Erin Griffith
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We definitely don't want to keep ads. So why not make them disappear?
When Snapchat, which makes zero dollars in revenue, turned down a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook, the Internet nearly imploded. No way Snapchat can pull this off. It'll choke on its own hubris, the thinking went.
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This startup makes networking hard… but in the best way possible
For most busy professionals, a brunch with seven strangers is not high on the list of ways to spend their Saturday, let alone one that requires jumping through many hoops to do so. But now that I've experienced an Amusemi meal for myself, I can say it refreshing. It may never scale, but it is a fun twist on normal forms of networking.
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Contently raises $9 million Series B, trading acquisition talks for IPO plans
Of the 50 or so companies which graduated from TechStars New York over the past four years, Contently might be the biggest breakout hit. The company started out as a marketplace for freelance writers, but has morphed into a full-on SaaS software provider, helping Fortune 2000 brands from Pepsi to Amex commission content from freelancers and manage the process. They're riding that whole "brands as publishers" trend.
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Ecommerce in 1984: Innovation is never pretty at first
In its earliest versions, technology is never the slick, smooth-operating magic it aspires to be. That takes iteration. Sometimes the tools just aren't yet able to do what some visionary imagines they will one day be able to do. Other times people aren't yet ready for a new way to do things. Either way, it's easy to look at a new piece of technology, be it Google Glass, bitcoin, 3D printing, or Smartwigs, and dismiss it as useless, unnecessary, clunky, or not worth it.
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Markerly pivots to platform to match up bloggers with brands, adds $600K in seed funding
Ware and the Markerly team
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InstaEDU beefs up to its virtual tutoring service with screensharing
Earlier this year, when Tutorspree, a Y Combinator graduate, announced it would shut down, it seemed like the entire premise of an online tutoring startup was just a bad business idea. I wrote at the time, "If you're thinking of launching a tutoring startup, don't. It's really tough."
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Nomi continues build-out of in-store marketing tools
Of the current class of hot "omni-channel" startups, Nomi has managed to gather a lot of venture funding and press attention. (It has also managed to gather an impressive roster of 70 clients.)
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Fab Europe no more: The dramatic retreat is complete
Say what you want about Fab.com's disastrous 2013 -- and we and plenty of others have -- CEO Jason Goldberg is nothing if not ambitious. Last year the commerce company raised a whopping $150 million at a billion dollar valuation, and Goldberg vowed that Fab would become the next Amazon.