Everywhereelse.co 2013 In Just About 3 Minutes (Ticket News for 2014) [video]

If you missed everywhereele.co The Startup Conference 2013, then you missed the largest single venue startup conference in the United States dedicated to one thing. That thing is, startups “everywhere else”.

Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference 2013, and Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference 2014 provide programming, celebrations, pitch contests, parties and networking opportunities that are extremely relevant for startups outside Silicon Valley.

The 2013 conference featured a huge startup village exhibition, along with workshops, keynotes, small groups and round table discussions on the issues that matter to startups in entrepreneurial pockets across the country and around the world.

Kick Ass Female Founders From Everywhere Else, Legaleeze, You Only Launch Once, applying and graduating from accelerators and more were at the forefront of the 2013 event. After parties that included free tickets to a Memphis Grizzlies NBA game, a historic brothel (Ernestine & Hazels), and the craziest throw back disco ever, dj’d by a world famous pimp (Raifords), were just some of the great social events.

2014 features a lot more similar content focused on acceleration, access to capital, access to talent, branding, design and pitching. Mike Muhney the godfather of CRM (co-creator of ACT which was the standard before SalesForce), Baker Donelson legal panels and workshops, and design, naming and branding with the folks at nationally known archer>malmo are just some of the discussions, topics and content coming in 2014.

The Marriott is offering $109 per night rooms for the event which runs February 17-19th 2014. American Airlines is also offering reduced fares and Avis is offering reduced rental cars.

This year we are also providing breakfast and lunch on both conference days.

Tennessee startup GreenPal and J Brant Films, Jeffrey Brant, who’s worked with national country recording artists in Nashville, have provided the video montage below. Check out Everywhereelse.co 2013 in nearly 3 minutes below.

The early bird special, where you can purchase attendee tickets and Startup Village booths at 2013 prices for the next conference, has been extended from March 27th to March 31st (Sunday night) or until the early bird tickets and startup village booths run out. Check out the ticket registration form below the video for availability.

Event management for Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference 2014 powered by Eventbrite

DC Startup Quad2Quad Goes Free Just In Time For Spring Break

Susan Jones (68) and Elizabeth Van Sant (54) co-founders of Quad2 Quad in their booth at everywhereelse.co (photo: Allie Fox for NMI)

Two amazing ladies from Washington DC are working on their startup Quad2Quad at warp speed. You would think that these were two twenty something entrepreneurs, young, hungry and ready to work 100 hours per week. Well they’re hungry and working 100 hours per week, but Susan Jones is 68 and co-founder Elizabeth Van Sant is 54.

These two mothers, business women and now startup founders in Washington DC are old enough to be Mark Zuckerberg’s moms. Their startup, Quad 2 Quad, was actually created because Van Sant and Jones have become somewhat pro’s at getting their kids off to college. They know the ins, the outs and “the ropes”.

We’ve interviewed and profiled quite a few college bound startups at nibletz.com. We interviewed Cleveland startup CollegeSkinny who’s platform helps high school students transition from high school to college. We featured CiteLighter which is a highlighting bookmarklet app that allows users to easily make citations in their research. Exceleratr, a New York startup, connects high school students to much needed extra-curricular activities outside of the high school campus. We also interviewed Swedish startup Studemia, which is a collaboration tool for students as well as CampusShift, a Youngstown startup looking to take a bite out of college debt.

Jones and Van Sant’s startup aims to help parents of perspective college students, simplify the college visit planning process. Quad2Quad essentially becomes the college visitor’s personal assistant.

Quad2Quad took part in the AppNation conference in San Francisco earlier this year and everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference. Despite having post college aged children Jones and Van Sant mix it up, network and mingle with the best of the college aged entrepreneurs.

Currently they are looking for avenues to raise money, continuing to iterate on their app and developing as much traction as they can.

Quad2Quad just announced that they are going “free” in the app store, just in time for college spring break. The app currently offers 74 colleges and 12 itineraries. They add more and more colleges all the time. They plan on adding another 35 schools in the month of April.

You can find out more about Quad2Quad here and download the iOS app here.

Check out these other Washington DC Startup stories here.

New Jersey Startup Refundo Puts The Bank In The Palms Of The Hands Of The Underbanked

Mobile banking is nothing new. Just about every bank in the world has some kind of mobile presence that can be accessed in a variety of places. Most banks are starting to allow camera phone pics of checks for deposits, even PayPal allows you to add to your account using your phone’s camera.

New Jersey Startup Refundo has started with the mobile bank. “Refundo gives millions of Americans (68MM in the US alone) the opportunity to transition into the financial mainstream, by allowing them to open a bank account right from their mobile phone in 30 seconds or less. Their mobile bank account comes with a MasterCard debit card and mobile app which will provide them with their bank balance, transaction history, access to tens of thousands of ATM and deposit locations in the US, and more” CEO Roger Chinchilla told nibletz.com in an interview.

The underbanked and unbanked tend to be low-moderate income individuals who don’t have access to or can’t afford a traditional bank. With Refundo, if you have a phone, you have a bank.

We got a chance to talk more in-depth with Chinchilla, check out the interview below:

What is Refundo?

Refundo is a provider of high-quality and affordable financial products and services that are unmatched in this industry, tailored to meet the unique needs of the underserved communities.

Refundo founders Grimaldy Dominguez and Robert Chinchilla (photo: cnn.com)

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

Roger Chinchilla CEO- Roger currently resides in New Jersey with his wife and 2 kids and is an avid open source developer. After brief stints at Queens College where he studied accounting and NYU where he studied computer science, he founded a tax preparation office in Elizabeth NJ. A year later (2005) he hired his good friend from high school that had recently graduated from college and wanted to put his knowledge to use.

Grimaldy Dominguez CFO- Grimaldy currently resides in New York City and currently controls the finances at Refundo. He graduated from Paul Smith College in NY with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration. Together with Roger, they built a tax practice that currently serves over a thousand clients annually with offices both in NY and NJ and clientele across the US. He currently oversees 150 professional tax preparation offices nationwide.

Bryan Amason SVP SALES & MARKETING- Bryan Received his BS Degree in CMP at Oral Roberts University, Tulsa OK. Bryan began his software career working for a privately held tax and accounting software company that was later acquired by Intuit. He worked in the tax software industry for 15+ years and has a lot of experience on how traditional tax software companies operate. He has always been ranked as a top sales executive earning ranks such as National Account Manager / Premier Accounts at Intuit. He managed a national/premier sales team of 5 while at Intuit, which managed millions of dollars in software sales.

Jeremiah Nivar COO- Jeremiah holds a BA degree in Accounting with a minor in Business Administration. He brings over 20 years of legal accounting and banking experience to Refundo. At the NYC Bar Association he was a staff accountant and handled the day-to-day activities of the association. He then became a member of an AM LAW 100 international firm for 12 years. He began as a portfolio accountant, transitioned to the role of escrow manager / banking liaison and finished his career as assistant to the treasurer.

Where are you based?

Elizabeth, New Jersey, United States

What’s the startup scene/culture like where you’re based?

Being headquartered so close to NYC is advantage for us, as the city has a thriving startup scene and is now firmly established as the number two innovation hub behind Silicon Valley. New York City is big on several industries including tech, finance, and media, which give us the opportunity to draw on a wide-range of resources.

How did you come up with the idea for Refundo?

My co-founder, Grimaldy Dominguez, and I grew up in Queens, New York watching workers pay enormous fees to simply cash paychecks at check cashing locations. In 2009, two years after launching the accounting software company Rushtax, we realized an opportunity to help this underserved community. Many of the customers who turned to us for tax preparation did not have a bank account to deposit their tax refund. Seeing the dire need for a change, we decided to create a solution that would allow our clients to establish and access a bank account right from their mobile phones.

How did you come up with the name?

At the time, we were focused almost entirely on tax refund products, so it was a logical approach. I just added an “o” to Refund. It doesn’t get easier than that. The name complements our philosophy: No junk fees. The fees that we do charge, however, are market competitive, often below industry average, and always fully disclosed. We refund the junk fees that traditional banks like to charge. That’s Refundo.

What problem does Refundo solve?

Due to the recent financial system crisis, financial institutions began targeting those who maintained low account balances by introducing some new, and not very transparent, fees; resulting in an increasing amount of people with no access to traditional and the most basic bank products. Refundo aims to tackle these social problems head on with an incredible mobile banking experience minus the unnecessary (junk) fees that are usually associated with this type of product. Mainly founded on the principle that the underserved community deserves an easy to use and fresh alternative to banking, as they know it.

What’s your secret sauce?

I would say our secret sauce is being committed to our broader social mission of achieving long-term, meaningful change for marginalized communities and utilizing technology to make this change. With the right team -working towards the same common goal- and technologies, all kinds of obstacles can be overcome.

Are you bootstrapped or funded?

Bootstrapped

What are some milestones you’ve achieved?

Refundo now employs a team of 25 with experience from all across the financial services industry and over 500 tax professionals nationwide now offer to process returns through our program.

What’s your next milestone?

Our next milestone is to launch our mobile banking application to the general audience, people who are actively seeking a banking product that fits their need. We are currently in QA testing and expect to launch beta in March 2013.

Who are some of your mentors and business role models?

I don’t really have business role models or mentors. I just try to emulate chess grand masters.

What’s next for Refundo?

Ingenuity is what started Refundo in the first place, so the revolution does not end here. Our plan is to introduce our great product to the rest of the World. We are actively seeking partnerships in Latin America and Canada with established businesses, where the percentage of underserved customers is significant and keeps rapidly increasing every day. Three of our Four founders are 1st generation immigrants who understand the underserved community in LATAM better than anyone else. Equipped with groundbreaking technology, awesome products, and a clear understanding of the market, our team is the best for this particular mission.

Where can people find out more?

Request your invite at: www.refundo.com Follow us on Twitter: @refundo Like us on FB: facebook.com/refundos

Have you seen these startup interviews at nibletz.com?

Tourize Gamifys Sign Up Process With Madness In March

Indiana startup Tourize is working on a new way to travel. Where most travel apps focus on booking flights or hotels cheaply, Andrew Heil, founder of Tourize, wants to put the “tour” back into travel.

“We believe that often times knowledge is missing as each tourist experiences a new attraction or is planning a new trip.’ Heil told nibletz.com in an interview. They’re currently accelerating in the “RunUp Labs, the travel technology accelerator which runs through demo day on May 10th.

RunUp Labs is part of a new wave of vertical accelerators, that many accelerator proponents feel is the model to go with. This accelerator only caters to startups in the travel sector and as such they can refine their mentors.

” It’s been great. My team and I have been working around the clock and of course learning a whole lot.” Heil said about RunUp Labs and the program they offer.

So how do you get people to sign up for a beta of a startup that’s doing things differently, especially if you’re based “everywhere else”. Well you do what it takes to create excitement and buzz and in the case of Tourize that means taking advantage of the NCAA tournament with their Madness in March sign up promotion.

Heil said “I thought if “Hipster” could get 10k signups with just a launch page and mailbox app could make a que of 600k signups, certainly I could make madness in march happen!”

“And it’s starting to – we launched on Sunday 3/24 and have already passed 1,000 page views rather quickly in the first 5 hours. We’ve continued to that rate and are at 2,500 page views in the first 36 hours. After reaching out to people who have signed up, people are interested in the hype of a new way to travel and of course, being part of the tournament!” Heil continued.

Tourize is tweeting out the tournament stats via their Twitter feed @tourizeapp.

They will shortly narrow down the field to see who the final four early adopters of Tourize are.

You can find out more about Tourize here.

Thinking about an accelerator check out these startup accelerator stories.

California Startup Communly Is Building Communities Of Like Minded People [video]

Alaxic Smith and Neil Parikh met each other a little over two years ago when they embarked on their first startup remotely. At the time Alaxic (Alex) was only 15 and Neil was 18. They had started a social network of sorts and built up that community to over 15,000. They knew they were onto something.

The problem was that Neil was based in San Francisco and Alaxic was based in Texas. Alaxic had this little thing called school that made it impossible for him to uproot himself and move to the valley to continue building that startup.

Well two years later, and Alaxic made a brave move. He left high school to focus on he and Neil’s latest startup Communly.

So what is Communly? Alaxic tells us: “Communly is all about communities. Communities are essentially groups of people who have a shared interests. Communities act as a blank canvas for people to create relevant content for the community. On the flip side of things, community managers can feature content that they find to represent the community as well. We believe that we’re providing users with tools that allow them to define the social web they want to see and we also provide a more relevant experience for users.”

Neil told us in an interview it’s about putting like minds together. They seem to be picking up a lot of traction around musicians and artists that are still building loyal followings. They also have communities about hiking, outdoors, art, and even startups.

They aren’t in an accelerator class, nor are they incubating anywhere accept Neil’s apartment at the moment but they are attacking communly with the vigor found in most thriving startups.

Check out our quick video interview with Neil as he tells us all about Communly. For more info visit communly.com

Apparently money doesn’t grow on trees in Silicon Valley

58% Interested In Startup Equity Investments

Guest post by Andrea with SeedInvest.com

A new study conducted by EarlyIQ, the Crowdfund Professional Association (SeedInvest sits on the Executive Committee) and Crowdfund Capital Advisors has just been released, bringing with it some very encouraging statistics. The first national study of its kind, the study was an online survey of 480 respondents nationwide (with a minimum of $25K annual income), and found that 58% of all respondents indicated a high interest in early stage equity investment.

This figure was obtained by the fact that when asked to indicate their level of interest in equity crowdfunding on a scale of 1 to 10, 58% were in the range of 7 to 10. 22% fell into the 1 to 4 category, which meant little or no intent, 20% chose 5-6, which meant they were unsure. The survey also found that investors were likely to make two to three investments annually, giving on average slightly under $2,000 towards each investment. SeedInvest advisor Jason Best remarked, “The passage of the JOBS Act was a key milestone for democratizing capital in the US. This research demonstrates the broad appeal in middle-America and we believe demonstrates a mandate rollout of equity crowdfunding in the US.”

While we are excited about the public’s enthusiasm towards crowdfunding, perhaps the most important fact to consider from this study is that investment intent quadruples overall when a neutral third party provides review of the management team. When respondents who were likely to invest and had an annual income of over $75,000 were presented with a company of which they had no prior knowledge, 68% said they would invest only with third party information, with a further 16% saying they would invest even if there was third party information of a similar company but none of the target company itself.

Continue reading at Seedinvest.com

Myth Busters: Money Does Not Grow On Trees In Silicon Valley [video]

Neil Parikh,Communly,Silicon Valley,startup,startup tips,launchyourcity

Communly co-founder Neil Parikh talks with Memphis based entrepreneur Ryan Ramkhelawan at the LaunchLounge on location in Silicon Valley (photo: NMI 2013)

We just wrapped up the LaunchYourCity, nibletz.com mission to Silicon Valley. On that trip we spent lots of time connecting to investors, accelerators, incubators, entrepreneurs and startup founders from San Francisco to Mountain View and everywhere in between.

As the voice of startups everywhere else, we kept our minds open throughout the trip and soaked up every nook and cranny of information that we could.

In working with hundreds of startups across the country, and around the world (everywhere else), we have found that a lot of people think money grows on trees in the valley.

In talking with a variety of Silicon Valley based startups in various stages we found that, that’s not the case. In some cases it’s actually harder to raise money in the valley because there’s much more competition.

Silicon Valley is like the Hollywood of statups. Founders move to Silicon Valley in droves in hopes of getting their big idea discovered. It certainly isn’t that easy.

You have to figure for every idea out there, there are three more people working on that same thing. Sure the biggest VC’s are based in Silicon Valley but they’re getting pitched every minute of everyday. One VC we spoke with said he, like Mark Cuban, routinely gets pitched in the bathroom.

Sure all startups are looking for their big funding break and all VC’s are looking for the next Facebook or Instagram, but the chances that the two will connect are very difficult.

More than one startup founder told us that they had raised money at home, and thought that was the signal that they were ready to raise in Silicon Valley and now they’ve moved onto another startup.

There are several factors that could account for this happening. One is that when you grow your startup in your hometown and can pick up any bit of local traction, your local investors know you. They’ve seen you grow and seen your failures and victories. When you venture out to Silicon Valley you quickly become just another startup.

There’s also a much better chance that an angel or VC in Silicon Valley has heard your particular idea hundreds of times, where your local investors have only heard it once, from you.

Does this mean that you shouldn’t move to Silicon Valley? Not necessarily there are advantages too that we’ll be posting about later. This is definitely some nourishing food for thought though.

We got a chance to talk to 21 year old serial entrepreneur Neil Parikh of Communly about the myth that money grows on trees in Silicon Valley. Check out the video below and check out communly here.

Find a lot more great startup tips here at nibletz.com

Gangnam (style) SpringBoard Startup Flitto Is THE Translation App

Flitto, a SpringBoard London graduate has the Gangnam style for sure, that’s because they are based in Gangnam South Korea. They are truly rockstars for graduating from SpringBoard London which has become TechStars.

When you think about Flitto don’t think translation app. Simon Lee, Flitto’s founder describes the app as: “a social translation platform that lets you access all kinds of content in your own native language. Any user can add translation and earn points and ‘karma’ from other fans for your translation work.”

Flitto serves up translation from the crowd, making it easy to get quick, real life translations on content rather than mechanical translations which can sometimes leave the user just as lost as before the translation.

“The language barrier can be broken down by hiring professional translators. But we’ve tried to be smarter than that. We can get rid of the language barrier without hiring one single translator just by using the greatest tool humans have ever made – the Internet.” Lee said on the SpringBoard/TechStars London Blog.

We got a chance to catch up with Lee at the SXSW Interactive Tradeshow in the Gangam Style startups showcase.

Check out these other stories from SXSW

We’ve got more TechStars coverage here.

California Startup Uptoke Raising A Series A To Bring Weed To The Board Room [video]

UpToke, California startup,startups,Jason Levin,Cannabis

Jason Levin, founder of UpToke. (photo: fortune.com)

California entrepreneur Jason Levin is a formally trained engineer on a mission. He’s not a hippie, a dope man, or a pot head, but he does see the opportunity in Cannabis.

His company, called Uptoke, has produced an upscale vaporizer used to inhale marijuana. The cigar like vaporizer, brings a more “professional” appeal to smoking marijuana. Even in prototype form it’s a well designed, high class looking device.

The technology, Levin says, doesn’t actually ignite the plant, but rather heats it up, incredibly fast.

The Uptoke vaporizer can get to 375 degrees, in a sealed packages so users don’t burn themselves, in under 6 seconds. The battery life lasts all day and Levin says you just charge it up like a cell phone at the end of the day.

Levin doesn’t look like a guy who would fit in a “stereotype”. He sees the opportunity in the Cannabis industry. He’s also very careful not to step on the toes of those who aren’t supportive of the industry.

He will not market his device in markets where there are no laws governing cannabis use. He has a legal team in place and has an industrial designer coming on board to help design the final product.

Levin is currently raising a Series A round for Uptoke and was just recently in Seattle pitching a group of investors at the Washington Athletic Club.

Check out this video of Levin below.

Check out these startup stories from nibletz.com

American Airlines And Their Partnership With Startups [video][AAMRQ]

When startup people talk about airlines and airplanes they are typically talking about some new startup to order up a jet plane or to help you find the cheapest fares. Well lately we see more and more American Airlines signage, and people at startup events.

Are they scoping startups for their next talent? Are they trying to find the next innova

tion? Are they looking for their next customers?

Quite frankly the answer is all three. American Airlines has been partnering with startups to get the conversation going about entrepreneurship and innovation.

They found that many people taking American Airlines these days are entrepreneurs, startup founders and small business owners. While every airline has a program for huge enterprise corporations, no other airline has started working on partnerships to fuel the next w

ave of American business, startups and small business.

Now, Amer

ican Airlines has a team set up across the country to talk with startups, entrepreneurs and small businesses everywhere about the benefits of American Airlines.

Through their Business ExtAA program, American Airlines offers similar benefits to entrepreneurs and startup founders that Fortune 500 corporate officers get. Their Business ExtrAA rewards program offers increased mileage earnings, discounts and amenities that are second to none.

They’ve also partnered with several startup organizations like Startup America, Startup Weekend

, Tech Wildcatters, Tech Cocktail, Launch Tennessee, and even Nibletz and Everywhereelse.co. They know the importance of making that connection and developing brand loyalty early on.

While programs like the Founder’s Card are great, many entrepreneurs have found out the hard way that most of the benefits to programs like those require at least a series A round or even a series D. American Airlines has made their programs accesible to even bootstrapping founders.

Their team across the country isn’t just a bunch of sales people hawing American Airlines, all of the team members are engaging and they’re connectors. While they are very up

front about their goal, to get more small businesses and startups in the habit of booking American, they are eager to connect startups with other startups and other resources in their network. For instance the everywhere else conference in 2014 will offer a special rate from American Airlines and a special rate from their partner Avis.

Down at South By Southwest Aleda Schaefer and Paul Swartz, two of the people on American Airlines’ startup team, were frantically running around introducing people, meeting people and even engaging in startup pitch contests and other events. Their attitude and likeness to startups couldn’t be more genuine.

American Airlines was one of the key sponsors for the Launch Your City trip to Silicon Valley. This trip allowed several startups and ecosystem partners from Memphis Tennessee to spend a week in Silicon Valley touring VC firms, accelerators, incubators, co-working spaces and networking. The American Airlines team also set up meetings for the group including a tour of RocketSpace and they took some of the group to a startup job fair Thursday morning to meet other startup founders, who were at the stage where they were hiring employees.

American Airlines has strategically placed one of their “startup liasons” in Boston, New York, Dallas and San Francisco, adding their Silicon Valley rep last, because they realize the importance of startups everywhere.

Check out the video below where Schaffer offers a little more insight into American Airline’s involvement with startups:

stopped.at Returns To The Dolphin Tank At SXSW 2013

Mara Lewis, the founder of California startup stopped.at returned to pitch her startup in the Dolphin Tank at SXSWi. The Dolphin Tank is a pitch panel session held at the Startup America Live stage in front of influential judges. The reason it’s called the Dolphin Tank is because the judges are instructed to give constructive feedback rather than criticism as seen on the hit ABC show Shark Tank.

This was the second time Lewis has pitches stopped.at in the Dolphin Tank. After here appearance in 2012 she was able to secure an angel investment. We ran into Lewis while on the LaunchYourCity mission trip to Silicon Valley on Thursday where she told us she’s working on raising another round, it’s time to move her startup out of her apartment and eat more nourishing than Ramen Noodles.

She’s also received a bit of traction for stopped.at which is a platform that turns users onto the newest sites on the web by recommending sites that friends are using. According to her pitch, over 150,000 websites are launched every 24 hours in the US alone.

Check out her pitch below. For more info visit stopped.at

Check out more of our startup coverage from SXSW 2013 Here!

“Early Bird” Tickets And Startup Village Booths Running Out For EE2014

Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference was the largest single venue startup conference in the US and the biggest startup conference in the US focused entirely on startups outside the valley. Over 2000 tickets were sold and 1287 people checked in at the three day event in Memphis Tennessee.

Everywhereelse.co 2014 is poised to be bigger and better, especially because we’ve had a lot longer to plan and the first event is under our belts so we know what needs to be improved.

Great sponsors like Baker Donelson, archer>malmo, Independent Bank, Dell and American Airlines are already on board for 2014 with many more announcing soon. If you’re interested in sponsoring send an email to info@everywhereelse.co

With our sneaker strapped road trip, SXSW and our recent trip out west we haven’t been keeping an eye on the early bird tickets and Startup Village booths, well we just looked and as of the publishing of this article there were only 9 Startup Village booths left at the early bird rate and only 18 attendee tickets. The early bird rate ends in 5 days on March 27th and it gets you in the conference as an attendee or Startup Village booth at 2013’s rates. After that they go up!

The Startup Village booth ticket gets your startup booth space, in multiple pitch competitions and three attendee tickets. The booth space includes a table, two chairs, backdrop, and a waste paper basket. This year it will also include a sign with your startups name on it! Startups also get access to a private party and their name and contact info in the take home program, and their description on the website.

Don’t wait once these tickets are gone they’re gone and at the rate they’re going they’ll be gone this weekend.

Event Registration Online for Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference 2014 powered by Eventbrite

Check out all the coverage of everywhereelse.co 2013 click here

Stripe CEO Patrick Collison On The Paypal Mafia [video][Ignition Mobile]

This morning at Business Insider’s Ignition Mobile, Deputy Editor Nicholas Carlson interviewed 24 year old Irish rock star entrepreneur, Patrick Collison the CEO of payment startup Stripe.

While there was much debate as to whether Collison became a millionaire at ate 19, one thing that’s been turning heads about this mobile payment startup is that their investors include Peter Thiel, Max Levchin and Elon Musk, the original founders of Paypal who are widely known as the “Paypal Mafia”.

One might find it odd that these three men who helped shape the web payment and now mobile payment space, may not want to invest in a company that competes with the one they founded.

Collison said that he believes that Thiel, Musk and Levchin, are still determined to solve the problems that they set out to solve with Paypal and the new problems that have cropped up in the mobile age.

All three founders are now removed from Paypal after selling the company for $1.5 billion back in 2002 to eBay,Paypal’s largest user.

While Paypal has been busy pushing an offline product to retail and working towards a more prominent position in the mobile space, Collison said he felt that innovation at Paypal stopped when Levchin, Musk and Thiel exited.

Check out the video below:

500 Startups Company Waygo Talks To Nibletz [video][500 startups]

Earlier this morning we brought you the interview with Spinnakr founder Michael Michael Mayernick who talked with us about laying their foundation in Washington DC which helped them prepare for and then graduate from 500 Startups in Silicon Valley.

Ryan Rogowski, the cofounder of translation startup WayGo, also talked with us about their experience in Rhode Island before being chosen for 500 Startups.

In the video below Rogowski talks to us about the much lower cost of overhead in Rhode Island, and how it allowed them to speed up their development process. Waygo was able to catch the eye of 500 Startups founder Dave McClure, who is a very frequent traveler, the kind that Waygo was designed for.

As for what they do?

Waygo is a mobile app that allows you to hover your smartphone camera over text or images and get a translation. For instance, if you want to order Chinese Food from a Chinese menu written in their native tongue, Waygo would allow you to scan the menu and get real time translations. The best part? Everything is done locally on the device side which makes the translations come extremely fast.

Waygo is designed with the tourist in mind. You can use Waygo to translate Chinese food menus, and signs on the road, bars and restaurants.

The idea came about over two years ago when Rogowski was living in China and realized how hard it was to translate things in real time.

Check out our video interview with:

Check out more 500 Startups coverage from nibletz!