Talk to many programmers, and they’ll tell you they’re the unsung heroes of the modern world – toiling away on work their superiors dictate at the last minute, interrupted during their flashes of genius, and generally misunderstood by the masses. More seriously, we all have a psychological desire to have our successes acknowledged, and San…
Read More
If you are a startup founder or small business owner, it goes without saying that you are severely crunched for time. How does a platform that brings together a powerful web presence, social networking, e-commerce, and business management tools in one place sound? Pretty good, right? Last night at our DC Winter Mixer, I got…
Read More
I’m a native New Yorker, so I am pretty psyched that the Giants are playing in the Super Bowl today. Still, I have to admit – I watch the Super Bowl for the commercials – but I really look forward to the game because it’s a great excuse to cook some awesome food and open…
Read More
Entrepreneurs tend to have really interesting back stories, but I’ll go out on a limb and say it’s super rare to meet one who went from attorney to retail manager to entrepreneur. “I started working at Best Buy because I kept asking my little brother for discounts,” said Will Fuentes, CEO and co-founder of Lemur…
Read More
Imagine this: you wait too long to buy a plane ticket to Austin for SXSW, and now you need to drive 1,500 miles or so. From, like, Washington, DC. But that’s OK, you just recruit friends who also waited too long to buy their tickets and turn it into a road trip – a mobile…
Read More
Plink, a Facebook Credits-based loyalty program that rewards Facebook users for their offline purchases, officially launched yesterday. The concept isn’t new: Sign your credit or debit card up on their website, make a purchase from one of the participating restaurants or retailers, and start earning rewards. What makes Plink different is the blending between offline and…
Read More
When Jay Chahil started working in DC, he’d go out to lunch with coworkers every day – like most young professionals. “I began to realize that everyone else was pretty much doing the same thing and missing out on meeting new people. I also noticed a lot of people eating alone,” he said. “I wanted…
Read More
This morning Viddler announced some major changes to how their video platform is going operate moving forward, including a simpler interface, removal of extraneous features, and providing more in-depth enterprise solutions for small to large businesses. This transition began earlier last year when Viddler decided to conclude personal account sign ups. Due to a host of…
Read More
It’s Friday. Your plans just fell through. It’s 8pm – the night isn’t getting any younger. You’ve worked hard all week, and you’re determined play. You don’t know what to do. More accurately, you don’t know what there is to do. Sponto does. This DC-headquartered, location-based social networking mobile app allows users to see what…
Read More
Pinterest is extremely addicting – maybe moreso than Facebook for some people. But if you use it regularly, I bet you are frustrated by at least one of the following problems: frequent 502 errors, show-stopping bugs, lack of privacy settings, and inability to use it on your iPad. Meet Juxtapost, a simple-to-use social discovery website…
Read More
Facebook owns social. LinkedIn owns professional. How about recreational? “The bet we’ve made is that people have 3 big persona’s in their life: social, professional, and recreational,” says Gabe Lozano, LockerDome Co-Founder and CEO. ”We want to cover recreational – an area that we believe people are more passionate about than any of the…
Read More
It’s no secret that social media is an important part of managing a brand’s customer relations and marketing. Facebook and Twitter have become popular channels for customers to recommend or trash products and brands, as well as places for brands to connect with their existing and potential customers. Many companies offer tools and services aimed…
Read More
Early this morning a new social network that focuses on quality, rather than quantity, of relationships launched publicly to beta testers. Much like Path, Ourspot focuses on creating a platform for only the closest relationships, but on a web instead of mobile platform. And much like Pintrest, this new service encourages users to tag inspiring…
Read More
We like to share. We share what where we are. We share what we’re doing, and who we’re doing it with. We share what we’re eating. We share what we’re watching. We share what we’re listening to. But there seems to be no consensus favorite service to share what books we are currently reading. Readmill…
Read More
Last week, a new Facebook application borrowing on Second Life’s theme of an alternate, digital reality, announced it’s launch. Much like Second Life, Dot Friends is a virtual landscape where friends can hang out, chat, buy virtual products, but .Friends ties in a Facebook users’ profiles, allowing a more seamless transition into their offline worlds. “While…
Read More
When Locai launched at the 2011 SXSW Conference, they were quite taken aback by the competition and the noise surrounding location-based services and apps. They quickly decided to make adjustments to differentiate themselves, so they shifted focus from consumers to businesses and launched a platform that lets you create a community around a brand, retail…
Read More
There are a number of startup accelerator and incubator programs in the United States. We are fans of these programs (not to be confused with... Read More
Two months after the iPad 2 debuted in March, around 40% of users surveyed said their iPad was their primary computer, up from around 30%... Read More
With our Startup Mixology Conference coming up next week followed by our classic Tech Cocktail DC Summer mixer which will showcase a handful of early-stage... Read More
Coming off of one of our biggest Tech Cocktail mixer events in Chicago this past week, which showcased 14 early-stage start-ups, we thought it would... Read More