One look at the business cards of DeviceKnit co-founders John Ganotis and Jordan Messina will tell you these guys aren’t your typical entrepreneurs. Listed as the chief espresso officer and chief tea officer, the recent AlphaLab grads have a knack for setting themselves apart (and employing humor while they’re at it).
DeviceKnit began as a web application for Ganotis and Messina to keep track of their gadgets and share ideas of how to use them with friends. Both were often asked to help setup electronics for other people and like finding new uses for devices they already own.
“I was always tinkering,” Ganotis said.
The best use Ganotis found was using the Wii remote, which he describes in a video on DeviceKnit.
Messina said he is looking forward to using GoogleTV with the iPhone.
Working from their interest in devices, Ganotis and Messina thought to expand the network by including more users and to make a profit through pay-per-click and affiliate sales. They decided to apply for the Spring 2010 AlphaLab session after Messina heard Resumator founder Don Charlton on the podcast This Week in Startups. Charlton had mentioned AlphaLab during the talk.
“I looked up Don after I heard it and emailed him last June,” Messina said.
Now that the program is over, DeviceKnit has moved in to office space with fellow AlphaLabers CloudFab in the Hill District. The building is owned by Dale McNutt, who is calling the location “Startup Town” and offering graduated pricing for new companies. Ganotis and Messina agreed that the community of local business owners in Pittsburgh offers a lot of different groups to get involved with and provides opportunity and guidance.
“Everyone is pulling for each other and giving a helping hand,” Ganotis said.
When it comes to funding, Ganotis and Messina are hopeful about their prospects and can self-sustain from profit in the meantime. Receiving support will enable the two to grow the community for DeviceKnit at a quicker pace by allowing them to move forward with development and gain users.
Ganotis and Messina are working on development along with the help of an intern from Duquesne University. The private beta for users who sign up is expected by the end of June, with a public beta to follow.
Not to be forgotten are the efforts of “Pluggy,” the logo for DeviceKnit, which can be found on Twitter. Pluggy was described as a “plug with an attitude” and picked from several designs submitted to 99designs.com, the site Ganotis and Messiner used to solicit ideas for the logo. Plans for Pluggy include t-shirts and stickers. The stickers, as Ganotis said, may find their way onto devices in different stores (some with angry faces to show Pluggy’s disgruntled opinion).
Eventually, Ganotis and Messina hope to expand DeviceKnit to include person-to-person sales, similar to how craigslist operates. No matter how the business expands, the initial idea for DeviceKnit remains the motivation behind the company.
“DeviceKnit is about sharing ideas and getting inspired by what others are doing,” Ganotis said. “Too many people are trying to reinvent the wheel when they should be figuring out how it works.”
Fooala tries to bridge the gap between online food ordering and local restaurants. When I first heard their idea at last year’s AlphaLab demo day, I was like “Wow that’s a great idea”! A lot of small restaurants do not have the time or the money to launch a platform to take orders online. Even if they did, trying to promote the fact that they could take orders that way would also be costly and time consuming.
Fooala provides an open online ordering system to restaurants as a Software as a Service. This means there is no hardware or software the restaurant needs to install. Fooala ties in to what the restaurant already does to take orders by phone and fax. They take it another step to help the restaurant integrate the system on an existing website.
Now here is where Fooala get interesting, the restaurant can also tie into a network of high quality websites and applications to engage and attract new customers. A great example of this is CollegeBite.com and the Facebook game Bite Bandit.
Fooala created College Bite to provide online ordering for delivery and pickup from local restaurants. Right now it’s only in Pittsburgh but they plan to launch in other cities soon. I could take the time to explain how the site works, but if you just go to it, it’s self explanatory. Think of it as an interactive menu section of a phonebook (if anyone still uses one of those giant wastes of paper anymore).
Another great example, Bite Bandit creates an interactive food ordering experience. The recently launched Facebook game gives away valuable coupons for orders from CollegeBite.com. They tell me the game has reached thousands of people and has given away thousands of dollars since they launched it a few weeks ago.
The game is setup like a slot machine and with each spin you can win up to $10 off your net order from College Bite. You only get 5 credits a day but you can score you self some more by promoting the game and your winnings.
Fooala is making it easy for small restaurants to reach an audience they would have never been able to reach themselves. I’m really looking forward to watching what this local startup will do next.
They wouldn’t give me details but they tell me they are working on a few major deals with publishers to use their system. I am thinking it’s going to be some kind of widget that the publisher could tie in with their food section. If this is true, then this would give restaurants another great way to reach customers.
Priya Narasimhan, president of Yinzcam will be showing off YinzCam an experiential in-stadium technology that was deployed for 40 Pittsburgh Penguins home games for the 2008-9 regular season, the 2009 NHL playoffs and the Stanley Cup Finals. You can find out more information on there website, yinzcam.com.
I have heard a lot about this new product but have yet to see it in action. I am not sure if I will be able to attend this meeting so if you do please share what you find out with us.
Also at this week’s meeting, Jay Fanelli (The Designer) and Nathan Peretic (The Developer), of Full Stop Interactive will present “Quit Your Job: How Two Pittsburgh Web Workers Used Unwavering Principles, Boundless Frustration, and NERF Basketball To Form Their Own Business.”
Quitting at day job and starting a business is something we all want to do. So it should be a good time to hear how these two accomplished that.
If you are planning to go RSVP by sending an email to info@refreshpittsburgh.org or visit RefreshPittsburgh.org.
If you read this blog you will know we always have a lot of fun with the Startups that come out of Alpha lab. This summer’s batch of companies looks exciting! We will be meeting and interviewing these companies in the coming weeks.
Here is a list of the companies with descriptions from the Alpha Lab website:
Fooala
Fooala enables online ordering capabilities for restaurants through their own websites and a network of partner applications. Restaurants can join Fooala with no upfront costs or equipment purchase requirement.
CloudFab
GearHeadz LLC is working to create CloudFab, which connects job shops with spare capacity to customers seeking their services. They are an online marketplace that provides lower costs, automated quoting, integrated payment & escrow, and an arbitration system.
LeftRight Studios
LeftRight Studios is a mobile application development company. We are currently developing unique mobile games exclusively for the iPhone. Our first title, smackBOTS (available through the iTunes and iPhone Appstore) is an arcade style robot fighting game in a single player version with robot customization. Our upcoming multi-player version of smackBots will feature in-app purchasing of downloadable content packs for more robot customization including weapons, armors and robot heads.
Vivo
Vivo is a web-based video broadcasting service that provides users a private, customizable environment for sharing events.
NavPrescience
NavPrescience is developing advanced methods for learning drivers’ routing preferences and destinations by observing their frequent driving routes. This technology enables navigation solutions that automatically adapt to each driver’s navigation preferences and provide relevant information (such as traffic reports) to the driver based on the future roadways and destinations he or she will visit.
Zipano
Zipano aspires to empower users of social networking sites and other information sharing services (including location sharing applications) to better control and manage who they share their personal information with. Their unique platform offers the user better ways to express his privacy preferences and enables the user to monitor with whom his information is shared. This functionality has been shown to result in higher levels of user comfort and willingness to selectively share information. We demonstrate the capabilities of our platform with Locaccino, a fully functional location sharing application, developed at Carnegie Mellon University.
Pittsburgh Business Radio is the name of the local programming that airs on WMNY 1360AM. They cover the news and local economy. Here is what their website says about the programming:
At PBR, we believe in Pittsburgh. From the dark days following the out migration of manufacturing from the area 20 years ago, we have seen a lot of improvement. Pittsburgh is in a unique position to grow, and there are signs of recovery throughout Downtown, the Southside and the Airport Corridor, but there needs to be more.
So, what will elevate the area? We think the key is business development. Business drives commerce. A strong business environment brings progress. It fosters business growth and entrepreneurs with new ideas-starting new businesses.
I took the few minuets I had with John to ask about the finical situation at PBR. If you listen to 1360AM you will hear fonder Ron Morris sometimes talk about how grim things are at the station. Recently Ron stopped and I wondered if it was because the writing was on the wall or if things were starting to looking up.
John told me that things were looking grim for a little bit, but the station recently got a few new sponsors. He also said it’s going to take time for people to find the station and its local programming, so they are prepared to weather a few rough patches. I think this one was a little rougher then expected, since the station started a few days before the big housing crash.
On a positive note, a startup like this is just what this city needs and I am glad PBR radio is seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. If you want to listen to the programming you have many options to do so. You can listen via podcast, streaming online, and on the radio. Visit PBRRadio.com for all the details.
I know this is kind of last minute but 
