12 posts and columns on John Borthwick

Why Betaworks Broke Up the Band

in Media on September 15, 2011 at 7:08 pm PT

Andy Weissman jumps from the incubator/holding company to become a full-time investor at Union Square Ventures. That wasn’t the plan a few months ago.
breaking up

Bitly Gets a New Boss

in Media on May 16, 2011 at 6:23 am PT

Bitly has raised $14 million in a few years, and shrinks more than 8 billion Web addresses a month, but has never had a full-time CEO. Now technology vet Peter Stern gets the gig.

BoomTown as Judge Judy, Um, Judge BigApps

in News on October 13, 2010 at 2:37 am PT

With All Things Digital Global HQ located in the heart of the Castro in San Francisco, BoomTown tries hard not to judge–even that dude who likes to come into the Starbucks naked. But I made an exception to be a judge for an innovative civic geek contest that New York City is doing for the second year called BigApps 2.0, opening up a whole mess of government information and letting software developers have at it. And how much do you want to bet there will be a bed-bug app submitted this year?

Bit.ly URL Shortener Raises $10 Million

in Media on October 7, 2010 at 1:24 pm PT

Bit.ly, the start-up you’ve probably used recently to send someone a shorter version of a Web address, has raised another round of funding. The service, spun out of the Betaworks incubator, says that the RRE VC fund led the round, and that partner Eric Wiesen will join the company’s board.

The New York Times Gets a Bite of Bit.ly

in Media on September 10, 2010 at 12:50 pm PT

Here’s a quick follow-up to News.Me, the sort-of mysterious social news project that the New York Times is developing alongside Betaworks. An interesting deal point, really: As part of the partnership between the two companies, the Times has taken an equity stake in bit.ly, the URL-shortening service that Betaworks built up and spun out last year.

Betaworks Gets Another $20 Million for Twitter-Friendly Start-Ups. Building a Mountain or Digging a Hole?

in Media on March 12, 2010 at 3:00 am PT

Do you like Twitter’s chances? Then you’ll like Betaworks, a holding company that builds and invests in the Twitter ecosystem. CEO John Borthwick explains what it plans to do with the $20 million it just raised from the likes of Intel, the New York Times and AOL.

An Oversized Ruckus About Tiny Web Addresses: Bit.ly’s Bigfoot Offer to the Rest of the Business

in Media on August 10, 2009 at 10:31 am PT

Are you up in arms about the impending demise of tr.im, one of the many services that shorten long Web addresses? Here’s a possible solution, offered by bit.ly, the industry’s bigfoot: A nonprofit archive/graveyard for tr.im’s tiny addresses, along with anyone else who wants to participate.
godfather-funeral

Just How Much Search Share Does Twitter Really Have?

in Media on June 18, 2009 at 12:04 pm PT

Twitter notched yet another milestone yesterday when it finally showed up on comScore’s index of Web search milestones. The catch: It barely registered, pulling down a search share of just 0.001 percent. But I’m sure that comScore is missing the majority of Twitter’s searches. So what’s the real number?

Is a Shorter Web Address Worth Big Money? bit.ly Raises $2 Million

in Media on March 30, 2009 at 11:30 am PT

What’s the value of a service that takes a long Web address and makes it shorter–but doesn’t have a business model? Several million dollars, according to investors who have just sunk $2 million into bit.ly, a start-up incubated by the Betaworks gang.
bitly_puffers

Does Real-Time Search Make Twitter a Google Killer? Its Fanbots Think So (BoomTown Not Quite Yet).

in News on February 9, 2009 at 6:38 am PT

According the latest meme to sweep the digerati over the last several days, here are the words that should make the brainiac satraps over at Google very, very nervous: “See what’s happening–right now.” That’s the motto right below the box on Twitter’s search engine–which is essentially a light-blue-colored design rip-off of Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” mantra. Posits the new theory: It’s Google that should perhaps not be feeling so lucky when it comes to Twitter search because it is becoming the place for what is now being called “real-time” search. But the verdict on whether Twitter can kill the search star is still way, way out.