Interviews Archives - Page 4 of 57

Nashville-based Hack_App Makes it Easy to Find and Apply to Boot Camps

coding schools

With the massive shift in the economy in the last few years, many adults have found themselves without the skills they need to be successful. Even those with steady jobs feel the itch to learn something new or stay relevant.

Because of that, there have been an explosion of so-called “boot camps.” Dev Bootcamp, General Assembly, and Hack Reactor are just a few examples.

But, the process of finding and applying to all those schools can be a pain. So, John Reagan created hack_app to streamline the process.

Check out our Q&A with John below, and if you’re looking for a career change, click through to see if hack_app can help you do it.

What is your startup called?

We’re called hack_app. We provide a common application and admissions software for career accelerators, schools that provide 2-6 month intensive skill development courses like Dev Bootcamp, General Assembly, and Hack Reactor.

What’s the story behind your idea?

Last summer our CEO, John Reagan, was looking to change up and accelerate his career when he first heard about career accelerators. The prospect of totally changing his career and life in under three months was very intriguing. So he started researching and applying to web development career accelerators and was extremely excited to learn a whole new skill set that would better prepare him for the startup world.

During the search and application process John Reagan was frustrated by the lack of accessible, accurate information about the different career accelerators and also by the amount of time it took him to complete several different applications that asked very similar, but slightly different questions. So John Reagan had the vision of a common application service that would allow applicants like himself to easily apply to multiple schools and a directory and information hub that would give potential students accurate, updated information to help them make informed decisions about where to go to school.

He started calling schools and getting input on the concept and a lot of positive feedback so he decided to pursue the idea and his co-founder, Stephen came onboard as well. John Reagan went to school at MakerSquare in Austin and got a crash course in web development. During that time we were learning about the industry and we were working on hack_app both inside and outside of the course.

After MakerSquare, John Reagan started working on hack_app full-time, and then Stephen left his job to move to Nashville and work on hack_app full-time in December.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

John Reagan Moore – CEO

John Reagan has a background in economics and project management. He has been interested in entrepreneurship since college and had worked on a couple ideas and small business before hack_app. He was working as a project manager at a non-profit before taking the leap into a career accelerator and starting hack_app.

Stephen Watkins – CTO

Stephen has been writing code since before he could spell development. He studied CS in college and spent a few years as a developer with a national defense contractor before heading to a web development job at the Florida non-profit where he and John Reagan met.

Where are you based?

Music City, USA. (Nashville, TN)

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

We just recently moved to Nashville, so our experience is pretty limited, but we have been really welcomed by the community here. We work out of the Nashville Entrepreneur Center and there is a fantastic community of active founders and mentors there, willing to listen and help. There is definitely a strong healthcare influence on the startup scene here, but I think it is also a great and rapidly improving place for tech and consumer startups as well.

What problem do you solve?

Admissions Time Sink

Both career accelerators and their students spend a lot of time on admissions. Students have to write a lot of applications, and school administrators have to read a lot more. The admissions process is a massive time sink for schools. We are saving both the students a lot of time by enabling the students to apply to a lot of schools while still only filling out one application. We are saving the schools a lot of time as well by streamlining their admissions flow, and soon we will be offering ways to prescreen applicants.

School Marketing Friction

Schools also face the problem of friction between the moment a student is first interested in them on a directory site and capturing their information and starting the marketing and admissions process.

We offer a platform for schools to market themselves on a level playing field and for students to identify the differentiators that matter to them. We make the admissions process smoother with our common application, and our upcoming admissions management system will make the entire admissions process significantly easier for both schools and students.

Why now?

Higher education is broken, and too big and slow to adjust to the needs of the students and our national economy. Career accelerators are exploding across the planet with industry growth well over 1000% in 2013. These new schools need a place to get their message out, and software to help their schools and the industry continue to grow efficiently.

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

In December we raised a seed round to help us get this thing off the ground.
We just added our 15th member school. This is exciting for us because every new school we add increase our value both to students and schools.
In February we had our first students go all the way through the system.

What are your next milestones?

Completing a comprehensive admissions system. This is pretty big project and will add enormous value for our member schools. The new system will keep the entire admission cycle, from initial contact to tuition payment on our site. It will give schools a much clearer picture of their situation and allow for excellent admissions analytics.
Accelerator. As first time founders we think we could really benefit from the mentorship and connections from a good startup accelerator program. We are on the lookout for one that would be a good fit for us, and applying to a few programs.

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

http://hackapp.co. That’s our main site, people can also read our blog at http://blog.hackapp.co and follow us on Twitter: @hack_app.

TrustedHousesitters.com Eliminates Your Need for Pet Kennels

Whenever you go on vacation, it’s always the same question:

“Who will take care of the pets?”

Kennels are expensive and often unpleasant. Friends and family might be willing, but they could also have schedule conflicts of their own, or you could live far away from family.

Thanks to a jaunt to Spain, trustedhousesitters.com founder Andy Peck hit on the perfect solution.

Read our Q&A with Andy below to learn more:

What is your startup called?

TrustedHousesitters.com

What’s the story behind your idea?

The idea for TrustedHousesitters.com came about in late 2010. I was working as a writer at the time and stumbled across a home with several dogs that needed looking after in the north of Spain. The owner was offering someone the chance to stay there for free in return for keeping an eye on the house and looking after the dogs in her absence. I got in touch with the owner and several weeks later I was in house sitting in Spain.

Naturally it didn’t take long for me to realise that there must be plenty of other pet owners who would rather forgo the kennels in exchange for a live-in pet sitter and, plenty of people like me who would be happy to house sit in exchange for a great place to stay.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

TrustedHousesitters.com is founded and run by myself, Andy Peck & Rachel Martin. I come from a marketing background and have been lucky to have worked with a few very large and successful international brands like Red Bull and Diageo. Rachel comes from a background in PR and prior to TrustedHousesitters.com, ran her own travel PR company.

Where are you based?

TrustedHousesitters.com is run from Brighton, a small city roughly an hour outside of London, England.

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

Brighton is often described as “punching above its weight” in terms of the number of startups it produces. It’s a city brimming with creativity and an excellent place to be a startup: there are services to cater for every startup’s need and for everything else, London is only an hour away.

What problem do you solve?

At TrustedHousesitters.com we solve the very common problem most pet owners face of “what to do with your pet when you go on vacation”.

We do this by connecting pet owners with trustworthy individuals, couples and families; people who will live in the pet owner’s home and look after their animals while they’re away.

Roughly 90% of our members do not charge to do this either. Our members tend to take on out-of-town house sits rather than in their own town or city (like I did in Spain). In return for walking the dog, watering the plants or just generally keeping an eye on things while the owner’s are away the sitter gets a free place to stay. We currently have around six hundred home and pet owners who are looking for sitters.

Why now?

The idea of getting a house sitter is nothing new, but the idea of people house sitting in exchange for a great place to stay is something that’s only really been made possible through the internet and the rise and acceptance of the collaborative consumption movement.

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

At the start of this year we passed 5,000 ‘house sitter’ members (people who are willing to house sit for others) and there are currently roughly 20 new house sitting opportunities a day being posted on the site from home and pet owners around the world.

What are your next milestones?

House sitting in this way is still a relatively new idea and so we’re currently working towards doubling the mentioned numbers, a figure which will hopefully give us the critical mass we need to push the idea into the mainstream.

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

The best place to get a feel for what we do is to take a look at a listing from someone looking for a house or pet sitter, which you can do here: http://www.trustedhousesitters.com/house-and-pet-sitting-assignments/

We post a lot of the best house sits on our Facebook page ( http://www.facebook.com/trustedhousesitters ) and also have a very active blog as well: http://blog.trustedhousesitters.com/

Loveopolis Creates a More Social Way to Find Love

I’m convinced this sentence is either the greatest annoyance or the greatest hope to my single friends (maybe both):

“Oh, I know this guy/girl you just have to meet!”

It’s fun to set people up, and if you’re single, having the endorsement of a friend helps you feel confident about your date. Loveopolis wants to bring those two good things together in one online dating platform.

According to Match.com, 44 million Americans classify themselves as “single.” Of those, 40% of those use online dating services.

Loveopolis will be playing in a big market after they launch, but will they be able to compete against the big companies and against more informal apps like Tinder?

Check out our Q&A with Loveopolis founder Jesse Epstein below:

What is Loveopolis?

Loveopolis makes finding love simple by letting you and your best friends decide who you should connect with.

Loveopolis was created to help people meet and connect online. We found that there wasn’t a way to truly give people an interactive, fun and social experience when it came to finding love…so we decided to build one.

Be sure to checkout our startup video on our Loveopolis.com splash page or view it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps-n_IKt2dk

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

Jesse Epstein, Founder & CEO.

A University of Vermont Grad earning degrees in both Business and Psychology. His passion for making things “more better” blended with his fascination of technology has led to some pretty big ideas, most recently Loveopolis.com. Former PGA Golf Professional and 2x World Long Drive Competitor. Lives in Toronto, CA with his beautiful wife, son and two dogs. Follow him at angel.co/jesseeps

Where are you based?

Burlington, VT and Toronto, Canada

What’s the startup scene/culture like where you’re based?

The startup scene is amazing in Burlington and growing fast! You can read more about it here: http://www.loveopolis.com/blog/company-news/loveopolis-named-launchvt-finalist/

How did you come up with the idea for Loveopolis?

A friend of my wife was always asking her for feedback on her online matches to decide if she should actually meet up with the guy in person. This was facilitated by my wife being emailed her friend’s username, password, dating site she was using, the guys name and how many pages in he was…and then a phone call to chat. I thought to myself, that shouldn’t have to be done like that!

How did you come up with the name?

Polis is Greek for city and our site all about a community for people to find love…throw them together and you get Loveopolis.

What problem does Loveopolis solve?

At our core, we allow you to get feedback from your closest friends on matches before you actually meet them. Layered with some awesome and engaging social features and robust privacy, we think we’ve got something pretty good going!

What’s your secret sauce?

Friends, not ph.D’s.

What’s one dilemma you’ve encountered in the startup process?

Getting a great product to market is challenging when your entire team has day jobs, families, and mortgages and is completely remote…it’s a lot of cranking through all hours of the night. It’s also one of the funnest pieces to it…we’ve got an incredibly tight-knit crew!

What’s one challenge you’ve overcome in the startup process?

Having to build a team capable of building a business, not just a product…then having to do it all over again when the first team fell apart. I look back now and I could have never imagined having such amazing people on the Loveopolis team as we do now!

What’s next for Loveopolis?

We’ve got a working alpha and are almost to beta, just wrapping up our designs and working through the kinks!

Where can people find out more?

You can check us out at Loveopolis.com, follow us on AngelList @ angel.co/Loveopolis and read more about what we’re up to on our blog at blog.loveopolis.com.

Hack Your Way Through Dyslexia With DCODIA

Dyslexia is a common disability that is getting more attention in recent years. 1 in 5 people have dyslexia, which makes it hard to succeed in classrooms that demand every child be able to read at a certain level and at the same pace as their peers.

Yet, in our technology-centered world, there are no unobtrusive aids to help students with dyslexia. Most of the available products are clunky, drawing attention to the fact that the child using it has “a disability.”

When Kris Parmelee’s middle son was diagnosed with dyslexia, she soon learned the struggles they would face in the classroom. He was often pulled out of class for “special help,” or had to lug around equipment meant for adults with visual impairments.

Not cool, Mom!

Kris’s search for an unobtrusive solution that would allow her son to stay in the classroom with his friends came up empty. Such a solution just didn’t exist.

So, she made one.

Along with partner Mark LaFay, Kris conceived of an app that would read aloud that ONE word a child was struggling with so he could move on. Originally conceived for Google Glass, the app has now also been developed for iOS and Android smartphones. After all, every kid has a phone these days.

The app works like this: a child is reading something, say the instructions on a big test, and comes across a word they aren’t able to figure out. With DCODIA the child can take a picture of the word, sentence, or paragraph and crop it down to the words that are giving him or her trouble. They click “send,” and a few seconds later the word is read through their earbuds.

The paid version of the software also includes word storage, which could be a valuable data point for both individual families and dyslexia researchers.

DCODIA is an elegant solution to a widespread problem. Like I said above, 1 in 5 people have dyslexia. That means many of you have probably struggled with the condition and the stigma that comes with “not being able to read.”

There could be some challenge in adoption because many schools still do not allow kids to use their phones in school, even if the kids are technically allowed to have them. While many high schoolers are happy to flaunt these rules, younger kids have less freedom. Being the one kid allowed to use his phone could be as obtrusive in some situations as current dyslexia aids.

The solution to that problem is–hopefully–only a matter of time, though. It won’t be long before schools begin to utilize the super computers in their students’ pockets.

With adoption obstacles aside, DCODIA is one of those wonderful, change-the-world and help people kind of projects that I’m particularly partial to.

DCODIA is currently in development, and they are crowdfunding on Kickstarter to raise the last bit of money they need.

Student Startup StylePuzzle Uses Tech to Simplify Fashion

What’s the first thing you do when you open your eyes in the morning?

Most of you probably thought, “Grab my phone.” First thing in the mornings, our smartphones can tell us how many emails we missed overnight, what our friends on Twitter are up to, and the day’s weather.

If the folks at StylePuzzle have their way, it’ll soon help you figure out what to wear, too. The app, built by students from the University of Illinois, uses machine learning to take the clothes from your closet, occasions on your calendar, and the weather and finds you just the perfect outfit for the day.

Check out our Q&A with StylePuzzle below:

1) What’s your startup called?

StylePuzzle

2) What’s your big idea?

We are building a mobile app that can instantly picks out daily outfits for users, tailored to their preferences, occasions, local weather, and latest fashion trend. We use machine learning and data mining techniques to teach the app how to style fashion pieces, based on users’ own clothes.

3) What’s the story behind your idea?

Our initial idea about StylePuzzle was quite different from what we are doing now. We started off building a Q&A community of fashion for people to ask questions and get fashion advice or tips on what to wear to certain occasions and where to buy specific items. During our idea validation phase, we realized that most users indeed have the problem about what to wear, but waiting for an answer online for hours is somehow frustrating. While the Q&A idea was interesting, there was a bigger problem to tackle. Instant, relevant, and real fashionable outfit recommendations. So we wanted to solve the problem. We certainly feel there is a need for an app, and the community on Twitter seem to agree.

4) Who are the founders?

The app was primarily designed and built by 3 graduate students at University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. We are a student startup team with no experienced industry professionals, but fresh minds with superior level of expertise and a vision for future. Our team and idea have made finalists of many startup competitions, including the Student Startup Madness during SXSW.

5) Where are you located?

We are currently located in Illinois area, as we go to school here.

6) What’s the startup scene like there?

University of Illinois is a school with very rich history and culture of innovation. We’ve got a research park just outside of our campus, with many innovative tech companies as well as many student startups located there. There are many startup competitions hosted every year and many events happening as well. We were just selected as one of the 8 finalists of Student Startup Madness, and now we are busy preparing for it!

7) What milestones have you reached?

We just have the beta app ready and now we are having a private beta test. We have been receiving many positive feedback and valuable suggestions. Most of the private beta users are friends and people around us, and they have found the app very useful and addictive. Some of the quotes are:” I found myself looking at my phone first thing in the morning to decide what to wear, which is interesting.” and “Two common problems of ‘I have nothing to wear’ & ‘There’s no space in my closet’ solved with one app! Tech simplifies fashion!”

8) What are your next milestones?

Our next milestone is to publicly launch our app and get more users to try it out. At the moment StylePuzzle is still in private beta, and we are accepting signups. We just needed to ship a beta version to get some feedback and validation and to see what other features people would request.

9) Where can people find out more?

We are at http://stylepuzzle.com, on Twitter @StylePuzzle, and can be reached at info@stylepuzzle.com.

Nashville’s Centresource is the Agency that Does It All

As startup culture grows, development shops are popping up all over the country. Each one typically provides web and/or mobile development for early stage startups, either for cash or equity.

Nashville-based Centresource, though, isn’t your typical dev shop. They do help with development, but they also pitch in at every stage of the process and take on every role there is: marketing, design, product development, and more.

Founded by Populr’s Nicholas Holland in 2004, Centresource initially worked with full grown companies, but branched out to include startups in 2012. Check out our Q&A is Centresource’s Chad Hazlehurst below.

What is Centresource?

Centresource is one of the leading web and mobile product development shops in the Southeast. We have been in the interactive space for 10 years building best-in-class user experiences, developing break-out products, and creating go-to-market strategies to drive adoption.

What do you do for startups?

In 2012, Centresource made the decision to form a separate business unit specifically dedicated to startups. We custom-tailor our solutions based on the challenge, but there are a few key ways we work with startup companies:

1. PRODUCT PLANNING/USER EXPERIENCE

One of the biggest challenges for early stage startups is proving demand for their product. Many of our early-stage clients struggle to show the value of their idea to investors or potential customers. They go to meetings with sketches on napkins and unproven concepts. Investors and customers are asking for something more than an idea – they want to see and touch the product.

Even more importantly, one of the biggest mistakes early stage startups can make is building features users don’t need. Startups need a tool to validate their assumptions.

To address both issues, we have developed a simple, effective process for creating high-fidelity clickable prototypes. We walk the startup through product planning, taking them through all the decision-making that would go into the MVP, then we deliver a prototype that can be demonstrated to users and investors.

Our clients are using the prototypes to pre-sell, for user testing, and to secure investment. Starting with a prototype allows us to take user and investor feedback, easily and quickly pivot if necessary, and then build out the application once more is known about demand. Getting a product in front of users and getting feedback before making large investments can help mitigate risk and avoid costly mistakes.

2. TECH TALENT

Tech talent is hard to find and hard to manage. Some startups have a team of coders, but they need help making business-critical technology decisions. Other clients have an advisor or CTO, but need a team to implement. We can help in both cases.

Some of our most successful projects have involved taking a product from conception to to the point where the startup is revenue-positive and ready to hire their own team (we are now helping them hire). In 2 or 3 years of working with Centresource, the startup has invested a fraction of one developer’s salary. And we’ve played all positions on the team: product strategy, design, front-end, and back-end development.

When a startup’s sole developer is poached or moves on (which happens), the company is put in a serious bind. We have been able to help by providing developers to hit timelines and milestones. This can be critical when speed to market is a factor, or when investor expectations are in play.

3. MARKETING

Some of our clients have a product ready to ship, but they need help driving adoption. In this case, we engage our incredible Go to Market team. Introducing a new product is a completely different challenge than marketing an existing brand. We are employing innovative, smart strategies to help startups identify early adopters and connect with them. The team essentially becomes a snap-on marketing department.

How is your approach different from other agencies?

We’ve positioned ourselves to be able to help at any stage of the startup’s process. Through a custom strategic approach we are going to build what is needed to achieve the next goal. Sometimes clients and agencies get caught up in the big picture, and miss the steps along the way. Clients hire us because we are fast, reliable, and have deep expertise in product development. They trust us because we understand the challenges unique to startups. For us, success is when our clients succeed.

What’s your favorite thing about working with startups?

The passion and determination to change the world and succeed in a brutal, ever changing market.

Where do you see the Nashville tech scene going in the next couple of years?

Nashville is blowing up. This city has momentum and we do not see it stopping any time soon. We feel the Nashville tech scene is on the verge of a huge breakout success. One thing that makes Nashville different is our great sense of community. Everyone here is ready to help and give an attentive ear. We love being a part of this community and helping in any way we can.

How can startups that are interested get in touch with you?

Head to our website at centresource.com and interactiveforstartups.com or contact Ann Howard at ann@centresource.com and Chad Hazlehurst at chad@centresource.com.

Indianapolis-based Bloomerang Helps Nonprofits Keep Their Donors

bloomerang

Nonprofits and philanthropy are a topic of conversation lately. This week it was announced that Mark Zuckerberg is America’s Top Philanthropist in 2013, with $970 million in donations last year.

Unfortunately for most nonprofits, though, it can be hard to recruit donors, and even harder to keep them.

That’s where Indiana startup Bloomerang comes in. They help nonprofits retain donors, which saves money that can be used to actually fulfill the mission.

Check out our Q&A with Bloomerang below:

What is your startup called?

Bloomerang

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Our Co-Founder & CEO is Jay Love, a 30-year veteran in the technology sector and a legend in the nonprofit sector. He created eTapestry in the 1990s, the first ever cloud-based donor management product, which was acquired by Blackbaud in 2007.

The three remaining co-founders were lead product managers and engineers at eTapestry, so they brought a unique perspective on user experience and functionality to Bloomerang.

What’s the story behind your idea?

Jay Love was attending sitting in the audience at a nonprofit conference keynote luncheon. The speaker was Dr. Adrian Sargeant, the Robert F. Hartsook Professor of Fundraising at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University and one of the foremost exerts on donor loyalty in the world.

Following the presentation, Jay asked Adrian out for lunch. During their discussion, he asked Adrian whether he thought all of his research on donor retention was making a difference in the nonprofit world. Adrian paused before finally answering “No, I don’t believe it is.” That’s when Jay knew that his next nonprofit technology venture needed to have a focus on retention and loyalty.

Where are you based?

Indianapolis, Indiana

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

Indianapolis has always been supportive of startups. Monthly Verge meetups attract hundreds of startup enthusiasts, who now have homes to call their own at Developer Town. We have The Speak Easy, one of the premiere co-working spots in the state, and TechPoint, an organization dedicated to economic development and advocacy. ExactTarget, Compendium and Aprimo, three of the most recent tech success stories, got their start in Indianapolis, while a recent Startup Weekend Indianapolis winner went on to place 2nd in the Global Startup Battle.

What problem do you solve?

In 2013, the Fundraising Effectiveness Project released the findings from their yearly study on year-to-year fundraising results. They found that nonprofits, on average, only retain 39% of donors. In other words, six out of every ten donors who make a gift in year one do not make a gift in year two. Because the cost of acquiring those donations is typically greater than the donation amount itself, nonprofits with low retention rates find themselves on a gift acquisition treadmill with ever-diminishing returns.

Further exacerbating this problem are the technology options currently available to nonprofits. The three leading donor management applications on the market facilitate and encourage a culture of acquisition, rather than retention.

Because our software is focused on retaining your current donors, rather than acquiring new ones, our customers are able to increase their donor retention percentages and bring in more revenue annually.

Why now?

When you combine a lack of donor retention insights, high subscription costs and feature homogeneity, many nonprofits feel trapped by their current providers and unable to unlock the true potential within their databases. We felt the time was right for a new entry to the marketplace, and so far the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

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

In January, 2014 we signed our 250th customer and hired our 19th employee. Our revenue growth rate in 2013 was over 5,000% of 2012 ($6,700 to $395,232.40).

What are your next milestones?

We expect to have 34 employees and 500 customers by the end of 2014.

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

You can find us at https://bloomerang.co and socially at https://www.facebook.com/bloomerangtech and https://twitter.com/bloomerangtech.

Build a Beautiful Online Store with CoreCommerce

With the growth in ecommerce, everyone is able to sell online. But, non-tech people are often relegated to eBay stores of Etsy shops that offer little in the way of personalization, branding, and control.

Nashville based CoreCommerce is changing that with a platform that allows even the most un-technical person (like me!) to build their own gorgeous online storefront.

Check out our Q&A with CoreCommerce CEO Matt DeLong below, and if you’ve been thinking about opening an online shop, make sure you check out their 15 day free trial offer.

What is the name of your startup?

CoreCommerce

What’s the story behind your idea?

After noting the lack of ecommerce shopping cart options back in 2008, we wanted to make it easy for someone to build an online store and have access to all features without having to opt for the highest pricing plans for basic features.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Matt DeLong has a programming/technical background and Nick McDuffie has a sales/marketing background. (Nick has moved onto other projects while Matt remains CEO)

Where are you based?

Franklin TN (just outside Nashville)

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

Nashville has a very vibrant startup scene, there are plenty of entrepreneurs to connect with and learn from. For entrepreneurs, there is no shortage of training, mentoring or opportunities in Nashville.

What problem do you solve?

Our goal is to simplify building an online store, especially for non-techies. With CoreCommerce, anyone can easily build a beautiful, functional online store cost-effectively.

Why now?

CoreCommerce launched in 2008, when there weren’t a lot of e-commerce shopping cart options in the market. Thanks to the growth of technology and online shopping, it’s never been easier to start a successful online business.

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

We surpassed $1m in recurring revenue in 2011.We surpassed $1b in transactions on the platform in 2013.

What are your next milestones?

We anticipate 2014 as a big year for CoreCommerce! This summer we are planning to launch of a new version of our software. Another big milestone for us will be adding another 5,000 customers by the end of 2015.

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

To learn more about CoreCommerce or start a 15 day free trial, visit corecommerce.com.

WILD Is the Original Mountain-To-Bar Company

wild

WILD Outdoor Apparel could be considered the local craft beer of clothing.

Some people really don’t want to dress like everyone else, but few outdoor clothing companies cater to them. WILD is changing that by producing limited batch performance clothing.

Check out our Q&A with WILD below:

What is your startup called?

WILD Outdoor Apparel

What does your company do?

WILD makes Limited Edition runs of independently minded apparel for independently minded people who don’t follow the crowd. All WILD products are designed driven and performance oriented constructed from very unique high quality fabrics for all of your Mountain to Bar endeavors. WILD brings style and performance together in numbered editions designed and manufactured in Portland Oregon USA. For example, the style/color edition of a given design might be150. Each piece is hand numbered 1/150, 2/150… up to 150/150. After the edition number is reached that style/color will never be produced again assuring your item will be only one of 150 anywhere in the world.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Dan Tiegs… Owner/designer/product developer/sales

I am a veteran of 15 years in the apparel business. I have worked for some large apparel companies like Nike and Columbia Sportswear as well as some smaller niche performance apparel companies. I have operated my own apparel consulting business since 2009 and started WILD after doing floor cleaner to desert topping projects as an independent consultant.

Where are you based?

Portland Oregon

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

Portland is a very DIY town. From high tech to music to food to beer to bikes to apparel Portland has a scene for it all. We take pride in our boot strapping ways looking to keep it local and original.

What problem do you solve?

WILD Products liberate people from the same old world of mass produced apparel. WILD protects an individual’s individuality. WILD takes you from the Mountain to the Bar with aplomb. WILD delivers limited edition, design driven performance apparel made locally for what many brands charge for mass produced goods that are made in Asia.

Why now?

There are people who do not aspire to dress like everyone else and do not aspire to a corporate message. These people are served much better by the fashion market than by the performance market. WILD looks to change that by melding the fashion and the performance worlds. This is possible now because of our development of the local manufacturing base. The small limited edition WILD runs are a direct response to people looking for a more crafted way of doing things. A local brew pub instead of Anheuser -Busch if you will.

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

WILD launched the Men’s Park Place Snap Front Down Shirt and the Women’s Sweet Sister Down Hoodie already.

What are some of your next milestones?

The next milestone is the Crowd Supply sale of the WILD Burnside Alpha jacket which is the debut product of the WILD Made In Oregon line.

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

Please check out the WILD website, Facebook page….

http://www.wildoutdoorapparel.com/

https://www.facebook.com/WildOutdoorApparel

Keepy Brings Families Together–No Matter Where They Are

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Childhood goes so fast, and with families scattered all over the world, it can be easy for loved ones to miss out on those fleeting years.

That’s the idea behind Keepy, an interactive platform that lets families capture childhood moments in one place and lets grandparents and family members respond with voice messages, videos, or little notes.

Check out our Q&A with Keepy below:

Name of Company/Product:

Keepy

What Is Keepy?

Keepy is an intergenerational platform that is redefining the way families share and save memories by allowing them to create a private Memory Playlist filled with photos, artwork, schoolwork and mementos enhanced with audio and video commentary. Simply put, it helps you capture the precious moments of childhood.

How does it work?

Keepy is free for iOS and Android. Parents can snap a photo of their kids’ creations, name it, date it, label it with a tag, record their child telling the story behind it with the KeepyCam, and share it privately with “fans” (e.g. grandparents, aunts, uncles and other loved ones). The fans can then admire it on the web, in an email or on their phone, and leave a video, voice or text reaction. The personalization of a child sharing highlights of a daytrip, or grandma’s “gush,” adds a richer, deeper dimension to the moments saved.

What’s the story behind your idea?

As told by Offir Gutelzon, founder of Keepy:

In 2011, my wife and I moved from Israel to New York with our two young sons. After just four months in NYC, our apartment looked like an art tornado had touched down. I had no idea kids could create so many (amazing) paintings and drawings in such a short period of time. We also had a ton of photos since we had arrived: my sons’ first day of school, visits to museums, face painting at a street fair – and my photos were just as disorganized in my Dropbox as the artwork in my apartment! What bothered me most wasn’t the big mess in my home or in the cloud, it was the fact that we weren’t effectively sharing everything in that mess with our family back in Israel. Even when I did manage to share a photo on Facebook or over email, my kids didn’t get to experience the joy it brought to their grandparents, aunts and uncles. In talking with other parents, I realized everyone had this problem. They were overwhelmed by the volume of projects and photos they were saving, they weren’t sharing them with family, and they felt guilty to throw things away. So I assembled a team of tech-savvy parents and we created Keepy – The New Way for Families to Save & Share memories

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Offir Gutelzon is the founder of Keepy. He’s a serial entrepreneur whose last venture, PicScout, he sold to Getty Images in 2011. His entrepreneurial background started in 2000 in Israel. While studying at the IDC he joined the Zell entrepreneurship program where he met Eyal Gura who Offir teamed up with to co-found PicScout. At the time they sold PicScout to Getty Images, the company had 60 employees with offices in Israel, and the Bay Area.

Where are you based?

Lower Manhattan – NYC

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

The New York tech scene is fascinating in many ways. It’s very diverse – companies are bringing a diversity of approaches to design, UX and UI, and of course the people themselves are diverse. What I enjoy most about being in New York is the ability to verify and refine ideas based on meeting with real customers from all walks of life who live right here – from the suburbs to downtown to Chinatown.

Why now?

We knew parents would appreciate the simplicity of Keepy and based on our rapid growth, there is clearly a huge need for a solution like this right now. We looked to build an intergenerational platform and brand, and now that kids parents and grandparents using the same technology which is hard to believe it just didn’t exist 2 years ago.

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

In Mid-September 2013 Keepy launched in the Apple store. In December 2013, the Android version launched along with an in-app partnership with Zazzle that allows users to have their memorable photos printed on keepsake products like mugs, lunchboxes and t-shirts. In January 2014, Keepy was featured in the Google Play store for two weeks, driving significant downloads and visibility for the app across global markets.

Keepy has seen rapid user growth, attracting more than 150,000 users in three months after launching on iOS.

What are your next milestones?

Beyond user adoption milestones that we will celebrate this year, we are looking forward to have many more families around the world enjoying Keepy, we are looking to expand our team in NYC and we’re looking forward to partnering with more brands through API integrations to give our users a range of options for how they can print and share their memories in tangible ways.

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

Visit www.keepy.me to download Keepy to iOS and Android.

Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0TkNmHJyEI

Facebook: www.facebook.com/keepyme

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Keepyme

Wishpicker Joins the Gift-Giving Market with Machine Learning

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How often do you stress out looking for the perfect gift for someone? It’s the thought that counts, but sometimes we don’t know what to think.

Indian startup Wishpicker is using machine learning to change that. Partnered with several online retailers, the service allows users to get online and search within very specific parameters to find just the right gift.

Check out our Q&A with Wishpicker below:

1) What’s your startup called?

Our startup is called wishpicker.com. The concept behind the name was fairly simple. We wanted the name to directly reflect what we are doing, which is helping people ‘pick’ the right gifts for their loved ones. Hence the name ‘wishpicker’.

2) What’s your big idea?

Wishpicker is an exciting new start-up that helps you figure out WHAT to gift! This is an extremely useful product, that provides great gift ideas to anyone unable to figure out what to gift when a wedding or anniversary is around the corner. You can search for a ‘Personalized-Birthday-gift-for-Girlfriend‘, or ‘Anniversary-gift-for-Husband‘

Gifts are curated from the best online stores, and this helps the user get access to the best that is available across the web – all at one place. Essentially, a one stop shop for the best gift ideas! They can choose from a wide range of gift products, gift vouchers, experiential gifts etc. Users can also filter results based on personality, budget, type of gift, and various other parameters.

We have 20 e-commerce partners as of now, including Flipkart, HappilyUnmarried, Ferns and Petals, etc. We plan increase the number of tie-ups soon.

To ensure that if someone comes to Wishpicker looking for a gift, he/she does not go away disappointed, we incorporated machine learning in our gift recommendation algorithm. Wishpicker’s algorithm reads user insights, and becomes more and more intelligent as the number of people using it increases. As a result, we are able to maintain a conversion rate much higher than that of vanilla e-commerce stores.

3) What’s the story behind your idea?

Wishpicker.com was launched in Jun 2013 by Prateek Rathore, and Apurv Bansal to fix the broken gifting market.

Apurv Bansal, an IIT graudate, was looking to gift his girlfriend on her Birthday. He searched online for ideas, but was overwhelmed with the large number of options that came up. With every website claiming to sell the ‘best gift’ he got mighty confused. Around the same time, Prateek Rathore, Apurv’s batchmate from IIT was pursuing his management studies at IE Business School in Spain. He was looking to send a nice anniversary gift back home to his parents. He turned to the internet, but returned disappointed. He had to call up his sister, and asked her to buy a gift from the mall.

Apurv and Prateek, who always wanted to start a venture of their own, spoke about this. They realized that this was a problem faced by a large number of people on a regular basis. Prateek, a Computer Engineer, knew that he could use technology to help people figure out what to gift. He convinced Apurv to quit his high paying corporate job at Bain & Company in Mumbai, and return to Delhi. Prateek completed his course in Spain and flew back home. In early 2013, they began working on their venture, wishpicker.com, from the terrace of Prateek’s parents’ flat in Delhi. Soon after, they roped in Tejendra Singh, B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT Patna, as a core technology member, and there has been no looking back ever since.

4) Who are the founders?

Wishpicker.com was founded in Jan 2013 by Prateek Rathore and Apurv Bansal to fix the broken gifting market. Prateek is a B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT Delhi. He then worked with Royal Bank of Scotland before he went on to pursue management studies from IE Business School (Madrid, Spain). Apurv is a B.Tech in Civil Engineering from IIT Delhi. Post graduation, he worked with Bain & Company as a management consultant – primarily working in their strategy and operations divisions for leading IT, and Healthcare multinationals. Apurv and Prateek were batch-mates at IIT Delhi, and have now been friends for 7 years. Prateek’s excellence in technology, and Apurv’s experience in strategy and operations were the perfect set of complementary skills. The passion to create an impact using technology is what brought them together to start Wishpicker.com Linkedin profiles:http://in.linkedin.com/in/bansalapurvhttp://www.linkedin.com/in/prateekrathore

5) Where are you located?

We are based out of New Delhi, India.

6) What’s the startup scene like there?

The startup scene in India is currently booming, with the e-commerce space poised for tremendous growth. The current size of the e-tailing market in India is USD 1.6B. This is expected to grow 60X in the next 10 years. Given the tremendous growth potential, a host of new and innovative startups have come up, which are also catching the fancy of investors in the area.

7) What milestones have you reached?

We have been experiencing 100% month on month growth for the last 3 months, and very recently crossed annual GMV run rate of INR 1 crore (USD 180,000). We have tie-ups with 22 e-commerce websites as of now, including Flipkart, HappilyUnmarried, Ferns and Petals, etc.

Started with a seed capital of INR 15 lacs (USD 25,000), which we put in from our personal savings, funding is also on the cards for the us. We are in advanced stage of talks with a few investors. We are waiting for the right time, but it will happen soon.

8) What are your next milestones?

A host of new features shall be rolled out over the next 6 months – we are launching a dedicated mobile site very soon. We are building a social layer on top of our current recommendation algorithm – this will enable us to crowdsource gift recommendations. Apart from these, we shall introduce email gifting and gift registries.

The problem that we are trying to solve – deciding what to gift – is intrinsically global in nature. We have an extremely scalable model, given that we are completely cloud-based. As a result, we plan to expand internationally soon after cracking the Indian market (around Q3)

9) Where can people find out more?

Company website: www.wishpicker.com
Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/wishpickercom
Twitter Profile: www.twitter.com/wishpickergifts

We are always available to answer any queries at hello@wishpicker.com.

Nudge Puts All Your Fitness Tracking Data in One Place

Fitness apps. Sleep apps. Wearables tracking our every move. The market is full (and growing!) of products designed to helps us get and stay healthy.

But when you’re tracking all that data across several apps, it can be hard to see the big picture. What efforts are actually moving you toward your fitness goals? Are you actually getting and staying healthy with all this effort?

That’s where Nudge comes in. They’ve integrated with several top fitness apps to provide one platform and score for all that data, helping you know easily and quickly if your efforts are doing any good.

Check out our Q&A with Nudge below:

1) What’s your startup called?

Nudge

2) What’s your big idea?

Nudge connects your favorite health tracking apps and gadgets in one app, giving you one score for your whole healthy lifestyle—the Nudge Factor.

The Nudge Factor is a 30-day snapshot of how healthy you’re living from 0-110. The algorithm indexes hydration, nutrition, exercise and sleep data to provide a single, simple feedback system for health tracking. While simple tracking can be done manually, Nudge was not created to compete as a health tracker, but rather to unify the health tracking market under a single feedback system while allowing consumers to continue using the apps and gadgets they already use to track individual inputs.

3) What’s the story behind your idea?

Nudge originally launched as a corporate wellness platform (B2B Solution) for small organizations designed to gamify and simplify health tracking within the workplace to reduce costly lifestyle pitfalls.

The B2B experiment helped us identify factors plaguing adoption of similar platforms in the space:

· Adoption and engagement primarily driven by novelty.
· Increasing consumer adoption of consumer health apps and wearables resulted in platform competing for user’s time.

We saw our opportunity to use the Nudge Factor to bring health trackers together in one place by unifying the health tracking market under a single feedback system, without competing as a health tracker. We pivoted, integrated with popular apps like RunKeeper, Moves and MapMyFitness, and re-launched in mid-December.

4) Who are the founders?

· Mac Gambill—Co-founder + CEO—Richmond, Va.
· Phil Beene—Co-founder + President—Washington, D.C.
· Chris Garson—Co-founder + CTO—Arlington, Va.
· Russ Campbell—UI/UX Director—Nashville, Tenn.

Nudge originally was founded in 2011 by Wofford College graduates Phil Beene and Mac Gambill during their stint playing semi-professional soccer in Chattanooga, Tenn. for the Chattanooga Football Club. At the time, Phil was managing caretakers, and client-care services at Maxim Healthcare, while Mac was working as a group and individual sports and fitness trainer, and doing sales for D1 Sports. After the platform’s conception, the two brought on Chris Garson, a backend web developer with mobile app experience and a masters in Biomedical Engineering from The University of Virginia. Chris officially joined when he returned from traveling southeast Asia with his wife and working on projects as an independent software developer.

Subsequently, the team was introduced to Russ Campbell while working with a local design shop in Chattanooga. Russ’ experience leading design initiatives for organizations like Griffin Technologies and Gibson Guitars perfectly complemented the skill-sets of the founding team and made Russ an obvious addition to round out the leadership team. Russ joined Nudge on a full-time basis in Q4 of 2013.

5) Where are you located?

Richmond, Va.

6) What’s the startup scene like there?

Richmond has a rapid growing startup scene with awesome companies beginning to make a splash in their respective fields. Several accelerators and early stage investment groups like 80amps and New Richmond Ventures have launched that have begun to lay the foundation in ensuring success, amongst the latest wave of local startups. Companies like Coffitivity achieving Time Magazine’s Top 50 websites, and PlanG raising significant early investment have served as the catalyst for the tech startup movement in Richmond.

As early-stage capital becomes more accessible keep your eyes peeled for several more innovative groups making headway on the national stage!

7) What milestones have you reached?

In the first month after relaunch we have already surpassed 10,000 sign-ups, and we have begun piloting our revenue model with several partner brands.

8) What are your next milestones?

Some of the upcoming milestones we have on the timeline include launching our revenue model in the second quarter after several months of testing, as well as a user milestone of 50,000.

9) Where can people find out more?

Check us out at www.nudgeyourself.com, or search for “Nudge” in the app stores.

Edison Nation Medical Lets Anyone Test Their Medical Device Idea

EN-Medical_approved_logo[1] Healthcare and medical devices are becoming a big area of growth in the startup world. But, the path to development, testing, and iterating is expensive and difficult. It’s obviously not like software, which requires time but low capital.

Edison Nation Medical is trying to help individuals with great ideas bring their medical device to market. Think Quirky–for healthcare.

Check out our Q&A with Edison Nation Medical below, and head over to their website if you have a great medical device idea.

1. What’s your startup called?

Edison Nation Medical (www.EdisonNationMedical.com)

2. What’s your big idea?

We help people bring their bright healthcare ideas to life! Our mission is to identify and foster innovative healthcare and medical device inventions that improve the quality of care and increase efficiencies across the entire hospital ecosystem. We accomplish this goal by breaking down the barriers that often inhibit individual inventors – the doctor, nurse, patient, caregiver, university tech transfer office, or small company – from getting their ideas commercialized.

3. What’s the story behind your idea?

Edison Nation Medical is a medical device incubator and online community for people interested in changing healthcare. We provide a clear pathway for anyone—physicians, nurses, technicians, entrepreneurs, even patients and caregivers—to submit their product idea for in-depth review and potential commercialization. Our business model is based on trust—trust between a person with a great healthcare invention and a company that gives a thorough and expert read to determine the value of the idea. If an idea has value, we find it, unlock it and get it to market in order to improve care, lower cost and increase access for the patient.

4. Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Louis Foreman, CEO of prolific consumer product developer Edison Nation, and leaders from Carolinas HealthCare System, one of the nation’s leading public healthcare systems, valued innovation in healthcare. They knew that creating a model whereby open innovation could exist outside the traditional R&D labs would foster new ideas to improve care, lower cost and increase access; ideas that likely wouldn’t have come to fruition as quickly, if at all, within the status quo. They launched Edison Nation Medical in July 2012.

Foreman is a prolific inventor, product developer, innovation enthusiast and small business entrepreneur. In 20 years, Louis has created nine successful startups and has been directly responsible for the creation of more than 20 others. Additional companies in the Edison Nation Medical family include Edison Nation, Enventys and Inventors Digest magazine.

Robert (Bobby) Grajewski joined as Edison Nation Medical’s president to lead the company in building innovative healthcare companies, securing licensing agreements with major medical device manufacturers and increasing the online member community of medical inventors. Grajewski has nearly 10 years of private equity and venture capital investing experience. In addition, he co-founded and launched two web-based start-ups, Heritage Handcrafted and eCollectors.

5. Where are you located?

Charlotte, NC

6. What’s the startup scene like there?

As one of the financial and healthcare capitals of the South, Charlotte has a vibrant and growing scene for highly intelligent and motivated entrepreneurs who are taking risks and pursuing truly groundbreaking ideas.

7. What milestones have you reached?

Edison Nation Medical has already developed and licensed numerous products to medical device companies. Likewise, our member community is rapidly growing. (We now have inventors from over 180 countries around the globe.)

8. What are your next milestones?

To look forward to continuing to expand Edison Nation Medical’s footprint in the healthcare ecosystem and further enable passionate inventors to get their innovative healthcare ideas reviewed and commercialized.

9. Where can people find out more?

On our website, which can be found at www.EdisonNationMedical.com. You’ll be able to learn plenty about us, but you’ll have access to even more information once you become an Edison Nation Medical member. We encourage you to sign up for your free membership today! Even if you don’t have a bright idea to submit yet, we invite you to use us for education and inspiration.

How Brandfolder Makes Your Marketing Life Easier

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One of the most frustrating things about writing tech stories and planning national conferences is that we often need simple assets from companies (think logos, headshots, etc), but it can take an eternity to get them. Emails back and forth, which everyone hates, and we’re still usually down to the wire.

Brandfolder is a recent Techstars Boulder graduate that’s going to fix that for me. While it’s actually aimed at marketing and PR professionals, the ultimate goal is to provide a one-stop place for companies to upload these assets and open them to whomever needs them.

The guys at Brandfolder are already looking at some great traction, and anything that cuts down on email is a win in my book.

Check out our Q&A with Brandfolder CEO Brian Parks below. (And yes, I got the logo above from the company’s Brandfolder.)

What is your startup called?

Brandfolder

What’s the story behind your idea?

It’s pretty simple – I spent several years doing investment banking and business development, and I constantly needed other companies’ information in order to represent them to the market (be it in an M&A pitch deck or on an online travel website). I always found myself waiting for pretty low-level stuff that every company had (logos, headshots, product images, copy), and it slowed down my ability to do deals. I would get this content in a multitude of ways (and often had to hound people for it) and then it was on me to dig through it, organize it and pull what I needed. It was very annoying and extremely inefficient.

So, I set out to create a standard for organizing and sharing this type of content, which happens to be branding and marketing assets. It’s really the marketers and designers within companies who control this content, so we’ve built a tool for them firstly. Ultimately, to scratch my own itch, I want to make this content accessible and on-demand for the most part (of course, some stuff must remain private) in a standardized fashion across companies (on one website – Brandfolder.com), so people who need it are empowered to grab it and move on. The two big things to me are accessibility and accuracy and fostering a new paradigm of control for brands around this content. Control is not having your content buried and under lock and key; control is serving up the content people need in a frictionless manner.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

I’ll start off by saying we met at a Startup Weekend event, which I think is pretty awesome. I was dipping my toes further into the startup ecosystem, and Paul was new to Denver just looking to hack and meet folks.

Brian Parks, Co-founder & CEO

Before getting into startups, my background was in finance. I worked as an M&A investment banker for five years before moving into startups. I joined an online travel startup in the “basement stage” as employee #1. After 18 months of running operations and business development, I decided to strike off on my own. I moved to San Francisco for a summer to learn how to code, came back and worked as a developer for a bit and then started Brandfolder. And here, I am today. What else can I tell ya?

Paul Arterburn, Co-founder & Head of Product

Paul built the first website his hometown of Imperial, Nebraska had ever seen (at least that’s how he tells it…). He was the tech dude in town. He went off to college where he studied finance/entrepreneurship along with some computer science. He spent the next 5 years working for a fortune 500 retail company as an analyst, where he basically automated his job, went remote and started doing more development work for clients through his consulting company. Paul’s been involved with Branfolder since pretty much day one and runs our product development.

What problem do you solve?

The general disorganization and inaccessibility of branding and marketing materials across companies. This content is called upon more than anything else within and across organizations (by internal and external parties); yet, it lacks a dedicated home built specifically for it. We’re a time saver for marketers and designers and the people they support (sales, partners, press).

Why now?

2 reasons:

1) Proliferation of cloud storage – We love cloud storage, but we feel this problem is only exacerbated by how damn easy it is to throw stuff into Dropbox/Drive. “oh, I can put everything here, and I never have to delete anything! I’ll call this one logo_highres_used for marketing deck 7_final_v4.jpg”). Dropbox is really built for having my stuff everywhere, which it does a phenomenal job at. It’s not built for having everyone else’s stuff in one place, which is what we’re here for. 80% of our users also use Dropbox, as do we, of course, but they also realize it’s not the right tool for every job.

2) Demand for content – More and more visual marketing content is being created and deployed to more presences, and it’s tough to keep up with and keep everyone on the same page. This content is in high demand, so we’re here to put it on demand (first by one link and eventually by more interesting delivery).

What was it like going through Techstars Boulder? What was most surprising about that experience?

An honor. A whirlwind. A great time. A lot of pitch practicing.

Biggest surprise: Just how generous and engaged the mentors and network at large are. That is the #1 lasting benefit of the program. I’m looking for a VP of Sales right now and have a 30+ year enterprise sales guy (mentor I met briefly over the summer) helping me out. All I had to do was ask. That’s just awesome.

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

Thousands of brands using Brandfolder

What are your next milestones?

Thousands more brands using Brandfolder

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

www.brandfolder.com/brandfolder

There’s also a great discussion on Brandfolder here.