Indianapolis Public Startup Angie’s List Sees Stock Drop 16%

Publicly traded tech startups haven’t been doing very well lately. Groupon, and Zynga have both dropped more than 70% since their initial public offerings earlier this year. The world has been watching the public story of Facebook as well. The largest social network in the world debuted at $38 dollars a share and has since dropped 46%. Right now is a tricky time for tech startups turned public companies.

For Angie’s list, the story hasn’t been much better. Except for the fact that Angie’s list debuted much lower than Groupon, Zynga or Facebook, they’ve still seen a steady decline since going public. Tuesday, Angie’s list stock closed at $11.17, which was below their IPO price of $13. The 16% drop on Tuesday was the single biggest decline for the Indianapolis based startup since they debuted on the stock market 9 months ago.

Angie’s list is a marketplace for people to vet and find service workers. Carpenters, babysitters, plumbers and more can be found on the site. The Angie’s list community is filled with reviews from every service sector possible. Companies can’t pay to be on the list it’s all referral/review based and there are no anonymous accounts.

Angie’s list also incorporates discounts of up to 70% off from the service providers found on the site. The company was founded in 1995 by Angie Hicks and William Oesterle and has remained in Indianapolis since then.

Angie’s List reported a loss of $37 million on revenues of $68 million during the first half of 2012.

Source: Yahoo

Maryland Startups Getting On The Bus: Pitch Across Maryland

Mike Binko and Julie Lenzer Kirk organizers of Pitch Across MD photo: Pitch Across Maryland

Apparently we’re not the only ones who truly believe to cover and spread the word about entrepreneurship you need to take it in the trenches and to the streets. That’s the exact idea behind Mike Binko and Julie Lenzer Kirk’s, Pitch Across Maryland initiative.

The two have organized the Pitch Across Maryland bus that will start September 11th and end on September 28th. Like our sneaker-strapped, nationwide startup road trip, Pitch Across Maryland will get in the trenches and make stops at accelerators, incubators, and anywhere with a startup pulse in Maryland.

The Pitch Across Maryland bus will stop by Baltimore Innovation Week on September 21s and round out their tour at Merriweather Post Pavillion in Columbia Maryland to introduce startups and entrepreneurs. Our friends at Technically Baltimore are also reporting that the bus will make it’s first Baltimore area stop on September 20th at UMBC’s campus.

If Kirk’s name sounds familiar to you, that’s because she’s the executive director at the Maryland Center for Entrepeneurship. She is also one of the organizers of the Startup Maryland chapter of the Startup America partnership. Binko is the CEO of Annapolis based Kloudtrack.

The Pitch Across Maryland Bus has been outfitted with a video studio so that entrepreneurs along the route can record their video pitches. The Pitch Across Maryland Bus crew will give the entrepreneurs a copy of their video and also submit them to a statewide pitch contest. After all the videos have been submitted via bus, the contest will open up online and then 16 finalists will be chosen. Those 16 finalists will receive extensive coaching before presenting in front of judges and competing for prizes at an upcoming entrepreneurial conference.

“Once the voting is done in late October, we’ll announce the top vote-getters at an entrepreneur expo,” Binko told TechnicallyBaltimore.com.

Linkage:

Source: Technically Baltimore

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Entries Now Open For Business Excellence Awards 2013 Best Startup Company

The Business Excellence Awards is a global event put on by ActionCOACH the world’s largest business coaching and executive coaching firm in the world with offices in over 40 countries.

The next Business Excellence Awards ceremonies begin January 25th and 26th 2013 in Las Vegas. They continue in Europe on February 7th and 8th 2013 and finish in Asia February 22 and 23rd 2013. Each region will present a “Best Startup” award for companies that have had the best results since beginning no later than January 1, 2011.

In addition to Best Startup, other award categories include:

Best Overall Company
Best Turnaround Company
Most Innovative Company
Fastest Growing Company
Best Customer Service Results
Young Entrepreneur (35 or younger)
Entrepreneur of the Year
Best Retailer
Best Service Based
Best Manufacturer/Wholesaler
Most Community Impact

Source88 in St.Petersburg Florida was the 2011 Best Startup Winner. That ceremony and forum event were held in Miami Florida.

Linkage:

If your startup is ready you can check out the awards and enter here

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Atlanta Startups Get More Resources In Startup Atlanta Organization

On Tuesday, the city of Atlanta Georgia’s economic development agency, Invest Atlanta, will announce a new startup resource for Atlanta’s growing entrepreneur and startup eco-system. The new startup program, designed to promote and increase entrepreneurship is called “Startup Atlanta”.

Startup Atlanta itself is not part of the Startup America Partnership, however a spokesperson from Startup America’s headquarters in Washington DC told nibletz on Friday that many of the same people involved with Startup Atlanta are also involved with the soon to launch StartupGA partnership region.

One of the backbones to the new Startup Atlanta initiative will be a website with an interactive platform that maps out the startup resources in the region including incubators, co-working spaces, accelerators and other valuable resources. The idea behind the site is to connect entrepreneurs and startups with the resources that they need as well as each other.

Atlanta has had some great startup news in recent weeks. Over 1300 entrepreneurs, founders, startups and venture capitalists poured into the Sweet Watery Brewery for a TechCrunch meet up.

Not less than a week later Atlanta startup Bad.gy announced a $600,000 round of funding led by Dallas Maverick’s owner and ABC Shark Tank Shark, Mark Cuban. Just yesterday Atlanta played host to the Art Of Launch, an event that saw 13 area startups compete in a 5 minute pitch contest for thousands of dollars in cash and prizes.

Startup Atlanta has attracted the attention of local dignitaries including Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Director of the United States Patent and Trade Mark Office Dave Kappos and Georgia Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson. All of whom will be on hand for the Tuesday announcement.

Linkage:

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Source: Atlanta Business Chronicle

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Bizdom Cleveland Startup Accelerator Gets A New Bizdom

Bizdom is a startup accelerator program with locations in Detroit and Cleveland. Both Detroit and Cleveland have growing entrepreneurial and startup ecosystems, where Bizdom’s program and facilities naturally fit in.

Bizdom was launched in Cleveland by one of their biggest tech startups turned successful giant companies, Quicken Loans Inc,and Chairman Dan Gilbert’s Rock Ventures. Gilbert is passionate about technology, entrepreneurship and Cleveland is also the majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Bizdom program is actually one of the earlier startup accelerator programs. They hold three month sessions and provide startup companies, selected for their program, with $25,000 seed investments for 8% equity. Startups selected for the Bizdom program at either location are given office space, internet access, access to a wide variety of mentors, business services and other perks.

The Cleveland program has been operating out of the Quicken Loans Web Center inside the MK Ferguson Building at Quicken Loans Arena. Now they’re moving to their own 7,000 square foot space at 250 W. Huron Road in the 250 Huron Building. The Bizdom Cleveland headquarters will be inside the five story commercial building which sits directly below the Ritz Carlton Cleveland Hotel.

“Establishing our Cleveland headquarters at 250 Huron solidifies Bizdom as an anchor in the city’s growing tech hub,” said Ross Sanders, chief executive officer of Bizdom. “Much like our Detroit headquarters, we have designed a collaborative and dynamic space that fosters an atmosphere for our entrepreneurs to truly excel,” he said.

The Detroit Bizdom location moved to a new headquarters in the Madison building in Detroit back in March. Space is one of the values that is very important to Gilbert which explains why both locations have relocated prior to their next session.

“The opportunity came open at the Madison and part of Dan Gilbert’s vision is that place matters,” says Maria LaLonde, Bizdom’s recruiting and development leader told XConomy about the Detroit move. “We’re trying to create a great tech community where our entrepreneurs are closer to mentors, closer to funding sources, and can collaborate in an open workspace.”

Both locations offer four seasonal sessions a year and have graduated over 50 startups.

Linkage

Check out Bizdom here

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GM Ventures Invests In Rhode Island Startup NanoSteel

NanoSteel, a Rhode Island startup, with 34 employees is working on the future of steel. According to this report NanoSteel has created a new class of steel that will allow automakers to reduce the weight of vehicles without compromising the structural integrity needed for safety.

“We are investing in NanoSteel because of the opportunity associated with their new steel alloy technology,” said Jon Lauckner, GM’s chief technology officer, vice president of Global R&D and president of GM Ventures LLC told the Detroit News. “Over the next several years, light-weighting of vehicles will be a major focus area to improve fuel economy. NanoSteel’s nano-structured alloys offer unique material characteristics that are not available today, making them a potential game-changer.”

While it’s no secret that innovation is needed in the auto industry, automakers in the United States are tasked with the fact that U.S. Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards will almost double to 54.5mpg in 2025. While that’s still twelve years away GM is aggressively trying to start development on this project. Finding a lighter steel product, thereby reducing the weight of vehicles is definitely a viable option.

GM Ventures is General Motors $100 million dollar venture capital arm. In 2010 they invested $3.2 million into an Ann Arbor startup called Satik3 Inc. They are a battery company working on developing advanced solid state rechargeable technology for cars and electronics.

They also invested in Bright Automotive, a Rochester Hills company which is developing a plug in hybrid commercial vehicle set to launch by 2014.

GM Ventures has also invested $7.5 million in Sunlogics. That company is also based in Rochester Hills and is producing solar powered charging stations. GM plans to deploy these charging stations at GM dealers and at their other facilities.

The terms in the NanoSteel investment were not disclosed. They are joining NanoSteel’s current investors; EnerTech Capital, Fairhaven Capital Partners, and others for this Series C round.

Linkage:

Check out NanoSteel here

Source: Detroit News

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Memphis Startup: Cloud For Good And Apsona To Get You Over The Edge

Cloud For Good, A Memphis based startup, that works with mission driven organizations to create and implement strategic soultions based on cloud technology, with a strong focus on Salesforce, has teamed up with Apsona. The two companies have released a new product called “Over The Edge”.

Over The Edge helps non-profit and educational organizations who have been using Raiser’s Edge for CRM and business management solutions, to migrate to the more powerful and more robust SalesForce platform. While that looks like a task any decent sized IT department could easily handle, it wouldn’t be with the ease nor the speed that “Over The Edge” brings to the table.

Cloud For Good’s Founder Tal Frankfurt, told us in an in person interview Wednesday night that the Over The Edge products takes under 30 minutes and just 4 clicks to have a non-profit, or educational organization migrated to Sales Force. Frankfurt has found, and many others have agreed, that migration and actually executing the switch-over from something else to SalesForce is the most painful part. Once companies are running on SalesForce it’s smooth Sailing.

While most non-profits and educational organizations know the benefits of switching to SalesForce, theyv’e also heard war stories that kept them from switching. A big data loss for a non-profit could amount in hundreds of hours of paid computer labor to get back up and running, and unfortunately the fees for that kind of service are often not within their reach. That’s one of the driving reasons behind the creation of “Over the edge”.

Cloudforgood has helped a number of non profit organizations and educational organizations with their data and cloud storage needs. While their big focus is on SalesForce they’ve also helped implement CRM systems, teach and implement Google Docs and a variety of other things for non-profits.

Linkage:

Check out Cloudforgood here

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Denver Startup Plink Raises $3M Series A From Grotech Ventures

Denver loyalty and rewards startup Plink has been on a roll lately. Back in June we brought you this story about how they partnered with TangoCard to bring their rewards beyond Facebook credits and that strategy has seemed to pay off.

Today they’ve announced that they’ve closed a $3 million dollar series A round entirely from mid-atlantic (VA & MD) based Grotech Ventures.

Plink began as a company that would take offline businesses and incentivize their customer base with something simple, and easy that millions would benefit from, Facebook credits. While only offering Facebook credits they rapidly ramped up their brick and mortar customer base, until the recent transition to rewards from TangoCard partners. The company has reported that they will use the new funding to continue accelerating development of their offline program. Of course they will also ramp up member acquisition and their marketing efforts.

“Connecting online-to-offline is a challenge for marketers,” said Plink Co-founder and CEO Peter Vogel. “Plink bridges that gap and Grotech Ventures’ investment brings nearly 20 years of successful experience, an enormous amount of industry know-how, insight, and strategic guidance to propel Plink to the next level.”

“For consumers, Plink is a no-brainer,” said Joe Zell, general partner of Grotech Ventures. “Why wouldn’t someone join and get rewards for going out to their favorite places? There’s no extra card to carry or steps a consumer has to take. In addition, Plink has already proven that huge national restaurant brands love the model and they’re already seeing significant increases in consumer purchases.”

Some of the largest fast food establishments are already on board with Plink including Arby’s, Dunkin Donuts and Burger King.

Large chains have embraced Plink because it doesn’t require any changes to their existing point-of-sale infrastructure, does not require staff training, Plink does all the marketing and the restaurants only pay a percentage of the sales that Plink drives. Initial results have shown that Plink members are spending 65 percent more per month at partner restaurants than they were prior to joining Plink. It’s a risk-free, 100 percent turn-key model for national chains and Plink will soon be adding large retail and travel partners.

Plink has raised $4 million to date.

Linkage:

Check out Plink here

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Miami Startup: CleanTie Makes Laundry A Cinch

A new startup in Miami is looking to take the pain away from laundry. Forget making time in your busy schedule to take your laundry to the laundromat, and forget having to fold baskets of clothes. CleanTie, a new startup in Miami has taken laundry referral to the web.

That’s not all though, CleanTie will help you find a laundry service that picks up and delivers from your home. That means you can make your laundry appointment wearing that last clean pair of boxers, from your iPad or laptop. CleanTie is adding to the growing list of services that have been able to generate business via the internet.

CleanTie is all about convenience for the customer. The search engine part of the site matches you with your closest laundry service and then you can drill down to the one you want to use from the available laundry services that pick up and deliver from either your home or office. Some of the laundry services even offer same day service.

“This is a great way for brick and mortar laundry services to reach an untapped market of busy people searching the internet for help with their laundry. Better yet, they can take advantage of the CleanTie marketing platform, without spending money or time on internet marketing themselves.” said Blair Nastasi PR Director at CleanTie.

The new startup reports that they plan on running tv commercials in their first market, of course Miami. They are also working on an official mobile app which will allow you to easily schedule your laundry pick up and delivery from your smartphone.

Linkage:

Check out CleanTie here

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Disgraced Yahoo CEO,Scott Thompson, Now CEO At Pennsylvania Startup ShopRunner

Last week Yahoo announced the ultimate in poaching executives attracting longtime Google Executive,Marissa Mayer to the open CEO position. Yahoo had been looking for a CEO to replace Scott Thompson after he was ousted for fabricating a Computer Science degree on his resume.

After leaving Yahoo it was unclear what he would do next. Today, several news sites including siliconvalley.com have reported that Thompson is now the CEO of Pennsylvania startup ShopRunner.

ShopRunner is based in Conshohocken Pennsylvania with a satellite office in Silicon Valley’s Meno Park. Thompson will most likely spend a lot of time at the Menlo Park location. He has been based in the Valley throughout a large portion of his career. Prior to the Yahoo appointment, Thompson was a high ranking executive at EBay owned PayPal.

eBay also owns a portion of ShopRunner, a service that provides shopping perks to a number of paid subscribers at various website e-commerce partners.

With Thompson’s experience at PayPal he should do very well at ShopRunner.

“Joining ShopRunner is a tremendous opportunity to build on the strong foundation that the company has already established. While PayPal and ShopRunner are fundamentally different businesses, there are similarities in each of their success,” Thompson said in the company’s news release.

Siliconvalley.com did notice that the news release announcing Thompson’s hiring made no reference about his educational background. It’s obvious that ShopRunner is not concerned about it.

“We are thrilled that Scott has taken us up on our offer to lead ShopRunner’s continued growth,” ShopRunner co-founder and its current CEO Mike Golden said in Monday’s news release. Golden will continue as president of the company.

Linkage:

Find out more about ShopRunner here

Source: siliconvalley.com

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New York Startups GroupMe and Groupie In Legal Battle, This Gets Confusing

Last year a little known group messaging startup called Groupie filed a lawsuit when it’s similarly named competitor started blowing up. If you remember back to last summer, Group messaging startup, with a lot more flair, GroupMe was acquired by Skype.

If you haven’t heard of Groupie that’s no surprise. The iPhone only group messaging platform had 60,000 users for about a million messages per day. GroupMe on the other hand has 4.6 million users who send over half a billion messages per month. GroupMe also just released no features surrounding events. What’s better than to pair a group messaging app with events you do in groups.

Fresh on the heels of GroupMe’s acquisition last August, Groupie quickly went to work suing GroupMe around trademark allegations. According to BetaBeat Groupie filed for their trademark back in 2009. That seems straight forward but in reality it looks like Groupie got a little jealous of it’s competitors success.

Betabeat reports that last years Groupie vs GroupMe lawsuit received a little bit of coverage from the likes of GigaOM, SAI and themselves. GigaOM’s piece got picked up by the Wall Street Journal, and then the lawsuit went quiet.

We’re not clear on why it’s been 11 months for this suit to resurface but GroupMe went back into court on July 11th and filed suit against Groupie. GroupMe is looking for declarations from the court that there is “no likelihood of confusion” between GroupMe’s mark and the Groupie mark. GroupMe is also looking for the court to declare that they have not violated any mark of Groupie’s.

Betabeat wasn’t able to get a statement from GroupMe and of course Groupie was more than willing to talk. Here’s what they said to Betabeat:

“This newly filed action is just the latest volley in an ongoing trademark dispute rooted in the confusing similarities between Groupie’s pre-existing, validly registered trademark “Groupie” and the nearly identical Groupme name. Groupie initially filed an Opposition Proceeding against Groupme before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in July of 2011 (Groupie LLC v. Groupme Inc., TTAB Opposition No. 91200478). Groupie’s Opposition Proceeding seeks to protect its trademark by preventing Groupme from registering the confusingly similar “Groupme” mark. Not only do ”Groupie” and “Groupme” look and sound the same, the two companies’ products are virtually identical and are distributed through the same channels of commerce, thus causing ongoing consumer confusion. Additionally, the evidence will show that Groupme’s claim for cancellation of Groupie’s valid trademark is a late pursued theory premised on the illogical conclusion that the trademarked brand ”Groupie” is a generic term. Groupie is confident that claim will be summarily rejected. In short, Groupie has been vigorously fighting to protect its trademark in the Opposition Proceeding and will do the same in the newly filed action.”

When you consider all the facts it’s hard to say who is right and who’s wrong. Groupie did start out three years before GroupMe however GroupMe is much more successful. Groupie may have wanted to protect their idea, and name but now it does just look like they’re going after deep pockets. It’s really up for a judge to decide. Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Boulder Startups TeamUp To Thank FireFighters & Wildlife Relief

(image breakingnews.com)

We already know that Boulder has a thriving startup scene as far as the technology and ideas that are coming out of the Colorado town that’s home to Techstars and the Foundry. Now we’re witnessing what makes the Boulder startup scene an actual community.

When stories come out like this, it’s a great feeling. Startups that compete day in and day out for the same funding y, and the same spotlight can put all that aside and come together for the communities that they are in. Earlier this year a large number of North Carolina startups, including well established startups like ReverbNation came together to speak out against amendment one, which was unfortunately passed when NC went to vote. In that particular case the startups and their founders were worried that passing amendment one would make it harder to attract gay talent.

The story out of Boulder is in regards to the massive forest fires that destroyed thousands of acres in Colorado. While some members of Boulder’s startup community felt the effects of the fires first hand with displaced homes and businesses, others have pitched in with their own efforts just for the good of the community.

Some of the projects that the Boulder startups startups have worked on include fundraising drives, cash donations, wildfire t-shirts and even thank you cards. Card Gnome is behind the colorful thank you cards that have been sent to the firefighters. Startup Shirts has created t-shirts with 100% of the proceeds going to Colorado Firefighting and Rebuilding called “The Heal Colorado” t-shirt.

Linkage:

Source: TNW

HealColorado T-Shirt

CardGnome’s Thank You Cards

CrowdRise Fundraisng

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Washington DC’s Startup Kitchen Narrows The Field To Three

The first food industry startup incubator the “Startup Kitchen” is the brainchild of Washington DC restauranteur Kera Carpenter. She opened Domku an East European influenced restaurant in the revitalizing neighborhood of Pentworth in the district in 2005. It was overcoming the difficulties of not only starting here own business, but a restaurant at that, that inspired Carpenter to team up with Think Local First DC to create the “Startup Kitchen”.

Now we’re not talking a show you would see on the food network, we are talking about full on restaurant idea businesses. The food startup founders were narrowed down to three finalists which will pitch on July 18th. The winner selected out of the finalists will have six weeks to work on their concept with the help of mentors, and then Carpenter will donate space for the winner to open up a “Pop up restaurant” once a week in Domku’s space at 821 Upshur Street NW in Pentworth.

Hopefully after the six week period and then the pop up restaurant period that entrepreneur will be able to transition their startup to their own space in the district.

The three finalists, as reported by the Washington Business Journal are:

Worthwhile Meats and Provisions founded by Julien Shapiro. Her business idea is a specialty butcher shop showcasing the whole animal.

Chaya, a restaurant concept focused on cuisines featuring plants, legumes and whole grains. This is the idea of Bettina Stern and Zusanne Simon.

DC Dosa, a restaurant idea that would serve Dosa’s which are south Indian pancake snacks. Their plan is to serve them late night and at lunchtime. Think along the lines of crepe stands.

The three semi-finalists will pitch next Wednesday and the winners will be announced on Friday the 20th. That’s a big week for startups in DC as the 20th is also pitch day for TechStars Patriot Bootcamp.

Linkage:

Here’s the Startup Kitchen blog

Source: Washington Business Journal 1 2

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Silicon Prairie News Now Taking Nominations For Annual Awards Show August 30

Four years ago Silicon Prairie News (or SPN as they’re affectionately known) began reporting on stories in Omaha and surrounding areas. They soon added coverage from Des Moines, Kansas and other areas. Today SPN is the site of record for anything happening in the Silicon Prairie.

While we know all too well how hard it can be to get traction and coverage for Startups “everywhere else” SPN covers their regional area with the veracity that TechCrunch covers Silicon Valley. Not only that but SPN co-founder Jeff Slabotski has formed quite a community around the tech site and the rising startup scenes out there.

To recognize the hard work that startups and tech companies have put forth in the region, Silicon Prairie News started The Silicon Prairie Awards. We are all well aware that the work put into a startup “everywhere else” towers the work needed to build a startup on either coast. Not only are entrepreneurs and startup founders fighting for big media coverage, resources, funding, and talent are more challenging.

Silicon Prairie News has also become a valuable resource to other tech and startup news sites. We’ve picked up some great stories from SPN.

“Over the last four years, Silicon Prairie News has worked to highlight and support the region’s startup community,” SPN co-founder Jeff Slobotski said in a release. “The Silicon Prairie Awardsis now an annual opportunity to bring that community together under one roof and recognize the companies and individuals that have had an exceptional year.”

The Silicon Prairie Awards will highlight the achievements of startups in their core coverage areas Omaha, Des Moines and Kansas City. The awards will be in these categories; Startup, New Startup, Consumer Startup, B2B Startup, Mobile Application, Startup Executive, Startup Technologist, Startup Designer, Startup Investor and Startup Service Provider.

Nominations are being taken here through July 25th.

Linkage:

Source: DesMoinesRegister.com

Cast your vote now at SPN

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