Airbnb listers in New York average $21k a year

Airbnb, a marketplace for living spaces, has a New York footprint so large that there’s at least one Airbnb rental on every city block, co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky said at the Digital Life Design conference in Munich Monday.

New Yorkers using Airbnb to rent out their apartments, extra bedrooms and even couches — more than 10,000 in total — are now making, on average, $21,000 per year in income, Chesky said.

Some local listers … Continue Reading

Namely raises $1M to help ad agencies battle tech startups for talent

Turnover has always been a problem at top advertising agencies. But these days the designers and developers needed to create rich media campaigns are also being lured away from Madison Avenue by the booming New York tech scene.

“Retaining top folks is always a problem for agencies,” says digital media agency veteran Matt Straz. “Battling for talent with tech startups and that has added a whole new dimension to the talent crunch.”

So Straz has … Continue Reading

NumberFire grabs $650K to heat up sports stats

Sports analytics startup NumberFire has raised $650,000 in a seed round that will help it expand its fast-moving (and popular) venture, the company revealed today.

New York-based NumberFire focuses on sports analytics and can even help you win your fantasy football league. Other sports for fantasy tracking are coming in the future. The company is a recent graduate of the ER Accelerator program.

Despite only being around since Sept. 2010 and only having four employees, … Continue Reading

Apple’s new Grand Central store is awe-inspiring (pictures)

Apple’s brand-new Grand Central Terminal location opened its doors today to swarms of Apple fans, journalists and tourists.

The new store is a pretty big deal for a few reasons. First, Grand Central is an iconic structure and one of the most photographed landmarks in New York City. Second, at 23,000 square feet, this location is one of the world’s largest Apple Stores. Third, the store merges the past and present. Unlike Apple’s other, more … Continue Reading

Facebook to open New York engineering office in early 2012

Facebook will open an engineering office in New York City in early 2012, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg jointly announced Friday.

“For us, this isn’t a satellite office,” Mike Schroepfer, Facebook’s vice president of engineering, said. The office will be core to Facebook’s engineering stack, he added.

The new office is part of a calculated effort by the social network to expand its presence in New York and recruit top engineering talent … Continue Reading

Pandav releases mass transit navigation iPhone app for London (exclusive)

London commuters have something new to cheer now that their city is the latest to get a free route-planner iPhone app from Pandav. The app, called Ride London Tube, lets users plan trips on mass transit with a deceptively simple touch interface.

“This is our first international release. And we’re going to take London very seriously,” Pandav co-founder David Hodge told VentureBeat in an interview. The app launched last week.

Pandav apps have offline navigation … Continue Reading

Apple unveils beautiful revamped 5th Ave NY store with new glass cube (photos)

Apple unveiled its long-under-construction New York flagship Store on 5th Avenue on Friday, and like a redesigned iPhone, it looks similar to the previous model but has its own charms.

Back in June, Apple began renovating the well-known location at an estimated cost of $6.6 million. The normally 24/7 location was closed yesterday evening at 10 p.m. and reopened this morning at 10 a.m. with a long line waiting outside.

The 5th Avenue location is … Continue Reading

RentAStudent connects startups with hungry, eager students (exclusive)

Startup RentAStudent has a lofty goal: to be a Craigslist-like service that connects startups and small businesses with talented students for one-time projects.

“A lot of businesses are struggling now to get all the work they need done with small budgets, and a lot of students are looking for ways to get exposure.” RentAStudent CEO Morgan Dierstein told VentureBeat. “We help both parties connect.”

RentAStudent’s purpose is to connect students and businesses for any imaginable … Continue Reading

Drinks and pitches flowed freely at DEMO and VentureBeat’s first New York City startup party

More than 100 people from New York’s burgeoning tech scene showed up October 25 for a startup party sponsored by VentureBeat and DEMO.

That’s not a bad turnout for an impromptu event organized just a week before. It’s a sign of the robust vitality and collegiality of the New York tech economy, which is one of the reasons VentureBeat was there in the first place.

VentureBeat editor-in-chief Matt Marshall and I were visiting New York … Continue Reading

Twitter’s NYC office opens with Mayor Bloomberg on hand

Twitter officially opened the doors of its New York office today, and even New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg showed up.

Twitter executive chairman and Square CEO Jack Dorsey joined Bloomberg on stage to announce the opening, coming at a somber time, since Apple’s Steve Jobs passed away yesterday. But Dorsey kept the conversation light and even offered Bloomberg a job, saying, “I know you have an engineering degree, Mr. Mayor, and you may be … Continue Reading

Tumblr on verge of raising up to $100M with massive $800M valuation

Popular blogging startup Tumblr is close to raising between $75 and $100 million, with an incredible $800 million valuation, says the Wall Street Journal.

Tumblr’s blogging platform emphasizes its ease of use and now hosts more than 27 million blogs. Fashion and photography blogs are especially popular on the site because it pushes strong visuals. A reported 20 percent of Tumblr blogs are related to fashion.

Silicon Valley venture firm Greylock Partners, which has also … Continue Reading

Magazine geeks use social media to make old-school print pub

Forget the debates about whether online media is killing print: For the makers of Longshot, the internet makes it possible to publish an issue of a magazine in just two days.

From announcing the issue’s theme (“debt,” according to the announcement that went out today) to collecting submissions to editing them, laying them out on pages, adding art and shipping everything to the printer, the editors have given themselves just 48 hours.

Longshot is one … Continue Reading

Google Offers expands to New York and San Francisco

Google Offers, the mega search company’s Groupon competitor, launched in beta last month in Portland, and we knew it was only a matter of time before it started offering daily deals to the rest of the U.S. Today, Google is touting deals to prospective customers in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Google attempted to buy Groupon late last year, but Groupon declined the reported $6 billion offer to pursue its own lofty … Continue Reading

Reminder: NYC VentureBeat/DEMO party next Wednesday

VentureBeat will be in New York City one week from today — on Wednesday, May 11, we’ll be throwing a party at Katra Lounge (217 Bowery at Rivington).

We’re in NYC for a couple of reasons: One, we’re constantly looking for awesome entrepreneurs to connect with, so that we can cover their stories on VentureBeat.

Second,  and I guess you could say it is related, we’re on the prowl for the best companies we can … Continue Reading

NY companies: Join us at RRE Ventures May 11

If you’re based in New York and have the next big disruptive tech company, you’ll want to apply for a special session we’re hosting next month with one of New York’s  most respected venture capital groups, RRE Ventures.

A month after wrapping up DEMO Spring, we’re back traveling the world looking for the next awesome products to launch at the upcoming DEMO, to be held September 12-14 in Silicon Valley.

This New York session will … Continue Reading

Clearwire's high-speed 4G wireless network to finally hit the big cities: New York, LA, and SF

Clearwire has been methodically building up its 4G wireless networking service around the country, starting with small markets and moving to big ones. Today, the companyannounced that it will launch in the big cities: New York on Nov. 1, Los Angeles on Dec. 1, and San Francisco in late December.

Clearwire will offer dual-mode 4G/3G USB modems in New York City and Los Angeles in advance of commercial service. It isn’t clear just how much … Continue Reading

New York gets another super angel as Josh Kushner announces his new fund

As the New York tech scene has flourished in the past few years, a number of so-called ‘super angel’ funds have been formed to fund the city’s fledgling startups. Now another angel is ready to spread his wings with Josh Kushner announcing his new $10 million seed fund Thrive Capital.

While Kushner is only 25 years old, he is already a successful entrepreneur in his own right. He is the co-founder and chief strategy officer … Continue Reading

NY companies: Get feedback from RRE Ventures

Do you have a technology idea that will change the world?

If you’re based in NY, and you think you’ve built a technology product that will set off the next tech revolution, consider applying for a special session we’re hosting next Tuesday with one of New York’s respected venture capital groups, RRE Ventures. Some partners at that firm will join us in providing feedback on your product.

Two weeks after wrapping up DEMO Fall in … Continue Reading

Mayor Bloomberg tells TechCrunch Disrupt audience New York is awesome

Do you have a technology idea that will change the world?

If you’re based in NY, and you think you’ve built a technology product that will set off the next tech revolution, consider applying for a special session we’re hosting next Tuesday with one of New York’s respected venture capital groups, RRE Ventures. Some partners at that firm will join us in providing feedback on your product.

Two weeks after wrapping up DEMO Fall in … Continue Reading

OpenSky, the social-commerce-for-bloggers startup, raises $6M

Do you have a technology idea that will change the world?

If you’re based in NY, and you think you’ve built a technology product that will set off the next tech revolution, consider applying for a special session we’re hosting next Tuesday with one of New York’s respected venture capital groups, RRE Ventures. Some partners at that firm will join us in providing feedback on your product.

Two weeks after wrapping up DEMO Fall in … Continue Reading