Author Archives: Eric Eldon
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s Long-Time COO, Becomes First Woman On Its Board Of Directors
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's four-year chief operating officer, has a new position -- and one many people thought she should have gotten long ago. She's now the first woman on the company's board of directors.
She'll have her own vote in all company matters, Facebook confirms with us. Board members of the public company are elected by the existing board or by shareholders (in this case she was elected by the other members).
Facebook Recruits Apple “Software And Hardware” UI Leader Chris Weeldreyer To Its (Smartphone?) Mobile Product Team
Facebook is finally working closely with Apple -- on iOS 6 -- but it's also hiring away some of its design talent. The latest is Chris Weeldreyer, who has just left his position as a user interface design manager to become a product design manager at the social network.
What will Weeldreyer be working on? "We're excited to welcome Chris Weeldryer to Facebook, where he will be a great addition to our growing design team," Facebook tells us. But we've also learned from a source close to the company that he'll be focused on its mobile products.
Codecademy Plans Global Code-Teaching Expansion With $10M From Branson, Milner, Kleiner, Index, Union Square
Codecademy, the New York startup that wants to teach the world to code, has capitalized on widespread interest by raising a second venture round of $10 million from top investors -- Kleiner Perkins, Index Ventures, Union Square Ventures and Yuri Milner -- and serial entrepreneur Richard Branson.
It's been at the right place at the right time. Thousands of people now want to start their own tech companies, but haven't learned the necessary technical skills. And software is eating the world -- millions of people are finding code useful for their other jobs, anything from setting up form emails to crunching data in spreadsheets.
Codecademy Plans Global Code-Teaching Expansion With $10M From Branson, Milner, Kleiner, Index, Union Square
Codecademy, the New York startup that wants to teach the world to code, has capitalized on widespread interest by raising a second venture round of $10 million from top investors -- Kleiner Perkins, Index Ventures, Union Square Ventures and Yuri Milner -- and serial entrepreneur Richard Branson.
It's been at the right place at the right time. Thousands of people now want to start their own tech companies, but haven't learned the necessary technical skills. And software is eating the world -- millions of people are finding code useful for their other jobs, anything from setting up form emails to crunching data in spreadsheets.
Instagram’s Systrom: Video Is Hard But Cinemagram Is Interesting; Also, Focus On Big Problems
Startups like Viddy and Socialcam are angling to be the Instagram of video -- that is, to figure out some simple way of creating, editing and sharing mobile videos, in a way that resonates with users like the photo-sharing service has.
But it's hard, Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom said on stage at Le Web London today, because of the medium. Videos take minutes to load. "Users want a faster experience, they want to produce quickly. [With Instagram] you can take a photo and make it beautiful in seconds."
Instagram’s Systrom: Video Is Hard But Cinemagram Is Interesting; Also, Focus On Big Problems
Startups like Viddy and Socialcam are angling to be the Instagram of video -- that is, to figure out some simple way of creating, editing and sharing mobile videos, in a way that resonates with users like the photo-sharing service has.
But it's hard, Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom said on stage at Le Web London today, because of the medium. Videos take minutes to load. "Users want a faster experience, they want to produce quickly. [With Instagram] you can take a photo and make it beautiful in seconds."
General Catalyst Joins SV Angel, Andreessen And Yuri Milner To Invest In The Y Combinator Start Fund
The Start Fund, the consortium of top investors who are backing all Y Combinator companies, has a new partner: General Catalyst. The storied 12-year-old venture firm has already been busy expanding into Silicon Valley from its Boston home in recent years -- and it has already gotten into around ten YC companies, including top ones like rental marketplace AirBnB and payments company Stripe.
So the fund is a natural extension of the firm's effort. Started early last year by DST's Yuri Milner and SV Angel (and later adding Andreessen Horowitz), it has been providing $150,000 convertible notes to every single company that gets accepted into Y Combinator, on top of the $20k that the seed-stage venture firm already puts in. This way, of course, these investors can get equity in any of the many YC startups that turn into big businesses, instead of having to battle it out in later rounds with the countless others who want in.
Facebook’s Mobile Power: 83M People And 134M Clicks To iOS Apps In May, Plus Top Leaderboard Spots
It's been anecdotally clear for months now, but Facebook has indeed found a place within mobile developer ecosystems. Today at its App Center launch, the company said it had sent 83 million unique users and a total of 134 million clicks to iOS apps over the course of the last month. Meanwhile, seven of the top ten iOS apps and six of the top ten Android apps have some form of Facebook integration.
Facebook’s New App Center Is Here: The Details
Okay folks, we're live at Facebook's press event for... sure enough, its new mobile App Center, the one that started leaking out earlier today. The company shared most of the details about how the store will work during a May press announcement, but to review: it'll be one central store for finding any app across web, iOS, Android, mobile web, etc. You'll get app suggestions based on ratings and what your friends play, similar to previous recommendation features that Facebook has provided over the years. And, paid apps are also part of the deal.
Twitter Hires Senior Google Ad Exec Richard Alfonsi; Long-Time Product Leader Elad Gil To Advisory Role
Twitter is still busy making changes to its senior management. Following up on product leader Satya Patel's departure earlier this week, we've learned of two other significant moves. The first supports the company's recent statements about its ad business growing faster than many observers had expected.
Richard Alfonsi has been recruited from a senior sales position at Google to be Twitter's new vice president of global online sales. According to his LinkedIn bio, he was previously responsible for "driving global sales and business strategy across Google’s full Display Ads product set including the Google Display Network, buy-side advertiser platforms, sell-side publisher platforms, and the DoubleClick Ad Exchange."