Alltopstartups

5 Startups Unveiled At Capital Factory

Thomas Oppong — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:53:03 +0000

Five companies have been launched as part of the Capital Factory startup accelerator program in Austin, Texas. The program offers startups and founders 10 weeks opportunity to access funds to develop thier companies with assistance from mentors. The following five startups were showcased at the AT&T Conference Center.

Hurricane Party – a location-based social networking application that helps users create, manage and discover events that are relevant to them.

Keepstream – a social media curation tool for saving and re-purposing the best content from Twitter, Facebook, and sites across the web. Check out Keepstream in action today during the demo day event.

RecycleMatch – is an online marketplace for waste and recyclables that helps companies make waste a resource.

Ripplefunction – a social media tool to track, manage and promote events online.

Smackages – a one-stop destination to discovering the latest beauty trends from luxury brands.

Current Startup Ideas In My journal

Thomas Oppong — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:25:10 +0000

I received lots of comments when I posted Startup Worth Exploring In 2010 . Entrepreneurs are always looking for that new twist to their businesses or a new idea they can invest in or develop themselves. I keep a startup idea journal just in case. The opportunities are numerous as new technologies emerge. The ideas I write are shared with friends from time to time. Instead of sharing them with friends, I want to share them with you. Let me know what your impressions are of these ideas, which one is your favourite and if you don’t have a favourite. These are problems and trends I find interesting but not necessarily my favourite startup categories . You can also share your idea with readers.

Social-networking sites may be sprouting like weeds, but none yet operates as a marketplace, with members buying and selling their own creations like blogs, posts, e-books, photographs, Designs.domains,e-courses, videos. ++
Develop an app that taps into the growing number of travel-industry databases – of hotel chains, travel sites , restaurants, limo services, amusement parks – to assemble smarter, more personalized individual itineraries. +
The core of the future web could be about technologies that help users cut down on information overload. That is, taking large amounts of data and providing the user with information relevant to them and people that matter to them most. Presentation should be better than RSS. ++
An app that allow you to upload videos of creative ads you have created, you get paid it gets bought by the company. Advertise with your company name, it gets categorized. User review of popular ads. Marketing opportunity and platform for organizations. Just previews will made available to the public. Ad concept could be stolen by an interested company. How do you protect the ads before they are bought. +++
Provide a place online where citizens could vent about stuff that’s broken in their neighborhood. Streetlights, potholes, tree limbs etc. And Have a section where you can easily report bad government policies or political actions without consequence to you. +
Create software that the National Weather Service can use to automatically call or send text messages to all cell phones/landlines of people in areas most likely to be hit. This will definitely serve as a warning system for those not tuned in to TV or Radio , but are carrying phones. +
Use Facebook API to develop group social professionals limited and arranged in groups. Lawyers, Doctors, meet for professional friendship and networking for young graduates. With different page designs for each profession.+_
Self filtering of News based on the information you provide. Aggregate data of movies, Music, news, videos that matter to you or your preferences. People who have your kin of preferences are listed for you to collaborate and share._
A web app that allows you to access book chapters. There can be a pay-by-view system. Since not every chapter or page is covered in some colleges, why bother paying for the whole textbook? Certain chapters are very crucial for specific classes. go buy that chapter. +
An app for recent graduates. You give your preferences of the kind of jobs you prefer and the app will match by crawling job posts available on the internet. Matches can be made based on countries of preferences.+

Michigan Innovation Startup Competition

Thomas Oppong — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:42:36 +0000

Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition is an international business plan competition which highlights Michigan as a vibrant venue for innovation and business opportunity. The Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition targets mid-to-late-stage business start-ups with potential to generate an immediate impact on Michigan’s economy. In effect you should be ready to set up Michigan Office if you are selected.

The Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition is open to any early stage business or company — from anywhere in the world and any undergraduate or graduate student enrolled for at least 2 classes in a Michigan public or private university or college for the fall 2010 semester.

The prize at stake includes more than $1 million in cash winnings, plus in-kind awards of services, staffing and software.
Early stage startups have until October 6 to submit application and students can apply before October 22.

Top 10 Utah Startups to Pitch On Boomstartup Demo Day

Thomas Oppong — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:34:19 +0000

BoomStartup, a seed capital and mentor-focused investment program for web and software start-ups has selected 10 startup companies for its investor demo day next week Friday September 10, 2010 in Park City, Utah. According to Anthony Ha of venturebeat, BoomStartup had about 150 applications. And of the 10 chosen companies, two have already received term sheets from investors
as disclosed by Boomstartup Cofounder Robb Kunz. The top 10 startups include;

3PointData. iTunes for business data. 3PointData creates an online marketplace where others can sell their data. In real time, buyers can stream data into their spreadsheets, databases, and web applications.

Bazari is an SMS database platform that helps microfinance institutions’ field agents update customer accounts, send electronic receipts, and arrange for product delivery, all through mobile phones.

Case Rover is an online platform targeted at U.S. litigation support and compliance markets. It specializes in software solutions, integration, security and maintenance for companies and government agencies.

Fashion Genome Project aims to be the next big thing in online clothes shopping, using revolutionary technology to eliminate the pain points and unpredictable results that usually come in the process.

IActionable enables any site to define and automatically award public badges and points to their users when specific actions are performed.

icount is a political website that allows an individual to communicate with their elected officials. Politicians can engage with their constituents, get real feedback on legislation, and clarify positions and voting.

KarmaKey is like SkyMiles for restaurants. It helps consumers simplify their wallet by replacing traditional loyalty cards with virtual cards that can be tracked, traded, redeemed and stored on a mobile device.

MashWorx creates network and browser deployed applications of engagement for conventions and hotels to improve the branding experience and increase sales.

O-Codes helps publishers, advertisers, and marketers measure in detail how consumers interact with their offline content via text messaging to engage customers.

TaleSpring provides an online authoring system for do-it-yourself mobile publishing, with an initial focus on interactive, animated children’s books for the Apple iPad and iPhone.

Bootstrapped: Github-Social Code Hosting Service

Thomas Oppong — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:29:02 +0000

Github was boostrapped and its been successful. According to Chris Wanstrath,

GitHub was a weekend project. Tom Preston-Werner and I were hanging out at a sports bar after a local programming meetup when he told me his idea for a git hosting site. It’d be a place to easily share code and learn about git, a git hub. It started more out of necessity than anything else: we both loved git but there was no acceptable way to share code with others. Tom thought I’d be interested in helping fix the problem, and I was. We began meeting on Saturdays to build the site piece by piece. We’d grab brunch, talk about ideas we had for the site, then get to work.

Read all about it HERE

GITHUB offer public and private source code hosting to companies and open source projects using either git or Subversion for programmers. The site provides social networking functionality like feeds, followers and the network graph to display how developers work on their versions of a repository.

A Business In Search of A Business Model

Thomas Oppong — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:07:48 +0000

Too many startups are still figuring out how to make money. A revenue model needs to do the job whilst you do your best to keep your customers. Are you still on the white-board brainstorming how to bring in the revenue from that customer who just signed up. I taught you will never ask for money. BUT hey there is no free launch. You are a business and you have to get that business model right, even if its FREMIUM it is still a business model.

A lot of startups always use the fremium as a bait to get consumers to keep visiting the site. In the long run something else will be sold to them or a third party pays. You either decide to be free or charge as soon as possible. Impressions stick longer than you think. A middle ground in the future has its own implications and costs. But of course the freemium model has its challenges. but It’s a great way to get early users to use the product and have a pool of potential people to upgrade.

Ning started as free and because its a business it needs a model to survive and grow so users are FORCED to pay or move. If you have a huge network, you have to find a way around it and that is frustrating. Consumers will understand that model you are trying to hide. Make it visible on your site and explain the different pricing packages, they will understand and make a choice between the free and paid options. A compelling product that solves a real problem will not be that difficult to sell.

In the early days, we need to be focused completely on getting as wide an audience/reach/user-base as possible. If we think about revenues/profits too early, it will undermine that growth. This is the philosophy a lot startups stand by and work with. According to Dharmesh Shah this is short-sighted. He thinks profitability should not be ignored and I agree with him.

Still figuring out is not good enough. Do not think you are going to monetize advertising better, remember Twitter, Facebook, Digg you name it , are still figuring it out. The earlier you start figuring it out the better.

How About Email 2.0 + Collaboration

Thomas Oppong — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:10:31 +0000

Email is here to stay. I taught email was going to suffer with the introduction of real time messages, chat services, document management tools with collaboration. But traditional email has been in existence for a long time now and continues to be the same service. Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail continue to provide good email services. BUT how about a new service that sync all the email services just like thunderbird does but without a desktop client. Totally a web business with additional services like collaboration, social networking or a lot more interactivity.

Zobni provides a twist to email services and they are doing pretty well. The fact that millions of people still use Outlook makes it in an interesting commercial opportunity. I believe email can be twisted to be something interesting than what we are used to now. If you know about a service like that i would love to hear about it. If you provide a service like that shoot me a mail.

Other services like inboxfx and Tamadaa have been close to make email a lot easier and better to manage.

Qualcomm Unveils A New Startup Incubator

Thomas Oppong — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:41:12 +0000

Qualcomm unveiled Qualcomm Services Labs, Inc. (QSL), a wholly owned subsidiary created to develop and introduce new services and applications that tap into the advantages of mobile technology. Qualcomm manufactures chipsets, licensed technology and provide communication services around the world.

The company disclosed that it will focus on mobile innovation in these categories;

• Communication (keeping you connected in new ways)
• Information/Entertainment (delivering meaningful, captivating content)
• Discovery (personalized and context-aware recommendations)
• Life automation (using digital information to simplify your life and relieve daily hassles)
• Digital to physical (access to relevant digital information to enhance your mobile interactions)

The following four (4) services were presented .

Neer: It’s a social location service, targeted at woman aged 25 to 50, who want to coordinate their lives with their husbands, best friends and kids.

Qilroy: The service helps you find information on a location, like a city or baseball game, political rally or other event, by searching social networks, like Twitter, Gowala and Foursquare. It’s on the iPhone.

Vive: This application is on Facebook and drives recommendations around Brew applications on Verizon’s Get It Now storefront. Users get points and rewards.

Tapioca mobile: Qualcomm acquired Tapioca Mobile earlier this year. It automatically formats video so it can be delivered and viewed on any device.

Startmate, The New Y Combinator Of Australia

Thomas Oppong — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 11:26:08 +0000

In a similar model to the US incubator Y Combinator , Startmate created by Homethinking founder Niki Scevak — who has also been involved in a number of other startups such as the BookmarkBox. The list of those involved in the fund — contributing money and advice — reads like a who’s who of Australia’s startup sector. Former Realestate.com.au chief Simon Baker is also involved, as well as the two founders of local firm Atlassian, which recently took $60 million in funding from US VC firm Accel Partners – Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar.

StartMate wants to help technically-focused founders get started with a small amount of capital, advice and a mission to Silicon Valley. The first program will fund 5 startups and begins in January, 2011 in Sydney. They will spend 3 months helping you launch your company and win your first customers.

The three month program offers a $25,000 investment, mentorship from more than 20 successful founders, sage legal counsel and a two week trip to Silicon Valley. At the conclusion of the program there are two demo days, one in Sydney and one in Silicon Valley, where you present in front of early stage investors.

Founder Institute Opens Applications In 8 Cities

Thomas Oppong — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 10:59:48 +0000

The Founder Institute is a technology startup accelerator and entrepreneur training program currently on pace to launch over 500 companies per year in over 13 cities worldwide. The program identifies high-potential entrepreneurs using predictive social science testing, and then guides them through weekly company-building sessions featuring a network of over 250 CEO Mentors.

The program, which is now active in 13 cities worldwide, holds two four-month long sessions annually in each location, which include mentorship sessions from experienced tech entrepreneurs.

Founder Institute is currently receiving applications for its program in 8 cities including the Bay Area, Houston, San Diego/Orange County , Brussels, Berlin, Paris, New York and Washington DC Area.

Apply now on the institute’s website.