Startups Archives - Page 62 of 144

Y Combinator: The Power In An Accelerator Is Not The Cash

Startups around the world, who’ve had their eyes set on Y Combinator, have all been scratching their heads over the past two days while stomaching a major change in the way the accelerator program at Y Combinator is run.

Two years ago Russian venture capitalist Yuri Milner and Ron Conway, principal at SV Angels, decided that they would invest $150,000 in seed money to each of Y Combinator’s startups. In a blog post Monday Y Combinator said that they often ended up managing the investments and the program, which was awkward because they hadn’t actually started it.

Y Combinator has announced a new program called YCVC where four Yuri Milner and three other firms will join together to invest $80,000 in each of the startups as opposed to the $150,000 figure. Joining Milner are Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst and Maverick Capital. Absent from this program is Conway and SV Angels.

Graham explained to Forbes magazine that while SV Angels fund doesn’t fit into the new mold of the program, Conway is still one of YC’s “favorite investors”

So what’s going on?

Startup spinmasters everywhere are wondering why this change in investment strategy. Some worry does this have to do with the bubble bursting? Others wonder if it has to do with the general trend in consumer tech investing going down? While others understand that cash isn’t the core to a good accelerator program.

That’s just what YC has said as well.

By decreasing the actual cash investment in the startups, YC is asking that the investors take a more active interest in the program itself. Each of the investors will participate in office hours helping to cultivate the startups in the program. Graham, along with the powers that be at YC are hoping that this invaluable investment with time will more than compensate for the decrease in seed funding.

YC also says that $150,000 may not have been the optimal investment. In some cases a seed investment that size was too much for a new startup.

“$150k was more than the successful startups needed, and it sometimes caused messy disputes in the unsuccessful ones. Switching from $150k to $80k may not completely eliminate such problems, but it will make them at most half as bad.” YC posted on their blog.

YC is confident that even in Silicon Valley $80,000 should be more than adequate to give startup founders about a year to work on their idea, and live financially above water.

Many successful accelerators across the country including MassChallenge, DreamIt Ventures, TechWildCatters and even the Brandery have been making do with substantially less seed funding for startups, and more active programs.

Some startups feel that having a name like Y Combinator, 500 Startups or TechStars behind them is enough to help them get ahead. Others really want the opportunity to work the program, beef up their contacts, and learn from the triumphs and failures of the top shelf mentors associated with funds like those backing the newest program at Y Combinator.

What do you think, tell us in comments.

Linkage:

YC’s original blog post

More startup stories from “everywhere else”

Startup Conference? Yes!

Cincinnati And The Brandery Featured In CNN’s Piece About Startup Communities

When we venture away from home (which is quite often), we’re sure that our regular readers know that Cincinnati is one of the thriving startup communities we like to visit. Cincinnati is home to The Brandery, the world’s first startup accelerator devoted to marketing and branding. They’re also home to Cincy Tech, Centrifuse and many other startup and entrepreneurial initiatives.

It’s no surprise than that Cincinnati was named as one of the six cities “where startups thrive” according to CNN. Earlier this morning we brought you the story about Music City USA (Nashville) also receiving the same honor.

Cincinnati’s back story is a bit different than being home to the legends of country music. Cincinnati is home to one of, if not the, biggest branded company in the world, Proctor & Gamble. One thing that many startup communities struggle with is getting their patriarchs, or “blue bloods” to participate in the new, somewhat risky, startup community.

Proctor & Gamble is “all in” with Cincinnati’s tech and startup community. The son of the consumer giants CEO Robert MacDonald, Rob MacDonald, is one of the founders of The Brandery. The Brandery pulls several mentors from the ranks of the Proctor & Gamble world headquarters and also works hand in hand with some of their biggest marketing partners to give their portfolio companies a boost.

What’s better than that though is that The Brandery, along with Cincy Tech and the collaborative effort, Cintrifuse, host regular classes, workshops and talks aimed at the young and up and coming entrepreneurs in the city. Anything from bringing your product to market, to designing the best business plan, is constantly taught and retaught for the Cincy startup community, and most of these activities cost little to no money.

Innovation comes in many forms in Cincinnati

When you look at most startup accelerator cohorts you can strip the current classes startup names, and find that you have similar classes throughout the country. You have your photo app, your video app, your event sharing app, your collaboration platform, one or two hard goods and something social. Startups in Cincinnati push the envelope and break the box apart.

Take ChoreMonster for instance. This standout startup from the first Brandery class, is the “big brother” startup at the Brandery. Their founders are constantly mentoring, coaching and helping other startups. Their idea though? Chore management for kids with an uber friendly, monster theme. Does it work? My five year old daughter does chores like nobody’s business, I just need to get her mother on the program now. ChoreMonster has already raised over a million dollars in venture capital and their official product isn’t even out of the gate.

A startup made out of a team of teenage, ivy league dropouts, called “FlightCar” is picking up major traction including a recent feature on TechCrunch.com. Their idea is to facilitate peer to peer car lending at airports. If you’re going on a week long vacation, why pay to park when someone else can pay you to use your car. The three founders behind the startup, have never rented a car in their lives, but they were able to work out the insurance kinks and now have a viable product and testing in two major airports.

Venturing outside of the Brandery’s “Over The Rhine” walls you’ll find startups like CapStory and CoupSmart. The young founders of CapStory are looking to restore the sanctity once found with Facebook. Even at just 20, they know the risks involved in that beer bong shot posted to your Facebook page. Their startup is hoping to give college students the ability to share those memories without their future boss seeing them.

Coupsmart is an engagement platform that’s taking all those likes and fans from social media and really turning them into revenue. An idea that’s on the minds of marketers around the world.

With this kind of startup community flourishing in Cincinnati it’s no wonder that they were selected by CNN as one of the cities where “startups thrive”.

Linkage:

CNN “Cities Where Startups Thrive”

Nibletz coverage of Cincinnati

The biggest startup conference ever… Period

Vancouver Startup: Perch Turns iOS Devices Into Hands Free Cameras and More

Being on the road as much as we are here at nibletz.com the voice of startups everywhere else, we’ve come to realize how useful the iPhone and iPad have become to stay intune with what’s going on at home. For instance, FaceTime with my five year old daughter is something we do multiple times per day, every day. FaceTime is perhaps one of the easiest to use video chat apps ever created. A startup in Vancouver Canada, called Perch, has made it even easier.

Perch allows you to set up stationary iOS devices throughout your home or office. This unique app builds in video along with motion detection. Your iOS device becomes a Perch camera. All you have to do is walk up to the stationary iOS device and start talking, Perch knows to start rolling audio and video. The Perch app then uploads the video to the cloud making it easy for the recipient to get it.

Perch cameras can be used for surveillance and security, or as a great interactive tool for the whole family. Perch calls this hands free video operation, “ambient video”. In addition to those features you can also text and video chat with anyone in your Perch family.

The app was born out of a previous startup called Redhand which turned iOS devices into sophisticated security cameras.

We got a chance to talk with the team behind Perch. Check out the interview below.

Techstars Now Taking Applications Via AngelList

The popular TechStars accelerator program announced last week on their blog that they are now taking applications via AngelList.

500 Startups was the first to go the route of using AngelList to allow startups to apply their program, with their current session. Traditionally to get into 500 startups accelerator program a startup had to be recommended internally. 500 Startups founder Dave McClure opened up the current session for general applications, but only using the AngelList platform.

TechStars is taking applications through their website and also through AngelList.

Techstars founder David Cohen does say that if you apply via AngelList and you’re selected for further evaluation you may need to answer some of the more specific questions found on the application on the Techstars website. However, applications are welcomed from either site.

Techstars is currently taking applications via AngelList and their website for their Boston program that starts February 25, 2013. The early bird deadline for Boston applications is next Monday December 3rd and the final deadline is December 17th.

Applications are also open for the New York City 2013 cohort. The early bird application deadline is January 4, 2013 and the final deadline is January 18, 2013. That session begins April 2, 2013.

Linkage:

Techstars schedule

Techstars application via their website

Techstars application via Angellist

This is the biggest startup conference in the world

Tech Cocktails Speaker Series “Sessions” Returns To DC December 5th

If you’re going to be in the Washington DC area next week, then you definitely want to put TechCocktail’s next speaker series event on your calendar. TechCocktails speaker series, called “sessions”, puts together entrepreneurs, designers, startups, and investors in a setting to discuss topics that are relevant to those in the tech and startup community. They offer unparalleled access to top tier, successful speakers, in a somewhat intimate setting.

The next “Sessions” event is being held in Washington DC at the Atlas Theater (1333 H Street NE) Wednesday December 5th from 6:30pm-9:00pm. They are calling the event “Building Your Team”.

Living up to their mission TechCocktail’s Building Your Team session is of the utmost importance to startup founders everywhere. The success of any startup hinges on the product and more importantly the team.

“At some point, most startups reach a point where they need to build a team. How do you start? How do you find the best possible people to grow your company and represent your new brand? Despite today’s unemployment rates, the technology sector remains highly competitive and building a top notch team might be more challenging than you think. Come hear from our speakers who have a variety of perspectives on building out amazing teams, finding talent and keeping them. ” (from TechCocktail’s event page)

The Sessions event will have three speakers, all who’ve had to go through the team building experience. Blake Hall the founder and CEO of TroopID , Carla Valdes a general partner at Fortify.vc and Peter Corbett founder and CEO of iStrategy Labs, have all had their fair share of team building.

Hall’s company has built the first military focused verification database. Hall has had experience building his startup team and being part of teams in the military including as an active duty Airborne Ranger qualified officer.

Valdes has built up the team at Fortify.vc a Washington DC investment fund and is also instrumental in selecting and solidifying the starutp teams that are chosen for Fortify’s dc based accelerator, The Fort.

Corbett and his team at iStrategyLabs serve as a digital agency to some of the world’s biggest brands like ESPN,Disney, ABC, Nasdaw and Geico. Not only is Corbett managing highly creative left brained teams, but he’s doing it with the intense pressure that comes with running a digital agency.

Tickets for the event start at just $10.00 but you need to get them quick before the pricing goes up. Follow the link below.

Linkage:

TechCocktail Sessions DC event page here

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” here are more startup stories from “everywhere else”

And this, is the largest startup conference ever.

New York Startup: Unpakt Brings The Expedia Model To Moving

The Expedia model of comparison shopping and booking online for the best discounted prices is a proven model that’s being used for several new verticals. Earlier this week we reported on Tennessee startup MDSave which applies a similar model to finding low cost health care for self pay patients. We’ve also reported on Nashville startup Rentstuff which applies a similar model to the merchandise rental industry.

As a testimony to the success of the Expedia model in other verticals, MDSave just raised $1 million dollars for their startup while Rentstuff was recently acquired.

Today we’ve found New York startup Unpakt which is applying the same type model to moving.

Sharone Ben-Harosh is the founder of Unpakt and a 20 year veteran in the moving industry. His first moving startup is FlatRate moving which he founded in 1991. FlatRate Moving takes away the uncertainty associated with hourly moving in exchange for a more honest flat rate move.

Unpakt works on the same principals, but on a larger scale. Users simply put in where they are moving from and to, how much stuff they have and what, if any, special services they need. Unpakt than brings back several real time quotes of movers that can do your move on the date requested and an actual flat rate quote so you know what you’re getting into. You also book the move online which takes a major part of the headache of moving, out of the picture.

We got a chance to talk with Ben-Harosh about Unpakt. Check out the interview below.

Nashville Featured in CNN’s “Cities Where Startups Are Thriving”

For years Nashville Tennessee has been known as Music City USA. Country music starts in Nashville. This year ABC is even running an hour long drama based on country music and life in Nashville, called “Nashville”. To people from the midsouth it’s no secret that Nashville also has a thriving entrepreneurial, startup and tech scene, but now they’ve been highlighted in a piece on cnn.com called “Cities Where Startups Are Thriving”.

In 2010 the Nashville Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with the Nashville Technology Council opened the Entrepreneur Center. A team of 75 people in an “entrepreneur task force” began researching and discussing the possibility of creating a resource for Nashville entrepreneurs back in 2007, a year after a similar effort was started in Memphis Tennessee by entrepreneur Eric Mathews and Launch Your City.

The center started as an online resource, and eventually became a brick and mortar centralized location that serves as the startup and technology hub in Music City.

In May of 2010 it was announced that successful healthcare entrepreneur Michael Burcham was picked to lead the Nashville Entrepreneur Center after a six month search.

Now the community is thriving. Nashville investors have put $72 million dollars into 21 companies so far in 2012, nearly double the $38 million dollars and 8 companies they invested in in 2009.

Startups like Edo Interactive that originated in Nashville and now has offices in Nashville and Chicago, has raised over $50 million dollars in venture capital. Another startup, RentStuff, which got it’s formidable start in the Jumpstart Foundry accelerator program, housed at the Entrepreneur Center, followed in Edo Interactive’s footsteps, relocating to Chicago and leading to an acquisition first reported here at nibletz.com late last week.

Nashville is just one of 9 entrepreneurial pockets that LaunchTN is supporting with startup accelerators. The nine high growth areas include four major hubs, Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga and also have five shoulder markets as well. Tennessee was the second state to formalize a Startup America region. That much entrepreneurial and startup activity in the state of over 42,000 square miles means that no Tennessee resident is more than an hour and a half away from an entrepreneurial hub.

Linkage:

CNN’s “Cities Where Startups Thrive”

No one covers high growth tech news for the southeast like nibletz.com

Tennessee is home to the largest startup conference in the world

Austin Startup: SocialGood.TV May Save Al Gore’s “Current” TV Network

Tennessee native, former Vice President and founder of the internet (lol) Al Gore, got into the tv business with long time friend and notorious tv ad lawyer Joel Hyatt, who was well known for his tv slogan “I’m Joel Hyatt and you have my word on it”. In 2005 they launched “Current TV” a left leaning tv network.

After his failed bid in the 2000 Presidential election Gore, wanted to go into the TV business. The idea was to launch a conventional tv news network to combat the likes of right leaning Fox news. Some feel that CNN already had it’s feet firmly planted in that position, which is why Current never really took off.

Today we learned that Austin startup SocialGood.TV may be buying the national cable network and moving it’s operations to Austin. The Austin Business Journal is reporting that in addition to the move, SocialGood.TV may be looking to move the networks programming more into the middle of the road.

Stephen Vogelpohl, co-founder and CEO of SocialGood.TV has been tight lipped about what the startup is working on exactly, however it’s been learned that they have a few employees who are developing a video engagement platform for social causes.

Current currently offers programming from disgraced New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, ex-Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and “The Views” with Joy Behar. The network is beamed into 71 million homes with about 60 million of those being in the United States. In the grand scheme of things those are relatively low numbers for a cable network.

Vogelpohl told the Austin Statesman that if SocialGood.TV was successful in the bid they would move programming to causes “outside of legistlation” adding:

“Making communities stronger isn’t a left or a right issue,” he said. “We’d want the programming to be more inclusive, educating through entertaining.”

Vogelpohl’s stake holders are to meet next month in Austin to discuss the deal further.

Linkage:

Here’s a link to socialgood.tv

More startup news from “everywhere else”

This is the startup conference you don’t want to miss

Meet Indian 500 Startups Company TradeBriefs, Email Newsletters Making People Experts

Sree Vijaykumar, the founder of Indian startup TradeBriefs, has turned an email newsletter business into a bonafide startup with big upside potential. Some may think that email newsletters are old school, and that in this age of mobile first startups and apps, apps and more apps, how could there possibly be room at the 500 startups lair for an email newsletter startup?

TradeBriefs is in the current class at 500startups so obviously there’s more than meets the eye with these email newsletters.

“We have managed to silence our naysayers. People didn’t think an email newsletter business could thrive, but we have successfully demonstrated that our formula works.. Our subscribers and advertisers are both happy, which is great and now we are ready to scale.” Vijaykumar told us in an interview. Scaling is what they are focusing on while they are in Mountain View participating in the 500 startups accelerator program.

TradeBriefs is part human editor and part learning algorithm. They say that their newsletters are helping professionals in their concentrated fields become industry experts.

TradeBriefs began with an industry newsletter for India’s retail industry and quickly expanded to four other verticals including; Telecom, Finance, IT and FMCG. They are planning on adding verticals and expanding out of India.

In the US, Fierce has been able to make a viable business out of email newsletters, turned into websites, within the tech industry. Now, in addition to their websites, and newsletters Fierce also hosts major industry events in the telecom, mobile and tech industries. Is it possible for TradeBriefs to do the same thing? Obviously 500 Startups thinks so.

Check out the rest of our interview with Vijaykumar below.

Startups Everywhere Else See 65% Of US VC Money In Q3 2012

The latest Dow Jones VC Edge report for Q3 2012 was just released. Overall, venture capital investment across the globe has declined 20% quarter over quarter. Deal flow on a global decreased as well by 11% with 1341 deals in Q2 2012 and only 1189 deals in Q3 2012.

Fred Wilson, the Principal at Union Square Ventures, weighed in on the Dow Jones report in a blog post on Sunday. Most notable to Wilson was that VC funding of consumer web and mobile companies was down 42% for the first 9 months of 2012, when compared to the same 9 month period in 2011. He’s careful to note that the decrease has come in follow on funding and not seed funding.

Wilson highlights three trends in consumer based web and mobile companies that are worthy to note. The most important being that mobile first startups need to spend more to simultaneously bring products out across iOS, Android and the web. It also seems that some startups are having a hard time building scale after their mobile products are built.

The Dow Jones VC report said that IT still received the most venture funding with $3 billion dollars spent in the quarter which is still a decrease of 10%.

In overall venture funding the US was the strongest region even with a 17% drop in investment. Israel saw an increase of 43% with $263M invested in Q3.

Source: Dow Jones’ Venture Source

As for the United States, Silicon Valley still commanded 35% of the venture pie, while startups “everywhere else” drew 65% of the venture capital. Dow Jones highlighted the Los Angeles metro (3%), Seattle metro (2%), Chicago metro (4%), Boston metro (10%), New York metro (9%), and Potomac with (3%). All the other US cities that weren’t broken down accounted for 32% of funding.

Wilson’s interpretation of the critical piece of data surrounding follow on funding was spot on. The Wall Street Journal noted that companies that had a seed round in 2007 and 2008 were more successful in raising follow on funding than those who received a seed round in the following years. There was also more money up for grabs just 5 years ago. The median seed round in 2007 and 2008 was $4 million, while today that’s shrunk to $2 million.

Linkage:

Get a free tour of Dow Jones’ Venture Source here

See this Wall Street Journal piece

Here’s more startup news from “everywhere else”

and here’s the biggest startup conference on the planet

Memphis Startup: Cloud For Good Introduces New Product SynagogueCloud

Tal Frankfurt and his CRM/Salesforce startup Cloud For Good has introduced a new product aimed to help synagogues across the country and around the world get more organized. Cloud For Good is a consultancy and product development company that uses primarily SalesForce as it’s back bone and specifically helps non profits.

Today, CRM (Constituent Relationship Management) is shifting towards cloud computing. Instead of buying and maintaining expensive servers and software to manage constituent conversations and information, synagogues can use Web-based (“cloud”) applications to run their CRM—and receive a higher return on their social investment. More than 16,000 nonprofits and educational organizations (and 160,000 companies) are now using Salesforce to transform their operations, reduce risk, and better serve their members.

“The cloud revolution and the Salesforce platform are changing the way synagogues operate today by providing the cutting-edge technology needed to build deep and meaningful relationships with their constituents. Meet the Synagogue Cloud!” Tal Frankfurt said in a statement.

“We tailored Salesforce, one of the most powerful web based applications, to manage every touch the synagogue has with its members, board, volunteers, partners, and vendors. The application allows the synagogue’s staff to manage one list that is integrated with their website, social networks, and financial systems. This application is going to change how synagogues engage and cultivate relationships with their members,” added Frankfurt.

SynagogueCloud manages over 20 different key areas within today’s busy synagogues.

Household Tracking
Organization Tracking
Constituent Tracking
Prospect Management
Volunteer Tracking
Leadership Tracking
Education Tracking
Relationships Tracking
Activity Tracking
Membership Tracking
High Holiday Seating
Events & Classes
Honors & Aliyahs
Revenues
School Tracking
Membership Portal
Email Integration
Direct Mail
Reporting

Frankfurt and the Cloud For Good Team have incorporated every aspect of a synagogues business including social and religious functionality. There are also custom features that can be built into the system. The pricing is incredible as well.

Linkage:

Check out SynagogueCloud here

Check out Cloud for Good here

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” here are more startup stories from “everywhere else”

The biggest startup conference of all time is this one

Washington DC Startup: MBA Project Search Connects MBA’s & Businesses For Short And Long Term Projects

We’ve reported on several job and recruitment based startups. Most of these startups are attacking problems with hiring and recruiting with technology like video and social media. Some employment based startups, like Memphis startup Work For Pie, are honed in on specific markets like developers. A new Washington DC startup, MBA Project Search, is connecting businesses of any size with MBA students or alumni.

MBA Project Search is getting it’s start out of the Washington DC area and is tapped into the MBA scene at Georgetown University. They’ve also secured relationships with every Ivy institution as well as MBA equivalents internationally.

On the startup side, MBA Project Search is great for startups that need MBA caliber talent but don’t want to hire someone on full time or do some kind of equity for work scenario. With MBA Project Search startups can hire MBAs for short term projects at an affordable rate.

Currently MBA Project Search is free for both businesses that need to hire an MBA and for MBAs to apply for projects and positions. There are no other hidden costs involved either.

The MBA Project Search team says that for students, it gives them the kind of hands on experience a doctor would get from a $100/hr residency or a lawyer would get from a $50,000 internship. They’re giving MBA students and graduates another resource to find post graduate work that encompasses the degree they studied long and hard for.

We got a chance to talk with MBA Project Search co-founder Rasheen Carbin, check out our interview below.

Startups Need A Product Model Rendered? Try Romanian Startup Renderstreet

If you’re a startup, or any company, looking to have a 3d product rendered than Romanian startup Renderstreet may be just what you’re looking for. This is the latest startup for Romanian startup serial entrepreneur Sorin Vinatoru who was also behind the Romanian startup Pagepeeker, that we profiled back in August.

RenderStreet is an easy and affordable render farm for 3D projects. The startup is also priding itself on great customer support so when you turn to RenderStreet for a project, they will hold your hand through the development.

Vinatoru has already had some success raising money for RenderStreet. He’s looking to announce a seed round in the coming weeks.

3D rendering requires immense amounts of computing power that isn’t often available to just anyone. That’s where render farms like RenderStreet come in handy.

We got a chance to talk with Vinatoru about RenderStreet. Check out the interview below.

Everywhereelse.co Becomes The Largest Startup Conference In The Country

It’s hard to believe the headline above but it’s true. With over 1100 tickets sold and over 400 accredited vc’s and angels from across the country, who’ve already purchased tickets, by attendance everywhereelse.co is the largest startup conference in the history of startup conferences. Less than 10% of the tickets sold zipcode to the state of Tennessee.

We’ve got attendees and startups in our Startup Village from as far away as Israel, Romania, Lithuania and Buenos Aires. Of course we have investors and startups from just about every state in the country as well.

We had 104 startups in the village. Two have upgraded to larger booths, and one is going to launch on the stage at everywhereelse.co we’ve also weeded out a few that weren’t going to be ready by February 10th. That leaves a handful of spots in the village open but they will go incredibly fast.

Startup Village startups will be eligible for three different startup contests with over $50,000 in cash and $100,000 in other prizes up for grabs.

There’s no other conference in the world that will give you this level of access to the investor community. We’ve actually been shocked at the caliber of investors coming to the conference who love the idea to increase their deal flow from outside the normal entrepreneurial and startup hubs.

We’ve got a handful of speakers that we can’t contractually reveal until ticket sales are over. We’re hoping to sell out during the month of December and let everyone know the few top shelf speakers that have already committed.

Of course we all know we’ve got Scott Case,Bill Harris, Tracy Myers, several startup founders from YCombinator and 500 startups and many many more.

The schedule keeps on growing and the parties are even getting better. This will be one event you don’t want to miss.

Here’s the site for the conference

Here’s the link for tickets and Startup Village booth space