On the heels of Homejoy’s failure, the fundamental “on-demand marketplace” model has come into question by investors, the media and even consumers. That questioning is very relevant, as there has been an overload of VC money that has been injected in the on-demand service platform space over the past few years ($4 billion-plus in 2014). Read More
The FDA is currently considering clinical trials for a drug that would delay aging. The idea of extending human longevity is a controversial one, with some arguing for immortality and others arguing that a lifespan into the mid-70s is perfectly adequate. So is the drug good or bad? As an investor in science and technology, this is a non-trivial question for me. Read More
Yahoo just announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire style-focused community Polyvore. In a blog post about the deal, Yahoo’s senior vice president of publisher products Simon Khalaf highlighted “Polyvore’s expertise on community-driven experiences and retailer-supported commerce” and wrote that the deal “will accelerate Yahoo’s digital… Read More
We’ve been promised a flying car for as long as I can remember. From The Jetsons to Back To The Future, we’ve been sold this dream for years and years. Owning something that starts out on the ground and ends up flying through the air is something I want to experience before I kick the bucket. Read More
August is nearly upon us, which means news is slowing. But that hasn’t stopped car companies from racing away with the news, including Tesla’s introduction of Ludicrous Mode (which we haven’t stopped talking about), and the old Top Gear crew signing with Amazon for a new show. Meanwhile, Microsoft launched Windows 10, and Razer bought OUYA out in an all-cash deal. This… Read More
Launching out of the Summer 2015 Y Combinator batch, Locent is an e-commerce platform powered entirely by text messages. One of the biggest challenges for online retailers is shepherding customers through a lengthy checkout process. By providing businesses with a custom, text-enabled phone number, Locent turns the checkout process into just a text message. Here’s how retailers use the… Read More
Partner programs can be a big source of revenue — for example, channel sales account for 80 percent of Cisco’s revenue. Now a startup called GrowSumo is working to make those programs easier to manage, particularly for businesses that don’t have Cisco’s resources. GrowSumo is part of the current batch of startups at incubator Y Combinator. Co-founder Bryn Jones told me… Read More
As part of Y Combinator’s push into computational biology and bioinformatics, the early-stage firm is backing a team that used to work on the Human Genome Project and is now experimenting with RNA testing through a startup called Cofactor Genomics. They argue RNA, which is the intermediate step between a person’s DNA and the proteins their bodies make, is a much more accurate… Read More
Kim Dotcom revealed in an interview on Slashdot that he is no longer involved with Mega — he isn’t working for the company anymore, but he also doesn’t own any share of Mega. Dotcom also said that you shouldn’t trust Mega to host sensitive files anymore, and that he is planning to build yet another file storage service in the coming months. Read More
Susan Kare, an early Apple designer behind some of the company’s early typefaces and icons, has joined Pinterest. She’ll be part of Pinterest’s creative team as a product design lead, according to the company. Kare designed many of Apple’s famous original icons, like the Lasso and Paint Bucket, and worked for Steve Jobs at NeXT as creative director. She’s… Read More
In rural West Africa, 150 million people are currently living without electricity. Oolu, a Y Combinator company launching today, aims to reduce this number by delivering affordable solar energy to West Africa’s off-grid population, beginning in Senegal. Despite the surge of innovation in solar storage and panel technology, Oolu founder Daniel Rosa says that many people living in… Read More
Saida, an app that helps people get approved for short-term loans based on their activity on their phones, launched out of Y Combinator today. Saida can see how a person, for example, uses their prepaid cellphone plan, such as how often they recharge that plan and what proportion of the plan is spent on data services, voice or text messaging. Users give Saida some information that helps… Read More
When it comes to regulating bitcoin companies, it’s still mostly a work in progress. Some governments want to restrict bitcoin quite a lot, while others are adopting a more favorable stance. The U.K. has been the financial hub of Europe for decades now, and it looks like it plans to do the same thing with bitcoin. British Prime Minister David Cameron is currently wrapping up his first… Read More
Klarismo, which takes existing MRIs and other kinds of body scans to build a 3D model of a person, has raised $2.1 million and launched out of Y Combinator. Klarismo is an online service where users are able to take a much deeper look at their body’s internal structure. It takes MRI scans and other kinds of scans that people are getting already and then uses that to build a 3D model of… Read More
Designed for pet-loving households, DogSync (a recent winner of our patent-pending TC Radio pitch-off) is a task manager that helps families communicate and sync tasks like feeding, walking, or letting out Fido. So how do you sync real-life events like walking your dog? The basic premise behind DogSync is that while extremely lovable, pets require a lot of care. This can get complicated… Read More
NewSchools Venture Fund, a venture philanthropy organization that has backed more than 400 charter schools and educational technology for more than 15 years, has just opened a new startup accelerator with an initial focus on science. They’re offering $1.5 million in grants, and their first project is a Science Learning Challenge. That’s for companies and nonprofits that are… Read More
Everlane, the fashion shopping site focused on selling high-quality apparel at lower prices than traditional designer retail, has today made the move to mobile. The company has now launched its first native smartphone application with the launch of Everlane on iOS, which allows shoppers to browse and buy its luxury items right from their phone. However, the app has a couple of interesting… Read More
Launching out of the latest YC class, Ironclad is an automated service to help companies draft, organize, and execute common legal paperwork. Expensive legal bills are often an unwelcome reality for young startups. Lawyers charge hundreds of dollars an hour, but are often a company’s only option for correctly preparing things like financial documents and sales contracts.… Read More
SimpleCitizen is launching today to make applying for a green card as simple as doing your taxes. Every year, 1.4 million people who have entered the U.S. for work, study or travel, apply for a green card, according to founder and CEO Sam Stoddard. Read More
PicMonkey, a Seattle-based photo editing web app just secured a $41 million growth equity investment from Spectrum Equity. This is the three-year-old company’s first ever round of outside funding, the site has bootstrapped its way into profitability. Read More
Though some adults still feel awkward about having conversations with their smartphone’s mobile assistant, like Siri, kids today seem to have no qualms about chattering with our virtual helpers. My daughter, for example, thinks of Siri as just another of iPad’s toys. She also regularly instructs me to “ask Google” for the answer, and hits up our smart speaker… Read More
Diversity is a hot-button issue, and an issue that many tech companies can’t seem to figure out how to solve. That’s where Paradigm comes in. Paradigm works with fast-growing companies like Slack and Pinterest to help them identify where the biggest barriers to diversity are coming into play, Paradigm Founder and CEO Joelle Emerson tells me. It does this through both quantitative… Read More
Captain401, a service that helps small businesses set up a 401k, is launching out of Y Combinator today. The goal of Captain401 is basically to make managing 401ks as simple as other services have done for other functions within companies — and in a more digitally focused manner like Zenefits or Zenpayroll. Captain401 seeks to create a process that avoids funds that have higher fees and… Read More
Sales workflow startup PersistIQ has raised $1.7 million in seed funding. This is one of those stories where the startup says it raised the money months ago, got busy and only decided to announce the news now. Investors in the seed round include Point Nine, Salesforce Ventures, Y Combinator and undisclosed angels. (PersistIQ was incubated last year at Y Combinator.) Read More
UberPOP wasn’t the only victim of the recent taxi protests in France. Other ride-sharing companies Djump and Heetch were affected as well. While it’s still unclear what’s going to happen with Heetch, Djump will be joining French transportation company Chauffeur-Privé. Read More
