Startups
A newbie's guide to accelerators and incubators: are they right for you?
Accelerators are a booming business. The phenomenon is generally seen as a blessing for the growing number of start-ups. Who is behind these initiatives, what do accelerators do ex...
More from Startups
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Meet the "Cluj Club", the Romanian startups you'll be hearing more about
September 11, 2013 -
Keep your friends close, but your frenemies closer
May 15, 2013 -
Rise of the niche networks: Houzz raises $ 35 million Series C
February 04, 2013 -
Cleantech: hugely ambitious Leosphere raises € 20 million from Oraxys
February 01, 2013
Startups, stop saying you're the "Airbnb of X, Y, Z" right NOW
Repeat after me: you are not the Airbnb of industry x, y or even z. Matt Murphy of Kleiner Perkins, said last week at Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet conference that he was getting sick of startups trying to rent out spare rooms, tools, books and gardening tools. The sharing economy was hot for a while, but you probably won't raise any money for it anymore. 'Home sharing' platform Airbnb has great traction ... Read more
MiniBrake wants to make bicycling safe for your kids with remote brake
It's a problem that all parents probably recognize: how do I explain to my kids that they have to use their brakes? It usually involves a lot of yelling, is my own experience. Or, as three Hungarian student/entrepreneurs from the Corvinus University of Budapest realised, you could also install a remote brake on the bicycle. They called it MiniBrake, and here's how they explain it: "MiniBrake consists of tw... Read more
How to build a travel industry giant in 3 years: 8 lessons from GetYourGuide
GetYourGuide recently signed for 'the biggest Series A round in Europe': a very sizable $ 14 million. In barely 3 years time, the online platform for booking guided tours became a bona fide travel industry giant, doing more than $ 10 million in revenue in 2012 and offering 18100 things to do at 1780 destinations worldwide. This week, it launched a French, Spanish and Italian site. GetYourGuide followed a traject... Read more
You're hot, or not: why Elasticsearch raised $ 24 million just 3 months after a $ 10 million round
Yesterday, Elasticsearch announced a $ 24 million Series B round led by Mike Volpi of Index Ventures (San Francisco office), who will also take a board seat. The round includes contributions from existing investor Benchmark Capital and new investor SV Angel, who was an early Google investor too. The announcement of the financing is a bit unexpected, as it comes on the heels of a $ 10 million Series A round in N... Read more
Vir2Sim promises 'no more roaming costs' with virtual phone numbers
VIR2SIM is a Latvian startup with a simple promise: no more roaming costs when you travel. It works by giving you a virtual phone number. Calls to this virtual number get forwarded to you at no extra cost for the caller (although the user has to pay if they are abroad and correspondents call them). The difference between Vir2Sim and Skype is that Vir2Sim does not rely on VOIP for incoming calls, but uses the GS... Read more
