Comments Off on Florida Startup: Path.To Expands Job Matching To Chicago, Boston And NYC0LikeLike 3,479
Jacksonville Florida based startup Path.to has announced an expansion of their job matching startup to three major cities. Chicago, Boston and New York City joined the Path.to network to connect potential job candidates to hiring employers.
Path.To connects the right people to the right jobs using their sophisticated, proprietary algorithms assuring both job candidates and hiring employers that their connection is more relevant than other job search platforms. The startup was founded last year by Darren Bounds who also serves as their Vice President of Product.
Path.To understands an applicants passion, personality and experience and says that they connect people with jobs they love.
In addition to the new markets Path.To has announced some new email features as well. Path.To will email job candidates available positions that the service feels are a good match for them. Path.To users searching for a job can opt out of certain employers if they feel that they aren’t a fit, and of course continue to apply for jobs that they feel are, the perfect fit.
The company also announced a social resume feature that will allow users to add their social network information, accounts and streams so that potential employers don’t have to dig through the internet to find it. This also insures that the candidate shares what they want from social media, and delivers a more “open” feeling in the job vetting process.
At this stage in the game, Path.To is still free for both applicants and employers although Bounds told TNW that they will shift to a paid model for employers later on this year.
Seattle startup TangoCard continues to make news. Just last week we reported that Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, had participated in a $1.8M round of funding for TangoCard through his Innovation Endeavors investment arm.
Today loyalty and rewards startup Plink has announced a partnership with TangoCard that will take their 35,000 merchant rewards network from Facebook credits, to a plethora of great opportunities for redemption. Now in addition to earning Facebook credits that can be used for hundreds of Facebook apps and games, customers in the Plink reward network can also earn credit towards top merchants like Amazon,Home Depot, Target,iTunes,The Gap, Nike and many more.
“Our members have asked for more choices and we’re excited to expand the innovative ways they can earn rewards for eating and shopping offline,” Peter Vogel, Plink’s co-founder and President said in a statement. “Plink’s goal is to bridge the gap between online consumers and their offline purchases and partnering with Tango Card makes that vision more rewarding for our current members and attractive to new ones. We still believe in Facebook and Facebook credits; we wanted to increase our reach and exposure.”
Tango will also handle all of the work involved in the gift card part of the program.
“Plink and Tango Card are rethinking how consumers want to earn and use rewards,” David Leeds, CEO and founder of Tango Card said in a prepared statement. “Tango Card carefully curates digital rewards to deliver a complete program in a card. This approach allows Plink to focus on their core business: creating an innovative online-to-offline loyalty program. We are huge fans of what Plink is doing and are delighted that Plink selected our easy SDK [software development kit] to integrate the Tango Card.”
“We were looking for new ways to advertise all over the Internet and through Facebook, not just to people that are playing games on Facebook,” Vogel added. “We had seen Tango out in the marketplace. They have a lot of the biggest and most popular brands that our members want. Tango Card provides our members with a one-stop stop shop with an easy entry point. Tango also has a mobile application that enables our members to pick the [electronic] card they want on the go. It’s a very appealing model. For us, it’s all about choice.”
Just last week Tango received a $1.8 million dollar series A round. They said at that time they would use the fund for expansion, hiring more developers and expanding their proprietary software applications. Obviously they are moving quickly toward that goal.
Comments Off on Colorado Startup: Mile High Organics Closes Seven Figure Round0LikeLike 1,906
Boulder Colorado startup Mile High Organics has announced that they’ve closed a seven million figure seed round. The exact number wasn’t reported. However, there are some big names in the round including Dave McClure’s 500 startups and TA Venture of Kiev Ukraine. Mile High Organics will use th money to expand it’s high quality, cost-competitive grocery deliver service with new products and services.
“The key difference between Mile High Organics and other grocer services is that we emphasize quality of product and service while being price competitive,” said Mile High Organics CEO Michael Joseph. “Part of the reason we are able to do this is by distributing to Colorado’s entire Front Range through one distribution center — as opposed to dozens of stores.”
While grocery delivery services are hardly new, Mile High Organics is more like Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s delivery, or even perhaps your neighborhood grocery co-op delivery rather than a huge supermarket. Online grocery services have been experiencing a huge surge. A recent Nielsen survey showed that consumers spent $12 billion in online grocery services since 2010. That figure is expected to more than double to $25 billion by 2014. In 2011 the online grocery service industry as a whole did $35 billion in sales
Despite a weak economy, Mile High Organics has seen tremendous growth since its launch in June 2010. The company employs 40 people and is currently hiring several more positions. It allows its customers to incorporate fresh, organic food into their diet for their best health and best life. In just less than two years, the company has achieved recurring orders by delighting thousands of members. Mile High Organics recently became the first U.S. Department of Agriculture certified organic online retailer, solidifying their industry leadership and consumer trust.
“We see Mile High Organics emerging as an important player in the online grocery industry,” said David McClure, founding partner of 500 Startups. “They are disrupting the $600 billion grocery industry in the United States.”
“Mile High Organics is an innovative player serving the largest consumer market in the United States, focusing on local organic food products and minimization of environmental impact,” said Viktoriya Tigipko, managing director of TA Venture. “The company is developing a truly disruptive e-grocery model to compete for the burgeoning natural and organic grocery market. We are very excited about our investment in Mile High Organics and are confident that the company is uniquely positioned and capable of becoming a leading player in the U.S. organic grocery delivery market and expanding its business to other countries.”
Mile High Organics now offers more than 600 grocery products, with an emphasis on providing as much local, seasonal organic produce and groceries as possible. It is the only Colorado retailer that supplies completely non-genetically modified foods, free from synthetic pesticides and chemical inputs.
A new startup in Atlanta called WorkityWork has set out on an ambitious goal of making people hate work less. While many actually like their jobs, there are equally as many who don’t like their jobs. This is what WorkityWork is hoping to do.
While we’ve reported on a couple of startups that allow people to give feedback about their workplace and job conditions both by name and anonymously, WorkityWork is about your co-workers. Work Place moral has become a hot space for new startups. We really like the ones that are taking advantage of front facing social media like Kebuki and this one. Although it has equally as silly a name as Kebuki, the idea behind using social media to recognize co-workers can be uplifting.
In fact, while Kebuki is a management tool, one of the key elements is a pat on the back from the manager. WorkityWork’s key element is a pat on the back from co-workers.
When you got that promotion, or came in under budget, your co-workers can send you Kudos. If the entire team hit a sales goal, you or your manager can recognize the entire team. You can even set your mood on WorkityWork using what they call Vibes.
Check out how WorkityWork works, in this video below.
We got a chance to talk with Ashli Norton co-founder of WorkityWork in this interview below the break. And yeah, after watching the video WorkityWork is more of a fun name than a silly one.
Comments Off on NY Start Up: Moteevate Keeps You Motivated To Get Through Your Plans0LikeLike 1,784
If you’re one of those people with great plans and bad follow through than this New York startup may be for you. Moteevate is a motivational site that helps people going on their goals and plans. This is achieved by offering a huge knowledge base of action plans that use easy and manageable steps for just about anything and everything.
Moteevate offers a ton of action plans on a wide range of topics like the arts, business and money, coaching and motivation, music, health and fitness, pets and many more.
You can also create your own goals and action plans and then recruit your social networks aka Facebook friends and motivate friends, to cheer you on and help you with your progress.
For instance, if you’re looking to lose weight you can set up an action plan for diet and exercise or use one of the suggested action plans via Moteevate. Either way, once you’ve picked your plan your friends can monitor your progress and help you out when you’re having an off day and cheer you on when you’re on target.
Moteevate has already helped users with job hunting, finishing their thesis, running, staying in shape while traveling and even conquering the medicine regiment associated with breast cancer. As they said in the interview below, Moteevate is for just about anything, and everything.
Simple is good, right? If that’s the case then you’re going to like the ease and simplicity built into UK gift giving startup Parcel Genie. Sure it’s got a “blah” name but remember Parcel may be much more glamorous in the UK, you know the way they add that “u” to colour it makes it more colourful (and boy does spell check hate it).
Parel Genie is available on iOS, Android and even Windows Phone 7. It makes sending gifts to your friends as easy as sending instant messages and texts.
“We are pioneering the concept of gifting as communication,” says John Taylor, CEO and co-founder of ParcelGenie. “With our service, people can respond to news from friends, co-workers and loved ones — an achievement at work, a personal goal achieved, a quick thank-you, or someone not feeling well — with an immediate, low-cost real little gift and personal message. ParcelGenie closes the gap between thought and action, making it easy to do something meaningful to deepen emotional connections with the people in our lives.”
With Parcel Genie you send small little gifts, almost like chotzkes to your friends and family via their mobile number. If you know their actual address you can enter it for delivery. If you don’t have their address or don’t have time to fumble with it, they’ll receive a text message notifying them that you’ve sent this great little gift and prompt them for their delivery address.
In Europe the service is called Parcel Genie and there’s a Parcel Genie app in the iTunes App Store, Google Play Store and whatever it is they call the app store in Windows Phone 7. In the United States and other countries Parcel Genie is actually a white labeled partner service for some of the major e-commerce sites out there. If you see a “send an instant gift” or a “ping” button it takes you to the Parcel Genie service on behalf of that partner.
The company’s website says they are totally international and are opening an office in California. Their management team includes Sir Chris Powell, an actual knight, who achieved knighthood for his role in British advertising.
Their CEO is Dr.John Taylor, who is an actual doctor ;). Taylor actually thought up the idea for Parcel Genie back in 2006. The management team rounds out with CTO Dr. Richard Tolcher and Bruce Garvey (who is a real Bruce).
What we like about this startup:
Well sending vouchers, gift cards and other executables seems so generic. Sending real presents with flower arrangements and cards is so, well 2006. We like the immediacy of Parcel Genie. We also like the fact that Parcel Genie eliminates the problem of “I would send someone a gift but I don’t have their address”.
Exploring their gift store a little more gives way to cool key chains, coffee mugs and even boxes of Jelly Belly’s, I mean who wouldn’t appreciate a box of genuine Jelly Belly’s.
I was combing through over 5,000 emails from the last week and saw a pitch from Po-Motion in Winnipeg Canada. They said “please help it’s hard for us to get coverage out here”. So after I had them send back a one sentence pitch, and they sent back a full pitch, I was like, ok that’s what Po-Motion is all aboat (intentionally spelled wrong).
Po-Motion is affordable,customizable easy to use interactive floor and wall software. It’s like the Nintendo PowerPad on crack, but really without the pad, or the console. You simply connect your web cam and a projector to po-motion’s proprietary software and you’re literally off to the races, the ice rink, the dance hall, or wherever else your imagination takes you. Just check out this video so you understand what I’m talking about.
PO-MOtion is affordable, customizable, easy to use interactive floor and wall display software which responds to physical user activity. PO-MOtion is patent-pending, and includes a family of products to allow the audience to connect with the client’s message on an emotional level. A combination of award winning design, artificial intelligence, gesture controls, and motion tracking are used to make interactive advertising displays, promotional signage, and educational games for clients like Google Tokyo, Air New Zealand, and museums around North America.
PO-MOtion is designed for consumer grade electronics, making it accessible to a much wider market than competitive products. The Motion Maker customization tools, (available now), and contributor features, (launching next month), are free to try and allow a community of software users to create and share interactive floor and wall content through the PO-MOtion online platform.
What are some practical uses?
– Crazy video game
– an amazing version of Twister
– Dj’s bars and clubs will love this technology
– Science centers, museums and exhibitors
– Amazing golf games
– Amazing inter actives at restaurants and retail (check out the rock pond on their website)
and so much more.
Now here’s the best part, Po-Motion makes it easy for people with minimal programming experience to harness the power of their software. It’s also not bajillions of dollars. They have several very affordable plans for creating what you’re going to do with po-motion.
Comments Off on Austin Startups Get New Resource Center In Napkin Venture0LikeLike 1,745
The name napkin venture actually makes a whole lot of sense. I’m sure most of you have jotted down or sketched out a business idea on a napkin over dinner at a restaurant. In some cases those “napkin ventures” have actually been something, other times they’re cleared with the rest of the table scraps. Well Austin Texas based entrepreneur, and former city council candidate, Tina Cannon wants you to save those napkins and bring them to Napkin Venture to take your startup to the next level.
Napkin Venture plans on providing business and legal services to early stage companies. Everything form idea development to pitch development and even handling your first filings can all be done at Napkin Venture.
While this isn’t a venture capital fund, angel investment fund, incubator or accelerator they are offering valuable resources to entrepreneurs. They also have a legal package of services available for $3,000.00. So while Napkin Venture may be perceived as some as a pitch for legal services at a fee typically outside an early stage startups realm, the classes and other services they offer should off set that first feeling.
Napkin Venture was founded by Cannon who was the founder of PetsMD.com which was acquired by Pet360 in 2011. She’s also the entrepreneur in residence at Texas Sate University. The remainder of Napkin Venture’s Executive Team includes:
Chuck Miller an entrepreneur with a solid background in media. He is the designer of the bunch and has recently worked with; NASA, Halliburton, Miller Lite, Houston Texans, Pura Vida Tequila, and The Washington Times.
Eve Richter who has a deep rooted background in emerging technologies, and small business. Richter’s previous roles include; Emerging Technologies Coordinator in the Economic Development Division at the City of Austin, as well as a seat on the board of Austin Women in Technology. She is currently on the board of the Technology Advisors Group.
Raul Calvoz is the legal eagle on the executive team, and also has a background in both big business and growing early stage companies. He has held positions as the head of a global unit at 3M, and Vice President of Europe for top travel industry site Travelocity.
“I’ve been there, done that, have the t-shirt,” says founder Tina Cannon. “I’ve struggled out there and learned my lessons, and want to help other startups to avoid some of the mistakes I made, and get on the fast track to success. I’m excited to finally realize my goal of helping entrepreneur dreams become reality.”
Comments Off on Toronto Startup: Konekt.Me Helping Build Personal Brands INTERVIEW0LikeLike 1,731
You’ve probably been hearing more and more about personal brands lately, and that’s a good thing. Years ago, the contents of your personal brand typically fit on one or two sheets of quality 8 1/2 x 11 paper. If you were really lucky you had that really heavy paper with the lawyer finish. Resumes were about the only personal brand identifiers available. If you were in media that could be complimented by a head shot, with your resume on the back.
Nowadays with the web, photos, movies, and hot graphics your personal brand can tell a lot more of your story. Your personal brand can include your work history, education, likes, recreational activities, heck even pictures of your dogs and your cats. Now, personal brand is all about you.
Sure there are personal branding sites out there like about.me however Toronto startup Konekt.me is hoping to make their mark by offering an even easier to use platform and a method of uploading that will knock our socks off.
Konekt.me is based in Toronto and part of Project Rhino. We got to talk with Neil Martin one of the co-founders of Konekt.me in this interview below the break.
Comments Off on Pittsburgh Startup: NoWait Is Kicks Restaurant Wait Times Ass0LikeLike 2,274
I like casual dining and I like chain restaurants. As you guys know we travel all the time, especially during our sneaker strapped nationwide startup road trip. Casual dining and chain restaurants save us time, and aggregation because I know what’s on the menu and what to expect.
One of the problems though is wait times. They vary from state to state and city to city. The way wait times are handled also varies from state to state, city to city and restaurant to restaurant. You may wait until your name is called over a PA system. You may have to wait until the host or hostess screams your name out loud. Or you may have to wait until the beeper/vibrator goes off in your pocket.
Here’s a scenario for you. You arrive at a nice casual dining restaurant or a chain, that’s in a nice big outdoor mall type shopping center. The Apple store is just across the parking lot, and too far for the restaurant pager to work. You want to go to the Apple store but you arrive at the restaurant at 7:25 and the Apple store closes at 9, oh well you’ll have to wait until another day.
Now imagine if the restaurant could automagically text you when your table is ready. Now you can go just about anywhere within reason, and wait for your table. Imagine if you could text the restaurant back and tell them you really need 20 more minutes.
All of this has become a reality thanks to Pittsburgh startup NoWait.
NoWait uses a system fueled by iPads and other iOS devices that keeps the host/hostess, managers, servers and customers in-sync thanks to the cloud. The host/hostess app has a very familiar feel to it, reminiscent of the paper, or white board systems that many restaurants have employed until now. But thanks to the power of Apple, the cloud and no wait, there’s a lot of back end functionality that maximizes convenience and time for the customer. Of course time is our most precious commodity.
This is the idea behind NoWait, founded by Robb Meyer, Luke Panza, Richard Colvin and James Belt.
Really it was all a matter of time before someone somewhere developed a system like this and, it happened to be these four guys, and according to their testimonial video it’s working out great. Their video includes feedback from managers of chains like the Spaghetti Warehouse and local favorites like Burgatory Bar in Pittsburgh.
Now of course we know that no startup is going to put bad testimonials into their video but the testimonials seemed authentic and there’s a lot of footage provided that shows active, busy restaurants utilizing the technology.
NoWait’s quick pitch is that they are the “Open Table” of casual dining. This seems like a good analogy but it may not necessarily do NoWait justice. Where OpenTable requires the adoption of the user themselves, NoWait brings to their technology to anyone who gets in line at the restaurant.
Now if you’re one of those people that doesn’t do texting, doesn’t have a text messaging plan or god forbid you don’t have a phone (chances are you aren’t reading this website), you can still have your name called and wait around the host stand. There won’t be a huge crowd waiting, everyone else will be out enjoying their evening until they get their text message.
One of our favorite sites, DailyDealMedia doesn’t quite understand how NoWait reduces wait time, so let’s explain it real quick.
Now using NoWait instead of pen and paper, you eliminate the messy writing that can mean you call Dan 100 times over the loudspeaker instead of Don. Dan and Don look a lot alike but tables are lost in this confusion. Now your hostess is explaining to Don why he lost his table, he’s upset, and the host staff is dealing with a situation, not calling tables.
Open tables (no pun intended) are stacking up in the back and now that there are 6 open tables in the restaurant it will actually take longer doing it the old fashion way because you can’t just walk a single file line through a restaurant and drop people off.
That’s just one example of how this decreases wait time.
Another way that it saves wait time is the ability to text back. Say I just got in a heated discussion at the Apple store and I tell the Spaghetti Warehouse I need 20 more minutes. They can now call the next person and bump me down.
Yes, NoWait is a great name for this innovative startup. I just hope they build scale quickly because waiting sucks.
Comments Off on California Startup: PortfolioDashboards Helps Investors Manage Startup Investments0LikeLike 2,195
If you’re an angel investor, venture capitalist or have any other kind of hand in investing in startups and early stage companies, than you know that tracking your investments isn’t as easy as you would like it to be. That is until now.
Orange County California based startup PortfolioDashboards offers something that angel investors and VC’s have been longing for. Their problem, was to find a better way to track investments in startup companies and they’ve done it.
PortfolioDashboards was founded by Ancestry.com alumnus Kerry Kane. Kane ran digital marketing at Ancestry.com and has had his hand in many different startup companies. Ancestry.com alumni are starting all kinds of companies. Just over a week ago we interview Jesse Gant, also an ancestry.com alumni who started Recmnd.Me
We got a chance to interview Kane about PortfolioDashboards. Check that interview out, after the break.
Comments Off on Cincinnati’s The Brandery Announces 2012 Startup Class, And It Starts Young0LikeLike 2,353
Earlier we reported on Louisville Kentucky startup Impulcity and the fact that they would be headed up to Cincinnati for this years class at the Brandery. The Brandery is a marketing focused Cincinnati incubator. All of the companies selected to participate in the 2012 session receive $20,000 in seed capital and will participate in a 14 week program that includes free office space, mentoring, working with some of the top marketing and advertising people in the country and access to venture capitalists.
To date the Brandery has graduated 14 startups since 2010. This year’s class is 11 startups deep and the ages of these entrepreneurs range from 17 years old to 45. It’s a mix of Cincinnati based startups, to startups from across the US. However the Brandery received applications from over 40 different countries and received twice as many applications as the previous two years combined.
Enterchange reports that Rujul Zaparde is the youngest in the class at 17. His co-founders in their New Jersey based startup FlazCar are Shri Ganeshram and Kevin Petrovic, both of whom are just 18 themselves. Details were stealthily as to what they would be working on however Laura Baverman of Enterchange reports that these three high school buddies started a non profit that’s built 50 wells in India serving 80,000 residents. One word: Impressive.
At 45, Vinay Murthy is the oldest member of the class. Murthy left a position at Google where he helped develop Adsense, Adwords and also worked on YouTube among other things. His startup, with co-founder Vikram Venkataraghavan is called 360pager, and again there’s word on exactly what they are doing.
Brooklyn, NY: Off Track Planet, Freddie Pikovsky, 29, and Anna Starostinetskaya, 29.
Chicago: Ontract, Julian Miller, 31, and Matt Duch, 26.
Cincinnati: Modulus, Charlie Key, 28, Brandon Cannaday, 28, and Richard Key, 24, (moving back home from Tucson).
Cincinnati: VouchedFor, Michael Bergman, 33, David Volker, 31, Bree Bergman, 31, Stephen Hartz, 34.
Cleveland: Flock’d, Greg Svitak, 37, and Kurt Pettit, 34. According to its website, Flock’d is a mobile application that lets groups check-in at bars and request rewards from the bars’ owners or managers.
Louisville:Impulcity, Hunter Hammonds, 21, and Austin Cameron, 22. They’ve already received some press in Louisville for a plan to use data from a person’s social media presence to recommend events and venues that fit his or her interests.
New York:Socstock, Jay Finch, 26, and Angelo Stracquatanio, 25. Its website describes an online platform that helps small businesses raise capital from their community of supporters, in return for future goods and services at the business.
New Jersey: FlazCar, Rujul Zaparde, 17, Shri Ganeshram, 18, and Kevin Petrovic, 18.
Salt Lake City: CrowdHall, Austin Hackett, 27, Jordan Menzel, 27, and Nick Wientge, 34, of San Diego (and Cincinnati native). A website for the company calls it a free online platform that lets high-profile people respond to public discourse and lets crowds more effectively communicate with those high-profile people.
San Francisco: 360Pager, Vinay Murthy, 45, and Vikram Venkataraghavan, 36.
Seattle:FlyDutch, Andy Zhang, 26, George Lin, 26, and Sean Wen, 27. According to a profile on AngelList, a site that matches startups and investors, FlyDutch helps online daters meet in person faster, safer and more casually.
The Brandery has a team of over 55 mentors with top notch business and startup experience. The list includes Mike Bott, the General Manager of The Brandery; Lucas Watson, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at YouTube; and Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO of Living Social.
Powerhouse VC firms including Union Square Ventures, First Round Capital and Polaris also have mentors participating. This is actually one of the strongest teams of mentors we’ve seen at an incubator “everywhere else”.
The program officially starts July 2 and will end with a Demo Day set for October 3rd when all 11 teams will show off their startups.
Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” here are more stories from “everywhere else”
The next leg of our road trip actually includes Cincinnati (In addition to Chicago, St.Louis & more) please check this link out and watch the video below:
Comments Off on Chicago Startup: OpenAirplane Rent Planes As Easily As Cars0LikeLike 1,700
A startup in Chicago is looking to change the game for about 96% of pilots who have their licenses but have been fed up with the current way planes are rented. Currently, after you’ve invested nearly $10,000 in a pilots license the next step is to start getting flight hours. Planes are quite costly so the easiest way to do that is to rent them.
Planes rent for roughly $185 per hour that the engines are actually turning. While it may seem like a costly hobby that’s just the start of it. Right now when you rent a plane you have to do what is called a “check out” with the plane rental company. It’s almost like a mini pilots test and can involve half the day and add money to your bottom line.
If you rent one plane in Chicago, and take it to Miami, and then rent a different, plane, but the exact same model for the return trip from Miami to Chicago you have to take another checkout “test”. They can’t just take the certificate or the word of the previous rental company.
OpenAirplane is trying to change that by offering a network of pilots who’ve taken a more universal “checkout” annually. By having their network of pilots take one “universal” checkout it speeds up the process, cuts down the frustration and ultimately adds up to more rented plane hours and more revenue for the plane rental companies.
OpenAirplane’s two founders Adam Fast and Rod Rakic are both pilots themselves and have experienced these pains first hand.
Fast and Rakic have gotten out of the office and into the field and successfully recruited every single major insurance carrier that provides insurance to plane rental companies, on board with their idea. This is not a matter of the TSA or the FAA. In fact Rakic told a group after a pitch in Chicago that the FAA would prefer that more pilots were renting and ultimately flying.
After a major aviation industry trade event in Florida, Rakic and Fast were able to recruit over 2700 pilots to their network which is still in stealth mode, but will roll out publicly, very shortly.
OpenAirplane will then serve as a network to connect pilots to plane rentals and even customers. Their “network” will be free for pilots and rental companies to join. OpenAirplane will take a revenue cut from the rental companies who ultimately should be more than happy to share in revenue because OpenAirplane will generate more rentable hours all around.
In addition to putting more money in the rental companies pockets, and more flight hours for the pilots, they will also make private rentals and flying safer. They can make this claim because their “universal” checkout test will be streamlined so that every pilot takes the same test and also because it will be an annual requirement. The FAA only requires pilots to test every two years.
Now as Rakic says, pilots with a pilot license in their back pocket will be able to book their next flight online and grab the keys, the checklist and go.
Linkage:
We’re featuring Chicago all week long in preparation for TechWeek, more info on that here
Comments Off on Auburn Alabama Startup: GolfJoust The Perfect FREE Father’s Day Gift0LikeLike 2,362
Auburn Alabama is known for their Auburn Tigers championship football team, Bo Jackson, Cam Netwon and being the alma mater of Apple CEO Tim Cook. It’s not known (yet) for it’s thriving startup scene.
There’s a startup in Auburn hoping to change that, and they are Verge Pipe Media. Verge Pipe Media is a media engagement, social, app developer who’s signature product Golf Joust is turning heads on the golf course because it’s easy, different and a lot more fun than just a boring old score keeping app.
The Verge Pipe team is headed by CEO and founder Don Crow and COO Meredith Singer. Crow had a seasoned career at America Online and has a firm background in media. Singer also has a background in media having worked in television and interactive media throughout their career. They came together last year to work on both Verge Pipe Media and their first major project GolfJoust.
Their office in downtown Auburn is screaming startup culture despite the fact that they’re just a smidgeon older than the 20 something sect of startup founders springing up across the country. That doesn’t matter though, when you walk in there’s of course orange and blue accents, but high top wooden desks, macs everywhere and the classic big ass table in the middle of the office for brainstorming sessions, meetings and lunch. It’s here next to Auburn’s oldest used bookstore and a stone throws away from campus that the magic happens.
You may be asking yourself just how magic can a golf app be. After all Golf Joust is their first signature product. Well Crow and Singer along with their developers have come up with a golf app that combines golf, scoring, daily deals, social networking and gamification into one complete package.
With Golf Joust you keep your score and as you play more rounds you move up through knighthood. You stay social within your golf group (typically of four) and also golfers near you and the entire network.
There’s challenges, badges (for good and bad) and even the ability to get deals from clubhouses and golf courses.
They’re even working on an element of Fantasy golf where you can play against your favorite PGA players at your favorite PGA courses. I really hate paraphrasing EA sports but Golf Joust really lets you get in the game.
Crow and Singer are constantly brainstorming more and more things that they can add to Golf Joust and they aren’t afraid to get out in the trenches. They regularly spend days out on the golf course promoting Golf Joust. Crow admits that while he expected easy adoption from golfers 18-25 their next biggest segment is in their early 40’s like himself.
Crow explained that many people love the game of golf but know their limits and levels so utilizing Golf Joust and then adding the ability to play against their favorite players makes it even more fun. But the social element makes it ripe for “crap talking” against golfing buddies. You can even give badges to your fellow knights when they hit the double bogey.
So while we would never advocate giving someone a free gift for Father’s Day, introducing your dad, or the golfer in your family to Golf Joust for Father’s day may get a thank you for many years to come.
Kyle
Jacksonville Florida based startup Path.to has announced an expansion of their job matching startup to three major cities. Chicago, Boston and New York City joined the Path.to network to connect potential job candidates to hiring employers.
