A few friends have asked me how my life has changed since I moved from Boston to San Francisco to open Xconomy’s Bay Area bureau. Do you want to know the real answer? I drink more. A lot more. In the Silicon Valley technology startup world that I cover, there’s at least one cocktail party, … Continue reading “A Silicon Valley Prescription for Boston and Other Startup Hubs: Throw More Parties”
Tag: Y Combinator
OhLife’s Daily E-Mails Motivate a New Wave of Online Diarists
This is the ninth in a series of profiles of companies funded this summer by Paul Graham’s Y Combinator startup incubator in Mountain View, CA. Dear Diary, This will be the last time I write in you. Your crisp pages and smooth leather cover have comforted me through many lonely nights. But I’ve found someone … Continue reading “OhLife’s Daily E-Mails Motivate a New Wave of Online Diarists”
Evernote Snags Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins Goes Social, Zuckerberg Speaks Out, & More Bay-Area BizTech News
Companies building cloud-based services got lots of attention last week, as did those building social applications. And companies building cloud-based social applications? Watch out! —Evernote, the Mountain View, CA-based online notekeeping service with nearly 5 million users, collected another $20 million in venture backing in a Series C round led by new investor Sequoia Capital. … Continue reading “Evernote Snags Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins Goes Social, Zuckerberg Speaks Out, & More Bay-Area BizTech News”
Mark Zuckerberg Goes to Startup School [Video]
In one of his first major public appearances since the release of The Social Network, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke onstage at Stanford this Saturday about why he started the company, why he moved it to Silicon Valley, and what he thinks about the controversial movie. (The gist of his review: amusing but … Continue reading “Mark Zuckerberg Goes to Startup School [Video]”
The $100,000 Taxi Ride, the $403M Exit for Google Ventures and iFund, CarWoo Goes National, & More Bay Area BizTech News
Columbus Day made last week a short one, but I don’t think many San Francisco or Silicon Valley innovators pay attention to this particular holiday, as there was no shortage of technology and business news. —My colleague Erin published a nice scoop about Baydin, a Cambridge, MA-based maker of e-mail management software whose founder won … Continue reading “The $100,000 Taxi Ride, the $403M Exit for Google Ventures and iFund, CarWoo Goes National, & More Bay Area BizTech News”
CarWoo Promises Car Buyers Hassle-Free Quotes Online, Raises $4.2 Million
The Internet was supposed to make car shopping easier, Tommy McClung is explaining. Back in the 1990s, sites like Vehix.com, Cars.com, and Autotrader.com promised a future where you wouldn’t have to haggle with a salesman, and where you didn’t have to drive from dealer to dealer just to see who could offer the best price … Continue reading “CarWoo Promises Car Buyers Hassle-Free Quotes Online, Raises $4.2 Million”
Boston vs. NYC vs. Silicon Valley? Forget It—The Real City of Innovation Is Everywhere
In William Gibson’s 1984 cyberpunk masterpiece Neuromancer, the hero Case lives in a near-future place called BAMA—the Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan Axis, aka the Sprawl, a giant city that has spread Coruscant-like across the whole eastern seaboard. (If it had extended to Orlando, maybe Gibson could have called it OBAMA.) But while this part of Gibson’s sci-fi … Continue reading “Boston vs. NYC vs. Silicon Valley? Forget It—The Real City of Innovation Is Everywhere”
Recurve Refines Energy Retrofits, Sungevity Helps Homes Go Solar, BrightSource Prepares for IPO, & More Bay Area Biztech News
Last week was an unusual one at Xconomy San Francisco: it was practically all energy news, all the time. —On Tuesday I profiled Recurve, a San Francisco startup that’s systematizing the science of home energy audits and retrofitting using its own in-house software. The company eventually hopes to conduct energy audits and retrofits on a massive … Continue reading “Recurve Refines Energy Retrofits, Sungevity Helps Homes Go Solar, BrightSource Prepares for IPO, & More Bay Area Biztech News”
Anybots, Y Combinator’s Housemate, Brings Remote-Controlled Robots to the White-Collar World
[Video included, please scroll down] Trevor Blackwell used to think that telepresence robots were all about manipulation: being able to grasp and move things from afar. So he and his colleagues at Mountain View, CA-based Anybots spent years building robots with beautifully articulated hands that users could operate over a standard Internet connection. The company’s … Continue reading “Anybots, Y Combinator’s Housemate, Brings Remote-Controlled Robots to the White-Collar World”
Google Sued by Skyhook, Big Funding Rounds for Crowdsourcers Get Satisfaction and uTest, & More Bay Area BizTech News
And I thought August was busy. As September entered its third week (where did the summer go, exactly?), the news on acquisitions, fundings, product launches, and lawsuits accelerated to a manic pace. —Google was on the receiving end of a pair of lawsuits filed by Boston-based Skyhook Wireless on Wednesday. A pioneer in location-finding software … Continue reading “Google Sued by Skyhook, Big Funding Rounds for Crowdsourcers Get Satisfaction and uTest, & More Bay Area BizTech News”
Do You Know Where Your Child (or Husband or Girlfriend) Is? Whereoscope Can Tell You
This is the eighth in a series of profiles of companies funded this summer by Paul Graham’s Mountain View, CA-based startup incubator, Y Combinator. Every day millions of people check in or submit geotagged updates using mobile-friendly services like Foursquare, Gowalla, Twitter, SCVNGR, Google Latitude, and Facebook Places, sharing their locations with the whole social-networking … Continue reading “Do You Know Where Your Child (or Husband or Girlfriend) Is? Whereoscope Can Tell You”
The Fridge: Private Mini-Facebooks that Put Social Networking in Context
This is the seventh in a series of profiles of companies funded this summer by Mountain View, CA-based startup incubator Y Combinator. Facebook is so dominant in the social-networking sphere that it’s easy to forget that there is any other model for socializing online. The reigning ethos in Facebook’s one-size-fits-all environment is that everyone should … Continue reading “The Fridge: Private Mini-Facebooks that Put Social Networking in Context”
How the B-School Dropouts at Bump Are Filling a Big Gap in Mobile Communications
During his first week at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business in 2008, David Lieb found himself meeting dozens of new classmates and typing their names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses into his phone’s address book, one by one. “There is this little loop running in my mind that’s always going, ‘Why are … Continue reading “How the B-School Dropouts at Bump Are Filling a Big Gap in Mobile Communications”
A Bidding War for 3Par, a Trademark War over Mafia Wars, a Barrage of New Y Combinator Startups, & More Bay Area BizTech and Life Sciences News
Tiny startups emerging into the public eye last week vied for attention with acquisitive giants like Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, and Google. —An as-yet-unresolved bidding war between Dell and Hewlett-Packard drove the proposed acquisition price for Fremont, CA-based storage virtualization company 3Par up to $30 per share. Dell’s original $18-per-share bid on August 16 was eclipsed by … Continue reading “A Bidding War for 3Par, a Trademark War over Mafia Wars, a Barrage of New Y Combinator Startups, & More Bay Area BizTech and Life Sciences News”
AdGrok’s Grandiose Proposition: Replacing the “Craptacular” Google AdWords Interface
This is the sixth in a series of profiles of companies emerging this summer from Mountain View, CA-based startup incubator Y Combinator. AdGrok is at an interesting point in its evolution as a startup. Right now, the company is probably better known for a series of controversial blog posts by its CEO, Antonio Garcia-Martinez, than … Continue reading “AdGrok’s Grandiose Proposition: Replacing the “Craptacular” Google AdWords Interface”
The Definitive Y Combinator Demo Day Debrief
“Mint.com for small businesses.” “Foursquare for sports games.” “Facebook without Facebook.” Comparing your idea to some existing and fabulously successful service, then saying why it will be even better, seems to be one of the modern formulas for pitching a startup—and it was on prominent display yesterday at Y Combinator‘s Demo Day, the culminating event … Continue reading “The Definitive Y Combinator Demo Day Debrief”
Rapportive’s “Social CRM” Gmail Plugin Makes E-mail Social Again
This is the fifth in a series of profiles of companies emerging this summer from Mountain View, CA-based startup incubator Y Combinator. When Google launched Gmail five years ago, a lot of people were freaked out by the keyword-based text ads that appeared alongside e-mail messages. The idea that Google’s algorithms were “reading” your e-mail … Continue reading “Rapportive’s “Social CRM” Gmail Plugin Makes E-mail Social Again”
Intel Buys McAfee, Facebook Challenges Foursquare, Zynga Acquires Conduit Labs, & More Bay Area BizTech News
Technology newshounds were torn last week between the old and the new. One analyst described Intel’s multi-billion-dollar takeover of McAfee as “a lot like a horseless-carriage vendor buying a leading supplier of buggy-whips.” There was far more buzz over Facebook’s new geolocation platform and what it might mean for competitors. The roundup: —In dollar terms, … Continue reading “Intel Buys McAfee, Facebook Challenges Foursquare, Zynga Acquires Conduit Labs, & More Bay Area BizTech News”
Hipmunk, Conceived by David Pogue’s Teenage Co-Author, Embarks On Mission to Make Travel Search Easier
This is the fourth in a series of profiles of companies emerging this summer from Mountain View, CA-based startup incubator Y Combinator. If anyone was ever predestined to be the co-founder of a Y Combinator-backed Web startup, it’s Adam Goldstein. He’s got the academic pedigree, having gotten his bachelor’s degree from MIT in electrical engineering … Continue reading “Hipmunk, Conceived by David Pogue’s Teenage Co-Author, Embarks On Mission to Make Travel Search Easier”
The Eyes Have It: GazeHawk Introduces Low-Cost Eye Tracking Studies for Web Designers
This is the third in a series of profiles of companies emerging this summer from Mountain View, CA-based startup incubator Y Combinator. In e-commerce, understanding the psychology of the all-important click is more art than science. No one knows for sure what stimulates Web page visitors to click on certain links and not others; all … Continue reading “The Eyes Have It: GazeHawk Introduces Low-Cost Eye Tracking Studies for Web Designers”
$52 Million for Solazyme, $25 Million for Nanosys, $7.5 Million for WePay, & More Bay Area Biztech News
The news in San Francisco and Silicon Valley last week hit every stage of the innovation process, from new tech companies being born to mature ones finding new investors, to old ones firing their CEOs and suing each other. —I profiled inDinero, a Y Combinator-backed startup offering an online finance tracking tool that it bills … Continue reading “$52 Million for Solazyme, $25 Million for Nanosys, $7.5 Million for WePay, & More Bay Area Biztech News”
InDinero Co-founder Sees “Humungous” Market in Small Business Expense Tracking
As the summer term for Paul Graham’s Y Combinator incubator program builds up to its climax—“Demo Day” pitches to investors on August 24—Xconomy San Francisco is profiling selected “YC S10” startups, beginning with inDinero. Jessica Mah had a problem. She was running a managed hosting company, renting Web server space to small businesses. Demand was … Continue reading “InDinero Co-founder Sees “Humungous” Market in Small Business Expense Tracking”
Angel Investing: The Most Satisfying Experience You’ll Ever Have
[Editor’s Note: On July 29, leading Silicon Valley angel investor Ron Conway, the founder of SV Angel, gave the opening talk at AngelConf, an afternoon conference for budding angel investors sponsored by the Y Combinator startup incubator program in Mountain View, CA. The following is an edited transcript of Conway’s talk, published by permission.] I’m … Continue reading “Angel Investing: The Most Satisfying Experience You’ll Ever Have”
IPOs Go Up, LinkedIn Finds a Nice Fit, Google Goes for a Slide, & More Bay Area BizTech News
Last week was another busy one for venture fundraising and acquisitions in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Fortunately, I got a lot of help this week from my San Diego colleague Bruce Bigelow, who reported on several stories affecting the Bay Area. —On Friday, Google confirmed earlier press reports that it had acquired San Francisco-based … Continue reading “IPOs Go Up, LinkedIn Finds a Nice Fit, Google Goes for a Slide, & More Bay Area BizTech News”
Lessons for Budding Angel Investors from Y Combinator’s AngelConf: Part 2
On Monday I published the first part of a double-header post excerpting the most interesting talks from last week’s AngelConf event at Y Combinator in Mountain View, CA. Attended by some 120 nascent angel investors—very few of whom looked more than 35 years old—the conference was designed to give a group of experienced angel investors … Continue reading “Lessons for Budding Angel Investors from Y Combinator’s AngelConf: Part 2”
Lessons for Budding Angel Investors from Y Combinator’s AngelConf: Part 1
You’ve been a part of the startup world for a while, and you’ve had a successful exit or two. You have some money laying around that you don’t know what to do with. You feel a vague sense of owing something back to the technology community, and you want to keep a hand in the … Continue reading “Lessons for Budding Angel Investors from Y Combinator’s AngelConf: Part 1”
Crocodoc Raises Cash, Upgrades Web-based Document Review Service
Today, many documents are not only born digital, they’re also born social. Companies like Adobe, Microsoft, and Google provide online tools where documents of many different types can be collaboratively generated and edited. The problem is that online editing is still a fragmented affair: If you want to mark up an Adobe PDF document with … Continue reading “Crocodoc Raises Cash, Upgrades Web-based Document Review Service”
Innovating Where Banks Won’t: Talking with Rich Aberman About WePay’s Vision for Group Payments
It’s too bad the economic collapse of 2008-2009 gave “financial innovation” a bad name, because the online banking and payments sector could actually use a lot more of it. When’s the last time your bank’s website surprised you with a cool new feature or service? For that matter, when’s the last time PayPal rolled out … Continue reading “Innovating Where Banks Won’t: Talking with Rich Aberman About WePay’s Vision for Group Payments”
Fear Not, Boston Entrepreneurs: Betahouse Is Expanding, Founder Says Local Techies Need More Confidence
Jon Pierce is an unassuming young man who just might hold the keys to the kingdom. The Boston tech startup kingdom, that is. OK, that’s the kind of bluster he probably hates to see, especially in the media. Pierce is about community first—and that’s why he’s particularly important. He is the founder of Betahouse, a … Continue reading “Fear Not, Boston Entrepreneurs: Betahouse Is Expanding, Founder Says Local Techies Need More Confidence”
Startup School, Round Two: The 2010 Xconomy Guide to Venture Incubators
A common trait among entrepreneurs is their distaste for working alone. Fortunately, there are programs across the country that aim to surround startups with entrepreneur comrades, seasoned execs, and investors, to provide both community and guidance. We rounded up these programs last year in the inaugural Xconomy Guide to Venture Incubators, and are back again … Continue reading “Startup School, Round Two: The 2010 Xconomy Guide to Venture Incubators”
Etude on the iPad—A Young Boston Developer Follows the Music to San Francisco
Dan Grover has seen a lot. He’s taken courses through the University of Nebraska in Lincoln and studied at Northeastern University in Boston. He’s had his own independent application development company since 2004. He’s been a staff developer at Boston-based uLocate (now Where) and Palo Alto, CA-based Tapulous. The Mac desktop program he built, ShoveBox, … Continue reading “Etude on the iPad—A Young Boston Developer Follows the Music to San Francisco”
Magoosh, Test Prep Startup From Berkeley, Wins Inaugural North Bridge Seed Competition
Berkeley, CA-based Magoosh, a developer of low-cost online multimedia materials for the lucrative test preparation industry, is one of two startups to snag the top prize in North Bridge Venture Partners‘ first seed capital competition. Both Magoosh and Pittstown, NJ-based Profitably, a business intelligence software startup focused on small businesses, will receive $50,000 in seed … Continue reading “Magoosh, Test Prep Startup From Berkeley, Wins Inaugural North Bridge Seed Competition”
Calling All Angels: Experienced, Aspiring Angel Investors Confer in Cambridge
If you Google “Angel Boot Camp,” the first seven results refer to a Victoria’s Secret competition to find the next “runway angel.” Well, there were no models or runways yesterday at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge for Angel Boot Camp (the eighth result on Google)—but there were plenty of entrepreneurs vying for the attention … Continue reading “Calling All Angels: Experienced, Aspiring Angel Investors Confer in Cambridge”
Born in Silicon Valley, Founder Institute Expands to Boston
Attention first-time CEOs: the Founder Institute has found its way to Boston. The training and mentorship program for entrepreneurs, initially launched last year in Silicon Valley, is recruiting startup entrepreneurs for its first Boston session starting June 30, according to the program’s website. The four-month program aims to give beginner tech CEOs what they need … Continue reading “Born in Silicon Valley, Founder Institute Expands to Boston”
Answerly Receives New Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=8e2d9ba9-9f88-4e14-8055-c1f96095454a&Preview=1 Date 3/31/2010 Company Name Answerly Mailing Address Undisclosed San Francisco, CA 94123 Company Description The company develops vertical search engines. Website http://www.answerly.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount Undisclosed Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were not disclosed. M&A Terms Venture Investor Y Combinator
First Dogpatch Labs Exit: Google Buys Former Y Combinator Company AppJet
Back in May, when I profiled the original Dogpatch Labs, launched by Polaris Venture Partners in San Francisco, I snapped the accompanying picture of a mannequin wearing an AppJet t-shirt. AppJet was a Y Combinator company a few summers back that had moved into the Dogpatch space on Pier 38. Now, it turns out, the … Continue reading “First Dogpatch Labs Exit: Google Buys Former Y Combinator Company AppJet”
Founder Collective: When Entrepreneurs Form Their Own Seed-Stage Venture Firm
Managing a venture fund is hugely different from running a startup. Eric Paley told me that last year at this time his primary responsibility was at dental imaging firm Brontes Technologies, the MIT spin-off that he co-founded and where he had served as general manager after its sale to technology giant 3M (NYSE:[[ticker:MMM]]) in 2006. … Continue reading “Founder Collective: When Entrepreneurs Form Their Own Seed-Stage Venture Firm”
The Rise of Agile Organizational Development
There’s lots of buzz in the startup community about agile software development; there are software programs, books, and seminars on the topic, and even huge firms like IBM are now touting their “agile development solutions”. The general idea is to create a team and a software process that is flexible, quick, and adaptive to feedback … Continue reading “The Rise of Agile Organizational Development”
Founder Institute, Early-Stage Startup Program, Comes to Seattle Thanks to a Gaming Connection
There’s a new tech startup incubator in town. The Founder Institute is accepting applications for its four-month training program, which begins in Seattle on December 7. The program is designed to mentor very early-stage entrepreneurs, with the goal of creating new companies across a wide variety of tech sectors including software, social media, consumer electronics, … Continue reading “Founder Institute, Early-Stage Startup Program, Comes to Seattle Thanks to a Gaming Connection”
Dog Patch Labs Is Just the Latest in a Rash of New Initiatives to Help Boston Entrepreneurs—And It All Seemed to Start When Y Combinator Left Town
[Updated October 5, 2009—see below] Today was a good day for Boston area entrepreneurs, as Polaris Venture Partners announced the opening of a new startup incubation and geek hangout space, Dog Patch Labs Cambridge, which will open next week on Third Street not far from Kendall Square. Dog Patch Cambridge, which I wrote about earlier … Continue reading “Dog Patch Labs Is Just the Latest in a Rash of New Initiatives to Help Boston Entrepreneurs—And It All Seemed to Start When Y Combinator Left Town”
TipJoy Shuts Down
TipJoy, an Arlington, MA-based startup that created a micropayment system designed to allow Web users to reward content providers with small tips, announced on its blog yesterday that it is shutting down. Launched through the Y Combinator startup incubator program, TipJoy collected a Series A venture investment of nearly $1 million less than a year … Continue reading “TipJoy Shuts Down”
Startups Give E-mail a Big Boost on the iPhone with ReMail and GPush
As a device for managing your e-mail, the Apple iPhone isn’t bad, but it does have a few quirks and limitations. This week, I want to write about two brand-new applications that work around those failings, making the iPhone into a far more powerful tool for staying connected. The first app grabbed my attention because … Continue reading “Startups Give E-mail a Big Boost on the iPhone with ReMail and GPush”
Startup School: The Xconomy Guide to Venture Incubators, 2009 Edition
Technology entrepreneurship can be a lonely road. Not only do you have to convince a few friends or colleagues to work hundred-hour weeks for the next several years in support of your wild idea, but you’ve got to make it past the elevator pitch with at least one funder, and then prove that your idea … Continue reading “Startup School: The Xconomy Guide to Venture Incubators, 2009 Edition”
Boston Venture Firms Dominate New Mentoring Program for New York Startups
If you want to build a program to nurture early-stage startups in New York City through regular meetings with investors, legal and financial advisors, and experienced CEOs, where do you turn for mentors and sponsors? To Boston, naturally. Of the 11 founding members of the new First Growth Venture Network, five—Battery Ventures, Charles River Ventures, … Continue reading “Boston Venture Firms Dominate New Mentoring Program for New York Startups”
A Blow to the Boston VC Scene? Greylock Partners Moving HQ to Silicon Valley
Here’s a minor setback for the venture capital industry in Boston. Greylock Partners is relocating its headquarters from the Boston area—where it got started 44 years ago—to Silicon Valley, the firm announced this morning. Does this mean that the Hub is losing its edge as a haven of entrepreneurial activity? That was the question raised … Continue reading “A Blow to the Boston VC Scene? Greylock Partners Moving HQ to Silicon Valley”
Spark Capital Launches Startup Seed Fund
[Updated with interview material from Spark Capital general partner Bijan Sabet, see below.] It’s almost the equivalent of the “microloans” phenomenon for the venture world: the profusion of startup schools, bootcamps, incubators, and seed funds that give teams small amounts of money—from a few thousand dollars to a few hundred thousand—to get their ideas up … Continue reading “Spark Capital Launches Startup Seed Fund”
A New World Order for High-Growth Firms
Many of my friends and neighbors may have noticed that I haven’t been in town as much lately, and that I’m spending more and more of my time in Kansas City. So why would a hardened MIT denizen who used to think that distant travel meant going to Porter Square now be flying back and … Continue reading “A New World Order for High-Growth Firms”
Y Combinator, Sequoia, and Lessons for the Recession
In January, Paul Graham announced that Y Combinator would no longer operate in the summers out of Cambridge, MA, but instead would stay year round in its other home of Mountain View, CA. The reason he put forth was the impending birth of his new child and the decision that California was the better place … Continue reading “Y Combinator, Sequoia, and Lessons for the Recession”
Paul Graham on Why Boston Should Worry About Its Future as a Tech Hub—Says Region Focuses On Ideas, Not Startups
For entrepreneurs and investors alike, it was a sad day back in January, when Y Combinator founder Paul Graham announced he would stay in Silicon Valley year round and give up splitting his startup incubation activities between Mountain View and Cambridge, MA, where Y Combinator has traditionally held forth each summer. On his website, Graham … Continue reading “Paul Graham on Why Boston Should Worry About Its Future as a Tech Hub—Says Region Focuses On Ideas, Not Startups”
Highland Program Offers No-Strings Stipends to Student Entrepreneurs
With the departure of Paul Graham’s Y Combinator startup school, Boston-area entrepreneurs have one less local source for seed funding and mentorship. With the advent of a Boston clone of Boulder, CO-based TechStars, they have one more—so things have evened out. But Highland Capital Partners‘ “Summer@Highland” program has been a constant in the area throughout … Continue reading “Highland Program Offers No-Strings Stipends to Student Entrepreneurs”