Startups Archives - Page 93 of 144

Interview With European Startup: Bookappo

Bookappo is a new European startup based in the Czech Republic. They provide an online software platform for booking and scheduling appointments using a “book now” button.

Bookappo is perfect for small businesses and even startups. The “book now” button can allow small businesses to let customers check availability and timing and then book their appointment off of the company’s website or Facebook page. The customer side dashboard allows users of book now to easily create their own booking form, email reminders and calendar.

The company has also introduced a mobile version that is accessible from an iPad, iPhone or Android powered device which makes it easy for anyone to set up appointment calendars or book appointments while on the go.

Everyone starts off with a free 30 day trial of Bookappo and then after that it’s just $19 for the lite version and $39 for the pro version. After looking over both offerings the only significant difference between lite and pro is the ability to manage the appointment schedules of “unlimited” employees. That feature is included in the pro version only.

We got a chance to talk with the guys from Bookappo in the interview below:

Memphis Startup: Cloud For Good And Apsona To Get You Over The Edge

Cloud For Good, A Memphis based startup, that works with mission driven organizations to create and implement strategic soultions based on cloud technology, with a strong focus on Salesforce, has teamed up with Apsona. The two companies have released a new product called “Over The Edge”.

Over The Edge helps non-profit and educational organizations who have been using Raiser’s Edge for CRM and business management solutions, to migrate to the more powerful and more robust SalesForce platform. While that looks like a task any decent sized IT department could easily handle, it wouldn’t be with the ease nor the speed that “Over The Edge” brings to the table.

Cloud For Good’s Founder Tal Frankfurt, told us in an in person interview Wednesday night that the Over The Edge products takes under 30 minutes and just 4 clicks to have a non-profit, or educational organization migrated to Sales Force. Frankfurt has found, and many others have agreed, that migration and actually executing the switch-over from something else to SalesForce is the most painful part. Once companies are running on SalesForce it’s smooth Sailing.

While most non-profits and educational organizations know the benefits of switching to SalesForce, theyv’e also heard war stories that kept them from switching. A big data loss for a non-profit could amount in hundreds of hours of paid computer labor to get back up and running, and unfortunately the fees for that kind of service are often not within their reach. That’s one of the driving reasons behind the creation of “Over the edge”.

Cloudforgood has helped a number of non profit organizations and educational organizations with their data and cloud storage needs. While their big focus is on SalesForce they’ve also helped implement CRM systems, teach and implement Google Docs and a variety of other things for non-profits.

Linkage:

Check out Cloudforgood here

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Cincinnati Startup BringMeSomeFood Was One Of The Best Ideas At Startup Weekend

We’re not sure if the judges conceptually understood the concept behind Startup Weekend Cincinnati startup Bringmesomefood.com . The idea is simple, it helps party and event organizers keep track of attendees, themes and who’s bringing what. It’s the ultimate potluck platform.

Potluck has surged in popularity over the last few years s the economy has suffered. People love to go to parties whether times are good or bad. Presumably parties and social gatherings are a way to break away from the ups and downs of everyday life and a way to make people feel good.

Potluck events make it easier for the host or hostess to have a better party.

The problem with Potluck is typically people have no idea what to bring. Also, no one really keeps track of the potluck list as well as they should. Then, what ultimately ends up happening is the party is inundated with ice, red solo cups and chips.

Using bringmesomefood.com party organizers can keep up with who has RSVP’d for the party and who hasn’t. They can also pick a theme for the party and then Bringmesomefood.com will curate a menu based on what is typically served at whatever theme the party is. A tailgate party for instance will call for hamburgers and hotdogs. A toga party may call for gyro’s and baklava. Who knows? Bringmesomefood does.

Bringmesomefood, pulls from some of the best restaurant API’s to come up with great menus. It then assigns dishes to the guests attending the event and can supply those guests with the recipes for their dish.

Bringmesomefood also tracks attendance so when it gets closer to the event you can prepare the right amount of food. You don’t want to prepare a small bowl of potato salad for a party of 100 and you don’t want to prepare 100 brownies for a group of 10. Bringmesomefood keeps up with all that for you.

During their final pitch on Sunday the judges asked the Bringmesomefood team why one of the major event sites like PlanCast, eventbrite and e-vite.com couldn’t just incorporate that system into their existing system, which was a sharp indicator that they may not have understood the robustness of the concept. You can see for yourself in the pitch video below, the startup was explained well and hopefully will move forward into development.

Here’s more of our Startup Weekend Coverage

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Tired Of Giving Crappy Gifts? Check Out Baltimore Startup: NoBadGift INTERVIEW

Nobody likes a bad gift. Receiving bad gifts can be a very uncomfortable experience. As you’re looking at that sweater that went out of style in 1990 you’ve got to smile and say thank you. Then you’re tasked with having to decide whether to hold onto that sweater for the next time your auntie comes over, return it, regift it or throw it away.

The other problem with gifting is that even though you know darn well what you want for your gifts most people just say they don’t. No one wants to feel like they’re asking for anything.

Enter NoBadGift. As the name suggests, this Baltimore startup insures you give a great gift. Why, because the recipient crowdfunds the gift that they really want from friends and family members. The Mike Washington, one of the co-founders of NoBadGift, came up with the idea for the startup when his father wanted an iPad for Christmas one year. After pooling the money for the iPad from his siblings he had an epiphany “why not do this online”.

We got a chance to talk with the team from NoBadGift in the interview below. They tell us about their gift funding system an Baltimore’s explosive startup scene. Of course being from Baltimore we love reporting about Baltimore startups.

5 Angel.Co Startups From Everywhere Else: Nashville Edition

Nibletz.com is the voice of startups “everywhere else” and your source for Tennessee startup news. As many of our readers know we’ve been working on a series called “5 Angel List Startups From Everywhere Else”. It stems from the weekly traction email that most angel.co members receive. We’ve noticed time and time again that the “trending” startups on the Angel List email are predominantly from Silicon Valley. This of course isn’t the fault of angel.co it’s an amazingly great resource. But here you’ll find five startups profiled from “everywhere else”.

Since it’s Demo Day Month in Tennessee we thought what a great time to do “5 Angel List startups from everywhere else, Nashville Edition” if you’re looking for the Memphis edition, you can find it here.

Wannado

Let’s kick this thing off with one of the Jumpstart Foundry graduates from 2011. The startup called “wannado” is your guide to everything you wanna do. Great name, great concept.

We actually got to see a preview of wannado the other night in Memphis and it blew me away. The app has a robust feature set, yet an aesthetically pleasing user interface. It simply does exactly as they say it will, it tells you what’s available around you to do. If you’re looking for a show or a concert, it’s there. If you’re looking for a business networking event, it’s there. If you’re looking for a cooking class, a lecture, a speaker, a book club, they’re all there for you and everything is served up according to your preferences.

Wannado has an amazing sharing circle breakout piece which allows you to easily share an event any way you like. They also allow you to share events with friends that don’t have the wannado app without having to download the wannado app. They’re given a text message which takes them to a landing page for that event with an equally pleasing user experience.

Truth be told they weren’t on the Angel.co site but we like them that much so check it out here. They are still in private beta but sign up for an update and you’ll be the first person on your block to know wannado. (you like what we did there)

Find wannado on the web here and if you’re reading this wannado, you may want to sign up for the Angel List it’s free.

The next two entries come from the same entrepreneur. Phillip Maddox is the co-founder of Deedsy and VenueBlast.

Deedsy

Deedsy is a good deed engine. The premise is simple, do good deeds, and earn points. A good deed can be anything from a hug to house sitting, to picking up trash. Whatever good deed you do, with Deedsy you earn points.

You can create deeds for others to do and look for a “do gooder” to do that deed for you and then they’ll earn points. It’s a great feel good startup that will promote doing good in your life and community.

You can start off with 25 points if you head over here to the deedsy site and add your name to their LaunchRock.

Here’s a link to their Angel List page

VenueBlast

VenueBlast is the other entry from founder Phillip Maddox. VenueBlast is your ticket to live music online. Basically it’s a video streaming venue for live music and entertainment productions. For the end user they promise great quality productions that can be found in streaming or even pay per view offerings.

For the client they offer a robust set of features that can be delivered to the end user in a variety of ways. Their feature set is constantly evolving to stay up to date with the changes in streaming technology optimized for concerts and live entertainment. They also offer the ability for companies to sponsor live concerts and streaming events and offer analytics back to the customer.

Earlier this week VenueBlast reported that they’re working on some exciting new features and they hope to rollout to the public soon.

Find VenueBlast on the web here and on the Angel List here

Populr.me

Populr.me is the easiest way to quickly crete a great looking micro-site that the Nashville startup calls “pops”. Within minutes you’re able to create,deliver and manage your microsite for whatever the function.

One of their users, Jason Moore, is in the healthcare industry uses Populr.me to create microsites to push out to their healthcare industry partners in hospital and provider systems. Moore said that their custom communication via a secure portal is a game changer.

Populr.me offers a simple drag and drop layout engine making editing and publishing a cinch. They also offer unlimited custom domains with analytics available as well.

Populr.me is so popular that they won the 2012 Governor’s Innovation Conference and the $5,000 check to go along with it.

Here’s Populr.me’s website and here is their Angel List page

Meevl

Meevl is a Slovakian startup that graduated from Jumpstart Foundry in the 2011 class. They’ve actually relocated back to Slovakia but nonetheless they appear under Nashville on the Angel List.

Meevl is a unique startup. The Meevl platform easily allows employees to participate in reporting company news, typically a task handled by a PR person or team in large companies. With Meevl when an employee gets recognized for an achievement, has a baby, or maybe an employee related policy changes, Meevl crowdsources the news from the company employees.

“Currently, social media management platforms are mostly for small teams, where members watch their company’s presence on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and so on,” Vladimir Tucek told BetaKit. “Even if it’s a really huge company, [social media] is managed by a very small team, and all content is produced by that team. We’d like to involve more employees in this process.”

By virtue of the employee participation in the Meevl platform companies can crowdsource news from their employee base, possibly reduce the PR budget for inhouse news and employee morale would stand to improve.

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Startups,It’s Demo Day Month In Tennessee: Chattanooga, Memphis And Nashville

There are a lot of spring/summer accelerator programs “everywhere else”, Tennessee has three significant programs that will be coming to a close in the coming weeks and culminating with a demo day at the end of their session. Chattanooga, Memphis and Nashville are exploding with startup and entrepreneurial growth and it shows in the graduating classes of Gig Tank (Chattanooga), Zero To 510 (Memphis) and Jumpstart Foundry in Nashville.

The next few Thursdays will be filled with great companies, great entrepreneurs, great angels and venture capitalists and great national coverage provided by nibletz.com, and to our ever growing list of some of the top members of the venture community that subscribe to us by email and follow us on Twitter. We’ve seen 17 startups that we’ve covered in the last year, pick up traction starting with a story written on nibletz.com and seen by the venture community “everywhere else”, which is what is why our mission, as the voice of startups everywhere else, is so important. We’ve received thank you cards, thank you emails and heck even some cash from these 17 startups and at last count they were collectively funded to over $20M.

That trend will hopefully continue over the next three weeks as we continue to case the national spotlight on one of the fastest growing startup ecosystems in the country, the great state of Tennessee.

Chattanooga

The Gig Tank started back in May. This is a unique accelerator program because it’s really two programs in one. First there is an entrepreneur track. The entrepreneur’s track started May 14th. All of the teams selected for that track received a $15,000 seed investment, lodging and a host of services from GigTank sponsors. Their season ends with a demo day and a $100,000 cash prize up for grabs for the most disruptive business plan.

The second track for GigTank is a student track. The students started their track on June 11th. They just needed to come up with a great idea to utilize Chattanooga’s gigabit internet, the first gigabit internet in the country (sorry Google). The students are competing for a chance to win a $50,000 prize and the chance to pitch their idea in front of a solid group of angels and VC’s.

GigTank comes to a close with a demo day on August 9th.

Click here for GigTank’s Website

Memphis

Memphis is bursting at the seams with entrepreneurial and startup activity. In the last few months alone we’ve covered their 48 hour launch event and Startup Weekend Memphis.

Memphis has a great infrastructure set up for entrepreneurs and startups, with most of it being based at Emerge Memphis. Launch Your City, Launch Memphis and of course the Seed Hatchery accelerator play a key role in the Memphis tech community.

August 16th it will be all eyes on Memphis again as the Zero to 510 accelerator holds their demo day. Zero to 510 is a medical device accelerator program and a joint venture between BioWorks and SeedHatchery. It’s the nation’s first cohort-based medical device incubator. The program is funded by Innova Memphis an early stage investment firm.

The companies presenting at demo day on the 16th are:

BioNanovations- a startup using bio nanotechnology for rapid detection and monitoring of bacterial infection

Handminder- has developed a technology that will help rehabilitate those with loss of function in their hands and fingers from a stroke.

NanOphthalmics- This company uses nanotechnology to more effectively treat corneal abrasions which leads to faster healing with less pain.

Randall Surgical- These guys have created an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional patient positioners used in 20 million+ surgeries in the US every year.

Restore Medical- has found a way to drastically cut down the time it takes to sterilize instruments in the OR while cutting costs and insuring compliance under the upcoming radical changes in healthcare.

Urova Medical- They’ve come up with a new way to treat feminine stress urinary incontinence.

Click here for ZeroTo510’s website

Nashville

Jumpstart Foundry is in it’s third year and they keep kicking out hit after hit after hit. One of our favorite Tennessee startups, RentStuff (who recently moved to Chicago’s 1871) is a product of Jumpstart Foundry. Co-founded in 2010 by serial startup founder Marcus Whitney, the Jumpstart Foundry follows the traditional accelerator model that has been so successful in other regions.

According to their site they’ve seen a 62% success rate to date, which is actually VERY high and quite impressive. Jumpstart Foundry (not to be confused with the national Cleveland based Jumpstart Inc) has seen a good number of their graduates see post program capital. Wannado (2011), Daio (2011), RentStuff (2011), Bizen (2010), NextGxDx (2010), and Spitsecnd (2010) have all received additional growth capital.

This years class is equally as impressive and will share their ideas on Demo Day August 23rd. Here are the companies presenting at their demo day:

Contigo Financial, an online consumer lender offering a suite of responsible loan products through the workplace.

Jamplify (formerly OKDJ), a social media marketing platform which turns fans into active promoters of online content.

The Skillery, a marketplace for classes and workshops led by experts in the community.

Evermind, the first consumer-friendly senior monitoring system. If you can plug-in a surge protector and use a smartphone, Evermind is easy.

Wax, an app that allows extreme athletes to compete with one another by completing tricks and challenges.

PhotoRankr, the first online photography marketplace to leverage the power of social media.

OurVinyl, allows users to discover new music through video. The modern day MTV minus the re-runs.

Click here for Jumpstart Foundry’s Website

Pennsylvania Startup: Gateskip Brings The Off Line Networking Model Online

Before you jump into this story thinking that Gateskip is just another LinkedIn wannabe, that’s not the case at all. LinkedIn is a great social network for business professionals. It’s also a great place to graduate from your Facebook existence, to just about the rest of your life.

LinkedIn has several non-intrusive ways of encouraging networking among it’s members, but they shy away from meeting new people. In fact when you want to connect with someone it asks you how you know them. If you’re familiar with traditional Chamber of Commerce business after hours, or breakfast before hours models, the purpose of the “networking” element is to meet new people.

That’s where Conshohocken Pennsylvania based Gateskip comes in. Gateskip, along with sole founder Dan Esposito, want to bring certain elements from business after hours, breakfast before hours and BNI events to the web through this new network.

While I’ve personally used LinkedIn to outsource some work and projects to people I had some kind of connection with, the ultimate purpose for LinkedIn is to serve as a social network for professionals. Gateskip is more of a business network. If you’re not sure about the difference, read on to the interview below.

While LinkedIn is connecting you to friends you may have had in high school or relationships you’ve formed through business, Gateskip is about generating leads for new found colleagues and exposing one users services to another user. Alas, it’s about actual networking.

Esposito talks to us in the interview below about Gateskip and Conshohocken which Esposito says is the Silicon Valley of Pennsylvania. It’s also home to startups like the new Scott Thompson led ShopRunner, half.com and OpenDesks just to name a few.

St.Louis Preparing For Super Entrepreneur & Startup Event Venture Draft 8/10-8/11

Brandon Williams, through his Brandon Williams Economic Development Corporation, is planning an amazing event for St. Louis called Venture Draft. We love St. Louis, their thriving tech and startup community is starting to catch on like wildfire and in fact they’ve moved from the 49th city in the US to start a new business to 6th in just one year. That’s amazing.

What else is amazing? How about the line up of speakers, investors, and entrepreneurs that Williams has assembled for the event going on at St. Louis’ Anheuser-Busch Auditorium next week on the 10th and 11th.

Williams, who is an accomplished professional athlete, having played on a variety of NFL football teams including the St. Louis Rams, has tackled (you see what I did there), the task of helping to spread and enrich the world of startups and entrepreneurship in St. Louis. Williams has assembled Venture Draft to be the crossroads between professional athletes and celebrities and the tech and venture community. All the while, making sure an event of this size and nature happened right in his hometown.

“The venture community is always trying to keep up with new technologies while professional athletes are looking for ways to leverage their playing days for more efficient and effective post-sports careers,” says Brandon Williams, co founder of BWEDC and former wide-receiver for the St. Louis Rams. “We understand the needs of both sectors and developed a platform to address them.”

Our good friend Gable Lozano is taking a quick break during a coast to coast fundraising trip to speak at Venture Draft. Also, FUBU founder and ABC Shark Tank investor Daymond John will be there. Successful startup founders like Henry Wong a partner at Garage.com; Maurice Lopes, CEO & CoFounder at EarlyShares, and Seth Burgett CEO at Yurbuds are just some of the great speakers slated for next weekends event.

Judy Sindecuse, CEO of locally based Capital Innovators, and even William Crowder from Philly based DreamIt Ventures will represent some of the best accelerators/incubators in the country (and everywhere else) during the event.

For more information or to sign up go here to this link

We really need some community support to fund our coverage, here’s a link

Yes Great Ideas Do Happen In The Shower, Interview With NY Startup Room Hints

If you like nice things, beautiful things, picturesque things but just need a little help with you’re interior design project, no worries there’s an app for that (soon). While there may be a few apps and platforms coming up in the interior design space that doesn’t worry Tiff Wilson and the team behind New York based Room Hints. In fact, they label themselves as weird, extreme and fearless, a combination that can only lead to impeccable style.

Room Hints iPhone app is currently in a private beta and you can sign up here to try it out. The app provides a host of ways to get recommendations on the latest fashions and trends in your homes. You can see what other Room Hints users are doing, you can share your ideas and designs with friends, and the app itself will suggest great design pieces as well.

Room Hints also has professional designers on board that can help you complete that interior design product. Imagine having a teen tiny interior designer at your beck and call on your smartphone. It’s like a private shopper but for interior design.

We got a chance to check in with Tiff as the team prepares for a more grand-scale launch.

Cincinnati Startup ChoreMonster Makes Chores Fun For The Whole Family VIDEO INTERVIEW

Cincinnati startup ChoreMonster makes chores fun for the whole family. The Cincinnati based startup, founded by Chris Bergman and Paul Armstrong was one of the standout startups in the 2011 class at the Brandery Accelerator in Cincinnati’s Over-The-Rhine neighborhood. The startup was designed around monsters that Paul Armstrong had created and shown to Bergman. The two decided that they really needed to do something fun, positive and profitable with the monsters.

Bergman tells us in the video interview below that he didn’t have the best home life as a kid. He didn’t delve deep into that but you can tell that he is very passionate not just about starting a tech company,but the good that ChoreMonster is going to do for families and kids. He loves the idea behind incentivizing chores and of course the gamification of them as well.

So how does it work?

Parents sign up at ChoreMonster.com. While it’s in beta right now Bergman tells us that all you have to do is share it with your Facebook friends, through a one-click process and you’re into the beta. He also tells us you can find beta invite codes everywhere. At this point the beta is more about putting the finishing touches on the product rather than limiting users at this stage in the game.

After you sign up, you create a profile for your child (children) no worries though the parent controls everything that the child sees.

From there you start setting up chores. You can pick from the list of chores or make up your own. Once you’ve selected a chore you fill out the chore form which asks you to assign it a point value.

The next step is to set up rewards which your child can redeem for points. The parents create the rewards themselves. For my daughter we created a chore “pick up toys and books” we assigned it a value of 5 points and that it needs to be done every day. At 50 points our four year old daughter can redeem it for a new My Little Pony. We added a variety of other chores along with a bunch of awards including things like movie night where we will go see a movie in the theater, after school ice cream trip, and after school trip to the park.

There is an app that we downloaded for her on her ipod touch which tells us she’s completed a chore. Once we verify the chore she gets the points in her point bucket.

The best part may be when the monsters come into play though. Armstrong has designed a great group of monsters that each kid can redeem. They plan on adding a virtual market so the kids can add virtual items to their monsters, buy premium monsters and interact with other kids and other monsters.

Original ChoreMonster artwork like this fills the 3rd floor at the Brandery where ChoreMonster works. It's referred to as the "Alumni Penthouse" (photo: nibletz LLC)

Sure ChoreMonster isn’t going to last forever in a kids life. The average family will probably get great use out of ChoreMonster from the time their child is four to about 12 or 13. They may grow out of it by then, but heck it’s around that age that the chore chart comes down as well.

From a startup business standpoint, with their core set of users theres barely any attrition. After the family has the big family meeting about ChoreMonster, and once the kids start using it, it’s not something that can be easily tossed to the wayside like an app or game you may have gotten bored with.

Bergman tells us the next step is to add an app for the parents so that they can verify chores, track chores, and check up on their child’s progress from their own app.

The two co-founders are filled with heart, soul and laughter and of course creativity. They work out of the top floor of the Brandery which has been dubbed the “Alumni Penthouse” from some of the companies that work out of the space. From the middle of the top floor of the Brandery Bergman and Armstrong can see all the way down to the bullpen where the current class is working hard on their startups.

Both co-founders can often be found mentoring the new startups as well. You can also find them very active in the social, community parts of the Brandery whether it be a Reds game, basketball, beer pong or one of the Brandery’s social gatherings. They’re both as committed to the Brandery community as they were when they were going through the same rigorous program.

Check out the video below where Bergman talks more about what drove him and Armstrong to create ChoreMonster and you can just tell from the discussion this is something he believes in. Investor’s believe in them as well. In 2011 they took the $25,000 top prize in the Cincinnati Innovates competition. They also closed a round of funding at the beginning of the year for $350,000 dollars from private investors and CincyTech.

Linkage:

Go sing up for ChoreMonster here

Here’s a great piece on the Brandery

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Should I Fire My Co-Founder? The Startup Dilemma Of The Week Powered By JustDecide.com

This was a community submitted startup dilemma of the week. However, as you can imagine from the headline, this startup wants to remain anonymous. You can submit your startup dilemma of the week to startups@nibletz.com and we’ll put it on our startup dilemma of the week segment with justdecide.com. Also the names have been changed to go with the anonymity.

John and David were best friends since the 8th grade. The two of them were for the most part inseparable as kids. They went to the same high school and then onto the same college. In fact they married two girls that were best friends as well. As kids in middle school, high school and then college the two of them had several business ideas, some even amounted to schemes to make money. They were able to find little “lemonade stand” businesses that helped them get through college.

Everything was going great in their lives. Then, a year after the two married their girlfriends (who were also best friends), John and a friend of his from computer science classes at their college came up with a great idea for a startup. It’s a new web platform/mobile app startup that has little competition. In fact it’s a great idea.

David was never very technical he was always the “money” guy and the guy with the schemes that helped them get through college. As John’s best friend though, he made what some might consider a fatal startup mistake and told him he could be a co-founder. David would be the “biz dev” guy.

They both liked the idea but because of his day job, new interests and new married life, and because he didn’t entirely understand the concept, David didn’t contribute much to the startup. While John and the other co-founder put up $20,000 of their own money raised from their parents and relatives, David only put in $5,000.

Now John senses something needs to be done.

The startup is about ready to go to market but they made another fatal error that may work in John’s favor. They havent yet formalized their company, nor have they done a true operating agreement. John and the other co-founder, we can call him Chip, are ready to move forward and roll out the product without David as a co-founder, or an employee.

John and Chip are concerned that if they make the move to get rid of David he will sabotage their work. He may actually sabotage the product itself or damage their reputations through social media. David was always a little more popular than John and has a sizable social media presence.

Now, John and Chip are stuck. They admittedly haven’t pulled the trigger to get rid of David out of fear. It seems like the most logical step to take.

John is of course worried about his friendship with David and the fact that the two wives are best friends as well. Aside from the obvious missteps they’ve taken along the way, what should they do?

You can weigh in at the startup dilemma of the week here. John and Chip need our help!

Can This Florida Startup Feathr, Get Rid Of The Traditional Business Card?

A gang of young twenty somethings from Florida have started a new startup to eliminate the business card. CEO, Aidan Augustin, along with cohorts Neal Ormsbee and Gabriel Busto are in the process of launching an app called Feathr.

Augustin says that while he was interning in Silicon Valley he attended a networking mixer with young entrepreneurs. Admittedly the attendance was the top echelon of future entrepreneurs, millionaires, Stanford students, graduates and drop outs. Augustin said in an interview that none of these young professionals had a traditional business card. By the end of the evening they were trying to take each others information down by downloading bump, passing phones around to input information and any other means that they could. It seemed ridiculous that there was no app to handle this process, so they created it.

Feathr allows the user to create an interactive virtual business card, that can link to a persons website, portfolio,email address, phone number, social networking channels and more. Then, through a graphically pleasing UI, users can share all or as much of the information they want with someone new.

The real benefit to Feathr lies in the fact that both parties don’t have to have the Feathr app installed in order to exchange Feathr cards. Augustin explains that if the receiver doesn’t have the Feathr app they get a text message with a link to where the virtual business card resides in the cloud. This is one of the big differentiators between Feathr and other similar apps in the space.

Another big difference between Feathr and their competitors is that most other apps in the business card, and networking space are about input and intake of information. Feathr is focused on sharing.

On the user side, once you’ve got someone’s Feathr card in your Feathr contact list, you have one click access to whatever means you want to communicate with that person. If you want to Tweet to them you can. If you want to send a text message you can. If you want to call you can. You can even view their portfolio and flip through their work. It’s that robust and at the same time that easy.

Feathr is still in private beta. You can follow the link below to request early beta access.

Linkage:

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

We could really use your help with this!

Portland Startup Hively Teams Up With TangoCard To Reward Great Customer Service

Last week when we brought you our interview with Hively co-founder Jason Lander, we knew we were going to hear an announcement regarding a partner for customer service rewards. Now we hear about rewards startups all the time and loyalty and rewards programs. Hively is a little different, they’re taking the responsibility for a great customer service interaction back into the providers hands. Quite frankly, the way it should be.

Customer service is the number one driver of loyalty. It’s what turned Sprint around when Dan Hesse took over. It’s why I stayed with T-Mobile for years (not anymore as their customer service slid), it’s why I try to stay at Drury when I can. All of these companies have had superior customer service. In fact, several studies have shown that customers will pay a premium, or maybe a little more for a product or meal from a place where they know they are going to receive great service, than go for a deal with places that have bad customer service.

Customer service and rewards for good customer service are the foundation for Hively.

In our interview Lander told us that they were soon going to unveil a way for customer service people to redeem points from good one click reviews. Now we’ve found out what the customer service people can do with the points. They can get “stuff” from TangoCard’s network of retailers.

Three things happen in the Hively model:

A customer service agent focuses on their quality of service using the incentivized program. This way, even in non commissioned sales environments, agents and sales people can earn something “more”,and it’s not even based on a sale. With the improved customer service the sales will flow in, just ask Sptrint.

A customer service agent/sales rep will encourage customers to use the one click method of rating their service. They obviously want their points and the establishment wants the feedback.

Sales are driven by better customer service.

We love startups that turn an industry on it’s head.

“We believe that the right rewards given at the right time will drive significant and valuable results,” said David Leeds, CEO and founder of Tango Card. “We’re excited to partner with Hively to source and fulfill their program requirement for digital rewards.”

“Hively has always been about gathering and measuring customer happiness,” said Jason Lander, co-founder of Hively. “Since virtual rewards can quickly lose their appeal, our customers have asked for a way to more tangibly recognize colleagues and top performers. Our partnership with Tango Card is the perfect solution.”

Linkage:

Hively is here

TangoCard is Here

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Denver Startup Plink Raises $3M Series A From Grotech Ventures

Denver loyalty and rewards startup Plink has been on a roll lately. Back in June we brought you this story about how they partnered with TangoCard to bring their rewards beyond Facebook credits and that strategy has seemed to pay off.

Today they’ve announced that they’ve closed a $3 million dollar series A round entirely from mid-atlantic (VA & MD) based Grotech Ventures.

Plink began as a company that would take offline businesses and incentivize their customer base with something simple, and easy that millions would benefit from, Facebook credits. While only offering Facebook credits they rapidly ramped up their brick and mortar customer base, until the recent transition to rewards from TangoCard partners. The company has reported that they will use the new funding to continue accelerating development of their offline program. Of course they will also ramp up member acquisition and their marketing efforts.

“Connecting online-to-offline is a challenge for marketers,” said Plink Co-founder and CEO Peter Vogel. “Plink bridges that gap and Grotech Ventures’ investment brings nearly 20 years of successful experience, an enormous amount of industry know-how, insight, and strategic guidance to propel Plink to the next level.”

“For consumers, Plink is a no-brainer,” said Joe Zell, general partner of Grotech Ventures. “Why wouldn’t someone join and get rewards for going out to their favorite places? There’s no extra card to carry or steps a consumer has to take. In addition, Plink has already proven that huge national restaurant brands love the model and they’re already seeing significant increases in consumer purchases.”

Some of the largest fast food establishments are already on board with Plink including Arby’s, Dunkin Donuts and Burger King.

Large chains have embraced Plink because it doesn’t require any changes to their existing point-of-sale infrastructure, does not require staff training, Plink does all the marketing and the restaurants only pay a percentage of the sales that Plink drives. Initial results have shown that Plink members are spending 65 percent more per month at partner restaurants than they were prior to joining Plink. It’s a risk-free, 100 percent turn-key model for national chains and Plink will soon be adding large retail and travel partners.

Plink has raised $4 million to date.

Linkage:

Check out Plink here

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