Want To Raise A Million Bucks? Here’s What You’ll Need

via techcrunch.com

So, you’ve built yourself a nice little product. Maybe you’ve raised a small friends-and-family round; maybe you’re still bootstrappin’ on your own. Either way, now you’re looking to raise at least a million dollars to help with the next steps.

While there’s no perfect formula for stuff like this, these stats from AngelList’s Ash Fontana are a pretty good indication of the metrics you should be aiming for.

As part of a presentation at a startup gathering in Santiago, Chile this evening, Ash presented a slide outlining some ballpark metrics that startups should aim for before swoopin’ in for a big first round...

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BlackBerry's Million-Smartphone Mystery Partner Is Brightstar

via allthingsd.com

Who bought one million BlackBerry 10 devices?

We posed that question here earlier this month, following the announcement of the largest single handset purchase in BlackBerry’s history. And we answered it with a simple theory: An order so massive for new handsets running an unproven platform would never have been placed by a carrier. Only a big electronics distributor would take such a risk. One like Brightpoint, which has a long-standing relationship with BlackBerry, distributing its handsets throughout the world — particularly in emerging markets like Malaysia.

Turns out that theory was accurate. The order was placed by a wireless distributor, but not by Brightpoint. Research house Detwiler Fenton reports that the mysterious “established partner” responsible for the order was Brightpoint rival Brightstar. And sources familiar with the deal have confirmed this to AllThingsD, as well. “You’ve got the ‘Bright’ part right,” one source quipped. “But you’re a point off.”

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Blackberry Sold One Million Handsets To Unnamed "Partner"

via gizmodo.com

Blackberry's demise, much talked about and somewhat goaded, is on hold while the world reacts to the Blackberry 10 OS and two handsets launching on March 22. And already someone has come forward to buy a million units. So that's...unexpected.

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LG Hits 10 Million in 4G LTE Smartphone Sales

via www.gadgetell.com">technologytell.com

With the company focusing heavily on bringing 4G LTE wireless web speeds to the majority of smartphone users, LG announced on Monday that their LTE phone sales have surpassed 10 million units worldwide.

“Aggressive pushing forward with 4G LTE technology allows LG satisfy the needs of consumers and is a huge factor in our growing success in LTE smartphone sales,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, President and CEO of the LG Mobile Communications Company. “Having established ourselves as a major industry player, we will continue to expand our footprint in the global LTE market with a wider range of differentiated, high quality LTE smartphones.”

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Secrets to Getting a Million YouTube Views

via openforum.com

In today’s mobile, social age, one of the best ways to engage your customers and get them to spread the word about your business to friends is through video. But many small business owners shy away from video because they’re intimidated or think their products or services aren’t “sexy” enough. If that’s you, take a lesson from Wasp Barcode, a scanner company whose YouTube page has 1 million views. Wasp Barcode staffers guest post frequently on my blog, so I wasn’t surprised to learn they’re equally savvy about engaging customers visually as well. Here’s how they did it—and how you can do it as well...

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The Inside Story Of How Facebook Got Its First 500 Million Users

via businessinsider.com

Now that Facebook's IPO is well into the past, and user-growth has stalled a touch, it's easy to sit back and take the incredible story of Facebook for granted.

Don't.

Facebook, which now has a billion users, reached 100 million users in just 10 quarters.

It reached 500 million just 12 quarters later.

That's beyond mind-boggling.

How'd it happen?

Over on question and answer site, former Facebook employees are telling stories about it. They're pretty fascinating – and certainly full of lessons for anyone else trying to build an audience/userbase.

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How to Get a Million Facebook Likes and a Free Puppy

via allthingsd.com

Step 1: Tell people on Facebook that your parents will get you a puppy if you get a million likes.

Step 2: Wait 7 hours.

Easy! For bonus points, you can go on Good Morning America and the like to talk about what happened.

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Twitter breaks the 200 million monthly active user mark

via techi.com

More birds seem to be hatching every day.

Twitter tweeted this morning that they had broken the 200 million active user mark, stating that their active users are “the pulse of the planet.” In many ways, this is true as Twitter has been arguably the most relevant method on the internet for finding out what’s happening now around the world. News breaks on Twitter. Fake news breaks on Twitter. What celebrities do on Twitter becomes news. I personally experienced reading a Tweet about an earthquake moments before it hit me. Pulse… indeed.

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Spotify Up to 5 Million Paid Subscribers

via allthingsd.com

Spotify has 5 million subscribers and 20 million users, CEO Daniel Ek announced at a press event in New York.

In July, the company said it had 4 million paying subscribers and 15 million active users worldwide. That was up from 3 million paid subscribers last January and 1.5 million in the summer of 2011, right before the company arrived in the U.S.

Ek said 1 million of the company’s paid subscribers are now in the U.S. “We’ve been growing like crazy,” he deadpanned.

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Trump to give $5 million to charity if Obama releases records

via news.yahoo.com

Donald Trump offered to pay $5 million to the charity of President Barack Obama's choice if Obama releases his college and passport records, the real estate mogul and television personality said on Wednesday.

"Frankly, it's a check that I very much want to write," Trump said in a YouTube video released via his Twitter and Facebook pages.

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Apple expected to move 10 Million iPad minis this year, report says

via foxnews.com

It’s been less than a week since the the iPad mini reportedly shifted into the full-blown manufacturing stage, and a new report by The Wall Street Journal reveals just how massive that mass production is: According to sources in the component supply chain, Apple’s planning to have more than 10 million iPad minis manufactured during the last leg of the year.

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Olympics Generated 150 Million Tweets

via mashable.com

The 2012 Olympics in London generated 150 million tweets and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt ran away with a big share of them, according to Twitter.

The social network, assessing the 16-day event, found that Bolt’s 200m and 100m races prompted the most chatter during the Games. The former netted more than 80,000 tweets per minute while the former generated more than 74,000 TPMs as they’re known in Twitter’s headquarters.

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250 Million Users On Google Plus

via businessinsider.com

Google just announced on its earnings call that there are now 250 million users on Google+.

That's not active users. That's the number of people who have "upgraded" their Google Account to include Google+ functionality.

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5 years of the iPhone: 250 million shipped, $150-billion revenue

via theglobeandmail.com

It's fascinating to look at how far the iPhone has come in just five years.

Apple Inc. celebrates the five-year anniversary of the launch of the popular smartphone Friday, prompting a look today by Strategy Analytics at what the iPhone means to the seemingly unstoppable technology giant, and where it goes from here amid heightened competition.

Since it launched in the United States June 29, 2007, iPhone models have brought in $150-billion (U.S.) in revenue around the world, the Boston-based research firm said. That's 250 million devices shipped.

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It Took Pinterest Just Three Weeks To Raise $100 Million

via businessinsider.com

It took Pinterest just three weeks to raise $100 million from Japanese ecommerce giant Rakuten and current investors, a source familiar with the deal tells us.

Pinterest is a site where users can collect and categorize images and links from across the Internet, and then share those collections with friends. It's exquisitely designed and it's very popular with women.

Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann only visited Japan and met with Rakuten at the very end of April.

He went with plans to discuss a potential partnership; Rakuten wanted to make Pinterest the default place for its shoppers to set up wish lists for things they'd like to buy.

Partnership talks went well, and Rakuten said it would do the deal, but only if it could also invest in Pinterest.

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The FCC Could Fine Google $10 Million For Spying On Apple Safari Users

via businessinsider.com

Remember when Google was busted back in February for secretly circumventing privacy settings that Apple put into its web browser, Safari?

Looks like the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has decided to fine Google for it, reports Reuters. And the fine could be more than $10 million dollars.

The FTC is coming after Google for tricking consumers and violating "terms of a consent decree signed with the commission last year," says Reuters.

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Here's What You Need To Know About Microsoft's $300 Million Investment In Barnes And Noble

via businessinsider.com

Microsoft invested $300 million to help Barnes and Noble spin off its Nook business.

Here's what you need to know:

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Google Translate now serving over 200 million people per month

via engadget.com

App icon design is easily one of the most important aspects of an app. When you’ve put your app in an app store, the icon represents that app, if it is awfully designed or isn’t eye catching then people just won’t be interested. Also having a bad looking icon can make the app look unprofessional, so people won’t even bother. I know that I won’t even bother downloading an app unless it has a good app icon. If you can’t hire an epic icon designer, take the minimal route and create a simple but representative app icon. Here are 30 great examples of app icon designs.

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Facebook Has 500 Million Mobile Users

via businessinsider.com

Facebook passed 500 million monthly active users on Friday, April 20, the company just announced in a filing with the SEC.

That number does not include Instagram's 35 million or so registered users, as that deal has not yet closed.

Facebook has only recently begun trying to make money off its many mobile users, promising advertises to increase exposure to their brand pages through ads in the News Feed and in mobile apps if necessary.

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Facebook Paying Microsoft $550 Million for Former AOL Patents

via allthingsd.com

Facebook and Microsoft are about to announce a deal where the social networking giant pays Redmond $550 million for access to more than 600 patents, AllThingsD has learned.

The deal comes as the social network prepares for its initial stock offering and looks to protect itself in an increasingly litigious intellectual property environment. Yahoo sued Facebook last month, alleging infringement of 10 patents.

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