Vator innovation series

Faith Merino's The Deal

All episodes

Groupon's model: Irrational, but it works

by Faith Merino, July 29, 2011

Why Topix CEO Chris Tolles thinks Groupon will succeed despite the quirkiness of its business model

It’s been dark times for Groupon ever since the group buying giant filed to go public. The company has been shredded in the media—so much so that it published a mostly-funny but sort-of-sad retaliation blog post. And now it looks like the SEC is delaying its IPO over its less-than-clear accounting methods. But does Groupon deserve the beating that the ...

Tech bubble? Or a new Web 3.0 boom?

by Faith Merino, June 20, 2011

Are sky-high valuations pointing to a bubble or a new era for Web companies?

So, in case you haven’t heard, Web IPOs are a-boomin’! (I bet that’s the subject line in the company emails VC firms send out.) So far, we’ve seen rockstar first day trading performances by Demand Media, LinkedIn, Yandex, and Pandora. And there are more to come: Groupon is gearing up for an IPO that promises to be huge, and Facebook’s ...

Groupon's $30B IPO- is it unicorn money?

by Faith Merino, June 3, 2011

Given the company's losses, is such a sky-high valuation realistic?

After word got out that Groupon had finally taken the public leap yesterday by filing for an IPO, all of our nagging curiosities about Groupon’s financials were finally satisfied. Yes, Groupon raked in more than $700 million in 2010. Yes, it’s well on its way to triple that this year. No, it’s still not profitable. But all of that ...

Making f-commerce more secure

by Faith Merino, April 26, 2011

Addoway pairs with Klout to provide more secure f-commerce transactions

Back in February, I argued that social media is the future of e-commerce—a fact that few can disagree with now, with the recent launches of Facebook marketplaces like Payvment and Gamestop’s newly launched Facebook store. But what about private merchants—individuals who make and sell jewelry from their own home, or private antique collectors who sell online? As awesome as ...

Making a case for print news

by Faith Merino, March 28, 2011

Print news is on its way out the door, but are we losing a rich print culture as well?

Not to pull a Benedict Arnold on my beloved professional field of digital journalism, but someone needs to stick up for the little guy...which would be the major global print media brands that are currently drowning in a sea of free online content. At this stage, it seems inevitable that print media is going to vaporize sooner or later--if only ...

How social is changing search

by Faith Merino, March 16, 2011

Social is taking search in a more democratic direction, but are we ready for it?

For those who haven't been paying attention, the iPad is spawning a flurry of new industries--most notably, the iMag. Zite, a magazine that aggregates content based on user preferences (which are culled from Twitter and other social networking sites), launched last week, and today, rival Twitter-based social iMag Broadfeed debuted. And then of course, there's Flipboard and Pulse, and every ...

Hitting the big $1 billion

by Faith Merino, March 2, 2011

Groupon nears $1B in revenue, but when did Google, Facebook, and Amazon hit $1B?

2010 was evidently a good year for Groupon, according to reports that emerged last weekend pegging the three-year-old social commerce company's revenues at $760 million. Even more stunning, this is an increase of some $730 million. Groupon brought in only $33 million in 2009. Groupon is like one of those cartoon lab experiments gone awry, like the one where the ...

What kids want from social media

by Faith Merino, February 24, 2011

Disney acquired Togetherville, but can it deliver the social connectivity kids want?

The concept of a social network for kids is like the kid's table at Thanksgiving: it's ultimately just an excuse to get the kids out of the way for a while so that the grown-ups can talk without having to self-censor (anyone with a school-age child knows the relief of finally being able to have a conversation where you can ...

Social is the future of e-commerce

by Faith Merino, February 14, 2011

Online marketplaces have used feedback ratings for years, but social will take it to the next level

If you plan to buy or sell anything on eBay in the near future, you stand a pretty decent chance of getting scammed—particularly if you’re a seller. The latest scam involves buying an item, paying for it, and then complaining to eBay that the item was somehow defective or low-quality. The company will immediately issue a refund on the agreement ...

2011 the year of tech M&As?

by Faith Merino, February 9, 2011

What does the Tencent/Riot Games deal mean for online gaming startups and other tech businesses?

For those of you who were too busy watching the Super Bowl and its lame half-time show to pay attention to the social gaming M&A world, you probably missed what could turn out to be one of the largest tech M&A deal of the year (maybe next year you’ll be more on-the-ball). Last Friday, word got out that Chinese Internet giant ...

At SplashX: the challenges of shifting to precision health

by Steven Loeb
How big data is being used to advance precision health

by Kristin Karaoglu
Where are VCs investing across precision health?

by Kristin Karaoglu
How big data is being used to advance precision health

by Kristin Karaoglu
Corporate Innovator: Tina Moen, Deputy Chief Health Officer at IBM Watson Health

by Steven Loeb
A conversation with Helix Chief Product Officer Chris Glode

by Bambi Francisco Roizen
Precision medicine - more laser or shotgun?

by Bambi Francisco Roizen
When Thumbtack was young: the early years

by Steven Loeb