Demo Day at AlphaLab featured recent program grads DeviceKnit, 80 Degrees West Interior Design, Inc., Black Locus, PhotoSynesi, and Shoefitr. Let’s go ahead with a description of each of the companies before I get into the nit and grit of who stood out (after all, you may want to judge for yourself).
DeviceKnit: “A consumer electronics content and community site focused on helping people discover new uses and connection options for their devices.” With so many newfangled gadgets out there, figuring out how to connect them all (or even what they all do for that matter) can be confusing. Here’s where DeviceKnit can help. “We are the neighborhood nerds,” CEO John Ganotis said. The site lets you pick what devices you would like to connect, then tells you what you need to connect them and where to get it. Pictures are provided in case, like me, you have no idea what different cables look like.
80 Degrees West Interior Design, Inc.: “An online design space providing a new and better way for do-it-yourself consumers to collect design inspiration, organize their decorating projects, and collaborate with professional interior designers.” Thinking of decorating? 80 Degrees West is a website that gives users the ability to organize design projects in an online notebook where they can store photos and ideas, get feedback from family and friends, and ask for professional input.
Black Locus: “A SASS cloud-computing platform that gives small and medium online retailers a similar level of analytical sophistication as larger e-tailers.” So you’re a small to medium web company with a need for market research. Welp, Black Locus is ready to give you the info you need for pricing, marketing, and inventory management. Users are able to implement recommendations with a click of a button and track the impact of each recommendation over time.
PhotoSynesi: “A premium online service delivering professional reviews and feedback to amateur photographers.” Digital cameras with auto focus lenses have led to an increased market of amateur photographers, many of whom spend money to attend workshops or similar events for professional critiques of their work. PhotoSynesi provides more readily available feedback at a lower cost.
Shoefitr: “Technology for online retailers to help customers find the correct size and best fitting shoe.” Not a lot of people buy shoes online. The reason? Shoes sizes are unreliable and the hassle of having to send a pair of shoes back that don’t fit outweighs the convenience of Internet shopping. Shoefitr wants to make the experience easier for the consumer and retailer by letting you choose a shoe size of what you want to buy based on what you already own. So, if you’re wearing a size 10 Nike and want to buy a New Balance, Shoefitr guides you through picking your exact shoe, then figures out what would be the best size of the new one. As one retailer said of Shoefitr “This is bitchin’.”
I was most impressed by DeviceKnit and Shoefitr. To start, I could see the utility of both without much effort. I don’t know what to do with half my electronics. I have returned shoes I bought online because they didn’t fit. I’m also a pushover for a good presentation. DeviceKnit and Shoefitr gave smart, interesting, and enjoyable overviews of their companies. The CEOs seemed generally enthusiastic about what they are doing, and they made me correspondingly excited.
Where the other companies fell short for me may have been because of consumer bias. I’m not a do-it-yourself type making 90K a year (80 Degrees West), I don’t have an online retail business (Black Locus), and even if I was an amateur photographer, I don’t think I’d pay for criticism unless I was trying to become a professional (PhotoSynesi). What I can say is they are certainly hitting niche markets and have the research to show that someone, somewhere is paying for these services. Whether they want to begin paying for online versions of those services is a consideration. I should also mention that 80 Degrees West and Black Locus both offer free accounts with limited, but useful options.
On a final, perhaps random note, I noticed that for whatever reason, smashing your company name together is all the rage with startups. DeviceKnit, PhotoSynesi, Shoefitr. Just saying.
Local startup Skill-Life has just been acquired by BancVue. I first saw this story on the blog TechBurger. The full press release is posted below for your enjoyment.
Skill-Life has developed just the sort of Web-based applications that can teach children the fundamentals of managing their money
- Austin, TX—February 9, 2010—BancVue (www.BancVue.com), a consumer research-driven product development and marketing company for community banks and credit unions around the country, today announced it has acquired Skill-Life, Inc., a provider of interactive, game-based resources focused on developing financial literacy.
Skill-Life’s youth-oriented platform adds to BancVue’s innovative lineup of solutions designed to help community financial institutions win the war against megabanks.
“An important mission of any community financial institution is providing financial education for its customers,” said Gabe Krajicek, Chief Executive Officer of BancVue, “and Skill-Life has developed just the sort of Web-based applications that can teach children the fundamentals of managing their money. The combination is a compelling value proposition for our community bank and credit union partners and their account holders.”
MoneyIsland™, Skill-Life’s flagship product (formerly called CentsCity), is essentially an online world where ‘tweens’—children in the so-called middle years between 8 and 12—learn financial skills and earn rewards from their financial institution. Parents are able to follow their childrens’ progress through a dynamic administrative interface. The firm expects to develop additional products applying Skill-Life’s platform, which incorporates casual games, interactive videos and quizzes, administrative tools for adults, and a customizable rewards system.
“With 81% of ‘tweens’ playing online games, and 87% of adults interested in teaching their children financial responsibility, we’re at the nexus of an emerging opportunity,” said Felix Brandon Lloyd, President of Skill-Life. “Through the extensive network of branches of BancVue’s clients, hundreds of thousands, eventually millions, of children around the country will gain access to much-needed financial education.”
The Skill-Life transaction is BancVue’s first corporate acquisition. The Texas-based firm has recently announced a number of strategic partnerships, including Allied Solutions and Myers & Associates. BancVue and its marketing partner FIRST ROI provide REALChecking®, a system of innovative products, superior marketing, and data-driven consulting, INMO™, the online account opening system with the highest funding rate, and FIRSTBranch®, a dynamic online marketing system designed exclusively for community financial institutions.
“In Skill-Life, we’re recognizing that industry leaders like Mr. Lloyd and his company can benefit from our network of clients,” says Krajicek. “At the same time, we gain from their creativity and enhance our own ability to serve BancVue’s partners.”
BancVue was recognized last year as the second fastest growing financial services firm in Inc. Magazine’s 28th Annual List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies—the Inc. 500. In addition to the Deluxe partnership, the Austin-based firm expects to maintain its growth trajectory in 2010 with the nationwide launch of Kasasa™, a national brand of superior products designed to unite community financial institutions with the marketing scale they need to compete and win.
[via TechBurger]
Malia Spencer has a new article up on Pittsburgh Business Times about ITSqc spinning out of CMU. While it isn’t exactly your typical sin-off, it does bode well for CMU and Pittsburgh. ITSqc works with companies such as IBM and Accenture to create models around the IT service sector.
“The research was done and the models were created and focus shifted from creating and gathering, which universities are great at, we produced the models and now it’s a more commercial adoption issue,” said company director Jeff Perdue of the decision to spin-off.
Now that the shift has moved from research to commercialization, Jeff thinks it’s time to spread their wings and fly. IT services is a maturing industry, it was only a short amount of time until a network of companies that support it was created. Not surprisingly, it came out of CMU. Good luck, ITSqc.
[Pittsburgh Business Times: IT service company ITSqc spins out from CMU]
I will be co-presenting at this year’s 4th Annual Pennsylvania Business Technology Conference, November 12th from 8:30 a.m.to 4:30 p.m. You still have time to register so check out their website before you miss out.
Here is information about my workshop:
Blogging 101: How to Get Started, Build Readership & Make Money.
With more than 133 million blogs indexed by Technorati, it’s clear that blogging is a major new media force in today’s Web 2.0 society. But businesses are still learning how to leverage them to drive new business, establish their brand and reach new markets. Learn how to get started, attract readers and turn your blog into a potential money-making venture.
Presented by: Ryan Smaretsky & Jason Mosley
This should be a lot of fun since Ryan and I have a great presentation planed. Yes, I will be talking about bacon during my parts of the workshop.
If you attending let me know so we could have a Startup Pittsburgh meet up!
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.
