Have a Slice of 3.14

March 8 2010 by Samihah Azim in Pi Day |No Comments


Sunday, March 14th will be Pi Day! With a Berkeley alum, a Stanford alum, and an MIT alum in the office (and with all three schools consisting of student bodies that celebrate the “holiday”), we’re all pretty excited for 3/14! Or maybe it’s just me with my obsession for all things Pi related that’s pretty excited. Regardless, I’m all for an excuse to eat some good ol’ pie -err, rather, Pi (pecan being my favorite). What would be really awesome is to see photos of various Pi Day celebrations going on around the world – or photos of different types of pie pi.

In San Francisco, at the Exploratorium Museum, there will be activities hosted in honor of Pi Day on March 14th. This is exciting for a couple of reasons: not only will there be pie, but there will also be pizza pie dough tossing amongst other activities! I’m no chef, but the thought of tossing dough in the air and watching it spin is pretty exciting – no idea if there are plans to add toppings and bake the pizza, but as long as it doesn’t fall on the floor, I’m down for eating it! You can watch my fun Pi Day on Clixtr and add your own photos. Most of us at Clixtr are quite the foodies, so expect to see pictures of pie on Clixtr on March 14th!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

February 26 2010 by Samihah Azim in Chinese New Year, Holidays, Social Media |No Comments

What’s the perfect way to kick off the Year of the Tiger? Why, a parade and scavenger hunt of course! The annual Chinese New Year’s parade in San Francisco will be taking place tomorrow at 5:15pm the scavenger hunt will take place from 4:30pm until 9pm. The parade, which is sponsored by Southwest Airlines, will start at Market and 2nd, go up Geary, down Post St., and then end on Kearny at Columbus.

What would be really cool to see are photos from the beginning of the parade route, for people that are in the middle or end. This would let people know how close the parade is to them and what they can expect to see. If you’re attending the parade, definitely Clixtr a couple of photos at the beginning to let those of us know towards the middle and end what we can expect and how far away it is to us.

Clixtr would be IDEAL for the scavenger hunt! If you’re going into the hunt with a strategy (a strategy to WIN!), then Clixtr would be the ideal weapon of choice. You and your group could split up to look for the clues, and Clixtr the clues once you find them to let other team members know where and what those clues are. You can also use Clixtr to let your team members know what they should be looking for in terms of landmarks, as well as where you are.

Here’s to hoping the rain lets up in time for tomorrow’s parade and scavenger hunt. If you’re going, the rest of us that aren’t attending will look forward to your Clixtr events. Have fun, good luck, and Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Three Holidays in One

February 12 2010 by Samihah Azim in Chinese New Year, Holidays, President's Day Weekend, Valentine's Day |No Comments

The Great San Francisco Pillow Fight at Justin Herman Plaza


This weekend will be Valentine’s Day, Chinese New Year (Gung Hay Faat Choy!), and President’s Day Weekend! So basically, love, happiness, and shopping sales. Awesome!

San Francisco has one of the country’s most famous Chinatowns. WIth bakeries selling mooncakes and teacakes, the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory residing in an unassuming alley, and lots of bright colors decorating the stores in Chinatown, San Francisco, it truly does feel like the year of the Tiger. Unfortunately, for some reason, the annual Chinese New Year parade and scavenger hunt won’t occur until Saturday, February 27th (definitely Clixtring that!).

Not to worry, I still have plans for this weekend – it’s Valentine’s Day! No, not a romantic candlelit dinner for two by the Bay (a little too mushy for my taste). Something even better – The Great San Francisco Pillow Fight! Yes, that’s right, a PILLOW FIGHT. I am SO excited! I invited the entire Clixtr team, and all of you are more than welcome to join. If you can’t attend, join in on the fun by watching the event unfold on Clixtr (either through the mobile app or the website). It’ll be at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco (across the street from the Ferry Building – you’ll see a mass amount of people with pillows). Everyone sort of mills about, and as soon as the clock strikes 6, start hitting people with your pillow! There are only three rules:
1.) Don’t hit anyone without a pillow
2.) You’re not allowed to hit anyone with a camera taking pictures
3.) Have fun and enjoy!

Last year, there were thousands of people in attendance (yes, thousands, four digits), this year, the expected attendance is double what it was last year. I went last year, so here are a few key learnings:
1.) Do NOT wear a peacoat, unless, even after dry cleaning, you like having feathers all over your outerwear.
2.) Do NOT wear suede (especially if it’s raining). Just trust me on this one.
3.) Wear a scarf or SARS-like mask over your mouth (unless of course you like inhaling feathers).
4.) Don’t forget to have fun and enjoy yourself! When else can you randomly hit strangers with a pillow?

See you all on the 14th!

EDIT: Here are two events created on Clixtr for the Pillow Fight:
1. http://clixtr.com/tb2t
2. http://clixtr.com/oveo

A Chance to Win an iPad

February 9 2010 by Samihah Azim in How-To, Social Media, Social Networking, Technology |1 Comment


With the iPad creating a lot of buzz in the industry, it’ll undoubtedly be one of the hardest devices to get your hands upon immediately post-release. As a welcome to all new Clixtr registrants, we’re holding an iPad contest. From Thursday, February 11th until Sunday, April 4th, anyone and everyone that follows the steps below has a chance to win the wifi iPad model:

1.) Download the Clixtr iPhone app to your phone or click here. If you don’t have an iPhone, register through the site.

If you’ve downloaded the app, complete the following steps:

2.) Launch the app, and tap “Login” on the top-left corner.
3.) Register by completing the quick registration process.

After you register you will automatically be entered to win an iPad. We will announce the winner here and will email you if you’ve won. Good luck and happy Clixtring!

Love is in the Air – MacWorld 2010!

February 9 2010 by Samihah Azim in Award, Emerging Technology, Social Media, Social Networking, Technology, Uncategorized |No Comments


It’s that time of year again! There’s excitement in the air! Can you feel it? Everyone’s happy, and there’s so much love in the air. Love for all things Mac that is! Yup, it’s time for..wait for it, wait for it..MACWORLD! Sure, Apple may not be attending, but Clixtr is! We’ll be in the Expo in the Mobile Apps Showcase area – come visit if you’re attending! We’ll give you chocolate and stickers. If you’re not attending, holler at us online! Check the Clixtr website to view MacWorld unfolding in real time. We’ll be in the Mobile Apps Showcase pit from Thursday through Saturday, all day. We’re also co-throwing a casual happy hour Thursday night after MacWorld from 6pm until 9pm at Harlot Nightclub, which by the way, is a pretty cool little spot. Find the right people, and you can get drink tickets! The two other startups we’re cosponsoring the event with are UserVoice and Particle. DJ KidHack will be at the turntables dropping some hot beats – he’s also dropped some pretty hot graphic designs for us, like our fliers for MacWorld.

Wednesday night, Medialets and 148Apps.com are cosponsoring a reception for their Best App Ever competition. It’ll be held at Jillian’s in the Metreon, and they’ve been kind enough to let Clixtr display our embeddable widget for displays. Jillian’s has TV screens throughout their establishment, so they’re allowing us to feed our flash widget through one of the screens in the reception area. As soon as event-goers take a photo, it’ll upload to the event, then display automatically on the screen. We’ll also be branding the widget with Medialets’ and 148Apps’ logo. I’ve been coordinating this with Medialets’ marketing director, Elena Perez, who is in New York. She’s pretty excited about the idea of being able to see the reception unfold in real time in San Francisco, and be three hours ahead in New York. The party will go late into the night for our East Coast viewers, but when they wake up the next morning, they’ll be able to view a photo timeline of the event.

Are You Ready for Football?

February 3 2010 by Samihah Azim in Social Media, Social Networking, Uncategorized |No Comments

Or maybe you’re ready for the Superbowl parties. As someone who tries their hardest to get into football (no really!), I get surprisingly excited about the Superbowl (partly due to chips served with guacamole – avocados, yumm!), but also because it’s the day that ad agencies get creative with commercials. I mean, if a client is paying upwards of $2million for a 30second ad spot, it’s probably best to err on the side of engaging, creative advertising. Or take a page out of Frito-Lay’s book and let the people create a creative and witty commercial. Regardless of whether or not you feel commercials are more memorable than the actual game, one thing is for certain: Superbowl Sundays are AWESOME! My favorite part of Superbowl Sunday: the food. And since I have Clixtr on my phone, I can’t wait to show all of my friends not in attendance the scrumptious nachos with guac I’ll be eating! Yum! I can also send them an invite to follow my Superbowl Clixtr event – this way, they can see the fun I’m having, as I’m having it. This could also entice them into joining me. Food, and friends! Is there a more winning combination than that?

Join Clixtr at CES. We’re going to Las Vegas!

January 7 2010 by Samihah Azim in Award, Business, CES 2010, Consumer Electronics Show, Contests, Emerging Technology, Social Networking, Technology |4 Comments

Las Vegas
Founder and CEO Fergus Hurley, Fiona O’Donnell-McCarthy, and Brad Smith will be attending and representing Clixtr at the International CES convention held annually in Las Vegas from January 7-10th. The International Consumer and Electronics Show is hosted by the Consumer Electronics Association and is one of the largest technology conferences in the world.

Held annually in January, thousands descend upon Las Vegas to check out the coolest, newest technology being showcased (many of which are often either concepts, or won’t be in production and released until late in the year). This year, Clixtr has made it as a Top 10 finalist for the Mobile Apps Showdown live contest, and a Top 20 semi-finalist for the Mobile Apps Showdown online contest held at CES and hosted by NetShelter.net. Since I won’t be attending CES, I’ll be living vicariously through photos, and luckily for me, Clixtr allows me to view photos in real time.

If I were to attend CES, you can be sure I’d be using Clixtr extensively. If there’s one thing I’m obsessed about, it’s cutting-edge technology and gadgets – and there’s nothing more exciting than sharing this obsession with others. Here’s how I would use Clixtr at CES:

1.) Take pictures of all of the hottest gadgets at CES, then share the Clixtr event on Facebook, Twitter, and my address book so friends and followers can live vicariously though my photos.

2.) I see something really awesome and I want to share it with my buddies that are attending CES—I can share the Clixtr event with them so they can see just how awesome the item is and check it out themselves.

3.) I’m eating a delicious meal at the Wynn or Bellagio (or anywhere else), and I want my friends to join me. I can show them just how juicy my meal is by sharing the Clixtr event with them (nom nom nom!).

4.) Take photos of the Clixtr Team presenting on stage for the Mobile Apps Showdown (by the way, we’ll be on stage on Thursday at 10:30am and Saturday at 12:30pm. If you’re attending CES, we’d love for you to join us!).

In addition to presenting on stage, the Clixtr team at CES will be walking around looking at some of the hottest technology to date. They’ll also be answering questions and talking to press. If you’d like to meet the team or you want to know more about Clixtr, feel free to send an email to info (at) clixtr (dot) com.

Top 20 Mobile App

December 31 2009 by Samihah Azim in Award, Consumer Electronics Show, New Years, Silicon Valley, Social Media, Social Networking, Technology |1 Comment

Some women wait in anticipation for Fashion Week in New York where future trends in fashion are unveiled, I wait in anticipation for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held annually in Las Vegas. There’s nothing more exciting than seeing what’s at the edge of technology, what the next trends will be, and where the world will be in the future in terms of technological innovation (You know you’re a nerd when..). Well, actually, there is ONE thing more exhilarating than all of that: working for an early-stage startup that’s been chosen as a finalist for the CES Mobile Apps Showdown. Yep, yours truly (i.e., Clixtr), has been chosen as one of the top 20 mobile apps as determined by CES experts. The team received this phenomenal honor over the holiday break, and we’ve each celebrated in our own way (like jumping up and down in excitement).

The award is a sort of “people’s choice” award. That is, in order for us to win, we need your help. Each voter receives 25 votes to distribute as they see fit. Give Clixtr all 25 votes, 15 votes, or 10. The choice is yours, but we’d certainly appreciate everyone’s support through votes for Clixtr! Voting closes on January 8, 2010. So before you get caught up with life in the new year, take a moment to vote for Clixtr through the ballot box. Happy voting and a very Happy New Year! We’ll see you on Clixtr next year!

Happy Holidays, from the Team at Clixtr!

December 18 2009 by Samihah Azim in Christmas, Holidays, New Years, Social Media |2 Comments
On a ski lift in Lake Tahoe

On a ski lift in Lake Tahoe

With our office in the heart of the Financial District of San Francisco (right across the street from Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, and the Bank of America Building – it doesn’t get any more corporate than that!), it’s a little hard to decorate the office in holiday cheer. Not because we’re in such a corporate environment, but because we also share space with another really cool startup which makes it difficult to go all out with a Douglas Fir tree dressed in lights and ornaments. Nevertheless, we still manage to get into the holiday spirit.

Last weekend was huge for company parties – there were also ideal skiing conditions in Lake Tahoe, so the team decided to celebrate the holidays with a day trip to Lake Tahoe to go skiing! You can view the Clixtr photos through the event labeled Ski Trip With the Team – Heavenly. After a lot of hard work these last 3 months post-launch, the ski trip was a great way for the team to have fun and relax (until we woke up the next morning with very sore muscles!). Speaking of hard work, the team has been working day and night to give all of our mobile users a couple of exciting features.

Many of you have indicated that during Christmas or New Year’s Eve parties, everyone will have a camera and will take photos, but either they won’t see half of the pictures, they’ll see them months later or they have to go through multiple online photo albums from various friends and family members to view photos. A lot of you have also indicated the desire to view photos instantly of friends and family members that are in a different location than you. Clixtr lets you do all of this already, but we also wanted to give you all an easier way to share your events.

As an early present to our users, we’ve implemented a couple of features to make it easier to share your holiday photos. Through the iPhone app, you can now share your Clixtr events on Twitter and Facebook. This integration with the two social networking sites make it easier for you to let your followers and friends see your events streaming in real-time. Can’t make it to a holiday party? You can still “attend” by having the host, hostess, or a guest create an event on Clixtr, tweet out the link or share the event on Facebook, then follow it yourself. To share your Clixtr events via Twitter and Facebook, simply launch the app, go into the event you’d like to share on Twitter and/or Facebook, hit the “share” button on the top right, then tap on either “Share on Facebook” or “Share on Twitter.” Voila! The event has now been shared with your Facebook friends and Twitter followers.

Don’t know what events to share on Twitter or Facebook? Here are 5 suggestions to help you get started:

  1. Holiday Party (Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Winter Solstice, etc).
  2. Last minute gift-shopping (Can’t decide between presents? Create a Clixtr event, send invites to friends, and get their input through the comments – this is similar to taking cupcake orders through Clixtr.
  3. Ugly Sweater Party (Only during this time of year can you get away with wearing an ugly sweater – preserve the memories and look back at them next year!).
  4. Tropical getaway (Going someplace exotic this holiday season? Make your friends and family at home jealous of your tan and vacation through your location-based Clixtr event).
  5. Pictures from the snow – photos of snowmen, ice skating, snowball fights, snow angels, etc. (This is the most magical time of year where many parts of the world look like a winter wonderland. Share the magic with family and friends living in non-snow regions of the world.)

Want to see certain features added to either the mobile app or the web app? Let us know what feature would delight you in the comments below or email us: feedback (at) clixtr (dot) com.

Happy Holidays from all of us at Clixtr!

Clixtr Wins Emerging Technology Award

December 4 2009 by Samihah Azim in Award, Business, Emerging Technology, Silicon Valley, Social Media, Social Networking, Technology |1 Comment

Good News should be shared with all, and we’ve got fantastic news! Last night, Fergus, Brad, Fiona, and I attended the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal’s Emerging Tech Awards since Clixtr was chosen as a finalist for the Social Networking category. It was our first award and needless to say, we were all fairly excited. There were some pretty cool companies and the catered food was fantastic (and a welcoming change from the startup diet of pizza and take-out). It was great being amongst fellow technologists and tech enthusiasts – you can check out the event on Clixtr.

A couple of months ago, we had a blog post up about creating spooky Halloween photos, and in that post I mentioned a photographer dropping by from the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal. Well, the photographer, Paolo Vescia, dropped by to take photos of the team for the news article covering Clixtr for the Emerging Tech Awards. It was a joy having him take our photo, and the team had a lot of fun during the shoot. Please note, our walls aren’t actually green, though it would be pretty awesome if they were!

Clockwise from right: Fiona ODonnell-McCarthy, Fergus Hurley, Samihah Azim, and Brad Smith

Clockwise from right: Fiona O'Donnell-McCarthy, Fergus Hurley, Samihah Azim, and Brad Smith

And for those wondering, yes, the award itself is as heavy as it looks:

Clixtr wins Social Networking Category.

Clixtr wins Social Networking Category.

If you’re wondering what other categories there were and who the finalists and winners were, you can read about all of that in the Emerging Tech Award Winners article. To read the article about Clixtr from the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, click here.

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