Category Archives: News

22 Sep

ABC Says Goodbye to Amanda Congdon

by Brian Solis

It was supposed to be among the first of many crossovers to come, internet celebrities jumping over to broadcast, translating fame into fortune.

When Internet sweetheart Amanda Congdon left Rocketboom to pursue her Hollywood dreams as a correspondent for ABCnews.com, we eagerly watched as she was one of the first stars to go from the Web to the small screen. Congdon was, and still is, in some sense, a working case study on how the impact of Internet popularity and culture will define Hollywood’s future.

As reported with less attention than her initial hiring however, after only one year, ABCNews has ended its deal with Congdon.

“It’s been a great year with Amanda — a great experiment for both of us. We thank her for her many contributions and know that she’s about to embark on new endeavors and expect there will be times in the future that we can again work together.”

The commentary on Fark was also very touching (not literally of course), “Amanda Congdon and her world-class breasts are gone from ABC.com.”

Amanda still has something in the works with HBO, which I hear is not necessarily related to television programming. However, we’ll stay tuned.

I’m sure that whatever she does, it will be worth our attention.

Other voices on the subject:

TechCrunch

Media Bistro

22 Sep

DEMOfall 2007 Companies Announced

by Brian Solis


Photo by Solis at 2006 DEMOfall
Chris Shipley and company announced the Fall lineup for Demo, its highly anticipated innovation showcase.

Starting next week, 69 hand-picked companies will launch a flurry of next gen Web 2.0, enterprise, security, mobile, search, gaming, communications and consumer electronics solutions and we’ll be there to cover every minute of the action.

Bookmark bub.blicio.us for coverage and this link for all of the pictures as they happen.

DEMOfall 07 Demonstrators

360desktop, Pty Ltd.; Victoria, Australia; http://www.360desktop.com/ Advanta; Spring House, PA; http://www.ideablob.com/
AgendiZe; Grapevine, TX; http://www.agendize.com/
Apprema, Inc.; Sunnyvale, CA; http://www.apprema.com/
Attendi, Inc.; New York, NY; http://www.attendi.com/
BatchBlue Software, LLC; Barrington, RI; http://www.batchblue.com/ CashView, Inc.; Palo Alto, CA; http://www.cashview.com/
Check Point Software Technologies, Ltd.; Redwood City, CA; http://www.checkpoint.com/
ClipBlast!; Agoura Hills, CA; http://www.clipblast.com/
coComment; Geneva, Switzerland; http://www.cocomment.com/
CodaSystem France S.A.; Paris, France; http://www.shootandproof.com/ CornerWorld; Dallas, TX; http://www.cornerworld.com/
Digital Fountain; Fremont, CA; http://www.digitalfountain.com/
Diigo, Inc.; Reno, NV; http://www.diigo.com/
DimDim, Inc.; Burlington, MA; http://www.dimdim.com/
earthmine, Inc.; Berkeley, CA; http://www.earthmine.com/
EncryptaKey; Cypress, CA; http://www.encryptakey.com/
Exalead, Inc.; New York, NY; http://www.exalead.com/
FastCall411, Inc.; Hollywood, CA; http://www.fastcall411.com/
Fluid Innovation, Inc.; Austin, TX; http://www.fluidinnovation.com/
Fusion-io; Salt Lake City, UT; http://www.fusionio.com/
Generate, Inc.; Maynard, MA; http://www.generateinc.com/
Glam Media; Brisbane, CA; http://www.glammedia.com/
Global Communications, Inc.; Houston, TX; http://www.globalcasttv.net/ Global Mobile Technologies, LLP; San Francisco, CA; http://www.push-it.com/
Graspr, Inc.; Sunnyvale, CA; http://www.graspr.com/
iForem, Inc.; Redwood Shores, CA; http://www.iforem.com/
InstaColl; Bangalore, India; http://www.live-documents.com/
Jasper Wireless; Sunnyvale, CA; http://www.jasperwireless.com/
kannuu, Inc.; Dallas, TX; http://www.kannuu.com/
LiveMocha, Inc.; Bellevue, WA; http://www.livemocha.com/
LogMeIn, Inc.; Woburn, MA; http://www.logmein.com/
LongJump; Sunnyvale, CA; http://www.longjump.com/
matchmine, LLC; Needham, MA; http://www.matchmine.com/
MetaRADAR, Inc.; San Bruno, CA; http://www.metaradar.com/
mig33; Burlingame, CA; http://www.mig33.com/
MotionDSP, Inc.; San Mateo, CA; http://www.motiondsp.com/
mSpoke, Inc.; Pittsburgh, PA; http://www.mspoke.com/
MuseStorm, Ltd.; Yahud, Israel; http://www.musestorm.com/
Myndnet; East Palo Alto, CA; http://www.myndnet.com/
Myxer; Deerfield Beach, FL; http://www.myxer.com/
Ncursion; Carlsbad, CA; http://www.ncursion.com/
PeopleJam, Inc.; Los Angeles, CA; http://www.peoplejam.com/
Phreesia, Inc.; New York, NY; http://www.phreesia.com/
PlanHQ; Wellington, New Zealand; http://www.planhq.com/
Prolify, Inc.; Waltham, MA; http://www.prolify.com/
Propel Software Corporation; San Jose, CA; http://www.propel.com/
Proxure; San Luis Obispo, CA; http://www.proxure.com/
Pudding Media, Inc.; San Jose, CA; http://www.thepudding.com/
Quire, Inc.; Mountain View, CA; http://www.myquire.com/
Qumranet; Santa Clara, CA; http://www.qumranet.com/
Real Time Content, Ltd.; Ipswich, England; http://www.realtimecontent.com/
RedSquare Ventures, Ltd.; Moscow, Russia; http://www.redsquareventures.com/
RelevantMind, Corp.; Berkeley, CA; http://www.relevantmind.com/
SceneCaster; Richmond Hill, Canada; http://www.scenecaster.com/
SpaceTime; New York, NY; http://www.spacetime.com/
spigit; Pleasanton, CA; http://www.spigit.com/
Sway, Inc.; Middleton, WI; http://www.shoutlet.com/
|Talari Networks, Inc.; Cupertino, CA; http://www.talarinetworks.com/
Trovix; Mountain View, CA; http://www.trovix.com/
Truphone; London, England; http://www.truphone.com/
Tubes Networks, Inc.; Boston, MA; http://www.tubesnow.com/
Tungle Corporation; Montreal, Canada; http://www.tungle.com/
Vello; Mountain View, CA; http://www.myvello.com/
Vitarati, Inc.; San Luis Obispo, CA; http://www.seenr.com/
Vyro Games, Ltd.; Dublin, Ireland; http://www.vyro-games.com/
WMS Gaming; Waukegan, IL; http://www.wms.com/
Your Truman Show, Inc.; San Francisco, CA; http://www.yourtrumanshow.com/
Yuuguu, Ltd.; Manchester, England; http://www.yuuguu.com/

More at:

Valleywag

20 Sep

Erick Schonfeld Joins TechCrunch as Co-Editor

by Brian Solis

With the demise of Business 2.0, several editors and reporters are migrating to bigger and better opportunities.

I caught up with for Business 2.0 veteran Michael Copeland at the  TechCrunch40 conference and he mentioned that he was now part of the Fortune team. I think Copeland is an excellent and astute writer, so hats off to him for making a seamless transition.I also saw Lindsay Blakely at the show, although I wasn’t able to break free from my conversation to catch up with her. Lindsay, what are you up to these days?
I’ve also been talking to Chris Morrison quite a bit lately who recently joined Matt Marshall over at VentureBeat

Then there’s the story of Erick Schonfeld, former Editor at Large for Business 2.0. It just so happens, that Mr. Schonfeld has joined TechCrunch as co-editor, sharing the responsibility with none other than Michael Arrington himself


Photo Credit: TechCrunch

TechCrunch is the loudest voice in the new internet economy and its empire is rapidly expanding.

Per Arrington’s post announcing the new hire, “I am extremely proud to announce that TechCrunch now has a co-editor. Erick Schonfeld, most recently an editor-at-large at Business 2.0…The timing was also perfect. I was able to hire Heather, our CEO, after her boss Ross Levinsohn left Fox. Similarly, talking Erick into joining was much easier since Business 2.0 is closing down next week. He had many job offers to choose from, but our persistence won in the end.”

Erick will remain in New York and officially open the New York office, which he will share with another TechCrunch property, CrunchGear.
Erick has been covering startups and technology news for 14 years.

Prior to Business 2.0, Erick was an editor-at-large for eCompany and a contributing editor for Fortune. In 1999, Schonfeld won the prize for best information technology submission at London’s Business Journalist of the Year Awards, and in 2001 he won the prize for best space submission at the Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards in Paris.

In 1996 and 1997, Schonfeld was recognized in the TJFR Business News Reporter’s list of the “best and brightest financial journalists under the age of 30.” He appears regularly on CNBC, CNN, and NY1, and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences. Schonfeld graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University in 1993.

In memoriam,  the final issue:

See my previous story, “Business 2.0 is Dead.”

19 Sep

Kaltura Unveiled as the TechCrunch40 Demo Wild Card

by Victor Karamalis

kaltura

Although Mint won the $50,000, there were plenty of startups that merit the spotlight. With twenty members based for the most part in Tel Aviv, Israel and New York City, Kaltura was selected to be the demo wild card by the conference attendees. In keeping with the mash up ideal, Kaltura lets groups of people collaborate to create videos for music and other collages. According to their demo page, “Kaltura is a pioneer in Collaborative Media, allowing groups of users to do with video, audio, and animation what wiki platforms enable them to do with text.” This is definitely an evolved step in collaboration and a new door to user generated collaborative creativity.

Other featured TechCrunch 40 selectees that brought sexy sizzle to the conference are WooMe and Zivity. WooMe brings the speed dating platform online. As Ceo, Steven Stokol showed with one of his other partners, one can have up to eight men and eight women together and all have up to a minute to see and talk to each other. If they want to keep up with the interactions, one can contact them within the service and it is relatively safe and secure. It looks like it worked quite well when seeing a beautiful young lady contacting Sokol’s colleague after the initial one minute session.

Zivity brought one of the most criticical issues with user generated content; getting paid for it. They have figured out a workable business model which involves a subscription model with people voting for their favorite photos. Half of the ten dollar subscription goes to Zivity and the person owning the photos gets paid along with a photographer (an 80/20 deal). They had four lovely women showcased on stage and even more risky pics on the demo site (even Michael Arrington voiced that the photos on the site were a little racy). However, the majority of the attendees were all for the photos and the ladies on the stage.

Thembid

The little darling in the Demo pit came from Thembid. They marry customers with contractors for bids. Think of it as Craigslist but one actually gets to see what everyone else bids. This may sound boring but in today’s age of sky rocketing medical billing and other tradesman robbery, this gives power to customers (regardless if it’s government or me). The features include a whole bunch of mash ups all on one site such as keyword monitoring, comparing different bids, and comments on contractors from other businesses). Currently angel backed, they are on to something in my honest opinion.

Special thanks to the folks at TechCrunch who outdid themselves. Overall, the two day conference was an excellent run and I’m looking forward to next season’s TechCrunch60.

18 Sep

Jeff Clavier Announces $12 Million Venture Fund

words and pictures by Brian Solis

At TechCrunch40 today, Angel investor and startup advisor Jeff Clavier announced a new $12 million early stage venture fund, SoftTech VC II.

Per Clavier’s post, “After 3 years of angel investing in 20+ Consumer Internet startups (and profitably selling 5 of them), I am very excited, and humbled, to announce the launch of my very own VC fund…I have taken the step (back to the Dark Side ?) and have raised outside capital, from a mix of fantastic institutional and private investors.”

The group will invest in 30 to 40 seed stage startups with an average “bite size” of $250K, ranging from $100K to $500K.

Clavier’s recent investments include:

SocialMedia.com was co-founded by Seth Goldstein and has been building an infrastructure and an ad network targeted at social network application developers. The company will help these developers manage, market and monetize their applications. After just a few weeks, last Friday’s revenue on Facebook alone, was over $10K – most of which was distributed to independent developers.

Active Athlete Media’s focus is active consumers who participate in sports, and the advertisers desiring to reach this passionate audience engaged in the sports they love, on thousands of mid to long tail websites.

Satisfaction Unlimited brings to life a People-Powered Customer Service network where the wisdom of the crowds can get together to help answer questions.

Grouply There are hundreds of millions of users of message boards, email lists, forums and online groups products like Google Groups and Yahoo Groups, and they have not evolved for a long long time. Grouply will help solve that by enabling users to easily adopt a richer and more powerful experience for their existing online groups.

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