The Startupist

"Jason always says he runs Bradford’s company. Fab would not exist with just one of us. The left and..."

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 11:19:07 -0500

“Jason always says he runs Bradford’s company. Fab would not exist with just one of us. The left and right brain, the analytical and emotional decision maker, the skilled CEO and loud creative. We’re a perfect pair.”

- Hypebeast Trade: Bradford Shane Shellhammer – Co-founder/Chief Creative Officer of Fab.com | Hypebeast (via betashop)

This is why I like Tumblr. They take something trivial, offer it...

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:40:00 -0500

This is why I like Tumblr. They take something trivial, offer it for a trivial price, and make you feel anything but trivial when you use it. At the risk of letting my innr Tumblr fanboy loose, here are a few thoughts why highlighted posts make Tumblr coolr (as it turns out, losing the “e” at the end of “-er” suffixed words is fun).

The absence of promoted tumblogs in the directory is a testament to Tumblr’s continuous experimentation. While it is difficult to gauge what Tumblr stands to gain (monetarily) for the highlighted post experiment, it at the least results in a renewed interest in Tumblr from the press and from users looking for shiny new buttons to press.

The price point of $1 encourages users to experiment too. Thanks in no small part to mainstream adoption of the app economy, consumers are conditioned to paying $1 for an app, a song, or a ringtone. Although it is maybe more difficult to measure, I would posit that paying for apps has perhaps made people somewhat more likely to pay for other small digital goods (I guess Mark Pincus is as much to thank as Steve Jobs on this one…). For $1, a lot of users will at least try a highlighted post for the thrill. Also, well all know that brands cannot help themselves enough when it comes to taking advantage of all the bells and whistles of the webinet - so, don’t be surprised when every post from your fave brand tumblrs has a kitschy button next to it…

Most important of all, highlighted posts allow super-fan users to actually support the company financially. I am in the middle of writing a list of companies/apps I wish I could pay for. Tumblr is near the top. I like it a lot, to the point where I think it is worth my money. Opening up a simple feature like this allows anyone like me to toss a few washingtons their way. Other beautiful apps like Path have built in “premium” features for those willing to support the company - and it is nice to see Tumblr. While this little feature doesn’t necessarily address the constant whining about a “business model”, it at least allows users to show Tumblr that they value the platform enough to throw a few dollars their way.

So, that’s all some good speculation and conjecture, but here is the real killer: Tumblr has unabashedly used their popularity and dashboard platform to solicit donations for specific causes (Red Cross/Japan, etc.). Tumblr continues to leverage their user base to support the cause, allowing them to simply donate an extra $1 to the Red Cross while they are hilighting their post.

I’m done now. Bye.

staff:

Introducing: Highlighted Posts

Every now and then, a post comes along that’s meant for big things. It could be pulling the wraps off your new project, promoting your next show, raising awareness for a cause, or just sharing a truly incredible photo.

Today you’ll have a new option to Highlight those extra-important posts. For one dollar, your post will stand out in the Dashboard with a customizable sticker to make sure your followers take notice!

3 Things to do Right Now.

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:04:55 -0500

1) Stop reading about how much a few people’s net worth will increase in a few months when Zuck is in NYC ringing the opening bell on Wall St.

2) Subscribe to my newest newsletter FundList, where I break down any notable funding rounds that took place of the course of the week. It comes on Saturdays (so does DealList, but… FundList is better). Also, look forward to a new BetaList email soon! Too many lists? Probably. I am having an extremely difficult time trying to scale my fingers. That sounds weird, and disgusting.

3) Enjoy your evening. I already did, and then I wrote this.

STUFF COMING SOON is the gist of it.

Goodsie Blog: New Feature: Store Embeds

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:50:32 -0500

Goodsie Blog: New Feature: Store Embeds:

A smart/super-appealing move from Goodsie, esp. for you Tumblring/fashionistic purveyors of handmade or vintage goods.

goodsie:

Today we are pleased to release an embed system for Goodsie which makes it easy to integrate a Goodsie storefront into almost any external site, like a Tumblr blog or Wordpress site!

Embed dimensions, product sizes, colors and backgrounds can all be customized to ensure a seamless fit and…

3 Things.

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:54:08 -0500

1) If you read this, and weren’t previously a subscriber to my Best in Beta newsletter, subscribe now! The newsletter is a periodic email highlighting new tech startups and web apps that are in beta testing. If you are a subscriber, you should know that I changed the name to the BetaList so that you don’t get confused when that name is in the subject line instead of Best in Beta. Why the change? In short, it made sense. Plus, the newsletter that is the word I chose for the newsletter sign-up URL … about a year ago.

2) Consider signing up for my second newsletter - DealList. It is a weekly list of notable acquisitions in the tech/startup space. Often times, acquisition announcements really only hit the press in the form of a standard press release. So, instead of wasting your time reading a PR firm’s form letter - just crank up your email on Saturday morning and you’ll know all about the acquisitions that mattered in around 90 seconds.

3) Consider signing up for my third newsletter (too ambitious?) - FundList. It’s like DealList, but it lists notable startups/early stage tech companies that have received funding in the past week - as well as any investors involved in the round.

In short, you give me 3 minutes of your Saturday morning - I’ll give you the world. No. I’ll just give you some information that you want to know. Otherwise you would not have signed up in the first place.

XOXO.

Discovering Art(.sy)

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:47:47 -0500

One of the driving forces of the internet has been discovery. Yahoo is credited with being one of the primary discovery engines of the web while it was still in diapers. Discovery evolved from a curated page of links, to search with the invention of the search engine. As the internet evolved into it’s interactive age, discover occurred on a social level, and in the current age of handled computing (read: smartphones) discovery is happening in a much more personalized way.

Joining the society of other discovery engines, is Art.sy - the much anticipated NY-based startup founded by Carter Cleveland just over 3 years ago. Led be Cleveland, funded by the likes of Jack Dorsey, Eric Schmidt, Charlie Cheever, and Peter Thiel, and advised by global art and discovery leaders Larry Gagosian (Gagosian Galleries) and Joe Kennedy (Pandora), Art.sy, on paper, seems well positioned for success.¹

The art discovery startup debuted at TechCrunch Disrupt NY in the Spring of 2010, showcasing as a sort of new art marketplace. Art.sy has since shifted their focus, and is now, at it’s core, an art database displaying its contents in a simply searchable gallery.

In much the same way that Pandora analyzes song structure, patterns, and influences to create the music genome, Art.sy analyzes works of art for hundreds of different characteristics in an effort to create the art genome.

After waiting for over a year, I finally received my Art.sy invite today. In the case that you have not received your invite yet or have not requested one, I took the liberty to post a few screen grabs below.

Here, we have the home page showing you works currently on display.

Use the search box at the top of the site, or use the characteristics in the footer to find art based on any number of characteristics/specific criteria.

Next, we have the individual piece page. View the work in detail, find out whether it is for sale (at which point, Art.sy will put you in communication with the artist/gallery). You can also save the work to your own digital collection (like a Pinterest for the sophisticate). Finally, you can follow the artist to be alerted when new work is uploaded for viewing/sale.

Art.sy is sort of amalgamation of Pinterest and Pandora for the art sophisticate. It brings together the best of these applications, and introduces the tradition of art museums, galleries, and brokerages to create a unique, elegant, and obviously artistic experience.

1: http://www.crunchbase.com/company/art-sy

Kickstarter in 2011.

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:33:17 -0500

Kickstarter in 2011.:

See previous commentary and statistics.

Of note: It would seem that, with products like Twine, PadPivot, etc. getting so much media attention and widespread praise for the amount of cheddar they were able to raise for their respective projects, the Design category would be the one that grabbed the most cashflow. While it did grab the title for most popular rewards, it was actually the Film ($32mm) and Music ($19mm) categories that netted the most $$$$ for the projects.

Fistbumps and Sidehugs.

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:19:13 -0500

Fistbumps and Sidehugs.

Pinterest is Blowing Up.

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:33:43 -0500

Pinterest is Blowing Up.:

Traffic is up 40x in the past 6 months, according to the latest data from Experian. That’s cool for Pinterest, but I’m not sure I completely get the Pinterest hype.

Maybe it’s because I have been using Fancy for quite a while now. I have to give Pinterest some credit though. They identified one of the things people loved about Tumblr, that is collecting images/inspiration, and did a better job of making it categorical and findable. The “interest wall” is quickly becoming a “must have” for many other social startups. Lockerz and Quora both recently announced the ability to “pin” photos or text to a personal categorized stream.

While I’m not into it personally, I do think that Pinterest, and the larger trend of categorizing interests and inspiration, will hold a prominent place in the future of media and distribution.

The top search terms of 2011 courtesy of Experian Hitwise. Do...

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 10:39:08 -0500

The top search terms of 2011 courtesy of Experian Hitwise. Do people just not know how to use the address bar? This blows my mind…

via tc

fastcompany: You could probably stand to be a little nicer on...

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 09:13:55 -0500

fastcompany:

You could probably stand to be a little nicer on social media. Charity Swearbox fines you every time you use an obscenity in your Twitter feed, so that your dirty mouth can feed kids in Africa.

Charity Swearbox: Turning Twitter Profanity into Famine Relief

Following yesterday’s MetroChange feature, another smart/easy way to turn everyday action (and profanity) into dollars for charity.

New machines donate your leftover metrocard change to...

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:32:00 -0500

New machines donate your leftover metrocard change to charity.

The idea of donating forgotten change to charity is as old as the money eating couch, yet I am continually impressed by how people are finding new sources of “lost money” to put to work for charities that need it.

via BetaBeat

...and we're back.

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:45:46 -0500

I mean I’m back, with you.

I spent a minute or two thinking about deleting TheStartupist, and letting it fall off the face of the earth. And then I decided that I just like following the space too much.

So here’s the plan for the revamped TheStartupist: I’m going to play the part of dj, and spin stories that I find interesting, relevant, and important - along with a short take. Some reasoning below:

Breaking news is covered. If TC, SAI, AllThingsD, et al have breaking news on lock. I don’t have the time, or the desire, to break news - so I’m not even going to pretend to try.
There are two prevailing voices in the tech/startup space. Boring/Unopinionated and Inflammatory/Sensationalist. I miss the f*** off attitude of TC, I think Venturebeat, RWW, and the institutional tech press (AllThingsD) are boring and mostly unopinionated, I think TheNextWeb covers too much stuff that just doesn’t matter, and I think SAI is thin on news and hell-bent on raising the world’s collective blood pressure. I deeply enjoy reading SplatF and BetaBeat - a good balance of opinion, data, analysis, and the occasional long-form read.

I expect TheStartupist to function more as a way for me too bookmark and record my take on tech/startup news, than as a way for you fulfill your insatiable desire to waste time reading things on the internet. In any case, if you want to keep up with news that actually matters, startups that are actually building good, sustainable, (and cool) businesses, and save a little of your time by not reading most of the textual drivel (like this) then TheStartupist might be your new friend.

That is all. Hopefully no future post will ever be this long again. Bye.

Obscura: The Instagram for Censorship

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 22:55:00 -0400

In the case that you, or your mother, have not already shared every last personal detail of your life on the Facebook already, please be informed that it will happen - nudie pics and all.

Released at the end of August and available for both Android and iPhone, the Obscura Cam app, in much the same way as Instagram makes it easy to add visual effects to your photos, allows users to easily obscure and censor their photos with the cliche black box, the anonymous blur, or the ever-pixelated kaleidoscope effects.

Where in the past your mother would have gotten a swift boot from the Facebook for posting those naked baby photos of you, she can now feel free to expose the smooth skin that once belonged to you without having to risk membership to the club that affords her both continual access to her friends as well as her virtual farm.

Seriousness aside, Obscura is a cool app. I’m not sure I would play it off as a way to “legally” share digital versions of a less clothed self in the way that other reviewers have done. Rather, this app seems to be just another weapon in the citizen journalists arsenal so that they can observe, snap, and safely report recent sitings of the neighborhood streaker. Additionally, celebrities, athletes, and politicians may prefer to use the app preemptively - so that, when their nakie pics leak to the press all of the difficult censorship work is done. Just a thought, is all…

Movenbank: Phase 1.

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 22:56:15 -0400

You may remember my overall negative pre-impression of Movenbank, the self proclaimed next generation bank that is looking to create a revolutionary new bank with no paper, no plastic, and no hidden fees. Well, the startup debuted in alpha mode at the beginning of the month. I received my alpha invite two days ago. Here’s an inside look at phase 1.

It all started with a series of 40 questions designed to gauge my personal spending habits, saving habits, and my overall views on money and personal financial management. The questions are fairly repetitive, with at least 5 of them asking me in one way or another how I view/react to impulse purchases.

It all ended with the results of the survey. Based on the answers given to the 40 questions, Movenbank groups their users into 1 of 9 classes. I spend quite a bit of time and energy analyzing my money and allocating it, which is obviously reflected in my classification as an “Accountant” in the table below.

Also, I received a badge! Gamified banks are fun!

That’s about as far as the alpha goes at this point. Take a survey, and they tell you what your “financial personality” is. Cool. I couldn’t help but ask myself what was next. Luckily, Movenbank anticipated that question, and had an answer ready.

So, before we get to get all Bank 3.0 up this this interweb, it looks like we’ll have some sort of Mint with game mechanics. Admittedly, I don’t have high hopes or opinions about Movenbank at this point. I will reiterate, as I said in the previous Movenbank post, that I want them to prove me wrong. I love banking, and am excited to see what they put out - whether or not I think it will ultimately be successful.

Shopify Adds Stripe Support.

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 10:21:55 -0400

From the Shopify Blog:

…we’re proud to announce support for accepting payments on your Shopify store through Stripe! Stripe handles the full stack of payment processing without requiring you to have a merchant account or gateway; all you need is a bank account with one of their supported banks.

This amounts to a huge win for both current Shopify store owners and those looking to open their own online store. Shopify is among the easiest ways to start and maintain a good-looking and user-friendly online store. Using Stripe, the hottt new payments startup, most Shopify store owners will save money as they will finally be able to tell their current merchant account, credit card gateway providers, and their monthly fees to pound sand.

Getting started with Shopify costs as little as $30/mo. with a 30-day free trial. Stripe carries no monthly fees and charges a flat 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. Using Shopify + Stripe, you could realistically and easily start a pro-looking online store for just the cost of a domain name.

Kickstarter, 1,000,000 Backers Later...

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Last week a woman named Rachel Perrie pledged to a film project called Cargo. At that moment she became the millionth person to have ever backed a Kickstarter project… …Kickstarter backers have now pledged more than $100 million to projects. To put this in some context, the 2011 fiscal year budget for the National Endowment for the Arts is $154 million. At the current pace of more than $2 million in pledges each week, Kickstarter backers are pledging more than $100 million a year.

Kickstarter’s growth has exploded over the past year. More designers, producers, musicians, photographers, and artists of all other types are getting funded than ever before - to the tune of a projected$100,000,000+ per year. Where organizations like the NEA cannot fund every great creative project, Kickstarter has stepped in to supplement, support, and sustain the creativity and art for future generations.

Kickstarter is not just a trendy “crowdfunding platform”. It is the new endowment for the arts created for and sustained by the people.

If This is the Future of Banking, I'm Stashing my Cash Under a Mattress.

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400

You know those startups that are going to be a super-huge success because they have a location-based-photo-sharing-social-group-deals-with-private-sales-and-game-mechanics? Yeah. It’s kind of like that.

Betabeat reported on Movenbank, a start that may, in the near future, use your Klout score and other aggregated online social data to issue you a credit line. The “bank”, founded by Brett King, seems to be a logical next step following his success with the book Bank 2.0. I should note that King, an accomplished figure in the world of finance, is brilliant and has a fairly accurate picture of how banking has changed and intriguing ideas as to what it might look like in the future (read: he is 100x smarter than I am when it comes to that stuff). However, there are a few things I find concerning about Movenbank, not the least of which is access to a credit line based on Klout, but more about that later.

The core purpose of Movenbank is to be a “third generation banking experience” with “no paper, no plastic, and no hidden fees”. Ambitious for sure, but it the premise seems reasonable enough. Then, King starts talking about what is coming up in their alpha. Initially, the startup will have no real banking features. Rather, it is described as being a “foursquare/Klout for your financial life”

-Pause. What the what? So we can check in with our money and get badges? Or, we get a Klout-style score based on our buying history? Or we can share our purchases (look how that worked out for Blippy/Swipely…) Or, maybe it’s Mint.com gone Facebook. No description of the company, from other tech sources or from the founder himself, has made any real sense. End Pause.

Now, let’s talk about this Klout stuff. Klout is a supposed measure of social influence based on activity/data on social networks and applications. It is complete nonsense. How do I know? Klout claims that I am influential about New Jersey, Coffee, and iPads. I live in the Dirty Jerz and occasionally will tweet my current location in NJ when I go out on work related visits. Other than knowing the NJ Turnpike extremely well, I know really nothing about the rest of the fine state. I have tweeted about coffee before. I like to drink it. But to say I’m influential about it is hilarious. It seems that some who is influential about the drink would be able to describe the roasting process, etc. I cannot. I can only tell you that I think it tastes good. And now, iPads… Somehow I am influential about iPads, yet I do not even own one, so… Klout is a joke. Now, let’s assume that King is completely serious about using online social profile data to determine a Movenbank user’s influences which will essentially determine their ability access a line of credit. At least with Klout, the only real thing at stake is access to free samples from Axe. To stake tangible dollars on what seems to be a relatively easily manipulable algorithm is not something I would characterize as “good business sense”.

At this point, I should reiterate that King is a very smart man with a great deal of knowledge about finance and banking. I could be very wrong about everything here. In fact, I hope I am. I hope I look like a fool when Movenbank launches, but thus far the joke seems to be on Movenbank. None if this adds up.

Once we get past the neo-socio-influential layer, we move into the actual financial guts of the Movenbank platform - the paperless, plasticless, hidden fee-less guts. Movenbank plans to utilize near field communication (NFC), presumable via mobile phones, to facilitate transactions. The recent release of Google Wallet certainly has transactions via NFC on every geek’s mind, but it seems that the general public could really care less at this point. NFC faces a massive educational curve and concerns about security from the public. A recent TechCrunch piece reports that PayPal believes NFC to be years away from serious consumer adoption, and I am inclined to agree. It looks like Movenbank is trying to go all Jetsons when all the world is really asking for is Flinstones 2.0 (i.e. BankSimple).

I did sign up for an invite. We’ll see what it’s all about when I make it to the inside.

Yes, but No: 20 Tired Startup Trends

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Business Insider’s Alyson Shontell published a signature SAI slideshow this past week cautioning entrepreneurs to think before they launch their startup, lest it fall within one of the 20 (actually 18 - see reaction number 2 below) over-played startup categories.

While I could probably write 2000 words in response by expressing disagreement with nearly every word contained in the piece, I shall be content to simply post a few of my reactions to Alyson’s “scoop”, or whatever.

Reaction 1. Ms. Shontell has identified these as “common business ideas”. The irony here is that here own “startup” is perhaps one of the most common ideas in all of online entrepreneurship - a generic apparel shop sporting t-shirts, hoodies, and yoga pants emblazoned with an all-too-clever mashword (you teacher probably called them compound words). Now I want to scream.

Reaction 2. I got a little lost in the “narrative” on the piece. The author identifies common business ideas, makes her argument as to why they should steer clear of the category, and then for two of the categories makes an argument in favor of startups entering said categories.

Reaction 3. A few of the companies are misplaced/mislabeled i.e. Pinterest in the photo-sharing category? Semantics really, but a bit more care in selection/placement goes a long way to making the piece at least believable for readers.

Reaction 4. Shontell’s prediction that each category will be ruled by one or two companies is probably correct. But declaring the category killers already is completely asinine. Is Gilt the major flash sale player in the U.S. market? Yes. But to say that it has won the category seems to be a bit premature. I am confident that Amazon’s presence in the category with MyHabit is only starting to pick up steam - and we haven’t really even seen how Vente Privee will sweep in with their “major partner”. The flash sale category is as good as won, if you completely forget what happened to MySpace when Facebook came along or Flickr when a little app called Instagram hopped on the scene.

So: Yes, it is a bit of a snooze to see an endless stream of “x” for “y” (Gilt for Soda Drinkers) pop up, but no category should be considered “won”, and no entrepreneur should back off of what they are working on because there is already a super-popular app chilling where they want to be.

Google+ may be the Fastest to 100,000,000 users, and Why it doesn't Matter.

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Bill Gross, the founder of Idealab whose portfolio includes companies Snap, UberMedia, and Aptera, predicted via Google+ that the fresh-out-the-kitchen social play would be the fastest social network to reach 100,000,000 members. Numbers released by Google during their quarterly earnings call pegged the current membership at about 10,000,000 which is not all that bad for a “limited launch” that happened just over a week ago.

Mr. Gross could be correct. In fact, I would say that you will probably see his prediction come true. However, I am not sure that his prediction was quite as bold as he thinks.

To me, making the prediction that Google+ will be the fastest to 100,000,000 users is like saying that Amazon/Quidsi’s Wag.com will be the fastest pet superstore website to 1,000,000 orders - it is a complete no-brainer. Google+, like the new Wag.com, has the luxury of being operated by a company that is already at scale. So, while Google+ may be the fastest to 100,000,000, there is something a bit more compelling and fulfilling knowing that Facebook or Twitter managed their current membership completely from scratch, facing the problem of scale all the way up.