into videogames
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Hearst hires Demand Media and Yucaipa execs for SF Chronicle
The media giant tapped Demand Media’s Joanne Bradford and former Los Angeles Times CEO Jeffrey Johnson to help the flailing San Francisco Chronicle. Johnson will be the newspaper’s publisher, while Bradford will be the president. [Source: AllThingsD]
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Google+ photos incorporated into Google Search
The company announced today that users can surface personal photos from Google+ plus accounts just by searching through the main Google search homepage. A user has to be logged in for it to work, and they can search through friends’ photos too. [Source: Google]
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“We certainly have taken quite a bit of criticism over the years. But it is worth noting that for the first several years, the funding from Tesla was entirely private. In fact, I provided most of that initial funding.”
— Tesla CEO Elon Musk, on the company's repayment of its US loan
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Intel’s new chip family draws 50% less power
Intel has a lot riding on the upcoming release of its new chip line. To add to the excitement, the company released some details about its power consumption, including that it draws 50% less power than the current Core processor line members on “active” workloads. [Source: The Wall Street Journal]
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SimpleRelevance raises $1M
SimpleRelevance, a company that gathers customer data to send more personalized mass emails, has raised $1 million. Funding was led by Hyde Park Angels and Hyde Park Venture Partners. [Source: VentureBeat]
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Yahoo testing out new search results interface
Yahoo appears to be tinkering with a new search results page. For some users, when logged in and using Firefox, they are directed to a new results page that looks markedly different than the old one. [Source: Search Engine Land]
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Smule generated $12.6M in revenue in 2012
iOS music app maker Smule reportedly made $12.6 million in revenue in 2012. It is also supposedly on track to make $20 million this year. [Source: GigaOm]
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Third-party Facebook apps share 1B stories a day
Facebook today highlighted its developer platform, in celebration of the six year anniversary of being open to independent developers. The company threw around some numbers about third-party apps, such as: more than 500 million users use third-party apps through Facebook as well as those users sharing 1 billion stories a day. [Source: CNET]
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Fandium raises $1.25 million for sports app that blends storytelling with betting
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Lambda Labs has made a facial recognition API for Google Glass
San Francisco-based startup Lambda Labs is going to release a facial recognition API for Google Glass apps. The API will be available within a week, according to the company. [Source: TechCrunch]
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GameStop raises earning forecasts on XBox hopes
Despite the videogame industry struggling recently with declining sales, GameStop today raised its full-year earnings forecast. This is based on a potential boost from new gaming consoles like the XBox One. [Source: Reuters]
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Apple to kick off WWDC conference with keynote on June 10
Apple has announced that it is going to kick off its Worldwide Developers Conference with its keynote on June 10. [Source: CNET]
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Box acquires Folders
File-sharing company Box has acquired the technology behind the French app Folders. According to Box, the acquisition is part of a bold plan to make a product “that doesn’t suck”. [Source: VentureBeat]
