Comments Off on Washington DC’s Startup Kitchen Narrows The Field To Three0LikeLike 1,624
The first food industry startup incubator the “Startup Kitchen” is the brainchild of Washington DC restauranteur Kera Carpenter. She opened Domku an East European influenced restaurant in the revitalizing neighborhood of Pentworth in the district in 2005. It was overcoming the difficulties of not only starting here own business, but a restaurant at that, that inspired Carpenter to team up with Think Local First DC to create the “Startup Kitchen”.
Now we’re not talking a show you would see on the food network, we are talking about full on restaurant idea businesses. The food startup founders were narrowed down to three finalists which will pitch on July 18th. The winner selected out of the finalists will have six weeks to work on their concept with the help of mentors, and then Carpenter will donate space for the winner to open up a “Pop up restaurant” once a week in Domku’s space at 821 Upshur Street NW in Pentworth.
Hopefully after the six week period and then the pop up restaurant period that entrepreneur will be able to transition their startup to their own space in the district.
The three finalists, as reported by the Washington Business Journal are:
Worthwhile Meats and Provisions founded by Julien Shapiro. Her business idea is a specialty butcher shop showcasing the whole animal.
Chaya, a restaurant concept focused on cuisines featuring plants, legumes and whole grains. This is the idea of Bettina Stern and Zusanne Simon.
DC Dosa, a restaurant idea that would serve Dosa’s which are south Indian pancake snacks. Their plan is to serve them late night and at lunchtime. Think along the lines of crepe stands.
The three semi-finalists will pitch next Wednesday and the winners will be announced on Friday the 20th. That’s a big week for startups in DC as the 20th is also pitch day for TechStars Patriot Bootcamp.
Comments Off on Oklahoma Startup Incubator Blueprint For Business Looks To Make Starting Up More Humane0LikeLike 2,013
There’s a new technology startup incubator in Oklahoma City that is looking to offer businesses an $18,000-$25,000 seed investment along with services and mentoring. Sure that sounds like the model for most incubators across the country “everywhere else” but Guy Madison, the founder of Blueprint for business has a couple other ideas that will set this incubator apart.
Being a workaholic, non-stop founder is part of the startup culture. In my opinion and the opinion of many others it’s almost expected that you work around the clock until your body can’t take it anymore. While this is definitely not the most healthy idea, nor socially accepted to anyone outside of your startup circle, it shows drive, determination and focus.
Madison doesn’t seem to agree.
“We want them to focus on the whole package, because if you become a millionaire and your wife divorces you because you’re never around, then you’re a lonely millionaire” he told newsok.com
While some may applaud this idea, and yes it’s fundamentally great, it seems that the new Mr & Mrs Zuckerberg are quite happy together and Zuck’s bride has been with him through almost all of the Facebook startup process. Obviously the Zuckerberg case doesn’t support every startup but most founders know no bounds when it comes to working on their startup.
Madison has lined up over 25 great entrepreneurs from the Oklahoma City tech scene. He plans to integrate all the valuable lessons for entrepreneurs and founders while advising the group of startups on the human part of a technology startup, ie not working 90-100 hours per week.
Madison admits that, aside from the toned down work ethic, most of the idea behind his incubator is built on the TechStars model, as are about 90% of the other incubators across the country.
Blueprint for Business if being funded by husband and wife owners of U.S. Fleet Tracking, Jerry and Cindy Hunter.
Madison is courting entrepreneurs from everywhere to come to Oklahoma City for three months from August 15th through November 15th and culminate with a demo day in November where the teams can pitch their ideas in front of investors.
While we appreciate Madison’s idea for a more “humane” accelerator, we don’t necessarily agree that it’s such a problem. However, we are definitely jazzed up about the idea of a new incubator in Oklahoma City. Madison along with Ramier Shaik, one of the mentors in the program feel that Blueprint for Business is a much needed resource for startups in Oklahoma City.
Madison says that startups that move into Oklahoma City for the incubator don’t have to stay when the three months is up, but he’s hopeful that they will. Cost of living is much lower than either coast and outside of tornado season Oklahoma City is actually a beautiful place.
There are only a few days left for applications, the process ends on July 8, 2012. See the link below.
Comments Off on Oregon Business Incubator Offers Online Startup SummerCamp0LikeLike 1,473
An incubator in Bacerton Oregon is offering a new online startup summer camp this summer. The incubator, called The Oregon Business’s Technology Center is offering the online program for eight weeks starting in late June and running through August.
The summercamp program is free to attend online. The sessions will take a startup from idea to pitch.
The OTBC will upload videos offering advice on constructing pitch decks, vetting ideas and preparing entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas to potential investor
Every Thursday, participants are welcome to come to the Oregon Technology Business Center at 8305 S.W. Creekside Place, Suite C in Beaverton to share their experiences with other entrepreneurs participating in the online startup summer camp. The in person sessions will cost $10 to cover expenses.
At the end of the eight weeks three winning startups will be selected. The winners will get the opportunity to pitch their startup to a panel of judges and potential investors for ten minutes. After that they will have the opportunity for a ten minute question and answer session with the judges.
Steve Morris, the director of the Oregon Technology Business Center, is looking forward to entrepreneurs participating in the online startup summer camp, and he’s also looking forward to the entrepreneurs in the community who will be mentoring the participants.
Linkage:
For more information on the OTBC summer camp program click here
Comments Off on Boston Startup: Abroad101 Moves Out Of The Nest INTERVIEW0LikeLike 2,028
Back in April we reported on an innovative EdTech startup in Boston called Abroad101. Abroad101 is like a travelocity of sorts for those students looking to study abroad.
Abroad 101 allows users to review just about every aspect of a study abroad program. With the real feedback from students who’ve been through the study abroad programs, you can find out how the teaching staff and curriculum are, how the shopping in the city is, how the nightlife is and even if it’s safe to walk from the car to the classroom by yourself at night. The idea behind Abroad101 was an untapped space and the Boston company and MassChallenge graduate are doing a great job of filling it.
So great in fact, it’s time to leave the safety and security of the MassChallenge nest and branch out on their own.
We got to talk with the guys from Abroad101 about just that, see the quick interview below the break
Comments Off on We Interview Ari Rashti Of StartEngine And Angel Vision Investors0LikeLike 2,125
Over the past weekend, I was able to interview Ari Rashti, from StartEngine and Angel Vision Investors. We where able to talk to him about how the Los Angeles Tech Scene has come and gone, and then coming back again. Along the same lines we dug deeper into why LA hasn’t seen as many hot startups come from here, as well as the valuation disparity we have from the Bay.
Comments Off on Cincinnati’s The Brandery Announces 2012 Startup Class, And It Starts Young0LikeLike 1,870
Earlier we reported on Louisville Kentucky startup Impulcity and the fact that they would be headed up to Cincinnati for this years class at the Brandery. The Brandery is a marketing focused Cincinnati incubator. All of the companies selected to participate in the 2012 session receive $20,000 in seed capital and will participate in a 14 week program that includes free office space, mentoring, working with some of the top marketing and advertising people in the country and access to venture capitalists.
To date the Brandery has graduated 14 startups since 2010. This year’s class is 11 startups deep and the ages of these entrepreneurs range from 17 years old to 45. It’s a mix of Cincinnati based startups, to startups from across the US. However the Brandery received applications from over 40 different countries and received twice as many applications as the previous two years combined.
Enterchange reports that Rujul Zaparde is the youngest in the class at 17. His co-founders in their New Jersey based startup FlazCar are Shri Ganeshram and Kevin Petrovic, both of whom are just 18 themselves. Details were stealthily as to what they would be working on however Laura Baverman of Enterchange reports that these three high school buddies started a non profit that’s built 50 wells in India serving 80,000 residents. One word: Impressive.
At 45, Vinay Murthy is the oldest member of the class. Murthy left a position at Google where he helped develop Adsense, Adwords and also worked on YouTube among other things. His startup, with co-founder Vikram Venkataraghavan is called 360pager, and again there’s word on exactly what they are doing.
Brooklyn, NY: Off Track Planet, Freddie Pikovsky, 29, and Anna Starostinetskaya, 29.
Chicago: Ontract, Julian Miller, 31, and Matt Duch, 26.
Cincinnati: Modulus, Charlie Key, 28, Brandon Cannaday, 28, and Richard Key, 24, (moving back home from Tucson).
Cincinnati: VouchedFor, Michael Bergman, 33, David Volker, 31, Bree Bergman, 31, Stephen Hartz, 34.
Cleveland: Flock’d, Greg Svitak, 37, and Kurt Pettit, 34. According to its website, Flock’d is a mobile application that lets groups check-in at bars and request rewards from the bars’ owners or managers.
Louisville:Impulcity, Hunter Hammonds, 21, and Austin Cameron, 22. They’ve already received some press in Louisville for a plan to use data from a person’s social media presence to recommend events and venues that fit his or her interests.
New York:Socstock, Jay Finch, 26, and Angelo Stracquatanio, 25. Its website describes an online platform that helps small businesses raise capital from their community of supporters, in return for future goods and services at the business.
New Jersey: FlazCar, Rujul Zaparde, 17, Shri Ganeshram, 18, and Kevin Petrovic, 18.
Salt Lake City: CrowdHall, Austin Hackett, 27, Jordan Menzel, 27, and Nick Wientge, 34, of San Diego (and Cincinnati native). A website for the company calls it a free online platform that lets high-profile people respond to public discourse and lets crowds more effectively communicate with those high-profile people.
San Francisco: 360Pager, Vinay Murthy, 45, and Vikram Venkataraghavan, 36.
Seattle:FlyDutch, Andy Zhang, 26, George Lin, 26, and Sean Wen, 27. According to a profile on AngelList, a site that matches startups and investors, FlyDutch helps online daters meet in person faster, safer and more casually.
The Brandery has a team of over 55 mentors with top notch business and startup experience. The list includes Mike Bott, the General Manager of The Brandery; Lucas Watson, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at YouTube; and Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO of Living Social.
Powerhouse VC firms including Union Square Ventures, First Round Capital and Polaris also have mentors participating. This is actually one of the strongest teams of mentors we’ve seen at an incubator “everywhere else”.
The program officially starts July 2 and will end with a Demo Day set for October 3rd when all 11 teams will show off their startups.
Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” here are more stories from “everywhere else”
The next leg of our road trip actually includes Cincinnati (In addition to Chicago, St.Louis & more) please check this link out and watch the video below:
Comments Off on Silicon Beach Fest What To Look Forward To On The 21st0LikeLike 2,504
Over the past weekend both Kyle and I were at startup events, and if you think with all the events so far this month the two of us have been covering is enough you’d be wrong. Later this month I’ll be covering Silicon Beach Fest in Santa Monica California from June 21-23rd. Organizes by Kevin Winston formally of MySpace, and current CEO of Digital LA. Jason Crilly, CEO and Founder of Pagewoo and Efren Toscano. Founder of TechZulu an independent news organization delivering an insightful story of the technology industry by showcasing the very people creating it. Brought together he top Startup Incubators in the Los Angeles area such as Start Engine,io/LA, Idealab, Amplify and others. For this start studded event. When Kevin Winston was questioned about what brought him to creating Silicon Beach Fest, he mentioned to me.
Comments Off on Greenville Startup: EyeBar Relocating To Wilmington After Winning Contest0LikeLike 1,698
A cool video streaming startup from Greenville South Carolina recently won the “Bootstrap ILM” contest in Wilmington North Carolina. The BootStrap ILM contest was sponsored by Wilmington Downtown Inc, Double Eagle and Tayloe Gray.
Double Eagle is a co-working space located in Wilmington North Carolina. They’re the backbone to the prize package that EyeBar has won.
The winning companies in Bootstrap ILM were the proud recipients of:
Office Space: The Double Eagle at 404 North Third Street comes complete with parking, free secured bandwidth internet, a conference room and kitchenette/break room. BootStrap winners get 90 days of free rent and The Double Eagle will offer flexible terms to those who desire to stay long term, or even month-to-month. Visit the website for the Double Eagle.
Support from the Community: A weekly brown bag lunch series will feature roundtable discussions of various entrepreneurial and industry supporters (lawyers, accountants, other high growth entrepreneurs, real estate professionals, etc).
Design Services: TayloeGray will provide business cards, a basic web site and design assistance when and where needed.
Publicity: Wilmington Downtown Inc. (WDI) will provide the marketing push to get your company initial notoriety upon launch. Additionally, WDI will network your company with others in the downtown community so that when you need something, it’s only a call away.
Spencer Barrick the founder and CEO of EyeBar is very excited about venturing over to Wilmington. His technology allows users to see what’s going on at bars, clubs, festivals and events. Barrick is already looking for places where he can implement the EyeBar technology. He said in a press release:
“BootStrap helps WDI complete several of our goals and we look forward to running this program again next year. We generated some great interest and I’m impressed with the high quality applicants that [were] submitted this year,” said WDI president and CEO John Hinnant, in a press release.
Greenville just started their “Next Big Thing” incubator program today in Greenville.
Comments Off on Exclusive Interview With Travis Chen Winner Of Hollywood Hack A Day0LikeLike 1,719
This weekend, we covered Hollywood Hack Day and now we have an exclusive interview with Travis Chen, created or Typing Karaoke. While not picking up a single Sponsors award, Travis won over both the crowd and judges. Who would think that something that could be education could be so fun. Watch the video below for not only the interview, but also how the crowd reacts when someone tries it during his pitch. They go Crazy…
Comments Off on Bowie Business Innovation Center Opens For Maryland Startups0LikeLike 1,463
Bowie State University has teamed up with the city of Bowie (a Washington DC suburb in Prince George’s County Maryland) to launch the Bowie Business Innovation Center. The center resides on the campus of the University and provides early stage companies with access to low cost office space, mentoring and other essentials needed for launching a startup company.
The Bowie Business Innovation Center received $50,000 in funding from the city of Bowie. They are slated to receive another $50.000 for fiscal 2013 that starts in July. Bowie’s city council is supporting the program because it’s advancing small business in Bowie and hopefully the startup companies in the program will bring more jobs to the area.
There are currently two resident companies and two affiliate companies. According to gazette.net the center, which is housed on the second floor of Bowie State University’s business building, has space for 9 early stage companies.
According to gazette.net:
Clark Training Solutions LLC is owned by a service disabled veteran from Bowie specializing in management and IT training, Smith said, and the second is Magadia Consulting LLC, a home-based, risk-management company owned by a Bowie State University alumna specializing in information assurance. BSS Now, an e-commerce website for military families started by a recent BSU grad, and X-Prop Sports, a minority-owned builder of sports training aids, are the two affiliate companies.
Linkage:
For more information of the Bowie Business Innovation Center visit this site
Comments Off on Portland Startups: Portland Seed Fund Graduates 9 In Second Class0LikeLike 2,167
The Portland Seed Fund has graduated nine startup companies out of their second 90 day incubator program. Portland Seed Fund held a demo day this past Wednesday to unveil the efforts of all nine startups to an audience of west coast angel and venture capital investors.
All nine startups, call Portland home, and are at varying stages in development. Most of them are either web or mobile based startups. Each startup received a seed investment of $25,000 along with mentoring, services, and help with development.
“These companies have made major progress in 90 days, not just on their products but on their approach to revenue and customers as well,” said Angela Jackson, co-managing director and co-founder of Portland Seed Fund with Jim Huston. “Many of these companies have already raised additional seed capital during the 90-day period, getting a big head start on life after Portland Seed Fund,” said Huston.
Take a look at the nine companies:
Beeminder tracks your goals and makes you stick to them. It plots your progress along a Yellow Brick Road and if you go off track, they take your money. Founded by computer scientists with backgrounds in data analysis and incentive systems, Beeminder has thousands of devoted users. @bmndr
Cloudability is the simple way to track and control cloud costs across all of your IaaS, PaaS and SaaS. Just a year old and based in Portland, OR Cloudability already has 3,000 users in 80 countries managing $75M – and growing daily – of cloud spending. @cloudability
Gliph allows you to connect with others safely online without having to share personal and private information. @gli_ph
Globesherpa – Secure, convenient mobile ticketing for transit commuters and more. Secure, convenient mobile ticketing for transit commuters and more. @globesherpa
Good Works Now produces cloud-based solutions to modernize the infrastructure for non-profits to increase revenue, donor base, board accountability, and online reputation management. @goodworksnow
Indow Windows – the only non-tech or mobile company this term, Indow Windows makes thermal window inserts that press into place on the inside of window frames, offering double pane window performance without the hassle and price tag. It has developed a custom IT system for managing all aspects of the value chain: estimation, window measurement, and manufacturing. @indowwindows
SERPs.com is a search engine optimization monitoring dashboard. It deeply enhances Google Analytics with link, social & keyword data for daily insights to improve traffic. Early customers include simple.com and customink.com. @scottkrager
ShowKicker enables fans to crowd-source events on the web, capturing more money for artists and venues and gets fans into the right shows. It delivers pre-sold audiences for promoters and reduces their risk. ShowKicker makes the shows venues want to book and that people want to see. @ShowKicker
Superb.ly (formerly Tell it in 10) is an SaaS platform for investors, lawyers and entrepreneurs to collaborate on deal documents and due diligence. @superb_ly
Comments Off on Day 2 Has Started At Hollywood Hack Day At io/LA0LikeLike 1,673
We are here at Hollywood Hack Day, on a gloomy Sunday in Hollywood California covering what has turned into 70+ programmers from all over So Cal into one place. The idea behind Hollywood Hack Day was to bring Media and Tech together into one. With sponsors like Rovi, ToxBox, Mashery, Rdio, Spotify just to name a few, the programmers here have been coding all throughout the night.
We’ll be covering all the goings on today as well as later tonight and tomorrow have full videos on all the pitches and the winners as the night goes on.
Comments Off on New Incubator: IncubateNYC Comes To Harlem0LikeLike 2,528
We all know that New York City is for the most part, Silicon Valley of the east. Some of the top Startups and technology innovators are being born in the city that never sleeps. We’ve covered a slew of great New York Startups like Sonar, Edaman,FourSquare and plenty more.
We learned t TechCrunch Disrupt NYC that unlike the Valley which encompasses several areas in the region like San Francisco, Menlo Park, Sunnyvale, Mountain View and countless others, the New York tech scene is united on one front a segregated on the other. Each area within New York, like Manhattan, Brooklyn and now even Harlem has their own thriving tech hubs.
Marcus Mayo and Brian Shields are two Harlem based entrepreneurs who are trying to unite the Harlem startup scene and invigorate its infrastructure by launching a new startup incubator called IncubateNYC.
According to this story from cnbc.com, New York may have a thriving startup scene, but Shields and Mayo are willing to bet that most of the 486 Startups that have received funding are confined to 9 zip codes.
Mayo and Shields officially launched IncubateNYC in December after New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg put out a call for proposals for a Harlem based small business incubator. Shields and Mayo couldn’t wait for Bloomberg to select a winner, they immediately went to work in borrowed office space.
IncubateNYC helped the two founders connect with a technical co-founder to help with their own startup focusing on digital payment processing for retail stores. They also immediately started helping other Startups. To date they’ve helped 10 other Startups with resourcing, networking, mentoring and other things that area Startups need. They’ve also partnered with Columbia University and Google to bring resources to startups.
“What we’re providing is an environment for entrepreneurs to collaborate, share ideas and work together to take those ideas to the next level,” Mayo told cnbc.com
Comments Off on Mass Challenge Announces 125 Startups In Third Session0LikeLike 1,531
MassChallenge kicked off the week by announcing the 125 startups that have been chosen to participate in it’s third edition of their accelerator program/competition. MassChallenge is the largest accelerator competition on the east coast.
This years class of 125 startups includes 90 startups from the Boston area, with the other 35 coming from all over the country.
There are 46 tech startups, 25 social startups, 21 in bioscience and life science, 11 in clean tech and energy and 22 in miscellaneous categories.
Here is the complete list.
Energy & cleantech
Arbsource
Black Island Wind Turbines
Bootstrap Compost
Dynamo Micropower
HydroConfidence, Inc.
Invisergy
NBD Nanotechnologies
RainBank Inc.
Solar Tri-Gen
TireTech
Zagster
General
ARCBAZAR
Bio-Fiend
CrewTide
Cryoocyte
Fetch Storage
FX Aligned
GG’s Originals
HelmetHub Corporation
JGOOD
LiquiGlide
LittleBonsai, LLC
Memory on Hand
Ministry of Supply Inc.
Modalyst
Pegasus Performance
Roammeo
RouteSprout
Strong Arm Technologies, Inc.
Sweet Corn Tortilla Chips Inc
TableZest
Te Tama
Zoora
High tech
42stats
A.I.type Ltd.
Akselos
Appsembler
Atomic Tower, Inc.
Bottol
Bounce Imaging
Calcbench
Capital Market Exchange (CMX)
Citybot, Inc
CoachUp
Delightfully
Distinc.tt
docTrackr
Dpicd
Drones For Peace
FansFave
Fantasy Politics
HandyBook
iAgree
IntegralReach
Kahnoodle Inc
Kanopy
Kernel Corp. LLC
Klypper Inc.
Lifeables
Magru
MegaMIMO
Mindcrimp
MOVL
Nordic Technology Group (NTG)
Nsyrt Corporation
pymetrics
Recruiterbox
Schmooze Butler
Securigin Inc.
SocialMadeSimple
Stable Solutions
STUI
Texifter, LLC
Tomorrowish
ToolSense
TripReactor (formerly WaySavvy)
Veenome
Vsnap
Wanderu
Life sciences & health care
Akrivis Technologies
Automated Medical Instruments, Inc.
CardioWave
Cellanyx Diagnostics
eTransitions
Guided Surgery Solutions
Imagnus Biomedical
Ionu Biosystems
iSpecimen
Lab Automate Technologies Inc
Nanoly Biotech
Neumitra
Noor Pharmaceuticals
OnDeckBiotech
PhotOral, Inc.
Quantamerix
Sextant Therapeutics Inc
Ubiqi Health
Vaxess Technologies
WindGap Medical Inc.
Yosko
Social impact
ArtPulse
Chartus.org
Design Museum Boston
EcoValuePoints
Freight Farms
Global Research Innovation & Technology
Gradeable
IoVista
Lovin’ Spoonfuls Inc
LuminAID Lab
Market Publique
Native Brain
NBA Math Hoops
Persistence Plus
Prepmatic
Prime Student Loan Guarantor Corp.
Project Dots
RallyPoint Networks, Inc.
Recovers.org
RetiCue
SilviaTerra
Soundfest, Inc.
Spill
TinkerStories
Zimba
MassChallenge has been the catalyst for growth for lots of great startups. We recently interviewed Brass Monkey, a MassChallenge startup at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012 last week. Good luck to all 125 startups from “everywhere else”.
Kyle
The first food industry startup incubator the “Startup Kitchen” is the brainchild of Washington DC restauranteur Kera Carpenter. She opened Domku an East European influenced restaurant in the revitalizing neighborhood of Pentworth in the district in 2005. It was overcoming the difficulties of not only starting here own business, but a restaurant at that, that inspired Carpenter to team up with Think Local First DC to create the “Startup Kitchen”.
Nick Tippmann
