Bijan Sabet and Fred Wilson continue a long tradition of a couple investors utterly dominating their sectors by betting on what they know, and getting in early before others even know there is an opportunity. Read more »
My post, “Uber, Data Darwinism and the future of work” sparked a conversation. Here is a sampling of the reaction and reflection from the blog world. Read more »
Tumblr is enjoying explosive traffic growth and jaw-dropping valuations. But so did a similar community site, GeoCities, a decade ago before it quickly imploded. Investor Fred Wilson says this time is different. Read more »
Community-writing site Wattpad says over 70% of time spent on the service comes from users on tablets or smartphones. One of its most requested features is the ability to write and edit stories from mobile devices. So the company is rolling out “Create” functionality for Android. Read more at paidContent »
Education startup Codecademy — which promises to help anyone learn to program with its game-like online courses — is stepping up to the international market with a $10 million round of funding from new backers including Index Ventures and Kleiner Perkins. Read more »
The pitched war between content owners and technology companies doesn’t have to persist if media companies would acknowledge and adapt to the new realities of digital distribution, famed venture capitalist Fred Wilson told attendees at paidContent 2012. Read more at paidContent »
Kickstarter is not just a startup– it’s part of an important shift away from the industrial manufacturing era & toward the maker economy. In this wide-ranging interview, founder Perry Chen talks about how society is reaching a new ‘bursting point of creativity,’ & where Kickstarter goes from here. Read more »
Engagio, a social inbox that organizes people’s online conversations, is take a big step toward becoming a social network of its own. The Toronto-based start-up is rolling out a handful of new features including the ability to follow the conversations of other users. Read more »
After bootstrapping itself for more than five years, New York City-based Behance, an online destination for creative galleries and portfolios, has finally turned to outside funding, securing a $6.5 million investment from Union Square Ventures and a host of investors including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Read more »
The new Forbes Midas List is out and it ranks the top 100 venture capitalists. The list ranks uber-VC Fred Wilson below those whose performance is average at best. I find the list confusing, thanks to an ambiguous and somewhat faulty methodology. Read more »
“Content” is an industry that is going through a renaissance.Despite the current challenges and there are opportunities. All these threats and opportunities will be part of the discourse at paidContent 2012, which will be held on May 23, 2012, at the TimesCenter in New York City. Read more »
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 »
This report outlines the myriad issues at play in Facebook’s move, from examining how CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to rewire the world to understanding the company’s infrastructure dependency. But from every angle, it’s clear the effects will ripple throughout the startup and tech communities. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
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 »
GetGlue announced a new $12 million round of funding Wednesday, and the company has big plans for the money: It plans to launch a new version of its iPad app in Q1 of this year that will be a personalized take on the TV Guide. Read more »
As our demand for data increases, so too do the number of mobile devices and services. Add to that the infrastructure needed to support such connectivity, and a wide, complex picture of the mobile industry emerges. This report examines the various sectors of the mobile landscape and what the future holds for each. Hardware, cloud services, mobile search, advertising, location-based services and the growing ubiquity of the Internet of Things will all play an important role in the concept of mobility as it shifts and evolves over the next several years. With the help of more than a dozen contributors, GigaOM Pro presents a comprehensive analysis of the companies and trends that will lead us into the next era of mobile. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
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 »
Wattpad, an online writing community that lets users share and collaborate on stories across platforms including mobile apps, has closed a $… Read more at paidContent »
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 »
Europe’s web scene is now thriving, and we’ve compiled a list featuring some of the best and brightest European web startups — what we’re dubbing the GigaOM Euro 20. Depending on how closely you watch Europe’s online scene, some of these companies may be familiar to you. Others you may not have heard of. But all of them are worth watching closely. In this report, we profile the 20 startups that we feel best represent Europe’s current tech scene. We have organized our list around perception, and as lists go, it is intended to be a guideline rather than a rule book. It’s not exhaustive, and clearly, with such a diverse and vibrant continent as our playing field, it never could be. Companies mentioned in this report include GetJar, Huddle, Made.com and Songkick. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
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 headed. Read more »
Union Square Ventures managing partner Fred Wilson’s blunt opinions on the tech industry were on display today at the Geo-Loco conference in San Francisco. And he had some compelling justifications for his insults, even if they were mainly targeted at competitors of his portfolio companies. 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 »
FourSquare, the startup behind the popular LBS mobile application of the same name, has received $1.35 million in first round funding led by Union Square Ventures and including O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. Union Square Ventures is also an investor in Twitter, which is launching its own LBS […] Read more »
