Tag: Startup

There’s a slow phase shift in Silicon Valley. Entrepreneurs are focusing on physical products more than ever before.

 

“There’s a deep hunger to create products you can actually hold in your hands,” says Michael Del Ponte, a serial entrepreneur who just launched a new company today, Soma Water.

“When I talk to entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley about this, they talk about seeing their product in someone’s home. It’s going into someone’s house and being able to say, ‘Yeah, I helped build that.’ There’s something about that experience.”

The shift originated with Steve Jobs turning Apple into a consumer-products company, says Del Ponte, but really gained momentum when iPod creator Tony Fadell redesigned the thermostat. Robotics companies like Romotive are also a huge part of this trend.

http://www.businessinsider.com/silicon-valley-software-vs-hardware-2012-12#ixzz2EtOFhJzO

It sounds like a recipe for success for a new start-up: Two famed entrepreneurs, tens of millions of dollars in the bank and endorsements from celebrities like Alicia Keys and Jim Carrey.

But Airtime, the much-hyped video chat site created by Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning, the two behind the music sharing service Napster, has turned out to be far from a sure thing.

The site is just four months old, and the staff is tweaking its features to make it more appealing. So far, though, Airtime’s traffic appears to be little more than a trickle.

And the latest bits of news about the company — it has lost some important employees and laid off others — do not bode well for its future.

 

I hope you’re hungry, because this November, Advertising Age and Food Network are bringing tech startups, entrepreneurs, and creative technologists together to disrupt the food category, with one lucky winner set to receive $25,000 and a partnership with the media company.

Over the past 20 years, Food Network has owned the national conversation about food and inspired millions to enjoy food everywhere. But as the very idea of food has become increasingly about where you live, it’s time for America’s most iconic food brand to reflect on this behavior shift — and to be, put simply, more relevant locally.

 

http://adage.com/article/digital/hey-startups-food-network-pitch/237454/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/28/technology-pioneers-2013-world-economic-forum_n_1834492.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

What do Kickstarter, Dropbox, Foursquare and Spotify all have in common? Before becoming household names, each was featured on the prestigious Technology Pioneers list, sponsored by the World Economic Forum.

Since 2000, nearly 500 startups have been annually selected because of their industry-changing potential or the effect they could have on societies and economies around the globe. According to the WEF website, the participating companies are judged on the following criteria: “innovation, potential impact, growth and sustainability, and proof of concept and leadership.”

Today, a new set of 23 innovative companies were selected for the Technology Pioneers 2013 list. These startups are expected to drastically alter their particular fields over the next year and have been chosen because of their “promise of significantly impacting the way business and society operate,” per the WEF website. A WEF press release stated the newest inductees will also be formally recognized on September 11 – 13, during the Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, China.

This year’s crop of startups include a company developing thermal batteries, several solar energy initiatives, and one firm responsible for a sensor that lets users move their hands to interact with technology instead of reaching for a remote control. Check out the slideshow below to see all the honorees from the Technology Pioneers of 2013 list. Have you heard of some of these companies? Do you already use any of these services? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. For a look at previous Tech Pioneers, have a look at the WEC’s list from last year.

A long-shunned Silicon Valley technology sector—consumer-electronics start-ups—is showing some surprising signs of life.

Entrepreneurs in California have quietly launched dozens of small hardware companies, designing everything from smart wristwatches to digital thermostats. The typical business plan: raise enough money to create prototypes in the U.S. that can be manufactured in Asia and sold online.

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444900304577577192843536780.html

19 year-old entrepreneur takes aim at gaming with second startup

Can you be a serial entrepreneur at age 19? Connor Zwick moves on to his second startup with Coco, launching Monday to turn your iPhone into a complex but inexpensive gaming controller.

At 19 years old, Connor Zwick has earned admission to Harvard, a Thiel Fellowship, acceptance into Y Combinator and a place on Kickstarter. The one thing he’s waiting for? A successful launch of his newest company.

Zwick and his co-founder, fellow Harvard drop-out Colton Gyulay, are on Monday launching their newest product, called Coco, from their company called Milkshake Labs. The startup aims to bring the physical benefits and controls of console gaming to smartphones at affordable prices. The two will pitch the product at Y Combinator’s August demo day next week, but are hoping to gain traction and support on Kickstarter until then, as they aim to disrupt the smartphone gaming space.

In a press release, the founders explained how the Coco controller will work and fit into the market:

This pocket-sized case brings functional buttons that are standard on users’ favorite console systems, including a directional pad and analog joystick, to the smartphone gaming experience. The first of its kind, it provides console-level controls (it boasts an analog stick AND a directional pad), communicates through the phone’s audio jack and does not require its own battery.

In addition to offering tactile control of games on the smartphone screen, coco can also interface with the latest iPad or iPhone 4S and Apple TV to turn the iOS device into a full-fledged living room console. A coco app can manage all of the devices’ games and launch them on the Apple TV system for mirroring or even dual-screen play.

 

OF the five members of a purported crime ring who appeared in court last month, Jennifer Sultan could not help but stand out. She seemed to have little in common with those said to be her accomplices: among them, a police officer charged with stealing his colleagues’ guns to support a painkiller habit and two unemployed young men from Brooklyn and Queens charged with selling guns and drugs.

 

http://paidcontent.org/2012/08/01/why-the-irish-times-fancies-itself-as-a-startup-incubator/?utm_source=General+Users&utm_campaign=a0f948b260-c%3Acln%2Cmob%2Ctec%2Cvid%2Ccld%2Capl%2Ceur+d%3A08-01&utm_medium=email

What can a 153-year-old news publisher teach five tech startups? Digital expertise may flow both ways as Ireland’s newspaper of record offers desk space and funding to new companies whose products it hopes to adopt.

BBC Worldwide is not the only Big Media organisation to host and mentor new tech startups at its headquarters this summer.

The Irish Times also just started its Digital Challenge – an eight-week programme in which it is giving desk space to and getting to know five fledgling ideas.

1. MyIFli.com – a simple mobile website creator
2. Storyflow – visualises news story events
3. PicTurk – amateur photography contest platform
4. KnockOn.ie – grassroots rugby community
5. GetBulb – data graphics creator

Irish startup incubator NDRC LaunchPad is running the project with the 153-year-old newspaper’s new chief innovation officer Johnny Ryan. Arthur Cox and KPMG are each providing €10,000 in legal and consulting fees. Each startup will get to pitch at Dublin Web Summit and receive advice from a range of outside personalities.

The winning startup will receive Irish Times marketing worth €10,000 and, perhaps most importantly, a convertible loan note for €50,000 investment from DFJ Esprit.

 

http://www.adweek.com/news/press/qwiki-nabs-time-inc-exec-142454

Another traditional media executive is making the leap to digital startup. Last month, Say Media named Time publisher Kim Kelleher president to focus on expanding brand and publisher relationships. On Thursday (Aug. 1) , Qwiki, a New York-based digital media startup, nabbed Time.com’s director of business development, Sonya Penn, to oversee partnership adoption strategies for the company.

Qwiki, the winner of TechCrunch Disrupts 2010 Cup, has turned some heads by inking partnership with the likes of ABC News, which uses Qwiki’s set of digital publishing tools to create interactive video experiences using images, social media, video clips, animation and voiceovers. The move to bring on Penn, who spent five years at Time Inc., is a clear signal that the company is aiming to rack up more lucrative partnerships with traditional and online publishers, a must if Qwiki is to move out of its nascent startup stage.

“I’ve spent a lot of time in the online video space and thinking about how traditional media companies can move ahead,” Penn said of her tenure at Time. “The beauty of Qwiki is that big and small companies can use it quickly to create online video presentations. I’ll be working on developing partnerships and monetization strategies, while using feedback from publishers to help continually develop our technology.”

Penn insisted her departure from Time was amiable. However, her exit marks the second Time staffer move to a non-legacy company in as many months. Time Inc. has had a rough go of it the past few months; just yesterday the company announced another lackluster quarter with revenue down 9 percent and operating income down 43 percent.

Penn said her move is simply a natural byproduct of an ever-changing media landscape. “Traditional media has evolved and continues to evolve,” she said. “I loved being here [Time], but we also see things down the road that are exciting. It’s a change and it’s different.”