Monday, February 23rd
at 9:44am
In response to a dimming economy, many venture capital firms have scaled back their current obligations and future investment plans. Faced with hostile capital markets and an absence of exit opportunities, the reluctance of VCs to take on new investments has led to a breakdown in the startup ecosystem, at least according to one local venture capitalist. Striking a decidedly different tone, Amplifier Ventures has announced a new initiative in an attempt to rebuild the investment cycle. Managing partner Jonathan Aberman was kind enough to talk with Contribune about its new Amplifier Business Accelerator Program.
The program will offer six existing DC-area businesses an initial investment of up to $50,000 plus a host of intangible benefits: private bi-weekly meetings with managers of the program to direct and track progress of the business’ development, exclusive members-only classes taught by recognized experts on a variety of topics of interest to growing businesses, access to numerous networking contacts and relationships mediated by program leaders, and a continuing relationship with Amplifier Ventures after conclusion of the program.
Continue reading »
Friday, February 6th
at 12:26pm
This week we launched the first piece of our Facebook Connect integration strategy. When new users visit the site request an invitation, they are given the option of logging into Facebook to send this action back to their feed. Facebook Connect allows a user to share his or her activities on our site with their friends back on Facebook. While this is a small first step, we will be rapidly expanding Facebook Connect integration into the core functionality of Contribune over the coming weeks.
Along side of this new feature, we’ve also launched the Contribune Facebook fan page. This page will enable members of our community to see who else is using Contribune and also receive updates about the application on Facebook.
We believe that Facebook offers a number of powerful tools to help spread the word about causes and political campaigns in order to get your friends and community more involved. Check back soon for more updates on these features and others.
Wednesday, February 4th
at 12:30pm
Paul and Kady of the DC New Media Technology Web 2.0 Meetup group put together another Social Rockstars Happy Hour at Lotus Lounge last Thursday. The event was an opportunity for local startups and projects to demo their work, attract users and recieve feedback. A significant number of ventures were present, speaking again to the growing size and scope of the Washington, D.C. tech scene. Those on hand included
Continue reading »
Thursday, January 29th
at 12:21pm
Last Thursday was the DC tech scene’s largest and most exciting happy hour, Twin Tech. Over 2,000 people signed up to attend, filling three floors at Lux Lounge on New York Avenue. Along with a number of other local startups, Contribune sponsored the event and the Contribune team was out talking technology and causes with the attendees. A special thanks the Northerns Virginia Technology Council and, in particular, Peter Corbett of iStrategyLabs for making this event happen and working with us as a sponsor.
Enjoy some photos from the event below. Continue reading »
Thursday, October 30th
at 2:17pm
Some of DC’s leading changebloggers decided to celebrate Blog Action Day, October 15th, by hosting a meetup of like-minded locals. Organized by Alex Rampy, along with Qui Diaz and others, the occasion was taken as an opportunity to celebrate and discuss the use of new media to further social action. It was a great excuse to meet some of DC’s smartest social entrepreneurs as well.
In addition to the usual name tags, Alex provided chalk and construction paper for each attendee to write about their top cause — Poverty appeared to be the crowd favorite. While there, I had the opportunity to hear some feedback on Contribune, in addition to hearing about some other interesting projects. It is really an extrodionarily stimulating experience speaking with some of these people. Exchanging ideas with this crowd always leads me to new creative concepts, one of which has turned into a Knight Foundation application. Speaking of which, if you haven’t heard yet, there is still time to submit – $5 million for local news.
Continue reading »
