After 24 Hours Local Music Discovery Statup Aurora Is The Biggest Mover At OneSpark

Aurora,OneSpark,OneSpark standings,crowdfunding,vote

Angel Ayala Torres pitches Aurora At OneSpark (photo NMI 2013)

At 5:30pm the OneSpark staff took to the stage at Hemming Plaza and announced the biggest movers in the voting for OneSpark creators. Creators come in four categories; Art, Science, Music and Technology, with a fifth category for “other”.

Besides the biggest movers OneSpark had another huge announcement and that was that 20,000 people came out on Wednesday night for the opening ceremonies and entertainment district as part of “The World’s Crowdfunding Festival”.

464 creators are registered to receive the crowds votes and here’s the biggest movers after the first 24 hours.

Art

3. 20 Murals
2. One Wall
1. Rethreaded

Music

3. Girls Rock Jacksonville
2. Elestial Sound
1. Fathomsphere

Science

3. Kona School
2. One Food Park Project
1. Tiger Trail

Tech

3. Nerdular
2. The Forge
1. Aurora

Other

3. Live for today foundation
2. Five and Dime
1. 123 Fresh

We’ve got more incredible OneSpark coverage here at nibletz.com

Interview With OneSpark Creator Burro Bags [video][onespark]

We ran into Amanda from Burro Bags, who’s OneSpark project was set up at the Jacksonville Landing plaza. Burro Bags has been in business manufacturing bicycle accessories and messenger bags for the past five years.

Now though, they’ve introduced a new line called Impakt. With this line they are taking used promotional items and upcycling them into a variety of products. You’ll find handbags, messenger bags, and other accessories in their new line.

They showed off the creations they made using the flag pole signs for the recent Jacksonvilel Jazz festival. The banners are made of high quality, durable, vinyl and PVC. Typically after an event these things get tossed aside, or if they’re lucky, upcycled into things like drop cloths for painting.

Burro Bags found the value in the materials and the artwork itself and made an entire line out of it.

With all the signage in the downtown area for OneSpark, there is sure to be a nice OneSpark line for Impakt next year.

Although this falls outside the realm of startups, Burro Bags is crowdfunding here at OneSpark the inperson crowdfunding festival and it’s a great example of the variety you’ll find amongst the 464 official creators.

Check out Burro Bags here

We’ve got more OneSpark coverage here at nibletz.com The Voice Of Startups Everywhere Else.

Out Of Toilet Paper? There’s A Startup For That: Restroom Alert [onespark][video]

Who’s ever gone to the bathroom at a public place only to sit down and find there’s no toilet paper in the toilet paper dispenser? Or you go through a beautiful looking store or a great restaurant and find paper towels all over the floor and a trashcan that looks like it hasn’t been dumped in days?

Well if you said yes, you’re not alone. These problems happen to millions of people every week at a variety of restrooms across the country. Going into a dirty, filthy or not well stocked bathroom affects businesses in ways you wouldn’t believe. One survey said that 94% of respondents said that a non well kept bathroom would make them leave an establishment.

Some believe that when going to restaurants a dirty restroom is a signal that the kitchen may not be that clean either. While there are people who will speak to a manager or an employee about the cleanliness of the bathroom, others are embarrassed to do so, or sometimes so grossed out they just want to leave.

Well now there’s an app for that. The multi-platform Restroom Alert, is a way for customers to anonymously report to a manager, owner or other employee that their restrooms need some attention.

It’s pretty simple. A business, small, big or gigantic, can sign up for Restroom Alert for $5 per month per room. The establishment will get signs that can easily be affixed to mirrors or walls with a short code to send a text message about the restroom. Does it need toilet paper? Do the sinks need cleaning? Is the trashcan overflowing? Is the toilet stopped up? All of these things and more can be reported anonymously via the text code.

On the business’ side, they get a text message as well saying what needs to be fixed. At that point a timer begins and the platform records how long it takes to go fix the problem.

The system can also alert owners, managers or employees when the restroom hasn’t been cleaned or checked in the allotted time. This wipes out the need for clipboards and paper restroom checklists, which often go unused.

Restroom Alert even supplies analytics detailing the restroom problems, how often they’re stocked and checked and other key factors. A clean restroom is just another way a business owner can provide excellent customer service.

Restroom Alert can be used by small mom and pop shops all the way up to Fortune 500 companies. The owner, or person in charge of such things, can get reports based on their entire network of restrooms. This way they can deal with employees that don’t give a crap about the way the restroom looks (you see what I did there).

While there are plenty of apps that can find you a restroom on the road, this seems to be the first startup to modernize the restroom checklist.

We got a chance to check out Restroom Alert one of the 464 projects found at OneSpark in Jacksonville.

Check out our video interview with Rod Dornsife one of the co-founders of Restroom Alert below.

For more on Restroom Alert visit restroomalert.com or follow them on Twitter @restroomalert

We’ve got a lot more OneSpark stories for you here at nibletz.com The Voice Of Startups Everywhere Else

OneSpark Founders Answer Our Favorite Question: Why Now (startup community) [onespark][video]

OneSpark,Jacksonville startups,startup event

OneSpark Founders (L-R) Varick Rosete, Elton Rivas and Dennis Eusebio (photo: NMI 2013)

Two years ago three friends, businessmen, entrepreneurs and community minded guys sat around a Panera Bread talking about what they could do to help spark the startup community, and the creativity that comes with it, in Jacksonville Florida. Those three friends, Elton Rivas, Dennis Eusebio and Varick Rosete, set out to create an event that could serve as an ongoing catalyst for creativity and startups.

All three founders were paying attention to the growing trends across the country. Startup communities were popping up in cities all over the United States, many of them the same size as Jacksonville with similar resources but no real focal point. They all wanted to do something and create something, and they didn’t want to move to do it.

In this quick impromptu panel discussion, led by Jacksonville Jaguars voice, Brian Sexton, all three founders touch on “Why Now, Why OneSpark”.

Rivas talks about the timing saying “the time has never been better for this”. Rivas talked about how technology, smartphones in particular, people have the ability to connect from anywhere. To that end, while we talk about Chattanooga and Kansas City often when referring to high speed internet, Jacksonville Florida was the second market in the United States to get ClearWire’s WiMax service back in 2003.

Now with the connectivity, the people and the resources, with a catalyst like OneSpark residents of Jacksonville are starting to see they can do it right in their own city. Rivas has already gotten a taste of this by being a cofounder of CoWork Jax, a coworking space with an emphasis on collaboration and creativity.

Eusebio opened up his answer with the fact that he didn’t want to move. As a tech guy Eusebio was starting to feel the pinch, do I stay home, a place I love or do I brave the waters in another more tech savvy city like San Francisco. He set himself a 2 year deadline to come to that decision and during that two years the trio started creating OneSpark.

Rosete says he did this for the creators, he wants the creators to know that they have the resources to help get ideas, companies and creations off the ground without having to go take day jobs that creators don’t really want.

With a list of sponsors that reads like a telephone book, the city of Jacksonville is ripe and mobilized now to embrace startups, creators and entrepreneurs.

But OneSpark isn’t just about the local creators. They’ve attracted 464 projects from across the street, across the river, across the country and around the world. The 464 projects are spread out across 65 different venues in downtown Jacksonville.

Early estimates suggest that there will be between 15,000 to 20,000 people in Jacksonville over the next five days specifically for OneSpark, participating in voting, the speaker series and just walking around and checking out the 464 projects. Several local media outlets predict the swell of people downtown could reach 100,000 when you mix in the variety of great live entertainment that the OneSpark team has helped cook up.

While the focus of OneSpark and the creators is Music, Art, Science and Technology, when dusk hits the focus turns to the “entertainment district” where clubs, bars,restaurants and pop up venues are hosting hundreds of bands and performers in a festival atmosphere that can only rival something like SXSW. If anyone is keeping score there were around 800 attendees at the first SXSW festival and 29,000 official registered attendees for SXSWi 2013. The groundswell in Austin is also believed to be 100,000 when factoring in all three different festivals that make up sxsw.

On the subject of SXSW, Rivas hopes that in 10 years the OneSpark festival will still be going on, and people will say “Oh Jacksonville, that’s where they hold OneSpark”.

Well yes as a matter a fact we’ve got a ton more OneSpark coverage here at nibletz.com The Voice Of Startups Everywhere Else.

OneSpark Comes Alive In Downtown Jacksonville

Downtown Jacksonville has come alive with thousands of entrepreneurs, do-ers and creators in the first of it’s kind Crowdfunding Festival called OneSpark.

The five day festival runs from now through Sunday. Creators in music, art, science and technology are all showing off their wares while also competing for attendee dollars and attendee votes.

The festival has taken the crowdfunding concepts introduced by sites like kickstarter and Indiegogo and brought them offline and in person to hundreds of venues throughout the downtown area of Jacksonville.

Nibletz is on the ground in Jacksonvillr and we look forward to introducing you to the creators from across the country and around the world, exhibiting here at OneSpark.

But make no mistake about it, this is far more than an exhibition. All of the creators (startups) are looking for people to crowdfunding their ideas in person.

As for the voting, OneSpark has over $1,000,000 committed for a fund that will distribute money to the creators with the most votes. One of the biggest supporters of OneSpark, and the biggest contributor to the fund is Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid “Shad” Khan.

Throughout the event creators will be pitching their ideas to the audience at pitch stages set up all over downtown.

Today all ready we’ve seen a very innovative startup called Quick Solar. This company is working on a drag and drop platform for homeowners and other interested folks to drop solar panels on google maps images of their home.

Quick Solar will take these users through the cost saving benefits of moving to solar energy and eventually the company will link with providers that can install your solar system.

Creators from every corner of the globe and business are here. We also saw crowdfunding at the local level with Red Sable Art Supply.

This company is hoping to create an art supply store and collaborative work space for artists in St.Augustine Florida.

Currently, artists in the area are driving 1-3 hours away to find an adequate art supply store where they can learn about their supplies, techniques and actually squeeze bottles, feel paint brushes and talk to real humans.

Stick with us for OneSpark coverage here.

Evernote Launches No Equity Accelerator For Developers

Evernote is known for it’s great relationship with developers. They hold hackathons on just about every continent, they hold the “devcup” and they support every single bit of creativity that developers can build using Evernote as the backbone. Some of the things that have come out of Evernote developers are really cool, and go way beyond the “notepad app” that Evernote started as. (my favorite Evernote app is Hello).

Now Evernote has announced they are expanding on the relationship with their developers once again. Evernote is opening a new on-site accelerator bringing their developers to SiliconValley. Docomo and Honda have partnered with Evernote to make the accelerator possible.

No matter where you are based, if you’re selected for the Evernote accelerator you and your team will be flown to Silicon Valley, you’ll get living accommodations, free food, office space, access to Evernote developers and engineers, group work sessions and feedback sessions and more. At the end of the program Evernote’s Rafe Needleman told Venturebeat, that “they’ll hold a demo day for Silicon Valley investors and press.”

Currently there are six billion API’s per month across the Evernote platform and Needleman and team are looking for even more. “There’s a million different ways to store, use, and get access to personal and private data, and so far we’ve only built eight of those apps,” Needleman says.

Teams chosen for the accelerator will come from the DevCup. Once they arrive in Silicon Valley not only will they be working with Evernote but they will also be working with Docomo Innovation Ventures and Honda Silicon Valley Labs. This could be a big benefit for Evernote developers whose apps deal directly with mobile and wireless or transportation.

Interested in learning more? Check out Evernote’s developer’s site here.

Unfortunately money doesn’t grow on trees in Silicon Valley, read here.

Atlanta Startup AppPax Is Making Life Easier For Enterprise Developers [interview]

There are a lot of enterprise developers out there that are grinding their gears working on similar projects for different companies or clients. While developers need to stay competitive and productive, there are several menial tasks that could be done in a much easier way.

For instance, right now hundreds of developers are building enterprise enrollment modules. Typically these enrollment modules are just one tiny part of the overall finished project. A lot of time is being wasted with all these different engineers working on the same things as just part of the bigger project.

While we’re not suggesting some kind of socialist, round all the developers together in one circle and sing kumbaya kind of thing, there’s an Atlanta based startup that has a solution.

AppPax offers a cloud based platform delivering pre-built business modules that are customizable and accesible through a robust API. Their AppPax Central hub offers “cross everything” for all platforms mobile, web and desktop. This means that developers using AppPax can get the nuts and bolts from their cloud based hub and work on the actual project rather than building the initial tools.

AppPax was founded by Bill Forsyth an enterprise software engineer with 29 years experience.

We got a chance to talk to Forsyth. Check out our interview below:

What is AppPax?

We offer pre-built business modules running in a cloud-based hub — all accessible via a robust API and configurable through AppPax Central. Our webware is cross-everything. No more choosing between platform or device. No more deciding whether to develop a mobile app, mobile site or desktop experience.

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

Developers can now call ready-made, integrated business modules from any device (web app, mobile app, etc.) instead of building features from scratch. Right now, hundreds of developers are building enterprise enrollment modules.

That’s a waste. With AppPax Access, for example, they don’t have to build it, they can just call it and load in their data.

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

For the past 29 years, Bill Forsyth has been conceiving and building enterprise systems, merging the technical with the aesthetic, all to create simple solutions to complex problems. He’s held technical and leadership roles at S1 Corporation, EDS, Gemstone Systems, Bellsouth, and Platinum Software.

Where is AppPax based?

AppPax is based in Atlanta, Ga.

What is the startup scene like there?

Young, but growing. And the influence of Georgia Tech is helping to fuel it.

How did you come up with the idea for AppPax?

Bill created AppPax after years of building business systems using unnecessarily complex processes, working on system integration, playing World of Warcraft, observing the rise of mobile, and realizing that half to three quarters of all data models and features of business applications apply to other business applications. Why are we still building them from scratch?

What problem does AppPax solve?

AppPax eliminates the need to spec, design, model, and develop the majority of any business app’s features from scratch. It also makes all app features available via secure API to all devices. It’s already built. So don’t build it. Just call it, with AppPax.

What’s your secret sauce, what makes you different?

Pre-built, integrated enterprise business models in a cloud-based hub built on universal data models. The hub is the difference.

Why now?

We’re entering a new phase in the evolution of software development. Common features of apps (access, people, products, requirements, agreements, files, etc.) will simply exist in the cloud for you to call, already built, already integrated with each other. In the old days we coded everything every time. Then we went to libraries you could “link” in. Then to SDK’s and open source. And you still needed to create and operate your database, backend, and now do that cross-device.

BaaS tried to help that but as it exists right now it might actually be a retrograde since it once again requires you to design, model, and build most everything all over again. But at AppPax we’ve invented a way to provide core, integrated business features you can simply call in the cloud yet still use your own data.

Developers already no longer consider building their own maps. They simply call GoogleMaps, Mapquest, or something in the cloud. Nor would most developers think of building their own payment processor. They just call PayPal, Chargify or something in the cloud. AppPax now provides similar services but for core business features. We believe in the near future you won’t have to build or assemble most of your app. You’ll simply call the features you need from your front-ends, cross-device, allowing you to focus on your own unique front-ends. AppPax aims to lead and dominate that market.

What are some milestones you’ve achieved?

We just released AppPax Beta with our first five Pax: People, Access, Tracking, Files, Contact. We have more waiting in the wings.

You can find out more at AppPax.com

New York startup Problemio wants to help other startups fail less.

Startup Tips: Building Perseverance From Ken Oboh Co-Founder Of Remix.com

Startups, like fragile seedlings, need to be in the right environment to flourish. It takes drive and doggedness to see any idea through to success, and persistence is often the only thing separating those who succeed from those who fail.

That’s why one of the most vitally important aspects of starting a new business is being in an entrepreneur-friendly environment. Although many people think of capital, labor, or experience as the most challenging aspects of starting a new business, finding people to provide advice, support, contacts, and resources can be just as difficult.

It’s much easier to keep pushing toward a goal if you have a community of people who understand and encourage you. Being an entrepreneur takes more drive and guts than most people can comprehend, so surrounding yourself with like-minded people can help you succeed.

Find Your Motivation and Drive

Anyone who wants to pursue an extraordinary goal — from professional golfing to creating a company — must have an extraordinary level of motivation to succeed.

In my experience, discouraged entrepreneurs who are unable to overcome negativity are often those who do not have a deep passion for the area of business they’re in, or who lack the sheer desperation of not wanting to fail. As with losing weight or giving up smoking, being persistent enough to see a goal through to fruition requires strong motivation.

If you’re building a startup, be sure it’s something you’re interested in; invest yourself in your startup’s success. Successful entrepreneurs would often rather die than give up — an attitude that will help you push past criticism and other obstacles.

Seek Out the Right People

Unless you live in Silicon Valley, you’ve probably been the target of negativity from people who don’t believe in your idea. Dedicating your life to a business idea requires single-mindedness and dedication, which is hard for people who aren’t entrepreneurs to understand. Normal people fear the risk, hard work, and intense commitment required to succeed in business, which leads them to try to dampen the aspiring entrepreneur’s enthusiasm.

All that negative energy can be disheartening, and it will ultimately work against you. Persistence is the key to success. If you’re living in an environment without a network of people with similar interests, you may be shooting your startup in the foot.

When my business partner and I first decided to pursue our own business ideas, most people didn’t understand what we were doing. They constantly tried to steer us toward more conventional jobs. We began meeting weekly with a group of six entrepreneurial-minded friends to study and share ideas. After two years, Chris and I eventually hit upon a business idea that began generating revenue for us. In retrospect, those meetings were the most important factor that contributed to our success.

Be your own best friend when it comes to encouragement. Surround yourself with people who will help you work toward your goals and inspire you to persevere.

Building a web of support is even easier now with online networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. Here are three tips to help you build a network online:

1. Join the conversation.

Become an active participant in online groups formed by like-minded entrepreneurs around subjects that you are interested in or passionate about. Get engaged in the conversation: Ask questions, learn from other members, and share your perspective.

2. Initiate community.

Set up your own groups or forums and invite people you’ve met through similar groups to join. This will increase the strength of your relationships and your connection to an online community in your field.

3. Do your research.

Look for people who’ve been successful in your area of interest to find potential mentors, either directly or indirectly. Most people are happy to be contacted by fellow entrepreneurs for their advice and expertise — especially if you’ve already established yourself as an up-and-coming person in the field by connecting to online communities.

Startups need to be surrounded by people who understand what they’re trying to do and who can offer emotional, moral, technical, and even financial support. Seeking out help is one way to encourage a persistent mindset in yourself. In the meantime, be aware of what’s motivating you and consciously work to build the perseverance you’ll need to succeed.

Ken Oboh is the co-founder of REMIX.com and UMIX.com, two revolutionary music sites that give users the power to be their own DJs. Ken is a serial entrepreneur in the entertainment industry.

Now read I know we want venture capital but what is it?

Brandery 2012 Alumn Flightcar Nabs $5.5 Million From Investors Including Ryan Seacrest

So back in July when we heard the original idea behind FlightCar I thought this group of teenage ivy league dropouts was absolutely crazy. Their Cincinnati startup Flightcar is a crazy idea. Their simplest pitch, “let someone else rent your car while you’re traveling” seemed a little far fetched. Combine that with the fact that there’s maybe 10 years driving experience between the three of them and even less business traveling experience, and I was totally disconnected.

Sometime during the Brandery’s demo day back in October my opinion changed. By the end of their pitch, and then a brief meeting with all three founders and I was completely sold.

With the “sharing economy” becoming more and more popular, why wouldn’t someone let another person borrow their car while they are away on a trip. People are doing it with their homes all the time now, by way of Vayala and Airbnb.

The concept is fairly simple. You’re flying out of town for a trip and you have to pay for parking for your car. Rather than paying for parking, Flightcar allows you to park your car in their lot and then while your gone it gets rented out to someone else who is coming into town for the same length or a shorter amount of time. Now, instead of spending money to park, you’re making money with your car that would otherwise be sitting in a parking lot.

To make the value proposition work Flightcar founders Rujul Zaparde, Kevin Petrovic and Shri Ganeshram had to insure a few things for their customers to be comfortable with the transaction.

Insurance: Of course the entire transaction, car, renters, drivers and passengers would need to be fully insured. Flightcar has done this by securing a $1 million dollar insurance policy.

Ease of transaction: The Flightcar team has managed to build in several factors to make the transaction as easy and painless as possible. The Flightcar website helps pre-determine the “borrowing”. Once at the airport (participating airports), you park your car at the Flightcar lot where a ride is provided to the gate. Flightcar will also wash and clean your car prior to renting it out and prior to you picking it up.

After the Brandery, Flightcar was accepted into the YCombinator accelerator program in Silicon Valley. Now they’ve raises $5.5 million dollars from investors. This first round of funding comes from General Catalyst, Softbank Capital, Ryan Seacrest’s Seacrest Global Group, founder of Airbnb Brian Chesky, with participation from a host of other investors including First Round Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, according to TechCrunch.

Check out their pitch video from Brandery’s 2012 demo day below:

Find out more about Flightcar here at flightcar.com

The Brandery is one of the country’s top 15 accelerators, check out all of our Brandery coverage here.

St. Louis Arch Grants Sees 707 Applicants For 2013

Startups who applied, and have made the finals for the St. Louis Arch Grants startup program, are waiting on pins and needles leading up to the final pitch offs and winner announcements.

Arch Grants is a program that kicked off last year in St. Louis. They provide startups with a $50,000 grant (disbursed quarterly over a year). Of course, being that it’s grant money, there is no equity exchanged. Startups selected for the program will relocate to St. Louis where they will enjoy deeply discounted residential and commercial rent, free legal, accounting, marketing, cloud computing and mentoring support, and access to the St. Louis angel investment network.

Arch Grants will award 20 such grants this year and plan on making the announcement early next month. All 20 startups will serve as spokespeople for the St. Louis entrepreneurial community and also be eligible for $100,000 follow on grant money (again no equity).

Our good friend Edward Domain, at media company Techli was one such winner last year. Domain had frequented the St. Louis startup scene from his base of operations, which was Chicago at the time. Once receiving the grant Techli moved to St. Louis and the T-Rex co-working, incubation space.

Domain just recently profiled three of the finalists for this years grants at techli.com

While many startups from across the country apply, and are more than willing to move to St. Louis for it’s rich, budding startup community, some local entrepreneurs have applied too.

Ron Story, a local St. Louis resident and founder of LeadWarmer, told Domain:

“As a resident of the St. Louis metro area, St. Louis is a no-brainer for me. I’ve worked for a St. Louis based startup myself and now that I’ve launched my own venture and have some traction, I am more convinced than ever that St. Louis is exactly where I need to be to grow my business. Being an Arch Grants finalist is humbling and exciting all at once. It makes me proud an East St. Louis entrepreneur can grow a great business here.”

Check out the rest of the story at techli.com

St.Louis has a great startup community, check out more St. Louis startup stories here.

Pittsburgh Startup PayTango Moves Mobile Wallet To Your Fingertips

As the mobile wallet begins to catch on, the next wave of mobile wallet startups are starting to come alive as well. Back in January we interviewed New Jersey startup PulseWallet at CES 2013 in Eureka Park. There we learned that PulseWallet is working on biometrics to serve as someone’s mobile wallet.

Simply put, with this kind of technology you’ll be able to ditch your credit cards, debit cards, and loyalty cards. Instead, your finger will become your secure wallet. With a finger scan and a pin you’ll be able to pay for anything with any number of payment forms in a much safer, fraud resistant way.

PulseWallet isn’t alone. Biometrics is a hot space as is mobile wallet. Four Carnegie Mellon University students have also recently launched a biometrics based mobile wallet called PayTango.

According to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, using PayTango a customer would swipe there finger and in less than 15 seconds they would be linked to their payment sources.

“We wanted to eliminate the need to carry anything around to identify yourselves. Like you have these plastic credit cards and if you lose them or get the numbers stolen off them, essentially someone could wipe your bank account,” said co-founder Kelly Lau-Kee.

Lau Kee says that credit cards are antiquated and haven’t really evolved in the last 40 years since their introduction. Yes security has gotten better and reconciliation is much more reliable with phone lines and the internet,but storing the information on the magnetic strip is still the same technology today as it was back in the 70’s.

PayTango was brewed in Pennsylvania. All four founders; Brian Groudan, Umang Patel, Christian Reyes and Lau-Kee, are all either seniors or recent graduates of Carnegie Mellon. They conceived the idea in the fall of 2012 for a TechLab startup course at CMU and then continued working on it during the University of Pennsylvania’s PennApps Hackathon.

The technology is currently up and running at three eateries on the Carnegie Mellon campus. For the live beta at CMU, over 700 students have registered their fingerprint which was linked to their student ID which has their meal plan attached. To eat at those eateries, students in the beta just swipe their finger at checkout.

Now they’ve relocated to Mountain View California after being accepted into the prestigious Y Combinator accelerator program. They’ve already expanded PayTango into gyms, restaurants and convenience stores in Silicon Valley.

What they’re doing is bringing a very simple idea into reality,” said Garry Tan, a partner at Y Combinator. “Payments should be easier, and we’re now capable of doing it without fancy cards or readers or anything besides what we carry around with us all the time right now — our fingerprints.”

Find out more about PayTango here

Now check out New Jersey startup PulseWallet

Student Organization nvigor Hosting Philadelphia Student Startup Summit April 20th

An organization hoping to raise awareness and collaboration between Philadelphia’s college student community and business and industrial leaders in the region is hosting a startup event at the University of Pennsylvania. The event called the “Philadelphia Student Startup Summit” takes place this coming Saturday as part of the Philly Tech Week festivities.

The students in the organization come from a variety of schools in Philadelphia including the University of Pennsylvania, Temple and Drexel University where nvigor co-founder Abhiroop Das is a junior.

The Philadelphia Student Startup Summit is hoping to serve as an “Introduction To Philadelphia Startup Community” for many of the students, and business people who attend the day long event.

Event organizers have done a great job of keying up some of Philadelphia’s top startup community leaders as speakers. Josh Kopelman managing partner of First Round Capital and Karen Griffith Gryga, managing partner at Dreamit Ventures are both on tap to speak at the inaugural event.

The event will also feature a “startup alley” showcasing some of the regions best startups. Some of the startups are also looking to hire students right out of college.

Tickets can be picked up here, they are free but they’re running out quickly.

You can find out more about Philly Tech Week here.

Jax Startup Floppy Entertainment Founder: OneSpark Sparking Startup Community

OneSpark starts this Wednesday and runs through Sunday. It’s the first of it’s kind crowdfunding festival for “creators”. OneSpark is taking the crowdfunding concept made popular by Kickstarter, Indiegogo and of course every single startup that’s popped up since we’ve been waiting for the JOBSact,and brought it off line.
The festival will be like SXSW interactive meets SXSW music and everything in between as creators from around the world spread out at venues across downtown Jacksonville. For a good summary of OneSpark check out this story.

We’ll be talking with lot’s of creators on-site and some as we lead up to this epic event.

First up we have Michael Le Manna, the founder of Floppy Entertainment. In our interview with Le Manna he credits the OneSpark festival for really sparking startups and the startup community in Jacksonville. Even Shahid Khan, the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, is on board.

Check out the interview below and for more on OneSpark visit beonespark.com

What is your startup, what does it do?

Floppy Entertainment is the first game company in Jacksonville Florida, founded in 2012. It consists of a small group of highly talented programmers and artists. The vision of the company is to create a new and innovative gaming experience for people on a mobile platform to play for brief periods of time throughout the course of a normal day. Our interactive games are fun, easily understood and challenging. Players will be compelled to play again and again.

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

Michael La Manna creative lead, audio designer. Has been writing music for games and media for over 14 years.

Brian Marshburn programmer. Started programming games at the age of 8.

Thomas Schaffer lead technical artist. Master user of Maya software.

What is the startup culture like in Jacksonville?

Other than One Spark there has never been any support for a start up tech company such as game development.

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

The big challenge working in game development is the expensive software licensing fees.

What are some of the milestones your startup has achieved?

We have won multiple indie development contest and secured sponsorship from Microsoft.

What are your next milestones?

Our first mobile game will be released in the next 4 months.

Who are your mentors and role models?

Other independent game company’s such as Trendy Entertainment in Gainesville Florida, they have been very supportive.

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

One advantage is lack of competition but the big disadvantage is lack or interest of local support.

What’s next for your startup?

Develop and release at a minimum of 3 games a year.

Where can people find out more?

www.floppyent.com Or on twitter as floppyent

Check out more about OneSpark here at nibletz.com the voice of startups everywhere else

Startup Front, There’s Something Brewing Outside Of Chicago

We’re pretty confident that over the course of the last year Chicago’s thriving tech startup scene has proven the folks at PandoDaily wrong, very wrong. Chicago has one of the fastest growing startup tech scenes in the world. Their 1871 incubator and startup epicenter is amazing, producing hit after hit and now home to TechStars Chicago.
It’s this eruption of startup activity that got serial entrepreneur Kelly Schwedland and entrepreneur Nat Finn talking about what they could do on the other side of Chicago, in Valparaiso Indiana.

We’ve reported on Indiana’s other thriving startup communities, like Indianapolis, home to the Speak Easy, Developer Town and Verge Indy events. We even featured Speak Easy Executive Director Denver Hutt as one of our Bad Ass Startup Chicks.

Now, those in Northwest Indiana don’t need to head into the big city to have access to startup resources thanks to Schwedland, Finn and a host of other collaborators.

Startup Front started out as a lunch meet up for tech leaders, entrepreneurs and startup founders. Like every great startup though, they pivoted and have now become an accelerator, which will launch next year, with a ten year plan of cranking out at least 2 startups per session ripe for an IPO.

Nibletz co-founder and new CEO, Nick Tippmann, was a guest speaker at the kick off event for the new Startup Front last week in Valparaiso. Over the next two weeks we will feature a series of videos from Startup Front that discuss building startup communities in the heartland.

Check out the video below where Tippmann interviews both Finn and Schwedland. They discuss bringing some of the attributes of the third largest city in the United States, just miles down the road to North West Indiana.

Check out Startup Front at startupfront.org

We’ve got more startup stories from Indiana here at nibletz.com