This post is syndicated from Max's shared items in Google Reader, by Mike Butcher

Like a catwalk model pivoting on the runway, Garmz, a startup which allows upcoming fashion designers to cut out the traditional network of buyers and sell clothes straight to consumers, is today rebranding as Lookk and announcing new Seed investment.

Eden Ventures has taken the lead on the investment. Terms were undisclosed but sources say Eden went in for just over £500,000. Other Angels investors have joined the round including 500 Startups founder Dave McClure, Kima Ventures, and Angel investors Sherry Coutu, Richard Titus, Tom Hulme and Net-a-Porter founder Carmen Busquets. The startup is a former 2010 Seedcamp winner and took the standard £50,000 investment then.

Lookk lets new fashion designers upload designs – these are then voted on by consumers. The winning designs are produced by Lookk own in-house operation with Lookk responsible for the the manufacturing, distribution and disbursement of the pieces, including all associated costs.

As you can imagine there are lots of aspiring fashion designers who would jump at such a chance to leap-frog the relatively slow-moving fashion industry.

Andreas Klinger, co-founder and COO of Lookk, says the name change does not mean a change in business model or direction of the company, but more an attempt to better reflect its appeal to designers. The new site is certainly a lot better looking that the previous incarnation.

He explains that it takes several years to gain a reputation as a fashion designer amongst the buying networks. “Buyers can’t trust new designer’s names to sell so they (Read more...)

This post is syndicated from Max's shared items in Google Reader, by (author unknown)

DI ETHAN JACOBS
Activist Post

Quando la ”repubblica” massonica chiamata Stati Uniti fu fondata nel 1776, non c’erano imposte e le persone erano generalmente libere di fare quello che preferivano, fino a che non avessero danneggiato la persona o la proprietà altrui. Sfortunatamente, ogni anno i governi federali e quello dello stato, che sono sempre stati controllati di “interessi particolari”, hanno approvato sempre più leggi, distrutto la libertà delle persone, provocato la morte per migliaia di individui. Gli Stati Uniti e il resto del mondo vivono oggi nel sistema neo-feudale del Nuovo Ordine Mondiale.

This post is syndicated from Max's shared items in Google Reader, by (author unknown)

Shared by Max
I like this concept of adjacent innovation, in an open knowledge environment
"combining the best innovations of others to create a completely new and singular experience. Apple used the power of dig i tal tech nol o gy to spot, inte grate, develop and deploy several adjacent innovations in a single product. That’s the cen tral the o ry of inno vat ing the adja cent pos si ble: tak ing dig i tal short cuts to har ness and com bine adja cent inno va tions into a new thing."

James L. McQuivey, Ph.D. is a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research serving Consumer Product Strategy professionals.

Everyone wants to create the next big thing. In the tech world, that desire has been translated as: “How can I invent the next iPad?”

The question, no matter how it’s asked, is the wrong one. When people ask about the next big thing, they see innovation as a linear progression toward some brand new, revolutionary technology. Naturally, everyone is trying to invent that new “thing,” but there is no straight line and no linear pattern to innovation.

Thanks to this demise of linear innovation, the next big thing isn’t going to take years of research and development. It won’t be developed in a big scientific lab by dozens of Ph.Ds; it won’t have a public launch date over which the press drools; and it won’t take years to generate millions of dollars.

Instead, the next big (Read more...)

This post is syndicated from Max's shared items in Google Reader, by James L. McQuivey

James L. McQuivey, Ph.D. is a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research serving Consumer Product Strategy professionals.

Everyone wants to create the next big thing. In the tech world, that desire has been translated as: “How can I invent the next iPad?”

The question, no matter how it’s asked, is the wrong one. When people ask about the next big thing, they see innovation as a linear progression toward some brand new, revolutionary technology. Naturally, everyone is trying to invent that new “thing,” but there is no straight line and no linear pattern to innovation.

Thanks to this demise of linear innovation, the next big thing isn’t going to take years of research and development. It won’t be developed in a big scientific lab by dozens of Ph.Ds; it won’t have a public launch date over which the press drools; and it won’t take years to generate millions of dollars.

Instead, the next big thing is going to come from left field. It will bundle together a patchwork of innovations in a seemingly amorphous way. The next big thing will be created by innovating the “adjacent possible.” The term was first used by Steven Johnson, who borrowed it from evolutionary biology. Basically, it refers to any innovation that stems directly from the present. The iPad, as an example, didn’t reinvent the wheel, but instead reapplied the concepts of Apple’s iPhone and laptops into a new, revolutionary product.

The genius of Apple’s accomplishment didn’t involve invention, but adjacent (Read more...)

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Marketers demonstrate what metrics to use and how listening affects business

This post is syndicated from Max's shared items in Google Reader, by Macala Wright

We are Banana Republic Luxe card members and we are simply geeking out on the upcoming Mad Men collection. Much to our pleasure, we have discovered that the fantastic retailer is leveraging Facebook...

Online fashion marketing and digital PR articles for retailers, apparel companies and fashion brands.

This post is syndicated from Max's shared items in Google Reader, by Matt Brian

Apple’s dominance of the worldwide tablet market may be driven by its focus on North American and European markets but despite its strong presence and high tablet adoption in some European countries, Apple’s hold on the continent is open to disruption, a new report by technology and market research firm Forrester suggests.

In Europe, Apple has a varied retail presence; the UK plays host to 30 of Europe’s 52 Apple Stores, whilst it doesn’t have physical stores in Scandinavia, Austria, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal or Belgium, as the Cupertino-based company maintains an online retail presence for consumers to order Apple products in those countries.

It’s a stark contrast to the U.S, where Apple has opened 238 retail stores in the country – helping the company to become the fastest growing major U.S retailer based on sales growth.

Forrester’s Sarah Rotman Epps believes this is because Apple has no strong competition in North America while in Europe, rival devices from Asus, Samsung, Motorola and other vendors fragment the market. In terms of competition, price is seen as the biggest barrier to entry in the European market as non-iPad competitors cannot justify the price of their devices when compared to Apple’s iPad tablet device.

At least one in every ten adults in France, the UK, Italy, Spain and Germany stated that they were interested in buying a tablet, despite not owning one.

In France, only 2% of adults own a tablet, yet 10% of admit that they would consider buying one, suggesting that whilst Apple operating (Read more...)

This post is syndicated from Max's shared items in Google Reader, by Ron Frankel

Ron Frankel is the CEO of Synacor, the leading provider of authentication and information management technologies and TV Everywhere services for cable, telecommunication and satellite providers.

Today’s consumers want TV content not just in the web browser, but on smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles — you name it. However, for “TV Everywhere” (TVE) to succeed, the industry cannot simply offer content on a multitude of devices — it must also ace the viewer’s search and discovery experience. Enter, metadata.

Metadata is the in-depth descriptive information about programming that includes title, storyline, cast, genre, release date, images and more. It drives TVE forward by powering search, discovery and content personalization, and creates the potential for new revenue streams through enhanced product placements and targeted advertising. Similar to how the remote control once empowered viewers to browse through channels, multi-device TV viewing requires detailed metadata that allows consumers to effortlessly discover the content they want to watch across multiple platforms. HBO gets it. Using HBO GO, True Blood fanatics can now find and stream their favorite episodes, or any of actress Anna Paquin’s performances, via smartphones, tablets and the web.

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Competitive Advantage Through Comprehensive Search & Discovery

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Google changed the game on how we interact with online content. Now we’re at the same inflection point with online video, where viewers want to watch sports, shows and movies based on their own schedules and convenience. So far, it’s Netflix, Hulu, Clicker, as well as Comcast (Xfinity), Dish (Read more...)