Austin’s Incubation Station Prepares For Next Cohort

Austin’s consumer packaged goods startup accelerator, Incubation Station, is preparing for it’s next cohort.

Incubation Station is in it’s second year and is specifically targeting startups in the consumer packaged goods space. They’ve extended the application deadline until February 15th and plan on unveiling the selected startups to participate in the program at an event being held at “Abels on the Lake” on the evening of February 27th.

This accelerator in the CPG space is proving how startup accelerators in new verticals can be successful in cities across the country. Incubation Station applies the cohort based startup accelerator methodology to companies that make actual, consumer purchasable products.

The session at Incubation Station is 12 weeks and features intense training from go to market strategy, marketing, pitch, and business skills. Like most accelerators, the session finishes off with a demo day, which they call “Showcase Day” in the middle of June. Incubation Station participants will show their products and business models off to over 100 investors that specifically invest in consumer packaged goods.

Their first class included Thunderbird Energetica, Criquet, Whynatte, Primizie and Verb.

“After participating in Track 1 of Incubation Station we expanded our growth by 300%. We have broken through the borders of being solely an Austin-based company and now serve the entire nation,” comments Taylor Collins, founder and owner of Thunderbird Energetica. “IS helped mold our start-up company into an efficient, goal-setting powerhouse through the sound and strategic advice from the brilliant minds in the diverse mentor pool.”

“Incubation Station provided Criquet with all the tools that we needed to fine-tune our marketing strategy, product offering, and investment pitch,” comments co-founder of Criquet golf shirts, Billy Nachman. “Our mentors pushed us to focus on the core concepts of our business plan, helping to effectively reach our customer, and efficiently message our investor. Since IS Track 1, Criquet has seen consistent and significant revenue growth, helping us secure a strategic capital investment, which puts us in position to achieve significant milestones within the next 9 months.”

Incubation Station was founded by attorney Shari Wynne who’s MWR Legal, specializes specifically in the needs of entrepreneurs, investors and startups. She’s a past president of the Entrepreneur’s Organization Austin chapter and she’s an active mentor at Incubation Station.

Startups in the CPG space that plan on applying can do so by clicking here.

What’s acceleration all about, find out from accelerator leaders and graduates at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference

Jacksonville Startup Weekend Entrepreneur Has Domain Name Ripped Off

Jacksonville just recently held a Startup Weekend event. The event, like most Startup Weekends, brought hordes of entrepreneurs, hackers, developers and designers together under one roof to build companies over a 54 hour period.

Jennifer Chapman, was one of those entrepreneurs.

She had an idea called “Pinstitute” an online education platform taking the concepts behind sites like Skillshare and applying them to Pinterest. Basically, a platform to buy and sell online classes to make the cool stuff you see on Pinterest.

“I’m relieved, I’m excited, I’m a little anxious that I’m about to take on this amazing new venture,” Chapman said after her first-place win reports the Jacksonville Business Journal. “This is amazing, it’s been an awesome experience.”

Co-founder of Banyan, and new Chattanooga resident, Toni Gemayel, was one of the judges for the Jacksonville event, giving some great advice to Chapman, “Don’t let anyone leave here with your idea”.

Unfortunately that’s what somebody did. Chapman couldn’t afford the $3800 for the premium Pinstitute domain name, and by the end of Startup Weekend, someone at the event had shelled out the money for it, someone not on her team.

“That was disappointing to hear that somebody would do that,” said Todd Smith, one of the event’s five judges. “At the end of the day, it’s the person with the vision and the execution who is the real entrepreneur.”

In the end it looks like Chapman will move forward with the idea, perhaps under a different domain. File this one under total douchebag.

St. Louis Accelerator Capital Innovator’s Introduces Fresh Class Of Startups

At an event held at Moulin in St. Louis last night, Capital Innovators, the region’s cohort based accelerator, announced their newest class of startups. The class will convene for a 12 week program at the T-Rex startup hub and co-working space.

T-Rex houses several other startups as well as winners in the Arch Grants program that gives grants to startups to relocate and build their business in St. Louis.

This is the fourth class to go through the Capital Innovators program. To date, Capital Innovators has invested in and graduated 24 other startups in a variety of industries. Startups like Systematic Revenue and Norsecorp, that have successfully gone through the Capital Innovators program, have also successfully raised follow on funding.

The Capital Innovators program sees their startups with $50,000 which runs on the higher side of accelerator seed funds. Typically accelerators fund companies with between $10,000 and $25,000 dollars.

These are the five startups in the 2013 spring program, along with their founders:

BidRazor, Mike Pulley
BidRazor gives contractors the power to create custom bids much more easily and quickly than traditional
methods.
Dead Inventory Management Systems, Brandon Twitty
Dead Inventory Management Systems (DIMS) is in the business of aiding manufacturing companies in
listing large amounts of idle electrical inventory online in the matter of seconds using our Quick LIST
system.
Juristat, Drew Winship
Juristat helps lawyers predict the future. We transform raw court records into actionable analytics,
allowing users to predict the behavior of judges, juries, and attorneys. Juristat can calculate the odds of a
favorable verdict, motion, or appeal.
Time to Cater, Ed Spinaio
Time to Cater is a free national catering concierge service that connects busy people with the perfect
caterer for their event to save them time and money. We handle all the details of any catered event from
order through delivery and presentation at no extra cost to our client.
TrakBill, Steven Marciniak
TrakBill is an advocacy platform delivering timely, customizable updates on legislation, with a social twist.
Find specific bills or search areas of interest, receive up-to-the-minute updates on legislative actions and
hearings, and advocate for your cause using social media. With TrakBill, you spend more time advocating
and less time tracking

The spring class will end on April 26, 2013 and Capital Innovators will hold demo day on May 8th.

Two of St. Louis successful startups, LockerDome and Bonfyre will be at eveywhereelse.co The Startup Conference Will you?

Two Weeks Left Until Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, Biggest Startup Conference In The US

We are officially at the two week mark for everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference. The event is taking place from February 10th – 12th in beautiful downtown Memphis, a cultural hub for music, and entrepreneurship. The conference itself will be held at the Memphis Cook Convention Center. We’ve sold over 1500 tickets and have over 100 startups in our Startup Village.

Everywhereelse.co has even been named as a “must attend” conference for startups and entrepreneurs by Forbes Magazine.

Attendees

We still have attendee tickets on sale through next week. The attendee ticket will get you into all of the panels, keynotes and official conference events. You’re also invited to peruse the Startup Village during Sunday’s Startup Village preview. Sunday night we’ll take in the Memphis Grizzlies at the Grind House as they take on the Minnesota Timberwolves. After that we’ll all take part in the Grasshopper, The Entrepreneur’s Phone System, Bar Crawl on Beale Street.

Monday features great speakers like Scott Case, Bill Harris, Rohit Bhargava, and panels like “Kick Ass Female Founders From Everywhere Else”, How to Raise Money Everywhere Else, and many more. We also have two exciting startups coming out of stealth mode and launching on stage. (want to launch your startup on stage email info@everywhereelse.co)

Tuesday the fun, learning and networking continue. We’ve got great keynotes and panels queued up like Mike Bott the former brand manager for Olay at P&G and current GM of the Brandery on “Branding for startups“. Best selling author of Likeanomics, Rohit Bhangarva is speaking and much more

Startups

We have over 100 startups in the Startup Village, a representation of startups from across the country and around the world. You’ll see startups just post idea stage, all the way up to series A. They’re also competing in the Best Of Everywhere Else startup contest, an audience participation contest and a speed pitch contest.

A handful of startups upgraded their booth space so we have 3 startup village booths open. You can register your startup below.

Investors

We have hundreds of accredited angel investors and vc’s from some of the top firms in the country who have already purchased tickets. If you are an investor everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference offers unparalleled access to not only the startups in our startup village but hundreds and hundreds of entrepreneurs and founders attending the conference. Forget flying all over the country and around the world. Founders forget having to panhandle on a street corner to raise that money for a one way airline ticket. Investors and Startups from everywhereelse are coming together at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference.

Acceleration

If you’ve been thinking about an accelerator for your startup this is the conference for you. We have several accelerators from across the country who will be on hand to talk to startups and their founders on whether their accelerator is right for them. Pat Riley from the Global Accelerator Network and his team will be on the ground helping with two great acceleration panels.

In one panel “What I learned From An Accelerator” we’ll hear from startups who’ve completed 500 startups, YCombinator, Techstars, The Brandery, Seed Hatchery, Jumpstart Foundry and more.

In another panel “Accelerator Heads” we’ll hear from the Managing Directors of some of the best startup accelerators out there from Eric Mathews at Seed Hatchery to Mike Bott GM at the Brandery. Marcus Whitney from Jumpstart Foundry will join us as well as Guy Madison from Oklahoma City’s Blue Print For Business.

Finally, you’ll be able to get a consult with someone from any of these accelerators and more, to find out where your startup fits in the accelerator matrix.

A different kind of conference

Everywhereelse.co is a different kind of conference. First off we wanted to make the conference attainable to even the most bootstrapped founders and entrepreneurs. That’s why both the ticket price and the startup exhibitor (Startup Village) price were so low. This way we can offer unparalleled access to content, learning, speakers and networking all in under one roof.

Next, many will be surprised at some of the successful founders who are attending the conference. Many have reached out by email or at other events. While they may not need all that this conference has to offer they want to give back to the startup ecosystem. Keep your eyes open and talk to everyone.

Memphis is a city about grinding. It’s a blue collar city with hardworking folks and a history rich in entrepreneurism going back to the 1800s. FedEx, Holiday Inn and Autozone are just a few nationally known brands that started in Memphis.

Finally

Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference is the brainchild of a bootstrapped startup, Nibletz, the voice of startups everywhere else. This conference is about founders, startups, and entrepreneurs from across the country and around the globe “everywhere else”. The conference may not look like the million dollar production that some of the conferences out there that charge startups $899 just to attend look like, but the content, networking, and camaraderie will be second to none.

We have a few last minute areas for sponsors to touch over 1000 startup founders, entrepreneurs, startups and investors from across the country. For quick information on sponsoring email info@everywhereelse.co

Attendee tickets go up to $99 on Wednesday. Startup Village booths go up to $699 on Wednesday.

Sell Tickets Online through Eventbrite

Everywhereelse.co Outgrows Original Venue Moves To Memphis Cook Convention Center

Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference has continued to grow, now to the point where the conference has moved from the original venue, The Peabody Hotel to the Memphis Cook Convention Center. That means that over 1000 entrepreneurs, founders, investors and startup supporters will have a lot more space to mingle, take in exciting startups and plot the takeover of the world.

Everywhereelse.co is the first conference of it’s kind, bringing together startups from across the country (and around the world) all under one roof providing investors, fellow startups and great startup resources like the Global Accelerator Network, the ability to reach more entrepreneurs and more startups than any other event.

The three day conference is being held in Downtown Memphis Tennessee with tickets sold as far away as Portland, Miami, San Francisco, Detroit, Toronto and even Israel. Attendees will take in the rich historical, musical and entrepreneurial history that has grown in Memphis Tennessee. Some of the biggest brands in the world like FedEx, Holiday Inn, Autozone, and even Mrs. Fields Cookies have roots that trace back to Memphis.

The conference has three main focal points that will speak to startup issues that entrepreneurs across the country experience; access to capital, access to talent and acceleration.

Speakers including: Scott Case, Rohit Bhangarva, Bill Harris, Tracy Myers and more will speak in keynotes, roundtables and fireside chats. FedEx will tell the story of how one man, Fred Smith, had an entrepreneurial vision in the 1970’s that on paper looked crazy. How he leveraged everything he had while bootstrapping and became the largest logistics company in the world.

Because of the overwhelming response we’ve had to move the event a few blocks down the road to the Convention Center. At the new venue there will be a lot more room, and we have decided to extend ticket sales a few extra days.

Over 100 startups are exhibiting in our Startup Village exhibition hall and we have a couple spaces left but they are running out quick. Check out the ticket form below.

For Startup Village startups and questions about hotel.

Feel free to continue to enjoy the charm and southern hospitality of the Peabody. There will be bus service in the mornings to the convention center and in the evenings back to the Peabody free of charge. There’s also the downtown Memphis trolley that picks up one block up from the Peabody and lets off at the doorstep to the convention center.

The Downtown Marriott connects to the Convention Center and has offered everywhereelse.co guests a room rate of $109 per night for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Rooms can be booked by calling (901)527-7300 or call the toll free reservation line at (888)557-8740. You must tell the reservation agent you’re with everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference.

We found out in speaking with the Marriott that our dates are a little heavy and we’re assuming that’s because some of our attendees have already booked at the Marriott because of points. If your rate was more than the $109 special rate the Marriott is giving the conference you can call the Marriott and they will rebook you under the new rate.

The official conference hours are:

Sunday:

7:30am-10:00am Startup Village Load In
10:00am-4:00pm Startup Village Preview and Registration

Monday & Tuesday:

9:00am-5:30pm

We look forward to seeing you in Memphis for everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference:

Event registration for Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference powered by Eventbrite

Deadline to book rooms at the Marriott is February 1, 2013

SocialNightlife, Customer Management, Engagement & Loyalty For Night Clubs

A Los Angeles startup a year in the making has finally launched a product that night club owners and other nightlife venues will get a lot out of. SocialNightlife is a complete platform designed to help nightclubs and other establishments keep track of their VIP’s and loyal customers.

Nightlife professionals will now have the ability to digitally check-in guest-list and VIP customers and track activity by team member, venue, event and client. Venues will also be able to setup custom promotions and reward their loyal guests as a result of the social media features built as a front-end to the professional business tool.

They already have a handful of popular night clubs on board like the famous Marquee nightclub in Las Vegas. Using the SocialNightlife platform VIPs, loyal customers and social media rockstars will be able to get into clubs quicker and their information will be utilized more efficiently providing a service to both the patron and the establishment.

“We’re breaking down physical barriers,” said Artin Nazarian, SocialNightlife’s co-founder and CEO. “Front door staff can finally put a face to the names on their list and send targeted event promotions to fans of a specific DJ or celebrity.”

Patrons have access to key features as well, that were originally released in a public beta at CES 2012 (last year)

· Location based check ins to gain insight on frequent patrons

· Ability to offer loyalty rewards like complimentary tickets, drinks and other VIP services

· Instant reviews of the line queue, music quality, and venue energy level

· Public photo gallery with advanced photo editing and hash-tagging functionality

· Branded social media business pages

· Performance reports for promoters and hosts such as reservations, guest check-in and sales

· Event promotion and direct marketing tools

· Gamification through virtual “bottle” badges

· Customer analytics and automated guest lists

The company has already partnered with strategic advisors and stakeholders in clubs in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Miami.

For more info visit SocialNightlife on the web here

You’ll find an amazing night life experience at the biggest startup conference in the U.S. everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, limited tickets still available.

Jaguars Support First Ever Crowdfunding Festival One Spark April 17-21

Onespark,Florida statups,shad khan,Jacksonville startup,crowdfunding festival

Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan (known for his mustache) has pledged up to $1 million dollars at the first crowdfunding festival One Spark (photo: sportsrantz.com)

An amazing thing is happening in Jacksonville, Florida April 12-21 2013. The entire downtown part of the city is being transformed into One Spark, the first ever of it’s kind, gigantic crowdfunding festival.

One of the event’s co-founder and Executive Director Elton Rivas told nibletz.com “Imagine taking crowdfunding offline”. He went onto describe how venues across the downtown area will be set up to showcase the latest in startups, technology, products and crowdfunding goods. At these showcases the creators and founders can show off their wares and encourage people to crowdfund their project right there in person.

While the concept is great in it’s own right, I mean imagine being able to touch the products on Kickstarter, there’s more to OneSpark than that.

On Tuesday night when we first talked to Rivas there was a minimum fund of $250,000 already in place to help crowdfund some of the project that will be showing off at OneSpark. It was revealed on Wednesday that Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan has pledged up to $1 million dollars through his investment arm STACHE Investments Corp. to help fund these projects.

“One Spark will attract and celebrate creativity in a variety of fields including science, technology, engineering and the arts, all of which are areas of great personal interest,” said Khan. “Jacksonville is the perfect host for this festival and I believe One Spark has the potential to inspire some really big thinking from the brightest minds in the area and beyond.”

“One Spark started with the belief that game-changers emerge from dorm rooms, garages and small studios – where great ideas develop. One Spark 2013 will be the point when creators of all kinds converge in our community, and when people from far and wide join together to decide on the next big thing(s). The heart of our city will be the place to get involved, be inspired, connect and collaborate,” said Rivas.

Some facts about One Spark:

— Open to all: Anyone can be a creator; One Spark venues can be spaces nearly anywhere in the urban core.

— Grassroots and independent: One Spark is built on the premise that the next great creation will likely come from a garage, small studio or dorm room. Creators will pair up with venues, independently, on the One Spark website. The organization does not select any of the creators or venues that make up the event.

— Empowered public: The $250,000 One Spark fund will be distributed based on public vote; the public can also contribute directly to entrants in any amount.

— Five packed days: During the actual event, there will be creator showcases, speakers, culinary experiences, music and what we like to call “spectacles.”

— Win votes and snag a slice of the $250,000 guaranteed crowd-fund. Crowd-fund monies will be distributed by popular vote. For example, if you receive 10 percent of the vote, you would receive 10 percent of the fund, or $25,000.

— STACHE Investments Corp: Formed by Shad Khan in 2012, the investment company has a component that focuses on entrepreneurial ventures in Northeast Florida and will be on the ground looking for investment opportunities during the five days of One Spark.

For more on OneSpark click here

Now that’s four months of great startup events including the biggest startup conference in the U.S. everywhereelse.co The Startup Conerence next month!

Seelio Among Four Startups That Just Received Funding From Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund

Back in August we interviewed Ann Arbor startup Seelio.. The company helps college students highlight their academic, extra curricular, culture and social lives in conjunction with the job hunt.

Seelio was just announced as one of four Michigan startups that took part in the latest funding round from the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund. The fund is a collaborative effort of Michigan’s smart zones to help support startups. To date the fund has helped 83 startups with 19 million dollars in funding.

“It’s exciting to see how Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund companies use the investments to drive growth; the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund makes a measurable, positive impact on a start-up’s chance of success in the state,” said Skip Simms, manager, Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund and senior vice president of Ann Arbor SPARK. “Early funding recipients, like Compendia Bioscience, have gone on to achieve significant success, including expansion, hiring and attracting marquee clients. The four early stage companies funded this round are using the award to attract additional outside funding and get solidly on that path to success.”

The four companies recently awarded Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund investment are Fusion Coolant Systems, Local Orbit, New Eagle Products, and Seelio. Fusion Coolant Systems is innovating an advanced coolant and lubrication system for use in manufacturing that increases production rates and tool life. Local Orbit provides e-commerce and business management tools for the “new food economy”. New Eagle offers controls system solutions including tools, products, and services. Seelio is commercializing its online platform that empowers college students to showcase their work and skills to startups.

Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund companies have attracted more than $25.5 million in matching grant and equity funds. Combined, Michigan Pre-Seed Fund investments have helped to create more than 43 net new jobs in Michigan.

Israeli Startup Intucell Acquired By Cisco For $475 Million

An Israeli company that created a technology that allows cell phone towers to communicate with each other, has just been acquired for $475 million dollars.

Business Insider reports that Israeli startup Intucell, started four years ago, and prior to this acquisition, had only raised $6 million dollars. The initial investment round had one investor, Bessemer.

After Bessemer’s investment was reported in 2011, AT&T quickly started using the technology.

On Wednesday, All Things D suggested that this was a very good investment for Cisco. The report by Arik Hesseldahl suggests that strategically this makes sense because of the relationships that Intucell has with wireless carriers globally.

Another key factor is the technology deals directly in computer aided, customizable software to control networking.

The idea is basically this: Software controls can define and dynamically control the size and configuration of a network, rather than swapping out hardware. Hesseldahl said in his piece.

Cleveland’s Bad Girl Ventures Announces New Class Session And $25,000 Contest

Women in tech and women in startups are quickly becoming a big thing across the country. Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, is featuring a panel called “Kick Ass Female Founders From Everywhere Else”. Women’s entrepreneurial initiatives are popping up all over the place as well, like Memphis’ Upstart Memphis. Even young women are seeing more opportunities with things like Black Girls Code.

In Cleveland Ohio, Bad Girl Ventures is offering an educational series targeted to women and the opportunity to win a $25,000 low interest business loan. While some may gawk at the word “loan”, if you’ve been through the fundraising process, loans can actually be a better way to get early stage funding rather than giving up equity that can prove costly down the road.

Bad Girl Ventures, based in Cleveland, is taking applications for their next educational session, through next week. The application deadline is January 31st.

Bad Girl Ventures is a micro-lending organization that selects 10 entrepreneurs to participate in a nine week business course every spring and fall at no charge. The course offers mentorship, and curriculum which includes how to run a business, create a business plan, pitch and more. It’s put on in conjunction with Cleveland State University and CSU students, faculty and alumni serve as mentors, coaches and facilitators.

“Past participants say networking is one of the most valuable takeaways from the course,” said Reka Barabas, Director of Bad Girl Ventures Cleveland said in a statement. “In addition to education and possibly funding, our participants walk away with a business plan and 50 to 100-plus connections. This helps prepare them for growth whether they’re awarded the loan or not.”

“We select women entrepreneurs across a range of industries who demonstrate strong leadership capabilities,” said Barabas. “We encourage all applicants to research their business ideas and share details about the target audience, competitive edge and likelihood for success of their products/services.”

Women owned startups less than five years old are eligible to win the $25,000 low interest loan and free tuition for the course, although anyone is able to register for the course at $35 a session and $225 for the entire course.

Bad Girl Ventures has helped over 200 entrepreneurs and facilitated $115,000 in loans since 2011.

For more info visit badgirlventures.com

See the Kick Ass Female Founders from everywhere else panel and more at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, for more click here.

Acceleprise “The 500 Startups For Enterprise” Unveils First Class Of 2013

Less than a year ago DC based entrepreneurs, Sean Glass, Allen Gannett and Collin Gutman and others teamed up to form an accelerator in the Washington DC area devoted entirely to enterprise startups. When it was announced in April of 2012 TechCrunch dubbed Acceleprise the “500 Startups for enterprise”.

By July of 2013 they had their first class of six startups in house and began to dig into “enterprise”. Elana Fine the Managing Director at the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship told the Washington Post that “enterprise companies also tend to retain customers for longer periods of time, creating a reliable source of revenue for the start-up.”

With the federal government and most of their biggest contractors in the Washington DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia area it’s only fitting that an enterprise focused accelerator planted it’s roots in the area.

This year, after a successful class over the summer, Acceleprise will be hosting three cohorts, the first of which was just announced. The class includes:

Aquicore: a startup that is collecting data from power companies on electricity usage. They plan to then take that data and analyze it to find inefficiencies which will ultimately save consumers and business owners money on their energy bills.

Edi.io is a social media monitoring startup that will analyze social media messages that companies plan to put out to the public. They’ll make sure that the content won’t come back to haunt them. They describe themselves as a company that mitigates enterprise and brand risk within social media by filtering outgoing corporate text engagement before it goes public.

Instant API, apps, apps, apps everyone wants to have an app. Companies big and small are looking to use apps to reach their customer base and to manage their internal business. This startup is creating a platform that makes it easy for companies to build API’s (application programming interfaces). In turn, they will make it easier for companies to create apps built on their own internal data.

LearnShark is a startup that will allow employees to score points for sharing useful content with other employees.

MetaLayer is a company that’s been getting lots of traction. CEO Jon Gosier basically describes the company as making big data easier for companies to manage. This data can be from survey’s, social media and other big data sets that companies need access to and understanding about.

StayNTouch is a hospitality startup that plans to simplify the way hotels handle guest interactions, sales, hotel information, on site social interaction and more. The engagements and interactions are managed by a cloud based platform that is easily accessible to hotel staff via smartphones and tablets.

TalentWire is a campus recruitment tool that will allow companies to identify, target and contact the best prospective talent before other companies.

TrackMaven is a marketing intelligence tool that’s pretty much in stealth mode at the moment.

You can find out more about the Acceleprise accelerator here at their website.

Raising Capital, Finding Talent and Accelerating, the important topics to startups “everywhereelse” will be featured prominently at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference

Kauffman Foundation To Present “State Of Entrepreneurship Address” February 5th In DC

The Kauffman Foundation, in conjunction with Bloomberg Television, will present the fourth annual State of Entrepreneurship Address on February 5, 2013. The address will be given at the historic National Press Club in downtown Washington DC, just blocks from the White House. The event takes place from noon until 2:00pm.

The address will be presented by Tom McDonnell the CEO and President of the Kauffman Foundation. He will discuss policy ideas for financing entrepreneurial growth. Remarks will also be made by Karen Mills the Administrator of the US Small Business Administration.

Lunch and a panel discussion featuring Chance Barnett, co-founder and CEO, crowdfunder; Jeff Fagnan, partner, Atlas Venture; Donna Harris, managing director of Startup Regions, Startup America Partnership; Ramana Nanda, associate professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School; Alan Patricof, founder and managing director, Greycroft Partners. The discussion will be moderated by Robert Litan, director of research, Bloomberg.gov, will immediately follow.

If you want to hear where entrepreneurship stands in 2013 along with plans to continue fueling America’s economy with a focus on startups, then you don’t want to miss this event.

Advance registration is required and you can do so here, by January 28, 2013.

Find out about the state of startups everywhere else, at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, the largest single venue startup conference in the U.S.

Dogfish Accelerator For Film Makers Announced At Sundance

With all this talk lately about “catfish”, it’s only appropriate that we report on Dogfish, a new accelerator launching in New York for film makers. For starters we love the idea of attaching the accelerator model to independent film.

We’ve seen the success of a cohort based accelerator in the medical device field with ZeroTo510. One of the biggest reasons that the program was so successful was that Seed Hatchery,brought the tech-startup based acceleration model to a bunch of scientists and doctors. To most folks, scientists and doctors speak an entirely different language. That makes it almost impossible for a great medical device idea to get traction and interest among traditional investors. VC’s and angels prefer to invest in things that they either understand or can learn to understand.

The same holds true about creatives. Film makers are often die hard creatives and extremely passionate about their work. Most investors would love to invest in a movie, or independent film but there is a disconnect between Hollywood and Wall Street. That’s why New York based Dogfish Pictures has launched the new accelerator.

Creative, often left brained, geniuses will get the chance to cowork with other like minded individuals and at the same time they’ll have access to mentors, investors and industry contact that they wouldn’t already have access to.

The program is founded by James Belfer and Michelle Soffen of Dogfish Pictures. Belfer is hoping to turn film makers into successful entrepreneurs.

“At the end of the day, James and I are doing this because we love independent film and want to be a part of the solution to the many problems our industry faces,” added Soffen. “While there are no quick fixes we do know that the only way to address these hurdles is as a community.”

Belfer actually worked at the Techstars program last year, which is one of the reasons they decided to do this program at Dogfish and take the best parts of the tech startup cohort based accelerator.

Applying best practices from the tech industry, Dogfish Accelerator offers a combination of funding, business training, coaching and access to a large network of resources and vendor perks.

Each Dogfish Accelerator Program participant gets US $18,000 as a team in seed funding along with free office space, production resources from Dogfish’s partners, and most importantly, access to industry mentors and investor groups who provide coaching for business strategy and team management.

The accelerator program will be funded by the Dogfish Pictures Film Fund II. To be launched later this year, this new fund will provide equity financing to independent filmmakers who have demonstrated their ability to make creative films while using sound business practices. In addition, a portion of the Fund will be made available to provide follow-on equity financing to Dogfish Accelerator teams that successfully complete the program.

Mentorship is a vital aspect of the Dogfish Accelerator program, which promotes openness and community building.

The company connects production teams with experts from all parts of the film industry, including finance, production, distribution, marketing and sales. In addition, Dogfish Accelerator is bringing in innovative thinkers from outside of the film industry, such as technology and branding experts, to stimulate new approaches.

The Dogfish accelerator program will take place in the summer of 2013 in New York City. Applications are being accepted now.

They already have a list of who’s who in New York and the independent film scene that’s committed to participating in the program.

Belfer got to present the program at the Innovator’s Brunch as part of the Sundance Film Festival today.

You can find out more about Dogfish here.

You can find out more about the Global Accelerator Network and hundreds of startups and entrepreneurs at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference.

Lupe Fiasco Performance Ends Early At StartupRockOn Inaugural Party

The folks at StartupRockOn have done some phenomenal things since three startups, HyperVocal, EventFarm and Fighter Interactive formed the collaborative last year. They formed the company to promote startup and entrepreneurship alongside high profile events. We attended Startup RockOn parties at the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention. Although invited, we were unfortunately unable to attend last nights inaugural bash which included a pitch contest and a performance by controversial rapper Lupe Fiasco.

Lupe Fiasco, the well known grammy nominated artist from Chicago, has been very vocal about his political preferences, which don’t include the President of The United States, from his hometown.

Fiasco was criticized last year for speaking out against Obama and the trend reportedly continued last night. He told CBS in an interview in 2011 “My fight against terrorism, to me, the biggest terrorist is Obama and the United States of America. I’m trying to fight the terrorism that’s actually causing the other forms of terrorism.”

Apparently Fiasco took the stage and immediately started into a political diatribe. The Daily Caller is reporting that Josh Rogin a reporter with the Foreign Policy Magazine tweeted: “Lupe Fiasco just got thrown off stage here at the Hamilton Live after he went on an anti-Obama diatribe mid set.”

Rogin continued: “So Lupe played one anti-war song for 30 min and said he didn’t vote for Obama and eventually was told to move on to the next song…Lupe refused to move to the next song so a team of security guards came on stage and told him to go.”

Startup RockOn is very progressive in their views on technology and politics and is a staunch supporter of the first amendment. At their DNC event in Charlotte North Carolina the Roots played who are another group that are sometimes known for voicing their political opinion.

Ripping the President with an anti-war sentiment on the day before his ceremonial inauguration (Obama actually took the oath of office on Sunday), may not have been the best idea nor sat right with the events organizers.

Startup RockOn said in a statement: that the artist, “left the stage earlier than we had planned. But Lupe Fiasco was not ‘kicked off stage’ for an ‘anti-Obama rant.’”

“We are staunch supporters of free speech, and free political speech,” the organizers continued. “This was not about his opinions. Instead, after a bizarrely repetitive, jarring performance that left the crowd vocally dissatisfied, organizers decided to move on to the next act.”

Even with this controversy Startup RockOn will continue to produce high profile events that promote entrepreneurs in settings that you don’t typically see startups. The organization is a major partner with Startup America. Earlier this month Startup America spokes person Chris Roche told nibletz that they were not doing an official Startup America event at the inauguration, as they are trying to hold a bipartisan stance on politics.

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