Bambi's blog: Vator launches Company updates
Vator makes it easier for startups to share their story and connect, by adding Company Updates
Vator has always been a place for entrepreneurs to share their story, starting with a video pitch. But since we've launched in June 2007, we've continually enhanced the ability for entrepreneurs to communicate their narrative in multiple ways, be it video, documents, company blog feeds, and now short messaging.
Vator on Tuesday is opening up to Beta users a new product, called "Company updates," a micro-blogging news feed for startups to communicate their
progress, activities and announcements, in a live, continuous feed. Anyone on Vator can quickly reply to those updates.
Given the feedback and activity from our Alpha companies, we decided to make an announcement out of it, and get Beta users in right away.
Here's a look at how it works on my Vator company profile:
When we post an update, or add/edit the profile with new text, video, images or documents, the activity appears as a feed on a users' "my vator" dashboard as a constant update of the latest posts by the companies they're following.
Here's a look at my dashboard.
As of today, Vator will be making this short messaging product available to Beta users. For now, only a handful of Alpha companies have been in the program, including: Occipital, Nimbuzz, Blippr, Indaba Music, Crispy Gamer, Wize, Ignighter, Famplosion, Vayyoo and Buzzd.
Here's how the Company Updates look like if you're looking at a company profile. In this example, I'll show Occipital, since the company announced its iPhone app on its profile. 
I'm really excited to make Company Updates available to Beta testers as we want the community to define how we should build it. We're trying to address their needs by slowly pushing this product out to ensure we're refining in a way that's useful to everyone.
Companies interested in joining the private Beta program, should go here: [https://www.vator.tv/company-
Here's a press release for those interested in more information:
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – December 16, 2008 - Vator.tv, a business social media site for entrepreneurs and innovators, on Tuesday announced that it's making available Company Updates, a micro-blogging news feed for startups to communicate their progress, activities and announcements, in a live, continuous feed. The feeds appear on a users' dashboard as a constant update of the latest posts by the companies they're following.
"Vator.tv has always been a place for entrepreneurs to share their story in their own voice, typically in video and text," said Bambi Francisco, Co-founder and CEO, Vator, Inc. "People have been updating their profiles with new videos, and new information. Now, we're extending the sharing and communicating process to quick updates."
The initial release is being run as a private Alpha program, with a handful of companies. There have been a substantial number of requests to open the Alpha to a larger group of companies, who currently use Vator.tv, for their PR and marketing needs.
"We wanted to keep the Alpha program limited to a small group of companies because we felt the most important first step was to make sure the product was functioning properly and prepared to scale," said Francisco.
Although the Alpha program has been running since December 3rd, it has already garnered the acclaim of companies in the alpha program. "I really like the new feature. It's allowed me to have some great conversations with other people from interesting companies and the ability to quickly view their profile page and learn more about the company gives it a sense of "real interaction" that I feel is lacking in other social conversation services (such as Twitter, FriendFeed, etc.)," said Himanshu Shah, Directr of Business Development / Strategic Partnerships at Wize.com.
The companies currently in the Alpha program are: Occipital, Nimbuzz, Blippr, Indaba Music, Crispy Gamer, Wize, Ignighter, Famplosion, Vayyoo and Buzzd.
Companies interested in joining the private Beta program, should go here: [https://www.vator.tv/company-
Vator is a next-generation business social media company, leveraging community-generated content to create data services and news. Vator allows startups to be discovered, and to communicate their story with others who are interested in their businesses. Anyone can join Vator and follow startups, or interact with others interested in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The Vator.tv company directory allows anyone to easily find and follow startup companies, through profiles created and authored by the entrepreneur, and not third-party services. In addition to the social network, Vator's newsroom, called VatorNews, is a community-generated news site, comprised of 70 contributing bloggers and video bloggers.
Launched in June 2007, Vator brought in a second round of angel
funding in 2008 from VentureFarm, an angel network found on the Vator
platform. Other angel investors include Peter Thiel (founder, Clarium
Capital, co-founder PayPal), Richard Rosenblatt (former MySpace
Chairman, co-founder Demand Media), Georges Harik (co-developer
Google's AdSense) Paul Buchheit (co-founder FriendFeed, developer
Google's Gmail), Jeff Peterson (founder QuePasa), and Thom Calandra
(founding editor MarketWatch).
Bambi Francisco Roizen
Founder and CEO of Vator, a media and research firm for entrepreneurs and investors; Managing Director of Vator Health Fund; Co-Founder of Invent Health; Author and award-winning journalist.
All author postsRelated Companies, Investors, and Entrepreneurs
Indaba Music
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Indaba Music is an international community of musicians, music professionals, and fans exploring the creative possibilities of making music with people in different places.It is the premier social network for musicians and web application for online music production and collaboration.
With recording hardware and software now available on almost any budget, it's easier than ever for artists of all levels and backgrounds to record and produce professional quality music. Artists are also harnessing the internet to get their music heard by more people than ever before. We think this is a big deal for the future of music, and we built Indaba to be an environment for artists to harness these trends and create music in new ways.
We don't believe that Indaba Music will ever recreate or replace the experience of working with someone else in the same room, but we do believe we can foster a community that offers new opportunities for artists at all levels to connect and work creatively together, regardless of location.
The site is more than just a tool, it's a community of real people connecting and collaborating in new and exciting ways. As we grow, we plan to add even more exciting features, including more advanced collaborative functionality and ways for fans to experience music creation.
Indaba is a Zulu word that invokes the spirit of collaboration and community. It refers to a gathering or a forum for sharing ideas, and it embodies concepts that are central to the mission of Indaba Music.
Wize.com
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Finding the product that's right for you is hard. Reading thousands of reviews and picking from hundreds of products is difficult and frustrating. It takes a lot of time to make sense of all this information and find the product that fits your needs. We built Wize.com to solve this problem.
Wize gathers millions of product reviews from websites like Amazon.com, Walmart.com, and CNET. Using our proprietary technology we figure out which products are the best for how people want to use them.
Looking for a Television for "Watching Movies?" Simply tell us what you're looking for, and we'll read through all the product reviews from the Web to help you find the best product.
Want more information about products before you buy? Learn more about a product by seeing all the information, pictures, pros and cons, reviews, ways to use it, and stores to buy it.
Not sure which product to choose from? Compare the products you like using our product comparison, and find the best product that's right for you.
blippr
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
blippr is the easiest way to discuss, discover, and organize books, games, movies, and music with your friends.Vator, Inc.
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Vator (short for innovator) is an awesome professional network for entrepreneurs and investors that sits at the intersection of media and finance. Our entrepreneurial ecosystem consists of startups, investors, strategics and service providers.
Vator’s platform offers an extensive set of services to the entrepreneurial community. Here is a quick summary of our suite of offerings:
VatorNews: Research, analysis and coverage, spanning news, thought leadership and lessons learned
VatorX: SaaS platform leveraged by startup communities and competitions to rank and filter participating startups
Vator Events: Well recognized large and small events across numerous geographies and sectors
Vator Investment Club: Our investor group for accredited investor members of the Vator community
Vator Teams: Our confidential acquihire platform for startup teams
Background
Vator was originally founded by Bambi Francisco and seed funded by its original lead investor Peter Thiel as a social network for startups and investors, combining media coverage with rich profiles and filtering. Over the more than decade since its founding Vator has expanded to offer a full range of services to the entrepreneurial community. Today Vator is a well-recognized and trusted member of the startup community.
Business Model
Vator has a range of business models due to its diversified set of offerings.
Buzzd
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Buzzd (http://www.Buzzd.com/) is the premier mobile, local search service, providing real-time information for bars, clubs and restaurants on the mobile device. "Your city, in real-time," Buzzd allows consumers to know what's happening at any venue right now, rate events, and connect with friends and people in the area.
Crispy Gamer
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
[Sold to LiveGamer in 2011]
Crispy Gamer is the largest independent game media company providing news, information and cutting-edge community for serious gamers. It is the only place where gamers and experts come together to form critical opinions and share essential information around their passion for games.
Occipital
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Occipital, LLC is a technology startup focused on mobile visual search, founded by University of Michigan alumni Jeffrey Powers and Vikas Reddy.
Occipital was funded by seed-stage incubator TechStars in 2008, and is based in Boulder, Colorado.
Ignighter
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Ignighter is a web application that is based on the idea that in real life, people tend to meet other new people in groups rather than one-to-one settings. On Ignighter, a group of girls or guys create a profile page, add pictures, descriptions, etc. Then they search their city for groups of friends of the opposite sex (or same sex if applicable) to get together with and meet in person on a group date.Vayyoo
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Meet Vayyoo.
Vayyoo is simplifying the way people and businesses use wireless mobility to make everyday operations more efficient and effective.
Vayyoo takes the powerful capabilities of smart phones, including pictures, video, text, GPS-location, and voice, and integrates them into a single, organized application.
Complicated operations are simplified to seconds and single clicks. Organizations of all sizes can now take advantage of on-location information from mobile users to improve agility and efficiency.
Vayyoo customers achieve commercial success through increased mobility, information convergence, and reduced operating costs.
Systems Integrators and OEMs can integrate Vayyoo technology to revolutionize offerings through mobile data capture and convergence.
Vayyoo solutions enable all mobile users to capture and share their experiences with pictures, video, text, and voice in an organized and unified package; optionally stamped with location.
In seconds, users can send context-rich (location and multimedia) information anywhere, anytime, toanyone.
Our focus is enhancing the mobile user experience, for personal and business use, by making life on mobile simple, yet powerful.
Famplosion
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Famplosion is a service for parents. We are aggregating and organizing local stuff to do and places to go with the kids so parents have a single source for finding the fun and important things to do locally. We are currently in alpha with content for the Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Nashville, Chicago, New York City and Atlanta markets. We expect to launch the beta version of our consumer facing site in mid November. We are also currently building the tools require to start executing on our business development and revenue plans. We are a team of two supported by consultants for various functions in the product development phase. We have been financing our development with an Angel round and expect to be searching for Round A financing in the New Year as the product/platform will be ready to start scaling.Nimbuzz
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Nimbuzz is the free call and messaging app for the connected generation.
Nimbuzz combines the powers of the Internet and mobile communications into one, and lets you meet, share and connect with family and friends on any mobile device.
At the heart of Nimbuzz is the live Contact list – an always-on, hyper-connected, dynamic address book, enhanced with “real-time-presence” showing at a glance who’s online, offline, busy or away, their status messages, avatar pictures and social community activity. From here, users launch free and cheap calls between each other, IM chat sessions, picture sending, chat-room sessions, location based services and various other communication & interactive features.
Nimbuzz users enjoy the freedom of communicating with friends between any internet enabled device, from mobile to mobile, mobile to PC/Mac and vice versa, harnessing the power of the Internet (Wi-Fi, 3G, 2G, GPRS)
With its mobile, Web, Wap and desktop clients, Nimbuzz is available on thousands of the worlds’ most popular devices across all major platforms – Symbian, iPhone, iPod touch, Windows Mobile, Android, BlackBerry, J2ME, as well as Windows and Mac desktop computers.
Social networks & communities supported by Nimbuzz include Skype®, Facebook®, Windows Live Messenger (MSN®), GoogleTalkTM, Twitter, Yahoo!TM, AIM®, MySpace, ICQ®, GaduGadu, Hyves, StudiVZ, Giovani and others.