Startups Archives - Page 6 of 144

Is Your Startup Investing Well In Social Media?

There is an old maxim: “You value what you measure.” For many companies, this has translated into a philosophy of rigorous adherence to specific company-wide key performance indicators (KPIs), such as revenue, lifetime value of a customer or time to serve. There are endless KPIs companies may select from, but when it comes to investing in social media, your standard KPIs probably don’t apply. And even if they do, you probably can’t measure them well.

That’s our fault- and by our, I mean the ecosystem of social media marketing companies such as PinLeague- we haven’t helped establish those KPIs well enough. Unfortunately, it’s also YOUR problem, because without commonly accepted KPIs, your Executive team looks at social media investment and asks the same questions they ask of everyone else. “How much revenue did it drive?” “Did it reduce our time to serve a customer?” “Is it increasing lifetime value?” and so forth.

The problem is, you – and we- don’t have those answers yet. And the answers we do give often underestimate the impact.

For example, at PinLeague we offer a Pinterest ROI Tracking feature. For many brands, this is a big win. You can now say to your boss “we earned $X from Pinterest this month.” Great. Revenue question answered.

There’s a problem though: You’re selling yourself short!

The true revenue impact of Pinterest is far greater than the revenue you see directly from Pinterest. For example, in our socially targeted email product (PinMail), we work with clients to help them measure not only revenue from Pinterest, multiple sources of revenue:

Revenue from Pinterest
Revenue from visits directly from the socially targeted email campaign
Revenue influenced by Pinterest as a channel
Revenue saved/gained by providing better customer service via social networks

And so on…

As you grow on Pinterest (or any social platform), all of these sources of revenue tend to grow together. For example, our PinMail campaigns have delivered as much as 8x as much direct revenue as they have revenue through Pinterest. In our own marketing, we’ve seen that social tends to influence purchase decisions but rarely are the last point of contact before a user joins PinLeague.

It’s difficult, if not impossible to quantify all of these impacts today. And if you did, the investment in that social media analytics would probably outweigh the profit impact to begin with.

In lieu of these metrics, CEOs often determine Social Media is a cost center, not a profit center. As a result, they fail to invest adequately. They simply hire their proverbial daughter Becky and check the “Social Media” box.

So, How Do I Get My CEO to Increase Social Media Investment?

Here are a few strategies to try:

1. Start investing in social media with targeted, measurable campaigns

PinMail has taken off for us because brands can see results with small budgets. We’ve run trials as low as $1,800 in budget that have generated $10k+ in revenue. Doing a simple trial like that puts little budget at risk and can be used to justify higher spend later.

2. Show there are benefits to investing in Social Media beyond Social Marketing

Go sign-up for a free pinterest analytics account now. Do it. Then, add a few competitors. In a week, log-in and pull down those competitors most popular content or products (“Brand Mentions” in PinLeague terms) and e-mail that report to your editorial team, content team, merchandising team, etc with a single question: “How would you use this data if you could have it for any competitor on an ongoing basis?” Boom. You have an ally who can help you get budget (or give you budget) so you can invest in social media tools.

3. Ask for Budget in Terms the CEO Can Understand

Most Social Media teams default to scaling through more people. How about if instead you make your current people more effective. Your CEO will hear: “By spending $100,000 on social media tools and campaigns, we’ll double the efficiency of our 4 person team this year.” CEO then does the math: 4 people @$100,000 each (with benefits, etc) can double their efficiency. That’s $100,000 of investment in social media tools vs $400,000 of additional headcount expense. Sounds like a deal!

This post originally appeared on the Tailwind blog.

Do we need more photo-sharing apps? Flipbook thinks so.

The photo-sharing market is pretty full. (And, yes, that’s the understatement of the year.)

But, with billion dollar valuations and acquisition offers on the table, we expect to see quite a few more before the frenzy dies down. The latest hails from Nashville, TN, and is founded by a couple of recent Vanderbilt graduates.

Will Schreiber and McArthur Gill founded Flipbook because they see a huge hole in the messaging/photosharing market. You can either chat with a group (WhatsApp/GroupMe) or post pictures (Instagram/Snapchat), but it’s hard to do both on any one platform. They created Flipbook with the ephemeral nature of Snapchat but the group chatting capabilities of the chat apps.

Does the market really need another photosharing app? Snapchat continues to grow, and Instagram doesn’t seem to be going away. But, who knows? More surprising things have happened.

Check out our Q&A with Flipbook below. Then download the app and let us know what you think.

What is your startup called?

Flipbook

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Will Schreiber and I, McArthur Gill, are the two co-founders. We are both developers and have worked together for years. During our last semester at Vanderbilt (Spring 2013), we were accepted into the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, where we created Stadium Stock Exchange presented by Nissan (www.stadiumse.com). Our other notable product is RageChill, a music discovery engine (http://www.ragechill.com).

Where are you based?

Nashville, TN.

What’s the startup scene like where you are based?

The startup scene in Nashville is budding. The Nashville Entrepreneur Center has really helped founders connect with mentors and investors, giving companies a strong foundation on which to grow.

What problem do you solve?

People love to express themselves and connect through the sharing of photos. As of now, Snapchat does not allow for group communication and Instagram publishes photos to all of your followers. Flipbook gives users a way to share photos to a group, while still maintaining the ephemeral nature of Snapchat. By allowing users to copy images posted to their group and overlay their own text and drawings, Flipbook gives users a photo-based conversation platform.

Why now?

Right now, the two biggest players in the photo-sharing space focus on either peer-to-peer sharing or public-sharing. The conversation about photos then happens on a different platform (people revert to texting in order discuss photos they see on these other platforms, sharing these opinions with a group of friends). We have created a communication platform allowing users to both post photos and discuss them within their circle of friends, all on the same platform.

What are some of the milestones your startup has already reached?

We have developed an iPhone app, which was released on Tuesday. In less than a week since our launch, we have created a very active user base and seen a huge growth in both number of users and number of photos shared.

What are your next milestones?

Continue to refine and iterate the product, grow the user base, and develop an Android app.

Photosharing apps are pretty prevalent. Why is Flipbook going to compete with the big SV-based apps?

Flipbook gives people a platform to share and discuss their photos within their groups of friends. As simple as that sounds, right now there is not a good platform on which to do that. WhatsApp and GroupMe are not photo-centric. Snapchat and Instragram do not provide cohesive groups. Flipbook provides both of these and also gives users the ability to capture a photo posted to their group, overlay their own text and drawings, and continue the conversation.

Where can people find out more? Any social media links you want to share?

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flipbook-hidden-chapters/id778185758?mt=8

Chicago Startup Retrofit Raises A Series B To Make Us Healthier

There are quite a few fitness startups cropping up.

Apps like RunKeeper and MyFitnessPal monitor your exercise or diet. Sites like Daily Burn offer subscription access to fitness classes. And, of course, there’s wearable tech. Fitbit, Fuelband, and Atlas are just a few examples of the tech you can wear to monitor activity levels.

Chicago-based Retrofit aims to take weight loss to the corporate level, offering employees of large companies like Google and Salesforce.com discounted rates to try the program. Retrofit incorporates some of the startups mentioned above, specifically Fitbit, as well as one-on-one coaching sessions with a dietitian, exercise physiologist, and behavior coach.

There are plenty of weight loss programs that focus on corporate clients. Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig both have corporate arms and years of brand recognition. So, what makes Retrofit any different?

According to the Retrofit team: results.

In their first 12 month “cohort,” more than 90% of participants lost significant weight. The average weight loss was almost 20 pounds, which equals a 9% of overall body weight.

On the heels of that success, Retrofit announced a $5 million Series B on Friday. The round is led by Cambia Health Solutions, but includes participation from previous investor Draper Fisher Jurvetson. This announcement brings Retrofit’s total funds raised to $15 million.

“Retrofit is thrilled to announce additional venture funding from Cambia Health Solutions and DFJ,” Retrofit CEO Jeff Hyman said in a statement. “These two companies prioritize investments based on creating value through the innovative use of technology.”

It’s true that tech and wellness are seeing some interesting mergers these days. Data mania is growing, and everyone wants to be able to measure success. I find Retrofit particularly interesting because it merges that data (through Fitbit) with real human interaction. The digital coaching sessions can help make sense of the data and create actionable plans for improvement. By putting the program in a corporate environment, participants might also have the built-in support system of colleagues going through the same experience.

However, like any fitness program, there are some other things to consider.

For one thing, most of the participants were male. Most weight loss programs are marketed to and used by women, so this is a huge win for Retrofit. It also skews the results a little bit, because men lose weight faster than women.

Second, the true success of weight loss doesn’t come at the end of the program. It comes a year or two later, when participants are still at their goal weight. Let’s face it. For most people, the actual losing weight isn’t very hard, especially if you have the right program, support, and motivation all aligned. The real challenge is keeping the weight off so you’re not in a yo-yo of weight loss and gain.

To be fair, most of Retrofit’s clients lost the majority of the weight in the first 6 months and spent the next 6 months maintaining and losing a little more. The year-long program (as opposed to a few months) could carry huge benefits on the road to weight maintenance.

With a successful trial run behind them, and an infusion of cash, Retrofit has plenty of time to continue to improve it’s product. While the company is targeting corporate clients, you don’t have to work for a big company to utilize the service. Check out Retrofit here for more info.

News Corp Buys Social News Agency Storyful For $25 Million

Stop me if you’ve heard this one:

An American company, an Irish company, and a British billionaire walk into a bar…

We all know what happens next, right?

On Friday, Rupert Murdoch’s New Corp announced the acquisition of Dublin startup Storyful, a social news agency that collects real time content from users and figures out what’s real and verifiable. Then, they buy and license that content to news agencies, providing them with user generated content they can actually trust. (Warning, if you click through to the Storyful website, take some Dramamine first. Trust me.)

We’ve all seen–and complained about–news reporting during big crises. During the Boston Marathon bombing, CNN wrongfully reported an arrest hours before one was really made, a move that could have endangered citizens of Boston. Last year, when tragedy hit Sandy Hook Elementary School, news organizations misidentified the shooter, accusing the wrong brother. And that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

These kinds of mistakes are common in 24/7 news media because everyone is trying to be first, and that can cause carelessness.

Storyful founder and CEO Mark Little see the problem in a different way, though. Sure, there’s a lot of social media noise around the news, but that actually gives journalism a new layer of reality.

“I watched the Arab Spring unfold on YouTube and saw an authenticity I had rarely seen on TV news,” Little writes on the Storyful website. He goes on to say, “Storyful is dedicated to helping news and communications professionals everywhere use social media to make their newsgathering, reporting and storytelling shine.”

And now they’ll be doing that from under the News Corp umbrella.

The plan is for Storyful to continue to run as a separate business unit, operating from its home in Dublin. The company will continue to license content to its current clients, including News Corp competitors like the BBC and ABC News.

Robert Thomson, Chief Executive at News Corp, said this in a statement:

“Storyful has become the village square of valuable video, using journalistic sensibility, integrity and creativity to find, authenticate and commercialise user-generated content. Through this acquisition, we can extend the village square beyond borders, languages and platforms.”

The acquisition will also allow Storyful to expand its products and services.

“We will be working to productise the core discovery technology that powers Storyful,” Little told me in an email. “We want to build the tools that power all social newsrooms. We are also focusing in 2014 on brand newsrooms, developing content solutions for the marketing, advertising and PR industries.”

Now, it’s no secret that Rupert Murdoch and News Corp aren’t always very popular. A simple Google search will show you that. In particular, many feel that News Corp cares more about getting a story out than making sure they report the truth, which could stand in contrast to Storyful’s efforts to verify everything.

As I researched, I noticed some pretty disdainful comments on the Storyful blog about the acquisition and asked Little about them. He (digitally) shrugged it off.

“I’m really happy with the reaction to our news, which has been overwhelmingly positive. I’ve seen the generalisations about News Corp that don’t correspond with the reality I’ve come to know. Again and again, every News Corp executive I’ve met stresses the importance of the verification work we do. Nothing changes on that front.”

AIRTAME Blows Past Crowdfunding Goal To Create Wireless HDMI

Recently, I a friend of mine was crowdfunding his next album on Kickstarter. The page debuted, and we all watched anxiously for a month as the funds trickled in. He was always relaxed and calm about it, but his wife would quietly tell me, “I’m so worried!”

The final day of the campaign, Seth still lacked almost half his goal. My husband and I were traveling at the time, but I kept the campaign site pulled up on my phone and hit refresh somewhat obsessively. We were out having drinks with friends when I interrupted the conversation, wildly bouncing in my seat and waving my phone in my husband’s face.

“They did it!!” I yelled, right there in the lobby of the fanciest hotel in town. “They reached their goal!!”

(Don’t worry. I ignored the stares.)

My friend’s story isn’t uncommon. Most crowdfunding campaigns fail, and I’ve personally witnessed several succeed, but come right down to the wire.

That’s not the story for these guys.

The Copenhagen-based startup is making a wireless HDMI dongle that will stream content from your computer to your TV. With 29 days left in their Indiegogo campaign, they’ve already almost doubled their goal.

AIRTAME looks a lot like Chromecast. Like the Google product, it plugs into the TV and uses Wifi to stream content. Chromecast can pull content from smartphones and tablets, but AIRTAME doesn’t have that capability. Yet, anyway.

However, AIRTAME does allow for wireless connections to projectors and to other PCs. Use cases for this include the ability to see a professor’s presentation right on your computer while you take notes or the ability to share presentations across screens during a meeting.

“We believe that everyone should be able to connect to the TV in the living room or the projector in the conference room–wirelessly,” co-founder Brian Kyed said in a statement announcing the Indiegogo campaign. “Therefore AIRTAME works with Mac, Windows, and Linux–so no one is left to use screen cables anymore.”

Considering the massive amount of support AIRTAME has received, it’s a safe bet there’s some demand for their product. Of course, reaching your goal does not a successful campaign make. Many hardware companies hit snags when it comes time to deliver, and we have yet to see if AIRTAME will fall in that camp.

There’s also the whole competing with Google and Apple thing. Not impossible, but very, very hard. My favorite in the TV streaming race is Apple TV because of the licensing deals they are working out with companies like Disney and ESPN. I also kind of love that it’s not dependent on my computer.

AIRTAME could really stand out, though, if they let the TV streaming thing go and focus on the business, classroom, and presentation uses of the product. None of the competition works quite the same way.

The Indiegogo campaign is still live, and last time I checked they still had a few openings in the beta test. That particular perk sold out so fast, they decided to open up another round of it.

Scrappy Startup Exhibit A: Freshdesk

It’s kind of an “Are you kidding me?” story.

A couple of years ago Girish Mathrubootham was just browsing Hacker News when he came across a comment complaining about customer service platform Zendesk. The commenter pointed out that there was a huge opportunity for someone to swoop in and take away Zendesk’s market dominance.

A couple of months later he and his new cofounder Shan Krishnasamy quit their comfy jobs and committed to Freshdesk full time. They brought 4 other employees with them, even though they had raised no money at that point. Before long they built a product, incorporated in the US, and raised some capital from Accel Partners and Tiger Global. The company built out a platform that allowed companies to offer exceptional customer service with a lot less internal hassle.

Things were going spiffy.

Until, last December when someone hopped on Twitter and called the company an “unethical troll.” In several weird twists, another Twitter user attacked Freshdesk’s Indian ethnicity, the CEO of Zendesk jumped in and called the 6 month old competitor a “rip-off,” and it was discovered that the original attacker was actually a blogger paid by Zendesk.

Okaaayy…

I’ll hand it to Freshdesk, though. A little controversy never seems to hurt, and the blatant attacks from their biggest competitor did nothing to dampen their 2013. This year Freshdesk unveiled a freemium model, swearing that prices would never change, and announced free services certain startups. (Including, by the way, all attendees from Everywhere Else Cincinnati.)

In 2013, the young company also announced that they had reached 10,000 customers. Those enterprise customers include companies like Goodreads, Hugo Boss, Stanford School of Medicine, The Atlantic, and Pearson.

I can imagine that many of the founders’ friends and family thought they were crazy for quitting comfortable jobs to explore this idea. (We’ve all been there, haven’t we?)

It seems the gamble is paying off for Freshdesk, though. They still aren’t quite as big as their rival, which is rumored to be considering an IPO next year. But, they obviously have the bigger company running a little scared if Zendesk is attacking them so publicly.

Not that Freshdesk seems too worried. They just keep delivering a great product and giving back to the startup community. Sometimes it doesn’t matter if you’re first in an industry, as long as you’re the best.

Are We Looking At The Next Snapchat?

Hey, have you heard the one about the startup that’s been at it for 5 years without raising significant money? Then, they close a $3 million Series A from Asia’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, on the exact day their new mobile app hits #1 in the App Store.

Oh, and they didn’t actually have to pitch that investor from Horizons Ventures because he came to them.

That’s the true story of Bitstrips, the popular Facebook app that’s been clogging your feed with personalized comic strips.

When I hopped on a call with CEO Jacob “BA” Blackstock, I congratulated him on the round and all the buzz they’d gotten lately. I commented on the crazy week or so he must be having.

“Yeah,” he laughed. “But I finally got some sleep, so that’s good.”

Blackstock has been drawing since he was six, and he remembers making comics with and of his friends as he grew up. Consider it an analog version of the current Bitstrips product. The current digital product has been around in some form for 5 years or so and experienced some popularity. In fact, Horizons Ventures’ Li Ka-shing was an avid Bitstrips user, which is why he wanted to invest in the first place.

The picture above is an excerpt of the startup’s comic-strip blog post from last week.

Then they decided to go mobile.

The launch was executed in stealth mode. In fact, the team launched Android first and saw a few downloads, but nothing outrageous. A month later, the app appeared in the App Store.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Almost overnight Bitstrips was the #1 app not just in the US, but in 40 countries. (And, no, it hasn’t even been translated from English yet.) Within 2 months there were 30 million avatars created, and millions of Bitstrips are made every day. Even some well-known news anchors are getting in on the fun.

“It amazes me that we haven’t even translated it yet, but people all over the world are using it,” Blackstock told me.

Needless to say, the team in Toronto that launched an app in stealth mode wasn’t quite ready to handle the growth.

At first they experienced some challenges with servers and such. Then the complaints started coming in from Facebook users. Feeds were now filling up with random Bitstrips comics. The app was so popular, users were using it too much!

What a problem to have.

Now, with funding in the bank, Blackstock is focusing on building the team and updating the app. They have already expanded the sharing options to include Twitter, Instagram, and text, as well as released some holiday comics that can be customized.

According to Mashable, Bitstrips is following a “users now, monetize later” strategy. Since most consumer-facing apps take this approach, it’s certainly a familiar play. For now, Blackstock and the Bitstrips team see it as a way for people to connect with each other in a new and interesting way, which also sounds vaguely familiar.

Is it possible we’ve already found the next Snapchat?

Follow All Your Anticipated Releases With Hypebadger

Don’t you hate it when you miss the release of a new movie or game you were really excited about? There are so many new things popping up every day that it’s hard to keep up.

That’s what the new website Hypebadger is for. Just tell the site what release you want to follow, and you’ll receive an alert on the release date. Easy as that.

Hypebadger is interesting for 2 reasons. First, the team is the definition of “distributed,” with an entire ocean separating certain members. Second, while the idea has some merit for individual users, it could be a boon for independent artists, filmmakers, and musicians. Hypebadger will remind fans of when their favorites are releasing new products, helping those artists actually make money.

Hypebadger is very young, still testing out their MVP. But, if you’re an early adopter, they would love to hear your feedback as they build out the next phase.

Check out our Q&A with Brad Rach:

What does your company do?
Hypebadger is a website designed to allow users to follow and receive updates on unreleased products that they’re interested in. For example, if you hear about a new movie that you’re interested in, but you’re not a huge movie-goer you might forget about it and miss it in theaters. With Hypebadger, you go to the site, ask to be “Badgered” by the movie, and when it is released you receive a notification telling you that it came out.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?
The founder of the project is Chris Horsnell. Chris is a developer based out of Milton Keynes (outside of London, England) Chris built the MVP prototype over a summer and then brought on myself and two other founders. David Bannister is our User Experience optimization expert and is based out of London England. Chloe Bromfield is the project’s designer and is from Northampton. I’ve taken on the role of Marketing and Business Operations, and I’m a Project Manager from Ottawa Ontario.

What’s the story behind your idea?
HypeBadger was dreamed up when Chris was following the release of a mobile game (Star Command). He constantly checked for updates on the game: images, videos, and eventually its release. Chris was dedicated enough to do this, because he was very interested in the game, but all the while he kept thinking that it would be nice to just wake up one morning and be reminded that the game was coming out.

So Chris started building HypeBader on March 22nd, 2013. Over that weekend, Chris would put the kids to bed and work all night on his product. By the end of the weekend he had built the bones of what would become Hypebadger. He spent the summer refining the product and building out the founding team.

Where are you based?
Hypebadger is a nice example of a global team. I work out of Ottawa, Ontario; and have never even traveled outside of North America. Chris is located in Milton Keynes, a town near London.

What’s the startup scene like where you are based?
In Ottawa, the scene is very heavily focused on tech and small bootstrapped startups. On the other side of the equation, Milton Keynes is not a large city, and has a fairly small startup community. However its proximity to London certainly helps with becoming involved in that community. Hypebadger is not a project defined by the physical boundaries of the location. Because its a purely digital service, the team resonates more with the startup scene online, on sites like CoFounders Lab or Reddit.

What problem do you solve?
Hypebadger solves two problems. The first, with the most broad appeal, is the issue that countless people have where they lose track of upcoming movies, albums, games, events, etc. With HypeBadger they don’t have to face this issue anymore, as soon as they’re interested in an announced release, users can go onto the website and follow the item for the future.

The second problem that Hypebadger solves is that many independent developers, filmmakers, musicians, or entrepreneurs don’t have an easy way of keeping the interest of fans. They often get a short window of interest, but lack the marketing budgets to announce their releases. Hypebadger will be a game changer for them, since they can ensure that interested fans receive a direct notification as soon as they launch.

Why now?
With the popularization of Kickstarter, more and more independent companies have begun producing their products. The market is becoming very saturated, there are countless sources for news, and its easy to lose track of things in information overload. Hypebadger is needed now more than ever, to help users keep track of the products that they’re interested in.

What are some of the milestones your startup has already reached?
Hypebager has already finished building a minimum viable product (MVP) to test the concept. We have also exceeded 250 users.

What are your next milestones?
Hypebadger is hoping to hit our 1000 user mark within the month. Our next major development milestone will be to complete an Android application.

Where can people find out more? Any social media links you want to share?
Website: http://www.hypebadger.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hypebadger
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HypeBadger
Google+: https://plus.google.com/103391743539144654189/posts

Toronto-Based Slyce Raises $6 Million To Help You Shop

Does this ever happen to you:

You see someone with something you’d like to own, but when you get online to search for it, you can’t quite articulate what it was?

With the new Slyce platform, you can just snap a picture of the item and find out where to purchase it. In a lot of cases, you’ll also be able to buy it right away.

While this sounds cool from a consumer standpoint, think about what this could mean for retailers. Suddenly, shoppers can find you more easily than ever before, right when they are in the mood to buy what you’re selling. For the niche, unique retailers, a platform like Slyce could mean a huge boost in business.

We’ve talked about the Big Instincts Group before. If even one of their most recent bets pan out, they’ll definitely be a company to watch.

Our Q&A with the Slyce team is below:

What does your company do?

Slyce is a visual search platform that allows Users to instantly purchase items in the real world simply by taking a picture with their smartphone.

Slyce will exist as both an independent consumer application, and a white label solution which can be integrated with existing retailer technologies. Using advanced visual recognition on smartphones as well as through a desktop application, Slyce is enabling retailers to be there at a consumers exact point of interest and ultimately changing the way retailers and consumers search and purchase items.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Cameron Chell and Erika Racicot are Co-founders of Slyce and are also co-founders of venture-creation firm, Business Instincts Group . The pair have been working together for over 5 years. Cameron is considered one of the original founders of the Application Service Provider industry, and founded the original cloud computing company, FutureLink. Erika is the operational driver at Slyce and has a background in operations and marketing, working in industries ranging from technology to hospitality to politics.

Where are you based?

Slyce’s headquarters is located in Toronto, but they also have offices in Minneapolis and Calgary.

What’s the startup scene like where you are based?

The Toronto startup scene is arguably the largest in Canada. There is a strong, supportive community with incubators, accelerators, events, meetups and genuinely smart and innovative people. There are a numerous great startups which call Toronto home, and we’re excited to be involved in that community.

What problem do you solve?

For any consumer who has seen something they love and then struggled to clearly articulate that item in a search query, Slyce visual product search is the multi-dimensional and intuitive answer to their prayers. For retailers, the Slyce image recognition technology can be adapted in innumerable ways to facilitate all kinds of innovative functionality. For the first time, Slyce enables retailers to engage and transact with consumers at their very point of interest.

Why now?

Smartphones are becoming our most trusted and adored possession and taking pictures with them, part of our daily life. Approximately 350 million photographs are uploaded just to Facebook every day! People take pictures of items they want, or clothes they like, and with the Slyce platform we help them discover where exactly they can purchase that item and enable them to do so almost instantaneously. The way the offering is structured means Slyce competes both in the visual search arena, and the social shopping sector. With mobile shopping accounting for 39% of all online traffic during this holiday season, there is a clear opportunity to get deeply involved and grow the shopping experience.

What are some of the milestones your startup has already reached?

Over the past 12 months Slyce has raised just over $6 Million in financing and just last week announced the acquisition of another visual search tech startup, Hovr.it.

What are your next milestones?

Upcoming milestones will be in customer acquisition and product development. We will be closing another round of financing early in 2014 and are currently looking to expand our Toronto team in order to scale quickly and effectively.

10th Magnitude Is In The Business Of Helping Entrepreneurs

You know howW to tell that startup culture is going mainstream? There are now businesses whose sole focus is providing services for entrepreneurs.

It used to be that companies built their businesses on corporate clients (you know, the kind that can pay), but founders with good connections could get a lot of work done for free or cheap. Companies didn’t advertise their services specifically for startups but were often happy to help out friends or acquaintances.

Now, though, plenty of businesses are more than happy to advertise their services specifically for startups. Sometimes they provide services in exchange for equity or sponsorships, but sometimes they also have a payment structure in place that makes it beneficial for a startup to spend some money.

Veteran tech guy Alex Brown saw this kind of need in Chicago three years ago. He founded 10th Magnitude to help founders build out some of the cloud applications they might need. The company also helps big companies jump into the 21st century by facilitating a move to the cloud, but Alex and 10th Magnitude are really excited about startups and founders.

Check out our Q&A with CEO Alex Brown:

1. What is your startup called?

10^th Magnitude

2. What does your company do?

10^th Magnitude is a cloud software and services firm. We help clients of all sizes build and run cloud-based applications, as well as migrate existing applications and infrastructure to the cloud. We specialize in Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, and we are one of Microsoft’s leading Azure partners in the US.

3. Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

10^th Magnitude was founded in 2010 by tech industry veteran Alex Brown, who combines decades in tech—both on the solutions side and the data center side—with an undergrad degree from Oberlin in economics and an MBA from Yale. His experience includes:

Executive Vice President, Arrowstream, cloud based supply chain management technology
Vice President and General Manager, Univa, Datacenter automation and Cloud Management
Director, Dell Inc. (US and Asia-Pacific), Consulting Services, Global Solutions
Managing Director, Plural, one of the largest .net developers in the country (acquired by Dell, 2002)

4. What’s the startup scene like where you are based?

Chicago is a pretty vibrant startup scene, not only in tech but also in a variety other industries. It’s pretty collaborative, which is great and encouraging to all the entrepreneurs. And, from 10^th Magnitude’s perspective it’s incredibly valuable since a lot of our clients on the application development side of our business are also startups.

5. What problem do you solve?

10^th Magnitude solves the problem of organizational stagnation. Our services allow organizations to innovate without taking on the risk of the capital expense normally associated with that type of initiative.

6. Why now?

I started the company because I saw the writing on the wall. The technology was just coming into focus and has been on a rapid adoption curve ever since. Cloud technology is available now, and we jumped on the opportunity and our clients have as well.

7. What are some of the milestones your company has already reached?

o We are 3 years old with no external funding and we have grown consistently.

o We’ve continued to acquire larger and larger (i.e., over $1B clients on a regular basis)

o We are acknowledged as an industry leader; seated on advisory boards at Microsoft and Channel Company.

8. What are your next milestones?

Our immediate goal is to doubling staff and revenue over the next year.

9. Where can people find out more? Any social media links you want to share?

Twitter: @alex10thmag; @10thmagnitude

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TiqIQ, the Kayak for Ticket Sales, Launches On Mobile

Last week Rafat Ali posted on LinkedIn about “mediata” startups. Mediata startups combine data and media:

“What if data *is* media?” Ali asks.

New York-based TiqIQ has been operating along those lines since 2009. The company works as a ticket selling platform for live events around the country. TiqIQ aggregates the best prices across several secondary platforms like eBay, TicketsNow, Vivid Seats, ScorBig and primary sellers like Ticketmaster.

“Think Kayak.com for live events,” VP of Marketing Brett House told me over the phone. “We scour the web for the best tickets available so fans don’t have to. All they have to do is show up and have a good time!”

TiqIQ utilizes the ticket market pricing data to produce original content on events and fan-demand. They are able to see trends across the market, going back as far as 5 years. The articles are then published across their network of 1,500 fan blogs and websites, like this article on the crazy Iron Bowl that put Auburn in the SEC Championship game.

Their publishing partners are impressive, including Forbes.com, Bleacher Report, Grantland, Huffington Post, Village Voice Media (with 14 properties nationwide), and high affinity sites, like the largest SEC blog in the country: Saturday Down South.

TiqIQ has seen lots of growth since its inception and landed a $1.7 million Series A early last year. Now they’re looking to grow even more with the launch of a new mobile site.

Actually, the site launched quietly about 3 months ago. Since then, they’ve seen a 303% growth in the mobile conversion rate and double the overall traffic. In just 3 months.

I’d say that’s “high growth.”

The fully responsive mobile site is clean and simple. You can allow it to see your location and immediately pull up all the local events. Just like on the website, you can also personalize the mobile site so that you only see sports or events you’re actually interested in. (Yes to football games. No to basketball. Just for instance.)

Of course, it makes complete sense that mobile ticket sales would do well. Mobile shopping overall is having a year, and as consumers get more comfortable (and the experience gets better) TiqIQ can only expect that to grow.

Which is why in the next couple of months they’ll also add content to the mobile site. They are going for that extra “stickiness” that will keep fans on the site long enough to buy tickets after reading about how scarce they are to a particular event.

So now TiqIQ is not only a media/data company but also a content/commerce company. Two hot trends that find a pretty interesting home in live event ticket sales.

TiqIQ doesn’t have the name recognition of, say, StubHub, but the disdain in House’s voice as we talked about the competition indicates that they aren’t too worried about that.

And let’s face it, with growth like that and more features to roll out, the guys at TiqIQ probably aren’t worried about too much these days.

Except maybe which bowl game to go.

The Sharing Economy Moves Into…Fashion?

Okay, here’s the nightmare scenario:

You’re traveling for work or to a high school reunion or whatever. The big event you’ve traveled for is in a few hours and you realize, “Holy shit! I forgot my (fill in important clothing item here).”

A couple of years ago that exact thing happened to Amrita Aviyente while she was in India for a high school reunion. She ended up buying really expensive shoes that she had very few occasions to wear after that trip.

The whole experience made her think, “Wouldn’t it be great if there was someone just down the street I could borrow shoes from?”

Back in Boston, she set to work on Date My Wardrobe, a peer-to-peer service that allows users to post their upscale wardrobe pieces online and rent them to other people. Aviyente calls it “AirBnB for high-end wardrobe items.”

She’s particularly excited about the social component that’s possible with Date My Wardrobe. You’re in a new city, need some shoes, and suddenly you find yourself meeting someone with your exact taste in fashion.

The team–which also includes Izi Aviyente and Chetan Chawla–piloted the beta during the Boston Lean Startup Challenge. They were in the top 5 teams in this year’s class, and are now busy working on the updates they want to make to the platform.

Those changes will be easy to implement quickly because two of the three founders have technical backgrounds. They are working on a payment platform (right now they use Square Cash) and hope to launch on mobile soon.

Competition, obviously, comes in the form of just buying something when you need it. However, there’s also New York-based Rent the Runway, which has an inventory of used designer items for rent. There’s also DC-based SnobSwap which works as an online marketplace that lets you buy, sell, or swap clothes.

Neither of those companies are strictly peer-to-peer like Date My Wardrobe, but some people will prefer that. While it’s fun to think about sharing clothes, it could potentially be a little creepy.

Of course, staying in someone’s home or getting a Lyft from a stranger could be creepy, too, and those things are doing all right at the moment. Buzz aside, the sharing economy is still in the early days, and there is plenty of room and time to grow.

Amrita and her team plan to be a part of that. They are looking to 2014 to be a big year for Date My Wardrobe.

Medifund: Creating More Doctors Through Crowdfunding

In the United States, we don’t think much about not having enough doctors. It seems like everywhere we turn there are more doctors.

But it’s not like that in other parts of the world, and those areas desperately need good medical care. According to Jossy Onwude, the US is actually on track to be 90,000 doctors short by 2015.

Why is it so hard to get good doctors? Well, have looked at the cost of medical school lately? (Hint: it’s a lot.)

So, Onwude and his team from Startup Weekend Cebu, Philippines are solving that problem by crowdfunding medical education. They soft-launched earlier this year, and are already seeing interest from investors and users alike.

Check out our Q&A with Onwude below.

What does your company do?

We are crowdfunding future doctors for areas with shortages/the whole world.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Jossy Onwude, MD student who has founded two startups in the past

Leo, a very versatile Python programer

Faye, a brilliant Python programmer

Michael, A very good designer/User experience expert for 7 years

What’s the story behind your idea?

Medifund started when I was looking for a way to help a friend of mine who was about to drop out of med school. We searched for a way to help her raised funds but couldn’t find any. So I said to myself, “Why not start one?”

Then the idea began but now we are not just trying to help med students, but we want to create more doctors for the people of the world.

Where are you based?

We are based in Cebu, Philippines

What’s the startup scene like where you are based?

The startup scene here is pretty immature. But there is progress and things are getting better. Not the way they were two years ago. The talent is there, but the major problem we face here is funding. Not enough angels and VCs.

Why now?

Because this is the best time to start. It’s been estimated that by 2015 the United States alone would face a doctor shortage of 90,000 physicians. So its better we act now and try to solve that.

What are your next milestones?

Complete our funding round, release loan feature(so that students can have better chance of getting the money they need), add marketing staff, and add more features

Where can people find out more? Any social media links you want to share?

To find out more visit www.medifund.co or check out our fb page at www.facebook.com/medifund or on tiwtter atwww.twitter.com/medifund_co

Silvrback Wants To Be The Medium For Writers

Some of the best startup stories begin with a personal itch–some problem that bugs the founder so much, he or she just goes out to fix it.

That’s basically the story of Tahoe-based Silvrback, a new blogging platform built by Damian Sowers. Sowers had used Medium a few times, but hated that the site always sent readers to someone else’s content at the end of his articles. WordPress and other full time blogging platforms proved complicated, with too many choices that made it easy to procrastinate the content part.

So, Sowers got to work.

The developer and consultant built Silvrback to look like Medium but allow writers to have more control over their brand and platform.

“Medium is great for readers but bad for writers,” it says on website. “Readers are steered away to other articles/authors after they are done reading your article. Moreover, the analytics of Medium are extremely basic and you have no idea how people found your article.You really shouldn’t use Medium if you want to build any kind of brand with your writing.”

With that in mind, Sowers made a list of things he personally wanted in a blogging platform and incorporated those into his final product. Things like a clean and modern UI, hosting, and Google analytics can all be found at Silvrback. The site is definitely well-designed, and Sowers incorporated much of what people love about Medium into it. In fact, you can probably think of it as a mashup of the good things about WordPress and the good things about Medium, all in one platform.

However, despite the tough talk, Sowers says he isn’t trying to compete with Medium. The bigger platform focuses on content discovery, but Silvrback focuses on providing a great platform for writers. Some of the changes to Medium announced last week back of Sowers’ theories on what matters to writers. Of course, it also makes them even more direct competitors.

Still, it stands to reason that writers will be happy to go where there’s a built-in audience, and Ev Williams and team have that at Medium. While the platform does steers readers towards other content, it’s not really that hard to find a writer you like and read everything they offer.

Many of Silvrback’s users have joined up from Hacker News, and that hacker/writer audience could prove to be the best niche for Silvrback to target.

If you’re sick of Medium (or your hosted blog) go check out Silvrback. You can get a 2 week free trial here.