Street Fight Daily: Postmates Acquires Local Discovery Startup Sosh, Facebook’s New SMB Ad Products
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…
Postmates Is Buying Sosh, a Service for Discovering Local Activities (Fortune)
On-demand delivery company Postmates has agreed to buy Sosh, a San Francisco-based startup that helps users find and book activities in their city. As part of the deal, 18 of Sosh’s employees have joined Postmates.
Facebook’s New Tools Let Merchants Tailor Ads for Nearby Consumers (Adweek)
Facebook has announced it’s debuting two ad products for local businesses aimed at helping them better understand the foot traffic in their area while also allowing those with multiple locations to target ads for specific stores.
DC Startup Fundrise Is Redefining How We Invest in Real Estate (Street Fight)
Major real estate development projects can cost billions, and budget overruns often delay construction. Enter Fundrise: The company’s technology opens doors for individuals who want to invest in local real estate developments, but maybe don’t have millions of dollars lying around. Fundrise has seen 1,500 percent growth in deal volume since May 2014.
How Handy’s Founder Oisin Hanrahan Is Scaling His Startup into an On-Demand Powerhouse (The Next Web)
When it comes to on-demand cleaning and handyman services, Handy is dominating the space, despite only being three years old. Here, a conversation with founder Oisin Hanrahan about the company’s growth, future plans, and the perks of not being based in Silicon Valley.
Openings and New Hires at Groupon, Rocket Fuel, and Xaxis (Street Fight)
Every two weeks, Geoff Michener covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. In this week’s column, Groupon appoints another new CEO, Xaxis spinoff Light Reaction gains a vice president of global operations, and programmatic leader Rocket Fuel adds political veterans in anticipation of new online ad spending for the 2016 election cycle.
Walgreens Becomes First Retailer to Integrate Its Loyalty Program with Apple Pay (TechCrunch)
Drug store chain Walgreens has announced that its loyalty program will now be available through Apple Pay, making it the first U.S. retailer to integrate its customer rewards platform with Apple’s mobile payments service.
ShopKeep, the ‘Anti-Square,’ Rounds Out C-Suite with Eye on an IPO (Recode)
Like Square, ShopKeep makes POS software for SMBs that use its services to manage operations. Unlike Square, ShopKeep charges a monthly fee for its core product, which makes CEO Norm Merritt confident his business will be the more profitable of the two. That model, coupled with ShopKeep’s revenue growth, has Merritt thinking an IPO is a real possibility, and he’s now hired a C-level team he thinks can get him there.
Instacart Adds Coupons Through Its New ‘Deals’ Platform (TechCrunch)
Instacart is rolling out a new option that could help reduce the expense of using its service for price-conscious consumers: Instacart Deals, essentially an online digital couponing platform.
Inside Airbnb’s Playbook for Taking Over Every City (Business Insider)
Hot off a victory in San Francisco’s elections, Airbnb isn’t taking a break. Here’s the playbook for how Airbnb beat the ballot initiative Prop F by mobilizing its network of users, and how it plans to make sure it will never face that kind of regulatory threat again.
How Axel Springer Made Mobile Coupons Work (Digiday)
Print circulars have fallen out of favor, just like the newspapers that carry them. But European media giant Axel Springer is trying to resurrect the format by tailoring them to mobile users. Today, the company’s mobile app for circulars, Retale, features more than 180 retailers and has surpassed five million downloads, logging 1.3 billion engagements.
LBMA Podcast: Lowe’s Is Opening a Hardware Store in Space, eeGeo Launches Global 3D Mapping Platform (Street Fight)
On the show: Lowe’s is opening a hardware store in space; eeGeo launches global 3D mapping platform; MLB used Snapchat Geofilters for World Series; Taggalo blends beacons with facial recognition; Sochat, which allows you to text anyone nearby, just raised $2 million. Plus, news from Sears, IBM and the Weather Channel, Thinknear, and Facebook.
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