Valleywag
startups
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Startups
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Good help is so hard to find
Web entrepreneuse Patricia Handschiegel, shown here with Valleywag editor Jackson West posing as her personal shopper, is looking for someone to serve as shrink, chef, personal assistant, filling-station attendant, agent, booker, and cheerleader. In other words, a boyfriend. [Patricia Handschiegel]
startups
Napster shareholders demand $280 million valuation
Napster is still trying to prove that it can sell MP3s, but for some Napster shareholders fighting a proxy battle to get representation on the board, they'd prefer the company was for sale, and at a premium price. Based on their SEC filing, shareholders are arguing that with the purchase of Last.fm by CBS for $280 million, Napster should be worth equally as much, if not more. The only reason it's not is because of a "lack of confidence in governance." They seem to be overlooking the fact that Last.fm doesn't have the brand name baggage but does have a lively community of users.
Web companies and their Hollywood starlet doppelgangers
How does a headhunter explain the startups like Twitter to professionals who might know their AJAX from the elbow? With a quick and dirty analogy comparing Web companies to celebrities. The favored communications platform of The 250 is compared to Lindsay Lohan, because like the hard-partying ingénue it "Crashes waaaaaaaaay too much!!" [BINC]
startups
When they were babes: Web 2.0's humble paper origins
Aww, you guys, this is so cute. Making actual babies out of Web people didn't go so well, but these larval stage sketches of popular Web 2.0 sites before they spawned? Adorable. Look, Vimeo was a little funny looking even then! Taken as a whole, it kinda makes you want to pinch someone's Moleskine where it counts. Full-on prototyping-porn after the jump. More »
Silicon Valley Users Guide
Diary of a Failed Startup -- the 100-word version
The problem with "17 mistakes startups make," is that the guy behind them, John Osher didn't make that many. He started Dr. John's SpinBrush and sold it to Proctor & Gamble for $475 million. Jonathan Tang, who writes "Diary of a Failed Startup," not only founded a company, GameClay, he actually failed because of his mistakes. His advice on how to not be like him, pared down to 100 words, below. More »
Silicon Valley Users Guide
17 mistakes startups make -- the 100-word version
In 1999 John Osher started Dr. John's SpinBrush to sell a $5 electric toothbrush. In 2001, he sold the company to Procter & Gamble for $475 million. Here are his "17 mistakes start-ups make" in 100 words. More »
startups
Ten most densely populated technology startup regions
Google maps mashup site Startup Warrior bills itself as a tool entreprenuers can use to "find a startup job, explore your neighborhood, or decide where you should start your own company." But we feel the site is best used by wary VCs, hassled journos and cynical M&A types looking for regions to avoid. Be warned: Enter into any of the ten regions mapped below and suffer elevator pitches, pleading looks and limp handshakes at your own risk. Update: Apparently Startup Warrior didn't do much in the way of researching the actual addresses of these startups — many are listed by only by city and state, leading to clumps in central neighborhoods. More »
startups
iPhone application startups to trigger tsunami of free booze at launch parties
Outside the Gizmodo and ArsTechnica party last night, a rep was handing out postcards advertising her company's "analytics and advertising for iPhone apps." My first thought was, "Isn't Apple going to have first crack at that data, since they control the distribution of third-party applications?" My second: All the Facebook widgetmaker parties I've been avoiding will probably soon be replaced by parties for iPhone appmakers. Just look at Bart Decrem, fired former CEO of "social browser" Flock now jumping on the bandwagon with Tapulous, which has already developed dozens of apps for the shiny device. More »
Ron Hornbaker
Angel investor Ron Conway backs convicted fraudster's Youvebeenboned.com
In the Valley, they call it "dropping the Ron bomb" — when prolific angel investor Ron Conway, a Midas who has touched everything from Google to StumbleUpon, showers cash on a promising startup. His latest bomb target, however, is a bit explosive himself. Ron Hornbaker is the CEO of Foomojo, a stealth startup whose website can be found at the URL www.youvebeenboned.com. Private Equity Hub's Connie Loizos points out that Hornbaker was convicted of extorting AOL users in chat rooms in 1996. More »
bad ideas
TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld to unleash world's worst startup pitches on the rest of us
When we worked together at Business 2.0, I always thought my then-colleague Erick Schonfeld was a bit of an evil genius. Now an editor at TechCrunch, Schonfeld hasn't proven me wrong. He's taking all of the boring startup spiels — "elevator pitches" — he gets from wantrepreneurs trooping through his office and turning them into content. All he has to do is sit back and hit "Record"; he doesn't actually have to do the critical thinking required to evaluate whether the ideas hold any promise, or even make sense. How boring is this idea? Look at David Carr from the New York Times, sitting two seats over from Schonfeld, who's fallen asleep just from listening to the idea. But I have no doubt this is the crowdsourced, video-enabled future of innovation journalism, folks.
new york, minute
New funding for New York wantrepreneurs
Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of some city on the East Coast with good nightlife but lousy conditions for startups, has unveiled a $2 million fund for companies doomed to failure by their thoughtlessly poor choice of location. Why doesn't he just give the would-be founders plane tickets to San Francisco and a deposit on a SoMa loft office? That seems easier. [Silicon Alley Insider]
startups
Wu Tang Clan producer launches pay-to-play chess, and Michael Arrington can't get money off his mind
WuChess, a site where you can hone your knowledge of the mysteries of
max levchin
Start a company now, says Max Levchin -- so he can buy it
Slide founder Max Levchin believes Web 2.0 is about to bust. Funding will evaporate and revenues won't materialize; companies will fold and employees will lose their jobs. The lucky few that can will sellout to larger companies. All of which means "this is the perfect time to start a company," Levchin told the Financial Times. Why does Levchin believe this? You know, other than the fact that he's a well-documented masochist who works 15 to 18 hour days and, despite a fear of the water, forced himself through a triathlon? More »
Brijit leaves 100-word summary market wide open
Brijit, a startup which provides 100-word abstracts of news articles, has "temporarily" shut its doors. The three-word reason: out of money. [News.com]
Brijit, a startup which provides 100-word abstracts of news articles, has "temporarily" shut its doors. The three-word reason: out of money. [News.com]
brijit
Startup, the 100-word version
At Valleywag, we were quite proud to think we'd come up with the idea of reducing the verbosity of bloggers and pomposity of pundits to 100 words. How could we have missed that Brijit had started a whole business around the idea back in 2006? Our hats are off to them. We admire, too, the bravery of their pay scheme: $5 per summary, regardless of the number of pageviews it draws. They may well need to tweak that. But until someone finds a cure for logorrhea, both Brijit and Valleywag will have a market.
Email startup Xobni walks away from $20 million offer
Xobni, led by ex-Yahoo Jeff Bonforte, has declined a buyout offer from Microsoft, finding the software giant's plans for the startup too unformed. This from a team whose product is still in private beta. [TechCrunch]
Xobni, led by ex-Yahoo Jeff Bonforte, has declined a buyout offer from Microsoft, finding the software giant's plans for the startup too unformed. This from a team whose product is still in private beta. [TechCrunch]
startups
Why Steve Perlman is into "Women of Action"
Buried in Dean Takahashi's seemingly endless interview with WebTV founder Steve Perlman for VentureBeat is this glistening nugget: Among the startups his Rearden incubator has launched is a website called Women of Action TV. Perlman has an elaborate explanation for why he started it:[It's a] community service site with videos of athletic women like Jackie Joyner-Kersee or Florence Griffith Joyner. But it is also a technology site. It was one of the very first sites with high-definition video being distributed on the Internet. As people used that site, we saw how well it ran on different machines. We looked at the algorithms. WOA TV was a complete test bed for us and a cool site for something that wasn't covered enough, like women in sports.Pay attention, folks: This is what makes Steve Perlman a true entrepreneur. More »
