Ohio Startup Crowdentials Launches Crowdfunding Compliance Platform

Crowdfunding is the hottest space for startups right now. And now, with changing regulations, it could get even hotter.

The Jumpstart Our Business Startup Act was passed over a year ago, paving the way for crowdfunding startups to offer equity. After the bill passed in both the Senate and the House it was then referred over to the Securities And Exchange Commission (SEC) to come up with the regulations for crowdfunding.

The JOBS Act has a lot of regulations to follow, including the fact no individual making less than $100,000 can invest more than $2000 or 5% of their net worth. Crowdfunding is going to spawn a whole new type of investor and there are currently no regulatory software programs out there. That’s the guts behind Crowdentials.

Richard Rodman, the cofounder of Crowdentials, spoke about crowdfunding in February at the Everywhereelse.co Startup Conference in Memphis. He founded the company with Chief Operating Officer Rohan Kusre and Chief Technology Officer Max Heckel. The three came up with the idea for Crowdentials in April and were recently accepted into the Cleveland-based FlashStarts’ startup accelerator program.

While the SEC is still finalizing its regulations, the Crowdentials technology is ready to go. “Our compliance solution is all variable-driven and will adapt to any regulations put forth,” Rodman said in a statement. Once the regulations are officially complete, the entrepreneur plans to launch “within minutes.”

In the meantime, Crowdentials is preparing a collection of multi-media resources and guides for both crowdfunding rookies and experts. In addition to teaching the basics, the comprehensive suite will cover the nuances, regulations, risks, and opportunities associated with equity crowdfunding.

Crowdentials’ technology ensures that investors, businesses, and platforms are following the SEC’s rules. According to Rodman, “Crowdentials is the vital link between the SEC regulations and all crowdfunding parties”.

Individuals who gain compliancy through Crowdentials can trust that they are abiding by the regulations, and startups can feel confident that they are raising money through compliant individuals. Rodman believes the SEC’s regulations are meant to protect the new crowdfunding population from fraud and financial distress. “That’s why compliance is so important,” the entrepreneur said. “When everyone is aware of their level of compliance, we can make more educated investment decisions.”

Crowdfunding has spawned hundreds of crowdfunding sites that will help connect would-be investors to startups and other small businesses’ needing funds. Now startp founders are finding ways to support the crowdfunding economy. Cowdfunding vetting companies, insurance companies, and even discovery companies have all popped up over the past year with more expected when the rules change to allow equity investments.

In the meantime feel free to check out Crowdentials at crowdentials.com

7 key elements of a successful crowdfunding campaign.

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Startup Weekend Hosting “Makers” Event Next Week In Seattle

Startup Weekend, the non profit in Seattle that recently joined forces with Startup America, is hosting a new kind of 54 hour hackathon startup weekend event in their hometown next weekend. This time, instead of assembling entrepreneurs, designers, and developers to create businesses, they’ll be working on making things.

Startup Weekends are typically about creating software and other tech startups. This time around at the MakerHaus, the hackers will have the resources to “bring innovation to a whole new level.” The teams at the Seattle event will be able to design and prototype actual physical products using micro-controllers, laser cutting, 3D printing, metal working, and wood working.

People with ideas for products will get to pitch those ideas on Friday evening. From there the group will vote on the products that they want to build and several will be built out over the following 52 hours.

Normally there are three kinds of tickets sold to a startup weekend event; developer, designer, and non-technical. These teams have produced countless startups that are still going today. Some have even gone on to get funding like Zaarly, or win bigger startup contests like Aspiredu.

For this Maker’s edition, Startup Weekend is throwing in one more ticket, a “unicorn” ticket. These are people who agree to be taught how to run the machinery at MakerHaus.

There will be some great coaches on hand for the weekend:

Alex Diener, Creative Director Pensar Development
Marc Barros, co-founder and former CEO of Contour
Ayemerik Renard, Vice President Accelerator, PCH International
H.B. Siegel, CTO IMDb.com
Jim Young, President and Creative Director, Nice Inc
Adam Benzion, Portfolio Manager, 10AK Technologies
Beth Kolko, co-founder and CEO Shift Labs
Terence Tam, Principal Engineer, OpenBeam USA

To register or for more info click here.

Check out this great event for startups everywhere else.

Startup Tips: 5 Simple Ways To Collect Customer Feedback

Steve Jobs is famous for downplaying the importance of customer input, claiming customers don’t know what they want until they’ve seen it. While that philosophy has so far worked phenomenally well for Apple, most products can’t be developed in a bubble.

Even before we built our first product prototype, we spent countless hours speaking to would-be customers to gather suggestions, feedback and input. While most founders see the value in conducting market research in one way or another at the start of the development process, all too often they fail to continue this interaction. Companies should make a point of gathering feedback from customers throughout the entire development cycle — basically as long as you’re in business.

Here are five easy ways to get feedback on your product:

1. Customer Surveys

The most efficient way to garner feedback from customers is through surveys. To ensure the highest response rate possible (usually a typical rate of response is around 5 percent, and 10 percent or higher is exceptional), we recommend keeping the survey to a maximum of 15 questions. Include questions that relate to the overall industry your product fits into and whether or not customers would like to participate in any future product testing or marketing events. We use Google Forms for short questionnaires and SurveyMonkey for more in-depth surveys.

We used information from our latest survey to not only improve our product, but to ask for product reviews, case studies, more in depth feedback calls and of course to gain a larger picture of the space we play in — Google Apps.

2. Support Forums

Support forums aren’t a revolutionary idea, but the most successful forums are highly interactive. Customers should be able to give their input, comment on others’ ideas and see that you and your support team are taking active roles by responding to every single request. We use Zendesk for our forum, as well as ticketing and overall product support.

We’ve already added 15 of the most popular customer suggestions left in the forum to our product and have another 15 slated for development in the coming months. Could we have thought of those 30 ideas on our own? Probably. But ideas are generated a lot faster when you can ask a customer base of 12,000 companies what they’d like to see. Plus, you never have to worry if you’re adding features people will actually use.

3. Let Customers Provide Feedback Inside the Product

To make sure you’re gathering input from customers on an ongoing basis, include an easy way to leave feedback directly within your product. While some companies choose to pop up a review or feedback form on the third or fourth login, we chose to add a feedback window users can view or hide as they please. The widget is set up to track the exact page users leave feedback for, giving us an even better understanding of issues, suggestions and engagement on different facets of the product.

4. Wireframe Reviews

In the earliest stages of product development, we showed wireframes — the bare bones of the product UI — to “trusted testers” using Protoshare and GoToMeeting. Our user experience designer actually gave control of his mouse and keyboard to the tester, giving them a task to accomplish within the application and closely watching how they went about accomplishing said task. Feedback from these initial reviews surfaced several early problems with the product layout, including a very unpopular “edit” icon.

Today, we continue to create wireframes and set up UX and creative reviews for every new feature we develop. Everything from colors, layout and copy are up for criticism.

No matter what your product is, if you’re solving a real problem, there are people out there who want to see it solved too. Comb through user groups and forums to find your first trusted testers. These people should be experts on the area your product addresses and have real experience working with competitive products or their own self-made workarounds. Keep in mind that if you can’t find at least a handful of people willing to help with wireframe reviews, it may be time to take your idea back to the drawing board.

After you’ve released your product and have actual customers walking through wireframes, find a few unhappy customers who aren’t afraid to voice their concerns. Don’t take criticism personally — it only helps to move your product further along.

5. Feature Contests

Feedback has been so abundant that we decided to launch a feature contest. During the month of the contest, 59 feature requests, 155 votes, 87 comments and over 2,500 views were counted. We incentivized our customers to participate by ensuring the winning feature would actually be built into our product before the end of the year.

Participation was so high that we decided to choose not one, but two winners and shared the results with our entire customer base via the company blog, social media outlets, an email newsletter and even through a Google Hangout On Air.

If you make an ongoing effort to gather customer feedback throughout the product development process, at the end of the day, you’re left with better ideas, a more robust product — and a loyal customer base who knows you actually care about their opinions.

David Politis is the founder and CEO of BetterCloud, the maker of FlashPanel, the number one cloud management tool for Google Apps, and the Google Apps resource site, AsktheGooru.com. Follow him @DavePolitis.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

Where do you go offline to connect with other entrepreneurs and startups?

What College Graduates Know That Small Business Owners Don’t

By Margaret Lyons, Customer Success Manager for InfoStreet, makers of SkyDesktop, a free Cloud-based desktop.

On May 22, 2013, I earned my Bachelor’s Degree.

Yet, I’m not your average college graduate. I spent a good ten years immersed in many facets of the business world before coming to the realization that my future had to include higher education if I was to attain all of my life goals. During the last four years, I’ve attended school full-time at community college and later a university all while working full-time as Customer Success Manager at InfoStreet, Inc. During this time, I’ve had the unique opportunity to engage with undergraduate students as well as CEOs on a daily basis, and the time that I have spent in this unorthodox situation has clearly demonstrated to me that there is one very important thing that most college graduates know that many small business owners do not: college graduates know the cloud.

Now, my statement may shock you. Or, perhaps you’re not surprised – after all, today’s graduates are learning about the latest and greatest in business, technology, and communications in their coursework. But this is the plain truth: college graduates have experience with the cloud in a way that many small business owners do not. And this experience gives college graduates an edge that small business owners may miss out on.

Today’s college students interact with the cloud on a daily basis. As an example from my personal experience, both the community college that I attended as well as the state university that I am graduating from use a cloud program called Moodle as a staple of the learning experience. Moodle is a system that allows professors to calculate and report grades, administer and score tests, and collect and track assignments, among other uses. Just ten years ago, when I began dabbling in community college courses, all of this happened on paper, or on personal computers. Communication was slow and inefficient. Today, Moodle lets me contact any of my classmates and my professor with one click. I can begin an online discussion relevant to the course on a message board that reaches the entire class, and I can check my grades and get a clear snapshot of my standing at any time of the day. Beyond Moodle, students at my university also have access to a cloud system that is used to register for courses, pay fees, track degree progress, print unofficial transcripts, and even purchase textbooks. This inherent cloud proficiency means that many of today’s college graduates are entering the workforce with a skill that many small business owners do not have. Like those of our generation who grew up with computers in our classrooms, today’s college graduates have an ability that no generation before has had the opportunity to learn.

The cloud offers small business owners this same variety of functions and flexibility, which increases company productivity. In my professional life, I interact with CEOs of small businesses every day. I keep track of my contacts in a basic cloud CRM system called InfoStreet CRM, one of many cloud CRM options available. I schedule my meetings via the InfoStreet Calendar. I compose, proofread, and share documents using Google Drive. I host online webinars via MeetingBurner. Nearly 90% of my day is spent working in the cloud and using the cloud to my benefit and the benefit of my company. I am able to communicate with clients and partners, track information that is pertinent to my position, and save time while using the cloud. The same is true for my company’s CEO, as well as our employees. The cloud is not only our product, the cloud is what gets us through every day.

Why aren’t more small business owners taking advantage of the benefits that the cloud offers? Although I certainly can’t speak on behalf of all small business owners, I can tell you that the ones that I speak with often come to one conclusion: they aren’t familiar with the cloud and are therefore reluctant to make the move. This is certainly a valid concern. Luckily, companies such as InfoStreet exist (shameless plug – I happen to think we’re pretty fantastic). At InfoStreet, not only do we offer small business owners a multitude of cloud apps to choose from to get them started, but we also invest in our customers’ and partners’ time. We offer full support, if you need it, and plenty of written online support if you don’t.

Cloud apps exist for any business need you could imagine: accounting, employee scheduling, customer appointment setting, file sharing, calendaring, email, project management, customer relationship management, e-signatures, online meetings, and the list goes on. The first step a small business owner needs to take is to get out there and research, either on their own or with a partner. With any reputable cloud service provider, a small business owner can explore the cloud at no financial risk to their company. Learning about the cloud and then putting the cloud to work will allow small business owners to keep up with recent college graduates – and the business world – and will help companies increase their growth while saving time.

With so many options available to simplify your life and increase your company’s productivity, why would you wait any longer to explore the cloud? If you’d like to see what InfoStreet has to offer, visit www.infostreet.com.

15 interview questions to ask your next startup hire.

Omaha Prepares For Inaugural Class At Straight Shot Accelerator

Omaha Nebraska is no stranger to startups. Regional mega blog Silicon Prairie News is based there, and they’ve been holding the Big Omaha startup conference for the last five years. Earlier this month SPN welcomed even more startups to the Silicon Prairie with the announcement of the inaugural class of startups for the new cohort based accelerator program beginning July 8.

The accelerator has a focus on e-commerce with a variety of startups going through the first class. There are 14 founders in all and 7 startups. Four of the startups are from outside of Omaha and are starting to get settled in now before the fourth of July holiday.

According to SPN Hayneedle founder Mark Hasebroock is the brains behind Straight Shot. In the early part of the new millennium Hasebroock helped found hammocks.com an online site to buy hammocks. He helped grow the company into Hayneedle, one of internets largest retailers of outdoor goods, decorative items and items for the home.

Hasebroock is now the Managing Partner for Dundee Venture Capital, the firm that’s backing Straight Shot. But Hasebroock didn’t want to just create a startup accelerator because it’s the in thing to do in 2013. He has set a goal of growing 100 viable companies throughout the next 10 years. Hasebroock is no stranger to the accelerator, he’s currently a mentor in 3 accelerators, The Brandery in Cincinnati and Techstars Boulder and Chicago.

As with other accelerators, Straight Shot will be fueled by money, mentors and a mission to get the startups to an investible story by the end of the session. Local Omaha entrepreneurs are very excited about their newest entrepreneurial endeavor. Jake Stutzman the founder of elevate.co a local design firm that specializes in startups, is serving as a mentor for this first class and told nibletz.com that he’s been scoping out the startups and has already started informally working with some of the startups that are local to Omaha.

The program runs from July 8th to October 3rd and will culminate with an investor demo day at the end of the session. Straight Shot received 367 applications for it’s very first class. Silicon Prairie News reports that these are the startups selected:

	CardioSys (Omaha) “CardioSys is still developing the full SaaS model,” Larson said. CardioSys combines advanced mobile and wireless technologies along with predictive analytics in order to provide a real-time monitoring platform for patients with acute or chronic illnesses.
	Crateful (Omaha) “Crateful still has further product development but they actually have active DJs who are utilizing the product they’ve developed,” Larson said. Crateful uses advanced audio and data analytics techniques to make tools that help music enthusiasts with their No. 1 problem: finding the best music for the moment.
	BuyNow (Omaha) “BuyNow is out pitching, they have a trademarked product and are in the middle of their sales campaign,” Larson said. BuyNow is a mobile-commerce app that enables consumers to instantly purchase advertised products/services off of any multimedia ad by sending an SMS text message.
	Huntforce (Louisville, Ken.) “Huntforce is currently in the prototype phase for a hardware component that it’s developing,” Larson said. With HuntForce, hunters can view, organize, manage and share photos of their property and game from their mobile devices.
	Cosmic Cart (Durham, N.C.) “Cosmic cart has signed up retailers, actually active publishers and has some commerce that’s being transacted,” Larson said. Cosmic Cart adds convenience and security to online shopping by allowing users to add products into one shopping cart from anywhere online.
	Cympel (pronounced “simple”) (Minneapolis, Minn.) “Cympel has had pilot companies and is in final product development stages,” Larson said. Cympel delivers interactive advertisements and the ability for a customer to immediately purchase the product without redirection.
	Business Exchange (San Francisco, Calif.) Through the Business Exchange platform, businesses can provide feedback, insight, recommendations, reviews and ratings to one another based on real-world transactions.

This startup conference is all about startups everywhere else. Do you have our ticket?

Are We Really “World-Changing?”

Apparently startup culture is mainstream. Which is cool. Fewer of my friends look at me like I’m crazy when I talk about the startup ecosystem and the most recent tech news.

The more time I spend reading, talking, and writing about the startup culture, though, the more I have to ask, “What are we doing with our lives?”

Don’t get me wrong. I really like the Internet. Productivity apps save my life, and Twitter basically kept me sane in my years of child-raising exile. I even like mobile games like Angry Birds. (Okay, I don’t so much, but my kids do, so same thing.)

But, so help me, if I have to talk to one more person who thinks his/her photo-sharing, social network, music downloading app is going to change the world, I may scream. Will your awesome new startup break out and make you tons of money? It’s not likely, but maybe. Will it change the world? Almost certainly not. And, as we’re learning from the NSA debacle, sometimes we have to think hard about how exactly we’re changing the world anyway. Nine years ago, we didn’t expect to find out that Facebook was giving away our secrets.

You know who’s actually changing the world for good? Guys like Andy Keiffer. After tiring of the Valley, he and his family moved to Guadalajara, Mexico, to build a startup ecosystem basically from scratch. He started an accelerator, employed locals, and is now watching the rise of the Mexican tech scene. (Follow that link to a story about Keiffer’s new photo-sharing app. Yes, I get the irony.)

The interesting thing about what’s happening in Mexico is that they have a whole different set of problems to solve. Maybe we’re wondering when our luxury car will arrive or who to send a disappearing picture, but they are thinking about narco-terrorism and hunger.

Of course, developing countries like Mexico aren’t the only ones solving real problems. Hundreds of new social entrepreneurship ventures are started in this country every day, many of them founded by people under 30. They are creating systems to consolidate health data in South Africa, building schools in Nepal, and distributing clean energy.

Plenty of for-profit companies are getting involved in social entrepreneurship, too. It’s totally possible to make a ton of money AND contribute good things to the world. Look at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Without laser-focus on Microsoft for all those years, Bill Gates would probably never have the money to give to all the great causes he endorses now.

In a fireside chat at the recent D11, Elon Musk said, “I recommend that people consider arenas outside the Internet because there’s a lot of industries that could use that entrepreneurial talent and the skills that people have learned in creating those companies.”

We could probably have a discussion about whether or not colonizing Mars or creating a “hyperloop” are goals for the human good, but at least Musk is really dreaming up new things. And, if he succeeds, he will definitely change the world.

We are in an entrepreneurial boom, and it’s a fun time to build companies. Those of us in this exhilarating tech/startup scene just have to be honest with ourselves. Maybe we’re creating cool toys, but until we’re actually helping our fellow human beings, we aren’t really changing the world. At least not for the better.

5 Reasons You Wish You Could Go to the NewME PopUp Accelerator

If you’ve been around the startup space for a minute, you know about accelerators. You probably know the best ones, the pros and cons of joining one, and that many people think they’re in a bubble.

Here at Nibletz, we love accelerators. Besides the wealth of information and time they give founders to grow their business, accelerators are good for the local ecosystems. With that in mind, we were super excited to find out about the NewME PopUp Accelerator. NewME is combining its world class accelerator program with another urban trend, the popup shop, and taking it around the country.

So, why should you take a weekend off to be a part of this new type of accelerator? It’s certainly not the intensive, boot camp experience that a traditional accelerator is. But, then again, we’re entrepreneurs. “Traditional” isn’t really in our vocabulary, now is it?

Here are our top 5 reasons to apply for the NewME PopUp Accelerator:

Startup Coach–Each startup that is accepted will have 50 minutes 1-on-1 with a NewME coach. That’s 50 straight minutes of advice and feedback focused solely on your startup. These coaches are coming from Silicon Valley to everywhere else and letting startups in on what it takes to succeed.
Master Classes–Each PopUp accelerator includes 2 Master Classes in the Art of the Pitch. From your company’s value proposition to compelling presentation skills, the experts teach it all. You will leave the weekend with a completed pitch deck and the skills you need to start pitching it.
Demo Day–Yup, no accelerator is complete without a Demo Day, and NewME PopUp Accelerator has one of those, too. Local investors are on hand from each city, but there also a few special guests from the Valley. Demo Day participants could land a spot in the full 2013 NewME Accelerator in Silicon Valley. And, just in case you don’t think much can come from such a small event: DC winner Zoobean closed their first round in May.
Networking–It’s true that the actual NewME PopUp program is awesome. But we all know deals don’t happen in a classroom. For 2 1/2 days, Silicon Valley experts will be in your backyard, and you can ask them ANYTHING. As great as local ecosystems are, it’s always good to get some fresh blood
Cost–For less than $100, you can have access to Valley experts and decision makers, right in your hometown. In case math isn’t your thing, that’s less than the cost of a flight to California.

I know, you wish you could be one of the lucky startups selected, right? Well, the tour is just getting underway, and stops in Kansas City, Austin, and NYC are in the plans.

But, if you’re in the Southeast, Memphis is hosting a PopUp Accelerator on June 28-30, and there’s still time to register.

Use discount code MEMPHISEDU for huge discount

Montana Tops Nationwide Startup Index

When Big Bang Theory‘s Sheldon Cooper ran off to Bozeman Montana in an episode where his apartment had been broken into, he may have been onto something. Cooper very quickly abandoned the idea of staying in Bozeman, but according to the latest Kaufman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, Montana is a hub of technology startup activity.

CNN Money reported on Monday that Montana topped the latest Kaufman report highlighting startup activity nationwide.

In the previous year Montana had ranked 17, but in 2012 they moved up to the number one spot with 530 startups per 100,000 adults. According to the report many startups are sprouting up near Bakken fields in support of it’s oil industry.

Montana State University is a driving technology hub of activity in Bozeman, Montana, where startups have found funding opportunities and incubators.

With a little help from startup guru Brad Feld, Montana held their first Startup Weekend event back in December in Missoula, Montana. We also got to meet Sri Vellanki, a Montana woman who abandoned her career to launch a startup called TechTips, which was featured in the Eureka Park section of the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) back in January.

Entrepreneurs are attracted to Montana because it has no local sales tax and a low cost of living.

Check out this Florida startup which can tell you how high you jumped.

Canadian Startup SpotSquad: Crowdsourced Parking Vigilantes

The “crowd” has been used for a variety of things in the startup world lately. There are startups utilizing the crowd to find the best restaurants, events, websites, and even parking spaces.

We got the chance to talk with Berlin startup ParkTag in May during TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013. Their company uses the crowd, or rather a peer-to-peer platform, to help people police themselves and find parking spots.

Now we’ve heard about Canadian startup SpotSquad that is using the crowd to snitch on people who are illegally parked. Of course it’s frustrating to find someone double parked outside the mall or the local WalMart. It can even be frustrating seeing someone with a nice car, and two perfectly working legs, park in a handicapped parking spot.

SpotSquad, developed by a 10 person team in Winnipeg Canada, is an app that allows vigilantes with a smartphone to report people who are illegally parked. What’s in it for these good Samaritans? Well, according to the Daily Mail, the people who report these traffic violators will receive a portion of the fines collected.

How does it work?

The DailyMail reports that users with the SpotSquad app installed will take a picture of the violating car. The picture is then tagged with a GPS location. The reporter then assigns the picture a violation, and it’s uploaded to authorities. The reporter and SpotSquad will get a portion of the fee collected. As reporters report more and more violators, their cut of the fees will increase and their ranking will increase within the system from Private to General.

The company plans to begin a beta test of the app next month in Winnipeg.

Find out more here at SpotSquad’s website

This Canadian startup has a new way to display brands for marketers.

MassChallenge Startup ZoomTilt Announces New Analytics Product

Anna Callahan is a bad-ass startup chick. First she was a hackstar for Techstars Boston, but she got the startup bug herself and decided to apply to Boston’s other mega-huge startup accelerator, MassChallenge. It was there that she grew her startup ZoomTilt, which was named a finalist in last year’s MassChallenge program.

But what is ZoomTilt?

Well, think 99designs for film. Callahan loves film making; in fact it was reading a script while working as a Techstars hackstar that made her decide to take the plunge and launch her own innovative idea. The idea: link filmmakers to people who want to build a brand using short films, mini TV shows if you will. If you’ve got a brand and want to see film and TV stars in a video featuring your product, ZoomTilt is the answer. If you want to have an engaging YouTube miniseries or Facebook page video series that highlights your brand, ZoomTilt is the answer.

Callahan tells Nibletz that they’ve got hundreds of filmmakers waiting for the chance to work on your brand’s short video project. By leveraging the talent and creativity within their network ZoomTilt is able to offer unparalleled engaging video marketing solutions without a gigantic budget.

Callahan joined forces with cofounder Chris Bolman and ditched their first name, CrewTide, which Callahan says made people think they sold nautical supplies. Then they hunkered down over the summer as one of the 125 startups in MassChallenge and emerged as a finalist.

On Wednesday Zoomtilt announced ZoomTilt Analytics. It’s the first of its kind A/B testing platform for video.“The information our analytics will provide for brands, agencies, media companies, and content creators will allow [them] to make better audience targeted content, quickly identify areas to improve upon allowing for [their] videos to be more effective, engaging and shareable,” Bolman said in a statement.

The software allows for the online video marketing community to lessen the pressure to create a video that will “go viral” and increase their video marketing return on investment (ROI). ZoomTilt Analytics makes this possible by generating fast feedback directly from target audience members.

Callahan adds: “When using video on the web, [advertisers] must create entertainment – too much money is spent on videos that get low viewership and have no impact. Our analytics tools help you understand which of your videos really engages your target audience. With this you can make better decisions about which videos are right for you to promote.”

ZoomTilt has been helping brands obtain affordable, crowdsourced content from independent filmmakers since early 2012. Besides being a 2012 MassChallenge finalist, they were also members of the 2013 Betaspring class and participated in the 2013 SXSW Interactive Accelerator, where they were featured as a finalist in the entertainment and gaming industry.

You can check out the ZoomTilt dashboard here.

Now read what Drive Capital’s Mark Kvamme thinks about the Brandery.

22-Year-Old New York Entrepreneur Launches EdTech Startup In London, Raises $1.7M

22-year-old Summer Murphy created a video library startup with access to thousands of curated educational videos on a variety of topics. Unlike many entrepreneurs, though, this native New Yorker decided that he wanted to see if his luck would fare better across the pond in the TechCity incubator in London.

Growth Business UK reports that it has. Murphy’s startup Mobento has raised $1.7 million, which has been reported as the biggest investment for any education-focused tech startup in the UK. It’s also been reported that it was one of the biggest seed rounds of any UK tech startup.

Murphy told The Next Web that the company would use the money to grow the business and bring “educational technology up to speed with the advances made elsewhere in business, social networks, and mobile”.

When talking about the platform itself, Murphy told Growth Business UK : “It slots right into the behaviour and customs of contemporary students and is a democratising and liberating force within education because it enables the world’s best educators to reach out to students all over the world.”

New York has a thriving startup community, so relocating to London to launch Mobento was a testament to Tech City. “Mobento’s decision to base themselves here is further proof that Tech City is the ideal location to scale and grow a successful digital business. Quick access to Europe and our heritage of creativity and innovation make London attractive for digital media and tech companies. Whilst the blend of creativity and innovation that exists in East London with easy access to the financial centre of the City is also a major advantage,” Benjamin Southworth, deputy CEO of Tech City, said.

Check out Mobento at mobento.com

Check out this infographic, a programmer’s guide to getting hired by a startup

Florida Startup World Housing Solution, Quick, Strong And Green!

I gotta tell you, one of the most interesting startups I’ve seen at a startup conference is World Housing Solution. This Orlando based startup has created a way of making extremely strong, quick to build shelters out of Structural Insulated Composite Panels. The company’s founder, Ron Ben-Zeev tells us that SICPs, are like a super strong sandwich made out of fiberglass bread and a foam center. Ben-Zeev and his team have found a way to quickly and effectively use this material for shelter.

The SICPs make World Housing Solution shelters great for emergency needs like the aftermath of a natural disaster. They are also great for deploying in emerging countries. For instance, the scale model of the structure they showed off at Southland is actually being deployed to the horn of Africa as a hospital for women. That project calls for five of WHS’s structures to function as a maternity ward, delivery room, clinic, kitchen and rest rooms. In this case the structures deployed will be permanent but it will take days rater than weeks, months or years to get the hospital off the ground.

In addition to being extremely quick to set up the WHS shelters are hurricane resistant (up to 155mph), earthquake resistant (up to 7.8 richter), they don’t mold, mildew or rot, they’re fire resistant and bullet proof. Ultimately this makes the WHS shelters ideal for fast implementation in civilian, government and military installations.

Although he has no formal “construction” experience, Ben-Zeev is actually a Wharton educated executive with a background involving strategic consulting for Fortune 100 and 500 companies. He also served as Strategic Counsel to the North American CEO and President of Siemens Information Systems.

Check out our interview with Ben-Zeev in the video below. For more information visit worldhousingsolution.com

Here’s more of our coverage from Southland in Nashville Tennessee.

Meet The Man Behind NY Dress Startup BlueGala

Josh Weiss is the Founder and President of Bluegala, an online retailer of prom dresses, evening, party, and cocktail dresses. Previously, he worked for Lehman Brothers as a High Yield Credit Research Analyst. Josh graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.S. in Commerce with a concentration in Finance. Follow him @bluegala.

Who is your hero?

Steve Jobs.

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

Match and exceed. Always keep a close watch on your competitors and make sure to match and exceed them in everything they do.

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

When we first launched Bluegala, we placed a large order for lower-priced dresses before doing any research to see if we could actually compete in the market selling them. In hindsight, we should have placed a smaller order and tested the waters with a small PPC campaign. The lesson learned is to walk before you run and test everything.

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

Check orders from overnight and go through the previous day in Google Analytics. I do this to keep a handle on what’s selling and if there are any issues. Google Analytics helps me to constantly get a sense of where our traffic/sales are coming from and if there are any red flags causing consumers to bounce off the site.

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

Bootstrap your business for as long as you can and try to scale it from there. If you eventually need money, you want the business to be as profitable as possible to get the best valuation, and you want to hold onto the most equity you can.

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

Dive into your analytics. If you don’t know what to look for, there are tons of books and blogs that can point you in the right direction.

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

I define success as being one of the dominant players (if not the most dominant) within a certain industry or niche. Success is accomplishing what others were unable to accomplish and thriving where others have failed.

I will know my business has succeeded when Bluegala is the go-to resource for social occasion gowns. We have had a lot of growth since our founding in 2009, but there is still a long way to go before we establish dominance in the sector. Each year that passes allows us to learn more and more about what it will take to establish dominance and I am confident we will get there eventually.

List.ly is the Slideshare for Lists

Have you ever read a “Top 10…” list and thought, “Hmm, they missed something”?

Now, with Listly, brands and content companies can make lists interactive and embeddable. Communities love it because they can share a whole list or just part of one. They can even contribute to a list by interacting with it right in blog posts. No more scrolling through comments to find out if people agree with your list.

Listly is also great for brands. As we all know, these days, content is king, and the more content a brand can produce, the more opportunities they have to reach their audience. Lists are easily the most popular content on the web, and Listly makes it easy for brands to create and use those lists.

What is your startup, what does it do?

List.ly.

We take the most effective form of content marketing, the numbered list post, and we make it collaborative, interactive, and embedable. Human beings simply love to consume information in the form of numbered lists. This explains who 30% of posts are in the familiar form of “10 ways to..” “17 tips to…” “27 things you must not …”. We simply bring life these blog posts by letting people vote and contribute directly on the list. We make it easier to share and embed these interactive lists. You can share the whole list or just an item. You can embed the whole list or just an item. We track where and when your lists are seen and we also track who and how people interact with each list.

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

Shyam Subramanyan & Nick Kellet

We’ve both got a background in startups and building brands. We make a great team. We complement each other.

Where are you based?

We’re based out of California in the Bay Area. I live in Canada.

What is the startup culture like where you are based?

San Fran is about a tech as it gets. I live in Kelowna in BC, which has an aspiring tech culture. Exits like Club Penguin, Vineyard Networks, and Workfire put Kelowna on the map. Plus there’s an event called Metabridge that is really working to connect Kelowna to Silicon Valley.

What problem does your startup solve?

We help brands get found and we help them foster engagement with the community.

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

The list hasn’t evolved since the invention of HTML. That is the opportunity we are creating. We are to lists what slideshare is to slides. You put your lists on Listly and embed them back on your blog. The model has been proven for static content like slides, videos and audio. Were just taking that model one step further as lists evolve over time and can be contributed to by many. People are always skeptical when a new type of data is created. The challenge we have overcome building the credibility needed for people to place their lists with Listly.

To this point with have lists embedded on 5000+ blogs. We have thousands of publishers who’ve signed up and used the platform.

What are some of the milestones your startup has achieved?

Lots of iterations along the way, but three major:

V1 – Simple social embeddable lists

V2 – Scaling / cachable lists and synchronizing the experience between listly and blogs

V3 – Responsive Listly – A simpler, consistent experience across smart phones, tablets and desktops.

All these build on Listly as a publishing platform and a serious piece of internet infrastructure.

What are your next milestones?

We’re focused on small incremental steps right now and in driving our adoption metrics and our monthly active user count. Our core focus is to get more embeds. We’re also building out our API so people can build the use of Listly lists into their applications and workflows.

What’s next for your startup?

More of the same. Were focused on removing friction, driving up the number of embeds, and on building brand awareness so people are happy to jump in and vote or contribute to a list. We’ll also be putting more focus on our premium product to cater to the needs of bigger brands and publishers.

Where can people find out more, and what is your Twitter username?

@listly, @nickkellet @shyamster