GetGlue, a popular start up that has an app available for Android and iOS, announced that they’ve successfully raised $12 Million in new funding which was led by RHO Ventures.

Previous investors such as Union Square Ventures, Time Warner Inc., and RRE Ventures participated again. What is GetGlue? Essentially, users can “check-in” and let people know they’re watching a TV show, movie, playing a game, listening to music, even what they’re reading or what they’re thinking about.

The company has done really well with crossing the 2 Million users mark and scoring 100 Million check-ins in 2011. In November of 2010, they raised $6 Million.

Via Reuters:

“GetGlue founder Alex Iskold said as many as 75 TV networks like Walt Disney Co’s ABC, News Corp’s Fox and Comcast Corp’s NBC use GetGlue’s marketing dashboard to reach fans of nearly 700 shows. The fans are rewarded with incentives like virtual stickers and actual gifts for checking in, while the networks hope to mine valuable user traffic data which goes beyond traditional viewership data.”

In regards to profitability, this is, again, a startup in it’s early phase. The company is at least 18 months from making a profit says the founder. Also, as far as what the $12 Million in new funding will pay for, Fast Company has the details:

“The new cash injection will help “the main goal of building up the product, and our user base,” and in 2012 GetGlue also plans to launch new innovations which includes targeting TV guides. Iskold said those have become “stale and impersonal, and we want to change this by introducing the next gen of the guide which is personal and smart and knows your habits and knows your tastes”–and ropes in social facets.”

GetGlue Raises $12 Million, The Foursquare Of Much More is a post from: The Inquisitr

It seems that just about every day that goes by we hear about some new web startup launching and looking to be the next big thing. Every month there seems to be more tech conferences than you can shake a stick at all for the purpose of showing off these startups, and the ones that are in *cough* stealth *cough* mode.

Given that 99% of these flash in the pan startups are following the free is great business model I have long maintained that their only real business model is to be acquired by one of the big boys, like Google, Microsoft or even in some cases Yahoo.

So it was interesting to read a post today by Jason Roberts who is probably best known for a web clone of PowerPoint where he is quite blunt about his reasoning for starting Preezo – to be acquired by Google.

The previous year Google and Yahoo (with the purchase of Oddpost) had replicated much of Microsoft Outlook’s functionality and responsiveness with their new email services and it seemed pretty obvious to me that the rest of Microsoft Office would be challenged in much the same way. The only uncertainty was how long it would take before that happened. My feeling was that while Google and Yahoo were likely to move fairly quickly I could still get there first and if I did I would be perfectly positioned as an acquisition candidate. While that’s not exactly how things played out, it seemed like a pretty solid bet to me at the time.

As Jason pointed out later in the post Google went shopping somewhere else (buying Zenter) and Preezo has faded away even though it got all kinds of favorable press on launch.

I’m not suggesting that all web startups are just a roundabout way to getting a cool job with one of the big boys, Groupon and Facebook are good examples of the small minority that buck the trend, but in most cases I believe that is the best that they can hope for.

Web startups are nothing but ‘live’ online resumes (and why they don’t always work) is a post from: The Inquisitr

The NYT featured a nifty little startup for web-savvy thin girls who want to wear the latest looks without investing in them.

“Investment pieces” have long been the blessing and curse of a girl who wants to have a few chances to wear designer things but doesn’t have a trust-fund baby’s bank account. Of the moment pieces fall to the wayside for well tailored, timeless pieces that never have that whole “right now” thing going for them. And when all your college friends are getting hitched, you don’t want to show up in the same LBD every time.

Following on the heels (heels? Is there a shoe one, too?) of Bag, Borrow, or Steal, two enterprising clotheshorses have started-up a Netflix-like dress rental service that allows women with champagne tastes and really quite convincing and well made Target purses to own a piece of their Cinderella dress, at least for a night. The site has some great, built-in safeguards against disappointment in cultivating the tricky relationship between a girl and her dress. Execution, says the Times, is “crucial.”  On-call stylists, 24 hour exchange turnarounds, and an extra size included on the house may knock out initial qualms about the service.

Even the designers whose pieces feature in the collection (including Diane Von Furstenberg, Hervé Léger, Lela Rose and Proenza Schouler) dig the idea:

“In challenging economic times, it’s important for brands to reach a larger audience and age demographic that you wouldn’t normally because of the price,” she said. “This is a great way to do it without jeopardizing the brand.”

Rental pieces range from $50-200 for a four night rental and include dry cleaning.

RentTheRunway.com lets you- well, rent the runway, essentially is a post from: The Inquisitr

From a Flickr founder, new search engine Hunch is out of private beta today.

So if you’re Binged out, you’ve been Google Squared and got your kosher-search on, you might need a bit of a helping hand with your next search. Hunch promises to help you find what you’re looking for on the web in “ten questions or less.” Huh. But in a searchy world where Google Answers, Wikia Search and MSN QnA have all disappeared from the landscape, will users trust the collective opinion?

Caterina Fake thinks so. Fake co-founded Flickr and had something to do with Yahoo! Answers before moving on to create Hunch. As you use it, Hunch asks a variety of seemingly irrelevant questions about you- are alien abductions real? Who makes the best fries? Do you like bumper cars? Building on your answers, the site compiles a demographic profile to find the best search results when you need them.

Clearly the site needs more input to work as intended. Earlier today, as I answered the random questions (not geared to a specific search) it would indicate that X% of users responded with that answer. But if it was a choice of three answers, my result was always the same as 33% of respondents, with no variance.

So I took the direct approach, selecting a question from the dropdown menu at the upper right hand corner of the page. Typing in “is” lead to a bunch of questions- I chose “is my partner cheating on me?” (Sorry, honey, it’s for work!)

A series of questions followed- does he tell you where he’s going? Do you both say “I love you?” Does he let you in on his schedule? After the promised ten questions, I was awarded with this result:

I don’t think Hunch will replace Google, nor is it looking to. But it might provide a comfy home for the legions of search engine surfers seeking answers to more personal questions like should I marry my boyfriend or is my son gay?

Hunch currently has a user satisfaction rate of 80%, and Fake believes with more users, it can go as high as 90-95%. So, what do you think? Will you be using Hunch?

Revolutionary search engine #2394: Hunch is a post from: The Inquisitr

As you know with Shared Feed you can add a note about why you are sharing this and Robert makes good use of it which is nice. However sometimes it gives us gems like this

Shared by Robert Scoble
Cringley taps into the feeling I have about Microsoft. I just don’t know that it’s strong enough to get enough people on board its cloud computing platform. All the startups I know are on Amazon or Rackspace. I am asking them all whether they will consider Microsoft. I’m getting lukewarm answers, but it’s still early and people are still learning about what Ray Ozzie is up to. It’s not an automatic “bet the company” kind of response that Microsoft had back in the 1990s when they brought out things like SQL Server or Visual Studio, though, and that, indeed should be troubling for Microsoft.

Robert’s basic premise appears to be that Microsoft’s attempt to join the cloud could fail to meet expectation because all these startups are more inclined to use Amazon or Rackspace; which by the way only a recent entry into the cloud themselves which I was suggest that developers will be just as wary of as they might be of Azure. Just how much business does Robert think startups have that will drive more adoption of cloud usage.

Chances are that you could take all the startups currently running and they wouldn’t even come close to what the usage of the corporate market can bring to the table. While startups are looking to do everything on the cheap because they have to be supported by an extremely questionable business model corporations are looking for a consistent platform from a known vendor and while Amazon could give them that they aren’t providing the kind of developer ecosphere that revolves around Micorosoft and its products.

Startups have their place and thank god for their innovation but that doesn’t mean that they are going to be the driving force that Robert seems to think they are – not when it comes to the broad adoption of the cloud. I call bullshit on that idea – sorry Robert.

Hey Scoble – startups aren’t the cat’s ass you think they are is a post from: The Inquisitr

Startup Camp came to Melbourne this weekend, and I was happy to take part. A point of clarification on the name though: although the event was called Startup Camp, it wasn’t the same format as the excellent event of the same name held in San Francisco in May. Instead, the Melbourne Startup Camp was closer in format to Startup Weekend, an intense Friday + weekend event of developing a startup from idea to product and pitch.

The following is a mix of observations on the event as an idea, lessons learned, and actual startups and interactions from the event. There’s probably three separate posts I could write, but given according to the VC I talk to much, I’m owning the tag with a mega post instead

The Good

The Format

Two and a bit days to come up with an idea for a startup, then to deliver it, complete with prototype, business plan and pitch may be (and was) an intense experience, but it challenged every participant. For developers, it focused their attention on results, and took away the luxury of time. For those in marketing or the broader business side, it forced decision making and hard decisions without the luxury of broader testing. Everything from the logo, site design and the usability/ needs case, through to financials and final pitch. It worked, and in my case it forced me to think outside my comfort zones, to hone everything from brainstorming through to tangents in revenue streams. Working on a business plan, something I’ve never particularly been fond of, refreshed my skills in doing so, and gave me some hands on practice.

Best of show: Marketbeagle

The best startup to come out of the weekend was a SME focused marketing tool calls Marketbeagle. Aside from the best logo and reasonable site design (best from the weekend, but it was prototype), the idea stood out as having a real use case and strong business potential.

Here’s the official spiel

marketbeagle tracks success in your marketing campaigns through easy to use data capture and analysis tools. We’re committed to helping your business achieve its goals through giving you a better understanding of where your marketing budget is going and how hard it’s working for you.

Originating at the intensive environment of the first Melbourne Startup Camp in 2008, marketbeagle saw a need for a simple marketing campaign analysis and reporting tool for small to medium businesses who might not have the expert staff still need expert advice. We bring businesses together and provide industry-wide trends in market-effectiveness as well as customised and personalised results.

bitofpluck

bitofpluck was the product I ended up involved in, if not from the beginning of the camp (see below for more). It was an interesting, and unique idea, matching people for casual meetups in the real world. Not dating, but not social networking. The platform would be offered by web app, website and eventually SMS, so say you were in an airport with free time and nothing to do, you could meet a new person for a coffee or chat where you shared the same interests. This extended to broader travel and social settings, for example you’re at a music festival by yourself but would love to meet someone new.

It was a hard sell. It crossed lines into existing services, but in itself it was completely unique in what it offered. We could scale it, but the important factor was always going to be people: without enough users, it failed out of the gate, because you can’t match people without enough people in the system, and available for meetings. It did have other possibilities: a couple we came up with were white label version for events/ conferences, for example a conference organizer may want to match like minded people, and with SMS side had appeal in bridging the digital divide globally, and for encouraging phone use, something telcos in particular (presuming we could demonstrate the appeal) might want to offer as a value add to increase customer use of services such as mobile data and SMS.

The bad

Forcing a mix of people

After the Sydney Startup Camp, the organizers decided to intentionally mix skills sets up among the groups. They found that in Sydney, lumping developers together who programed in the same language only resulted in them replicating what many did in their day jobs. In Melbourne, we had developer teams that worked on different platforms, and in different languages, so getting a consensus on what to use to build the startup resulted in dispute, and at least in the bitofpluck, resulted in 6 hours wasted developing the service one way, to completely abandoning that work and starting again in another format. In a real world startup environment, the development team will nearly always been on the same page, and share similar skill sets and preferences.

iSportster

The original group I started the camp with came up with “iSportster,” a web based scoring and basic social application for indoor sports. The execution at the end of the event wasn’t overly bad: the prototype seemed solid enough (and it’s a credit to guys like Cam MacRae and Scott Goldie that it did), and you could see how people would use it. But where it failed was on the market test.

During the idea phase the group came down to two ideas. The CEO for lack of a better term (the reference to I and my team in the final presentation was telling) argued that indoor sports centers didn’t have any web based scoring and would use this based on an argument that centered around the fact that he played indoor sports, and he had never seen anything like this. I argued that I had seen services like this in 99 (I spent a number of years in sports management and marketing), that there was a range of companies today offering variations on this theme, including scoring, and that it failed on the market test because there was too many funded competitors. I was told that I didn’t play indoor sports, and had no idea about the market, and that indoor sports were different to sports in general. I said more than once that I would support the idea when they could convince me in facts that there was room in the market, and that indoor sports centers would use it (that they don’t use a service like this now isn’t justification of an unmet need, it only proves that they may not be interested in services like this at all).

After 10-15 minutes of this, biting my tongue while the CEO made the argument personal, including direct attacks, I’d had enough. I can’t repeat every word I said, but the polite version was me saying that he could have his idea, that if all he could do to argue his point was personal put downs it was telling of weakness of his argument. At that stage I found the organizer and said basically that I was here to learn and have a great time, but this was not acceptable, and that I’ll see them all later. I was asked to say and offered a place in another group, and not wanting to miss out, I took it.

The finer points in the story maybe too much information, but painting the picture is important when considering the lessons in interaction, ego, and the need to understand a market before starting a startup.

Passion for what you are doing is vital if you’re doing a startup, and this chap had that by the bucketload. But being passionate and thinking you know everything are two very different things. The first rule of a startup should always be that you don’t know everything, and you should be willing to take on board other opinions. Second, market analysis and research is vital for any new startup, or even a blog: you must know the market you’re going into. There were time restraints at Startup Camp, and the business model, market and SWOT analysis came AFTER the seed idea, but in the real world, they should, at least in some degree, come before you commit to build a startup. Then there’s ego and working in groups: if you have to put down others inside your group to justify your argument, you shouldn’t be in a people management role or a leadership position. Leaders inspire with their knowledge, and through empathy, they don’t bully in bloody mindedness. That people clash and have differences of opinion are a given in every office and workspace on the planet, but leadership requires something better.

The VC

I’ve previously been harsh on Australian VC’s. As a rule, Australian VC’s want to give startups a quarter or a fifth of what an American VC would give a startup, for two, three and often four times the amount of equity. Australian VC’s tend to be highly risk adverse compared to their American cousins, hate early stage investments and very few have any deep understanding of Web 2.0. To be fair, that’s not always the case, and in the recent years I’ve been impressed with some of the VCs I’ve met, and there external factors that contribute to Australia’s current VC problem, the main being unfavorable treatment by Government.

In this environment, getting a VC to attend an event on a Sunday afternoon was always going to be hard, so I make no judgment on the organizers of the event. The Angel investor they found, Jordan Green of Greenson, didn’t disappoint in reinforcing every thing that is wrong with the Australia web scene and venture capital.

His role on the day was two fold: he was meant to be providing a briefing prior to the pitch, and then listening/ providing judgment on the pitches. We’d presumed that his role prior was to give us advice, but it worked out quite differently. Our group was the last to spend time with him, and the first to pitch. He asked us about the business briefly, then started trying to label it with one word. “So it’s dating” was one thing he said. Shallow perhaps, but understandable, you want to get a rough idea of what the site was aiming to do. We explained the business model, and this is where it got fun. He told us that we didn’t have a business model, and (having focused on the SMS provision side) said that our business model should be to spam people in shopping centers and surrounding areas with discount codes to get them into shops. Not only as they walk past the store (a service I’d note was tried in Sydney a couple of years ago, and may still be going), but to everyone around the center, say in a 1km radius. Shopping centers and stores would pay for this he said, and it will rake in the cash.

So with minutes to go before the pitch, everything we’d worked for all weekend, was baseless, because we should go into the business of SMS spam.

I’d note aside from the obvious moral issues around spamming people, that it’s also nearly impossible to do. Governments in Australia can’t get access to send out bulk SMS messages based on geolocation in emergency situations (I have that confirmed directly from a source), a private enterprise would have no hope what so ever.

The group dynamics changed. Many were tired, but the enthusiasm to this point for everything we’d done was gone. People sat quietly, few said anything. Then we pitched. The pitch was went too long, made worse by having to basically make up large slabs of the business model as we went along because everything had been focused on the original model. It wasn’t my finest hour, but I also didn’t think it was terrible either, even if I overcompensated for the business model vacuum by going off in every tangent that popped into my head, trying to find something Green might actually think worked.

All Green said at the end was (and directly to me, in front of the audience) was that I talk too much, and I should never be allowed to pitch to VC’s.

And you know what, if I never pitch to a guy like Green again as long as a live, I’ll die out my days as a extremely happy man.

The other groups presented, and he was harsh on MarketBeagle, saying that its a Saleforce clone (it isn’t) and there was nothing there. Perhaps the clarity in the pitch was wrong, and I don’t recall them talking about competitors in the space, but hey, if they had, perhaps it would have been too long.

His wrap up advice was words along the following lines:

every pitch should start and end in an exit strategy, that’s all investors care about, how much they’re going to make, and when. If you have a business that will be worth $3-5 million in 3 years, don’t bother pitching it, no one is going to fund that, no one cares. No one cares about the social aspects of the business. Lifestyle isnt’ important. You need to say that your business is worth $200 million, even if its a stretch, because that’s all the VC’s care about.

The short version: bullshit and lie, and it’s only about the money.

There is one good side out of Green attending: everyone in the room who had never met an Australian VC before knows that they are anything other than nice people, and any rumors they’d heard about VC’s were true.

For extra bonus points, Green pitched his angel group before he left, telling the audience that they shouldn’t pitch to others because they won’t listen (nice little attack for someone who is suppose to be investment community leader), and that you’ll need to send a check for $150 with your pitch so they’ll read it. It really says everything: only in Australia would you pay to get screwed over by VCs.

Conclusion

For the highs and the lows, the positives from the weekend made it a worth while exercise. New contacts were made, networks established, and besides the lack of sleep, many found strength within themselves to create some new and unique, and to challenge themselves in the spotlight. There may not be a successful startup of the three created at the event, but if only a handful of participants use their experience to start their own, it’s a win/ win for the idea, and for the broader Australian web 2.0 industry.

Melbourne Startup Camp: the good, the bad and the VC is a post from: The Inquisitr

Here’s what startups can learn from fluffy bunnies.

Fluffy bunnies are cute

In a week where Scoble called every company presenting at DEMO awful due to their websites, style remains an important factor in the mix. Fluffy bunnies are nice to look at, and so should your website. You may have the best idea in the world, but people will be repulsed if your website looks like a Chinese Crested Dog instead of a fluffy bunny.

Fluffy bunnies live in warrens

In an age of environmental awareness, and low carbon footprints, cheap sustainable accommodation is the name of the game. Less than a quarter of the companies presenting at DEMO came from Silicon Valley, proving that you don’t have to have the flashest office in Palo Alto to succeed.

Fluffy bunnies have several exits for safety and quick escapes in their warrens

Starting a site like Twitter with no business model on the idea that some where along the line you might have a viable business was never a good strategy, and that’s even more so now with a slowing economy. Startups need to focus on an exit strategy, and ways to get out if things aren’t going well. Bunnies always know their exists, and they don’t wait around praying for miracles.

Fluffy bunnies have eyes on the sides of the head, delivering a 190 degree field of vision

Know your competition, see the threats and opportunities, and stay on your toes. You need to be focused on your goals, but never focus blindly on them, and learn to except that things can and do change.

Less than 10 percent of all abandoned wild baby bunnies survive.

You’ve left the safety of your corporate job chasing your dream, but the bad news is that most startups fail. 10% on a good day survive.

Fluffy bunnies are excellent at jumping.

How high would you like me to jump, Mr VC? Sometimes you’ve got to show off and spin a little to close the round you need. Practice your skills, and be prepared to jump in when the opportunity arises.

Fluffy bunnies can’t throw up. They can gag, but they can’t vomit.

Stay strong, learn to not fall to pieces when things aren’t going your way. Try not to lash out, learn to gag on your frustration instead.

Fluffy bunnies have long ears for gathering sounds and determining where the sound came from

Learn to network well. Be seen, and use the opportunity learn. Listen to what people are saying about your business and the competition. Talk to smart people. Always be open to feedback, and be prepared to take the criticism as a learning experience, not a kick to the head.

(img credits: 1/ 2)

What startups can learn from fluffy bunnies is a post from: The Inquisitr

The pitch can vary. I have the upmost respect for Andrew Baron for example, not because I like Rocketboom the show that much (it’s ok, but I’m not a regular viewer) but because he mastered the art of distribution in online video. Many may have arguably believed that Ze Frank was better, but Rocketboom had the viewers because Baron mastered the pitch to maximize Rocketboom’s presence on sites and services. In terms of a startup, the concept that you can do it all alone and PR is dead is verging on a joke. PR isn’t dead, it’s the greasy hand that spins the wheels of EVERY MAJOR BLOG ON THE PLANET. Besides, consider it logically: you’re writing for a large blog, you’re swamped with emails and calls, who are you going to pay attention to first, the PR rep you know who delivers you great stories in a format you can work with, or some guy you’ve never heard of who couldn’t write a decent pitch to save his life and is email 512 in your inbox for Monday. Now I’d note that I wouldn’t ignore your direct emails, but I have missed stories in the past based on a poor pitch. If you can’t sell your product, unless it’s the greatest invention of all time, it will never sell itself, at least initially.

Of course the flip side of the spin cycle is that those who truly master the pitch can be rewarded quickly along the way by targeted manipulation. Take for example the folks behind JustHackIt, a Slinkset hosted social voting site for hacking jobs, or as TechCrunch so delightfully described it “JustHackIt: It’s Like a Dating Site For Hackers.” In mastering the pitch, they’ve hunted extremely well. They targeted the author with zero real world experience, knowing that he was incapable of noticing basic things, like seeing the site had no Alexa rating then automatically checking the registration to notice that the site was less that 24 hours old! Better still, the URL resolves to a Slinkset sub-domain, so they’re not evening hosting the site themselves! The site is now for sale on Sitepoint, and you can guess the headline: “JustHackIt – Featured in TechCrunch.” This is proof that it’s all about pitch, where a site thrown together on a whim can get this sort of public attention where others who invest millions and years can’t get a post.

My advice to those working in the startup world, or even thinking of entering it: the moment you delude yourself into believing you don’t need to be pitching your product, you shouldn’t be involved in a startup. You have to sell the idea or product, and you have to do it well so that you’re product or site does stand out in a sea of competition.

(in part via Centernetworks)

It’s all about the pitch is a post from: The Inquisitr