Hi there!
Here's the latest feed from TechCrunch.
Add feeds@feed2email.net to your contact list to make sure you receive all your emails
Make sure to visit feed2email.net to get more feeds sent to your inbox.
To find out which feeds you are subscribed to, or to get further help, just reply to this email.
Software For Auto Repair: With New Funding In Tow, Estify Sees Big Opportunity In An Unsexy Market
Sep 28, 6:43AM
The collision industry probably doesn't rank at the top of the "Sexy Markets" list for startups, but sometimes the most obscure, fragmented and pulchritudinously challenged industries can offer the most opportunity to those willing to grit their teeth and immerse themselves in the mess. Estify, a graduate of Amplify LA's business accelerator, is doing just that. Co-founders Jordan Furniss, Derek Carr and Taylor Moss went looking for the most unsexy market they could find, with bonus points awarded for both size and level of inefficiency. They quickly found their Shangri-La: The collision and auto repair market.Where Webvan Failed And How Home Delivery 2.0 Could Succeed
Sep 28, 4:00AM
Webvan is well-known as the poster child of the dot-com "excess" bubble that led to the tech market crash in 2000. Business schools study Webvan's overly ambitious rush to the biggest IPO to date in Silicon Vally, as a prime example of what to avoid doing while scaling. Are those mistakes being repeated a dozen years later in the slew of activity -- even excitement -- in the home-delivery space?Chasefuture's Platform Coaches Mainland Chinese Students On University Admissions
Sep 28, 3:19AM
The allure of top-tier Western universities isn’t lessening anytime soon for the hundreds of thousands of Chinese high school graduates emerging out of the country’s best schools. That’s why a host of different startups helping mainland high school students with admissions like InitialView have cropped up in the last year or two. Chasefuture, a one-year-old startup from serial entrepreneur Greg Nance and Han Shao, is looking to be the go-to place for students across mainland China to study abroad in the U.S. or Europe. They are a platform that connects alums and admissions officers from top-tier Western universities to serve as mentors for students across China. “We basically bootstrapped our way to a top position in the study abroad consultation market,” said Nance, who moved to Shanghai a year ago after finishing up at Cambridge University’s business school. Chasefuture, which has 450 paid clients, is aiming to 10X that year to more than 4,000. They connect applying high school students to real admissions experts and mentors who are alums of their desired schools. Two-thirds of the company’s clients are in China, while the rest are mainly international students in the U.S. aiming for masters or Ph.D’s. So far, they’re sending 17 students to USC, 16 to Columbia University, 16 to Imperial College in the U.K., 11 to the London School of Economics, three to Cambridge’s business school for a master of finance. They have basic products that help with admissions essays and choosing schools, then higher-tier packages that can cost several thousand dollars depending on how much hands-on help a client wants. But they’re also particularly picky about who gets to join the program, with a 10 percent acceptance rate. (One could argue, of course, that they’re cherry-picking the candidates with the best chances anyway.) Nance says the company’s addressable market in China is maybe a quarter million students, who are looking to study abroad. To attract mentors, they look for alums or existing admissions experts who they pay about $40 an hour as a base. Nance says this is more than double what other competing platforms pay. If they are able to refer other quality mentors, they get a bonus as well.JustFab's Checkout Tactics Are JustShady
Sep 28, 2:53AM
This Hacker News complaint about JustFab scamming a user's girlfriend -- which gets resubmitted whenever JustFab raises money -- is a little off, because JustFab is not a scam in the traditional sense. The company is, however, abusing a tricky UI, loaded with dark pattern design gimmicks like forced continuity and sneak into basket -- all in the name of getting customers to sign up for a JustFab VIP membership they may not have wanted.Palantir Is Raising $197M In Growth Capital, SEC Filing Shows
Sep 28, 1:13AM
Palantir, the big data company that has counted the NSA, the FBI and the CIA among its clientele, is raising up to $196.5 million in growth capital, according to an SEC filing. The company declined to say who the new funding was from, according to Lisa Gordon, who handles media and government relations for the company. Another source close to the company says the round is also not finalized yet. Morgan Stanley is managing the deal, according to the filing. Forbes reported last month that a round could value the company at between $5 and 8 billion. Founded back in 2004, the company was the brainchild of Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel, who believed that the payments company’s anti-fraud technologies could be used to fight terrorism. Current CEO Alex Karp, Joe Lonsdale (who went on to found Asia and Silicon Valley-focused investment firm Formation 8), Stephen Cohen and chief technology officer Nathan Gettings put together an initial product. It’s now become an analysis platform that government agencies use to manage the war against terrorism and drug trafficking. Palantir’s platform pulls disparate reams of data and puts them together in a way that makes otherwise hard-to-detect patterns and connections much more visible to users. It’s since grown into a business that Karp says may do $1 billion in contracts next year. It is not yet profitable, however. The company’s earlier investors include Founders Fund, Yelp’s Jeremy Stoppelman and Ben Ling among others.Wish, The App For Logging What You Want, Launches A Complementary Gifting Feature
Sep 27, 11:39PM
Well, folks, it’s September. The holiday gift giving season is ON! Wish, the mobile shopping app that lets users create lists of items they would like to purchase later, has launched Gifting, a feature that enables others to purchase and ship products to their friends. It draws from users’ existing wishlists and uses them to predict other items they would like. It’s a frazzled gift giver’s dream. Gifting has been part of the plan since the inception of the app, Wish CEO Peter Szulczewski said, which makes every bit of sense, since it’s the natural other half to wishlist creation. At this point, Wish is seeing half a million people on the app daily, at an average session length of 29 minutes. According to Szulczewski, sending presents was already a use case among Wish users prior to the feature’s launch this week. In looking at transactions, the team realized that people were requesting different shipping addresses for their purchases in order to send items to their friends. In addition to allowing users to create and share targeted wishlists (the easiest way to get it right), Gifting also predicts items that friends most want and uses social integration to notify users on their friends’ birthdays. “We use collaborative filtering in the same way that Amazon.com uses it,” Szulczewski said. “People that buy this will also buy these items.” As Szulczewski explained, the Wish demographic skews toward the young and female. Gifting is a way to access an older demographic, like fathers who don’t really know what to buy their daughters, nieces, or granddaughters. While there are a slew of gifting apps out there — like Giftly for gift cards, the locally-focused Yiftee, Karma, and Wrapp — the fact that Wish draws on pre-existing knowledge of the recipient’s likes ups the giver’s odds of nailing it. Wish has been bulking out its features this summer, having launched Wish Closet in late July to provide users a platform to resell their clothing. The plan is to grow internationally. Currently 55% of usage comes from North America, although there are growing communities in Europe and Latin America, which Szulczewski said present huge opportunities to grow the brand.Microsoft Extends Its Trade-In Program: $200+ For Your "Gently Used" iPhone 4S, 5
Sep 27, 11:32PM
Microsoft wants to take your Apple product off your hands, today expanding its trade-in programs to allow owners of dated iPhone hardware to cash in their now-passé electronics. If you own an iPhone 4S or 5 that is “gently used” and not much worse, Microsoft will offer you no less than $200 for it. The kicker? The funds come in the form of Microsoft Store credit, so you are trading in your Apple hardware for the chance to buy Microsoft goods. What does Microsoft want? That you drop that iPhone off with them and wander out with a Surface 2 pre-order or a Lumia Windows Phone handset. Microsoft has cash and wants market share; this is a natural outgrowth of those two facts. Microsoft also has in place a deal that will grant store credit for iPads. In short, if you have an Apple device that Microsoft competes with – recall that Microsoft doesn’t build PCs that are not tablet-based, through its Surface line – it wants to buy it from you and get you onto its own hardware. In a way the move is ballsy: Microsoft is betting its own money that you will be content with its wares after a long stint on Apple silicon. And it is paying to make the wager. Precisely what Microsoft intends to do with all its accumulated Apple hardware remains opaque. Microsoft is in the process of purchasing Nokia’s handset business, and recently announced new Surface hardware that replaces its first-generation attempts at OEM supremacy. Expect more moves like this to support Microsoft’s yet-nascent devices business. Top Image Credit: brett jordanFormer Microsoftie And Googler Lucovsky Leaves VMware For New Project, No Word On Chairs Thrown
Sep 27, 11:11PM
VMware VP of Engineering Mark Lucovsky is leaving the virtualization giant for a ‘new chapter’ he’s referring to as ‘#nine’ on Twitter. Lucovsky has been with VMware for around four years and before that held positions at Google and Microsoft. VMware told GigaOm that “during his more than four years at VMware, Mark Lucovsky has been an important contributor to the company's developer efforts as a Vice President of Engineering, including his work to help establish VMware's Cloud Foundry which is now part of Pivotal. We thank Mark for his contributions and wish him well.” At Google, Lucovsky served as an engineering director working on its API strategies. Since he went there from Microsoft, where he worked on Windows NT, a lot of people read into his hiring as a harbinger of a ‘Google OS’. Lucovsky spent 16 years at Microsoft working on a variety of projects including the ‘open web’ project HailStorm, which never quite materialized. He was awarded the title of ‘Distinguished Engineer’. Though he worked on many projects during his Microsoft tenure, the most memorable anecdote of his career there undoubtedly came when he told CEO Steve Ballmer that he was going to leave for Google. A statement given in a corporate poaching case between Microsoft and Google back in 2004 paints a vivid picture: Prior to joining Google, I set up a meeting on or about November 11, 2004 with Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer to discuss my planned departure….At some point in the conversation Mr. Ballmer said: "Just tell me it's not Google." I told him it was Google. At that point, Mr. Ballmer picked up a chair and threw it across the room hitting a table in his office. Mr. Ballmer then said: "Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy. I'm going to fucking bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to fucking kill Google." …. Thereafter, Mr. Ballmer resumed trying to persuade me to stay….Among other things, Mr. Ballmer told me that "Google's not a real company. It's a house of cards." Lucovsky only used the cryptic hashtag to indicate what he might be up to next, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled for more. It is doubtful any chairs were thrown when Lucovsky turned in his notice after 5 years with VMware.Agolo Aims To Algorithmically Curate Your Twitter Feed
Sep 27, 10:33PM
For all the good it's capable of, Twitter is all too often a cacophonous mess of marketers, celebrities, talking heads, and friends who all like to jabber at the same time. Sage Wohns and Mohamed Altantawy are co-founders of a New York startup called Agolo, and as far as they're concerned, not every bit of information pouring forth from that social firehose is worth paying attention to. Instead, they want to home in on just the stuff that's important to you and make sure you see if before it's too far gone to catch up with.
Airbnb Victory In NYC: Environmental Control Board Reverses $2,400 Fine On Renting Out A Room In An Apartment
Sep 27, 9:59PM
A big regulatory victory for Airbnb today: the company has managed to win an appeal in New York City over a fine against a host called Nigel Warren, whose landlord was fined $2,400 in June after Warren rented out a room in his apartment. If the fine had stuck, it would have set a business-threatening precedent for Airbnb in the city.Ask A VC: Emergence Capital Partners' Kevin Spain On The Next Disruptions In Health Tech And More
Sep 27, 9:39PM
In this week's TechCrunch TV's Ask A VC show, we had Emergence Capital Partners' Kevin Spain in the studio to talk about his perspective on investing in health tech and more. Spain, who has led investments in the LinkedIn for physicians Doximity, and social health management platform Welltok, talked about where he sees some of the next disruptions in the health tech world. He also sees potential in applications using Google Glass, and mobile-first technologies. We also chatted about corporate acquisitions and the acquisition environment in general (prior to his career in VC, Spain was a senior member of Microsoft's Corporate Development group).Shyp Raises $2.1M To Pick Up And Ship Your Stuff
Sep 27, 9:02PM
I don't consider myself a lazy man. To the displeasure of many a recent startup, I like to do stuff for myself. I like to clean my own house. If I want a Philly Cheesesteak from Philadelphia, I think "I should go to Philadelphia!" and then don't and then eat Quiznos and feel sad. But man, do I hate shipping things.Microsoft Increases Windows 8 And 8.1 App Roaming Limit To 81 Devices
Sep 27, 8:36PM
At its Build developer conference earlier this year, Microsoft announced that it planned to increase the roaming limits for apps purchased in its Windows Store. As the company announced today, that limit is going to be 81 (and yes, that's Microsoft trying to be funny). Starting October 9, users will be able to install all Windows Store apps on this many devices – provided they are all associated with a single Microsoft account.Gillmor Gang Live 09.27.13 (TCTV)
Sep 27, 8:14PM
Gillmor Gang - Robert Scoble, Kevin Marks, Keith Teare, John Taschek, and Steve Gillmor. Live recording session for today has concluded. Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/GillmorGangEbay Acquires "Content Meets Commerce" Shopping Site, Bureau Of Trade, As Its Personalization Efforts Heat Up
Sep 27, 7:47PM
eBay has acquired online marketplace for men’s shopping Bureau of Trade, the company announced today. Founder Michael Phillips Moskowitz is joining the eBay Marketplaces team, where his focus will be on helping eBay improve its personalization efforts. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it was an all-cash deal and an “acceptable” and positive (if not stellar), outcome for Bureau of Trade’s investors. The startup had raised $1.2 million in seed funding in a round led by Foundation Capital, with contributions from Founder Collective, FF Angel, Courtney Holt on behalf of the Techfellows Fund, and other angel investors. The deal speaks to eBay’s increasing efforts to modernize its website by experimenting with new kinds of shopping experiences. The first results of Moskowitz’s work at eBay will be seen as early as this fall, we’re told. Though Moskowitz declined to discuss Bureau of Trade’s sales or user numbers, he said that the company’s blending of content meets commerce had proven to drive up the sales price for items on the site. “The average good on eBay will sell at X purchase price. That same piece of merchandise when covered by the Bureau – when written about by us – created in many instances a 50 to 100 percent price increase. That’s profoundly valuable,” he says. He hints that there’s something interesting in the works with what he’s learned through Bureau of Trade that’s now coming to eBay, but couldn’t provide details. Bureau of Trade remains online for now, and will have some sort of “big surprise in store this fall” with regards to its future. Sometime in either November or December, the site will introduce “something you’ve never seen before,” Moskowitz teased. (TechCrunch has seen quite a lot, actually, but he swears it will be new.) In fact, Moskowitz says he can’t even tell us his title at eBay, because it’s a role that has never before existed and would give away too much. eBay, he notes, now has his startup Bureau of Trade, plus other acquisitions like Svpply and Hunch, which he describes as a “triumvirate that’s uniquely positioned to do something catalytic and game-changing later this fall. We’re all working together symbiotically,” he says. As you may recall, eBay had first announced a Pinterest-inspired redesign last October, which featured an image grid and improvements to site search. That revamped homepage was then rolled out to all U.S. customers in February, with eBay toutingSwiftype Raises $7.5M From NEA To Develop A Smarter Search Engine For Web And Mobile Sites
Sep 27, 7:43PM
Swiftype, a Y Combinator-backed startup that creates a smarter search engine for websites, has raised $7.5 million led by NEA, with angel investors participating. The startup previously raised $1.7 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Ignition, CrunchFund and angel investors. NEA partner Jon Sakoda will join Swiftype's Board of Directors as part of the financing.TechStars London First Cohort: Our Three Favorite Startups From Demo Day
Sep 27, 7:27PM
The TechStars inaugural London Demo Day boasted an impressive group of companies, but we put our heads together and came up with a consensus decision on our top pick, as well as a couple of runners up for the show. The best presentation and interview went to OP3Nvoice, a company already decently well along to becoming a market leader with a dozen customers and a market reach of a million users.This Week On The TC Gadgets Podcast: Steam News Breaks While We Record, Surface Sequels And Adobe Gets Mighty
Sep 27, 7:00PM
A rare treat this week as you can hear the TechCrunch team react to breaking gadget news (the Steam Controller, to be specific) live as it unfolds. It's like being inside our brains without the echoes and cobwebs. We also cover the big Surface 2 reveal, Steam OS and the Steam Box announcements, and Adobe's Mighty hardware.Evernote Updates Its Business Product With Social Features And Salesforce.com Integration
Sep 27, 6:33PM
Evernote today announced version 2.0 of its business product, appropriately called Evernote Business 2.0. CEO Phil Libin introduced the product onstage at Evernote's EC3 conference and said it will be released next week. In its first nine months, 7,900 companies have signed up for Evernote Business (which was announced at last year's conference). Libin emphasized that at its core, Evernote Business is just the consumer Evernote app, but with additional features like shared notebooks that allow teams to work together. That's still true in version 2.0, but the company has added some additional features on top of the app, many of them social.A New Batch Of Socially Conscious E-Commerce Startups To Put On Your Radar
Sep 27, 6:24PM
Is #FeelGoodFriday a thing? With the launch of e-commerce site Zady last month, we’ve been keeping our eye on other conscious consumerism startups in the pipeline. Here for your consideration, three newcomers to the transparency scene and one new program from the three-year-old Everlane. Such startups don’t come without skeptics. It’s hard to shake the feeling that socially conscious ecommerce sites are just paying lip service to ethical production. Videos can be fudged, factory workers asked to smile, manufacturing cycle infographics simplified and rendered in cheery colors. Without actually visiting a production site in person, who’s to say we’re not all being played? It’s hard to know for sure. But as Nielsen pointed out, consumers are increasingly willing to spend more on goods from socially conscious companies. Savvy entrepreneurs should be looking to capitalize on this. And they are. Given Goods Newly launched e-commerce site Given Goods is an impact-driven decor, kitchen, and accessories site. Rather than revealing the production process, Given Goods’ product descriptions speak to who benefits from each purchase. It may be the makers themselves — as with a glassware company that gives jobs to unemployed individuals in Idaho — or the brand may donate a percentage of each purchase to a particular organization or charity. The site includes the all-but-obligatory impact map to help consumers visualize where their goods are coming from. RVNA A startup called Runa (stylized RVNA) is opening an Indiegogo campaign in October to raise around $20,000 to get its Colombia-sourced fair trade clothing line off the ground. They are promising three things on the transparency and impact front: showing customers exactly how much the main worker in the production process was paid, a video profile of said worker upon purchase, and follow-up videos to track that worker’s progress. The micro-collection they’re showing now has a clean, simple aesthetic, and with it Runa is hoping to shake the somewhat frumpy image of fair trade clothing. The startup’s target audience is young professionals in their 20s and 30s — a cohort that can and will pay for ethically produced goods. If they meet most of their crowdfunding goal, the plan is to have the e-commerce site up and running by March 2014. Everlane Everlane has built its brand on a clean, classic aesthetic and on transparency in the manufacturing process of its goods. Through their Everlane Explores videos, they’ve been working to give customers a behind-the-scenes (albeit edited) look at the factoriesIf 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.
To stop all future emails from feed2email.net you can reply to this email with STOP in the subject line. Thanks
