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Business Lessons From Olympic Innovators
Aug 11, 5:00AM
Editor's note: John Greathouse is a general partner at Rincon Venture Partners and has held a number of senior executive positions with successful startups during the past fifteen years, including Computer Motion, Citrix Online and CallWave which collectively created in excess of $350M in shareholder value. You can follow him @johngreathouse. You can also check his blog for emerging entrepreneurs here. Successful Olympic athletes share a number of common qualities with entrepreneurs; including boundless energy, uncompromising tenacity and a willingness to innovate. Such innovations include new training routines, inventive diets and novel, gameplay tactics. Entrepreneurs are well served to pay particular attention to two of the most innovative Olympic athletes: Dick Fosbury and David Berkoff, the former of which I discuss in the following 2-minute video.As Marissa Mayer Annoys Investors By Keeping $4.2B In Dividends, YHOO Is Down 5.4%
Aug 11, 1:30AM
Less than a month after taking over Yahoo, Marissa Mayer is already sending strong signals of leadership to investors. Yet, the announcement of a new financial strategy led to a 5.37 percent downturn of YHOO today as the company played down dividend expectations. Yahoo filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the strategy review "may lead to a re-evaluation of, or changes to, our current plans."InsideSales.com Raises $4 Million For Big Data Analytics Sales Force Automation Technology
Aug 11, 12:33AM
InsideSales.com has raised $4 million from Hummer Winblad in a Series A Round that the company will use to grow its big data analytics sales force automation (SFO) technology. Joining in the round were Josh James, co-founder and former CEO of Omniture. Mark Gorenberg, managing director, Hummer Winblad, said before the funding, the company was profitable and had not taken any investment. He said the company reminds him of Omniture, which the firm funded under similar circumstances. Omniture was also profitable when it accepted its investment. Omniture was acquired for $1.8 billion in 2009 by Adobe Systems. InsideSales serves small and medium sized companies. It uses predictive analytics to help serve inside sales professionals. Its algorithms are designed to tell the sales professional who to contact, when to contact and how to tailor the message for the sales target. The company has increased its employees from 65 to 140 people. In the past several months the company has increased from 600 to 900 customers. It has recently started expanding into the enterprise market by adding customers such as Dell and ADP. InsideSales is one of a growing number of startups to come out of Utah. The company is based in Provo, also where Qualtrics, the online marketing intelligence company is located. Qualtrics raised $70 million in capital earlier this year from Accel Partners and Seqouia Capital. Omniture was originally from Orem, Utah. Competitors to InsideSales include Leads360 and Five9.DMD Panorama Opens API To Power Panoramic Photos In Any App
Aug 10, 11:07PM
It's a strange thing to hear from the co-founder and CEO of a photo startup, but DMD Panorama's Elie-Gregoire Khoury tells me that panoramic photos will become "a commodity at the end of the day." That doesn't mean it's time to get out of the photo business — instead, Khoury wants to see panoramas become a standard feature in a wide range of websites and apps, the way that regular photos are now. And if Khoury has his way, that will all happen through DMD's new API.The Friday WTF Awards – Oracle Not The Only One Who Deserves Calling Out
Aug 10, 11:01PM
I need to lighten things up a bit with all this Oracle brouhaha. Oracle acquired Xsigo recently. I wrote about the acquisition and how Oracle will lose as IT gets virtualized. Oracle's Bob Evans came back with his own special brand of attack. Yesterday I responded with my post: Open? Yeah, Sure. Sorry Oracle, You're Still Full Of It.BranchOut CEO Rick Marini On Building A Company Atop Facebook's 'Shifting Sands' [TCTV]
Aug 10, 10:46PM
BranchOut is known as one of the bigger success stories for startups building on top of Facebook. The company, which makes a professional social network that runs on Facebook, has raised nearly $50 million in venture capital and attracted 30 million users in the two years since it made its debut. So it was great to have the chance to pull aside BranchOut CEO Rick Marini at the Facebook Ecosystem CrunchUp TechCrunch hosted a week ago to get his "dos and don'ts" he's learned while building his company. Watch the video above to see our full interview, and below I've excerpted a couple of his insights:Twilio Says It Is The Fastest Growing Short Code Provider In The U.S.
Aug 10, 10:14PM
A little over a year ago, cloud communications company Twilio launched Short Codes, dedicated 5 or 6 digit numbers for sending and receiving text messages at volume. Since then, Twilio has become the fastest-growing short code provider and has found surprisingly differing uses for its product. "People have started using our Short Code product in ways we didn't ever expect," Patrick Malatack, the product manager in charge of Short Codes, tells me.RIM: Layoffs Are Ongoing, Will Not Affect BB10
Aug 10, 8:37PM
RIM is about to layoff more employees in an ongoing effort to cut $1 billion by 2013. According to one report, as many as 3,000 RIM staffers could get the boot as soon as next week. However, RIM has not confirmed this as of yet. RIM's Global Corporate Communications Manager spoke to TechCrunch this afternoon and confirmed there are more layoffs on the horizon. She went on to explain that the company is "moving quickly for the impacted employees." As RIM communicated earlier, the company plans to eliminate 5,000 positions within the current financial quarter. While RIM hasn't pointed out affected departments and regions, it seems those working on BlackBerry 10 are safe -- well, at least for now.The "Leaks" Keep Coming: New Images Reportedly Show New iPhone's Tiny Dock Connector
Aug 10, 8:16PM
If rumors hold true, Apple should be gearing up to unveil its latest iGadgets in just a few weeks, and it's no surprise that all sorts of questionable leaks are now worming their way into daylight. The latest of those purported leaks comes in the form of images obtained by the French site Nowherelse.fr that reportedly depict Apple's tiny new dock connector next to a USB plug. Got your grains of salt ready? Good, let's go.Fashion-Focused Startup Polyvore, 17M Monthly Uniques Strong, Opens Up NYC Office
Aug 10, 7:11PM
It's starting to seem like everyone who got their start in Silicon Valley is putting down an anchor in New York City. Earlier this year Facebook set up an engineering office in Manhattan, then this week Alexia Tsotsis made her move to the Big Apple (miss you!) Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore? The latest techie to head east is Polyvore, the website that lets people create collages of apparel and accessories using images from any online store. Polyvore today is announcing the opening of its first-ever New York office, in SoHo. The NYC office has a staff of eight to start, while Polyvore and its executive team headed up by CEO Jess Lee will remain headquartered in Mountain View, California.TechCrunch Giveaway: Phosphor Watch And A Free Ticket To Disrupt SF #TCDisrupt
Aug 10, 6:56PM
Disrupt SF is right around the corner and is shaping up to be one of the biggest events of the year. We have already announced many speakers which include our very own TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, Marissa Mayer, The Honest Company's Jessica Alba and Brian Lee, super angel Ron Conway, Vinod Khosla, Marc Benioff, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Path's Dave Morin, LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman, Kevin Rose, and many others still yet to be announced. Here is another chance for one lucky reader to win a chance to come join us! Not only will the winner receive a free ticket (valued at around $1,995), but we are also going to give you a free Phosphor watch of your choice. Check them out. The winner can choose any watch on that site. The most expensive is valued at around $250.Report: Nexus 7 Supply Issues Stall Growth
Aug 10, 6:50PM
Google may be taking the ill-conceived Nexus Q back to the drawing board, but the Nexus 7 tablet has been quite a hit since it went on sale a few weeks ago. Since then, though, Google has faced a number of supply issues and the company even suspended sales of the 16GB for a few days to catch up with demand. The latest data from ad network Chitika shows how those supply issues have stalled the growth of Google's first tablet - at least when measured by web traffic from Nexus 7 owners.Google Updates Its Search Algorithm: Will Start Punishing Sites With Too Many DMCA Takedown Notices
Aug 10, 6:41PM
Google just announced that, starting next week, its search algorithm will start taking a new signal into account: the number of valid copyright removal notices it receives for a given site. According to Google, "this ranking change should help users find legitimate, quality sources of content more easily." The idea here is obviously to punish pirate sites by pushing links to them down on Google's search results pages and to appease copyright holders who often claim that Google doesn't do enough to remove links to copyrighted material.Harvard Researchers Find A Creative Way To Make Incentives Work
Aug 10, 6:10PM
Incentives are all the rage: employee bonus pay, app badges, student grades, and even lunch with President Obama. Despite their widespread use, most research finds that incentives are terrible at improving performance in the long-run on anything but mindless rote tasks, because the fixation on prizes clouds our creative thinking (video explanation below). However, a new Harvard study of teachers found that a novel approach to incentives could dramatically improve student performance: give teachers a reward upfront and threaten to take it away if performance doesn't actually improve. Exploiting the so-called "loss-aversion" tendency could open the door to creative incentivizing for software designers and managers.A Look Inside Airbnb's Record Night: 60,000 Guests, 174 Countries, 30 Languages, And 8 Private Islands
Aug 10, 6:00PM
Airbnb, the online marketplace for listing and booking short-term housing accommodations, has been on a roll lately: In June it hit 10 million nights booked, boasting hockey stick-like growth along the way. Well, it had a really big night last Saturday, hitting a new record with more than 60,000 guests booking lodgings through the service. Not only was that five times the number of bookings it had a year prior, but it also a large number -- 75 percent -- were using the marketplace for the first time. Airbnb is using the occasion to highlight the international community it has amassed, along with some of the unique lodgings that it boasts. It noted guests from 174 different countries around the world, including guests from far-off locales like Zimbabwe and Nepal.Senzari Takes On Pandora With Personalized Radio That Lets You Customize By Popularity, Similarity, Discovery & Tempo
Aug 10, 5:49PM
Senzari, the Pandora competitor backed by $1 million in funding from 500 Startups and others, has just debuted a brand-new recommendation engine called AMP3, which steps up the competition quite a bit between it and other streaming radio providers. The new engine (which we'll just call "AMP" for short) isn't like the basic "artist radio" option found in Pandora, or the radio features in other streaming music apps, either. Those, at best, may just include a "more/less like this" slider option for customization purposes. Instead, with AMP, listeners can customize their music by a number of factors, including popularity, tempo, similarity, and discovery. And, says Senzari, this is just the beginning.Facedeals: Check-In On Facebook With Facial Recognition. Creepy or Awesome?
Aug 10, 5:38PM
Now you can check-in to a location on Facebook through facial recognition scanning. The Redpepper ad agency claims to be beta testing a camera on the outside of a "Nashville business" that automatically checks patrons in to a location and offers them deals, after users have given the company access to their Facebook data (note: this was developed independently from Facebook). A video explanation of the technology, Facedeals, is below.Another Big Social Marketing Exit: Gannett Will Buy BLiNQ Media For Up To $92M
Aug 10, 5:28PM
On the heels of Google buying Wildfire and Salesforce nabbing Buddy Media, we have heard from two very reliable sources, plus a third anonymous source, that Gannett Co., the media giant that owns USA Today and other properties, is buying BLiNQ Media. The price for the Facebook advertising software and service is up to $92 million over a period of three to four years, with a quarter of that amount, $23 million, coming up front. We hear the purchase agreement has been signed and the pair are now marching towards a close at the end of this month. The rationale behind the deal is clear: when brands buy ad placements on Gannett properties, it could use BLiNQ to also sell them ads on social sites and collect a solid margin.Facebook And FTC Settle Privacy Charges — No Fine, But 20 Years Of Privacy Audits
Aug 10, 5:21PM
Facebook and the FTC today finalized their earlier announced settlement over charges that Facebook had "deceived" its customers by "telling them they could keep their information on Facebook private, and then repeatedly allowing it to be shared and made public." Unlike this week's earlier $22.5 million FTC settlement with Google, Facebook does not face any financial penalties. Instead, the company will have to promise that it will give its users "clear and prominent notice" and get their consent before sharing their information beyond their privacy settings. In addition, Facebook will have to submit itself to biennial privacy audits for the next 20 years and maintain a "comprehensive privacy program."Scoutzie Is A More Curated, Thoughtful Marketplace For Designers
Aug 10, 5:15PM
Backed by Y Combinator, 500 Startups and SV Angel, Scoutzie launches today to give people looking for great mobile designers an online place to find the best of the best. Because good design comes through a series of quality checks, the Scoutzie community vets all potential designers, either through a formal portfolio review process or through a members-only invite process. This review process has resulted in 500 top notch members of the Scoutzie community and around 1,500 applicants who didn't make the cut. 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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