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What To Do If You Get A Patent Troll Demand
Sep 07, 4:00AM
You have an idea for a product that is going to change the world. For years you work day and night, and over time, that hard work turns into a company. You have users, revenue and, finally, the business of your dreams. But as you get traction, you also have a patent troll letter. The timing couldn't be worse. As you find yourself spending more and more time with lawyers and learning patent law, you understand why, "[p]atents are one of the most painful parts of running a startup, and that's saying something."Personalized E-commerce Startup Wantful Shuts Down
Sep 07, 2:44AM
Wantful, a San Francisco and New York-based gift giving and personalized e-commerce startup founded in 2011 is shutting down after failing to secure follow-on investment as expected. According to founder and CEO John Poisson, the company had launched a series of well-received products for web, tablet, print and in-store, but did not achieve the kind of "highly accelerated growth" needed to secure the additional capital.Scholly Helps Students Find Their Ideal Scholarships On Their Smartphones
Sep 07, 1:40AM
More and more of America's young people are coming to grips with a nasty truth: college can be incredibly, stupidly expensive. Drexel University student (and Philadelphia Dorm Room Fund member) Christopher Gray knows that all too well, so he and partners Bryson Alef and Nick Pirollo developed a mobile app called Scholly to help students easily search for scholarships that apply to them.With 3X The Active Users From A Year Ago, Skout Launches A Feature For Traveling Vagabonds
Sep 06, 10:58PM
Skout, the app for meeting new people that picked up $22 million in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz last year, is adding a feature for travelers who want to scope out people in new cities before they land. The Travel feature is a paid premium feature, where Skout users can spend a little bit of virtual currency to meet users in another city. (Normally, you are only connected to users near you.) It’s especially useful if you’re traveling to a place where you don’t know anyone. It also slides into the company’s current virtual goods-oriented model, where users pay for points to send wink bombs or feature their profiles. At about 100 Skout points, “traveling” to another city should cost around 20 cents or less. The past year has had some major highs and lows for Skout. After a safety scandal tied the app to a few rape cases, the company banned minors from the service until they instituted safeguards that they confidently felt separated adults and children. They set up a Trust and Safety board to regularly review the company’s policies and haven’t had a bad incident since then. “It was a really challenging time for the company,” said Christian Wiklund, Skout’s CEO, who has seen the startup through half a decade of existence and many near-death experiences. Because of that initial bad publicity, they’ve kept their heads low. Even so, the company has grown its number of monthly active users by three-fold (although they don’t release the raw monthly active user figure). They also facilitated more than 200 million connections between users last year, up fourfold from 54 million connections in 2011. In total, they’re adding about 1.5 million new users every month and their most active locale is Hong Kong. Initially pegged as something of a dating app, Skout broadened its focus out toward helping people meet one another. But in the meantime, newer apps like IAC-backed Tinder that are specifically focused on dating have gained momentum. Tinder has facilitated more than 100 million matches in less than a year after launch. “Dating is a subset of what we do, but we think the opportunity is much bigger than dating,” Wiklund said.A User's Guide To Disrupt SF 2013
Sep 06, 10:40PM
Disrupt SF kicks off on Monday, September 9th. TechCrunch has put together an incredible array of offerings from our partners to make your Conference experience even better. As always, Disrupt SF will be a busy and boisterous event so use the following guide to get the most out of the show.Co-Ed Supply Whisks Curated Boxes Of 'College Essentials' To Busy Students
Sep 06, 9:53PM
The days are getting shorter and the air is growing colder, which means that students across the country are trodding back to school once more. For a subscription e-commerce startup called Co-Ed Supply, that means it's time to really get down to business -- their forte is curating and shipping much-needed care packages to the country's college students.Ask A VC: Trinity Ventures' Patricia Nakache On The Secret To Zulily's Success And More
Sep 06, 9:30PM
It's time for another episode of Ask A VC, where we grill VCs in the TCTV studio! This week, Trinity Ventures' Patricia Nakache joined us to chat about e-commerce, marketplaces and much more.Ideal Media Takes A More Hands-On Approach To Combining Recommended Content With Ads
Sep 06, 9:23PM
Here's another startup trying to turn content recommendation into a business: Ideal Media. Similar in concept to Outbrain and Taboola, Ideal Media works with publishers to add a recommended content unit to their pages. Then it makes money by including sponsored content in the mix. You can see an example in the recommended content under this photo on the OneBigPhoto site (there's a screenshot below). Director of Sales Matthew Mosk told me via email that Ideal Media is building customized, native integrations, so the look will change from site to site.Keaton Row, An E-Commerce Site That Pairs Busy Ladies With Personal Shoppers, Raises $1.6 Million In Seed Funding
Sep 06, 8:56PM
The personal shopping site Keaton Row has raised $1.6 million in a second round of seed funding led by Menlo Ventures, an early investor in Fab and Warby Parker, with participation from Rho Ventures and Grape Arbor Ventures. The site, which launched in 2012, previously raised a seed round of $1 million led by Rho Ventures. Keaton Row is an e-commerce site that puts the “person” in personalization. After a quick style quiz to understand taste, needs, and body type, the site matches customers with a personal shopper, who draws from it’s partner retail sites to make suggestions and create lookbooks for their clients. The stylists, who are paid by Keaton Row on commission, apply to the site at an acceptance rate of about 60-70%. On the consumer side, the site appeals to women who have money but don’t want to shop for themselves, or don’t know how to navigate the massive world of online retail. The personal shoppers, meanwhile, are fashion-savvy people who want to use their taste make a bit of cash. And although diametrically opposed sartorially, both groups are easily scalable. “The Keaton Row customer is a professionally oriented woman. She has money to spend, but doesn’t have time. She isn’t an active reader of Vogue or The Coveteur, so she wants it to be curated and convenient. There’s a higher level of personalization, and authentic personalization,” co-founder and co-CEO Cheryl Han said. Keaton Row is partnered with online retailers like ShopBop and Les Nouvelles, meaning shoppers have access to over 10,000 products. With this latest round of funding, Keaton Row plans to build out its user platforms for stylists and customers, grow its retail partnerships, and expand its national presence, which for stylists is currently focused on metropolitan areas like New York and LA. While other e-commerce sites rely on algorithm-based style quizzes and click-throughs for personalization, Keaton Row is one of a few retail sites leveraging an abundance of human fashionistas who can provide the same advice with better customer service. On the men’s side, Brandid has developed a similar model. Han and Elenor Mak, her co-founder and CEO, said that many of their customers see their stylists as friends and turn to them for advice on other areas of their life, like shopping for their home, child, or boyfriend. That kind of trusting, personal relationship can be a powerful motivation to keep customers coming back.CrunchBase Has A New Mobile Site, Is Bigger Than Ever
Sep 06, 8:19PM
We have some updates today from the other side of the TechCrunch office. The growing team at CrunchBase, our free database of tech companies, has a new mobile site available for your browsing pleasure. The site basically didn’t work in mobile before, but the new one is great. Check it out at m.crunchbase.com. The homepage is mainly a search box for that one hot startup you’re trying to look at, with links for trending companies, news and funding below. The top nav bar reveals a few more options like “newly funded.” When you click on a company, you’ll see a chronological list of all the main info you’d want — general info, people, acquisitions, investments, funding and competitors. If there’s a lot of info in any segment, like a long list of executives, just swipe to scroll through. Here’s the kicker. This mobile site is temporary. Our growing team of engineers, designers, community managers and analysts (which we need to hire more of — info here if you’re interested) has a big overhaul coming next year, and it’ll include a fully responsive site for any mobile device. Stay tuned for that. Since this is iterative news, I also asked the CrunchBase team for some non-vanity stats about how they’re doing so far. Turns out August was its biggest traffic month ever, according to president Matt Kaufman, with 1.7 million monthly uniques, 2.5 million visits, and 6.6 million pageviews. Traffic has been growing well ever since the team got going at the beginning of the year, and with it hitting records this summer, we think it’ll be huge down the road.Gillmor Gang Live 09.06.13 (TCTV)
Sep 06, 8:06PM
Gillmor Gang - Robert Scoble, Keith Teare, John Taschek, Dan Farber, and Steve Gillmor. Live recording session today has concluded. Dots Implements Its First-Ever, In-Game, $ponsor$hip
Sep 06, 7:23PM
betaworks-backed Dots has today announced its very first sponsorship/native advertising deal with GE. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. As part of the sponsorship, Dots is releasing a special update with a new version of gameplay called Gravity Mode.This Week On The TC Gadgets Podcast: Disrupt <3′s Hardware, Nokia Goes To The Mall, And Galaxy Gear
Sep 06, 7:00PM
TechCrunch Disrupt starts on Monday, so that's on all our minds for this week's TC Gadgets Podcast. Hardware Alley showcases gadget startups on September 11, and if you're still looking for hardware fixes there have been plenty this week, including Microsoft acquiring Nokia's devices wing, and Samsung's new Galaxy Gear smartwatch.Cory Booker Is Stepping Down From Waywire's Board As The Company Seeks A New CEO
Sep 06, 6:55PM
Newark mayor and Senate candidate Cory Booker is announcing today that he will be stepping down from the board of the company that he founded last year, according to a source familiar with the campaign's plans. The departure leaves just one of Waywire's three co-founders at the company, which is still in private beta and in search of a new CEO.Energy Excelerator, The Accelerator For Clean Energy Startups, Receives $30M From The Navy
Sep 06, 6:01PM
Energy Excelerator, a Hawaii-based accelerator program for cleantech start-ups, has received an investment of $30 million from the Navy’s Office of Naval Research under the Asia Pacific Technology Education Program. It’s a significant investment in a sector that has struggled to raise money from venture capitalists because of its large capital requirements and low, slow returns for investors. This latest commitment from the Navy triples the funding that Energy Excelerator has operated on in the three years since its founding. The program’s seed funding came from the Department of Energy, said Dawn Lippert, Energy Excelerator’s Senior Manager. Energy Excelerator works with seed- and growth-stage companies building energy solutions that can be applied in Hawaii. Seventeen startups have graduated from the program thus far, half of which were founded in-state. Their products, which span hardware and software, include electronic bicycles, an inverter to charge electronic vehicles using DC solar power, and a system to grow algae for biofuel. Hawaii is in many ways the perfect environment for energy start-ups, said Lippert. Electricity costs three to four times more than it does in the continental US, meaning young energy companies can compete economically, and the government is motivated to become less oil dependent. Sun, tides, and three growing seasons provide the resources for alternative energy, while the state’s military bases provide locations to test their systems. “The Department of Defense saw the model and liked it and decided to back it [through the Navy]. The DoD really sees the value of Hawaii as a place to roll out early innovation companies, and they’re hungry for technology that solves energy problems, specifically in Hawaii and Asia Pacific. We actually have been working with the DoD as a strategic customer. All of the different bases provide a good place to demonstrate the technology, so they’ve decided to get on board.” Although some venture capitalists are in the cleantech game, Lippert said that it is particularly difficult for these startups to find funding. In April, the San Jose Mercury News reported that global clean technology venture investment had dropped 33% from 2011 to 2012, from $9.61 billion to $6.46 billion, and that first quarter figures from this year were down 30% from the fourth quarter of 2012. Those figures come from the research firm Cleantech Group. On the announcement of its second class last year, the San Francisco-based cleantech accelerator Greenstart told TechCrunch that itMicrosoft Untethers OneNote For iPad From The PC, Now Lets Users Create New Notebooks On The Go
Sep 06, 5:45PM
Microsoft's OneNote note-taking app for iPad and iPhone got a small but important update today that finally makes the iPad version a completely stand-alone experience. Until now, you couldn't create new notebooks from the iPad, so you were always forced to go back to the desktop or web version sooner or later. With today's update, Microsoft is adding this feature, as well as the ability to finally add, rename and delete sections in existing notebooks on the iPad.Now UK Nationwide, The £100M Angel CoFund Is Able To Super-Charge Angel Syndicates
Sep 06, 5:23PM
UK startups raising financing have a new route to funds in the shape of a government-backed fund which can supercharge an Angel round with extra funds. The Angel CoFund is a UK government-backed £100m fund able to make initial investments of between £100,000 to £1 million into businesses, alongside syndicates of business angels. Launched in November 2011, it was an early backer of Yplan, the events app which this year raised $12 million, PlayJam (a games maker for smart TVs). The fund started out investing in just some parts of the UK, but now it works nationwide. And It's now had its first exit in its short, two year history.OS X Mavericks Most Likely Arriving In October, Reports Claim, Perhaps Alongside Haswell MacBook Pros
Sep 06, 5:22PM
Apple's next-generation operating system for desktops, OS X Mavericks, is already in the hands of developers, but we likely won't see version 10.9 make its way to consumer devices ahead of October. Some rumors had suggested Apple might ship the OS at its iPhone even next week, or another time during September, but both 9to5Mac and AllThingsD are now reporting late October for Mavericks' arrival.That Was Fast: Nokia Draws Down The $2B In Convertible Bonds Offered By Microsoft Earlier This Week
Sep 06, 5:01PM
If we needed some more confirmation of how urgent the financial situation was over at Nokia, we got a glimpse of it today. The company announced that it would be drawing down the €1.5 billion ($2 billion) in convertible bonds offered to it by Microsoft earlier this week at the same time as the announcement of its $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia's mobile phone business. Nokia says it will be using the proceeds towards its acquisition of outstanding NSN shares, "and for general corporate purposes." They will be issued on September 23.Pinterest And Path To Battle Over Letter "P" Logo Trademark
Sep 06, 4:53PM
Are the Path and Pinterest logos too similar? Path apparently thinks so. The mobile messaging startup is currently working to prevent Pinterest from acquiring the trademark to the letter "P" as a stylized design (like the one shown here, and below). The U.S. trademark office allowed Pinterest's trademark registration on this proposed design mark, but recently Path asked for an extension in order to file an opposition.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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