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How a bunch of ex-Google Reader guys are building a social media reader, using Twitter and FacebookBrizzly, a popular new Twitter and Facebook app, just went into public beta this November and closed a $600,000 round. I recently had a chance to sit down with Brizzly founder and CEO Jason Shellen to talk about his new startup.

• 12/15/09
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Forbes Midas List VC and partner at August Capital says it's a good time to investIt's often said that startup founders should choose their venture capitalists wisely because the partnership is like a marriage. The two sides have to work together and stick it out with one another for better or worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, until... a funding gap or exit do they part.

• 12/8/09
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Interview with Robert Acker, CEO of Aha Mobile, a provider of road information on the goAha Mobile is one of the many iPhone app makers racing to be the killer platform for a new "augmented reality" era. Augmented reality, as defined by Tim Chang, a venture capitalist at Norwest Venture Partners, is about making the physical world accessible around you. For now, Aha Mobile wants to make information you need while driving - like nearest gas station, coffee shop, road congestion - readily accessible. Additionally, Aha Mobile connects fellow drivers with one another, allowing them to share road rage and stories, and giving listeners another form of talk radio to entertain themselves with.In my second-part interview with Robert Acker, CEO of Aha Mobile, a young startup that received $3 million in financing from Venrock this ... [http://vator.tv/n/c1a read more]

• 12/3/09
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From yoga classes to Turkey Trots, Eventbrite's business is adding up to billionsIt's no secret that traditional businesses continue to be under assault and consumers are increasingly empowered on the Internet. It's particularly noticeable in traditional media, where consumers are producing a large part of material consumed and in many cases, creating a whole new genre of content and displacing certain jobs, notably editors. In like vein, consumers are producing a whole new category of tickets available and accessible and at the same time supplanting some jobs, notably event managers. That's thanks to Eventbrite. As Kevin Hartz, CEO and founder says, he's "democratizing tickets," giving anyone the ability to easily create, organize, market and sell tickets to an event - from a yoga class, Turkey Trot to a conference. While some of ... [http://vator.tv/n/c0b read more]

• 11/30/09
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August Capital VC shares his investment thesis on his two investmentsSince Howard Hartenbaum joined August Capital in 2008, he's led two key investments - Swoopo and Pixazza.

• 11/25/09
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Modern Mom founder's goal is to create a hub for moms and kidsMany people may know Booke Burke as a model, host of Wild On, and winner of the seventh season of Dancing with the Stars. But she's also an entrepreneur and mother of four. Burke is the co-founder of Modern Mom with co-founder Lisa Rosenblatt (wife of Richard Rosenblatt, CEO and co-founder of Demand Media). It's an ideal partnership as both Brooke and Lisa have seven children among themselves, making them pretty good mommy experts. Additionally, Demand Media's Demand Studios creates original content for Modern Mom.

• 11/24/09
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Angel investor Aydin Senkut on where he'd invest and sectors he'd avoidAydin Senkut, an early-Google employee-turned angel investor, is becoming known as one of the more prolific seed-to-early-stage investors in Silicon Valley, having invested in 40 companies since 2006. His portfolio consists of some well-known consumer Internet companies, such as Mint, which was recently sold to Intuit for $170 million, Aardvark, Disqus, Dogster, BrightRoll and Rapleaf.

• 11/17/09
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Can Facebook-funded Thread take a piece of the billion-dollar online dating business?Playing matchmaker online can be a lucrative business. Hundreds of dating sites are raking in a total of a $1 billion dollars each year, with popular sites, like Match.com, eHarmony, Yahoo Personals and Plenty of Fish, taking the lion's share. But there's always room for newcomers who design a different offering for today's generation.One such newcomer is Thread, whose co-founder and CEO Brian Phillips would describe his rationale for starting the online dating site that leverages Facebook like this: "Not everyone is on dating site... But the best people are all on Facebook." See my first interview with Brian, in which he explains how Thread works as an online dating site on top of Facebook.In this second part of our ... [http://vator.tv/n/ace read more]

• 11/14/09
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