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1 Million Cups comes full circle on two-year anniversary

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1 Million Cups comes full circle on two-year anniversary
In addition to startup founders sharing how 1 Million Cups further propelled their businesses from two years ago, creators of the program itself reflected on Kansas City's heritage. "If you look back historically at the people who've shaped Kansas City …
Read more on Kansas City Business Journal (blog)

Pampering Your Tastebuds with Worthy Beef Jerky
What was previously a temporary small side business became an extremely promising startup with a team of 10 members (including Alex himself) that manage the company we now know as “Worthy Jerky.” When putting together the team, Alex identified that …
Read more on Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun (blog)

At Brandeis, Students Learn to Build a Startup in Three Days
“This is turning the business school into a pressure cooker for entrepreneurial ideas,” said professor Ben Gomes-Casseres, who teaches international business at Brandeis and is one of several mentors who oversee the three-day hackathon. “They work …
Read more on Boston magazine’s Boston Daily (blog)

Get Distribution or Die Trying
Obviously, this makes a lot more sense in a business-to-business sense but it can also work in a consumer play under the right circumstances. Partnerships for distribution should revolve … This is actually more important than you think as a lot of …
Read more on Techvibes (blog)

Codero Hosting Receives $8 Million in Financing from Silicon Valley Bank and Farnam Street Financial

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Austin, TX (PRWEB) January 28, 2014

Codero Hosting (http://www.codero.com), a leading provider of dedicated, managed, cloud and hybrid hosting services, today announced that it received $ 8 million in financing from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Farnam Street Financial. The capital financing enables Codero to deploy new data centers across the U.S. and Europe and expand its hosting portfolio to serve more customers and multiple data center locations.

“We have outpaced our industry’s growth, expanding faster than other hosting and cloud providers due to our commitment to providing customers with unparalleled performance, expertise, support and value,” said Emil Sayegh, president and CEO of Codero Hosting. “The support of SVB and Farnam Street Financial helps us accelerate our growth and capitalize on our market success.”

“Helping innovators like Codero succeed is what we aim to do every day,” said Travis Wood, managing director for Silicon Valley Bank in Austin. “With the flexibility provided by this financing, the Codero team is on a path to meet its ambitious global expansion goals.”

“Fast-growing companies like Codero need long-term relationships that deliver creative solutions,” said Dale Olsen, SVP of sales, Farnam Street Financial. “We feel that Farnam is uniquely positioned to help Codero maintain its high level of service while accelerating its revenue growth.”

In October, Codero announced the industry’s only true on-demand hybrid cloud hosting service. The new offering – which combines the company’s best-of-breed cloud, networking and dedicated hosting technologies – provides the flexibility and strength of public cloud with the robustness and security of traditional IT infrastructure. Codero’s On-Demand Hybrid Cloud™ has attracted new customers, as Codero is the only hosting and cloud provider to offer the service, and it’s been well received by businesses looking to optimize their application performance.

About Codero Hosting

Codero Hosting delivers world-class dedicated, managed, cloud and hybrid hosting solutions on-demand for businesses of all sizes on a global basis. Codero integrates innovative industry-leading IT hosting solutions that are fully automated with all customer service delivered by a seasoned and highly technical US-based team. This allows companies to confidently outsource their IT hosting needs while empowering them with complete control over their IT environment. Codero offers hosting from its Phoenix, Arizona and Ashburn, Virginia data centers. All Codero services and products are backed by SAS 70 Type II secure data centers, live U.S.-based 24/7/365 support and a seasoned staff. An industry innovator, Codero has the only customer loyalty Rewards Program of any of the major industry players, as well as attractive, and rewarding affiliate, channel, and reseller programs. Codero is majority-owned by NYC-based growth equity firm Catalyst Investors. For more information about Codero, please visit Codero.com or connect with Codero on Twitter and Facebook.

About Silicon Valley Bank

Silicon Valley Bank (http://www.svb.com) is the premier bank for technology, life science, cleantech, venture capital, private equity and premium wine businesses. SVB provides industry knowledge and connections, financing, treasury management, corporate investment and international banking services to its clients worldwide through 27 U.S. offices and six international operations.

Silicon Valley Bank is the California bank subsidiary and the commercial banking operation of SVB Financial Group. Banking services are provided by Silicon Valley Bank, a member of the FDIC and the Federal Reserve System. SVB Financial Group is also a member of the Federal Reserve System.

About Farnam Street Financial

Farnam Street Financial, Inc. (http://www.farnamstreet.net) is an independent, privately-held leasing company focused on building long-term relationships with entrepreneurs and executives across the entire size and growth spectrum from growing, earlier stage businesses to established, global enterprises with diverse equipment needs. Following the global reach of our portfolio of US based customers, we have leased equipment that is installed across the globe.







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Law Book Review: How to License Your Million Dollar Idea: Cash In On Your Inventions, New Product…

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http://www.LawBookMix.com This is the summary of How to License Your Million Dollar Idea: Cash In On Your Inventions, New Product Ideas, Software, Web Busine…
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imagoo Raises $1.2 Million, Debuts New Real-Time Social Polling App for iPhone

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Las Vegas (PRWEB) June 06, 2013

Las Vegas-based tech startup imagoo has launched its social polling iPhone app and Web platform that lets consumers, brands and businesses issue challenges and comparisons and vote on content in real time. The company has raised $ 1.2 million from an angel investor to fuel the launch and development of its mobile platform.

imagoo, which was born out of a few friends’ hunger for friendly competition, moves beyond the typical social polling features and enables users to issue challenges, which pit users head-to-head against their friends or other users on the network. The result is a real-time poll pushed to the imagoo community in which anyone can vote to determine the winner, whether the debate is about sports teams, politics, food, fashion or dozens of other categories.

“It’s human nature for people to believe their opinions and possessions are best,” said Mickey Hernandez, imagoo’s founder and CEO. “imagoo lets users test that assumption instantly through the unbiased opinions of others. We saw an opportunity to take the need to prove yourself among your peers and turned it into something much bigger.”

In addition to challenges, key features of the app include:

    “This or This” – A comparison feature that lets users solicit opinions on two items through real-time polling. Users can ask for feedback or cast their vote on any two items, services, brands or products. For example, a user who is out shopping can ask the imagoo community what pair of shoes they prefer and receive feedback before they leave the store.
    Activity feed – Users can follow their friends and stay on top of new challenges and comparisons as they happen.
    Quick voting – imagoo makes it easy for users to cast their votes on hundreds or thousands of active challenges and comparisons.
    Social media integration – Whether a user issues a challenge or comparison poll, Facebook and Twitter integration make it easy for users to access the opinions of friends in their social networks.

Businesses also benefit from imagoo through access to real-time customer insight. Using imagoo, businesses can poll followers and other users on the network and receive instant feedback. The polls and challenges that businesses create serve as real-time A/B testing. Instead of investing in expensive consumer data tools, businesses can use imagoo to access opinions quickly, easily and informally.

Download imagoo for free from the iTunes App Store. For more information about imagoo, visit http://www.imagoo.com.

About imagoo

imagoo is a Las Vegas-based startup and social polling app for consumers, brands and businesses to solicit unbiased opinions, challenge competitors and contribute their two cents. Users can debate politics, challenge rival sports fans and get advice on purchasing decisions, all in real time. Tap into the imagoo community and receive instant feedback in the form of votes, likes and comments. For more information, visit http://www.imagoo.com or download imagoo in the iTunes App Store.







WePay Raises $15 Million in Series C Funding to Grow its Payments API for Platform Businesses

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Palo Alto, CA (PRWEB) January 16, 2014

WePay, the payments company behind platform businesses, announced today $ 15 million in Series C financing. The company will use the funds to accelerate its growth through further investments in its payments API product and international expansion. Revenue from WePay’s payments API has grown over 600% in the last year, and the company has over 300 platform partners. In addition, today the company is announcing its plans to discontinue its direct-to-consumer offering in order to focus exclusively on its payments API built specifically for platform businesses such as online marketplaces, crowdfunding sites and small business software.

This round of financing was led by financial services and payments pioneer Phil Purcell of Continental Investors, co-founder of the Discover Card and former CEO of Morgan Stanley. Continental Investors has investments in several notable financial services companies, including the leading mobile payment and loyalty company, LevelUp. Paul Purcell will represent Continental on the WePay board.

A number of top technology and payments experts also participated, including:

    Max Levchin, founder & former CTO of PayPal
    Maynard Webb (Chairman of Yahoo!, board member of Salesforce, former COO of eBay, and former CEO of LiveOps), through the Webb Investment Network (WIN), his early-stage venture capital firm
    Angel investor Raymond Tonsing

All existing institutional investors, including Highland Capital Partners, August Capital and Ignition Partners, participated in this round. This round brings WePay’s total financing to $ 35 million.

“Platform businesses like online marketplaces, crowdfunding sites and small business software are the most exciting segment of ecommerce today,” said Paul Purcell of Continental. “WePay’s focus here, coupled with their ability to give these platforms a payment solution that offers both flexibility and protection from fraud and compliance risk, is a recipe for success.”

“We are thrilled to welcome Continental to the WePay family. The team’s depth of operating and investment experience with later stage companies, payments, financial services and the public markets will be invaluable to WePay as we grow,” said Bill Clerico, CEO of WePay.

Unlike general-purpose payment APIs and processors, WePay is uniquely focused on serving platform businesses such as online marketplaces, crowdfunding sites and small business software. WePay gives these platforms the flexibility they need to design new commerce experiences while still protecting them from the burdens of fraud and compliance. WePay’s proprietary VedaTM social risk engine underpins its API and is honed to understand the platform’s users.

About WePay

The WePay® payment API is built specifically for platform businesses like marketplaces, crowdfunding sites and small business software. These platforms are empowering millions of users worldwide to unlock all kinds of creative commerce. Through its proprietary VedaTM social risk engine, WePay gives platforms a flexible payment API that provides a great user experience while still taking on all their fraud risk and compliance burdens.

WePay has processed transactions for more than 250,000 customers and over 300 partners. Platform businesses such as GoFundMe, HoneyFund, CustomMade, Care.com and LessAccounting have chosen WePay’s API to handle their payments. The company’s customer service team won the 2013 Gold Stevie Award for its outstanding work with customers. For more information visit http://www.wepay.com.

About Continental Investors

Continental Investors is a private equity firm founded in 2006 by Phil Purcell. Continental invests in private companies primarily in the financial service industry and in consumer businesses where the Internet is important. Continental Investors are a strategic source of capital and look for opportunities where their industry experience and relationships can benefit management and other private investors. Prior to Continental, Phil was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Dean Witter, Discover & Co. from 1986 until they acquired Morgan Stanley Group Inc. in 1997. He then served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Morgan Stanley until his retirement in 2005. Paul Purcell has nearly15 years of experience deploying capital in public and private markets for financial services and payments companies.

WePay is a registered trademark, and Veda is a trademark, of WePay, Inc.







Artificial Intelligence Platform Parakweet Raises $2 Million in Angel Funding

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San Francisco (PRWEB) June 18, 2013

Parakweet, Inc. today announced it secured $ 2 million in funding. The company has developed a proprietary artificial intelligence platform that uses social media- specific natural language processing (NLP) to detect and extract meaning from millions of unstructured conversations and accurately identify consumer behavior, intent and sentiment. Parakweet will use the funds for new product innovation and continued development of BookVibe, its recently launched book discovery engine.    

The funding was led by a group of high-profile investors including Scott Banister, an early investor in PayPal, Zappos and Powerset; Alan Braverman, co-founder of Yammer and Eventbrite; David Jeske, former Director of Engineering at Google; and other angel investors and entrepreneurs.

Parakweet’s platform is fine-tuned for specific vertical markets, in order to best extract meaning from short, unstructured social media updates. BookVibe, Parakweet’s consumer-facing book recommendations product, scans a user’s social graph and extracts tweets that are actually about books with 96 percent accuracy. It also detects and distinguishes the person’s sentiment about the book—not the overall tweet. For example, if a tweet reads: “I’m reading War and Peace since the weather is lousy,” BookVibe understands that lousy refers to the weather, not the book. Some of the behaviors BookVibe identifies include “intent to read,” “read” and “recommend.” Furthermore, the Parakweet platform does not require users to join or recreate yet another social network.

“We started Parakweet to distill actionable insights from the unstructured language of social media,” said CEO and co-founder Ramesh Haridas. “Today, we’re providing consumers with book recommendations based on a user’s personal interests and the interests and affinities of the people they follow. Our platform also allows companies to tap into the behavioral signals consumers are generating across social media and uncover actionable and competitive insights.”

Added Haridas, “We’re inspired to have the backing and support of such a notable group of angel investors and tech entrepreneurs. With this funding, we’ve taken a decisive step to transform how meaning and understanding is derived from massive amounts of social media, which often includes slang, abbreviations and no punctuation—something that Parakweet is using natural language processing to solve.”

Investor Scott Banister added, “Parakweet’s disruptive technology gets under the hood of social media language and captures human behaviors with remarkable accuracy. Books and movies are just the tip of the iceberg for applications of Parakweet’s natural language processing engine.”

Parakweet was founded by a team of successful entrepreneurs and computer scientists including serial entrepreneur Ramesh Haridas; machine learning and search technologist Kiam Choo; and artificial intelligence software architect Ilmars Poikans.

About Parakweet

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in San Francisco, Parakweet is a platform that offers product recommendations to consumers and social media analytics and metadata to global media companies. Parakweet’s proprietary artificial intelligence platform uses natural language processing technology to extract meaning from unstructured social content and accurately identify associated behaviors, intent and sentiment. Parakweet’s first product BookVibe is a social discovery and book recommendation engine for consumers launched in 2013. For more information, please visit http://www.parakweet.com.







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Schultz Family Foundation Commits $30 Million To Help Veterans Navigate The …

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Schultz Family Foundation Commits Million To Help Veterans Navigate The …
… Email; Feedback; Add This; Blog This. SEATTLE, March 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — The Schultz Family Foundation announced a $ 30 million commitment to help America's veterans overcome the challenges of returning to civilian life and maximize their …
Read more on SYS-CON Media (press release)

Global Web 2.0 Data Center Market
The report, the Global Web 2.0 Data Center Market 2012-2016, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market in the Americas, and the EMEA … In the current business environment …
Read more on SYS-CON Media (press release)

LED lighting specialist, Lucibel S.A., raised 15 million and registers record year.

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Rueil Malmaison, France (PRWEB) December 20, 2013

Lucibel closed its €15 million financing operation, started in March 2013, with an additional contribution of €9 million in bonds, convertible into shares, subscribed by Bpifrance, Aster Capital and CM CIC Capital Innovation.

Out of this financing operation that was finalised on 18th December 2013, Bpifrance, Aster Capital and CM CIC Capital Innovation will have invested €7 million, €3.5 million and €3 million respectively into the Lucibel, the balance of the funds being provided by other investors.

Reference shareholders in the company, Aster Capital and CM-CIC Capital Innovation confirm their will to stand by the company in the long run. Bpifrance came onto the scene with its long-term investment plan, focusing on accompanying growing French businesses and particularly those with high capital needs.

Lucibel offers innovative lighting solutions, based on LED technology, for professionals, municipalities and individual purposes. Founded in 2008 by Frédéric Granotier, the business has grown substantially, through organic development and external growth, such as Cordel company, leader in shop lighting, that Lucibel took over in March 2013. This market consolidation strategy in lighting will continue following new acquisitions coming soon.

This fundraising, which began in March 2013, will finance the development strategy within France and on international scene, within a rapidly expanding LED market.

“We are happy and proud to welcome Bpifrance amongst our financial partners, sign of recognition of Lucibel’s technological expertise and its potential to develop, in France and globally.” stated Frédéric Granotier, founder and president of Lucibel.

Nicolas Dufourcq, Chief Executive Officer of Bpifrance said “Bpifrance invests in French innovation on an international conquest. That’s the spirit in which it has manifested its support to Lucibel.”

Lucibel and Bpifrance have been advised for this operation by law firms Brandford Griffith & Associates and Veil Jourde.

About Bpifrance:

Private equity investments of Bpifrance are operated by Bpifrance Investments, a management company. Bpifrance, subsidiary of France’s Caisse des Dépôts, invest minority stakes directly via generalist or sectorial funds, and indirectly through partner funds, in French businesses, PME, ETI and large corporations.

Bpifrance manages its own funds as well as third-party funds, notably the French state’s through the Programme of Future Investments (PIA). With a network of 42 regional establishments and 250 partner funds, 90 of which being regional, Bpifrance covers the whole of the French territory, sectors of activity, stages of development, from seeding to transmission.

Bpifrance act in market conditions seeking for efficiency levels, liquidity and profitability, allowing to provide traction to private investors. Bpifrance has adopted a long-term responsible investment approach.

More information on : http://www.bpifrance.fr – Follow us on Twitter : @bpifrance

About CM-CIC Capital Innovation:

CM-CIC Capital Innovation specialises in technology venture capital. From seeding, it supports businesses with a high growth potential within dynamic sectors such as IT, health, industrial innovations and even the environment.

CM-CIC Capital Innovation is affiliated with CM-CIC Capital Finance, investment arm and investment bank of the Crédit Mutuel Group – CIC. With €2.6 billion of capital managed, of which €1.9 billion is their own, it is represented across France through 6 major establishments (in Paris, Lyon, Nantes, Lille, Strasbourg and Bordeaux), CMC-CIC Capital Finance is one of the rare examples of a merchant bank investing its own money in the long-term.

About Aster Capital:

Aster Capital is the leading actor in venture capital sponsored by Alstom, Schneider Electric, Solvay and the European Investment Fund (through the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme). Specialised in the energy and environment sectors, Aster Capital benefits from a unique model which aims to accompany entrepreneurs by making them benefit from considerable assets from its sponsors, accelerating the development of their businesses’ development. By favouring partnerships with technological or commercial businesses such as Alstom, Solvay and/or Schneider Electric, we help entrepreneurs to expand their businesses. Aster Capital focuses on renewable energies, energy efficiency, eco-mobility, and the safety and long-term management of resources and contaminating emissions. Its teams are based in Paris, San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Shanghai and Tokyo.

http://www.aster.com


About Lucibel:

LUCIBEL is a French company offering innovative lighting solutions, combining value and quality lighting for professionals. LUCIBEL develops its LED lighting solution in France and sells them in more than 35 countries. http://www.lucibel.com







Skincare and Beauty Retailer Glisten Announces $1 Million Capital Raise

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Fargo, ND (PRWEB) July 09, 2013

Glisten, a brand that specializes in high-end skincare and beauty products, announced today a completed seed capital investment of $ 1 million. The funding was made by a small number of angel investors.

Funding will be used to build inventory and expand marketing efforts to help the startup company grow, according to the company’s founder, Tommy Leikas.

While the number of products available will soon grow to over 10,000, customers will initially have access to over 1,500 products from brands such as Obagi, Colorescience, and GlamGlow.

“Our primary focus is on the experience and not just the transaction,” said Sara Litton, Director of Brand Development. “We spend a lot of time thinking about beauty products, but we think even more about our customer’s experience. We want our customers to have an inspiring and fun interaction with us.”

A brick and mortar store is also in the final stage of development.

“The capital raised is providing us with the initial funds to start serving customers with products they already know, love and buy,” said Leikas. “This is the first step as we work to become one of the leading brands in the global beauty and cosmetics business.”







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GREEs Knights & Dragons Tops $5 Million in 30-Day Revenue

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San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) December 17, 2013

GREE today announced that Knights & Dragons, a top-charting game developed by their San Francisco studio in collaboration with Vancouver-based developer IUGO Mobile Entertainment Inc., has recorded more than $ 5 million of revenue in a 30-day period. GREE and IUGO now represent one of the most successful publishing relationships in mobile gaming.

“Hitting the $ 5M in 30 days mark was a goal we set for ourselves back in July and we committed to tremendous growth for Knights & Dragons. Clearly, the teams’ hard work and effort has been successful. Our relationship with IUGO, a leader in building high-quality mobile games, is a great illustration of how publishing can work and is a template for future partnerships,” said Naoki Aoyagi, CEO of GREE International, Inc. “A core part of GREE’s strategy is developing strong publishing partnerships with some of the industry’s top development talent and we aim to keep building more hugely successful relationships like this one.”

“We are very excited to see Knights & Dragons hit this $ 5M milestone. Between that revenue number and the recent Google award, we are confident that we are delivering the game players are looking for. Our goal is to continue to do so both with this game and in the future,” said Hong-Yee Wong, CEO of IUGO Mobile Entertainment. “The success of our partnership with GREE comes from both parties offering close and regular communication and a willingness to learn and share with each other. It is a foundation that that needs to be built to ensure the publishing relationship works. Knights & Dragons is proof of how far the right game can go with the right teams behind it.”

In July 2013, GREE announced that Knights & Dragons, had surpassed $ 1 million in monthly revenue. Since then, GREE has continued to collaborate with IUGO to add new features, content and ongoing in-game events as well as to track key metrics to continually improve game experience, retention and monetization. The refinement of Knights & Dragons as an RPG has won it a loyal following of players, earning positive reviews, high chart rankings and firm growth in month-on-month revenue. As further evidence of the game’s compelling play, Knights & Dragons recently won the “I Can’t Quit You” award in Google’s first ever Players’ Choice poll.

For more information on Knights & Dragons, visit the game’s Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/knightsanddragonsgame.

For more information about GREE, visit http://www.gree-corp.com or follow us on Twitter at @gree_corp.

About IUGO Mobile Entertainment, Inc.

Founded in 2003, IUGO is an innovative studio focused on creating premium game experiences on mobile devices. The passionate team is a perfect balance of inspired game creators and strong technology experts. In parallel with creating great games, IUGO has invested significant efforts into developing a suite of robust and high performance mobile-specific technologies. This has given the studio an edge to deliver superior products that look and play better. IUGO has earned a solid reputation for delivering recognized AAA titles for major global publishers as well as achieving success with its own self-published original games.

About GREE, Inc.

GREE is a global mobile social company with businesses that include social gaming, social media, advertising, licensing and merchandising, and venture capital. Established in December 2004, GREE created the world’s first mobile social game in 2007 and today is a global leader in free-to-play, reaching audiences around the world with its portfolio of first-party and partner titles. GREE has studios in Tokyo, San Francisco, Vancouver, and Seoul, and is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (3632).

GREE and the GREE logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of GREE, Inc., in Japan and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.







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