Archive for May, 2011

The Top 10 VC Firms, According To InvestorRank

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

Any seasoned investor knows that past performance is not indicative of future returns. That is as true with public stocks as it is with venture capital firms. But if someone were to ask you to rank the top VC firms today based on their probability of success, how would you do it? Remember, looking at past returns won’t help you.

Chris Farmer, a VC at General Catalyst Partners, has come up with a method which he calls InvestorRank. Just as Google’s PageRank orders search results based on how many links each page gets from other sites, InvestorRank looks at the connections between VC firms. Whenever two VC firms co-invest in the same deal, that creates a bond between them. If one VC firm follows another one in a later round, that boosts the rank of the earlier investor.

Too Good To Be True? Groupon Users Unite To Question Suspect Offer

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

Groupon users in Denver found Tuesday’s deal for a 61% price cut on home delivery of local, organic fruit from a company called Specialty…

Get a Job in Social Media, Web Development or Design

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

If you’re seeking a job in social media, we’d like to help out. For starters, Mashable‘s Job Lists section gathers together…

‘The Daily’ Is About To Hit A Million Downloads

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

At the “Disrupting Publishing from Tablets to Links” panel at TechCrunch Disrupt, ‘The Daily’ Publisher Greg Clayman revealed an interesting milestone about Rupert Murdoch’s foray into tablet publishing. When asked by editor Erick Schonfeld whether or not the iPad app was doing well, Clayman revealed that it has been downloaded close to a million times, in the sixty days since its launch on February 2nd. “This puts us in the large pantheon of large news apps … We are consistently now in the top grossing apps, in the top ten or top twelve. Today we’re number three” Clayman said.

How Amazon Helped Adam Carolla Stay in Podcasting

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

In 2009, when KLSX in Los Angeles canceled his morning radio show, Adam Carolla walked away from traditional media and became an unlikely Intern…

This Brammo Enertia Electric Motorcyle Was Just Spontaneously Given Away At Disrupt

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

Enamored of the shiny orange Brammo Enertia electric motorcyle adorning the stage during the latest presentations here at Disrupt NYC, Michael Arrington decided that it should be given away. Never mind that it wasn’t ours to give, and that we were already significantly over time. Once the idea took hold of his mind, he was not to be dissuaded, and after a short talk with Brammo CEO Craig Bramscher (conveniently present backstage following a panel on next-generation motoring), it was a done deal.

Qwiki Will Soon Let You Qwiki Yourself

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

TechCrunch Disrupt winner and alum Qwiki took the stage today for an update on news from the startup. What makes Qwiki so compelling is its ability to generate media on the fly that combines text, audio, and animated photos. It presents information in a highly visual way, assembling photos and spoken text from Wikipedia and other sources to create visual guides to millions of topics.

The company recently launched its iPad app in the App Store, and quickly gained an impressive number of downloads. And the company also raised $9 million in new funding.