Bonfyre Is Back As The Official App For Everywhere Else Conference, And We’ve Got Two Tickets To SXSWi To Give Away

Bonfyre, St. Louis startup, Everywhere Else Cincinnati, startup conference, SXSWBonfyre, is back as the official app for the Everywhere Else Conference. Everywhere Else Cincinnati kicks off Sunday night with a welcome party open to the public.

St. Louis startup Bonfyre is a social engagement app that allows you to share thoughts, updates, information, and photos across a closed social network and then outward to your normal social channels including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

At Everywhere Else Memphis last February we used Bonfyre, and the attendees of the conference stayed in the Bonfyre and kept interacting well into the summer.

Bonfyre will allow entrepreneurs, startup founders, investors, panelists, and startup support to keep up with all the conference go-ers in the event’s own channel. In addition to Everywhere Else, Bonfyre was also been the official app for last year’s PowderKeg conference, OneSpark in Florida, and even for St. Louis Rams games.

Bonfyre keeps things going in an easy-to-understand and engaging platform. For Everywhere Else Cincinnati we’ll have two different Bonfyre’s. O will be limited to information about the conference, scheduling, maps, and important information from the conference staff. The other will be the Bonfyre the entire group will use. That’s where the fun begins.

Bonfyre and Nibletz have teamed up to give away a pair of SXSWi 2014 passes (passes only) for March 2014. The interactive passes will give you access to the entire interactive conference tract at SXSWi and many of the awesome parties. The passes have a value of over $1400! We will be looking for the most engaged and interactive Bonfyre user throughout the course of the conference.

So go download Bonfyre in the iTunes app store or the Google Play Store and then scan the QR Codes below to get into the Bonfyre’s. We’ll see you this weekend.

Use this QR code to get into the Info Bonfyre for Everywhere Else Cincinnati:

Bonfyre-Inform

Use this QR code to get into the Engage Bonfyre for Everywhere Else Cincinnati:

Bonfyre-engage

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Knoxville Based bounceit Launches Social Decision Making Platform

bounceit, Knoxville startup, Tennessee startup, startup launch

A group of Knoxville entrepreneurs has launched a new and exciting social decision making app called bounceit. Now social decision making isn’t anything new, we’ve seen several startups try and succeed in this space.

Startups like Brooklyn based JustDecide come to mind when we think about social decision making platforms. Where others have fallen short in the past though, the crew at bounceit has figured out ways to make social decision making more fluid, easy to take in and easier to decide and vote on. Their highly visual platform makes the entire process more intuitive.

Users begin by uploading a question or statement, accompanied by a photo: “Should I buy this outfit?” “Is this car cool?” “Want to go out after the game?” Other users vote your question up or down for yes/no, or like/dislike. A realtime line graph shows you all theirresponses over time to aid in your decision making!

bounceit1Until bounceit, many people relied on Facebook and their own social networks to help make decisions; “With bounceit!™, a user can post an opinion, decision, idea or just a cool photo, and thanks to our unique line graph they’ll actually see instantly if people agree or not. It’s crowd-sourced decision making at its best! With our graphing capabilities, a user immediately sees if something is a like or a dislike. You can see whether there is overwhelming agreement or any struggle it has gone through among users. That tells a much more powerful story than a bar graph or percentages.” co-founder Gary Hardin told nibletz in an interview.

bounceitferari

Hardin explained, “People today research and bounce ideas off friends before they do something or buy an item. bounceit!™ streamlines that process for them. Crowdsourced sharing and decision making is everywhere now. We just make it more fun and in one centralized location!”

Bounceit is now available in the iTunes app store, download it here. For more information visit bounceit.com. Check out Bounceit in person at Everywhere Else Cincinnati.

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A Big Shift in the Mobile App Industry

Mobile Apps, Guest Post, DIY Apps

More than one million people a day buy smartphones. And more than a billion apps are being downloaded every single day. Many of these apps are either free or come at a very minimal cost, making them available to the masses. However, most of these apps are built by large corporations who can afford to hire app developers and spend a great deal of time and money developing them.

Until recently the smaller players, such as small and medium businesses, charitable organizations, indie musicians, and even individuals, could not break into the app creation field; it was simply too time and cost prohibitive to create an app. The thousands of dollars and months of development work posed a huge barrier to entry into the world of apps.

The good news is that there is a paradigm shift happening right before our very eyes. The state of the “AppConomy” is changing. There are three companies that I see as the real frontrunners and leaders in the AppConomy. These companies, Appcelerator, Appsbar, and Parse.com have made it possible for millions of small and medium business and consumers who have a passion to be able to build apps on their own, without spending a lot of time or money.

Appcelerator offers a program that allows developers with some technology background to make an app for Windows, Facebook, Android, or iPhone all in one place. Although they do charge for the software, this software makes it easier, less expensive, and less time consuming for a small business to create an app. A couple of years ago, there were less than 100,000 app developers on the major market. To date, Appcelerator has empowered over 480,000 mobile developers and helped create over 55,000 new apps.

Next in the line-up of companies changing the face of the AppConomy is Appsbar. Whereas Appcelerator requires some developer expertise to use, Appsbar’s platform allows regular people with virtually no programming or technical expertise to build their own app. The step-by-step wizard makes it as easy to create an app as it is to create a Facebook page. To date, Appsbar has empowered over 450,000 people to create professional, quality apps. The software is completely free, making it even easier for individuals, charitable organizations, musicians, educators, and virtually anyone to create an app.

The big difference between Appcelerator and Appsbar, aside from the fact that Appsbar is free of charge, is that if a company wants an app that will BE their business, they are probably better off using Appcelerator. However, if a company or individual needs an app FOR their business, they can easily go to Appsbar and do it themselves free of charge, and in virtually no time.

The final player that has made its push in the paradigm shift of the AppConomy is Parse.com, which was recently purchased by Facebook for $85 billion. Parse.com offers a tool that makes it much easier to develop Facebook apps. Parse.com is similar to Appsbar and Appcelerator in that they offer a tool that makes app development easier and more cost-effective. The major difference is that Parse only offers assistance with Facebook apps, not apps for smartphone devices.

When you take a look at the most valuable and popular websites, search engines, and social networking sites today, you will notice that they all have two things in common: they are easy to use and they are free. Popular digital and interactive media has been built on the concept of the free source. Based on these three apps companies alone, it’s just a matter of time before apps make a similar transition. The barriers of app making are breaking down. Thousands of entrepreneurial people, non-profits, small and medium businesses, and even larger companies who want to save money are beginning to realize that the app market is becoming more open and available for the masses.

While tech giants like Apple, Google, and Facebook have reaped huge rewards from the mobile app explosion, those that really drive the app economy have been locked out and priced out of the app market until now. The millions of consumers and small businesses that have downloaded billions of apps and purchase close to a half billion smart phones a year were left on the sidelines until companies like Appcelerator, Appsbar and Parse.com made it possible and affordable for them to get in to the app game.

Robert Weneck has made incredible contributions to the fields of news media and journalism over the past 40 years. Throughout the course of his career, he has been a consultant and publicist for the White House and has worked on major projects with seven U.S. Presidents and news colleagues such as Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley, and John Chancellor. He also served as a news media advisor to President Ford and several sports figures and celebrities, such as Don King, Evil Knievel, and Marvin Hamlisch. Weneck’s valuable contributions recently earned him the honor of being Florida Businessman of the Year.

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Sioux Falls Visual Marketing Startup Lemon.ly Launches Full, A New iOS App

lemonly, lemon.ly, Sioux Falls Startup, Startup, John T. MeyerLemon.ly, a visiual marketing startup based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is known for eye popping infographics and graphically pleasing data-driven campaigns. Companies like Samsung, Planters, and even the Grammy Awards have used Lemon.ly for infographics, data visualization, interactive, design, and presentations.

The company boasts a solid rock star team, including co-founder and CEO John T. Meyer who is speaking at Everywhere Else Cincinnati in September.

Now they’ve taken their eye for design and user experience and turned it into possibly the easiest to use, read, and understand mobile app for goal tracking. In fact the name in itself is totally awesome: it’s called Full.

Full lets the user track, measure, and visualize what’s important to them, with a simple, clean, and easy to understand design. With Full you can track anything from your workout regimen to how many books you’ve read. On their blog, lemon.ly even suggests you can track how often you call your mom (you know, the important stuff).

Features include:

> Add an unlimited amount of monthly goals

> Quantify how many times you want to achieve your goal

> Swipe to ADD, SUBTRACT, EDIT, or DELETE your goals

> Visualize your goal history to see how you did and improve next month

The app is available now in the app store here.

See Lemon.ly co-founder and CEO John T Meyer at this huge startup conference.

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Turn Your Idea Into A Startup On Your iPhone With Elevatr

Elevatr, NY Startup,Startup Interview

Entrepreneurs are currently using a wide variety of mobile apps to help plan and launch their startups. Some entrepreneurs use productivity solutions like Xtrant and Basecamp; others are using GoogleDocs; and some go “low-tech” with just their iPhone’s notepad app. I’ve seen some startup founders who have pages and pages of research, drawings, flow charts, customer discovery, and other pieces of the entrepreneur’s puzzle laid out across multiple iPhone and Android apps.

With an entrepreneur’s brain going 100mph these current solutions can be chaotic at best… until now…

New York-based entrepreneurs David Spiro and Rafa Amormin know the pain of turning ideas into startups using fragmented apps all too well. Until now there was no app in any app store that was specifically designed for hashing out startup ideas.

The Elevatr App is currently available in the iTunes app store, and we’ve been playing with it a bit. The UI is basic and very easy to understand. The beauty of the app lies in the fact that it functions like a Q&A business plan designer, but the output is on your own mobile device.

Using Elevatr App you start with an idea and then go through market, product, business model, and execution. Rather than leaving wide open questions that someone with a new idea may find confusing, Spiro and Amormin have divided each category into sub categories asking the questions that you would typically find in a business model canvas. It’s obvious that Spiro and Amormin are entrepreneurs and not just developers.

We got a chance to talk with Spiro:

EE-LASTCHANCEWhat is Elevatr?

Elevatr is an iOS app that helps guide raw business ideas into concise business plans.

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

The whole point of the app is to give you a structured business plan outline so that you just have to think about building the content for your plan, not the structure of the plan itself. Imagine a very beautiful business plan template broken down into a handful of categories including Problem, Target Market, and Product Features where you can tap on any category to include notes and dynamic media to easily create a business plan from your mobile device. Each business plan can be shared so you can get feedback, work on it with teammates, or pitch it to investors. Users can work on as many ideas as they’d like.

 Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

David Spiro, Founder and CEO, received the University of Michigan Business School’s Award for Excellence in Entrepreneurship for his business modeling expertise. Started 2 companies as an undergrad and played baseball for UMICH.

Rafa Amorim, Founder and CTO, building backends globally since he was 15, having been an integral part of building Paymentez, a multinational e-wallet company that has 4 million users.

Where are you based?

We are based in SoHo, NYC.

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

Technology underlies all industries today but startups are not the leading industry culture in NYC. We see fashion, media, and entertainment as the leading industries here. It’s nice to not be the top of the food chain because everyone in the startup scene is hungry to make it the top of the food chain. Also, we take so much from those industries from business models to company cultural influence. I think you’ll see the startup scene in NYC explode over the next few years.

 

Elevatrscreens

How did you come up with the idea for Elevatr?

Studied entrepreneurship at Michigan’s Business School and Engineering school. Was around so many entrepreneurs I picked up on a behavior pattern: Everyone was keeping several ideas in Apple Notes. I was being taught business modeling techniques and discovered that the students would enjoy an app that took the pain out of creating the actual structure to the business plan. Then, I realized that the startup revolution had gone mainstream – everyone was pitching me ideas from my sister to my friends moms. When I realized that, I figured it was worth building the app. It’s paid off we have 70,000 users in 2 months.

 Why now?

The startup revolution has gone mainstream. People are so enamored by what’s going on with the Snapchat’s and instagrams of the world saying “hey, if these simple ideas can become $1B companies then so can my simple idea.” I also think that subliminally the Recession of 2009 changed how we perceive security at traditional corporations: they aren’t so safe. Any day you could be out of a job for someone else’s selfishness so why not pursue your own idea instead? The bottom line is that internet entrepreneurship is the future of our global economy and we’re the place to turn those ideas into businesses.

And what’s your secret sauce?

Our understanding of how hard it is to execute on business ideas. It enabled us to build this great v1 and will keep us on the cutting edge for this growing market as we push new products moving forward.

What are some milestones you’ve achieved?

70,000 users in 2 months.

Featured on the App Store for WWDC in Productivity, New and Noteworthy, and Apps for Graduates.

Ranked by Mattermark as the 15th hottest startup according to their social traction metrics.

What’s your next milestone?

It would be a true testament to how entrepreneurial we’re all becoming if we hit 100,000 in 3 months.

Who are some of your mentors and business role models?

Elon Musk – the dude made Billions off of Paypal but didn’t sit back and relax. He put it all into solving even bigger problems. And now those are $Billion companies aka SpaceX and Tesla.

My Dad – he’s a surgeon. His work ethic is unreal. If i started to explain it you wouldn’t believe me. I like to think it’s rubbed off on me over the years.

Where can people find out more?

http://elevatr.com

 

This online accelerator can help you turn that idea into a product.

NIBV2V

4 Useful Apps To Help You Manage Your Startup

Apps, Startup Tips, Apps for startups

The modern business world is mobile — it’s not about brick-and-mortar offices and storefronts. It’s not about desks and computers wired to the spot. To work effectively on the go and with an equally tech-savvy customer base, you need to put together a custom array of business apps to get the job done. The following apps are excellent resources for startups, from media and marketing firms to goods and commodities retailers.

1. Square

If you’re a point-of-sale retailer and you don’t know about Square, now is the time to learn. With the help a simple peripheral, Square allows businesses of all sizes to create a mobile point-of-sale, eschewing cash registers and clunky credit card swipers altogether. Square lets you take payments, send receipts by email, set prices and track your cash flow by the minute. This is a must-have for any retailer, whether operating out of a single location or on the go.

2. Business Plan

Tracking your fledgling company’s data and presenting it to potential clients, investors, and employees is both essential and difficult. Business Plan allows you to keep all of this information in one, tidy package. It’s a great app for those who have never written a business plan before, presenting you with a simple, step-by-step template with clean graphics and a simple interface. As a bonus, Business Plan links to another app, Start-up Budget, that lets you calculate your base finances dynamically.

3. Basecamp

Just because your startup is lean and full of driven, talented people doesn’t mean it’s easy to keep all your ducks in a row. Basecamp is a full-service project management app that keeps track of info big and small. It’s a personal planner, memo-maker, inbox and filing cabinet all in one. Use it to create to-do lists, upload files to share with others in the company, and send and receive feedback to everyone on every project. Most conveniently, Basecamp isn’t entirely bound by its central app. Users can access their Basecamp account on any device that has Internet access, from a mobile device to a laptop or desktop computer.

4. BizXpenseTracker

When you’re on a tight budget (and startups are always on a tight budget), expenses can get out of hand very quickly without proper monitoring. BizXpenseTracker allows you to keep a handle on every cent you spend at home and on the road. It features trip-specific expense reports, mileage tracking, timetables, and other features to keep all the P’s and Q’s in order. It also has a handy receipt photo uploader that lets you digitize all the little purchases along the way. All of this info is easy to share via email and file managers like Dropbox.

These are just a few of the best apps out there that help startup businesses stay informed and efficient. There are many other tools for the small business community that make daily operations and networking that much easier. Apps let you run your startup free from paper, confusion, and miscommunication while saving you money and helping you make the most of the versatile technology at your disposal.

 

Need more knowledge check out these 10 startup tips at nibletz.com 

EE-FORENTREPRENEURS

 

Revealed: What It Takes To Get A Top 10 Rank In The Apple App Store

With so many mobile-first and mobile-focused startups in the world these days, one of the biggest hurdles startups and app developers have is breaking the highly coveted Apple App Store Top 10. With many startups, that are truly starting from the beginning, without the help of a rock star team, cracking the top 10 can make or break a company.

Reading those words may be scary, but that’s the breaks with literally millions competing in the same space.

Trademob analyzed 72 campaigns conducted over an eight month period from August 2012 to March 2013. The analysis revealed average CPI’s (cost per install), during boost campaigns as well as data about the required volume of installs necessary to achieve a position in the top 10 of Apple’s App Store in each country.

Trademob found that installs required for top 10 status in the “free” chart for Apple’s App Store in the US were 3x as high than the UK, the next ranking country. Likewise the US also had the highest cost per install.  They also discovered was that even if an app cracked the top 10 in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, they still wouldn’t necessarily have the installs needed to crack the U.S. top 10.

The data set specifically looked at boost campaigns and their effect on app installs for iOS. It also highlights the “organic uplift” achieved from a boost campaign.

” In order to rank in the top 10 of the iOS App Store, an app must achieve a high number of downloads within 72 hours. App marketing boost campaigns can boost an app’s ranking by generating (buying) large numbers of downloads in a short amount of time. The downloads achieved during the last 24 hours have the biggest impact on the ranking position”. Trademob wrote.

If you’re an app developer and a mobile focused or mobile first startup, check out the data below.

 

Mobile tips, iOS tips, iOS rank, startup tips, TradeMob, Infographic

 

Now check out this infographic: 10 Rules For A Great Startup Idea

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Your Time Is Valuable, NY Startup GetAppRewards Rewards You For Using Apps & Playing Games

GetAppRewards,NY Starutp,startup,TechCrunch DisruptSo this concept isn’t entirely new. This New York startup, GetAppRewards, wants to reward users for engaging with apps and games that are in their app network.

The more time you spend using the apps in the GetAppRewards network, or playing their games, you’ll earn points. Points can be redeemed for things like other games, electronics, clothing, gift cards and more. The hope is that by rewarding users, they will be more loyal to the apps that are in GetAppRewards network.

In it’s simplest for, GetAppRewards is a mobile advertising platform for app developers to get both more users and downloads as well as improve the time that a user engages with their app.

EEATTENDDEAL1“GetAppRewards offers instant rewards to users for spending more time in your app, and viewing in-app advertisements. When we reward users like this, they will reward you with their time, attention and purchases. This is a simple and effective formula that helps you monetize your app to the fullest extent.” the company says on their Facebook page.

They also hope to improve in app purchases:  “With us showering rewards on the users for launching your app, watching video ads and tapping any ads, it’s hard not to make in-app purchases.” they said.

There are other products out there like Junowallet for instance, that reward users for downloading apps. GetAppRewards secret sauce isn’t in just the downloads but also in the engagement and time spent.

Check out our interview below and for more info you can find them on Facebook here.

Have you seen these startup stories from TechCrunch Disrupt?

DisruptVJ

Evernote Launches No Equity Accelerator For Developers

Evernote,developer,startup accelerator,app accelerator,docomo ventures, honda silicon valley labEvernote 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.

Speek Now Available For Windows Phone

Speek,Windows Phone, DC Startup,startup news

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rovio’s Angry Birds Makes Another Move Towards Disney [sxsw]

Rovio’s Peter Vesterbacka and me at Rovio’s SXSW party (photo: NMI 2013)

Three years ago when we first met Rovio’s chief marketing eagle, Peter Vesterbacka, and he was talking about Angry Birds toys, balloons, books, restaurants, airplanes and tv shows, we thought he was nuts.

The following year when we saw him at the launch of AngryBirds Space at SXSW12 his vision was coming together. We had seen him speak throughout the course of the year as Angry Birds became more than a household name. At an event in Hong Kong Vesterbacka was talking about how they had to rip off the rip offs to keep up with the phenomena of Angry Birds merchandise.

Angry Birds, Angry Birds Toons, Rovio,startup,Finnish, Finland, SXSW,SXSWi,SXSW13At South By South West this year we got a chance to talk with Vesterbacka and Mack McKelvey a mobile marketing expert and consultant to Rovio. She told us that the company had recently taken over several McDonald’s restaurants in China and launching a separate game called Angry Birds McDonalds.

In the midst of all the startup and PR hype at SXSW, Rovio Entertainment hosted a swank pool party high atop Austin Texas. This time though they weren’t introducing the next wave of the game. They were talking about bigger and better. They were launching a new cartoon and media network that would stream through the Angry Birds apps. They also launched the Angry Birds network with several cable operators.

The apps alone give the Angry Birds network access to over 1.3 billion users (with a B).

The Angry Birds network will feature original content centered around the game characters. You can watch the Angry Birds network on the most recent versions of the game and on select cable operators.

You can find out more here.

Check out more of our SXSW coverage here.

Birmingham Startup NotIt Labs Shows Off iPhone App At SXSW [video][sxsw]

Notit,NotIt Labs, Birmingham Startup,Alabama Startup,startup,startups,startup interview,sxsw,sxswiBirmingham Alabama’s startup ecosystem continues to grow. Joshua Gilmer knows that first hand. He’s a serial entrepreneur that already has a successful web agency and is now putting the finishing touches on his mobile startup NotIt Labs.

NotIt is a mobile app that will debut on the iPhone in the next couple of months. The app makes delegating tasks fun, and a bit more fair.

Say you’re at the office and someone needs to go on a coffee run. Well, using NotIt everyone in the office can basically call “not it” and the last person to respond of course gets stuck with the task of running to the coffee shop.

It’s just as effective with house hold chores, mowing the lawn, picking up the kids, or even an old fashioned game of tag.

“We all know how to play Not It: give out some task arbitrarily to an open forum and all the kids would say ‘not it.’ We are taking that social contract to social media,” Joshua Gilmer,told Mashable in an interview as SXSW.

While the idea behind the mobile app is simple enough, it hasn’t been done before and the UI looks fantastic for an idea so simple.

In the interview below Gilmer talks about how he came up with the idea after reading the book “Reality is Broken”. He wanted to create something that blended the online world with real life.

The iPhone app should release in the coming months. The team plans to resort to KickStarter to raise money to build an Android version as well.

Check out the video below and for more info visit notitlabs.co

Here are more startup stories from SXSW 2013

Interview Spotlight: New York Startup Problemio

Problemio,New York Startup,startup interview” We hope to decrease the failure rate of new companies.” That’s the goal Alex Genadinik has for his startup Problemio. It’s a lofty goal of course but with his suite of four apps designed to help educate new business owners he may actually be successful at it.

The four app business starting series, that makes up Problemio, is based on data collected from over 10,000 businesses. The app suite is available for iOS, Android, Amazon Kindle, and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet.  They focus on skills every founder needs like  1) Business ideas 2) Business planning 3) Fundraising and 4) Marketing.

If learning from apps isn’t enough there’s also a live chat feature that allows users to chat about the topics covered in the apps.

We got a chance to talk with Genadinik check out the rest of the interview in our interview spotlight below:

What is your startup, what does it do?

Problemio is a 4-application business-starting guide available on the following mobile platforms: iPhone, iPad, Android, Amazon Kindle and the NOOK device from Barnes and Noble which. The apps focus on 1) Business ideas 2) Business planning 3) Fundraising and 4) Marketing.

The apps are based on the 10,000+ businesses planned on the original business plan app which also happens to be one of the highest ranked business apps on Android 

Users of the apps are able to get expert help in chat form, access to planning tools, as well as numerous articles curated especially to cover the common concerns of entrepreneurs who came before them.

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

Alex Genadinik is the single founder of Problemio. Alex is originally a software developer. In his past independent projects he found that without proper advice or mentors, it was difficult to avoid serious mistakes with his projects, which ultimately made it very difficult for those projects to be successful. That experience inspired the building of the planning tools to help others prevent similar mistakes.

Where are you based?

The company is based in New York, NY.

What is the startup culture like where you are based?

I find New York to be very vibrant with people generally embracing technology. The biggest difference between New York and any other place where I worked in the past in terms of being a startup hub is that during any given weekday, people come to Manhattan from hundreds of nearby cities and few neighboring states. That creates an extraordinary density of people sharing and collaborating on what is next. Additionally, since New York has such a deep business culture, people understand the value of networking here much more than other places where I have lived before, including San Francisco and parts of the Valley.


What problem does your startup solve?

The main problem Problemio is solving is helping entrepreneurs get support, mentoring and advice to help their businesses. We hope to decrease the failure rate of new companies.

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

Not only did I have to learn native Android and iOS programming to create the apps, but I also had to figure out how to market the apps and make the apps into a financially viable business. Since I am the only founder, every day is filled with balancing tech, app ux, marketing, and many other things that need to get done. Balancing all that and still making sure there is quality in everything I do has been the biggest challenge so far.

What are some of the milestones your startup has achieved?

At the time of writing this, we have had over 65,000 combined downloads across all the Problemio apps, and over 10,000 businesses planned on the apps. Most recently we released the 4-app series across all the major devices which took quite a bit of work.

What are your next milestones

Our next goal is to grow the 4-app series and making it the premiere business apps across Android and iOS. By user reviews, we are already the best. Now it is just a matter of conquering the app stores, which will be our biggest focus this Spring. I will also be looking for various companies who work to help entrepreneurs to advertise directly on the app.

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

I found that the New York tech hub is easier to navigate because everyone is pretty close. The Valley is made up of a number of places which are pretty far from one another. For example, there is San Francisco, Berkeley across the bridge, Palo Alto and San Jose a long drive away. And in New York, I can just about walk to the next tech thing in midtown!

What’s next for your startup?

I am always looking to make the product better. I will be looking to add video and phone support in addition to the current chat-based help that the entrepreneurs get. Additionally, I will be focusing on growing app sales and doing more marketing. I doubt I will be raising money as I rather focus on improving the fundamentals on my business. One thing I might do is actively look for mentors.

You can download Problemio for your device here. 

The nibletz, nationwide sneaker strapped road trip continues, more here.

Vindicated: Business Insider’s Nicholas Carlson Deleted Mailbox Too

Mailbox app,Mailbox,startup,app review, business insider, nicholas carlsonSome say I went on a tirade yesterday morning when I published this story, “Am I The Only One On Earth Who Thinks Mailbox Sucks”. Despite putting up some pretty good arguments I received some hate mail and hate tweets, after all I was downing the latest app phenomena that all the hipsters absolutely love… Hipsters that don’t receive any real volume of email.

In that piece I couldn’t figure out how some of my more established journalistic brethren who must get more email than me, could actually stand the Mailbox app. I receive anywhere from 300-500 emails per day. I usually receive 500 emails each day Monday-Wednesday and then it tapers off to the much more manageable 300 per day.

My biggest problem with the Mailbox app was batch deleting and folders. Carlson, a writer for Business Insider, found the exact same thing to be problematic.

“There’s one reason why it didn’t work for me: Mailbox makes you deal with one email at a time. You have to open or swipe (to the left, further to the left, to the right, or further to the right) each individual email. I get several hundred emails a day. ” Carlson wrote. 

He goes into the same detail that I do about batch deleting:

When I go through my email – which I do about 3 times per day – I go into the iPhone’s default mail app, tap “Edit” on the top right, and then quickly tap every email I don’t need to ever read (most of them) and then tap the bright red “archive” button.

It feels like one decision, an answer to a single question: “Are there any emails I need to see?”

Then I go back over the emails that remain and respond to the ones that need immediate attention. I flag the rest – emails I need to respond to, but not right away. I always get to them eventually.

When I’m doing email from my desktop, it’s the same process, but even better, because in Gmail I can shift-click to select multiple emails to archive or delete at once.

So I’m still not sure how much email you need to receive to get enjoyment out of the Mailbox app but if you figure it out please let me know in comments or on Twitter.

Read all of Carlson’s Business Insider Post here.

See my post from yesterday here