By Adrianne Jeffries 9/05/11 9:32am

The Gamification of Everything

eric strait

You Think You Know Startups? New Metastartup Turns Startup News Into a Game

Remember the metastartups, the companies that exist only because of the burgeoning startup scene? Metastartups are just as viable as regular startups (or more), as it turns out. Take the outrageous success of actual revenue-generating website LaunchRock, the splash page and Twitter spam creator which could only exist in our interesting times. (The case could be made that any Bitcoin service is a metastartup centered around a startup currency.) Betabeat got a note from Eric Strait this morning, Austin-based co-founder of metastartup StartupDelight, which launched itself via LaunchRock in May, at which time we wrote: “StartupDelight lets you back hot trending startups by purchasing their hot company logo gear through special deals-of-the-day. Who is your market? Hot startups! What’s your product? Hot startup gear! Who are you? A startup! Welcome to the all-startup economy: Totally self-sufficient, with a little help from friends.” Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 9/01/11 10:51am

Demo Daze

500

500 Startups Demo Day at General Assembly: Oversubscribed Startups, Cobra Kai-Fives, and White People Problems

The advent of 500 Startups first-ever Demo Day in New York drew a standing room only crowd to General Assembly yesterday for a long night of seed stage pitches and free beer that went an hour past its 9pm bedtime. Betabeat knew we were in the right place when we overheard, “We want to create a better music experience, better than Pandora,” pass for small talk over by the cheese and crackers table. The sight of TechStar’s David Tisch in a backwards baseball cap and khaki shorts (“business shabby” strikes again!) high-fiving Dave McClure was another promising sign.

All of the startups pitching were graduates of Mr. McClure’s 500 Startups, a Mountain View-based accelerator program, and many flew in from the Valley in search of local froth and perhaps a glimpse of the tall buildings. Each co-founder walked out to their own theme music, with soon-to-be baby daddy Jay-Z making a surprisingly popular choice. Read More

By Adrianne Jeffries 3/16/11 2:19pm

SXSW

groupme shirt

SXSW Made GroupMe Break Out

As if they weren’t smug enough already. New York’s GroupMe was voted the Breakout Digital Trend of South By Southwest by people using the official SXSW mobile app. I have no idea how many people that was, but GroupMe seemed to have the widest adoption and the loudest voice in a very Read More