About Meg Rayford

Meg Rayford is a writer and media analyst based in Fairfax, VA, with clients including PBS, The Pentagon, and several DC-area technology firms. She received an M.B.A. and M.S. in marketing from the University of Maryland's University College, and she completed her undergraduate work in psychology and journalism at UMass.

When Meg isn't writing, editing, and analyzing media messages, she likes to unplug and head out to the Virginia mountains, or down to the beaches in her home state of South Carolina, with her husband and their family.

Recent Post by this Author

InternMatch Raises $4 Million Series A, Wrangles Big Data for Hiring

InternMatch, an online platform that helps students find internships and companies hire talented students, today announced a new $4 million Series A round of funding led by Artis Ventures and Subtraction Capital, including new investments from previous investors 500 Startups, Kapor Capital, Rudy Gadre, and others. Along with the new funds, San Francisco-based InternMatch is also…

CommonBond’s David Klein: “Being an Entrepreneur is the Hardest Job You’ll Ever Have”

CommonBond‘s peer-to-peer lending model has received plenty of attention for its novel – and smart – method of helping B-school students actually afford their degrees. With some MBA students graduating with a pile of loans equal to a mortgage, CommonBond’s crowdfunding solution is a welcomed innovation. As an MBA myself, I am glad to see…

Appiphany Launches iOS App InstaFeed for a Better Instagram Experience

Appiphany today launched its iOS app InstaFeed, which allows users to create a fully customized Instagram experience. Through a new “subscription” paradigm, InstaFeed users can view content from their favorite Public Instagrammers without affecting their Instagram Following. The Appiphany team has pre-populated feeds with some of Instagram’s best content producers in popular categories of interest, such as…

Breather Announces $1.5M Seed Round Led by Real Ventures with Gary Vaynerchuk, Loic Le Meur, Mike Walsh

Breather announced today that they closed their seed round of $1.5 million dollars led by Real Ventures with Gary Vaynerchuk, Loic Le Meur, Mike Walsh and others also participating in the round. Breather is a network of rooms inside cities that are opened by phone. If you are a member, you can access them at…

Salesforce.com Gets Social, Adding ExactTarget’s Social Media Power Through $2.5 Billion Deal

Salesforce.com and ExactTarget today announced that they have entered into an agreement under which Salesforce.com will acquire ExactTarget in a transaction valued at $2.5 billion. This acquisition will further Salesforce.com’s mission to be a world-leading CRM platform by combining ExactTarget’s digital marketing capabilities with Salesforce.com’s sales, service, and social marketing solutions. Under the terms of…

Social Venture Partners Chicago Chooses Local Education Nonprofit as Investee

Chicago-based Social Venture Partners Chicago (SVP Chicago) is a partnership of philanthropic leaders who invest time, expertise, and money in innovative nonprofits that have the potential to make meaningful and sustainable improvements within the Chicagoland community. They aim to help nonprofits to be as effective as possible in delivering programs and services by helping to build…

Mobile App Fandium Launches as the Social Game Day Destination for Sports

Launching today, Fandium mobile app for iOS gives users a more social game day experience for professional and collegiate sports, complete with aggregated live content and streaming social feeds. The Chicago-based company aims to be the social destination for sports fans to get the real story from inside the stadium, whether they’re in the crowd…

UX Lab in the Cloud YouEye Raises $3M, Launches New Product Insite

YouEye, an online user research platform that features remote usability testing with emotion recognition, today announced that it has raised $3,000,000, led by investors Bobby Yazdani, Brian McClendon and Beth McClendon. YouEye’s platform features webcam and audio recording, so companies can view participants as they browse through sites and listen to spoken feedback. Since testing…

Creative Network Zealous Launches to Encourage Artistic Collaboration Online

London-based Zealous is an online creativity network aimed at the film, art, music, photography, and performance markets, founded in April 2011 by Guy Armitage. The live alpha attracted over 2,200 users, and today the company officially launched to help creatives from any artistic discipline showcase their work, find one another to collaborate, and gather an…

Alpha Payments Cloud Raises $12 Million Seed Round

New York City-based Alpha Payments Cloud (APC), a payments-focused cloud-based IT startup, announced this week a $12 million seed round funded by an angel investor. The company plans to introduce new cloud-based payment platforms that change the way payment products are developed while simplifying and connecting the payments world. APC’s enterprise app store is designed…

Digital Business Incubator Wavetable Labs Launches in Chicago

Digital business incubator Wavetable Labs launched today in Chicago. The incubator plans to recruit Founders in Residence (FIR) to help them identify and build promising new digital businesses. Wavetable’s core team will help these FIR evaluate new business opportunities, build new products, and launch and scale businesses. Many potential entrepreneurs, operating as seasoned executives or…

Duncan Logan of RocketSpace on Nurturing Startups from Seed to B [Video]

Startups don’t succeed in a vacuum, and few entrepreneurs understand this better than RocketSpace founder and CEO Duncan Logan. Founded in early 2011, his San Francisco-based accelerator has already grown to about 130 companies, all of which are focused purely on tech. But, Duncan and his team aren’t just looking for people with good ideas. They…

Healthbox Kicks Off Second Boston Accelerator Program

Boston-based Healthbox, a leading business accelerator that supports early-stage health care companies, kicked off its second program recently, along with anchor partner Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA). The program supports innovative startup companies as they respond to continued industry demand for creative solutions to pervasive healthcare challenges. “Blue Cross is committed to bringing…

Chris Schultz Talks About New Orleans-based Launch Pad and the Newly Launched Niko Niko

Over the last few years, New Orleans has been in a constant state of rebuilding. Along with the volunteers and contractors who have worked to rebuild the historic city, came a crop of talented, smart entrepreneurs looking to build companies, too. In the video below, Launch Pad cofounder Chris Schultz talks about how New Orleans’…

ITA CityLIGHTS Awards Nominations Close This Week: Act Now to Nominate a Deserving Individual or Business

As most entrepreneurs know, startup success doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It usually thrives because the startup, and the people who run it, have been supported by a vast network of people who believe in innovation and entrepreneurship. The Illinois Technology Association (ITA) is acknowledging those who have supported the growth of the Illinois technology…

TRIANGLE STARTUP FACTORY ANNOUNCES SPRING 2013 STARTUP CLASS

Triangle serial entrepreneurs and mentors Chris Heivly and Dave Neal announced this week the six companies that will make up the third Triangle Startup Factory accelerator session. TSF, the most highly capitalized technology accelerator in the southeast, runs an intensive, three month program customized for early stage startup companies. In addition to seed capital, startups…