{rss:content:encoded} Imagining Snapchat’s Future http://ift.tt/1Xr3S9O http://ift.tt/1PUnWQi February 14, 2016 at 08:00AM 
Snapchat could be used by over 1 billion daily active users in time and substantially accelerate how many videos and photos people share and consume. But there’s more to be done and questions to be answered. Read More
Snapchat could be used by over 1 billion daily active users in time and substantially accelerate how many videos and photos people share and consume. But there’s more to be done and questions to be answered. Read More
DHL, the international express delivery company, started its business by offering free plane tickets to people on the street. For the trouble of giving up their baggage allowances, passengers were handed a free round trip plane ticket to Hawaii. Founded as a courier service in 1969, DHL used the spare capacity in travelers’ luggage to transport high value documents. To understand why it… 
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy committed before a joint session of Congress that before the end of the decade America would put a man on the moon. This was not an empty political promise to get elected, but a commitment of a sitting President boldly exposing himself to political ridicule in the face of failure. If we can take ourselves back to that moment, it would be fascinating to… 
Mobile World Congress, the biggest tradeshow specifically focused on mobile, kicks off in just over a week’s time in Barcelona so here’s a quick rundown of some of the big hardware-focused announcements we’re expecting to land during the best part of a week of fully mobile-focused news… 
“The theme of LA is diversity.” That is what DoorDash’s Kevin Huang told me in our conversation about how expanding on-demand marketplaces into LA differs from other markets. As an LA-based enterprise and marketplace investor, one of the most common questions I get from entrepreneurs is how to expand marketplaces into LA. While this includes all the usual difficulties of… 
Patent trolls, more formally known as Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs), pose a major threat to American businesses. A study published by the Boston University School of Law revealed that more than six times as many patent lawsuits are filed today as in 1980. More than 10,000 companies have been sued at least once by a PAE, and litigation by PAEs using acquired patents is increasing at an… 
I’m a Soylent believer. If you know me personally, this may be hard for you to understand, given that my favorite foods are bread and cheese and that I feel Seamless should always win Best Overall Startup at the Crunchies every year until eternity. My love for Soylent — credited to both the taste and to the overall affect it has on my mental and physical energy — should be… 
I want to play again. My arms are sore from shooting a virtual bow-and-arrow and slashing robots with a lightsaber. My heart is racing from dodging drone missiles and defending my teammate. And my mind is spinning from the possibilities. I want to play again. And I won’t be the only one. The game is called Raw Data by virtual reality startup Survios. It’s perhaps the most… 
When John Kim and his team were working on a community-based application called Smile Mom — which was designed to connect nearby moms — they ran into a problem: They wanted to integrate messaging, but couldn’t find an off-the-shelf solution they liked. 
Life360, the mobile application designed for families, announced today that it has acquired the private messaging application and Y Combinator grad Couple (formerly known as Pair), based in Mountain View. Not a pure talent acquisition, Life360 sees Couple as being a potential initial entry point into its larger platform, which now counts over 55 million families using its location tracker… 
YouTube wants to win the love of musicians by solving their biggest problem: how to turn popularity into cash. So today it announced it’s acquired BandPage, a startup that helps artists show off and sell concert tickets, merchandise, and exclusive fan experiences. Founded in 2009 and having raised $27.6 million, BandPage began as an app that let musicians create a special Music tab on… 
As the world’s big messaging apps add more features to keep their users locked in for longer, other apps are tapping into messaging features in the hopes of creating more stickiness of their own. In the latest development, Flipagram, the app that lets you sew together pictures and video snippets with one minute of music to create packaged stories, has added a direct messaging feature. 
Even Microsoft’s new image recognition app has no idea what kind of dog I have. Oh well! If you don’t own a mixed-breed mutt saved from the kill shelter, however, you might have fun with the company’s latest Microsoft Garage project: Fetch!, a new iPhone app that looks at photos of dogs to identify its breed. Or, in the case when it can’t make an exact match, the app… 
Runkeeper is set to become the latest fitness startup to be acquired by a workout gear company. Jason Jacobs, the startup’s co-founder and chief executive officer, announced today that his company has entered into a definitive agreement to be purchased by ASICS Corporation. 
The hits just keep on coming at the embattled cloud human resources software provider Zenefits, as the California Department of Insurance has begun an investigation into its licensing practic 
Uber is asking the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to settle two cases: Philliben v. Uber Technologies, Inc. and Mena v. Uber Technologies, Inc., which have since been consolidated into one case on behalf of Uber passengers seeking restitution for every $1 Safe Rides fee charged to every Uber customer in the U.S. In addition to divvying up $28.5 million among… 
“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” the saying goes. Well, if you’re running a startup that sells to other startups, you might be putting all your eggs in one blender. B2B companies whose customers are other early stage B2B companies put themselves doubly at risk: Not only are startups failure-prone by nature, but an early stage company with strong fundamentals… 
No one wants to go to a car dealership. We’re in the era where everything can be done online, so it’s crazy you can’t buy a new car straight from the web. Every site and startup that claims to help you do that just dumps you on a contact form to request more info or a meeting with a car dealer. But Drive Motors does exactly what you imagine should already happen. It’s… 
The Apple Watch was supposed to become the new thriving platform and App Store for third-party apps. 10 months later, it’s hard to name popular Watch apps. And there are reasons why the Apple Watch App Store isn’t as vibrant as the iOS App Store. But some developers, such as David Smith, have found ways to make your Watch more useful. 
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