How to be a better venture capitalist: Run a startup
Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank is the author of Four Steps to the Epiphany. This story originally appeared on his blog.
Venture capitalists who are serious about turning their firms into more than one-fund wonders may want to have their associates actually start and run a company for a year.
Running a company is distinctly different from simply having operating experience, such as working in business development, sales or marketing. None of … Continue Reading
Scripted is a writer smorgasbord for those in need of community outreach, gets $700K
As a small business, it’s hard to keep up excited web content due to time costs, commitment to a full time community manager, and more. Writer marketplace Scripted, however, has a cheaper option and a seed round of $700,000 to execute it.
Hiring someone internally can cost a lot of money and is a big commitment for many companies that may not have the resources. Because of that, many companies fall short, and lack in … Continue Reading
Google Maps 6.0 for Android makes interior layouts 3D (and can find toilets, too)
Google Maps for Android has just launched a new update that tackles some of the toughest navigation challenges around: the interior world.
With Maps version 6.0, which arrived on Android devices today, users can now find the nearest bathrooms, ATMs and the locations of individual departments inside some of the largest retail stores, such as Ikea, Home Depot, and Macy’s locations nationwide.
The maps update will also provide detailed location information for 18 major airports … Continue Reading
Verizon’s FiOS Xbox 360 plans: 26 live TV channels with Kinect support
Christmas comes early for gamers on Verizon’s FiOS cable and Internet service. The company finally dished out plans for its previously announced Xbox 360 integration today, which includes an initial bundle of 26 live channels with Kinect voice and gesture support.
The FiOS channels will be accessible through a new app on the Xbox 360, which will be available in December. Additionally, Verizon announced a new triple-play bundle today (TV/internet/phone service), which starts at $90 … Continue Reading
Cyber Monday? It was more like Mobile Monday, according to eBay & PayPal
If the name “Cyber Monday” makes you think of your shameful AIM exploits in the late ’90s, a new trend may make your day.
According to data from eBay, PayPal, IBM and GSI Commerce, mobile activity spiked yesterday as early holiday shopping took off.
Traditionally, the Monday after Thanksgiving has been a heyday for online retailers. But with more and more consumers accessing the web from smartphones and tablets, a fair amount of Cyber Monday … Continue Reading
Shop online, try it out in person: Kembrel gives hybrid retail sales the old college try
If I told you that the flash sales sites of today would give birth to the offline retail experience of tomorrow, you’d probably laugh in my face. Who would want to take the “e” out of e-commerce in uncertain economic times such as these? Bright-eyed recent Wharton MBA graduates looking to reinvent retail, that’s who.
Aymeric de Hemptinne, Cherif Habib and Stephan Jacob, co-founders of Kembrel, a one year-old flash sales site geared toward college … Continue Reading
Under pressure, Facebook updates its privacy principles
The Federal Trade Commission and Facebook’s relationship status won’t read “it’s complicated” anymore, since the two companies settled a longstanding privacy suit today.
The social network has often come under fire for its privacy policies, a spark which fully ignited after Facebook changed the privacy settings of its users without permission in 2009. For example, Facebook suddenly set friends lists, photos and other information to a default publicly visible setting, even if the person had … Continue Reading
Four trends that shaped cloud computing in 2011
Luis Robles is a venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital.
In a few short years, we all have witnessed cloud computing unleash a wave of innovation in IT. Enterprises are continuing to adopt cloud-based services and entrepreneurs are finding plentiful low cost and low friction compute resources to transform ideas into enduring new companies. With the year coming to a close, and VentureBeat’s CloudBeat 2011 conference just a day away, here’s a look at some of … Continue Reading
How VCs can solve the woman problem, if there is one
There’s a lack of women in the startup economy, but it’s not a problem.
First of all, if diversity was really a problem in the startup world, VCs would be solving it. Because VCs like making money, and VCs are great at seeing an opening market and jumping on it.
Second, women are not victims. Women are not powerless. If women wanted to do tech startups, they’d be doing them.
Women don’t want to do … Continue Reading
WordPress takes on Google’s AdSense with new WordAds service (update)
Popular content management system (CMS) company WordPress is launching a new word-based advertising service that will compete directly with Google’s AdSense, the company announced today.
WordPress, which is owned by Automattic, powers over 24 million blogs and runs on 15 percent of the world’s most trafficked sites. The company previously entered into an advertising partnership with Federated Media in October, but didn’t release many details. Now it seems that this new partnership has birthed a … Continue Reading
VMTurbo grabs $10M from Bain, Highland to expand cloud virtualization solutions
Cloud automation startup VMTurbo has raised a second round of funding worth $10 million, which will be used to expand sales and marketing, product development and customer support.
VMTurbo provides virtualization management solutions that combine real-time operations performance data with customized analytics. Companies that want to move their workloads to the cloud can seek out VMTurbo’s automation software, which comes in three flavors — Community Edition (free), Enterprise Operations Manager ($399/socket) or Cloud Operations Manager … Continue Reading
BlackBerry Mobile Fusion brings RIM’s enterprise expertise to iOS, Android
In yet another blow for BlackBerry loyalists, Research in Motion announced BlackBerry Mobile Fusion today, a tool that will allow businesses to make employee iOS and Android devices just as secure as RIM’s own smartphones.
The announcement likely comes as a relief to IT managers, who have had to juggle multiple security solutions for corporate and personally owned mobile devices. RIM’s BlackBerry is far from its heyday as the only worthwhile enterprise mobile device — … Continue Reading
Last call! Students & early-stage founders save big on CloudBeat tickets
Only a few seats remain for tomorrow and Thursday’s CloudBeat 2011 event.
We’ve decided to offer up a handful of heavily discounted tickets to students and/or founders who may not have the budget to make the event at full price. More on that below.
The agenda is packed, the speaker lineup is robust, and we couldn’t be more excited. We’ve got representation from just about every major player and disruptor in the cloud industry, and … Continue Reading
How to spike last minute holiday sales by using mobile marketing & multi-channel communications
This post is sponsored by Trumpia.
Each year, big box retailers and other large businesses seem to push the holidays on us earlier and earlier. This always seems unfair for smaller businesses that might not have the resources, budget or wherewithal to start their holiday promotions months in advance.
The good news for businesses of all sizes, however, is that in today’s increasingly social business landscape, consumers are starting to pay less and less attention … Continue Reading
Kinect 2 may be so accurate it can lip read
Microsoft’s next-generation Kinect device may be accurate enough to read your lips. It has also been stated that future Xbox consoles will ship with Kinect 2 built in.
Sources speaking to Eurogamer have claimed that the unannounced Kinect 2 will be able to read facial expressions and detect a variety of emotions through the user’s tone. Improved motion-sensing and voice-recognition technology are expected to be installed.
The depth sensor in the current Kinect device was … Continue Reading
Apple approves, then yanks, iTether for iPhone (updated)
For some strange reason, Apple approved an app that lets you bypass monthly carrier tethering plans to share your iPhone’s wireless connection with your computer. (Update: The app has been removed from the App Store.)
Dubbed iTether, the app connects to Mac and Windows software to share your iPhone’s web connection for a one-time $14.99 fee. In comparison, AT&T and Verizon offer iPhone tethering functionality for an additional $20-a-month.
Given that Apple has previously … Continue Reading
AT&T hopes a deal with Leap Wireless will save T-Mobile merger
AT&T is hoping that a new deal with Leap Wireless will save its plans of merging with Deutsche Telekom-owned T-Mobile USA.
The deal would see Leap purchasing both T-Mobile’s customer base and most of its wireless spectrum, while AT&T would retain a smaller portion of the spectrum, according to a New York Times report yesterday.
It’s unclear exactly how an AT&T/Leap deal would divide up T-Mobile’s assets, since those details haven’t been released. But VentureBeat … Continue Reading
Review: Saints Row: The Third is crazy, crass and a whole lot of fun
Saints Row: The Third, the latest third-person action game from developer Volition and publisher THQ, blasts its way into the hectic Winter gaming marketplace, with more spectacular set pieces than a blockbuster movie, a huge array of customization options, and absolutely no sense of shame whatsoever. Following the two previous Saints Row titles, this latest installment lets you play the leader of the 3rd Street Saints, who are embroiled in a turf war with The … Continue Reading
The top 10 family games of 2011: Kinect Disneyland, Sesame Street, and more
They may not be the most glamorous ticket in town during the holiday buying season, but family games are one of a very small number of video game genres where the adults can have as much fun as the kids. Family games have seen a resurgence in recent years thanks to the advent of motion-gaming technologies like Nintendo’s Wii, Sony’s PlayStation Move and Microsoft Xbox Kinect that simplify play mechanics beyond memorizing button placements or … Continue Reading
Kinect’s first year Japanese sales are disappointingly low
Despite being the fastest selling consumer electronic device of all time , Microsoft’s Kinect gaming device has struggled to make an impact on the Japanese market during its first year on sale. Japanese sales to date have totaled only 114,000 units, according to figures reported by Andriasang. This represents less than a 10 per cent uptake on the device amongst the Japanese Xbox 360 user base.
Kinect’s strongest month in Japan was December 2010, when … Continue Reading
