New York City Throws Do...

Google is “teaming up” with Ivy League school Cornell. Teaming up may overplay things a bit but Google will provide 22,000 square feet of its New York City headquarters to a new venture that the school is undertaking. The Wall Street Journal reports Officials at Google estimated the market value of the space— which will be provided free to CornellNYC Tech, a joint venture between Cornell University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology—at between $10 million and $12 million. That estimate includes the value of an option the school has to expand to 58,000 square feet during the next 5½ years while work on its permanent campus is completed. Very generous, wouldn’t you say? Of course that kind of money is small stuff to Google but its effort to boost the presence of New York City vs. the Silicon Valley is an interesting play indeed. New York City’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has taken the event as an opportunity to give a New York style announcement regarding the city and its space in the tech landscape. In December, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration selected the joint bid from Cornell and Technion to build the Roosevelt Island campus following an international competition. The city will contribute $100 million toward the campus and 11 acres of public land. “Today we’re second only to [California's] Silicon Valley as a tech center, and we don’t like to be second to anybody,” Mr. Bloomberg said at the news conference. Of course, this makes for great copy but should the Silicon Valley be concerned about its position as the top of the tech food chain? That kind of exploration is well above my pay grade but it is an interesting idea to consider. With the Valley’s touch with reality seemingly growing more and more distant maybe it’s time to truly look elsewhere for some other big ideas. New York City has never been short of those and the chutzpah to try to take them from idea to reality. How do you view the Silicon Valley? Is it the true nerve center of the tech world or do you think there is there something more somewhere else?

When Will Fashion Tech ...

Speaking at Peter Thiel’s class at Stanford last week, investor and entrepreneur Mark Andreessen called out retail as a “particularly promising” vertical for tech innovation. We’re seeing and will continue to get e-commerce 2.0, that is, e-commerce that’s not just for nerds. The 1.0 was search driven. You go to Amazon or eBay, search for a thing, and buy it. That works great if you’re shopping for particular stuff. The 2.0 model involves a deeper understanding of consumer behavior. These are companies like Warby Parker and Airbnb. It’s happening vertical by vertical. And it’s likely to keep happening throughout the retail world because retail is really bad to start with. There are very high fixed costs of having stores and inventory. Margins are very small to begin with. If you take away just 5 or 10%, things collapse.” Nowhere is the revolution in retail more evident than in the fashion industry, where aesthetic elitism, a tradition of craftsmanship and a super hierarchical structure have staved off the impact of startup culture. Until now. Between startups that aim to build a “Universal Closet” (99Dresses) to startups that allow you to design your own pair of shoes from scratch , we’re seeing a massive wave of the new way to shop. Having experienced firsthand how broken the model of how we purchase and consume clothing is (women, we like shopping ), I have the good fortune of moderating a panel that I’m super excited about next week, “When will fashion tech just be fashion?” Starting at 10:50am on Monday, we will sit down with founders trying to make the answer to that question come sooner, Neil Blumenthal , Jennifer Hyman , Alexis Maybank and Ashley Granata . Many of you may have them, and many of you may want a pair; Neil Blumenthal, the co-founder of famous eyewear site Warby Parker, will be joining us onstage along with Jennifer Hyman, the Chief Executive Officer of premier designer dress rental destination Rent the Runway . Founding CEO of the incredibly well known fashion site Gilt Groupe, Alexis Maybank will also take the stage, along with the fashionable Ashley Granata, co-founder and CMO of Fashism.com. Tickets are going fast but are still available here . Companies that still want a chance to join in can apply for the last remaining spots in Startup Alley . The full agenda for Disrupt NYC is here . Neil Blumenthal Co-Founder, Warby Parker Neil Blumenthal is one of the founders of Warby Parker. As the former director of non-profit VisionSpring, Neil spent the better part of 5 years giving glasses to people living on less than $4 per day who otherwise would not be able to see. A native of New York City, Neil is a Leo, enjoys long walks in the park and is a big Hall and Oates fan. Jennifer Hyman CEO, Rent the Runway Jennifer Hyman has been the Chief Executive Officer of Rent the Runway since the company’s inception in November 2009. She is responsible for all areas of the business including technology, fashion, sales, marketing, operations, customer service and team management. Jennifer co-founded Rent the Runway with her Harvard Business School classmate Jennifer Fleiss. After receiving approximately $31 million in venture capital from Bain Capital Ventures, Highland Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, they quickly built the company to include over 2 million members, 120 employees and 160 designer brands. Alexis Maybank Founding CEO, Gilt Groupe Alexis has dedicated her career to building and launching innovative and compelling ecommerce experiences for consumers. In 2007, Alexis, along with a founding team, launched Gilt Groupe. She served as Gilt’s Founding CEO, and today she serves as the company’s Chief Strategy Officer. Prior to founding Gilt Groupe, Alexis served as General Manager and Business Development Director for AOL’s ecommerce businesses. In 1998, she became an early member of the eBay team, where she helped launch the company’s first strategic planning group working for Founder Jeff Skoll, and later launched and ran eBay Canada, which grew to become Canada’s largest ecommerce business. She later helped found eBay Motors, which grew to over $2.5 billion in gross sales in its first two years and continues to be the largest category of goods sold on eBay today. Ashley Granata Co-Founder & CMO, Fashism Ashley Granata (Co-Founder, CMO) joined Fashism with buying and marketing roles at Bloomingdales.com and Style.com under her belt. She works with designers and retailers to bring cool promotions and giveaways to the community. She loves vintage Ralph Lauren and Shu Uemura Rouge Unlimited Lipstick.

IAB Launches Digital Me...

Ever have a bad experience with a sales person in the interactive space? That question is kind of like asking if you have ever felt the urge to breath first thing in the morning. I come from the sales side of the ISP and SEO industry as part of my interactive background. In my time, I did OK. In that time I also saw MANY who did not do OK and wondered what they said in an interview to get hired. That’s the way it is with most sales positions which is why turnover is so high and ‘opportunities’ are more than most other job segments. Part of the trouble is the learning curve for sales folks especially in a space that changes as rapidly as Internet marketing does. It’s very different than those who are actually delivering the services being sold. Sales people usually have a 30,000 foot knowledge of what they are selling. Many know just enough to close a deal. Once again this is normal although I won’t go so far as to say it is good. In fact, I would bet that many service delivery folks are ready to jump through the screen right now. Sorry. Apparently the folks at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) have seen trouble in the area of digital media sales that has gotten so bad that they have introduced a certification program for this important group in the overall mechanism of Internet marketing. The IAB’s press release states “The certification program will help raise the level of professionalism in the digital field by allowing salespeople to demonstrate their knowledge of the complex interactive environment,” said Michael Theodore, Vice President, Member Services, IAB. “Much like examinations in other fields, this test will give current job holders and job seekers a ‘score card’ to prove their understanding of the most important concepts, guidelines, and best practices in digital advertising. Businesses also benefit by ensuring that they have the most competent sales teams possible.” Let’s just say this is a long time coming. I would venture that most of the trouble that the industry experiences from customers and clients who have been burned by a provider of any kind are, at the very least, the indirect result of sales incompetence. I am very comfortable saying that because I have been guilty of displaying that incompetence (which was rooted more in ignorance rather than me being a sales scumbag) in the past. Selling in the interactive space is a difficult thing to do especially since everyone is an ‘expert’ (Now that is where TRUE certification needs exist as well. If we could develop a client certification process that would solve all the problems in the interactive world). This certification concept is a good idea so at least a baseline of competence can be established thus creating a more professional sales force. So who is behind this along with the IAB? Well to name a few there is CNN Money, Conde Nast Media Group, Disney Interactive Media Group and many more. Let’s just say it’s not a fly by night effort to extract money from people (I hope at least!). So what will be covered? Differentiating the benefits of digital versus traditional media Describing digital advertising formats Defining key digital advertising tools and technologies Calculating media mathematics Adhering to compliance standards/policies Understanding differences in digital ad formats Prospecting for new clients Aligning digital advertising products with client objectives Comprehending internal and third-party research Analyzing, launching, and monitoring digital advertising campaigns and data Reviewing opportunities to renew or upsell digital advertising campaigns To be sure it’s not exactly an Ivy League load of work for qualification. The press release describes it further There is no formal coursework required for the “IAB Digital Media Sales Certification” examination. Designed for salespeople with 2-5 years of experience in the digital industry, it is recommended that candidates have a strong command of current industry issues, players, and operations, as well as a broad understanding of every major digital platform. The test costs $350 for IAB members and $450 for non-members. While certifications can be obtained anywhere and sometimes the concept rings hollow the main thing this program has going for it is that it comes from the IAB. If Joe’s School of Digital Media Sales were doing this, it would be a non-story. But this is the IAB and they have seen enough evidence to put together this program to try and clean up whatever it is that prompted this course of action. What do you think about this kind of program? Should there be more like this for sales and delivery folks alike? Do you think it really helps? Will it add value? Will it build confidence? Let us know in the comments.

Pathwright Launches Pla...

Online education has been around for years, but they were largely viewed as experiments. Over the last year, things have changed. Elite universities are not only taking online education seriously, they’re building it into their 10-year plans. Harvard and MIT’s EdX is one example, Coursera another , while startups like CodeAcademy , Treehouse , StraighterLine , Khan Academy , Lynda.com , Udacity , and Udemy (among others) are carrying the torch for the flipped classroom. Interestingly, what unites these platforms, aside from the fact that that they’re all in some way educators, is that each has built their own custom software and infrastructure to deliver their content. Are any using traditional learning management systems, like Blackboard or Moodle? Nope. That’s because viable, interactive online education requires software that can meet a new generation of demands: Social, mobile, rich multimedia, flexibility, and scale. Yet, while these well-funded startups have the resources and capital to build custom platforms, there are thousands of traditional schools, education providers, learning coaches, etc. producing stellar learning content that lack the tools necessary to share their awesome content with the masses. That’s where Pathwright comes into play. Greenville, South Carolina-based Pathwright was founded by a team of hackers (and educators) who have set out to build a platform for “the next wave of educators” — a simple, DIY content management system that lets any and all educators create, distribute, and sell online courses under the banner of their own branded, online schools. Today, those looking to take advantage of online classes basically have two options. Hack together an LMS like Moodle or Blackboard, or build their own education software. It was the same problem that led to open source CMSes, or DIY mobile app software, and white label solutions of all stripes. Moodle and Blackboard are notoriously bad, and taking the former route generally leads to poor design, UX, and suffers from a lack of branding options. In terms of the latter, if you have the time/resources to build your own great, but it’s not for everyone. So Pathwright worked with educators and students to fine tune and simplify the process of building a DIY tool for educators. The startup beta tested with an early client, which has already delivered 8K courses and growing, Pathwright Co-founder Paul Johnson tells us. The co-founder says that the big vision is, like that of Udemy, to give educators direct access to students anywhere in the world and to make a living without the need for institutions or legacy tech. Johnson sees a coming increase in the number of niche education options, with the best courses being offered by practitioner teachers, a la Lynda.com , as the lines between educational publisher, institution, and teacher are blurred. A tool that makes Lynda-style distribution possible (the model itself is hard to mimic as Lynda has professional studios to produce its video content) will be in an advantageous position. That’s why Pathwright allows users to teach anything by way of creating interactive learning paths, create a single course, or build an entire online school, train employees and customers, offer courses as curricula, and coach or mentor people in any location. How does it work? Users create a simple path of action steps to guide their students through each course on a single page. These pages can include video or audio lectures, assessments, readings, exercises, or any other type of learning action, and offer the ability to easily upload, create, or embed content from YouTube or Scribd, etc. Each course comes with a built-in social network for every student taking the course, allowing students to share notes, ask or answer discussion questions, and receive grades and feedback from teachers. Teachers can then publish their courses is a built-in, branded catalog and sell them directly, make them invitation-only, or offer monthly subscriptions that unlock all the courses. Educators can also offer online-only or location-based courses, or both, may be self-paced, or on a schedule with varying degrees of teacher interaction. While the increase in scalable, online learning options is good news for the soaring price of education, some online education startups suffer from undercooked business models or stifled revenue streams. In the end, this is a business, so taking a cue from the popular software startup pricing scheme, Pathwright makes its platform cheap to get started, with pricing increasing with scale and users. There are no setup or fixed fees, but once a user has over 10 course registrations, Pathwright charges $7 per registration, plus four percent of sales made through the startup’s built-in catalog. If the school isn’t selling courses using their Pathwright account, then the four-percent fee is removed, and schools can pre-purchase registration credits in bulk to lower the per-registration fee. Find more here . Additionally, the startup recently launched an option for schools to sell their courses on a subscription basis (a la Treehouse) as well as offering courses for other teachers to use in their own private classes. Pathwright also provides related services for a fee, like video hosting and encoding, branded, custom themes, curriculum conversion, etc. While Pathwright’s suite of tools are going to make it an appealing option, the startup is not alone in this market. Under its current model, Pathwright will certainly have overlap with Udemy , which also allows anyone to build and sell online courses, as well as Litmos , an LMS that is more focused on business training but offers basic course building and selling options — to name a few. Both companies are well established and have been in the game for several years at least (Litmos was acquired by Callidus Software last year) and are profitable, so Pathwright has some ground to make up. While we’re seeing a flood of new online ed players entering the space, the landscape is still largely emergent, and I’d say there’s still plenty of room for each to scale before they’re competing directly for customer acquisition. There are just too many entities looking for easy ways to offer, sell, and distribute their own courses, and the market is still largely underserved. Pathwright hasn’t raised any funding to date and remains focused on product and marketing, but will likely look to begin fundraising later this year. For more, check out Pathwright at home here . What do you think?

Crowdfund A Needy Kid’s...

It’s too common a story: smart, low-income kid can’t find their academic passion, so they drop out of school. But now you can rewrite this tragic tale with the help of Wishbone.org , a philanthropy website launching today where you can crowdfund high-potential youngsters so they can afford inspiring after- and summer-school programs. Wishbone only accepts seriously motivated students and produces its own polished video interviews with them, so it’s easy to find someone who’ll really benefit from your donation. Started by an LA teacher who saw the problem first-hand, and backed by Ron Conway and the Kaufman Foundation for entrepreneurship, Wishbone has a high-leverage, accomplishable mission. It’s not trying to start education programs, but rather bridge the gap between existing ones and the kids that need them. Years down the line it could be organizations like Wishbone that save tech from the talent crunch. There is a crisis in education, and it’s about relevance. Many students aren’t excited about their in-school classes because they just don’t see how they lead to a fulfilling career. Wishbone explains that 7,000 kids drop out of high school every day, but 5,600 would have stayed in school if it was relevant to their lives. Unfortunately, the state-run school system is too big and inefficient for a small non-profit startup to fix. That’s why Wishbone’s founder Beth Schmidt , a Los Angeles Teach For America teacher, looked for what could be done after the school bell rings. As a trial in 2008, she ran a marathon to raise money and asked her students to write research papers on the programs they’d like to attend. Before, only 10% of her students would turn in essays, but this time 75% did. She funded seven students to attend after-school and summer-school programs. All seven of them graduated high school and went on to college. The model worked so it was time to make it scale. Now four years later, TechCrunch is proud to help Beth launch Wishbone.org . It’s starting with 12 hand-picked schools from low-income communities in San Francisco and New York City. Teachers there help promising students who have no record of behavior problems apply for funding to attend an approved out-of-school program. Wishbone then shoots a video interview with the student and publishes a high-quality profile for them on Wishbone.org. The kids also get guidance from a network of Wishbone mentors. Donations come from people like you as well as foundations and corporations, while Wishbone negotiates reduced tuition and scholarships with program providers. Wishbone.org lets you browse students by interest or location, learn about their lives and the programs they want to attend, and give money to a specific student or a general fund. For example, Victor here needs donors to give about $2000 in the next 30 days so he can attend LEAD Computer Science Institute at Stanford, pursue his interest in engineering, and become a programmer. Christina wants to become a biochemical engineer , but needs your help to go to COSMOS camp where she can learn robotics, biophysics, and chemistry. Donors receive thank you letters and progress updates from the kids they sponsor, creating a personal connection to the impact of their generosity. To track its own performance , Wishbone closely monitors graduation rates, grade point averages, and in-school engagement of the students it funds. The whole site is powered by an internally built custom CMS designed for scalability. Kiva.org is great for helping adults get small businesses off the ground, but kids need help too. Many of us who’ve succeeded in technology were fortunate enough to get a great education, one that made us dream big. With a donation through Wishbone , you can activate a child’s ambition and pass the love of learning on to the next generation.