About Kira M. Newman

Kira M. Newman is a Tech Cocktail writer interested in startups, innovation, and new trends. In 2012, she returned from a 6-month whirlwind tour of Asia, where she met tons of welcoming, inspiring, and infectiously passionate entrepreneurs.

Kira has been published in the Huffington Post, Social Media Monthly, The New Individualist, and American.com. She previously worked as an editor at the American Enterprise Institute in DC.

In college, Kira spent a semester in Paris, where she nurtured her love of the French language and baguettes. When she’s not discussing ideas over coffee, Kira can also be found swing dancing.

You can contact Kira at kira [at] tech [dot] co or @kiramnewman.

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Recent Post by this Author

Kaplan EdTech Accelerator, Powered by TechStars, Announces First 10 Startups

Today, Kaplan kicked off its first EdTech Accelerator, powered by TechStars, with a crop of 10 startups. The 3-month program, which takes place in the Kaplan offices in New York City, offers startups $20,000 and mentorship from advisors like Kaplan CEO Andy Rosen, TechStars CEO David Cohen, Washington Post Company CEO Don Graham, and TechStars…

How Would You Spend an Extra $1,000 on Marketing?

Imagine this: someone hands your startup a check for $1,000. Their only stipulation? You have to use it on “marketing.” Turns out, entrepreneurs can get pretty creative with what they consider marketing. Here are some of the best ways they would spend that extra thousand. Stunts “Probably buy a sign on one of those trucks…

Take a Tour of Geekdom, Texas’s Largest Coworking Space

For the past two years, TechStars Cloud has run its accelerator program out of a downtown San Antonio coworking space that’s claimed to be Texas’s largest. The 45,000-square-foot space was cofounded by veterans from Rackspace, and it has 1,500 hot-desk spots and 300 desks for teams. It was founded at the end of 2011 –…

What Psychology Teaches Us about Dealing with Setbacks

The answer to the question “How should you deal with setbacks?” seems easy. Especially for entrepreneurs, setbacks are a part of life. You pick yourself up, learn, and move on. But that’s only half the picture. That’s what you do. But how should you feel? And how do you make sure you don’t feel discouraged,…

Weblance and Why You Need Freelancers Who Care

A freelancer who cares will write a customized proposal just for you; a freelancer who doesn’t will copy and paste into his template. A freelancer who cares will create a thoughtful timeline for your project; a freelancer who doesn’t will ballpark it and call it good enough. A freelancer who cares will ponder a problem…

To Make Your Team “Click,” Uncover Their Instinctive Drives

In typical companies, it takes 12 to 18 months for a team to “click”: to harmonize and fully trust each other so they’re operating at peak performance, says Paul Burgess. When team members take his Instinctive Drives test, learn their four instinctive drives, and get a bit of coaching, it takes 4 to 6 weeks. “99.9…

Scoutzie: Uncovering the World’s Best Designers

Andrew is an iOS and MacOS interface designer based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. “I’m happy to talk to clients,” he says – presumably, compared to all those designers who have no patience for the people paying their wages. Thanks to Scoutzie, Andrew has a source of work to keep him busy, happily talking to those…

Freelancer.com Crowdsources All Freelance Jobs, Not Just Design

In 2010, one-third of all American workers were independent – that means freelance, self-employed, or part-time, explains the Freelancers Union. And many of those workers are now seeking new jobs on online freelancing marketplaces like Freelancer.com, which has 7 million freelancers. On top of that, newly minted freelancers are coming out of hacker schools and…

Spinnakr Launches, Raises Funding from 500 Startups, Andreessen Horowitz

Today, DC and Silicon Valley startup Spinnakr launched in public beta and announced an undisclosed amount of funding from Andreessen Horowitz, 500 Startups, Point Nine Capital, and others. Spinnakr takes a new approach to analytics. While traditional web analytics offer complex graphs and reports that only a data scientist can truly decipher, Spinnakr distills the…

How Passion Blinds Entrepreneurs

This post is part of Tech Cocktail’s “Psychological Guide to Starting Up,” bringing you insights on the psychological and emotional challenges of startups throughout June. In startup utopia, everyone you share your idea with thinks it’s the best thing since HTTP. You dive into work bringing it to life, your days and nights filled with…

Take a Tour of The Yard, a New Office & Coworking Space in NYC

Launched on Monday, The Yard is a new 300-person office and coworking space in New York City for the tech and creative industries. When you enter The Yard, you’re struck by the contrast between the white furniture and the old, exposed brick. The tenants are eclectic, too: from music producers to advertisers to photographers to…

Romotive Alum Launches 3D Printing Lab in Las Vegas

This weekend, Romotive alum Jen McCabe will take the first step toward Fabbed Labs, a project that could grow into a full 3D printing lab, factory, and maker community in downtown Las Vegas. Working with Motorola and the Downtown Project, she is co-hosting a makeathon where six teams will bring their ideas to 3D printed…

Speek Launches Android App, Shares 1 Year of Conference Call Data

Speek, the app that makes conference calls fast and easy to join, announced the launch of its Android app today. Speek eschews the traditional dial-in number, pin, and elevator music. Instead, conference callers can join by going to a URL (like speek.com/kiramnewman) or clicking the leader’s username on the app. Once in, you can see…

Recruit Young Startup Employees on Treehouse’s New Job Board

Complementing its online courses in development and design, Treehouse just launched a tech job board. And starting today, startups can post jobs to reach the site’s 35,000 students. It’s a move that aligns Treehouse with many hacker schools and programming bootcamps, who connect students to employers or even guarantee jobs after graduation (or your money…

Boatbound Launches Airbnb for Boat Rentals

Say ahoy to Boatbound, the “pier-to-pier” boat rental site that is launching this week out of Miami. Boaters across the United States can now rent unused boats from their neighbors for hours at a time. The boats are insured, and Boatbound takes a fraction of the transaction. As a survey of BoatUS members showed, boat…

Piccolo: Print Your Instagram and Facebook Photos for $10+/Month

Today, Piccolo is launching in closed beta to bring you prints of your favorite Facebook and Instagram photos. First, you pick a plan: $10: 20 prints/month with a one-year subscription ($12 month-to-month) $15: 40 prints/month with a one-year subscription ($18 month-to-month) $20: 60 prints/month with a one-year subscription ($24 month-to-month) You can also gift subscriptions…