What SEO And The Matrix Have In Common

When writing for blogs and websites, you may feel like you are entering a world with a different set of rules – especially as you try to understand how to write for SEO.

Do you remember the movie The Matrix? In it, the main character Neo discovers that the world he has been living in is actually an elaborate computer program. When he is rescued and taken to the real world, Neo learns techniques that will give him an advantage whenever he re-enters the matrix.

The following will help you learn some of the rules of SEO and hopefully give you an advantage in your daily online writing. SEO is important, but it can harm you if not done correctly. Relevance is everything, and SEO is a game you need to win at.
What is SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is a means of boosting your website or blog’s ranking in web searches. The higher you rank, the more likely it is that the person doing the search will actually click on your link.
Identifying your Keywords and Phrases

Perhaps the most important tools that SEO writers have are keywords and phrases. These are words or phrases that a potential searcher might key into a search engine in order to find specific information. For example, if someone was looking for information on vegetable gardening they might search: gardening, vegetable gardening or planting seeds.

You might start by writing a list of all the keywords and phrases you think would be used by the searcher and then work them into your content.
Keyword Density

Don’t let keyword density harm you! Keyword density – how often you use a keyword – will also play a huge factor in your search ranking. But be careful not to overdo this as sites with very high density are likely to be labelled as spam by search engines. Sites that use too many keywords also result in very high bounce rates. These sites are overly optimized and provide low value for the reader. Identify your goals, and if the goal is to keep readers engaged, make sure you are not optimizing purely for SEO, resulting in a quick page view and a bounce.

Content has to be interesting, engaging and relevant. That’s why Markerly weighs page views and engagement rates differently. Some pages with very high levels of page views have extremely low engagement rates – meaning that the real estate is essentially worthless. Other pages with very thoughtful, well-written content have very high levels of engagement and a lower number of page views, but for anyone looking for real impressions, this is the metric to measure.
Links

Have you noticed that more and more websites and blogs are incorporating links to other sites/pages in the body of their content? Using this technique not only makes your site more SEO friendly but if the searcher discovers that a particular blog or site isn’t exactly what he was looking for, it gives you first dibs on directing him to another of your pages (or at least a page that you endorse) rather than allowing him to search again and possibly end up on a competitor’s site.
SEO Plugins

Even the best writers can benefit from a little computer analysis. SEO Plugins are programs that analyze your writing and “do the math” to help determine how SEO friendly your particular content is. They will show you what areas are good and what you could do to beef up your SEO. There are many of these programs and several can be downloaded for free online for bloggers. Markerly optimizes SEO for bloggers with free micro-content a sharing tool that emails bloggers once a week with the most popular words and quotes that readers are copying and sharing. This helps bloggers better understand their audience to write more content that resonates with their reader’s interest levels.

Markerly also optimizes SEO for brands that use Markerly to advertise through content campaigns. Markerly monitors search queries, traffic referrals, most engaged with quotes, specific content shared to social media, copy and paste and keywords and phrases within different demographics and amplifies the reach for brands.
Stay Human

Finally, remember that after SEO has done its job, your reader will be human, meaning, they will either move on to more interesting content or stay engaged. If the writing is boring or difficult to understand your reader will move on. On the other hand, create engaging and useful content and you will keep them coming back for more.

That’s why Markerly ranks engagement over page views when monitoring content campaigns. Markerly tracks when readers are selecting text, hovering over specific content, copying content, right clicking and pinning photos, selecting text, scrolling down the page, sharing to social media, discussing on social media, clicking on links, and more. Markerly knows when content is engaging, when page views are being faked by bots, when content is overly SEO optimized (high drop off rates) and when a writer has successfully done their job.
Before you head back into the Matrix, remember one thing to win at the game: SEO is important, but more importantly, relevance is everything.

Markerly makes publishing tools that we’ve proudly been using since their alpha stage over a year ago. Right click on anything on Nibletz and watch Markerly go to work. For more info visit markerly.com

Now check out the Top 5 Reasons Startup Founders Blow Through Money!

Kurfuffl Because Everyone Keeps Score

Competition is everywhere. Of course competition is found in sports, but even in your everyday interactions there is always someone challenging you to do something.

“I can eat more hot dogs than you.”

“I go to Starbucks more than you.”

“I can drive that golfball further than you.”

The challenges are countless and come from every direction.

It’s no surprise that a startup with a colorful name and based on social competition comes from Chicago, an extremely competitive city. With four major sports franchises (five if you count the Cubs), men, women and children are challenging each other everywhere.

That’s the basis of Kurfuffl, an app for both iPhone and Android.

“Do you score more than your friends? Now you can prove it. Kurfuffl is an app that helps you keep score in everyday social competition. Anyone who’s competitive can tap Kurfuffl to throw down, track points and talk smack. Whether settling a longtime dispute or just making a night more interesting, there’s nothing like a good fuffl.” Kurfuffl says on their website.

If you’ve been following me since TheDroidGuy days then you know the one thing that I really look forward to at every event is good chocolate chip cookies. During TechWeek, Zach Zimmerman the founder of Kurfuffl, had the cookies at his booth, so we chilled out with him and listened to what he had to say. I’m easily bought.

Competition apps are getting more popular. At SXSW we saw Alabama startup NotIt labs which is also social competition but focused on the last man standing or the person who’s “not it”.

Kurfuffl on the other hand is all about keeping score. Is it how many men or women you can pick up, how many cigar smoke rings you can make, or any other social challenge? Keep the challenges alive, keep score, and more with Kurfuffl. Find out more here and watch the video below.

We’ve got more from Chicago TechWeek Here.

NY Startup Founder’s Baby Was Sitting In Wet Data: Internet Of Things Comes To Diapers

Back in October when All Thing’s Digital’s Kara Swisher was speaking at Chicago IdeaWeek, she said that sensors would be the big thing this year. She was absolutely right. There are sensors monitoring everything from your car, to your workout, to your dog’s workout, and now a baby’s diaper.

Last year Yaroslav Faybishenko, the founder of New York startup Pixie Scientific was in the car with his wife and their baby daughter. His wife had asked him if their daughter had a wet diaper. According to this New York Times article, that’s when Faybishenko realized his daughter was sitting in data.

Now you may be thinking, like I was, that sensors to tell if your baby had a wet or soiled diaper may be on the brink of pure laziness. Typically a parent can smell or otherwise observe that their baby’s diaper is full. No sense in getting an app for that, but Pixie Scientific’s “Smart Diapers” are much more than that.

With the Smart Diaper, a urine analysis square is put inside the diaper and when it becomes wet it’s scanned with a smartphone app. The app returns helpful data about the levels of glucose, ketones, proteins, and other things found in urine.

According to babycenter.com, urinary tract infections in babies can be very hard to detect. Sometimes a fever is the only symptom. When a baby has a fever without any other kind of symptoms it can be troubling to the parent. They’re also difficult to detect because it’s hard to get a bacteria free sample from a young baby. Smart Diaper’s technology would provide a great data source for pediatricians.

How much data?

Well there are 360 million diapers changed per day.

Smart Diapers aren’t just about UTI’s though. The sensor can tell if the baby is properly hydrated or if other harmful things are in the urine. There is a sensor with a qr code built in that is on the outside of the diaper. The parent just scans the qr code with their iPhone and all the data sent to the cloud comes back down to their phone with a complete analysis of the child’s latest urine.

Smart Diapers has taken to Indiegogo to raise $225,000, they have 59 days left as of the writing of this article. They’ve received a ton of national press including appearances on ABC News, BBC, CBS, and more.

You can support them at Indiegogo here.

This Louisville startup puts sensors in a tooth brush.

Founder Spotlight: Danny Boice Co-Founder Speek.com

Danny Boice is the CTO of Speek, a 500 Startups funded startup that lets users do conference calls with a simple link (speek.com/YourName) rather than using phone numbers and PINs. Danny contributes regularly to the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, PandoDaily, Fast Company, and other publications. He attended Harvard undergrad and did advanced studies at MIT. Follow him @DannyBoice.

Who is your hero?

Lemmy from Motorhead.

What’s the single best piece of business advice that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why?

“Find what you love and let it kill you.” – Charles Bukowski

I take this quote to mean that you should find the thing that you are intensely passionate about first and foremost. Once you have found that thing then spend the rest of your life working your a*s off to be great at it.

What’s the biggest mistake you ever made in your business, and what did you learn from it that others can learn from too?

Only get in bed with people you really like. This applies to co-founders, partners, you name it.

When my first company was acquired I was heavily incentivized to join the management team of the company that acquired us. I really did not get along with the founders of that company and we rarely saw eye to eye. I felt marginalized and believed that my talents were under-appreciated. It was an absolutely miserable experience for me and I spent a couple years being unhappy. It’s just not worth losing years of your life.

What do you do during the first hour of your business day and why?

I put together a to-do list for the day using todoist. Then I get myself to inbox zero. I like starting the day with a conscious plan of what I want to get done and I don’t like checking email throughout the day because it is a barrier to getting things done.

What’s your best financial/cash-flow related tip for entrepreneurs just getting started?

Keep your nut low. This applies to personal life and business. The lower the expense structure the more freedom you have.

Quick: What’s ONE thing you recommend ALL aspiring or current entrepreneurs do right now to take their biz to the next level?

Become an expert in the Lean Startup methodology. The best management approach I have found to date is using data and science experiments to make decisions.

What’s your definition of success? How will you know when you’ve finally “succeeded” in your business?

Success means having the freedom to do what I want when I want to do it. Money, time, obligations, and contracts should not be a factor. I call it “airplane money.” If you can wake up in the morning, isolate the place you really want to go today and jump in a plane and go there, then you’ve achieved success.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

Danny Boice spoke at this huge startup conference last year and he’s back again this year.

New Orleans Offering Big Tax Incentives To Attract Startups

We already know the New Orleans‘ startup community is growing. Ever since Hurricane Katrina, the people of New Orleans have turned to starting their own businesses, launching tech companies, medical device companies, and other types of startups. They’ve adopted a “fend for yourself” mentality while sewing the fabric of the city back together.

For decades, New Orleans has been known for its music and culture. Mix in the growing startup community, and it’s a great place to relocate to launch that new startup. Sure many people want to flock to Silicon Valley or New York, but New Orleans has a flavor all its own.

If that’s not enough for you, New Orleans is now offering huge tax incentives to startups. Tourism and hospitality are huge industries in New Orleans, but technology, on the other hand, is not. According to The Atlantic, New Orleans still lags behind most of the country in tech workers. According to The Examiner, 1.4% of workers in the Big Easy are in the “computer and mathematical” fields; that number is 2.7% across the nation.

To correct that New Orleans is offering an incentive called the “Digital Interactive Media and Software Incentive.” This incentive offers startups with at least one employee a 35% tax credit on payroll for instate employees. The program also offers a 25% tax credit for development expenses.

“This means that 35% of your payroll for your in-state project managers, developers, testers, designers, and engineering management and 25% of your servers, developer and tester workstations, and development-related software, supplies, and rent are credited back to you at tax time. All of this, with no minimums required and no cap on the amount that you can credit,” The Examiner reported.

Could we see a rise in the Silicon Bayou?

Check out this video interview with New Orleans startup Red Ticket Games.

Chattanooga Startup QuickCue Secures Major Partnership With Mellow Mushroom

We’ve seen quite a few startups that are trying to help improve the restaurant experience. There are a lot of “wait list” startups. We reported on Chicago based NoWait app just last week. The challenge for these startups is the ability to penetrate the restaurant industry, and they have to take care of the entire host stand experience, not just the wait list.

That’s how Chattanooga-based QuickCue was able to secure a deal with Atlanta-based Mellow Mushroom that spans the entire chain and future locations to come.

mellowmushroom

QuickCue is a host stand app that allows the host or hostess at a restaurant to take a guest’s name, add them to the wait list and then notify them by text message that their table is ready. This allows guests to go elsewhere while waiting. They could go to nearby shopping or even run errands. Rather than being tethered to a pager, their phone lets them know when their table is ready.

QuickCue also offers an entire suite of features and analytics for the restaurant itself. According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, restaurants can even create customer profiles. With these profiles they can make notes on where customers like to sit, what they order, how frequently they visit, and how many people usually dine with them.

The restaurant also has a vital piece of information from every guest in the QuickCue system: their phone number. Now not only can the restaurant notify the customer when their table is ready, they can also market them deals by text message as well. What if the kitchen crashes? Now a restaurant can let the customer know there’s been a slight delay and offer them a coupon instantly for a free drink.

The potential for a restaurant using QuickCue is almost infinite. The startup’s attention to customer service is what made the partnership with Mellow Mushroom a natural fit.
“One of our core values is providing excellent customer service,” David Danowitz, Mellow Mushroom’s director of operations, told the Times Free Press. “Mellow fans often will drive 100 miles to get to the nearest location, so we need to deliver a quality product and an awesome guest experience every time. Quickcue has a similar approach, which made partnering with them as the exclusive provider of our host stand technology an easy decision.”

QuickCue is being installed in all 100 of Mellow Mushroom’s existing locations and will also be integrated into future locations. Mellow Mushroom plans on opening 200 new locations each year for the foreseeable future.

Find out why the inventor of ethernet will be in Chattanooga next month.

Boston’s Firefield Is THE Idea Accelerator

Accelerators are great. We cover a lot of startup accelerators from across the country and around the world here at Nibletz. Accelerators are great for companies that have a product. We’ve seen a handful of wireframes and ideas evolve out of an accelerator, but typically to get your “idea” into an accelerator, you also need a proven track record.

Startup Weekend is a great place to flush out an idea and start working on a prototype. But even with over 700 events worldwide, some people can’t get to Startup Weekend. Others want to develop their idea a little more intimately and without presenting it in front of a group of strangers. For those idea-preneurs there’s Firefield.

The team behind FireField started as a company building internal web applications. They quickly realized through this process that there were a lot of other people in the same boat that may not have the access to the same resources they had. That is, people with great ideas and nowhere to go.

Firefield pivoted to an external facing company that wanted to help people with ideas become real startups. Now, they offer an online accelerator with access to curriculum, mentors, designers, developers, and people who’ve actually been through the startup process.

The program lasts 16 weeks and has a rolling start, meaning you can sync up with the Firefield team and program when you’re ready.

Traditional accelerators ask for a huge commitment from founders. Most founders who get into an accelerator think about one thing and that is getting into the program. Once they’re accepted they worry about the little details like taking a sabbatical from their day jobs or quitting altogether. They also take a risk in relocating. Some accelerators have temporary housing worked out, but other accelerators require teams to rent a place to live. Since most rentals are annual so you’re moving to a strange city and getting into an year long lease.

Accelerators are awesome, but there are plenty of risks.

Since there’s not as much risk with an online accelerator, Firefield asks for each startup to invest $5,000 into the program so they have some “skin in the game.” That may seem expensive, but without an accelerator like this you may end up paying tens of thousands of dollars in college courses.

The model seems to be working for Adam McGowan and his cofounders at Firefield.

Here’s a quick interview with McGowan.

What is Firefield?

Firefield offers a 16-week program that ignites ideas into early stage products. We partner with entrepreneurs, providing them with the strategy, design, and web or mobile development needed to launch. We do this for partners with funding, but we also accept equity from select entrepreneurs. By bringing a co-founder’s mentality, an ability to execute, and a proven track-record to our partners, we help build not just products, but successful businesses.

In layman’s terms, how does it work?

Entrepreneurs come to us with great ideas that they cannot build themselves for any of a number of reasons: no technical team, limited funding, lack of experience, etc. We then work with them for 16 weeks to design, develop, and deploy their web or mobile-based application. We become very involved in their business, acting like a co-founder, and providing help in every area we can. After 16 weeks, entrepreneurs exit the program with a minimum viable product they can share with users, demonstrate to potential investors, etc. Moreover, they remain part of the Firefield network that will support them through its technical, strategic, and financial connections in the startup ecosystem. Members can enter the program by purchasing our services or by applying to be accepted in exchange for equity in their business.

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

Adam McGowan is the CEO and founder of Firefield. He is an entrepreneur at heart, but did an 8 year stint in finance working at an investment bank followed by an upstart hedge fund — a period when he evaluated hundreds of deals, scrutinized piles of business plans, pitched investors around the world, designed and built tools he needed, and helped put billions of dollars to work. He witnessed huge successes and failures first hand. Although unconventional — as an entrepreneurial training ground — that experience was second to none, and it taught Adam what he does well and what he should leave for others.

That experience highlighted problem solving, relationship building, analytical thinking, and collaborating with others as the key strengths that Adam is really passionate about. And while he’s pretty damn good at building cash-flow models too, he’s hoping to never have to do that again.

Finding the intersection of his skills and passions led Adam to conceive and build Firefield. Since its inception, it has allowed him to present at conferences of venture capitalists and web innovators, take on founding-team roles with multiple upstart ventures, manage the agile launch of many interactive projects, collaborate with dozens of entrepreneurs at various stages, and foster a great team of thinkers and do’ers.

In short, Adam loves creating great stuff and at Firefield, that’s happened in the form of valuable products, successful businesses, and lasting relationships.

Jeremy Sewell is Firefield’s Principal Collaborator. A writer and entrepreneur, Jeremy hails from Maine and has been working in New York City for the past 11 years, where he’s taken an unconventional job path with many pivots and resets. Despite having studied creative writing and theater in college, when he arrived in New York, Jeremy took a job as a medical office assistant at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, working for a program that provided free treatment for World Trade Center responders.

Within 4 years, based on his strong writing and communication skills, marketing acumen, unique blend of creativity and organization, and ability to lead, Jeremy was named the Director of Marketing and Communications for the entire Mount Sinai Medical Center (at the age of 26), giving him the opportunity to lead a courageous team of writers and designers.

Jeremy then became obsessed with the web and user experience — moving into project and account management roles at a number of prominent New York City agencies including ID Society, Domani Studies, and True North, working with clients that included American Express, Sony, AT&T, Crown Royal, Disney, and Starwood.

Having produced hundreds of successful sites and projects, Jeremy brings a wealth of experience in online marketing, strategy, user experience design, community building, and interactive development to Firefield’s clients. His main focus is on getting things done, efficiently and intelligently. He believes in wireframes, but thinks most functional specs are a waste of time. He has found his groove with the agile approach he’s helped develop at Firefield.

Where are you based?

Adam is based in Boston and Jeremy is based in New York City. The remainder of our team works remotely across multiple continents.

How did you come up with the idea for FireField?

Firefield has evolved over time, originally starting as a venture that built its own internal web applications. Over time we realized that many other early stage companies had the same needs that we did when trying to launch products and businesses. More importantly, our skills and expertise would be really valuable to them. We tested the water and started working with one client. One turned into two, and so on. Now we’re rolling out a program to help dozens of startups.

What problem does FireField solve?

Startup teams get accepted into programs like TechStars only AFTER they build a great product. Investors get interested in new ventures only AFTER they start getting traction and usage in the market. But what about all those entrepreneurs with a great idea but no ability to build and launch it? In most cases these ventures stall, or more likely, fold. We want more of them to have an opportunity to succeed.

What’s your secret sauce?

Over the years, we’ve cultivated an agile team of designers and developers that can execute quickly, efficiently, and foresee issues and opportunities early on. We love putting this team to work on new projects. When we combined our team’s abilities with an entrepreneur’s vision and expertise we find so many things become possible.

Our secret sauce is that when these entrepreneurs finish our program, they actually have a real product to market, sell, launch, etc. Traditional accelerator programs give you some office space, access to mentors, and maybe some cash. After that, you’re on your own. Because we take a vested interest in entrepreneurs and actually build their product with them, we don’t speed up companies, we ignite them.

Why Now?

Too many great ideas are failing to get started because they lack the experience, technical expertise, funding, connections or all of the above to launch their product. It’s time more entrepreneurs start getting the opportunities they deserve.

Who are some of your mentors and business role models?

While he may not have been the easiest boss to work for, Steve Jobs had an incredible vision and ability to execute that inspires us. From a company point of view, we are big fans of the approach at 37 Signals, a development shop that lives and breathes the agile business and software model.

What’s next for FireField?

We are going to continue to work with entrepreneurs to launch more successful businesses. In the future, we also hope to provide a training ground for aspiring “hustlers” or “hackers” looking to launch or join an upstart venture.

Where can people find out more?

You can learn about us at our website firefield.com

This huge startup conference is specifically for startups “everywhere else”

How We Built A Successful Startup Across 10 Cities

At the turn of the millennium, the technology world was a far different place compared to today. Social networking didn’t exist, streaming video was a pipe dream, and collaboration took place during late nights at the office or on napkins at bars. Building a startup from the ground up is a difficult venture at any time, but today’s collaborative tools have opened the door to working together from pretty much anywhere in the world.

That’s how we had to build flik, our social media app. My wife Tracy and I co-founded flik together, and during the early days, we received plenty of advice regarding the right way to approach a startup. A lot of it came with wisdom applicable to any ground-up project, such as building a house: have a solid foundation, plan ahead, use the right materials, and so on.

The problem was that my wife and co-founder Tracy and I lived a bit of gypsy lifestyle. Since we got married six years ago, we’ve moved 30 times, from city to city, region to region, and sometimes country to country. How can you build a startup when you don’t even have a house to call home?

That’s where collaboration tools come in. Of course, technology is only as good as the people that use it, and our most valuable lesson over the years came from finding the right balance between technology and practicality. flik’s first eight people collaborated across six different cities, and while we faced some early communication hurdles, it was only a matter of time before we overcame the challenges of remote business.

All startups have countless moving parts and ours is no exception: advisors, attorneys, operations, marketing and PR. By organizing our communication needs while using both cloud and local tools, we’re able to transform moving parts into a well-oiled machine,

It took a little bit of trial and error, but with our communication challenges in the proverbial rearview mirror, we can focus on the task of making flik as successful as possible. Today, flik professionals are a team in the truest sense, except our diverse locations are now an advantage. With our focus on strong communication, we have one big advantage over our competition — not only do we collaborate with the efficiency of a local team, we also have the broader reach and exposure that comes exclusively with our collective locations. It’s simply the best of all worlds, and a situation that couldn’t have been possible without the right technology and the right people.

Chris Hayes is the co-founder and CTO of flik, a social mobile app where users share products and places they love through short videos. Chris holds a BS in computer science & economics from Northwestern University, was a national chess champion at the age of 12, and is a submarine-pitching professional baseball player.

Check out nibletz’ interview with Flik here.

Dallas Startup Be Pawsitive, Buy One Give One For Dogs!

Buy one give one charities have become one of the most popular forms of social entrepreneurship. I don’t mind buying my family Toms, because I know I’m doing my little part for charity in my already busy life. Over the past couple of years, monthly subscription box startups have become equally popular.

Now Dallas-based entrepreneur Travis Watson has put both concepts together in a startup he calls Be Pawsitive. Be Pawsitive is a monthly subscription box of organic treats for your favorite canine companion. The “home baked” treats taste great to dogs, and they’re good for them as well. But, in addition to your dog, when you sign up for Be Pawsitive, the same box will be sent to an animal shelter so those dogs can enjoy the treats. For every purchased box, one is donated.

“After learning that more than 3 million dogs end up in shelters across the country each year, I felt compelled to do whatever I could to help,” Watson said in a statement. “The treats we donate not only provide a healthy snack for the dogs but also help with obedience training to get them ready for new homes, and also serve as an “ice breaker” for the dog and potential adopter during their first meeting. The treats are really making a difference.”

Treats come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and flavors including; The Original, Rise and Shine, Cheesy-Berry, Pizza Party, Power Berry, Banana Split, Pumpkin Pie, Relax, and Iron Dog. In addition to the delicious snacks, Be Pawsitive also tries to include other things for their canine customers like toys and for their first box a $25 gift certificate to Rover, another startup that helps dog owners find experienced pet sitters.

Check out our interview with Watson below:

What is your startup called?

Be Pawsitive

What does your company do?

We sell a monthly subscription box for dogs. The box is full of our delicious oven baked dog treats and a few other fun dog items. Each box of treats we sell provides a box of treats we donate to animal shelters and rescue organizations across the country. We operate with a Buy One, Give One business model. Each month customers get a new treat flavor in their box as well as other sponsored products (ex. gift cards, dog toys, misc dog stuff).

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Travis Watson (me) is the founder of Be Pawsitive. I have a background in design and finance. I graduated from The University of Texas at Arlington with a BBA in Management in 2009.

Where are you based?

Dallas, Texas

What problem do you solve?

Each year over 3 million dogs will enter into animal shelters across the country. We are working to help make their (shelter dogs) lives better and increase adoption rates. Our treats are used during obedience training to help dogs get ready for new homes. Dogs that are leash trained and obedient get adopted faster. Our treats also act as an ice breaker during the first meet and greet with a shelter dog and person(s) looking to adopt. Some of these dogs come from abusive past or are just a little scared being in an environment with so much going on. Being able to give the dog a treat shows that your intentions are good and allows the dog to feel more comfortable and hopefully leads to a long term relationship with those people. And finally they are a healthy snack for the dogs. Many of our treats provide additional nutrients and are packed with healthy ingredients. We are also working to raise awareness to adopt instead of buy from a breeder or pet store. The over supply of shelter dogs can be lessened with more people adopting.

Why does it matter?

People have a special connection with dogs and we want to provide a way for them to reward their own dog with amazing dog treats and also provide them with a way to help other dogs out.

What are some of the milestones your startup has already reached?

We had a successful launch of our website www.bepawsitive.com on June 1st and have been gaining traction within the subscription box (for dogs) market.

What are your next milestones?

Our next big push will be a mix of online marketing, social media engagement, and grass roots marketing. We hope to keep gaining new relationships with shelters and rescue organizations that will benefit from our treat donations.

Where can people find out more? Any social media links you want to share?

Facebook.com/likebepawsitive

twitter @bepawsitive

instagram.com/bepawsitivedogs

blog.bepawsitive.com

Check out this startup, it’s Fitbit for dogs.

Voices Heard Media Helps Brands (Including Startups) Engage Their Customers

These days, customers expect more from brands. Gone are the days when we make a purchase and walk away. Now, we often spend time and effort researching major purchases, and we care about the companies where we choose to spend our money. With the advent of social media, we have come to expect a high level of engagement with the companies we love.

Tony Runyan puts it this way: Two-way communication is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity.

But, that engagement can be expensive and difficult for companies to maintain on their own, which is where Voices Heard Media comes in.

Voices Heard Media provides a suite of plugins that increase customer engagement. Their products include apps that handle contests/sweepstakes, trivia/quizzes, social media streams, live Q&A sessions, video polls, and conversation around a brand. They work with big names like Disney, Food Network, and Fox Sports.

Will Overstreet founded Voices Heard Media in 2007. In his former gig as an Atlanta Falcon and sports broadcaster, Overstreet noticed that a simple conversation with a fan increased the likelihood that the fan would buy a jersey, listen to a show, or tell friends and family about Overstreet’s brand. He realized that there had to be a scalable way to take that kind of interaction into the digital world.

Tony Runyan joined the company in 2008 and made the initial big sales they needed. Now the VP of Product, Runyan develops new products, among other things.

So, what can the Voices Heard Media products do?

When I ran into them at the Southland Summit last month, I recognized the Food Network site on their display computer. The company wanted to increase engagement on their site, so they had Voices Heard Media create a Q&A session with the most recent The Next Food Network Star winner. The idea was simple enough: visitors sent in questions over one week, then Aarti Sequeria answered them. But the magic happened when, after the event closed, it still continued to drive traffic and interactions on the site.

All products from Voices Heard Media work on a company’s website, mobile site, and Facebook tab. The company sees this flexibility as absolutely necessary in today’s digital world.

They may work with some of the biggest names in the country, but they also handle smaller, local-focused companies like news outlets, political campaigns, and creative agencies.

Their prices are pretty startup-friendly, too, starting at only $50 for a basic package. And they can bring the same expertise they’ve built with big brands to your new company.

Check out Voices Heard Media and see how they can help your startup engage your audience.

Turn Your Blog Into A Book With Chicago Startup BlogIntoBook

Early next year we’ll be publishing our first book about startups everywhere else, chronicling our two year sneaker strapped startup road trip. We were fortunate enough to be commissioned by a publisher for this particular book, but it’s not typically that easy. For actual book writers and authors, there are great startups to help get self published, like Memphis startup ScrewPulp. But what about bloggers and journalists who may want to memorialize their writings in an actual book, well e-book?

Well BlogIntoBook, currently incubating at Chicago megahub, 1871, is helping bloggers turn their work into books.

BlogIntoBook is an easy-to-use platform that helps bloggers curate and publish their blogs into books. Then they help get the book distributed by Amazon, Apple’s iBookstore, and Google Play. The best part is it’s free, and BlogIntoBook issues a royalty to the author.

We got a chance to talk with the founder Zack Price, check out our interview below.

What is your startup called?

BlogIntoBook.com

What does your company do?

BlogIntoBook.com turns Bloggers into Authors by curating and publishing their blog as a professionally published ebook distributed to Amazon.com (Kindle), Apple iBookstore (iOS), Google Play (Android), and BN Nook. We provide this service completely free to the blogger and pay them a royalty every time their blog is downloaded.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds

Zack Price is a serial entrepreneur who has been starting businesses since age 11. He founded Price World Publishing in 1999 at age 19, and that company still stands strong today. Zack also founded College Auctions LLC in 2004 and successfully exited with a sale in 2007. Already a 14 year publishing veteran, Zack just started up BlogIntoBook.com which launched at Techweek on June 27th.

What problem do you solve?

Bloggers have very few ways to make money from their passion. Many refuse to host ads on their site, and while they would like to be book authors, they just don’t have the time or patience to self-publish. BlogIntoBook.com gives them a completely risk-free opportunity to earn passive income without any investment of time or money, while also gaining new fans from the e-bookstores who may have never found their blog through the web.

Why now?

A few years ago this would have been impossible. The Kindle was in it’s infancy and the iPad didn’t exist. Ebooks have been around forever (as PDF files) but reading a book on a computer screen is not pleasant. Here in 2013 we have a variety of Kindle devices, iPads, Nooks, and android devices … all perfect for reading on the go. Now that these devices are flooding the mainstream there is no better time to publish to them.

What are some of the milestones your startup has already reached?

We just launched at Techweek, but we have signed on BJ Mendelson (@bjmendelson) who has over 750,000 twitter followers. Once we publish his blog into an ebook he’ll be tweeting out the link and it should lead to a flood of sales.

What are your next milestones?

Publishing 100 blogs into books in the second half of the year, and 1,000 blogs by the end of 2014.

Where can people find out more?

BlogIntoBook.com

CoFoundersLab Goes Global!

Last week, while we were in the nation’s capital celebrating Independence Day, DC’s tech superhub, 1776 announced that they were going global on a number of fronts. 1776 founders Donna Harris and Evan Burfield were ecstatic to report that they are offering virtual memberships, helping other similar centers across the globe, and holding a global contest, bringing founders from across the globe to DC for a huge tournament-style finals. They also announced some pretty big strategic partnerships.

Well it turns out that 1776 wasn’t the only DC-area startup resource to expand outside the borders of the United States. Our friend, Shahab Kaviani announced last Wednesday that CoFoundersLab was opening up its virtual doors to entrepreneurs across the globe.

Kaviani had this to say in the monthly e-newsletter:

“After more than 13,000 entrepreneurs in the United States and Canada joined CoFoundersLab in a short year-and-a-half, we’re proud to announce that membership is now open to any entrepreneur across the globe who is looking for a co-founder, mentor, or advisor.

We have already held numerous Co-Founders Wanted matchmaking events internationally including in Tel Aviv, Mexico, and Chile, and look forward to bringing our very popular Meetups to more cities across the globe throughout 2013.

Allowing international membership was one of our most frequently requested features, and we’re excited to introduce the rest of the world to our community of entrepreneurs!”

We’ve had the chance to meet a bunch of founders that have used CoFoundersLab over other more exclusive platforms, like FounderDating. Last year we got to interview Devin Partlow of Baltimore startup Kithly who found his co-founder, Stacy Weng on CoFoundersLab.

CoFoundersLab was also instrumental in linking the founders of Los Angeles based HaterApp. A startup that’s gained notoriety since launching their platform that lets people say what they hate at SXSW earlier this year.

CoFoundersLab is a valuable online networking tool but they also take it offline with events across the country. People using the platform get more into the nitty gritty and actually get a better glimpse of the people who could possibly be your next cofounder.

Check out CoFoundersLab here.

First Round Capital Shares Their Expertise With First Round Review.

Josh Kopelman, the founder of Half.com and the founding partner at Philly and New York-based First Round Capital, has been a big supporter and encourager of startups. In addition to First Round Capital, he’s been very active in the Philadelphia and New York startup scenes.

Kopelman is active on the Philly Startup Leader’s list, and he’s also the founder of the Dorm Room fund. He’s particularly active in startup events that cater to young entrepreneurs, like nvigor’s student startup summit.

First Round Capital has participated in over 100 funding rounds from seed to series D. They also recently expanded their dorm room fund by $500,000 to spread that fund to Silicon Valley.

Kopelman and the team at First Round Capital have been quietly working over the past four months to take their vast knowledge to the Internet and share it with entrepreneurs and founders everywhere. Their newest product is called “First Round Review,” and it’s dubbed “Actionable Insights for Technology Entreprenerus”

“There is no shortage of media available on startups – every day there are dozens of stories talking about what startups are doing – the funding rounds, product launches and latest tech rumors and trends. Yet there are so few stories talking about how they are doing it, ” Kopelman said in an email to the Philly Startup Leaders listserv.

Startup tips and startup advice are very popular. Some of our best stories here at Nibletz fall into that category. Kopelman takes that notion a few steps further by offering insight that only an angel investor or venture capitalist with over 100 investments could offer.

They’ve already published 30+ articles in a wide range of topics.

Kopelman explained in this First Round Review post how they differ from other startup blogs:

“We know we’re a venture fund — not a publishing company. But many venture capitalists have published amazing content in their personal blogs before. The difference is that while other VCs have done a great job sharing their personal observations of the market and their personal thoughts on how to build and finance companies, we’re going to be primarily focused on sharing actionable knowledge from the best practitioners – those actually in the trenches building. So one day it might be a piece on how to interview product managers and the next featuring how to build high performance teams with the Chief Talent Officer of Netflix.”

The very first article they published was: “How Estsy Grew Their Number of Female Engineers by Almost 500% in One Year”

Check out First Round Review here.

Now sign up for the biggest startup conference in the US dedicated to startups “everywhere else”

Has Patch Met It’s Match In Mississippi Startup PushLocal?

Last month when we were at the Southland festival in Nashville, Tennessee, we met a lot of great startups from across the Southeast. One of those was PushLocal from Natchez, Mississippi.

You may be thinking, there’s startups in Natchez, Mississippi??

Well yes there are, and that’s what we’re here for, as the voice of startups everywhere else.

Zach Jex is a local Natchez lawyer, businessman, and mobile app developer. He’s developed a handful of apps, but one problem he became passionate about was how to get a community to embrace local news, rewards, and deals. To do that, he had to make sure that deals and information are targeting the right, local customers.

It’s easy for a big chain store to send out a mass market deal to customers in Anytown, USA, because there just happens to be one of their stores in that market, but with all of the noise coming from so many different deals sites and apps, how can the local merchant survive?

That was what drove Jex and the team behind PushLocal to create a new kind of community. It’s almost like Patch on a hyper local level with daily deals, loyalty, and rewards built in.

But PushLocal isn’t just about restaurants and retail. They want it to be the ultimate local destination where real business owners can reach real people. PushLocal is also about the community, which is why in addition to retail and restaurants, you’ll find local businesses, civic organizations, and local government as well. Is the Humane Society doing a special on spay and neutering? Check PushLocal. Is Bob’s hardware store selling snow shovel’s for a dollar? PushLocal would know. Is there a new local festival coming to town? Yup, PushLocal will have that, too.

PushLocal delivers all of those important messages without the noise of the unimportant ones. Check out our interview with PushLocal from last month’s Southland festival. Find out more about PushLocal here at pushlocal.com

This Nashville startup is taking loyalty and rewards to a whole other level.