Memphis Native Kimberly Bryant Named To 25 Most Influential African Americans In Technology List

Kimberly Bryant, Black Girls Code,BlackGirlsCode,startup,entrepreneur,Memphis

(photo: influencercon.com)

Business Insider published a great list this morning of the 25 most influential African American’s in technology.

We were very pleased to find that native Memphian Kimberly Bryant, the founder and creator of Black Girls Code, was ranked number 19 on such an important list.

Kimberly Bryant is an award winning social entrepreneur, technology junkie, an engineer by trade and a native Memphian. She relocated to Silicon Valley and now she’s launched a program that’s rolling out across the country. That program, Black Girls Code, promotes teaching coding and development to young African American Girls.

Bryant describes the mission for Black Girls Code on her website as:

“to introduce programming and technology to a new generation of coders, coders who will become builders of technological innovation and of their own futures.”

Like many others, Bryant believes there’s a “dearth” of African American women in science, technology, engineering and math professions. While some may say it’s because there’s a lack of interest, Bryant knows that it’s more like a lack of access and exposure to STEM topics. The Black Girls Code program is about making STEM topics accessible to African American girls and exposing them at a young age. It’s also done in such a way that it’s fun and positive.

Bryant has held programs through Black Girls Code in cities all over the country and some around the world. Black Girls Code has had events in San Francisco, Chicago, Oakland, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York and even in Johannesburg. Her most recent event was this past Saturday in Atlanta where they taught kids how to develop their own apps using Google’s App Inventor.

Black Girls Code in Memphis debuted back in January at an Open House, they also had booth space at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference. The weekend following that huge startup event Black Girls Code Memphis held their inaugural event which was met with great success.

Here is the complete list:

1. John Thompson, CEO Virtual Instruments
2. Shellye Archambeau, CEO MetricStream
3. David Drummond, SVP, Chief Legal Officer, Google
4. Ken Coleman, Chairman MIPS Technologies Inc
5. Kirk McDonald, President PubMatic
6. Lisa Lambert, VP and Managing Director of Software & Service, Intel Capital
7. Malik Ducard, Director of Content Partnerships, YouTube
8. Ime Archibong, Manager of Strategic Partnerships, Facebook
9. Ty Ahmad-Taylor, Head of Smart TV, Samsung
10. Erik Moore, Founder and Managing Partner, Base Ventures
11. Tristan Walker, Entrepreneur In Residence, Andreessen Horowitz
12. Kanyi Maqubela, Partner, Collaborative Fund
13. Charles Hudson, Partner at SoftTech VC
14. Michael Siebel, Justin.tv & SocialCam
15. Brian Weston, Analyst, Union Square Ventures
16. Angela Benton, Founder & CEO NewMe Accelerator
17. Tony Guada, CEO and co-founder Bitcasa
18. Jon Gosier, Founder & CEO Metalayer
19. Kimberly Bryant, Founder, BlackGirlsCode
20. Wayne Sutton, Founder & CEO, PitchTo
21. Majora Carter, Founder, Sustainable South Bronx, Startup Box
22. Don Charlton, CEO, Resumator
23. Hamet Watt, Co-Founder MoviePass
24. Stacy Spikes, Co-Founder, MoviePass
25. Will Lucas, Founder & CEO Creadio

Now see 3 things every new startup should do.

Dreamit Health Announces Inaugural Class

You may think that today is all about accelerators and healthcare, well we didn’t intend it to be that way but there’s major startup news on the accelerator and healthcare front.

DreamIt Ventures, the multi-city startup accelerator brand, announced late last year that they would be teaming up with Independence Blue Shield and Penn Medicine to hold their first medical focused startup cohort. They announced that cohort on Wednesday.

For the first DreamIt Health accelerator they put out an application call for startups seeking to develop tools for healthcare providers to speed up diagnoses and improve outcomes.

“At IBC, we believe that innovation is the key to bringing fresh ideas into health care, and are working to transform the Philadelphia region into a national magnet for health care innovation, investment, and employment,” said IBC CEO Daniel Hilferty in a company statement.

The first cohort includes big data startups, mobile startups, devices, and even fitness startups aimed at curbing childhood obesity. Each team will receive what MedCityNews called a “stipend” of $50,000 and of course access to the DreamIt, IBC and Penn Medicine entrepreneur and mentor network. The program will end with an investor demo day showing the progress these early stage teams made in the program.

The 10 companies selected are:

AirCare: A mobile startup to help hospitals prevent readmissions and improve patient outcomes using telenursing and patient-specific analytics.

Biomeme: A mobile molecular diagnostics device to help point-of-care clinicians and epidemiologists diagnose and track infectious diseases in realtime with smartphones.

Fitly: The company wants tohelp health plans deal with the childhood obesity epidemic by engaging and motivating at-risk families with gaming and convenient delivery of healthcare.

Grand Round Table: Its application helps clinicians rapidly diagnose complex cases by matching the patient’s electronic record against millions of other cases drawn from around the world.

Medlio: The mobile app aims to help physicians get paid faster and get rid of paper-based registering forms with a virtual health insurance ID card to sync the right information among patients, providers and payers at the point-of-care.

OnShift: Helping hospitals improve patient outcomes through instant communications between clinicians caring for the same patient is the goal of this healthcare communications system. It also wants to remove obstacles to effective care delivery and care transitions.

Osmosis: The learning management system helps medical institutions develop clinicians who better retain and apply knowledge through a Web and mobile platform that uses cutting-edge cognitive techniques.

MemberRx: A solution intended to improve the way pharmaceutical costs are controlled by enabling selection of the best generic or on-formulary branded drug for a specific patient through an electronic medical record system.

SpeSo Health: The online analytics platform identifies and accesses medical expertise in rare and complex diseases.

Stat: The Web and mobile app helps providers and payers make patient transport more efficient and lower costs by matching and dispatching idle transportation resources.

The application deadline for Memphis’ highly successful ZeroTo510 medical device accelerator is tomorrow.

DC Startup SlyReply Makes Sign Up Sheets As Easy As They Should Be

Remember the good ole days? They weren’t so long ago,but you could put a sign up sheet on your dorm room door, classroom door, office refrigerator, home refrigerator etc. You’d write what the sign up sheet was for, draw a bunch of lines and voila, done and done.

Well DC entrepreneur Tom Hessen realized how complicated people were making signups, and decided to do something about it.

With his DC startup, SlyReply, the sign up sheet is again just as easy as it was when you created it on the back of a piece of scrap paper.

Set up a sign up sheet, dictate how many people can sign up, and when it’s full it’s done. Sign up for a class, sign up for tutoring, sign up for burgers and beers, whatever you need a sign up sheet for SlyReply makes it as easy as a couple clickity clicks.

We got a chance to interview Hessen. Check out the interview below.

What is your startup, what does it do?

Our startup is SlyReply.com, an online web application that allows users to create sign up sheets for any scenario or occasion and then share with a group. Sign up sheets can be shared by email, posted to Facebook, or linked to from any website, blog, or social media site. People view the sign up sheet and then sign up for one or more items such as a date, time, or an item the author created (ex. hamburgers for the upcoming tailgate). When an item reaches its maximum number of sign ups as defined by the author, the item can no longer be signed up for.

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds

Tom Hessen founded SlyReply and now leads the company as CEO. Tom Hessen launched SlyReply.com while enrolled as a full time MBA student at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. Tom previously developed 2 other web applications prior to SlyReply that provided many lessons learned.

Tom has worked at 2 venture backed software companies, interned with a VC firm, and worked at Accenture doing IT implementations.

Where are you based?

Washington D.C.

What is the startup culture like where you are based?

Washington D.C. has a vibrant start up culture that has really grown in the past few years. Historically the Federal Government and government contractors have dominated this town but there is now a huge tech presence here. Large tech companies like AOL have lead the way but now there is a tremendous amount of start up activity. There are people working with tech companies and entrepreneurs at every stage and a growing number of seed and angel investors to go along with the VC firms.

What problem does your startup solve?

If you need to meet with 10 people individually, how would you get them scheduled into 10 different meeting times? A teacher needing to meet with parents for parent/teacher conferences is a perfect real world example of this scenario. Or how would you get your volunteer team to sign up for various tasks that need to be completed for an upcoming event?

Historically the paper sign up sheet has handled this job. However the paper sign up sheet rarely applies today in our digitally connected world. Instead email, spreadsheets, Google Docs, and other tools have been shoehorned into solving the problem of the digital sign up sheet. These tools are inefficient, cumbersome, and not designed for this problem. SlyReply directly tackles the problem of group sign ups in our online world.

What has been surprising is just how many situations need a sign up sheet. Here are a few of our favorite sign up sheets that have been created.

Schedule staff member interviews for President Obama’s reelection campaign

Schedule employees that want to sign up for Ann Inc.’s (parent company of Ann Taylor and The Loft) corporate training

Coordinate the volunteer shifts of riding the bicycle powered generator at the Occupy Wall Street camp in New York City

Schedule employees to receive free massages.

Schedule college students to conduct new food testing at Wendy’s restaurants

What is one challenge that you’ve overcome in the startup process?

Tom developed the initial MVP with just enough development skills to complete the project. After SlyReply started to grow despite not being easy to use or much to look at Tom realized the app needed to be designed and developed by professionals. Finding talented people that fit his bootstrapped budget was very difficult. Weeding through the countless number of designers and developers took a lot of time. Tom finally found a tremendous design talent in Jonathan Patterson and development team in Bolster Labs. This team designed and developed the current version of SlyReply.com, which is fun, inviting, and capable of scaling to address the large need.

What are some of the milestones your startup has achieved?

Some of the milestones that we have achieved include:

Successfully vetted concept and business model with MVP

Rebuilt app from the ground up with modern design and software platform

Implemented premium (paid) accounts

Had paying customers in the first month premium accounts were offered

All 5,000 users have learned about SlyReply via word of mouth

What are your next milestones?

The next milestones are all growth related. We are working to accelerate the growth of new user registrations and sign up sheets that are created. Another milestone includes being featured in 2-3 tech publications!

Who are your mentors and role models?

One role model that has had an impact on the company is Edwin Miller, CEO of 9Lenses. Tom worked for Edwin while he was the CEO of Everest Software. Edwin has been a successful CEO of both public and private tech companies and has demonstrated what it takes to build a great team that wants to excel every day.

What are some of the advantages/disadvantages growing your startup outside of Silicon Valley?

One disadvantage of growing a startup outside of Silicon Valley is that raising money is more challenging and conservative. We haven’t tried raising money yet but know the environment is more difficult. One advantage is that it is easier to stand out because there aren’t thousands of startups competing for money, talent, press, etc.

What’s next for your startup?

We are continuing to execute and improve our software to get it in the hands of more people. Each person that creates a sign up sheet shares it with a group of people, which then become aware of SlyReply. We are improving the user experience and continuing to drive awareness through various channels.

Where can people find out more, and what is your Twitter username?

People can learn more at www.slyreply.com or follow us on twitter @SlyReplyApp

Now’s your chance to get your startup on Shark Tank, click here.

Nashville’s MedSolutions Innovation Challenge Apps Close Next Week

MedSolutions is partnering with Nashville’s tech accelerator Jumpstart Foundry to offer one startup that has an “innovative idea to help consumers improve healthcare decisions”, the opportunity to be a full fledged member of the summer 2013 cohort.

They are taking applications from healthcare focused startups now through April 12th.

“When you combine MedSolutions’ leadership in medical cost management and Jumpstart Foundry’s program to quickly accelerate innovation, all housed in Nashville’s booming healthcare community, the opportunity for entrepreneurs who participate in the Innovation Challenge just doesn’t get much better,” said David Ledgerwood, COO of Jumpstart Foundry.

Through this program, MedSolutions will partner with selected entrepreneurs to develop and introduce new products and services that help consumers make better decisions around their utilization of the healthcare system. These innovations will allow patients to capture maximum savings and improve the overall quality of care they receive.

“Our company places a high value on entrepreneurship, and we’re always looking for new, problem- solving innovations, so this is a natural partnership for us,” said Gino Tenace, chief strategy officer for MedSolutions.

The startup selected through the Innovation Challenge will go through the same rigorous 14 week program that the other applicants selected for Jumpstart Foundry participate in. They will also get the opportunity to present to over 400 investors at Jumpstart Foundry’s investor/demo day in August.

To get rolling on that application click here

More startup news from the midsouth can be found at siliconmidsouth.com

Out of 1700 Applications Here Are The 11 Startups In The Spring NY Techstars Session

Eugene Chung took to the official Techstars blog to announce that this spring’s session at NY Techstars was by far the biggest applicant pool they had seen. Techstars NY received over 1700 applications from 420 cities, 66 countries.

“We had applicants from countries as diverse as Nepal and Tanzania. More than ever, our applicant pool reflects the global reach of TechStars and the infusion of technology in the cultural zeitgeist of societies around the world. The movie The Social Network has become the Wall Street of our generation. This is true not just for America but for the world at large. Some of the brightest minds of our era are choosing to become entrepreneurs.” Chung said on the Techstars blog.

The 1700 applications came from a wide range of technology verticals. This year they even have a startup in the class called FaithStreet, in the religious space. “For the first time ever, we have a company tackling the religion space, an underserved yet massive market with incredible opportunities for disruption.” Chung said.

FaithStreet helps users find churches in their neighborhood. Their website boasts 11,359 churches in 3473 cities across America, and seems to be growing already.

The Techstars New York spring 2013 session runs through June 28th when they will hold investor day.

Here are the 11 startups selected this year:

Ad Yapper – “Talk back to any ad in the world, influence brands, and make a real difference.”
Dash Labs – “America’s story is written on the road. Connect to Dash and chronicle your journey.
FaithStreet – “Find a church near you.”
Jukely – “Concert concierge. The shows you’ve been missing, tailored and delivered.”
Klooff – “iPhone app for pet lovers.”
Placemeter – “Connecting smart customers with smart businesses. One place at a time.”
Plated – Ingredients in pre-measured portions delivered to you for quick, home-cooked meals.
Sketchfab – “Publish and embed interactive 3D models.”
TriggerMail – “Personalized retention emails for Ecommerce.”
Validation Board – “Test your startup idea without wasting time or money.”
weeSpring – “Find essential baby products with advice from your friends.”

Check out these startup accelerator stories from “everywhere else”.

Memphis’ Biggest Entrepreneurial Success Story Turns 40

FedEx,Fred Smith,Entrepreneur,Memphis,Memphis startup

(photo: FedEx Facebook)

In 1970 Frederick Wallace Smith embarked on a journey that would change the way that people do business. Smith purchased controlling interest in an aircraft maintenance company called Ark Aviation Sales. In 1971 he started trading used jets and on June 18, 1971 he founded Federal Express. He used a $4 million dollar inheritance (about $25 million today) and raised $91 million dollars in venture capital.

Along the way Smith was criticized because many though his idea about merging ground transportation and aviation to deliver packages overnight was well, crazy. Of course many present day entrepreneurs have been in the same boat.

In 1973 (40 years ago), he began offering overnight delivery services in 25 cities using a fleet of 14 Falcon 20 (DA-20) jets. The foundation for the way FedEx operates today began in 1973 in a model similar to bank clearinghouses. Packages would be brought to Memphis Tennessee and then re-routed out to their destination.

Today, FedEx Express serves 220 countries and territories around the world, and their main hub is still in Memphis Tennessee.

At age 69 Smith is still alive and well and is still at the helm of FedEx which is innovating in several other logistical spaces, while dealing with the disruption in even overnight delivery caused by new ways of communicating (the internet). Sensor products, cloud based services and even taking over the merged FedEx Kinko’s which are now just FedEx Office stores, are helping FedEx continue to deliver on the bottom line.

In his spare time what does Smith do? He serves on boards, like Startup America. Smith is a great friend to entrepreneurs and startup ecosystems at home and across the country.

FedEx is just beginning to celebrate getting “over the hill” and of course they’re doing it with jet power.

Happy Birthday.

Jonesin for more high growth tech news from the South, Click here.

Speek Now Available For Windows Phone

Speek,Windows Phone, DC Startup,startup news

Speek co-founder Danny Boice has lot’s of tattoos, his co-founder John Bracken has just one (photo: NMI 2013)

While I don’t know many Windows Phone users just yet, for those that I know, conference calling just got easier. Our good friends at Washington DC conference calling startup Speek just announced the availability of their Windows Phone 8 app, and no one had to get a tattoo on their ass in the process.

Speek was founded by John Bracken, one of the co-founders of e-vite, and Danny Boice, a startup renaissance man, who coerced Bracken into getting a Speek monkey tattooed on his butt at SXSW, during a startup pitch contest.

Aside from the fact that the founding team is based in DC and cool as shit, Speek is by far the absolute easiest way to initiate a conference call. You just go to the Speek user’s id like mine for instance, speek.com/kyle and hit the call button. Then the magic happens and it’s like a party line. As many people as you like can join the call, and the facilitator (user) can control just about everything from their iPhone, and now Windows phone app.

So what is so paramountly epic about this, well for starters you don’t need to remember some crazy dial in number and then remember some 11 digit pin. Do you know how hard it is to get back into a dropped conference call while driving 70mph down 95? Well with Speek, you just mosey on back to the interwebs, re-hit that button and your back in, or just get back in through the mobile app.

They also don’t make you wait through a bunch of operator instructions or Musak, but if you ask nicely they may put some Korn or OAR on hold for you.

Seriously, it’s that easy and everyone needs to use Speek, Windows Phone users can go here now. iPhone users look in the iTunes app store, and Android users are up next.

Don’t look now there’s a Speek Monkey on your Ass.

Houston Startup: Mrked Buy A Cell Phone Case, Teach A Girl To Read

I technically got out of the cell phone accessories writing business last year when we sold Thedroidguy, however in Austin at SXSW we met Akil Momin the founder of Mrked.

Mrked offers 5 stylish and protective collections of iPhone cases; Crayon Box, Double Dutch, Honor Roll, Classroom and Jungle Gym. Their protective cases have an element of style that you don’t find in run of the mill cases.

What makes Mrked worthy of the pages at nibletz.com the voice of startups everywhere else, is the social spin they put on their company.

The young Houston based startup set out when they built their accessory company to do something social with it. That’s why they partnered with Room To Read an organization that provides education to girls in Asian and African countries.

“We believe in investing in the future, this is why we are supporting the works of Room to Read to help provide access to quality education to girls in Asian and African countries. Education empowers and enlightens people of all genders, and this brings about positive changes in many areas. Statistics show that educated parents raise educated children and that mothers are especially influential in this process. Educated women are able to live productive and enjoyable lives and raise families that do the same. This means that providing girls with proper education is the single most vital tool in eradicating inequality and poverty in the short and long term.” Momin says on the company’s website.

All three founders of Mrked have parents that migrated from South Asia to provide their sons with a better education. Mrked is their way of giving back.

You can check out the cases at Mrked here.

Check out these other 60 startup stories from SXSW 2013

A Tribute To My Personal Favorite New York CEO, Dan Porter, Wire Style

Dan Porter, the CEO of OMGPOP became Zynga’s New York chief when the popular social games company acquired the New York based company that created “Draw Something”.

Sure one of the main reasons I like Dan Porter so much is that he named every conference and meeting space in OMGPOP’s headquarters after characters from the hit HBO drama “The Wire”. Being from South Baltimore and having extrad a few times during the run of “The Wire” I naturally loved the idea of meeting rooms named after such influential characters as Avon Barksdale, Marlo Stansfield and Proposition Joe.

What came apparent though, as Zynga set sail with OMGPOP on board was that Porter was like the Stansfield character. Porter told it like it was, probably causing a major level of discomfort for Zynga CEO Mark Pincus.

Porter drew fire when Quartz, a business news website quoted him as saying that Zynga copies other publishers games.

Porter is leaving his post as vice president and general manager of Zynga’s New York operations. It’s unclear whether or not he is staying with the company. He is leaving his post as Draw Something 2 is preparing for release.

The original Draw Something caught on like wild fire. The game, which allows two players to play in a head to head win lose or draw style competition, was the game of the month right up until the sale to Zynga. It’s popularity faded as hits like SongPop started picking up steam.

The exact amount that Zynga paid for OMGPOP was never reported. What was reported, was the fact that Zynga had to write down $95 million dollars on the OMGPOP deal.

Even with all that in mind, Porter is credited with helping to move Zynga from the Facebook dependent social gaming space to the mobile screen. Reports surfaced on Monday morning that Zynga was about to unveil online gambling games in the UK as well.

While Zynga’s focus isn’t clear to anyone at the moment, we are confident that Porter’s is. So Dan closes your eyes, and breathe easy, your next big thing is right around the corner.

See why Dan Porter earned that bump like a mother fucker, here.

Dress Your Personal Web Presence To Impress With Detroit Startup Workfolio

There are thousands of “do it yourself” (DIY) solutions to designing your own web page. There are blogging platforms, free overnight do it yourself web tools, and many more. When it comes down to it though, most of them are about saving time and sacrificing design.

Well a Detroit startup called Webfolio is looking to change that by helping users create a “stunning personal website in minutes”.

The startup, founded by Charles Pooley and Aaron Smyth, comes with everything people need to create their own beautiful website in a very short amount of time. Simple editing, magazine quality blogging, file and media hosting, promotional tools, traffic analytics and personal domain and email services make Workfolio a one stop shop for whatever your personal web needs are.

We got a chance to interview the team behind Workfolio. Check out the interview below.

What is Workfolio?

Workfolio is a web application that allows anyone to create a beautiful, distinctive website to highlight their personal brand.

In layman’s terms, how does it work (In other words how would you explain it to your grandmother)?

We make it easy for anyone to create a website, removing many of the technical and content-writing hurdles that complicate the process for the average person. We help users register their own domains, choose a beautiful website theme, and create high-quality content so they can feel great about their website and get back to business.

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

Charles Pooley is the CEO and visionary force behind Workfolio. He comes to Workfolio having previously run a successful marketing and design agency, and having served as a technology executive at a publicly-traded company.

Aaron Smyth is Workfolio’s technology lead. He previously worked as a developer for CafeMom and FoxNews.com, and was the second employee at a successful New York startup company. In addition to his product development experience, Aaron is an instructor in front-end web development at General Assembly in New York.

Where are you based?

Workfolio operates from Detroit and New York City.

What’s the startup scene/culture like where you’re based?

Detroit and New York have very different startup cultures. Because Detroit’s tech scene is still small, the atmosphere is very collaborative, and there is a greater opportunity for individual companies to be recognized within the community.

We chose to open an ofﬁce in New York in order to take advantage of the tremendous network of technology entrepreneurs, investors, and media that exists here.

How did you come up with the idea for Workfolio?

About a year ago I was invited to do a number of speaking engagements, and I decided I needed my own website to help build my personal brand. I tried to use several of the popular website builders but found them to be complicated and frustrating. I realized that if I was having such a problem, being a designer and a fairly technical person, then this process must be close to impossible for less tech-savvy people. We ran a survey and found that 80% of respondents wanted their own website, but only 7% of them actually had one. And when asked why, the two most popular reasons were exactly what I encountered — people thought it was too difﬁcult to set up their own website, and they had no idea what content to add to the website once they set it up. I took these results to my partners, and Workfolio was created shortly thereafter.

How did you come up with the name?

We struggled for a long time to come up with a ﬁtting name for our product. We eventually landed on Workfolio because it concisely conveys the essential function of the product (and we also think it’s catchy).

What problem does Workfolio solve?

If you’ve ever tried to set up your own website, you probably remember feeling frustrated trying to get your website hosting, domain, and code to work together. If you somehow managed to get those to cooperate, you then had to create or buy a design theme, and let’s face it — most of us are not good designers. Then you’re left with another big question: what content goes on my website? Most people get stuck just after purchasing their domain — the learning curve is just so steep. We eliminate the technology and design hurdles for you, allowing you to focus on the important part — creating content to let the world know what you’re all about.

What’s your secret sauce?

We believe design and user experience are the keys to the success of every application. If we can ﬁnd a way to get users to share their content and feel good about the sites they create, they will be loyal customers for life.

Are you bootstrapped or funded?

Workfolio is funded by angel investors.

What are some milestones you’ve achieved?

We’re still in the early stages of the business, so most of our milestones have been related to product development. We have hit every product development milestone we have set so far.

What’s your next milestone?

Since our soft launch, our milestones have shifted from product development to customer acquisition.

Who are some of your mentors and business role models?

Randy Whitaker, the Executive Vice President of Operations for Victoria’s Secret, Dr. David DiChiera, the founder of the Detroit Opera, and Dave Hill, former President of General Motors Trading, stand out as the three people who have been most inﬂuential in helping me develop as an executive. I also admire a number of thought leaders in business, Tom Peters for example, and designers such as Jonathan Ive at Apple.

What’s next for Workfolio?

We have several new product enhancements in the works to provide more customization options for subscribers.

Where can people ﬁnd out more?

The best place to learn about us is on our website: workfolio.com. Follow us on Twitter, as well: @WorkfolioHQ

We’ve got more great startups from Detroit here.

Do you have your startup village booth for everywhereelse.co yet?

Madison Startup PieCharter Is Getting Startups Off The Ground

Madison Wisconsin startup PieCharter is the latest startup tackling the issue of getting entrepreneurs connected to the resources that they need in order to bring an idea from the idea stage to a startup.

PieCharter “…connects budding entrepreneurs with freelance designers in order to create startups. It eliminates the single biggest barrier any entrepreneur faces when starting a new business, money. The site allows entrepreneurs with an idea to post and create a new project then hire contractors to do work that they themselves cannot do by offering the contractors equity in the new project.” John Scheflow, co-founder of PieCharter told nibletz.com in an interview.

Early stage startups often resort to giving up equity to designers, developers and other personnel that come on board in the earliest stages because they can’t afford to pay them. This process gets really sloppy by the time it comes to actually do a cap table and issue stock certificates. Time and time again, founders, or employees who think they are founders, have some kind of misunderstanding when distributing equity.

Scheflow said “…PieCharter creates a platform to hold people accountable for their promises of equity, and also allows freelancers the opportunity to take on projects to build a portfolio and work with companies they believe in.” Thus eliminating the equity free for all that sometimes happens when splitting up the pie.

Scheflow along with his co-founder Richard Magness are law students at the University of Wisconsin Law School. Magness hails from Eureka Springs Arkansas, however before law school in Wisconsin he spent 7 years in Japan working as a free lance web designer. He co-founded flutterscape.com and is also the art director at Diveboard.com. Scheflow majored in journalism at the University of Miami before moving to sunny Wisconsin and is originally from Elgin IL.

While there are plenty of startups out there that are trying to solve the work for equity issue, PieCharter has a few elements that make up their secret sauce. First off, with PieCharter he equity “pie” is visualized and easier to understand. Also both Schefulow and Magness agree that their legal experience and education fits into their secret sauce as well.

“We were aware of some of the legal issues like securities law that our website raises, which has helped us plan around these issues from the beginning. Other than that it’s caffeine and the feeling that working on the site is better than doing any of the other work we have to do.” Scheflow added.

To date the duo has been accepted into the University of Wisconsin Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic. They’ve also built out two prototypes. Their next milestone is an alpha launch and eventually fundraising.

While they don’t have formal mentors both Magness and Scheflow are getting a lot of experience and help in school. They also look up to the Beastie Boys.

“…we’re definitely huge fans of the Beastie Boys. We like people that do what they want to do, and that’s what we’re trying to do with PieCharter. We’re doing what we want to do, and hopefully PieCharter will help people start the projects they want to start.”

PieCharter hopes to move to a closed beta soon. You can find out more at piecharter.com and by following them on Twitter @piecharter.

Now check out 4 Startup Co-Founders You Don’t Want.

Move Over Gary Vee Splitbin Says They’re The “Wolverine” Of Wine Startups [interview]

According to the founders of New York startup Split Bin, Chris “Hannibal” Fava and Todd “Niko” McCarthy, they’ve re-invented the wine startup.

“Splitbin is the Wolverine of wine sale sites…in beast mode…on steroids…to the extreme. While other wine sites just sell assorted high price booze, we offer high quality, low cost wine in a way everyone can understand. Oh yea, we’re also the first wine site in the world to give you the choice to split the cost and buy with friends.” Fava told nibletz.com in an interview.

Essentially Splitbin wants to become the easiest way to buy win and have it delivered, whether you’re drinking alone or having an open house party.

One things for sure, judging by our interview with them, Splitbin has the fire to succeed (and probably attract Gary Vee, who may be just a tad crazier than them)

Check out the interview below.

In layman’s terms, how does it work? (In other words how would you explain it to your grandmother)

If you like wine, but get confused by the culture, and intimidated by high prices, then Splitbin is your horse. We offer affordable wine deals, delivered quickly, with no minimum order requirements. Since we are not, in principle, a “wine club”, we don’t require our Splitbuds to adhere to a buying program. Just log in, check out our new juice, and pick what you like, when you like.

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

Our founder, Chris “Hannibal” Fava, an avid big game hunter, is always after the next animal ready to be taken down. After filling his study with boar and bear busts, he targeted the bloated wine industry and decided to start filling his wine cellar.

Todd “Niko” McCarthy, Splitbin’s CMO and resident chef/DJ, is into wine but also enjoy a nice bullfight on acid. Amateur Formula 1 racetracks in Eastern European capitals are where he finds his happy place. After reading Tim Ferriss’ “4 Hour Work Week” he dedicated himself to digital marketing…and to discovering the elusive 3 hour work week.

Part of our Shadow Ops team, Tom “Bootsy” Collins, is our enigmatic guiding light, a guru of sorts. When upright, you’ll usually find him ensconced in a Burmese jungle searching for rare snake wine, or fending off ivory poachers in Zimbabwe. Currently, his mission is to show wine producers of the world to a new audience, helping the otherwise shunned, marginalized, overlooked drinkers of the world discover great juice at exceptional value.

Where are you based?

Brooklyn, NY (aka Bucktown, USA)

What’s the startup scene/culture like where you’re based?

Ready to be crushed.

How did you come up with the idea for Splitbin?

We’ve lived in group houses and have gone/held our share of group dinners where one person gets stuck with the tab simply by being a good host. We could always split tabs at bars and restaurants, so why the hell couldn’t you do it online? We all liked to cook, eat, and drink together, but we wanted a way to make it easier to get together without one person having to buy everything. Living and working in cities also makes it harder to get to stores and learn about new wine, let alone carrying the damn stuff.

How did you come up with the name?

Have you ever seen the movie Face/Off? It’s like that. Except you Split the Bin.

What problem does Splitbin solve?

Global Warming and making sure mark-ass tricks pay for what they drink in groups.

What’s your secret sauce?

Oooohhhh, you’re dirty…we like that, but we’ll keep the answer clean. You can eat it with anything, but our secret sauce would be a beurre blanc with capers and tarragon. It’s almost like a hybrid Bearnaise and absolutely rocks with roasted salt potatoes or a nice fatty salmon. It’s actually something that is fun to mess around with at home, it just involves a bit of patience, and a shit ton of butter.

Are you bootstrapped or funded?

We like to consider ourselves strapped and sometimes we wear boots. But yeah, we haven’t taken any angel or VC clams yet.

What are some milestones you’ve achieved?

Doing the Seven Summits carrying a full case of Cabernet (without extra oxygen) was Bootsy’s major achievement of fall 2012. Getting our business up and running was a minor miracle…doing this interview with the fine folks at Nibletz sure counts as one

What’s your next milestone?

Getting every man, woman and child (over 21) hooked on wine.

What’s one challenge you’ve overcome in the startup process?

Figuring out you can’t easily build a website just because you know how to share google docs or have a great smile. Also, figuring out which growth driver is most efficient in our user acquisition strategy.

Who are some of your mentors and business role models?

Our role models are Dave Chappelle (post Africa), the dude that sold his picture app to facebook, Eric Ries and Zack Morris.

Our mentors include some highly experienced pros in the NYC advertising world (Woods Witt Dealy & Sons) as well as Neil Jacobs, who has provided invaluable startup legal counsel as we’ve gotten going.

What’s next for Splitbin?

First priority is bailing our CTO out of jail in Cancun then bussing him back to BK to complete our mobile app (Mexico is fun, but the dude needs to get cracking). It’s still in development, but this app is going to change the world. We are a national company, but have been pretty Beast Coast dominant since launching. We want to really focus on getting the word on Splitbin out to all our homies in the south, midwest and the Best Coast, letting them know that we’ve got the best wine deals going

Where can people find out more!

Check us out on Facebook/splitbin – we post deals, free mixtapes, and all sorts of tomfoolery to help you get through the day

You can find us tweeting trivia questions for wine deal discounts @splitbin or engaging in topical political discussions like #whatismetrobutt?

Ready for a glass of wine? Check out splitbin.com

Zack Morris may have been the inspiration for this startup too!

Austin Startup Burpy Is The Latest In The Grocery Delivery Phenomena [video][sxsw]

We got a chance to catch up with Aseem Ali, one of the cofounders of Austin startup Burpy.

The Burpy platform allows you to order groceries, beverages, snacks/candy, beer, health and beauty needs, cigarettes, household essentials and more. Essentially, anything that can be purchased at WalMart can be delivered via Burpy.

“Our vision was inspired in the kitchen of a friend’s house on August 30, 2012. We were all gathered for a surprise birthday party and were busy baking a cake for the special occasion. Once we pulled the freshly baked cake out from the oven, we realized we didn’t have any candles! With decorations left to arrange and more guests arriving every second, there was no time for anyone to run out and get candles. This left us with a bit of a problem.

That is when the idea for Burpy came to life.

We created Burpy with the goal of uniting traditional “brick & mortar” stores with a 1-hour delivery platform to make shopping a breeze. Burpy’s unique service provides instant delivery of thousands of products whenever and wherever you want! Simply choose products from our easy to use website or mobile app, and we’ll deliver them to your location in a “burp.” If you use it in your home and it fits in a grocery bag, chances are we have it. Plus, our inventory is constantly growing so we’re always looking out for you.” their website says.

At the moment they are in a public beta in their home city of Austin Texas but Ali tells us in the interview video below that they plan on expanding to other big metro areas in Texas as quickly as possible.

This may be the way to go in terms of order and deliver startups. A few weeks back Zaarly shuddered their original “reverse Craigslist idea”, paving the way for Burpy and other similar services to succeed.

Now of course we asked Ali why the name “Burpy” and he explains the answer in the video. All of the founders are students at UT Austin.

You can check out Burpy here at burpy.com

Here are over 65 startup stories from SXSW 2013.

Non Tech Co-Founders Check Out TechSpeak For Entrepreneurs

TechSpeak For Entrepreneurs,Nelly Yusupova, Fred Wilson, startup tips,startup news

Nelly Yusupova founder of TechSpeak For Entrepreneurs (photo: tech.co)

Although he hasn’t led a deal this year, the venture capitalist of all New York venture capitalists, Fred Wilson, is still sharing great advice on his “avc” blog. If you’re not a regular reader of avc.com you need to be.

Last week he wrote about his friend Nelly Yusupova, the CTO at Webgrrls International and the founder and creator of TechSpeak For Entrepreneurs.

As you might imagine, TechSpeak For Entrepreneurs, is a two day bootcamp that teaches us non-technical founders the ins and outs of the software design and build process, and how it works.

Wilson says “…that entrepreneurs who are not deeply technical spend too much money, time, and effort trying to get their ideas turned into software products. Many hire the wrong people, get a product that doesn’t meet what they wanted, and worse of all, many get ripped off in the process. ” Wilson is not a “design” or “developer” snob and realizes that all great startups don’t need a technical founder, but they need to be technically savvy.

TechSpeak for Entrepreneurs also helps non-technical founders learn the lingo and the language on the design and development side. To some, speaking tech is like a foreign language, taking the time out of your busy schedule to attend a TechSpeak for Entrepreneurs could give you the leg up.

There are three TechSpeak For Entrepreneurs’ bootcamps coming up in Phoenix, Silicon Valley and New York.

Phoenix, AZ Apr 05-06

Silicon Valley, CA Apr 13-14

New York City, NY May 04-05

“If you are a non technical entrepreneur, I strongly advise you to get technical. And TechSpeak for Entrepreneurs is a good way to start on that journey.” Wilson suggests.

Wilson is a VC and Principal at Union Square Ventures in New York. Click here to check out avc.com his personal blog.

Learn more, check out these Startup Tips at nibletz.com