Cincinnati Startup BringMeSomeFood Was One Of The Best Ideas At Startup Weekend

We’re not sure if the judges conceptually understood the concept behind Startup Weekend Cincinnati startup Bringmesomefood.com . The idea is simple, it helps party and event organizers keep track of attendees, themes and who’s bringing what. It’s the ultimate potluck platform.

Potluck has surged in popularity over the last few years s the economy has suffered. People love to go to parties whether times are good or bad. Presumably parties and social gatherings are a way to break away from the ups and downs of everyday life and a way to make people feel good.

Potluck events make it easier for the host or hostess to have a better party.


The problem with Potluck is typically people have no idea what to bring. Also, no one really keeps track of the potluck list as well as they should. Then, what ultimately ends up happening is the party is inundated with ice, red solo cups and chips.

Using bringmesomefood.com party organizers can keep up with who has RSVP’d for the party and who hasn’t. They can also pick a theme for the party and then Bringmesomefood.com will curate a menu based on what is typically served at whatever theme the party is. A tailgate party for instance will call for hamburgers and hotdogs. A toga party may call for gyro’s and baklava. Who knows? Bringmesomefood does.

Bringmesomefood, pulls from some of the best restaurant API’s to come up with great menus. It then assigns dishes to the guests attending the event and can supply those guests with the recipes for their dish.

Bringmesomefood also tracks attendance so when it gets closer to the event you can prepare the right amount of food. You don’t want to prepare a small bowl of potato salad for a party of 100 and you don’t want to prepare 100 brownies for a group of 10.  Bringmesomefood keeps up with all that for you.

During their final pitch on Sunday the judges asked the Bringmesomefood team why one of the major event sites like PlanCast, eventbrite and e-vite.com couldn’t just incorporate that system into their existing system, which was a sharp indicator that they may not have understood the robustness of the concept. You can see for yourself in the pitch video below, the startup was explained well and hopefully will move forward into development.

Here’s more of our Startup Weekend Coverage

Oh yeah, nibletz could use your help

Cincy Serial Entrepreneur Comes In 2nd Place At Startup Weekend With 3DLT

Pablo Arellano Jr is a busy man. He is currently working on a startup in stealth mode that was just accepted into the Ark Challenge accelerator in Fayetteville Arkansas. We can’t tell you much about it but Arellano is excited about Ark Challenge, especially with it’s proximity to Bentonville.

This past weekend though he wanted to develop another idea, that’s equally as good. His startup 3DLT will be launching soon as a platform to buy and sell 3D printer templates online. Think of it as an iStock Photo or 99 Designs, except for 3D printer templates.

With companies like Makerbot thrusting onto the scene this last year, 3D Printing is starting to rise in popularity. Within the next few years it may become a household concept. In our video interview with Arellano he points out that most major college institutions already have a 3D Printer, the same way that they used to be the only place to find a good laser printer or a big computer.

While 3D printers will probably never fall as cheap as a Lexmark ink jet printer that you can buy at Walmart for under $30, they could start popping up in pro-sumer homes in the next few years.

The biggest pain point for 3D printers is the actual programming and design work. In his Sunday pitch Arellano showed a video of TV late night host and car enthusiast Jay Leno who uses a 3D printer in his garage to make prototypes for parts that are no longer available for purchase. After he and his 3D printer guy, make the plastic prototype they can take the mold to a machine shop and have the same part made of metal.


Architecture is another industry that has embraced the 3D printer concept. Now instead of paying someone to skillfully make models for buildings and neighborhoods out of little pieces of wood and plastic, these buildings, houses and even trees can be cut from a 3D printer. Heck there’s even a 3D printer out there now that prints chocolate bars.

Arellano is hopeful that by providing a template resource for 3D Printer users, he can help drive sales and the price of 3D printers down, while still making between 30-60% commission off the sales of the templates.

Check out our video interview with Arellano below:

Linkage:

Here’s more of our coverage of Startup Weekend

Check out Ark Challenge here

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” and we’re on a sneaker strapped road trip “everywhere else”

So What Does Brandery Startup CrowdHall Do On Startup Weekend?

CrowdHall is definitely one of the Brandery stand out startups. They are developing a unique and innovative platform for celebrities, politicians and popular bloggers, journalists and other people to effectively communicate with their crowd,fans and constituents. As you may imagine it’s in a town hall/crowd hall setting.

The premise for the idea is great and they’ve been testing out the platform and in fact last week they did a public test with “Bachelorette” winner Jef Holm. Holm sent out one tweet the day before the test saying that he would be taking questions on CrowdHall. He didn’t include a link to the site or the secret page that would hold his CrowdHall forum, but his fans were relentless, they went to the CrowdHall site, and founder the private page. The end result was that when Holm logged in for his CrowdHall session during the test he already had 29 questions waiting for him. Phenomenal.

All in all the results were a great success, you can see them here.

As we told you in our interview with Brandery co-founder Rob McDonald and their General Manager Mike Bott, the CrowdHall companies are very active participants in the Cincinnati tech scene. Bott explained in our video interview that all of the Brandery class was given free access to Startup Weekend and they came, helped mentor and build teams.

What does CrowdHall CEO Austin Hackett do on Startup Weekend? Well he starts another startup. His Startup Weekend startup was called “SportsGamr” it’s a fun virtual sports betting site. It gives those die-hard sports gamblers the ability to bet in a friendly manner with no actual money changing hands.


Players get virtual currency which they can use to bet against their friends or others on the website. Once they deplete that virtual currency, or just to make more virtual currency they can watch and engage in premium content video advertising. This video advertising is of course a great monetization strategy. It’s also great to know that if you come and have a bad day on the site you can still continue to play.

Hackett’s CrowdHall team worked all weekend, and even Hackett split his time between Startup Weekend and working on CrowdHall. He said he is definitely full speed ahead with CrowdHall which might mean his SportsGamr startup will have to wait. But it’s a great idea with an even better presentation.

Check out his pitch video from Sunday below:

Check out Hackett’s day job here

Here’s more of our coverage from Startup Weekend

We need YOU!

Startup Weekend Cincinnati: And The Winner Is Project Blue Collar

Startup Weekend Cincinnati came to a close on Sunday evening with 9 great pitches in front of the judged who were: Dave Knox, CMO at RockFish and Co-Founder at The Brandery (we love the Brandery); Tarek Kamil, Executive Director at InfoMotion Sports Technologies; Dov Rosenberg, Director at Allos Ventures; Rahul Bawa, Director of Digital and Software at CincyTech; and Jeff Weedman CEO at Centrifuse and VP of Global Business Development at this little company called Proctor & Gamble.  In addition Kamil’s daughter helped judge as did Dave Knox’s dog.

The nine teams that were selected:

SportsGamr- an online platform for virtual sports betting which provides a venue for sports fans to bet on their favorite sports and a venue for advertisers to clear premium content ads.

ProBakery- Is a startup similar to pro-flowers or ftd.com that provides an online portal to traditional bakeries that may or may not have access to e-commerce and also provides a conduit for taking delivery orders for premium baked goods.

Homework Hustlers- is an online platform for college students to outsource their homework. During their pitch they said that 61% of college students admit to cheating and that 80% of the people they surveyed when doing customer validation, revealed that they would most likely share the idea with a friend, whether they used it or not.

3DLT is a template market place for 3D printer templates. Their revenue model was solid, they said they could take between 30 and 60% commission off each template.

Revolent is a new idea to provide better reviews of products by matching product reviews up to the reader.  They called it the match.com for reviews.

Email Diet was probably the idea I liked the least. It’s an email analytics startup that will provide information to employers on how much wasteful email there actually is.  I didn’t like it because truth be told email is an integral part of my work day. While the founder was pitching how wasteful email is, I still believe phone calls can lead to a much more wasteful use of time.

ArtsSeen was an arts event aggregator that provided the end user with information about the arts scene in Cincinnati right now along with reviews, recommendations and a social aspect that allow users to connect over these kinds of events. In essence it was Impulcity for the arts.

BringSomeFood: I really liked this one even though it wasn’t picked as a winner. The idea is great its like a potluck party event organization app. The judges had asked them if it could be incorporated into an e-vite or eventbrite and the answer was no. This particular platform allows you to pick your party theme, suggests a menu, lets you invite attendees, organize attendees and assign food items for the attendees to bring. I’m hoping they continue this project.

The overall winner was Project Blue Collar

This startup is a for profit that is looking to spread the word about dogs coming from rescues and shelters. Their motto “support the underdog”.

the idea is great and there may be a profit mechanism built in somewhere. One things for sure and that’s that dog owners and animal lovers will love the mission behind the idea.

Project Blue Collar is about raising awareness for dogs and animals that are adopted out of shelters to make sure resources are provided for those dog owners and to let potential animal owners know that shelters are a great way to get a new family companion for life.  It all focuses on the blue collar which is similar to the yellow “live strong” bracelets. Dog owners with rescue dogs will buy the collars to promote that their dog is a rescue. Blue Collar Project is also considering a companion bracelet in the same blue to show that the wearer is a proud owner of a rescue dog.

Here’s our interview with the founder of the winning team Project Blue Collar.


Linkage:

Here’s the future site for Project Blue Collar

Here’s more of our Startup Weekend coverage

Nibletz is on the sneaker-strapped global startup roadtrip, help us stay on the road here:

 

Startup Weekend Cincinnati: 3D Printer Template Platform Chosen To Present On Sunday

3D printing has really surged into popularity lately. There are 3D printers now printing everything from models for architects to toys and even chocolate.

Some industry experts are expecting the cost of 3D printers to come down enough that they will still be pricey but somewhat attainable by consumers and small businesses. The problem with that is, that designing for the 3D printer still requires a lot of skill and it’s not skills that are easy to learn.

One of the ideas pitched on Friday was to make printing in 3D as easy as using 99designs to rebrand your image. The idea is to make a platform where 3D printer templates are bought, sold and exchanged, much the way that you can buy logo templates, website templates and even Word Press templates.

This startup could easily make it out of Startup Weekend Cincinnati. The only caveat is that it has to come out fast because we’re sure with the rise in 3D printing over the last year and a half or so, someone else is working in their basement or at their development house on this exact same idea.

Check out the pitch video below:

Linkage: Here’s more of our coverage of Startup Weekend

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

We’re on a sneaker strapped, international startup road trip, here’s more info for ya

 

Startup Weekend Cincinnati: A Platform For Buying Your Homework Being Built

If you’re an entrepreneur or a startup founder chances are you were the guy or gal, that sold their homework, or maybe even made a few bucks doing someone else’s homework. Whether it was in high school or college, there is always a market for homework. Parents and teachers don’t want to admit it but it’s there. It may borderline on plagiarism but heck they’re hoping to build a startup that’s out in the open.

One of the Friday pitches that was chosen to build is a startup that is a platform for people to outsource their homework to somebody else. It’s a fairly simple idea and regardless of what it is on the surface, if implemented correctly there is a market for it and they’ll have no problem cornering the market.

When the idea was pitched it was brought up that we currently outsource every kind of work there is except homework, so why not outsource homework.

Check out the pitch video below and stay tuned to nibletz.com Sunday evening to see who wins Startup Weekend Cincinnati.

Here’s the video:

Check out more Startup Weekend coverage here

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

We’re on a sneaker-strapped, international startup roadtrip of startups “everywhere else” check it out  & help

Startup Weekend Cincinnati: Blue Collar Project, Selected To Build

Here’s a great Friday pitch video from Startup Weekend Cincinnati.  Blue Collar Dog is an idea we haven’t seen before. It borderlines on non-profit which are typically hard to win when it comes to Sunday pitches because the investors can’t get a return on a non-profit, it’s more of a donation.

Nonetheless the idea is great and there may be a profit mechanism built in somewhere. One things for sure and that’s that dog owners and animal lovers will love the mission behind the idea.

Blue Collar Dog is about raising awareness for dogs and animals that are adopted out of shelters to make sure resources are provided for those dog owners and to let potential animal owners know that shelters are a great way to get a new family companion for life.

What do you think of this idea, let us know in the comments. Watch the video below:

Linkage:

Here’s more startup weekend coverage from nibletz.com

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else”

We’re on a sneaker-strapped nationwide startup roadtrip, support the cause, here

Startup Weekend Cincinnati Kicks Off With 28 Pitches

Startup Weekend Cincinnati kicked off tonight at the Startup Mall in downtown Cincinnati. Yes they’ve turned a mall into startup space. As traditional retailers exit their hoping to fill the space with startups. The main festivities kicked off in the offices of Black Book HR which looks coincidentally like a Banana Republic because that is who was in the space before them.

Chris Ostorich the founder of Black Book HR is the person who is organizing and pushing startups to move into the mall space. The mall is in one of the oldest buildings in Cincinnati and Ostorich is hoping to spur innovation and low rent to support Cincinnati’s thriving startup and entrepreneurial ecosystem.

After the pitches were selected for the weekend the startups were able to work on their ideas in the Black Book space along with a vacant Victoria’s Secret and another retail space on the third floor of the mall to build out the startups.

28 total pitches were made on Friday night to a full house of developers, founders, and entrepreneurs.  Here are the startups that were picked to build:

Pro Bakery
Bring Some Food
Life Miner
Sports Addict Nation Party
Art Loyalty
Revelant
Project Blue Collar
Do My Homework
3D Printing
We’ll have video and more later today as Startup Weekend Cincinnati continues.
Linkage:
Here’s the Cincinnati Startup Weekend page
Follow Startup Weekend Cincinnati on twitter here
Nibletz is on a road trip. We need your help. Plain and Simple

Startup Weekend Cincinnati Is This Weekend

Baby if you’ve ever wondered, wondered whatever became of me, I’m building a company in Cincinnati, at Startup Weekend Cincinnati

A little background on the altered quote up there. If you’ve been reading nibletz.com for a while and you’ve been watching our videos you may have noticed that while we’re on the road trip we like to use “old school” hip hop from the city we’re in for our video intro. Like in Memphis we use Tennessee by Arrested Development and Twerk by Three Six Mafia. In New Orleans we use any vintage Cash Money Millionaires. In St. Louis we’ve got Nelly. Sorry Cincinnati but we can’t find a decent song by Hi-Tek and don’t want to embarrass anyone by using 98 degrees.

I can tell you first hand that Cincinnati’s startup scene is umpteen million times more innovative than their history with popular hip hop and pop music. That’s why we’re really excited that Startup Weekend is back in Cincinnati this weekend.

The 54 hour hackathon style startup building contest puts people from all over the place together to build startups and compete in a nice little pitch fest on Sunday evening. Startup Weekend’s are exciting, innovative, and usually bursting at the seams with good food.

The event kicks off on Friday when all those signed up for Startup Weekend will pitch their ideas in a 60 second quick pitch contest.  After the pitches the crowd will vote on the startups that will be built over the next 53 hours.

Mentor’s from Cincinnati’s thriving tech and business scene will be on hand throughout the weekend to help the teams in just about every aspect of building a business. Cincinnati’s mentors for this weekend include: Robert W. McDonald, an attorney at Taft and co-founder of The Brandery (we love the Brandery); Bob Gilbreath, Entrepreneur in Residence at CincyTech; Bill Cunningham, Co-Founder at OneMorePallet.com; James J Cunningham, Executive Director of C-Cap.net and Ryan Walker, Founder at Engagement.iO.  Of course nibletz.com will be around most of the weekend too and we typically get roped into helping out (no really we love to help).

A couple of gut checks later, gallons of caffeine and typically as much pizza as you can eat later, the teams assemble on Sunday evening to pitch their final projects to the judges. It’s best to have a great pitch deck, minimum viable product, mock up and make sure you’ve tested the viability of your concept.

Cincinnati’s judges are: Dave Knox, CMO at RockFish and Co-Founder at The Brandery (we love the Brandery); Tarek Kamil, Executive Director at InfoMotion Sports Technologies; Dov Rosenberg, Director at Allos Ventures; Rahul Bawa, Director of Digital and Software at CincyTech; and Jeff Weedman CEO at Centrifuse and VP of Global Business Development at this little company called Proctor & Gamble.

Entrepreneurs, developers, founders, as you can see you’ve got your work cut out for you. If you haven’t signed up yet you better head here now.  The event takes place at the Startup Mall (Carew Tower). Registration is at 6:30pm. Good Luck.

Linkage

Here’s the Cincinnati Startup Weekend site

Here’s The Brandery site (We love The Brandery)

Here are some stories about Super Nick

and here’s our pitch to crowdfund our road trip