startup news Archives - Page 8 of 12

Tennessee Startup: MDSave Raising $1 Million To Connect Self Pays To The Best Care

A Brentwood Tennessee startup called MDSave is connecting self pay patients with a choice in healthcare that they hadn’t had before. Doctors who use the MDSave platform share their prices and extend deals to self pay patients and those with high deductible health insurance plans.

MDSave doesn’t only provide more options for those self pay patients, but in turn they help keep the emergency rooms and urgent care clinics less crowded. Perusing the MDSave website you can find that doctors are competing for those self pay patients so they keep their services affordable.

The doctors on the platform pay a small subscription fee. Patients on the other hand, use the platform to search for the type of medical service they need by zipcode. Once they’ve selected a participating doctor they pay in advance through the MDSave platform and they’re giving a voucher to see the doctor they selected. The voucher is redeemed at the appointment to cover the cost. This way, not only are self pay patients getting much needed healthcare the doctors are eliminating the risk associated with collections and the messy process it can be to collect from a self pay patient at the end of the appointment.

MedCitynews is reporting that a SEC filing has revealed that MDSave is in the middle of a $1 million dollar equity raise.

MDSave’s founder and CEO Paul Ketchel is a former member of former Tennessee US Senator Bill Frist. Ketchel is also the son in law of Tennessee Representative Marsha Blackburn.

According to MedCityNews the capital raised in this round will be used to expand MDSave outside of Tennessee.

Linkage:

Check out MDSave here

Source: MedCityNews

No one covers High Growth Technology in The South East like nibletz

Bring yourself to the largest startup conference in the US

St. Louis Startup LockerDome Announces First Game Built On LockerDome Platform

We’ve been continually covering St. Louis startup LockerDome since April of this year. LockerDome is a venture backed sports social network that allows players of any age and any level to engage throughout their entire career. LockerDome was founded by Gabe Lozano who’s the son of online payment software pioneer Bob Lozano. The elder Lozano helped launch cloud solutions and development firm Appistry as well as PayLinx.

LockerDome is backed by Cultivation Capital as well as Square co-founder and local St.Louis entrepreneur Jim McKelvey.

We’ve had the privilege of talking with Lozano quite a bit over the last six months. In fact he served as an impromptu, remote mentor for one of the teams that participated in Memphis’ Startup Weekend over the summer.

On our last trip to St. Louis Lozano was very excited when he was telling us that they had started to open up the LockerDome platform to developers and some of the ideas that may come out of that. Today they’re announcing the first game/app that has been built on top of the LockerDome platform, “Basketball Memory App by Dime Magazine”.

Dime Magazine is the the basketball lifestyle magazine that’s been around since 2001. The Memory App by Dime Magazine will live on the Dime Magazine Network on LockerDome and leverage LockerDome’s over 2.5 million monthly unique visitors. Users will match the popular basketball lifestyle magazine’s covers featuring the biggest names in basketball as quickly as possible and win cool basketball related prizes. The first of these prizes is a pair of the recently launched “Polarizing Pink” Nike Air Foamposite One shoes provided by Foot Locker.

“We are pleased to be partnering with Dime Magazine and IDC Projects to deliver the first game to LockerDome’s rapidly growing and highly engaged sports audience,” said Gabe Lozano, co-founder and CEO of LockerDome. “This exciting new game featuring the stunning artwork from previous Dime covers and the wonderfully addictive Memory Matches technology represents the next step in the evolution of LockerDome as a sports media platform.”

“We’re excited to use our expertise in mobile games to be part of this synergistic approach to encourage interaction between basketball fans and brands.” said Michael Orlando, CEO of IDC Projects.

“Over the past decade, Dime Magazine’s covers have featured the best basketball players in the word. We’re excited to bring Dime to a robust mobile platform like LockerDome, and to give our fans a fun, new experience through this innovative and wonderfully addictive new game,” Dime Magazine’s CEO and co-founder Josh Gotthelf said in a statement.

Since re-launching in January, LockerDome has been one of the fastest growing sports-specific websites in the world. Many top sports agencies are leveraging LockerDome as a means to maximize their client’s social media efforts on Facebook and Twitter and to better engage their fanbases. The official brands and networks the St. Louis-based company represents includes NBA superstars Blake Griffin, Rudy Gay, David Lee and Stephen Curry, NFL superstars Troy Polamalu, Larry Fitzgerald, Maurice Jones-Drew and Marshawn Lynch, and MLB Legends Pete Rose and Wade Boggs, among others.

Linkage:

Download the game for your iOS device today, here

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” here are more startup stories from St. Louis

Are you headed to the biggest startup conference in the US?

Dallas Startup: VIPOrbit Named Number 1 By i.Business Magazine, To Be Featured At CES

We first reported on Dallas startup VIPorbit back in June as part of our Chicago Tech Week coverage. VIPorbit is a robust relationship management system for iOS devices founded by ACT co-founder Mike Muhney. ACT is the original Customer Relationship Management software, that paved the way for companies like SalesForce.

VIPorbit users organize their entire contact list into orbits, and can add as much or as little relationship management information to each contacts record. Track every conversation, email, activity and more across contacts and orbits. VIPorbit is by far the best mobile CRM solution we’ve tested and we’ve used it consistently since June.

The folks at i.Business magazine must agree as VIPorbit has beat out such widely known enterprise mobile apps as FileMaker Go, Quick Office Pro, DropBox and Evernote to claim the number one spot in the magazine’s “Top 50 Business Apps”. The online version of the latest issue has already hit digital news stands and the hard copy version will come out shortly and be given away free to the hundreds of thousands of attendees of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January.

“We are dedicated to providing the most robust relationship management experience available on the iPhone and iPad—not just another useful app but full-featured relationship management software that empowers users to build relationships and grow their businesses,” said Mike Muhney, VIPorbit CEO and co-founder. “VIPorbit gives users instant recall of all past, present, and future activities with those in their network, setting them apart from their competition.”

“We are excited to announce the Top 50 Business Apps Edition of i.Business Magazine, and to name VIPorbit as the number one app on the list. It gives professionals everything they need to stay on top business relationships, a mission-critical business activity. It manages contacts, schedules, tasks, Email, social feeds, and more—all in one easy-to-use app, available for both iPhone and iPad—two platforms widely used by businesspeople,” said Carmine De Santo, founder and publisher of i.Business Magazine

Muhney is a serious influencer in the CRM and mobile CRM business. He also penned this guest post for us here at nibletz.com.

Linkage:

Check out VIPorbit here

Here’s more startup news from “everywhere else’

Clear your schedule for the largest startup conference in the world

Exclusive: Nashville Startup RentStuff Acquired

We’ve been covering the wild, but awesome ride that Nashville startup RentStuff has been on since May. RentStuff is a 2011 graduate of the JumpStart Foundry startup accelerator in music city.

Over the summer the Nashville startup relocated to the 1871 startup incubator in Chicago.

RentStuff started off as a peer to peer rental platform. Got a lawn mower rotting away in the garage. You could use RentStuff to rent it out to someone who needed it for a few days. Items like iPads, DSLR cameras and even powerful leaf blowers could be found at RentStuff.

In August the RentStuff team, led by Chris Jaeger, pivoted away from that model in favor of a more traditional rental search utility. Jaeger told us then that they would continue to support both platforms however the original model, despite rave reviews, wasn’t scaling fast enough. You could find a lawnmower for rent in Nashville and a DSLR camera in Pennsylvania, with the people who actually wanted to rent them hundreds of miles away.

Today we found out that RentStuff has been acquired by RentalCompare, the largest searchable database of things to rent across the country. Terms of the sale were not disclosed by press time.

Jaeger has always been a big proponent of the Nashville startup scene, especially the Entrepreneur Center and JumpStart Foundry. Tennessee venture firm Solidus backs several Tennessee accelerators including JumpStart Foundry and also participated in a follow on round for RentStuff.

RentStuff alerted their user base to their acquisition with the message below posted on their Facebook page:

Tennessee is a great place to startup, apply now for the Seed Hatchery accelerator click here

Linkage:

Find RentStuff Here

Make sure you have a ticket for this

No one covers high growth technology in the South East like we do

Launch Memphis Launches UpStart Women’s Startup Initiative And 48 Hour Launch Dec 7-9

Launch Memphis, one of the key ecosystem drivers for startups in Tennessee, has launched a new initiative aimed at women entrepreneurs and startups. Getting more women engaged in startup communities is a goal that most cities are working on. Driving entrepreneurial growth among women is also a key factor in the overall health and success of an entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Launch Your City and their Memphis arm, Launch Memphis, are no strangers to the startup ecosystem. They’ve been the driving force behind Memphis’ startup and entrepreneurial growth since 2006. Launch Memphis runs a free coworking space; The LaunchPad, curriculum based initiatives through Launch Memphis and a startup accelerator in it’s third year, Seed Hatchery.

With the success of their most recent endeavors, including playing host to over a dozen Global Entrepreneurship Week events, now is the perfect time to announce a women’s initiative.

The kick off event for the women’s initiative, dubbed “UpStart” is a 48 Hour Launch event being held December 7-9th at Emerge Memphis. The three day hackathon style, startup launching vehicle has been so successful in Memphis, the folks in Nashville recently replicated the event for their startup community.

The UpStart 48 Hour Launch is open to both women and men to participate however the ideas pitched will be from women. These women entrepreneurs will drive their teams through 48 hours of hacking, collaborating and building a viable product.

Unlike many of the “official” Startup Weekend events, 48 Hour Launch is coupled with the existing resources of Launch Memphis and Emerge Memphis which serves as the epicenter for startup and entrepreneurial activity in the mid south.

“We recognize that the disparity between men’s and women’s high growth potential startup companies is not unique to Memphis; however, Memphis can be unique in our deliberate approach to close this gap and fuel women’s innovation and entrepreneurship”. Elizabeth Lemmonds, Chief Brand Officer at LaunchYourCity told nibletz.com

Danielle Inez, a successful PR, marketing and event planning consultant in Memphis is anxious to pitch her newest idea at the UpStart 48 Hour Launch in December. Inez was among hundreds who participated in Launch Memphis’ Risk City Field Day event last Friday as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Inez took to Twitter on Tuesday to express her enthusiasm for both events.

Eric Mathews, Co-President and CEO of LaunchYourCity said: “We are making a commitment to cultivate and fund a woman led and majority woman owned startup by the end of the first quarter of next year. We encourage women to reach out and get involved in all levels of our platform as mentors, investors, and of course as potential founders.”

UpStart programming also includes a women’s meetup and plans on being a permanent fixture in the LaunchMemphis programming.

Linkage:

Upstart Memphis is here

No one covers high growth technology in the south east like Nibletz

Make sure you’ve got a ticket to this grand event

New Coding School Startup In Colorado Offers Money Back Guarantee

Galvanize, the Denver Colorado startup and coworking space in Denver’s Golden Triangle Neighborhood has a new tenant called gSchool. gSchool joins the onslaught of new coding schools that were brought on by institutions like Code Academy. Coding schools typically teach one thing, coding.

While IT schools are nothing new, in coding schools you’ll find the next generation of technical founders, hipster geeks and hoodie wearing future nerds. They’re a far cry from the pocket protector, briefcase students that roam the halls of ECPI.

gSchool is confident though. They plan on putting their students through a rigorous, fast paced program teaching skills like Ruby on Rails, for around $20,000 a clip. You may have just had a little accident when you read that but here’s the rub. gSchool has a money back guarantee. A good one.

After students complete the gSchool program they guarantee that you’ll get a job earning $60,000 or better or they will refund your $20,000 tuition. Think about that for a second. You’re spending $20,000 to make a guaranteed 300% return, much better odds than those betting on startups in the valley.

Galvanize is home to 27 startup businesses and now the gSchool. Jim Deters a tech entrepreneur and co-founder of Galvanize recruited Jump Start Labs and coding instructor Jim Casimir to teach at gSchool.

gSchool’s intense six month program is designed to graduate high caliber performers, not high caliber beginners, according to Deters.

“They want people who get the ethos and are imbued with the work ethic in startups today,” Deters said to the Denver Business Journal. “It’s fast-paced, and it’s creative.”

Galvanize is about growing talented startups and for that to succeed they need to increase the talent pool available in Denver. That’s the real goal behind gSchool. Growing top tier programmers right in the building will give other building tenants access to the talent they need to succeed.

Deters is working on the second Galvanize a few miles north of the original location. It too will house startups, co-working space, gSchool classrooms and an eatery based on Deter’s first startup the ChoLon Bistro.

Linkage:

Galvanize is here

More startup news from “everywhere else” is here

Go on, get a ticket to the largest startup conference in the world for under $50

Source: Denver Business Journal

Minnesota Startup Jingit Raises $7 Million, Pays Consumers To Watch Ads

Jingit, a startup based in Edina Minnesota, has raised $7 million dollars in investment capital according to a regulatory filing. The startup was founded last year by Joe Rogness, the former CEO of tech consultancy Two Fish and Todd Rooke a former executive with Hewlitt Packard.

Jingit allows ordinary consumers to earn up to $15 per week for watching ads and giving feedback on them. Household brands like Walmart, Hershey and Kraft are in Jingit’s stable of clients.

The company partnered with US Bank last year which issues a debit card on their behalf. Jingit customers’ earnings from ad watching is directly deposited onto the debit cards. Each ad yields the user between $.05 and $.50 cents. Payments vary based on advertiser, market study, and demographics. For instance advertisers may pay more to have an 18 year old watch an advertisement for a video game rather than someone older. Kraft may pay more for people in an older demographic to watch their ad.

Jingit has fail safes in place to make sure that their users are actually watching ads. The ad will stop if another browser window or tab is opened while the ad is playing.

The startup gives advertisers unparalleled ability to drill down to their ideal customer. They’ve found that advertisers are willing to pay more money for this kind of targeted feedback.

Prior to this $7 million dollar round, Jingit had raised $3.5 million dollars.

Linkage

Source: Minneapolis, St. Paul, Business Journal

Make sure you get to this conference.

Ohio Startup: Buyvite Adds “Pay Me Back” Social Payment Product

We’ve been following Brandy Alexander-Wimberly and her Toledo Ohio startup, Buyvite, since last May. Buyvite is a payment tool that makes group buying easy. For example, say you’re having a high school reunion and as a side activity you decide to catch a football game or a few rounds of golf as a group. Buyvite allows all of the group to pay for the excursion without having one person delegated in charge of the money, and risking one, or two people not paying.

Buyvite announced a new product on Monday called “Pay Me Back”. This product works after the transaction is made and is just in time for the holiday gift giving season.

With “Pay Me Back” say you and your family members decided to buy one of your other family members an expensive gift, like an iPad. Once one person makes the initial purchase, Pay Me back can divide the price paid among the others in your family and act as the conduit for the person who “fronted” the money to get paid back easily.

“Pay Me Back” has a variety of great uses. Alexander-Wimberly explains:

“This product was developed to give our partners an easy way to leverage the power of social commerce. Our social payment badges are designed to embed on product pages to promote the application. After the customer makes their purchase, they now have a seamless and social way of showing their friends what they bought, telling them how much they owe and an easy way to get paid back. It’s a perfect fit for any company focused on selling gifts, vacation rentals, event tickets and even works well for fantasy sports leagues and donations.”

Early adopters of “Pay Me Back” include Tiesta Tea, Pledge Music, Tony Packo’s, Swank Martini and payment processing provider E2E Payments of Lombard, IL. E2E President Brad Bialas explains the advantage of offering “Pay Me Back” to his customer base. “Our ecommerce clients are looking for new ways to reach their social audience. Consumers are already locked in to the concept of group purchases and peer-to-peer payments. Buyvite’s “Pay Me Back” product gives our clients a fresh and social way to promote a “crowd funding” model via their websites and ecommerce carts and it’s a proven way to help elevate traditionally group focused purchases like gifts, team costs or event tickets.”

Linkage:

Check out Buyvite here

Here are more startup news stories from “Everywhere Else”

Buyvite is one of over 100 startups that are going to be here, are you?

New Jersey Startup Vidyo Powering Video Chat On Wii U (And Google Hangouts)

New Jersey video conferencing startup Vidyo has probably outgrown the title “startup”. Their completely scalable video conferencing solutions can be found powering such high profile video services as Google+ Hangouts, NTT, Philips and more. Now it’s been reported that the company is powering the all new video chat feature found in the Wii U game system that debuted in stores across the country yesterday.

Wii U’s video platform can be found in their new improved MiiVerse service and is used with the camera built into the new Nintendo Wii U control pad.

We’re trying to bring video-conferencing to the world,” Vidyo chief executive Ofer Shapiro told Venturebeat.com’s John Koetsier. “We want to carry it to the masses.”

Vidyo isn’t necessarily taking on Skype but rather looking to put video conferencing in the living room. Having the ability for video conferencing in the living room opens up an entirely new world for content creators, both novice and professional. Also, with systems like the Wii U you can easily have whole family video chats using the tv as the monitor, no matter what it’s size.

Google+ Hangouts are incredibly easy to set up. It’s just one click within the Google+ network. Video chatting on the Wii U is even easier than that. It doesn’t require firing up the computer and getting on Google+. Let’s face it we’re probably looking at the possibility of much bigger scale utilizing the Wii U than the Google+ platform. Several quarters ago Google stopped reporting growth numbers for Google+.

Video integration with the Wii U also cuts the barrier to some people who are more comfortable with gaming systems and stay away from the computers.

While the video quality on the Wii U console is not “professional” it’s still “excellent” for the home use according to Shapiro.

The Wii U launched yesterday morning in the United States. Nintendo packaged two different bundles, a white “basic” system with 8gb of storage and no included game and a black deluxe system with 32gb of onboard storage, packaged with Nintendo Land.

Analysts are expecting the Nintendo Wii U to be one of the most popular gifts this holiday season. Most major big box stores have depleted their stock and are unsure if they will get another shipment before Christmas and Chanukah.

Linkage:

Source: Venturebeat

More startup stories from “everywhere else”

Make sure you attend this startup conference

Understand Your Dog Better With North Carolina Startup Dognition

Brian Hare, the founder and director of Duke University’s Canine Cognition Center is introducing a new startup to help normal folks understand their dogs better. His North Carolina based startup, called Dognition, isn’t going to magically give your dog a voice, however it will provide ways for you to better understand your canine friends.

Dognition will feature a website and mobile app. The first step with Dognition will be an assessment test. The test will be offered via the mobile app and will tell dog owners exactly how to administer it. According to the News and Observer, through the administration of the test, dog owners will be able to discover their dogs cognitive strengths and weaknesses. From there, dog owners will be able to set up a “Dognition Profile” report.

Dognition will go into free beta testing today and plans to open to the public for between $40 and $60 in January. That may seem a little steep to you however the American Pet Product’s Association has said that despite the recession spending on pets has risen 4.8% or more in the last few years and is on pace to raise another 3.8% this year.

Hare is also hopeful that the research they do at the Canine Cognition Center will benefit from having hundreds of dogs across the globe using the platform.

“The collective data that Dognition accumulate also hold the promise of expanding our scientific understanding of dogs” Hare said. “Academic centers such as the one he leads at Duke only have the capacity to test a few hundred dogs a year, so opening up such tests to dog owners worldwide via the Internet has the scientist practically drooling.”

Local serial entrepreneur Kip Frey has come aboard at Dognition as CEO. Also McKinney, the largest advertising agency in the Research Triangle will also support Dognition with market research, marketing, brand development and helping with the UI for the website and mobile apps.

McKinney’s CEO Brad Brinegar has three dogs and told the News & Observer: “I wake up every morning and think, ‘This is going to be big”

Science has suggested in the past that to draw parallels between humans and other mammals you need to look to dolphins and apes. According to Hare, research over the last 15 years has suggested that dogs are more intelligent than once thought.

“Dogs are more sophisticated than even the most dedicated dog lover might imagine,” Hare said.” Actually dogs, in many ways, solve problems really similarly to human children. And they’re more similar to human children than … apes.”

Frey has already raised $1 million dollars for Dognition in an angel round.

Linkage:

Check out Dognition here

Here are more startup stories from “everywhere else”

This is the conference, they’re calling “everywhere else”

New Orleans Car Advertising Startup Advercar Raises $2 Million In Seed Round

Advercar is a New Orleans based startup that lets people make money by wrapping or putting other advertisements on their vehicle and driving around.

The startup was founded by Neil Turner who was the former Chief Strategy Officer at iSeatz. Advercar pays drivers to put advertisements on the front, sides and backs of their cars. It’s very similar to taxicab advertising except on private vehicles. The company charges advertisers $280 per month which is roughly the same amount charged by taxi cabs.

Advercar passes up to $100 per month to the driver. They also say that some advertisers give drivers the opportunity to make more than the $100 per month.

Advercar’s $2 million dollar seed round was led by Canaan Partners. 1-800-Flowers, Branford Castle Private Equity, New Orleans Startup Fund, Jit Sexana and TiE Angels Boston also participated in the round. With this round 1-800-Flowers CEO Jim McCann and Canaan partner Deepak Karma have joined Advercar’s Board of Directors.

The startup’s idea was originally pitched last year during New Orleans Entrepreneur Week as part of their Power Pitch competition where they won first place.

Advercar already has 5,000 drivers. The company tracks their drivers with a GPS tool that allows them to report back to advertisers and show them where their ad was seen. They also use a calculation method set forth by the Traffic Audit Bureau that allows them to calculate, roughly, how many people saw the ad. Advercar has a special group of AdverMoms that allows advertisers to reach other moms.

TechCrunch’s Anthony Ha asked Turner if it felt strange for an Advercar driver to drive around with advertising on their car. Turner replied;

“You notice for your first 20 minutes, but after that you forget they’re on. You do notice if you go to a grocery store, because people will be staring at your car.”

Linkage

Find advercar online here

Source: Silicon Bayou TechCrunch

More startup news is here

And here’s the big conference info

Wall Street Journal Adds More Startup Resources

The Wall Street Journal has announced two new startup resources to accompany their current startup coverage. We regularly read and source the Venture Capital Digest portion of the Wall Street Journal online. These two new publications will be a welcome addition to anyone who wants to keep up with startup and entrepreneurial news.

The Accelerators is a new op-ed section focused on startups. The Wall Street Journal will publish guest posts from popular venture capitalists, angel investors, entrepreneurs, and startup contributors. Currently TechCrunch offers similarly sourced content, typically published on weekends.

The Startup Journal will focus on more startup and entrepreneurial news digests from other Wall Street Journal publications. This will be similar to the Venture Capital Digest which usually reports on current and pending venture and angel deals.

“The disruption within the startup world has been closely followed by our readers, and we saw a significant opportunity to provide our audience with more robust coverage by launching Startup Journal and The Accelerators,” said Raju Narisetti, the Journal’s digital editor. “This is the latest iteration in our strategy to create more specialized content for our core audience and to provide it in such a way that makes it easy and seamless for our professional subscribers to read, digest and share.”

Source: The Wrap

Nashville: Jumpstart Foundry’s Marcus Whitney Named CTO Of The Year By Nashville Technology Council

Marcus Whitney, Jumpstart Foundry, Nashville startups,accelerator,Moontoast, Boston startup,startup,startups,startup news

(photo: marcuswhitney.com)

Marcus Whitney is a renaissance man of sorts when it comes to entrepreneurism and startups in Nashville and Boston Massachusetts. Some of his credentials include being an advisor and curriculum lead at Nashville’s Jumpstart Foundry accelerator where he traditionally fires up the troops on day one. He is also an advisor to several Nashville area startups, co-founder of Southernalpha.com and an overall leader in Nashville’s startup community.

It’s actually for his day job though, as the CTO of social marketing, commerce and analytics startup Moontoast that has earned him the title of CTO Of The Year by the Nashville Technology Council.

Moontoast was founded in 2008 as a social knowledge base provider that eventually led to the social marketing and analytics suite that they employ today to companies big and small including some on the Fortune 500. Their stable of top-shelf clients include branding power house Proctor & Gamble, Ford, Kirkland’s, and Universal. Even Nashville country powerhouse record label Big Machine records uses Moontoast, you may have heard of their superstar Taylor Swift.

Whitney has grown to become an expert in the world of social and email engagement. Prior to starting Moontoast in 2008 he spent the previous four years of his career as Director of Technology and Partner at Emma. Emma is an email marketing firm that uses creative, out of the box approaches, to again engage their over 10,000 customers.

Whitney’s energetic personality and real life experiences have led him to be engaging in person as well. In different discussions with Whitney we’ve talked about how he and his team at Jumpstart Foundry are able to pull the real entrepreneur and founder out of a startup. Some startups come into the three month accelerator program with a great idea and a horrible pitch. Whitney is able to pull the real message out which has actually led to follow on funding for several program startups.

Whitney’s latest startup is Southernalpha.com a regional tech blog focused on high growth potential startups and technology in the southeast. They’re centralizing out of Nashville at the moment with plans to rapidly expand across the south east in the same way that Silicon Prairie news covers the Silicon Prairie.

Whitney was honored at the annual Nasvhille Technology Council Awards on October 23.

Linkage:

Moontoast is here

Jumpstart Foundry is here

SouthernAlpha is here

Everywhere else is here

Israeli Startup: Hopflow Launches Beta For Content Sharing Platform

Hopflow is a new content discovery and sharing platform based in Tel Aviv. The startup was founded by Erez Pilosof the cofounder of Walla which is Israel’s largest internet company, equivalent to the likes of Yahoo in the United States.

With Hopflow users are served up content “automagically”. The platform automatically matches users to content that they would like and allows the end user to stream that content. Unlike other socially driven discovery platforms, Hopflow doesn’t require the user to manually follow other users. Their aggregation algorithms find and serve up the content with very little extra input needed.

On Tuesday the startup announced they’ve entered into beta on both their web and mobile platforms.

As consumers seek simpler ways to receive and share more relevant and personalized content, traditional aggregation platforms and social networks have been slow to evolve. Hopflow saves users time and effort, as well as improves content discovery by eliminating the need to manually find and follow generalized sources and filter through uninteresting or irrelevant information.

Hopflow’s network also provides a new ecosystem where content creators can break through existing online social barriers and get discovered by like-minded people. Unlike with other social networks, Hopflow doesn’t require content creators to get people to manually follow them, because every post they create and share is automatically distributed to relevant users in the Hopflow community.

Hopflow’s ‘automagic’ technology aggregates and organizes news, blog and multimedia content from all over the social web and automatically presents it through a simple, image-rich platform according to specific topics. Users can then easily re-hop (share) to their social platforms or ‘like’ the content they receive. The platform is designed to continually learn from this activity to fine-tune and deliver an even more targeted and personal experience.

Of course they realize that social discovery and aggregation is by far a new idea, but with the Pilosof behind it, we’re sure it’s different.

“The social web is full of content platforms that force people to manually follow and filter through sources and information. In this contextual age, people want tools that are simple and provide targeted information,” Pilosof said in a statement. “We believe that discovering and sharing stories about the things that interest you shouldn’t be tedious and time consuming but rather fun and easy. Hopflow eliminates unwanted noise and allows users to sit back and enjoy a beautiful image-based ‘flow’ of relevant content outside of their current social networks.”

Added Mr. Pilosof, “At some point, we’ve all experienced the frustration of being overwhelmed with too much information on our social network feeds. A portion of the content we receive when we follow individual sources is personally interesting, but a large amount quickly becomes ‘noise’ that forces us to manually organize the information or eventually decide to un-follow the source. Hopflow completely rethinks the follow model and aims to lead a paradigm shift based on following interests.”

Linkage:

Check out Hopflow here

Here’s more startup news from “everywhere else”

We’d love for you to join us, “everywhere else”