LivingSocial closes Seattle office; employees told to work remotely

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Amazon.com-backed LivingSocial, the Washington D.C.-based daily deals site, has shut down its Seattle office. The news was first reported by Forbes and we’ve reached out to the company for confirmation. Less than 40 employees who worked at the office were not let go, but rather told to work from home, Forbes reported. The company is still hiring for three… Read More…

Report: Zulily rival Totsy is going down the tubes

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Did Totsy just tumble? That’s the word from PandoDaily, which reports that the money-losing New York-based flash sales site is chopping its staff of 83 and looking to sell its list of four million email subscribers. That could mean one less competitor for Zulily, the fast-growing Seattle e-commerce giant which, like Totsy, specializes in selling… Read More…

Deal site Tippr bought by nCrowd

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Updated at 7:40 a.m. with comments from Tippr CEO Martin Tobias. Tippr, the heavily-funded Seattle daily deals platform, has been acquired in a deal of undisclosed size by Atlanta’s nCrowd. Kara Swisher at All Things D reports that the acquisition comes amid a “tough environment” for daily deal sites, including larger rivals such as Groupon… Read More…

Zulily rival Totsy buys assets of daily deal site Mamasource

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New York-based Totsy today is announcing that it has acquired the assets of Mamasource, a daily deal site for moms. As part of the deal, Totsy is acquiring about two million members, bringing total membership in Totsy to about five million. “We look forward to providing our expanding group of member moms with the best… Read More…

LivingSocial cuts 400 staffers, Seattle office takes a hit

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LivingSocial, the Washington D.C.-based daily deals site, has laid off 400 staffers as it aims to turn a profit, a spokesperson tells All Things D. That amounts to a 10 percent cutback, leaving the company with about 4,100 employees. Backed by Amazon.com, LivingSocial operates a branch office in Seattle, which we’ve heard was impacted in… Read More…

Meet the man behind Seattle’s newest $1B startup: ‘We are still in the early days’

Zulily CEO Darrell Cavens

Not many startup companies boast a $1 billion valuation — especially after just three short years in business. But that’s the hefty value that venture capital powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz just placed on Zulily, the Seattle daily deal site for busy moms that today announced $85 million in funding. It’s a whopping deal, one of the… Read More…

Daily deal site Zulily raises $85 million from Andreessen Horowitz, tops 10M members

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Fast-growing daily deal site Zulily has pulled in an additional $85 million in venture capital financing, cash that the Seattle company plans to use to bolster its position in selling books, clothes, toys and other items for babies and kids. The company also announced that it has topped 10 million members, most of whom get… Read More…

Hot yoga, cooking classes and … Washington football tickets? UW selling seats on Groupon

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When I first came across Washington Huskies football tickets on Groupon two months ago, I wondered if it was a sign of how far the program has fallen. But it turns out lots of other big-name programs around the country are using the deal-of-the-day platform to attract casual fans and help fill up the stadium… Read More…

Beer-loving serial entrepreneur Raghav Kher touts LetsPour

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Raghav Kher has started companies around online marketplaces (Imandi.com); IT automation (Rendition Networks); and movie rentals (India’s Seventymm). Now, the Seattle area entrepreneur, inspired by a trip to Oregon’s wine and beer country a few years ago, is going after his true passion: Beer. Kher has partnered with former Rendition Networks engineer Rick Lamareaux to… Read More…

Woot founder: Goodbye Amazon

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Woot founder Matt Rutledge is leaving Amazon.com, a little more than two years after the online retailer purchased the daily deal site. In a note on the Woot forums, Rutledge said that he plans “to move on to future projects with fewer acronyms.” He continued Through your hard work and inspiration (or at least suppression… Read More…

Groupon hires ex-Amazon GM to lead Seattle office

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Groupon is the latest tech giant to plant a flag in Seattle, opening an office in Seattle’s International District with room for 20 to 30 employees. The arrival of Groupon follows engineering offices from companies such as Hulu, Splunk, eBay, Facebook, Zynga and others, a trend we’ve talked about in great detail over the past… Read More…

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz departs Groupon’s board

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Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has stepped down from the board of Groupon just 16 months after joining forces with the fast-growing Chicago-based daily deal site. According to a SEC filing today, Schultz resigned from the board effective April 24th. Kara Swisher of All Things D first reported the news, also noting that Accel Partners’ Kevin Efrusy… Read More…

Daily deal site Tippr offers a full refund after duped by fake Bose headsets

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In what CEO Martin Tobias described as the company’s first mass refund, Seattle daily deal site Tippr has apologized to customers who bought a pair of what they thought were $49 Bose headsets. Tobias tells GeekWire that a merchant signaled that the headsets were genuine, and that it was authorized to sell them. But Tippr… Read More…

Startup Spotlight: Knotis looks to turn merchants into happy daily deal users

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You’ve heard the horror stories of small businesses getting overwhelmed by daily deals from the likes of Groupon and Living Social. Knotis founder McLean Reiter, a 28-year-old Seattle entrepreneur, wants to help those merchants navigate the tricky landscape with a new service called Knotis. Offering merchants a flat-rate of $14 per month, Knotis offers tools that helps… Read More…

Amazon’s discounted gift cards set blistering pace for daily deals

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[Correction: Post updated to reflect the fact that Amazon's deal was one of the fastest-selling in daily deals history, but not the fastest. A LivingSocial promotion for Whole Foods sold 1 million vouchers in 14 hours.] Amazon got lots of attention yesterday with its offer of a $10 gift card for $5 through its AmazonLocal daily deals… Read More…

Amazon boosts AmazonLocal with $10 gift card for $5

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Many companies are still trying to make it in the market for daily deals, competing with giant Groupon and a host of smaller rivals. But Amazon.com is in a unique position with its AmazonLocal deals site thanks to the fact that it’s, well, Amazon.com. Case in point: Today’s nationwide AmazonLocal deal offering a $10 Amazon… Read More…

Daily deal site Tippr lays off 25 staffers, restructures sales

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Tippr, the daily deal technology services startup led by Seattle entrepreneur Martin Tobias, laid off 25 employees today as part of a restructuring of the sales organization, GeekWire has learned. The Seattle company now employs about 45 people, yet still has about 10 open positions. “The reductions were in merchant sales and part of our… Read More…

Amazon filing shows $558M loss for LivingSocial in 2011

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How much does it cost to bulk up and compete with the likes of Groupon in the daily deals market? Amazon.com’s annual Form 10-K filing, made public this morning, reveals detailed financial information about LivingSocial, the privately-held Washington, D.C.-based company in which Amazon is an investor. A footnote in Amazon’s filing gives this condensed statement of… Read More…

SnapIn founder Brian Roundtree scores cash for ‘personal shopper’ service nFluence Media

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SnapIn Software was one of the better outcomes in the Seattle technology community in recent years, with the mobile software company selling to Nuance for about $200 million in 2008. Now, SnapIn founder Brian Roundtree — an entrepreneurial and engineering prodigy who started his first company at the age of 12 and later created Redmond-based Action… Read More…

Startup Spotlight: Deals4Dreams looks to do well, by doing good

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At this time of year, it is important to remember the importance of giving back. So, in the spirit of the season, our featured Startup Spotlight this week is Deals4Dreams. The company has a simple mission: help good causes raise awareness, communicate with their supporters and raise money through daily deals. Founded by Jim McCarthy, Dan… Read More…