Swipecast Nabs Venmo Co-founder as Advisor

Swipecast, the app that brings together stylists, photographers, designers and models all in one place where they can exchange information, review each others’ portfolios, set up castings and even book each other for jobs, has announced Iqram Ismail as advisor.

Ismail was introduced to Swipecast in August after using the app to source creatives for his own side project in music production. He realized that Swipecast was entering a market ripe for disruption, as modeling’s brick-and-mortar business hadn’t caught up to the technology permeating the freelance economy.

Check out the full story over on BuiltInNYC

Venmo Cofounder Wants to Change How the Fashion Industry Gets Paid -- BuiltInNYC

Outernet Joins The Space Race For Internet Accessibility

Outernet is an ambitious and hugely important initiative to bring free information access to the world.  To date, the small but passionate team has gone live on 3.5 continents, raised over $500k on IndieGoGo, and will be installing hardware for venerable institutions such as the World Bank.

Today marks another great stride for Outernet, thanks to a partnership with the UK Space Agency, and Scottish satellite equipment manufacturer, Clyde Space, on a cost-sharing project for manufacturing “cubesats.”

Here are some important reads on Outernet and their initiatives in the media to date:

• Outernet Joins The Space Race For Internet Accessibility -- TechCrunch
• UK Space Agency Boosts Cubesat Space Internet Plan -- NBC News
• Satellites Will Beam One-Way Internet to the Earth's Most Remote Areas -- Vice Motherboard
• What Is the Outernet and Is It the Future of the Internet? -- Gizmodo
• The best way to connect the 4.3 billion people offline may not be via the Internet -- The News Hub
• Beaming the Internet from Outerspace -- CNN
• Outernet would Provide Offline Access to Web Content via Radio Waves -- Chicago Tribune
• These Tiny Satellites Could Bring Internet Access To The Entire Planet -- Fast Co. Exist
• The 'Outernet' Wants to Give Internet to the Entire World -- Vice Motherboard

Seen Announces Investment to Capture Live Events

Tarikh Korula, formerly of Frog Design and Uncommon Projects, launched Seen out of a moment he experienced in personal frustration.  After organizing and deciding a winner for an East Coast TechCrunch hackathon, Korula couldn't find a photo of the project even after tons were snapped and uploaded by the attendees.

Today Seen is announcing a $1.25M seed round. Li Ka-Shing and Jeff Citron (Horizons and KEC Ventures respectively) join in investment for Seen, a graduate of The New York Times Company’s “timeSpace” accelerator. They join notable angels including David Tisch’s BoxGroup, Scott and Cyan Banister, Matt Rolandson and Sam Tripodi, Andrew Rasiej, Cantora Records, and Thatcher Bell, Venture Partner at Gotham Ventures.

For coverage on the funding, which will be used to build a new paradigm for organization, search and discovery on the real-time web, click through the links below.

• Seen.co Secures $1.25M From Horizons Ventures And KEC To Capture Live Social Events -- TechCrunch
• The Next Big Thing You Missed: Recreate Live Events with Twitter and Instagram -- Wired
• Seen secures $1.25M in seed funding -- Cornell Tech
• New York's Seen makes sense of social media's news coverage -- Uncubed

*UPDATE (2/27/15) -- Seen hosted an informative panel "Real-time News at the Speed of Mobile" during Social Media Week NY. Panelists included Aaron Edwards of Buzzfeed and Brian Ries, real-time news editor at Mashable. Check out the Seen here.

*UPDATE -- Tarikh and Seen were just featured in AlleyWatch's "21 People in NYC Content You Must Know About"

Inaugural LDV Vision Summit Brings Computer Vision to Forefront of NY Tech

The processes for capturing, managing, searching and sharing visual communications are being radically reinvented. A first-of-its-kind conference in the heart of New York City, LDV Vision Summit brought together industry heads from NY companies like Time Inc., Magnet Media, Taboola, The Blaze TripleLift and Google to discuss the implications.

MaintainPR handled press attendance and interviews around the event for LDV's Evan Nisselson. Nisselson is a well known angel investor who helps entrepreneurs in building businesses that leverage technology to entertain, increase efficiency, and solve problems.

MaintainPR's efforts drove awareness and attendance of tier one technology press and helped to establish Nisselson as a source for Fortune's series on the future of the image.

Enigma Shows Temperature Anomalies in Powerful Data Visualization

2013 TechCrunch Disrupt winners Enigma have created a pioneering data search and discovery technology structured on top of the broadest collection of public data on the market.

With Labs, Enigma uses their own platform to create informative visualizations to educate and encourage the exploration of information. The latest was an eye-opener.

U.S. Daily Temperature Anomalies 1964-2013 is a visualization of a 50 year period (1964-2013) signifying a clear trend: Since 1964, the proportion of  warm  and  strong warm  anomalies has risen from about 42% of the total to almost 67% of the total – an average increase of 0.5% per year.

Enigma and MaintainPR worked together after publishing the visualization and analysis taking advantage of the wider availability of public data, in order to make the topic of climate change more relatable for people. For the coverage we generated, click through the links below.

• If You're in the U.S., Get Used to More Record Hot Temperatures -- Mashable
• 50 Years of Temperature Anomalies, Mapped and Animated -- Reddit
• Watch America's Weird Weather Get Hotter Over 50 Years -- Fast Co. Exist
• U.S. Daily Temperature Anomalies, 1964-2014 -- Information is Beautiful
• Five Decades of Warm and Cold Weather Anomalies -- Flowing Data
• New Ways to Visualize Increasingly Hot Weather in U.S. -- Climate Central

Battlefy Raises $1.3M from William Morris and former Riot Games Board Member

Esports now sellout  in-person tournaments at LA’s Staples Center, where the Lakers and Kings play, and boast tens of millions of worldwide television viewers.

With an allstar board of advisors and proven turnkey solution, Battlefy launches today for Esports players everywhere to organize players, teams and tournament brackets.

Their funding includes backing from Hollywood A-list William Morris and Deep Fork Capital. Battlefy is a graduate of the Amplify LA accelerator.

For all the coverage click through below:

• Battlefy, a “Pickaxe” for eSports, Raises $1.3 Million Seed Round -- Recode
• Esports tournament-management startup Battlefy raises $1.3M in seed funding -- Venturebeat
• Battlefy CEO Jason Xu gets Hollywood investment in Esports -- Chicago Tribune
• Pro Gamin Platform Battlefy Gets $1.3M from US Investors -- BetaKit
• Esports Tournament-Management Platform Battlefy Enters Public Beta -- Gamasutra
• Battlefy Locks In for Public Beta, eSports Tournament-Management Platform -- Structure Gaming
• Vancouver E-sports Startup Battlefy Raises $1.3 Million Seed Funding Round -- Techvibes
• Esports Tournament-management Platform Battlefy is Entering Its Public Beta -- ReadyUp Gaming
• Battlefy Founder Jason Xu Hopes To Simplify Esports -- GameSkinny
• Battlefy Finds $1.3M -- SocalTech

*UPDATE: 2/18/14 -- Jason was asked by serial entrepreneur and veteran podcast host Jason Calacanis to come on This Week in Startups (TWiST)! View the episode here.

Allthecooks Showcases Glass GDK

Today marked the start of wearable tech as we know it, and MaintainPR client Allthecooks was front and center with their product offering.

For full coverage of Allthecooks on Glass, click through the link below.

• Google Releases Glass Development Kit ‘Sneak Peek’ And 5 New Glass Apps That Already Use It -- TechCrunch
• Google releases 'sneak peek' of Glass app-development kit -- The Verge
• Google offers 'sneak peek' of Glass development kit -- Engadget
• Google Glass throws open its doors to developers -- CNET
• Google Releases Official GDK -- MarketingLand

*UPDATE: 12/30/13 - Mat Honan's feature story on Glass for Wired featured Allthecooks as one of the ONLY useful apps in his opinion. We briefed Mat in-person well ahead of this piece. Read it here.

Lutebox Announces Seed Funding/BETA Launch from Le Web London

MaintainPR client Lutebox, a new and pioneering social mall where you can shop together with family and friends while videochatting, announced their seed round and a major strategy pivot today from Le Web London.

Starting today, people can browse for top brands at leading retailers such as M&S, Bhs, Boots, Sainsbury’s and Debenhams, view content together, get instant feedback and have live discussions, all while socializing with friends at the same time. It's all done through a proprietary video chat within the Lutebox platform, and coverage on this new methodology for shopping online certainly got people talking.

Bobbie Johnson from GigaOm posted his thoughts in between curating on stage at the event, and BetaKit has also weighed in, stating "merchants are obviously excited about the idea, since it provides another opportunity for them to market their wares without any real risk."

Congrats on the successful BETA guys!

ViewsOnYou in About.com Job Searching

ViewsOnYou have an exciting product proposition for our times -- where social media has truly reached its tipping point, and Facebook continues to dominate all facets of life online.

The site and Facebook app allow you to set up a 360 review and profile from crowdsourcing your peers. You can then match your "soft skills" against the growing database of companies to see your best fit in the workplace.

Alison Doyle, career expert for About.com, took the site for a spin and did this write up, stating: "by matching you personality with that of other companies, you can more easily decide which jobs to apply for -- and which don't seem to be a good fit for you."

Click here to see the full article.

Ethical Community in Metro UK

MaintainPR client Ethical Community (think Etsy, but with a green market stall type feel) are featured in the Metro UK today, proof their concept of an eco-friendly, online marketplace is taking off!

For more views and news (including all the great press coverage the guys have achieved to date) click here to head over to the Ethical Community press page.

Gruvi's Social Film Marketing Expertise Featured in The Hollywood Reporter

A great quote from MaintainPR client Gruvi appears in this piece by Georg Szalai of The Hollywood Reporter on Facebook and it's impact for film marketing post IPO.

Gruvi's new Wave suit of Facebook apps is an investment for film marketers seeking augmentation of Facebook ad and marketing strategy with earned media. To put it simply, Gruvi creates buzz around a movie like Spotify does for a tune.

Gruvi's James Hobbis goes on to say in the piece, “The smart marketer with a small budget can box above their weight thanks to Facebook and social media,” then explains the rationale why.

Read more on The Hollywood Reporter.

Ryan

MaintainPR Clients Teamly and Bluefields Set to Make it Big in 500 Startups (Silicon Valley Incubator)

Today's Evening Standard carried great news from Silicon Valley, with lead Science and Tech Editor Mark Prigg writing on two of London's most promising startups (and MaintainPR clients:) who just announced their "accelerator" period!

Teamly for reinventing the performance review, and Bluefields for sports team organization have been accepted into Dave McClure's prestigious 500 Startups incubator, where they will take their concepts to the next level through coaching and an undisclosed (at this time anyway) investment!

Here is to both founders sticking to their guns, Scott Allison of Teamly, and Andrew Crump of Bluefields! Nice going guys.

Ryan

colourDNA Launches iPhone App to Multiple Glowing Write-Ups

MaintainPR client colourDNA, who are slowly and steadily building an alternative social network and recommendation platform for sharing your loves online have today announced the introduction of their much anticipated iPhone app for sharing loves on the go and getting recommendations based on your current whereabouts.

Techcrunch covered the launch asking their readers whether this is "Pinterest for colour?," and both SiliconANGLE and Appolicious have standalone thought-provoking reviews at launch as well.

To top things off, Shiny Shiny, one of our favourite UK technology review sites made the colourDNA iPhone app "App of the Day" on launch day and AG Beat chimed in to cover the news as well.

Congrats to colourDNA and their developer on an app well done!

Scott Allison Techcrunch Guest Post: The Trouble with Non-tech Cofounders

Teamly's Scott Allison has been impressing folks on both sides of the Atlantic lately, and his recent interactions/experience in Silicon Valley, has brought us this great guest post for Techcrunch's Europe Channel.

The Trouble with Non-tech Cofounders gets to the point of why so many startups fail.

Here's an excerpt:

"I’ve seen the problem with non-tech founders a few times now, different people, different ages and backgrounds, with different levels of skill, but all with the same thing in common: having to rely on someone else to bring an idea from paper to screen."

A great read and getting lots of comments, so click through to check it out!

PechaKucha App Edition Alumni Quipper Secure Funding From Atomico

We've been hearing great things around participants ever since the inaugural PechKucha App Edition MaintainPR put on back in May of last year.

Quipper, a technology venture specialising in e-learning mobile apps secured a $500,000 round from Niklas Zennström's Atomico in November! Talk about a happy new year!

We also think it's high time we caught up with Kliqed and The Situationist as well, since so much can happen in a short time!

Stay tuned for more updates!

Teamly's Scott Allison on 30 Second Mentor

MaintainPR client Teamly is all about getting work done right. The simple web interface lets individuals and small business stay on top of their to-do list by focusing on a users top five priorities for Day/Week/Month.

Recently Teamly's founder, Scott Allison, who blogs about lean startups, entrepreneurialism and business management here was asked about how to do financing right for The Financial Post's 30-Second Mentor Series

Check it out!

30-Second Mentor delivers quick advice via an innovative video-only format and exemplifies the National Post's and Postmedia Network's dedication to a digital-first strategy in a smart and entertaining manner.

Congrats Scott!

Calling All Data Hungry Journos -- Duedil Wants You!

Duedil (www.duedil.com) is a showstopper. A beautiful and easy-to-master UI you access from your browser, wrapped around sought after information on public (currently UK) companies, and the men and women that run them.

That's why founder Damian Kimmelman and his team walked off with this year's award at the Techcrunch EU Geek N Rolla's and why technology and business reporters that are in the know are signing on to help in the next steps of the company: making Duedil the #1 place for business intelligence on the web.

If you are a data hungry journalist, covering business in this always-on world, where services like Duedil can now present a wealth of information that previously would have eaten away hours of your life in research, then Duedil wants to hear from you.

Drop a line to press@duedil.com for access, and to be a part of a feedback program beautifully outlined here by GigaOm's Bobbie Johnson.

MaintainPR and Mobilezr Launch PechaKucha App Edition

With the mobile economy and startup focus on apps at its current state, MaintainPR sought to launch an app event that could add value to both the London Silicon Roundabout and San Francisco app and business communities. We accomplished this along with the help of the UK-based mobile development company Mobilezr, when last month, the first PechaKucha for apps was held in Shoreditch, London.

PechaKucha (meaning chit chat) is a presentation style and non-profit of Japanese origins, and the speedy, highly visual flow of the events is exactly what we wanted to help promote an informal and creative meeting space for app developers and business. So, after getting formal approval from the PechaKucha founders, and lining up some of Europe's most innovative app companies for a charitable cause (donations from the door went to Architecture for Humanity's reconstruction effort in Northern Japan) we met at El Paso near Hoxton Square on a Tuesday night and drew a crowd of forward thinking startups founders, developers, and creatives...then got to presenting.

I'd like to thank the following folks and their companies for the excellent presentations delivered in true PechaKucha form (under six and a half minutes each):

INQ Mobile -- Makers of smartphones for the Facebook generation. Tim Warren, Product Manager, walked us through the latest device, the Cloud Touch. @INQMobile

Turned On Digital -- The Situationist App is already a hit with Wired, Huffington Post and more. Mia Bennett, Founder and CEO, told us why. @kalepook @todhq

Vungle -- Creators of videos for apps. Jack Smith, Co-Founder & CMO, and Zain Jaffer, CEO, told us why video will be the driver for your app's user acquisition success. @ZainJaffer @_jacksmith @vungle

Quipper -- Creators of the Chelsea FC Quiz app, and Matt Roberts Week Blitz. Tobes Kelly, Head of Business Development whipped us into shape on the companies fast rise to prominence. @QuipperApps

Kliqed -- An app that saves your social life. Rami Chowdhury, CTO, helped us understand how to reinvent "me time." @Kliqed

Sukey -- Sukey keeps protestors safe, mobile and informed. Samuel Carlisle who is a London-based hacker and Open Source proponent unleashed the next level for the app. @sukeyData

You can check out the creative presentations over on MaintainPR's Scribd account here.