blogger better: 2017-06-25

Saturday, July 1, 2017

Invisible unicorns: 35 big companies that started with little or no money

There’s a widespread belief among founders that venture capital is a precursor to success. VC is a common denominator of the most successful tech startups, but it isn’t a prerequisite. To help illustrate this, here are 35 companies that started with a few thousand dollars, or even just sweat equity, and went on to become exemplars of what I call “efficient… Read More

http://ift.tt/2sjIgDb Invisible unicorns: 35 big companies that started with little or no money http://ift.tt/2uvIaIW

San Francisco Bay Area companies raise so much venture capital relative to other places that a lot of little-known cities in the region outrank major metropolises in total funding. In this two-part series, we’ll look at nine under-the-radar places in the Bay Area that punch above their weight class when it comes to attracting startup funding. For today, we’ll focus on the East Bay. Read More

http://ift.tt/2sybLQF These cities in California’s East Bay are raking in venture capital http://ift.tt/2sdaTBC

“We called this building Station F, like Station France, Station Femmes [ed. note: women in French], Station Founders or Station Freyssinet because Freyssinet was a great architect and a great entrepreneur,” French billionaire and Iliad founder Xavier Niel told Macron. While Station F was originally built in the 1920s by Eugène Freyssinet, it was supposed to be destroyed in 2011.… Read More

http://ift.tt/2sxkouC A walk around Station F with Emmanuel Macron http://ift.tt/2tAgEgV

McClure steps back at 500 Startups after internal sexual misconduct investigation

Dave McClure, the founder and public face of 500 Startups — one of the most prolific and best-known accelerator programs for early stage companies — has stepped away from managing the firm he set up and largely built in his own image. McClure is the latest venture capitalist to be ensnared in the industry’s investigations into alleged sexual misconduct by investors with… Read More

http://ift.tt/1UE7CBK McClure steps back at 500 Startups after internal sexual misconduct investigation http://ift.tt/2utlA3z

Today’s Stories Facebook is rolling out its ‘Find Wi-Fi’ feature worldwide Delivery Hero’s valuation surpasses $5B following successful IPO Chat app Kakao raises $437M for its Korean ride-hailing service Cabin secures $3.3M for its ‘moving hotel’ Credits Written and Hosted by: Anthony Ha Filmed by: Matthew Mauro Edited by: Chris Gates Notes: Tito… Read More

from Social – TechCrunch http://ift.tt/2svNSJv Crunch Report | Facebook Helps You Find Wi-Fi Anthony Ha http://ift.tt/2t0YEed
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Crunch Report | Facebook Helps You Find Wi-Fi

{rss:content:encoded} Crunch Report | Facebook Helps You Find Wi-Fi http://ift.tt/2t0YEed http://ift.tt/2svNSJv July 01, 2017 at 02:00AM Crunch Report June 30

Today’s Stories Facebook is rolling out its ‘Find Wi-Fi’ feature worldwide Delivery Hero’s valuation surpasses $5B following successful IPO Chat app Kakao raises $437M for its Korean ride-hailing service Cabin secures $3.3M for its ‘moving hotel’ Credits Written and Hosted by: Anthony Ha Filmed by: Matthew Mauro Edited by: Chris Gates Notes: Tito… Read More

http://ift.tt/2svNSJv Crunch Report | Facebook Helps You Find Wi-Fi http://ift.tt/2t0YEed

On the heels of a $20 million funding round last month, the new game publishing company GameMine has inked its first big deal with a global carrier. The company has partnered with the South Africa mobile carrier Vodacom Group to bring GameMine’s subscription-based mobile games to the South African market. Read More

http://ift.tt/2tz74eq Game publisher GameMine inks a $20 million partnership with South Africa’s Vodacom http://ift.tt/2u8wLzw

Redfin, the popular real estate listings site, has filed for IPO. The Seattle-based company unveiled its filing, suggesting that it will raise $100 million, a placeholder that is subject to change. The timing of the filing implies that Redfin is likely to debut in late July or early August. Because of the JOBS Act, most companies can wait until 15 days before their investor roadshow to… Read More

http://ift.tt/1OIiAW5 Real estate site Redfin files for IPO http://ift.tt/2svzp09

Snap Map is Snapchat’s plan to tie together its online content with ways to augment your offline reality, and its got the patent to back it up. Augmented reality location startup Drop tells TechCrunch that Snap Inc acquired its intellectual property in 2015 including its “Location-based messaging” patent. In 2013, Drop developed an app that would let you post photos or text to… Read More

from Social – TechCrunch http://ift.tt/2ta2gsV Snapchat bought the AR location intellectual property of startup Drop Josh Constine http://ift.tt/2sqmVeO
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Snap Map is Snapchat’s plan to tie together its online content with ways to augment your offline reality, and its got the patent to back it up. Augmented reality location startup Drop tells TechCrunch that Snap Inc acquired its intellectual property in 2015 including its “Location-based messaging” patent. In 2013, Drop developed an app that would let you post photos or text to… Read More

http://ift.tt/2ta2gsV Snapchat bought the AR location intellectual property of startup Drop http://ift.tt/2sqmVeO

Snapchat bought the AR location intellectual property of startup Drop

{rss:content:encoded} Snapchat bought the AR location intellectual property of startup Drop http://ift.tt/2sqmVeO http://ift.tt/2ta2gsV June 30, 2017 at 11:36PM

Facebook’s task is unenviable. Two billion people, all yammering on about everything in the world — and hidden in that unending torrent are hidden an unknown number of abhorrent, hateful utterances better off unuttered. But the method Facebook has applied to this problem, a tangled system of ethical arithmetic revealed in a report from ProPublica, seems unsuited to the task… Read More

from Social – TechCrunch http://ift.tt/2tyEwSb Manufacturing civility Devin Coldewey http://ift.tt/2u7sHiK
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Enterprise cloud company Tintri was supposed to debut on the public markets yesterday with an IPO price between $10.50 to $12.50, but then pushed things back a day and lowered its price to $7. Shares were up about 3.5% midday Friday, trading at roughly $7.25 per share. In what seems to be a tough week for tech IPOs, cooking kit delivery service Blue Apron also significantly lowered its price… Read More

http://ift.tt/2qLdaY1 Tintri up slightly after lowering IPO price http://ift.tt/2sq3CT1

Technically, Facebook can’t suspend people’s accounts just for sharing 50-plus false, sensational, or clickbaity news articles per day. It doesn’t want to trample anyone’s right to share. But there’s nothing stopping it from burying those links low in the News Feed so few people ever see them. Today Facebook announced an algorithm change that does just that. It… Read More

from Social – TechCrunch http://ift.tt/2qsaCMH Facebook News Feed change demotes sketchy links overshared by spammers Josh Constine http://ift.tt/2u7vfNI
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Facebook News Feed change demotes sketchy links overshared by spammers

{rss:content:encoded} Facebook News Feed change demotes sketchy links overshared by spammers http://ift.tt/2u7vfNI http://ift.tt/2qsaCMH June 30, 2017 at 08:00PM

Kinetica’s roots as a company go back to a 2009 consulting project for US intelligence services. When they couldn’t find a solution on the market to meet the strict demands of the army and NSA to track terrorists in real-time, they decided to build it. Today, it’s an in-memory database solution that relies on commodity hardware running Nvidia GPUs to supercharge the processing.… Read More

http://ift.tt/2s4KxSl Kinetica scores $50 million Series A for super-charged in-memory database solution http://ift.tt/2sprod8

Blue Apron tumbles again in its second day as its IPO settles for a down round

{rss:content:encoded} Blue Apron tumbles again in its second day as its IPO settles for a down round http://ift.tt/2sag1Gk http://ift.tt/2tsOcgx June 30, 2017 at 07:24PM

Blue Apron is now down from its IPO price during trading today, falling around 4% and down to around $9.60 — a bit south of its original price. Early in the planning process, Blue Apron was shooting for a price range of between $15 and $17, which would have helped it raise even more money and value the company at around $3 billion. Instead, it had to settle for a valuation below $2… Read More

Facebook is expanding one of its newer features designed to help mobile users find accessible Wi-Fi networks. The company had begun testing a “Find Wi-Fi” option last year on mobile, which highlighted free, public Wi-Fi networks nearby. At the time, the option was only available on iOS in select countries, as something of a test. Today, Facebook announced users worldwide on both… Read More

from Social – TechCrunch http://ift.tt/2u6NJxT Facebook is rolling out its “Find Wi-Fi” feature worldwide Sarah Perez http://ift.tt/2u7b3f7
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Andy Rubin’s Playground Ventures is raising another $15M

{rss:content:encoded} Andy Rubin’s Playground Ventures is raising another $15M http://ift.tt/2ttNFdH http://ift.tt/2sp6H5W June 30, 2017 at 04:32PM

Playground Ventures — the VC fund co-founded by Android inventor and former Google exec Andy Rubin that sits alongside an eponymous incubator/startup studio and is making some big bets in areas like artificial intelligence and new generations of hardware– is raising more money. A Form D filed with the SEC notes that Playground Ventures is in the process of adding another $15… Read More