Silicon Alley Insider
GrubHub's CEO On The Shock Of Outgrowing Three Offices In A Few Short Years
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012
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When GrubHub started, it was just a pair of hungry guys with an idea.
Now the website (and mobile app), which allows users to find delivery and takeout restaurants nearby and order the food online, is a multi-million dollar company.
Back in 2004, Matt Maloney and Mike Evans were both working as developers at Apartments.com, a site that helps you find apartments and condos to rent. The job required a lot of late nights at the office.
"We were...
Those 'Facebook For The Workplace' Tools Are Garbage, Says This CEO (RHT)
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012
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"Everyone's talking about the importance of engaging employees, and the Facebook generation and collaboration tools. All of that is garbage … collaboration is a culture. It's not a set of tools," insists Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst.
Executives at other companies might tell human resources to go out and buy collaboration tools, but unless the company has the structure in place to let employees honestly talk to each other and the bosses, the...
Hey, Entrepreneurs, Check Out All The Wacky Names Thomas Edison Thought Of For His 'Phonograph'
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012
BLOGS Silicon Alley Insider
Hey, entrepreneurs and inventors, can't figure out what to call that cool new thing you made?
Not sure what it might be used for?
No worries. You're in good company.
Courtesy of Shaun Usher at Lists Of Note, who transcribed Thomas Edison's original brainstorm notes (see them here), here's a list of some of the names Edison and his colleagues thought of when they were trying to name what they eventually called the "phonograph".
Many of the names are...
Bill Gates Makes Progress On Reinvented Toilets
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012
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Toilets are a waste.
They are also simply out of reach for 2.6 billion people in developing nations, says the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). That's how folks who use no-tech alternatives like buckets or holes in the ground. Such lack of sanitation leads to typhoid, cholera, dysentery, and other diseases.
So last summer the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation spread $3 million in grants among eight research teams in North America,...
Summit Series, The Exclusive Retreat For Big Shots, Is Trying To Raise Money To Buy A Mountain
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012
BLOGS Silicon Alley Insider
Summit Series, the exclusive retreat for entrepreneurs, innovators, and all around big-shots, is raising a big pile of money to buy a mountain, according to multiple sources.
Yes, read that again. It wants to buy a mountain.
Specifically, it has its eye on Powder Mountain in Utah.
A source passed along this pitch from Summit Series:
I wanted to reach out to let you know about our next exciting project. We would love to get you in the game. It is...
This 24-Year-Old Founder Wants To Keep A Billion More Cars Off The Road
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012
BLOGS Silicon Alley Insider
During the summer of 2009 at the Singularity University, Google co-founder Larry Page challenged a class of 40 students to pick an idea that could impact one billion people.
One of the program's students, Jessica Scorpio, thought if she could get enough people to share their cars with neighbors, she could reach one billion people around the world.
For it to work, Scorpio would need more than a business plan. People would have to start thinking...
Another Reason Why It's Great To Be Marc Benioff: Hanging Out With The President (CRM)
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012
BLOGS Silicon Alley Insider
Marc Benioff is the only tech CEO to be named among a list of 35 national "co-chairs" for President Obama's re-election campaign.
The President's campaign released the list today and in addition to Benioff, it includes plenty of the people you would expect, like prominent Democrat politicians (Rahm Emanuel, Deval Patrick) and big names in the party (Caroline Kennedy). Mixed in are some surprises including actress Eva Longoria and some unknown...
THE APPLE INVESTOR: Apple Sold More iOS Devices In 2011 Than All The Macs Sold Ever (AAPL)
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012
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The Apple Investor is a daily report from SAI. Sign up here to receive it by email.
AAPL Down With Markets
Markets are wavering in early trading as the Euro crisis continues on. Shares of AAPL down with the rest of tech. Investors continue to be focused on iPhone adoption; update to the iPad; market share growth of the Mac business; further penetration in China and emerging markets; the evolution and potential re-conception...
Microsoft Ups Its Legal War Against Google With A New Attack (MSFT, GOOG)
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012
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The battle between Google and Microsoft used to be a back room affair. In the last year, it's turned into an very ugly and public war of words.
Now, Microsoft is upping its legal war against Google as well.
This isn't the first time Microsoft has used the law to fight Google.
Microsoft seeks license fees from Android resellers and is willing to sue those who don't comply. Last March, Microsoft added its name to an antitrust complaint against...
Mitt Romney's Wife Has Joined Pinterest
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012
BLOGS Silicon Alley Insider
Someday, we may all look back on February 21, 2012, as the day that Pinterest became a player in the political realm, a technological turning point on the order of Richard Nixon's disastrous televised debate against John F. Kennedy.
Well, maybe not. But the site is having a red-state red-letter day. Today, Ann Romney, wife of presidential contender Mitt, joined Pinterest. That came just hours after liberal blog ThinkProgress...
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