Ten unconventional wisdoms for funding startups

Serial entrepreneur Naval Ravikant was the co-speaker at the inaugural Finance4Founders dinner in San Francisco last week. The event was organized Dave McClure, who runs the Founders Fund angel fund and fbFund, and Dan Martell, founder of Flowtown. It drew about 100 or so people. Ravikant is chief executive of Vast.com, his third startup after starting Genoa and Epinions. He has helped dozens of startups get off the ground and has invested in 35 of … Continue Reading

AdmitOne's new tool to make subscription-based sites more profitable

AdmitOne has built a security business with a technology, called keystroke dynamics, that can recognize who’s logging into an account by the pattern of the person’s typing.

Now it’s launching an analytics business that promises to boost business opportunities for its clients by measuring 200 different metrics when someone is logged in.

The heart of the Scout Analytics service still focuses on keystroke dynamics. It can tell, for instance, if multiple people are sharing a … Continue Reading

ChallengePost launches problem-solving site with Wozniak, Betaworks onboard

ChallengePost is a public marketplace for companies, non-profits and individuals to create contests and award prize money for solving problems. It is launching in beta today. One of the challenges currently on the site is to create a next-generation business plan with Web 2.0, data sharing and social media capabilities in mind. The winner will get $2,000 from contributor AngelSoft.

Founder and CEO Brandon Kessler said that competition and prizes tap into a human need … Continue Reading

GridIron taps Hollywood visual artist for new workflow software

Mark Coleran has created the user interfaces for cool gadgets in movies for years. His futuristic designs have been used in movies such as Mission Impossible 3, Mr.  and Mrs. Smith, and The Island. Now he’s used his talents to design a new kind of software program for Ottawa, Canada startup GridIron that makes it easy for people to find files within complex projects.

The company’s shipping its visual workflow software, Flow, today. Coleran’s influence … Continue Reading

Rumors surface of a PlayStation cell phone

Sony Ericsson is reportedly working on a phone that combines PlayStation games with a cell phone. It’s not the first time that such rumors have floated, but Nikkei, a big Japanese business publication, reported that Sony has a team working on the product now.

The iPhone and its game capabilities have threatened to make portable game devices obsolete. So incorporating phone features into a game device may be the only way Sony could reclaim leadership … Continue Reading

Calling all entrepreneurs…

In case you’ve missed any of our recent advice for startups over at VentureBeat’s Entrepreneur Corner, here’s a wrap up of the must-read stories. Be sure to click through and check them out:

Harnessing the power of analytics — Too many new business owners ignore their web logs. That’s a critical mistake. A good analytics program can give you valuable insight into your customers, their habits and their interests.

Four keys to a great PR … Continue Reading

Apple kills Routesy app, my iPhone gets less useful

Updated

The fuss continues over Apple‘s capricious acceptance policy for its iPhone/iPod Touch App Store, most recently with the rejection of an app called Hottest Girls. But for me and a few other San Franciscans, there’s a much bigger cause of outrage — the disappearance of a public transit app called Routesy.

If you don’t live in San Francisco, you’ve probably never heard of Routesy, but it was the very first iPhone app I paid … Continue Reading

Warner Bros. likely to buy bankrupt Mortal Kombat maker Midway Games

The game division of film studio Warner Bros. is expected to buy Midway Games, the once mighty owner of the Mortal Kombat franchise.

The Los Angeles Times reported tonight that Warner Bros. has emerged as the only bidder for the bankrupt video game publisher that was previously owned by Viacom’s chairman, Sumner Redstone. It is expected to pick up Midway for just $33 million.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is already a major video game publisher. … Continue Reading

News sites collapsed from fetching ads in Jackson traffic surge

The tsunami of traffic related to Michael Jackson’s death brought down news web sites on Thursday because those sites had to wait for third-party content, such as images for ads, according to a new analysis.

Keynote Systems said in a report tonight that its analysis of the web’s performance on Thursday showed sites collapsed from the traffic because they were built the wrong way. Those web sites waited for every image to be downloaded from … Continue Reading

WordSmyte: Find the right word to expose bad things

A single clever word or phrase can reshape how people think about an issue. A just-launched site called WordSmyte intends to take advantage of this phenomenon — and it’s focused on things that people hate.

So, maybe this site will help people articulate and spread the word about things that suck — and make the world a better place.

Here’s how it works. First, you write a definition of the concept you’re trying to describe, … Continue Reading

Roundup: Schmidt is bullish, Yahoo spikes New York Times traffic, Windows 7 on a thumb drive

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt says it’s “reasonable to be optimistic for 2010″ — Reuters has more.

Michael Jackson traffic set off cyberattack alarms – Google’s automated defense systems interpreted a sudden tsunami of “Micheal Jackson” [sic] queries as an attack. I’ve gotten similar stories under FrieNDA from IT people at a couple of other places, too. We all went a little Jacko-crazy yesterday.

Windows 7 may be available on a thumb drive – Now … Continue Reading

Sprint takes a swing at high iPhone costs with ads

Sprint has begun running ads that promote the Pre as a more affordable smart phone in the long term than an Apple iPhone.

The ads say you can save $1,200 over two years with Sprint compared to what you’d have to pay with AT&T. The ads are going after all the people who bought the original iPhone a couple of years ago and are now reaching the end of their contracts.

In that sense, Sprint … Continue Reading

Michael Jackson Twitter charts show insane traffic spike

A blogger from Sysomos, which makes analysis tools for social media, has posted a set of infographics created by crawling Twitter during yesterday’s unfolding drama around the late pop star Michael Jackson. Some of the charts show demographic distributions that may suprise you. One shows the craziest traffic spike ever — the seismic rumble that Twitterers felt yesterday.

The chart above shows that most people tweeting about Jackson were under 35 years old, well below … Continue Reading

More real-time search startups join the fray

We didn’t quite catch everyone with the round-up of real-time search offerings we posted a few days ago. New entrants seem to be launching every week. Real-time search allows users to find out what’s happening now on any topic, unlike traditional search engines, which bring up the most authoritative results over time as judged by page links. It’s an area of admitted weakness for Google, the industry’s dominant player, and a number of companies have … Continue Reading

Security firms warn of bogus Michael Jackson messages

If someone you know shares an email with you to click on a link to see pictures of Michael Jackson’s body, don’t fall for it.

Antivirus software vendors McAfee and Symantec are issuing warnings to consumers to watch out for celebrity death-related malware following the deaths of the Jackson, actress Farrah Fawcett, and TV showman Ed McMahon.

The antivirus vendors have much to gain from fear about such malware, since they sell antivirus products. But … Continue Reading

Video site Seesmic's CEO: We built it, they didn't come

In the past, Seesmic (sometimes known as “the Twitter of video“) had its share of detractors who wondered whether it could build a business around video conversations and comments. Now it looks like Seesmic founder Loic Le Meur has joined their ranks.

Le Meur’s remarks came in a video conversation thread on the Seesmic site titled, “Seesmic has changed.” Disappointed Seesmic fans said  the San Francisco startup’s focus has drifted away from video, a shift … Continue Reading

Facebook gets an experienced European lobbyist

It was inevitable, given Facebook‘s rapid growth around the world and especially in countries around Europe. The company has hired an experienced lobbyist, Richard Allen, to represent it to the European Union in Brussels, Belgium, according to The Guardian.

Once a technology-focused member of the British parliament, Allen had been leading Cisco’s “policy work on advanced technologies in the EU” since 2005.

His new boss at Facebook, prospective California attorney general candidate Chris Kelly, tells … Continue Reading

Virsto packs away $7M for virtual storage space

Virsto Software, creator of virtual storage space, has brought in $7 million in a first round of funding, giving makers of server virtualization equipment a boost, reports VentureWire. Based in Mountain View, Calif., the company says its products are capable of managing any storage issues arising from server virtualization, but has yet to release specifics.

August Capital led the recent round of financing, bringing Virsto’s total capital raised to $8.25 million.… Continue Reading

Nokeena takes $6.5M to speed up online video

Nokeena Networks, developer of a supposedly faster, higher-quality online video platform, has raised $6.5 million in a second round of funding led by Mayfield Fund, reports VentureWire. Based in Emeryville, Calif., the company says it plans to reduce the cost of the technology needed to serve better videos across the internet and to make computers more like televisions. To do so, it says, it can deliver more than 40,000 videos to users at the same … Continue Reading