Dwolla has been grabbing attention for its next-generation payment system that bypasses credit card networks and connects directly into bank accounts. It’s been on a roll and now investors have lined up behind the start-up, to the tune of $5 million in a Series B round. Read More »
Tech
Codecademy, which teaches users how to program for free with an interactive and social web application, has garnered more than 1 million users in less than five months. We talked to co-founder and CEO Zach Sims about how Codecademy started and where it’s going. Read More »
Members of New York’s tech community, a couple thousand strong, braved the winter chill and gathered outside the offices of New York senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand to protest the PIPA and SOPA legislation Wednesday, calling it a potentially crippling set of bills. Read More »
Two of the early investors of Twitter — Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures and Bijan Sabet of Spark Capital — are leaving Twitter’s board of directors. This is the latest shake-up in the long list of shake-ups at the San Francisco–based company. Read More »
On Friday, Delicious founder Joshua Schachter’s Tasty Labs announced its first product to the public: Jig.com. Essentially, Jig allows people to post questions about anything they need — there are no categories yet, just one big stream — and allow anyone out there to answer them.… Read More »
Skillshare, the peer-to-peer learning start-up I profiled recently, has raised $3.1 million from Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital. I reported in my profile that the two VC firms were close to funding Skillshare’s Series A round and now it looks like it’s official. Read More »
Developers building atop platforms like iOS and Twitter should plan for the day when platform owners work against their interests, said Union Square Ventures partner Fred Wilson, who reminded entrepreneurs about the dangers of relying on someone else’s APIs. Read More »
The next big opportunity is in social upheavals and revolutions, said Union Square’s Fred Wilson. After the infrastructure of the Internet and the applications have been established, he said the next step is revolutions personified by Wikileaks, BitCoin, the Arab Spring and other changes. Read More »
Union Square Ventures is forming a new $165 million fund to help it participate in later rounds of funding for social media and network start-ups like portfolio companies Twitter, Foursquare and Tumbler as they grow beyond the early stages that the firm has traditionally focused on. Read More »
As Om shared earlier this month, New York’s tech scene is getting a flood of venture capital for Internet deals, rivaling San Francisco. I sat down with Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures to discuss the New York renaissance, how it came about and where it’s… Read More »
Blogging platform Tumblr has raised another round of financing from its existing venture backers, Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures, putting pressure on the company to start generating revenue. It is exploring various options, but founder David Karp has said that he is “opposed to advertising.” Read More »
Etsy co-founder Rob Kalin will become CEO of the online craft-selling site, replacing Maria Thomas, who’d joined the company from NPR last year. In a corporate blog post, Kalin credited Thomas with helping the company reach profitability, but did not offer a reason for her departure. Read More »
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