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Nike To Open First-Ever API To Developers At Backplane's SXSW Music Hackathon
Mar 11, 5:11AM
Last month, Jason wrote about the announcement that Backplane -- the new interactive, visual platform that's part Pinterest, part Tumblr and Ning -- will be using its star power to stage an unusual event at SXSW: A music hackathon. The startup, which is backed by Lady Gaga along with a host of Silicon Valley VCs, is hosting its so called "SXSW Managers Hack," a unique event for SXSW and music tech. The hackathon will be judged by music industry veterans, like Scooter Braun (the guy who helped bring you The Bieber), President of Jay-Z's Roc Nation Jay Brown, and Lady Gaga's manager (and Backplane Co-founder) Troy Carter, as well as reps from Spotify, Pandora, and SoundHound.Paul Graham Wants You To Build A New Search Engine, Inbox, Or Be The Next Steve Jobs
Mar 11, 2:44AM
As a founding partner at Y Combinator, Paul Graham has seen more startup pitches than the average Joe. In a new essay, called "Frighteningly Ambitious Startup Ideas", Graham makes the case that the ideas with the most disruptive potential also happen to be frightening due to the sheer ambition that they would require from entrepreneurs to turn them into reality. Yes, there is an amazing amount of talent in Silicon Valley; there has been for years, and there will be for years to come. While the tech industry continues to produce world-changing hardware, software, and consumer web companies, there is a sense that the current landscape is lacking the kind of deep innovation that once defined the industry. Last September, at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, Max Levchin and Peter Thiel went so far as to say that innovation today is actually "between dire straights and dead."The Economics Of Emotion
Mar 11, 12:00AM
The most recent commercial for the BMW i3 and i8 concept cars is a great example of something enlightened marketers have known for years: emotion is the key driver behind purchasing decisions. Yet, today, most businesspeople still follow the old adage, "Emotions and business don't mix," relying on rational data to drive decisions instead. Doesn't the advertisement make you want to buy a BMW? Don't you want to feel cool or look more successful, technology-forward and progressive? Well, that desire is emotion at work. Steve Jobs inherently knew the emotion of his consumers was critical currency in building the Apple phenomenon, and with over 1,700 CMOs admitting that building an enduring connection with consumers is a top priority in a recent IBM survey, leveraging emotion is fast becoming a top business imperative.Eric Chu Steps Away From Overseeing Android's App Store, Jamie Rosenberg Expands Role
Mar 10, 10:46PM
There was more than meets the eye with this week's rebranding of Android Market as Google Play. Accompanying the new name and look is a shift in how the store is being managed. Eric Chu, who has worked on the Android team for four-and-a-half years, is stepping away from overseeing Android's app store and is exploring other options inside Google. Jamie Rosenberg, who has been a director of digital content for Android and was the public face for the Google Music launch, gets increased oversight for apps and games inside the store. (His title isn't changing though.)3 Predictions On The Future Of Enterprise Software
Mar 10, 10:45PM
The first image that comes to my mind when I think about business computing is the dystopic scene from the 1984 Apple commercial: A swarm of employees wearing the same uniforms and marching in unison into their offices where they are forced to use certain devices and software. They sit down in front of their PCs, open a business application their company paid millions of dollars to implement and, in a disciplined manner, fill out forms to populate the company's database so their managers will be happy. The Anya Major in this dystopic scene is the consumerization of enterprise software. The term "consumerization" was first used, in the context of enterprise software, by Kevin Efrusy from Accel Partners back in 2008. You probably heard about it before. Heck, there's even a SXSW panel discussing this subject, which means it really went mainstream. What is missing from the conversation though is a good look at the root causes and more importantly, at the implications of this phenomenon.100Proof App Shows How Getting Drunk Is Killing (Or Saving) You
Mar 10, 9:57PM
6 drinks for an 160-pound, 30-year-old male? That'll take 2 days off your lifespan. Just in time for SXSW, 100Proof is a mobile web app from healthtech startup 100Plus that calculates how your drinking shortens or even lengthens your lifespan. Cute graphics shows you how much sex or time boxing a kangaroo you'd have to spend to work off those calories. Founder Chris Hogg tells me 100Proof delivers the serious message of being mindful of your habits but with a fun tone, and that it previews some of the functionality the full 100Plus app will offer when it launches. He also shared with me some real-time data from the app like that 50-somethings are drunker than those in their 40s, and that Android users drink more than those on iPhones.Sexy IPOs Versus SaaS-y IPOs
Mar 10, 9:12PM
IPOs are hot again. Naturally, the press is focused on high-profile offerings like Facebook's. But, I think there is a more important group of companies going public: Smaller, less sexy Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) startups. Think of it as the Sexy IPOs versus the SaaS-y IPOs. They aren't household names, but the most recent SaaS IPOs (Cornerstone, Jive, Brightcove and Bazaarvoice) are doing better in the public markets, on average, than the Sexy IPOs of LinkedIn, Groupon and Zynga.Harvest Co-Founder: "Solve A Real Pain Point, And Don't Be Afraid To Charge For It" [TCTV]
Mar 10, 8:00PM
Right now the enterprise software space is growing rapidly, but so are the number of users who need it, especially freelancers, independent contractors, consultants, and developers. That said, companies who provide services like time-tracking need to evolve in order to meet the growing demands of their users. I sat down with Danny Wen, co-founder of time-tracking service Harvest, who knows all about this. His service, which launched as a web app, has gone on to be available on both iOS and Android, and most recently, as a Mac desktop app.Wikipedia Completes Transfer Of Sites Away From GoDaddy DNS
Mar 10, 7:25PM
Part of the long-running (and far from over) SOPA/PIPA battle was the drawing of lines in the sand by Internet companies. While most recognized the danger of that irresponsible and short-sighted bill and took action against it, some companies supported it strongly and even testified to that effect in Congress. GoDaddy was one of those companies, and while it later tried to undo the damage its position had done (the new CEO seems a little more in touch), the Internet isn't so good at forgetting or forgiving. Among the many, many sites that pledged to leave GoDaddy's DNS service was Wikipedia, and after three months of work, they've finally done so.StartupBus Day Four: San Antonio to Austin [TCTV]
Mar 10, 7:16PM
The "buspreneurs" have arrived in Austin! The StartupBus, which began a four-day journey from San Francisco/Silicon Valley on Tuesday morning, completed the final leg of the voyage yesterday. The teams of entrepreneurs hoping to debut new products at South by Southwest Interactive arrived by way of San Antonio, where they received an enthusiastic welcome at Rackspace. "We live in a magic moment of innovation and entrepreneurship right now," remarked Rackspace CEO Lanham Napier as the StartupBus teams took another break from the road. Take a look at the video to see how apps like Expensieve have become reality. And as the entrepreneurs pull into rainy Austin, they share what they gained from this whirlwind experience and where they hope to go from here.The Spanx Woman Is Worth A Billion?! My Key Takeaways
Mar 10, 7:00PM
I'm a complete sexist. I want women to look as good as possible. And I'm not the only one. Women want to look as sexy as possible. That's why they buy hundreds of millions worth of form-fitting Spanx every year. And now Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx is worth a billion according to Forbes. She took Justin Timberlake's advice. A million is not cool. A billion is cool. So what happened next? In the past 24 hours I've heard three different guys say something to the affect of, "She? She is worth a billion? Huh. I guess anyone can be worth a billion." As soon as someone says that they are scratched off my list of people I want to spend time with. I only like to be around positive people who celebrate success.DiCaprio-Backed Mobli Pushes Major Revamp for SXSW
Mar 10, 5:58PM
Not to miss an opportunity to make an impression upon hipsters, Mobli is going to squeeze all the juice it can get out of SXSW with a major app revamp, and a party in Austin to boot. Mobli, which counts Leonardo DiCaprio as one of its investors ($4M funding to date), is dubbing the new version, 'Mobli 2.0'. Personally I feel they should have gone with 'The New Mobli' — zing! Besides a Pinterest-inspired interface, the new version packs a major upgrade to the camera, along with a set of features to edit, touch-up and enhance photos, all bundled under a new section in the app called, 'Darkroom'. Rebuilt from the ground up, the new camera now includes real-time tilt-shift and even real-time video filters. Focus can now be locked and white balance set. This is on top of the 18 brand-new photo filters, superimposed gridlines and a self-timer.At SXSW? Because Paul Carr Is, Launching His Book Today At Bookpeople In Austin
Mar 10, 5:12PM
Jack McKenna here, checking in from South By Southwest to support my old buddy Paul Carr. He may have told me off not so long ago, despite my fine work here over the years. But, we've talked it out and patched things up. You know how things go with bloggers. Anyway, Paul is also in Austin right now, launching the US edition of his book 'The Upgrade: A Cautionary Tale of a Life Without Reservations.' He's doing a reading this afternoon at 5 pm at Bookpeople, (603 N. Lamar, Austin, Tx). I'll be there, and apparently some 'characters' from the book are going to be in the audience too. Also, as Paul tweeted a few days ago… I'm going to spare you the tweet embed, actually. Let's just say the guy is shameless.Save Helpless Faraway Africans From The Comfort Of Your Armchair!
Mar 10, 5:00PM
Wow. I never dreamed that I'd have a legitimate excuse to write a TechCrunch post about Joseph Kony, the crazed Ugandan warlord whose Lord's Resistance Army has been a pet obsession of mine for some years now. The first draft of my thriller set mostly in Uganda and the Congo had a villain loosely based on Kony, but I had to edit him out, basically because he's far too batshit crazy to be even remotely believable. The world is surprisingly full of things so implausible they would never fly in fiction, and the LRA is one of them. Now, stretching credulity even further, a 30-minute-long LRA-awareness video from the quasi-NGO Invisible Children has gone viral around the world. Celebrities and A-listers everywhere are retweeting it. Of course! Because if we just increase worldwide public awareness of the LRA's horrific depredations, why, then... ...and that's where they lose me. What exactly are Invisible Children hoping to accomplish with this? They claim credit for persuading Obama to send 100 US troops in October to help the Ugandan army find the LRA; but for what it's worth, I happen to know that the US Army was interested in tracking down Kony well before that. (How? Last June, while roaming around East Africa, I went diving in Djibouti with some Special Forces dudes--as you do--and Kony came up in conversation.) Raise your hands: who here seriously thinks the Special Forces will be any more effective because Taylor Swift, Diddy, Rihanna, and Zooey Deschanel are tweeting their moral support?Entrepreneurs Are Difficult At Best And Abrasive at Worst — Get Over It
Mar 10, 2:00PM
The greatest entrepreneurs follow their gut and as a result are perceived as difficult at best and abrasive at worst. Most people who know me say I'm too diplomatic, but last week my advisor told me that someone asked him if I was "difficult". His answer was "if Ash was difficult, I wouldn't work with him." I was going to write something on the matter, but felt that doing so would make me come across as, you know, difficult. But after a recent brief discussion this week with a fellow executive ended in disagreement, I thought to myself: "well that guy's definitely going to think I'm difficult", even though only a fool would have accepted his offer. It reminded me of that Chris Rock line: "What's sexual harassment? When an ugly guy wants to get some?" Well, what's being difficult? When someone doesn't give you what you want?Paper Or Plastic?
Mar 10, 2:57AM
I have a confession to make: despite having reviewed a few e-readers, and having written dozens of articles about them, I've never really used one. I mean, I've used them enough to know a good one from a bad one, to understand the features, and to do a proper evaluation — but I've never made one part of my life, the way one makes a mobile phone or laptop part of one's life. In that way I haven't really used an e-reader. Until just recently. As a book lover, I view e-readers as interlopers; as a practical person, I acknowledge them as inevitable. But in both cases, I have come to view them as a deeply unsatisfying reading experience. They fall short of paper in meaningful ways, and objecting to them should not be considered technophobic. The future of e-books is bright, but as far as I'm concerned, right now we're still in the dark age — though that isn't to say the stone age.Army Warns Of Danger Of Geotagging
Mar 10, 2:03AM
While for an ordinary civilian the automatic geotagging of your photos or check-ins might be convenient, in the military it can be a lethal mistake. In 2007, geotagged photos of a new fleet of helicopters allowed enemy forces to mortar the base and destroy several of them; it could just as easily have been a field hospital or barracks. The Army has therefore published an article calling attention to this fact, though its casual tone suggests that they aren't ready to take serious action on the issue. A warning is all it is, and perhaps also an acknowledgement that sometimes it's better to bend with the breeze than fight it.Eyeing An IPO, Kayak 2011 Revenue Up 32 Percent To $225M; Net Income Up 21 Percent
Mar 10, 12:41AM
Travel search giant Kayak just posted new revenue numbers for the fourth quarter and full year 2011 in a new S-1 filing with the SEC. As we heard last September, Kayak put its IPO plans on hold until market conditions improve. Now that the markets are more stabilized, it should be interesting to see when Kayak makes the push to become a public company. For the year Kayak generated $224.5 million of revenues, up 32 percent from 2010. Net income for the year was $9.7 million, up 21 percent from 2010's net income of $8 million For the fourth quarter, Kayak saw a 27 percent increase in quarterly revenue, posting $53.9 million in Q4 2011 sales. In contrast, revenue grew 28 percent in the third quarter.Cater2.me May Be Feeding Your Favorite Startup
Mar 10, 12:39AM
Startup Cater2.me is trying to answer one of the rarely-discussed challenges facing any company that wants to keep a large workforce happy — feeding them meals that aren't boring. Cater2.me was founded in late 2010 and has already attracted some positive press attention. Now, its client list includes some startups worth bragging about, such as Yelp, Eventbrite, Tagged, Square, Dropbox, Twilio, Causes, Posterous, and Heyzap. The company is serving 40,000 lunches a month (including many to non-startups, of course.)Mobcaster Crowdfunds Its First TV Season
Mar 09, 11:20PM
It's famously difficult to get a TV show on the air — much less one that still matches your initial vision. That's why startup Mobcaster has launched a new platform where creators can ask fans directly for the financial support needed to produce their shows. The startup just had its first funding success story — The Weatherman, an Australian-produced comedy about, yes, a weatherman, which just raised the funding for its first season. The production company set a goal of $72,500, and it raised $73,975. (As the team notes at the beginning of the pilot episode, traditional television episodes cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, so that's a tiny budget for a full season.)If at any time you'd like to stop receiving these messages, just send an email to feeds_feedburner_com_techcrunch+unsubscribe-hmdtechnology=gmail.com@mail.feed2email.net.
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