Google, which has acquired over 80 companies including YouTube in 2006, is continuing its talks with Groupon this week for a potential acquisition of the company. Groupon, founded in Chicago in 2008, provides daily coupons for local businesses. Talks between Google and Groupon continue, and according to sources from All Things Digital, Google’s offering has risen to $5.3 billion with $700 million in earnout. On the 8^th of November 2010, Forbes estimated Groupon to be worth $1.35 billion.

Why such a high price?

Groupon is thought to be the fastest growing company ever. “Groupon’s success has helped turn the company into a cash-generating machine, signing up more than 12 million registered users and reaping more than $350 million in estimated annual revenue,” according to the DealBook at the New York Times. If the deal finalizes, it would be Google’s largest acquisition to date. Many believe this to be Google’s most important move ever in entering the sphere of local advertising. However there have been other dalliances in bidders this week, with Yahoo prepared to pay about $2 billion.

Google is not the only company looking to enter the sphere of local advertising. Facebook launched its Deals service last month in November, offering local deals to its users. Insiders say that Groupon believes that Google can help give them the competitive edge over rivals such as Facebook.

Sources say that the deal could be finalized by as soon as this week. But we’ve seen deals such as these fall apart at the last minute, like with Google’s attempt to acquire Yelp.

Representatives from Google and Andrew Mason, Groupon’s chief executive, have declined to comment.

The Chicago technology scene can sometimes feel like a secret society. From the outside looking in it can be hard to locate, and even harder to understand. Once you get inside on the other hand, the Chicago tech community is filled with the talent, drive, potential, and intelligence.

The only hard part is getting to know the right people to gain the invites to the best places to see the real work in action. This is perhaps why Chicago is not as well known as it could be, but that might not a bad thing at all.

No one fears an enemy that they do not know as a threat; why fear something that is supposed to be wholly benign?

Chicago does not receive its due in terms of respect for its important role in the world of technology, so why not use that to our advantage instead of finding it irksome? Sure, we don’t have the same level of early stage VC activity? Then why can’t Chicago take the lean startup and MVP ethos and do it on our own?

We don’t have as much startup activity as Palo Alto does? That is actually a boon for new companies here; they don’t have to scramble as hard to find developer talent; we have some of the best schools in the world feeding into this city, let’s capitalize on it.

Chicago also has an ethos of revenue, meaning that new and medium sized companies in the area often have a stronger focus on income and profits than other scenes on the coasts, signifying that our firms and leaders like to build real businesses, not press release generators.

Chicago needs to stop looking down at itself with mild disdain, and needs to instead stand up for what it is: a vibrant place filled with talent and potential. The sooner we brush the chip off our shoulder and go about working as hard as we can on as much as we can, the sooner that we may just finally get our due back-pay of respect.

Until then let’s just be Chicago. We are a unique place with a uniquely strong culture. We are not a lesser place to do business, just a different one. Stand up and be counted, you are part of the Chicago technology community, and that should make you proud.

“Jumo is a social network for people who want to change the world.” – FAQ page on Jumo.com

Here’s a startling factoid in the New York Times today from Steve MacLaughlin, director of Internet solutions at BlackBaud, a worldwide provider of technology and services to nonprofits: $300 billion was donated to charities and nonprofits in 2009 and only 6 percent of that total was submitted online. So, how does Chris Hughes, one of the founders of Facebook and the head digital organizer for Barack Obama’s campaign plan on raising this percentage? He plans on doing so with his new online community, Jumo.

Jumo, meaning “to come together” in the West African language of Yoruba, aims to build solid foundations for relationships between donors and charities or nonprofits. They aren’t looking for text donations or one-time donations. Jumo wants their users to find meaning and depth through these charities by stylizing their pages, uploading YouTube videos and relevant news articles. The beta version only allows users who have Facebook accounts to join. Clever.

Like the “like” feature on Facebook, Jumo users can “follow” specific projects, share their donations with other members and complete a profile open to the Jumo community. It remains to be seen whether users will feel comfortable providing their donation specifics to the world, but then again, nothing is secret anymore.

The other question is whether or not frequent Facebook users will be interested in adding another “application in disguise” to their long list of dusty applications. After all, they are already bombarded with Causes, Ant Farms, Yearbook Yourselves and Happy Hours.  But Jumo claims they are different because they won’t just solicit donations as a few of the Web sites have done in the past, they will seek to solidify connections between the contributors and the nonprofits – making a more consequential impact overall.

Jumo is a registered 501(c)(3) organization itself and will use Network for Good to process the donations for the charities. Network for Good charges a 4.75% processing fee, which is steeper than Google Grants free program, but much lower than Donor Town Square which charges 6% for credit card transactions and 7% for American Express.

There is also the “tip” option. If you opt to “tip” Jumo upon checkout, Jumo receives a tax-refundable donation to cover their operational expenses.

Regardless of how well this picks up, Jumo is an incredible project seeking to change the way in which we donate to charities. Armed with 2,500 charities already, including Akshaya Patra Foundation, Partners in Health and Green Dot Public Schools, Jumo had such a large response on their first day that many users found loading issues upon entering the website.

If you’re interested in signing up for the beta version, click here.

Since we met Genevieve Thiers shortly before her midVenturesLAUNCH award presentation, we were already impressed by her reputation as the founder of Sittercity (America’s first company to revolutionize babysitting online and recent purchaser of Sitters.com).

Genevieve Thiers

A self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur (in addition to opera singer), Genevieve and the other half of her dynamo “couple-preneur” team, Dan Ratner, are back with Contact Karma – a private, social media, vendor search engine, currently in beta. Thiers brings the same ambition and motivation to Contact Karma that made her trudge through Boston during college distributing 20,000 flyers recruiting babysitters, eventually leading to close to 2 million current users on the website.

In this interview, we learn what influenced their newest startup, the best way to launch a company, which demographic they’re targeting, where Contact Karma goes from here and how women entrepreneurs can use their gender to their advantage.

midVentures: The story of how you began Sittercity is legendary. What is the story behind Contact Karma?

Genevieve Thiers: My husband Dan and I are a couple-preneur, and we love disruptive ideas. We ran Sittercity.com for nine years together, and it was a blast!

However, we know in our DNA that we are founding entrepreneurs, and also serial entrepreneurs, and so Contact Karma was a very natural progression for us, when we decided that Sittercity was in great hands and that we could move on.

Contact Karma was born based on a very frustrating personal experience Dan and I had with our house. For several years, our entire second floor ceiling would leak. We’re not just talking a part of the ceiling…we’re talking the whole ceiling. Water would come out the ceiling fan, wind down the drapes…it was a nightmare. It also seemed to happen at random. We spent $5000 trying to fix the problem, before a neighbor said to us “Oh, that’s easy, it’s just a $200 fix. The seals on the back door on your fourth floor are not watertight – all the units in the development were defective. We spent a bunch of time and money figuring it out, too.” Two days later, the issue was fixed and we never had a leak again. So we spent $5000 on a $200 issue, and began to wonder…is there anyone else that’s had this happen to them too? Had a problem where the answer was right under their nose and they just did not know who to reach out to and when? That’s also the origin of the slogan: Common knowledge is power.

mV: Briefly describe how Contact Karma works.

GT: Contact Karma is a combination of a social network, review site and coupon site. Searching for a new vendor, like a plumber, electrician, doctor, OBGYN or even just a restaurant for Friday night? Contact Karma instantly allows you to see who your friends use, and how they feel about them. Like/Love/Dislike icons help you see your friend’s views on a vendor, and the Updates page on the site allows you to see frequent updates as friends change their opinions. The site’s Suggest and Request features also allow you to either request help from all your friends when you’re searching for a specific service provider, or suggest a vendor that you particularly love to them.

Contact Karma is a very private network. Privacy settings allow you to set your vendors to be shown to Everyone (all Contact Karma site consumers and vendors,) Friends Only (just your friends,) and Just Me. Lists allow you to organize vendors that you have that all belong in a certain category, like Wedding, New Baby, New Home or Starting a Business. Not only can you create your own lists—you can browse your friends’ lists too!

Finally, vendors can post discounts that you can use towards their services—you’ll see discounts of anything from 30%-55% from vendors on the site eager to convert you into a customer. Gathering Karma Points through adding friends, adding vendors and buying offers further increases your discounts, since you can convert them at the time of buying an offer into anything from another 5%-20% more off.

mV: Who is your target demographic?

GT: This is a product aimed at high net worth individuals, primarily female, who are making big purchases. Their household income is 100k plus, they own a home, have kids and pets, are super-connected…and have a need to be very hooked in when making big purchases like a doctor, home improvement vendor, or something similar. They’re the ones who are currently picking up the phone or sending an email blast when they want something.

mV: Will advertising ever get in the way of honest feedback?

GT: Actually, one of the fantastic things about Contact Karma is the inability to game the system. When a parent is leaving a review for her friend network, only her friend network can see it. Which means that there’s no way for a business to create a bogus email and give themselves a glowing review…they would have to be connected to her as a friend to do that, which is unlikely.

The entire philosophy behind Contact Karma is karmic power…what goes around comes around. If a service treats a consumer badly, they head on and update their friend network privately, and this will automatically lower the group’s opinion of the vendor. It is not only possible to post a negative review about a vendor to your friends, it’s just as normal as posting a positive one. So vendors really are on the line to provide the best possible service, so as to stay in the good graces of their customers on the site, but also the network of friends that that customer is connected to (which represent more customers).

mV: Tell us where Contact Karma goes from here. What are the next steps? Any additional features in the works?

GT: Contact Karma is in beta right now. It’s been fun to test! We believe in a very lean approach to launching a company. Do an initial focus group, use that to put up a skeleton site, then focus group again, use that to determine the version 1 site, and then build that and test one final time to figure out your upcoming 2.0 version. It’s a very efficient process, so we’re adding in new features and changing functionality left and right, actually. It’s a very intense time, and fun!

mV: Anything additional that you’d like to add?

GT: Well, we’re thrilled to be on the road again. We’re especially pleased with the Sittercity team, who have done such a terrific job of taking over the growth of the business. Our new CEO, Martin Clifford, is truly phenomenal, and he’s got great people around him. Our executive team has been with us for years and they know the company intrinsically, inside and out. It’s such a relief to move on knowing that our first company is in good hands and growing like a weed.

mV: Being a female entrepreneur, you are a rare breed. What tips can you give aspiring female entrepreneurs?

GT: My main tip to female entrepreneurs at the moment is just not to underestimate women’s issues that you see in the marketplace that present an opportunity. With Sittercity, I saw a nine-months pregnant mother flyering for a sitter and realized how much people just underestimated that need. With CK, again, it’s an underestimation of how critical it is for busy moms making high-value purchases to have an instant knowledge of who their network uses. No problem is too silly to solve!

I had a female entrepreneur come to me the other day very embarrassed that she might have come up with a way to get nails to dry faster. She did not realize that if she created this product, I would spend only 5 minutes drying nails instead of 25, and save 20 minutes in my day…to go off and do more disruption. That’s actually very powerful. There’s not been a lot of focus on women’s issues traditionally since there’s a sense that we will just “figure them out” quietly on the side…let’s start to drag those issues out into the limelight and make them big business! They certainly are. I want to see more and more female disruptors entering the marketplace…there can’t be enough of us right now.

It also creates a natural advantage over classic, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who are overwhelming young and male. A woman can recognize and solve problems most of them don’t even know exist.

Here at midVentures, it doesn’t necessarily go with our business ethos to urge anyone to go offline. However, considering Thanksgiving is something that every American rejoices in – not just a specific religion – we figured we would give in just this once.

Offlining, a company created by two well-connected New York businessmen, Mark DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum, aims to get Americans to lift their heads every once in a while, specifically on family holidays such as Thanksgiving. It wasn’t always this way for them, as Eric says, “I’m the guy who sleeps with his blackberry. I’m raising my hand and saying ‘Yes, I’m an addict.’” Their company was founded when they did just that – lifted their heads – and took notice of such things as their wives, the sun shining in their windows, soft, furry animals and their kids, according to their website. They decided to follow Mark’s dad’s advice: “We invent technology to be our servant, not our master.”

So far in 2010, Offlining ran ad campaigns for the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur urging family and friends to put down their cell phones with ads depicting celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan that read: “You don’t have to be Jewish to make amends for your tweets on Yom Kippur.”

For Thanksgiving, their ads feature such images as a turkey with a shotgun aimed at a cell phone saying, “Give thanks, not thx.”

So, go ahead, make like the Amish and revel in the joys of the earth – join in with your family members with fun, real-life interaction such as the medieval torturing device called charades or dive into helping your mom bake your favorite pumpkin pie. Why not up the ante and give a cuddle to every family member (yes, including Uncle Al) just to see the shocked look on each face?  If that doesn’t excite you, there is always the time-honored tradition of a board game to get the party started.

Pledge on Offlining’s website to no video games, internet, cell phones or iPads for one day with 11,081 others.

(This article was written the day before and, with the joys of technology, scheduled for Thanksgiving. No internet was used by said author on Thanksgiving Day. If you’ve read this, go back to your family now.)