Florida Entrepreneur Turns Love Of Theme Parks Into New Media Startup ThrillGeek

Thrillgeek, Florida startup,startup interview

For a lot of kids who grow up in Florida or move to Florida at a young age, the novelty of theme parks wears out. I have a bunch of friends from Florida in their 20’s and 30’s who can’t stand the thought of Disney parks. The traffic, the congestion of people, and prices that are driven up because of a year-round flocking of tourists make residents run away when it’s vacation time.

That’s not the case for Clint Gamache. Gamache loved thrill rides, roller coasters, and theme parks when his family moved to Florida 20 years ago, and today he still does. In fact he loves theme parks so much he started a new media company called ThrillGeek.

Gamache, who is a data collector for a major rental company by day and an Android fan and developer by night, decided to forego the typical technology blog and launch ThrillGeek.

ThrillGeek combines Gamache’s loves of photography, videos, and story telling with his love of theme parks into a simple, easy-to-understand and navigate website for anyone to find out about the latest rides, park news, and specials. Theme park operators are starting to catch on as well, and they’ve been giving Gamache access to new ride launches and early news.

Just in time for 4th of July vacation planning, we got a chance to catch up with Gamache. Check out our interview below:

EE-FORENTREPRENEURS

What is your startup called?

Our startup is called thrillgeek.com.

What does your company do?
 

We are a website dedicated to covering and sharing the world of theme park news.  We are a simple, straightforward theme park news website.  We report videos, photos and even some sounds from the theme park world, all in a simple to read blog format.

 

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds
 

The founder of Thrillgeek is Clint Gamache.  Clint has been into theme parks ever since his parents have moved me down here to the sunny state of Florida almost 20 years ago.  Ever since his first visit to the theme parks here in Orlando, I have found myself fascinated with everything they have to offer.  From the rides, shows and everything in-between, they are a fascinating place to visit and explore.  I enjoy photography, videography and of course, spending time at our local theme parks here in Orlando, Florida.

Where are you based?
 

Thrillgeek is based in the sunny state of Florida!  Home to some of the best theme parks in the world!

What problem do you solve?

I created Thrillgeek with the mindset that many other theme park blogs are extremely busy and are overwhelming.  You go to some of the other theme park blogs and you are overwhelmed with vacation planning information, reservations and other information that some of the more hardcore theme park nuts like me don’t really want to see.  We just want the breaking theme park news!

Why does it matter?
 

Millions of people visit theme parks every year.  There are a select few people though that enjoy reading theme park news.  That is where Thrillgeek comes in.  Many theme park websites out there offering many things, such as vacation planning, and other stuff that the theme park nuts do not want.  We matter because we want to be a simple theme park news, photo and video website in a simple to read blog format.

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

We started off fairly small as all blogs do, but we are growing every month and have increased our viewers every month.  We started almost 4 months ago and started with about 3,000 hits the first month.  June is coming to a close and we are already passed 6,000 viewers with a little bit of time to go in the month.  We recently have covered major grand openings of some of the biggest area theme parks, including the grand opening of Transformers: The Ride 3D at Universal Orlando and the new Antarctica attraction at SeaWorld Orlando.

What are your next milestones?
 

Thrillgeek has begun building media relationships with the local area theme parks.  Our next event will be at Legoland Florida to cover the grand opening of their new ride.  We are currently funding a indiegogo crowdfunding program to help raise money for new camera equiptment.  Over the past few months we have doubled in viewership, and I hope this growth continues.

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

Thrillgeek has all of the social media platforms.  Our Facebook page can found here, our Twitter here and our Flickr page can be found here.

 

Our Twitter handle is @thrillgeek

Now check out Aspiredu the Florida startup that won $25,000 at everywhereelse.co 

serious

 

 

 

 

image: 15pictures.com

Conferences.io Keeps Improving The Conference Experience

Chicago Tech Week, Conferences.io, StartupWe ran into the guys from Conferences.io at last year’s Chicago TechWeek, and this year they’re even better.

Conferences.io is an app that improves audience participation during a conference. Say it’s time for a panel or fireside chat. Participants can go onto the platform and type in questions they might have for the speakers. Then, they can vote on their favorite questions, with the most popular ones rising to the top to be asked.

Conference staff can also create polls to gauge audience needs during the conference. For example, running late into lunch? A quick poll can let you know whether the audience would like a shorter lunch or a later afternoon.

Check out our interview with conferences.io, and stay tuned for more from Chicago TechWeek.

We’ve got more Chicago TechWeek coverage here.

CTW-ELEVATELONG

We Catch Up With Sam Krichevsky From Cleveland’s LaunchHouse

launchhouse

LaunchHouse is the startup and entrepreneurial Mecca of Cleveland, Ohio. Like many facilities of its kind, LaunchHouse has an incubator, an accelerator, and co-working in their 22,000 square foot space.

We ran into the LaunchHouse team at Chicago TechWeek and got a chance to interview Sam Krichevsky, who’s really excited about the next level for LaunchHouse.

First, they are looking to expand their footprint across Cleveland, across Ohio, and across the region. Their model is working for startups at their earliest stages and continues to work and support ramp-up companies as well. They have touchpoints with every type of entrepreneur in the Cleveland area.

Next, Krichevsky is excited about LaunchHouse’s next batch of startups that will report to the accelerator in August.  This class includes 3 startups from outside the region and a variety of technology spaces.

Another thing that Krichevesky and the LaunchHouse crew are excited about is a “startup neighborhood” concept that they are working on. They are hoping to build a Live/Work/Play space to help attract and cultivate the best startups and entrepreneurs to Cleveland.

Cleveland is bustling with startup and entrepreneurial activity. Jump Start America is based in Cleveland. They also have the BizDom accelerator and a very active startup community.

Check out our video interview with Krichevsky below and for more info visit launchhouse.com

 

This Ohio startup launched a crowdfunding compliance platform.

CTW-ELEVATELONG

Picslinger Combines Photo Sharing And Gaming

Remember those scavenger hunt games you played as a kid? In college, my sorority pledge class played them with Polaroid cameras. (Remember those?!) We’d race around campus, taking ridiculously embarrassing pictures and the team that embarrassed themselves the most usually won.

Now, with the ubiquitous smartphone camera, these games can be even more fun. At Chicago TechWeek, Kyle caught up with Picslinger, an app that combines photo sharing with scavenger hunt games. You can even earn real life flair with your pictures.

Check out Kyle’s interview, and stay tuned for more great startups from Chicago TechWeek.

Cultivate,Collaborate, Innovate With Nigerian Startup Insp-i

Insp-I, Nigerian startup,startup,startup interview

When I was first contacted by Kingsley Otoide about his Nigerian startup Insp-I, I was a little skeptical. We’ve all received 100s of emails, typically credited to Nigeria, saying we could easily make 2, 5, and $20 million dollars by helping someone move some absurd amount of money to a bank in the US. Luckily for me Otoide had a great sense of humor and an even better idea.

That idea is a startup called Insp-I.

Through several overseas phone calls and Skype sessions, I learned that Otoide’s startup is about ideas. It’s not an idea marketplace though. Insp-I is a social network for ideas where someone can cultivate, collaborate, and innovate on an idea they have but may not have the resources to flush out.

Say you had a brilliant idea to try something different that you thought was the treatment for cancer. You’ve done enough research to know you’re on track, but you’re not a doctor nor a scientist. Insp-I wants to be the global place where you can take that idea, find people you think would be useful to help build out that idea, and pitch it to them. The next step after that is to collaborate and get the conversation going.

Otoide and his cofounder Kelechi Iheanacho envision a social networking platform where no idea is a bad idea. Sure we say that all the time, but what often makes a bad idea bad is the inability to follow through. By connecting the thinkers with the doers and vice versa, you create serendipity, and real innovation can get done.

Otoide and Iheanacho see their platform as a place where people with a good idea can share it with someone who can execute or help brainstorm it. Then, that same user can turn around and brainstorm or build someone else’s idea.

We got a chance to interview Otoide about this new idea for a new social network. Check out that interview below.

What is your startup called?

Insp-i

What does your company do?

Insp-i is the world’s first social network purpose-built for democratizing and engineering disruptive innovations.

In 2008, a 16-year-old Danish high school student thought to herself, “What if we made ozone in the lab and used it as a personal protective coating to help prevent skin cancer?”

Obviously, she lacked the domain expertise required to develop the idea. Fortunately, she got the opportunity to discuss her idea with a Nobel scientist. The eventual result of a series of interactions was Buckyozun, a product that gives 99.99% protection against all UV-radiation and has a large market potential in about 14 industries- including, the space industry.

Now, imagine what benefits yet await mankind if we proactively got domain experts in the various fields of human endeavor to rub minds with non-experts (e.g., domain experts from other fields, grassroots innovators in Africa or Asia, shop floor employees, students, etc). Simply put, the possibilities are limitless.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds

 

Kingsley Otoide
He studied medicine at the University of Nigeria before becoming a global marketing associate for Invent Resources, Inc.(IR), a US company founded by four top US scientists/inventors one of which is Dr. Richard Pavelle, the President. Through his effort, IR’s GTL technology was reviewed by some leading corporations (e.g. BP, Sasol, Lurgi, etc) and venture capitalists (e.g. Vinod Khosla).

Kelechi Iheanacho
He is the ‘silent founder’ because he is an officer and engineer with the Nigerian Navy.
Earlier, the founders built an Execution Risk Management (ERM) software for which a Nigerian patent number RP 15584 was granted.

Where are you based?

Lagos, Nigeria.

What problem do you solve?

The CULTURES and DESIGNS of the better-known of the existing social networks are such that they do not proactively catalyze the interaction of people from diverse backgrounds (i.e. disciplines, industries, nationalities, ages, experiences, etc.) Rather, people tend to connect with other people just like themselves. As a consequence, opportunities for serendipity, new knowledge and breakthrough innovations are stifled.
What we offer is a social network with a CULTURE and DESIGN that encourage people of diverse backgrounds to freely interact in solving the world’s many problems. Imagine that, with each post or tweet you write, you could actually target only the person or persons you wanted to engage in conversation with. For example, with one post or tweet you want to rub minds with 2 doctors in Brazil, 3 physicists in China, and 4 veteran plumbers in India in one space as predetermined by you. And you can have as many of such conversation spaces as you wish and at the same time. That is what our social network aims to do- and much more.

Or think of it as some sort of online version of breakout sessions at a conference where all of the world’s 7 billion people are in attendance. And that each attendee has the power to choose the people he or she wants at his/her table at each session while there are no limits to the number of tables or session that each attendee can create.
As is well-known, breakout sessions are conversation spaces for inspiration and collision of ideas as well as opportunities for new knowledge and breakthrough innovations.

Why now?

There is no better time. We are at a critical time when the world is in dire need of new knowledge and breakthrough innovations that can help solve its many problems.

 

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

 

Actually, we have been working on this project for the last 2 years. And we took all that time to validate the project idea with some of the world’s leading domain experts and innovation-focused institutions. Here is what some of them have been saying:
‘That is a wonderful idea. I have long shared that it is often from people outside a discipline that come up with the best innovative ideas!’
Clayton Christensen, Harvard professor and co-author of The Innovator’s DNA.
“It’s an intriguing idea. I think the core insight that networks like Facebook focus on connecting you to people you already know, rather than people with unexpected perspectives and insights is a valid one – indeed, it’s one of the core ideas of the book I’m publishing next year.”
Ethan Zuckerman, Director, Center for Civic Media, MIT.

‘I agree completely. Thanks for sharing!’
Jeff Dyer, BYU professor and co-author of The Innovator’s DNA.

‘I agree that putting together “beginners’ minds” with experienced people can yield great results. We discuss this in much more detail in the book When Sparks Fly, published by Harvard Publishing on the topic of group creativity.’
Dorothy Leonard, Harvard professor and co-author of When Sparks Fly.

‘Yes, I agree that the folks who work on the ground (on the factory floor, in the trenches, etc.) are often a terrific source of ideas and should be included in the conversation. The split between professionals and non-professionals is false and counterproductive. This was also one of the big insights of Japanese “lean” management and quality circles.’
AnnaLee (Anno) Saxenian, professor and Dean at UC Berkeley School of Information.

Also, we have got the following individuals as Advisors:

 

Beth Kolko

She is a professor in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington. She is also a Founder and CEO of Shift Labs, an engineering and manufacturing company.

 

Jason Fraser

He is a co-founder and principal at LUXr Incorporated, the lean user experience residency based in San Francisco, CA.

 

David Verba

He is a former director of technology for Adaptive Path; currently, CTO & Founder Halcyon Engineering.

 

Jenny E. Jung

She is the Global Partnership Director at Blackbox.vc based in Atherton, CA.

 

Dr. Clifford D. Conner

He is the author of A People’s History of Science: Miners, Midwives, and “Low Mechanicks.”

What are your next milestones?

We have built a prototype to demonstrate our raw idea. And we want people from all over the world to try it out and give us useful feedback. At the same time, we are looking to launch our company in the US to take advantage of the unique startup nourishment that can be found there.

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

Please see our prototype www.insp-i.com, If you have a Twitter account, be sure to follow us @inspiglobal

Are “world changing” startups, really changing the world?

EE-FORENTREPRENEURS

Las Vegas Startup imagoo Is Changing The Way Businesses Collect Feedback

imagoo, Las Vegas startup, startup interview

We’ve all seen the movie The Social Network. We all know about Hot or Not. Polling is quite popular in the startup space. Whether you’re comparing two people you would like to date or two of your favorite songs, everyone has an opinion.

Well, a new startup in Las Vegas called Imagoo is looking to take that polling concept and make it extremely relevant to businesses, brands, and products.  While consumers have fun with these polling apps and love voicing their opinion on it, savvy marketers know this as a/b testing. Comparing product A to product B and seeing which one resonates with a user or a consumer is one of the most important tools a business owner, startup, or product manufacturer can use.

imagoo is bringing this same insight to any business. Available as a free iPhone app and on the Web, imagoo lets users upload photos to issue comparisons in the form of real-time polls, which are pushed to the imagoo community for anyone to vote on. It’s crowdsourced feedback in real time. And while users are having fun with the app – using it to ask other users which outfit they should buy while they’re still in the store, for example – businesses are getting on board, too.

Ranging from a casino to a clothing brand, businesses are already using the app to test their ideas in front of a random pool of customers before investing a ton of money and time into that idea. The implications are endless. A flower shop, for example, can now get reactions to two different bouquet arrangements before assembling them by the dozen in the store for customers.

We got a chance to interview the team behind imagoo. Check out the interview below.

 

EE-FORENTREPRENEURS

 

What does your startup do?

imagoo is a real-time social polling app and Web platform that lets consumers, brands, and businesses issue challenges and comparisons and vote on content. Users can get advice on purchasing decisions, debate politics and challenge rival sports fans. Using imagoo’s challenge feature, users can go head-to-head with friends or other users to see whose car is cooler or what ring is prettier.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds

Mickey Hernandez is founder and CEO of imagoo. With a background in economics from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, Hernandez’s analytical skills and passion for problem-solving fueled his desire to launch a startup. Raised in Las Vegas, Hernandez watched the city slowly transform into a tech hub and is excited to be a part of the growing entrepreneurial community.

What problem do you solve?

imagoo takes social polling to a whole new level. Moving beyond standard comparison features, imagoo enables users to go head-to-head against their friends or other users on the network by issuing ‘challenges.’ The result is a real-time poll pushed to the imagoo community in which anyone can vote to determine the winner, whether the debate is about sports teams, politics, food, fashion, or dozens of other categories. Beyond this peer-to-peer social function, brands and businesses can use both the challenge and polling features to gather instant feedback data from their target audiences. With people passionate about what they like and what they own, the challenge aspect of imagoo gives users a platform to engage in friendly competition and ask questions of the greater imagoo community.

Why does it matter?

Countless decisions are made each and every day by individuals and businesses alike, yet there are very few resources that make this decision making process both as simple and as informed as they ought to be. With a platform like imagoo, people are given the opportunity to ask for suggestions, assert their opinions and give companies feedback in a manner that is as fun as it is informative.

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

In just about a month since our launch, imagoo has already accumulated around 17,000 downloads and seen more than 100,000 interactions on the app. We’re pretty excited about those milestones.

What are your next milestones?

We have a lot of exciting updates and new features in the pipeline. In the very near future, we will be incorporating power rankings. Stay tuned!

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

@imagoochallenge or on Facebook

How to avoid hiring the wrong person for your startup

serious

Meet Your Neighbors And Have A Conversation–A Neighborsation

Neighborsations, DC startup, 1776 DC, Woman owned startup, Allison Sheren

Neighborhoods are everywhere; they come in all kinds of shapes, and sizes. It could be a neighborhood in a metropolis like New York City or a neighborhood in Anytown, USA, or around the world. Chances are you live in a neighborhood and can count on one hand the close friends you have in that neighborhood.

Even in the suburbs, neighborly conversations have become rare, never mind neighborly friendships.

Well DC-based entrepreneur Allison Sheren  is hoping to spark conversations between neighbors with her startup Neighborsations.

Through their online community Sheren hopes to take online conversations off line, learn from one another, teach someone something, get to know your neighbors, and build stronger communities.

The website is divided into four categories that any neighbor can relate to; Town Hall (the bulletin board, safety updates, vendor recommendations), Neighbor Favors (need a cup of sugar or to borrow a lawn mower), Neighborhood News, and Block Party.

Currently Neighborsations is only open to neighborhoods in DC, but Sheren sees the value in Neighborsations anywhere and everywhere in the world.

Check out our video interview with Sheren below:

Now read: DC Mayor Vincent Gray celebrates Speek, DC Tech and 1776.

serious

A Programmer’s Guide To Getting Hired By A Startup

Programmers are in high demand by startups across the country and around the world.

In the world of “everywhere else”, next to access to capital, access to talent is one of the biggest factors holding startups back from success. This puts the ball into the programmers court. Good programmers are in high demand and can often choose where they want to go. But how will they know where that is?

Monetate, a large marketing company that leverages big data to create more personalized and engaging online experiences, released this infographic two years ago, that’s even more relevant today than it was then.

For programmers that aren’t sure where to go the infographic below helps identify the questions and the answers programmers have including:

Which type of startup is best for you

Where can you find the best openings

How do you stand out above the crowd.

Check out the infographic below.



Startups, Infographics, Programmers, Monetate

 

Meet the man behind NY dress startup, BlueGala

http://seriousstartups.com/2013/05/14/everywhereelse-co-startup-conference-ee2014/

Founder Spotlight: Steph Beer, Co-Founder NSight2 Day

StephBeerUsing our consumer-facing platform, 4MeNU, nsight2day helps individuals and organizations truly engage with one another. Using innovative tags, users can share information with their network in context. We call these messages Gems. Follow her @stephbeer.

Who is your hero? 

My grandfather, who is Swiss (this makes sense if you know me).

What’s the single best piece of business advice that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why?

Don’t be low-end. This means low margin, but it also means don’t behave badly. The other piece of advice I love is don’t “trade up” when it comes to who you spend your time with. Your friends matter more than ever when you’re starting a business, and just because you meet flashy people doesn’t mean that the originals aren’t worth their weight in gold for you as a person and an entrepreneur.

What’s the biggest mistake you ever made in your business, and what did you learn from it that others can learn from too?

We were a B2B team that tried to build a B2C platform. Stick to your strengths. Also, build a few similar offerings for several different types of client/customer groups and then see how hard it is to sell to each. There are big differences between selling to an individual, a university, and a Fortune 500 company. Each is a unique challenge; you may be better or, um, less well-positioned to sell to them.

sneakertacoWhat do you do during the first hour of your business day and why?

Yoga. Setting your mind straight can make or break your morning.

What’s your best financial or cash-flow related tip for entrepreneurs just getting started?

Always try to pay based on performance and limit all your fixed costs. Try not to sign a lease (that goes for yourself and for your business).

Quick: What’s ONE thing you recommend ALL aspiring or current entrepreneurs do right now to take their biz to the next level?

Stop going to tech meetups (unless you’re recruiting) and start talking to more senior people who have decades of business experience. More pointedly, stop listening to people who have launched successful businesses by “asking my friends from my financial services days to invest.”

There are a lot of people who are professionally/socially well-positioned to win in the startup environment, and their stories aren’t that interesting or helpful to most entrepreneurs. Actually, just avoid the whole “founders cult” to the greatest extent possible (this gets back to staying close with old friends).

What’s your definition of success? How will you know when you’ve finally “succeeded” in your business?

When we have consistent revenue that covers our costs and lets our original investor make his money back (and returns that are greater than or equal to the returns he would have gotten had he put his money into an index fund) — that’s it.

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.

EE-FORENTREPRENEURS

Florida Startup World Housing Solution, Quick, Strong And Green!

World Housing Solution, Orlando Startup, Florida startup,startup interview, startup video, SouthlandI gotta tell you, one of the most interesting startups I’ve seen at a startup conference is World Housing Solution. This Orlando based startup has created a way of making extremely strong, quick to build shelters out of Structural Insulated Composite Panels.  The company’s founder, Ron Ben-Zeev tells us that SICPs, are like a super strong sandwich made out of fiberglass bread and a foam center.  Ben-Zeev and his team have found a way to quickly and effectively use this material for shelter.

The SICPs make World Housing Solution shelters great for emergency needs like the aftermath of a natural disaster. They are also great for deploying in emerging countries. For instance, the scale model of the structure they showed off at Southland is actually being deployed to the horn of Africa as a hospital for women. That project calls for five of WHS’s structures to function as a maternity ward, delivery room, clinic, kitchen and rest rooms. In this case the structures deployed will be permanent but it will take days rater than weeks, months or years to get the hospital off the ground.

In addition to being extremely quick to set up the WHS shelters are hurricane resistant (up to 155mph), earthquake resistant (up to 7.8 richter), they don’t mold, mildew or rot, they’re fire resistant and bullet proof. Ultimately this makes the WHS shelters ideal for fast implementation in civilian, government and military installations.

Although he has no formal “construction” experience, Ben-Zeev is actually a Wharton educated executive with a background involving strategic consulting for Fortune 100 and 500 companies. He also served as Strategic Counsel to the North American CEO and President of Siemens Information Systems.

Check out our interview with Ben-Zeev in the video below. For more information visit worldhousingsolution.com

Here’s more of our coverage from Southland in Nashville Tennessee.

EE-FORENTREPRENEURS 

 

Meet The Man Behind NY Dress Startup BlueGala

Bluegala, NY startup,startup interview, Guest Post, YECJosh Weiss is the Founder and President of Bluegala, an online retailer of prom dresses, evening, party, and cocktail dresses. Previously, he worked for Lehman Brothers as a High Yield Credit Research Analyst. Josh graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.S. in Commerce with a concentration in Finance. Follow him @bluegala.

Who is your hero? 

Steve Jobs.

What’s the single best piece of business advice that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why?

Match and exceed. Always keep a close watch on your competitors and make sure to match and exceed them in everything they do.

What’s the biggest mistake you ever made in your business, and what did you learn from it that others can learn from too?

When we first launched Bluegala, we placed a large order for lower-priced dresses before doing any research to see if we could actually compete in the market selling them. In hindsight, we should have placed a smaller order and tested the waters with a small PPC campaign. The lesson learned is to walk before you run and test everything.

sneakertacoWhat do you do during the first hour of your business day and why?

Check orders from overnight and go through the previous day in Google Analytics. I do this to keep a handle on what’s selling and if there are any issues. Google Analytics helps me to constantly get a sense of where our traffic/sales are coming from and if there are any red flags causing consumers to bounce off the site.

What’s your best financial/cash-flow related tip for entrepreneurs just getting started? 

Bootstrap your business for as long as you can and try to scale it from there. If you eventually need money, you want the business to be as profitable as possible to get the best valuation, and you want to hold onto the most equity you can.

Quick: What’s ONE thing you recommend ALL aspiring or current entrepreneurs do right now to take their biz to the next level?

Dive into your analytics. If you don’t know what to look for, there are tons of books and blogs that can point you in the right direction.

What’s your definition of success? How will you know when you’ve finally “succeeded” in your business?

I define success as being one of the dominant players (if not the most dominant) within a certain industry or niche. Success is accomplishing what others were unable to accomplish and thriving where others have failed.

I will know my business has succeeded when Bluegala is the go-to resource for social occasion gowns. We have had a lot of growth since our founding in 2009, but there is still a long way to go before we establish dominance in the sector. Each year that passes allows us to learn more and more about what it will take to establish dominance and I am confident we will get there eventually.

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.

EE-FORENTREPRENEURS

Chattanooga Startup Skuid, The Easiest Way To Build Salesforce Pages

Skuid, Chattanooga startup, Southland, startups, Salesforce

Salesforce, the cloud-based customer relationship management platform, is feature packed and quite possibly the best way to retain customer data. There are literally thousands of features, and customizations built into the platform. For a lot of companies, the easiest way to get their employees on the platform is to scale it down or build custom Salesforce pages, apps, and UI’s based on the information relevant to that company.

Normally, building interface components can be a long, drawn-out process. Salesforce has attempted to make it easier by providing shortcuts and one click access to certain features, but there’s still quite the learning curve.

Now a Chattanooga startup called Skuid has built a drag and drop platform that allows just about anyone to quickly build customized Salesforce pages. You can take one data field and move it to wherever you need it on the interface.

The company launched four months ago and has already bulked up to a staff of 12 and moved to the Southern Saddlery building, home to some other “ramp up” companies. Nooga.com reported that the company was able to go cash flow positive without taking a venture capital investment.

“We thought when we started out that we would need investment to get launched, and we don’t need it at this point,” Ken McElrath, co-founder and president, said. “We started with in-pocket capital, and we’re already cash flow-positive. We had numbers we were trying to hit in our first quarter, and we blew those out of the water. I think we were too conservative in our growth plans.”

Skuid isn’t the only Salesforce startup to go straight to revenue in Tennessee. Memphis based Cloud For Good, a company that does SalesForce development for non-profits and religious institutions, went straight to revenue.

Check out our video interview with Skuid from The Southland Conference below. For more information visit squidify.com

 

Here’s more Southland coverage at nibletz.com

EE-FORENTREPRENEURS

 

 

Founder Spotlight: Brittany Hodak CoFounder ‘ZinePak

ZinePak, Brittany hodak, Guest Post, YEC, startupsBrittany Hodak, alongside Kim Kaupe, is co-founder of ‘ZinePak, a company that creates custom publications for entertainers, brands, and celebrities. The ‘ZinePak configuration combines a small-format magazine with one or more CDs and exclusive merchandise items together into one engaging, exclusive package. Follow her @zinepak.

Who is your hero? 

My heroes are all the men and women who enlist in the Armed Forces. People tell me all the time that it takes courage to start a business; while that is probably true on some level, it doesn’t even begin to compare to the courage it takes to fight for one’s country.

What’s the single best piece of business advice that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today?

“It’s easier to get forgiveness than permission.” This is something my dad said to me for the first time when I was about 13. I remember thinking how profound it was, and how it could work as a “free pass” for just about anything. More than 15 years later, I still live by this mantra every day.

When you’re an entrepreneur, it often means writing your own rules and getting creative in the ways you go about getting things done. Sometimes this means ignoring a chain of command, moving forward on a project without formal sign-off, or any number of other “violations” of the training of otherwise well-meaning soldiers of Corporate America. When given the choice between trying to get something approved the “right” way (e.g. submitting a formal proposal and spending six weeks pitching the same idea to successively senior team members) or the “wrong” way (e.g. happening to bump into the CEO at Starbucks and pitching her the idea over a latte), we always choose the latter.

There is very little that can’t be smoothed over with a heartfelt “oops” email or a nice Edible Arrangement when someone’s corporate feathers have been ruffled!

What’s the biggest mistake you ever made in your business? What did you learn from it that others can learn from too?

One of the biggest mistakes Kim and I made with ‘ZinePak was not hiring enough staff quickly enough to support the company’s growth. In a startup where there isn’t a huge amount of funding, founders are often faced with “the chicken or the egg” scenario of when to expand the full-time employee count. Is it better to hire help in anticipation of new work materializing, or secure the business first and then worry about the man (or woman!) power?

For our first big experience with growth, we chose the latter. The decision led us to experience several weeks in a row where everyone was working 18-hour days just to keep our heads above the water.

Luckily, we were able to learn from the experience. We made the strategic decision to take about eight weeks off from actively working on projects and hire two more full-time team members. This break gave us plenty of time to find amazing support staff and get them totally up to speed before the next wave of projects began.

sneakertaco

What do you do during the first hour of your business day?

As an entrepreneur, every day is different and often unpredictable. I try to spend the first hour of each day catching up on entertainment trades and news and sending quick notes to anyone whose names come up during that reading. For example, I’ve found that early mornings are a great time to send someone a quick note congratulating them on a recent promotion or campaign that’s been covered in the press. I also try to drink at least 16 ounces of water in the first hour of the day, because if I don’t set the pace early I won’t stay hydrated throughout the day.

What’s your best financial/cash-flow related tip for entrepreneurs just getting started? 

Hire an accountant right away! We tried to manage our own books online when we started ‘ZinePak, and we quickly got in over our heads. There are so many things to worry about when starting a business, from product development to lead generation to sales to marking to contracts, etc. — the list goes on and on. Time is a very precious commodity, and it is wise to spend your time on things can’t be easily outsourced to someone else.

Even if you have an accounting background, take the time to find a great CPA or bookkeeper to help you keep tabs on your business. He or she can offer strategic advice about cash flow, growth, and spending, and, most importantly, free up your time to work on closing deals instead of itemizing credit card statements.

Quick: What’s ONE thing you recommend ALL aspiring or current entrepreneurs do right now to take their biz to the next level?

Email three interesting people from your past who you haven’t seen in at least two years and ask them to get together for lunch or coffee dates. Some of the best business connections can come from the sources you least expect. Plus, reconnecting with old acquaintances is almost always a good time.

What’s your definition of success? How will you know when you’ve finally “succeeded” in your business?

My definition of success is being happy, confident, and secure in my own venture. When Kim and I started ‘ZinePak, our paramount goal was to not have to report in to bosses who treated us poorly. We set a definition of success as, “let’s quit our jobs, start a company, and try not to make significantly less money this year than we would if we kept our jobs.”

Two years later, we’ve passed the $3 million revenue mark and sold almost $15 million of product in the United States and 17 other countries. The feeling of success comes from knowing that we’ve built an awesome company and no longer have to answer to anyone other than ourselves.

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.

 

Bad ass startup chick Denver Hutt reminds us we’re entrepreneurs not super heroes.

EE-FORENTREPRENEURS

NY Startup StoryKid, Born At The TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon, Prepares For Launch

storykid

Two literature PhD candidates from Columbia University decided to attend the TechCrunch Disrupt NY hackathon this year with their startup idea that bridges their love of literature, kids, and technology. Tianjiao Yu and Lu Xiong, have created StoryKid, an app for the iPad that allows children to create stories of their own using images and features created by StoryKid.

If you’re a parent (like me) with a kid who uses an iPad, then you’re well aware that there are thousands children’s books in the iTunes app store. Some of the books are interactive, others are simply read along stories. Yu and Xiong’s app allows kids to make the story up from start to finish.

After the child has created a story, they can save it to the iPad and also share it across multiple channels.

When the app releases next month, it’s going to be fun for all young children, but naturally as a child gets older and starts developing their comprehension skills, the stories will start flowing better. StoryKid will help kids foster those comprehension skills. This feature could be very helpful to early education teachers, a market that Yo and Xiong hope to penetrate.

 

What is StoryKid?

StoryKid is an app on iPad that encourages kids to create their own stories by using images provided by us.

It is known to all that kids love stories, but listening to stories created by adults is one thing, creating something according to their own minds is quite another adventure. Kids are surprisingly good at this. They have totally fresh ways to think, and they don’t abide by many rules. So unlike other interactive apps in the store that let kids play with existing stories, StoryKid provides an exciting stage for the youngest to   create new relationships: organizing characters, locations and all elements seen in stories according to their wish. It allows kids to fully play with their imagination.

Because of it’s both fun and educational, we think this app can be both used in families and in schools. Teachers can use this app to let kids rewrite stories they are just told about. We believe this app can also be used for the sake of special education.

In the meantime, StoryKid will make the time parents spent with their little ones really fun and will make that fun last. When papa & mama sticks in getting a new story for the bed time, StoryKid is a good source. The stories finished by kids can also be saved and exported, so that the intimate moments in the childhood could always be preserved and revisited.

In layman’s terms, how does it work? (In other words how would you explain it to your grandmother)

First, the youngest selects a situation that interests him/her mostly to start with. For example, a situation could be “Jesse finds he can suddenly understand his dog’s barking….” Along with each situation, several images would be provided as the elements to help kids structure the development of the story line. Then they will enter the creation page. There are a number of possibilities of how to arrange the images and how to note down what they want to express. The finished stories can be exported and shared by parents.

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

Tianjiao Yu and Lu Xiong are co-founders of StoryKid. We are school mates from Columbia University; we were both literature Ph.D students. Lu had great experience in humanity book publishing before joining the Ph.D program. Born to inherit and soak in literature, Lu gives the soul to this app. She is the content producer. Tianjiao is a kind of hard to find: thinks profoundly, executes efficiently and handles multitasks at ease. She manages the product, runs business and designs UX. We are very supplementary in a good way.

Where are you based?

We are based in New York. Btw, to show off, we have three roof windows in our apt/office.

How did you come up with the idea for StoryKid?

It was born when we were at Techcrunch Disrupt Hackathon NY 2013. One spirit we both greatly value is being creative. As literature students, it’s natural for us to favor the space provided by fictions/stories that allows people to be as creative as possible. So we thought it would be exciting to build a tool for people to easily and freely tell stories. Immediately we decided to focus on kids, who haven’t had boxes to jump out of yet and who will naturally unfold all kinds of possibilities in stories. iPad is just right for this idea.

Why now?

In short, the timing, the New York City, and the people we meet are just very right for us. We left the graduate program to explore other possibilities to make use of our knowledge. We soon realizes using current technologies, for example, the iPad, can introduce humanities subjects to more people and let people have fun with them, because to interact with the content is actually inviting users to become a part of the content, which automatically increases the intimacy. The tablet market grows like a rocket, and the early childhood education is also booming. That always receiving encouragement and suggestions from parents and teachers is another big incentive for us to start this marching. In addition, New York doesn’t frighten you when you are on the threshold of touching something new.

And what’s your secret sauce?

As with cooking, sometimes the amazingness is the result of lacking of something. In our case, we do not have a technology co-founder. Hence, almost all our product and UX ideas derives directly from daily life experiences, very intuitive, human, and breathing, which cannot be more appropriate for kids. We’d like to say that our product itself is like a kid. We hope StoryKid and other kids will be good friends.

What are some milestones you’ve achieved?

Our first milestone should be the demo presented at Techcrunch Hackathon. The demo day was the birthday of this app. We immediately received lots of great suggestions, pushing the baby app to grow really fast. We also got lucky that Ms. Ingrid Lunden from Techcrunch gave us an interview immediately after the presentation, so we got a bit viral in that week.

The second milestone we achieved was under the help of Mr. Trip O’Dell from Audio Book of Amazon. He gave us fabulous suggestions on how to improve our feature and UX when we met at Big Apple Redux 2013 in Bloomberg. That short conversation was a magic.

Most recently, we were contacted by several schools and online platforms who are interested in forming partnership with us in the long run.

What’s your next milestone?

We will have our BETA version in early July. We will invite kids to test the app and the teachers to review the app.

Where can people find out more and what is your Twitter username?

We so far suggested people to go to Techcrunch website where the interview was posted: http://tcrn.ch/Yfbcej. But we will soon finish the construction of the app intro site: storykid.me Our twitter account: @imstorykid

 

Check out over 50 startup stories from everywhere else at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013

serious

 

 

 

 

Image: TechCrunch