Tuesday, September 15, 2009

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Leaked Shareholder Docs: Meetup Hits Profitability And $9 Million In Revenues Top
Meetup , a web service that enables people to organize and manage real life get-togethers, has proven to be a popular tool that people are willing to pay for. TechCrunch has obtained a slide deck that the company used for an August 2009 shareholder update, revealing its current financial situation and past revenue forecasts. The document shows the New York-based company is performing well, having reported its first (mildly) profitable month last July. Financial results actually fell short of forecasts put forward last year, when Meetup aimed for 50% growth in both meetups and revenues by this Summer. Despite the fact that growth was actually more like 35-40% over 2008 in its main metrics, Meetup (unexpectedly) hit profitability last July on net income of $30,000. Interestingly, the company informed its investors that it wasn’t actually aiming for profitability this soon, referring to it as a ‘byproduct of hard work’, and remains cautious about predicting future profitable months. In fact, they’re clearly stating that an increase in ‘Successful Meetup Groups’ (SMUGs) has priority over revenues and profits at this point. The company’s biggest challenge right now? Hiring staff fast enough to keep up with growth. Let’s dive into the numbers. Year over year, Meetup’s cash sales went up 37.2% , from $558,576 in July 2008 to $776,495 in July this year. At an annual run rate, that means Meetup is currently clearing about $9.2 million in revenues . The number of meetup groups increased from about 19,700 groups to 27,500 in the past year, which is relevant because organizer fees make up the bulk of the company’s income. Approximately 85% of Meetup’s income comes from meetup organizers who pay for the service; the rest comes from sponsorships and on-site text advertising. Meetup still has $8 million left in the bank , having raised $20.1 million in venture capital since its 2002 Series A round. Meetup CEO Scott Heiferman had earlier confirmed some of the numbers on Twitter . Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
Facebook Launches New 'Prototypes' Section, Allows Users To Test Out Experimental Features Top
Last week we stumbled across an impressive new Facebook Desktop Notification app for Mac, which had apparently been developed by a Facebook engineer but wasn’t being officially supported by Facebook (don’t let that deter you from downloading it, as it’s fantastic). At the time, we also noticed some interesting references on the page to something called “ Facebook Prototypes “, which we speculated may have been a new project similar to Gmail Labs that would let users customize their Facebook experience using experimental new features. Turns out, we were right: Facebook has just taken the stage at TechCrunch50 and announced Facebook Prototypes — a new section of downloadable applications and on-site features that were developed by Facebook engineers as side projects. You’ll be able to browse the Prototypes here , though it appears they aren’t live for everyone quite yet. Facebook’s Aditya Agarwal explains that we can expect to see a variety of new apps under Prototypes, including Funny products (like Facebook’s Pirate language), and early versions of features they’re working on. He also said that we may see some features that might not appeal to everyone, but some users might enjoy. Among the prototypes presented were a new Photo Tag search, which allows users to search for photos by the people who are tagged in them. He also showed off a feature that lets you filter your News Feed by only displaying posts that have been commented on by your friends. The Prototypes feature makes sense for Facebook, which routinely runs hackathons where its developers run wild and develop new projects, some of which are eventually deployed to all users (Facebook Videos was one such project). Facebook Prototypes will give developers a chance to share these projects with anyone who wants them, even if they aren’t quite ready for prime time. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
Breaking: Adobe To Acquire Omniture For Approximately $1.8 Billion Top
Adobe Systems has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Omniture for the former to acquire the latter in a transaction valued at approximately $1.8 billion on a fully diluted equity-value basis. Under the terms of the agreement, Adobe will commence a tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding common stock of Omniture for $21.50 per share in cash. The proposed offer represents a premium of 45% over Omniture’s average closing price for the last 30 trading days through yesterday’s close. The completion of the transaction, pending regulatory approval, is expected to close in Q4 of Adobe’s fiscal year. The company believes the acquisition will be accretive to its non-GAAP earnings in fiscal year 2010. Omniture will become a new business unit within Adobe. Omniture’s CEO, Josh James , will be joining Adobe Systems as the unit’s Senior VP, reporting directly to Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen . At the same time, Adobe reported that third-quarter earnings fell to 35 cents per share from 50 cents per share a year ago. Adobe shares fell 3.6 percent in after-hours trading to $34.34. Omniture shares were halted after the close. From the official statement: By combining Adobe's content creation tools and ubiquitous clients with Omniture's Web analytics, measurement and optimization technologies, Adobe will be well positioned to deliver solutions that can transform the future of engaging experiences and e-commerce across all digital content, platforms and devices. The combination of the two companies will increase the value Adobe delivers to customers. For designers, developers and online marketers, an integrated workflow—with optimization capabilities embedded in the creation tools—will streamline the creation and delivery of relevant content and applications. This optimization will enable advertisers and advertising agencies, publishers, and e-tailers to realize greater ROI from their digital media investments and improve their end users' experiences. Omniture was founded in 1996 and currently counts approx. 1,200 employees worldwide. It’s the largest worldwide provider of Web analytics, with a product portfolio of 12 products serving over 5,000 customers across the globe. It reported revenues in fiscal year 2008 of about $300 million. CrunchBase Information Adobe Systems Omniture Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50 Backstage: What Exactly Does Bradley Horowitz Do at Google? Top
By now TechCrunch50 judges and companies know there’s no safety zone here at the conference, least of all backstage. The smart ones just run, but Google’s Bradley Horowitz is too polite for that. In this behind-the-scenes clip we talk about what exactly this Internet man of mystery does at Google, his thoughts on the cultural difference between Google and Yahoo, and how big companies can still innovate. (I’m still dubious on that one.) We also talk about Affective Interfaces , a TC50 company that got mixed reviews from the judges this morning, but one of Horowitz’s favorites of the day. Clip on the jump. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
Facebook Crosses 300 Million Users. Oh Yeah, And They Just Went Cash Flow Positive. Top
Facebook has two very big pieces of news that they announced today at TechCrunch50 . The first: They have crossed 300 million users worldwide now, extending their lead as the biggest social network. The second: They are now cash flow positive. Yes, from this point forward, Facebook is making money. 300 million is the obvious big news. But really, it was always just a matter of time before Facebook was going to hit the milestone. They hit 250 million back in July. Really, the much bigger news is the second item. Back in April, we noted that while the company has been EBITDA profitable for several quarters in a row, they weren’t expecting to go cash flow positive on an operating basis until 2010. Back in 2008, there was roughly a $200 million gap between Facebook being cash flow positive and their EBITDA numbers. So why was it going to take another 2 years to close that gap? It’s likely because Facebook has been spending a lot of money over the past couple years on things like servers, but accounting rules allowed them to spread those costs over time. But the amount of money they’re pulling in has either eclipsed those costs earlier than expected or it isn’t spending as much. (Equipment spending for big storage servers tend to be lumpy). Undoubtedly, projects like Haystack , which aim to cut the costs of sharing photo storage on Facebook have helped quite a bit. Aside from being the biggest social network, Facebook is also the largest photo-sharing site as well. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50 Backstage: Kevin Rose on What's Going Right at Digg, What Went Wrong at Pownce Top
I chatted with Kevin Rose backstage in between TechCrunch50 judging. For those who think he’s still the wacky Diggnation party boy, I want to point out he beat most of the TechCrunch staff to the conference this morning. This video is longer than most of our behind-the-scenes glimpses, but we covered a lot of territory. Rose tells us the single most important product move Digg has made in the last year, whether his company is worried about the Twitter threat, what’s coming next for Digg, his favorite company that launched today (HINT: CitySourced founders may have a potential angel investor), and whether or not starting Pownce was a mistake. Video is on the jump. CrunchBase Information Kevin Rose Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
Features Don't Kill Nor Save Industries – Some Perspective On Google Fast Flip Top
I’m flabbergasted with some of the coverage surrounding yesterday’s launch of Google Fast Flip . For your reference, Fast Flip is a new Google Labs experiment that enables people to browse and search online and print articles in a quick, visual way. Additionally, it allows users to share articles with other people and has a degree of personalization to it since it sort of adapts to your reading behavior. To build Fast Flip, Google partnered with three dozen top publishers (TechCrunch, NY Times, Newsweek, and others) who will share revenue earned from contextually relevant ads. So essentially, we’re talking about an experimental product introduced by a company whose core business is online search and advertising that basically makes it easier to – gasp – search and monetize online content. You could just as well consider it a Google News feature, and a cool one at that, but it is and remains nothing but a feature. So why exactly am I reading headlines like ‘Google Fast Flip is Death to the Newspaper Industry’ and ‘Is Fast Flip Really the Best Google Can Do to Save the News?’ ? No, Google is not becoming the ’source’ of all news overnight and monopolizing aggregation. No, the personalization element doesn’t suddenly give everyone a reason to stay away from traditional media (even though they could contain stories you might not be interested in). And no, the revenue-sharing aspect is not going to make a dent in newspaper companies’ income. There’s a pattern here, of course, because this sort of thing happens every single time Google does anything in any way related to online content. There’s been a battle raging for years between publishers and Google, with the former complaining that the company makes money off their backs without providing adequate compensation for their content. Google counters by saying its initiatives are perfectly legal and can benefit publishers tremendously ( we tend to agree ). Now publishers are considering ways to charge for online content, and Google wants to be part of those plans too. There’s no denying there’s tension, opposite viewpoints and strategies, and a complicated love-hate relationship that’s bound to continue for the next few years. But seriously, when was the last time Google – or any company – killed or saved an industry by introducing a new product? Did Google Base kill Craiglist or the online classifieds industry as a whole? Did the introduction of Google Reader lead to the demise of commercial feed readers? Did Google Orkut revolutionize how we network socially online and how social networks are monetized? I’m calling for some perspective on this. While Google Fast Flip is a nice product, particularly on mobile in my opinion, it has its flaws and it’s not revolutionary any way you look at it. That’s fine, because it’s a Google Labs experiment, so remember that. If you’re looking for a reason why the newspaper industry is in trouble, divert your attention from Fast Flip and look at its historical business models, decreasing ad revenues and the way the Internet has changed and continues to change people’s content consumption behavior. And please realize that one single company is never going to have much control over whatever is going to happen to the newspaper industry, one way or the other. (Picture credit: cc Alain Bachellier / Flickr) Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: Everyday Investors Can Help Startups "IPO" On The Sprowtt Marketplace Top
TechCrunch 50 startup Sprowtt has a radical, yet potentially compelling idea launching today—the startup lets ordinary startups and small businesses conduct a “Sprowtt IPO,” which is basically similar to the traditional IPO process. Via Sprowtt, anyone can participate in the funding of companies. Potential investors log on to the site, set up a profile with detailed financial and bank account information. Then they are given a list of companies they can invest in based on their financial capabilities. Investors can check out videos of startups, the amount of money the startup has already raised, and their products and see detailed business plans, on which investors can share their comments. Potential investors can also access the offering circulars and shareholder agreements for the startup. Once an investor decides to put money into a company, he signs the stock subscription agreement, enters the number of shares he wishes to purchase and then the funds are held in escrow until the offering is complete, which happens when the minimum amount for an offering is accumulated. Sprowtt helps to transfer the funds from an investor’s account to the startup. The Sprowtt platform automates the entire stock offering process, including legal compliance in all states and with the SEC and draws up all of the legal documents (i.e. the shareholder agreement, offering circular) for the startups participating in the marketplace. But it’s not cheap for a startup to do this—Sprowtt says that if a company wants to sell $5 million worth of stock, it will cost them roughly $10,000-$25,000 in compliance fees to IPO. When there are enough investors for a startup’s IPO, Sprowtt forms a company with these investors, and then invests the chunk of money as an entity instead of as individual investments . Also in the traditional IPO process, a company’s shares go on an exchange, like the Nasdaq, where they can be bought or sold. With Sprowtt’s IPO, there is no exchange, so it’s more of a private investment than an actual IPO. Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased) The experts: Satish Dharmaraj, Lior Zorea, Bradley Horowitz, Tim O’Reilly, Kevin Rose BH: These companies are all subject to the same restrictions in any other marketplace? A: We’ve consulted with law firms, they crafted business model, everything is dealt with SEC and Federal government. It’s complex. BH: Do you vet companies? A: Yes, we do. TO: I’m confused. This doesn’t change stock and compliance. Once you are public, you incur those costs. A: The automation helps with this. TO: Read Eric Ries’ blog to vet businesses. SD: When someone buys shares, do they get dividends. A: It’s all freely tradeable stock. Sort of an alternate to Nasdaq. KR: How do you plan on attracted companies that aren’t oversubscribed? A: It’s a big question for us-how to we keep best deals there. But this is a compelling model. Jason: Which law firm has vetted this? A: Working with legal counsel. We have had legal counsel in Silicon Valley that has a presence in DC with the SEC. There are things that the law firm will put their stamp on and some that they don’t. LZ: I think IPOs are on their way back. It’s an interesting idea that other folks have looked at it. Based on my practice, I’m skeptical of this. Securities laws were put in place to protect the folks that didn’t have the means to lose their investments. There are difficult challenges in the securities side. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: Glide Health Lets Docs And Patients Access Health Records Across Mobile And Desktop Platforms Top
The online medical records space is growing fast; with Microsoft, Google and others trying their hand at products that could eventually become the go-to platform for accessing health records online. TechCrunch50 startup Glide Health, which was spun off from Transmedia, is hoping to give these tech giants a run for their money with its web, desktop and mobile apps that provide a centralized repository for patient records. Glide Health’s web and desktop apps hold patient profiles (which can be created by the patient or doctor) that contain pertinent medical information such as insurance information, family medical history, doctors, past test results, past surgeries and procedures, x-rays and more. This browser app is based on the same synchronization engine that powers Glide’s previously launched collaboration OS software; however, this product has been specifically designed for the healthcare space. Today, Glide Health is launching an application for patients, doctors and healthcare professionals to access and manage healthcare from their desktops or mobile phones.  All the data syncs no matter where it is updated across legacy patient management systems and databases. Via the mobile and desktop apps, doctors can manage patient records and health history as well as save any communication about patients between other doctors and professionals. Doctors can also schedule appointments from mobile phones, prescribe medications and write prescriptions directly to pharmacies from the mobile app. Doctors can submit dictations to the Glide Health platform via the mobile app, which will then be transcribed. On the patient side, the mobile app lets users travel with their complete medical history and records wherever they go. The patients can also document and archive any communications with doctors and healthcare professionals as well as access WebMD-like information about personal health and fitness, health news, support groups, insurance policies and health facilities. The platform lets doctors and patients upload health records, transcripts, x-rays and other medical information and images. Glide Health makes money by charging medical professional an annual fee; but the app will be available to patients for free (if their doctor uses the program). Synchronizing medical data across legacy systems is a huge challenge, especially when security is an issue but Glide Health’s Founder and CEO Donald Leka assures that the app is extremely secure and built with several security and privacy layers. Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased) The experts: Satish Dharmaraj, Don Dodge, Bradley Horowitz, Tim O’Reilly, Kevin Rose LZ: barriers, regulatory privacy issues comment? AA: privacy is important, we lost sight of that-we see tremendous benefits from products we see in the market today. We provide a rights spaced environment for sharing. LZ: going to charge providers-how to make the case to switch from previous management systems. A: Have doctors who are investing into these platform, The selling point is the abandonment of traditional models, with a revenue share of ad revenue with doctors. TO: I like the vision of what you like to do except for the advertising. I have a hard time believing you have solved these problems. A: We’ve built the platform-the selling point is universal compatibility. Signed agreements, but launched today. KR: Doctors have to be on the platform for thus to work? A: We are starting with doctors groups to get leverage on the platforms. CrunchBase Information Glide Health Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: Have You Considered Tele-Psychiatry? Schedule A Session With BreakThrough Top
Mental illness is a more common affliction in society than most people think. But, many people are embarrassed to admit and confront their mental illness. According to TechCrunch50 startup BreakThrough, one in four American adults have a mental illness but two-thirds of Americans don’t get proper treatment. BreakThrough hopes to provide an easy and private way to connect mental health providers with clients for therapy via video, phone or the web through their newly launched platform. On BreakThrough’s site, clients can search for providers (including psychiatrists, psychologists and nurses) on a variety of criteria, including price, speciality (i.e. depression, schizophrenia, post traumatic stress disorder), and gender. On a provider’s page you can see his or her education, experience, pricing for services, the insurance the professional accepts, and even a video introduction of the provider explaining his or her specialities. BreakThrough certifies all providers are credentialed professionals. If you find a provider that suits your needs, you can see available appointments and schedule an appointment to chat via video chat (via Skype), email or the phone. And you can remain anonymous throughout the process; all you need is an email address to participate in the site. The virtue of BreakThrough is in this anonymity—people may be embarrassed to publicly acknowledge their potential mental illnesses to the public and the site gives people a way to do this in the comfort of their own home. Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased) The experts: Satish Dharmaraj, Lior Zorea, Bradley Horowitz, Tim O’Reilly, Kevin Rose KR: Is anyone else doing this? A: There are advice platforms, but they don’t have licensed providers. Some platforms don’t have the technology. TO: How do you get therapists to participate? A: We have a log of providers who are interested. TO: How do you qualify them? A: We only get licenses medical therapists and make sure to authenticate all professionals. LZ: On the trust side, I’m worried that these are personal issues. Why would you log on to the internet? Also there is a liability issue with fraud, malpractice. A: We aren’t trying to replace in person treatment. BH: Is there something sad about this? A: It’s asking a lot for someone with depression to admit to this publicly. Ten years ago, this would have been a concern. But now we do so much online. TO: Advice-you might consider working with employee assistance programs. SD: Do shrinks learn from body language? A: Yes, shrinks prefer video chat. But therapists can also tell a lot from phone. Images: Video: Other Coverage: Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: LearnVest Is A Personal Financial Guide For Women Top
Now more than ever, personal finance education and help is crucial to anyone’s financial health. Mint.com, a former TechCrunch 40 company who won the top prize at the conference, has grown incredibly since its launch and was recently acquired by Intuit for $170 million. TechCrunch50 startup LearnVest is serving a different purpose when it comes to online finances; the startup focuses on helping users, particularly women, organize their finances and learn how to become financially savvy. It’s kind of like the online version of financial planner Suze Orman. When you first log in to LearnVest, the site will ask you a series of questions about your financial health (i.e. how much credit card debt do you have), you life stages (i.e. do you rent, are you planning a family soon, do you own a house) and your financial education level (i.e. have you checked your credit score lately). LearnVest will use all this information to diagnose your financial health and education level and will then give you a snapshot of what you need to learn and improve. LearnVest will then give you a customized plan of things you need to do to do and read via a checklist. Sort of like a cheat sheet, the checklist will help you navigate a range of issues such as getting out of credit card debt, budgeting for a wedding, buying a house and much more. As you complete the tasks on the list, you check off each box and earn points for your improvements. Points will give you status in LearnVest’s community and you can eventually trade in points for rewards. As you keep logging on to LearnVest, the site will be completely customized for your financial profile, providing you with news articles that relate to your specific financial goals. LearnVest also aims to be a social community of sorts, where users can ask questions on discussion forums to other users and to experts as well, although I’m not sure how many women will want to share their financial woes with others. Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased) The experts: Satish Dharmaraj, Lior Zorea, Bradley Horowitz, Tim O’Reilly, Kevin Rose BH: This didn’t resonate with me. I don’t know any one who wants to do gaming on this site. KR: I don’t think people will want to admit to debt with a profile. A: we are going after targeted audience, there’s no resource online for financial advice. financial services online for women is a huge market and need. LZ: I like the financial education part of this. I think it will be hard to get people to stay. A: You can open accounts through us, you can execute as well. We are learning from uur user’s behavior. Currently, there is no one helping women forecast their financial future. LearnVest stops this problem. Images: Video: Other Coverage: TC50: LearnVest walks users through life's financial milestones VentureBeat. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: Cocodot Is The Stylish, Prettier, More Social Evite Top
Online event planning and invitation platform Evite was on the forefront of innovation— ten years ago. TechCrunch50 startup Cocodot is hoping to be the Evite of this generation of web technology, serving a style-conscious, eco-friendly event platform that people and brands can use to create an online presence for celebrations. Cocodot’s platform, which is targeted towards women, is a one-stop-shop for event planning and invitations. You can create a high resolution, chic, stylish invitation (that can be printed as well), a vertical event pages, guest management tools, seating charts, and a directory for event planning vendors. When you create event, you can build an event homepage that aims to be a social conversation hub. Once you create an invitation, you can import your contact lists from Yahoo, Gmail, AOL and other contact managers and email services. Cocodot also lets you send links to the event homepage and invitation to Facebook, directly from the platform. Cocodot is also getting into the online greeting space, letting user create a simple “happy birthday” or “Thank you” online card. The graphics and styles are actually pretty impressive. Users can adjust color and text, move the graphics and text and even offers a “copy concierge” to help people think of thoughtful sayings. Unsurprisingly, Cocodot is going after the wedding industry by providing high-end printable online invitations and a event management platform. Cocodot also lets you embed custom event widgets on other sites and features a variety of design-friendly templates. Cocodot plans to make money from subscriptions and per use fees and will sell virtual goods. The startup is also positioning itself to be eco-friendly, by saving paper from sending out invitations. Cocodot will make money via ad revenue, premium features, virtual gifts and through product lines and licensing designs. Cocodot was launched by former MySpace CMO Shawn Gold and raised just under $1 million of seed funding earlier this summer from investors like Anthem Venture Partners and William Morris’ Mail Room Fund . Cocodot is similar to Pinng, which we wrote about here. Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased) The experts: Satish Dharmaraj, Lior Zorea, Bradley Horowitz, Tim O’Reilly, Kevin Rose BH: I don’t want to like this but I think the world needs this. The exisiting invitation tools are not sufficient and this could take off. TO: You think about a company like Hallmark, its a huge business opportunity, and I think you are thinking like a business, will probably be successful. SD: I think you should try to differentiate yourself a little more. What happens after the event is booked? LZ: I like what you guys are doing. How do you get consumer mind share out ther for the product, particularly in teh case of weddings. A: Every invitation is virally marketed because its branded with Cocodut. We are going to do partnerships with other sites like DailyCandy and pursue a revenue share. We are going after PR agencies and companies that don’t like Evite and are using PDF’s, not taking advantage of he efficiencies in the digital medium. Images: Video: Outside Coverage: Cocodot – For Overdoing Invitations #tc50 techgeist. Cocodot creates a slicker version of Evite VentureBeat. TechCrunch50: A ‘Elegant’ Evite and More Subscription Services AppScout. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: CrowdFlower Crowdsources Mundane Labor To The Cloud Top
For any business, from a startup to a large company, mundane, yet time-intensive tasks like transcribing video or removing spam comments from blogs, can be a waste of employee time. TechCrunch50 startup CrowdFlower CrowdFlower provides Labor as a Service (LaaS) by letting clients access an always-on, scalable workforce. Unlike traditional methods of outsourcing and hiring, CrowdFlower's web offering lets businesses instantly access thousands of workers without picking up the phone. Here’s how it works. If a company has a transcribing task, the administrator can fill out a task form on CrowdFlower. Once all the fields are filled out, CrowdFlower will price the task based on the amount of time it takes to perform the assignment per unit (the user does the sample task). The startup will break the task into units that can be performed by a single person and price the task accordingly. CloudFlower then lets you choose the channels of work. You can pick Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, their labor force or even a Facebook application where people perform task to earn virtual currencies. The system trusts a worker less based on the mistakes a worker makes. Once the task is finished, CloudFlower will perform a quality control check and show the user the results of the task. The startup will indicate which workers were most productive and accurate. CrowdFlower will continue to employ workers who have high ratings. CrowdFlower monetizes its platform by taking a commission on every task created by customers. Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased) The experts: Satish Dharmaraj, Lior Zorea, Bradley Horowitz, Tim O’Reilly, Kevin Rose SD: I think it’s interesting-will you do transcribing of voicemails to text etc. Probably want to think about a vertical? A: I think there a lot of tasks that are boring that people don’t outsource. LZ: I think this a big idea. How do you keep a competitive advantage? A: We already have a huge history of workers and we know who can do which tasks well. We have people who can do 99% accuracy on mundane tasks. BH: A lot of stuff you are doing is possible on Mechanical Turk. Is this where they will go? A: Here’s the tough thing for mechanical turk-they don’t want to know what the results are. We have a higher level of semantics when we do a task, we have higher level of quality control. Amazon may see this as a application on top of a platform. TO: How big is the niche here? There’s still a lot of ignorance about this? A: There are a lot of interesting enterprise tasks that can be done. For example, MySpace. There are challenges like security and integration. But the biggest challenge is quality. We don’t know how we are going to reach small customers. KR: Service is awesome but need to figure out how you are going to get the message out there. Images: Video: Other Coverage: TC50: CrowdFlower offers rich analytics for mechanical turks VentureBeat. TC50: CrowdFlower offers rich analytics for mechanical turks caem.la. CrowdFlower Bolsters a New Era of Work PR Web. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: Trollim Lets Coders Battle For Programming Superiority Top
Coding is a highly competitive industry where programmers are often pitted against each other based on level of skill and ability. TechCrunch50 startup Trollim has created a competition platform and social network for programmers that assesses their coding skills through coding battles. Users are identified as “trolls” on the platform and once a user signs up, he or she fills out a profile that includes their age, location and coding language skills (C++, Ruby, PHP etc.). Trollim then gives the user 3 to 6 pieces of code, or a “test,” to fix to asses their baseline level of skill and based on the results of this test, the user is given a skill level of 1 though 5. Once a user has been assigned a skill level, he can then start challenging other programmers on the site to one on one battles, where trolls have to fix different pieces of code, or “rumbles,” where multiple programmers participate in a battle. As you win battles, Trollim's proprietary algorithms will evaluate your skills and increase your coding skill level. Trollim says that you can search for users by country, skill level or age, letting users battle a variety of other programmers. Users can also see statistics and metrics on their skill level and improvement. You can also publish your ratings as a widget to a blog or web site. Trollim is hoping to engage businesses by letting them access the site to find skilled programmers. For example, TechCrunch could sponsor a Ruby battle or rumble between coders if we needed a skilled Ruby programmer. Companies can give out prizes to the winners (or employment opportunities) and also receive detailed statistics from Trollim on participating programmers (if the programmers authorize this). Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased) The experts: Satish Dharmaraj, Lior Zorea, Bradley Horowitz, Tim O’Reilly, Kevin Rose TO: I’m curious about a couple of things. Love the idea. Assessment is the key to learning. How do you develop the assessments in terms of code? A: We test the users with code, bugs. In the end, there is a diffenece between coders andwe try to map these areas. BH: Everything is about debugging? A: Yes BH: But those are the developers I want to hire, the ones who can code for hours. There’s more to programming than just debugging. SD: I like the idea a lot. Maybe it should be more of a gaming platform, rather than a assessment? A: There are two different versions. There is a gaming platform. But we want to get the enterprises in. KR: I like the gaming aspect. This could be something to put on your elance profile. A: One of the features is a rating widget. We will have a Troll village, we’ll also have a rating for companies. LZ: Sounds like you are focused on smaller businesses. A: Have five different levels and we are matching people around the globe. Images: Video: Other Coverage: TC50: Battle other coders to to prove yourself at Trollim VentureBeat. Trollim throws programming gauntlet SDTimes. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: CitySourced Lets You Report Pot Holes And Graffiti On The Go Top
Ever seen a nasty pot hole or a wall full of graffiti and wished you could report the problem on the go instead of writing a letter or email to your city bureaucracy? TechCrunch 50 startup CitySourced is launching an a slew of smartphone applications that let you file an issue to your city from your phone, aiming to crowdsource this information for cities. It’s pretty simple. The app on your Blackberry, Android or iPhone lets you take a picture of the infraction. The app detects your location via GPS and once the image is loaded and approved, you are brought to the reporting screen. You can then identify what the problem is, add comments, and Tweet the problem out from your Twitter account. Once you press “file”, the report is captured, bundled and automatically transferred to the government agency that is responsible for the infraction. On the back end, the city agency gets a web dashboard that lets them see how many reports have been submitted, a map mashup of where the reports are located, pending reports that are incomplete, and graphs that break down reports by type over a given period of time. Cities can then download all the data into a file. The app is free for the user and cities pay an annual license fee for the dashboard. CitySourced has just inked a deal with the city of San Jose, Calif. San Francisco recently implemented a similar plan to crowdsource city complaints via Twitter, but the ability to use a location-based app via CitySourced is compelling both for users and city governments. CitySourced has just received an investment from Palm and will be launching on the Palm Pre soon. Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased) The experts: Satish Dharmaraj, Lior Zorea, Bradley Horowitz, Tim O’Reilly, Kevin Rose KR: I’d like a stream for my neighborhood of things that need to take action on. BH: Will other data sources be added in? Will cities be able to import police reports? A: Yes, we’d like to aggregate other info like census data, reports elected officials etc. TO: I’m a huge fan pf this application. What’s your thinking about how to become a market leader. There are other similar apps out there-what’s your competitive advantage? A: we’re looking to sign up a few more customers soon. Open311 is great but if a city adopts that platform, they are locking themselves into that city. Our platform is nationwide. LZ: I love the idea. The market is huge. I’m concerned about the execution challenges. Councilman from San Jose: Getting the info in a timely manner is important, the ability to get the image is important with CitySourced. This app will be instrumental to collect images and data in real-time. Images: Video: Outside Coverage: TC50: CitySourced lets citizens report potholes, graffiti to local government VentureBeat. TC50: CitySourced Lets You Report Pot Holes And Graffiti On The Go Facternet. City Sourced Allows Mobile Complaint Reporting IntoMobile. I'd Call CitySourced, but I'm Just a Pothole bub.blicio.us. City Sourced – A New Way To Inform City Hall #tc50 techgeist. Citizen complaint app finally fires up TechCrunch50 CNET. CitySourced Launches At TechCrunch50 YouVox Tech. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: Affective Interfaces Monitors And Deciphers Facial Expressions Of Web Users Top
Sentiment detection is fast becoming a popular method of deciphering Tweets, news stories and other content on the web. TechCrunch50 startup Affective Interfaces, which launched at the Business Applications session today, has built emotion sensing technology that detects a web user’s facial expressions via a webcam. Affective Interfaces’s SaaS uses a webcam to monitor facial expressions such as smiles, frowns and other emotions. The software analyzes these expressions and how they related to different parts of a site. So for example, Affective Interfaces will compare the emotions of a user while they are on CNN.com vs. Gawker.com. Or the software could be aptly used to determine emotions on an e-commerce site, like Zappos.com, to see what emotions affect engagement and purchasing decisions. Affective Interfaces gathers customer content through video ads, media etc., then collect and process the data for clients and create a report that deciphers the emotions of users. The technology seems similar to having an online focus group test out a product, except the software actually breaks down the emotional data. Affective Interfaces provides a full report and charts with each session that drills down analytics from product engagement. The startup says it is releasing APIs for people to channel their data into the software, with ideal uses of the software for online media metrics, entertainment, webpage development, gaming sites and e-commerce. Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased) The experts: Satish Dharmaraj, Lior Zorea, Bradley Horowitz, Tim O’Reilly, Kevin Rose SD: I didn’t get it. Felt more like a PhD thesis than a business. TO: I had the opposite reaction. I think there a couple of businesses here. KR: I thought it was awesome. For focus groups and market research, this is going to be huge. A: We see potential for an iPod detector etc. We see a lot of potential for partereing for market research, ads. etc. Jason: You do that through mechanical turk? A: yes, but you can also see your sessions. BH: We’ll soon be able to record every moment of our life. If you could measure heart rate, that would be easier. Have you thought about other modalities? A: We are thinking about other biometrics and modes. But the nice thing about AI is that it only requires a web cam. Michael Arrington: The videos are really compelling. A: We’ll be able to do statistical data sets on particular segments of the market. We can correlate frame by frame what the person is feeling and how strongly. Video: Outside Coverage: TC50: Affective Interfaces detects whether your ad makes people happy VentureBeat. TechCrunch50: Business Apps on Parade (and Emotion Sensing!) AppScout. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: Metricly Aggregates And Mashes Up Business Data Into A Simple Online Dashboard Top
For any web-based small business or startup, there is a plethora of online real-time business data, such as page views, ad impressions, financial information, that need to be tracked frequently. TechCrunch50 startup Metricly, which launched at the Business Applications session, helps online businesses create easy-to-use dashboards to track their key metrics and better understand their business. Metricly actually pulls in data from different sources, including financial systems, web analytics, social media and CRMs, and then provides dead- simple tools to create custom graphs and dashboards based on that data. So for example, users can see unique visitors, ad sales broken out by inventory, ad impression and CPMs, and more. Metricly will graph all this data, letting users easily see the ebbs and flows of this information and filter information. What makes Metricly unique is the application’s ability to do some of the heavy lifting for you when it comes to combining and reading data. Metricly will combine multiple data sources together and compare and chart this information. Currently, Metrics lets you connect with existing data sources, such as Google Analytics, Salesforce.com, and Intuit’s QuickBooks. QuickBooks users can sync their desktop files with Metricly’s cloud based platform automatically. You can also add custom metrics for your own data sources as well via the startup’s API. Metricly is also designed to provide guidance to business owners on what data they should be looking for. So, Metricly suggest what metrics business owners should track and will provide summaries of each metric on a dedicated page. There are also community discussions on Metricly where users can compare what metrics they are using. Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased) The experts: Satish Dharmaraj, Don Dodge, Bradley Horowitz, Tim O’Reilly, Kevin Rose KR: What are you tracking in terms of Twitter and Facebook? A: We are following how many followers you have on Twitter, how many fans you ahve on your page. TO: This strikes me as a dashboard for high-level metrics. How do you get down in the dirty details. This just pulls the display into lightweight dashboard. You still need to know what to track. A: There are a lot of startups that don’t even know the basics in terms of metrics. We are really targeting a simple aggregation for high-level analytics. Certain businesses have precise metrics, you can share that with other people to help startups figure out what metrics they need. SD: I worry that this will become a feature of a larger product. The products that actually generate data, generate graphs. So Google Analytics will replace this, KD: For small businesses, they will only use one or two tools. BH: What happens to data that I submit-is it anonymized? A: It’s anonymous. We’re not storing the data, just doing some cacheing. One metric is useful to aggregate is revenue per user. LZ: In the nonstartup world, what’s your pricing? A: Still working on pricing. We’ll have a free version and then will have a paid version. Images: Video: Outside Coverage: TC50: Metricly aggregates analytics for startups, small businesses VentureBeat. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: ClientShow Allows For Real-Time Collaboration During Creative Pitches Top
When pitching a creative idea to a company, often the mechanism by which you pitch the idea to clients is as important as the pitch itself. TechCrunch50 startup ClientShow, which is presenting during the Business Applications session, is hoping to help creative, advertising and marketing professionals show, pitch and sell their work to clients more effectively through real-time collaboration and communication. It’s sort of like a Web-Ex for creative professionals. The application, which is built off of Adobe Air, is broken down into four parts. The first part is a dashboard which lets the agency view clients, projects and pitch sessions at a single glance. The dashboard acts as an organizational launching pad, where you can see attached notes and images about upcoming pitches and a schedule of sessions. The second feature is a “work” section which actually lets you set up and prepare for the sessions. You can drag and drop your files into the application, where you can views the projects. The third, and most significant part of ClientShow’s application, is the actual “pitch,” where clients are given a link that lets them view the session in their browser. It’s important to note that while the users who are pitching the idea are using an Adobe Air application, the client will see the actual pitch within their browser. Here’s where the beauty of ClientShow’s software comes in; as you are pitching an idea, decision makers on a client team can approve (or dismiss) different ideas and files and give feedback automatically by adding notes and comments to the pitch. Of course, after a pitch has ended, users will want to look back on clients’ comments and feedback, which is where the fourth part of ClientShow’s software comes in. The “vault” captures and stores all interactive feedback from sessions. You can also see “session reports” in the vault, that shows you every file that was documented in the presentation in the order they were presented. ClientShow’s software will be rolled out to the public in November. The application is compelling at provides a easy way for creative professionals to create a threaded discussion of sorts around a pitch. The combination of visual tools and collaborative conversation around a pitch is sure to attract fans on both the agency and client side in the advertising and marketing fields. Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased) The experts: Satish Dharmaraj, Don Dodge, Bradley Horowitz, Tim O’Reilly, Kevin Rose TO: What is the business model? A: there is nothing like this that exists that is well branded, so the distribution model is simple. This product answers a direct need TO: So the business model is build it and they will come A: we’re providing an end to end solution BH: its a little bit web-ex, can you explain how its built A: taking a cloud based approach using amazon web services for the back end. A lot of interaction for product is locally adding files, which allows u to minimize traffic on users’ computers. Cloud based computing allows us to scale as we need/ BH: Air apps are hard to interact with A- server technology is written in java, purposely built to can connect to other technologies KR: is this something that you will always host, agencies might want presentation to be behind the firewall…. LZ: Its a slick presentation and the product looks nice. How do you get this more widely used beyond just the creative professional space? A: There is opportunity in any Technology based disciplines-anything that’s visual SD: I worry this is an island. There’s not enough integration between other applications. I worry about the direct selling model. A: Photoshop got word of mouth distribution within the industry. Images: Video: Outside Coverage: TC50: ClientShow manages collaboration for graphic designers VentureBeat. ClientShow Wants To Be the Way Creative Shares Files #tc50 techgeist. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 

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