Woman Owned Startup Archives - Page 4 of 5

Interview With California Startup: Bib4Brides

Okay so in a previous life I owned a rather large dj business, you know the type that does weddings, school dances, that kind of thing. We were the biggest in the state of North Carolina and South Carolina as well. I’ve actually been involved in over 1000 weddings, that’s a lot.

When helping brides plan the dj part of their wedding, we had a lot of influence over the schedule and flow. One of the big things that brides and grooms wanted to know was when should they do their special dances, like Father/Daughter, Mother/Son, Bridal Party Dance etc. The question was easy, the answer was some times chuckled at, laughed at and some even found it offensive. We would ask every bride and groom that asked us that question, well “are any of you messy eaters”. Why, because a stain on a tux or wedding dress could ruin the wedding photos the couple is paying thousands of dollars for, and that are precious memories.

Enter in California startups Bib4Brides. Now we know this isn’t a tech startup but as we’ve shown here many times we do tangible startups too and this one was one that couldn’t be passed up.

Bib4Brides founder Sandi Romena has developed a product, essentially a bib for the bride and the groom, that in the long run can save embarrassment, ridicule and a lot of money. Sure the bride keeps her dress forever but Italian sauce isn’t the easiest stain to remove from the tuxedo before you take them back Monday morning.

The Bib4Brides was created after Romena had a little incident at her daughter’s wedding which she describes in the interview below:

Interview With Jessica Meyer Founder Of Austin Startup: Locate Special Diet, Bet You Can’t Guess What They Do!

Over the last few years smartphones have helped me control my type II diabetes. Even when I was a devoted Android user I was able to find great blood glucose management apps that allowed me to track my diet, blood sugar and other important information and share it with my family and diabetes “sponsor”. The next thing I was in search for was a restaurant finding app. You see I’m on the road a lot.

There have been a few out there but mostly they provide nutritional guides. I can quickly go to a handful of restaurant chain apps and look up carbohydrates and even sugars in some of their dishes. But now, thanks to Jessica Meyer, the founder of Locate Special Diet, I can find restaurants and businesses that cater to diabetics. The best part though is that Locate Special Diet isn’t about just diabetics Meyer has covered just about every special diet there is from vegetarian and vegan to people looking for organic, or gluten free.

The idea for Locate Special Diet arose when Meyer was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in 2007. She wanted a way to find places that would cater to her need for a special diet in Austin Texas, and also where she traveled.

We got a chance to talk to Meyer, a female serial entrepreneur, about Locate Special Diet in the interview below.

Seattle Startup: MoxTree The Social Network For Moms INTERVIEW

Whether you’re a brand new mom or a veteran mom, you can always use the camaraderie and advice of other likeminded mothers. If you’ve just had your first child and you have a problem or a question it’s great to have experienced moms to help you out. It’s also great to have new moms to buddy up with and go through the goods and the bads of raising children together.

These are the basic principles around connecting moms to each other, and Mox Tree a social network for moms.

The Seattle startup was founded by 33 year old Victoria Oldridge who is the mom to two children under two and a a half. She was attending different mom groups for play dates and book clubs and found that for some reason or another most of these groups don’t stay together. Obviously the internet and a social network just for moms would be a great place to start.

MoxTree is still prelaunch and they have a sign up bar at the top of the page but Oldridge is very optimistic about meeting the general need to connect for moms.

Sure you can meet moms in the neighborhood or at the park,but we’ve all seen at least one episode of Desperate Housewives. Of course school can be a great place to meet other moms, and it can also turn into a competitive war zone.

Using MoxTree mothers can learn more and more about each other while connecting and forming friendships without these other issues in the way.

We got a chance to talk with Oldridge about MoxTree in this interview:

Atlanta Startup Creates App To Make People Hate Work Less INTERVIEW

WorkityWork,Atlanta startup,startup,startups,woman owned startup,black owned startup,workplace moral,Ashli Norton

A new startup in Atlanta called WorkityWork has set out on an ambitious goal of making people hate work less. While many actually like their jobs, there are equally as many who don’t like their jobs. This is what WorkityWork is hoping to do.

While we’ve reported on a couple of startups that allow people to give feedback about their workplace and job conditions both by name and anonymously, WorkityWork is about your co-workers. Work Place moral has become a hot space for new startups. We really like the ones that are taking advantage of front facing social media like Kebuki and this one. Although it has equally as silly a name as Kebuki, the idea behind using social media to recognize co-workers can be uplifting.

In fact, while Kebuki is a management tool, one of the key elements is a pat on the back from the manager. WorkityWork’s key element is a pat on the back from co-workers.

When you got that promotion, or came in under budget, your co-workers can send you Kudos. If the entire team hit a sales goal, you or your manager can recognize the entire team. You can even set your mood on WorkityWork using what they call Vibes.

Check out how WorkityWork works, in this video below.

We got a chance to talk with Ashli Norton co-founder of WorkityWork in this interview below the break. And yeah, after watching the video WorkityWork is more of a fun name than a silly one.

Startup America Spotlight: Woman Owned, Mytab.co INTERVIEW

Last week Cameron and I attended a TechCocktail event that was keynoted by Startup America CEO Scott Case. We challenged ourselves to get more involved so we decided to start featuring Startup America startups as part of our interview/feature series. If you’re a Startup America member at any of their now 22 partnerships across the country email us at startup@nibletz.com and we’ll see if we can get you into our coverage schedule. (Hint it’s one of the only ways we’ll cover a Valley startup)

For our first Startup America member spotlight we talk with Heddi Cundle the founder of woman owned startup mytab.co. Mytab.co is a unique travel gift card.

The card serves two purposes, it allows you to crowdsource funds for your trip. Take a honeymoon for instance, your friends and family can add to your mytab.co account and you’ll have money for your travels.

The second purpose of the card is discounts and rewards from travel partners. Cundle is working with travel partners all over the world to offer mytab.co members exclusive discounts and deals on travel related costs.

Check out our interview with Cundle after the break

Toledo Startup: Buyvite Launches Group Payment Platform INTERVIEW

Do you have a big family? Have you ever pulled money together from your entire family to buy grandma and grandpa a cruise, a vacation or other gift? Well pulling all the money together, checking off the payments and then writing one big check or paying by credit card can be a huge hassle. Sure these days you can have most of your family Paypal you but there’s still those few that don’t have a Paypal account. This is just one of the scenarios that Toledo OH based startup Buyvite is looking to solve.

Another easy scenario is times when maybe you and a bunch of friends have wanted to pull together money to buy tickets to a concert or a basketball game. One person typically shells out all the money and waits to get paid back. No more of that thanks to Buyvite.

Buyvite members will have the ability to create a Buyvite by inviting friends and family to a group purchase. Once the requested amount is achieved, the group purchase organizer has the ability to trigger a Buyvite Code, that functions like a gift card code, that is worth the requested amount and can be used to make the purchase on any site that integrates the Buyvite API. Group purchase organizers also have the flexibility of sending the collected funds directly to any U.S. bank account for free.

We got a chance to talk to Brandi Wimberly the woman entrepreneur behind Buyvite

Interview after the break
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UPDATED: Oregon Startup: Wild Squirrel Nut Butter Wins Investment On Shark Tank

(photo Sally Ho/The Oregonian)

We are diligently working on a piece now highlighting a string of investments that the Sharks have pulled out of since the show has aired.

In the case of Wild Squirrel Nut Butter, Shark Barbara Corcoran pulled out of the $50,000 investment for 40% that she had negotiated with the girls on the show.

Keely and Erica penned this tumblr entry after the embargo lifted on Friday highlighting the fact that Corcoran had pulled out of the investment, although they gained a lot of exposure and insight from Ms. Corcoran.

We are going to elaborate in a much larger piece about Shark Tank, which is still my favorite show of all time, however we want to add here that it’s not the fault of the Shark themselves. We hold accountable the producers who know well in advance that a shark has pulled out of the deal before airing. The producers of Shark Tank, Mark Burnett and ABC are doing the viewers, the startups and the sharks an injustice by not providing an update prior to airing that the investment didn’t actually work out.

There is plenty of time between the taping of the episode and the airing of the episode to provide the back story. The sharks are using their own money and they have to do their due diligence. Shark Tank provides a disclaimer in the beginning of every episode announcing it’s the sharks own money and that there is no pitch to the audience. They should also provide the same service at the end of each episode with an update as to what happens.

Below is the original story that we published this morning before being pointed to Keeley and Erica’s blog.

Two college girls from Oregon were featured on this week’s Shark Tank. They were cute, preppy, peppy and a little bit nervous, as anyone would be in front of the Shark’s on Shark Tank.

They came into the episode with their story about drive but didn’t have the numbers to attract an investment from Mr. Wonderful Kevin O’Leary, Mark Cuban, Daymond John or Robert Herjavec however they did catch the eye of real estate mogul turned Shark Tank investor, Barbara Corcoran.

Corcoran had made a gamble on a duo of political workers turned Barbecue company founders last season with their Pork Barrel Barbecue sauce. With the help of Corcoran the duo behind Pork Barrel was able to drastically improve their sales and distribution and they even opened up a restaurant.

The episode featuring Keeley Tillotson and Erika Welsh was taped last September, but as with all reality shows they are under a strict embargo from speaking a word about Shark Tank until after their episode aired. Prior to Friday nights showing, Shark Tank warned the girls to back up their website and expect lots of orders.

More after the break
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New Mexico Startup: Cute Cribs Wins StartupNation’s Mommy Competition

Startupnation.com in conjunction with web.com and Sam’s club have announced the top 200 Leading Moms in Business. These mommy owned businesses are successful, with great product, execution and innovation. The contest saw over 350,000 votes, which showed the great interest in these powerful ladies that can manage a household, raising children and owning a thriving business.

“There’s been a sea change among moms as they’ve come to realize that adding entrepreneurship to their lives brings exhilaration and immense gratification, not to mention supplemental—sometimes primary—income to their families in these dicey economic times,” says Rich Sloan, chief startupologist and co-founder of StartupNation.

Donna Fisher, the founder of Cute Cribs, came out victorious among the other 200 mom owned businesses which were all still winners. Cute Cribs is based in Albuquerque New Mexico and was born in 2006 out of Fishers need to find the perfect crib for an adorable little girl.

All of the Cute Cribs are custom painted and can be designed to match any room decor. Fisher will even add the baby’s name and birth information to the crib. Fisher says all a customer needs to do is submit a picture and they’ll take care of the rest. Fisher and her company can even match other nursery fixtures like changing tables, chests of drawers and other must haves for your new baby.

The designs themselves can come from designs Fisher has done before or custom designed for the new baby. Some of her popular designs include a jet theme, ladybug, frog, trains and more.

Fisher’s cribs and other baby furniture exceed federal safety regulations.

Fisher is a military wife an admitted that changing jobs every three years as her husband moved about was a tough job in itself. Now, when her husband gets re-assigned she can move Cute Cribs to the new location.

Linkage:

Check out Cute Cribs at cutecribs.com

Check out the Startupnation Leading Moms In Business competition here

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NY Startup: StoryTBD Revives The Choose Your Own Adventure Model (Interview)

This is the story of an awesome New York startup for many reasons. First off, it’s a woman founded startup, we love covering women founded startups in addition to startups everywhere else. Secondly, it brings back a favorite past time of mine, and many other technogeeks around the same age in Choose Your Own Adventure.

I remember many a day sitting at a Crown Book Store (way before the big boxes) and deciding which of hundreds of Choose Your Own Adventure titles I would buy with my lawn cutting money and my allowance. The series of books really sparked your imagination and it was almost like buying many different books in one by the way the stories were laid out and the alternative endings you could navigate through.

Now, Katherine Myers, who had a career in the entertainment industry, with stops at DreamWorks, CBS, AMC and New Line Cinema, has turned entrepreneur and launched StoryTBD, a digital, mobile form of Choose Your Own Adventure.

We got a chance to chat with her a bit interview after the break;

Denver Startup: DailyCloset To Open Monday

A new woman owned, Denver startup in the daily deals space is slated to open tomorrow. The #startup called DailyCloset, is going to offer daily deals on a variety of women’s clothes and accessories.

DailyCloset realizes that the daily deals space is getting crowded. They plan on differentiating themselves by making their #dailydeals more socially appealing to their users. Users will be encouraged to comment and share the deal of the day via their Facebook account.

“In addition to providing a product for purchase, we utilize the featured item as a centerpiece that engages visitors and stimulates conversation,” said Charles Cunningham, Chief Marketing Officer with Dailycloset.com. “We want to see users talking about the product and respectfully share their opinions, whether good or bad.”

DailyCloset is going to kick off their site tomorrow morning at 9am EST at dailycloset.com their first deal will actually be free while supplies last. DailyCloset has teamed up with AJ Morgan to give away hundreds of free sunglasses. Each user will be able to get one pair of free glasses and all they have to do is pay DailyCloset’s flat rate shipping fee. After they run out of the initial free pairs they will have more available for $4.00. The deal lasts for 24 hours like all the deals on DailyCloset.

DailyCloset will also have a weekly drawing for a free handbag tied in with liking the site on Facebook. Every day at 5pm EST DailyCloset will post a new daily deal. The deal will end at 4:59pm the next day.

The free deal starts at 9am Monday.

Linkage:

Check out DailyCloset.com here at their website

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Chicago Startup: PortaPocket Has A Safe Place For Your Stuff INTERVIEW

We recently brought you the story of the innovative JoeyBra. The JoeyBra is obviously for women and it incorporates pockets in the sides of the bras to hold anything from your credit cards and cash to your cell phone. The JoeyBra was recently featured in a Seattle area tech event and has now been featured all over the internet.

It’s actually that story that led us to meeting Kendra Kroll. Kroll is also a woman entrepreneur and her innovative product called PortaPockets add a pocket for you to carry your stuff even if you don’t have pockets. They’re perfect for running, beach days, or just as an extra place to keep your cell phone, cash, and other personal items.

The biggest difference between the PortaPocket and the JoeyBra is the fact that men can use it too. Kroll launched her company, Undercover Solutions in 2007 and has recently added a new bling line. She’s still pretty much self funded. A few years later, and with this recent boom in smartphones, it’s time for PortaPocket to shine, because it is a great idea.

We got a chance to interview Kroll, so let’s see what she says about Under Cover solutions and her invention, the PortaPocket.

What is portapocket?

PortaPocket is a patented strap-onto-the-body carrying case system that makes life easier and brings peace of mind…it’s THE solution for pocket-challenged outfits everywhere.

Wrap the lightweight neoprene PortaPocket band around your thigh, calf, ankle, arm or waist and wear under or over the clothing. It’s detachable, interchangeable and easy to use. So comfy you almost forget it’s there. Pockets attach onto the band and swap out to carry the things you need on any given day. Perfect for small valuables and essentials like ID, cash, cards, keys, cell phones, lipstick, tampons, cameras, passports, insulin pumps, inhalers, epipens, more. Use ’em solo or even WITH that stylish bag or purse to keep more important items closer. Never risk theft, loss and inconvenience that comes with keeping things apart from your person. Now you can lose the worry… not your stuff! Ideal for working out, going out, travel and every day.

More after the break
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Texas Startup: Stripper Turned Entrepreneur Creates “Naked Maid Service”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Linkage:

Fantasy Maids website

Source: 14news.com

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

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

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

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

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

Interview after the break
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Chicago Startup: Woman Owned SpaSircle Connects You With Medical Spa Treatments

A new woman owned startup in Chicago is taking on the task of educating women about medical spa treatments and then connecting them to carefully curated providers with discounts. SpaSircle offers women discounts on laser hair removal, Botox, dermal filters, chemical peels and more.

While some may be skeptical of finding information on a discount driven site online, Jessica Wiser the founder of SpaSircle has taken every precaution to make sure that SpaSircle isn’t just offering discounts and information, but that it’s a safe marketplace as well. As Wiser explains later in our interview, her and her physician advisory board make sure that SpaSircle keeps out the “riff raff”.

We caught up with Jessica for a quick startup interview.

Briefly describe SpaSircle

SpaSircle is a website designed to educate women on medical spa treatments, such as Botox, laser hair removal, dermal fillers, and chemical peels, while also providing great discounts on these procedures! Physicians want to be listed on SpaSircle, because it is an exclusive group of physicians that can only be invited to join. We have a board of physicians who have screened all medical spas and physicians in the Chicago area who do these procedures, to make sure that the provider we send our members to is well trained, and will give their patients the very best results. We are the only website with discounted procedures and Chicago’s premiere physicians that people can trust, so we feel we’re poised to take this business from GroupOn and other daily deal sites.

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

I am the founder of SpaSircle, but do have some employees that have been crucial to the success of the company. Amy Phillips, in particular, has been head of sales and just like a partner to me.

More after the break
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