Monthly Archives: November 2009

Last Friday was the latest installment of TechCrunch’s Real-Time CrunchUp. All focused on the realm of being “real-time”, this conference brought out some pretty interesting startups who were either launching that day or very soon and gave the press, bloggers and attendees a first glance at what they’re developing.

Not one to offer a little deviation, the hosts, Erick Schonfeld and Steve Gilmore, included several panels in the day’s events, including a one-on-one discussion with Salesforce.com CEO, Marc Benioff. Other panel talks included how to avoid the noise in real-time, discussing media and geo streams and financing companies that focus on real-time. Michael Arrington even participated in a few lively discussions and actually began the conference by sitting down to chat with Twitter’s new chief operating officer, Dick Costolo to talk about…what else? Twitter.

Compared to the last CrunchUp, this time had another surprise: two members of the audience were picked that day to present their pitch to the group! With little notice, the names were picked and during the demo sessions, these individuals got up on stage and showed off their latest developments.

Here’s some photos from the event:

Team TechCrunch is ready to blog – Leena Rao, MG Siegler & Jason Kincaid.

Michael Arrington & Steve Gilmore interviewing Dick Costolo, Twitter’s COO.

Erick Schonfeld & Steve Gilmore moderating panel on Filtering the Stream. Feat. Jason Shellen, Kimbal Musk, Bret Taylor, Loic Le Meur, Chris Cox, Lili Cheng, Ron Conway, Amit Singhal, Jason Hirschhorn, Michael Arrington, Ken Moss and Edo Segal.

Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff

A CrunchUp presenter.

Another CrunchUp presenter.

One other CrunchUp presenter.

Robert Scoble got to participate in the CrunchUp by offering his thoughts on the “super Tweet”.

Marc Benioff was giving away free copies of his book to the attendees.

TechCrunch CEO Heather Harde & Co-Editor Erick Schonfeld

You can view more photos from the TechCrunch Real-Time CrunchUp by clicking here.

All photos shown here were taken by Kenneth Yeung.

Just a few more days until Thanksgiving followed quickly by Black Friday, the official beginning of the holiday shopping season. It’s true, there are some amazing deals that can be found on Black Friday but those deals come at a price. Waking up ridiculously early to shop with thousands of other people trying to get the best price on a new television or pair of designer jeans. This can be incredibly effective but the benefit doesn’t always out weight the difficulties, especially for a non-shopper. That’s where the web comes in.

For the non-shopper, there is another great shopping day, the Monday after Thanksgiving (this year, that is November 30th). Cyber Monday, the official kick off of the online shopping season, is a huge day for online retailers. This is the perfect time to track down great deals online, free shipping and discount codes. This may require waking up early but nothing beats the ease of shopping in your pajamas for those prized holiday gifts.

Of course, the web is vast so finding those deals can be another challenge. That’s where CyberMonday.com comes in. This site is the central hub for Cyber Monday deals at every store from Home Depot to Overstock.com and everything in between. They consolidate the deals from over 650 online retailers making it easy to search and find what you’re looking for. You can shop by category, deal of the week or a simple search.

So here’s my early holiday present to all of you, enjoy the Friday after Thanksgiving and worry about gifts for the holidays on Cyber Monday.

Happy Shopping!

StartupSF is returning on December 2nd, from 6-9pm at Microsoft in San Francisco. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, developer, or just curious about startups, it’s the perfect opportunity to get together and share ideas.

StartupSF will kick off with a networking session, followed by ‘elevator pitches’ from a selected startups. Attendees will then hear from record-holding entrepreneur David Weekly. Founder of PBWorks (“online collaboration that just works”) and Hacker Dojo (a community center for hackers and thinkers), David will give a presentation how to “find an uncomfortably quick way to launch your idea and and iterate on it.”

Tickets are now on sale now, for $10 online or $20 at the door.

The first 10 Bub.blicio.us readers to register will get in for FREE with discount code: “SUSFbub1202”

Date: Wednesday, December 2nd

Time: 6-9pm

Location: Microsoft, 835 Market Street, Suite 700, San Francisco, CA 94103

AOL has a new logo. That’s some fun flare. With a new lease on life, having begun the process of spinning off from Time Warner, the staple in online destinations is marking its new beginnings with some new designs. The biggest point of differentiation is the use of lowercase letters and a period placed at the end. It’s young, fresh and a little more hip. According to the company, the new logo design aims to pay tribute to the creative nature of the company, its employees and its future.

Several companies are having to get creative with their business strategies moving forward, especially those that were web-based and too large to move nimbly with the economic recession last year. Companies such as AOL and MySpace are two in particular that have taken a similar downsize and refocus approach to their business survival.

Aside from the new logo and regaining independence from Time Warner, AOL has also instituted a new CEO earlier this year. Former Google Sales executive Tim Armstrong joined AOL in March, insinuating at a revived goal towards growing its sales and advertising segments.

In many ways, AOL had been aligning its other initiatives with a sales and advertising goal for some time. Many of the more recent AOL products that have been released in the past few years have been ways in which the company can make money through sales and ads instead of through creating consumer products.

The interesting aspect of AOL’s future at this point is the fact that the company may still need to find more ways in which to monetize direct consumer relationships yet again. Should AOL want to consider this route, it could be vastly different from the methods used primarily by social networks. AOL and social networks still have varied goals in the long term, though many of AOL’s current products have a social lean or are used by social networks as integrated services.

Nevertheless, the new AOL logo hails the onset of another new era for the company, bringing fresh hope and promise for 2010 and beyond.

Six months ago, Ford launched the Fiesta Movement, an ambitious social media program designed to bridge online and real world communities in support of its 2011 Fiesta.

The Ford Fiesta has come to play on the American roads.  In the ultimate foreign exchange program, our 100 agents will spend 6 months behind the wheel of their own Fiesta, lifestreaming their experiences, and completing monthly missions to show you what the Fiesta is all about.

Now, as the Fiesta Movement draws to an end and Ford prepares to preview the 2011 Fiesta at the L.A. Auto Show starting December 4th, a celebration is in order.

To commemorate the movement, Ford is aiming to organize the largest corporate-hosted Tweetup on record and you’re invited.

On December 1st, Ford, CEO Alan Mulally, Head of Social Media Scott Monty, and its Fiesta agents will take over the Hollywood Palladium. Not only will you see a preview of the 2011 Fiesta before everyone attending the auto show, Ford is also treating its guests to a special live performance by Parachute – featuring their hits “She Is Love” and “Under Control” from their debut album Losing Sleep.

The event is free, all you have to do to attend, is RSVP here.

See you in Hollywood!

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