More big money for another Electric Car

By Vivek | August 30th, 2007 at 09:15 am ET     2 Comments »    

Electric cars are all the rage these days and we will have another one to chose from pretty soon(count in years). Shai Agassi, who was member of Executive Board of SAP till earlier this year, is now going launch a new electric car company. And to deliver that car his company is raising big money- $200 million. Main backer behind the venture is Israel Corp, which has agreed to invest $100 million for 33 per cent stake in the company. Not much details beyond that at this point.

I wonder if Jeff Nolan, who was also at SAP earlier, is involved in this venture in any way since he mentioned about his green tech interests on his blog earlier.

Related:
Shai Agassi Blogging
Tesla gets a change at the top
Aperta?s UFO like hybrid vehicle …
Electric Vehicle investments roundup

Magnify.net - Meaningful video channels + Ad $$$s

By Vivek | August 29th, 2007 at 11:41 pm ET         

With far too many video sites out there to meaningfully relate as to where they all are headed, i was bound to miss out on few interesting ones. Magnify.net falls into this undiscovered gems class. Anyway, now i know them and also about they are looking to make money off videos while also enabling you to do the same.  

What Magnify really offers is the ability for users to create channels of content that can be then shared with like-minded people. You might argue that most of the sites already enable that, right? Well sort off, but not exactly a direction that Magnify has taken. You as a channel creator get to search and add content to you channel from any of the video sharing sites on the web - Youtube, Revver, … And all these aggregated video are then available for your users to view, rate, and comment on.

Again, at your disposal is the ability to review, organize and share content-specific video, all of which get published to a highly customizable site under Magnify.net.

From stats standpoint, individuals and small business owners have created over 10,000 channels at Magnify since it’s launch in Jan 2007. The startup claims to have gotten 7 million pageviews last month.

While, that part sounds great, all channel owners want is to make money. To that end, Magnify.net today launched the beta release of it’s AdShare Network. The new advertising program enables channel owners to have complete control over their advertising strategy, including singing up and deploying their own ad inventory. With few config options in place, you can be earning money via Google Adsense, Revver, or any of the affiliate networks. And best/worst part of the deal, depending on side you look from, is that Magnify does a 50-50 split of ad revenues.

Litepost– Email Simplicity

By Samuel Guzman | August 29th, 2007 at 09:34 pm ET         

Many email companies try to be new and innovative, but many times in their attempts to be creative, they end up rolling out a complicated release. So, users can end up with unnecessary features(like, 3 pane layout. What?) that clutter up the interface and slow down loading time. Recently though, some companies are trying to get back to the basics of email functionality. One such company is Litepost.

The founder of Litepost, Nathan Braun, told me that it was his dissatisfaction with the current incarnations of email services like Yahoo, and yes, even Gmail, that made him start the Litepost project. One way he intends to improve email is by having the best interface possible. He says, “having the fastest, lightest, smoothest email service on the planet will indeed be a significant accomplishment, when it is fully finished and polished–AJAXed or not.” If you have seen the screenshots of Litepost, it certainly looks exciting. As a beta tester, I can tell you that it is much faster and nicer to look at than most of the email services I have used. But Litepost’s ambitions do not end with a killer interface. “We also want to be: the most elegant, flexible and extensible AND the most advanced, easy-to-use, and efficient,” said Nathan.

Another way the email gurus at Litepost hope to make their email platform the best is by making it open source. This will go a long way towards creating a “flexible, extensible” email system. Many people have already tried their hand at modifying Gmail with greasemonkey scripts, but imagine the possibilities with an open source email system: integration with your favorite services, single sign on, customization, offline functionality, and more. The Litepost team has already made an early release of their source code available on their website.

One feature that Litepost has already incorporated is the ability to upload your own stylesheets. While Litepost has by default three nice looking themes, they realize that the myspace generation likes to make things personal. If your goal is the best interface ever, why do all the work yourself? Let a growing community of web designers help you.

In short, Litepost is unlike any other email service on the web. It’s goal is not the biggest feature set, but the best feature set. However, the Litepost team still has a long way to go to reach their goal. There are many features that Litepost is missing that could very much improve the service. That is the purpose of beta testers though, and Mr. Braun and his team are very serious about user feedback. I think Litepost is a very exciting product that could change the way we think about email. Because it is in its infancy, it is hard to judge how big Litepost could become, but it is my guess that it could very well be the next killer communications app.

Similar services are Tamadaa and Zimbra.

Bonus.com re-launches next month

By Vivek | August 29th, 2007 at 09:30 pm ET     2 Comments »    

Bonus.com, having been out there since the year 1996 is no where near qualifying as a startup in any sense. Nevertheless the family targeted entertainment site is ready for a re-launch. Next month, Bonus.com will re-launch into an evolving digital family ecosystem and become an interactive family entertainment site – where parents and kids can play, create, and connect together online. In somewhat similar terms to Famster, Bonus.com will be bundling social media with entertainment space for family fun.

From the feature perspective, the redesigned gets a new webcomic for kids - The Paranormals; a Comic Book Creator where kids can develop and share their own comics; Bonster Avatars – lets kids create their very own Bonus avatar (or Bonster). To keep up with Gaiaonline(news) and likes, kids would get to choose from a variety of accessories, clothing and bodies to design an avatar that shows off their creativity and style.

To add the mix, Bonus will also offer two-player games, ability to view streaming video, clips, trailers, etc. from a variety of entertainment formats including movies, TV shows, games and music with customized expanding information pages, and The Fridge, more…

Trying out the new redesign available at their beta site, the site does feel heavy ’cause of being flash based. Besides that the extra large advertisements are way too distracting. Anyway, with sites like Club Penguin being taken for $350 million by Disney, I think  this might be right place to play.

What a pain - RedHerring 100/200

By Vivek | August 29th, 2007 at 02:57 pm ET         

Yesterday EditGrid pinged me on getting into “Red Herring 100 Asia” list. EditGrid is definitely a great product and had to be there in the list. And then, curious me thought about peeking into the rest of the companies that Red Herring picked.

While the actual announcement gets published today, I ended up on the list for “This Year’s 200 Finalists”. And what they have out there is a list for sure, but one that only has the company name, URL, and country. No categorization, no tagging, nothing. Just plain, simple, clickthrough-if-you-are-so-curious kinda list. I don’t get it. Why put up all this effort and ultimately deliver a totally useless list?

Personally, I don’t think I have the patience of going through each of those 200 sites to discover something relevant. If anyone finds anything useful and not covered at StartupSquad.com, let me know.