If your new startup is trying to rise above the noise and get noticed – and looking for funding – you might want to move headquarters to Ohio and/or hire a female CEO. Brandy Wimberly, Founder and CEO of Toledo, OH-based Buyvite, a group-buying platform, told me that it seems there’s a lot more money…
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Back in July when I first covered Buyosphere, the Montreal-based startup felt like an iteration of Pinterest – you could curate collections of products, find interesting products through friends, and establish yourself as a tastemaker. I was skeptical about the future of the company – and said so. Co-founder and CEO Tara Hunt replied to…
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Yesterday in Pittsburgh, Innovation Works’ AlphaLab startup accelerator program launched another 6 companies at its demo day. Twice a year, up to 6 promising companies are selected to participate in the 20 week program. The current group of companies has been at it since June and have worked with mentors, advisors, and the Innovation Works…
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Take the Interview, a new cloud-based video interviewing software platform that just demo’d at Tech Cocktail Boston, announced today that they received $775,000 in seed funding from an undisclosed investor. According to founder Danielle Weinblatt, the cash infusion will be used to build a sales and marketing team, attend conferences, create new features for the…
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Ben Yoskovitz is a founding partner at Year One Labs, an early-stage seed accelerator in Montreal. Last September, he and his three partners accepted their first class, including recent graduate and now seed-funded Localmind. Yoskovitz is a serial entrepreneur whose recruitment-software startup, Standout Jobs, was acquired in 2010. From running startups to advising new entrepreneurs,…
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According to a 2010 Harris Interactive/McAfee survey, fifty-one percent of teens say they have given out personal information online to someone they don’t know in the offline world. uKnow.com is looking to make the online space, where so many kids and teens spend their time, a safer place. The company announced last week that it…
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Everloop, a protected online social network for children, recently landed $3.1 million in seed funding from vFormation, Band of Angels, Envoi Ventures, and individual investors including Richard Chino, Wayne Goodrich and Deena Burnett-Bailey of Angels of Hope. In a nutshell, Everloop is like Facebook designed for kids under the age of 13. Created by three…
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In Pittsburgh yesterday, AlphaLab, the three year old startup accelerator program which is part of Innovation Works, one of the most active seed-stage investors in the country, hosted their annual demo day launching five new startups. Innovation Works has created such successes as ModCloth which has raised $19.8 million in funding and mSpoke which was acquired by…
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Social + TV is becoming a hot new trend for startups. We’ve recently covered Watchparty.tv and TweePlayer; the newest entrant to this category is Brooklyn-based SocialGuide. SocialGuide’s goal is not only to make TV-viewing a more social experience, but also to help you find programs to watch when it appears there is nothing on (despite…
Read MoreIn their lofty, bright office space in the West Loop of Chicago, I recently got a chance to visit Sandbox Industries, a Chicago-based venture firm since 2003 investing in businesses a number of different ways in the Midwest. While attending a community building “lunch with a friend” meetup, I got to meet members of the…
Read MoreIt’s been far too long since we have hosted our last TECH cocktail Chicago event so we are excited to announce we will be hosting the TECH cocktail Chicago 13 mixer event in the Windy City on Thursday, May 13th. The event will take place in the Wrigleyville neighborhood at John Barleycorn and will showcase…
Read MorePostling, a New York-based startup co-founded by David Lifson, Chris Maguire and Haim Schoppik, announced they have raised $350,000 in seed funding from angel investors including Dave McClure, Chris Yeh, Gary Vaynerchuk, Thomas McInereny and more. $200,000 of that was raised in just six days by David while attending SXSW. I like to think we gave…
Read MoreSeed funding programs have been popping up everywhere the last few years and we have worked with many of them from TechStars, LaunchBox Digital and DreamIt Ventures among others as we help amplify the local startups in those various communities. We are excited to connect with the latest seed funding program in our hometown of…
Read MoreA bunch of companies I’m involved in have gone for seed funding in the last few months. After one of them asked for the ultra-warrior-l33t-skillz, I thought I’d put this post up and break it down. If any of you are raising your first startup or seed money, this is a must read. Would love…
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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