Dalton Caldwell

Dalton Caldwell (born February 27, 1980) is a technologist and digital music entrepreneur. He is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mixed Media Labs.[1] He currently works as a partner at Y Combinator.

Dalton Caldwell
Born (1980-02-27) February 27, 1980
El Paso, TX, USA
OccupationCEO, Mixed Media Labs
Known forFounder of imeem

Biography

Born in El Paso, Texas, Caldwell graduated from Stanford University in 2003 with a B.S. in Symbolic Systems and a B.A. in Psychology.[2]

After graduation, Caldwell worked briefly for VA Linux (where he had previously worked as a summer intern) before founding imeem in late 2003 with Stanford classmate (and ex-Napster engineer) Jan Jannink.[3]

Having raised over $50 million from investors including Sequoia Capital, imeem was one of the world’s largest music streaming services until it was bought and effectively shut down by MySpace.[4]

Mixed Media Labs & Picplz

Mixed Media Labs, founded in 2010, is a start-up whose first product is picplz, a photo broadcasting application for iPhone and Android mobile devices. The apps let users add effects to their images for free. Current effects include "Instant Film," "Russian Toy Camera," "the 70s" and "High Contrast Monochrome.”[5] Caldwell says the effects are non-destructive, as picplz uploads both a copy of the original photo as well as the one with the applied filter.[6]

Appearance at 2010 Y Combinator’s Startup School

In October 2010, Caldwell spoke at Y Combinator’s Startup School event at Stanford University about the failures of imeem and of the challenges still facing the music industry. At the event, Caldwell delivered a cautionary message for entrepreneurs interested in music startups. Caldwell criticized major music labels for holding too much power, focusing mainly on the industry’s licensing deals for content. He said that the current state of the industry made success for startups bleak.[7]

While some commentators praised Caldwell for his harsh but realistic insight on the digital music startup industry, many critics (notably David Hyman, CEO and founder of MOG) felt that the lessons learned from Caldwell’s experience with imeem did not accurately portray the industry as a whole.[8]

App.net
Main article: app.net

Caldwell described a negative experience he had as a Facebook developer, and announced that he was starting a new network, App.net, through Mixed Media Labs. It is designed to be similar to Twitter, but have no advertising, instead relying on user and developer subscriptions. They began directly crowd funding it on July 13, 2012, with a goal of $500,000 and about 10,000 backers.[9][10][11]

Mixed Media Labs had exceeded the goal by August 13, 2012, raising at least $750,000 with over 11,000 backers.[12][13]

On May 6, 2014, Caldwell announced the service has not seen sufficient subscriptions to support any full-time employees and that it will remain online but without plans for enhancements or improvements. In addition, Caldwell reported the Developer Incentive Program, which gives developers who build apps using App.net a share of the company's revenue, will be terminated.[14]

...The bad news is that the renewal rate was not high enough for us to have sufficient budget for full-time employees. After carefully considering a few different options, we are making the difficult decision to no longer employ any salaried employees, including founders. Dalton and Bryan will continue to be responsible for the operation of App.net, but no longer as employees. Additionally, as part of our efforts to ensure App.net is generating positive cash flow, we are winding down the Developer Incentive Program. We will be reaching out to developers currently enrolled in the program with more information.

Media

See also

References
  1. "CrunchBase". Retrieved 2010-11-10.
  2. "STANFORD Magazine: January/February 2009 > Planet Cardinal > Imeem". Stanfordalumni.org. 2003-07-02. Archived from the original on 2012-04-02. Retrieved 2010-07-26.
  3. Ustinova, Anastasia (2008-08-11). "Printable version: Music site Imeem dials up volume of traffic". Sfgate.com. Retrieved 2010-07-26.
  4. Gannes, Liz (2010-10-16). "My 9 Favorite Startup Lessons From Startup School". GigaOM. Retrieved 2010-11-10.
  5. "picplz.com". Archived from the original on 2010-11-03. Retrieved 2010-11-10.
  6. Kincaid, Jason (2010-10-13). "Picplz Launches Revamped Mobile Apps For iPhone And Android (With Free Effects)". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2010-11-10.
  7. Ha, Alexander (2010-10-16). "Imeem co-founder explains why music startups are a bad idea". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2010-11-10.
  8. Hyman, David (2010-10-21). "Music Startups CAN Work: MOG CEO David Hyman Responds To imeem's Dalton Caldwell". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2010-11-10.
  9. "Announcing an audacious proposal". Dalton Caldwell. July 13, 2012. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
  10. "Dear Mark Zuckerberg". Dalton Caldwell. August 1, 2012. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
  11. Simonite, Tom (July 20, 2012). "A Social Network Free of Ads". Technology Review. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
  12. McCracken, Harry (August 13, 2012). "App.net Made Its Goal. But Can It Make It?". TIME Techland. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
  13. Lardinois, Frederic (August 12, 2012). "App.net Reaches Its $500k Funding Goal With 38 Hours To Spare". TechCrunch. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
  14. "App.net State of the Union". Dalton Caldwell. May 6, 2014. Archived from the original on January 23, 2017.
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