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Yesterday I visited WeWork’s great Dupont Circle location to watch their first-ever pitch competition. Granted, it was less of a “competition” and more of a venue for early-stage ideas to receive feedback from the crowd, but I had a good time and recommend you check them out in the future.
...Moving On
THE BIG ONE
Chris: The boxing match between music streaming heavyweights Spotify and Apple Music took yet another turn yesterday, when Spotify directly targeted iOS customers via email. Under the current system, iOS users that purchase Spotify Premium are forced to pay an additional $3 — totaling $12.99. While the decision to undercut Apple is perhaps unsurprising, the way Spotify is executing this outreach strategy by directly emailing shared customers is interesting and may be a sign of how vulnerable the company sees its business in relation to the market… Read more: Spotify Undercuts Apple With Price Cut Email Blast to iPhone Users
Eric: I do wonder if Spotify and Apple will get more competitive in ways that make them more distinct or if they will become so similar it will be almost all about branding rather than anything substantive.
GOSS TRAIN
Chris: Yapper is pivoting in a massive way, so forget their old product. Before the pivot, a user would log in to Yapper and chat with other users who were in close proximity. However, the app didn't let people connect based on common interests to judge whether a specific conversation was worth having. Yapper's pivot will solve that problem by selling the software directly to organizations that want to help their members connect in new ways regardless of where they are located. The startup currently has six beta customers, including an alumni group and a trade organization.
MAKING MOVES
Chris: If you’re familiar with the D.C.-area startup and venture capital scene then you probably know that a large group of prominent VC firms reside in this area. The firms are also nationally known, like Steve Case’s Revolution, Grotech Ventures and Greenspring Associates. Now, a large cohort of these firms are currently out raising money for new funds. Between the eight firms that we identified, more than $1 billion dollars are being sought… Read more: These 8 DC-Area VC Firms Are Raising Serious Cash
• Urgent.ly is an on-demand roadside assistance app based in Vienna, Va. that has been gaining steam of the past several years. The startup hopes to be the Uber of AAA-like, roadside-assistance services. Eric took a look at the company: “the startup appears poised to pick up its growth pace thanks to new partnerships that could help bring in hordes of new users.” Read more: How Urgent.ly Is Aiming to Become Everyone's Roadside Assistant
FUNDING
- Arlington, Va.-based Zoobean has raised $275K, according to an SEC filing. The startup has developed a personalized search and recommendation tool for finding relevant and appropriate books, applications and learning software for children.
- Lendvo, a stealthy startup founded just four months ago from Alexandria, has raised $2.1M as part of its first ever funding round. The company has no website, no LinkedIn profile and/or employees, no social media accounts... Read more in New Money
DC DOWNLOAD
- Contactually is releasing a new product called Activity Insights that will let organizations monitor the effectiveness of their sales and marketing teams. While Contactually is already connected to each rep's email and phone, now managers can get data directly related to engagement. The idea is that there will be a limited necessity to manually input data... Read more in the Download
REACH OUT
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