LAUNCH Blog

LAUNCH Blog

Posted in: Profiles

Earn Cash Rewards for Being a Loyal Customer with Korea-based Spoqa

WHAT: A digital social loyalty card that consumers can use to earn cash-like points for their purchases. Facebook and Twitter integration lets users recommend friends to stores. Whenever friends buy at the store you recommended, Spoqa sends a mobile push notification informing you that your friend saved you X number of points at the store.

Receive 100 points for downloading the app. Currently only available in South Korea but will eventually launch in the U.S.

LAUNCHERS: Richard Choi, CEO, Jaeseok Kim and Victor Ching.

WHY: Most customer loyalty programs are anti-social. Groupon-style offers do not guarantee repeat business. Friend suggestions and recommendations are more effective for small businesses than ads or coupons.

WHEN/WHERE: Sept. 8, 2011 / South Korea.

BACKSTORY: Richard was part of Korea's first Groupon clone, Wipon, in August 2010. As he watched the industry explode, he questioned...

Adby.Me Puts Advertising in the Hands of Social Media Users

WHAT: Social network advertising platform that pays users to write and display ads on their social accounts. Instead of relying on a celebrity to endorse a product, users are the voice of wisdom for their online communities. Advertisers have final say in approval of content.

LAUNCHERS: Josh Kim, CEO.

WHY: People hate online advertising. Since advertisements are unavoidable, why not crowdsource your content writing and ad publishing to social network users. People will be less reluctant to click an ad on their friend's page if...

Commonred: Professional Network Offers Competition to Meet VIPs

WHAT: A professional networking solution to foster introductions based on common interests. Commonred members can also connect with VIP professionals through community-decided pitch competitions. Members state why they want to meet with a VIP professional and compete against other users in the Commonred community. Currently, the VIPs are predominantly made up of entrepreneurs and other digerati, but the service looks to expand to include other professionals.

Answer Commonred questions to build your interest graph and connect your social media accounts to expand the number of ways you can connect to others. Commonred also lets you add a Wordpress feed, YouTube video or other images to your account.

LAUNCHERS: Derek Andersen, CEO and founder of Vaporware Labs and former EA product manager. Joel Fernandes, CTO, founder of Digital Work...

Rewardli Is Ecommerce Genius: Small Businesses Earn Cash Rewards That Grow with Their Social Graph

WHAT: Small businesses get discounts at over 60 vendors based on the number of purchases they make and those of their group -- friends on Facebook or an association/program partnering with Rewardli -- up to the max a retailer is willing to give. Group members do not need to buy the same thing at the same time to get the deal, and deals are always "on." Businesses make a purchase through the vendor's regular ecommerce site and receive their discounts as cash back in their PayPal accounts once a month.

Members can be part of more than one group. Those in a private group (e.g., alumni association, frequent flyer program) can get discounts not available to everyone on Rewardli.

Hardware discounts range from 1% to 3% and some web-based services are...

AnyBeat: Not a Facebook Replacement But an Online Global Public Square

WHAT: An online community for public discussion on topics ranging from politics to religion and meeting like-minded individuals. Users can sign up with their real name or use a pseudonym and post content of any length -- all profiles are public. AnyBeat's directory lets users browse profiles based on a variety of criteria, including gender, age, occupation and interest.

AnyBeat also lets users post questions. When a user answers a question, AnyBeat associates the response with the user's profile. Power users monitor the site for bad behavior.

LAUNCHERS: Dmitry Shapiro, co-founder and CEO, was CTO of MySpace and founded Internet TV service Veoh; Jordan Fowler, Scott Rushforth, Andrew Arrow.

WHY: Dominant social networks don't make it easy way to find and interact with new people. Facebook explicitly prohibits people from meeting "strangers" and has become boring (for some people). Social networks today don't have much soul and don't require much engagement. Google proved the search market wasn't dead when everyone thought it was -- same could be true for social networking.

WHEN/WHERE: Sept. 13, 2011 (private beta), Los Angeles.

BACKSTORY: AnyBeat, formerly known as Altly, came out of Dmitry's frustration with...

Robodance 5 Makes Your Robot Smarter -- and It Helps the Physically Disabled

[ Robodance creator Robert Oschler running the software using the Emotiv EPOC neuroheadset. ]

WHAT: Software that makes consumer robots faster and smarter. Use with the WowWee Rovio telepresence robot -- a three-wheeled audio- and video-streaming bot -- to keep tabs on your house using Skype from anywhere in the world.

Robodance 5 Pro supports the $300 Emotiv EPOC neuroheadset, which can detect brain waves and facial gestures so those with limited mobility can control the robot hands-free. The software also has voice control and when at home, Rovio will notify users when they have an incoming Skype call.

Robodance 5 software supports five other robots, including Femisapien and Wrex The Dawg. Raised nearly $11K on Kickstarter, 60% above its goal.

LAUNCHERS: Robert Oschler, founder. Programmer at Android Technologies, Inc not to be confused with Android, Inc.).

WHY: Current robotics software has limited to no functionality for disabled people. The Rovio's own software presented hurdles for non-techies and had room for improvement. The audio and visual quality of Robodance's video stream could be improved by closely integrating with Skype.

WHEN/WHERE: Robodance 5 is in development / Boise, ID.

BACKSTORY: Robert set out in 2004 to create Robodance 1.0, which let people...

Mightybell: Show Your Expertise by Creating "Experiences" Achieved with Small Steps

WHAT: Break down an experience -- something you've done or want to see others do -- or a topic into actionable steps so that other people can learn from and do the same thing. Writing the experience is intended to be as simple as posting updates to Facebook and Twitter (though Mightybell offers a detailed guide).

Like other social networks, people can follow an experience. Followers check off each step as they go, at which point they are prompted to share their achievement on Facebook or Twitter and indicate how they felt about that step. They can publicly comment on advice and share their own, as well as see the progress of their fellow followers. Experience "creators" can see metrics on their followers such as conversion rates.

Experiences can be anything, including travel planning, career guides, recipes and rules for success. Available as iPhone app.

LAUNCHER: Gina Bianchini, CEO, co-founded Ning in 2005 and was an entrepreneur-in-residence at Andreessen Horowitz just prior to founding Mightybell last fall.

WHY: A big goal is easier to take on when it's a series of small steps. Other types of online content, including how-to videos, don't always break things down or explain how smaller steps lead to the end goal. People like to share their expertise. Lots of ways to have online conversations but no great way to translate those conversations into better experiences in real life.

WHEN/WHERE: Limited beta Sept. 8, 2011 / Palo Alto. Company founded October 2010.

BACKSTORY: Gina didn't have an "aha" moment. Rather, the idea for Mightybell unfolded much like...

Echoecho App Lets Friends Find Each Other Fast, Secures $750K in Seed Funding

WHAT: App that lets friends easily find each other and the shows them coffee shops, bars and restaurants where they can meet. Users can ask anyone in their address book, "Where Are You?" in one click. The friend can click "reply" to share their location or "ignore" to keep their location private.

Friends can use the map to select a location anywhere in world to meetup and use the app's chat function to discuss where they want to go. Users can share their location and find friends who have not downloaded the app with the web version of Echoecho or via SMS.

Available on four platforms: iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Symbian. Echoecho will launch on WP7 at the end of September.

Short-term, real-time tracking for continuous location updates, groups and tablet functionality are in the works.

LAUNCHERS: Nick Bicanic, CTO. Andrew Wanliss-Orlebar, Head of Product.

WHY: People always want to know where their friends are, but texting back-and-forth about where to meet can be time consuming. People want to find friends with the least amount of effort possible. Check-in apps tell you where you friends were -- not where they are.

WHEN/WHERE: Sept. 8, 2011/ Los Angeles and London.

BACKSTORY: “I was in a situation where I couldn’t find a friend of mine and it frustrated me that...

HelpJuice Is Steroids for Your FAQ Page

WHAT: Companies can outsource the updating of their knowledge base to HelpJuice, which hosts and will automatically update FAQ pages after the company has approved an answer. Results are populated as questions are typed into the FAQ search field.

LAUNCHERS: Emil Hajric, an 18-year-old Sarajevo transplant, previously founded Chalkboard, which creates software specs for clients that map out user experience and the design interface.

WHY: Companies receive hundreds, in some cases thousands, of questions a day. Companies can focusing more on product development and ways to engage their customers by outsourcing the FAQ. Many company FAQ pages are not helpful and/or incomplete.

WHEN/WHERE: Aug. 2011 / Austin

BACKSTORY: Before joining Capital Factory, Emil put up a landing page for a product he called "Questionify" and described a product that would keep a company's FAQ page up-to-date by collecting all of the questions customer ask. Almost immediately...

An App for Every Niche: Manage a Swim Team with SwimTopia

WHAT: A web-based app that makes it easier to run a swim team, which often consists of 100+ swimmers. SwimTopia lets athletes, coaches and family members register and manage things like signing up for individual races to volunteer registration with one service, done online -- popular current methods require each coach manage their team's activity with a single unit.

SwimTopia also lets families with multiple swimmers input their family information once instead of repeating the process. Coaches can populate relay teams and fill race spots automatically or in combination with manually selected teams. The system also tracks fundraising activities.

LAUNCHERS: Mason Hale, CTO, is the former chief technologist at Frog Design; Nathan Jones, CEO, founder and former CEO of Academic Superstore.

WHY: Most teams still use paper to manage their teams or Team Manager, software built in the 1990s that is limited to a single computer or laptop...

There's a Wiki for That: SpeakerMix Is Event Planner-Speaker Matchmaker

WHAT: Help meeting and conference planners find the right speaker for their event. Based on the wiki platform, speakers, agencies and event planners contribute to the SpeakerMix directory by adding speakers who specialize in different subject areas, including business, technology and sports. Event planners can search for speakers based on name, topic, location, keyword or fee, and browse through reviews before contacting.

LAUNCHERS: Jack McGary, CEO. Taylor Brooks, Co-founder.

WHY: It's hard for event planners and appropriate speakers to discover each other. Not much good info on speakers beyond bios, and publicists often write the reviews. Many people planning events are not actually professional event planners but get thrown into the role. Domain experts do not always have agents -- only celebrities do -- and don't have the time or interest to promote themselves as a speaker.

WHEN/WHERE: 2010/ Austin.

BACKSTORY: Jack and Taylor used to work at one of the largest speaking agencies in the world, Premiere Speakers Bureau, but got burnt out. In 2008, Jack left the agency and moved to Boulder to get into the startup scene.

"I kind of had the startup bug," Jack tells LAUNCH. "I knew something had to be done differently."

Taylor, on the other hand, went to Texas with the goal of starting a grilled-cheese food truck. Taylor and Jack both worked for a couple of startups before...

Universities Want Detailed Data on Alumni, GroupCharger Crawls Web to Deliver

WHAT: Universities provide GroupCharger with their database so that GroupCharger can crawl social networks, public data and third-party APIs for information about the dataset, including the top social media influencers and alumni likely to donate. GroupCharger can also tag individuals based on information in their public profiles (e.g., a person who says on his LinkedIn profile that he's a partner at a VC firm would be tagged "investor").

Universities have three ways to use the new data: matchmaking for jobs, personalized introductions and segmented targeting. Alumni association staff access a dashboard that shows them activity among alumni and recommendations for individuals. They can also send emails via GroupCharger's app or their own email system.

Coming in the 2.0 version: pushing content through social media (in addition to email) and allowing alumni to share content directly back to the university without creating a new profile.

LAUNCHERS: Kirtus Dixon, CEO, has started four companies (two failures). James Weddle, president. Satish Kodukula, CTO.

WHY: Universities want alumni to feel more connected so they give more money. State universities have had their budgets cut and need to find money elsewhere. Students and grads want to connect with alumni in specific fields and professions. Many groups have "lost" members they'd like to find and keep in touch with for networking and fundraising purposes.

WHEN/WHERE: Sept. 7, 2011 / Austin.

BACKSTORY: Kirtus tells LAUNCH he learned about "maintaining the right balance of speed, learning and focus" from his previous startup experiences. For GroupCharger, they interviewed 250 people across different groups before building their minimum viable product. "We knew early on that...

Storymix Offers Affordable, Crowdsourced Wedding Video Platform

[ Storymix founders Marshall Stokes, Ariane Fisher and Mike Fisher. ]

We are profiling the five companies in the Capital Factory summer 2011 class. Our team will be in Austin to live blog the Capital Factory Demo Day on Sept. 7.

WHAT: Gives couples the tools and support to create crowd-sourced, high-quality wedding videos for between $100 and $500, including HD camera rentals. Storymix does all of the editing and delivers final video (and all raw footage) on DVD in about a month.

Users upload the footage to the Storymix site for editing and can arrange the footage as they desire using the drag-and-drop storyboard, or they can leave the editing process up to Storymix. Completed videos are typically 15 to 20 minutes. Other services include slideshows, video save-the-dates and DIY wedding videos, where guests use their own cameras and give video to StoryMix for editing.

Camera rental for U.S. and Canada only. Coming soon: an iPhone app so people can take footage and upload it directly to StoryMix.

LAUNCHERS: Mike Fisher, CEO. Ariane Fisher, Creative Director. Marshall Stokes, CTO.

WHY: Professional wedding videographers cost $3K+. Not many cheap solutions for shooting and editing quality video. Even if someone shoots video, they rarely finish editing it because the process can be overwhelming and tedious. No easy way to compile and include video wedding guests shoot.

WHEN/WHERE: Chicago and Austin / 2011.

BACKSTORY: "We had another business [ReeltimeDVD] that was mainly focused on transferring and digitizing old analog media -- film, video, slides and photos," Mike says. "What we started to realize...

Social Media Management for Dummies: Crowdbooster Tells You What to Do

WHAT: Crowdbooster does the "listening" for social media managers by determining the best time to tweet or post and suggests content for followers in addition to tracking the stream. Receive notifications when influencers, based on their Klout score, follow the company/brand so you don't miss engagement opportunities.

LAUNCHERS: Stanford science and computer science grads Ricky Yean (CEO), David Tran, Mark Linsey.

WHY: Dashboards don't provide enough guidance and can be overwhelming. Social media moves so fast that a social media manager doesn't have time to make sense of everything and can miss things. Companies spend $4B on social media tools.

WHEN/WHERE: 2011 / Palo Alto.

BACKSTORY: Ricky and David had been building projects on Twitter for years before they met Mark, who joined their team in 2010. None of their projects gained traction, so...

Shortlist's Pitch to Event Organizers: Use Our App for Smarter Networking at Your Conference

[ Shortlist founders Gretchen and Jason Goodrich. ]

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

WHAT: Allows conference organizers to create an online and mobile app that recommends sessions to attendees and people to meet. Meant to be used before and during an event.

App integrates with registration sites like Eventbrite; that data becomes the basis for Shortlist profiles of every attendee. Exhibitors can use Shortlist to offer deals to attendees. Users can sync their Shortlist profile with other social networks to see if anyone they already know is attending the conference.

LAUNCHERS: Gretchen Goodrich, COO. Jason Goodrich, CEO.

WHY: It's hard to track down the people you actually want to meet at big conferences. Networking should start before the event. Conference organizers want people to network, but connecting like-minded attendees isn't their first priority. The conference space has massive inefficiencies that has attracted other startups [ see our profiles of Balloon and Welcu ].

WHEN/WHERE: 2011 / Chicago.

BACKSTORY: Gretchen and Jason attended SXSW in 2010 with the goal of making connections. They realized...

Compare Rates and Change Electricity Supplier with Power2Switch

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

WHAT: Lets consumers and businesses compare rates from electricity suppliers and switch to one that's cheaper or greener. Most who use the service save between 7% and 19% on their electric bills.

To reduce consumption, Power2Switch also lets consumers monitor their electricity usage and compare it to others.

Service only available in Illinois right now, but Power2Switch has a contract with a supplier that will bring the company into all 17 U.S. states with deregulated utilities.

LAUNCHERS: Seyi Fabode, who worked in the utilities industry in the U.K., and Phil Nevels, who has biz-dev experience at startups.

WHY: Consumers don't know much about their energy options or their usage. People like saving money. Lead generation is a lucrative business model.

WHEN/WHERE: 2008 / Chicago.

BACKSTORY: Seyi and Phil met at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Seyi started the company in fall 2008, and Phil joined him in 2009.

Seyi's experience in the U.K. utility industry...

Love Playing Games on Your Tablet and Phone? Joystickers Designs Hardware to Make Them More Fun

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

WHAT: Designs game-related hardware for interacting with touchscreen devices and licenses those designs to manufacturers. Joystickers continues to make three of its own devices including arcade-style buttons that suction-cup to your device and a paintbrush for tablets.

LAUNCHERS: Anthony Cerra, Russ Hakimiyan

WHY: There's more money in licensing hardware designs than manufacturing and selling hardware. People with touchscreen devices are willing to spend money on things that make those devices more fun. A range of products could work with touchscreen devices -- even a jump rope, which Joystickers debuted at Excelerate Labs demo day.

WHEN/WHERE: July 2010 / Chicago.

BACKSTORY: "One day, Anthony was playing a first person shooter game on his iPad and in the heat of battle, he lost the position of his finger and he got shot in the face...

Another LinkedIn Challenger--IntroFly Is Smarter Networking within Your Social Graph

[IntroFly launchers Andy O' Dower and Kevin Melgaard.]

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

WHAT: Helps job-seekers maximize the connections they already have on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for advice and real-life connections that could lead to a great job.

Create a profile, then set goals, track progress and compare progress with others on IntroFly. Search profiles by keywords like "health care" for a list of relevant people across your social networks.

Going live this week: when you send an email through IntroFly's system, your profile picture and link gets shared with the recipient. You will be able to track opens and clicks and set reminders for follow-ups. IntroFly also has plans to let you send messages to anyone in your social networks even if you don't have access to their email address.

B2B play: Universities can integrate their alumni database with IntroFly so students can search their social graphs in addition to the alumni database. School administrators see stats about networking activity and job searches and can identify which students need additional help in the job search.

LAUNCHERS: Andy O'Dower and Kevin Melgaard.

WHY: It's hard to stay motivated when job hunting. Having a great resume isn't...

Goshi: Window Shopping from Your Phone for Cool, Local Stuff

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

WHAT: Etsy-meets-foursquare app. Find and buy paintings, jewelry, furniture and other "unique" items in your area like unusual toys. View items by location or by what people in the community think is cool. Actual "marketplace" composed of independent coffee shops (50 in Chicago so far) that either display the work for sale or serve as a meeting point for buyers and sellers. Artists/sellers (for now) are reachable through comments portion of their item listings. Most popular items so far are vintage antiques and furniture.

Goshi is experimenting with pop-up marketplaces where artists bring in items they've posted and the public can browse and buy.

App is iPhone only, Android coming soon. Market-wise only in Chicago. Next up are New York and San Francisco.

LAUNCHERS: Jack Eisenberg, a developer with a nonprofit background, and Chad Lomax, a long-time IT security specialist.

Exchangery to Make Creating New Commodities Markets as Easy as ETrade

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

WHAT: E*Trade-like platform that can be used to create new commodities markets in anything from virtual currency to locally grown food in about a month, instead of the six to 12 months it could normally take. In the process of getting U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) certification for the platform. Those seeking to set up a commodities market can get advice from Exchangery on whether a new market is viable, how to operate that market, as well as the relationships needed with banks and clearinghouses to cover counterparty risks.

Just like E*Trade, anyone can set up an account and begin trading in these new markets.

LAUNCHERS: Chris Duesing, CEO; Kellee James, business development.

WHY: Traditional exchanges only deal with large volumes of goods like corn or iron ore. Technology has lowered operating costs and made it possible for...