May
02
After 2 Years Of Pivots, ShowMe Finally Has A Sticky Product — 500,000 Lessons Are Being Added Every Month
Easel / News & Updates / Portfolio / posted on
May 2nd, 2012 — No comments
by Alyson Shontell
Two and a half years ago, San Kim presented a startup called Easel on stage at DreamIt Ventures Demo Day in Philadelphia.
The former high school math and science teacher presented interactive workbooks for the iPad alongside 14 other startups; he hoped to land $300,000 in financing.
He and his cofounder bootstrapped Easel without much success. The next two years, Kim tells us, were a series of pivots. Last summer, they finally created something that showed promise.
ShowMe is a simple iPad app that acts like a teacher’s whiteboard. It’s a blank white screen with a few colors for drawing and built-in audio.
If you want to create a quick lesson, like teaching someone how to solve X+4 =7, create a title, press play, draw, and talk. When you’re finished, the lesson will automatically be uploaded to ShowMe’s site, which students can peruse.
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Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/showme-adding-500000-lessons-per-month-2012-5#ixzz1tjAWgR5V
May
01
Top Startup Incubators And Accelerators: Y Combinator Tops With $7.8 Billion In Value, DreamIt Ventures moves up to #3
Dreamit News / News & Updates / posted on
May 1st, 2012 — No comments
by Tomio Geron
Incubators have become an increasingly important part of the tech startup scene in recent years.
A number of hot startups have emerged from these programs, encouraging more new entrepreneurs to apply. They’ve become so popular that about one accelerator a day launches these days, says David Cohen, head of TechStars. Not only are they popping up in many cities, but also in specific verticals, such as education. These incubators have been called alternatives to MBAs. Emphasizing that concept, Y Combinator now even accepts applicants who don’t even have a startup idea.
These programs provide new entrepreneurs with mentorship, advice and practical training on technical, business and fundraising topics to help them get from idea to product to launch and beyond. They typically take a small piece of equity in exchange for a small amount of cash and entry into the program.
As part of our Midas List coverage this year, FORBES created a list of the top U.S. incubators and accelerators. The rankings (see the chart below) are based on a number of factors, focusing on the value of the incubators’ companies. In other words, we took the exit prices or the last priced equity valuation of the companies that have gone through each program. We also took into account other measures, such as how much venture funding their companies have raised, what percentage of their companies have raised funding and what percentage of their companies have been acquired or gone out of business. (Note: some firms provided us data for the rankings on condition that we not publish it.)
The Midas List, which ranks the top 100 venture capitalists in the world, will be launched Wednesday, May 2.
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