KyleStartups In The Fast Lane: Brandery Startup CoEd Supply A Subscription Box For College Students
Subscription boxes are nothing new. There are subscription boxes for shoes, women’s clothes, men’s clothes, gadgets, toys, and even dogs. Now two co-founders originally from Philadelphia find themselves in Cincinnati going through The Brandery with their startup Co-Ed Supply.
Marissa Hu and Andy Forston’s startup takes the subscription box model and solve a problem for parents and loved ones of college students, the care package. While some may think by subscription-izing the care package you’re taking the “care” out of it, we all know that college students are hard to shop for and sometimes it’s just not that cool to get hearts, candies, and box scores sent from mom and dad every week.
Of course the Co-Ed Supply box is also perfect for working and busy parents, and with parents staying on the job, working the same long hours later and later in life, Co-Ed Supply makes sense.
While Co-Ed supply will have a revenue stream with their subscription customers, their other customers–their bigger customers–are manufacturers and vendors of products that want to make it into the dorm rooms of college students. By partnering with Co-Ed Supply, these brands get exposure and engagement at a whole new level. One of the best parts for the brand is that it’s of course, opt-in.
Coed Supply is currently in beta and getting ready to launch soon. You can get signed up on their website now. Check out our full interview with Forston below.
What is the name of your startup?
Co-Ed Supply (http://www.coedsupply.com)
Where is your startup originally from?
Philadelphia, PA
Tell us about your current team?
Marissa Hu, CEO – has spent the last four years in business development and sales. Most recently, she was one of the early members of the business team driving partnership development for the Shanghai Disney Resort. She’s also a recovering investment banker from Goldman Sachs, a UC Berkeley alum who’s now halfway through her MBA at Wharton, and on the investment team at First Round Capital’s Dorm Room Fund.
Andy Fortson, CMO – has been a digital and social media marketer for consumer, entertainment, and technology companies for the past seven years. Most recently he led marketing at mobile couponing app SnipSnap, and previous clients have included Gilt Groupe, Red Bull, Paramount, Fox, Microsoft, and Sony.
What does your startup do?
Co-Ed Supply delivers a curated box of college essentials to students every month starting at $20. The contents of each box is a surprise but all contain healthy snacks, personal care items, and entertainment. For students and their parents, basically we’re offering a cheaper, healthier, and more entertaining alternative to traditional care package options.
On the flip side, we work with brands who are trying to market to college students. Right now they hand out samples on campus, and when that sample walks away they don’t know who the student was, if they enjoyed it, purchased more, or shared with their friends. With Co-Ed Supply these brands can measure these types of results because we deliver data back to them on how well their campaign did.
What are your goals for the accelerator program?
Our goal was literally to accelerate our progress headed into the new school year and to establish relationships with large consumer brands. The Brandery has been super helpful for us in reaching our goals so far.
What’s one thing you’ve learned in the accelerator?
It’s taken some time but we feel like we’ve really gotten to understand how to work with mentors. The most helpful part is how to ask the right questions so that we can identify issues we weren’t aware about and how to get answers to questions we didn’t even know we had in the first place.
What’s the hardest piece of advice you’ve had to stomach so far?
We haven’t gotten any hard-to-stomach advice necessarily, but we’ve received a lot contradictory advice. The hardest part is identifying the right path or to not waste too much time going down the wrong path.
What is your goal for the day after demo day?
Just to continue on building more relationships with brands, expanding our reach into more college campuses, and growing our subscriber base.
Why did you choose this accelerator?
We chose The Brandery because of its focus on building a strong brand and it’s relationships with a lot of consumer goods companies. These have been super valuable to building our business.
If you relocated for the accelerator are you staying in your new city?
What our presence in Cincinnati is after The Brandery is still to be decided. There are definitely a number of really good reasons to continue some sort of physical presence here.
What’s one thing you learned about an accelerator that you didn’t know when you applied?
We didn’t really expect all the companies to be as supportive of each other as everyone’s been. All the teams have very diverse backgrounds and have been super helpful for everybody with connections, technical help, and marketing knowledge.
Where can people find out more?
node.js Developers Can Count On Cincinnati Startup, Modulus [VIDEO]
We have an incredible knack for running into Charlie Key ,the co-founder of Cincinnati startup Modulus, everywhere. We spent some time with the Modulus crew in Austin at SXSW, and two weeks ago our CEO Nick Tippmann ran into Key at the Innovation Showcase at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Modulus is a platform for node.js developers. They host node.js applications in the cloud in such a way that it makes it incredibly easy for developers to scale. Key tells Nibletz, “When you want to go from 1,000 users to 100,000 user,s we can do that.” They can actually go far beyond 100,000 users.
The cloud stuff is the easy part, though. Modulus also offers a robust layer of statistics and analytics for all of the node.js developers on their platform. They can give their developer users a snapshot of exactly how many people are accessing their app, what features they are calling, and a whole lot more.
Modulus accelerated last year at The Brandery in Cincinnati and just recently moved into their own office.
Key told Soapbox Cincinnati that Modulus was actually a hodge podge of other projects the team was working on: “The business started slowly out of other projects. The Brandery application process really forced us to consolidate our ideas into a single vision; Modulus officially kicked off when we were accepted into the program.”
Now a year later the company is doing very well. Check out Nick’s interview with Charlie Key in the video below:
IndustryHuddle Gets Funding, Reaches 500 Users, & Throws A Party
Monica Selby
One of my favorite things about covering startups “everywhere else” is that they’re really good at solving un-sexy problems. At the Southland Summit last month, Sarah Lacy said, “The Valley has done what the Valley is good at.” Which leaves a large field for innovation from everywhere else.
IndustryHuddle is doing just that. In June they announced a small funding round that would allow them to iterate their social trade network, adding features and improving the platform. Then, last week, they made another announcement via press release.
Cincinnati-based social trade network IndustryHuddle.com has reached a new milestone over a month before its first major overhaul. Century Fasteners & Machines Co., of Niles, IL, registered on July 12th, 2013 as the 500th company on the social trade network. As a result, they will receive a $500 advertising credit for use on the site or towards sponsorship of an industry huddle of their choosing.
The free network allows businesses to connect with suppliers and consumers within their industry. They currently offer 40 different industries, including bearings and power transmission, HVAC, carpet/tile/flooring, and janitorial supplies. Obviously, these aren’t typical Valley focal points.
Once a company signs up for the network, they can list themselves under any industry huddle they participate in. Then, they have access to sales leads, an online sales platform, and exclusive promotions offered within the huddles. IndustryHuddle also works with partners like Chevron/Texaco, Sprint, Staples, and Office Depot to offer member-only discounts.
The addition of the 500th member is a huge milestone for the company, especially since they still haven’t unveiled the latest improvements.
One thing IndustryHuddle has done right is those partnerships with big companies that offer discounts to members. Because small businesses have to watch every penny, this alone provided value, even before the network began to grow. Now, with each industry filling out, members have easy access to big and small players in their business, making it easy to both buy and sell products and services.
In the press release, Zachary Haines, President and CEO of IndustryHuddle said: With large companies like 3M on board as well as smaller operations like Century Fasteners, we’re proving that our services are accessible to all.
The company took a quick break to celebrate their 500th member with a pizza party. Then, they got back to work on the next iteration of their growing platform. IndustryHuddle 2.0 will be launched in late August and will feature individual profiles, new communication choices, and an overall better user experience.
Go congratulate IndustryHuddle on Twitter and check out IndustryHuddle.com.
Building A Social Site? You Can Trust Your Users Are Full Of It
Guest
Your startup began because you wanted to create the Airbnb for X or the Match.com for Y. You have visions of thousands, if not millions, of users flooding your site, all of them acting with the best intentions as they rent, share, buy, date, and network.
Well, they’re liars and full of bullshit.
Not all of them, of course. But the majority of them aren’t totally honest. There’s the online dating girl who posted a picture on her profile from fifteen years ago, the guy who lied about his income and interests, and the opportunistic teen who is selling goods on Craigslist that he just happened to have “borrowed” from a neighbors open garage. Not only are people lying about small facts, but whole identities are fictional as 83 million Facebook users and 20 million Twitter accounts are fake; the odds are good that you’ve had an interaction with a fraudulent individual or social media account in the last month alone.
The scary thing is, opportunities for such fraudsters will continue to grow, a scary proposition for your startup, whether it be a P2P, networking, dating, or any other site that connects people. When you look at it, our new fangled digital economy is built upon increasing amounts of strangers entering into trust-based transactions, and your new startup sits on top of these transactions, which you should be praying go without incident.
If you’re in the startup ecosystem, you’ve probably spent countless hours worrying about how you and your website best ensure that everything is on the up-and-up with the least amount of effort. There are definitely a variety of ways that startups have tried to keep the bullshitters off their site, each which have their own pros and cons. Some of the popular ones include:
- Leverage users social media connections – These days sites are popping up overnight, allowing users to login using their Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts. On the face, this is great, as it saves time to get in the door and creates a minimal barrier to entry for each new user, which is one of the goals of any founder. Websites see this as a way to better know their users because at the very least it anchors them to an account that has interactions with others. If you see that Jane has her Facebook account connected to her Airbnb account, you can look for common connections, possible see more about Jane’s education, and make assumptions that Jane seems like a nice gal. You as a platform owner and as someone checking out Jane might feel great . . . that is until you remember the large amount of fake Facebook accounts and realize how low the barrier to entry for most social networks is. Now, one starts to wonder if Jane is really Jane and if she’s not, who did you just let stay in your Manhattan loft. Pro: Utilizes technology that is commonly used. Con: Fake accounts and fraudsters can easily make it onto your site.
- Disclaim It – True, it can be a burden for sites, especially startups, to even think about fraudsters on their site, so many, including a lot of dating sites, will just disclaim it. They’ll say in big, bold type that they don’t conduct background checks or verify their users at all. While this is definitely easy for the site, as they can collect subscription payments as usual, it leaves the consumer, you know the one without the leverage, being stuck chatting with potential fraudsters. Pro: It is cut and dry for the website owner. Con: Users interact at their own risks.
- Vet Them – Some startups will look to tackle this problem head on, spending extra time and money on creating their own vetting system. They may have users send in passport/license photos or run background checks on their users to confirm identity. These steps really begin to show that a site cares about their users, but some consumers have begun to push back as to fears that this is a bit big-brotherish. Do you want a car sharing site having your passport on file for the one time you’re going to use them? Pro: Provides verification for users, so they know who they’re dealing with. Con: The fear of too much personal information locked up with one site.
While these are just a few of the methods used to verify users and keep out the fraudsters, the bottom line is that you must take the proper steps to deliver a great experience to your users and make them comfortable with your service and others on the site. You must not overlook the elements that go into your offering, as many issues likely sprout from such decisions that affect your staffing, your liability, your site’s friction, and how much time and effort is necessary to pull it off.
Michael Bergman is the CEO and Co-Founder of REPP, a platform for identity management and self-curated background checks. His goal is to provide everyone an easy way to take control of their information and every platform a simple solution to their verification and fraud issues.
Ernst & Young Partners With Cincinnati’s Cintrifuse
Cintrifuse is a huge regional initiative in Cincinnati, Ohio, designed to support high potential startups in the region. It’s backed by the Cincinnati Business Committee, with it’s initial venture capital investors including Proctor & Gamble, Cincinnati’s Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Duke Energy, University of Cincinnati, and Western Southern Financial Group.
In addition to a venture capital fund, Cintrifuse links entrepreneurs and startups with business partners, research institutions, mentors, and investors. They have partnerships with every startup-facing organization in Cincinnati including CincyTech and The Brandery, organizations we’ve written about here quite a bit.
On Friday the Cintrifuse and professional services giant Ernst & Young announced a partnership that will include capital, professional services, and annual operating support. The Cincinnati Business Courier reports that the parthership is slated to run for five years.
“Cintrifuse is just kind of a startup itself – it’s really just been starting its activities this last year,” Julia Poston, Managing Partner for Ernst & Young in Cincinnati told the Business Courier. “Tax considerations, organizational considerations, human capital, that’s what we are offering as part of our contribution to Cintrifuse.”
Ernst & Young’s Erica Patterson is on loan to Cintrifuse. She previously worked in Ernst & Young’s growth market in Chicago.
Find out more about Cintrifuse here.
Drive Capital’s Mark Kvamme: Brandery Is One Of The Best Accelerators Outside SV
Mark Kvamme, Co-founder and Partner at Drive Capital and a former partner at Sequoia, is high on startups and entrepreneurs outside of Silicon Valley. Kvamme, a life long Valley guy, moved out to Columbus, Ohio, to start Drive Capital and help spur innovation “everywhere else”.
Appearing on a panel Wednesday afternoon at the Southland conference in Nashville, Tennessee, Kvamme defended the hustle outside of Silicon Valley.
“I know people here in Nashville, I know people in the midwest that I think actually work harder than Silicon Valley people. Because Silicon Valley people are all into the appearance of what I’m doing versus actually getting down and “gettin’ ‘er done,” Kvamme said in response to a question from panel moderator and Solidus Partner Vic Gatto.
Gatto had eluded to the fact that he feels that some entrepreneurs in the Southeast don’t hustle the way people in the Valley do because there is no competition.
Through Solidus, Gatto funds multiple accelerators in Tennessee including Nashville’s Jumpstart Foundry and Memphis’ Seed Hatchery. Earlier in the discussion Gatto had brought up accelerators so Kvamme took the opportunity to talk about one accelerator in particular: the Brandery.
Most Nibletz readers know that our co-founder Nick Tippmann has been through the Brandery with two different startups, and we work out of the Brandery facility in Over The Rhine when we’re in Cincinnati.
During the panel Kvamme spoke very highly of the Brandery calling it “one of the best accelerators outside Silicon Valley,” in effect putting The Brandery in league with Techstars and MassChallenge.
Kvamme said he just funded a company out of The Brandery, as did Khosla and Tony Hsieh. He goes on to say that the Brandery is successful because of the ecosystem that surrounds it, and that the ecosystem could be replicated in Nashville and pretty much everywhere. Check out the video clip below:
We’ve been tracking The Brandery, and their companies, heavily over the last two years. Check out more of our Brandery coverage here.
Here’s more from Southland.
Cincy Startup Pingage Changes Name To Ahalogy
2011 Brandery graduate Pingage has picked up a lot of steam. Since their graduation, from Cincinnati’s prestigious branding-focused accelerator, the Cincinnati Business Journal reports that the startup that helps people get the most out of Pinterest has scored Proctor & Gamble as a client and secured an $850,000 seed round led by CincyTech.
So with all of this traction in such a short period of time, the cofounders decided to change their name from Pingage to Ahalogy. Ahalogy is a made up word that, according to the company, allows us to better communicate our unique positioning and vision. Ahalogy gets its name from that “Aha!” connection made by the company’s new Ahalogy Content Network.
Ahalogy has created a content network that gives leading content creators free use of the company’s Pinterest management tools. In exchange leading brands repin their content on their own Pinterest accounts. This two way content sharing network gets brands great content and content creators awesome tools and additional traffic.
Ahalogy cofounder Bob Gilbreath told the Cincinnati Business Journal: “Most users would agree that Pinterest itself is about the delight of discovery and inspiration. We, in turn, use data to uncover when, where, and why delight and discovery happen, then we help brands and content creators better deliver those ‘Aha!’ moments.”
“Branded content and pins are important, but authentic blogger content is often much more effective in driving engagement,” Gilbreath, said in a statement. “In addition to providing the much-needed content volume brands are seeking, the Ahalogy Content Network also provides a way for brands to engage with Pinterest users in a more genuine way, while delivering win-win benefits on both the brand and the content owner side.”
Are you a content creator? Check out Ahalogy here.
See how this Cincinnati startup went from Startup Weekend to the TechCrunch Battlefield.
J. Cole Partnered With Cincinnati Startup LISNR For Nationwide Mobile Listening Parties
First the Internet changed the music industry and the way artists do business and market themselves by creating a clear path between artists and fans. The use of the web and social media launched the careers of number one artists like Soulja Boy, Macklemore, and Ryan Lewis.
Now artists are gravitating towards mobile technology. This puts the artist in their fans’ pockets, available wherever they are.
That’s why Grammy nominated RocNation artist J.Cole has turned to mobile technology and Cincinnati startup LISNR with his unique idea for listening parties. For decades, artists have held listening parties at intimate locations just prior to an album launch. In the past they would do a mini tour and fly across the country to reach as many core fans as possible.
For the release of Cole’s new album Born Sinner, Sony Music, RocNation, and Beats by Dre utilized LISNR’s technology at private listening parties in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Fayetteville, NC (Cole’s hometown), Chicago, Boston, Houston, and Atlanta.
Through social media, fans were instructed to download the LISNR app, which hosted map coordinates informing fans where the parties took place. Once on site, fans listened to the entire Born Sinner album from start to finish through their headphones. Attendees accessed Born Sinner through LISNR, which activated and “sent” the music once a fan had been identified in range of LISNR’s content-unlocking signal. The entire experience was synchronized across all phones and cities at 8:00pm Thursday night, creating a unique, national listening party.
LISNR had previous success in the music space delivering exclusive content to fans through their branded mobile app. In March of this year, electronic dance trio Swedish House Mafia partnered with the company to deliver a fan-led laser light show during their final U.S. tour dates, specifically Masquerade Motel in Los Angeles, California.
LISNR was founded in March 2012 on the SXSW Startup Bus.
Now check out: Brandery startup alum FlightCar faces lawsuit
J.Cole Image: Radioplanet.tv
Brandery Startup Alum FlightCar Faces Lawsuit
(flight car founders: Kevin Petrovic, Shri Ganeshram, Rujul Zaparde photo: bostonglobe.com)
Last year, one of the most exciting startups in the 2012 class at The Brandery startup accelerator in Cincinnati, Ohio was FlightCar. The startup, made up of teenage MIT dropouts. had a revolutionary idea. With FlightCar, instead of paying to park your car at the airport, you could rent it out to somebody else, making money rather then spending it.
After honing their branding, image, and product at the Brandery last summer, the FlightCar team secured a huge insurance policy, follow on funding, and their place in Y-Combinator. In April, after Y-Combinator’s demo day, the trio raked in another $5.5 million dollars in venture capital.
FlighCar quickly began testing their model at Oakland Airport and soon after rolled out service to San Francisco International Airport.
That’s when the trouble began.
Insidebayarea.com reported on Wednesday that the startup is being sued by the city of San Francisco. San Francisco City Attorney, Dennis Herrera, is accusing FlightCar of dodging fees, undercutting competition, and not adhering to rules which include payments by car rental companies back to the airport.
The kicker, though, is the fact that FlightCar actually operates off a lot not located on airport property. FlightCar’s co-founder and Chief Operating Officer, Kevin Petrovic, who isn’t old enough to rent a car himself, told insidebayarea.com “I think they have a lot of pressure from rental car and airport parking companies,” he said. “We do take away some of their business.”
Herrera is counting on ordinances that say SFO is entitled to collect fees from rental car companies that primarily serve it’s travelers even if the rental operation is not located on SFO property.
Petrovic defends FlightCar by saying they aren’t an actual rental car company and hotels and restaurants surrounding the airport don’t pay fees to the airport.
“FlightCar has refused to comply with any of the rules,” Deputy City Attorney Jennifer Choi said. “We want the court to order them to comply with the law.” The city also points out that FlightCar doesn’t currently hold a commercial ground transport permit or an off-airport business license.
FlightCar joins a slew of “sharing economy” startups–including ride sharing startups like SideCar and room sharing startups like AirBnB–which have faced legal and public scrutiny over their business models.
FlightCar has been operating in Oakland and Boston without incident, so far. Outside of this lawsuit from the City Of San Francisco, people seem to like the idea of renting out their car for money rather than spending it. In addition to the rental fee, FlightCar cleans and washes each car before and after the rental and insures that you get to and from your car without hassle.
For more info on FlightCar, check them out at flightcar.com
See FlightCar’s pitch video from the Brandery’s 2012 Demo Day.
3DLT From Startup Weekend To TechCrunch Battlefield
Pablo Arellano Jr is serious about starutps and entrepreneurship. How serious? Well he just went through Arkansas’ Ark Challenge accelerator with one idea, pitched a different idea (3DLT) at Startup Weekend Cincinnati last summer, is a startup event organizer and the Startup Digest curator for Cincinnati, Arkansas and Northern Kentucky.
We met Arellano at Startup Weekend Cincinnati last summer. It was there that his idea for a “99 designs for 3D printing” was born. Naturally with 3D printing being such a hot space it was selected to build over Startup Weekend and they came in second.
Arellano kept pushing and while he was in the Ark Challenge program with his other starutp he met the rest of his 3DLT team. They realized quickly they were onto something extremely hot. When Ark Challenge closed out Arellano and his teammates returned to Cincinnati where they are housed at the new Cintrifuse incubator. One of their biggest mentors and advisors is Rob MacDonald, co-founder of Cincinnati’s “The Brandery” as well as the son of the sitting CEO at Proctor & Gamble.
In February the team from 3DLT won a spot onto the Battlefield Stage at an event in New York City. From there it went into hyper mode so that they could pull off a great pitch and get ready to serve the public. For their big kick off Arellano is giving away $10,000,000 worth of memberships on the site right now.
3DLT has evolved from a simple place to buy 3D templates to a marketplace for both templates, and eventually goods that a consumer can produce in their home.
In the feedback section, David Tisch was concerned that Arellano didn’t talk enough about the business, “Why did you just spend 6 minutes talking about 3d printing and not your business.”.
Other than that hiccup the team seemed to have good answers, but overall the truth of the matter is that 3D printing is on fire, just six months ago it was unheard of to have a 3D printer in the home. On the way to New York I saw an at home 3D Printer in the SkyMall magazine for under $1000 and Arellano told me there was a kit to build a 3D printer at home for under $200.
The team at 3DLT sees a time coming, sooner rather than later, when people will be able to create products they need or want in the home. Toys, shoes, sunglasses, cups, plates and other items will be cheaper or easier to produce in home rather than travelling down the road for WalMart.
President Barrack Obama said 3D printing was a gamechanger, and Arellano didn’t let that slide, a video clip of that speech was in his presentation.
If they keep their fingers crossed 3DLT could end up finishing in the top 3. They’re ready for the 3D world and no Zach Sims, there aren’t any other platforms out there like 3DLT, we checked.
Here’s Arellano pitching 3DLT at Startup Weekend last summer:
3DLT made it from a Friday pitch at Startup Weekend, to this, pitching on the TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield stage.
Here’s more awesome startup coverage from everywhere else, at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013.
Brandery Partners With Scripps To Bring Journalistic Startups Into The Fold
The Brandery, the Cincinnati based, top 15 startup accelerator, has announced a new partnership with the E.W. Scripps Company and the Scripps Howard foundation, one of the most historic names in U.S. media, to offer two journalistic startups entry into the highly coveted summer time accelerator program.
The Brandery is heavily focused on branding, hence it’s name. It’s situated in the branding capital of the world, Cincinnati Ohio, home to Proctor & Gamble, the biggest branded company in the world. Cincinnati is also home to household names like Federated/Macy’s, and Kroger.
The Brandery has been very successful in preparing startups for the next level. 2012 class member FlightCar just raised over $5 million dollars in venture funding. The Brandery took three scrappy teenage dropouts from MIT and helped groom their idea of peer 2 peer car renting at airports into a startup that made it into Y Combinator.
ChoreMonster closed down a round of venture funding earlier this year and Pingage, co-founded by Brandery graduate Michael Wohlschlaeger also just announced major funding.
The Brandery’s strong core focus area and their even stronger mentor network attracted Brooklyn serial entrepreneur and founder of Brooklyn based Dumbo Startup Lab, to work on his startup, Off Track Planet.
Now, through this unique partnership, the Brandery will offer the chance for journalistic focused startups to go through their intensive program, have access to their mentor network and pitch at their very well attended investor day in the fall.
“Scripps is making an investment in the future of journalism with a fresh approach to news gathering and new products for news consumption,” said Adam Symson, chief digital officer for Scripps and a Foundation trustee. “This partnership with The Brandery is a great way for the Foundation to engage the broader entrepreneurial community in creating media-related businesses.”
The Foundation’s financial support includes a $3,500 stipend for each of two founders of the company to cover their living expenses while they spend the summer in Southwest Ohio, developing their businesses and networking with consumer-oriented businesses. The funds will supplement the Brandery’s $20,000.
You can apply for the Brandery’s traditional program or their Scripps Howard fellowship now through May 1st at brandery.org
Check out these other Brandery stories at nibletz.com The Voice Of Startups Everywhere Else.
Brandery 2012 Alumn Flightcar Nabs $5.5 Million From Investors Including Ryan Seacrest
So back in July when we heard the original idea behind FlightCar I thought this group of teenage ivy league dropouts was absolutely crazy. Their Cincinnati startup Flightcar is a crazy idea. Their simplest pitch, “let someone else rent your car while you’re traveling” seemed a little far fetched. Combine that with the fact that there’s maybe 10 years driving experience between the three of them and even less business traveling experience, and I was totally disconnected.
Sometime during the Brandery’s demo day back in October my opinion changed. By the end of their pitch, and then a brief meeting with all three founders and I was completely sold.
With the “sharing economy” becoming more and more popular, why wouldn’t someone let another person borrow their car while they are away on a trip. People are doing it with their homes all the time now, by way of Vayala and Airbnb.
The concept is fairly simple. You’re flying out of town for a trip and you have to pay for parking for your car. Rather than paying for parking, Flightcar allows you to park your car in their lot and then while your gone it gets rented out to someone else who is coming into town for the same length or a shorter amount of time. Now, instead of spending money to park, you’re making money with your car that would otherwise be sitting in a parking lot.
To make the value proposition work Flightcar founders Rujul Zaparde, Kevin Petrovic and Shri Ganeshram had to insure a few things for their customers to be comfortable with the transaction.
Insurance: Of course the entire transaction, car, renters, drivers and passengers would need to be fully insured. Flightcar has done this by securing a $1 million dollar insurance policy.
Ease of transaction: The Flightcar team has managed to build in several factors to make the transaction as easy and painless as possible. The Flightcar website helps pre-determine the “borrowing”. Once at the airport (participating airports), you park your car at the Flightcar lot where a ride is provided to the gate. Flightcar will also wash and clean your car prior to renting it out and prior to you picking it up.
After the Brandery, Flightcar was accepted into the YCombinator accelerator program in Silicon Valley. Now they’ve raises $5.5 million dollars from investors. This first round of funding comes from General Catalyst, Softbank Capital, Ryan Seacrest’s Seacrest Global Group, founder of Airbnb Brian Chesky, with participation from a host of other investors including First Round Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, according to TechCrunch.
Check out their pitch video from Brandery’s 2012 demo day below:
Find out more about Flightcar here at flightcar.com
The Brandery is one of the country’s top 15 accelerators, check out all of our Brandery coverage here.
Cincinnati Startup Repp Pitches At Startup America Live At SXSW [sxsw]
Cincinnati startup Repp was one of the great startups we saw at the Brandery 2012 demo day back in October. Repp is a service that allows people to validate their repp or reputation.
Repp waited from October until now for their first big marketing push. We bumped into Michael Bergman, Repp’s co-founder in the lobby at the Hilton where he was wearing a hot pink Repp t-shirt and handing out breakfast tacos. Startup founders will do anything they can to get much needed exposure at SXSW.
They were also one of the startups invited to pitch at the Startup America Live pitch sessions, which included feedback from top members of the startup community.
Have you ever met a girl that you tried to date, but a year to make love she wanted you to wait… oh wait that’s a song lyric. Have you ever met a girl that you tried to date and after she stood you up you found out she “pre date stalked you”? Well that’s exactly what happen to REPP founder Michael Bergman, when he actually met his now wife. Luckily for Bergman he’s got a pretty popular name. In fact, [Chris Bergman], the founder of Chore Monster (which is a previous graduate of The Brandery) isn’t even related to Michael.
So sure we internet stalk everyone now. The first thing I do when I get a new business card or meet someone at a conference I find intriguing is go right to good ole Google. The problem with that in the dating world is that there is a lot of stuff out there that may be better suitable after a few dates.
Now take a situation at the complete other end of the spectrum. It’s time to sell your iPhone 4s on Craigslist. Now this is a hot item and you may want to know a little bit more about the man who just pulled up to a panel van and appears to be packing a pistol in his sweatshirt.
In both of these cases you want more information about someone. If you were the someone in question, with REPP at myrepp.com, you can control that flow of information.
REPP aggregates your social graph and can even integrate a background check into a profile that you can give people access to. You can also control how much information is given out in that profile.
You may want the ladies to know a little more information than the guy you’re buying the stolen Xbox from. Nonetheless both the Craigslist seller and the nice young lady would be more comfortable with more information about you.
The service is free at the moment but moving to a freemium model with added features. Check out Bergman’s pitch from the Startup America Live stage below: