微软新办公软件 Sway 面向所有用户开放
微软 Sway 是一款用于制作演示文稿的在线工具。这一工具目前已公开发布。此前有许多用户正在等待使用这一产品。
Sway 的正式推出已在意料之中。不过，令人有些惊讶的在于微软 在博客中公布 的关于这款产品的一些数据。
以下是来自微软的消息：
目前距离我们发布Sway预告 仅仅只有 10 周时间，而 Sway.com 的独立用户访问量已经超过 100 万，有 17.5 万人申请使用这款产品。这一数字仍在以每天数千的速度增长。
10 周时间是 70 天，这意味着到目前为止，Sway 网站平均每天的点击次数达到 14285 次，注册申请达到 2500 个。实际流量还可能更高，但由于微软仅仅提到“超过 100 万”，因此我们无法了解更精确的详情。
我无法猜测，像 Sway 一样的产品能获得什么程度的流量。这款产品来自一家大公司，这是一个很大的优势。不过，持续的等待很可能会不利于流量和用户申请注册的兴趣，至少到目前为止如此。
（微软，请继续提供数据。）
由于不再有传统的文件，例如由 Office 创建的文件，因此 Sway 是一款有趣的产品，基于云计算平台。毫无疑问，微软正在 将office转成云计算平台 ，从而通过用户订购获得经常性销售收入。我们将看看，这款产品将会有什么样的表现。
Microsoft’s New Office App, Sway, Is Now Open To Everyone
Microsoft’s Sway, an online tool for creating presentation documents, is now generally available to the public. Previously, a waiting list was in place.
That Sway has taken down its rope line isn’t surprising. What is perhaps slightly unexpected are the metrics that Microsoft announced in its blog post concerning the product’s availability.
Here’s the company:
It’s been only 10 weeks since we kicked off Sway Preview, and we’ve already had over one million unique visitors to Sway.com and over 175,000 requests to join, and those numbers grow by thousands daily.
Ten weeks is 70 days, implying that Sway has seen around 14,285 hits and 2,500 signups per day, so far, on average. The actual count on the traffic side of things is slightly higher, but as Microsoft only specified “over one million,” we can’t be more precise.
I would have had no guess what sort of traffic a product like Sway could attract. It’s from a large company, so that was an advantage. But being placed behind a wait list likely detracted both traffic and signups, at least until now.
(Microsoft, please keep the numbers coming.)
Sway is an interesting product given that it doesn’t have traditional files, like the original Office suite. So it was built for the cloud. Microsoft, of course, is working to convert Office into a cloud product that it can sell on a recurring basis via subscriptions. We’ll see how well it does.
来源：TC
新兴借贷平台Insikt向企业引入“贷款即服务”业务
借贷市场最近十分之热门，随着 Lending Club 准备进行首次公开募股，这个领域每天都有新进入者。
在新的竞争对手中有一个刚刚募集了1600万美元的公司，它的目的是让企业成为未来的贷款人并提供一个名为“贷款即服务”（LAAS）的平台。它就是Insikt。
这家总部位于旧金山的借贷公司提供的软件可以让企业为他们的消费者提供小额贷款，企业可以信任 Insikt 让它处理实际提供贷款的细节。这些企业覆盖了从零售商和商家到实体银行的不同类型，而他们往往受限于融资的狭小渠道。
最初几个月所有贷款都会存在于Insikt的资产负债表上，资金支持由 Capital One 和 Atalaya Capital Management 等来提供。在每个企业都有了自己的投资组合之后，该企业的投资将全部汇集到一起，作为债券发行给投资者。
这使企业能够将他们的投资多样化，同时让FICO信用分数较低（或是根本没有FICO评分）的消费者可以在企业销售点申请分期付款。
换句话说，Insikt是在打两边牌。该平台让投资者有机会为企业的贷款提供资金，而这又反过来提供了让消费者在销售点可以选择贷款的技术。
Revolution Ventures是 Insikt 1600万美元融资轮里的投资者，资金主要用于该公司的成长壮大，不过一些大型金融公司也向该公司提供了多达7000万美元的负债，为其贷款业务注入活力。
Insikt Introduces Lending As A Service For Brands
The lending space couldn’t be hotter, with folks like Lending Club set to IPO, and new entrants launching every day.
One of these new competitors just raised $16 million to let brands become the lenders of the future, offering a “Lending as a Service” (LaaS) platform. Meet Insikt.
The San Franciscobased lender will provide software that allows brands to offer small loans to their consumers, trusting Insikt to handle the meticulous details of actually providing the loans. These brands can range from retailers and merchants to actual banks, who are often limited to a small window of financing.
All loans are put on Insikt’s balance sheet for the first few months of their existence, powered by capital from Capital One and Atalaya Capital Management, among others. After each brand has its own portfolio, the entirety of that brand’s investments will be pooled together and issued as bonds to investors.
This allows them to diversify where their money is going, while allowing consumers with low FICO scores (or no FICO score at all) to get an installment plan application at the PoS.
In other words, Insikt is playing on both sides. The platform offers investors the opportunity to power loans for brands, which will in turn have technology that provides customers a lending option at PoS.
Revolution Ventures provided the capital for Insikt’s $16 million round of funding, dedicated to power growth for the company, but big financial firms have also provided upwards of $70 million in debt into the company to juice its lending business.
来源：techcrunch.cn
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HaaS云服务提供商Altiscale完成B轮3000万美元融资
一提到Hadoop，大家可能就会想到数据中心复杂的内部设置，但Altiscale希望通过将全部服务转向云端，并提供Hadoop即服务（Hadoop-as-a-Service，简称“HaaS”），减少这种工作的复杂性。今天，Altiscale宣布完成B轮3000万美元融资，用以继续推进这一目标。
此轮融资由Northgate领投，红杉资本和General Catalyst Partners等现有投资方跟投，Altiscale的融资总额也由此达到4200万美元。
Hadoop是一个旨在帮助企业处理大数据的开源项目。
Altiscale同时还宣布，麦克·马希亚戈（Mike Maciag）加盟该公司担任首席运营官。马希亚戈具有丰富的从业经验，在加盟AltiScale以前已经在5家创业公司工作过。在这5家公司中，已有两家上市，有两家被收购，还有一家至今仍在运营。
马希亚戈曾见证了Hadoop开源平台的发展历程。他表示，自己之所以最终加盟AltiScale，是因为该公司已经打下了在这一领域获得成功的基础。正如他所说，AltiScale已经开发了相关产品，并证明该产品可以投入规模运营。现在，AltiScale需要更多的资金将这项工作推向深入，同时进军更广阔的市场。
此轮融资还表明投资方对AltiScale的产品创意非常有信心。之前1200万美元的融资令AltiScale有了今天这种成绩，现在他们需要更多的投资，创建一个组织来发现和支持更多的客户。
AltiScale在众多Hadoop厂商中之所以能脱颖而出，是因为该公司诞生于云时代，具有处理Hadoop工作负荷的明确目标。正如AltiScale创始人兼首席执行官雷米·斯塔塔（Raymie Stata）告诉我，运营Hadoop并不是一件轻松的事情，仍然需要付出大量艰辛。斯塔塔在雅虎开始了自己的职业生涯，雅虎旗下有一个庞大的组织来支持Hadoop相关项目，但大多数采用Hadoop平台的公司并没有这种资源。
斯塔塔表示，这也是他创建Altiscale的主要原因之一。通过将服务放入云端，Altiscale可以将Hadoop推向更广阔的受众，在客户遭遇一些不可避免的问题时，他们完全可以信赖Altiscale的服务。有时，Altiscale会在处理阶段发现问题，有时则是客户主动上报问题，因此客户不是被迫自己去追踪问题，然后留给Altiscale来解决。
斯塔塔称，解决问题的时间可以从几天缩短至几小时，因为他的公司完全专注于Hadoop。相反，对于大多数IT部门来说，这是另一个他们需要解决的问题。
值得一提的是，Hadoop近来已成为一个热门领域。另一家Hadoop厂商Hortworks最近宣布，该公司将提交S-1文件，迈出公开上市的第一步。去年3月份，Cloudera宣布该公司的估值超过了40亿美元。
Altiscale Lands $30M To Continue Building Hadoop Cloud Service
When you think of Hadoop, you probably think of a complex on-premises set up in your data center, but Altiscale wants to reduce some of that complexity by moving the whole thing to the cloud and offering Hadoop as a service. Today it got $30M in Series B funding to continue that quest.
The round is led by Northgate, with participation from previous investors Sequoia Capital and General Catalyst Partners. Today’s funding brings Altiscale’s total raised to $42M.
Hadoop is an open source project designed to help companies process big data.
The company also announced it brought Mike Maciag on board to be its Chief Operating officer. Maciag is a seasoned industry veteran with experience at five startups before joining AltiScale. He indicated two had gone public, two were sold and one was still operating.
Maciag, who has seen this process before, says what attracted him to Altiscale was that they have the pieces in place to succeed. As he explained, the company has created the product and proven it works at scale. Now, they need more money to bring that to the next level and take it to a broader market.
And presumably, it shows investor confidence in the idea. The first $12M got them to this point, but they needed a significant investment to build out an organization to find and support more clients.
What makes Altiscale unusual among Hadoop vendors, is that it was born in the cloud with the express purpose of processing Hadoop workloads. As company founder and CEO Raymie Stata told me, running Hadoop is not a simple matter and it’s still a bit rough around the edges. He got his start at Yahoo! which has a huge organization supporting its Hadoop efforts, but most companies trying to work with Hadoop don’t have that luxury.
He says that’s one of the main reasons he created Altiscale. By putting the service in the cloud, it brings Hadoop to a much wider audience and customers can lean on his company when they hit those inevitable issues. Sometimes the company picks them up in the processing stage and sometimes it’s in the form of a help ticket from the customer, but instead of being forced to track down the problem themselves, customers can leave it to Altiscale to do that.
And he says, that process of solving the problem can be reduced from days to hours because his company is entirely focused on Hadoop. Whereas for most IT departments it’s just another problem among many to track down.
It’s worth noting that Hadoop has been a hot commodity lately. Just recently Hortworks, another Hadoop vendor announced it was going public by filing an S-1. Last March Cloudera announced a valuation of more than $4B.
来源：TC
实习与求职平台LookSharp收购Readyforce
LookSharp现已收购了Readyforce，这笔交易的财务条款目前不详。LookSharp是一家提供求职信息的创业公司，旗下运作有InternMatch平台；Readyforce则是一个针对大学生和应届毕业生的专业网络。
自2010年创立以来，Readyforce已经筹集到超过1200万美元的资金，投资方包括Menlo Ventures、First Round Capital和U.S. Ventures。LookSharp的公司名称之前就是InternMatch，后来才开始为雇主和学生推出更多的服务。到目前为止，该公司的融资总额为780万美元，投资方包括ARTIS Ventures、Rudy Gadre、500 Startups、Kapor Capital、Subtraction Capital和Vishal Makhijani等公司。
LookSharp表示，这次收购将会用来充实它的实习、初级职位和内容数据库，以便更好地帮助学生们找到第一份工作。
两家公司合并后还将有利于双方在一个碎片化市场更好地竞争。LookSharp面临着众多竞争者，比如CareerBuilder、Monster、Dice和Indeed，该公司的差异化经营方式就是：让雇主在工作、福利和公司文化方面提供更多的信息，以便找到最好的潜在求职者，而不是被数以百计的工作申请所淹没。与LookSharp合作的企业既有众多创业公司，也有Facebook、亚马逊、嘉信理财（Charles Schwab）、迪斯尼和波音这样的知名企业集团。
另一方面，Readyforce主要针对计算机科学和工程专业的学生提供服务。今年9月份，该公司推出了一个称为“探寻你的选择”（Explore Your Options）的工具，有了这个工具，已有录用通知的学生们在接受这份工作之前，还有机会看一看其他的工作机会。
LookSharp表示，自2011年创立以来，该公司每年用户增长速度都超过500%，现在其平台上有3万个雇主和1000万名学生。
LookSharp, An Internship And Job Listings Platform, Acquires Readyforce
LookSharp, a startup that offers job listings and operates InternMatch, has acquired Readyforce, a professional network for college students and new graduates. The deal’s financial terms were undisclosed.
Since launching in 2010, Readyforce has raised more than $12 million in funding from investors including Menlo Ventures, First Round Capital and U.S. Ventures. LookSharp, which was formerly known as just InternMatch before it began to roll out more services for employers and students, has raised a total of $7.8 million from ARTIS Ventures, Rudy Gadre, 500 Startups, Kapor Capital, Subtraction Capital and Vishal Makhijani.
LookSharp says the acquisition will allow it to grow its database of internships, entry-level positions, and content geared toward helping students looking for their first jobs.
Combining forces will also help the two companies better compete in a fragmented marketplace. LookSharp seeks to differentiate from rivals like CareerBuilder, Monster, Dice and Indeed by allowing employers to offer more information about their jobs, benefits and company culture, in hopes of finding the best prospective candidates instead of getting flooded with hundreds of applications. Companies that list on LookSharp include startups, as well as corporations including Facebook, Amazon, Charles Schwab, Disney and Boeing.
Readyforce, on the other hand, focuses mainly on computer science and engineering students. In September, the company launched a tool called “Explore Your Options,” which lets students who have already received offers see what other opportunities are out there before accepting a job.
Since launching in 2011, LookSharp says it has grown more than 500 percent year-over-year and now has 30,000 employers and 10 million students on its platform.
来源：techcrunch
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