CEA Teams Up With UpGlobal To Expand Eureka Park, The Startup TechZone

Two years ago when we covered the first Eureka Park at the International CES in Las Vegas, we were amazed by the amount of good quality startups showcasing there. Last year when we embarked on Eureka Park it had doubled in size and also offered some great talks from the likes of Scott Case, Tony Hsieh and Brad Feld (just to name a few).

This coming year (January 2014), CEA has partnered with the new UpGlobal (the global partnership between Startup America and Startup Weekend) to expand the Eureka Park TechZone.

Now in its third year, the Eureka Park TechZone will span more than 2,000 square meters and showcase more than 200 exhibitors at the 2014 CES. Eureka Park will be located on level one of The Venetian and returns as the vibrant hub for the entrepreneur and startup communities to learn, connect, and inspire.

“The Eureka Park TechZone provides a stage for new companies with technologies for which we don’t yet have product categories, to market their innovation to venture capitalists, media and buyers. Eureka Park’s continued success solidifies the International CES as the ultimate proving ground for innovators of all shapes and sizes in consumer technology,” said Karen Chupka, senior vice president, International CES and Corporate Business Strategy, CEA. “We are thrilled to once again partner with UP Global and the National Science Foundation for the 2014 CES, and can’t wait to experience the ‘Eureka’ ideas that will fuel and transform our lives in the years to come.”

Also new for 2014, the Academia Tech TechZone will be floored within Eureka Park. Academia Tech focuses on the unique technologies coming from colleges and universities. The TechZone will showcase a collection of academic institutions at the 2014 CES, with Columbia University, N.C. State, University of Texas at Austin and Penn State University already confirmed as exhibitors.

CEA today also announces the launch of the Eureka Park: NEXT TechZone, a dedicated area at the 2014 CES, designed for mid-stage startups that have launched a product within the past year. Eureka Park: NEXT will be located on level two in The Venetian Ballroom.

Check out our previous coverage of EurekaPark at the International CES by clicking here.

New York’s General Assembly Closing Co-Working Space

General Assembly has become one of the benchmarks for coworking, startup, and incubation space. They just recently expanded to Washington, DC in a partnership with 1776 in which they will offer classes, information sessions, and other startup support resources.

What started as a place to “support the growing NYC startup community,” has expanded to becoming a “global educational institution that has helped empower nearly 70,000 to pursue the work they love,” General Assembly CEO Jake Schwartz posted on their blog.

When they originally opened three years ago, they had no idea GA would become what it is today.

“Over the past two and a half years, our community has grown much larger than our amazing co-working members. It now encompasses the tens of thousands of students who’ve come through our doors and the more than 3,000 alumni of our long-form courses, not to mention the hundreds of instructors and the 2,000 hiring partners who come to GA in search of top talent. Similarly, support once meant desks and space, but has come to also mean instruction, opportunity and talent for our students and hiring partners,” Schwartz said.

The crew at General Assembly has decided that their higher calling will become the focus of their efforts going forward in 2014. They will convert the space they use for coworking in New York City to expand their events, career fairs, hackathons, fireside chats, panels and other educational resources for startups and entrepreneurs.

Over the past few years Schwartz and the team at General Assembly have seen the explosion of coworking spaces across New York City and other regions across the world.

In Washington DC, for instance, General Assembly’s focus is with education and community events while 1776 houses the coworking space. Models like this are why GA is confident that this is the right move for them at their flagship location.

General Assembly has set up a transition team of sorts to make sure that their coworking members are able to find similarly priced space with the same services that GA provided for coworkers. Of course those members will still participate in the other community building efforts that General Assembly is offering.

St. Louis’ Capital Innovators Opens Up Applications For Spring 2014 Cohort

St. Louis Capital Innovator’s accelerator program has opened up applications for their Spring 2014 program. This will be the 6th cohort to go through St.Louis’ highly successful program.

Capital Innovators is backed by the most influential people in the St. Louis startup ecosystem, including Jim McKelvey who is firmly planted in the startup community. We just reported last week on the inaugural cohort at the new SixThirty accelerator, an accelerator for fintech startups that takes its name from the height and width of St. Louis’ famous arch.

Capital Innovators provides $50,000 in seed funding for their startups and also provides them with project-based mentorship, collaborative learning, and more. The entire St.Louis startup community gels around each class in the Capital Innovators accelerator program, which is housed at the T-Rex startup, co-working, and incubation space downtown.

Our good friends at Bonfyre, who have provided the engagement app for our Everywhere Else national startup conferences, is an alumni of Capital Innovators. LockerDome, who’s founder Gabe Lozano was a big hit earlier this year at Everywhere Else conference in Memphis is also a graduate of Capital Innovators as are BidRazor, Adfreq, and many more.

Applications are being accepted through November 15th, and the cohort will be announced in January. Meanwhile, the current Fall 2013 cohort will graduate in December. We’ll be there to cover all the action. You may want to hurry up and apply now, before I decide to go and apply. Here’s the link.

Wow! 19 Chicago Startups Raise $265M In Q3 2013

On Friday Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office, in conjunction with Built In Chicago, announced that 19 startup and technology companies in Chicago’s Tech Sector raised a collective $265 million dollars in Q3 2013. This is an amazing testament to the success of Chicago’s startup and technology ecosystem.

“Capital investments like these in Chicago’s growing companies are solid proof that what is happening for our technology sector will have a lasting and substantial effect on Chicago’s economy,” said Mayor Emanuel. “These companies are creating jobs and the technologies they are developing will shape the future of the city’s economic landscape. I am proud of their success and I look forward to working with all of these companies as they continue to grow.”

The biggest raisers were Network Merchants with $100 million, Cleversafe with $55 million, and Avant Credit with $20 million. Additionally, the breadth and depth of Chicago’s growing digital economy was evident in this fiscal quarter with nearly 40 startups receiving funding, 19 of those raising more than $1 million or more. 44 new startups came online.

Matt Moog, founder and chairman of Built in Chicago added, “The growth of funding and new digital technology startups being created combined with the breakout growth of companies founded in the recent past is helping fuel a job creation boom in the digital sector. And there is more to come. We are seeing the benefits of a culture of innovation and risk taking.”

Last week, Built In Chicago released the Top 100 Digital Companies report on the Chicago technology sector, which had some outstanding news for Chicago’s digital technology sector. In 2012 367 startups launched– that is one new startup every 24 hours in Chicago (up from one every two days in 2011). The total employment in the tech sector ballooned to over 40,000 people, up more than 20 percent from the previous year. And more than 1,500 technology companies now call Chicago home.

The diversity of Chicago’s technology companies is also notable. No sector of the digital economy occupies more than 33 percent, ensuring that all five major sectors (software, ecommerce, agency, consumer web, and b2b web) have a significant share of the digital market. Additionally, 90 percent of the technology companies in Chicago are now more than 5 years old, meaning that there is a level of maturity in the companies as they move into the next stage of their development.

Chicago is preparing for Chicago Ideas Week next week, which will bring together entrepreneurial speakers, innovators, and thought leaders from across the country to Chicago for a week of amazing discussions, talks, lectures, hacking and more. You can find out more about Chicago Ideas Week here.

Brandery Draws 425 Investors In The Middle Of Cincy Startup Week

Ok it’s not officially Cincy startup week yet, but we’re looking to change that for next year. Our own Everywhere Else Cincinnati conference kicked off the week with two and a half days of 20 minute power talks, keynotes, and panels teaching young entrepreneurs and early stage companies anything and everything from branding to talking to investors.

The Brandery’s annual demo day, an opening of the new Cintrifuse, TED Cincinnati, and #Hack4Good rounded out more events and entrepreneurial experiences than some cities have for their actual startup week.

In planning our conference, we worked closely with The Brandery who actually housed our Cincinnati office as we geared up for the main event. Brandery co-founder Dave Knox kicked off the Everywhere Else conference. Brandery General Manager Mike Bott appeared on a panel about what accelerators are looking for.

Now in it’s fourth year, the Brandery, which some locals believed would never work, continues to improve upon the growing Cincinnati startup ecosystem. Year after year it seems the startups improve and the crowds get even bigger.

The main event for the Brandery startups kicked off Wednesday morning at 8am. Even Proctor & Gamble former CEO Bob McDonald was in attendance alongside some of the biggest investment firms in the country. Folks like Mercury Fund’s Blair Garrou, SoftBank Capital’s Joe Medved, Dundee Venture Capital’s Mark Hasebroock and others made a point to head into town a few days early to also speak to the crowd of hundreds at Everywhere Else.

Bott told cincinnati.com that eight of the ten companies had already lined up follow on funding for after the completion of The Brandery program. Those startups were: Tapfit ($750,000), Chalky ($750,000), and Sqrl ($500,000). Co-Ed Supply has already done $25,000 in sales and raised $150,000 while Frameri, a new way to buy glasses, surpassed their $30,000 Indiegogo goal and raised $43,000.

The stand out from last year’s Brandery class, Flight Car, has already raised over $5 million dollars, graduated from the Y-Combinator program and expanded their peer-to-peer airport car rental services to multiple airports. They are preparing for a launch at LAX later this month.

Nibletz is working with The Brandery, CincyTech, the Cincinnati Regional Chamber, Cintrifuse and other organizations to make the first week of October officially “Cincy Startup Week.”

As a testament to the success of The Brandery, Modulus, a 2012 graduate of The Brandery won the Startup Champion honors at Everywhere Else Cincinnati.

Here are all of the Brandery 2013 companies:

• Awesomatic: Tool allows a business’ customers to support each other.

• Chalky: Connects advice-seekers with mentors who’ve been in their shoes.

• Co-Ed Supply: Delivers box of college essentials on a monthly subscription, connecting brands with the college market.

• Donde: Mobile locator platform helps marketers drive retail sales.

• Dwllr: Allows buyers, sellers and real estate professionals to share information throughout the home-buying process.

• Frameri: Provides interchangeable eyeglass frames with one pair of prescription lenses.

• ShopStoree: Visual commerce platform allows retailers to create interactive online storefronts.

• Sqrl: Tool makes gathering information from clients and groups of people painless. Current focus is on accounting software market.

• Tapfit: Allows users to find, purchase a pass and exercise at studios, gyms and group fitness options that best fit their needs.

The Brandery’s next class will open registration in February. You can find out more about The Brandery here.

Check out our Brandery Coverage at nibletz.com

St. Louis’ Six Thirty Accelerator Announces Inaugural Class

The new fintech startup accelerator in St. Louis, backed by Cultivation Capital and Square’s Jim McKelvey, held an event on Wednesday evening to announce their first startup cohort. McKelvey is joined by Hal Gentry, serial entrepreneur and general partner at Capital Innovators, and Joe Reagan CEO of the St. Louis Regional Chamber, as co-founders for the accelerator called Six Thirty which takes its name from the height and width of the St. Louis Arch.

They received over 100+ applications from all over the world from startups with a financial element. They successfully weeded out the group to just four. Here are the companies in the first session, which officially starts Monday.

Hedgeable, Matthew Kane and Michael Kane
Hedgeable is a next generation Vanguard, providing low cost, risk managed investment products in response to the Financial Crisis.
https://www.hedgeable.com/

MiiCard, James Varga
Through a patented process, miiCard leverages access to online financial accounts to verify an individual’s identity beyond a photo ID through a simple process that occurs completely online in five to ten minutes.
http://www.miicard.com/

Upside, Tom Kimberly
Upside uses innovative financial science and beautiful user interface to provide goal-based investment management to mass affluent young professionals.
https://www.gainupside.com/

XYverify, Elliot Klein
XYverify enables consumers, merchants and financial institutions to reduce costs and prevent fraud via a mobile authentication platform.
http://xyverify.com/

McKelvey is also spearheading another new startup related effort in St. Louis called Launch Code.

Cincinnati Startup Modulus Wins Everywhere Else Cincinnati 2013 Startup Champion

Modulus founder Charlie Key wasn’t looking to win a startup pitch contest when he signed up for this week’s Everywhere Else Cincinnati conference. Key is very active in the local Cincinnati startup community and likes attending startup events. The Modulus team ended up leaving the event with the big ass trophy.

Startups in the Startup Avenue at Everywhere Else Cincinnati participated in the CincyTech, and Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber Startup Poker Run. Over 50 investors and VIP’s at the conference were given five poker chips on Monday morning when they checked in. From 1:00pm-5:00pm that afternoon the investor group was told to check out all of the startups and hand out their chips to the startup they thought was the best. At the end of the afternoon the 5 startups with the most chips got to pitch to the crowd and to a group of judges.

West Capital’s Mark Richey, Draper Triangle’s Will Indest, a>m ventures Patrick Woods and Cincy Tech’s Avi Ram served as the contests judges.

The five finalists were:

Energy Harvesters- a Boston based startup that uses kinetic energy built up through walking and footwear to charge cell phones.

Kids360– a Memphis based startup that helps parents have a better piece of mind in emergency situations while their children are in the care of others.

Tixers- a ticketing platform aimed at season ticket holders and others that eliminates the risk of tickets not selling on Craigslist or StubHub.

Spacefinity- a Pittsburgh startup in the sharing community that allows people to rent space in their homes, sheds, garages, basements and other areas for others to store their stuff (AirBnb for storage).

Modulus– a scalable application platform for developers that offers node.js hosting, MongoDB and performance analytics in the cloud, based in Cincinnati.

All fives startups made engaging 3 minute pitches and then were put through a 3 minute Q&A session with the judges.

Modulus was the judges’ favorite with Tixer in 2nd place. Modulus was crowned the Everywhere Else Cincinnati 2013 Startup Champion. They received a huge trophy, bragging rights, and startup services including a branding consultation with archer>malmo (a>m ventures) and an investor meeting with Cincy Tech.

Key was surprised that their team had won, and they quickly took their trophy back to the office and shared it with their social networks.

Find out more about Modulus here.

Geeklist Is Gearing Up For the Next #Hack4Good

This past summer Geeklist–the social platform for developers–launched a series of hackathons that had a global view from day one. #Hack4Good takes the typical hackathon/Startup Weekend format and turns it into a engine of social good. Rather than building companies in a weekend, participants work on real solutions for real problems. No photo sharing apps or black car service allowed.

Now, that’s something I can get excited about.

The hackathon doesn’t just happen in one city, though. On the announced date, developers around the world gather in their individual cities and hack their way into some social problem solving. The first #Hack4Good was held in June, with events in San Francisco, San Diego, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv, and Lisbon. There were some pretty cool projects produced.

The next #Hack4Good will be held October 4-6 in cities like New York, New Delhi, Kathmandu, Minsk, and more. Cincinnati (host also to a certain national startup conference) is also participating in the global event. If your city isn’t involved yet, you can hop online to participate.

The hackathon is mobile-focused, meaning projects are built on Android, iOS, Windows phone, or special sponsor Moovweb. Various API’s are opened for participant use, and each location offers prizes for the best teams.

#Hack4Good is looking to solve real world problems, which means many of the projects are instantly scalable. Natural disasters, famine, and war affect most our world, and the problems they cause extend to the majority of the population. Solutions that come from #Hack4Good could “change the world” in the best possible way.

“We feel the team at Geeklist knows what the developer/tech community is capable of solving and is organizing hackers for social good, honest efforts, to solve real serious problems with their second global hackathon for good,” said Charlie Key, CEO of Modulus, one of the sponsors of the Cincinnati hackathon.

Are you a developer, UI/UX guru, or design specialist interested in changing the world? It’s not too late to sign up in your city or online.

Startupland Director Announces Vine Pitch Contest at Everywhere Else

There’s already a lot happening at Everywhere Else Cincinnati, and we’re not even through the first morning!

We’ve talked about the new Startupland documentary before. The new movie, set to premiere in February, chronicles the lives of startup founders going through The Fort accelerator in Washington, DC.

It’s been quite a summer for Justin Gutwein. He finished filming the movie, closed out a successful Kickstarter campaign, and is now wrapping up post-production on the documentary. His team has also grown, they’re adding a few new interviews to the documentary, and finalizing the tour schedule.

Most people would think that’s enough going on, but entrepreneurs know we’re never too busy for another great idea.

Today at Everywhere Else Cincinnati, Gutwein announced a first of its kind Vine Pitch Contest. It’s simple enough to enter. Just record an 8 second pitch on Vine and mention @startup_land and #VinePitch. At the end of the month, the Vine with the most (real) retweets will win an iPad.

“It’s a creative and fun way for us to engage our audience in a way that resonates them, it’s about sharing ideas, and having fun with them,” Gutwein told me. “We also know how important the pitch is for any entrepreneur in any industry – so thought that we would put a fun challenge together to see if people could put something effective and creative into less than eight seconds!”

And you thought an elevator pitch was hard!

For all the rules and official stuff, head over to the Startupland site. The first contest opens tomorrow, October 1, and closes on October 31.

Look Who’s Coming To Everywhere Else Cincinnati, Agenda Released!

Over 40 startup and entrepreneurial influencers are set to speak at our national startup conference, which begins Sunday evening at 8pm.

Kicking off on Sunday, September 29th at 8pm with a Kick Off Party at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill in downtown Cincinnati, hundreds of entrepreneurs, startup founders, supporters and investors from across the country and around the world are converging on Cincinnati for the two and a half day startup conference.

Jeff Hoffman, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Priceline and Ubid, John Bracken, co-founder of E-Vite and Speek, Derek Flanzriach, founder of Greatist, Wil Schroeter, founder of Fundable, Ethan Austin, founder of GiveForward, Scott Gerber, founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council, Carla Valdes, Partner at Fortify Ventures and over 30 more nationally known speakers will be featured in keynotes, panels and networking events during the event at the Duke Energy Convention Center.

Washington DC based film entrepreneur Justin Gutwein will introduce the documentary series Startupland to the audience on Monday morning.

Everywhere Else Cincinnati will also highlight women in entrepreneurship throughout the conference including a talk with Janice Fraser, CEO and Co-founder of LUXor. Fortify Ventures General Partner Carla Valdes will address the audience on getting past the gatekeeper as both a woman and a startup founder. West Capital’s Madeleine Ludlow, will participate in the high profile panel “Not all money is created equal and location matters to investors”. BrandHUB’s Nicole Ball, is moderating a panel on why branding and design are important to a startup and Nibletz Media’s Managing Editor Monica Selby will moderate a discussion on addressing media needs of startups.

Monday evening will end with the “Halftime Party” sponsored by Nashville Tennessee’s CentreSource.

The complete agenda for Everywhere Else Cincinnati is below and a final batch of attendee tickets have been released at http://eecincinnati.com

Everywhere Else Agenda

Sunday Sept 29th
- 8pm-11pm Kickoff Party Hosted by Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber & CincyTech at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill Downtown Cincinnati

Monday Sept 30th
- 8:30am Registration Opens
- 9am-9:15am Opening Remarks from Kyle Sandler & Nick Tippmann
- 9:15am-9:35am Dave Knox – Building a Top Startup Accelerator Everywhere Else
- 9:35am-9:55am Carla Valdes – Rapid fire Q&A on getting past the gate keeper
- 9:55am-10:15am Jonathan Perrelli & Justin Gutwein – Startupland, an Honest and Authentic Portrial of What It Takes To Be an Entrepreneur
- 10:15am-10:45am Andrew Warner (KEYNOTE) – Entrepreneurs & Their Inner Insecurities
- 10:45am-11am Coffee Break Presented by Soapbox Media
- 11am-11:30am – Panel: Catching the Attention of an Accelerator Everywhere Else. Moderator: Nick Tippmann. Panelist Blake Miller, Mike Bott, Brian Raney, Jonathon Perrelli
- 11:30am-11:50am – Art McMahon – The New World of Private Placements: A Brief Legal Overview. Presented by Taft Law
- 11:45pm-12:05pm – Fred Killingsworth – Mobile Payment Solutions: Enabling Unprecedented Opportunities. Presented by Vantiv
- 12pm-1:30pm Lunch Break
- 1:30pm-1:50pm John T Meyer – Don’t Be Everyone Else at Everywhere Else
- 1:50pm-2:10pm Rob Woodbridge – Top 4 Mobile Business Models and How To Optimize Them For Revenue
- 2:10pm-2:30pm Derek Flanzriach – Getting To Over 1M Unique Visitors Per Month In Less Than a Year Using Social & Content
- 2:30pm-3pm Jeff Hoffman (KEYNOTE) – Entrepreneur’s Bootcamp: Keys to Entrepreneuring Success
- 3pm-3:15pm Afternoon Break Present by Vantiv
- 3:15pm-3:45pm Panel: The New and Ever Changing World of Content & Media. Moderator: Monica Selby. Panelist: Ryan O’Connell, Derek Flanziach, Rob Woodbridge, Scott Gerber, Andrew Warner
- 3:45pm-4:05pm John Bracken – Rising Above The Noise
- 4:05pm-4:25pm Andy Sparks – Should You Stay Put?
- 4:25pm-4:45pm – Jake Stutzman – Meaning, Not Money
- 4:45pm-5:05pm – Mark Richey – Capital Risk and Speed
- 5:05pm-5:55pm Startup Pitches
- 5:55pm-6pm Closing Remarks
- 6:15pm-8:15pm VIP Investor & Startup Only Happy Hour at the Hyatt Regency
- 8:30pm-11pm Halftime Party Hosted by Centresource at Rhinegeist Brewery

Tuesday Oct 1st
- 9am-9:10am Opening Remarks from Kyle Sandler & Nick Tippmann
- 9:10am-9:30am Mark Hasebroock – Llamas and Mocassins
- 9:30am-9:50am Denver Hutt – Life Is What Happens While We’re Busy Making Other Plans
- 9:50am-10:10am Blair Garrou – Top 10 Ways for a Startup to Thrive (and Survive) in the Midcontinent
- 10:10am-10:40am Joe Medved (KEYNOTE) – How to Source Your Investors
- 10:40am-11:15am Panel: Not All Money Is Created Equal and Location Matters to Investors. Moderator: Bob Coy. Panelist: Madeleine Ludlow, Blair Garrou, Joe Medved, Jonathon Perrelli, Mark Hasebroock
- 11:15am-11:30am Coffee Break Presented by West Capital & Draper Triangle
- 11:30am-11:50pm Patrick Woods – From pitch to personality: brand personality and why it matters
- 11:50am-12:10pm – Evan Owens – Horror Stories From Product Development
- 12:10pm-12:30pm – Janice Fraser – Lean UX + Design for Startups
- 12:30pm-2pm Lunch Break
- 2pm-2:20pm James Dickerson – What I Learned From My Startup’s Failure
- 2:20pm-2:40pm Raghu Betina – Getting Your Feet Wet in Programming
- 2:40pm-3:00pm Alan Berkson – You Got Customers, Now How Do You Keep ‘em? Presented by Freskdesk
- 3pm-3:30pm Scott Gerber (KEYNOTE) – Why Should Never Get a “Real” Job
- 3:30pm-3:45pm Afternoon Break Presented by Taft
- 3:45pm-4:15pm Panel: Why Branding and Design Are Crucial to a Startup Moderator: Nicole Ball. Panelist: Patrick Woods, Jake Stutzman, John T Meyer, Janice Fraser, Evan Owens
- 4:15pm-4:35pm Ethan Austin – Culture ≠ Ping pong: How To Build a Startup Culture That Drives Success
- 4:35pm-4:55pm Jared Steffes – Don’t Be a Liar and Your Startup Sucks.
- 4:55pm-5:25pm Wil Schroter (KEYNOTE) – How Crowdfunding is Changing Startup Fundraising Forever
- 5:25pm-5:55pm Startup Awards Presented by CincyTech & Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber
- 5:55pm-6pm Closing Remarks from Kyle Sandler and Nick
- 8:00pm-11pm Postgame Party Hosted by Nibletz Media at Rhinegeist Brewery

Don’t have your ticket? No worries. We released a few more tickets, and you can get yours at eecincinnati.com

Google Chooses 7 “Tech Hubs” Across North America

What makes a city a “tech hub”? In years past we thought of Silicon Valley as THE tech hub, since it was the home of so many technology companies. New York and Austin have carved “tech hub” niches for themselves recently by producing more and more successful startups.

But, now there’s a new standard for becoming a tech hub: What does Google think?

On Wednesday Google announced the development of its Tech Hub Network. Initially, 7 cities were chosen to receive Google money, products, and mentors for their startups. In each city there is a partner organization that will have contact with Google, and those organizations will each host a “Googler,” who will share best practices with startup leaders and work to connect them with Google and the other tech hubs.

In true everywhere else fashion, Google seems to have purposely stayed away from cities more often known for technology. But, you’ll probably recognize most of them from the pages of Nibletz. Here are the 7 organizations that were chosen to kick off the Tech Hub Network:

1871 (Chicago)
American Underground (Durham, NC)
Coco (Minneapolis, MN)
Communitech (Waterloo, Ontario)
Galvanize (Denver, CO)
Grand Circus (Detroit, MI)
Nashville Entrepreneur Center (Nashville, TN)

“These seven Tech Hub partners represent to us some of the very best-in-class organizations having an impact on startups and helping them directly succeed,” Mary Grove, Google’s director of global entrepreneur outreach, said.

Besides money and mentorship, there’s another, subtler benefit to Google’s presence in their tech hubs: recruitment. As more and more companies choose to stay away from the Valley, more cities are competing for that talent. Google Tech Hubs will have one more edge on other cities when it comes to enticing talented developers and engineers.

“Anytime Google names a city as a place they are going to be, the entire tech community takes notice,” Nashville Entrepreneur Center CEO Michael Burcham told The Tennessean. “I think it will be helpful us as we are recruiting coders and engineers to our city.”

There is money changing hands, but Google says it’s all in sponsorships. As of now, they have no plans to take equity in the startups coming from each city. Still, it’s not a financial wash for Google. Right now, many startups choose to launch in iOS because it’s often simpler to do so than in Android. But, with more Google engineers scattered across the country, it makes sense that we could see an increase in Android launches. (This Android girl is doing a happy dance!)

When big name Silicon Valley companies start to take notice of ecosystems everywhere else, it’s a sure sign that it’s time to “start where u are.”

So you’re a last minute person, a few tickets remain for this startup conference.

17 Year Old Working On Flu Drugs, Wins Google Science Fair

The Google Science Fair is an international contest open to students world wide to show off their scientific research, experiments and projects. At SXSWedu earlier this year, Google’s Cristin Frodella explained how and why the Google Science Fair works.

The contest brings the best and brightest of young scientists and innovators to Google’s Mountain View Campus to learn from top caliber scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs. The students selected for the trip to Google, get to see some of the biggest tech firms up close and personal. Last year they took a trip out to the Tesla plant.

The Google Science Fair sees students that are trying to solve worldwide problems with their technology. Everything from finding a better way to filter water in rural countries, to ways to keep vacinnations at the right temperature, to flu drugs are the kinds of things that these young scientists are working on.

Google had it’s closing ceremony in Mountain View on Monday evening. It was there that each age group winner was announced. Those winners get a $25,000 scholarship and of course bragging rights to say they had won that amazing contest.

The winner overall was 17 year old Eric Chen. He’s working on new drugs to fight the deadly Flu infection.

Business Insider reported that other age group winners included: 16 year old Ann Makosinski, who’s developed a flashlight that runs on body heat and 15 year old Vinay Kumar. Kumar has developed an application that makes it easier for ambulances and police to get through traffic.’

While the winners above all received the $25,000 scholarships, the other startups that participated in the “finals” received a Google Chromebook, a tablet, Lego Mindstorm kits and National Geographic and Scientific American subscriptions.

Business Insider has all of the Google Science Fair finalists here.

Techstars & Sprint Announce Sprint Mobile Health Accelerator

Techstars, one of the most recognized accelerators in the world, is expanding its US footprint into the already lively Kansas City startup community. Earlier this year Techstars co-founder and Foundry Group founder Brad Feld bought a house in Kansas City to house a startup to work on their company, utilizing KC’s 1gb ethernet. Kansas City was the second city in the country, behind Chattanooga, to offer 1gb ethernet to residences and businesses.

But it wasn’t Kansas City’s Google Fiber that attracted Techstars to the region. They’ve partnered with Kansas City’s biggest tech company, Sprint, the third largest wireless carrier in the country. Sprint has always been a friend to innovation. They were the first wireless carrier to hold an annual developer summit for developers to collaborate, and learn about developing on Sprint’s wide range of services.

Sprint and Techstars are centering this accelerator around the growing mobile health segment. Monitoring devices, e-prescriptions, mobile EDR’s and other health based mobile technology startups will work in the three month Techstars-modeled accelerator format at the new accelerator.

“We have been watching Kansas City from afar, seeing it come together, and now we’re excited to join the community and help it grow. It’s great to see Sprint giving first through their tremendous network of resources and executive knowledge. It makes all the difference for the companies we fund through the program,” Techstars co-founder David Cohen said on the official Techstars blog.

Kevin McGinnis, Sprint’s Vice President of Development, will help oversee the program which is taking applications now through December 6th. Startups that are selected will be notified in early January 2014 and the first session will kick off in March.

“Kansas City increasingly is gaining recognition on the national level as an emerging entrepreneurial technology center,” McGinnis told Cohen. “Sprint has been expanding its work with startups and other ventures that are developing intriguing innovations. The Sprint Accelerator will act as a catalyst for growth in this market.”

You can apply here.

2 Weeks And 2 Startup Avenue Booths Left For Everywhere Else Cincinnati

The feedback for Everywhere Else Cincinnati has been overwhelming. Many startups in the flyover states, middle America, and abroad can’t believe there is a startup conference, with a speaker lineup of this caliber, specifically geared towards them.

At Everywhere Else Cincinnati you’ll mingle, rub elbows, network, talk and hopefully garner the interest of investors who like you, work and want to continue building startup ecosystems everywhere else. We’ll hear from people like Jeff Hoffman who built up Priceline, uBid and other companies. Hoffman has decided that he’s done creating business plans and he’s turned to creating entrepreneurs and he’s going to share that with all of us.

We’ll hear form people like Andrew Warner who’s mixergy website has become a bible of sorts for entrepreneurs across the country. We’ll hear from several startup founders who’ve collectively raised hundreds of millions of dollars from anywhere USA.

Scott Gerber, the founder of YEC and distinguished startup author will talk about startups everywhere and the YEC’s new Startup Insurance.

And there are 22 more speakers with similar experience taking the stage September 29th-October 1st in downtown Cincinnati at the Duke Energy Convention Center.

The attendee ticket is $99 through this weekend and the remaining two Startup Avenue booths are just $495 through this weekend.

The Startup Avenue booth comes with three attendee tickets for the founder and the your startup team. You’ll exhibit in front of hundreds of investors, founders, entrepreneurs and resources. There will be pitch contests and two exclusive events for startups, investors and our media partners.

Tickets are available below. We’ll see you in Cincinnati.

Online Ticketing for Everywhere Else Cincinnati – “Start Where U Are” powered by Eventbrite