Omair Ansari, CEO of Abhi, on the Vator Innovation Podcast
Abhi provides working capital to SMEs and earned wage access to employees
Read more...Did you make the list? Here are the top 10 most-viewed interviews on VatorNews in 2011.
Brian Wong explains how Kiip will make money
In a continuation of my interview with Brian Wong, Wong explains that the key to Kiip's business model is how it will leverage the uniquely addictive quality of mobile gaming to keep people hooked and interacting with ads.
In 2010, the company raised $300K to help with product development and scaling, and while Wong wouldn't say whether the company plans to raise additional funds this year, he did note that, "With the funding environment right now, it would be a mistake not to figure out what options there are."
When we discussed ideal companies to partner with, Wong explained that there are already a number of companies in the game developing world that serve both publishing needs and in-game development. Ideally, said Wong, Kiip would partner with an in-game developer that already has the power to command a large audience, as well as the publishers themselves. "Those two bodies are very important for us to work with," he said. Read more
How does Q&A service ChaCha make money?
Q&A sites are getting a lot of attention in the past year. Last week, Formspring raised $11.5 million from Benchmark. In December, Twitter bought Q&A site Fluther. Last October, ChaCha raised $20 million, bringing total funds to date to nearly $72 million. Last spring, Quora raised $11 million for a reported $86 million. And, at the start of last year, Google bought Aardvark. Other startups are emerging in this space, like Law Pivot, a Q&A site just for legal advice, which launched last August. Meanwhile, other lesser-known, non-VC-backed startups, such as JustAnswer, are making solid revenue by allowing experts to charge for providing answers.
In this interview, I talked to ChaCha CEO and co-founder Scott Jones, how his company is making money. Read more
Google Ventures plans on 80 seed deals a year
Google Ventures has been one of the more active Silicon Valley investment firms, having made some 50 investments since 2009. It also has a pretty good exit under its belt with ngmoco, a gaming startup that sold for $400 million at the end of 2010, months after Google Ventures invested. More recently, the VC led an $85 million investment in Kabam, a gaming company focused on hardcore gamers. Joe Kraus, who joined Google Ventures as a partner in 2010, went on the board of Kabam as well.
Recently, I sat down with Joe, whose better known for his experience on the other side of the investment table. Joe founded Excite, one of the first search engines, which also became one of the first Internet companies to go public in 1996. Joe went onto find JotSpot, which he sold to Google in 2006. After Joe's earnout was finished at Google, he decided that it was time to try his hand as an investor. Read more
Woman of many skills: Database System Engineer; SplashX event producer; Author of Startup Teams
All author postsAbhi provides working capital to SMEs and earned wage access to employees
Read more...Northstar democratizes wealth management for employees
Read more...Murad was appointed last week, succeeding founding CEO Stephanie Tilenius
Read more...Angel group/VC
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Bullpen Capital is second round investor who invests in companies previously seeded by the Super Angel funds.
Startup/Business
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Airbnb.com is the “Ebay of space.” The online marketplace allows anyone from private residents to commercial properties to rent out their extra space. The reputation-based site allows for user reviews, verification, and online transactions, for which Airbnb takes a commission. As of June, 2009, the San Francisco-based company has listings in over 1062 cities in 76 countries.
Startup/Business
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Your customers are everywhere. Lithium helps you find your social customers, understand their influence, and build lasting relationships. For market leaders such as Best Buy, AT&T, Research In Motion Limited (RIM), Univision, and PayPal, Lithium is the leading provider of social customer solutions that deliver real business results. The Lithium Social Customer Suite offers complete social monitoring, a comprehensive community platform, and actionable analytics across millions of blogs, forums, and social networking sites. Our technology is proven in high-volume, growth environments and provides security, open and custom APIs, and multi-language support. Founded in 2001, Lithium is privately held with headquarters in Emeryville, California. For more information, visit www.lithium.com. Or, engage with us on Twitter, Facebook, and our community – the Lithosphere.
Startup/Business
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PayNearMe combines a modified cash load network with an application technology platform so that consumers without credit or debit cards—or those who prefer to pay with cash—can conduct a wide range of remote transactions. By doing so, PayNearMe enables companies in a diverse set of industries to turn millions of American households into new paying customers. Consumers can use PayNearMe to pay for ecommerce purchases, telephone orders, loan repayments, money transfers, load funds into e-wallets and more at retail locations throughout the U.S., starting with 6,000 7-Eleven stores.
Startup/Business
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Kosmix was acquired by Walmart in May of 2011 to create @WalmartLabs.
Through the innovative fusion of retail, social and mobile, @WalmartLabs is redefining Commerce for the largest retailer worldwide. We are a group comprised of the brightest technologists and businesspeople in the industry, excited about the limitless opportunities that this next generation of Commerce will bring to billions of people around the globe, all in an effort to help them save money and live better.
Kosmix was funded by Time Warner Investments, Accel Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Dag Ventures, private investor Ed Zander and Jeff Bezos' personal investment company, Bezos Expeditions.
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WalmartLabs is hiring.
http://www.walmartlabs.com/open-positions/
Startup/Business
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ChaCha answers who, what, when, where and why, and has emerged as the No. 1 way for advertisers and marketers to engage their audience. Through its unique “ask-a-smart-friend” platform, ChaCha has answered nearly one billion questions since launch from more than 15 million unique users per month via SMS text (242-242™), online (chacha.com), Twitter (@chacha), Facebook app, iPhone app, Android app, and voice (1-800-2-ChaCha™). Working with major brands such as Paramount, AT&T, Palm, Johnson&Johnson, P&G, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Sonic, and presidential political campaigns, ChaCha.com is one of the fastest growing mobile and online publishers according to Nielsen and Quantcast.
ChaCha was co-founded by proven innovator and entrepreneur Scott Jones and is funded by VantagePoint Venture Partners, Rho Ventures, Bezos Expeditions; Morton Meyerson, former President and Vice Chairman of EDS as well as Chairman and CEO of Perot Systems; Rod Canion, founding CEO of Compaq Computer; the Simon family; and Jack Gill, Silicon Valley venture capitalist.
Startup/Business
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Our goal at Evernote is to give everyone the ability to easily capture any moment, idea, inspiration, or experience whenever they want using whichever device or platform they find most convenient, and then to make all of that information easy to find.
And we’ve done just that. From creating text and ink notes, to snapshots of whiteboards and wine labels, to clips of webpages, Evernote users can capture anything from their real and digital lives and find it all anytime.
Evernote is an independent, privately held company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Major investors include Sequoia Capital, Morgenthaler Ventures, Troika Dialog, and DOCOMO Capital.
Startup/Business
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Kiip lets premium brands provide rewards to casual mobile gamers for in-game achievements. Their platform is designed for in-game engagement via a universal game moment: the achievement moment. Catch the user while they are the most engaged, happy, and attentive. They're the first solution to help premium brands reach the exploding casual mobile gaming market using real estate in meaningful moments. Currently the network reaches just over 20 million smartphone players worldwide.
A bit more here: http://bit.ly/kiipwelcome
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Lyle is the co-founder and CEO of a stealth mobile gaming company. Prior, Lyle also co-founded Lithium and Gamers.com.Joined Vator on