The US Embassy is warning of a possible terrorist attack on Bali on New Year's Eve.

TechStars is an early stage venture fund based in Boulder, Colorado. ReadWriteWeb was given an early peek at historical results data on TechStars companies, which the organization is about to release. The data shows acquisition and failure rates, as well as how many of the TechStar companies have gone on to receive angel or venture funding.

TechStars reports that nearly 6 of 10 of their companies have historically gone on to receive outside angel or venture funding (not including friends or family). Five other companies reported that they are now profitable without outside funding, so overall 27 of 39 (69.23%) TechStars companies have either raised outside funding after the program or bootstrapped to profitability.

Sponsor

Of the 39 TechStars companies analyzed, 29 are still active (74.36%), 4 were acquired for > $2M (10.26%), 1 was acquired for < $2M (2.56%), and 4 failed (10.26%). One of the companies is listed as "other" (2.56%), but there is no explanation of what that means.

The data that TechStars reports is similar to a recent study by the blog Awesome Zombie, which did an analysis in December of similar early stage venture fund Y-Combinator. Awesome Zombie found data on 145 Y-Combinator companies from a variety of non-official sources, such as CrunchBase, news articles and discussions on Hacker News. It found that 82 Y-Combinator companies are active (24 having received further public investment rounds), 33 failed, 14 were acquired. The rest were stealth, unknown or "other" (e.g. merger or private investment).

The TechStars numbers are very encouraging for early stage companies. Nearly 70% of TechStars companies have raised outside funding or have become profitable on their own, which is comparatively better than the more high-profile Y-Combinator (with the proviso that the Y-Combinator data was unofficial and gathered by a third party).

TechStars attributes this success rate to its "mentorship driven approach." The program also only funds 10 companies per batch, which TechStars says is due to its focus on quality over quantity.

TechStars CEO David Cohen told ReadWriteWeb, "I think that the programs that will ultimately prove to be most powerful for their local entrepreneurial communities are those which follow the mentorship+community formula that we pioneered. It's powerful in so many ways when you get dozens of mentors involved in very hands on, meaningful ways with each company from day one of the program."

A couple of the ReadWriteWeb crew happened to be in Boulder on Wednesday, where Elyssa Pallai and I met with a group of TechStars companies for lunch. The knowledge and passion for web technology exhibited by each person at the lunch impressed me a lot. If this group of young entrepreneurs was an example of the Boulder startup scene, then it's a city with plenty of vitality and smarts.

If you're a U.S. company interested in applying to TechStars, applications for their Boulder program are open for a few more weeks. TechStars also has a new Seattle program starting soon.

Discuss

MakeTechEasier: "Creating a cool space scene can be done in a few minutes once you’ve got the basic method down, and Gimp provides several ways to go about adding random elements to keep things interesting."

This week geo-crazy mavens were pleased to hear of location-based updates to Facebook, the launch of Foursquare analytics and of course yesterday's news of Gowalla's comment and picture functionality.

So far the most common way to monetize these types of services is through sponsored leader boards and tips on nearby promotions. But the question remains, can local ads really sustain the entire location-based ecosystem?

Sponsor

Geo-locational services are only now finding a business model and for the first time service providers are forced to think about maintaining the balance between user trust and revenue generation. After all, if there's anything Yelp's class action extortion lawsuit has taught us, it's that communities lose credibility when a thirst for ad revenue sets the tone. Short of selling user data to marketers, below are a few ways companies can monetize while still offering value.

Charging Rent: Location-based service MyTown allows users to buy and own their favorite locations and charge virtual rent when others check-in. If MyTown-style services introduced currency exchange like SecondLife's Linden dollar, users would be incentivized through revenue share and app developers could collect a percentage on micro-transactions.

Tuángòu: Scoop St. founder Justin Tsang admits that his group buying company is inspired by the Chinese practice of tuángòu or flash mob-style shopping. As a teen, Tsang would organize a group online in order to arrive at a store and barter for a group purchasing discount. The same concept can be monetized in niche shopping sites as users could organize large discount purchases via location-based app. Developers could either charge for the app as a subscription-based directory or charge the store owner for directory listings and referrals.

Gifting: Rather than earning badges, Gowalla users pick up and receive virtual items. If startups charged for virtual gifts, users could geocache items for their friends to be unlocked on-site. Better yet, imagine arriving to work on your birthday and finding a friend has geo-cached an album download or video file. Pending approval and check-in by the recipient, these services could form the basis of a lucrative treasure hunt / gifting business.

We know we're just skimming the surface here. If you've got more ideas on how startups can monetize location-based services, let us know in the comments below.

Discuss

Plancast, the plan-sharing startup with big-name angel investors and "future as platform" aspirations, has just had its iPhone app accepted into the iTunes store. The app was built by contracted star developer Leah Culver. It's simple, functional, attractive and useful. It's going to be very good for SXSW and probably beyond, if the service continues to stick with users as it has so far.

Here's the iTunes link and below you can see some screenshots.

Sponsor

I'm posting my plans at Plancast.com/marshallk. You can see who's coming to our SXSW party Sunday night with NPR, PBS and more here on Plancast.

Discuss

nut writes "Everybody's favourite actor, author and starship captain is bringing some new ideas to the world of social networking. Myouterspace.com is, in the captain's own words, '... a Sci Fi Social Network for those with a passion for the arts.' Facebook and Myspace should be worried. Sign up now. Go on, you know you want to."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

BBC lists the top 26 richest internet entrepreneurs according to the latest Forbes ranking, released this week.

You don't got what it take.

Courtesy of Hubble’s cameras – capable of rendering stars emitting light of various wavelengths that reflects their life-stages — we are presented with a far-reaching mosaic of the cosmos, an image threatening in its beauty to Van Gogh. - Hubble 3-D is a must see.

Palm just showed us the Unreal Engine 3 running on webOS, which apparently took a couple weeks to port over to the platform using that fancy new PDK. It runs at a pretty smooth clip, with just a tiny bit of artifacting in our enemy's death animation. As an added bit of wow factor, Palm has it currently setup to demonstrate the game at 1 fps when in card view. Like most touchscreen shooters, this doesn't really solve the problem of simulating dual analog sticks, but it's still a fun and good looking engine for a mobile device. We're still unaware of any games that have been built for the mobile engine, which has now been shown for iPhone, Tegra 2, and will be headed to the iPad as well, but we have to assume we'll be seeing some before too long. Check out the webOS video after the break.

Continue reading Unreal Engine 3 up and running on webOS, and we've got video!

Unreal Engine 3 up and running on webOS, and we've got video! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Palm  | Email this | Comments

THINGS go from bad to worse for Lara Bingle as footy legend spills the beans on her infamous affair.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s wife and daughter were being treated from serious injuries they sustained when their vehicle was rear-ended, a spokesman said.

Over three years after the death of Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams, Willie Clark was found guilty of murder Thursday. Clark, 26, was facing 21 charges, including two counts of first-degree murder.

Could the familiar blue U.S. mailboxes soon go the way of pay phones?

Partially blind: Nancy Underwood lives in a Dorset village with no pedestrian crossing and has to take a 14-mile bus journey just to cross the road.

Cant start your day without a cup of coffee? Told it would stunt your growth? Now it seems that drinking coffee has a number of surprising health benefits.

Database Journal: "MySQL has an interesting architecture that sets it apart from some other enterprise database systems. It allows you to plug in different modules to handle storage. What that means to end users is that it is quite flexible, offering an interesting array of different storage engines with different features, strengths, and tradeoffs."

Naturally, we need to first disclaim this noise by saying that rumors of third-party multitasking capability in the iPhone are as old as the iPhone SDK itself. That said, it's hard to ignore a new reference to a "multitasking dialog box" buried deep within the iPhone SDK 3.2 beta that -- while not new to beta 4 specifically -- we're told didn't exist in 3.1.3. Now, the wildest possible speculation would have us believing that this is the very first by-product of a new multitasking system for developers that's being developed for the platform, presumably destined for an appearance in OS 4.0 when it's introduced along with new hardware this summer -- but it's just as likely that Apple will continue to keep the iPhone's multitasking capability to itself, a function it uses liberally among the phone and music apps, just to name a couple. For what it's worth, AppleInsider is citing a tipster claiming that Apple's got a "full-on solution" to multitasking that would properly address its main concern -- battery life issues -- for release this year, so maybe we'll be able to chuck those awful push notifications before we know it. Now if you'll excuse us, we'll be over here in the corner running a few dozen apps on our Pre Plus.

iPhone SDK 3.2 showing first hints of multitasking for third-party apps? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TUAW  |  9 to 5 Mac  | Email this | Comments

Two glowing brides in white gowns made history today as they wed under Latin America's first law that explicitly approves gay marriage.

A ReadWriteWeb Guide

Ever since its inception, the Internet has blurred the boundaries between author and audience. Whether you're a blogger, a pillar of the printed word, a podcast coinnaseur or a developer dealing with the latest CMS, navigating the next step in Internet publishing can be a feat.

So, hit up these 10 events at SXSW Interactive 2010 to say goodbye to Gutenberg and hello to the interactive, multimedia, real-time, crowdsourced and community-funded future of online publishing.

Sponsor

This is part of a series of ReadWriteWeb guides to SXSW Interactive 2010. If this guide isn't your cup of tea, be sure to check back for more information soon!

<?php include('../includes/sxsw2010.php'); ?>

ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income

Wanna ditch that desk job for the cubicle-less life of a professional blogger? What better way to kick off your SXSW Interactive 2010 than with a book reading from the editor and founder behind ProBlogger, Digital-Photography-School.com, and Twitip, three blogs that collectively reach over 3 million unique readers a month. Before you get into any panels predicting the death of this or that, let's start off with how you're going to start a blog and become rich, wealthy and wise.

The Revenge Of Editorials

If book readings aren't your bag, then how about a workshop on how to get to the bottom of all this content we create by the second?

"As the Internet has accelerated the creation of all types of content, it's become more and more difficult to sift through that content and find something of quality. We've tried it with machines and even mass consensus but the results are either wrong or lowest common denominator. The irony in all this is that we really need other humans to help us. The vast breadth of content on the Web only highlights what we've always relied upon: the valued opinion of others."

Critical Tits: Rights, Cameras and the Immediacy Age

What happens when every member of an audience suddenly becomes an author? Eyes from every angle and a battle over the right to create versus the right to privacy. Come watch as CNET News' Daniel Terdiman and Burning Man's Andie Grace surely take two separate sides on this issue.

"The EFF recently argued that Burning Man's not as open or nurturing as people think, and uses the DMCA to control photographers' rights. This caused a firestorm of controversy, forcing Burning Man to say its interests are protecting its trademark and attendees from being exploited by unscrupulous photographers. This panel will explore the tensions and the legal/community issues this controversy raised."

Funding Your Projects from the Crowd

"Crowdfunding inverts much that is wrong with traditional funding by breaking down the barrier between creators and audiences, and turning fundraising into a interactive experience. This panel brings together several perspectives from the world of crowdfunding to explain different approaches to raising money from the audience for bloggers, artists, podcasters, developers, filmmakers, musicians, and more."

Wikipedia Gets an Upgrade: Collaborative Video

We can't really get away with talking about the wild world of online publishing without mentioning one of the founding fathers of all that is interactive and communal - Wikipedia. But can Wikipedia really take the next step and go to video?

"Wikipedia is the most successful collaborative experiment in human history. Now it's getting a big upgrade: video. OGG Theora video paired with open source tech by Kaltura is evolving the wiki and prompting some big questions. Can wiki video work as well as wiki text? What does video mean to the Wikipedia community? How long until Grandma can hop in and improve the video entry on her favorite old crooner?"

Transmedia 2010: Are We There Yet?

While we're at it, not only have we left the printing press in the dust, but our standard categorization and assembly of media may be on the way out too. So, let's throw the baby out with the bathwater and get to talking transmedia. And you thought Wikipedia might be complicated.

"The promise and possibilities of transmedia storytelling have been on the horizon for several years. The concept involves immersive storytelling that utilizes multiple media outlets concurrently to enhance and advance the narrative. Some see this as a better way of totally involving an ever more fragmented and distracted audience. So join us for a "late breaking" assessment of the state of the movement. Has transmedia finally arrived?"

ReadWriteWeb's Party

Continuing along with the idea of traditional and less-traditional media, we'd love it if you stopped by our party on Sunday night! We're cohosting with NPR, PBS and a few others at KLRU's Legendary Austin City Limits Studio. We'll have live bands, Tex-Mex nosh, margaritas - the quintessential Austin experience. Free shuttles will be available at the Hilton.

How To Save Journalism

With Drew Curtis of Fark, Jeff Webber of USAToday, Kelly McBride of The Poynter Institute and Matthew Palevsky of The Huffington Post, find out how the Internet is going to save, not kill, jouarnalism.

"Much has been said about the death of journalism, but little has been offered in way of solutions. This panel will focus on solutions instead of problems, consensus viewpoints from both old and new media, and offer new insights into the operational structure of journalism and media for the 21st century."

A Brave New Future for Book Publishing

Bringing it back down to a realm we've almost forgotten, what about the life of the good old book? What's coming next? Will we break out of the binding?

"Call SXSW 2009's infamous ''New Think for Old Publishers'' (aka ''Geeks School New York'') a missed opportunity. How did book publishing become the last media industry to embrace digital and how will this change? New publishing models, strategy and a brave future for books and we who love them."

R.I.P. Content Management System

What better way to end your SXSW 2010 with a timely prediction of the death of CMS as we know it?

"The medium is the message. On the web, the medium is community. This shift has made legacy CMS products as outdated as scribes and printing presses. Open source technologies are disrupting this market and moving into mainstream enterprises. Join Drupal founder Dries Buytaert as he discusses how social publishing will bring content and community together."

Those are our SXSW Interaction recommendations for publishers of all stripes. If you've got suggestions or feedback, let us know in the comments! See you in Austin, folks!

Discuss