Extole turns regular customers into brand ambassadors, raises $10M
Nearly every company has a social presence these days, but personal recommendations are often a more powerful way to boost sales. If you’ve never heard about a company before, but your friend has, you’ll likely trust her opinion over that of a complete stranger. But keeping track of how much customer referrals really help your business can be hard, so Extole has created a way to track word-of-mouth marketing.
The service seeks to find and … Continue Reading
Smule to make beautiful music with $12M in funding
Music app maker Smule today announced a new funding round of $12 million to support future expansion plans, and to hire more employees.
Smule is the company behind the I am T-Pain autotune app, Ocarina, a very early hit on the iPhone, Glee Karaoke, and many more.
“This gives us some confidence we should put our foot on the gas,” Smule co-founder and chief executive officer Jeff Smith told VentureBeat. Smith said the money will … Continue Reading
Nextdoor: a social network for your neighborhood
Stealth startup Nextdoor believes it has cracked the social/local code, and is today launching a digital platform that brings together your real-world neighbors.
Nextdoor is creating the “neighborhood graph” by combining the best of Web 2.0 sites like Yelp and Facebook, with the features of early Web tools such as Craigslist and Yahoo! Groups to reconnect neighborhoods and re-establish a sense of community, on and offline.
Nextdoor has the look and feel of Facebook, with … Continue Reading
How mobile work is changing the face of business
The emerging “sharing economy” consists of businesses dedicated to changing the very way in which we live. Tools to improve efficiency, lower cost, and encourage collaborative consumption now serve as the driving force of these companies, creating a whole new kind of economy.
Arguably, the most significant progress thus far has been made in the workplace.
The work environment is undergoing significant change. We used to be a nation of office workers. We committed our … Continue Reading
Shasta Ventures pools a $200M fund, invests with Google Ventures and KP
Early stage venture firm Shasta Ventures raised $200 million dollars, according to a form D filed with the SEC. This is a growth fund intended to support start-ups.
This is a pooled investment fund, with the form citing Rob Coneybeer, Tod Francis, and Jason Pressman as involved in the pool. The company pooled its first fund in 2005 when it started investing $210 million. In 2007, Shasta raised a $250 million fund for investments in … Continue Reading
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