startup Archives - Page 76 of 87

Singapore Startup: Dropmyemail Can Back Up All Your Email

A Singapore based startup that was founded after a hosting failure caused their first startup to go-down, is rapidly catching on.

Dropmyemail was founded by John Fearon after his first startup Eatads.com had a hosting failure. Fearon told youstory.in after they lost all their data he had an idea about a cloud based website backup called dropmysite. Dropmysite is a simple enough idea, giving website owners a cloud based backup of their website on established intervals. The next evolution was dropmyemail.com which was launched on March 1, 2012.

Since March 1st they’ve added over 600,000 users which is a faster adoption rate than DropBox and Pinterest.

“We now have over 600K signups since our launch of Dropmyemail.com from around the world. We began offering the freemium service on 1st March, 2012 and within days we saw great traction in new user adoption and the coveted hockey stick growth kicked in, the company has been adding close to 15,000 new users per day since then. India is a very big market for us with around 20% of our users coming from India.” Fearon told yourstory.in

There are some major benefits to Dropmyemail’s fermium service. The first of course is that it’s free. Users can easily sign into the service using a Facebook or Google account. From there the users emails will be backed up to the cloud every 24 hours. Fearon also insists that they have no access to the data stored within the email accounts and they also offer migration service so you can back up and move your emails from one account to another.

It’s the simplicity and ease of the service that is attracting more than 15,000 new users a day.

Linkage:

Read the rest of the interview here

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Texas Startup: Stripper Turned Entrepreneur Creates “Naked Maid Service”

You may have caught a glimpse of this story as it’s been all over the net the past month or so. Melissa Borrett, a Lubbock Texas based former stripper has turned into an entrepreneur with a new startup that is turning heads. The company is called Lubbock Fantasy Maid Service and according to Borrett business is booming.

“We actually had problems with our phone lines, because they were so busy for a while,” Owner Melissa Borrett said.

Lubbock Fantasy Maid Service even came up as part of Jay Leno’s Monolog a couple of weeks back. Is it something to joke about? Not according to Borrett. She has 5 maids to date and they are of course quite popular. This isn’t some kind of escort service or in call prostitution. The maids do whatever work they are assigned to do which is asked in the online “order form” on the company website.

Some maids do a full house-cleaning just as their fully clothed counterparts would do. Maids have also been hired to serve drinks and food at parties as well. The maids did so well that Borrett also launched a male version of Fantasy Butlers. The butlers do housework, handyman work and yard work.

Borrett offers three types of maid services, lingerie, topless and nude. She goes to great lengths to outline safety policies as well as mentioning quite a few times that physical contact is not acceptable. She reminds users that the maids are there to be maids. Also, maids that are nude or topless will not work and will leave if there is anyone under 18 in the residence, and of course, like with an in-call escort service, security is standing by.

Borrett says she is doing well however she also reports that they do about five bookings per week. If all of the bookings were completely nude that would amount to $750 so we’re not sure how “well” they are doing.

What do you think about this startup idea? Let us know in comments:

Linkage:

Fantasy Maids website

Source: 14news.com

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NY Startup: GiftSimple Wins Best Social Startup At NY Tech Day INTERVIEW

New York startup GiftSimple won the Best Social Startup award at the recent New York Tech Day. The woman owned startup is a crowdfunding gift registry startup.

Now, instead of collecting a bunch of regiftable gifts that you either don’t like, won’t wear or are way too small, you can use GiftSimple to tell people what you really want. The best part is, when the item is too much for one person, multiple people can team up to crowd fund that gift.

GiftSimple is fully integrated with Facebook so that you can easily share your gift list and friends can contribute whenever they want. GiftSimple also reminds you of your friends birthdays and easily allows you to see their gift lists as well.

We got a chance to speak with Jess Lachs the founder of GiftSimple about GiftSimple and winning the “Best Social Startup” at New York Tech Day.

Interview after the break
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India Startup: MyPurpleMartini Is India’s First Nightlife Focused Social Network

While Saarthank Gupta was studying in the UK he found it very easy to go out and have a good time. Every good club, restaurant and bar had a website and there were a few good portals in the UK to tell you what was hot any given night of the week. When he returned to India, that wasn’t the case.

India does have it’s fair share of good night life including clubs, bars, restaurants and social clubs, the problem is Indian business owners were stuck in their ways. Most of the advertising for Indian nightlife was by word of mouth. Word of mouth is good and free but to really drive patrons to your business you need more than that, especially nightlife.

When Gupta first started MyPurpleMartini it was more of an information site with limited interaction. Since September 2011 they’ve pivoted and become much more social.

“I have always been an avid party goer. While I was in the U.K it was very convenient for us to go out partying to a place we liked going to, as everything there was online. It just took a couple of minutes and we knew where we were heading on a particular night. When I came to India, I saw a big gap when it came to information regarding nightlife/ events/ parties. In India, at that point, it was all about word of mouth publicity. To see the response in the Indian Market, we initially started an information based website but with the phenomenal success in its initial phase and seeing the potential for the social media, hospitality and lifestyle space in India, we re-launched MyPurpleMartini as India’s First Social Networking Nightlife & Lifestyle portal in September 2011. The response has been amazing so far and I hope it continues this way,” Gupta told Indian website Yourstory.com

More after the break
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New Orleans Startup: Bioceptive Raises $385,000 For Safer Birth Control

A New Orleans biotech startup called Bioceptive has just raised $385,000 in seed money today.

The startup, which is based at the New Orleans BioInnovation Center downtown, is developing the idea of a young Tulane graduate which will hopefully lead to safer intrauterine birth control. This type of birth control, called IUD’s, currently requires to use multiple tools to insert the birth control device into a woman’s uterus.

While the procedure is relatively safe and performed thousands of times a day, the more tools involved the more likely there is a risk for puncturing the uterine wall. With Bioceptives insertion method it reduces the number of tools needed to insert the birth control.

The $385,000 in seed money came from private investors, venture capital funds, physicians and Tamara Kreinin. Kreinin is the former executive director of women and population with the United Nations Foundation in Washington DC.

The BioInnovation Center opened last fell. Bioceptive is the latest center tenant to receive funding. The center is an incubator for Biotech startups in the region.

Linkage:

Source: New Orleans City Business

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Kansas City Startup: Cognovant Raises $500k For mPHR Pocket Health

A Kansas City startup called Cognovant launches last summer and has been working on a new, easy to use mPHR (mobile personal health record) application. Their application, called PocketHealth, is actually a suite of applications and is cross platform. The company has been saying for months that they will be launching on iOS and Android this month.

With the news that they just raised a $500,000 seed round, they should be that much closer to reaching their deadline.

Cognovant’s PocketHealth, will be free for individual users to download and use. The app captures data and allows users to manage their wellness. It’s built under the stringent medical industry standards. Cognovant has said that the application is based on international data standards and has the same foundation as a full electronic medical record.

Cognovant CEO, Dr. Joe Ketcherside, confirmed to SiliconPrairie today that they are still on track for a launch in about two weeks after final testing is complete.

Beyond the base, free app, users will be able to download a multi-user “family” version which will give users the ability to manage multiple health records. They will also have an upgrade called PocketHealth PHR which will allow users to manage more complex health issues.

More after the break
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Florida Startup: LokalMuzik Proximity Based Local Music Aggregator INTERVIEW

A Jacksonville entrepreneur, Jason Belanger, has just launched a new mobile app for discovering new local music by proximity to your device. The app called LokalMusik is available for Android phones in the Google Play store.

Basically you open up the app and based on your GPS coordinates you can find new music and artists of multiple genres. New unsigned artists create profile pages which allow you to learn more about them, hear their music, even find out when and where they are playing next.

This is great for people who love to find new music and artists a lot or even if you want to keep up with your local music scene. Since the app is proximity based, if you’re in New Orleans you’re going to get an entire different set of artists then you would n New York, LA or even Florida.

Now if you’re attending a big music festival like SXSW, the New Orleans Jazz Festival, or even Bonaroo you can check out the national acts coming to the stages and the home brewed talent in whichever genre you like. Whether you want to support up and coming hip hop artists or a local string quartet LokalMuzik will offer it all.

More after the break
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L.A. Startup: BuzzMob Is First Company In MWW Ventures

MWW is one of the largest PR firms in the country with a global presence. Their client list includes some of the top tier companies in their industries. Nikon and Samsung Mobile are both represented by MWW among a long list of familiar brands.

MWW just announced a new venture capital project spearheaded by their global head of technology and digital content, Ephraim Cohen. MWW ventures is incubating startups that advance media, marketing and public relations industries by investing firm resources in exchange for equity.

Cohen told Nibletz.com that MWW Ventures was developed by he and MWW Group CEO Michael Kempner who is a serial entrepreneur. With the verticals that the MWW Group is involved with Cohen says they come across great startups all the time. With MWW Ventures, the MWW Group will invest and incubate companies that will help them stay on “…the cutting edge of technology”.

Buzzmob, a Los Angeles startup was announced as MWW Ventures first portfolio company last week. Buzzmob is a mobile app for live events that forms location based social networks in real time and on the fly.

More after the break

California Company Creates New Search Startup Called Gooey Search INTERVIEW

Google is the goto search for most of the people out there on the internet. Sure there is Bing and Yahoo (powered by Bing) that we use occasionally but we tend to default to Google. However, we’ve all noticed as Google grows bigger and bigger, and now especially after the implementation of Google+ in the search results, searching isn’t as accurate as it used to be.

Couple the accuracy issue with privacy concerns, and you may be looking for a new search engine. Privacy is a growing concern for many. While there is a novelty in searching for something and seeing like ads on the side bar, sometimes the ads get in the way and feel downright stalkerish.

All of those reasons are why San Luis Obispo, CA based company Visual Purple is bringing their Gooey Search product to market. GooeySearch is an app that compliments your Google experience. We got a chance to talk with GooeySearch for an interview here it is:

What is Gooey Search and Visual Purple

“Like most people, Google is our go-to search engine and we love the iPad.” Heinbockel says, “With the exception of PageRank, search has changed little compared to other technologies over the years and has yet to successfully venture beyond 10 blue links. That inspired us to optimize for the iPad our proven, professional-grade search technology for analysts and researchers, GisterPRO. Gooey makes search fun and brings a new dimension of accuracy, privacy, anonymity and content transparency to Google searches. We have set out to make an app for the iPad that will allow you to interact and explore Google results like never before.” The search app is slated to launch December 2012, pending full funding from Kickstarter supporters.

David Ostby and Ed Heinbockel were founding figures when Visual Purple. The Company has enjoyed being an industry leader in intelligent training simulations and technologies throughout the Virtual World, Embedded and Decision-Based training sectors. In 2011, Visual Purple publicly introduced GisterPRO, a Cloud-Powered Exploratory Search Tool that delivers precision, high-quality search results while often revealing unanticipated yet highly insightful concepts and relationships. The tool has been in continuous use since Fall 2010.

More after the break
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Nashville Startup: Taigan Lets You Shop The World From The Comfort Of Your Own Home

The days of wandering the halls of a mall in search for rare shops with cool, exquisite, beautiful things are long gone. It’s rare that you find an independent shop keeper who is willing to put in the overhead it costs to be in the nicer malls typically anchored with a Nordstrom, Neimans, Bloomingdales or Crate and Barrel. Boutique shops can be found on the strips of the more popular touristy towns but more often than not you find yourself paying 2 to 3 times more than you should because of the address.

If you’re one of those people that enjoys shopping boutiques and loves a good treasure hunt at a store off the beaten path, then you need to pay attention to Taigan and how they let you shop the world from your computer chair, or smartphone.

Taigan is like an online mall comprised of boutiques and individually owned shops. Maybe you’ve shopped at a handmade jewelry store nestled into a backstreet in Georgetown. Perhaps you found nice cashmere sweaters and artisan designer clothes at a shop on Main street in middle America. Those kinds of stores and more are curated and then added to the wide array of merchants you can find at Taigan.com

As you will find out in our interview with Taigan’s CEO Elizabeth Nichols, this unique, well curated online community of shops is the brain child of Mary Catherine McLellan and Mark McDonald. Nichols was a hired CEO who had built her own shopping center development company from start to going public. In our interview Nichols highlights how Taigan is uniquely different and an amazing experience.

The other thing that sets Taigan apart from anything even remotely similar is that they vet all of their merchants, you can’t just sign up and have a store front at Taigan. The Taigan team travels around the country, and the world to see the merchants using their service. If they can’t get to a merchant they require a chance to review the products in hand to make sure that they are good quality and that the merchant isn’t fly by night.

One other thing we will touch on in the interview is how when we began working on this story I noticed that while the items in the merchant stores may be on the high end of the quality scale, the Taigan team isn’t snobby or snooty and just about everyone feels like they belong at Taigan and can find something they like using Taigan.

Interview after the break
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Utah Startup Launches PowerPot To Bring Electricity To Rural Countries

Sometimes we take things for granted living in a developing world. I for one always have a charged cell phone and at least 8 different wireless charging products so my batteries never die.

Over in some part of Africa 200 million people have a cell phone but many don’t have a way to charge it. Often times people in developing countries walk a mile or more to charge their cell phone. They pay $2 -$15 for the ability to charge their phones. It’s also been estimated that by the year 2015 that number will double.

There is a startup based in Salt Lake City Utah that is looking to change that. Power Practical has developed a product called the Power Pot which doubles as a cooking device and as a thermoelectric generator. It’s actually designed for cooking over an open flame, which is often times how people in these developing countries do their cooking.

The Power Pot comes equipped with heat resistant cabling that can withstand temperatures of 300 degrees celsius. It also has a silicon coating which makes it dust, mud and dirt resistant, as well as water resistant. With the Power Pot families can cook food while saving up a charge for their cell phone.

Angie Thompson is a school teacher and a field tester for the Power Pot. Thompson reported back that the Power Pot was good for rural life. It was well received and useful during inclement weather.

More after the break
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Florida Startup: WUBB Wants To Be The One Social Network For Business

A Cooper City Florida company has launched a new social network called WUBB. Their mission seems to be targeted at business and very multi-faceted. If WUBB takes off it’s going to be spectacular for them however if it doesn’t it’s going to be one crazy hodge podge of social mess.

This morning WUBB described itself as “a platform for social entrepreneurs across the world that inspires, connects, communicates and manages your business and professional network by joining Entrepreneurs, Cofounders, Freelancers, Investors, Employees, Family and Friends. It is a multi-user, community-based, business networking hub where people join only to be benefited.”

The home page and dashboard look like a hybrid between Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. Speaking of which you can login with your Facebook or LinkedIn account or create your own account.

In addition to the usual dashboard links like dashboard,profile, people and even companies, you’ll also find tabs for contests, services, projects, ideas and even domains and websites. WUBB gives you a portal to buy domain names and buy and sell websites. A little odd for a social network but most likely a revenue stream for the new company.

More after the break
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Portland Startup: Interview With ShopMyPin, Winner Of Portland’s Startup Weekend

Vanessa VanPetten, Shopmypins, Startupweekend portland

26 year old Vanessa VanPetten emerged from the chaotic Portland Startup Weekend as the winner with shopmypins (photo: V. VanPetten)

Portland’s sixth startup weekend will go down in history as one of the craziest startup weekend’s ever. If you were checking up on Nibletz over the weekend you would have read this story about a man who was asked to leave Portland’s startup weekend. After he left he started tweeting that he was going to come back with explosives and guns. The organizers of the event increased security and had the event on a near lockdown for the rest of the weekend.

26 year old Vanessa VanPetten emerged from the action packed weekend as the winner with her new startup idea “Shop My Pins”. It wasn’t easy for VanPetten though, even with the disruption on Saturday she was still pitted against 16 other teams.

Game it up, a startup geared at teaching kids coding for video games won the award for “Outstanding Customer Validation”. “Outstanding Business Opportunity/Business Model” went to Matchable, which is a cell phone dating app. “Outstanding Execution” went to 15 year old Jackson Gariety for HashTraffic, a cross platform hashtag maker.

The Williamette Week reports that 15 year old Gariety and his HashTraffic were big hits and that Game It Up had already talked to Nintendo, Electronic Arts and IBM who had already started showing interest.

More after the break
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Philly Startup: Interview With The Student Founder Of Neo-Cover

Every once in a while we come across some great tangible goods startups, either ideas that are just full of awesomeness and win or ideas that are being grown in the US. Neo-Cover is one of those ideas. Add that to the fact that it’s founded by a college student and designer in Philadelphia and it makes it an even better story.

So what’s a neo-cover? Well the idea is so damn basic you’ll be asking yourself why didn’t I think of that? Well the reason you didn’t think of that or I didn’t think of that is because 22 year old Jake Frey did. Neo-Cover is a magnetic light switch wall plate. Don’t go and try and steal it this 22 year old has his ducks in a row and has the patent. Once he bulks up his sales Kevin O’Leary and the sharks on Shark Tank would gobble this idea up.

A magnetic light switch plate, what would I use that for? Well for starters you could hang your keys, a mini flashlight, a dog leash, a money clip anything that you often forget can go right up on the light switch. Presumably you turn your lights on every now and then, and now it’s easy to find. The magnet is so powerful it can hold a decent sized hammer, or a screw driver. I told you this idea is both basic and genius.

So let’s meet the 22 year old behind neo-cover…

Interview after the break
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