What does it take to be a startup that raises huge sums quickly?

 Some founders toil for years to secure a meager seed round. Others seem to go from launch to a massive fundraise in no time. Why is that, and how does one get into that second group? There’s no single formula, of course. But data indicates it helps to be famous, involved in a hot technology sector or working to cure cancer. Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Liquid democracy uses blockchain to fix politics, and now you can vote for it

 Abraham Lincoln famously said that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,” but looking around these days, you would be forgiven if you thought representative democracy had already been buried alongside Washington, Jefferson, and Roosevelt. Confidence in Congress remains pitifully low, driven by perceived low ethical standards and… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

The Rite Press takes low-tech coffee making to high-tech highs

 If coffee be the food of innovation, pour on. Give me excess of it that, surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die. And if you wish to pour me coffee, do so from the Rite Press, a clever hack on the traditional French press that adds a few features that even high-end models don’t have. The press – which costs $35 for a half-liter model and $40 for the liter model – has… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Programming as craft

 Can programming be a craft? I was thinking about this as I was reading Matthew Crawford’s excellent book The World Beyond Your Head. Much like Crawford’s earlier work Shop Class as Soulcraft, he argues that craftsmanship is an activity that doesn’t just provide us with satisfaction, but also makes us fundamentally human by enchanting us with the world right around us. He… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Equity shot: Dropbox is going public, and Aaron Levie has some advice

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. At long last, after many predictions and even a private filing, Dropbox dropped its S-1 today. The filing marks the public beginning of the end of Dropbox’s life as a private company. Dropbox is going public! To mark the occasion, Katie Roof and Alex… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Can Ghostbusters copy Pokémon Go’s success with its own AR mobile game?

 You’ll soon be able to trap Ghostbusters ghosts in augmented reality à la Pokémon Go. A short demo of the game Ghostbusters World was showcased at Google’s MWC booth, highlighting functionality made possible by the public release of Google’s ARCore augmented reality platform. Details are pretty slim for a wide release date other than it’s “coming 2018”.… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Jeremy Fiance, the 26-year-old founder of House Fund, ups his VC ambitions

 A little less than two years ago, we reported on Jeremy Fiance, a then 24-year-old recent UC Berkeley graduate who’d just taken the wraps off his new firm, The House Fund. It had secured $6 million in capital commitments from an array of individual investors, many of them venture capitalists, to fund startups coming out of UC Berkeley. At the time, Fiance argued persuasively that the… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Google needs to give the AirPods better competition

 In the race for in-ear AI, Apple has the clear advantage despite the fact that their intelligent assistant is one of the dumbest of the bunch. Yesterday, reports emerged that Apple was working on a pair of follow-ups to its Airpods headphones that could bring them always-on Siri functionality as well as a splash-proof design. As we think about all the things that Apple could do right with… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Eden acquires OrgOrg, a social network for office managers

 Eden, the office management and tech support platform, has today announced the acquisition of OrgOrg, a social network for office managers to recommend, discuss, and review vendors and products. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Eden founder and CEO Joe DuBey explained to TechCrunch that a growing number of on-boarding clients said that they had originally heard about Eden from… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Public media will resurrect Gothamist, LAist and DCist

 Local news sites Gothamist, LAist and DCist are coming back from the dead. Their assets (including story archives) have been acquired by three public radio companies — WNYC in New York, KPCC in Southern California and WAMU in Washington, D.C.
According to the acquisition announcement, the deal comes after a competitive sale process, and it was funded by “generous philanthropic… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch