Facebook now has 1M active advertisers

Facebook announced today that the company now has one million active advertisers -- companies or organizations that have advertised on the social network at least once in the last 28 days.

Darby Smart launches crafting kit service to prevent DIY disasters

Darby Smart launched today to prevent mishaps of this sort, and to capitalize on the DIY movement's building momentum. It also announced raising $1 million in seed funding.

YC startup Ink raises $1.8M to make software more open-minded

"File system as a service" startup Filepicker.io has rebranded as Ink and announced the close of its $1.8 million seed round from Andreessen Horowitz and Highland Capital Partners.

FiftyThree raises $15M to unleash your creativity with Paper

FiftyThree is the company behind Paper, an iPad app that Apple named 2012 iPad App of the Year. It has raised $15 million in a deal led by Chris Dixon at Andreessen Horowitz.

Parakweet raises $2M to give you data-driven book recommendations

Parakweet's core product Bookvibe combines natural language processing and social-media analytics to find the books that are right for you.

Occipital acquires 3D-scanning startup ManCTL to explore future of computer vision

Occipital develops computer-vision products, and the acquisition of ManCTL will make it easier to create 3D models of the real world.

Lift broadens access to goal-tracking app to make you a better version of you

Obvious Corp's first product, Lift, started out as an iPhone-only app last year. Now the app is more widely available to help anyone achieve their goals using data and social support.

Why the half-life of a Pinterest pin is thousands of times longer than a tweet or Facebook post

"Sure, you get 70 percent of your clicks in the first two days," Pinquora CEO Shara Verma told me last week. "But there's a huge long tail. Clicks kept coming all the way for 30 days, and even beyond."

Keaton Row rescues fashion victims by connecting them with personal stylists online

Keaton Row is a fashion startup reigning in the "future of personal styling" with an online, affordable process that has customers spending seven times the average e-commerce order and coming back for more.

St. Louis forming $100M startup fund to send deals flowing down the Mississippi

Civic and business leaders are raising $100 million to kick the region's burgeoning startup scene up a notch. Dubbed the Regional Entrepreneurship Initiative (REI), it seeks to attract venture capital to fund new ventures and keep success stories at home.

RelSci racks up $30M for its digital database of the world’s most influential people

Relationship Science has amassed an online Rolodex with profiles of the world's "top decision-makers," and people are willing to spend thousands of dollars a year for access.

Apple, could you just be honest, sometimes, about being a little bit evil?

Success almost killed Dawlat's iOS business. That -- and the fact that Apple wasn't "getting a piece."

Square cofounder Tristan O’Tierney latest exec to leave after string of departures

Square cofounder Tristan O'Tierney tweeted last night that he was leaving the company after four years.

How I learned to survive Silicon Valley while living in a rice paddy

Two years ago, I served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand. Now, I am in the middle of the Bay Area tech scene and write about technology for a living, and the transition only look a year.

Gutcheck raises $4M to prevent epic product fails

Gutcheck has raised $4 million for its on-demand market research community where brands can quickly get answers to their "burning questions."