Startup America Archives - Page 4 of 5

StartuPalooza Headed To Louisville KY September 18th

If you’re in Louisville Kentucky and ready to get your startup on than the Startup America Partnership in conjunction with Startup Kentucky has an event for you. StartuPALOOZA is headed to Louisville Kentucky on September 18th from 5:30pm-8:00pm at the Ice House (226 E. Washington Street, Louisville KY),

The event will feature a cash bar and free appetizers.

The event will feature an exhibition of the up and coming startups in the Louisville region. We know first hand their are some great startups in Louisville. Also, Startup Kentucky is one of the more active Startup America regions in the country, in fact you should follow them on Twitter here.

If you’re a Louisville area startup and interested in showing off in the StartuPALOOZA startup fairground than you need to apply here.

The event is sponsored by by IdeaFestival, the statewide Innovation Network, the Office of Commercialization and Innovation, the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation and Startup Kentucky, a Startup America region.

Linkage:

Startup America & American Airlines Announce Huge Contest

Let’s face it, traveling is an integral part of the startup process. Whether you’re a startup in Silicon Valley or a startup “everywhere else” you need to travel to get to pitch events, conferences, industry events, sxsw and of course the almighty fund raising. The problem is when you’re on a sneaker-strapped budget, like we are on our “sneaker strapped nationwide startup road trip”, flying coach on Spirit airlines is a luxury that we often can’t afford.

Never fear the great folks at the Startup America partnership alongside American Airlines have announced the second annual Flights, Camera Action contest.

Are you a Startup America member? If not you can join here for free and regardless if you win the contest or not American Airlines is always offering Startup America some unheard of great discounts because they know how hard it can be to grow a startup and small business.

The contest, which started today and runs through August 10, 2012 has opportunities for you to win several prize packs with multiple flights. All you have to do to enter is submit a 60 second video here telling how a travel connection has helped your business. You wanted to be animated, fun, happy and tell a great story all in 60 seconds or less. The first 400 people who submit a video will receive 300 American Airlines Business ExtrAA bonus points. You can use these points for accumulation but its the equivalent of a one day pass for the Admirals Club which can come in handy on a layover.

The top 9 videos from each of three contest categories will be put up on a contest page for public voting from August 28- September 14th. Every one of these 27 entries will receive 10,000 American Airlines Business ExtrAA bonus points, which are good for up to 5 round trip Plan Ahead economy class tickets. (Heck we’ll take that).

The top three videos from each category, after the public vote, will earn 20,000 Business ExtrAA bonus points for up to 10 domestic round-trip Plan AAhead® award Economy Class tickets, and two complimentary admission tickets to the Inc. 500|5000 Conference & Awards Ceremony in Phoenix, where the Grand Prize Winner will be announced.

The First Place Winners from each category, as selected by a panel of judges – for a total of three winners – will receive an additional 30,000 Business ExtrAA points for a total of 60,000 Business ExtrAA points (the equivalent of 30 domestic round-trip Plan AAhead® award Economy Class tickets). They will also receive an all-expenses paid trip to the Inc. 500|5000 Conference & Awards Ceremony, including exclusive networking opportunities with iconic startup leaders and various entrepreneurs, and an Admirals Club annual membership for up to two employees.

The Grand Prize winner will receive an additional 100,000 Business ExtrAA points – equivalent to 50 round-trip Economy Class tickets, AAdvantage® Gold status for up to two employees for one year and exposure in a variety of American Airlines media channels including an inflight video and a feature in the American Way magazine.

What are you still reading for, go sign up for Startup America and enter the contest.

Linkage:

Join Startup America here

Here’s the contest page

Hey, we’re on a sneaker-strapped nationwide startup road trip and NEED YOUR HELP, please click here

Follow Friday: The Startup America Partnership

Here at nibletz.com as the voice of startups “everywhere else” we are very proud and active members in the Startup America partnership. The organization was set up under the Obama administration and is spearheaded by Chairman Steve Case the founder of America Online and Revolution along with CEO Scott Case (no relation) who was the founding CTO of Priceline.com

In addition to setting up networks, and events, the Startup America partnership provides tons of resources to forward thinking startup founders who’s ultimate goal is to contribute to the fabric of America by adding more companies and more jobs across the country.

Each of Startup America’s regional partners holds their own events and the organization itself sponsors national events, webinars, conferences and meet ups. In fact Startup America is partnering with Startup Rockon for events at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions later this summer to promote startups and entrepreneurship.

As for benefits, there are literally thousands of dollars in benefits available to Startup America members, and joining Startup America is absolutely free with no strings attached. Everything from free books, discounted books, to legal services and even airline tickets from American Airlines are offered at deep discounts exclusively for Startup America members.

We wanted to start something up for Follow Friday. As someone who speaks on the ins and outs of Twitter regularly, traditional #FF follow Friday is really not that effective, so we’ll feature startups, entrepreneurs, startup founders and startup resources every Friday. To kick that feature off here is the complete list of Startup America regions to follow on Twitter.

Startup America
Startup California
Startup New Hampshire
Startup Virginia
Startup Colorado
Startup Connecticut
Startup Florida
Startup Hawaii
Startup Illinois
Startup Iowa
Startup Kentucky
Startup Kansas
Startup Massachusetts
Startup Maryland
Startup Michigan
Startup Missouri
Startup Montana
Startup Nebraska
Startup Rhode Island
Startup Texas
Startup Tennessee
Startup Vermont
Startup Washington
Startup Puerto Rico
Startup DC
Startup Indiana

Linkage:

Join the Startup America partnership here, it’s free

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” more stories from “everywhere else” here

We’re on a nationwide sneaker-strapped startup roadtrip help us out here

Puerto Rico Joins the Startup America Partnership

Startup America added their 26th regional partnership on Tuesday with Puerto Rico. Startup Puerto Rico kicked off in true Startup America fashion with a networking party for entrepreneurs across the island held at Universidad Interamericana, Recinto Metropolitano in San Juan.

“Puerto Ricans want to develop their own country on their own terms,” said Startup Puerto Rico representative Richard Vazquez. “Startup America encourages Puerto Ricans to develop the country by creating more jobs and kick-starting our local economy.”

The partnership between Startup Puerto Rico and Startup America will give entrepreneurs and startups on the island access to the same benefits that Startup America members have on the mainland. In addition, Startup America membership is free, and you didn’t have to attend the launch event to sign up, you can simply click the link below.

Startup America offers free educational webinars, free benefits from partners including indiegogo, American Express, Intuit and plenty of others. The member portal on the Startup America website shows every member what the current benefits are.

They also regularly hold contests which have included a trip to attend the Super Bowl with Startup America CEO Scott Case and a trip to the Kentucky Derby.

Startup America is chaired by AOL co-founer Steve Case (no relation to Scott Case) and with Puerto Rico, now has 26 regional partnerships.

Linkage:

Startup Puerto Rico

Startup America

Nibletz the voice of startups everywhere else, could use your help

Indiana Startups: This Is Nick Tippmann VIDEO INTERVIEW

Indiana entrepreneur and startup founder Nick Tippmann and I have a lot in common. First off we both get carded to buy cigarettes (I know I know I need to quit), and he would probably get carded for NC-17 movies as well. The fact is that Tippmann is actually 22 years old and has already founded a startup that has been moved to the back burner.

Nick’s Impulse Coupons startup has is a great idea but he told us that he couldn’t put the right team together. He also quickly became very involved in the Indiana startup scene and the midwest startup scene. In just the last year (and at 22 but looking 15) Tippmann has: attended all the startup events at SXSWi, hosted a Shark Tank season premiere party for Mark Cuban (which Cuban attended), been to DEMO on DEMO’s dime, Big Omaha,Chicago TechWeek, oh and did we mention that he founded Startup Weekend Bloomington?

Right now the connections that Tippmann has made probably mean he could do anything or go anywhere he wanted. He was able to foster a relationship with Cuban at the party he and his mentor Larry Chiang threw for Cuban while he was in town for the Super Bowl which just happened to be the same weekend as the Shark Tank season 3 premiere.

He’s also formed a relationship with Startup America CEO Scott Case and countless others. Heck 500 startups founder Dave McClure even follows Super Nick on Twitter.

Tippmann is a whirlwind of startup energy with the conviction of only the most hardworking entrepreneurs and founders. He went to TechWeek in Chicago last week with a very unclear plan of where he was staying, locked his keys in the car one night and slept in it the next.

Tippmann takes every opportunity he gets to establish new relationships and nurture the ones he’s already had.

So what’s Super Nick doing next? Tippmann rode the Startup Bus from Cincinnati to South By Southwest. The Startup Bus kicked off at the Brandery and from that experience he knew he wanted to get into the next session which starts Monday. He has joined a team called Flock’d which is pivoting from a bar and restaurant check-in app, to something awesome in the world of sports.

Tippmann will leave for Cincinnati on Sunday but admitted tonight at the Verge event in Indianapolis that he hasn’t packed and has no idea where he’ll live. Lucky for him he drives a Suburban which could grow to be quite comfortable. The co-founders at Flock’d are going to make sure he has a roof over his head so he can get to work spreading the word about their startup and creating the fire that comes natural to him.

So what does Tippmann do in his free time? Well he meets more people, talks about more startups, mentors for the Lean Startup Machine in Chicago, consults with anyone who wants to talk to him and plans his next conquest.

Check out the interview video below:

Yup we’ve got some linkage:

Check out Nick Tippman’s Blog here

Follow Nick on Twitter here

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” here are more stories from “everywhere else”

We’re on the sneaker-strapped nationwide startup road trip & could use your help here

Startup America Welcomes Startup Montana To The Party

Last week Startup Montana joined the Startup America partnership. Now entrepreneurs and startups in Montana can get the same great benefits that over 7900 startup members of Startup America enjoy.

The Startup Montana partnership was launched at “Montana Innovation and Entrepreneurship Day” on June 21st. The event was held at the University of Montana Gallagher Business Building in Missoula Montana.

Startup Montana will pull together entrepreneurs of all types from across the state who have firsthand knowledge of the challenges that Montana startups face, bring attention to these challenges, and connect entrepreneurs to private and public support organizations to help address startup challenges. Startup Montana has been connecting with Montana startups and has already amassed a number of resource providers to support entrepreneurs. “Montana has significantly accelerated it’s entrepreneurial efforts, and I am very excited to see all of the amazing young companies in the state gain access to resources that will help them succeed. I encourage all startups in the state to join today,” said Scott Case, CEO of the Startup America Partnership.

The Startup America Partnership is a nationwide movement focused on providing startups access to corporations, investors, and services that help startup companies grow. Through Startup America Partnership’s national network, Montana’s entrepreneurs will gain access to business resources throughout the state and across country that will enable them to grow faster, be more competitive, and create more jobs.

Startup Montana will hold events and provide valuable resources to entrepreneurs and those looking to launch startups in the state of Montana. The Startup Montana partnership is led by Bob Clay.

Linkage:

Are you a Montana Startup, join Startup Montana here

Here’s the Startup America Website

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” get your startup covered by emailing startups@nibletz.com

Colorado: Springs Startup Re-Brands And Joins Startup America Partnership

Springs Startup which was formed in November 2011 to help support Startups in the flourishing startup hub of Colorado Springs, has announced a name change. Springs Startup has rebranded themselves as Startup Colorado Springs and officially joined the Startup America Partnership.

Startup America, which is chaired by AOL co-founder Steve Case, supports startups across America through over 25 regional partnerships. Startup America continues to grow, each moth adding more and more cities to the network. Scott Case, founding CTO of Priceline.com, (and no relation to Steve Case) serves as Startup America CEO and is often the frontman across the country at launch events for new partners.

Jan Horsfall, who serves as co-founder Startup Colorado Springs looks forward to joining forces with Startup Colorado and the nationwide partnership Startup America. They held an event tonight in Colorado Springs to announce the name change and the partnership.

“Since our inception, our goal of supporting entrepreneurs as a group of entrepreneurs ourselves has never changed,” noted Jan Horsfall, co-chairman of Startup Colorado Springs and a co-founder of Startup Colorado® – the statewide initiative tied back in with Startup America. “We saw what was being accomplished at the hub – Startup America – and we saw what was happening at the state level with Startup Colorado, and it just made infinite sense to pull this hub-and-spoke thinking all the way down through our growing entrepreneurial scene in Colorado Springs. We have more air cover for our startup community than ever before and Startup Colorado Springs simply supports it wherever we see it.”

Nick Lee, another co-founder of Startup Colorado Springs added:

“Each stage of Startup America provides different assets to entrepreneurs depending on the new company’s needs. Startup America is all about providing the platform for us to understand how we can organically create more entrepreneurial assistance through shared learning and programs. Startup Colorado is all about identifying the resources up and down the Front Range that entrepreneurs can utilize within a state setting. To us, Startup Colorado Springs is about providing the local, personal connectivity and assistance – through entrepreneurs and not through government programs – to our startup community.”

Linkage:

For more on Startup Colorado Springs visit their website here

For more information on Startup America visit their website here

Nibletz is a proud member of Startup America, and the voice of Startups “everywhere else”

Startup America Partners With Startup RockOn For DNC RNC Events

Startup America and Startup RockOn have announced that they are partnering for some very exciting events this year.

Startup RockOn is a collaborative effort of fast growing Startups, Event Farm, HyperVocal, and Fighter Interactive. Together they are putting together mini festival style events at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on September 3, 2012 in Charlotte North Carolina and the Republican National Convention (RNC) August 27th in Tampa Bay.

The events will highlight America’s thriving startup culture, have interactive displays and sessions and feature musical performances, including the group The Roots who have agreed to headline the events.

Startup America CEO, Scott Case, stated, “As the RNC and DNC capture the attention of the country, it’s imperative to highlight the importance of startups to our national economy, and we’re incredibly excited to partner with EventFarm, HyperVocal and FIGHTER Interactive — three hard-working startups themselves — to do just that.”

The StartUp RockOn leadership team stated, “From a garage band to culture-shifting software, from next-generation media companies to 21st century energy solutions, the greatest American success stories start (and will start) through ingenuity, creativity, hard work and perseverance. StartUp RockOn honors the entrepreneurs of America’s bright future.”

Startup America is now 23 regional partnerships strong and has already hosted or partnered for a bunch of great events including a Startup America event at the Hilton in Austin during South by Southwest Interactive.

This new partnership will spur even more interest in Startups, entrepreneurism and technology in the United States, regardless of political affiliation.

Linkage:

June Is California Month At Startup America

If you’re a startup and you’re not already taking advantage of the benefits from a free Startup America membership you’re cheating yourself.

Startup America is a nationwide cooperative partnership that helps support startups through their national organization and 22 (current) partnerships across the country. The organization, led by CEO Scott Case, who was the founding CTO of Priceline.com, holds lectures, seminars, webinars, events, summits and much more. They also give away stuff that’s useful to companies just starting up.

Startup America has three main goals; to provide valuable resources and connections to help companies grow, support regional startup ecosystems throughout the country, and to recognize startups as the drivers of our economy and their founders as American Heroes.

They’ve assembled over $1 billion dollars in commitments from partners to support the growth of startups.

Startup America holds national events, like the event they held at South By Southwest, Regional leader summits and more. They also hold big kickoff events for each regional partnership and then they also partner with other events as they did with Capital Connection/ TechBUZZ in Washington DC and as they are doing with the We Own It Summit June 28th and 29th in New York City.

They’ve been rapidly deploying regional partnerships across the country. They have 22 regions already and by the end of this month they will have 25. Three new partnerships are kicking off in California this month.

San Diego on June 9, 2012

Orange County on June 13, 2012

Los Angeles June 16, 2012

If you’re in any of those areas, click on the links above to find out more about the kick off events for those regions.

For more information on Startup America visit their extremely easy to remember website at s.co

Milwaukee Startup: The Good Jobs Wins Startup Wisconsin Contest On Kick-Off Day

Startup Wisconsin launched last Thursday as part of the Startup America Partnership. They didn’t waste anytime either, and kicked off their kickoff party with a quick pitch contest with a quick $1750 in prizes. The prize money was furnished by the law firm of Michael Best & Friedrich.

A new employment website startup called The Good Jobs, was victorious in the quick pitch competition. The woman owned startup from Milwaukee is creating a jobs site that will launch this summer. Their spin though is that they are matching people up to jobs based on lifestyle badges.

For example, companies that are hiring use proprietary badges to identify things like their commitment to the environment and the planet, or flexible scheduling. All of the things that an employment candidate would be looking for as far as “lifestyle” or “quality of life” are concerned in a new job.

Too often you go into a job interview because you really need a job and forget to ask the important questions. That cruise you have scheduled in two months with your 90 year old grandparents could be in jeopardy if you don’t know ahead of time how a company is about prior family appointments. The office closes at 5pm, does that mean you can still make your sons soccer practice at 6:00? Quality employers know these things are important.

More after the break
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Startup America Spotlight: Woman Owned, Mytab.co INTERVIEW

Last week Cameron and I attended a TechCocktail event that was keynoted by Startup America CEO Scott Case. We challenged ourselves to get more involved so we decided to start featuring Startup America startups as part of our interview/feature series. If you’re a Startup America member at any of their now 22 partnerships across the country email us at startup@nibletz.com and we’ll see if we can get you into our coverage schedule. (Hint it’s one of the only ways we’ll cover a Valley startup)

For our first Startup America member spotlight we talk with Heddi Cundle the founder of woman owned startup mytab.co. Mytab.co is a unique travel gift card.

The card serves two purposes, it allows you to crowdsource funds for your trip. Take a honeymoon for instance, your friends and family can add to your mytab.co account and you’ll have money for your travels.

The second purpose of the card is discounts and rewards from travel partners. Cundle is working with travel partners all over the world to offer mytab.co members exclusive discounts and deals on travel related costs.

Check out our interview with Cundle after the break

Startup New Hampshire Joins Startup America

The newest state to join the #Startup America partnership is New Hampshire. Startup New Hampshire celebrated joining Startup America at an event held in Manchester yesterday. That brings the grand total of Startup America partnerships to 222 across the country.

Startup America is free to join and gives your growth focused startup access to resources, lectures,meetings, events, merchant benefits, and other members in a collaborative effort to invigorate startups across the country.

At an event in Washington DC on Thursday night Startup America CEO Scott Case highlighted the fact that in addition to joining a network that’s now over 7000 startups strong, the Startup America team is building a great network of merchant resources and services for members. American airlines, and American Express are just two national well known brands that members have access to for discounts on flights and financial services.

During the event last night in DC, nibletz.com asked Scott Case in a Q&A section about two things a Philly Startup ListServ Member had asked about, health insurance and discounted legal fees for things like intellectual property law (IP). Case said that they do have law firms that are committed to offering discounted services for members and they are diligently working in the background to provide some health insurance company discounts members as well.

New Hampshire member can now take advantage of the resource pipeline available to Startup America partners.

“Startup New Hampshire is a tipping point for entrepreneurship here in NH. By connecting our entrepreneurs with the incredible resources that Startup America can provide, I would say we have a lot to look forward to in the further growing of this ecosystem,” said Jamie Coughlin, Startup New Hampshire champion. “Startup New Hampshire will serve a crucial role in uniting the different regions in New Hampshire with a singular focus and effort, as well as allowing us to disrupt the status quo in the process.”

“New Hampshire has a fantastic history of entrepreneurial spirit, evident in their “Live Free or Die” state motto,” said Scott Case, Startup America CEO. “We’re excited to see all of the amazing young companies in the state get access to the resources they need to succeed.”

Startup New Hampshire can be found at their kick ass url livefreeandstart.com

Linkage

Find out more about Startup America here

More stories on Startup America from Nibletz can be found here

Like Startup America, Nibletz is committed to startups “everywhere else” click here to send an email about your startup and a pitch for coverage on nibletz.com

We’re on a sneaker-strapped, nationwide startup road trip, more info here

Startup America CEO Scott Case Offers 7 Tips For Relationships At TechCocktail Event in DC

Today was the big day of two Cases for Startups in Washington DC. It was day two of Capital Connection/TechBUZZ at the Omnin Shoreham Hotel. The 35 hour private investor conference highlighted 28 great Startups on Wednesday and equally as many later stage companies today.

Capital Connection features AOL Co-Founder and CEO of Revolution, Steve Case. He offered a great talk highlighting what he’s been working on as an entrepreneur and the strength of Washington DCs thriving tech and startup community.

Later in the evening we went just two miles down the road to TechCocktails Sessions event focusing on relationships and networking. The featured keynote speaker was Scott Case the CEO of the Startup America partnership and the founding CTO of Priceline.com.

Case opened up his talk by making sure everyone knew he wasn’t there to talk about dating. He did however talk about sex, gambling and getting lucky. In short that portion of his talk was about meeting his wife and having four kids (the sex). He then shifted to a story about his father in law who is a horse handicapper. He also talked about one of his friends, and their father, Ira, was also into horse racing (gambling). Then he explained how he was considering a move to the west coast and he got a call from Ira right before he left. Ira wanted to introduce Case to another one of his friends, who was ultimately the founder of Priceline.com (getting lucky).

With Case’s vast experience and the fact that he’s trying to become the most traveled man in the United States as CEO of Startup America, he’s met and networked with thousands of people.

Case brought up the fact that so many startups that he meets are so focused on product development that they forget about customer development. Customer development is totally different from customer acquisition. The roots of customer development lie in relationships and networking.

Case offered these 7 great tips for networking, specifically aimed at startups who sometimes forget about things like this:

1. Everybody has a story, understand what their story’s about.

2. It’s not about you it’s about them. Figure out more about the other person.

3. Find a way to say yes when people ask you for something. All the most interesting things in Cases life started by saying yes. You’ll find yourself falling forward and creates an opportunity for someone else to help you.

It’s very hard to say no to something when they’ve said yes to you

4. There are relationships when you won’t have something in common

5. Social networks aren’t a replacement for in person hand to hand make a relationship with them.

6. Use these tools to keep your relationships current. It’s not enough to go back 6 months. Use social networks to keep current between face to face interactions.

7. You have to be intentional about all of this. Allocate time and energy to networking. You can meet people almost anywhere.

This Thursday: A Day Of Two Cases, Capital Connection & Tech Cocktail

Thursday (May 24) Is a day of two cases first Steve Case (L) then Scott Case (R) (not related)

This week on the nibletz startup road trip we will be in New York for Disrupt and DC for Capital Connection and an event with TechCocktail.

Capital Connection is a one and a half day convention/conference being held in Washington DC Wednesday May 23rd and Thursday May 24th. It’s one of the nation’s most respected industry conferences and showcases emerging, growing companies (startups).

“For 25 years, Capital Connection and now TechBUZZ, have brought together a high-powered cross section of the nation’s technology-based, high-growth ecosystem. Attendees include senior players from across the industry – investors across the continuum of capital, professional advisors, technology product and service firms, and, at the center of it all, innovative entrepreneurs.” source

The conference is divided into two tracks one on Wednesday afternoon and the other on Thursday. Wednesday afternoon is “TechBuzz” and features early stage startup companies. The TechBuzz companies will square off in a familiar quick pitch setting. Each company will have 4 minutes to present and two companies will present simultaneously, according to their website.

Later on Wednesday afternoon the best of the TechBuzz presenters will square off again in a “semi final” type round called “Best of the Buzz”.

The Capital Connection presentations involve early, expansion and growth companies that have been vigorously vetted prior to their presentation. During the application process, the companies presenting in the Capital Connection presentations are scrubbed for “the soundness of their financial model as well as the innovation and potential of their ideas”.

Over the 25 years of the Capital Connection conference it’s been a virtual who’s who of the best tech in the region has to offer.

The Thursday afternoon festivities will be capped with a keynote by AOL founder and Chairman and CEO of Revolution, Steve Case.

Later on Thursday evening we’ll move over to the TechCocktail sessions event with Startup America CEO and Priceline Founding CTO T. Scott Case. The other case (Scott) gives great, almost guy next door presentations on startups, the startup ecosystem and Startup America.

Thursday will be a fun filled day of two cases.

Linkage:

More on Capital Connection here (tickets still available)