• December 13th, 2011

    (Founder Stories) Turntable.fm’s Top Priority: “Nail Product & Fix Anything That Is Not Working”

    In episode I of Chris Dixon’s Founder Stories interview with Turntable.fm’sBilly Chasen, Chasen said most of his investors backed Turntable’s transition from Stickybits to Turntable, with the exception being an investor who simply wasn’t a fan of the music space.

    In this episode, Dixon says a lack of understanding – or lack of enthusiasm for music startups has been a common theme in the VC community, but thinks the mindset might be changing thanks to companies like Spotify and Pandora. Chasen agrees – and takes a bit of mystery out of how Turntable navigates music rights before fielding questions about Turntable’s plan to monetize. → Read More

    December 11th, 2011

    (Founder Stories) Turntable.fm’s Billy Chasen On Closing Stickybits: “None Of Us Used The App”

    When we first invited Billy Chasen to join us on Founder Stories he was working hard to make his startup, Stickybits a success. Turns out it never took off. But like many founders, Chasen bounced back and found better luck elsewhere. In this case it’s with Turntable.fm – a platform where people play DJ online and share music with others in virtual rooms.

    Having recently raised $7-million from investors that include Union Square Ventures and First Round Capital, we thought it would be interesting to catch-up with Chasen and hear how it all went down. → Read More

    September 7th, 2011

    Turntable.fm Is About To Rock An iPhone App; We Have Screenshots

    photo 3

    For the past few months, few things on the web have been hotter than Turntable.fm. The Stickybits pivot got so hot, so fast, that a “trough of disillusionment” was inevitable — and we’ve probably been seeing that the past couple of weeks. But something is coming very shortly that should supercharge the service once again: an iPhone app.

    Yes, it was both obvious and inevitable that Turntable.fm would go mobile. But we’ve managed to obtain some details — and most importantly, screenshots. → Read More

    July 7th, 2011

    Although Many Investors Are Spinning, Turntable.fm Has Not Yet Picked A DJ

    Sacca DJ

    Although many investors are spinning for the chance to invest in Turntable.fm, the hot music startup has not yet picked a dance partner, despite reports to the contrary. Business Insider claims that Turntable has raised $7.5 million at a $37.5 million valuation and “that term sheets were indeed signed yesterday.” But reached a few hours ago as he was boarding a plane, co-founder and chairman Seth Goldstein told me, “We have not closed any new financing.”

    There is certainly a lot of interest in Turntable from VCs who want to fund its next round. The buzz among venture investors is that there is intense competition for the deal, particularly between Union Square’s Fred Wilson, Accel, and Kleiner Perkins. Wilson is the clear favorite (Turntable is based in New York City), but he is being outbid by Accel and Kleiner. → Read More

    December 18th, 2010

    Startup Sherpa: Serving Two Masters And Changing Consumer Behavior (Part II)

    Dixon Sherpa

    Yesterday, we debuted Part I of Startup Sherpa, a new show with angel investor (Founder Collective) and Hunch founder Chris Dixon talking to Stickybits CEO Billy Chasen about when is the right time for a startup to pivot.

    Today, in Part II above, Dixon and Chasen discuss how startups can serve two different masters (in Stickybits’ case, consumers and advertisers). With consumer mobile apps there is always a tension between pleasing advertisers and driving away users. It is a delicate balance. → Read More

    December 17th, 2010

    Startup Sherpa: Chris Dixon And Stickybits CEO Billy Chasen Talk About Pivoting (Part I)

    Dixon Sherpa

    Welcome to Startup Sherpa, a new show we are piloting on TechCrunch TV. Rather than have one of us at TechCrunch interview subjects, we thought we’d try something different. Startup Sherpa is more a conversation between founders that we get to listen in on. Super angel investor (Founder Collective) and Hunch founder Chris Dixon is our host, and in each episode he will be talking to other founders and investors about the challenges of building a startup.

    Today, his guest is Billy Chasen, the CEO of Stickybits and the creator of chartbeat. Stickybits is an iPhone app which encourages you to check into products by scanning their barcodes. Originally, the idea behind Stickybits was broader and encouraged consumers to attach their own barcodes to objects and places, and use the app to upload photos, videos and messages which others can unlock by scanning the code. The app still does that, but the company recently pivoted to focus more on existing product barcodes and get brands to drive adoption through incentives and rewards. → Read More

    November 15th, 2010

    Stickybits Turns Product Barcode Scans Into Rewards

    Foursquare and Facebook Places are popularizing the location check-in. Instagram and PicPlz are perfecting the photo check-in. Is the product check-in next? Billy Chasen, the founder of barcode-scanning app Stickybits, thinks so. He’s spent the past few months pivoting his startup to focus more on brands and turn product check-ins into rewards. A major update of Stickybits is in the App Store (iTunes link), and an Android update will be ready before the end of the year. Its website also has a new design.

    When Stickybits first launched at South-by-Southwest last March, people weren’t quite sure what they were supposed to do. The new app gives them a reason to scan objects because now they might unlock a reward. The first promotion will be with Ben & Jerry’s. The first 500 people to scan two pints of its Fair Trade ice cream will get a free Ben & Jerry’s T-shirt. Other product-scan promotions are in the works from Don Q Rum, Elmer’s Glue, Fiji Water, Harper Collins, Pepsi, Universal Music, Weiden & Kennedy, the Washington Capitals, and Wonderful Pistachios. → Read More

    September 20th, 2010

    Stickybits Is Honing Its Object Check-Ins To Be More Brand-Friendly

    When stickybits launched at the SXSW conference last March, it was conceptually intriguing but a bit too vague in its open-endedness. With the stickybits iPhone app, you can append a message, photo, or video to any barcode. The next time somebody scans that barcode, your message will appear. The problem is that nobody scans barcodes without a reason.

    The next version of stickybits, which is coming out in October, aims to give people more reasons to scan and share their scanned objects by honing the product and making it into more of a platform for unlocking rewards and coupons. Stickybits wants to reposition itself as an app for object check-ins.

    The new app, V2, will offer brands and businesses four ways to create object check-ins: coupons, group deals, location, and product combo rewards. → Read More

    August 6th, 2010

    A GearBox That Moves The Ball With Your Phone

    Atoms and bits are coming together in interesting ways. A slew of geo apps like Foursquare, Gowalla, and Loopt let you leave digital markings in the real world whenever you check into a location. Stickybits lets you put barcodes on physical objects which invokes a message, photo, or video which can be passed around with the object. And now we are beginning to see startups figuring out ways to control real-world objects with people’s phones and computers.

    Of course there is AnyBot, the $15,000 remote-controlled robot. But even that is too complicated and expensive for the masses. Yesterday, one of the 11 TechStars companies that launched called GearBox showed an early version of an iPhone app that can control a robotic ball (see video below). GearBox wants to wants to help developers build games which involve players controlling a real robotic ball with their phones. → Read More

    June 7th, 2010

    Stickybits Rolls Out "Official" Branded Bits, Signs Up Pepsi As First Advertiser

    Seth Goldstein, the chairman and co-founder of Stickybits, described the progression of media on the Internet this morning at the Conversational Marketing Summit in New York City. In 1996, Webpages became media. In 2001, search became media. In 2005, people became media. In 2007, status updates became media. Last year, places became media. And in 2010, he predicts, objects will become media.

    Well, he hopes they will. Stickybits turns barcodes into threaded conversations around objects. You scan a barcode with the Stickbits app on your iPhone using the camera as a barcode scanner, then add a comment, photo, or video. The next person to scan that barcode sees your message and can leave their own. So objects with no IP addresses, like a case of cheese at a farmer’s market in Boulder, Colorado or a Twix bar in Kenya can unlock their own stories. It’s a cool, Sci-fi idea, but how will Stickybits make money? Goldstein announced today on stage that the next upgrade to Stickybits will include “official bits” and that Pepsi is signed up as the first sponsor. → Read More

    March 8th, 2010

    The Secret Lives Of Objects: StickyBits Turn Barcodes Into Personal Message Boards

    Every place and object in the world has a secret past: who lived there, who passed by, who touched it. The secret lives of objects are filled with such details. If only you could make them talk. But what if you could give any physical object a story simply by sticking a barcode on it and appending a message to that barcode? The message could be a photo, a text message, a video, or a voice note. All anyone would need to unlock the message is a phone with a special barcode scanning app. Stickybits is that app. → Read More

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