Startups
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Two years after launching, Casper prepares for European expansion
It’s been exactly two years since Casper started selling mattresses, and CEO Philip Krim said it’s already turned into a big business, with $100 million in revenue (not to mention a $550 million valuation) in 2015. Next up is international expansion, with the New York City-headquartered startup opening an office in Berlin. That office currently has four employees, but Krim said… Read More
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mNectar introduces force touch to its playable ads
mNectar allows mobile game developers to promote their games with ads that people can actually play before downloading. That means its technology needs to evolve with the games, so now it’s announcing support for force touch interactions. Also known as 3D touch, the term refers to touch interfaces that are affected by the amount of pressure applied by the user. mNectar CEO Wally Nguyen… Read More
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Medium raises another $50M
Medium, the online publishing platform led by Twitter co-founder Ev Williams, just announced that it has raised $50 million in Series C funding. It’s been less than a year since Medium raised a $57 million Series B, but Williams wrote that the company decided to raise additional funding “to bolster our resources now given the demand we’ve seen for the vision we are… Read More
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Why startups can’t disrupt the mortgage industry
Home loans are the Holy Grail of online lending. They come with high loan balances, steady returns and hefty fees. There also is a healthy liquid market for the securitized loans, and the debt is asset backed, which reduces risk and opens up the investor pool. On top of that, “establishment” mortgage lenders are not leading the pack with innovation, which means there is a lot of… Read More
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Plastiq lets you pay any bill with your credit or debit card just by snapping a photo
A new iPhone application launching today called Plastiq lets you pay any bill with your credit or debit card just by snapping a photo. The goal with the app is to offer something designed for mobile, that’s also more convenient than using a bank’s online bill pay feature. And more importantly, it allows bills to be paid with plastic – hence the name – as opposed to… Read More
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Swarm now lets users check-in without sharing their location
Swarm, the gamified check-in app from Foursquare, has today launched a new feature that will let users check in to locations without sharing that location with their group of friends. The company is calling these private check-ins ‘off-the-grid check-ins’ and users will be able to activate them through a toggle in the check-in portion of the app. Foursquare originally launched Swarm… Read More
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Tripping.com sees non-hotel lodgings draw “420-friendly” travelers
A search engine that lets travelers find and book a stay in non-hotel lodgings, Tripping.com, has detected a burgeoning “budbnb” trend in Colorado. San Francisco-based Tripping.com aggregates vacation rental listings from the likes of HomeAway, Booking.com, VRBO and other sites, and shows travelers the best prices on available lodgings. It currently lists about 8 million… Read More
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Shots acquires Mindie to build a teen video app empire
Mindie does with soundtracks what Instagram did with filters: It makes boring imagery interesting. And with the insane amount of video that teens are sharing, the music-video-making app seemed too useful to die when its creators shut down Mindie in December. So Mindie’s technology is getting dug out of its grave thanks to an acquisition by Shots, the selfie app turned comedy feed backed… Read More
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Rolltape adds Radio feature so you can share voice messages with the world
Rolltape is a voice messaging app that’s supposed to help you share personal, emotional moments with friends. Now, with the launch of Rolltape Radio, it can help you share those stories on a broader scale. The change is pretty straightforward. Previously, Rolltape messages (which are recommended to be five minutes or less, but have no hard limit) could only be shared with friends,… Read More
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Snapchat’s new Bob Marley filter prompts ‘blackface’ backlash
Happy 4/20 day everybody! To celebrate, Snapchat teamed up with the estate of Bob Marley, and the results were … unfortunate.
Snapchat created a lens that makes your face look more like the legendary musician’s by adding Marley-like features — a cap, dreadlocks, a beard and darker skin. Amusing? Probably for some users, but it comes with some really awful historical… Read More
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