Whittl is currently in a limited city release and allows users to book local services such as hair grooming, spas, or music lessons; and compare prices, reviews, appointment times, and locations. The growing service is in the competitive space of Yelp, AngiesList, and Google Local, but with a few key differences. More than just reviews and basic information, Whittl allows merchants to create and fully control their digital storefronts, and make sales directly through the platform....

Humor Is Fun Lots of startup humor takes place beyond the eyes of the customers, from lolcats in the office chatroom to paintball fights. It can help employees bond, kind of like an inside joke. When I asked LivingSocial about their humor, they tweeted back: “Did you check out the picture of our ball pit? We love having fun!” In fact, the URL http://livingsoci.al/Play_in_the_ball_pit directs to LivingSocial’s job board. Another way to entice employees is with job titles like “ninja” and “guru....

Yet Instagram remains the most beloved social marketing tool. Thanks to Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Pinterest, Tumblr doesn’t even crack the top five. Why aren’t marketers into the site? Tumblr Is Too Anonymous Tumblr usernames rarely hint at the real-life names behind the people who run the account. Outside of the occasional book deal, Tumblr fame rarely has an off-site impact. Granted, the fifteen-year-old who nabbed the username “Pizza” got a profile in the New Republic, but that’s not exactly a monetizeable reward....

Essentially they’re houseboats on landlocked lakes, and you can find them in cities like Newport, Miami, and San Francisco. The whole idea is to give travelers a unique and different experience outside of the traditional hotel room. It’s a sentiment we’ve seen mirrored in the sharing economy with platforms like Uber and Airbnb: defying the status quo surrounding driving and hotel accommodations. In that light, you can see that it’s almost a natural progression for the sharing economy to hit the boating demographic....

Founders are often given valid but over-simplified advice when it comes to debt financing. Some of the “mostly true” points include; debt rounds cost less from a legal standpoint, that you can negotiate a high conversion cap (implicit next round valuation target) than are priced equity rounds, and you can raise money progressively (one investor at a time). All of this is often true. Debt rounds can be easier and can also keep costs down for all parties involved....

This week, we interviewed Kaylyn Gibilterra, Founder of Women Who Code’s DC Chapter. Women Who Code (WWC) is a global non-profit dedicated to inspiring women to excel in technology careers.We provide an avenue into tech, empower women with skills needed for professional advancement, and provide environments where networking and mentorship are valued. The entire organization has hosted over 1200 free events around the world with over 20,000 members in 48 chapters spanning 15 countries....

As part of their commitment, NESTA wrote a letter to President Obama outlining their commitment to publish outcomes on an annual basis and have them verified by third-party CPAs. This news comes just days after President Obama announced his TechHire initiative, including a new campaign to work with communities to get more Americans rapidly trained for well-paying technology jobs. In a public statement, The White House explained that TechHire’s call to action is to empower Americans with the skills they need, through universities and community colleges but also nontraditional approaches like “coding bootcamps,” and high-quality online courses that can rapidly train workers for a well-paying job....

The electrification of motorcycles is something that makes a lot of sense, and it shouldn’t come as any surprise that mass adoption of the new technology is happening in motorcycles before cars. Electric motorcycles tend to be much more reliable than those fueled with gasoline. A gasoline engine, for example, has many moving parts. An electric motor, in contrast, has only one moving part. This means that motorcycle enthusiasts can spend more time actually riding their bikes instead of working on them....

That day has come. While most battery cases are bulky, overpriced and overheat on a regular basis, someone has finally come out with a battery case for the many iPhone 6 models that is sleek, affordable and has no explosive tendencies. Dubbed “Air Case” for what is hopefully an obvious reason, the case preserves the original look of the iPhone while also providing double the battery life. It even protects the iPhone from reasonable falls and tumbles....

Since the beginning of time (read: the emoji), users everywhere have been asking the tortilla gods to bless us with a taco emoji. And, sadly, we’ve found ourselves disappointed for many years. Back in February, Apple finally gave an update to its emojis, introducing a racially diverse group of emojis – from varying skin tones on humankind figures to a diverse set of national flags; however, users were disappointed upon discovering that food diversity still remained an issue (i....

The union, a group of creators pushing for more creator-friendly changes, had hopes for better monetization opportunities for smaller channels and more transparent moderation decisions, among other demands. YouTube’s decision not to meet with the union highlights the tech industry’s rocky relationship with unionizing. Who Are the YouTubers Union? The union calls itself “a community-based movement that fights for the rights of YouTube Creators and Users” on its homepage. It’s nearly a year and a half old, first formed on March 2, 2018 by the current union leader Jörg Sprave....

Currently part of a pilot program, Zoom states that this move is to enable it to improve and ‘support investment’ in the platform. While the rollout isn’t yet universal, anyone who wants to enjoy their video calls advert-free should consider moving to a paid plan (starting from $14.99), or ditching Zoom for a competitor. Zoom Introduces Adverts It’s fair to say that Zoom has been a great deal for many on the free plan – especially during the pandemic when it went from obscurity to a household name, seemingly overnight....

I honestly can’t think of one business who would disagree with that sentiment. I can think of plenty of businesses who might need help in this area of their company though. Every company has different blueprints laid out that fit their respective employees, business model, and culture. All Vox Mobile does is enable complete enterprise mobility, whether you’re implementing bring your own device programs or building a mobile strategy – and everything in between....

From the Girl Scouts offering STEM merit badges to large companies attempting to provide WiFi for rural areas, TechCo covered a bevy of inspirational stories that will revitalize your faith in humanity. Check out the stories below and say hello to 2018 with a smile! Green Energy With countries breaking their own green energy records and the Paris Climate Accord bringing most of the world together, it would appear that the people of the world has taken a shine to the idea of a renewable future....

According to a recent study from SensorTower, the top 10 apps have done some serious shuffle since the first quarter of 2017, and only a few of them will surprise you. For one, WhatsApp remains at the top of the global list, but was overtaken in the Google Play store. However, Facebook was able to claim most of the top five with Messenger and Instagram, a more than apt consolation prize for the social media giant....

According to research from WalletHub, some places are better than others when it comes to playing your favorites games. By measuring things like gaming environment, internet quality and coverage, and gamer and developer opportunities, they were able to discern which cities were the best for gamers and which ones were the worst. In addition to the list of the best cities for gamers, this study ranked a wide range of necessary metrics, including most video game stores per capita (Las Vegas, NV), lowest internet cost (Durham, NC), highest average internet speed (Virginia Beach, VA) and many others....

Check out this list of 16 healthcare startups facing off next week for $50,000 in investment from 1776: Project X Amman-based Project X developed a mobile application that uses 3-D imaging to fit an amputee for a prosthesis. Keet Software is a HIPAA compliant patient engagement platform for physical therapy that transforms traditional paper-based therapy programs into branded and tracked web-based mobile applications. Coeo Labs is a medical technology startup committed to developing cheap and affordable medical innovations projects for critical unmet needs....

Keep things small and manageable in the beginning and grow slowly. Don’t join the ranks of the unicorn companies, where you are forced to go at speeds similar to a space rocket. To begin with, you need to raise money. Rather than approaching investors to raise money, look at your own house and clean it up. These are three easy ways to save money to reinvest in your startup....

The Consumer Technology Association (CTA), producers of CES, have a mission to help founders succeed by providing practical resources to grow every nook and cranny of one’s business. As leaders in the innovation world, CTA helps companies transition through their stages by providing research, events like CES, and an extensive network of influencers, experts, and councils skilled in everything from public policy and raising capital to technology standards and human resources....

That’s right, the mad dash to protect climate change data has been on since late 2016 and the means of doing so have been as impressive as they have been necessary. From guerrilla archiving events to downloading meetups, people around the world are doing what they can to make sure this world-saving data is protected from anyone that might be interested in getting rid of it. Check out three different ways scientists are trying to keep this information safe:...