SouthernAlpha’s Spark Nashville A Success RECAP

Southernalpha.com co-founder and Editor In Chief Walker Duncan, speaks to a capacity crowd at Spark Nashville (photo: NMI 2013)

We visited Southernalpha.com’s Spark Nashville as part of our next 50 stop leg on our sneaker-strapped startup road trip. One of the biggest key’s to our success has been getting out in the trenches with startups everywhere else.

Southernalpha.com was founded by Nashville serial entrepreneur Marcus Whitney and Walker Duncan who serves as the sites Editor in Chief. They cater to “High Growth Technology for the South East” specifically Nashville and New Orleans.

Armed with a seed investment of $150,000 from Duncan’s father’s venture capital firm Solidus, they’ve ramped up nicely and attracted a couple hundred local startups, entrepreneurs and power players to 3rd and Lindsley in Nashville last Thursday.

Whitney, Nashville Technology Council’s CTO of the Year, serves as a visionary and advisor. At the event Whitney credited Duncan and Southernalpha’s Marketing Director Kelley Boothe with the great turn out that saw 11 startups from across Tennessee pitch in a competition for $1000 dollars and an iPad.

Southernalpha.com launched during the late summer. Despite the early investment the site is struggling to gain traction outside of it’s inner circle.

Duncan is no stranger to journalism. He left his post as the Health Care, Manufacturing, Technology and Tourism Reporter for the Nashville Post, a publication also owned by the elder Duncan’s investment firm, to start SouthernAlpha.

As for the event itself, it was alive with startups, entrerpeneurs and investors. It kicked off with a fireside chat between Duncan, Whitney and Nick Holland the founder of CentreSource and now Populr.me.

The discussion was great, highlighting why Nashville has such a strong startup community and many lessons Whitney and Holland learned growing their businesses in Nashville immediately following the first dotcom bubble burst.

Holland and Whitney talked about being inspiring and the yes mentality. They also shared the dumbest thing they’ve done as an entrepreneur with the audience.

After the pitches there was more time for networking and people stuck around well into the night.

For more coverage of this great event click here. We’ll be in Lexington KY, Cincinnati, Columbus, DC, Austin, Kansas City and even Silicon Valley, all in the next 5 weeks on our sneaker-strapped startup road trip.

Were you one of the 1287 people at everywhereelse 2013? Don’t miss everywhereelse 2014 with a stronger lineup, more panels, even better parties oh and free breakfast and lunch, click here.

Listenup.FM Pitches At Spark Nashville

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Listneup.fm CEO Mykas Degesys pitches at Spark Nashville (photo: NMI 2013)

Tennessee startup Listenup.fm just got back from pitching at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference. Their platform is designed to engage fans with their favorite artists and bands while also returning bands and record labels with valuable analytics.

Their streaming music platform is built on top of the highly successful Spotify platform and rewards fans for sharing the music they’re listening to across their social networks.

CEO Mykas Degesys explains that as the music industry moves from an ownership to an access model, bands need more and more ways to engage with fans and of course generate extra revenue.

Even just a few years ago it was important to own your music collection. Whether it be vinyl, cassette, CD or mp3, most people who loved music owned it in some media format or another. Now with services like Rhapsody,Rdio,Slacker and Spotify, and high speed internet, more and more people are turning to all you can eat access packages with libraries millions of songs deep.

Royalties are baked into services that range from $4.99 a month to $19.99 a month, all supplying some sort of unlimited listening.

Bands can now find ways to get to their exact target market. They can reward fans with prizes and Listenup.fm even allows fans to earn points to purchase prizes like limited edition swag and backstage passes.

Check out Degesys’ pitch from the Spark Nashville event in the video below.

Listenup.fm also pitched at everywhereelse.co 2013, don’t miss everywhereelse.co 2014 with tickets now at 2013 prices through March 27. Click here

 

Nashville Entrepreneurs Share Their Dumbest Decisions Ever

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Nick Holland (L) and Marcus Whitney (R) talk about the dumbest thing they’ve ever done (photo: NMI 2013)

Failure and dumb decisions are part of every true entrepreneurs life. If an entrepreneur goes through life without any failures, anyone telling them their babies are ugly and any dumb decisions, they’re doing it wrong.

Thursday night at 3rd and Lindsley in Nasvhille as part of Southern Alpha’s Spark Nashville event, seasoned local entrepreneurs Nick Holland (CentreSource/Populr.me) and Marcus Whitney (CTO at MoonToast), shared their dumbest decisions.

Both guests looked surprised when Southern Alpha Editor In Chief Walker Duncan asked them to share their dumbest decisions, but the surprise on their face made everyone quickly realize that they were going to actually share their dumbest decisions.

Holland’s centers around his days growing CentreSource. He had a bunch of developers sitting around on the payroll and needed something to do. Holland wanted it to be something creative and something that could make them some money so he had the developers re-do any Nashville website they wanted. The hope was that the businesses who owned the sites they chose would throw money at CentreSource for the new design. What really happened made for a great story.

Whitney’s dumb decision is one that has been a source of constant debate the last four years I’ve personally attended SXSW (3 as Thedroidguy 1 with nibletz). I can only hope that startups out there heed Whitney’s advice, unfortunately with SXSW two weeks away, there’s going to be quite a few startups in Whitney’s shoes come March 12th.

Check out the video for some entertaining and enlightening stories.

Tennessee Startup GreenPal Pitches At Spark Nashville

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CEO of Greenpal pitches at Spark Nashville (photo: NMI 2013)

After pitching at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference earlier this month, Tennessee startup GreenPal headed out to Nashville to pitch as part of Spark Nashville on Thursday night.

Earlier this morning we brought you the story about DC startup TouchdownSpace launching. That startup makes booking professional space just as easy as hailing a car with Uber. Greenpal makes it just as easy to get your yardwork done.

The market for this kind of app is huge. Greenpal’s CEO and cofounder spent 15 years in his own landscaping business and suddenly realized there was an easier way to find customers, collect money and set appointments. The company also realized making it easier on themselves would make it easier on the customers as well.

Now Greenpal is here and it allows you to order lawn care service on the web or on their mobile app by vetted professionals who are ready to do the job. Once the appointment is set and the job is done, Greenpal also has a payment mechanism that makes paying your service providers as easy as clicking a button.

These guys looked sharp at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference and were one of the best pitches at Spark Nasvhille. Watch the video below.

Wait you missed everywhereelse.co 2013 well don’t miss 2014 more info available here

2 Of Nashville’s Startup Community Leaders Talk About The Yes Mentality

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Southern Alpha’s Editor In Chief Walker Duncan (L), Nick Holland CEO of Populr.me, Marcus Whitney CTO Moontoast (photo: NMI 2013)

Thursday night was a big night for Nashville’s startup community. New online publication Southern Alpha, which covers high growth technology for the south east, held their inaugural Spark Nashville event. The event organized by Southern Alpha Marketing Director, Kelley Boothe and Editor in Chief, Walker Duncan, was a huge success.

Spark Nashville consisted of three main parts, a fire side chat with Duncan, a pitch contest for Tennessee startups and time for networking in a startup exhibition.

For this first event, Duncan had a fireside chat with community leaders Nick Holland and Marcus Whitney. Both men are seasoned entrepreneurs who’ve had measurable success with their own startups to date.

Holland was the founder of what is now one of the biggest agencies in Nashville CentreSource and Whitney began his career with Emma and eventually spun off and cofounded MoonToast, a social agency that has clients as big as Universal Music Group. Whitney was named the CTO of the year this year by the Nashville Technology Council.

Duncan had come up with some great questions for both guests who are now frequent mentors and advisors to budding young startups in the Nashville community. Holland has an open door policy with all entrepreneurs, a recognizable figure that stops and chats with anyone with an idea. Whitney is a managing director at JumpStart Foundry and a regular, accessible face at community events, as well as at the Entrepreneur Center.

While both guests talked about the struggle and how hard it is to start your own business, they also both talked about the importance of peer groups and finding people to say yes. Sure every entrepreneur wants to find the people that say yes, “yes we’ll write you a check”, “yes your idea is great”, “Yes we can sponsor you”. As you’ll see in the video it’s actually an important foundation in a successful startup community.

Both Holland and Whitney acknowledged that once you go out and prove yourself, roll up your sleeves and prove you’re not afraid to work hard, and not afraid to try, the yes’s get easier.

Holland likes to steer clear of negativity and people who resort to no rather than to hear an idea out. When someone pitches Holland on an idea for a project or an event, if he can wrap his head around it he’s looking for ways to say yes and get it moving rather than to say no.  “When I get inspired by somebody it’s infectious and I do whatever I can to say yes”.

Early on in the video Whitney talks about his first experience pitching Holland. Nick had already had some success with CenterSource and Whitney was about to embark on the first BarCamp event, he went to Holland for $1,000 to sponsor. Whitney was a scrappy young and hungry entrepreneur with a great idea, and Holland said yes.

The duo have worked together to help bring Startup Weekend to Nashville as well. They also both support just about any cause or event that’s good for the startup community. When startup community leaders are this supportive it is infectious and the community builds.. wait for it.. organically.

Watch the video below:

PhotoRankr Shows Off A Better Stock Photo Model At Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference

PhotoRankr,Nashville startup,startups,everywhereelse.co the startup conferenceBy David Morris, University Of Memphis Entrepreneurial Journalism Student

CEO Jacob Sniff is headstrong and passionate about his first entrepreneurial project, PhotoRankr.

PhotoRankr a platform that covers all the needs of today’s photographers and some needs they may not even be aware of yet. The PhotoRankr platform is web-based and lets photographers handle several key tasks, including the sale of their work, social interaction with fellow members , and an internal job market for clients to list jobs for photographer members.

What makes PhotoRankr different from stock photo sites such as istockphoto.com and shutterstock.com is the photographer keeps 70 percent of their photo sales, and “photo ranker battles,” said Sniff. These battles let photos be placed side by side so site members can easily compare them and select which photo is better. The site generates battles automatically while also allowing users to create their own battles. This information gathered from these battles is of great value to photographers in order to gauge the quality of their work against peers.

“Social media is our current marketing channel,” said Sniff. Current integration with large social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+ set the stage for information exchange for PhotoRankr and its photographers. Photographers can seamlessly share their photos to any one of these social media sites.

Currently, PhotoRankr is free for anyone who signs up. At the beginning of March this year, PhotoRankr will roll out an annual, three-tier subscription model. “The base plan will remain free,” said Sniff.

Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference 2013 was a huge success, ticket information for 2014 here.

GreenPal Looking For Green Twice This Month In Tennessee

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By Bret Bilbrey, University of Memphis Entrepreneurial Journalism Student.

When it comes to lawn care, Bryan Clayton believes it should be easy. That’s why he founded Green Pal.

“Green Pal is the quickest way for people to find, schedule, and pay for their home services,” said Clayton.

Green Pal lets you set up your lawn profile online and they do the work. They link you with lawn care specialists in your community that will fit your needs. Each specialist posts his or her price on your profile. You can then read reviews of the specialists, see pictures of their work, select the specialist that is right for you, and schedule the appointment right from your computer or mobile phone app. When the job is completed, the specialist will send a picture of your lawn to your phone. You then pay Green Pal by credit card and schedule your next appointment, right from the web or app. Green Pal takes the hassle out of handling your lawn service.

What makes Clayton qualified to know what people want with their lawn care? “I’ve been in the landscaping business my whole life,” he said.

GreenPal Startup Video from Ten Fast Feet on Vimeo.

Green Pal was one of many startups in Memphis earlier this week for everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference. Next up they’re headed to Nashville for SouthernAlpha’s Spark Nashville event on February 21st. GreenPal competed with 87 other startups from around the counry, in the quick pitch contest Sunday at everywhereelse.co. Next week they’ll compete against 9 other regional startups for $1,000 or an iPad at SouthernAlpha’s inaugural Spark Nashville meetup.

For more information on this startup, visit www.yourgreenpal.com.

Tickets are still available for the Spark Nashville meetup here.

Record Industry Veteran Heather McBee Joins Nashville Startup Populr

Populr, Populr.me, Nashville startup, startup newsNashville startup Populr has been in the news a lot lately. Back in November, the company led by founder Nicholas Holland, raised $425,000 before launching into beta.  Back in January Populr officially launched after just two months in beta.

Populr.me, one of a handful of technology providers entering the micropublishing space, already has an edge in that it allows users and groups the ability to collaborate on POP’s as a team. This functionality, allows organizations the ability to create, co-manage and share their interactive one-pager’s both publicly and privately. POP’s can be delivered instantly to both individuals and groups by use of it’s sharing function, which includes connectivity to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, email and instant messaging. POP’s are accessible by a Populr.me sub-domain, or through use of a designated URL.

Many business people have the need to quickly share impactful media, but lack the resources in which to do it. Creating an entire website is too time-intensive. Creating a blog is too public. Populr.me allows everyone to create high-impact one page presentations in a matter of minutes, and then share them instantly either internally, or through their favorite social media platforms, according to Holland.

Today it was announced that record industry veteran Heather McBee has joined Populr.me as Senior Communications Strategist. McBee spent several years on Nashville’s Music Row, most recently she spent many years with Sony Music Nashville.

“HEATHER was looking for a new perspective and we were looking for someone who had organic connections to the business community in NASHVILLE and abroad. We needed a broad business thinker with a technical mind and she presents the perfect blend of both,” Holland told radio and record authority, allaccess.com.

This isn’t the first time Populr has reached out to Nashville’s music industry. Music and technology entrepreneur Mark Montgomery is an investor as well, telling the Tennessean last year that Populr could be   “a game changing venture that could boost Nashville’s position on the digital map”

Check out Populr and nearly 100 other startups from across the country and around the world at this huge startup conference.

Nibletz Sponsor Baker Donelson Named One Of The Best Places To Work By Fortune Magazine

Baker Donelson, Memphis, Nashville, Fortune MagazineThursday was a good day for Memphis based companies to make magazine lists. everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference made Forbes list of must attend entrepreneurial events.

At the same time, Nibletz and everywhereelse.co corporate sponsor Baker Donelson, made Fortune’s 16th annual “100 Best Companies To Work For”  list. While it’s an honor in itself for any company to make this prestigious list, and it speaks to company moral and culture, Baker Donelson Caldwell & Berkowitz PC are no strangers to the list. This is the fourth year they made the list and the highest they’ve ranked so far coming in at 45.

Google topped the list at number one. Baker Donelson beat out companies like American Express, CarMax, Capital One and even customer service giant, Nordstrom.

Other Memphis based companies that made the list included FedEx (98th) and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital which Baker Donelson edged out, with St. Jude’s coming in at 52.

“Each year, we are incredibly honored to be recognized among such a select group of companies,” says Ben Adams, the firm’s chairman and chief executive officer told the Chatanoogan. “This year, as we celebrate our best showing ever, I’m grateful to our employees because they are the reason Baker Donelson is a great place to work, and their dedication to the Firm, our clients and our communities is what sets us apart.”

Baker Donelson is very active in the entrepreneurial and startup community in all of the markets that they serve. At home in Memphis they are integral partners with Launch Your City and Launch Memphis, providing hours of mentorship, and reduced legal fees and advice. They also play a major role in the Nashville startup scene.

Vic Gatto Managing Director of Jumpstart Foundry, Nashville’s accelerator and Seed Hatchery, Memphis’ accelerator added “Baker Donelson has been a great partner in building the entrepreneurial ecosystem here in Tennessee and across the South.  The firm does an excellent job representing their clients, but I have been most impressed with all they do in addition to the typical legal services.  Baker is one of the largest financial sponsors for the  Jumpstart Foundry and Seed Hatchery.accelerators.   They also offer lots of educational content to free of charge designed to give entrepreneurs the info they need to make informed legal decisions.”

Baker Donelson is a key partner sponsor in everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference.

Nashville Accelerator Jumpstart Foundry Announces Early Bird Applications Now Open

Accelerator, Jumpstart Foundry, Nasvhille startup,startups, startup acceleratorHere at nibletz.com we continue to provide superior national coverage of the southeast. With that in mind we love covering Nashville’s startup scene and especially their local accelerator program Jumpstart Foundry.

Jumpstart Foundry is a three month cohort based startup accelerator program. Several alumni have received follow on funding. RentStuff, a Jumpstart Foundry graduate from two years ago was acquired back in November..

JSF’s 2012 program accelerated the growth of ten startups and built on the overall Jumpstart Foundry track record of success. Like other national accelerators, JSF rates its success in part on the number of graduate companies that are able to raise capital or boot-strap operations without additional capital. Over the first three years of the program, JSF has achieved a very strong 65% success rate. Thirteen JSF alumni have raised follow- on capital and are building operations. These results combined with a rigorous program refined over multiple years, a deep mentor pool and affiliation with the Global Accelerator Network position Jumpstart Foundry as one of the top accelerators in the United States.

“Each year both the number and quality of applicants has grown,” Marcus Whitney, chief technology officer for Moontoast and one of Jumpstart Foundry’s managing directors said in a statement. “Given the program’s established track record of success for our graduates, I’m excited to see the group this year.”

“Year after year we increase the strength of the Jumpstart Program expectations in terms of Mentors, guest speakers and participating company performance. The tradition continues this year as we open up the application process for 2013” Vic Gatto, Partner at Solidus Company and Managing Director at Jumpstart Foundry told nibletz.com.

Startups interested in applying can head over to jumpstartfoundry.com

Meet Marcus Whitney, and Several Jumpstart Foundry startups at the biggest startup conference in the country.

Former Facebook Chief Invests In Nashville Startup Streamweaver

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Nashville startup, Streamweaver launched in September. The company offers a new, more socially integrated video experience.

According to TechCrunch, Streamweaver has actually found a way to make video more social. This is achieved by not only sharing videos with friends, and tagging video recordings, but in playback StreamWeaver allows for split screen. This way friends at the same event can watch their friends videos in a more complete, multiscreen display.

Early on Streamweaver was able to raise $2.6 million dollars locally from Tennessee Community Ventures and Mountain Group Capital according to the Tennessean. Both firms are part of the TNInvestco program.

Now they’ve raised a $1.3 million dollar Series A round that was led by former Facebook Privacy head Chris Kelly. Kelly joined the social giant in 2005 when there were only about 25 employees. He left in 2010 and began investing in startups. Kelly also recently invested in video startup GoDigital that produces documentaries.

“As mobile users, we all love to share content and connect with others on the go … and I’ve seen a lot of social startups,” Kelly told TechCrunch, “but Streamweaver is making a difference in how we collaborate with each other and collectively create interactive content.”

You can tryout Streamweaver here

Nashville Startup: TalkApolis Brings Locally Produced High Quality Video To The Smartphone

Talkapolis, Nashville startup,startupsAs media consumption continues to move the direction of the smart, connected, handheld device, companies need to continue to adapt. Or of course just launch new companies. Such is the case with Nashville startup TalkApolis. The Nashville startup is headed by John Bransford

“You can watch locally focused, entertaining, high quality video shows on your smartphone or  mobile device that were made to be watched on it. Download our app for your device and watch TalkApolis content with a touch of your screen” Bransford told us in an interview.

The microcasting company was originally selected for the 2012 Jumpstart Foundry cohort but dropped out before the program ended in August.

Even without the accelerator program Bransford’s background in media (real media like HBO) and development, including Drupal, helped bring TalkApolis to fruition.

Bransford has designed the TalkApolis platform to operate smooth and efficiently with the ability to produce relevant content extremely fast. ” Our production suite is so adept, we can test out a show from something we see trending on the internet and see if it sticks almost immediately. If it doesn’t get traction or the host get an audience, we move on to the next one. Licensees will benefit from this agility of the back-end system by being able to do the exact same things in their local markets. Our plan is to allow licensees to apply their unique local knowledge where it matters.” Bransford said.

Check out the rest of our interview with Bransford below.

Read More…

Nashville Featured in CNN’s “Cities Where Startups Are Thriving”

Nashville startups,Tennessee startups,startups,startup,startup newsFor years Nashville Tennessee has been known as Music City USA. Country music starts in Nashville. This year ABC is even running an hour long drama based on country music and life in Nashville, called “Nashville”. To people from the midsouth it’s no secret that Nashville also has a thriving entrepreneurial, startup and tech scene, but now they’ve been highlighted in a piece on cnn.com called “Cities Where Startups Are Thriving”.

In 2010 the Nashville Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with the Nashville Technology Council opened the Entrepreneur Center. A team of 75 people in an “entrepreneur task force” began researching and discussing the possibility of creating a resource for Nashville entrepreneurs back in 2007, a year after a similar effort was started in Memphis Tennessee by entrepreneur Eric Mathews and Launch Your City.

The center started as an online resource, and eventually became a brick and mortar centralized location that serves as the startup and technology hub in Music City.

In May of 2010 it was announced that successful healthcare entrepreneur Michael Burcham was picked to lead the Nashville Entrepreneur Center after a six month search.

Now the community is thriving. Nashville investors have put $72 million dollars into 21 companies so far in 2012, nearly double the $38 million dollars and 8 companies they invested in in 2009.

Startups like Edo Interactive that originated in Nashville and now has offices in Nashville and Chicago, has raised over $50 million dollars in venture capital. Another startup, RentStuff, which got it’s formidable start in the Jumpstart Foundry accelerator program, housed at the Entrepreneur Center, followed in Edo Interactive’s footsteps, relocating to Chicago and leading to an acquisition first reported here at nibletz.com late last week.

Nashville is just one of 9 entrepreneurial pockets that LaunchTN is supporting with startup accelerators. The nine high growth areas include four major hubs, Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga and also have five shoulder markets as well. Tennessee was the second state to formalize a Startup America region. That much entrepreneurial and startup activity in the state of  over 42,000 square miles means that no Tennessee resident is more than an hour and a half away from an entrepreneurial hub.

Linkage:

CNN’s “Cities Where Startups Thrive”

No one covers high growth tech news for the southeast like nibletz.com

Tennessee is home to the largest startup conference in the world

Exclusive: Nashville Startup RentStuff Acquired

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We’ve been covering the wild, but awesome ride that Nashville startup RentStuff has been on since May. RentStuff is a 2011 graduate of the JumpStart Foundry startup accelerator in music city.

Over the summer the Nashville startup relocated to the 1871 startup incubator in Chicago.

RentStuff started off as a peer to peer rental platform. Got a lawn mower rotting away in the garage. You could use RentStuff to rent it out to someone who needed it for a few days. Items like iPads, DSLR cameras and even powerful leaf blowers could be found at RentStuff.

In August the RentStuff team, led by Chris Jaeger, pivoted away from that model in favor of a more traditional rental search utility. Jaeger told us then that they would continue to support both platforms however the original model, despite rave reviews, wasn’t scaling fast enough. You could find a lawnmower for rent in Nashville and a DSLR camera in Pennsylvania, with the people who actually wanted to rent them hundreds of miles away.

Today we found out that RentStuff has been acquired by RentalCompare, the largest searchable database of things to rent across the country. Terms of the sale were not disclosed by press time.

Jaeger has always been a big proponent of the Nashville startup scene, especially the Entrepreneur Center and JumpStart Foundry. Tennessee venture firm Solidus backs several Tennessee accelerators including JumpStart Foundry and also participated in a follow on round for RentStuff.

RentStuff alerted their user base to their acquisition with the message below posted on their Facebook page:

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Tennessee is a great place to startup, apply now for the Seed Hatchery accelerator click here

Linkage:

Find RentStuff Here

Make sure you have a ticket for this

No one covers high growth technology in the South East like we do