Comments Off on Baton Rouge Startup: LocalMed To Create 52 New Jobs0LikeLike 2,725
Louisiana’s Economic Development Secretary, Stephen Moret and startup LocalMed CEO Keith English, announced last week that his company would be creating 52 new direct jobs in Baton Rouge. The new jobs will support LocalMed’s continued growth in their online and mobile technology platform that allows doctors, dentists and patients to handle appointment scheduling, management and reminders 24 hours a day.
The average salary of the new jobs will be $52,000 dollars a year and they will also include benefits. The Louisiana Economic Development Commission estimates that another 53 new indirect jobs will result as well bringing the grand total to over 100.
LocalMed was created by twin brothers Daniel and Derek Gilbert after Daniel had to deal with more than 8 doctor’s appointments per week while battling cancer. Once the cancer went into remission the brothers teamed up to create this new platform for better self management of appointments. They launched LocalMed in 2011.
LocalMed began attracting investors including English who joined as CEO in May. LocalMed’s platform will also be added to over 2000 Stay Healthy Kiosks nationwide in stores like Kroger. The kiosks will provide patients without their own access to mobile devices and the internet to make and keep up with appointments. The company plans to announce even more strategic partnerships in early 2013 as well as introducing Android and iOS apps.
Gov. Bobby Jindal said, “LocalMed is a homegrown, ‘made-in-Louisiana’ story that makes us proud. LocalMed is an extremely attractive, high-tech venture that could have chosen other states to build its headquarters – the company even looked at establishing its offices in Texas or Florida before choosing Louisiana. The company’s decision to come to Baton Rouge is the latest example that our state is becoming a beacon for the digital media and technology industries. We have a proud heritage of supporting jobs in the oil and gas industry or the chemical industry, but now we are diversifying our economy, and cities like Baton Rouge are becoming the next Austin and the next Silicon Valley where entrepreneurs and risk-takers are coming to change the face of technology and create good-paying jobs for our people.”
“We are pleased to welcome LocalMed to Baton Rouge,” said Mayor-President Melvin “Kip” Holden. “This innovative and new software development company truly exemplifies the Creative Capital of the South. We look forward to helping them grow and expand their business in the Capital Region.”
Comments Off on Chicago Startup: SpotHero Raises $2.5 Million0LikeLike 5,239
A Chicago startup that was developed after the cofounders had received over $3,000 in parking tickets, has now raised $2.5 million dollars. SpotHero, an app that allows users to find parking spots on their smartphone, was well received by the city of Chicago.
At first sight the startup seems very similar to Baltimore startup ParkingPanda, however SpotHero boasts 24 hour customer support and touts that they are superserving Chicago first and building a loyal customer base before eventually branching out. Chicago seems to love SpotHero as well. Since their launch in 2011 the company reports that more than 10,000 people have used their iPhone app and website platform to find parking spots.
SpotHero’s iPhone app allows drivers to reserve parking spots on the go, something that ParkingPanda is just now having developed through MindGrub. ParkingPanda is a web based platform that allows people to book parking spots from either individuals like driveways and curbside spaces, or public lots that have extra spots to rent. Both services allow the user to pick how long and when they want to start the parking spot rental.
SportHero was part of the most recent class at Excelerate Labs one of Chicago’s thriving startup accelerators. SpotHero just recently presented at Excelerate Labs’ August demo day.
“How many times have you been frustrated by parking? We created SpotHero to solve this problem by helping drivers get the right spot with just a few clicks” says SpotHero CEO and Founder Mark Lawrence.
Battery Ventures, 500 startups, David Cohen’s Bullet Time, e.Ventures, OCA Ventuers, New World Ventures, Light Bank and Draper VC all participated in the round led by Battery.
Part of the attraction to investors is that SpotHero has already brought in over $2,000,000 in revenue to parking operators at some of the largest national parking companies. “Our parking partners know that their customers are online and looking for convenience, that is what we deliver – while helping the lots fill their unused spaces with paying customers ” says Lawrence
Comments Off on Accelerators Everywhere Else Are Still Great For Startups0LikeLike 2,665
After Thanksgiving many startup and tech sites feverishly began telling the story of doom and gloom for startups, follow on funding and startup accelerators.
This vicious news cycle began with the Dow Jones VC Edge report released at the end of November. The report highlighted many positive things, including growth for some key areas in high growth potential tech sectors both here and abroad. Fred Wilson, the principal at Union Square Ventures and a respected authority in the startup and VC space, was quick to point out that VC funding for consumer web and mobile companies was down 42% in the first 9 months of 2012.
The Dow Jones report coupled with Wilson’s commentary sent a tremor through Silicon Valley that we could be on the cusp of a bubble.
While startups and high growth potential technology companies are contributing to job growth, what’s not being considered is the fact that his down turn in VC funding may actually be more of a leveling off.
The same week the Dow Jones report and the Wilson piece came out, Paul Graham, founder of YCombinator sent out more troubling news. Again, interpreted at some of the startup and tech sites as bad news.
For a startup accepted into the program it instantly meant prestige and validation, not to mention a huge six figure seed investment. Reading the news from Graham made people all around start doubting the accelerator model. PandoDaily quickly opined. Erin Griffith, a writer for Pando Daily, said “We know accelerators are headed for a shakeout- but do they“? Griffith pointed out that there were over 100 startup accelerators across the country churning out thousands of startups with only a 10% success rate.
But what’s really happening in accelerators and across the startup space, is that people are getting more conservative in the valley because they’re used to a culture of ginormous funding rounds and even bigger exits. Everyone knows the story about Color. Everyone’s also seen the value of the Instagram Facebook deal diminish as Facebook’s stock went down hill fast. Truth be told, even after the $1 billion dollar Facebook deal, Instagram still had less than 25 employees when they moved into Facebook’s offices back in September.
That billion dollars really produced a lot of jobs right? Consider the fact that the $1 billion dollar Instagram Valuation was more than the New York Times is currently worth and they employ over 10,000 people.
The real question about accelerators is really about whether the goal behind an accelerator is to help yield larger than life venture investments or is it about building companies with solid foundations and solid founders. It is about the cash or the wave of now more educated entrepreneurs who may not get their first startup entirely off the ground but may hit a home run or even just a double in the next go round?
It seems accelerators with the real goal of producing these crazy funding rounds and crazy exits are no better than public schools who are just teaching whatever standardized test it is to graduate the next class.
The beauty about accelerator programs “everywhere else” is that the startups in the programs are being taught important lessons about starting up, business and even life.
It’s awesome that YCombinator and TechStars have mentor networks that read like a “Who’s Who” in the startup and tech world. Every startup founder wants to learn from these great mentors, and they can, sometimes even in small towns. Take Oklahoma City’s Blueprint For Business accelerator. They all got a chance to learn from a day with Brad Feld.
Perusing the websites of startup accelerators outside the valley (everywhere else) you don’t typically find a “who’s who” of the startup and tech world. What you do find is a “who’s who” in most local business communities.
Startups may apply to programs like the Fort in DC because they want to be close to the epicenter of government. They may apply to the Brandery in Cincinnati because they want to be close to the biggest branded company in the world, Proctor & Gamble. Startups that are logistically focused or enterprise focused may want to apply to Seed Hatchery in Memphis to be close to FedEx. Startups in the entertainment and music space may choose an accelerator in Los Angeles or even Jumpstart Foundry in Nashville.
While some of these accelerators “everywhere else” may have mentors from the Valley participate or founders with big exits, the bulk of their mentor list is either mentors who speak to their niche or mentors in the local community. Which can be equally, if not more important than name brand mentors elsewhere.
Are you building solid companies or is the accelerator only looking for “the next big thing”?
Comments Off on 12-12-12 Concert Shows The Importance Of Startups Like New Jersey’s Pre-Digital Project0LikeLike 2,549
This photo was shared at the Pre-Digital Project, a New Jersey startup
The 12-12-12 concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City, last night, was broadcast to billions of people around the world. The concert was an effort reminiscent of Live Aid in 1985 or the concert to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina back in 2005. Even before some very high profile celebrities took to the phone banks to answer donation calls, over $30 million had already been collected by the Robin Hood Foundation who will distribute those funds to victims of Hurricane Sandy.
Halfway through the concert we received a tweet asking if we could do a simple RT for a New Jersey Startup called Pre-Digital Project. After checking the startup out a bit we decided to not just RT them but report on what they’re doing and how it’s connected to events like Hurricane Sandy.
Although they launched in June, a couple of months before Hurricane Sandy ravaged the mid-atlantic and north eastern United States, world changing events highlight one of the purposes behind the startup.
The Pre-Digital Project is a “then and now” photo archive to show off old photos of locations, landmarks and places. The site shows off user submitted photos dating back to the 1800’s from across the country. It’s a crowd-sourced pre-digital, digital archive, which is of course where the startup took it’s name from.
A lot of the photos are from New Jersey and surrounding areas and others are from as far away as London and the Philippines.
The digital archive has a unique spin and it’s great to have everything all grouped together. Some of the more popular photos include photos of the New York skyline prior to September 11th. Others highlight monuments like Buckingham Palace and the Bay Bridge in San Francisco.
There are also several photos of Atlantic City, the Jersey Shore and parts of New York that were beaten down by Sandy. Many images that could never be captured again. Through the Pre-Digital Project, users can save their memories and share them with other people for decades to come.
Comments Off on UK Startup Swogo Launches The “Best Way To Find Products” Starting With Laptops0LikeLike 2,864
According to various consumer electronic trade publications the average consumer takes three weeks to make a decision on a laptop. A new UK startup called Swogo is looking to take that decision making time down to seconds.
Swogo says the main hurdle in making a purchasing decision is the way people search for items. Either they have an idea in their mind at what they want to purchase and then go to a consumer electronics retailer for comparison shopping.
Other consumers take to gigantic search engines like Google and Bing. The problem with traditional search engines is that they lead to information and not answers. Sifting through that information and then vetting it against paid ad campaigns can often lead consumers down the wrong path. In this case they either make the wrong purchasing decision or they prolong the decision making process further.
Swogo plans on becoming a recommendation connection engine for many types of products but they are starting with laptops. The site launched on Monday afternoon in the UK with laptops only and plans on expanding their product line and their global reach this year. By the end of 2013 they plan on adding tablets, smartphones, cameras and TVs.
Sure there are plenty of other electronic and gadget sites out there but Swogo says they have an algorithm that aides customers in making their important purchasing decisions,reducing the time down to seconds.
Comments Off on Founder Of Memphis Startup Mentor.Me Crowdfund’s In Person For Everywhereelse Booth0LikeLike 4,510
This weekend was a big weekend for Memphis entrepreneurs, specifically women founders and entrepreneurs. Upstart Memphis, the latest initiative by Launch Memphis, officially kicked off with the 48 Hour Launch, women’s edition. During the 48 hour period four women CEO’s from Memphis built 4 exciting new startups; Care2Manage, AfocusED Path, Pink Robin Avenue and Mentor.me.
Throughout the weekend the women were rushing to gain as much business knowledge as they could, test their idea out and validate it with customers, and work on their pitch deck. They were also competing for a free booth space at the upcoming “everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference” event being held in Memphis in February.
The three day event is bringing entrepreneurs, founders, and investors from across the country and around the world to Memphis for three days of startup knowledge. A smorgasboard of panels, discussions, fireside chats, networking opportunities and parties. There’s a huge list of nationally known speakers as well. (here’s more info on the event).
Mentor.me is solving a big problem for non profit groups that are linking mentors with mentees. Until now the systems used by most mentoring non profits has been flawed.
For instance Brittany Fitzpatrick said in her pitch that a few people she knows that connect mentors and mentees have to go through thousands of applications and then they link mentors with their mentees by looking at a simple sheet of paper. This paves the way for bad connections and relationships. We also learned that most mentor relationships dissolve in six months or less and that’s actually worse for the mentee than not having been mentored at all.
Check out Mentor.me’s Friday pitch:
And here’s Fitzpatrick’s Sunday pitch:
Fitzpatrick’s web based platform will allow both mentors and mentees the opportunity to build a much more robust profile with likes, interests, needs and goals. This way both the mentor and the mentee have a better chance at vetting each other out to see if they’re likely to be compatible.
When the judges convened after hearing all four pitches on Sunday evening it was a very close call between Mentor.me and the startup that won, Pink Robin Avenue.
Undeterred, once Fitzpatrick realized she wasn’t the winner she started approaching the folks in the audience with a simple proposal, help me get my startup into the conference.
Very quickly Fitzpatrick got sponsored to the beat of $265 and at that point I kicked in the last $30 to get her startup into the conference.
Hopefully both Fitzpatrick and the winner Danielle Inez, will wow the investors the way they wowed the judges this weekend and raise some venture capital.
Comments Off on Memphis Startup: Pink Robin Avenue Wins Free Booth At Everywhereelse.co0LikeLike 3,010
This weekend was Upstart Memphis’ 48 Hour Launch weekend. Upstart Memphis is the newest initiative for Launch Memphis the catalyst behind all things entrepreneurial and startup in Memphis Tennessee. Upstart Memphis is about helping women entrepreneurs and startup founders through fellowship, education and events. 48 Hour Launch, Memphis’ take on Startup Weekend, was the first big even for the organization.
Launch Memphis has held several 48 Hour Launch events. They function the same way most weekend startup hackathons function. This time was a little different though because all of the ideas pitched needed to be led by women.
Care2Manage, A focusED Path, Mentore.Me and Pink Robin Avenue were the four ideas picked to build throughout the course of the weekend. As you can see from both the Friday and Sunday videos for each startup, they got a lot of work done.
Danielle Inez and her Pink Robin Avenue was the prevailing winner though, even after an original judges tie.
Pink Robin Avenue is an easy way to plan and decorate for an event. For those who like it broken down in it’s simplest form, Pink Robin Avenue is an “event in a box”.
Inez and her team used the weekend to work on their business plan, website, social channels, customer discovery and preparing a great presentation. Inez brought out her bubbly personality and really shut the crowd down with her enthusiastic responses to every part of the Q&A, having a sensible answer for every question thrown her way.
While Inez will initially grow Pink Robin Avenue in Memphis she plans on expanding nationwide and helping people plan events, and get all the decorations they need from top to bottom in a box delivered to their door step, instructions and all.
After checking out her Sunday pitch video you’ll see why she ended up winning a free Startup Village booth at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference. Inez will be very busy over the next two months making sure that her idea is ready for prime time and ready to go onstage in front of over 1500 people, 400 of them investors.
As a testament to the weekend startup hackathon building model check out her Friday pitch here:
Comments Off on Black Girls Code Coming Home To Memphis In January0LikeLike 3,312
Meka Egwuekwe (rear) and his daughters Elechi (L) and Sobenna (R) talk about Black Girls Code coming to Memphis photo: nibletz LLC
Kimberly Bryant is an award winning social entrepreneur, technology junkie, an engineer by trade and a native Memphian. She relocated to Silicon Valley and now she’s launched a program that’s rolling out across the country. That program, Black Girls Code, promotes teaching coding and development to young African American Girls.
Bryant describes the mission for Black Girls Code on her website as:
“to introduce programming and technology to a new generation of coders, coders who will become builders of technological innovation and of their own futures.”
Like many others, Bryant believes there’s a “dearth” of African American women in science, technology, engineering and math professions. While some may say it’s because there’s a lack of interest, Bryant knows that it’s more like a lack of access and exposure to STEM topics. The Black Girls Code program is about making STEM topics accessible to African American girls and exposing them at a young age. It’s also done in such a way that it’s fun and positive.
Bryant has held programs through Black Girls Code in cities all over the country and some around the world. Black Girls Code has had events in San Francisco, Chicago, Oakland, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York and even in Johannesburg. Her most recent event was this past Saturday in Atlanta where they taught kids how to develop their own apps using Google’s App Inventor.
Two of the girls that participated; Elechi (11) and Sobenna (8) Egwuekwe, came to speak on Sunday night at Memphis’ 48 Hour Launch for women event. Their father, Meka Eqwuekwe, who works for local web developer Lokian, has taken an active interest in the Black Girls Code program, and is helping to bring it to Memphis.
The Memphis Black Girls Code chapter will hold an Open House January 15th at Emerge Memphis, the local technology and startup incubator. Then, on February 16th the Memphis chapter will hold it’s first event.
Albeit a little shy, or possibly tired from the 6 hour drive back from Atlanta, both Elechi and Sobenna were glowing with excitement as their father explained the concept and program behind Black Girls Code and the events coming up.
When asked if they had fun, Elechi quickly responded by saying yes and then described the experience. Elechi told the audience of about 50 that she and her sister got to create their own app using the App Inventor platform. She was quick to point out that App Inventor is a Google product and that meant their first app was for the Android platform.
The app that the girls created was a photo app that allowed a user to add sound effects to a picture taken on an Android phone. Launch Your City’s Chief Brand Officer and the woman in charge of Upstart Memphis, and the 48 Hour Launch For Women, Elizabeth Lemmonds, was quick to point out to both young ladies that there was no age limit for Upstart and that next year she expected to see the two sisters pitching a startup at the 48 Hour Launch for women.
Comments Off on 3 Challenges, Besides Funding, Facing Startups Everywhere Else0LikeLike 2,107
When you make the bold move to take your idea and turn it into a startup, the cards are already stacked against you. Depending on what you read, some folks say 70% of startups fail, others say 80% of startups fail. Either way, those aren’t good percentages no matter what way you slice it. Couple that with the fact that you are trying to grow your startup outside of a major startup hub like Silicon Valley and many may believe that’s a recipe for doom.
Of course thats not the case for the nearly 2000 startups we’ve covered from “everywhere else” since launching nibletz.com the voice of startups “everywhere else”. So we circled back with some of our startups to find out what challenges they face, or more specifically, what was the biggest challenge they faced in starting up.
Most of these challenges facing these entrepreneurs aren’t unique to one certain geographic region, but rather encompass challenges faced by most.
Finding a Team & Resource (you thought we were going to start with funding didn’t ya?)
Many startups that we’ve interviewed have eluded to the fact that finding the right team was one of the toughest parts or challenges they faced as a startup. When you build your startup outside a centralized technology hub like Silicon Valley, Boston or even Washington DC, attracting top tier talent to work for next to nothing to get your idea off the ground can be challenging.
Even Kapture, a startup founded in Brooklyn had problems at first attracting a great team. Kapture’s co-founder Michael Szewczyk had actually made the decision to move back from Silicon Valley to Brooklyn to launch Kapture. That may have helped them attract a good team.
“The biggest challenge is being creative with the limited amount of resources you have.” Jumyo said in an interview.
In Seattle, story telling startup Jumyo is also plagued by the talent problem. Seattle has often been thought of as a hub for innovation yet they had trouble attracting a good team. Imagine if the problem is rampant in Seattle and Brooklyn, it’s gotta be a whole lot tougher in Boise and Providence.
Even a startup coming out of Dartmouth had a challenge with finding the best team.
“I think the hardest part for a software startup is finding a rock-solid team of devs, especially when the first founder is not technical, as is our case. It took quite a while before I found James and Sang and got them on board, but I feel incredibly lucky for the team that we have. Recently, we added another pemanent developer, who is actually located in Bulgaria, and so now the development process has been going really smoothly.” Square One Mail co-founder Branko Cerny told us in this interview.
Changing an age old industry
Some more innovative startups are taking problems that have existed for years in traditional industries and trying to solve them once an for all. Such is the case for New York startup Unpakt. Unpakt has taken the Expedia model and applied it to an industry where over billing and even fraud has run rampant for year. That industry is the moving industry. Unless you had a big enough house that you called one of the gigantic companies like Allied or Mayflower, you were faced with a lot of mom and pop or small regional companies.
No one knows when the time clock starts or stops. No one can remember how much furniture was originally allotted for the move. In the end the people being moved are either out more money or in some instances their belongings are held hostage for more money.
By making the process all but transparent through the Unpakt system this New York startup can help people who need to hire movers and honest movers as well. Unpakt’s problem was getting movers to buy in to the new:
“Convincing movers to see the benefit of an exact pricing system and operate within a larger network, instead of the historic autonomy of the industry. We’re demonstrating to movers that revealing their rates and exposing pricing is ok. To be successful in the online world, pricing needs to be readily available.” is what they told us in this interview
Launching
Launching a product is tough no matter where you are at. There are a lot of confusing methodologies out there especially for a new entrepreneur and a new startup.
For instance, if you just got into the startup world and went all hipster as soon as you did, you’re probably preaching the Lean startup methodology and “minimum viable product”.
On the other hand you may not want to show off your minimum viable product to anyone because it’s in complete and it looks like crap. A big worry for those entrepreneurs second guessing this method is that in showing an MVP they may actually have their idea ripped off when in fact they planned on a much grander idea in the first place.
Iterating can be a problem too. Some startups worry every time they think of a new feature that they need to add it to version 1.
Other startups like Vancouver based Perch, found that while their product technically worked, it’s a video product and they wanted it to be the best it could be. They would launch it and then pull back. They went through this process several times.
“Getting Perch out the door. We’ve come so close to launch numerous times, but because we’re dealing with video and very technical aspects of video, we’ve had to pull Perch off the shelf and back into development several times.” Perch told us in this interview.
Comments Off on Nashville Startup: TalkApolis Brings Locally Produced High Quality Video To The Smartphone0LikeLike 2,616
As media consumption continues to move the direction of the smart, connected, handheld device, companies need to continue to adapt. Or of course just launch new companies. Such is the case with Nashville startup TalkApolis. The Nashville startup is headed by John Bransford
“You can watch locally focused, entertaining, high quality video shows on your smartphone or mobile device that were made to be watched on it. Download our app for your device and watch TalkApolis content with a touch of your screen” Bransford told us in an interview.
The microcasting company was originally selected for the 2012 Jumpstart Foundry cohort but dropped out before the program ended in August.
Even without the accelerator program Bransford’s background in media (real media like HBO) and development, including Drupal, helped bring TalkApolis to fruition.
Bransford has designed the TalkApolis platform to operate smooth and efficiently with the ability to produce relevant content extremely fast. ” Our production suite is so adept, we can test out a show from something we see trending on the internet and see if it sticks almost immediately. If it doesn’t get traction or the host get an audience, we move on to the next one. Licensees will benefit from this agility of the back-end system by being able to do the exact same things in their local markets. Our plan is to allow licensees to apply their unique local knowledge where it matters.” Bransford said.
Check out the rest of our interview with Bransford below.
Comments Off on Voice Of Memphis Grizzlies Confirms, Grizzlies & Memphis Are All In With Entrepreneurship And Startups0LikeLike 3,075
photo: nibletz.com
Yesterday we reported that Los Angeles startup myStorey had teamed up with super star Memphis Grizzlies forward, Rudy Gay, for their new platform that “shopifies” the clothing and accessories he and other celebrities wear and use everyday. It seems with the changing of the guard and the sale of the team earlier this fall, that the Grizzlies are all about entrepreneurship, startups and cultivating downtown Memphis.
Back in November, the Memphis Grizzlies were sold by Michael Heisley to a new group led by 34 year old telecommunications entrepreneur Robert J Pera. Pera had made the list of Forbes 10 youngest billionaires in the world after the company he founded in 2005, Ubiquiti networks, went public in October 2011.
In Pera’s biography that appears in the Memphis Grizzlies programs this season, it says that it was a life long goal for Pera to be involved in professional sports which ultimately led to him leading the group that finally closed on the purchase of the Memphis Grizzlies, with NBA approval just two months ago.
Justin Timberlake, Peyton Manning’s wife Ashley and basketball star Penny Hardaway are all minority stake holders in Pera’s group.
The local Memphis part of the ownership group is more than just a group of local businessmen. Each one of the local team is an entrepreneur in their own right but they’ve also either embraced or are starting to embrace the local young entrepeneur and startup space as well.
J.R. “Pitt” Hyde, is the founder of Autozone. He has one of the most robust careers of any single person. Hyde grew up in a family of entrepreneurs and immediately got involved with the family business Malone and Hyde. After taking over Malone and Hyde he ended up being the youngest CEO of any publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. He was also the sitting CEO when Malone and Hyde was one of the first leveraged buyouts by notorious LBO firm KKR, prior to their infamous deal for RJR Nabisco chronicled in the movie and book Barbarians at the Gate.
Hyde continued to build companies, including national auto parts chain AutoZone which is headquartered in Memphis. He also sits on the board of Memphis Bioworks, the medical device incubator that is the collaboration partner with Seed Hatchery in the Zeroto510 program. Hyde is also part of the Society of Entrepreneurs, an organization that supports local entrepreneurship, and he recently spoke at a New Memphis luncheon, where he moderated a panel with local startups PayTopia, Nanopthalmics and Bionanovations, all three of whom accelerated through Launch Memphis affiliated programs.
Staley Cates is the President of Southeastern Asset Management. He was also instrumental in bringing the Memphis Grizzlies to Memphis from Vancouver. He sits on several boards that deal directly with youth including the board of the New Hope Christian Academy, Memphis Athletic Ministries, Soulsville and the Urban Youth Initiative. Also a member of the Society of Entrepreneurs Cates participates in mentoring young companies through the organizations “Core Conversations” program.
Ed Dobbs helps lead the family business Dobbs Management Service which oversees interests in the automotive industry; restaurants and airline catering, beverage distribution and holding company Three Rivers Holdings. Dobbs is leading the family’s efforts to start and acquire new businesses. Dobbs also sits on the board of Memphis Fast Forward, an organization that fosters development, attraction and retention of talent in Memphis Shelby County.
Duncan Williams, is the President of Duncan Williams a local investment bank. Duncan Williams is very active in the Memphis community. The company was also a signature sponsor for the Southeastern Medical Device Association Conference that was held in March in Atlanta. The organization highlights medical device entrepreneurship which is a growing funnel of new startup activity in the Memphis region and the southeast.
Billy Orgel, is a Memphis communications Mogul. As the head of Tower Ventures a company that owns over 700 communications towers across the country and has sold another 280 more. Through the Society of Entrepreneurs, he too is active in fostering and mentoring young companies in Memphis. Orgel was also the angel investor that backed City Torch a Memphis location discovery startup that operated out of Emerge Memphis.
But the Memphis Grizzlies ties to entrepreneurship don’t start or stop with their list of investors and even their player involvement in social startups. Many of the men listed here along with several others tied to the organization have noticed an emergence of more and more people coming to Memphis to go to school and staying post graduation to work for or start their own companies. They’ve also taken notice of companies and startups that have relocated to the Memphis area to grow their businesses.
The entrepreneurial activity is bubbling to the degree that Memphis Grizzlies PA Announcer Rick Trotter made it a point to take notice of students staying in Memphis and the entrepreneurial activity spurring in the downtown area in a recent interview with local Memphis publication choose901.com.
“One of my favorite things about being part of Memphis, right now is being a part of, a new culture, a new sense of optimism in this city…” He continues “I see a lot of hopeful folks, a lot of people with fresh ideas, and creativity coming to this city, people going to colleges and high schools in this city and staying here to invest…” Trotter goes on “I’ve got a lot of friends in this area who are entrepreneurs and business owners…” Check out the entire 3 minute interview below.
With the everywhereelse.co conference just over two months away, over 1500 people have already purchased tickets from across the country and around the world, to come to Memphis and see this wind of change with their own eyes. Hundreds of those attendees have identified themselves as accredited angel investors and VC’s and out of the companies we recognize there is over $10 billion dollars in venture capital that will be represented at the conference.
With that it’s only fitting that we’ll kick off the festivities of Sunday evening with a Grizzlies game as they take on the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday February 10th when they arrive for the conference. After the game all the attendees will pour onto Beale Street to take in some of the entertainment that Memphis is famous for during the Grasshopper, the Entrepreneurs’ Phone System Bar Hop.
With that, we’re so excited to welcome everyone coming to the everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, to our house, the Fedex Forum to kick off the largest startup conference in the country, everywhereelse.co
Comments Off on St. Louis Startup LockerDome Surpasses 3 Million MUVs0LikeLike 2,688
Lately St. Louis startup LockerDome has been on fire. We recently reported that the sports social networking startup announced the first game/app built on their platform. Soon after we reported that 19 year venture capital veteran Mark Lewis, had joined the company as CFO. Thursday, they announced that they’ve surpassed 3 million monthly unique visitors (muv).
In addition to offering a sports social network for any stage athlete, from childrens intramural sports, up through college and pro, LockerDome also features over 1350 professional athletes, brands, media personalities, parody sites and other recognized sports properties that host their brands on LockerDome. By leveraging LockerDome, publishers are able to reach a more engaged, targeted sports audience and increase their overall social media footprint. Since launching in January, the interactive sports social media platform has delivered 47% average growth across Facebook and Twitter for its properties (average 4.3 month span, 109,018 to 144,746 followers).
Sports enthusiasts join LockerDome to become a part of interest-specific sports communities where they can consume content and interact with like-minded fans around their favorite professional athletes, teams and sports. The company has been growing at an average rate of14% per week since its launch 11 months back, surpassing one million uniques in June, two million in October and now three million in November. At its current growth rate, LockerDome is on pace to be a top-10 most visited sports site in the next 12 – 18 months.
Contributing to LockerDome’s tremendous growth are the contests that professional athletes, brands, and media personalities host on its platform, with its high-profile contests attracting more than 100,000 entries. Unique to LockerDome is the ability for its properties to easily cross-promote one another, as well as run their contests seamlessly across Facebook and Twitter, maximizing the audience that each property reaches. Contests on LockerDome boast an average landing page conversion of 19%, more than six times above the industry average of 2% – 3%. Current featured contests include MLB Hall of Famer, Wade Boggs, MLB’s all-time hits leader, Pete Rose, NFL Superstars, Larry Fitzgerald and Troy Polamalu, and the iconic baseball brand, Rawlings.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg for LockerDome. As explosive as LockerDome’s growth has been in 2012, we will undoubtedly be even more dominant in 2013,” commented Gabe Lozano, co-founder and CEO of LockerDome. “The overwhelming demand for LockerDome by professional athletes, media partners, brands and the targeted audiences these publishers reach, and the subsequent meteoric growth from that demand, is a clear indication that the LockerDome platform will only continue to strengthen.”
“Every professional athlete needs to be on LockerDome. By leveraging LockerDome as the social media hub for my personal brand, I’ve been able to better engage my fans and grow my entire social presence across Facebook, Twitter, and LockerDome,” said Larry Fitzgerald, All-Pro NFL wide receiver with the Arizona Cardinals. “From a content standpoint, I use LockerDome not only to host unique fan giveaways, but also as a daily source to post behind the scenes, interactive content.”
“As one of the world’s premier sports agencies, we’re always looking for unique technologies that give our clients an edge. LockerDome has become part of our secret sauce,” said Adam Rosenthal, Director of Athlete Marketing at Octagon Sports. “LockerDome not only enhances our clients’ brands, but also provides them with new monetization opportunities. LockerDome will become a standard across all professional athletes and notable sports figures.”
Comments Off on California Teenage Serial Entrepreneur Creates EdTech Startup StatFuse0LikeLike 2,579
Jeet Banerjee is a 20 year old entrepreneur from Fullerton California, a town outside Los Angeles. He started his first startup at age 17 and sold it. Since then he’s had numerous other innovative ideas and he’s also written a book called “The Pursuit of Passion: Entrepreneurs Guide To Turn Hobbies Into Successful Businesses.”. Now he’s teamed up with 18 year old Supan Shah to create an EdTech startup called StatFuse, that really benefit students in their age group.
Their idea actually came out of a bet. Shah bet Banerjee that he could get into Harvard. There was a lot riding on this bet and neither young man wanted to wait the four months it takes to find out if he was accepted. They were shocked to find there wasn’t a website where they could quickly enter grades, extra curriculars and test scores to see if getting into Harvard was even a possibility.
Like all other great startups, this idea steam rolled into an entire suite of patent pending tools for prospective college students to use. Now StatFuse can estimate your chances at getting into a school, keep track of your applications, provide tips to improve chances of getting into colleges and even give virtual campus tours.
While there are other college preparation tools out there, StatFuse has been created by two incredibly intelligent founders who are currently at the age where their tools would be the most relevant.
We got a chance to interview Banerjee, check out our interview below.
Comments Off on Ottawa Startup NoteShares Wants Social Document Sharing INTERVIEW0LikeLike 2,979
Ottawa entrepreneur Brenden Palmer knows there’s a better way to share documents. There’s more to sharing documents than just allowing access. That’s what separates his Ottawa startup NoteShares, from cloud based document storage lockers DropBox, Box.com and their hundreds of clones.
Palmer tells nibletz.com:
“We are not a hard drive in the cloud, and that is not what our premise and model is. We focus on creating a social community around user uploaded content. The point of using the platform is to share your documents and content, whereas other services and platforms like Dropbox, and Box.com simply allow you to have access to that content anywhere (which we offer as well). The differentiator is the ease of use and access that allows you to share this content and these documents with others who are using the platform. We don’t just allow access to share this content, but the social aspect around the document is the most prevalent aspect of our service and platform. Another thing that differentiates us is that we are launching our platform as a free web service.”
We wanted to dive in and make sure that Palmer wasn’t just another DropBox copycat. Obviously DropBox has been very successful and in their success they’ve generated a startup a day.
Adding a social aspect to documents makes them more open to discussion, commenting and discovery. Traditional cloud based lockers are really just dressed up ways to share attachments.
We got a chance to talk with Palmer in depth about Noteshares. Check out our interview below:
Kyle
Louisiana’s Economic Development Secretary, Stephen Moret and startup LocalMed CEO Keith English, announced last week that his company would be creating 52 new direct jobs in Baton Rouge. The new jobs will support LocalMed’s continued growth in their online and mobile technology platform that allows doctors, dentists and patients to handle appointment scheduling, management and reminders 24 hours a day.
Mike Hoffmeyer
