Kyle
One day over a cold draft I’ll tell you the great story behind Michael Isaacs and Kyle DeTullio, their Auburn startup Get Charitable and just how they got into the BluePrint For Business Startup Accelerator in Oklahoma City at the last possible second. Once they made it in though, this duo is looking more like the 2010 Auburn Tigers rather than the Auburn Tigers of today (what a difference a little time makes).
Isaacs and DeTullio met at Auburn University as pledge brothers in 2008 at Sig EP.
Isaacs and DeTullio had been thinking about socially conscious startups last fall. Over Thanksgiving break last year, Michael thought that if they could leverage smartphone markets, they might be able to make a little difference with a startup. If they could use advertising revenue, Michael realized, they could possibly feed one child per day for every person that would download their app. But to make sure they could get this revenue to feed the child daily, the advertisement would have to be outside of an app that the user would have to open. That’s when Michael knew they had to bring the advertisement to the user, so everyone could work together to make a difference for each child. The wallpaper and notification menu were the perfect place.
Auburn is a college town built on steadfast traditions. Auburn is a nice town, with a huge swell when class is in session. When it’s not it shrinks down to a small town atmosphere. It’s very old school when it comes to business. If you were going to open a new restaurant you could easily get the townspeople on board. A startup, not so much. A tech startup, even more not so much. A social startup, fuggedabout it.
That’s why the duo started looking for an accelerator outside of Alabama and landed on Blue Print for Business. BP4B is a member of the Techstars/Global Accelerator Network and their first class is graduating on Thursday.
Check out our interview with Isaacs below.