Comments Off on Plan Incredible Dates With Israeli Startup Dateini0LikeLike 1,840
Now you can plan incredible dates by using Israeli startup Dateini.
Dateini allows you to create an account. From there you select the kind of date you want to go on, is it movies, entertainment, wild or romantic? There are several different options for your date.
Dateini than finds three components of your date, dinner, an activity and an after activity place for a drink. If you’re looking for a subdued, intimate evening it may recommend a nice candle lit dinner, walk in the park and then a night cap at a soft piano bar.
One of the best parts of Dateini is after it selects the date for you, it plans out a walking route so you don’t even need to drive from place to place.
You can save your date settings for future use and if you would like you can share your dates as well.
Dateini solves a big problem that many couples have and that is “what to do”. The UI is intuitive and sharp looking and the aggregation is quick. You can also select to have your dates include coupons, deals and discounts to look like a rockstar and stay on a budget.
Dateini was showing off their app at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012 this week as part of the Israel Pavillion.
Comments Off on Israeli Startup: YouHoo Location Based Social Networking For Friends And Strangers0LikeLike 2,020
(photo: pcmag)
An Israeli startup called YouHoo was in the Israeli pavilion at startup alley at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012. They have a new spin on social networking, and in particular,location based or proximity based social networking.
As you’ll see in the video below, YouHoo takes your location and polls the people closest to you. It then turns around and shows them to you on your Android powered smartphone. Your actual friends are in pink, your mutual friends are in blue and strangers are in white.
Founder Ohad Assoulin talked to us for a while about his new social network and how he hopes to turn groups of strangers into groups of friends.
YouHoo would make a great icebreaker for trips to the beach, and other locations where a lot of young people are congregating.
Israel is becoming a hotspot for social networking startups, earlier this week we featured a 15 year old named Tal Hoffman from Israel and his new social network based on interests called iTimdi.
Take YouHoo for a spin, sign up for their beta below and watch the video:
Comments Off on DC Startup Syllabuster Is A Life Saver For College Students: Capital Connection 2012 Interview Video0LikeLike 2,612
Georgetown student Carlos Cheung pitches his startup "Syllabuster" at Capital Connection/TechBUZZ (photo: nibletz inc)
At Capital Connection 2012/TechBUZZ we got to hear Carlos Cheung pitch startup Syllabuster. During the pitch he kicked off his four minute pitch session immediately diving into the problem that Syllabuster solves.
College students party hard and study harder, but sometimes the partying takes over. Now Syllabuster isn’t just an app for partying college students, a lot of college students have busier lives now than they ever had in the past, and may ever have in the future.
Syllabuster is an innovative new academic management platform, designed by college students for college students. It has a user friendly UI and unlike other academic management apps a student actually designed it. Cheung is a student at Georgetown so you know that it’s solid.
We talk with Cheung came up with the idea of Syllabuster at Startup Weekend DC and was able to attract three rock star cofounders including co-founder and CEO Minh Nguyen who sold his startup Plaxo to Comcast for $150 million dollars. Brad Birdsall and Matt Gaidica also joined Syllabuster as co-founders. Birdsall and Gaidica’s startup Lander.com is being acquired by scan.com
Cheung is hoping to move Syllabuster to a public beta in the coming weeks and launch officially in the fall when students are preparing for yet another busy and hectic year. Syllabuster currently have a working prototype and a Launch Rock set up on their website for people to sign up for the beta, and for news about this innovative platform.
Comments Off on Baltimore Black Owned Startup: Point Click Switch Presents At TechBUZZ DC0LikeLike 2,571
Point Click Switch CEO & Co-Founder Phil Croskey Speaks At TechBUZZ DC (photo: Nibletz inc)
Phil Croskey,, CEO and Co-Founder of Black Owned Baltimore Startup, Point Click Switch took the stage today for four minutes to talk about his business which has a solid foundation to stand on because “everyone needs electricity”.
Point Click Switch is a web based application that helps people who live in de-regulated states discover, compare and sign up for utilities. The deregulated states are: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida,Georgia, Illinois, Indiana,Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan,Montana,Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington DC, and West Virginia.
Point Click Switch is like an Expedia or Hotels.com for your energy choices. The site aggregates 7-10 of the most competitive offers and allows the user to compare rates and offers side by side from the comfort of their computer.
When the user is done making their selection, Point Click Switch allows them to initiate service through their site. They will still be billed by the utility itself and they will also still call the utility directly with outages and problems.
Croskey told us that he thinks the rest of the country will eventually adopt the deregulation of energy and electricity which will add an even larger base for Point Click Switch.
Comments Off on Disrupt Is Like Shark Tank, Capital Connection & TechBUZZ Are Like Pitching To Trump0LikeLike 2,227
We saw some of the best and brightest new startups from primarily the greater Washington DC area, at TechBUZZ today. TechBUZZ kicks off the annual CapitalConnection conference which focuses on private equity, startups, growth companies and emerging trends.
Capital Connection is celebrating its 25th anniversary super serving the private investment community in the greater Washington DC area. When Capital Connection first started out most of the investors invested in companies within 100 miles of their homes here. Nowadays with the global change in startup climate, angel funding and venture funding, the hundreds of investors at the conference represent a global community.
Although we’ve been to Launch, DEMO and TechCrunch Disrupt (even yesterday), Capital Connection feels different. It’s a more seasoned crowd of investors ranging from angel investors, venture capitalists, private equity firms and more. Where you get the feeling that the angel and VC firms we read about in TechCrunch and PandoDaily every day, are great people but even fairly new themselves, the Capital Connection conference feels like more seasoned, and dare I even say “old money”.
A better analogy may be, that where pitching at TechCrunch Disrupt, DEMO or Launch would be like pitching to Shark Tank, Capital Connection feels more like pitching to Donald Trump.
Where we wore shots and nibletz t-shirts yesterday we’re in slacks and polos today and possibly a bit underdressed. If you’ve ever been to a startup conference it’s typically shorts, crocs and your startups t-shirt. Presenters today are in long sleeves, some with their startup t-shirt hanging out and some in ties and jackets.
All of this atmosphere makes the pitch seem a little more formal and probably a little tougher on the startup.
We’ll be bringing you coverage over the next couple of days from this amazing conference.
Comments Off on 28 Startups Compete For Best of The Buzz In Washington DC, 3 Are Victorious0LikeLike 2,564
We’re now bringing you coverage from both TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012 and CapitalConnection 12/TechBUZZ in Washington DC.
Today in the nation’s capital 28 different companies did four minute pitches to a packed house vying for “Best of the BUZZ”. Those three companies will head to the Main Stage tomorrow afternoon to compete in the TechBuzz Showdown.
In this contest the audience is given the power to vote via the Disruptathon app.
By audience vote the three “Best of BUZZ” at this years TechBUZZ 12 are:
Augaroo
Cont3nt
Speek
Augaroo is building a next generation real time big data visualization system called Zoomdata. The system processes real-time data streams and generates tactile, interactive visualizations on web and mobile denies. Through Zoomdata, which is currently beta testing, users can experience data analysis in an entirely new way.
Cont3nt.com was the winter of the Startup America TechBUZZ Challenge Contest earlier this month. They won the coveted 28th presenter spot in today’s competition. Cont3nt is a real-time marketplace for entrepreneurial media and visual journalism. The platform allows video journalists to monetize their content in new disruptive ways without having to “know somebody”.
Speek is a simplified conference calling ervice which leverages modern web services and VOIP/Telephony takeaways. Speek users will be able to own a “Spek” line which may be shared via a personal URL. Speek leverages viral growth principals and will offer free and premium services.
TechBUZZ kicked off today in Washington DC with a keynote from Founder and CEO of Opower Dan Yates. Tonight will be an evening of festivities celebrating the “Sterling Companies” alumni of the 25 year Capital Connection program.
Tomorrow there will be pitches on the main stage by companies who are a little further along then the ones today. They may come seeking funding, they could also be pre-IPO. No matter what, Nibletz the voice of startups everywhere else, will bring you all the action.
Tomorrow rounds out with a keynote by America Online founder Steve Case. Later tomorrow evening is a TechCocktail DC Sessions event with Startup America CEO Scott Case (no relation).
Last year at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC we were out in full force to support Ocean City Maryland native Brett Martin. I city I practically grew up in and lived in for nearly 8 years of my formative years. Aside from that Sonar was the first of true social discovery apps and it was very cool then, and even cooler now after todays announcements.
We were totally stoked when Martin and the Sonar team made it to the finals where they came in as a runner up to high end peer to peer car rental startup, Get Around.
We wanted to know what it was like for the last year for the Sonar team. They didn’t win the cup last year but it seems that being a finalist was just as good.
They tripled their office size from 3-9 and they’ve added a whole new suite of features. They also launched an Android beta, which Martin assures me will be released to the public shortly.
Wednesday at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012 it was all about the Here Now Network. Back in March on a phone call with Martin I expressed some worry over the initial Sonar concept. It was fresh and new in May 2011 but by March 2012 there were apps like Highlight, Banjo and Glancee in the space. Martin kept telling me that they were working on things on their back end that he couldn’t talk about but they would blow me away.
Those things Martin showed off today at Disrupt, the Here Now Network, move Sonar far ahead of the competition again.
Sure there are plenty of apps that do discovery and proximity based discovery but Sonar and the Here Now Network are all about your own personal network of people who are here now. Your closest friends, business associates and family members who are in your immediate area are what matters most.
Martin describes some great use cases in the video below. For example when he steps off the subway on his way into work he checks in. He leaves a status “Just got off the subway, headed to Starbucks does anyone want anything”. That message is broadcast to the Sonar team (his coworkers) as soon as he passes by the office door just down the street from Starbucks. Now he can pick up coffee and bagels for everyone without picking up his phone any more than just checking in and looking at the order.
Another example he gives is that his team likes to go out to an outdoor food court sometimes. They all get different items from different vendors and if one of them finds a table they just check in and say “I found a spot in the shade, southeast corner”. The message is broadcast to his teammates.
There are endless things you can do with that feature.
Check out our talk with Brett Martin on the new features, life for the past year and where he and Sonar are going. We recently saw social discovery exit Glancee take an early exit to Facebook. Martin tells us he’s in it for the long haul.
Comments Off on Boston Startup: DailyFeats, Achieve Your Goals For Health & Well Being INTERVIEW0LikeLike 2,082
Sure everyone sets a New Years resolution and typically within a few weeks (if not shorter) the resolution is all but thrown out the window. You’re intentions may be great but the drive, and motivation isn’t there. The same can hold true when you set a goal, like losing weight to fit into a swim suit or quitting smoking.
Well a very cool startup in Boston called DailyFeats is here to help you stay on track, and motivate yourself to achieve your goals and it’s working.
DailyFeats is a reward based habit tracker. It takes your big goals like, quitting smoking and helps reduce them into smaller, more achievable goals, like baby steps. Maybe you need to decrease your cigarette intake or, cut back on the bars you go to where you tend to smoke more. Perhaps you need to eliminate a small stress trigger that signals you to smoke a cigarette. If you can achieve these smaller goals, you can ultimately conquer your bigger goals.
DailyFeats offers a two-fold reward system. The user can request what they’d like to receive for achieving their goal or they can earn points which can be converted to actual dollars and then donated to charity, essentially paying it forward.
DailyFeats was co-founder by two brothers Veer Gidwaney and Vinay Gidwaney along with their science advisor Meghan Searl.
We got a chance to talk with DailyFeats about the startup and how they can help people achieve their goals for health and well being.
Check out the interview, after the break Read More…
Comments Off on Ukraine Startup: activegift, Never Get The Wrong Gift Again0LikeLike 1,857
After reading the headline you’re probably thinking that this Ukraine startup is just another gift registry platform, nope! If you had to give activegift some kind of label, a reverse gift registry may be your best bet.
Co-Founders Artem Sukhoroslov and Max Krylov have created a gift platform that insures you don’t get someone the wrong gift.
Here’s how it works:
Say your birthday, bar mitzvah or Christmas is coming up. You would sign up for activegift and let your friends and family know you have an account there. From there your friends would sign up too. After they sign up they would think of gifts they want to get for you. activegift then anonymizes the gift ideas and sends them back to the recipient. The recipient then gives the gifts a thumbs up or thumbs down.
The recipient can thumb up or thumb down multiple gifts so that they don’t automatically know everything they’re going to receive.
The gift purchaser then gets informed that the recipient has completed their activegift list and with a push of a button they can purchase the gift right there online. See insurance that you will never again buy the wrong gift.
We talk to Artem and Max about activegift and starting up in the Ukraine. Check out the video from TechCrunch Disrupt NY’s Startup Alley, below:
Comments Off on DC Startup: GrandStand Takes Social Engagement To A Whole New Level VIDEO INTERVIEW0LikeLike 1,736
We found a DC startup called Grandstand on #startup alley at TechCrunch Disrupt. What they’re doing will blow some businesses away. Watch the video for some great use cases and the technical explanation. I’m going to describe it in layman’s terms. If you’re a business looking to get real engagement out of social media pay attention.
What Grandstand does is takes aggregated social media data, pulls it and applies it to real world engagements. Think of the Twitter wall concept that burst into popularity around two years ago. Every conference you went to and even some company headquarters would show a hashtag or a Twitter ID on a big television screen for the world to see.
If you’ve ever been to a GDGT event they’re known for their Twitter walls where you’ll find people staring in awe at the Twitter wall waiting for their tweet to show up. The Twitter wall concept is all well and good but in the end you’re just looking at Tweets.
Grandstand takes the Twitter wall concept along with other social networks and for lack of better terminology at 1am while writing this story, makes the tweets, likes, check-ins, statuses and mentions do stuff.
For instance Grandstand has a display at Volkswagon’s headquarters in Germany that shows tweets, and checkins on a map of the globe, and in other unique ways on multiple floor to ceiling screens (check it out it’s in the video).
At South By Southwest in Austin Texas this year Grandstand had a lot of people talking about a refrigerator stocked full of beer. When 10 people checked into the venue the refrigerator unlocked and automagically opened. How cool is that.
Forget text to win, Twitter walls and “like us for a smoothie”, if you’re a company or brand looking to get the most out of your social media you need to check out this video and contact them… NOW!
Comments Off on We Check Out NY Startup Knodes Social Context API At TechCrunch Disrupt0LikeLike 2,142
Ron Williams, the co-founder of SnapGoods and Knodes, caught our eye on the second day of TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012. Knodes is a social data driven context API. You’ve probably heard the term SaaS before (Software as a service), Knodes is a BadasS startup (Big Data As A Service) according to Williams.
Now we’re accustomed to getting pitches. We receive hundred of pitches a week via email, Twitter, Facebook, Google plus and in person. We know what to look for and how to cut through the pitch clutter that most entrepreneurs have to use to get noticed and talk the talk. We’re 100% guilty of doing the same thing. However, Williams is a show me person, so today he showed me an amazing API.
Knodes takes social data form all the major social networks. We’re not just talking profiles, likes or interests, we’re talking about all of that and actual conversation data too, to find the relevant people pertaining to whatever it is you’re looking for.
At Nibletz I’m the Content Director. We decided we didn’t want an Editor in Chief and content directing, procuring and writing is what I do among a million other things. There are a few Content Directors out there but that’s the title on my personal Twitter profile. For the demonstration of Knodes Williams typed Content Director in the box and I was the second result listed.
I thought, wouldn’t it be great for startups to be able to use the Knodes tool. If they wanted to make a pitch for coverage they could simply check the word Editor, and of course it served up hundreds of editors, and notably, the ones that were closest to us first.
Williams sees Knodes as a very valuable tool and service for developers, publishers and many more. The foundation for it is solid and it’s very fast. Williams says it was born out of a need to better search things in his other successful startup SnapGoods. SnapGoods was one of the first peer to peer rental sites in the space. Many are copying his model.
Coincidently Williams shared with me the crazy story about how they came up with SnapGoods too. Since it’s not in the video I’ll tell you.
Williams had started dating his now fiancé, back in 2009. He wanted to impress her by taking her out for a motorcycle ride. The problem was he didn’t own a motorcycle, and you can’t rent them anywhere. Sure you can rent a Vespa but if you’ve met Williams a Vespa really isn’t his style. He wanted a hog.
So on a whim, Williams took to Craigslist and was able to rent a motorcycle from a complete stranger for $250. After he did that he decided more people good do things like that. It’s more experience driven than needs. As SnapGoods grew, Williams needed to build a better search and that’s where the original idea for Knodes came about.
Comments Off on New Orleans Startup: Red Ticket Games Shows Off Extreme Trivia At TechCrunch Disrupt VIDEO INTERVIEW0LikeLike 2,214
Here at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012 we got a chance to meet Barrett Conrad, CEO and PlayerOne at Red Ticket Games. Red Ticket Games is based in the Silicon Bayou, New Orleans to be exact.
We talked with him a bit about their innovative trivia game called Extreme Trivia where you can become an expert on anything, especially because the user creates the questions.
The game is a break from traditional trivia games. One of it’s mean differentiators is the fact that the users create the questions. To conceptualize that idea, think of a it like this: You’ve got a group of friends and you probably have some common interests. Well most trivia games will have the generalized questions based on your topic, but with Extreme Trivia you can do relevant questions based on your knowledge.
Imagine if the guys from Big Bang Theory played a game like this. Obviously their intellectual ability far outshines the game writers at Parker Brothers, but with creating your own questions you have a better chance at stumping your friends, or helping them out.
As a special part of this interview our managing editor Cameron Wright talked to Conrad a bit about the thriving startup scene in New Orleans and what it’s been like to rebuild after the storm. Admittedly there wasn’t much of a startup scene in New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina. After the storm New Orleans was like an open canvas in their rebuild.
While New Orleans hip hop scene migrated to Atlanta, Houston and Dallas, their tech scene started to bubble. In fact there was just a launchpad event earlier this month right smack dab in the middle of Jazz Fest.
Whether you want to know more about Red Ticket Games, Extreme Trivia or the New Orleans startup scene, you should definitely check out this video.
Comments Off on Philly Startup Snip Snap, Putting Print Coupons In The Digital Space0LikeLike 2,449
Snip Snap founder Ted Mann presenting at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012 (photo: nibletz inc)
A new startup mobile app called Snip Snap presented today during the first session of Tech Crunch Disrupt’s Battlefield. Snip Snap is in the pool of 30 other startups competing for 50,000 dollars and the Disrupt cup. I loved the idea so much that I started writing this article while Snip Snap founder Ted Mann was still presenting.
The idea for the app is incredible (hence why I am writing about it right this second). Basically you take a picture of an actual print coupon out of your newspaper or direct mail. The picture uploads to the app, makes note of the barcode and the expiration date and goes into your virtual wallet.
Once in your wallet the coupon can be shared with other users. That gives the app a second life. I remember when I moved away from home my mom would send me her coupons from the Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post now with this app you can get coupons from major stores across the country. If you didn’t know, sometimes a Bed Bath & Beyond may have a great deal on something in California and not in New York and vice versa.
MC Hammer questions Snip Snap founder Ted Mann At TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012 (photo: nibletz inc)
With all this nationwide coupon sharing, there is a function in the app that lets you report back to the Snip Snap network on whether or not the user was successful redeeming the coupon.
The judges met Snip Snaps founder with the immediate questions you would think of like, what about coupon fraud. Right now it’s totally up to the merchant on whether they are going to a) accept the coupon via an image on your phone and b) whether they want to honor the deal. Surprisingly there is still an 80% success rate with the coupons currently in snip snap.
Other features include:
Expiration date reminders
In store reminders (when you enter a store that you have a coupon for, Snip Snap lets you know)
Use for any coupons, it doesn’t matter what the coupon is for
We found an awesome startup out of Boston Massachusetts called Brass Monkey. In addition to having an uber cool name the technology is cool, innovative and fun, a definite recipe for great success.
Brass Monkey allows the user to play fun, interactive games on their computer’s monitor or any other monitor with a browser, using their iPhone as a controller. The iPhone controller utilizes all the sensors in the iPhone to create an interactive experience. In the demo video below we check out a golf game, similar to Wii Golf, that allows you to use the iPhones motion sensors to control the iPhone like a golf club.
There are currently 10 games available. Brass Monkey has a free SDK for developers who are interested in developing games on their system.
Brass Monkey is a recent graduate of the Mass Challenge program, which they credit as a large part of their success thus far. They also received a $750k round of funding in January of this year which included the co-founders of Kima Ventures, Jeremie Berrebi, David Beyer, CEO of Chart.io, Founder and Managing Director of Boston Seed Capital Nicole Stata, and more.
Kyle
Now you can plan incredible dates by using Israeli startup Dateini.
