You know that prime commercial location on State Street that keeps on churning out failed businesses? First it was a Moe’s Southwest Grill, then a Fudruckers, then a Goodwill, now it’s vacant again. The developers just can’t seem to figure out what the people want. At best, though, running an in-depth competitive analysis and digging through an…
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With cash-strapped governments and businesses spending less on R&D in the wake of the economic crisis, innovation may be in jeopardy. Meanwhile, some capital-intensive startups struggle to borrow from friends and family or secure investment from VCs. This was true for entrepreneur Dan Gutierrez, who was building a cloud-based database service called HostedDatabase.com in 2000….
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We all know that content is “king.” Thoughtful, meaningful, original online content garners high SEO results – true back in the early days of search engines, and still true now. However, if content is king, then smart and thoughtful user-generated content about your company is, well, pure gold. And like gold, you have to sift…
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Instead of grumbling about potholes and all those other things their local government has yet to fix, CitySourced users have been making themselves heard since 2009. The Los Angeles-based startup lets users submit video, audio, or photo evidence of local issues related to public safety or the environment: on the app, I saw reports on…
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Out of gift ideas for your dad, who already has everything, or your cousin, who you barely know but you’re her Secret Santa? Take a look around San Francisco-based Wanelo, a socially-curated store and bookmarking tool that can help you find, save, and share interesting and unique products online. Wanelo, whose name is derived from…
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Fresh from its official public launch, MentorMob has declared that the “race to disrupt education is on.” Organization in online learning is the goal. With the abundance of quality and free material on the web today, the team at this startup aims to bring cohesion to this valuable, yet currently disorganized, information. MentorMob is a…
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During my freshman year in college – way back in 1993-94 – I somehow always knew where the parties were before and during the weekend. And somehow, everyone knew to ask me. Looking back, it just amazes me that information like that spread – and was accurate – as we were relying on a very…
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Online advertising is such a crapshoot. If you don’t do it right, you end wasting a lot of time and money. Boulder-based startup Trada crowdsources online advertising by harnessing the expertise of creatives and those in advertising to provide you with an optimized ad/image combination. Until today, it was only available for Google, Yahoo, and…
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If you’re a creative, you’ll want to watch this short video interview with Scott Belsky, founder of Behance, who spoke with Frank Gruber as part of our Delivering Happiness interview series. Behance is the largest online network of creative professionals in the world. They totally rethought the portfolio so creatives can really show off their…
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The first attempt to classify and define the words and phrases of Indian English was in 1886, when Henry Yule and AC Burnell compiled the “Hobson-Jobson.” Last month, four guys launched Desi humor site Samosapedia, a new crowdsourced and modern-day take on deciphering the terminology of global desi culture and language. Part dictionary, part open…
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According to the NVCA and Thomson Reuters, Q3 was a big ouchie for venture capital firms. In fact, only 5 venture-backed companies provided liquidity via IPO exits last quarter. This was down 77% from the 22 companies going public in Q2. The last quarter was a heart breaker for venture capital managers who were counting on the robust bull cycle that started…
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Smartling, the language translation service for websites and apps that we previously covered, has launched a new service for small businesses today. The New York startup updated its platform with new features, like a style guide and a glossary for translators, and a new interface targeted at small businesses and non-technical staff. “The meek and…
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Shout, a month-old, crowdsourced project platform for women in digital advertising and marketing, has a very modest goal as you can see in the above title. They also have a very unusual business model that compensates each member for their idea, whether or not the client picks it. For all of us who have gotten…
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The startup life can be an uncertain one. You have an idea for a product or service that you love. Your inner network loves it, too, but how can you be sure it has mass appeal? What if you pour your time, money and talent into something, only to find out no one really wants…
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As a full-time editor, I’m acutely aware that the world is in desperate need of editing, from typos on companies’ About pages and press releases, to hastily written term papers. Kibin, which recently survived demo day at 500 Startups, prides itself on its community of editors intent on correcting these pesky mistakes. “I view it…
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In 2006, when Jeff Howe hailed “The Rise of Crowdsourcing,” the phenomenon was unfamiliar even to his Wired audience. Five years later, “crowdsourcing” is an overused buzzword and websites are swarming with free content. To restrain the masses, many of them are applying filters: it’s the rise of curated crowdsourcing. Released in theatres in July,…
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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