Startups

PARIS -- LeWeb's focus this year on "the Internet of things" this year brought Net-enabled door locks, houseplant monitors, and footstep loggers to the conference stage. But the gadget that caught the most attention was a remote-controlled quadcopter.

Quadcopters are all the rage these days, popularized best by the Parrot AR.Drone. Here at LeWeb, startup Team BlackSheep showed its take on the tech with a model that's remotely piloted by an operator who sees what's going on from a camera mounted on the drone itself.

Raphael Pirker, founder of the company, piloted a TBS … Read more

PARIS -- The Internet's global reach means it's a golden age for inventors trying to bring a new product to market -- at least until Kickstarter gives you the boot.

Kickstarter is a "crowdfunding" site that lets ordinary people back inventors, creators, and others with a new idea. On September 19, two of those inventors were Apigy co-founders Cameron Robertson and Paul Gerhardt, creators of the Lockitron Net-connected door lock.

That was the day the pair finished two years of work and began the process of promoting Lockitron on Kickstarter, Robertson recounted today at the LeWeb … Read more

PARIS -- Lending Club, a startup that connects people who want to borrow money with those who want to lend it, is profitable and plans to go public.

Chief Executive Renaud Laplanche discussed the initial public offering at the LeWeb conference here. "We're planning on going public in the next few years," he said in an on-stage interview, then confirmed he'd earlier said 18 months.

An IPO of course brings new funds, though Lending Club currently has $50 million in cash, but Laplanche said he wants to go public for the higher profile it brings. "… Read more

PARIS -- Wi-Fi's range is too short, 3G and 4G are too expensive, and both use too much power. A French start-up called Sigfox, says it's licked these network problems -- at least for the idea called the Internet of things.

The Internet of things involves networking countless devices such as cars, toys, heart rate monitors, and traffic lights. These devices may not necessarily need the network capacity of a smartphone used to watch videos, but they need to connect from all over and they need to run on a small battery.

Sigfox's network, using a technology … Read more

PARIS -- It began with a meeting this week between two Finns from Angry Birds maker Rovio Mobile and Neelie Kroes, the vice president of the European Commission's digital agenda. It ended with a jumble of politicians trying to learn what they could do to make Europe more economically vital in the digital age.

"Please skip the next appointment. I need more time with these guys," Kroes told her staff, then called vice ministers and other officials into the meeting. "In three hours we had a list to do for ourselves, and also for getting inspiration. … Read more

PARIS -- Indiegogo, a site that lets people fund projects and companies in exchange for assorted products and perks, is expanding internationally.

Co-founder Danae Ringelmann announced today at the LeWeb conference here that the company today started accepting payments in euros, British pounds, and Canadian dollars, not just U.S. dollars, and has versions of the Web site in German and French.

"Thirty percent of our business is outside U.S., but it's all been in English in U.S. dollars," Ringelmann said. Internationalization of the business will make Indiegogo work more easily elsewhere. "If you'… Read more

PARIS -- For telecommuters who just aren't happy with Skype videoconferences or Google+ hangouts, why not try a telepresence robot?

David Cann, co-founder and chief executive of Double Robotics, showed off such a beast today here at the LeWeb show. The $2,000 design looks, in Cann's words, like an iPad on a Segway.

The robot, called Double, is basically a mobile videoconferencing device. On the bottom is a pair of wheels and a motor; in the middle a thin stalk; and on the top a bracket with an iPad. The operator can control the robot remotely, steering … Read more

PARIS -- Silicon Valley is famed for its role in nurturing startups, but companies there often suffer problems from not looking beyond the insular region to the rest of the world.

So warned Brad Garlinghouse, chief executive of YouSendIt -- one of those companies in Silicon Valley "echo chamber" -- speaking here at the LeWeb conference.

"The hype factor that has impacted Silicon Valley is an unhealthy thing," Garlinghouse said. "Companies focus more on the hype than building a great experience."

Garlinghouse is a high-profile voice in the echo chamber. Perhaps his greatest claim … Read more

PARIS -- Dropbox plans to launch a version of its software that will let Windows 8 customers use the file-sharing service on the Microsoft's new operating system.

"We are going to be launching our client app for Windows 8," said Aditya Agarwal, Dropbox's vice president of engineering, speaking at the LeWeb conference here. The software will of course work in the traditional desktop mode shared with earlier Windows versions, but also with the new touch-centric user interface of Windows 8 spotlighted with Microsoft's new Surface tablet, he said.

The move isn't a major surprise; … Read more