Rafe's Radar

Oink shuts down

Kevin Rose's startup mill, Milk, is shuttering its first product, the item review app Oink. The app was only live for three months.

Oink was well-reviewed here and elsewhere. Users who became attached to the app (or, like me, who reviewed it seriously) may not have been fully aware that Rose himself wasn't committed to it. As the shut-down notice on the Oink.com page says.

We started Milk Inc. to rapidly build and test out new ideas. Oink was our first test and, in preparing to move onto the next project, we've decided to shut it … Read more

Draw Something to reward fans with new features

Dan Porter's company, the game publisher OMGPOP, had released about 35 games before he, as CEO, decided to try his own hand at game design. He had a goal: create a mobile game that would get 5 million downloads in three months.

His concept to reach this goal? He had two specifications. First, he says, "it should be hilarious." Second: "it's designed for an 11th-grade boy to flirt with an 11th-grade girl."

The design brief became Draw Something, which can most succinctly be described as the word-guessing game Pictionary for a tablet computer, even … Read more

Startup Secret 46: Beginner's mind at Personal Capital

"Don't let your experience be your enemy."

--Bill Harris, founder, Personal Capital

Bill Harris is the CEO of Personal Capital, an online money management service. Anyone can get his company's tracking and stats on existing financial accounts for free. But to step up to the company's full financial management services, there's a $100,000 buy-in.

Personal Capital is a freemium play with cajones.

(My original review, if you're interested: Mint for rich people. The new iPad app is coming out today. I tried it. It's very good.)

Bill has been CEO of … Read more

Google I/O sign-up gizmo may be better than conference itself

Registration for Google's 2012 developer fest, Google I/O, doesn't open until March 27. But geeks, wonks, developers, and designers might want to head over to the reg site straightaway to goof around with the addictive online "Machine" builder that Google has put up on the site.

The fun little Web app lets you create a machine that flips, spins, elevates, and guides a virtual marble from the left side of the screen to the right. The site says that the best Machines will get featured at Google I/O. This is may be part of … Read more

Startup Secret 45: Might as well go big

"It takes the same amount of time to run a small company as a big one."

--Shervin Pishevar, Managing Director, Menlo Ventures

This was just a little tip that Shervin let slip during a judging panel he was on at the Launch conference (stories). Later, Sky Dayton echoed the sentiment, talking about one of his early ventures running coffee shops in Santa Monica.

Sky watched Starbucks take off while he was running mom-and-pop cafes. He recognized that Starbucks chief Howard Schultz was probably not working much harder than he was, yet Starbucks was opening stores every day. … Read more

Here are the Launch Conference winners

I have already weighed in on my top picks from the Launch conference (Day 1, Day 2), but I was also part of the conference's Grand Jury panel that picked the winners from the show in categories more standard than mine. The full rundown follows.

Also at this conference, more than a million dollars of prize money was committed to investing in these startups, with, again, Space Monkey being the big winner. My favorite Demo Pit company, Scoot Networks, also made off with $50,000, and That's Suspicious Behavior nabbed a much-needed seed round.

Launch is a great … Read more

Reporters' Roundtable: The Apple TV is a big fat deal

Of the two products Apple launched this week, I think the more important was the Apple TV update. Because it's in the living room where Apple has the more interesting battle going on. This "hobby" of a product is still imperfect, but it's making major waves with consumer electronics companies, content producers, and cable firms. Why? Because with an Apple TV (or a competing product, like a Roku), you can bypass the old-line media economy.

Or can you? We're discussing today how Apple is trying to rewrite the living room entertainment experience. We have two great guests on the show:

John Falcone, CNET's executive editor for reviews in New York. Matthew Moskovciak, our home theater editor, also in New York.

… Read more

Startup Secret 44: A rose by any other name

"You make it mean something."

--Don Dodge, Developer advocate, Google

Don and I were at the Launch startup conference talking about goofy company names. It turns out he's sort of in favor of them. New companies spend way too much on securing what they think are important, common-word short URLs. And then they try to back into the justification. Color, for example. Or Path. I can tell a company has paid too much for a domain name when I ask the CEO what it cost, and they turn red and quietly answer, "We'd prefer … Read more

Day Two at Launch: Five amazing, boring winners

SAN FRANCISCO--Another day, another two dozen or so new companies and products at the Launch conference. And again, five more winners and some bonuses. Today my winners (not the judges' winners; those I'll report on later) are mostly companies solving boring, dull, old-fashioned, real-world business problems. In other words, things that will make actual money.

There is some exciting technology in here, though:

1. License123 From the guys at Docstoc comes a new service that knows which licenses you need to open your business, whatever it is, no matter where you are. It saves the business owner the hassle … Read more