4 Startup CoFounders You Don’t Want

Back in October we had a great guest post from Mike Moyer the author of “Slicing Pie: Funding Your Company Without Funds”. In that guest post Moyer talks about how to divide equity in a startup, fair and square. If you haven’t read it, it’s definitely worth the read.

Co-founder contribution is one of the biggest things that co-founders argue about when they are distributing equity. I’ve been down this road three different times and have learned some pretty important lessons along the way. My co-founder at nibletz.com, Nick Tippmann, compliments me and the business in ways that will hopefully make nibeltz succeed far beyond our wildest dreams.

Every startup isn’t so fortunate. Many startups and cofounders find that other people on their team fit into one of these four categories, at least in their first time around. Scott Annan at startupplays.com did a great job of summarizing them:

The Disappearing Cheerleader
Initially excited and enthusiastic about how your solution will change the world, they start missing meetings, not following up on things they said they’d do, are slower responding to emails. They’re on the to the next shiny object, and things get awkward.

The “All In If It Works Out”
Cautious from the beginning, you get the impression that this character is hedging her bets… Putting in enough time to be part of the team if it takes off, but keeping that day job, not changing their Linkedin Profile, or forgetting to mention your new super-awesome project at the latest meetup.

The Big Talker
This is the uber-connected person who can open any door with their massive contact list. But once you need their help, the contacts aren’t so quick to help, or aren’t as strong as you were led to believe. Or, worse, excuses are made why you’re not really “ready” for intros yet – and you get the feeling you’ll never be “ready” enough.

Allergic to Work
Despite an epic startup weekend, life gets in the way of getting stuff done.

It happens. And if you’ve ever started a company, it’s probably happened to you. Next is the awkward conversation “that-should-have-happened-a-long-time-ago” and ensuing equity renegotiation that at worst can kill your startup – and at best dilute your company unnecessarily.

Check out the rest of Annan’s post here, as well as Mike Moyer’s video on the “Dynamic Equity Split”

Fair and Square how to divide equity in a startup.

Holy Apples Batman, Steve Wozniak To Speak In Arkansas April 7th For Free

This announcement comes to us by way of Lee Watson and Startup Arkansas .

Apple co-founder, and generally awesome tech geek extraordinaire, Steve Wozniak is speaking at the University of Arkansas next Sunday April 7th. Doors open at 6:00p,. The lecture and Q&A, with are part of the University of Arkansas’ “Distinguished Lecture Series.

The talk will take place at the Barnhill Arena and is free and open to the public. Seating will be first come firs served, so arrive early.

More info here.

Listen Up Here’s How You Could Win A TechCrunch Startup Alley Booth

TechCrunch has just announced the first wave of their 2013 meetups and this year they’re coming with “Pitch Offs” as well.

TechCrunch held a pitch off event in New York City back in February. It was met with huge success. TechCrunch editor John Biggs called the event a “mini Disrupt”. If you’ve ever been to Disrupt in Asia, New York or San Francisco, it’s one of the most highly coveted startup events.

Now TechCrunch has announced meet-ups and pitch offs in Austin, San Diego and Boston.

The first event out of the gate is the Austin meetup on May 30th at the Stage On Sixth where TechCocktail held their pitch-off event during SXSW.

TechCrunch meetups are great. We were able to attend one in North Carolina and one in Atlanta last year. Both had nearly 1000 people through the door which came from every corner of the tech and startup community. There will be a handful of local startups and local startup support organizations, free alcohol and TechCrunch editors and reporters mingling and giving best practices and advice to startups. They even hold office hours.

This year they’re adding the pitch off event as well.

Participants will have 60 seconds to pitch the crowd and the TechCrunch judges. Products must be in private beta or stealth mode and ready to launch at TechCrunch Disrupt SF in September. The top prize at the Austin event is a free TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Alley booth. Of course the TechCrunch judges will also be vetting startups for the TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield stage for their chance at $50,000 and a crown that is almost always synonymous with follow on funding.

So if your startup wants into the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Alley, prepare to attend the Austin event in May!

More on the Austin meetup and pitch off here.

Did you miss everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, don’t miss the next one.

Bizoogo Is A Modern Bulletin Board Connecting Founders, Startups and Entrepreneurs [interview]

The latest “cofounder platform” promising to connect cofounders to launch the next wave of startups is in London and has a great name. London startup Bizoogo, is allowing UK entrepreneurs to search, connect and collaborate with partners and co-found new businesses.

“The website is organised as a Noticeboard for “People” and “Ideas”. If you’re looking to find a co-founder to help develop your business idea, search our database of “People”; if you want to contribute your time and skills to a new startup opportunity as a co-founder, search our database of “Ideas”.”

“To get started,you sign up for free; update your profile by specifying your location, expertise and the industries you’re interested in. If you have a startup idea, post a brief, specify your location, the industry of your idea, and the expertise you’re looking for in a co-founder. Now you can find or be found according to location, expertise and industry preferences. You can shortlist your top picks and connect privately or publicly via our messaging features. And when you’re ready to meet, come along to our monthly co-founder networking meetups to find out whether the connection is as good face-to-face as it is online.” Erez Nounou told nibletz.com in an interview.

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

Erez Nounou (CEO) – Erez started out as a commercial lawyer before jumping ship and getting involved in the London startup scene. Alongside founding bizoogo, he has also been involved in digital media and angel investing.

Nicolás Klein (CTO) – Nico is our all-knowing technical guru. From Buenos Aires, he’s been programming for over 6 years and has several desktop and mobile (android) applications to his name. He’s now working on the next set of game-changing features on bizoogo.

Where are you based?

London, UK.

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

The London startup scene is buzzing. We’ve got some of the best support and infrastructure in the world and the quality of our startup and investment community continues to improve and influence the European tech space. It’s a good time to be a startup in London, and as a grassroots entrepreneur community, we’ve got great seats.

How did you come up with the idea for Bizoogo?

The idea came about as a solution to my own startup dilemma of having an idea but not having the technical skills or the industry know-how to develop it. Starting up can be expensive and before proof of concept, risky. It seemed like a good idea to have a go-to, where you know from the start there’s a bunch of people from a range of industries and areas of expertise available and interested in working together, either to eliminate bad ideas early or to validate and develop good ones. That would give us all a cost-effective opportunity to start new businesses and to build better resourced teams from the start.

How did you come up with the name?

It all stemmed from the root word ‘zoog’, which in Hebrew means partner; the website is a place where entrepreneurs are able to find the partners they need to ‘go into business’. Put it all together and you get bizoogo – you go into business! The interlinking O’s in the logo design represent the partnership made up of ‘People’ and ‘Ideas’.

What problem does Bizoogo solve?

With an “ambition gap” in the UK that sees more than 44% of the population wanting to start a business but not doing it, and that “gap” largely follows worldwide, our aim is to bridge the gap by matching the ideators with the technical help they need to execute. Working together lets both sides bridge the creative, technical and financial gap that holds them back; it’s also a really easy, effective and fun way of validating ideas and building a community for those of us that are new to the scene and just scratching and exploring the surface.

What’s your secret sauce?

It’s informal, easy to use, clear in purpose, non-discriminatory and effective. Members across all industries and areas of expertise are able to connect and work together in partnerships that share the talent, time and cost of developing a new business. Instead of paying disconnected freelancers at a time when risks are high and money is limited, anyone can now find the people they need or collaborate on the ideas they like, with a shared interest to make it work. We also realise that lasting relationships don’t exist virtually, so having face-to-face opportunities to meet really helps.

Are you bootstrapped or funded?

Bootstrapped…investors, get in touch.

What is your goto market strategy?

We’re using social media to spread the word via facebook and twitter; we promote our events via meetup; we’re big on strategic partnerships and try to attend and get involved at as many industry events as possible.

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

The toughest challenge was finding the right people to work with. To start a new venture, you often don’t know where to start, who to ask or trust and there’s generally a lot of trial-and-error, particularly with freelancers. I think it’s a problem which knocks back a lot of people with business ideas because going beyond your own limited network is a step too far in the dark for most. We’ve created and personally used Bizoogo to help overcome that problem, and it’s fast becoming a really credible go-to community and first point of call for many UK entrepreneurs, because you’re sure to find a mix of different skills, experience and ideas, with the joint aim of collaborating and co-founding new ventures.

Who are some of your mentors and business role models?

We’ve got a solid network of experienced and exited entrepreneurs across digital and traditional business. I think we’re lucky in that we meet so many passionate and enthusiastic entrepreneurs through our events and our day-to-day that it always provides us with a good measure of inspiration and learning.

What’s next for Bizoogo?

We’re looking to create an end-to-end startup ecosystem where ideas are conceived, developed, grown and funded into profitable businesses.

We want the platform to become a creative, dynamic and ambitious hub packed full of ideas and professionals looking to get involved across the industries, and we want to make sure we’re able to help any business from idea through to sustainability. Watch this space!

You can find out more about Bizoogohere.

This California startup is making smoking marijuana more professional

Chattanooga’s CoLab Hosting Women’s 48 Hour Launch

Tennessee is a great state for startups. There are 9 accelerator regions across the state, that draw resources from Launch Tennessee, and one of the most active Startup America Regions. Startup Tennessee was the second Startup America region launched two years ago.

The major accelerator hubs across the state; Memphis,Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga work very well together and naturally collaborate on ideas and generally help each other out.

That’s why when Memphis held the UpStart 48 Hour Launch for women in December two young women from Chattanooga joined in the festivities and pitched in all weekend long. Next weekend on April 5th, Launch Your City Chief Relationship Officer Elizabeth Lemmonds, will return the favor by taking part in the city’s first women’s 48 Hour Launch.

48 Hour Launch works very similarly to the Startup Weekend model, just a few hours shorter.

Friday April 5th, the community will gather up all the interested female entrepreneurs. At that time the women will pitch their idea to the audience. A voting process will take place and it will be decided which teams will continue on to create a business in 48 Hours.

Saturday the teams will continue to work on their startups and Sunday they will be judged. Danielle Inez, and her event in a box startup, Pink Robin Avenue, won the Memphis event back in December. Inez won a free booth at Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference.

CoLab has put together sponsor supported prize packages of great business services for the top three teams on Sunday.

For more information click here

4.2% of venture capital funded startup deals go to women.

When VC’s Hear Entrepreneur They Think “Man”

Women Entrepreneurs, Clayman Institute, Sexism,startups

(image: womenentrepreneurshq.com)

A new study from the Clayman Institute for gender research at Stanford suggests that there is still a major gender bias in how Venture Capitalists view women entrepreneurs. While we love to celebrate entrepreneurship among women, and have done so with our recently launched“Bad Ass Startup Chicks” feature and by having women focused panels at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, not everyone is quick to recognize the female entrepreneur.

Business Insider has an advance of the study which says that women only receive 4.2 percent of venture capitalist fuunding.

At the heart of the study was a project where the researchers created identical executive summaries for a startup. They then modified the education and gender of the fictional entrepreneur and asked participants to rate the venture’s likelihood of success and their impression of the entrepreneur.

The three key takeaways were:

– Women with a technical education and background raised the confidence in the VC’s and their willingness to meet and potentially invest.

– Women without a technical background received “significantly lower” ratings. Even if they had business degrees, which often help men, they were harmful for women.

– Network ties were incredibly critical for women.

“What we found was that having a technical background helped both men and women,” said Stanford’s Andrea Davies Henderson. “But it helped women more, in terms of likelihood to invest a higher percentage, and likelihood to schedule a meeting with an entrepreneur.”

“Not having a technical background hurt women — it hurt their chances of securing a meeting and securing funding,” Henderson continued. “But it didn’t hurt men.”

Women in startups, entrepreneurship and business have been a hot button topic since the release of Sheryl Sandberg’s book “Lean In”. The Clayman Institute was the academic partner for the book.

Find out more here and here.

Check out these stories on women founded startups.

OFFICIAL: Paul Singh Unveils Dashboard.io Steps Down From 500 Startups

A few weeks ago during SXSW we had heard some rumblings that DC area native Paul Singh was tapping his network back east and preparing to launch a startup of his own, sort of.

This announcement from TechCocktail says it’s official. Armed with a $250,000 investment from DC based NextGenAngels, Singh is embarking on a mission to take a system he developed that has been used internally at 500 Startups and bring it out to the world.

While we were in Silicon Valley last week we stopped by for a three hour tour and a cool session with 500 Startups Fire Chief George Kellerman. Kellerman reiterated the positive things that many of the 500 Startups founders we’ve talked to have said about their internal dashboard system, which is the Dashboard.io product Singh is now working on full time.

The dashboard system has allowed 500 Startups founders, and 400 accelerator companies to communicate internally with VC’s, Angels and Mentors. Sarah Ware, CEO and Founder at 500 Startups alum Markerly, told us “The dashboard system gives us access to people that may not necessarily correspond with us outside of the system.” Being a 500 Startups company certainly gives a startup credibility but Ware added “potential investors and mentors get back to us quicker when the message comes through the system.”

“This thing is so deceivingly simple, but it’s amazing that no VCs have really innovated in this space,” Singh said to TechCocktail.

New startups sign up for the system using Angel List. Dashboard.io gives them access to their investor’s networks where they can start having discussions, send private messages and make comments. If a startup shares their analytics, the system gives investors access to comparative data on how the startup stacks up against other startups and their competition.

As of this writing there have been 18,509 interactions, 2,224 mentor sessions across 1,044 funded startups.

For more info check out dashboard.io

500 Startups Founder Dave McLure says Buying a house is far more risky than investing in startups.

Everywhereelse.co 2013 In Just About 3 Minutes (Ticket News for 2014) [video]

If you missed everywhereele.co The Startup Conference 2013, then you missed the largest single venue startup conference in the United States dedicated to one thing. That thing is, startups “everywhere else”.

Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference 2013, and Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference 2014 provide programming, celebrations, pitch contests, parties and networking opportunities that are extremely relevant for startups outside Silicon Valley.

The 2013 conference featured a huge startup village exhibition, along with workshops, keynotes, small groups and round table discussions on the issues that matter to startups in entrepreneurial pockets across the country and around the world.

Kick Ass Female Founders From Everywhere Else, Legaleeze, You Only Launch Once, applying and graduating from accelerators and more were at the forefront of the 2013 event. After parties that included free tickets to a Memphis Grizzlies NBA game, a historic brothel (Ernestine & Hazels), and the craziest throw back disco ever, dj’d by a world famous pimp (Raifords), were just some of the great social events.

2014 features a lot more similar content focused on acceleration, access to capital, access to talent, branding, design and pitching. Mike Muhney the godfather of CRM (co-creator of ACT which was the standard before SalesForce), Baker Donelson legal panels and workshops, and design, naming and branding with the folks at nationally known archer>malmo are just some of the discussions, topics and content coming in 2014.

The Marriott is offering $109 per night rooms for the event which runs February 17-19th 2014. American Airlines is also offering reduced fares and Avis is offering reduced rental cars.

This year we are also providing breakfast and lunch on both conference days.

Tennessee startup GreenPal and J Brant Films, Jeffrey Brant, who’s worked with national country recording artists in Nashville, have provided the video montage below. Check out Everywhereelse.co 2013 in nearly 3 minutes below.

The early bird special, where you can purchase attendee tickets and Startup Village booths at 2013 prices for the next conference, has been extended from March 27th to March 31st (Sunday night) or until the early bird tickets and startup village booths run out. Check out the ticket registration form below the video for availability.

Event management for Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference 2014 powered by Eventbrite

DC Startup Quad2Quad Goes Free Just In Time For Spring Break

Susan Jones (68) and Elizabeth Van Sant (54) co-founders of Quad2 Quad in their booth at everywhereelse.co (photo: Allie Fox for NMI)

Two amazing ladies from Washington DC are working on their startup Quad2Quad at warp speed. You would think that these were two twenty something entrepreneurs, young, hungry and ready to work 100 hours per week. Well they’re hungry and working 100 hours per week, but Susan Jones is 68 and co-founder Elizabeth Van Sant is 54.

These two mothers, business women and now startup founders in Washington DC are old enough to be Mark Zuckerberg’s moms. Their startup, Quad 2 Quad, was actually created because Van Sant and Jones have become somewhat pro’s at getting their kids off to college. They know the ins, the outs and “the ropes”.

We’ve interviewed and profiled quite a few college bound startups at nibletz.com. We interviewed Cleveland startup CollegeSkinny who’s platform helps high school students transition from high school to college. We featured CiteLighter which is a highlighting bookmarklet app that allows users to easily make citations in their research. Exceleratr, a New York startup, connects high school students to much needed extra-curricular activities outside of the high school campus. We also interviewed Swedish startup Studemia, which is a collaboration tool for students as well as CampusShift, a Youngstown startup looking to take a bite out of college debt.

Jones and Van Sant’s startup aims to help parents of perspective college students, simplify the college visit planning process. Quad2Quad essentially becomes the college visitor’s personal assistant.

Quad2Quad took part in the AppNation conference in San Francisco earlier this year and everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference. Despite having post college aged children Jones and Van Sant mix it up, network and mingle with the best of the college aged entrepreneurs.

Currently they are looking for avenues to raise money, continuing to iterate on their app and developing as much traction as they can.

Quad2Quad just announced that they are going “free” in the app store, just in time for college spring break. The app currently offers 74 colleges and 12 itineraries. They add more and more colleges all the time. They plan on adding another 35 schools in the month of April.

You can find out more about Quad2Quad here and download the iOS app here.

Check out these other Washington DC Startup stories here.

New Jersey Startup Refundo Puts The Bank In The Palms Of The Hands Of The Underbanked

Mobile banking is nothing new. Just about every bank in the world has some kind of mobile presence that can be accessed in a variety of places. Most banks are starting to allow camera phone pics of checks for deposits, even PayPal allows you to add to your account using your phone’s camera.

New Jersey Startup Refundo has started with the mobile bank. “Refundo gives millions of Americans (68MM in the US alone) the opportunity to transition into the financial mainstream, by allowing them to open a bank account right from their mobile phone in 30 seconds or less. Their mobile bank account comes with a MasterCard debit card and mobile app which will provide them with their bank balance, transaction history, access to tens of thousands of ATM and deposit locations in the US, and more” CEO Roger Chinchilla told nibletz.com in an interview.

The underbanked and unbanked tend to be low-moderate income individuals who don’t have access to or can’t afford a traditional bank. With Refundo, if you have a phone, you have a bank.

We got a chance to talk more in-depth with Chinchilla, check out the interview below:

What is Refundo?

Refundo is a provider of high-quality and affordable financial products and services that are unmatched in this industry, tailored to meet the unique needs of the underserved communities.

Refundo founders Grimaldy Dominguez and Robert Chinchilla (photo: cnn.com)

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

Roger Chinchilla CEO- Roger currently resides in New Jersey with his wife and 2 kids and is an avid open source developer. After brief stints at Queens College where he studied accounting and NYU where he studied computer science, he founded a tax preparation office in Elizabeth NJ. A year later (2005) he hired his good friend from high school that had recently graduated from college and wanted to put his knowledge to use.

Grimaldy Dominguez CFO- Grimaldy currently resides in New York City and currently controls the finances at Refundo. He graduated from Paul Smith College in NY with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration. Together with Roger, they built a tax practice that currently serves over a thousand clients annually with offices both in NY and NJ and clientele across the US. He currently oversees 150 professional tax preparation offices nationwide.

Bryan Amason SVP SALES & MARKETING- Bryan Received his BS Degree in CMP at Oral Roberts University, Tulsa OK. Bryan began his software career working for a privately held tax and accounting software company that was later acquired by Intuit. He worked in the tax software industry for 15+ years and has a lot of experience on how traditional tax software companies operate. He has always been ranked as a top sales executive earning ranks such as National Account Manager / Premier Accounts at Intuit. He managed a national/premier sales team of 5 while at Intuit, which managed millions of dollars in software sales.

Jeremiah Nivar COO- Jeremiah holds a BA degree in Accounting with a minor in Business Administration. He brings over 20 years of legal accounting and banking experience to Refundo. At the NYC Bar Association he was a staff accountant and handled the day-to-day activities of the association. He then became a member of an AM LAW 100 international firm for 12 years. He began as a portfolio accountant, transitioned to the role of escrow manager / banking liaison and finished his career as assistant to the treasurer.

Where are you based?

Elizabeth, New Jersey, United States

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

Being headquartered so close to NYC is advantage for us, as the city has a thriving startup scene and is now firmly established as the number two innovation hub behind Silicon Valley. New York City is big on several industries including tech, finance, and media, which give us the opportunity to draw on a wide-range of resources.

How did you come up with the idea for Refundo?

My co-founder, Grimaldy Dominguez, and I grew up in Queens, New York watching workers pay enormous fees to simply cash paychecks at check cashing locations. In 2009, two years after launching the accounting software company Rushtax, we realized an opportunity to help this underserved community. Many of the customers who turned to us for tax preparation did not have a bank account to deposit their tax refund. Seeing the dire need for a change, we decided to create a solution that would allow our clients to establish and access a bank account right from their mobile phones.

How did you come up with the name?

At the time, we were focused almost entirely on tax refund products, so it was a logical approach. I just added an “o” to Refund. It doesn’t get easier than that. The name complements our philosophy: No junk fees. The fees that we do charge, however, are market competitive, often below industry average, and always fully disclosed. We refund the junk fees that traditional banks like to charge. That’s Refundo.

What problem does Refundo solve?

Due to the recent financial system crisis, financial institutions began targeting those who maintained low account balances by introducing some new, and not very transparent, fees; resulting in an increasing amount of people with no access to traditional and the most basic bank products. Refundo aims to tackle these social problems head on with an incredible mobile banking experience minus the unnecessary (junk) fees that are usually associated with this type of product. Mainly founded on the principle that the underserved community deserves an easy to use and fresh alternative to banking, as they know it.

What’s your secret sauce?

I would say our secret sauce is being committed to our broader social mission of achieving long-term, meaningful change for marginalized communities and utilizing technology to make this change. With the right team -working towards the same common goal- and technologies, all kinds of obstacles can be overcome.

Are you bootstrapped or funded?

Bootstrapped

What are some milestones you’ve achieved?

Refundo now employs a team of 25 with experience from all across the financial services industry and over 500 tax professionals nationwide now offer to process returns through our program.

What’s your next milestone?

Our next milestone is to launch our mobile banking application to the general audience, people who are actively seeking a banking product that fits their need. We are currently in QA testing and expect to launch beta in March 2013.

Who are some of your mentors and business role models?

I don’t really have business role models or mentors. I just try to emulate chess grand masters.

What’s next for Refundo?

Ingenuity is what started Refundo in the first place, so the revolution does not end here. Our plan is to introduce our great product to the rest of the World. We are actively seeking partnerships in Latin America and Canada with established businesses, where the percentage of underserved customers is significant and keeps rapidly increasing every day. Three of our Four founders are 1st generation immigrants who understand the underserved community in LATAM better than anyone else. Equipped with groundbreaking technology, awesome products, and a clear understanding of the market, our team is the best for this particular mission.

Where can people find out more?

Request your invite at: www.refundo.com Follow us on Twitter: @refundo Like us on FB: facebook.com/refundos

Have you seen these startup interviews at nibletz.com?

Tourize Gamifys Sign Up Process With Madness In March

Indiana startup Tourize is working on a new way to travel. Where most travel apps focus on booking flights or hotels cheaply, Andrew Heil, founder of Tourize, wants to put the “tour” back into travel.

“We believe that often times knowledge is missing as each tourist experiences a new attraction or is planning a new trip.’ Heil told nibletz.com in an interview. They’re currently accelerating in the “RunUp Labs, the travel technology accelerator which runs through demo day on May 10th.

RunUp Labs is part of a new wave of vertical accelerators, that many accelerator proponents feel is the model to go with. This accelerator only caters to startups in the travel sector and as such they can refine their mentors.

” It’s been great. My team and I have been working around the clock and of course learning a whole lot.” Heil said about RunUp Labs and the program they offer.

So how do you get people to sign up for a beta of a startup that’s doing things differently, especially if you’re based “everywhere else”. Well you do what it takes to create excitement and buzz and in the case of Tourize that means taking advantage of the NCAA tournament with their Madness in March sign up promotion.

Heil said “I thought if “Hipster” could get 10k signups with just a launch page and mailbox app could make a que of 600k signups, certainly I could make madness in march happen!”

“And it’s starting to – we launched on Sunday 3/24 and have already passed 1,000 page views rather quickly in the first 5 hours. We’ve continued to that rate and are at 2,500 page views in the first 36 hours. After reaching out to people who have signed up, people are interested in the hype of a new way to travel and of course, being part of the tournament!” Heil continued.

Tourize is tweeting out the tournament stats via their Twitter feed @tourizeapp.

They will shortly narrow down the field to see who the final four early adopters of Tourize are.

You can find out more about Tourize here.

Thinking about an accelerator check out these startup accelerator stories.

Little Rock Entrepreneurs Prepare For Startup Weekend April 5-7th

We were recently in Arkansas for the kickoff of Startup Arkansas, it was there we got to meet some of the Arkansas community leaders. Arkansas has four major startup regions and Little Rock is one of them.

Over the course of SXSW we got to spend a lot of time with the Startup Weekend team and provided some non traditional coverage of the organization that’s not only supporting entrepreneurs but entire communities as well.

Startup Weekend is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a three day hackathon style event to create businesses. It’s also the best place to go when you have an “idea” according to Startup Weekend CEO Marc Nager.

The three day event heads to Little Rock next weekend April 5th-7th at the Clinton School of Public Services, 1200 President Clinton Ave, Little Rock, AR.

Registration will begin on Friday evening at 6:30pm. That will be followed by great networking dinner where attendees will be able to size up the competition and the possible teammates for the weekend. The presentation will begin at 7:20pm. At around 7:30pm the “Friday Night” pitches will begin. We’ve covered a lot of startup weekends and you can see plenty of Friday night pitches here at nibletz.com.

The Friday night pitches are 60 seconds and hard timed by a Startup Weekend official. In that 60 seconds you need to sell the audience your idea and why it should be built over the next 53 hours. After everyone who wants to pitch has been given the opportunity, community voting will commence. It’s a rather diplomatic process. Usually the pitchers will hold up a sign with their startup name on it and attendees will put a sticker on the idea they like the best. At the end of the process, those with the most stickers will have their ideas developed.

Friday evening typically tops off with team selection and then some icebreaker time with the teams. From there the teams break off and start working on the startup idea.

Saturday, the community coaches come into play. These seasoned entrepreneurs and local business folks are there to help answer questions for each team and provide ideas and suggestions. The coaches for Startup Weekend Little Rock are Kristian Anderson, KA+A Founder and President; Dustin Williams, UX Architect and Designer; Josh Clemence, CEO, Founder BLKBOXLabs; Mike Smith Jr, Advisor at Innovate Arkansas, Whitney Horton, Arkansas Small Business and technology development center marketing specialist; John Twyford, Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center Startup Finance & Management Consultant; Mike Steely, eCommerce and Entrepreneurship Coordinator, Arkansas Capital Corporation; Lee Watson, Owner of Clarovista; Ted Dickey, Advisor at Innovate Arkansas; Stuart McLendon, Senior Financial Analyst at CFO Network, Adjunct Professor of Finance at UALR; and Luke Coleman, Software Developer III at ABC Financial Services.

Saturday is also the day that most teams take to the streets, the phones, the emails and the interwebs to get customer validation on their startup project. All the while designers, developers and coders are working on pitch decks, wire frames, prototypes and products.

Sunday is the day the teams put the finishing touches on both their products and their presentations. At 5:00pm and not a second later, the selected teams will have five minutes to pitch their idea and have a brief Q&A with the judges. Startup Weekend Little Rock judges are: Millie Ward, Co-Founder/President Stone Ward; Jeff Amerine, Venture Capitalist/leader Innovate Arkansas; Arlton Lowry, Designer / Founder, Made by Few / Adjunct Professor of Art, UALR; Jeff Stinson, Director, Center for Innovation & Commercialization at UALR; and Jeanette Balleza, Bad Ass Startup Chick and Director ARK Challenge.

You can register for Startup Weekend Little Rock here

Here’s more Startup Weekend Stories at nibletz.com

California Startup Communly Is Building Communities Of Like Minded People [video]

Alaxic Smith and Neil Parikh met each other a little over two years ago when they embarked on their first startup remotely. At the time Alaxic (Alex) was only 15 and Neil was 18. They had started a social network of sorts and built up that community to over 15,000. They knew they were onto something.

The problem was that Neil was based in San Francisco and Alaxic was based in Texas. Alaxic had this little thing called school that made it impossible for him to uproot himself and move to the valley to continue building that startup.

Well two years later, and Alaxic made a brave move. He left high school to focus on he and Neil’s latest startup Communly.

So what is Communly? Alaxic tells us: “Communly is all about communities. Communities are essentially groups of people who have a shared interests. Communities act as a blank canvas for people to create relevant content for the community. On the flip side of things, community managers can feature content that they find to represent the community as well. We believe that we’re providing users with tools that allow them to define the social web they want to see and we also provide a more relevant experience for users.”

Neil told us in an interview it’s about putting like minds together. They seem to be picking up a lot of traction around musicians and artists that are still building loyal followings. They also have communities about hiking, outdoors, art, and even startups.

They aren’t in an accelerator class, nor are they incubating anywhere accept Neil’s apartment at the moment but they are attacking communly with the vigor found in most thriving startups.

Check out our quick video interview with Neil as he tells us all about Communly. For more info visit communly.com

Apparently money doesn’t grow on trees in Silicon Valley

Tampa Bay Wave Announces First Accelerator Class

The paint is hardly dry at the Tampa Bay Wave incubator and accelerator. No, literally they just opened their doors on March 15th and with that, the center that prides itself on being by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs, announces it’s inaugural class.

Michael LaPlante, the curator of the Tampa Bay Startup Digest announced the first 8 startups to accelerator at Tampa Bay Wave in Monday morning’s digest. Here they are:

SHOOTRAC: Provides organizations of all sizes a simple way to capture big data on its customers, assets and workforce and use the information to leverage these resources for maximum efficiency and customer service using a cloud-based, scalable Software as a Service solution

Cartooga: Through its proprietary e-commerce platform and expert staff, Cartooga, Coracent offers shopping cart hosting and a variety of conversion optimization features designed to help businesses open an online store, drive traffic and increase conversion rates.

Secondhand Living: An e-commerce site where consignment, antique and thrift shops, as well as architectural salvage material suppliers promote their businesses and offer their products for sale. There are thousands of these independently owned shops in North America (even more abroad) and the majority of them have no online presence.

Drawer: A technology product expressed initially through a mobile application that provides a framework for capturing and cataloging real-life recommendations between friends and acquaintances. Drawer helps to catalog across various verticals – places, movies, music, products, books, etc. – in order to provide a comprehensive and centralized place for storing this information.

Commendable Kids: It is a community of children striving to be the best they can, as they work toward earning badges that can then be proudly displayed and shared with their supporters. Commendable Kids helps encourage and challenge children to learn new skills and reach new milestones.

Confy.co: Confy.co helps track and organize an event from start to finish by providing targeted solutions and management tools to conference organizers, sponsors, hosts and other event-related personnel to successfully manage the myriad of data, requirements and essential organizational needs.

Kite Desk: A personal cloud information manager that lets users connect their cloud service accounts and automatically links and organizes their messages, contacts, files, events and more into useful streams of information. Kite Desk provides the unique value of personalized, contextual computing to both web and mobile clients.

SavvyCard: A mobile web platform for actively referring business transactions. It combines features of an online business card with an intelligent referral system that generates measurable leads and sales. SavvyCard offers a convenient way to pass “warm” referrals from any web enabled device, track and respond to referrals in real time, reward referral behavior and build mobile-friendly referral networks.

Obviously Tampa Bay Wave is off to a great start, we expect to hear a lot more from them. If you’re in the Tampa Bay area you can find out more here.

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