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Dropifi Takes Top Prize At The First Accra Startup Weekend

Thomas Oppong — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 23:51:16 +0000

Dropifi, a web messaging platform that turns your contacts into loyal customers has won the top prize at the just ended Accra Startup Weekend. Dropifi competed with 7 other teams. Dropifi wants to put a widget at the contact us pages of companies to allow easy communication between prospective customers and businesses. The runners up were Djumah and Maid.dle.

Dropifi also provides a dashboard to businesses to analyse information, comments or feedback from website visitors for easy and quick response. Messages received on the dashboard provided to the company are anyalsed for both negative and positive feedback to make it easy for the business to manage contacts and respond to them accordingly.

The teams were judged on three equally-weighed criteria: business model, customer validation and execution.

Dropifi will be entered into the Global Startup Battle.The winner of the Global Startup Battle will have a slot at the DEMO Asia conference in their Startup Showcase. Dropifi will also make a video pitch to a Silicon Valley investor for potential funding. A special one year package from Teambox.com has also been arranged for the winning team. The team has also been awarded an HP laptop. SMS products and services from SMSGH will be given to the team to market their service for one year. A special introduction to Ghana Multimedia Incubation Center, Ghana Venture Capital Trust Fund and Ghana Angel Investor network. Dropifi also wins $200 Amazon web services voucher.

Startup Weekend Accra brought together a diverse group of developers, business managers, startup enthusiasts,entrepreneurs in training, graphic artists and others gather to create and develop innovative new products, projects and companies. The event took place at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology(MEST), East Legon, Accra.

Startup Weekend will soon be organized in other cities across Ghana.

8 Startup Weekend Accra Teams To Make Presentations Today

Thomas Oppong — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 08:54:14 +0000

Startup Weekend Accra started with lots of energy on Friday night. As a member of the organizing team I was busy getting logistics ready for voting after the pitches. 13 ideas were pitched that night. Participants voted on the top ideas immediately after the pitches. Each participant had three votes. At the end of the votes, 8 team emerged. Each team had a minimum if 3 members and maximum of 8. The teams started work immediately after the team formation. Early Saturday morning teams had already started work. 8 mentors arrived that morning and shared their experiences with each team. Today, teams are still working on their prototypes and refining business concepts. The following 8 teams will make presentations tonight to a panel of judges. Ghana’s former minster of Communications, Ekow Spio-Garbrah will join the panel of judges to decide the winning team.

Dropifi- A web messaging platform that turns your contacts into loyal customers.
Maid.dle- A web service for matching housekeepers to potential clients.
iDentify-A mobile app that identify your location and helps you get to your destination.
Panic-eye-A single key alert activation app which will guarantee quick and effective response in times of emergency. Its a disruptive technology that will be the future of 911.
DigiDoc-A web application that will be used by doctors in analyzing patient X-rays and scans everywhere leading to prompt response that will help save lives.
Djumah- A professional networking platform that leverages the power of social networking of both employers and job seekers to identify the most trusted and qualified candidates.
TeamTaunt- A social element of sports that creates perhaps the most passion among sports fans but that is not accurately tackled by the various sports network is fan rivalry.
GAS’YO-An app that lets you know the closest LPG filling station to your home, where gas is still available to refill your empty tank.

Meet The First 13 Health Startups of Rock Health Startup Accelerator

Thomas Oppong — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 10:10:24 +0000

Rock Health unveiled 13 health startups at its first Demo Day at UCSF in San Francisco on November 10, 2011. Rock Health is a seed-accelerator exclusively for health startups. They provide capital, office space, mentorship, and operational support to high-potential entrepreneurs working on ideas in health.

Selected from a pool of 350 applicants, the first 13 companies of the Rock Health Startup accelerator includes:

BigEvidence provides clinicians focused access to the universe of medical evidence at the point of care and within electronic health records, improving quality of care while reducing costs and risks.

BitGym thinks you should be using video games to exercise. Their patent pending technology uses an iPad to turn any cardiovascular machine into an interactive gaming experience.

BrainBot assists your focus as you complete daily exercises designed to refresh your brain.

Cake Health is the best free way to manage your healthcare expenses online.

CellScope builds systems for at-home disease diagnosis using smartphone cameras connected to a web platform.

Crohnology is a social health network for people with chronic medical conditions to share and learn what treatments work, meet others near them, and track and share their health.

Genomera seeks to heal the world through personal health collaboration, connecting communities of people solving similar problems.

Health in Reach is making quality care more affordable and accessible.

HeartBeat is an enterprise solution for the independent wellness practitioner. We empower people to be successful doing what they love.

Omada Health is building a web-based program based on a landmark clinical trial in order to help people with prediabetes reduce the chance they get diabetes.

Pipette helps reduce complications and unplanned readmissions after surgeries.

Skimble powers the mobile wellness movement with a cross-platform ecosystem of fun, dynamic and social coaching applications.

WeSprout helps you keep track of your kids’ health and puts you in touch with parents who have been there before to help you along the way.

AngelPad Unveils 15 Startups

Thomas Oppong — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 13:17:27 +0000

AngelPad has unveiled 15 startups at its third demo day. AngelPad is a mentorship program founded by a team of ex-Googlers to help web-technology startups build better products, attract additional funding and ultimately grow more successful businesses.

“Last session, we selected 15 out of 2000 applications. That allows us to give them a lot of attention and intensively mentor them on all aspects of early stage startup: the idea, the product and product-market-fit. Through the process we put a bit of Google DNA in every company and the result is a dramatically shorter cycle from idea to product market fit and even to revenue.” says founder Thomas Korte.

The following companies made presentations at AngelPad’s third demo day.

SourceNinja also tells you what a software update contains, on top of alerting customers that a new version exists.

SimpleReach offers site tools for online publishers. Their current product The Slide offers up content recommendations for site visitors a la SailThru.

LendFriend. Making it easier for people to borrow money from their friends and family, LendFriend is targeting the younger and pre-credit market as well as people who have below prime credit scores.

PipeDrive wants to simplify business software, by creating a simple way for a company to manage its sales pipeline.

Frugalo is a daily deals aggregation platform that uses Facebook and inbox integration to unearth the most relevant deals for its users, importing deals from both channels as well as notifying you when they expire.

IDoneThis is a motivational email service that asks you, via email, “What’d you get done today?” and expects an email response in list form, every day.

By rewarding customers with exchangeable loyalty points for interacting with and giving feedback to a brand, Prizzm wants to shift the CRM power balance.

Buffer allows users to optimally time their social media(namely Twitter) updates.

Wishery wants to improve customer service with its Gmail add-on, by crawling and including relevant information from a user’s various SaaS apps in customer service related emails — like how long a given user has been a customer, preferences, etc.

Shoplogic uses customer interaction and purchase data in order to help merchants be smarter about their promotions.

LikeAndy is a mobile app video that lets people distribute their videos across multiple devices.

Storie goes beyond photosharing apps and attempts to tell a story with photos, using a novel UI to create an experience similar to a photo scrapbook.

Tapviva wants to disrupt traditional restaurant Point of Sale systems by letting users pay via their iPhone and Android smartphones.

Kout is link-based selling app. By using Kout a seller can reach customers through Twitter and Facebook, their own blogs, and wherever one can use links, directing them to a personalized payment platform.

Vungle’s 15 second “trailers for apps” let users explore an apps features before buying

Via Techcrunch

Techstars New York Graduates 12 Start-ups

Thomas Oppong — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 21:51:51 +0000

TechStars New York has graduated its second class of startups selected from a pool of 1,200 applicants. The startups were unvelied today at Cedar Lake in Manhattan. The companies presented their companies in front of a crowd of investors, press and tech industry enthusiasts. 6 of the startups announced funding, 1 announced over $1 million in revenue, and others announced over 100K users.

TechStars provides seed funding from over 75 top venture capital firms and angel investors who are vested in the success of your startup, as well as intense mentorship from hundreds of the best entrepreneurs in the world.

Complete list of all startups in TechStars NYC class:

Ambassador: Social Customer Acquisition Platform for eCommerce

ChatID: Universal Chat Platform Enabling Businesses to Communicate with Customers on Any Site or Device

Contently: Professional Writing Marketplace for Brands

Coursekit: The Social Network for Education

Dispatch: Service for Cloud File Sharing, Movement, and Management

MobIntent: Ad Optimization and Analytics for Mobile App Marketing

Ordr.in: Restaurant eCommerce Platform Connecting Restaurants Anywhere to Clients Everywhere

Piictu: Visual Network for Mobile Photo Interactions

SideTour: Peer-to-Peer Marketplace for Authentic Experiences

Spontaneously: Mobile Service for Sharing Social Plans and Availability

Urtak: Addictive Q+A Tool Creating Structured Engagement with Web Content

Wantworthy: Shopping Utility that Bridges the Gap Between Browsing and Buying

Saya Wins Appcircus Ghana Mobile Apps Competition

Thomas Oppong — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 23:49:47 +0000

The Mobile Apps Ghana Showcase event has ended in Accra at the Kofi Annan ICT Centre. The event was organized by a group of Ghanaian mobile enthusiasts passionate about promoting Ghanaian Mobile Developers as well as educating the greater public on some of the mobile services in Ghana.

Mobile Apps Ghana Showcase included a workshop to train and inspire other Mobile Solution Developers in Ghana whilst recognizing the achievements of those who have excelled in the industry.

As part of the event, 10 mobile applications were chosen to participate in Appcircus Accra to battle for an iPad and a cash prize of thousand four hundred dollars($1400). AppCircus is a unique global traveling showcase of the most creative and innovative apps presented by their creators during some of the most influential international events in mobile/web.

Saya-a mobile group chat app still in stealth mode won the top honors.The team received an iPad and a $1400 cash prize.

Infoline Business Directory- a mobile business directory by Nandimobile won the second prize- a notebook and a $700 cash prize. With over 18,000 listings, Nandimobile seeks to make the Infoline business directory the first option for mobile users in Ghana.

Smstweetbox- an app that allows mobile users to tweet via sms was awarded the third prize- a notebook and a $350 cash prize.

AppCircus Accra winners will make it to the big stage: they will be nominated for the pool of apps from which the 20 finalists for the Mobile Premier Awards 2012 will be selected.

The Startups for Good Challenge: All 8 Finalists

Thomas Oppong — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:40:17 +0000

As part of the Social Good Summit, Mashable will host the inaugural Startups for Good Challenge, a special event to showcase startups that are striving to improve the world.

Startups that are building or using technology to make a positive impact on the world will compete for a chance to present at the Social Good Summit and win a $10,000 cash prize for their company.

The following 8 finalists have been selected to pitch their idea at the Social Good Summit today.

Awaaz De means “give voice.” Awaaz.De provides hosted and open source voice solutions that help organizations engage communities in any language, leveraging the power of voice and mobile phones to make social media accessible for everyone.

Catchafire connects professionals who want to apply their on-the-job skills to non-profits and social enterprises that need their help in areas such as marketing, public relations, design, social media, strategy and finance.

Kopernik provides life-changing technologies to the developing world. They connect technology providers, technology seekers and investors to provide local products that are proven to reduce poverty and disease but are often unavailable to the people who need them most.

em[POWER] is concerned about what happens to a population that is forced to pick through landfills to find food, shelter and a source of livelihood. They seek to revitalize waste scavenging communities by improving the sorting efficiency of recyclables, turning organic waste and waste water into electricity, creating high quality compost and providing the nucleus for a host of community-owned businesses.

Prove My Concept is an online enterprise platform that allows young people to create, develop and test their business ideas.

Sparked offers convenient online volunteerism for busy professionals who don’t have time to lend their expertise through traditional channels. They make volunteering as fun, social and easy to use as Facebook, Farmville, or Twitter. It’s volunteerism for the digital age, or “microvolunteering.”

Simple Energy is changing how millions of people save energy by revolutionizing how utilities engage their customers. They combine energy industry experience, behavioral science, game mechanics and social networks to change how people save energy.

Roseicollis Technologies aims to deploy technologies that can disrupt both developed and emerging markets. Currently they are implementing the SunSaluter, an inexpensive solar panel rotator, to push solar technology to the forefront of the alternative energy in the developing world.

Shaker Wins TechCrunch Disrupt 2011

Thomas Oppong — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 10:10:48 +0000

Shaker, an Israeli-based social game app for Facebook has won TechCrunch Disrupt 2011. Shaker competed with other 31 startups in the Startup Battlefield taking place on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week. Shaker turns Facebook into a “virtual bar” where you can meet and interact with new people.

How it works
Once you allow Shaker to access your Facebook profile and information, you can get started right away after choosing your sharing level. There are three different sharing levels — “Shy,” which shows just your basic info and profile pics; “Normal,” which shows the “Shy” info, as well as tagged photos; and “Friendly,” which shows the “Normal” info, as well as all of your photo albums.

Shaker is currently in “exclusive private beta,” which is, at the moment, still open. Shaker has already received $3 million in funding. Shaker received the Disrupt Cup and $50,000, taking over possession from Disrupt New York winner Getaround.

Other winners of the TechCrunch Disrupt contest include runner-up Prism Skylabs (a cloud-based video service that brings physical spaces, such as offices, online via video) and audience choice winner Vocre (a translation app that uses the iPhone’s accelerometer for controls).

Excelerate Labs Graduates 10 New Startups

Thomas Oppong — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 21:48:30 +0000

Excelerate Labs, a Chicago incubator program has showcased the 2011 graduating class of 10 startups. Excelerate Labs is an intensive summer accelerator for startups driven by proven entrepreneurs and investors.

Led by world class entrepreneurs Sam Yagan (OKCupid, Sparknotes) and Troy Henikoff (SurePayroll), the program is unique in attracting scores of mentors from around the country to work with the teams in direct 1-on-1 meetings.

The program selects ten companies every spring to participate in the 13-week intensive summer program.
Excelerate Labs Class of 2011 graduates include:

BabbaCo – a monthly subscription box of activities to enrich time spent with your kids.
Buzz Referrals – enables companies to create their own branded referral programs that integrate seamlessly with websites and social media programs.
CookItFor.Us – connects Cravers to Makers to get recipes made – delivering all the benefits of homemade, without having to cook.
Exchangery – helps industry experts to create their own commodities exchanges.
Food Genius – helps you discover and share your next favorite dish.
Goshi – a smartphone application that allows you to discover and purchase unique items nearby.
IntroFly – a virtual career coach for Gen Y.
Joystickers – turns the analog world into a mobile game.
Power2Switch – an electricity cost and usage reduction portal for residential and commercial customers.
Shortlist – helps you make more meaningful connections at professional events.

NewMe Startup Accelerator Encourages And Targets Black Tech Entrepreneurs

Thomas Oppong — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 23:09:28 +0000

NewMe is a startup accelerator for minority led technology start-ups that houses a handful of visiting start-ups in Silicon Valley. NewMe does not invest in its startups, but rather offers support in the form of community.

This year the program has supported 8 in-house visiting start-ups (five of which were selected, three of which were chosen by the community). It included weekly dinners and mentorship from industry experts, and concluded with Demo Day.

The package includes:

8 in-house visiting minority founded start-ups (5 selected + 3 community voted),
Top local minority founded start-ups invited to events and dinners,
Private weekly dinners with industry elite,
Mentorship from Internet elite,
Co-working environment for start-ups,
Concludes w/ Demo Day.

The following startups have benefited from the NewMe program:

Pencil You In : Schedule and book hair appointments online.

Kloud.co : Described by the founder as a Greplin meets Dropbox, Kloud.co imports your “online universe” and lets you search through cloud services like Facebook, Gmail, Twitter and Dropbox — creating folders of what you were looking for and any other contextual information.

Playd: Playd, allows you to check in to your favorite games like you’d do for venues on Foursquare, whether they’re PC-based, mobile or on console.

FetchMob: FetchMob lets people crowdsource their shopping trips by asking their surrounding community for help.

BeCouply: Mobile app and social network BeCouply aims to solve the problem of how and where to socialize as a couple, by connecting couples and letting them share dates, activities and photo moments with the similarly partnered.

Cued: Launching in the fall, Cued hopes to give its users relevant location-based activity recommendations, through using data from your already existing social shares.

goKit: goKit is basically an About.me for people with multiple personas, attempting to give people an easily set up outlet to express the multiple parts of their online identity.

Vouch :Vouch is like a Hashable for recommendations, an app that allows people to take their offline person recommendations online with Twitter-based #vouches.

AisleFinder : AisleFinder solves the problem of never knowing what aisle the items on your shopping list are in, using Mechanical Turk to acquire data about in-store item’s location.

Central.ly : Centrally wants to be the one stop web promotion shop for small to medium-sized businesses who want to create websites with the least amount of hassle.