Contributor

May 19th, 2013

Finding Patterns In The Tableau IPO

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Editor’s note: Glenn Solomon is a partner with GGV Capital. Some of his recent investments include Pandora, Successfactors, Isilon, Domo, Square, Zendesk, Quinstreet, and Nimble Storage.

Stanford-born and Seattle-based Tableau Software (DATA) enjoyed a tremendous debut on the public markets on Friday, closing on its first day of trading at over $50/share, up over 60 percent from its $31/share… → Read More

May 18th, 2013

Confronting The Reality Of US Broadband Performance

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Editor’s note: Richard Bennett is a Senior Fellow with the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and co-author of ITIF’s 2013 report, “The Whole Picture: Where America’s Broadband Networks Really Stand.”

We’ve all heard the story: America’s broadband networks are second-rate. We pay exorbitant prices for shoddy service because broadband providers print money and hold… → Read More

May 18th, 2013

The Future Of Mobile-Social Could Spell The End For Social Networks

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Editor’s note:  Keith Teare is the founder of just.me and a partner at Archimedes Labs. He is also the co-founder of TechCrunch.

This was a momentous week for those of us who are watching the rapid transition that is taking place from desktop computing to mobile., and particularly for those focused on mobile-social as I am due to my job at just.me. Here is my take on what we just witnessed. → Read More

May 18th, 2013

Why We Aren’t Developing For OUYA

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Editor’s note: Tolga Ozuygur is the co-founder of Overdose Caffeine, an indie game-development company from Turkey that develops cross-platform, real-time multiplayer games. Follow him on Twitter @tolgaozuygur.

We at Overdose Caffeine had previously announced that Pocket Fleet, a real-time multiplayer space dogfight game developed for mobile devices, would be available soon on OUYA. Our… → Read More

May 13th, 2013

Obama’s CTO Gives Advice On How Learning Works In Kio Stark’s New Book, Don’t Go Back To School

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The following is an excerpt from my new book Don’t Go Back to School: a handbook for learning anything.

To someone who has never tried, it’s not obvious how to learn the things you want to learn outside of school. I’m on a mission to show you how. To do that, I became obsessed with how other people learn best, and how they do it without going to school. → Read More

May 11th, 2013

Federal Circuit Rules Software Invention Unpatentable

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Editor’s note: Anthony J. Lombardi practices patent litigation and patent prosecution at Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP. He also provides counseling to clients on prelitigation strategy, portfolio development, patent monetization, and licensing activities.

A clear legal standard for determining patent-eligible subject matter remains elusive. On Friday, the Federal… → Read More

May 11th, 2013

Judge Tosses DMCA Defenses, Creating Unexpected Copyright Liability For Web Services In New York

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Editor’s note: Sid Venkatesan is an IP partner specializing in high stakes IP disputes and IP counseling for technology companies in the Silicon Valley office of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. James Freedman is an associate in Orrick’s IP group and a recent Stanford Law School graduate. 

A New York appellate court has recently ruled in UMG Recordings v. Escape Media Group that… → Read More

May 8th, 2013

Founder Stories: Mailbox’s Gentry Underwood on Steering the Ship

Last week at Disrupt NY, I took the stage with Gentry Underwood, Founder and CEO of Mailbox, to talk about the challenges of being a first time founder. I first met Gentry a month after he started Orchestra which became Mailbox, recently acquired by Dropbox. Mailbox is a mobile inbox where you can easily scan and quickly swipe to organize emails. Available for iPhone and Gmail, Mailbox also has a… → Read More

May 8th, 2013

America Needs A Pro-Growth Immigration System

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Editor’s note: Marco Rubio is a United States Senator from Florida. Follow him on Twitter @marcorubio.

Today, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation will examine the role of immigrants in America’s innovation economy. More specifically, the committee will look at how our broken immigration system is holding back American innovation and job creation, and how the… → Read More

May 5th, 2013

The Philosophy Of Game Development By The Numbers

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Editor’s note: Hassan Baig is an entrepreneur who runs White Rabbit Studios, a South Asian gaming startup he founded four years ago in Pakistan.

There are several metrics that game developers keep an eye on when tracking the performance of their games. Notions of creativity, novelty and fun are all confined within the prism of an analytics-centric approach: They have wiggle room as long as… → Read More

May 4th, 2013

People Are Speaking, Markets Are Reacting, Fears Are Falling And Hackers Are Gonna Hack!

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Editor’s note: Howard Lindzon is co-founder and CEO of StockTwits, a social network for traders and investors to share real-time ideas and information.

The markets are not changing so much as the technology that makes markets move. The technology has enabled machines to ping each other at speeds that give them an edge over humans (at least in the very short-term) and people are connected to… → Read More

May 1st, 2013

Lex Machina Raises $4.8M First Round Led By Cue Ball Capital As IP Litigation Reaches New Highs

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One of the fundamental problems in intellectual property (IP) litigation is the lack of information available to both plaintiffs and defendants. The identity of the plaintiff and the defendant, the district(s), judge(s), and lawyers involved in a particular case, have a significant impact on the outcome of a litigation, including whether a particular litigation will proceed at all. While legal… → Read More

April 27th, 2013

Building A Culture That Works: The CEO As The Cultural Epicenter

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Editor’s note: Peter Levine is a partner at Andreessen Horowitz.

As a former CEO and senior executive, there was a time when I did not quite understand the profound impact a CEO has on the culture of a company, even though I always knew culture was important. The organization reflects the behavior and characteristics of the CEO, and that establishes the culture. Foster an environment of open… → Read More

April 25th, 2013

Foundation: NationBuilder CEO Jim Gilliam on How to Build a Movement

In the newest episode of my Foundation video series, I talk with NationBuilder Founder and CEO Jim Gilliam, a two-time cancer survivor and activist. Jim discusses growing up in Silicon Valley, how he made the jump from filmmaker to tech entrepreneur, and the power of community action to turn ordinary people into leaders. → Read More

April 24th, 2013

Announcing The TC Disrupt NY Hackathon API Workshop Schedule, Prizes & More

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We’re now just a few days away from the Disrupt NY Hackathon this weekend, and we’ve got some exciting news to share. As well as scoring a free ticket to the main TechCrunch Disrupt NY conference, this weekend’s hackers will share in almost $50,000 worth of prizes. A few tickets are still available. Coders should register here and designers should register here. Below you’ll find all… → Read More

April 23rd, 2013

Calling All Designers To #HackDisrupt In NYC This Weekend

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The TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon fast approaches and at this point, it’s important to start thinking about your hack’s design. Luckily, TechCrunch is happy to announce another partnership with the Design Trust to have crackerjack designers in attendance, polishing your creation to make it stand out in our esteemed judges’ eyes.

Who is the Design Trust, you ask? → Read More

April 22nd, 2013

RIP Mike Culbert, iOS And Newton Pioneer

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We’ve received direct word and noted on Twitter that that Mike Culbert, a longtime Apple hardware engineer, has passed away after battling cancer. According to his friends, he was a “brilliant engineer, a wonderful human being.” He will be missed. → Read More

April 20th, 2013

Put Away The Eulogy, The PC Is Alive And Well

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Editor’s note: Chester Ng is co-founder and CMO of SweetLabs, makers of Pokki, a modern app platform for the PC. Follow him on Twitter @chest.

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been blessed by the prescient researchers at Gartner and IDC with fresh data and predictions about the shipment trends for smart devices, especially the PC. This has sparked the typical “PC is dead,”… → Read More

April 20th, 2013

Cognitive Overhead, Or Why Your Product Isn’t As Simple As You Think

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Editor’s Note: David Lieb is co-founder and CEO of Bump, creators of the popular app that lets people share contact information, photos, and other content by bumping their phones together. Bump has been downloaded more than 130 million times.

It’s been hard to ignore the massive shift in the last decade toward simple products. The minimalist design aesthetic… → Read More

April 20th, 2013

Behavioral Finance Explains Bubbles

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Editor’s note: Adam Nash is the chief operating officer of Wealthfront. He was formerly executive-in-residence with Greylock Partners and VP of product management at LinkedIn.

Given the incredible volatility we’ve seen lately in the Bitcoin and gold markets, there has been a resurgence of discussion about bubbles. This topic is always top of mind in Silicon Valley, especially given that the… → Read More

April 19th, 2013

How To Build A Political Social Network That Actually Works

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Editor’s note: Lucas Dailey is a UX designer and chief innovation officer at political social network MyMaryland.net.

My political social network startup died last year, and I eulogized it in a public post-mortem here on TechCrunch. The experience (and the article) led to a job taking over the product reins at nonprofit MyMaryland.net. Here are some tips for charting your own course for… → Read More

April 19th, 2013

Disrupt NY’s Hackathon API Workshops To Feature AWS, Box, Evernote, Facebook, Foursquare And The NYT

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Hackathons are to developers what state championship games are to high school quarterbacks. The pressure is on, time is running out, and in the case of the Disrupt NY Hackathon, there’s never been a better audience of peers, judges, and media to impress.

That’s why we’re incredibly lucky to have some of the best platforms in the industry coming to New York to run workshops on how you can… → Read More

April 17th, 2013

Founder Stories: Snaplogic’s Gaurav Dhillon On The Importance Of Timing

Founding a company is both lonely and challenging – I know. Guarav Dhillon first went through this journey almost two decades ago when there were fewer support outlets. Now today as Dhillon is running Snaplogic, a company he started a couple of years ago, he is applying learnings from past experience – but also levering the infrastructure available to founders that did not exist before. → Read More

April 14th, 2013

Bringing Down The Mexican Tech Mafia: How Hackers Stopped A $9.3 Million Fraud

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Editor’s note: Maria Rocio Paniagua currently works at Flit, a PR firm that helps products, projects and events launch in Mexico.

“When the geeks go marching in, good stuff can happen, but if everyone joins in, real change can take place.” That’s what the hackers and team behind Codeando México, a civil innovation platform where government and organizations publish projects, thought… → Read More

April 13th, 2013

The eBay Class Of 2000-2005: Where They Are Now And Why We Should Care

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Editor’s note: Sergio Monsalve is a Partner at Norwest Venture Partners where he is focused on early and growth investments in e-commerce, consumerized SaaS, consumer finance, and educational technologies. 

As a venture capital investor, I look for disruptive companies with breakthrough technologies, and — most importantly — I look for highly talented teams. In the e-commerce space… → Read More

April 13th, 2013

Through The Looking Glass: Hiring Sales People

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Editor’s note: Ben Horowitz is co-founder and partner of Andreessen Horowitz.

Perhaps the most common mistake that I see a technical founder make when building her sales organization is that she applies strategies to the sales-hiring process that work when building the engineering team. This may sound shocking, but sales people are different from engineers, and treating them like engineers… → Read More

April 12th, 2013

Entrepreneurial Excellence: Can 10,000 Hours Of Practice Make Perfect?

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Editor’s note: Jon Auerbach is a partner at Charles River Ventures, a 42-year-old early stage venture firm based in Menlo Park and Cambridge, Ma, where he focuses on mobile technologies.

Research over the past two decades has identified a strong link between hours of practice and expertise in sports, chess and the performing arts. In the early 1990s, Anders Ericsson, a psychologist at Florida… → Read More

April 11th, 2013

Announcing Disrupt NY Hackathon Judges And Another Wave Of Tickets

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TechCrunch Disrupt NY is only a couple of weeks off, and before the curtain rises on the main conference, we’re running our famous 24-hour Hackathon. It’s a great way to connect with amazing people, launch your hack in front of thousands and possibly follow in the footsteps of GroupMe, a hack from Disrupt 2010 that went on to be acquired a year later by Skype.

Today we’re releasing more… → Read More

April 7th, 2013

Homegrown Developers, Localization Breathe Life Into South Asian Gaming

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Editor’s note: Hassan Baig is an entrepreneur who runs White Rabbit Studios, a South Asian gaming startup he founded four years ago in Pakistan. Follow him on Twitter @baigi. It’s an open secret that the social gaming industry is no longer the cornucopia of opportunities it used to be. Rising CPAs, falling k-factors, plateuing ARPUs and channel saturation all have made life difficult… → Read More

April 6th, 2013

From Selling Scoops Of Ice Cream To Founding ZeroCater

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Editor’s note: Arram Sabeti is CEO of ZeroCater.

Five years ago I moved to the Bay Area because I wanted to start a company. I came here armed with that single goal and the education of a dozen Paul Graham essays. To me, determination has an almost magical quality. I’d always felt that with enough of it I could do absolutely anything. → Read More