Tech Startups

2013-06-13T19:18:00.001-07:00

Impressive-- Fast-Growing Blackjack Casino Now the #1 Blackjack Game on Facebook http://t.co/bfJygSpFOf pic.twitter.com/LbMtoZ7N2h
— techstartups (@techstartups) June 13, 2013

Groupon CEO resignation letter

2013-02-28T19:43:00.001-08:00

"After four and a half intense and wonderful years as CEO of Groupon, I've decided that I'd like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding - I was fired today. If you're wondering why... you haven't been paying attention. From controversial metrics in our S1 to our material weakness to two quarters of missing our own expectations and a stock price that's hovering around one quarter of our listing price, the events of the last year and a half speak for themselves. As CEO, I am accountable."

https://www.jottit.com/v5wux/
----

(This is for Groupon employees, but I'm posting it publicly since it will leak anyway)

People of Groupon,

After four and a half intense and wonderful years as CEO of Groupon, I've decided that I'd like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding - I was fired today. If you're wondering why... you haven't been paying attention. From controversial metrics in our S1 to our material weakness to two quarters of missing our own expectations and a stock price that's hovering around one quarter of our listing price, the events of the last year and a half speak for themselves. As CEO, I am accountable.

You are doing amazing things at Groupon, and you deserve the outside world to give you a second chance. I'm getting in the way of that. A fresh CEO earns you that chance. The board is aligned behind the strategy we've shared over the last few months, and I've never seen you working together more effectively as a global company - it's time to give Groupon a relief valve from the public noise.

For those who are concerned about me, please don't be - I love Groupon, and I'm terribly proud of what we've created. I'm OK with having failed at this part of the journey. If Groupon was Battletoads, it would be like I made it all the way to the Terra Tubes without dying on my first ever play through. I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to take the company this far with all of you. I'll now take some time to decompress (FYI I'm looking for a good fat camp to lose my Groupon 40, if anyone has a suggestion), and then maybe I'll figure out how to channel this experience into something productive.

If there's one piece of wisdom that this simple pilgrim would like to impart upon you: have the courage to start with the customer. My biggest regrets are the moments that I let a lack of data override my intuition on what's best for our customers. This leadership change gives you some breathing room to break bad habits and deliver sustainable customer happiness - don't waste the opportunity!

I will miss you terribly.

Love,

Andrew

Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work

2013-02-28T07:23:00.000-08:00

-- "We believe that we should work to be happy, but could that be backwards? In this fast-moving and entertaining talk, psychologist Shawn Achor argues that actually happiness inspires productivity. (Filmed at TEDxBloomington.)"

Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action

2013-02-27T21:24:00.002-08:00

Sugata Mitra: Build a School in the Cloud

2013-02-27T21:21:00.001-08:00

WSJ: Peter Thiel Makes First Investment in a Thiel Fellows Company

2013-02-27T21:17:00.004-08:00

"Peter Thiel has made his first investment in a Thiel Fellows company, Thinkful. The startup’s co-founder, Dan Friedman, is a former Yale University student who “took a leave” from the school to start the online tutoring business."

Independa Closes Series A Funding - $5 Million City Hill Ventures and LG Electronics

2013-01-05T08:41:00.002-08:00

SAN DIEGO, Jan. 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Independa™ today announced that it has closed its Series A Preferred Stock financing round at $5 million after receiving new investments to fund expanded sales, research and development, and distribution of its technology-enabled independent-living solutions…

Series A Financing of $32 Million to Develop Antibody Therapeutics for Allergic and Inflammatory Diseases

2012-12-18T03:04:00.002-08:00

SAN MATEO, Calif., Dec. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Allakos Inc. announced today that it has completed a $32 million Series A preferred stock financing led by Novo Ventures with participation from Alta Partners, RiverVest Venture Partners and the Roche Venture Fund. Peter Moldt, PhD., Partner at Novo Ventures, Robert Alexander, PhD., Director at Alta Partners and John McKearn PhD., Managing Director at RiverVest Venture Partners, will join the Board of Directors. Commented Dr. Moldt: "We believe that Allakos' innovative approach to developing antibody-based therapeutics represents a large and important therapeutic and commercial opportunity, founded upon a strong scientific rationale and supported by a respected management team with deep experience in therapeutic antibody development. We are pleased to join with these other distinguished investors in supporting their progress." "We very much appreciate the confidence placed in our company by our Series A investors," said Christopher Bebbington, DPhil, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Allakos. "Our therapeutic antibodies are designed to work through novel mechanisms of action, to have significant safety and efficacy advantages and to have potential in multiple, high-value markets, including large therapeutic areas as well as orphan indications. With these proceeds, we are now well positioned to advance our lead program towards meaningful near-term milestones."

2012-12-18T03:01:00.001-08:00

U.S. Mobile-Ad Sales Expected to Nearly Triple This Year zite.to/ZdwfhH
— techstartups (@techstartups) December 17, 2012

Andreessen Horowitz Hires Chris Dixon Away From EBay

2012-11-20T22:24:00.004-08:00

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/19/andreessen-horowitz-hires-chris-dixon-away-from-ebay/?smid=pl-share'PEhub:Though the cat was basically out of the bag by Saturday, the news is now official: Andreessen Horowitz, the firm founded in 2009 by Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen, has hired Chris Dixon as its newest partner. Dixon has founded two previous startups, SiteAdvisor, which was acquired by McAfee, and Hunch, which was acquired by eBay last year. He also cofounded the seed investing firm Founder Collective and has worked at Bessemer Venture Partners and at a high speed options trading firm.

Fab - Valuable Platform for Discovering Designers

2012-09-30T15:20:00.002-07:00

2012-09-30T15:17:00.001-07:00

Why I got Fired from Facebook (a $100 Million dollar lesson) zite.to/NXcFQw
— techstartups (@techstartups) September 30, 2012

Virident snags $26MM. Total funding at $76MM. Enterprise is back.

2012-09-23T23:08:00.000-07:00

Virident Systems, a performance leader in flash-based storage class memory (SCM) solutions, today announced the appointment of Mike Gustafson as CEO and a member of its Board of Directors. The company also announced it has raised an additional $26 million in a Series D round of funding. Former CEO and co-founder Kumar Ganapathy will remain with the company and work closely with the executive team on business strategy, new product development and strategic partnerships. Mitsui Global Investments was the lead investor in the current round of funding, joined by Hercules Technology Growth Capital and existing investors Globespan Capital Partners, Sequoia Capital and Artiman Ventures, bringing total financing to $76 million.

Peter Thiel Offers His Startup Advice - Interview

2012-09-16T20:59:00.001-07:00

Nimble Storage inks $40MM from Silicon Valley's elite

2012-09-11T22:19:00.002-07:00

Work for the hottest enterprise startup, pre-IPO. They just raised $40MM.

Nimble Storage is the fastest-growing storage start-up in history. Located in San Jose, CA, Nimble has developed breakthrough architecture that combines flash memory with high-capacity disk to converge storage, backup, and disaster recovery for the first time.

Nimble was founded by storage industry veterans from NetApp and Data Domain, and is funded by Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, and Lightspeed Ventures, three of the most successful and respected venture capital firms in Silicon Valley.

Enterprise IPOs are back! Big Data / IT Logging Splunk (NASDQ: SPLK)

2012-09-03T19:55:00.000-07:00

China Flash Sales Site FClub Raises $30 Million

2012-09-03T19:51:00.001-07:00

(DONEWS) Despite a fairly sluggish VC funding scene in China this year, the Chinese flash sales site FClubhas secured $30 million in series B funding. This significant second round – three times larger than FClub’s first, back in April 2011 – was led by IGC, along with IDG Capital, Zero2IPO Capital, and SK Capital.

The news comes from the VP of FClub.cn, Yi Zongyuan, in a post on his personal Weibo account. The flash sales site – also sometimes referred to as “VIP sales” in the industry – launched in July 2009 and focuses on mid-range clothing and accessories, with some luxury offerings as well. The site partners with over 1,500 brands to buy up items that are then sold over a period of just five days to its members.

FClub has self-reported having two million registered users, of whom 400,000 are active. It has 500 employees, including all those at its warehouses. Based in Shanghai, the startup site has offices in Guangzhou and Hong Kong too.

Poker with VCs - Silicon Valley Networking

2012-08-22T21:23:00.000-07:00

Badgeville Summit, Engage 2012 - Keynote: The Secret Sauce for Building Digital Relationships

2012-08-15T21:40:00.001-07:00

Badgeville Summit, Engage 2012 - Keynote: The Secret Sauce for Building Digital Relationships from Badgeville

LINKEDIN posts solid results. Web 1.5 exits (NASDAQ: LNKD)

2012-08-03T22:09:00.002-07:00

LinkedIn Q2 2012 Earnings from LinkedIn

eHarmony's New Dating App. "Like"

2012-07-12T21:41:00.002-07:00

Jeremy Verba, eHarmony CEO, explains how his online dating company's latest application works, and what it does to help the company.

Social Point raises $7.4 million. Social gaming Company Scores Funding

2012-07-12T21:34:00.001-07:00

Social Point, the leading social games developer based in Barcelona (Spain), announced today that it has closed a Series-B of $7.4 million led by Idinvest Partners, with participation from other funds including BBVA and existing investor Nauta Capital. The funds will fast track Social Point's plans to bring new social games to the market and to expand into mobile games. The teams of developers, game designers, IT engineers and support functions will be significantly strengthened in the coming months. The funds will also enable the company to increase the capacity of its platform to better manage its exponential growth.

About Social Point
Social Point is a leading social games developer based in Barcelona (Spain). The Company was founded by Andres Bou, Horacio Martos and Marc Canaleta in 2008. The Company has launched a number of top social games on Facebook in the last 18 months, such as Social Empires, Social Wars and Dragon City, accumulating over 13 million monthly active users. The Company has a strong pipeline of innovative games both on Facebook and on mobile. The Company completed a first round of financing in June 2011 with Nauta Capital for $3.4m.

Next Big Thing: PayAnywhere CEO Discusses Mobile Payments Processing

2012-06-24T22:00:00.002-07:00

Astute Networks Raises $12MM Series B from Samsung, Tallwood, Narra

2012-06-24T21:58:00.000-07:00

Astute Networks, leading provider of Networked Performance Flash™ solutions for accelerating virtualized server, desktop, and cloud computing environments, today announced that it has closed financing in an over-subscribed $12 Million Series B funding round led by Samsung Venture Investment Corporation (SVIC), the investment arm of Samsung Group, the world’s leading provider of NAND Flash memory. Current investors Tallwood Venture Capital and Narra Venture Capital also contributed to the round, with participation from new investors Ayala Capital, ICCP Venture Partners, and TIFF (The Investment Fund for Foundations). Astute will utilize the funding to further expand global sales, marketing, channel development, and support efforts, as well as ongoing innovation of its patented DataPump Engine, Networked Performance FlashTM, and related technologies exclusively found in the company’s ViSX family of 100 percent flash optimized appliances. Astute Networks located in San Diego, CA, and backed by the prestigious venture capital firms Tallwood Venture Capital, Narra Venture Capital, Samsung Venture Investment Co. (SVIC), Ayala Capital, ICCP Venture Partners, and TIFF, is the leading innovator of performance-centric network-based virtualization appliances. Built upon our patented programmable I/O processor technology, Astute’s cost-effective and easy to deploy solutions are purposely optimized to seamlessly integrate with existing customer infrastructure and eliminate the I/O demands of virtualized environments with price/performance, simplicity of management and “green” energy efficiencies unmatched in the industry. Our 3rd generation platform is powered by Astute’s proven and patented technology and delivers accelerated performance while lowering costs for virtualized server and desktop customer environments. Astute customers achieve greater scalability, faster application speed and increased operational productivity with solutions that deliver attractive cost of ownership savings and ROI. The executive management team at Astute Networks is comprised of leaders from the virtualization, cloud computing, storage, data protection and data center infrastructure markets. Together we have a commitment to produce solutions that lead the industry in solving virtualization performance problems by eliminating I/O bottlenecks, providing high speed data stores, and delivering maximum Virtual Machine (VM) performance.

Doo.net launches open-beta. Secures $10 Million Series A

2012-06-16T20:40:00.000-07:00

doo.net today announces the open-beta launch of the first cloud-based service that collects documents from multiple sources and intelligently organizes and stores them in a single, secure place. The native app for OS X is now available for download and the Windows 8 Metro app has been submitted to the Windows 8 store. Apps for iOS, Android and other platforms, as well as integration for Google Docs, will be launched in the coming weeks. With doo.net's native apps, documents are self-organized and accessible on all relevant platforms in a readily available alternative to the disparate search, file sharing and other collaboration services currently available. Now, documents are easier than ever to find, work with, and share with family, friends and colleagues. doo.net has also announced that it has raised a new round of Series A funding, which boosts the company's total investments to $10 million. The round is led by Target Partners, who join DuMont Venture, e42 Ventures and prominent angel investors, including Lars Hinrichs, founder of Xing and HackFwd, and Professor Dr. Dres. h.c. Hermann Simon, the Simon-Kucher & Partners founder and chairman who's been dubbed "The Peter Drucker of Europe."