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
Hires ex-PayPal president
Facebook hires David Marcus as the vice president of its mobile messaging division. Marcus previously worked with PayPal, first as the vice president of the company’s mobile department and most recently as the company’s president.
We are incredibly excited to work together with David and to learn from all his experience, and David will be sharing more about his work in the coming months. Welcome aboard!
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.
Appointed to board
Fiorina joins the advisory board of Americans for Economic Freedom.
As a businesswoman, I’m proud to stand with an organization that values and understands the prosperity that is created through smart economic policies. I look forward to working with AEF to increase our understanding of how to create American jobs and focus on economic growth.
Launches Aspect Ventures
Gouw and Fonstad start Aspect Ventures, a venture capital fund focusing on the “emerging mobile marketplace.” Gouw and Fonstad have together created $10 billion in public market value, helped lead 15 M&A transactions and over 300 rounds in follow-on capital raised for their portfolio companies. The founders have pooled enough of their own money to back companies for the next couple of years. Aspect will make around a dozen investments per year, ranging from $500,000 to $2 million in seed and Series A funding. The firm will lead investments but also co-invest. Gouw:
We’ve launched Aspect to meet the need in the market for a new kind of firm that can provide investment and advice to entrepreneurs over the long arc of their companies’ growth. From the start, Aspect Ventures is built to partner and collaborate – with entrepreneurs and also other players in the startup world from angels to multi-stage venture capital firms.
Fonstad:
Through our diverse perspectives and experience, we work to add value to our companies from Day One, as active advisors, board members, and partners throughout the roller-coaster ride of building important and successful companies.
Hires Carter as manager
Ferreira signs deal with Carter to manage her.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152553058329115
Kroaky’s closes
0 0 Mark Devlin Mark Devlin2016-04-17 08:40:402016-04-17 08:40:41Kroaky’s closes
$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.
Gaga, Carter split
After Gaga’s YouTube Music Awards Dope performance, Gaga and Carter split over “creative differences.” Sources say Carter has been cut out of the ARTPop album campaign, and Gaga has been refusing his advice:
She doesn’t take direction anymore.
The two had been having rifts in recent months – including a reported fight around August’s MTV Video Music Awards that one source describes as a “blow out,” but was later resolved. Another insider says that Carter, while sad, feels “liberated” to be relieved from duty.
Acquires Vine
Twitter acquires Vine, a service that allows users to upload video clips up to six seconds long, before its official launch. The company spends $30,000,000 on the site. The three developers of Vine, Dom Hofmann, Rus Yusupov, and Colin Kroll, are all able to keep their positions at the company. Hofmann says:
Our companies share similar values and goals; like Twitter, we want to make it easier for people to come together to share and discover what’s happening in the world. We also believe constraint inspires creativity, whether it’s through a 140-character Tweet or a six-second video.
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.
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.
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.
Accepts first board seat
Graham joins the board of Watsi after spotting the crowdfunding non-profit on Hacker News and funding it through Y Combinator. Watsi:
We’re thrilled to have PG as our first board member.
For the first time I agreed to be on a board of directors: @watsi's.
— Paul Graham (@paulg) April 19, 2013
Appointed school board president
Carson is named president of the board of East Baltimore Community Schools. He will help oversee operations for the Elmer A. Henderson School: A Johns Hopkins Partnership School. Hopkins President:
Dr. Carson has served the children of East Baltimore for many years. We are incredibly fortunate that he has now agreed to lend his time, expertise and energy to the students, parents and educators of the Henderson-Hopkins school. His talents will be a boon to the school, which itself is a keystone to the success of East Baltimore Development Inc.
Hires moderator
Graham brings a second person on board to the site, after he spends three to four hours a day just on moderating duties.
It was becoming my life
HootSuite acquires Seesmic
The companies don’t disclose valuation. Seesmic’s latest incarnation, as a social media cross-posting tool, is in line with HootSuite’s business. VentureBeat reports that Seesmic has 30,000-40,000 uniques a month and may be treated as a new product by HootSuite. HootSuite CEO Holmes:
I have always had a lot of respect for Seesmic’s CEO, Loïc Le Meur, and the role Seesmic has played in advancing social business. We are thrilled to welcome Seesmic’s users into the HootSuite family.
Meet 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.
Banks, Carter split
Carter confirms he is no longer working with Banks:
I can confirm that I ended the business relationship with Azealia last month on very amicable terms. She’s incredibly talented and I wish her nothing short of an amazing career.
Founding
Kirk founds Turning Point just after leaving high school. The organization’s mission is to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government.