Boston’s Firefield Is THE Idea Accelerator

Accelerators are great. We cover a lot of startup accelerators from across the country and around the world here at Nibletz. Accelerators are great for companies that have a product. We’ve seen a handful of wireframes and ideas evolve out of an accelerator, but typically to get your “idea” into an accelerator, you also need a proven track record.

Startup Weekend is a great place to flush out an idea and start working on a prototype. But even with over 700 events worldwide, some people can’t get to Startup Weekend. Others want to develop their idea a little more intimately and without presenting it in front of a group of strangers. For those idea-preneurs there’s Firefield.

The team behind FireField started as a company building internal web applications. They quickly realized through this process that there were a lot of other people in the same boat that may not have the access to the same resources they had. That is, people with great ideas and nowhere to go.

Firefield pivoted to an external facing company that wanted to help people with ideas become real startups. Now, they offer an online accelerator with access to curriculum, mentors, designers, developers, and people who’ve actually been through the startup process.

The program lasts 16 weeks and has a rolling start, meaning you can sync up with the Firefield team and program when you’re ready.

Traditional accelerators ask for a huge commitment from founders. Most founders who get into an accelerator think about one thing and that is getting into the program. Once they’re accepted they worry about the little details like taking a sabbatical from their day jobs or quitting altogether. They also take a risk in relocating. Some accelerators have temporary housing worked out, but other accelerators require teams to rent a place to live. Since most rentals are annual so you’re moving to a strange city and getting into an year long lease.

Accelerators are awesome, but there are plenty of risks.

Since there’s not as much risk with an online accelerator, Firefield asks for each startup to invest $5,000 into the program so they have some “skin in the game.” That may seem expensive, but without an accelerator like this you may end up paying tens of thousands of dollars in college courses.

The model seems to be working for Adam McGowan and his cofounders at Firefield.

Here’s a quick interview with McGowan.

What is Firefield?

Firefield offers a 16-week program that ignites ideas into early stage products. We partner with entrepreneurs, providing them with the strategy, design, and web or mobile development needed to launch. We do this for partners with funding, but we also accept equity from select entrepreneurs. By bringing a co-founder’s mentality, an ability to execute, and a proven track-record to our partners, we help build not just products, but successful businesses.

In layman’s terms, how does it work?

Entrepreneurs come to us with great ideas that they cannot build themselves for any of a number of reasons: no technical team, limited funding, lack of experience, etc. We then work with them for 16 weeks to design, develop, and deploy their web or mobile-based application. We become very involved in their business, acting like a co-founder, and providing help in every area we can. After 16 weeks, entrepreneurs exit the program with a minimum viable product they can share with users, demonstrate to potential investors, etc. Moreover, they remain part of the Firefield network that will support them through its technical, strategic, and financial connections in the startup ecosystem. Members can enter the program by purchasing our services or by applying to be accepted in exchange for equity in their business.

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

Adam McGowan is the CEO and founder of Firefield. He is an entrepreneur at heart, but did an 8 year stint in finance working at an investment bank followed by an upstart hedge fund — a period when he evaluated hundreds of deals, scrutinized piles of business plans, pitched investors around the world, designed and built tools he needed, and helped put billions of dollars to work. He witnessed huge successes and failures first hand. Although unconventional — as an entrepreneurial training ground — that experience was second to none, and it taught Adam what he does well and what he should leave for others.

That experience highlighted problem solving, relationship building, analytical thinking, and collaborating with others as the key strengths that Adam is really passionate about. And while he’s pretty damn good at building cash-flow models too, he’s hoping to never have to do that again.

Finding the intersection of his skills and passions led Adam to conceive and build Firefield. Since its inception, it has allowed him to present at conferences of venture capitalists and web innovators, take on founding-team roles with multiple upstart ventures, manage the agile launch of many interactive projects, collaborate with dozens of entrepreneurs at various stages, and foster a great team of thinkers and do’ers.

In short, Adam loves creating great stuff and at Firefield, that’s happened in the form of valuable products, successful businesses, and lasting relationships.

Jeremy Sewell is Firefield’s Principal Collaborator. A writer and entrepreneur, Jeremy hails from Maine and has been working in New York City for the past 11 years, where he’s taken an unconventional job path with many pivots and resets. Despite having studied creative writing and theater in college, when he arrived in New York, Jeremy took a job as a medical office assistant at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, working for a program that provided free treatment for World Trade Center responders.

Within 4 years, based on his strong writing and communication skills, marketing acumen, unique blend of creativity and organization, and ability to lead, Jeremy was named the Director of Marketing and Communications for the entire Mount Sinai Medical Center (at the age of 26), giving him the opportunity to lead a courageous team of writers and designers.

Jeremy then became obsessed with the web and user experience — moving into project and account management roles at a number of prominent New York City agencies including ID Society, Domani Studies, and True North, working with clients that included American Express, Sony, AT&T, Crown Royal, Disney, and Starwood.

Having produced hundreds of successful sites and projects, Jeremy brings a wealth of experience in online marketing, strategy, user experience design, community building, and interactive development to Firefield’s clients. His main focus is on getting things done, efficiently and intelligently. He believes in wireframes, but thinks most functional specs are a waste of time. He has found his groove with the agile approach he’s helped develop at Firefield.

Where are you based?

Adam is based in Boston and Jeremy is based in New York City. The remainder of our team works remotely across multiple continents.

How did you come up with the idea for FireField?

Firefield has evolved over time, originally starting as a venture that built its own internal web applications. Over time we realized that many other early stage companies had the same needs that we did when trying to launch products and businesses. More importantly, our skills and expertise would be really valuable to them. We tested the water and started working with one client. One turned into two, and so on. Now we’re rolling out a program to help dozens of startups.

What problem does FireField solve?

Startup teams get accepted into programs like TechStars only AFTER they build a great product. Investors get interested in new ventures only AFTER they start getting traction and usage in the market. But what about all those entrepreneurs with a great idea but no ability to build and launch it? In most cases these ventures stall, or more likely, fold. We want more of them to have an opportunity to succeed.

What’s your secret sauce?

Over the years, we’ve cultivated an agile team of designers and developers that can execute quickly, efficiently, and foresee issues and opportunities early on. We love putting this team to work on new projects. When we combined our team’s abilities with an entrepreneur’s vision and expertise we find so many things become possible.

Our secret sauce is that when these entrepreneurs finish our program, they actually have a real product to market, sell, launch, etc. Traditional accelerator programs give you some office space, access to mentors, and maybe some cash. After that, you’re on your own. Because we take a vested interest in entrepreneurs and actually build their product with them, we don’t speed up companies, we ignite them.

Why Now?

Too many great ideas are failing to get started because they lack the experience, technical expertise, funding, connections or all of the above to launch their product. It’s time more entrepreneurs start getting the opportunities they deserve.

Who are some of your mentors and business role models?

While he may not have been the easiest boss to work for, Steve Jobs had an incredible vision and ability to execute that inspires us. From a company point of view, we are big fans of the approach at 37 Signals, a development shop that lives and breathes the agile business and software model.

What’s next for FireField?

We are going to continue to work with entrepreneurs to launch more successful businesses. In the future, we also hope to provide a training ground for aspiring “hustlers” or “hackers” looking to launch or join an upstart venture.

Where can people find out more?

You can learn about us at our website firefield.com

This huge startup conference is specifically for startups “everywhere else”

How We Built A Successful Startup Across 10 Cities

At the turn of the millennium, the technology world was a far different place compared to today. Social networking didn’t exist, streaming video was a pipe dream, and collaboration took place during late nights at the office or on napkins at bars. Building a startup from the ground up is a difficult venture at any time, but today’s collaborative tools have opened the door to working together from pretty much anywhere in the world.

That’s how we had to build flik, our social media app. My wife Tracy and I co-founded flik together, and during the early days, we received plenty of advice regarding the right way to approach a startup. A lot of it came with wisdom applicable to any ground-up project, such as building a house: have a solid foundation, plan ahead, use the right materials, and so on.

The problem was that my wife and co-founder Tracy and I lived a bit of gypsy lifestyle. Since we got married six years ago, we’ve moved 30 times, from city to city, region to region, and sometimes country to country. How can you build a startup when you don’t even have a house to call home?

That’s where collaboration tools come in. Of course, technology is only as good as the people that use it, and our most valuable lesson over the years came from finding the right balance between technology and practicality. flik’s first eight people collaborated across six different cities, and while we faced some early communication hurdles, it was only a matter of time before we overcame the challenges of remote business.

All startups have countless moving parts and ours is no exception: advisors, attorneys, operations, marketing and PR. By organizing our communication needs while using both cloud and local tools, we’re able to transform moving parts into a well-oiled machine,

It took a little bit of trial and error, but with our communication challenges in the proverbial rearview mirror, we can focus on the task of making flik as successful as possible. Today, flik professionals are a team in the truest sense, except our diverse locations are now an advantage. With our focus on strong communication, we have one big advantage over our competition — not only do we collaborate with the efficiency of a local team, we also have the broader reach and exposure that comes exclusively with our collective locations. It’s simply the best of all worlds, and a situation that couldn’t have been possible without the right technology and the right people.

Chris Hayes is the co-founder and CTO of flik, a social mobile app where users share products and places they love through short videos. Chris holds a BS in computer science & economics from Northwestern University, was a national chess champion at the age of 12, and is a submarine-pitching professional baseball player.

Check out nibletz’ interview with Flik here.

Dallas Startup Be Pawsitive, Buy One Give One For Dogs!

Buy one give one charities have become one of the most popular forms of social entrepreneurship. I don’t mind buying my family Toms, because I know I’m doing my little part for charity in my already busy life. Over the past couple of years, monthly subscription box startups have become equally popular.

Now Dallas-based entrepreneur Travis Watson has put both concepts together in a startup he calls Be Pawsitive. Be Pawsitive is a monthly subscription box of organic treats for your favorite canine companion. The “home baked” treats taste great to dogs, and they’re good for them as well. But, in addition to your dog, when you sign up for Be Pawsitive, the same box will be sent to an animal shelter so those dogs can enjoy the treats. For every purchased box, one is donated.

“After learning that more than 3 million dogs end up in shelters across the country each year, I felt compelled to do whatever I could to help,” Watson said in a statement. “The treats we donate not only provide a healthy snack for the dogs but also help with obedience training to get them ready for new homes, and also serve as an “ice breaker” for the dog and potential adopter during their first meeting. The treats are really making a difference.”

Treats come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and flavors including; The Original, Rise and Shine, Cheesy-Berry, Pizza Party, Power Berry, Banana Split, Pumpkin Pie, Relax, and Iron Dog. In addition to the delicious snacks, Be Pawsitive also tries to include other things for their canine customers like toys and for their first box a $25 gift certificate to Rover, another startup that helps dog owners find experienced pet sitters.

Check out our interview with Watson below:

What is your startup called?

Be Pawsitive

What does your company do?

We sell a monthly subscription box for dogs. The box is full of our delicious oven baked dog treats and a few other fun dog items. Each box of treats we sell provides a box of treats we donate to animal shelters and rescue organizations across the country. We operate with a Buy One, Give One business model. Each month customers get a new treat flavor in their box as well as other sponsored products (ex. gift cards, dog toys, misc dog stuff).

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Travis Watson (me) is the founder of Be Pawsitive. I have a background in design and finance. I graduated from The University of Texas at Arlington with a BBA in Management in 2009.

Where are you based?

Dallas, Texas

What problem do you solve?

Each year over 3 million dogs will enter into animal shelters across the country. We are working to help make their (shelter dogs) lives better and increase adoption rates. Our treats are used during obedience training to help dogs get ready for new homes. Dogs that are leash trained and obedient get adopted faster. Our treats also act as an ice breaker during the first meet and greet with a shelter dog and person(s) looking to adopt. Some of these dogs come from abusive past or are just a little scared being in an environment with so much going on. Being able to give the dog a treat shows that your intentions are good and allows the dog to feel more comfortable and hopefully leads to a long term relationship with those people. And finally they are a healthy snack for the dogs. Many of our treats provide additional nutrients and are packed with healthy ingredients. We are also working to raise awareness to adopt instead of buy from a breeder or pet store. The over supply of shelter dogs can be lessened with more people adopting.

Why does it matter?

People have a special connection with dogs and we want to provide a way for them to reward their own dog with amazing dog treats and also provide them with a way to help other dogs out.

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

We had a successful launch of our website www.bepawsitive.com on June 1st and have been gaining traction within the subscription box (for dogs) market.

What are your next milestones?

Our next big push will be a mix of online marketing, social media engagement, and grass roots marketing. We hope to keep gaining new relationships with shelters and rescue organizations that will benefit from our treat donations.

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

Facebook.com/likebepawsitive

twitter @bepawsitive

instagram.com/bepawsitivedogs

blog.bepawsitive.com

Check out this startup, it’s Fitbit for dogs.

Voices Heard Media Helps Brands (Including Startups) Engage Their Customers

These days, customers expect more from brands. Gone are the days when we make a purchase and walk away. Now, we often spend time and effort researching major purchases, and we care about the companies where we choose to spend our money. With the advent of social media, we have come to expect a high level of engagement with the companies we love.

Tony Runyan puts it this way: Two-way communication is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity.

But, that engagement can be expensive and difficult for companies to maintain on their own, which is where Voices Heard Media comes in.

Voices Heard Media provides a suite of plugins that increase customer engagement. Their products include apps that handle contests/sweepstakes, trivia/quizzes, social media streams, live Q&A sessions, video polls, and conversation around a brand. They work with big names like Disney, Food Network, and Fox Sports.

Will Overstreet founded Voices Heard Media in 2007. In his former gig as an Atlanta Falcon and sports broadcaster, Overstreet noticed that a simple conversation with a fan increased the likelihood that the fan would buy a jersey, listen to a show, or tell friends and family about Overstreet’s brand. He realized that there had to be a scalable way to take that kind of interaction into the digital world.

Tony Runyan joined the company in 2008 and made the initial big sales they needed. Now the VP of Product, Runyan develops new products, among other things.

So, what can the Voices Heard Media products do?

When I ran into them at the Southland Summit last month, I recognized the Food Network site on their display computer. The company wanted to increase engagement on their site, so they had Voices Heard Media create a Q&A session with the most recent The Next Food Network Star winner. The idea was simple enough: visitors sent in questions over one week, then Aarti Sequeria answered them. But the magic happened when, after the event closed, it still continued to drive traffic and interactions on the site.

All products from Voices Heard Media work on a company’s website, mobile site, and Facebook tab. The company sees this flexibility as absolutely necessary in today’s digital world.

They may work with some of the biggest names in the country, but they also handle smaller, local-focused companies like news outlets, political campaigns, and creative agencies.

Their prices are pretty startup-friendly, too, starting at only $50 for a basic package. And they can bring the same expertise they’ve built with big brands to your new company.

Check out Voices Heard Media and see how they can help your startup engage your audience.

Turn Your Blog Into A Book With Chicago Startup BlogIntoBook

Early next year we’ll be publishing our first book about startups everywhere else, chronicling our two year sneaker strapped startup road trip. We were fortunate enough to be commissioned by a publisher for this particular book, but it’s not typically that easy. For actual book writers and authors, there are great startups to help get self published, like Memphis startup ScrewPulp. But what about bloggers and journalists who may want to memorialize their writings in an actual book, well e-book?

Well BlogIntoBook, currently incubating at Chicago megahub, 1871, is helping bloggers turn their work into books.

BlogIntoBook is an easy-to-use platform that helps bloggers curate and publish their blogs into books. Then they help get the book distributed by Amazon, Apple’s iBookstore, and Google Play. The best part is it’s free, and BlogIntoBook issues a royalty to the author.

We got a chance to talk with the founder Zack Price, check out our interview below.

What is your startup called?

BlogIntoBook.com

What does your company do?

BlogIntoBook.com turns Bloggers into Authors by curating and publishing their blog as a professionally published ebook distributed to Amazon.com (Kindle), Apple iBookstore (iOS), Google Play (Android), and BN Nook. We provide this service completely free to the blogger and pay them a royalty every time their blog is downloaded.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds

Zack Price is a serial entrepreneur who has been starting businesses since age 11. He founded Price World Publishing in 1999 at age 19, and that company still stands strong today. Zack also founded College Auctions LLC in 2004 and successfully exited with a sale in 2007. Already a 14 year publishing veteran, Zack just started up BlogIntoBook.com which launched at Techweek on June 27th.

What problem do you solve?

Bloggers have very few ways to make money from their passion. Many refuse to host ads on their site, and while they would like to be book authors, they just don’t have the time or patience to self-publish. BlogIntoBook.com gives them a completely risk-free opportunity to earn passive income without any investment of time or money, while also gaining new fans from the e-bookstores who may have never found their blog through the web.

Why now?

A few years ago this would have been impossible. The Kindle was in it’s infancy and the iPad didn’t exist. Ebooks have been around forever (as PDF files) but reading a book on a computer screen is not pleasant. Here in 2013 we have a variety of Kindle devices, iPads, Nooks, and android devices … all perfect for reading on the go. Now that these devices are flooding the mainstream there is no better time to publish to them.

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

We just launched at Techweek, but we have signed on BJ Mendelson (@bjmendelson) who has over 750,000 twitter followers. Once we publish his blog into an ebook he’ll be tweeting out the link and it should lead to a flood of sales.

What are your next milestones?

Publishing 100 blogs into books in the second half of the year, and 1,000 blogs by the end of 2014.

Where can people find out more?

BlogIntoBook.com

CoFoundersLab Goes Global!

Last week, while we were in the nation’s capital celebrating Independence Day, DC’s tech superhub, 1776 announced that they were going global on a number of fronts. 1776 founders Donna Harris and Evan Burfield were ecstatic to report that they are offering virtual memberships, helping other similar centers across the globe, and holding a global contest, bringing founders from across the globe to DC for a huge tournament-style finals. They also announced some pretty big strategic partnerships.

Well it turns out that 1776 wasn’t the only DC-area startup resource to expand outside the borders of the United States. Our friend, Shahab Kaviani announced last Wednesday that CoFoundersLab was opening up its virtual doors to entrepreneurs across the globe.

Kaviani had this to say in the monthly e-newsletter:

“After more than 13,000 entrepreneurs in the United States and Canada joined CoFoundersLab in a short year-and-a-half, we’re proud to announce that membership is now open to any entrepreneur across the globe who is looking for a co-founder, mentor, or advisor.

We have already held numerous Co-Founders Wanted matchmaking events internationally including in Tel Aviv, Mexico, and Chile, and look forward to bringing our very popular Meetups to more cities across the globe throughout 2013.

Allowing international membership was one of our most frequently requested features, and we’re excited to introduce the rest of the world to our community of entrepreneurs!”

We’ve had the chance to meet a bunch of founders that have used CoFoundersLab over other more exclusive platforms, like FounderDating. Last year we got to interview Devin Partlow of Baltimore startup Kithly who found his co-founder, Stacy Weng on CoFoundersLab.

CoFoundersLab was also instrumental in linking the founders of Los Angeles based HaterApp. A startup that’s gained notoriety since launching their platform that lets people say what they hate at SXSW earlier this year.

CoFoundersLab is a valuable online networking tool but they also take it offline with events across the country. People using the platform get more into the nitty gritty and actually get a better glimpse of the people who could possibly be your next cofounder.

Check out CoFoundersLab here.

First Round Capital Shares Their Expertise With First Round Review.

Josh Kopelman, the founder of Half.com and the founding partner at Philly and New York-based First Round Capital, has been a big supporter and encourager of startups. In addition to First Round Capital, he’s been very active in the Philadelphia and New York startup scenes.

Kopelman is active on the Philly Startup Leader’s list, and he’s also the founder of the Dorm Room fund. He’s particularly active in startup events that cater to young entrepreneurs, like nvigor’s student startup summit.

First Round Capital has participated in over 100 funding rounds from seed to series D. They also recently expanded their dorm room fund by $500,000 to spread that fund to Silicon Valley.

Kopelman and the team at First Round Capital have been quietly working over the past four months to take their vast knowledge to the Internet and share it with entrepreneurs and founders everywhere. Their newest product is called “First Round Review,” and it’s dubbed “Actionable Insights for Technology Entreprenerus”

“There is no shortage of media available on startups – every day there are dozens of stories talking about what startups are doing – the funding rounds, product launches and latest tech rumors and trends. Yet there are so few stories talking about how they are doing it, ” Kopelman said in an email to the Philly Startup Leaders listserv.

Startup tips and startup advice are very popular. Some of our best stories here at Nibletz fall into that category. Kopelman takes that notion a few steps further by offering insight that only an angel investor or venture capitalist with over 100 investments could offer.

They’ve already published 30+ articles in a wide range of topics.

Kopelman explained in this First Round Review post how they differ from other startup blogs:

“We know we’re a venture fund — not a publishing company. But many venture capitalists have published amazing content in their personal blogs before. The difference is that while other VCs have done a great job sharing their personal observations of the market and their personal thoughts on how to build and finance companies, we’re going to be primarily focused on sharing actionable knowledge from the best practitioners – those actually in the trenches building. So one day it might be a piece on how to interview product managers and the next featuring how to build high performance teams with the Chief Talent Officer of Netflix.”

The very first article they published was: “How Estsy Grew Their Number of Female Engineers by Almost 500% in One Year”

Check out First Round Review here.

Now sign up for the biggest startup conference in the US dedicated to startups “everywhere else”

Has Patch Met It’s Match In Mississippi Startup PushLocal?

Last month when we were at the Southland festival in Nashville, Tennessee, we met a lot of great startups from across the Southeast. One of those was PushLocal from Natchez, Mississippi.

You may be thinking, there’s startups in Natchez, Mississippi??

Well yes there are, and that’s what we’re here for, as the voice of startups everywhere else.

Zach Jex is a local Natchez lawyer, businessman, and mobile app developer. He’s developed a handful of apps, but one problem he became passionate about was how to get a community to embrace local news, rewards, and deals. To do that, he had to make sure that deals and information are targeting the right, local customers.

It’s easy for a big chain store to send out a mass market deal to customers in Anytown, USA, because there just happens to be one of their stores in that market, but with all of the noise coming from so many different deals sites and apps, how can the local merchant survive?

That was what drove Jex and the team behind PushLocal to create a new kind of community. It’s almost like Patch on a hyper local level with daily deals, loyalty, and rewards built in.

But PushLocal isn’t just about restaurants and retail. They want it to be the ultimate local destination where real business owners can reach real people. PushLocal is also about the community, which is why in addition to retail and restaurants, you’ll find local businesses, civic organizations, and local government as well. Is the Humane Society doing a special on spay and neutering? Check PushLocal. Is Bob’s hardware store selling snow shovel’s for a dollar? PushLocal would know. Is there a new local festival coming to town? Yup, PushLocal will have that, too.

PushLocal delivers all of those important messages without the noise of the unimportant ones. Check out our interview with PushLocal from last month’s Southland festival. Find out more about PushLocal here at pushlocal.com

This Nashville startup is taking loyalty and rewards to a whole other level.

Pixuru: Photo Art From The Pictures On Your Phone

Smartphone photography is constant. I’m not the best photographer, but my friends take gorgeous pictures with their iPhones. Even I have hundreds of pictures sitting on my phone, and while they’re fun to scroll through, they never seem to make it to my walls.

There are plenty of ways to print phone pictures, of course. But Pixuru is unique because it takes your pictures and creates a work of art for your home.

All you do is snap the picture, upload it to the app, and pick your product. In just a few days, your new artwork is delivered to your home. Pixuru prints your pictures on canvas, wood, metal, or more traditional photo paper with a frame. You can also turn your pictures into iPhone or iPad cases.

Here at Nibletz, we travel. A. LOT. And in our travels, we come across some pretty cool stuff. With Pixuru, we can snap great pictures, order our custom artwork, and have it waiting on us when we (finally) get home.

The company also runs regular contests, so check out their website for the current one.

As an Android user, the thing I love about Pixuru is that it’s already available in the Google Play Store.

Check out Kyle’s interview with Pixuru below.

Here’s more startup coverage from Chicago TechWeek.

Arc Mobile Makes Paying for Dinner So Much Easier

In our line of work, dinners, drinks, and happy hours are where we do business. It’s common knowledge that deals really happen after hours, and the Nibletz team likes to be where the deals are.

But have you ever noticed that when it’s time get the check, the server is never around? Or maybe you get one of those servers that bring the check way too early, making sure everyone knows he or she is waiting to flip the table.

It’s even more annoying when the restaurant “can’t” split the check multiple ways. Calculator apps are great and all, but who wants to do math at dinner?

Arc Mobile is a new Chicago company with some interesting solutions. Their mobile app sends the check right to your phone. You can split the check (if needed) and pay, right from your phone. The payment goes through the restaurant’s POS system, no extra pens needed.

Check out Kyle’s interview with Arc Mobile.

See more of our Startup City coverage from Chicago Techweek here at nibletz.com

College Students Are Being Robbed Of Millions Of Dollars, Startup PackBack Will Help

If you read the headline and think this is another boring story about college loans and tuition costs, you’re dead wrong. College students are being robbed of millions of dollars in a way that’s much more prevalent today then when many of us were college age. The culprit? Textbooks.

We met Mike Shannon and Kasey Gandham at Chicago TechWeek where they were showing off their startup PackBack. After spending a few minutes with them, I realized this whole “college students are being robbed, and PackBack can help” thing is no B.S. Shannon and Gandham both had textbooks that they would purchase at the beginning of the year for hundreds of dollars. Those books then stayed in the orange shipping boxes on move out day. Never even touched.

Shannon explained “Even in education technology and news is moving so fast that textbooks can be outdated on the first day of classes.” Professors have resorted to more up-to-date curriculum aids like the Internet, news articles, PowerPoint presentations, and speakers. Through his four years of college, Shannon said he may have up to 10 books that he purchased that were never even opened.

That can add up. It’s another cost factored into those mounting student loans.

So what does PackBack do? They are a short-term rental company for student textbooks. In most cases you rent the book by the day. This way if a professor surprises his or her students by actually having them do a textbook assignment, students can get access to the textbook relatively quickly.

Gandham and Shannon are testing out a model in the neighborhood of $5 per day for the text book rental. As they explain it, even if the professor resorts to the book 10 times over the course of a year, the student is saving anywhere from $50 to $100 off the cheapest used version of most books.

This startup simply makes ~~sense~~ cents.

Check out our interview with Shannon and Gandham below and check out PackBackbooks.com

Here are more amazing startups from Chicago TechWeek

1776 Goes Global On Multiple Startup Fronts

1776, Startup News, DC Startups, Donna Harris, Evan Burfield

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

1776, the startup, entrepreneurial and tech campus that serves as the epicenter for Washington DC’s tech and startup community, announced new initiatives which take their programming, and core, to a global audience. Founded by two Washington DC entrepreneurs, Donna Harris and Evan Burfield, the co-working, incubator, accelerator, co-working and event space has been packed full with startup activity since they opened. One of 1776’s biggest fans is DC Mayor Vince Gray.\

“We’ve wanted to pursue global initiatives since Day 1,” says Donna Harris, cofounder of 1776. “1776 is a fantastic resource for startups in D.C. It [could also be] a fantastic resource for any startup in the world.”

1776 has announced three main global initiatives; a virtual membership program, similar to the program in DC, and Startup Federation, an initiative that will help other cities, globally, prepare their own 1776 counterparts. The final piece of the global initiatives launched this week is the “Global Challenge Cup”.

The Global Challenge cup is an NCAA final four style tournament. Startups from 16 cities (DC, New York Boston, Chicago, Austin, Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Berlin, Moscow, Capetown, Tel Aviv, Mumbai, Beijing and Sao Paolo. Each city’s startups will compete in one of the following categories; health, education, energy and metropolitan challenges. The finalists from each city and each category will come to Washington DC next May to compete amidst a big week long festival that 1776 is hosting, according to elevationdc.com

The Global Challenge Cup is being backed by $180,000 from The Office of The Deputy Mayor For Planning and Economic Development. Burfield also reported to ElevationDC that they have more strategic partnerships to announce.

The virtual membership program will allow startups located outside Washington DC to have access to the 1776 community. In addition to serving as DC’s tech and startup hub, 1776 can help other startups get access to the Federal Government, the largest “enterprise customer” in the country.

Prior to founding 1776 Burfield was the Washington DC Regional Champion for Startup America and the founder of that region. Harris, was a director with Startup America. They see the virtual membership and federation initiatives as ways to continue sharing and collaborating with similar startup communities across the country and around the world.

You can find out more at 1776dc.com

Source: elevationDC

Hungarian Startup Brickflow Curates Stories, Easily, Through Your Social Media

Stringing together content to tell a story isn’t anything new, but the tools we are using these days to tell stories are getting newer every day. A big story is now told through a series of smaller stories, typically in 15 second videos, 6 second videos or 140 characters or less. Yes I’m speaking of Twitter, Vine, and the new Instagram with video.

There are a lot of people telling stories through Vine. We’ve even used Vine to do six second startup pitches. Now, with video on Instagram people are using that as a tool. In fact New York investor, and wine aficionado Gary Vaynerchuck has started an agency representing the best of the micro-videoers.

But what about the millions of others who want to make something more than just a few microbursts and updates? People would surely love to use their content to tell stories on a grander scale, right?

That’s what Hungarian startup (yes there are startups in Hungary), Brickflow is doing with social media. They hope to open their playful story creation tool up for global public beta later this month. We got a chance to talk with Mihaly Borbely, one of the cofounders of Brickflow. Check out the interview below.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Brickflow has three founders.

Mihaly Borbely has a background in market research, and also has experience in photography and web technologies. Peter Langmar has a background in photography, but changed his track and studied business and communications. He researched the impact of social media on our cultural behaviour and worked for a Harvard University founded startup incubator in Paris. Tamas Kokeny has worked as a developer for years and participated in the development of sites like Superglued before he joined Brickflow. He gained key experience at the well-recognized Hungarian startup, Prezi.

Where are you based?

We are from Budapest, Hungary, but we’ve been living in several places over the last one year. As startup founders we have to be flexible and ready to move anywhere, if an opportunity arises. We moved to Tallinn, Estonia, to join the Startup Wise Guys accelerator. Currently we are working in Santiago, as part of the Start-Up Chile program. We’ll stay here until September, then we’ll move back to Europe. Our future goal is to focus our business development and marketing efforts to the US.

What’s the startup scene like where you are based?

Estonia is a great place to be for startups. Innovation seems to be deeply rooted in the everyday life of the country. There’s an active startup scene in Tallinn, with lots of events going on. Being in Santiago is also an awesome experience, since we work together with a huge community of Start-Up Chile participants from all over the world. But our home city, Budapest is awakening and also has its own startup community, which is growing at a speed we’ve never seen before. Each place has its own strengths.

What problem do you solve?

There is no tool for playful curated storytelling:

Curation tools only let you create just another linear feed. Storytelling tools are too complicated. If bloggers want to add a visual narrative to a post, they have no easy way to do it. There is no way to connect short videos as a story, or present content from different sources as one coherent visual narrative.

Why now?

Curated storytelling is a form of communication that is here to stay. But content is getting shorter, more visual, and taking place in real-time. Hashtags are becoming mainstream. Vine and Instagram are widely popular. This is a totally new form of self-expression: a few seconds of square-shaped video, low-res snapshots, 140 characters of text.

The tool which connects these sources into curated stories must have a format, workflow, and user experience that fit perfectly into this new world. Nobody else on the market is focusing on visual storytelling with such an approach. Moreover, we aggregate social media content based on hashtag, which makes the workflow much more simple.

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

We started with a successful crowdfunding campaign, been through the Startup Wise Guys accelerator, and the Startup Chile program. We are currently in private Beta, but our early adopters already made thousands of stories with Brickflow. We already have paying customers as well, using Brickflow for marketing purposes.

What are your next milestones?

The public Beta will be launched in July.

We are raising $250.000 seed investment, for which we already have 75% in soft commitments, but of course we are still looking for potential investors.

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

Brickflow can be found on any of the following platforms:

facebook.com/brickflow twitter.com/brickflow blog.brickflow.com

Startup America goes global with UP Global

Cheek’d Is Reinventing Online Dating [video]

Do you remember when online dating was a bad thing? You know, you met someone online, but you wouldn’t dare tell your parents or your closest friends. Instead, the story was you just happened to meet the most wonderful woman (or man) in the world, who lives 500 miles away, by accident? Now online dating is the norm, especially for busy people.

Sites like match.com have been around since the mid 90’s, e-harmony since 2000. There are of course hundreds of apps to help you find the next perfect match, online.

Well, a startup we reported on last October, is turning online dating on its head by adding an offline component, the calling card. Cheek’d gets its name, not from dancing cheek-to-cheek or anything romantic like that, but from its founder: Lori Cheek. Cheek told us in an interview that the idea came about when she was out to dinner with a dear male friend. As they were leaving the restaurant the male friend of hers wrote his name and number on the back of a card and slipped it to an attractive woman. Sparks went off in Cheek’s head, and Cheek’d was born.

Cheek’d lets you order Cheek’d cards that have a link to your Cheek’d profile. Typically in online dating you spend a while courting someone online and then meeting in person. Now you can take that first impression and back it with a robust online platform.

Is it working? Cheek’d told us at Chicago TechWeek that they have thousands of users from across the globe who’ve started using the service. “Cheek’d bridges the gap between online dating and real-world romance by providing members with physical cards that they can use to entice people from the real world to flirt with them in the virtual world. It’s the 2.0 version of “Call Me.” Cheek told Nibletz.

Cheek’d is a really interesting twist in online dating. Check out our interview video below and to sign up visit cheekd.com

See more startup coverage from Chicago Techweek here.