31st Jan2012

Letter from Betaworks CEO: ‘Data is the New Plastic’

by Techmeetups

Original post by Madelyn Martin via BETABEAT

And more from the state of Betaworks, as per a leaked letter to shareholders.

Mr. Borthwick. (betaworks.com)

Our apologies to evangelists of gamification and QR codes, but 2012 is all about data—at least according to New York startup non-incubator Betaworks. “We know the importance of understanding big data,” Betaworks CEO John Borthwick wrote in a confidential letter leaked to PandoDaily on Saturday. “Data is the new plastic. The network is both the frame and the metaphor we are building towards and on. This network-centric model is core to betaworks, and a key competitive advantage.”

Three of Betaworks’ most successful companies—Bitly, Chartbeat and SocialFlow—capitalize on the ever-elusive ROI of social media, attempting to quantify the impact of the “social web” in which they believe so mightily.

Data does seem to be a rapidly developing theme in 2012, as Betabeat deftly pointed out in our 2012 Tech Predictions piece. Numberfire, a data science app for fantasy sports, raised $650k in seed funding earlier this month, while Visual Revenue scored $1.7M for technology that doesn’t just report web traffic data, but predicts it.

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Category : Silicon Alley
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31st Jan2012

Venture Capital Funding in 2011:
Silicon Valley vs. Silicon Alley

by Techmeetups

Original post by Graceful via Find The Best

Venture Capital firms invested $28.4 billion into 3,673 deals last year—the third highest level in terms of dollar investments of the decade—with the majority of deals going into the software and biotechnology industries.

But exacty how did the breakdown of investments pan out when comparing tech startup hot spots Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley?

 California still leading, but New York is rising

Comparing California and New York venture investments and deals, California’s Silicon Valley continues to dominate all other geographic areas, with California-based investing almost 6.5 times that of runner up New York-based investing in terms of dollars, and almost 5 times in terms of deals.  But when comparing 2011 to 2010, VC investments in New York are rising 64.3 percent in terms of dollars and 10.2 percent in terms of deals, while investment in California is only rising 24.4 percent in terms of dollars and 5.0 percent in terms of deals.

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Category : Silicon Alley, Startups
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31st Jan2012

TEXDRIVE ANNOUNCES PARTICIPANTS AND KICKS OFF
THE FIRST ACCELERATION PROGRAMME IN MOSCOW

by Techmeetups

World’s first: a wide range of unique technologies selected

[Moscow, Russia] – January 31, 2012 – TexDrive announced the start of its first leading high-tech business acceleration programme in Eastern Europe and CIS to produce global and impactful companies from the best start-ups of the region following such examples as Yandex, IPG Photonics, Mail.ru Group, Skype, Kaspersky Labs and Badoo.

For the first programme, TexDrive has selected seven high potential projects from over 500 applicants. The programme participants cover a wide range of industries including medical, Internet, software, energy and industrial automation. The participants include:

- B-152, SaaS offering for personal data protection targeting small and medium enterprises;

- Teploxxi, provider of high efficiency heating technology based on a breakthrough principle and delivering unique benefits to the users;

- Acnol, supplier of medical gel for treating acne, offering extremely fast results and high efficacy;

- MartMania, Internet platform for trading rare and unique products;

- SystemHeat, novel polymer radiators with extraordinary energy-saving and many other unique properties.

In addition to financial investment, the participants will take part in an intensive programme of business acceleration including working with highly skilled and experienced mentors. They will also have an opportunity to prepare their projects for the next round of investment together with the best venture capital professionals and business angels from Russia, USA and Europe.

Andrey Kessel, Partner of TexDrive “We see a lot of potential in the selected projects and are working with entrepreneurs to deliver a step-change for their businesses. It’s exciting to see our vision of TexDrive being a completely unique offering in the region turning into reality. TexDrive is enjoying a very high level of interest from companies, press and general public alike. It’s not a surprise that we receive many incoming calls with offers to become mentors – where else could you be part of such a distinguished group including a number of self-made billionaires.”

Jon Bradford, Managing Director of Springboard added “I was extremely impressed by the list of participants and thoroughly enjoyed my time in Moscow during the kick-off of TexDrive’s first programme. The atmosphere in the room is highly energised; the participants are excited to be in the early stages of building high-impact world-class businesses. I could have been anywhere in the world!”

TexDrive is the first in Eastern Europe and CIS acceleration programme that is a member of the largest in the world accelerator network TechStars Network (recently renamed Global Accelerator Network). It is run in partnership with Springboard, a well-known European accelerator and is based on the proven mentorship-driven model. The programme boasts as its mentors an impressive list of over 100 known entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from 12 countries, including Russia, Europe and USA, who have built successful Russian and global high-tech companies. This list features, to name just a few, people behind such companies as IBS Group (the largest Russian system integrator), Mail.ru Group (largest mail portal in Russia, IPO on LSE in 2010), Qiwi (a widely spread payments operator service), Headhunter (the №1 CIS Internet recruitment site acquired by DST), Tobii (leader in eye tracking), Forward Internet Group (the company behind uSwitch), Openbravo (the leading open source ERP provider), practitioners from Skolkovo (Russian Silicon Valley) and others.

For further information or to schedule a briefing, please contact: Andrey Kessel, ak@texdrive.com

About TexDrive

TexDrive is a high-tech mentor-led business acceleration programme targeting CIS. TexDrive is the first in Eastern Europe and CIS member of TechStars Network, and is supported by Springboard, both well known acceleration programmes and networks. TexDrive offers a very unique proposition for hi-tech entrepreneurs of the region and boasts as its mentors an impressive list of over 100 known entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from Russia, Europe and USA, who have built successful Russian and global high-tech companies. TexDrive works with wide range of technologies. http://www.texdrive.com/eng

About the TechStars Network

The TechStars Network is a membership organization that ensures the sharing of resources and best practices between independently owned and operated mentorship-driven seed acceleration programs across the globe. Currently, the TechStars Network includes charter members in dozens of cities, including AlphaLab, Pittsburgh, PA; Arizona State University, Scottsdale, AZ; Betaspring, Providence, RI; Blueprint Health, New York, NY; BoomStartup, Salt Lake City, UT; Excelerate Labs, Chicago, IL; Founders Co-op, Seattle, WA; Incubate Miami, Miami, FL; Joyful Frog Digital Incubator; Singapore; Jumpstart Foundry, Nashville, TN; LaunchPad Ignition, New Orleans, LA; Ryan Academy Propeller Seed Accelerator Program, Dublin, Ireland; Springboard, Cambridge, UK; Startupbootcamp, Copenhagen, Denmark and Madrid, Spain; TechStars Boston, MA, New York, NY, Boulder, CO and Seattle, WA; Tech Wildcatters, Dallas, TX; The Brandery, Cincinnati, OH; The Elevator, Tel Aviv, Israel. The TechStars Network is quickly expanding its membership. For more information, visit http://www.techstars.org/network.

About the Springboard

Springboard is one of Europe’s premier acceleration programmes and is based in Cambridge and London. Springboard combines a full time 13 week bootcamp programme with pre-seed equity investment. The programme is funded by NESTA and Angel Investors.

Category : News
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30th Jan2012

ALLEY VS VALLEY:
NEW YORK TRIES TO ATTRACT TECH INNOVATORS

by Techmeetups

Original post by ARTEMIA

Not so long ago entrepreneurs with great ideas for tech startups had only one option if they really wanted their venture to take off: head to Silicon Valley. It was where all the venture capitalists, angel investors and engineering talent were located. Recently, though, options have opened up a little.

New York City, with all its cachet and global influence, is looking to become an option for the current explosion of tech startups. With major tech giants such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Zynga and even eBay opening offices in New York, the Manhattan tech scene is definitely on the rise. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a speech back in July, “Our ultimate goal is reclaiming our title as the world capital of technological innovation.”

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Category : Silicon Alley, Startups
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30th Jan2012

Turing Fellowship works to fill
New York’s engineering pipeline

by Techmeetups

Original post by  via GIGAOM

New York’s got an abundance of almost everything, but engineers are increasingly a precious commodity. But the NYC Turing Fellows Program is revving up in its second year to really take on the problem and start feeding more tech talent to the exploding startup scene.

The Turing Fellows Program last summer placed 19 college interns out of 750 applicants at New York startups including Tumblr, Foursquare and others. Now, the paid internship program is expanding, and will place around 25 to 30 engineering, mathematics or computer science students at startups this summer. The application process, which quietly began earlier this month closes on Feb. 6.

The program is co-organized by Canaan Partners, FirstMark Capital, Tribeca Venture Partners and First Round Capital. This year’s crop of startups include Etsy, Second Market, BuzzFeed, Blip and many others. Other supporting partners include Amazon, SV Angel, David Tisch of New York TechStars, Silicon Valley Bank, and Esther Dyson, along with the New York City Economic Development Corp. and the New York City Investment Fund.

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Category : Silicon Alley, Startups
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30th Jan2012

With the help of OpenBrand,
is in-house branding killing the big agencies?

by Techmeetups

Original post by Vanessa Zainzinger via TechCrunch

Every status has its symbol, says an advertising slogan. When starting a business, creating this symbol is part of the foundation. Yet, as essential a part of their identity as it is, most companies leave their branding in the hands of design agencies instead of keeping the process internal.

Doesn’t sound ideal? A small team of entrepreneurs in Prague think it does not. In response they developed OpenBrand, a brand building platform they dream will soon become the industry standard.

Think of OpenBrand as the Google docs of branding. It provides businesses with a private space for their branding and marketing management, based on a set of smart tools guiding the user through the branding process.

While the designer follows their creative musings, their clients keep an overview of the branding process and are invited to take part in it. “We’re helping [designer and client] to cooperate. We are actually educating the brand owner and say, here, this is how the design process works,” OpenBrand co-founder Mirek Burkon told me.

Once the brand identity standards have been designed and uploaded – logo, corporate colours, video, sound, graphics, tagline – the platform provides tutorials and tools to tweak them and apply each to branding-related product. Merchandising, advertising, corporate letterheads to name examples.

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Category : London Silicon Roundabout, Startups
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28th Jan2012

Venture Capital Shifts Downtown

by Techmeetups

Original post by RICHARD FLORIDA via the Atlantic Cities

The past several years have seen something of a subtle shift from the traditional “nerdistan” industrial park model of high-tech development to a more urban cast. The growing number of startups and high-tech companies in downtown San Francisco and New  York, even London’s so-called Silicon Roundabout, are examples of this shift.

The Route 128 area in Boston’s suburbs has long been deemed the world’s second leading center for high-tech companies and start-ups. Now the shift to “urban tech” appears to be happening there, too.

According to a report in the Boston Business Journal, the city of Boston has caught up with its surrounding suburbs in attracting venture capital. The story reports data from CB Insights, which finds that companies within the city limits raised almost $600 million in 59 venture.

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Category : London Silicon Roundabout
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28th Jan2012

Gillibrand uses Facebook in retreat

by Techmeetups

Original post by REBECCA MELNITSKY via timesunion.com

ALBANY — U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand responded to concerns about the controversial Protect IP Act, a bill she co-sponsored, in an especially appropriate manner: on Facebook.

The measure would prosecute websites that “engage in, enable, or facilitate” copyright infringement. Facebook is one of many popular sites that have come out against PIPA and its House version, the Stop Online Piracy Act. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently weighed in by writing, “We can’t let poorly thought-out laws get in the way of the Internet’s development.”

In her posting Wednesday, Gillibrand struck a conciliatory tone: “Thank you for all your messages regarding Protect IP,” wrote the Democrat. “I agree there are real concerns with the current legislation & I’m working to make important changes to the bill. We must work to strike a balance between ending online piracy to protect New York jobs & ensuring Internet freedom so our tech community can continue to flourish.”

The majority of the 560 comments on Gillbrand’s status update were critical of the bill. “It’s not just that this is an oppressive law which will actually hurt online growth,” wrote Steve Manes, “the technical remedies underpinning it were apparently written by people who apparently have little practical knowledge of how the Internet actually works.”

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Category : Silicon Alley, Startup Jobs
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27th Jan2012

An Insider’s Take On Why Silicon Alley Completely Rocks Silicon Valley

by Techmeetups

Original post by Matt Lynley via BusinessInsider

It’s been a little more than three months since I moved from Silicon Valley to Silicon Alley.

I lived in the valley for more than a year and a half, and I don’t want to go back.

Here are just a couple observations I’ve seen that make New York, and Silicon Alley, different — and better — than San Francisco and Silicon Valley:

  • San Francisco, at times, is snooty and pretentious: If you aren’t among the elite in Google, Twitter or Facebook or the likes, then you’re a step below everyone else. It’s great to stroke the egos of your engineers like Google does, but the end result is a sense of superiority among many of the tech intelligentsia. It’s definitely not everyone, but the vibe is there.
  • The talent pool in New York is diverse: In San Francisco, you’ll find a bevvy of engineering talents that everyone is vying to acquire. Recruiting can be tenuous and if you’re a top engineer you have to be constantly aware of potential poaching offers. But that’s just for the engineers — in New York, there’s a massive collection of engineers, designers, ad ops and just about every other position.
  • There’s an “all in this together” mentality out here: New York is the underdog in tech, but that has a positive effect on the vibe out here. Everyone is essentially trying to make sure other companies succeed in order to keep talent in New York and attract new talent. As a result, there’s still plenty of competition, but it isn’t caustic or agonizing.

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Category : Silicon Alley
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27th Jan2012

Why Wall Street’s Loss Is New York’s Gain

by Techmeetups

Original post by  via Huff Post 

A flower has grown from the ashes of New York’s financial industry meltdown. That flower is the innovation economy of New York — and it’s here to stay.

Here’s why: Brain drain. For many years we have heard of brain drains. Over the past few decades, the best minds from around the world came to America from abroad seeking opportunities. The goal was simple: change the professional trajectory for themselves and their families.

Over the past few years, however, some of the best brains have left America to return to BRIC emerging markets — Brazil, Russia, India and China — where they have built new products and companies, inventing and adapting innovations to meet the needs of their local markets and beyond.

Now, we’re experiencing a local financial industry brain drain — one that doesn’t require entrepreneurs to cross an ocean, but just choose a new subway line.

Talent is shifting away from Wall Street to Chelsea, Flatiron, Fashion District, Midtown New York and other tech center hubs, and it’s the best thing that has happened to New York City in the two years. It’s happening both by circumstance and by choice.

Many of our country’s brightest minds, from engineers to economists, have applied their skills to reap financial gain on Wall Street. With its big entry-level salaries and promise of riches, America’s youth had built a career around trading and financial engineering to create, and in some cases, to harvest value via transactions.

While China expanded a robust manufacturing sector and India transplanted and replicated software and services innovations, America’s best and brightest were building new asset transactions and packaging and distributing risk. In essence, we as a nation have trained our best people to transact value instead of build value.

That is, until now.

Wall Street is contracting, continuing to cut its global workforce and it’s a surprising boon for the nation’s long-term prospects.

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Category : Silicon Alley, Startups
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