Rawporter Roadshow: We Talk With Ric Fleisher about Urgnt.ly And The DC Startup Scene

As the Rawporter Roadshow continues we got a few minutes to sit down with serial entrepreneur Ric Fleisher about his latest startup urgent.ly.  Fleisher has had several successful exits and is proudly working on his current startup that came about out of necessity.

Fleisher found that as more and more location based service startups came out they were all focusing on what they believe people want. Urgnt.ly is a new kind of location based app that focuses on what people need.

As the story goes it was a Friday evening and Fleisher had just finished doing the dishes. Before he went to bed he set the dishwasher to run overnight. He was awakened Saturday morning by his son that told him there was water in the kitchen.  Fleisher got dressed and went downstairs expecting to find a puddle of water. Instead he found that his entire kitchen and surrounding areas in his home had been completely flooded by a dishwasher that was still spewing water.

More (including video) after the break

After turning off the water to the dishwasher he was faced with the daunting task of finding a plumber, an appliance repair shop and calling his homeowners insurance company.  All of which required either looking online or in the phonebook. As all great entrepreneurs do, Fleisher thought to himself “what can I do to make this easier”. From that wet day in his kitchen urgnt.ly was born.

Urgnt.ly is an Android and iPhone app that connects people to businesses around them that they may need. Plumbers, HVAC, tree limb removal, snow removal, handymen, all of these kinds of businesses are linked by location to the app. The app then allows you to connect to those services that are open and ready to help at whatever time you are searching. Technology like this could prove very valuable online and on your mobile.

Our apps editor at Thedroidguy.com ran this review of Urgnt.ly over the weekend.

Fleisher and urgnt.ly are based at Fortified DC’s “The Fort” accelerator in NW Washington. But Fleisher isn’t just there to work on Urgnt.ly. Fleisher is also one of the mentors at “The Fort”. Other startups that are working out of The Fort come to Fleisher for his expertise in startups, starting up in DC and his successful exits with his past startups.

We talked to Fleisher about mentoring at The Fort and what it’s like to launch a successful startup out of Washington DC. Check out the video.