支付服务Stripe与会计税务服务Intuit联手，为小型企业和劳动者更好地追踪自己的财务
创业公司 Stripe 致力于为随“按需经济”兴起的一大批新型服务增强支付功能，这些服务为劳动者提供了各种按需赚钱手段。与此同时，为小型企业和个体经营者开发会计及税务软件的 Intuit 致力于帮助那些劳动者更好地追踪自己的财务状况。
因此，Stripe 和 Intuit 联手开发一款“在按需劳动者收到付款时立刻识别为收入，并帮助他们冲销工作相关费用从而优化税金”的产品也就合情合理了。
通过这一合作产品，在使用 Stripe 支付的按需平台上工作的劳动者将能够方便地连接 Intuit 最新的个体经营者版 QuickBooks 在线软件 。连接完成后，QuickBooks 产品就能立刻将支付款项识别为收入，并由此帮助劳动者追踪自己的财务状况——尤其是在义务纳税方面。
据 Intuit 个体经营者解决方案的副总裁、总经理亚历克斯·克里斯（Alex Chriss）称，大部分 1099 劳动者（译注：即收入为税前收入、年底报税的个体经营者）通常都不知道自己每月、每季或者每年的收入。部分原因在于，与拿工资的员工不同，他们不会收到定期的工资清单——相反地，他们是从所工作的按需平台上收到不定期的支付款项。
另外，他们不善于记录可以用来冲销税额的开支，不过这又是另一个话题了。
为了吸引不断增长的按需劳动者或者 1099 劳动者，Intuit 将个体经营者版 QuickBooks 免费开放。每月 7.99 美元则会获得一些付费功能，比如允许用户在软件中连接银行账户和信用卡，从而追踪收入和支出并予以分类。
Intuit 希望以免费试用的方式，通过 QuickBooks 让劳动者对自己的财务状况有更多的了解。比如说，能够估算出需要缴纳多少的每季税金和年终税金。这就避免了收到巨额税单或者因每季纳税不足而被处罚的可能性。
为了简化收入追踪流程，QuickBooks 中集成 Stripe 的功能将会向从使用 Stripe 作为支付手段的公司获取收入的劳动者免费开放。据 Stripe 战略合作关系主管克里斯蒂娜·科尔多瓦（Cristina Cordova）称，其中包括了 Lyft，Sidecar，Summon，Flywheel，Handy，Homejoy 以及 Washio 这样的公司。
由于这些公司以承包商的形式雇佣劳动者，他们无法提供税务方面的建议或福利。然而通过直接在 QuickBook 这样的产品中追踪收入，那些个体经营劳动者就能够更好地管理自己的财务。
另外值得注意的是，双方的合作只是帮助到了一部分按需劳动者，并不是所有的。比如说 Uber 司机就无法享受这一福利，因为 Uber 并不使用 Stripe。不过这些劳动者仍然可以使用付费版 QuickBooks 连接自己的银行账户。
无论如何，这不正是免费增值商业模式的美妙之处么？
Stripe Partners With Intuit To Help On-Demand Workers Keep Track Of Their Finances
Startup Stripe helps to power payments for a large number of new services offering up ways to make cash as part of the growing “on-demand economy.” Meanwhile Intuit, which makes accounting and tax software for small businesses and the self-employed, wants to help those workers keep better track of their finances.
So it makes sense for Stripe and Intuit to work together on a product that will instantly recognize earnings that on-demand workers receive and help them optimize their taxes with write-offs for work-related expenses.
Through the partnership, people who work for on-demand platforms that make their payments through Stripe will be able to easily connect with Intuit’s new QuickBooks Online Self-Employed software. Once that’s done, the QuickBooks product will be able to immediately recognize payments as income, and as a result will be able to help workers track their finances, and especially their tax obligations.
According to Alex Chriss, who is VP and GM of Intuit’s Self-Employed Solutions, most 1099 workers generally aren’t aware of their monthly, quarterly, or annual income. That’s in part because they don’t get the same income statements as salaried employees — instead they receive irregular payments from the on-demand platforms they work for.
They also aren’t doing a good job of tracking expenses they could deduct from their taxes, but that’s another issue.
To court the growing base of on-demand or 1099 workers, Intuit makes its self-employed QuickBooks software available to use for free. For $7.99 a month it also offers some paid features, like enabling users to connect their bank accounts and credit cards to the software in order to track and categorize income and expenses.
The hope is that by doing so, QuickBooks can provide more visibility into their worker finances. For instance, being able to estimate how much they would need to pay in quarterly and year-end taxes. That can eliminate the possibility of receiving a big surprise tax bill or being hit with fines for not contributing enough in quarterly taxes.
To simplify the process of tracking income, the Stripe integration is being offered for free to workers who receive income from companies that use it for payments. That includes companies like Lyft, Sidecar, Summon, Flywheel, Handy, Homejoy, and Washio, according to Cristina Cordova, who is the head of strategic partnerships at Stripe.
Because those companies hire workers as contractors, they can’t offer tax advice or benefits. But by tracking income directly in a product like QuickBooks, those workers can generally do a better job of managing their finances.
Anyway, it’s worth noting that the Stripe partnership will help some on-demand workers, but not others. Uber drivers, for instance, won’t benefit because Uber doesn’t use Stripe. But those workers will still be able to pay QuickBooks to connect their bank accounts.
Anyway, isn’t that the beauty of the freemium business model?
来源：techcrunch
TechCrunch
2015年01月30日
TechCrunch
Dropbox收购设计师协作工具开发商Pixelapse
由 YCombinator 和 StartX 孵化的创业公司 Pixelapse 已经被云存储服务提供商 Dropbox 收购。Pixelapse 已 在博客中宣布了这一消息 ，而 Dropbox 做出了确认。
Pixelapse 提供面向设计师的版本控制和其他协作服务。2013 年，我们 曾将 Pixelapse 比作 GitHub 和 Dropbox 的结合 。（该服务也已 整合了 Dropbox 的功能 。）
该公司表示，“未来一年”，Pixelapse 将继续作为一款独立产品来运营。不过目前看来，最终该服务的用户将逐渐被转移至 Dropbox。
Pixelapse 的创始人这样表示：
我们建立 Pixelapse 的使命在于，为创新人士提供一款版本控制和协作平台。自那时以来，我们很幸运地成为了数十万自由设计师和创新团队日常工作流的一部分。在 Dropbox，开发产品，将这一目标拓展至数百万用户的前景令人非常兴奋。
我们新的开发工作将专注于，当你在 Dropbox 的核心产品之上使用 Pixelapse 时，带来同样的协作和工作流体验。
这笔收购的财务条款并未公布。
Dropbox Acquires Pixelapse, A Startup Building Collaboration Tools For Designers
Pixelapse, a startup incubated by Y Combinator and StartX, has been acquired by cloud storage company Dropbox. The news was announced on the Pixelapse blog, and Dropbox has confirmed it.
Pixelapse offers version control and other collaboration tools for designers. Back in 2013, we compared it to both GitHub and, yep, Dropbox. (It’s also been adding integrations with Dropbox.)
The company says that Pixelapse will continue to operate as a standalone product “for the next year,” but it sounds like the eventual goal is to migrate customers over to Dropbox.
The founders write:
We started Pixelapse with the mission of building the definitive version control and collaboration platform for creatives. Since then, we’ve been fortunate to become a part of the daily workflow of tens of thousands of freelance designers and creative teams. The prospect of developing products at Dropbox that expand this vision to millions of users is tremendously exciting.
Our new development efforts will be focused on bringing the same kinds of collaboration and workflow experiences that you’re used to in Pixelapse over to the core Dropbox product.
The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
来源：techcrunch
TechCrunch
2015年01月27日
TechCrunch
社交客户服务公司Sparkcentral完成1200万美元B轮融资
社交客户服务公司 Sparkcentral 已完成 B 轮融资，募集资金 1200 万美元，此轮融资由 Split RockPartners 领投。Sparkcentral 向企业提供一系列工具，帮助他们经由社交渠道对客户提供支持。
在此之前，Sparkcentral 已经募集资金 560 万美元 ，其中包括在 2013 年 10 月份完成的 450 万美元 A 轮融资。鉴于上一轮融资是在 15 个月前完成的，Sparkcentral 的 B 轮融资也处于正常的融资周期内。
我向 Sparkcentral 提了一个问题，即为何决定在 B 轮融资中募集资金 1200 万美元，因为在当前资本环境下，这一融资额只能算适中，即便参照以往的标准衡量。Sparkcentral 首席执行官达维·克斯滕斯（Davy Kestens）对此表示，1200 万美元融资额“符合公司增长曲线，”也是基于 Sparkcentral 在扩充团队规模和功能集时所需要的资金做出的一个决定。
同科技行业其他没有进入“死亡漩涡”（death spiral）的公司一样，Sparkcentral 也正在招募人才。该公司预计 2015 年员工数量将从现在的 30 人增至 60 人。Sparkcentral 的业务目前在美国和比利时两地同时展开。
Sparkcentral 究竟是做什么业务的？为此，我采访了 Sparkcentral 联合创始人马特·芬尼兰（Matt Finneran），他表示 Sparkcentral 曾经是一家专注于客户服务的社交媒体公司，现在则将自己定位于一家专注社交媒体的客户服务公司。在芬尼兰看来，Sparkcentral 不同于社交媒体管理领域的其他公司，比如总部设在芝加哥的 SproutSocial，因为它的业务重点并不在市场营销方面。
我本希望 Sparkcentral 能提供一下详细的最新财务数据，但该公司只是给出了比较数据，而非绝对数据。这样一来，我们只能对 Sparkcentral 最近的财务状况有个大概的了解。据 Sparkcentral 介绍，该公司 2014 年营收比 2013 年增长 320%。同期，Sparkcentral 客户数量增长了 100%。这两项数据表明，Sparkcentral 的客户数量日渐增多，而当前客户的合同价值也不断增长。
我又提到了有关财务的话题，让 Sparkcentral 谈一谈它如何实现增长和开支的平衡—— Box 对未来的收入增长进行了大规模投资 ，而不是将如何扭转短期亏损放在第一位，这种策略曾在 公开市场引发疑虑 。克斯滕斯表示，重要的是拥有“增长路线图”，但不从“悬崖上猛地掉下来”同样关键。
Sparkcentral 之所以不同于其他软件即服务（SaaS）公司，原因是由于有些客户属于 Delta 这样的大公司，月度经常性收入（MRR）与年度经常性收入（ARR）之比可能超出了正常标准范围——换句话说，我估计 Delta 不是按月向 Sparkcentral 支付购买软件的费用。克斯滕斯表示，鉴于此，该公司在追踪自家财务表现时更注重季度数据，也就不足为奇了。
在一个拥挤但增长迅速的科技细分市场，Sparkcentral 取得了飞速发展。该公司拥有实现发展计划所需要的资金，现在的问题是这些计划能否得到执行。我会在未来几个季度继续关注这家公司，看一看能否弄到最新的营收数据。
Social Customer Service Firm Sparkcentral Locks Up A $12M Series B
Sparkcentral, a company that provides tools to help businesses conduct customer support over social channels, has raised a $12 million Series B round of funding, led by Split Rock Partners.
The company previously raised a total of $5.6 million, including a $4.5 million Series A round of capital in October of 2013, or around 15 months ago. That places the company’s Series B round inside of a normal raising schedule.
I asked Sparkcentral why it decided to raise $12 million for its Series B — in the current capital climate, the sum is slightly modest, even if standard by historical norms. The company’s CEO Davy Kestens indicated that the sum “fit [the company’s] growth curve,” and was predicated on how much money Sparkcentral would need to expand both its staff, and feature set.
Like quite literally every company in technology that isn’t entering some sort of deathspiral, Sparkcentral is hiring. The firm, which splits its operation between the United States and Belgium, expects to double its current 30 person employee base in 2015.
So, what is Sparkcentral? I spoke to its co-founder Matt Finneran, who indicated that the company was once a social media company focusing on customer service, but now thinks of itself as a customer service firm that focuses on social media. In the view of Finneran, Sparkcentral is different from other players in the social media management space because it does not have a marketing focus, like the Chicago-based Sprout Social.
I asked the company to detail is recent financial performance, and it responded with comparative, and not absolute data. That weakens the dataset. Still, according to Sparkcentral, its revenue grew 320 percent in 2014, when compared to the year prior. During that same period, its customer based expanded 100 percent. Those two figures imply that the company is landing increasingly large clients, that it is seeing increasing contract value among current customers, or some combination of the two.
Continuing the financial theme, I asked the company how it weighed a balance between growth, and spend — Box famously invested heavily in future revenues, only to see its short-term losses spook the public markets. Kestens indicated that it is important to have a “roadmap for growth,” but that it is also critical to not “drive off a cliff” at full clip.
Sparkcentral is different from other SaaS companies in that, given that some of its clients are large firms like Delta, its ratio of monthly recurring revenue to annual recurring revenue (MRR v. ARR) is likely outside of the norms — I presume that Delta isn’t paying for much software on a monthly basis, in other words. Kestens said that his firm is, given that, unsurprisingly more focused on quarterly data when it comes to tracking its own performance.
SparkCentral has grown quickly inside of an expanding, if crowded technology market category. It has the capital to pull off its plans, so now the question is execution. I’ll check in with the firm in a few quarters, and see if I can scare up some new revenue numbers.
IMAGE BY FLICKR USER DANIEL DIONNE. UNDER CC BY 2.0 LICENSE (IMAGE HAS BEEN CROPPED)
来源：techcrunch
TechCrunch
2015年01月26日
TechCrunch
企业级匿名分享应用 Memo：为员工之间坦诚交流架起桥梁
在过去的一年，我们看到大量匿名应用在手机上纷纷出现，允许用户与附近的人或是社交圈子里的人分享信息。但到目前为止，其中大多数匿名应用都专注于消费者市场。
一款名为 Memo 的新应用希望可以从企业级市场分得一杯羹，让公司员工可以与同事匿名、私下分享信息。
Memo 由纽约市一家名为 Collectively 的公司开发，该公司寻求以全新的方式“让工作变得更具人性化”。Memo 背后的创意与其他众多匿名分享应用的创意一样，即只要不让用户在帖子中暴露自己的身份，他们会更为坦诚地分享在实名状况下不敢公开的事情。
为了保证用户确实在某家公司工作，Memo 要求他们在注册时必须提供公司的电子邮箱地址，或是通过 LinkedIn 来验证他们的雇员身份。在身份验证步骤完成以后，Memo 会向用户提供唯一识别代码，但除此之外，不会保存其他任何身份信息。
一旦上述步骤全部完成，用户可以在公司内网与其他员工在私下交流。他们也可以与其他用户公开分享信息，但必须由 任职单位“ 验明正身”。
Collectively 首席执行官莱恩·延森（Ryan Janssen）表示，Memo 的目标是让公司的员工之间进行更坦诚的交流。他认为，不少大公司的高管经常不与普通员工接触。
延森在接受我电话采访时说：“一些企业之所以陷入困境，是因为他们不倾听员工的声音。”但他也暗示，员工们也不敢分享他们对发生在公司内一些事情的看法。
延森说：“管理层具有双重角色…一方面，他们被认为应该为公司内的交流提供便利，但另一方面，他们还决定着员工们的命运。这两种角色恰恰存在着矛盾。”
为了测试这种假设，Collectively 去年秋天首先面向惠普、IBM、亚马逊和花旗集团等大公司的员工推出 Memo。该应用被数千名员工下载到手机，当作私密移动留言板在这些公司中使用，如今 Memo 已经完全开放，所有人都能下载。
Memo 没有权限访问在这些私密留言板上进行的任何对话。Collectively 希望采用的商业模式是，推出一系列管理层可以使用的工具，包括分析工具、情绪分析工具，以及能对员工之间分享的消息作出回复的解决方案。
即便如此，有些公司仍然对员工在 Memo 上面匿名分享的事情感到不满。延森说，已有两家员工使用 Memo 的公司向 Collectively 发来“停止通知函”（cease-and-desist order），另外该公司还收到了其他多家企业发来的“措辞强烈”的电子邮件。
此外，延森告诉我，还有三家公司的员工“收到了一份备忘录，警告他们不要使用 Memo，这种做法真是具有讽刺性”。延森表示，他并未看到这些备忘录，只是通过 Memo 的信息反馈栏听说的。
有些公司还试图通过拦截身份验证电子邮件或是发自员工收件箱的邀请函，不让本公司员工使用 Memo。不过，延森认为企业的这种反应其实是件好事。在收到这种电子邮件以后，延森可以与一些公司坐下来谈一谈，找到更好的合作办法，同时研究 Collectively 应该推出哪些工具，帮助这些企业对员工在 Memo 中反映的事情作出回应。
虽然 Memo 迈出了不错的第一步，但很显然，在企业接受了有关员工在公司内部匿名分享信息的创意之前，Memo 还有很长的路要走。
Memo Brings Anonymous Group Sharing To The Enterprise
Over the last year, we’ve seen a bunch of anonymous (or anonymish) apps crop up on mobile phones, allowing users to share messages with people nearby or those in their social circles. To date, though, most of those apps have been focused on the consumer market.
A new app called Memo hopes to capture some of the enterprise market, enabling employees to share anonymously and privately with their coworkers.
Memo was created by a New York-based group called Collectively, which is looking for new ways to “help make work more human.” The theory behind Memo, like that behind many other anonymous sharing apps, is that by removing a user’s identity from a post they would be much more honest with the things they chose to post.
In order to ensure users work at a certain organization, Memo requires them to sign up with a company email address or verify their employment by connecting through LinkedIn. After that verification takes place, Memo provides users with a unique user ID but doesn’t save any other identifiable information.
Once that’s all done, users can share privately with other employees within their company’s network. They can also share publicly to any other users, but they are identified only by the company they work for.
For CEO Ryan Janssen, Memo’s goal is to open up more honest communication within an organization. All too often, he believes, senior management in many big companies is out of touch with the average worker.
“Companies are suffering because they aren’t listening to their employees,” Janssen told me in a phone interview. But he suggests employees are afraid to share what they really think about what’s happening in their organizations.
“Managers have this bifurcated role… On the one hand they are supposed to facilitate communication throughout the company, but they also determine employees’ futures. Those roles are in opposition to each other,” Janssen said.
To test out this hypothesis, the company made Memo available to employees within organizations like HP, IBM, Amazon, and Citigroup last fall. The app was downloaded by thousands of employees and used as a private mobile message board in those companies, and now it’s being opened up so that anyone can download it.
Memo doesn’t have access to any of the conversations that happen within those private boards. The business model it hopes to employ is to roll out tools that management can use that could include analytics tools, sentiment analysis, and ways to respond to messages that employees share.
That said, some companies aren’t happy about the things their employees have been sharing anonymously on Memo. Janssen says he’s received two cease-and-desist orders from companies with employees on Memo and some “strongly worded” emails from a few other organizations.
In addition, he told me employees at three other companies “received a memo not to use Memo, which is a little ironic.” Janssen says he hasn’t actually seen those memos, just heard about them through the app’s feedback form.
While some companies have tried to shut down use of Memo by blocking verification emails or email invites from hitting employee inboxes, Janssen thinks the backlash is actually a good thing. As a result of the emails he’s received, Janssen has been able to set up meetings with a few companies to figure out how he can better work with them and which tools he could implement to help them respond to employee feedback in the app.
It’s a good first step, but there’s obviously a long road ahead before companies get comfortable with the idea of anonymous sharing in the enterprise.
来源:techcrunch
TechCrunch
2015年01月19日
TechCrunch
为小公司而生的律师匹配服务 Lexoo 获 40 万美元融资
在我自己的创业冒险旅程中，我得出了这样一条结论，无论你是成功还是失败，肯定能赚钱的只有两种人，云服务提供商和律师。关于前者，价格和竞争形势都相当的透明。然而律师费就远非如此了。这正是英国创业公司 Lexoo 正在着手解决的问题。
为了帮助实现这一愿景，这家提供了自称为“律师匹配”服务的伦敦公司刚刚完成了 40 万美元的种子轮投资，投资方为 Forward Partners——一家 由尼克·布里斯伯恩（Nic Brisbourne）领导 的风投公司及创业公司“工厂”——以及乔纳森·麦凯（Jonathan McKay，JustGiving 董事长）。
“对于小公司来说，找到一名优秀律师并在此过程中不挨宰是件难事，”Lexoo 联合创始人兼首席执行官丹尼尔·范·宾斯伯根（Daniel van Binsbergen）解释道，此前他曾是一位专注于金融与并购领域的律师。“名牌律师事务所通常都很棒，但管理费用繁杂，因此每小时收费很高。对于小公司而言，很难知道哪一位律师真的能干，是否擅长这一领域。最后，如果你采用一名推荐律师的话，很难判断你给出的价格是否合理。”
为了解决这一难题——可以将此视作网络将市场变得更加高效透明的经典案例——公司可以根据工作类型需求，通过 Lexoo 平台获得一批精选律师队伍的多方报价。在 Lexoo 平台发布工作后，你会从多个胜任该工作的律师收到富有竞争力的报价，通常在 24 小时内。
“我们确保只有真正擅长于特定法律领域的律师才能为某件工作报价，每一位律师加入平台之前，我们都会对他进行面试，”范·宾斯伯根说道，“客户可以将报价和律师履历进行比较，做出更加明智的决定。我们的卖点在于，帮你找到曾在大型律师事务所摸爬滚打的资深律师，只不过他们现在因为生活方式的原因选择在家工作或者在小公司工作。这一点使得他们的常规报价只有之前每小时费用的一半左右。”
为此 Lexoo 不收取客户费用，不过律师需要将任何通过这一平台拿到的工作报酬的 10%作为佣金付给这家创业公司。
Lexoo Scores $400K For Its Lawyer-Matching Service For Small Businesses
During my own startup adventures, I came to the conclusion that, succeed or fail, the only people guaranteed to make money are cloud providers and lawyers. With regards to the former, pricing and competition is fairly transparent. But legal fees, not so much. That’s the problem UK startup Lexoo has set out to solve.
To help with that mission, the London-based company, which offers what it calls a ‘lawyer-matching’ service, has just scored a $400k seed round from Forward Partners — the venture firm and startup ‘foundry’ headed up by Nic Brisbourne — and Jonathan McKay (Chairman of JustGiving).
“It’s difficult for small businesses to find a good lawyer and not get overcharged in the process,” explains Lexoo co-founder and CEO Daniel van Binsbergen, who previously worked as a lawyer focussing on finance and M&A. “Brand name law firms are usually great but have a lot of overheads and therefore high hourly rates. With smaller firms it is hard to know which lawyers are actually good and specialised. Finally, if you go with a recommended lawyer it is hard to judge whether the price you are quoted makes sense or not.”
To tackle this — in what can be considered a classic example of how markets can be made more efficient and transparent by moving them online — Lexoo enables businesses to get multiple quotes from a curated line-up of lawyers, based on the type of work required. After posting a job, you receive multiple and competitive quotes from the qualified lawyers on the platform, usually within 24 hours.
“We make sure that only lawyers who are actually specialised in a certain area of law are invited to quote for a job and we screen and interview every single lawyer before they can join the platform,” says van Binsbergen. “Customers can then compare the quotes and lawyer profiles and make a much more educated decision. Our sweet spot is finding lawyers who trained at the largest firms but for lifestyle reasons are working at home, virtually or in a small office. This enables them to usually charge only 50 per cent of their previous hourly rates.”
To that end, Lexoo is free for clients, but lawyers pay the startup a 10 per cent commission on any work they obtain through the platform.
来源：techcrunch
TechCrunch
2015年01月19日
TechCrunch
关注员工健康是趋势 促进企业员工运动的应用 Yomp 完成种子轮融资
位于伦敦、此前名为 PleaseCycle 的健康创业公司 Yomp 已从 5 名天使投资人处融资 31.5 万美元（20 万英镑）。该公司将利用这笔资金去拓展其健康平台，这一平台帮助企业员工以游戏的方式形成良好的健康习惯。
Yomp 的平台设计能鼓励企业员工参与运动，从而提高效率，降低缺勤率，让你能喜欢你的老板。
Yomp 的移动应用能记录距离，追踪数据，帮助用户组建团队，设置目标，并赢得积分。这就像是健康市场的 AirMiles。这些数据随后可以换取在线折扣券，奖励，或是向慈善组织的捐款。
已签约使用该应用的公司包括电通安吉斯传媒、彭博社和 EDF Energy，前者已经在 9 个国家部署了这款应用。
Yomp 现年 26 岁的创始人及首席执行官莱伊·摩根（Ry Morgan）表示：“我们此前一直小本经营，利润微薄。不过目前，随着资本的注入，我们将推动业务向前发展。”
Yomp 的竞争对手包括 Global Corporate Challenge、Keas（谷歌前高管创立的一家公司，已实现高速增长）、EveryMove、GetHealth、MaxwellHealth，以及 Challenge forChange / Love2Ride。
这些“量化自我”公司也开始探索 B2B 市场，例如 Jawbone 近期推出 了“Up for Groups”。
传统的员工福利及医疗健康提供商也来到了这一市场，不过它们已经落后，例如 PruHealth 的 Vitality。
// // // // // //
Yomp, An App To Get Employees Fit And Healthy, Raises An Angel Round
Londonbased health startup Yomp, formerly known as PleaseCycle, has raised $315,000 (£200,000) from five angel investors, to expand its heath and wellness platform which ‘games’ company employees into healthy habits.
Yomp’s platform is designed to encourage physical activity amongst a company’s employees, helping to increase productivity, reduce absenteeism and make you like your bosses (ok, maybe not that last bit).
A mobile app logs trips, tracks stats, lets you form teams, set goals and earn points – like an AirMiles for being healthy. These are then used to get online discounts, win prizes, or give donations to charity.
Companies signed up to use the app include Dentsu Aegis Media, Bloomberg and EDF Energy, with the former deploying it in nine countries.
Ry Morgan, Yomp’s 26 year-old Founding CEO, says, “We’ve built everything to-date on a shoestring and retained profits, but we’re now at a stage where an influx of capital will help drive the business forward.”
Competitors to Yomp include the incumbent in the space, Global Corporate Challenge, Keas (ex-Google founders with huge growth), EveryMove, GetHealth, Maxwell Health (bigger remit but similar budgets) and Challenge for Change / Love2Ride .
The QS companies are also starting to explore the B2B space, such as Jawbone’s recent launch of “Up for Groups”.
Traditional employeebenefit and healthcare providers are also in this space too, although they’re lagging behind, such as PruHealth’s Vitality.
来源：techcrunch
TechCrunch
2015年01月11日
TechCrunch
印象笔记关闭了中国地区的公开笔记功能
Evernote（在中国的服务名称为 印象笔记）的一位发言人今天向 TechCrunch 证实，印象笔记在中国的服务现已暂时禁用公开笔记功能。目前还不清楚为什么要关闭公开笔记这一功能，也不清楚该功能何时会恢复正常。我们已要求该公司提供更多信息。印象笔记（Evernote 特别针对中国推出的一项 单独服务）用户可以通过工作群聊功能或是电子邮件继续分享和使用协作笔记。
除非印象笔记证实其禁用公开笔记功能是由于收到政府的指令，否则很难确定这是否与中国的审查制度有关，这是因为作为负责互联网监管的国家机构， 中国国家互联网信息办公室 一般不会在它屏蔽一个站点或服务时发出公告。
现在对公开分享笔记功能的禁用显得很意思，然而，因为印象笔记被用于分享有关去年秋天香港支持民主的抗议活动的新闻文章、社会评论等信息，这也让人 猜测此举有可能成为规避审查的一个重要途径 。
此外，虽然中国已经屏蔽 Facebook、Twitter 和 YouTube 多年，但在过去的一年里，中国政府似乎加强了对国外互联网服务的监管。例如，去年六月，在天安门事件 25 周年纪念日前， 谷歌多个服务和应用的访问被切断 。上个月，Gmail 似乎也被中国屏蔽，而在此 之前 Gmail 只能部分进行访问 。Instagram 据说在香港的示威游行之后 也在中国被屏蔽 。
目前中国 国内有 1150 万印象笔记用户 ，这也让中国成为 Evernote 的第二大市场。虽然由于审查制度外国互联网公司要进入中国市场很难，不过因为 Evernote 的服务主要是针对个人的笔记应用，而不是社会化分享，它还是成功地进入了这个市场。但随着受欢迎程度的增加，这一次关闭公开笔记功能的行为表明该公司可能受到更严格的政府法规的管控。
Evernote’s Chinese Service Disables Public Note Feature
Evernote’s Chinese service, Yinxiang Biji, has temporarily disabled its public note feature, a spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch today. It’s unclear why public notes was taken down or when it will be restored. We’ve asked the company for more information. Yinxiang Biji (a separate service launched by Evernote especially for China) users can continue sharing and collaborating notes using its Work Chat feature or email.
Unless Yinxiang Biji (which means “memory notebook”) confirms that it disabled the public note feature because of an order from the government, it’s difficult to say for certain if it is related to censorship because the Cyberspace Administration of China, the state agency in charge of Internet regulation, usually does not announce when it blocks a site or service.
The disabling of Yinxiang Biji’s public note feature is interesting, however, because the tool was used to share news articles, editorials, and other information about last fall’s pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, leading to speculation that it may become an important way to circumvent censorship.
Furthermore, while Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have already been blocked in China for years, the government appears to have stepped up regulation of foreign Internet services over the past year. In June, for example, access to several Google services and apps were cut off before the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Last month, Gmail appeared to be blocked in China, before access was partially restored. Instagram was also reportedly blocked in China after the Hong Kong demonstrations.
With 11.5 million users in the country, China is currently Evernote’s second-largest market. While it’s difficult for foreign Internet companies to make inroads into China because of censorship, Evernote managed to succeed because its service is mostly intended for personal notetaking instead of social sharing. But the disabling of its public note feature shows that the company may be subject to more stringent government regulations as its popularity increases.
来源：techcrunch
TechCrunch
2015年01月07日
TechCrunch
求职应用 Apploi 融资 700 万美元
申请工作似乎很容易：走进一家商店，问店员要一张工作申请表，填好然后等电话就是了。但除了更漂亮的字迹外，你怎么才能从一众申请者中脱颖而出呢？通过用Apploi。
Apploi 首席执行官亚当·路易斯（Adam Lewis）创办这家公司是为了让服务行业工人在工作面试中展现自己最好的一面。Apploi 被设计为工作申请的中枢系统，可以帮助工作申请者分享有关自己个性和技能的视频，且已经帮助数百人在 H&M、优衣库和 J. Crew 等公司找到工作。
路易斯表示道：“在我经营上一家公司时，一家大餐厅请我检查他们的招聘流程，看我之前的服务是否可以作为他们的简历工具。他们用简历来招聘客服小时工的方式让我震惊不已。”
“我秘密地在纽约申请了数个服务和支持岗位，并反复看到同一件事：店铺外排着长龙，公司关闭营业商店来举办招聘活动，求职者们排成一队，填写很长的表格，只是为了与副经理的三分钟面试。要么公司就是让求职者们在电脑上做类似的事情来申请工作。”
Apploi 提供基于移动和浏览器的申请流程，还在商场和繁忙地段安放设备，让雇主们可以抓住过往人流。用户可以提交多份申请，甚至可以拍摄短视频来展示自己的技能。
路易斯称：“我们重新思考了工作申请，重心也不是放在简历上。整个过程要更具互动性，申请人可以回答公司以多种格式设置的问题，并提供公司作出合理决定所需的数据。通常来说，这些工作的招聘周期要少于 24 小时，性格、专心、激情和空余时间在很多工作的招聘中要比考试成绩更重要。”
Apploi 已获得 740 万美元的 A 轮融资。该公司希望扩大业务范围，部署更多设备，获得更多雇主客户。Apploi 的网站 已经上线 ，在一个月内服务了 36 个州的 8 万多名求职者。预计到 2015 年夏，Apploi 将覆盖全美 50 个州。他们没有透露是否正在招聘，不过你大可提交一份申请哦。
Apploi, A Job Hunting App, Raises Over $7 Million In Series A
Applying to jobs seems easy: you roll into a shop, fill out an application, and wait for a call. But aside from nicer handwriting, how do you stand out from the crowd of applicants? You use Apploi.
Apploi’s CEO, Adam Lewis, launched the company to allow service industry workers put their best foot forward in job interviews. Designed as a sort of central system for applications as well as a way to share videos of your personality and skills, it’s already helping hundreds of folks find work at H&M, Uniqlo, and J. Crew, among others.
“When I was running my previous company I was asked by a large restaurant company to review their recruiting processes and see if my previous service would be a useful resume tool for them. I was shocked as to how they were using resumes to recruit hourly customer service staff,” said Lewis.
“I went undercover in NYC and applied to several service and support jobs. I repeatedly saw the same thing — long lines outside stores, companies shutting off revenue generating space to hold hiring events, where jobseekers (often customers too) were waiting in line filling out long forms before a three minute interview with the assisitant manager. Otherwise companies were sending these jobseekers back to computers to apply in a similar way as they would for a corporate position.”
The company offers a mobile and browserbased application process and also sets up hiring kiosks in malls and busy areas where multiple employers can grab walking traffic. Users can submit multiple applications and even show off their skills by shooting short videos.
“We rethought the job application and we’re not focussed on the resume as the currency of application. It’s more interactive (candidates can answer questions that are set by companies in multiple formats) and provide companies with the data that they need to make informed decisions — often hiring cycles for these jobs are less than 24 hours, and personality, commitment, passion and timeavailability are much more important for many of these jobs than exam results,” said Lewis.
The company raised $7,407,800 in Series A with Andrew Heyer, CEO of Mistral Equity Partners, Simon Jacobs, former owner of Hale and Hearty, among others. Tony Wang, president of Three-W International, and Heyer will join the Board.
The company hopes to expand its reach and bring more kiosks and employers online. The site is humming along right now and they’ve served over 80,000 job seekers a month in 36 states. They expect to be in all 50 states by Summer 2015. No word if they’re hiring, but feel free to submit an application.
来源：techcrunch
TechCrunch
2015年01月07日
TechCrunch
甲骨文收购数据即服务中间商 Datalogix甲骨文 今天宣布收购数字营销公司、数据即服务中间商 Datalogix。此次收购不仅让甲骨文又增加了一款云工具，而且直指营销人员。甲骨文正与竞争对手 Salesforce.com 等激烈争夺营销市场。
甲骨文宣布收购消息时并未披露收购条款。
Datalogix 让甲骨文新增了一款数据驱动服务，可以帮助公司将消费者开支与在线广告活动联系起来。这是一套强大的组合工具，数字营销人员可以通过它了解在线广告活动是否转化为了线下购买。
甲骨文最新的财报让不少人惊讶不已，其云计算业务增幅巨大，宣称“云软件即服务、平台即服务和基础设施即服务 营收增长 45%，至 5.16 亿美元 ”。
甲骨文可能也意识到，其业务的未来在云上。考虑到甲骨文的总营收只增长了 3%，硬件收入只增长了 1%，其增速最大的领域明显是云。
而且甲骨文不仅仅观察到了云这一股趋势，数据驱动的营销工具也将成为未来潜力巨大的业务机会的一部分，而只需收购 Datalogix，甲骨文就能轻松进入这一市场。
星座研究公司 (Constellation Research) 首席研究员 R Ray Wang 表示，这笔交易的影响要超出大多数人的认识。“广告技术和数字营销的交叉是运用大数据的洞见，让广告活动参与到商业生命周期中。总之，甲骨文对于投资让广告活动参与到商业生命周期中的公司持很认真的态度。”
Datalogix 拥有 650 个客户，包括前 100 大广告主中的 82 个以及 8 家顶级数字媒体发布商中的 7 家。对于甲骨文而言，Datalogix 是很好的资产，尤其是考虑到 Datalogix 的客户既包括福特、卡夫食品等传统企业，也包括 Facebook、 Twitter 等科技公司。
尽管甲骨文很可能会让 Datalogix 独立运营，但肯定也有一些客户担心甲骨文在收购后会把 Datalogix 弄得一团糟。甲骨文不一定会这么做，但大公司收购好的小公司后任其衰败或彻改的例子也不少。这一问题对于 Facebook 而言尤其严重，因为 Facebook 将 Datalogix 作为衡量其线下消费者开支的关键工具。Facebook 需要将线下消费者开支与广告开支进行比较来证明投资回报率。
Datalogix 创办于 2002 年，目前已融资 8650 万美元。Datalogix 在今年 5 月获得了机构风险合伙公司 (Institutional Venture Partners) 和威灵顿管理公司 (WellingtonManagement) 的 4000 万美元 C 轮融资。Crunchbase 还报道称，Datalogix 在 8 月获得了另一笔未披露数额的融资。
Datalogix 的总部位于科罗拉多州的威斯特敏斯特市。
Oracle Continues March To Cloud Buying Data As A Service Broker Datalogix
Oracle added another piece to its growing cloud portfolio today, buying digital-marketing, Data as a Service broker Datalogix. The move not only gives Oracle another cloud tool, it’s one that’s aimed directly at marketers, an area where Oracle is fighting hard with rival Salesforce.com and others for dominance.
The announcement did not include terms.
Datalogix gives Oracle a data-driven service, designed to help companies link consumer spending with online ad campaigns, a powerful combination because it can help digital marketers understand if their online ad campaigns are actually translating into offline buying.
Oracle surprised some people in its latest earnings report when it showed significant growth in its cloud computing business, announcing “cloud software-as-a-service (SaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) revenue was up 45% to $516 million.”
Oracle could be coming to the realization that the future of its business is in the cloud. Consider that total revenue was up just 3 percent and hardware revenue was up just one percent. Up is better than down, of course, but the biggest growth area is clearly in the cloud.
And the cloud isn’t the only trend at play here. Oracle recognizes that data-driven marketing tools are going to be part of a big potential business opportunity moving forward, and Datalogix gives them an easy in into that market simply by writing a check.
R Ray Wang, principle at Constellation Research says this is a bigger deal than most people realize. “The convergence of adtech and digital marketing is about taking big data insights and enabling the campaign to commerce lifecycle. The bottom line – Oracle is serious about investing in the campaign to commerce lifecycle,” Wang said.
Datalogix has 650 customers including 82 of the top 100 advertisers and 7 of 8 of the top digital media publishers. This is clearly a nice haul for Oracle, especially when you consider those customers include the likes of Ford and Kraft along with Facebook and Twitter.
While Oracle will more than likely welcome these big customers and leave Datalogix alone, there has to be some customer anxiety that the bigger company could mess with a key tool after acquiring it. It doesn’t necessarily make sense that Oracle would do that, but it wouldn’t be the first time a big company swallowed a good smaller one and let it rot or fundamentally changed it when it incorporated the acquisition into the larger organization. This could be particularly problematic for Facebook, which uses Datalogix as a key tool to power it’s offline consumer spending measurement, and then matches that to ad spend to prove ROI.
The company was founded in 2002 and has pulled in $86.5M in funding to-date. Its last significant round of funding was May of this year when it received $40M in Series C money from Institutional Venture Partners and Wellington Management. Crunchbase reports Datalogix also received an undisclosed amount of secondary funding in August.
Datalogix headquarters are in Westminster, Colorado.
来源：techcrunch
TechCrunch
2014年12月23日
TechCrunch
实习与求职平台LookSharp收购Readyforce
LookSharp现已收购了Readyforce，这笔交易的财务条款目前不详。LookSharp是一家提供求职信息的创业公司，旗下运作有InternMatch平台；Readyforce则是一个针对大学生和应届毕业生的专业网络。
自2010年创立以来，Readyforce已经筹集到超过1200万美元的资金，投资方包括Menlo Ventures、First Round Capital和U.S. Ventures。LookSharp的公司名称之前就是InternMatch，后来才开始为雇主和学生推出更多的服务。到目前为止，该公司的融资总额为780万美元，投资方包括ARTIS Ventures、Rudy Gadre、500 Startups、Kapor Capital、Subtraction Capital和Vishal Makhijani等公司。
LookSharp表示，这次收购将会用来充实它的实习、初级职位和内容数据库，以便更好地帮助学生们找到第一份工作。
两家公司合并后还将有利于双方在一个碎片化市场更好地竞争。LookSharp面临着众多竞争者，比如CareerBuilder、Monster、Dice和Indeed，该公司的差异化经营方式就是：让雇主在工作、福利和公司文化方面提供更多的信息，以便找到最好的潜在求职者，而不是被数以百计的工作申请所淹没。与LookSharp合作的企业既有众多创业公司，也有Facebook、亚马逊、嘉信理财（Charles Schwab）、迪斯尼和波音这样的知名企业集团。
另一方面，Readyforce主要针对计算机科学和工程专业的学生提供服务。今年9月份，该公司推出了一个称为“探寻你的选择”（Explore Your Options）的工具，有了这个工具，已有录用通知的学生们在接受这份工作之前，还有机会看一看其他的工作机会。
LookSharp表示，自2011年创立以来，该公司每年用户增长速度都超过500%，现在其平台上有3万个雇主和1000万名学生。
LookSharp, An Internship And Job Listings Platform, Acquires Readyforce
LookSharp, a startup that offers job listings and operates InternMatch, has acquired Readyforce, a professional network for college students and new graduates. The deal’s financial terms were undisclosed.
Since launching in 2010, Readyforce has raised more than $12 million in funding from investors including Menlo Ventures, First Round Capital and U.S. Ventures. LookSharp, which was formerly known as just InternMatch before it began to roll out more services for employers and students, has raised a total of $7.8 million from ARTIS Ventures, Rudy Gadre, 500 Startups, Kapor Capital, Subtraction Capital and Vishal Makhijani.
LookSharp says the acquisition will allow it to grow its database of internships, entry-level positions, and content geared toward helping students looking for their first jobs.
Combining forces will also help the two companies better compete in a fragmented marketplace. LookSharp seeks to differentiate from rivals like CareerBuilder, Monster, Dice and Indeed by allowing employers to offer more information about their jobs, benefits and company culture, in hopes of finding the best prospective candidates instead of getting flooded with hundreds of applications. Companies that list on LookSharp include startups, as well as corporations including Facebook, Amazon, Charles Schwab, Disney and Boeing.
Readyforce, on the other hand, focuses mainly on computer science and engineering students. In September, the company launched a tool called “Explore Your Options,” which lets students who have already received offers see what other opportunities are out there before accepting a job.
Since launching in 2011, LookSharp says it has grown more than 500 percent year-over-year and now has 30,000 employers and 10 million students on its platform.
来源：techcrunch
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