Austin Startup Archives - Page 2 of 3

DreamIt Ventures Expands South To Austin Texas

DreamIt Ventures, the Philadelphia based accelerator, that was recently ranked one of the top the incubators in the country by Forbes magazine, has announced that they’re expanding into Austin Texas.

DreamIt is Philadelphia based, which is where they set up their initial accelerator program. They then expanded to New York City. Last year they also opened up shop in Israel with a program that currently feeds into New York but could feed into their Philadelphia program next year.

Kerry Rupp, a Philadelphia transplant from Austin Texas was overseeing the DreamIt program in Philadelphia. They recently announced the appointment of Karen Griffith Gryga as national director based in Philadelphian which frees Rupp up to return to Austin and launch their Austin program.

Austin is a great place to expand for DreamIt. There is a lot of innovation happening in Austin and the other DreamIt locations will be able to leverage their Austin based program to show off other DreamIt startup graduates at South By Southwest Interactive next year.

“We’ll be able to use it to showcase all of the other DreamIt companies that are out fundraising” when SXSW is held, Rupp said to the Austin Business Journal

As of April 2012 65 companies have successfully gone through the DreamIt program. DreamIt also has a program targeted towards minorities called DreamIt Access, that first class has 15 startup participants.

DreamIt Ventures New York program finishes with a Demo Day on August 8th. Philadelphia’s program kicks off the weekend of September 6th and 7th. The Philadelphia class will hold Demo Day December 5th. Austin’s program will start on December 14th which times the ending right up against SXSWi 2013.

Linkage:

Check out DreamIt Ventures here

Source: Austin Business Journal

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Interview With Austin Startup: NOOM, Next One’s On Me

Late last week we brought you the story about Baltimore startup BeerGivr which allows people to buy their friends beer using their mobile phone from a remote location, at participating beers. The concept is easy, if you can’t join your friends at the bar you can still pick up a round or buy the birthday girl/boy a shot or beer. You sign into the app, and let it know how many beers and voila its done. BeerGivr has partnered with bars in their hometown for testing. If you buy a friend a beer and they’re not at a participating bar or restaurant they can have that beer converted into Paypal dollars.

Well an Austin startup has taken a similar concept and expanded it to a wide variety of offerings primarily in the under $10 arena. With NOOM (Next One’s On Me), you can buy a gift for a friend using your mobile phone. Ideas include cupcakes,coffee, beers, lunch etc. You simply send your friend a virtual gift certificate through NOOM and they actually get the gift.

NOOM co-founder Sara Rodell gives us a great use case example in our interview below. Say you just met a great new friend or business colleague, it would be very awkward to shake hands and give them $5 or $10 and say “hey the next coffee is on me”, but with NOOM it’s a gesture appreciated, and used.

Right now NOOM is available in the Apple iTunes store and exclusively for Austin area merchants however they are expanding quickly and plan on bringing Houston on in the very near future. NOOM currently has 20 Austin area merchants participating including bakeries, ice cream shops, coffee shops, restaurants and bars.

Check out our interview with Rodell below

Interview With Jessica Meyer Founder Of Austin Startup: Locate Special Diet, Bet You Can’t Guess What They Do!

Over the last few years smartphones have helped me control my type II diabetes. Even when I was a devoted Android user I was able to find great blood glucose management apps that allowed me to track my diet, blood sugar and other important information and share it with my family and diabetes “sponsor”. The next thing I was in search for was a restaurant finding app. You see I’m on the road a lot.

There have been a few out there but mostly they provide nutritional guides. I can quickly go to a handful of restaurant chain apps and look up carbohydrates and even sugars in some of their dishes. But now, thanks to Jessica Meyer, the founder of Locate Special Diet, I can find restaurants and businesses that cater to diabetics. The best part though is that Locate Special Diet isn’t about just diabetics Meyer has covered just about every special diet there is from vegetarian and vegan to people looking for organic, or gluten free.

The idea for Locate Special Diet arose when Meyer was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in 2007. She wanted a way to find places that would cater to her need for a special diet in Austin Texas, and also where she traveled.

We got a chance to talk to Meyer, a female serial entrepreneur, about Locate Special Diet in the interview below.

Austin Startup: VolunteerSpot Raises $1.5 Million From Nebraska New York & More

Whether you’re in charge of volunteers at a school’s PTA, your local church, civic organization or even the boy scouts, organizing volunteers can quickly turn into a big mess. Everyone typically means well when you first call out for volunteers and you end up with more than you need. Then, when it gets to be crunch time, people are too busy with other things or forget what their volunteer job was. This can lead to a chaotic mess for any volunteer coordinator or event organizer. Until recently, even the most organized of volunteer coordinators often pulled off a great event with a gigantic headache.

Karen Bantuveris, the founder and CEO of VolunteerSpot said enough was enough and took this problem into her own hands. She solved it by creating an online platform to manage volunteers. The service has taken off with over 1.5 million volunteer users already using the free platform. What’s even better is the fact that there’s been no real marketing. The startup has survived off word-of-mouth advertising and some social media.

Last week VolunteerSpot announced that they’ve raised $1.5 million dollars in a round of funding that they plan to use to bolster their marketing efforts.

The round was led by FF Venture Capital out of New York. The Central Texas Angel Network, the Baylor Angel Network and Angel List also participated in the round. But those aren’t the only angels Bantuveris was able to woo.

The Nebraska Angels ponied up $450,000 in the round. 14 of the Nebraska Angels contributed $25,000 or more towards that $450,000. Nebraska Angels Vice President Steve Clinch told SiliconPrairieNews that he liked Bentuveris from the minute he picked her up from the airport because of her “go-getter” spirit.

“We like to look at scalability. Does it have that?” Clinch said. “VolunteerSpot, from my investment standpoint — and I think I speak for a lot of other angel investors — does.”

Bart Dillashaw, President of the Nebraska Angels told SPN “The Nebraska Angels are excited about the investment in VolunteerSpot. VolunteerSpot provides a fantastic service to an attractive demographic, and we were incredibly encouraged by the strong loyalty and support of their users.”

“Until this point, we’ve grown almost entirely by word of mouth,” said Bantuveris told the Austin Statesman. “Now, with formal marketing money, we’ll be able to reach a wider group of power moms, teachers and community coordinators who drive the lion’s share of volunteer activities in this country.”

VolunteerSpot is one of the most scalable startups we’ve seen in quite sometime. Every kind of organization from gymnastics clubs to habitat for humanity can, and do use VolunteerSpot, and of course there are volunteer organizations in every town, city and state in the U.S.

Linkage:

Check out Volunteerspot here

Source: SiliconPrairieNews, Austin Statesman

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Florida Startup: Coach Crowd Helps Connect You To Private Coaches INTERVIEW

Before this year I had no idea that private coaching was such a big thing across the country. Back in May we brought you the story about Jordan Fliegel and his Boston based startup CoachUp designed to help find and vet private coaches.

CoachCrowd, a Florida startup (with one founder in Austin) is about to launch their platform to connect athletes with private coaches. They’ve even gotten the endorsement of the Offensive Coordinator at Texas A&M Kliff Kingsbury who said:

“CoachCrowd is perfect for former athletes everywhere to turn their talents and experiences into a fulfilling way to help young athletes in their community and make money.”

CrowdCoach was founded by Branndon Stewart who is a former quarterback at Texas A&M and the University of Tennessee, Allan Branch who is a former D1 offensive lineman and Steve Bristol who is co-founder of Less Everything, along with Branch.

The three combined are promising an easy to use, easy to navigate, web platform to connect youth athletes with private coaches.

We got a chance to interview Branndon about CoachCrowd.

Austin Startups Get New Resource Center In Napkin Venture

The name napkin venture actually makes a whole lot of sense. I’m sure most of you have jotted down or sketched out a business idea on a napkin over dinner at a restaurant. In some cases those “napkin ventures” have actually been something, other times they’re cleared with the rest of the table scraps. Well Austin Texas based entrepreneur, and former city council candidate, Tina Cannon wants you to save those napkins and bring them to Napkin Venture to take your startup to the next level.

Napkin Venture plans on providing business and legal services to early stage companies. Everything form idea development to pitch development and even handling your first filings can all be done at Napkin Venture.

While this isn’t a venture capital fund, angel investment fund, incubator or accelerator they are offering valuable resources to entrepreneurs. They also have a legal package of services available for $3,000.00. So while Napkin Venture may be perceived as some as a pitch for legal services at a fee typically outside an early stage startups realm, the classes and other services they offer should off set that first feeling.

Napkin Venture was founded by Cannon who was the founder of PetsMD.com which was acquired by Pet360 in 2011. She’s also the entrepreneur in residence at Texas Sate University. The remainder of Napkin Venture’s Executive Team includes:

Chuck Miller an entrepreneur with a solid background in media. He is the designer of the bunch and has recently worked with; NASA, Halliburton, Miller Lite, Houston Texans, Pura Vida Tequila, and The Washington Times.

Eve Richter who has a deep rooted background in emerging technologies, and small business. Richter’s previous roles include; Emerging Technologies Coordinator in the Economic Development Division at the City of Austin, as well as a seat on the board of Austin Women in Technology. She is currently on the board of the Technology Advisors Group.

Raul Calvoz is the legal eagle on the executive team, and also has a background in both big business and growing early stage companies. He has held positions as the head of a global unit at 3M, and Vice President of Europe for top travel industry site Travelocity.

“I’ve been there, done that, have the t-shirt,” says founder Tina Cannon. “I’ve struggled out there and learned my lessons, and want to help other startups to avoid some of the mistakes I made, and get on the fast track to success. I’m excited to finally realize my goal of helping entrepreneur dreams become reality.”

Linkage:

Find out more about Napkin Venture here

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Austin Startup: Top5Foods Is A Scoreboard For Restaurants

Alex Zwernemann, the founder of Austin based startup Top5Foods, created an easy to understand ratings/scoreboard style platform for restaurants. Top5Foods was the Statesman’s featured startup over the weekend. It takes a totally different approach to the food app and food site.

While apps like Urban Spoon serve up restaurants one at a time in a ratings based model, Top5Foods does exactly what the name suggests and serves them up according to the top 5. The data is crowdsourced across the network of Top5Foods users.

Top5Foods shows the restaurants and their local rankings but if you would prefer to see how they do across the entire network you can do that as well. If you’re a die hard foodie Top5Foods could serve as a great starting point for a trip to discover the best restaurants in the US. If your favorite restaurant in Austin is outranked by another restaurant in San Francisco, it may be worth the trip to San Francisco to try it out.

Zwernemann told the Statesman in an interview that the concept was born after a 2009 trip to San Francisco. He set out to find a couple great restaurants to go to and it took over 2 hours of research. Naturally he thought there was an easier way.

Top5Foods is unique because the user base is constantly moving restaurants up and down the scoreboard similar to a way a story moves on reedit or hacker news.

Top5Foods is already operational in Austin, Houston and Dallas. Zwernemann hopes to bring Philadelphia and Washington DC on soon as well.

He hopes to continue improving Top5Foods by adding more and more categories like top 5 lunch spots, top 5 happy hour spots etc.

Linkage:

Check out Top5Foods here at their website

Source: Austin Statesman

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Michigan Startup: Current Motor, First In Dell’s $100M Startup Fund

An Ann Arbor Michigan based startup called Current Motor, is the first startup to benefit from Dell’s new $100 million dollar Innovator’s Financing Fund. Current Motor is developing electric powered scooters.

The fund, announced Thursday, is entirely funded by Austin based pc powerhouse Dell. Their Entrepreneur in Residence, Ingrid Vandervelt, came up with the idea for the fund, under the supervision of the entrepreneur in residence advisory board.

Current Motor is using the funds from Dell, along with their expertise and “24 hour support” to help them implement an e-commerce system that handles customer service tracking, and also tracks important information on the scooters, such as battery life remaining. They want this entire system to be accessible via mobile app, similar to that of some of the shared bicycle and car apps out there (ZipCar).

“In exchange for a low monthly payment, we get one point of contact and a really comprehensive, scalable technology solution that allowed us to get to market six months ahead of schedule, while conserving our equity capital for sales, marketing, research and development,” Lauren Flanagan, executive chairman and an angel investor in the company told the Austin Statesman.

More after the break
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Austin Startup: BeDJ Bringing Turntable.FM To Real Life, This is Hot! INTERVIEW

By now most of us have had the great experience that is turntable.fm. Hanging out with friends in a virtual space, and going around the room and controlling the music. You get to be the dj and so do your friends. You get to control the music in the virtual room.

Now imagine if this concept was done in real life. For instance, you and your buddies go to the local sports bar and hang out. Now it’s 2012 so instead of a juke box, imagine if you could control the music in the bar or restaurant using your phone. Sure you can control the tv’s with an IR blaster and you may even be able to hack a stereo system, but imagine if it was encouraged. Imagine if you could BeDJ in real life.

That’s the technology behind Austin based startup BeDJ. It’s so hard for restaurants and bars to control the music in their establishments. They can never appease all of their clientele all the time. That’s why in the 60’s -80’s jukebox bars were hot because the people could put another dime in the jukebox and hear what they want.

BeDJ is offering a system/app for venues that allow their overhead music to be controlled by customers with a controller app. It’s a fermium service where venues will be able to get the music controller app for free, however they can upgrade to offer a more robust user experience and also deliver location based ads to their customers.

Imagine the benefit to a restaurant or bar that says, “select your next song and get half off your next round” well we’re definitely in on that deal even if we’re four or five rounds in. The social, customer, and reward element of BeDJ make it a great model for the establishment.

We got to talk in depth with co-founder Simeon Duong to hear all about this exciting startup. Check out the interview after the break
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Austin Startup: Cyfeon To Kick Off Disrupt NY Battlefield

The first company presenting in today’s TechCrunch Disrupt startup Battlefield is an Austin based startup called Cyfeon.

Cyfeon has only been beta testing for two months. They are a very early stage, non-funded startup. They’ve created a tool called “Answer Factory” that lets any business pull data from anywhere, anytime in any format to get better answers to queries. Answer Factory is the answer for the headaches that can come from big data.

“Businesses are being overwhelmed with the amount of data they have to rely on to make decisions,” Cyfeon CEO Brandon Smith said. “And they are missing important information that might help drive better financial or operational performance. We’re convinced there is a market for technology that makes use of all available data to improve answer quality.”

The Answer Factory dashboard allows businesses to pull data from any source at any time. The data being pulled can be structured or unstructured and then unified using the Answer Factory platform. Businesses without huge IT departments can benefit from Cyfeon’s drag and drop solution.

“Data isn’t worth anything if it cannot be effectively used,” said Cyfeon CTO Chance Coble. “When we started developing Answer Factory, we knew there were tools out there to provide answers to database queries. But we didn’t see any product that effectively brings all that information together to deliver the best possible answer. We wanted to make big data a big benefit to businesses.”

Although Austin has a thriving tech scene and TechCrunch has held events at South By Southwest, Cyfeon is the first Austin startup in TechCrunch Disrupt’s five year history to be invited to participate in the highly coveted startup Battlefield.

Thirty startups will launch during the Battlefield competition but only one will go home with the $50,000 grand prize and the Disrupt Cup. The Disrupt Cup isn’t just about the money, previous winners of Disrupt Cup have secured millions in funding after winning the prize.

Judging this years Disrupt NYC Battlefield are: Michael Arrington (founder TechCrunch/Crunchfund), Roelof Botha (Sequoia Capital), Chi-Hua Chien (Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Beyers), Chris Dixon (co-founder Hunch), Marissa Mayer (VP Google), Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures).

Linkage:

Find out more about Cyfeon here

Check out our coverage of TechCrunch Disrupt NYC here

Check out TechCrunch’s coverage of Disrupt NYC here

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Austin Startup: Outbox A Drop Box For Your Snail Mail

Outbox co-founder Will Davis realized after moving four times in six years that something needed to be done about the mail. He was tired of losing mail in his moves and having to forward his actual address all the time. That is the foundation behind startup Outbox.

Outbox is essentially a mail intercepting service. Outbox intercepts users mail and then scans their mail and puts it in a digital mailbox. Outbox also forwards packages to a customers home free of charge.

Outbox is great for people like Davis who have moved quite a bit in a shot period of time. It’s also a great idea for frequent travelers. With Outbox you don’t have to worry about missing that important piece of mail or making a return trip to the house just to check the mail. For travelers like myself our home automation system links to my phone so I can keep an eye on the house. Outbox would solve yet another travel related hiccup.

The company hasn’t specified what will happen in the case of checks delivered by US mail. There is a company in San Francisco that allows mailbox renters (like a UPS store) to have their mail digitally delivered. That company can actually electronically deposit checks as well, possibly an option for Outbox.

More after the break
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Austin Startup: PitchPick Let’s Job Candidates Pitch Themselves On Video INTERVIEW

A new startup in Austin Texas has a real startup/entrepreneurial feel in it’s execution. PitchPick is a new job interviewee pre-screening solution that allows candidates to use a video platform to “pitch” themselves to employers.

The idea came about because the amount of non-hire interviews can be a major point of frustration for any small business owner and large scale enterprise HR department. Regardless of what is supposed to happen in a job interview, most interviewers can size up a candidate in the first minute or so. So in an effort to not waste valuable time for either the interviewee or interviewer, PitchPick was created.

We got a chance to speak with Jeff Talmadge one of PitchPicks co-founders.

Jeff tell us, what is PitchPick?

PitchPick is a web-based video hiring and candidate screening solution designed to lower the cost, time, and energy employers waste during the interview process. Often times, employers know within the first moments of an interview whether or not a candidate will be a good fit for not only the position but the organization. With PitchPick, an employer can request a 30 sec.-1minute response to a basic interview question such as, “Why should we hire you for this position?” and give a candidate a deadline to submit his/her Pitch online. The employer will be able to more efficiently evaluate their “Yes-No-Maybe” piles of resumes and bring only the individuals they want to learn more about.

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

PitchPick’s managers are Co-Founders Reece Norris, Bryan Johnson, and Jeff Talmadge.

In addition to PitchPick, Norris and Johnson lead a large multi-site healthcare company as President and Chief Operating Officer. There, the two developed a workflow and software system for their niche in the healthcare industry. Before PitchPick, Talmadge spent his time developing his skill set in account service while interning at advertising agencies in Austin, TX.

After graduating from Baylor University with a BBA in Entrepreneurship, Reece Norris went on to earn his Juris Doctorate from the University of Texas Law School. Norris practiced law as a corporate attorney at Thompson & Knight LLP in Dallas, Texas and clerked for U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade. Despite his success as a lawyer, Norris’ hunger to create and grow a successful business ultimately caused him to join Johnson in building their healthcare company. His depth of knowledge regarding the law and unparalleled work ethic has and will continue to be invaluable to PitchPick.

As Norris was beginning his study and practice of law, Bryan Johnson began his career as a business development associate for an infusion management company based in Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas. Also graduating from Baylor University with a BBA in Entrepreneurship, Johnson went on to found the Austin Infusion Center, which has since grown to be one of the largest office-based infusion centers in Texas. Johnson’s proven ability to start and grow a successful business has been instrumental in the foundation of PitchPick.

With the knowledge he gained studying and observing the fast-paced world of advertising, Jeff Talmadge took the opportunity to join PitchPick as its first employee to help oversee its final months of development and marketing strategy. Demonstrating his capabilities as a reliable and driven individual, Norris and Johnson distinguished him with the title of Co-Founder following his graduation from UT Austin. He completed his BS in Advertising with High Honors and was recognized by the College of Communication as a Senior Fellow.

Allen Sockwell, Trey Weir, and Nigel Dessau currently helm the Board of Advisors for PitchPick. Sockwell is the founder of a consulting firm, Sockwell Performance Advisors, and was previously the Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Chief Talent Officer for Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Weir has an extensive background in technology and entrepreneurship and currently operates his own enterprise, Trey Weir Media, which produces magazines, online recipes, and other media. Dessau is the principle consultant at Ad Claro Consulting based in Austin, Tx where he specializes in helping companies form or update their marketing organizations. Additionally, he is the driving force behind the website “The 3 Minute Mentor,” and was previously the Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of AMD.

While Norris formed the original vision for PitchPick, Johnson largely developed its initial design and functionality. After designing the product for several months, the two brought on Talmadge to build a marketing strategy and eventually lead the PitchPick sales efforts. With PitchPick in its last stage of development, it is already being tested by a series of beta clients and will be ready for market within the next three months.

So roughly the concept is, the interviewee pitches the employer in the same way that a startup pitches potential investors in the first round of most contests?

That’s a great analogy! Whether you are a job candidate or a start-up, The Pitch is crucial for creating opportunity. From the hiring perspective, we’ve developed a platform for employers to evaluate a candidate on their ability to sell themselves and their potential value.

More after the break
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Startup Quickbyte: Austin Startup: InView Technology Raises $2M For Compressive Sensing Technology

A two year old Austin based tech startup called InView Technology has announced that they’ve raised $2M in funding to further it’s research on compressive sensing technology. InView’s compressive sensing technology uses advanced mathematics to calibrate sharp photographic images.

InView Technology plans to start building prototypes of their technology in June and start production in August. Their compressive sensing technology will be important in surveillance, maritime navigation pollution monitoring and public safety. Their technology makes it easier to take sharp photographs in low light conditions and even detect images hidden by smoke of fog.

“Compressive sensing will revolutionize the architecture of cameras used in a wide range of applications, including surveillance, maritime navigation, materials research, medical imaging and pollution monitoring,” said InView CEO Bob Bridge.

InView just presented their technology at the SPIE Defense, Security and Sensing Conference in Baltimore Maryland this past week.

This $2 million dollar round was led by El Paso based Cottonwood Capital Partners. Q-Tel, which led the company’s first $4 million dollar round also participated as did Texas’ emerging technology fund.

Source: Austin Statesman

Austin Startup: Tabbed Out Fuels TGIFridays New Mobile App, With Pay On Phone

one of the largest casual dining chains in the country announced the availability of their exciting new app. While many restaurants have mobile apps, TGIFridays is the first national casual dining chain to include mobile payments as part of the app.

Now, with the new app, customers can order on their phone while in the restaurant, and then pay the bill via their phone. The self ordering eliminates any confusion between you, the server and the kitchen. The mobile payment part insures the safety of your credit card information. It also means that you can pay or leave quicker. How many times have you had dinner and a movie hindered because you waited so long for the server to bring your credit card back?

The best part of it is that Fridays used the Austin startup Tabbedout to integrate their mobile app and the ability for mobile check out. With the availability of ISIS just around the corner, mobile wallet is going to become more and more popular.

“This new app puts the Friday experience at guests’ fingertips – whether they’re looking for the closest Friday’s to celebrate and indulge or if they want to pay their bar tab quickly,” said Ricky Richardson, chief operating officer at T.G.I. Friday’s.

More after the break
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