High Tech Venture Capital Firms Back Cash4Gold

by Ryan Walker on December 17, 2009

in Venture Capital

Fortune magazine ran an article in December 2009, about the curious case of a collection of high tech venture capital firms (VC’s) investing in a new gold-buying service called Cash4Gold.

Cash is King – Even More So in a Recession

Cash4Gold has a simple operation model – you post them gold and they post you back a cheque. Such a service was historically the domain of pawn shops or low end gold merchants.

From the original Fortune article:

With the price of gold hitting new highs, it’s hardly surprising that pawnshops are flourishing. Cash4Gold claims to be the first such service to operate fully online; indeed, its backers include a handful of tech venture capital firms, including Luxembourg-based Mangrove Partners (an early backer of Skype) and Boston’s General Catalyst and Highland Capital Partners.

Certainly an interesting new business model fit for the times – “.. time to hit them hills”.

Prospector
‘Prospector‘ by ToOliver2 via Flickr
Image is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution licence

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SPRIXI – Exciting New Startup With A Great UI Design

by Ryan Walker on September 12, 2009

in Start Ups, UI Design

Everybody knows that getting free pictures into your blog posts is complicated. Searching, resizing and then making sure you correctly follow the image license conditions is a real headache.

Sprixi removes all the pain and just works.

A simple example below shows a picture that I was able to find, re-size and create HTML links to within only a few seconds all while still maintaining all the required licensing conditions.

The usability of the Sprixi website is very well done and certainly a credit to their engineering team.

Look what I caught

‘Look what I caught‘ by Monroe’s Dragonfly via Flickr
Image is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution license

Look what I caught
‘Look what I caught‘ by Monroe’s Dragonfly via Flickr
Image is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution licence

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DEMO 09 – Emerging Technology Finalists Reviewed

11 September 2009

I spent some time recently reviewing the 40+ emerging technology companies showcased as part of the DEMO 09 alumni. Reviewing the DEMO alumni list from any of the past years is certainly a worth while investment of time as any company on the list has been selected by a panel of industry experts and then [...]

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AIMIA NSW Commercialising Video 2009

10 September 2009

Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) is hosting an industry event titled “How to commercialise video?” here in Sydney in September 2009.
From the event description I expect that the focus will be on streaming video (via the web or mobile phone). Part of the motivation for this focus comes from a recent Nielsen report that [...]

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ME Bank Leads The Way In Rebuiliding Australia’s Residential Securitisation Market

9 September 2009

Yesterday (Tuesday, 8th of September 2009) Australia’s ME Bank (Members Equity Bank) initiated a A$276 million residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) bond sale. This is a significant and important transaction within Australian and international credit markets because
..it represents the first public securitisation to occur without government intervention since September 2008.
This is a very positive sign that [...]

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Software Engineering – Is Project Control Optional?

3 September 2009

When is it okay to have no control when running a software project?

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Raising Capital and Accelerating Growth In A Declining Economy

2 September 2009

The NSW Department of Industry and Investment will be running a free workshop on the 3rd of September at the CSIRO Riverside Corporate Park.
The description of the workshop provided is:
Hosted By: NSW Department of Industry and Investment
03 Sep 2009 8:30 AM – 11:30 AM
CSIRO, Riverside Corporate Park, Julius Avenue, North Ryde, 2113
Region: Sydney – Metro
Theme: [...]

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