Online music services are gaining popularity, and they can be the gateway to millions of listeners. But indie bands may have trouble breaking into Pandora channels, Turntable.fm rooms, and Spotify playlists. Chicago startup SoundOff.fm wants indie bands to be heard. According to its founders, “SoundOff.fm was started to give indie artists a real chance at…
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Genevieve Thiers, founder of the immensely popular Sittercity and the Small Business Administration Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006, is at it again: this time with a startup called Contact Karma. Contact Karma provides recommendations for B2B services like consulting, IT, legal, and event planning, based on ratings by users in your network and…
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For most women, planning a wedding is both exciting and extremely stressful. There’s plenty of information out there to inspire and help you create the perfect event, but how can you sort through it all and find the best ideas? NYC-based Lover.ly is a visual search engine for wedding planning that lets brides hone in…
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It’s always so exciting for us when a startup with potential that we cover lands funding. Udemy, which I wrote about way back in March, just closed $3 million Series A financing from Lightbank, the Chicago-based VC fund started by the co-founders of Groupon. Existing investors MHS Capital and 500 Startups also participated. Founder and…
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Brazen Careerist is a career-management site for Gen-Y professionals – a feisty, tech savvy group that is the fastest growing segment of the working population. For Gen-Y’s, the line between work and life is more blurred than for baby boomers – likely their parents – or for Gen-Xers – likely their bosses. Gen-Y’s want to…
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diyFractional, a NYC-based shared ownership startup I covered back in April, has been rebranded as Jointli.com. Not only has the look of the site been updated, from the home page to the listings, but there have been major changes made based on user feedback. Here is a rundown on the biggest changes: “There’s so much…
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Hungry for Mexican? What about pizza, sushi, or kebabs? Baltimore-based startup LocalUp Solutions, which I covered back in June, has just announced the launch of their newest online food ordering site on their home turf. EatBmore.com features listings and menus for more than 150 local restaurants, a premium advertising platform for local restaurants, and an…
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I have a passion for startups with a mission to do good. They combine two of my favorite things – (1) creating something from scratch and growing it into a useful product or service, and (2) working to solve a social or environmental problem. So, anytime I come across a social entrepreneur, I get excited….
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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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Like to save the stuff you find online? What about carrying your inspiration and ideas with you when you are decorating your apartment, shopping for the holidays, or planning an event? Pearltrees, a social bookmarking service and direct competitor to Pinterest, which I covered this summer and which just received $27m in funding from Andreessen…
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Looks like SitterCity might have some competition on their hands with the launch of San-Francisco-based UrbanSitter. Founded by a group of parents, UrbanSitter is smartly leveraging the connections of us parents on Facebook to help us find babysitters. However, they’re only in San Francisco for now, so if you live elsewhere in the US (like…
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NYC-based startup ConvoNation, which launched 2 weeks ago, wants to fill the online conversation gap between our abbreviated 140 character thoughts on Twitter and often-mundane and highly personal status updates on Facebook. Their goal is pretty lofty – bringing serious conversation to social media – but they could be on to something for all the…
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I love cars, but I – like pretty much everyone else – hate the car buying experience. It’s not just that I feel like I’m being had – I do for sure! – but the process takes so long it’s painful. Who wants to spend a beautiful Saturday shuttling between the lot and the sales…
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Sick of daily deal sites yet? We stumbled across a new one that is actually pretty interesting. So, in yet another twist on the daily deal site, we have 3 week old NYC-based startup Stampede.It. Their group buying site is for digital goods and services like mobile apps, social games, ebooks, and web apps. So…
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If you’re looking for a new way to engage with your target market and cut through the noise on social media, check out Vizlingo, a new platform that animates each word of a message or post with a video clip. For now, you can only copy the link to the video and share it on…
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“It’s all about the people” is a phrase I’ve heard several times in Korea, and it also helps explain Seoul startup Partymonster, which offers discounts in one of the most social, “who you know” industries: nightclubs. “The lofty goal is to become what Live Nation is in the United States,” says Mike Sim, who met…
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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
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
We are excited to announce the participating startups for Tech Cocktail's South by Southwest (SXSW) event: #Startuplife Celebration presented by .CO. It was one of... 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