Pittsburgh Startup Avere Systems recently raked in 15 million dollars of first round funding to launch their network-attached storage (NAS) technology. There plan is to announce their new product in October.
If you are hoping I know what this new NAS is, or how it’s different from the competition you’re out of luck. Like most startups there keeping the details hush-hush, but I can tell you what little I do know.
NAS is nothing new and it’s even starting to make its way in to the home. Acer and HP both have consumer model NAS on the market.
Avers Systems seems to be focusing on business applications for NAS technology. Since it’s something businesses can’t live without it a market with high demand. Another factor that might help them is, with shrinking budgets businesses will be looking at other options for the storage needs.
They believe they will have the advantage since they can make them run faster at a cheaper price than anyone else on the market. I am not sure how they plan to do that but I am going to take their word for it.
If they can really master the art of creating a top performing product at a cheaper price they could have something big on their hands. Household consumers are just now starting to see the value of NAS; this could be a market Avere might want to keep an eye on.
Alpha Lab would is now accepting applications for the Winter/Spring cycle. I recently did a post about this cycles companies and I plan to harass them for interviews ASAP. But this post is not about them, it’s about everyone reading this that is sitting on the next big idea.
If you think your idea has what it takes to be an Alpha Lab graduate, then head to their website and start the review process. It’s really painless. Last cycle, I put myself thought it so see what it was like.
All you really need to do is outline your idea, if you have a full business plan that’s great but you don’t really need it. The Alpha Labs application asks you all the right questions so it kind of develops one for you on the fly. Then you wait a few weeks/months and then they let you know if you make it to the next step.
I think everyone that has an idea, no matter how big or small, should at least apply. The application deadline is October 20th and the program begins on January 5th.
If you want to learn more about the program, a good time to do that is at Open Coffee Club. The next one is on October 1st starting at 9 am at Alpha Lab. If you’re on Facebook you can check out the group and event page there.
I make it a point to try and go to every Open Coffee Club so I hope to see you there.
Anyone who drives in Pittsburgh knows the annoyance of a random bump as your tire falls into a pothole. If you take the same route most days, you may even have a system of avoidance. Before the city had mercy on the stretch of Forbes between Shady and Braddock, I spent the 5-minute stretch switching lanes half a dozen times to get around missing chunks of pavement.
Pothole-like problems are bound to happen in any city. Although some concerned citizens may call the non-emergency services 311 line, most of us go frustratingly on our way.
Well fellow suffers, YinzCam just made telling officials about city-related issues easier. iBurgh is a free iPhone app that enables users to take a photo of whatever is getting in your way, slowing you down, or generally causing amuck in the city. The site is then geotagged and sent to the city’s server. iBurgh is also on social networking sites Facebook and Twitter, and the city hopes to make it available on other mobile devices soon.
Pittsburgh is the first city to have its own iPhone app, beating out other interested cities such as Boston, New York, DC, and San Francisco. The launch falls in line with Councilman Bill Peduto’s initiative of partnering with local tech companies to make the city the first e-democracy.
I started this blog in February to feature and highlight the buzzing startup community here in Pittsburgh. After having a slower then expected start the blog got pushed to the back burner. It sat and simmered there with me attending to it a little here and there. I then got inspired to start yet another blog in the process called Pittsburgh Observer to cover the life and culture of this city.
Now I know what your thinking “Mosley, if had a hard time keeping up with this blog, what makes you think you can keep up with another”?
Well here is the thing, I am not doing it alone this time. I found a group of passionate writers that want to help me with my blogging/zine making exploits. This is were I went wrong with Startup Pittsburgh, I created it with no plan on how I was going to maintain it. Well like any good entrepreneur I learned from my mistakes. I know have a plan and a team of people behind me.
This is the official relaunch of Startup Pittsburgh, sister site to the Pittsburgh Observer (PO). This blog is now off the back burner and happily boiling on a front one. You will see posts from Carrie Smith, the managing editor of PO, pop up on here in the weeks to follow. You will also still see candid interviews and honest profiles written by me too.
I hope you enjoy the new effort that is going in to this site and the Pittsburgh Observer.
