People
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PandoMonthly New York with Chris Dixon, the full interview
It’s hard to categorize Chris Dixon. He’s had experience as an entrepreneur, an angel investor, a venture capitalist, and a blogger. He’s often cited as “one of the most vocal advocates of the New York tech scene” but is currently living and working at Andreessen Horowitz’s office in San Francisco. And he was our guest during this month’s PandoMonthly... -
With the bleeding stopped, ShoeDazzle is in the market for a strategic acquisition or investment
For months we’ve been hearing reports of ShoeDazzle shopping itself. Across dozens of conversations with investors, founders, bankers, and other people in the know, we’ve heard everything from “the investors want out” to “the company is simply testing the waters before it raises another round of capital.” We’ve heard about a wide range of potential suitors too. A deal... -
How to become a VC without leaving home
One of the mini-insights I found interesting in last night’s sit down with Andreessen Horowitz partner Chris Dixon was his thoughts on how blogging has transformed his career as an investor. In the clip above, he explains how blogging helped make up for not being in the Valley, his approach to writing a good post, and his advice for anyone... -
Chris Dixon: The consumer Web has gotten too good, enterprise companies are cutthroat
It’s hard to tell now, but there was a time — just a few years ago, actually — when the consumer Internet wasn’t seen as a nascent industry just waiting to morph into the menagerie of photo-sharing, social networking, and casual gaming startups we have today. A time when, according to Andreessen Horowitz partner Chris Dixon, people would “literally laugh... -
Lessons from a rare $2 billion LA tech win: “I was competing with both hands tied behind my back”
You hear it over and over again: What the LA ecosystem needs is a big, publicly-traded, home-grown, multi-billion dollar company. Well, there actually is one in LA that almost no one talks about: Cornerstone OnDemand, an enterprise software company that focuses on HR software. And it’s a real enterprise software company, not a consumer company with a freemium model that’s... -
IPO candidate Plex Systems grabs Eloqua CMO Heidi Melin to grow its cloud ERP platform
It’s been an eventful last 12 months for cloud ERP (enterprise resource planning) company Plex Systems, with the company completing a private equity buyout, closing a $30 million growth stage venture round from Accel Partners (a PandoDaily investor), and the introduction of a new CEO – in that order. Each of the moves was highly strategic,... -
When everything rides on a single cold call
Our sit down with Brian Lee last week captured everything I love about the PandoMonthly series. It was an inside look at the challenges and successes of one of the most important LA entrepreneurs to watch. And fortunately for any story-teller, Lee’s career makes for a lot of dramatic ups and downs. My favorite moment of the entire talk was... -
Like its other platforms, Amazon is taking the long view with its Coins virtual currency
Amazon is far from the first company to create a proprietary virtual currency, but, for a number of reasons, it is among the most interesting. The limited success of previous efforts from Facebook, Microsoft, Zynga, Flooz, and Beenz, among others, illustrate the challenges of creating a notional economy, but none of them mean we should ignore Amazon Coins. Amazon has... -
PandoMonthly Los Angeles with Brian Lee, the full interview
Brian Lee, who co-founded LegalZoom, ShoeDazzle, and The Honest Co., took the stage with our own Sarah Lacy on Thursday to discuss his experience building those companies, the Los Angeles startup ecosystem, and how a former lawyer came to sell diapers and women’s shoes. Lee talked about his commitment to running both ShoeDazzle and The... -
When massive growth can be hazardous to founders
As a startup founder, even seemingly positive things like massive growth can be a curse. Or at least it seems that was the case for the co-founders of activewear ecommerce startup Ellie. CEO Marcus Greinke and Chief Creative Office Lindsay Daniels were removed from the company by its board of directors in April. Greg Wimmer, who was originally... -
Summer@Highland is like success camp for student entrepreneurs. 2013 class announced
Highland Capital knows as well as anyone in the industry how competitive the environment is for attracting top entrepreneurial talent. That’s why for the sixth year in a row the firm is hosting teams of student entrepreneurs as part of its Summer@Highland program. The objective of the program is to systematically connect with high potential future founders earlier... -
The Honest Co. and ShoeDazzle co-founder Brian Lee: If you can sell legal documents, you can sell diapers
Brian Lee has co-founded a company that offers online legal document services, a company focused largely on women’s footwear, and another company devoted to eco-friendly infant and family care products. Speaking tonight at our PandoMonthly Los Angeles event, Lee explained why he was the right person to (co-)found companies with such seemingly-disparate functions. The reason, according to... -
Get your tickets to see Chris Dixon at PandoMonthly New York now!
All of our PandoMonthly guests are pretty renowned. But Chris Dixon is a guy who really needs no introduction to the New York ecosystem. He’s a founder who has had success at enterprise and consumer, an angel, a New York cheerleader, a mentor, and now a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Dixon has been heavily associated with almost all the good... -
Pluralsight turns philanthropic, launches free coding bootcamp in Utah public schools
Later today, hundreds of kids at six elementary, middle, and high schools in Utah will take a break from their normal classes and get three-hour crash course on coding. The praise-worthy experiment is part of an ongoing philanthropic effort by technology online education company Pluralsight aimed at giving kids early access to the worlds of Web and software development.... -
Nordstrom disses ‘omni-channel’ term, but Alexandra Mysoor says it’s real
Nordstrom and other large retailers may not know what the term “omni-channel” means, but it is a real trend that’s happening. Jamie Nordstrom was quoted in a recent article saying he doesn’t get the term, but Nordstrom does strive to be where its customers are whether it’s online or offline. In case you’re not familiar with the term either, “omni-channel”... -
Sebastian Thrun: “If I know how to solve something, I’m not that interested in it”
All week we’ve brought you clips of our sit-down with Udacity’s Sebastian Thrun. But his sometimes radical new take on reinventing education is one of the least sexy — and least radical — projects he’s worked on. In his previous role at Google, Thrun was responsible for two of the coolest things the company has developed: The self-driving car and...
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PandoMonthly New York with Chris Dixon
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Yahoo Japan: 22M user IDs may have been leaked
Yahoo Japan suspects that some 22 million user IDs have been leaked, Reuters reports. The associated accounts have not been otherwise compromised — passwords and information that might be used to reset them are said to be safe — and Yahoo Japan is said to have prevented someone from accessing its administrative system.
[Source: Reuters]
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Autodesk acquires Tinkercad
Autodesk has acquired Tinkercad, a startup that makes CAD files editable and ready for 3D printing for an undisclosed sum. Tinkercad’s technology and website will transfer to Autodesk, and the service’s free option has been “supercharged” to offer more functionality.
[Source: Tinkercad]
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Valve engineers continue developing cancelled augmented reality project
Valve engineers fired from the company in February have continued work on “CastAR,” a wearable augmented reality device that was cancelled at the same time, the Verge reports. The device is currently at an early stage; it will likely seek funding on Kickstarter in the future, according to the report.
[Source: The Verge]
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“Does Yahoo make Tumblr into YouTube — a successful standalone network that can grow and prosper on its own — or does it become MySpace?”
— GigaOM's Mathew Ingram on the supposed Yahoo-Tumblr acquisition
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Stop bitching about Millennials
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Bitcoin is legal, but ignoring the laws is not
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Yahoo board to meet Sunday to discuss Tumblr deal
The company’s board will meet on Sunday night to decide whether or not to approve a $1.1 billion offer for the blogging site, sources told AllThingsD. [Source: AllThingsD]
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Yahoo will reportedly unveil updates to Flickr
The press received invites to a product-related press event in New York on May 20. A source told Bloomberg that it is regarding updates to the photo sharing site. [Source: Bloomberg]
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Redbox instant to launch on Google TV and Roku
The streaming version of the red, DVD-dispensing kiosks will launch on Google TV in the next few weeks. Soon after, the company, which is a joint venture between Redbox and Verizon, will look to add support to Roku. [Source: GigaOm]
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Mars rover Opportunity breaks NASA record
It may live in the shadow of Curiosity, but NASA’s older rover has driven further than any other object on the surface of another body in our solar system. It’s cruised 22.22 miles, but that’s still short of the 23 miles a Soviet Union rover drove on the moon in 1973. [Source: The Verge]
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For the Internet of things, will it be verticals or horizontals?
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A bitcoin bubble could be good for everyone
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Vend raises $8M without turning to the Valley
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"Bang With Friends" removed from App Store
Bang With Friends (hidden slightly by the name BWF Official) has been removed from the App Store by Apple. So for the time being, iPhone users who want to hook up on the go are out of luck. [Source: CNET]
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The geography of Twitter and mainstream news
A new study looked at “the geography of Twitter” finds that, “There is a strong difference in the geographic profiles of Twitter and mainstream media and that the intensity of discourse mentioning a country does not necessarily match the intensity of discourse emanating from that country in social media.” [Source: Poynter]
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Amit Kapur defends the MySpace mafia
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Sony appoints Osamu Nagayama as chairman
It’s being reported that Sony is going to appoint Chief Executive Osamu Nagayama as the new chairman of the company. The appointment will be finalized at the next board meeting on June 20. [Source: Reuters]
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Panasonic may kill off Sanyo
Panasonic has decided to cut 90% of Sanyo’s 2,500 workforce over the next three years. In addition, it may decide to absorb the company it acquired in 2010 entirely. [Source: Reuters]
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Yahoo to hold a “product-related” press conference Monday; what could it possibly be about?
Rumors have been circulating about Yahoo’s possible buyout of Tumblr. Now CNBC has tweeted that Yahoo will hold a “product-related” event where CEO Marissa Mayer will speak. [Source: @CNBC]
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Google Play in-app purchases up 700%
At Google’s I/O 2013 today Google gave some statistics about Google Play’s revenue. One standout is that in-app purchases are rising significantly, going up 7 times as much as there were this time last year. [Source: TechCrunch]
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Twitter and NBA team up for playoffs
The NBA and Twitter have partnered up to stream playoff game highlights for the rest of the post-season. The video clips will be posted on NBA Digital’s Twitter account. [Source: Bloomberg]
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Yahoo Japan believes 22M IDs were leaked
Yahoo Japan reportedly detected an unauthorized attempt to access its system, which led to 22 million Yahoo IDs being leaked. However, the company claims no passwords or identity data for password reset were part of the leak. [Source: Reuters]
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PandoHouse Rock: A history of 3D printing
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Yahoo’s mobile app push may be working
According to data from Onavo, Yahoo’s recent push in mobile apps may be bearing fruit for the company. Yahoo Weather now has a 3% marketshare for US iPhone users, and other Yahoo apps are also doing well. [Source: GigaOm]
