500 Startups in Two Minutes
This is 500 Startups in 2 minutes, featuring some of my favorite. We loved 500, because we learned so much from each other by sitting in the same space, and because it made everyone push themselves harder than ever.
Here we are in the video along with SafeShepherd, Tailored, GoVoluntr, Rota Dos Concursos, and Love With Food.
YEEHAAAW, Tiny SouthBy is here
In honor of geek spring break in Austin, we’re launching Tiny SouthBy. We’re capturing the festival and all the emotion around it with 3 lines and a photo.
- Do you have to be at the festival? Not at all! We’re pulling photos for you to caption.
- iPhone? Not required. It’s an HTML5 so anyone can play from any device.
We found that you were creating such emotional, compelling content on the Tiny Review iPhone app. Although we designed the format to work for mobile reviews (you could read it a at glance while dodging traffic), we never imagined that it could be so moving and human.
What if you could take a real event with real people, and see what memes emerge? This is what Tiny SouthBy is all about.
PS Tiny SouthBy only has login Twitter. If your Tiny Review account is not connected, just email us and we can merge your account.
Women’s History Month #whm
March is Women’s History Month and we want to challenge you to post of Tiny Reviews the women you admire—whether historical or those personally close. Tell us why you admire them, how they inspire you, or anything else in three short lines. Use the hashtag #whm.
Women’s History Month is a time to highlight women’s contributions to history and society as a whole. We have had the wonderful opportunity to have so many strong-willed, smart women in our lives who serve as shining beacons of how to stand up for ourselves and others, to know what we want, and to be compassionate.
We’ll feature the best #whm Tiny Reviews on our Pinterest page, and on our Facebook Fan Page.
Thanks and we look forward to being inspired,
Tiny Review
#Linsanity
If you don’t know who Jeremy Lin is, you probably don’t spend much time on the internet. Jeremy Lin (or JLin, or Linsanity, or … ) is a basketball player for the New York Knicks. He played Basketball at Harvard University, where he didn’t receive any scholarships. After collage he went undrafted in the NBA. He played a little bit in the league, but then was waived by the Warriors. But now? Jeremy Lin has taken over the NBA. He has also taken over the internet.
I have to admit: I was resistant at first, but then, slowly, I began to give in. It is not hard to understand why: it’s an awesome story of success and proving your detractors wrong. He is also one of a few Asian NBA players, and the only American player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent. It’s a feel good story, and I’m a sucker for a feel good story: Rocky, The Little Engine that Could, etc.
Here’s the challenge: Post your Jeremy Lin Tiny Reviews this weekend. I’ll feature the best ones here on the Tiny Review blog. Bonus points if you are at Madison Square Gardens for one the games this weekend.
<3 Vince
(Tiny Review credit: John Wu)
Valentine’s Day Love
February 14th was Valentine’s Day, and love was in the air on Tiny Review. We saw users post pictures of the wonderful gestures of love they were showered with by their significant others. Whether it be traditional fare like chocolate or flowers, or stealing special moments with those closet to them; we were thrilled to see the Tiny Reviews come in through the day. Here are a few of our favorites:
Tiny Review also received a lot of love on Valentine’s Day. We are so grateful to have been chosen as “Best Overall Startup” at the 2012 Women’s 2.0 PITCH conference, which was held on Valentine’s Day. Women 2.0’s mission is to “inform, inspire and educate a new generation of females that are entrepreneurial and successful.” Our own female founder, Melissa Miranda, took the stage and competed against some incredible, female-led companies that are all doing amazing things. We are very humbled by this honor. Check out the other winners here.
Super Bowl XLVI on Tiny Review
Yesterday was one of the biggest sporting events of the year, Super Bowl XLVI. While our hometown team the San Francisco 49ers were knockout out in the NFC Championship game, the New York Giants and New England Patriots faced off in Indianapolis. Ultimately, the New York Giants were victorious, beating the Patriots 21 to 17.
For Tiny Review, this was our first Super Bowl so it was exciting to see some of our users capturing their preparations, excitement and stories around the game. We thought we’d share some of our favorites:
(Tiny Review credits: Steve Schlafman, Brad Taylor, Joyce Lee, Adam Bonnifield, Zvi Band)
New Update, New Login Options
We launched Tiny Review a little over two months ago. We started with the simple idea that people would want to share their thoughts about a location if there was a compelling way to do it creatively, and simply. Thus the idea of one photo with three overlaid lines of text.
The response has been awesome. We have seen you share everything imaginable: reviews, meetups, stories, vacations, poetry, songs they’re singing, wedding engagements, vacations, and the list goes on. While we knew our users would find great ways of adapting the simple concept behind Tiny Review, the creativity has truly amazed us.
When the app first launched we required users to log in with Facebook. We made this design choice for a few reasons. First and foremost, it allowed us to get the app in your hands faster. It also helped us moderate spam, nudity, etc, while we worked on other login options. Today, we are happy to announce that you are now able to log in with your Twitter account, or with your email address. This has been, by far, our most requested feature. It is not even close. In addition to new login options, we have also made location optional. This means you don’t need to chose a venue for your Tiny Review.
We look forward to all the ways that you have been using Tiny Review, and we look forward to the new ways you will use it that we haven’t even thought of yet. So grab the update and start telling your story, three lines at a time. It is available in the App Store.
Enjoy!
Protesting SOPA on Tiny Review
The Tiny Review community was out in force today protesting SOPA with eye-catching posts. Here are some of the ones that made us pause. If you are unfamiliar with SOPA, there is a great video here, and more information here.
If you like your internet, please take 3 seconds to take action. We faxed a letter to our California reps, it took 3 seconds and produced a paper printout directly in their office. Do it right now!
Posted by Mo Riza
Posted by Aaron Hall
Posted by Nick Mueller
Posted by Mo Riza
Posted by Brad Heitmann
Breaking News: Microsoft fire story breaks on Tiny Review
Last night at about 9:30pm Tiny Review user, Hong Quan, posted this picture to his followers on Tiny Review and shared it on Twitter. While it is common that news breaks first on Twitter, this is the first time—to our knowledge—news has broke using Tiny Review.
It’s worth noting that the image above shows a fire near Microsoft’s Silicon Valley campus. Local news reported only one person was transported to the hospital for minor smoke inhalation. It doesn’t appear that any structures were damaged either. Still, fires are scary so our thoughts are with the Microsoft SV family.
We are always surprised by the many different uses that our Tiny Review users have found for the app. We have seen all manner of story in the app, this is first news story; but it certainly will not be the last. If you find a story on Tiny Review that you think we should feature here on our blog send us a tip at stories@tinyreviewapp.com.
New Customers for Jax Salon - We do have reviews after all!
Just reported by a stylist at JAX Salon in Menlo Park, California:
“We’re all excited at JAX for our customers to use tinyreview as a means to produce more new clients. Your colleague Azat came in as a clear response to the tinyreview posting, and subsequent social commentary. We love new clients and are excited to see more photo check-ins for our image based services. Thanks for making us look good!” — Carole Morey
Here’s the Tiny Review that got people flocking to JAX:
From Ordinary Photo to a Fond Memory
Someone in a random web hosting blog made a poignant observation about Tiny Review: The photo below would “just be an ordinary building, but with words, it represents a memory.”
Big Tiny Update
We just released a big update to Tiny Review. There are many new things in the app that we are proud of, but the change we are most excited about is the “Latest” feed. Behind the curtain at Tiny Review Headquarters we could see all of the Tiny Reviews as they were being created. We liked all of the wit and creativity so much that we added the “Latest” feed to bring you in on the fun.
What else is new:
- Share Tiny Reviews on Twitter.
- Find and invite friends from the profile tab.
- Tap the Tiny Review to toggle captions on and off, so you can see the photo.
- Tag the location where the photo was taken, rather than your current location.
- Tiny tweaks and bug fixes.
Pro Tip - if you want to see how your review looks before you post, you can push the keyboard down.
Grab it on the App Store. Tell us what you think on Twitter, and until then see you on Tiny Review!!
<3 Tiny Review
~ Tiny Review credit: Huy Hoang
Tiny Review started with Facebook login only because other options introduce anonymity. We will add more login options (yes, we hear you, revolted citizens!), but not before we are able to keep people behaving well. We’re working on it.
heyvince: Tiny Review and Community
Great post from Tiny Review user @heyvince.
I’ve been using Tiny Review [app store link] for a few weeks now, and I am absolutely loving it. I thought it’d be nice to sit down and write some of the thoughts that I have about the app so far. This is not intended on being a review, just some thoughts. As of now it has basic…
