Go Shopping Together Online With Ann Arbor Startup: HangTrend INTERVIEW

Leore Avidar has built a new social network/e-commerce hybrid platform immersed with fashion. As he tells us in the interview below, he started HangTrend, an Ann Arbor startup, when he couldn’t easily find a pair of driving moccasins. He had searched all of the usual sites to buy a pair online, but to no avail. Along the way he also realized that there wasn’t an easy way to interact with friends who may be shopping at the same time either.

Now a lot of shopping and e-commerce sites allow the user to share an item they like but no shopping site allows you to share a possible purchase online in real time to get feedback on a purchase. Just think about how often this scenario plays out in a brick and mortar world. You go to the mall with your buddies or girl friends and say do you like these shoes? Will this look good on me? Is this too much to pay? All of these questions could easily be asked online on a platform which allowed easy sharing, easy re-call and social feedback.

That’s exactly the concept behind HangTrend works. As more and more people take to the web for shopping on multiple screens, HangTrend is a natural evolution of the e-commerce space. Now only that but HangTrend has access to millions of products by tens of thousands of designers and of course you can ultimately buy the latest fashions, direct.

We got a chance to talk to Avidar in the interview below:

Interview With Colorado Startup Pixorial

Way before Viddy, SocialCam, and just about any other video app that you can think of, Pixorial was making waves in Englewood Colorado. Pixorial was somewhat ahead of the curve when it comes to video, online video editing, collaborative video editing, and sharing. Pixorial integrates all of that in a very simple and easy to use consumer facing interface.

They launched their first consumer facing product in 2009, again a couple of years before the video phenomenon.

Pixorial caught the eyes of the powers that be at Google as Pixorial was chosen as one of the inaugural 18 companies to partner with Google’s new Google Drive product. This partnership gives consumers access to the entire Pixorial tool to edit, collaborate, and share videos on Google Drive’s cloud based service.

Pixorial’s video product has the simplicity and ease of use of Apple’s iMovie HD in the cloud, providing a much more robust feature set then YouTube’s new video editor. In fact this year they’ve even added filters to their iPhone App.

We got a chance to talk with Pixorial in the interview below.

Syracuse Startup: Coursespree, An Online Marketplace For Students INTERVIEW

A clever new EdTech startup in Syracuse New York is providing access for students to tutors, help, class notes, study buddies and more. Coursespree.

Coursespree is hoping to provide college students a more practical way to succeed academically and earn a little income on the side. In effect Coursespree has two different EdTech avenues for college students on one site.

First, students can virtually connect to tutors anywhere in the world using the Coursespree platform. Whether they need help in math, engineering, English, biology or any other college subject, Coursespree can connect them to help for an assignment or on-going tutoring.

Students can actually make money by selling their class notes (read class notes, NOT homework). On Coursespree.com students can take the notes from their class, set a price and sell them to another student at the same school or hundreds of miles away.

The very young startup was founded in May 2012 and is currently incubating in the Sandbox in Syracuse.

We got a chance to talk with Danish Nadeem the founder and CEO of Coursespree, in the interview below:

Uber Says F*ck You To Massachusetts Cease & Desist, For Now

Please before you fire off a hate mail telling us that Uber is based in San Francisco (The Valley) we know this already. Since Uber expanded outside of the Valley to “everywhere else” we’ve written about Uber on occasion. They are really great people, and each city office is a corporately owned office, they are actually run more like franchises. Their Washgton DC and New York office are really good to us (disclosure Uber likes what we’re doing on our road trip and supplies us with uber cards when we are in their cities. They care about the rest of “everywhere else” like we do)

Uber has been served with a cease and desist from the Division of Standards of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Division of Standards is using the National Institute of Standards and Technology as a vehicle to try and push their anti Uber agenda. Massachusetts contends that, because the National Institute of Standards and Technology doesn’t have guidelines in place for GPS location technology, Uber can’t legally operate in Boston.

Uber’s says in this blog post, that they’ve had their legal team go over this with a fine tooth comb and they feel that they are not in any kind of violation. As such they plan on continuing to operate in Boston, despite the Cease & Desist, as they have since October 2011.

The sedan hailing app service was recently under fire in Washington DC. On July 11th we reported that Washington DC area cabbies had solicited the help of Washington DC City Councilwoman Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3). Cheh has proposed legislation that would make the minimum fare for an Über ride $15 which is a five times higher than the minimum fare for a normal sanctioned district cab.

By the end of the day that had been squashed as locally based celebrities and even members of congress took to Twitter to defend Uber.

NBC’s Luke Russert took to Twitter to express his dismay:
“I’m willing to bet #DC cabbies after 12am will say, ‘cash only, no credit’ or claim that their credit machine ‘is broken.’” Russert tweeted earlier in the day.

He wasn’t alone, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) tweeted about the issue from his official Twitter handle @Jasoninthehouse, “Uber fans unite! D.C. Council wants to keep fares high. This is wrong! #UberDClove political website rollcall.com reported.

After that public outcry on Twitter Cheh removed the Uber portion of that Taxi bill.

For now Bostonians, fear not as Uber is still in service until the Division of Standards comes with a better argument.

Linkage:

Here’s Uber’s website

Here’s their blog post

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Maryland Startups Getting On The Bus: Pitch Across Maryland

Mike Binko and Julie Lenzer Kirk organizers of Pitch Across MD photo: Pitch Across Maryland

Apparently we’re not the only ones who truly believe to cover and spread the word about entrepreneurship you need to take it in the trenches and to the streets. That’s the exact idea behind Mike Binko and Julie Lenzer Kirk’s, Pitch Across Maryland initiative.

The two have organized the Pitch Across Maryland bus that will start September 11th and end on September 28th. Like our sneaker-strapped, nationwide startup road trip, Pitch Across Maryland will get in the trenches and make stops at accelerators, incubators, and anywhere with a startup pulse in Maryland.

The Pitch Across Maryland bus will stop by Baltimore Innovation Week on September 21s and round out their tour at Merriweather Post Pavillion in Columbia Maryland to introduce startups and entrepreneurs. Our friends at Technically Baltimore are also reporting that the bus will make it’s first Baltimore area stop on September 20th at UMBC’s campus.

If Kirk’s name sounds familiar to you, that’s because she’s the executive director at the Maryland Center for Entrepeneurship. She is also one of the organizers of the Startup Maryland chapter of the Startup America partnership. Binko is the CEO of Annapolis based Kloudtrack.

The Pitch Across Maryland Bus has been outfitted with a video studio so that entrepreneurs along the route can record their video pitches. The Pitch Across Maryland Bus crew will give the entrepreneurs a copy of their video and also submit them to a statewide pitch contest. After all the videos have been submitted via bus, the contest will open up online and then 16 finalists will be chosen. Those 16 finalists will receive extensive coaching before presenting in front of judges and competing for prizes at an upcoming entrepreneurial conference.

“Once the voting is done in late October, we’ll announce the top vote-getters at an entrepreneur expo,” Binko told TechnicallyBaltimore.com.

Linkage:

Source: Technically Baltimore

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This California Startup Says They Have The RightSignature INTERVIEW

As more and more smartphones and tablets make it into the hands of people worldwide, the need for easy to use document signing has grown. There are several startups in the document signing space like “Sign My Pad”, “Sign Later” and many others. Most of them import a pdf and allow you to draw on top, and sign.

RightSignature is a Santa Barbara California based startup that promises to be the all in one solution for getting documents filled out and signed online. RightSignature has a way to sign your documents on an iPad,iPhone, Android device or any web browser. They allow you to import any document locally or from the cloud.

For business users RightSignature allows the user to create templates for frequently used forms and other features to make the application easy to use and the documents legal. Long gone are the days of printing, signing and scanning, and of course waiting by a fax machine.

We got a chance to interview RightSignature co-founder and CEO Daryl Bernstein, check out the interview below:

Dallas Area Gets New Angel Network In TECH Fort Worth’s CowTown Angels

TECH Fort Worth, an early stage business incubator and huge start up resource in Fort Worth Texas has just announced the formation of CowTown Angels.

The new angel network consists of angel investors from across the region. Angel investors are those who invest in startups in exchange for stock in the company. It’s a high risk investment for some and in order to be an accredited investor the “angel” typically has a net worth of $1 million dollars outside of their residence.

The Dallas Fort Worth area (DFW) is crawling with millionaires who’ve made money in oil, traditional industry and tech. Angel networks are cropping up across the country with the fundamental goal of injecting startups with the early stage capital they need to bring their products to market. The hope is that these startups will generate a return on the investment and grow to bring new jobs and money into the area.

TECH Fort Worth will take the applications and vet startups ahead of monthly scheduled pitch meetings. From their the angels discuss the opportunities presented and then they can invest in them individually, in groups or together depending on the need and fit of the business.

“We know angel investors in our community, and we meet lots of companies who need startup capital,” said Darlene Ryan, Executive Director of TECH Fort Worth. “By providing an organized and efficient way for them to meet each other and discuss business, we hope to help more of these companies establish strong roots here, grow here and create jobs here.”

“It’s a natural extension of what TECH Fort Worth does for the local technology business community,” said Brent Sorrells, the incubator’s Director of Programs. “In our other programs, we coach and mentor entrepreneurs building companies based on technologies such as medical devices, data and energy, and we help them prepare their presentations to put their best foot forward. We’re excited to be able to offer this new program to connect the angel investors and entrepreneurs. It’s all about creating more jobs and wealth in our community.”

Linkage:

Check out TECH Fort Worth here

Check out CowTown Angels here

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Minnesota Venture Firm Tells Startups: Stop Reading TechCrunch

Four business partners with roots in Minnesota, came together earlier this summer and announced the formation of a new venture firm called AMP Partners. Minnesota has seen a recent boost in startups and entrepreneurism spearheaded by JumpStart Inc and then quickly taken over by Minnesotans.

Darren Marhula, Brad England, Mark Donahoe and Chris Palm pooled their own money together from investment banking, Wall Street, and property management, Marhula told tech.mn in June. “We’re interested in the right entrepreneur with the right plan more than the exact market. We’re not exclusively focused on any one type of business, but definitely interested in local technology startups.”

Now as the summer season comes to a close and AMP’s been on the ground running for the last few months or so tech.mn checked back in with Marhula who echoed a main theme that we continually hear on our sneaker-strapped nationwide startup roadtrip. That theme, simply put is, valuations are too high.

In the follow-up interview Marhula said “we continue to be surprised by the unrealistically high valuation expectations by many entrepreneurs out there, which has prevented us from making more investments.”. So again in line with markets their size like St.Louis, Cincinnati and even Washington DC, entrepreneurs are pricing themselves out of an investment. This can be a lethally hard lesson to learn.

To date, AMP has invested into two companies, presumably with more modest self-worth. HomeVisor is an online Realtor referral service and the first to receive funding from AMP. Their second investment , BuyWafers.com sells silicon wafers and other materials for semi-conductors. That company will be launching shortly. AMP didn’t reveal how much money was in either deal.

It’s evident that AMP, like most investors, are looking for viable startups and businesses and they’re not holding a business plan competition. AMP is also seeing a lot of buzzword happy entrepreneurs who are the same entrepreneurs being poked fun at by Vooza in New York.

Marhula said: “Stop reading TechCrunch and focus on building your business; get your valuation expectations in check and when you come in to pitch your idea, we don’t want to hear about exits, pivots, and MVPs…we want to see results.”

AMP Partners would love to hear your realistic pitch, drop them a line here

Linkage:

Source: tech.mn

Check out AMP here

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Nashville Startup: PhotoRankr Prepares For JumpStart Foundry Demo Day INTERVIEW

It’s Demo Day month in Tennessee. Last week was Demo Day at the Gig Tank, Chattanooga Tennessee’s startup accelerator themed around the city’s one gigabit fiber optic network.

This week is Zero to 510’s Demo Day in Memphis Tennessee. Zero To 510 is the first cohort based medical device startup accelerator in the country. Their teams are preparing for this week’s big event with a series of rehearsals in Memphis this week. This makes the third big startup event in just as many months in the river city. 48 hour launch kicked off the summer, then there was Startup Weekend and Demo Day this Thursday.

200 miles east of Memphis the seven remaining teams in JumpStart Foundry are preparing for their Demo Day next week. Solidus Partner Vic Gatto told us last week that there were 10 teams originally but three teams couldn’t keep up with the rigorous training, working and perfecting their startup and dropped out of the program.

PhotoRankr is one of the seven startups preparing to present next week. They bill themselves as a community and a marketplace for passionate photographers. Of course right off the bat we noticed that PhotoRankr has an actual up and working product. The website for PhotoRankr is polished and aesthetically appealing to anyone, especially those photographers with a nose for design.

Within PhotoRankr members can get genuine feedback from fellow photographers. They can also find link minded photographers that they would want to learn from. They can find photographers based on portfolio, location or skill level which means the user can have role model photographers and peers to exchange experiences with.

PhotoRankr also offers a marketplace for their users own work. PhotoRankr members can sell their original work for whatever price they would like. It gives a much more creative and artistic source versus traditional stock photography sites.

In reading all of the profiles for next weeks startups it’s a tough call. We got a chance to talk to the PhotoRankr team in the interview below. Check out the interview and then after that hit the link and check out PhotoRankr yourself.

Madison Startup Entrepreneurs Wow’d By St. Louis Venture Draft Event

You may not think about it every Sunday, Monday night and Thursday night that you’re watching your favorite NFL football team but an alarming number of pro athletes actually go bankrupt after their professional careers end. In talking with a few celebrities who have almost gone down that route, it’s not even ignorance that some may think. It’s not living beyond your means as a national celebrity, sometimes pro athletes and celebrities really get too busy to manage their money. They also get too busy to think about what happens afterwards.

We’ve all heard the sad stories too, of people like Fantasia Barrino and other stars who have turned their finances over to someone less than qualified to handle such large amounts of money. Celebrities and pro athletes assume that everyone has their best interest at heart.

Well former NFL star and entrepreneur Brandon Williams does. Williams, through his Brandon Williams Economic Development Corporation is trying to connect athletes and celebrities with entrepreneurism. He’s not talking about the kind where a celebrity quickly endorses a product and moves on. Williams is trying to connect entrepreneurs, startups, sports stars and celebrities in a new kind of ecosystem so that entrepreneurs can benefit from investment and athletes and celebrities have a plan for when their careers slow.

One of Williams initiatives is Venture Draft, a startup and entrepreneur event, pitch contest and showcase that happened in St. Louis this past weekend.

ABC Shark Tank Shark, Founder of Fubu and partner in Shark Branding, Daymond John, was one of the top level keynote speakers at the event. We didn’t raise enough money in our last crowdfunding leg to attend ourselves, but our good friend Scott Resnick in Madison WI led a group of 6 from Madison to St. Louis for the event.

Resnick was “Wowed” by the event and wrote a great entry on his blog where he said:

The first annual Venture Draft Conference was held in St Louis this weekend. The mission of the conference was to bring professional athletes, venture capitalists and technology experts face-to-face to create business opportunities (aka allow entrepreneurs to mingle with and teach current and former NFL players about technology). A tip of the hat to the Brandon Williams Economic Development Corporation: the Venture Draft was a success.

Rarely do I experience a “wow” moment at a tech conference. However, this one was different. Maybe it was the personality of the highlighted speakers (who attended every event) or the charm of St Louis, but there was something special about Venture Draft.

My “wow” moment came right after I had the opportunity to bounce business expansion ideas off keynote speaker Henry Wong of Garage Technology Ventures at a local cigar bar. As I was walking out of the bar to a sponsored after party, Jim Sorgi struck up a conversation about his future with the Colts and time on Gilman Street. Wow, this conference was pretty cool.

Continue here to the Hardin Design & Development Blog for the rest!

Founder Institute Introduces Mentor Mondays In Seattle

The Founder Institute, the largest idea stage accelerator in the world is starting a new initiative in Seattle to connect startups and entrepreneurs with great mentors.

Mentor Mondays cost a very modest $5.00 fee and give early stage startups, entrepreneurs and anyone with an idea access to a large mentor base of the regions top mentors. Founder Institute has over 60 successful founders and CEO’s that are there to support the startup ecosystem in Washington.

The lunch meetings are BYOL (Bring Your Own Lunch) but no worries there are over a dozen food trucks a stone throw from the venue in South Lake Union. The hour long schedule is stacked tightly:

12:00-12:15 Lunch and casual conversation
12:15-12:30 Mentor Topic
12:30-12:45 Q&A
12:45-1:00 Mentor 1:1 meetings

It’s kind of like mentor speed dating but the access opportunity for just $5.00 is incredible. Of course when you go into Mentor Mondays with a great idea, passion, drive and a plan you’ll probably get to spend a lot more than just 15 minutes 1:1 with the mentors.

Mentor Mondays start Monday August 20th and you can register here.

These are the same caliber mentors that Founder Institute is known for and that several have paid hundreds of dollars to get access to. In Seattle, for Mentor Mondays it’s just $5.00 (and the cost of your food at the food trucks if you so desire)

Linkage:

Source: StartupSeattle.com

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Boston Startup: HoursForEquity An Alternative Jobs Social Network INTERVIEW

Let’s face it, in the earliest stage of a startup many founders are looking for co-founders, and other team members that will work for equity rather than an actual paycheck. It’s a gamble for the employee, if the startup doesn’t get off the ground, all that hard work may not have paid off. On the other hand, if the startup catches on fire like say, Instagram, you may have just earned seven figures for six months of coding.

Finding workers, co-founders, designers,engineers etc, that are willing to work for equity is a challenge in itself. Some workers feel that working for equity is like volunteering, and with the statistics for startup success as low as they are it’s definitely a gamble. Some founders don’t like to advertise that they are looking for equity workers, and they don’t necessarily know how to find them.

That’s where Boston startup HoursForEquity comes in. HoursForEquity is exactly what the name suggests, it’s a web portal connecting folks that are willing to work for equity, to those willing to give up equity for their work.

Bill Lott, co-founder of HoursForEquity tells us that their platform allows employers and founders to search a database of local, national and global people willing to work for equity. This way you can find the perfect team with the skills you need to succeed.

We got a chance to interview Lott about HoursForEquity. Check out the interview below:

Cincinnati Startup: CoupSmart Turns Fans Into Revenue: INTERVIEW

Loyalty, rewards, couponing, it’s definitely a crowded space. Cincinnati startup CoupSmart says that it’s only crowded from indirect competitors. While many startups in the loyalty, rewards and couponing space offer help with engagement on social networks, CoupSmart says they deliver fans into revenue on and offline time and time again.

The startup, led by founder and CEO Blake Shipley says they’re all about the ROI. They don’t waste time building un-measurable campaigns or throwing coupons and offers around like water. Shipley knows how ineffective an actual coupon can be when looking for actual customer data.

In our interview below Shipley talks about how coupons are sorted by hand time and time again before they’re even shipped off for redemption. He experienced this first hand when he worked as an internal auditor at The Kroger Company’s Cincinnati headquarters. That’s what sparked his idea to create a better coupon platform.

We don’t need to tell you how crowded the space is and that everyone in the loyalty, reward and coupon space thinks they have the next biggest thing, but focusing on actual ROI will definitely perk the ears of hopeful clients.

One of the biggest complaints about loss leader Groupon is their ability to convert one time users into repeat users and effectively increase the businesses ROI. Many companies that have gone with the Groupon and Living Social model have lost their asses in margin just to get new customers in the door one time.

Whether it’s rewards programs, coupon programs or loyalty programs, someone is going to eventually break through the space with a platform or product that actual saves customers a decent amount of money, gets customers returning for more visits, and gets business owners the information they need.

Is CoupSmart that startup? Check out our interview below.

Entries Now Open For Business Excellence Awards 2013 Best Startup Company

The Business Excellence Awards is a global event put on by ActionCOACH the world’s largest business coaching and executive coaching firm in the world with offices in over 40 countries.

The next Business Excellence Awards ceremonies begin January 25th and 26th 2013 in Las Vegas. They continue in Europe on February 7th and 8th 2013 and finish in Asia February 22 and 23rd 2013. Each region will present a “Best Startup” award for companies that have had the best results since beginning no later than January 1, 2011.

In addition to Best Startup, other award categories include:

Best Overall Company
Best Turnaround Company
Most Innovative Company
Fastest Growing Company
Best Customer Service Results
Young Entrepreneur (35 or younger)
Entrepreneur of the Year
Best Retailer
Best Service Based
Best Manufacturer/Wholesaler
Most Community Impact

Source88 in St.Petersburg Florida was the 2011 Best Startup Winner. That ceremony and forum event were held in Miami Florida.

Linkage:

If your startup is ready you can check out the awards and enter here

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