startups Archives - Page 60 of 75

Estonia Startup: Oddspotter Is A Cool Art Appreciation Game For iPad INTERVIEW

If you’re wondering where the heck Estonia is, no worries they have a thriving startup scene there. In fact when talking with Tanel Teemusk the founder of Estonia based startup Oddspotter, he tells us that Estonia may have the largest number of startups per capita of any European country.

You may be familiar with their biggest startup, it’s called Skype. Of course with Skype, like many other startups that have had huge exits or gone public, they have a venture arm too that’s churning out great startups. One of our favorite European startups Hail-o is also backed by Skype founders.

So what is OddSpotter, it’s an art appreciation game. It’s got great graphics and Teemusk isn’t afraid to call it “edutainment”. Of course we’re not talking about edutainment for kids it’s edutainment for adults, and if you’re not careful playing OddSpotter, you may actually learn something. We did.

We got a chance to interview Teemusk in depth and we’re not going to knock him if he does in fact come and stay in San Francisco for a few months. Oddspotter was raised in Estonia so it’s an international startup from everywhere else.

Check out our interview below:

German Startup: Honestly.de Says They’re The Easiest Way To Give Feedback INTERVIEW

Giving feedback should be easy. When you take into consideration that most businesses that want your feedback have already somehow earned your money, than you want the easiest most simplest way to get that feedback. Even when you get $10 off your next meal or a buy one get one free, many of those surveys at the bottom of receipts are never answered.

Once you’ve been on the phone with a customer service department for 30 minutes the last thing you want to do is take some kind of survey. That may seem easy enough to you, but it’s not.

That’s why German startup honestly.de has come up with what they call is, the “easiest way to leave feedback”. Honestly.de promises that within 30 seconds you’ll be able to leave feedback for any service organization, and reach the pertinent people. That’s a pretty lofty goal, with the two hardest parts being building scale and engagement.

We got a chance to talk to Honetsly.de about their new startup. Check out the interview below:

Indianapolis Startup: Trensy Makes Doing Good Deeds Fun INTERVIEW

A hot new startup in the vibrant startup community of Indianapolis Indiana is gamifying good deeds. The startup, called Trensy, makes it easy to earn points for just about any kind of good deed.

Good deeds ranging from volunteering, to much easier tasks like taking the bus or using a reusable grocery bag at the grocery store can help you earn points on Trensy’s good deed platform.

The platform ties into your Facebook account for 0-auth verification and then a way to share your good deeds socially and invite others to participate as well. One of the cool parts about Trensy is when you sign up and look at the available good deeds, you’ll probably find that you’re doing some to these things already. (if not most of them).

The two founders that met at IU (Alma Mater of Mark Cuban and Nick Tippmann) didn’t set out to do a startup together. They first became roommates and friends, and then went off into the real world. When they realized they wanted to start something, and something good for the community, they naturally turned to each other as co-founders.

Trensy co-founder Kyle Robbins told us:

“After graduating, we both moved to Indianapolis to begin careers and worked independently for several year before connecting on trensy. Bryan worked on the service side of an educational software company and I worked as a developer. The decision to venture together on this journey all came down to the trust and confidence they had in each other. Fate got us together to work on changing the world”

Trensy is available for both iOS and Android. The good deed app platform can be a lot of fun especially when you challenge yourself or friends to get more points.

Here’s our full interview with Kyle Robbins below.

Denver Startup: Full Contact Gives Employees $7500 For Paid Vacation,Vacation

Could you go completely off the grid and really enjoy vacation time with your friends and family? When we say off the grid we mean off the grid, no checking work emails, taking work phone calls, checking in on work gossip, no VPNing into your work network?

If you said yes, you might want to consider applying for a job at Denver startup FullContact. They have a whole list of openings including Android developer,business development, iOS and Mac developer,Outlook and Exchange .NET developer,platform engineer and web app/front end engineer.

FullContact specializes in an API that keeps your contacts up to date and so much more.

Now for the part about the $7500.

Bart Lorang, co-founder and CEO of FullContact offers his employees $7500 of paid, paid vacation time. This means that when you take vacation time, you get $7500 but you have to totally unplug. Lorang wants his employees to have mind resting, enjoyable vacation time.

That’s not the only reason for the paid, paid vacation though. Lorang feels that knowing that you’re going to go totally off the grid (at least the work grid) employees will be more comfortable creating total redundancy in their positions.

Knowing that employees will go completely off the grid, Lorang wrote in a blog post that they may:

They might empower direct reports to make more decisions.
They might be less likely to create a special script that isn’t checked into GitHub and only lives on their machine.
They might document their code a bit better.
They might contribute to the Company Wiki and share knowledge.

Lorang talks on the FullContact blog about how this idea of his for paid,paid vacation kept invading his brain. For a final blessing on the idea he reached out to TechStars and Founry’s Brad Feld who said:

“I love the Paid Paid Vacation concept and totally agree with it. A lot of people won’t spend the money because they don’t have it or think they’ll be happier if they save it. But they miss the value of disconnecting.

This exchange about paid, paid vacation assured Lorang that Feld would make a great board member and as a result the Foundry Group led the startups Series B round.

At this day and age, from a worker’s perspective this is supposed to sound like a no-brainer but to some it really isn’t. Their brains aren’t programmed for a total disconnect. There’s that inherent feeling of missing something, and then at work there’s the feeling that if someone else can do their job than they aren’t indispensable. The reality is, is that in an employment situation everyone is dispensable and yes the world will be there when you get back from Vacation.

Working at FullContact means you’ll get the time off, and the money to take a good, quality vacation.

Linkage:

Here’s FullContact’s website

Here are their job openings

Here’s their blogpost about “paid,paid vacation”

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” here are more startup stories from “everywhere else”

We’re on our own trip, a sneaker-strapped, nationwide startup road trip and really need your support.

Indian Startup: Resumonk Makes Resumes A Cinch Interview

The most important piece of sales material in anyones arsenal is their resume. Resumes have evolved over the years. First there were typed resumes on fine parchment. Next was the rapid reprinting of resumes via the xerox machine in the copy room. Desktop publishing made resumes look very pretty but formatting could be a real pain in the ass.

Then in came the jobs site and the multiple types of resume files that every job hunter needed. Some job hunters needed to take a class just to learn how to do the proper type of resume file.

The resume has been a pain point that many startups have tried to solve, including Resumonk a startup based in New Delhi.

Resumonk is a DIY platform to build your resume. The company promises that they’ve got the technology, formatting and conversion down pat. All you need to know is your job history and have a decent grasp of the english language.

We got a chance to talk with Resumonk in the interview below:

Rochester Startup: Wi3 Expanding To Hospitality Industry, THANK GOD

We travel an awful lot. Most of our readers know that we’re on a sneaker strapped, nationwide startup road trip, which means we stay in the car a lot, but in hotels a lot too. The biggest challenge in hotels isn’t about bedding, towels, or even what’s on tv. We book rooms based on wifi, availability and pricing. The problem is even when you do a preliminary check on a hotels wifi it’s still slow as molasses and typically a horrible experience.

Outside of bringing our own wifi (which we do as backup) there hasn’t been much change since hotels started offering wifi. Free or not most hotels have less than subpar wifi.

Well a Rochester startup called Wi3 is doing something about that.

We first met Wi3 at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas back in January. They were demoing their innovation award winning WiPNET product. As you can see from the video above, WiPNET in home allows the user to set up access points with the bulk of the load making it from point a to point b over coax. This is ultimately the same thing that cable internet providers are doing from the node to your home.

WiPNET makes sure you have a clear wifi access point with very little (if no) latency or loss of signal from the entry point to the end user. Pretty magical stuff.

Well now they’ve announced that they are offering their product to the hospitality industry (hotels)

WiPNET allows many devices to simultaneously access HD and rich media digital Web content on the same hardwired network using existing coax cable infrastructure and a hardwired access point in every guestroom. This innovative application of MoCA technology eliminates the problem of network buffering caused when several devices are accessing the Web within the same environment. It also simplifies network management and oversight, even allowing hotel owners to create tiered-access services as an additional profit center.

“Serving hotel guestrooms or commercial properties with just one WiFi router or a few WiFi repeaters across a property does not meet the needs and demands of the ever increasing WiFi enabled mobile consumer,” said Wi3 CEO Bill Thompson. “Wi3’s patented in-wall Ethernet and WiFi products enable properties that have coax connections to convert every room or space into a full-bandwidth dedicated access point to satisfy even the most heavy of users, thus simplifying and eliminating today’s singular WiFi router approach.”

Now in a nutshell, every hotel guest in every room will have their own dedicated wifi access point and won’t overload the Belkin or Linksys routers that are typically not so strategically placed in hotels.

Linkage:

Paris Startup: LimeApp Is The Daily Deals Site For Online Services INTERVIEW

There are daily deal sites everywhere. Groupon and LivingSocial started a phenomenon for products, weight loss facilities, canoe trips, adventures and even cupcakes. You can find a daily deal for just about every tangible product known to man, heck you can find 20 deal sites these days.

LimeApp is a daily deals site that’s sole focus is online services. Think apps, cloud based storage, web hosting, things like that. As the LimeApp team told us in an interview, they specialize only in intangible products.

Some of the deals available on LimeApp today include 100 gb of cloud storage from Elephant Drive for $49 (retail value $99), Email marketing from ActiveCampaign for $99 (a $250 value), and professional banner creation from Canned Banners a $90 value for just $59.99

LimeApp tops everything off with a money back guarantee.

We got a chance to talk to the LimeApp people in the interview below.

Kansas City Startup: Divshot Wins $25k in crowdfunder’s Crowdstart Contest In LA

Los Angeles based crowdfunding startup crowdfunder just completed their first Crowdstart contest. The seven week contest drew over 700 submissions, 74 contestants and 10 finalists. Kansas City startup Divshot emerged as the winner, taking home the $25,000 prize.

While we all know that the JOBS act was passed earlier this year and crowdfunding for equity won’t be implemented until the end of the year or early next year, Crowdfunder didn’t want to wait to start helping startups raise invaluable funds. For the prize money they teamed with Right Side Capital Management.

Divshot is a company that provides web designers with drag and drop tools for rapidly prototyping websites and designs. The concept was born just 90 days ago at a Startup Weekend event in Kansas City, home to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, who is the major backing behind the Startup Weekend brand of events.

“Opportunities for local fundraising are limited, not just here in Kansas City but everywhere around the country,” said Jake Johnson, Divshot co-founder. “Crowdfunder will enable us to tap into capital, education and resources through their online platform. What’s good for us is good for our local economy. We’re excited to be part of making a positive economic impact here in our own backyard.”

Now that the Los Angeles contest has come to a close, crowdfunder has just kicked off their Crowdstart Las Vegas contest. This time though, half a million dollars is up for grabs. The contest kicks off tonight at Startup Weekend in Vegas.

“We’re thrilled to be able to support entrepreneurs and innovation here and throughout the country,” said crowdfunder CEO Chance Barnett. “Divshot is just the beginning of the kind of nurturing, education and support that crowdfunder intends to provide. That’s why we’re hosting another startup contest, Crowdstart Las Vegas, which kicks off today at Vegas Startup Weekend where $500,000 is up for grabs by the Vegas Tech Fund.”

Linkage:

Check out Crowdfunder here

Check out Divshot here

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” here are more startup stories from “everywhere else”

Here help the nibletz team stay on the road

Interview With Kentucky Startup WhyWait

There are a lot of discovery apps out there. This year at SXSW discovery was the biggest space represented by new app startups at SXSWi.

So now with hundreds of discovery startups popping up all over the place, the features, UI, UX and user benefit are the biggest parts to insuring the success of a discovery startup. Kentucky startup WhyWait has all of those elements in pace.

WhyWait is about serving the user the best local restaurants and then letting them know when things are going on at those places. WhyWait features event calendars, menus, specials, happy hours and even provides restaurants the ability to use push notifications to send out great deals to users.

The startup has even incorporated local events in addition to events at restaurants like Karaoke night, live music and big specials.

Kentucky has a flourishing scene of startups. They have an active Startup America Partnership and several hubs like Northern Kentucky (and Cincinnati), and Louisville. WhyWait started in Bowling Green and recently moved to Louisville.

We got a chance to talk to WhyWait co-founder and CFO Jon Matar in the interview below:

Follow Friday: The Startup America Partnership

Here at nibletz.com as the voice of startups “everywhere else” we are very proud and active members in the Startup America partnership. The organization was set up under the Obama administration and is spearheaded by Chairman Steve Case the founder of America Online and Revolution along with CEO Scott Case (no relation) who was the founding CTO of Priceline.com

In addition to setting up networks, and events, the Startup America partnership provides tons of resources to forward thinking startup founders who’s ultimate goal is to contribute to the fabric of America by adding more companies and more jobs across the country.

Each of Startup America’s regional partners holds their own events and the organization itself sponsors national events, webinars, conferences and meet ups. In fact Startup America is partnering with Startup Rockon for events at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions later this summer to promote startups and entrepreneurship.

As for benefits, there are literally thousands of dollars in benefits available to Startup America members, and joining Startup America is absolutely free with no strings attached. Everything from free books, discounted books, to legal services and even airline tickets from American Airlines are offered at deep discounts exclusively for Startup America members.

We wanted to start something up for Follow Friday. As someone who speaks on the ins and outs of Twitter regularly, traditional #FF follow Friday is really not that effective, so we’ll feature startups, entrepreneurs, startup founders and startup resources every Friday. To kick that feature off here is the complete list of Startup America regions to follow on Twitter.

Startup America
Startup California
Startup New Hampshire
Startup Virginia
Startup Colorado
Startup Connecticut
Startup Florida
Startup Hawaii
Startup Illinois
Startup Iowa
Startup Kentucky
Startup Kansas
Startup Massachusetts
Startup Maryland
Startup Michigan
Startup Missouri
Startup Montana
Startup Nebraska
Startup Rhode Island
Startup Texas
Startup Tennessee
Startup Vermont
Startup Washington
Startup Puerto Rico
Startup DC
Startup Indiana

Linkage:

Join the Startup America partnership here, it’s free

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” more stories from “everywhere else” here

We’re on a nationwide sneaker-strapped startup roadtrip help us out here

Two Gonzaga Students Create Startup easyzag INTERVIEW

Gonzaga students Josh Erickson and Shane Roach have launched a startup for Gonzaga students that can easily be adapted to any college campus in America. The concept behind easyzag is pretty simple, simplify the college students internet experience.

Easyzag.com takes the most frequented sites for Gonzaga students and puts them in a portal of sorts. If you’ve been through the post internet college experience than you’ve probably experienced the difficulty in finding the shuttle schedule from the home page of the schools website.

Some of the best institutions in the world, Gonzaga included, have so many sub-level domains within their website infrastructure its impossible to find the basketball schedule, much less when your professor is going to be out for three days.

That’s the problem Erickson and Roach are solving for Gonzaga students right now and hopefully more schools in the future.

We got a chance to talk with both co-founders. Check out our interview below:

Romanian Startup: Outsourcing.io Brings Contract Awarding Online INTERVIEW

There’s a very interesting startup brewing in Romania. The company called outsourcing.io is bringing the contractor’s bidding and awarding process online, to an easy to use, navigate, bid and win platform. We don’t want to go as far as calling it the ebay for contractors but it allows contractors to bid out jobs online.

Right now the startup is being coded, built and developed in Romania but the team plans to open their official European office in the UK shortly.

Outsourcing.io is taking all of the contractual bidding process into account. Contractors and those submitting calls for bids will be screened and verified and it’s a paid bidding process. Contractors will be able to bid on real good, and well paying jobs and those doing the contracting will know they’re getting qualified, interested contractors who know it takes money to make money.

We got a chance to talk to one of the co-founders, George Bratan in the interview below.

Ohio Startup: Venturepax, Adventurers This Site Is For You INTERVIEW

If you’re an outdoor enthusiast of any kind than there is a one stop place for you called Venturepax. Whether you’re into skydiving, rock climbing, leisurely strolls through the woods, hiking, mountain biking or anything else outdoors, adventuring is always more fun when you can share it with others. It’s fun to brag, share ideas, and of course best practices.

Are you longing for a new adventure? Venturepax is great for that too, there are great ideas from Diving the Florida Springs to climbing up Arthur’s Seat and everything imaginable in between.

There are a few other notable outdoor sites out there but the user experience at Venturepax is appealing and the community is strong.

We got a chance to interview Venturepax. Check out the interview below.

Eugene Oregon Startup: WallShops Offers A New Online Mall Shopping Experience

A conglomerate of online stores is nothing new to the internet, heck Amazon’s been doing it now for over a decade, however WallShops, a Eugene Oregon based startup, has reinvented the online mall. We get pitches 24 hours a day here at nibletz and every single pitch is revolutionizing, re-inventing, has the best ever, the most ever, etc etc etc, so when WallShops said they brought the shopping mall experience to the web, we brushed it off as pure startup talk. That was until we started poking around.

Wallshops has literally brought the mall experience online and it’s really about one simple function, a right left arrow at the top of the page. This feature will most likely take the form of a swipe in a tablet or smartphone implementation of the experience but it’s like you’re walking through the mall.

For instance we started with the category “Action Sports”, first I got QuickSilver then with a swipe (well actually hitting the right left arrow) I was at Vans, Element, Volcom then so on and so forth. Now really this sounds really simple, and it is, but there’s no experience like it just yet.

If you go to any of the major mall companies like Simon Malls, you go to a local mall site and then you’re looking at a list of stores and phone numbers. Other online shopping sites with multiple branded retailers make you sift through back buttons,menus, categories and keywords. The Wallshops experience is simplistic, beautiful and makes you feel like you’re in a virtual mall.

We got a chance to talk with Patrick Millegan, one of the co-founders of Wallshops and actually the only one of the founders not in the Kersey family, the other founders are all brothers. Check out our interview below.