Silicon Prairie News

Tagged TechCrunch
NEWS

Proxi puts power of proximity-based payment at Dwolla users’ fingertips

2763_9b05944894_small August 24, 2011 by Michael Stacy

Des Moines Dwolla today announced a private beta of a new iOS platform, called Proxi. The new technology from the Des Moines-based startup will allow users to convert their Dwolla-enabled devices (iOS for now, with Android and Windows Phone soon to follow) into movable Spots, seamlessly making and taking payments without additional hardware like NFC or dongles, which are prerequisites of other mobile payment systems. Dwolla's new feature uses GPS technology to give users a real-time … read more

NEWS

Kohort unveils at Disrupt, details emerge about Reiser’s involvement

2308_ee506fa356_small May 26, 2011 by Geoff Wood

New York City One of the 29 startups to launch this week at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York City has a direct tie to the Silicon Prairie: Kohort. Des Moines' Shane Reiser, also the COO of Startup Weekend, has joined the Kohort team at Director of Business Development. Reiser is the only non-New Yorker involved in Kohort. Kohort, which raised a $3 million seed round, had not disclosed anything about its product or business prior to yesterday's launch. From the stage, Kohort's CEO and co-founder, Mark Peter Davis … read more

NEWS

Live-streaming now: Kohort unveiling at Disrupt

2294_4a0a5f9fe2_small May 24, 2011 by Geoff Wood

New York City As mentioned on PrairieCast today, Kohort, a New York City startup with a tie to the Silicon Prairie, is launching as part of TechCrunch Disrupt's "startup battlefield" competition. Des Moines resident, Shane Reiser, also the COO of Startup Weekend, is part of Kohort's team. The company, which has disclosed their investors but not anything related to its actual product … read more

FEATURES

Big Omaha - Sarah Lacy: ‘Every time you think you can’t do this in Omaha, think of these people’

2242_41ae0f3f36_small May 13, 2011 by Willis Jackson

Omaha Sarah Lacy is a senior editor at TechCrunch, the world's largest blog on tech entrepreneurship, and the author of the critically acclaimed "Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good." After more than a decade covering business in Silicon Valley, Lacy decided to follow the flow of capital into the developing world. She bootstrapped a two-year, 40-week journey looking for the best entrepreneurs Silicon Valley had never heard of. The result … read more

FEATURES

Big Omaha: Thursday speakers in the spotlight

2221_da3a91a512_small May 11, 2011 by Michael Stacy

Omaha Haven't had time to do your homework on all of this year's Big Omaha speakers? Not to worry; we can help you cram. We've combed the world wide interwebs to come up with a couple of stories, interviews, videos or otherwise noteworthy nuggets on each of our Big Omaha presenters so that you can brush up before you sit down at Kaneko on Thursday morning. …  read more

FEATURES

Sunday Video: ‘Why tech loves charity: water’

2156_d6b7f78cb7_small April 24, 2011 by Geoff Wood

Friday was Earth Day and the folks at TechCrunch used that as a reason to inteview Scott Harrison, founder of Charity: Water, as part of their TechCrunch TV video series. It's no secret that the Silicon Prairie News team are big supporters of Charity: Water's work and we're not alone in the technology community. It's that relationship that is … read more

FEATURES

Sunday Video: Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures on TechCrunch TV

1276_d5e02e52c8_small September 19, 2010 by Jeff Slobotski

This week's video features Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist and principal of New York-based Union Square Ventures, answering questions during the "Ask a VC" series moderated by Sarah Lacy of TechCrunch. Enjoy this brief clip and be sure to follow Wilson on Twitter, @fredwilson, and his blog, avc.com, for his outstanding take on the venture capital… read more

FEATURES

Sunday Video: Chris Sacca on the new model of building startups

1147_e1dd76a76a_small August 8, 2010 by Jeff Slobotski

Omaha This week's video features legendary Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor Chris Sacca. Sacca, founder of Lowercase Capital, talks in this clip about the disappearance of the barriers to creativity, why he invests in something tangible rather than ideas and his thoughts on why mobile will continue to play such an increasing role. Sacca is an amazingly… read more

FEATURES

PrairieCast: Aayush Phumbhra of textbook rental website Chegg

1107_eecca3f381_small July 22, 2010 by Geoff Wood

Des Moines This week on PrairieCast our guest is Aayush Phumbhra, co-founder and senior vice president of Chegg, a Santa Clara, California-based company often described as the "Netflix of textbook rentals." Aayush earned his MBA at Iowa State University in Ames and joined forces with the founders of Cheggpost.com, a local website focused on saving students money. Several iterations and years later, Chegg now boasts more than 120 employees, a headquarters in Santa Clara and a shipping operation across the street from Zappos in Louisville, Kentucky. According to a TechCrunch post last month, Chegg has raised more than 140 million dollars… read more

NEWS

TechCrunch goes in-depth on Chegg

987_85ff5a0405_small June 18, 2010 by Geoff Wood

Last week TechCrunch published an in-depth review of Chegg as part of their TC Teardown series. This series, which analyzes a company's business model and estimates their revenues, has previously looked at Zynga and Groupon. In this analysis the researcher estimates that Chegg will generate $130 million in revenue this year from their textbook rental service. Chegg, now based in Santa Clara, California… read more