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New York City’s budding technology industry is growing rapidly by attracting investors and engineering talent despite spotty access to a reliable broadband network, according to a study released on Wednesday.
The study, “New Tech City,” conducted by the Center for an Urban Future, concluded that the technology industry is growing faster in New York City than anywhere else in America and that the city now trails only Silicon Valley as a hub for the development of new technology companies. The study’s authors, Jonathan Bowles and David Giles, identified 486 technology companies that had been founded in the city since 2007 and determined that the financial crisis and the recession that followed did not slow the industry’s growth. (read more)
Matt Cohler was employee No. 7 at Facebook. Adam D’Angelo joined his high school friend Mark Zuckerberg’s quirky little start-up in 2004 — and became its chief technology officer. Ruchi Sanghvi was the first woman on its engineering team.
All have left Facebook. None are retiring. With lucrative shares and a web of valuable industry contacts, they have left to either create their own companies, or bankroll their friends. (read more)
Here an ad, there an ad, everywhere an ad ad. Except on Facebook’s mobile app, that is.
Facebook amended its public offering prospectus on Wednesday to note that it is showing fewer ads per user on the site because of its lack of mobile advertising. It is the sixth amendment to the document since Facebook filed for an initial public offering in February. (read more)
The following is a link to a blog which outlines very detailed notes on the class Peter Thiel is currently teaching at Stanford.
http://blakemasters.tumblr.com/
*This is not my blog, and I don’t go to Stanford.
Silicon Valley doesn’t have much love for Wall Street, perceiving buttoned-up financiers as fee-obsessed number crunchers who don’t really understand technology.
But Michael Grimes of Morgan Stanley, a gadget enthusiast with a computer science background, has managed to become Silicon Valley’s banker of choice for initial public offerings. (read more)
Imagine a network of private highways that reserved a special lane for Fords to zip through, unencumbered by all the other brands of cars trundling along the clogged, shared lanes. Think of the prices Ford could charge. Think of what would happen to innovation when building the best car mattered less than cutting a deal with the highway’s owners. (read more)
The investment team at the Kauffman Foundation believes the venture capital industry is broken and they — or rather investors in VC funds — are partially to blame. The report condemns venture firms for being too big, not delivering returns, and not adjusting to the times. But then it blames the situation on a misalignment of incentives: Namely, limited partners that invest in venture firms have done so in a way that encouraged VCs to raise huge funds at a time when huge funds weren’t really warranted. And now, for the Kauffman Foundation at least, the chickens have come home to roost. (read more)
For the past couple of decades, venture capitalists have had the upper hand. They’ve had the funding and, traditionally, they’ve held most of the power in the startup ecosystem. But, Fred Wilson, managing partner of Union Square Ventures (and beloved blogger), believes that balance of power is shifting (As noted in Stacey’s take on a similar notion advanced by the Kauffman Foundation earlier Tuesday.) And as it does, venture capitalists themselves must rethink their role. (read more)
Well, it’s been quite a year already for the crowdfunding industry. With the JOBS Act becoming law, the tech industry (and the economy at large) are headed for some big changes. Namely, the legalization of crowdfunding in startups for non-accredited investors has come to pass. Yes, now even your mom can invest in your startup. While many of the consequences (positive or negative) of the legalization will play out over the next few years, the most well-known crowdfunding platform has been busy racking up a blockbuster season. If it weren’t there already, Kickstarter hit the tipping point in February, as it saw a number of record-breaking projects and landed squarely in mainstream consciousness thanks to a slew of media coverage. (read more)
When Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion last month, it raised a lot of questions about which buzzed-about start-ups might be on track for similar success. The start-up scene is flooded with apps and services that are attracting users and backing from investors. But it can be hard to work out which companies are worthy of the kind of attention Instagram was receiving when Facebook came calling. Here is an inherently incomplete list of companies that have the potential to be a hit — whether because they’ve seen explosive user growth, or are attracting investors or a new demographic, or just because they have an unusual idea that seems to be taking off. Of course, any of these start-ups could become the next Pets.com. But they could also be the next big thing. (read more)
