YOLO: You Only Launch Once With Speek Co-Founder Danny Boice At Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference

To launch or not to launch, that’s a tough question facing startup founders everywhere. Some startup founders prescribe to the lean methodology, push out a minimum viable product and iterate until it’s right. Others prefer to take all the time they need and handle iteration internally until they have the product they feel is ready for consumers. No matter what method you choose you only launch once.

That’s the basis for the talk that Danny Boice, co-founder of Washington DC startup Speek, will speak about on Monday February 11th at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference.

Boice is the CTO at Speek, which is the easiest conference calling platform we’ve ever used here at nibletz (and we’ve tried many). There are no bridges to remember, no needing to have your cell phone and a pad and paper to write down a long pin number, and no frantically dialing back when you get cut off.

To execute a call using Speek’s platform you just sign up for an account and click the link.

Speek is an easy product to use with a nice and easy to understand UI. They also have a cute mascott to boot.

As for Boice he founded a startup called Jaxara that was acquired in 2006. He attended Harvard, and he’s a former exec at The College Board. Speek’s other co-founder is John Bracken who originally founded E-vite.

Speek is an incredibly competitive space, even as such, they are constantly creating buzz, interacting with people and speaking about Speek. There almost grass roots marketing strategy is both effective and deliberate. If you’re even the least bit over 20 than you probably remember in great detail how e-vite was the platform for events, before eventbrite and before Facebook events.

Boice has a great background and a great story. He’s also one of many successful startup founders that’s a true believer in the “everywhere else” concept, and the purpose of the conference.

Get your ticket to everywhereelse.co the startup conference below. There are still a couple of exhibiting startup village booths as well.

Online Ticketing for Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference powered by Eventbrite

Top 10 blunders when developing and managing mobile apps…from a puppy

“As long as the world is turning and spinning, we’re gonna be dizzy and we’re gonna make mistakes.” – Mel
Brooks

This is Devie. Besides being the avatar of cuteness he’s an eccentric mobile app developer. Devie is quite
skilled when it comes to the mobile landscape in general and as such it would be wise to pay attention to
what he says.

The mobile app world has passed its infant phase but it hasn’t quite reached full maturity yet and many
developers and companies still make mistakes when it comes to putting out apps on the market.

To this end, Devie has helped us in making a list of the top 10 overlooked mistakes when developing and
managing apps. Heed his words carefully, otherwise, you will make the same face when disappointing your
clients and users, the same face Devie makes when he tips over the coffee cup (which happens roughly twice
a day).

Without further ado, let’s take a look at the top 10 mistakes:

# 1 Forgetting that you’re developing for real people

Apps are built for real people and not ,,the idea of people”. In other words UX or user experience. User
experience doesn’t mean just the interface. The UI is just a part of it. UX is everything from the moment
when the user finds out about the app, reads the description, installs it, sees how it works, when he needs
it, if he smiles, if he frowns in confusion, etc. When designing an app, think about how your regular user will
react to it.

Your app should have a precise functionality in mind, a natural flow like opening a book and an intuitive
design. A user shouldn’t be forced to study an app manual to use a mobile application. Especially if he pays
for it. Always remember : the end user experience is your primary goal.

# 2 Your mobile app looks like a quantum mechanics diagram

In other words, complexity doesn’t necessarily imply cool design no more than simplicity means the absence
of it.

In the case of smartphones, think about the iPhone for example. Do you really want to put 20 buttons and
features on a small screen? Just because you can code your app to do anything you’d like, doesn’t mean
you should. Unless you need an app with a lot of details (such as a media and entertainment app), your
app will take time away from a user instead saving time. Often times, simplicity wins 9/10 over complexity.
App functionality and design shouldn’t be drowned in useless buttons, unnecessary scrolling and being so
complicated that it makes you forget how you got to a certain section within the app.

# 3 Don’t make people squint, the screens are small

So you have a brilliant idea about creating an app. You’re going to corner the market. People will praise you
and cheer you on the streets. You’re the new Michelangelo. You might have created the new Sistine Chapel,
but unless you find a way to put it on a 3,5 inch screen you’re just going to let all that work go to waste.
Instead of trying to paint as many details into your app as possible, let them appear one at a time so your
users aren’t faced with a maze of buttons and too much detail. Let them savor the experience.

# 4 No app scalability

There are a lot of apps out there that have the potential of growing but they were built with only a few users
in mind. Unless you’re intentionally putting out one time apps, you should take into consideration that one
of the reasons you are developing mobile apps, is because you want to reach as many people as possible.

Think about this one. What would have happened if the moment when Angry Birds really got popular,
the app was only designed with limited playability and only for a few thousand users? it would have
become ,,One of those games I played for a couple of days and that’s all“. ,,That’s all” isn’t the phrase you
want to hear when your app is reviewed.

# 5 The app itself isn’t your main source of revenue

The main source of profits isn’t the mobile app. In-app purchases and in-app advertising are. In 2012, more
than 3/4 of the global app revenues came out of in-app purchases. Don’t forget the interactive feature of in-
app currency, for example customer points when shopping. Most apps are sold for 99 cents or $3. You might
reach 2000 users, but your only going to make $2000-$6000.

Developers aren’t different from rockstars. No, developers, you’re not the next Jimi Hendrix…yet. We’re
talking about the fact that most money rockstars make isn’t from cd’s and songs (especially with torrents
nowadays) but from concerts. They make their daily bread from offering interactivity and memorable
experiences.

,,Fact : Apps don’t make a lot of money. The content they deliver does.” – Devie

Such as it is, most apps are free anyway and all apps should be free. Why? Because psychologically speaking,
why would someone buy a product they haven’t even tested based on a 3 line description of how awesome
it is. If it isn’t free, then a free trial should be implemented so customers can know what to expect.
Monetizing mobile apps isn’t about selling the app. The app is a medium for revenue and not the end goal.

# 6 Ads can make or break an app

Not all mobile apps are madefor mobile ads. First of all, the smartphone or tablet is not a desktop pc. When
building an app, say for a restaurant chain, an ad that offers coupons or discounts might work. But right now,
banners and spray and pray ads are most likely to backfire on your user experience.

Another thing you should never do is integrate ads that have buttons looking like a natural extension of
the app. Spammy and intrusive ads that gobble up the screen when the user is in mid-use of the app often
begets negative reviews and complaints. Mobile ads are a tricky business. The question you should ask
yourself is :,,Will the ads cut into the user experience and make monetization impossible or not?”

Mobile app success stems in the first place from the user reaction and not just from the fact that your app
was downloaded – Devie

# 7 No points of contact, no user feedback, no improvements = no cookies for developers and companies

There are a lot of apps out there that stand only to gain from updates and improvements that never seem to
arrive. Not all apps have to implement points of contact for developers /companies (such as a mail address
or forum), but it doesn’t hurt when you want to ,,actually!” see how your app is perceived and how it can
be improved from the users themselves. No points of contact sometimes means that you’re telling the
users ,,That’s all we offer and nothing more, so don’t bother us”.

# 8 Poor push notifications pushes users away

Or even the very lack of push notifications for that matter. Apps such as news apps stand only to benefit
from the smart integration of PN’s and they keep users retention at good levels. However, poor PN planning
can ruin your app. PN’s should be relaxed like when a friend calls you and tells you about a good movie that
just came out. But if he’d call you every 5 seconds to tell you about every TV channel, you’d think about
choosing your friends more wisely wouldn’t you?

There are apps for example, that help you find coffee shops on the map. A badly planned PN would be when
every 2 minutes when a user walks an extra 600 ft, an annoying update about a coffee shop a few streets
away suddenly breaks his train of thought. Or if even disturbing users while sleeping is a guaranteed way

to screw up your app. For more details on what you should and shouldn’t do with push notifications, check
out Push notifications, the do’s and don’ts.

# 9 No analytics and no idea what your app is doing on a saturday night at 3:00 a.m.

Analytics or another way of saying app behaviour and user behaviour is a must when you want to understand
what’s happening when your app is ready to grow u p and see the world. The ability to monitor and study
app usage, users characteristics, how long do they use the app, how many times and so on is vital.

Without analytics an app faces fully fledged uncertainty on the part of developers. Not knowing whether
your app really becomes popular or it has been slowly dying leaves you with a blindspot that’s going to affect
investment and results.

# 10 Targeting too many platforms or too few

Apps are fickle children and sometimes they want all flavors of the ice cream or other times just one.
Consider the value proposition of your mobile app. If you’re going for native on multiple platforms, then
really really take a few steps back and consider if it’s worth it. A lot of business /enterprise apps are
preferred to be on tablets due to the wide screen that allows presentations, pitches, reports and getting
quick news from business blogs and magazines.

Rather than developing for 3-4 mobile platforms, such as iPhone, Android, Windows Phone or Blackerry,
make careful considerations about this next question : Can I waste valuable resources such as time and
money developing for multiple platforms while my competition puts out an app before me?

Going for a one size fits all is good in a lot of businesses but the technology for doing this in mobile apps isn’t
here yet. Rather than targeting a lot of platforms, develop an good and polished app for one or two main
platforms such as iOS and Android.

Conclusions : These are just a part of the big questions and mistakes you can make when developing and
managing mobile apps. Other things we could highlight would be : little or no integration with the device’s
native features, apps that are developed requiring user immobility which is the exact opposite of ,,being
mobile”, lack of social network implementations and so on.

The main key ideas you have to keep in mind is UX and targeted needs. Like Rebecca Flavin , CEO of Denver-
based Effective UI said some of the elements of UX: usable, useful and enjoyable. The three cherries of
creating an interactive and engaging user experience.

Take heed of what Devie said and as a company or developer you’ll be able to brag to your friends that you
saved thousands of dollars and created stunning apps because you listened to a puppy.

P.S. – We wanted to put the cherries on top but Devie would have ate them before we got to the end.

This is a guest post by Appscend (www.appscend.com) — the all-in-one cross-mobile performance based
application platform. Appscend offers its customers the fastest cross platform development technology
available on the market today together with a complete list of backend technologies that ensure application
& user management, a powerful push notifications platform as well as app analytics, ad-integration, in-app
purchases and over-the-air distribution services.

Two Weeks Left Until Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, Biggest Startup Conference In The US

We are officially at the two week mark for everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference. The event is taking place from February 10th – 12th in beautiful downtown Memphis, a cultural hub for music, and entrepreneurship. The conference itself will be held at the Memphis Cook Convention Center. We’ve sold over 1500 tickets and have over 100 startups in our Startup Village.

Everywhereelse.co has even been named as a “must attend” conference for startups and entrepreneurs by Forbes Magazine.

Attendees

We still have attendee tickets on sale through next week. The attendee ticket will get you into all of the panels, keynotes and official conference events. You’re also invited to peruse the Startup Village during Sunday’s Startup Village preview. Sunday night we’ll take in the Memphis Grizzlies at the Grind House as they take on the Minnesota Timberwolves. After that we’ll all take part in the Grasshopper, The Entrepreneur’s Phone System, Bar Crawl on Beale Street.

Monday features great speakers like Scott Case, Bill Harris, Rohit Bhargava, and panels like “Kick Ass Female Founders From Everywhere Else”, How to Raise Money Everywhere Else, and many more. We also have two exciting startups coming out of stealth mode and launching on stage. (want to launch your startup on stage email info@everywhereelse.co)

Tuesday the fun, learning and networking continue. We’ve got great keynotes and panels queued up like Mike Bott the former brand manager for Olay at P&G and current GM of the Brandery on “Branding for startups“. Best selling author of Likeanomics, Rohit Bhangarva is speaking and much more

Startups

We have over 100 startups in the Startup Village, a representation of startups from across the country and around the world. You’ll see startups just post idea stage, all the way up to series A. They’re also competing in the Best Of Everywhere Else startup contest, an audience participation contest and a speed pitch contest.

A handful of startups upgraded their booth space so we have 3 startup village booths open. You can register your startup below.

Investors

We have hundreds of accredited angel investors and vc’s from some of the top firms in the country who have already purchased tickets. If you are an investor everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference offers unparalleled access to not only the startups in our startup village but hundreds and hundreds of entrepreneurs and founders attending the conference. Forget flying all over the country and around the world. Founders forget having to panhandle on a street corner to raise that money for a one way airline ticket. Investors and Startups from everywhereelse are coming together at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference.

Acceleration

If you’ve been thinking about an accelerator for your startup this is the conference for you. We have several accelerators from across the country who will be on hand to talk to startups and their founders on whether their accelerator is right for them. Pat Riley from the Global Accelerator Network and his team will be on the ground helping with two great acceleration panels.

In one panel “What I learned From An Accelerator” we’ll hear from startups who’ve completed 500 startups, YCombinator, Techstars, The Brandery, Seed Hatchery, Jumpstart Foundry and more.

In another panel “Accelerator Heads” we’ll hear from the Managing Directors of some of the best startup accelerators out there from Eric Mathews at Seed Hatchery to Mike Bott GM at the Brandery. Marcus Whitney from Jumpstart Foundry will join us as well as Guy Madison from Oklahoma City’s Blue Print For Business.

Finally, you’ll be able to get a consult with someone from any of these accelerators and more, to find out where your startup fits in the accelerator matrix.

A different kind of conference

Everywhereelse.co is a different kind of conference. First off we wanted to make the conference attainable to even the most bootstrapped founders and entrepreneurs. That’s why both the ticket price and the startup exhibitor (Startup Village) price were so low. This way we can offer unparalleled access to content, learning, speakers and networking all in under one roof.

Next, many will be surprised at some of the successful founders who are attending the conference. Many have reached out by email or at other events. While they may not need all that this conference has to offer they want to give back to the startup ecosystem. Keep your eyes open and talk to everyone.

Memphis is a city about grinding. It’s a blue collar city with hardworking folks and a history rich in entrepreneurism going back to the 1800s. FedEx, Holiday Inn and Autozone are just a few nationally known brands that started in Memphis.

Finally

Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference is the brainchild of a bootstrapped startup, Nibletz, the voice of startups everywhere else. This conference is about founders, startups, and entrepreneurs from across the country and around the globe “everywhere else”. The conference may not look like the million dollar production that some of the conferences out there that charge startups $899 just to attend look like, but the content, networking, and camaraderie will be second to none.

We have a few last minute areas for sponsors to touch over 1000 startup founders, entrepreneurs, startups and investors from across the country. For quick information on sponsoring email info@everywhereelse.co

Attendee tickets go up to $99 on Wednesday. Startup Village booths go up to $699 on Wednesday.

Sell Tickets Online through Eventbrite

SocialNightlife, Customer Management, Engagement & Loyalty For Night Clubs

A Los Angeles startup a year in the making has finally launched a product that night club owners and other nightlife venues will get a lot out of. SocialNightlife is a complete platform designed to help nightclubs and other establishments keep track of their VIP’s and loyal customers.

Nightlife professionals will now have the ability to digitally check-in guest-list and VIP customers and track activity by team member, venue, event and client. Venues will also be able to setup custom promotions and reward their loyal guests as a result of the social media features built as a front-end to the professional business tool.

They already have a handful of popular night clubs on board like the famous Marquee nightclub in Las Vegas. Using the SocialNightlife platform VIPs, loyal customers and social media rockstars will be able to get into clubs quicker and their information will be utilized more efficiently providing a service to both the patron and the establishment.

“We’re breaking down physical barriers,” said Artin Nazarian, SocialNightlife’s co-founder and CEO. “Front door staff can finally put a face to the names on their list and send targeted event promotions to fans of a specific DJ or celebrity.”

Patrons have access to key features as well, that were originally released in a public beta at CES 2012 (last year)

· Location based check ins to gain insight on frequent patrons

· Ability to offer loyalty rewards like complimentary tickets, drinks and other VIP services

· Instant reviews of the line queue, music quality, and venue energy level

· Public photo gallery with advanced photo editing and hash-tagging functionality

· Branded social media business pages

· Performance reports for promoters and hosts such as reservations, guest check-in and sales

· Event promotion and direct marketing tools

· Gamification through virtual “bottle” badges

· Customer analytics and automated guest lists

The company has already partnered with strategic advisors and stakeholders in clubs in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Miami.

For more info visit SocialNightlife on the web here

You’ll find an amazing night life experience at the biggest startup conference in the U.S. everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, limited tickets still available.

Find Me Coffee, Coffee Discovery Startup

Whether you’re looking for a chain coffee shop, a drive through or the shop that serves as a city’s cultural mecca, you can find your next cup of joe using the app from Toronto startup Find Me Coffee. We’re all aware that Toronto has one of the largest startup ecosystems in the western hemisphere, and a lot of that innovation is being fueled by coffee.

Find Me Coffee makes it easy to find the nearest coffee shop using your smart phone.

We got a chance to talk with the team behind Find Me Coffee. Check out the interview below.

Wedjinni A Bulgarian Startup In The Wedding Planning Space

Wedjinni a Bulgarian startup founded by Theodore Batzakas is hoping to become an internet head turner in the do it yourself wedding planning business. More and more wedding sites have gone the route of integrating wedding planning tools, however Batzakas says that Wedjinni is easier to use and at the same time more robust.

After getting married himself, Batzakas realized there was a huge hole in the market for something like Wedjinni, telling nibletz.com in an interview:

“We got married. And while doing it, we found that organizing this thing is not easy at all! So we thought that a great tool was needed in this business to help couples do that in a more enjoyable way, without messing with previous-era tools. We had the expertise, we had the idea, so we now have wedjinni.”

With tools available from theknot.com and Martha Stewart’s OmniMedia, is their really room for something like Wedjinni? Check out our interview with Batzakas below and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Seelio Among Four Startups That Just Received Funding From Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund

Back in August we interviewed Ann Arbor startup Seelio.. The company helps college students highlight their academic, extra curricular, culture and social lives in conjunction with the job hunt.

Seelio was just announced as one of four Michigan startups that took part in the latest funding round from the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund. The fund is a collaborative effort of Michigan’s smart zones to help support startups. To date the fund has helped 83 startups with 19 million dollars in funding.

“It’s exciting to see how Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund companies use the investments to drive growth; the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund makes a measurable, positive impact on a start-up’s chance of success in the state,” said Skip Simms, manager, Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund and senior vice president of Ann Arbor SPARK. “Early funding recipients, like Compendia Bioscience, have gone on to achieve significant success, including expansion, hiring and attracting marquee clients. The four early stage companies funded this round are using the award to attract additional outside funding and get solidly on that path to success.”

The four companies recently awarded Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund investment are Fusion Coolant Systems, Local Orbit, New Eagle Products, and Seelio. Fusion Coolant Systems is innovating an advanced coolant and lubrication system for use in manufacturing that increases production rates and tool life. Local Orbit provides e-commerce and business management tools for the “new food economy”. New Eagle offers controls system solutions including tools, products, and services. Seelio is commercializing its online platform that empowers college students to showcase their work and skills to startups.

Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund companies have attracted more than $25.5 million in matching grant and equity funds. Combined, Michigan Pre-Seed Fund investments have helped to create more than 43 net new jobs in Michigan.

Startup Vs Small Business Debate Stretches To Kuwait

One of the biggest things I have struggled with since I’ve been in the startup community is explaining my position on the startup vs. small business debate. Some consider me a startup snob or a startup hipster. This debate is compounded by the fact that everyone seems to have an opinion on the issue.

Take for instance Green Girl Produce, a Memphis based company that pitched and built at 48 Hour Launch in Memphis back in October. The concept is an urban farm. Granted it’s not Joe’s Dry Cleaners, but many people decided to take me to task when I penned this piece about Green Girl.

The debate for me isn’t necessarily about technology, or web based technology. It’s about creation and innovation. In that post I wrote:

“The debate about “Startup vs SMB” in Self’s case has NOTHING to do with technology. There is another woman in Memphis who has come up with a new way to remove acrylic nails without the harsh abrasiveness and damage to the nails that traditional methods have caused. To me, the young lady with the nail solution is a startup. Green Girl is not.”

Today while perusing Brad Feld’s version of Hacker News, The Hub at Startup Revolution, I came across a post by Kuwaiti startup community leader Abdullah Alshalabi. Obviously he’s struggling with the same thing. Here’s how he explains it on his site StartupQ8

In a Startup you are:

Building a new product

Solving a new problem or fulfilling a new need

Entering a new market with new customers (doesn’t really know if there is a need or not)

Founders have a vision to scale and become a world class company

Very risky, yet very rewarding

Want to change the world to a better place

Attract bright and smart talents (employ more than 1,000 people in the long-term)

Revenue more than US$50M

In a Small Business you have:

Known product/service

Known Customer with known market

Low risk

Want to keep the business small or within the family

Have low potential to grow

Founder vision is to make enough money to feed the family

Attract cheap labor (create 10-100 jobs)

I definitely agree with most of the items in both lists. I’m not sure that a startup needs to employ 1,000 people in the long term. Revenue more than $50 million may be debatable as well, but the general consensus that you are creating a new product or tackling a new issue with your company are things I definitely agree with.

Entrepreneur

So I’ve said this a lot on nibletz.com and when speaking on the topic of startups, startup communities or startup vs small business, every startup founder is an entrepreneur, every entrepreneur isn’t necessarily a startup founder. There are several great entrepreneurs out there. In Memphis there is Shawn Tuohy for instance. He’s a restaurant entrepreneur he’s built his company into one of the biggest fast food franchisers in the region with over 80 establishments. Tuohy, also known for his infamous adopted son Michael Orr and the book and movie The Blind Side, has done very well. He’s a successful entrepreneur. Was he ever a startup founder? No.

You can check out Alshalabi’s entire post here. Every community needs small businesses. Luckily for them many communities have a support infrastructure in place, that’s been in place for several years. Small Business Councils, Chambers of Commerce and other organizations both big and small have always supported entrepreneurs.

Incubators, accelerators, and organizations like those are the support infrastructure for startups.

Check out one of the largest startup conference in the world, everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference

Acceleprise “The 500 Startups For Enterprise” Unveils First Class Of 2013

Less than a year ago DC based entrepreneurs, Sean Glass, Allen Gannett and Collin Gutman and others teamed up to form an accelerator in the Washington DC area devoted entirely to enterprise startups. When it was announced in April of 2012 TechCrunch dubbed Acceleprise the “500 Startups for enterprise”.

By July of 2013 they had their first class of six startups in house and began to dig into “enterprise”. Elana Fine the Managing Director at the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship told the Washington Post that “enterprise companies also tend to retain customers for longer periods of time, creating a reliable source of revenue for the start-up.”

With the federal government and most of their biggest contractors in the Washington DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia area it’s only fitting that an enterprise focused accelerator planted it’s roots in the area.

This year, after a successful class over the summer, Acceleprise will be hosting three cohorts, the first of which was just announced. The class includes:

Aquicore: a startup that is collecting data from power companies on electricity usage. They plan to then take that data and analyze it to find inefficiencies which will ultimately save consumers and business owners money on their energy bills.

Edi.io is a social media monitoring startup that will analyze social media messages that companies plan to put out to the public. They’ll make sure that the content won’t come back to haunt them. They describe themselves as a company that mitigates enterprise and brand risk within social media by filtering outgoing corporate text engagement before it goes public.

Instant API, apps, apps, apps everyone wants to have an app. Companies big and small are looking to use apps to reach their customer base and to manage their internal business. This startup is creating a platform that makes it easy for companies to build API’s (application programming interfaces). In turn, they will make it easier for companies to create apps built on their own internal data.

LearnShark is a startup that will allow employees to score points for sharing useful content with other employees.

MetaLayer is a company that’s been getting lots of traction. CEO Jon Gosier basically describes the company as making big data easier for companies to manage. This data can be from survey’s, social media and other big data sets that companies need access to and understanding about.

StayNTouch is a hospitality startup that plans to simplify the way hotels handle guest interactions, sales, hotel information, on site social interaction and more. The engagements and interactions are managed by a cloud based platform that is easily accessible to hotel staff via smartphones and tablets.

TalentWire is a campus recruitment tool that will allow companies to identify, target and contact the best prospective talent before other companies.

TrackMaven is a marketing intelligence tool that’s pretty much in stealth mode at the moment.

You can find out more about the Acceleprise accelerator here at their website.

Raising Capital, Finding Talent and Accelerating, the important topics to startups “everywhereelse” will be featured prominently at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference

SplitThe Check, The Bill The Kitty With Kittysplit

You gotta love it when startups name themselves after exactly what they do. That’s the case with Berlin startup Kittysplit. The company, founded by Caspar Wrede and a team of four friends have found a way to split checks, and settle up when more than one person is paying for anything from a meal to a bar tab to a weekend holiday.

The app uses an easy three step wizard for splitting up the “kitty” and it’s free of charge.

When asked how they came up with the idea for Kittysplit, Wrede told nibletz.com “The ski trip where everyone has a different mix of how they got there, where they stayed, and what they ate — splitting the costs afterwards was a huge headache. The shared apartment whose expenses are kept via a mind-bogglingly complex Excel spreadsheet. We searched in vain for a painless solution online. Finally, the 5 of us got together, drank beer and stroked our chins, and set out to to make splitting costs as easy as humanly possible.”

For now the platform is web based. Wrede says an app is in the works but he wants to make sure that the mobile app doesn’t complicate things.

Check out the rest of our interview with Wrede below.

Spottlife Aiming To Simplify Your Social Life

People in today’s world have been inundated with social networks. Many people want to be a part of as many social networks as they can because they don’t want to miss anything from anyone important to them. This is a daunting task though when you consider managing just the most popular social networks on a day to day basis.

Facebook, Twitter, Google + and Instagram can be a pain in the butt to manage. When you’re on your smartphone it’s a constant, battery draining, switch from network to network.

That’s why many startups have taken to creating social network aggregation tools. Spottlife is one of those tools with a different twist.

Using the Spottlife mobile app users can aggregate all of their social content into one app. They can also use the app to post to all or one social network at a time. These features certainly aren’t new, we’ve been using tools like Hootsuite for that part, for a long while. Where Spottlife differs in it’s clean and fairly intuitive UI. It also provides you with aggregated updates of not just your variety of social networks but based on what’s trending and popular with your friends.

For instance today the most popular topics are probably the Inauguration, the Super Bowl and Martin Luther King day. Spottlife with show you the most popular topics and a number indicating how many of your friends are talking about this topic. Users also have the ability to filter out certain topics that might not pertain to them.

Brandon Mihai and Scott Gammenthaler are the cofounders of the Chattanooga startup. Mihai tells us in an interview that he has put his studies on hold from Southern Adventist University in Chattanooga, to focus on Spottlife. Gammenthaler is pulling double duty, serving as the CEO of Spottlife and preparing for college graduation in the spring. The startup is incubating at co.lab in Chattanooga.

Check out our interview with Mihai below.

What’s Not To Love About BagServant, A Startup About Handbags?

Every woman is always looking for the most stylish and affordable handbag. Shopping for handbags can be a real pain. I know when I go into a mall with a Coach Store, Dooney store and department store, I’m at a loss because I can never make the right decision. Lord knows I can’t afford them all.

Wimbledon startup BagServant is here to help women everywhere find the latest greatest bags. Not only are they the only search engine devoted to handbags from just about every designer but they also have virtual concierge services. Their concierge can help you figure out just want you want, and of course when you want more, you just go back to BagServant.

Lenka Gourdie is the woman behind BagServant. She has a background in consumer marketing and worked for one of London’s fashion manufacturing houses as well. She and her staff have an impeccable eye for the latest trends, styles and of course fashion.

Some of the best fashions in the world come out of the UK and that holds true at BagServant as well. We got a chance to talk with Gourdie about her startup and London’s exciting startup scene. Check out the interview below.

Styku Has Created An Online Virtual Fitting Room Using Microsoft Kinect VIDEO INTERVIEW

Los Angeles startup Styku has done something rather innovative utilizing the Microsoft Kinect platform. Using four Kinect sensors, Styku has created a way to do a full body scan and create an online fitting room.

According to the company you can actually use just one Kinect at home but to get the most accurate measurements you can go to a retail partner that has their technology installed and have a body scan done. From there the magic happens.

On the back end Styku takes the body scan and matches it to a stores inventory to show you exactly what sizes they recommend for you. In shopping for clothes, size can actually be a mystery. Women and men can go into one clothing store and have one size selected and a different store which has clothing cut a little smaller or a little bigger and have a totally different size recommendation.

Styku combines the inventory and specifications from a stores entire inventory, with the exact measurements garnered from the body scan, to offer the exact fitting size.

Check out the video interview below and for more info you can visit styku.com the smart fitting room.

The grand slam of startup events continues next month in Memphis Tennessee for eveywhereelse.co The Startup Conference

Tech Tips A Great Alternative To Styli For Tablets And Smartphones

Last year at CES 2012 we saw a North Carolina startup called TextRings in Eureka Park. As you can tell from our narrative we weren’t very impressed and if they’re still in business they’ve had minimal to no traction as far as we can tell. The problem they were trying to solve is still a big issue however they were trying to solve it with rings that looked like you would find them in the treasure box at the dentists office. Couple that with the astronomic cost of entry and it was destined to earn our “least favorite startup” of Eureka Park in 2012.

Fast forward to 2013 and we got to meet Sri Vellanki. Not only has Vellanki had a pretty distinguished career to date, she’s a beautiful young woman entrepreneur and she’s from Montana. Here Montana startup called Tech Tips, is similar to Text Rings in that she is looking to solve the problem of input on smartphones and tablets, specifically for women.

Tech Tips is a product that fits on the finger tip, rather than in a ring format, and allows a natural extension to ones fingers for the specific purpose of input. Strokes are more natural because they feel natural. It’s almost like using your actual finger for the input.

Naturally when we first arrived at the Tech Tips booth we were surprised to see something similar to Text Rings, but I can assure you that this is definitely a much better product with a great founder.

But in the infamous words of the late great Billy Mays… That’s Not All!

Vellanki has a second product she is just now introducing as well. This product is called Nano Nails. Think acrylic nails that are made with the same kind of coating that’s in those gloves we use for our smartphones and tablets to input data, draw pictures and navigate.

After talking to several women the reaction has been “That’s Awesome”. Both solutions function better than a stylus and certainly better than Text Rings, check out our interview below and for more visit Tech Tips and Nano Nails here.

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