- CRUNCH NETWORK
A Case Study Of Startup Failure
Startups fail. In fact, startups often fail. Anyone who has spent any time in the startup and venture capital ecosystem will tell you that failure is the most pervasive characteristic of the ecosystem. There is no shame in that. If building a great business from a startup was easy, everyone would be an entrepreneur. If identifying a startup that would return 10x on capital was easy, everyone… Read More PopKey Rehauls Its App To Focus On Discovering And Sharing GIFs
Remember the sticker albums that were massively popular during the Eighties and Nineties? PopKey is creating a new version for the smartphone era with the launch of its redesigned mobile app for GIFs. Previously a simple companion to PopKey’s GIF keyboard, the new app now lets users discover, save, and share GIFs directly to their social media accounts, email, and messaging apps. Read MoreVungle Launches A Premium Marketplace Where Video Advertisers Can Find The Top Apps
Mobile video startup Vungle is launching a new private, programmatic marketplace for ads, which it’s calling Vungle Premium. CEO Zain Jaffer said that the company has already addressed a number of the issues facing brand advertisers on mobile, but it hasn’t tackled “the fact that app charts change on a daily basis, which is a huge problem if you have to make buying decisions… Read MoreSpanish Restaurant Booking Startup Restalo Acquires Local Rival Restaurantes.com
Spanish restaurant booking startup Restalo, which is very similar to the much larger Open Table, has acquired local competitor Restaurantes.com to consolidate its leading position in Spain. Read MoreKinetise Aims To Let You Make An MVP In A Box
When we first met Kinetise they were building a tool to allow anyone with no programming experience build a solid app for iOS and Android. Now, with a bit of improvement, they’re ready to unleash the next step in their master plan – to let anyone build a minimal viable product in a few minutes. “A Mobile MVP can be built at Kinetise in a matter of hours or days. And… Read MoreUber Is Appealing Judge’s Recent Class Action Ruling
Uber is appealing U.S. District Judge Edward Chen’s recent ruling that a case against the car-hailing startup can proceed as a class action lawsuit. This comes as no surprise, given that Uber said it would likely appeal the judge’s decision. When the ruling came out earlier this month, Uber lawyer Ted Boutrous said the case is based on “several key legal errors” and… Read More- CRUNCH NETWORK
Launching Startups The Kogi Way: Three Lessons From The Food Truck Pioneer
Many founders ask me for advice on their latest startup. Of all the things I’ve learned, some of the most compelling tips come from starting a business out of an old truck. When I joined the founding team of Kogi BBQ with Chef Roy Choi in 2008, all we had was a food truck and “seed funding” from a maxed-out credit card. We had no idea that it would change the entire food… Read More TC Cribs: A Look Inside Lyft’s Quirky, Hot Pink HQ
We enter the land of ride-sharing startup Lyft on this week’s episode of Cribs. Lyft’s San Francisco headquarters are a bit like entering Willy Wonka’s factory – if it were painted head-to-toe in hot pink. Large mop-like displays in Lyft’s signature hue greet visitors to the 66,000 square-foot space on the edge of San Francisco’s Mission district. Read MorePrivate Social Networking Service Grou.ps Regroups To Focus On Health And Fitness
White label social networking service Grou.ps is now closed for new signups as the company is changing its strategy from being a general private social networking service to focusing solely on the health and fitness industry. The company is also changing its name from Grou.ps to GymGroups. Grou.ps was one of the first private social networking services on the market — together with… Read More
Stripe’s John Collison Talks Stripe Relay And Bringing New Tools To Retailers
Stripe yesterday rolled out a set of new tools called Stripe Relay geared at helping retailers essentially put buy buttons in multiple platforms. This offers retailers a big opportunity to reduce the clunkiness of a buying experience that requires jumping through mobile websites, according to Stripe’s John Collison. We sat down with him to find out more about Relay and how the company… Read MorePushup Social Adds Social Media To All The Things
Deep in the wilds of St. Louis, a little company run by Dan Lohman, Yomi Toba, and Jan Christian Andersen wants to add all the social media things to all the web things. How? With Pushup Social. Pushup Social essentially adds a social media page to your web page. For example, the Endangered Wolf Center created a social community that lets them share photos, Instagram content, Tweets, and… Read MorePostmates And Walgreens Team Up For On-Demand Delivery
Walgreens just announced an official partnership with on-demand startup Postmates to offer same-day delivery for, initially, a flat delivery fee of $4.99. The on-demand delivery service via Postmates will be available at 600 Walgreens (known as Duane Reade in some parts of the U.S.) stores throughout the country. Postmates has always offered on-demand deliveries of items sold at Walgreens… Read MoreOn-Demand Delivery Service Quiqup Picks Up Backing From Delivery Hero And Global Founders Capital
London’s Quiqup, an on-demand delivery service that competes with Ingite alumni Jinn and U.S. Postmates (if and when it launches in the U.K.), has raised a “multi-million pound” Series A round from take-out ordering service Delivery Hero and Rocket Internet’s investment fund Global Founders Capital. Read MoreBTCChina Rebrands To BTCC
BTCChina, China’s original bitcoin exchange run by Bobby Lee, has rebranded to BTCC. “We’re excited to introduce a new logo and identity that modernizes and reinvigorates the BTCC experience,” said Samson Mow, BTCC’s Chief Operating Officer in a release. “The new BTCC logo retains some original elements as a nod to our heritage, but also conveys a bold… Read MoreLimejump Raises £1.4M To Use Big Data To Transform U.K. Energy Market
Limejump is a classic example of a startup bringing a big data and cloud-based solution to a legacy market, and in doing so has the potential to transform that market. Read MoreSoothe, An On-Demand Massage Service, Acquires Unwind Me
Soothe, which lets customers book in-home massages, has acquired competitor Unwind.me. Unwind.me took part in Y Combinator’s summer 2014 batch and its other backers include 500 Startups and Slow Ventures. Read MoreAccel Partners Looks To Map The Marketing Technology Ecosystem
Accel Partners wants to solve the question for startups, “Who does this marketing thing I need?” It’s doing that with an online tool called Growthverse, an interactive visualization of companies in the marketing technology ecosystem. It launched earlier this year but since receiving a lot of feedback, Accel Partners has refined it with a big update today into what it hopes is… Read MorePanama Lets You Share Anonymous Location-Based Video
Though there are plenty of video-based social networks out there, few are focused more on the content than the following. But Panama, a new app launched from Ocho cofounder Jonathan Swerdlin, is looking to flip that model on its head. Panama, essentially, is a platform for short-form video that is based solely on location, with no identification for the creator of that video… Read MoreMoviepilot Raises $16M For Its Fan-Centric Publishing Platform
Moviepilot, a movie site targeting (you guessed it) millennials, is announcing that it has raised $16 million in Series B funding. The company started in Germany before launching in the United States three years ago, when it also raised $7 million in funding, according to CEO Tobi Bauckhage (pictured above with his co-founders Jon Handschin and Ben Kubota). Last year it sold the German business… Read MoreMeet Kima’s New Team, With Jean De La Rochebrochard And Vincent Jacobs As Partners
You can call this Kima Ventures 2.0 — the very active French early stage fund has a brand new structure, which could significantly change the firm’s investment strategy. Jean De La Rochebrochard is leaving French startup accelerator TheFamily to join Kima as a partner. Existing Kima team member Vincent Jacobs is also becoming a partner based in London. Read More
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