Baby Boomers are the largest generation in history, and now they are getting older. While the elderly will soon become the biggest demographic segment in the population, one of the unique things about this segment is they are the first group that started integrating with new ideas in technology. People entering their 60’s and 70’s now were likely to have used computers in their workplace and cell phones in their daily lives.
That’s why the time is ripe for startups and inventors catering to older segments of the population to bring their products to market.
To assist in that goal, St. Paul Minnesota based AgePower.org has created a program for entrepreneurs building products catering to this segment
MoJo Minnesota, an innovation cooperative, and Ecumen a Minnesota organization providing housing and care to over 10,0000 elderly residents in the state, have teamed up to launch the “Age Power Tech Search.”
The program is a hybrid: part incubator, part accelerator, and part customer discovery program. Startups will submit their idea, company, or product to a team of judges from MOJO Minnesota and Ecumen. They will then pick 4 companies that will be in the program and get to test market their product to Ecumen’s robust network of elderly clientele.
The selected startups will also get access to mentors through both organizations and access to local investors through MOJO Minnesota. In exchange the program will take a small equity stake in the company, Venture Beat reported.
Eric Schubert, Vice President of Ecumen told Venture Beat in an interview that the elderly segment is often overlooked in technology.
When asked about what kind of ideas they are looking for, Schubert told Venture Beat, “Is there a technology that can help an elderly person live independently? How about helping them maintain social connections? Or improving the rehabilitation experience after a surgery?”
Interested entrepreneurs and startups can submit their ideas through October 31st here at Agepower.org
CogCubed is a Minnesota based startup that is using an interactive video game platform to help diagnose Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a disorder which has affected 5.4 million children since 2007, according to the CDC.
CogCubed uses gaming platform Sifteo, which debuted two years ago. Sifteo is a set of interactive blocks with small screens on them. Developers have programmed them to do a variety of things.
In the case of CogCubed, Minneapolis child psychiatrist Monika Heller and her game developer husband Kurt Roots invented a game where children use one cube as a mallet to hit a gopher that appears on the other three cubes, according to a report in the Star Trubune.
As the game continues, obstacles such as birds and other animals start appearing on the other screens. The player must continue to focus on the gopher.
Roots and Heller have incorporated 70 different data points in the game to discern things like when the player’s attention drifts and if the player is fidgeting. The couple told the Star Tribune that the game can even help improve a child’s attention span.
While a clinical diagnosis would still require a psychiatrist, Heller is hopeful that they can get CogCubed into homes to help parents with an early diagnosis.
“Six to 12 months is the average waiting period to see a child/adolescent psychiatrist [for a comprehensive evaluation],” she said.. “How phenomenal would it be if Mom could have an assessment tool at home?”
CogCubed is awaiting FDA approval for a version of the game that can be used as a diagnostic tool.
They also have data from a study that validates Roots’ and Hellers’ claims. The study at the University of Minnesota matched a psychiatrist’s diagnosis 75% of the time. The current standard, a computer test called “The Continuous Performance Test,” is accurate about 62% of the time according to Heller.
CogCubed has raised $20,000 from Google. They’re also a finalist in the Minnesota Cup.
In April 2012 we reported on a great new startup in Minneapolis that was trying to change the way that people watched indie films. That startup, Altsie, was a great idea with a solid founder, Lucas Rayala. The idea worked like this: a movie go-er checks out the film online and purchases a ticket online. Then they attend the movie among new like-minded friends at a venue that also supports the indie movie circuit. Voila! An instant offline social mix.
While it was a great idea and picked up some traction, six months later they shut the startup down. When they shut it down though, Rayala went above and beyond, not for himself or his team but for other entrepreneurs. He first penned a piece about his failure that appeared on TechCrunch. Then he released what he called “The Altsie Report: Summary of a startup that didn’t quite work out”, giving out advice to fellow entrepreneurs that would listen to help them succeed. It’s a similar approach to what path.to just did this week when they shut down.
So now what’s Rayala up to?
He’s working on another startup that’s in strict stealth mode. In the meantime he’s doing something fun and exciting that may catch on more than he hopes. We know he wants to do another tech startup, but this new idea is sharp.
“Working with a talented group of artists, I created Mr. No and his Meme Friends, a gang of cartoon characters inspired by many of the internet’s most popular memes. Mr. No is my favorite character, so I’ve launched this Kickstarter to produce a Santa-themed Mr. No plush toy in time for the holidays. Mr. No is 8” tall and made of quality materials that meet or exceed all health and safety guidelines. If you skip down to the production details you’ll understand why I’m starting Christmas so early this year. ” Rayla said on his Kickstarter page.
Meme’s are a crazy popular phenomena this year and by Christmas time they’ll be even more popular. This may take off, but Rayala insists that his heart is in tech startups, and he and co-founder Joe Dolson are working hard on the next project. In the meantime go sign up for a stuffed meme.
Ever since Prism and Edward Snowden became household words, people that resort to keeping their lives managed on their mobile devices have been worried about the security of their personal, professional, and most intimate notes. If their notes are living in the cloud, are they actually safe from prying eyes?
The other big problem with note taking apps and notebook apps today is that users are worried about being trapped in a proprietary ecosystem. What happens if the app they’re using shuts the service down, or they just don’t feel like paying anymore? Sure there are a ton of simple notebook apps that may work. There are also a ton of Microsoft Office solutions, but familiar names like Evernote mean you’re stuck in the Evernote ecosystem.
That’s why Peter Tamte, President of Theory,io is releasing NoteSuite for iPad. This new notebook app has all the syncing functionality of other cloud-based note taking apps, but the notes live device side. Also, equally as important, they can be quickly exported.
NoteSuite for iPad is also the only mobile app that allows users to take notes, manage to-dos, clip web pages, annotate almost anything, and read/search PDFs, MS Office files, and web clips together in one app. It makes it easier to stay organized while mobile. NoteSuite for Mac automatically syncs with NoteSuite for iPad and combines note-taking, to-do management, web clipping, and document organization.
Different from most note-taking apps, NoteSuite does not require a subscription. NoteSuite stores users’ data safely on their iPad or computer, employing popular cloud services for syncing and backup rather than primary storage. This ensures users’ never pay extra to access notes offline, data will not vanish if their web service gets cancelled, access to notes will not be jeopardized by security concerns or lost Internet connections, and users’ data can never get held hostage for higher fees in the future.
NoteSuite is a sequel to Theory.io’s Projectbook, which launched in August 2012 as the #1 best-selling paid iPad productivity app. NoteSuite is an original app, with more than 100 new features and changes and is available as a free upgrade for Projectbook users.
“Web services are ideal for syncing, backup, and collaboration. But, our notes hold our most important ideas and information,” Tamte said in a statement. “Our research shows that 62% of notes app users are worried about trapping their data inside a proprietary, subscription-based system. NoteSuite lets users stay on top of everything that matters in one organized place and never lose control of their data.”
Here are just some of NoteSuite for iPad’s features:
– Capture Anything: Type, make lists, take photos, record audio, and capture to-dos collectively within notes pages. The iPad version also lets users draw and handwrite directly on notes pages.
– Clip Web Pages: Save clutter-free, fully searchable articles, shopping pages, recipes, and PDFs directly from the web into the app to enjoy anytime, anywhere – even offline.
– Manage To-dos: Track due dates and start dates, set reminders, and match to-dos and projects with relevant notes and documents using comprehensive to-do management features.
– Annotate PDFs: Markup, highlight, sign, fill out forms, type, draw freehand, write, and more on iPad using the PDF capabilities.
– Annotate Anything: Convert MS Office and Apple iWork documents to PDF on iPad, draw or type directly on photos, and convert PowerPoint slides into notes pages for note taking during meetings and lectures.
– Read and Search Documents: Read and search Word docs, PowerPoint files, PDFs, notes, web clips, and to-dos.
– Find Things That Aren’t Organized: Find notes, Word docs, PDFs, and PowerPoint files even if they haven’t been tagged or filed in folders, and without having to remember keywords.
– Sync Across Devices: Tapping one button allows users to sync their data automatically via iCloud from that point forward, without creating a new account or remembering more passwords.
Normally priced at $4.99, NoteSuite for iPad is available at a special introductory price of $1.99 through July 15, 2013 and is a free upgrade for Projectbook users. NoteSuite for iPad is available on the App Store here.
Normally priced at $9.99, NoteSuite for Mac is available at a special introductory price of $4.99 through July 15, 2013. NoteSuite for Mac is available on the Mac App Store here.
Comments Off on Minnesota Startup Mardil Medical Raises $6M From Malaysia0LikeLike 2,464
In a bit of interesting funding news, Mardil Medical, a medical startup from the Twin Cities has received a $6.125 million dollar round of funding led by Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM).
Some may find that this investment from AIM is a rather risky endeavor. Mardil is in the process of going through the most capital intensive route to regulatory approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Not only that but the company’s technology incorporates the assets acquired from a failed medical technology startup that raised and spent over $100 million dollars in venture capital before throwing in the towel.
That isn’t stopping Mardil and it’s CEO Jim Buck from developing a technology that treats a heart condition called functional mitral valve regurgitation. This condition occurs when blood leaks from the heart’s left ventricle, through the mitral valve and into the left atrium, when the left ventricle contracts. It’s the most common form of valvular heart disease, a leading cause of death in pregnancy.
The Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal reports that, like most medical technology companies, Mardil is going to begin with overseas clinical trials. Buck decided because of this, it was only natural to seek funding overseas as well. Mardil will begin testing in Kuala Lumpur. After initial testing they will have to bring their research back to America to hopefully land FDA approval.
In addition to the $6.125 million dollar round, they plan on closing another $5 million dollar round later this year.
See the great startups from ZeroTo510 a medical device accelerator in Memphis who fast tracks businesses to prepare for a 510K approval from the FDA. This approval is much faster than the traditional route. The inaugural class from ZeroTo510 will be in the Startup Village at everywhereelse.co
Comments Off on Minnesota Startup Jingit Raises $7 Million, Pays Consumers To Watch Ads0LikeLike 2,516
Jingit, a startup based in Edina Minnesota, has raised $7 million dollars in investment capital according to a regulatory filing. The startup was founded last year by Joe Rogness, the former CEO of tech consultancy Two Fish and Todd Rooke a former executive with Hewlitt Packard.
Jingit allows ordinary consumers to earn up to $15 per week for watching ads and giving feedback on them. Household brands like Walmart, Hershey and Kraft are in Jingit’s stable of clients.
The company partnered with US Bank last year which issues a debit card on their behalf. Jingit customers’ earnings from ad watching is directly deposited onto the debit cards. Each ad yields the user between $.05 and $.50 cents. Payments vary based on advertiser, market study, and demographics. For instance advertisers may pay more to have an 18 year old watch an advertisement for a video game rather than someone older. Kraft may pay more for people in an older demographic to watch their ad.
Jingit has fail safes in place to make sure that their users are actually watching ads. The ad will stop if another browser window or tab is opened while the ad is playing.
The startup gives advertisers unparalleled ability to drill down to their ideal customer. They’ve found that advertisers are willing to pay more money for this kind of targeted feedback.
Prior to this $7 million dollar round, Jingit had raised $3.5 million dollars.
Comments Off on Failing Gracefully: Minnesota Startup Altsie Closes It’s Doors0LikeLike 2,549
Back in April we brought you an interview with Lucas Rayala, the founder of Minnesota startup Altsie. Altsie provided a new socially charged way for independent movie go-ers to enjoy independent films.
Altsie built partnerships with independent film producers and local businesses to show movies in their establishments. The platform brought more customers to local businesses, let independent film fans comingle with each other and served as a platform for independent film producers to have their movies screened.
Back in April it seemed that things were chugging along for Rayala and Altsie. Altsie was showing films in the Twin Cities, getting press from the likes of Paul Carr at Pando Daily, and Rayala had even had the chance to meet with Tony Hsieh at the Downtown project in Las Vegas.
But two years creating Altsie and 8 months running it was taking a toll on Rayala’s psyche all the way around. He writes in this piece at techcrunch.com that he was overweight for the first time in his life, he was losing touch with his new wife Kathryn, and he was smoking more and drinking more.
While many of us startup go-hards constantly try to one up each other with stories about sleeping on floors, eating ramen or not sleeping at all, startup life can take it’s toll.
To compound these issues for Rayala, he also continued to work a full time job which meant in between contacting movie distributors, venues, designers, customers and friends he actually had a job to do.
Unlike many startup founders Rayala found it inside himself to gracefully exit, and shut down Altsie. He could have kept going, but he made the conscious decision to say enough is enough. Often times this is one of the hardest things for a startup founder or entrepreneur to do.
In an email to his cofounders Rayala wrote:
“I’m folding up Altsie. It’s been a great experience but we didn’t get the outside interest I was hoping for, and I want to end things neatly instead of bludgeoning a great project to death over time. Want to have a postmortem beer?”
Four business partners with roots in Minnesota, came together earlier this summer and announced the formation of a new venture firm called AMP Partners. Minnesota has seen a recent boost in startups and entrepreneurism spearheaded by JumpStart Inc and then quickly taken over by Minnesotans.
Darren Marhula, Brad England, Mark Donahoe and Chris Palm pooled their own money together from investment banking, Wall Street, and property management, Marhula told tech.mn in June. “We’re interested in the right entrepreneur with the right plan more than the exact market. We’re not exclusively focused on any one type of business, but definitely interested in local technology startups.”
Now as the summer season comes to a close and AMP’s been on the ground running for the last few months or so tech.mn checked back in with Marhula who echoed a main theme that we continually hear on our sneaker-strapped nationwide startup roadtrip. That theme, simply put is, valuations are too high.
In the follow-up interview Marhula said “we continue to be surprised by the unrealistically high valuation expectations by many entrepreneurs out there, which has prevented us from making more investments.”. So again in line with markets their size like St.Louis, Cincinnati and even Washington DC, entrepreneurs are pricing themselves out of an investment. This can be a lethally hard lesson to learn.
To date, AMP has invested into two companies, presumably with more modest self-worth. HomeVisor is an online Realtor referral service and the first to receive funding from AMP. Their second investment , BuyWafers.com sells silicon wafers and other materials for semi-conductors. That company will be launching shortly. AMP didn’t reveal how much money was in either deal.
It’s evident that AMP, like most investors, are looking for viable startups and businesses and they’re not holding a business plan competition. AMP is also seeing a lot of buzzword happy entrepreneurs who are the same entrepreneurs being poked fun at by Vooza in New York.
Marhula said: “Stop reading TechCrunch and focus on building your business; get your valuation expectations in check and when you come in to pitch your idea, we don’t want to hear about exits, pivots, and MVPs…we want to see results.”
Comments Off on Minneapolis Startup: Wahooly Giving Away Equity At Chicago Tech Week 2012 VIDEO INTERVIEW0LikeLike 1,940
Wahooly has had a lot of buzz lately. Their model which has been described by many as Kickstarter meets Klout, encourages social rockstars to mobilize and support startups for an equity stake. As serial entrepreneurs, Wahooly co-founders Dana Severson, and Connor Hood know that the hardest thing for startups to do is gain traction, especially startups “everywhere else (that’s one reason we’re even here).
So what is this novel model and how does it work?
Well Wahooly takes social media influencers who sign up and presents 200 startups to the influencer per year. If in 12 months you decide to “invest” your social media influence in each of the 200 startups, then you’ll actually own an equity stake in all 200 of those startups. The best part is you’re leveraging your influence, not your dollars.
Startups who use Wahooly set up testing groups between 5k and 8k people. Up to 8% equity is set aside for this group. The group of influencers are asked to “Promote, Improve and Engage” and also give guidance and feedback in exchange for the equity. You may think that 5k to 8k people with Wahooly being a startup themselves, is a lot. Well Wahooly already has 30,000 influencers signed up in their capped beta. They also have a pretty hefty wait list brewing.
As for startups, there are 450 or so signed up to date.
We got to talk with an enthusiastic Severson at Chicago TechWeek. Naturally because of our mutual love of startups “everywhere” we hit it off and Wahooly was one of the first companies on our list to see at TechWeek. Their booth was buzzing though so it took hours to get some face time with Severson. Below is that video interview.
Comments Off on 5 Great Angel.Co Startups From Everywhere Else: Minnesota0LikeLike 2,073
A few weeks ago we started a series here on nibletz.com of startups from everywhere else that appear on the Angel List (angel.co). We get a weekly email from angel.co, and while they’ve been getting better, typically they are dominated by startups from Silicon Valley and New York. In our series we feature a handful of startups that appear on the list, that aren’t necessarily trending by angel list standards, but are growing as startups from “everywhere else”.
So for this installment we’re exploring five startups from Minnesota.
Mashalot
Mashalot is a social shopping website. It combines the power and influence of Facebook, daily deals, group buying, and the “negotiator” concept from price line.
Late last year Mashalot co-founder John Marino told Minnesota’s Fox 9 that the more influence you have the better your negotiation will be. Marino explained that if you saw a great deal on something like a Black Friday deal or a Cyber Monday deal, you could take it to the merchant (if they are a member of Mashalot) and see if they’ll give you the product for that price. It’s up to the merchant to honor that price or not.
This is where your social influence comes in via Facebook. Naturally if you’re one of those people with thousands of friends on Facebook, the merchant may respond favorably because of your influence, and the fact that Mashalot will post your deal (with your permission) to Facebook.
Along the way you can earn badges and more influence the more you use the service.
They launched Mashalot on 11/11/11 and have since taken down the 1.0 site while they retweak it for a 2.0 launch.
This Minneapolis startup has been hailed as the “E-harmony of home services” by local tech publication tech.mn basically it’s a mobile app and website to help you find the best person for that in home job.
Think Craigslist vs Angies List vs Zaarly vs a date or recommendation site.
The Heroic engine combines recommendations and referrals from a service providers previous clients along with friend recommendations to serve up the top list of people for a job. Things like painting, cutting the grass, gutter cleaning, basic carpentry and most in home jobs are all featured on Heroic.
Co-Founders Justin Barrett and Dan Linstroth know that people nowadays don’t have the time, to interview and weed through hundreds of possible people to do a job. They also know that if you bid a job out on Craigslist half of the respondents are in Nigeria.
With Heroic you can find service providers in your neighborhood that have good ratings and can get your job done on your time line.
Tech.mn reports that Heroic received a $600k seed round from a network of angels in the Minneapolis area. They are rolling out the service in Minneapolis, Denver and Chicago to start and hope to raise a Series A round in the not so distant future to expand into another five markets.
Nothing is more effective for a business than word of mouth. When you combine word of mouth with the power of social media and the internet you’ve got a force to be reckoned with, if you execute correctly. Enter in Hypespark.
Hyperspark is a Minneapolis based startup that incubated at Project Skyway. The idea behind HypeSpark is phenomenal. Local businesses get great advertisement by social endorsement from loyal customers. The local businesses get an endorsement every time the customer shares anything on the web. The customer gets big deals and discounts for being the businesses personal advertising vehicle.
On the surface HypeSpark is a short link service with a micro ad in front of it. Say Lori loved her local bike shop and her local bike shop was on HypeSpark. If Lori agrees to be their endorser, every time she shares a web site link, youtube video or any other url with her friends or social network a real quick micro ad for the bike shop shoes up saying that Lori endorses that company.
It’s kind of like bread with most of the work already done.
I’m always looking for things to replace the pure bull crap that is Klout. I’ve found a really great social media filter in Friendsignia, and now I’ve found Minneapolis based Proliphiq, which offers incredible social media analytics, recommendations and information on social media, influence and content. I’m not sure if it’s free because they are still in beta but right now I can say that with all the social media dashboards I’ve checked out in the last two years, this one offers the most information I’ve ever seen for free.
When you go to Proliphiq’s website at Proliphiq.com you can search for a person by their name, social media identity or a topic.
Searching a name or social media identity will show you their recent posts across networks, content, and their influence on the topics they know the most about. From there you can even add topics that you find that person is a valuable source on. Or, conversely you can give them a thumbs down. This crowd sourced rating is 10x better and more effective than the pulling numbers out of ones posterior end that Klout uses.
For topics you can find the most influential people for your topic and from there you can follow them and keep them in your feed to stay on top of information that’s relevant to you.
Finally you can tweak your own profile and tell the Proliphiq community what you’re all about.
Women owned startup RockYourBlock is the LinkedIn spot for teens. Teens in the twin cities can create a RockYourBlock profile via their Facebook account for the purpose of sourcing jobs for teens. These jobs can be odd jobs, paper routes, internships and other teen type jobs.
The site also allows the teens to create a resume based on the work experience they have along with any accolades that they’ve scored in the RockYourBlock network.
“Teen unemployment is at an all-time high right now across the nation, three times the national rate. The majority of people and companies want to help the next generation learn the value of hard work and responsibility in addition to create job opportunities for them but don’t know where to begin.”
Young’s strategy is to widen their reach to markets like Milwaukee and Chicago later this year and then expand nationwide in year three.
While there have been plenty of teen focused social networks this is the first time that teenagers have had a social network devoted to their lives in the work force. Hopefully they will create a way to export their RockYourBlock page to LinkedIn when the teen crosses over to the real world. This is a really innovative startup in a unique space.
Comments Off on Minneapolis Startup: Brain Hive To Offer E-Book Rentals For K-120LikeLike 1,488
A Minneapolis startup called Brain Hive is looking to solve a problem for school libraries across the country. That problem, is access to books. With such a diverse taste in content in American public schools, school libraries often fall short in fulfilling student requests for books.
With the wide adoption of tablets and e-books Brain Hive has come up with a solution. Brain Hive has developed a platform that allows students to rent books from their digital library as a supplement to their schools actual library.
The Brain Hive service will offer traditional e-books, non fiction books, graphic novels and books curated by school librarians and administrators. Through the schools portal into the Brain Hive system, librarians and administrators can determine which content is age appropriate, set limitations on numbers of rentals at a time per student, and decide to offer titles around the current curriculum.
Comments Off on Minneapolis Startup: CribFrog Is A Social Network For Neighbors0LikeLike 1,727
Have you ever lived in an apartment building or community? I have, and I’m sure if you’re like me than you probably know maybe one or two neighbors. Perhaps you recognize a few faces at the pool, the gym or on community day, but besides that you don’t know who lives next to you, above you or under you. Well Minneapolis startup CribFrog is hoping to change that.
Right now they are beta testing under closed beta, but when they debut to the public it will be in the form of closed social networks based on apartment and other housing communities. It will be a great way for neighbors to get to know each other.
For some reason people don’t talk to each other theses days without a social networking ice breaker. I’ve actually met about 15 people from my local community just be using the “near by” tab on Google+. A few have been following me on Twitter for years.
We got a chance to interview CribFrog’s founder Alex Reilly. While some may feel that face to face communication is best, and it is, CribFrog will facilitate face to face meet ups, outings and new friendships in ways people haven’t seen in the past. Check out the interview, below the break.
Comments Off on Startup Spotlight: Minnesota’s Altsie A New Way To Watch Indie Films0LikeLike 2,701
Nibletz takes pride in being the startup voie for “Everywhere Else” as such we love bringing you stories about startups from everywhere under the sun, especially startups that are doing something uniquely different and uniquely fun. Altsie is one of those startups.
Altsie hails from the Twin Cities. It’s about socially mixing indie films, but not online, offline. How’s that for a change. Of course you use a website to find out where to go but after that it’s a fully immersive experience with you, the movie, the venue and the attendees.
Lucas Rayala and co-founder Joe Dolson launched Altsie in the twin cities with plans to refine the experience and then roll it out at other areas across the country, but what is it exactly?
Here’s how it works. You go to the Altsie website which will tell you what the current movie is for that month. Rayala curates the movies himself through relationships with indie film producers. They then partner with a venue which agrees to host the film. It could be a sports bar that’s trying something different for a night or a coffee shop or anywhere in between.
Kyle
