Andrew Warner Helps Entrepreneurs Counter Their Inner Insecurities

Andrew Warner, CEO of Mixergy, regularly interviews the best entrepreneurs in the world to learn about their tactics and experience. He knows about founders.

Entrepreneurs feel the resistance.

PUSH BACK ON THE RESISTANCE, was the message from Andrew. While building his greeting card and invite company, he convinced a partner to sell ads until by writing him a check for a refund if the partner was not satisfied. It worked. The partner was on board, despite initial resistance.

Resisting external forces is very different from resisting internal forces. Warner launched the invite site, but did not reach out to users because his internal voice, or counter mind, told him to keep working and building. Even his wife used another site instead of his software for invites. After he failed, Warner set out to learn from other entrepreneurs and never fail again, thus Mixergy was born.

Today, Andrew is pushing to reduce the counter mind–the negative thoughts–and strengthen your true mind.

Andrew realized that people have insecurities and needed a better way to address these counter minds. His big tips:

1. Pick one issue that triggers your negative chatter. This is that internal voice that kicks into your head

2. Listen to the counter mind. It loses power when you listen to that voice.

3. Ask questions about the counter mind statement? (is it true, does it matter). Challenge the voice and then assess the merit of the statement.

Most tweetable quote from his speech? “No one became great without sucking.”

Warner’s message is that connecting with the “true mind” instead of unnecessary negative thoughts will allow you more freedom to enjoy your work and success.

Startupland Director Announces Vine Pitch Contest at Everywhere Else

There’s already a lot happening at Everywhere Else Cincinnati, and we’re not even through the first morning!

We’ve talked about the new Startupland documentary before. The new movie, set to premiere in February, chronicles the lives of startup founders going through The Fort accelerator in Washington, DC.

It’s been quite a summer for Justin Gutwein. He finished filming the movie, closed out a successful Kickstarter campaign, and is now wrapping up post-production on the documentary. His team has also grown, they’re adding a few new interviews to the documentary, and finalizing the tour schedule.

Most people would think that’s enough going on, but entrepreneurs know we’re never too busy for another great idea.

Today at Everywhere Else Cincinnati, Gutwein announced a first of its kind Vine Pitch Contest. It’s simple enough to enter. Just record an 8 second pitch on Vine and mention @startup_land and #VinePitch. At the end of the month, the Vine with the most (real) retweets will win an iPad.

“It’s a creative and fun way for us to engage our audience in a way that resonates them, it’s about sharing ideas, and having fun with them,” Gutwein told me. “We also know how important the pitch is for any entrepreneur in any industry – so thought that we would put a fun challenge together to see if people could put something effective and creative into less than eight seconds!”

And you thought an elevator pitch was hard!

For all the rules and official stuff, head over to the Startupland site. The first contest opens tomorrow, October 1, and closes on October 31.

Startup Tips: 4 Ways To Defuse An Awkward Business Situation

As female entrepreneurs under the age of 30, my business partner Brittany and I have found ourselves in our fair share of uncomfortable situations. From being carded at client dinners, to being asked if we were the sales girls, our looks and gender have never gone unnoticed by clients.

Since starting the company in January 2011, we have found that no one wants an awkward situation to blow over faster than the person who just made the ultimate blunder. Instead of mumbling “awkward turtle” or cringing at the ordeal, we have discovered another approach that works every time: light-hearted laughter! Spinning the situation from an uncomfortable exchange to a talking point will endear clients. They will appreciate that you didn’t harp on their misstep.

Below are a few maneuvers we’ve used in less-than-ideal situations that left us feeling more like Michael Jordan going for the slam dunk, instead of the towel boy:

Awkward Encounter #1: Founder Faux Pas

Client: “It has been great to meet with you ladies. We are looking forward to meeting with your upper management next week.”
‘ZinePak Response: Brittany: “Kim, are you free next week?”
Kim: “For these guys, I’m sure I can work something out. You?”
Brittany: “Yes, I’m great. Congratulations gentleman, the founders of the company are totally available for a meeting next week as long as you bring the coffee.”

Why It Works: You are letting your client know where you stand in the company hierarchy without belittling them. This proves helpful for the future as the client is more likely to only reach out to you when there is high-level question or concern instead of a task that one of the team members under you can handle.

Awkward Encounter #2: Whose Daughter Are You?

Client: “Oh, you are Kim and Brittany?! How did you get this meeting? Do one of your fathers work here or something?”
‘ZinePak Response: “I can see that our reputation preceded us as opposed to our dashing looks, and I can’t be mad about that! Our fathers don’t work here but we know a few dads in the building who have worked with us in the past and think we are pretty awesome. Does that count?”

Why It Works: Establishing presence within a company is paramount. By letting this person know that you have done deals within the company allows them to mentally put you into a “recommended” grouping in their mind. This also gives them the opportunity to ask you, “Who else have you worked with?,” hopefully giving them a way to change the conversation since their first sentenced started out with a less then positive tone!

Awkward Encounter #3: Your ID, Please

We’re at a client dinner when the waiter so eloquently asks: “Can I see your ID, miss?”
‘ZinePak Response: “I keep forgetting to tell my Botox team and plastic surgeon to take it easy. Next thing you know, I won’t be able to buy a lotto ticket!”

Why It Works: You are showing your client that you recognize your young age and embrace it in a humorous way. This lets them know that you aren’t trying to be something you’re not by dressing or acting differently. This amount of comfort with your client will allow a friendly, low-key, and no-fuss atmosphere to flourish.

Awkward Encounter #4: Mistaken Identity

We’re out with a client when a stranger refers to me or Brittany or being the client’s daughter/little sister.
‘ZinePak Response: “I wish I could get an ounce of their good looks! Sadly, this is just my client. Instead of sharing a gene pool we share projects and contracts.”

Why It Works: Show me a person who doesn’t like a compliment and I will show you a world-class fibber! First-class flattery isn’t dead as long as it is done in a sincere (and not creepy!) way. Whether it is complimenting someone on a new suit or haircut, going back to business basics is never out of style.

Just remember that at the end of the day, it is best to always be true to yourself. Brittany and I don’t try to pile on makeup or add enough hair spray to make us look older. We just put all of our focus on the most important thing: our work! Clients care that the work we put in front of them is creative and dynamic, and not about how many wrinkle lines they can make out on our foreheads.

Kim Kaupe is the co-founder of ‘ZinePak, a custom publication company that creates engaging fan packages for entertainers, brands, and celebrities. She graduated with a BA in Marketing from The University of Florida in 2008 and roots loyally for her Gators. Most recently, she and her business partner Brittany Hodak were named to Advertising Age’s 40 Under 40 List for 2013.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

Look Who’s Coming To Everywhere Else Cincinnati, Agenda Released!

Over 40 startup and entrepreneurial influencers are set to speak at our national startup conference, which begins Sunday evening at 8pm.

Kicking off on Sunday, September 29th at 8pm with a Kick Off Party at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill in downtown Cincinnati, hundreds of entrepreneurs, startup founders, supporters and investors from across the country and around the world are converging on Cincinnati for the two and a half day startup conference.

Jeff Hoffman, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Priceline and Ubid, John Bracken, co-founder of E-Vite and Speek, Derek Flanzriach, founder of Greatist, Wil Schroeter, founder of Fundable, Ethan Austin, founder of GiveForward, Scott Gerber, founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council, Carla Valdes, Partner at Fortify Ventures and over 30 more nationally known speakers will be featured in keynotes, panels and networking events during the event at the Duke Energy Convention Center.

Washington DC based film entrepreneur Justin Gutwein will introduce the documentary series Startupland to the audience on Monday morning.

Everywhere Else Cincinnati will also highlight women in entrepreneurship throughout the conference including a talk with Janice Fraser, CEO and Co-founder of LUXor. Fortify Ventures General Partner Carla Valdes will address the audience on getting past the gatekeeper as both a woman and a startup founder. West Capital’s Madeleine Ludlow, will participate in the high profile panel “Not all money is created equal and location matters to investors”. BrandHUB’s Nicole Ball, is moderating a panel on why branding and design are important to a startup and Nibletz Media’s Managing Editor Monica Selby will moderate a discussion on addressing media needs of startups.

Monday evening will end with the “Halftime Party” sponsored by Nashville Tennessee’s CentreSource.

The complete agenda for Everywhere Else Cincinnati is below and a final batch of attendee tickets have been released at http://eecincinnati.com

Everywhere Else Agenda

Sunday Sept 29th
- 8pm-11pm Kickoff Party Hosted by Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber & CincyTech at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill Downtown Cincinnati

Monday Sept 30th
- 8:30am Registration Opens
- 9am-9:15am Opening Remarks from Kyle Sandler & Nick Tippmann
- 9:15am-9:35am Dave Knox – Building a Top Startup Accelerator Everywhere Else
- 9:35am-9:55am Carla Valdes – Rapid fire Q&A on getting past the gate keeper
- 9:55am-10:15am Jonathan Perrelli & Justin Gutwein – Startupland, an Honest and Authentic Portrial of What It Takes To Be an Entrepreneur
- 10:15am-10:45am Andrew Warner (KEYNOTE) – Entrepreneurs & Their Inner Insecurities
- 10:45am-11am Coffee Break Presented by Soapbox Media
- 11am-11:30am – Panel: Catching the Attention of an Accelerator Everywhere Else. Moderator: Nick Tippmann. Panelist Blake Miller, Mike Bott, Brian Raney, Jonathon Perrelli
- 11:30am-11:50am – Art McMahon – The New World of Private Placements: A Brief Legal Overview. Presented by Taft Law
- 11:45pm-12:05pm – Fred Killingsworth – Mobile Payment Solutions: Enabling Unprecedented Opportunities. Presented by Vantiv
- 12pm-1:30pm Lunch Break
- 1:30pm-1:50pm John T Meyer – Don’t Be Everyone Else at Everywhere Else
- 1:50pm-2:10pm Rob Woodbridge – Top 4 Mobile Business Models and How To Optimize Them For Revenue
- 2:10pm-2:30pm Derek Flanzriach – Getting To Over 1M Unique Visitors Per Month In Less Than a Year Using Social & Content
- 2:30pm-3pm Jeff Hoffman (KEYNOTE) – Entrepreneur’s Bootcamp: Keys to Entrepreneuring Success
- 3pm-3:15pm Afternoon Break Present by Vantiv
- 3:15pm-3:45pm Panel: The New and Ever Changing World of Content & Media. Moderator: Monica Selby. Panelist: Ryan O’Connell, Derek Flanziach, Rob Woodbridge, Scott Gerber, Andrew Warner
- 3:45pm-4:05pm John Bracken – Rising Above The Noise
- 4:05pm-4:25pm Andy Sparks – Should You Stay Put?
- 4:25pm-4:45pm – Jake Stutzman – Meaning, Not Money
- 4:45pm-5:05pm – Mark Richey – Capital Risk and Speed
- 5:05pm-5:55pm Startup Pitches
- 5:55pm-6pm Closing Remarks
- 6:15pm-8:15pm VIP Investor & Startup Only Happy Hour at the Hyatt Regency
- 8:30pm-11pm Halftime Party Hosted by Centresource at Rhinegeist Brewery

Tuesday Oct 1st
- 9am-9:10am Opening Remarks from Kyle Sandler & Nick Tippmann
- 9:10am-9:30am Mark Hasebroock – Llamas and Mocassins
- 9:30am-9:50am Denver Hutt – Life Is What Happens While We’re Busy Making Other Plans
- 9:50am-10:10am Blair Garrou – Top 10 Ways for a Startup to Thrive (and Survive) in the Midcontinent
- 10:10am-10:40am Joe Medved (KEYNOTE) – How to Source Your Investors
- 10:40am-11:15am Panel: Not All Money Is Created Equal and Location Matters to Investors. Moderator: Bob Coy. Panelist: Madeleine Ludlow, Blair Garrou, Joe Medved, Jonathon Perrelli, Mark Hasebroock
- 11:15am-11:30am Coffee Break Presented by West Capital & Draper Triangle
- 11:30am-11:50pm Patrick Woods – From pitch to personality: brand personality and why it matters
- 11:50am-12:10pm – Evan Owens – Horror Stories From Product Development
- 12:10pm-12:30pm – Janice Fraser – Lean UX + Design for Startups
- 12:30pm-2pm Lunch Break
- 2pm-2:20pm James Dickerson – What I Learned From My Startup’s Failure
- 2:20pm-2:40pm Raghu Betina – Getting Your Feet Wet in Programming
- 2:40pm-3:00pm Alan Berkson – You Got Customers, Now How Do You Keep ‘em? Presented by Freskdesk
- 3pm-3:30pm Scott Gerber (KEYNOTE) – Why Should Never Get a “Real” Job
- 3:30pm-3:45pm Afternoon Break Presented by Taft
- 3:45pm-4:15pm Panel: Why Branding and Design Are Crucial to a Startup Moderator: Nicole Ball. Panelist: Patrick Woods, Jake Stutzman, John T Meyer, Janice Fraser, Evan Owens
- 4:15pm-4:35pm Ethan Austin – Culture ≠ Ping pong: How To Build a Startup Culture That Drives Success
- 4:35pm-4:55pm Jared Steffes – Don’t Be a Liar and Your Startup Sucks.
- 4:55pm-5:25pm Wil Schroter (KEYNOTE) – How Crowdfunding is Changing Startup Fundraising Forever
- 5:25pm-5:55pm Startup Awards Presented by CincyTech & Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber
- 5:55pm-6pm Closing Remarks from Kyle Sandler and Nick
- 8:00pm-11pm Postgame Party Hosted by Nibletz Media at Rhinegeist Brewery

Don’t have your ticket? No worries. We released a few more tickets, and you can get yours at eecincinnati.com

Google Chooses 7 “Tech Hubs” Across North America

What makes a city a “tech hub”? In years past we thought of Silicon Valley as THE tech hub, since it was the home of so many technology companies. New York and Austin have carved “tech hub” niches for themselves recently by producing more and more successful startups.

But, now there’s a new standard for becoming a tech hub: What does Google think?

On Wednesday Google announced the development of its Tech Hub Network. Initially, 7 cities were chosen to receive Google money, products, and mentors for their startups. In each city there is a partner organization that will have contact with Google, and those organizations will each host a “Googler,” who will share best practices with startup leaders and work to connect them with Google and the other tech hubs.

In true everywhere else fashion, Google seems to have purposely stayed away from cities more often known for technology. But, you’ll probably recognize most of them from the pages of Nibletz. Here are the 7 organizations that were chosen to kick off the Tech Hub Network:

1871 (Chicago)
American Underground (Durham, NC)
Coco (Minneapolis, MN)
Communitech (Waterloo, Ontario)
Galvanize (Denver, CO)
Grand Circus (Detroit, MI)
Nashville Entrepreneur Center (Nashville, TN)

“These seven Tech Hub partners represent to us some of the very best-in-class organizations having an impact on startups and helping them directly succeed,” Mary Grove, Google’s director of global entrepreneur outreach, said.

Besides money and mentorship, there’s another, subtler benefit to Google’s presence in their tech hubs: recruitment. As more and more companies choose to stay away from the Valley, more cities are competing for that talent. Google Tech Hubs will have one more edge on other cities when it comes to enticing talented developers and engineers.

“Anytime Google names a city as a place they are going to be, the entire tech community takes notice,” Nashville Entrepreneur Center CEO Michael Burcham told The Tennessean. “I think it will be helpful us as we are recruiting coders and engineers to our city.”

There is money changing hands, but Google says it’s all in sponsorships. As of now, they have no plans to take equity in the startups coming from each city. Still, it’s not a financial wash for Google. Right now, many startups choose to launch in iOS because it’s often simpler to do so than in Android. But, with more Google engineers scattered across the country, it makes sense that we could see an increase in Android launches. (This Android girl is doing a happy dance!)

When big name Silicon Valley companies start to take notice of ecosystems everywhere else, it’s a sure sign that it’s time to “start where u are.”

So you’re a last minute person, a few tickets remain for this startup conference.

ThinkBig Accelerator Partners With Microsoft Ventures

Kansas City’s ThinkBig accelerator announced this morning a brand new partnership with Microsoft Ventures. This new Microsoft partnership compliments the Microsoft BizSpark program to the select few accelerators that have been chosen.

Microsoft Ventures currently has accelerator locations in Tel Aviv, Bangalore and Beijing and will open or partner with several more soon, including ThinkBig.

This announcement comes ahead of Blake Miller’s presentation at the national Everywhere Else Cincinnati conference that kicks off Sunday evening. Miller was going to save the news for the upcoming iKC conference in Kansas but chose to reveal the news now so that he is available to speak with other accelerator heads and startups at next week’s Everywhere Else conference, about the new partnership.

Think Big Accelerator in partnership with Microsoft Ventures will be one of only a few partnerships of its kind in the United States. Microsoft Ventures will act as a strategic partner for promising startups in the Think Big Accelerator program focused on business growth, customer development, industrial strength technology and beautiful usable products.

According to Cliff Reeves, who leads the Microsoft Ventures Community team, “Entrepreneurism is a local phenomenon everywhere, and Think Big Partners represents the best of KC as well as startup reach nationally and globally. We’re very pleased to be working with them to find and support great startups.”

The partnership between Think Big Accelerator and Microsoft Ventures will provide accelerator companies access to even more mentors, resources and connections. As Microsoft Ventures is a corporate run partnership with the intent to engage and support a select few independent accelerators per geo, the local Microsoft field office will play an active role in day-to-day support and mentorship of Think Big Partners’ startups as part of this partnership. While the Microsoft BizSpark program will be providing software, support and visibility to the startups, Microsoft Ventures will be providing additional resources through this limited partnership to better enable the startups success on the Microsoft platform while they develop their business as a whole. Along with providing consistent access to Microsoft technical resources and devices, startups engaged in the Think Big Accelerator will have the opportunity to qualify for additional benefits via the BizSpark Plus program where startups qualify for a rich set of offers including Office 365 and Azure.

“We at Think Big Partners are very excited to grow what has already been a great learning relationship with Microsoft,” says Miller, Director of Think Big Accelerator. “The resources that Microsoft adds to our checklist-oriented process will help us get entrepreneurs from idea to first customer faster and even more efficiently.”

While many accelerators do offer the BizSpark program, the Microsoft Ventures sponsored accelerators have even more amazing benefits.

You can find out more about Think Big KC here.

17 Year Old Working On Flu Drugs, Wins Google Science Fair

The Google Science Fair is an international contest open to students world wide to show off their scientific research, experiments and projects. At SXSWedu earlier this year, Google’s Cristin Frodella explained how and why the Google Science Fair works.

The contest brings the best and brightest of young scientists and innovators to Google’s Mountain View Campus to learn from top caliber scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs. The students selected for the trip to Google, get to see some of the biggest tech firms up close and personal. Last year they took a trip out to the Tesla plant.

The Google Science Fair sees students that are trying to solve worldwide problems with their technology. Everything from finding a better way to filter water in rural countries, to ways to keep vacinnations at the right temperature, to flu drugs are the kinds of things that these young scientists are working on.

Google had it’s closing ceremony in Mountain View on Monday evening. It was there that each age group winner was announced. Those winners get a $25,000 scholarship and of course bragging rights to say they had won that amazing contest.

The winner overall was 17 year old Eric Chen. He’s working on new drugs to fight the deadly Flu infection.

Business Insider reported that other age group winners included: 16 year old Ann Makosinski, who’s developed a flashlight that runs on body heat and 15 year old Vinay Kumar. Kumar has developed an application that makes it easier for ambulances and police to get through traffic.’

While the winners above all received the $25,000 scholarships, the other startups that participated in the “finals” received a Google Chromebook, a tablet, Lego Mindstorm kits and National Geographic and Scientific American subscriptions.

Business Insider has all of the Google Science Fair finalists here.

Techstars & Sprint Announce Sprint Mobile Health Accelerator

Techstars, one of the most recognized accelerators in the world, is expanding its US footprint into the already lively Kansas City startup community. Earlier this year Techstars co-founder and Foundry Group founder Brad Feld bought a house in Kansas City to house a startup to work on their company, utilizing KC’s 1gb ethernet. Kansas City was the second city in the country, behind Chattanooga, to offer 1gb ethernet to residences and businesses.

But it wasn’t Kansas City’s Google Fiber that attracted Techstars to the region. They’ve partnered with Kansas City’s biggest tech company, Sprint, the third largest wireless carrier in the country. Sprint has always been a friend to innovation. They were the first wireless carrier to hold an annual developer summit for developers to collaborate, and learn about developing on Sprint’s wide range of services.

Sprint and Techstars are centering this accelerator around the growing mobile health segment. Monitoring devices, e-prescriptions, mobile EDR’s and other health based mobile technology startups will work in the three month Techstars-modeled accelerator format at the new accelerator.

“We have been watching Kansas City from afar, seeing it come together, and now we’re excited to join the community and help it grow. It’s great to see Sprint giving first through their tremendous network of resources and executive knowledge. It makes all the difference for the companies we fund through the program,” Techstars co-founder David Cohen said on the official Techstars blog.

Kevin McGinnis, Sprint’s Vice President of Development, will help oversee the program which is taking applications now through December 6th. Startups that are selected will be notified in early January 2014 and the first session will kick off in March.

“Kansas City increasingly is gaining recognition on the national level as an emerging entrepreneurial technology center,” McGinnis told Cohen. “Sprint has been expanding its work with startups and other ventures that are developing intriguing innovations. The Sprint Accelerator will act as a catalyst for growth in this market.”

You can apply here.

When You Need Peace & Quiet On Demand, Turn To Breather

You’re in the city and need to knock out some work, make a few calls, or simply grab a breather. What are your options? You could go back to your hotel room, find the local Starbucks to fight for the outlets, or spend hundreds of dollars at the local co-working space. I don’t know about you, but this is a problem that I experience way more than I would like to admit.

Breather is a new startup that intends to bring private space on demand, replacing the coffee shop workspace right from your phone. It is like Uber for workspaces. Launched in June this year at Le Web London by co-founder and CEO Julien Smith, his approach reminded me of something I would have read in a Rockefeller story, paced and deliberate.

“Breather is a network of beautiful spaces inside a city. You can use the space whenever you want and where ever you want and you can unlock them with your phone,” says Smith. “Fundamentally, Breather provides peace and quiet on demand”.

Smith said “It seems crazy, it seems kind of radical actually. The ability to walk through a city and at any time “order private space could work, if we could just find a way to make it work. That’s why we launched Breather.”

Breather prepares peaceful workspace that will give its users the same experience every time. Like your favorite meal at your favorite restaurant, you will know what to expect each time you return, regardless of where you are. By placing sensors in each room, Breather know what things are being used, what things are not, and how exactly to better optimize their spaces. Don’t be scared though, there’s only a camera on the lock outside the room.

Safety is also being carefully considered. Not just anyone can use a Breather space. You have to be invited by someone who is gong to vouch for you and because your credit card is put into the app prior to booking, it is unlikely that someone will abuse the space with illegal activities.

They have already received requests from cities around the globe asking to place workspaces in their cities. These types of requests prove that the concept is in demand and Breather is serious about controlling the speed of growth and locations. Growing in the right order is essential to their success.

The Breather team is the strongest piece of the startup. Smith told me that his mobile team is one of the best in the world. The team handled Angry Bird level traffic before coming to take this challenge on. The excitement in his voice when talking about this team was almost contagious.

Soon, Breather will be looking for community managers to ensure that specific cities are being managed properly. Smith told me that this is the weakest part of the startup at the moment, and they knew from the beginning how important this role was going to be.

“It seems kind of crazy, that an app on a phone could unlock hundreds of spaces in a city whenever you want it to for a reasonable fee. When it happens, you will never be able to look at a city in another way again. You will go to a city that does not have private space on demand and you will be like “this city is backwards” just the same way that ordering a taxi the regular way now seems backwards,” Smith said.

Breather will launch in New York City in October and will grow to other larger cities like San Francisco. After that, they could appear anywhere across the world.

Tony Monteleone (@StartupTony) is a serial entrepreneur and does Business Development for PERQ, a measured marketing software and services company that specializes in increasing online and in store traffic for businesses. He also serves as the Indianapolis Chapter Director for Startup Grind.

Bonfyre Is Back As The Official App For Everywhere Else Conference, And We’ve Got Two Tickets To SXSWi To Give Away

Bonfyre, is back as the official app for the Everywhere Else Conference. Everywhere Else Cincinnati kicks off Sunday night with a welcome party open to the public.

St. Louis startup Bonfyre is a social engagement app that allows you to share thoughts, updates, information, and photos across a closed social network and then outward to your normal social channels including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

At Everywhere Else Memphis last February we used Bonfyre, and the attendees of the conference stayed in the Bonfyre and kept interacting well into the summer.

Bonfyre will allow entrepreneurs, startup founders, investors, panelists, and startup support to keep up with all the conference go-ers in the event’s own channel. In addition to Everywhere Else, Bonfyre was also been the official app for last year’s PowderKeg conference, OneSpark in Florida, and even for St. Louis Rams games.

Bonfyre keeps things going in an easy-to-understand and engaging platform. For Everywhere Else Cincinnati we’ll have two different Bonfyre’s. O will be limited to information about the conference, scheduling, maps, and important information from the conference staff. The other will be the Bonfyre the entire group will use. That’s where the fun begins.

Bonfyre and Nibletz have teamed up to give away a pair of SXSWi 2014 passes (passes only) for March 2014. The interactive passes will give you access to the entire interactive conference tract at SXSWi and many of the awesome parties. The passes have a value of over $1400! We will be looking for the most engaged and interactive Bonfyre user throughout the course of the conference.

So go download Bonfyre in the iTunes app store or the Google Play Store and then scan the QR Codes below to get into the Bonfyre’s. We’ll see you this weekend.

Use this QR code to get into the Info Bonfyre for Everywhere Else Cincinnati:

Use this QR code to get into the Engage Bonfyre for Everywhere Else Cincinnati:

Indian Startup Price-Hunt Is Helping Indian Consumers Shop The Best Price

A new Indian startup called Price-Hunt is hoping to become the go-to destination for Indian consumers to find the best price on products. Once most consumers have found the product they are looking for, the next thing they do is shop by price. Obviously if you’re comparing apples to apples, like for instance a specific laptop model by a specific manufacturer, the final decision is going to be price.

Price-Hunt offers price based search results on anything from consumer electronics to the latest fashions.

“But search at price-hunt.com is not limited by categories and one can find anything here that is available at online stores. Its main aim is to make Indian consumers aware of price variation for products in India and make it possible for him/her to save money through price comparison,” Anupam Khurana, the startup,s co-founder told us an in interview.

Check out the rest of the interview below.

What is your startup called?

Price-Hunt

What does your company do?

Price-Hunt.com is a real time price search engine which searches and delivers the best prices across various online stores in India. Price-Hunt showcases wide product range from various categories like Consumer Electronic goods, Mobiles, Digital cameras, LCD TVs, home appliances, clothing and apparels, shoes, watches, jewellery and much more. But search at price-hunt.com is not limited by categories and one can find anything here that is available at online stores. Its main aim is to make Indian Consumers aware of price variation for products in India and make it possible for him/her to save money through price comparison.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds

Price-Hunt.com is founded by Anupam Khurana and Palka Khurana.

Anupam Khurana is B.E. (Mechanical) from Delhi College of Engineering with 10 years experience in software and business development.

Palka Khurana is B.E.(Instrumentation) from Delhi Institute of technology with 8 years experience in Marketing and sales management.

Where are you based?

We are based in Gurgaon (Haryana), India.

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

Our target consumer is online shoppers of all age groups. With online shopping gaining popularity day by day, Price-Hunt was launched with a vision to simplify and enhance online shopping. It revolves about the idea of presenting a one stop search for all online shopping. We We hope to meet our goals and targets soon.

What problem do you solve?

Price-Hunt.com is an online price search engine with real time search as a distinguishing feature. Price search is not limited to any product and current coverage is stores in India. Price-Hunt.com also features current deals and offers for a single click experience. It will change the way people buy products online. One will not have to go to and store individually to check prices and buy products. the one point access to all shopping needs online will be price-hunt.com.

Why now?

Online shopping is gaining momentum and has bright future prospects with an increasing number of people opting to do shopping from the convenience of their home or office. Once keen to shop online, the traditional way is to browse each of the various online stores and order the product from the stores offering the best price (of course with a name and reputation for being good). This takes a lot of time defeating the purpose of time saving in online shopping and one still might miss a store offering a better price and end up buying the product at a higher price. Thus we came up with an idea of providing one click search for all stores so that the shopper finds the best price/deal immediately comparing offerings from the different stores for the product searched. This led us to the idea to develop price-hunt.

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

The company uses generic search engine route to get visitors to the site. We also use social media to provide personalized deals to consumers. Price-hunt.com has an average visitor count of about 900 and we are building up on that. We have just started and will go a long way.

What are your next milestones?

Mobile version of the site is under development. It will be an adaptation of the desktop version to the mobile with reduced features. We also plan an andriod application for the mobile users in very near future. We also plan to launch the Android application of the site very soon.

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

https://www.facebook.com/PriceHuntIndia

http://www.crunchbase.com/company/price-hunt

http://www.linkedin.com/company/price-hunt-com

Silicon Prairie Startup Flywheel Launches, Words Press Hosting Re-Designed

Often times when we talk about our friends at Silicon Prairie News we talk about our friend Jeff Slobotski, as the “Chief Community Builder” Slobotski is often times the face of SPN. His co-founder, equally as vested in the Silicon Prairie region, Dusty Davidson, is often times very busy building something. Well after six months in beta his latest “something” is now launching, and it’s a relief to many designers reliant on the WordPress platform.

Davidson along with partners Rick Knudtson and Tony Noecker have launched “FlyWheel”. The team, which Davidson calls a “…dream team of founders” has launched a “premium” WordPress hosting platform built for designers. “We’re re-imagining what it means for designers to host and launch sites on WordPress, and for them to collaborate with customers and other designers and developers. ” Davidson told us an in email.

One of the things that sets FlyWheel apart from other hosting platforms is that they strictly WordPress. “All we do is WordPress, our servers are tunes specifically for WordPress, ultrasecure and have top performance” Davidson said in a statement. That makes “light speed’ normal speed for designers that use FlyWheel for their sites.

FlyWheel allows design firms to launch demo sites for free and then easily transfer files to a client site to “go live”, a feature which Elevate’s Jake Stutzman, finds particularly useful. FlyWheel will allow a webspace for actual collaboration rather than having to send stills back and forth through collaboration platforms like BaseCamp.

To that end, FlyWheel has made it very easy for a designer to grant access to their site without having to send usernames and passwords back and forth through email, which may open up a client to a designers entire portfolio.

FlyWheel also caters to designers by cutting out a lot of the technical jargon found with hosting companies. Even with a technical background Knudston told Silicon Prairie News “I joke … what are acronyms like CGI? Or what version of PHP is it running? Or things like SSH access,” which is one of the reasons he came up with the idea for FlyWheel.

“The problem that we’re trying to solve is specific to web designers and agencies who manage large numbers of sites,” Davidson said. “Somebody like (Omaha design firm) Grain & Mortar will design 30 WordPress sites a year, and they need to manage those … they have to log into 30 different hosting accounts, or they have to remember passwords and user names or they have to do things that make managing that many sites and launching sites in that manner very difficult for them.”

FlyWheel also features an integrated management tool that allows design agencies to quickly get an overview of all of their WordPress projects and quickly login to a clients site, share credentials with a client or even bill a client for their FlyWheel hosting.

You can check out FlyWheel now at getflywheel.com

Cyanogen’s Startup Was Cyanogen, Closes $7 Million Series A Round

Cyanogenmod, Seattle Startup, Series A, Venture Capital, Steve Kondik

(img: Technobuffalo.com)

Back in May we ran a story on Steve “Cyanogen” Kondik, the Android developer behind the Cyanogen Mod operating system that runs, and improves, the Android operating system. The popular “rom” has millions of users who root their Android device to run the open sourced software.

After creating the initial Cyanogenmod, the project became a community effort with several developers working on future releases of the firmware that when installed, allows users to take advantage of many of the benefits Google has in the Android Operating system.

Android’s biggest manufacturer, Samsung, took notice of Kondik and his work with Cyanogenmod. Kondik moved from his Pittsburgh roots to Seattle to work on Samsung’s Android team.

Kondik posted a note on his Facebook page looking for developers in the Seattle area. We reached out to Kondik at the time, and told us he was working on a startup but couldn’t tell us what it was. Knowing that Cyanogen is the most popular “Rom” for Android, we were quite curious as to what could be so interesting that Kondik would quit that job at Samsung and get his feet wet in the startup world.

It was revealed last week that Kondik had teamed up with Kirt McMaster,a cofounder of Boost Mobile, to turn Cyanogenmod from a community based effort, happening in garages and basements across the globe, to an actual company where they could push out the latest features faster.

Kondik wrote on the company blog that McMaster had contacted him by email last year and they were able to secure venture capital meetings in December. Those meetings led to a $7 million dollar series A round led by Benchmark with RedPoint ventures also participating. A confidential source told us by phone that CyanogenMod had turned down other investors including Google Ventures.

Kondik is adamant that the community know that Cyanogenmod won’t fundamentally change, but rather get better. Now they won’t have to worry about raising money from the community for new servers or having to use day jobs to support their development.

With the $7 million dollars, CyanogenMod became CyanogenMod Inc. They also opened up offices in Seattle and Palo Alto. Kondik was also able to bring three long time members of the Cyanogen team to work for the company full time. Kondik first recruited Koushik “Koush” Dutta. They also brought Chris Soyars Head of Infrastructure and designer Dobie Wollert from Google.

Monetization

We were tremendously excited to hear that a project that started out community based, and built up a huge following, was getting funded. But we were curious about how Cyanogenmod was going to make money. After all they just raised $7 million dollars from some of the biggest VC’s around; surely thode investors would want their money back. Also, Cyanogenmod itself is free and Kondik has already indicated it would stay that way.

We spoke with industry analyst Russell Holly over the weekend who assured us that the “ROM” or “OS” would remain free. Cyanogenmod is looking at hardware partnerships that they couldn’t get before because they weren’t a “real company,” and there should be news on their first hardware partnership in the coming week.

They will also work on other features outside the realm of their operating system that could become premium features. For the immediate future we can expect quicker, more thorough releases.

“Our mass market plan is for the second half of 2014, which will include services and third-party integration,” McMaster explained to Fortune.com. “We’ll begin to make money on services we can build and integrate in ways that Google or Apple (AAPL) don’t necessarily do for their own business reasons. We’re not beholden to any OEM or mobile operator.”

When we originally read that statement, we were curious as to the implications stemming from “Apple” being in McMaster’s statement. Holly told us that while we won’t see a “CyanogenMod” for Apple anytime soon, services that may link the two operating systems could be forthcoming. As a hypothetical example Holly brought up the fact that while great in their own systems, FaceTime and Google Hangout were incapable of talking with each other. A more streamlined messaging service may be something the new CyanogeMod takes on.

While that still paves no direct route to monetization, Cyanogemod seems to be in a much better predicament than several social startups that have ballooned to astronomical valuations and huge funding rounds without a solid plan for growth. Undoubtedly the investors will see their money back, in the meantime though, they have now funded a collective of some of the best mobile OS developers in the world.

Findo out more about Cyanogenmod here.

Nashville Entrepreninjas Take Flight (sort of)

By day Jared Marquette, Ryan Carter, Robbie Goldsmith, Sam Lingo, and John Murdock are Nashville-based entrepreneurs living the good life, making stuff, creating things and innovating. By night, they suit up in the ninja masks that they were reportedly born with, and become entrepreninjas.

Entrepreninjas is the name of the Michael Burcham and Nashville Entrepreneur Center backed team that competed this weekend in Red Bull’s Flugtag competition. Flugtag is a national competition that was held simultaneously across five US cities this past Saturday. The competition calls for teams to create a man powered flying machine. The machine is launched from a runway over water where it’s judged.

The celebrity judges were looking for creativity of craft, distance, and showmanship.

The Entrepreninjas built their craft in Nashville with part of the building taking place at the new Entrepreneur Center where team member Sam Lingo is the operations manager.

Entrepreninjas built most of their flying machine at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center (photo: Facebook)

Michael Burcham, along with the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, Polar Technology, Track Ref, and the Thinkery teamed up to back the Entrepreninjas with the expenses of building a flight machine, getting it to Miami and entering the contest. It seems like perfect sense. If these guys can build companies, they can easily build a flying machine, no problem.

The team competed against other teams in Miami as well as the four other locations. The top 3 teams from each location won prizes from Red Bull, including Red Bull sports and music experiences, and of course bragging rights.

The flying machine looked great, judging from the photos on the Entrepreneur Center and Burcham’s personal Facebook page.

The team seemed to do very well in the showmanship category, showing off their ninja moves on the runway before launching the flying machine into the sky (or the water as it was).

As you can see from the video below though, they didn’t get very far in flight. The Entrepreninjas, despite a valiant effort, gave new meaning to the theory “Fail Fast.” But alas they are entrepreninjas and iteration trumps perfection, so I’m sure we will see them back out again next year.

This was an awesome showing for Nashville and a great team building exercise. For your enjoyment their flight video is below.