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Iowa City Startup: Ready To Go In America Wins Dream Big Contest

A startup that provides a pocket guide and mobile app for international students visiting the United States has won the Iowa “Creative Corridor’s Dream Big Contest”.

Ready to Go In America came away with the $5,000 prize in the contest last Thursday after pitching to a panel of judges. This moved the startup into the next round where they will be competing against other Iowa startups for $10,000 this time around.

The startup was founded by Jeff Owens, Mekinda Mekinda and Bobby Schlichting. Mekinda is an international student currently enrolled in a program at Kirkwood Community College. Owens is a senior informatics and art major at the University of Iowa and Schlicting is a farmer and entrepreneur from Vinton Iowa.

“It’s unreal,” Owens said to Iowa City Area Development. “There was so much competition. I was surprised to win, and having so many people supporting our idea makes me even more excited about it.”

“This is a dream coming true,” said Mekinda, who is orignially from Cameroon. “I’ve always heard the USA is a country of dreams. Now I know it is truly a reality.“

Ready To Go In America beat out 32 other entrepreneurs who competed in the contest that garnered over 10,000 votes. The top five startups in the voting competition squared off in front of the judges and an audience of nearly 100.

While Ready To Go In America was the official winner the judges also liked the pitch and presentation from high school student Eli Shepherd. Shepherd has found an environmentally friendly way to produce skateboards and apparel. He told the judges during his pitch that he needed $300 to fund the buying of equipment to produce his skateboard decks. The judges put the $300 together on their own to help Shepherd get his startup off the ground.

“Seeing so many people and organizations come together to support our region’s entrepreneurs has made the Creative Corridor Dream Big contest an inspiring project to be part of,” said Amanda Styron of Seed Here Studio, the group coordinating the contest and event. “We had a great night at the Live Pitch + Tech Brew! It was the perfect way to wrap-up the contest. I’m totally inspired by our growing community. It was a great night to get inspired, connect with the community and celebrate going big.”

The lead sponsor for the statewide contest is the Iowa Banker’s Association. Iowa is a hub of startup excitement. There are a lot of great startups including Ashton Kutcher backed Dwolla, in the state of Iowa.

Linkage:

Source: Iowa City Area Development

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New Coding School Startup In Colorado Offers Money Back Guarantee

Galvanize, the Denver Colorado startup and coworking space in Denver’s Golden Triangle Neighborhood has a new tenant called gSchool. gSchool joins the onslaught of new coding schools that were brought on by institutions like Code Academy. Coding schools typically teach one thing, coding.

While IT schools are nothing new, in coding schools you’ll find the next generation of technical founders, hipster geeks and hoodie wearing future nerds. They’re a far cry from the pocket protector, briefcase students that roam the halls of ECPI.

gSchool is confident though. They plan on putting their students through a rigorous, fast paced program teaching skills like Ruby on Rails, for around $20,000 a clip. You may have just had a little accident when you read that but here’s the rub. gSchool has a money back guarantee. A good one.

After students complete the gSchool program they guarantee that you’ll get a job earning $60,000 or better or they will refund your $20,000 tuition. Think about that for a second. You’re spending $20,000 to make a guaranteed 300% return, much better odds than those betting on startups in the valley.

Galvanize is home to 27 startup businesses and now the gSchool. Jim Deters a tech entrepreneur and co-founder of Galvanize recruited Jump Start Labs and coding instructor Jim Casimir to teach at gSchool.

gSchool’s intense six month program is designed to graduate high caliber performers, not high caliber beginners, according to Deters.

“They want people who get the ethos and are imbued with the work ethic in startups today,” Deters said to the Denver Business Journal. “It’s fast-paced, and it’s creative.”

Galvanize is about growing talented startups and for that to succeed they need to increase the talent pool available in Denver. That’s the real goal behind gSchool. Growing top tier programmers right in the building will give other building tenants access to the talent they need to succeed.

Deters is working on the second Galvanize a few miles north of the original location. It too will house startups, co-working space, gSchool classrooms and an eatery based on Deter’s first startup the ChoLon Bistro.

Linkage:

Galvanize is here

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Source: Denver Business Journal

Ottawa Startup Suprpod Is An Online Collaborative Space For Marketers

I’ll bet if you were to do the research you would probably find thousands and thousands of conferences and conventions for marketing folks. I seem to get invited to a new marketing conference every other day. But can you believe there’s no social network, community or collaborative space online just for marketers? That was until Ottawa startup Suprpod came along.

The online portfolio and collaboration site exclusively for marketers takes it’s name Suprpod from Dolphins. In an interview with nibletz.com co-founder Jennifer Butson says:

“Superpod is the term given to large groups of dolphins who travel together. Because dolphins are brilliant communicators in the animal kingdom, the term lends well to the group of expert communicators in the human world!”

Which is why their logo is also a dolphin. You should see the tricks their team can do with rubber balls on their noses.

All kidding aside though, collaboration between left brained marketers can be healthy, creative and produce some amazing results. That’s why it’s hard to believe no one had thought of this before.

The site has three basic function areas, browse, share and create.

The browse section is home to curated portfolios from some of the industry’s hottest minds. It’s ripe for the taking right their at Suprpod. PR, and marketing people can check out Suprpod for some of the best marketing ideas out there.

Share is where questions are asked and answered about anything related to PR, marketing and social media.

Create, will allow users to display their work like they’ve never seen before.

Butson has a lot of experience in both marketing and startups. It was working on a different startup that helped he find, hone and craft the idea for Suprpod. We got a chance to talk with Butson, read the rest of the interview below.

Minnesota Startup Jingit Raises $7 Million, Pays Consumers To Watch Ads

Jingit, a startup based in Edina Minnesota, has raised $7 million dollars in investment capital according to a regulatory filing. The startup was founded last year by Joe Rogness, the former CEO of tech consultancy Two Fish and Todd Rooke a former executive with Hewlitt Packard.

Jingit allows ordinary consumers to earn up to $15 per week for watching ads and giving feedback on them. Household brands like Walmart, Hershey and Kraft are in Jingit’s stable of clients.

The company partnered with US Bank last year which issues a debit card on their behalf. Jingit customers’ earnings from ad watching is directly deposited onto the debit cards. Each ad yields the user between $.05 and $.50 cents. Payments vary based on advertiser, market study, and demographics. For instance advertisers may pay more to have an 18 year old watch an advertisement for a video game rather than someone older. Kraft may pay more for people in an older demographic to watch their ad.

Jingit has fail safes in place to make sure that their users are actually watching ads. The ad will stop if another browser window or tab is opened while the ad is playing.

The startup gives advertisers unparalleled ability to drill down to their ideal customer. They’ve found that advertisers are willing to pay more money for this kind of targeted feedback.

Prior to this $7 million dollar round, Jingit had raised $3.5 million dollars.

Linkage

Source: Minneapolis, St. Paul, Business Journal

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Complete Your Lifelong Goals With Help From Bangkok Startup Bucketlistly

It all started when Pete, the founder of Bucketlistly went to Beijing for a Mobile Monday event. While at the event he was intrigued by everything going on around him. He was speaking at the event and wanted to figure out a way to share his own achievements and help others share their achievements as well.

Of course with that and seeing the movie starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson, Pete had an idea.

He calls Bucketlistly a social bucket list. The platform allows users to list all the things they want to do in their lives, crowd source ideas on how to achieve those goals, do the impossible and share all of that.

When it’s time to conquer those life long goals users can write stories about them and even include pictures. The website than chronicles the achievements and archives them so the user can reference them later and inspire others.

We got the entire skinny from Pete, check out the interview below.

Shop, Share, Indulge On The Go With Michigan Startup Ozmott

A new Michigan startup called Ozmott has said they’ve just made shopping more fun. They’ve done this by combining a map of local participating merchants that are part of Ozmott’s loyalty program. Once they get into a participating merchant, Ozmott users can decide which offer they want to purchase and use “Pips” or loyalty points, to help pay for the offer. When a user redeems an offer through Ozmott they earn more points which helps them get top tier “Luxe” offers.

The team behind Ozmott had learned first hand from a local merchant how they actually went upside down on a daily deal. This seems to be a trend with mom & pop shops that eagerly joined the Groupon or Living Social model. It’s why it doesn’t work.

It looks like Ozmott merchants won’t have the same problem, especially after throwing the reward points back in the mix.

We got a chance to talk with the team behind Ozmott. Check out the interview below.

Study: Tomorrow’s Startup Founders Still Getting Bullied

The Anti Bullying Alliance (ABA) and the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) released their latest survey results on bullying amongst grades school and high school age children. Apparently the memo that startup founders, nerds, geeks and programmers are cool hasn’t quite reached the halls of middle and high schools across the country.

According to the study 90% of chilren between the ages of 11-16 have either been bullied or seen someone get bullied for being smart, intelligent or talented in some area.

We all know that the marketing and business development founders had their own school stores selling candy, discounted supplies or even homework. We also know that the brains behind most startups these days were our best customers back in grade school. They were also the ones who got picked on for being uber talented at computers or because their brains worked in overdrive while some students struggled with regular reading comprehension.

Apparently not only has that trend not changed, it’s gotten worse over the years.

While movements like Black Girls Code and Geek Girls, across the country are highlighting the talents of girls in grade school and high school, the study reveals that girls have it the worst when it comes to bullying.

“The research shows that more than a quarter of 11-16 year olds (27.3 %) have quit an activity they enjoy because of bullying, and almost half (49.5%) have played down a talent for fear of being bullied – rising to 53% amongst girls.” The study said.

Achievement in key academic areas is being stifled. 1 in 10 (12%) of children are saying they have downplayed their ability in science. One in five girls (18.8%) have downplayed their abilities in math and 1 in 10 boys are deliberately under achieving to avoid bullying.

Ross Hendry, Chair of the Anti-Bullying Alliance says the results of the survey are very worrying: “We know that bullying can lead to children missing school, failing exams, dropping out of sport, avoiding extra-curricular activities and limiting their life choices. It’s unacceptable that rather than celebrate their talent, they feel that they have to hide their gifts, purposely underachieve in crucial subjects and miss out on things they enjoy because of bullying.

“Government should take note. At a time when we need more young people to study maths and science at college and university, and to drive the future of our economy, they’re actually cowering away from fear of being bullied.

In the startup community we know how this all turns out. The smart ones end up being technical cofounders, and the hustlers end up being marketing and biz dev guys. Getting there is the hard part though.

The ABA offer’s these tips for children and parents:

For children and young people:

Bullying is not your fault. It is always wrong and you do not have to put up with it.
Let someone know what is happening as soon as possible. Talk things through with a friend, your family, or your teachers.
Do not do or say anything in response to the bully. Stay calm and remove yourself from the situation wherever possible. If it is happening through your phone or the internet, keep a copy of the messages or images but do not reply or respond.
Keep a note or a diary of what is happening.
Be confident – you have done nothing to deserve this.
Be assertive.
You could say ‘This is not funny. This is bullying. This is wrong.’
Think who can help you – young people or adults.
Seek help from other young people e.g. school might have a peer mentor or buddy scheme
Say to someone ‘Please would you watch what is happening here’ and ask them to help you report the incident.
Sometimes it can help to talk to someone outside of the situation. You could call Childline on 0800 1111.

Help for Parents

If you think your child is being bullied, don’t panic- try to keep an open mind:Your key role islistening, calming and providing reassurance that thesituation can get better when action is taken. Providea quiet, calm place where they can talk about what ishappening.
Listen and reassure them that coming to you was the right thing to do:It may not be easy for a child totalk about being bullied so it is important to try to findout how they are feeling, what has happened, whenand where. Though at this stage it is not so muchabout establishing a set of facts as encouraging, talking and listening.
Assure them that the bullying is not their faultand that you are there to support them: remind them that they can also have the support of family and friends.
Find out what the child or young person wants to happen:help them to identify the choices availableto them and the potential next steps to take; and theskills they may have to help solve the problems.
Discuss the situation with your child’s school:thelaw requires all schools to have a behaviour policywhich sets out the measures that will be taken toencourage good behaviour and respect for others andto prevent all forms of bullying among pupils.Parents can get advice and support from theFamily LivesParentline on0808 800 2222 or at www.familylives.org.uk.

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Ohio Startup: Buyvite Adds “Pay Me Back” Social Payment Product

We’ve been following Brandy Alexander-Wimberly and her Toledo Ohio startup, Buyvite, since last May. Buyvite is a payment tool that makes group buying easy. For example, say you’re having a high school reunion and as a side activity you decide to catch a football game or a few rounds of golf as a group. Buyvite allows all of the group to pay for the excursion without having one person delegated in charge of the money, and risking one, or two people not paying.

Buyvite announced a new product on Monday called “Pay Me Back”. This product works after the transaction is made and is just in time for the holiday gift giving season.

With “Pay Me Back” say you and your family members decided to buy one of your other family members an expensive gift, like an iPad. Once one person makes the initial purchase, Pay Me back can divide the price paid among the others in your family and act as the conduit for the person who “fronted” the money to get paid back easily.

“Pay Me Back” has a variety of great uses. Alexander-Wimberly explains:

“This product was developed to give our partners an easy way to leverage the power of social commerce. Our social payment badges are designed to embed on product pages to promote the application. After the customer makes their purchase, they now have a seamless and social way of showing their friends what they bought, telling them how much they owe and an easy way to get paid back. It’s a perfect fit for any company focused on selling gifts, vacation rentals, event tickets and even works well for fantasy sports leagues and donations.”

Early adopters of “Pay Me Back” include Tiesta Tea, Pledge Music, Tony Packo’s, Swank Martini and payment processing provider E2E Payments of Lombard, IL. E2E President Brad Bialas explains the advantage of offering “Pay Me Back” to his customer base. “Our ecommerce clients are looking for new ways to reach their social audience. Consumers are already locked in to the concept of group purchases and peer-to-peer payments. Buyvite’s “Pay Me Back” product gives our clients a fresh and social way to promote a “crowd funding” model via their websites and ecommerce carts and it’s a proven way to help elevate traditionally group focused purchases like gifts, team costs or event tickets.”

Linkage:

Check out Buyvite here

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Baltimore Startup: SickWeather Is Crowdsourcing The Sickness Forecast INTERVIEW

What if you could forecast sickness? What if you could find out what illnesses were going around just as easily as you could find out the weather? Well that’s what Baltimore startup SickWeather is all about.

The concept is a great idea, and while the two co-founders behind SickWeather are smart guys, it’s not like they have some magical powers that allow them to forecast what areas are going to get sick and when. What they have done though, is taken huge amounts of data available via public API’s and turned them into a startup that can tell you what’s going around near you.

It all started when co-founder Graham Dodge was sick with a stomach virus. It was a wicked bad virus and he wanted to see if anyone in his circle of friends was experiencing similar symptoms. Perhaps he wanted to track down the source of the stomach virus, or more importantly, get in contact with someone with the same symptoms and find out how much longer he would be under the weather. Whatever the reason, the idea immediately seemed scalable. With that, SickWeather was born.

Social networks have gigantic heaps of data available via public API. Through proprietary algorithms, SickWeather combs through those mountains of data for status’ like “Just got back from the doctor”, “Can’t get this flu to go away”. When the status on a social network is accompanied by a location marker, it will be plotted on the map. As they continue to work on the data, the team behind SickWeather could even plot out how long people have been sick.

They regurgitate all this data in much easier to read graphics that will ultimately provide valuable information to end users. Is that hacking cough coming from an allergy to a cat, or are you coming down with something?

We got a chance to talk with Dodge about SickWeather. Check out the interview below.

New Jersey Startup Vidyo Powering Video Chat On Wii U (And Google Hangouts)

New Jersey video conferencing startup Vidyo has probably outgrown the title “startup”. Their completely scalable video conferencing solutions can be found powering such high profile video services as Google+ Hangouts, NTT, Philips and more. Now it’s been reported that the company is powering the all new video chat feature found in the Wii U game system that debuted in stores across the country yesterday.

Wii U’s video platform can be found in their new improved MiiVerse service and is used with the camera built into the new Nintendo Wii U control pad.

We’re trying to bring video-conferencing to the world,” Vidyo chief executive Ofer Shapiro told Venturebeat.com’s John Koetsier. “We want to carry it to the masses.”

Vidyo isn’t necessarily taking on Skype but rather looking to put video conferencing in the living room. Having the ability for video conferencing in the living room opens up an entirely new world for content creators, both novice and professional. Also, with systems like the Wii U you can easily have whole family video chats using the tv as the monitor, no matter what it’s size.

Google+ Hangouts are incredibly easy to set up. It’s just one click within the Google+ network. Video chatting on the Wii U is even easier than that. It doesn’t require firing up the computer and getting on Google+. Let’s face it we’re probably looking at the possibility of much bigger scale utilizing the Wii U than the Google+ platform. Several quarters ago Google stopped reporting growth numbers for Google+.

Video integration with the Wii U also cuts the barrier to some people who are more comfortable with gaming systems and stay away from the computers.

While the video quality on the Wii U console is not “professional” it’s still “excellent” for the home use according to Shapiro.

The Wii U launched yesterday morning in the United States. Nintendo packaged two different bundles, a white “basic” system with 8gb of storage and no included game and a black deluxe system with 32gb of onboard storage, packaged with Nintendo Land.

Analysts are expecting the Nintendo Wii U to be one of the most popular gifts this holiday season. Most major big box stores have depleted their stock and are unsure if they will get another shipment before Christmas and Chanukah.

Linkage:

Source: Venturebeat

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Understand Your Dog Better With North Carolina Startup Dognition

Brian Hare, the founder and director of Duke University’s Canine Cognition Center is introducing a new startup to help normal folks understand their dogs better. His North Carolina based startup, called Dognition, isn’t going to magically give your dog a voice, however it will provide ways for you to better understand your canine friends.

Dognition will feature a website and mobile app. The first step with Dognition will be an assessment test. The test will be offered via the mobile app and will tell dog owners exactly how to administer it. According to the News and Observer, through the administration of the test, dog owners will be able to discover their dogs cognitive strengths and weaknesses. From there, dog owners will be able to set up a “Dognition Profile” report.

Dognition will go into free beta testing today and plans to open to the public for between $40 and $60 in January. That may seem a little steep to you however the American Pet Product’s Association has said that despite the recession spending on pets has risen 4.8% or more in the last few years and is on pace to raise another 3.8% this year.

Hare is also hopeful that the research they do at the Canine Cognition Center will benefit from having hundreds of dogs across the globe using the platform.

“The collective data that Dognition accumulate also hold the promise of expanding our scientific understanding of dogs” Hare said. “Academic centers such as the one he leads at Duke only have the capacity to test a few hundred dogs a year, so opening up such tests to dog owners worldwide via the Internet has the scientist practically drooling.”

Local serial entrepreneur Kip Frey has come aboard at Dognition as CEO. Also McKinney, the largest advertising agency in the Research Triangle will also support Dognition with market research, marketing, brand development and helping with the UI for the website and mobile apps.

McKinney’s CEO Brad Brinegar has three dogs and told the News & Observer: “I wake up every morning and think, ‘This is going to be big”

Science has suggested in the past that to draw parallels between humans and other mammals you need to look to dolphins and apes. According to Hare, research over the last 15 years has suggested that dogs are more intelligent than once thought.

“Dogs are more sophisticated than even the most dedicated dog lover might imagine,” Hare said.” Actually dogs, in many ways, solve problems really similarly to human children. And they’re more similar to human children than … apes.”

Frey has already raised $1 million dollars for Dognition in an angel round.

Linkage:

Check out Dognition here

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Charlotte Could Be Next City For Founder’s Institute

Founder’s Institute, the largest startup accelerator in the world, is looking for their next new location. Founder’s Institute has had success in the valley, Boulder, Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington DC and other major cities around the country.

Now, Founder’s Institute is testing the waters in Charlotte North Carolina.

Once a conservative banking center, Charlotte has become a major hub for innovation Amon cities in the south east.

Charlotte played host to the Democratic National Convention this summer, and with that they give entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial media and more a glimpse into their growing startup scene. On our trip there for the convention we got to work out of Packard Place, a 4 story building in Charlotte’s Uptown (what they call their downtown) that serves as the hub for innovation.

Founder’s Institute has opened up discussion about coming to Charlotte on their website here.

Founder’s Institute also plans to test the waters by hosting a handful of events in Charlottte, over the next month:

Startup Pitch Bootcamp Wednesday November 28th

Founder’s Institute Info Session Wednesday December 5th

Startup Ideation Bootcamp Wednesday December 12th

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MassChallenge Startups Have Created Thousands Of Jobs

Most people feel that the most important factor of the innovation and startup buzz is job creation. Startup America is one of the biggest proponents of startups leading to job creation. Most startup incubators and accelerators across the country pride themselves on preparing startups for job creation. One of the nation’s largest startup accelerators, MassChallenge, has been doing just that, creating jobs.

In a report with an accompanying infographic by Analogue Studio, MassChallenge has released their job creation figures over the last three years. The number is incredible.

According to their data, MassChallenge has created 2,912 new jobs. As MassChallenge reports, and we agree, these are “high impact” jobs. We’re not talking about the kind of jobs your neighborhood franchise entrepreneur is creating. MassChallenge startups are creating programming jobs, marketing jobs, business development jobs and more.

To date the 2010 MassChallenge class has created 1,060 new jobs. The 2011 class has created 1148 jobs and the 2012 class is well on their way having already created 704 jobs and the class hasn’t even been over for a month.

Linkage:

MassChallenge is here

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Indy Startup Weekend Team Max Recovery Already Up And Running

This weekend Startup Weekend is on fire. There are hundreds of startups being formed around the country and around the world. Indianapolis is one of the Startup Weekends happening this weekend.

Indianapolis startup evangelist, Nick Tippmann has jumped in to help form Max Recovery. With accelerator experience behind him, and even being a Startup Weekend Organizer in Bloomington Indiana, Tippmann has Max Recovery on a roadmap for success this weekend.

Max Recovery helps hardcore athletes track, balance and boost their body’s performance. It was built to help these body builders, UFC fighters, cross fit trainers, marathoners and those aspiring to be get the most out of their hard work. These people work themselves half to death and end up walking around like zombies. These are hardcore people we are targeting. They are the ones up at 4:30am to workout and not getting home until 9pm. Max Recovery allows these people to keep balanced. We have found that you need to work at Recovery as well to get the most out of these hard efforts or some of their effort ends up getting wasted because they have not properly recovered. They are not a sharp as they could be.

Tippmann told Nibletz exclusively.

Max Recovery is an app that allows these people to keep track of how balanced they are by logging their work and recovery in the terms of debits and credits. The idea is that everything cost. The more work you want to do, the more you have to pay for it. The goal is to keep a “balanced book.” For example a hard work out may cost -8, lack of sleep -4 and long run -6, you would then need to work at recovery to get credits from things like a massage +6, hot tub +2, 8 hours sleep +4, and acupuncture +8.

Max Recovery is in it for the long haul working on a legitimate, scalable, startup.

We are doing this at Indy Startup Weekend part of the global startup battle. We have one of the best teams I’ve ever seen assembled at one of these events. We have a specialist at every function and over 30 years experience combined in software. We have 2 devs, a graphic designer, UX designer, and a couple business/marketing guys. Tippmann said

Max Recovery isn’t like other health and wellness apps that allows you to track your workouts and count calories. It allows you to track how balanced you are. They haven’t found any competitors doing the same thing but they have found the area of recovery and habit building a hot topic. Tim Ferris mentions recovery as a key part of his four hour body workout

This weekend Max Recovery has already built their site and an app. Tippmann tells us they aren’t about mock ups, wire frames and demos, Max Recovery has done what teams ultimately should try to achieve during any Startup Weekend.

Linkage:

Checkout Max Recovery Here

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