Ride-hailing behemoth Uber has been valued at $41 billion, making it one of the most valuable private tech companies in the world.

A fresh round of funding could push that valuation even higher, giving the startup a dizzying $50 billion valuation.

Uber is a five-year-old private company. It's still growing, fighting regulatory battles domestically and expanding internationally.

But eventually, when it's ready to go public, Uber will have to prove its valuation somehow.

And though the global taxi market is vast and lucrative, it's still splintered by region. So even if Uber corners the market on for-hire vehicles, it may not be enough.

The only way Uber can prove a valuation as massive as $40 or $50 billion is by expanding into delivery and logistics, allowing its fleet of drivers to move goods in addition to people.

The US transportation and logistics market is highly competitive, but it's huge, and Uber is well-poised to take a good chunk of that market. In 2012, spending in that sector totaled $1.33 trillion, making up 8.5 percent of the US's GDP.

And Uber has already started to show that it may be interested in expanding beyond people-moving and starting to dive into logistics. In New York City, Uber offers a courier service called UberRush. Its one-off events — in which the company delivers kittens and Christmas trees alike — have been popular.

In some markets, Uber has a food delivery service called UberFresh, and it's been marketing a carpooling service called UberPool. In Washington, DC, Uber offered a service called Corner Store that delivered things you'd find in a CVS or a Duane Reade, like batteries and toothpaste (Uber Corner Store later rebranded to UberEssentials).

Uber might have some kinks to work out with its delivery services — even with a delivery time of 10 minutes or less, the $4 delivery fee for UberEATS could be a turn-off to potential customers — but it's not a stretch to see how people would use Uber's logistics services, should it expand them.

In addition, Uber only covers merchandise up to $1000, thus limiting its possible partnerships with high-end retailers. Luxury goods are often shipped in small amounts to keep packages below the maximum insured value, but Uber was unable to meet the insurance of high-price items of clients like online retailer Gilt Groupe. Uber will need to continue to balance the demands of e-commerce companies and laborers as it expands the logistics part of its business. 

SEE ALSO: A look inside the insanely successful life of billionaire Uber CEO Travis Kalanick

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You don't need to be born in Silicon Valley to make it as a tech entrepreneur.

As this list proves, founders come from every corner of the U.S., and each state has someone who has changed the tech landscape.

Here's a list of the biggest founders from each state plus Washington D.C.

And if you think we've overlooked someone big in your state, leave a note in the comments or tweet at @sai.

SEE ALSO: THE SILICON VALLEY 100: The most amazing and inspiring people in tech right now

Alabama: Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia and Wikia, credits his upbringing in Huntsville, Alabama for his passion for education. Despite running the fifth most popular website in the world, his net worth is estimated to be slightly over $1 million.

Alaska: Larry Sanger, the other co-founder of Wikipedia and founder of Infobitt, moved to Anchorage when he was seven.

Arizona: Phoenician Joan Ganz Cooney changed television forever when she helped found the Children's Television Network, the creators of Sesame Street. Her career didn't stop in showtime, though. She founded the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, which specializes in increasing literacy through digital technology. The eponymous center has hosted things like the National STEM Video Game Challenge and launched a news site dedicated to reporting on educational gaming.

The CEOs and founders of Europe's tech startups don't spend all their time in the office — they also get to travel to award conferences in exotic place and and atten fancy parties.

Luckily for us, Europe's leading names in tech enjoy documenting and sharing their lives on Instagram, giving us a sneak peek into the startup world. 

We ranked some of Europe's best tech Instagrammers according to how good their photos are, how regularly they post, and what they post snaps of.

25. Tunepics CEO Justin Cooke. WHY? Cooke's app is actually an alternative to Instagram, but he still shares photos of his daily life around London.

Crazy #sunsets in winter along the river with the skateboarders in the dark...

A photo posted by Justin Cooke (@jc7777) on Jan 2, 2015 at 2:57pm PST

24. Rentify CEO George Spencer. WHY? Spencer's Instagram shows daily life in the Rentify office, as well as interesting photos of properties in London.

A photo posted by George Spencer (@officiallygeorge) on Jul 4, 2015 at 7:11am PDT

23. Prezi CEO Peter Arvai. WHY? Arvai loves to Instagram photos of tasty meals.

My Chinese me is soo happy!

A photo posted by Peter Arvai (@peterarvai) on Apr 22, 2012 at 1:49pm PDT

Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten has acquired London startup Fits.me, TechCrunch reports.

Fits.me lets shoppers try on clothes virtually. Anybody interested in an item of clothing can provide details about their age, weight, height, and body type, and then see how it will look on them.

Here's what it looks like to try out Fits.me embedded on the website of a fashion retailer:

Terms of the acquisition deal weren't released, but TechCrunch reports that the deal was made several weeks ago. A press release published by Fits.me makes it clear that the company will continue to be run as a standalone business, and retailers will still be able to pay to use the technology. Fits.me says it will "continue to support and grow current and future clients."

Fits.me didn't actually start in London, though. It was originally an Estonian startup, and moved its head office to London in 2012. Estonia has been home to many successful startups, including Skype and TransferWise.

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Joanna McFarland was talking to a group of moms at a kids birthday party when everyone started complaining about how hard it is to find rides for their kids.

For working parents who can't afford a nanny, there are trade-offs and sacrifices parents have to make to be able to take their kid to-and-from ballet practice, or to pick up their child on an early release day at school.

McFarland joked at the party that they should buy a neighborhood van and make pick-ups easy. The rest of the crowd laughed it off, but McFarland and her co-founder Janelle McGlothlin realized they may be on to something.

"We soon became completely obsessed with the idea because there was really no solution," said McFarland, who is now CEO of their company.

HopSkipDrive was launched in Los Angeles in March 2015 and has already completed thousands of rides. Today it's announcing a $3.9 million seed round of funding, led by Upfront Ventures.

The biggest problem facing the 'Uber for kids' startups is getting past the "stranger danger" of letting children ride in cars with strangers. The scaryheadlines around alleged Uber driver attacks might stop many parents from placing their children in the car with someone they've never met.

The three co-founders, which includes Carolyn Yashari Becher as the third, have designed HopSkipDrive around being comfortable letting their own children ride in the car. In between the three of them, they have eight children who at any time need to be shuttled from ballet to soccer to volleyball.

To protect their own children and other's, the company claims they have the most rigorous background checks of any of the ride-sharing companies because they use fingerprints. Even its competitor, San Francisco-based Shuddle, doesn't require that level of background check. Neither do Lyft, Uber, or Sidecar.

The company also interviews every driver and subjects them to a 15 part background test.

"We call our drivers 'care drivers.' Our drivers all have a minimum of 5 years child care experience. They are people used to working with kids," McFarland said.

While parents are already using ride-hailing apps like Uber to fill this market, McFarland thinks HopSkipDrive will beat them as competition because of how they've designed it to be kid and parent-friendly. 

Parents can request that their driver sign the children out at school or walk them all the way to the baseball field to make sure the child reaches their destination, McFarland said.

When parents book a ride the night before, the family sets up a code word that the driver has to tell the child. If it's not a match with what the kid is expecting, they know not to go with that person. Each driver is also required to wear an orange t-shirt and have flags on their car.

Her company's support team watches each ride, and the parents can also monitor it on their app.

And, unlike Uber, the drivers are allowed to drive with their own children in the car. McFarland sees this as a plus and a safety feature of its own: parents are likely to feel safer about the ride and the driver can be a working parent and not worry about their own childcare.

Still, HopSkipDrive faces an already crowded market when it comes to ride-sharing for kids. Its main competitor Shuddle has raised $12.2 million in two funding rounds. There's also KangaDo, which organizes rides or play dates.

Parents have also felt comfortable sending their children home or to practice in a regular Uber, no secret codewords needed. This is technically prohibited by Uber's regulations since passengers should be older than 18, although Uber does have an "Uber Family" program that it's tried that supplies car seats when the child is riding with their parents.

SEE ALSO: The driver who beat Uber will teach you how to do it too — for $50

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The British on-demand private-jet-hire service Victor has acquired a US rival and taken on $5 million in funding as it scales up its operations, the company announced on Tuesday.

Sometimes described as "Uber for private jets," Victor lets users rent out their jets if they have an empty leg, connecting them to other users in search for a private jet.

So if you flew your G6 out from London to Monaco, then traveled to another destination by land, you could use Victor to ensure your jet is waiting for you back in London on your return. You get paid for the rental, while Victor takes a cut for connecting you to the hiree.

It is, admittedly, a little more expensive than Uber: A 16-person Gulfstream G-550 trip from Los Angeles to London would cost $40,726, according to Victor's Twitter account. An eight-person flight from Ibiza to London would set you and seven friends back £8,662.

Like Uber, Victor comes with a slick iOS app that lets you type in your destination, view prices, and go. Launched in 2011, it boasts 7,000 aircraft on its books, reaching 40,000 airports across the globe.

Victor has now acquired the US-based YoungJets, a private-jet charter company that works with high-profile entertainment clients and other high-end clients. It has also landed $5 million in new funding from "investor customers."

This brings its total raised from its own users to $13 million. The company says this will go toward "customer acquisition and scaling of the technology to meet growing demand."

YoungJets CEO David Young is to become Victor's senior vice president of the US market.

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When Mackenzie Barth and Sarah Adler were students at Northwestern University a few years ago, the two lived in an off-campus apartment and had no idea how to cook for themselves.

"The only thing we could spend our money on was going to eat out with friends at restaurants nearby, but we didn’t really know where to go or had the resources to figure it out, except for talking with our friends," Barth told Business Insider. 

To solve their cooking woes, the two friends had an idea: they started a website where everyone they went to school with could share recipes, review local restaurants, and talk about food. 

Spoon University — a website to share recipes, health and lifestyle stories, restaurant reviews, BuzzFeed-esque quizzes, and other food-related content — went live in September 2013 and quickly grew to a 100-person student staff at Northwestern's campus.

Spoon University caters to millennials, offering localized and more general stories about food, wellness, and lifestyle. The website has a national main page, as well as individual verticals for every participating college campus. Barth says she wants Spoon University to "emphasize the real, authentic, raw fun side of food that you don’t really get with other companies like Food Network."

Here's what Spoon University's homepage looks like.

Students at other schools saw Spoon University and came to Barth and Adler, telling the cofounders that they wanted a similar publication at their own campuses. So the cofounders replicated their project at five other campuses to try it out.

A year and a half later later, 23-year-old Barth and Adler have moved to New York City to grow their company, which now has 120 participating college campuses.

Just months after completing Techstars' NYC accelerator program, Spoon University has raised a $2 million seed round. SoftTech VC led the round, and additional investors include Joanne Wilson, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Box Group, VaynerRSE, BBG Ventures, MATH fund, Howard Morgan, Project Mayhem Ventures, Kosinski Ventures, and RuggedVC.

Stephanie Palmeri of SoftTech VC will also join Spoon University's board.

The new cash infusion will let Spoon University keep building out new chapters on college campuses around the world. Spoon University is also launching a video program, the company's CEO says, in addition to its existing written and multimedia content.

Here's just one of Spoon University's videos. There's a heavy emphasis on things like cooking hacks and how-to guides.

Spoon University says it attracts 2 million unique visitors every month — 10x growth from the 200,000 it had earlier this year. Schools like Penn, NYU, Dartmouth, and Michigan all have their own Spoon University pages, with 3,000 students actively contributing stories, photos, and videos to the website.

Spoon University's advisors include digital media startup talents like Bryan Goldberg, the CEO and founder of Bustle and Bleacher Report, and Chris Altchek, the CEO of Mic. Its readership is 75% female.

Spoon University's staff appoints a leadership group for each campus, which includes an editor in chief, a marketing director, and a photo director. Those students are the ones to maintain their team, and they can receive credit as you would for an internship. Spoon University rigorously vets the students who apply for the leadership roles, and writers are also interviewed and vetted to ensure the quality of writing remains consistently good. It takes about a month for Spoon University to jumpstart a campus' chapter.

"We empower our editors in chief to really produce better content, to lead their editorial vision for their chapter, because every school is so different," Barth says. "But then we curate the best content on Spoon’s national homepage, and we give people analytics feedback so they know what’s performing well. There’s constant learning going on. For having 3,000 contributors, the content overall is pretty strong, which is great."

Students who write for Spoon University get national and international exposure. Spoon University has syndication partnerships with media companies like BuzzFeed, the Huffington Post, Elite Daily, Yahoo Food, and USA Today College. To monetize, Barth says Spoon University has worked on experimental campaigns with Whole Foods and other brands, consisting of sponsored content, social advertising, and experiential marketing.

SEE ALSO: These are five of New York's most highly anticipated startups you need to know

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Barbara Ann Berwick delivered a potentially huge blow to Uber — and the on-demand economy as a whole — when the former Uber driver was declared an employee, not an independent contractor, by the California Labor Commission in June.

As high-profile as Berwick's case became, she's not alone.

There are at least three other open cases that ride-hailing companies are actively fighting in California, according to records obtained by Business Insider:  

• Lyft is facing its first and only case. A former Lyft driver filed in February 2014 to reclaim wages for 46 hours of overtime for a two month period and expenses totalling $1,599.68. The hearing was scheduled for today, but has been continued until September, according to Lyft.
• Uber has a conference for a Los Angeles-based case today, according to Department of Industrial Relations records. The ex-driver is claiming more than $6,000 in reimbursable expenses, commission and unauthorized deductions from their wages. 
• Another Uber case just had a conference in June. Filed in May 2015, this case is awaiting a date for a hearing, according to Department of Industrial Relations records. The wage claims involved include a month's pay of $184.80 and a bonus of $1,896.

Uber has often settled these cases rather than litigating. An April 2015 case resulted in an $800 settlement, another case was settled outside of the Labor Commission. Three other claims against Uber were canceled or no-shows.

These are not guaranteed wins

The claims revolve around the employment status of so-called 1099 contractors, called that because of the 1099 IRS form they fill out, who are the primary workforce for a lot of on-demand companies, including ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft.

Because they're not employees of the company, they do not receive certain benefits like overtime pay or reimbursement for expenses.

Some drivers are beginning to fight this classification and have filed complaints with the California Labor Commission to reclaim wages, including overtime pay and mileage expenses. 

Berwick was the first case Uber faced in the Labor Commission where the plaintiff won and was declared an employee. In turn, Uber had to pay more than $4,000 to Berwick. The company is now appealing the labor commission's decision, and Berwick will be facing a court date in October.

Just because there are more cases in the pipeline doesn't mean it's the death of the on-demand economy. It's more like a game of Russian Roulette — and one that features a moving target. 

"You may have a case where someone puts together terrible records. Same thing with Uber. It’s a really complicated field of law," said Cliff Palefsky, an employment lawyer at McGuinn, Hillsman & Palefsky.

Berwick won, she says, because she's a "seasoned litigator"— a search for her name returns 26 cases in San Francisco courts alone — and because she came in prepared for her case. 

Labor Commission rulings don't set precedent for future cases, but Berwick's win does mean that a playbook to winning a case is out there, said Rich Reibstein, a partner at Pepper Hamilton and co-chair of its independent contractor compliance group.

"There can be a lot of individual cases. It’s true that none of them that likely have legally precedential value for the next case because each case turns on it own facts," Reibstein said. "However, once the facts are known in the particular case, the next claimant is likely to piggy back on that same evidence."

There will be more

It's not just ride-hailing companies facing these claims — Instacart and Sprig have also had cases filed against them, according to a request with the California Department of Industrial Relations. The Sprig case was closed, as was one case involving Instacart. A second Instacart case reached a settlement in April 2015 for $898.43.

Employment lawyer Palefsky isn't surprised by the number of cases and cautions that these are likely to continue as well until there is one ruling, or a legislative change, that makes it clearer. 

"It just shows that until there is some resolution by a higher authority you can be litigated endlessly. Its going to be a case by case at the lower level and it’s going to be a moving target," Palefsky said.

But the more cases are filed and become public, the more new cases could emerge — especially as plaintiffs follow the (potential) money.

"All on-demand companies in the sharing economy have probably shuddered when reading about these Uber lawsuits and commissioner rulings because these legal setbacks to Uber are in the nature of a clarion call to class action lawyers to look closely at these on demand companies to see whether there are lawsuits to be filed," Reibstein said. 

Lawyers have heard the call, and many of the on-demand companies are, indeed, facing these lawsuits. Shannon Liss-Riordan, a Boston-based employment lawyer, has filed both in court and in arbitration class-action cases against Uber, Lyft, Instacart, Shyp, Washio, Homejoy, Caviar, and Postmates.

Even in the face of litigation, both Uber and Lyft remain steadfast in their hiring of independent contractors.

"Uber has not received notice of these claims so we are unable to comment on the specifics of each case, but it’s important to remember that the number one reason drivers choose to use Uber is because they have complete flexibility and control," an Uber spokesperson said. "Most driver partners can and do choose to earn their living from multiple sources, including other ride sharing companies, and, like the vast majority of independent contractors in the U.S.,  73% of Uber partners say they would rather have a job where they choose their own schedule and are their own boss than a steady 9-5 job."

Like Uber drivers, Lyft said their drivers like staying independent contractors.

"Lyft drivers are not employees," a Lyft spokesperson said. "They use Lyft, and other on-demand services, as a flexible and reliable way to make ends meet without having to be stuck in a schedule that doesn’t work for them. We hear from drivers that this flexibility is one of the main reasons they choose Lyft."

SEE ALSO: The driver who beat Uber will teach you how to do it too — for $50

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ClassPass is one of the hottest startups in New York. It's two years old and is worth about $400 million, according to CEO Payal Kadakia. 

ClassPass sells a $99 per month membership program that lets users pay a flat monthly fee to take fitness classes at a diverse group of studios and gyms, from widely known ones like Barry's Bootcamp and Flywheel to boutique shops offering barre, yoga, pilates, and more. 

ClassPass is in more than 30 US cities, and it is expanding internationally with 4,000 partnering studios around the world.

Users love it because the price point is a steal when you consider that a single spin class at Flywheel costs $30 a pop. Take three or four classes per month and your membership pays for itself.

But now ClassPass plans to hike up its prices in New York, and users are not happy about it.

"We're going to skip the warm up and get right to it — beginning this fall, ClassPass membership will change to $125/mo. + tax for current members. For new members, the rate change is effective today, July 14," ClassPass said in an email to New York users.

"To put it simply, adjusting the rate lets us continue delivering the best possible fitness experience we can. We've seen how much you love having unlimited classes and countless options, and we didn't want to change your ClassPass membership in any other way."

ClassPass has now upped the price of its membership by more than 25% in New York, its earliest market. 

Users aren't particularly thrilled to hear that the discount fitness class-hopping service they were using now costs more than a membership to many gyms.

 Some users feel misled by the price increase.

ClassPass has a subscription model, which retains users and gets them to try new studios routinely. On average, the company says, a ClassPass user will go to 10 new studios that they’ve within three months while using the platform. Kadakia says it has a 95% studio retention rate.

General Catalyst partner Adam Valkin led ClassPass' latest $40 million round of financing and joined the company's board. He agrees that churn in a two-sided marketplace like ClassPass is a challenge, but he thinks Kadakia's team is well positioned to survive and thrive.

"Subscription business models appear very attractive on the surface — committed customers, recurring revenue, top-line velocity, high lifetime values — why not?" Valkin told Business Insider in an email in March.

"But in reality, building a subscription commerce model for a two-sided marketplace is challenging. Churn can spoil the party, on either the supply or the demand side. Those that get it right may find a large prize, but I believe there are high barriers to success. I think it requires, as ClassPass has proven, a very compelling product offering with an authentic entrepreneur like Payal who lives her product, has the flexibility to turn on a dime, and strives to deliver unequivocal value to both sides of the marketplace." 

When reached for comment, a ClassPass spokesperson gave  Business Insider the following statement:

ClassPass membership in New York City will change to $125/mo + tax for all new and future members beginning on July 14th. To thank our active members who have contributed greatly to ClassPass’s success, we’ll be honoring their current rate of $99/mo + tax. for their next two billing cycles before the price change takes effect.

After surpassing 6 million reservations in the past two years, we’ve seen how much ClassPass members love having unlimited selection classes and countless options. And we want to keep giving them more – more studios, more choices, more classes – and even more to come. Adjusting the monthly membership rate allows us to deliver the best, most comprehensive fitness experience there is.

We look forward to continuing to strengthen the ClassPass community and are grateful for their support.

Price hikes can be a good way to weed out stingy users who are often more trouble complaint-wise than they're worth. Extremely loyal users often don't mind paying more for a service they love. However, this price-hike strategy can work best when a startup goes from being free to charging a subscription. It's more difficult to take a semi-expensive product and then make it even more expensive.

If ClassPass wants to generate more revenue, it could have made a tiered subscription product, offering a more expensive monthly fee to users who want premium services and studios and kept the price point lower for moderate users. But that's not what ClassPass has chosen to do, and it's already causing a Twitter backlash.

Here's the email ClassPass sent its New York users Tuesday morning. 

It's not clear what's driving the price hike, although presumably it's because New York studios are more expensive by nature and studio owners may be asking the startup for a bigger cut of reservations. 

In May, ClassPass says it had paid out $30 million in revenue to studios since its relaunch in June 2013. In 2015, the company plans to pay out $100 million. ClassPass has booked 4.5 million gym studio reservations since June 2013. 

The company doesn't disclose its revenue split with studio partners, and reports suggest it varies.

"Sometimes ClassPass pays half of what a studio normally charges per customer; other times, it’s far less than that," Fast Company reported back in January.

Many of the 4,000 studio owners love ClassPass; the service brings in new clients who otherwise would never visit their gyms. It also fills seats in classes that would be empty otherwise. 

SEE ALSO: Some gym owners have grown wary of $400 million startup ClassPass: 'It’s the Groupon of exercise studios'

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Adi Kushnir is another iPhone-obsessed teen who likes to download apps and access the web.

But, there's about a 50-50 chance that the Israeli teen will be able to use the cool new apps he downloads.

Kushnir has been blind since birth, and while Apple has made great strides in accessibility with its VoiceOver screen readers, companies and app developers still forget to bake in accessibility to their code so blind users like Kushnir can use them, he said in a phone call.

When Kushnir wanted to try Gett, the ride-hailing app that's becoming popular in international markets, because "it sounded cool," he found that the screen reader he uses couldn't read anything in the app.

Kushnir reached out to the company — and surprisingly Gett responded. 

"There are people who think blind people need special technology. No, we don't," Kushnir said in an interview with Business Insider. "We can use regular touchscreen phones today and the iPhone is a good example of that. Usually they just don't pay attention to the accessibility APIs from Apple or anyone else and they skip it." 

In April, Gett brought Kushnir in to work with its team and to help revamp the app for both Android and iOS. Now if blind users enable the VoiceOver and TalkBack screen readers, they can use the full app's functionality. Gett also updated their policies to explicitly allow dogs. 

This wasn't Kushnir's first project with a tech company. The high-schooler taught himself how to code in his spare time and doesn't have any plans to study computer science or become a developer after he graduates. He said he just wants to improve the world, which also includes the blind community.

"It's not my mission to make the app accessible for these development companies," Kushnir said. "It's my mission to teach these companies how to make their app accessible from scratch. Not just that I make it accessible and the next version comes out and it breaks."

Uber went though this in January 2015 when an update left blind users unable to use the VoiceOver screen reader. The screen reader technology is used by 60 percent of the blind community on mobile, according to one survey by mobility group WebAIM. It took Uber until March to patch the bug.

While Kushnir is still helping Gett out in his spare time, he's trying to teach other companies the same lesson. He is working with Freedom Scientific to make the Hebrew version of its screen reader for Windows.

"Basically, accessibility requires awareness, and developers are not aware of accessibility," Kushnir said. "There are ways to make the application accessible with a couple of buttons. You should not rewrite an entire application."

SEE ALSO: Gett just launched £10 flat fares in London — and that's only the start of its ambitious expansion plans

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Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes is the world's youngest self-made female billionaire.

When she was a sophomore at Stanford in 2003, Holmes founded healthcare-technology company Theranos (a few months later, she dropped out to focus on the company). Today, she has a net worth of $4.6 billion.

Theranos is a $9 billion biotech company that has a new approach to blood testing. Its goal is to make clinical testing cheaper and faster.

Theranos wants to conduct blood tests for health issues through a single finger stick rather than by having to draw vials of blood in a doctor's office. Theranos has drawn skepticism from the scientific community in part because Theranos is cagey about how its tests actually work.

But for now, Holmes is on top of the world. Already, her blood tests are being offered in some drugstores like Walgreens.

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Elizabeth Holmes was born in February 1984. Her mom, Noel Anne, was a Congressional committee staffer, and her dad, Christian Holmes, worked for government agencies like USAID.

Source.

Holmes' family moved around a lot when she was young, from Washington, DC, to Houston, to China.

Source.

At the age of 9, Holmes wrote a letter to her father: "What I really want out of life is to discover something new, something that mankind didn't know was possible to do."

Source.

Flypay is a UK startup that is trying to make life easier for both restaurants and customers by handling both the process of both ordering and paying for food.

Now, TechCrunch reports that Flypay has raised a large round of funding: $10.7 million (£6.8 million) in a Series A round led by, strangely, Time Out, the publisher behind Time Out magazine.

Flypay launched in 2014 as a simpler app that let diners pay for meals online, without having to hand over credit cards to a waiter. Since then, it has rolled out support for over 100 locations in London, as well as other features. Flypay customers can also use the app to order food, meaning that they never have to talk to a waiter again.

There are some big restaurants using Flypay: Wahaca, Burrito Mama, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, and Jamie’s Italian are all allowing diners to pay using the app. The company also told TechCrunch that Dirty Burger will soon be supporting it in its restaurants.

Time Out is increasingly moving away from being a traditional media company and publisher, and looks to establish itself as a business dealing in events. Flypay fits into the company's vision of being the place that Londoners go to in order to find out what's happening, and to arrange their evenings.

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When you hear the word "concierge," you probably picture white-gloved butlers and valets servicing a well-heeled clientele at five-star hotels and restaurants.

But you don't have to be a VIP to benefit from the white-glove treatment.

With a few taps of a smartphone, that knock at the door could be anyone from an on-demand chef to a maternity concierge.

These days, you can even hire someone to register your new ride at the DMV for you.

And there's more where that came from — like these virtual concierge services that can help make your life a little easier. 

Concierge services for … bureaucratic to-dos

"In 2005, I got married and took a day off work to change my name," recalls Danielle Tate, founder and CEO of concierge name-changing site MissNowMrs.com.

"After I sat in line for two hours at the DMV, it turned out I had the wrong forms."

Long story short, it took Tate two days of frustration to update her driver's license, an experience that ultimately changed her name — and career path.

"We're similar to an online tax preparation service," Tate explains. "We ask the bride a series of questions, then pull that information across all the appropriate forms."

The auto-complete concierge service includes updating a maiden name on driver's licenses, voter registration cards, Social Security cards and passports. It even notifies creditors of the name change.

Once the forms are complete, you simply print them out and follow instructions on where to sign and how to file. The service costs $29.95, or you can upgrade to the premium package ($69.95), which saves you the printing step — you receive the forms in the mail with pre-addressed, stamped envelopes.

"Not every woman should change her name," Tate says, "but if she's going to, she shouldn't have to spend 13 hours reinventing the wheel when there's a service that will reduce that to 30 minutes."

Speaking of wheels, Tate's concierge company isn't the only one with a business model focused on eliminating tedious wait times. Finest City Registration will handle all manner of car paperwork for customers, from annual registration renewals ($29) to out-of-state title transfers ($50).

Although its services are available only to people in San Diego County, similar concierge companies will likely follow suit.

As manager Rory Flanigan says, "Once they come here, they never want to go back to the DMV!"

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Concierge services for … expectant parents

Professional baby planner Rosie Pope made a splash with her Bravo show, "Pregnant in Heels," which shed light on the many modern-day demands often faced by today's busy pregnant women.

Like Pope, Latina Baxter, owner of Marley & Moo Maternity Concierge, built her entire company on the idea of making an expectant parent's life easier by arranging concierge services for soon-to-be mothers. The company operates in the Houston area.

"We offer everything from fear consultations to prenatal yoga and meditation to [classes] on birthing techniques," Baxter says. À la carte services, like a birth plan consultation or postpartum strategy session, cost $75 per hour; comprehensive packages range from $475 to $1,475.

Baxter's husband, a personal chef, even customizes postpartum meal plans — dishes like tom yum soup with Greek yogurt and coconut oil, and grilled chicken with sweet potato puree and charred kale — that are delivered to your doorstep for about $250 a week.

If you're an expectant parent based in New York, New Jersey or Connecticut,BabyNav can help you plan baby showers and gender reveals, create back-to-work plans and tackle buying what you'll need for baby (prices start at $100 per hour).

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"Most pregnant women walk into a store and are given a list of hundreds of things to register for — half of which you don't need," says Julie McCaffrey, owner and chief baby planner. "We get families into gear that grows with them and can be used for multiple children."

For moms-to-be in the Pacific Northwest, Itsabelly Baby Planners takes the anxiety out of bringing home baby.

"We help parents set up the nursery, find and screen child-care providers, and go shopping with the woman to help with her registry," says founder Melissa Moog, whose concierge planners charge from $60 to $75 per hour.

Concierge services for … fine dining and fun

There's a new restaurant in town you're dying to try, but there's just one problem: The earliest reservation you can snag is for 10 p.m. — a month from now.

If this scenario sounds familiar, consider the concierge services of Sosh, which partners with popular restaurants and event organizers to book reservations that it releases to its users.

Once you create a free account and enter your preferences, Sosh custom curates suggested experiences across three categories: eat, drink and play.

At Rich Table, for example, a buzzy farm-to-table restaurant in San Francisco's Hayes Valley, Sosh users get dibs on two tables nightly — all you have to do is click to book.

If you're craving more of an artsy night out, Sosh can get you tickets to such popular events as a concert series in which the San Francisco Symphony plays movie soundtracks.

"As you start to use the app and bookmark things, we learn more about you and can make recommendations — just like a concierge would at a hotel," says head of product Josh Phillips.

The concierge service is currently available in San Francisco and New York, with plans to expand in the fall of 2015. And there are no membership fees — you pay the same price you would if you'd researched and booked the experience yourself.

Sosh even has a little competition: BeeLine, which launched in 2014, releases last-minute reservations at top restaurants and nightclubs in San Francisco, San Jose, Calif., and Boston up to a week in advance. Look for BeeLine soon in New York, L.A. and Las Vegas.

Concierge services for… creature comforts

Think personal chefs are reserved for A-listers? Thanks to HireAChef, a "Top Chef"-worthy master could be setting up shop in your very own kitchen for your next dinner party.

"Whether you want a single dining experience, a set of meals, a party or a cooking lesson, it's in your home, it's interactive, and it's controlled," says president Larry Lynch, who was inspired to launch HireAChef after surprising his wife with a personal-chef-cooked meal for Valentine's Day.

The online service — available nationwide and in Canada — covers groceries, cooking by a member of the United States Personal Chef Association, and even cleanup. Chefs set their own rates, but ballpark prices range from $23 per person for a New Orleans-style brunch cooked by a native in Dallas to a $30 per person French dinner in Miami.

Although its mission is less glamorous than having a bespoke meal whipped up in the confines of your home, Plowz & Mowz offers a virtual concierge service few homeowners would pass up — especially after this past winter.

The company sources and hires local contractors on your behalf to tackle everything from snow removal to leaf blowing.

Co-founder Wills Mahoney was struck by the idea for a tap-and-go digital solution to onerous yard work after his mom got stranded in her driveway one winter.

"There were plow trucks driving by her house, and as I'm trying to call these companies, I saw a missed opportunity," recalls Mahoney. "We've definitely found a niche in the market."

Prices vary depending on the request and location, with the company operating in 38 markets from Atlanta to Anchorage, Alaska. Snowplowing rates, for example, are determined by snowfall and driveway length and width, while mowing is based on square footage, time and location.

Satisfied customers can sign up for a set-it-and-forget-it option for recurring services — which could come in handy during the next Snowpocalypse.

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Second Home is the unique East London office that's home to a curated collection of tech companies, investors, novelists and even a chef.

But it's not just the people inside Second Home that make it interesting. The space was designed by architects SelgasCano, and plays hosts to concerts, talks and even fitness sessions.

The office is also home to the Jago Restaurant, which serves modern food cooked by Louis Solley, formerly head chef of Ottolenghi.

We collected some of the most interesting people who work inside Second Home. See them here:

15. Artsy's London representative Legacy Russell

Artsy is the New York startup that brings together artists and galleries to share and sell art online. The company has brought in over $50 million in funding, and is a favourite of the art world. Its investors include Larry Gagosian, Dasha Zhukova, and Wendi Deng. Legacy Russell is Artsy's UK representative, and connects artists and galleries with the platform.

Russell is also an established artist and filmmaker, and held her first solo exhibition in New York in 2014.

Twitter:@legacyrussell

14. Chef Louis Solley

Solley is the chef behind Second Home's in house-restaurant, Jago. He previously worked as the head chef of prestigious restaurant Ottolenghi. Solley graduated from Westminster University, and then went to work in London's restaurant.

Jago serves a mix of southern European, Middle Eastern, and Ashkenazi food. Observer restaurant critic Jay Rayner praised the restaurant in his review, calling the orange tart a "contender for dessert of the year" for both 2014 and 2015.

Twitter:@jagorestaurant

13. Ksenia Zemtsova and Philippine Nguyen run Unlimited Productions

Zemtsova and Nguyen are the cofounders of Unlimited Productions, a production company that brings cultural events to urban environments. The company stages unique events, including performances that take place after dark, and is hosting an upcoming event in a former lighthouse in East London.

Twitter:@UNLTD_Prod

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Homejoy, the on-demand cleaning-services company, will be shutting its doors July 31, according to a blog post on its site. 

Its tech and product team is being lured away by Google, according to Re/Code, and will work on bolstering Google's search to include pairing local professionals to its users.

Although the company was reportedly losing money,  the lawsuits pending against the company over its classification of workers as independent contractors was a "deciding factor" in the decision, according to its CEO.

As Uber and Lyft have been fighting their lawsuits in court, Homejoy's decision to shut down is the first major casualty in the 1099 economy debate.

The cleaning company had raised almost $40 million from investors like Max Levchin, Google Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz.

It wasn't enough to fight the lawsuits, and the company was reportedly up for sale or considering a merger with rival Handy in May.

Homejoy, though, isn't the only on-demand company to be facing these problems — just the first one to fall.

After the California Labor Commissioner's Office classified one Uber driver as an employee, more independent contractors are jumping into the ring and bringing cases forward.

The difference between the 1099 workers and W-2 employees, according to the IRS, is that for common-law employees, employers "must withhold income taxes, withhold and pay Social Security and Medicare taxes, and pay unemployment tax on wages paid." The same is not necessarily true for an independent contractor.

In addition, benefits are often extended to employees but not independent contractors, and employers have the right to control how a worker behaves — how to dress, for example, or specific customer interaction protocol — when they're an employee and not an independent contractor.

As more independent contractors seek reclassification, many of the on-demand companies are, indeed, facing these lawsuits. Shannon Liss-Riordan, a Boston-based employment lawyer, has filed both in court and in arbitration class-action cases against Uber, Lyft, Instacart, Shyp, Washio, Homejoy, Caviar, and Postmates.

While its tech workers have found room at Google's headquarters, the cleaners Homejoy hired are left without a home. Handy is offering $1,000 bonuses to Homejoy's contractors if they sign up with the service for the first-time, said a Handy spokesperson.

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A startup founder and iOS developer jumped to her death from a rooftop bar on Monday night, police and onlookers told the New York Post.

Faigy Mayer, who was 29 years old, was the founder and CEO of Appton, a New York-based app-development startup.

Mayer had developed a number of iOS apps, including NYCTips, a New York restaurant tip calculator, a parking app called Carma, and an app called ExpenseTracker, according to her LinkedIn page.

Mayer graduated with a bachelor's degree in accounting from Touro College, received a master's in accounting from Brooklyn College, and recently earned a certificate in data science specialization from Johns Hopkins University.

On Monday, Mayer was said to have sprinted toward a shrubbery-lined ledge of the terrace at 230 Fifth's rooftop bar, climbed up, and jumped to her death at about 7:30 p.m., the Post reports.

It's unclear whether Mayer had come to the roof to jump or if she had been a guest at the bar earlier in the evening.

Authorities identified Mayer by a purse and backpack she had left behind at the rooftop bar, according to the Post.

Police confirmed to Business Insider that Mayer died at the scene.

“There was a big corporate party up there and she kind of ran through them [the partygoers] and jumped,” one witness told the Post.

Police sources say the death was likely deliberate. However, patrons at the bar say the four-foot-wide ledge where Mayer apparently jumped could be risky for partygoers regardless. “They really need to be more careful up there. There’s nothing to keep you from jumping,” one guest told the Post.

The Post also reports that Mayer used to belong to the Hasidic Jewish faith, but was shunned by her family for leaving. She even appeared in "Inside Hasidism," a National Geographic documentary, in 2009 to talk about her experiences.

“My parents, they were like, point blank, ‘You have to get out of here because you are not religious anymore,’ ” she said in the documentary.

She had been working on an app to help former Hasids get accustomed to life in the city, her friends told the Post. 

If Mayer did commit suicide, she would not be the first startup founder to do so.

Suicides can be outliers of the tech industry's battle with depression, which can be exacerbated by the stress of starting a company. A study by Dr. Michael Freeman, a clinical professor at UCSF and an entrepreneur, was one of the first to link higher rates of mental-health issues to entrepreneurship. 

Of the 242 entrepreneurs he surveyed, 49% reported having a mental-health condition. Depression was the No. 1 reported condition among them and was present in 30% of all entrepreneurs, followed by ADHD (29%) and anxiety problems (27%).

That's a much higher percentage than the US population at large, where about 7% identify as depressed. 

It is not clear whether Mayer suffered from depression.

Business Insider has reached out to the NYPD about the incident and will update this story accordingly.

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Hollywood's latest interpretation of Silicon Valley is not about making it into the Three Comma club, but the Bazillion Dollar one.

The latest show about Silicon Valley is "The Bazillion Dollar Club" from SyFy. The six-episode docu-series isn't a funny spoof on life here like HBO's "Silicon Valley," but Hollywood's newest attempt to portray the real thing.

The cameras follow two startup incubator founders, 500 Startups' Dave McClure and Highway1's Brady Forrest, as they help coach companies to make it into what they call the Bazillion Dollar Club.

But, as Business Insider reporter Matt Weinberger noted when he attended Highway1's demo day only to be greeted by cameras, what they may be filming is Silicon Valley's own identity crisis and just how hard it is to make it in the startup world.

The show debuts on September 22 at 10pm. Here's what the trailer looks like:

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It’s easy to see why the idea of an online doctor’s appointment is appealing. It holds the beautiful promise of not having to wait endlessly in a room filled with potentially-infectious patients. And who wants to get out of bed when they’re sick anyway?

But one of the problems with startups trying to bring healthcare online is that their efforts often don't save any time for the doctor, Ray Costantini, a physician and tech entrepreneur, told Wired. This is because online appointments usually take just as long, if not longer, than in-person ones. The process is actually slower over video chat. 

Constantini’s new startup, Bright.md, aims to solve this problem through pre-appointment  “smart exams” that can trim down your actual time with the doctor to as little as 90 seconds. Bright.md tells Business Insider that the new system should be able move the average time of an appointment from 20 minutes down to two minutes. And Bright.md just raised $3.5 million to propel it toward that goal.

Here's how it will work.

Before your appointment, Bright.md’s app will provide you with a dynamic questionnaire, which modifies depending on your answers. This can cut down on the amount of unnecessary questions you have to answer, and give a cleaner picture of your symptoms to the doctor. The app will then use artificial intelligence to give your doctor a “preliminary diagnosis and treatment plan,” Wired reports.

This system is what Constantini believes can radically decrease the amount of time spent in the appointment, but Bright.md wants to save doctors even more time after. Bright.md’s software will automatically generate certain aspects of a doctor’s paperwork, like chart notes or insurance coding.

Constantini's overarching vision is to strip away all aspects of a doctor’s job that aren’t actually diagnosing and treating patients. He wants to let apps and artificial intelligence take care of the rest.

Bright.md is in various stages of negotiation with over a dozen health care systems, including two of the five largest in the United States. The company has also publicly announced a partnership with Samaritan Health Services, which has 190 primary care providers and five hospitals.

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Gone are the days of coupon books and fliers for $5 off your next purchase at your local neighborhood business.

In San Francisco, the junk mail is all about startups now.

Take this pack of coupons I received in the mail. The companies are about your traditional coupon-worthy services: health memberships, restaurants, flower delivery and even medical care.

But these aren't just $10 off your next carry-out order. They all have the tech startup twist.

The flower store coupon is for $10 off flowers grown in volcanic soil and then delivered to my door. I have received multiple coupons for Sprig, DoorDash and Munchery — the on-demand food space is particularly crowded — promising me money off my delivery.

The traditional gym membership coupon is replaced by an intro deal for Classpass, the startup that lets members visit any gym in the program three times a month. I can get me laundry done by Washio, have doctors come to my door with Heal and have my packages picked up by Shyp.

After all, as the envelope most of these came in reminds me, "Life has never been more convenient"— at least if you live in San Francisco.

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No, trashing a newly-renovated park in San Francisco is not a part of #startuplife.

Second-hand clothing startup Twice celebrated being acquired by eBay by throwing a small party for itself at Dolores Park. In its wake, though, was a mess of confetti and cans of beer.

Something that its CTO and co-founder Calvin Young decided to Instagram with hashtags #dolorespark, #pbr and #startuplife. 

SF Weekly was first to report the party's mess and has even more photos of the damage left behind. Young has since removed or made private the Instagram.

After Twice was alerted to the mess it made, it decided to return to clean up the trash it shouldn't have even left behind in the first place.

The company provided a further statement on the matter:

"We hosted a company event last night in Dolores Park and our team cleaned up afterwards. It was our mistake for not going back to check again this morning and we appreciate everyone letting us know. Since then we have gone back to clean up the park again with our founders Noah Ready-Campbell and Calvin Young."

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