SOMEWHAT FRANK

Video: Andrew Hyde Startup Discussion

I got a chance to sit down and chat with Andrew Hyde, of TechStars and founder of Startup Weekend and VC Wear, while attending the TechCrunch50 conference. Andrew and I both love startups. We recently talked about startups and even gave some advice that startups might find helpful.

Check out episode 50 on SOMEWHAT FRANK an interview with Andrew Hyde (shown below) and help Andrew decide what to do for the next six months as he appears to be a crossroads.

Andrew Hyde Interview from Frank Gruber on Vimeo.

Video: Somewhat Frank Meets NonSociety

Yesterday, I was in New York City and got a chance to meet up with Meghan Asha, one of the co-founders of NonSociety, a new online media play that lifestreams niche verticals (fashion, style and tech). NonSociety is a group venture with Julia Allison and Kate Rambin.

We took a walk in the park and got to chatting about startups, technology, electric cars, pets and even encountered a rather distracting making out session. Check out video episode 46 on SOMEWHAT FRANK with Meghan Asha (below).

SOMEWHAT FRANK Meets NonSociety's Meghan Asha from Frank Gruber on Vimeo.

WooMe Attracts $3 Million More

WooMe, the online speed dating site that launched at TechCrunch40 and I previously reviewed, announced yesterday that they recieved another $3 million funding. The round was led by Mangrove Capital and included previous investor Atomico and a few others as well.

According to Stephen Stokols, founder and CEO:

“With this funding we can focus our efforts on improving the user experience, releasing key functionalities to our live introductions platform, and expanding our international presence where we are enjoying early success.”

There are a few things that are nearly guaranteed revenue generators on the Web and obviously online dating is one of them so I am not surprised to see WooMe attracting money like online daters.

I Need A Medic! A Health 2.0 Round-up

False alarm, I don't need a medic but sometimes I have medical questions, like what is "Steakhouse Syndrome", "Chronic Pain" or "Blurred Vision." Of course you can check out Web MD or HealthLine but there are a few new medical searches that offer more of  a Web 2.0 approach. This article will examine a number of the new health and medical sites on the Web.

Docstoc Publicly Launches: Upload Docs Now!

Docstoc, the Beverly Hill-based document hub startup, has officially launching to the public today. Docstoc leverages the power of user generated content to enable users to upload just about any document type (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Adobe Illustrator or PDF) and display it on any website as a Flash include.

Facebook Launching Ads Outside The Network?

Facebook has been blanketing the headlines for months now and it has heated up more with Mark Zuckerberg speaking at TechCrunch40 and the Web 2.0 Summit in the past few weeks. Mark recently hinted at an advertising platform launch coming soon and my friend Nick O'Neill of at AllFacebook has been reporting on for the past few weeks. Apparently the Facebook ad platform will not just focus on the Facebook space but will also go outside of the Facebook network and place advertisements on the Web which will place it in direct competition with Google Adsense and other similar services.

WooMe Takes Speed Dating Online

Have you ever wanted to do speed dating but didn't want to actually attend an speed dating event? Now you can do it from the comfort of your home as WooMe is looking to take speed dating online.  WooMe, a startup which I saw demo at TechCrunch40, has moved into a private alpha phase and I got a chance to check it out.

BeFunky To Cartoonize Yourself

BeFunky, a startup which was founded as a spin off of the more manually artist driven IamCartoon project, offers a few fun little applications to allow users to easily create and customize photos as cartoons and create personal avatars. BeFunky recently showed its stuff at TechCrunch40.

Music Shake: Create Music & Ringtones

Music Shake, a Korean born startup, captivated the audience at TechCrunch40 last week in San Francisco. Music Shake makes is easy to create music with its easy to use application. I gave Music Shake a whirl last night to if creating a song was as easy as it looked on the stage of TechCrunch40. 

Yahoo Buys Zimbra, Google vs. Facebook, More Social Digg, Google Sharing Stuff, Zink and Zync, TechCrunch40 & Me Meme

Photo of the Week: I spotted this interesting business model marketing strategy at the TechCrunch40 conference - which was the biggest story this week.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbit: 09.23.2007

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg Video Chat

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, sat down with TechCrunch co-editor Mike Arrington at the TechCrunch40 conference for a fireside chat. Mark talks about opening up the Facebook platform and announced the FBFUND is a $10 million grant fund from Facebook aimed at helping application developers. The grants range from $25K to $250K and Facebook takes no equity or debt.

Xobni Social Email Management Plugin

My email continues to overflow as I receive large amounts in several email accounts. I have written about email management a few times before so needless to say I was very excited to witness the private beta launch of Xobni at TechCrunch40. Xobni is more that just "inbox" spelled backwards as it offers a Microsoft Outlook plugin that helps to attack the email management problem and in doing so exposes the social network behind email. I installed Xobni and was quite impressed with its capabilities.

Picking TechCrunch40 Winners

The TechCrunch40 conference has come and gone with Mint ultimately came out the biggest winner (aside from TechCrunch itself, of course) scoring the $50K award for best demo at the event. Below I give some of my thoughts on a number of the TechCrunch40 companies at the conference.

Congratulations to the TechCrunch team for pulling off its first conference. I am sure it learned some lessons from the conference and will improve upon all of its shortcomings with its next attempt. I just wonder if the next conference will be called TechCrunch Infinity?

Metaplace Web Virtual World Launches

Metaplace, a company founded by San Diego-based Areae, has just launched a virtual world at TechCrunch40 that can be embedded on the Web via a flash-based client widget. Dubbed Second Life on the Web, Metaplace leverages open standards to enable players to develop worlds that can be accessed anywhere from the Web to mobile networks. Every world is indexed, tagged and rated by users on the Metaplace portal, so virtual worlds in the Metaplace network can be easily linked together.

Mint Online Money Manager Launches

Do you know where your money goes? How do you keep track of it? Mint just launched at TechCrunch40 to offer a free personalized online money management application. It is all about helping to save and make you money (and save you time too).