MassChallenge Startup Recovers.Org To Aid In Oklahoma Tornado Relief

recovers.org, Boston startup,MassChallenge,startup news, Oklahoma TornadoTwo sisters, Morgan O’Neill and Caitria O’Neill took a tornado ripping through their hometown of Monson Massachusetts in June of 2011 as a signal for a call to action. The sisters began working on a startup called recovers.org that makes disaster response smarter by providing easy to use software that empowers communities to prepare together, mitigate risk and locally match resources.

They aren’t the only members of the recovers.org team that have come face to face with natural disasters. The startup’s CTO Alvin Liang grew up in Norman Oklahoma which is close to Moore where the tornado touched down on Monday.

The company, which can put together a city.recovers.org site, when disaster strikes in less than two hours, went through the MassChallenge program last fall and graduated with a $50,000 “gold” win just a week before recovers.org got a huge chance for real life case study in Hurricane Sandy.

Now the Boston Herald reports that Morgan O’Neill along with Liang and Chief Operating Officer Chris Kuryak are headed out to Oklahoma where they will spend several days teaching residents how to operate their relief website.

“Our mission is to facilitate local recovery,” O’Neill, told the Herald. “We can give them tools and institutional knowledge we have and they use their expertise in their own community to put themselves back together.”

Recovers.org has already seen 1500 volunteers sign up through their Moore Oklahoma recovers.org website. During the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy the startup saw 30,000 volunteers sign up using their platform.  Hurricane Sandy spawned several recovers.org sites including; lowereastside.recovers.org, redhook.recovers.org, and astoria.recovers.org.

Everyone is accustomed to the Red Cross springing into life when disaster strikes. Typically, within hours, others try to launch informational sites, volunteer sites and fundraising campaigns. With recovers.org already in place it allows people in disaster affected areas to concentrate their efforts on recovery knowing that the infrastructure is already in place through recovers.org.

While no one wants to find themselves the victim of a natural disaster, the fact that the team has been through disasters of their own gives them “street knowledge” or the benefit of actually going through a disaster, and experiencing not only the recovery but the emotion as well.

You can find out more at recovers.org

In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, Paul Graham turned to Watsi, and then joined their board.

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photo: Boston Business Journal

 

Auburn Startup Get Charitable Prepares For Demo Day In OKC

One day over a cold draft I’ll tell you the great story behind Michael Isaacs and Kyle DeTullio, their Auburn startup Get Charitable and just how they got into the BluePrint For Business Startup Accelerator in Oklahoma City at the last possible second. Once they made it in though, this duo is looking more like the 2010 Auburn Tigers rather than the Auburn Tigers of today (what a difference a little time makes).

Isaacs and DeTullio met at Auburn University as pledge brothers in 2008 at Sig EP.

Isaacs and DeTullio had been thinking about socially conscious startups last fall.  Over Thanksgiving break last year, Michael thought that if they could leverage smartphone markets, they might be able to make a little difference with a startup.  If they could use advertising revenue, Michael realized, they could possibly feed one child per day for every person that would download their app.  But to make sure they could get this revenue to feed the child daily, the advertisement would have to be outside of an app that the user would have to open.  That’s when Michael knew they had to bring the advertisement to the user, so everyone could work together to make a difference for each child.  The wallpaper and notification menu were the perfect place.

Auburn is a college town built on steadfast traditions. Auburn is a nice town, with a huge swell when class is in session. When it’s not it shrinks down to a small town atmosphere. It’s very old school when it comes to business. If you were going to open a new restaurant you could easily get the townspeople on board. A startup, not so much. A tech startup, even more not so much. A social startup, fuggedabout it.

That’s why the duo started looking for an accelerator outside of Alabama and landed on Blue Print for Business. BP4B is a member of the Techstars/Global Accelerator Network and their first class is graduating on Thursday.

Check out our interview with Isaacs below.

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Oklahoma City Startup: Buzzam Has The Blueprint For Next Generation Radio

Oklahoma City startup Buzzam is currently accelerating at the new Blueprint for Business accelerator in OKC. In fact Buzzam is the only homegrown team in the BluePrint For Business accelerator, other teams hail from as far away as London and Alabama.

Buzzam promises a whole new way of listening and enjoying some of your favorite online radio sources. The iOS app, which is available as of today, integrates seamlessly with your iTunes, Rdio and Spotify accounts insuring that you’re never without your favorite music regardless of the source.

It doesn’t stop there though. Buzzam is offering a new kind of radio, similar to original terrestrial radio, in that Buzzam will deliver information that is relevant to you, the listener. But we aren’t talking about relevant information to an international radio listening audience, a national listening audience or even a local audience. Buzzam will deliver information that’s relevant to just you.

Buzzam will create a radio listening experience for you based on your favorite Rdio and Spotify channels and your iTunes music. What happens in between songs is what makes Buzzam truly unique. Buzzam’s dj service will deliver your Facebook and Twitter updates right to you while you’re enjoying your favorite music.

Using Buzzam’s proprietary and patent pending technology, all your important social data is broadcast in between songs no matter what the feed.

On a recent visit to Blueprint for Business even Brad Feld thought Buzzam was a cool idea.

We got a chance to talk with Greg Starling, co-founder and COO of Buzzam about this innovative new radio idea ( and you know how we love radio ideas). Check out the interview below.

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Oklahoma Startup Incubator Blueprint For Business Looks To Make Starting Up More Humane

blueprint for business,oklahoma incubator,guy madisonThere’s a new technology startup incubator in Oklahoma City that is looking to offer businesses an $18,000-$25,000 seed investment along with services and mentoring. Sure that sounds like the model for most incubators across the country “everywhere else” but Guy Madison, the founder of Blueprint for business has a couple other ideas that will set this incubator apart.

Being a workaholic, non-stop founder is part of the startup culture. In my opinion and the opinion of many others it’s almost expected that you work around the clock until your body can’t take it anymore. While this is definitely not the most healthy idea, nor socially accepted to anyone outside of your startup circle, it shows drive, determination and focus.

Madison doesn’t seem to agree.

“We want them to focus on the whole package, because if you become a millionaire and your wife divorces you because you’re never around, then you’re a lonely millionaire” he told newsok.com

While some may applaud this idea, and yes it’s fundamentally great, it seems that the new Mr & Mrs Zuckerberg are quite happy together and Zuck’s bride has been with him through almost all of  the Facebook startup process. Obviously the Zuckerberg case doesn’t support every startup but most founders know no bounds when it comes to working on their startup.

Madison has lined up over 25 great entrepreneurs from the Oklahoma City tech scene. He plans to integrate all the valuable lessons for entrepreneurs and founders while advising the group of startups on the human part of a technology startup, ie not working 90-100 hours per week.


Madison admits that, aside from the toned down work ethic, most of the idea behind his incubator is built on the TechStars model, as are about 90% of the other incubators across the country.

Blueprint for Business if being funded by husband and wife owners of U.S. Fleet Tracking, Jerry and Cindy Hunter.

Madison is courting entrepreneurs from everywhere to come to Oklahoma City for three months from August 15th through November 15th and culminate with a demo day in November where the teams can pitch their ideas in front of investors.

While we appreciate Madison’s idea for a more “humane” accelerator, we don’t necessarily agree that it’s such a problem. However, we are definitely jazzed up about the idea of a new incubator in Oklahoma City. Madison along with Ramier Shaik, one of the mentors in the program feel that Blueprint for Business is a much needed resource for startups in Oklahoma City.

Madison says that startups that move into Oklahoma City for the incubator don’t have to stay when the three months is up, but he’s hopeful that they will. Cost of living is much lower than either coast and outside of tornado season Oklahoma City is actually a beautiful place.

There are only a few days left for applications, the process ends on July 8, 2012. See the link below.

Hit the links:

Here’s where you can apply for Blueprint for business

Source: newsok.com

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Oklahoma Startup: DrinkEasy, Enjoy Your Night Let Your Phone Pick Up The Tab

Mobile payments are becoming more and more popular especially in places where using your mobile phone over a traditional payment method come in handy. One of those places is the bar, the pub or the tavern.

We’ve all had those nights where we plan on having a great time so we leave our credit card and/or our drivers license at the bar and run a tab all night. There are so many risk factors in doing this but we never really take those into consideration.

It’s so easy to sneak a drink on to someone else’s tab. I’ve had it happen to me a bunch of times, and while you may not admit it freely, its probably happened to you. Some cheapskate here’s you tell the bartender what tab to put the drink on and then uses your tab the next time around.

The other big risk factor is forgetting to close out your tab, losing your credit card or losing your drivers license. Now all of those are risky but you’ll have to agree that losing your drivers license is probably the most inconvenient. You can usually call the credit card issuer, report the card lost and have another one sent to you very quickly.  Losing your license means digging up documents you haven’t seen in five years, standing in line at the DMV and praying that an entire day isn’t lost in that line.

Most of these things, are factors behind the new Oklahoma startup DrinkEasy. As the name implies, the guys behind DrinkEasy want you to have an easy, laid back time whether your drinking with colleagues at work or having a throw down party after a football game.

DrinkEasy allows you to setup and pay for a tab on your smartphone. This immediately eliminates the risk of leaving your card and license behind. Also, with DrinkEasy no one can add to your tab, except for you.

We got a chance to catch up with Kirk Kaupke one of the founders of DrinkEasy for this quick interview after the break

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