Kyle
Most of us are too busy to sift through the noise of news sites and social streams to get exactly what we want. Many times the important information is lost in the shuffle. That’s where Chattanooga based startup ReTickr comes in.
ReTickr was created by three young entrepreneurs and University of Tennessee graduates; Travis Truett, Brian Trautschold and Jared Houghton.
The threesome has seen enormous growth after being featured in the Mac App Store for three weeks back in October 2011, but it wasn’t always that easy.
More after the break
Truett, Trautschold, and Houghton originally founded Retickr closer to home in Knoxviille, Tennessee. That’s where, in 2010, they scourged together every penny they could and outsourced a prototype to India.
“It cost us $20,000 and to pay for it we surrendered life insurance policies, sold class rings and worked multiple jobs,” Truett told knoxvillebiz.com “We walked away with a prototype that barely worked but led us to seed capital.”
They found seed capital down jn Chattanooga. That’s where they were fortunate enough to get $50,000, office space and guidance from Lamp Post Group. With $50,000 in hand Lamp Post Group gave ReTickr 5 months to have a beta test product ready.
After hitting their initial goal Lamp Post invested another $1.5 million dollars into ReTickr.
“You could just tell they were winners,” said Ted Alling, a Lamp Post partner, in an interview with knoxvillebiz.com “I saw that drive and passion with them.”
ReTickr uses the data from what news their users are reading to offer them other news that may interest them, similar to Pandora’s recommendation engine.
Want to try ReTickr on your mac? Check it out here
Source: knoxvillebiz.com
