Interviews Archives - Page 5 of 57

GIVTED Changes the Way We Give Gifts

givted

It’s the beginning of February. Have you finally returned all those unwanted/unneeded Christmas gifts?

No matter how bad we feel about it, there are so often times when we receive gifts that we just don’t need. You might find yourself guiltily thinking, “Man, I really could’ve used the money they spent on this expensive coffeemaker instead.”

On the flip side, how often do you buy a gift and wonder if it’s really what the recipient needs or wants? You might search a million stores (online or off) and still not be 100% sure that you’ve picked the perfect gift.

That’s where GIVTED comes in. They are building a way for people to give money, instead of potentially unwanted gifts.

Check out our Q&A with cofounder Stephanie de Bodinat below.

1) What’s your startup called?

GIVTED

2) What’s your big idea?

We found a beautiful way to give money as a gift.

3) What’s the story behind your idea?

We felt people are overwhelmed by small gifts they don’t necessarily want, gift cards included. Resulting in a big waste of gifts in general. With Givted, you give money nicely wrapped in a messages from friends and family. Givted enables you to work together with friends to pool funds into one pot, helping you give a larger amount helping you to get a gift that would have been harder to afford on your own.

4) Where are you located?

NYC and Orlando

5) What’s the startup scene like there?

Truly inspiring- Competitive but so energetic!

6) What milestones have you reached?

We raised 1M in Seed Money in 2013 and managed to launch web product and mobile app same year.

7) What are your next milestones?

Getting more people using it.

8) Where can people find out more?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2QAKpMmdBc&feature=youtu.be

Conversion In A Box Makes a New Way to Trade Content for Contact

conversioninabox

Trading content for contact information is a common practice around the Internet. Most of us think nothing of plopping our email into a box for a free ebook or song download.

Indianapolis-based Conversion In A Box wants to make that process even easier. An account dashboard makes it easy to set up several accounts at once and track metrics on how each account is doing.

It will be interesting to see how Conversion In A Box grows. After all, this process is already handled pretty efficiently by email services like Mailchimp and Aweber.

Check out our Q&A with Conversion In A Box below:

What is your startup called?

Conversion In A Box (www.conversioninabox.com)

What’s the story behind your idea?

I have a 12 year background in Music business. From 1999ish – 2012 I ran a concert promotion company and produced over 450 events, I also had a management company and managed several musicians that I developed and grew into bands that toured around the world. Fast-forward to now, I got out of music as a full-time profession and went back to my roots in technology. I do, however, help bands in my free time and I run a music blog where I write about music marketing, business, etc. In late 2012 I helped a friend launch a new band and we thought it woudl be awesome to gather email addresses in exchange for new songs from their album and from that Conversion In A Box was born.

Its an easy to use software that makes it a piece of cake to give away a song in exchange for an email address (and other info, if you want it).

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Mark LaFay is COO of Sonar studios and co-founder of Conversion In A Box. Mark has a BS in Computer Technology from Purdue University and has 12-years of experience in music business and marketing. LaFay built an artist mgmt. firm that represented multiple artists. He negotiated multiple recording and publishing deals, released 25 albums that collectively sold over 500k copies globally and launched tours in 26 countries (6 continents); LaFay also founded and managed a concert promotion company that produced over 450 live events independently in Indianapolis. After his departure from music, LaFay went on to assist in the growth of the events and entertainment division of Bohlsen Group, an Indianapolis-Based PR firm, before assuming his current role at Sonar Studios.

Vince Freeman is founder, president, vision-caster, and the “keeper-of-the-faith” for Sonar Studios, and co-founder of Conversion In A Box. Since studying Industrial Design and Visual Communications, Freeman has spent over twenty years in this industry instructing, speaking, writing and consulting in the area of using technology in communications and the visual arts. In 1999, Freeman founded Sonar Studios, a rich media and application developer located in downtown Indianapolis. Under his direction, Sonar Studios has won numerous awards in addition to being a Mira Finalist in 2010 for “innovation of the year” and 2013 for “excellence and innovation in education.”

Where are you based?

1060 N Capitol Ave

Suite C100

Indianapolis, IN

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

There is a thriving startup community in Indianapolis. There are several meetups and networking events that encourage entrepreneurs to get after their ideas and even pair them up with technicians and investors. There are also several investor groups in several different industry verticals here. You could have an m-tech product like we do, or bio-tech, pharm, energy, retail, etc. and you would have funding options in the City and the state. The state government is also working on initiatives to encourage startups. There is an investor tax credit to encourage investment in Indiana companies and there is even a state-sponsored investment fund designed to fund new Indiana businesses.

What problem do you solve?

Our tool is a simplified approach to digital marketing. We make it easier, cheaper and faster to launch marketing campaigns with validating results.

Why now?

We no longer live in an age where success requires vanilla products marketed to vast numbers of people through huge television and radio spends. Thanks to the internet we can now create products designed for specific groups of people and we can reach those groups through laser-focused marketing campaigns that require less money.

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

We are fully functioning and available for use. We have cracked 250 users and our average CPA is around $5.00. We have also integrated with mutliple ESP and CRM platforms which makes it easy to put your data into use either in bulk or in real-time.

What are your next milestones?

1000 users, 25% account utilization or higher.

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

We have some videos at www.conversioninabox.com that do a great job of explaining the product and why you should use it :-).

Inside Travel Guides Want You to be an “Insider” Anywhere

Do you travel much? Not, dash to a city, have a meeting, and eat at the hotel travel, but real travel. The kind where you spend days in one place, exploring a new city and eating new foods?

If you haven’t traveled like that in awhile, you may have forgotten how stressful it can be. Where do you go in a new city? What do you eat? More importantly, what do you avoid?

The guys at Inside Travel Guides feel ya, and they’re using local writers to produce guides for cities all over the world. Right now you can download guides for cities as diverse as New York, Paris, and Reykjavik.

Check out our Q&A with Inside Travel Guides below, and get to seeing the world already!

1) What’s your startup called?

Inside Travel Guides

2) What’s your big idea?

Travel guides written by locals. We sell $10 travel guides to cities around the world that show you a day by day itinerary of what a local would recommend their best friend doing.

3) What’s the story behind your idea?

The cofounders are avid travelers and want to see more people explore the world. The #1 reason people are not traveling more is because they feel lost. Our mantra of ‘never feel lost’ matches great information and a beautiful mobile design letting you explore.

4) Where are you located?

Boulder, Colorado

5) What’s the startup scene like there?

Thriving! We have built something special + have been named a startup capital.

6) What milestones have you reached?

We launched with 18 cities and 35 guides to some amazing places.

7) What are your next milestones?

A mobile app is the next big thing as far as the products goes. The community is currently voting on where we should build guides to next.

8) Where can people find out more?

Inside Travel Guides http://inside.co blog.inside.co twitter.com/inside_guides https://www.facebook.com/insidetravelguides

Legitimo Brings Legal Documents to Everyone–Even Spanish-Speakers

A spoiled quinceanera led to a hackathon win led to the creation of Legitimo. The New York-based startup has created a mobile app for legal documents, similar to Shake.

Unlike Shake, though, Legitimo also provides simple legal agreements in Spanish, a necessity for the 69 million Spanish speakers in the US.

Check out our Q&A with Legitimo co-founder Nikhil Jhunjhnuwala below, and if you’re in need of simple (Spanish!) legal documents, you can download the app on Android and iPhone.

What is your startup called?

Legitimo

What’s the story behind your idea?

It began with a frantic phone call from Julia, a middle schooler I mentor in Los Angeles. Angrily, she explained how her family recently got ripped off during her quinceañera party. The venue they had rented was a complete mess and understaffed, the band left early, and everything was out of order. Basically, Julia’s special day was ruined and any hope for restitution was doubtful because Julia’s family did not sign any written agreements, making it difficult to prove what exactly was agreed upon.

Upon hearing this story, I envisioned an app that gave ordinary people free legal protection by helping them create simple, and legally binding, contracts on the go. Some months later, that vision was realized at “El Hackathon” sponsored by LATISM. Twenty-four grueling hours later, we walked away with the grand prize and a prototype of Legitimo that would quickly become our obsession.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

I’m a former USC Law student turned startup junkie. Keval Amin is my best friend and a graphic designer, and Legitimo is our third startup together. The other two are StartEngine incubated myRight (R.I.P) and ramen profitable LegalCrunch. We met both Sameer Kanda and Maria Gutierrez at the Hackathon event. Sameer is a developer with over 10 years of experience and is currently mining LiteCoin at the speed of broadband. Maria is a lawyer from Argentina who recently passed the New York State bar.

Fun fact: 3 out of the 4 founders dropped out of school. Can you guess who the honor student is?

Where are you based?

We are based in New York City (specifically SoHo).

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

There’s always something going on in “Silicon Alley”! It’s amazing to see so many events taking place each week. After you go to some you start see similar faces and really feel a sense of community. At the same time, newcomers are welcomed without hesitation. We went to El Hackathon on a whim and never imagined that it would lead to a real product, let alone a win.

What problem do you solve?

Sometimes you need a contract, but hiring a lawyer is expensive and online templates aren’t personalized. Without a convenient solution, most people forgo this basic legal protection, which unfortunately increases the likelihood of scam or fraud. No written record means it’s hard to prove what terms were agreed upon and disputes often come down to a he-said, she-said battle, the sorts of which you see on Judge Judy.

Legitimo solves this problem by making it easy to create, sign, and send personalized agreements on mobile devices in seconds. Additionally, Legitimo translates contracts into other languages, allowing people that don’t speak the same language (or people that just don’t speak English for that matter) enter into legally binding agreements. Currently we support English and Spanish, but plan on expanding globally, ultimately becoming a Rosetta Stone for simple agreements.

Why now?

We’re initially targeting the Latino community because they are the fastest growing demographic in the US with the highest rates of smartphone usage. Capturing brand loyalty at this critical time will be important. Additionally, there are over 60 million Americans, and many more people abroad, that regularly engage in informal economies that are largely cash-based, making it difficult to take legal action should something go wrong. This is a huge problem because people end up losing money with no remedy. With a pain point this obvious and an increasing demand, it’s inevitable that something like Legitimo would make its way into the market.

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

We just launched an Android and iPhone App!

What are your next milestones?

Our next milestone is to reach 100 real users, and then reach out to those users learn everything we can. Once we figure out a strong market fit, we plan on scaling. But right now we’re focused on listening.

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

For updates, visit our website or follow us on Twitter.

SeeUMe Enables You to Easily Livestream Everything

We know you have more than a couple of smart devices lying around, and each one of those has a camera on it. We’re all used to taking pictures and videos with our cameras, but there’s no way to live stream that content from one device to another. Until now. European startup SeeUMe recently released their livestreaming app to the Kindle Fire and are looking to expand into several other app marketplaces. The technology allows you to record video and instantly stream it to any device with an Internet connection. Check out our Q&A with SeeUMe and find out some of the ways this technology could make your life better. (Hint: it involves your children in one place while you relax with a margarita.) What is your startup called?

SEEUME

What’s the story behind your idea?

Everybody has smart devices, most of them are connected to the internet and a lot of those have one or more camera. We thought it was weird that we were not using these capabilities to stream live video footage from one device to the other. We could think of a dozen of reason why livecasting would be both fun and practical. So why weren’t we all doing it? The components for live video streaming are out there, but bringing them together is very complex. It requires a lot technical configuration or huge costs. We felt we could change this. We thought starting 2014 everybody should be a livecaster.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Dave Kiwi: Dutch entrepreneur and founder of Internet consulting company. Dave Kiwi has extensive consulting, entrepreneurial and management experience. Andrei Varanovich: co-founder of technology company ObjectMeet. Andrei is 6 times in a row awarded as Most Valuable Professional by Microsoft. He is also a PhD candidate in Computer Science. Where are you based? Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Koblenz (Germany)

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

The market was traditionally dominated by “security” and “web” cameras with the wide spectrum of capabilities and price ranges. They are not originally indented for the personal live streaming. The closest service is dropcam.com – however, they are producing their own Wi-Fi cameras, which is more expensive and less available for everyone. They also require an app to watch the video, while SEEUME works for every device with modern web browser.

What problem do you solve?

Enjoy your family having fun at home while you are at work. Keep an eye on your kids pretending to sleep in your hotel room while you are having a drink in the lobby. Share the unwrapping of Christmas presents with your parents while they are on holiday abroad. All in real-time in Full HD from the browser of a computer, tablet or smartphone.

SEEUME transforms smart devices in to live video cameras and offers a platform for distribution of full HD live video content to other computers, tablets or smartphones. SEEUME gives casters total control over their cast and supports sharing and access management of video streams with friends and family.

Why now? The explosion of Smart devices with powerful processors and great camera’s make processing and transcoding of (full HD) video possible. High speed (mobile) networks make transport possible. The roll-out of 4G mobile networks will improve this situation even more. Last but not least the standardization of internet protocols (like HTML 5) supports streaming live video in a lot of (mobile) browsers.

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

After nine months of hard work we are happy and also a little proud to inform you that the beta version of SEEUME was launched and our livecasting app released in the Amazon Appstore last week. What are your next milestones? 1) Optimization of mobile viewing of video streams 2) Roll out of the livecasting app to other devices than Kindle Fire and other appstores

Where can people find out more?

www.seeume.com

Any social media links you want to share?

For more information, examples and/or images contact info@seeume.com. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Canadian Startup Zighra Makes Your Phone Even Smarter

Admit it. You’ve turned the lock screen off on your phone and all of your apps are still open.

If your phone were stolen right now, all of your personal data would be available to the thief, including your bank account and credit card number. You know this isn’t a good idea, but it just takes so damn long to do all the signing in!

Canadian startup Zighra is solving your problem with biometrics. They are training your phone to respond only to you by measuring your body movements, voice, even the way you hold the phone.

Read more about Zighra in our Q&A below.

What is your startup called?

Zighra.

Zighra is a Sanskrit word that stands for speed/acceleration/velocity/quick. Zighra’s mission is to accelerate transactions by providing convenient, frictionless mobile authentication and fraud prevention without compromising security

What’s the story behind your idea?

The founders are a bunch of security scientists and they were frustrated with entering their PINs and passwords every time they used their phones and logged into their apps – from Facebook and Twitter to mobile payments and banking. Like more than 60% of smartphone users, their inclination was to disable screen locks and leave their apps perpetually logged in! But this would be a huge security and privacy nightmare – considering that every 3.5 seconds a phone is either lost or stolen. A lot of smartphone users are now shopping on their phones (storing credit card details), banking on their phones and connecting to corporate networks using these same phones.

The founders figured out that when it came to smartphones/tablets – users preferred convenience over security.

So our founder Deepak Dutt had this crazy idea to train phones and apps to uniquely recognize him based on his habits and interaction patterns – including the way he holds his phone, the angle in which he held it, hand/finger size, touch screen pressure among many other device sensorial data points (essentially creating his unique Kinetic signature). Deepak wanted the entire process to be frictionless, and effortless that the technology was designed to be built in implicitly into existing mobile apps. Along with the rest of the team this experiment has been successfully implemented.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Deepak Dutt – CEO/CTO

• Over 14 years of technical and entrepreneurial expertise in bridging the technology and business worlds.

• Prior startup experiences include NeST Technologies, Intsyx, and InLearning labs

• Held various roles in new venture development, R&D, marketing, field support, consulting, and management at Nortel, Siemens, and Newbridge Networks

• Awarded the Ottawa business journal 40 under 40 award for business excellence in 2012

• Named one of Ottawa’s top rising stars in 2012

• Holds a Masters degree in computer science from the University of Ottawa

Deepti Menon – COO

• Over 9 years of experience in Telecom research and development

• Prior startup experiences include InLearning labs an online tutoring firm

• Held various roles in the CTO organization at Nortel

• Extensive research in the areas of mobile wireless networks and network security

• Holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from the Univ of Ottawa

Where are you based?

Zighra is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada.

Zighra was selected as one of the top 3 globalizers in Canada, a TiE50 finalist in Silicon Valley and more recently selected as the top Canadian Startup in Canada-Brasil 3.0 conference.

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

The startup scene in Ottawa is pretty dynamic. Shopify is probably one of the more well-known startup in town having recently closed $100 M round with a valuation of $1 Billion.

What problem do you solve?

Users do not like to enter PINS/PASSWORDS on their phone. Smartphones now days are used for various activities requiring the need for storing sensitive data on smartphones. But, nearly 60% of mobile phone users disable screen locks and leave their mobile applications perpetually logged in. They don’t realize the risk they may entail given the data stored on their mobile device considering that a phone is lost or stolen every 3.5 seconds. Users need a solution which is convenient to use without compromising security.

Why now?

With the introduction of the iPhone 5S in September 2013, Apple, the iconic human factors company that reconceived the mobile phone experience, and made tablet computing cool, gave the identity marketplace and the biometrics industry in particular, a big hug.

Device makers are now poised to make a run on the commercial side of the biometrics market where convenience, authentication to a personal device, and a “frictionless” user experience trump security. The market makers of Silicon Valley are descending on the biometrics business with a relentless focus on massive consumer adoption and convenience driven human factors investments.

This market attack will be fast, bold, and take the biometrics industry by storm. Goode Intelligence predicts the consumer biometric market to reach $8B by 2018.

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

• Raised $1M in non-dilutive funds

• Securing over $80M in financial transactions

• Relationship with IBM to target the enterprise space

What are your next milestones?

Integrate KineticID with social media and payments apps and reach 40M users by end of 2014.

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

More info on KineticID:

• http://zighra.com/Zighra_KineticID_Infograph.pdf – Infograph

• http://zighra.com/zighra_info_deck.pdf – deck

• http://www.finovate.com/fall13vid/zighra.html – video demo

Twitter handles –@zfraudshield, @nanvivek, @dcdutt

Israeli Startup Oktopost Simplifies Social Media for Businesses

Everyone knows that businesses have to be social now. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+…wherever your customers are, there you should be, too.

But, social media marketing can be very time consuming, and it’s hard to prove the ROI on it. It’s always been more of a warm fuzzy attached to your brand than something that’s easily measurable.

But, with a recent $800k seed round in the bank, Israel’s Oktopost is looking to change that. Check out our Q&A with Oktopost below:

What is your startup called?

Oktopost

What’s the story behind your idea?

Prior to launching the company, Co-Founder Daniel Kushner was Head of World Wide Marketing at Nolio ( Purchase by Computer Associates for $40 Million in 2013). During his time at Nolio, he realized that social media marketing for a B2B was time-consuming and its effectiveness could not be proven. He reached out to fellow Co-Founder to work on a solution that has become what we now know as Oktopost.

Oktopost is a social media marketing platform, designed for the unique needs of B2B. The platform allows for the distribution of social content on a large scale, particularly capitalizing on LinkedIn discussion groups. Oktopost also lets marketers see the actual ROI of their social media activities.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Daniel Kushner Co-founder and CEO

Daniel Kushner is a marketing expert and social media guru. As the former VP of Marketing at innovative high-tech company Nolio, Daniel doubled sales growth year over year. Daniel has been in the field for more than a decade and has successfully led the online marketing departments of various global organizations.

Liad Guez Co-founder and VP Product

Liad is a talented web professional who led his own web agency for seven years, in which he has provided interface design, social marketing and web development services for high profile companies on dozens of successful projects.

Where are you based?

Yokneam, Israel

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

Israel is known as the “Startup Nation” – There is really nowhere in the world that has as exciting of a startup scene as we do. Israeli founders have a healthy dose of what we call “Hutzpah” and are willing to take risks in order to pursue technologies they believe in.

What problem do you solve?

B2B marketers face 2 main problems when it comes to social media:

Being able to distribute content on a very large-scale across the social web
Being able to prove the actual ROI of social media

Oktopost solves both of these problems, and for the first time lets B2B marketers take full advantage of social media as a marketing tool.

Why now?

There is no one that does what we do. There are large social media marketing platforms, but most focus exclusively on B2C. No other solution has the capabilities with LinkedIn posting that we have, and no other platform can let you see the actual ROI of social media in the detail that we do.

The real question is: Why NOT now?

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

We have recently raised our seed round of $800,000
After less than 9 months out of beta, we have hundreds of paid customers
Our customer base includes several publicly traded companies
We recently launched a campaign where we are offering access to our platform for free to early stage startups. Click here for more info

What are your next milestones?

Building our customer base so that every B2B company, everywhere, can finally take full advantage of social media.

We are putting extra focus on providing our solution for B2B marketing agencies, as we believe we can provide them with the best possible tool for running their clients’ social media marketing.

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

People can check out our website – we offer a 14-day free trial of our platform.

Our blog is a great place to read valuable information on content marketing, social media and all things B2B marketing.

Our social channels:

Facebook

Twitter

Google+

The “Must-Attend Conference for Entrepreneurs” Everywhere Else Tennessee is headed back to Memphis this Spring. We’ve released the early adopter tickets, and they’re going fast. Don’t miss your shot by signing up here!

Ro-buddy Bridges the Gap Between Raspberry Pi and All Out Hacking

The concept of robots has fascinated humans for a long time, even as far back as ancient Greek myths.

But, now, as technology advances rapidly, there are lots of people who think a robotic future is just around the corner.

The founders of Australian startup Robological fall in that camp. And they’re doing their part to usher in that future by creating Ro-buddy, a motherboard/Android app that will allow kids to quickly create their own robots, no coding required (for now).

The team is in the final days of their Indiegogo campaign. Check out our Q&A with the founder Damith Herath below.

What is your startup called?

Robological

What’s the story behind your idea?

The foundation of what would become the software framework for Ro-buddy was laid as early as 2010 when the founders worked on an Australian government (Australian Research Council) funded research program called the Thinking Head Project.

However, the Eureka moment came when we volunteered to teach robotics to primary school kids at a few local schools. In brief, the story goes like this – having been academics for sometime and partly forgotten our own childhood, we’ve gravely underestimated the creative and tech prowess of the 10 year olds we were teaching robotics – setting the bar so low, they surprised us by coming up with creative ideas for robots and wanting to create sophisticated robots of their own. Only armed with toy robots at the time, we quickly realized that these kids need something more sophisticated as a starting point, but at the same time not too complicated to dishearten them. Working on this challenge over the last year or so we realized that combining the software framework we’ve already developed (which was used by artists for creating interactive art/robot projects) in an Android App with a tightly integrated hardware platform would achieve this end goal.

The combination of an App and the hardware enables anyone to build custom control interfaces using a drag-n-drop interface on an Android device without writing a single line of code. In addition our hardware could directly interface with the Raspberry Pi enabling users to make use of additional computing power and wireless connectivity provided by the Pi.

We’ve seen a lot of parents purchasing Raspberry Pis for their kids in the hope they’d get hooked on to programming and hacking. But most get discouraged by the steep learning curve at the beginning. Ro-buddy bridges this gap by enabling easy connectivity and providing an out of the box experiences for these kids so they’re not discouraged at the beginning of the computing journey.

In a nutshell, Ro-buddy helps you to concentrate on your creative idea rather than the hardware/software needed to realize it.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Damith Herath – A roboticist with a PhD in Robotics

Christian Kroos – A cognitive scientist with a PhD in Linguistics

Zhengzhi Zhang – A software engineer with an MSc in Engineering.

Where are you based?

We’re based in Sydney, Australia

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

There’s a fairly vibrant startup community in Sydney and it is quite active and growing at the moment. However, investors are still hedging their bets mainly on traditional industries such as mining. In particular, there’s very little enthusiasmfor high tech startups that involve hardware like ours.

How do you see people using Ro-buddy once it’s developed?

As mentioned earlier, Ro-buddy is a great way to build robots and other things with minimal programming effort – for example someone who bought a Raspberry Pi and then never really managed to use it to build something because of the initial learning curve – Ro-buddy provides a great entry point.

It is a great way to combine your Android device and hardware to create robots, toys, school projects etc. Having a tightly integrated hardware/software system enables people to concentrate on their creative side rather than the software/hardware aspects, which are usually the realms of geeks.

Another great way to use Ro-buddy is to give a new lease of life for your old RC toys. You could easily replace your old RC toy car’s electronics with a Ro-buddy board and start controlling it with an Android device! In combination with a Raspberry Pi you could even turn it into a spy bot or a semi-autonomous vehicle using the Python API that comes with Ro-buddy.

Where do you see the field of robotics going in the next 10 years?

We’re heading for a very interesting decade of robotics.

We personally believe that this period is similar in nature to the beginnings of the PC revolution. We’ve seen new companies like Re-think bringing robotic manufacturing to a new level and many other successful startups appearing on the map. There’s also crowd funded robotic projects like Romo. Mind you we were engaged in a similar project slightly before Romo that used the software framework mentioned earlier – A project in collaboration with a renowned artist – Stlearc

Increasingly we’ll see human friendly robots entering the day-to-day use in unconstrained public environments. They’ll be in different shapes, sizes and form but would be fairly ubiquitous. Also, the Internet of Things will play a major role in this period.

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

Ro-buddy is only the beginning for us. We are committed bringing the knowledge gained from working on the Thinking Head project and turning it into useful and commerciallyviable robotic products. So far, we have been able to assemble a great team to develop critical software and hardware. We’ve also been able garner the help of a few key industry/academic leaders in Australia to act as our mentors.

For example, Prof Chris Drane who is a serial entrepreneur on his own right is one of our mentors.

What are your next milestones?

First priority is to complete the Ro-buddy project and deliver on our promises to our backers. In tandem we’re working on another robotic project – which is in stealth mood at the moment.

Also, we’re exploring the possibility of using Ro-buddy on industrial strength applications.

Once we have these working prototypes, we’ll be looking at potential partnerships, funding and/or investment opportunities.

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

Web: http://ro-buddy.com

Twitter: @RobologicalCo (https://twitter.com/robologicalco)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Robological

Boston-based CoPiloted Ends Investing Stress

Post-recession Americans don’t think as much about retirement as we did before 2008. Most of us realize we’ll be working hard for a long, long time.

Still, every little bit helps, and for those of us lucky enough to still have 401(k)s, making them work for us is only a good thing. Unfortunately, since most of us also aren’t day traders, that means we pay almost no attention to those quarterly statements we get.

Enter CoPiloted. Founded in 2013, this Boston-based startup helps you figure out how to maximize your 401(k). They have an algorithm that matches your risk capacity, goals, and life stage to the funds you should be investing in. They work like a professional money manager, but at a fraction of the cost.

Check out our Q&A with the CoPiloted team below, and let us (and them!) know what you think.

What is your startup called?

CoPiloted

What’s the story behind your idea?

We actually wrote a blog post about this! Initially, we were designing tools for high net worth individuals and investors to use to manage a wide variety of accounts. Over time, we realized that the techniques we were developing could be applied to the retirement accounts of ‘regular’ investors. So rather than build a little business designed to help a few rich people get even richer, we decided to build a service that would benefit a much larger group, namely all Americans who are saving for retirement. And in doing so, be able to make a meaningful difference to their quality of life while saving up for, and during their retirement years.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Jeremy De Bonet is our CEO. He’s led a number of tech startups including Skyward Mobile, MobiTV, and Assemble Media. He’s got a BS in Applied Mathematics from Columbia, and a MS in Computer Science from MIT.

Michael Bolotski is our CIO and, as an SEC registered Investment Advisor Representative, has fiduciary responsibility for all CoPiloted clients. He holds a number of patents, and has held positioning at MicroDisplay, Human Capital Fund, Skyward Mobile, and Evri. He earned his PhD from MIT.

Tina Bronkhorst is our CMO and is responsible for marketing communications. She’s held past positioning at Rue La La, Digitas, and Razorfish, and has a BS from Bridgewater State University and an MBA from Suffolk University

Where are you based?

Tina and Jeremy are based in Boston. Michael is located in Seattle.

What problem do you solve?

From research we conducted last year, we know that people don’t manage their retirement plans properly — or at all. It’s due to a combination of factors: lack of expertise, general inertia, lack of time, and the prohibitively high cost of professional assistance. Regardless of the root cause, the effect is the same: retirement accounts get neglected, and don’t grow anywhere near as much as they should. The potential growth over lifetimes of savings is simply lost.

CoPiloted fixes this with a completely turn-key solution.

CoPiloted measures a user’s risk level, selects appropriate investments, determines when to buy, sell and rebalance their accounts, and can actually make the transactions on their behalf.

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

We launched our free service in August, 2013, and on January 1, 2014 launched our Managed Accounts service, which not only provides users with recommendations of which funds they should own, but makes those trades for them inside of their account.

What are your next milestones?

In the first quarter of 2014, we hope to…

* grow our client base

* understand their issues and what more we can do to help them

* continue to eliminate friction in the enrollment process

* provide great financial advice

* help a lot of people

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

You can find us on Facebook and we regularly share our thoughts (and the thoughts of others) via Twitter @CoPiloted

The “Must-Attend Conference for Entrepreneurs” Everywhere Else Tennessee is headed back to Memphis this Spring. We’re releasing the first 50 tickets for 50% off exclusively to our newsletter subscribers on Jan 14th. Don’t miss your shot by signing up here!

How Zaarly’s Eric Koester CoFounded One of the Most Innovative Companies

Eric Strait, Tech Hustlers

Eric Koester spent much of his earlier career assisting startups. Now he is the co-founder & CMO of one of the most innovative companies in the world according to Fast Company. Zaarly is literally changing the economy. They are disrupting how people purchase services and opening the door for people to create profitable businesses they never thought possible!

Zaarly raised $14 million in 2012, and in October 2012 former CEO of Ebay & current Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman, joined the company’s board. If that is not enough star power, mega celebrity & actor Ashton Kutcher was Zaarly’s very first investor!

“Eric most recently served as VP Operations & General Counsel at Appature Inc., a cloud-based relationship marketing software company. Prior to joining Appature in 2010, Eric was a corporate and securities attorney for Cooley LLP where he represented public and private technology, energy and life sciences companies, venture capital firms and investment banks in a wide range of transactions, including public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, securities issuances, technology licensing transactions, corporate partnerships, commercial agreements and venture capital financings.

Before joining Cooley, Eric was the Financial Reporting Manager at Ventana Medical Systems, a leading diagnostics company acquired by Roche in 2008. Eric began his career in Morgan Stanley’s financial advisory services group. He holds a JD from The George Washington University School of Law, BA in Business Administration from Marquette University and is a certified public accountant in the State of Washington.”

Watch Eric talk about his life journey and how Zaarly almost didn’t happen!

Preview

*Quick Eric Koester Background Bio

*Eric’s history of the entrepreneur spirit

*Being a startup lawyer

*Entrepreneur itch

*One of the “Most Innovative Companies in the World” that almost was not!

*Karma & Fate

*The disruptive path of Zaarly

*This post originally appeared on Tech Hustlers.

Teamstory is the Social Network for Enterpreneurs

“But what I do know is this startup journey is long, hard as f#!@ and lonely.”

Teamstory founder Kevin D.H Kim found himself looking around for community in the startup world. The way he sees it, even though we spend a lot of time on Twitter, Facebook, and blogs, there’s very little “real” community. We share the good things or give advice on the easy stuff, but when things really get hard a lot of founders find themselves kinda lonely.

With that problem in mind, Kim and his cofounders are building Teamstory as a place for just that kind of interaction.

They’ll be up against some real competition, of course. Facebook, Twitter, and email work pretty well for a lot of entrepreneurs, and some surprisingly real conversations can happen in those forums. And, of course, there’s that “killing it” thing we all have. It will take a real paradigm shift to convince founders to open up and admit their struggles, when so much is riding on confidence in their business.

Check out the Q&A with the Teamstory team below and let them know what you think.

What is your startup called?

Our startup is called Teamstory – A Community for Entrepreneurs and Startups.

What’s the story behind your idea?

As an entrepreneur and a founder myself , I’ve always felt the disconnect within the startup community. Even though there are platforms like AngelList, Gust and F6S, there was no ‘real’ communication between the entrepreneurs and startups. It was all about what’s on the tip of the iceberg – Idea, pitch, fundraising etc. , all the fluff and the good stuff. Then I began to wonder… what about the other side? the good, the ugly, and the bad about your journey, your moments throughout your journey. I kept searching for a ‘real community’ for startups and entrepreneurs but haven’t be able to find one. So we decided to create Teamstory. A picture-based community where entrepreneurs and startups can capture, share and discover the moments in their journey with like-minded people.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Kevin D.H Kim (24) / Tobok Lee (24) / Freddy Hidalgo-Monchez (25) We’re all entrepreneurs, builders and designers who has experience in multiple startups and tech-companies. We are from Waterloo, Toronto, and Montreal.

Where are you based?

We are based in Toronto, Canada

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

It is a growing tech-hub of Canada alongside with Kitchener-Waterloo. There are big and successful startups in the scene: Shopify, 500px and Bitstrips etc. And it’s beginning to grow more and more with talents.

What problem do you solve?

Teamstory is trying to solve the disconnect within the community by making interactions and discovery effortless and more transparent

We think that it’s actually a bit late that someone is trying to create a community around the startups. But it’s time to shift the thinking to more of a collaborative community to accelerate startup environment globally.Why now?

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

We’ve just surpassed 200 beta signups and gathered interests from business partners within a month. We’re seeing some great interest from the entrepreneurs and startups around the world.

What are your next milestones?

Our next milestone is the closed-beta which will launch in late February. We want to make the product better with our early adopters and fully launch with a great product in the spring 2014.

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

http://teamstoryapp.com

http://twitter.com/teamstoryapp

http://angel.co/teamstory

Founder Spotlight: Joe Huff of LSTN Headphones

Joe is the co-founder and director of positivity at LSTN Headphones. In 2010, he left his position as co-founder and CEO of Ramp Logistics to start a new social cause: This Shirt Helps. Since then, his experience and passion both revolve around social enterprise and making the world a better place. Both LSTN and This Shirt Helps were designed to harness the power of consumer purchases and make a positive difference while engaging and empowering. Follow him @joehuffLA.

Who is your hero?

There’s really no one person I would call hero. I’ve been and continue to be inspired by many things and people and by life in general!

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

Don’t be afraid to make decisions and don’t be afraid of failure. You can’t really succeed without making LOTS of mistakes along the way unless you’re incredibly lucky. Not making a decision is much worse than making the wrong decision most of the time because you become paralyzed. It’s important to be decisive and then adapt if your original plan doesn’t work out. That’s the beauty of failure — it’s the breeding ground for new and better ideas. And even when you fall on your face, your still moving forward.

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

The biggest mistake I have made was becoming too caught up and emotionally invested in a product instead of the result we were trying to achieve. It’s really important to take a serious step back now and then to just look at what you’re doing and be honest about whether or not it’s working toward your main objective. In the past there have been times where we waited too long to pivot or weren’t focused on the right part of our business. We were pouring all of our time into a certain product or part of the business that we loved but that just wasn’t performing. It’s really important to make sure what you’re focused on is really achieving your true end goal.

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

I’m a morning person. I use the first hour in the AM to set the tone for the day. Whether it’s a morning hike or coffee and emails, I get all of my thoughts together and prioritize everything in that first hour so I have a game plan. If possible, I try and knock a couple things off the list right away so I have a feeling of accomplishment early on. That way I’ve got something to build off of or fall back on if things go sideways.

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

Don’t be afraid to take on debt, financing or investment when possible if necessary. Fifty percent of $10M is much better than 100 percent of $0.

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

Take a look at who you spend your personal and professional time with. If they don’t inspire you, make the changes necessary to surround yourself with as many inspiring people as you can as often as possible. “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future” is a quote I live by!

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

My version of success is simple. I think when we die, the only thing that will have mattered is what we did to make the world a better place. So success to me is when you know you’re trying to make a difference, you’re inspiring others to do the same and you’re happy because of it. Luckily, I feel pretty successful already just because I realized that early on.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

Do we need more photo-sharing apps? Flipbook thinks so.

The photo-sharing market is pretty full. (And, yes, that’s the understatement of the year.)

But, with billion dollar valuations and acquisition offers on the table, we expect to see quite a few more before the frenzy dies down. The latest hails from Nashville, TN, and is founded by a couple of recent Vanderbilt graduates.

Will Schreiber and McArthur Gill founded Flipbook because they see a huge hole in the messaging/photosharing market. You can either chat with a group (WhatsApp/GroupMe) or post pictures (Instagram/Snapchat), but it’s hard to do both on any one platform. They created Flipbook with the ephemeral nature of Snapchat but the group chatting capabilities of the chat apps.

Does the market really need another photosharing app? Snapchat continues to grow, and Instagram doesn’t seem to be going away. But, who knows? More surprising things have happened.

Check out our Q&A with Flipbook below. Then download the app and let us know what you think.

What is your startup called?

Flipbook

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Will Schreiber and I, McArthur Gill, are the two co-founders. We are both developers and have worked together for years. During our last semester at Vanderbilt (Spring 2013), we were accepted into the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, where we created Stadium Stock Exchange presented by Nissan (www.stadiumse.com). Our other notable product is RageChill, a music discovery engine (http://www.ragechill.com).

Where are you based?

Nashville, TN.

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

The startup scene in Nashville is budding. The Nashville Entrepreneur Center has really helped founders connect with mentors and investors, giving companies a strong foundation on which to grow.

What problem do you solve?

People love to express themselves and connect through the sharing of photos. As of now, Snapchat does not allow for group communication and Instagram publishes photos to all of your followers. Flipbook gives users a way to share photos to a group, while still maintaining the ephemeral nature of Snapchat. By allowing users to copy images posted to their group and overlay their own text and drawings, Flipbook gives users a photo-based conversation platform.

Why now?

Right now, the two biggest players in the photo-sharing space focus on either peer-to-peer sharing or public-sharing. The conversation about photos then happens on a different platform (people revert to texting in order discuss photos they see on these other platforms, sharing these opinions with a group of friends). We have created a communication platform allowing users to both post photos and discuss them within their circle of friends, all on the same platform.

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

We have developed an iPhone app, which was released on Tuesday. In less than a week since our launch, we have created a very active user base and seen a huge growth in both number of users and number of photos shared.

What are your next milestones?

Continue to refine and iterate the product, grow the user base, and develop an Android app.

Photosharing apps are pretty prevalent. Why is Flipbook going to compete with the big SV-based apps?

Flipbook gives people a platform to share and discuss their photos within their groups of friends. As simple as that sounds, right now there is not a good platform on which to do that. WhatsApp and GroupMe are not photo-centric. Snapchat and Instragram do not provide cohesive groups. Flipbook provides both of these and also gives users the ability to capture a photo posted to their group, overlay their own text and drawings, and continue the conversation.

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

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flipbook-hidden-chapters/id778185758?mt=8

Chicago Startup Retrofit Raises A Series B To Make Us Healthier

There are quite a few fitness startups cropping up.

Apps like RunKeeper and MyFitnessPal monitor your exercise or diet. Sites like Daily Burn offer subscription access to fitness classes. And, of course, there’s wearable tech. Fitbit, Fuelband, and Atlas are just a few examples of the tech you can wear to monitor activity levels.

Chicago-based Retrofit aims to take weight loss to the corporate level, offering employees of large companies like Google and Salesforce.com discounted rates to try the program. Retrofit incorporates some of the startups mentioned above, specifically Fitbit, as well as one-on-one coaching sessions with a dietitian, exercise physiologist, and behavior coach.

There are plenty of weight loss programs that focus on corporate clients. Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig both have corporate arms and years of brand recognition. So, what makes Retrofit any different?

According to the Retrofit team: results.

In their first 12 month “cohort,” more than 90% of participants lost significant weight. The average weight loss was almost 20 pounds, which equals a 9% of overall body weight.

On the heels of that success, Retrofit announced a $5 million Series B on Friday. The round is led by Cambia Health Solutions, but includes participation from previous investor Draper Fisher Jurvetson. This announcement brings Retrofit’s total funds raised to $15 million.

“Retrofit is thrilled to announce additional venture funding from Cambia Health Solutions and DFJ,” Retrofit CEO Jeff Hyman said in a statement. “These two companies prioritize investments based on creating value through the innovative use of technology.”

It’s true that tech and wellness are seeing some interesting mergers these days. Data mania is growing, and everyone wants to be able to measure success. I find Retrofit particularly interesting because it merges that data (through Fitbit) with real human interaction. The digital coaching sessions can help make sense of the data and create actionable plans for improvement. By putting the program in a corporate environment, participants might also have the built-in support system of colleagues going through the same experience.

However, like any fitness program, there are some other things to consider.

For one thing, most of the participants were male. Most weight loss programs are marketed to and used by women, so this is a huge win for Retrofit. It also skews the results a little bit, because men lose weight faster than women.

Second, the true success of weight loss doesn’t come at the end of the program. It comes a year or two later, when participants are still at their goal weight. Let’s face it. For most people, the actual losing weight isn’t very hard, especially if you have the right program, support, and motivation all aligned. The real challenge is keeping the weight off so you’re not in a yo-yo of weight loss and gain.

To be fair, most of Retrofit’s clients lost the majority of the weight in the first 6 months and spent the next 6 months maintaining and losing a little more. The year-long program (as opposed to a few months) could carry huge benefits on the road to weight maintenance.

With a successful trial run behind them, and an infusion of cash, Retrofit has plenty of time to continue to improve it’s product. While the company is targeting corporate clients, you don’t have to work for a big company to utilize the service. Check out Retrofit here for more info.