With the struggling economy and lack of jobs around the country, we are seeing a rise in student entrepreneurship. Apparently students today are not content with just trusting their luck at getting a job after graduation day. And as students take matters into their own hands, they are also organizing, forming clubs where they can…
Read More
Steve Case and Ted Leonsis, the pioneering founders of AOL, want to give back to the community that played home to their media enterprise’s early success. Frustrated by local businesses having to look toward Silicon Valley for the financial assistance necessary to grow, Case, Leonsis, and partner Donn Davis have raised enough capital to start…
Read More
Two Sundays ago, Kevin Dubs found himself at the center of innovation at the DCWEEK Hackathon. Kevin, the Founder and President of LoyalCurve, a mobile technology-based customer loyalty platform for small businesses, left his day job to become a full time entrepreneur. He decided to make this leap right before DCWEEK so he could attend as many events as possible during…
Read More
Fortify.vc isn’t your standard Venture Capital firm, at least not the type of firm we’ve become use to in the DC region. There’s just something different about the firm’s partners Jonathon Perrelli and Adam Fazackerley. They talk differently, they’re approachable and pragmatic where others are distant and theoretical. The most important difference to early stage entrepreneurs…
Read More
Washington, DC and its entire metro area have produced many successful tech companies in the past. America Online rooted itself in the region a couple of decades ago, and, more recently, companies like Blackboard and LivingSocial have been focal points in the tech-web-entrepreneurial action. Since 2007, we’ve been following, covering and connecting the DC tech…
Read More
Herndon, Virginia-based Network Solutions was acquired by Web.com today for $405 million in cash and were issued 18 million shares of Web.com common stock, in addition to refinancing existing net debt of Network Solutions and paying certain fees. The estimated total value of the deal is just over $56o million. Network Solutions has been around…
Read More
TechWomen is a professional mentorship and exchange program enabling women in the field of technology from the Middle East and North Africa to reach their full potential. The pilot program kicked off in April and offered 37 women selected from the Middle East and North Africa a chance to gain valuable mentorship experience by pairing…
Read More
Yesterday, I attended the first ever Twitter Town Hall at the White House featuring President Barack Obama. The event was moderated by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and was well attended. I was extremely thankful and excited to attend the event. I even got to be the last person to shake the President’s hand as he…
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 DC area startups, we thought it would be fun to do a quick community poll. While DC has birthed a number of start-ups that have found great success over the…
Read More
Following the Startup Mixology conference, Tech Cocktail invites all friends, technology enthusiasts, innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, developers, designers and social media folks from across the DC region to join us for an evening of fun as we showcase a number of emerging technology companies and take a closer look at their latest achievements. Please join us:…
Read More
We introduced the Startup Mixology conference last fall in Chicago to offer attendees a chance to learn the various ingredients that go into starting and running a business directly from a solid group of entrepreneurs, thought-leaders and creatives. The event was very well received, so we decided to bring it back on June 16th –…
Read MoreEditor’s Note: This article was contributed by Washington, D.C. based Glen Helman, an angel investor and serial entrepreneur, who works for venture capitalists as a turn-around specialist. Glen is regular contributor to Tech Cocktail. There is no denying it that when it comes to fashion and investing, DC is a conservative town. We’re not fashion trendsetters, and…
Read More
Daily deal and flash sale sites have been popping up, just as Groupon and LivingSocial have grown to dominate the major markets. With this rise of social commerce there have been an increasing number of niche sites that cover one particular market segment very well. A good example is Urban Escapes which was gobbled up by LivingSocial last year and…
Read More
Email is an every day necessity, but it can be somewhat overwhelming to keep up with. With the trend towards real-time communications, many people use email like chat, making it even more difficult to stay on top of it. As a result, email can end up dictating your daily workflow routine. Shortmail has been created to help…
Read MoreIn an up year of venture capital investing, the fourth quarter of 2010 was a downer. This was particularly true in DC, where venture capitalists (VCs) invested $143 million dollars in 23 companies. That compares to Q3 2010 where $260 million was invested in 33 companies. Feeling bad about that? Let me make it worse….
Read MoreWith all the social media profiles and services out there, online reputation has become a hot topic. Products like Unvarnished (now Honestly.com) raised a stir as people were rated by anonymous users on the Web. Products like Blippr have also emerged to enable users to socially share ratings on apps, books, movies, and music. Taking…
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
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