Startups Archives - Page 101 of 144

California Startup: PrefCity Is A Facebook For Sharing Preferences INTERVIEW

Prefcity considers themselves a “Facebook for sharing preferences”, no not preferences in an app, on a smarphone or on a computer, but consumer preferences regarding retail and restaurants. Yes Prefcity is yet another new loyalty and rewards platform. Prefcity has addressed some of the downfalls to other similar platforms though and that’s what makes this startup different.

Prefcity is targeting businesses loyal customer base. They offer a product called PrefPerks to consumers and they offer a highly customizable, pay as you go format for merchants.

“As we experiment with Prefperks our intention is to create a win-win situation for consumers who want to find good deals at places they love and businesses looking to maintain healthy margins, generally diminished by some of the more mainstream daily deal sites,” said Vic Sosikian co-founder of Prefcity.

On the merchant side they are paid directly by the consumer without a mass redeem cycle like Groupon or LivingSocial. This gives the merchant the flexibility to try out different types of deals and as many deals as they want. In the simplest of terms, a PrefPerk is given to a loyal customer of an establishment. It’s more of a “reservation” card for that specific deal.

Take the Groupon model for instance. When a Groupon deal is sent out, the entire group needs to buy into it by paying Groupon directly. Groupon takes their cut and then distributes the money to the merchant. With PrefCity the PrefPerk is sent out and then if the customer wants to use it they just pay the merchant as they normally would with a regular coupon or discount.

The Southern California based startup is testing in Los Angeles and plans to bring New York, San Francisco and Chicago online later this year. We got a chance to interview Prefcity co-founder Vic Sosikian. Check out the interview below.

Washington DC City Council Looking To Price Über Out Of Town?

Back in January what brought you this story about Washington DC’s response to Über moving into town. Über is a mobile app hailing service for affordable limos and town cars.

Although Über is a Silicon Valley based startup, each new market is treated as its own separate company even though they are ultimately all head quartered in San Francisco. The Washington DC unit is by far the one that’s run into the most difficulty.

Über works just about effortlessly in all the markets they are in. You download the app to your smartphone and tell the app where you are. From there an indecent network driver is dispatched to you. You pay via the app so no cash needs to change hands. In DC, New York and San Francisco I’ve never waited more than 15 minutes for an uber ride.

Well as we reported back in January the taxicab drivers in Washington DC have had a major a problem since Über put up roots in Washington DC’s DuPont Circle neighborhood.

DC cabbies (which have even had a movie made about them starring Mr. T) were furious over the business they would possibly lose to Uber who according to the DC Taxicab Association, operates under a loop hole and should have to be licensed the same way limos are.

Now it appears the cabbies have enlisted the help of Washington DC City Councilwoman Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3). Cheh has proposed legislation that would make the minimum fare for an Über ride $15 which is a five times higher than the minimum fare for a normal sanctioned district cab.

NBC’s Luke Russert took to Twitter to express his dismay:
“I’m willing to bet #DC cabbies after 12am will say, ‘cash only, no credit’ or claim that their credit machine ‘is broken.’” Russert tweeted earlier in the day.

He wasn’t alone, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) tweeted about the issue from his official Twitter handle @Jasoninthehouse, “Uber fans unite! D.C. Council wants to keep fares high. This is wrong! #UberDClove political website rollcall.com reported.

After the outcry on Twitter Cheh removed the Über portion of a proposed taxi bill from the legislation.

Rollcall also reported that lifetime DC political figure, former Mayor who was busted smoking crack while in office in January of 1990, wasn’t a fan of Über either. The Washington Post’s Tim Craig tweeted: “Marion Barry said he’s opposed to Uber because its a ‘San Francisco-based company’ and cab drivers ‘don’t need limousines coming in here.’”

Linkage:

Find out more about Über here

Source: rollcall.com

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” here are more stories from “everywhere else”

It would be more than totally awesome if you helped us out here.

Interview With Memphis Startup Stiqrd’s Founder Aaron Pranther On Expansion

One thing we all know for sure is that loyalty and rewwards startups are a flourishing space. A lot of the better ideas for loyalty and rewards are starting in small markets. Stiqrd is one of those startups.

The great thing about Stiqrd though is that when we first talked with Aaron Pranther, CEO and co-founder of the company they were already talking about taking their concept and scaling it as quickly, as possible but also honing in on what makes them special as well.

So what makes Stiqrd special? For starters? Pranther has a background in both tech and the restaurant business. He knows the real pain from a restauranteurs perspective as well as from the perspective of someone who likes to eat out. Pranther knows all too well what it’s like to try and keep tabs on multiple reward “punch cards”.

Most people have had the experience of thinking you were at the last punch tab of one card to find out you either forgot the card at home or you were in the wrong establishment.

Stiqrd has made loyalty and rewards easy by having a qr code based system and an app to track your purchases and rewards. A very real problem that many in the “loyalty reward app” business are experiencing is that soon instead of having too many key-tags or punch cards you’re going to have too many apps. Pranther is one of the first founders of a loyalty/rewards startup to acknowledge that.

What’s going to make a loyalty and rewards startup successful is going to be their ability to scale in both users and customers and for that Pranther has introduced the 15 minute loyalty program. Through rigorous testing he has found that the Stiqrd program can be implemented in most businesses in under 15 minutes complete with working dashboard.

But Stiqrd is more than a do it yourself loyalty program. He has real people available to speak anytime of the day to business’ that want to set up the loyalty program.

Pranther plans on implementing the system across the country at a few select retail partners however any business owner can sign up, and it truly is that easy.

We got a chance to interview Pranther about Stiqrd and the 15 minute loyalty program. Check out the interview below:

Utah CleanTech Startup: EcoScraps Announces Product Availability In Southern California

Back in April we reported on an exciting startup in Utah that was founded by former Brigham Young students. They came up with the idea after eating at an all you can eat breakfast buffet and asking themselves where all the wasted food goes. Naturally we can’t really box up that uneaten food off people’s plates and send it to starving kids in third world countries. I’m sure we would if we could. However the team behind EcoScraps found something clean, green and good for the environment to do with that scrap food.

EcoScraps now takes food waste from grocery stores, and farms and has it hauled to their compost facilities for a discounted tipping fee compared to the dump. EcoScraps then takes the food waste and turns it into compost and potting soil. They sell their compost and potting soil in Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and now Southern California.

Today the startup announced that their soil and compost products will be available in 40 big box home improvement stores in Southern California.

The company redirects 100 tons of produce waste each day from local grocery stores and restaurants. The waste is diverted away from landfills and turned into compost products, which can now be found in over 40 big box home improvement stores across Southern California.

“Every three days in America, enough food is thrown away to fill the Rose Bowl,” said EcoScraps CEO and co-founder Dan Blake. “By repurposing leftover fruit and vegetables, we are doing our part to take that valuable organic material and return it to good use. Our expansion into Southern California affords us the opportunity to put more food scraps to use, protecting the environment and enhancing gardens in America.”

EcoScraps is a no-chemical, no-poop alternative to typical manure- and chemical-based soil products on the market. The company’s products not only contain twice the amount of essential soil nutrients, but are safe for kids and pets too. By establishing a new infrastructure model for creating organic compost, EcoScraps has been able to quickly expand and reach a wide variety of consumers.

In June 2012, the World Bank released What a Waste: A Global Review of Solid Waste Management, which reported that 810 million tons of organic waste will be generated this year alone. “America’s food waste accounts for 30 million tons, which is equivalent to 25 percent of all landfill waste in the U.S.,” Blake said. “This number is expected to almost double by 2025. EcoScraps takes the nutrients found in our fruits and vegetables and returns them back to the soil instead of letting them waste away in landfills. This creates healthier plants and a healthier planet.”

Linkage:

Learn more about EcoScraps here at their website

Here’s a story we ran in April about EcoScraps

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” here are more stories from “everywhere else”

Nibletz is on a sneaker-strapped nationwide startup road trip. Here’s where you can help us out

New Orleans EdTech Startup Dash Technologies Releasing Dash For Teachers App Interview

Three educators in New Orleans have teamed up to form Dash Technologies a new startup focusing on educational apps for teachers. Their first app “Dash For Teachers” will hit the Apple iTunes app store on Wednesday.

Dash4Teachers is almost like a CRM app for teachers to keep tabs on students performance, log that performance and than generate a quick speed dial list so that teachers can make those ever important calls to parents. With the Dash4Teachers app, when the student’s performance is logged the app knows what parameters are set that distinguish parents that need to be called over parents of students who’s performance is up to par.

This is a valuable tool for busy teachers and busy parents. It also increases the communication between teacher and parent for the students benefit.

We had a chance to interview Dash Technologies about their exciting new app. Check out the interview below and look for the app in the iTunes app store tomorrow.

Interview With California Startup: At The Pool, Casual People Discovery Platform

People discovery is a hot startup space this year. As you’ve heard time and time again it was the startup space dejour at South By Southwest back in March. Startups like Ban.jo, Glancee, and Highlight ruled the roost on the streets of Austin during the interactive festival.

Now four months later, Glancee has been purchased by Facebook and the others are getting just passive traffic (I know some may disagree). One of the problems with people discovery applications are the in your face constant notifications that occur when you’re logged into one of the services. You get inundated with notifications about people you don’t know and sometimes don’t even want to know. There has to be an easier way.

Enter “At The Pool”

The Los Angeles startup offers you a once a day match based on interests and things you may want to do off line. Are you looking for new rock climbing buddies? Maybe you’re looking for new friends to start some pick up hockey? Maybe you’re looking to talk startups or even build a startup? Well At The Pool says there’s a pool for that.

Just what does that mean? Well we talk with At The Pool’s co-founder Alex Capecelatro to find out about their pool party. Check out the interview below:

Chicago Startup: EcoResume Offers Job Hunters An Easy & Green Way To Hand Out Resumes INTERVIEW

Whether you’re actively searching for a job or you’re just passively looking, chances are you’ve been to a conference, networking event or other meetup and needed your resume close by. Now without bringing a briefcase or worse, a book bag, to every professional outing you take, carrying your resume with you can be cumbersome, often times resulting in a crinkled up, less professional looking representation of yourself.

Well a startup in Chicago, called EcoResume has a solution for you that solves this particular problem and makes things a little greener.

With EcoResume you upload your credentials and resume information to their website. From there the folks at EcoResume create a virtual business card for you, complete with the bullet points from your resume and links to your supporting documents. You can easily send this eco friendly card with resume highlights to anyone that you come across at a meeting, or professional event from your smartphone or when you get back to the office.

Sure there are other ways of doing this, including getting your own blog site, or custom url but EcoResume has it all figured out in a nice looking site that’s both easy to navigate and easy to find.

We got a chance to interview the founder of EcoResume Efrem McGruder. Check out the interview below.

Washington DC’s Startup Kitchen Narrows The Field To Three

The first food industry startup incubator the “Startup Kitchen” is the brainchild of Washington DC restauranteur Kera Carpenter. She opened Domku an East European influenced restaurant in the revitalizing neighborhood of Pentworth in the district in 2005. It was overcoming the difficulties of not only starting here own business, but a restaurant at that, that inspired Carpenter to team up with Think Local First DC to create the “Startup Kitchen”.

Now we’re not talking a show you would see on the food network, we are talking about full on restaurant idea businesses. The food startup founders were narrowed down to three finalists which will pitch on July 18th. The winner selected out of the finalists will have six weeks to work on their concept with the help of mentors, and then Carpenter will donate space for the winner to open up a “Pop up restaurant” once a week in Domku’s space at 821 Upshur Street NW in Pentworth.

Hopefully after the six week period and then the pop up restaurant period that entrepreneur will be able to transition their startup to their own space in the district.

The three finalists, as reported by the Washington Business Journal are:

Worthwhile Meats and Provisions founded by Julien Shapiro. Her business idea is a specialty butcher shop showcasing the whole animal.

Chaya, a restaurant concept focused on cuisines featuring plants, legumes and whole grains. This is the idea of Bettina Stern and Zusanne Simon.

DC Dosa, a restaurant idea that would serve Dosa’s which are south Indian pancake snacks. Their plan is to serve them late night and at lunchtime. Think along the lines of crepe stands.

The three semi-finalists will pitch next Wednesday and the winners will be announced on Friday the 20th. That’s a big week for startups in DC as the 20th is also pitch day for TechStars Patriot Bootcamp.

Linkage:

Here’s the Startup Kitchen blog

Source: Washington Business Journal 1 2

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” here are more stories from “everywhere else”

We’re sneaker-strapping our nationwide startup roadtrip, care to help us out?

Virginia Startup: SpydrSafe Launches First Scalable DLP Solution For Enterprise

As more and more people fall into the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) category, the need for enterprise solutions for multiple managed devices has risen. Security is an issue that’s paramount to companies allowing employees to bring their own device to work. Security can also be a headache for IT departments.

Data loss is one of the main security threats that enterprise IT professionals are concerned about with people bringing their own devices to work. Before the rise in popularity of bringing one’s own device, IT departments could control the flow and security of data, especially in a Blackberry enterprise server dominated world. Now with BYOD the main element of security is gone and IT departments need to find a solution that will secure their data no matter who owns the device.

A Virginia startup called SpydrSafe is addressing that problem for people that are bringing their own Android devices to work. SpydrSafe Mobile DLP™, safeguards against data loss with innovative technology that delivers app-level protection on Android smartphones and tablets.

“Protecting corporate information on mobile devices presents enormous challenges for enterprise IT departments. The risk of data breaches is no longer solely an external threat as more employees use their own personal devices in the workplace (BYOD).” said Michael R. Pratt, Chief Executive Officer of SpydrSafe Mobile Security. “SpydrSafe Mobile DLP™ addresses the issues created by BYOD by providing enterprise IT the tools necessary to safeguard data that is accessed and used by mobile apps.”

The SpydrSafe solution consists of two main parts:

SpydrSafe Mobile DLP™ is an advanced mobile data loss prevention solution comprising SpydrSafe Mobile DLP™ for Android and SpydrSafe Security Manager™. The SpydrSafe Mobile DLP™ for Android app is available on either Google Play or Amazon Appstore for Android.

SpydrSafe Security Manager™ is a SaaS (Security-as-a-Service), cloud-based security management console used by IT administrators to add and enroll new users, assign users to groups, assign policies and access audit and reporting information.
About SpydrSafe Mobile Security, Inc.

Linkage:

Check out SpyderSafe here at their website

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” here are more stories from “everywhere else”

Startups helping startups that’s what this is all about

Chicago Startup: SocialKaty Is Social Media Marketing For Everyone Else INTERVIEW

Enthusiastic and Scottish. Katy Lynch took her personality and social media skills from a hobby to creating a thriving venture backed company is less than two years. With a goal of providing result driven social media services for companies, she founded SocialKaty in August 2010.

SocialKaty is a full-service social media marketing firm employing 29 “social media assassins” who create and manage content for brands (big and small). Simply, they’re a one stop shop for social media who maintain and create content on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Blogs and even develop tabs and apps for Facebook.

Why start SocialKaty?
1) Companies are struggling with creating and managing effective social media campaigns.
2) There are no real pure play social media firms out there. (There are marketing and PR agencies that offer social media as an “add on” service, but not as their core offering.)

What’s interesting is the diversity of companies and industries they service. To name a few – funded startups, bars, restaurants, retailers, non-profits, and heck even energy companies. It’s no wonder they’ve been profitable since day one, grown to a 29 person team and raised a Series A round from Lightbank.

We caught up with Katy last week during Techweek Chicago:

Links we’ve got em:

SocialKaty Is Here

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” here are more stories from “everywhere else”

Nibletz could use YOUR help click here

Interview With The Co-Founder Of Boulder Startup: MobileDay, Just About Effortless Conference Calling

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I’m not typically about the sexiest apps. I rarely play games, although Songpop has me hooked right now, and I’m not looking for the coolest way to share anything most of the time, because I’m too busy on conference calls.

I could scream at the top of my lungs that email and texting work better for me. I could put an outgoing voicemail message that says email and texting works better for me (and I have) but each and everyday there are three to five people that insist on having conference calls. What irritates me even more is when the conference call, using a bridge, is with just one person… yo dude just call me directly.

So when I came across MobileDay a sigh of relief was let out. You see when nibletz took on the responsibility of being the voice of startups “everywhere else” and then we got some help from a research analyst at Kauffman, we found out that there are hundreds of thousands of startups “everywhere else”. There are a lot of people in the world who want to talk and tell their story, and above everything I really want to listen.

My conference calls aren’t so bad, I’ve actually learned a lot and planned some great things via conference call. But anyone who takes conference calls on a regular basis (Read just about any strartup founder’s daily routine), knows how cumbersome setting the call up can be.

First off there are hundreds of different conference call services, and without a doubt every single person who wants a conference call with me uses a different one.

Next, they typically have some 7-11 digit number that you need to call into to connect to “your party”. Well it doesn’t matter if I’m calling from my iPhone or my Android phone du jour, no smartphone has been able to allow you to dial into a number, press one number than automatically dial in another number, like the conference calls ID.

So whether I’m sitting in the office (yes we have an office), or sitting at home (got one of those too) or on the road (which is 90% of the time) I have to fumble through my calendar, emails or heck even text messages to get all the necessary information to “hop on the call” listen people since the most conventional conference call applications have been out there’s been know such thing as just “hopping on” a conference call… until now (wow 400+ words to get to that part)

Boulder startup MobileDay is that conference call participants dream app. Once the conference call is loaded into the app it reminds you of your call and than voila one touch of the screen and you’re not just on the conference calls service, you’ve dialed the “bridge” number too. They’ve got even more features on the way that will make attending, postponing or notifying conference participants easier too.

This comes in particularly handy on the nibletz sneaker-strapped nationwide startup roadtrip because taking a conference call driving through Indiana (sorry Nick), Arkansas, or even up and down 95 can be a pain in the ass with call drops (and I’m on Verizon). So if you get disconnected it’s the same simple easy process to get back on the call. All you have to do is touch the button, and then wait to “say your name to enter the conference”.

So what’s even better than MobileDay is that we got a few minutes to interview MobileDay co-founder Brad Dupee and I must say Brad with Steve Jobs gone you may be the next person to make my life easier.

Interview below

Spanish Startup: ChattyBuy Is Turning Tweets Into Cash INTERVIEW

Back in April we reported on a Portland startup called Chippify that is enabling people to send money using Twitter. Using their service, sending a payment is as easy as replying to a tweet.

On the other side of the Twitter payment spectrum is ChattyBuy who is turning people’s tweets into cash, well at least legitimate discounts saving you cash. ChattyBuy is based in Alicante Spain, where they’ve already partnered with merchants and social media mavens to create a platform that, in some capacity pays you to Tweet, in discounts.

We got a chance to interview Alex Aitkenhead the co-founder and CEO of ChattyBuy about his unique new startup.

What is Chattybuy?

Chattybuy is a social network that turns communication into savings.

How? By rewarding users with discount points for chatting, sending “tweets” and
following businesses that they exchange for the coupons they want!

Who are the founders & what are their backgrounds?

Alex Aitkenhead Founder & CEO

Founder of www.quedescuentos.es an e-coupon directory in Spain.

Silvia Sanchez Co-founder

Working as sales representative for large multinationals

Alex Fernandez Communication

Recently graduated from university qualified in grafic design and communication.

Where are you based?

Chattybuy is a startup based in Alicante, Spain. The founder is Scottish but has lived in Spain for over 19 years.

What problem is Chattybuy solving?

More than solve a problem it’s about creating a new solution. No Social network wards users for chatting, why not be the first? Cash back sites are complex and you have to buy, in chattybuy WE reward you for using us to communicate and YOU decide where to exchange your points!

What is your secret sauce/competitive edge?

Our secret sauce is the simplicity of the product. We have turned online communication into something extra, helping user save money doing what the do most, chat, send tweets and use coupons!

What is the startup culture like in your town?

Unfortunately the startup culture in our town in non existing, in Spain most startups como from Barcelona, Madrid or Valencia. This is especially so when we are looking at technology startups.

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

The main challenge was being able to produce a fully functional beta version with such a limited budget and no external investors, they are really lacking in Spain it’s always the same 4-5 people.

What is next for Chatty Buy?

The next step for chattybuy is crowd funding to help create our mobile apps and improve systems. We want the public to decide if they think chattybuy is a great concept and reward them for backing us up from just $1.

We also want to setup chattybuy as a business in NYC or London ideal cities to grow as a company and hire the best.

Hit the links:

For more on Chattybuy find them here at chattybuy.com

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” here are more interviews from “everywhere else”

Check this link out, help the nibletz team

Chicago Funds 25 Startups For $188 Million In Q2 2012 Smashes Q1

Chicago recently played host to a great regional tech and startup conference called TechWeek 2012. Judging on the activity at the conference and the legendary after parties it should be no surprise that startup activity in Chicago is big. How big? Try $188 million dollars big of 25 startup companies. Two companies; Dealstar and Tribeca Flashpoint Acacdemy also exited in Q2 without disclosing financials behind their deals.

GoHealth received the most money in Q2 2012 with $50 million by Norwest Equity Partners. Valence Health came in second place with $30 million. In the tech space Singlehop led with $27.5 million. Total Attorneys was second in the non health space with $15 million.

Chicago’s startup de jour, Belly, pulled in two rounds of funding in Q2 for a total of $12.5 million. Lightbank Capital and Silicon Valley Bank teamed up for a $2.5m round for Belly in April and Silicon Valley powerhouse firm, Andreesseen Horowitz invested $10m in May.

The bigger story for Chicago is that in Q1 2012 there was just $33 million in funding split between 17 companies.

Here’s the complete list of companies funded in Q2 from BuiltinChicago.com

Arroweye $3 million
Belly $12.5 million
BenchPrep $6 million
BrightTag $15 million
Dabble $140,000
Elevate Digital $2.7 million
Future Simple $6.8 million
GoHealth $50 million
gtrot $920,000
Journatic $3.2 million
Kapow Events $700,000
Mediafly $200,000
MentorMob $150,000
Monthlys not reported
Neighborhoods not reported
New Futuro $1.3 million
Open Kennel $440,000
Restaurant.com $8,000,000
Singlehop $27.5 million
SocialKaty $300,000
Tempo $750,000
Total Attorneys $15M
Unmetric $3.2M
Valence Health $30M

Linkage:

Source: Built In Chicago 1 2

Check out Nibletz’ coverage of Chicago TechWeek 2012

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” and we could sure use your support

Dutch Startup: MeeChannel One Dashboard For All Your Media, INTERVIEW

The Netherlands apparently has a much bigger startup scene than we had first imagined. On Friday we brought you an interview with the Dutch startup “ShowDates” today we’re talking with the founder of MeeChannel.

MeeChannel is a new aggregator that brings all of your photos,videos, rss feeds and other online content into one simple, easy to navigate dashboard. Once you have all of your “channels” in one place you can share your favorite content from any channel, be it vimeo, YouTube, Flickr, Picasa or any one of hundreds of other sources that you subscribe to, and share them with your friends.

MeeChannel is currently in Beta and still entirely in Dutch, however the user interface makes it such that you may have no problem navigating it even in a foreign language. Pieter Havermans, MeeChannel’s founder and managing director is looking forward to expanding the service globally, after the initial beta version is released to the public and they start building scale.

They’ve actually done a really great job with the ux on the site. The concept has been done before but as with a lot of startups it’s now all about the execution.

We got a chance to talk to Havermans, check out our interview below: