Thank You For A Great EE2013, And On To 2014 Tickets Available Now, At 2013 Price For 6 Weeks

Thank you all for attending everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference in Memphis Tennessee. The event drew over 1000 startup founders, entrepreneurs, investors and startup folks from across the country and around the world.

Most of the 50 states were represented and attendees came from Chile, Canada, Mexico, London and Buenos Aires.

We attended great keynotes, workshops, round tables and panels with unparalleled access to information and networking.

The reaction so far has been great. The memories will live on, on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus and of Course Bonfyre.

As a startup ourselves things were a little rough around the edges for a bit but the event itself rocked!

With that we are growing. Many people who saw our press coverage or heard about the event on social media have reached out with interest for next year. Sponsors are already knocking on the door and it’s going to be even better. As you can imagine we are going to have to significantly increase the ticket price in the coming months however, Nick and I decided that we will offer the same prices as 2013 for 2014 for the next 6 weeks.

Next year the conference will be held Sunday February 16th through Tuesday Febrary 18th, over President’s Day Weekend. This gives many of our startup founders, who still work a 9-5, the opportunity to come as well.

Attendee ticket $59

Startup Village ticket $425 (incldues 3 attendee tickets)

One thing that we want to point out though is that several attendees said they wanted to be in the village next year, so regardless of whether you were in the village last year or just came in as an attendee, feel free to book under 2013’s Startup Village ticket rate.We look forward to seeing you next February.

We welcome your feedback at info@everywhereelse.co and if you want to volunteer for next year feel free to email kyle@everywhereelse.co

Thanks again!

Online Ticketing for Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference 2014 powered by Eventbrite

Powerhouse Team Behind Gui.de Raises $1 Million For Max Headroom Like News Startup

A new startup based in Miami, called Guide, promises to bring technology that will turn online news, social streams and blogs into videos guided by 20 different anchors or avatars. Included in the 20 anchors are a dog, a robot, and anime characters.

These characters will read articles, and present photos and videos like your personal guide to the content you’re looking at. The animated characters are the driving force behind the technology. If you’re thinking this sounds rather silly, well think again, as Guide has already raised $1 million dollars in funding from some credible heavy hitters in the video and entertainment industries.

The Knight Foundation, Sapient Corp, Bob Pittman (MTV founder), and Google’s employee 13, Steve Schimmel.

The Gui.de team is headed by Freddie Laker a former executive at Sapient with who’s been dabbling in startups for some time. Leslie Bradshaw, the company’s Chief Operating Officer, has a rock solid resume including being named one of the top five female executives in the technology industry by Fast Company magazine. Bradshaw was listed alongside Cher Wang of HTC, Marissa Mayer of Google and Mary Meeker of KPCB.

The demo on the gui.de website looks like they paired Siri up with some video animation and use her to read the news. The technology may not quite be there yet, but with the team they have in place they should be able to put something spectacular together.

Gui.de is headed to SXSW to debut their product and strike up some buzz at the conference that’s known as the launch pad for Twitter, FourSquare, Zaarly, Ban.jo and more.

Find out more here.

Launch Your City Graduates Out Of Memphis Incubator

The umbrella organization that oversees Launch Memphis, Wolf River Angels, Seed Hatchery, UpStart and Memphis Venture Mentors, Launch Your City, has graduated out of the Emerge Memphis accelerator. Launch Your City was situated in Emerge Memphis where they grew the Launch Pad co-working space and successfully put on the first two sessions of Seed Hatchery.

Launch Your City has hosted several 48 Hour Launch events in the Emerge facility, with it’s most recent event focusing on women entrepreneurship.

With all the positive growth and Launch Your City serving as the catalyst for entrepreneurial growth at Emerge, the incubator’s Board of Director’s, asked Launch Your City’s Co-President, Eric Matthews to serve as interim executive director over the last year.

That one year stint ends today and Mathews will transition back into his full time role as Co-President of Launch Your City along with Andre Fowlkes. While the organization had one of it’s best years to date, Mathews and Fowlkes weren’t able to work as closely as they had in years past, with Mathews at the helm of Emerge.

“Eric and I haven’t been able to work as closely together for a year” Fowlkes to nibletz.com Both Co-Presidents have a laundry list of things they want to tackle in 2013 to help enrich the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Mathews will vacate the Executive Director’s office at the end of the day today, roll up his sleeves and return to co-working in the launch pad.

There’s no time to rest in between job transitions. Fowlkes and Mathews, along with the Launch Your City team and community supporters, are launching the next class of Seed Hatchery later on this evening. In addition they will be helping out with everywherelse.co The Startup Conference through the weekend. As Winter turns to spring the Launch Your City team has a full plate at home and on the road. The organization is planning a working tour of Silicon Valley with some of the startups that have gone through their ecosystem. They are also planning a trip to Washington DC and New York while simultaneously planning events around Memphis In May, including Investor Day for Seed Hatchery.

“We felt like if we fumble the ball regarding the opportunities in front of us, it would not only be a detriment to us but to partners like EmergeMemphis. We’re an important client and feeder to Emerge, and we’re poised to grow our capacity 50 percent to 100 percent in the next year.” Mathews told Andy Meek of the Memphis Daily News

As for Emerge Memphis, Mathews, speaking to us from the Executive Directors office in front of a 14 foot back drop of Memphis Grizzlies ‘ All Star Zac Randolph, says that Emerge has filled to capacity, bringing on over 20 new high growth potential client companies to occupy the space that also includes mentorship opportunities, and other startup resources.

The Emerge Memphis Board has hired local aviation entrepreneur and former CEO of Pinnacle Airlines Phil Trenary, to consult while they find a permanent Executive Director.

As an incubator, by design Emerge Memphis is supposed to house startups and growing small businesses for a short time until they’re ready to graduate to the next phase. With that in mind, Mathews and Fowlkes will relocate Launch Your City into their own space.

“Really, this is a testament to incubation. It’s a good story for incubation and entrepreneurship,” Mathews said of the impending move to the Memphis Daily News. “This has been personal to me. I’ve dedicated a lot of time to it. And it’s been a spectacular year if you look at the past 12 months.”

Startups everywhereelse can see what Memphis is really made of, at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference.

St. Louis Startup LockerDome Inks Deal With USA Today

Monday our friends at St. Louis based sports social networking startup announced a new partnership with one of the most recognized sports brands in the world. USA Today Sports is now partnering with LockerDome by adding their content within the USA Today network and also partnering to sell advertising on the site that’s growing at a tremendous rate. LockerDome is one of the hottest startups in St. Louis.

LockerDome has over 1450 networks of professional athletes, sports teams, brands and other sports properties. FL superstars Troy Polamalu, Larry Fitzgerald, Maurice Jones-Drew, Antonio Brown and Marshawn Lynch; MLB All-Star Felix Hernandez; baseball legends Pete Rose and Wade Boggs; and NBA stars Blake Griffin, Rudy Gay, David Lee and Stephen Curry, are just some of the professional sports players that have pages on LockerDome.

Since launch LockerDome, which is backed by Square co-founder Jim McKelvey and other major investors in the St. Louis community, has grown to over 8 million monthly unique visitors. They are currently growing at a rate of more than 100,000 uniques per day.

Under the partnership, effective immediately, USA TODAY Sports Digital Properties will begin selling advertising on LockerDome, and LockerDome’s traffic will now be included within the USA Today Sports Properties network. Additional 2013 strategic initiatives between the two properties are currently being planned.

“By delivering an innovative platform for publishers, LockerDome has quickly become the fastest growing sports website in the world,” said Gabe Lozano, co-founder and CEO, LockerDome. “USA TODAY Sports is a top-tier media brand that we’ve always had a great amount of respect for, and becoming an Official Partner of USA TODAY Sports is a fantastic marriage between two world-class companies that opens up a number of exciting growth opportunities across the board,”

“We’re excited to welcome LockerDome to the USA TODAY Sports family,” said Clay Walker, Vice President of Affiliate Relations for USA TODAY Sports Digital Properties. “LockerDome’s unique social media platform enables us to provide our advertisers with engaged, highly targeted audiences inside LockerDome’s vast—and growing– ecosystem.”

What sets LockerDome apart for publishers is its ability to reach a more engaged, targeted sports audience and increase their overall social media footprint. Since its initial launch, LockerDome has delivered 50% average growth across Facebook and Twitter for its properties in their first 4.5 months. One of its key differentiators is LockerDome’s cross-promotional flexibility, allowing its networks to grow their existing audiences with each other, a service Facebook and Twitter do not currently offer. While contests on other platforms traditionally average the industry standard of 2% – 3%, LockerDome boasts an average landing page conversion of 23%.

Sports enthusiasts join LockerDome to become a part of interest-specific sports communities where they can consume content and interact with like-minded fans around their favorite professional athletes, teams and sports. Milestones for LockerDome since its launch in January 2012 include surpassing one million uniques in June, two million in October, three million in November, four million in December and eight million in January. At its current growth rate, LockerDome is on pace to be a top-10 most visited sports site in the next 12 months.

LockerDome founder Gabe Lozano will appear on “Grinding For Cash” (raising money everywhere else panel) and giving his own talk at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference

Uber’s Biggest Competitor Hailo Raises $30 Million For Eastern Expansion

We’ve been covering Uber’s biggest competitor Hailo since last March. The European startup aggressively expanded throughout Europe in major cities like Dublin and London before coming over the the U.S. Now, according to report from TechCrunch and AllthingsD they’re ready to expand eastward to Asia.

They just announced a $30 million dollar raise led by Union Square Ventures, Japanese telco KDDI, Richard Branson and others. The company is expected to use these funds to expand to Asia. Back in March they announced a $17 million dollar raise with funds used from that round to expand into the U.S.

Hailo reportedly has 10,000 drivers using their service across the globe and have had over a million passengers since launch. Hailo is operating in Dublin, London, Chicago, Toronto, Boston and Chicago. They plan to add New York, Madrid, Barcelona and Tokyo in the immediate future.

Like Uber, Hailo allows customers to use a mobile app to hail a ride. Hailo works with Taxi cabs which can be a lot cheaper than the black sedan service that Uber users are accustomed to hailing. However, Uber has gotten into the taxi game, testing a taxi hailing platform in Washington DC during the inauguration. Also, regulators in California along with other states, seem to be backing off regulations when it comes to hailing and ride sharing apps, which should help smooth things along for Uber, and of course Hailo.

The space is getting crowded with startups from Flywheel, to Taxi Magic and even Atlanta startup CanCents, which we interviewed earlier today.

You can see ride sharing startup RidePost and more great startups from “everywhere else” at everywhereelse.co the Startup Conference next week.

Record Industry Veteran Heather McBee Joins Nashville Startup Populr

Nashville startup Populr has been in the news a lot lately. Back in November, the company led by founder Nicholas Holland, raised $425,000 before launching into beta. Back in January Populr officially launched after just two months in beta.

Populr.me, one of a handful of technology providers entering the micropublishing space, already has an edge in that it allows users and groups the ability to collaborate on POP’s as a team. This functionality, allows organizations the ability to create, co-manage and share their interactive one-pager’s both publicly and privately. POP’s can be delivered instantly to both individuals and groups by use of it’s sharing function, which includes connectivity to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, email and instant messaging. POP’s are accessible by a Populr.me sub-domain, or through use of a designated URL.

Many business people have the need to quickly share impactful media, but lack the resources in which to do it. Creating an entire website is too time-intensive. Creating a blog is too public. Populr.me allows everyone to create high-impact one page presentations in a matter of minutes, and then share them instantly either internally, or through their favorite social media platforms, according to Holland.

Today it was announced that record industry veteran Heather McBee has joined Populr.me as Senior Communications Strategist. McBee spent several years on Nashville’s Music Row, most recently she spent many years with Sony Music Nashville.

“HEATHER was looking for a new perspective and we were looking for someone who had organic connections to the business community in NASHVILLE and abroad. We needed a broad business thinker with a technical mind and she presents the perfect blend of both,” Holland told radio and record authority, allaccess.com.

This isn’t the first time Populr has reached out to Nashville’s music industry. Music and technology entrepreneur Mark Montgomery is an investor as well, telling the Tennessean last year that Populr could be “a game changing venture that could boost Nashville’s position on the digital map”

Check out Populr and nearly 100 other startups from across the country and around the world at this huge startup conference.

Crowdfunding Insurance Coming By Way Of Baltimore Startup Asurvest

Clarence Wooten, a Baltimore native,who was the co-founder of ImageCafe, a startup sold during the dot com boom to Network Solutions/Verisign for $23 million, has backed a new startup called Asurvest in Baltimore. While Wooten has moved out west to Silicon Valley, he’s betting on a hometown company that plans on offering insurance to people investing via crowdfunding sites.

Crowdfunding legislation was passed last year, however it’s not expected to fully roll out nationally until early 2014, while the SEC establishes guidelines for the vehicle that will allow anyone to help back startups through their first million.

Asurvest was founded last month. They will provide insurance for private and professional investors using sites like Kickstarter, Fundable and Gofunding, according to bmoremedia

“These groups are highly visible. They attract investors. They have strong business models,” Asurvest CEO Luke Cooper told bmore . “We are in an incremental improvement mode,”.

Asurvest is looking to provide assurance for those investing even $1500 – $2000.

Crowdfunding for startups works much like it does for supporting artists and products on the popular Kickstarter platform which saw $319 million dollars pledged last year.

Federal regulators are still sorting out how crowdfunding will work. After that, it will be turned over to state governments. Cooper is currently working with the state of Maine to draft legislation. After that they will move on to Maryland and expand where they see the most need.

Source: bmoremedia

Be sure to check out the crowdfunding panel at the largest startup conference in the US, everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference

Despite Layoffs New York Times Announces Incubator Program

The New York Times is going through a rough time right now. They are in the middle of staffing cutbacks that are coming in the form of layoffs and voluntary buyouts. New York Times editor Jill Abramson has said there were far few layoffs than they had anticipated, primarily because of voluntary buyouts.

Although the times proper is reducing staff, they have announced a new initiative to spearhead innovation at one of America’s most widely known newspapers.

The new program called timeSpace is somewhere between in incubator and an accelerator. “You may call it an accelerator or an incubator; right now we are calling it an experiment” they wrote on their blog.

The Times is not seeking equity on the companies that apply and are accepted into the program. They hope that when a company that goes through the program, raises institutional financing, that they will be invited to participate. They are leaving that decision to the startup.

timeSpace is seeking media focused startups with a product launched. The startups will either already be based in New York City or willing to relocate to work in the space that’s in their headquarters at Times Square (620 8th Ave). Startups in the mobile, social, video, advertising technology, analytics, or e-commerce spaces are invited to apply for the four month program.

Over the four month period selected startups will be invited to work and grow alongside entrepreneurs and employees who make their livings in digital media, technology and journalism.

We are based in New York City, with six bureaus in the region, fourteen national news bureaus and twenty-four foreign news bureaus. We have more than 1.5 million print and digital subscribers and had 49.4 million unique visitors to NYTimes.com in December 2012. More importantly, we are journalists, developers, designers, product managers and more who are proud to work at the news organization that has won 108 Pulitzer Prizes and Citations. The paper said.

Applications are being accepted through 5pm EST February 19th here. There is no seed capital involved.

Acceleration and Incubation is a major theme at this huge startup conference

The Angel List That Matters, All The Incubators & Accelerator Taking Apps Through Angel.co

Here’s the complete list of incubator and accelerator programs that you can apply to using an account from angel.co (Angel List). If youu’re not familiar with Angel List, it’s one of the three things we recommend you sign up for as soon as you start your startup, the list also includes CrunchBase and Startup America. Info on all three is here at “three free things every startup should do”

Marquee accelerator programs like 500 startups, Techstars and Dreamit Ventures are all using the Angel List platform for easy access to applications. Here’s the complete list.

500 Startups, Silicon Valley program focused on startups everywhere. Founded by crazy ass Sith Lord of Startups Dave McClure. This program promotes entrepreneurship everywhere. Apply here

Techstars, one of the widest recognized brands for startup acceleration based in Boulder CO with programs in Boulder, Seattle, Austin, Chicago and New York. Apply here.

DreamIt Ventures is based in Philly with programs in New York, Austin and Israel. Apply here

Capital Factory is based in Austin with a concentration on revenue vs follow on funding, Apply here

Murker Lab is one of Silicon Beach’s (LA) marquee startup accelerators. Apply here

Alchemist Accelerator based in the valley they are looking for startups with “distincitive technical cofounders” Apply here

sxswVC Fast Pitch at SXSW in Austin Apply here

LaunchPad LA is in it’s 5th class for their LA based mentor driven accelerator Apply here

Amplify.la Amplify is a hands on startup accelerator and multi faceted entrepreneurial campus in Silicon Beach (L.A.) Apply here

Upstart Labs, located in Portland they focus on B2B startups Apply here

Founder Fuel, Is a Canadian based accelerator in Montreal with $50,000 seed and an opportunity for $150k follow on Apply here

Launch Pad, is in the heat of New Orlean’s Super Bowl of startups Apply here

Longhorn Startup is an entrepreneurship class at UT in Texas Apply here

SeedStartup is an international startup accelerator in Dubai Apply here

GSF India is a multi-city startup accelerator in India located in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai Apply here

nReduce is the online startup incubator Apply here

And why you’re at it why not pick up two tickets to the largest startup conference in the U.S. everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference

Excelerate Labs Becomes Techstars Chicago

Today in a blog post penned by Techstars founder David Cohen, he announced that Excelerate Labs, the startup accelerator located at 1871 has become Techstars Chicago.

Excelerate Labs was founded by Troy Henikoff and Sam Yagan (OKCupid, SparkNotes and Match.com) in partnership with Sandbox Industries and New World Ventures.

We’ve covered several of the Excelerate Labs startups and have managed to make a few trips to 1871 over the last year. Their classes work hard, play hard and innovate. It’s one of the finest accelerators in the country, which has prompted Cohen and Brad Feld to invest in multiple Excelerate Labs graduates including: SpotHero, GiveForward and Tap.Me

Techstars has always started their programs from scratch. At one point they began endorsing a number of accelerators that applied their same methodology. That network was once known as the Techstars Network and has since spun out of the Techstars brand and into “Global Accelerator Network”.

For the first time ever Cohen is now turning to an existing accelerator, Excelerate Labs, to open Techstars Chicago.

“We were so impressed with what they’ve built that we asked them to join forces with us and turn Excelerate Labs into TechStars Chicago. TechStars and Excelerate have always been kindred spirits: we both put entrepreneurs first and believe in the power of mentorship.” Cohen said on the Techstars blog.

Troy Henikoff says, “We are excited to combine Excelerate’s deep roots in Chicago with TechStars’ vast alumni and mentor networks. TechStars Chicago will be an even stronger force in Chicago and will add incredible firepower to the TechStars platform.”

“I congratulate Excelerate Labs and I am pleased that TechStars has identified Chicago as one of the best places to start a technology business. This advancement is a huge step forward for the city’s technology economy and will fit hand-in-glove with the other efforts being made to promote entrepreneurship and create new jobs around Chicago.” – Mayor Rahm Emanuel

Applications for Techstars Chicago are open now. The first early bird deadline is March 1st, the final deadline is March 15th. The program will begin May 29th and end on August 29th. To apply click here

Join Pat Riley, Managing Director of the Global Accelerator Network, along with several of their accelerators at the biggest startup conference in the U.S. everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference

Startup America’s Donna Harris & Startup DC’s Evan Burfield Launching 1776 DC

1776, Donna Harris, Startup America, Startup DC, Accelerator

Startup America’s Donna Harris interviews Steve Case (photo: Nibletz Media)

On the heel’s of the Startup America Partnership’s second anniversary a new initiative, incubator and accelerator are launching just steps from the White House. It was on the White House lawn on January 31, 2010 when Startup America was officially launched.

The new epicenter for entrepreneurship in Washington DC will be called 1776 and is being spearheaded by Startup America’s Managing Director, Donna Harris, and Evan Burfield, Chair of Startup DC. These two have worked hand in hand, over the past two years nurturing the Startup America Partnership an organization that supports startup communities nationwide. Harris will transition away from her role at Startup America over the next month.

“1776 is a fantastic example of the entire community rallying around a very bold idea that taps the unique assets of the community rather than replicating what others have done,” said Scott Case CEO of the Startup America Partnership. “I couldn’t be more thrilled that Donna, who was the architect and leader of our National Regions Initiative, and Evan will now focus their expertise on making this bold vision a reality in DC.”

“Washington is one of the most powerful cities on earth, and it has the potential to become an incredible nerve center for startups seeking to tackle big national challenges like education and healthcare,” said Donna Harris. “1776 will be a single rallying point to tie startups into the region’s significant wealth, expertise, and extraordinary advocacy community, and will create a global brand for what makes the DC community unique.”

Harris oversaw the creation of Startup America “regions” across the country. Over the course of the past year Startup America began looking to empower the regions, and their regional champions so that the organization itself could take a backseat while startup communities across the country blossomed.

1776 will provide co-working space, curriculum to help build entrepreneurs and startups, and an accelerator program. The also plan to continue a trend currently in place at Startup America where people and trends that are reinventing America share the spotlight.

“Our goal is to build an explosive entrepreneurial economy based on the assets unique to Washington, DC,” said Evan Burfield, co-founder of 1776. “1776 will have a number of strategies to help the hottest startups in the world — the ones with the bold ideas for tackling the big problems — to navigate regulatory minefields, develop scalable business models, and drive revenue.”

1776 will hold an open house and press conference on February 6th at their campus, 1133 15th Street NW, 12th Floor. DC Mayor Vincent Gray, Startup America CEO Scott Case and other notable national figures from the entrepreneur community will help kick off the new initiative.

For more information sign up for 1776’s email list here http://1776dc.com/

Scott Case and several other’s from Startup America and it’s regional partnerships will be on hand at the biggest startup conference in the U.S. everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, limited number of tickets still available.

Minnesota Startup Mardil Medical Raises $6M From Malaysia

In a bit of interesting funding news, Mardil Medical, a medical startup from the Twin Cities has received a $6.125 million dollar round of funding led by Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM).

Some may find that this investment from AIM is a rather risky endeavor. Mardil is in the process of going through the most capital intensive route to regulatory approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Not only that but the company’s technology incorporates the assets acquired from a failed medical technology startup that raised and spent over $100 million dollars in venture capital before throwing in the towel.

That isn’t stopping Mardil and it’s CEO Jim Buck from developing a technology that treats a heart condition called functional mitral valve regurgitation. This condition occurs when blood leaks from the heart’s left ventricle, through the mitral valve and into the left atrium, when the left ventricle contracts. It’s the most common form of valvular heart disease, a leading cause of death in pregnancy.

The Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal reports that, like most medical technology companies, Mardil is going to begin with overseas clinical trials. Buck decided because of this, it was only natural to seek funding overseas as well. Mardil will begin testing in Kuala Lumpur. After initial testing they will have to bring their research back to America to hopefully land FDA approval.

In addition to the $6.125 million dollar round, they plan on closing another $5 million dollar round later this year.

See the great startups from ZeroTo510 a medical device accelerator in Memphis who fast tracks businesses to prepare for a 510K approval from the FDA. This approval is much faster than the traditional route. The inaugural class from ZeroTo510 will be in the Startup Village at everywhereelse.co

Seed Hatchery Announces 6 Team Class Of 2013

Memphis’ tech startup accelerator program, now in it’s third year, Seed Hatchery, has unveiled the six startup teams participating in it’s 2013 cohort. The cohort will begin next week on February 8th and end with a Demo Day during the legendary Memphis in May Barbecue Festival. The applications were plentiful and this years class features five local startups as well as one startup from Indiana. Also new for Seed Hatchery, and a growing trend across America, three of the startups are led by women.

Seed Hatchery teams will receive seed funding as well as an intense mentor driven program designed to cultivate their idea stage businesses and turn them into viable companies/products.

This year’s Seed Hatchery program will be full time. It also features teams that have been heavily vested in the Memphis startup ecosystem driven by the efforts of Launch Your City/Launch Memphis. Most of the teams, prior to even applying to Seed Hatchery, elected to participate in the Startup Village as part of the upcoming evverywhereelse.co, The Startup Conference.

Here are the teams:

Mentor.me

Mentor.me is led by Brittanny Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick pitched her startup at the Upstart Memphis 48 Hour Launch in December. Fitzpatrick has been working for the Ronald McDonald House in conjunction with St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, which led her to developing this idea.

Mentor.me is essentially a match.com system for matching mentors with mentees. Every year mentor organizations are faced with a problem stemming from mismatched mentors and mentees. This problem actually takes up more time and resources than originally matching mentors. Mentor.me will be an algorithm based platform that matches mentors with mentees in a more efficient way.

IncreaseIF

IncreaseIF plans to match provides cost-analysis software to help scientific researchers figure out which in-house resources should be used. Several factors go into the decision making process for evaluating using an outsourced firm by scientific researchers. These factors include cost, quality, delivery responsiveness, technology and cycle turn around time.

IncreaseIF, where the IF stands for, impact factor, will help automate these decision making processes and speed up the time of scientific research. The startup is led by software engineer Scott Finney, a Memphis local who’s been dabbling in the startup scene and anxious to push forward with this new idea.

Kangaroo

Kangaroo is another local startup co-founded by CEO Nick Redmond and Rachel Hurley, one of the three startups featuring a female founder. Hurley is very active in the Memphis local music scene where the passion for this startup came about. She’s constantly promoting singer songwriters and local bands through venues in town. Redmond is one of the songwriters and founders of Star & Micey a local band which was named the number one band to see live in Tennessee by Paste Magazine.

The idea is to create a social network around bands and music. Sure that idea has been done a hundred times but Hurley and Redmond are putting a brand new spin on it by incorporating geocaching. With Kangaroo they plan to create a platform where touring bands and bands in town can leave behind hidden treasures. Fans can also turn around and leave tokens of appreciation for their favorite bands

“We want to abolish the limited creativity and loss of the personal touch with social media today. Connecting with fans is the only problem musicians have, and this is a huge opportunity to connect people and musicians in a active, real-time environment. From seeking out left behind items by musicians, to taking their personalized walking tours, to following them across a coast, this app and site allows the fans the most hands on experience in social media.” Hurley said.

ScrewPulp Publishing

ScrewPulp is an exciting startup for Memphis. It was originally pitched at the 48 Hour Launch event in June of 2012, the same 48 Hour launch that attracted nibletz.com to Memphis in the first place.

At the event, founder Richard Billings described the problems with self publishing. Self publishers live off reviews, ratings and recommendations which are impossible to drive in any organized way. Screw Pulp allows authors to give their book away to the first 100 readers, in exchange for a review (good or bad), rating or recommendation. Once the engagement is made the “promo copy” of the book is the readers to keep.

After the first 100 books Screw Pulp goes with a sliding payment scale increasing the cost of the book while it gains popularity. Billings has become a fixture in the local startup scene. Since pitching ScrewPulp in that 48 Hour launch he has been to subsequent launch events where he’s provided feedback and mentorship. They also won the “Risk City” challenge in November as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week in November. That contest involved the startups pitching their idea to Federal Court Judge John Fowlkes in open court.

SodBuster

Sodbuster is the startup that is relocating from Indiana. This startup has a different spin when it comes to founders. The husband and wife team of Tom and Pam Cooper both graduated from college in the early 80’s. They both have had long and prosperous careers in their field. Now they’re going all in on their social entrepreneurship startup.

The team has the benefit of Tom’s 30+ years of experience in programming running the gamut of programming languages from COBOL to C++ and newer languages like HTML 5 and Ruby on Rails.

Sodbuster is reinventing the way local nonprofits connect to their communities to communicate and raise money. They plan on doing this with a new e-newsletter format.

Musistic

Musistic was founded by Justin Olita, Vince Rogers and CTO Brian Wentzloff. This Memphis based startup wants to become the universal place for musicians to connect in a social network type setting. Once the musicians are matched up through an algorithm the platform will offer the tools necessary to collaborate with each other across the internet and even save the recordings.

Basically imagine a guitar player in Memphis, a bass player in New Hampshire, a drummer in Los Angeles and a singer in Texas. All four musicians can meet up through Musistic where their interests, styles and experience will be matched. They can then jump right into performing together from the comfort of their own homes.

“The problem is that there is no universal network for musicians to create, edit and share in real time and all startups for musicians are focusing only on selling and promoting the artist’s work.
Musistic will focus on the creation process” Rogers said.

For more info on Seed Hatchery visit seedhatchery.com here

Seed Hatchery startups will be featured at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, do you have your tickets yet? Get them here!

Disclosure: In the interest of journalistic integrity I am compelled to disclose that while I hold no equity interest in any of the startups in the Seed Hatchery program I am a mentor for the program and also on the selection committee.

Lean Entrepreneur Authors Brant Cooper & Patrick Vlaskovits Join Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference

But wait there’s more…

Earlier this morning we announced some very exciting news that Dell and their Entrepreneur In Residence, Ingrid Vandervelt, have joined everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference. Dell will be offering office hour consultations, startup and entrepreneurship advice and more both onstage and in the Dell Lounge at the conference.

Now we’re pleased to announce that Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits the authors of The Lean Entrepreneur will not only be speaking at the conference but they’ll be offering their Lean Entrepreneur’s workshop.

Learn from Cooper and Vlaskovits’ best practices that they report on in their book, live in person. The two hour workshop will be held on site mid day Tuesday afternoon and is free to attendees on a first come first serve basis. Cooper and Vlaskovits will be giving away copies of their bible, we mean book, during the workshop.

Attendees who come to the workshop will come away with valuable lessons in tackling market uncertainty, and discovering where you sit in the innovation spectrum. They’ll also walk away with understanding value stream and what waste looks like in a lean startup, as well as the anti-segment the people you don’t need to be listening to.

Also on Tuesday Cooprt and Vlaskovits will speak to the entire group giving an abbreviated lesson in all things Lean Entrepreneur. In addition to The Lean Entrepreneur Cooper and Vlaskovits also co-authored The Entrepreneurs Guide to Customer Development.

A limited number of tickets and 2 startup booths are still available for everywhereelse.co for more info on the conference visit this link, for tickets use the tool below.

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