Tech | The New York Observer

lease beat

MySpace Marketing Gurus Sextuple Space

By Laura Kusisto | March 10, 2011 | 5:39 pm

Big Fuel Communications, the braintrust behind MySpace's marketing campaign, are massively growing their Manhattan headquarters. The social media marketing and branded content agency, whose clients include Fox (which owns MySpace), as well as Neutrogena and Colgate-Palmolive, have taken 40,000 square feet at 40 West 23rd Street. They were previously headquartered in 6,000 square feet on the fifth floor of the same building, which also houses Home Depot's Chelsea... MORE»

startup bus

Liveblogging the Startup Bus, Day 3: Descent Into Austin

By Adrianne Jeffries | March 10, 2011 | 9:57 am

8:38 a.m. -- It's the final day on the road before Austin! Day one's liveblog from Tuesday is here; yesterday's update is here. The Observer did not liveblog yesterday due to confusion with editors and sparse internet access. To summarize: Internet access was very spotty, which interfered with workflow. One of the bus drivers, Dane, judged a pitch-off. He liked TripMedi. We drove through a tornado.... MORE»

Unvarnished Truth

Abolish South by Southwest!

By Mike Taylor | March 10, 2011 | 9:53 am

If there's one thing I hate more than spilling a Shiner Bock on my iPhone 4 just after I just downloaded the newest OkCupid update, it's South by Southwest, especially the Interactive part, a supposedly technology-oriented appendage of the days-long party. Let's destroy this sham of a technological confabulation once and for all. But before we do that, let's call it what it really is: the Woodstock of our generation. Which is to say, an excuse for unattractive men to disguise themselves as forward-thinking revolutionaries in hopes of getting... MORE»

New York nightlife is just a state of mind.

sxsw

SXSW Parties to Check Into

By Adrianne Jeffries | March 10, 2011 | 9:04 am

Filling out your dance card for SXSW? Here's where The Observer is hoping to find other New Yorkers. Thursday: Capital Factory, "Startup Crawl"4 p.m. to 8 p.m., starting at the Austin Convention centerNotes: Don't forget to refer to the Gowalla guide in order to check in on Foursquare.Crashable?:... MORE»

Time to make some memories, and some apps ... and some investments.

Start-up Summer Camp

DreamIt Adds VCs to its NY Accelerator

By Ben Popper | March 10, 2011 | 7:44 am

Philadelphia-based DreamIt Ventures announced the launch of a New York-based version of its accelerator program last month. At the time some tech pundits noted that the advisory board seemed heavy on young founders and DreamIt alumni as opposed to seasoned industry vets. That changes today, as DreamIt introduces a second round of advisors sourced mostly from the VC and investment... MORE»

This man believes in unicorns. Unicorn bucks.

Funding

Stack Overflow, Now Stack Exchange, Raises $12 M.

By Ben Popper | March 9, 2011 | 3:29 pm

The fast growing Q&A network Stack Overflow has decided to take a new name along with its just announced $12 million B round. From now on its Stack Exchange, a nod to the diverse portfolio of sites that have grown out of the original community of computer... MORE»

Team SpotOn Trivia on the New York Startup Bus.

hackathons

Bus Hackathon Companies Being Taken Really Seriously

By Adrianne Jeffries | March 9, 2011 | 12:03 pm

The Startup Bus carrying 31 entrepreneurs from New York to Austin for South By Southwest just crossed the border into Alabama on day two of the three-day hackathon. Six companies have been launched and the entrepreneurs are building mobile apps, websites and A.P.I.s as well as working on marketing and... MORE»

Why sell ads when you can pitch products direct?

Grouper

Former DoubleClick Execs Launch Group Buying Platform For Publishers

By Ben Popper | March 9, 2011 | 9:11 am

The e-commerce giant Groupon has spawned nearly 200 imitators in its short life. Group Commerce, a new venture from a trio of former DoubleClick vets, is looking to capitalize on that market without trying to compete head... MORE»

Helping urban explorers with Celiac's disease since 2011.

foursquare

Foursquare 3.0 Adds Recommendations and Search

By Adrianne Jeffries | March 8, 2011 | 4:57 pm

Foursquare has logged more than 500 million check-ins from more than seven million users, and that rich trove of data can now power recommendations in real-time. Today Foursquare announced version 3.0 with a new "Explorer" feature, which suggests nearby locations to... MORE»

This was the best we could do under the 3G bus circumstances.

hackathons

Tour Diary: 48 Hours With 30 Hackers on a Bus

By Adrianne Jeffries | March 8, 2011 | 9:27 am

11:59 p.m. -- The bus pulls into the Hotel Indigo in Atlanta. The hackathon continues in two rooms that have been reserved for overnight hacking but the live blog does not. New York Startup Bus coverage will continue tomorrow. Check out all the companies... MORE»

Entrepreneur Roundtable founder Murat Aktihanoglu

Start-up Summer Camp

Entrepreneurs Roundtable Jumps Into Accelerator Game

By Ben Popper | March 8, 2011 | 9:01 am

It's going to be crowded summer in the New York start-up world. Entrepreneurs Roundtable, a four-year-old organization that hosts networking and pitch sessions for start-ups and investors, is starting a three-month accelerator program in New York this June, just like DreamIt Ventures and Techstars... MORE»

Can Kik compete with the group text heavyweights?

group chat

Union Square and RRE Invest In Messaging App Kik

By Ben Popper | March 7, 2011 | 10:52 am

New York's GroupMe and Fast Society have been getting a lot of attention recently as competition heats up in the group texting market. But two of New York's most prominent venture firms have just chosen an app based in Waterloo, Ontario as their choice in this crowded field. Union Square Ventures and RRE are participating in an $8 million series A round for Kik, with Fred Wilson of USV and Adam Ludwin of RRE taking board... MORE»

What the internet really needs is more opinions.

Q&A

Opinionaided Show Any Q&A Site Can Raise Money

By Ben Popper | March 7, 2011 | 9:30 am

Question: How can I get someone to give me a million dollars? Answer: Start a question and answer service. NY and NJ based Q&A app Opinionaided has just raised $1 million from General Catalyst, SoftBank Capital and Draper Fisher Jurvetson along with angel investors Mark Wachen of DreamIt Ventures and Jonah Goodhart of Point Ventures... MORE»

New York at South By: Let's stick together.

sxsw

There Is Now a Facebook for New Yorkers at SXSW

By Adrianne Jeffries | March 7, 2011 | 9:11 am

Almost 500 New Yorkers going to the South By Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin this week have signed up on the list at NYXSW.com, a website for all things New York City going on at SXSW. But the list of names was just the start. The team at Simande, which also does the We Are NY Tech project, has put names to faces with this Facebook-esque page that includes photos of most of the New York attendees as well as links to their Twitter... MORE»

Arrested Development and Gordon Lish for $400, Alex: Ken Jennings Rumbles on Reddit

By Dan Duray | March 3, 2011 | 6:52 pm

This far out from the Watson Jeopardy! game, the bar is pretty high for news related the match, but Ken Jennings stepped onto the Conde Nast-owned Reddit today for their "Ask Me Anything" feature and offered an unprecedented amount of frankness and wit in his answers. There are plenty of revelations about his pop culture absorption as well. The Mormon phenom started things early with his username, WatsonsBitch. "Lots of people think it's a Jeopardy reference," he wrote, "but actually I was thinking of that time Watson and I were cellmates in prison, and it kept raping... MORE»

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