Nothing Is Stopping Bad Ass Startup Chick Denver Hutt And Now She Has A Website About It

DEnver Hutt, Indianapolis, Indy startup, SpeakEasy

Denver Hutt (center) surrounded by entrepreneurs. (photo: Facebook)

 

Just yesterday our managing editor Monica Selby penned this piece about taking some downtime. It’s good for you, your mental sanity, your health, and even your business. As I read her post, it made me think of the very important lesson we all learned back in May when Bad Ass Startup Chick Denver Hutt revealed she had the “c” word.

Hutt is the Executive Director at Indianapolis co-working and event space The Speak Easy. She also travels around the world learning and helping startups. She is a networking goddess, a strong advocate for startups of any kind and flavor, and a lover of Indianapolis and its startups (although not born there).

Back in May a bad cough that went untreated got worse and worse. Even after the cough was treated, it never got better. It was eventually revealed that she had cancer. Nowadays, in between treatments and doctor’s appointments, Hutt is making sure she sees the world, friends, favorite things, and startups. A true inspiration for everyone in the startup community and elsewhere.

Hut is a tell-it-like-it-is girl and has always believed in transparency, so she started a blog 418stories.com. She’s not looking for sympathy. She wants to share her lessons and keep people updated. I had to make sure we were plenty stocked up on chocolate, tape, and wine when I read this post from Tuesday where Hutt revealed she’s not responding to chemo. No worries though; she’s an entrepreneur, and this is just a minor setback

She’s going to Chicago to meet with doctors at the University of Chicago, and of course she’s making a trip to 1871 and a Cubs game while she’s in town. Then she’s going to do some more discovery (ok get a third opinion) at Sloan Kettering in New York in two weeks. Rest assured she’ll also stop in on startups there as well.

You can keep up with Denver’s journey here, and you can get a #TeamDenver shirt. You know we’re going to.

Oh, and Denver, we’ve got a little challenge for you. Make it to Everywhere Else Cincinnati, or we’ll come down to Indy and get you!

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Indy Startup SteadyServ, A Beer Startup That Monitors The Keg

kegsWe’ve all been there, either a party where the keg is tapped dry way before it’s time, or trapsing through the bar district to find that bars are out of your favorite brew on tap. That’s how the story of SteadyServ actually started.

SteadyServ is an Indianapolis based startup founded by Steve Hershberger after a buddy came into town to visit him, only to find out their favorite kegs at their favorite spots were tapped dry. That got Hershberger’s entrepreneurial wheels turning. What he found out from bar owners and bartenders was that it’s very hard to monitor how much is left in a keg.

SteadyServ,iKeg,Indianapolis startup,Indy startup,startup“He flies into town, and we go to Mass Ave,” Hershberger told the Indianapolis Business Journal. “We went to four bars, and they were all out. So we finally went back to the hotel and ordered one of the beers the bar had. It was just a beer he wasn’t really looking forward to having. His parting shot was, ‘Gee, Steve, you really let me down on this.’”

Sure if you’ve got one guy sitting by your keg all night and keeping track of the filled Red Solo Cups you may get a rough estimate but other than that it’s a shot in the dark. So what’s an entrepreneur to do? Put sensors and an app in the keg of course.

The heart of SteadyServ is a sensor laden device that monitors how much is left of the keg. When the keg is getting low it can alert customers, bartenders and bar management that the keg is running low. Sure we can all tell when last call is upon us, but imagine hanging out with buddies, drinking your favorite brew on tap and then getting a notification that the well is drying up. This will insure that you can get that one last glass before you have to switch brews.

So is this for real? Absolutely. Not only that but Hershberger reports that he’s already secured $1.5 million from investors to develop what’s being called the iKeg prototype.

In addition to the convenience the iKeg will provide to bars and their patrons, Hershberger has developed a data protocol within the iKeg that will provide valuable information on real time beer inventory control for bar owners on how customers are consuming beer.  With the current keg inventory process so flawed, bar owners will quickly learn how fast their kegs are running out and they’ll be able to stop selling the beer that doesn’t sell and order more of the beer that does.

The data will also be valuable to distributors that SteadyServ will sell it too. As new bars and restaurants open up they ask the distributors what’s hot and what’s not. Now rather than base this information on what bars are really ordering they can base it on what customers are really drinking.

Hershberger already has some heavy hitters on his board of advisers including David Coors of Coors Brewing Company, the namesake family. Jeff Ready; CEO of Indianapolis-based Scale Computing Inc.; and Pat Canavan, former senior vice president of global governance for Motorola are also board members.

Most of their $1.5 million dollars came from angel investors however Indiana’s Elevate Ventures has committed $125, 000 to SteadyServ.

“The iKeg solution is breaking into a $21 billion draft beer industry where there’s incredible potential,” Elevate CEO Steve Hourigan said in a prepared statement. “It’s exciting and gratifying to see a company like SteadyServ make its home in Indiana, and we’re proud to say that we support their team and the business they’re building.”

You can find out more about SteadyServ at SteadyServ.com

SplitBin says they’re the Wolverine of Wine Startups. 

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Indy Startup: Adproval Putting More Money In Blogger’s Hands INTERVIEW

Adproval,Indy startup,startups,startup interviewAs bloggers, any startup that’s purpose is making bloggers more money, of course catches our eye. Such is the case with Indianapolis startup Adproval.

Most full-time bloggers know that adsense is great but it’s tough to live off of when it’s your sole source of revenue. Sponsorships and the ability to sell direct/static advertising play a key role in the overall monetization strategy of a full-time blog.

Matthew Anderson and his startup Adproval have come up with a platform for bloggers that they claim is the easiest way to sell and manage sponsorships.  Rather than setting up a blind network like adsense, NetShelter or even Say Media, Adproval lets bloggers sell their sponsorships to advertisers or sponsors that they approve of.

Adproval lets bloggers combine the power of traditional display advertising with other add-ons like sponsored posts, product reviews and social media.

Adproval lets bloggers manage their blog’s sellable inventory in ways that they couldn’t before. The idea for Adproval came to Anderson as a senior project in his last year at college. Now the project has gone from simple business plan to actual product.

Breaking up with a college girlfriend led to the idea for Adproval. How? We asked Anderson who said:

“Well. Funny story… I dated a sweet Chinese gal in college and, right after we broke up, a ridiculous amount of the ads showing up on Facebook and around the Internet were for things like “Find Single Asian Girls.” Not only were Facebook and AdSense kicking a dude’s broken heart while it was down, but they were creeping me out. Then, I was on a DIY crafting blog and an ad along the lines of “Meet Asians Near You” was displaying in the sidebar. It kind of clicked to me that (1) there is no way that this blogger wants that ad showing up to their readers and (2) there is no way that ad space on a niche blog with a relatively small amount of faithful readers is making as much money with an ad for Lonely Asian Girls or whatever AdSense was showing other readers as it could with an approved advertiser that the blogger could support with more than just a display ad.”

Check out the rest of our interview with Anderson below.

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