Order first aircraft
McGinness and McMaster –a wealthy grazier — become friends when McGinness fixes McMaster’ car when it breaks an axle in a riverbed. Back in Brisbane, McGinness and Fysh tell McMaster about their plans for an air service, beginning with joy rides and air taxi trips. McMaster convinces business acquaintances to invest with them. With their former flight sergeant Arthur Baird as aircraft mechanic, Fysh and McGinness order two Avro 504K aircraft at Mascot Aerodrome, Sydney in the name of The Western Queensland Auto Aero Service Limited.
Joins Zone Labs
McAfee invests in San Francisco-based cybersecurity firm Zone Labs, creator of the then-popular ZoneAlarm firewall product. McAfee also joins the company’s board of directors.
Funding approved
After a hard political battle, President Bush signs an omnibus bill which includes $110 million in initial funding for NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt System. The funding allows the team to proceed with the final design of the probe.
It’s like the old days. We are going to the frontier. We’re going back to the roots of the space program.
Loopt joins Y Combinator
Loopt joins the inaugural batch and receives a reported $6,000. Altman says the money-saving culture at Y Combinator, which extends to things like readymade meals, helps develop the location-based mobile app company develop:
That culture of frugality and discipline is really important for the Y Combinator mindset. The start-ups that do well are the ones that are working all the time.
$5m Series A funding
0 0 reuben reuben2014-10-16 15:49:282015-03-23 01:35:37$5m Series A fundingFunds Justin.tv
Graham funds Kan and Shear’s second venture, Justin.tv, supplying $50,000 through Y Combinator. The website featues a single channel tracking Kan, who wears a camera on his head and a backpack full of cellphone modems, as he goes about life in San Francisco. It attracts tens of thousands of viewers. Graham:
I thought it was insanely weird.
$12m Series B funding
Loopt raises a reported $12 million from its two existing investors, Sequoia Capital and NEA. It is reported to call down $2.25 million from the funding.
Criticizes liberals
Walker sends out a fund-raising letter to supporters criticizing Governor Doyle and his liberal allies:
Jim Doyle and his liberal allies in Madison don’t think you’re paying enough in taxes. Even though Wisconsin is one of the highest taxed states in the nation, Doyle and liberals in Madison and Milwaukee want to raise taxes by another $18 billion.
Foundry, Union Square invest
Foundry Group, along with Union Square Ventures invests in Zygna’s Series A-1 investment of nearly $5 million. Zynga makes social games that run on mobile devices and desktops. Its most famous product is Farmville, a social game that allows Facebook users to create a virtual farm.
Zynga Series A
SV Angel is reported to join the round with Union Square Ventures, Pilot Group, Avalon Ventures, and individual investors, for a total of $10 million.
$7.1m investment round
0 0 reuben reuben2014-10-16 15:24:042015-03-23 01:34:57$7.1m investment roundMeet at convention
Kirk is about to leave the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa when he spots Friess in a stairwell and pitches him on his idea of starting a grass-roots organization to rival liberal groups such as MoveOn.org. Kirk receives funds from Friess three weeks later. Freiss:
He impressed me with his capacity to lead, intelligence, and love for America. I instantly knew I wanted to support him.
Swartz documentary Kickstarter project launches
Brian Knappenberger, the director of the Anonymous documentary We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists, launches a Kickstarter to raise $75,000 to fund his feature documentary about Swartz. The documentary, currently titled The Internet’s Own Boy, will look not just look at the life of the programmer and activist, but at the culture he helped build. In addition to speaking with Swartz’s family and loved ones Knappenberger plans to speak with officials at MIT, which has been reviewing what happened in the JSTOR case since the programmer’s death. Keeping in line with Swartz’s vision, the director said he plans to release the film under a Creative Commons license so that others can build off of what he produces.
Winklevoss Capital invests $1.5m in BitInstant
BitInstant, a New York City based startup that operates an online platform for buying and selling Bitcoins, raises $1.5 million in a seed funding round led by Winklevoss Capital. BitInstant’s full-time staff of 16 led by CEO Charlie Shrem processes approximately 30 percent of the money going into and out of Bitcoin, and last month alone facilitated 30,000 transactions. The Winklevosses say they were attracted to invest in BitInstant in large part because Shrem is the vice chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, and CIO Alex Waters previously worked with the core developers on the original Satoshi Bitcoin client.
Cameron: Charlie has been in the space for a very long time, and he has an impeccable reputation among Bitcoiners.
Raises $10 million fund
Investors in the fund include Yammer co-founder David Sacks, and another limited partner who isn’t identified at the time of the announcement. Calacanis in an email describes the fund’s focus:
[..] exclusively on folks who come out of LAUNCH Festival, LAUNCH Hackathon, LAUNCH Education & Kids and LAUNCH Mobile (our four events).
It plans to invest $25,000 to $100,000 in five to 10 startups a year.
$22 million funding
Revolution Growth invests $22 million dollars in sweetgreen. The investment will go towards national expansion of its stores, building its team and corporate culture, and growing community programs and marketing initiatives. Case, Revolution Growth’s co-founder, is joining the board and acting as advisor.
We are incredibly proud to partner with Steve Case and Revolution Growth, a company that not only knows how to build and scale some of the most exciting brands, but embraces our core values. This investment will enable us to bring sweetgreen’s original vision to life in more communities across the country, continue to build an outstanding team of people, and support our local farmers and communities. It’s what we set out to do when we opened our first sweetgreen in Georgetown six years ago, and we could not be more excited for the company’s future.
Quora joins Y Combinator
Altman invites the question-and-answer site to be the first late-stage participant:
I don’t know if [Quora] will develop a new product that they did not already have in the works as a result of being at Y Combinator…But we think we can help them with certain areas like hiring… And we think they can help our community a great deal.
QiKfunder.com equity stake
Future Tense Secure Systems (FTC) acquires an equity stake in QiKfunder.com, which provides funding solutions such as crowdsourcing for social, community, equity and real estate ventures.
Qikfunder offers the best security and best approach of any of the crowdfunding outfits. I am always interested in helping and growing new tech start-ups and ideas. Qikfunder’s goal is to make fundraising accessible to everyone
$90M investment
The investment firm announces a $90 million investment in the enterprise management, that helps IT professionals secure and manage devices.
https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/480848821535010817
Donations top $100 million
The ice bucket challenge raises over $100 million to date for ALS. During the same period last year, July 29, 2013 to August, 29 2013, the ALS Association raised $2.8 million. In the fiscal year 2014, the organization raised approximately $26.3 million in total, which means the amount raised in several months is quadruple that of what was raised last year. ALS President and CEO Barbara Newhouse:
The word gratitude doesn’t do enough to express what we are feeling right now.