Events Archives - Page 34 of 44

Startup Weekend Memphis: CoachSpeak (Friday Pitch Video)

Startup Weekend Memphis produced some great ideas. Sunday we’ll get to see how they did with the important part, execution.

One of those ideas is a new startup called CoachSpeak. Coach Speak is a new professional social network aimed specifically at higher level coaches, for example college football coaches. Now that most everyone has a social media account on one of the mainstream social networks like Facebook,Twitter, Google+ or LinkedIn, it’s time to branch back out with niche networks.

Yesterday we brought you the story about Florida startup PitchShark which is a social network specifically for those producing independent films.

CoachSpeak will link coaches together in new ways.

Here’s how the concept was explained and why it makes sense. Let’s say we’re back in December of 2008 and Auburn University has just released Tommy Tuberville. Once they announced Gene Chizik he needed to get moving, he needed to get to Auburn and immediately work on building his staff up.

Now lets say Chizik has a LinkedIn page. Now, after the announcement that he’s headed to Auburn, he is going to be flooded with people who even on LnkedIn’s professional network, are only linking in because he’s the coach at Auburn. He has a lot of people to wade through in order to get straight to other coaches like an offensive line coach, defensive line coach or special teams coach.

If Chizik was part of a closed, professional social network of coaches he could easily access the coaches he knew or had met personally and even coaches that he didn’t know. A niche social network in this case is abetter alternative.

Over the past few weeks I find myself in more and more conversations about niche social networks. Are they over-saturating the social landscape or are they needed?

If you look at professional social networks like CoachSpeak or PitchShark, while they are online and social they are more like professional organizations. So there is a clear advantage to something like CoachSpeak.

Check out the pitch video below.

Linkage:

See more of our Startup Weekend coverage here

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Startup Weekend Memphis: Event Czar Pitch Video

Sure I’ll go ahead and acknowledge the elephant in the room right now, event apps are becoming a dime a dozen. However it looks like Event Czar has a different idea in the event space.

Event Czar wants to be your event aggregator and discovery engine on a local level wherever and whenever you’re going out looking for anything to do. Event Czar plans to do this by leveraging big data, data mining and an algorithm that will match your interests up with events that may appeal to you.

Say you’re not in the mood for your “normal” time event, you’ll be able to see all the events in the area as well.

Event Czar is also going to cut out some of the noise associated with more traditional platforms for finding events, for example when conversations start diluting the results, and when there is chatter coming from a future event. Event Czar wants to be you’re right now app (although you will be able to see events in the future to plan accordingly).

This was by far the biggest team at the end of Friday night and they hope to have a proof of concept if not an MVP by the end of the weekend.

Check out the original idea pitch for Event Czar below:

Linkage:

Check out more of our Startup Weekend coverage here

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Startup Weekend Memphis Kicks Off After Four Year Hiatus

The first officially sanctioned Startup Weekend event in Memphis TN was back in 2008. This year Startup Weekend is back in Memphis and has been spearheaded by startup evangelist James Ruffer along with Chris Przybyszewski and Amanda Lewis.

Ruffer and Przybszewski kicked off the event Friday night with some great authentic Memphis Barbecue provided by Baby Jacks. After that the fun and games started with a general overview of the event, the sponsors and of course the prizes.

For this years event there will be three finalists selected who will each receive $1000 in cash, 9 hours of free legal services from Butler Snow and 9 hours of free financial advice from local accounting firm Collins Thomas & Associates. Also the “grand prize” winner will receive consultation services from Southern Growth Studios who are local experts on developing business plans. The national sponsors also kicked in with free cloud based services including the use of AWS for the weekend, should one of the ideas need it.

16 ideas were pitched from a variety of categories including elder care, music education and instruction, services for spanish speaking people, an auction site for nearly abandoned startup ideas and even a web app idea to “Keep politicians on the straight and narrow”.

The four ideas that were selected were, an local event aggregation and discovery app tentatively called “Event Czar”; CoachSpeak a social network for professional coaches; Buyers Unite an almost flash like buyers group; Legacy Interview, a mobile application that lets anyone capture interview vignettes on video question by question in separate files; and Clockout a socially enabled time clock management system for small businesses. Yes that’s five but clockout is a solo entrepreneur who will develop his idea on his own this weekend and compete against the other four teams on Sunday.

Both Ruffer and Przybyszewski are no strangers to entrepreneurism. Ruffer has a variety of entrepreneurial endeavors under his belt. Right now he works in social media security, financial security and online security. This is Ruffer’s 13th Startup Weekend that he’s either attended or help organize.

Przbyszewski (I’m hoping that’s the last time I need to type that), is currently working on his third startup right now down the street at the Launch Memphis, LaunchPad which actually is in the field of veterinary medicine. Their startup is under wraps but the team behind it has a great idea, that’s being tested and will help curb a problem that kills animals, is a big concern for dogs and can affect people as well. It targets one of the top 10 diseases that doctor’s must inform the CDC about, really big impotent stuff.

So with both of this weekends organizers enmeshed in pretty big day jobs they wanted this startup weekend to be a little light, fun and collaborative. In Ruffer’s experience attending 13 Startup Weekend events he’s seen the entire gambit from hardcore, bootcamp style Startup Weekends to the lighthearted and laid back, creative juice flowing weekends like this.

At the end of the day, or actually the end of the weekend, the ideas that want to continue to grow have a variety of resources available to them including Launch Memphis, the Launch Pad and Seed Hatchery. When asked about competing with Launch Memphis’ 48 hour launch event just six weeks ago, Ruffer said that Memphis has grown so much that the city itself can support a variety of events adding “When the tide rises all the ships sail”. At the end of the day it’s about everyone supporting entrepreneurship and startup culture in Memphis.

Linkage:

The official Startup Weekend Memphis landing page

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” here are more stories from Memphis

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Memphis Preparing For Startup Weekend

Memphis is hosting their first official Startup Weekend in four years this Friday through Sunday at Lab Four in Memphis. Over the three day weekend we will see some great ideas turned into startups and hopefully some emerge as actual companies, after all that’s the point behind Startup Weekend events.

The 54 hour event kicks off with preliminary idea pitches on Friday evening. Saturday is a day of working with mentors, teams and developing ideas and Sunday the finalist teams will pitch in front of the judges.

“We promise that this will be a fantastic, fun weekend, whether you want to come and work on your own idea for a company or hang out and help other people with theirs,” Co-event organizer James Ruffer told James Dowd’s Commercial Appeal. “The program has matured a lot in the past four years, and that’s why we wanted to bring it back. Not only will this energize the Memphis entrepreneurial community, but it’ll show other cities around the world that Memphis is serious about entrepreneurship.”

The early bird registration was extended through the 16th, but it’s not too late to register so if you’re in or around Memphis you should sign up here.

If you’re traveling from out of town there are two hotels participating in the fun. We’re sure we are going to see folks from Chattanooga, Knoxville and Nashville in Memphis for the big event. Memphis has a thriving startup scene.

What happens after Startup Weekend? Well if you’re serious about building your business in Memphis there are resources like the LaunchPad, LaunchMemphis and SeedHatchery all based at Emerge Memphis downtown. The LaunchPad features free drop in co-working space and office hours with the staff there to help cultivate your idea and develop your business.

Here are the links you need.

For more info on the LaunchPad click here

Help out our nationwide sneaker-strapped road trip here.

Startup Weekend Hits Houston Next Weekend July 27th

If you read nibletz.com or any other startup focused website for that matter than you’re familiar with Startup Weekend. The official Startup Weekend events are held in conjunction with Startup Weekend an organization in Seattle backed by the Kauffman Foundation. Over 200 Startup Weekend organizers can be found around the country and the world.

There are two startup weekends next weekend, Houston and Cincinnati. The Houston event is being held at Start Houston, 1121 Delano Street, Houston TX 77003. The event starts at 6pm on Friday and ends on Sunday at 9:00pm after the final pitches.

If you’re not familiar with an officially sanctioned Startup Weekend event, they kick off on Friday with pitches from anyone registered. You don’t have to have a team or be from a company. After all the initial presentations finish everyone votes on the ideas that will be built over the 54 hour weekend. Teams will be organically picked and everyone is encouraged to join a team even if their idea isn’t picked. Some startups, like Zaarly for instance, have come out of Startup Weekend. Zaarly is now a funded startup and their investors include Ashton Kutcher.

There’s no guarantee where the startup will go after Startup Weekend, but people who pitch and leave after their idea doesn’t get picked, could be leaving an opportunity of a lifetime.

Saturday the teams develop their idea, work on a proof of concept, code code code, and work with the mentors for Startup Weekend. In Houston the mentors are: Bryan Guido Hassin, CEO of Smart Office Energy Solutions; Jeff Reichman, Principal at January Advisors; Nathan Eror, Founder at Free Time Studios, and Mark Stretch a Startup Advisor.

On Saturday, and part of Sunday team swill pick the coach’s brains and the coach’s will pick apart their ideas, all in preparation of Sunday pitches.

Sunday the teams will pitch their final ideas to a group of judges who will provide vital feedback on the ideas, and sustainability and ask great questions that the startup teams will need to focus on to get to the next level. The coaches, minus Mark Stretch will all be judging the pitches on Sunday.

Startup Weekend events are fully catered and plenty of caffeine will be on hand.

If you’re ready to go hit the link below.

Linkage:

Startup Weekend Houston event information

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StartuPalooza Headed To Louisville KY September 18th

If you’re in Louisville Kentucky and ready to get your startup on than the Startup America Partnership in conjunction with Startup Kentucky has an event for you. StartuPALOOZA is headed to Louisville Kentucky on September 18th from 5:30pm-8:00pm at the Ice House (226 E. Washington Street, Louisville KY),

The event will feature a cash bar and free appetizers.

The event will feature an exhibition of the up and coming startups in the Louisville region. We know first hand their are some great startups in Louisville. Also, Startup Kentucky is one of the more active Startup America regions in the country, in fact you should follow them on Twitter here.

If you’re a Louisville area startup and interested in showing off in the StartuPALOOZA startup fairground than you need to apply here.

The event is sponsored by by IdeaFestival, the statewide Innovation Network, the Office of Commercialization and Innovation, the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation and Startup Kentucky, a Startup America region.

Linkage:

Boston Startups Get Ready TechCocktail Is Back July 17th

TechCocktail events are great. We recently attended the TechCocktail event that was part of TechWeek in Chicago. We also went to one of their speaker series events two months ago in Washington DC. Aside from Cameron and I getting locked on the first floor, it was fun times to be had by all.

TechCocktail is headed back to Boston Massachusetts on Tuesday July 17th for a fun filled evening of networking, startup pitches, and of course with a name like TechCocktail, libations.

If you’ve never been to a TechCocktail event it’s a great time to hear about the best new up and coming tech startups and mingle with other tech entrepreneurs.

Here are the details:

Tuesday July 17th 6:30pm-9:00pm

Microsoft New England Research & Development Center
One Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA

Get your ticket here

Linkage:

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#OMGUBERICECREAM Startup: Über Bringing On Demand Icecream Tomorrow!

It’s national ice cream month and Über has had an eventful week. The San Francisco startup, which operates in several major cities, has decided to make Icecream as easy to order as an Über ride.

Tomorrow (Friday the 13th) if you are in San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston, Seattle, Chicago, New York or Toronto, and you have the latest version of the Über mobile app for your smartphone you’ll see a button for IceCream. Once you hit it you’ll be able to order an Icecream truck right to your location. Über warns, if your request doesn’t go through just try again there’s plenty of Icecream to go around.

For a $12 charge to your Über connected credit card, you’ll get 5 Icecream treats. Über can’t list every type of Icecream available because their Icecream partners vary by city.

Über describes the process on their blog:

You can request ice cream by selecting the ‘ice cream cone icon’ in your Uber app.

Set the location where you want the ice cream truck to show up and tap ‘request ice cream delivery here.’

You’ll receive an ETA and be able to communicate with the driver.

The ice cream truck will deliver five ice creams (you will have the option to order more when the truck arrives).

We’ll bill your credit card card on file $12 for each bundle you order and hook you up with some sweet Uber swag.

Not only that but if you tweet about it with the hashtag we used in the headline #OMGUBERICECREAM you could win free transportation from Über.

How cool is that?

Linkage:

Here’s uber’s website

Find out more here at uber’s blog

We are on a sneaker-strapped nationwide startup roadtrip!

Contest: There’s A New Kid In Town, The TechSlinger And You Can Win One This Summer

At Chicago TechWeek we got to meet the team from Michigan startup TechSlinger. This is a new wearable accessory designed to easily transport your tablet, your phone, your wallet and other small items. You can even hang your keys from it.

At first glance you may not think it’s for you, but it so is. Especially if you carry multiple gadgets with you and one of them is an iPad or Android tablet. You see, when you go out to a meeting or a networking event, or any event for that matter and you bring your tablet you’re putting a device that costs hundreds of dollars at unnecessary risk.

I’ve witnessed first hand people who’ve had their iPads turned conveniently into coasters. I’ve seen people leave them behind and drop them, shattering the screen, trying to hold a beer or other drink. Oh and of course the countless times I’ve seen beer, soda and other liquids poured onto the iPad.

Granted, you want to take your iPad or tablet with you because you undoubtedly have work to do, or you want to show off the latest app you’ve downloaded or pictures and videos of the kids. Well that’s great except most purses can’t fit iPads, no one wants to bring the bulk of a backpack or briefcase out with them, and holding them is risky.

The TechSlinger looks like an under jacket holster and has one pouch designed to hold an iPad or tablet and then the other side has two compartments. One is a secure compartment for your phone the other is a secure compartment for your wallet, credit cards, money, license, etc. I actually hold a 16,000mah portable battery in my extra pocket insuring that not only are my devices with me but backup power is as well.

The TechSlinger fits under any jacket, blazer or suit coat and keeps your gadgets from interfering with important things, like walking.

At the recent TechCrunch meetup in Atlanta over 40 people asked about the TechSlinger. At the airport, TSA folks were asking about the TechSlinger, and of course on three different trips to three different Apple stores, people asked about the TechSlinger.

Well low and behold we’ve got Techslingers to give away.

Here’s how it works. Starting this week at ComiCon 2012 in San Diego, just tweet

“@nibletztweets & @techslinger I need a #techslinger” and if you’re lucky you’ll be randomly selected to win one. We’ll randomly draw winners in San Diego, Washington DC, Memphis, Cincinnati and other places along our sneaker-strapped nationwide startup road trip, and you’ll win. It’s that easy. Then your friends will ask, “where’d you get that”.

Linkage:

Find out more about the TechSlinger here

Here’s more coverage from Chicago’s TechWeek

Oh and we’re on this cool sneaker strapped, nationwide startup roadtrip

Chicago Startup: SocialKaty Is Social Media Marketing For Everyone Else INTERVIEW

Enthusiastic and Scottish. Katy Lynch took her personality and social media skills from a hobby to creating a thriving venture backed company is less than two years. With a goal of providing result driven social media services for companies, she founded SocialKaty in August 2010.

SocialKaty is a full-service social media marketing firm employing 29 “social media assassins” who create and manage content for brands (big and small). Simply, they’re a one stop shop for social media who maintain and create content on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Blogs and even develop tabs and apps for Facebook.

Why start SocialKaty?
1) Companies are struggling with creating and managing effective social media campaigns.
2) There are no real pure play social media firms out there. (There are marketing and PR agencies that offer social media as an “add on” service, but not as their core offering.)

What’s interesting is the diversity of companies and industries they service. To name a few – funded startups, bars, restaurants, retailers, non-profits, and heck even energy companies. It’s no wonder they’ve been profitable since day one, grown to a 29 person team and raised a Series A round from Lightbank.

We caught up with Katy last week during Techweek Chicago:

Links we’ve got em:

SocialKaty Is Here

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Startup Weekend Heads Back To Los Angeles, Register Now

The 54 hour Startup Weekend program is headed back to Los Angeles next weekend, starting on July 20th which is the same weekend as Memphis’ Startup Weekend.

Los Angeles just completed a Startup Weekend back in February that was a great success.

The February event saw 13 teams pitching on Sunday evening before the judges. The judges that time around included: Howard Marks (Start Engine), Paige Craig (BetterWorks), David Waxman (PeoplePC, Firefly Networks, SpotRunner) and Tyler Crowley (Sqweal, OAF, Launch, TWiST, Mahalo).

The judges for this round haven’t been announced yet but we are sure they will be just as good.

Organizing the Los Angeles event are Tyler Koblasa, Cameron Rasouli and Avesta Rasouli.

Registration started July 2nd and the organizers warn that last spring’s event sold out in 10 minutes. As of right now the eventbrite page shows tickets still available.

Startup Weekend LA kicks off Friday July 20th at 6:00pm and is being held at Coloft (920 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401).

To register click here

Madison Wisconsin Hosting User Experience Conference UXMAD July 19-21st

Seasoned business and technology event planners Jim and Jennifer Remsik have brought some great events to the city of Madison Wisconsin. Now they’re venturing out for another new conference which we’re sure is going to be a hit. The UXMAD conference is being held at the Overture Center on July 19-21 and is all about user experience.

Day 1 which is Thursday July 19th will feature a day filled with hands on workshops provided by top user experience talent including Ben Reinhart and Todd Larsen. Their workshop, which runs all day with a lunch break in the middle, is on Javascript. The other all day workshop is “Guerilla Design & Research Methods”.

Day 2 and 3 will feature top notch speakers including Andrew Maier, Founder of UXBooth; Jina Bolton, Product Designer at DO; Dale Sande, User Interface Engineer at Getty Images; Jeanne Carpenter, Founder of Wisconsin Cheese Originals; Carl Smith, Chief Keeper Upper at nGen Works and Jessie Shternshus, Founder of the Improv Effect.

Of course the conference also has great after parties on all three nights.

In an interesting twist the Remsik’s want attendees to experience all that downtown Madison has to offer. Instead of a traditional brown bag or boxed lunch, or even a catered lunch, UXMAD will have an extended lunch period and attendees will be given a food allowance to experience the food carts and restaurants in close proximity to the conference. Jim Remsik said: Madison is a city that is easy to fall in love with, all we had to do was play matchmaker.”

On our recent trip to Madison Cameron and I had great food from restaurants like Merchant and the Dane and we were even able to take in a few food truck delights because our trip to Madison was during their first concert on the square of this summer season. Madison is indeed one of the coolest and nicest cities we’ve been too.

It’s not too late to get signed up for UXMAD. The entire conference package is $299 which is a far cry from what a conference of this type would typically cost. Also the organizers tell us there are easter egg tweets available for $50 off, if you check out the speaker list. Links are below.

Here have some links

For information on the UXMAD event click here

To find those easter egg $50 off tweets go to the speaker page here

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Startup Weekend Memphis Reboots July 20th

Memphis has a thriving startup scene. In fact for a city of just over 650,000 they have more startup resources than most cities twice their size. Tennessee has a thriving chapter of Startup America and their are other organizations like Emerge Memphis, Seed Hatchery and Launch Memphis that cultivate startups throughout the region.

Now, after a four year hiatus, the official, nationally sanctioned “Startup Weekend” event is coming back to Memphis. Four years ago the main Startup Weekend Organization was still very new. Now, organizers of the Memphis Startup Weekend are thrilled to welcome the brand back to Memphis.

“We promise that this will be a fantastic, fun weekend, whether you want to come and work on your own idea for a company or hang out and help other people with theirs,” Ruffer told James Dowd’s Commercial Appeal. “The program has matured a lot in the past four years, and that’s why we wanted to bring it back. Not only will this energize the Memphis entrepreneurial community, but it’ll show other cities around the world that Memphis is serious about entrepreneurship.”

Startup Weekend Memphis will follow the traditional 54 hour StartupWeekend model. The event kicks off on Friday July 20th at 6:30pm. At that time, registered entrepreneurs will pitch the ideas they hope to have developed over the 54 hour period. After a quick voting period the startups to be developed will be selected.

Saturday, the startup teams will work with each other and with top notch mentors like Clay Banks, Demarcus Love, Cliff McKinney, Karen Spacek, Ted Townsend and Bioworks’ Allan Daisley who’s day job involves mentoring startups as well.

Sunday the teams will refine their ideas, try and have a proof of concept and practice their pitches. Sunday evening is make it or break it time as the teams will pitch their ideas in front of a panel of judges including James Dowd of Commercial appeal, who’s also the local media sponsor.

The teams are competing for over $20,00 worth of prizes that all startups would need. In fact one of the organizer’s Chris Pryzbyszewski says they still may have more prizes coming in.

The national and local organizers of StartupWeekend Mempis want the teams to stay around as long as they can all weekend long to flush out and build their ideas. There will be a virtually endless supply of caffeine and catered meals from Baby Jacks and more. If you haven’t been to a StartupWeekend event it’s an experience you must see first hand.

We’ll be there as well to cover the entire event, and support Memphis’ startup community one of the most thriving startup communities “everywhere else”

Links:

For more information on StartupWeekend Memphis click here

Check out our coverage of Memphis’ last startup event 48 Hour Launch

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Want your event covered, as long as it’s outside the Valley, email startups@nibletz.com

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Chicago Startup: Red Meat Market Connecting People With Meat, Socially! Video Interview

Did you know that meat could be social? Of course you did, how many times have you socialized over burgers, hot dogs (is that meat) or great steaks? Well a new startup in the Chicago area is connecting people socially over meat. This time though, it’s about buying meat.

Red Meat Market, like Kansas’ AgLocal, connects people in Chicago, Madison and Milwaukee (for now) to the freshest, farm raised sustainable meat. Red Meat Market has a website and a mobile app which makes it a cinch to order meat in boxes, by dollar amount, choosing the cuts that you want.

With Red Meat Market you tell their platform what you want to spend and it tells you what you can get in your “box of meat” you can get a variety or one choice cut but this way you always stay in the budget that you want, each and every month.

There are actually a couple of social components to Red Meat Market. The first is the ability to split your “box of meat” up with friends, within the site and the app. Red Meat Market handles the payment distribution and everyone gets the meat they want. The meat box can be delivered to your door, or you can opt to attend one of Red Meat Market’s Meat Ups (clever huh). At their Meat Ups, Red Meat Market supplies the beer and the sides and everyone gets the box of meat that they ordered.

By holding a meat up you can meat or meet other Red Meat Market users and socialize or swap cuts of meats between boxes.

Red Meat Market is in a great part of the country to start a business like this. Co-Founder Mark Wilhelms blends his 18 years of digital and marketing experience with his love of meat for a new way to not just sell great, quality, grass fed meat but to connect people who love meat together.

Check out our video interview below:

Linkage:

Check out RedMeatMarket here at their website

Here’s more of our Chicago TechWeek coverage

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