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Monkeying Around At The TC Disrupt Hackathon
Sep 08, 2:16AM
It's not often that we get to see the Crunchies Monkey. When he's not busy shopping at the Facebook Store or taking a Lyft from Square to the TechCrunch office, he's usually working hard to identify the hottest new startups to launch every year. Today, the TC Disrupt Hackathon got a surprise visit from the Crunchies Monkey, who had fun giving high-fives and seeing what folks are hacking on.CrunchWeek: Samsung's Galaxy Gear, Microsoft-Nokia, And Braintree Acquisition Talks
Sep 07, 10:05PM
It's that time of the week for CrunchWeek, the show that brings a few of us TechCrunch writers together in the TCTV studio to chat about the most interesting tech news stories from the past seven days.The TC Disrupt Hackathon 2013 Is Officially Underway
Sep 07, 8:01PM
The TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon not only marks the beginning of Disrupt SF 2013, but it also marks the beginning of potentially hundreds of new products, services, and gadgets.The NSA Can Read Some Encrypted Tor Traffic
Sep 07, 5:44PM
Security expert Robert Graham has done a bit of research and posts that the encryption standard used by earlier versions of the "secure" Tor protocol is most probably insecure and readable by the NSA. The vast majority of Tor servers run version 2.2 of the software which uses 1024 bit RSA/DH encryption. This is the same encryption standard that has been publicly cracked by the NSA and can be subverted in a few hours using very expensive custom chips.The Hash-Hole, And 6 Other People That Ruin Instagram
Sep 07, 5:16PM
Facebook may have a billion users, and Twitter may be raking in the revenue, but if you were to ask the next young, hip person you saw which social network they love most, odds are they'll name Instagram. But as Instagram grows, annoying behaviors sprout up like weeds. Beware, dear Instagrammers, these pitfalls that will make people hate you. (Or worse, unfollow you.)Gillmor Gang: Running On Empty
Sep 07, 5:00PM
The Gillmor Gang — Robert Scoble, Dan Farber, John Taschek, Keith Teare, and Steve Gillmor — why September 10 will be a turning point for Tim Cook, why the Microsoft/Nokia acquisition/Ballmer resignation had it backwards, why iWatch stands for software not hardware. Confusion makes for interesting times, or something like that. We're caught in a vortex of boredom, say some of us, waiting for rescue by a leader with a dream. But while we wait, the house of cards known as the technology business continues its dramatic push forward, with no end in sight. It's a Golden Age of the Movies, a Renaissance of the Possible, a time to enjoy the show.It's Almost Time To Throw Out Your Books
Sep 07, 1:00PM
The near-unthinkable has happened. The dinosaurs are finally evolving. The publishing industry's long war against technology, the future, and its customers may finally be coming to a close.VC, Startup Survey Addresses Whether Patent Assertions Help Or Hurt, And What To Do If You Get Hit
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.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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