The Internet is an excellent resource, but it can also be a scary and unsafe place, especially for children. Parents who are concerned about their kids stumbling across inappropriate YouTube videos or chatting with strangers online may want to check out the KidZui browser, a free, award-winning Internet browser for little ones.
With the KidZui browser, parents can relax while their children have fun and explore the Internet safely. The KidZui browser only features content that have been pre-screened and approved by KidZui's editorial staff and advisory board of parents and teachers. The millions of YouTube videos, games, and websites accessible via the KidZui browser are all child-friendly, and hundreds more are added each month to keep the content fresh and engaging. In addition, parents receive weekly activity reports so they can keep tabs on their child's evolving interests. Today, the KidZui community is composed of over a million kids and parents, with tens of thousands of new users downloading the browser each month.
Based in San Diego, California, KidZui was founded in 2006 by Cliff Boro and Thomas Broadhead on the belief that the Internet should be “big, fun, and safe” for children. The company also developed the kid-friendly websites ZuiTube.com and ZuiGames.com. ZuiTube is where children can watch and discover child-friendly YouTube videos, while ZuiGames hosts online games that young ones can play without registering or downloading anything. KidZui has released the ZuiTube app for iPhone as well, allowing kids and parents to watch videos anywhere.
KidZui has been featured in TechCrunch, USA Today, CNET, The Wall Street Journal, and more. The company has won the NAPPA Gold Award for Best Children's Software, the Parents' Choice Award for Best Website, and the Editor's Choice Award from Children's Technology Review. KidZui is backed by several investment groups, including Scholastic, Emergence Capital Partners, Maveron, Mission Ventures, and First Round Capital.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Adly: Sparking Branded Conversations Between Celebs and Fans
Thanks to social networks like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and more, fans are now able to get closer to their favorite celebrities and learn what they're wearing, where they're going, and what's going on in their daily lives. In short, celebrities have become more accessible. Adly, a startup based in Los Angeles, realized the potential of working with celebrities through social media to spark engaging, branded conversations.
Adly helps brands find the right celebrities that speak to their target audience and start authentic online conversations between celebs and their fans. The company claims to have the largest network of celebrity publishers in the digital world. Adly has relationships with 75,000 influencers, 2,000 of whom are celebrities in the traditional sense – that is, those you would recognize if you saw them on the street. Though, the other 73,000 have influence that's useful to advertisers.
“We are a very good mechanism for raising awareness,” says chief executive officer Walter Delph. According to him, Adly's services are similar to that of TV commercials. The average celebrity on Adly has over 1.5 million followers, which is about the same reach as a mid-sized cable network.
Unlike television commercials, however, Adly doesn't just place a brand in front of an audience, but also generates conversation and engagement. Adly tracks these conversations and identifies the factors that make content go viral as well, measuring the reactions and behaviors of consumers for optimization. Depending on the level, an Adly campaign can cost between $25,000 and $500,000.
“We try to market that we are a technology company that provides this consumer insight about celebrities,” says Delph.
This past May, Adly raised $2 million from GRP Partners and Siemer Ventures, bringing its total funding to $7.5 million. The funding will go towards adding more engineers and sales staff to the Adly team.
Adly helps brands find the right celebrities that speak to their target audience and start authentic online conversations between celebs and their fans. The company claims to have the largest network of celebrity publishers in the digital world. Adly has relationships with 75,000 influencers, 2,000 of whom are celebrities in the traditional sense – that is, those you would recognize if you saw them on the street. Though, the other 73,000 have influence that's useful to advertisers.
“We are a very good mechanism for raising awareness,” says chief executive officer Walter Delph. According to him, Adly's services are similar to that of TV commercials. The average celebrity on Adly has over 1.5 million followers, which is about the same reach as a mid-sized cable network.
Unlike television commercials, however, Adly doesn't just place a brand in front of an audience, but also generates conversation and engagement. Adly tracks these conversations and identifies the factors that make content go viral as well, measuring the reactions and behaviors of consumers for optimization. Depending on the level, an Adly campaign can cost between $25,000 and $500,000.
“We try to market that we are a technology company that provides this consumer insight about celebrities,” says Delph.
This past May, Adly raised $2 million from GRP Partners and Siemer Ventures, bringing its total funding to $7.5 million. The funding will go towards adding more engineers and sales staff to the Adly team.
PriceGrabber.com: Online Comparison Shopping Made Easy
The industry pioneer in online comparison shopping, PriceGrabber.com provides free and unbiased information about products, services, and merchants to millions of consumers every month. Over the years, the company has established itself as the most trusted and most effective destination for online comparison shopping through constant innovation and a focus on providing the best user experience.
Shoppers use PriceGrabber.com to find and compare millions of products and services in a number of categories, including clothing, books, babies and kids, computers, electronics, home improvement, flowers and gifts, furniture, and more. The website connects consumers to merchants of all sizes, from large companies to smaller local sellers, enabling them to quickly find the right product from the right merchant at the best price.
Specifically, PriceGrabber.com's services include comprehensive price calculations, product information and reviews, merchant ratings and reviews, side-by-side product comparisons, email notifications, and a storefronts marketplace, where individuals without a website can sell their products.
Shoppers use PriceGrabber.com to find and compare millions of products and services in a number of categories, including clothing, books, babies and kids, computers, electronics, home improvement, flowers and gifts, furniture, and more. The website connects consumers to merchants of all sizes, from large companies to smaller local sellers, enabling them to quickly find the right product from the right merchant at the best price.
Specifically, PriceGrabber.com's services include comprehensive price calculations, product information and reviews, merchant ratings and reviews, side-by-side product comparisons, email notifications, and a storefronts marketplace, where individuals without a website can sell their products.
Thursday, August 29, 2013
ShopPad Turns Online Stores Into Tablet-Optimized Experiences Instantly
A couple of years ago, Aaron Wadler became an online shopper and recognized the iPad's potential to change computing. He discovered that online retailers “weren't doing anything exciting” on the iPad, however, despite the rise of tablet adoption among consumers.
“A lot of them had broken sites, and it really seemed like a mess,” says Wadler. “It got me thinking – if the really big guys can't get this figured out, it's going to be a huge problem for everyone else down.”
Thus, he started ShopPad, an e-commerce plug-in that instantly turns an online store into a rich, tablet-optimized experience, last year. Now used by over 10,000 online merchants, ShopPad takes advantage of all the things that make tablets unique. The plug-in recognizes gestures such as touching and swiping, is designed for speed so customers can check out faster, and automatically displays products as high-definition “retina” images.
The best part is, retailers never have to write a single line of code. According to Wadler, “It's all a WYSIWYG interface. We go in through the store's API and we mirror and sync to our servers their categories, product, and store information.”
ShopPad integrates with Shopify and Magento and the basic plan is free. Options such as adding a logo, customizing fonts and colors, and having an unlimited number of content pages are available in ShopPad's paid plans, which start at $6 per month.
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, ShopPad currently has four employees who are working on bringing the technology to smartphones and in-store. The startup announced $500,000 in seed funding recently. Participants in the round include Scott Rafer, co-founder of Mashery and CEO of Lookery, MyBlogLog, and Lumatic; Peter Horan, president of Answers.com; Arik Keller, director of product at PayPal; Allen Morgan, board member at Fab.com; and more.
“A lot of them had broken sites, and it really seemed like a mess,” says Wadler. “It got me thinking – if the really big guys can't get this figured out, it's going to be a huge problem for everyone else down.”
Thus, he started ShopPad, an e-commerce plug-in that instantly turns an online store into a rich, tablet-optimized experience, last year. Now used by over 10,000 online merchants, ShopPad takes advantage of all the things that make tablets unique. The plug-in recognizes gestures such as touching and swiping, is designed for speed so customers can check out faster, and automatically displays products as high-definition “retina” images.
The best part is, retailers never have to write a single line of code. According to Wadler, “It's all a WYSIWYG interface. We go in through the store's API and we mirror and sync to our servers their categories, product, and store information.”
ShopPad integrates with Shopify and Magento and the basic plan is free. Options such as adding a logo, customizing fonts and colors, and having an unlimited number of content pages are available in ShopPad's paid plans, which start at $6 per month.
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, ShopPad currently has four employees who are working on bringing the technology to smartphones and in-store. The startup announced $500,000 in seed funding recently. Participants in the round include Scott Rafer, co-founder of Mashery and CEO of Lookery, MyBlogLog, and Lumatic; Peter Horan, president of Answers.com; Arik Keller, director of product at PayPal; Allen Morgan, board member at Fab.com; and more.
Easy, Painless Parking Worldwide With ParkMe
The leading provider of parking information in the world, ParkMe is a Santa Monica, California-based company on a mission to make parking easier. Founded by Alex Israel and Sam Friedman, ParkMe has built the world's most comprehensive parking database, covering more than 28,000 parking locations across 1,823 cities in 32 countries on 7 continents.With ParkMe's web and mobile apps, users can find the best place to park before leaving home or while on the go. ParkMe works with operators and full-time researchers to collect parking data and ensure that it's accurate. The company doesn't merely provide the location of parking spots, but also offers important details such as entrance points, photos, payment types, event rates, and amenities. Is the entrance on the same street as the lot address? Does the garage take credit cards? Does the lot have a car wash? With ParkMe, drivers will know what to expect when they arrive.
ParkMe is backed by Fontinalis Partners and IDG Ventures, among other investors.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Virtusize Ensures Online Shoppers Find the Right Fit Every Time
Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Virtusize is a virtual fitting solution that helps online retailers illustrate the size and fit of clothes online. The startup was founded in 2011 by a group of friends who shared a passion for the digital and fashion worlds. Like many online shoppers, they had trouble finding clothes that were the right size or fit and often had to return items. They figured other people must have the same problem, so they decided to create a solution.
With Virtusize, consumers can compare a garment they want to buy with something they already own. The service is currently available at more than 20 online retailers across Europe, including ASOS, Stylebop, WeSC, and Nelly. Virtusize aims to reduce the number of fit-related returns, increase sales, and improve the shopping experience.
Backed by Swedish investment company Öresund and several angel investors, Virtusize seeks to become a global standard for illustrating the size and fit of apparel sold online.
With Virtusize, consumers can compare a garment they want to buy with something they already own. The service is currently available at more than 20 online retailers across Europe, including ASOS, Stylebop, WeSC, and Nelly. Virtusize aims to reduce the number of fit-related returns, increase sales, and improve the shopping experience.
Backed by Swedish investment company Öresund and several angel investors, Virtusize seeks to become a global standard for illustrating the size and fit of apparel sold online.
Digital Detox: A Retreat for People Who Are Addicted to Technology
The average American spends 8 to 12 hours per day interacting with a screen, sends or receives about 400 texts a month, and uses 30 percent of their leisure time on the web. Most people can't remember the last time they went for more than 24 hours sans technology, and research has found that the majority of us feel tied down by the very tools that were created to make our lives more efficient. Instead, our reliance and addiction to technology has led to a decrease in our productivity levels and an increase in our stress levels.
Levi Felix, who used to work at corporate philanthropy platform Causecast.com, has experienced firsthand the potentially devastating effects of living in the modern world. After working long hours and eating poorly, he ended up in the hospital and was forced to re-evaluate his priorities. Felix subsequently sold his car and clothes and trekked off to Southeast Asia, where he stayed for two and a half years. When he came back to America, he came back with a mission: “to show people how to connect, how to shed these rules and unwritten codes we bought into.”
In 2012, Felix founded Digital Detox with Brooke Dean. The Oakland, California-based group leads intimate, tech-free personal wellness retreats where participants “give up their smartphones and gadgets in exchange for four days of serenity and bliss.” The retreats are designed to help attendees disconnect with technology and reconnect with themselves. Activities include yoga, meditation, hiking, hot tub soaking, healthy eating, and creative workshops.
“My goal now is to connect people,” says Felix. “There's always going to be more media, more to do outside of where you are. The only moment that matters is right now.”
Digital Detox aims to help participants gain a refreshed approach, energy, and creative inspiration after a few days off the grid.
Levi Felix, who used to work at corporate philanthropy platform Causecast.com, has experienced firsthand the potentially devastating effects of living in the modern world. After working long hours and eating poorly, he ended up in the hospital and was forced to re-evaluate his priorities. Felix subsequently sold his car and clothes and trekked off to Southeast Asia, where he stayed for two and a half years. When he came back to America, he came back with a mission: “to show people how to connect, how to shed these rules and unwritten codes we bought into.”
In 2012, Felix founded Digital Detox with Brooke Dean. The Oakland, California-based group leads intimate, tech-free personal wellness retreats where participants “give up their smartphones and gadgets in exchange for four days of serenity and bliss.” The retreats are designed to help attendees disconnect with technology and reconnect with themselves. Activities include yoga, meditation, hiking, hot tub soaking, healthy eating, and creative workshops.
“My goal now is to connect people,” says Felix. “There's always going to be more media, more to do outside of where you are. The only moment that matters is right now.”
Digital Detox aims to help participants gain a refreshed approach, energy, and creative inspiration after a few days off the grid.
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