News and Analysis

Foursquare Announces New Chief Revenue Officer, Liz Ritzcovan

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Ritzcovan’s mission will center on “client centricity.” She’ll be tasked with optimizing Foursquare’s relationships with its clients as the company seeks to make the case that its suite of resources for brands looking to connect the digital and physical worlds is both comprehensive and indispensable.

Restaurant Management Platform Toast Raises a Whopping $115 Million

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Restaurant management platform Toast is announcing a $115 million Series D this morning. Courtesy of T. Rowe Price Associates, the round values Toast at $1.4 billion.

Simpli.fi Reaches Next Level in Precise Location Targeting

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As of this morning, advertisers using Simpli.fi’s programmatic advertising platform will have access to Addressable Geo-Fencing, a solution that Simpli.fi’s vice president of marketing Ryan Horn says is the next logical step in the localization and personalization of programmatic advertising.

Commentary

5 Sales Practices Every Company Should Know

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The following sales best practices, inspired by Aaron Ross’ Predictable Revenue, can help companies close more sales in less time. Ross’s framework helped Salesforce.com, one of the most successful startups in history, increase recurring revenues by $100 million…

Phone Leads for Local Businesses: The Unsexy Cousin of the Click

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We’re seeing tech and media worlds finally come around to what we’ve been saying for years: phone calls are what businesses want. That’s especially true in high-value categories like professional services, autos, travel and insurance. Clicks and impressions, despite a sexier image, aren’t as valued in lots of cases…

Is Newspapers’ Falling Knife Finally Starting to Rise?

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Wall Street thinks the long-term decline of newspaper revenues may be near bottom as print losses are close to being outweighed by consumer and digital revenue increases. With Warren Buffet and Jeff Bezos buying into the industry as a long-term play, the broader financial markets are following suit. The newspaper industry is getting some of its most positive signs in years…

Latest Posts

Street Fight Daily: Google Redesigns Maps, Walmart Searches Inside

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Google Maps gets better integration with Uber and OpenTable (Mashable)… Walmart Brings Product Search To The In-Store Experience (Search Engine Land)… Amazon Tries Out Taxi Deliveries In California Cities (CNBC)…

In Building Local Marketplaces, a Choice of Chicken or Egg

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The success of Uber and Airbnb have spawned a deluge of startups that have replicated the on-demand marketplace model across a range of verticals. But developing marketplaces locally requires a deft approach to scale that balances a network’s need for liquidity with a startup’s desire for growth…

Investors Bet on Rethinking Old Categories — Not Creating New Ones

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During a panel at Street Fight Summit in New York Tuesday, Tige Savage, managing partner at Revolution Ventures, and Dave Ambrose, managing director at Steadfast Venture Capital joined Guardian’s east coast tech editor Dominic Rushe to discuss the growing opportunities — and future challenges — in rethinking traditionally local businesses…

Is Your MVP a Minimum Viable Channel?

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“Just because you have product/market fit, don’t raise money until you have validated your channel,” said Closely CEO Perry Evans. “We might have been able to be a successful business — but we shouldn’t have been a business that took venture capital. We couldn’t produce the return the VCs needed.”

Five Hyperlocal Startups to Watch

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At the Street Fight Summit on Tuesday afternoon, startup investor and mentor Laurel Touby quizzed five founders about their plans for world domination and developing a viable business model to support it. Here’s what we learned…

Street Fight Daily: Groupon’s Wine Label, Porch Keeps Growing

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Groupon Uncorks Its Own Wine Label (Chicago Business Journal)… Can Porch.com Become LinkedIn For Your House?  (Fortune)… For Location-Tracking Startup, a Data-Privacy Odyssey (Wall Street Journal)…

The Rise of Marketing Automation in Local’s Next Act

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Marketing automation isn’t just for the biggest companies in the world anymore. Thanks to companies like Booker, Signpost, Shopkeep, and others, small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) have access to the data and the tools to reach their customers in smart, efficient ways while minimizing the hassle on the backend…

Why Mobile Marketing Isn’t a Fit for Every SMB

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Small businesses are being bombarded by marketing programs that promise to deliver calls, customers, and sales right from a prospect’s cell phone. But the facts on the ground indicate that mobile marketing is, at best, a mixed bag so far for most small businesses…

Street Fight Daily: Starwood’s Keyless Entry, Square’s Brand Strategy

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Starwood’s Keyless Entry Takes Self-Service To A New Level (GigaOm)… Square Looks to Expand its Reach Through Deals With Major Brands (The Street)… PlaceIQ Preps For Next Step, Hires Experian’s Nadya Kohl (AdExchanger)…

For Apple Pay to Thrive, Small Businesses Must Adopt

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For a mobile wallet to really impact consumer behavior, its acceptance has to be ubiquitous — not just in the Targets and Macy’s of this world, but in our local bodegas, mom-and-pop shops, independent coffee shops and food trucks. You might think these businesses are a less important slice of the pie than the big-box retailers, but you’d be wrong…