Editor's Note: See all our Excelerate Labs coverage here.

WHAT: Netflix for menu items: learns your likes and dislikes and makes recommendations on what to eat, not just where. The Food Genius database has categorized 172K dishes in Chicago on everything from ingredients to cooking technique. Users start with a list of dishes and rate them. They can also recommend dishes they have eaten.

LAUNCHERS:  Justin Massa, CEO; Eric Cooper, lead developer.

WHEN/WHERE: Beta July 2011 / Chicago

WHY: No apps can help you decide what to eat in your area. People like getting accurate recommendations. Restaurants don't have a reliable data source about what local consumers want.

BACKSTORY: Justin, who used to work in downtown Chicago, would pull out his phone at lunchtime to look for something to eat, "but nothing answered the question the way I wanted it to. I wanted something like...

Editor's Note: See all our Excelerate Labs coverage here.

WHAT: CookItFor.Us connects people who are too busy to cook with licensed chefs and caterers in their area who need customers. To get a chef/caterer to make a recipe, people can like ("crave") one that's already on the site or upload one they find online. Those who own a recipe can post it by joining the recipe affiliate site. The more craves a recipe receives, the more likely a chef/caterer will make it. Chefs/caterers then bid on price to make the dish. Depending on the chef/caterer making the dish, people can have the food delivered to their home, pick it up, or eat it at a restaurant.

Newest feature is "Request a Maker": CookItForUs will find a chef/caterer within 72 hours who can make a recipe on the site for you.

While the demand-driven model is currently only available in Chicago, Request a Maker will eventually roll out nationwide.

LAUNCHERS: Moshe Tamssot, CEO. Conrad Fuhrman, CTO. Larry Johnson, operations advisor.

WHEN/WHERE: October 2010 / Chicago, Public Beta 

WHY: Alternative to fast food and frozen/pre-packaged meals at the grocery store. It's easy to find recipes online but much harder to find someone who can make it for you unless you hire a private chef or catering service. Local fresh foods should be as accessible and convenient as mass-produced items. Consumers like supporting local businesses. Services like Airbnb and GetAround (for cars) have proven there's a market for matching people who have more time than money with people who have more money than time.

BACKSTORY: After growing up with restaurateur parents and working in the food industry, Moshe decided...

WHAT: Snapette [ @snapette ] is a social fashion discovery app. Allows shoppers on the go to upload your own photos, follow hot trending items with the most comments, check out purchases your friends made, and search by brand, store or description for an item...

WHAT: Crowdsourced gift giving. Create and share lists -- and costs -- of potential gifts for your friends, who then have the final say and can choose something they really want.  From.us [ @fromdotus ] allows users to connect through Facebook and help each other find gifts the receipient actually wants.

LAUNCHERS: Eric Scott , Daniel Hirunrusme.

INSPIRATION: Giving gifts is hard work, and a recipient is not guaranteed to get something they want...

WHAT: Loku [ @loku ] uses big data to give you the inside scoop on what the locals do while you're on vacation -- or in your own hometown.  "Our approach, based on local language patterns instead of links, provides the most effective local results on the internet," CEO Dan Street told LAUNCH via email.

LAUNCHERS: Dan Street, CEO and founder [ LinkedIn ] , Roger Castillo CTO and co-founder [ LinkedIn ], Raj Ramanan, president and co-founder [ LinkedIn ].

INSPIRATION: "We are a group of folks who grew up in small towns...

WHAT: Manpacks [ @manpacks ] makes purchasing men's essentials like underwear, socks, shirts, shaving products and condoms simple with the click of a button.

WHY: Most guys don't like to spend time shopping for essential items like underwear. Manpacks automates those routine purchases so they never have to go shopping again...

WHAT: Create branded video content environment under your own domain with VidCaster. 

LAUNCHERS: Kieran Farr, CEO, [ @kfarr , LinkedIn ], Steve Cochrane, Designer, [ @stevecochrane , LinkedIn ], Ray Pawulich,VP Marketing, [ @raypaw , LinkedIn ], Jiang Li, Developer, [ LinkedIn ].

INSPIRATION: "We created VidCaster as a solution to our own problems...

WHAT: Gets people to sign up for a startup's service before it launches and share via Facebook and Twitter. Also has embeddable widget and an API for integrating LaunchRock [ @getlaunchrock ] into an existing sign-up process. Provides data on traffic and demographics. "Discovery network" for launching startups coming soon.

LAUNCHERS: Jameson Detweiler, CEO. [ @jaymstr ] Thomas Knoll, Hustler [ @thomasknoll ]. Zachary Melamed. David Drager [ @ddrager ].

BACKSTORY: LaunchRock came out of Startup Weekend Philadelphia...