StartUp Beat

A Q&A with David Koretz, CEO of Mykonos Software. The San Francisco–based company was founded in 2009 and recently raised $4 million in Series A funding.

SUB: Please describe what Mykonos is, and the value proposition you bring to web security.

Koretz: Mykonos is the smartest way to secure websites and web applications against hackers, fraud and theft. Our Web Intrusion Prevention System uses deception to detect, track, profile and prevent hackers in real-time. Unlike legacy signature-based approaches, Mykonos is the first technology that inserts thousands of detection points to proactively identify attackers before they do damage—without any false positives.

SUB: What are your target markets?

Continue reading "Mykonos Software brings its detection points approach to data security for financial services, ecommerce, SaaS and government markets" »

Posted by startupbeat at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with Adzuna co-founder Doug Monro. The London–based company was founded in 2010.

SUB: Please describe what Adzuna is, and the value proposition you bring to the job search.

Monro: Adzuna is a next generation search engine for jobs. We help you find the perfect job, by bringing together all the vacancies on the web in one simple search engine, and then overlaying useful, unique features like social network integrations, that help you get hired with a little help from your friends, and salary stats and company reviews that help you zero in on the right place for your skills.

SUB: What are your target markets?

Continue reading "Adzuna brings a multifaceted approach (and $800K in funding) to the online job search" »

Posted by startupbeat at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with LockerDome co-founder and CEO Gabe Lozano. The St Louis, Missouri–based company was founded in 2008.

SUB: What are your target markets?

Lozano: Our bread and butter is still the 6-18U club program sports market. We work directly with the program directors of the best club programs in the country, who then evangelize their program’s LockerDome network directly to their athletes, coaches and parents. For example, we work with over 50 of the top 100 amateur soccer programs in the U.S. and nearly 500 major programs nationwide. We additionally work with professional athletes to launch celebrity athlete networks, where their fan base can interact with them.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?

Continue reading "With 750K in Angel backing, LockerDome is connecting both professional and amateur athletes worldwide" »

Posted by startupbeat at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with Blippar co-founding director and CMO Jess Butcher. The London–based company was founded in August of last year.

SUB: Please describe what Blippar is, and the value proposition you bring to the mobile market?

Butcher: Blippar is the first marker-less image-recognition platform for smartphones designed to convert real-world media, brands and products into instantaneous digital experiences.

Through one free app on a smartphone, Blippar opens in camera mode and becomes a ‘lens’ through which real world branded objects, such as press adverts, billboards or retail displays, logos, packaging or even landmarks can become content-rich, interactive experiences.

Experiences might include: An augmented reality overlay, web links, location-based service, digital graffiti, gaming, couponing or sales promotion.

Continue reading "With Seed funding in-hand, Blippar has ambitious plans for its augmented mobile ‘digital experiences’ platform" »

Posted by startupbeat at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with FreeShipping.net CEO Tom Caporaso. The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Middletown, Connecticut–based Clarus Marketing Group.

SUB: Please describe what FreeShipping.net is, and the value proposition you bring to ecommerce.

Caporaso: Freeshipping.net is an interactive coupon site where users can go to earn badges and trophies, vote on coupons and communicate with other users, all while saving money on their purchases.

The online coupon space as it stands has been overdone. We knew in order to do this well and engage consumers, we needed to be drastically different. Our value is that we are more relevant to the community of savers. We wanted them to know they have an influence in how they save and providing both a social and gaming component accomplished that.

Continue reading "FreeShipping.net is bringing gamification and a social approach to the online coupons/daily deals business" »

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A Q&A with Life360 co-founder and CEO Chris Hulls. The San Francisco–based company was founded in late 2008.

SUB: Please describe what Life360 is, and the value proposition you bring to the mobile market and to family safety technology.

Hulls: Life360 provides mobile and web solutions for family safety. We are primarily known for the Life360 mobile app that lets you know where your family is located, when they need help and what is on their minds using our cross-platform FamilyChannel group chat feature. While we think that social and entertainment applications are great, we saw there was an unaddressed need for a utility app that would help you keep your family safe. By having family safety as our focus, the Life360 app has already proven helpful to some of the 10 million people who have relied on us during natural distasters such as the Japanese tsunami and the East Coast earthquake last year. 

SUB: What are your target markets?

Continue reading "With safety as its focus, Life360 is connecting family members through its mobile app wherever they may be" »

Posted by startupbeat at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with MixRank co-founder and CEO Ilya Lichtenstein. The San Francisco–based company was founded in May 2011.

SUB: Please describe what MixRank is, and the value proposition you bring to advertising.

Lichtenstein: MixRank is marketing research software that automatically identifies the most effective ad copy and traffic sources for any market. Instead of spending time and money blindly testing different campaigns, advertisers can use MixRank to better target their ads and get more, higher-quality traffic.

SUB: What are your target markets?

Continue reading "Founded last Spring and now armed with $1.5m in Series A funding, MixRank is giving ‘performance advertisers’ a new level of ad data for higher quality results" »

Posted by startupbeat at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with Ecwid CEO Ruslan Fazlyev. The startup is a spinoff of Ulyanovsk, Russia–based Qualiteam Software, which was founded in 2001. Ecwid launched in September of 2009.

SUB: Please describe what Ecwid is, and the value proposition you bring to ecommerce.

Fazlyev: Ecwid is an instant store builder that easily adds an online store to any website, blog or social network page. Our widget works with existing sites, takes less than five minutes to set up, and allows users to sell on the web, Facebook and on mobile devices. 

SUB: What are your target markets? 

Continue reading "Ecwid, which offers instant integrated ecommerce for SMBs, is using its recently raised $1.5 million in Series A for international expansion" »

Posted by startupbeat at 01:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with CouponCabin COO Tim Fagan. The Whiting, Indiana–based company was founded in 2003.

SUB: Please describe CouponCabin, and the value proposition you bring to shopping and coupons/deals.

Fagan: CouponCabin.com is one of the top coupon sites on the web, offering everything from online coupon codes and free samples to grocery coupons and printable, in-store coupons. No matter what type of coupon you’re look for, CouponCabin.com is a great hub of all things savings. I like to think of it at the best place to start your shopping. In addition, CouponCabin.com has saved its users nearly $300 million since 2003 and the average user saves $19 in just 80 seconds on the site. 

SUB: Who is your target market?

Continue reading "After a huge $54 million funding injection, CouponCabin is ramping up its coupon and deals hub" »

Posted by startupbeat at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with Own founder and chairman Verdi Erel Ergün. The San Francisco–based company was founded in 2009.

SUB: Please describe Own, and the value proposition you bring to point of sale transactions.

Ergün: Own is the first social point-of-sale that goes beyond the sale, enabling merchants and retailers to control their entire operations, sales and customer loyalty program, from one device. Its platform is unlike any other because it empowers merchants by providing intelligence via customer interactions, buying preferences, and sale-driven analysis to optimize employee scheduling and payroll, detail menu item performance, provide user-specific deals and incentives, and much more.

SUB: Who is your target market? 

Continue reading "Backed by a recent $1.2 million Seed funding round, Own is giving merchants the social tools to build customer loyalty at the point-of-sale" »

Posted by startupbeat at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with HealthRally co-founder and CEO Zack Lynch. The San Francisco–based company was founded in March of 2010.

SUB: Please describe what HealthRally is, and the value proposition you bring to health and wellness.

Lynch: HealthRally is a crowdfunding platform for personal health motivation. HealthRally offers friends and family a powerful new way to motivate one another to reach health goals with money. We’ve designed an approach that marries social inspiration and financial motivation to push people to achieve important health goals like losing weight, quitting smoking, and excelling at fitness.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?

Continue reading "HealthRally is creating a social space with a crowdsourced approach to health and wellness" »

Posted by startupbeat at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with OwnLocal founder and CEO Lloyd W. Armbrust, II. The Austin, Texas-based company was founded in early 2010.

SUB: Please explain what OwnLocal is, and the value proposition you bring to traditional local media outlets.

Armbrust: We work with traditional media outlets to provide them with a suite of products to sell to their small-business customers. We enable them to become a fully-featured digital marketing agency that can resell our website creation tools, Search-Engine Optimization, social-media management, and directory management products.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?

Continue reading "OwnLocal has a lofty goal—to empower traditional local media outlets to become their own digital marketing agencies" »

Posted by startupbeat at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with VoteIt co-founder and CEO Taylor Beery. The New Orleans–based company was founded in March of this year and recently secured $800K in Seed funding.

SUB: Please describe what VoteIt is, and the value proposition you bring to group collaboration.

Beery: VoteIt is a mobile and web platform that helps groups make decisions by integrating discussion with voting to build consensus and take action.

With a simple and engaging interface, innovative commenting, voting and rewards, VoteIt will deliver the collaborative potential of three people making a decision around a table to scale, and provide it to every device in real-time.

Continue reading "VoteIt combines online polling and collaboration in a unified decision-making engine" »

Posted by startupbeat at 01:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with Hojoki co-founder and CEO Martin Böhringer. The company is based in Germany and was founded in March of this year.

SUB: Please describe what Hojoki is, and the value proposition you bring to users of cloud-based apps.

Böhringer: Hojoki makes all your cloud apps work as one. Connect with Google Docs, Dropbox, Delicious and all the other tools you love. Integrate them into one personalized activity stream. Share your activities with others and get instantly notified of theirs.

People work in lots of separate apps. Currently, there is no way of getting all the team on the same page. This leads to problems like; nobody knowing what’s going on. Coordination costs are very high. Search risks are very high. Discussions around work items are fragmented.

Hojoki provides an inbox for your cloud. We build a Facebook-like activity stream including all your connected apps. This creates a complete overview on what’s going on in your projects. Plus, you can comment, like or write micro-blogging postings.

Continue reading "Armed with $620K in seed funding, Hojoki has jumped into the cloud apps productivity space with a social integration and sharing platform" »

Posted by startupbeat at 02:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with aisle411 co-founder and CEO Nathan Pettyjohn. The company was a Featured Startup on StartUp Beat back in July, and has since released version 2.0 of its in-store navigation app with new features and big plans for the future.

SUB: Please briefly explain what aisle411 is, and the value proposition you offer to consumers and merchants.

Pettyjohn: With the aisle411 platform, users can easily create and manage shopping lists in any store, plan and search recipes, locate items and share experiences with friends via social media integration. aisle411 has partnered with ZipList, a leading recipe search and shopping list platform to integrate the entire shopping experience with aisle411’s in-store navigation platform.

aisle411’s core technology is its in-store, item level aisle navigation solution, which allows users to map thousands of products throughout the store. The technology can be integrated seamlessly with other shopping list technologies, recipe search technologies and digital coupon technologies.

Continue reading "With its in-store navigation and shopping platform, aisle411 seeks to make trips to the market a breeze" »

Posted by startupbeat at 01:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with Flowdock co-founder and CEO Otto Hilska. The Helsinki, Finland–based company was founded in late 2009.

SUB: Please describe Flowdock, and the value proposition you bring to group chat and collaboration.

Hilska: Flowdock is a shared team inbox with chat. Almost all teams use some kind of a group chat tools, but unlike them, Flowdock is truly connected to all your other tools, including email, wikis and version control. The team will work together and react to issues in seconds.

SUB: Who is your target market?

Hilska: Technical teams, mainly software developers. That said, Flowdock is used by real estate agents, rock bands, governments, marketing agencies etc.

Continue reading "Flowdock, which just raised $650K in seed funding, connects group chat and other communication tools for seamless online collaboration" »

Posted by startupbeat at 02:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with ConnectYard co-founder and CEO Don Doane. The Wayne, New Jersey-based company was founded in 2007.

SUB: Please describe ConnectYard and the services you offer.

Doane: ConnectYard provides a centralized social media communications platform that allows universities to close the communications gap between faculty and students. That gap exists because school faculty and staff tend to use email and learning management systems to communicate while students use social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter as well as mobile media like text messaging.

ConnectYard seamlessly brings it all together, integrating text messaging, social media tools, email and learning management communications while protecting faculty and student privacy. It doesn’t require students and faculty to ‘friend’ or ‘follow’ one another, and it enables them to keep using their preferred communications methods—email, the learning management system, or social media tools–while sending and receiving messages to engage in a two-way conversation.

Continue reading "ConnectYard is bringing an integrated social media platform to colleges and universities, with an eye on expansion to other markets" »

Posted by startupbeat at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with Flow co-founder and CEO Eric Alterman. The New York City–based company was founded in early 2010.

SUB: Please describe Flow, and the value proposition you bring to app development.

Alterman: The key long-term value proposition for the Flow is all about data sharing—how can many apps—web, mobile and enterprise—easily and seamlessly share real-time data. For the first time, apps will be capable of connecting and sharing real-time data with one another on a permissioned basis, bringing unprecedented interoperability across the app landscape. We believe data interoperability will drive next generation apps in ways even more powerful than social connectivity. A restaurant mobile app, for example, may show food-seekers nearby eateries, but would also draw and present helpful data from other apps on local stores, coupon deals or events.

By building the infrastructure through which apps can intercommunicate and consumers can create and discover information micro-contextually, the Flow intends to break down many existing data silos—the goal is to revolutionize the way businesses and people make use of real-time data. Connecting apps socially was an important first step in the data revolution, connecting apps on a more fundamental data level is what we believe is next. So the Flow aims to be the underlying plumbing for this new frontier of application connectivity, providing developers a seamless way to connect their apps with real-time data from many other apps, analogous to what a stock exchange does for trading.

Continue reading "Flow enables cross-platform data sharing for apps, backed up by $3 million in seed funding and an experienced team" »

Posted by startupbeat at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with Peter Holten Mühlmann, Trustpilot founder. The Copenhagen–based company was founded in 2007.

SUB: Please describe Trustpilot, and the value proposition you bring to ecommerce for both shoppers and retailers.

Mühlmann: As an online consumer, it is important to know what kind of service a company provides: Is the product delivered on time? How does the company handle returns and complaints? Do they offer any additional service, etc.? In short, is this the best place for me to purchase? 
Trustpilot provides a space for consumers to share their online shopping experiences through writing and reading reviews. With 5.5 million reviews covering more than 80,000 companies, Trustpilot is an invaluable online resource used by more than a million consumers each month.

Many online businesses provide excellent service but struggle with communicating it to consumers. Trustpilot helps companies gather user experiences, and to display them in a way which increases trust, conversion rate and sales. With Trustpilot’s reviews being fed into Google Product Search, many companies are experiencing significant uplift in this important sales channel as a direct result of their partnership with Trustpilot. In this way, Trustpilot is an important tool for online businesses to differentiate themselves not only on price—but also service.

Continue reading "Copenhagen-based Trustpilot brings reviews to online shopping to reassure e-consumers" »

Posted by startupbeat at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with Kevin Lacker, co-founder of Parse. The San Francisco–based company was founded this past summer.

SUB: Please describe Parse, and the value proposition you bring to mobile app development.

Lacker: Parse is a service that replaces backend servers for mobile developers. Without Parse, there are many mobile apps that require writing a server. For example, a list of high scores for a game, a way for users to follow each others’ activity, or seeing where other users are near you, all typically require a server and writing server-side code. With Parse, you can eliminate that part of your application, making it faster and easier to develop great apps.

SUB: Who is your target market?

Lacker: Our target market is everyone developing Internet-enabled mobile applications. Our vision is that if a mobile application requires a server component, it should be faster and easier to build it on Parse instead.

Continue reading "Parse seeks to make the mobile app development process fast and easy by replacing the backend (and they’ve just raised $5.5 million in funding)" »

Posted by startupbeat at 02:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with Quinton Alsbury, president of MeLLmo. The San Diego, California –based company was founded in 2008.

SUB: Please explain what MeLLmo is, and the value proposition you offer to enterprises.

Alsbury: MeLLmo is the creator of Roambi, the family of mobile apps that has reimagined business intelligence for the iPhone and iPad. Founded by the makers of Xcelsius, the MeLLmo team has deep expertise in business intelligence, user interface design, and in particular in making enterprise critical reports and data convenient for on the go workers. MeLLmo is leading the consumerization of mobile business applications to improve decision making and increase enterprise productivity.

SUB: How does the technology behind Roambi work?

Alsbury: Roambi is a family of innovative mobile business apps including Roambi Analytics and Roambi Flow that lets people easily publish and consume information and intelligence as simple, intuitive and engaging analytics and digital magazines—securely on mobile devices.

Continue reading "Flush with a recent funding injection of $30 million, MeLLmo is taking business intelligence and analytics mobile" »

Posted by startupbeat at 01:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with BSFG Travel co-founder and CEO Nick Scappini. The company was founded in 2010.

SUB: Please describe BSFG Travel, and the value proposition you bring to the travel market.

Scappini: The BSFG Travel Network is a network of travel sites providing niche vacation and adventure booking. Our network also gives users a daily dose of sports, entertainment and advice content relevant to their place in life. BabyShowerForGuys.com is the leadoff hitter in the BSFG Travel Network. BabyShowerForGuys.com will approach the online travel industry with the creation of a brand new holiday for expecting fathers—a baby shower for guys.

With the launch of BabyShowerForGuys.com, and subsequent sites targeted at other specific demographic groups, BSFG Travel will disrupt the online travel space by providing travel booking combined with editorial content targeted at very specific consumer segments. We plan to roll out destinations aimed at women, couples and more.

SUB: What types of travelers are your target market?

Continue reading "Niche travel startup BSFG Travel launches its first site, BabyShowerForGuys" »

Posted by startupbeat at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with Dealatize founder Vincent Smith. The Miami–based company was founded in June of this year and officially launched last month.

SUB: Please describe Dealatize, and the value proposition you bring to the daily deals market.

Smith: Dealatize will offer products and services for at least 50 percent off retail prices. But you will see discounts of 70-to-90 percent off as well. I will always look for deep discounts to offer our members.

SUB: What is your target market?

Smith: Our target market is females and males 25-years plus. It may skew more female but men will find great deals as well.

Continue reading "Dealatize jumps into the daily deals market with a focus on designer products and specialty services" »

Posted by startupbeat at 01:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with Daniel Estrada, Scavado CTO and Product Manager. The Denver, Colorado–based company was founded in 2008.

SUB: Please explain what Scavado is, and the value proposition you bring to hiring and employment searches.

Estrada: Scavado is a web-based sourcing tool that allows recruiters to easily search the web for passive candidates, compile their contact information, and build a comprehensive pipeline of prospects to recruit. Scavado streamlines the process of finding and contacting candidates who are typically not applying for positions through job boards nor a company’s career website—called “passive candidates”—but who are often some of the best in their field.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?

Continue reading "Scavado allows employers to locate and hire ‘passive candidates’" »

Posted by startupbeat at 01:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with Barilliance co-founder Ido Ariel. The Tel Aviv-based company was founded in 2008.

SUB: Please explain what Barilliance is, and the value proposition you bring to shopping.

Ariel: Barilliance is a one stop shop for ecommerce personalization solutions which enable our online retailing customers to increase their conversion rates by hundreds of percent by facilitating the use of personalization to reach out and close lost sales. In addition to our recently launched Facebook Fan Page Personalization solution, Barilliance’s eCommerce Personalization suite includes solutions for shopping cart abandonment, personalized product recommendations, email personalization, and onsite behavioral targeting.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?

Continue reading "Israeli startup Barilliance offers solutions to increase etailers’ conversion rates and, ultimately, their bottom line" »

Posted by startupbeat at 01:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with Craig Walker, founder and CEO of Google Ventures-backed product accelerator Firespotter Labs, creator of the Nosh restaurant reviews mobile app. The Mountain View–based company was founded in April of this year.

SUB: Please explain what Nosh is, and the value proposition you offer in the local business/restaurant discovery market.

Walker: Nosh is a free iPhone and Android app that allows users to rate, review, and share photos of restaurant dishes with friends and followers on Facebook, Foursquare, and Twitter. With Nosh, we are turning restaurant customers into social media marketing teams and share customer analytics with restaurant owners for free.

Nosh is taking dining recommendations to the next level by shifting the review from the entire restaurant to individual menu items. Our vision for Nosh is to improve the dining experience for both restaurant customers and restaurant owners. While Nosh helps people find the best dish to order, we eventually aim to use the feedback we gather to help restaurants.

Continue reading "Now integrated with Google Places, Firespotter Lab’s Nosh mobile app gives diners access to reviews of individual menu items" »

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A Q&A with GramercyOne founder and CEO Josh McCarter. The New York City–based company was founded in October, 2010.

SUB: You recently launched a new free product for small businesses called GoSuite. What is included and how important is it to your strategy, moving forward?

McCarter: The GoSuite consists of two products, GoBook and GoPromote. Both of these are designed to address pain points that have arisen in the online to offline commerce market. Specifically, GoBook provides a platform that publishers and merchants can use to schedule and manage appointments via online, mobile and social channels. This can be integrated into anything from a daily deal site, to a merchant’s website, to their Facebook page, and customers can easily schedule their appointments for free. GoPromote solves another pain point, namely the creating, broadcasting and tracking of multiple promotions. Currently, most businesses don’t have any tools for doing this and even the most sophisticated are using excel to manage promotions—daily deals, online advertising, coupons, newspaper and radio ads, etc. This tool provides them a centralized dashboard to manage all of these marketing channels, with robust reporting to track the effectiveness of the various campaigns.

Continue reading "GramercyOne offers a cloud-based, cross-platform scheduling application that has investor backing to the tune of $14.5 million" »

Posted by startupbeat at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with WikiOrgCharts founder and CEO Farhan Memon. The Norwalk, Connecticut–based company was founded in 2010.

SUB: Please explain what WikiOrgCharts is, and the value proposition you offer your users.

Memon: WikiOrgCharts is the first platform on the web that allows users to pool their business contacts and to collaboratively map the relationships that exist within a company into an easy-to-access organizational chart. Our HTML5 site allows org charts to be constructed, modified, searched and openly shared between Internet users, along with real-time social information from Twitter and other sources. Users that log into WikiOrgCharts using their Facebook or LinkedIn accounts bring their friends’ and colleagues’ information with them.

SUB: What is the goal of WikiOrgCharts and who are your target users?

Continue reading "WikiOrgCharts employs a collaborative and crowdsourced approach to deciphering company org charts in the cloud" »

Posted by startupbeat at 01:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with Crowdpark co-founder and COO Christoph Jenke. The Berlin–based company was founded in April of 2009.

SUB: Please explain what Crowdpark is, and the value proposition you bring to social media.

Jenke: Crowdpark is pioneering social betting games—bringing the thrill of legal betting to the world of social gaming. Crowdpark will offer several betting and casino gaming products for multiple platforms including the web, mobile, and social networks. Crowdpark adds a betting layer to where people are already connecting with friends on engaging topics such as sports matches, current events, celebrity gossip and the like. Its first social betting game is “Bet Tycoon” on Facebook, where players make bets with virtual currency on what will happen in the future. Crowdpark’s patent-pending dynamic betting technology is what generates live, real-time experiences allowing players to leave a bet—at any time and collect winnings—similar to the stock market.

We’re also really excited about what we have coming for the mobile and second screen platforms. We’ll provide more insights on those products soon.

Continue reading "With $6 million in new funding in-hand, Berlin-based Crowdpark is breaking new ground in social betting games" »

Posted by startupbeat at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with Ordr.in co-founder and CEO David Bloom. The New York City–based company was founded in 2010 and recently raised a seed funding round led by Google Ventures.

SUB: Please explain what Ordr.in is, and the value proposition you bring to the restaurant business.  

Bloom: Ordr.in has a set of tools-APIs-that turn any website, app or device into a way to order food. These APIs create new ways for customers to discover and transact with restaurants—incremental orders and exposure to customers that are very hard to reach.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?

Continue reading "Ordr.in seeks to revolutionize the restaurant industry though an API-driven approach to online food orders" »

Posted by startupbeat at 01:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with NGINX co-founder Andrey Alexeev. The company, which offers products based on the open-source platform of the same name, was founded in July of this year.

SUB: Please explain what NGINX is, and the value proposition you bring to market.

Alexeev: NGINX is an advanced web infrastructure platform. NGINX provides the essential set of features required to build modern and highly efficient online services. The software has been a free, open source product since 2004, when it was first launched to the public. NGINX is mostly known as an extremely high performance web server and a reverse proxy. However, it can also be used as a Layer 7 load balancer, caching engine, HTTP streaming server, SSL accelerator, mail proxy and a security gateway for back-end applications. The value NGINX brings is in efficiency, performance, scalability and reliability, as well as optimized costs of development, deployment and operations for either large-scale or smaller web installations.

SUB: How does the technology behind NGINX work?

Alexeev: NGINX was developed in the 2000s, so it followed a different approach in its architecture. It is event-based, asynchronous, non-blocking core architecture and has a number of functional modules that you can enable or disable. NGINX was also created to take lots of connections in a single process versus spawning a separate process or thread for individual connections.

Continue reading "Having drawn $3 million in initial investment, Russian startup NGINX seeks to transform a popular open-source infrastructure platform into a profitable enterprise" »

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Q&A with DataStax VP of Marketing Michael Weir. The Burlingame, Calif.–based company was founded in 2010.

SUB: Please explain what DataStax is, and the value proposition you offer to the enterprise.

Weir: DataStax is the developer of DataStax Enterprise, a distributed, scalable, and highly available database platform built on Apache Cassandra that delivers optimal performance either on premise or in the cloud for modern enterprise applications that manage both real-time and analytic workloads.

SUB: How does the technology behind DataStax work?

Weir: With DataStax Enterprise, you get everything you need in one subscription to build modern applications that have no limits. Enterprise-class database software, visual management and monitoring solutions, and expert production support.

Continue reading "DataStax , which just closed an $11 million Series B funding round, offers an enterprise database platform with big functionality enhancements" »

Posted by startupbeat at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Q&A with myGengo co-founder and CEO Robert Laing. The company was founded in 2009 and recently raised $5.25 million in Series A funding.

SUB: Please explain what myGengo is, and the value proposition you bring to the translation market.

Laing: The world wants to communicate, but translation is hard, expensive and time-consuming. To solve this, myGengo has created a huge translator pool that is accessible either through a web order form or API, allowing you to “go global” in a few clicks. Our customers range from individuals who want to send an email in Chinese, up to large ecommerce and travel sites who translate thousands of pages into German or French via our API.

myGengo offers seamless global communication, rather than being part of the old fashioned translation market—in the same way that Skype is in the communication market, not the traditional ‘phone’ market. Eventually people will forget the translation, and just enjoy communicating.

SUB: How does the technology behind myGengo work?

Continue reading "Tokyo-based MyGengo harnesses advanced translation tools and $5.25 million in Series A funding for enhanced communication across the globe" »

Posted by startupbeat at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with Vizibility founder and CEO James Alexander. The New York City–based company was founded in 2009.

SUB: Please explain what Vizibility is, and the value proposition you offer to individuals and companies.

Alexander: Individuals and companies only get one chance to make a killer first impression, and Vizibility SearchMe Buttons, links and QR codes allow them to make it happen by providing a way to curate and share online identities. With Vizibility, users can create and manage personalized Google search results, professional profiles and contact information. SearchMe Buttons and links are primarily used online to direct viewers to user-controlled information. QR codes are typically used on printed items such as business cards, resumes, presentations or marketing material to direct viewers to online business cards or microsites via mobile device or smartphone scans.

A new Vizibility feature, CommonConnections, integrates personal QR codes with LinkedIn and Facebook. This allows users to embed their social graphs into their Vizibility QR codes and use social networks as real-time, instant reputation-building tools.

Continue reading "True to its name, Vizibility offers a way to manage online identities across platforms—and it’s armed with $1.3 million in seed funding" »

Posted by startupbeat at 02:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Floop offers a real-time polling app for mobile devices. The Woodbridge, Connecticut–based company just announced its official launch.

SUB: Please explain what Floop is, and the value proposition you offer to voters and political candidates, and even those just casually interested in politics. 

Schultz: Floop is an app for seeing and sharing opinions on a wide variety of community-contributed topics. It is entirely real-time and can be used both during live events and to measure sentiment on an ongoing topic or question over time. In terms of politics, questions like “what do you think of Obama” provide a long-term view of general sentiment, as well as specific comments from users across America. 

Additionally, the use of Floop as a real-time feedback mechanism during, say, a live debate allows both the audience and the constituent to provide and view feedback live, so sentiment on specific issues or comments can be seen and responses can be made. 

Continue reading "Q&A with Floop co-founder and CEO Richard Schultz about launching a new mobile polling app" »

Posted by startupbeat at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Dropcam offers a cloud-based Wi-Fi based video monitoring service that integrates with almost any device. The San Francisco–based company was founded in 2009 and recently closed a $5.8 million Series A funding round.

SUB: Please explain what Dropcam is, and the value proposition you offer.

Duffy: Dropcam is the maker of Wi-Fi video cameras and intelligent cloud-based video services that capture life’s moments. We make it easy for users to check in on the things they care about from anywhere, anytime on any device, including computers, smartphones and tablets.

Dropcam’s Wi-Fi video cameras are easy to set up and the Dropcam DVR service seamlessly integrates into your life: iPhone, laptop, tablet, you name it. Our service allows users to keep a watchful eye on what they care about—which could be different for everyone whether they are keeping an eye on the living room, a new baby, pets, garage, second home, etc.

The Dropcam DVR service also handles motion detection, audio detection, and related email and mobile alerts.

Continue reading "Q&A with Dropcam co-founder and CEO Greg Duffy about bringing an easy-to-use Wi-Fi video monitoring service to the cloud" »

Posted by startupbeat at 01:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Zimride is a social ride sharing service. The –based company was founded in 2007 and recently raised $6 million in Series A funding.

SUB: Please describe Zimride, and the value proposition you offer to your customers.

Zimmer: Zimride is the largest online social ride sharing service in the U.S, and we’re transforming the transportation infrastructure by integrating social networks and ride sharing. We embrace ridesharing as a social activity, and the service integrates with Facebook to make it fun and easy for users to share the seats in their car or find a ride.

Zimride currently has ridesharing communities on over 120 university and corporate campuses across 30 states in the U.S.—in fact, 35 percent of Facebook employees use us! And we’ve recently rolled out an SF/LA route that's picking up steam. We’ve even partnered with artists Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews Band and Sheryl Crow to provide ridesharing to their events.

Continue reading "Q&A with Zimride co-founder and COO John Zimmer about social ridesharing and raising $6 million in Series A funding" »

Posted by startupbeat at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

HomeSav is a members-only home furnishings ecommerce site. The Toronto–based company was founded in 2010 and recently raised $1.2 million in seed funding.

SUB: Please explain what HomeSav is, and the value proposition you offer to homeowners and consumers.

Norman: HomeSav.com is inspired living. HomeSav’s experienced buyers, interior designers and experts make it easier for homeowners and consumers to make their home spectacular at an affordable price. We find inspirational luxurious home products and negotiate great prices for our members. Our members save time and money by buying from us as they know all products have been carefully selected, we ship to their home and we do it at incredible prices.

SUB: How does the technology behind HomeSav work?

Continue reading "Q&A with HomeSav founder and Co-CEO Alex Norman about building an ecommerce site for home furnishings and raising $1.2 million in seed funding" »

Posted by startupbeat at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Endomondo offers a social mobile sports and exercise app that integrates fitness tracking and social networking. The Copenhagen–based company was founded in 2007 and recently raised $2.3 million in new funding.

SUB: Please explain what Endomondo is, and the value proposition you offer to consumers.

Lykke: Endomondo is a fitness community that is based on tracking of sports with a mobile phone. In combination, the mobile app and the website makes fitness more fun and motivates more people to become fit.

SUB: How does the technology behind Endomondo work?

Continue reading "Q&A with Endomondo co-founder Mette Lykke about integrating social media with fitness tracking and the company’s recent $2.3 million funding round" »

Posted by startupbeat at 09:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Neo Technology developed its Neo4j software, which provides feature-rich database functionality for big enterprises. The Malmo, Sweden and Menlo Park, Calif.-based company was founded in 2007 and recently closed a $10.6 million Series A round.

SUB: Please explain what Neo Technology is, and the value proposition you offer.

Eifrem: Corporations today are facing an explosion in data growth. Up until now, NOSQL databases handling big data have not provided the key elements that enterprises expect in a database. Neo4j is the first database to give you the scalability of NOSQL, as well as the transactional integrity that enterprises expect.

Neo Technology provides the flexibility and scalability of a NOSQL database, while supporting key elements imperative to the enterprise—transactions, true durability and first-class Java support.

Continue reading "Q&A with Neo Technology co-founder and CEO Emil Eifrem about helping enterprises better manage their big data needs, and raising $10.6 million in Series A funding" »

Posted by startupbeat at 09:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Wattpad is a social network for avid readers that enables aspiring and professional writers to publish their novels, short stories or poems and interact with readers and fans. The Toronto–based company was founded in 2006.

SUB: Please explain what Wattpad is, and the value proposition you offer to readers and book lovers.

Lau: Wattpad is a place to share and discover stories. Wattpad encourages anyone to write or read a story and engage in conversation with writers and other readers. Unlike traditional books or ebooks, stories are often written in real time giving readers the opportunity to provide feedback and input. For readers, the opportunity to connect with writers one on one and discover something new and unknown is really unique from our traditional reading experiences.

Continue reading "Q&A with Wattpad co-founder and CEO Allen Lau about bringing social media to book and story publishing" »

Posted by startupbeat at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Apsalar is an engagement management solution for mobile apps providers. The San Francisco–based company was founded in 2010 and recently raised $5 million in Series A funding.

SUB: Please explain what Apsalar is, and the value proposition you offer to mobile advertisers.

Oiknine: Apsalar is the leading Mobile Engagement Management, or MEM, solution on the market. Apsalar is a SaaS provider. Approximately one-third of all apps downloaded will be used once. This is the most pressing issue for mobile app publishers, it prevents them from creating relationships with their customers and from any monetization opportunities. So, as mobile is rewriting the customer engagement playbook, Apsalar enables mobile app developers and publishers to fully manage customer engagement.

Our solution consists of 3 components: 1.) Analyze to measure and learn (advanced behavioral analytics). 2.) Optimize—test and personalize the user experience (A/B testing and tailoring of user experiences to behavioral segments). 3.Monetize—turn engagement into revenue (in-app dynamic targeting and cross-app retargeting).

Continue reading "Q&A with Apsalar co-founder and CEO Michael Oiknine about helping mobile apps gain better user traction and engagement" »

Posted by startupbeat at 01:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

PowerInbox offers a service that integrates social networks with email clients. The Cambridge, Massachusetts–based company was founded in 2010 and recently closed a $1.1 million seed funding round.

SUB: Please explain what PowerInbox is, and the value proposition you offer to users of social networks.

Thazhmon: PowerInbox turns each email into an app platform (short intro video: http://vimeo.com/powerinbox/intro). At present, we have apps for Facebook, Groupon, Twitter and Google+. The value proposition for users of these services is that when they open emails from these services they can interact with the service right inside the email. 

SUB: How does the technology behind PowerInbox work?

Thazhmon: On the server side, developers create apps and specify what emails their apps are compatible with. On the client side, PowerInbox extends your email client to allow you to run apps inside email.

Continue reading "Q&A with PowerInbox founder and CEO Matt Thazhmon about unifying email and social networking" »

Posted by startupbeat at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tapit is a builder of near-field communications (NFC) applications for mobile devices. The Sydney, Austrailia–based company was founded earlier this year and recently closed a seed funding round.  

SUB: Please explain what Tapit is, and the value proposition you bring to both advertisers and consumers.

Conyngham: Tapit is the simplest way possible to get content to your mobile phone. Straight out of the box you can tap your NFC enabled phone on a Tapit symbol and get content.

For consumers we take the pain out of getting content on your mobile phone. Tapit makes content available to everyone, it passes the “mother test”—it’s so easy your mother could do it. But more than that, Tapit introduces a new way of interacting with your environment when you are out and about or at home. Suddenly, lots of objects that used to do nothing now give your phone instructions on what content to show you when you tap them.

Continue reading "Q&A with Tapit co-founder and CEO Jamie Conyngham on breaking new ground in the NFC land-grab" »

Posted by startupbeat at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Online marketing and cost-per-action network CPAlead has had a big year, topped off by its inclusion in the prestigious Inc. 500 list of America’s fastest-growing companies. Co-founder and CEO Robert Reynolds wrote a company pitch in July for StartUp Beat, and we thought we’d follow-up after the big news about the Inc. 500 (check out CPAlead’s StartUp Beat Featured Pitch):

SUB: You did this before for StartUp Beat in the pitch you wrote back in July, but as a refresher, please describe CPAlead and the value proposition you offer to both advertisers and consumers.

Reynolds: CPAlead is a premier online marketing company that specializes in digital content monetization. The company’s flagship solution, the CPAlead Widget, is a web content monetization tool that provides consumers and web publishers with a payment alternative to traditional advertisements and pay walls. Essentially, when a person visits a website, they complete a brief survey, quiz or game, which unlocks the content they wish to view. These incentive-based offerings are sponsored by advertisers who then pay the website publisher for each one that is completed. Advertisers win since they are guaranteed a strong return on their investment given that payment only occurs when they generate revenue. Consumers win because they are able to access the content they seek without being forced to make a payment. In fact, we find that even in the face of websites that require payment, users are able to move through our offers more quickly—so in essence, they save both time and money. Why fill in your payment information when you can complete a quick offer? The result for the website owner which we have observed is that they not only enhanced user experience but experience even greater revenue.

Continue reading "Q&A with Robert Reynolds, CPAlead co-founder and CEO about the company’s banner year and building a new kind of online advertising" »

Posted by startupbeat at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Woozworld is an online social massive multiplayer game for tweens. The Montreal–based company was founded in 2009 and recently raised $6 million in new funding.

SUB: Please explain what Woozworld is, and the value proposition you offer to children and parents.

Brassard: Woozworld is a massive multiplayer user-generated social game for tweens—ages 9-14. Socialization, role-playing and user generated content are at the center of the players experience.

Woozworld has created a unique hybrid between a social network and virtual world that allows tweens to interact and engage with each other and express their social skills. In this universe, which they have built together, kids create, exchange, support each other and have fun. Thus, Woozworld is a true reflection of their dreams and values. We are COPPA compliant and certified by the neutral third-party service provider PRIVO (http://www.privo.com).

An example of the success of the formula: Woozworld created 50 virtual spaces in January 2010 and users have since built 14 million spaces of all types—restaurants, adoption centers, businesses, wedding chapels, etc.

SUB: How does the technology behind Woozworld work?

Continue reading "Q&A with Woozworld co-founder and CEO Eric Brassard about building a social site for tweens and the $6 million the company recently raised" »

Posted by startupbeat at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Druva offers fast, reliable backups and data protection for mid-to-large size enterprises. The Mountain View, California–based company was founded in 2007.

SUB: Please explain what Druva is, and the value proposition you bring to the enterprise.

Singh: Druva provides advanced enterprise data-protection solutions for data at the edge of corporate networks. Its unique application-aware deduplication technology delivers 10-times-faster backups and 90 percent savings in storage and bandwidth. The company’s flagship product, inSync, is a highly scalable, WAN-optimized solution designed from the ground up for laptop backup.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competitors?

Singh: Crashplan, Symantec and Iron Mountain (now Autonomy/HP).

Continue reading "Q&A with Druva co-founder and CEO Jaspreet Singh about enterprise data protection and the $12 million the company recently raised" »

Posted by startupbeat at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

OpenLogic is a solutions provider that helps enterprises access and make the most of enterprise software. The Broomfield, Colorado–based company was founded in 1998 and recently raised $2 million in Series B funding.

SUB: Please briefly describe what OpenLogic is, and the value proposition you offer companies.

Grandchamp: OpenLogic provides solutions that help enterprises safely and successfully deploy open source solutions, thereby getting leading-edge functionality at a lower cost.

Free and open source software is used in virtually every large enterprise, website and web application. Almost every consumer product you use—mobile phones, tablets TVs, washers, DVRS, cars—contains open source software. In addition, the exploding area of cloud computing is largely built on open source technologies. Even software purchased from large vendors like IBM, HP and Oracle likely contains open source software.

Continue reading "Q&A with OpenLogic CEO Steve Grandchamp about helping enterprises cut costs though open source software, its new cloud offering and raising $2 million in new funding" »

Posted by startupbeat at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Taptera builds mobile apps for large enterprises. Inspired by an experience building apps for employees at a previous job, the founders established the San Francisco–based company earlier this year.

SUB: Please explain what Taptera is, and the value proposition you bring to the enterprise.

O’Connor: Taptera builds fast, beautiful, secure, on-demand Apple mobile apps for the enterprise. We extend this with a deep customization engine that allows large companies to brand and skin the apps as if they’re developed in-house.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competitors?

O’Connor: Simply put, we don’t have any competitors. We are attacking the mobile enterprise market by delivering a suite of essential mobile applications that every large company needs. No other company has the unique blend of enterprise expertise married with gorgeous design. It’s just not in their DNA.

Continue reading "Q&A with Taptera co-founder and CEO Chris O’Connor about the market opportunity in enterprise mobile apps" »

Posted by startupbeat at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

PolitiPick matches up voters and candidates based on political opinions and their political “DNA.” The company was founded earlier this year and the site is currently in Beta.

SUB: Please explain what PolitiPick is, and the value proposition you offer to voters and politicos.

Sweeney: PolitiPick is a free website that matches voters to candidates based on opinions each gives about how government should be run. If you’ve ever wondered who to vote for, this site is for you.

It gives voters an easier way to determine which candidates will best represent their views in office. Campaign slogans can be vague and researching all candidate platforms just takes way too much time, especially when there may be a dozen or more candidates running for a single office.

Continue reading "Q&A with PolitiPick founder and CEO Mike Sweeney on political “matchmaking” and his vision for the political social site" »

Posted by startupbeat at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

BVI Networks offers its RetailNEXT product, which utilizes in-store technology advances to enable a level of data collection and analysis previously only available online. The San Jose–based company was founded in 2007 and has raised $14 million in two rounds of fundraising.

SUB: Please briefly describe what BVI Networks is, and the value proposition you bring to retailers.

Agratchev: BVI Networks is the leader in the emerging Real-Time In-Store Monitoring space. Its RetailNEXT product is designed and purpose-built as a highly scalable platform that enables retailers and manufacturers to collect, analyze and visualize data about in-store customer engagement. RetailNEXT is an open system that takes advantage of rapidly improving sensor technologies (e.g. cameras and RFID) to bridge the enormous data gap between on-line retail and brick-and-mortar stores. Traditional retailers can now apply a similar data-driven approach used on the Internet to ensure they provide the best possible shopping experience and stay ahead of constantly evolving customer needs. For the first time, retailers that run stores and manufacturers that sell through those stores can get real-time visibility into how their customers shop. RetailNEXT is transforming the way information inside retail stores is collected and applied.

Continue reading "Q&A with BVI Networks co-founder and CEO Alexei Agratchev on bridging the data gap between ecommerce and brick-and-mortar stores" »

Posted by startupbeat at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Big Commerce is an ecommerce and online marketing platform for  small and medium sized merchants. The company’s headquarters is split between Austin, Texas and Sydney, Australia. BigCommerce was founded in 2009 and recently completed a $15 million Series A funding round.

SUB: Please briefly describe what BigCommerce is, and the value proposition you bring to ecommerce.

Harper: BigCommerce is the only ecommerce marketing platform in the world. Some offerings make it easy to setup an online store, some help you drive traffic and sales. BigCommerce is a single solution that does both. It’s fully managed by us, so you don’t need any technical knowledge and it’s as easy to use as Facebook.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?

Continue reading "Q&A with BigCommerce co-founder and co-CEO Mitchell Harper about offering a total ecommerce package to small merchants and the company’s recent $15 million funding round" »

Posted by startupbeat at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Pet It Forward is a platform for finding and saving on pet care service providers. The New York City-based company launched earlier this year.

SUB: What kinds of products and services do you offer?

Dreher: At the core, we provide a seamless process for booking pet care appointments—either through posting requests and receiving offers, or using our direct booking method. The platform provides pet owners the ability to find local pet care providers you can trust, save 50 percent off with pet care professionals or save 100 percent by exchanging pet care with other pet owners. Pet It Forward is an ideal platform for pet owners looking for boarding, walking, and day care services from either boarding facilities, pet care professionals, or even other pet owners. We plan to start expanding the service offering soon to grooming, training, and other pet care services.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?

Continue reading "Q&A with Pet It Forward founder and CEO Jenna Dreher about building the Priceline for pet service providers" »

Posted by startupbeat at 11:39 AM | Permalink

FindTheBest is a web-based decision making and comparison engine for consumers. It was founded by Kevin O’Connor, the founder of online ad giant DoubleClick (eventually acquired by Google). The Santa Barbara, California–based company was established in August of last year, and just closed a $6 million funding round.

SUB: Please briefly describe what FindTheBest is, and the value proposition you are offering consumers.

O’Connor: FindTheBest is a powerful tool to make quick and informed decisions, without the marketing hype. It presents the facts and provides easy-to-use filters so you can find what is best for you.

Continue reading "Q&A with FindTheBest co-founder and CEO Kevin O’Connor about helping consumers make better decisions" »

Posted by startupbeat at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Canvas is a platform that allows businesses to build and find cross-platform mobile data collection applications. The Reston, Virginia–based company was founded in 2008 and recently raised $1.2 million in Series B funding.

SUB: Please briefly describe what Canvas is, and the value proposition you bring to the mobile apps market.

Quigley: Canvas makes it extremely easy to find, customize, build from scratch and publish data collection apps for smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices like bar code scanning equipment. Canvas replaces paper forms and surveys, improving paper consumption, eliminating redundant data entry and reducing excess processes for businesses and mobile professionals. The Canvas software service enables mobile workers to collect information using their mobile devices, analyze that data on the Canvas website, or share information across their business community. We offer two solution components: the ability to use our online app builder, easy to use with no software experience needed to get started. Once built your Canvas app will work as an app on nearly every smartphone and tablet in the market today. We layer onto this the first mobile app store of its kind with a fast growing catalog of apps populated by some of the leaders in the paper form space. In many cases these apps are improved replacements for part numbered currently sold paper forms.

Continue reading "Q&A with Canvas CEO James Quigley about mobile apps for the enterprise and the company's Series B funding round" »

Posted by startupbeat at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Palm Beach Gardens, FL-based OneUp recently launched in order to coincide with the start of the NFL football season and baseball playoffs. The company was a GamesBeat 2011 Mobile Startup of the Year finalist.

SUB: Please briefly describe what OneUp offers.

Trousdell: OneUp Games makes live sports more fun and rewarding through casual, social sports games. It’s a mix of Zynga—social games—and ESPN—sports and big data. Our first two games are Baseball and Football Connect. We have a few more games coming soon too.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?

Continue reading "Q&A with OneUp Games founder and CEO, Daren Trousdell about bringing gamification to fantasy sports" »

Posted by startupbeat at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

PriceAdvice offers a tool for pricing and comparison of used items. The Austin, TX–based company has raised $500,000 since the start of 2011.

SUB: Please briefly describe what PriceAdvice is, and the value proposition you offer to both buyers and sellers.

Williams: PriceAdvice is the ‘Bluebook For Everything Else’. Our objective is to be the most comprehensive source of fair market prices for used consumer products. This allows buyers to make more informed decisions when buying used items and it will enable sellers to more accurately price their goods for sale.

Continue reading "Q&A with PriceAdvice president and COO Ira Williams III about making comparison shopping online an easy proposition for consumers" »

Posted by startupbeat at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Recently-launched Polkast, founded by serial entrepreneur Hong Bui, allows consumers to easily create a personal cloud to connect and transfer files between all of their devices, regardless of platform. The Capo Beach, CA–based company was founded in December of last year.

SUB: Please briefly describe what Polkast is and the value proposition you offer.

Bui: Everyone is talking about cloud services. Instead of sending your content up to the cloud, Polkast brings the cloud to you. Polkast creates your own “direct cloud” dynamically, letting your mobile devices directly access your home base (PCs). Polkast automatically detects your proximity to the PC and choose the fastest route: Wi-Fi or over the Internet. Polkast then opens a secure connection and encrypts all transmissions. So you can securely access all of your content directly.

By maximizing Wi-Fi bandwidth, Polkast allows users to retrieve any of their data files up to 10x faster than the traditional cloud. This “Direct Cloud” approach also means privacy and security are 100 percent under your control. And removing cloud storage limitations means access to 100 percent of your files. Using Polkast is as easy as downloading the free app and logging in.

Continue reading "Q&A with Polkast founder Hong Bui about making the Cloud consumer-friendly and easy to use" »

Posted by startupbeat at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Adzerk is a publisher-side online ad serving tool that offers a different approach from the ad network model. The Durham, North Carolina–based company recently raised $650K in seed funding.

SUB: What is the value proposition Adzerk offers to both advertisers and publishers?

Avery: Adzerk is purely a publisher side tool—we offer the tools and technology that publishers need to best serve their ad campaigns. Adzerk has a number of advantages over the current crop of ad servers. The first is that we have been rewritten from the ground up with current technology, it’s fast, never blocks a page from loading, and can scale on demand. The second is that we believe enterprise software should be more friendly, we don’t have monthly minimums or contracts—you just pay for what you use.

We don’t sell directly to advertisers—but advertisers can use the Adzerk platform to view reports and work with publishers who use the Adzerk platform.

Continue reading "Q&A with Adzerk founder and CEO James Avery about changing the online advertising ecosystem" »

Posted by startupbeat at 09:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

LocalMind has created an application that allows a new level of interactivity with mobile check-ins and location-based services. The San Francisco–based company was founded in January of this year, and recently closed a $600K funding round.

SUB: What is the value proposition LocalMind brings to the mobile content market?

Rachitsky: We add real day-to-day value to the check-in, and location-based services. When you check-in, you become available to be sent questions about the location you are at. Other members can use that check-in to send you questions about what’s happening at that location in real-time, to avoid disappointment and wasted time. We’re already sharing our location with numerous services, checking in and earning virtual rewards. Why not help others and feel good at the same time?

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?

Continue reading "Q&A with LocalMind co-founder and CEO Lenny Rachitsky about mobile check-ins and the company’s $600K seed funding round" »

Posted by startupbeat at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Blue Jeans Network has developed a video conferencing solution that works across multiple platforms—bringing an unprecedented level of functionality to the medium. The Santa Clara–based company was founded in 2009 and just emerged from stealth mode with $23.5 million in funding.

SUB: What is the value proposition Blue Jeans Network brings to the video conferencing market?

Ramakrishnan: Video conferencing adoption has traditionally been plagued by complex, incompatible, and expensive solutions, while the alternative, audio conferencing, is typically easy, open, and affordable. As a result, the vast majority of multi-site business meetings today use audio conferencing instead of video. According to Wainhouse Research, in 2010 alone, there were only 200 million minutes of video conferencing consumed worldwide, while there were 80 billion minutes of audio conferencing.

Blue Jeans Network is aiming to expand the video conferencing market for all players, by tapping into the 80 billion minute audio conferencing market. Our belief is that if we can make video as easy, open, and affordable as audio then it becomes a no brainer for a significant percentage of audio meetings to convert to video. Just converting 2.5 percent of the audio conferencing market would grow the video conferencing market 10x.

Continue reading "Q&A with Blue Jeans Network co-founder and CEO Krish Ramakrishnan about building interoperability into video conferencing and the market opportunity it presents" »

Posted by startupbeat at 09:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Continue reading "Funding and Acquisitions: Eric Schmidt’s Tomorrow Ventures among new investors in cloud storage firm CX" »

Posted by startupbeat at 07:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Reading, UK-based DataSift has built a platform for organizing and analyzing the social web for business intelligence. The company was founded in 2007 and recently closed a $6 million funding round led by IA Ventures and GRP Partners.

SUB: What is the value proposition that DataSift offers?

Patterson: DataSift solves two problems. It allows for the curation of content and business intelligence and data mining. It does this on a pay per use basis, by aggregating and augmenting the social web. This provides economies of scale and access to data which has never been available before.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?

Continue reading "Q&A with DataSift COO Darren Patterson about sifting the social web and $6 million in new funding" »

Posted by startupbeat at 08:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Cloud9 is a cloud-based, collaborative Integrated Development Environment. The Amsterdam-based startup recently raised $5.5 million in Series A funding.

SUB: Please briefly describe Cloud9, and the value proposition you bring to the market.

Daniels: Cloud9 IDE provides the first commercial cloud-based Integrated Development Environment for JavaScript incorporating HTML5, and supporting Python, Ruby and PHP. Developers can access, edit, and share projects anywhere, to build, test, debug, and deploy web and mobile applications in as little as half the time, with fewer technical skills.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?

Daniels: As the first commercial Development as a Service, or DaaS, platform featuring debugging, collaboration, and mobile access, we are in a unique position. Our main competition comes from legacy desktop tools, such as TextMate, VI, and Emacs. The core of developers still follows the Eclipse/Java model, which doesn’t directly compete, since it lacks cloud-based development and integration. Other cloud services out there at this time are simply projects, not commercial platforms.

Continue reading "Q&A with Cloud9 co-founder and CEO Ruben Daniels" »

Posted by startupbeat at 09:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

TechCrunch Disrupt 2010 winner Soluto makes “anti-frustration” software that utilizes crowd sourcing to find solutions to PC problems and for maintaining healthy systems. The Tel Aviv–based company was founded in 2007 and recently closed a $10.5 million funding round.

SUB: Please describe Soluto and the value proposition your software brings to the PC market.

Dvir: Many PC users are frustrated by their PCs, and Soluto’s goal is to make them happy. The burden of supporting the unhappy people falls on the shoulders of a very small group of PC techies, who put a lot of effort into helping their family, friends and co-workers. Soluto helps these super-users help themselves and others, in an easy, quick, fun way.

Continue reading "Q&A with Tomer Dvir, Soluto CEO, about the ‘PC Genome’ and the company’s $10.5 million funding round" »

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Encore Career Institute is a new online education venture backed by Creative Artists Agency, The Sherry Lansing Foundation and Poizner. The startup has partnered with the UCLA Extension to offer courses specifically tailored to professionals going back to school for professional development or a new career (hence the name “Encore”). The company, which recently closed a $15 million Series A funding round, was founded earlier this year and is based in Los Gatos, Calif.

SUB: Please briefly describe Encore, and the value proposition you bring to the education market.

Poizner: The Encore Career Institute is a new online company formed by leaders in the field of education and technology to offer certificate programs for baby boomers in need of employment, seeking a second (“encore”) career, or looking to enhance their current careers. Encore will offer full end-to-end counseling, from upfront career guidance, to innovative online courses, followed by assistance with the job search process. Encore’s national focus will broaden the highly respected curriculum and certificate programs of UCLA Extension to a larger audience, enabling boomers throughout the country to improve their lives and careers with new skill sets.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?

Continue reading "Q&A with Encore Career Institute CEO Steve Poizner" »

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EDITD serves up real time information and analysis on trends and market dynamics for the fashion industry. They recently secured $1.6 million in seed funding. The London-based company was founded in 2009.

SUB: Please briefly describe what EDITD is, and the value proposition you bring to the fashion and apparel market.

Watts: EDITD connects fashion, luxury and apparel people with the data they need to make better decisions. By applying analysis to social, commercial and creative information, we give businesses the power to quickly understand trends and market dynamics in real time—now, in the past and future. EDITD provides factual, actionable information for trading, product direction and strategic decisions. It’s like a Bloomberg for the fashion industry.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?

Continue reading "Q&A with EDITD co-founder Geoff Watts" »

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Virsto offers cost-effective and efficient storage for virtualized environments (servers and desktops). The company recently closed a $12 million Series B funding round. Founded in 2007, Virsto is based in Sunnyvale.

SUB: Please briefly explain what Virsto offers, and the value proposition you bring to the enterprise storage market.

Davis: Virsto Software provides innovative solutions to address the growing need for cost-effective and efficient storage for virtual servers and desktops. Companies worldwide use Virsto to achieve breakthrough increases in performance, reduce storage capital and operating costs, and streamline provisioning and data management for virtual computing.

SUB: What was the inspiration behind Virsto? How did the idea develop?

Continue reading "Q&A with Virsto co-founder and CEO Mark Davis" »

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Infineta Systems brings Hyper-scale WAN Optimization solutions to the enterprise market. The San Jose–based company was founded in 2008, and recently closed a $15 million Series B funding round.

SUB: Please briefly describe what Infineta is, and the value proposition you bring to the WAN optimization market.

Kanaya: Infineta is a provider of Hyper-scale WAN Optimization systems. We make a product—called the Data Mobility Switch—that helps customers improve the movement of critical network traffic traversing between enterprise data centers through a combination of unique technologies in traffic control, network layer optimization and data reduction. The value realized by customers is significant cost savings, enhanced WAN infrastructure performance, and improved reliability for their critical applications.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?

Continue reading "Q&A with Infineta Systems co-founder and CEO Raj Kanaya" »

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buuteeq has developed a unique digital marketing and booking service for hotels around the world. The service not only provides hotels with a web presence and the ability to manage reservations in the cloud, but it also enables the integrated management of social media channels. The Seattle-based company was founded in 2009.

SUB: Please briefly describe buuteeq, and the value proposition you bring to the hotel marketing and booking market.

Key: buuteeq is a Software as a Service (SaaS) digital marketing system for hotels that powers a hotel’s online reservations and marketing through the web, mobile devices and Facebook. With buuteeq the hotel staff can quickly and easily make changes to their website at any time, and those changes are immediately updated to their mobile and Facebook materials as well—making it much easier and cost effective to maintain a great online presence. With buuteeq’s digital marketing system powering a hotel’s online experience more prospective guests will learn about the hotel, and a higher proportion of them will book directly with the hotel, delivering more aggregate reservations at lower commissions.

SUB: How does the service work, for both hotels and travelers?

Continue reading "Q&A with buuteeq founder and CEO Forest Key" »

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Shape Collage is an app that allows users to make collages out of their photos. The company was born out of the experience of its founder, a former Google employee who discovered an easier way produce photo collages to share with friends than spending hours on photoshop. Shape Collage says that its application has been downloaded more than 4 million times. The Toronto-based company was founded in 2009.

SUB: Please briefly describe Shape Collage and the value proposition you bring to the photo apps market.

Cheung: Shape Collage is software that takes hundreds of your photos and automatically creates photo collages in different shapes in just seconds. The photos are intelligently arranged to form the shape of a heart, word, logo or any desired shape in a way that optimizes the placement of the photos so that the photos are nicely spaced out and the photos are visible in the collage.

Besides being the only collage maker that automatically and intelligently arranges the photos and creates collages in different shapes, Shape Collage is also capable of handling up to tens of thousands of photos, generating collages large enough to print on a giant billboard, and can export to Photoshop format with each photo in its own layer, none of which other collage makers are capable of doing.

Shape Collage is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and iPhone. We also have online and Facebook applications.

SUB: How did the idea for Shape Collage come about? Was there an “aha” moment of inspiration, or was it longer in developing?

Continue reading "Q&A with Shape Collage founder and CEO Vincent Cheung" »

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Appsfire is an apps discovery engine that utilizes personalized guides for a variety of app marketplaces.  The Paris and Tel Aviv-based company was founded in 2010 and recently closed a $3.6 million Series A funding round.

SUB: Please briefly describe Appsfire and the value proposition you bring to the apps discovery market.

Ohayon: Appsfire helps users discover relevant apps through personal guides for different app stores and marketplaces. We build unique discovery mechanisms and experiences that help people find great apps. All smartphone users are faced with the same experience when browsing an app marketplace. It is not personal, it too dense, it is hard to browse. We bring easy, customized and fun discovery to the users.

We provide a set of apps by device by specific needs (kids, cities, etc.) to help users find great apps. The engine behind is the same—the envelope changes.

On the business side we help developers better market their apps, today in acquisition and soon in retention.

Continue reading "Q&A with Appsfire co-founder and CEO Ouriel Ohayon" »

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Claritics recently raised a $1.5 million Series A funding round for its “social intelligence” social analytics solution for app developers and social commerce.

SUB: Please describe what Claritics is, and the value proposition you bring to the analytics market.

Pai: Claritics is a “social intelligence” company. We provide social analytics for app developers and business owners conducting social commerce to help them optimize their reach, retention and revenue campaigns. We take all of the rich data available about a user’s profile and their social behaviors and we deliver it in a way that helps our clients gain immediate and actionable insights. We’re a bit different that what’s already on the market in that we focus on driving clear actions from analytics (campaign offers, ad targeting, in-game virtual goods, etc). Our solution is also unique and includes a set of automation features and predictive modeling technologies that help app developers optimize app performance on the fly.

SUB: What was the inspiration behind Claritics?

Continue reading "Q&A with Claritics co-founder and CEO Raj Pai" »

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Bababoo offers a wifi and 3G-based mobile calling solution, and they just raised $1.5 million in seed funding from Sierra Ventures. Co-founder and CEO Buck French tells StartUp Beat that the two most important differentiators for Bababoo are ease-of-use in calling and intelligent call routing. The London-based company was founded in February, 2010.

SUB: What is Bababoo? What is the value proposition that you offer to customers?

French: Bababoo is an intelligent calling app that provides effortless savings when placing mobile calls. The app is intelligent because it knows when your phone is connected to the Internet in order to place free and low cost Internet calls. When your phone is not on the Internet, the app ensures the call is placed by routing the call through your carrier network. The savings are “effortless” because all the consumer needs to do is press the Bababoo Blue button and dial, nothing else. Our interface looks the same as the iPhone dialer and you keep your same phone number without porting. You literally just dial and we place the call the lowest cost way possible.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?

Continue reading "Q&A with Bababoo co-founder and CEO Buck French" »

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Facebook-based employment networking service BranchOut announced last week that it has raised $18 million in Series B funding. StartUp Beat caught up with Mike Del Ponte, BranchOut’s head of marketing, about the company and how it plans to use the funding.

SUB: Please describe how BranchOut works. What is the experience like for users?

Del Ponte: BranchOut is the largest professional networking service on Facebook. It is where Facebook users go to find jobs, recruit talent, source sales leads and foster relationships with professional contacts—all on Facebook.

We are also offering enterprise products for corporate clients, starting with recruiting products. BranchOut also operates the largest job board on Facebook with over 3 million jobs and 20,000 internships. We allow anyone to post a job on BranchOut. We also have a Jobs Tab product whereby companies can post jobs on their Facebook fan pages. We’ll be releasing our full enterprise suite for recruiters this summer.

SUB: What differentiates BranchOut from other career networking websites?

Continue reading "Q&A with BranchOut’s Mike Del Ponte" »

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Tabbedout, a service that allows diners to pay tabs at restaurants and bars via mobile phone, just closed a $5.75 million Series A round of funding. Co-founder and CEO Rick Orr tells StartUp Beat that the idea for the company came from his own frustrating experience and that he believes customers are ready for a paradigm shift in the way they pay for dining. The Austin, TX-based company was founded in 2009.

SUB: Please briefly describe Tabbedout’s service and the value proposition you offer to restaurants and to customers.

Orr: Tabbedout is the mobile payment solution that makes mobile payment widely available so bars and restaurants can spend more time with their customers. The free Tabbedout app for iPhone and Android enables consumers to open a tab with their mobile phone, view their tab in real-time and pay the tab anytime, anywhere—you can even split the check paying just your portion directly from the app. Our mobile payment solution integrates directly with the merchant’s point-of-sale (POS) system and does not require additional hardware or changes to their accounting. This allows Tabbedout merchants to serve more people and turn more tables, especially during peak hours. Tabbedout also provides payment assurance by providing validated payment info when a tab is first opened.

Continue reading "Q&A with Tabbedout co-founder and CEO Rick Orr" »

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Apptivo offers free online productivity apps for small businesses. The Silicon Valley-based company was founded in 2008.

SUB: Please briefly describe the services Apptivo offers.

Gerald: Apptivo is a platform that provides many small business apps for free. Apptivo has apps to manage your employees, ecommerce store, customers, projects, timesheets, invoices and many other functions of a small business.

SUB: What is the technology behind the services?

Gerald: We use Postgres SQL DB and JBoss. All our apps are written in Java.

SUB: What is your business model? How does Apptivo make money?

Continue reading "Q&A with Apptivo founder and CEO Bastin Gerald" »

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Haileo offers visually-delivered advertising and ecommerce solutions and technology. The Santa Clara-based company was founded in 2009.

SUB: Briefly describe the services you offer.

Gunadhi: Haileo offers products for online advertising and visual e-commerce. These products establish intent of the multimedia content from visual context to help clients monetize their underserved inventories.

SUB: What is the technology behind Haileo?

Gunadhi: Haileo’s patent pending technologies utilizes visual context of the online digital content. The key capabilities of the technology include unsupervised learning of multimedia elements from vast and unreliable sets of data (web); advanced algorithms for automated and scalable processing of large multimedia data sets; innovative algorithms to understand images and videos and match their multimedia attributes; and detection and classification algorithms that use higher order relationships between content.

SUB: What is the value proposition Haileo offers to both advertisers and publishers?

Continue reading "Q&A with Haileo CEO Himawan Gunadhi" »

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LeadBolt is a new online and mobile advertising and monetization platform. The company was founded in 2010.

SUB: Please briefly describe the services LeadBolt offers.

Carr: LeadBolt offers anyone, from website owners to mobile applications developers, a better way of earning money from their site, online content or mobile apps than they would through conventional advertising mechanisms like Google Adsense. In simple terms, Leadbolt is the new wave of monetizing content online and on mobile.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?

Continue reading "Q&A with LeadBolt founder and CEO Dale Carr" »

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Line2 offers a feature-packed unified telephony application for businesses and consumers alike. The application is offered by Toktumi, which is based in San Francisco and was founded in 2008.

SUB: Please describe the concept behind Line2.

Sisson: The concept is really about having a second phone line on your cell phone.

People that use Line2 for business can create a professional identity for themselves. They can separate their business and personal calls without having to carry around two cell phones. One cell phone, two lines. Hence, Line2. Other features include: “Do Not Disturb,” separate voicemails and call forwarding.

Despite the primary targets being business professionals, we found that a lot of consumers have gravitated to Line2 as well.  The biggest reason is that they want to keep their personal cell phone private. They use it in instances when they have to provide a phone number but don’t want it to be the primary number.

The third use is that people discover that they can make calls where they couldn’t before. A lot of people have issues with cellular reception in their homes and offices. Line2 can be used for cellular, Wi-Fi and 3G calling. Line2 makes it so that they’re never stuck without service, even if they don’t have a cell signal.

SUB: What is the experience like for users?

Continue reading "Q&A with Toktumi/Line2 founder and CEO Peter Sisson" »

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Schedulicity is an online appointment and scheduling application for businesses. The
Bozeman, Montana-based company was founded in 2009.

SUB: What is Schedulicity? What is the value proposition you’ve brought to the market?

Nettuno: Schedulicity is the leader in online appointment scheduling which helps appointment-dependent small businesses save time and increase profitability through eliminating the hassles of scheduling.

We automate the process of appointment booking which helps to optimize the operations of a small business, bringing efficiency to the time-consuming task of managing a paper appointment book that allows service providers to make more money, save more money and service their clientele while building their brand. Schedulicity makes it possible for a

Continue reading "Q&A with Schedulicity founder and CEO Jerry Nettuno" »

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Earlier this week, Send the Trend, an accessories fashion retail website, announced that it has secured $3 million in Series A funding. The New York City-based company was founded in October, 2010.

SUB: What is the concept behind Send the Trend? What is the value proposition you bring to the market?

Gugnani: Send the Trend is an online accessories fashion retailer offering selections of accessories for $29.95 per item including free shipping. These selections are curated by fashion designer Christian Siriano. Visitors enjoy new customized selections of sunglasses, scarves, jewelry and more each month. The value proposition of this site is that it saves customers time because we do the work for you and it also eliminates the need to do cost comparison shopping because each and every item is $29.95.

SUB: How does it work for customers?

Continue reading "Q&A with Send the Trend co-founder and CEO Divya Gugnani" »

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Clovr Media connects credit and debit card transactions to interactive and loyalty advertising. The Boston-based company was founded in 2010.

SUB: Briefly describe what Clovr Media does and the value proposition you bring to your markets.
Burgess: Clovr Media delivers Loyalty 2.0 to the financial services and digital media ecosystems by bridging the gap between credit and debit card loyalty and interactive advertising in a way that is seamless and simple for consumers. Clovr Media has built the first platform converting banner, text, video, or mobile ads into Card Linked Offers—delivering pinpoint targeting and accountability for online and mobile advertising. When clicked, CLOs link savings directly to a consumer’s credit or debit card—no point of sale integration, no mail-in rebates or paper coupons—and the savings appear directly on the consumer’s bank statement. CLOs are an evolutionary leap forward for financial institutions encouraging loyalty and increasing reward points redemption. Clovr Media’s Gateway gives advertisers the direct link between digital ad spend and consumer purchases with 100 percent attribution. CLOs allow consumers to shop their favorite brands, and see big savings.

SUB: What is the user experience like for your customers: advertisers, financial institutions, and advertisers alike?

Continue reading "Q&A with Clovr Media co-founder and CEO Tom Burgess" »

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FanFeedr is a sports enthusiast website that allows fans to follow and get news and information about favorite teams. The Brooklyn, NY-based company was founded in 2008.

SUB: Please describe how your service works. What is the user experience like?

Ahmad-Taylor: FanFeedr delivers personalized real-time streams for a user’s favorite teams and players. Like the New York Yankees? We give you all of the best Yankees news and information directly on FanFeedr.com, Facebook, Twitter, and through our award-winning mobile applications.

On the website, users can simply add their favorite teams and players to their FanFeed after signing in. The home page of the site refreshes every minute of every day with new, personalized news. On Facebook, a user can simply become a fan of the favorite team, like the Yankees, to get the best Yankees News and Information delivered right into their Facebook news stream.

On Twitter, a user simply has to follow their favorite team on FanFeedr, like the Yankees, to get all of the Yankees news and information, live scores and photos. On our mobile applications, the user experience is exactly like the website: add your favorite teams and get a constantly-updated stream of news and information.

SUB: What differentiates FanFeedr from other sports-enthusiast websites?

Continue reading "Q&A with FanFeedr founder and CEO Ty Ahmad-Taylor" »

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Splother is a one-stop sponsorship and licensing service for musicians and brand managers. The Nashville and Los Angeles-based company was founded in 2010.

SUB: What is Splother?

Collins: A service where music supervisors and brand managers can select the best independent music for sync licensing or sponsorship and obtain a one-stop license.

SUB: How does it work?

Collins: Splother will have the best artists readily available, for many different licensing needs. Have a deadline, looking for the right sound or look for your product, go to Splother, find what you need, and click to pay, contracts are created automatically and you have your agreement.

SUB: What is the vision behind Splother?

Continue reading "Q&A with Splother co-founder Jason Collins" »

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MightyNest is an ecommerce site that offers environmentally safe products for homes and families. The Evanston, Illinois-based company was founded in 2009.

SUB: Please briefly describe what MightyNest offers.

Conn: MightyNest is an online store, resource center and community that helps parents create a healthy, safe home for their family. Our team of experts selects products for babies, kids and adults made with high-quality materials by reputable manufacturers. We carefully screen each product to ensure all are free of BPA, lead, flame-retardants, PVC, phthalates and other chemicals and heavy metals increasingly tied to health concerns. Supporting the MightyNest store, our blog, learn section and Facebook page serve our community of passionate families, enabling them to share ideas, research important issues and find safer product alternatives.

SUB: What is the primary value proposition you offer MightyNest customers?

Continue reading "Q&A with MightyNest founder and CEO Chris Conn" »

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RewardTag is a digital tagging service that allows customers to track and retrieve lost devices. The Los Angeles-based company was founded in May, 2010.

SUB: Briefly describe the concept behind RewardTag. How does it work?

Nichols: RewardTag is a service that gets lost valuable devices back to the rightful owner. Our high quality tags digitally connect a personal message, promised cash reward, and contact information directly to the device through a unique ID number. All too often, people lose valuable items that are not only expensive, but also carry irreplaceable data. More times than one might think, the finders of these items want to return them, but don’t have the necessary information to do it. Attach a label that makes it easy for the finder to return it, plus promise a reward, and you’re way more likely to get that device back.

SUB: How many RewardTag customers do you currently have?

Nichols: One of our markets is individual customers online, of which we have around 400 customers. Another customer of ours is businesses who buy RewardTag labels for their employees, to put on company issued devices, of which we are in the process of selling in bulk to eight companies—ranging from small, local businesses to huge corporations.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competitors?

Continue reading "Q&A with RewardTag co-founder and CEO Brian Nichols" »

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JabberJury is a conflict resolution website that uses social media to facilitate debates between people. The Chicago-based company was founded in February of this year.

SUB: What is the concept behind JabberJury?

Wielgus: JabberJury is a courtroom-themed social media website. I like to call it “conflictainment” or the entertainment derived from the conflict of others. We provide a forum where people having a disagreement can upload a video representing his or her respective side of the argument and the rest of the site’s visitors can vote on who is right and wrong. Aside from receiving “social justice” site visitors compete for points called Jabbies that can be redeemed for prizes, donated to charity or help increase one’s standing in the site’s social hierarchy. Unlike other conflictainment options, our content is diverse and quick—just what the Internet generation likes. And, if you don’t like the content of one case, click to the next. We are [going to be] to conflictainment what Amazon is to books.

SUB: Please describe how the site works. What is the user experience like?

Continue reading "Q&A with Kevin Wielgus, JabberJury co-founder and president" »

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eBookFling is a nationwide ebook swapping network. The New Jersey-based company was founded in 2010.

SUB: Please briefly describe the service you offer and the technology behind it.

Burke: eBookFling.com is a nationwide swapping network for Nook and Kindle ebooks for tens-of-thousands of members to request 2-week book loans at the cost of one credit each. It works by utilizing the lending feature already enabled on many Kindle and Nook ebooks, which allows an ebook owner a one-time opportunity to loan the ebook to someone and have it automatically returned to the owner’s device in 14 days. An eBookFling borrower will spend one credit to borrow a book from any of our tens-of-thousands of members. We’ll collect the loan via a unique email address, reward the lender with one credit, and pass the download info from Amazon or Barnes & Noble on to the borrower.

Continue reading "Q&A with eBookFling founder and CEO George Burke" »

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GroupPrice is a daily deals site for businesses, and business products and services. The Redwood City, Calif., company was founded in 2010.

SUB: What is the end-user experience like for your business customers?

Jepson: The GroupPrice deals are presented on the home page with a simplified one step buying mechanism in a fresh and fun tone. We continue to refine the experience by listening to hundreds of comments from member calls, surveys, posts to Facebook, LinkedIn and tweets.

SUB: Who are your target markets? Are you targeting large enterprises or SMBs?

Jepson: We attract startups, micro-businesses, and small businesses that create the majority of their revenue online with credit card transactions. We have found that they have been badly weakened by the economy and really want to grow their revenue while cutting costs.

Continue reading "Q&A with GroupPrice founder and CEO Van Jepson" »

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TripAlertz is a membership-based travel site that uses volume and collective buying to give members the best price on airfare and hotel. The Boston-based company was founded in 2010.

SUB: How would you describe TripAlertz in a few sentences?

Murphy: TripAlertz.com is a private, members-only travel site that uses the power of collective buying to deliver our members the guaranteed best prices. Once booked, travelers have the option to meet & share advice with their fellow travelers via our collaboration page to make the most of their travel experience. For our grand launch, we are offering members the chance to win a free trip to space! Check it out at www.tripalertz.com/space. Free and takes seconds.

SUB: What inspired this concept?

Continue reading "Q&A with TripAlertz founder Brendan Murphy" »

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DineTonite is an online restaurant reservation and discount service. The New York City-based company was founded in 2010 and currently offers its service in New York, with more rollouts planned in the near future.

SUB: Briefly describe the DineTonite user experience.

Islam: DineTonite offers restaurant patrons the ability to save an unlimited dollar amount at restaurants. Individuals simply login to www.dinetonite.com to find and research the right restaurant by searching by location, cuisine, and other factors. Upon selection of the restaurant, DineTonite presents a real-time reservations calendar that displays percentage discounts off the entire food bill for that specific day. Dynamic discounts vary day-by-day per the restaurant management’s desire, with deeper discounts typically appearing during the week. DineTonite members can use the service to book restaurants up to three months in advance.

Continue reading "Q&A with DineTonite founder and CEO Mohammed Islam" »

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SpeechTrans is the maker of speech-to-speech language translation software. The Lyndhurst, NJ –based company was founded in 2010.

SUB: Please briefly describe the service you offer and the technology behind it.

Frei: SpeechTrans provides the world’s most advanced speech-to-speech language translation software, powered by Nuance (maker of Dragon Dictation). SpeechTrans Ultimate currently enables Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) in English, UK English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Japanese, with spoken translations in English, UK English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Portuguese, Chinese (Mandarin), Korean and Arabic.

SUB: What is the primary value proposition you offer your users?

Frei: Elimination of language barriers allowing users to have an improved experience while traveling abroad on vacation, providing a competitive advantage in entering the global economy for business and an exceptional language learning tool to students or people who want to learn a new language.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your primary competition?

Continue reading "Q&A with SpeechTrans co-founder and CEO John Frei" »

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HeyKiki is a crowd-sourced local activities site focused on connection instructors and motivated learners in specialized activities. The New York City-based company was founded in 2009.

SUB: How would you describe your service in one or two sentences?

Vadakkekara: HeyKiki.com is a simple, user-friendly site that's designed to connect users with trusted local instructors and practice partners for a wide variety of activities.

SUB: What is the value proposition you are bringing to market?

Vadakkekara: HeyKiki is setting out to help people lead more active and interesting lives. In a city as big and fast-paced as New York, there's so much to do that it can be overwhelming at times. People want to do more with their time but they often don't know where to start. That's where HeyKiki comes in.  The mantra is simple - You know nothing - Learn. You know a little bit - practice. You know something - teach. So it really draws people in from a multifaceted approach to crowd-sourcing. From participants to instructors alike. All through a location-based platform designed to foster a community of like-minded activity enthusiasts.

SUB: What is the user experience like on HeyKiki?

Continue reading "Q&A with HeyKiki founder and CEO Joseph Vadakkekara" »

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Eventbrite is an online event planning and ticketing service. The San Francisco-based company was founded in 2006.

SUB: How many tickets have been sold through Eventbrite to this point?

Hartz: We’ve sold over 22.5m tickets.

SUB: What is the story behind the Eventbrite idea? Was there an “aha” moment of inspiration behind the company?

Continue reading "Q&A with Eventbrite co-founder and president Julia Hartz" »

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Tigits is a provider of temporary changeable secondary phone numbers. The Toronto-based company was founded in  2010.

SUB: Please briefly describe the service you offer. 

Miller: Tigits (short for – “temporary digits”) is a new service that offers an anonymous and second changeable phone numbers that are linked to users’ permanent wireless or home phone. This allows users to maintain safety and privacy while making and receiving calls. Tigits subscribers can give out their Tigits temporary number when dating online, protecting their permanent home phone and wireless numbers, as well as their home address. If a date goes bad, the Tigits subscriber can quickly change their temporary number, preventing unwanted calls. Email services like Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail have provided this type of anonymity, safety and privacy online for years and now Tigits delivers the same features over the phone. It can also be used for business dealings, buying things online, dealing with salespeople or anytime someone doesn’t want to give their permanent number to a stranger.

SUB: I noticed a testimonial from LavaLife on your website and other references to online dating, so I assume that is a key target market for you, but what other groups are you going after with your service?

Continue reading "Q&A with Tigits co-founder and CEO Sean Miller" »

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Ideal Network is a daily deals site that gives up to 25 percent of the purchase price of the product or service to a non-profit of the consumer’s choice. The Seattle-based company was founded in 2010.

SUB: How does your daily deals service work? How are you integrating cause marketing into the service?

Bell: Like other daily deal sites, our members sign up and receive a daily deal with a coupon that offers a great deal at a local merchant. Unlike other daily deal sites, 25 percent of the purchase price goes towards a nonprofit or school. Which is real money for causes.

We’ve done something that I think is really powerful: we’ve connected the cause to the member, rather than to the merchant. If you think about it, in traditional cause-related marketing a merchant and a cause are linked, and everyone sees the same deal (whether or not you care about that cause).

Continue reading "Q&A with Ideal Network co-founder and CEO Ronny Bell" »

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Sococo has devised an innovative online communication and sharing community for businesses with distributed teams of employees. It was founded in 2007 and is based in Mountain View, Calif.

SUB: How do your services work? What is the basic experience for the end user?

Brody: Using Sococo Team Space is just like being in an office with your distributed team in real time. You can all talk, chat, screen share and work together in an easy-to-use environment. Plus, you can see what’s going on around you. Team Space has been optimized for groups of four or more members that need to be in frequent communication and use cloud and desktop applications. Sococo’s spatial user interface and avatars create a virtual and visual environment for a more connected experience.

SUB: Who are your target customers?

Brody: Team Space targets businesses with distributed teams, and is particularly handy for those teams who practice Agile development. Team Space, however, is not just for techies. By incorporating the ability to persistently share documents, audio, video, view websites, and instant message, the service is useful for most anyone needing to communicate easily, efficiently, and cost-effectively with their colleagues across a distance.

Continue reading "Q&A with Paul Brody, president and co-founder of Sococo" »

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Mediafeedia provides Facebook marketing management tools for businesses of all sizes. The company was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in South Carolina.  

SUB: How does mediafeedia work? What is the basic experience for the business end user?

VanBogart: By simply signing in with your Facebook account, mediafeedia users can manage multiple business pages on Facebook with a variety of tools. Users can post content in real-time, schedule out content for future delivery, receive Facebook page email notifications, share administrator responsibilities, and in the next few weeks will be able to create custom Facebook tabs that deliver incentives to social media followers!

SUB: Are your target customers just small-and-medium sized businesses or larger enterprises as well?

Continue reading "Q&A with meediafeedia co-founder and VP of marketing Justin J. VanBogart" »

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Agent18 designs, produces and sells high-quality mobile device accessories.  The company was founded in 2004 and is based in Los Angeles.

SUB: What is unique about your protective products?  Why would a consumer choose Agent 18’s products over others in the market?