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		<title>Another Science Start-Up, Wittlebee, Gets $2.5 Million in Funding for Kids' Clothes Club</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20120404/another-science-start-up-wittlebee-gets-2-5-million-in-funding-for-kids-clothes-club/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20120404/another-science-start-up-wittlebee-gets-2-5-million-in-funding-for-kids-clothes-club/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:00:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kara Swisher</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Commerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[apparel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[box]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[clothing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[club]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CrossLink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dollar Shave Club]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[funding]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gap]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[kid]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[leggings]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Matt Coffin]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://allthingsd.com/?p=193027</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It's kind of like a never-ending online Gap.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://allthingsd.com/20120404/another-science-start-up-wittlebee-gets-2-5-million-in-funding-for-kids-clothes-club/wittlebee_logo2-2/" rel="attachment wp-att-193064"><img src="http://allthingsd.com/files/2012/04/wittlebee_logo2-2-380x134.jpg" alt="" title="wittlebee_logo2-2" width="380" height="134" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-193064" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://wittlebee.com">Wittlebee</a>, a monthly kids&#8217; clothing club that was incubated at Los Angeles area &#8220;technology studio&#8221; Science, has gotten $2.5 million in funding.</p>
<p>Much like another <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20111121/former-color-co-founder-peter-pham-heads-to-former-myspace-ceos-l-a-tech-studio/">Science</a> start-up, <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20120307/viral-video-dollar-shave-clubs-razor-sharp-wit/">Dollar Shave Club</a>, Wittlebee ships a custom box of high-quality kids&#8217; clothes to members.</p>
<p>The seed round of funding was led by Rincon, with participation from SoftTech, Google Ventures, Matt Coffin, Crosslink, and Morado.</p>
<p>Wittlebee&#8217;s CEO and founder Sean Percival said the money would be used to create a private-label clothing line.</p>
<p>Wittlebee uses stay-at-home parents, who have used the site, as customer service reps. The start-up sends a new order of children&#8217;s apparel each month, including onesies, t-shirts, leggings, socks and pants, upping the sizes as the kid grows.</p>
<p>In other words, kind of like a never-ending online Gap.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s the official press release on Wittlebee&#8217;s funding:</p>
<blockquote class="memo"><p><strong>Wittlebee Raises $2.5 Million Seed Funding Lead By Rincon</p>
<p>Children&#8217;s clothing membership service to begin manufacturing private label designs to keep up with growing customer demand</p>
<p>Los Angeles, CA. April 4, 2012 &#8212; </strong> Wittlebee (www.Wittlebee.com), the affordable children&#8217;s clothing monthly membership service backed by technology studio Science Inc., today announces the company raised $2.5 million in seed funding leady by Rincon, with participation from SoftTech, Google Ventures, Matt Coffin, CrossLink, and Morado. Jim Andelman, co-founder and General Partner at Rincon, joins Wittlebee’s board alongside Michael Jones, founder and CEO of Science, and Sean Percival, Wittlebee&#8217;s founder and CEO.</p>
<p>Since launching less than two months ago, Wittlebee has experienced accelerated growth, in part because of Science’s track record of quickly scaling ecommerce businesses. The company will use the new investment to build out its executive team and user acquisitions.</p>
<p>Upon joining Wittlebee, customers are connected to a team of mom stylists who work with families to compose boxes of high-quality children’s clothing to meet individual children’s needs. Active kids in warm climates like Miami may receive appropriate t-shirts, shorts and socks whereas infants in Albany receive long-sleeve onesies and cozy pajamas.  </p>
<p>&#8220;Wittlebee&#8217;s recent growth has been tremendous,&#8221; said Percival. &#8220;Our customer feedback is overwhelmingly positive; we are speaking to an audience of 20,000 highly engaged moms across social media who tell us they&#8217;re delighted we&#8217;re saving them time and money for all their children&#8217;s clothing needs. We plan to use Rincon&#8217;s investment to create Wittlebee&#8217;s private label clothing line that will truly showcase our commitment to high-quality practical children’s apparel.&#8221;</p>
<p>In the coming months, customers will receive a selection of parents&#8217; favorite well-known brands in addition to Wittlebee&#8217;s private label. Manufactured both locally in Los Angeles and abroad, the new line represents customers’ wish-list of kids&#8217; must-haves, from high-quality soft fabrics, to a wide color palate, to unique graphic designs. After months of research and testing apparel options through Wittlebee&#8217;s social networks, the resulting Wittlebee bespoke label will be a timeless array of apparel basics to carry kids through seasons, activities and all their lifestyle needs. </p>
<p>&#8220;For every investment decision we make, we care most about customer value proposition, team, and business model,&#8221; said Jim Andelman, Managing Partner at Rincon. &#8220;We&#8217;ve been tremendously impressed by parents&#8217; positive response to Wittlebee&#8217;s offering: they love the selections, they save money and you can&#8217;t beat the convenience of clothes showing up right to your door. The e-commerce space is exploding in LA, and we&#8217;re very excited to be at the forefront with Wittlebee.&#8221;</p>
<p>For more on Wittlebee, please visit www.Wittlebee.com.</p></blockquote>
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		<title>Ex-AdMob Employees Make Paying for Things on the Phone a Snap</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20110623/ex-admob-employees-make-paying-for-things-on-the-phone-a-snap/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20110623/ex-admob-employees-make-paying-for-things-on-the-phone-a-snap/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:00:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tricia Duryee</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Commerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[AdMob]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Card.io]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Charles Hudson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Harrison Metal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jeff Cla]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Josh Bleecher]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michael Dearing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mike Mettler]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile payments]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Omar Hamoui]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SoftTech]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://allthingsd.com/?p=89803</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A company founded by two former AdMob employees, and funded in part by AdMob's Founder Omar Hamoui, is coming out of stealth mode today to unveil a new way to make paying for things inside applications much easier.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A company founded by two former AdMob employees is coming out of stealth mode today to unveil a new way to make paying for things inside applications much easier.</p>
<p><a rel="attachment wp-att-89818" href="http://allthingsd.com/20110623/ex-admob-employees-make-paying-for-things-on-the-phone-a-snap/cardiologo_300/"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-89818" title="cardiologo_300" src="http://allthingsd.com/files/2011/06/cardiologo_300.jpg" alt="" width="311" height="199" /></a>In fact, it&#8217;s as easy as taking a picture.</p>
<p><a href="http://card.io">Card.io</a>, which was founded by Mike Mettler and Josh Bleecher, has raised $1 million in seed funding.</p>
<p>Angel investors include Michael Dearing of Harrison Metal; Jeff Clavier and Charles Hudson of SoftTech; Manu Kumar of K9 Ventures; Alok Bhanot, a former PayPal exec; and Omar Hamoui, AdMob&#8217;s founder.</p>
<p>Card.io is focused on solving a specific part of the mobile payments business &#8212; buying things with a credit card on the phone, whether it&#8217;s digital goods, like a song, or physical goods from a site like Amazon.</p>
<p>Rather than having to type in the credit card number, users just hold a credit card up to the phone&#8217;s camera, which automatically reads the card information and enters the appropriate data.</p>
<p>Co-founder and CEO Mike Mettler, who was one of the original product managers at AdMob, left the company around the time that <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20100527/google-closes-admob-deal/">Google purchased the mobile ad network for $750 million</a>. He said a four-person team has been working on the concept since August.</p>
<p>&#8220;It’s super-frictionless. It requires no behavior change and no hardware dependencies,&#8221; Mettler said.</p>
<p>The company is targeting developers who want to sell items within a mobile application. The company is launching a private beta today that will allow mobile developers to integrate the service into its iPhone applications. It does not work for browser-based sites or the mobile Web, because they typically cannot communicate with the phone&#8217;s camera.</p>
<p>So far, it&#8217;s signed up three developers: MogoTix for event tickets, TaskRabbit for local services, and Samasource for donations.</p>
<p><a rel="attachment wp-att-89817" href="http://allthingsd.com/20110623/ex-admob-employees-make-paying-for-things-on-the-phone-a-snap/cardio_before-and-after/"><img class="aligncenter size-Medium380 wp-image-89817" title="cardio_before and after" src="http://allthingsd.com/files/2011/06/cardio_before-and-after-380x345.jpg" alt="" width="380" height="345" /></a></p>
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		<title>Loïc Le Meur Speaks About New (and Improved?) Seesmic!</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20090918/loic-le-meur-speaks-about-new-and-improved-seesmic/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20090918/loic-le-meur-speaks-about-new-and-improved-seesmic/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:11:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kara Swisher</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[angel investor]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=18568</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When BoomTown went to visit serial entrepreneur Loïc Le Meur early last year at his San Francisco HQ, he was stoked about the prospects of his "video conversation" community start-up.

Fast-forward to today and the entire business plan of Seesmic has been upended, with the video part pretty much junked. Now Le Meur is focused almost entirely on his social media desktop client, as well as Web and mobile versions, which began as a dashboard for Twitter.

If at first you don't succeed, dump and change again--the motto of Silicon Valley!]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2009/09/6a00d8345163e169e201157008c0c1970b-800wi.jpg"><img src="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2009/09/6a00d8345163e169e201157008c0c1970b-800wi.jpg" alt="6a00d8345163e169e201157008c0c1970b-800wi" title="6a00d8345163e169e201157008c0c1970b-800wi" width="136" height="136" class="alignright size-full wp-image-18569" /></a></p>
<p>When BoomTown<a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080227/kara-visits-seesmic-and-chats-with-loic-le-meur/"> went to visit serial entrepreneur Loïc Le Meur early last year</a> at his San Francisco HQ, he was stoked about the prospects of his &#8220;video conversation&#8221; community start-up called Seesmic.</p>
<p>That was especially due to the influx of $6 million into his bank account by high-profile angel investors like LinkedIn&#8217;s Reid Hoffman, former AOL head Steve Case, SoftTech VC Jeff Clavier, Zynga&#8217;s Mark Pincus, investor Ron Conway, FON founder Martin Varsavsky and others.</p>
<p>Fast-forward to today and the entire business plan of Seesmic has been upended, with the video part pretty much junked.</p>
<p>Now, Le Meur is focused almost entirely on his social media desktop client, as well as Web and mobile versions, which began as a dashboard for Twitter called twhirl.</p>
<p>If at first you don&#8217;t succeed, dump and change again&#8211;the motto of Silicon Valley!</p>
<p>Seesmic has added a lot more Web services to the client to make it stickier, such as announcing yesterday that it would <a href="http://blog.seesmic.com/2009/09/seesmic-desktop-version-06-updates.html">allow users to access and manage Facebook Pages</a>.</p>
<p>The idea behind Seesmic, as well as competitors such as TweetDeck, is to allow users to manage their various social media tools much like their email accounts.</p>
<p>And while the service&#8217;s desktop client software has been a focus, Le Meur is also pushing its Web and mobile versions, all in the hopes that the newest innovation is the right one.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s a tour I did of Seesmic&#8217;s new HQ and a video interview I did with Le Meur about all the changes:</p>
<p><div class="video-wsj"><object width="640" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/microPlayer.swf"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><param name="flashvars" value="videoGUID=ECA3A64E-1C65-40EC-B8A6-77FF14A0FC85&playerid=4001&plyMediaEnabled=1&configURL=http://m.wsj.net/video-players/&autoStart=false" base="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/"name="microflashPlayer"></param><embed src="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/microPlayer.swf" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoGUID={ECA3A64E-1C65-40EC-B8A6-77FF14A0FC85}&playerid=4001&plyMediaEnabled=1&configURL=http://m.wsj.net/video-players/&autoStart=false" base="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/" name="microflashPlayer" width="640" height="360" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed><br />[ See post to watch video ]</div></object></p>
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		<title>A Picture&#039;s Worth a Thousand Words&#8211;So What Does a Big Smile in a Layoff Story Mean?</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20081027/a-pictures-worth-a-thousand-words-so-what-does-a-big-smile-in-a-layoff-story-mean/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20081027/a-pictures-worth-a-thousand-words-so-what-does-a-big-smile-in-a-layoff-story-mean/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:42:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kara Swisher</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[AOL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ariel Poler]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Atomico]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BoomTown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cost]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cut]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dan Gillmor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[digital]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[downturn]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[FON]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Goldman Sachs]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Janus Friis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jeff Clavier]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jeff Pulver]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kara Swisher]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[layoff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Le Web]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Loïc Le Meur]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mark Pincus]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Michael Parekh]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Paris]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reid Hoffman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ron Conway]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[venture capitalist]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=5653</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Happy days aren't here again, it seems.

Still, I am not quite sure what to make of his big, happy smile on Seesmic founder Loïc Le Meur's face, which went with a story in the New York Times about start-ups cutting costs.

In fact, the whole Seesmic crew is grinning awfully hard, putting a very game face on recent layoffs that cut the staff at the video blog service by more than a third.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Maybe: Happy days <em>aren&#8217;t</em> here again?</p>
<p>BoomTown always enjoys chatting with the always sunny <a href="http://www.loiclemeur.com">Loïc Le Meur</a> of Seesmic (and will, in fact, be appearing at his Paris-based digital conference in December, called <a href="http://www.lewebparis.com/">Le Web</a>).</p>
<p><a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2008/10/27dotbomb190.jpg"><img src="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2008/10/27dotbomb190-300x171.jpg" alt="" title="27dotbomb190" width="330" height="200" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-5654" /></a></p>
<p>But I am not quite sure what to make of his big, happy smile that was in this picture above (click in the image to make it larger), which went with a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/27/technology/companies/27dotbomb.html">story in the New York Times about start-ups cutting costs</a>.</p>
<p>In fact, the whole <a href="http://www.seesmic.com">Seesmic</a> crew is grinning awfully hard, putting a very game face on recent layoffs that cut the staff at the video blog service by more than a third.</p>
<p>Money&#8211;or, more accurately, <em>non-money</em>&#8211;quote from the Times piece:</p>
<p>&#8220;To preserve cash, many tech start-ups are rushing to lay off employees and cut expenses. They are shelving their dreams of Google-size riches and getting small, humble and thrifty, all with the more modest goal of surviving the coming economic winter.&#8221;</p>
<p>In a less puritan mode, Seesmic raised $6 million in May from a bunch of high-profile angels, of $12 million total.</p>
<p><a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2008/10/seesmiclogo.jpg"><img src="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2008/10/seesmiclogo.jpg" alt="" title="seesmiclogo" width="200" height="83" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-5676" /></a></p>
<p>They include LinkedIn&#8217;s Reid Hoffman, former AOL head Steve Case, SoftTech VC Jeff Clavier, entrepreneur Mark Pincus, former Goldman Sachs analyst Michael Parekh, entrepreneur Ariel Poler, investor Ron Conway, FON founder Martin Varsavsky and an investment group called Atomico founded by Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis. Tech bloggers Jeff Pulver, Michael Arrington and Dan Gillmor have also invested.</p>
<p>Now, Le Meur is trying to stretch his dollars in the economic downturn, <a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/20081009/irony-alert-bubble-making-venture-capitalists-start-popping-them/">spurred by venture capitalists who have been pressing entrepreneurs like him to do so</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;If I can&#8217;t make this work in three years it will be a failure,&#8221; Mr. Le Meur said to the Times. &#8220;If I can and I get through this, it will be much stronger.&#8221;</p>
<p>In other words, what doesn&#8217;t kill us &#8230;</p>
<p><em>C&#8217;est la vie in Silicon Valley!</em></p>
<p>But in more bon-vivant times, back in February, I did a <a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080227/kara-visits-seesmic-and-chats-with-loic-le-meur/">video post on my happier visit to Seesmic&#8217;s San Francisco HQ</a>.</p>
<p>(Note: Many in the video are no longer at Seesmic and neither are the shows discussed, as well as the now-defunct Web 2.0 sentiments about growth without revenue.)</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s the video:</p>
<p><div class="video-wsj"><embed src="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/microPlayer.swf" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoGUID={1417324654}&playerid=4001&plyMediaEnabled=1&configURL=http://m.wsj.net/video-players/&autoStart=false" base="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/" name="microflashPlayer" width="320" height="240" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed><br />[ See post to watch video ]</div></p>
<p><em>Image Credit: Jim Wilson/New York Times</em></p>
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