This week in TheStartup100
News of note for the most important startups and trends.
Note: the number next to each company is the rank of the company on TheStartup100
4. Square
- Announced shutdown of Square Wallet (Chart per CB Insights)
- CTO Bob Lee is leaving the company. He was the 13th employee and has a most awesome Twitter handle:
- Launched Feedback allowing customers to provide feedback directly from their receipts. The service is $10/month and looks to be the first compelling premium service from Square - look for more though.
5. Pinterest
Announced its first paid test of Promoted Pins and then raised $200MM valuing the company at $5B.
The WSJ had a predictable response:
6. SpaceX
SpaceX's Dragon had another successful return from the International Space Station. Dragon is the only supply ship capable of returning items to Earth.
Hard to disagree with this:
10. Uber
Rumoured to be in talks to raise $1B at a $10B valuation. Would join AirBnB and Dropbox in $10B club.
Interesting post on using Uber from Y Combinator partner Aaron Lewis:
I only realized recently how deeply I dislike using Uber
18. Snapchat
Snapchat is now the highest ranked non-gaming app in the App Store and #10 overall, so it's no wonder that Facebook is rumoured to be developing a similar app called Slingshot.
19. Box
After postponing the Box IPO Aaron Levie, got a big win announcing that after two years of discussions:
General Electric has chosen Box as its corporate standard for content sharing and collaboration
GE has 300,000 employees.
33. Evernote
Announced 100MM users.
And this from Phil Libin, Founder-CEO:
our total spend on advertising to date comes out to less than 1 cent per user
57. TRUEcar
TRUECar went public and with shares closing at $10 CEO Scott Painter made about $120MM.
32. Good Technology
Founded in 1996, Good Technology filed for an IPO. 2013 revenue was $160MM with a $118MM net loss. Good has raised almost $400MM.
Trends
Mobile
Ericsson says smartphones will triple in another 5 years.
According to Ericsson–the world’s largest supplier of mobile networks and the company that probably knows more about who is using what than anyone else–there were only about 1.9 billion smartphone subscribers at the end of last year. It expects that number to reach 5.9 billion in another five years, fueled by growth in the developing world.
From Wired
Fred Wilson on mobile app consolidation:
Not only do we have a rich get richer dynamic in mobile apps, but we also are witnessing a maturing market consolidating. The big mobile app companies, Google, Facebook, Dropbox, Twitter, Yahoo!, and most recently, if you believe the rumors, Apple, are acquiring the leading mobile apps, further concentrating the list of companies that have apps on the leaderboards and apps on our home screens.
Fred also provided a screenshot of his screen, which has not yet consolidated.
Bitcoin
Forbes has a good piece on serial entrepreneurs Jeremy Allaire and Halsey Minor and their Bitcoin startups. Says Allaire:
“We’re really trying to make using digital money accessible to mainstream users"
Allaire's track record makes Circle worth paying attention to.
Finally
Dropbox founder and SAT-perfect-scoring Drew Houston's Y Combinator App
About TheStartup100
TheStartup100 and this blog are a project of Frank Anderson. I'm an internet entrepreneur; former investment banker and consultant; and studied at the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago. You can email me at frank(at)thestartup100.com.