If you were to hear a pitch from a legal startup that planned to offer do it yourself access to legal forms, you would immediately think of LegalZoom right? Who would enter into a space crowded by a giant like LegalZoom? That would be as asinine as pitching an online auction site for collectibles, clothing, accessories and every day junk right?
Well Santa Monica based startup DocRun is doing just that. Of course their position is that they’re going to do it better.
DocRun has positioned itself to become the site to go to when small companies, and even startups need legal documents that may otherwise cost them thousands of dollars. When a user goes to the site they can create highly customizable, attorney level legal documents by answering a handful of relevant questions.
DocRun isn’t your run of the mill startup though. The company’s founder is Jennifer Reuting a nationally known expert on small business and corporate structuring. She is the author of the book “Limited Liability Companies For Dummies”.
This is also not her first foray into web platforms for small businesses. Reuting created InCorp.com the third largest registered agent service provider in the country and MyLLC.com a business entity formation service. Reuting has baked patent pending “artificial intelligence” into DocRun. This technology trumps LegalZoom’s one size fits all legal document service.
We got a chance to interview DocRun check out the interview below.
Comments Off on OpenTable And Fishbowl Veterans Join DC Startup Venga’ Rebrands To My Loyal Family0LikeLike 2,555
Back in March we brought you the story of Washington DC startup Venga. Venga began as a more traditional restaurant discovery platform similar to the likes of Urban Spoon. While they were accelerating at The Fort in Washington DC they pivoted to a more restaurant centric focus.
During their customer discovery they went to restaurants and talked to the owners to see what they really needed in an app.
When founders Sam von Pollaro and Winston Lord took to the streets to talk with the restaurants themselves they found that while traditional restaurant discovery apps could provide spikes in traffic, they weren’t receptive to the restaurant themselves. Apps like Open Table weren’t talking to the restaurant point of sale systems so there was no way the restaurants could take advantage of the well procured background data on the users.
Venga, with the help of Fortify, embarked on a new product to create mobile centric loyalty programs for customers. Now surveying customers on exits, and even rewarding them isn’t new however working it all back into a mobile focused program to benefit the customer and the restaurant is. Venga now has a tool that helps restaurants keep track of customers, their likes and dislikes and their service experiences. The restaurant takes that information, along with order information and then they can send each customer more targeted offers via email rather than a generic email blast.
Venga had already started picking up traction with their new product and have found that it was a great space to be in. Venga is data driven and pulls from customers previous checks to create detailed profiles, letting restaurant owners and marketers know exactly what hits their customers buttons and what will bring them back in for more.
The company has started ramping up their staff and with that they’ve brought on Fishbowl’s former Regional VP of Sales, Bob McKay as Vice President of Sales. Michelle Baker has also joined Venga as an account executive. Her experience includes marketing positions with Fishbowl and Open Table. They’ve also rebranded their consumer facing product as MyLoyalFamily.
“Bob and Michelle’s passion and demonstrated knowledge of the hospitality industry and its distinctive needs will be an invaluable asset to Venga as we continue to expand.”von Pollaro, said in a statement. “With Michael, we are getting one of the top software engineers in the area with expertise in scalability, which is critical in a business that collects and processes as much data as we do.”
Venga also beefed up their tech team by adding Michael Dumont as Lead Software Engineer.
A startup in Chicago called clickInterview is the latest to offer a video solution to recruiters, HR folks and perspective employers. clickInterview, like PitchPick in Austin among others, lets job candidates answer pre-screening interview questions in the comfort of their own home or wherever they happen to be when they feel like answering.
Legacy human resources folks aren’t entirely sold on the idea of pre-screening or interviewing candidates with pre-recorded videos. Naturally the candidate will only do the video at the best opportunity for them and of course they can prepare for the interview. It takes out some of the spontaneity of the interview.
Now with clickInterview and the other startups in the space no one is suggesting that they completely replace the actual in person interview, but rather use it in the first preliminary phase, eliminating the need to accommodate on site interviews.
Max Sperando, founder of clickInterview says that his secret sauce is in the design and ease of use. One check of their site and you’ll agree that it’s pleasing to the eye and simplifies the process.
Sperando is also hoping to give the candidates a little more control of their interview situation, again the part that “old school” HR folks don’t like.
clickInterview definitely has a chance to take over the video interview space if they can scale right. We got a chance to interview Sperando, check out the interview below.
Comments Off on Nashville Startup WannaDo Finds You What You Wanna Do0LikeLike 2,298
It seems like, on the surface, the event discovery space is a big space. When you peel it back though there aren’t many event discovery apps that are doing it right. The two we like the most are Louisville startup Impulcity and Nashville startup WannaDo.
Wannado, under the leadership of founder Steven Buhram, is starting out local in Nashville for now with plans on scaling out soon. Impulcity on the other hand is going all in, connecting their user base to music, and entertainment events nationwide and hyper local.
Wannado has a different approach though, than the average event discovery nut. The first thing that we noticed when testing Wannado in their home town was that everything was laid out in very easy to understand categories.
Play- obviously encompasses fun things to do, artsy stuff, plays and music (which Nashville has a lot of).
Work & Network is your guide t company events and career minded conference.
Eat & Drink, is pretty self explanatory
Learn, is all about learning and can be anything from health and wellness events to CPR courses.
You can even peel back layers and get to geek categories, nerd categories, artsy categories and more.
Once you find the event that’s for you, you can easily save it to your wannado list or share it using this unique share tool that allows you to share it by email, Facebook, text message of Twitter. Why not invite all your friends in the world to the great events you find on wannado.
That’s not the only way wannado differs from other traditional event discovery platforms though. Like any other app you can invite all of your Facebook friends to use wannado and you can see if any of your Facebook friends are currently using wannado. Naturally you’re going to trust a friends opinion about an event.
With wannado though, they also have guides, more seasoned people from an area that may know the lay of the land a little better. You can see what the guides are recommending or you can ask the guide something which makes the experience socially engaging.
So does it work?
Well in one night in Nashville we were able to use Wannado to take in Luke Bryan and Rodney Atkins at two different events free. We found some awesome hamburgers and realized we missed out on what would have been a fun startup breakfast event.
Comparatively speaking Wannado actually showed us more of what was going on in Nashville in one night than any other app we’ve tried. While it seems Buhram is comfortable with building scale with baby steps, if they could replicate this user experience to scale quickly across the country it could become our event app of choice for all events from seminars to cooking lessons to concerts.
Comments Off on Israeli Startup Ringya, The First Collaborative Address Book For Smartphones?0LikeLike 3,759
An Israeli startup called Ringya has put an interesting new twist on the address book. They’ve taken, probably your most social set of data and added social functionality. Ringya allows users to share their address book, as much or as little of it as they want, as seamlessly as sharing a photo, video or other digital asset.
Sure you’ve always been able to share vcards and contacts via text, but Ringya groups contacts together any way that you like and than allows you to share them individually or in lists. Say you have a project management list, or a soccer team list, whatever list you have set up for contacts, if you need to easily share that list you can.
What’s even more interesting though is Ringya’s ability to turn paper lists into smartphone contact lists. Simply snap a picture of an actual paper contact list and Ringya will extract that information and put it into digital contact format and keep the list in tact.
In the interview below Gal Nucham, founder of Ringya, explains that all you have to do is snap a picture of a contact list and email it to a specific Ringya address, moments later you get the same list back, digitally. This would make migrating paper phone books, address books and black books a cinch.
It’s hard to believe that until now, no one has done this before. Check out our interview with Nucham, after the break.
Comments Off on Memphis Entrepreneur Launches Phone & Personal Protection Startup Coyote Case0LikeLike 4,055
Memphis entrepreneur, Jonathan Page has just launched an Indiegogo campaign for his new startup Coyote Case. Coyote Case uniquely blends personal protection with phone protection.
Sure we’ve seen phone cases that hold pepper spray and even one that has a taser gun built in, but Page’s case is different. The Coyote Case features a 100db personal alarm which makes one heck of a noise if someone pushes the button and is being attacked. But in the infamous words of people like Billy Mays… But Wait There’s More…
With the Coyote Case there’s actually much more.
In addition to the personal protection alarm, Coyote Case has a bluetooth chip built into the case housing. It’s also integrated with a battery that will last well over a year. The BlueTooth is used to communicate with an app that’s on the smartphone. Using the app, a user can set up an emergency list for an outgoing text message.
Combining the Bluetooth technology, GPS and SMS technology the app within the phone will send an emergency text message to those on the list. If your alarm company, or University security is set up to receive text messages you can add those folks to your emergency list as well. When the app sends out the text message it will also send out your GPS coordinates so that your ICE (In Case Of Emergency) contacts know that you need assistance and exactly where you are.
The idea came to Page after his college aged niece visited him from Nashville last year. Page’s niece had told him that she was nearly attacked while walking back to her apartment at night. When Page found this out, not only was he scared for his niece he went out searching for more information .He found some startling statistics from the Department of Justice website that he talks to us about in the interview video below.
Not only were the statistics shocking for females in general but it was revealed that girls between 18-24 were at an even higher risk. When Page found this out he immediately set out on the idea for the Coyote Case.
Page is trying to launch Coyote Case without giving up any equity to traditional venture capital investors so he’s taken to Indiegogo where you can contribute to CoyoteCase and get early access to the life saving, and phone protecting case.
Comments Off on Chicago Startup StageBloc Is A Content Creation Platform For Everyone INTERVIEW0LikeLike 2,392
A new startup incubating at Chicago’s world famous 1871, has set out to create a new content creation platform that’s perfect for anyone and everyone. If you want to start a blog, you can do that on StageBloc. If you want to create photo and video albums, you can do that on StageBloc. If you want to create podcasts, again you can do that on StageBloc. If you’re into short form posts like status updates, you can do that as well. In fact you can do al that and monetize whatever pieces of it you want.
Now suppose you want to mix them all together. You can also do that using StageBloc’s robust platform. But even better, you can do as much or as little of it as you want. It’s like an all you care to eat buffet of content creation tools.
StageBloc makes it incredibly easy to create content in any way that you want. StageBloc founder Tom Giles was convinced that while Facebook and other sites are great for exposure, StageBloc is more about developing your brand online and also monetizing that brand.
This all in one approach to content creation means that if you use StageBloc you don’t need a blogger account, flickr account, YouTube account, Twitter account and Facebook account. You get all of those services in one. Now being realistic no ones going to shun their Facebook or their Twitter account but creating content and then having to move to another site to embed pictures and videos is a pain in the butt.
If you’re only in the mood for a short form post, you don’t have to leave the StageBloc dashboard, likewise if you’re in the mood to write a long Tumbler-esque post, you don’t need to leave the platform to do it.
StageBloc also recently launched their Mirrorgram app into the iOS app store and it’s quickly become the 11th ranked paid app in the store.
We got a chance to interview Giles. Check out the interview below.
Comments Off on Tackle Your Student Loan Debt With New York Startup: Student Loan Hero0LikeLike 2,464
New York startup, and recent Startup Chile graduate, Student Loan Hero is looking to help college students after graduation. Student Loan Hero is the latest startup to join the growing student loan management space. Startups like Tuition.io, AllTuition and So Fi are also battling for the same college graduate users.
With a whopping $870 billion dollars in unpaid student loans in the United States alone, there probably won’t be a shortage of student loan startups.
While it was big business back in the late 90’s and the early part of the decade to enable websites with affiliate programs for low interest credit cards
Comments Off on Stay Tuned In With Memphis Startup StayTunedIn, Pitch Video0LikeLike 2,583
Over the weekend we brought you the story of Memphis entrepreneur Aaron Prather and his new idea, which is now called StayTunedIn. StayTunedIn is a new web based platform tool for publishers that allows publishers and editors to keep their finger on the pulse of their readers.
The concept is simple, in fact it’s so simple it’s one of those “Why didn’t I think of that” think of that kind of ideas, well the reason you didn’t think of it is because Prather did.
StayTunedIn is essentially a button that will automatically be placed at the end of a piece of content from a participating publisher. If you want follow up information on that particular piece of content, clicking the button will let the publisher/editor know that you want follow up and when they post a follow up story you’ll be notified.
Say you read a story about a local man that rescued people from a car wreck. Maybe you would like to know what happens next with the “hero” and the people he rescued. By clicking the button you’ll get that content.
Sure their are Google alerts and sites like reddit that offer a similar type of service however it’s not actual follow up and we all know that Google alerts can be messy. This is specific content from the same source. Now you can really keep track of a story.
On the publisher side the tool is great because it lets publishers and editors know exactly what their reading audience wants to read.
Publishing giants across the country have all echoed the same theme. For big sites like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, the problem isn’t readership the problem that they face is getting people to come back over and over again.
“A promiscuous audience is our new reality. Are our news rooms ready to give them an experience worth coming back to, over and over again?”
Larry Kilman, the Deputy CEO of The World Association Of Newspapers echoed Narsetti’s sentiment saying:
“We are not losing readers, we are losing readership. Our industry challenge is engagement. Because someone is a subscriber does not make him a loyalist.”
One major way to get readers more engaged is to give them the content that they want. With StayTunedIn publishers have a better opportunity to do just that.
While Prather worked hard over 48 Hour Launch with a team of Memphis startup community members, he said the work is just beginning. The opportunity for StayTunedIn is too large to abandon after one weekend. In fact he already has commitments from some of the bigger local publications to try the service out when he has it up and running.
Comments Off on Memphis SMB Green Girl Produce Ignites Startup Vs SMB Debate, But Plan Is Great For Memphis!0LikeLike 2,519
While there’s been much debate in the Nibletz office and surrounding areas over the past 72 hours on whether or not this idea counted as a “startup” it’s still a good idea and a good idea for Memphis Tennessee at that.
Emma Self, pitched her “Green Girl Produce” business idea on Friday evening at LaunchMemphis’ 48 Hour Launch. 48 Hour Launch is a weekend startup hackathon. The “startup vs SMB” debate was alive and well this weekend with everyone I talked to about this business.
The debate about “Startup vs SMB” in Self’s case has NOTHING to do with technology. There is another woman in Memphis who has come up with a new way to remove acrylic nails without the harsh abrasiveness and damage to the nails that traditional methods have caused. To me, the young lady with the nail solution is a startup. Green Girl is not.
Here’s why:
While it’s become a growing trend in the last few years, there is NOTHING new about urban, vertical, hyrdoponic green houses. Hydroponic greenhouses have been sprouting up (you see what I did there) across the country and around the world for at least the last decade, possibly two. Heck, stories of people being busted growing illegal substances in green houses trace back to the early 90’s.
As I explained to Launch Memphis intern Andy Cowan, in my argument, if there were no hamburger restaurants in Memphis Tennessee, anywhere, and there were everywhere else across the world, I wouldn’t consider Memphis’ first hamburger restaurant a “startup” just a new business idea for Memphis.
Steve Blank describes the debate between “startup vs SMB” as SMB’s being lifestyle businesses and startup founders working to save the world.
I will tell you that I’m confident that Self is passionate about changing her corner of the world, Memphis TN, but still not sold on it being a startup.
So now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s take a look at the business plan. It was a good business plan.
Self has obtained an abandoned liquor store in downtown Memphis (currently abandon business sites are abundant in downtown Memphis). There is approximately 1200 square feet of growing space in the liquor store. With a $200,000 investment Self will be able to make the necessary changes to the liquor store to accommodate her green house, and start her first cash crop.
The conversion will take about a month and after planting, she’ll be raising cash crops in two weeks, using LED technology. Self doesn’t have the $30,000 bill for the LED equipment though as she’s participating in a beta test with a new product.
In her market research Self found out that restaurants, and even the local vegetable distributors are paying upwards of $100 a pound for micro-greens.
Micro-greens are greens that chef’s are using to “make dishes pop” as garnish and extra flavoring. According to a local Chef we talked to on Sunday night, micro-greens give dishes a lot more flavor and pizaaz than say parsley but even his establishment stopped using them because of the cost.
Self can get that cost down to under $40 per pound and still produce $1 million dollars in revenue with that one location.
The community picked Green Girl Produce on Friday as one of three companies to build out over 48 Hour Launch. Self was able to connect with valuable resources in the community members that helped her with her plans.
archer>malmo, the south east PR/advertising giant was on hand all weekend. In fact a team of 6 stayed throughout to help with logos and concepts. The archer>malmo team was especially helpful to Self. They developed her logo, branding, and helped her visualize the supply chain.
Did Self do a great job this weekend. Yes! Did she utilize the resources to her and take advantage of the weekend concept Yes! Is Green Girl Produce a “startup”… Call me a “startup snob” but I don’t think so.
Check out her Sunday pitch video below. Now keep in mind that Emma is not one of those startup junkies who’s seen a hundred pitches. I think she did a heck of a job in front of the audience but she is definitely a bit nervous.
Comments Off on Washington DC Tops Inc’s 500 List Of All Time0LikeLike 2,403
The Inc 500/5000 conference just wrapped up in Phoenix Arizona. The three day conference highlights the private sector companies, both big and small, that are the fabric of our American corporate culture.
The Inc 500 is a list published every year by the premiere business magazine, that lists the 500 fastest growing companies in the country. The list, first published in 1982, has become the benchmark that many companies set for growth in their formative years. Companies like Pandora, Zipcar, Zappos and even companies with rich history now, like Toys R Us and 7 Eleven have topped the list.
The Inc 500 is a subset of the Inc 5000 which shows off an even broader range of US companies, those who are the fastest growing 5000 companies in America. Each of the Inc 5000 companies are featured on Inc’s website. The 500 companies are featured in Inc’s traditional magazine in the September issue.
The Kauffman Foundation, the non profit foundation in Kansas City that procures important data relating to startups, innovation, corporations and growth, recently analyzed the last 30 years worth of Inc 500 companies.
They found that over the past 30 years worth of Inc 500 lists, Washington DC has produced more companies that have appeared on the list than any other metropolitan area, in the country. In the last 12 years alone Washington DC has been home to 385 companies that have appeared on the Inc 500 list.
On a state by state basis California and then Texas topped Kauffman’s list. Virginia (which borders DC) was in the number 3 spot and Massachusetts was number 4.
When the list was adjusted for population Indianapolis ranked 6th, Baltimore ranked 15th, Philly ranked 19th and Louisville Kentucky ranked (20th).
When examined by county, Virginia had three of the top five counties with Fairfax City, Falls Church City and Arlington County. Motley County Texas and Broomfield County Colorado topped that list.
Check out the interactive map of the data in the links below
By a show of hands how many people out there have “walk thru” still on their to-do list. Everyone wants to do a great walk thru for their company, business or startup but many people have the hardest time getting this project off the ground. Either they don’t think they have access to the resources to create great “walk thru’s” or they don’t think they can afford it.
Well a startup in Tel Aviv called WalkMe is about to solve both of those problems for everyone.
No matter how easy or complex your task is, WalkMe wants to provide you with the tool to create an easy step-by-step “Walk thru” guide to everything.
Walkme is a simple to use plugin. Once you have it installed you just move about your screen in the natural steps it takes to do whatever process you want to teach. As you begin to complete each step you write what the step is, how to do it and add your text balloon and move on to the next step.
You can easily create “walk thru” instructions while you’re creating your WalkMe walk thru.
Anything from how to complete an order, to how to change your password, can easily be explained using Walkme. If you want to show someone an easy to use trick on your own website, you can create a WalkMe “walk thru”. Basically if you can do the task you want to teach, and if you can use a mouse, than you’re in business.
We got a chance to talk to the team from WalkMe about their easy to use tool. Check out the interview below:
Comments Off on Oklahoma City Startup: Buzzam Has The Blueprint For Next Generation Radio0LikeLike 2,401
Oklahoma City startup Buzzam is currently accelerating at the new Blueprint for Business accelerator in OKC. In fact Buzzam is the only homegrown team in the BluePrint For Business accelerator, other teams hail from as far away as London and Alabama.
Buzzam promises a whole new way of listening and enjoying some of your favorite online radio sources. The iOS app, which is available as of today, integrates seamlessly with your iTunes, Rdio and Spotify accounts insuring that you’re never without your favorite music regardless of the source.
It doesn’t stop there though. Buzzam is offering a new kind of radio, similar to original terrestrial radio, in that Buzzam will deliver information that is relevant to you, the listener. But we aren’t talking about relevant information to an international radio listening audience, a national listening audience or even a local audience. Buzzam will deliver information that’s relevant to just you.
Buzzam will create a radio listening experience for you based on your favorite Rdio and Spotify channels and your iTunes music. What happens in between songs is what makes Buzzam truly unique. Buzzam’s dj service will deliver your Facebook and Twitter updates right to you while you’re enjoying your favorite music.
Using Buzzam’s proprietary and patent pending technology, all your important social data is broadcast in between songs no matter what the feed.
On a recent visit to Blueprint for Business even Brad Feld thought Buzzam was a cool idea.
We got a chance to talk with Greg Starling, co-founder and COO of Buzzam about this innovative new radio idea ( and you know how we love radio ideas). Check out the interview below.
Comments Off on Meet Romania’s Mobile App Developer Referral Startup: BigBangJobs0LikeLike 2,920
Job boards are a dime a dozen these days. The job board was a space once owned by just two online companies, Hot Jobs (Yahoo) and Monster.com. Now there are job boards for just about everything and everywhere. It’s innovative new career minded sites, and category specific platforms like, WorkForPie and Path.to that are prevailing in the United States.
But what about outside the U.S.?
Well Romanian startup Big Bang Jobs is trying to solve the problem of connecting mobile app developers to people hiring mobile app developers in a way that cuts out a lot of the clutter found on more traditional websites.
BigBangJobs is a two way street. They function as a place where great mobile developers can find exciting new projects to work on, and where startups and established companies can find the perfect developer for their project. BigBangJobs is a mobile web developer community.
Unlike many other startups, BigBangJobs has a revenue model in place. After a quick vetting process, those developers that wan’t to participate in the program are admitted free. Those companies listing projects pay a one time fee of $99. While that may seem a little steep, BigBangJobs is looking to produce real results and get mobile app developers to work as quick as possible, in situations they want to be in.
We got a chance to talk to the founder of BigBangJobs, check out the interview below.
Kyle
If you were to hear a pitch from a legal startup that planned to offer do it yourself access to legal forms, you would immediately think of LegalZoom right? Who would enter into a space crowded by a giant like LegalZoom? That would be as asinine as pitching an online auction site for collectibles, clothing, accessories and every day junk right?
DocRun isn’t your run of the mill startup though. The company’s founder is Jennifer Reuting a nationally known expert on small business and corporate structuring. She is the author of the book “Limited Liability Companies For Dummies”.
