Pink Robin Avenue Brings the Party to EverywhereElse.co And Beyond

By: Brittany Tuggle, University Of Memphis Entrepreneurial Journalism Student

Memphis-based startup Pink Robin Avenue offers personalized party events for any occasion. Clients can discuss everything from color schemes to tablecloths with CEO Danielle Inez, and her team takes care of the rest.

“I want my clients to have a great party experience without sacrificing so much of their time,” says Inez.

What makes Pink Robin Avenue different from other event planning companies is the convenience of it all. Inez gets all the details from her clients in one session; when her website launches, clients will be able to easily create customized events quickly that way as well. The company pre-assembles your selected party items and ships them to you.

“If you envision it, you don’t have to create it. We’ll do it for you. Everything is exactly how you want it and it’s as unique as my client,” said Inez.

Pink Robin Avenue designs events nationwide and is currently working on launching their website and expanding their business. Inez is planning on entering the Black Enterprise Magazine pitch contest later this year in hopes of garnering additional funding.

To start planning your own event, visit: pinkrobinavenue.com<http://pinkrobinavenue.com> or twitter.com/pinkrobinavenue<http://twitter.com/pinkrobinavenue>.

Be sure not to miss next years, everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, Click Here

EdTech Startup 19 Pencils Is Saving Lots Of Time For K-6 Teachers

Most teachers don’t have nearly enough time to spend finding resources and lesson planning. Cuts in education typically mean that average teachers have a larger class load, and some are often faced with pulling down multiple jobs in school and even after school. This can be especially difficult for K-6 teachers who often want to give their students all they possibly can.

This is where Jason Fabbri and his Sacremento based educational startup 19Pencils comes in. 19Pencils provides an online community for like minded elementary school teachers. Using their platform teachers can search and discover great educational content and upload and share things that have worked for them in the classroom.

Fabbri has been a software engineer for the last 17 years. He’s had a long career with Adobe contributing to projects like Photoshop Elements, Photoshop Services and more. It was volunteering at his children’s schools that prompted him to create 19Pencils. He saw firsthand the frustration that teachers had in curating good web content for first grade students, and then sharing it.

We got a chance to talk to Fabbri in depth about 19Pencils and the growing startup community in Sacremento, just 90 minutes outside of Silicon Valley. Check out the interview below.

Monster Offers Is Daily Deals On Steroids With Nearly 60,000 Deals

Orange County California daily deals startup Monster Offers is a daily deals startup on steroids. Where most daily deals startups, outside of sites like Living Social and Groupon, focus on one particular area, Monster Offers is aggregating daily deals across several platforms. This gives the user a one stop destination to search for deals on just about anything.

Monster Offers gathers deal offerings from such discount providers as Groupon, Living Social, DealFind, Goldstar, and nearly 100 others. Assisted by a new partnership with Sqoot, Monster Offers can now save you tons of time and money, putting at your fingertips thousands of daily deals from 100 or so deal providers, with many offering discounts of up to 99%, all searchable in one easy location – from your web browser, your Smartphone or other handheld Smart device. The service, now available from both websites, identifies where you are geographically and begins populating the freshest and best deals near you. And based on your location, you can then filter your search based on keywords or by category, and then sit back and check out the recommended deals (including the National Deal of the Day)!

Indeed, there are hundreds, if not thousands of daily deals providers that provide unique offerings to today’s consumers, recently reported to be $2 Billion in industry sales annually. Monster Offers has had success, and remains well positioned in this growing marketplace, with its unique, one-of-a-kind approach through the Monster Offers Smartphone apps, and now adds a web-based search platform. Displaying thousands of deals each day, Monster Offers aggregates them in one convenient place, eliminating users having to wade through countless irrelevant offers just to find one that they’re interested in. The company remains dedicated to its corporate mission of delivering a robust and user friendly interface that allows buyers to organize their deal information based on geographical setting, business type, category, and keywords.

Monster Offers looks broadly across the other daily deals sites to return something that can be as national or hyper local as the user needs. This comes in handy especially for travelers who may have a local daily deals routine.

Other features include:

Hyperlocal list of daily “Monster Dealies” in up to 14 categories and 60 subcategories in your local market, all easily accessible with the press of a button.
View deals from hundreds of daily deal providers, including Groupon, Living Social, EDeals, iCoupon, Goldstar, DealFind, Zozi, Restaurant.com, Signpost, Double Take Deals, and many more.
Get the best deal in the country with the “National Deal of the Day” — straight from the Monster Offers “Monster” himself.
Utilizing IP addresses, map deals from the pool of over 30,000 potential offers, available right to your physical location in real time through your web browser, or the Smartphone App available for download.
In the Monster Offers App, adjust your preferential settings to a specific radius that reflects your daily travels.
Share deals with friends and family through social networking sites (including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and more).

You can check out Monster Offers for yourself here.

Funding Round Up Everywhere Else: batterii, Bluefields, Nomi, Club W 2/18/13

batterii, Cincinnati OH $2.5 Million

batteri is a “co-creation” social network software platform. They recently raised $2.5 million dollars led by Cincinnati local private/public seed stage investor CincyTech. CincyTech contributed $500,000 to the round which included Los Angeles based investor Ken Salkin, batterii CEO Kevin Cummins and other unlisted individuals. The company reports that they have nearly a dozen clients. TechCrunch noticed that quotes from Nike, Crush Republic and ConAgra Foods were on their site. source TC

Bluefields, London England $1 Million

Bluefields is a social platform and management tool for recreational sports teams. The startup is originally from London and is an alumnus of both Seedcamp and 500 Startups. In addition to this latest one million dollar round, Bluefields just launched out of private beta.

During the private beta, TNW reports that there were over 60,000 sports teams players using the service.

Tony Hsieh’s VegasTechFund, Ballpark Ventures, Venrex, 500 startups and White Star Capital all participated in the round. Elliot Loh, Edward Wray, Christian Hernandez, Alicia Navarro, Chang Ng, Andy McLoughlin, Tim Fong, Richard Fearn, Andreas Koukorinis, Christian Lawless and Nathan Elstub all contributed as individuals. source TNW

Nomi, New York, $3 Million

Nomi is a retail “Experience Economy” startup helping to drive engagement for loyal retail customers, rather than having to race to the bottom in price wars. The company was founded by Marc Ferrentino who was formerly the Chief Technical Architect at SalesForce. Nomi takes relationship lessons borrowed from CRM and implements them in a real time environment that’s crucial to closing sales at retail cash registers.

Philadelphia’s First Round Capital led the $3 million dollar round with participation from Greycroft Partners, SV Angel, Forerunner Ventures, Ralph Mack, Dave Tisch, Andy Dunn (CEO, Bonobos), and Sam Decker (CEO, Mass Relevance and former CMO, Bazaarvoice).

Club W, Los Angeles $3.1M

Los Angeles based Club W claims that they are the “coolest wine club” . They are also the first company to offer a personalized and curated subscription model for wine. Their$3.1 million dollar round follows a $500,000 angel round closed this time last year. L.A’s Crosscut Ventures led the round.

“We look at wine and see a $34 billion annual market ripe for disruption,” says Adam Goldenberg, Venture Partner at Crosscut said in a statement. “Club W has great traction and a solid model. We realize we’re taking a contrarian position on eCommerce given the prevailing attitudes among venture capitalists but we’ll continue to bet on the early movers leading great teams in markets with huge potential.” source: bizjournals.com

Talk Is Cheap 10 Things New Startup Founders Always Say

Talk is cheap, especially when a pitch is filled with startup buzzwords. One of the huge benefits to last Sunday’s 2 minute quick pitch contest at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, was that many of the startups had very limited pitching experience. This also meant that they hadn’t picked up on bad habits, like filling their presentations with buzzwords, that can ultimately be seen as crutches.

Coming from a background with 20 years on commercial radio I am no stranger to crutches. DJ’s have a ton of buzzwords “on your radio”, “coming up,coming up,coming up”, and the always irritating repeating everything the person calling the radio station says to buy more time.

Well in the startup world crutches are also immensely popular. Things like “we’re not too concerned about revenue” or “we’re going to build virally and organically”, are complete turn offs to not just me but to investors who know all the buzzwords already.

Our good friends at Spinnakr.com just published a list of 37 things that new new entrepreneurs say. Here are 10 of them.

This idea is unstoppable.
Nothing else like this exists.
Sorry, man . . . I can’t tell you unless you sign this NDA.
We’re going to totally disrupt the market for [spy cams], [back scratchers], [player pianos], [hover bikes].
We’re revolutionizing the way [flautists], [tug boat captains], [veterinary assistants], [cardio-pulmonary surgeons] approach [dating], [home improvement projects], [booking airline tickets], [personal hygiene].
It’s tapping into the [future of the internet], [awesome purchasing power of secretaries], [real need affecting SAT tutors].
We’re gamifying [sushi], [country music], [the LSAT], [eyebrow extensions].
No one else can build what we’re building.
These financial projections are conservative.
We’re expecting hockey-stick growth curves, year after year.

You can see the rest of the list at the link below. While these may not be the most irritating of them all, you should get the idea.

When you’re pitching, whether it’s at the end of an accelerator demo day or your pitching in a VC’s office you need to kill them with your product, presentation and personality. Knowing the buzzwords doesn’t impress anybody.

Check out the rest of the list of 37 things new entrepreneurs say, here at Spinnakr.com

Eh You Need My Guy, Rochester Startup Takes On Angie’s List INTERVIEW

Nothing says recommendation like when your good buddy says “eh you need my guy”. Whether you’re looking for a plumber, deck builder, photographer, heck even a birth coach. Whatever independent contracting service you need, a new Rochester startup called You Need My Guy has someone for you.

When we first heard about You Need My Guy we immediately drew a comparison to top ranking, publicly traded Indianapolis startup Angie’s List. You Need My Guy’s founder Joe Cassara says that YNMG is different because Angie’s List is a paid model with mostly blue collar providers. They also offer no accountability to insure the identity of users. While Angie’s List is a great resource for some, they are plagued with stories about bad experiences sprinkled all over the internet.

You Need My Guy is the hybrid in the middle. You can find accountants and carpenters on the startups site at youneedmyguy.com

YNMG integrates social networks by allowing perspective clients with links to their perspective service providers Facebook, LinkedIN and Twitter profiles. This way users can vet out their service providers, going a little deeper than traditional reviews and referrals. Review systems can be plagued with fake reviews, created by service providers to “push down” any bad reviews. Of course in the case of referrals most service providers only provide referrals from people who have had the best experiences.

One of the best assets for this New York startup is Cassara himself. He’s thoroughly entrenched in the up state New York startup ecosystem. He has a background in strategic consulting. But what’s more important is that Cassara is also the managing partner of Harvest Ventures an early stage venture-funding firm as well as a mentor at New York accelerator StartFast.

We got a chance to interview Cassara about You Need My Guy. Check out the interview below:

Women Rock The Startup World At Huge Startup Conference

By Tyler Stafford & Rachel Wilhite, University Of Memphis Entrepreneurial Journalism Students

The “The Kick Ass Female Founders from Everywhere Else” was a success at the Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference in Memphis, TN. The topics discussed expanded on those typically covered in the male-dominated world of all things entrepreneurial, and this gave the conference a girl power kick in the khakis.

The panelists included Sarah Ware of Markerly; Wendy MacKinnon Keith of Digital Retail Apps; Kelsey Meyer of Digital Talent Agents; and Andrea Livingston of Grit Design, Inc.

Elizabeth Lemmonds, the Chief Brand Officer of Launch Memphis, moderated the event. Danielle Inez of Pink Robin Avenue provided the questions for the Q & A that followed.

One of the most provocative questions asked at the event was, “Can the woman entrepreneur have it all?” Panelists noted that one of the concerns shared by many women entering the startup field, as well as men, is whether or not they can have a family life with a partner and kids and juggle the numerous demands of entrepreneurial ventures.

In her tongue-in-cheek response to this query, Andrea Livingston said that nobody can have it all, but they can make it work regardless. “Our house is like a comedy of errors every minute of every day,” she said.

“No one can have it all, but you can have moments,” said Keith, adding that “it’s about quality of time; not quantity.”

There is a silver lining, though. Not only do entrepreneurs have the ability to create businesses, they can also create their own schedules and set their own priorities.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a woman or a man,” said Livingston, “you better show up and be ready to work your ass off.”

The Everywhere Else startup community is eager to collaborate together rather than compete against one another. Entrepreneurship is about taking risks, learning to accept failures and respecting others (as well as yourself) throughout the process.

Wendy MacKinnon Keith agreed that women cannot have it all, but that they certainly can have “moments.” She said that it isn’t just the quantity of time that matters, but the quality.

Women in Memphis looking for advice and support in their own business endeavors should check out Upstart Memphis, an organization dedicated to fueling women’s innovation and entrepreneurship at www.upstartmemphis.com.

For more information on the panelists featured, follow them on Twitter:@WareSarah; @gritdesign; @digitalretail; @DTAgents; @SocialDani; @elizlemmonds

Online Ticketing for Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference 2014 powered by Eventbrite

Thank You For A Great EE2013, And On To 2014 Tickets Available Now, At 2013 Price For 6 Weeks

Thank you all for attending everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference in Memphis Tennessee. The event drew over 1000 startup founders, entrepreneurs, investors and startup folks from across the country and around the world.

Most of the 50 states were represented and attendees came from Chile, Canada, Mexico, London and Buenos Aires.

We attended great keynotes, workshops, round tables and panels with unparalleled access to information and networking.

The reaction so far has been great. The memories will live on, on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus and of Course Bonfyre.

As a startup ourselves things were a little rough around the edges for a bit but the event itself rocked!

With that we are growing. Many people who saw our press coverage or heard about the event on social media have reached out with interest for next year. Sponsors are already knocking on the door and it’s going to be even better. As you can imagine we are going to have to significantly increase the ticket price in the coming months however, Nick and I decided that we will offer the same prices as 2013 for 2014 for the next 6 weeks.

Next year the conference will be held Sunday February 16th through Tuesday Febrary 18th, over President’s Day Weekend. This gives many of our startup founders, who still work a 9-5, the opportunity to come as well.

Attendee ticket $59

Startup Village ticket $425 (incldues 3 attendee tickets)

One thing that we want to point out though is that several attendees said they wanted to be in the village next year, so regardless of whether you were in the village last year or just came in as an attendee, feel free to book under 2013’s Startup Village ticket rate.We look forward to seeing you next February.

We welcome your feedback at info@everywhereelse.co and if you want to volunteer for next year feel free to email kyle@everywhereelse.co

Thanks again!

Online Ticketing for Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference 2014 powered by Eventbrite

PhotoRankr Shows Off A Better Stock Photo Model At Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference

By David Morris, University Of Memphis Entrepreneurial Journalism Student

CEO Jacob Sniff is headstrong and passionate about his first entrepreneurial project, PhotoRankr.

PhotoRankr a platform that covers all the needs of today’s photographers and some needs they may not even be aware of yet. The PhotoRankr platform is web-based and lets photographers handle several key tasks, including the sale of their work, social interaction with fellow members , and an internal job market for clients to list jobs for photographer members.

What makes PhotoRankr different from stock photo sites such as istockphoto.com and shutterstock.com is the photographer keeps 70 percent of their photo sales, and “photo ranker battles,” said Sniff. These battles let photos be placed side by side so site members can easily compare them and select which photo is better. The site generates battles automatically while also allowing users to create their own battles. This information gathered from these battles is of great value to photographers in order to gauge the quality of their work against peers.

“Social media is our current marketing channel,” said Sniff. Current integration with large social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+ set the stage for information exchange for PhotoRankr and its photographers. Photographers can seamlessly share their photos to any one of these social media sites.

Currently, PhotoRankr is free for anyone who signs up. At the beginning of March this year, PhotoRankr will roll out an annual, three-tier subscription model. “The base plan will remain free,” said Sniff.

Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference 2013 was a huge success, ticket information for 2014 here.

Entrepreneurs From Everywhere Else Offer Sage Pitch Advice

By Bret Bilbrey, University of Memphis Entrepreneurial Journalism Student.

What makes a good pitch? That is what many startup entrepreneurs had to figure out in the “Quick Pitch” contest at Everywhereelse.co 2013.

For Lou Griffith with iLocale, his strategy is to get the person he is pitching to think.

“You want to hit three or four key points in your pitch and then what I like to do is ask questions. That gets them thinking,” said Griffith. “For instance, with iLocale, I might ask them: ‘Do you have a hard time keeping track of your receipts? Wouldn’t it be easier if you could track it on your phone?’”

Many entrepreneurs have their own style of pitching, complete with hooks, key phrases, and taglines. To capture investors’ attention, Ben Wagner of LifeKraze, a social community that lets people post their accomplishments, starts his pitch with “We help people facilitate action.” Richard Billup of Screwpulp, a self-publishing startup, captures investors with the line “Breaking into traditional publishing is like climbing Mount Everest… on roller skates.”

It is important that your pitch be clear, concise, powerful, and visual.

“Be light on the details, that is what a flyer is for,” Griffith said. “The pitch is to connect with the person and form a relationship.”

Thoughts came from startups competing at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, tickets on sale here for next year’s epic event.

EE 2013: The only way to network is to get out there

By Laura Fenton

Brittany Fitzpatrick had to take a deep breath and make the first move.

“I’m an introvert,” said Fitzpatrick, founder and CEO of Mentor.Me. “I do have to
make a concerted effort to go out of my comfort zone.”

But by taking the initiative, Fitzpatrick has created and formed a team for her
startup, which will help match mentees with the right mentor.

Attending the Everywhere Else conference was not the first
event for Fitzpatrick and her Memphis-based team. She is a member of the the Memphis Seed
Hatchery Program, attends other LaunchMemphis events like LaunchLounge, and
started “working networking events” following the LaunchMemphis Upstart Memphis 48
Hour Launch weekend..

At networking events for startups, “you get access to people with complementary
assets,” such as web developers to balance Fitzpatrick’s communication and public
relation skills. Plus, “you get to see the innovations that are out there,” and get greater visibility,
which is essential for getting the ball rolling, she said.

What advice would Fitzpatrick give up and coming entrepreneurs? “Go for it. Put
yourself out there. You never know who you’ll meet.”

Learn more about Mentor.Me at http://mentordot.me or email
Mentordotme@gmail.com.

EE 2013: The only way to network is to get out there

By Laura Fenton

Brittany Fitzpatrick had to take a deep breath and make the first move.

“I’m an introvert,” said Fitzpatrick, founder and CEO of Mentor.Me. “I do have to
make a concerted effort to go out of my comfort zone.”

But by taking the initiative, Fitzpatrick has created and formed a team for her
startup, which will help match mentees with the right mentor.

What advice would Fitzpatrick give up and coming entrepreneurs? “Go for it. Put
yourself out there. You never know who you’ll meet.”

Learn more about Mentor.Me at http://mentordot.me or email
Mentordotme@gmail.com.

EE 2013: Get “in” with the InCrowd Capital

By Laura Fenton

There’s a funding gap, and Phillip Shmerling has the solution.

“Entrepreneurs all have one thing in common — they all need capital,” said
Shmerling, CEO of InCrowd Capital.

The gap between those who need money for startups and those who want to give to
startups is closing, thanks to the connections forged from the online crowdfunding
startup.

InCrowd makes it easier for startups to raise money from friends and family, as well as
angels. It simplifies the process and makes it easier
for founders to communicate with their investors with less anxiety.

So why choose InCrowd Capital for your startup funding needs? “Because great
businesses start here,” Shmerling said.

For more information about InCrowd Capital, visit http://www.incrowdcapital.com.

Launch Your City Graduates Out Of Memphis Incubator

The umbrella organization that oversees Launch Memphis, Wolf River Angels, Seed Hatchery, UpStart and Memphis Venture Mentors, Launch Your City, has graduated out of the Emerge Memphis accelerator. Launch Your City was situated in Emerge Memphis where they grew the Launch Pad co-working space and successfully put on the first two sessions of Seed Hatchery.

Launch Your City has hosted several 48 Hour Launch events in the Emerge facility, with it’s most recent event focusing on women entrepreneurship.

With all the positive growth and Launch Your City serving as the catalyst for entrepreneurial growth at Emerge, the incubator’s Board of Director’s, asked Launch Your City’s Co-President, Eric Matthews to serve as interim executive director over the last year.

That one year stint ends today and Mathews will transition back into his full time role as Co-President of Launch Your City along with Andre Fowlkes. While the organization had one of it’s best years to date, Mathews and Fowlkes weren’t able to work as closely as they had in years past, with Mathews at the helm of Emerge.

“Eric and I haven’t been able to work as closely together for a year” Fowlkes to nibletz.com Both Co-Presidents have a laundry list of things they want to tackle in 2013 to help enrich the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Mathews will vacate the Executive Director’s office at the end of the day today, roll up his sleeves and return to co-working in the launch pad.

There’s no time to rest in between job transitions. Fowlkes and Mathews, along with the Launch Your City team and community supporters, are launching the next class of Seed Hatchery later on this evening. In addition they will be helping out with everywherelse.co The Startup Conference through the weekend. As Winter turns to spring the Launch Your City team has a full plate at home and on the road. The organization is planning a working tour of Silicon Valley with some of the startups that have gone through their ecosystem. They are also planning a trip to Washington DC and New York while simultaneously planning events around Memphis In May, including Investor Day for Seed Hatchery.

“We felt like if we fumble the ball regarding the opportunities in front of us, it would not only be a detriment to us but to partners like EmergeMemphis. We’re an important client and feeder to Emerge, and we’re poised to grow our capacity 50 percent to 100 percent in the next year.” Mathews told Andy Meek of the Memphis Daily News

As for Emerge Memphis, Mathews, speaking to us from the Executive Directors office in front of a 14 foot back drop of Memphis Grizzlies ‘ All Star Zac Randolph, says that Emerge has filled to capacity, bringing on over 20 new high growth potential client companies to occupy the space that also includes mentorship opportunities, and other startup resources.

The Emerge Memphis Board has hired local aviation entrepreneur and former CEO of Pinnacle Airlines Phil Trenary, to consult while they find a permanent Executive Director.

As an incubator, by design Emerge Memphis is supposed to house startups and growing small businesses for a short time until they’re ready to graduate to the next phase. With that in mind, Mathews and Fowlkes will relocate Launch Your City into their own space.

“Really, this is a testament to incubation. It’s a good story for incubation and entrepreneurship,” Mathews said of the impending move to the Memphis Daily News. “This has been personal to me. I’ve dedicated a lot of time to it. And it’s been a spectacular year if you look at the past 12 months.”

Startups everywhereelse can see what Memphis is really made of, at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference.