TechCocktail events are great. We recently attended the TechCocktail event that was part of TechWeek in Chicago. We also went to one of their speaker series events two months ago in Washington DC. Aside from Cameron and I getting locked on the first floor, it was fun times to be had by all.
TechCocktail is headed back to Boston Massachusetts on Tuesday July 17th for a fun filled evening of networking, startup pitches, and of course with a name like TechCocktail, libations.
If you’ve never been to a TechCocktail event it’s a great time to hear about the best new up and coming tech startups and mingle with other tech entrepreneurs.
Here are the details:
Tuesday July 17th 6:30pm-9:00pm
Microsoft New England Research & Development Center
One Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA
Comments Off on Boston Startup: Ministry Of Supply Gunning For Kickstarter Fashion Award0LikeLike 1,664
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer could really benefit from Ministry of Supply's shirts
A new Boston startup called Ministry of Supply is looking to break the fashion category fundraising record on crowdfunding site Kickstarter. The current record is held by a company called Flint & Tinder that makes men’s underwear. They were able to break the fashion record by raising $291,493 back in May.
At the time this story was written (late Friday evening) the Boston startup that uses space suit technology to manage moisture, sweatstains and odor, in dress shirts, had raised nearly $275,000. The best part of this story is that their initial goal was just $30,000. In what’s becoming a trend now for Kickstarter projects, Ministry of Supply quickly blew through that goal.
“After we got the word out about the Kickstarter campaign through the help of friends and family sharing the news through social media outlets, we then saw the Kickstarter community really start to embrace us,” Ministry of Supply co-founder Kevin Rustagi told the Boston Business Journal
Ministry of Supply’s Apollo shirt is sweat free and will save many business people the embarrassment of odors and big sweat stains in meetings and around the office. The Apollo shirt will come in real handy in the heatwaves we’ve been experiencing across the country.
The company’s Kickstarter campaign goes until Wednesday so it looks like they should have no problem reaching the number 1 spot, and raising close to, if not more than $300,000.
Ministry of Supply is currently working hard on their e-commerce platform and opening a brick and mortar location which will contain a showroom as well as their offices. The Boston Business Journal reports that Ministry of Supply will also participate in MassChallenge this summer.
Comments Off on Boston Startup: Abroad101 Moves Out Of The Nest INTERVIEW0LikeLike 2,035
Back in April we reported on an innovative EdTech startup in Boston called Abroad101. Abroad101 is like a travelocity of sorts for those students looking to study abroad.
Abroad 101 allows users to review just about every aspect of a study abroad program. With the real feedback from students who’ve been through the study abroad programs, you can find out how the teaching staff and curriculum are, how the shopping in the city is, how the nightlife is and even if it’s safe to walk from the car to the classroom by yourself at night. The idea behind Abroad101 was an untapped space and the Boston company and MassChallenge graduate are doing a great job of filling it.
So great in fact, it’s time to leave the safety and security of the MassChallenge nest and branch out on their own.
We got to talk with the guys from Abroad101 about just that, see the quick interview below the break
Ed Gandia of Atlanta, nailed it on the head when talking about Toursphere’s Boston Tourguide app to the Boston Herald. Gandia said “In tours there’s always that annoying person in the crowd asking too many questions.
The other part of that is there’s always that person in the tour, besides the guide, that seems to know everything about the location, buddy either get a job as a tour guide or GTFO.
Those are just some of the problems that South Boston based startup, Toursphere, is solving. Toursphere is exactly what you’re thinking an app that takes you on a tour, in this case in Boston Massachusetts. Toursphere’s Boston Insider’s tour takes tourists on a tour of historic downtown Boston by some of Boston’s notable celebrities like Dicky Barrett of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Author Michael Patrick MacDonald has also gotten into the narration for Toursphere.
Tour apps are getting heavily criticized in most cities that use them. People seem to think they have no personality and are dull and mundane. That’s not necessarily the case with Toursphere.
While some appreciate a chummy tour guide who’s hitting you over the head with barely funny jokes and “charming” personality, others think that app guided tours are great.
One of the main benefits to an app guided tour is the ability to go at your own pace. I mean imagine taking a tour down Beacon street and deciding that you want to try some cute little coffee shop, or cupcake shop, and you want to do it now. The tour guide isn’t going to stop, however you can always resume the tour later.
Admittedly, Toursphere isn’t for everybody, however people in other cities are flocking to Toursphere and founder/CEO Rob Pyles. Pyles has created an electronic system where other companies can create their own tour guide apps easily. That system has already been implemented in Chicago, Miami, New Orleans and Washington DC as well as other major cities.
I travel a lot and at sporadic times. I also don’t like having to fork over $40 for a tour and then have to tip the guy. I’m more of a tour at my own pace kind of guy, so Toursphere would definitely work for me. Pyles has developed a monthly subscription rate for businesses that utilize the tour app, making it free for the user. Free is good. Boston is all about Free-Dom you know that Tea and all that, yeah you can hear more about that on the tour.
Comments Off on Boston Startup: PingUp, Text Messaging Businesses INTERVIEW0LikeLike 2,354
When Boston startup PingUp, co-founder and CEO Mark Slater was onhold for an ungodly amount of time with his cable company for a two minute conversation a lightbulb went off in his head. He thought to himself, “wouldn’t it be great if I could text the cable company”. That’s where the idea for Pingup came from, as we’ll learn in just a few minutes in our interview below.
Imagine the ability to text in a tee time at your favorite golf course, or text the auto shop to see if your cars done. Now there’s no need for waiting on hold forever or miss-communicating information with a third party in trying to find out basic information.
Imagine if you could text the restaurant to say you’re running five minutes late. Maybe you would want to text your favorite clothing store to see if they have the pants you love in your size.
None of these elements of conversation take more than a minute on the phone, and even less time via text message. While some people I know don’t get the inherent idea about why texting is such a great method of communication for business, it is.
Texting has become such a natural way of life and as millennials pour into the work force a shift will come and texting will continue to trump actually talking on the phone. Sure people rather hear voices for context in some situations but, “do you have the new jordans in a size 12” doesn’t really require much for context.
All of this is why PingUp will most likely do great. Check out our interview with Pingup below the break.
Comments Off on Boston Startup: SCVNGR Announces $12M Round For LevelUp Expansion0LikeLike 1,307
Boston location based scavenger startup SCVNGR has secured another $12 million in funding. This time it’s to roll out their payment platform LevelUp on a national level. LevelUp is currently in 8 US cities and plans to rollout nation wide.
“This is a new round of preferred stock that will be left open for 1-2 more large strategic partners to join,” SCVNGR founder Seth Priebatsch said in an email to the Boston Business Journal. “We’re already in late-stage conversations with them — just haven’t officially closed on their funds yet.”
LevelUp is a gamified, deals based mobile payment system that connects to a users current credit or debit card. The user gets a discount by using the LevelUp app the first time at a merchant and can earn more discounts by continuing to pay with LevelUp.
LevelUp is currently supported at 3,000 locations in their 8 states including national hamburger chain Johnny Rockets. They have nearly $200,000 users and are paint $2 million dollars per month through the service. Towering the adaption of services like Google Wallet.
LevelUp is currently available in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego and Chicago. SCVNGR will use the investment to add 40 people to their sales team and add more exciting merchants across more cities.
If you’re a sales person with a few binders worth of clients, a rolodex filled with other clients and vendors and you spend way too much time at a fax machine, Postwire may be for your. Postwire is a new startup application launched by Boston based VisibleGains. The concept behind Postwire is actually very easy, the execution is why it was one of the finalists in this years Disrupt Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012.
Postwire allows business users to set up private, personalized web pages for clients so that forms, orders, and other paper based correspondence can be shared quicker and in a much easier to view way.
Now instead of spending all day at a fax machine, sales people, vendors and other business to business companies can post things to a private post wire page to correspond one to one.
“We developed Postwire with the goal of creating a super simple approach for helping professionals and clients get on the same page — literally,” said Cliff Pollan, co-founder and CEO at VisibleGains. “Sharing just the right information goes a long way toward helping your clients succeed. Now, everyone from small business owners to sales and account teams to physical therapists can easily offer each client a personalized resource page to reference at any time.”
We got to talk with Pollan at TechCrunch disrupt who took us on a little tour of Postwire and plans on taking us on a little tour of the startup scene in Massachusetts as part of our sneaker-strapped nationwide startup road trip.
Comments Off on Interview With Boston Startup Jaxx, A Social App For Dudes0LikeLike 1,485
Jaxx is a mobile social application just for guys they call it “an app for your entourage”. Jaxx stands by the fact that women and men communicate differently. Where women need face to face interaction men prefer shoulder to shoulder.
That’s why the Jaxx app has three key elements. Jaxx allows men to form entourages of friends. Within the entourage they can “throw down” bets on games, “call out” friends to challenges and “roast” each other.
The roasting part was actually pretty funny. It’s a location portion of the social mobile app which allows you to leave a smack talking roast when your “bro” gets close to that area. For instance if you know your bro is going to play tennis you can leave a roast like “Man you hit like a girl” and when he gets to the tennis court he’ll get that message.
Jaxx launched a beta at TechCrunch Disrupt for iPhone and they plan on launching an Android app as well. They were handing out an investor prospectus at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012 which said they were expecting major growth in 2013 an d2014 and they were seeking a $500,000 seed round.
At this point in time Jaxx is more of a novelty than anything serious. There are several social networks revolving around sports that men may find a lot more appealing, and a bit more mature. Judge for yourself though, check out the video below:
Comments Off on Mass Challenge Announces 125 Startups In Third Session0LikeLike 1,534
MassChallenge kicked off the week by announcing the 125 startups that have been chosen to participate in it’s third edition of their accelerator program/competition. MassChallenge is the largest accelerator competition on the east coast.
This years class of 125 startups includes 90 startups from the Boston area, with the other 35 coming from all over the country.
There are 46 tech startups, 25 social startups, 21 in bioscience and life science, 11 in clean tech and energy and 22 in miscellaneous categories.
Here is the complete list.
Energy & cleantech
Arbsource
Black Island Wind Turbines
Bootstrap Compost
Dynamo Micropower
HydroConfidence, Inc.
Invisergy
NBD Nanotechnologies
RainBank Inc.
Solar Tri-Gen
TireTech
Zagster
General
ARCBAZAR
Bio-Fiend
CrewTide
Cryoocyte
Fetch Storage
FX Aligned
GG’s Originals
HelmetHub Corporation
JGOOD
LiquiGlide
LittleBonsai, LLC
Memory on Hand
Ministry of Supply Inc.
Modalyst
Pegasus Performance
Roammeo
RouteSprout
Strong Arm Technologies, Inc.
Sweet Corn Tortilla Chips Inc
TableZest
Te Tama
Zoora
High tech
42stats
A.I.type Ltd.
Akselos
Appsembler
Atomic Tower, Inc.
Bottol
Bounce Imaging
Calcbench
Capital Market Exchange (CMX)
Citybot, Inc
CoachUp
Delightfully
Distinc.tt
docTrackr
Dpicd
Drones For Peace
FansFave
Fantasy Politics
HandyBook
iAgree
IntegralReach
Kahnoodle Inc
Kanopy
Kernel Corp. LLC
Klypper Inc.
Lifeables
Magru
MegaMIMO
Mindcrimp
MOVL
Nordic Technology Group (NTG)
Nsyrt Corporation
pymetrics
Recruiterbox
Schmooze Butler
Securigin Inc.
SocialMadeSimple
Stable Solutions
STUI
Texifter, LLC
Tomorrowish
ToolSense
TripReactor (formerly WaySavvy)
Veenome
Vsnap
Wanderu
Life sciences & health care
Akrivis Technologies
Automated Medical Instruments, Inc.
CardioWave
Cellanyx Diagnostics
eTransitions
Guided Surgery Solutions
Imagnus Biomedical
Ionu Biosystems
iSpecimen
Lab Automate Technologies Inc
Nanoly Biotech
Neumitra
Noor Pharmaceuticals
OnDeckBiotech
PhotOral, Inc.
Quantamerix
Sextant Therapeutics Inc
Ubiqi Health
Vaxess Technologies
WindGap Medical Inc.
Yosko
Social impact
ArtPulse
Chartus.org
Design Museum Boston
EcoValuePoints
Freight Farms
Global Research Innovation & Technology
Gradeable
IoVista
Lovin’ Spoonfuls Inc
LuminAID Lab
Market Publique
Native Brain
NBA Math Hoops
Persistence Plus
Prepmatic
Prime Student Loan Guarantor Corp.
Project Dots
RallyPoint Networks, Inc.
Recovers.org
RetiCue
SilviaTerra
Soundfest, Inc.
Spill
TinkerStories
Zimba
MassChallenge has been the catalyst for growth for lots of great startups. We recently interviewed Brass Monkey, a MassChallenge startup at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012 last week. Good luck to all 125 startups from “everywhere else”.
Comments Off on Boston Startup: KontrolTV Is Another Cuban Backed Startup Who Won Another Huge Contest0LikeLike 1,476
Daniel Gnecco and his father Juan Pablo Gnecco founders of MOVL/KontrolTV (photo bu.edu)
Just moments ago we wrote about Mark Cuban backed startup Kisstixx out of Utah who just won the United States Small Business Administration Video Contest. Kisstixx was able to convince Dallas Mavericks owner and venture capitalist Mark Cuban to shell out $200,000 of his own money on national tv, for the innovative lip balm startup.
KontrolTV was a little different. As our friends at Bostinno.com report. Daniel Gnecco, a senior at Boston University this past school year, convinced Cuban to invest in his family run startup MOVL. The younger Gnecco is a co-founder in the video startup with his father Juan Pablo Gnecco.
As the story goes, Daniel saw that Cuban would be speaking at an entrepreneurship event at Babson. Daniel was able to get into the event and then have some face time with Cuban after he finished speaking.
Cuban reportedly emailed Daniel later that day and immediately started negotiating a deal with MOVL. The talks were interrupted by the ending of the NBA walkout but once basketball resumed so did the discussions between Cuban and the Boston startup.
According to bostinno.com Cuban invested $500,000 into the startup that lets you link your television experience with your social activity via your mobile device. It’s a little more robust than GetGlue.
Comments Off on Boston Startup: DailyFeats, Achieve Your Goals For Health & Well Being INTERVIEW0LikeLike 1,682
Sure everyone sets a New Years resolution and typically within a few weeks (if not shorter) the resolution is all but thrown out the window. You’re intentions may be great but the drive, and motivation isn’t there. The same can hold true when you set a goal, like losing weight to fit into a swim suit or quitting smoking.
Well a very cool startup in Boston called DailyFeats is here to help you stay on track, and motivate yourself to achieve your goals and it’s working.
DailyFeats is a reward based habit tracker. It takes your big goals like, quitting smoking and helps reduce them into smaller, more achievable goals, like baby steps. Maybe you need to decrease your cigarette intake or, cut back on the bars you go to where you tend to smoke more. Perhaps you need to eliminate a small stress trigger that signals you to smoke a cigarette. If you can achieve these smaller goals, you can ultimately conquer your bigger goals.
DailyFeats offers a two-fold reward system. The user can request what they’d like to receive for achieving their goal or they can earn points which can be converted to actual dollars and then donated to charity, essentially paying it forward.
DailyFeats was co-founder by two brothers Veer Gidwaney and Vinay Gidwaney along with their science advisor Meghan Searl.
We got a chance to talk with DailyFeats about the startup and how they can help people achieve their goals for health and well being.
Check out the interview, after the break Read More…
We found an awesome startup out of Boston Massachusetts called Brass Monkey. In addition to having an uber cool name the technology is cool, innovative and fun, a definite recipe for great success.
Brass Monkey allows the user to play fun, interactive games on their computer’s monitor or any other monitor with a browser, using their iPhone as a controller. The iPhone controller utilizes all the sensors in the iPhone to create an interactive experience. In the demo video below we check out a golf game, similar to Wii Golf, that allows you to use the iPhones motion sensors to control the iPhone like a golf club.
There are currently 10 games available. Brass Monkey has a free SDK for developers who are interested in developing games on their system.
Brass Monkey is a recent graduate of the Mass Challenge program, which they credit as a large part of their success thus far. They also received a $750k round of funding in January of this year which included the co-founders of Kima Ventures, Jeremie Berrebi, David Beyer, CEO of Chart.io, Founder and Managing Director of Boston Seed Capital Nicole Stata, and more.
We love About Last Night for several reasons. First off the crazy Bostonian serial entrepreneurs who co-founded About Last Night are pretty awesome. About Last Night is one of several startups that are incubating in their own personal incubator. Brothers Darren Dodge and Derek Dodge have a bunch of their own startups “cooking in the microwave, we just open the door and check on them” says Darren.
But really, the great thing about About Last Night is the robustness of the platform. They left no stone unturned, but at the same time the UI is appealing and not too cluttered.
About Last Night is about sharing the good times you had last night. The About Last Night crew showed off good times spent Sunday night in Times Square, at Bubba Gumps and other fine establishments around New York.
The app allows you to follow people you don’t know (like Twitter), People you do know (like Facebook) and your favorite night spots and locations (like a reverse FourSquare), again it’s like leaving no stone unturned. It feels a bit like path, but it’s more about the jello shots you did at the Ale House, not waking up at 7:35 with a hangover and brushing your teeth.
They’ve been working on About Last Night for the last six months and they’ve come out with an easy and fun to use app. They’ve got plenty of time to work on even more startups, ya know with the Red Sox sucking and all…
Comments Off on Boston Startup: Wizgig, Crowdsourced & Expert Advice In 150 Characters Or Less0LikeLike 1,498
A new Boston area startup called Wizgig launched in March offering the wisdom of both experts and the crowd. The caveat, all of the wisdom comes in 150 characters or less. It’s like Twitter for wisdom with 10 more characters.
Wizgig co-founders Matt Murphy and Mark Boswell feel that by limiting the advice tips to 150 characters users will get right to the point, without the clutter. We’ve all been there, reading three and four page expert advice columns and finding that the meat and potatoes is no more than a few sentences.
The trick is going to see if the tips can be in intelligent, easy to understand language. We’re even guilty of shrinking some of our tweets down to hash tags, and internet lingo.
Here’s an example of a Wizgig tip, this one is on interviewing:
Prepare beforehand and research the company, the people, the culture, etc. Be prepared to match your skills and background to the company’s needs.
Here’s another on quitting smoking:
When you do your spring cleaning, make sure to get rid of all the ashtrays so they don’t remind you of smoking.
All of the topics are laid out in a nice looking design and easy to navigate. With 150 characters or less you can view many tips at the same time. This is what the teaching category looks like.
Although I tend to be modest about it, I often speak as a “twitter expert” at conventions and conferences. I think my use of Twitter since the very beginning is why I was so intrigued with Murphy’s pitch to nibletz. I got a chance to talk to Murphy about starting up Wizgig.
Check out the interview, after the break Read More…
Kyle
TechCocktail events are great. We recently attended the TechCocktail event that was part of TechWeek in Chicago. We also went to one of their speaker series events two months ago in Washington DC. Aside from Cameron and I getting locked on the first floor, it was fun times to be had by all.
