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Angie’s List merchants can now accept payments with Square

Laura Hazard Owen — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 13:41:23 +0000

Consumer review service Angie’s List is partnering with Square to let merchants — service providers like plumbers, housecleaners and painters — accept credit card payments from their iPhones. Square’s technology will be integrated into Angie’s List’s iOS app, Angie’s List Business Center, rather than requiring merchants to use the separate Square app.

“We’re proud to work with Angie’s List to make life easier for businesses of all sizes,” Square co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey said in a statement.

Angie’s List has about 1.7 million subscribers, most of whom pay a membership fee that varies depending on their location (in New York City, it’s $3.60 a month). The company had previously announced in its October earnings call that it would be working with Square, but hadn’t explained the specifics. “The Square relationship fits into a much bigger and more important activity set that’s around deconstructing the local service transactions – measuring it, monitoring it, improving it and enforcing it,” Angie’s List CEO Bill Oesterle said at the time.

Square, based in San Francisco, has raised over $340 million in funding and has a reported valuation of $3.25 billion.

In a previous version of this post, I wondered whether this was the first time that Square technology has been integrated into an outside business’s app. It’s not: The company told me that the Obama and Romney campaigns also used Square technology.

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Foursquare courts small business owners with new mobile app

Eliza Kern — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 18:27:45 +0000

Foursquare announced Tuesday that it’s launching a dedicated app for small business owners that allows them to manage their Foursquare accounts and push updates and specials to customers on the go, as it hopes to become more of a player in local commerce.

On Foursquare’s blog, the company explained the rationale behind the standalone app for business owners:

Over a million businesses use Foursquare to connect with their customers using our free tools. But sometimes, when you’re running around on the floor, it’s hard to hop on a computer and post yourlatesthappenings, like the spring collection that just arrived or your newest menu item. So today, we’re releasing the Foursquare for Business companion app to help business owners share news with their customers, right from their phone.

The app is available to businesses in iPhone and Android versions, and is meant for small business owners to post updates and specials to their business page on Foursquare and then cross-post to Twitter and Facebook without having to visit the desktop site. The company launched a local search product earlier this year, and has been working to target business owners as part of its revenue strategy based on promotions and search.

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On LinkedIn, green startups are leading the way

Colleen Taylor — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:25:03 +0000

Portion of LinkedIn's Infographic (click to enlarge)

On Monday, LinkedIn released new stats about its membership growth, showing that the small business sector is a major player in the larger professional landscape. More than 4.7 million of LinkedIn’s members work for small businesses, according to an infographic published by the company.

And while green startups may have gone through some tough times recently, LinkedIn has seen a major uptick in members who work for small businesses in the industry. From 2009 to 2011, “renewables and environment” was the fastest growing sector within the small business landscape on LinkedIn, with the number of LinkedIn members in the space growing 29 percent in that timeframe. Interestingly, the second-fastest small business growth sector on LinkedIn was “oil and energy,” which grew by 20 percent from 2009 to 2011.

That greentech growth could just add credence to talk that the sector is ripe for a shakeout. But, as my colleague Katie Fehrenbacher wrote recently, there’s still a lot of progress that can be made in the space — if the right people put their minds to it.

Image courtesy of Flickr user Simon Peckham

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