Announcing Three New Hardware Battlefield Judges And A New Deadline

We are pleased to announce a new set of amazing judges for our first TC Hardware Battlefield in Las Vegas this January. Based on the Disrupt Battlefield formula we will be pitting fifteen hardware companies against each other on our public stage. First we've invited the (female) Bre Pettis of Europe, Karolina Bołądź of Gadgets3D and Zortrax. She'll be adding some great European insight. Next up we have Ayah Bdeir, creator of LittleBits and a true hardware star. Finally we have the polarizing Scott Jordan of ScottEVest, one of the most experienced hardware and soft goods makers in the industry. Those are just three of the amazing folks we're bringing to Las Vegas with us. We're also announcing that we've moved the application deadline to November 11 and we want you to apply. Rules Applications will be open until Monday, November 11th. Apply here! We will review applications on a rolling basis, so it's to your advantage to submit as soon as you are ready. Due to strong demand, we are unable to review applications more than once, so please do not submit a draft application before you are ready for final consideration. Please note that video demos are required. We look forward to reviewing your application. RULES At the time of application, companies must have a functional prototype to demo to the selection committee. In selecting final contestants, we will give preference to companies that launch for the first time to the public and press through our competition. We consider new products from existing companies to be significant. Due to the limited number of competition slots, companies launching new feature sets do not qualify. Companies from around the globe are welcome to submit their startups for consideration. Companies that have presented at other public launch events are not eligible for Hardware Battlefield. If you're choosing between launch platforms and need an early decision, please apply and email us at battlefield@techcrunch.com and we'll priority review your application.

YouTube Network Fullscreen Launches Channel+ To Boost Audiences For Brands And Advertisers

There's an ever-growing number of video creators and publishers who are looking to reach viewers on YouTube. But they're not the only ones: increasingly, advertisers are using the video platform as a way to connect with their customers and fans. Fullscreen wants to help them, with the launch of a new service to grow their audiences online. Today, Fullscreen is making its Channel+ offering available to advertisers, providing them with a team of strategists who use the company's deep analytics and engagement tools. Fullscreen will be leveraging its experience helping YouTube creators with their own networks to reach new viewers and increase their number of subscribers over time. To drive that growth, it's built tools to help manage user communities, whether they happen on YouTube or if they happen on other social media networks. “Every single day there's a brand that comes to us and asks where do we start on YouTube,” Fullscreen COO Ezra Cooperstein told me by phone. “They say, ‘We know we need to be on YouTube but don't know what to do?” To help them, Fullscreen is creating a dedicated business out of an offering that it's had available on a limited basis for the last two years. Brands get a team of personal strategists who take advantage of its tools, managing their YouTube channels and work to grow their audiences. Ok, so Fullscreen isn't the only network trying to differentiate itself based on technology or offering up tools to brands. Last week, Maker Studios announced the launch of its Maker Max platform for creators. And ZEFR, which has been helping major media companies improve YouTube monetization over the last several years, also has rolled out a product focused on brands.

To Assimilate SMS, Facebook's Android Messenger Tries Letting You Reach Non-Friends By Phone Number

Facebook wants to be your one and only messaging app, so it's asking for your phone number. Today it starts testing a version of Messenger for Android that lets you message non-friends by phone number. It'll request your number too to make these connections, though it's kept private. The test app also has a cleaner design and a buddy list that shows if friends who will get a push alert if pinged. The test rolls out today to a limited subset of Messenger For Android users, but you can bet if the design and phone number messaging is popular, you'll see these changes roll out to everyone on Android, and maybe iOS too. Update: One thing you won't see, though, is the option to actually send SMS messages from within this test of Facebook Messenger. Facebook added that option a year ago, but saw low traction, and so it's stripped it out in favor of trying this new method where you send messages to phone numbers, but they're delivered inside the recipient's Messenger app, not their phone's SMS inbox. The Messaging War Rages On Messaging is a fiery battleground right now. SMS, the carrier-controlled old text messaging standard is becoming obsolete. Expensive and with few features, it was bound to die eventually. So now, tech giants and young startups alike are competing to be the successor to SMS. There's platform-based options like iMessage, which is baked into iOS so iPhone users can message each other for free. There's cross-platform services like Facebook Messages and the new Google Hangouts, which let people communicate across desktop, mobile, and sometimes even email. There are mobile-first startups like WhatsApp, WeChat, Kik, and KakaoTalk that focus on speed and group messaging. And then there are specialty apps like Snapchat's self-destructing photos, and Line's stickers. The potential messaging user base, which includes practically everyone, is fractured across all these services. You might not know which of these apps your friends are on, but you can bet on one thing: they have a phone number. That's why many of these startups rely on your phone book and number. They scrape your phone's contact list and make it easy to message anyone whose number you have. This way you don't have to formally connect on these services. Phonebook Now Facebook is doing the same to open messaging between non-friends. It knows its social graph isn't perfect. Sometimes you end up with someone's phone number, and the friendship comes later if at all. So it asks to verify your phone number and import your address book so you can select recipients by name rather than number. Your number is defaulted to the “Only Me” privacy setting on your profile, but a company spokesperson admits it also uses that number to “to help keep Facebook safe, to help people make friend connections, and to deliver targeted ads.” The idea of your phone number and contact list helping Facebook monetize might irk some privacy buffs, but since Facebook is starting this as a test and will likely roll it out slow if it works, you won't see concentrated, collective outrage like its old, big changes used to. In the end, Facebook doesn't want you to have to bounce out of messenger and SMS someone, so it's essentially assimilating SMS and letting you do it from within its app. Then you can use its extra features like audio messaging, read receipts, location sharing, and more. If the strategy works, it could increase engagement and give Facebook more info about who you care about. I'd expect it to immediately start suggesting you friend whoever you message with by number. It's those friend connections that populate your News Feed with content that excites you. And that engagement happens to keep you coming back and seeing ads. But really, if Facebook is going to complete its mission to connect the world, it has blossom from the ashes of SMS.

As VC Firms Eye Europe, 500 Startups Plans A Berlin Arm For Next Year

Today at Disrupt Europe, five major investors in European startups took the stage to talk about funding in Europe. While they all agreed that Europe’s track record for building successful startups is nowhere near as long as Silicon Valley’s, there are a few shifts happening. Many VC firms are positioning themselves to get serious about European investments, and, according to Dave McClure (500 Startups), Roberto Bonanzinga (Balderton Capital), Sonali De Rycker (Accel Partners), Saul Klein (Index Ventures) and Ciaran O’Leary (Earlybird Venture Capital), European startups should be very hopeful. In particular, McClure announced that the investment company will be open for business in Berlin at some point next year. “We will have a presence on the ground in Berlin some time next year,” McClure said. 500 Startups has already made 40-50 investments in Europe, but doesn’t currently have an office in Berlin. The European ecosystem remains largely dominated by London. “[Europe] is a big market. The only challenge is that it’s fragmented across languages,” McClure said. Klein had a lot to say about London as well, and why Berlin is not on London’s level just yet. “In Europe, for a variety of reasons, while there are amazing flowering companies in many cities, London is becoming the key tech hub in the region because of the density not just of startups but of capital, corporates,” she said “And it shares a language with the U.S.,” she continued. O’Leary agreed on the importance of speaking and doing business in English to have a say in the startup ecosystem. “The capital is super mobile — the single contraint is how you get a critical mass of talented people to work for you. You need an urban English-speaking area,” he said.

As is often the case, the debate inevitably compared Silicon Valley to other European cities. While many people talk about a lack of funding in Europe, it seems like the continent is just where the U.S. was a few years ago. “It’s becoming easier, but as we seen with Silicon Valley’s perception of Europe, it takes a few years to catch up with reality,” Klein said. “There are companies that still don’t have all the options that they would have in the U.S.” And it’s true that not every company can get the funding that they need to grow. Some of them don’t encounter any funding gaps, but it remains a very small minority. “In the U.S., if you do really well and you are not Twitter, you still get funding,” O’Leary said. “But the Sequoias, the Kleiners are flying to Europe, because it’s a place where they are getting better value for money. For our top group of companies, they can raise all the money they want,” he continued. There already are a few successful companies. “We have incredible companies that are still mostly private. Success is really starting,” De Rycker said. “And why has the Valley been so successful? It’s really about the philosophy: fast failures, the whole concept of buying companies. Some of it is about financing, but there are other gaps. There are not a lot of acqui-hires in the region. It’s all part of the ecosystem, not all entrepreneurs will sell for $500 million. We’re very early, but we need more than just the funding.” In order to achieve that, Bonanzinga believes that there should be more large-scale tech companies — these companies could be able to acquire other smaller companies or could end up being acquired. High-ranked executives could then go and do successful ventures on their own. “There is only one thing that will make Europe better: it’s ten Skypes,” he said.

Tips From Indiegogo's CEO On How To Succeed When Crowdfunding

I love huntin' through data to find the weird little trends; it's how you learn how things actually work. I also really, really dig the concept of crowdfunding. Put the two together, and you've got my attention. During a chat with John Biggs today at Disrupt Europe, Indiegogo CEO Slava Rubin dropped a rapid fire stream of knowledge. If you're considering doing any sort of crowdsourcing campaign, this is probably stuff you should know. The tips Slava gave were almost entirely pulled straight from the data that Indiegogo has gathered over the past few years, rather than random guess work. "I used to have a lot of opinions. Now, luckily, I don't have to have opinions. We can talk on data." While these pointers are based on Indiegogo's data, the overall concepts likely apply to pretty much any crowdfunding platform. Slava broke his advice down into three categories: pitching, being proactive, and finding an audience. On pitching: If you have a video, you'll raise 114% more money on average than if you don't. Wondering how many perks to offer? The magic number seems to be somewhere between 3-8. On average, successful campaigns will cross their target fundraising goal on Day 36. Average contribution size on successful campaigns comes in at around $70. If you have 4 or more people on your team, you'll raise 70% more money than if you only have one person. On being proactive: Update your backers (and potential backers) regularly. "If you do an update every 5 days or less, you'll raise 4x more than if you do an update every 20 days or more". Need to reach potential backers? Indiegogo sees most contributions coming from email campaigns. Facebook is second, then Twitter. Momentum matters: you're 5x more likely to hit your target if you can reach at least 25% of your overall goal within the first week Finding an audience: "We like to think about it as 1/3, 1/3, 1/3. Indiegogo multiplies whatever you can accomplish. If you're only able to raise $0, Indiegogo can only multiply [by zero]. You need to start by finding the first 1/3 of the money for your campaign [through your network], often the next third comes from friends of your network, and Indiegogo will, on average, get you that last third." Have your family and friends help to get the ball rolling: "No one wants to fund your empty campaign" On whether your project should be as polished as possible "I don't think it's about [that]. It's about being authentic. […] Some campaigns should be more polished, because that's what they're trying to sell. Some campaigns can just use flipcams and iPhones. It varies, and the data really doesn't prove yet that it's important to be polished." On how important it is that your campaign is in english: "There's a debate on that. To get as many international dollars as possible, you definitely will want english as part of your campaign. But, obviously, if you want to focus first on your local community, [use that local language]."

As It Looks Beyond Phones, Nokia Takes A Swipe At Google’s Ad-Driven Maps & Sharpens Its Patent Claws

In most people’s minds, Nokia is still a mobile phones company. But if the Nokia board approves the sale of “substantially all” of the company’s devices & sales division to Microsoft – announced back in September and due to close early next year (if it gets the nod) – then 2014’s Nokia will be a very different beast. Leaner, as it passes some 32,000 employees to Microsoft and focuses on three business units: the NSN networking business; its HERE location services unit; and a new division called Advanced Technologies which incorporates its patent portfolio, plus R&D work in areas including connectivity, sensing, materials, and web and cloud technologies. And meaner – in terms of how it competes. Expect Nokia’s positioning of its HERE digital maps business to focus on attacking Google’s ad-focused business model for digital mapping and location services. “Compared to Google’s less flexible, and advertising driven approach, we believe HERE’s strategy is far better aligned with the needs of a broad range of existing and future customers,” said Nokia CFO Timo Ihamuotila, during a conference call today, following Nokia’s Q3 earnings. Ihamuotila said “flexibility” will be a key differentiator for HERE vs the competition, as it focuses on tailoring location services to the needs of HERE customers. He made a point of emphasising that Nokia’s location services unit would be an “independent” player in the space — doubtless thanks in part to Nokia dropping out of the mobile game itself, allowing it to focus fully on serving the location needs of its customers. But also another side-swipe aimed at Google — with HERE being positioned as an alternative for “companies who care a lot about their core brand and customer relationships”, as Ihamuotila put it. “Google’s all or nothing approach towards licensing its suite of services can also cause conflicts,” he said. “We believe HERE’s positioning and flexible offering is a key differentiator.” While to-date HERE has been “most visible” in the automotive sector, Ihamuotila said Nokia would be ramping up to attack other industries to drive future growth. ”HERE is well positioned as a neutral entity that can serve multiple players in multiple industries,” he added. ”Becoming a strategic partner that delivers cloud-based content and platform solutions to multiple industries in the future.” Patent power Another area where Nokia appears to be sharpening its claws to compete more aggressively in a post phone-making future is patents. Nokia’s IP portfolio falls under the Advanced Technologies business unit which also includes its main R&D division. That portion of Nokia’s business has of course been heavily involved in IP creation to date. And Nokia is hoping it can continue to be a pipeline for new, licensable ideas in future. “The team is responsible for more than half of our new patent filings, excluding NSN,” noted Ihamuotila during the call. “We are confident that we will see the organisation continue to deliver innovations to support future growth, as well as the renewal of our patent portfolio.” Discussing Nokia’s existing patent pile, built up over the past 25 years, Ihamuotila said the company sees “strong opportunities” to expand its licensing “coverage” (and therefore IP-related earnings) by going after “presently unlicensed vendors” – a comment that may send a few chills down the spines of Android OEMs and other phone makers (excluding future phone-maker Microsoft, of course). Nokia filed another patent claim against HTC back in May, for instance. It’s presumably gearing up for more such actions next year. Nokia stepping out of the phone-making game itself, assuming the Microsoft transaction goes through, will also free it up to be more liberal about licensing its portfolio of non-standards essential patents — giving it another front to ramp up its IP licensing revenues. Since it won’t be making phones itself, it can afford to license some of the patent-protected differentiating features it had developed for its own devices to other mobile makers. “Since Nokia started its licensing program several years ago, we have primarily licensed our standards essential patents — retaining the patents protecting the proprietary features of our products for our own exclusive use,” said Ihamuotila. “Subject to the closing of the transaction with Microsoft we will have further flexibility in making many of these technologies available to the broader market, which will provide us with new technology creation and licensing opportunities.”

Glowing jars