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The 21st Century Gold Rush Announced At Disrupt: Raw Data

Budowniczy425 — Wed, 23 May 2012 21:38:36 +0000

President Obama has a “high geek quotient” according to his senior technology advisor, Todd Park. Park and U.S. CIO Steven VanRoekel announced five major federal initiatives at TechCrunch Disrupt today, along with a call to entrepreneurs to join in a new gold rush of data that will be released in the coming months. Like how the GPS industry helped pave the way for iPhone apps, Park and VanRoekel hope to catalyze new industries in energy, education, security, and the nonprofit sector with the new open data guidelines. Additionally, they’re opening up an application process for an executive fellows program (apply here ; we’ll have a post soon with more details). The five major initiatives are as follows: 1. Expand the one-click download program of “ Blue Button ” to energy, education, security, and the nonprofit sector. Blue Button was an early open data initiative from Park’s previous job at HHS to allow federal medical recipients (Department of Defense, Veterans, and Medicare) to access their health information in an easy, one-click process for use with all of their doctors. A relevant recent extension of Blue Button for energy, “Green Button,” is already in use by iPhone app makers to give homeowners feedback on their energy use. Additional energy info will be coming soon in the hopes that savvy entrepreneurs can make profitable, socially-beneficial use of the new data. 2. Expand Blue Button itself to private sector insurance companies. Right now, only federal beneficiaries have access to the data, yet many Americans would also like an easy way to track their medical history and share relevant results between doctors. 3. A PayPal for foreign aid, the “20% Campaign.” The federal government has a nasty habit of losing crates of cash and foreign aid while paying security forces and contract workers in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Park and VanRoekel hope the new system can better track the money trail, and therefore reduce waste, fraud, and abuse. One study suggests that India could save billions with electronic transfers , and the savings could be just as significant for the U.S. 4. A small-business friendly process for securing government contracts, named RFP-EZ. Don’t have a DC-bureau or a cushy relationship with a senator? This program aims to give the small guy a shot at big contracts. Park argued in his talk that the government sometimes prefers savvy startups in Silicon Valley, who can save the government a lot more than the typical contractor. 5. MyGov, a user-friendly website to find government services. Currently, government services are organized by government need, not citizen, making many services difficult to find. These initiatives will roll out over the comings months and we’ll update our audience with relevant details.

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The 21st Century Gold Rush Announced At Disrupt: Raw Data

Sequoia’s Roelof Botha: “Entrepreneurs Don’t Appreciate When They’re Onto A Good Thing”

jos — Tue, 22 May 2012 20:56:19 +0000

TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington sat down with Sequoia Capital partner Roelof Botha in another fireside chat at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012 this morning. Prior to joining Sequoia Capital in 2003, Botha served as the Chief Financial Officer of PayPal during its sale to eBay , and today considers himself a champion of consumer web plays. He also sits on the board of hot startups like Eventbrite , Square , TokBox , Tumblr , and Jawbone , to name a few. And he’s an investor in other startups like Unity Technologies , a company helping developers build 3D games, as well as the interesting (and sci-fi-ish) Gene Security Network , which Botha describes as helping parents have healthy babies via in vitro fertilization. Of course, Arrington then asked how close we were to being able to design our own babies, and Botha, taking the question seriously, answered that it was “feasible to some extent today,” but that there’s “just an ethics question.” (Oh you think?) But the more interesting parts of the interview involved Botha’s vision for entrepreneurs building companies today, and his concerns that not enough are focused on the long road ahead. Arrington asked Botha to expand on several earlier statements he’s made, where he encouraged tech founders not to sell too early. Botha had said that “people need to be more greedy, and more patient,” for example, and noted that Sequoia “loved being in business with entrepreneurs that want to build something enduring.” He openly pondered what the tech ecosystem would be like if companies like Facebook, Apple and Microsoft had sold out early, too. Arrington also asked him to list other companies that had sold too early. Botha did say he would always wonder about what would have happened with YouTube had Google not acquired them. “Google has done a fantastic job,” said Botha, who also interestingly noted that YouTube was now profitable. “Entrepreneurs don’t appreciate when they’re onto a good thing,” said Botha, “the long run can be speculator,” he said. Companies can even see 10x returns after going public, he added, saying that it took LinkedIn eight years to build its business to the scale it is today. Taking a note from Steve Jobs, Botha then encouraged entrepreneurs to build something that “makes a dent in the universe.” One of the more controversial portions of the chat involved Botha’s discussion of Sequoia’s scout program which PandoDaily recently uncovered. Botha said that the spirit behind the program, which he described as “stealth” but not “secret,” was to give entrepreneurs the chance to make angel investments of their own before they’ve achieved liquidity. Sequoia even had internal discussions about whether or not to make a public announcement about the program, he said. The firm has “a small amount” of money invested in this program and dozens of scouts, but Botha took issue with claims that entrepreneurs didn’t know where the money was coming from. “We always wire the money,” he says, indicating that it would be hard for a startup founder to not know that Sequoia was behind the investments.

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Sequoia’s Roelof Botha: “Entrepreneurs Don’t Appreciate When They’re Onto A Good Thing”

Kleiner Perkins Sued By Partner Ellen Pao Alleging Sexual Harassment, Gender Discrimination

Administrator — Tue, 22 May 2012 20:30:56 +0000

Kleiner Perkins Caulfield and Byers , one of the most storied and well-respected venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, has been sued by Ellen Pao , an investment partner with the firm. In the complaint filed May 10 in San Francisco Superior Court (which is embedded below in its entirety), Pao claims that she was the victim of sexual harassment by Ajit Nazre , a former Kleiner Perkins investment partner who departed the firm late last year. When contacted today, a Kleiner Perkins spokesperson declined to detail the specifics of why he departed. The suit also alleges that she, along with other female employees at the firm, were regularly left out of meetings held by the firm’s male partners and that she was unfairly passed over for promotions because of her gender and her response to Nazre’s advances. High profile Kleiner Perkins partners John Doerr, Ray Lane, Bing Gordon, Ted Schlein, Chi-Hua Chien, are among those named in the suit. The legal complaint names Kleiner Perkins as the defendant, on the basis of gender discrimination and retaliation. Pao is requesting economic damages including her allegedly lost back pay and punitive damages as allowed by law, among other reliefs. She is being represented by Rudy, Exelrod, Zieff & Lowe, LLP . When reached for comment by TechCrunch, Kleiner Perkins provided the following response: In response to a discrimination complaint filed in the Superior Court of San Francisco by Ellen Pao, Christina Lee, a Kleiner Perkins spokesperson, stated the Firm regrets that the situation is being litigated publicly and had hoped the two parties could have reached resolution, particularly given Pao’s 7-year history with the firm. Following a thorough independent investigation of the facts, the firm believes the lawsuit is without merit and intends to vigorously defend the matter. The Firm has been a diversity pioneer in its industry and was one of the first venture capital firms to hire women as partners. The number of women partners at the firm is one of the highest within the venture capital arena and the firm has actively supported women in all respects. This is breaking news, and we are updating this story as it develops. Here is Pao’s complaint in its entirety: View this document on Scribd

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Kleiner Perkins Sued By Partner Ellen Pao Alleging Sexual Harassment, Gender Discrimination

Quikr, India’s Spin On Craigslist, Gobbles Up $32M From Warburg Pincus, eBay & More

Administrator — Tue, 22 May 2012 20:05:40 +0000

Quikr , India’s largest online and mobile classifieds portal, announced today that it has raised $32 million in series E financing, led by New York City-based private equity giant Warburg Pincus . The company’s existing investors, which include Matrix Partners, Norwest Venture Partners and eBay, also participated in the funding. The investment is Quikr’s fifth and largest financing to date, following an $8 million raise in May 2011, led by Nokia Growth Partners, Norwest and eBay. The latest capital infusion brings Quikr’s total funding to $46 million. Quikr was known as Kijiji (of www.kijiji.in) until a re-branding in 2008, when the company decided it wanted to adopt a name that more readily reflected ease of use and speed, with a slightly more universal (and vowel-less Web 2.0) feel. Apparently “Kijiji” didn’t inspire that. No idea why. Kidding aside, the company was set squarely on the long-term goal of becoming a fast, easy-to-use consumer-focused platform for the Indian community, and in turn providing it with a resource by which to buy, sell and rent in any category. And, since its launch in 2008 (and its re-branding shortly thereafter), the Mumbai-based startup has grown into a sizable platform, which is now used by some 17 million people and businesses each month — across more than 83 cities — and offers listings on everything from real estate to electronics. Today, more than 50 percent of the Indian population is under the age of 25, which equates to an enormous number of savvy web and mobile adopters. As a result, many see huge opportunity in Indian eCommerce, especially that which is targeted at a younger audience. Unsurprisingly, Silicon Valley investors have been paying more and more attention to the startup ecosystem in India, the growing web penetration, and adoption of mobile devices. What’s more, as demonstrated by this sizable investment in Quikr, not to mention the $40 million round that Bessemer, Nexus and others sank into fast-growing Indian eCommerce and deals company, Snapdeals, American investors aren’t afraid to send their money abroad. For more, check out Quikr at home here.

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Quikr, India’s Spin On Craigslist, Gobbles Up $32M From Warburg Pincus, eBay & More

Now On Your iPhone, ReadyForZero Is Ready To Save You From Debt

jos — Tue, 22 May 2012 19:30:21 +0000

YC alum ReadyForZero , an online financial service that’s trying to get people out of debt faster, is today expanding to mobile with the launch of its first mobile app. For now, the experience is designed mainly to give you at-a-glance insight into your current debt situation. However, the mobile app also uses iOS push notifications to alert you to large purchases and payments which could impact your financial goals. Says ReadyForZero CEO and co-founder Rod Ebrahimi, this feature is designed to “keep you honest,” similar to the free ReadyForZero credit card stickers , which shame you into putting your card back into your wallet. As with the stickers, ReadyForZero’s push notifications are like nagging reminders when you’re not staying on course. But while the stickers are like a simpler solution than having to put your credit card in ice (yep, this is a thing), the app’s push notifications aren’t just about keeping you from being naughty – they also alert you when you complete financial goals, make payments, or the interest rate changes. For those unfamiliar with the service, ReadyForZero automatically imports data from your bank accounts, credit card accounts and loans, then uses this information to actively make recommendations as to when you’re able to make extra payments in order to save on interest. It can also alert you to the repercussions that recent big-ticket purchases will have on your plans to pay down your debt within a given timeframe, and can suggest ways you can get back on track. The mobile app, like the desktop-size website, lets you track your progress, payments and view all your accounts (loans, credit cards, etc.). Ebrahimi says that he knew now was the right time to go mobile because of the huge problem with student loan debt in particular. “Earlier this year, total outstanding student loan debt surpassed $1 trillion, overtaking total outstanding credit card debt,” he says. And on July 1st, the federal student loan rate is scheduled to double from 3.4% to 6.8%, he adds, depending on the results of this vote. In other words, it’s a good time to expand the ReadyForZero service to other platforms – especially one favored by students (their phones). The iOS app is going live now in iTunes. And yes, Android version is in the works.

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Now On Your iPhone, ReadyForZero Is Ready To Save You From Debt

Analysts: Nokia On Track To Burn Through Its Whole $6B Cash Pile In Next 2 Years

admin2 — Fri, 18 May 2012 18:17:23 +0000

The Facebook IPO is expected to usher in a day of massive trading volumes on the markets, and some believe that might translate to a lift for some tech stocks . But one that could really use some help has just been served another course of bad press: Nokia is apparently burning through its cash reserves — fast. The company, for years the biggest mobile phone maker in the world, has fallen on very tough times, as competition from companies like Samsung, Apple and a barrage of inexpensive device makers, have translated into declines in sales, market share and profitability. That’s now translating into what has been identified as another issue: the burning of the cash pile. In the last five quarters, Nokia has burned through €2.1 billion ($2.7 billion) from its cash reserves. Analysts polled by Reuters on average believe that at the rate Nokia is going, it will go through another €2 billion ($2.5 billion) in the next three quarters, with the total current cash pile of €4.9 billion ($6 billion) gone within two years. To put that in some context, in 2007 Nokia had cash reserves of €10 billion in 2007 ($12.7 billion). That points to its cash pile burn accelerating — a result of the fact that the company has been trying to transform its business, which requires investment, while at the same time seeing massive sales drops: In the company’s last quarterly earnings , reported April 18, Nokia reported that overall revenues were down by $4 billion (€3.4 billion) to $9.7 billion (€7.4 billion). Smartphones, the core of Nokia’s fightback strategy, declined by more than 50 percent both in revenues and unit sales, and the company saw a 40 percent drop in revenues from devices, its biggest business, with sales in those now at €4.2 billion. Nokia also swung to an operating loss of $1.7 billion, blaming the double-whammy of competition from Apple/Google as well as restructuring costs, as the company has pushed to put a stronger emphasis on its new line of smartphones in a race to gain back its rapidly disappearing market share in the higher-margin end of the smartphone market. That market share has been slipping for some time now, but it was in the last quarter that it finally slipped enough to put Nokia into number-two behind Samsung. According to Q1 figures out earlier this week from Gartner , Nokia now has 19.8 percent of the mobile market to Samsung’s 20.7 percent. While Samsung’s sales have been rising, up to 86.6 million units from 68.8 million in the quarter a year ago, Nokia’s have been going in the reverse direction: now at 83.1 million units compared to 107.6 million a year ago. Nokia currently has two tranches of credit bonds outstanding: bonds of €1.25 billion euros at 5.5 percent maturing in 2014 and €500 million of notes at 6.75 percent due in 2019. These have now reached the lowest investment grade status at S&P , Fitch and Moody’s with negative outlook. “I would not rule out the possibility of Nokia being downgraded further,” Nancy Utterback, a credit strategist at Aviva Investors, told Reuters. “The company is in a negative spiral that will be hard to reverse.” Reuters does also point out some bright spots. The company is expected to sell 20 million of its new Windows Phone-based smartphones this year, and 46 million next year. And if the company continues on its cost-reducing course, it could end 2012 with €2.8 billion ($3.6 billion) in net cash this year. And there is another possibility that we will likely see raised more and more: a “white knight” in the form of a Microsoft acquisition. The software company is already heavily entwined with Nokia over the use of the Windows Phone OS — paying Nokia $1 billion annually for this — a relationship that could well deepen if Nokia’s problems continue to grow. [Image: Images of Money, Flickr ]

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Analysts: Nokia On Track To Burn Through Its Whole $6B Cash Pile In Next 2 Years

Watch Mark Zuckerberg Ring The NASDAQ Bell Before Facebook’s IPO

A D M I N — Fri, 18 May 2012 18:14:47 +0000

You can watch live from the NASDAQ site as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes history this morning ringing the bell to open the day’s trading on the NASDAQ from Facebook’s headquarters just before his company’s IPO. The ceremony has just transpired, with Zuckerberg not giving any speech or remarks. He signed the NASDAQ bell’s touchscreen “To a more open and connected world”. Facebook stock won’t actually begin trading until 8am PST / 11am EST so investors will have a few more hours to salivate. Employees have been at 1 Hacker Way in Menlo Park for an all-night hackathon that’s about to culminate with Zuck’s bell-ringing ceremony. 9:26am EST – The ceremony begins. 9:28am EST – Zuckerberg was flanked by COO Sheryl Sandberg, VP of Product Chris Cox, and several other employees. 9:30am EST – With no remarks, Zuckerberg has rung the bell. For those who missed it, you can watch a short video of the bell ringing from Facebook employee Bob Baldwin here. 9:31am EST – Zuck signed the NASDAQ Opening Bell touchscreen “To a more open and connected world”, as is now shown on the NASDAQ’s screen in Times Square

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Watch Mark Zuckerberg Ring The NASDAQ Bell Before Facebook’s IPO

Facebook Says Haters Gonna Hate, Likers Gonna Like

Achilles — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:23:02 +0000

Facebook knows what’s best for you, sometimes before you do. That’s the meaning of a new “Likers Gonna Like” inspirational mini-poster printed by the Facebook Toronto Office. If you don’t approve of something Facebook’s doing, fine, there’s millions of other people who do. And just as with the launch of the news feed, if you hate some change to the Facebook interface, wait a few months, and you’ll probably end up Liking it too. It’s a cavalier statement, one based on several old hip-hop songs including “In Da Club” by 50 Cent, where he raps “If [they] hate then let ‘em hate and watch the money pile up”. It’s a mentality that has gotten the company into privacy trouble. But the idea that Facebook and its visionary CEO Mark Zuckerberg should push forward with bold ideas because “Likers Gonna Like” is what’s let Facebook move faster than its older rivals, and kept it from being disrupted these last eight years. The poster wasn’t officially produced by Facebook Analog Research Laboratory , which made the company’s famous “Stay Focused & Keep Shipping” and “Move Fast Break Things” posters. It’s a 8.5 x 11 inch printout, according to Sachin Monga of Facebook’s Toronto platform strategy team who snapped the photo above. But it’s still being widely Liked and shared by employees, showing the words resonate with them as they watch Facebook IPO later this morning. Facebook’s mission is “making the world more open and connected”. Sometimes that means making people uncomfortable at first. You don’t have to agree with how Mark Zuckerberg does things, and you can hate if you want to. But remember, Facebook’s just the messenger. The message is the future.

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Facebook Says Haters Gonna Hate, Likers Gonna Like

And The First Facebook IPO Hackathon Photos Roll In

kram412 — Fri, 18 May 2012 10:32:53 +0000

Hundreds of Facebook employees congregated at ‘Hacker Square’ at the company’s Menlo Park headquarters this evening ahead of the company’s insanely-hyped initial public offering. Now, some of the first photos are starting to trickle in. There was a standing ovation for chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, who gave a talk before several long-time engineers bounced in while wearing capes or bringing boomboxes. Tonight Facebook is having its 31st Hackathon to celebrate the IPO. Hackathons are a company tradition. They’re a place where engineers and other non-technical employees get to stay out all night building concepts into real products that sometimes eventually get shipped. Some of the big products that have come out of earlier Hackathons include Facebook chat and an early version of Timeline. The company got its employees together around a big yellow crane that’s in the center of their ‘Hacker Square.’ The crane came from their old Palo Alto headquarters where it was originally put in by Agilent Technologies (the company that spun out of Hewlett Packard, which is arguably, the company that made Silicon Valley more than 70 years ago). Here are some of the photos that have come in so far! The best photos are actually from Facebook product designer Francis Luu . But because we are trying not to be super lame, like various slideshow-addicted blogs that shall not be named, here is the link to his photo album . If you are a Facebook employee and are not living in ungodly fear of having your RSUs, options, etc. revoked on this special day, feel free to send us more photos at tips@techcrunch.com. Here’s the crowd that gathered before Zuckerberg’s talk: Here’s a photo that YouTube’s Hunter Walk posted of the standing ovation for Zuckerberg: Here’s the set-up before the event started in a photo from Blake Ross, a director who was brought in through Facebook’s very first acquisition: Here’s the commemorative T-shirt for the Hackathon: More people hacking:

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And The First Facebook IPO Hackathon Photos Roll In

Quora Investor Peter Thiel: “The Samwers Are Never Going To Clone Quora,”

blogger — Thu, 17 May 2012 10:52:38 +0000

There’s been a lot of armchair valuation punditry across the Valley this week. As the Facebook IPO looms, our intricately entwined ecosystem of startups and investors seeks to benefit from the domino effect of a population feeling flush with cash. This is the picture that the WSJ painted in its Quora funding announcement yesterday, headline: “ Former Facebook Hands Capitalize on Buzz .” Okay, sure, smart people will always adapt to a favorable environment — but the WSJ missed a deeper and more long-term dynamic at play. “We intend to use some of this funding as a cushion in case of macroeconomic changes,” wrote Quora co-founder Adam D’Angelo in an answer to a question about what the company would do with the financing. Sure, in laymen’s terms this could read, “We’re getting while the getting’s good,” but a startup stocking up for a potential winter does not necessarily mean overvaluation. Especially when you consider that a “large portion of this money” will go to Amazon Web Services for EC2 and other bills… at least until something less expensive and more robust gets invented. “We wanted to extend our runway,” D’Angelo wrote, about raising as optimally as possible. “[We wanted to] focus on long-term growth and quality, and lets us avoid making short term tradeoffs like many other companies.” Earlier today I spoke to proto-Facebook investor and Quora board member, Peter Thiel , extensively about his personal investment in the startup. He reinforced the fact that Quora has a 20-year, 50-year, 100-year future if it manages to scale in a way that could maintain the quality of site discussion. Thiel admitted that the site had not yet reached the apex of its founders’ vision, but maintained that this kind of careful “slow growth” is a good thing in terms of keeping out irrelevant and spammy content. “There’s a good chance that some day a majority of questions asked will be on the [Quora] platform,” Thiel said, explaining that its success fit his vision of a world where an emerging technology didn’t have to beat or destroy something else to be successful. Rather, it could just be. Imagine a layer of Quora’s intelligent discourse across all communication, where the knowledge contained on the site went beyond Q&A and attempted to solve grander problems than being a threaded platform for Silicon Valley squabbles. In response to media criticism of the site’s valuation, Thiel referred to the technological prowess of Quora, and the breadth of talent retained by its 30-person team as its core appeal. Thiel — who told PandoDaily’s Sarah Lacy that “we’d be better off if people focused on doing unique things” — implied that the startup was indeed this sort of “unique thing” — independent of, and not competitive with, Wikipedia, Facebook and Google. More importantly, he implied that it wasn’t trying to be. Aside from the team, Thiel — who uses Quora himself to keep up on Silicon Valley news — was impressed by the complicated technology behind the site, and held the fact that it was not easily replicable as being one of its primary drivers of value. “The Samwers are never going to clone Quora,” Thiel said, resting his case.

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Quora Investor Peter Thiel: “The Samwers Are Never Going To Clone Quora,”