VentureBeat |
- Wikipedia fundraiser ends with $20M in the bank
- Must-read for startups: 6 tips for raising capital in 2012
- Is Ron Paul leading in the Republican race? Facebook stats say yes
- Sony slashes Tablet S by $100, undercuts the iPad at $399
- Redbox announces its most-rented movie of 2011
- The most popular GamesBeat stories of 2011
| Wikipedia fundraiser ends with $20M in the bank Posted: 02 Jan 2012 08:32 AM PST
The site’s fundraising efforts for the year have ended, and the Wikimedia Foundation (the non-profit behind Wikipedia) was able to gather a record $20 million during the drive. “We've hit our target. Thanks to you,” writes Wikimedia Foundation executive director Sue Gardner in a post this morning. “Over the past few months, more than one million people have come together from all over the world to keep Wikipedia and its sister sites alive and flourishing for another year.” These one million donors come from nearly every country in the world, the foundation said in a statement. Wikimedia Foundation’s communications chief, Jay Walsh, also wrote that this fundraiser was the foundation’s all-time most successful campaign ever. “The number of Wikimedia Foundation donors has increased ten-fold since 2008, and the total dollar amount raised in the campaign has risen to over $20 million from $4.5 million,” Walsh continued. The $20 million generated by the 2011 fundraising campaign will be used by the foundation to purchase and install new Wikipedia servers and other hardware. It will also be used to develop new site features, expand Wikipedia’s mobile services, add to the foundation’s legal defense fund and support Wikipedia’s large and worldwide community of volunteers. The foundation's total budgeted spending for the 2011-2012 year is $28.3 million. While most of that sum was raised through the on-site Wikipedia fundraising banners, the rest will come in the form of grants from institutions and smaller donations from individuals throughout the year. The Wikimedia Foundation first began its crowdfunding operations in 2003. To date, it claims it is the only major website supported by its users rather than by advertising. Filed under: deals        
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| Must-read for startups: 6 tips for raising capital in 2012 Posted: 02 Jan 2012 08:19 AM PST
This famous introduction by Charles Dickens sums up what entrepreneurs seeking startup capital are facing in 2012. On the one hand, banks still aren't lending. And with the debt crisis looming over Europe and political uncertainty here in the U.S., there's an increased perception of risk for early-stage investors. However, record low interest rates, stagnant public stock markets and real estate, and weakening commodities prices offer investors few alternatives to achieve decent returns. This creates an opportunity for entrepreneurs in spite of all the challenges. What does this mean if you're an entrepreneur hoping to raise money during the new year? It means there is hope, even if there isn't a huge margin of error. Here are six important tips to hit the ground running with your financing efforts. Structure your raise right.External financing for startups usually comes from friends and family, individual (non-institutional) angel investors, early-stage funds or some combination of these sources. As you're planning for your raise, make sure you're structuring a deal that's appropriate for your prospective investors. Terms you should be concerned about include how much you're raising, whether the deal is equity or debt, what kind of rights the investors will be given, and the valuation. Be sure you're working with an experienced attorney, because mistakes in structuring a raise can have serious repercussions down the road. And don't be too aggressive on valuation; it's better to leave something on the table than price yourself out of a raise altogether. Prepare key documents.A brief slide deck summarizing your business is a must-have before starting due diligence. Make sure it describes the problem your company is solving, the addressable market, your progress, competitors, your team, and other relevant information. Slides are generally preferred over a written business plan for tech startups nowadays, but you should confirm if this is true for your industry. Financial projections are important to demonstrate that you understand how key inputs impact your business model; it's best to keep them simple and focus on the "big picture" rather than budgeting minutiae. I'd also recommend including a capitalization table and a term sheet to provide to prospective investors who express interest. Put your network to work.Entrepreneurs often tell me they don't know anyone who can help them with their capital raise. When I press them further, nine times out of 10 that turns out to be wrong. Anyone who's been in the business world for a few years has met investors, advisors, and other influencers who can play a role in syndicating a capital raise. But you can't get what you don't ask for. Successful entrepreneurs make sure their contacts know what they're working on and ask for help when they need it. Besides investors whom you know directly, ask your contacts for introductions; if they know you and respect you, they'll generally be happy to make them. Meet new people.While four out of five leads will probably come from networking, it helps to meet new people as you look for investors. Sign up for industry newsletters and read local blogs so you're aware of networking events. Introduce yourself to speakers and panelists who might be a good fit; try asking for their advice and see if they'd be willing to meet you for coffee before giving them the "hard sale." Try meeting people through online sites, including LinkedIn (try out their groups and engage in discussions), Facebook (BranchOut lets you sort Facebook connections by profession), and CapLinked (my company, which lets you search for investment-related professionals by industry and role). Don't break the law.There's a lot of euphoria out there now about the potential for crowd-funding to ease restrictions on obtaining startup capital. But nothing has yet been signed into law yet. For now, make sure you're familiar with Regulation D, which governs who can invest in a private company. Reg D also puts strict limits on public advertising for private investment opportunities, so be sure that you're not soliciting investments on a public medium such as Twitter or your blog. Start the process now.Raising capital generally takes longer than most new entrepreneurs think. Networking to get in front of investors is a lengthy process, and investors will often take a long time to give you a definitive answer. So the sooner you get started, the better. Find a lawyer, dust off your Rolodex, and start working on that slide deck now. Also consider setting up a deal room on CapLinked to make document management easier, and include your company's advisors in the entire process. Raising capital in 2012 is by no means a hopeless endeavor, but it will take hard work and persistence. Get started now—and good luck!
Filed under: Entrepreneur Corner, VentureBeat        
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| Is Ron Paul leading in the Republican race? Facebook stats say yes Posted: 02 Jan 2012 07:20 AM PST
While some candidates have more Facebook fans and others do more one-on-one chatting in comments, Ron Paul is the candidate with the greatest overall reach. According to Facebook statistics compiled by analytics service Socialbakers, “viral reach” is the total reach for each candidate’s “likes” and comments multiplied by the average number of Facebook Page “likes” per candidate to provide a comparable number. And according to the stats generated for each political candidate, Ron Paul is the most popular Republican candidate. Paul is followed in viral reach by Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. Paul also leads the candidates for the right with 59,554 instances of people talking about him on Facebook over the past week. In this stat, Paul was second only to President Obama. Also, Paul increased his engagement rate by 69 percent, the highest overall increase of all the candidates. He was followed by Perry and Newt Gingrich, who showed a 58 percent increase and 57 percent increase respectively. Paul also leads the Republican candidates in percentage of total interactions, capturing 19 percent — a figure twice as high as Romney’s and three times as high as Perry’s. For person-to-person interactions, Michele Bachmann leads the pack, followed by Paul and Jon Huntsman. Obama has the most “likes” on his Facebook page — 24 million, to be exact — followed by Romney at 1.3 million, Paul with 672,483 and Bachmann with 460,336. The first official event of the electoral process, the Iowa caucuses, will take place tomorrow, January 3, 2012. Historically, the caucuses have served as an early indicator of which candidates might win their party’s nomination. However, in 2012, democratic digital sources such as Facebook might be the better augur as far as the will of the people is concerned. Filed under: social        
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| Sony slashes Tablet S by $100, undercuts the iPad at $399 Posted: 01 Jan 2012 09:20 PM PST
Starting today, the Tablet S now starts at $399 for the 16 gigabyte model ($499 for the 32GB), undercutting Apple’s iPad 2 models by a full Benjamin. Sony is also throwing in five free PlayStation Classic titles, 180 days of its Music Unlimited service, as well as credits and free downloads from its Video Unlimited store. The price cut, while significant, may be too little too late for Sony’s tablets — especially when it seems to have been purposefully positioned after the holiday buying season. Reviews have found the Tablet S to be well designed but otherwise a fairly standard Android tablet. In a few months, Sony’s Tablet S (and dual-screen Tablet P) will have to contend with Apple’s iPad 3 as well as newer Android tablets running Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich.” (The Tablet S will be upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich at some point, according to Sony.) The S is Sony's 9.4-inch direct iPad competitor, which features a slightly curved design that resembles a rolled back magazine, and supposedly makes it easier to hold with one hand. It’s powered by a dual-core Tegra 2 CPU and offers a five-megapixel rear camera. Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat        
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| Redbox announces its most-rented movie of 2011 Posted: 01 Jan 2012 03:15 PM PST With 2011 in the bag, Coinstar-owned DVD rental company Redbox has revealed which movies were the most-rented, by genre, throughout all of last year. If you’d like to watch the 5-minute video ceremony, complete with cheesy clip art (c’mon Redbox, you have billions of dollars!), you can do so here. Or I can just spoil everything for you:
Natalie Portman also walked away as the most-rented actress of 2011, thanks to Black Swan, Your Highness, No Strings Attached, and Thor. Kevin James was given a lifetime achievement award for entertaining Redbox renters year-after-year. James’ Paul Blart: Mall Cop, released in 2009, was the fastest Redbox DVD to reach one million rentals. And finally, the most rented film of 2011 was Just Go With It, starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Anniston, who took away a bonus award for her role as the sex-crazed dentist (seriously) in Horrible Bosses.
Redbox’s results also seem to imply that older releases had an advantage over titles such as Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean, which hit kiosks towards the end of the year. It makes sense from a literal standpoint (“most-rented”), but it’d be interesting to see the month-by-month comparisons, as not a single one of the award winners sits on the current Redbox Top 20. With over 1.5 billion movies rented and a kiosk within a five minute drive of 2/3 of the U.S. population, Redbox has utterly conquered the DVD rental space. Side-by-side with Netflix, who is focusing more on and more on instant streaming, the two companies have obliterated obsolete brick-and-mortar chains such as Blockbuster, by offering a massive selection at extremely affordable rates. Even with fierce opposition from Hollywood itself, Redbox has doubled its revenues each year, and currently holds a firm grip on approximately 35% of the entire DVD rental market, and has turned its sights on video games with a national rollout of game rentals in Q2 of 2011. As long as they don’t announce they’re rebranding themselves as Qwikster, Redbox should continue to see record numbers for the forseeable future. Images via Redbox Filed under: deals, games, VentureBeat        
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| The most popular GamesBeat stories of 2011 Posted: 01 Jan 2012 01:25 PM PST
1. This $25 computer (yes computer!) also runs Quake 3. The Raspberry Pi computer (which still hasn’t launched but is coming soon) is no slouch when it comes to running older PC games. 2. Is another Black Ops map pack coming May 3? What can we say? Gamers want to know when their favorite franchise will have another installment of maps. 3. Ocean Marketing: How to self-destruct your company with just a few measly emails. If you didn’t catch this lesson in how not to handle customer service, it’s a doozy. It made the otherwise quiet holidays more amusing. And don’t miss our dramatic re-enactment of Ocean Marketing’s PR flop. 4. Diablo III release date is early 2012, more beta keys going out. As with our No. 2 story, we figured out that a lot of people want to play this next big dungeon-crawling game from Blizzard Entertainment. 5. Tips and tricks: How to get ahead in Skyrim. Our 4,000-word review wasn’t enough, so Sebastian Haley put together all of the tips he could offer from playing Skyrim for an absurdly long period of time. This story was so popular that Sebastian wrote a second guide. 6. New Black Ops map pack is confirmed for May 3. We pulled the trigger fast on this story and gamers came to see. Yes, it is odd that map pack news was more popular than news about any one brand-new game. 7. Sony finally brings PlayStation Network fully online in Japan. For a period of weeks, Sony’s PlayStation Network outage was a debacle that held readers spellbound. 8. Left4Dead short film rivals Hollywood production values. Sebastian Haley got the scoop on this short film built around favorite video game heroes. 9. Women who play online games have more sex. (Infographic). Sex and games. That’s an unbeatable combination. 10. Pirated Modern Warfare 3 discs are already spreading. We got the scoop on how disc piracy preceded the launch of Modern Warfare 3, which still turned out to be the most popular game of 2011. Filed under: games        
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Those intriguing fundraiser banners have finally disappeared from the pages of Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." 
A serial entrepreneur, Eric M. Jackson is the CEO and co-founder of 
Ron Paul is second only to President Obama when it comes to Facebook popularity.
Hopefully you didn’t pick up
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