BrightFunnel Raises Funding To Build Smarter Marketing Predictions

Marketing startup BrightFunnel is announcing that it has raised a small “advisory round” of slightly less than $1 million from some big-name investors.

Co-founder and CEO Nadim Hossain served most recently as the vice president of marketing at PowerReviews (which was acquired by Bazaarvoice). In that role, and in other jobs as a marketing executive, Hossain said that with his background in economics and econometrics he expected to be “swimming in CMO insights,” but that turned out not to be the case.

Instead, Hossain said he found “production tools” with limited analytics, at least on the level of what a CMO would want to know.

“I remember being at a board meeting in May of 2011, and they asked me questions where I didn’t know the answers,” he said. ” My self identity is as someone who can get at the numbers and get at the truth, and I had to make guesses. It just made me feel not authentic and wonder, why don’t I have the answers? These are knowable questions.”

So at BrightFunnel, he’s trying to build tools that will given him the answers that he was looking for. The eventual goal, Hossain said, is to create “the Google self-driving car for marketers.” In other words, customers should be able to identify how much money they want to spend on a campaign and what their revenue targets are, and with BrightFunnel’s recommendations, the marketing plan should basically run itself.

The company isn’t quite there yet. Instead, Hossain said, it’s more like navigation app Waze. Its current features include identifying the marketing “levers” that can lead to increased revenue, as well as analyzing performance trends by campaign and channel. BrightFunnel also integrates with marketing automation systems including Marketo, Eloqua, Pardot, Act-On, and Hubspot.

And yes, it offers predictions about the revenue impact of marketing campaigns. Hossain estimated that those projections are within 10 to 20 percent accuracy — not just on the conversion rate but also how long it will take to close the sale, which is particularly important for the business-to-business marketers that BrightFunnel is targeting.

One of Hossain goals is to improve that accuracy, which he said is “blows [marketers] away” but is not quite up to snuff for statisticians.

Anyway, here are the investors:

Paul Albright, former CRO, Marketo

David Gutelius, former Chief Social Scientist, Jive Software

Ryan Holmes, founder and CEO, HootSuite

Steve King, former CEO, DocuSign

Scott Kleper, founder and CTO, Context Optional (Adobe Marketing Cloud)

Tim Kopp, former CMO, ExactTarget (Salesforce.com Marketing Cloud)

Chris Maeda, former CTO, KANA Software

Mark Organ, CEO, Influitive and co-founder, Eloqua (Oracle Marketing Cloud)

Venkat Rangan, CTO, Clari and founder, Clearwell Systems (Symantec)

Russell Siegelman, former VP, Microsoft, and Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

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Aereo stops taking new customers in New York

Aereo launched in New York in early 2012 to let people watch over-the-air TV on their gadgets, but a recent hiccup means denizens of the Big Apple can no longer sign up for the service. The culprit? Aereo says it all comes down to capacity, or lack ...



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Richard Sherman Gives the Best Twitter Advice You'll Ever Get

Tablet deals of the week: 01.31.14

Been considering a slate-style purchase? Well, today may be the time to make the leap. While Microsoft's Surface Pro (no, not the deuce) gets a massive discount, and may very well be the most attractive tablet/hybrid buy of the week, we've nabbed a ...



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This Week On The TC Gadgets Podcast: Facebook Paper, Lenovo-Moto, Carbon 3D Printing, And Coffee!

Looking for a way to get through Friday? Here you go.

Facebook launched a news reader app called Paper. (Teens will love it.) And Google sold Motorola to Lenovo for $3 billion, which made earnings week interesting. And, in the land of startups, we explore a new Carbon 3D Printer and a Keurig Coffee machine. So you can print yourself a cup-holder, which will store your fresh cup of coffee, as you drive to work on this blessed Friday.

We discuss all this and more on this week’s episode of the TC Gadgets Podcast, featuring John Biggs, Matt Burns, Jordan Crook, Darrell Etherington, and Romain Dillet.

The Superbowl is in two days, and the work week is almost over. We’re almost there.

We invite you to enjoy our weekly podcasts every Friday at 3 p.m. Eastern and noon Pacific. And feel free to check out the TechCrunch Gadgets Flipboard magazine right here.

Click here to download an MP3 of this show.

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Intro Music by Rick Barr.

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LXLE Gives New Zest to Old Machines

Just when you think you have found the sweet spot with an ideal Linux desktop distro, along comes yet another version to tug at your computing heart strings. In this case, it is LXLE. Lubuntu eXtra Life Extension, aka LXLE, is based on Lubuntu, a version of Ubuntu running LXDE. Trust me on this, you will not recognize many Ubuntu traces topside. If you have yet to experience the LXDE desktop, prepare yourself for a wonderfully smooth computing experience.



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This kit lets you build a musical instrument from just about anything

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US Cellular offers $50 unlimited plan with throttled data as a catch

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Roku 3 for $70, Surface Pro, iMacs and MacBooks Galore [Deals]

Aereo Sells Out Of Capacity In NYC

Aereo, a TV streaming service looking to change the way we consume media, has just sold out of capacity in New York City.

Founder and CEO Chet Kanojia confirmed the news via Twitter.

The company launched in 2011 with NYC as a pilot market, and has since expanded to 11 markets total. The service, much to the chagrin of major network broadcasters, acts as a remote, mini antenna, letting subscribers pull OTA TV signals out of the air and stream them live across any internet-connected device.

And if that weren’t enough, users have the option to use Aereo as a remote DVR service for as low as $8 month.

That said, Aereo has worked tirelessly to ensure that this type of business is actually legal. In much the same way that it’s legal for an individual to use rabbit ears to access broadcast television, it’s legal for an Aereo user to rent out an individual Aereo antenna and access, or record, TV content.

However, a single antenna that sends a signal to multiple, separate users is illegal. In other words, Aereo needs one antenna available for every active user of the service, and at this point, there’s simply not any room left for new users in NYC.

Some have misreported that this is a product of power issues, though recent conversations I’ve had with founder Chet Kanojia suggest that Aereo has been trying to build out more capacity to keep up with subscriber growth.

For a startup, it’s not a bad problem to have. Though, if the company wants to foster growth in its first, and likely strongest, market, it will need to offer extended capacity as quickly as possible.

Broadcasters must be equally displeased by this news, considering that they’ve been bullying Aereo in the courtroom since the service launched. It started with a lawsuit in NY, which migrated to Boston, and again to Utah, until most recently the Supreme Court decided to hear the case and make a final, federal ruling.

Based on the track record, I predict Aereo will win in court and will lead the revolution as a stepping stone from bundled TV packages and middle men to an on-demand, TV consumption structure.

Here’s Aereo’s official statement on the matter:

We’re fortunate that Aereo continues to experience strong growth across all our markets. Our team has been working overtime to add more capacity in our existing markets. As soon as additional capacity is added, new consumers will be notified that they can sign up and create an Aereo account.

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Ouya Updates Hardware With $129 16GB Console, 8GB Edition Remains At $99

Ouya’s original hardware featured just 8GB of storage onboard, but a temporary Limited Edition all-white version launched during the holidays doubled that to 16GB. Now, the game console startup is making that a permanent feature of its newest hardware, an Ouya console with a solid matte black finish that also offers better Wi-Fi connectivity and a “refined” controller design.

The new 16GB version adds $30 to the MSRP of the original, coming in at a total of $129 for the console and one controller. It goes on sale at Ouya.tv, as well as Amazon and Amazon.ca starting immediately, and the original 8GB model will continue to be sold as well at its original $99 price point (which is discounted to $69.99 currently on Amazon.ca)

As for what’s been improved about the controller, Ouya says that the joysticks and buttons are “better” and that the controller has less lag time overall. We’ve asked for more specifics around the improved Wi-Fi, but have yet to hear back with any details. The new console also ships with the latest Ouya firmware, which is said to improve all-around performance for the Android-powered hardware.

Ouya has faced some challenges lately, including the departure of one of its key founding team members, VP of Product Muffi Ghadiali. The company has not released any sales data recently, so there’s no telling how it’s performing, but the introduction of a new SKU seems a little unusual given the relatively modest nature of the tweaks.

Developers on the platform recently shared some numbers regarding their software sales on the console with Gamespot, which could be an indicator of hardware sales strength. Feedback was mixed, but overall the impression given was that sales by no means represent runaway success. Ouya has raised $23.6 million in funding to date, including its initial crowdfunding campaign and a Series A round led by Kleiner Perkins.

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OUYA's new matte black console offers twice the storage for $130

If you were jonesing for a 16GB OUYA console but didn't snag the limited white edition, we have good news: you just got a second chance at buying your dream Android gaming system. The company plans to launch a standard 16GB model in matte black (aka ...



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Departures, Arrivals, Surveillance: Canadian Used Airport WiFi Snooparound

Canadian authorities used information culled from a free Internet service at a major national airport to track the wireless devices of scores of travelers. The Communications Security Establishment Canada, or CESC, received information from the unnamed airport's free WiFi system and then used that data to track travelers whose devices later popped up at WiFi locations in other parts of the country. Think of it as a sort of smartphone LoJack system. Locations and telephone numbers called were among the information collected.



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The Engadget Mobile Podcast is live at 2PM ET!

We've got a couple brand new editors to throw to the podcast wolves: Emily Price and Chris Velazco, both of whom have certainly seen their share of the wireless industry over the past few years. We'll be doing a live Hangout on Google+ and YouTube, ...



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To Counter Investor Signaling, YC Partners Can No Longer Be The First Money Into The Incubator’s Startups

Y Combinator has long allowed its partners to invest their own personal money in the’s incubator startups–often times partners put money into these startups before institutional investors and angels have a look. Unfortunately, whether a partners (or partners) put money into a YC company started to become a signal to outside investors of the good bets in the incubator. It makes sense–these partners are often integrally involved in helping build these companies inside of Y Combinator. So they would know which startups have the legs to be successful, and potentially have insider knowledge into which startups have the potential for going the distance. To mitigate this signaling effect, Y Combinator is implementing a new policy whereby YC Partners can’t be the first money into a startup from the incubator.

Specifically, YC partners can’t be in the first $500,000 a company raises, unless it’s 3 weeks past Demo Day.

As YC co-founder Paul Graham explains to us, the danger of letting the partners at an incubator invest in the startups is that makes it harder for the ones the partners don’t invest in to raise money. In the early years of YC, this wasn’t as much of an issue because Graham was the only one investing, and he wasn’t systematic about it. But in the last few batches, investors started treating the companies that had investments by YC partners as an indication of what YC thought of the startups.

Currently YC has about a dozen partners involved including Paul Buchheit, Garry Tan, and Geoff Ralston. What’s also of interest is that any funds that YC partners operate will also fall into this rule as well well. So the new fund started by Tan, now part-time partner Harj Taggar, and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, will not be able to be the first money into a startup.

This is clearly a founder-friendly move, and evens the playing field in some ways for startups to raise money from outside investors. It’s no secret that Y Combinator’s class sizes have steadily risen, and in the effort to save time and optimize their money, investors look for signals on which startups to invest in. Of course, YC partners investing in a startup is just one of many signals investors are looking at when evaluating a startup at the seed stage.

YC also recently debuted a new, easier convertible equity model for founders.

Photo Credit/Flickr

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Canada's Wind Mobile offers unlimited US roaming for $15 extra per month

Canadians frequently have to pay through the nose to use their phones in the US; at best, they'll get a paltry 50MB of data per day. They won't have that problem for long, though, since Wind Mobile is launching an unlimited US roaming plan on ...



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VC Lip Reading Video Is The Best VC Video You’ll See Today

If you’re familiar with the ‘Bad Lip Reading of The NFL’ videos on YouTube, you might get a charge out of this hilarious mashup created by startup MeetBall. It puts the same spin on a collection of clips of VCs and founders and was created on a challenge from ex-Googler and Homebrew investor Hunter Walk. If you’re interested in seeing some of the most well-known investors, founders and VCs in the industry say things like ‘I want to smell your gum’ then this is for you.

I think this wins the internet today. Thanks MeetBall.

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