startup Archives - Page 70 of 87

Shark Tank Startup From Utah Wins National Small Business Video Contest

You may have seen Kisstixx on ABC’s Shark Tank. The innovative new lip balms that have some kind of attraction, secret formula that makes kissing more compatible, was able to garner a $200,000 investment from Mark Cuban. When Cuban is asked about Shark Tank startups that he really likes, he often references Kissstix.

The Utah Valley University student founders of Kisstixx, Dallas Robinson and Mike Buonomo, shared their story via video in a small business contest and were one of four winners selected by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

“We are so proud of Dallas and Mike. They are the quintessential entrepreneurs; innovative, driven, disciplined and always learning,” said Shauna Theobald, director of UVU’s Woodbury School of Business Entrepreneurship Institute to UtahPulse.com. “In spite of their rapid ascent into the national spotlight, they remain committed to connecting and collaborating with other startups and with proven mentors. They’ve demonstrated the power of leveraging the resources and networks of the UVU startup community.”

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Michigan Startup HealPay: Developing Innovative Fintech Web Applications INTERVIEW

When you put together a Ruby on Rails developer with five years of experience working for engine yard, and a serial entrepreneur with two previous successful exits, move them to Ann Arbor Michigan, you’ve got HealPay. HealPay is the latest startup for serial entrepreneur Erick Bzovi, who teamed together with co-founder Lancelot Carlson to bring innovative fintech (Financial Tech) web apps to market.

HealPay currently has two billing applications aimed at enterprise available today. However, they plan on continually producing easy to use, but robust applications to handle financial tasks efficiently.

We got the opportunity to talk with Bzovi about HealPay and their fintech app development startup.

Where are you located?

After receiving some seed capital [http://www.annarbor.com/business-review/after-receiving-an-angel-investment], we opened an office in downtown Ann Arbor. We think this is the best place to start a tech business in Michigan!

Tell us about (and describe) a few of your apps:

We’ve developed two billing applications for the enterprise.

Our SettlementApp helps large businesses, e.g collection agencies, settle with consumers by offering flexible & friendly payment options. People are more willing (& able) to pay their bills when given options to do so. Creating a 3, 6 or 9 month payment plan is a breeze.

Our BillerApp helps small businesses, e.g. sole proprietors & contractors, send out invoices in a matter of minutes. The app is currently free and was considered one of the Best Invoicing Tools amongst Design professionals. [source: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665487/infographic-of-the-day-the-best-design-tools-on-the-market]

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Minneapolis Startup: CribFrog Is A Social Network For Neighbors

Have you ever lived in an apartment building or community? I have, and I’m sure if you’re like me than you probably know maybe one or two neighbors. Perhaps you recognize a few faces at the pool, the gym or on community day, but besides that you don’t know who lives next to you, above you or under you. Well Minneapolis startup CribFrog is hoping to change that.

Right now they are beta testing under closed beta, but when they debut to the public it will be in the form of closed social networks based on apartment and other housing communities. It will be a great way for neighbors to get to know each other.

For some reason people don’t talk to each other theses days without a social networking ice breaker. I’ve actually met about 15 people from my local community just be using the “near by” tab on Google+. A few have been following me on Twitter for years.

We got a chance to interview CribFrog’s founder Alex Reilly. While some may feel that face to face communication is best, and it is, CribFrog will facilitate face to face meet ups, outings and new friendships in ways people haven’t seen in the past. Check out the interview, below the break.

Utah Startup CompleteSpeech Wins $100k For Building A Better Retainer

An orthodintic/speech pathology startup in Salt Lake City Utah has come home with the $100,000 prize in Utah’s 2012 Springboard Business Competition.

Dan Smith and Dave Larsen, the founders of CompleteSpeech won the competition for their patented retainer called the SmartPalete.

SmartPalete is an orthodontic retainer that has electronic sensors built into the plate. Those sensors record the movements of the tongue and mouth when the patient is talking.

Speech Pathologists can take the recordings made with the SmartPalate retainer and analyze them. They can also use the recordings to show the patient the movements of the mouth and tongue while they are speaking.

The prize is a mix of $50,000 in cash and the other $50,000 in valuable business services. The competition doesn’t stop there though. Smith and Larsen will compete three more times over the next year to win up to $250,000 more in cash and prizes and the honor of being the state champions.

CompleteSpeech beat out a field of over 1,000 initial entrants and then 12 finalists with a tough field of judges including Fraser Bullock, managing director of Sorenson Capital; Amy Anderson, chief executive officer of Mediconnect; and SkullCandy CEO Jeremy Andrus.

“If you have a good idea, you need to plan it out (and) get all the resources that you can around you,” said Larsen, chief executive officer of CompleteSpeech told ksl.comYou need to believe in yourself and go do it.”

Virginia Startup: Kinergy Health Presented At Capital Connection/TechBUZZ

Capital Connection is an event 25 years strong, puling together all facets of the private investment industry. The day and a half long conference this past week included one day of early stage, and pre-funded companies called TechBUZZ while Thursday featured many of the regions biggest growth companies.

Wednesday’s TechBUZZ event featured 28 startup companies. 26 were vetted by the TechBUZZ committee while the 28th company was selected in conjunction with Startup America. The Startup America winner was CONT3NT.

One of the best ideas that we saw on Wednesday was Vienna Virginia based Kinergy Health. Kinergy Health was founded by health tech serial entrepreneur and CEO Neil Agate and connects family members, doctors and caregivers, managing a loved ones care, in the cloud.

As someone who has spent a good deal of time in the hospital in the last two years I can tell you that the idea behind Kinergy Health’s MyKinergy product resonated with me and my loved ones when I described it to them.

If you’ve ever been to the hospital, whether your a kid, in your thirties like myself, or well into your elder years, the time between doctor visits and the miscommunication that comes with those visits can be nerve wracking for the patient and their family. Your primary care doctor gives one order while your internist or oncologist gives another, and no one seems to know when you’ll ever go home.

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Startup: Shortcut Blogging Turns Spoken Word Podcasts Into Written Words

A startup that truly hails from everywhere else is turning spoken word and audio podcasts into written word blogs, case studies, course materials and other written forms of communication. They’re much more than just a transcription service they make sure that the context from the source audio is turned into understandable, useable written works with the context in tact.

Co-founders Dave Young and Paul Boomer have backgrounds in advertising, radio and as marketing consultants, so an idea like Shortcut Blogging was natural for them.

We got a chance to catch up with Dave Young to talk about this innovative startup that hails from Nebraska, Arizona and Missouri. Yes, Shortcut Blogging is truly a startup from “everywhere else”.

What is Shortcutblogging?

Shorcut Blogging is a production company that turns spoken-word interviews (podcasts) into written-word content for blog posts, case studies, course materials, web content and more. We use professional broadcasters to conduct focused interviews with CEOs and other experts who want to produce content without writing. We transcribe the interviews and then our team of proofreaders and editors re-write the transcriptions into written content in the writing “voice” of the expert. A professionally produced audio podcast is a by-product that most clients also post with their written content.

Some of our clients use us for regular blogging, some use us for batch-produced content for product launches, courses and to promote events.

We also offer the services of our interviewers for people who want to do web video and need the help of an interviewer instead of just being a “talking head.”

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

Dave Young and Paul Boomer are advertising and marketing consultants associated with Roy H. Williams’ Wizard of Ads group. Both of them have prior careers in radio broadcasting.

As consultants, they mostly work with local owner-operated businesses in retail and service sectors. Services include marketing strategy, media buying, web design, copywriting and more.

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Israeli Startup: Drippler A Must Have App For All Android Users VIDEO INTERVIEW

We got to talk to the team behind the must have Android app called Drippler. Drippler has already seen 1.5 million downloads in the Google Play Store and has a 4.8 rating.

Drippler is a unique mobile app that provides all kinds of information about your Android phone. Once you download the free app from the Google Play Store it detects which Android phone or tablet that you have. From there it aggregates all the information about your phone.

Drippler finds information from manufacturer websites, blogs, app review sites, tech sites and forums and consolidates it into one easy readable stream for you. Now you’ll never be behind when a firmware update comes out or a new app comes out that works better on your device. You can cut through the clutter of the 8 million Android blogs out there (ok there’s not really 800 Android blogs out there, but there’s a lot).

Drippler blends a unique mix of all the relevant information about the phone or tablet that you have the app installed on. If you have multiple Android devices, Drippler will show you just the information for the device you have the app on. So say you have a Samsung Galaxy S II and an Asus Transformer Prime. Drippler on your Galaxy S II will give you Galaxy S II information and Drippler on your Asus Transformer Prime will given you info on that particular tablet.

Check out our interview with the founder below:

Linkage:

Download Drippler from the Google Play Store here:

See more of our coverage from TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012

Nibletz is on a nationwide sneaker-strapped startup road show, find out more here

Microsoft Funds Russian Startup Pirate Pay To Shut Down Bit Torrents

Microsoft has invested in Russian startup Pirate Pay. Pirate Pay was designed to shut down torrent distribution of copyright protected works. This of course has the internet freedom fighters in a tiff, especially because Pirate Pay was able to attract such a significant investor.

According to this report from Torrent Freak, in early tests, Pirate Pay was able to shut down tens of thousands of downloads. Of course in the grand scheme of things, that’s not nearly as many as they would like.

“After creating the prototype, we realized we could more generally prevent files from being downloaded, which meant that the program had great promise in combating the spread of pirated content,” Pirate Pay CEO Andrei Klimenko says.

Bit torrent files are costing the movie and recording industry billions of dollars in revenue, despite the fact that physical cd and music media sales are still topping the download business.

Microsoft invested $100,000 into the company. With Microsoft’s investment Pirate Pay was able to continue working with Direktcya Kino to protect the film “Vysotsky. Thank God I’m Alive”. The film is distributed by Sony Pictures. In the case of this project 44,845 transfers were stopped.

Pirate Pay isn’t the first company that is “protecting” studios from torrent files. MediaDefender was actually the first company to take on the daunting task. MediaDefender has recently re-branded itself as “Peer Media”

Also, it appears that Pirate Pays main tactics aren’t original either. They won’t reveal how their technology actually works but Torrent Freak and many other websites and forums say that Pirate Pay floods the torrent sites with fake versions of the protected media, which discourages the downloading of the actual file. While it cuts back the illegal downloads, actual versions of the films actually make it to the torrent sites and then are easily identifiable as such.

The music industry actually started employing this tactic back in Napster’s heyday. While the folks running companies like Pirate Pay think they are solving the problem, they don’t realize that in most cases if a torrent file can’t be downloaded it doesn’t translate to going out to the store to buy the same title.

Source: TorrentFreak

We Check Out NY Startup TAPP, Automagically Updates Your Address Book

We caught up with the founder of a new startup called TAPP at TechCrunch Disrupt this week in New York.

TAPP works like Plaxo. It essentially updates your contacts and address book automagically. When your friends, family members and colleagues update their phone numbers, instant messaging id’s and email addresses TAPP updates them for you.

TAPP just recently moved to New York where they are launching their app to iOS and Blackberry first. They have plans to work on an Android version very soon.

TAPP also has other features like TAPP ID now you can communicate via TAPP ID rather than your actual phone number if you so choose. You can also customize your TAPP ID with a link that’s easy to share across your network of contacts.

This is just one of many startups in the telecommunications field at TechCrnuch Disrupt. Most of them were focused on conference calling and messaging.

Here’s the video interview:

We Interview DC Startup Barrel Of Jobs At Capital Connection 2012

barrel of jobs,barrelofjobs.com,chris hertz,craig zingerline,capital connection,dc startup,nibletz.com

(photo: nibletz syndicate)

While at the Capital Connection/TechBUZZ conference in Washington DC this week we got to meet Chris Hertz and Craig Zingerline, the co-founders of Washington DC based startup Barrel Of Jobs. They were one of 28 new startups that presented their business in a four minute presentation on Wednesday at the conference.

Of course by the name, Barrel of Jobs, you already know it has something to do with jobs and careers. With Barrel of Jobs though, we’re not talking bout the next monster.com or Career Builder. Barrel of Jobs is a social recruiting platform to connect employers to the best candidates. Barrel of Jobs is using the social web to help recruiters, employers and even startups, find the best talent.

As the baby boomer generation starts to retire, recruiters and HR Departments are looking to find the best young talent possible. With the current generation in the talent pool we’re all accustomed to the traditional online tools for jobs. Tools like monster.com, Career Builder and other job websites are getting crowded with jobs and applicants. Because of this, more and more talent seekers are turning to the social web to find the best applicants.

Their is a problem with the way recruiters are using the social web right now though, and that is that they really can’t penetrate past the first node in terms of finding applicants. Another problem is the fact that some of the best candidates are already employed, and they’re passive job seekers. This means that they’re employed but may consider changing employers if the best opportunity was presented to them.

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Startup New Hampshire Joins Startup America

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Linkage

Find out more about Startup America here

More stories on Startup America from Nibletz can be found here

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

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Chicago Startup: Justice Bid, Bid Out Legal Projects INTERVIEW

Law firms spend millions of dollars a year contracting legal work out to third parties. Whether it be research, document reviews, investigative work or any of the hundreds of tasks that can be handled by third parties, there is an entire industry of service providers for law firms.

Typically law firms contract with one or two service providers for each type of outsourced work. Sometimes they spend more than they could on this legal work whether it be out of the convenience of using the same provider over and over again or there just aren’t enough service providers in their immediate local area to offer competitive pricing.

Also, as busy as legal firms are these days it’s hard to find the time to evaluate and outsource other service providers.

Now, a new Chicago startup called Justice Bid allows law firms to anonymously bid out projects to service providers and get the best quotes. Everyone knows that legal fees aren’t cheap but hopefully if law firms turn to this new service, and new way to bid out jobs, they could save their clients some money as well.

When the law firm is just billing the client back for this third party work anyway, as a client you would be happy to know they are looking to save you some money.

Justice Bid was founded by Omar Sweiss. Omar is an attorney himself and he founded Justice Bid by solving a problem that even his firm was experiencing.

We got the opportunity to talk with Justice Bid’s Chief Operating Officer Justin Strane about this new startup, in virtually its own space.

Check out the interview, after the break
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Startup America CEO Scott Case Offers 7 Tips For Relationships At TechCocktail Event in DC

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Plan Incredible Dates With Israeli Startup Dateini

Now you can plan incredible dates by using Israeli startup Dateini.

Dateini allows you to create an account. From there you select the kind of date you want to go on, is it movies, entertainment, wild or romantic? There are several different options for your date.

Dateini than finds three components of your date, dinner, an activity and an after activity place for a drink. If you’re looking for a subdued, intimate evening it may recommend a nice candle lit dinner, walk in the park and then a night cap at a soft piano bar.

One of the best parts of Dateini is after it selects the date for you, it plans out a walking route so you don’t even need to drive from place to place.

You can save your date settings for future use and if you would like you can share your dates as well.

Dateini solves a big problem that many couples have and that is “what to do”. The UI is intuitive and sharp looking and the aggregation is quick. You can also select to have your dates include coupons, deals and discounts to look like a rockstar and stay on a budget.

Dateini was showing off their app at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012 this week as part of the Israel Pavillion.

Check out our video with Dateini, below: