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Saturday, June 7, 2014

We Media's Andrew Nachison: Helping Companies Connect, Innovate

When you read the “about me” section of Andrew Nachison’s personal website, you get a brief glimpse into an incredibly eclectic person. In his own words, he’s a “a thinker, explorer, creator, futurist, catalyst, convener, producer, educator, geek, photographer, musician, artist, husband and dad.” In short, he’s a man of many interests.

He’s played clarinet on stage at Carnegie Hall, studied wildlife, development and environmental policy in Kenya, managed Lawrence.com, among the world’s first digital newspapers — a job that earned him a reputation as a pundit in the emerging digital news sphere — and reported for a bevy of highly influential newspapers and magazines.

Right now, Nachison is the CEO of We Media, a digital media company and creative agency, as well as iFOCOS — The Institute for the Connected Society — both of which look to help companies make better use of the many, many connected devices in improved and new ways.

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We Media's Andrew Nachison: Helping Companies Connect, Innovate

TrendKite nabs $3.2M to help businesses avoid worthless PR

Image Credit: via TrendKite

Public relations-tracking platform TrendKite has secured a $3.2 million round of funding, the startup announced today.

TrendKite offers a service that helps brands and business clients track all of the promotional and media-generating efforts of your PR campaigns. The service also includes analytics (with a customizable dashboard) that show what PR actions are working and which are wasting a company’s time.

In addition to the funding news, TrendKite announced that it had hired Erik Huddleston, formerly EVP of product for social monitoring company Dachis Group, as the company’s new CEO.

The company said it will use the funding to fuel further growth. Mercury Fund and Silverton Partners led the round.

Founded in 2012, the Austin, Texas-based startup has raised a total of $4.4 million in funding to date.

h/t TechCrunch

TrendKite nabs $3.2M to help businesses avoid worthless PR

Funding Daily: The uber-large-bags-of-cash edition

Above: What else can you do with all that money but bathe in it?

Image Credit: Mattysflicks

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Oh man, we are still reeling from that massive Uber funding round and valuation — $17 billions for an app that tells cars where to go to pick people up.

Anyways, here are today’s funding news:

Uber raises $1.2B

Uber has officially pulled the trigger on a new funding round — a massive $1.2 billion raise, at a $17 billion valuation led by Fidelity Ventures. Back in August, Uber was valued at $3.5 billion. In early May, valuation rumors swelled to $10 billion. Uber previously confirmed a “record-breaking” funding round back in May, but only now are the terms of the deal publicly available.

Altair Semiconductor closes $25M

Investors are betting even more money on LTE-only chips. Israeli LTE chip firm Altair Semiconductor has raised a fresh $25 million, led by new investor Jerusalem Global Ventures, the company told VentureBeat. The round, which closed in March, brings Altair’s total funding to more than $125 million.

Curalate raises $8.5M

“Curalate’s product is cool as sh*t,” says social media maven Gary Vaynerchuk. “Everyone knows that images are where it’s at, and Curalate is helping brands crush it with images.” That’s probably one of the reasons the startup just raised $8.5 million in a second round of funding. It’s definitely one of the reasons why Gary V, as he’s known, joined the company as a strategic advisor.

TrendKite nabs $3.2M

Public relations-tracking platform TrendKite has secured a $3.2 million round of funding, the startup announced today. TrendKite offers a service that helps brands and business clients track all of the promotional and media-generating efforts of your PR campaigns. The service also includes analytics (with a customizable dashboard) that show what PR actions are working and which are wasting a company’s time.

Read more on VentureBeat: TrendKite nabs $3.2M to help businesses avoid worthless PR

Funding Daily: The uber-large-bags-of-cash edition

Do Social Media Tweets and Status Updates Do Anything for My Business?

Social Media has been a buzzword for the past decade. But have you ever stopped to ask yourself: “Do all of these tweets and status updates do anything for my business? If you’re not taking care of some of the basics, the answer is probably: no. Watch this video to learn how you can do a few things to get your social media profiles working for you.

Do Social Media Tweets and Status Updates Do Anything for My Business?

There Is A Snapchat Drug

A new drug nicknamed SnapChat has hospitalized several people, and police are warning partygoers to steer clear.

There Is A Snapchat Drug

Apple Will Launch Curved iWatch in October, Report Says

Apple-health

Apple’s long-rumored iWatch will debut in October with a curved OLED touchscreen, according to a new report

Citing industry sources, Japanese newspaper Nikkei report said the smartwatch will hit the market in October. Tech site Re/code said there will be a special event around the launch also held the same month

The iWatch is expected to run iOS 8 and have a heavy focus on health tracking. Users will be able to track calorie consumption, blood sugar, sleep data and blood oxygen data from within Apple’s newly-announced Health app. iWatch owners will also be able to read “messages sent by smartphones.” Read more…

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Apple Will Launch Curved iWatch in October, Report Says

GM's Latest Recall Edges Total Number Close to 16 Million

NEW YORK (AP) — General Motors is recalling more than 89,000 autos because of air bag defects and other problems.

The automaker said Friday that is recalling 31,520 model year 2012 Buick Verano and Chevrolet Camaro, Cruze and Sonic compact cars because the air bags might not deploy. GM said at least one person was hurt in a related crash.

The company said the shorting bar inside the car’s driver’s air bag may come into contact with the air bag terminals. If that happens during a crash, the air bag won’t deploy.

GM has already recalled 7,116 vehicles related to the problem.

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GM's Latest Recall Edges Total Number Close to 16 Million

There's No Excuse for Justin Bieber's Adolescent Racism

Screen-shot-2014-06-06-at-5.06.14-pm

Two videos of Justin Bieber making racist remarks surfaced this week, featuring the pop star from a few years ago saying the N-word repeatedly and mentioning the Ku Klux Klan.

While many people were outraged by these videos, some simply accepted his apology and moved on. Others, surprisingly, even came to Bieber’s defense

Look, we all get a little Biebenfreude sometimes. But considering the monumental backlash celebrities face when making racist remarks even less harmful than those in the Bieber videos, it seems like Justin’s getting a free-pass on this, no? Read more…

More about Justin Bieber, Mashable Video, Music, Watercooler, and Videos

There's No Excuse for Justin Bieber's Adolescent Racism

Donut Or Doughnut?

Today is National Donut/Doughnut Day, apparently a relatively venerable holiday with roots in a Depression-era Salvation Army giveaway. But just how do you spell that "edible, torus-shaped piece of dough which is deep-fried and sweetened"?
Donut Or Doughnut?

On the Eve of Box's IPO, Dropbox Raises Its Enterprise Play

While the battle between BYOD and company issued mobile devices is pretty much over (BYOD takes it all), the competition between Enterprise File Sync & Share providers seems to be getting more and more intense.

It’s a bit unfortunate for Aaron Levie’s once red hot Box which is trying to go public (Quartz reports that this is supposed to happen within weeks) because its competitors, and would be competitors, keep upping their plays, adding appealing end-user facing features as well as safeguards to suit the CIO’s fancy.

Consider that last week Salesforce’s Mark Benioff and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced plansfor a tight integration between their products (including EFSS), and that SAP and OpenText made arrangements to offer TempoBox to certain mutual customers for free.

Add to that Microsoft’s recent announcement that it’s increasing OneDrive for Business storage from 25GB to 1TB per user. Levie finds himself in a crowded field (Apple may join soon) that includes not only the 100+ existing players (see our recent EFSS update), but also 300 million user Dropbox that seems to be getting serious about the Enterprise.

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On the Eve of Box's IPO, Dropbox Raises Its Enterprise Play