39 posts and columns on 500 Startups
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Brick-and-Mortar Rental Startup Storefront Raises $1.6 Million
Storefront, the short-term rental startup for small businesses looking for short-term retail spaces for rent, announced on Wednesday that it raised $1.6 million in seed funding. Participants in the round include Mohr Davidow Ventures, Great Oaks VC, 500 Startups, Box Group and Sand Hill Angels, among others. The startup is currently only helping businesses find retail space in San Francisco and New York City.
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Customer Support Startup Intercom Raises $6 Million
Intercom, a startup that focuses on customer support and communications tools for businesses, announced that it had raised a $6 million Series A round of financing on Wednesday. The round was led by The Social+Capital Partnership, with participation from Freestyle Capital, as well as Yammer CEO and founder David Sacks. The company already had $1.75 million in seed funding from 500 Startups, Freestyle Capital and other angel investors.
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Clip Gets $1.5 Million to Bring Square-Like Payments to Mexico
The mobile payments movement is getting another player — this time in Mexico. Clip, founded by two former PayPal employees, says it has received $1.5 million to bring its mobile credit card reader and software to merchants in Mexico. The company said it plans to eventually expand beyond Mexico to other countries with large Spanish-speaking populations, including the U.S. Investors include 500 Startups, Accion, Alta Ventures and PlaySpan founder Karl Mehta.
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Pict Launches Pretty Tools for Brands to Create “Shoppable Photos”
Pict today launches a set of free (for the moment) Web and mobile tools for brands to publish photos that include product information and sharing links to Pinterest and elsewhere. So, instead of a flat photo, this is a sort of embeddable rich media object (on Facebook, it looks like a video, where users click to play). Pict is backed by Lowercase Capital, Forerunner Ventures, Opus Capital, Angelpad, 500 Startups and others.
Fetch! BarkBox Raises $5 Million for Doggy Treat Deliveries.
It’s like Birchbox, minus the makeup, plus the chew-toys.Voices
How Solo Founders Beat the Odds and Get Into Top Accelerators
Prestigious startup accelerators in the U.S. — like 500 Startups, TechStars and Y Combinator — generally “select against” solo applicants. But why reject entrepreneurs trying to follow in the footsteps of lone founders like Sara Blakely (Spanx), Jack Ma (Alibaba) or Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)?News Byte