Kentucky Startup Givr Launches Frictionless Giving To Charitable Causes

As the mobile wallet space and frictionless payments for consumers continues to explode, socially charged entrepreneurs are starting to explore using that technology for good. Specifically, socially conscious startups are starting to embrace technology, and mobile technology to facilitate charitable transactions.

Last week in Memphis Tennessee, Pam & Tom Cooper launched their startup Boosterville, out of the Seed Hatchery accelerator program. Boosterville embraces mobile technology, incorporates loyalty, rewards, mobile payments and fundraising, all in one easy to use app.

Now we drive up the road to Danville Kentucky where Brock Klein along with Brushfire Interactive started Givr.

“Givr is a native iPhone payments application dedicated to helping charitable organizations achieve their giving goals. The Givr app provides users with an elegant, frictionless giving experience that dramatically reduces the time and stress associated with mobile giving.” Phoenix based Brushfire’s Brandon Clarke told us in an interview.

The logic here being that as it gets easier to actually donate money to a cause or charity, more money will be donated. This has been shown time and time again when natural disaster’s have struck and the Red Cross has mobilized donations via text message. With the simplicity of using a mobile phone to quickly donate money, more money comes in.

Check out the rest of our interview with Givr below.

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

Givr was founded out of a passion for technology and philanthropy by Brock Klein. After studying economics and statistical analysis at Centre College in Kentucky, Brock worked in the financial services industry. His evolving interest in digital development led him to Phoenix, Arizona based BrushfireInteractive, where he worked as project manager. With the support of Brushfire’s founder, Gabe Cooper, Brock began to refine the scope of Givr and development began in the Fall of 2012.

Where are you based?

Danville, KY (Central Kentucky)

What is the startup culture like where you are based?

Nascent. Startups have been coming out of Kentucky for a while but the community is just beginning to get connected and evolve.

What problem does your startup solve?

Remove the friction with routine giving. Don’t have cash on you? Don’t have a checkbook? Not in front of your computer? You can still give to a cause or organization important to you.

What is one challenge that you’ve overcome in the startup process?

One of our greatest early challenges was defining the scope of the project, balancing big dreams with a lean launch.

What are some of the milestones your startup has achieved?

Our first milestone was closing our seed round of financing, catalyzing our development process.

Our biggest milestone was launching our iOS app in the App Store.

What are your next milestones

Our next milestone is 100 nonprofit organizations adopting our platform with at least 1,000 users (Givr’s) using the app for their routine giving with these organizations by the end of the year.

Who are your mentors and role models?

We wouldn’t be where we are today without the mentorship and counsel we’ve had. One of our early investors, First Southern National Bank, has consistently given invaluable counsel – particularly the chairman and founder, Jess Correll and the Director of Culture and Outreach, Dan Lewis. Gabe Cooper and LorenKutsko of Brushfire Interactive have also given consistent and indispensable advice and insight into the mobile giving space. Finally, Brian Crall, an executive coach and successful business leader, consistently points us in the right strategic direction.

What are some of the advantages/disadvantages growing your startup outside of Silicon Valley.

Quiet. We’ve been able to put our heads down and focus on our product and our mission. We’ve had all the benefits of top line expertise without any of the noise.

What’s next for your startup?

We’re moving into the broader launch of our platform. “How can we help people express their generosity through mobile?” Wherever that answer leads is where we will go.

Where can people find out more?

People can see our product at www.givrmobile.com.

Startup America and Startup Weekend have merged, story here.

Impulcity Flips The Switch Just Ahead Of Everywhereelse Conference

Impulcity, a Kentucky startup that relocated to Cincinnati for The Brandery last summer, has just launched to the public.

We’ve been tracking Impulcity since last June when co-founders, Hunter Hammonds and Austin Cameron were still working out the details of the concept. Over the course of The Brandery accelerator, and since their graduation last October, Hammonds and Cameron have iterated and iterated again to make sure they offer the best possible hybrid event discovery experience.

Sure their are event discovery startups popping up everywhere but Impulcity has paid close attention to all the details. The app provides a robust back end and access to events across the country, covered up with an eye popping UI that’s extremely easy to navigate.

Impulcity signed up to present at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference early on and showed up alongside other Brandery graduates Crowd Hall, Brandery GM Mike Bott, and the companies former hustler, now Nibletz CEO and co-founder Nick Tippmann.

Just days before the conference Hammonds reached out to us to tell us that we would get a special treat as the app finally met his strict guidelines and was released in the iTunes App Store.

Over 2,000 people were on Impulcity’s email list and at launch Hammonds to the KyPost.com that they were seeing a new user every minute.

Cameron and Hammonds had to leave the conference early to insure their launch went smoothly back from their headquarters currently located at The Brandery. The startup has raised $400,000 to date and is looking to relocate into their own 1500 square foot space the KyPost reported.

Kentucky Startup Tagapet Brings The Pet Tag Into The 21st Century

As an animal owner all of my life I know the feeling when you’re dog has run off. Luckily I’ve never permanently lost an animal but I know several people who have. Microchips are great for recovering animals but what many pet owners don’t realize is that microchips can only be read with microchip readers at your local vet’s office, and if you’re lucky, the shelter.

With the rise in use and popularity of smartphones many people who’ve lost a pet wish they had a microchip reader built into their iPhone or Android device. While that’s not possible, a Lexington Kentucky startup called Tagapet, has a solution.

Tagapet’s new pet tag incorporates both QR code and NFC technology. This means that NFC equipped smartphones, and bar code readers (available for every smartphone these days), someone who finds your pet can easily find important information. The QR code on the tag can be coded with all of your important owner information including contact info and even animal allergies. The QR code actually has a huge benefit over traditional engraved collars by allowing a much larger data field to incorporate complete contact info.

Not only that but Tagapet has also incorporated GPS so that when the lost pet is scanned with a smartphone the owner is notified of their GPS location, making reuniting pet and owner, even quicker.

We got a chance to talk with the brilliant team behind Tagapet. Check out the interview below.

New Louisville Startup To Tackle App Discovery (AGAIN), Check Out Appszito

App discovery is a beast. I remember two years ago at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York there were three app discovery startups. A few months later at TechCrunch Disrupt SF (2011) there were another three app discovery startups. The problem that all these startups are tackling is how to discover apps across multiple app stores and markets and finding apps in a somewhat logical way.

Louisville Kentucky startup Appszito is working on a search product that will allow smartphone users to easily find applications for iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices.

Appszito uses a proprietary relational algorithm that matches smarpthone users with the best and most cost effective app solutions for whatever it is they’re looking for.

When you enter a specific type of app or need, like CAD for instance, into the Appszito engine it combs the iTunes app store, Windows Market Place and multiple Android app stores to find the most relevant search results. Appszito provides pricing information, platform and a brief description of the application that’s met the search criteria. In true search fashion it serves up the most relevant matches first, but the list of apps can be plentiful.

Users are directly linked to the download site for each particular app.

Appszito is hoping to solve the pain of searching multiple places with less than stellar results for the smartphone user. They are also looking to provide a resource for app developers to drive downloads based on relevancy.

We got a chance to talk to Appszito co-founder Rahul Ahir about his startup and the Louisville startup scene. Check out the interview below.

Insider Louisville To Continue Spirit Of IdeaFestival With Call For Social Pitches

If you’re looking for a great startup ecosystem in the middle of the country to check out, Louisville Kentucky is one of the top cities on our list. Kentucky has one of the most active Startup America partnerships. They have some great acceleration efforts going on state wide, and they’ve brewed some great startups like Impulcity, WhyWait and Beam just to name three that fall off the top of our heads.

That’s why it’s no surprise the folks at Insider Lousiville are gelling off the success of the most recent IdeaFestival. Now that the festival is over they want to continue the forward momentum and spark innovation. To that end Insider Louisville is now calling for social entrepreneurs to pitch their startups for the possibility of investment, incubation, free office space and more.

In this blog post, Insider Louisville writes:

Give us your detailed plan for a self-sustaining, social-impact business based on the concepts of social entrepreneurism.

If we believe your idea has potential, we’ll get you face time with major philanthropists, entrepreneurs and economic development including Ted Smith, director of Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government’s Department of Economic Development and Innovation.

If your business plan is viable, investors and management gurus will help you forge your idea into a working enterprise … a startup with a reasonable amount of time and capital to prove its worth.

Smith went on to say; “Idea Festival was the appetizer – bring on the main course and let’s take a social impact business to the next level.”

Ideafestival just wrapped up last week in Lexington Kentucky. The four day startup and innovation conference featured a wide variety of panels, keynotes and other resources for just about anyone in Kentucky at any level in starting their own business or startup.

As for this call to action by Insider Lousiville, they’re specifically looking for social startups. They are looking for ideas that echo the fundamentals behind startups like Waterstep, a Louisville startup that oversees water purification in third world countries, or the now nationally famous Tom’s shoes that donates a pair of shoes to children in need for every pair of shoes you purchase.

Insider Louisville says that they’re looking for ideas from anywhere and the right idea could result in the startup getting help to move to Louisville Kentucky to build it out.

“This isn’t just empty Chamber of Commerce sloganeering. This is a call to action at the nexus where capitalism meets practical, sustainable social change.” Insider Louisville says.

Ready to submit? Check the link below.

Linkage

Source: Insider Louisville

Got an idea, email it to cheryl@insiderlouisville.com

More Kentucky coverage from Nibletz, the voice of startups “everywhere else”

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Can You Really Appify A Toothbrush? This Kentucky Startup Says Yes

With millions and millions of apps available between the iTunes App Store, Google Play Store, Windows Market and AppWorld there is an app for everything. In fact, it was apple who coined the phrase “there’s an app for that”.

Now apps are starting to incorporate with things in the real world and thanks to Beam Technologies, A Louisville Kentucky Startup, your toothbrush is one of those things.

Ok possibly not really your toothbrush but there is now such thing as the Beam Toothbrush, Beam Technologies first product combining a real life physical item that we use everyday with an app.

Just how appified is it? Will it turn on your electronic toothbrush? Will it remind you to brush your teeth? Will it let you know that you’ve been brushing long enough. Well at least some of those features are part of the Beam Toothbrush created by Alex Frommeyer, Dan Dykes and Alex Curry.

We got a chance to interview the Beam Technologies team about their startup and of course the appified tooth brush. Check out the interview below:

Brandery Check In With Louisville Startup Impulcity

Impulcity is an amazing feature packed discovery startup from Louisville, KY. We spoke with Hunter Hammonds the CEO of Impulcity back in June before they had moved into the Brandery. Hammonds was very optimistic about Impulcity and the Brandery. After two weeks in he’s just as optimistic.

Hammonds reports that they’ve trimmed a lot of fat off the app and gotten back down to the core. They have a unique way of presenting discovery so that it’s not just about the actual discovery, it’s both fun and exciting as well. Impulcity is about a lot more than just checking in.

Yesterday we talked with the CrowdHall team at the Brandery. They were still riding high off a win at the BunBury, TechBury Pitch Wars on Friday. The team from Utah took home a $1,000 check and they’re buying lunch for the entire class of the Brandery tomorrow.

Don’t let that full you though warns Hammonds. He and his co-founder Austin arrived at the Brandery a full month ahead of everyone else to get a running start. That strategy may be paying off well for these hard working entrepreneurs from Louisville. Let’s check in with Hunter Hammonds.

Interview With Kentucky Startup WhyWait

There are a lot of discovery apps out there. This year at SXSW discovery was the biggest space represented by new app startups at SXSWi.

So now with hundreds of discovery startups popping up all over the place, the features, UI, UX and user benefit are the biggest parts to insuring the success of a discovery startup. Kentucky startup WhyWait has all of those elements in pace.

WhyWait is about serving the user the best local restaurants and then letting them know when things are going on at those places. WhyWait features event calendars, menus, specials, happy hours and even provides restaurants the ability to use push notifications to send out great deals to users.

The startup has even incorporated local events in addition to events at restaurants like Karaoke night, live music and big specials.

Kentucky has a flourishing scene of startups. They have an active Startup America Partnership and several hubs like Northern Kentucky (and Cincinnati), and Louisville. WhyWait started in Bowling Green and recently moved to Louisville.

We got a chance to talk to WhyWait co-founder and CFO Jon Matar in the interview below:

Louisville Startup: Impulcity, Discover The World Around You INTERVIEW

I know I know I know, after South By Southwest you were sure the days of reporting on new discovery startups were over, but we assure you this one is a little different. Louisville startup Impulcity isn’t about social discovery, or app discovery, or thing discovery, Impulcity helps you discover kick ass events, venues and thing to do.

But Impulcity doesn’t stop there, they find the best events, and even sell tickets (often at great discounts) to those events. Then, once their users get into the events the entire experience turns just about user controlled. The user community adds pictures and media to prove what a grand ole time they are having at whatever event it is.

Impulcity will come in handy at Bonaroo, BamaJama, and of course next year at South By Southwest. So what you’re essentially doing is finding the best events, securing your spot in the best events and then reporting on the events to prove what a great time you’re having, and then in turn helping others discover kick ass events.

We got a chance to catch up with co-founder Hunter Hammonds who pinged us after we ran a story about the Louisville startup that’s moving to Cincinnati based incubator the brander.

After Hammonds bold statements for that story we had to check it out further. And yes, Impulcity is going to kick ass (It’s Friday the asses are ok)

Check out the interview after the break and I promise not to say that word again