Tom Stein
It was another monster year for the Internet, thanks in large measure to the growth of Groupon and other social shopping sites
Only about 5% of the African population is connected to the Internet, but the numbers are growing as a new wave of Internet services and applications are created specifically for the African market
When Todd Rideman first heard about Groupon, he figured he could do it, too. After all, what's so hard about putting up a Website, offering a few deals each day from local merchants -- like $20 worth of cupcakes for $10 -- and then watching the cash roll in?
So Rideman poured $100,000 of his hard-earned money into his own daily deal site and, at the beginning of the year, launched WowWhatSavings, targeting the Boston area. He quickly learned, however, that building a profitable Groupon clone isn't as easy it looks.
"I was able to get the local merchants, but getting people to come to the site was costing a fortune," said Rideman. After six months, he had just a few thousand people on his distribution list. He has since morphed his business into a deal site for restaurants only, and has seen sales perk up.
WowWhatSavings, based in Waltham, Mass., is one of more than 130 Websites that offer daily deals like Groupon, according to Yipit, which aggregates the deals. Now, with the New York Times reporting that Google is negotiating to buy Groupon for up to $6 billion, the space is likely to grow even more crowded.
Despite Groupon’s dominant market share and continued growth, clones of the group buying site continue to spring up and attract venture capital
As he celebrates his first anniversary as a venture capitalist, Reid Hoffman opens up about why he gave up angel investing, the first question he asks of every entrepreneur and why he does business meetings on Sundays
Late stage returns have outpaced early stage returns by close to 4x in the past five years. No wonder so many VCs are getting into the growth game.
Many VCs remain wary of bionics, but others believe they can’t go wrong betting on technologies already been proven to restore vision, hearing and the ability to walk.
The booming Canadian economy hasn’t brought any relief to the struggling Canadian venture system. Now is a great opportunity for U.S. VCs looking for deals up north.
Facebook’s insensitive treatment of users’ data has made privacy a growing concern. VCs need to get serious about the issue quickly—before regulators or legislators take action.
Think your venture job is tough? Try being a VC and a woman.