Local news and blog site Outside.in has raised $3 million in a series A financing. Investors include Union Square Ventures, Milestone Venture Partners, the New York City Investment Fund. That brings the total raised so far to $5.4 million, including two angel rounds. (Marc Andreesen, Esther Dyson, John Seeley Brown, and George Crowley were some of the angel investors). The company also gains a new CEO in Mark Josephson, the former president of ad network Seevast and former general manager of About.com.
Outside.in has created a database of location-specific blogs and Websites. It’s new front door is going to be a feed service called Radar that is now in private alpha and only covers New York City. Union Square’s Fred Wilson describes it this way: “Radar is like FriendFeed for geo/hyperlocal. You subscribe to places and neighborhoods you want to follow and you get a custom feed.”
If you live in New York City and want to check it out, we have 25 alpha invites. Send an email to tcinvites [at] outside [dot] in.
Comments
Steven Johnson writes about moving from CEO to “active Executive Chairman”
http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.....ssing.html
great start up…
Hi
I wonder about the choice of .in extension. Usually it is associated with domain names from India. Wonder what’s the relation here.
Akshay
Sounds like EveryBlock: http://www.everyblock.com
looks like seevast just lost their president. i doubt they survive the fall.
This could be the first time a U.S.-based news and opinion site has decided to base its brand offshore, in a venue where free speech and opinion is not seen in the same terms as it would with a dot-com extension.
What could possibly go wrong?
Free-speech bans in India can be imposed on the state level, as the state of West Bengal did by a ban against the secular author Taslima Nasrin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taslima_Nasrin). The third part of Taslima’s autobiography was banned there until 2005.
It’s going to be hard to keep track of banned content and links to banned sites. Failure to do so could lead to Outside.in’s domain being suspended. Appeal processes could be lengthy or unavailable.
Then there is the tax issue. India can impose taxes retroactively, making business planning unpredicable. Beginning with Circular 2004-5, India has embarked on a course of attempting to capture income that is not taxed elsewhere (as in the U.S.). Although immediate tax burdens are unlikely, the Finance Ministry in Delhi is likely to look at businesses using Indian domains – as tax authorities in that country did with cell phone ownership.
Doing businesses in India and with Indian vendors can be a rewarding and safe experience, but only if one keeps one’s eyes open and takes appropriate precautions.
Very good website - recommended.
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