Startups Archives - Page 4 of 144

Glympse Continues to Spread Real Time Location Tracking Gospel

location sharing

Today at the Mobile World Congress, Seattle startup Glympse announced a partnership with Samsung’s ChatON app. The two companies will integrate Glympse’s real-time, temporary location into the chat app that comes pre-installed on most Samsung phones. The app also crosses platforms, allowing chat from Android, Apple, Blackberry and feature phones.

The two companies feel that ChatON’s cross-platform approach and Glympse’s ability to share location with anyone at any time are a good fit together.

“There are great synergies between Samsung’s ChatON and Glympse, and we’re excited to give the app’s global user base access to real-time location sharing,” said Bryan Trussel, co-founder and CEO of Glympse. “We believe location technology should be ubiquitous and incredibly easy to use, and by putting it directly into an SMS conversation, we’re providing a rich and immediate way for people to share where they are.”

ChatON reportedly has 180 million users. It’s no WhatsApp, but 100+ million users in 200 countries isn’t anything to sneeze at, either.

The partnership allows Glympse to spread its real time, temporary location technology across still more platforms. The app is already integrated into several cars, navigation apps, and on the Samsung smart watch, Galaxy Gear.

The recent flurry of partnership announcements is a new trend for Glympse, and one the company has long hoped for. Founded in 2009, a mere 2 years after the debut of the iPhone, Glympse has always felt like the underdog.

“The conventional wisdom was, ‘How would I use that?'” Trussel told me. “It’s really nice to come into our own.”

The company has 19 employees now and has only raised $7.5 million. They aren’t profitable yet, but as they continue to license their technology to high profile partners, the future is looking bright.

“We always strive to provide our users with the best, most innovative technologies to enhance their mobile conversations and, we hope, to make their lives easier,” said Jay Park, vice president, Samsung Electronics. “Real-time location sharing was at the top of our list, and we are excited to partner with Glympse to offer their technology to ChatON users around the globe.”

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Hampton Creek Foods: We Are Scalable and Low Cost

Yesterday I wrote about the growing amount of venture capital that is flooding the food industry. $146 million in 2013, to be exact.

One company that is seeing a lot of that money is Hampton Creek Foods, the makers of Just Mayo. This week they announced a $23 million series B led by Khosla Ventures.

I usually question the true healthfulness of manufactured food, and even the term “plant-based” is often a cover for products that technically come from plants but hit the shelves with lots of other chemicals in them. I also questioned the scalability of the experiment and whether or not production costs were low enough.

Well, with Hampton Creek Foods, at least, I stand corrected.

Morgan Oliveira, Director of Communications at Hampton Creek, reached out and explained more about the company.

“We are scalable and low-cost,” she said over the phone. “That’s why VCs are willing to put their money behind us. We don’t consider ourselves niche or super vegan. We really think this could be big and make a real change.”

For those of you skeptics like me, Oliveira explained the process behind making the Just Mayo line. The company sources yellow peas, which when ground into a powder, makes a great substitute for eggs. Then they combine it with typical mayo ingredients like oil, water, apple cider vinegar, etc.

And, voila, plant-based mayonnaise.

Costs are kept low because animal products are typically expensive to raise, and the GMO corn and soy they eat is both unhealthy and expensive. Hampton Creek Foods is certified by the Non-GMO Project, which guarantees that none of their products contain genetically modified organisms.

“We’re not against chickens or eggs,” Oliveira told me. “We’re just against factory farming. It’s 2014. Why are we still sourcing our food the way we did during World War II?”

Why indeed.

I was definitely a skeptic when I wrote the post yesterday. After my discussion with Oliveira, I have to admit I was wrong in some of my assumptions about Hampton Creek. They’ll still have the same scaling and growth challenges as any startup, but at least they have sound, relatively inexpensive products to offer.

To find out more about Hampton Creek Foods, visit their website and check out Just Mayo at Whole Foods.

CommuteStream’s New Ad Network Uses Mass Transit to Serve Up Ads

Today in Chicago, commuters on the Chicago Transit Authority will open up their transit apps and find new ads for businesses along their transit route.

CommuteStream, the company behind the new ads, uses “predictive geo-targeting” to show content based on the rider’s routines and preferences. Does your bus pass by a local bar every day? Chances are good you haven’t noticed, but with CommuteStream’s technology, you’ll soon see ads and perhaps deals served up from local businesses along your route.

Annoying as it might seem, as targeted ad technology gets better, it can actually help consumers by showing them things they’re actually interested in when they’re actually interested in them.

But, that convenience is nothing compared to what the network could do for small businesses.

Small and local businesses often find themselves priced-out when it comes to mobile ads, stacking the odds in favor of larger competitors. Yet mobile ads are increasing rapidly. If local businesses can’t find a way to compete, they risk losing even more business.

“With smartphones taking over, understanding riders on an individual level, and in the context of the transit system, opens up major hyper-local advertising possibilities and new markets,” CommuteStream co-founder Samuel Pro said. “It puts the power of highly-targeted mobile advertising, traditionally reserved for large brands and agencies, into the hands of businesses that didn’t previously have any affordable or easy to use options.”

Within a month, CommuteStream hopes to offer 1M impressions a month for these hyper local ads.

The problem, however, is that the ads will be served on local transit apps. At launch CommuteStream is partnering with Chicago Transit Tracker Lite, which reaches about 1% of transit riders. The company estimates that 1/3 of transit riders use their mobile phones to plan commutes.

CommuteStream provides potential monetization for those apps, you have to wonder if their usage estimations are right. Locals are used to their stops and know their route.They don’t really need to check an app for figure out their stops.

Tourists, on the other hand, could be a potential boon for the ads, since they are usually unfamiliar with the landscape and don’t know where to go.

Pro told me via email that most of their users are local, and that’s their target market because locals will provide sustainable business for businesses. If CommuteStream can reach the market they’re looking for, it has the potential to be a huge win for everyone.

CommuteStream launches their pilot today in Chicago, with plans to expand to other major cities soon.

Handpressions Pulls a Beyonce, Debuts Next Hot Parents App

parents apps

I don’t ever do app reviews.

For one thing, I’m on Android, so all too often I can’t download the newest app in the first place. (This is changing rapidly, though.)

I also don’t review apps because that’s what the App Store reviews are for and because what matters to me may not matter to you.

I say all this to point out that the fact that I’m basically writing an app review shows how awesome this app is.

When Carla Valdes whispered to me about her upcoming app at Everywhere Else Cincinnati, it sounded pretty cool. The app would take a picture of your child’s hand and create a handprint from it. Then you could plug the handprint into a template and create artwork with it: prints, bags, t-shirts. Grandparents love that kind of stuff.

When Handpressions launched last week, though, I realized that I loved the app more than I thought I would.

I’m not really the crafty kind of mom (and any illusions of grandeur in that area ended when I became a founder), but the Handpressions app is actually perfect for me. I just plop my kids down, beg them to be still for 2 seconds, and snap a picture of their hand. Personally, at the moment, I skip all the artwork part, but I have a handprint–measured and stored–that perfectly records those little hands right now.

how to capture handprints

When I spoke with Carla on the phone, she was excited about the future of Handpressions, which she sees evolving into a memory collection platform. Gone will be the days of scouring through 95 pictures of the beach, hoping to get just the right one to plug into the scrapbook software. Right along with Handpressions’ hand and foot prints, you can record pictures, tag them with the date, and be done.

“It will be so much easier for parents to collect those memories,” she told me. And for those of you who are crazy enough to be starting up and raising kids (like me!), this ease of use will change your life.

So, does all this tie into Beyonce, you ask?

If you’ll remember, recently the pop star released an album overnight on iTunes, no marketing, no fanfare. Just boom, new Beyonce album. While plenty of startups operate in stealth for awhile, Carla’s closest colleagues were impressed with her ability to keep things quiet while she oversaw the app’s development.

“Carla mentioned that she was working on a project last spring. I had no inclination as to what it might be but knowing Carla, it was going to be good,” Washington DC consultant Ijeoma Nwatu told me. “Handpressions has been in the works for quite some time and it is now available to the public. Carla, similar to Beyonce, did not drum up initial press or hype her own project she just delivered, allowing her work and diligence to speak for itself. ”

And, like every visionary, when I talked to Carla after the release, she was already focused on the next step.

“We’re going to release more templates, login in with Facebook, sharing on social media so people can share their artwork…”

If you’re a parent, check out Handpressions and let Carla and the team know what you think.

Wedding Bells Lead to “Aha!” Startup Moment

When you’re a kid you have all sorts of dreams. Maybe you want to be an astronaut or an archeologist, a doctor or a mechanic, for example. Still, others have more dreams, some of which are generally considered sweeter, more romantic, or even lovely.

Enter Robert Caruso, a budding engineer turned entrepreneur who proposed to his longtime girlfriend a few months ago.

Though I’m not sure what exactly Rob’s goals were when he was a kid, marrying the woman of his dreams certainly became one. With marriage, though, comes the need for things like rings, cake, and probably, to some extent at least, fancy outfits.

With an approaching deadline to make each of those things a reality, he set out to make one thing: dollars. (Love will most certainly come next, of course.)

This was Rob’s problem. He needed to come up with some sort of solution.

His first aha moment came after a bit of an alarming realization, actually. He mentioned that it went something like this:

“We were starting to plan our wedding, and I realized that I was a graduate student. I don’t have any money. But I am an engineer. What if I made an app?”

So he began working. That was around Thanksgiving. And after a few weeks of letting it sit around he decided to start working on it again, when he had his second moment.

“Even though I’m an engineer, I’m not trained to program, you know? I’m not a programmer. But there’s a website called Google.”

The knowledge he gained from everyone’s favorite search engine helped him build his fifth official app in the Apple App Store: Swift Match, both a memory and puzzle game somewhat similar to one or two you might have seen floating around out there already but with a few twists.

Play either a free or paid version, each with three different modes, and match symbols as quickly as you can. The more you match and the less you miss, the higher your score. He launched a week ago, and there’s a chance he has enough money for a tuxedo shoe or something by now.

So far my high score is 88. If you can beat me, send me a tweet and I might write my next article about you.

Follow @SwiftMatch on Twitter and.

Tyler Sondag is a startup connoisseur with a hand in anything and everything you could imagine. Hailing from the ever-developing Northwest Mississippi, an alum of Saint Louis University and currently a transplant to St. Louis, Missouri, one of his main missions in life is to get and keep young people engaged in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Follow him on Twitter: @MrSondag.

Legitimo Brings Legal Documents to Everyone–Even Spanish-Speakers

A spoiled quinceanera led to a hackathon win led to the creation of Legitimo. The New York-based startup has created a mobile app for legal documents, similar to Shake.

Unlike Shake, though, Legitimo also provides simple legal agreements in Spanish, a necessity for the 69 million Spanish speakers in the US.

Check out our Q&A with Legitimo co-founder Nikhil Jhunjhnuwala below, and if you’re in need of simple (Spanish!) legal documents, you can download the app on Android and iPhone.

What is your startup called?

Legitimo

What’s the story behind your idea?

It began with a frantic phone call from Julia, a middle schooler I mentor in Los Angeles. Angrily, she explained how her family recently got ripped off during her quinceañera party. The venue they had rented was a complete mess and understaffed, the band left early, and everything was out of order. Basically, Julia’s special day was ruined and any hope for restitution was doubtful because Julia’s family did not sign any written agreements, making it difficult to prove what exactly was agreed upon.

Upon hearing this story, I envisioned an app that gave ordinary people free legal protection by helping them create simple, and legally binding, contracts on the go. Some months later, that vision was realized at “El Hackathon” sponsored by LATISM. Twenty-four grueling hours later, we walked away with the grand prize and a prototype of Legitimo that would quickly become our obsession.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

I’m a former USC Law student turned startup junkie. Keval Amin is my best friend and a graphic designer, and Legitimo is our third startup together. The other two are StartEngine incubated myRight (R.I.P) and ramen profitable LegalCrunch. We met both Sameer Kanda and Maria Gutierrez at the Hackathon event. Sameer is a developer with over 10 years of experience and is currently mining LiteCoin at the speed of broadband. Maria is a lawyer from Argentina who recently passed the New York State bar.

Fun fact: 3 out of the 4 founders dropped out of school. Can you guess who the honor student is?

Where are you based?

We are based in New York City (specifically SoHo).

What’s the startup scene like where you are based?

There’s always something going on in “Silicon Alley”! It’s amazing to see so many events taking place each week. After you go to some you start see similar faces and really feel a sense of community. At the same time, newcomers are welcomed without hesitation. We went to El Hackathon on a whim and never imagined that it would lead to a real product, let alone a win.

What problem do you solve?

Sometimes you need a contract, but hiring a lawyer is expensive and online templates aren’t personalized. Without a convenient solution, most people forgo this basic legal protection, which unfortunately increases the likelihood of scam or fraud. No written record means it’s hard to prove what terms were agreed upon and disputes often come down to a he-said, she-said battle, the sorts of which you see on Judge Judy.

Legitimo solves this problem by making it easy to create, sign, and send personalized agreements on mobile devices in seconds. Additionally, Legitimo translates contracts into other languages, allowing people that don’t speak the same language (or people that just don’t speak English for that matter) enter into legally binding agreements. Currently we support English and Spanish, but plan on expanding globally, ultimately becoming a Rosetta Stone for simple agreements.

Why now?

We’re initially targeting the Latino community because they are the fastest growing demographic in the US with the highest rates of smartphone usage. Capturing brand loyalty at this critical time will be important. Additionally, there are over 60 million Americans, and many more people abroad, that regularly engage in informal economies that are largely cash-based, making it difficult to take legal action should something go wrong. This is a huge problem because people end up losing money with no remedy. With a pain point this obvious and an increasing demand, it’s inevitable that something like Legitimo would make its way into the market.

What are some of the milestones your startup has already reached?

We just launched an Android and iPhone App!

What are your next milestones?

Our next milestone is to reach 100 real users, and then reach out to those users learn everything we can. Once we figure out a strong market fit, we plan on scaling. But right now we’re focused on listening.

Where can people find out more? Any social media links you want to share?

For updates, visit our website or follow us on Twitter.

Sqrl Raises $550K to End the Need for Follow-Up

Cincinnati-based Sqrl announced today that it has raised a $550K seed round, led by CincyTech and including Hyde Park Ventures and Vine Street Ventures.

Ooops. I hope we didn’t spoil the ending of our Founder’s Accelerator Tale series!

As many of you know, Sqrl is a Brandery alum, started by 3 accountants to solve a problem they all dealt with in their day jobs: follow-up.

In order to succeed in accounting–and most professional services, actually–you need a significant amount of information from clients. You know who really sucks at getting you information in a timely, organized manner? Clients. And, it’s even worse when you have multiple clients, with multiple bits of information, and you’re handling all of the data by hand.

“Performing the accounting work was fine,” Sqrl cofounder and CEO Ryan Watson said in a statement. “there are great tools to handle that piece of businesses these days, but we were losing half our day playing air traffic control with our clients. It’s the same problem we had when I worked at a big four firm. A team would send hundreds or thousands of requests via email, and we all kept track manually in one huge spreadsheet. It was a nightmare.”

They guys at Sqrl (pronounced “squirrel,” and they want you to think of a digital hunter-gatherer) created an internal, automated system that handled those daily requests at their online accounting firm. When other firms expressed interest in the system, they figured they had something and applied to the Brandery.

Sqrl is focusing for now on small, regional accounting firms, offering their initial system free while they work on premium products. Eventually, the platform can be adapted for financial advisers, lawyers, and digital agencies.

“Sqrl is addressing a fundamental problem we all encounter every day,” CincyTech principal Justin Thompson said. “The founders happen to be from the accounting field, which might have more of a problem than most professions. We believe the team has created an elegant solution to the problem and are well capitalized to test their solution in the marketplace.”

When Wine Meets Tech Good Things Happen

How do you migrate from a successful SaaS venture capitalist and longtime technology industry native, into the founder of a successful wine brand? With a unique approach, some creativity, and the right partnerships, Uproot wines has done just that. Mixing the art of growth hacking, and knowledge from the startup world, Jay and Greg are carving out their niche in the wine market.

Unlike software though, where you can adopt a lean business model, while continually improving your product, wine requires the right stuff from the start. There are no test iterations of your Reserve Cabernet.

One of the more unique qualities of the wine industry is the huge range of individuals it attracts.

So how did a venture capitalist and a former New York office worker come together to form this brand? Greg Scheinfeld is a native of New York who left his desk job to work a harvest in 2006 and never looked back. After honing his skills at places like Joseph Phelps, Vineyard 29, and Cakebread Cellars, he moved on to start Uproot with Jay Levy. The two make for great combination, with Greg the meticulous winemaker, and Jay bringing his technical startup knowledge.

“We went all in, and knew what we wanted to do” says Jay, explaining their approach.

To stand out in the sea of wine brands, you need a strong differentiator, and that has been one of Uproot’s strengths. The wine’s labels feature unique color schemes that offer a visual match to the flavors contained within. It’s a simple, and overall subtle thing to put a wine’s flavors into a color palette, but for consumers it makes sense.

Their production is small, at just under 500 cases, and their model relies on the support of a directly connected base of consumers. Eager wine enthusiasts got first dibs on their releases, which include a Sauvignon Blanc, Grenache Blanc, and a new Grenache.

Establishing your customer base directly first, and then following up with limited distribution to restaurants and wine shops may seem backward to many wineries that follow the traditional three-tier model. But in building your customers one by one, and being selective about where your wine goes, you maintain much more control over the direction and growth.

I asked Jay about funding for their venture. He’s a well connected venture capitalist, with a great portfolio of companies behind him. If you had to guess, you’d think he poured a bunch into this new direction. You’d be wrong. While they have poured some into the production and necessary activities to build and sustain a wine brand, they fall more into the bootstrapped sort of approach, which can work when you take a ground-up approach with a product. By establishing a foundation of followers, fans, and customers, together with savvy content marketing and cross-lifestyle promotion online, they’ve gained a lot of exposure. The bootstrap style also helps build authenticity into their brand image.

“As a whole, we spent very little money on online marketing. We use storytelling and meeting directly with people to get the word out.”

Uproot’s primary market is milllenials, ages 28-45 who can afford and appreciate a $42 bottle of wine. Their website has a page dedicated to their values, another seemingly obvious, yet often ignored piece of many online businesses. One value in particular that I like is “customers are friends we haven’t met, yet” which is always a great way to go. They email people about once a month, and don’t get spammy with it.

They also make use of a good number of the small companies in the Zelkova portfolio, which helps them adapt to tech needs and develop a more agile approach. They use HelpScout to offer up friendly customer service, Ambassador for social referrals, and Crowdly which helps analyze their social media engagement.

This sort of approach is a dramatic contrast against the majority of other wineries out there, from the largest producers down to the smallest. In an industry rooted in agriculture, tradition, and prestige, technology has not been a strong adoption point.

“The industry is not leveraging the latest and greatest tech that it could be,” says Jay.

Specifically, he faults wineries for having antiquated consumer-facing websites. “You look at some of these websites, and it has the feel of 1996 tech. From a consumer-facing front end, it’s probably about 10 years behind.”

Another basic, yet effective way to establish that first touch point of communication with the customer happens via live chat on their website. I asked Jay about this, because it’s something that seems obvious to implement, and yet again, ignored by a good many wineries and small businesses alike. Jay says they have someone online “as much as possible” and they get about 5-10 conversations per day. Many want to simply say hello and have the chance to connect with someone behind the brand, while others want to ask a question about the wine. Having a live person can work great for a small business, plus it’s a easy way to create more connections with potential customers.

Uproot’s website and business is still in its infancy really, but has been a solid source for great wine-related content, such as the Guide to Napa, and simple but informative infographics. They engage, inform, and entertain their readers with content that has substance, although they did post the obligatory “bud break” post which every winery seems to do as part of their 4-post-per year schedule.

Going forward in 2014, they plan to expand their vision of a new kind of wine club called “The Block” and have just released their Grenache, which is a hot and heavy welcoming addition to the lineup of refreshing whites. Their wine club is free to join, and really just brings you on a level closer to the brand allowing the consumer more opportunity to join others and receive preferential treatment.

Michael Meisner lives in wine country with his fiance, where he builds ecommerce websites and consults with wineries looking to take advantage of the growing world of direct-to-consumer ecommerce. He writes about various topics surrounding digital marketing, writing, wine, and WordPress on his blog. Follow him on Twitter @mmeisner

SeeUMe Enables You to Easily Livestream Everything

We know you have more than a couple of smart devices lying around, and each one of those has a camera on it. We’re all used to taking pictures and videos with our cameras, but there’s no way to live stream that content from one device to another. Until now. European startup SeeUMe recently released their livestreaming app to the Kindle Fire and are looking to expand into several other app marketplaces. The technology allows you to record video and instantly stream it to any device with an Internet connection. Check out our Q&A with SeeUMe and find out some of the ways this technology could make your life better. (Hint: it involves your children in one place while you relax with a margarita.) What is your startup called?

SEEUME

What’s the story behind your idea?

Everybody has smart devices, most of them are connected to the internet and a lot of those have one or more camera. We thought it was weird that we were not using these capabilities to stream live video footage from one device to the other. We could think of a dozen of reason why livecasting would be both fun and practical. So why weren’t we all doing it? The components for live video streaming are out there, but bringing them together is very complex. It requires a lot technical configuration or huge costs. We felt we could change this. We thought starting 2014 everybody should be a livecaster.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Dave Kiwi: Dutch entrepreneur and founder of Internet consulting company. Dave Kiwi has extensive consulting, entrepreneurial and management experience. Andrei Varanovich: co-founder of technology company ObjectMeet. Andrei is 6 times in a row awarded as Most Valuable Professional by Microsoft. He is also a PhD candidate in Computer Science. Where are you based? Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Koblenz (Germany)

What’s the startup scene like where you are based?

The market was traditionally dominated by “security” and “web” cameras with the wide spectrum of capabilities and price ranges. They are not originally indented for the personal live streaming. The closest service is dropcam.com – however, they are producing their own Wi-Fi cameras, which is more expensive and less available for everyone. They also require an app to watch the video, while SEEUME works for every device with modern web browser.

What problem do you solve?

Enjoy your family having fun at home while you are at work. Keep an eye on your kids pretending to sleep in your hotel room while you are having a drink in the lobby. Share the unwrapping of Christmas presents with your parents while they are on holiday abroad. All in real-time in Full HD from the browser of a computer, tablet or smartphone.

SEEUME transforms smart devices in to live video cameras and offers a platform for distribution of full HD live video content to other computers, tablets or smartphones. SEEUME gives casters total control over their cast and supports sharing and access management of video streams with friends and family.

Why now? The explosion of Smart devices with powerful processors and great camera’s make processing and transcoding of (full HD) video possible. High speed (mobile) networks make transport possible. The roll-out of 4G mobile networks will improve this situation even more. Last but not least the standardization of internet protocols (like HTML 5) supports streaming live video in a lot of (mobile) browsers.

What are some of the milestones your startup has already reached?

After nine months of hard work we are happy and also a little proud to inform you that the beta version of SEEUME was launched and our livecasting app released in the Amazon Appstore last week. What are your next milestones? 1) Optimization of mobile viewing of video streams 2) Roll out of the livecasting app to other devices than Kindle Fire and other appstores

Where can people find out more?

www.seeume.com

Any social media links you want to share?

For more information, examples and/or images contact info@seeume.com. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Flash Crystals Shoots to Change Music Distribution in 2014

Let’s face it: physical music promotion hasn’t changed since the 90’s. Music has evolved with cloud based music streaming, online radio, and music on the go. So why are CDs still around?

Charleson Bell, Chief Innovation Officer of Crystal Innovations, asked himself the very same question, and his answer soon became the Flash Crystal.

According to Bell and the rest of his team at Crystal Innovations Inc, the Flash Crystal is the future of media sharing. Using NFC technology, the Flash Crystal can instantly upload music, artist’s websites, business cards or media files from the Internet straight to your NFC enabled mobile device.

Pretty cool, huh?

The Flash Crystal is breaking the idea that all music should be cloud based by combining the reliability of a physical copy of media and adopting today’s newest tech. The Flash Crystal is one of the easiest way to share media content today. Unlike Bluetooth, it doesn’t require a PIN to link, and it doesn’t require an app like a QR code. Simply turn on the NFC on your mobile device, tap the back of your phone with the Crystal and you have yourself a whole album of music.

It’s that simple.

Bell spoke to me about how he came to the development of Flash Crystals when he was starting BioNanovations in December of 2012. Bell said, “Money was tight, and I was trying to sell CD’s of my own music just to get by.” He said his CD’s didn’t sell because no one buys CD’s anymore, and that’s when he met the point where desperation equaled innovation.

“I needed something that could send music straight to your phone without the hassle of a CD,” he said.

Bell is currently still the CEO of his biotech startup BioNanovations, but he works closely Ronnie Braxton and the rest of his team to bring the Flash Crystal to life.

According to ABI Research, there were 285 million NFC-capable devices in 2013. In 2014 it is estimated that more than 500 million NFC-capable phones will be in the hands of consumers worldwide. With millions losing terabytes of data using cloud-based music storage, and according to eMarketer, over 70 million people listening to their music regularly on a mobile phone in 2013, Flash Crystal has the potential to change music promotion and distribution for good.

As a Business Management major at Trevecca Nazarene University and a Division II track athlete, Josh Durham is in a little bit of everything. Josh loves startups from tech to healthcare and recently joined the ranks of an online coffee fundraiser called Goodbean.org from his hometown of Franklin, Tennessee.

Canadian Startup Zighra Makes Your Phone Even Smarter

Admit it. You’ve turned the lock screen off on your phone and all of your apps are still open.

If your phone were stolen right now, all of your personal data would be available to the thief, including your bank account and credit card number. You know this isn’t a good idea, but it just takes so damn long to do all the signing in!

Canadian startup Zighra is solving your problem with biometrics. They are training your phone to respond only to you by measuring your body movements, voice, even the way you hold the phone.

Read more about Zighra in our Q&A below.

What is your startup called?

Zighra.

Zighra is a Sanskrit word that stands for speed/acceleration/velocity/quick. Zighra’s mission is to accelerate transactions by providing convenient, frictionless mobile authentication and fraud prevention without compromising security

What’s the story behind your idea?

The founders are a bunch of security scientists and they were frustrated with entering their PINs and passwords every time they used their phones and logged into their apps – from Facebook and Twitter to mobile payments and banking. Like more than 60% of smartphone users, their inclination was to disable screen locks and leave their apps perpetually logged in! But this would be a huge security and privacy nightmare – considering that every 3.5 seconds a phone is either lost or stolen. A lot of smartphone users are now shopping on their phones (storing credit card details), banking on their phones and connecting to corporate networks using these same phones.

The founders figured out that when it came to smartphones/tablets – users preferred convenience over security.

So our founder Deepak Dutt had this crazy idea to train phones and apps to uniquely recognize him based on his habits and interaction patterns – including the way he holds his phone, the angle in which he held it, hand/finger size, touch screen pressure among many other device sensorial data points (essentially creating his unique Kinetic signature). Deepak wanted the entire process to be frictionless, and effortless that the technology was designed to be built in implicitly into existing mobile apps. Along with the rest of the team this experiment has been successfully implemented.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Deepak Dutt – CEO/CTO

• Over 14 years of technical and entrepreneurial expertise in bridging the technology and business worlds.

• Prior startup experiences include NeST Technologies, Intsyx, and InLearning labs

• Held various roles in new venture development, R&D, marketing, field support, consulting, and management at Nortel, Siemens, and Newbridge Networks

• Awarded the Ottawa business journal 40 under 40 award for business excellence in 2012

• Named one of Ottawa’s top rising stars in 2012

• Holds a Masters degree in computer science from the University of Ottawa

Deepti Menon – COO

• Over 9 years of experience in Telecom research and development

• Prior startup experiences include InLearning labs an online tutoring firm

• Held various roles in the CTO organization at Nortel

• Extensive research in the areas of mobile wireless networks and network security

• Holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from the Univ of Ottawa

Where are you based?

Zighra is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada.

Zighra was selected as one of the top 3 globalizers in Canada, a TiE50 finalist in Silicon Valley and more recently selected as the top Canadian Startup in Canada-Brasil 3.0 conference.

What’s the startup scene like where you are based?

The startup scene in Ottawa is pretty dynamic. Shopify is probably one of the more well-known startup in town having recently closed $100 M round with a valuation of $1 Billion.

What problem do you solve?

Users do not like to enter PINS/PASSWORDS on their phone. Smartphones now days are used for various activities requiring the need for storing sensitive data on smartphones. But, nearly 60% of mobile phone users disable screen locks and leave their mobile applications perpetually logged in. They don’t realize the risk they may entail given the data stored on their mobile device considering that a phone is lost or stolen every 3.5 seconds. Users need a solution which is convenient to use without compromising security.

Why now?

With the introduction of the iPhone 5S in September 2013, Apple, the iconic human factors company that reconceived the mobile phone experience, and made tablet computing cool, gave the identity marketplace and the biometrics industry in particular, a big hug.

Device makers are now poised to make a run on the commercial side of the biometrics market where convenience, authentication to a personal device, and a “frictionless” user experience trump security. The market makers of Silicon Valley are descending on the biometrics business with a relentless focus on massive consumer adoption and convenience driven human factors investments.

This market attack will be fast, bold, and take the biometrics industry by storm. Goode Intelligence predicts the consumer biometric market to reach $8B by 2018.

What are some of the milestones your startup has already reached?

• Raised $1M in non-dilutive funds

• Securing over $80M in financial transactions

• Relationship with IBM to target the enterprise space

What are your next milestones?

Integrate KineticID with social media and payments apps and reach 40M users by end of 2014.

Where can people find out more? Any social media links you want to share?

More info on KineticID:

• http://zighra.com/Zighra_KineticID_Infograph.pdf – Infograph

• http://zighra.com/zighra_info_deck.pdf – deck

• http://www.finovate.com/fall13vid/zighra.html – video demo

Twitter handles –@zfraudshield, @nanvivek, @dcdutt

Nobl’s New Name Highlights the Company’s Attitude

“Healthcare reform” is kind of a dirty word these days. Love or hate the new changes in the law, it’s safe to say, we’re all pretty saturated with “healthcare reform” talk.

With that in mind, Lincoln, Nebraska-based SynersScan Technologies is moving away from association with healthcare reform by announcing a new name that describes its purpose: Nobl.

“A lot of people get a sour taste in their mouth when hearing the term ‘healthcare reform.’ because all they see is what makes headlines in the news,” Nobl CEO Brett Byman said in a statement. “They don’t see the effort being made to improve quality of care, promote transparency, and ensure the safety of patients all over the country. We see this effort as incredibly noble, and that is why we are so passionate about the industry as a whole.”

For their part, Nobl has spent the last year developing software that will increase patient satisfaction in hospitals. They’ve rigorously tested the software with the very people who will be using it–nurses.

“We understand how frustrating is is for nurses to be forced to use software that was built by people who have never stepped foot in a hospital before,” Byman said.

With that frustration in mind, the company tested and iterated the software, using nurses instead of hospital administrators as the customers.

Along with a rebrand, new offices, and a new software, Nobl also closed a $200k angel round at the end of 2013. Like other great startups everywhere else, they are going into 2014 ready to solve problems that the Valley just may not realize exists.

Applications now open.

Gui.de Relaunches to Bring Video to Publishers Great and Small

There are good media pitches. I get them every day, and I love engaging with companies who are innovative and smart.

And then, there are GREAT media pitches that have me clicking reply right away.

Serial entrepreneur Freddie Laker, Jr is a master at pitching the media. When he contacted me about his startup Gui.de, I laughed, I clicked through, and I replied. Now, I’m writing the article.

Gui.de has already been working in the text-to-video space since 2012. The original product was consumer-focused, using virtualized avatars to read the news of the day. Unfortunately, they had a problem. The avatars were–well–creepy.

“It was fun, but extremely polarizing,” Laker told me. “People that hated it really hated it. One friend said the avatars would haunt his dreams. It’s some kind of psychological thing that people hated the avatars.”

Seeing as how they weren’t in the scaring business, Laker realized they needed a pivot. So last week, they relaunched with a product aimed at publishers instead of consumers.

The problem with producing good video rarely lies in the shooting or even editing. Rather, it’s incredibly time consuming to research and pull all of the pictures, maps, and other images from the Internet to accompany the story. Guide automates that process, using access to creative commons materials to tell a visual story. The product works well for fact-based content, but by Laker’s admission struggles with local or abstract articles.

Guide does still use computer voices for the free model of the product, but publishers can also add human voiceover, eliminating the creepy avatar problem of the earlier product.

Guide is based in Miami, but Laker was in New York when I talked to him, “shaking his tin cup,” as he says. I couldn’t help but ask, “Why not just base the company in New York?” The city is the home to the many, many publishers, and it seems the investment community would be easier to access.

Laker’s answer surprised me. “Talent.”

In his years in Miami, Laker has found and recruited the best tech talent in the city. While many entrepreneurs everywhere else struggle to find good tech talent, Laker shrugged off that suggestion.

“The best way to attract A-list talen,” he told me, “is to challenge them.”

Guide videos, while looking simple, are complex systems of programming that coordinate images, natural language processes, and editing. It’s enough to keep his developers busy for awhile, he says.

The new Gui.de product launched last Monday, and when Laker and I spoke on Friday, he said there were already 400 publishers using the platform. 30 of those had converted to full paying customers.

Some of those publishers are big, but Laker really sees opportunities for his product with smaller publishers who may not have the money for video departments. While the Internet initially democratized journalism, he says the growth of video gives bigger publications more of an advantage.

Gui.de, he says, can re-democratize digital journalism.

The company has already raised $1.5 million from investors like the Knight Foundation, Omar Epps, and Laker’s former employer Sapient.

Greetabl Makes Greeting Cards Fun–One Box at a Time

Most people send others cards or gifts for special occasions, birthdays, etc. Some people also use the adage of ‘thinking outside the box’ from time to time.

One guy, Joe Fischer, thought outside the box and made a card that turned into a box. This box could, you guessed it, also hold small gifts or presents. In other words, he did it all, and he called it Greetabl.

The story begins as Fischer’s traveling back and forth between England and India for work. Upon taking some time off to recover from a shoulder surgery, he begins alternating between sitting around watching TV and sitting around trying to sleep upright in a reclining chair, at which point he realizes that he “just had so much time.” So he began tinkering.

“A couple good friends of mine were getting married at the time. I usually just wrote a handwritten card and sent them a check.”

But it wasn’t fun. It was cardboard, paper, and ink, a combination that, almost regardless of how you configure it, was essentially the same each and every time.

The aha moments came twice: the first with the concept and the second with the design.

“It’s a lot more fun to get a gift than just getting an envelope.” And so he created a prototype for his first Greetabl cube. Folded up and stamped, he sent it to his mother. That prototype soon arrived in his mom’s mailbox, complete with a note from the mailwoman simply saying, “Too cute! :)”

And that was it. Paired with reactions from friends and family and the postal worker’s praises, Fischer knew he had to go for it.

“If this ugly thing could garner that kind of a reaction from someone who took time out of their work day, what if it was really well designed, adorable-looking, and it came from somebody you love? What kind of impact could that have on that relationship?”

So he created more prototypes, most of which would make it quite difficult for the sender to actually write their message on the eventual card-turned-cube. But then the design struck.

“It was one of those times when I was basically just driving down the road and thought, ‘What if I did it like that?’ And I had to run home and try it. But it worked!”

The rest was history. If you haven’t seen Greetabls on shelves near you yet, keep an eye out. “Gifts are just more fun,” he says.

And I would agree. Be sure to visit greetabl.com to get your own Greetabl and break the monotony of sending cards you know end up being thrown in the recycling bin, and follow @greetabl on Twitter!

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