Dogfish Accelerator For Film Makers Announced At Sundance

With all this talk lately about “catfish”, it’s only appropriate that we report on Dogfish, a new accelerator launching in New York for film makers. For starters we love the idea of attaching the accelerator model to independent film.

We’ve seen the success of a cohort based accelerator in the medical device field with ZeroTo510. One of the biggest reasons that the program was so successful was that Seed Hatchery,brought the tech-startup based acceleration model to a bunch of scientists and doctors. To most folks, scientists and doctors speak an entirely different language. That makes it almost impossible for a great medical device idea to get traction and interest among traditional investors. VC’s and angels prefer to invest in things that they either understand or can learn to understand.

The same holds true about creatives. Film makers are often die hard creatives and extremely passionate about their work. Most investors would love to invest in a movie, or independent film but there is a disconnect between Hollywood and Wall Street. That’s why New York based Dogfish Pictures has launched the new accelerator.

Creative, often left brained, geniuses will get the chance to cowork with other like minded individuals and at the same time they’ll have access to mentors, investors and industry contact that they wouldn’t already have access to.

The program is founded by James Belfer and Michelle Soffen of Dogfish Pictures. Belfer is hoping to turn film makers into successful entrepreneurs.

“At the end of the day, James and I are doing this because we love independent film and want to be a part of the solution to the many problems our industry faces,” added Soffen. “While there are no quick fixes we do know that the only way to address these hurdles is as a community.”

Belfer actually worked at the Techstars program last year, which is one of the reasons they decided to do this program at Dogfish and take the best parts of the tech startup cohort based accelerator.

Applying best practices from the tech industry, Dogfish Accelerator offers a combination of funding, business training, coaching and access to a large network of resources and vendor perks.

Each Dogfish Accelerator Program participant gets US $18,000 as a team in seed funding along with free office space, production resources from Dogfish’s partners, and most importantly, access to industry mentors and investor groups who provide coaching for business strategy and team management.

The accelerator program will be funded by the Dogfish Pictures Film Fund II. To be launched later this year, this new fund will provide equity financing to independent filmmakers who have demonstrated their ability to make creative films while using sound business practices. In addition, a portion of the Fund will be made available to provide follow-on equity financing to Dogfish Accelerator teams that successfully complete the program.

Mentorship is a vital aspect of the Dogfish Accelerator program, which promotes openness and community building.

The company connects production teams with experts from all parts of the film industry, including finance, production, distribution, marketing and sales. In addition, Dogfish Accelerator is bringing in innovative thinkers from outside of the film industry, such as technology and branding experts, to stimulate new approaches.

The Dogfish accelerator program will take place in the summer of 2013 in New York City. Applications are being accepted now.

They already have a list of who’s who in New York and the independent film scene that’s committed to participating in the program.

Belfer got to present the program at the Innovator’s Brunch as part of the Sundance Film Festival today.

You can find out more about Dogfish here.

You can find out more about the Global Accelerator Network and hundreds of startups and entrepreneurs at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference.

What’s Not To Love About BagServant, A Startup About Handbags?

Every woman is always looking for the most stylish and affordable handbag. Shopping for handbags can be a real pain. I know when I go into a mall with a Coach Store, Dooney store and department store, I’m at a loss because I can never make the right decision. Lord knows I can’t afford them all.

Wimbledon startup BagServant is here to help women everywhere find the latest greatest bags. Not only are they the only search engine devoted to handbags from just about every designer but they also have virtual concierge services. Their concierge can help you figure out just want you want, and of course when you want more, you just go back to BagServant.

Lenka Gourdie is the woman behind BagServant. She has a background in consumer marketing and worked for one of London’s fashion manufacturing houses as well. She and her staff have an impeccable eye for the latest trends, styles and of course fashion.

Some of the best fashions in the world come out of the UK and that holds true at BagServant as well. We got a chance to talk with Gourdie about her startup and London’s exciting startup scene. Check out the interview below.

Lupe Fiasco Performance Ends Early At StartupRockOn Inaugural Party

The folks at StartupRockOn have done some phenomenal things since three startups, HyperVocal, EventFarm and Fighter Interactive formed the collaborative last year. They formed the company to promote startup and entrepreneurship alongside high profile events. We attended Startup RockOn parties at the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention. Although invited, we were unfortunately unable to attend last nights inaugural bash which included a pitch contest and a performance by controversial rapper Lupe Fiasco.

Lupe Fiasco, the well known grammy nominated artist from Chicago, has been very vocal about his political preferences, which don’t include the President of The United States, from his hometown.

Fiasco was criticized last year for speaking out against Obama and the trend reportedly continued last night. He told CBS in an interview in 2011 “My fight against terrorism, to me, the biggest terrorist is Obama and the United States of America. I’m trying to fight the terrorism that’s actually causing the other forms of terrorism.”

Apparently Fiasco took the stage and immediately started into a political diatribe. The Daily Caller is reporting that Josh Rogin a reporter with the Foreign Policy Magazine tweeted: “Lupe Fiasco just got thrown off stage here at the Hamilton Live after he went on an anti-Obama diatribe mid set.”

Rogin continued: “So Lupe played one anti-war song for 30 min and said he didn’t vote for Obama and eventually was told to move on to the next song…Lupe refused to move to the next song so a team of security guards came on stage and told him to go.”

Startup RockOn is very progressive in their views on technology and politics and is a staunch supporter of the first amendment. At their DNC event in Charlotte North Carolina the Roots played who are another group that are sometimes known for voicing their political opinion.

Ripping the President with an anti-war sentiment on the day before his ceremonial inauguration (Obama actually took the oath of office on Sunday), may not have been the best idea nor sat right with the events organizers.

Startup RockOn said in a statement: that the artist, “left the stage earlier than we had planned. But Lupe Fiasco was not ‘kicked off stage’ for an ‘anti-Obama rant.’”

“We are staunch supporters of free speech, and free political speech,” the organizers continued. “This was not about his opinions. Instead, after a bizarrely repetitive, jarring performance that left the crowd vocally dissatisfied, organizers decided to move on to the next act.”

Even with this controversy Startup RockOn will continue to produce high profile events that promote entrepreneurs in settings that you don’t typically see startups. The organization is a major partner with Startup America. Earlier this month Startup America spokes person Chris Roche told nibletz that they were not doing an official Startup America event at the inauguration, as they are trying to hold a bipartisan stance on politics.

You can find more on Startup RockOn here

This is going to be one awesome startup event, click here.

Greenville’s Iron Yard Expands Into Digital Health & Education

The Iron Yard is a startup accelerator, co-working space, incubator and educational hub in Greenville South Carolina. They’re also a member of the Global Accelerator Network.

We covered their first session at the Iron Yard accelerator extensively as they neared completion of the first cohort this summer. Companies like Trucky Love (now Locally.fm), MoonClerk, Spent, and RidePost were all featured on nibletz.com the voice of startups everywhere else, back in August.

As the Iron Yard prepares for their next cohort they’re also expanding into the world of digital health and education.

While Memphis TN is home to ZeroTo510, the first cohort based medical device accelerator, Iron Yard is taking a new approach and targeting those in the digital health space.

” Companies building everything from wellness apps to enterprise software can apply, and those accepted will settle into Spartanburg for an intensive program that will shape their idea into a company ready to launch.” Iron Yard’s Kate McCarthy told nibletz in an interview.

McCarthy continued:

“Spartanburg teams will benefit from relationships with top pharma distributors, access to major area hospital systems, connections to global medical research firms, and a world-class line-up of mentors. The accelerator and coworking space will be located in downtown Spartanburg one block from RJ Rockers Brewery. While we don’t list proximity to craft beer as an official “perk” of the program, it certainly can’t hurt. We will begin accepting applications for the digital health program this spring, but applications to the Greenville accelerator (consumer web and mobile) are open through February 8th”

On the education front, Iron Yard is looking to develop more coders and developers in the region. They are offering free programming classes to over 70 kids and they’re going to launch an intensive three month coding course for adults in the Spring.

“At a CoderDojo, young people learn how to code, develop websites, apps, programs, games and even robots- all for free. There are currently three after school classes offered per week and a long waiting list to join the program. Students represent a diverse population: roughly half the students are girls and one class is offered in a low income neighborhood so that students without transportation have access to the courses. Teachers Mason Stewart, Wes Whitesell, Anne Mahaffey, and a handful of volunteers all offer their time and talent to keep classes free.”

“One course focuses on teaching Scratch, HTML and CSS. The other exposes kids to electronics basics, from the circuit board, up. The really cool part: those who have completed the Scratch course can build game controllers for their own video games in the electronics course. That’s made possible by the support of Arduino, who donated Arduino Esploras for the kids to learn on.” McCarthy reported.

You can find out more about Iron Yard and these programs at theironyard.com

Join Global Accelerator Managing Director Pat Riley and Global Accelerator program member accelerators from across the country next month at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, ticket sales and Startup Village booth sales closing soon.

Styku Has Created An Online Virtual Fitting Room Using Microsoft Kinect VIDEO INTERVIEW

Los Angeles startup Styku has done something rather innovative utilizing the Microsoft Kinect platform. Using four Kinect sensors, Styku has created a way to do a full body scan and create an online fitting room.

According to the company you can actually use just one Kinect at home but to get the most accurate measurements you can go to a retail partner that has their technology installed and have a body scan done. From there the magic happens.

On the back end Styku takes the body scan and matches it to a stores inventory to show you exactly what sizes they recommend for you. In shopping for clothes, size can actually be a mystery. Women and men can go into one clothing store and have one size selected and a different store which has clothing cut a little smaller or a little bigger and have a totally different size recommendation.

Styku combines the inventory and specifications from a stores entire inventory, with the exact measurements garnered from the body scan, to offer the exact fitting size.

Check out the video interview below and for more info you can visit styku.com the smart fitting room.

The grand slam of startup events continues next month in Memphis Tennessee for eveywhereelse.co The Startup Conference

Tech Tips A Great Alternative To Styli For Tablets And Smartphones

Last year at CES 2012 we saw a North Carolina startup called TextRings in Eureka Park. As you can tell from our narrative we weren’t very impressed and if they’re still in business they’ve had minimal to no traction as far as we can tell. The problem they were trying to solve is still a big issue however they were trying to solve it with rings that looked like you would find them in the treasure box at the dentists office. Couple that with the astronomic cost of entry and it was destined to earn our “least favorite startup” of Eureka Park in 2012.

Fast forward to 2013 and we got to meet Sri Vellanki. Not only has Vellanki had a pretty distinguished career to date, she’s a beautiful young woman entrepreneur and she’s from Montana. Here Montana startup called Tech Tips, is similar to Text Rings in that she is looking to solve the problem of input on smartphones and tablets, specifically for women.

Tech Tips is a product that fits on the finger tip, rather than in a ring format, and allows a natural extension to ones fingers for the specific purpose of input. Strokes are more natural because they feel natural. It’s almost like using your actual finger for the input.

Naturally when we first arrived at the Tech Tips booth we were surprised to see something similar to Text Rings, but I can assure you that this is definitely a much better product with a great founder.

But in the infamous words of the late great Billy Mays… That’s Not All!

Vellanki has a second product she is just now introducing as well. This product is called Nano Nails. Think acrylic nails that are made with the same kind of coating that’s in those gloves we use for our smartphones and tablets to input data, draw pictures and navigate.

After talking to several women the reaction has been “That’s Awesome”. Both solutions function better than a stylus and certainly better than Text Rings, check out our interview below and for more visit Tech Tips and Nano Nails here.

See over 100 startups from everywhere else at this huge startup conference

PulseWallet The Mobile Wallet Startup We Knew Was Coming. Video Interview

With companies like Google, Paypal and now Isis looking to become the mobile wallet company of choice, there are already new technologies popping up that will make those three alternatives look archaic if executed correctly.

New Jersey startup PulseWallet is ready to challenge the big companies that are pouring millions of dollars into their mobile wallet products with the touch of a finger. PulseWallet’s technology will allow users to keep their wallet information protected and then ready to use via their own finger.

In this video interview they tell us that it’s not a finger print technology but rather biometric security. When the user couples their own finger with a four digit pin, it’s an easy, safe and secure way to pay. Forget using your phone as a mobile wallet with NFC or QR codes, PulseWallet tells us that the future of payment technologies is here.

Imagine going to a gas station or a restaurant and just using your finger to pay.

We got to interview PulseWallet founder Matt Saricicek the cofounder of Pulse Wallet in Eureka Park at CES 2013 earlier this month. It seems this team is onto the future of mobile wallet technology, before the big boys even have their systems in full use.

Check out our interview video below and for more visit pulsewallet.co

It’s not too late to get your startup into the biggest startup conference in the U.S. everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference

Everywhereelse.co Unveils “Best Of Everywhere Else” Startup Contest

All of the participating Startup Village startups for everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference are hereby invited to submit a video up to three minutes long, highlighting what your startup is, and what your startup does.

There will be another live pitch contest during the conference in downtown Memphis Tennessee February 10-12th where you’ll get to pitch investors. So you may want to keep your video geared towards consumers. You want to tell the general public why your startup is the best startup “everywhere else”.

This is your chance to get your social networks, friends and family to vote for you even if they aren’t coming to the conference.

If your startup is not signed up yet for the Startup Village, booths for the village will close officially on Tuesday January 22nd so go register now by clicking here.

Here are the requirements:

– The video can be anything you want highlighting you, your team, your product or your startup
– we would advise you to make the video great for the general public, consumers and investors
– Videos can be NO LONGER than three minutes.
– When your video is ready to go please upload it to drop box and share it with video@everywhereele.co or box.com and share it with video@everywhereelse.co.
– The videos will be uploaded to the internet next Sunday January 27th where voting will commence. The videos will be uploaded by everywhereelse.co the startup conference, for the express purpose of this contest only. After the contest the video and it’s contents remain your property. They will live on our channel indefinitely. We may use any video submitted for marketing for this or future events, and in news stories as they pertain to the business and the contest.
– Videos will only be accepted until 11:59:59pm Eastern Time on Sunday January 27th.
– The voting period will run from January 28th to February 3, 2013. The five startups with the most votes will do a final pitch off at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference on Monday February 11, 2013 in front of the judging panel. The panel of the judges and an audience participation vote will decide the final winner.

If you have any questions please email video@everywhereelse.co

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

Thursday was a good day for Memphis based companies to make magazine lists. everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference made Forbes list of must attend entrepreneurial events.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Techstars Hackstar Launches Her Own MassChallenge Startup ZoomTilt, 99Designs For Video

Anna Callahan is a Techstars hackstar turned startup founder who went through Mass Challenge. With all that startup pedigree we know her startup ZoomTilt is already destined for success. The magic comes into play now that they’ve completed MassChallenge and were named a finalist.

But what is ZoomTilt?

Well think 99designs. Callahan loves film making, in fact it was reading a script while working as a Techstars hackstar that made her decide to take the plunge into launching her own innovative idea. The idea, link filmmakers to people who want to build a brand using short films, mini tv shows if you will. If you’ve got a brand and want to see film and tv stars in a video featuring your product, ZoomTilt is the answer. If you want to have an engaging YouTube mini series or Facebook page video series that highlights your brand, ZoomTilt is the answer.

Callahan tells nibletz in an interview that they’ve got hundreds of film makers waiting for the chance to work on your brands short video project. By leveraging the talent and creativity within their network ZoomTilt is able to offer unparalleled, engaging video marketing solutions without a gigantic budget.

So after joining cofounder Chris Bolman, and ditching their first name, CrewTide, which Callahan says made people think they sold nautical supplies, they hunkered down over the summer as one of the 125 startups in MassChallenge and emerged as a finalist.

We got a chance to talk with Callahan about ZoomTilt, in what’s been one of the wittiest, fun and creative interviews to date. Here it is:

gDoc Has Binders Full Of Docs, CES 2013 Eureka Park Interview

This UK startup called gDoc has binders full of docs. There Windows based platform allows users to create virtual electronic, cloud based binders that keep docs, pictures and other files grouped together in project binders. Within the binders themselves, and just like physical binders, users can make tabs and sections so that big projects can be easily organized.

The team behind gDoc came up with the idea when their product guy was working on a huge project and couldn’t easily keep all of the documents and files associated with the project in one place. Now three years later the company is set to launch in a beta later this month and to the public in the spring.

They have an extremely easy pricing structure, $10 gets their user 10 binders for life. Users can change the binders around, dust them off and use them again or if they need more binders they can simply shell out another $10 to get new binders.

Binders within gDoc can easily be synced to cloud based storage options like DropBox and shared with others to work and collaborate on the same project.

Nibletz co-founder Nick Tippmann got a chance to interview the guys with gDoc at Eureka Park at CES 2013 earlier this month. Check out that video interview below.

We’ve got a village full of startups at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference

Social Event Planning? Here’s Another Startup Called EventWith

EventWith is a Tel Aviv based startup that is trying to conquer the social event planning space.

EventWith is a social utility that helps you plan events and have your friends participate too! Choose together a time and place and set up a shared checklist, so that everyone sees exactly what they are responsible for. Manage your budget, create personal to-do lists and much, much more. It’s never been this easy to split the effort and share the fun! Co-founder Itai Fridman told us in an interview.

Of course this is no new idea for startups, it’s going to be all about execution in a space that’s getting crowded. Fridman and cofounder Daniel Beck insist that EventWith will prevail in the event space because their platform is “transparent” and also encourages all event attendees to actively participate. EventWith also has a fun UI and can handle any size events from intimate birthday parties to PTA meetings.

We got a chance to interview Fridman check out the rest of the interview below.

everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference Named To Forbes’ Must Attend Conference List For Entrepreneurs

Forbes Magazine’s online site forbes.com published their must attend conference list for entrepreneurs in 2013. The Small Business Summit held annually in New York and SXSWi held in March in Austin, of course made the list. However two key startup events in their first year also received accolades from forbes.com

Silicon Prairie News’ newest event Big Kansas City will be held March 26-28th. This event compliments their Big Omaha Conference and last year’s Thinc Iowa conference. In addition to Big Kansas City, SPN’s Jeff Slabotsky are again holding Big Omaha and also Big Des Moines, another new venture. On Wednesday they sent out an email release highlighting a “season pass” that will be available next week which will get conference go-ers in the midwest access to all three events.

Our own everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference also made the must attend list. everywhereelse.co has quickly become the largest single venue startup conference in the country with over 2000 attendee tickets sold as of this publishing. With a super strong speaker line up and unparalleled access to curriculum, investors and other founders from “everywhere else”, this inaugural event quickly caught the eye of the lists author John Hall CEO of Digital Talent Agents.

Ticket sales will wrap up early next week but there are still a handful of attendee tickets and a handful of startup village booths available. You don’t want to miss this awesome event.

see everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference on Forbes.com

Online Ticketing for Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference powered by Eventbrite

Meplus 1 Making It Easier For Everyone To Pay

Washington DC startup Meplus 1 is a new company looking to make it easier to pay in a variety of locations. Meplus 1 is an iPhone app that will soon be available on Android as well. The app integrates with already existing POS systems like Micros, POSitouch, Dinerware, Digital Dining and POS.

Customers use the iPhone app to open up a tab at restaurants and other establishments. As they order they add to the tab and at the end of their meal or transaction they use their credit card information, safely and securely stored in the app, to pay, hence making life easier for consumers, merchants and busy servers.

The app is similar to Tabbed Out and the TGIFriday’s app, but more robust in the POS systems that it’s capable of interacting with.

Now at the end of a meal a customer doesn’t have to wait for the server to bring the check, take the check back to reconcile and then bring the check back to the table. It’s also safer for customers in that they don’t have to hand their credit card over to the server. It’s all done within the app.

Meplus 1 is also not limited to just restaurant tabs. Their app is great for bars, lounges, restaurants and night clubs. They also provide five layers of security which prevents fraud and chargebacks which can be costly to both consumers and merchants.

We got a chance to talk to Justin Broady, co-founder of Meplus 1. Check out the interview below.