Startups Archives - Page 128 of 144

Chicago Startup: Woman Owned SpaSircle Connects You With Medical Spa Treatments

A new woman owned startup in Chicago is taking on the task of educating women about medical spa treatments and then connecting them to carefully curated providers with discounts. SpaSircle offers women discounts on laser hair removal, Botox, dermal filters, chemical peels and more.

While some may be skeptical of finding information on a discount driven site online, Jessica Wiser the founder of SpaSircle has taken every precaution to make sure that SpaSircle isn’t just offering discounts and information, but that it’s a safe marketplace as well. As Wiser explains later in our interview, her and her physician advisory board make sure that SpaSircle keeps out the “riff raff”.

We caught up with Jessica for a quick startup interview.

Briefly describe SpaSircle

SpaSircle is a website designed to educate women on medical spa treatments, such as Botox, laser hair removal, dermal fillers, and chemical peels, while also providing great discounts on these procedures! Physicians want to be listed on SpaSircle, because it is an exclusive group of physicians that can only be invited to join. We have a board of physicians who have screened all medical spas and physicians in the Chicago area who do these procedures, to make sure that the provider we send our members to is well trained, and will give their patients the very best results. We are the only website with discounted procedures and Chicago’s premiere physicians that people can trust, so we feel we’re poised to take this business from GroupOn and other daily deal sites.

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

I am the founder of SpaSircle, but do have some employees that have been crucial to the success of the company. Amy Phillips, in particular, has been head of sales and just like a partner to me.

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Seattle Startup: Joey Bra, A Bra For Holding Cell Phones, IDs And More

Whether you want to admit to it or not, or whether you think it’s classy or not, we all know someone or maybe you are that someone, who when you need to hold something fit for a pocket and have a nice skirt on or no pocket yoga pants, you’ve resorted to putting it in your bra. Maybe it was a little cash, maybe your drivers license or credit card, perhaps your cell phone. Well now there’s bras made specifically for that. It’s called the Joey Bra.

Mariah Gentry and Kyle Barlow are the co-founders of Joey Bra. These innovative bras include pockets that align with the side of the body capable of holding your cell phone, some cash, maybe your IDs, and they do it without drawing attention to the bra itself.

Geekwire’s Rebecca Lowell was one of 200 judges at the UW business plan competition. She stumbled upon this innovative new startup the moment she walked through the door. She took notice to the model wearing nothing but a bra up top, a Joey Bra.

This isn’t some gimmicky idea. Gentry is a NASA Space grant student with a double major in entrepreneurship and environmental science. She also was a finalist in the Wells Fargo Case Competition. She met co-founder Barlow at UW’s Foster School of Business.

The duo is targeting college students and offers two models a strapless version and an 8 way convertible strap version. Lowell reported that her only concern was the access to the items in the compartments and moisture as the result of perspiration. No worries as one of the co-founders works at REI and they’ve already been sourcing water proof materials.

Linkage:

Source: Geekwire

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North Carolina Startup: Nanoly Wins Duke Startup $50,000 Spring Challenge

(photo: Sophia Palenberg/The Chronicle)

A women owned startup called Nanoly has just won the Duke startup $50,000 spring challenge. Duke University’s $50,000 spring startup competition ran from February until this week. The startups in the challenge had to fit into one of three tracks; the functional track, special interest track or pilot track. Within the functional track were 5 categories; Clean Energy, Healthcare and Life Sciences, IT, Internet and Media, Social Enterprises and other. The grand prize winner came from the Healthcare and Life Sciences category.

Ting Ting Zhou (Duke University), Nanxi Liu (Berkeley) and Crystal Lee (Stanford) founded Nanoly with one common goal, to use a nano-sized solution to solve a macro sized problem. While you may not think about it the problem that these three women are hoping to solve is actually a big problem and one as Americans we may take for granted.

Zhou explains in her pitch video that while developed countries have access to vaccines and diseases like small pox are pretty much eradicated, emerging countries don’t have access to vaccines. One of the main reasons emerging countries don’t have access to vaccines can be boiled down to refrigeration and electricity.

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Michigan Startups: Amway Heir Rick Devos Launches StartGarden

Rick Devos Michigan Entrepreneur & Heir to the Amway Fortune launches startgarden.com

For nearly a decade now the heir apparent to the Amway fortune, Rick Devos has been establishing his own name in Michigan’s business circles. He is a creative entrepreneur who loves getting feedback from the public on his business endeavors, that’s why he’s started the Start Garden.

The Devos family has pledged $15 million dollars to the very unique Start Garden fund, competition, accelerator, contest of sorts. Here’s how it works. Every week the new venture capital fund will invest $5,000 in each of the two new ideas. They will continue to invest incrementally as the startups gain momentum. The first uniquely Devos twist is that the Start Garden team will choose the first idea, while the public at large can vote on the second.

Startups and entrepreneurs will submit their idea on the Start Garden website at startgarden.com. The public will have the opportunity to come to the website and vote on the idea. At the end of the week the idea with the most endorsement will win the second $5,000 dollars.

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Kansas City Startup: Zippido Achieve Your Goals And Tasks With The Help Of Your Social Network

Most people, whether they want to admit it or not, find that achieving goals or getting tasks completed is easier with a buddy, friend or family member either cheering them on, rooting for them or actually helping out. Think about the last time you told your wife before you went to bed “hey honey remind me to call the care dealer tomorrow” or any other “reminder”. It’s this simple notion which led to the creation of Zippido.

Zippido founder, Ray Haynes describes Zippido to Nibletz.com as “ZippiDo! is a platform that brings the energy of your social network into your goals and tasks. Users of ZippiDo! can easily find, create and track goals – while sharing and discussing them with their friends.”

So think about something like organizing the community yard sale. If you’ve ever tried to organize one of these things it’s a daunting task. With Zippido you could create a task “community yard sale” and then from your social network get the help of your neighbors. You would know who’s making the signs, who’s advertising on craigslist, who’s advertising in the paper and who’s getting breakfast. With Zippido all the tasks are there for whoever you invite into them.

Although Haynes came up with the idea himself, and it’s got an awesome intuitive UI, Zippido reminds us a lot of what Google Wave would have been like if it was on Facebook. The downside to Google Wave was that you couldn’t bring the collaborators in as easy as you could with Facebook. This sets Zippido apart in it’s own right. Trust me, comparing Zippido in this way is a compliment.

We got a chance to catch up with Haynes, who is extremely busy with multiple startup projects. Here’s the rest of the interview:

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

I came up with the concept for ZippiDo! about two years ago. ZippiDo! is an Invenitas company, which consists of myself, Jon Stutzman (Creative Director), Paul Santulli (IT Project Manager and COO), and Bert Weidt (CTO). I am the chief development, and vision leader. Invenitas is also involved with other startups such as 11Mhz Media which recently launched ElevenReasons.com.

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Startup Indiana Launches To A Packed House

(photo: startupamerica)

If the packed house at Wednesday nights Startup Indiana kickoff is any indication of things to come, we’ll be reporting a lot on Indiana. 350 entrepreneurs, founders, community members, supporters and investors turned out for the party celebrating the latest Startup America partnership.

“Entrepreneurs in Indiana are diverse and dynamic, and we all come from different backgrounds–with unique experiences and expertise,” said Matt Hunckler, Startup Indiana champion. “Startup Indiana will serve a crucial role in connecting the dots between industries, redefining business models, and disrupting the status quo.”

Startup America CEO, who’s trying to beat the nibletz team in travel miles, Scott Case was on hand for the festivities:

“I had the pleasure of experiencing first-hand Indiana’s amazing startup scene when I came out for the Super Bowl,” said Case. “I’m incredibly excited to see the local startups, large companies and entrepreneurial leaders come together though Startup Indiana to make it an even better place to start and grow a company and encourage all startups in the state to join today.”

Startup America and Startup Indiana urge entrepreneurs, startup founders, and investors to join Startup America. It’s a free nationwide resource. This year Startup America is committed to bringing as many localities across the country with a startup scene into the partnership. Down the road Startup America will be able to offer benefits to startups and entrepreneurs across the country with the clout of America’s largest startup organization behind it.

Linkage:

To Join Startup Indiana click here

For More on Startup America click here

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Huntsville Alabama Startup Has The Answer To Losing Money On Penny Auction Sites

Over the past few years penny auction sites have exploded. Just about every TV network has a slew of ads promoting one penny auction site or another. “Imagine getting the new iPad for $25” that’s how they attract bidders to their site. Many people have avoided penny auction sites because of the old adage, “If it sounds to good to be true it probably is” however, if you understand how penny auction sites work, with a little luck it can prove to be very profitable.

For those of you not familiar with the penny auction site, here’s a little primer of just how it works. You register for the site and link a payment source. The product that you’re bidding on starts off with a penny and moves up in price as more people bid on it. Easy enough right? Well while you’re bidding on the item at penny intervals, there is a payment or a bid cost that you incur, it could be anywhere from $.25 to $.99 so as you increase the cost of the item you are dumping that much more money into the auction itself.

When the penny auction closes, let’s say for that New iPad for $25.00 that could have been 2500 bids. If that penny auction site is charging say $.25 per bid that’s $625 they just made for the new iPad which would have cost you $499 in an electronics store. Now say you’re the winner. You would pay $25.00 the cost of the winning auction, but lets also say you have 100 bids in. So now you’re paying $275.00 for the new iPad not $25.00. However, look it at for what it’s worth you just saved half price on a brand new iPad. What happens with the money if you don’t win?

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Massachusetts Startup: Have You Heard Wins “ReThink Music” Startup Competition

from left: Rethink Music Genesis Project startup competition winners Adam Gottesfeld and Joey Seiler, co-founders of Have You Heard?; (photo: hyperbot)

Two Harvard Law School students, Joey Seiler and Adam Gottesfield and the startup they’ve founded called “Have You Heard” have one a music startup competition sponsored by ReThink Music Berklee and Babson College. You may be wondering what studying and law have to do with this music based startup, well nothing, but it’s a great idea.

From my days in top 40 radio in medium and major markets the hardest thing for a music director in a radio station to do is actually listen to new music. On any given Tuesday (new music day) there are anywhere from 10-30 “priority” records that the record labels want to get airplay. In the 90’s there was a competition called the AIR competition (Active Industries Research) a company founded by Jonas Cash who founded the Billboard Airplay Monitor. Music directors and Program Directors at R&R reporting radio stations would compete every week to guess where a track would end up on the charts. At the end of the quarter prizes, including BMW’s and 30,000 in cash were awarded to those that got the most right.

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Detroit Startup: RegainGo Introduces Home Owners To Home Improvement Service Providers

Now that Spring is officially underway, despite that cold front we just had on the east coast, home improvement is on a lot of peoples minds. Home Improvement startups happen to be a hot topic these days. Earlier this week we told you about Florida startup showoff.com that helps home owners by providing free home virtualization software so home owners can see what home improvements will look like.

RegainGo is a Detroit based startup in the home improvement space. Co-Founders Jason Beale and Clark Covert are looking to bring home owners and home improvement service providers together in a way that fosters a relationship of trust. Xconomy calls the startup a hybrid of Groupon and AngiesList.

Covert and Beale have backgrounds in real estate. They found that when people were looking to have work done for their homes they would go to Google and use the first name that pops up. That caused a disconnect between homeowners and service providers that do quality work.

RegainGo is attracting homeowners to their site and their service providers by offering coupons for home improvement services. After the user signs in via Facebook they can browse the deals on the RegainGo site and buy the ones they like. The site encourages you to share the deal with friends and family via the users social networks. A voucher for the deal you purchase will be emailed to you and that merchant will honor it.

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Portland Startup: Chifpify Raises $1.3 Million For It’s Twitter Commerce Platform

Imagine if one of your favorite online retailers was having a sale on a new cashmere sweater that you’ve been wanting forever. Imagine if they tweeted that sweater and all you had to do was reply to the tweet with the word “Buy” and in three days you’d have that sweater delivered to your home? Well that’s becoming a reality thanks to Portland Oregon startup Chirpify.

Chirphify’s founder and CEO Chris Teso, who started the company as “Sell Simply” plans on making buying things on Twitter that easy. “Everybody is trying to become that ubiquitous wallet,” Teso told website oregonlive.com.

It works pretty much as I described it above. A Twitter user registers both their Twitter and Paypal accounts with Chirpify. A Chirpify merchant solicits a sale on twitter for example “Red Cashmere Sweater $19.99 delivered” and those with Chirpify accounts can simply reply with “buy” and the transaction is initiated. Chirpify takes a small percentage from the vendor for facilitating the transaction.

Are people using it? Yes, in fact Nestle has been using it to sell PowerBars on Twitter. Teso is hoping to attract independent musicians who could sell downloads via Twitter to their Twitter followers.

Chirpify’s $1.3 Million dollar investment was led by Voyager Capital and included Ryan Holmes, Hootsuite’s CEO. Private investor Geoff Entress, BuddyTV CEO Andy Liu and Rudy Gadre a former Facebook executive participated as well. Angel investors with TIE Oregon also participated. Oregonlive reports that Portland incubator UpStart Labs provided Chirpify with an earlier backing of $50,000.

Linkage:
Find out more about Chirpify here

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Source: OregonLive

Houston Startup WhimseyBox To Take Up Residence At Excelerate Labs Chicago

Alicia DiRago, a Houston based entrepreneur is packing her bags for the windy city. Thank goodness it’s the spring and soon to be the summer as we’re not sure how well the climate change would effect a Texan. DiRago’s startup is Whimseybox. You’re probably thinking it’s another subscription box club. You are absolutely right, however the subscription box club keeps taking on different spins, this time the theme is crafts.

Every month Whimseybox (well Alicia) sends out a box of great craft samples. The box costs $15. Now she is careful to mention that the boxes aren’t “kits” in other words there are no instructions, just the samples and your imagination.

Now if you aren’t as creative as you’d like to be DiRago posts craft ideas on Whimseybox’s blog and at least 4 full tutorials every month in the project gallery.

But now it’s time for DiRago to focus on business and take Whimseybox to the next level. Admittedly she can’t send out as many boxes as she would like. Hopefully after her experience at the Excelerate Lab in Chicago she’ll have not only some capital but more know how to turn this great idea around.

DiRago and Whimseybox will join 9 other companies in this 2012 class. She will give up a small equity stake (last year it was 6%) in exchange for cash, working space, and mentorship. She will also get a convertible note from Chicago’s New World Ventures (last year candidates got a $50,000 note).

All of this will culminate with a DEMO day on August 29th where all the participants will show off their startups to Chicago’s thriving tech community.

Excelerate is moving this year to the swanky new 1871 startup center.

Linkage:

Find out more about Whimseybox here

Find out more about Excelerate Lab here

Nibletz is the voice of startups everywhere else, check out these stories

We’re on a nationwide startup roadtrip, check this out please

Source: ChicagoBusiness.com

Boston Startup Play140 Acquihired By OOmba Founded By The Creator Of Atari

Play140 CEO Shawn Broderick and his team thought they were onto something that could be game changing. The company had built an acronym game, called The Acronym Game, to be played on Twitter. Their thinking was simple, make Twitter more than just communication. It was a novel idea, play games on Twitter, I mean everyone was doing it on Facebook.

The game was simple, see who could make the most clever phrase out of the acronym provided. For whatever reason the game never took off. The company’s Twitter feed shut down and they stopped posting on their blog. Boston.com reports that the employees of the company, including two of the three co-founders went to find other jobs. That left Broderick and the company’s CTO Michael Johnson left manning what was left of the game.

Fast forward to this week and they’ve had some rather exciting news. A venture funded startup called Oomba has acquired Play140 for an undisclosed amount. What’s really interesting is that this startup’s founders include Nolan Bushnell. Now if y you’re thinking that name sounds familiar, it’s because Bushnell founded Atari and Chuck E Cheese among other feats in his career.

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EXCLUSIVE: Los Angeles: 23 Year Old Woman Launches Smartzer, A Startup That Will Change Video Forever

smartzer, tv, kevin harrington, Karoline Gross, Nibletz

23 Year Old Karoline Gross Is The Founder Of The New Video Platform Smartzer (photo: K. Gross)

This story has wow written all over it and Nibletz, the voice of startups everywhere else has it first.

With all the innovation in video in the past few years we knew it was a matter of time before someone, some company or some startup would find a way to hot link or link map products in videos, like product placements, to actually make them clickable and then purchasable. We didn’t know it would be a 23 year old woman from Los Angeles that would do it. That’s exactly what Karoline Gross and her startup Smartzer are doing.

Imagine watching a movie or an episode of one of your favorite shows and seeing an iPad or some cool new iPad charging cradle you haven’t seen before. When the Smartzer officially launches this fall, and the video content is Smartzer enabled you will be able to click that iPad or iPad charger and see more in-depth information about the product or purchase it. This is what people like Kevin Harrington, CEO of “As Seen On TV” has been dreaming about.

When the technology launches producers will have to integrate the Smartzer system into their videos in order for it to work, but with the progress Gross has made so far, and the fact that she’s in Los Angeles meeting with studio executives all the time, it won’t be too long until we see this technology on the big three networks. You will be able to use your smartphone to watch tv and interact with tv for more than just checking in and redeeming deals, you’ll be able to click, look and buy.

You like the jacket Ryan Seacrest is wearing on Idol, click, look, buy. You like the dress your favorite star is wearing on the red carpet, click, look buy. What about that song in Glee, click, look, buy. Yes we knew it was coming and Smartzer is setting the pace.

We got a chance to catch up with the busy 23 year old entrepreneur and here’s what she had to tell Nibletz about herself and her amazing startup:

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Austin Startup: Kampfire.co Lets You Play Drinking Games Miles Apart

There’s an interesting new startup in Austin Texas. The startup, called Kampfire.co is hoping to bring together friends, family members and others to socially play drinking games across the internet, enabling both social and video. Of course the startup is only open to those 21 and over.

Co-Founder Joe Wallen told Nibletz.com that this idea came about because friends and family members after college sometimes want to get together for fun, adult socializing. He talked about how you could play beer pong with a buddy who may have been shipped off for the military (off duty of course), or frat brothers who’ve moved away could get together for an evening of fun and games, via the internet.

Now we’re not talking about avatars or animation we’re talking about a real video enabled platform to set up drinking games and play in remote locations.

We told you this was interesting. We spoke to Wallen a little more in-depth about it:

What is Kampfire.com?

The main product will be online gaming/social network, with an online store. This creates not only a forum for sponsors to market their products, but also to market our own line of apparel and merchandise. The targeted consumers are anyone, worldwide, who plays any of the drinking games offered on the website. We will not, however, be confined to cyberspace. The monthly and yearly tournaments can be held live, College vs. College, military branch vs. military branch, and tours are just a few of the other areas that will bring sponsors and new growth. Others are sure to follow once they see the billion dollar industry that we have created.

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