Ryan has spent more than five years covering business, technology, and telecom-related subjects for a variety of publications based in New York and San Francisco. Ryan currently works as a writer for TechCrunch.
On-demand helper startup WunWun has for the past few months offered consumers the ability to get pretty much anything delivered for a flat rate. Now, the company is offering its service to businesses who want to make local, same-day delivery a perk for their customers. → Read More
Users are getting increasingly comfortable with the idea of booking and even listing spaces on Airbnb through their mobile phones. The company has tried to reach that demand through on mobile devices with frequently updated iOS and Android apps. Today, the Android app gets an update aimed at making the experience for hosts better than ever. → Read More
Video is becoming an increasingly important part of news coverage online. But it’s also expensive and time-consuming to produce, and many publishers don’t have the resources to create them on their own. A startup called Wochit is changing the economics around video production for breaking news, and has raised $4.75 million to make their technology available to more publishers. → Read More
We at TechCrunch have been referring to the phenomenon of peer-to-peer transportation services as “ride sharing.” Not a post goes by, however, without someone jumping into the comments to point out that the phrase is inadequate to describe what SideCar, and Lyft, and Uber are actually doing. Help change that. → Read More
Video discovery startup Boxfish wants to help people find out what’s new and trending on TV, by scouring broadcast and cable networks to find out what people are talking about. After making its second-screen discovery application available for iOS, the startup has just released an Android version. → Read More
It’s hard to believe that it’s been less than a year since ride-sharing service Lyft first launched in beta, offering a low-cost alternative to on-demand black car service Uber. But not only has it grown aggressively in its home market since then, but Lyft has since begun offering service in Los Angeles and Seattle. It’s tacking on another city this weekend with a launch in Chicago. → Read More
When we we last talked to augmented-reality startup Dekko back in September of last year, the company was building a platform on which it hoped to find developers to build a new generation of applications that blend computing with the real world. And while it still hopes to be that platform, which it’s calling a “real-world operating system,” the company is focusing its efforts to create its own… → Read More
Politicians are increasingly getting used to talking to their constituents online, especially during election season. They’re doing Reddit AMAs and virtual town halls to answer questions and enter debates with others. But until recently, there haven’t been many good platforms for doing so. CrowdHall hopes to provide a platform that anyone can use for these types of communications. → Read More
New York City-based startup Cover seeks to simplify the process through the magic of mobile payments. It plans to do so with a payments platform and mobile application that would reduce all the fuss and calculations that happen when the check comes. → Read More
CardFlight is launching with an encrypted, Square-like card reader of its own, as well as an SDK and APIs that will allow developers to create apps and take “card-present” payments on their mobile apps. Those apps can then securely be used to swipe cards and have payments appear in their existing merchant accounts. → Read More
Atlas is a mobile app not just for notifying you of when and where you have meetings, but more importantly, for setting them up. The app works by getting you through the gnarly process of setting meetings with an easy, step-by-step process for connecting you with other people. → Read More
Hyper-local ad startup PlaceIQ has raised an additional $6.75 million in Series B financing to enable marketers to target their messages to users based on location. The funding was led by U.S. Venture Partners, with participation from IA Ventures, Valhalla Partners, KBS Ventures, and some angel investors. → Read More
thePlatform is taking steps to make live event streaming easier for their customers. The company, which is a subsidiary of Comcast, is launching a new, SaaS-based platform which will allow networks to schedule and manage live events, with everything they need, like signal acquisition and encoding, dynamic ad insertion and metadata creation, and automatic archiving of programs when they’re done. → Read More
Over the last few years, Samsung has been working hard on building technology to improve the communication between its connected TVs and mobile devices, whether they be iOS or Android phones or tablets. Well, the company has acquired MOVL, a startup that should provide even more help in that category. → Read More
A little less than a year ago, a little company called LinkSmart launched to help publishers use text links to get their readers reading more. Now it has raised $5 million in Series B funding to take its technology for growing audiences and make it more widely available. The financing was led by Foundry Group and Costanoa Venture Partners. → Read More
The quick adoption of Mailbox only came after the team behind it spent years developing and iterating on a productivity app called Orchestra. In a conversation backstage at Disrupt NY 2013 earlier this week, co-founder Gentry Underwood walked me through how Mailbox came to be. → Read More
Vox Media has very quickly become a huge force in online media. The owner of websites like SB Nation and the Verge is seeking to create a whole new generation of premium properties online, as a way to attract big advertisers. One way it’s doing that is by extending its home-grown technology to brand marketers. → Read More
Ride-sharing startup SideCar received the first enforcement action against it since launching in the city in March, as a couple of its drivers were stopped by police over the weekend. In response, the company is asking its users to reach out to the New York City mayor’s office. → Read More
UQ Life was founded as a smart platform for self-discovery and personal development, and it’s designed to help kids learn through collaborative games. Today, as part of TechCrunch Disrupt NY’s Startup Battlefield, the company launched with a couple of apps for child learning and development by personalizing games to match individual skill sets. → Read More
New York-based startup HealthyOut already has a popular iPhone and Android app for quickly finding nearby restaurants and dishes that users can order and have delivered. Today at Disrupt NY 2013, HealthyOut is unveiling a new service, which will provide its users with personalized menus of food delivered to help them lose weight or just overall eat better. → Read More
As a peer-to-peer marketplace for people’s homes, Airbnb’s success still relies on ensuring that its users trust one another. Today, it took another step toward that goal, with the introduction of Verified Identification, which will connect users’ online and offline identities. → Read More
Today at Disrupt NY 2013, Flipboard CEO Mike McCue said that publishers are facing a huge reduction in ad revenues. Publishers have seen revenues go from dollars in print, to dimes on the web, to pennies on mobile. According to McCue, a lot of the reason for that is the way that content is packaged and ads are displayed. → Read More
Video editing app Magisto is picking up users, especially in the Android ecosystem, and it’s giving those users a new way to add a creative touch to the videos they produce. Launching today at TechCrunch Disrupt NY, the new Magisto Android app offers a way for users to doodle on their videos, create new borders, and generally add a bit of flair to their videos. → Read More
In a world of Facebook and social sharing, having heart is more important than being smart, according to BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti. Today at Disrupt NY 2013, Peretti discussed the difference between activity that exists on social sites like Facebook versus what people are searching for in non-social situations. → Read More
One hack from our Disrupt NY Hackathon, called Kar Nanny, seeks to let users see where their kids are driving and get notifications if they’re being unsafe. Or you can see where your spouse is. Or, if you own a car rental fleet, this will give you the opportunity to keep tabs on how renters are using your cars. → Read More
HackSpaces is designed as a platform that can be used to keep track of payments, seats, and conference rooms. The scheduler replaces whiteboards currently used by some co-working spaces, and allows users to quickly see which rooms are in use or scheduled later in the day via mobile app. It also provides a messaging tool that can allow co-working members to communicate with each other. → Read More
It’s been about nine months since Movieclips rebranded as ZEFR to provide content ID and monetization tools to publishers distributing or claiming their content on YouTube. Today, the startup is announcing its first big customers, signing up big-name music labels like UMG, Sony Music, and Ultra Music, as well as NASCAR. → Read More
Last summer, New York-based hybrid investor/incubator/holding company thing Betaworks acquired social news site Digg and relaunched it soon after, hoping to bring back some of its mojo in the process. Nine months later, Betaworks has acquired news-oriented company, this time bringing Marco Arment’s popular story-saving app Instapaper into the fold. → Read More
It’s been more than a year since Toronto-based Extreme Startups raised funding and launched its Accelerator program. Now it’s ready to introduce the third group of five companies to have gone through the program. The next five companies are a mix, from online craft marketplace BRIKA to business intelligence tool Polychart… With some vitamins and science research thrown in for good measure. → Read More
Last fall, Disrupt Battlefield finalist Zumper promised to make finding an apartment in San Francisco and New York City not quite so painful. With a map-based interface and easy-to-use filters, the startup sought to differentiate itself from the status quo by providing a better way to search for, and find, available apartments. → Read More
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
Boston, MA
Disrupt Europe: Berlin Hackathon
Berlin, Germany
