The latest from TechCrunch
- Munch On Me Is A Groupon For Food, Done Right
- Accoya Uses Chemistry Trick To Detoxify Exterior Wood Treatment Process
- By Popular Demand, The Music From Disrupt – Available For Download
| Munch On Me Is A Groupon For Food, Done Right | Top |
| Munch On Me is a daily deals site for food. But wait, before you click away to a slideshow about hot coders , Munch On Me ( Y Combinator Summer class of 2011) has got some features that might just reroute you from relying on the big G for your munchies back to its sweet sweet embrace. First of all, Munch On Me focuses on giving discounts on specific dishes, instead of on anything in the entire restaurant. Any business who’s been a victim of the Groupon effect knows why this is important, namely because restaurants can prepare for the demand in advance, overloading on the inventory they expect will sell out. The Munch On Me discount focuses only on one item, and restaurants can upsell after the initial sale (“Would you like fries with that free milkshake?) and can keep offering up deals. Customers can redeem their deals immediately, a food industry-specific convenience that Groupon seems to have caught onto with its Groupon Now concept. Because it takes less of a cut than Groupon, Munch On Me can get merchants to give out larger discounts as well as items for free in hopes of bringing more people into the store. Says co-founder Jason Wang, “We were surprised in the beginning too, but merchants are willing to give out ‘freebies’ since we focus on dishes and not the entire menu. It drives a significant amount of traffic to the establishment. For example, when we ran King Pin Donuts in Berkeley, CA for a week, 1,573 people claimed a free donut when it was limit 1 per person.” But the startup also makes money, “We don’t always offer 100% off. We sell individual dishes as well. For example, when you visit the Featured Dishes page in Berkeley right now ( http://munchonme.com/index.php?l=berkeleyeastbay ), [and] these cost money for users.” Munch On Me also has another, more unique competitive advantage to Groupon. Banking on the fact that restaurants can’t take stellar pictures of their own food (food pics are a big deal), it sends out a professional photographer to get the job done. You can currently peruse 2-4 Munch On Me deals a week in San Francisco and in Berkeley. CrunchBase Information Munch On Me Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Accoya Uses Chemistry Trick To Detoxify Exterior Wood Treatment Process | Top |
| Most options for wood used in decks, outdoor furniture and siding are rarely entirely earth friendly, since they are often treated with heavy metals or toxic chemicals, or logged from unsustainable forests. One company is innovating in the space by altering the chemistry of the wood itself to make it weather and decay resistant. After several years of research and development, Accsys Technologies began producing Accoya , a treated wood designed for outdoor exposure. The process uses acetylization, a chemical reaction that bonds together the hydroxyl group of molecules in the wood and replaces them with an acetyl group of molecules. The hydroxyl group is what microorganisms feed on, a cause of rot and decay, says Lisa Ayala, who represents Accsys’ North American branch. It is also what causes wood to shrink and swell. To perform the molecular swap, wood goes through a vessel where heat, time and the addition of acetic anhydride creates a byproduct called acetic acid. In its simplest form, acetic acid dilutes to vinegar. “When people smell the wood, they say it smells like pickles,” Ayala said. Less than 1% of the acetic acid remains in the wood after treatment, though even this small amount can cause zinc-plated or galvanized steel fasteners to corrode. The company offers recommendations on what kinds of fasteners and glues have been successfully tested with the treated wood. Accoya could be used in place of pressure-treated wood, although Ayala said the company sees itself as more competitive with tropical hardwoods such as teak and ipe. According to the company, Accoya wood requires less maintenance than its tropical counterparts, and comes with a 50-year warranty for wood used above ground. Currently, the company only sells products made from Radiata Pine, though it is exploring other species. The Netherlands-based factory hopes to expand production into other countries, where it can offer wood made from trees native to each area. Accoya sells its products through distributors in 25 countries . The wood is generally more expensive than something like red oak, but is as much as half the price of teak or ipe, said Royal Plywood Company Materials Consultant Bruce Halvarson. “No natural moisture can penetrate that wood,” Halvarson said. “If you try and put a water based stain on it, it won’t take at all, but an oil based stain will wick all the way through the wood from one side to the other.” Since the wood is treated from the inside out, it can be cut and modified in a variety of ways without compromising protection. Accys was awarded a Cradle to Cradle Gold Certification by MBDC for its sustainable products and manufacturing processes. Photos by Accoya | |
| By Popular Demand, The Music From Disrupt – Available For Download | Top |
| We’ve gotten a lot of requests for our Disrupt conference theme music. Some conference attendees and webcast viewers apparently can’t get the music out of their heads and want to hear it some more. Instead of picking music from a music production library, this year we created custom tracks. The music came to us all the way from New Zealand from a company called Smith & Keats Music . They have a background in creating pop hits and have earned a reputation for specializing in music for the tech industry. Other clients have included Nintendo and Sony-Ericsson. The composers say living in New Zealand gives them exposure to a broader range of artists from around the world. In the US and other countries, the music charts are dominated by local artists. Not so for New Zealand, where they claim only the best of the best makes it to their shores. The time difference in New Zealand was also a plus. TechCrunch gave Smith & Keats direction and feedback on the music via email late at night, which was midday in New Zealand. So, when we woke up the next day, there was new music sitting in our inbox. Tanya Porquez, our Event Director for Disrupt, felt strongly that music was key to creating energy and excitement for Disrupt. The music far exceeded her high expectations and she was happy to hear our own theme song and watch people responding and singing along. Here are the 5 music cuts. Smith & Keats has given us permission to post them online and make them available to download. We even heard about a special dance that developed to them, so dance away. Track 1. Get Ready to Disrupt [ download link ] Track 2. Walk This Way [ download link ] Track 3 TechCrunch Disrupt Theme Song (featuring “TechCrunch Disrupt” audio sample; a crowd favorite) [ download link ] Track 4 Battlefield Rumble (used for the Startup Battlefield segments and the motorcycle giveaway deliberations) [ download link ] Track 5 High Energy Techno [ download link ] Photo credit: Joe Corrigan/Getty Images for AOL CrunchBase Information Smith and Keats Information provided by CrunchBase | |
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