We already covered a couple times (here and here) how this years Super Bowl would be different as it offered more social and mobile interactivity than ever. Now I want to focus on the fact that a few of the Super Bowl advertisements put technology, innovation and entrepreneurship as their focal point. Best Buy’s Super…
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Yesterday, Salesforce announced the launch of Desk.com, a new social help desk product built by the Assistly team, which was acquired last September. We have been following the progress of San Francisco-based Assistly, syncing up every few months with founder and CEO Alex Bard since their creation and participation as a San Diego startup showcase…
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TabbedOut, a free mobile payment app we’ve covered in the past, has a new CEO with big plans for the company. Paul Fiore is replacing co-founder Rick Orr, who will stay on as Executive Vice-President. If you haven’t heard or used TabbedOut, it lets you pay a bar or restaurant tab in real time from…
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Today marks the one year anniversary of Startup America. To mark the occasion, there are 14 different regional events happening, the first being a Startup Virginia early breakfast meeting with Steve Case and Aneesh Chopra, and more, which is happening right down the street in Arlington, Virginia (we attended). Other events will include a startup…
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What are the odds of seeing the founders of Twitter, Tumblr, Groupon, Dropbox and Wikipedia; the CEOs of eBay, Salesforce, Audi and Lufthansa; and Yoko Ono and Arianna Huffington in one place? Pretty high if you attended this year’s DLD conference in Munich. DLD (Digital – Life – Design), a global conference on innovation, digital…
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An amazing thing happens when you are socially connected. When your Facebook friends expand from the cities you have lived in to your past jobs, or you find yourself in a complete life change that pushes you to meet new people, you want to get past the online to meet people in person…a novel concept…
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Did the allure of launching a startup make its way to your 2012 “this year I am going to finally do it” plan? Have you been putting together your business plan and feel the pulse of your entrepreneurial spirit quicken as you get closer to Day One of launching? Unfortunately along with the excitement of…
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…if there were like 5 Goliaths, and David was a very cranky old man, whose primary weapon was whining instead of a slingshot and the battle took place over a binary digital battlefield instead of the valley of Ellah. Otherwise, it’s just like David & Goliath 2000 years later. The Startup America Partnership is harnessing…
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If you are just starting a business or creating a new product line or service offering, I bet you’re struggling to come up with a name for it. That’s not surprising—good branding is hard work. It takes dedicated time, thoughtfulness, and research. Here are three sure-fire ways from an intellectual property perspective that can really…
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As I mentioned in a post earlier this week, the number of accelerators and incubators is rapidly growing all around the globe. TechStars not only runs amazing programs themselves, but they also have a network of other independent accelerators in the US and abroad to whom they provide consulting and ongoing assistance. Springboard, which is…
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Tech Cocktail has been a supporter of the Startup America Partnership since its inception early last year, and now the organization is getting ready to celebrates its first anniversary (next week)! How time flies. It’s been exciting to watch the organization blossom and roll out various programs for entrepreneurs, from Startup Illinois, the first state to launch a program…
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DreamIt Ventures recently announced DreamIt Israel, the first hybrid Israel-United States accelerator program. DreamIt has run several high-profile accelerator programs out of both Philadelphia and New York, and has launched such names as SCVNGR, Take the Interview, Postling, Adaptly, Notehall, among others. This will be their first international version. This four month program begins on…
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Blank slate has never been so colorful. At last year’s SXSW, Tech Cocktail covered a new robo-ball-toy called Sphero. The robotic ball, controlled by your smartphone, puts a heavy emphasis on design. While the ball’s clear exterior rotates in order to achieve movement, the interior remains balanced. The result- Sphero’s bottom half continually faces the…
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It is certainly no secret that raising money for your startup requires that you have a proven product, a solid customer acquistion strategy, and a sustainable business model. If you’re in DC, though, you have a bit of an uphill battle, as Uppidy founder Josh Konowe shared with me yesterday. If you’re not familiar with…
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The entrepreneur that brought you a wealth of hilarious and embarrassing text messages is now devoting her time to Banters, a platform for sharing quotes. Cofounder Lauren Leto started the site, then called Bnter, in 2010. It recently changed its name to Banters and launched a new iPhone app that integrates with Siri for recording…
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In the rapidly expanding world of incubators and accelerators, TechStars stands out as the Yale of law schools or Harvard of business schools. More than 1,200 companies will apply for the 12-15 spots available in the New York 2012 spring class. This past Saturday, about 70 companies were invited to participate in TechStars for a Day (TS4AD),…
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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