New York Startup Archives - Page 6 of 6

So What’s The Big Deal About Amsterdam Startup: Karma

(photo: TheVerge)

The tech based interwebs typically go hog wild anytime Josh Topolsky and the crew at The Verge write about anything. It’s just about the same reaction when Michael Arrington suggests something on Twitter. 90% of the time both Arrington and the Verge are right about what they are writing about. But as far as I’m concerned, not this time.

An Amsterdam based startup called “Karma” was in the spring class of TechStars New York and presented on Thursday morning during TechStars NY Demo day.

Their product was actually pretty cool, and under a different set of circumstances, or maybe two years ago, it would have been a game changer. But really, it’s not. Combine that with the fact that they lied on stage during their demo day presentation and we’re quickly called out by Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanick, and well, maybe they should just go back to Amsterdam.

But before we get into the lies, the cars and the planes… let’s talk about why fundamentally this is a stupid idea, in 2012.

Karma is a “hot spot” sharing startup. According to their pitch deck they promote what they are calling “social telecom”. It works like this. The actual user purchases a re-packaged Sprint/Clearwire Overdrive miff portable hotspot for $69 from Karma. They then pay as they go $14 per gig for internet.

Then, they share their wifi with complete strangers. Now it’s pretty secure that’s not the issue. When a sharer signs onto XX persons Karma mi-fi they are taken to an “about” page about the owner of the hotspot, perhaps you can do some of your own advertising or invite them to see pictures of your dog.

The “sharer” signs into the miff using their Facebook and they are given 100mb of internet on that particular mifi. The person who’s miff they are on is given a matching, free 100mb. So potentially if you let 10 people sign on per week through their Facebook you’re earning an extra GB in free internet from Karma.

Now statistics show that the average Joe uses 221mb of internet a month so it’s really not a bad deal on the surface.

Why don’t I like it? Well first off it’s Clearwire’s WiMax service. In June 2012 unless you live under a bridge in the arctic circle you know that Clearwire nor Sprint is taking on the daunting task of building out any more wi-max network. That faux G is over and making way for LTE.

Clearwire most likely has no interest in this partnership with Karma for their LTE product which is still a good ways away.

Now secondly, it may be against something you didn’t read in the Clearwire TOS, in fact it probably is, but there’s nothing that says you can’t sell your wifi/mifi password for say $2.00 or $5.00 to a colleague or friend. If you get a couple of those guys, then you’re paying your whole internet bill in no time.

Then there’s that whole issue of Facebook, and tracking and data going back to Facebook, Karma, Clearwiere and everybody’s partners.

Next is, how do you go about sharing this anyway. Do you sit down in Central Park and say “Hey Bro, you can get on my wifi, all you gotta do is sign in through Facebook”, yeah that doesn’t sound the last bit shady.

Now we may not have to worry about Karma. They lied on the stage at TechStars Demo day today and it didn’t slip past the great crew over at Betabeat.

Reportedly (and now admittedly), Karma’s CEO Robert Gaal, stood on the stage at Demo Day and said that they had already forged partnerships with ride sharing startup Uber and American Airlines. Whoops….

Apparently their partnership with Uber was a total lie and Kalanick quickly took to Twitter to correct Mr.Gaal with these tweets (source:BetaBeat)

Gaal failed miserably at trying to diffuse the situation and then eventually took to Tumblr to all but admit he was lying and not just about Uber about American Airlines too. Gaal said on Tumblr:

We apologize profusely for claiming Uber and American Airlines are working with us – a statement we never received explicit permission to use. And we apologize to TechStars and the whole TechStars community. We did not mean to overstate anything or unfairly take advantage of the network and the opportunities it has opened up for us.

The Verge and their comment community hypothesized that for Karma to be truly successful in the United States, they would need to partner with one of the major carriers, after today’s spectacular Demo Day performance, that’s not likely happening.

Linkage:

I mean if you want to, you can check out Karma here

Here’s the source piece from the Verge

And the story about the mistruths from BetaBeat

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New York Startup: Return On Change Crowd Investing For High Impact Startups INTERVIEW

As we get closer and closer to the SEC’s July 4th deadline to come up with rules for crowdfunding startups, we’re likely to see more and more crowdfunding startups emerge. Earlier this month we reported on Ohio crowdfunding startup Fundable who has already opened for business, with a more traditional Kickstarter, Indiegogo model until the crowdfunding rules are announced and brokers are approved.

A New York startup called Return on Change LLC, has also thrown their hit in the crowdfunding arena. They’re now in a private beta and promise to provide a way for investors to connect with game-changing startups.

“The timing could not be better,” said Sang Lee, founder of Return on Change. “We saw the huge potential in crowdfunding, and now, with the signing of the JOBS bill, look forward to connecting investors with ventures that can make a real difference.”

RoC also announced a contest that provides incentives for startups to register. The first 100 startups that meet RoC’s criteria will have the opportunity to win one of three $1,000 funding prizes. The company is seeking startups in the areas of clean energy, biomedical, social ventures and technology.

With all this excitement about crowdfunding we got a chance to speak with Sang Lee, one of the founders of Return On Change. Take a look at the interview below the break.

NY Startup: JustDecide Helps You Make Decisions INTERVIEW

Have you ever wanted someone to help you make a decision. Maybe you didn’t feel like talking to a friend or relative about your decision. Maybe you didn’t want to call the advice call in show? Well now there’s a startup for that, and it’s called JustDecide.

If you’ve ever struggled with a decision (and who hasn’t) than you know the foundation for JustDecide. With this innovative new startup from New York, you get real life people who have had to make the same decisions as you, help you make informative, good decisions. Heck, this startup is life changing.

Jay Amato, a New York executive with quite an impressive resume, launched JustDecide just over a week ago as a platform for social decision making. Amato goes over his resume in our interview with him below. He founded JustDecide when he was faced with the dilemma of making the decision on what to do next.

We talk with Amato about JustDecide, decision making and the New York startup scene. Since TechCrunch Disrupt NYC 2012 we’ve heard different views on whether New York’s startup scene is actually more segregated than it’s west coast counterpart.

Check out the interview below. Based on his life experiences, and lengthy executive work history Amato provides a different perspective on a lot of things in the startup process.

Brooklyn Startup Launches SwapOMatic The Bartering Vending Machine

Just the other day we were talking about, and tweeting out how hot bartering was. We even ran an interview with the founder of Arizona startup Kwiddy which is an online site to facilitate person to person bartering or trading (as in real life).

Well this Brooklyn startup has taken a concept art piece and turned it into almost a viable startup. The SwapOMatic machine doesn’t accept credit cards, cash or change. Instead, if you see something cool in the machine that you want, you can swap it for something that you’re willing to give up.

For now the machine operates on the honor system and doesn’t give a monetary value to anything in the machine because value depends on how bad someone wants something.

However, with all the publicity and interest the SwapOMatic team has picked up, they are currently reworking it for the next design. This machine is part concept art, but it is an actual working machine. In fact they have it sitting at the Ample Hills Creamery in Brooklyn, where anyone can swap anything for the stuff inside of the machine.

On the company’s website it gives you a text base map of what’s currently inside the machine. Take a look below:

As you can see it’s a wide variety of things. Everything from YiGiOh trading cards to hand written poems have lived in the machine and traded for other stuff.

The SwapOMatic team has a kickstarter project going on now for $135,000 so they can do more research and development on how to actually make this a viable business and a product to promote bartering. They have raised $34,529 (at the time this article was written) of the $135,000 goal. There are 10 days to go.

Bartering is becoming hotter by the minute. Bartering goes back to probably the stone ages where people would trade their goods, like vegetables and milk, for meat and clothing. Bartering has taken on a new life of it’s own thanks to the internet and sites like Craigslist and now Kwiddy which offer online bartering solutions.

The trading and bartering phenomenon is so hot that A&E has just launched a new show called barter kings.

We’re hoping that the SwapOMatic team can either raise this $135,000 or other angel money so they can develop this idea. We could see a day where you could swap your iPad nano for a baseball card you’ve always wanted. Or a stack of cd’s for something else new and more interesting.

Linkage:

SwapOMatic Website

SwapOMatic’s Kickster Page

Source: Tech.li

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NY Startup: StoryTBD Revives The Choose Your Own Adventure Model (Interview)

This is the story of an awesome New York startup for many reasons. First off, it’s a woman founded startup, we love covering women founded startups in addition to startups everywhere else. Secondly, it brings back a favorite past time of mine, and many other technogeeks around the same age in Choose Your Own Adventure.

I remember many a day sitting at a Crown Book Store (way before the big boxes) and deciding which of hundreds of Choose Your Own Adventure titles I would buy with my lawn cutting money and my allowance. The series of books really sparked your imagination and it was almost like buying many different books in one by the way the stories were laid out and the alternative endings you could navigate through.

Now, Katherine Myers, who had a career in the entertainment industry, with stops at DreamWorks, CBS, AMC and New Line Cinema, has turned entrepreneur and launched StoryTBD, a digital, mobile form of Choose Your Own Adventure.

We got a chance to chat with her a bit interview after the break;

NY Startup: Fancy Attracts Silicon Valley Backers For Social, Reverse Groupon Platform

If you like something, fancy it? Feeling kind of British? Well it’s not a British thing it’s an internet thing and it’s a new startup in New York that’s attracting some investors from the Valley.

Even though he didn’t get Instagram, that hasn’t stopped Twitter (and Square) co-founder Jack Dorsey from investing in an innovative disruptive new social platform. It’s also attracted the likes of Chris Hughes( Facebook) and Maynard Web of Ebay.

Although he hasn’t invested yet, Fancy has struck the Fancy of Ashton Kutcher. Kanye West, Bar Rafaeli and Selma Hayek have all become celebrity activists of this new kind of e-commerce platform.

So what is it? Fancy is part store, blog, magazine and wishlist. Anyone can join Fancy and when they do they can share the things they love and like with others. When their social friends across Fancy, like something, merchants can step in and offer a “Groupon in reverse type deal”. This is going to create a new, disruptive and competitive e-commere market place.

Fancy has 500,000 users across their web app, iOS app and recently introduced Android app. It’s great for users because they can see all the things their social friends like. It’s great for merchants because they know what’s in demand.

Fancy is free to join and get started. As Fancy tells Nibletz.com everything that you see on Fancy is either for sale or can be for sale.

Linkage:

Check out Fancy here at their website

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NY Startup: GiftSimple Wins Best Social Startup At NY Tech Day INTERVIEW

New York startup GiftSimple won the Best Social Startup award at the recent New York Tech Day. The woman owned startup is a crowdfunding gift registry startup.

Now, instead of collecting a bunch of regiftable gifts that you either don’t like, won’t wear or are way too small, you can use GiftSimple to tell people what you really want. The best part is, when the item is too much for one person, multiple people can team up to crowd fund that gift.

GiftSimple is fully integrated with Facebook so that you can easily share your gift list and friends can contribute whenever they want. GiftSimple also reminds you of your friends birthdays and easily allows you to see their gift lists as well.

We got a chance to speak with Jess Lachs the founder of GiftSimple about GiftSimple and winning the “Best Social Startup” at New York Tech Day.

Interview after the break
Read More…

NY Startup GiddyUp Launches Social Mobile App For Short Term Planning

GiddyUp Co-Founder Elliott Goldwater asks a very relevant question these days, of the last 10 social apps that you downloaded how many do you still use right now. So I did an inventory. I’ve downloaded 36 apps that fit in the social mobile space. Here are the ones that I still use, at least in some kind of moderation: Hootsuite (all the time), Facebook (all the time), Instagram (quite frequently), Path (moderately), Pinterest (minimally), Sonar (moderately), Glancee (moderately), Trover (a little more than moderately). I’ve dumped countless others including Highlight.

So why bother with another social mobile app. Well as Goldwater points out, Giddy Up is a social mobile app in the truest form. The app allows you to plan and attend events and then communicate through the app using your actual friends regular contact info, novel huh.

Event hosts must sign up for Giddy Up however their friends don’t have to. While Giddy Up has integration with Facebook, and Twitter (with Privacy Controls) the foundation for the event is built upon actual contacts in your contact list. The user creates an RSVPable event.

More after the break
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New York Startup: Wendr Wins $25,000 Partnership With AB InBev For Mobile App Idea

(photo: adage.com)

Wendr is a new mobile social app that launched in February at the onset of Social Media week in New York. It has many of the same characteristics of the Ft.Lauderdale startup we profiled yesterday called MyNyte. In trying out both apps MyNyte has a more personal feeling to it. However Wendr is hoping to lend their technology to AB InBev (Anheiser Busch) the makers of Budweiser.

The two month old startup won a $25,000 partnership with the beverage giant in Manhattan Wednesday as part of Ad Age’s Digital Conference. The hackathon was called “Brand Hack” and the wet behind the ears CEO Sam Zises blew away the competition, not necessarily with the app itself but with his total package.

Ad Age’s Jason DelRay report that not only did Zises bring his customized app called “Buds By Budweiser” but he engaged the crowd at one point doing a wardrobe change on stage from his Wendr hat to a hat that was already emblazoned with a “Buds By Budweiser” logo. This is the kind of thing that gets investors and contest judges engaged with the people presenting as much as the idea itself. A point echoed by Fubu founder and ABC Shark Tank Shark Daymond John in a recent Google+ Hangout Townhall meeting with high school students studying business.

More after the break
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Xoogler Spotlight: Powhow Learn New Hobbies In The Comfort Of Your Own Home

Former Googler Viva Chu has come up with something that hasn’t been done before. His new, New York based startup, PowHow allows people to take classes via webcam from the comfort of their own home.

Whether you want to learn how to knit socks, make fancy gift wrap or take a fitness class, there’s no need to comb the internet to find out when the next local class is happening. There’s no need to worry whether the class will be canceled because the instructor’s kids are sick. Powhow brings the class to your PC or Mac.

The classes cost each participant between $10- $30. Powhow takes a flat 30% fee off each “ticket” sold and the teacher gets the rest of the money. Simple enough right?

Now, all those great crafters on Pinterest could make a couple bucks sharing their knowledge using Chu’s new platform. It’s like Google Hangouts meets Pinterest for money.

More after the break