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• MC Hammer: Innovation, faith and Charles O. Finley

  by Kristin Karaoglu, June 19, 2013

  Lessons Learned from the rapper, dancer and entrepreneur

  Hammer is widely known for his hits: "U Can't Touch This" and "2 Legit 2 Quit." Hammer's innovative thinking had a big impact on the music industry and on Hollywood, where bands would ask for "the Hammer cut" for their early MTV videos. The Oakland, Calif artist and entrepreneur also started an online venture called DanceJam. In this in-depth interview with Bambi Francisco, Hammer shares his lessons

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• Amazon launches Amazon Birthday Gift for pooling gifts

  by Faith Merino, June 18, 2013

  Amazon Birthday Gift will allow users to give gifts via Facebook...just like Facebook Gifts

  But the Amazon Birthday Gift has its own advantages, such as essentially pooling together gift cards. Essentially, one person gets it started with their own gift amount, and then other friends can join in and add to the amount along with their own birthday messages. The birthday boy or girl won’t get the messages or the gift card until his/her birthday, so you don’t have to do everything

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• Yahoo received as many as 13,000 user data requests

  by Faith Merino, June 18, 2013

  Of the companies that have revealed their user data requests so far, Yahoo has had the most

  Over the weekend, Microsoft, Facebook, and Apple all revealed the number of government requests for data between December 2012 and May 2013. Now Yahoo is joining in on the fun, announcing late Monday night that it has received between 12,000 and 13,000 requests for data under FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) and other types of investigations. So far, that’s more requests than any

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• Think you like what you like? Think again

  by Nir Eyal, June 18, 2013

  Placebo effect in full effect

  Perhaps no other phenomenon demonstrates our brain’s ability to make believe better than the placebo effect. Long known for its ability to improve a patient’s health, the practice of giving people an inert treatment they believe will make them better has been proven to be highly effective. In fact, in recent studies, researchers have found the placebo effect may be much more potent

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• Mark Cuban: Sweat equity goes a lot further than money

  by Kristin Karaoglu, June 18, 2013

  Advice to entrepreneurs from Dallas Mavericks owner, entrepreneur and angel investor

  Cuban founded Broadcast.com, which went public during the dot-com heyday and was bought by Yahoo in 1999 for over $5 billion in stock, making it one of the biggest exits for any dot-com during the Internet boom.Cuban used the windfall to buy the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball League and set himself up as one of the most visible -- and voluble -- moguls in professional sports. In this lesson,

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• Netflix to license DreamWorks characters for new shows

  Dora Shmora, now Netflix has Shrek and Po

  While it looked like Netflix’s kids programming took a huge hit last month with the expiration of its deal with Viacom, the company has surprised with a ninja Matrix move showing that it really is ...
  By Faith Merino
  

• Apple received government requests on 9K-10K accounts

  Apple says that FaceTime and iMessage content are not affected

  Shortly after Facebook and Microsoft both disclosed government requests for data last weekend, Apple followed suit. The company issued a statement Sunday night revealing that between December 2012 and ...
  By Faith Merino
  

• How to value and price your startup

  What each founder should know when setting up a preliminary valuation to attract outside capital

  When a founder determines it is worth his while to attempt to raise money for his concept, the basic issue becomes one of price. If, for example, the business needs $500,000 to get started, how much of ...
  By Michael Ostendorff
  

• LA's startup tech scene - State of the Union 2013

  Rustic Partners' Neal Hansch presents an overview of the LA tech startup scene

  Neal Hansch, partner at Rustic Canyon Partners, gives a mini State of the Union presentation on what's happening across the LA tech scene. Hansch also outlines which incubators and accelerators are sprouting ...
  By Kristin Karaoglu
  

• Vinod Khosla: Be bullheaded when times are tough

  Founder of Khosla Ventures on conviction, paranoi and crashing through walls

  Here's your lesson of the day! At Vator, we have thousands of sage advice from seasoned entrepreneurs. Many have asked if we could showcase one every day as a constant reminder of what it takes to build ...
  By Kristin Karaoglu
  

• Google using balloons to bring the Internet to everyone

  Google's new Project Loon uses solar-powered balloons to bring the Internet to remote areas

  The goal of any big Internet property is, of course, to get as many people using their service as possible. That is a given. What that really means, though, is getting Internet access to everyone, even ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Stockr - a new platform for stock traders, investors

  Winner of Splash LA hopes to revamp and improve 'investor relations' with shareholders

  The rise of social media over the last decade, has led to the rise of what I would call, for lack of a better term, niche social networks. There are networks for everything, including cat lovers, antiquers, ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Of course there's an app for rating hookups

  The women-only app lets users anonymously rate hookups

  So here’s the perfect story to wrap up your work week: there’s an app for rating hookups! FINALLY. The app is called Lulu and there's a caveat: it’s only for women. And it’s only ...
  By Faith Merino
  

• A list of top Austin accelerators and incubators

  Can't afford life in Silicon Valley? Try the "Silicon Hills" of Austin

  I’ve never been to Austin, so I can’t personally say that it’s not like the rest of Texas, which, as the “business friendly” state, is sounding more and more like Bangladesh. ...
  By Faith Merino
  

• Funding roundup - week ending 06/14/13

  Dispop, Instagrad, SageCloud, Thumbtack, WorldDesk, Minilogs and Wrapp all raised money

  InternMatch, an online platform for students, raised a $4 million Series A round of funding. The round was led by Artis Ventures and Subtraction Capital, and included 500 Startups, Kapor Capital, Rudy ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Nextdoor, the network for neighborhoods, comes to NYC

  Network creates private protected neighborhood sites, over 1,800 have been created for NYC so far

  I grew up in New York City and I can tell you one thing that is absolutely true: you will never, ever know your neighbors. You will probably know what they look like, you might even nod or say hello to ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Google shutting down AdWhirl at the end of September

  AdWhirl allowed publishers to many ads from multiple networks on a single platform

  "Important notice: We will retire AdWhirl on 30 September 2013. Ad network mediation can be managed with AdMob Mediation, a free and robust tool with features like network-level reporting, country-level ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Facebook mobile ad revenue set to explode in 2013

  The social network's worldwide revenue will grow over 333% this year

  The social network is set to see its mobile ad revenue shoot up over 333%, from $470 million to 2.04 billion, according to a report from eMarketer released Thursday. That will more than double its worldwide ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Lolly Wolly Doodle raises $20M led by Steve Case fund

  The social commerce startup for made-in-America kids' clothes grows entirely on Facebook

  We’ve reached a point of technological advancement in which if you are creative and reasonably adept at using a sewing machine, you have no excuse for not starting your own clothing line. (The operative ...
  By Faith Merino
  

• Apple testing iPhones with bigger screens?

  Report says Apple is tinkering with 4.7-inch and 5.7-inch screens

  It’s become a familiar story: Apple reveals a new product or OS, and Apple shares fall… Despite the fact that iOS 7 was unveiled to largely positive reviews, Apple shares have sunk 3.57% to ...
  By Faith Merino
  
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