So the big news from the last week: TechStars is now 100 percent more Y Combinator, having raised a new fund from investors so it can give every graduate a $100,000 convertible note. But, did anything else happen?
3-D WHAAAT. “MakerBot Industries announced today the launch of yet another innovation to 3D printing, the MakerBot Stepstruder MK7. The most compact and reliable extruder to date, the MK7 produces the most detailed prints ever created on the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic.” Woot!
OPENING UP. Canv.as is, the second image-based startup from Christomoot Poole, is in public beta now (as is Google+). Alpha invites went out for Diaspora, that New York expatriated startup still occasionally poking at the fringes of our awareness. But Canvas still has a complex domain and the Twitter handle is @canv_as. Ick!
TIME FROM NYTM DEMO TO FUNDING: APPROXIMATELY SIX MONTHS. “Sitesimon.com is relaunching into public beta today as a new service and announcing its $500K angel investment for the first time. Sitesimon now brings the best content on the web to you, automatically tailored to your interests in real-time. Using a unique combination of social and science (and an awesome new browser add-on), Sitesimon privately analyzes what you browse and who you connect with online to recommend the best content for you. Best of all, it learns from what you’re already doing, so it requires no additional work on your part.
We also raised $500K earlier this year from angel investors Ken Cron (Former CEO, Vivendi Universal Games; Former President, CMP Media), John Ason (early investor in Diapers.com/Soap.com, Ology.com, and Hotlist.com), and Samer Hamadeh (Co-Founder, Vault.com & Zeel.com; Venture Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners). We’re based in NYC and currently in the ER Accelerator.”
CHOOSE YOUR SLIPPER. A New York startup launches for those of little feet. “Once impossibly hard to find outside of the children’s section or grandma’s basement, thanks to the Odd Slipper, shoes for petite feet will now be easy to find with the click of a mouse (or heel!) And they’ll be on-trend and user-voted. Since it can be so difficult to find these sizes, we’d love to get the word out through the fashion community and reach those women who are often frustrated with the typical shoe store size offerings. Each week starting tomorrow, the online boutique will unveil new styles for the petite-footed woman to check out, vote on, and comment. Once the feedback is in, the best reviewed styles with the highest amount of votes will be sent to manufacturing. The Odd Slipper will be keeping customers updated as to which styles have been picked up and when they’ll be ready for sale.” Yay!
WOULDN’T IT BE LOVERLY. Lover.ly is “a visual search engine and cloud scrapbook” for “brides and their to friends search, save, and share wedding inspiration from the best sites online.” The founder and CEO, Kellee Khalil, is a top Hashable-using networker and just hired an editorial director: Julie Raimondi, former EIC of Brides.com and Brides Local mag. “Sort of cool to see someone leaving Conde Nast for a startup,” startup evangelist and new mediaite Rachel Sklar writes. “Julie was also previously exec editor at The Knot.” Congrats!
TONITE: Even though two Ubers are gone, Projective Space rocks on. BYO Game Night is tonight: “We’re acting on spur of the moment and can’t refuse any opportunity we can grab to bring our friends, fans, and members together for an evening of games and drinks. Mario Kart, Wii Sports, Halo, Poker, Ping Pong, Board Games…We’ll have ’em all and definitely encourage you to bring your own, perhaps we can geek out to Settlers of Catan? Generously hosted by PS member and traveling website Wanderfly, there’ll be refreshments provided if you can peel yourself away from the screen.” Fun!
THE WEEKEND. Hack for the hungry at the NYC Famine Hackathon and check out the multimedia art at the Dumbo Arts Festival. And rest up for YCNYC on Monday. Squee!
