Startup Culture: Offering Your Courageous, Daring Employees Something Intangible

ProdigiArts, Startup Culture, Startup Tips, Memphis startup

(cultureclub photo: alanpringle.com)

Who would choose to work for some entrepreneur they met at a coffee shop, for little pay, unconventional hours, and without promise of Google-like fortunes? They may have a fantastic idea that will solve some great problem in modern society, but right now their eyes are bleary from too much caffeine and a scalding Macbook. It’s hard to believe in them.

Startups not only face difficulty in convincing prospective investors and clients, but also potential employees whose talents would make a valuable contribution to the ever-growing company. Capital might not be the greatest resource at your disposal, but your people are.

As entrepreneurs, it’s easy to fantasize about the kind of company culture you’d like to foster in the future: throngs of employees working diligently and creatively, in between collective games of Call of Duty. In reality, culture building happens the moment one other person says ‘yes’ to joining your crazy idea for a company.

The famed animation studio Pixar faced the same struggle to build culture. The production house that totes 27 Academy Awards on its mantle started out with sleep-deprived, passionate people who took a chance on an idea they believed in. Since its inception in 1979, Pixar has taken many directions, from producing special effects for Star Trek to working on a commercial for Listerine. Despite the change in vision, structure, or ownership, the individuals who were so passionate about their craft and creating a company notable for what it offered the world made Pixar great. By no means did this happen without investment and capital, but it started with the right people.

In James Collins’ celebrated book Good to Great, he emphasizes recruiting the right people, who are flexible and put in their time and energy day after day, even when the vision or direction of a company might take a detour. He says that while vision is essential when starting a business and gaining employees, “If you begin with ‘who’ rather than ‘what,’ you can more easily adapt to a changing world.”

One of the really important features of our company culture is a strong emphasis on trust and validation. In our industry most young, ambitious animators want to go work for the larger, more legendary studios in New York or Los Angeles, where they will probably be made to work longer hours and receive little credit.

While this is the reality of many recent graduates and young professionals in their career development journey, we try to value and recognize each accomplishment made, whether that’s with bonuses for especially noteworthy projects or getting taken out to lunch because someone forgot to bring theirs for the day. Every person, no matter how old or how young, desires a place in a community and to feel like their work is valued and contributes to something greater than themselves. We may not have the notoriety of a large studio, but what defines our culture is how satisfied and ambitious those brave souls are who have joined our growing studio.

Investing in human capital proves to be just as important as your real capital. Find those select few who invest their time, talents, and future in your company, because those are the ones who will be there at the end of the day, even when financial backers may not be.

Joshua Colfer is with ProdigiArts a Memphis animation, design and development firm. See what they can do for your startup visit them on the web at prodigiarts.com

Broncos Turn To Local Denver Startup Wayin To Get More Socially Active

On Friday the Denver Broncos launched a new socially-charged website to help fans stay better engaged with their favorite team. The effort is starting now, during training camp, and will continue through the regular season.

Broncos fans can go to denverbroncos.com/social where they will find an aggregated home screen with all of the official Denver Bronco’s Twitter and Facebook feeds. The official @denverbroncos Twitter account, along with the Bronco’s TV Twitter account, Bronco’s cheerleaders, and several actual Broncos players have their latest Bronco-related tweets and status updates in one central location so that socially active fans can engage.

Right now, during training camp, the site is encouraging fans to look up and use the hashtag #broncoscamp. Using that tag fans can find the latest behind-the-scene goings-ons at Bronco’s training camp.

To pull off this next evolution of fan interaction, the Denver Broncos turned to local Denver startup Wayin, who has already had success creating social pages for the Atlanta Falcons and the St. Louis Rams.

Wayin is an official certified Twitter partner.

“When people want to talk about what is real and current, they do so on Twitter,” Wayin’s senior director of product Hunter Ansley said in a statement. “Enabling brands to display Twitter’s unparalleled in-the-moment content to further engage their followers is a goal we aim to accomplish with our Hubs.”

The Denver Post reports that in addition to The Atlanta Falcons, Wayin was also the social startup of choice for Cheverolet’s SXSW efforts last March in Austin, Texas.

The Denver startup has already raised in excess of $20 million dollars and is chaired by Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy.

Marc Freeman, the Denver Broncos Senior Vice President of Business Development told The Denver Post that team wanted to create “an engaging experience that gives fans minute-by-minute updates.” Our fans are extremely tuned into social media, making tools like Twitter more important than ever before,” Freeman said.

You can find out more about Wayin here at wayin.com

The St. Louis Rams also use St. Louis startup Bonfyre to engage with fans socially on site at home games.

Xoogler Spotlight: Seattle Startup Yabbly Wants To Help Prevent Buyer’s Remorse

We’ve all been there. We bought something from Amazon or in our local department store or Best Buy, just to find out later that we didn’t really like the item, or worse, it didn’t do what we needed it to do. If you’re like me, you even checked out three or four product reviews before buying. That makes the whole situation more annoying.

The problem with those product reviews is that they either aren’t addressing what we really need out of the item or they were planted by a PR firm or the manufacturer themselves.

Seattle startup Yabbly is looking to change that with their new community of people who are actually out there purchasing items. The site goes deeper than most but in a way that makes it more engaging.

The company was founded by a powerhouse team of founders who know good product. CEO and Co-Founder Tom Leung is a former product manger at Google. Ian Shafer, the engineering lead, actually comes from Amazon. So while Yabbly is going to be filled with user product reviews, the product itself is also going to be easy-to-use and easy-to-understand.

But Yabbly wasn’t created just because it sounded like a good startup. Megh Vakharia who works in the marketing department at Yabbly tells us that the founders created Yabbly because people often have many specific reasons they are looking for a product, and generalized reviews weren’t cutting it.

“For example, someone looking for vacuums specifically to clean up pet hair won’t find many reviews and vacuums that are recommended especially for their pet hair-cleaning abilities. With Yabbly, you can ask a question about how you need a vacuum for pet hair cleanup, and other Yabblers will give you recommendations based on their own experiences,” Vakharia told us in an interview.

You can read the rest of our interview with Yabbly below.

What is your startup called?

Our startup is called Yabbly.

What does your company do?

Yabbly is a platform for thoughtful conversation about product decisions. Members of our community can ask questions about product decisions they’re facing, including information about their specific situation, such as price range, use case, and whatever else is important to them. Our goal is to help people who are facing a product decision find their “product soulmate,” someone who has made a similar product decision in the past. Yabbly is here to help you kill buyer’s remorse by helping you find products you’ll love!

What’s unique about Yabbly is that we guarantee every great question will receive an answer within one day – no other Q&A site matches this.

What problem do you solve?

People relying on Amazon Reviews to help them find the best products face a problem – those reviews could be written by anyone, and the majority of reviews don’t help you figure out if the product will fit your needs. For example, someone looking for vacuums specifically to clean up pet hair won’t find many reviews and vacuums that are recommended especially for their pet hair-cleaning abilities. With Yabbly, you can ask a question about how you need a vacuum for pet hair cleanup, and other Yabblers will give you recommendations based on their own experiences. (this was in fact one of our best threads, with 18 responses)

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

The Yabbly team was founded by Tom Leung, CEO, Ian Shafer, engineering lead, and Steven Neuman, UX designer. The team is especially equipped to solve the problem because they helped create it – Tom is a former Google product manager, Ian is a former Amazon engineer, and Steven worked on shopping apps for Target and REI.Where are you based?

Yabbly is based in Pioneer Square, a neighborhood in Seattle, WA.What’s the startup scene like where you are based?

Seattle’s startup scene is awesome, and it’s a growing hub of entrepreneurial activity – especially with people trying to start the next Microsoft or Amazon. VC activity is also ramping up in the area and groups like TechStars Seattle offer entrepreneurs many opportunities to execute their ideas.

Why now?

Americans spend a trillion dollars on products every year, and this will only grow in the future as ecommerce shopping booms. But product reviews haven’t caught up with this – Amazon reviews suck, and Facebook isn’t focused enough to facilitate great conversation about which products to buy. Beyond that, more people are going mobile when making shopping decisions – Yabbly is positioned perfectly to capture this growing market and provide a platform for great discussion about which products to buy.

What are some of the milestones your startup has already reached?

-Almost 2,000 questions asked and over 10,000 responses

-On average, each question recieves around 5 responses
-Top 3 in SxSW Startup Accelerator in Social category

– $1.5 million in seed funding

-Rated #2 for “product reviews” on iTunes app store, #15 for “reviews”

What are your next milestones?

-Focus on growing our community with engaged users

-Update iPhone app to be iOS7 compatible

-Improve desktop web app experience

Where can people find out more? Any social media links you want to share?

Join the community to get help finding the best products for you!

www.yabbly.com

Check out these other Xoogler founded startups.

Tables Turn As Accelerators Pitch At National Accelerator Demo Day

Accelerator, Global Accelerator Network, 1776, National Accelerator Demo Day

Donna Harris, co-founder of 1776dc chatting with an entrepreneur (photo: NMI 2013)

Last week 16 startup accelerators from across the country took the stage at Washington DC’s 1776 coworking space, incubator and home to the Fort Accelerator.

Ark Challenge (AR), Socratic Labs (NY), BetaSpring (RI), The Idea Village (Louisiana), Village Capital (GA), Points of Light Civic Accelerator (GA), Venture Hive (FL), Capital Factory (TX), Alpha Lab (PA), MassChallenge (MA), VentureSpur (OK), Brandery (OH), New York Digital Health Accelerator (NY), Springboard Entreprises (DC) and TechWildcatters (TX) all got a chance to pitch the ins and outs of their individual programs on stage in front of over 100 other accelerator heads and staff members from across the country.

“Of course it was great being on stage with the other 15 accelerators, but after the pitches we got to mingle and network with even more accelerators and exchange best practices,” Brandery’s GM Mike Bott told us by phone. “There’s such a wide variety of accelerator programs out there today and we got to see a sampling of each one.” The Brandery is often ranked in the top 20 when it comes to accelerators. Their branding-focused program happens in the epicenter of consumer packaged goods and branding.

Jeannette Balleza, the director at Ark Challenge told Nibletz:

JIAC (Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge project) and Global Accelerator Network member, The ARK Challenge would not be in existence without public funding from the Economic Development Administration and Small Business Administration, so it was an honor to pitch to potential funders during the first-ever National Accelerator Demo Day alongside 15 others.

Not only were we able to shake the hands of our SBA partners, but we also connected in person with leadership at programs off the beaten path like the Points of Light Civic Accelerator of Georgia, IdeaVillage of Louisiana and NW Social Venture Fund of Oregon. Leaving the day, it was evident that innovation is geography-agnostic, and accelerator models, by necessity, look quite different from one region to the next, depending on ecosystem maturity. There was much more diversity, a big driver of innovation, than one might encounter at a typical tech conference, which was heartening.

With SBA and GAN at the helm, the tone was very welcoming (facilitator Patrick Riley kicked off the day asking the attendees to give two hugs each). Doug Rand of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy discussed pathways to make immigration more entrepreneur-friendly, shared a visa guide at http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/eir and quotes President Obama on the importance of exercising out voices regarding immigration reform. The SBA held a panel on its “CCCI” programs: Capital access, Contracting, Counseling and Investment/innovation.

While short in length, the event proved to be fertile grounds for showcasing and learning from each program’s differentiators, making direct asks of foundations and public servants in attendance, as well as strengthening relationships offline at D.C.’s beautiful 1776.

Acceleration is a very important tool for startups, especially “everywhere else.” The National Accelerator Demo Day was the first of it’s kind, but there are plans for more events like this in the future. It parallels the kind of collaborative learning and exchange of information events that Startup America (now UpGlobal) puts on with their Regional Champions Summits, where people freely exchange best practices to help build better startups.

Are you part of a startup in an accelerator, tell your story, click here.

14 Mistakes To Avoid When Pitching Investors

Question: What’s one dumb mistake entrepreneurs should avoid, at all costs, during their first couple of pitches to investors?

Smelling of Desperation

“When you pitch to an investor, don’t sound desperate. People like to invest and be connected to winning projects. If you come off as though this investment is the only way for your business to move forward, it seems needy and is unattractive to many investors, and can sets you up to be taken advantage of. You’ll end up giving away more equity then you should.”

– Raoul Davis | CEO, Ascendant Group

Thinking Only About Money

“When pitching an investor, you’re not just pitching your great idea. A relationship with an investor goes beyond the ROI and it’s important to focus on selling yourself as well as your business plan.”

– Raul Pla | CEO and Founder, SimpleWifi and UseABoat

Going In Unprepared

“Just because you have an idea and you think you need help does not mean you’re ready to raise money. Even if you get an investor interested, nothing will bring the conversation to a screeching halt quite like not knowing how much you want to raise and what you’ll do with it. The questions are core to justifying the investment and showing you’re prepared to lead an institutionally-funded business.”

– Jason Evanish | co-founder, Greenhorn Connect

Introducing the NDA

“Ideas are cheap. Chances are you’ll be laughed out of the meeting if you ask investors to sign an NDA. More important, anyone willing to sign an NDA in a first meeting is probably not sophisticated or serious enough for you to be considering as an investor.”

– Michael Tolkin | CEO, Merchant Exchange

What’s a Negotiation?

“It’s rare that an investor will, straight out of the gate, give you everything you ever wanted. You need to know what you can do with different levels of investment, and have an idea of what situations are bad enough to walk away from the table. A pitch to an investor is the start of a negotiation and you should treat it as such.”

– Thursday Bram | Consultant, Hyper Modern Consulting

Being Too Pushy

“The investors are already there to hear your pitch because they see something in you and your company. Those that push their product or idea too much cause most investors to immediately shut down and not hear the rest of the pitch. Be cool and confident, but not like a used car salesman. You only have one chance to make a first impression, and don’t blow it doing this simple thing.”

– Ashley Bodi | co-founder, Business Beware

Eagerly Meeting First

“Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of meeting with their best investor prospects first, yet their pitch only gets better with time. You will achieve your greatest odds by saving the best for last. Note reoccurring questions and concerns after each pitch, and revise your materials accordingly. By the time you get to the big guys, you will be confident and convincing enough to close the deal.”

– Christopher Kelly | Co-Founder, Principal, Convene

Taking Criticism Personally

“Most investors are direct and are going to ask you the tough questions. That’s a good thing; it means they’re thinking about your idea. Don’t take feedback our tough questions personally or as personal attacks. Answer directly and if you don’t know, say so. Don’t make something up.”

– Nathan Lustig | cofounder, Entrustet

Putting Down Your Passion

“You need more than passion to convince investors. You need a well thought-out business plan and a great product. Even with that, though, don’t be afraid to let your passion show through. It’ll carry you through the entrepreneurial journey, and investors know that, so don’t try to be all business by hiding that enthusiasm. Display it. It’s an advantage, not a weakness.”

– Nick Friedman | President, College Hunks Hauling Junk and College Hunks Moving

Leaving Without the Q&A

“Allowing time for questions will naturally create the need to have a concise and focused presentation, while also allowing the investors to partially guide the pitch. No matter how organized a pitch is, it may fail to answer certain questions your audience has. Planning for Q&A time allows your pitch to be clear to someone unfamiliar with your line of work.”

– John Harthorne | Founder and CEO, MassChallenge

Promising Too Much

“Don’t overpromise; go in with what you know, not what you think you can do. Investors will lose faith in you – that is, if they don’t see through you right away.”

– Jordan Guernsey | CEO, Molding Box

Too Diligent About Disruption

“Entrepreneurs often work on ideas in areas they’re passionate about, and along with that can come a sense of religion about changing the way a certain industry works. Disruption is certainly an ideal outcome for a new business, and investors are looking for disruptive ideas, but an entrepreneur that cares more about that disruption than building a sustainable business can often lose sight of the immediate decisions that must be made, even if they steer you away from your original vision.”

– Derek Shanahan | Marketing, Playerize

Don’t Make Projections, Make Plans

“Don’t put a freaking hockey stick graph in the presentation and expect everyone in the room to “ooh” and “ahh.” Projections are guesses that rarely come true. What’s more impressive is your plan to get there. Investors know that your strategy means a lot more than your pretty pictures.”

– Brent Beshore | Owner/CEO, adventur.es

Rushing the Pitch

“As nervous as you might be, try to calm down and speak from the heart. Memorization is often the biggest crutch during a presentation. Nerves get the best of us, and we try to rush through the words just to get it over with. Studies have shown that speaking more slowly not only allows the listeners to register what you’re saying, but it also makes you sound more confident and knowledgeable.”

– Logan Lenz | Founder / President, Endagon

This startup conference was designed for even bootstrapped founders.

node.js Developers Can Count On Cincinnati Startup, Modulus [VIDEO]

We have an incredible knack for running into Charlie Key ,the co-founder of Cincinnati startup Modulus, everywhere. We spent some time with the Modulus crew in Austin at SXSW, and two weeks ago our CEO Nick Tippmann ran into Key at the Innovation Showcase at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Modulus is a platform for node.js developers. They host node.js applications in the cloud in such a way that it makes it incredibly easy for developers to scale. Key tells Nibletz, “When you want to go from 1,000 users to 100,000 user,s we can do that.” They can actually go far beyond 100,000 users.

The cloud stuff is the easy part, though. Modulus also offers a robust layer of statistics and analytics for all of the node.js developers on their platform. They can give their developer users a snapshot of exactly how many people are accessing their app, what features they are calling, and a whole lot more.

Modulus accelerated last year at The Brandery in Cincinnati and just recently moved into their own office.

Key told Soapbox Cincinnati that Modulus was actually a hodge podge of other projects the team was working on: “The business started slowly out of other projects. The Brandery application process really forced us to consolidate our ideas into a single vision; Modulus officially kicked off when we were accepted into the program.”

Now a year later the company is doing very well. Check out Nick’s interview with Charlie Key in the video below:

11 Awesome Coworking Spaces for Entrepreneurs

Working from home sucks sometimes. You can only stare at the same wall so many times before it completely drains you of all creativity. And, in my case, it’s a guarantee that as soon as I get in a groove, the children will want to tell me about their latest Lego creation.

That’s why coworking spaces can be so awesome for entrepreneurs. You can be surrounded by like-minded people, but also plugged totally into work. Many of the spaces below also offer on-site mentors and other perks.

In case you didn’t know, most coworking spaces are member-only because they often also work as incubators. But, if you’re ever traveling, a nominal fee will usually get you some space at one of these awesome hubs, and you’ll get the added benefit of networking with a whole new set of people.

If you live around one of these awesome coworking spaces everywhere else, do whatever you can to get in!

1. 1776 DC–Opened in January of this year, 1776 is a great space for entrepreneurs. Many of the businesses that work here are focused on solving our nation’s toughest problems in healthcare, education, energy, and government.

2. The Speak Easy in Indianapolis bills itself as “a combination of a 17th century salon, coffee shop, and science lab.” Companies pay yearly dues and have access to common areas and a conference room, as well as a gaming center and semi-regular events.

3. Chicago’s 1871 (named after the 1871 Chicago fire) is located in the historic Merchandise Mart. There are three different kinds of memberships that offer different levels of access to the space. They also host classes, workshops, and networking events.

4. Miami Shared is full not the average folding table coworking space. Full of windows, white walls, and stunning artwork, Miami Shared creates a unique place for entrepreneurs to work. Members get the benefit of the beautiful space, as well as networking and collaboration opportunities.

5. Green Spaces can be found in Denver, CO, New York City, and (soon) Minneapolis, MN. The space particularly hosts companies that focus on “doing good.” Collaboration, networking, and access to influencers across the world are just a few perks of being a member at Green Spaces.

6. MAKERS opened up shop in Seattle in 2011. The building is full of refurbished wood and natural light, reminiscent of Seattle’s nature-loving atmosphere. There are several tiers of membership, and non-members can rent out certain spaces at certain times.

7. 654 Work Cottage is one of the more creative uses for an old house. Don’t the let the quaint outside fool you, though. Inside the Work Cottage is a first class coworking space. They offer a range of memberships, including pay as you go.

8. The Nashville Entrepreneur Center opened last month to a little bit of controversy. Still, members of the center have access to investors, mentors, and other resources to build their companies. They also get preferred consideration for the incubator housed in the same building.

9. The Iceberg is a cool place to work in tiny Fayetteville, AR. The basement space is divided into areas, such as a coffeeshop/lounge, conference room, workspace, and resource library. Rent is affordable at The Iceberg, and they offer day passes to those passing through.

10. In Jacksonville, NC, CoWorx offers an office space for any entrepreneur. They have all the trappings of an office, but offer tiers of membership to make it affordable. Members can even rent private, furnished offices.

11. Philadelphia’s Independents Hall is tapping into the excitement that working with a group can generate. Indy Hall offers all the other essentials of a coworking space, but they really focus on the serendipity of the relationships built there. They also offer day passes for people who are passing through or want to test the waters.

Most startups and entrepreneurs could never afford the upkeep on these sleek, state-of-the-art offices. But, with the growing coworking trend, it’s so much easier to work in style.

Know of a great coworking space? Let us know which ones we left out.

Startups In The Fastlane: NMotion Startup FiscalCircles

Whether you have an MBA or a GED, startup accelerators are often the biggest push that startups need to go from idea, or earliest MVP, to actual startup and company. Startup accelerators come in all sizes and shapes from YCombinator, 500 Startups, and Techstars to The Fort, The Brandery, and Seed Hatchery. In our Accelerating in the Fast Lane stories we’ll feature an interview with a startup currently going through an accelerator.

Nebraska is filled with startups and entrepreneurs. Warren Buffet hails from Nebraska, as does the Silicon Prairie News and their Big Series of award-winning conferences. On a recent trip to Nebraska, we got to hang out with Eric Moyer the co-founder and CMO of a startup that went into Lincoln, Nebraksa’s NMotion accelerator as Fiscal Circles and has since taken on the name, HipPocket.

HipPocket helps connect consumers to loan products in a more efficient and transparent way. Find out how in our interview with Moyer below.

What is the name of your start-up?

The name of our start-up has long been a loaded question. I am however happy to report, Fiscal Circles, Inc. is now doing business as HipPocket.

What problem are you solving?

We provide insight into consumer finance which until now has lacked any form of transparency. Consumers hoping to improve their financial situation have been forced to call around or ‘take a chance’ on a loan offer that may not be in their best interest through websites like lowermybills.com, quickenloans, etc.

Why now?

Consumer adoption of online banking and more specifically, personal financial management (PFM) sites like Mint.com is trending up. Further, interest rates are poised to increase markedly in the near term. We predict that timing is right for a vast number of consumers who have been on the fence about optimizing their finances will be motivated by a changing rate environment.

Who are your competitors?

The biggest competitor in the PFM space is mint.com, but we’ve also been diligently researching other providers in the space. We’ve seen some companies doing limited comparisons of budget or FICO score but none appear to be leveraging market and peer comparison data in a significant manner. We also have a secret sauce that we’re hoping you ask us about…

What’s your secret sauce?

Our proprietary process for taking users through the comparison process is our secret sauce. We help them build a complete financial picture and provide the clearest possible explanation of where they stand now and an easy-to-understand path to a better future. This process emphasizes simplicity and fairness. Instead of utilizing persistent reminders, info-graphics and a myriad of other tactics to change consumer behavior, we’ve chosen to concentrate on saving people money on the things they already buy.

By concentrating on making refinancing or finding a new mortgage easy and providing unbiased loan recommendations, we give the consumer a fair shot at getting the best deal.

Where are you/were you based before NMotion?

Prior to NMotion, our team split time among coffee shops, Turbine Flats (a co-working space) and of course, the founder’s homes.

Why NMotion?

We applied to NMotion to gain access to resources and best practices in an effort to improve our chances for success. Plus, NMotion is dedicated to developing the start-up community of Lincoln, Nebraska. We recognize that for our venture to succeed, the area needs to be seen as a viable place for new companies to gain a foothold. Brian Ardinger and his staff at NMotion have given participating teams every opportunity to develop and successfully launch compelling products and services.

What’s one lesson you’ve learned since the NMotion session has started.

One lesson we’ve learned is that the time spent validating assumptions might be worth more than what you’re building.

Where can people find out more?

You can find us on Facebook, Twitter and now, YourHipPocket.com.

Stay tuned for more stories from accelerators everywhere else.

Startups from everywhere else attend the huge everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference.

6 Companies From Everywhere Else That Raised Money This Week

The two biggest complaints about building a company outside of Silicon Valley are 1) lack of talent and 2) lack of capital.

But that doesn’t mean NO ONE gets funded outside of Silicon Valley. Every day companies close rounds and gain that extra capital they need to scale. And, yes, they even do it outside of the Valley.

Here are 6 companies from everywhere else that raised capital just this week.

Mediaspectrum–Based in Boston, Mediaspectrum provides a platform for big media companies (think Gannett, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, etc) to manage content and advertising in one place. They raised $35.8 million, led by Insight Ventures Partners.
MobileSpaces–This Maryland company helps businesses secure mobile apps on their employees’ phones, keeping sensitive business data from leaking. They raised $8.6 million in second round funding from Accel Partners and Marker LLC.
Vivino–This wine app from Denmark followed on their December series A with another $10.3 million. The app scans wine labels and tells the drinker what brand, varietals, vintage, and year of the wine inside the bottle.
Objective Logistics–On July 19, the Cambridge, MA-based company announced a $5.3 million Series A. The app gamifies waiting tables, trying to incentive waitstaff that may need extra encouragement.
Codeanywhere–The Croatia-based company bills itself as “the Google Docs for developers” and offers a Web-based code editor. On Monday they announced a $600,000 series A from World Wide Web Hosting, LLC.
Panjo–Based in LA, Panjo is an ecommerce platform that taps into the “enthusiast market.” Within each vertical (cars, sports, pets, etc), hobbyists can sell items related to the hobby. They raised $1.6 million in seed funding, led by Spark Capital.

As I researched this story, I realized something. Few of these companies are “sexy.” They aren’t the next consumer-facing social phenomenon. They aren’t going to interest every person on earth, or even most people, really. But, most of them are solving problems encountered by people and businesses all over the world.

That’s kind of what “everywhere else” is about, right? The Valley has done what the Valley’s going to do, and now it’s time for everywhere else to step up and solve problems.

Here from several startups everywhere else that raised money this year at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, a Must Attend by Forbes.

Hip Hop & Startups: The Phat Startup

“This is not a parody,” The Phat Startup says on their website, and it’s not. A lot of entrepreneurs draw lessons from pop culture and contemporary issues and relate them to the passion and drive for startups.

For me, it’s usually a mashup of hip hop and basketball. My basketball references come from my favorite team the Memphis Grizzlies, known for years as the Grit-n-Grind team, which publicly showed it off to the world through the 2013 conference finals. My hip hop references come as the form of subtle musical hints in our videos based on what city we happen to be in on the sneaker strapped startup road trip.

We’re definitely not the only ones that relate hip hop to startups. One of the more famous people in the startup world, Ben Horowitz of Andreesen Horowitz, uses a hip hop lyric at the opening of all of his blog posts, like this post about the firm’s investment in both Instagram and PicPlz where he used Mase’s “Lookin at me” to open up the post.

Some may draw another connection between hip hop and startups because most rappers have had to turn into entrepreneurs in their own right in order to succeed in today’s shifted music economy. There are also parallels from some of the content that hip hop artists often rap about, especially when it comes to hustle.

Well on Wednesday Forbes reported on a New York startup founded by James Lopez and Anthony Frasier called “The Phat Startup”. Lopez is a technologist from the Bronx who worked at publishing giant Random House. Frasier hails from Newark, New Jersey. He is the founder of mobile startup Playd and the “award winning” gaming site “The Koalition.” He was also profiled in the popular hit documentary Black in America: The New Promise Land- Silicon Valley. CNN Money also profiled Frasier as being one of 8 minorities diversifying the tech scene.

Through their blog, outreach, resources, and popular events, The Phat Startup is looking to continue to grow the tech community and teach essential skills for entrepreneurs and startup founders through hip hop.

“A big part of entrepreneurship is the ability to learn from mistakes,” Frasier, told Forbes. “When you hear rappers rap about their upbringing, you can learn a lot because they always sprinkle lessons of things they don’t do anymore, things that they do now, things you can relate to.”

The Forbes article highlights several rap lyrics like one very infamous line from Jay-Z when he declared “I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man,” an homage to how one of the hip hop kings grew himself, his brand, and his artists to an empire bringing his self worth to nearly half a million dollars.

A song released by Drake, earlier this year, has become a theme song of sorts for several startups going through spring and summer accelerator sessions. The song “We started from the bottom” has a punchy hook that say,s “we started from the bottom now we’re here”.

Hip Hop is so intertwined with the startup culture that it even spawned a huge startup that, of course, Horowitz and the Andreessen Horowitz team were quick to back. That startup, RapGenius, crowdsources the meanings to the lyrics of rap songs. Now the startup is working on other ways to incorporate the technology, like with the news for example. Back in March when Andrew Mason ~~was fired~~, resigned, from Groupon, RapGenius was used to crowdsource the meaning of his now infamous letter to the Groupon team.

The Phat Startup’s next event is Tuesday, August, 20th from 6-8 pm at 1412 Broadway 22nd Floor. At the event, Nihal Mehta the CEO and Co-Founder of LocalResponse will talk about The Future Of Marketing For Startups. You can join that event by clicking here.

Find out more about The Phat Startup here.

Now check out this awesome startup event.

VentureCamp Gives New Meaning to “Go Big or Go Home”

VentureCamp has everything an entrepreneur needs from an accelerator:

top-notch mentorship
a smart cohort
a curriculum developed by leading investors

Oh…and a mansion.

Looks like something out of The Bachelor, right? That’s actually not too far off. Besides building companies and receiving world class mentorship, VentureCamp participants live together in the mansion. And, it’s all being captured on video.

VentureCamp obviously isn’t your typical accelerator.

First, rather than accept teams that are already building products, VentureCamp only accepted individuals. And, they focused on women and minorities, groups that are typically left out of the venture capital game. After the first week, the participants were split up into teams, they chose a company, and had 7 weeks to build it out. The whole experience can be likened to Startup Weekend, but on a bigger, grander scale.

Second, the whole thing is housed in Indianapolis’s Kessler Mansion, owned by one of the camp’s backers, Chad Folkening. The idea is to give the entrepreneurs an idea of what life could be like, in the event their companies go big.

Finally, from morning to night, the whole thing is filmed. Camera crews hang out in all the meetings, strategy sessions, and dinners, capturing the formation of three new companies. The footage will be turned into a “docu-series,” shown first online, but the team hopes to eventually put it on TV. VentureCamp backer and senior advisor Patrick Mellody told USA Today that the film will promote other VentureCamps held around the world.

Despite some of the glitz, VentureCamp entrepreneurs have been hard at work for the last 8 weeks. With mentors like Priceline’s Jeff Hoffmann,they receive outstanding feedback on their business models and pitch.

And, speaking of pitch, what’s the one thing all accelerators have in common?

Demo Day!

Today is the first VentureCamp Demo Day. They are launching (and hoping to fund) 3 companies:

TourNative is a marketplace that connects travelers with locals.
YumDom helps home cooks find just the recipe they need for their lifestyle and includes 6 iPhone apps tailored to different dietary needs.
PlanSoon connects people with someone new to go do something fun.

It should be interesting to watch what comes from VentureCamp, both the new companies and the docu-series. Whatever it is, this team definitely knows how to “go big.”

Accel.io Publishes Guides for Everything

Scott Annan was frustrated with the lack of connection between authors and learners when he set out to create Accel.io, an online platform for creating interactive guides viewable across an array of devices.

Accel.io is different from eBooks in that it is much more interactive. Annan explains that “with an eBook, you get a “story” or narrative of things you should do, with text and images. With a course you get a series of lectures and specific activities to do to “prove” you understand. But with our guides you get a step-by-step process that is actually used by a successful author – with text, videos, file templates – everything you need to do it yourself.”

Annan first tested the market with StartupPlays, a site that offered Accel.io guides to help budding entrepreneurs build their first startup. The user response was astounding. Annan and his team sold over 10,000 guides with very positive feedback from their customers. With Accel.io guides being a new way to consume content, Annan says that it “took many iterations on pricing, format, and subjects, but we learned a lot in the process.”

Annan is no stranger to rallying the appropriate resources to help build Accel.io. In Ottawa, Canada, where Annan and Accel.io are based, Annan’s involvement in his local startup community is that of a leader. He ran a small accelerator last year and has brought together his community to provide mentorship and direction to cultivate a strong community in multiple areas. Annan is also part of the change in shifting Ottawa from being a hardware-focused city in the 90s to that of the consumer focused, software-oriented city it is today.

After rebuilding the Accel.io platform early this year to make the platform easier to use for anyone to create their own Accel.io guide, Annan says he and his team are now focusing on expanding their content into that of “health & fitness, professional development, relationships, and even home improvement.” By expanding the content of Accel.io, Annan hopes it becomes a great way to learn in all areas of life across the world. The ease of interacting with authors, taking notes, and interacting with embedded media make Accel.io a natural fit for a wide variety of subjects.

Annan says the long-term vision for Accel.io is to provide both content producers and content consumers “an alternative model to the eBook.” He views today’s formats as stuck in the past, printing press style of content. This limits the way a consumer can view and interact with content and limits authors in the way they can interact with users. Content, according to Annan, “should be more personalized, like a modern ‘choose your own adventure’ that is multimedia-based, constantly updated, and not constrained to so many pages.”

Annan is optimistic for Accel.io’s success and potential moving forward as it continues to dramatically grow. With a focus on interactivity and usability, Accel.io hopes to break past the wall that eBooks and traditional books have hit.

Michael Luchen is a student at the University of Kansas and project coordinator at Cremalab. You can find him at his website or on Twitter @mluchen.

New VC Fund Is Linking Michigan To Silicon Valley

While the bankruptcy of Detroit has put Michigan in the news in a negative way, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel coming from startups and entrepreneurship. This isn’t anything new for the state of Michigan; after all at one point even cars were new technology.

While Detroit has a blossoming startup scene and is preparing to rebuild, Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan have a startup scene that’s starting to thrive. The latest startup-focused venture, a VC fund called Michigan eLab is the most recent organization to join the cause.

Most startup communities “everywhere else” struggle with two major things: access to capital and access to talent. The new Michigan eLab is positioned to help entrepreneurs in Ann Arbor with both.

Crain’s Detroit reports that the new Michigan eLab is raising a first fund of $40 million dollars. While any startup community would welcome a new VC fund, Michigan eLab is uniquely positioned to bridge Ann Arbor and Michigan with Silicon Valley.

For starters the fund has two offices: one in Ann Arbor, the other in San Mateo California. An even bigger benefit that eLab brings to Ann Arbor is that three of the fund’s four founders have ties to Michigan. Doug Neal, one of the fund’s founders is originally from Mt. Pleasant. Neal spent 15 years in Silicon Valley with companies like Hewlett-Packard and Symantec before co-founding his own startup Mobile Automation. That company sold to iPass Inc in 2005 for $20 million dollars.

Rick Bolander is another one of the Michigan eLab founders with ties to both Silicon Valley and Michigan. Bolander graduated from the University of Michigan with a master’s in electrical engineering. He went on to launch Chicago’s Blue Sky Ventures and then co-founded San Mateo-based Gabriel Venture Partners.

Bob Stefanski is the third founder with ties to both Silicon Valley and Michigan. He is a graduate of UM earning both an engineering and a law degree. Stefanski is a partner in the Silicon Valley-based Reed Smith LLP. He is also the cofounder of Tibco Software, which has more than $1 billion in revenue according to Crain’s.

The final partner, Scott Chou, has no direct ties to Michigan or UM, but he is a managing director at Bolander’s Gabriel Venture Partners. Chou’s first venture deal was a 2001 seed round investment in NextG Networks, a California company, which sold to Texas-based Crown Castle International in December of 2011 for $1 billion dollars. That earned him a spot on the highly coveted top 100 venture capitalists in Silicon Valley list from AlwaysOn.

The founders of Michigan eLab hope to link Ann Arbor’s tech community, startups, and entrepreneurs with other famous founders with ties to the region. Those include: Larry Page, Dick Costolo, Skype’s Josh Silverman, Sun Microsystems co-founders Scott McNealy and Bill Joy, Groupon co-founder Brad Keywell, former Palm Inc. CEO Donna Dubinsky, and more.

Source: Crain’s Detroit.

Indy Startup Adproval Simplifies Direct Advertising For Any Blogger [VIDEO]

Most of our readers know I’m into my 7th year as a full time blogger. Both of the new media startups I’ve founded produced fresh content six days a week. After creating Nibletz in the summer of 2011, I sold Thedroidguy the following spring to concentrate on Nibletz full time.

Like many of the serial entrepreneurs we’ve profiled here at Nibletz, I learned a lot of lessons from my previous startup, and at the same time brought with me habits from my previous startup as well.

With a new media startup (in a lot of cases a fancy schmancy word for blog), or as a full time blogger, and now one with a staff, people often wonder how we do it. There are so many people out there that think they can buy a $1.99 domain name, activate Word Press, and be in business. Well as Indianapolis startup Adproval’s, founder Mathew Anderson talks about in the video below, it’s not that easy. A lot of bloggers either stop blogging altogether or move to part time blogging because they can’t figure out how to monetize.

In 2013 there are so many different things involved in monetization, the least lucrative of those is ad networks. Through both sites we’ve tried just about every available ad network. Now with tech focused sites we’re at an even bigger loss because most of our readers are trained not to click network ads. With advertising though, the trick is to be engaging and to capture the attention of the reader. That’s why our state and local partnerships are the best way to reach an engaged audience of millions across the site and social media.

But attracting those partnerships takes a lot of time.

Even with a permanent Managing Editor on board and a co-founder picking up a lot of the backend work, I spend a lot of time working on direct sales. Anderson is hoping to solve that problem, not just for us but for everyone. Anderson explains his “aha moment” in his conversation with Nick Tippmann in the video below, and he shared a lot about it in our interview with him back in November.

Adproval provides a platform that makes it easy to reach targeted direct advertisers for whatever your niche in blogging is.

Are you blogging recipes, kite flying, paintball, or even tech? Adproval helps you set up their system to reach those advertisers or sponsors that will engage the audience.

At Thedroidguy we used one of the biggest and best ad networks in the world, outside of Google AdSense. Still, an Android-focused blog, we would get huge skyscraper or interstitial ads for macaroni and cheese, cleaning product,s and Brita water filters. As internet sensation Sweet Brown would say, “Ain’t nobody got time for that.”

Here at Nibletz for instance, the best ads would be for startup lawyers, PR firms catering to startups, accelerators, startup conferences, the latest mobile technology, incubators, and coworking spaces. Our readers don’t care about Velveeta Shells & Cheese; they’re still eating Ramen noodles.

Adproval’s knack for connecting bloggers with the sponsors and advertisers that will fill these needs and actually get eyeballs is making the Indianapolis-based company successful.

Check out our video interview with Anderson below and for more info visit adproval.com