Bonnaroo is a 4-day music festival in the middle of nowhere Tennessee, 70-miles outside Nashville.It ended yesterday after 90,000 people enjoyed music performances by Billy Idol, Tom Petty, Paul McCartney, The Lumineers, R. Kelly and more.If you've never attended Bonnaroo, then the attire worn by attendees may surprise you. Judgement-free hippies wear next t...
The Most Outrageous Outfits At Bonnaroo, a 4-Day Hippy Fest In Nowhere, Tennessee
Bonnaroo is a 4-day music festival in the middle of nowhere Tennessee, 70-miles outside Nashville.
It ended yesterday after 90,000 people enjoyed music performances by Billy Idol, Tom Petty, Paul McCartney, The Lumineers, R. Kelly and more.
If you've never attended Bonnaroo, then the attire worn by attendees may surprise you. Judgement-free hippies wear next to nothing to stay cool during the 95-degree days and camp in tents at night.
How strange were the outfits, exactly? We took lots of pictures. Prepare to be startled.
Marcus Robinson is the Chief Experience Officer of an interactive software company, Monscierge.His startup is still alive, but like many companies, it had to overcome its fair share of near-death experiences and mistakes. Robinson reflected on four big things his company did wrong along the way that are mistakes most startups make. He shared them with Inc:Initially, Robinson's team wanted to creat...
Marcus Robinson is the Chief Experience Officer of an interactive software company, Monscierge.His startup is still alive, but like many companies, it had to overcome its fair share of near-death experiences and mistakes. Robinson reflected on four big things his company did wrong along the way that are mistakes most startups make. He shared them with Inc:Initially, Robinson's team wanted to create one cookie-cutter app for hotels to offer to guests. He learned instead to cater to the hotels and use their branding instead. "No hotel will ever say, 'Valued guests: Download our mobile app. It's called Monscierge,'" he reflects."We realized we just want to play in the game…and are happy bo be a (paid) cog in the machine.
Sometimes, corporate executives don't add as much to a startup as you might think, says Robinson. They might not understand the grind it takes to make a startup work, or which tactics work in a startup versus a larger company.
"Don't ignore the inner voice inside saying, 'That doesn't sound right, but this industry cowboy must know what he's talking about,'" says Robinson.
It's easy to get distracted when you run a startup and try to build too many things at once. This hurt Robinson's company. "Stay laser-focused--don't let compliments and a little up-front cash veer you off course from the bigger payday," Robinson writes.
4. "We assumed we knew our customer's problems."
"Sell yourself and you'll also sell your products."
For more mistakes that sink startups, check out:33 Major Fail Tails from Startups That Died >
AllThingsD's Kara Swisher says Yahoo and Qwiki are in serious acquisition talks . Marissa Mayer is eying the video app creator for about $50 million.We heard similar chatter last month but when we asked Doug Imbruce, Qwiki's founder, he replied: "? Nothing to chat about."Today we asked again about the acquisition rumor and his response was different: "No comment."Qwiki makes sense for Yahoo. It's a mobile-heavy startup that's not too expensive for Mayer. But Imbruce could have sold his company ...
Yahoo May Buy Video Startup Qwiki For $50 Million, But That's Cheap In Comparison To Google's Offer
AllThingsD's Kara Swisher says Yahoo and Qwiki are in serious acquisition talks . Marissa Mayer is eying the video app creator for about $50 million.
We heard similar chatter last month but when we asked Doug Imbruce, Qwiki's founder, he replied: "? Nothing to chat about."
Today we asked again about the acquisition rumor and his response was different: "No comment."
Qwiki makes sense for Yahoo. It's a mobile-heavy startup that's not too expensive for Mayer. But Imbruce could have sold his company for double or even triple the amount a few years ago.
When Qwiki launched in 2010, it received a lot of hype. It won TechCrunch Disrupt 2010 by demoing an alarm clock app that read overnight news and weather to you. That type of app was one vision for Qwiki. Another was to make all information watchable. Essentially, Qwiki wanted to replace Wikipedia pages and create searchable video content.
That concept attracted Mayer while she worked for Google.Google offered to purchase Qwiki for $100-150 million soon after Disrupt. But Imbruce had already sold one company and he wanted to hold on to Qwiki. He turned down the offer and raised $10 million. Qwiki secured a search deal with Microsoft Bing for its video product.
After the early hype died down, Qwiki struggled. It lost its co-founder, Louis Monier, who created AltaVista. It was difficult to gain traction and the company changed its core concept (or pivoted) three times. Qwiki also moved its headquarters from Silicon Valley to New York City which cost it some core talent.
Imbruce took a gamble by turning down Google just months after its launch. While a Yahoo buyout could still be a win for Imbruce and his investors, it's not the return they could have had a few years ago.
Why do founders turn down eye-popping amounts of money? Check out: These Startups May Have Blown It By Turning Down $100 Million >
Lulu is an app headquartered in London that's getting men riled up. On it, women are rating the men they know and giving them scores. There's nothing the men can do to keep from getting rated (although Lulu deletes any pre-loaded profile at a man's request). How does it work? Since guys aren't allowed in, we thought we'd bring the app to you. You're welcome. Download Lulu here.Lulu is a free iOS a...
The New 'Yelp For Men' App Has Everyone Going Nuts
Lulu is an app headquartered in London that's getting men riled up. On it, women are rating the men they know and giving them scores. There's nothing the men can do to keep from getting rated (although Lulu deletes any pre-loaded profile at a man's request). How does it work? Since guys aren't allowed in, we thought we'd bring the app to you. You're welcome. Download Lulu here.Lulu is a free iOS app. It isn't available for Android devices yet. The design is sleek and black with hot pink banners. Welcome to Lulu. See the rest of the story at Business Insider
Boxee has been creating software and hardware that helps people stream web video onto other devices and cut cable cords for the past decade. Now it may be looking to cut the cord on itself. Boxee has been looking for either an acquirer or a large round of financing since February, AllThingsD's Peter Kafka reports. It hired banking firm Allen & Co to help get a deal done but no luck...
Boxee, A Startup That Cuts Cable Cords In The Living Room, Has Been Trying To Get Itself Acquired Or Funded Since February
Boxee has been creating software and hardware that helps people stream web video onto other devices and cut cable cords for the past decade. Now it may be looking to cut the cord on itself. Boxee has been looking for either an acquirer or a large round of financing since February, AllThingsD's Peter Kafka reports. It hired banking firm Allen & Co to help get a deal done but no luck so far. Boxee initially sought $30 million in additional financing, doubling the amount it has raised to date. Part of the problem may be Boxee's original positioning. For years it touted itself as a cord cutting solution for the living room, which likely rules out interest from traditional TV service providers. Comcast and Time Warner Cable have similar solutions to Boxee already, as Kafka points out, so they don't need Boxee either. Boxee last raised $16.5 million a couple years ago. The company is based in Israel and New York.Join the conversation about this story »
Snapchat's popularity has soared to 150 million shared photos per day, and it's done so without an obvious feature that'd be simple to add: The ability to upload from a phone's camera roll. The problem: Each day, I receive Snapchats from friends who are more clever than I am. They take funny photos at just the right moment and I want to reward them with something witty in return. But I'm not as gi...
It's Unbelievable That Snapchat Doesn't Have This Feature Yet
Snapchat's popularity has soared to 150 million shared photos per day, and it's done so without an obvious feature that'd be simple to add: The ability to upload from a phone's camera roll. The problem: Each day, I receive Snapchats from friends who are more clever than I am. They take funny photos at just the right moment and I want to reward them with something witty in return. But I'm not as gifted as they are, so I either don't follow up, or I take a ridiculous selfie of whatever I'm around. My photo response adds little value to their life, and it's probably as awkward for them to receive as it is for me to take. Now, if I could insert a funny photo I've already collected, it'd be better for everyone. Some people like the spontaneous nature of Snapchat and worry an upload-from-camera feature would ruin that. @ajs @snapchat no snapchat don't listen to her it'll ruin the spontaneity that makes your app worthwhile at all — Sam Biddle (@samfbiddle) June 7, 2013 But if you send a friend a picture of yourself hyped on caffeine, would you rather them send back this: Or this: Another missing feature: The ability to add friends on Snapchat from Facebook. But that's probably because Facebook blocked it. Occasionally Facebook prevents competitors from using its platform and it has tried to hinder Snapchat's growth before.Join the conversation about this story »
Good morning! Here's the overnight news: Facebook finally launched Hashtags to show when people write a status update that is part of a larger conversation. It's what Twitter and Instagram have been using for years. IBM is reportedly laying off thousands of workers worldwide. Apple's dive into cheaper iPhones with larger screens continues, according to Reuters. It may produce the devices in ...
Good morning! Here's the overnight news: Facebook finally launched Hashtags to show when people write a status update that is part of a larger conversation. It's what Twitter and Instagram have been using for years. IBM is reportedly laying off thousands of workers worldwide. Apple's dive into cheaper iPhones with larger screens continues, according to Reuters. It may produce the devices in 5 or 6 colors. Path may have paid Facebook a boatload of money in ads to boost its userbase. The Feds were searching for Edward Snowden days before the first media reports were published. Snowden snuck out of hiding to do an interview with South China Morning Post. He told the reporter that he intends to stay in the city, and that the U.S. government has been hacking into Hong Kong computers for years. Patch has proved to be a $200 million money-suck for AOL, and its traffic hasn't grown in a year, according to ComScore. Here's some reasoning behind the $1.1 billion Waze acquisition. Yahoo has acquired another mobile startup. It now owns Ghostbird Software, which makes photo apps for iOS. British Airways is paying for more than 100 notable people in Silicon Valley to share a flight to London. On it, they'll figure out ways to get more people (women in particular) into technology. Then they'll present their ideas to the United Nations. Join the conversation about this story »
Critics may be tired of hearing about billion-dollar acquisitions of startups that make no money, and now they can add Waze to that list. Yesterday, Google acquired Waze for $1.1 billion. Waze is a turn-by-turn navigation app for Android and iOS with crowdsourced traffic updates. It uses its 44 million users to update road statuses in real-time. But Google is the maps leader of the world. So why d...
The Argument For Google Spending $1.1 Billion On An App That Makes Minimal Money, Waze
Critics may be tired of hearing about billion-dollar acquisitions of startups that make no money, and now they can add Waze to that list. Yesterday, Google acquired Waze for $1.1 billion. Waze is a turn-by-turn navigation app for Android and iOS with crowdsourced traffic updates. It uses its 44 million users to update road statuses in real-time. But Google is the maps leader of the world. So why does it need Waze? The extra 44 million users are nice to have, but that's not what compelled Google to make its pricey purchase. TechCrunch's Rip Empson broke down why the acquisition makes sense. It's all about data. More specifically, social data. Waze has mastered real-time traffic and it's a big data product. While Google is the ultimate big data company, it could use some help in the social front. Its traffic routes on Maps could be vastly improved by all of Waze's user-submitted data. It can also take advantage of additions like cop hideouts and accident locations that Wazers submit on the fly. Google+ isn't strong enough to easily create the robust, socially-driven navigation network Waze has created. Another reason for the acquisition: Waze is a cheaper way to collect up-do-date navigation information than Google currently uses. In an April 2013 interview, Waze CEO Noam Bardin said Google spent $1-2 billion on Street View, sending cars to take photos all over the world. Waze obtains information for free from a community of 40-50 million volunteers. Empson also thinks Waze could be valuable to Google from a local advertising standpoint. Late last year, Waze added its first advertising product, a self-service solution that let businesses claim their listings in the app. It then advertises the locations to drivers as they approach the listings, similar to Foursquare's ad products. It'd be easy for Google to take this implementation and run with it. "Local, mobile advertising spend in the U.S. is expected to skyrocket over the next few years, making Google’s vast index of local businesses and search extremely valuable to Waze, and to an extent, vice versa," Empson writes. Last but not least, Google's move prevents Apple and Facebook from improving their map products. And there aren't many runners-up in the startup market. Waze was really the only mobile navigation game in town.Join the conversation about this story »
Eugene Chung, who was hired to replace David Tisch as Managing Director of TechStars New York in January, is no longer with the startup accelerator program. The personnel change comes just two weeks before Demo Day, when 11 startups out of 1,700 applicants will present to a room full of press and investors. David Cohen, founder of TechStars, confirmed the news via email stating that Chung wasn't "...
After 5 Months On The Job And 2 Weeks Before Demo Day, TechStars NY's Managing Director Departs
Eugene Chung, who was hired to replace David Tisch as Managing Director of TechStars New York in January, is no longer with the startup accelerator program. The personnel change comes just two weeks before Demo Day, when 11 startups out of 1,700 applicants will present to a room full of press and investors. David Cohen, founder of TechStars, confirmed the news via email stating that Chung wasn't "a good fit." He added that TechStars is built for these kind of swift changes. "We have full redundancy built into the model and Nicole Glaros has been here all along," Cohen says. Glaros founded three startups and was Managing Director of TechStars' flagship program in Boulder, Colorado before being named interim Managing Director for Tisch in November. Chung worked for venture capital firm NEA before he was hired by Cohen. The change is surprising because of the close proximity to Demo Day, and because TechStars was diligent when hiring Chung. Tisch resigned from the position last August and Cohen spent months hand-picking his successor. Chung was selected from a pool of 35 candidates. It's not yet clear what led to Chung's departure or who will replace him. Chung could not be reached for comment.Join the conversation about this story »
Today, an app headquartered in Israel called Waze was acquired by Google. The price: $1 billion, plus $100 million in employee retention and incentives. Waze is an iOS and Android app with more than 40 million registered users. It was founded in 2007 by Ehud Shabtai, Amir Shinar and Uri Levine. Noam Bardin is the company's CEO. It previously raised $67 million from investors. Now you know what it...
How To Use Waze, The App Google Just Bought For $1.1 Billion
Today, an app headquartered in Israel called Waze was acquired by Google. The price: $1 billion, plus $100 million in employee retention and incentives. Waze is an iOS and Android app with more than 40 million registered users. It was founded in 2007 by Ehud Shabtai, Amir Shinar and Uri Levine. Noam Bardin is the company's CEO. It previously raised $67 million from investors. Now you know what it is. Here's how it works.Welcome to Waze! Waze realizes you're new. It helps you get started. You can plug in your home and work addresses so you don't have to constantly type them in. See the rest of the story at Business Insider Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.
