June 18th, 2008

OKCupid Spins Off Quiz Engine, HelloQuizzy

OKCupid, a free online dating site, found that users were not only interested in creating and taking its tests to establish their compatibility with others. They were also using them for a range of plutonic purposes out of general curiosity about themselves and how they compared to friends. So the site spun off a new web property called HelloQuizzy that serves as both a destination for user generated quizzes, and an engine for 3rd-party websites to integrate quizzes into their own services. OKCupid Co-Founder Sam Yagan explains that HelloQuizzy is meant bring a whole new level of functionality to the quizzes you’ll find on sites like Quizilla, Quiz Farm, and Tickle (recently deadpooled). For example, quizzes can include rich media like YouTube videos and results are displayed through informative graphs. Like CrazyBlindDate, another OKCupid spinoff for setting up blind dates, HelloQuizzy retains OKCupid’s playful design and character. It also shares the same business model: driving traffic back to OKCupid. When HelloQuizzy users sign up and take tests, the site learns more about them (the sign up process even bluntly asks whether they’re single). This gives HelloQuizzy the opportunity later to suggest how OKCupid might help them find love or lust. → Read More

March 14th, 2008

Y Combinator Demo Day Roundup for Spring 2008

The fledgling startups listed below will present their ideas and initial products to investors at this spring’s Y Combinator Demo Day on March 18. Of the 19 companies in this batch, 10 have already launched and only one remains in stealth mode. Most of them have been in development for only three months. Chatterous Chatterous connects various forms of communication so that people can message each other regardless of the form they use most. Currently the service ties SMS, email, IM, and web together so that messages sent using one technology will be received by others using any of the other technologies. This works by setting up a group on Chatterous’s website and putting down all the ways your friends can be contacted. You can then start sending messages to them immediately, meaning that they don’t even have to change their own behavior all that much. Chatterous launched in public beta last week. Addmired Addmired provides the AddHer and AddHim social network widgets, both of which display two user profile pictures at a time and ask users to answer certain questions about them, such as “Who’s more popular?” The founders argue that their widgets are more appealing to social network owners than other widgets, because they help drive traffic within the social networks, not siphon traffic out of them. They look to establish service level agreements with some of the smaller social networks. We covered the service in February here. Snaptalent Snaptalent is an advertising network for job listings that uses IP detection to determine whether website viewers work or study at particular companies or institutions. It then displays listings from employers who want to attract workers from organizations known for their talent, such as Facebook or Harvard. See our review of the service from this week here. RescueTime RescueTime helps individuals and businesses track how they spend their time at the computer, and consequently, find ways to become more productive. The web-based dashboard charts application and website usage over long periods of time and shows you whether you’ve been reaching your goals. So far, 278 businesses have signed up for RescueTime for a total of 26,132 seats. See our review from last May here. MightyQuiz MightyQuiz is a user generated quiz destination and widget provider that we covered recently. Users are encouraged to answer trivia questions from a wide range of categories. They can also submit their own questions → Read More

March 10th, 2008

MightyQuiz: Stump Strangers with Your Arcane Knowledge

Y Combinator startup MightyQuiz just launched with the intent of bringing user generated content to quizzes. The concept is straightforward: users can write their own quiz questions on any topic (e.g. “Aside from English, what is the second official language in New Zealand?” Answer: “Maori”). These are then categorized, answered, rated, and commented on by other users, who can pass time by going through them one after another. The creators have implemented all of the social features we’ve come to expect from Web 2.0: user profiles, top contributor lists, most popular quiz questions, and widgets. We’re told that one potential monetization strategy will come from white labeling the service for use on traditional media sites that need ways to engage users. For example, Rolling Stone could encourage their online readers to contribute questions about the history of music. While the service is mainly for entertainment in its current form, it could also be tailored for educational purposes. The topics of history and science are two natural fits for a tool like this. As apparently is Seinfeld (see pic). CrunchBase Information MightyQuiz Y Combinator Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More

Real-Time
Crunchbase

Energy Points — Received $3M in Series A funding from Plan B Ventures
2.13.2012
Energy Points — Company added to CrunchBase
2.13.2012
Plan B Ventures — Invested in Energy Points.
2.13.2012
Cidade Internet — Acquired by Populis.
2.1.2012
Jive Software — Went public with stock symbol NASDAQ:JIVE.
2.3.2012
Cidade Internet — Acquired by Populis.
2.1.2012
2.1.2012
2.9.2012
LetsBuy.com — Acquired by Flipkart.
2.9.2012
Cocoafish — Acquired by Appcelerator.
2.9.2012
Energy Points — Received $3M in Series A funding from Plan B Ventures
2.13.2012
StopTheHacker — Received $1.1M in Series A funding from Runa Capital
2.13.2012
Marin Software — Received $30M in Unattributed funding
2.13.2012
FNZ — Received Unattributed funding from General Atlantic
2.13.2012
LipoFIT Analytic — Received $9.5M in Series B funding from KfW Bankengruppe and Bayern Kapital
2.13.2012
Plan B Ventures — Invested in Energy Points.
2.13.2012
Runa Capital — Invested in StopTheHacker.
2.13.2012
General Atlantic — Invested in FNZ.
2.13.2012
Bayern Kapital — Invested in LipoFIT Analytic.
2.13.2012
2.13.2012
Jive Software — Went public with stock symbol NASDAQ:JIVE.
2.3.2012
Energy Points — Company added to CrunchBase
2.13.2012
Aero Financial — Company added to CrunchBase
2.13.2012
StopTheHacker — Company added to CrunchBase
2.13.2012
Rusnano — Company added to CrunchBase
2.13.2012
Durham Graphene Science — Company added to CrunchBase
2.13.2012
Fit Freeway — Product added to CrunchBase
2.12.2012
2.12.2012
Metier HR - Cloud Based HR Process Automation Suite — Product added to CrunchBase
2.12.2012
TweepsMap — Product added to CrunchBase
2.12.2012
Wupbox account — Product added to CrunchBase
2.11.2012
CrunchBase