Categorized: entrepreneur
Tech Cocktail has been a supporter of the Startup America Partnership since its inception early last year, and now the organization is getting ready to celebrates its first anniversary (next week)! How time flies. It’s been exciting to watch the organization blossom and roll out various programs for entrepreneurs, from Startup Illinois, the first state to launch a program…
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Categorized: business
If you are just starting a business or creating a new product line or service offering, I bet you’re struggling to come up with a name for it. That’s not surprising—good branding is hard work. It takes dedicated time, thoughtfulness, and research. Here are three sure-fire ways from an intellectual property perspective that can really…
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Categorized: business
Well, Twitter didn’t exactly use the word “censor.” But “withholding” particular tweets after they’re posted sounds like censorship to me: “Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country – while keeping it available in the rest of the world. We have also built in a way…
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Categorized: entrepreneur
As I mentioned in a post earlier this week, the number of accelerators and incubators is rapidly growing all around the globe. TechStars not only runs amazing programs themselves, but they also have a network of other independent accelerators in the US and abroad to whom they provide consulting and ongoing assistance. Springboard, which is…
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Categorized: interviews
This morning HelloWallet announced that they closed $12 million in Series B funding. Chicago-based Morningstar, Inc. invested $6.75 million and DC-based TD Fund (TDF) invested $4 million. Existing investors and new investors also participated in the round. Morningstar and HelloWallet plan to co-market their services to employers and 401(k) providers. I had a chance to…
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Categorized: gaming
The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, published by DC-based Bethesda Softworks, is one of the most successful games of the past year. The action role-playing game is the 5th installment in the Elder Scrolls series, and according to Eurogamer.net, by December 16, 2011, 10 million copies have been shipped to retailers and already it has raked in…
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Categorized: startups-apps
One of the 500 Startups companies launching this week, Talkdesk turns your browser into a call center – a way to provide quality customer support without throwing away half your company budget. Based on Twilio’s technology, Talkdesk lets you make and receive calls, record and transcribe them, and integrate with services like SalesForce and Zendesk…
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Categorized: startups-apps
When Google crawls your website, they’re putting less value in what you have to say about your content (i.e. metadata),and more interest in what the content itself is saying and who is talking about it. Makes sense. If our own assessment of the content of our lives were a true indicator of their worth, we’d all…
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Categorized: startups-apps
When Jay Chahil started working in DC, he’d go out to lunch with coworkers every day – like most young professionals. “I began to realize that everyone else was pretty much doing the same thing and missing out on meeting new people. I also noticed a lot of people eating alone,” he said. “I wanted…
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Categorized: entrepreneur
DreamIt Ventures recently announced DreamIt Israel, the first hybrid Israel-United States accelerator program. DreamIt has run several high-profile accelerator programs out of both Philadelphia and New York, and has launched such names as SCVNGR, Take the Interview, Postling, Adaptly, Notehall, among others. This will be their first international version. This four month program begins on…
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Categorized: entrepreneur
500 Startups is launching its third batch of startups today at a 4-hour demo day event. This class of 34 startups includes a variety of B2B solutions, as well as social and entertainment platforms, organizational tools, learning and reference websites, and products for kids. Two startups, ContaAzul and Rota dos Concursos, feature sites in Portuguese…
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Categorized: interviews
Blank slate has never been so colorful. At last year’s SXSW, Tech Cocktail covered a new robo-ball-toy called Sphero. The robotic ball, controlled by your smartphone, puts a heavy emphasis on design. While the ball’s clear exterior rotates in order to achieve movement, the interior remains balanced. The result- Sphero’s bottom half continually faces the…
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Categorized: entrepreneur
It is certainly no secret that raising money for your startup requires that you have a proven product, a solid customer acquistion strategy, and a sustainable business model. If you’re in DC, though, you have a bit of an uphill battle, as Uppidy founder Josh Konowe shared with me yesterday. If you’re not familiar with…
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Categorized: entrepreneur
In the world, there are certain immutable physical laws. We all know them. You know, you’ve got your Newton’s Law of Gravity, your Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, Moore’s Law…and now there’s my Theorem of Agita and Angst. Newton – What goes up will come down Einstein – E = mc2 Moore – Computing performance will double every…
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Categorized: interviews
The entrepreneur that brought you a wealth of hilarious and embarrassing text messages is now devoting her time to Banters, a platform for sharing quotes. Cofounder Lauren Leto started the site, then called Bnter, in 2010. It recently changed its name to Banters and launched a new iPhone app that integrates with Siri for recording…
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