By Adrianne Jeffries 8/16/11 6:11pm

shameless rumormongering

rumormonger

Rumors & Acquisitions: Social Media Edition

OMGNATE. We posted about Nate Westheimer selling the first app he ever coded, Ohours, to Hirelite. Ohours was going great! People loved it! And yet Mr. Westheimer was ready to move on to bigger and better Rubylicious things. Although he demurred when we asked what. But the rumormill is suggesting it’s something to do with social gaming. A source tells Betabeat the stealth project is “a partnership with OMGPOP’s Forman,” referring to the infamous Charles, a friend of Mr. Westheimer’s. Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 8/10/11 5:47pm

Social Strat

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See What Zach Klein Just Did There With His SkillShare Scholarship?

On his Tumblr today, former Vimeo co-founder Zach Klein took a break from his summer project building what looks like an off-the-grid cabin in the woods to announce a scholarship opportunity Peter Thiel would be proud of. To promote the value of peer-to-peer education, as opposed to that no good very bad institutionalized kind of book learning, Mr. Klein is offering $1,000 (total, not per person, sorry). Until the funds run out–or August 19th, whichever comes first–anyone who signs up for a class at Skillshare, where Mr. Klein notes he led the seed investment round through Founder’s Collective, can be reimbursed up to $20 worth of the ticket price. All you have to do is email your receipt to skillsharescholarship@gmail.com. Read More

By Adrianne Jeffries 7/27/11 2:46pm

The Start-Up Rundown

venmo-tshirt-asha

Start-Up News: It Wasn’t Too Hot to Push Features

The biggest start-up news of the last week was probably Google+ sucking up The Fridge, but New York start-ups are pushing features and hiring and having parties and moving to New York City:

WE’RE GOING TO NEW YORK CITY! Philly-and-New York-based mobile payments start-up Venmo will be setting up full-time shop in New York next week on the heels of announcing some new iPhone app features including the most commonly-requested passcode lock, which lets you lock the Venmo app with a four-digit PIN “in case your cat gets a hold of your iPhone.” You can also now scan a credit card by snapping a picture and check a box to check in on Foursquare when you split a bill.

INCREDIBLE JOURNEYS. New York start-up KeyWifi is trying to get people and businesses to share their wifi hot spots, bringing it up against security issues and legal challenges and other logistical hurdles. Betabeat spoke to founder Adam Black some months ago and we were not encouraged that the idea would ever get off the ground. But there’s been some movement: today the start-up announced three new hires. “KeyWifi is also feverishly growing, updating our technology and growing our customer base.  To make this happen, our high-spirited, company founder, Adam Black, expanded the arsenal of KeyWifi talent with Product Director, Tom Hughes, Senior Technology Officer, Justin Fields and Community Development Manager, Jenn Lackey.” Read More

By Adrianne Jeffries 6/01/11 4:11pm

Mobile Pay

Venmo Skips the Middle Man and Hooks Up With Banks

Venmo isn’t a big enough player in mobile payments to merit trash talk from incumbent money-mongers Visa and PayPal the way Google has, but the New York and Philly-based company is making moves. It used to take up to two weeks to transfer money from Venmo to your bank account. Now it takes 24 hours, the result of working directly with banks. But is it Visa, PayPal or Google Venmo has to worry about? Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo are gradually rolling out a network within which seamless person-to-person payments can be done from a cell phone; ex-Twitter founded start-ups BankSimple and Square have their eyes on this feature as well.

By Adrianne Jeffries 2/18/11 3:05pm

Mobile Pay

Cutesy Venmo Receipts Are Now a Thing

Friends and money, they don’t always mix. But they have to: Exchanging money with friends is impossible to avoid. Drinks, taxis, dinners and cable bills are just some of the things for which we become financially indebted to each other, sometimes for substantial amounts (thanks, expensive City).

There are a few problems with this. Venmo, Read More