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• Twitter has a big diversity problem: 70% men, 59% white

  by Steven Loeb, July 24, 2014

  How does Twitter compare to Facebook, Google and Yahoo?

  You may have already heard, but Silicon Valley has a diversity problem. And it’s a pretty big one at that. And yet, it seems to me that Twitter has become the scapegoat in some ways for that. I hear all the time about Twitter being mostly white, and mostly men. Maybe that's because it took the company so long to finally appoint a woman to its board of directors, but is the company really any

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• Zuckerberg: Facebook will never be a payments company

  by Steven Loeb, July 23, 2014

  Even though it is testing a buy button, Facebook will remain a partner to other payments companies

  "We've said in a number of comments that we think some of these newer initatives are going to ramp over time. We really do mean that, and we're serious about doing this the right way and building up these ecosystems. And I think for some of these other apps, we're just going to build all the infrasturure that we need to make it something thats scalable over time, rather than trying to have this be

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• Facebook comes out on top, beats in Q2 earnings report

  by Steven Loeb, July 23, 2014

  Facebook reports $2.91B in revenue, with EPS of 42 cents, for the second quarter

  Shares of Facebook are up 5%, in after-hours trading, after the company posted second-quarter results that handily beat Wall Street expectations. The stock has risen 0.93%. Facebook shares had gone up 2.92% or $2.02, to $71.29 a share in regular trading on Wednesday. In the earnings report, Facebook posted revenue of $2.91 billion for the quarter, beating Wall Street's estimates of $2.81 billion, a

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• StubHub users beware! Over 1,000 accounts hacked!

  by Steven Loeb, July 23, 2014

  Hackers were able to gain access to StubHub through other breaches and existing malware

  I have used StubHub on a number of occasions, and have always found their service to be extremely reliable. I have actually convinced a few people I know to use the site, even though they were somewhat weary about people potentially selling them fake tickets. What breaches like this really do is make people like me have second thoughts about not only telling others to use it, but about using it again

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• LinkedIn picks up marketing platform Bizo for $175M

  by Steven Loeb, July 23, 2014

  LinkedIn makes around 20% of revenue from advertising, but may be looking to increase that number

  "LinkedIn’s mission is to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful, while Bizo’s is to help B2B marketers get to the right people. We realized that our respective missions are incredibly well aligned, and we believe that combining forces will accelerate our ability to execute against the huge opportunities ahead," Russell Glass, CEO of Bizo, wrote

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• LinkedIn experiments with a "find friends" feature

  LinkedIn would likely add the feature to its Connected app, allowing users to find contacts nearby

  The idea of finding friends nearby has always struck me as a little... creepy. Like, I get the idea behind it, and I can see how it would be cool to see that someone you know is a block away. But, at the ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Social media nostalgia app Timehop raises $10M

  Timehop shows users what they were doing on social media on this date in history

  There has been a big movement toward privacy in social media over the last couple of years, with the rise of apps like Snapchat and Whisper and Secret. I get why this is appealing: it's hard to feel secure ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• App monitoring service AppDynamics raises $120M

  With the new funding, AppDynamics is now valued at over $1 billion

  It's hard to overstate the importance of app performance management. People have very, very little patience for malfunctioning, or just downright slow, applications, which can be absolutely deadly to the ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Cloud service younity partners up with GoPro

  Younity will organize GoPro videos, and allow users to instantly playback their videos on mobile

  I've never had the opportunity to use a GoPro camera, but I have heard that they are quite amazing. That they are the kind of camera that makes people feel like they need to get out there and do something ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Tango launches $25M gaming fund to expand platform

  Tango also hires GREE's Jim Ying as VP of game publishing

  Mobile messaging is hot right now, but one of the more noteworthy apps in the space, Tango, the company that raised $280 million in March, is looking to branch out. Specifically it is looking to expand ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Facebook finally adds ability to save content for later

  Users can now store the pages, links and places that they don't have time for right away

  When I'm looking at Facebook, I am constantly finding myself scrolling over videos and links that I simply don't have time to watch right now. Now, in a move that it I believe should have made, literally, ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Facebook referral traffic rockets 150% in one year

  While all other sites saw traffic decrease this past quarter, Facebook was the only one that gained

  Due to the fact that social media companies don't actually have a real, tangible product to sell, they have to rely on other sources for money: mainly advertising and referral traffic, or how good they ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• EU and Finland blast Microsoft's huge Nokia cuts

  The massive job cuts could affect up to 1,100 people who live and work in Finland

  Microsoft's big job cuts announcement late last week is not sitting too well with more than a few people. I mean, obviously the people who are losing their jobs, but also the Finnish government, and the ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Unbabel raises $1.5M for its translation marketplace

  Investors include Matrix Partner, IDG Ventures, Google Ventures, and others

  Unbabel, a marketplace for translation services, announced it's just landed a $1.5 million Series Seed round from some pretty notable VCs, including Matrix Partners, Google Ventures, IDG Ventures and many ...
  By Bambi Francisco Roizen
  

• The 10 biggest LA exits in the last five years

  Companies like Oculus and Maker Studios have been purchased, while others went public

  While the Bay Area is, and probably always will be, the biggest tech hub in the world, plenty of other cities have made a name for themselves as well, including Los Angeles. With our upcoming Vator Splash ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• How does DogVacay make money?

  DogVacay takes a 15% cut out of every transaction that goes through the site

  More recently, though, I've been introduced to the wonderful world of dogs, as just about everyone in my girlfriend's family seems to have one. Now I see just how much work they are! Every time her sister ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• TubeMogul shares shoot up 64% in NASDAQ debut

  The East Bay-based video ad-tech company prices IPO of $7 per share, down from original $11 to $13

  That's quite a welcome, despite the fact that the company and its bankers decided to lower the initial price to $7 from the initial $11 and $13 price-point they hoped to attract from investors during their ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Funding roundup - week ending 7/18/14

  Upside, Vision Critical, SherpaVentures, DICOM Grid, Manzama, xTV, JFrog, Zooz, IIX, 5th Planet

  Upside, a robo-advisor that works for financial advisors rather than their clients, raised a $1.1 million seed-funding round from Cultivation Capital, SixThirty and angel investors, including Suranga Chandratillake, ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• VC investing in SF, late-stage hits record in Q2 2014

  Big rounds in SF-startups Uber, Airbnb, Pinterest, Automattic push venture investing to 14-yr highs

  I'm not saying the venture industry is in a bubble, even though there is more giddiness than fear, which reflects more bubble-era sentiment than not. Apparently, some analysts believe we're in the third ...
  By Bambi Francisco Roizen
  

• Care.com acquires Citrus Lane for up to $48.6M

  Citrus Lane is a social commerce platform designed toward mothers and their children

  The deal, which has already been completed, was worth up to a total of $48.6 million. $22.9 million of that was in cash and another $8.1 million was in equity. The agreement also allows for another $17.6 ...
  By Steven Loeb
  
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