Comments Off on Big Data Conference Coming To Philadelphia At Temple University0LikeLike 1,626
Big Data is a big deal this year. We were the national media sponsor for the recent StampedeCon Big Data conference in St.Louis and both coasts have been bustling with events, conferences, and conventions dedicated to big data. We also saw some great big data usage cases in Chattanooga operating on 1gb ethernet.
The Big Data phenomena has made it’s way to Philadelphia and Temple University.
Next month on September 27th, The Fox Business School at Temple University is hosting a big data conference called “The Business Value of Big Data, potential,reality and success stories.
Adrian Gardner the Director of Information Technology and Communications Directorate and Chief Information Officer at NASA’s Goddard Flight Center, is keynoting the event. Gardner has spent over 20 years in government and is an Air Force Veteran. He was the recipient of an Air Force Achievement Medal in 1987.
Walmart’s President of Enterprise Information Management, Suja Chandrasekaran is the other keynote speaker of the one day event.
Speakers from Merck, Campbell Soup, Chartis, Pfizer, Lockheed Martin, and WaWa are also presenting at the conference.
This big data conference will demonstrate major corporations and government usage of big data. Whether you’re a startup founder in the big data space or in the business of big data you don’t want to miss this exceptional event. There are some spaces for attendees still available but space is limited to 125.
Comments Off on DreamIt Ventures Expands South To Austin Texas0LikeLike 1,591
DreamIt Ventures, the Philadelphia based accelerator, that was recently ranked one of the top the incubators in the country by Forbes magazine, has announced that they’re expanding into Austin Texas.
DreamIt is Philadelphia based, which is where they set up their initial accelerator program. They then expanded to New York City. Last year they also opened up shop in Israel with a program that currently feeds into New York but could feed into their Philadelphia program next year.
Kerry Rupp, a Philadelphia transplant from Austin Texas was overseeing the DreamIt program in Philadelphia. They recently announced the appointment of Karen Griffith Gryga as national director based in Philadelphian which frees Rupp up to return to Austin and launch their Austin program.
Austin is a great place to expand for DreamIt. There is a lot of innovation happening in Austin and the other DreamIt locations will be able to leverage their Austin based program to show off other DreamIt startup graduates at South By Southwest Interactive next year.
“We’ll be able to use it to showcase all of the other DreamIt companies that are out fundraising” when SXSW is held, Rupp said to the Austin Business Journal
As of April 2012 65 companies have successfully gone through the DreamIt program. DreamIt also has a program targeted towards minorities called DreamIt Access, that first class has 15 startup participants.
DreamIt Ventures New York program finishes with a Demo Day on August 8th. Philadelphia’s program kicks off the weekend of September 6th and 7th. The Philadelphia class will hold Demo Day December 5th. Austin’s program will start on December 14th which times the ending right up against SXSWi 2013.
Real Food Works, a startup launched in Philadelphia by entrepreneurs from both Philly and New York, has applied the subscription based model to healthy, plant based, cooked dishes. The startup is up and running and beta testing in the Philadelphia area. If all goes well they will expand to New York City.
The dishes are made by local restaurants, chefs and catering companies and delivered ready to eat and fresh.
Real Food Works is kicking off with a pilot program which is up and running now. For $75 per week you get five entrees delivered to your door. Each member can pick their own menu from the selections provided.
Last Tuesday’s menu included: Lemony Quinoa, salad with grilled tofu over a bed of spinach;Tempeh-Walnut Sliders with Roasted Beet Slices, Cashew Cream Cheese & Arugula, Steamed Shiitake and Tofu Dumplings with Bok Choy & Lemongrass Sauce, Vegetarian Enchiladas with Spinach Salad & Tahini Dressing, Black Bean Burger, Moroccan Spiced Root Vegetables, & Green Beans with Maple Syrup. Even for a meat lover those sound wonderful.
The startup was founded by Lucinda DunCalfe who had a successful exit with ClickEquations a marketing and advertising company that developed a powerful pay per click software which helps agencies manage paid search campaigns more effectively and efficiently. That company was sold to Channel Intelligence in June 2011.
Real Food Works found out Monday that they are one of 15 finalists in the IBX Game Changer Challenge. The challenge is a health and wellness focused startup challenge for a grand prize for up to three startups with $50,000 in funding, mentoring support and access to a network of health care decision makers.
The team from Real Food Works will present next Tuesday to a panel of judges in a 10 minute presentation with 5 minutes of Q&A and the winners will be announced on July 30th.
Comments Off on Philly Startup & Tech BBQ July 18th0LikeLike 1,327
The Philly Startup Listserv and other leaders in the Philadelphia area startup and entrepreneurial community are holding a relaxing shindig on July 18th.
The event,being dubbed the “PSL Summer BBQ Bash” is happening from 6-8 pm on Wednesday July 18th.
The event is open to PSL members and anyone in the Philly startup and tech community.
The $25 ticket covers drink tickets, delicious food and a fun time for all. It’s a pitch free networking and fun weekday event.
With the time and being on a weekday there’s no excuse to not come and hangout with great members of the Philly tech and startup scene.
Comments Off on Novotorium & SeedPhilly Call Lights Out For Summer Camp0LikeLike 1,619
We received some disheartening news this morning from our friends at technicallyphilly.com . Apparently Entrepreneur Summer Camp, a joint venture between Novotorium and Seedaphilly has been cancelled due to lack of Internet.
We’ve been big supporters of both Novotorium, SeedPhilly and the Philly tech scene, especially because our co-founder Cameron is based in Philly.
We are members of the Phily listserve and we’ve seen a mixed bag of talk about Philly’s startup community. There are those like Novotorium Mike Krupit who are big advocates of growing startups right in the city of brotherly love.
On the flip side the are those who wallow suggesting that there’s not enough funding available in Philly. Some of these folks actually commute to New York in hopes of having a more successful launch in the big apple.
As for Entrepreneur Summer Camp, both Novotorium and SeedPhilly along with others in the Philadelphia startup ecosystem put together a great bunch of programming that was to occur over the summer, with nominal fees for space, food and drink and overall costs.
After the first event though Kuprit found that there just wasn’t enough traction and interest from entrepreneurs, Startups and the tech community. We found from our analytics that all of the stories we’ve used to promote this series of events had a good deal of interest. Whats wrong with you people, support your local tech ecosystem if you want it to grow.
Kuprit is still feeling positive about this weeks “not a hackathon” 36 hour event. Rather than using the 54 hour hackathon style model, this event is for Startups a little further along to get mentor ship and help around the clock. Think of it as 36 straight hours of office hours.
Kuprit beefed up the prize money and this event is still on. You can find out more about the sleepover event here
As for summer camp Kuprit told technicallyphilly “Philly takes the summer off,” he said, comparing our scene to New York’s and California’s. “We need to raise the bar.”
Philly’s entrepreneur summer camp isn’t the only signature event on the east coast this summer to get cancelled. Earlier this month we reported that the Startup BeachHouse event was cancelled when the group putting it on we’re repeatedly denied beach house rentals because ignorant beach house owners thought the event would be like the show The Jersey Shore.
Comments Off on Philly Startup: TicketLeap Kills The Frog0LikeLike 1,439
Back in April we reported that Philly event ticketing startup TicketLeap was the first ticketing company to offer reserved seat ticket mapping for user created events.
On Monday evening an alarming post came across the Philly startup listserv. TicketLeap CEO Chris Stanchak announced that “the frog is dead”. What? The frog is dead I thought to myself. Was TicketLeap shutting down, we’re they acquired?
After reading the post thoroughly TicketLeap has gone through a rebranding and with that they killed off their mascot frog. The Kermit’s of the world wept in a moment of silence. Actually, though, this is good news for Stanchak and the team.
Stanchak said in his note to the Philly startup and tech community:
As many of you know, we’ve been quite busy working on our platform over the last two years since we relaunched it in the cloud on AWS. Our product team continues to astound me and I couldn’t be prouder. We are a product first company, but we felt like it was time to catch up some other areas.
So……I’m happy to say that we’ve taken another big step on this great ride and launched a new brand identity for TicketLeap – we feel it best reflects us as a company….and in order to do that we had to kill the frog (gasp!).
The new logo accompanies a relaunch of the TicketLeap website, iPad, iPhone and Android apps. Key elements of the new redesign include making the site more social, user friendly and adds the ability for event organizers to add mobile box office, a feature that Eventbrite released last year.
The new social initiatives include deeper integrations with Facebook and Twitter which allow people to socialize around a certain event. VentureBeat also reports that TicketLeap will be able to pull valuable demographic analytics about events set up through the service.
Unfortunately for the frog though, it looks like he’s going to be somebody’s fried frog legs dinner sometime soon.
<sarcasm font> Thanks MTV for ruining the beach </sarcasm font>
Back in May we covered the Startup Beach House – “The basic concept was to bring about 5 startup teams to the beach house for a week to see what they could build. We would then film it to document the week and what came of it.”
Originally they had leased a house in Avalon New Jersey but in their words:
In March, we secured a house in Avalon, which was perfect. After a news story ran dubbing the Startup Beach House the “Jersey Shore for geeks” (or something of that nature), which the owners of the house saw, they immediately cancelled the lease in fears of all things “Jersey Shore.”
So in April they managed to find a house in Stone Harbor, NJ. but again ran into issues because of the Jersey Shore “reality” show. Again, Startup Beach House explains,
Another news story came out, again making an association to the reality show “Jersey Shore.” The realtors of the initial house saw the story and sent it to the realtors of the Stone Harbor house saying something along the lines of “we wanted to make sure you are aware of what these guys are doing.” This caused alarm for the new realtor and the owners of the Stone Harbor house, they wanted to immediately cancel the lease over concerns of the type of people at the house and any filming that would take place. After explaining in detail what we were planning to do, they hesitantly agreed to rent us the house with added stipulations, however, we did not want to work in such a non-supporting environment.
They have chosen to shutter the plan for Startup Beach House 2012 because it became nearly impossible to find an appropriate unit and speaking from personal experience in South Jersey Shore vacation homes – even if they could locate a house the price would be significantly higher. Their post explaining all of what transpired ends with:
We sincerely want to thank the hundreds of entrepreneurs and the startup community in general who have supported and promoted this effort. Also we are looking for a beach house owner or sponsor who is willing to work with us to further our goals of promoting the entrepreneurial spirit in the Philadelphia area.
We also want to thank those who have applied to be part of the inaugural Startup Beach House and encourage them to work on their ideas, even without the Startup Beach House. When we launch in 2013 we hope to have you all on board!
So there you have it. Jersey Shore, a “reality” show that personally I feel describes (to a T) the failures of American “pop” culture, has indirectly ruined another American culture, albeit in an incredibly small physical area. It is disheartening that 10-15 entrepreneurs and the three men behind Startup Beach House are left to deal with consequences of the actions of morons who are getting rich by dumbing down America. I’ll leave you with this thought.
“I know he’s a nice guy … he’s gotta be clean.” – Snooki, on her friend Keith
Indiegogo: We’re going back on the road to spread the word about startups Everywhere Else. We’ve got a $2 perk = Ramen or a $10 perk – Shower at a Truck Stop (Gotta be clean like Keith) – We could use your support. If you can’t afford $2 sharing the Indiegogo campaign is still free. :)
Mike Krupit and the crew at Novotorium are holding a really cool event June 27th and 28th in Philadelphia. The event, that they’re calling the “Not a hackathon” Entrepreneur Sleepover. The event is not a “build a startup in 48 hours” type event. Rather it’s more like a weekend worth of valuable office hours to refine your startup, develop your product, work on your marketing and pick the brains of Krupit, and other great mentors.
Novotorium promises 36 straight hours of “eye popping, brain swelling, undulterated business progress”
There is a $20 participation charge which of course will cover things like fuel (food and red bull) along with other considerations. But not only that, there will be a $2,000 prize. Krupit told Nibletz.com the companies won’t do “pitches” but their progress throughout the weekend will be judged by the Novotorium and SeedPhilly team. Both Novotorium and SeedPhilly will meet with each startup individually.
The best part of the entire process is that everyone will be on hand all 36 hours, so if you’re knee deep into problem solving at 3am you’ll be able to get a mentor to help you solve your problem.
Krupit responded to criticism on the Phily Startup Leaders List Serv saying:
“We know that there are entrepreneurs are reluctant to attend hackathons or startup weekends because they don’t own what the community helps them produce. That’s why we called this a “Not-a” hackathon – to demonstrate its approach from another perspective. We added the cash prize as an incentive to those who maybe weren’t purely in it for the community, learning, and fun.
The $20 registration is a token to basically ensure that people show up. It’s even lower than other similar events.
This model isn’t for everyone – and we never intended for it to be. There are already a number of registrants, so I’m assuming some find it interesting. For those that do, we’ll build some good business models and product, build more community, and have a good time.”
We totally get it here at nibletz, as we said the best way to describe it is 36 straight hours of office hours type access to some of the best mentors in the Philadelphia area to help any startup who registers, work on their business.
Philly’s startup scene is becoming hotter and hotter everyday. With incubators and accelerators like DreamIt Ventures, Novotorium and Seed Philly, it seems that nothing is holding back the city of brotherly love.
We reported on Novotorium back in April when they were bringing their second startup, Inhabi under their umbrella.
Now, both Novotorium and Seed Philly are teaming up to make it a summer to remember for startups in the Philly area. The two incubators are partnering to kick off the summer with an event called “The Infonautics Team and a Generation of Startups”. This event is getting a lot of play in the philly startup listserv and it looks like the whole city is behind it.
According to Mike Krupit of Novotorium, “The Infonautics Team and a Generation of Startups” will show how a dynamic entrepreneurial culture at one startup helped generate a stream of successful startups, ventures and careers.
“We’ve seen tremendous collaboration, innovation and camaraderie through the years by the people who were part of Infonautics,” Krupit said. “We are now experiencing a resurgence of the entrepreneurial community in Philadelphia, so the timing is excellent to help a new wave of entrepreneurs learn from pioneers and see how and how much we have already achieved in our region, and the possibilities for the future.”
Seed Philly founder; Brad Denenberg added: “There are so many great things happening in the entrepreneurial community throughout the Philadelphia region that we don’t always take time to look back, understand how we got here, and appreciate it,” Denenberg said. “By collaborating, Novotorium, Seed Philly and numerous successful entrepreneurs are aiming to bring focus to the power of entrepreneurship in Philadelphia and help build the overall community.”
At TechCrunch Disrupt we reported on a very cool startup called Snip Snap App. I was so excited about it that I had the first story up before Ted Mann, the founder, got a chance to get off the Disrupt Battlefield stage. While he may feel that larger media outlet coverage is more relevant, we all know the power of nibletz as the voice of startups everywhere else, that’s why after several editorial meetings about this we decided to post the interview anyway, regardless of the founders view on TechCrunch coverage vs Nibletz coverage it’s a damn good product, and heck some people think I’m a total douche, but still read nibletz everyday.
So what is Snip Snap App, it’s an app that’s already saved me $36 and I’ve only had it on my iPhone 4S since last Wednesday. With Snip Snap App you simply take pictures of your print coupons, within the app and voila the rest is magical.
Snip Snap App takes all the useful coupon information like the barcode, promotional codes, and images and makes them easy for the cashier to see at checkout. Now you don’t have to worry about loading down your pocketbook, or purse, or forgetting the Babies R Us coupons, which is consequently why Mann created the app.
Here's our original picture of MC Hammer talking to Mann that was borrowed without accreditation (photo: nibletz syndicate)
But that’s not all…
When you sign up for Snip Snap App you join a community of likeminded couponers who are also posting coupons on a daily basis. You can use a search function or discover function to find coupons that you’ll use in your community, or in your daily travels.
In fact, you don’t even need to upload a coupon to get the benefit of using everyone else’s coupons.
Now, when you try and redeem the coupon there is the risk that the cashier or store won’t take the coupon but more and more stores are getting used to seeing digital coupons. If you successfully redeemed your coupon than you mark it as such after using it. If you pitched a fit and are waiting for the paddy wagon to come and get you for punching the clerk in the face for not taking your coupon, then you mark it as “unsuccessful” (please don’t really do that).
These success ratings give you a better idea going into the store whether or not you’re going to have success. Bed Bath & Beyond, The Gap, Old Navy and Burger King seem to be quite successful thus far. Snip Snap App also has a new exclusive coupon deal with Aeropastle as well so you can use their coupon at any shopping mall in America.
Snip Snap App is going to be more successful than traditional coupon apps because of the discovery, search and sharing functionality. In some cases those gigantic Bed Bath & Beyond coupons that come in the mail are being shared on Snip Snap App with success. This is a feature the other coupon apps don’t have.
So far Mann has seen over 130,000 device downloads after being featured in the iTunes store and over 50,000 repeat users. Why, because it’s really a must have app. Mann reports to our Managing Editor Cameron Wright, that an Android and iPad app can be expected in the coming months.
Comments Off on Bethlehem PA Startup: Weather Trades Video Interview0LikeLike 1,435
Rarely have I found a company that deals with a force that disrupts more lives than any other issue. Weather. We’ve all watched the local meteorologist completely drop the ball and get it wrong. Weather Trades, a spin-off from Weather Trends International, has a product that could change the way you live. Seriously.
Here in the United States the typical yearly vacation time is an extremely limited two weeks. We take huge risks when we book our travel for that short period of time. Have you ever been to an outdoor wedding that ended up inside? Have you ever wondered if you should keep those winter clothes out for another 6 weeks? I have been directly or indirectly affected by each of these scenarios. If you could see a weather forecast for the next year – worldwide – with an accuracy of 80% or better how would your life be different?
Imagine you are the largest retailer in the world, and you have to decide to purchase air conditioners from the manufacturers but cannot decide whether or not to buy all of the stock or a third of it. Walmart had to make that decision:
“We bought all of the home center’s uncommitted air circulation orders from the manufacturers and had a great year. Our sell through was 98% compared to 85% last year based solely on a huge decision we made using your year-ahead summer forecast. A $130,000,000 win in one category.” Gordon Erickson, Senior Vice President Merchandising-Hardlines
Commodities Traders:
WTI is the ONLY company in the world that provides YEAR-AHEAD forecasts that can be integrated into trading models and other business applications. WTI provides a complete suite of products and services for commodity traders, energy traders, and the entire agricultural industry. This includes typical short range-forecasting services along with proprietary year-ahead global forecasts and analytical assessments for grains, sugar, energy, and other weather driven commodity markets across the globe.
Travel Sites: After approaching the more popular travel sites on the internet and being turned down Weather Trades turned their sites on TechCrunch Disrupt to hopefully find developers, startups, and investors who can build upon the unique tools that they’ve created. In all honesty this is the startup that had me most excited. To see a little more check out the interview by Kyle below. I will also be reviewing their wt360 Pro app in the coming days. It’s available in the App Store and Google Play
Comments Off on Philly Startup Snip Snap, Putting Print Coupons In The Digital Space0LikeLike 1,951
Snip Snap founder Ted Mann presenting at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012 (photo: nibletz inc)
A new startup mobile app called Snip Snap presented today during the first session of Tech Crunch Disrupt’s Battlefield. Snip Snap is in the pool of 30 other startups competing for 50,000 dollars and the Disrupt cup. I loved the idea so much that I started writing this article while Snip Snap founder Ted Mann was still presenting.
The idea for the app is incredible (hence why I am writing about it right this second). Basically you take a picture of an actual print coupon out of your newspaper or direct mail. The picture uploads to the app, makes note of the barcode and the expiration date and goes into your virtual wallet.
Once in your wallet the coupon can be shared with other users. That gives the app a second life. I remember when I moved away from home my mom would send me her coupons from the Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post now with this app you can get coupons from major stores across the country. If you didn’t know, sometimes a Bed Bath & Beyond may have a great deal on something in California and not in New York and vice versa.
MC Hammer questions Snip Snap founder Ted Mann At TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012 (photo: nibletz inc)
With all this nationwide coupon sharing, there is a function in the app that lets you report back to the Snip Snap network on whether or not the user was successful redeeming the coupon.
The judges met Snip Snaps founder with the immediate questions you would think of like, what about coupon fraud. Right now it’s totally up to the merchant on whether they are going to a) accept the coupon via an image on your phone and b) whether they want to honor the deal. Surprisingly there is still an 80% success rate with the coupons currently in snip snap.
Other features include:
Expiration date reminders
In store reminders (when you enter a store that you have a coupon for, Snip Snap lets you know)
Use for any coupons, it doesn’t matter what the coupon is for
Nibletz is growing a lot faster than we could ever imagine. We thank every one of you that’s come to the site to check out a story, or two, added us to your RSS feed and shared us on social media. Despite the rate we’ve been growing (500% month over month), we still find ourselves explaining “everywhere else” at least once a day.
Nibletz is the voice of startups everywhere else. We’re proud to bring news, interviews, and resources to those startups that are “everywhere else”. Monday Forbes posted their list of the top ten start up incubators across the country. Y-Combinator, in the valley, topped the list with $7.8 billion in value.
If you take a closer look at the Forbes list, you’ll quickly notice, like we did, that the number of incubators “everywhere else” trumped the number of valley based incubators 6-4. In fact TechStars, with offices in Boulder, Boston, New York, Seattle, and San Antonio, came in second place.
TechStars has had 114 companies through the program with 98 still active. TechStars has a franchise model of sorts, and is headquartered in Boulder Colorado. TechStars founder David Cohen has hired directors for each of the other locations. TechStars selects 1% of about 4,000 applications into their program.
Every once in a while we come across some great tangible goods startups, either ideas that are just full of awesomeness and win or ideas that are being grown in the US. Neo-Cover is one of those ideas. Add that to the fact that it’s founded by a college student and designer in Philadelphia and it makes it an even better story.
So what’s a neo-cover? Well the idea is so damn basic you’ll be asking yourself why didn’t I think of that? Well the reason you didn’t think of that or I didn’t think of that is because 22 year old Jake Frey did. Neo-Cover is a magnetic light switch wall plate. Don’t go and try and steal it this 22 year old has his ducks in a row and has the patent. Once he bulks up his sales Kevin O’Leary and the sharks on Shark Tank would gobble this idea up.
A magnetic light switch plate, what would I use that for? Well for starters you could hang your keys, a mini flashlight, a dog leash, a money clip anything that you often forget can go right up on the light switch. Presumably you turn your lights on every now and then, and now it’s easy to find. The magnet is so powerful it can hold a decent sized hammer, or a screw driver. I told you this idea is both basic and genius.
Kyle
Big Data is a big deal this year. We were the national media sponsor for the recent StampedeCon Big Data conference in St.Louis and both coasts have been bustling with events, conferences, and conventions dedicated to big data. We also saw some great big data usage cases in Chattanooga operating on 1gb ethernet.
Cameron Wright
