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Win $500 in services for your startup
Mar 30th
Elance, an online marketplace for freelancers, freelance agencies, and businesses to negotiate independent contracts, is sponsoring a contest for startups to win $500 in services and professional help. Known as the Startup Cloud Contest, services up for grabs include logo design, website development, market research, social media, or legal advice. The contest is also part of a new feature of Elance called Startup Cloud, designed to provide entrepreneurial advice and other small business advice.
Folks can enter the contest anytime between March 28, 2011 and June 28, 2011. Include any links to videos, assets, etc. to provide additional details about your company or startup idea. Only one entry allowed per contestant, and contestants must be an Elance member in order to enter (it’s free to become a member). Three winners will be chosen over the course of three months. One winner with the most compelling story will be selected and announced by Elance on April 30, 2011, May 31, 2011 and June 30, 2011, receiving the $500 credit for Elance services towards upcoming projects.
A recent study by Kauffman Foundation found that entrepreneurs are building startups at the highest rate in 15 years, and they are choosing to go into business alone instead of hiring employees. According to the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, a leading indicator of new business creation in the United States, 0.34% of American adults created a business per month in 2010, for a total of 565,000 new businesses. That rate remained consistent with 2009 and represents the highest level of entrepreneurship over the past decade and a half.
Not only is this time of the Great Recession a great time to hire, but it’s also a fruitful time for folks to create their own jobs by starting their own businesses. Don’t miss out on this opportunity for services to start and to grow your startup.
Angry Monkeys: Herding website bugs into one place
Mar 28th
“Originally designed for web developers, we’ve come across different ideas of how to implement BugHerd,” said co-founder Matt Milosavljevic. “Users need a way to log issues and to track issues sooner rather than later.”
BugHerd is a visual bug tracking tool from Angry Monkeys and operates within websites, keeping track of bugs in one place and eliminating the need to switch between programs. Users make note of each bug and can assign responsibility of the bug to a specific person. The services allows the entire team to communicate and manage bugs in a space everyone can understand: your own website. Technical and non-technical teams alike can share ideas and communicate more efficiently without resorting to emails and phone calls.
“There’s no limits on the program,” Milosavljevic said. “It’s all dependent on the project.”
Last time we spoke in January, Angry Monkeys said they had seven beta customers for BugHerd, and were working on a pricing model that would work for all of their customers. Their main goal is to grow the beta customer base in order to increase the amount of feedback they get on BugHerd.
“We’re focusing on getting a core set of features and on refining the product,” Milosavlejvic said. “And to see about investment opportunities.”
While Bugherd is building a bigger and better product, users have until May 30 to get Bugherd for free! Quickly assess the health of a project by seeing how many bugs have been logged, how many have been fixed and how many are still left to do. If still unsure about the whole thing, watch a video demo of the service!
Startup Talk: ebook lending picks up steam, ebookfling launched.
Mar 28th
We know how popular ebook readers have become off late, growing at a higher rate than ever. Sure there are tablets spoiling their niche party but ebook vendors have found their way around by introducing ebook stores on all mobile OS and PC platforms. The industry saw an eye popping $1b spent on ebooks by consumers in 2010 which will triple by 2015 according to a report by Forrester Research. Although the market is growing via first time users the industry had to find a way to make money out of ebooks already sold to consumers.
Amazon and B&N did what was natural to physical books – allow users to rent books from friends (only). This limited scope of book sharing has spurred the emergence of new startups in the book lending space like Lendle, Booklending and Ebookfling that are aiming to transform an already evolving industry. Lendle and Booklending allows lending and borrowing ebooks on the Kindle platform (on any mobile OS or PC) while Ebookfling allows you to rent and borrow ebooks on both the Kindle and Nook platforms. But how does Ebookfling stand out from the rest? Well, they let you borrow and lend books using what they call a credit system within the Ebookfling ecosystem where you get 1 credit point for every book you lend which can be used to borrow another ebook through the system.
First time user? No problem – you can purchase credits at $1.99 a credit point. So how does it change the ebook ecosystem? This model potentially limits the amount of money flowing into the Amazon and B&N’s coffers by cutting off a substantial number of first time ebook buyers. For example, if Ebookfling has 1000 books available for renting and the system takes off, no new ebook adopter has a reason to purchase books directly from Amazon of B&N. Instead of spending an average of $10 per book, a lent book only costs 20% of the price although it stays with you only for 14 days before it goes back to the original user. Plus the used ebook is always in mint condition no matter how many people you lend it to.
So will it permanently damage the revenue source for Amazon and B&N? That aspect is yet to be explored. The recent API block episode where Amazon blocked its lending API to Lendle should serve as a notice to future entrepreneurs treading this path. Although Amazon reinstated the API’s access to Lendle, it was not before heavy media exposure to the issue. just like Apple’s App store policies frustrated developers (even today it does!) the ebook lending policies will require a lot of fine tuning and tweaking before it becomes a sustainable, profitable model and eventually create an ecosystem like the Apple App store. Ebookfling CEO George Burke notes that “the initial reaction may be a negative. Publishers and authors will claim the lending feature is being abused and causing cannibalization of sales. Authors are already bending over backwards by giving away many of their backlist (older) books free in the Kindle never needing to purchase.”
From an analyst’s perspective the market is ripe for more than 5 lending services to co-exist and be profitable in the long term. Let’s just hope Amazon and B&N do the right things over the next year.
Fitness help online and over the phone
Mar 24th
Want to get in shape, but can’t seem to find the time to do it? Startup Fitsistant is an online fitness staff that moves with you, providing a service of on-call physical training coaches & scheduling assistants combined with personally tailored fitness software.
With Fitsistant, every user gets a coach and a fitness planner to set weekly fitness goals and to check on your progress. These plans are based on the time that each user has available during the week, and the coach holds users accountable. Fitsistant will also take care of the details, such as signing up trainees for community runs or swims in their area, finding a physician in case of an injury, and suggesting the best places for fitness gear like shoes and clothing.
Workouts can also be sport specific, or changed depending on what the user has done in previous weeks. Goals are also made to be attainable. No one can be ready for a 10K run in two weeks, but Fitsistant can help you be ready for one in two months, which is much more achievable.
Fitsistant is one of 11 startups participating in this year’s Bull City Startup Stampede in Durham, North Carolina. Ideabing will continue to feature the tech-based startups thoughout the next week.
Startup Talk: Time3 tries to solve the cloud security problem in its entirety
Mar 21st
Now that the “cloud” has taken over our lives it’s natural that startups will sprout like weeds in an ill maintained garden. But every now and then flowers blossom from among the weeds. Time3 is one such startup based out of Nevada, USA.
The most pressing issue about the cloud is about data security and privacy. What makes security implementation so difficult on the cloud is it’s complex architecture and multiple points of access, especially in public clouds. Time3 has engineered a brilliant solution that counters this problem by wrapping the entire cloud in a shield of sorts. By doing this, Time3 is trying to solve privacy and security problems as a whole instead of working on an incremental approach to cloud protection. Since the internet was designed to let you access prettily rendered HTML, the current scenario of web applications creates a scenario that was never imagined when the www was engineered in the first place. Time3 solves these issues while restructuring the way people access information from the cloud. We wouldn’t be surprised if Time3 is acquired by large cloud and security corporations such as EMC or Symantec in the near term. PR follows.
*********Start Press Release***********
US start-up company TIME3 Inc. has reached agreement to commercialize the Total Information Management Environment (cubed) “TIME3″ – a revolutionary framework that radically alters the paradigms underlying the World Wide Web. Online security, privacy, control, and efficiency are all at your fingertips with the TIME3 internet software solution.
TIME3 addresses the fundamental design flaws of the Web, including identity theft, e-Commerce fraud, privacy concerns, piracy issues, misuse of social networking, spam emailing and malicious viruses; that currently consumers have no option but to tolerate.
TIME3 achieves this by wrapping a protective layer (“Wrapper”) around the Cloud (content, information,applications and services) and providing a simple, secure, fast, relevant and integrated user interface that only talks to this Wrapper. TIME3 does not replace the Cloud, but provides this Wrapper to ensure the consumer is totally protected by providing them with a single, controlled entry point to the web. In effect TIME3 transforms the way people access and use the web by creating this controlled connection for each validated individual, through which they set their parameters for privacy and access to the Cloud.
The World Wide Web was never designed for the commercial applications and uses now being attempted. Companies like Microsoft, Google and Facebook are attempting to apply fixes and enhancements to address issues such as privacy, but they are just “band-aids” on a essentially flawed system.
TIME3 is a fundamental shift in the way you engage with the Cloud and as such is a dramatically different approach. TIME3 has been designed from scratch, with a commercial development approach that changes the underlying paradigms. Its unique 3-party Relationship Security model permeates the core technologies and begins with s SSL connection between the user interface and the Wrapper.
Key features of TIME3 come from each individual, business or other organization being uniquely validated ensuring they are identified throughout the framework. This validation of an entity enables core functions within TIME3 such as: secure access to the Cloud, eliminating the need for multiple login’s and passwords to each service; trusted communications eliminating spam, viruses and unrequested advertising; integrated functionality like Location Based Services providing a simple way for services to be enriched; data modifications needing to be approved by all relevant parties reducing the capability of fraud; and the removal of piracy through inherent Digital Rights Management. These are just some of the features of the TIME3 framework making the difference between this approach and the band-aids of the current technologies glaringly apparent.
TIME3 is not just a secure framework for the current Cloud technologies. It is also able to integrate legacy applications and non-web enabled applications, making this system just as relevant for businesses wanting to migrate in-house software into a Cloud.
TIME 3 Inc. is currently in discussion with a number of parties to secure country licensees to bring this product to the global market. For more information please visit http://www.Time3.org.
Contact: RJ Joksch, 602-324-9530, email info(at)intl-group(dot)com
Contact: Russ O’Kane, 918-407-2892, email russ(at)pacbri(dot)com
*********End Press Release***********
Startup Talk: Appsplit wants to create a massive app marketplace
Mar 17th
We are seeing this as a trend now. When there are too many things to be sold what’s more better than a marketplace? But where there are 500,000 apps available for purchasing, it takes a whole new twist. A few good apps bubble up to the top and the rest get left out sinking to the bottom. All that siad, the app business is so lucrative that more developers want to dive headlong into the app scene without a second thought.
In tha pst we had featured Appbistro – a startup trying to create a marketplace for facebook apps. Today we are featuring Appslit – a startup that wants to create a marketplace for iOS, Android, Blackberry, WebOS and Facbook apps. Technically speaking, the concept is quite simple but Appslit has a whole new angle to it. While the startup allows developers to sell apps at wholesale rates to potential buyers it also allows app developers to work with Appsplit on making a product successful, for a cut of course. This is a brand new way to attract developers to submit and let Appsplit (called the Split program) manage apps that may or may not sell too well while looking out for potential whole sale buyers. This way appslit is doubling up as an app marketing consultant and borderline investor – taking anywhere between 40% to 60% of app profits based on the contract period.
Stratups such as these bring to my mind questions about sustainability of single owner apps. Yes, there is an opportunity to grow thanks to the ever growing consumer and manufacturing base for mobile phones and the ever growing user base of facebook. However, there is also a need for liability sharing in the app developer’s invetments since there are too many apps put there. This is what Appbistro is doing. Taking a share of the liability in an app’s journey to success is a great way to encourage development of new innovative apps.
All this said, we believe that there is space for a bunch of app marketplaces in the ecosystem as single the Android market and Apple Appstore get crowded. All this given, an intermediary who can manage risk certainly helps.
Startup Talk: Codeeval wants to help you recruit REAL coders
Mar 14th
Yeah, yeah, call us what you want but there are more fake coders applying for jobs in the world than real ones. I know, since I have seen it first hand. When resources are spread thin, a startup or even a large company has limited time to look for suitable candidates out of a huge pool of resumes that flow in on a daily basis. Then there is also this problem of immigration fraud where students come from far off lands only to look for jobs with fake resumes. This world is all too evil, trust us.
This is where Codeeval, a California (yeah, where else?) based startup is trying to solve this seemingly unending problem. CodeEval is a platform for identifying strong programming candidates early on in the recruitment process. Employers receive loads of resumes for engineering positions. How does one choose from amongst these, whom to interview? The most foolproof way is to ask all candidates to solve a programming challenge and then choose from amongst the best solutions. CodeEval automates this foolproof process. It allows employers to set up challenges in a variety of languages such as Python/C/C++/Java etc and then auto executes/evaluates candidate submissions arriving at a CodeEval Score. Employers can then view the submissions of the top candidates and continue the recruitment process with these candidates, being assured that they have identified the brightest amongst the lot. i.e. CodeEval takes you from a ‘Mountain’ of seemingly similar candidates to a ‘Molehill’ of the smartest ones.
CodeEval also acts as a discovery platform. Candidates/Developers can log in for free and solve challenges after which they get a public profile containing their solutions. Employers can then search these public profiles and choose the candidates with the best solution. A win / Win for both sides.
So, how did you think Codeeval come into existence? Founder of Codeeval, Jim himself was a techie facing a problem with hiring. Engineers solve problems and Jim built Codeeval. Classic. Codeeval is free for use in beta phase. Go help your self!
Why Microsoft will eventually kill Nokia
Feb 10th
This couldn’t have gotten worse – Nokia working with Microsoft? Really? On a mobile platform? REALLY? Let’s go back a few years and look at a déjà vu situation. Remember the famous Microsoft – Palm deal when Palm moved away from its legendary Palm OS in favor of the Windows Mobile platform? What ensued after that, we all know. Palm lost a differentiating factor that was very critical in a world where every other company was manufacturing phones with Windows Mobile OS. By the time Palm realized that they were merely another handset hardware manufacturer it was too late. Palm was then bought out by HP.
Now let’s look at Nokia’s potential OS deal with MS. Say Nokia moves away from its Symbian platform for the high end handset market and lights them up with Windows Phone OS. Nokia would instantly start competing with the likes of HTC, LG and Samsung for market share – just on the handset side of things. Unless Nokia really pumps up its hardware design units to manufacture great looking, great working handsets with touch screens that don’t need styluses, they have already lost the battle. Say they make great looking handsets with awesome processing power. Then what? Then Nokia may stand a chance to make some money selling handsets all the while increasing Windows Phone’s market share. Even if Nokia maintained the Symbian OS for the lower end of the market it will never be able to enter the high end market again with the Symbian OS – in any form.
The next level of degradation will happen when market forces will compel Nokia to adopt Android as well, just to survive in the high end phone market. Let’s not forget that Chinese brands are eroding Nokia’s market share significantly in developing markets like India and Brazil. This situation leaves Nokia with a handset division which makes phones that no one wants. The next 3-4 years will be crucial for Nokia’s turn around, if it can i.e. else see it being bought out by some knight in shining armor – MS maybe for all you know.
Moral of the story? Windows mobile platforms have had the distinction of destroying innovation in Palm and now might do just what is required to destroy Nokia’s internal innovation machine. Don’t be too surprised if you see large scale movement of Nokia execs into Google, Apple and MS in the coming days. Let us just hope that Nokia doesn’t bite the Windows Mobile bullet.
Value of an Idea
Jan 27th
Many successful internet ventures are based on the simple concept of connecting buyers and sellers – eBay allows people to buy and sell stuff over the internet , JustDial makes it easy for local service providers to reach out to customers, Job Portals (Naukri, Monster, Timesjobs) connect job seekers with employers, Property Sites (99acres, Indiaproperty) connect property buyers with property sellers, Platforms like SecondMarket connect buyers and sellers of private company stocks, and so on. The idea is to find a niche (except eBay which is the most generic) and then build a forum that connects people around that niche – taking care of all the requirements specific to that niche . The value addition for users is tremendous – it creates a platform where information is exchanged about the supply and demand of the object in question – eventually resulting in a price that tends to be fair for both parties.
The context of this post is the recently launched OpenInvo – a platform for buying and selling ideas. The proposition here is that people like you and me can post their business ideas on a forum – and parties interested in executing the same can ‘buy’ the ideas. The prospect is superexciting – now you have a market for something as intangible as a thought in your head! Of course, as OpenInvo explains, the ideas on ‘Sale’ could be in various stages – from a mere three lines of concept to a fully thought out plan to partial execution – and the value of the idea would vary accordingly. The buyers, OpenInvo expects, would mostly be companies looking out for new ideas in their domains of interest and having the financial muscle to execute.
That apart, what makes me curious is as a seller of an idea – how will you decide for how much will you sell an idea for! The very fact that you are putting your idea for sale shifts the power to the buyer (if you believe it in so much, why don’t you execute it yourself?). This is what makes this concept different from Angel Investments where the ‘Idea Owner’ is only seeking funding and mentoring and not an outright sale. Also it is really difficult to claim ‘owning’ an idea – that is where execution wins. Execution is tangible – something for which you can demand value. Ideas, if not backed by execution, are (mostly) worth next to nothing.
Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see if OpenInvo makes it to the list of ‘successful online market places’ I listed earlier.
It’s Not Just an App, It’s an Entire Phone!
Sep 21st
Facebook is building a mobile phone to compete with Google’s impending Nexus One and the current iPhone and Android brands. Specifically, Facebook wants to integrate deeply into the contacts list and other core functions of the phone. It can only do that if it controls the operating system.
It’s unknown what this phone will look like, how much it will cost, and what sort of capabilities the phone will have. Or even if Facebook is building a phone, as the social media giant has denied the report from TechCrunch.
“Facebook is not building a phone,” Facebook spokesperson Jaime Schopflin told CNET. “Our view is that almost all experiences would be better if they were social, so integrating deeply into existing platforms and operating systems is a good way to enable this. The bottom line is that whenever we work on a deep integration, people want to call it a ‘Facebook Phone’ because that’s such an attractive soundbite, but building phones is just not what we do.”
But a brand/gadget merger could become a marketing scheme of the future, for Facebook or any other company, similar to Purina’s creation of an online game or the dueling Canon/Nikkon coffee mugs.
