Startups

Mark Cuban leads funding of video startup Switchcam

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban is leading a round of seed funding in a new video startup called Switchcam that has technology that can be used to stitch together different videos of the same event so viewers can switch camera angles as they wish.

Other investors in the $1.2 million round, raised via AngelList, include Dave McClure's 500 Startups, Turner Media Camp, Vikas Gupta, Niket Desai, Reed Morse, David Beyer and Jeffrey Schox, Switchcam announced today.

Switchcam CEO Brett Welch told CNET that he got the idea while using his phone to take video of live music concerts. Unlike … Read more

LightSquared reportedly reaches agreement on bankruptcy loan

LightSquared has reached an agreement over a bankruptcy loan from a group of lenders and intends to continue to fight for millions more, the Dow Jones news service reported.

After declaring bankruptcy last month, the company negotiated with a group of hedge funds holding more than $1 billion of LightSquared's debt. The lenders want "severe restrictions" placed on $190 million of cash LightSquared would like to use to hold itself up during bankruptcy, according to Dow Jones.

LightSquared intended to be a neutral wholesale provider of 4G LTE service, giving companies an alternative partner for super-fast wireless … Read more

AIRbudz prototype earbuds let the ambient noise in

I don't run without music. I just get too bored. But a few beats into songs by, say, The Knife, and my feet are pounding the pavement hard. I'm also perpetually safety-conscious, though, which means I tend to avoid Portland's beautiful but busy waterfront loop in favor of quiet streets with low traffic.

So I have long hoped for the perfect sports headphones that are durable, comfortable, and let the ambient noise in. Enter AIRbudz, the alternative earbud attachments that Utah-based entrepreneur (and jogger) Tammy Erdel is raising funds for on Kickstarter.

AIRbudz deal with external sound blockage by incorporating air channels into their 3D-printed buds that quite simply let ambient sound stream in. The ambient noise is obviously still competing with whatever sounds are pumping through the headphones, but that sound doesn't appear to be in any way altered or compromised.… Read more

Dear startups: Don't treat money like toilet paper

Having lots of money isn't a reason to spend it, especially if you're a startup that has yet to prove itself as a viable, sustainable business.

There have been a lot of early-stage startups raising monster rounds in recent months. Ark ($4.2 million seed), Viddy ($30 million), and Gumroad ($7 million) are just a few prominent examples.

The funding party may be over though, at least according to Paul Graham, a prominent investor and founder of Y Combinator.

"Jessica and I had dinner recently with a prominent investor," Graham said in a letter to Y … Read more

Smarterer pulls in $1.75M for job skills testing

Is the resume D.O.A.?

Boston-based startup Smarterer thinks so. The company has raised $1.75 million from True Ventures, Google Ventures, and a handful of angel investors for its job-search-meets-gamification platform.

Sure, its name doesn't quite roll off the tongue as nicely as it should, but the approach of the company is that there must be, in this age of the creative economy, a better way to evaluate job candidates besides where they've been and how long they were there.

The answer: a series of brief online multiple-choice tests on a certain topic, as chosen by … Read more

How Airtime could end up filling Facebook's coffers

When Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning launched their latest startup this morning -- a social video chat service called Airtime -- you can bet that one person hoping for its success was Parker's longtime pal and onetime business partner, Mark Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg wasn't on hand at the celeb-filled launch in New York City -- though Zuck was spotted on Airtime later in the day -- and this wasn't a Facebook event by any means. But the pitch by Parker, who was Facebook's founding president and still owns a chunk of the newly public company, at times … Read more

Hands-on: Airtime won me over

I was prepared to hate Airtime, the new video chat service that connects you to both friends and strangers. The last thing I need in my life is random, time-consuming video chats with distant friends of friends. And for connecting with people I already know, I have instant messaging, Skype, and the phone.

But the moment I fired up Airtime for the first time, an old friend called me and blew me a kiss. Made my morning. Then, a few minutes later, when I pressed the random "Talk to Someone" button , I got connected to Lee Jacobs of … Read more

Facebook's IPO will hurt startups, warns Y Combinator founder

One of the most prominent people in Silicon Valley's startup world is warning that Facebook's disastrous IPO performance will lead to hard times for startups.

Paul Graham, the co-founder of the first and most influential startup incubator anywhere, sent an e-mail to his portfolio companies warning them that Facebook has made it a lot harder to raise money. Graham wrote that "the startups that really get hosed are going to be the ones that have easy money built into the structure of their company: the ones that raise a lot on easy terms, and are then led … Read more

Amazing Media: Poised to lead the next British music invasion

CEOs of digital music startups often strive for diplomacy when it comes to talking about the major powers that control most of the world's music. Not Paul Campbell.

"Simon Cowell is Satan, and the major labels have become antique dealers," says Campbell, a 53-year-old former BBC TV and radio producer turned entrepreneur. "We don't touch the labels and never shall. The key is to cut yourself free from the labels."

Which is exactly what Campbell has done with his company, Amazing Media, and it's why he's having such success.

Unless you're … Read more