Written by: Matt
[ Jason Sosa, Immersive founder and CEO, says his team and investors were well aware of his intentions to use $2K of the team's money to support his family. ]We all know reality TV includes set ups and clever editing. But on Bloomberg's "TechStars" reality show last week, Jason Sosa, CEO of interactive billboard startup Immersive, admits to embezzling more than $2K from his company -- an event Sosa tells LAUNCH was liberally edited to show his guilt for viewer entertainment [ Watch it here at 12:50 ].
Six Degrees Group, a cloud-based data management company, launched with 37M euro ($50.4M) in funding from Penta Capital.
Six Degrees Group
Website: http://www.6dg.co.uk/
Twitter: @6degreesgroup
Alastair Mills, founder and CEO...
[ Robert Stephens, Best Buy CTO, (left) and Marko Gargenta, Android Open program chair, (right) talk about the future of Best Buy at the Android Open Conference in San Francisco. ]Arduino -- open-source electronics prototyping hardware that you can only buy at speciality electronic shops -- might be coming to a Best Buy near you. Robert Stephens, Best Buy CTO and founder of Geek Squad, told the audience at the Android Open conference in San Francisco today that he can foresee a future where each store has an Arduino section instead of DVDs and everything Best Buy sells is an accessory for your mobile device. 
It has long been known that cleavage and bikinis receive a 25x click-through rate on YouTube. Advertisers have finally realized this and put together a super-clever advertisement that you probably saw on YouTube today.
Called "HOT girl, TINY bikini!" or "Girl in tiny bikini," the video was prominently placed in the featured videos section...
For a $78 pledge on Kickstarter, Romotive will provide backers with their very own smartphone-controlled robot, called Romo, that lets you see where it's going by using the phone's camera. You can control Romo-- the same size as a small remote-controlled car -- with a computer, iPod touch, tablet or another smartphone as long as you have a wifi connection.
Romo allows owners to use a variety of Android or iOS apps to make their robots do fun stuff like spy on co-workers and draw pictures [ check this out ].
When we saw this we thought, "This is awesome, a smartphone-controlled robot!" followed immediately by, "My god, we hope terrorists don't get their hands on this..."
[ The Immersive team faces the biggest problem of the season when its CEO Jason Sosa (right) chooses family over the company. Courtesy of Bloomberg's TechStars. ] The entrepreneurs showed tremendous business and personal growth on the fourth episode of Bloomberg's TechStars -- Veri landed $100K in funding and OnSwipe actually asks for help -- but Immersive, learned a hard lesson about money and starting a company [ Watch the episode here ].
LinkedIn members now see updates from companies they follow -- including job opportunities, employee moves and breaking news -- when they sign on to the professional networking service.
The updates are limited to 500 characters. LinkedIn says "tens of millions of professionals" have followed more than 2M company profiles since the feature was added in April 2010.
In contrast, Facebook's Pages let companies post up to 5K characters, and businesses have been able to post updates that appear in follower's news feeds since Pages launched in November 2007...
WHAT: An iPad app for casual-dining restaurants to manage seating. Restaurant hosts or hostesses put the customer's phone number in the app and notify the guest via text message when a table is available.
Customers are free to leave the restaurant until they are notified, at which point they can cancel their table or tell the restaurant (also by text message) they will be there soon.
Restaurants can also use the system to send thank-you messages to the guest and invite them to join reward-type programs by texting a response. The restaurant does not retain customer phone numbers unless customers opt-in to their programs. Restaurants can connect multiple devices to the platform, including their iPhones.
LAUNCHERS: Robb Myer, CEO; James Belt, director software information architecture; Richard Colvin, director software engineering; Luke Panza, business development.
WHEN/WHERE: April 2011 / Pittsburgh...
Groupon's latest venture into the product deal space, Groupon Goods, offers daily deals on products, much like Amazon's Woot, at an amazing discount of $2 less than Amazon.
Today's offer features a Fujifilm JV100 camera -- which has been discontinued -- for $68 while Amazon is charging $69.99. Big deal, right?
The other deals aren't that great either...
Yelp reviews drive customers to independent restaurants over chains, according to a study conducted by a Harvard Business School professor.
"There is a shift in revenue share toward independent restaurants and away from chains as Yelp penetrates a market," Michael Luca, assistant professor at the Harvard Business School, writes in the study.
The study, "Reviews, Reputation, and Revenue: The Case of Yelp.com", analyzed information collected by the Washington State Department of Revenue for all restaurants in Seattle between 2003 and 2009...
