But StudyHall, which launches today, is taking a populist approach with its system: Students only, no professors allowed.

StudyHall users can create Facebook-like profiles with pictures of themselves and a list of groups and interests. The site, which is free to join, suggests potential buddies both on campus and at other schools that students might want to link up with.

Unlike Facebook, StudyHall’s goal is to focus less on social and more on academics, with digital notebooks indicating which courses users are taking and which books they’re using.

There’s a designated Notes section, in which users can post their class notes and control who they’d like to share them with; and, naturally, users can schedule a Study Hall — a collaborative online work session.

StudyHall is the brainchild of entrepreneurs Ben Winter and Ross Blankenship, who have received around $500,000 in early funding from a group of undisclosed investors.

Winter and Blankenship envision StudyHall becoming a peer-to-peer book-selling market as well, with StudyHall getting a small percentage of each transaction made.

While StudyHall has officially launched, it’s currently not available to any and all college students. Winter and Blankenship have been trying to get the word out through campus officials and orientation leaders, and say they hope to roll the site out by mid-September to five (elite) schools: Harvard, Yale, Georgetown, Middlebury and Cornell.

It’s hardly the first company to try to offer an alternative to Blackboard. And it could face some interesting hurdles as it looks to grow.

Blackboard first launched in 1997, and for the past decade or so has been the leading Web site for students and teachers to access coursework and share notes. Its legacy product, Blackboard Learn, is currently used by more than 3,200 colleges and universities across the U.S., the company says, and has a large international footprint, as well.

After Blackboard went private last year, it began to focus on growth through acquisition — most recently by buying Moodlerooms — and has made some inroads in the K-12 market.

Blackboard also introduced mobile apps across all platforms, seeing that more and more students were using iPads and smartphones as study tools.

An example of a StudyHall profile.

StudyHall currently doesn’t have any mobile apps to offer, but says both iOS and Android apps are in the works.

More importantly, Blackboard is set up through client agreements with institutions, which then make Blackboard available to professors and students at the course level. Basically, where Blackboard is available, it’s got the administrative seal of approval, whereas StudyHall is looking to eschew the administrative process by making the site a destination for students only.

“We want StudyHall to be a place where students can post, ‘Hey, did you understand what the professor was saying today?’ or ‘Did anyone take good notes? I was hungover and missed class,’ without repercussion,” Winter said in an interview.

Winter and Blankenship concede that a legitimate concern is StudyHall becoming a forum for cheating, and that some administrators they’ve met with bristle at the words “collaborative” and “student-only” for that reason.

“We’re going to be very proactive removing content that’s flagged as fraudulent, and if a school reached out to us looking for a digital footprint of a student accused of cheating, we would, in a controlled manner, help them with that issue,” Winter said.

He also pointed out that the academic property of universities — which includes syllabi — can’t be uploaded to StudyHall, and that such restrictions will be clearly marked to students.

This is the exact path I embarked upon one year ago. I’ve survived 12 months working at my first start-up job — and wow, what a learning experience it has been. If you’re like me and are starting right out of college: 1) Congrats, really. You’ve beaten a ton of other hopeful candidates and are poised to gain some truly valuable work experience. And 2) Get ready to work.

Transitioning from college classes and homework to “real life” and project deadlines can be a daunting challenge. To help you make the most of your first year, I have listed below the Top 10 lessons I learned in my first start-up job out of college.

1. Take Advantage of the Seasoned Veterans Around You

   Chances are there are some really talented people at the table next to you. No, seriously, take a few seconds away from being glued to your monitor and just look around your office. You’re guaranteed to find experienced co-workers who have worked on a great product at one company or another. Introduce yourself! At Luminate, I’ve been fortunate enough to be graced with the presence of engineering brilliance from the early browser development team from Netscape and Mozilla. Find these amazing resources, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. They’ll be happy to hear how interested you are in their experience, and you might just get some good stories out of them.

2. Find a Passion Outside of Work

   Now that you’re done with homework and studying every night, be sure to find something to keep yourself occupied outside of work. I’m working at a start-up dedicated to making the Web’s three trillion images interactive, so photography and photo trips have become my new favorite hobbies post-graduation, and I love it. I’ve purchased my first DSLR and have taken multiple photography trips with friends all around Northern California, always attempting to hone my skills. When you’re left without labs, group projects, homework and tests, an outside interest is a surefire way to have fun and keep yourself active during the weeknights of your first full working year.

3. Be Active and Get Healthy

   I’ve watched too many peers graduate college and all of a sudden think they don’t have time for the gym. Believe me, if you could balance a full college course load and find enough time to work out at your university’s rec center, you can definitely find time to exercise while working full time. My trick is to always go to the gym on my way home from work. Unlike those freak fitness-a-holic types, I’m one of those people who will get home from work and tell myself, “I’ll go to the gym later,” and two beers later, I’m still glued to the latest update on “SportsCenter.” Instead, I pack my bag the night before I leave for work and leave it sitting on my bathroom counter, which forces me to take it with me in the morning. Who knows, you might just develop a new habit! Bonus tip: I’ve actually found that I do some of my best brainstorming while at the gym. In fact, this article was mostly written on the Stairmaster at Mountain View’s 24 Hour Fitness.

4. Never Think You’re Too Junior

   The beauty of start-ups is that they’re small, typically no more than 30 to 50 people. So while you may have been hired as an entry-level employee, there are usually no more than two degrees of separation between you and your CEO. Use this to your advantage — go ahead and spark up a conversation with your CEO, CRO or CTO. You’re not at Google, Facebook, Visa or another large firm which is restricting you to your single role or position, so use this opportunity to take on tasks that wouldn’t ordinarily be assigned to you in a very linear position. Which leads me to my next point.

5. Constantly Challenge Yourself

   You’re young, enthusiastic and full of energy. Use this first year to show your managers why you deserved that opportunity, rather than the 90 other candidates who applied. There are more college graduates living at home and looking for work than ever before, so don’t be complacent once you’ve snagged your first gig. We had a simple saying on the UC Santa Cruz Men’s soccer team that our coaches ingrained in our heads — “Raise the Level.” Every day, every practice, every drill — make your actions faster, cleaner and more refined than the last. This couldn’t be more applicable in the business world. Whether it’s a sales call, an email or answering a customer’s question, constantly challenge yourself to make every action a learning experience and raise the quality level of your business interactions.

6. Learn About Every Part of Your Company

   The growth potential is virtually limitless in any given start-up, so learn every part of your company. Depending on the size of your start-up, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find out how the entire business functions. From sales and business development to product design, engineering and customer support, start learning about every moving piece in your company. The golden opportunity that we twentysomethings have working in a start-up is the option to grow with the company and potentially into the department that we are truly passionate about. Start exploring this during your first year, and it’ll pay dividends in the long run.

7. Never Limit Yourself to One Role

   This goes hand in hand with the previous rule. After you find out how your company works, start talking to the people in the department you might be interested in, or have a particular skill set for. Many start-ups are bootstrapped or shorthanded, so you have a built-in opportunity: Ask what you can do to help. I’m sure your colleagues will be happy to see you’re enthusiastic about the rest of the business. Plus, it gives you an idea of what different roles are like.

8. Grab a Good Pair of Headphones

   This is simple: Buy a good pair of headphones. I’m not talking about using the tinny-sounding pair of Apple headphones that come with your iPhone; go out and splurge on a pair of good noise-canceling headphones. With most start-ups sporting an open office atmosphere, it can get noisy in the office. Between board members, investors, flying fish, remote-controlled helicopters, drinking co-workers and the weekly Costco delivery guys, most start-ups might resemble Legoland more than actual businesses. You’ll thank me later.

9. Don’t Be Afraid to Propose a Change

   Look at your CEO. What are some of the key differences between you? Besides a few zeros on your paychecks, age may be another big one. While your managers and CEOs bring wisdom, strategy and leadership, there’s something that you have that they may not: Youth. You just graduated from college among a peer group that is one of the most connected in history. We’ve been using computers since we were old enough to walk and talk. Given that our generation is online and using mobile and Web applications more than any other age group, our perspective is often a huge help to many companies. Don’t be afraid to offer your fresh insight on things. Who knows — your proposal, idea, or suggestion might just be the next big thing for your company!

10. Work hard, but Work Smart

    Be sure to take a step back occasionally from whatever project you’re working on in order to make sure that you’re applying your energy toward the most-needed task at the time. In my first year, I frequently threw 100 percent of my time and energy at projects that definitely weren’t at the top of the priority list. It’s great to have enthusiasm and a work ethic, but make sure your efforts are aligned with your company’s goals, your quarterly goals and your personal goals. Learn from my mistakes. In essence, work hard, but work smart.

I have a son starting college in August and want to buy him a laptop. Your latest buyer’s guide has me wondering if I should wait to purchase. I spoke with the tech salesman at his college, mentioning your column, and he told me not to worry. He said Windows 8 is really just an upgrade for touch-screen usage, and Dell laptops are not using that touch-screen technology.

A:

That college salesman is wrong on all counts. Windows 8 isn’t just about touch screens—it has many more new features—and I do expect that Dell will be offering touch screens and other new hardware designs.

The problem is that all of the newest designs meant for Windows 8 may not be out by August. You’ll likely be able to upgrade to Windows 8 on a new machine you buy then, and the new software will work without a touch screen. But you may not have the full choice of new models.

Q:

I have a desktop Mac bought in November. Currently I am considering buying a laptop, such as the new MacBook Pro. Since I have an iPhone that I like and it is very portable, would you suggest that I buy the MacBook Pro instead of the new iPad? What I’m looking for is something portable but has computer qualities.

A:

While an iPad does have “computer qualities,” and in fact has replaced laptop use for many people in scenarios like email, video, music and Web browsing, most people find it cannot fully replace their traditional computers. So, if you want your next portable machine to be a sort of mobile version of your iMac, get the MacBook. If not, you’ll find the iPad is much better at many computer-like tasks than the iPhone, because of its larger screen and keyboard.

Q:

I’m thinking about buying a Chromebook for school and thinking I can use Google Docs to substitute for Microsoft Office. How long should I wait for Google to integrate Google Drive offline?

A:

The company didn’t give me a precise date, but said it should be within the next six weeks or so.

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com

.

While former Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson fades from the tech scene — besides getting jacked from the top job at the Silicon Valley Internet giant, he’s also just come off two tech boards he had served on — the investigation over his hiring and how a fake computer science degree got into the company’s regulatory filings continues.

While the quick-fire controversy burned Thompson, as well as now former Yahoo director Patti Hart, the special committee of independent board members is still at work trying to figure out how such a mess was made in the first place.

And, more importantly, who knew what when and told whom.

At the time the committee was announced, Yahoo said it would “conduct a thorough review of CEO Scott Thompson’s academic credentials, as well as the facts and circumstances related to the review and disclosure of those credentials in connection with Thompson’s appointment as CEO.”

The special committee is chaired by Yahoo’s new Chairman Fred Amoroso and includes John Hayes and Thomas McInerney, two independent directors who joined the board in April.

Yahoo also hired independent counsel Terry Bird of the law firm Bird, Marella, Boxer, Wolpert, Nessim, Drooks and Licenberg in Los Angeles to handle the inquiry.

The company also noted at the time that “the special committee and the entire Board appreciate the urgency of the situation and the special committee will therefore conduct the review in an independent, thorough and expeditious manner. The Board intends to make the appropriate disclosures to shareholders promptly upon completion of the review.”

Gripped by urgency myself, I have grown weary waiting by the phone for some official answers, which sources said will not be forthcoming for some time.

But since I am the most curious of cats — uh-oh! — I started dialing around on my own to find out what’s what.

And, according to sources — especially since Thompson has settled with Yahoo and will not get severance due to the academic falsehood — the big focus is now centering on if the company’s staff screwed up the background check of his academic credentials, thus allowing it to get into its official filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and also on Yahoo’s corporate Web site.

When Thompson was hired from eBay, where he was president of its PayPal payments division, the online commerce company had the correct bio information in its SEC filings, although not on its Web site or in its PR materials.

The question is: Did someone from Yahoo simply rely on Web bios and not check eBay filings and did anyone ever re-check Thompson’s college records? (Note: It took me 15 minutes flat to find out he did not have such a degree at Stonehill College in the Boston area.)

If lazy checking was the case, it spells rank incompetence on the part of staffers, as well as Hart, who headed the search after Yahoo fired its previous CEO Carol Bartz last fall.

A much more troubling line of inquiry taking place is aimed at the possibility that someone at Yahoo did discover the discrepancy in Thompson’s resume and either did not report it up the chain of command or did and it was either lost or ignored or, well, worse.

While this certainly ain’t Watergate, such a situation would be very hard for Yahoo to explain away as easily to shareholders, especially potentially litigious ones. As it is always said, the coverup can often be more damaging than the crime itself.

And, if it is determined by the special committee that certain employees knew of Thompson’s resume inaccuracy, it will most certainly result in dismissals of Yahoo employees.

The focus on the committee — which truly cannot sweep this under the rug, if it occurred in this much more serious scenario — is most obviously the legal department of Yahoo, which is responsible for making certain filings are accurate.

Also under scrutiny is the quickness of the hiring of Thompson.

Among the questions is how much vetting was done and whether adequate questions about him were asked among a variety of possible sources.

When he was picked in January, Thompson was a dark-horse candidate for many, including some Yahoo board members.

In fact, he was not on the initial headhunting lists prepared by outside talent search firm Heidrick & Struggles.

That’s because Heidrick had placed Thompson at eBay in mid-2000 and could not then recommend him to Yahoo. As it turned out, Thompson took it upon himself to cold email Yahoo board member and Intuit CEO Brad Smith about the job, who then passed Thompson’s interest to Hart.

Heidrick had no involvement in the checking of Thompson, although he later blamed the firm in a public meeting with Yahoo employees for putting the error in his bio in the first place from when he was hired at eBay. Heidrick quickly called the accusation “verifiably not true” in a memo to its own employees.

Sources said that meant that the firm had a resume that Thompson had submitted to it that also contained the error.

But the central mystery of how that mistake appeared on his bio will likely remain just that without further explanation from Thompson.

In a radio interview in 2009, he did not correct a specific question about the twin degrees he appeared to have held and seemed to even agree with the show’s host, Moira Gunn, about them.

Later, she told me in a video interview that Thompson had clearly indicated to her in the prep for that interview that he indeed had a computer science degree.

Still, it is still not clear — and may never be — who put the faux computer science credential on his resume in the first place.

So, with all apologies to Winston Churchill: It might remain a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

CSLie has claimed its first victim, although the mystery is still unsolved.

Patti Hart — the Yahoo director in charge of the search that resulted in the hiring of Scott Thompson as its CEO, making her directly responsible for a clearly botched vetting of his academic record — will not stand for re-election to the board at the next annual meeting, according to sources close to the situation.

Hart — who is CEO of International Game Technology, which makes electronic gaming equipment and systems products — is resigning. Apparently, said sources, her own board asked her to remove herself from the Yahoo mess to better focus on the company she actually runs.

But she is perhaps just a few steps ahead of being pushed, given her key role in the hiring of Thompson, who was president of eBay’s PayPal payments unit when he cold-emailed Yahoo director and Intuit CEO Brad Smith seeking the job.

A Yahoo spokesman declined to comment.

[UPDATE: Yahoo confirmed the inevitable departure later in the day and said the Yahoo board would have nine members going forward. Hart also released a statement, confirming the move.]
Hart, who came to the Yahoo board in 2010, has been head of its corporate governance and nominating committee.

The departure makes her the first casualty — but definitely not the last — of the controversy over how a fake college degree managed to get in Yahoo’s regulatory filings via Thompson’s inaccurate bio.

The issues around how Thompson was hired — including how background checks on him failed to discover that he never got a CS degree from the Boston area’s Stonehill College, as his longtime bio on eBay had claimed — are part of a new investigation by the board.

That will be officially announced later today, along with the hiring of an outside law firm to conduct the probe, which will be headed by independent director Fred Amoroso.

[UPDATE: Yahoo officially said it was forming a special committee to look at Thompson's bio snafu and the circumstances around his hiring. Along with Amoroso, the other members are John Hayes and Thomas McInerney, independent directors who joined the board in April.

"The special committee and the entire Board appreciate the urgency of the situation and the special committee will therefore conduct the review in an independent, thorough and expeditious manner," a statement from Yahoo said.

Interestingly, the statement did not include a show of support for Thompson, which often happens in such circumstances.]

They will have a lot to investigate. Such as this mystery: Thompson’s correct bio appeared in filings eBay made with the Securities and Exchange Commission, while Yahoo’s similar documents were inaccurate about his educational credentials.

Also under scrutiny: How the falsehood was added to Thompson’s public resume, and who put it there; why Thompson never noticed the error, there since at least 2004; why he declined to correct it when asked directly about it; and who at Yahoo might have known about the problem before the hiring.

It’s a basic case of who, what, where, when and how. And, most of all, why anyone would make such a dumb mistake.

Hart would seem to have all the answers to that, along with a forensic firm that worked on the vetting. Key Yahoo staffers were also involved, said sources, although its headhunting firm on the CEO search, Heidrick & Struggles, was not used in relation to Thompson.

Presumably, there is a paper trail of some sort, which was the subject of a legal demand by activist shareholder Daniel Loeb of Third Point yesterday. He uncovered the bio error last week, in the middle of pressing a proxy fight to garner board seats.

Loeb’s allegations also nailed Hart in much-less-egregious padding of her own college record, making it appear as if she had economics and marketing degrees. She has one in business administration, with “specialties” (Yahoo’s ridonkulous word, not mine) in economics and marketing.

While Hart’s leaving might assuage some, providing a convenient scapegoat to the bizarre situation, this is by no means over for Yahoo or Thompson.

Another increasingly potent issue is the ever-declining morale at the Silicon Valley Internet giant over the company’s odd response — it initially called the bio problem an “inadvertent error,” without further explanation — and also Thompson’s lack of transparency on the issue.

He released an email to employees last night, apologizing for the “distraction” of the resume issue, but not for the error itself.

That, and other of Thompson’s actions — he has been described to me, by many close to the situation, as defiant over the issue, and as blaming Loeb for conducting a personal vendetta — did not sit well with many, both inside and outside Yahoo.

A Yahoo spokeswoman told me earlier this week that there is much support for Thompson internally and externally, but declined to provide specifics.

But message boards I read were mostly negative about him, as are a plethora of direct emails to me on the situation. One clever commenter on this site bemoaned that Thompson might get off “Scott-free.”

Ouch! Nonetheless, the atmosphere at Yahoo is indeed unsettled.

“Sentiment from employees is unanimous that he must go,” said a Yahoo employee, who has no personal agenda that I can grok, in a common refrain. “He clearly knew and lied for years; and his handling since exposed has been unacceptable.”

Unacceptable or not, though, Hart is the only one going for now. But stay tuned.

Until then, here’s an appearance I made today on WSJ.com to talk about Hart’s departure:

RELATED POSTS:

• Yahoo’s Parting With Thompson Will Be for “Cause” (a.k.a. CSLie)
• Ross Levinsohn’s Yahoo Plan: Back to the Future
• Here’s New Yahoo CEO’s First Note to Troops! (The Leaking-Internal-Memos-to-ATD Policy Remains in Effect As Usual)
• Yahoo Officially Confirms ATD Report on CEO Changes and Proxy Settlement
• Meet the Man I Call “The Hair”: The Video Stylings of Yahoo’s Newest CEO Ross Levinsohn
• Will Thompson’s Ouster Mean a Yahoo-Facebook Patent Settlement Too?
• Exclusive: Yahoo’s Thompson Out; Levinsohn In; Board Settlement With Loeb Nears Completion
• Heidrick & Struggles Slaps Back at Thompson’s Yahoo in Blame Game Over ResuMess
• Is He In or Is He Out? Crunchtime for Scott Thompson at Yahoo.
• Not So Scott Free? Yahoo’s Other Big Shareholder — Cap Re — Leaning Toward Supporting Loeb Over Thompson ResuMess.
• Tech Nation’s Gunn Says She and Yahoo CEO Discussed Their CS Degrees Before 2009 Show (Video and Audio)
• Loeb Calls Again for Thompson Firing From Yahoo, as Former eBay Boss Supports Him
• Place Your Bets: Will Loeb Drop Another Bomb on Yahoo at Vegas Confab Later Today?
• Exclusive: Yahoo Director in Charge of Botched CEO Vetting to Step Down From Board
• CEO Says Sorry to Yahoos for Borked Bio “Distraction” — But Will Mea Culpa Work Without an Apology for Error? (Memo)
• Buffett Comments on Trust Issue in Yahoo CEO BioGate: “You’ve Got a Problem”
• Loeb Lobs Lawsuit, as Expected, at Yahoo’s Borked Bio Mess
• As Yahoo CEO Reaches Out to Top Staff, Board Meets to Weigh “Options” (I.E., Deciding Who Gets to Take the Borked Bio Blame)
• Yahoo Should Expect Incoming Lawsuit Lobbed by Loeb Tomorrow on CEO Hiring
• They Shoot Yahoo CEOs, Don’t They? But Not Without a Really Smoking Gun and a Much Stronger Board.
• Yahoo’s Thompson Asks Employees to “Stay Focused” — Except Not on Him
• In 2009 Interview, Yahoo CEO Does Not Deny He Has a CS Degree, and Calls Himself an “Engineer” (Audio)
• Yahoo’s Board Will “Review” Resume Discrepancy of CEO
• How Did a Phantom CS Degree Get on CEO’s Bio in SEC Filings? Yahoo’s Not Saying.
• Yahoo’s Response on CEO’s Computer Science ResumeGate: “Inadvertent Error”
• Dan Loeb Alleges “Discrepancies” on Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson’s Resume Related to Computer Science Degree

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120508/exclusive-yahoo-director-in-charge-of-botched-ceo-vetting-to-step-down-from-board/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120506/as-yahoo-ceo-reaches-out-to-top-staff-board-meets-to-weigh-options-i-e-figuring-out-who-gets-to-take-the-borked-bio-blame/ http://allthingsd.com/20120506/as-yahoo-ceo-reaches-out-to-top-staff-board-meets-to-weigh-options-i-e-figuring-out-who-gets-to-take-the-borked-bio-blame/#comments Mon, 07 May 2012 03:27:43 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=204185

Even as Yahoo’s board was kibitzing all weekend about how to handle the continuing resume-padding controversy around its recently hired CEO Scott Thompson — including hiring its own outside crisis communications firm to represent it — he was working the phones to keep top staff apprised of the evolving situation.

While Thompson told those he spoke to that he was limited in what he could say and blamed a “personal vendetta” by an activist shareholder for his troubles, being proactive in this regard is probably a good idea.

That’s because multiple sources said he said exactly nothing in various strategy meetings with top employees last week about allegations leveled by Dan Loeb of Third Point, which proved correct, that Thompson had not gotten a computer science degree in college, as his longtime bio had claimed.

“It was the gorilla in the room and it was awkward in the extreme,” said one exec present at the meetings. “He never brought it up, which was even worse.”

At this point, it seems unlikely that Thompson can regain the confidence of many at Yahoo — even though a company spokeswoman said he received a lot of incoming support too, both externally and internally — until he can render some cogent explanation about how the borked bio got into both Yahoo’s public site and also its more critical regulatory filings.

Even more mysteriously, how the error was never present in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission made by eBay, where Thompson led its PayPal payments unit, although his public eBay bio has also been wrong for close to a decade.

And, most of all, how was it that Thompson never caught the mistake himself — even when directly asked about it — despite the likelihood of reviewing it multiple times over those many years and ultimately certifying it for Yahoo’s own SEC filings.

Calling Encyclopedia Brown to solve the Case of the Computer Science Degree That Wasn’t!

Thompson has given no explanation about the debacle to the bulk of the Yahoo staff at all levels, save for an information-free and terse note to employees on Friday afternoon that essentially asked them to focus on their work instead of his bizarre crisis.

Unfortunately for him, many Yahoos are focusing a lot on Thompson, with message boards at the Silicon Valley Internet chastising their CEO and giving him support that is tepid at best. From interviews I have had with two dozen employees this weekend, to say morale is at an all-time low is perhaps understating the situation.

Here is a short selection of comments that were read to me, for example:

“Resume padding is one thing, but lying about something that is so easy to check is puzzling.”

“There is no reason to let it slide by … This isn’t some guy who’s trying to impress a date … It’s sad that we just accept this kind of stuff from corporate heads and politicians.”

“Having some document to prove you can do a job is not all that important, lying about it is.”

What appears to trouble employees the most in the threads I was read was the nonchalance of the initial Yahoo statement about the issue, which called the addition of a fake degree on Thompson’s bio an “inadvertent error.”

“From a pure employee perspective, it feels like it is a violation of their principles,” said one person, reflecting a dozen or more conversations I had this weekend up and down the organization. “And anyone else would probably be immediately fired for this, even with an explanation.”

Said another: “He clearly knew and lied for years; and his handling since exposed has been unacceptable.”

As I noted above, a company spokeswoman said there was also much support for Thompson (pictured here) within the company, but declined to provide any quotes or details.

Presumably, some answers will be coming from a board investigation aimed at getting to the bottom of the situation, including trying to grok who put the error in the bio in the first place.

My bet: They’ll try to pin it on a lower-level minion, although that will not fly with a lot of people.

Including me, because whoever typed in the faux degree, its presence there has been too long for Thompson not to be responsible for it.

Flunky error or not, there are important questions about whether Thompson himself provided a bio that contained the inaccuracy to the board when he put himself forth for the job via direct emails to Yahoo director and Intuit CEO Brad Smith.

That line of thought basically boils down to: Can Thompson not read?

More problematic is the fact that the placement did not come via Yahoo’s headhunter on the CEO search, Heidrick & Struggles, which apparently was not charged with doing a background check on Thompson.

Instead, the director in charge of the search, Patti Hart, sources said, hired another forensic firm, which appears to have missed Thompson’s erroneous academic record.

The only thing completely clear amidst all the confusion: Hart screwed up by botching an extremely simple part of a vetting she was charged with. That makes her vulnerable, of course, along with other Yahoo board members or staffers closely involved in the talent search.

While Hart (pictured here) is in a much dicier position, Thompson still appears to have initial board backing — at least for today — as it’d be a very tough call to fire yet another CEO so quickly in the middle of several key deals for Yahoo, as well as a proxy fight.

Said one person close to the situation, the board is still considering its “options,” in an effort that is being led by independent board member Fred Amoroso.

So, it will be instructive to see how the board will proceed tomorrow — especially since it is likely that Loeb will lob a lawsuit to try to get more information on the Thompson hiring process.

But it’s started by hiring its own outside communications firm, Sard Verbinnen, which has handled other crises for Yahoo in the past.

Sard’s Charles Sipkins — welcome back, Charlie! — had no comment about the board’s next move, except to reiterate its statement from last week that it is looking into the Thompson bio mess and will make appropriate disclosures at some point.

We can’t hardly wait.

RELATED POSTS:

• Yahoo’s Parting With Thompson Will Be for “Cause” (a.k.a. CSLie)
• Ross Levinsohn’s Yahoo Plan: Back to the Future
• Here’s New Yahoo CEO’s First Note to Troops! (The Leaking-Internal-Memos-to-ATD Policy Remains in Effect As Usual)
• Yahoo Officially Confirms ATD Report on CEO Changes and Proxy Settlement
• Meet the Man I Call “The Hair”: The Video Stylings of Yahoo’s Newest CEO Ross Levinsohn
• Will Thompson’s Ouster Mean a Yahoo-Facebook Patent Settlement Too?
• Exclusive: Yahoo’s Thompson Out; Levinsohn In; Board Settlement With Loeb Nears Completion
• Heidrick & Struggles Slaps Back at Thompson’s Yahoo in Blame Game Over ResuMess
• Is He In or Is He Out? Crunchtime for Scott Thompson at Yahoo.
• Not So Scott Free? Yahoo’s Other Big Shareholder — Cap Re — Leaning Toward Supporting Loeb Over Thompson ResuMess.
• Tech Nation’s Gunn Says She and Yahoo CEO Discussed Their CS Degrees Before 2009 Show (Video and Audio)
• Loeb Calls Again for Thompson Firing From Yahoo, as Former eBay Boss Supports Him
• Place Your Bets: Will Loeb Drop Another Bomb on Yahoo at Vegas Confab Later Today?
• Exclusive: Yahoo Director in Charge of Botched CEO Vetting to Step Down From Board
• CEO Says Sorry to Yahoos for Borked Bio “Distraction” — But Will Mea Culpa Work Without an Apology for Error? (Memo)
• Buffett Comments on Trust Issue in Yahoo CEO BioGate: “You’ve Got a Problem”
• Loeb Lobs Lawsuit, as Expected, at Yahoo’s Borked Bio Mess
• As Yahoo CEO Reaches Out to Top Staff, Board Meets to Weigh “Options” (I.E., Deciding Who Gets to Take the Borked Bio Blame)
• Yahoo Should Expect Incoming Lawsuit Lobbed by Loeb Tomorrow on CEO Hiring
• They Shoot Yahoo CEOs, Don’t They? But Not Without a Really Smoking Gun and a Much Stronger Board.
• Yahoo’s Thompson Asks Employees to “Stay Focused” — Except Not on Him
• In 2009 Interview, Yahoo CEO Does Not Deny He Has a CS Degree, and Calls Himself an “Engineer” (Audio)
• Yahoo’s Board Will “Review” Resume Discrepancy of CEO
• How Did a Phantom CS Degree Get on CEO’s Bio in SEC Filings? Yahoo’s Not Saying.
• Yahoo’s Response on CEO’s Computer Science ResumeGate: “Inadvertent Error”
• Dan Loeb Alleges “Discrepancies” on Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson’s Resume Related to Computer Science Degree

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120506/as-yahoo-ceo-reaches-out-to-top-staff-board-meets-to-weigh-options-i-e-figuring-out-who-gets-to-take-the-borked-bio-blame/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120503/in-2009-interview-yahoo-ceo-does-not-deny-he-has-a-cs-degree-and-calls-himself-an-engineer/ http://allthingsd.com/20120503/in-2009-interview-yahoo-ceo-does-not-deny-he-has-a-cs-degree-and-calls-himself-an-engineer/#comments Fri, 04 May 2012 06:22:41 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=203636

On March 25, 2009, Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson — when he was then president of PayPal — appeared on the TechNation radio show to talk about the revival of the eBay payments unit.

At the end of the largely charming interview, Moira Gunn asked him a direct question about his college degrees, specifically noting they were in accounting and computer science.

“Your bachelor’s degree is in accounting and computer science. Now, from both of those, I mean that’s, that’s pretty obvious that’s PayPal,” said Gunn. “What are the most important things you learned?”

“Yeah,” begins Thompson, failing to correct her at all on the fact that he does not actually have a computer science degree — only one in accounting.

He then went even further, touting his early tech training at Stonehill College, near Boston, which did not offer a computer science degree at the time he went there, from 1975 to 1979.

“And that’s really the background that I have, and it started back in my college days, and I think that’s really the wonderful part of being an engineer is you think that way,” said Thompson.

In the most generous interpretation, it’s not quite clear whether Thompson was saying “Yeah” to her statement of his academic credentials, or if he was not actually listening.

But it’s a careless oversight on his part not to have corrected her about the degrees, which could also be said about a computer science degree being present on his bio for more than a half-dozen years at eBay and later at Yahoo without some notice by him.

Because while Thompson has had a long career as a tech exec, as well as a stint as a CIO, academically speaking, a computer science degree did not happen in his college days nor did he graduate as an engineer.

That became apparent earlier today, when Yahoo confirmed that it included inaccurate information about Thompson’s academic background on its Web site and in its regulatory filings.

The admission came after activist shareholder Dan Loeb of Third Point correctly asserted that Thompson’s resume was overstated related to his education.

Yahoo called the inclusion of the computer science degree on his bio an “inadvertent error,” but gave no other explanation as yet. Tonight, the Yahoo board said it was reviewing the matter and would then make appropriate disclosures afterward.

While it is entirely possible that Thompson did not correctly grok what Gunn was saying, it seems pretty clear that he implied his college background was in tech and he was an engineer.

It is true that Thompson did take some computer science classes at Stonehill. And it is entirely possible that he thinks of himself as an engineer by work training and not by college degree.

I am awaiting comment from Yahoo PR, which has its hands full today (welcome to the circus, Amanda!).

Until then, here is the actual audio of that part of the interview and the pertinent part of the transcript, which began at the 26:33 time on the audio, to judge for yourself:

Gunn: Your bachelor’s degree is in accounting and computer science. Now, from both of those, I mean that’s, that’s pretty obvious that’s Paypal. What are the most important things you learned?

Thompson: Yeah. You know, I think and I, I mention this to young kids when I’m on campus, and my son who I was just talking about at Santa Clara, what I’m happiest about in my background is if you work in technology you’re trained to solve problems.

And that’s really it, you’re trained to pull apart very complex things and think about okay, how can I do this or how can I do that or how can I make it better?

And that’s really the background that I have and it started back in my college days, and I think that’s really the wonderful part of being an engineer is you think that way.

RELATED POSTS:

• Yahoo’s Parting With Thompson Will Be for “Cause” (a.k.a. CSLie)
• Ross Levinsohn’s Yahoo Plan: Back to the Future
• Here’s New Yahoo CEO’s First Note to Troops! (The Leaking-Internal-Memos-to-ATD Policy Remains in Effect As Usual)
• Yahoo Officially Confirms ATD Report on CEO Changes and Proxy Settlement
• Meet the Man I Call “The Hair”: The Video Stylings of Yahoo’s Newest CEO Ross Levinsohn
• Will Thompson’s Ouster Mean a Yahoo-Facebook Patent Settlement Too?
• Exclusive: Yahoo’s Thompson Out; Levinsohn In; Board Settlement With Loeb Nears Completion
• Heidrick & Struggles Slaps Back at Thompson’s Yahoo in Blame Game Over ResuMess
• Is He In or Is He Out? Crunchtime for Scott Thompson at Yahoo.
• Not So Scott Free? Yahoo’s Other Big Shareholder — Cap Re — Leaning Toward Supporting Loeb Over Thompson ResuMess.
• Tech Nation’s Gunn Says She and Yahoo CEO Discussed Their CS Degrees Before 2009 Show (Video and Audio)
• Loeb Calls Again for Thompson Firing From Yahoo, as Former eBay Boss Supports Him
• Place Your Bets: Will Loeb Drop Another Bomb on Yahoo at Vegas Confab Later Today?
• Exclusive: Yahoo Director in Charge of Botched CEO Vetting to Step Down From Board
• CEO Says Sorry to Yahoos for Borked Bio “Distraction” — But Will Mea Culpa Work Without an Apology for Error? (Memo)
• Buffett Comments on Trust Issue in Yahoo CEO BioGate: “You’ve Got a Problem”
• Loeb Lobs Lawsuit, as Expected, at Yahoo’s Borked Bio Mess
• As Yahoo CEO Reaches Out to Top Staff, Board Meets to Weigh “Options” (I.E., Deciding Who Gets to Take the Borked Bio Blame)
• Yahoo Should Expect Incoming Lawsuit Lobbed by Loeb Tomorrow on CEO Hiring
• They Shoot Yahoo CEOs, Don’t They? But Not Without a Really Smoking Gun and a Much Stronger Board.
• Yahoo’s Thompson Asks Employees to “Stay Focused” — Except Not on Him
• In 2009 Interview, Yahoo CEO Does Not Deny He Has a CS Degree, and Calls Himself an “Engineer” (Audio)
• Yahoo’s Board Will “Review” Resume Discrepancy of CEO
• How Did a Phantom CS Degree Get on CEO’s Bio in SEC Filings? Yahoo’s Not Saying.
• Yahoo’s Response on CEO’s Computer Science ResumeGate: “Inadvertent Error”
• Dan Loeb Alleges “Discrepancies” on Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson’s Resume Related to Computer Science Degree

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120503/in-2009-interview-yahoo-ceo-does-not-deny-he-has-a-cs-degree-and-calls-himself-an-engineer/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120503/yahoos-response-on-computer-science-resumegate-inadvertent-error/ http://allthingsd.com/20120503/yahoos-response-on-computer-science-resumegate-inadvertent-error/#comments Thu, 03 May 2012 19:27:37 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=203351

A Yahoo spokesperson just confirmed as accurate allegations from an activist shareholder Dan Loeb of Third Point that its CEO Scott Thompson did not have a computer science degree from Stonehill College as claimed on his bio and also in regulatory filings.

He does not, a mistake that the Silicon Valley Internet giant is calling an “inadvertent error.”

Except this is a mistake that goes back more than a half-dozen years, as it is also on the Web site bio at eBay, where he served as president of its PayPal payments unit and its CTO before that.

(Update: Yahoo just removed the line about Thompson’s college degrees from his Web site bio entirely.)

While Yahoo sought to underplay the controversy, it could become a serious issue for Yahoo, both from a credibility and regulatory compliance issue.

It would also call into question — as Loeb does in the letter — the amount of vetting done by Yahoo on the CEO choice, which was conducted by board member Patti Hart.

It gets worse: Loeb also alleged that Hart changed her degree from Illinois State College from business administration to a loftier economics and marketing. And Yahoo admitted it was so, noting the director had a business administration degree, with a specialty in economics and marketing — whatever that means.

But, incompetent vetting by Hart aside, it is how and why Thompson changed his resume that will be at issue.

Here’s one fact that is true: Thompson only has an accounting degree from Stonehill College, near Boston, which he attended from 1975 to 1979.

(Second Update: Stonehill also confirmed that Thompson’s degree was only a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration (Accounting).)

Here is, in fact, a screenshot of an alumni newsletter when Thompson got the job at Yahoo earlier this year:

Despite the mistake, however it was made and which presumably serves to burnish Thompson’s tech cred, Yahoo said in a statement that it does not diminish his qualifications to lead the tech company.

Said the statement in full:

“Scott Thompson’s degree at Stonehill College was in bachelor science in accounting. There was an inadvertent error that stated Mr. Thompson also holds a degree in computer science. This, in no way, alters that fact that Mr. Thompson is a highly qualified executive with a successful track record leading large consumer technology companies. Under Mr. Thompson’s leadership, Yahoo! is moving forward to grow the company and drive shareholder value.”

Here’s the definition of inadvertent, for those who don’t know:

1. failing to act carefully or considerately; inattentive
2. resulting from heedless action; unintentional inadvertently

I’d say it’s going to turn out to be a lot more than that, but we’ll see what the board of Yahoo and, ultimately, shareholders, have to say.

(And, ironically, just yesterday Yahoo wrote a letter to shareholders claiming that Loeb did not have “relevant” expertise to be on its board. Turns out, he’s definitely pretty good at vetting.)

RELATED POSTS:

• Yahoo’s Parting With Thompson Will Be for “Cause” (a.k.a. CSLie)
• Ross Levinsohn’s Yahoo Plan: Back to the Future
• Here’s New Yahoo CEO’s First Note to Troops! (The Leaking-Internal-Memos-to-ATD Policy Remains in Effect As Usual)
• Yahoo Officially Confirms ATD Report on CEO Changes and Proxy Settlement
• Meet the Man I Call “The Hair”: The Video Stylings of Yahoo’s Newest CEO Ross Levinsohn
• Will Thompson’s Ouster Mean a Yahoo-Facebook Patent Settlement Too?
• Exclusive: Yahoo’s Thompson Out; Levinsohn In; Board Settlement With Loeb Nears Completion
• Heidrick & Struggles Slaps Back at Thompson’s Yahoo in Blame Game Over ResuMess
• Is He In or Is He Out? Crunchtime for Scott Thompson at Yahoo.
• Not So Scott Free? Yahoo’s Other Big Shareholder — Cap Re — Leaning Toward Supporting Loeb Over Thompson ResuMess.
• Tech Nation’s Gunn Says She and Yahoo CEO Discussed Their CS Degrees Before 2009 Show (Video and Audio)
• Loeb Calls Again for Thompson Firing From Yahoo, as Former eBay Boss Supports Him
• Place Your Bets: Will Loeb Drop Another Bomb on Yahoo at Vegas Confab Later Today?
• Exclusive: Yahoo Director in Charge of Botched CEO Vetting to Step Down From Board
• CEO Says Sorry to Yahoos for Borked Bio “Distraction” — But Will Mea Culpa Work Without an Apology for Error? (Memo)
• Buffett Comments on Trust Issue in Yahoo CEO BioGate: “You’ve Got a Problem”
• Loeb Lobs Lawsuit, as Expected, at Yahoo’s Borked Bio Mess
• As Yahoo CEO Reaches Out to Top Staff, Board Meets to Weigh “Options” (I.E., Deciding Who Gets to Take the Borked Bio Blame)
• Yahoo Should Expect Incoming Lawsuit Lobbed by Loeb Tomorrow on CEO Hiring
• They Shoot Yahoo CEOs, Don’t They? But Not Without a Really Smoking Gun and a Much Stronger Board.
• Yahoo’s Thompson Asks Employees to “Stay Focused” — Except Not on Him
• In 2009 Interview, Yahoo CEO Does Not Deny He Has a CS Degree, and Calls Himself an “Engineer” (Audio)
• Yahoo’s Board Will “Review” Resume Discrepancy of CEO
• How Did a Phantom CS Degree Get on CEO’s Bio in SEC Filings? Yahoo’s Not Saying.
• Yahoo’s Response on CEO’s Computer Science ResumeGate: “Inadvertent Error”
• Dan Loeb Alleges “Discrepancies” on Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson’s Resume Related to Computer Science Degree

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120503/yahoos-response-on-computer-science-resumegate-inadvertent-error/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120124/fusion-io-shares-whacked-but-the-flash-madness-club-has-a-new-member/ http://allthingsd.com/20120124/fusion-io-shares-whacked-but-the-flash-madness-club-has-a-new-member/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:37:51 +0000 Arik Hesseldahl http://allthingsd.com/?p=167175 Shares of Fusion-io, the newly public company whose flash memory technology transforms typical servers into super-fast ones that get more work done, are getting hammered in after-hours trading following an earnings report that appears to have freaked investors out.

Shares are down more than $4, or about 13 percent. The freakout appears to be coming from gross margins that shrank to 51 percent from almost 59 percent in the prior quarter, and despite the fact that sales more than doubled sequentially to $84 million from $31 million before.

CEO David Flynn called me up a little while ago to talk about the results, and he reminded me that Fusion launched its new IO Drive 2. It’s a transition to a new product line that’s proving tricky. New products built on new technologies are always a little more costly to build up front, and that’s compounded by the fact that early adopters, when they buy the new stuff, take the lower-end version and not the more expensive and more profitable one.

Also, enterprise customers who buy the new stuff are always conservative and take longer to decide whether they want to buy it or not, he says. Even so, the company has sold 10,000 of the new drives.

But? There’s a new customer of record: Salesforce.com is now a Fusion-io customer, and has joined the likes of Apple and Facebook, which is using the flash-based chips in the servers running in its data centers around the world.

And Salesforce isn’t buying it directly from Fusion, but rather through one its OEM partners, which include Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Dell, though Flynn wouldn’t tell me which one it is.

Salesforce is one of six customers who bought more than a million dollars worth of Fusion’s stuff this quarter and of those, four were repeat customers, Flynn told me.

The Salesforce win is also important, Flynn says, because some have wondered whether Fusion’s technology, while popular with high-end enterprises like banks and Facebook, would make sense for applications that tend to be used in mid-tier businesses, which Salesforce’s mainline CRM application often is. The lower end of the enterprise software market is moving toward cloud-based software, which is often referred to as Software as a Service, or SAAS. “By helping those companies, we are indirectly driving business in the mid-range of the market. Apple and Facebook are in the SAAS business too, it’s just that their customers are consumers.”

One interesting fact that Flynn shared with me: His first job out of college was working for Oracle. His boss at the time? One-time Oracle exec and now Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. A small world it is, indeed.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120124/fusion-io-shares-whacked-but-the-flash-madness-club-has-a-new-member/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111209/airbnb-hires-former-yahoo-legal-eagle-belinda-johnson-as-general-counsel/ http://allthingsd.com/20111209/airbnb-hires-former-yahoo-legal-eagle-belinda-johnson-as-general-counsel/#comments Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:44:49 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=152330

Airbnb, the San Francisco online vacation rentals start-up, said it has hired a key former Yahoo lawyer, Belinda Johnson, as its new general counsel.

The legal issues at Airbnb are both interesting and challenging, all around the new arena of global sharing or, as the company calls it, “collaborative consumption.”

Johnson is one of several recent major hires by Airbnb, which has been adding more seasoned execs to its team of late. Other recent key Airbnb hires include Monroe Labouisse as head of trust and safety and customer service, and Vivek Wagle as head of content.

Johnson left Yahoo several months ago as its deputy general counsel, after a long tenure there working on a wide variety of issues.

Among other things, she oversaw legal strategy for Yahoo’s global products, and worked on deals like its search and advertising alliance with Microsoft. Johnson came to Yahoo from its Web 1.0 acquisition of Broadcast.com, where she had served as general counsel.

She attended both college and law school at the University of Texas.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111209/airbnb-hires-former-yahoo-legal-eagle-belinda-johnson-as-general-counsel/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111208/myforce-pushes-a-panic-button-app-for-the-campus/ http://allthingsd.com/20111208/myforce-pushes-a-panic-button-app-for-the-campus/#comments Thu, 08 Dec 2011 23:20:17 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=152081 Today’s shootings at Virginia Tech are another reminder that, despite a relatively new mandate for universities to provide student communities with timely warnings in the event of danger, danger could still occur, leaving those involved feeling helpless.

One security company has been looking to the device many students have in their hands at all times — their smartphone — to see if a one-touch security app could mean even faster response times.

Colorado-based MyForce has developed the MyForce Campus System, with a compatible mobile app, for university safety officials to receive alerts placed within campus borders. It provides access to such details as a student’s location, health conditions and emergency contacts. The app works on iPhone, BlackBerry and Android smartphones.

The app overrides the phone’s lock feature so — as long as the user has the MyForce app open — the interface will always be accessible, though the screen may dim a bit. If a user is in imminent danger, he or she can press the large button featured on the app that sends an immediate notification to MyForce and to campus security officials (provided they are equipped to use the MyForce monitoring software). MyForce also begins to pinpoint the user’s GPS location and record streaming audio from the phone. (MyForce says this information remains private in the company’s database, aside from sharing it with law enforcement officials at the time of the emergency. It can also be submitted later on as evidence of a crime.)

When the user sends an alert, the phone vibrates and also prompts the user to enter a PIN code — so if it’s a misfire that the user didn’t mean to send, he or she can disarm the app by entering in the PIN. At that point, MyForce says it then stops tracking the user.

“The one thing students always have in their hands these days is a smartphone,” said Brad Zotti, MyForce’s co-founder. The idea for the app occurred to him when he was visiting a college campus and thought about integrating the “blue light” emergency phone stands into a mobile phone. “Even if you call 911, it might take some time for your location to be recognized,” he said. “And other security apps promise to send texts or emails to your closest contacts, but who knows if or when they’ll be able to respond?”

MyForce is currently being used at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. The privately owned company just signed a deal with e2Campus, another school security solutions company, to potentially bring the mobile-app version of the “blue light” system to e2Campus’ client base of around 800 schools in the U.S.

Part of MyForce’s challenge will be convincing more schools to use the app. There may be some resistance on the part of school law enforcement bodies to adopt a third-party security monitoring system, and there could also be varying layers of approval needed at the administrative level.

Even if administrators don’t officially opt in to the MyForce monitoring system, students and parents can still purchase the app themselves, though it may offer a less immediate response action. In that case, MyForce still offers to work with school officials to create a virtual “geo-fence” around a college campus that establishes which areas should be monitored. If a student is in danger and presses the button within that geo-fence, the alert goes to MyForce’s dashboard, and MyForce can then call campus security directly.

It won’t cost anything to download the mobile app, but subscriptions to MyForce cost $11.99 per month or $119 annually.

Since the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, many schools have put more sophisticated emergency alert systems in place. Universities are required under the Clery Act to provide campus crime reports and timely warnings in potentially dangerous situations.

As we’re reminded today, there are instances in which no amount of campus security, call boxes or instantaneous mobile applications can prevent danger. And apps like MyForce rely on working wireless and data networks in order to send emergency notifications.

Hopefully, as the technology improves, more solutions will emerge to bring help to users in desperate situations and speed up response times even more.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111208/myforce-pushes-a-panic-button-app-for-the-campus/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20111120/captainu-builds-the-mint-com-for-student-athletes/ http://allthingsd.com/20111120/captainu-builds-the-mint-com-for-student-athletes/#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2011 17:15:37 +0000 Drake Martinet http://allthingsd.com/?p=145900

One sure path to making money on the Internet is to find a business that people can get emotional about — that is, enough to type in their credit card number.

CaptainU, a start-up that serves the families of young athletes, may have found the most emotional business of all.

The San Francisco-based company has positioned itself between student athletes and the college teams that might recruit them, in much the same way that financial Web app Mint.com placed itself in between people building their financial goals and the banks and credit card companies seeking new clients.

But don’t call CaptainU a recruiting service — that might run it afoul of the NCAA.

CaptainU users sign up and then build a profile that includes the student athlete’s statistics, team affiliations, training camp attendances and GPA.

The site also provides templates for tracking statistics, displaying highlight videos and all the other ephemera college coaches might look for when recruiting.

But, according to co-founder Mike Farb, CaptainU’s real service — like Mint’s — is about helping users make decisions with more information.

Once they decide they want to play at the college level, “students really need a road map for what they should to do, to develop athletically and academically,” Farb said. “Today, most families just rely on high school coaches and other parents.”

What CaptainU provides, after analyzing all the data added to a profile, is a realistic set of goals and prescriptions for achievement.

Want to play lacrosse at Duke? CaptainU can tell you what GPA you should shoot for, whether or not you are on the right traveling lacrosse team, and which coach you should get in touch with.

Farb, like other founders wary of nailing down claims of early traction, wouldn’t share user numbers in detail. But he acknowledged that CaptainU currently had “hundreds of thousands of users.”

Users can sign up for a free “rookie” profile, or trade up for an expanded services profile, which runs between $20 and $40 per mont — pricey, but not when compared to something like a bag full of top-tier hockey equipment.

Farb said that he didn’t think the financial future for his bootstrapped company, which is looking to raise an A round of funding, was in paid user accounts.

“We can now connect families with videographers in every state, so that they can get highlight footage taken,” he said. “We want to provide the same connections for private coaches, camps, and anyone else who provides services for athletes families.”

The plan for CaptainU is to become a platform for all of these partners to connect and transact business with the start-up’s growing user base. CaptainU takes a small cut of each deal, and charges admission for trainers, camps and other service providers to be listed on the site.

This “platform play” isn’t new, but Farb said that growing the sales and marketing staff, which CaptainU organizes by sport, is the next step.

“After all, how many former college athletes do you know that end up in sales?,” he asked and then answered. “All of them.”

Here is the video of an interview I did with Farb:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111120/captainu-builds-the-mint-com-for-student-athletes/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20110915/chegg-buys-zinch-in-another-move-toward-a-social-education-platform/ http://allthingsd.com/20110915/chegg-buys-zinch-in-another-move-toward-a-social-education-platform/#comments Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:00:03 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=120370

Chegg — best known for online rentals of textbooks to college students — said it has just bought Zinch, a start-up that links high school students and college recruiters.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The purchase of the San Francisco-based Zinch, said CEO Dan Rosensweig in an interview earlier this week, is part of a larger plan involving a series of acquisitions aimed at “how we move from two-day relevance to relevance all year around for students.”

By that, he meant the short time period when students either buy or rent their textbooks for the semester.

That’s certainly been a good business for Chegg, which is the leader in the online textbook-rental arena, including digital distribution.

But to further solidify its relationship with students and expand its market base to include high schoolers along with college consumers, Chegg has picked up a number of start-ups like Zinch, using its stock and also the whopping $220 million in funding from a number of venture firms, including Kleiner Perkins.

In late September, for example, the company bought CourseRank, which helps students share course schedules, take classes with friends, and read and write reviews on classes and professors, as well as find out how they grade.

Also scooped up by Chegg: Notehall, which is a student-to-student note-taking trading market; Cramster, a social homework helper; and Student of Fortune, a homework-answers site for student questions (which a recent filing by Chegg noted was bought for $5.9 million in stock).

Also being tested are such offerings as deals for students and other ways to leverage the original textbook relationship.

“This is the beginning of a connected student network that we hope to build into a giant platform,” said Rosensweig. “We want to have a student using us all the way through for a 10-year span, from high school on.”

In related news, Chegg said it has hired former Palm CFO Andrew Brown as its new CFO. Prior to Palm, he served as the CFO of Pillar Data Systems Inc., a storage start-up funded by Oracle’s Larry Ellison.

While a CFO hiring often indicates a soon-to-happen IPO, Rosensweig said that Chegg has more than enough capital, needs to focus on building up its offerings and is in no rush to go public.

We’ll see, but here’s the official press release from Chegg about Zinch:

Chegg Plans to Expand into $7 Billion College Recruiting Market and Increase Student Base By Over 3.5 Million

Chegg enters into a definitive agreement to acquire Zinch, the leading digital network that helps high school students research, connect with and pay for college

SANTA CLARA, Calif., September 15, 2011 – Chegg today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Zinch. The acquisition is subject to standard closing conditions and is expected to be completed by the end of this month. The acquisition will expand Chegg’s social education platform into high schools. Zinch, founded in 2007, connects prospective college and graduate students to scholarships, admissions officers and other students who have been through the same process.

The acquisition of Zinch, with over 3.5 million members, $1.9 billion in scholarships and over 5,000 school profiles, will significantly expand Chegg’s customer base and its social education platform. Colleges and students will be able to connect more effectively for less through Chegg, helping to streamline the college recruiting process globally. In addition, unlike any other company in the education space, Chegg will provide resources to students at every major milestone before, during and after their college career — including bridging the gap from high school to college.

“Our mission has always been to save students time, money and help them get smarter,” said Dan Rosensweig, president and CEO of Chegg. “With our acquisition of Zinch, we’re extending our mission to high school students through the $7 billion college recruiting market, while continuing to break down the barriers of a college education, from the high cost of tuition and textbooks to helping students make money, pick their courses and get the academic help they need.”

At Zinch, over 3.5 million students have built online profiles to showcase themselves as “more than test scores” to shine in the admissions process, and to be matched with schools and scholarships that might be a good fit. Colleges and universities worldwide, including more than half of the US News top ranked national universities, use Zinch for cost-effective student recruiting and outreach.

“Getting in and paying for school is daunting. Together, Chegg and Zinch can not only make higher education more affordable and accessible, it gives students an edge in finding the right school, getting admitted and reducing the cost. Students can put their best foot forward, be recognized for their achievements and be discovered by programs that fit their interests,” said Anne Dwane, CEO of Zinch.

The acquisition is subject to standard closing conditions and is expected to be completed by the end of this month.
To learn more about Chegg’s social education platform and its network of services, go to www.chegg.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110915/chegg-buys-zinch-in-another-move-toward-a-social-education-platform/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110810/shedding-light-on-e-reader-glare/ http://allthingsd.com/20110810/shedding-light-on-e-reader-glare/#comments Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:14:32 +0000 Walt Mossberg http://allthingsd.com/?p=108483 Q:

Can you help my light-sensitive eyes with e-reader advice? I thought Kindle sounded right for me, but I heard there might be an upgrade in the near future. True? Will it be an improvement I should wait for?

A:

Though Amazon hasn’t made a formal announcement, I expect there will be new e-readers from that company in the coming months. I don’t have details, so I can’t say if any new models will be worth the wait. But it’s probable that Amazon will continue to improve on its line of gray-scale, E Ink readers while possibly adding a full-color tablet. If glare is a problem for you, I’d plan on going with an E Ink model, such as the current Kindle or the latest Nook from Barnes & Noble. Full-color tablets like the iPad tend to suffer from glare, especially in direct sunlight.

Q:

I have a child who would like to go to college to become an engineer. Most engineers I know use a PC. I would like to buy my son a Mac for college, but I don’t want to get him something he can’t use.

A:

I know engineers who use Macs and others who use Windows PCs. However, my advice is to get your son whatever type of computer the college engineering department where he winds up suggests would be best. Your near-term goal isn’t to validate either your choice, or that of the engineers you or I know. It’s to get him the tool that is expected or preferred by the people who will be training him. If you want to buy him the computer before you know which school he’ll be attending, you may have to gamble, or research what likely colleges prefer.

Q:

I just started using OneNote on my Windows Notebook and love it. I am thinking of moving to a MacBook Air or Samsung Series 9. Both machines offer the balance of light weight and good performance I’m looking for. I was leaning toward the MacBook Air, until I learned that Office for the Mac does not include OneNote. I’ve read mixed reviews from MacBook Air users who run Windows and the Windows Office Suite. Do you have any experience in this area?

A:

I occasionally run Windows 7 and the Windows version of Microsoft Office on a MacBook Air and find it works just fine. However, I haven’t used OneNote in that scenario, so I can’t say if it works as smoothly as the rest of Office. The Air is a terrific computer, but, as I have said for years, if you are heavily reliant on Windows software, it’s best to buy a Windows PC—in your case, the Samsung—even though Macs can run Windows.

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110810/shedding-light-on-e-reader-glare/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110801/lal-people-helps-find-friends-anonymously/ http://allthingsd.com/20110801/lal-people-helps-find-friends-anonymously/#comments Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:00:50 +0000 Liz Gannes http://allthingsd.com/?p=104894 LikeALittle, also known as LAL, is launching its first non-college-oriented app today, which will help users with common interests and nearby locations find one another.

The app, called LAL People and available for Web, iPhone and Android, is rather simple: users sign up with their email address or Facebook account. A profile is created with all sorts of information — profile picture, favorite music, teams, movies, even birthdate and education — whatever LAL can scrape from Facebook or get from the user directly.

But there’s one biggish difference: LAL People profiles do not show the user’s name or email.

That light veil of anonymity could lead to new and exciting interactions… but it’s also likely to inspire spammy and hollow conversations, if the history of chat rooms and forums is any precedent.

The underlying idea is this: LikeALittle was originally created around flirting on college campuses — where users have lots in common — so LAL People tries to approximate that by ranking users by its best guess that they’ll be interested in chatting and meeting with each other.

LikeALittle recently raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110801/lal-people-helps-find-friends-anonymously/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110413/want-to-create-an-app-theres-a-degree-for-that/ http://allthingsd.com/20110413/want-to-create-an-app-theres-a-degree-for-that/#comments Wed, 13 Apr 2011 10:00:19 +0000 Ina Fried http://mobilized.allthingsd.com/?p=6285 In another sign of just how hot the market is for mobile apps, one college is now offering students the option of getting their degree in the topic.

Rasmussen College, a for-profit college that operates in five states, has launched both two-year and four-year degree programs for aspiring app creators.

Hap Aziz, director of Rasmussen’s school of technology and design, said that an estimated 300,000 new software development jobs are going to be created in the next few years, with many of those calling for a specialty in mobile apps.

“There is going to be a continued need as people start adopting more smart devices,” Aziz told Mobilized.

Classes featured in the program include “mobile application development,” “computer graphics programming” and “engineering virtual worlds.”

A handful of students started the program this month at Rasmussen campuses in Florida and Minnesota, with more students expected in the fall. For now, the curriculum is focused on iPhone and Android app development, though Aziz acknowledges the mobile world is changing so fast that the landscape may shift by the time a student gets his or her four-year degree. However, he said the school can adapt quickly if, say, Android craters and HP’s WebOS takes off.

If you haven’t heard of Rasmussen, it’s a regionally accredited school with campuses in five states. Aziz said that the school has 16,000 students overall with about 2,000 studying in the school of technology and design.

It’s not the first time the school has tried to tap into technology trends. The school launched a program in computer games and simulations a couple years back. Aziz said the school had already added a mobile class to that program as smartphones started taking off.

“We decided we would go whole hog,” Aziz said.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110413/want-to-create-an-app-theres-a-degree-for-that/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110407/intel-capital-conde-nast-ownerinvest-30-million-in-student-tablet-start-up-kno-intel-takes-over-hardware-biz/ http://allthingsd.com/20110407/intel-capital-conde-nast-ownerinvest-30-million-in-student-tablet-start-up-kno-intel-takes-over-hardware-biz/#comments Fri, 08 Apr 2011 02:17:57 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=42463

According to sources close to the situation, Intel Capital and Advance Publications will lead a $30 million investment round in Kno, the high-profile student tablet start-up.

In addition to the funding from its venture capital arm, Intel itself will consult with Kno on its tablet design. Kno, which is getting out of the hardware business, will now focus on its software to manage the devices that are aimed at the college market.

Intel will not manufacture tablets either. Instead, its engineers will consult with Kno on power management, graphics, display, systems integration, which it does for a variety of its customers.

Along with Intel Capital and Advance, current investors will also participate in the round, said sources. But Intel Capital and Advance, the owner of the Condé Nast publishing empire, make up a big part of the funding.

Sources said Intel Capital’s investment is $20 million and Advance and others make up the rest of it.

BoomTown reported in February that the much-funded and high-profile Silicon Valley start-up–aimed at making tablet computers focused at students–was considering selling off the entire hardware part of the business.

Sources said Kno execs have recently decided that the quicker-than-expected uptake in tablet production by a multitude of powerful device makers had made its efforts to package a seamless offering less critical.

Instead, the company will now focus on its robust software and services to offer students on the Apple iPad, as well as upcoming tablets based on Google’s Android mobile operating system and others.

The move is a dramatic shift for the company, which had not shipped significant numbers of the touchscreen device as it has long touted.

In fact, Kno said in November that it would ship a $599 and $899 version of the tablet by the end of the year.

The lower price was for its single-screen device, while the clamshell double-screen version was more expensive.

And, although it has been reported no pre-orders were fulfilled, Kno did indeed ship several hundred of them, built by China’s Foxconn, before stopping doing so earlier this year.

Many have been dubious about Kno’s ambitious hardware efforts.

That’s because marketing a new and complex product like the Kno takes a lot of effort and cash, especially since it is an increasingly competitive market for mobile and portable computing products that includes Apple, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Google, Amazon, Dell and many others.

Before this $30 million, Kno has raised another $46 million in funding to add to an earlier $10 million round.

Sources in February said that the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company considering going back out to raise even more.

Its current backers include prominent venture players like Andreessen Horowitz and First Round Capital, along with angel investors Mike Maples and Ron Conway.

Sources said the shift to deliver textbook and other student-related delivery system would be a better path for all that investment money, since Kno has established a wide range of partnerships with colleges and universities.

In addition, Kno co-founder Osman Rashid has a lot of experience in digital education market. He was also the co-founder of Chegg, the textbook rental business that is reportedly aiming for an IPO soon.

BusinessWeek was first to report that Intel Capital was making the investment in Kno, but the post did not mention Advance’s involvement or that Intel itself was licensing the hardware design business from Kno.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110407/intel-capital-conde-nast-ownerinvest-30-million-in-student-tablet-start-up-kno-intel-takes-over-hardware-biz/feed/ 4 http://allthingsd.com/20110221/exclusive-kno-student-tablet-start-up-in-talks-to-sell-off-tablet-part-of-business/ http://allthingsd.com/20110221/exclusive-kno-student-tablet-start-up-in-talks-to-sell-off-tablet-part-of-business/#comments Mon, 21 Feb 2011 08:16:00 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=40897

Kno–the much-funded and high-profile Silicon Valley start-up aimed at making tablet computers focused at students–is considering selling off the entire hardware part of the business and is in talks with two major consumer electronics manufacturers to do so, according to sources close to the situation.

Sources said Kno execs have recently decided that the quicker-than-expected uptake in tablet production by a multitude of powerful device makers had made its efforts to package a seamless offering less critical.

Instead, the company will focus on its robust software and services to offer students on the Apple iPad, as well as upcoming tablets based on Google’s Android mobile operating system and others.

BoomTown could not determine which two companies Kno was in serious discussions with about unloading its hardware business, but the company has signed an NDA with one of them.

But, if a deal is struck, the move would be a dramatic shift for the company, which has yet to ship significant numbers of the student-focused touchscreen device as it has long touted.

In fact, Kno said in November that it would ship a $599 and $899 version of the tablet by the end of the year.

The lower price was for its single-screen device, while the clamshell double-screen version was more expensive.

And, although it has been reported no pre-orders were fulfilled, Kno did indeed ship several hundred of them, built by China’s Foxconn, before stopping doing so recently.

Many have been dubious about Kno’s ambitious hardware efforts.

That’s because marketing a new and complex product like the Kno takes a lot of effort and cash, especially since it is an increasingly competitive market for mobile and portable computing products that includes Apple, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Google, Amazon, Dell and many others.

Kno recently raised another $46 million in funding to add to a $10 million round, and sources said that the Santa Clara, Calif., company was considering going back out to raise even more.

Its current backers include prominent venture players like Andreessen Horowitz and First Round Capital, along with investors Mike Maples and Ron Conway.

A Kno spokeswoman declined comment.

But sources said the shift to deliver textbook and other student-related delivery system would be a better path for all that investment money, since Kno has established a wide range of partnerships with colleges and universities.

In addition, Kno Co-founder Osman Rashid has a lot of experience in digital education market. He was also the co-founder of Chegg, the textbook rental business that is reportedly aiming for an IPO soon.

You can see Rashid here, along with the Kno tablet prototype in the full demo video that the company did last year at the eighth D: All Things Digital conference:

(Want to see it bigger? Click here.)

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110221/exclusive-kno-student-tablet-start-up-in-talks-to-sell-off-tablet-part-of-business/feed/ 18 http://allthingsd.com/20110201/holding-out-for-a-hero-the-next-web-ipos-might-surprise-you/ http://allthingsd.com/20110201/holding-out-for-a-hero-the-next-web-ipos-might-surprise-you/#comments Tue, 01 Feb 2011 21:00:18 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=40017

No, not Facebook.

Not Zynga.

And probably not Groupon.

At least not yet, when it comes to the blockbuster Web IPOs that Wall Street and investors have been waiting for, and now expecting to roll out sooner than later in the wake of the return of the Web IPO in recent weeks.

Not so fast.

That’s what multiple sources with knowledge of the situation said when queried by BoomTown after the successful public outing by Demand Media, followed by LinkedIn’s S-1 regulatory filing last week.

While these events spurred a great deal of speculation about which Web wunderkind would belly up to the public trough next, sources said that those looking for IPOs well above the $5 billion range will have to wait a little longer.

Because, while companies such as social networking giant Facebook, social buying phenom Groupon and social gaming’s Zynga have all been courted heavily by investment bankers such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and others–all remain well-funded and willing to hold off opening their books for all to see until the last possible moment.

“There’s not a lot of reason to expose all kinds of information that is keeping these companies ahead too early,” said one person close to the situation. “In fact, once that much data is out there, you could argue that they lose a lot of their magic to investors.”

Some of that financial information is already out there, although in small bites, which has only been a taste for investors.

Full-scale sunlight will be different. While it can be cleansing, it can also be disappointing to those with too-high expectations of these companies.

Thus, expect to see more small IPOs–at least in comparison–from outfits such as Chegg, which has also been deep in talks with bankers for a while now.

Chegg, like LinkedIn, has been highly successful in a niche arena–in its case, online rentals of textbook to college students.

In the fall, the Silicon Valley company raised another $75 million in funding, on top of a previous $144 million.

Venture firms, such as Kleiner Perkins, Foundation Capital, Insight Venture Partners and others have presumably handed over that money in hopes of big returns in disrupting a $10 billion college textbook business.

Chegg got its start in 2005 at Iowa State University as a classified rental service, where books were the dominant item, but evolved its business to focus on actually doing the textbook rentals.

Typically, a rental costs a fraction of what buying a book outright does. It is ordered online and then sent to a renter, who then returns it.

The company’s unusual name, Chegg, is a mashup of “chicken and egg,” and its model is similar to that of innovative video rental outfit Netflix.

And a Netflix-like business is what presumably may keep Wall Street investors interested–at least until the bigger fish arrive.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110201/holding-out-for-a-hero-the-next-web-ipos-might-surprise-you/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20110112/a-social-network-way-ahead-of-its-time/ http://allthingsd.com/20110112/a-social-network-way-ahead-of-its-time/#comments Wed, 12 Jan 2011 20:46:21 +0000 Scott Austin http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=35145 At some point in our lives–perhaps bleary-eyed while watching an infomercial at 3 a.m.–we’ve all probably shouted out, “I thought of that years ago!” Most of us, however, never actually acted on our instinct to, say, create a blanket with sleeves or an exercise weight you shake.

But three old college pals can make the claim–and back it up–that they dreamed up the idea for a college-based social networking site, and for a short time ran it, years before coeds began “friending” and “poking” their pals on Facebook.

No, this account doesn’t center around Cameron and Tyler Winkelvoss, the notorious twins who claim Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea while at Harvard and created what’s now a company valued at $50 billion.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

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