Capital Access Network Raises $30M From Accel To Loan Small Businesses Working Capital @ 07-02-2012 12:59
In this economic climate, many small businesses do not qualify for loans based on the standards imposed by banks and financial institutions. For fledgling businesses, the establishment doesn't have enough cash flow, revenue or credit to qualify for a loan. Many times, entrepreneurs have to put up personal assets as collateral for loans, which can be problematic and risky. The fact is working capital is difficult to get from banks unless a business has perfect credit.
Capital Access Network (CAN), a company that gives small businesses access to credit and working capital and helps solve the problem outlines above, is announcing this morning that it has raised $30 million from Accel Partners. As part of the transaction, Accel partner, Kevin Efrusy will join Credit Access’s board of directors, and Accel vice president, John Locke, will join as an observer.
Jeff Atwood Bids Adieu To Stack Exchange, For The Best Reason Ever @ 07-02-2012 12:25
Jeff Atwood, the co-founder and CTO of
Stack Exchange, a
network of free, community-driven Q&A sites mostly about programming and gaming, and
Stack Overflow, is
stepping down from day-to-day operations at the beginning of next month.
Want To Get Poached? Try JobPoacher @ 07-02-2012 11:46
Judging from
every single TechCruncher's inbox word on the street, there are job poachers amongst us. That's cool, all's fair in love and war and technology recruiting, right? Except when it's not which, in a world filled with people who just want to win at any cost, is pretty damn often. But let's pretend for a second that you're not as fantastic and amazing and desired as a TechCrunch writer. What happens if you want to be poached!? Well, If you're actively looking to be recruited like the rare species of programming fauna that you are, look no further than
Job Poacher, which allows people who are in the market for a new employer to advertise as such, anonymously.
Daily Crunch: Myopic @ 07-02-2012 11:00
Here’s a selection of recent posts on TechCrunch Gadgets: Brinno Peephole Viewer Is A Viewer For Peepholes LL Cool G: Ladies Love Cool Gadgets Too, Says Study Real Augmented Reality Google Goggles In Prototype Stage? Report: Samsung Planning A Full Line Of Galaxy S3 Phones, First Model To Hit This May
Those Millions On Facebook? They Actually Visit, And It’s Not A Huge Deal Anyway. @ 07-02-2012 07:33
Traffic numbers provided by companies should always be questioned -- I mean, of course each company is going to try to present the data in a way that makes them look as good as possible. Which is what New York Times finance writer Andrew Ross Sorkin has understandably done, going to town on Facebook for how it counts its active users, in an article out tonight called "
Those Millions On Facebook? Some May Not Actually Visit."
Startups, VCs Call For “Fresh Perspective” On Piracy Legislation @ 07-02-2012 04:03
In the aftermath of the defeat of the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act, a long list of organizations have sent a letter to Congress asking members to "take a breath" before they trying to push through new piracy legislation. The letter argues that the "wide variety of important concerns" that were expressed during the SOPA/PIPA protests cannot be addressed through "hasty revisions" to the bills. Instead, there needs to be more research and transparent discussion about the broader issues:
The Samsung Doth Advertise Too Much, Methinks @ 07-02-2012 02:57
At CES, the AOL booth where we worked, did interviews, and ate lunch was just a few short feet from Samsung's huge Galaxy Note booth, where they were giving out free shirts printed with your caricature, drawn, of course, on a Galaxy Note. There was a line around this thing the entire time we were there, scores of people waiting for hours for their free t-shirt. Outside CES there were enormous banners in the most prominent and expensive ad spots on the convention center. Phone? Tablet? It's Galaxy Note™! And just yesterday, in a grandiose ad rather out of keeping with their well-received "next big thing" campaign, the Note was made out to be the end of all our troubles, ending the tyranny of using our fingers and letting us circle and cross out and all those things you wish you could do on your obviously-now-obsolete iPhone. But I saw the Note at CES and formed my opinion in about five or six seconds: it's weak. And that's why this advertising blitz makes so much sense.
Yelp Ads Are Not A Rip-Off, You Pay To Seal The Deal @ 07-02-2012 02:29
Yelp built its ad business by attracting users that know what they want, just not who to buy it from -- exactly when ads are most effective. That's why I find today's VentureBeat piece by Rocky Agrawal
titled "Yelp advertising is a rip-off for small advertisers" to be ridiculous. His sources say Yelp charges a $600 CPM, or 1,000-times the standard online CPM rate. Yes, these ads are expensive, especially for low-end restaurants. But for lawyers, dentists, jewelers and mechanics with a high lifetime average revenue per customer, turning someone searching for their services on Yelp into a loyal customer is no rip-off, it can drive huge ROI.
Real Augmented Reality Google Goggles In Prototype Stage? @ 07-02-2012 01:28
There have been whispers in the past of augmented reality goggles or glasses, but generally we have been able to dismiss them as exaggerations or concepts. The technology, while it isn't unrealistic, simply isn't quite there yet. Apparently that hasn't stopped Google: a new report is appearing corroborating earlier ones that they are working on a pair of augmented reality glasses. They'd piggyback on your phone's connection and overlay information like directions, news, and so on. Whether you think it's a good idea or not, this kind of thing is going to come eventually, so it's natural that Google would want to start girding itself for the approaching augmented glasses wars of 20XX.
Halliburton Dumps RIM, Chooses iPhones For 4,500 Employees @ 07-02-2012 00:26
To say that RIM has had a tough time these past few months is an understatement, and today's news probably won't help raise the morale around Waterloo. According to AppleInsider, oilfield services giant Halliburton will soon be migrating their BlackBerry-toting workforce to run exclusively on a new fleet of iPhones.
Groupon Buys eCommerce Data Targeting Startup (And Angelpad Alumnus) Adku @ 06-02-2012 23:27
I love the smell of acquisitions in the morning! We've just heard that Groupon has acquired
Adku, a stealth startup that uses big data in order to personalize the online shopping experience for people visiting eCommerce sites like eBay, Amazon and Zappos. The company built their personalized targeting technology in three months, and have basically been in stealth since they launched at the Angelpad Demo day a year and a half ago. Adku is backed by
Greylock Partners,
Battery Ventures and
True Ventures in addition to being an Angelpad startup.
Lip Reading, 3D Desktops, And NUI: Microsoft Plans To Reinvent User Interaction @ 06-02-2012 22:25
Deep in the skunk works of its Research and Labs divisions, secreted around the Seattle area, Microsoft is working on totally reinventing the way people interact with their computers. Very little is out in the open or in more than a prototype form, but the work is unquestionably being done. Last week it transpired that Microsoft is working on
building Kinect into the bezels of laptops, and after that, presumably, tablets and eventually mobile phones. But it's not just about building out the install base for Dance Central 3. It's enabling the next generation of awareness in our electronics. The iPhone ushered in an era where our devices know when we touch them. Microsoft is working on the next one, in which our devices will simply know us.
Backplane To Hold Music Hackathon At SXSW, With Top Industry Managers As Judges @ 06-02-2012 22:13
A few weeks ago we
wrote about Backplane — a platform for creating interactive, highly visual communities — that counts Lady Gaga as one of its backers, along with plenty of the Valley's most well-known investors. Now the company is harnessing its star power to hold a unique (and potentially awesome) event at SXSW: the
SXSW Managers Hack — a hackathon that will be judged by some of the most accomplished managers in the music industry, including: Scooter Braun, best known for facilitating Justin Bieber's rise to fame; Jay Brown, President of Jay-Z's Roc Nation; and Troy Carter, manager of Lady Gaga (Carter is also one of Backplane's cofounders).
‘Transparent Screen’ Android App Lets You Text And Walk Without Fear @ 06-02-2012 21:55
I used to scowl when I saw people walking down the street with eyes locked on their phones, but necessity has gotten me in the habit of doing it too. Thanks to a new app called
Transparent Screen though, now I can do it free from the fear of falling into
an open manhole or into
a large fountain. No, that’s not a hastily Photoshopped image you see here, that's more or less exactly what you’ll see when the app is running. I say “more or less” because while all of the Android UI goes translucent upon launch, you’re afforded with quite a bit of a control over how dramatic the effect is. It’s in your best interest to get familiar with the settings if you plan on using Transparent Screen for a while too, because you'll soon have some choices to make.
Can Startups Learn Anything From Linux? @ 06-02-2012 21:51
Linux is the world's largest collaborative software development project. People from all over the world have influenced the Linux kernel code, and it runs on everything from mainframe computers to wristwatches. Linux, and free software development in general, provides some tremendous insights into what makes a successful project. Can today's startups learn anything from the history of Linux? The history of Linux proves that collaborative development speeds true innovation. If Linus Torvalds were left to work on Linux alone, there's no way it would be the success it is today. A great many of the things that Linux does today are a direct result of people
scratching their own itches, and then contributing their work back upstream to Linus. Many people focusing on their own little (and not-so-little) problems have made Linux the powerhouse that it is today.
Appoxee Raises Funding, Helps Mobile App Developers Boost User Engagement @ 06-02-2012 21:40
Israeli startup
Appoxee has raised an undisclosed amount of
funding from early-stage investment firm
Cyhawk Ventures. The company offers a service that helps app developers and publishers increase user engagement through
rich push notifications and helps them with things like audience segmentation, targeting, analytics and reporting. Read more over at
TechCrunch Europe.
WWJD? The CEO Every Healthcare Leader Should Learn From @ 06-02-2012 21:30
As healthcare goes through massive changes, health system CEOs would be well advised to study what newspaper industry leaders did (or perhaps more appropriately, didn’t do) when faced with a similar situation. In the late 90's, the following dynamics were present: Owning printing presses was a de facto barrier to entry allowing newspapers unfettered dominance. Newspaper companies bought up smaller newspaper chains and took on huge debt. Newspapers were comfortable as oligopoly or monopoly enterprises allowing for slow, plodding decisions. Their IT infrastructure mirrored this with expensive and rigid technology architectures.
Circuit Playground App Helps Makers Build Electronics @ 06-02-2012 21:26
If you don't know a resistor from a Mister Mister, this is the app for you. Built by Adafruit, creators of DIY
Arduino gear, Circuit Playground is a $2.99 app designed to help you identify and understand various electronic components. For example, the app includes a resistor identification system based on the colored bands painted on the casing as well as a field guide to many electrical components.
Keen On… SOPA: Mob Rule or Direct Democracy? (TCTV) @ 06-02-2012 21:15
My own views about SOPA and the need to protect online intellectual property are
well-known. But even I acknowledge that SOPA was a flawed bill that didn't represent a viable solution to policing the Internet against intellectual property theft. So is there life after SOPA? How can the technology and content communities carve out a compromise which will simultaneously protect innovation and the rights of the creative community? In the spirit of compromise, I invited
Larry Downes, one of SOPA's most
articulate critics, into our San Francisco studio to talk about what comes next.
Brands Scored 2X Facebook Likes By Posting About Super Bowl @ 06-02-2012 20:50
Want to win some extra visibility for your brand on Facebook? Post about current events. Brands grabbed 99.7% higher engagement on their Page posts by talking about the Super Bowl yesterday, and 60% higher engagement over the past 6 weeks compared to the average post. The data from a
Buddy Media study of 1,400 of the world's largest brands indicates they should make sure to post about holidays, sporting events, breaking news, and other trending topics. Here's how this strategy works:
