Startup Review: Townster

Townster is a German startup based in Cologne that is all about helping its users search locally. Currently the service offers the ability to search for people, places, events, groups, or lists. While it is still only available in German, they plan to move stateside next year. The space shown below hold 10 employees and is much larger than shown in the photos; with another 20 employees expected in the next year, it will definitely be needed.

I’ve been noticing that more companies seem to be showing their dogs off to us. Here at Office Snapshots, we may not have a dog, but we do have a dilophosaurus. Sure it spits poison in our eyes, but their eggs make great omelettes.

Startup Review: Adpinion

Adpinion lets users tell what they want to see.

That means brands don't have to guess the consumer's interests based on what websites they visit; Adpinion can advertise diapers to stay-at-home dads while they're reading ESPN. Better still, Adpinion does this without logging any personal information, for any period of time.

Here's how it works:

• You have an ad.
• adpinion help you place your ad into it's system, where related people and ads group together.
• Feedback from users helps to move the ad into more relevant groups.
• When a user goes to a website within adpinion network, it'll display an ad that suits their interests.[ If a user hasn't given feedback yet, we choose based on the likes of other readers of that site.]

WOW! that's pretty interesting!

Anyways, pretty promising output from Y-Combinator workshop, waiting for my beta invitation. More later.

Ratatouille

Startup Review: NowPos

We believe that you are a celebrity in your own status on NowPos. So tell us and the world more about yourself.

Its been a while I'm hearing about NOWPOS (short for Now Possible), a Hyderabad-based technology start-up.

I'm trying to test it.

Once logged on to NowPos, which is currently free, one can send and receive voicemail; users need to have a headphone with speaker facility to do so. Those who do not want to listen to advertisements, which currently constitute the revenue stream, might have to pay an annual fee. The structure is being worked out.

Frost & Sullivan has chosen NowPos (Now Possible) as one of the 20 top broadband innovations in Asia Pacific, describing it as the "coolest bridge in the Internet space." NowPos, which has just 20+ employees.

Crunched or Clone? Michael Arrington got a story. Its Teleflip

Whats your call people?

I like that attitude!

Startup Review: Daily Dump

A new start-up in Bangalore, India, hopes to arm consumers with products and services to empower them toward a simple solution for reducing landfill waste: composting. The Daily Dump offers an array of decorative composting containers that can be used in the home to manage organic household waste and convert it to useful high-quality compost. What's more, they offer a full range of service plans for customers wary of braving the ordeal on their own.

Composting pots and vessels made of biodegradable terracotta in a variety of shapes and sizes can be purchased on the website, which features a guide to help customers choose which is right for their needs. Rakes, spoons, spatulas and other supplies are also available. The website offers extensive information and tips, such as what items can and can't compost. Consumers who lack the time or desire to care for their composting pot can select a weekly, fortnightly or monthly service plan, with a Daily Dump ‘servicewalla’ dropping by to take care of maintenance: cleaning pots, adding dry leaves and stirring the compost. Those who don’t mind doing their own maintenance can opt out of the service plan and call Daily Dump when they have an issue that needs to be addressed by a professional.

The Daily Dump currently is limited to small residential composting, but the company has big plans for expanding its operations to include composting products for businesses and larger homes, solutions for dealing with inorganic waste and further ventures to address larger urban environmental issues. In the meantime, they hope to inspire others to invest in composting—and, as such, are not likely to mind much if copycat companies begin popping up in other parts of the globe, making it easy for them to be green.

Should You Raise Venture Capital, And When?

Put that coffee down!

Put that coffee down! One of my colleagues yelled at me. "You drink so-much of coffee and smokes alot"!

Trust me people, whenever I hear "Put that coffee down" I remember 1992 Hollywood flick Glengarry Glen Ross where Mr. Blake yells at Laveen.

PUT THAT COFFEE DOWN! Coffee is for closers...

So where were we? Coffee + Cig? Nope, but everybody's blaming Cig / Espresso for my lost look and they are really disturbed with my slim looks.

Why don't you take care of yourself Kris? Grow some muscles.

I used to answer them with smiles. Then used to say " Toughness is the quality of mind, nothing to do with muscles" then I fedup!

Today some 15 guys commented on my new looks & shirt and said, "Mannn, try to grow some muscles"!

Enough is enough, I need fix this. "Listen genttlemen" I said

" My job is to make long term and short term strategies for my firm. I research a lot, read a lot. I spend fucking 15 hours a day in office ( not because I'm not productive in 8hrs - just for the sake of it, I love my corner office) All i need to do is grow under eye dark circles, not my underarm muscles... & I want to get into Entreprunership then Venture capital NOT Gladrags Model or a male hooker. And about the sex part you mentioned, No gal ever complained or even doubted on my stamina or power of real muscles" !

Since thats the case thesedays, I think I'm sexy enough to smoke the hardest Marlboro available in town and drink atleast 10 Espressos a day.

Well, Sign Sealed Delivered! Need more? I asked! Well, u guessed it!

Web 2.0 Long / Short

Toni Schneider, CEO of Automattic, about the best and worst parts of Web 2.0.

Why we must close the Internet?

Because Elton John feels so.

He says the internet is destroying music! “The internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff."!

Feeling liuke WTF? Elton John baby!

Sales of Elton’s last album The Captain & The Kid were disappointing — it barely shifted 100,000 copies. And in the past Sir Elt has opposed illegal downloading of his music from the net.

hmmm Elton asks for something he's not going to get. I guess that’s what Sir Elt would call a net loss . . .


Now stop that Meow between the sheets; Lonelygirl15 is no loner single!

MySpace Nabs Lonelygirl15 Finale!!!

In a deal that signals the ascendance of the independent video creator, MySpace will host and feature the Lonelygirl15 season finale this Friday. The finale, a culmination of the series to date, with 12 episodes released every hour over starting at 8 a.m. Pacific, is a bit of creative freedom that the Lonelygirl creators are taking to wrap up some storylines and play with the pacing of their show in real time.

Lonelygirl15, whose creators had shielded their identities before revealing the show was fiction last year, had initially been hosted on YouTube; then switched to Revver as the default host for http://www.lg15.com/ (while still uploading the videos to multiple sites); and just last week switched back to pasting in YouTube embeds.

BTW, Outsourcing to India is the old way. It's now all about crowdsourcing

Long-live Technology.