Sarah Mitroff is a VentureBeat contributor. She’s also written for Wired, Tech Hive, and PCWorld, and got her start in tech as a VentureBeat intern. She loves Android, gadgets, organizing her life with technology, and baseball.

Disclosures: I stand behind VentureBeat’s ethics statement. I have no investments in technology companies and while I use many of the products and services I report on, my coverage of them remains objective and fair.

stories by Sarah Mitroff

The Webby Awards Nominations: Felix Baumgartner’s free fall, HBO’s “Girls,” and Google Maps for iOS

April 9, 2013 7:21 AM Sarah Mitroff
Sarah Mitroff

Awards-season junkies, your wait for The Webby Awards nominations is over – I know, you can barely contain your excitement. Tuesday, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for its 17th Annual 2013 Webby Awards, which …

Cyberhoarding: The 5 best services for saving stuff online

August 11, 2012 8:00 AM Sarah Mitroff
Sarah Mitroff

We compare five content-saving services to figure out which reigns supreme in the quest to keep your stuff organized.

Good-bye solar? Greentech investments shift to consumer tech and electric vehicles

June 25, 2012 6:00 AM Sarah Mitroff
Sarah Mitroff

The green technology investing boom has slowed. But if you ask investors, greentech isn’t disappearing, it’s just changing.

Between 2006 and 2007, cleantech and greentech emerged as hot terms in the investor vernacular. Startups focused on big-picture energy needs, including …

Funding daily: Use your riches to buy a Hawaiian island

June 21, 2012 5:14 PM Sarah Mitroff
Sarah Mitroff

The cold and foggy weather in San Francisco didn’t put a damper on funding news today; check out who raised impressive investments below. Also, a certain billionaire splurged on a slightly insane purchase (the photo above is a hint).

If …

AtHoc gets $5M to alert you in an emergency

June 21, 2012 4:30 AM Sarah Mitroff
Sarah Mitroff

Public safety company AtHoc has developed an emergency alert system for government agencies, military organizations, and businesses. The company announced Thursday that it has raised $5.6 million from Intel’s investment arm, Intel Capital.

AtHoc has built an emergency alert system …

Screw college! This 20-year-old Thiel Fellow just sold his first company

June 20, 2012 5:39 PM Sarah Mitroff
Sarah Mitroff

James Proud is only 20 and he’s already sold his first company. Proud is part of the 2011 class for the Peter Thiel Fellowship – the one that encourages college students to drop out for $100,000 and the shot at …

Pathbrite highlights your accomplishments in a digital résumé

June 20, 2012 9:00 AM Sarah Mitroff
Sarah Mitroff

Paper résumés are slowly dying off, replaced by personal websites, LinkedIn profiles, and awesome digital portfolios. Instead of a flat, boring text résumé, startup Pathbrite wants you to express your professional and personal achievements in an interactive portfolio, full of …

Cloth catalogs your closet, tells you what to wear when it’s raining

June 20, 2012 8:45 AM Sarah Mitroff
Sarah Mitroff

Fashion-forward types seem infatuated with photographing their outfits. You can scoff at the practice all you want, but the overwhelming number of fashion blogs tells us that sharing outfits is popular, especially in a world with Instagram. Cloth, an iOS …

Hoopla celebrates your sales wins, grabs new funding

June 20, 2012 6:00 AM Sarah Mitroff
Sarah Mitroff

Hoopla, a gamification startup for salespeople, has raised $2.8 million in its first round of funding.

The company grabs data from Salesforce to reward salespeople for meeting their goals and making sales. Leaderboards show the top salespeople in your organization, …

Funding daily: Print out a wacky design in 3-D

June 19, 2012 5:17 PM Sarah Mitroff
Sarah Mitroff

Check out today’s funding news; there’s a lot of it. A high-brow Airbnb clone snagged $12 million, and 3-D printing received a $6.2 million boost. Take a look at the other companies that VCs are throwing money at today:

Follow …

Near Infinity gets $17M to build apps for U.S. intelligence agencies

June 19, 2012 2:32 PM Sarah Mitroff
Sarah Mitroff

Near Infinity, a software development and big data company the caters to the U.S. government, has raised $17 million in a new round of funding.

Near Infinity builds applications for the U.S. intelligence community for personal communication, search, analysis, and …

One million 3-D printing projects later, Shapeways grabs a new investment

June 19, 2012 12:57 PM Sarah Mitroff
Sarah Mitroff

After 3-D printing more than one million objects, Shapeways announced the close of a $6.2 million second round of funding, reports the New York Times. Keeping up with the growing interest in three-dimensional printing, the company helps you design and …

Panzura raises $15M to make cloud storage faster and more secure

June 19, 2012 4:30 AM Sarah Mitroff
Sarah Mitroff

Cloud storage company Panzura has closed a $15 million third round of funding. The San Jose, Calif.- based company provides Web-connected cloud storage that is faster than storage devices attached directly to locally hosted servers.

The company gives businesses cloud …

Funding daily: Rock out with wireless speakers

June 18, 2012 4:14 PM Sarah Mitroff
Sarah Mitroff

The funding is flowing this mid-June Monday. A big round went to wireless speaker company Sonos today, and a few cloud companies picked up some cash. Check out who else scooped up funding below.

For more funding news as it …

Ikea TV hits European stores — but don’t bother buying one

June 18, 2012 2:10 PM Sarah Mitroff
Sarah Mitroff

The Swedes are the first to get their hands on the new HDTVs from Swedish furniture store Ikea. The Uppleva TV, an all-in-one TV/cabinet/audio system is now on sale at the company’s Stockholm store for roughly $1,000, and will trickle …

Financial advising service Nutmeg gets its own $5M investment

June 18, 2012 11:09 AM Sarah Mitroff
Sarah Mitroff

London-based investment management service Nutmeg has raised $5.3 million. Still in private beta, Nutmeg promises to help you reach your financial goals with personalized investments and long-term savings advice.

Nutmeg asks you a series of questions to figure out where …

Snapguide shares your knowledge with DIY guides, raises $5M

June 18, 2012 10:25 AM Sarah Mitroff
Sarah Mitroff

We all have knowledge to share, so why not create a guide with your smartphone? That’s the philosophy behind Snapguide, a do-it-yourself guide creator app for the iPhone. Heavy Bits, the company that created the app, has just raised a …

Ooyala grabs $35M late-stage funding for video streaming platform

June 18, 2012 4:00 AM Sarah Mitroff
Sarah Mitroff

Video platform Ooyala has raised a $35 million fifth round of funding from Telstra Applications and Ventures Group. Its platform powers videos on sites such as ESPN, Rolling Stone, and Victoria’s Secret.

Unlike user-generated content powerhouse YouTube, Ooyala hosts promotional …

Index Ventures launches sixth fund for European investments

June 17, 2012 4:01 PM Sarah Mitroff
Sarah Mitroff

U.S. and European venture capital firm Index Ventures announced a €350 million fund for primarily early-stage European investments late Sunday. The firm said it’s impressed by the innovation it’s seeing in Europe despite economics issues that have plagued the area …

Why a 70 degree angle is the key to selling a MacBook

June 17, 2012 1:19 PM Sarah Mitroff
Sarah Mitroff

Apple knows the art of seduction. By positioning MacBook screens to perfect viewing angle in its stores, the company is subtly seducing you into laying down a couple thousand dollars to take that sleek gadget home.

Before any Apple-Store lurking …