Today announcements were made that both Chicago-based Local Offer Network and Austin-based GameSalad, both of whom have participated in Tech Cocktail events in the past, have received funding. We are happy to see the continued success of these two companies. Local Offer Network, who we have previously covered, aggregates more than 1,500 group buying offers…
Read MoreDuring SXSW, we hosted 30 of the SXSW Accelerator finalists at our SXSW Tech Cocktail event. The 32 finalists were whittled down to 12 for the launchpad competition. They included news-related, social media, social networking, entertainment, music, and web technology startups. We also would like to point out that 5 of the 6 startups that…
Read MoreDuring the Tech Cocktail SXSW event presented by LiveShare from Cooliris, attendees were sharing photos in real-time using LiveShare’s mobile application. The application had an event group which we also projected onto large jumbotron screens installed inside the venue. This made for an interactive experience as attendees could share and interact with the photos from…
Read MoreWith the launch of the Windows Phone 7 last year (we hosted preview events in Chicago and DC) we are excited to be working with Microsoft at SXSW for the second straight year. Last night they hosted a Mobile App Smackdown developer competition at our Tech Cocktail SXSW event–think Iron Chef meets mobile development. Working in partnership…
Read MorePeople have gathered together to play games like chess, checkers, jacks and mahjong, for pretty much forever. Classic games like these, based around real physical objects are the inspiration for Sifteo, a San Francisco-based company that has meshed this type of tactile, classic game fun along with full-color, motion-sensing technology.
Read MoreDetermining how users interact with your website or view your product’s messaging is a major challenge. Various testing methods exist such as analyzing click-throughs or the movement of a mouse, but what everyone wants to know – where is the eye drawn to first? GazeHawk will tell you.
Read MoreCollecting, aggregating and visualizing geospatial data from on-the-ground sources are three critical features of Ushahidi, a crowdsourcing application which has been used to aggregate information in the aftermath of the earthquakes in New Zealand, Chile, and Haiti, as well as wildfires in Russia. For those who set out to use this open source software, it’s…
Read MoreGroup text messaging is a trend we mentioned as one to watch in 2011 and sure enough, Facebook validated that yesterday by acquiring group texting app Beluga. We think it’s going to be huge at SXSW this year, so we are excited to be working with DC-based startup Groupflier which we will use to share…
Read MoreTrying to remember the name of a song you heard? There is an iPhone app that can help by allowing you to sing a tune and it will help recognize it. Khush is the company behind the slick karaoke application for the iPhone called LaDiDa that allows users to sing into the phone. The application analyzes…
Read MoreA few weeks ago we interviewed Chris Valentine about the 2011 SXSW Accelerator program. We were excited to share we would be working with SXSW again this year as we host one of our classic Tech Cocktail SXSW mixer events on March 13th (so mark you calendars and save the date) and RSVP today. The…
Read MoreMobspot, a showcased startup that demoed at the TECH cocktail SXSW: Blackout Sunday event in Austin and a SXSW Accelerator finalist, has released the Mobspot Facebook Application so that Facebook users with iPhones can now see which apps their friends actually use and like. As written about previously, Mobspot wants to solve the problem of mobile app…
Read MoreWe had a great time at South by Southwest last week in Austin, Texas. The TECH cocktail team attended the interactive event to cover the conference, festivities and host TECH cocktail SXSW: Blackout Sunday presented by Microsoft BizSpark and Volusion. The event showcased 30 startups (25 SXSW Accelerator startups and 5 BizSpark startups) and drew…
Read MoreWe just returned from a very busy seven days at South by Southwest Interactive in Austin, Texas where we hosted TECH cocktail SXSW: Blackout Sunday showcasing 30 startups to a crowd of close to 1000 attendees. Plus our fabulous team of TECH cocktail writers did a great job covering the conference festivities pumping out over…
Read MoreAndrew Keen is no stranger to notoriety and criticism. His book “The Cult of the Amateur,” published in 2007, drew some harsh feedback from the technology community, as he argued that: “a sea of amateur content threatens to swamp the most vital information,” and “blogs often reinforce one’s own views, rather than expand horizons.” As you…
Read MoreEditor’s Note: This is a warning, this article is a TOTAL GEEK FEST! Proceed at your own risk. Now that’s out of the way, let me tell you about a terrific session I attended early on Sunday morning titled “Beyond LAMP: Scaling Websites Past MySQL.” Now by trade, I am a systems engineer and do a…
Read MoreEver had an idea for a cool game you wanted to play on the iPhone or even your desktop and frankly you just didn’t have the technical know-how to get the job done ? Of course, we all have. Now you can remove the barrier of technical know-how because the folks over at GameSalad have…
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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