8 posts and columns on SoftTech VC

Amid Increasing Competition, Fitbit Scores $12 Million in Funding

in News on January 24 at 3:00 am PT

Will the new funding help Fitbit get in shape for what is gearing up to be a tough competition in wearable fitness?
FitBit

InboxQ Inverts Twitter Q&A Product to Help People Find Experts

in Social on August 26, 2011 at 6:00 am PT

InboxQ will today launch a Q&A site that directs users to experts who might be able to answer their questions, and then gets out of the way.
InboxQ

News Byte

Mobile Printing Start-Up Breezy Raises $750,000 in Seed Funding

in Mobile on March 8, 2011 at 11:24 am PT

Breezy, a mobile printing start-up, said on Tuesday that it had landed $750,000 in seed funding from investors including Jeff Clavier of SoftTech VC, Aydin Senkut of Felicis Ventures, Rich Wong of Accel Partners and others. The company was started last year by Jared Hansen, a former corporate lawyer who bemoaned the fact that his BlackBerry lacked a good way to print. The company said it has about 20,000 users for its mobile printing apps.

Gnip Becomes Twitter's First Authorized Data Reseller

in Social on November 17, 2010 at 10:47 am PT

Twitter has given the start-up Gnip permission to sell its data feeds to developers, the two companies announced today. The arrangement fills in the gaps left by Twitter’s Streaming API pricing model, which doesn’t formally address the difference between emerging applications and giants like Microsoft, which is paying $10 million to get full real-time access to the status updates posted by Twitter users (what’s known as the Firehose).

Exclusive: With Eye on IPO, Glam Buys Sportgenic to Build Out Ad Platform

in Media on July 23, 2010 at 10:29 am PT

With an eye on a public offering, Glam Media is buying Sportgenic, a sports-themed ad network. But its real interest in the deal is Sportgenic’s AdPortal, a technology platform it is integrating into its own ad management offering.

Fox, Yahoo Sports Vet Brian Grey to Run Sports Start-Up Bleacher Report

in Media on June 16, 2010 at 12:30 pm PT

Brian Grey used to run big sports sites for really big portals, first at Yahoo, then at Fox Sports. Now he’s going to do the same thing at a start-up: He’s leaving an entrepreneur-in-residence perch at Polaris Venture Partners to run Bleacher Report, a San Francisco-based sports network.

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

Getting Funded: VCs Go Head-to-Head With Start-Ups at TechCrunch40

in News on September 18, 2007 at 12:58 pm PT

At this midday panel, TechCrunch40 co-host Jason Calacanis moderated a discussion with Jay Adelson (Digg), David Sacks (Geni), Roelof Botha (Sequoia Capital), Sumant Mandel (Clearstone), George Zachary (Charles River Ventures), Hank Barry (Howard Rice), and Jeff Clavier (SoftTech VC). (Quick aside: Before the panel begins, the woman sitting next to me is investigating the contents [...]