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In The Future, The Business Founder Will Not Be Ignored

A D M I N — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:50:55 +0000

Editor’s note: Adam Rodnitzky is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Favo.rs . He programmed his first startup using ColdFusion in 1999. Rodnitzky is based in San Francisco, and you can follow him on Twitter @rodtwitzky . The entrepreneurial world loves nothing like a good meme. One of the more recent ones making the rounds from Palo Alto to Paris is that a startup simply can’t get off the ground without a technical founder. Investors, entrepreneurs and tech journalists alike will tell you that if you’re not a whiz kid fresh out of Stanford’s CS program, you are essentially not fundable — entrepreneura non grata. Well, I am here to tell you that they are right. For now. Soon, however, I believe we’ll see a marked shift in who holds the cards in the startup world. First, let’s flesh out the current argument a bit more. It starts like this: to be successful, a startup requires a founder with a deep technical skillset. This is so a functioning beta can be built that attracts users and demonstrates traction. In some cases, the driver of new user acquisition may in fact be a unique new technology itself (example: Sphero or Lark ). Users and traction attract investors. Investors inject capital that then accelerates growth. A fast growing startup can eventually be a target for an acquisition or IPO, which completes our argument that a strong technical founder leads to a higher likelihood of startup success. Oh, and if the startup doesn’t grow fast enough? Then the core engineering team forms the foundation for the new exit: the acq-hire. So, for the moment, the technical founder is in the spotlight. So much so, in fact, that they can often be funded without the presence of their natural counterpart: what we call the idea person, the product visionary, the business founder. But, soon enough, the business founder’s time will come. Here’s why. If Moore taught us anything about technology, it’s that it advances at an exponential rate. And that includes the tools that we use to build it too. It’s not a stretch to deduce that there will soon come a time when new development tools and environments eliminate some or all of the technical hurdles required to properly execute a startup in preparation for traction and funding. After all, those technical hurdles are already obscenely low compared to where they were even a decade ago. During the Web 1.0 era of the late ’90s and early ’00s, massive teams of engineers were required to build even a basic content-driven startup, one that could now be built by a single engineer today. Actually, that’s not entirely true. A rich content-driven startup can be created by zero engineers today. Thanks, WordPress ! But who cares about a content-driven startup, you say? Good question. Let’s ignore how the Cheezburger Network , TechCrunch and Groupon all started, and focus on apps instead. A decade ago, your app would have been built using the LAMP stack , Perl or Java. If you were serious (and you raised a ton of capital), you might have even dropped MySQL and used an Oracle database instead (which meant hiring an extremely expensive and extremely crotchety Oracle DB admin). Today? You’ll build a better app in less time and with fewer people using Python with Django or Ruby on Rails. Easier, but still not the domain of the business founder. But this, too, will change. The same leap that took us from LAMP to RoR will happen again, reducing the amount of people, skill and time required to build a robust web or mobile app. I have no doubt that – at this very moment – there is a talented engineering team busily building modular, drag-and-drop development environments so that those without their skill sets can develop with nearly the same ease that they can. In a way, they may be coding themselves into irrelevance. In this future state, where the technical hurdles required to build a robust app are virtually eliminated, we’ll experience even more app overload then we do today. When that happens, what separates the winning startups from those that lose will primarily reside within the domain of the business founder’s traditional areas of expertise: optimizing the user experience, executing innovative marketing, and hacking traffic and traction. Of course, it’s not all doom and gloom for the technical co-founder in the future. For one, many of the most successful technical founders also happen to be great business founders (Drew Houston from DropBox , for instance). And smart business founders will always recognize the benefit of teaming up with an awesome technical partner as well. After all, when any tech-focused startup proves traction and viability, then it needs to ensure that its technical foundation can scale efficiently and reliably to support rapid growth. Then again, if my theory proves to be correct, finding that technical co-founder shouldn’t be nearly as hard in the future as it is now. So take note of the business founders’ plight today. See how they are slighted by the Valley’s tastemakers. Feel their frustration as potential technical co-founders ignore their ideas and instead execute their own. Encourage them as they clumsily try and learn Python the hard way . Most importantly, however, start to pay attention to them. If the past decade is any indication of what the next one will be like, then it won’t be long before the business founder has the advantage that today’s technical founders enjoy. And, when that time comes, they’ll refuse to be ignored. Image excerpt from Leadership Freak

Andreessen Horowitz-Backed Nicira Pulls The Curtains Back On Disruptive Network Virtualization Platform

Administrator — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:00:25 +0000

The enterprise is moving towards simplicity, and this extends to the data center. Nicira , a stealthy virtualization startup with backing from big-name investors, is pulling the curtains back on its disruptive platform that hopes to change the way server and storage virtualization is done. And Nicira is revealing that it has raised with $50 million in funding to date from Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners and New Enterprise Associates, as well as individual investors including VMware co-founder Diane Greene and Benchmark Capital cofounder Andy Rachleff. Nicira’s NVP is a software-based system that creates a distributed virtual network infrastructure in cloud data centers that is completely decoupled and independent from physical network hardware. Nicira says that it is shifting the intelligence and control of the network away from hardware and into software, simplifying the virtualization process. NVP’s platform forms a thin software layer that treats the physical network as an IP backplane. This approach allows the creation of virtual networks that have the same properties and services as physical networks, such as security and QoS policies, L2 reachability, and higher-level service capabilities. According to the company, organizations can provision and deploy services in minutes rather than weeks or months, and you don’t need to change any of your existing hardware or software infrastructure. All enterprises need is IP connectivity. Nicira says that virtualized data centers face limits to what applications they can support and where the workloads can be placed. These limitations result in restricted workload mobility, and leave data centers under utilized. Stephen Mullaney, Chief Executive Officer of Nicira, explained to us that the network hasn’t evolved for the cloud-based data center, and the existing solutions are inflexible and complex. “The solution is to virtualize and create virtual networks that are decoupled from physical networks. The network is transitioning from hardware to software just like every other business. Software is eating the world,” he says. The NVP platform is compatible with any data center network hardware. It can be deployed on any existing network, and it allows for future changes to the network hardware without disruption to the operations of the virtual network platform. The software is delivered through a usage-based, monthly subscription-pricing model, which scales per virtual network port. Customers only pay for what they use, and pricing scales accordingly. The company, which has nabbed a number of executives from Cisco, already counts AT&T, eBay, Fidelity Investments, NTT and Rackspace as customers.

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Andreessen Horowitz-Backed Nicira Pulls The Curtains Back On Disruptive Network Virtualization Platform

Garage Sale App Rumgr Raises $500K From Zappos CEO (And Others)

Budowniczy425 — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:00:49 +0000

Three Zappos alums are trying to replicate the garage sale experience on your smartphone — and their startup Rumgr just raised a $500,000 seed round from a group of investors that includes Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. Co-founder Dylan Bathurst says the basic idea came from his own attempts at selling furniture before a move. When users open the app, they’re presented with a list of goods that people nearby are offering for sale. If they see something they like, there’s a public chat associated with each item, where they can ask the owner questions. And if you’re ready to make a purchase, you can negotiate the price, then go to a private chat to work out the hand-off details. An early version of Rumgr is already live, but the startup is launching an update today that includes a separate screen for making offers, a map of nearby sales, and new tabs for tracking what you want to buy and sell. (It’s currently iPhone-only.) Now that Bathurst and his team are actually launching a company, they’ve discovered that there are, in fact, other garage sale-type services out there — and of course there’s always Craigslist. The difference, says co-founder Ray Morgan, is that Rumgr wants to fundamentally reinvent the experience for a new device. “We’re not trying to replicate Craigslist on the phone,” he says. For one thing, Rumgr is trying to make the listing process as easy as possible. You just upload a photo and that’s it — no description necessary. And the app doesn’t allow users to search for a specific category, like couches or beds. It sounds like the company isn’t completely ruling out a search feature in the future, but Morgan says that’s not the point. Instead, users are supposed to stumble on random, cool stuff, just as they would at a garage sale. Bathurst and Morgan admit that it may be a challenge to attract enough people in each location for the app to be useful, but they say Rumgr can become a vibrant community with a relatively small core of engaged, connected users — which is what happened in early tests, with only 40 or so of the team’s friends and colleagues. In addition to Hsieh, Rumgr’s investors include Zappos CTO Arun Rajan, Fred Mossler, and Andrew Donner, CEO and owner of Resort Gaming Group. Following Hsieh’s vision of revitalizing downtown Las Vegas and turning it into a startup hub, Rumgr is based in Las Vegas. (After all, as former Zappos employees, Bathurst, Morgan, and their third co-founder Alex Morgan already live there.) Among the items in their office? A whiteboard purchased off Rumgr.

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Garage Sale App Rumgr Raises $500K From Zappos CEO (And Others)

Wunderkit Launches Beta For Its Wunderbar-designed Productivity Platform

admin2 — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:01:58 +0000

Berlin-based startup 6Wunderkinder has just launched their private beta for their productivity suite Wunderkit . This is an extension to their simple, yet well designed task list manager Wunderlist, which was acclaimed both by early adopters and users. With Wunderkit the startup is now taking a next step. They’ve stuck to the user experience that, while beautifully crafted on the one hand is surely tricky to get used to, and have taken their core task manager several steps further by wrapping a fully fledged social network around it. Whereas RememberTheMilk had been their primary competitor until now, the company is now directly competing with full virtual workspace apps such as Podio or Asana , all of them trying to re-invent peoples’ work and organize their private and professional lives.

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Wunderkit Launches Beta For Its Wunderbar-designed Productivity Platform

Best Overall Startup Dropbox Looks To The Future

Budowniczy425 — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:00:13 +0000

Dropbox took home two of the big awards at this year’s Crunchies : Best Cloud Service and Best Overall Startup. Both times, CEO Drew Houston came backstage to talk about the company’s growth and its future. When asked about what he’s planning for 2012, Houston offered some very broad thoughts, saying that “one of the most exciting things that’s happened” recently is the explosion of devices that people can use to access Dropbox from. When he looks to the future, he says one of his big goals is to move further in that direction, unifying the experience across those devices. “Really, today people might think of us as something they put on their computer or their phone but really what we’re trying to do is build is this fabric that ties together everything that you use and simplifies your life,” Houston said. You can watch video of Houston’s interview after his big victory below.

And The Crunchie Goes To…Pinterest, Best New Startup Of 2011

Achilles — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:11:41 +0000

Online pinboard Pinterest , the hot new startup that’s growing at a phenomenal rate , won the Crunchie for the Best New Startup of 2011 at this year’s Crunchies. (This, despite the fact that it actually launched in 2010). The reason? Crazy, crazy traffic and growth. In November, the site had reportedly seen a 2,000% increase in pageviews, according to comScore. That wasn’t year-over-year growth, mind you, but the increase Pinterest had seen since June . At 421 million pageviews, the site had already surpassed more established players, like Etsy, for example. But co-founder Ben Silbermann stayed tight-lipped on the hard metrics behind Pinterest. In an interview backstage after the win, he declined to provide the number of users or even the number of pins. (There were “a lot,” he demurred.) However, Silbermann did attribute Pinterest’s success, in part, to its design and ability to connect people with each other. “Pinterest is a visual site, and a lot of people are visual by nature,” he explains. “But at its core, Pinterest is a site that connects people who are passionate about the same things. In the same way that people who use Facebook are excited to connect with people they care about, people on Pinterest are excited to be inspired by people with similar tastes.” (For what it’s worth, I still think Pinterest could have easily won Best Timesink, too, had it made the cut!)

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And The Crunchie Goes To…Pinterest, Best New Startup Of 2011

Jack Dorsey Defends Twitter’s Tweet-Level Censorship

ACMAir — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:42:46 +0000

After Twitter creator, executive chairman, and product lead Jack Dorsey accepted the company’s award for Biggest Social Impact at the Crunchies, TechCrunch’s Alexia Tsotsis asked him about a recent, controversial decision to block individual tweets on a country-by-country basis . Will that hurt Twitter’s ability to make a positive impact on the future? “Absolutely not,” Dorsey said. “It actually censors less.” That’s because the only alternative would be “global” censorship of the entire site in certain countries, he said. He also said it allows Twitter to be transparent when an individual tweet has been hidden. Dorsey also talked more generally about Twitter’s impact, agreeing with Alexia that its real power comes in its ability to handle a range of communication, whether it’s daily life, personal struggles, or broad political issues. “That range is really, really hard to do for most technologies,” he said. Dorsey had to do a second interview when he won for best founder, covering his roles at both Twitter and Square (where he’s founder and CEO). Asked to choose between the two companies Dorsey said it will be like choosing between two members of the family. And when Alexia jokingly repeated the common belief that to accomplish what he does, Dorsey must not sleep, he laughed, “I sleep, I sleep.” How much? Four or five hours a night. You can watch the full video of Dorsey’s “social impact” interview below.

Dining Out? Mogl Grabs $10 Million For Its Gamified, Charitable Loyalty Program

jos — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:01:55 +0000

Would you like some gamification with your french fries? Well, one San Diego-based startup is willing to bet you just might. Mogl , which describes itself as not only “a party in your wallet” but also a “four letter word you can say in front of your grandma,” wants to turn you into a loyal customer at your local restaurants. Said another way, Mogl is using gamification and a bit of charity to increase engagement and the enjoyability of customer loyalty program for restaurants — all while on the go. While that may not sound thoroughly appetizing, there are several VC firms that like what Mogl is cooking. Today, the startup announced that it has raised $10 million in a series B round of financing, which brings its total to $12.4 million. The round was led by Sigma, with participation from Austin Ventures and Avalon Ventures . The startup will use the infusion of capital to aid its expansion into new markets, including San Francisco and New York, and ramp up hiring. As much as both businesses and customers can get excited about the idea behind most loyalty programs, the truth is that not many of them are particularly enjoyable to use. This is the issue that Mogl co-founder Jon Carder says that the team wanted to tackle with Mogl: Making something that their family and friend would actually use without the requisite amount of grumbling. As of now, Mogl is focused explicitly on the restaurant industry, leveraging game mechanics to offer incentives that encourage repeat visits to their eateries, including 10 percent cash back every time they eat out at participating restaurants, the ability to compete for top spots at each venue with monthly cash jackpots — to name two. Perhaps the best, or most charitable part, of Mogl’s mission is that it automatically donates a meal to Feeding America through its Meal for a Meal program every time a user spends $20 at participating restaurants. To date, the startup has donated over 26,000 meals. Another aspect of Mogl’s value proposition is that users don’t have to present coupons, loyalty cards, or scan QR codes when they’re out on the town; instead, the startup’s platform tracks credit and debit card transactions and activity so that customers pay as they normally would (with plastic) and earn rewards. Mogl’s location-based mobile apps are available for iPhone and Android and allow users to find participating restaurants nearby, track cash rewards and jackpots, as well as the number of meals they’ve donated. For restaurants, the startup offers customer analytics and ROI reporting. Since its launch in April of 2011, MOGL has partnered with 350 restaurants in Southern California and its members have earned nearly $350,000 in rewards to date. For more, check out Mogl at home here .

You Stopped SOPA. Now Let’s Startup America

A D M I N — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:55:04 +0000

Note from the editor: This is a guest post from Steve Case , the co-founder of AOL (which owns TechCrunch) and founder of Revolution. Case is the chairman of the Startup America Partnership and sits on the White House Jobs Council. In recent weeks, Americans from all walks of life came together to stop SOPA from advancing through Congress, demonstrating the power of the Internet to rally people around an important cause. In the weeks ahead, we have reason to rally again. This time, the goal is not stopping something bad, but starting something good. Specifically, ensuring that America builds on its legacy of innovation, and remains the world’s most entrepreneurial nation. Earlier today, President Obama unveiled his Startup America legislative agenda and called on Congress to pass it quickly, so he can sign it promptly. It’s a very positive first step. Let’s capitalize on this moment, and call on our elected representatives to quickly pass this legislative agenda that helps entrepreneurs start and scale the companies that can change the world while creating jobs, jumpstarting our economy, and increasing our competitiveness globally. Here’s why you should join me – now – in rallying behind the President’s proposed Startup America legislation: Young high-growth companies have created 40 million American jobs in the past three decades thirty years – and accounted for all of the net new jobs produced during that period. America’s entrepreneurial economy has been the envy of the world for decades. But other nations now recognize that entrepreneurship has been America’s secret sauce, and they are now racing to replicate it. Just as we’re seeing the globalization of manufacturing, we’re also now seeing the globalization of entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, outside of some sectors (like social media) and some regions (like Silicon Valley), America’s entrepreneurial economy is sputtering. Indeed, start-ups are down 23% since 2007. The rest of the world is accelerating, while America is slowing. But we still have time to act. Enter the President’s Startup America legislative agenda. The proposed legislation, released this morning by the White House, builds on the great work that Republicans and Democrats in the Senate and the House have initiated in recent months. Here’s a short primer on some of the measures included in the President’s Startup America legislative agenda: Crowdfunding – The legislative package will allow entrepreneurs to leverage online platforms to raise small amounts of capital from a large number of people. The benefits of creating an efficient and transparent marketplace to raise capital have been established by successful platforms such as Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, and this new legislation will extend the reach of these platforms to help fund entrepreneurial companies. IPO on ramp – Well-intentioned regulations to protect investors have contributed to a decline in IPOs. The cost and complexity of initial public offerings has resulted in fewer companies going public, and more companies being sold. Public offerings of less than $50 million were 80% of IPOs in the 1990s, but only 20% in the 2000s. Sadly, IPOs typically lead to accelerated job growth – 90% of job creation typically occurs after a company goes public – while acquisitions often lead to job-deceleration. The President is embracing the recommendations of the IPO Task Force and his Jobs Council by calling for a smart, phase-in for emerging growth companies, so that they can adjust to the most costly and complex requirements of going public. Winning the global battle for talent – America is great at attracting talented immigrants to its universities, but then forces most to leave and return to their countries – taking their educations with them, and all too often creating companies in other countries that end up competing with ours. This is a critical issue that will require more attention, but the Startup America legislative package takes a positive first step by allowing more highly-skilled immigrants to stay, build companies in the U.S., and create American jobs. Investment incentives – The proposed legislation provides a capital gains tax cut when an investment is kept in a business for at least five years, incentivizing investors to put their cash behind entrepreneurs who are focused on building lasting companies. In addition, the package adds investment incentives by raising the limit for “mini-offerings” from $5 million to $50 million and increasing the Small Business Investment Company program by $1 billion. Incentives to Encourage Growth and Reinvestment – The Startup America legislative agenda would make permanent certain tax cuts for small businesses, so that once a new firm gets up and running, it has more capital available to re-invest in growing the company. The package also includes a 10% income tax credit for new small business hires, a doubling of the tax deduction for startup expenses, and an extension of the 100 percent depreciation for property through this year. I was honored to chair the high growth enterprises subcommittee of the President’s Council on Jobs & Competitiveness. (Other members included John Doerr of KPCB and Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook.) We met with the President in October and presented a series of recommendations on steps both the private and public sector should take to improve the environment for entrepreneurs. Since then, nearly a dozen bills have been introduced in Congress. The AGREE Act was introduced by Senators Rubio (R-FL) and Coons (D-DE) and the Startup Act was introduced by Senators Warner (D-VA) and Moran (R-KS). Now, the President has stepped forward with his own proposal, the Startup America legislative agenda. I’m encouraged to see our nation’s leaders focus their attention on entrepreneurship – and issue legislative proposals that will help us innovate, grow our economy, create jobs, and strengthen our competitiveness. This is a moment. While the partisan bickering in Washington is intense, and will heat up further as we head towards the November election, we can – and must – rally the entrepreneurial community to support pro-entrepreneurship legislation. It might seem as though Washington isn’t listening, but the successful effort to stop SOPA in its track proved that we can have an impact. That was about stopping misguided legislation. This is about promoting a positive Startup Agenda that moves us in the right direction. Is it a perfect package for entrepreneurs? No, but there is no such thing as perfect legislation – and we can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. So join the cause and tweet your support with the #StartupAmerica hashtag. Now is the time to rally together and pass a Startup America legislative agenda!

Mobile Shopping App CheckPoints Rebrands As InMarket To Broaden Focus

Budowniczy425 — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:00:40 +0000

CheckPoints, a mobile shopping app that launched at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2010, is rebranding today as InMarket. CheckPoints takes a more product centric approach to its shopping app. When you walk into a store, the app will show you featured products that you can scan with the built-in barcode reader. After scanning, you’ll receive an interactive game that a marketer has made for that brand, allowing marketers to actually directly connect with consumers at the point of sale. As opposed to partnering with stores, CheckPoints focused on brands. Consumers are incentivized to scan products because it earns them “checkpoints” which can be redeemed for discounts and products once you have enough. For example, Frito-Lay has used CheckPoints to advertise a promo for their Tostitos Artisan Recipes. When consumers scan a Frito-Lay product, they will earn points and receive holiday recipe ideas and exclusive music content from Frito-Lay. Today, CheckPoints has expanded to become inMarket, a mobile network focused on reaching shoppers as they make retail purchasing decisions. The CheckPoints rewards app will be one of the shopping apps included in the InMarket network, and inMarket’s new SDK developer platform, which is set for release in coming weeks. As founder and president Todd Dipaola explains, InMarket’s goal is to become the go-to platform for developers and advertisers to reach mobile-enabled shoppers. A number of app developers are using InMarket already to gain reach, including ShopSavvy. Dipaola says the inMarket Shopper Network currently has the capability to reach over 20 million consumers across multiple channels and says that purchase intent has increased by up to 400% by engaging with a shopper via mobile technologies while holding a product. “Mobile is the most powerful in the commerce cycle when consumers are making purchasing decision,” says Dipaola. Basically, InMarket provides brands with “pay-per-click” advertising in the physical retail setting. Advertisers can target a particular chain, a region, or even an individual store. And the platform gives developers the ability to integrate an SDK to integrate product incentives into shopping apps. “The loyalty app itself is not whole enchilada of mobile shopping,” says Dipaola,”Expanding beyond to additional apps that help shoppers do what they want to do in stores and at home will help advertisers expand brands beyond a single app.” Currently, InMarket is cash flow positive, and not looking to raise any additional funds at the moment. Dipaola says that in the coming year, the startup will be looking at a number of acquisitions.

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Mobile Shopping App CheckPoints Rebrands As InMarket To Broaden Focus