Reddit Declares Independence From Condé Nast

Reddit, the news-sharing site that prides itself on free speech, has been freed from the Condé Nast brand that bought it five years ago, Erik Martin, reddit general manager, wrote on the company's blog.

Erik's post said that reddit's traffic created technical, organizational and growing pains that restrained the company from growing appropriately under the Condé Nast brand.

However, Erik told LAUNCH, reddit always maintained its own servers and technical side but Condé Nast is "a big complicated media company and we wanted to get back to being a startup, and move fast...

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Risky Business? Access All Your Google Accounts with a Single Login

Google Chrome Canary, Google's test web browser for PC, Mac and Linux, now has an auto-login option that lets users enter their username and password just once in order to have complete access to all Google accounts. 

To get auto-login, type in...

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An App for Every Niche: Manage a Swim Team with SwimTopia

WHAT: A web-based app that makes it easier to run a swim team, which often consists of 100+ swimmers. SwimTopia lets athletes, coaches and family members register and manage things like signing up for individual races to volunteer registration with one service, done online -- popular current methods require each coach manage their team's activity with a single unit.

SwimTopia also lets families with multiple swimmers input their family information once instead of repeating the process. Coaches can populate relay teams and fill race spots automatically or in combination with manually selected teams. The system also tracks fundraising activities.

LAUNCHERS: Mason Hale, CTO, is the former chief technologist at Frog Design; Nathan Jones, CEO, founder and former CEO of Academic Superstore.  

WHY: Most teams still use paper to manage their teams or Team Manager, software built in the 1990s that is limited to a single computer or laptop...

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There's a Wiki for That: SpeakerMix Is Event Planner-Speaker Matchmaker

WHAT: Help meeting and conference planners find the right speaker for their event. Based on the wiki platform, speakers, agencies and event planners contribute to the SpeakerMix directory by adding speakers who specialize in different subject areas, including business, technology and sports. Event planners can search for speakers based on name, topic, location, keyword or fee, and browse through reviews before contacting.

LAUNCHERS: Jack McGary, CEO. Taylor Brooks, Co-founder.

WHY: It's hard for event planners and appropriate speakers to discover each other. Not much good info on speakers beyond bios, and publicists often write the reviews. Many people planning events are not actually professional event planners but get thrown into the role. Domain experts do not always have agents -- only celebrities do -- and don't have the time or interest to promote themselves as a speaker.

WHEN/WHERE: 2010/ Austin.

BACKSTORY: Jack and Taylor used to work at one of the largest speaking agencies in the world, Premiere Speakers Bureau, but got burnt out. In 2008, Jack left the agency and moved to Boulder to get into the startup scene.

"I kind of had the startup bug," Jack tells LAUNCH. "I knew something had to be done differently."

Taylor, on the other hand, went to Texas with the goal of starting a grilled-cheese food truck. Taylor and Jack both worked for a couple of startups before...

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Foundry Group: It's Hard Being a VC (Video)

The Foundry Group launched a digital short today, entitled "I'm a VC," that comedically illustrates the lives of venture capitalists.

"Hey, you been on my mind," Foundry Managing Director Jason Mendelson sings. "Been at least a few hours since I've seen your slides. Since I met you at the Rosewood or was it South by. Time for us to talk about our future lives." 

"I'm a VC" stars Jason, along with...

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