The latest from TechCrunch
- World's Most Sincere, Awesome TechCrunch Fan
- Group Texting App Fast Society Distracts My Entire Panel
- NSFAOL: Highlights From Yesterday's Secret "Welcome To AOL" Meeting
| World's Most Sincere, Awesome TechCrunch Fan | Top |
| We received this video mail from TechCrunch reader Aditya Kapur shortly after TechCrunch Disrupt , with the subject line “Thank you for Hammer Time.” In it Kapur describes how awesome our Google Ventures/SV Angel party was and apologizes to Ron Conway for “screaming like a little girl at a Justin Bieber concert” within earshot of the powerful VC. Highlight: “I could not believe that I was this close to MC Hammer.” Thank you for reading Aditya. We had a great time as well and, if it means anything to you, we’re thinking about renting out our very own Erick Schonfeld to parties, hospitals and retirement homes in order to spread the joy that his “ Hammer Time” has brought into our lives. | |
| Group Texting App Fast Society Distracts My Entire Panel | Top |
| It isn’t often you get to see people enthusiastically using a brand new app in the wild; At the Tahoe Tech Talk today, while on a three hour panel Q & A with angel investors Chris Sacca, Dave McClure, Travis Kalanik, Dave Morin, Kevin Rose , Ben Kaufman and Gary Vaynerchuk , I got to see this exact thing happen, as the aforementioned seven wouldn’t stop texting and laughing onstage. While I still have no clue on exactly “what” was being shared (my guess is they were either colluding or making fun of McClure) after some investigation I figured out the “how.” They were all using Fast Society , a seven day old app that sets up instant temporary group texting through your iPhone, as well as instant conference and group location sharing if you’re so inclined. Like the digital version of kids passing notes in class, group chats on Fast Society have an expiration date; You can set up a chat for a group of up to 15 people, for three hours minimum and three days maximum. Founder Matthew Rosenberg tells us that the next version will let you set limits of up to seven days and 25 hours. While in the same space as Plannr, the app requires no signups, no usernames, no passwords just your phone number. The text groups are temporary, so you don’t have to be stuck with your fellow conference panelists once they have out worn their welcome. Also, and this is the most important element, none of the onstage panelists are currently Fast Society investors — they genuinely were really into the app, which was built and is bootstrapped by Rosenberg, Andy Thompson, and Michael Constantiner. Rosenberg explains the motivation behind creating it. “We were at a Bloc Party concert in NYC and having a hard time getting our friends together, it was impossible to coordinate everyone in a group. Then we thought, we should just build it ourselves.” Plans for an Android and a Blackberry version are currently in the works. CrunchBase Information Fast Society Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| NSFAOL: Highlights From Yesterday's Secret "Welcome To AOL" Meeting | Top |
| "Windows is the past. In the future, AOL is the next Microsoft." — Steve Case (1999) Like most serious writers, I've always dreamed of working for AOL. So you can imagine how thrilled I was when Heather and Mike took to the stage during Disrupt, alongside AOL Chairman Tim Armstrong, to announce that TechCrunch has been acquired by the 90s chat-room giant. You can also imagine how relieved I was to hear that our new corporate ownership wouldn't affect our editorial independence. A fact reiterated in the press release that Mike allowed Armstrong to publish on our homepage. The real meat of the deal was explained to TechCrunch employees and contributors yesterday, in our first ever "all hands" meeting, hosted by David Eun , President of AOL Media and Studios. In an act of Mike-Judgeian corporate defiance, Mike published the full agenda ahead of the meeting, leaving us to salivate at highlights like "HR to hand out offer letters / AOL gifts." (to clarify: these were very separate items) and the time set aside for "administrative happiness". The rest of the meeting, though, was designated as an "internal AOL meeting" and as such was strictly off the record. However, after giving that warning, the very next thing that Eun said was that we should all "keep doing what we do". Here then are the details of the meeting… The first order of business – and indeed the whole thrust of the gathering – was to reassure any of us who might think that TechCrunch (the world's number one technology blog, and a growing start-up) and AOL (America's number one killer of start-ups) might somehow not be a great fit. Eun and his team expertly calmed our fears though, adding: "We don't want you to feel that you can't criticize AOL." Phew! "…but of course neither should you feel that you need to go out of your way to criticize AOL." Oh. But even if our editorial voice will remain unchanged, that's not to say that AOL is going to take a completely hands-off approach to the company. Indeed, along with their offer letters, each employee was handed a welcome pack which gushed that TC staffers are "the mega to our byte" (rejected phrases include "You're the 56 to our K” and "You're the one cup to our two girls"). So then, what changes can we expect to see at the all-new AOL-TC? Here are my top seven take-aways from the meeting… Included in the welcome pack was a bullet-pointed list of AOL corporate principles, including the promise that "we take fun seriously". To this end, TechCrunch employees will be expected to attend a two hour meeting every Saturday afternoon, during which they will participate in Mandatory Fun. Absentees, or those who refuse to wear the mandated clown nose and comedy hat, will be terminated for cause. In line with standard AOL policy, any employee who decides to leave the company will be required to call an 800 number where they'll be kept on hold for two hours before being connected to a bored call centre worker who will try to aggressively persuade them to stay. Whatever the eventual outcome, AOL will continue to debit $19.95 from the employee’s bank account until the end of time. From now on, all TechCrunch staffers will be expected to state their age, sex and location before posting on Yammer. To placate staffers still concerned about the deal, AOL will host a series of motivational talks with the founders of other acquired start-ups. First up: Bebo's Michael Birch, with his inspiring lecture "How I achieved true happiness by selling my company for $850m and then not working a single day at AOL” To celebrate the acquisition, AOL will finance a romantic comedy based on the events of the past two weeks. Starring Tom Hanks as Michael Arrington, Meg Ryan as Heather Harde and Greg Kinnear as Tim Armstrong, the movie has the working title: You've Got Fail. Twelve months later, the company will develop a sequel. With the working title "Unvested Development", it will neither be romantic nor comedic. My first column for the all new AOL-Techcrunch will, inexplicably, also be my last. | |
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