Incident Launches The gTar at Disrupt, An iPhone-Powered Electronic Teaching Guitar

Mon, 21 May 2012 19:25:35 +0000

The gTar is disruption defined. It takes the guitar, an instrument with a steep learning curve, and adds a bit of digital wizardry in the form of an embedded iPhone to make learning dramatically easier. The company brags that their modern take on the guitar allows for three levels of difficulty, rather than the traditional single really difficult one. But thanks to the iPhone and a clever app, this $500 electronic guitar essentially teaches users the ins and outs of the instrument. The startup recently turned to Kickstarter to raise $100,000. However today they gave the crowd at Disrupt a musical treat -- a demonstration at Startup Alley. And the device seemed to work as advertised.

Koemei Is Out To Transcribe All Video And Make It Searchable

Mon, 21 May 2012 19:14:29 +0000

Lord knows there is a lot of online video out there these days, but only a tiny proportion of it has been transcribed (less than 1% according to some estimates). Searching the mountains of video generated by businesses, governments and educational institutions for the valuable information within is almost impossible because the words hidden in the audio are invisible to search. Waiting for it is not just the world, but the many people who can't access that video because of their disabilities. Transcription unlocks the gold-dust buried in them there video hills. This would involve transcription on a vast scale, but this is exactly the problem Koemei aims to tackle. It's a SAAS platform for speech recognition in video. Today at TechCrunch Disrupt it announced it has completed an integration with YouTube's API in preparation for a potential launch. It also announced the successful completion of its first pilot with the University of Geneva and IMD Business School.

After Walking Away From Acquisition Talks With Facebook, Ark Opens Its People Search Engine

Mon, 21 May 2012 19:04:48 +0000

Following a jam-packed beta test and a jaw-dropping $4.2 million seed round, Ark people search is open for sign ups...at least for the next three days. Ark lets you sift through profiles on Facebook, Google, Twitter, and other services to help you find out which of your high school classmates live in New York, see which friends are single, and connect with strangers who share your interests by layering up to 30 characteristic filters. The problem of too much social data and too little discoverability is so widespread that Facebook even discussed a possible acquisition of Ark. But instead its PhD founders decided to see how far they can ride their cute penguin logo. Soon it will launch native mobile apps with some of most useful push notifications I've seen. And as part of its limited launch today at TechCrunch Disrupt New York, Ark is accepting new users at ark.com/tcd until the end of the conference on Wednesday.

Fab Seeking To Raise $100M At A Super Fab Valuation

Mon, 21 May 2012 19:02:24 +0000

Earlier today we spoke to Fab.com CEO Jason Goldberg at TechCrunch Disrupt, on the anniversary of his company's pivot from gay social network to design-focused flash sales site, and a week after its mini-pivot to curated social shopping site. In addition to expounding on the past, Goldberg spoke about his expanding vision for the new eCommerce, and how he saw Fab as essentially competing with retail giant IKEA, rather than other eCommerce sites like One Kings Lane and "some companies that recently went public." ;)

A Stroll Down Startup Alley: Bras, Coffee, And Lots Of Photo/Video Sharing

Mon, 21 May 2012 18:57:21 +0000

Everyone comes to Disrupt for the Battlefield. Of course, the panels are interesting, and few can resist a fireside chat between Fred Wilson and Michael Arrington, but the true gem of our massive conference is the Startup Alley. These companies are some of the most promising startups in the country, and with our Israeli Pavilion, the world. This year's batch, in particular, is above-and-beyond impressive. I caught up with a few different companies, and each one of them brings something totally different to the table.

Cyfeon Solutions Launches Answer Factory, A Database Tool That Aims To Collate The Web

Mon, 21 May 2012 18:48:55 +0000

The web is a vast, mostly useless, wasteland with bits of information held in random silos scattered about. Cyfeon Solutions' Answer Factory attempts to unite these locations in the spirit of increased productivity. As I was told by founder Brandon Smith, its goal is to provide business users a solution that allows them to make better business decisions by pulling in data from multiple sources from across the web.

Apple Wants Immediate Ban On Galaxy Tab 10.1 In The USA

Mon, 21 May 2012 18:41:47 +0000

On Friday May 18th, Apple filed a motion for a U.S. preliminary injunction against Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1. This follows a ruling by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Northern District of California), siding with Apple on the question of whether Samsung is in violation of an iPad-related design patent (U.S. Patent No. D504,889). According to Foss Patents, the source of this story, the request could be valid and is likely to be upheld. Samsung has until May 25th at high noon to respond. (OK not really...about the high noon thing). What does it mean though? Will the Galaxy Tab 10.1 disappear from U.S. shores if Apple emerges victoriously with their injunction?

SpokenLayer Wants To Add Voice To The Web

Mon, 21 May 2012 18:35:47 +0000

What if you couldn't just read an article on your favorite blog or news site, but also listen to it being read out aloud by the author or professional voice talent? That's what SpokenLayer, which is launching its public beta today at TechCrunch Disrupt, is working on. The New York-based startup is partnering with a number of well-known publishers, including The Atlantic, National Journal, Engadget and TechCrunch. SpokenLayer is currently only available as an iOS application, but the company plans to add other platforms soon.

Vancouver Startup Accelerator GrowLab Reveals Second Batch, Hires Super Angel Mike Edwards

Mon, 21 May 2012 18:20:15 +0000

Startup accelerators have been taking off in Canada of late, with FounderFuel and Year One Labs opening their doors in Montreal, Extreme Startups off and running in Toronto, and last year, Vancouver got its very own accelerator in GrowLab. GrowLab, which officially launched last May, has been off to a good start in Vancouver, launching 5 companies since its program began. And, today, the accelerator is ready to announce the five companies chosen to participate in its spring 2012 program, its second cohort, which kicks off tomorrow -- along with a new executive director.

Andrew Keen Weighs In On Privacy: “The Internet Hasn’t Learned How To Forget”

Mon, 21 May 2012 17:52:18 +0000

TechCrunch contributor Andrew Keen took to the Disrupt stage with our own Alexia Tsotsis earlier this morning to do two things -- promote his new book Digital Vertigo, and tackle the problem of sharing too much. According to Keen, the more of our lives we broadcast, the more transparent we become. Fair enough, though at some point during that process he believes that we are slowly losing "some essential quality of what it means to be human" when we don't keep secrets.

Brad Garlinghouse’s Suggestion For Saving Yahoo? Buy Flipboard And Gravity

Mon, 21 May 2012 17:25:19 +0000

Brad Garlinghouse, who just took over as CEO of YouSendIt and used to be a senior vice president at Yahoo several years ago, has a few ideas for the ailing web giant. The company's got a pile of cash including $2.6 billion in cash and marketable securities from the end of last quarter, plus $6.3 billion more from selling the Alibaba stake over the weekend. "Yahoo has billions and billions of dollars. Yahoo can do anything that they want," he said, adding that he thinks the homepage alone is worth more than $1 billion in search and advertising revenue. Garlinghouse thinks the company should be aggressive about acquiring young companies to bring in entrepreneurial leadership. At the top of his list are Flipboard and Gravity.

TechStars’ Tisch: We Will See 2-3 NYC Startups Exit This Year Out Of 20-30 Strong Possibles

Mon, 21 May 2012 17:17:31 +0000

Silicon Valley may be the undisputed capital of tech at the moment, but New York holds its own with a set of unique qualities that make it an essential part of the game -- and for some kinds of startups, a much more important base for building a business. These include the city's population concentration and its leadership in other industries, according to a panel of NY-based tech insiders speaking earlier today at the TechCrunch New York Disrupt conference. David Tisch, MD of NY-based seed fund and accelerator TechStars, takes that idea one step further: he thinks that this year we will see two or three of the biggest companies based here exit in the form of an IPO or acquisition, out of a group of 20-30 strong candidates that have been "growing to a scale where acquisitions can happen."

House Beautiful Tests Pinterest Integration…In Its Printed Pages

Mon, 21 May 2012 17:15:00 +0000

House Beautiful is hopping on the Pinterest bandwagon today courtesy of digital watermarking provider Digimarc, which has just introduced technology allowing consumers to pin magazine images from the real world to their Pinterest boards. While functionally similar to the online "Pin It" button, the Digimarc solution uses the company's proprietary technology to embed an imperceptible watermark in a printed magazine image. When scanned, users are immediately taken to the pre-configured Pinterest page for the image, allowing them to then re-pin it to their own boards.

CrunchFund Took A Stake In Tumblr, Buying From Existing Investors

Mon, 21 May 2012 17:11:45 +0000

Today at TechCrunch Disrupt, CrunchFund's MG Siegler took the stage to interview Tumblr CEO David Karp. But not before disclosing that his fund was now an investor in the New York City-based blogging platform. Neither provided further details of the investment on stage, but we've been able to find out a little bit more about the CrunchFund's stake in Tumblr. For one thing, the CrunchFund investment wasn't part of a follow-on round or a new fund raise for Tumblr, but a purchase of common stock from some of Tumblr's early-stage investors. And while it isn't taking a huge stake in Tumblr, relative to the startup's overall investor base, the investment has been described as "significant" to CrunchFund, which had raised $20 million before launching.

David Karp: Tumblr’s Revenue Model Is All About Telling Stories

Mon, 21 May 2012 16:38:44 +0000

In a fireside chat with MG Siegler at TechCrunch Disrupt Monday, Tumblr founder David Karp described how his company thinks differently about advertising than Facebook or Google, and how they hope to make it less distracting and more meaningful to users. In short, it's all about telling stories. Karp said that for Tumblr, the stuff that appears in the main feed is pretty sacred, as it's all content that users have chosen to subscribe to. Instead of inserting branded content into the stream in the same way that companies like Twitter are beginning to do, Tumblr has instead reserved the right-side column for content that users may not have seen.

Imgur Partners With Brisk And “Scumbag Steve” For Meme-ified Ads

Mon, 21 May 2012 16:04:54 +0000

Imgur has built a massive audience for the sometimes amusing, sometimes adorable images and memes that it hosts. Now it faces another challenge: Making money. With 2 billion monthly page views, advertising seems like an obvious business plan. The problem, says CEO Alan Schaaf, is that "the Imgur audience has always hated ads." So yes, the company runs a banner ad on each page, but the audience probably sees it as a necessary evil. They probably won't be happy with a second ad, Schaaf says, so a different approach was needed.

Fab.com Has 4.5M Members, CEO Wants To Work With Pinterest (But Doesn’t Actually Use It)

Mon, 21 May 2012 15:18:15 +0000

Fab.com CEO Jason Goldberg took the stage today at Disrupt, he laid out a grand vision for the site. He noted that it has been just under a year since the site launched, and it already has 4.5 million members. "That's not an e-commerce site, that's a movement," he said.

Venture Capitalist Michael Moritz Says He’s Stepping Back From Sequoia Because Of Illness

Mon, 21 May 2012 15:14:37 +0000

In very sad news, Mike Moritz, who has led top-tier venture firm Sequoia Capital through the very beginnings of the web until now, is stepping back because of an incurable disease. His firm has backed many of the home runs of the last two decades including Google, PayPal and Yahoo. In a letter to limited partners this morning, he wrote, "We have always tried to be straightforward with you and, in that spirit, I need to share something. Unfortunately, I have been diagnosed with a rare medical condition which can be managed but is incurable."

About.me Releases Public API, SDK At Disrupt, Now Integrates With Reputation, Smarterer, Forkly, Kred And Showyou

Mon, 21 May 2012 15:00:44 +0000

About.Me is set to get a bit more social. The AOL-owned property just released a public API and SDK into the wild in partnership with Reputation.com, Smarterer, Forkly, Kred and Showyou. While the online profile site already worked with most popular social platforms, today's announcement is huge for both about.me and their legions of users. Plus, for attendees of Disrupt NYC this week, the company is celebrating the news by having a professional photographer on hand to help create free killer profile pics. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. About.me collects a user's various online identifies and puts them in a single (and beautiful) location. Think of it a splash page for your identity online. Instead of directing people to various locations like LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram, the idea is to just send them to your about.me page, which neatly collates the rest of your accounts. Here's mine. I think it's lovely and only took about five minutes to make.

Google Missed The Boat On Buying Twitter. “Hasn’t Been Interested Since They Committed To Google+” -Fred Wilson

Mon, 21 May 2012 14:45:03 +0000

Google got the chance to buy Twitter, but the search giant passed, says Michael Arrington. "Google hasn’t been interested in buying Twitter since they committed themselves to Google+” says Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures founder and former Twitter board member, in his fireside chat this morning with Arrington at the TechCrunch Disrupt New York conference. Now Google+ is widely seen as a ghost town, and not buying Twitter could be a mistake that haunts Mountain View for years to come. Wilson has one of the most envied portfolios in venture capital, with Union Square Ventures getting in early on Twitter, Zynga, Etsy, and Tumblr. But the future might not be as bright. "I don't think I'm going to be very good at investing in the next big thing. I don't come from it. I didn't work in it. The next thing isn't going to be evolutionary. It's going to be something completely different."