A new option if you want to invest in startups

Just a decade ago, if you wanted to invest in a startup you had to know someone. A lawyer, an accountant, a friend of friend would give you a referral to a company looking to raise money, or they’d invite you to invest with them. That’s how you got in the door.

You had to have a lot of money to play – often $50,000 or more. And the startups you’d see were from your geographical region. That traditional scenario left a lot of interested angel investors sitting on the sidelines.

Today, it’s a lot easier to become an angel investor, due to crowd funding, micro lending and investment sites like MicroVenture Marketplace Inc., which is opening doors to those looking to invest $1,000 to $10,000 or more.

A Guide To UX Careers

User experience (UX) is a rapidly growing profession that’s attracting high caliber talent from all areas of design, development and marketing. Over the past 16 months, creative recruiting company Onward Searchcollected data on job listings and noticed a 338 percent increase in postings for user experience professionals. Onward Search commissioned my company, NowSourcing, to take that data and create this graphic.

The Sims Social review

The Sims Social, a social gaming version of Electronic Arts’ life simulation went live on Facebook yesterday.
I've played few hours already and must admit that they've done a great job. Remembering The Sims Online, I was rather pessimistic about possibility to move The Sims game play to social canvas. But facebook platform seems to be the perfect place fot it. 

Sleep No More

Sleep No More is an interactive theatrical performance that at times seems like a videogame come to life. It begins in a dimly lit bar, where audience members are greeted by a woman straight out of the Victorian era and a dapper man who calls people his “lovelies.” After grabbing a drink or two, everyone is given white masks, told to put them on and escorted to a cramped elevator. They are then unceremoniously dropped into a six-floor mansion and told to dig, explore and be curious — because “fortune favors the bold.”

From then on it’s an adventure, an open-world romp that feels like a blend of L.A. Noire and Cirque du Soleil. People can examine random objects throughout the grandiose scenes and sets, follow actors around the mansion and try to piece together parts of the story, which is based heavily on Shakespeare’s Macbeth. It’s a nonlinear narrative in which the order of events — and consequently, the plot — is determined by what you see.

Virtual Worlds: 2011 and beyond

Virtual Worlds 2011+

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What is Google+ is really about?

Everybody talks about Google+ this days. I've read an article in wired.com with G+ intentions analysis and must admit that they sound reasonable. The main idea that the  purpose of Google is to fill the market of casual applications, that everybody uses, plus spread it to mobile devices and also add social part to sharing, more precise focusing, etc., so the main competior is Microsoft (+Facesbook for social)What G+ really about (pst!!! it's not social)

View more presentations from fttechfounder

Facebook Marketing Book

Facebook Marketing Book

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Free-to-play games marketing

Today I have found interesting talk by ICO Partners Julien Wera at gamasutra.  Wera speaks about marketing approaches that should be used by free-to-play games developers. I'm absolutely agree with every single point.


"With free-to-play online, most of the time you don’t have the visibility provided by game stores. You have to compensate for this with large amounts of marketing.”

Wera urged developers to use metrics to better understand the players best-suited to their game. "Digital distribution allows for data collection that gives you a lot more control over the user acquisition process," he stated.

World is virtual, Art is real

I was going to attend Metameets conference and they mentioned that Ma Machinima Internation Festival is taking place at the same dates. "What is "machinima"?" I thought. And decided to see it myself.

Metameets 2011

This weekend (17-19 June) international conference Metameets 2011 took place in Amterdam. The topic  is Virtual Worlds, ideas, implementations, activities and other examples of creativity.

I would say that "Content is the key" could be used as a moto )

Let me give a brief conference overview. I will upload presentations later when they are available.