By The Editors 2/15 4:43pm

shameless rumormongering

Screen Shot 2013-02-15 at 3.25.10 PM

Rumor Roundup: Rap Genius Cofounder Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop

Real Genius Andreessen Horowitz invested $15 million in Rap Genius to help its Ivy League cofounders to annotate the Internet. But how much will they have to pay to rein in the braggadocious Mahbod Moghadam?

In a recent issue of Wakefield, a newsletter covering “tech and startup insight not captured elsewhere,” Maboo was up to his old shenanigans, volunteering information about a “feud” with Mark Zuckerberg, who also happens to be backed by Andreessen Horowitz.

Apparently, Mr. Moghadam was at Ben Horowitz’s home, “chilling” with Zuck and Nas as is the new mode of Silicon Valley socializing. (Mr. Horowitz happens to be close friends with Steve Stoute, Nas’ former manager.) Despite Zuck’s heightened privacy concerns (it’s complicated?) Rap Genius cofounder couldn’t resist Instagramming his good fortune. Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 2/12 11:30am

Yes I'm the Great Unboxer

10 Photos

Startup Status Symbol: Ignore the iWatch Agitprop, Pebble Is Ready to Be Unboxed

Between Nick Bilton’s business section cover story and the Wall Street Journal‘s Foxconn follow-up, it was hard to miss this weekend’s agitprop about the inevitable iWatch. According to Dan Lyons, that’s exactly how Apple intended it. That stock slide isn’t going to manipulate itself!

Mr. Lyons traced the start of Apple’s whisper (in a reporter’s ear) campaign back to TechCrunch blogger, investor, and Apple stock holder MG Siegler, who called the time it takes to pull an all-serving computer out of his own pocket ”insane.” That was followed by an impromptu treatise on the iWatch’s ability to “fill a gaping hole in the Apple ecosystem” from Cupertino’s former interface designer. Read More

By Jessica Roy 6/18/12 12:07pm

Kickstarted

(Photo: Kickstarter)

Hugely Successful Elevation Dock Kickstarter Project Apparently Just as Annoying to Use as Regular iPhone Docks [UPDATED]

When the marketing peg for your Kickstarter project is that your product is less annoying to use than its competitor products, you probably want to deliver on that promise. The Portland-based Elevation Dock surpassed its funding goal back in February, raising almost $1.5 million, almost 20 times more than its $75,000 asking goal. The project’s premise was that, unlike other iPhone docks on the market, the Elevation Dock allows your iPhone to be easily lifted from the dock, without all that annoying shaking and yanking characterized by other docks. But according to Droplr cofounder Josh Bryant, the Elevation Dock is just as annoying to use as its competitors. Read More

By Jessica Roy 6/05/12 11:25am

Kickstarted

Ms. Hu (lark.com)

Dismissive VCs Drive Hardware Startups Straight to Kickstarter

Imagine that you invented this really cool wristband alarm clock, and you think it could be a real ‘disruptive’ technology. You spend months mocking up a presentation to give to investors at TechCrunch Disrupt, but on the morning of your demo, rich assholes incapable of summoning empathy shit all over your startup, simply because it’s a hardware idea.

That’s pretty much exactly what happened to Julia Hu, the cofounder of Lark, according to CNN. Napster bad boy Sean Parker literally laughed her off the stage:

Read More

By Jessica Roy 5/10/12 4:54pm

Kickstarted

(supermechanical.com)

Pebble Watch Surpasses $10M, Partners with Twine for Real-Time Updates Sent Straight to Your Wrist

Oh, the Pebble. We’re almost getting tired of writing about it. The little e-paper gadget hit the “most-funded Kickstarter project EVAH” mark about six million dollars ago. Today, it surpassed $10 million in pledges and sold out of all 85,000 of its offered watches.

Seems like a good time to announce its second software partnership, right?

That’s exactly what the team did. The Next Web reports that another well-funded Kickstarter project, Twine, announced today that it had partnered with Pebble to offer real-time alerts to the watch. Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 5/01/12 12:06pm

Kickstarted

pebble-alerts

The Pebble Effect: The Spotlight Is Suddenly On Hardware Startups

The last time Betabeat checked in with Pebble the smartwatch, Y Combinator alum Eric Migicovsky had raised some $4.6 million on Kickstarter for an idea that struggled to find venture capital backing despite, you know, actually making revenue. (For those of you keeping track at home, Pebble has added $3 million on top of that for a total of $7.6 million–and counting!–with 17 days left to go.) Yesterday, Mr. Migicovsky got The New York Times treatment.

Now, all the fuss seems to have migrated over to the agenda for TechCrunch Disrupt. The conference just announced that for the first time in New York, the event will feature something called “Hardware Alley” alongside its standard “Start-up Alley” showcase on May 23rd. “We’re looking for promising hardware startups,” writes TechCrunch. “Got a disruptive Kickstarter project?” Gee, wonder who they’re talking about there. Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 4/18/12 5:07pm

Kickstarted

Pebble smartwatch

Pebble the Smartwatch, the Most-Funded Kickstarter EVAH, Is Now at $4.6 M. and Counting

Yesterday, we called it. The fact that Pebble the e-paper watch had raised $3.5 million with more than a month to go meant that KickStarter had hit the tipping point, surpassing even Double Fine Adventure’s previous high-score of $3,336,371. Maybe we shoulda waited awhile. Between now and then, Pebble has raised another million and change. The new total is $4,625,453 from 32,120 backers with 30 days to go.

At this rate, Pebble is going to raise $34 million before the jig’s up and Kickstarter should just secede from the Union and start minting their own currency. Maybe cfundrs or crowdsies™ or something. Read More

By Adrianne Jeffries 4/17/12 12:13pm

Kickstarted

Pebble, in action.

$3.5 M. and 31 Days to Go? Kickstarter Has Officially Hit the Tipping Point

We’ll probably end up writing this post eight more times, because this smartwatch project on Kickstarter has already raised $3,521,979 (three million, five hundred twenty-one thousand, nine hundred and seventy-nine dollars) with 31 days (a whole freaking month) to go before time runs out. The startup is nearing its third birthday and recently hit a stretch of mega-hits, including the videogame Double Fine Adventure, which closed at $3,336,371, and the webcomic Order of the Stick, which closed at $1,254,120. Another video game, Wasteland 2, just closed at $2,933,252.

Now this crazy touchscreen smartwatch project, Pebble, is taking Kickstarter to the next level. It raised $1 million in 28 hours (Double Fine hit $1 million faster) and with so much time to go, it boggles our tiny little minds to think of what the final total might be. Especially with those eight more stories we’re going to write about it. Read More

By Jessica Roy 4/13/12 3:21pm

Kickstarted

(kickstarter.com)

This Touchscreen Watch, Pebble, Hit $2 M. Faster Than Any Other Kickstarter Project

It’s a simple idea, but one that takes true technological sophistication to build: what if all of the important things your cell phone can do could be transferred over to a watch via Bluetooth? The concept has that futuristic Google Glasses waft to it, but it’s a product that is real and actually works, and eager technophiles are all but throwing money at the team who invented it. Read More