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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AardarQ, a provider of a B2B AppStore framework for embeddable devices, just received $100k in funding from Innovation Works. Employing six people with plans to grow, AardarQ looks to build their customer base from two to three.
“The Innovation Works funding is a stamp of approval for our technology and our team’s ability to grow the business,”
- Pittsburgh, PA – February 10, 2010 AardvarQ™, LLC, provider of the industry’s first configurable, B2B AppStore™ Framework, today announced that it has been added as an Innovation Works portfolio company (http://www.innovationworks.org). Innovation Work’s resources will be used to expand AardvarQ’s AppStore Framework and to service initial customer demand.
AardvarQ’s AppStore Framework enables embedded device manufacturers to offer an innovative user experience for their B2B customers via a fully configurable online storefront. In addition to providing a steady flow of valuable productivity applications for their devices, AardvarQ enables device manufacturers to obtain detailed usage profiles for their installed base through its Web-based Device Dashboard.
“AardvarQ is a great addition to the Innovation Works portfolio,” said Richard Lunak, President and CEO for Innovation Works. “Their AppStore Framework provides a very innovative approach for embedded device manufacturers to stay connected with their installed base.”
Commercial devices are regularly purchased in bulk by large field service organizations with the assumption of a five- to ten-year usable life. Once shipped, manufacturers often lose track of these devices as they are assigned to a geographically dispersed mobile workforce. Whether a diagnostic, medical, point-of-sale or industrial control device, maintaining connectivity plays a crucial role in a manufacturer’s ability to manage a positive customer experience.
AardvarQ uniquely addresses this challenge by providing a virtual channel between a device manufacturer and their installed base of commercial devices. Device users are driven to the manufacturer’s branded AppStore to browse and install a steady stream of new/updated productivity applications. Upon accessing the AppStore, each device uploads a usage log that details the device’s location, usage and performance.
“The Innovation Works funding is a stamp of approval for our technology and our team’s ability to grow the business,” says Greg Quiggle, CEO of AardvarQ. “Our growing customer base needs to stay connected with their installed base of commercial devices. AardvarQ’s unique ability to log the usage of deployed devices enables manufacturers to (1) fine tune their feature sets, (2) proactively address performance issues in the field and (3) offer targeted on-the-job training aids.”
About AardvarQ
AardvarQ is the provider of the industry’s first configurable, B2B AppStore Framework. When licensed, AardvarQ provides a branded, hosted AppStore that can be offered in concert with an embedded device manufacturer’s product lines. Located in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, AardvarQ is a privately held corporation and both an Idea Foundry and an Innovation Works portfolio company. The AardvarQ team brings more than 20 years of experience defining, developing, launching and supporting successful embedded devices within a wide variety of B2B markets. For more information, visit www.aardvarq.net.
[via Pittsburgh Business Times]
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.
DesignAdvance Systems Inc. is a Pittsburgh company that develops electronic design software for designing electrical and mechanical products. They are known as one of the leading developers of EDA and MCAD design automation software solutions. Their flagship product, CircuitSpace, delivers user-assisted automation to the current manual process of PCB component placement. In a world where time means money, this reduces costs and allows them to take products to market sooner.
Last month they announced a new product called CircuitPlan, a concept level planning tool. Here is what they have to say about it.
“Our customers have been actively deploying our solutions [CircuitSpace and CircuitProbe] throughout their PCB design process,” stated Mr. Edward Pupa, DesignAdvance CEO. “Now with CircuitPlan, we provide PCB Designers, hardware engineers, test engineers and manufacturing engineers with solutions and an advanced methodology for planning, physical design, review / verification,” continued Mr. Pupa.
CircuitPlan will be available in February 2009, pricing starts at $3,990.
If you have any insight on DesignAdvance or their products please share via a comment. This is one industry that I am not familiar with, but as I am learning about it I find it very interesting.
