Over the past 10 years I had to learn a few ingenious ways to drive traffic to my websites with $0 dollars. I had a few opportunities where I was lucky enough to hit a few viral home runs. My first viral homerun came in 2006 with a single press release and the help of […]
Orchid Labs, a San Francisco-based startup that’s developing a a surveillance-free layer on top of the internet, has raised a bunch of funding, according to a newly processed SEC filing that shows the year-old startup has closed on $36.1 million. The money comes just five months after Orchid closed on a separate, $4.5 million in funding from investors, including Yes VC, cofounded by serial entrepreneurs Caterina Fake and Jyri Engeström. Others of its earliest backers include Andreessen Horowitz, DFJ, MetaStable, Compound, Box Group, Blockchain Capital, and Sequoia Capital, according to its site. The stated goal of the Orchid is to provide anonymized internet access to people across the globe, particularly individuals who live in countries with excessive government oversight of their browsing and shopping. Part of the point also seems to be to insulate users from the many companies that now harvest and sell their data, including walled gardens like Facebook and other giants like AT&T. In a word where one assumes the Cambridge Analytica scandal is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to data abuse, it’s easy to see the project’s appeal. So far, says the filing, the company has raised that $36.1 million via a SAFT agreement, an investment contract offered by cryptocurrency developers to accredited investors (42 of them in this case). But the filing shows a target of $125,595,882 million, and based how hot particular blockchain ideas are getting, and how aggressively they’re being funded (see the Basis deal earlier this week), you can imagine more money will flow to the company if it hasn’t already. That’s also an awfully specific target on its filing. We’ve reached out to the company for more information. You can also check out its white paper if you’re curious. In the meantime, it’s worth noting that Orchid has five founders with varied and interesting backgrounds. They include Stephen Bell, who spent seven years as a managing director at Trilogy Ventures, shopping for opportunities in China, before returning to the states in 2015; Steve Waterhouse, long an investor with the digital currencies-focused firm Pantera Capital; former Ethereum Foundation developer Gustav Simonsson; software engineer Jay Freeman; and Brian Fox, who is credited with building the first interactive online banking software for Wells Fargo in 1995 and who was the first employee of the legendary programmer Richard Stallman’s Free Software Foundation, among other things. Between the money involved, the mission, and the founders, this one looks like a Big Deal. Stay tuned. ... Read More
Friday Night Lights, the football show that was never just about football (and one of the best shows on television), is now streaming on Hulu. Say goodbye to the weekend is all I’m saying. Hailed as one of the most honest depictions of a functioning adult relationship in its portrayal of the husband and wife duo of “Coach” Eric and Tammy Taylor, Friday Night Lights also worked wonders for showing the life and high school times of teens in a small Texas town. The show is phenomenal. If you haven’t seen it, you should, and if you have (and if you’re me, you have many many many times), this weekend is as good a time as any to watch it again. For Hulu, this is part of a clutch of shows from the ’90s and 2000s that are touchstones of popular culture. The streaming service already holds Will & Grace, Felicity, Dawson’s Creek and The O.C. Created by writer/director Peter Berg and inspired by the wildly successful book of the same name by H.G. Bissinger, the show tells the story of football and families in a small Texas town. The series launched (or cemented) the careers of several actors, including Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Adrianne Palicki, (and a post-Wire, pre-Fruitvale Station, Creed and Black Panther) Michael B. Jordan, Minka Kelly, Jesse Plemons and Gaius Charles. Hulu isn’t the only place you can see the Taylors struggle with life in Dillon, Texas. Amazon added the series (along with Parks & Recreation, House and Eureka) to its lineup, as well. ... Read More
Orchid Labs, a San Francisco-based startup that’s developing a a surveillance-free layer on top of the internet, has raised a bunch of funding, according to a newly processed SEC filing that shows the year-old startup has closed on $36.1 million. The money comes just five months after Orchid closed on a separate, $4.5 million in funding from investors, including Yes VC, cofounded by serial entrepreneurs Caterina Fake and Jyri Engeström. Others of its earliest backers include Andreessen Horowitz, DFJ, MetaStable, Compound, Box Group, Blockchain Capital, and Sequoia Capital, according to its site. The stated goal of the Orchid is to provide anonymized internet access to people across the globe, particularly individuals who live in countries with excessive government oversight of their browsing and shopping. Part of the point also seems to be to insulate users from the many companies that now harvest and sell their data, including walled gardens like Facebook and other giants like AT&T. In a word where one assumes the Cambridge Analytica scandal is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to data abuse, it’s easy to see the project’s appeal. So far, says the filing, the company has raised that $36.1 million via a SAFT agreement, an investment contract offered by cryptocurrency developers to accredited investors (42 of them in this case). But the filing shows a target of $125,595,882 million, and based how hot particular blockchain ideas are getting, and how aggressively they’re being funded (see the Basis deal earlier this week), you can imagine more money will flow to the company if it hasn’t already. That’s also an awfully specific target on its filing. We’ve reached out to the company for more information. You can also check out its white paper if you’re curious. In the meantime, it’s worth noting that Orchid has five founders with varied and interesting backgrounds. They include Stephen Bell, who spent seven years as a managing director at Trilogy Ventures, shopping for opportunities in China, before returning to the states in 2015; Steve Waterhouse, long an investor with the digital currencies-focused firm Pantera Capital; former Ethereum Foundation developer Gustav Simonsson; software engineer Jay Freeman; and Brian Fox, who is credited with building the first interactive online banking software for Wells Fargo in 1995 and who was the first employee of the legendary programmer Richard Stallman’s Free Software Foundation, among other things. Between the money involved, the mission, and the founders, this one looks like a Big Deal. Stay tuned. ... Read More
Friday Night Lights, the football show that was never just about football (and one of the best shows on television), is now streaming on Hulu. Say goodbye to the weekend is all I’m saying. Hailed as one of the most honest depictions of a functioning adult relationship in its portrayal of the husband and wife duo of “Coach” Eric and Tammy Taylor, Friday Night Lights also worked wonders for showing the life and high school times of teens in a small Texas town. The show is phenomenal. If you haven’t seen it, you should, and if you have (and if you’re me, you have many many many times), this weekend is as good a time as any to watch it again. For Hulu, this is part of a clutch of shows from the ’90s and 2000s that are touchstones of popular culture. The streaming service already holds Will & Grace, Felicity, Dawson’s Creek and The O.C. Created by writer/director Peter Berg and inspired by the wildly successful book of the same name by H.G. Bissinger, the show tells the story of football and families in a small Texas town. The series launched (or cemented) the careers of several actors, including Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Adrianne Palicki, (and a post-Wire, pre-Fruitvale Station, Creed and Black Panther) Michael B. Jordan, Minka Kelly, Jesse Plemons and Gaius Charles. Hulu isn’t the only place you can see the Taylors struggle with life in Dillon, Texas. Amazon added the series (along with Parks & Recreation, House and Eureka) to its lineup, as well. ... Read More
Speaking at Reboot Develop, Devolver Digital, Paradox Interactive and Raw Fury reflect on their role in a game's success and offer advice on pitching to them... Read More
Loot box ruling from Dutch government body could set precedent in Europe against certain iterations of the mechanic... Read More
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