Competitions Archives - Page 5 of 5

North Carolina Startup: Mobile Foods To Tackle Tracking The Food Truck

The mobile food vending space is growing ten fold every year. According to the National Restaurant Association there are some 15.6 million Americans that eat at mobile food vendors already. Mobile food vending has exploded in the last five years, no longer are we talking about just hot dog carts, food trucks have become the in-thing these days.

According to research prepared in Mobile Foods’ presentation for the Duke Startup Challenge session that just ended there are somewhere between 40,000 and 60,000 mobile food vendors in the US. There are 20,000 in Austin, Dallas, Houston and Los Angeles County alone.

One of the tricky parts with your favorite food truck is finding out where it is on any given day. Now if you have a regular truck that you eat at you probably know where they are going to be, maybe they post their schedule on the truck, online or have some kind of email list that you can subscribe to. Mobile Foods hopes to solve the Food Truck location problem for you.

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Seattle Startup: Joey Bra, A Bra For Holding Cell Phones, IDs And More

Whether you want to admit to it or not, or whether you think it’s classy or not, we all know someone or maybe you are that someone, who when you need to hold something fit for a pocket and have a nice skirt on or no pocket yoga pants, you’ve resorted to putting it in your bra. Maybe it was a little cash, maybe your drivers license or credit card, perhaps your cell phone. Well now there’s bras made specifically for that. It’s called the Joey Bra.

Mariah Gentry and Kyle Barlow are the co-founders of Joey Bra. These innovative bras include pockets that align with the side of the body capable of holding your cell phone, some cash, maybe your IDs, and they do it without drawing attention to the bra itself.

Geekwire’s Rebecca Lowell was one of 200 judges at the UW business plan competition. She stumbled upon this innovative new startup the moment she walked through the door. She took notice to the model wearing nothing but a bra up top, a Joey Bra.

This isn’t some gimmicky idea. Gentry is a NASA Space grant student with a double major in entrepreneurship and environmental science. She also was a finalist in the Wells Fargo Case Competition. She met co-founder Barlow at UW’s Foster School of Business.

The duo is targeting college students and offers two models a strapless version and an 8 way convertible strap version. Lowell reported that her only concern was the access to the items in the compartments and moisture as the result of perspiration. No worries as one of the co-founders works at REI and they’ve already been sourcing water proof materials.

Linkage:

Source: Geekwire

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North Carolina Startup: Nanoly Wins Duke Startup $50,000 Spring Challenge

(photo: Sophia Palenberg/The Chronicle)

A women owned startup called Nanoly has just won the Duke startup $50,000 spring challenge. Duke University’s $50,000 spring startup competition ran from February until this week. The startups in the challenge had to fit into one of three tracks; the functional track, special interest track or pilot track. Within the functional track were 5 categories; Clean Energy, Healthcare and Life Sciences, IT, Internet and Media, Social Enterprises and other. The grand prize winner came from the Healthcare and Life Sciences category.

Ting Ting Zhou (Duke University), Nanxi Liu (Berkeley) and Crystal Lee (Stanford) founded Nanoly with one common goal, to use a nano-sized solution to solve a macro sized problem. While you may not think about it the problem that these three women are hoping to solve is actually a big problem and one as Americans we may take for granted.

Zhou explains in her pitch video that while developed countries have access to vaccines and diseases like small pox are pretty much eradicated, emerging countries don’t have access to vaccines. One of the main reasons emerging countries don’t have access to vaccines can be boiled down to refrigeration and electricity.

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Michigan Startups: Amway Heir Rick Devos Launches StartGarden

Rick Devos Michigan Entrepreneur & Heir to the Amway Fortune launches startgarden.com

For nearly a decade now the heir apparent to the Amway fortune, Rick Devos has been establishing his own name in Michigan’s business circles. He is a creative entrepreneur who loves getting feedback from the public on his business endeavors, that’s why he’s started the Start Garden.

The Devos family has pledged $15 million dollars to the very unique Start Garden fund, competition, accelerator, contest of sorts. Here’s how it works. Every week the new venture capital fund will invest $5,000 in each of the two new ideas. They will continue to invest incrementally as the startups gain momentum. The first uniquely Devos twist is that the Start Garden team will choose the first idea, while the public at large can vote on the second.

Startups and entrepreneurs will submit their idea on the Start Garden website at startgarden.com. The public will have the opportunity to come to the website and vote on the idea. At the end of the week the idea with the most endorsement will win the second $5,000 dollars.

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Massachusetts Startup: Have You Heard Wins “ReThink Music” Startup Competition

from left: Rethink Music Genesis Project startup competition winners Adam Gottesfeld and Joey Seiler, co-founders of Have You Heard?; (photo: hyperbot)

Two Harvard Law School students, Joey Seiler and Adam Gottesfield and the startup they’ve founded called “Have You Heard” have one a music startup competition sponsored by ReThink Music Berklee and Babson College. You may be wondering what studying and law have to do with this music based startup, well nothing, but it’s a great idea.

From my days in top 40 radio in medium and major markets the hardest thing for a music director in a radio station to do is actually listen to new music. On any given Tuesday (new music day) there are anywhere from 10-30 “priority” records that the record labels want to get airplay. In the 90’s there was a competition called the AIR competition (Active Industries Research) a company founded by Jonas Cash who founded the Billboard Airplay Monitor. Music directors and Program Directors at R&R reporting radio stations would compete every week to guess where a track would end up on the charts. At the end of the quarter prizes, including BMW’s and 30,000 in cash were awarded to those that got the most right.

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Houston Startup WhimseyBox To Take Up Residence At Excelerate Labs Chicago

Alicia DiRago, a Houston based entrepreneur is packing her bags for the windy city. Thank goodness it’s the spring and soon to be the summer as we’re not sure how well the climate change would effect a Texan. DiRago’s startup is Whimseybox. You’re probably thinking it’s another subscription box club. You are absolutely right, however the subscription box club keeps taking on different spins, this time the theme is crafts.

Every month Whimseybox (well Alicia) sends out a box of great craft samples. The box costs $15. Now she is careful to mention that the boxes aren’t “kits” in other words there are no instructions, just the samples and your imagination.

Now if you aren’t as creative as you’d like to be DiRago posts craft ideas on Whimseybox’s blog and at least 4 full tutorials every month in the project gallery.

But now it’s time for DiRago to focus on business and take Whimseybox to the next level. Admittedly she can’t send out as many boxes as she would like. Hopefully after her experience at the Excelerate Lab in Chicago she’ll have not only some capital but more know how to turn this great idea around.

DiRago and Whimseybox will join 9 other companies in this 2012 class. She will give up a small equity stake (last year it was 6%) in exchange for cash, working space, and mentorship. She will also get a convertible note from Chicago’s New World Ventures (last year candidates got a $50,000 note).

All of this will culminate with a DEMO day on August 29th where all the participants will show off their startups to Chicago’s thriving tech community.

Excelerate is moving this year to the swanky new 1871 startup center.

Linkage:

Find out more about Whimseybox here

Find out more about Excelerate Lab here

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Source: ChicagoBusiness.com

Chicago Lean Startup Challenge Taking Applications For Summer Session

The Chicago Lean Startup Challenge, like other similarly named challenges across the country is based on Eric Reis’ “Lean Startup” methodology, customer development by Steve Blank and the business canvass model by Alexander Osterwalder. Ultimately the challenge is to take startups and hone them in on the most efficient way to succeed.

“Unlike business plan competitions, the Lean Startup Challenge focuses on real, meaningful results for the participants. The final presentations provided insights into the area where so many startups fail – understanding their customer!” -Nik Rokop, Director at Knapp Entrepreneurship Center IIT.

The 14 week startup program is designed to get startups on the path to success. The program, in it’s second year, will hold lean startup classes, give participants access to mentors and the community, connect startups with the tools they need and they have over $75,000 in cash and prizes.

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Chez Gourmet’s Burger Queen Takes Home Top Prize In Angel Oregon Competition

Yes this is a Veggie Burger by Chez Gourmet, you see why they won now huh?

A woman owned startup in Oregon has taken home the $250,000 first price in the Angel Oregon competition for her startup Chez Gourmet. Chez Gourmet is still considered in the startup stage despite the fact that founder Marie Osmuson first founded the company in 2006.

Osumuson created Chez Gourmet after a friend of hers, who is a well known local real estate agent, Barbara Durrett, sampled one of Osmuson’s veggie burgers at a family birthday party. Durrett encouraged Osmuson to try and sell her veggie burgers in local stores. Durrett also set Osmuson up with a food industry friend who agreed that the burgers were definitely good enough to sell. Durrett and Osmuson became business partners and their burgers started catching on.

Fast Forward to 2012 and Chez Gourmet has just taken home the top prize for the Angel Oregon competition. Chez Gourmet is expected t clear $2M in revenue this year and is on track to grow to $12M in revenue by 2015. Chez Gourmet was one of five companies to present yesterday at the Angel Oregon event held at Portland’s Governor Hotel.

A startup that makes social network analytics software called, Tellagence came in second place winning $94,000. The Portland Business Journal reports that this competition has been around since 2003. The 46 companies that have participated in the competition have generated $121 million in revenue and employ 741 people. They’ve also raised $81 million in venture capital and angel investment.

Here’s the linkage:

To find out more about Chez Gourmet visit their site here

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Source: Business Journal

New York Startup: Wendr Wins $25,000 Partnership With AB InBev For Mobile App Idea

(photo: adage.com)

Wendr is a new mobile social app that launched in February at the onset of Social Media week in New York. It has many of the same characteristics of the Ft.Lauderdale startup we profiled yesterday called MyNyte. In trying out both apps MyNyte has a more personal feeling to it. However Wendr is hoping to lend their technology to AB InBev (Anheiser Busch) the makers of Budweiser.

The two month old startup won a $25,000 partnership with the beverage giant in Manhattan Wednesday as part of Ad Age’s Digital Conference. The hackathon was called “Brand Hack” and the wet behind the ears CEO Sam Zises blew away the competition, not necessarily with the app itself but with his total package.

Ad Age’s Jason DelRay report that not only did Zises bring his customized app called “Buds By Budweiser” but he engaged the crowd at one point doing a wardrobe change on stage from his Wendr hat to a hat that was already emblazoned with a “Buds By Budweiser” logo. This is the kind of thing that gets investors and contest judges engaged with the people presenting as much as the idea itself. A point echoed by Fubu founder and ABC Shark Tank Shark Daymond John in a recent Google+ Hangout Townhall meeting with high school students studying business.

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Boca Raton Book Swapping Startup Wins FAU Business Plan Competition

A Boca Raton software entrepreneur putting two kids through college just won $15,000 in the Florida Atlantic University business plan competition. Mark Fredericks and his son David, a junior at FAU, pitched SwitchMyBooks which won the competition and the money to go along with it. They also won $80,000 in business services for the startup.

The contest was open to South Florida entrepreneurs and not just students at FAU.

SwitchMyBooks was born out of necessity. Fredericks quickly realized that spending $1000 or more per year on textbooks for college was a reality.

“The average student spends well over $1,000 a year for books,” Fredericks told the palmbeachpost. “That’s a huge burden.”

Sure there are other ways to get used textbooks online, however SwitchMyBooks has a more innovative approach on a local level. Students who want to sell their books using SwitchMyBooks simply list the book on the site. When they have a buyer the buyer pays a $.99 fee to SwitchMyBooksand then negotiates the actual sale of the book with the seller individually. They can then meet up, presumably on the same campus or nearby to actually do the exchange. The reservation fee lets the seller know they have a serious buyer and the buyer know they have the book.

FAU is the first campus to use SwitchMyBooks they implemented the site on campus last month. Fredericks has his sites on a nationwide rollout though. If he can get one million students using the site he could easily generate $5M in revenue.

Unlike other used book sites SwitchMyBooks users deal locally and don’t have to worry about shipping heavy books through the mail. They can also of course use cash versus Paypal or another form of online payment.

source: Palmbeachpost

Little Rock’s Verve Solutions, Offering Complete Energy Assesments, Wins Gone In 60 Pitch Contest

Over 200 entrepreneurs, startup founders and technorati turned out for a Gone in 60 seconds pitch contest Monday night in Little Rock. The contest was part of a tour that was created by Innovate Arkansas. Innovate Arkansas is a partnership that works with new technology based entrepreneurs to turn inventions and startups into viable businesses.

The Gone in 60 pitch contest, or G60 as it’s affectionately known in Arkansas, is a 60 second elevator pitch contest. The Little Rock event was held at Vino’s and saw about 20 pitches compete for prizes. The top prize was $1,000.00 and won by Verve Solutions.

Verve Solutions is an energy assessment, and efficiency solution provider based in Little Rock. The company was founded by Lolisa Crowe and Brian Broussard both twenty something entrepreneurs who both happen to be RESNET certified energy auditors. Also, both have a long history of energy conscious environmental leadership. Crowe was a volunteer with Americorps through the Clinton Foundation. Boussard has worked on earth day projects as well as on the campaign of environmentally conscious and landscape architect turned State Representative Mark Robertson.

The winning pitch was focused on how the current residential building was inefficient in terms of both environment and energy consumption. Home owners will have the ability to pursue energy efficiency improvement in a more affordable way thanks to Verve solutions.

So far the G60 has been to Fayetteville, Fort Smith and Rogers. The next stops are in El Dorado, Texarkana, Jonesboro and Conway.

For more information on G60 visit Innovate Arkansas

For more info on the winner of the Little Rock competition visit Verve Solutions

source: Arkansasbusiness.com