Since Groupon is now a household name, I was excited to see the news that ShowClix, a local startup and Innovation Works portfolio company, landed a partnership with them.
The partnership comes just after they experienced a 275% growth in new clients in 2010. Now with this new deal with group buy juggernaut Groupon, ShowClix’s is proving once again their local startup to watch.
I remember a few years ago when I first saw there ticket scanning doohickey at a local show. I thought, “What is this, there is no way this scanny thing is going to take down Ticketmaster”. I’m glad there making me put my foot in my mouth on that one.
ShowClix has also announced that there are over 100 new features for administrators of events. You check out the video below so see some of them in action. These new features add more robust social media intergeneration and tracking. Two very important thing to success in this Facebook and twitter dominated world.
ShowClix Introduces New Event Ticketing Admin from ShowClix on Vimeo.
Read the full press release after the jump.
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The following is from a blog post by Burgher Jon:
Pittsburgh’s own Accelerator, AlphaLab was in the news last week as a founding member of the TechStars Network. TechStars is a nationally renowned accelerator with centers in NYC, Boston, Boulder and Seattle. One of the primary men associated with it is Brad Feld, a guy I’ve mentioned several times on this blog. The TechStars Natwork was formed to help develop synergies with other accelerators across the country in conjunction with Barack Obama’s Startup America. I think the move positions AlphaLab well to take advantage of some network benefits and perhaps even some Federal help. Just exactly what ends up coming out of it, will be interesting to see.
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Fred Wilson, as usual, had some valuable insights on his blog yesterday. The topic this time was particularly interesting, how the government can stimulate the startup ecosystem. He started by saying that there are at least two ecosystems in NYC, one around BioTech and one around Software/Internet/Digital Media and that the two are seperate. While this seems obvious to those of us who live this day in and day out, politicians tend to be a little dense.
Fred points to two primary ways that public funds and energies can be applied to nurturing the NYC tech scene. The first one is the chorus that resounds through just about every community trying to build a tech scene, WE NEED MORE ENGINEERS! This of course applies to Pittsburgh as much as anybody, but I think there are plenty of engineers (at least more then the Pittsburgh tech scene can currently handle) to be had coming out of CMU. This is why I think it is so awesome that Google confirmed today that their offices are going to be twice as large as we previously believed. This, and a growing startup community, can form the basis for a community that’s attractive to the top engineering talent.
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In the past 7 days Mashable has posted over 10 How to be a startup success tips. Its part of their Digital Entrepreneur Series that started later this year. I guess they decided to put it on overdrive this week.
Just in case you might of missed them here is a quick rundown:
When I look at both of these lists two things jump out at me; being focused and having the right team. I guess those two things really do set you pace to be a successful startup.
This fact make me excited for whats coming out of Pittsburgh. Most of the up-and-coming startupers I meet in Pittsburgh have these qualities. When I ask them what there doing they have clear idea and mission of what the want to accomplish. They also have about 1-3 more people, usually working away, right behind them.
Pretty soon the word Startup and Pittsburgh are going to be like bacon and eggs. Seeing one without the other is going to look strange and unsatisfying.
The Pittsburgh Business Times reported that ModCloth, a Strip District based online indie clothing company, raised $19.8 million in the largest VC round of 2010. They plan to continue to seek funding until they raise over $30 million in funding.
I am really happy for these guys and there a shining example of what can come out of the Pittsburgh startup community. What started out in a dorm room is now a large company with offices three cities. I can no longer call ModCloth a startup but I am still going to follow these guys closely.
Very quickly they moved from startup, to small business, to an internationally known brand. I think my only concern is that as they gotten bigger, their quality has dropped. Still I don’t think that is enough to stop them from growing even larger. All the girls I know that complain about the quality, still buy over $100 worth of merchandise from them monthly (no joke).
