This 28-Year-Old Wants to Kill Credit Card Use
Alyson Shontell reports in Business Insider:
There’s a tiny 12-person startup churning out of Des Moines, Iowa. Dwolla was founded by 28-year-old Ben Milne; it’s an innovative online payment system that sidesteps credit cards completely.
Milne has no finance background, yet his little operation is moving between $30 and $50 million per month; it’s on track to move more than $350 million in the next year. Unlike PayPal, Dwolla doesn’t take a percentage of the transaction. It only asks for $0.25 whether it’s moving $1 or $1,000.
We interviewed Milne about how he is building a credit card killer and Square rival from the middle of the nation where VCs and press are scarce.
The Hottest Tech Startup Investor? Ashton Kutcher
Photo: TechCrunch (CC)
New York hosted the number one technology startup conference this week, Techcrunch Disrupt. It felt as though Silicon Valley had taken over Manhattan, but one of the highest profile attendees was actually from Southern California — actor Ashton Kutcher (OK, I know he’s from Iowa originally). He was interviewed on stage by Charlie Rose (see video) and today is profiled by Jenna Wortham for the New York Times:
Ashton Kutcher, a former model, rose to fame in Hollywood by playing a handsome ditz in “Dude, Where’s My Car?” and on “That 70s Show.” But in certain circles, people know that he is no dummy when it comes to technology.
In recent years, Mr. Kutcher has become a smart early investor in some of the most talked-about Internet start-ups, including Foursquare, the mobile social network; Path, a photo-sharing application; and Flipboard, a news-reading app for the iPad.
He has also clearly mastered the utopian lingo of Silicon Valley:…
The End Of Digg
Digg founder Kevin Rose has reportedly resigned from Digg in order to launch a new startup.
“When I took over as CEO six months ago,” commented Digg’s Matt Williams, “Kevin’s role changed to that of Founder and Board member…” Rose is now reportedly closing over $1 million in financing for a new start-up, and his attention is apparently already focusing on the future. “This comes just a matter of hours after TechCrunch noted that even Kevin Rose doesn’t use Digg any more, with his use of the site having dropped off massively over the last few months…”
So You Want To Start A Web Startup?
Some fun lessons for all you would-be web start up zillionaires, courtesy of James Yu.
