Startup Community Blog

Digital dating is nothing to scoff at; its a big business, and its changed a lot of lives  mostly for the better. Yet, while dating has seen enormous progress during the Digital Era, theres still a lot garbage out there, and the space is still mostly dominated by a handful of old names. A gaggle of dating sites and apps have appeared over the past five years, but few have had real staying power, and many have gone the way of the dinosaur.

While its still too early to make any pronouncements, its looking more and more like Tinder could buck the trend. Created by Hatch Labs  an LA-based startup backed by IAC, the same Barry Diller-led digital media giant that owns Match.com and OKCupid  Tinder has grown like a weed since it launched in October. A crazy, dating weed.

In part, thats due to timing, and in part because Tinder is based on a familiar, throwback model, drawing on the same addictive formula behind Hot or Not. Essentially, its Hot or Not made mobile, casual and connected to Facebook, but rather than promising to introduce people to their one true soul partner/life mate, Tinder just wants to make it easier to flirt  and get you off your ass to meet people. In the real world.

By focusing on reducing the creepiness factor (always a relative term in dating, mind you), reducing spam and by targeting young people, Tinder has been able to find that elusive, exponential growth curve. (Unsurprisingly, its initial growth spike came from college campuses, and the average age of its users is still 23.)

Its also fairly easy to use: Its free, it doesnt focus on building traditional profiles, instead pulling basic info from Facebook, is location-enabled, and matches users to other people nearby based on similar behavior, interests and so on. If youre not interested, you can pass. If you are, it connects you with the other person, allowing you to chat and arrange a meeting offline.

Thanks to the above, the app has been seeing the same kind of growth that Facebook, Instagram and Twitter saw in the early days, Tinder co-founder and CEO Sean Rad tells us. But what does that mean, exactly? When we wrote about Tinder in early January, it had served one million matches and users had made 35 million profile ratings. Today, Rad says, Tinder has served 50 million matches and users have made 4.5 billion ratings.

So, while the team is keeping a tight lid on the number of downloads and users its attracted to date, from what we do know (and what weve been hearing from other sources), its safe to assume that both number well into the millions. And keep in mind: The app was released in late October.

Tinder also seems to be avoiding a common trend among popular mobile apps: High number of downloads, but comparatively low engagement. In Tinders case, Rad tells us that around 50 percent of users open the app once a day, while approximately 75 percent open the app once a week and around 85 percent use the app every month.

Based on this growth, rumors have been circulating for months now that claim Tinder is in the proces of raising a big round of outside funding, or is in the process of being acquired. At this point, the founder says, neither of those are true. While the company isnt sharing how much its raised to date, we do know that IAC is its primary investor, and owns a minority stake in the business, having been the sole investor in its seed and series A rounds (which we hear total in the millions). And the startup was incubated within IAC.

IAC would likely love to own Tinder outright, as would others, but at this point the startup is resolved to stay independent, and go public rather than sell. Of course, theres a long road ahead, and these things have a habit of changing. Furthermore, while Tinder has opted not to raise outside capital, our sources tell us that this hasnt stopped venture capitalists from courting Tinder in every way possible.

With plenty of runway ahead and initial growth and scalability snags behind, Tinder has begun to focus more on product development as well as an area that will be key to its future: International markets. To date, 15 percent of Tinder users hail from outside the U.S., the CEO tells us, with the highest adoption coming from Canada, Australia, Brazil and Ireland. (In recent weeks, Rad says, Tinder was seeing 2,000 downloads/day in Brazil.)

Going forward, the team of 13 will begin its international growth efforts in the UK, Australia, Latin America, Germany, France and China, in particular. To do that, the company is working on additional language support, targeted marketing and hiring local reps in each of these countries. Rad also sees big opportunity for growth in Asia, thanks to the explosion of mobile adoption, and is currently working on partnerships that will help it move into Asian markets and localize the Tinder experience to native languages, networks and so on. (Like how to leverage the biggest Chinese and Asian social networks for authentication, as opposed to relying on Facebook, for example.)

Tinder has also been busy building tools that will help it follow through with its mission to solve social, discovery and networking problems outside the confines of dating. Today, for example, the startup is releasing a new feature called Matchmaker, which allows users to create matches between any two Facebook friends  for any purpose.

Once users establish that connection, the two friends can chat within Tinder without sharing their contact information. The idea is to create a casual, simple way to make an introduction, whether you want to set two friends up on a date or make professional connections. Rad tells us that Matchmaker is anonymous and solves the awkward problem of introducing people and then being included on the resulting thread  an annoyance often experienced in email and Facebook intros.

With Matchmaker, the introducer doesnt have to be removed from the thread, they can send the message to the two people they want to connect, and thats it. If the recipient isnt on Tinder, theyll see that they get a message on Facebook, and they can then quickly create a Tinder login if they want to see the post.

Another cool feature of Matchmaker is that the person who makes the introduction can see if the match is active and they can get a sense of their success rate. Rad assures me that this feature is intended to be high level so that its not creepy, allowing users to get just enough of a sense of the activity level of the intros they curate so that they can check back in (or send a reminder) if the conversation goes silent.

Again, the idea is that, while there are plenty of media through which people can make digital introductions, those connections tend to carry more weight if theyre friend-approved. If that intro comes from a close friend, youre more likely to follow through on it than if not. Of course, theres the question of whether or not people will want to make introductions in a professional context through a networking thats primarily associated with dating. For this reason, the startup is launching the feature in beta to test it out and to see if it catches on.

As part of this new release, Tinder is also making some improvements in the areas where its user experience has been less-than-impressive. In particular, many users have complained that the apps sorting algorithm has matched them with teenage or underage users. (Not cool, Tinder, not cool.) So, in this release, Tinder now includes age filtering, so that users can select their preferred age range, along with making some general improvements to the accuracy of its matching algorithm and improving the speed of chat within the app.

As of now, Tinder remains exclusively an iPhone app, but the CEO tells us that the team is working on an Android version, which will be ready within the next few months. The team also has plans to develop tablet apps, but dont expect Tinder to show up on the Web anytime soon. Tinder is going to remain mobile-centric for the foreseeable future.

In a crowded space, Tinder has, so far, managed to buck the trend and find that elusive, exponential growth curve. Of course, the next year will be critical. As growth inevitably levels out a bit, Tinder will have to keep evolving if it wants to avoid being another flash in the pan. International could hold the key to sustaining that growth, but it remains to be seen whether users will be willing to think of Tinder as more than a casual flirting and dating tool. That could be a tough sell, but if they get there, expect Tinder to stick around for awhile  and be on the receiving end of calls from every VC on the block.

For more, Find Tinder here.

The ROI of social media is something of a black box for many e-commerce companies, but New York-based startup Olapic is beginning to change that. The company, which allows brands to collect user-generated photos from services like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to display on their own website, is now offering an analytics suite to help retailers and brands understand what content works and how its affecting conversions.

Olapic was founded by Pau Sabria, Luis Sanz and Jose de Cabo, who met while attending Columbia University, and this past summer it closed on $1 million in seed funding from Bonobos and Warby Parker backer Great Oaks Venture Capital, plus Brad Harrison Ventures, Columbia University’s Lang Fund, and other angels. Its now cash flow positive.

At the time of the initial funding, the team said the plan was to expand the software-as-a-service platform beyond the publishers and brands it had previously worked with (which included Condé Nast, Pepsi, NY Daily News, The Baltimore Sun, and various sports teams) to reach those in the e-commerce sector.

Today, Olapic has worked with around 100 companies, a good many of which represent the young, trendier e-commerce companies where something like an on-site Instagram gallery has a better chance to work. To date, Olapic has worked with over 40 top e-commerce brands, including Lululemon, Baublebar, Nasty Gal, Coach, New Balance, Teva, Guess, Reef, Steve Madden, Threadless, and many more.

Retailers are using the service to engage their community via contests and other campaigns, asking fans to hashtag themselves modeling the clothes, shoes, or other accessories, for example, or just sharing photos of their favorite products. For one campaign Luluemon ran this past fall (#TheSweatLife), 26,000 consumers responded by posting photos on Instagram with the appropriate hashtag.

Olapic offers the e-commerce companies backend technology to manage the submissions, in order to vet the images before they appear on the site or quickly sort through a selection in order to determine a contest winner, for example. Now, its helping the retailers make better sense of the data surrounding those images, too.

With the new analytics suite, retailers can track which photos are getting clicked, what those click-through rates are, what products are trending, what consumers are interested in, conversions, and more.

During its beta, clients saw an increase between 5 and 7 percent in their conversion rates when they displayed user-generated photos on their site, and click-throughs on the most engaging photos was between 15 and 20 percent. The majority (82 percent) of the latter came from Instagram.

Also, the company has found that, on average, the shoppers who interact with a real persons photo on the site convert at 2 to 3 times higher than the average shopper. This increase can be attributed to the fact that people can finally see what the clothes look like on normal people, instead of the models typically used to showcase the fashions on shopping sites, explains de Cabo, but its also related to the fact that those who are browsing the images are probably doing more product research, which indicates an increased intention to purchase.

But theres something more to it, too. Olapic has also arrived at a time when theres a shift underway in e-commerce and shopping trends. Brands and retailers want to more directly engage with their audience, and in turn, the audience expects the company to be engaged and responsive.

In addition, younger users  which especially speaks to the 18-30 demographic that favors shopping at many of Olapics clients sites  have grown up with smartphones and social media, and are now transitioning to communicating through photos, instead of static posts containing just text.

You can see this trend playing out on the larger stage as well. Its why Facebook acquired rapidly growing photo-sharing app Instagram, and became fearful enough of private photo-messaging startup Snapchat to ship a clone called Poke. Its why Pinterest caught many by surprise with its quick ascension, and why Twitter has been moving away from 140-character text-based posts to support richer media like photos and video, even acquiring the video-sharing service Vine along the way. Most recently, its why image-heavy (well, GIF-heavy) site Tumblr was snatched up by Yahoo, a company seeking its return to cool.

For the youngest demographic in particular, they dont want the brand marketing to them, they want it to provide a platform which enables participation. Case in point: although Olapic offers a button that allows users to request their photo is taken down, the company says that of the over 100,000+ photos that have been publicly shared by brands, only one user ever requested a photo be pulled.

Fans are generally excited when a photo is posted, explains de Cabo. Our partners are telling us theyre receiving a lot of comments and emails that [consumers are] super pysched to be a part of the brand, he says.

More details about Olapics platform are available here.

There are a number of password management solutions on the market today, but CommonKey, a new browser extension out this week, has a different take. Instead of focusing only on the needs of the individual user or offering a complex solution for the enterprise, it provides a password management system which allows small businesses the ability to share passwords securely across a team.

The bootstrapped, Baltimore-based startup was co-founded this October by Andrew Stroup, a civilian engineer who currently works at the Department of Defense, and Michael Cohen, whose programming background is in the medical sector. Obviously, both of these industries involve a deep awareness and understanding of security and privacy.

Stroup today works in the realm of countering weapons of mass destruction, and no, he cant talk much about his work there.

But he can talk about the fact that hes also now appearing on the Discovery Channels The Big Brain Theory show (get it? brain not bang?), which he had signed up for prior to having the idea for CommonKey. Filming has since wrapped, but the show ate into a couple of months time back in the early days of the company. He explains interest in being on the program was personal, describing it as nerd heaven, and equating it to a Top Chef for engineers.

During the competition, Stroup got to build robots, basic missile defense systems, and designed a system to protect the payload on the back of the truck, among other things.

It was tough for me to step away, he says of the experience. But it was one of those things where I left college being told that I would never be able to design, build and deliver a system from cradle to grave again, and the show was an opportunity to do that eight times. And part of the reason why CommonKey attracted me, too, is that I was able to start that process over again  starting an entire idea from two guys, and then seeing that all the way through.

CommonKey has launched as an extension for the Chrome web browser, but the plan is to soon bring it to Firefox, Safari then to iOS and Android as a mobile app. It works a lot like any other password manager available today, except that in its case, a business owner can create an organization and groups within that organization (e.g., PR, marketing, development, sales, etc.) in order to securely share common passwords among the team.

Users establish their own CommonKey accounts, which they can also use for one-click logins to personal services like Facebook, Twitter, email or anything else thats not work-related. In fact, the service works just fine if you wanted to use it as an individual, and will also soon include a feature that automatically generates strong passwords for you, too.

However, when added to a team, users then gain access to company accounts, all of which are available in the same drop-down box.

Stroup says he got the idea after spending time engaging with tech startups, and seeing how they shared their accounts among the team.

During its beta period, CommonKeys service is free, but the plan is to eventually charge companies based on number of employees with access to shared accounts. Pricing has not yet been set, though.

The CommonKey extension is available for download here.

 

Were less than a week out from our Austin TC Meetup + Pitch-Off, and I can already smell the barbeque in the air. Austin, are you ready to rumble?

The Austin Meetup + Pitch-Off is going down on Thursday, May 30, at The Stage On Sixth.

The event begins promptly at 6pm and runs until 10pm. Tickets are $5 each, and include booze.

But, you ask, what exactly is this fabled TC Meetup + Pitch-off that Im pushing?

Well, at its core its a gathering of your citys local VC, entrepreneurial, startup and general tech crowd. Attendees can socialize, drink booze (21 and up please) and maybe even meet a few really cool people. But thats not all.

The TC Meetup + Pitch-off is equal parts meetup and pitch-off, which is a competition that lets entrepreneurs and founders pitch their products to a panel of judges with only sixty seconds to make their plea. Even if the ideas arent interesting (which they totally are), theres real entertainment value in watching someone battle against a clock.

We will talk to local Austin luminaries Bijoy Goswami and Noah Kagan on stage and then well run the pitch-off with more locals to pass judgement on your startups. Ill be MCing. Itll be great.

Our NY Meetup + Pitch-Off was a smashing success. PaddleYou was spotted in Hardware Alley after coming in third at the Pitch-Off, while runners up Talkz and winner 3DLT both made it into the Disrupt Battlefield.

Applications are currently closed for the Austin pitch-off, but tickets to the event are still available here. We still have some startup tables left where you can demo your product to the attendees and TC staff. If you have any questions about the tables, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Our sponsors help make events happen. If you are interested in learning more about sponsorship opportunities, please contact our sponsorship team here This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Were all familiar with the bill shock associated with roaming abroad with our cellphones. There are plenty of players that allow you to swap out your SIM card and use cheaper traffic, including Cubic Telecom. However, that process is tedious. So Cubic has secured new funding to enable a range of tablets and notebooks to have their technology built into partner devices. To do this theyve raised a further $5.2 million in funding from Enterprise Ireland, Qualcomm Incorporated, ACT Venture Capital and TPS Investments.

The money will be used to expand globally, and invest in the technology which essentially allows Cubic to operate like its own global mobile phone carrier, not an MVNO. As a licensed mobile network operator (MNO), Cubic Telecom partners with Tier 1 mobile operators to provide coverage in 230 countries. Its Software Defined Network (SDN) works across multiple technologies (3G, 4G-LTE, CDMA and WiFi).

The Dublin based company has also secured contracts with a number of leading Fortune 100 tablet and notebook manufacturers to be in-built into their devices, though these partners have yet to be announced.

The embedded nature of the service means any changes to the internal SIM can be Over The Air (OTA).

Barry Napier, CEO of Cubic Telecom, says they will enable the latest devices and applications to be always connected anytime anywhere.

In plain English, that means Cubic Telecom devices can integrate with content and apps. Thus, imagine a word where an app provider asked Cubic to allow its use to be free on Cubic dvices. All it would require would be a simple OTA update form Cubic to its customers. That could be a very powerful place to be.

The company also announced that it will create a total of more than 70 new jobs over the next 3 years, as part of an investment supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through Enterprise Ireland.

AngelPad, the San Francisco-based accelerator founded by former Googler Thomas Korte, held its sixth demo day yesterday. I wasnt there (I know, its super-embarrassing), but I did get to meet with Korte and partner Carine Magescas today to talk about the newest batch of companies.

Magescas said that in the three years since AngelPad was founded, the premise of what we had in the beginning has been validated. That premise breaks down to three main ideas, she said. First, she and Korte push [the startups] really hard. Thats particularly important in the companys early stages, Korte said, because it can be hard for the founders to get honest feedback from their family and friends, and because making a relatively small change can have a big effect on a startups ultimate trajectory.

Another reason the partners might be particularly tough on the startups is because theyre investing their own money. Theres no separate fund — at least not yet. (When I asked, Korte said, There hasnt been a fund to date, followed by what may or may not have been a significant pause.)

Second, Magescas said, We are a really small family. Twelve startups were chosen from thousands of applicants. The first AngelPad group had eight companies, and there was one with 15, but theyve settled on a dozen for the last few classes. That allows the AngelPad team to spend a lot of time working one-on-one with each company.

I feel like its better to spend more time with less companies, Korte said, adding that hes realized that having a long list of well-known mentors isnt as useful. There are outside experts who come in and give talks on a specific subject, but it really falls to Korte and Magescas to work closely with the founders. When you have too many different people offering cookie cutter advice, Korte said, It hurts more than it helps.

Third, they said AngelPad has always had a strong focus on business-to-business companies. In fact, theres not a single consumer-focused company in the current class, according to Korte — some of them might offer consumer products as part of their business, but none of them are focused on building large-scale, free services that make money from advertising. At the same time, Magescas said theyre open to consumer startups, they just have to be really good.

So thate the vision. Here are the companies, in alphabetical order:

Audience.fm uses data from existing music services to help bands and marketers reach their desired audience. For example, if a band was making a tour stop in San Francisco, Audience.fm could identify the bands biggest fans, and they could offer free or discounted tickets.

Boxbee is a storage startup that delivers boxes to its customers. You fill the boxes with whatever you want to store, then Boxee picks up them up. It won the best new startup prize at this years Launch conference.

Chasm.io is a content marketing network, where influencers and brands share content that they want to see promoted. Rather than getting paid for sharing sponsored content, its more of a quid pro quo system, where influencers are rewarded for successful sharing with points that they can redeem to share content of their own.

DroneDeploy has built software for commercial drone operators (just to reemphasize — commercial drone operators, not military ones). The founders are former Googlers with machine
learning PhDs from Cambridge and Edinburgh. We covered the company here.

Fieldwire is a mobile task management system designed for workers who are out in the field. For example, it could be used by a team of construction workers while theyre on a construction site.

HumanAPI aims to build an API for accessing all the data thats being gathered on various health devices, sensors, and services. So instead of figuring out how to work with dozens of different devices, a medical provider could just pull data from HumanAPI.

Iterable is an email marketing startup founded former Google and Twitter engineers. Customers can test different emails and also personalize the messages to each user without any coding.

Pogoseat integrates with existing ticketing solutions and apps, allowing them to offer seat upgrades. Partners already include Ticketmaster, the Golden State Warriors, and other NBA teams.

Roobiq aims to build a layer of voice commands and natural language processing on top of existing CRM systems, so a salesperson whos out taking meetings could update their CRM from their phone without slowing down to type.

SensorTower has built a marketing platform for mobile app developers, allowing those developers to track and improve their rankings on different search keywords.

TheShelf is a collaboration platform where fashion brands can interact with fashion bloggers. There are already 1,500 bloggers on the platform.

TrulyWireless has built an enterprise phone system thats cheaper than traditional systems and runs entirely on smartphones.

Interested investors can find the AngelList profile of each startup here.

Video ad network Tremor Video has filed for its long-awaited public offering. The companys shares will trade on the NYSE at TRMR and it wants to raise at least $86 million.

Tremor Video, which runs ads on more than 500 Web sites and mobile apps, disclosed in its S-1 filing that from 2011 to 2012 its revenue increased from $90.3 million to $105.2 million. During that period, its gross margin improved from 35.2% to 41.7%, due in part to the adoption of its performance-based pricing models, while its net loss decreased from $21 million to $16.6 million.

Since its founding in 2005, Tremor Video has received a total of $116 million in funding from Canaan Partners, Masthead Venture Partners, W Capital Partners, Meritech Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, General Catalyst Partners, as well as investors Jason Glickman, Mark Pinney and James Rossman. Its IPO will be underwritten by Credit Suisse and Jefferies.

Tremor Video is among several video startups that are anticipated to launch IPOs this year. Bloomberg reports that YuMe and Adap.tv have also began planning public offerings as they look forward to strong growth in the video-ad market this year thanks to a boom in online commercials.

Adly, a startup that connects advertisers with celebrities willing to post promoted messages on social networks, recently raised $2 million in additional funding.

The new funding came from previous backer GRP Partners and new investor Siemer Ventures. Adly has now raised a total of $7.5 million.

The company also launched a new product this week. Its the first thing youll see if you go to the Adly website — a button that says Match Me Up! which allows Adly to analyze a business existing content and followers, then find publishers who are a good match to amplify their content.

For example, when I signed in with my personal Twitter account, Adly said it found six celebrity publishers who, collectively, could increase my reach 61x and my engagement 31x. They include a blogger/entrepreneur with 103,000 followers, an analyst with 180,000 followers, and a podcaster with 199,000 followers. (I also tried to analyze TechCrunchs account, but we have too many followers.) Who are these people? Well, you dont actually get to find out until you actually start a campaign with Adly.

Walter Delph, who became Adlys CEO a little more than a year ago, said this is part of his larger strategy. One of Adlys big selling points is the fact that advertisers arent just getting access to a lot of eyeballs. By enlisting celebrity endorsers, theyre hopefully prompting lots of conversation and engagement, i.e. reach thats earned rather than paid for. The companys next step is building more tools to ensure that the conversation and engagement is happening.

To that end, Adly has been adding analytics to track the results of each campaign — the full reach of the message, the replies, the shares and the clicks. That dashboard, however, is really about looking back at a campaign (though customers get the data in real time, so they could adjust their spending accordingly). On the other hand, Delph said the celebrity matching tool is all about looking forward — its a way to get people started with Adly campaigns. He added that we can expect more features to come that take advantage of the companys reams and reams of data.

By the way, even though Adly is known as a celebrity endorsement network, its actually broader than that. The company has relationships with 75,000 influencers, and Delph estimated that only about 2,000 of them are celebrities in the traditional sense — By celebrity, what I mean is, if you walked down the street you would recognize them. The other 73,000 arent at that level, but they have influence thats valuable to advertisers (at least when it comes to certain topics).

No longer just an oddly flavored potato chip, the Limon is also a new sexy-time vibrator from a startup called Minna. The company is looking for backers for its couples vibrator, which just so happens to look like a pink lime-lemon hybrid.

However, the Limon is no lemon or lime. Its an ultra-powerful bullet vibrator that is controlled by how hard you squeeze it. That is, the harder you squeeze the lime part of the Limon, the harder the lemon-style tip will vibrate.

Minna claims that its the strongest vibrator of its type in the world, thanks to the fact that they squeezed a motor made for larger toys into a lime-sized bullet vibrator. Of course, Im sure the Jimmyjane Form 6 or the Hitachi Magic Wand beg to differ.

The Limon also has a customizable memory, meaning that you can record and playback the vibration levels exactly how you did before.

Interesting, right?

Consider the scenario: Two lovers are chilling with their Limon and one has to go away for a week on some business trip. They can use the Limon the night before, and the lonesome lady will then have a recording of her partner giving her the good stuff. Sexy.

Minna Life  Limon Couples Vibrator from BENT LENS Productions on Vimeo.

The Limon battery will last anywhere between 90 minutes and three hours, depending on how aggressive you are. Its waterproof, charges by USB cable and comes in both teal and pink.

Of course, well have to conduct a complete review, lest we shamefully leave these claims unverified. But for now, the Limon is looking for backers so that it can be made into a reality. Its expected to go for $120, but donations start at $25.

Want in?

Pandora has had a busy quarter. In March, the social radio company saw its long-time CEO Joe Kennedy abruptly step dow , leaving the board to scramble to find a replacement. On the bright side, Kennedys exit, while likely a result of stress, followed relatively good times for Pandora. And its continued to push forward since.

Pandora launched an ad-free version for Windows 8 in March, surpassed 200 million users (with over 140 million accessing Pandora via mobile) in April, then launched a Premieres station for U.S. users and deepened its Facebook integration with a new Timeline App.

Today, Pandoras first quarter earnings reflected this flurry of activity, as the company saw GAAP total revenue increase 97 percent year-over-year to $83.9 million (with non-GAAP mobile revenue of $86.7 million), which outpaced mobile listener hour growth at 47 percent year over year. Meanwhile, total revenue came in at $125.5 million, representing 55 percent year-over-year growth and non-GAAP total revenue of $128.5 million.

Whats more, share of total U.S. Radio listening for Pandora grew to 7.33 percent in April  an increase from 5.86 percent in the same period last year.

This news followed a strong earnings report from Pandora for the fourth quarter as well, thanks chiefly to mobile revenue growth of 111 percent year-over-year (to $80.3 million), which caused the companys stock to jump for joy.

Based on this performance, Wall Street expected the trend to (mostly) continue for Pandora in the first quarter, with forecasts pegging revenue at $123.9 million (on losses of $0.10 per share) for the quarter, compared to a loss of $0.09 per share for Q1 last year  and revenue of $123.5 in Q4. And so it did.

Of his companys performance, Kennedy said:

Mobile listening hours and mobile ad revenue reached record highs, with growth in mobile ad revenue exceeding growth in mobile listening hours. During the quarter, we successfully implemented a mobile listening limit, enabling us to manage our content acquisition costs with minimal impact on listenership or revenue growth. Pandoras subscriber base surpassed 2.5 million, adding more net new subscribers in the quarter than in all of fiscal 2013, giving Pandora the largest US streaming subscriber base of any music service.

Its also interesting to note that Kennedy resigned after last quarter (as mentioned above), yet Pandoras release today names him as Chairman and CEO. It seems either Pandoras copy editors need more coffee or their communications team knows something we dont. Perhaps Kennedys resignation (due, understandably, to heavy stress) was a bit more abrupt than intended and announced early. Although thats not totally clear at this point.

All in all, it was a strong quarter for Pandora, with advertising revenue showing a 49 percent year-over-year increase to $105.1 million, with non-GAAP subscription and other revenue coming in at $23.4 million  a 114 percent year-over-year increase. Non-GAAP basic and diluted EPS were $0.10, right in line with Wall Streets expectations, while the company ended the quarter with $75.4 million in cash, compared with $89 million after the prior quarter. (Cash used in operation activities came in at about $12.6 million.)

Some other notable metrics: Pandoras total listener hours grew 35 percent to 4.18 billion for the first quarter, compared to 3.09 billion for the same quarter last year. According to Kennedy, this quarter Pandoras mobile listening hours hit an all-time high, alongside significant growth of its subscriber base (which Kennedy claims above makes it the biggest in the U.S.)

As to guidance, non-GAAP revenue is expected to fall in the $155 million to $160 million range, while Pandora expects non-GAAP EPS to be in the range of -$0.02 and +$0.01.

You may not be frequently giving out an embarrassingly gushing smile and you might not write little love notes during your lunch break. But, there are ways to tell if you love your job.

Of course, no job is perfect -- even the best of relationships have their down days. We all have to do things we don’t like. I love working at HubSpot, it's the best job I've ever had (but, that's by design). But, even I have “off” days where I'm not spending all my time doing things I absolutely love.

So all of the following may not be the case all of the time.  But when you love your job, many of the following should be the case much of the time:

1. You don’t talk about other people; you talk about the cool things other people are doing.

“I hear Michelle has really improved our customer happiness scores.” or  “I’d love to know how Mike managed to rescue that sale.” “Sherry developed a new tool that's made our lives so much better.”

When you love your job you don’t gossip about the personal failings of others. You talk about their successes, because you’re happy for them – and because you’re happy with yourself.

2. You think, “I hope I get to…” instead of, “I hope I don’t have to…”

When you love your job it’s like peeling an onion. There are always more layers to discover and explore.

When you hate your job it’s also like peeling an onion – but all you discover are more tears.

3. You see your internal and external customers not as people to satisfy but simply as people.

They aren't numbers. You think of them as real people who have real needs.

And you gain a real sense of fulfillment and purpose from taking care of those needs.

4. You enjoy your time at work.

You don't have to put in time at work and then escape to life to be happy. You believe in enjoying life and enjoying work.

When you love your job, it’s a part of your life. You feel alive and joyful not just at home – but also at work.

5. You would recommend working at your company to your best friend…

In fact, you can't stop talking about how cool your company is and the awesome work you're doing even when you're away from work. Your friends and family are envious.

6. You enjoy attending meetings.

No, seriously, you enjoy meetings. Why? Because it’s fun to be at the center of thoughtful, challenging discussions that lead to decisions, initiatives, and changes – changes you get to be a part of.

7. You don’t think about surviving. You think about winning.

You don't worry much about losing your job. You're more worried about not achieving your potential. Not being as impactful as you can be.

8. You see your manager as a person you work with, not for.

You feel valued. You feel respected.

You feel trusted.

9. You don’t want to let your coworkers down.

Not because you’ll get in trouble or get a bad performance review, but because you admire them – and you want them to admire you.

10. You hardly ever look at the clock.

You’re too busy making things happen. When you do look at the clock, you often find that the time has flown.

11. You view success in terms of fulfillment and gratification – not just promotions and money.

Everyone wants to be promoted. Everyone wants to earn more.

You definitely feel that way too… but somewhere along the way your job has come to mean a lot more to you than just a paycheck. And if you left this job, even if for a lot higher salary… you would still miss it.

A lot.

12. You leave work with items on your to-do list you’re excited about tackling tomorrow.

Many people cross the “fun” tasks off their to-do lists within the first hour or two.

You often have cool stuff – new initiatives, side projects, hunches you want to confirm with data, people you want to talk to – left over when it’s time to go home.

13. You help without thinking.

You like seeing your colleagues succeed, so it’s second nature to help them out. You pitch in automatically.

And they do the same for you.

14. You can't imagine being somewhere else.

You're having too much fun.  Learning too much.  

How many of the above statements apply to you and your job?

Looking for other startup fanatics?  Request access to the OnStartups LinkedIn Group.  130,000+ members and growing daily.

Oh, and by the way, you should follow me on twitter: @dharmesh.

It was just two weeks ago that fast-growing enterprise cloud storage company, Box, went out and acquired document embedding service and Y Combinator grad, Crocodoc. Apparently Aaron Levie sees what Yahoo is doing and he wants to show that Box is ready to do a little acquiring of its own.

Today, Box followed up with its second acquisition in as many weeks, scooping up the tech behind French mobile app and Box, Dropbox and Google Drive client for iOS, Folders. Developed by Martin Destagnol, Folders and its tech will be integrated into Boxs new iOS app, which is currently in development (now with support from Destagnol).

Again, Box already has a version of its storage service on the App Store, but like many other companies of its ilk, the service hasnt necessarily been putting its best foot forward on mobile, so to speak. Folders, on the other hand, was developed by Destagnol exclusively for mobile and to simplify file-sharing and complementary functionality for users on the go. And it shows: Folders is a good-looking, elegant app. I say that in the creepiest way possible, obviously.

In its announcement today, Box revealed that its planning to release a new version of its iOS app later this year, and Folders design and optimizations appear to be a big part of the mobile revamp. Furthermore, the motivation behind the Folders (and Crocodoc) acquisitions is not only to upgrade mobile, but the big impact they can have on the overall Box user experience.

VP of Engineering Sam Schillace explains:

Im a firm believer that even applications developed primarily for the enterprise, like Box, need to be pushing the leading edge for user experience and design. They have to be consumer-grade in terms of their usability, simplicity, speed and performance. This definitely raises the bar for enterprise software design and engineering, but theres no doubt that the higher standards are a big win for users and a massive opportunity for Box.

With the service now used by 15 million people at 150,000 businesses across healthcare, financial services and retail, the company is at a key point in its growth cycle. (Though who isnt, lets be honest.) Thanks to building enterprise software that doesnt suck (its a low bar in enterprise, people), the company is moving across industries and will probably show up on the public markets in the next year or so.

Box has established itself, but in doing so, its now competing with the big boys, and although innovation in enterprise tends to move at the pace of a speeding glacier, the company has to keep pushing forward if it wants to take that next step. The consumerization of enterprise is nothing new at this point; companies and, more importantly, end users expect applications and services that are easy to use. That look familiar and social. Whatever that means.

Levie is a champion of this new generation of usable, consumer-friendly enterprise tech, so Box needs to lead there. And, at this point, theres nothing that embodies the consumerization movement better than mobile and the BYOD trend. Box has to work (and look) better on mobile than the old set of Enterprise leaders.

To wit:

When we saw Folders we saw a beautiful experience and set of design patterns that we had to bring to Box’s users. Adding the Folders technology and Martin’s expertise to Box will help us to continue to improve how people collaborate and engage with their content on Post-PC devices. In the near term, Box for iOS will become cleaner, faster and more beautiful throughout 2013.

Toronto-based startup MyShoebox is facing a time in which photo sharing announcements are thick and deep; Google unveiled its updated Google+ photos experience last week at I/O, and this week we seen pretty big announcements from Yahoo! around Flickr. Does that intimated MyShoebox, a photo-focused startup launching its version 2.0 product on the tail of those bits of news? Not really, says MyShoebox founder and CEO Steve Cosman.

MyShoebox is a service that scans a users entire offline photo collection, uploads it to cloud storage and applies organization algorithms to automatically categorize pics and provide different ways of viewing them. The cloud-based computational stuff is similar to what Google unveiled last week, though Googles product is more advanced in terms of being able to identify keeper shots and automatically enhance uploads, but Cosman says his company isnt worried about lagging behind giants like Google in terms of computational power.

Im envious of the tech theyve got, he said in an interview. Were not about to catch up to Google in terms of cloud computational power and sophistication& [but] it’s much more interesting when you apply it to 10,000 photos than to the ones you upload piecemeal. If your photos are still sitting on the hard drive, there’s not much you can do with cloud computing editing tricks.

MyShoeboxs strength is in getting the pictures from storage and sources that arent connected, to the web, as quickly and painlessly as possible. Its a shotgun, not a scalpel, and its very good at what it does. Now, the version 2.0 update introduces features that make that wide-cast net even wider, since it allows for sharing with friends and family. The new Shared Gallery feature means you can swap photos with small groups of friends, each dumping into the same pool. Cosman says that where youd normally only get the one or two photos with you in it your friend chooses to upload, with this new system youll end up with thousands of photos added to your collection. His own nearly doubled when beta testing this feature, he says.

Also new with this update is a dedicated iPad app, as well as rebuilt mobile apps for browsing your uploaded photo collection. The whole point of the update has been on taking the MVP that MyShoebox launched back in October, which saw tremendous demand, and bring it up to a level of performance that could better wow users. Cosman says that interest and engagement continues to be consistently high for MyShoebox, but says well have to wait a while longer for updated hard numbers on its user base.

The company may be a small fish in a big pond, but its looking to be the service thats first to solve the problem of not what to do with your photos once theyre online, but the one that gets them there in the first place. That will put it in a perfect position to leverage the cloud computing tricks that are making photo editing and sharing great once theyre there, Cosman believes.

Barely a month or two after launching the Y Combinator-backed photo-sharing service Popset, the team realized they were solving the wrong problem. Users werent struggling to share their photos with groups; they needed tools to help them organize and manage their photo libraries across a variety of platforms and services. So the company decided to change its course, and today its announcing what it has in store: Loom, a cloud storage and syncing service thats like a better alternative to iCloud.

People were requesting features and giving us feedback that caught our attention, explains Popset and now Loom co-founder Jan Senderek. After interviewing hundreds of users over a months time, the founders had a better idea of what its user base wanted. People told the team of their awful routines for managing photos  backing them from iPhones to external hard drives, having to sync them through iTunes, how quickly the photos ate up precious disk space on their portable devices and MacBook SSD drives, and so on.

There are so many thing that are wrong, and its kind of obvious how to solve that  by simply putting everything in the cloud and making it accessible to you on all your devices, says Senderek.

That, of course, is the promise of Apples iCloud. But it doesnt seem to work as well as it should.

In recent months, Apple users and developers have become increasingly frustrated with iCloud, which has proved to be difficult, buggy, and confusing to end users.

People dont really understand iCloud. They dont understand what Photostream is or how it works, Senderek explains. It actually makes the problem worse. Photostream, which saves the last 1,000 photos on your device, appears like a separate album, which also confuses some users.

The team, which also includes co-founders Philipp Wein and Daniel Wagner, realized they had a choice to make. They could either double-down on Popset or respond to the problems users wanted fixed with a whole new product.

They chose the latter.

Popset users were notified at the beginning of this month that the service would be closing in June, and were offered a downloadable .zip file of the photos they had shared.

The new product, Loom, puts all your photos and videos in the cloud, allowing you to empty your Camera Roll and reclaim lost disk space. Designed to replace the native Photos app, Loom instead uses smart technology to intelligently cache photos and videos based on the size of the device that youre using. In other words, if youre snapping high-def photos with your 16 GB iPhone 5, you dont really need the full resolution version of those photos in order to enjoy them on the small screen, or share them with others.

Loom also works even when it doesnt have a network connection  like Apples own Photos app does. It will just sync everything you do while offline once the device is connected again. And it will support some of Popsets old feature set around album creation and sharing.

Also like iCloud, media stored in Loom will be available on all your devices. A developer API will be available, too.

Initially, the service will work on iPhone, iPad, Mac and web, but the plan is to bring the technology to Android as well, where it will be able to more deeply integrate with the operating system. In addition, photos and videos are only the beginning  the long-term plan is to support other file types including documents, music, audio, TV and movies.

Though Loom is offering something that solves a problem for many, if it goes the freemium route as its now intending to do, it will be up against several services with competitive pricing in terms of photo sync and storage. Facebook, Google, Flickr and even Shutterfly are offering photo upload (even automatic upload) and hosting, either entirely free or with large enough free tiers to make their services the better option for those watching their budget.

But Loom also has another interesting idea for making money  if users ever wanted to download their entire photo archive, Loom could send them either a link to download, or as an additional paid option, send them an external hard drive filled with their media.

Pricing details, however, are not yet available.

Loom is opening up its private beta in about a month. TechCrunch readers who sign up here will be able to get into the first batch which is limited to 1,000 users.

The San Francisco-based startup, now a team of eight, had already raised additional funding for Loom shortly after Popsets launch. An additional seed round is also closing soon.

For those who use Evernote as a to-do list application, the service just became more useful today with the launch of a much-requested feature: reminders. Available to both Evernote and Evernote Business users on Mac, iOS and web (to start), the option now appears as an alarm clock icon at the top-right of the note on Mac and web, and the bottom of the note on mobile (iPhone and iPad).

Though a seemingly minor addition, the feature actually addresses the top three user requests, Evenotes VP of Marketing, Andrew Sinkov, explains in the official announcement about the release. Besides the reminders themselves, users wanted a way to more quickly created note-based to-do lists as well as pin notes to the top of their Note list. Now, all of these items are supported.

Reminders are simple to use  you just click the button, add a time and time, and then youll get both an in-app alarm as well as an optional email when a reminder is due. The note title will also appear in a new section at the top of your Note list, and you can reorganize Reminders by dragging them around. When the task is complete, you tap the check or, on iOS, swipe to remove the Reminder from your list.

Though everyday organizers will appreciate the addition, of course, the feature is also useful for Business users, and its supported in Evernotes shared notebooks.

The end result turns a shared notebook into a something thats sort of like a very basic project management utility. Evernote itself uses Reminders for the companys Video Projects, Sinkov says. Reminders could also appeal as an alternative to the common hack of using Calendar appointments when all you really needed was a simple reminder, not a scheduled meeting.

Evernote makes a few other suggestions for Reminders which also see in encroaching more into the calendaring space, including birthday reminders and doctors appointments (with notes and questions attached), as well as packing checklists.

The company has been busy expanding its feature set designed for business users in recent months, having not only taken the app to new markets, including a localized version for China, but also enabling enterprise-ready options like a Business Library, Related Notes, and improved search. This new Reminders option is something personal and business users would both want, however.

Evernote is now working to bring the Reminders feature to other platforms, and expand its functionality in the future.

Remember how over a year ago, everyone was all excited about the forthcoming Pinterest API? CEO Ben Silbermann even teased its release in a March 2012 email to Pinterest users detailing a Terms of Service change. And API documentation even once popped up on the site, only later to lead to a 404? Well, dont get all excited again, but the API documentation has returned&um, sorta.*

This week, when Pinterest announced support for more pin types (product, recipe, and movie pins) as well as a new Pin It button that works in mobile apps, it also launched a developer site at developers.pinterest.com. The company says the site will be the home to some of the existing documentation and resources that had previously lived on the Pinterest Business site, as well as the new information on the pins and the mobile Pin It button.

Over time, as more tools become available to third parties, we will continue to post resources on this site, a Pinterest spokesperson says.

New tools like that long-awaited API, perhaps?

Though not directly linked on the site itself, an easy guess at the URL structure led to this   http://developers.pinterest.com/api/ - a section which contains some half-written (if that) documentation about the Pinterest API. Details are limited, but the site speaks of a restful, JSON API and offers a couple of sections with very little additional info. (See screenshot below).

Previously, the company had been asking developers interested in an API to fill out the form here to be one of the first to know when its ready. However, several very interested developers tell us that they have yet to hear from Pinterest about the API or even the new Developer site itself, in fact.

* Of course, after asking Pinterest about this page, it disappeared. (The API page now redirects to the main Developers site). Sorry you cant see it for yourself.

We are still working on finishing up this page. It is currently not linked to from anywhere else on the site, the spokesperson says. Were still working on some kinks and want to make all of the content and whats available is great before releasing.

This isnt the first time API docs appeared on Pinterests homepage before disappearing, so this appearance alone doesnt guarantee a timeframe for its arrival. But its promising.

Plus, Pinterests recent launch of richer pins and mobile buttons shows that the company is now moving forward with its plans to turn Pinterest into a platform. And an API is a necessary part of that longer-term goal, in order to enable developers to build rich, third-party apps on top of Pinterests service.

Paper by FiftyThree is one of the most beautiful digital products on the market today.

The immersive drawing app for tablets has won Apples Design Award, a Crunchie, and was most recently honored at Time Inc.s 10 NYC Startups To Watch party. So how do you build on that kind of success?

Well, according to the founders, Paper is but the first product in a series of creative tools. The team is thinking pretty seriously about what comes next, and it seems as though a stylus is where things are headed.

The human hand has evolved to use tools, said co-founder Georg Petchnigg. You have wrists to do fine-detailed work, so the idea of a stylus is really interesting to us. Its something that were thinking about because we want to deliver the best creation experience on tablets, so a stylus is right at the forefront of that.

Currently, FiftyThree recommends customers on its website buy a stylus, linking to an Amazon stylus page as well as promoting the Pogo Connect.

But new products arent the only concern at FiftyThree. The team is also constantly thinking about how to reach a broader audience. As co-founder Julian Walker put it, everyone out there is creative.

That said, the company recently launched a new stream of content called Made With Paper, to help users get inspiration from other works created in the app. This is just a first step in building out more social, community-based features that will not only attract new users but keep loyal ones engaged.

Although the majority of Shazams over 93 million U.S. users still use the app on their smartphones to identify, tag and share the songs theyre hearing, a growing chunk of that user base  around 10 million in the U.S. last year  has used Shazam to identify TV programs and ads. Today, the company aims to better serve this audience with the release of a new, universal iOS application which introduces a number of new features, including the ability to have the shazaming process run automatically in the background.

This feature, called Auto-Tagging, is the standout in todays release. Before, users had to kick off the tagging option by tapping on the screen, then waiting while Shazam listened and then identified the sounds they were hearing, whether that was music, a TV show or a TV ad. While thats still how things will work on the smartphone version, the updated iPad app now offers a more passive experience, designed for those using the app as a second screen while watching TV.

Notably, the feature will not be switched on by default.

Instead, after downloading the updated version, users will be walked through a brief tutorial that explains what Auto-Tagging is all about, then allowing users to switch it on, if desired. If they do so, the app will run in the background, listening for anything it can identify, and loading those items into a carousel at the top of its homescreen.

From here, users can interact with the content much as before  sharing it on social media, buying the song, show or movie from iTunes or Amazon, or in the case of TV shows, learning more about the cast and episode, viewing a playlist of songs in the broadcast,  or heading off to sites like Wikipedia, IMDb, the official website and/or store, and more.

Some TV shows will work continue to work with the company to offer enhanced experiences, like American Idol had done in the past, and The Voice is doing now. These experiences are generally offered to TV show producers for free, with the stipulation that they have to promote Shazam on air.

However, the Fiat Brand and Fox Broadcasting Company are sponsoring the new app for the first three months after todays debut, which is a paid relationship.

Auto-tagging sets us apart from the industry, explains Shazams EVP of Marketing, David Jones of the apps big new feature. The whole idea is that Shazam was already lightning fast and couldnt be easier  it was press one button and, in a couple of seconds, you got the answers. We just one-upped ourselves. We got rid of that step, he adds.

The company started working with television content as far back as 2010, and slowly began to build up its database with several dozen TV shows. It enabled Shazaming of many major events, including the Grammys, Super Bowl, and MLB games. Then, in September 2012, Shazam announced the app could now tag any show on any channel.

Today, the app supports 160 channels of live or DVRd TV, including all nationwide programming and most nationwide TV ads as well  even the ones which have not been Shazam-optimized by those paying to run ad campaigns. To date, over 150 brands have run over 250 TV ad campaigns, leading to a double-digit millions revenue stream run rate, that is doubling every quarter, says Jones. Its a green field situation. We can grow this as fast as we can move, he says.

Meanwhile, he notes his companys second screen competitors are struggling to get a couple of million downloads. (To be clear, he means apps used to ID content on TV. SoundHound is a Shazam competitor with over 100 million users, but its focus is on music.)

Though auto-tagging is the biggest of todays new features, the updated app will also offer a revamped user experience on iPad which includes a way to view songs and TV shows trending around the U.S., as well as popular songs around the world. The social features which previously let users see what their friends are tagging so they could comment on that, are also now available on iPad, as are the full screen LyricPlay lyrics for music.

And Shazam has extended its relationship with Rdio, now allowing subscribers to hear a song in its entirety, instead of just a preview. Users can also sign up for trials, and Shazam will earn affiliate income for those who convert to paying customers. Jones declined to go into the details of the two companies specific deal, here, though.

With now over 300 million users worldwide, 93 million in the U.S, plus $300 million in music sales last year, and double-digits millions more in TV ad sales, the company is leading the pack of listening companions and second screen apps today. The updated iOS app will help it progress even further, and an Android tablet app is now in the works, as well.

Jawfish Games, a Seattle-based startup run by a former professional poker player and the engineering team that built the Fult Tilt Poker site, launched a gaming platform that can host more than 100,000 simultaneous players in real-time tournaments across iOS, Android and the web.

While asynchronous, turn-based games have done well on mobile platforms and Facebook over the last five years, pure, real-time multiplayer games havent caught on as quickly partially because data connections havent been fast enough and because a game developer would need a critical mass of players to match them synchronously.

But Jawfish, which has raised $3.65 million in funding from firms like Founders Funds angel fund, Right Side Capital and other angels, says it has built a platform to do just that. Their platform can support more than 100,000 simultaneous players and host 1 million tournaments for less than $10 in bandwidth.

They initially came out with a few games in partnership with Seattles Big Fish Games, but now theyre bringing out more of their own titles.

Because Jawfishs CEO Phil Gordon is a championship professional poker career who has hosted The World Series of Poker and published five books on the game, the company is doing a poker game (of course). The poker game is designed to have the look and feel of a broadcasted game with Gordon’s running commentary throughout play.

Theyve also launched a basic word search game, called Jawfish Words, that lets players compete on the getting the highest scores, finding the longest words or the most diagonals. There more obscure goals too, like finding the most words with a single vowel. They launched that game last month through a partnership with Amazon. The company has pointed out some promising stats: the average player spends 21 minutes and plays 10.7 tournaments a day. Each tournament is about 60 to 90 seconds long.

They plan to building out a suite of classic games, from casual to casino titles that make use of the platform. Basically what were looking to do is to take games that people know and love and reinvent them for multiplayer real-time tournaments, Gordon said. Thats exactly what were going to do across a wide spectrum of games.

While Jawfish hasnt opened its platform up to third-party developers, there are other gaming networks that add multi-player mode to indie titles that are blowing up. Nextpeer, an Israeli startup, went from having just a few games in its network to well over 1,000 developers in the last several months.

Barring a top 10-kind of franchise wanting to use our platform for multiplayer mode, its incredibly unlikely that were going to work with other studios, Gordon said. Certainly not for anything but the top tier. We know that our platform is the only one of its kind in the world and we think that its in our interest to keep the platform close to the vest and develop our own games.