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Startup timing: From impossible to just really hard

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, April 1, 2013 | Comments

Evernote CEO and founder Phil Libin shares his lessons learned at Splash

They say that timing is everything, and that goes for when to launch a startup too. One of the best pieces of advice that Evernote CEO and founder Phil Libin shared at Splash SF was when to start a company. "The right timing is you wait until the world changes, so that a really important problem moves from being impossible ...

YL Ventures tweaks strategy to allow for homeruns

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, March 29, 2013 | Comments

Yoav Leitersdorf on why focusing 'just' on quick exits can become too restrictive

I recently caught up with Yoav Leitersdorf, a partner at YL Ventures, to get an update on his venture firm and its progress. Turns out, YL Ventures has made a bit of a pivot, but only because it's managed to pick some winners in its portfolio. About a year ago, Leitersdorf described YL Ventures' strategy as seeking startups that a ...

PTG gets $5M to clean water with renewable energy

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, March 28, 2013 | Comments

EIC Ventures, Kennington lead the round

If you've ever driven on 880 right off the Bay Bridge, you've probably noticed the public water facility that is purifying tens of millions of gallons of water a day. There's about 16,000 wastewater treatment plants across the country, similar to this one. The problem is, they're apparently wasting a lot of energy and maybe even creating more waste. Enter: ...

FundersClub launches YC-based fund; the first of many

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, March 26, 2013 | Comments

Y Combinator-backed VC raises $1.1 million for select YC startups from the Winter 2013 class

In a move to start creating mini-funds around accelerators and incubators, FundersClub, a new online venture capitali firm, raised $1.1 million to invest in about five to 10 Y Combinator-backed companies from the Winter 2013 batch, that went public in YC's Demo Day today. Some 86 angel investors participated in the round, making an average investment of around $12,700 into ...

Crushpath raises $6M for a way to pitch your stuff

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, March 12, 2013 | Comments

Social+Capital Partnership leads round, with participation from Charles River Ventures

Over the weekend, I was speaking to a painter on TaskRabbit, a site to find people to hire for simple tasks. Funny thing is, he didn't have a TaskRabbit page, website or Yelp page to showcase testimonials and referrals. I found myself wondering whether he could use something easier to set up to win new customers such as myself. Crushpath's ...

Even in the enterprise, a sleek UI makes a difference

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, March 7, 2013 | Comments

Bunchball launches Nitro 5.0 and transforms its dashboard from clunky to cool

I typically don't write about user-interface upgrades. It's a work in progress for all companies. So it's expected. But in this case, Bunchball's new user interface for its business customers, called Nitro 5.0, is a great example of how a clean-looking, easy-to-use user interface makes a world of difference - at least from an aesthetic point of view. In a ...

Soldsie raises $1M to help brands sell on Facebook

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, March 6, 2013 | Comments

500 Startups, FundersClub, and angel investors kick in money to jumpstart this effort

For marketers, having a Facebook brand page to attract fans sounds like a must-have. Yet at the same time, most marketers probably still wonder what the real value of a Facebook fan is. That is, of course, unless you can get them to actually buy a product. There is one company trying to help brands solve this problem: Soldsie, a ...

Select two travel destinations, GetGoing gives you one

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, March 5, 2013 | Comments

YC-backed discount travel site opens up for the public this Wednesday

I love the Web for all the variety of business models that have emerged. One that's pretty innovative and game-like-exciting-and-frightening at the same time, is GetGoing, which is a travel website that offers discounted airfares to vacation travelers, with a catch. To get a travel deal, which can be anywhere from 20% to 40% off the published airfare prices online, you ...

FindTheBest raises $11M for comparison-search platform

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, March 5, 2013 | Comments

New World Ventures, Montgomery & Co. lead new round

At at time when verticalization of just about everything seems to be the au courant startup strategy, FindTheBest is going against the grain by going after multiple verticals to be the comparison-shopping engine for every product and service, from car seats, to dry dog food to incubators and accelerators. Think of it as the Kayak for the 1,000 other decisions ...

Wide Open Spaces debuts, launching openseason

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, March 5, 2013 | Comments

Social commerce site for hunting, fishing targets 37 million sportsmen

If you want to find discounted Donna Karan bedding or clothes, you might try Gilt Groupe. If you want to find discounts on Shimano fishing reels, you could try your luck on eBay or some trade magazines. But there's a relatively new site in town and it's focused on becoming the social commerce site for the fishing and hunting market. ...

Skyfire gets bought for $155M by Opera

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, February 15, 2013 | Comments

Opera gains ability to optimize mobile delivery of video and big files

Opera Software just announced that it's bought Skyfire for $155 million, in a cash-and-stock deal. The price includes an upfront consideration of $50 million (which includes the $8 million of cash in the bank), and performance-based earn-out payments over three years. If the company can meet those earn-outs, a lot of future upside is on the line. Mountain View, Calif-based ...

Self-service social video platform Virool raises $6M

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, February 14, 2013 | Comments

YC-backed startups attracts Thomvest Ventures, Menlo Ventures, DFJ, Digital Sky and more

If you ever wanted to get your video viral (or at least have a better chance of going viral), you now can do that by spending as little $10 a month. Virool, a self-serve social video advertising platform, announced Thursday that it's raised $6 million in funding from Thomvest Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Yuri Milner, Phenomenon Ventures, TMT Investments, ...

RepairPal raises $13M from Cars.com, Castrol

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, February 11, 2013 | Comments

Startup wants to aggregate repair shops into a 'trusted' membership network

I've been looking for a new car, and recently I was offered a Chevy Tahoe with 70,000-plus miles. Now heretofore I'd never look at a vehicle with that many miles, but I'm told by Art Shaw, CEO of RepairPal, that 200,000 miles is the new 100,000. To that end, I'm considering the truck. Given that cars and trucks are built ...

Ping4 raises $4M for public safety alerts app

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, February 11, 2013 | Comments

Startup is working with government agencies and news outlets to drive app downloads

If you want to drive app downloads, sometimes the best way to do it is to make it less of a commercial option but rather a required, public-safety one. That's the case with Ping4, which was conceived as an app for retailers to alert potential customers, but then pivoted to become an app for authorities to send out warnings and ...

Marketplaces, mobile are big VC themes in 2013

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, February 10, 2013 | Comments

Rick Heitzmann leads VC panel and shares why he invested in Pinterest (before it was hot)

If you want to know what venture capitalists want to invest in this year, check out this panel moderated by Rick Heitzmann, founding Managing Partner of FirstMark Capital. The panel was held in NYC during Splash NY. If you missed it, here's the video. On the panel at Vator Splash NY were Chris Fralic from First Round Capital, which has ...

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