Bambi Francisco Roizen's channel on VatorNews

Why Cloudflare's Mirage 2.0 is worth taking note of

Bambi Francisco Roizen — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 04:00:00 -0700

There's nothing like getting Ninjas to help you fend off attackers.. and load your pages faster

Attacks that bring websites down have gotten easier to launch and more ruthless these days. The scale and size has increased significantly, therefore driving huge demand for services or Web Ninjas to fight them off. "The largest attacks today are exceeding 300 gigabits per second. The largest attacks we saw a year ago topped out around 100 gigabits per second," said ... [Read more]

FundersClub investor reach widens to 6,000-plus

Bambi Francisco Roizen — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 09:00:00 -0700

The crowdfunded VC startup also unveils names of the YC startups in its latest fund

FundersClub, a new online venture capital firm, has now crossed 6,000-plus investors on its platform. For those not familiar with this Y Combinator-backed startup, it's an interesting milestone because the more investors, the higher probability of its ability to succeed. FundersClub is one of the newer VCs in the Valley, spearheading this old-yet-novel approach to fundraising by aggregating capital from ... [Read more]

Cozy officially launches to transform the renter market

Bambi Francisco Roizen — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 08:28:00 -0700

A new platform to bring renters and landlords together in a more transparent and efficient way

Anyone who's rented property knows the process of dealing with renters is typically this: Get their paper application, run credit reports, check references and social profiles. It's not hugely broken, and it works. But in a world in which interactions between two parties can be handled with more efficiency and transparency, there's opportunity to improve this process. Hoping to transform ... [Read more]

Carnet de Mode gets $1.5M for designer fashion market

Bambi Francisco Roizen — Tue, 28 May 2013 04:30:00 -0700

Paris-based startup raises money from Elaia Partners to aggregate new fashion designers

Paris-based Carnet de Mode, a marketplace for up-and-coming fashion designers, announced Tuesday that it's raised $1.5 million in a Series A round of financing from Elaia Partners, and angels. CDM is aggregating young fashion designers into a marketplace to give them promotion and exposure to find customers seeking fresh looks from these relatively unknown independent artists. Started in 2011, CDM now ... [Read more]

Wanderful Media gets $9M to expand local ad service

Bambi Francisco Roizen — Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

12 powerful media publishers re-invest to get circular dollars online

Wandeful Media, which is helping newspapers make next-generation circulars, announced Tuesday morning that it's raised $9 million in a new round of financing from its existing newspaper publisher backers. Its 12 backers include Advance Digital, A. H. Belo Corporation, Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., Cox Media Group, The E. W. Scripps Company, Gannett Co. Inc., GateHouse MediaInc., Hearst Corporation, Lee Enterprises, MediaNews Group, The ... [Read more]

Why millennials are the entrepreneur generation

Bambi Francisco Roizen — Tue, 14 May 2013 06:00:00 -0700

This generation embraces freedom over job security; More than half quit jobs to work for themselves

The millenial generation, also known as Generation Y, consists, at least by some, of those born between 1982 and 1993. These are adults from 21 years old to 33. The older Gen Y population didn't grow up with cell phones or the Internet, but by the time they were in their mid-teens, cell phones were small enough to carry ... [Read more]

Union Square Ventures leads $7.5M round in CircleUp

Bambi Francisco Roizen — Tue, 07 May 2013 04:30:00 -0700

CircleUp looks to expand crowdsourced investment platform for retail and consumer goods startups

I have been covering the financial industry and the Web for more than 15 years, and there's never been a more disruptive time in the world of private placements than now. For the first time, small private companies are becoming a real potential asset class for millions of investors. One asset class that may be worth a look is ... [Read more]

Astrid gets acquired by Yahoo

Bambi Francisco Roizen — Wed, 01 May 2013 15:31:00 -0700

AngelPad-backed to-do list startup gets snapped up by Yahoo

Exciting news! Astrid, a productivity app which helps people manage lists, has been acquired by Yahoo. While details of the deal have yet to be disclosed. San Francisco-based Astrid started in 2011, first getting incubated inside of AngelPad, and then raiseing just over $500,000 from Google Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners. Astrid was also a People's Choice Award winner at our Vator ... [Read more]

Curious, a learning marketplace, launches with $7.5M

Bambi Francisco Roizen — Wed, 01 May 2013 05:30:00 -0700

Former Homestead CEO Justin Kitch wants to help teachers become entrepreneurs

In the online world, where matchmaking has gone well beyond dating, marketplaces are all the rage. This is creating a whole new opportunity for new middlemen to emerge - those that help unlock new talent (supply), and pent-up demand. Justin Kitch, who founded Homestead and sold it to Intuit for $170 million in 2008, is hoping his new venture - ... [Read more]

Finect launches as a LinkedIn for financial services

Bambi Francisco Roizen — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 06:00:00 -0700

NY-based startup wants to be the 'compliant' focused social network for advisors, asset managers

The financial industry is ripe for social innovation and NY-based Finect wants to be leading the charge when it comes to servicing the financial services industry. Finect, which was founded last year, officially launches Tuesday as a professional network for financial service providers, such as investment advisors and asset managers. It's meant to address the growing need for the highly-regulated finance ... [Read more]

ClickTale raises $17M growth round

Bambi Francisco Roizen — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 01:30:00 -0700

Provider of Web analytics for e-commerce sites gets fresh capital

As a manager of a social network, I can tell you that one of the most important pieces of information you can have about your members, is what they're doing on each page, and not just what page they went to before and after. That kind of intelligence is invaluable for any consumer-facing Web company, including e-commerce retailers, which rely ... [Read more]

Kismet launches Blink for group messaging that expires

Bambi Francisco Roizen — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 06:39:48 -0700

Mobile discovery and group messaging app banks on people wanting privacy

In the old days on the Internet, anonymity reigned supreme. The adage "On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog" coined in 1993, captured a moment in time when people could hide behind a different persona on the Web. Today, that's all changed. Every thought, photo, relationship, interest can and is often captured and exposed on the Web. ... [Read more]

Spreecast gets its mobile on

Bambi Francisco Roizen — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 08:48:00 -0700

Jeff Fluhr's interactive video platform now available on the iPhone

We all hear the statistics: TV viewing is shifting from the TV to laptops, tablets and mobile devices. For instance, people who own tablets watch 30% more video than those on a laptop, we reported last year. And about nine out of 10 people with a mobile device are on their phones while watching TV, according to Nielsen study last year. ... [Read more]

GetGoing unveils Flightfinder for alternative routes

Bambi Francisco Roizen — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:18:15 -0700

Y Combinator-backed new travel site aims to be the 'Kayak on steroids"

GetGoing, the Y Combinator-backed startup that helps you find discounted vacation packages, just launched FlightFinder, a new search service to find more affordable airline tickets by showing you nearby destinations to fly into. If you don't live in the Bay Area, you might not know that you could fly into Oakland as an alternative to SFO. Depending on ... [Read more]

M&A of VC-backed startups hits four-year low

Bambi Francisco Roizen — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 00:01:00 -0700

Venture investing sees lowest quarter since third quarter of 2010

So much for starting the year with a bang. Not only are venture capitalists keeping their purse strings drawn tight, acquisitions are often an optimal outcome for startups. But it looks like buyers haven't had the appetite. Venture capital merger and acquisition activity in the US dropped in the first quarter of this year, ending with the fewest exits ... [Read more]