Business

Ryan has spent more than five years covering business, technology, and telecom-related subjects for a variety of publications based in New York and San Francisco. Ryan currently works as a writer for TechCrunch. ? Learn More So here’s the real story behind App.net founder Dalton Caldwell’s plans to build a new, open API framework for developers to build off of. According to him, Facebook pressured him into selling his company, rather than competing with the social network’s newly released App Center. In an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted to his blog on Wednesday, Caldwell recounted his side of a meeting with Facebook’s developer relations team, which occurred in mid-June. Prior to the meeting, App.net was working on a mobile app that would let users see which apps their friends were using, and make suggestions about new apps to download. It used Facebook Connect and Facebook Open Graph to identify interesting apps and to share them with social connections, and Cald...

Rip Empson is a writer and rabble-rouser at TechCrunch. He covers startups, music, social, mobile, health, and education. You can reach him at rip[at]techcrunch[dot]com ? Learn More Pinterest has been growing fast and furiously, and as a result, many retailers have been rushing to add “Pin It” buttons to their social sharing options. A few months back, flash sales giant Gilt City got some buzz for becoming one of the first to incentivize “pinning,” allowing users to unlock special deals on Gilt by re-pinning certain items. In other words, after a product was pinned, say, 50 times, the pin would link to a hidden sale on Gilt where users could purchase that special, discounted item. Gilt’s clever move was further evidence that retailers are starting to understand the inherent value of Pinterest as a marketing platform. Seeing a growing demand among brands for better ways to incentivize their users to socially engage with their products (especially via Pinterest), Splurgy is today relea...

Billy Gallagher is a writer for TechCrunch. He is also the president and editor in chief of The Stanford Daily. Billy previously worked at The Stanford Daily for two volumes as a managing editor of news. He has also worked in sports and staff development at The Daily. In March of 2012 the Friends of The Stanford Daily awarded him... ? Learn More I’ve found this story reads best when listening to Hulk Hogan’s intro music. I’ve embedded a video below for your reading pleasure. On Wednesday, I reported that GoDaddy acquired cloud-based financial management application company Outright, with all 24 employees joining GoDaddy. Now, web and mobile app developer LessEverthing tells me they turned down an offer from GoDaddy in 2009. LessEverything’s first product, LessAccounting, is small business accounting software—and an outright Outright competitor. [Pause for laughter] The company claims it has had over 30,000 sign-ups and processes billions of dollars per week. The founders, Steve Brist...