As the clock ticks down on 2013, I thought it might be fun to look back at the most popular stories of the year in the two sections I edit: Xconomy San Francisco and Xperience, our new consumer section.
The links below are ranked by page views. Many of these stories, you’ll notice, are slide shows, which are perennial crowd-pleasers—readers just can’t help clicking all the way through to the end.
A few of the popular pieces this year were breaking news stories; others were policy stories, commentaries, or fun features. Overall, the lists are a pretty good representation of the kinds of innovation coverage we strive to bring you every week.
The Top 15 Stories of 2013 at Xconomy San Francisco
1.Testing the Bay Lights: Stunning Photos and Video—A look at the Bay Lights Project, a network of 25,000 LED lights that has turned the San Francisco end of the Bay Bridge into a giant, ever-shifting computer display.
2. This is What You Want Your Next Startup’s Office to Look Like—A tour of Microsoft subsidiary Yammer’s ultra-modern new office space on Market Street in San Francisco.
3. California to Hit Startup Founders with Big Retroactive Tax Bill—The commentary from entrepreneur Brian Overstreet that launched a major political movement in California. Under Overstreet’s leadership, a group called California Business Defense eventually stopped a plan to collect retroactive tax payments from investors who’d taken advantage of a now-defunct tax exemption for small business investment income.
4. Y Combinator Unleashes 47 New Startups, from the Cloud to the Crowd—A rundown of the startups graduating as part of the Winter 2013 class at Mountain View’s Y Combinator startup accelerator.
5. Meet the Unsung Angels of Silicon Valley—We rounded up 18 of the most active yet under-recognized individual investors around San Francisco and Silicon Valley and summarized their investing specialties and philosophies.
6. Meet the 14 New Rock Health Startups Innovating in Digital Health—A report from the February 2013 demo day at San Francisco-based healthcare startup accelerator Rock Health.
7. Meet the 46 New Y Combinator Startups, from Bitcoins to Bots—A look at the startups graduating as part of the Summer 2013 class at Y Combinator.
8. Makers on the Waterfront: Inside Autodesk’s New Pier 9 Workshop—A photographic tour and feature story on Autodesk’s prototyping playground just off San Francisco’s Embarcadero.
9. Stanford’s StartX Launches 10 New Startups: The Story in Pictures—Photos from the eighth demo day at StartX, the accelerator for Stanford-affiliated startups in Palo Alto.
10. Matterport Isn’t Playing Games with Kinect-Style 3D Camera—This Y Combinator graduate is developing an affordable camera that designers, architects, and others can use to make 3D models of interiors.
11. Dropcam CEO’s Beef with Brogramming, Late Nights, and Free Dinners—A look at the unconventional approach to employee retention at San Francisco startup Dropcam, where staffers are (gasp!) encouraged to go home at 6 pm.
12. Building Biotechs to Last: The Photos—A slide show from our December 9 life sciences event, which featured big names like Isis Pharmaceuticals founder and CEO Stanley Crooke.
13. Who’s Investing in Food Startups? A Photo Gallery—A look at the speakers and attendees at a January 10, 2013, panel in San Francisco featuring venture capitalists, angel investors, and corporations investing in food-tech innovation.
