Tag Archives: TechCrunch
Mint: Productive Money Management Web 2.0 Application Walks Away With TechCrunch40 Grand Prize
Aaron Patzer had a vision in November 2005. When using Quicken for his own personal accounting, Aaron realized that he was running through a lot of tedious work. Patzer then started developing Mint, a Web 2.0 tool that is used for all the different forms of money management.
Today, Mint is backed by First Round Capital and previous executives from eBay, Google, Charles Schwab, and Reuters. Josh Kopelman became a Mint Board of Director after investing into the company. Kopelman is the founder of Half.com, which eBay bought in June 2000 for $318 million. Mint’s current funding is $5 million.
As of tonight, Mint has another award to list as an accomplishment: the TechCrunch40 Conference 2007 winner. The personal finance application will take home $50,000 as an award.
Categories First Round Capital, Mint.com, TechCrunch
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Former TechCrunch UK Writer, Sam Sethi Launches Blognation And Receives Funding
Former TechCrunch UK writer, Sam Sethi is making some ambitious moves. Sethi is starting a technology blog that does not focus on U.S. companies and is called Blognation. Blognation[1] will be focusing on web companies that are largely based in the European and Asian continent.
The problem with the idea of focusing on European website companies is that every web company has interests in making an impression in Silicon Valley. This is where practically all the venture capital firms are and where a majority of the web company acqusitions take place.
Below is a video interview of Sam Sethi talking about the launch of Blognation:
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=uMlUCoawfgg[/youtube]
Blognation has about 16 writers and include technologies that revolve on the web, mobile technologies, and enterprise software. Blognation also lists events that will take place in the aforementioned locations. The chronological upcoming events on Blognation right now are listed all the way till March 17, 2008.
In regards to Sam Sethi’s firing from TechCrunch UK, Michael Arrington wrote in his personal blog[2]:
“Sam and I exchanged words this morning and I said he basically fired himself with that second to last post promoting his events. But nothing had been publicized and we certainly could have discussed a work around, public apology, retraction, etc. But the next thing I knew he’d posted on the blog about his dismissal. Until that happened, everything was reversible. After he took that step, the situation was no longer able to be resolved.”
Supposedly, Blognation has already raised funding from undisclosed investors. If or when Michael Arrington brings back TechCrunch UK, he may have found himself making a former employee into a rival. The intensity of rivalry could be very interesting. Arrington is pretty ruthless when it comes to competition.
[1] Blognation
[2] CrunchNotes: Putting TechCrunch UK On Hold
Categories Blognation, TechCrunch
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TechCrunch20 Conference Website Is Now Live
The TechCrunch 20 Conference website is officially live. Sequoia Capital is sponsoring the event. Jason Calacani and Michael Arrington are teaming up for the event.
If you’re a start-up and feel that you are ready to pitch an idea to a group of well-connected individuals such as Mark Cuban, Dave Winer, Robert Scoble, Om Malik, Chris Anderson, and Mike Arrington himself, then I suggest registering for the event.
The creation of this event was inspired by the fact that to present your start-up at the DEMO conference, it costs $15,000. For more details, click here.
Categories Sequoia Capital, TechCrunch
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Hilary Duff’s Chihuahua Moves Into the Dogster House
Hilary Duff, popstar/actress has announced that her pet Chihuahua, Lola now has a profile on niche social network, Dogster.com.
Dogster.com was founded by Ted Rheingold in San Francisco around January 2004. Dogster rose like a phoenix from the ashes of the out-of-business niche pet sector websites such as Pets.com. Now the website has over 275,000 accounts and 350,000 photos. Advertisers such as Disney and Holiday Inn have also targetted Dogster for promotion.
“Lola is the best, and she has such a great personality. I am excited that she is part of the Dogster community so people will get to know her, and she’ll be able to get to know all the other top dogs out there,†Duff said.
Dogster has raised $1 million in funding by several angel investors including Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch.
Duff’s dog has been featured on many magazines, made an appearance on David Letterman, and even has a character featured on Electronic Arts’ The Sims 2: Pet Edition.
Lola Duff’s profile is available at http://www.dogster.com/dogs/489342. Duff’s participation may just set off a trend for other celebrity dog owners to create profiles. Although I highly doubt Britney Spears and Paris Hilton will do the same since they are the World’s Worst Celebrity Dog Owner according to Hollywood Dog and New York Dog magazines.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CS8sItnhus[/youtube]
Categories Dogster, TechCrunch
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