#Love: In The Time Of Spotify
If you look closely at what I’ve built—at my playlists, all of them public—you can see me. You only have to search my name and you’ll see it all right there: what’s in my head. I’m 23, and my idea of love isn’t far from the chorus of “In Your Eyes”. I’m living in the memory of John Cusack standing outside a window. I’m in the… Read More-
On The Importance Of Forgetting
The ongoing debate about Europe’s so-called ‘right to be forgotten’ ruling on search engines has shone a light onto a key pressure point between technology and society. Simply put the ability of digital technology to remember clashes with the human societal need to forgive and forget. Read More -
The Near-Death And Resurrection Of Teen Social Network Let
When I met Pascal Lorne earlier this week, I expected to get an extended pitch for his social networking startup Let. And sure, he ran me through Let’s features and pointed to its early signs of success, but he also detailed the bumpy road that he took to get to this point. Lorne sold his last company, Miyowa, for $59 million two years ago. Afterwards, he said he made a mistake… Read More -
Startups Are Finally Hacking Healthcare
New companies are going around the traditional “front door” of FDA approval, insurers and healthcare institutions by launching ‘Healthcare 2.0’ companies that target consumers and self-insured employers, upending the health sector through the use of innovative digital and social technologies. At a recent forum we hosted for founders and leading industry execs playing… Read More -
Rocket Internet’s Easy Taxi Raises $40M Series D To Expand In Asia, Latin America
Easy Taxi, Rocket Internet’s taxi calling app, announced today that it has raised a Series D round of $40 million, led by Phenomen Ventures with participation from Tengelmann Ventures, the investment arm of German retail giant Tengelmann Group. This brings Easy Taxi’s total raised so far to $77 million as Rocket Internet seeks to establish Easy Taxi’s presence in emerging… Read More -
Apple Secretly Acquired “Pandora For Books” Startup BookLamp To Battle Amazon
TechCrunch has learned that Apple has made another acquisition, one that it is using to boost its e-books effort and “beat Amazon at its own game.” It has bought BookLamp, a startup based out of Boise, Idaho, that developed big data-style book analytics services. A second source says Apple bought BookLamp’s employees and technology for a price that was “higher than… Read More -
Greats Brand Sneakers Are Off To The Races Following $1.5M Funding Round
Greats Brand, aspiring to be the Warby Parker of mens’ footwear, has revealed that the company broke $100,000 in sales in June, with a projected $1.6 million run rate for the year. Following a $1.5 million financing round, the shoe brand will, for the first time, have three different models of their shoes available at once. Historically, the brand has sold only one or two versions of a… Read More -
JustReachOut Helps Startups Write Better Email Pitches
JustReachOut, a new startup out of growth hacking consultancy firm Criminally Prolific, recently launched a service that makes PR easier and more affordable for startups by combining its web services with some basic consultancy services. Read More -
Overswipe’s Photo App Makes It Safe To Hand Over Your Phone
There are a number of third-party applications that offer up a “secret folder” on your iPhone for hiding certain, ahem, private photos from prying eyes. But most of these require a bit of photo management to take place first – you have to import your photos into the app, then delete the original from the Photo Stream. A new app called Overswipe takes a different approach. Read More -
Twitch CEO Emmett Shear And COO Kevin Lin To Speak At Disrupt SF
Twitch is coming to Disrupt SF in early September. The event, like everything Twitch does, will, of course, be streamed live. Twitch is a media monster. It’s at the forefront of the exploding eSports industry. Just three years old, the video streaming service is changing the way gamers interact while providing multibillion avenues for advertisers. Google is reportedly looking into… Read More
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TechCrunch Helsinki Meetup Sees Finland’s New Startup Generation
Finland has a rich heritage in technology. Whatever crisis of confidence the masters of Nokia had, eventually leading to its gutting by Microsoft, that long heritage has served it well, giving rise to a several generations of engineers and, increasingly, entrepreneurs. Now a new generation is emerging in Finland, emboldened by local heroes and successes. This new generation started appearing a… Read More -
Please Join Us For The 9th Annual August Capital Party In Silicon Valley
TechCrunch’s annual summer soirée is almost here. As in years past, August Capital will host TechCrunch and hundreds of local investors, founders and developers at its sunny office on Sand Hill Road. All are welcome to the August 1 event, but space is very limited. Read More -
Yeti Is Like Tinder For Places
Sometimes searching for the perfect bar or a challenging hiking trail can be like searching for a mythological creature. Unless you’ve already found Yeti. Read More -
Fixed Raises $1.2 Million For A Mobile App That Fights Your Parking Tickets For You
Fixed, the clever mobile application that helps you fight your parking tickets just by snapping a photo of the ticket with your mobile phone, has now closed on $1.2 million in seed funding. Investors in the round include Y Combinator, Merus Capital, Scott Banister, John Cobbs, Mark Randolph, Matt Humphries, Eric Wu and David King. Headquartered in San Francisco, which also serves as its… Read More -
The Smart Key Chain Will Store Your Files, Check Your Email, And Find Your Keys
Because everything is getting smarter, it would be silly to think that keychains would be exempt. The Smart Keychain has four uses in one small package: USB file storage, upcoming calendar alerts, incoming email notifications, and a key locator. Read More -
Square Now Works With IFTTT
Imagine a Venn diagram with two big circles: “People who use Square”, and “People who use IFTTT”. If you sit in the overlap between the two — Hurray! Today is your day. Square now plays friendly with IFTTT. If you’re left wondering WTF IFTTT is, here’s the tl;dr: IFTTT (short for If This Then That) lets you connect online services together to… Read More -
Secret Escapes Acquires My City Venue To Add More Events To Luxury Travel Club
Secret Escapes, the UK luxury travel ‘flash sales’ site that offers members heavy discounts on luxury hotels and holidays, has quietly acquired 3 year old My City Venue to bolster the events side of its business. Read More -
SilverPush Says It’s Using “Audio Beacons” For An Unusual Approach To Cross-Device Ad Targeting
A number of companies are trying to help advertisers bridge the gap between devices — i.e. to identify when the same person is accessing the web or apps from the desktop, phone and tablets. Now a mobile advertising startup called SilverPush says it has created the most accurate approach yet. Making those connections is particularly important for advertisers because of the lack of cookies… Read More -
Imoji For iPhone Lets You Turn Any Image Into A Custom Emoji
With the rise of smartphones and messaging apps, emoji and stickers have also grown in popularity, and are now a part of our everyday conversations. But the standard set of emoji that come pre-installed on the iPhone can be limiting. Today, a new application called imoji launches in hopes of changing that, by allowing you to turn any image into a custom sticker or emoji for use with… Read More -
QBlinks Is A Multi-Use Remote Control And Notification Center For Your iPhone
Qblinks wants to be the Swiss Army knife of iPhone remote controllers. The Bluetooth LE device, which is currently seeking $35,000 on Kickstarter, can be used to alert you to notifications from different apps on your smartphone; as a camera remote shutter; to activate Siri; play music; and help you find missing phones by prompting it to ring even when it is in silent mode. Qblinks even has… Read More
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