Craig Ulliott started the Facebook app Where I’ve Been as a side project while he was working as a freelance web developer. Within a few days, usage of Where I’ve Been exploded, and within a month, Craig had to figure out how to support his growing user base of around a million users. A problem most…
Read MoreThough some entrepreneurs might be interested in creating a product that could quickly be sold to Google, Microsoft, Twitter or Facebook, building a business can sometimes take a little bit of time. Chicago-based couplepreneurs Genevieve Thiers and Dan Ratner know this as they are currently working on building their third startup together. Their last startup…
Read MoreVideo sharing site Vimeo has just launched Vimeo Video School – an effort by the company to create “a fun place for anyone to learn how to make better videos”. The proliferation of video capturing devices that shoot high definition video images (e.g. smartphones, digital cameras, etc.) has made almost everyone a videographer. Vimeo aims…
Read MoreLook at your inbox. Now look at me. Look back at your inbox. Is it full of lame holiday emails from your dentist and other service providers? Mine is. But then I saw this holiday video from First Round Capital. Two parts creativity, three parts humiliation for all involved is a recipe for a thoroughly…
Read MoreBack in October, we produced a full day conference called Startup Mixology in Chicago. Over twenty amazing entrepreneurs, investors and experts took stage to share their advice. We knew that this was a special event and wanted to capture some additional words from our experts before and after they hit the stage. For this video…
Read MoreLooking to enhance visual language both online and off, The Noun Project is an interesting project we came across on Kickstarter this past week lead by Edward Boatman of Los Angeles, California. The Noun Project looks to collect and organize all the symbols that form our language into one easy-to-use online library that can be…
Read MoreWhen Jake Nickell started the popular crowdsourced t-shirt design site Threadless in Chicago 10 years ago, he thought he’d be holding down a typical 9 to 5 with room for a life outside of his t-shirt making hobby. But Jake’s hobbie turned into a real business and has been one of the most interesting crowdsourcing…
Read MoreStart-up Snapstick promises that with the flick of a wrist you’ll be able to transfer video content from your iPhone or iPad onto your TV. How does it work? The Snapstick team gave CNET a sneak peak of the software that makes an iPhone/iPad act like a remote to transmit the content on the device…
Read MoreThe way to launch a new startup, product or company has changed a lot in the last decade. Just five years ago the blogosphere was the best way to plant the seeds to launch your startup. But what was once just a blogosphere of voices has morphed into a social media empowered age where everyone…
Read MoreGoogle has produced a gadget showing top search terms for 2010. The look back includes views by region, topic, and popular category. Chatroulette took the top space for the fastest rising global search term, while iPad took the top spot in the US. Watch the video (above) for quick look back at 2010 in search.
Read MoreIf you’re active in social media, you’ve probably thought about reciprocity on one level or another. Perhaps someone has been very generous in re-tweeting your tweets. Maybe some person or company rep reached out and offered you some suggestions after they saw a complaint you posted online. Or maybe you’ve even created a legion of…
Read MoreWe’ve known Phil Tadros for a long time. He’s had products like TextHog and MetroProper featured at Tech Cocktail Chicago mixers and most recently spoke at our Startup Mixology Conference. Aside from his startups, Phil Tadros also owns 13 coffee shops in Chicago and runs his own interactive agency called Doejo. He told me he…
Read MoreNOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 14 through November 20, 2010, as National Entrepreneurship Week. I call upon all Americans to commemorate this week with appropriate programs…
Read MoreWe were in San Francisco in September to host a classic Tech Cocktail mixer event which rallied together the local technology community and featured 10 early-stage startup companies. ABC 7 Bay Area News joined us for the occasion and talked to a number of entrepreneurs, angel investors and VCs who were in attendance. They then…
Read MoreChicago-based news aggregator, WindyCitizen.com, offers a way to see what’s happening around Chicago. It’s like a Chicago focused Digg. In browsing the site it appears to be running on the traditional advertising model. But a closer look reveals the ads aren’t just regular banner ads; they’re real-time ads, created by founder Brad Flora himself. I…
Read MoreOne of my favorite quotes from the recent Startup Mixology conference came from entrepreneur-turned-adviser and investor, Travis Kalanick: Fear is the disease, Hustle is the antidote. Since I saw those words up on the screen, they haven’t left me. You see, Tech Cocktail is a startup too – and we also have a product that…
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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
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
We are excited to announce the participating startups for Tech Cocktail's South by Southwest (SXSW) event: #Startuplife Celebration presented by .CO. It was one of... 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