If ever there was someone with an entrepreneurial spirit, it's Eric Simons, known to many as the AOL squatter.

As CNET was first to report, Simons spent two months last year living surreptitiously at AOL's Palo Alto, Calif., offices, surviving on the company's kitchen fare, using its gym and locker room, and sleeping on its couches. All while working long days building a startup as part of an education-based incubator that had its offices in AOL's building. Until he was caught by AOL security and thrown out of the building, that is.

At the time, Simons' … Read more

Twitter is looking to bring in some entertainment industry folks to sit on its board, a new report claims.

The company is interviewing several media company executives or industry bigshots to sit on its board, All Things Digital is reporting, citing sources. Chief among the candidates is former News Corp. executive and Hollywood bigwig Peter Chernin, All Things Digital's sources say.

Chernin is no stranger to the online world. He already sits on Pandora's board of directors, and according to All Things Digital, has made some investments in Asia that relate to digital media. After leaving News Corp., … Read more

Any entrepreneur taking a crack at a digital music startup must either be super determined, completely crazy, or a both. The chances of legal run-ins with the labels are high. And even when you play by the rules, the rights payments are so steep that making a profitable business is all but impossible.

Yet this isn't deterring Jeff Yasuda, a 40-year-old venture capitalist turned entrepreneur who's been doggedly running music startups since 2006. His latest, Fuzz (the same name as his first startup), comes out of stealth mode today after a year of building a team -- one … Read more

Corporate venture-capital funding was on the rise during the second quarter of 2012.

Research firm CB Insights, which provides quarterly data on VC investments, revealed today that a total of $2.1 billion was offered up to startups during the second quarter in just 118 deals. The total invested capital nearly doubled the first quarter's $1.09 billion in investments. During the second quarter of 2011, funding hit $1.81 billion.

So, where is that cash going? According to CB Insights, Facebook's $1 billion acquisition of Instagram prompted corporate venture capitalists to flock to the mobile arena, where … Read more

Anyone who works in tech is going to like this. Wealthfront, an online financial adviser based in Palo Alto, Calif., today rolled out an interactive tool (see below) that let's you see what tech jobs pay among private firms across the country.

You'll learn, for instance, that software architects make more than managers -- a mean of $183,000 a year plus equity compared with $163,000 plus stock -- and that cash compensation across all tech companies is $112,000. Another curious finding: Despite the huge demand for engineers in Silicon Valley, jobs in the northeast pay … Read more

Square is growing by leaps, bounds, and venti lattes.

The payment-processing company, which allows merchants to swipe cards with a device connected to mobile devices, today announced that it's now handling $8 billion in transactions every year. Just a year ago, that figure stood at over $1 billion, and earlier this year, Square CEO Jack Dorsey said the company was processing $4 billion in transactions per year.

That growth has meant far more revenue for Square. Although the company doesn't divulge its financials, it takes a fee of 2.75 percent for each card swipe through its service. … Read more

Tovbot, a startup that wants a future full of personal robotic assistants, has launched a Kickstarter campaign for Shimi, which is auditioning to be your own personal robotic DJ.

The robot -- created by roboticists from Georgia Tech, MIT, and IDC -- takes advantage of smartphone technology to play music and pick songs based on your taste or mood.

It's essentially a cute, shiny dancing robot that performs a Pandora-like service and costs $199 (unless you help fund it through Kickstarter -- it's going for as low as $129 there).

"We want it to be your little musical companion," co-founder Gil Weinberg said at TechCrunch Disrupt today during the conference's startup battlefield segment. … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- Square and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey said today that founders must be willing to accept new ideas -- which can come from anywhere -- if they want their companies to evolve and to keep disrupting existing industries.

Opening his keynote address at TechCrunch Disrupt here today, Dorsey noted that he didn't grow up wanting to be an entrepreneur. Now that he's helped start two of the most important companies in Silicon Valley, though, Dorsey said he wanted to share some of the lessons he's learned during his career, ideas that he clearly thinks can … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- Venture Capitalist Ben Horowitz, half of the powerful Andreessen Horowitz duo, talked about how a lousy performing IPO -- are you listening, Mark Zuckerberg? -- can be a wrenching experience.

"The biggest pressure is on the employees who go home and someone in their family says, 'I read in the paper that you guys are bunch of idiots'," said Horowitz, who was interviewed at Techcrunch Disrupt by Silicon Valley veteran Bill Campbell. "It's a really hard thing to take."

Horowitz was talking about his experience as CEO of LoudCloud, a 1990s-era company … Read more