Comments Off on Minneapolis Startup: Wahooly Giving Away Equity At Chicago Tech Week 2012 VIDEO INTERVIEW0LikeLike 2,356
Wahooly has had a lot of buzz lately. Their model which has been described by many as Kickstarter meets Klout, encourages social rockstars to mobilize and support startups for an equity stake. As serial entrepreneurs, Wahooly co-founders Dana Severson, and Connor Hood know that the hardest thing for startups to do is gain traction, especially startups “everywhere else (that’s one reason we’re even here).
So what is this novel model and how does it work?
Well Wahooly takes social media influencers who sign up and presents 200 startups to the influencer per year. If in 12 months you decide to “invest” your social media influence in each of the 200 startups, then you’ll actually own an equity stake in all 200 of those startups. The best part is you’re leveraging your influence, not your dollars.
Startups who use Wahooly set up testing groups between 5k and 8k people. Up to 8% equity is set aside for this group. The group of influencers are asked to “Promote, Improve and Engage” and also give guidance and feedback in exchange for the equity. You may think that 5k to 8k people with Wahooly being a startup themselves, is a lot. Well Wahooly already has 30,000 influencers signed up in their capped beta. They also have a pretty hefty wait list brewing.
As for startups, there are 450 or so signed up to date.
We got to talk with an enthusiastic Severson at Chicago TechWeek. Naturally because of our mutual love of startups “everywhere” we hit it off and Wahooly was one of the first companies on our list to see at TechWeek. Their booth was buzzing though so it took hours to get some face time with Severson. Below is that video interview.
Comments Off on Chicago Startup: Shortlist Easy To Use Event Organizer App TechWeek 2012 Interview VIDEO0LikeLike 1,792
We’ve seen recently how important mobile apps are to the event industry. In fact, event software giant Cvent went from never acquiring a company to acquiring two event app development companies within a week. That shows how important mobile apps are to the $263 billion dollar U.S. meeting industry.
A new startup, and recent graduate of Excelerate Labs, Shortlist, has come to the party with a new mobile app solution for any event organizer, big or small.
To compliment matters Shortlist packs a ton of features into a simple to use app from event creation, to end user functionality in a smart, easy to navigate UX.
On the social side, Shortlist is able to connect event attendees to each other using their proprietary “connection engine” algorithms. You’ll get to meet, new and influential people who are attending the same event.
We got to talk to CTO and co-founder Brantley Harris in this quick interview video below. Harris talks about Shortlist and also what they learned in the Excelerate Labs accelerator.
Comments Off on Chicago Techweek: Michigan Startup TechSlinger Harnesses Technology VIDEO INTERVIEW0LikeLike 2,293
One of the first great startups we ran into at TechWeek 2012 in Chicago was actually not from Chicago at all but rather, just outside of Grand Rapids Michigan. TechSlinger General Manager Tresha Davis told us they were excited about launching and excited to support the thriving tech community in Chicago.
TechSlinger is actually a hardgoods/accessory startup. They manufacture the TechSlinger which is a way to hold your gadgets, underneath your coat that’s both comfortable and functional.
The TechSlinger consists of two under arm pouches that are kind of reminded me of gun holsters. One of the pouches holds your tablet. The other one can hold your phone, accessories, even your wallet, credit cards and other important items.
The TechSlinger is a great accessory for traveling business people. It’s also a great accessory for those who need access to their gadgets throughout the day where a backpack may appear a bit out of place or even unprofessional. You can wear a nice Brooks Brothers suit on top of the TechSlinger and No one would notice the difference.
In the video below we talk with TechSlinger CEO and creator Nathan in the video below. The idea came up when he realized he was traveling so much and needed to find something better than a traditional backpack or messenger bag that still permitted great functionality.
TechSlinger comes in a variety of colors and sizes as well. It supports all major e-readers including the Kindle and the Nook and even most Android tablets. They are anxious to get their hands on a new Microsoft Surface tablet to design a TechSlinger or it as well. The best part is that TechSlinger is made in the USA.
They are also working on TechSlingers to support up to the 13″ Macbook pro. The 11″ Macbook Air fits snuggly in the iPad TechSlinger without any casing. Even my “New” iPad with a Griffin Survivor case on it fits in the TechSlinger. I can’t wait until they are ready to ship review units I have to try one of these things out.
It’s very lightweight and would totally hide your electronics from plain site under a jacket or sport coat.
Comments Off on Nebraska Startup: Footwork To Take Some Of The Pain Out Of Political Canvassing0LikeLike 1,749
A startup in Nebraska is looking to optimize the footwork of door to door canvassers for political campaigns. The startup, appropriately called Footwork, couldn’t come at a better time as the United States prepares for a Romney vs Obama battle for the Presidency.
If you’re thinking that footwork takes canvassing to the Internet, you would be incorrect. Political candidates and those behind political causes know that in order to really make an impact, door to door canvassers are still a huge part of the equation.
Instead, Footwork helps organizers of canvassers optimize the canvassers route. In the past the door to door canvassers would typically have to jump out of a van, take a clipboard with the par affiliation data and find the house numbers that match printouts. With Footwork the data about the resident’s party affiliation is plotted on a mobile app on a smartphone typically supplied to the canvasser.
Now, with Footwork in hand there’s no need to match addresses over 100 sheets of paper.
Tegan Snyder and Phil Montag are the co-founders of Footwork and both gentlemen have lots of experience in grass roots political canvassing.
“When a canvasser is going door to door in today’s world they get a map and a list of voters by street. It’s up to them to determine what path to take and which houses to hits first,” Montag said to Betakit.com
Although most people who get involved in political canvassing do it for the cause itself, more and more political action committees and candidate campaigns have resorted to sites like Craigslist to recruit temporary workers. This sometimes results in canvassers pencil whipping signatures for a petition, or lying about actually visiting a house, or block of houses, just to get paid.
Footwork provides real time location monitoring for the canvass team leaders so you know that the paid canvassers are actually out the knocking doors and meeting people and not just pushing a button on an app.
The final piece to Footwork is social integration. Canvassers can now share their location is their social media channels which can at times spark conversation and awareness of the campaign.
Footwork charges 1 cent for every house that the canvassers visit using the app. Snyder and Montag say that with Footwork in hand canvassers are seeing up to 30 houses per hour, thus making it cheaper than mailings, traceable and mor efficient.
There are some competitors out there but none seems to incorporate all three functions in such a robust way.
Footwork is in Beta now, and plans to be in a full public release in August when the election races begin to heat up, and also just ahead of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, which will have a huge startup presence this year
Comments Off on Boston Startup: Abroad101 Moves Out Of The Nest INTERVIEW0LikeLike 2,594
Back in April we reported on an innovative EdTech startup in Boston called Abroad101. Abroad101 is like a travelocity of sorts for those students looking to study abroad.
Abroad 101 allows users to review just about every aspect of a study abroad program. With the real feedback from students who’ve been through the study abroad programs, you can find out how the teaching staff and curriculum are, how the shopping in the city is, how the nightlife is and even if it’s safe to walk from the car to the classroom by yourself at night. The idea behind Abroad101 was an untapped space and the Boston company and MassChallenge graduate are doing a great job of filling it.
So great in fact, it’s time to leave the safety and security of the MassChallenge nest and branch out on their own.
We got to talk with the guys from Abroad101 about just that, see the quick interview below the break
Comments Off on New York Startup: Padcaster Turns Your iPad Into A Production Studio0LikeLike 2,153
While to most the iPad is a truly magical device, what makes the iPad even more magical is the amount of accessories available for it. The iPhone has equally as many (if not more currently) cool accessories as well.
You can turn your iPad into an arcade machine, amplifier, guitar teaching tool, midi throughput device, turntables and now an on the go video and photo production studio.
Josh Apter, founder and president of Union Square based Padcaster, created the Padcaster out of necessity.
The Padcaster is an invention born out of my own needs as a filmmaker. I was shooting interviews with an iPad 2 about a year ago and was frustrated that there was no way to mount it onto a tripod. That’s when I decided to build something myself,” said Josh Apter, founder and president, The Padcaster, LLC. “Now, just about a year later, we have the Padcaster. I’ve been testing the prototype and I have to say, I’m quite pleased with the results. Not only can I record high-quality footage right from the iPad, but I can also cut, add effects, and upload it to our Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo and blog feeds simultaneously – all from the same device, almost instantly.”
The Padcaster is house in an aluminum frame that allows itself to be mounted to after market lenses, microphones, and other accessories needed for great photographs and great videos. It also has a tripod mount on the bottom which means you can mount the secure Padcaster to any tripod, monopod or other device with a tripod mount.
Apter created an accessory called the Lenscaster that is sold separately from the Padcaster and allows the ability to hook the Padcaster up to cinema style lenses and other lenses that connect via a 35mm lens adapter (not included)
Both the Padcaster and the Lenscaster help move the iPad from consumer device to a more professional on the go photo and video studio.
Comments Off on Pennsylvania Startup: Dollar Rubber Club, What Do You Think They Do? Interview0LikeLike 2,539
You may be surprised to find out that grown men still get school girl giddy about buying condoms at the local drugstore. I’m in my thirties and still see the discomfort that some of my friends my age have going into WahlGreens and buying condoms. The experience is compounded when you have to ask the pharmacist or store worker where the condoms are located.
There’s a chance that you could bump into your ex-girlfriend, your girlfriends mom, someone you went to school with or someone that knows your parents. Even in you late 20’s and 30’s this can be a source of embarrassment or at the least, a slightly uncomfortable situation.
Picture this scenario, you go into your local CVS thinking that tonight may be the night you have sex with your new girlfriend for the first time, and then when you’re coming down the condom aisle, purchase in hand, your new girlfriend shows up to pick up a prescription. These things happen all the time.
That’s why Dan Elwell and Anthony Eagleton, the co-founders of “Dollar Rubber Club” have gone head first into the condom by mail business.
Dollar Rubber Clubs condoms are priced competitively, come in discreet packaging and are even sent with a little silk bag that you could keep in your sock drawer.
In the interview below the break Elwell explains why the condom business, and how they stockpile condoms and turn orders around same time to keep the customers satisfied.
Comments Off on NIbletz Says Thanks! There’s Still A Little Time0LikeLike 1,926
Thank you first off for being readers of nibletz.com the “voice of startups everywhere else”. If our rapid increase in traffic on our website and social media channels are any indication, it seems we’re doing a good, or at least decent job.
We wanted to also say thank you to all of those people who contributed to our indiegogo campaign for phase Deux of our sneaker strapped nationwide startup road trip. We’ve committed ourselves to staying on the road 75% of every month through September 2013. During this time we’re going to be visiting startup focused events, startup weekends, hackathons, incubators, accelerators, startup offices and everywhere else we can pick up the vibe and report on the growing ecosystem of startups “everywhere else”
Before we get too long winded here is the link to our indiegogo page, the video is great our good friend Sean, voice to hundreds of radio and tv stations voiced it (as he does all of our videos) and it’s great. Please check out the video, donate $2 (or more) and share it across social media. The campaign ends at midnight tonight (Eastern time) here’s the link again
About “everywhere else”
We launched nibletz.com last Spring (2011) We were invited to cover TechCrunch Disrupt in New York for our other site and we became so mesmerized by everything there, and all of the passionate startup founders that we created a site to offload those posts off our mobile focused web brand.
We also took on the tag line “small crunchy bytes from the tech and startup scene”. We had a business plan that included becoming a compliment in capsulated form to TechCrunch (hence the crunch and the bytes), we took to Twitter and it was determined in a landslide that “Nibletz” were small crunchy bytes.
Well like every trying, startup we pivoted. We began to notice that startups “everywhere else” weren’t getting the coverage they needed and deserved. We launched the “everywhere else” concept at the new year and ran wild with it at South By Southwest. The response thus far has been phenomenal.
With our media backgrounds we’ve been involved in the tech scene and even researching and scoping startups for a number of years, but we took the blinders off to the rest of the country and WOW is the word that comes to mind.
Let it be known that we have nothing against the valley. San Francisco is an awesome place to visit, the valley is a tech geeks heaven as far as vacations go. Yes our founders have all ridden the bikes on the Google campus, dined at Facebook and even tweeted from Twitter. We’ve got great friends in the Valley and silent advisors who would probably shock some of our readers.
The startups “everywhere else” are like an elephant in the room. Everyone knows that we’re out there but no one is giving them coverage, not like this.
Cameron ran some great statistics this week and we found out that since January we’ve featured over 375 startups from “everywhere else” and the momentum, amount of content and features just increases month over month.
That’s all because of you.
Whether you’re in Boise Idaho, Memphis TN, Florida, Arizona or any of our great 50 states, or London, Israel and even a few countries we’ve never heard of, we’ve got your back. We’ve never purposely turned down any startup who pitches us for coverage at startups@nibletz.com unless of course you’re in the not “everywhere else” part.
We’ve got some really exciting things coming up in the next month or two including a really cool interactive that will help startups like yourselves, and us, crowd source the startup “everywhere else” community to help with their dilemmas, so keep an eye out for that.
We’ve started forging great friendships across the country and around the world and we thank you for that and your support.
We wanted to say thanks to everyone who donated anything on indiegogo from $2 on up. We actually received a donation Thursday that asked to remain anonymous of $1000 you know who you are and we thank you so much.
We also wanted to thank those of you who couldn’t donate but donated your time and your social media space by tweeting about us. We’re a startup ourselves, it’s hard. I could tell you the story about getting coins out of the couch, the seats in the car and off the washing machine to give my daughter $10 for a field trip, it’s real we know it.
Which is actually the reason that we’ve turned down to angel investors and plan to continue to not seek traditional angel and venture funding. We want to stay true to our core of everywhere else and we want to keep our ethics inline as journalists. That’s why crowd funding is so important for us.
We also wanted to point out that there are three other sites that we really like (and there in no particular order) that also cover startups outside of the traditional cities and they are, tech.li , TechCocktail and Beatabeat. So please add them to your readers as well if they’re not already there.
Again thank you so much for reading, contributing and helping out nibletz, the voice of startups “Everywhere Else”
Comments Off on Chicago TechWeek Preview: Are Daily Deals Dead0LikeLike 2,015
Chicago TechWeek kicks off Friday and runs through next week. The gathering of Chicago’s very healthy tech and startup community includes, lectures, panels, discussions, workshops, exhibit halls, startup city and more. Oh and of course parties.
One of the panels during the event that’s attracting a lot of attention is the “Are Daily Deals Dead” panel. This topic hits incredibly close to home as Chicago is the birth place of Daily Deals pioneer Groupon.
The panel is being hosted by edo a leader in personalized card offers and will take place on Tuesday the 26th at 1:00pm eastern at Merchandise Mart in Chicago, home to TechWeek. The panel plans to cover everything from the rise and triumph of Groupon to the rise and not so much triumph of Google Wallet and everything in between.
As the world prepares for full scale adoption of mobile wallet technology, with the introduction of ISIS and other products, this is a hot topic. We reported back in March that Daily Deals startups are making way for recommendation and loyalty which is the hot button right now.
One of the main issues with Daily Deals is that merchants are losing their asses in margin by offering a deal so great to get a surge of business, but the business seems to go away as soon as the deal is over, leaving smaller restaurant and business owners holding the bag.
The panelists discussing the morality of Daily Deals include:
Mark Marinacci, Chief Revenue Officer, edo
Liz Ross, CEO, MediaBrands Ventures
Sanjay Gosalia, Director of Mobile Platforms & Payments, Discover Financial Services
Rocky Agrawal, Principal Analyst, Redesign and contributor to TechCrunch and VentureBeat
Bree Thomas, Director of Digital & Experiential Marketing, Qdoba Mexican Grill
Dan Hess, CEO, Local Offer Network
Liz Ross the CEO of MediaBrands will moderate the discussion which will focus on:
Technologies at the intersection of local, social, mobile and commerce;
Convergence of digital and personalization;
How mobile creates new opportunities for advertisers and merchants to engage with consumers;
Role of start-ups in bringing these innovations to market.
If you live in a big metro area or one of those areas like Hampton Roads Virginia that’s like nine cities built into one, than a job search can be painful based on the geography alone. Take Houston for example, a quick internet search revealed hundreds of jobs in Houston, most of the ads without addresses. Hmmm, what is someone to do, especially someone that doesn’t drive.
Never fear, a Houston entrepreneur has set out to solve that problem with a very interesting startup that meshes job searching and Google Maps. The startup, called JobPlotter, does exactly what you’d imagine with the background info we’ve provided, it plots available jobs on a Google Map.
Why didn’t you think of that? That’s easy because Paul Chittenden did. After experiencing the pain of looking for a job and then locating the job prospects on a map, in Houston.
In the interview below the break, Chittenden explains how he came about the idea for JobPlotter and how they are integrating job data into a Google Map. Now, JobPlotter users can find jobs, and then find where the job actually is.
Comments Off on 5 Great Angel.Co Startups From Everywhere Else: Minnesota0LikeLike 2,663
A few weeks ago we started a series here on nibletz.com of startups from everywhere else that appear on the Angel List (angel.co). We get a weekly email from angel.co, and while they’ve been getting better, typically they are dominated by startups from Silicon Valley and New York. In our series we feature a handful of startups that appear on the list, that aren’t necessarily trending by angel list standards, but are growing as startups from “everywhere else”.
So for this installment we’re exploring five startups from Minnesota.
Mashalot
Mashalot is a social shopping website. It combines the power and influence of Facebook, daily deals, group buying, and the “negotiator” concept from price line.
Late last year Mashalot co-founder John Marino told Minnesota’s Fox 9 that the more influence you have the better your negotiation will be. Marino explained that if you saw a great deal on something like a Black Friday deal or a Cyber Monday deal, you could take it to the merchant (if they are a member of Mashalot) and see if they’ll give you the product for that price. It’s up to the merchant to honor that price or not.
This is where your social influence comes in via Facebook. Naturally if you’re one of those people with thousands of friends on Facebook, the merchant may respond favorably because of your influence, and the fact that Mashalot will post your deal (with your permission) to Facebook.
Along the way you can earn badges and more influence the more you use the service.
They launched Mashalot on 11/11/11 and have since taken down the 1.0 site while they retweak it for a 2.0 launch.
This Minneapolis startup has been hailed as the “E-harmony of home services” by local tech publication tech.mn basically it’s a mobile app and website to help you find the best person for that in home job.
Think Craigslist vs Angies List vs Zaarly vs a date or recommendation site.
The Heroic engine combines recommendations and referrals from a service providers previous clients along with friend recommendations to serve up the top list of people for a job. Things like painting, cutting the grass, gutter cleaning, basic carpentry and most in home jobs are all featured on Heroic.
Co-Founders Justin Barrett and Dan Linstroth know that people nowadays don’t have the time, to interview and weed through hundreds of possible people to do a job. They also know that if you bid a job out on Craigslist half of the respondents are in Nigeria.
With Heroic you can find service providers in your neighborhood that have good ratings and can get your job done on your time line.
Tech.mn reports that Heroic received a $600k seed round from a network of angels in the Minneapolis area. They are rolling out the service in Minneapolis, Denver and Chicago to start and hope to raise a Series A round in the not so distant future to expand into another five markets.
Nothing is more effective for a business than word of mouth. When you combine word of mouth with the power of social media and the internet you’ve got a force to be reckoned with, if you execute correctly. Enter in Hypespark.
Hyperspark is a Minneapolis based startup that incubated at Project Skyway. The idea behind HypeSpark is phenomenal. Local businesses get great advertisement by social endorsement from loyal customers. The local businesses get an endorsement every time the customer shares anything on the web. The customer gets big deals and discounts for being the businesses personal advertising vehicle.
On the surface HypeSpark is a short link service with a micro ad in front of it. Say Lori loved her local bike shop and her local bike shop was on HypeSpark. If Lori agrees to be their endorser, every time she shares a web site link, youtube video or any other url with her friends or social network a real quick micro ad for the bike shop shoes up saying that Lori endorses that company.
It’s kind of like bread with most of the work already done.
I’m always looking for things to replace the pure bull crap that is Klout. I’ve found a really great social media filter in Friendsignia, and now I’ve found Minneapolis based Proliphiq, which offers incredible social media analytics, recommendations and information on social media, influence and content. I’m not sure if it’s free because they are still in beta but right now I can say that with all the social media dashboards I’ve checked out in the last two years, this one offers the most information I’ve ever seen for free.
When you go to Proliphiq’s website at Proliphiq.com you can search for a person by their name, social media identity or a topic.
Searching a name or social media identity will show you their recent posts across networks, content, and their influence on the topics they know the most about. From there you can even add topics that you find that person is a valuable source on. Or, conversely you can give them a thumbs down. This crowd sourced rating is 10x better and more effective than the pulling numbers out of ones posterior end that Klout uses.
For topics you can find the most influential people for your topic and from there you can follow them and keep them in your feed to stay on top of information that’s relevant to you.
Finally you can tweak your own profile and tell the Proliphiq community what you’re all about.
Women owned startup RockYourBlock is the LinkedIn spot for teens. Teens in the twin cities can create a RockYourBlock profile via their Facebook account for the purpose of sourcing jobs for teens. These jobs can be odd jobs, paper routes, internships and other teen type jobs.
The site also allows the teens to create a resume based on the work experience they have along with any accolades that they’ve scored in the RockYourBlock network.
“Teen unemployment is at an all-time high right now across the nation, three times the national rate. The majority of people and companies want to help the next generation learn the value of hard work and responsibility in addition to create job opportunities for them but don’t know where to begin.”
Young’s strategy is to widen their reach to markets like Milwaukee and Chicago later this year and then expand nationwide in year three.
While there have been plenty of teen focused social networks this is the first time that teenagers have had a social network devoted to their lives in the work force. Hopefully they will create a way to export their RockYourBlock page to LinkedIn when the teen crosses over to the real world. This is a really innovative startup in a unique space.
Ed Gandia of Atlanta, nailed it on the head when talking about Toursphere’s Boston Tourguide app to the Boston Herald. Gandia said “In tours there’s always that annoying person in the crowd asking too many questions.
The other part of that is there’s always that person in the tour, besides the guide, that seems to know everything about the location, buddy either get a job as a tour guide or GTFO.
Those are just some of the problems that South Boston based startup, Toursphere, is solving. Toursphere is exactly what you’re thinking an app that takes you on a tour, in this case in Boston Massachusetts. Toursphere’s Boston Insider’s tour takes tourists on a tour of historic downtown Boston by some of Boston’s notable celebrities like Dicky Barrett of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Author Michael Patrick MacDonald has also gotten into the narration for Toursphere.
Tour apps are getting heavily criticized in most cities that use them. People seem to think they have no personality and are dull and mundane. That’s not necessarily the case with Toursphere.
While some appreciate a chummy tour guide who’s hitting you over the head with barely funny jokes and “charming” personality, others think that app guided tours are great.
One of the main benefits to an app guided tour is the ability to go at your own pace. I mean imagine taking a tour down Beacon street and deciding that you want to try some cute little coffee shop, or cupcake shop, and you want to do it now. The tour guide isn’t going to stop, however you can always resume the tour later.
Admittedly, Toursphere isn’t for everybody, however people in other cities are flocking to Toursphere and founder/CEO Rob Pyles. Pyles has created an electronic system where other companies can create their own tour guide apps easily. That system has already been implemented in Chicago, Miami, New Orleans and Washington DC as well as other major cities.
I travel a lot and at sporadic times. I also don’t like having to fork over $40 for a tour and then have to tip the guy. I’m more of a tour at my own pace kind of guy, so Toursphere would definitely work for me. Pyles has developed a monthly subscription rate for businesses that utilize the tour app, making it free for the user. Free is good. Boston is all about Free-Dom you know that Tea and all that, yeah you can hear more about that on the tour.
Comments Off on Virginia Startup: SynkMonkey Keep Your Friends, & Your Plans In Sync INTERVIEW0LikeLike 2,080
We are all very aware of how difficult it is to keep plans in sync when it comes to life on the go running through a smartphone. Whether you’re a group of high school students, fraternity brothers or even golfing buddies, keeping your entire group “in sync” can be a challenge.
Now there’s of course Facebook and Facebook events but one of the huge disadvantages to Facebook is how hard it is to get distracted. I couldn’t tell you the number of times I needed an events address or to ping a friend for somewhere to go and then got sidetracked from my other notifications or even my wall. On the iPhone, iPad or Android phone this can be a wreck.
Enter Charlottesvile Virginia startup SyncMonkey. They combine three very key and important elements in events, activities and staying in sync. Those elements are calendars, mapping and friends. Using this app over traditional event apps keeps you in close contact with everyone that’s supposed to be there.
We got a chance to talk with Hunter Murchison of SyncMonkey about their excited startup, application and some big news, that they’re finally ready for Android. Check out the interview after the break and check out these great interviews, after this one.
Comments Off on Detroit Accelerator: TechTown Hosting Startup Soup August 3rd0LikeLike 2,323
The creativity in pitch events gets better and better. We’ve all heard of the Startup Bus to Austin’s South by Southwest Festival. Several cities have had Startup Trains, where people work on startups on a day long train ride, we’ve even heard of a Startup Beach House (that was unfortunately cancelled).
Now, Wayne University’s TechTown Accelerator is hosting Startup Soup.
The event is open to the public and will be held on August 3rd. Startups that want to pitch must register at the link below before July 31, 2012.
The pitches will be five minutes and there doesn’t seem to be a theme for the pitch contest. There is a nice $1500 cash prize along with 5 free TechTown seminar passes for the winner. The winner will be chosen by a panel of local tech community judges.
The finalists will all receive complimentary tickets to 2 future TechTown events. The events at TechTown are all meant for startup enrichment and offer valuable business resources and continuing education.
After the pitches and the winners are selected there will be an evening of networking, and you guessed it… soup.
The event starts at 5:30pm August 3rd at TechTown 2051 Rosa Parks Boulevard in Detroit.
Kyle
Wahooly has had a lot of buzz lately. Their model which has been described by many as Kickstarter meets Klout, encourages social rockstars to mobilize and support startups for an equity stake. As serial entrepreneurs, Wahooly co-founders Dana Severson, and Connor Hood know that the hardest thing for startups to do is gain traction, especially startups “everywhere else (that’s one reason we’re even here).
Nibletz
