A Brief History of URL Parking and Redirecting Techniques Most of the people who utilize the Internet to make a profit are aware of the amazing success that was achieved by entrepreneur Kevin Ham. For the uninitiated, Ham was one of the first people to take full advantage of domain parking and URL auctions, and he amassed a fortune worth approximately $300 million by 2007. Ham was also one of the pioneers behind the practice of purchasing common misspellings of popular domain names, and he was able to utilize this to bounce people to the website of his choice....

The Smart Home Kit extends the power of the recently launched cloudBit, which lets users snap the internet to anything. Fueled by the goal of democratizing hardware into the home, littleBits has opened the floodgates of creativity for their users who want to retrofit their favorite lamp, build a smart device, or invent an entirely new concept. The kit includes 14 Bits with five new modules: MP3 player, Threshold, Number, Temperature Sensor, and IR transmitter....

Bhargava shared his own experiences with starting his own company, and expressed the initial frustration of thinking that it was necessary for him to go through this long, intensive process of figuring out what to name the brand, doing months of branding research, and then finally working on the company/product itself. Ultimately, what he ended up doing was coming up with a name directly from the beginning, found a logo that worked for him through a website that offered logo design, and then went to develop his company from there....

Working with Motorola and the Downtown Project, she is co-hosting a makeathon where six teams will bring their ideas to 3D printed life. It’s part of Motorola’s nationwide tour with a van full of 3D printing tools. This is phase one, just a test to see if the downtown community is excited about one of the hottest new technologies. Next might be a mobile 3D printing truck that could travel around the city, stopping at schools, festivals, and job training programs....

By voting online and in person, San Francisco told us loud and clear who would be San Francisco’s Startup of the Year. The winning startups represent two different industry verticals, but definitely speak to the needs of companies and entrepreneurs in the Bay area. These startups will be invited to move on to the next event: Celebrate 2015 in October! You can see the full lineup of local and online competitions that we will hold to lead up to the Global Startup of the Year competition by checking this list....

Samsung is no stranger to IFA, Europe’s answer to the Consumer Electronics Show. In fact, 2019 marks the company’s 50th anniversary of displaying its latest products at the Berlin. So did it pull out all the stops? Well, sort of. While Samsung basked in its achievements and market position in the presentation, new announcements were somewhat thin on the ground. There was, at least, a phoenix-like rising of the Galaxy Fold, Samsung’s (so far) ill-fated folding smartphone....

Let’s call that kid, Sam. Image Credit: Steffi Reichert Sam goes through various hoops of the school system; regularly taking all the tests required by the system and constantly gets good scores as a result from high expectations of his parents. They want Sam to get a good job, get married, and live a good life in the suburbs. Then just like a thief in the night, the economy crashes and Sam has no idea what to do next....

How efficient? Team lead Sander Otte stated that the approach could in theory put every book ever into a space the size of a postage stamp. According to a Popular Mechanics write-up, that’s enough to “fit the entire Library of Congress on a cube smaller than a dust mite—or the size of George Washington’s pupil on a one dollar bill.” How It Works Popular Mechanics also sums up the fascinating data storage process in a few paragraphs:...

Anyone working in, covering, or tracking the industry can benefit from a primer and reference guide for the rapidly evolving industry. Knowing it would be outdated the week it hit the market, it invited feedback from experts around the world which contributes to an organized, scalable view of the industry, especially heading into CES. Robots Will Be The Star If you follow mainstream news, you’d swear that you can buy a self-driving car now....

Shoto not only automates the photo-sharing process but also, using location, time and a specific algorithm, can recognize which friends were with you taking pics. After you create an account and allow access to your photos, Shoto will scour your photo library and create albums of events you have photographed and start suggesting sharing your photos with the people who were there. It’s worth noting that by scanning your photo library it doesn’t upload your photos to the cloud – only the ones you share with your friends – but transfers them into the app....

This infographic published by The Kernel, shows the extent of Silicon Valley’s lack of diversity in major companies, like Google and Facebook:

Over the past two months, we played around with, crashed into, and of course bothered people with the Sky Viper V950 to see if it’s worth a spot on your gadget shelf. But first, let’s see what’s in the box: Features and Specs As far as entry-level quadcopters go, the Sky Viper V950 is not only easy to fly, but the controls are super easy to learn. Unlike some of the other stunt and camera drones, we have very little issue with initial calibration to keep it steady, the buttons are all clearly labeled (looking at you Syma), and for those who want more control there are sensitivity settings....

Startup Angels and GFE will kick off their global expansion with AngelSummit Europe, set for June 8 in Dublin, Ireland. Going forward the partnership will result in new summits, workshops, and programs around the world, each focused on educating new and existing investors. For Startup Angels, one of their core beliefs is that regardless of where venture dollars are, entrepreneurs are everywhere. When there are issues and gap areas created, a solution will be formed that shouldn’t require a business to relocate to obtain early stage capital....

In part one of this startup series we covered traction and the executive summary. In this post, we will dive into pitch decks that will raise capital and financial models. The goal is to create competitive term sheets, from multiple investors, for your growth capital. Pitch Decks That Raise Capital Guy Kawasaki has written about his 10/20/30 Rule in the Art of the Start. I highly recommend that resource. The idea is 10 slides, 20 minutes and 30 point font....

This week’s Startup Spotlight is brought to you by The Hoth, an SEO & Content Company. Zipsit Finding babysitters for your kids is an ongoing task for a parent, and when there’s an urgent need sometimes your regular girl isn’t available, then what do you do? Zipsit to the rescue. This Phoenix-based startup is a comprehensive rating system that helps parents choose from hundreds of quality babysitters in your area that your friend’s also use....

Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal published the study, which took a deeper look at almost 56,000 patents granted to U.S. universities with incubators between the years of 1969 and 2012. And there’s a lot of them: Around half the incubators in America are university-sponsored, according to Science Daily’s report on the study. Here’s what the study found. Innovations Went Down From one researcher on the project: The study identified the quality of the innovations by tracking the number of times an innovation was cited by later patent applications — the more citations, the more influential an innovation had turned out to be....

Did you happen to come across TechCocktail’s “41 Startup Guys Show Us What They Actually Wear to Work” post from a few weeks back? Yeesh. While a solid portion of the gents featured seemed to have a good grasp on “dressing for success”, there were far too many graphic tees and faded jeans on display. You’re not Zuck. This isn’t 2004. If you intend on pitching Andreesen-Horowitz to contribute to your seed round, you’re going to need to lose the flip-flops and American Apparel v-necks and start considering what message your personal style is sending....

But the massive invasion of privacy that is modern technology has one thing working in its favor: It’s invisible to the typical person. However, five percent of Prime-subscribing respondents would “definitely buy this product.” Given that the survey covered “a nationally representative sample of 7,566 adults,” these results are a fairly strong indicator of the disinterest in the service, which relies on a home’s smart locks to allow delivery people in or out....

Security breaches are certainly nothing new to the business world and neither are class action lawsuits. Scores of companies have had to pay customers for one mistake or another, and even more have fallen victim to hackers in the last few years. Now, it appears the two are combining to the benefit of customers, with T-Mobile settling a case that would put dollars in users pockets. Considering T-Mobile has 76 million users that fall within this category, it’s safe to say this security breach had far reaching implications in regard to the privacy of their users....

It was over 11 years ago that I saw a need to better connect startups and innovators with the communities around them so they could connect for partnerships, funding, amplification, and support. My first cofounder, Eric Olson, and I launched “Tech Cocktail” events to connect the Chicago startup and technology ecosystem before products like Eventbrite, Twitter, and other social and organizational tools were readily available, yet we quickly amassed crowds of hundreds at each event....