Everywhere Else Archives - Page 70 of 145

Love The Next Place You Live, Find It With NY Startup YourNeighborhood

Two New York area entrepreneurs, Eric Levy and Andrew Curtis want you to love the next place you live. They are unveiling their New York based real estate startup, YourNeighborhood next week as a beta in New York City.

Sure there are plenty of apartment locator startups out there. There are also startups like BlockAvenue that help you research neighborhoods, their culture and heritage. YourNeighborhood is bringing it all together in a one stop shop platform for those looking for the next place to live.

Apartment finding websites are a dime a dozen. The typical experience includes seeing floor plans, apartment rules, and amenities. You may also learn about the pool, the fitness facility and the community room, but outside the confines of the apartment building or community, you’re on your own.

Are you into coffee shops and co-working? Are you looking for a pick up basketball court, tennis court or some frisbee golf? Do you like to take in local music every night, and play an occasional game of darts?

As many of us know, and many of us have experienced, you can find the golden apartment with stainless steel appliances and a marble kitchen island, and then be stuck for a year or more with nothing else to do. No one wants to come home from work after a long day and then need to take the subway or 8 busses to catch a game with the guys at the local sports bar.

A typical apartment site isn’t going to tell you all of these things, after all they just want you to sign up, lease an apartment and make their commission. Was there a wave of purse snatchings between the apartment building in the subway stop? These are things you need to know, that you can find out now in one location, yourneighborhood.co.

All of this is solved with the YourNeighborhood platform.

In addition to selecting criteria for your next apartment, and neighborhood, Levy and Curtis are adding forums, and bulletin boards so users can interact with other users and folks that have already moved to the neighborhood.

Moving is about much more than your next apartment, it’s about your neighborhood and that’s what Levy and Curtis are bringing users with their new startup.

Linkage:

YourNeighborhood can be found here

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Utah Startup: HeadCase Fighting Global Poverty With Head Phones?

Joshua Fairbairn and his team of co-founders at Utah startup HeadCase have a lofty goal. They are going to contribute to the fight against world poverty by selling headphones. Of course selling products and tying them into charities is nothing new, however Fairbairn is trying to put a new spin on the concept, launching their “premium” headphones with a direct tie in to a different charity with each model.

The company is calling their philanthropic headphone campaign #MoreThanMusic.

On the social side of things HeadCase is using the slacktivist model to donate health kits to children in need, shoes, aftercare for victims of human trafficking, vaccinations for Polio and pumps for farmers in Kenya.

On the headphone side of things, the HeadCase headphones come in a variety of colors. The company also boasts that they are durable, stylish and lightweight. Best of all the 50mm speaker drivers used in every pair of headphones are built at the same factory as Senheiser and Dre Beats.

Combine the two and you have a recipe for sound social entrepreneurship.

The charities that HeadCase has aligned themselves with are; One Day’s Wages, Soles4Souls, The Global Poverty Project, Free The Children and The Adventure Project.

Elyakim Samuel (CEO), and Samantha Bruandet (CFO) round out the founding team of socially conscious entrepreneurs.

We got a chance to interview Fairbairn, check out our interview below.

Memphis’ Eric Mathews: What!! You Want Us To Just Find You A Technical Co-Founder?

One of my favorite interviews with TechStars co-founder David Cohen, is when he is being interviewed by a woman who’s asking great questions. They get into talking and Cohen says something to the effect of, “ya know that startup, that one where all these great ideas are listed and people can just buy them”, the interviewer plays into the question and Cohen says “me neither, because the startup hasn’t been made, ideas are worthless without execution”.

That same idea plays into a blog post written recently by Launch Memphis CEO and Co-President, Eric Mathews about a problem that he, and several other startup community leaders face every day, “Can you find me a technical co-founder”.

Mathews and his Launch Your City organization are responsible for running Emerge Memphis (the local incubator), Launch Memphis (startup initiatives including curriculum, support, and a free coworking space) and Seed Hatchery the cohort based Memphis accelerator.

With that wide range hats on Mathews and the other Launch Your City staff get the “can you find me a technical co-founder” question a lot. In his blog post he explains a much better way of securing technical talent.

Many people walk in our doors with ideas they believe will change the world and make them rich. The problem they invariably have is that they can’t build it. 95% of these potential founders have an idea for an mobile app or web app and they want the LaunchYourCity team to play matchmaker to a developer. These potential founders don’t realize that the developer probably has his own awesome ideas. Why would he switch from developing his ideas to developing yours? These potential founders will get no where fast with developers because they have ignored the obvious: a developer is your first investor.

Like all investments you need to earn the right to ask!

Here is the typical scenario. A non-technical founder approaches a potential technical co-founder with just an idea. These potential founders usually have very little skin in the game. They haven’t invested a ton of their own time, but expect a developer to contribute 100s of hours. They haven’t even dipped into their own funds to get something mocked up or designed. These potential founders have not invested energy into determining who the customer is, understanding their buying behaviors, or even determine if they would want the app and pay for it. The outcome is always the same. The developer says no and gets annoyed with wannabe entrepreneurs and gets turned off to the startup world.

This is a very bad outcome for our entire community. It could all be avoided.

Imagine going to a technical co-founder and saying the following:

“I have been working to validate an idea for a new app over the past couple of weeks. I didn’t know if this was a good idea so I talked to 50 customers and found out that not only was it good, but also determined what the minimum features would be to satisfy the customer. Because I wanted to continue to make progress, I taught myself to code a little bit.

“With a logo that I paid a local designer to polish up for me, I was able to get a one page website up and running articulating the features of the future app. I also was able to code the website to capture email addresses from future customers. I created a blog to talk about the industry and my perspective on the changes coming. I got a lot of feedback and interest from the blog — one post has been viewed 10,000 times and has 56 comments.

Continue reading here

Heading to Memphis for this? You should be!

Louisville Startup: Kodable Teaching Kids 5 And Up How To Code

When you start talking to technical co-founders of today’s startups, most of them talk about how they’ve been coding in some form or another since they were little kids. Such is the case for Jon Mattingly the co-founder of Louisville startup SurfScore and their newest product Kodable. Mattingly started “fiddling” with computers at the age of 6, and now he and cofounder Grechen Huebner are setting out to teach a new breed of grade school kids how to code.

Kodable is a new iPad game that teaches kids aged five and up how to code. This is taught by teaching the fundamentals of programming and problem solving in a fun way. Kids are learning these fundamentals without even realizing it.

“It introduces the basic concepts of programming, including conditionals, loops and functions, in an abstract way simple enough for young children to understand. Kids give the characters, called fuzzes, commands that guide them through a maze. This challenges children to think through a problem in multiple ways before deciding on a solution, then rewards them for choosing the most efficient path.” Huebner told us in an interview.

There’s a variety of software out there now that teaches even younger children the fundamentals of reading. Huebner and Mattingly thought that if those skills could be learned at an early age, programming could be taught the same way. Mattingly credits Hubener’s artistic ability with actually making these skills fun to learn and easy to understand.

Check out the rest of our interview with the SurfScore/Kodable team below.

Startup America Stage Headed To International CES

The Startup America partnership has done a phenomenal job of promoting startups across the United States at key events throughout the year. Last year they had an entire area at the Hilton Hotel for startups as part of SXSW. They also partnered with Startup Rockon to bring equally amazing programming to stages at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.

Continuing with that theme, Startup America has teamed up with the Consumer Electronics Association to bring the Startup America Stage to Eureka Park at the International CES. The International CES is the largest consumer electronics trade show on the western hemisphere and is happening January 8-11th in Las Vegas.

The Startup America stage will be part of CES’ startup pavilion called Eureka Park, which is housed at the Venetian Hotel and easily accessible via a free shuttle from the Las Vegas Convention Center.

“Innovation defines the International CES and we are thrilled to partner with Startup America to bring programming that highlights the young start-ups and entrepreneurs who will shape the future of technology,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CEA. “We look forward to the exciting sessions on the Startup America Stage at the 2013 CES shining a light on the companies and innovations of tomorrow.”

“Eureka Park will be home to some of the most cutting-edge startups from across the country this year at the 2013 CES,” said Scott Case, CEO of the Startup America Partnership. “We’re incredibly excited to bring together startups, investors, large companies and media to highlight the amazing innovations taking place at this world-class event.”

Innovation is a major theme, this and every year at CES however the past few years they’ve added an exhibit area for startups. Last year Eureka Park was packed. CEA is able to attract startups with lower cost both space, provided they meet the criteria.

CEA has also announced that Eureka Park is 40% bigger this year, adding even more startups and innovation to the mix.

The Startup America stage will feature panels, keynotes, and Q&A’s from top speakers in the entrepreneurial and startup ecosystem across the country.

Linkage:

For more on the International CES visit here

For more on Startup America visit here

Startup America is also part of this, the largest startup conference in the US

UK Startup: Spacehive Brings Civic Crowdfunding Across The Pond

As crowdfunding continues to grow in popularity, we’ve seen more and more “civic” crowdfunding sites pop up in the United States. Back in August we brought you an interview with Kansas City startup neighbor.ly and also during the summer we reported on Tampa startup Citizinvestor.

Now our friends across the pond in the UK are getting into the civic crowdfunding space. UK startup Spacehive is offering people in the UK the opportunity to crowdfund civic minded projects. These can include anything from planting a garden, to developing an open neighborhood wifi.

Crowdfunding was sparked and started in the United States with sites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter. In the UK there are already sites crowdfunding startups, like our good friends at Up And Funding. The civic crowdfunding space is new for them though.

Crowdfunding typically exists in two models. There’s an all or nothing model, where the crowd has a goal to raise and projects are funded once all of the money is raised. Other sites like Indiegogo allow people to raise money for projects but every dime goes to the project’s founder regardless of whether or not they hit their goal.

With Spacehive it’s the all or nothing model. Someone with a civic project will go online to their site. Once they create the project and the project is approved by Spacehive, they are free to raise money to their goal. The funds for the project will only be released once the goal is hit giving backers a little more piece of mind that the money is going to what it’s intended for.

We got a chance to talk with the team from Spacehive, about their civic crowdfunding platform and their cool name. Check out the interview below.

Rumored: DC Startup Living Social To Lay Off 400 Later Today

Several startup and tech sites are reporting that Washington DC daily deals startup, Living Social will lay off as many as 400 people later today (Thursday). The Washington DC Business Journal is credited with starting the rumor based on sources “with knowledge of the daily deal giant’s plans”

The news was escalated Wednesday when Pando Daily founder Sarah Lacy tweeted out a link to a short news brief on her site about the possible layoffs.

As early as two months ago at The Brandery’s demo day, Living Social CEO and Co-Founder Tim O’Shaughnessy led no one to believe that the company was in this much trouble. O’Shaughnessy was the keynote speaker at the branding focused accelerators investor event.

According to The Business Journal, the cuts are supposed to affect several of the company’s nationwide offices, including headquarters in DC which is spread across six offices downtown.

The layoffs may cause even more trouble, as Living Social just won a $32.5 million dollar tax break from the DC government, contingent on opening a 200,000 square foot centralized headquarters and maintaining a headcount of over 1,000. The company last reported 4500 employees globally, and while the 400 layoffs alone wouldn’t seem to affect that tax break, the question lays on what else happens with the company.

Living Social isn’t the only daily deals company that’s having problems. It’s been widely rumored, and some say leaked, that rival Groupon’s CEO Andrew Mason may be ousted by his board of directors. Groupon has struggled since going public, despite the fact that they are still making money.

Living Social suffered a net loss of $566 million in the third quarter. Much of that was in the form of a $496 million dollar write down of some of it’s 2011 acquisitions. Revenue also slipped from $138 million dollars in the second quarter to $124 million in the third.

Linkage:

LivingSocial on the web

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Cincinnati And The Brandery Featured In CNN’s Piece About Startup Communities

When we venture away from home (which is quite often), we’re sure that our regular readers know that Cincinnati is one of the thriving startup communities we like to visit. Cincinnati is home to The Brandery, the world’s first startup accelerator devoted to marketing and branding. They’re also home to Cincy Tech, Centrifuse and many other startup and entrepreneurial initiatives.

It’s no surprise than that Cincinnati was named as one of the six cities “where startups thrive” according to CNN. Earlier this morning we brought you the story about Music City USA (Nashville) also receiving the same honor.

Cincinnati’s back story is a bit different than being home to the legends of country music. Cincinnati is home to one of, if not the, biggest branded company in the world, Proctor & Gamble. One thing that many startup communities struggle with is getting their patriarchs, or “blue bloods” to participate in the new, somewhat risky, startup community.

Proctor & Gamble is “all in” with Cincinnati’s tech and startup community. The son of the consumer giants CEO Robert MacDonald, Rob MacDonald, is one of the founders of The Brandery. The Brandery pulls several mentors from the ranks of the Proctor & Gamble world headquarters and also works hand in hand with some of their biggest marketing partners to give their portfolio companies a boost.

What’s better than that though is that The Brandery, along with Cincy Tech and the collaborative effort, Cintrifuse, host regular classes, workshops and talks aimed at the young and up and coming entrepreneurs in the city. Anything from bringing your product to market, to designing the best business plan, is constantly taught and retaught for the Cincy startup community, and most of these activities cost little to no money.

Innovation comes in many forms in Cincinnati

When you look at most startup accelerator cohorts you can strip the current classes startup names, and find that you have similar classes throughout the country. You have your photo app, your video app, your event sharing app, your collaboration platform, one or two hard goods and something social. Startups in Cincinnati push the envelope and break the box apart.

Take ChoreMonster for instance. This standout startup from the first Brandery class, is the “big brother” startup at the Brandery. Their founders are constantly mentoring, coaching and helping other startups. Their idea though? Chore management for kids with an uber friendly, monster theme. Does it work? My five year old daughter does chores like nobody’s business, I just need to get her mother on the program now. ChoreMonster has already raised over a million dollars in venture capital and their official product isn’t even out of the gate.

A startup made out of a team of teenage, ivy league dropouts, called “FlightCar” is picking up major traction including a recent feature on TechCrunch.com. Their idea is to facilitate peer to peer car lending at airports. If you’re going on a week long vacation, why pay to park when someone else can pay you to use your car. The three founders behind the startup, have never rented a car in their lives, but they were able to work out the insurance kinks and now have a viable product and testing in two major airports.

Venturing outside of the Brandery’s “Over The Rhine” walls you’ll find startups like CapStory and CoupSmart. The young founders of CapStory are looking to restore the sanctity once found with Facebook. Even at just 20, they know the risks involved in that beer bong shot posted to your Facebook page. Their startup is hoping to give college students the ability to share those memories without their future boss seeing them.

Coupsmart is an engagement platform that’s taking all those likes and fans from social media and really turning them into revenue. An idea that’s on the minds of marketers around the world.

With this kind of startup community flourishing in Cincinnati it’s no wonder that they were selected by CNN as one of the cities where “startups thrive”.

Linkage:

CNN “Cities Where Startups Thrive”

Nibletz coverage of Cincinnati

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Vancouver Startup: Perch Turns iOS Devices Into Hands Free Cameras and More

Being on the road as much as we are here at nibletz.com the voice of startups everywhere else, we’ve come to realize how useful the iPhone and iPad have become to stay intune with what’s going on at home. For instance, FaceTime with my five year old daughter is something we do multiple times per day, every day. FaceTime is perhaps one of the easiest to use video chat apps ever created. A startup in Vancouver Canada, called Perch, has made it even easier.

Perch allows you to set up stationary iOS devices throughout your home or office. This unique app builds in video along with motion detection. Your iOS device becomes a Perch camera. All you have to do is walk up to the stationary iOS device and start talking, Perch knows to start rolling audio and video. The Perch app then uploads the video to the cloud making it easy for the recipient to get it.

Perch cameras can be used for surveillance and security, or as a great interactive tool for the whole family. Perch calls this hands free video operation, “ambient video”. In addition to those features you can also text and video chat with anyone in your Perch family.

The app was born out of a previous startup called Redhand which turned iOS devices into sophisticated security cameras.

We got a chance to talk with the team behind Perch. Check out the interview below.

Techstars Now Taking Applications Via AngelList

The popular TechStars accelerator program announced last week on their blog that they are now taking applications via AngelList.

500 Startups was the first to go the route of using AngelList to allow startups to apply their program, with their current session. Traditionally to get into 500 startups accelerator program a startup had to be recommended internally. 500 Startups founder Dave McClure opened up the current session for general applications, but only using the AngelList platform.

TechStars is taking applications through their website and also through AngelList.

Techstars founder David Cohen does say that if you apply via AngelList and you’re selected for further evaluation you may need to answer some of the more specific questions found on the application on the Techstars website. However, applications are welcomed from either site.

Techstars is currently taking applications via AngelList and their website for their Boston program that starts February 25, 2013. The early bird deadline for Boston applications is next Monday December 3rd and the final deadline is December 17th.

Applications are also open for the New York City 2013 cohort. The early bird application deadline is January 4, 2013 and the final deadline is January 18, 2013. That session begins April 2, 2013.

Linkage:

Techstars schedule

Techstars application via their website

Techstars application via Angellist

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Tech Cocktails Speaker Series “Sessions” Returns To DC December 5th

If you’re going to be in the Washington DC area next week, then you definitely want to put TechCocktail’s next speaker series event on your calendar. TechCocktails speaker series, called “sessions”, puts together entrepreneurs, designers, startups, and investors in a setting to discuss topics that are relevant to those in the tech and startup community. They offer unparalleled access to top tier, successful speakers, in a somewhat intimate setting.

The next “Sessions” event is being held in Washington DC at the Atlas Theater (1333 H Street NE) Wednesday December 5th from 6:30pm-9:00pm. They are calling the event “Building Your Team”.

Living up to their mission TechCocktail’s Building Your Team session is of the utmost importance to startup founders everywhere. The success of any startup hinges on the product and more importantly the team.

“At some point, most startups reach a point where they need to build a team. How do you start? How do you find the best possible people to grow your company and represent your new brand? Despite today’s unemployment rates, the technology sector remains highly competitive and building a top notch team might be more challenging than you think. Come hear from our speakers who have a variety of perspectives on building out amazing teams, finding talent and keeping them. ” (from TechCocktail’s event page)

The Sessions event will have three speakers, all who’ve had to go through the team building experience. Blake Hall the founder and CEO of TroopID , Carla Valdes a general partner at Fortify.vc and Peter Corbett founder and CEO of iStrategy Labs, have all had their fair share of team building.

Hall’s company has built the first military focused verification database. Hall has had experience building his startup team and being part of teams in the military including as an active duty Airborne Ranger qualified officer.

Valdes has built up the team at Fortify.vc a Washington DC investment fund and is also instrumental in selecting and solidifying the starutp teams that are chosen for Fortify’s dc based accelerator, The Fort.

Corbett and his team at iStrategyLabs serve as a digital agency to some of the world’s biggest brands like ESPN,Disney, ABC, Nasdaw and Geico. Not only is Corbett managing highly creative left brained teams, but he’s doing it with the intense pressure that comes with running a digital agency.

Tickets for the event start at just $10.00 but you need to get them quick before the pricing goes up. Follow the link below.

Linkage:

TechCocktail Sessions DC event page here

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New York Startup: Unpakt Brings The Expedia Model To Moving

The Expedia model of comparison shopping and booking online for the best discounted prices is a proven model that’s being used for several new verticals. Earlier this week we reported on Tennessee startup MDSave which applies a similar model to finding low cost health care for self pay patients. We’ve also reported on Nashville startup Rentstuff which applies a similar model to the merchandise rental industry.

As a testimony to the success of the Expedia model in other verticals, MDSave just raised $1 million dollars for their startup while Rentstuff was recently acquired.

Today we’ve found New York startup Unpakt which is applying the same type model to moving.

Sharone Ben-Harosh is the founder of Unpakt and a 20 year veteran in the moving industry. His first moving startup is FlatRate moving which he founded in 1991. FlatRate Moving takes away the uncertainty associated with hourly moving in exchange for a more honest flat rate move.

Unpakt works on the same principals, but on a larger scale. Users simply put in where they are moving from and to, how much stuff they have and what, if any, special services they need. Unpakt than brings back several real time quotes of movers that can do your move on the date requested and an actual flat rate quote so you know what you’re getting into. You also book the move online which takes a major part of the headache of moving, out of the picture.

We got a chance to talk with Ben-Harosh about Unpakt. Check out the interview below.

Nashville Featured in CNN’s “Cities Where Startups Are Thriving”

For years Nashville Tennessee has been known as Music City USA. Country music starts in Nashville. This year ABC is even running an hour long drama based on country music and life in Nashville, called “Nashville”. To people from the midsouth it’s no secret that Nashville also has a thriving entrepreneurial, startup and tech scene, but now they’ve been highlighted in a piece on cnn.com called “Cities Where Startups Are Thriving”.

In 2010 the Nashville Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with the Nashville Technology Council opened the Entrepreneur Center. A team of 75 people in an “entrepreneur task force” began researching and discussing the possibility of creating a resource for Nashville entrepreneurs back in 2007, a year after a similar effort was started in Memphis Tennessee by entrepreneur Eric Mathews and Launch Your City.

The center started as an online resource, and eventually became a brick and mortar centralized location that serves as the startup and technology hub in Music City.

In May of 2010 it was announced that successful healthcare entrepreneur Michael Burcham was picked to lead the Nashville Entrepreneur Center after a six month search.

Now the community is thriving. Nashville investors have put $72 million dollars into 21 companies so far in 2012, nearly double the $38 million dollars and 8 companies they invested in in 2009.

Startups like Edo Interactive that originated in Nashville and now has offices in Nashville and Chicago, has raised over $50 million dollars in venture capital. Another startup, RentStuff, which got it’s formidable start in the Jumpstart Foundry accelerator program, housed at the Entrepreneur Center, followed in Edo Interactive’s footsteps, relocating to Chicago and leading to an acquisition first reported here at nibletz.com late last week.

Nashville is just one of 9 entrepreneurial pockets that LaunchTN is supporting with startup accelerators. The nine high growth areas include four major hubs, Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga and also have five shoulder markets as well. Tennessee was the second state to formalize a Startup America region. That much entrepreneurial and startup activity in the state of over 42,000 square miles means that no Tennessee resident is more than an hour and a half away from an entrepreneurial hub.

Linkage:

CNN’s “Cities Where Startups Thrive”

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Austin Startup: SocialGood.TV May Save Al Gore’s “Current” TV Network

Tennessee native, former Vice President and founder of the internet (lol) Al Gore, got into the tv business with long time friend and notorious tv ad lawyer Joel Hyatt, who was well known for his tv slogan “I’m Joel Hyatt and you have my word on it”. In 2005 they launched “Current TV” a left leaning tv network.

After his failed bid in the 2000 Presidential election Gore, wanted to go into the TV business. The idea was to launch a conventional tv news network to combat the likes of right leaning Fox news. Some feel that CNN already had it’s feet firmly planted in that position, which is why Current never really took off.

Today we learned that Austin startup SocialGood.TV may be buying the national cable network and moving it’s operations to Austin. The Austin Business Journal is reporting that in addition to the move, SocialGood.TV may be looking to move the networks programming more into the middle of the road.

Stephen Vogelpohl, co-founder and CEO of SocialGood.TV has been tight lipped about what the startup is working on exactly, however it’s been learned that they have a few employees who are developing a video engagement platform for social causes.

Current currently offers programming from disgraced New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, ex-Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and “The Views” with Joy Behar. The network is beamed into 71 million homes with about 60 million of those being in the United States. In the grand scheme of things those are relatively low numbers for a cable network.

Vogelpohl told the Austin Statesman that if SocialGood.TV was successful in the bid they would move programming to causes “outside of legistlation” adding:

“Making communities stronger isn’t a left or a right issue,” he said. “We’d want the programming to be more inclusive, educating through entertaining.”

Vogelpohl’s stake holders are to meet next month in Austin to discuss the deal further.

Linkage:

Here’s a link to socialgood.tv

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