“Gangnam Style” was the first video to hit 1 billion views on YouTube, a milestone it reached last December. Though arguably less catchy, Psy’s followup video “Gentleman,” a unique blend of pounding beats and fart jokes rumored to be an elaborate commercial for Candy Crush Saga, is now also breaking records on YouTube. The video-sharing site announced that “Gentleman” has set the record for the most views ever in a single day with over 38 million hits on April 14 alone, making it one of the biggest online music video launches ever. To put the figures in perspective, “Gentleman” was seen 100 million times in less than 4 days worldwide, a milestone that took “Gangnam Style” nearly two months to achieve. Continue reading
Psy’s “Gentleman” Hits New YouTube Record With 38M Views In One Day
Moxie Software Offers Freemium Service, Integrating Collaboration Spaces With Social Knowledge Engine
Moxie Software has announced a new freemium service that integrates its collaboration service with its social knowledge engine. Under the new plan, Collaboration Spaces is now free for anyone to use with no limits on users and full features that com… Continue reading
What Not To Do In Your Startup Promo Video
Every now and then I see something so ridiculously stupid, it’s just begging to be called out. That’s the case with this promotional video from the kind folks at Rippln, which is more or less a two-minute case study in how not to pitch your soon-to-be ultra-viral app to the general public, or the press, or potential employees or investors. Continue reading
Translation Platform Gengo Raises $12M Funding Round Led By Intel Capital
Gengo, an increasingly popular online translation service that uses a network of more than 7,500 pre-screened and rated translators to provide high-quality translations in 33 languages, announced that it has raised a $12 million funding round. The roun… Continue reading
DailyWorth Raises Additional $1 Million For Series A
DailyWorth, an online community for financially minded women, is adding $1 million to their existing Series A round of funding. The money comes sixteen months after DailyWorth raised $2 million in their Series A last January. This additional influx of investments was led by DFJ Gotham, while additional investors include Gabriel Investments, 500 Startups, Robinhood Ventures, Investors’ Circle, Bullet Time Ventures, Patient Capital Collaborative, Joanne Wilson, Rebecca Saeger, Carol Chow, Diego Canoso, and Mark Censits. The money raised will be used for “growth and key hires” as DailyWorth continues to expand their readership. DailyWorth was founded in 2009 as a daily email newsletter geared towards women, offering tips and advice on money management and investment. Their newsletter quickly amassed more than 55,000 subscribers within two years of launch, and in January last year that number ballooned to 250,000 subscribers. DailyWorth estimates that their site will hit two to three million monthly readers by the end of 2013. DailyWorth’s website is populated with editorial content from their writing staff, which is helmed by MP Dunleavey, a former contributor and columnist for Money Magazine and the New York Times. In addition to their editorial content, DailyWorth has begun to offer an assortment of online courses called “Money Clarity”, which provides a four week program with YouTube videos and online workbooks that teach their registrants how to better manage their money. DailyWorth also recently scored partnerships with Charles Schwab, Fidelity, and Nestwise, in addition to their preexisting partnerships with ING and H&R Block. Continue reading
Web App Tutorial Tool Kera Heads For The Deadpool
When Kera launched out of Toronto last year, their goal was to “teach the world how to use software”. Alas, it seems Kera has taught its last lesson.
In a farewell post on their blog, the company has announced that they’ll be shuttering their products in one month. Continue reading
3 Awesome And Inspiring Inventions From The White House Science Fair
Some of the nation’s young brainiacs were honored today at the annual White House Science Fair. Every spring, the White House invites children to show off life-changing innovations that have mostly been constructed in MacGyver-like fashion from commercially available materials. Even though I cover this story every year, it’s hard not to be inspired by brilliant young kids motivated to tackle the world’s problems. “Let me just say in my official capacity as president, this stuff is really cool,” said President Obama. Continue reading
Twitter #Music Catches Emerging Artist Frances Cone By Surprise, Calls It A “Meet And Greet” For Bands And Fans
When Twitter #Music launched last week, it wasn’t a surprise at all to those following tech stories, since rumors had been kicking up about its existence for months. However, it was a surprise to the Frances Cone Band, which is popping up in the “emerging artists” section of the app. In a world where we focus so much on “big stars,” especially ones with millions of followers on Twitter, it’s important to remember that these platforms can make all the difference for those who are just getting started and are waiting and hoping to be discovered. I spoke with their lead singer, Frances Cone, who didn’t get a chance to play with the app before it was launched. She wasn’t a big Twitter user before, but has been pleasantly surprised thus far: “I was a pretty light Twitter user before the music app because I felt like it should be reserved for jokes. Only the best jokes. Or original feelings, of which there are few.” She says that “Twitter and I are in love” when discussing the new experience, giving us some insight into what it’s like to start getting tweets, and more importantly new listeners, from a group of people that have never heard of you before: It’s been really, really great. I wasn’t sure how to engage potential followers/fans and they basically just perfectly did it for me… like they set up a meet and greet and I get to hug all of these music lovers. The “meet and greet” aspect is an interesting one, as we knew that Twitter could be a massive distribution platform if some order was brought to it. Twitter #Music pulls in all of the tweets that include links to music that people are listening to, and then drops them into pages in the app that show trending information in order to get people engaged. More than likely, you’re not going to catch every song that the people you follow are listening to, so this is a way to trap all of that to go back to at any time. The mix of new fans and the devastating news out of Boston gave Cone mixed emotions, but reminded her that people can rely on music to get through tough times: It’s been so nice to be able to engage with actual people all over the world. It started happening simultaneously to the Boston news Continue reading
Meet The Greenest Home In America
In the surrounding hills of Silicon Valley stands the impressive Tah.Mah.Lah, the “Greenest house in America.” The home is also the brainchild and abode of Foundation Capital partner and longtime VC Paul Holland and his wife, Linda Yates. We were lucky enough to be invited into their home to hear about why and how they built the most sustainable home in the country.
So what makes the “Greenest” house in America? First, every aspect of the house, whose name draw origins from the Native American Ohlone word for puma or mountain lion, has been built to have minimal environmental impact. Second, the house has the highest LEED certification, which is the defacto third-party verification of green buildings. Continue reading
Nest Labs Teams Up With Regional Power Providers For New Energy-Saving Services And Rebates
The Nest thermostat has already gone through a hardware revision or two and found its way onto plenty of physical and virtual store shelves, but parent company Nest Labs is eager to get it into even more households in short order.
The Palo Alto company has just announced that it has teamed up with energy providers from across the country that will see new climate-control services (not to mention some rebates) go live for customers in a handful of markets. Continue reading
