NY Startup StoryKid, Born At The TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon, Prepares For Launch

Two literature PhD candidates from Columbia University decided to attend the TechCrunch Disrupt NY hackathon this year with their startup idea that bridges their love of literature, kids, and technology. Tianjiao Yu and Lu Xiong, have created StoryKid, an app for the iPad that allows children to create stories of their own using images and features created by StoryKid.

If you’re a parent (like me) with a kid who uses an iPad, then you’re well aware that there are thousands children’s books in the iTunes app store. Some of the books are interactive, others are simply read along stories. Yu and Xiong’s app allows kids to make the story up from start to finish.

After the child has created a story, they can save it to the iPad and also share it across multiple channels.

When the app releases next month, it’s going to be fun for all young children, but naturally as a child gets older and starts developing their comprehension skills, the stories will start flowing better. StoryKid will help kids foster those comprehension skills. This feature could be very helpful to early education teachers, a market that Yo and Xiong hope to penetrate.

What is StoryKid?

StoryKid is an app on iPad that encourages kids to create their own stories by using images provided by us.

It is known to all that kids love stories, but listening to stories created by adults is one thing, creating something according to their own minds is quite another adventure. Kids are surprisingly good at this. They have totally fresh ways to think, and they don’t abide by many rules. So unlike other interactive apps in the store that let kids play with existing stories, StoryKid provides an exciting stage for the youngest to create new relationships: organizing characters, locations and all elements seen in stories according to their wish. It allows kids to fully play with their imagination.

Because of it’s both fun and educational, we think this app can be both used in families and in schools. Teachers can use this app to let kids rewrite stories they are just told about. We believe this app can also be used for the sake of special education.

In the meantime, StoryKid will make the time parents spent with their little ones really fun and will make that fun last. When papa & mama sticks in getting a new story for the bed time, StoryKid is a good source. The stories finished by kids can also be saved and exported, so that the intimate moments in the childhood could always be preserved and revisited.

In layman’s terms, how does it work? (In other words how would you explain it to your grandmother)

First, the youngest selects a situation that interests him/her mostly to start with. For example, a situation could be “Jesse finds he can suddenly understand his dog’s barking….” Along with each situation, several images would be provided as the elements to help kids structure the development of the story line. Then they will enter the creation page. There are a number of possibilities of how to arrange the images and how to note down what they want to express. The finished stories can be exported and shared by parents.

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

Tianjiao Yu and Lu Xiong are co-founders of StoryKid. We are school mates from Columbia University; we were both literature Ph.D students. Lu had great experience in humanity book publishing before joining the Ph.D program. Born to inherit and soak in literature, Lu gives the soul to this app. She is the content producer. Tianjiao is a kind of hard to find: thinks profoundly, executes efficiently and handles multitasks at ease. She manages the product, runs business and designs UX. We are very supplementary in a good way.

Where are you based?

We are based in New York. Btw, to show off, we have three roof windows in our apt/office.

How did you come up with the idea for StoryKid?

It was born when we were at Techcrunch Disrupt Hackathon NY 2013. One spirit we both greatly value is being creative. As literature students, it’s natural for us to favor the space provided by fictions/stories that allows people to be as creative as possible. So we thought it would be exciting to build a tool for people to easily and freely tell stories. Immediately we decided to focus on kids, who haven’t had boxes to jump out of yet and who will naturally unfold all kinds of possibilities in stories. iPad is just right for this idea.

Why now?

In short, the timing, the New York City, and the people we meet are just very right for us. We left the graduate program to explore other possibilities to make use of our knowledge. We soon realizes using current technologies, for example, the iPad, can introduce humanities subjects to more people and let people have fun with them, because to interact with the content is actually inviting users to become a part of the content, which automatically increases the intimacy. The tablet market grows like a rocket, and the early childhood education is also booming. That always receiving encouragement and suggestions from parents and teachers is another big incentive for us to start this marching. In addition, New York doesn’t frighten you when you are on the threshold of touching something new.

And what’s your secret sauce?

As with cooking, sometimes the amazingness is the result of lacking of something. In our case, we do not have a technology co-founder. Hence, almost all our product and UX ideas derives directly from daily life experiences, very intuitive, human, and breathing, which cannot be more appropriate for kids. We’d like to say that our product itself is like a kid. We hope StoryKid and other kids will be good friends.

What are some milestones you’ve achieved?

Our first milestone should be the demo presented at Techcrunch Hackathon. The demo day was the birthday of this app. We immediately received lots of great suggestions, pushing the baby app to grow really fast. We also got lucky that Ms. Ingrid Lunden from Techcrunch gave us an interview immediately after the presentation, so we got a bit viral in that week.

The second milestone we achieved was under the help of Mr. Trip O’Dell from Audio Book of Amazon. He gave us fabulous suggestions on how to improve our feature and UX when we met at Big Apple Redux 2013 in Bloomberg. That short conversation was a magic.

Most recently, we were contacted by several schools and online platforms who are interested in forming partnership with us in the long run.

What’s your next milestone?

We will have our BETA version in early July. We will invite kids to test the app and the teachers to review the app.

Where can people find out more and what is your Twitter username?

We so far suggested people to go to Techcrunch website where the interview was posted: http://tcrn.ch/Yfbcej. But we will soon finish the construction of the app intro site: storykid.me Our twitter account: @imstorykid

Check out over 50 startup stories from everywhere else at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013

Image: TechCrunch

OMGPOP Employees Party Like It’s 2012 After Getting Laid Off

We’ve chronicled the rise and fall of OMGPOP, the creators of Draw Something. Before their huge hit with Draw Something, they had produced dozens of mobile games that didn’t hit it big. Draw Something hit the app store though, lives changed, and quickly.

Draw Something shot up to the top of the app charts. They amassed over 240 million users who were playing all the time. In just about a month’s time, they went from “another game studio” in New York City, to being acquired by–at the time–social gaming powerhouse Zynga back in March of 2012. Zynga didn’t disclose the financial details of the transaction but word on the street was that the deal was between $180 and $200 million. Around the same time this year, Zynga reported taking a $95 million dollar write down on the OMGPOP deal.

Porter, who had worked on events at Pimlico in Baltimore and had strong ties to Charm City, named all of OMGPOP’s conference rooms after characters from the HBO hit series, The Wire. That, coupled with Porter’s WYSIWYG attitude quickly earned him the respect of many tech journalists.

After OMGPOP was acquired by Zynga, Porter became the head of New York operations for the company. According to the announcement back in March of 2012, OMGPOP was to be Zynga’s top mobile unit. However, as Business Insider reported on Tuesday, things didn’t quite turn out that way.

According to Business Insider’s Alyson Shontell, Monday afternoon around 2pm the dreaded “all hands meeting” was called at the NY office of Zynga. These meetings had become common practice in New York, and as the employees filed into the room, they grabbed beers, “Sensory-numbing beverages were now essential for these gatherings.” Shontell wrote.

The resident HR employee at Zynga’s New York office told the employees the news. The New York office was being shut down. Employees quickly filled out paperwork to get there severance packages and then it was party time.

Business Insider reports that hoodies, t-shirts and anything with a Zynga logo were quickly destroyed, however morale stayed positive. Desks were cleaned out, trophies from Zynga meetings were left behind.

“There were no hard facts or figures. No real explanation. Just typical corporate BS,” one former employee who was in attendance tells Business Insider. “Everyone was just like, ‘Yep.’ Not surprised at all. It was like the weight had been lifted off our shoulders, that a decision had finally been made.”

“Most layoffs are sad. You imagine big corporate settings where security is there to lead people out of the office so they don’t make a scene. This was the opposite,” says the former employee. “Music was being played loudly, and people were ripping up Zynga hoodies and T-shirts. Anything that was Zynga was completely left there. The sentiment felt positive.”

The OMGPOP team was never really integrated into Zynga. Right around the same time of the purchase, Zynga had gone public and their stock started falling immediately. Shortly after that it was reported that Zynga would no longer have the stranglehold on social games on the Facebook platform, meaning that the company would need to rely on other money making avenues.

You would think that with Zynga’s focus coming off of the “ville” franchises, a mobile team like OMGPOP would be put to work full steam ahead. Employees told Shontell that really wasn’t the case at all. Earlier this year OMGPOP released a refresh of Draw Something as Draw Something 2. Right before Dan Porter’s exit from the company in April, Ashton Kutcher had actually tweeted how much he liked the new version of Draw Something. Kutcher had gotten an advance copy of the game.

Porter has already moved onto another startup and continues with his insidestartups.org. Just a few months before Porter’s exit, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus was named the 4th worst CEO.

Check out all of our OMGPOP coverage here.

New York Startup Spotter Is A Location-Based Video Sharing Platform

What is Spotter?

Spotter is a mobile app that associates videos with places, allowing people to find and share videos in a new approach rather than the traditional way with only video titles.

It is a fun, new, exciting method to share places and videos with family, friends, and the world. It is simple and easy to use. Take a video with your iPhone, associate it with a place and share it privately or publicly. If taking videos is not your cup of tea, you can look up places and/or friends near and dear to your heart and watch their videos. Spotter also allows the unique experience of finding public videos that were taken near your current location by using the GPS signal on your phone.

Allowing people to find videos by places unlocks a new way of sharing videos with others.

In layman’s terms, how does it work? (In other words how would you explain it to your grandmother)

Spotter uses the GPS in your phone to associate every video uploaded accurately to a place or a location. Having the location on every video allows us to deliver videos to users in a new manner.

Users can follow locations and places like they follow people on Twitter or Instagram. Every time a video is uploaded to a location/place, the video is delivered to the users who follow that location/place. Users also get videos that were taken near their current location and videos taken by their friends.

Users can also search their favorite places and see all the videos associated with that place without following the place.

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

Mike Groves graduated from SUNY Albany in 2005 with a BS in computer science. Since then, he has focused on bringing software products from vision to reality. His career has taken him through a variety of interesting fields such as mobile, semiconductor quality control, healthcare quality management, energy market validation, and government budget management. His latest vision, Spotter, aims to provide a new way to experience the places around us by connecting digital experiences (video) to the very places those experiences occurred. He believes that by making these connections we will change the way people communicate and experience our world.

Kevin Pytel graduated from SUNY Oswego in 2006 with a BS in Computer Science, and a minor in Mathematics. He quickly integrated himself into the corporate world as a software engineer while running his own IT consulting firm on the side. To progress his business skills he completed his MBA at Union Graduate College while working full time. He has progressed through the corporate ranks and most recently worked as a Senior Project Manager. His experience in large scale redundant applications and project management has helped Spotter with the product launch and vision to make sure our servers can handle high peak loads and are up 99.99% of the time.

Dan Graham graduated from Long Island University with a B.S. in Digital Design and has been working in the online and traditional marketing industry for over 12 years. At the age of 15 Dan was brought on board to manage marketing and web development for a family owned e-commerce company. For the past 8 years Dan has run a media and marketing consulting firm focusing on social marketing, information architecture and advanced content management systems. He has worked with companies both large and small including Panasonic, Madison Square Garden, and Warner Bros.. Dan is responsible for updating the Spotter interface in the 2^nd version of the application as well as heading up marketing to get Spotter the attention it deserves.

Where are you based?

We operate out of a virtual office. The 3 co-founders are all located near NYC.

What’s the startup scene/culture like where you’re based?

NYC is really starting to support startups, so there are a lot more opportunities for us to network then in the past. The problem is we’re working our full time jobs during the day and then at night coding and making Spotter better, so we haven’t been able to use our location to our benefit yet.

There is also a strong startup community to the north of us in the Albany/Troy region. There are a bunch of meet ups held by Grand Slam Alley and Tech Valley Mobile Developer Network. The guys who created Dark Sky and forecast.io are based out of that area as well as some other successful startups.

How did you come up with the idea for Spotter?

Mikes Groves and I (Kevin) worked together as software developers and we always had a common interest in starting a company that focused on mobile. From early on we saw the potential of new products emerging from the mobile space.

One day Mike approached me with this idea of combining location and videos, and I really liked the idea, so we dug a little deeper to see what was in the market. Then we thought about it a little more and really figured out there is no way for you to find videos that you know for sure were taken where you thought they were. Someone could post a video on YouTube and title it “The Empire State Building”, but in reality it could be a very funny video of someone in their house doing something stupid. And, yes, there are plenty of videos like that all over the internet. If the video gets the views and popularity, that video is going to show up in the top of the rankings when you search YouTube for Empire State Building… So we focused on solving that problem.

From there we created a prototype and started laying out the functionality the app would have. We really like the ability to follow a place. For me I was a BMX racer and skier growing up and love watching those types of videos, so I like to follow all the BMX tracks and mountains to see new videos on a daily basis.

Why now?

Why not? But seriously, when we came up with the idea, and even now, there are no apps that focus on location like ours. We are solving a gap in the current market.

Who are your competition?

It feels like and is pretty much every social media company involved with photos and videos. No one has zeroed in to do exactly what we’re doing, but most are tagging the location and using that in some way to enhance user experience.

We have to continue to focus on what we’re good at, and get even better at that, which is ensuring the videos tagged to the location were actually taken there and delivering those videos to the user in a unique and easy way.

And what’s your secret sauce?

It’s top secret, if I told you then I’d have to kill you. I’m sure you’ve never gotten that response.
Really though, there isn’t anything too secret about what we’re doing. We’re using a bunch of technology accessible to the average developer to our advantage to provide videos to the user in a different approach than other companies.

What are some milestones you’ve achieved?

Over 10,000 videos have been tagged to actual places, and not just cities or streets. These places range from One World Trade, beaches on Hawaii, ski resorts in Austria, to music houses in Japan.

What’s your next milestone?

We think the milestones we’ve reached are very cool, but the application and server systems were built to handle many more users and videos, so we’re focusing on marketing the app to get the users it deserves.

10,000 users are our goal by the end of summer, and 20,000 by the end of the year.

Who are some of your mentors and business role models?

Previous bosses and college professors have mentored me to get where I am in my career to even make it possible for me to start this company, and I am continually looking and listening to advice of those who have successfully or unsuccessfully started their own company. Knowledge is power, and having an idea without being able to execute it will not get you anywhere.

I have always found Shawn Fanning (Founder of Napster) an interesting business role model just because he always seems to start companies that he finds interesting and builds products he wants to use which I find pretty cool.

Also Paul Tyma, founder of many companies is a business role model of mine. He’s worked closely with Doug Lea a professor of mine, so I’ve had the pleasure of working on some of his code in college, and occasionally bugging him with an email here and there for help with Spotter.

What’s next for Spotter?

We want to expand and move to Android as well as build out our traditional web browser experience. Moving to Android has always been on the roadmap, but with only three people, it’s been difficult to get traction on that development effort. We have also been contemplating adding photos to our service as well.

We’re looking for a motivated Java developer interested in building out our Android application. Since we don’t have funding currently we’re looking for someone who is willing to work for a small percentage of company or as internship to get college credits. If you have interest email kevin@spotterinc.com

Where can people find out more and what is your Twitter username?

spotterapp.us Download spotter in the iTunes App Store here Follow them on Twitter here

Check out what this Chicago startup is doing with video for charity.

The Startup Fred Wilson And Union Square Ventures Would Back Right Now

The startup and venture capital world breathed a sigh of relief earlier this month when New York based venture capitalist, blogger extraordinaire and managing partner at Union Square Ventures, announced he was investing in Coinbase a startup that helps facilitate Bitcoin transactions. Sure Bitcoin is a hot commodity these days, just ask Ashton Kutcher, but there was more to it than that.

For many, Wilson’s investment in Coinbase was one of those big “signaling issues”. As most know, Wilson has been in a two year slump with investments while he tried to figure out what the next big thing was.

His firm, Union Square Ventures, did just fine with investments and made some great bets during Wilson’s cool period.

So what’s next more Bitcoin startups? Wilson has always been one to go ahead of the curve, so undoubtedly whatever he invests in next will go to that record. Wilson just saw an exit with Tumblr, for which he was an early investor. Some of their other great investments include Boxee, Turntable.fm, Twitter, Twilio and countless others.

Regardless of what’s actually in the pipeline, we can tell you for certain, if you read Wilson’s personal blog, avc.com, if you’ve got a team of college graduates who’ve developed the next thing that’s going to stop Google, and big hint here’s it’s not Bing, Wilson would go all in.

In a tribute to his daughter Jess who just graduated from College earlier this week, Wilson acknowledges the fact that he and USV often bet on college drop outs but he writes;

“Dropping out of college is all the rage today in startup land (even dropping out of high school). And when it comes to our business, we really do not care if someone went to or graduated from college. We have funded many college dropouts and will continue to.

But there is also something to finishing something you started. ”

So just to be clear, Wilson will still bet on dropouts but I’m willing to bet a college graduate team may have a special place in his heart these days.

As for what’s stopping Google, Wilson also wrote a short, sweet and to the point post called “Running the table”. In the post he talks about how Microsoft “ran the table” with desktop computing, Apple did it with mobile computing and Facebook did it with social networking. That was until Apple and the internet stopped Microsoft and Twitter stopped Facebook.

As for Google, Google is trying to run the table with the “entire fucking internet” and Wilson wants to know “Who Will Stop Google”.

So if you’ve got a college graduate team ready to stop Google, you better get that deck in front of Wilson.

Read Wilson’s blog avc.com daily. Got that startup ready, make sure your business plan submission includes a clear description of your operations and current progress and take it on over to Union Square Ventures, 915 Broadway, 19th Floor, New York, NY 10010, make it interesting, Wilson’s a busy go.

Here are Wilson’s Venture Capital Do’s & Dont’s

Blow Up Your Cloud Based File Structure, Use New York Startup Docurated [video]

One of the more interesting (but less sexy) startups that we saw in New York at TechCrunch Disrupt last month was Docurated. This New York company has launched a new platform that puts all of your content and all of your files at your fingertips with the easiest form of search possible.

Just about everyone in every profession is creating some kind of content all of the time. Chances are that you’re going to write one proposal or do one pitch deck some day that you need information from a previous pitch deck or other file. Cataloging all of your files, both locally and in the cloud, lets the Docurated system get to work.

Once all of your files are cataloged, and as you create new ones, updated automatically, they are now available whenever you need them.

What happens next just adds to the experience. When you call up a search of your files Docurated serves up the files and the specific piece of content, putting it next to all the other pieces of content that match the same criteria.

Now all of your documents are useable materials for anything from content dashboards to presentations, fliers, meetings, reports and more.

Docurated was created out of a real world need from a Fortune 100 company. Alex Grobansky along with cofounder Irene Tserkovny created Docurated after Tserkovny found herself and her colleagues at American Express’ “disruptive innovation” team were constantly searching for content they had previously created to add to new presentations rather than working on the next disruption.

There are several search options available but Docurated seems to address the needs of people working on real projects, and presentations who don’t have time to fumble with broken search tactics.

Watch the video interview below and for more information visit docurated.com

Check out these other 50 startup stories from TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013

New York Startup InBetweenJobs Is For People Who, You Guessed It, Are InBetweenJobs

Finding yourself in between jobs can be one of the scariest things on earth. Some people are lucky, and they know when they might have to start looking for work. Most people, on the other hand, have no idea that they are about to get laid off or that a company is shutting down. For anyone out of work though, uncertainty can be a very scary thing.

Not knowing where the next paycheck is coming from is typically the biggest threat in between jobs, but other things like health insurance, other employee benefits, taxes and resources can become overwhelming.

Big companies usually help out displaced workers through third party companies. These companies, chronicled in the George Clooney movie Up In The Air, connect people to job placement services, resume companies, skill builders and other resources. For the rest of us though, navigating in between jobs can be the hardest job of all.

InBetweenJobs is a New York startup that sets out to simplify and enrich the process of being in between jobs. The company offers access to resources for things like polishing your cover letter, updating your resume, improving your skills, researching trends and companies in your field and of course hunting for jobs. They’re also hoping to offer interviewing tips, information about COBRA insurance and anything that anyone in between jobs could need.

InBetweenJobs incentivizes the time between jobs by offering points for real life rewards. When a user participates in an activity like taking a quick online course in cover letters they earn points. Points can then be redeemed for things like metrocards and free coffee, which when you’re saving every dime you have, can come in quite handy.

Not only do the points come in handy because they provide value to the job seeker, they can also serve as even the smallest little morale booster which people often times need when they are out of work.

Check out our video interview below with CEO and founder Diego Orofino and to sign up to be notified when InBetweenJobs opens, head over to inbetweenjobs.com.

Check out over 50 startup stories from TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013 here at nibletz.com

Chicago’s GrubHub And New York’s Seamless Merging To Dominate Food Ordering Market

Chicago based food ordering startup GrubHub and New York based food ordering startup Seamless have announced that the two companies will merge, pending regulatory approval.

GrubHub’s co-founder Matt Maloney will become the combined company’s CEO while Seamless’ CEO Jonathan Zabusky will serve as the new company’s President. A new name for the combined entity has not been announced. Both companies have said they don’t plan on reducing staff. GrubHub employs around 350 people while Seamless employs 300 people.

GrubHub hosted Startup America Regional Champion’s during last October’s Startup America Summit. During that event we enjoyed breakfast, a tour of the company’s new offices and keynote sessions by Maloney, Scott Case and later in the day Brad Keywell of Groupon and LightBank fame.

While rivals GrubHub and Seamless were responsible fora reported $875 million dollars in food sales to local restaurants bringing in over $100 million dollars in revenue.

“We have the luxury of having two amazing brands right now. Honestly, we don’t have plans to consolidate brands at this time,” Matt Maloney, CEO and co-founder of GrubHub, told ABC News. “We are looking to position ourselves as a combined unit within this massive industry.”

Maloney acknowledged that Seamless has a great iPad app. 30% of each company’s business is currently coming from mobile an area where Maloney sees the need for improvement with GrubHub. GrubHub offers in-restaurant tablet technology which could (and probably will) combine with the tablet offerings for Seamless.

The combined company will have a stable of over 500 cities and 20,000 local takeout locations.

The GrubHub Seamless merger lost some of it’s thunder once Yahoo announced the acquisition of Tumblr.

Keen Homes Does For Your Vents, What Nest Does For Your Thermostat

The nest thermostat was the coolest piece of hvac innovation ever. It’s got a beautiful design and the functionality is amazing. Now if you’re not familiar, Nest, learns the behaviors of those in the house and programs itself to optimize your comfort and energy in regards to your heating and cooling.

What New York entrepreneurs Ryan Fant and Nayeem Hussain have discovered, is that the thermostat is only about half the problem. Energy loss and discomfort also stems from the vents itself. Nest, controls the heat pump or the ac unit. The vents are controlled manually.

“We found that just by closing four vents in an average-sized home, we’ve reduced the run time of the furnace by about 30 percent,” Fant explained in an interview. “So not only were we redirecting air to rooms that were actually in use by intelligently closing vents, we were increasing efficiency, as well.”

Their vents can be controlled by smartphones, learn a users behavior and open and shut automatically based on imported data. Overall this will improve the energy efficiency in homes and make them more comfortable.

The duo are predicting a 32% reduction in run time on hvac units thus resulting in money and energy saved. Vents haven’t changed in 60 years they’re basically the same design. When making their pitch it’s obvious that they are looking to the immediate future as smart homes become more mainstream and less sci fi.

In an interview with Nibletz Hussain tells us that the Keen Vent is just the beginning. Their next products are equally as simple, and equally as life changing. Check out our interview below and for more info visit mykeenhome.com

And we’ve got more great startup stories from TechCrunch Disrupt here.

Interview With New York’s Ping Pong Startup

Ping Pong is a right of passage for some early stage startups.

As startups grow up and move out of the spare bedroom or the garage they look to make their first office space more “startupy”. Often times you have to do it with a budget. So what does a bootstrapped startup do to give their new office the “startup feel” without breaking the bank on some full sized upright arcade machines, or the latest virtual reality gear?

Well the “pop some tags” of course, and go for the ping pong table.

Over the last 18 months, travelling on our “sneaker strapped road trip” I’ve become actually decent at Ping Pong. I think we’ve seen over a 100 ping pong tables at various startup spaces. It’s funny how HD Tvs and Nintendo Wii’s can sit dormant forever, but find a few developers and designers and when they take a quick work break it’s for a fast game of ping pong. (we’ve been informed that the table tennis snobs don’t like it when rec players call it “ping pong”)

Well we got a tweet as TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013 was starting. The tweet, from PaddleYou, told us to come by their booth at Hardware Alley on Wednesday, they had something for us.

So of course, the first thing we did when we arrived at the Manhattan Center was go find that PaddleYou booth. PaddleYou’s Cooper Fallek showed us the awesome Nibletz ping pong panel and explained the features. This paddle will make us beast on the table tennis courts of startups everywhere else.

Check out the video interview below. For more info or to order your own custom ping pong paddle, visit paddleyou.com

We’ve got a ton of startup coverage from TechCrunch Disrupt here.

Enigma Reinvents Public Data And Wins TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield

Public data is a huge gigantic mess. Some municipalities offer everything in indexed searchable sites, while others send you cd roms of property values and tax records. Still, some municipalities require that you go down to their town hall or courthouse and sift through filing cabinets as if they’re trapped in the 1970s.

Cumulatively you’re talking about 100’s of millions if not millions of records of data, and none if it’s uniform. It’s possibly the largest big data project in the world. An ambitious project, taken on by Hicham Oudghiri and Marc DaCosta co-founder sof Enigma.io, as well as CEO Jeremy Bronfmann.

There are mountains upon mountains of public data. What is “public data” it’s really determined by the municipalities themselves. For instance, tax records, property records, marriage licenses, etc are just about public data in every town and city across the country and around the world. In some municipalities though, restaurant food scores, public transportation records and even dog licenses are considered public data.

Sure there are scammy data sites that off-shoot to wanna be background reports, but Enigma is out to do something bigger. They want to create an entire new layer of the internet in the next five years.

Enigma has already raised $1.1 million dollars in seed funding from Triple Point Ventures, CrossLink Capital, and angels like YouTuber Brent Hurley. They’ve also inked some important partnerships with Harvard Business School, Gerson Lehrman Group (a research firm), S&P Capital IQ and The New York Times.

One of the challenges Enigma faces is the rapid rate at which more and more data is released to the public. Yet another thing that Bronfmann says their team is ready for.

Enigma started to amass this huge collection of data by sending a ton of Freedom of Information Act requests. They’ve had to compile the data in one simple, easy to use format even though it comes in a variety of sources. Bronfmann told us in an interview that some data even comes on “print outs”.

The scope of what Enigma is looking to achieve along with the powerhouse team and the work they’ve done to date, was enough for them to win the TechCrunch Battlefield competition on Wednesday. That honor comes with a $50,000 non-equity prize and of course startups that have won in the past like UberConference and GetAround, have gone on to raise huge rounds.

Check out our interview with Bronfmann below and sign up for more info about Enigma here at enigma.io.

See how this Cincinnati startup went from Startup Weekend to TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield.

Crowdsource Video From An Event With NY Startup Crowdflik [DISRUPT][video]

Crowdsourcing is nothing new, neither is shooting video, however putting it all together in a beautiful format is new and that’s what New York startup Crowdflik is doing.

Crowdflik allows users who are signed in an at a particular event, to upload videos from that event. Then what happens is magical. Crowdflik stitches all the videos together to make one fluid video with lots of different movie clips shot from a variety of users.

Crowdflik users will be able to see all of the videos aggregated and stitched together or browse the variety of videos shot from different users.

We got a chance to interview Crowdflik’s Vice President of marketing Sarah McClutchy check out the video below. For more information sign up for updates at crowdflik.com

We’ve got more from TechCrunch Disrupt 2013, here at nibletz.com

This New York Startup Wants More Grandmas On Facebook

New York startup FamilyRibbon doesn’t think there are enough grandmas on Facebook. Actually what they are really doing is trying to make it easier for beginning users to learn how to use Facebook. Yes, there are still plenty of people out there without a Facebook account. Just think how much your buubie is missing by not being on Facebook.

FamilyRibbon isn’t just about Facebook though. Their suite of apps called the EasyFamily AppSuite, is a total 7 in 1 app solution for beginners which takes the complexity out commonly used computer apps that we take for granted like Skype, email, photo albums, reminders and yes of course Facebook.

The suite of apps includes:

Easy Skype, Albums and Call-Back Requests

Quick and easy launch of Skype, Facetime, Flickr, Picasa and Facebook photo albums in easy interface. Call back request emails and texts sent with just one click.

Easy Facebook and VideoEmail® with Security Features

Facebook app with ‘Safe Mode’ designed for beginners. Email audio and video messages in just one click. The email ‘whitelist’ feature offers extra security.

Medication & Appointment Reminders & More!

Make sure medication is taken as scheduled – if a reminder has been ignored a family member will be notified by text or email.

Remote Administration and Illustrated User Guides

Manage reminders, photos, contacts, websites and even view app screenshots, all from another computer! Print our easy-to-follow user guide.

We got a chance to talk to the team at FamilyRibbon, check out the interview below:

What is your startup, what does it do?

The goal of EasyFamilyApps.com is to develop easy apps for beginner users – such as grandma and grandpa. The goal is to enable your aging parents to start using Facebook within a short period of time, to inspire them, and to make them part of the online community.

Our easy-to-use apps allow beginner users to socialize on Facebook, check email, make video calls, view online photo albums, and browse web pages. EasyFamily Social® and EasyFamily AppSuite® apps make it easy and safe to stay in touch online.

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

Ivan Osadchiy – founder, CEO

I am personally invested in helping seniors get online. When my father was admitted to the hospital, I found no simple tech solutions that would allow him to stay connected with the family. How could Dad see his newborn granddaughter thousands of miles away?

Mykola Komarevskyy – co-founder, CTO

I hope that our apps will help our parents to feel closer to us and have fun online. Apps like ours are especially important when there is distance between family members. For many years, I lived in a completely different time-zone than my mother and she really missed being able to contact me. She is now beta testing the app and is so excited that she can now keep in touch whenever she wants and she loves sending and receiving messages.

Where are you based?

The startup is based in New York City, New York and affiliated with PlugAndPlayTechcenter.com – a SF accelerator.

What is the startup culture like where you are based?

Fast-paced, time and focus demanding work. The three key success factors that must be embedded in the startup culture are (1) teamwork, (2) rigorous prioritization, and (3) communication. Teamwork ensures that things happen. Prioritization ensures that the tasks with the highest potential are executed, as there is always more work on the plate that can be “eaten”. Communication is vital to convince investors, build partnerships, and engage prospects and users.

What problem does your startup solve?

It allows any Grandma get on Facebook

⁃ In 30 minutes

⁃ Easy and Safe

Please also take a look at the video: http://GrandmaOnFacebook.org, and the infographic attached – for additional information, numbers, and sources. Separate slides are available at http://bit.ly/ZKQgFZ.

We conducted some research and found out that 40% of women over 60 live alone and 7 million U.S. seniors are not mobile and face isolation. In addition, multiple studies by top faculty at the University of Chicago, Harvard and Stanford have suggested that isolation significantly increases health risks.

We realized then there was a great need for an easier and safer set of applications for the older generation so that family communication – easy video calls, e-mail, Facebook, online albums, etc. – could flourish, and loneliness and isolation problems that strongly affect seniors could be reduced.

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

The area that was surprisingly challenging was finding the most effective marketing channels for seniors and their families. This is where predecessors have failed.

Seniors rely almost exclusively on expensive traditional media and word of mouth, and that takes a long time to build. Their children – our generation – is nicknamed “sandwich mothers / fathers,” as we try to balance our careers with taking care of both our children and our parents. Competition for our time is fierce – being heard over clutter requires creativity and making products as viral as possible.

Some of the tools we’ve found effective include:

 Reaching out to B2B channel partners. We were approached by tech schools requesting permission to use and promote our applications with their students

 Piloting with a retirement community

 Direct-to-consumer marketing and the use of SEO/SEM (optimizing your website to improve your standing in search results)

We’re employing a combination of word of mouth, viral marketing, and traditional channels.

What are some of the milestones your startup has achieved?

We have raised seed funding and a follow-on bridge round from the existing investors. Thanks to this investment, the two apps EasyFamily Social® and EasyFamily AppSuite® for iPad and Windows computers were released. Remote administration is also available for the EasyFamily AppSuite®. Family members can manage user’s account from any device via easy web interface – they can update the address book, add and review medication reminders, upload family photos, view user’s screenshots etc.

What are your next milestones?

Our next milestone is to complete the Android version of the EasyFamily Social® app for Facebook – to make it the best Mother’s and Father’s Day gift for parents. The “17 Million Grandmas on Facebook” crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo will help us to raise the funds necessary to complete the job.

Several users and organizations asked when we were going to release the Android versions of our apps. Android tablets are the most affordable choice and are ideal for low income families, charity and educational organizations.

We hope that with the release of the Android version of the easy and safe Facebook app, many more Grandmas will join Facebook and will reach the 17 million mark sooner.

Readers can help us to achieve the milestone by supporting the “17 Million Grandmas on Facebook” campaign or by helping their Mom or Grandma to join Facebook!

Who are your mentors and role models?

Sir Richard Branson, our role model, supports the “17 Million Grandmas on Facebook” Indiegogo effort. He provided hand-signed “Elders Rock!” and “Screw Business As Usual” inscriptions, with which we’ll reward our backers at www.GrandmaOnFacebook.org.

Mary Furlong – MFA & SeniorNet founder, aging expert – is helping us to develop the right solution for grandparents.

Jim Tobias – Inclusive Technologies, Strategies and Stakeholders at RaisingtTheFloor.org; accessibility expert – provided valuable feedback on usability of our apps.

We also work with senior tech schools, including Jane Ratliff from Blue Hair Technology Group to polish user experience.

We are grateful to our mentors and are honored to work with them.

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

Physical location of the team is less relevant these days. Silicon Valley would probably provide more opportunities to meet potential investors face-to-face and to hear more about experiences of fellow entrepreneurs and experts. However, in the era of LinkedIn, Skype, and broadband connections, entrepreneurs can meet the necessary people from any location to achieve its investment, business development and learning objectives.

What’s next for your startup?

Getting 17 million grandmas on Facebook! :-)

We hope that people will help their parents and grandparents to join Facebook this Mother’s day.

We’ll work hard to make www.GrandmaOnFacebook.org a success that will make the easy and safe Facebook app available for even more grandmas – on the affordable Android platform.

Where can people find out more, and what is your Twitter username?

Facebook @GrandmaOnFb Blog

Facebook shmacebook, these DC grandma’s have created their own startup, check out our interview with Quad2Quad here!

New York Startup PaddleYou Has A Ping Pong Paddle For Your Startup

PaddleYou is a New York based startup that is, you guessed it, in the ping pong paddle business.

Well the “rock some tags” of course, and go for the ping pong table.

Well PaddleYou creates custom ping pong paddles. You can put a picture on a paddle or your startups logo. Our “N” will look great on a ping pong paddle.

What’s even greater about PaddleYou is that the startup founded by Table Tennis Nation and ping pong star Marty Reisman, actually pitched at the February New York TechCrunch Pitch off and came in second place. The company has also been nominated for an Edison award and they’ve been Men’s Journal approved.

Table Tennis Nation President Cooper Fallek will be in the hardware alley Wednesday at TechCrunch Disrupt showing off just how cool ping pong paddles can be.

If you’re jonesing for a paddle now, PaddleYou is up and running and you can get your customized paddle for just $29.99 with 10% off by using code tcdisrupt1 at paddleyou.com.

Check out some of our TechCrunch Disrupt coverage from last year, click here.

A Tribute To My Personal Favorite New York CEO, Dan Porter, Wire Style

Dan Porter, the CEO of OMGPOP became Zynga’s New York chief when the popular social games company acquired the New York based company that created “Draw Something”.

Sure one of the main reasons I like Dan Porter so much is that he named every conference and meeting space in OMGPOP’s headquarters after characters from the hit HBO drama “The Wire”. Being from South Baltimore and having extrad a few times during the run of “The Wire” I naturally loved the idea of meeting rooms named after such influential characters as Avon Barksdale, Marlo Stansfield and Proposition Joe.

What came apparent though, as Zynga set sail with OMGPOP on board was that Porter was like the Stansfield character. Porter told it like it was, probably causing a major level of discomfort for Zynga CEO Mark Pincus.

Porter drew fire when Quartz, a business news website quoted him as saying that Zynga copies other publishers games.

Porter is leaving his post as vice president and general manager of Zynga’s New York operations. It’s unclear whether or not he is staying with the company. He is leaving his post as Draw Something 2 is preparing for release.

The original Draw Something caught on like wild fire. The game, which allows two players to play in a head to head win lose or draw style competition, was the game of the month right up until the sale to Zynga. It’s popularity faded as hits like SongPop started picking up steam.

The exact amount that Zynga paid for OMGPOP was never reported. What was reported, was the fact that Zynga had to write down $95 million dollars on the OMGPOP deal.

Even with all that in mind, Porter is credited with helping to move Zynga from the Facebook dependent social gaming space to the mobile screen. Reports surfaced on Monday morning that Zynga was about to unveil online gambling games in the UK as well.

While Zynga’s focus isn’t clear to anyone at the moment, we are confident that Porter’s is. So Dan closes your eyes, and breathe easy, your next big thing is right around the corner.

See why Dan Porter earned that bump like a mother fucker, here.