Heartstring-tugger Upworthy, which describes itself as “social media with a mission,” has roots in MoveOn.org, a non-profit, political action committee and public policy advocacy group, through one of it’s founders, Eli Pariser. That's not too surprising.
However, you might be surprised to find out that the other founder is Peter Koechley, the former managing editor of a little news satire organization called The Onion.
From confusing settings to NSA scandals, Facebook doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to user privacy. Maybe that’s the reason one early member of the Facebook team, David Morin, left in 2010 to found Path, the social networking site that emphasizes small, intimate networks.
Another pair of former Facebookers, Adam D’Angelo and Charlie Cheever, left the company in 2010 to create yet another startup, Q&A service Quora.
Skype was once owned by eBay and then by Microsoft. It was built by the same team as the now defunct file sharing site Kazaa, which got into legal hot water over copyright-related issues for the last several years.
The video-sharing site Vimeo was launched in 2004 by founders Jake Lodwick and Zach Klein. Another entry on Klein’s resume? Assisting in the development of CollegeHumor, the comedy website launched in 1999.
Jeremy Stoppelman was V.P. of Engineering at PayPal (and was even one of the early PayPal employees known as the PayPal Mafia), but left the company when it was acquired by eBay in 2003. A year later, he and another former PayPal colleague pitched an idea to businessman Max Levchin for a Yellow Pages style Internet product to be called Yelp.
Beyond Meat has one goal: to create the most chicken-like non-animal food product on the market. The company is backed by the University of Missouri, which has spent 10 years working on the technology that turns the plant protein in soy and peas into a high quality meat substitute. Its other backers? Evan Williams and Biz Stone, founders of Twitter.
The on-demand car service Uber is the brainchild of Garret Camp, an entrepreneur based in San Francisco. Camp has his fingers in several startup pies, including the on-demand private jet ridesharing service BlackJet and his latest venture, Expa, a system for building new companies. His best known project, however, is the discovery engine StumbleUpon.
If you've ever looked around the family table and wondered how you could possibly be related to those people, you're not alone. The tech world is with you.
The startup scene is so fraught with networking and acquisitions that many companies have some unexpected ties.
See also: 10 Hot Social Networks to Watch
These eight companies illustrate just how interconnected the startup world is. From a vegan meat alternative company funded by Twitter founders to former Facebook employees creating a new private social network, you'll be surprised to find out which companies are linked.
Know any other startups with strange tech relatives? Let us know in the comments below.
Image: Getty, Oli Scarff
Swedish Internet service provider Bahnhof was looking for a secure facility, and boy did they find one. An old nuclear bomb shelter bunker, built 30 meters underground in the side of a mountain, did the trick.
The Pionen facility in Stockholm, accessed through foot-thick steel doors, looks like you've stepped on to the set of a James Bond flick, but is said to have been inspired by old sci-fi films.
The building's stand-out feature is what Bahnhof calls the "moon room" - a glass-walled, circular room, suspended over the rock floor, which is said to be the "perfect conference room." You can see more of the Pionen complex on YouTube.
You might have expected community-centered t-shirt company Threadless to have an interesting workspace, and you would be right. Above is the company's Airstream trailer studio where Kristen Studard and Bob Nanna broadcast a live show on Ustream every Thursday from its Chicago headquarters.
The cat head, you ask? Well that's "Mister Mittens," and he was part of the Threadless float created for the 2010 Chicago Pride Parade.
What? Your office doesn't have a mounted, stuffed unicorn head on the wall? With a setup like this, it really shouldn't be too hard to keep a smile on your face, which is perfect for dealing with incoming customer service queries.
The design you see here is the result of an inter-office competition where each Threadless office area was given a budget and deadline to beautify their work environment.
The customer service department went with the theme of "Crafty Lodge" and won. To see more from Threadless, you can check out their pic-a-day 365 photostream.
As more people enjoy greater flexibility in their worklife, coworking, or communal office space is becoming more popular.
Located in Lancaster, PA, The Candy Factory is a membership community of small business owners, freelancers, students and other professionals looking for a cool downtown location to work in the company of like-minded folks.
With the philosophy of "Come together, do good work, care about our community, love our earth, think local and grow as professionals," it's a spirited communal office space where no day is the same.
While the working space is light and open with high ceilings, wooden floors, great art and contemporary furniture, there's also space to take a break at The Candy Factory, with a foosball table offering a cathartic way to thrash a co-worker -- very therapeutic indeed.
His name is Sven, and he was rescued from a crash test facility, says Robert Bari, Junk My Car's director of marketing. "He is quite reserved and often keeps to himself, which may be due to a language barrier, but we're not sure," he says.
Seriously though, Bari says when the company moved into its new office in Shelton, CT over a year ago they thought a mannequin sitting at the reception desk would be an amusing way to deal with solicitors.
"Nothing is more hilarious than seeing the startled face of a sales person after they walk over and begin talking only to realize it's a dummy," he says.
And since the company doesn't have a formal receptionist, Sven has found a home, as the first face visitors see when arriving.
Music producer Professor Daddy-O, of Stetsasonic fame, spends his working days perched in front of this rather impressive setup. With a separate power source and 96 wheels, the "digital sound cockpit," as Daddy-O calls it, can be found at Studioplex Studios in Atlanta, Georgia.
Brand-building public relations company Raw Material set up shop in one of the old Tube carriages parked atop East London's Village Underground venue, an old Victorian warehouse that hosts art exhibitions, gigs, club nights and raves.
The train offices were the brainchild of designer Auro Foxcroft, who wanted to create low-cost studios for creatives. The setup is comprised of four old Tube carriages on top of two old sea containers, also converted into workspaces.
The office entrance of Miami-based brand management agency brpr Group is covered in chalkboard paint. The message changes periodically, courtesy of the company's resident artist, who creates signature welcome greetings for all client meetings and guests, along with a QR code.
brpr also boasts an outdoor conference room wired for phone and Internet access, which is also complete with amenities like sunblock and Perrier to beat the Miami heat. The idea for the room comes from the agency's creators, who are not natives of Miami and therefore excited by the prospect of meetings in the sun. Apparently, the space is a big hit with brpr Group's NYC clients -- and come December, we can understand why.
The big orange slide is the focal point of Grip Limited's "open-concept work space," and is said to "embody the sense of play that’s at the heart of Grip’s creative process." It's certainly a fun way to get from one floor to another, but arguably not the Toronto-based company's most entertaining, as there is also a fireman's pole that provides another gravity-driven shortcut.
Grip Limited's playfulness does not stop with unusual methods of mobility. There's also a hot tub on the premises for what must make for some really outstanding staff meetings.
"The hot tub-inspired meeting space puts the face-to-face in face time," says copywriter Ian Mackenzie. "It's a great place for quick regroups or brainstorms. And while there's not always beer, there's always someone in a towel."
In the summer months, British design gurus Wayne and Geraldine Hemingway, of Red or Dead fame, work from an outdoor office in Middlesex, UK. The teepee is made from reclaimed wood (including old British Telecom telegraph poles) and features a communal desk on the ground floor with seating set into the decking.
Parisian architect Paul Coudamy was challenged to convert a vast, empty industrial space for agency Elegangz on a minimal budget.
As the agency encompassed an advertising company, a web agency, an event team and a music label, they wanted to cheaply create different areas within the open space for the different activities. Coudamy's clever and somewhat unconventional solution was to use 4-centimeter thick water resistant honeycomb cardboard to separate the spaces.
(Photo by Benjamin Boccas)
In Coudamy's office, shelves are made of stacked pieces of cardboard -- the cardboard partitions can be moved, and the "meeting cabin" is held together with glue and tape.
The lighting for the space is provided by old white lighting umbrellas, hung upside down to diffuse the light. It's an unusual and very affordable way to divide up the open space, and it provides a cool, industrial setting for a contemporary agency.
(Photo by Benjamin Boccas)