Virgance gives philanthropy a proletarian twist
For many years, giving large amounts of money to charity, or affecting the moral choices of major companies, has mainly been the province of elite donors and the corporations themselves. Changing this status quo seems difficult — there’s simply a huge divide between those who have money to give away and the power to make decisions, and those who do not.
But a new San Francisco startup called Virgance thinks there’s a way to use social networks… Continue Reading
SF Green brings Tesla, Ray Lane and others to San Francisco on May 12
VentureBeat is proud to announce a gathering for clean technology entrepreneurs next Monday, May 12. We’ve joined forces with SF Green, a San Francisco gathering founded by Steve Newcomb that aims to help shape the region’s cleantech and environmental future.
The aim is to bring together some of the brightest local entrepreneurs and investors, as well as other interested parties — environmentalists, government representatives and regular citizens — in one place, helping to forge connections and… Continue Reading
Steve Newcomb resurfaces with a political and cleantech bent
Here in Silicon Valley, after a turbulent ride at a start-up, founders often find themselves emotionally drained (or charged) and looking for renewal.
For example, natural language search engine Powerset experienced its share of buzz, and hype, but last year its founding team reached an impasse when things weren’t going as smoothly as hoped. In a reshuffle, co-founder Steve Newcomb left, and immediately planned to do his own thing.
I met yesterday with Newcomb to catch up…. Continue Reading
Powerset, the hyped search engine company, sees shakeup
updated
Powerset, the “natural language” search engine company saying it wants to take on Google, has seen a shake up in its management.
The San Francisco company received substantial hype when it emerged last year saying it had found a way to understand the phrases you type into your search queries. However, it has been slow to deliver on the technology, instead dribbling it out in small doses in a “labs” portion of its site.
Steve Newcomb (left),… Continue Reading
More on Powerset, the secretive search engine
(Update: See our subsequent funding story here)
We promised to bring you more on Powerset, that secretive company that wants to better Google with a new kind of search.
Powerset is going after the holy grail. It is called “natural language” search, or understanding language as it is actually spoken — and that is something that has defied everyone until now, even the Google guys.
Take, for example, if you type “Books by Children” into Google’s search box…. Continue Reading
Xuqa on a roll, looking at offers, but may go it alone
San Francisco social networking site XuQa has been approached by some suitors with acquisition offers, but the company may go it alone for now. The company has enough money in the bank and no dire need to raise money, co-founder Ali A. Moiz told us over the weekend.
“Some companies are interested, we’ve been talking with them for several months,” he said. The youth oriented site has stumbled upon what appears to be a nice business… Continue Reading
Roundup: MobiTV, Loopt, Xuqa, Google embraces TurnHere
The latest tech news in Silicon Valley:
The mobile TV revolution continues, and MobiTV is hot — MobiTV, of Emeryville is one of the start-ups on the forefront. It offers TV programming from networks and cable providers. It started out serving mobile phones. Now it has expanded, first to WiFi, and now with AT&T to anyplace with broadband.
Venture investors like Oak are paying a good price to play. MobiTV raised $70 million in a July third round,… Continue Reading