Disqus - Latest Comments for ryankuder

Re: Bad Notes on Venture Capital

ryankuder — Mon, 22 Sep 2014 14:10:14 -0000

This article is timely. I was just talking with my friend Jeff Belk about this. He's been looking at it from a crowdfunding angle for early stage companies. His post on the same topic is here: http://velocitygrowth.com/c...

His conclusion is the same. Convertible notes suck. He advocates looking for other ways to inject needed capital early in the process and using crowdfunding as a way to get that initial capital, plus get customers and a STORY about your business. It's not the right solution for everyone, but it's good to think about what is the best way to get things started for your startup.

Re: Do kiosks that pay cash for used cellphones promote theft?

ryankuder — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 17:18:10 -0000

Good question, Keith. There are multiple cameras on the kiosk that take hi def photos of the seller. Then we scan the drivers license and the scanners check for the appropriate holograms, structures, etc. The scan of the ID and the images of the seller pop up on a large HDTV screen in our command center where a human verifies the ID in real time. If there's a problem with it, the transaction is declined. We can also have the seller remove their hat and glasses or reposition if the image isn't clear. We have a member of our team verify each ID for every transaction at every ecoATM every day.

Re: Do kiosks that pay cash for used cellphones promote theft?

ryankuder — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 12:58:15 -0000

Hi cbroome, I work for ecoATM. I'm sorry to hear that you were robbed. I hope that we were able to help the police investigate and arrest the thief who robbed you. If the thief had sold your phone anyplace else, it may never have been returned and the police may never have known who had it. It is true that having a serial number or an IMEI number to track the phone makes it much easier to find and return. This would be the case for anyone who may have had your phone--not just ecoATM. If you don't have your packaging, you can also get these numbers from you carrier just by calling them. It's a good idea to call them anyways because they can disable the phone for you. Additionally, you don't need to know the mall where the phone may have gone. We can track a phone across our entire network so if it shows up anywhere, we'll be able to retrieve it and return it. We do ask for what mall it *may* have been at because it makes it easier and faster to find the phone. Most places thieves sell phones can't track this way. I'm sorry to hear how long it took to return your phone. It shouldn't take a month. We can usually know immediately if we have it, but sometimes it can take up to a week for the phone to be returned to our lab so we can ship it back. If the police are willing to cooperate, we can sometimes return the phone quicker than that.

Additionally, even if you never contacted us, we would have reported the transaction to your local police and provided them all of the information in a searchable database. This database would include the info about the phone as well as multiple high resolution images of the seller, a scan of their drivers license and their thumbprint. When you filed your police report, they have access to search this database for your device. All of the information about the seller was provided to the police for the transaction involving your phone. I hope they used it to investigate and make an arrest.

Most stolen phones are never returned because they're sold to places that don't track them, hold them, or report them to the police. If the thief had gone practically anywhere else, it's unlikely your phone would have been found and returned. Again, I'm really sorry to hear that you were robbed, but I am glad that we were able to return your phone and let the police know who sold it to us.

Re: http://www.tweetdeck.com/twitter/OptiscanApp/~CPkK0

ryankuder — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 18:22:35 -0000

OK. Thanks for the report. We'll look into it.

Re: How Math Controls Social Media

ryankuder — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 12:22:09 -0000

These are some of our favorite models, especially Hunch and Facebook. At Bizzy, we're building an algorithm that helps people find great local restaurants and shops. We just launched in November, but for most places in the US, if someone answers 10 questions about their favorite places, we can make decent recommendations. Thanks for the post, Jason. It's great to see people writing about how these things work.

Ryan Kuder
VP Marketing, http://bizzy.com

Re: DailyBooth CEO: Faces Are the Future of Photos

ryankuder — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 17:29:43 -0000

It's sad that Flickr, once the king of photo sharing isn't mentioned here. It seems like a natural extension for Flickr to move into the micro-photo-sharing space that seems to be blowing up.

Re: Get Custom Local Business Recommendations with Bizzy

ryankuder — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 13:19:35 -0000

Tim, Stuart, Garious, et al, thanks for the international interest in Bizzy. While it's true that four days after our launch we are not yet a global conglomerate, we hope to get there soon. Trust us--we want to be where you are as much as you want us to be where you are. So, where's everyone from?

Ryan
VP Marketing, Bizzy

Re: ‘Angry Birds’ Toys, A Photo Essay

ryankuder — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 14:23:45 -0000

These will become the new Nerf Gun for startup offices everywhere. Colleague didn't get you the mock ups fast enough? Red bird attack!

Re: Bizzy launches an easy way to find local deals

ryankuder — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 22:37:12 -0000

Thanks for the post, Anthony. We think Bizzy is a great way for people to discover what's going on with their favorite businesses and find new businesses they'll like as well. The What's Happening feature on Bizzy is a great opportunity for people to find new businesses they'd like to connect with and get regular updates from. Looking forward to hearing how people like it.

Ryan Kuder
VP Marketing, Bizzy

Re: LinkedIn Gives Users the Ability to Follow Companies

ryankuder — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 12:11:37 -0000

I'm a big fan of this. I just started a new job search (yesterday in fact) and think this is a great move by LinkedIn. For me, LinkedIn used to be a glorified address book. I didn't check in very regularly. By allowing users to follow companies I think they're going to drive a lot more engagement and repeat visits.

Re: How To Pronounce Techmeme

ryankuder — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 16:17:10 -0000

Spanish pronunciation: Tech MAY may

Re: Checking In – You’re Either Boring or a Rich Dick

ryankuder — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:34:26 -0000

If you're grocery shopping at Whole Foods, you're boring AND a rich dick.

But in all seriousness, I disagree with you Scott. You have to realize that the only people who will receive your checkins are people who have requested to get them. I actually kind of like seeing where my friends are and if I'd seen your check in from that snazzy hotel, I'd have thought, "Cool. Scott and Holly must be having a fun night out without the kids. I wonder what the occasion is. Maybe I'll ask him next time I see him."

I think that this line of thinking projects upon others what you THINK they might be thinking. Not what they're really thinking. If you really didn't care that I checked in at Whole Foods (or more likely, Safeway, where I was briefly the mayor), you wouldn't have asked to be my Foursquare friend or accepted my invitation to you. Because you and I agreed mutually to get these notifications, I think it's fine to check in wherever and whenever. I've checked in from Space Mountain at Disneyland not because I was rubbing it in anyone's face, but because I thought it was cool and people subscribe on Foursquare to find out when their friends are doing something cool. At least I do.

This whole thread reminds me that I gotta go clip some coupons for my next grocery store trip now. I'll check in when I get there.

Re: http://ryangraves.org/post/420676345

ryankuder — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:16:53 -0000

We used to live at Taylor and Jackson when we first got married. There's a little cafe called Nob Hill Cafe at Taylor and Clay. It's more of a restaurant than a coffee shop, but it's close by. Welcome to the Bay Area, Ryan!

Re: It’s Wrong to Friend Your Boss on Facebook [SURVEY]

ryankuder — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:14:39 -0000

Note to self: Unfriend @themaria on Facebook.

Re: And the winner of the Kodak Zi8 Digital Video Camera is…

ryankuder — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:14:11 -0000

Woo hoo! Thanks, Roost! This was a great idea for a contest and I had a ton of fun house hunting. Next step: List the old Flip on craigslist.

Re: Facebook: How to Eliminate “Dead Friend” Suggestions

ryankuder — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:51:11 -0000

Does FB have a process to verify that a person is actually dead? If anyone can contact them and "memorialize" someone, there could be some serious pranking coming on. And what happens when I click to a friends memorialized page? How does FB let me know the person is dead? I imagine that would be a pretty crappy way to start a day:

Me to Steve's Wall: "Hey, Steve! Seeing as you just got back from Africa, I thought you'd like this article on giraffes that I found. How have you been?"
Facebook: "Sorry, Steve is deceased."
Me: "What?! Noooo!!! (sob)"

Re: RAILS RUMBLE: 11 New Apps We Love

ryankuder — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:23:29 -0000

@maczter I had that problem too. It's one we know about. You can send details to help@hi.im and we'll look into it. Should be fixed in the next release.

Re: RAILS RUMBLE: 11 New Apps We Love

ryankuder — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 16:32:15 -0000

We know about the Twitter bug. We're just waiting for judging to end so we can roll some fixes. That'll certainly be one of them. Thanks for trying it out, Regula!

Re: RAILS RUMBLE: 11 New Apps We Love

ryankuder — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 16:31:12 -0000

Hey Ben, thanks for the love! The team we entered from Koombea created http://hi.im. We couldn't be more amazed at the reception we've got. For an app that was built in 48 hours, the past week has been terrific. We've gotten great feedback, the Rumble judges have helped us find some bugs, and we've got a ton of ideas. Like the other teams, we can't wait until the judging ends tonight to roll some fixes and new features. For all our early users, thanks for your feedback and ideas. We're looking forward to building http://hi.im into something great.

Re: Microsoft Outlook for Mac is Coming

ryankuder — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:44:10 -0000

Will Xobni work with it?

Re: FriendDA

ryankuder — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:41:08 -0000

Just executed another one today. With a fistbump. It added some flair.

Re: FriendDA

ryankuder — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:20:37 -0000

We love the FriendDA! We're a small development shop that works mostly with startups and it doesn't make a lot of sense for us to sign NDAs with everyone who contacts us about a job. We're not a VC, but we do see a lot of ideas. We blogged about the FriendDA here: http://bit.ly/PzL3. In fact, we executed one yesterday, but minus the fist bump.

Re: Microsoft’s Bing Ad - Damn Good - Bing Is A Serious Threat To Google’s Market Share

ryankuder — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:32:19 -0000

Laughed from the first vignette. As far as TV spots for search go, this one was great. But regardless of how good the creative is, the big question is going to be what the spend does for their search share.

Re: That’s not what I ordered…

ryankuder — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:27:06 -0000

Holy shit. Didn't see that coming. I just signed up to run my fourth marathon--the Royal Victoria in October--for Team In Training and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Through the team, I've met plenty of people who have kicked cancer's ass. The treatments they've got now are amazing. In the past, I've ran for our team's honorees. But this year, Drew, I'm running for you. I'm in for 26.2 miles to help you kick this things ass. I'm raising $5,000 and I'm going to #blamedrewscancer for having to take ice baths. Fight on.

Re: Who do the people of Twitter follow? (Scripting News)

ryankuder — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:46:50 -0000

There appear to be at least a few employees who don't follow @ev or @biz. Who doesn't follow the boss?