Startups
Auto Added by WPeMatico
SimplePrints Launches “Photo Magic,” A Photo Book Publishing Service That Works Over SMS
The growth in shopping-by-SMS services knows no bounds, apparently. The latest entrant into the field is now Photo Magic – no relation to on-demand delivery service Magic. (Or perhaps the company is aiming for brand confusion?). The new service is an offshoot of the photo book publishing company SimplePrints, which currently offers mobile apps that allow consumers to build books by… Read More
Powered by WPeMatico
Spotify’s Latest Trick Is A Personalized News Feed-Style “Discover Weekly” Playlist
Knowing what to play next is the biggest problem with streaming music services, but most solve discovery with clunky, unfamiliar blog-style tabs you’re supposed to browse. Listeners are accustomed to playlists, so Spotify’s latest attempt to unlock its catalog is an algorithmically personalized playlist called “Discover Weekly”. Users will start seeing it soon, and you… Read More
Powered by WPeMatico
How I Got Wooed By Startups As An Intern
My life changed when I got a job at a startup. I was 19 years old and had just finished my first year at the University of Michigan. By some stroke of luck I managed to land a software engineering internship at a venture capital-backed startup called UpTo. Located in downtown Detroit, I actually stayed on with them on and off throughout most of college. Read More
Powered by WPeMatico
VPN Maker CyberGhost Aims To Grow A Privacy Hub In Eastern Europe
Earlier this year a London-based cyber security incubator called CyLon opened its doors. Now Europe is getting a pro-privacy bootcamp program, with bootstrapped Romania-based VPN startup CyberGhost this week kicking off a search for startups wanting support to build privacy tech. Read More
Powered by WPeMatico
Welcome To The Unicorn Club, 2015: Learning From Billion-Dollar Companies
It’s been over a year since we wrote our original post sharing our analysis of the last decade’s most successful U.S.-based, venture-backed tech companies. In that piece we focused on the many entrepreneurs and investors who seek to build big, revolutionary companies valued at a billion dollars or more. Read More
Powered by WPeMatico
The Benefits Of Being A Total Zero
“There are three types of people,” astronaut Chris Hadfield told me. “-1, 0, and +1.” When a business fails it feels like a -1. When a relationship fails, often it’s because I’ve been a -1. Certainly stalking and begging and crying has made me a -1 many times. When I clam up in my shell, refusing to take responsibility, afraid to return calls, afraid to… Read More
Powered by WPeMatico
Meetings That Don’t Suck
For most of us, and certainly for most of your team, meetings are the least productive part of our day. Yet too many brilliant people are stuck in too many meetings. Meeting cultures begat more meetings, and the downward cycle continues, crippling productivity and crushing psyches. Read More
Powered by WPeMatico
Smart Bed Startup Luna Joins Y Combinator, Has Raised $1.3M In Private Funding
Luna had a successful crowdfunding campaign earlier this year, raising more than $1 million for a mattress cover that adjusts temperature, tracks your sleep and connects to other devices. Now the company is sharing more news. It’s part of the current class of startups at incubator Y Combinator, and it has also raised $1.3 million in funding from private investors — roughly the… Read More
Powered by WPeMatico
Homejoy Is Shutting Down At The End Of The Month
On-demand house cleaning service Homejoy is shutting down, after talks of an acquisition by its biggest competitor and a failure to raise enough money to keep things moving. Employees Wise Up
This week, a Bay Area founder was taken aback when an engineer being recruited by his startup asked for both its cap table and information regarding the liquidation preferences of its venture backers. The candidate presumably “worked somewhere where he discovered that these things matter,” says the founder, who asked not to be named in this story. Read More
Powered by WPeMatico