Last week, before Under the Radar, we announced seven finalists to pitch their favorite app for 2 minutes to the crowd and battle it out for the app-reciation (LOLZ) from a panel of blogger judges.
Check out the video of the session below.
CONGRATS to SHOP SAVVY by Big in Japan for a PERFECT SCORE!
Grad Circle Presenter: Tungle
Twitter: @tungle
Presenter: Marc Gingras
If you missed Tungle present as a Grad Circle/Sector Leader during yesterday’s Business Apps session at Under the Radar: mobility, here’s your chance to check out what I think is a MUST HAVE APP for any mobile worker who’s constantly meeting with colleagues and clients across multiple timezones, and who are on multiple calendar platforms (iCal, Google Calendar, MSFT Outlook, etc). Stop sending pesky emails asking people what times they might be available… Just select the contacts from your iPhone’s contact list, shake it (err, Tungle it….) and VOILA.
About the Grad Circle at Under the Radar
The Graduate Circle comprises a hand-picked group of companies that have “graduated” from being under the radar and are gaining major momentum. Graduate Circle companies will be making presentations on stage during the regular sessions as “sector leaders” on recent product launches, news and announcements.
Grad Circle Presenter: Shozu
Presenter: Chris Wade
If you didn’t get a chance to see Grad Circle presenter Chris Wade make a killer come back at Under the Radar this week, you missed out. ShoZu has been around the block a few times… The company has been a leader in the photo-sharing space for some time and hit the stage at Under the Radar as a “sector leader” in the consumer apps category to tell us how the company is continuing to gain momentum….
ShoZu is an innovative media hub, designed to keep people connected through the sharing of videos, photos and comments between their mobile phones and social communities. ShoZu’s pioneering and patented technology allows: fast, simultaneous and one-click uploads to multiple sites; full-resolution uploading of media without compression; ability to maintain uploads even after connection is dropped; and other unique features designed to simplify user’s ability to stay connected.
About the Grad Circle at Under the Radar:
The Graduate Circle comprises a hand-picked group of companies that have “graduated” from being under the radar and are gaining major momentum. Graduate Circle companies will be making presentations on stage during the regular sessions as “sector leaders” on recent product launches, news and announcements.
Grad Circle Presenter: MPlayit
Twitter: @mplayit
Presenter: Michael Powers, CEO
In case you missed Mplayit present at Under the Radar: Mobility yesterday, we’ve got you covered! Watch Michael’s presentation below – where he tells us about how MPlayit has made it easier to discover, share and download the latest killer mobile games:
Mplayit is the leading global provider for online discovery and social merchandising of mobile games and applications. The company’s proprietary software solutions enable mobile content providers, operators and App Store owners to better merchandise, market, and interact with a targeted user audience of mobile consumers. Mplayit is based in Ashburn, Va., and is backed by New Atlantic Ventures.
About the Graduate Circle at Under the Radar: The Graduate Circle comprises a hand-picked group of companies that have “graduated” from being under the radar and are gaining major momentum. Graduate Circle companies will be making presentations on stage during the regular sessions as “sector leaders” on recent product launches, news and announcements.
Grad Circle Presenter: Boku
Twitter: @boku
Presenter: Hon Hirson
If you missed out on Ron’s presentation at Under the Radar yesterday, he told the audience about Boku’s mobile payment solution that’s taking the online commerce world by storm. Starting in digital goods like music and gaming, Boku is growing into the world of physical goods and real-world payments as well. Watch his preso below:
BOKU is creating the standard for online payments using your mobile phone, making it easy to pay for digital goods and social experiences across the web. With a strong focus on reliability and security, BOKU’s goal is to bring bank-grade payments technology and mobile users together on the web, creating a trusted, viable and accessible market for consumers, publishers and carriers alike. Based in San Francisco with offices in Europe, Asia and Latin America, BOKU reaches over 1.8 billion consumers worldwide, and is funded by leading Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture capitalists Benchmark Capital, Index Ventures and Khosla Ventures.
About the Graduate Circle at Under the Radar: The Graduate Circle comprises a hand-picked group of companies that have “graduated” from being under the radar and are gaining major momentum. Graduate Circle companies will be making presentations on stage during the regular sessions as “sector leaders” on recent product launches, news and announcements.
Yesterday’s Under the Radar: Mobility was a smashing success. Over 350 people attended and watched a group of bleeding-edge mobile startups tell their stories and showcase their technology.
With over half of UTR’s past presenting companies having raised funding or get acquired after hitting our stage, something tells me this batch of companies might bump this statistic up even higher. Every single startup hit it out of the park!
*Scroll down for links to ALL presenter’s videos and profiles.
So…. who came out on top?
** Audience Choice: BEST IN SHOW – Melodis! Check out their video here.
** Judges’ Choice: BEST IN SHOW – Tie: Yowza!! (video) and MobileIron (video)
View all Under the Radar company presentations and winners below:
Grad Circle Companies:
The Graduate Circle comprises a hand-picked group of companies that have “graduated” from being under the radar and are gaining major momentum. Graduate Circle companies will be making presentations on stage during the regular sessions as “sector leaders” on recent product launches, news and announcements. Check out their videos:
This morning, Peter Hirshberg opened Under the Radar with a mind-opening presentation about visualizing mobile data… What real time data means, what our ‘things’ know about us, how we communicate with one another – and what all of this data means about us as humans.
Digging into data collected by MIT as well as a history lesson (and reminder that Marshall McLuhan was smack-on about media, global villages, privacy and convenience), Peter talked about the implicit and explicit data collected in our mobile world.
Watch the video here. Apologies for the highs and lows in audio – seems the audio from Peter’s microphone and the volume from his presentation aren’t as well-balanced in the recording as we’d like. I’ll see if we can tweak the levels and updload a new version soon.
Still – you can’t beat this presentation. It was amazing…
PS: Follow Peter on Twitter @hirshberg and search the Twitter hash tag #engagingdata for his related posts and thoughts.
Meet Aha Mobile! They just hit the stage at his year’s Under the Radar: mobility. Missed their presentations? Here’s their company profile and pitch:
Company Description |
Aha has created the first driver-to-driver network to connect drivers to relevant information about the road – both from other drivers and from the Internet. Initially available as an iPhone app, Aha is powered by a powerful backend platform that will in the future enable its service in imbedded automotive solutions. Aha uses the Web to accurately answer questions like “Hungry?,” “Need Coffee,” or “Need a bathroom?” based on the user’s current location and preset preferences. Letting drivers easily record comments for each other, Aha answers the question, “What’s the driver ahead experiencing?” and creates the first driver-to-driver network.
Last Funding Round | June 2008, $3M Customers | Consumers who drive Partners | Consumer electronics companies, auto manufacturers
Presenter | Robert L. Acker | President & CEO
Robert Acker was most recently SVP of Marketing at Dash Navigation, which developed the first Internet-connected GPS device. Prior to that he served as VP of Music Services at RealNetworks. The first full-time employee at XM Satellite Radio, he wrote the XM business plan and served as VP of Marketing and VP of Product Development. There he negotiated the first strategic partnerships, created the XM brand, set pricing, launched the service and developed the award-winning radio lineup. Robert holds bachelor and masters’ degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
LOLZ!
Sure, they’re poking fun at Apple, but I have to say, this satirical video from Microsoft about rejected Windows Marketplace Apps is pure awesomeness.
Fun Fact: Todd Brix, Senior Director, Mobile Services and Platform Product Management will be on stage at Under the Radar: Mobility coming up on November 19 in Mountain View, CA. Register now to shake hands with him and hit him up for info on Microsoft’s App Marketplace.
Building great companies is more than just knowing when to hold ‘em, and when to fold ‘em… The truth is, if you focus on your entrance more than your exit, you won’t have to find an “out”…it will find you. But startups still need to have a solid exit strategy in place so they are ready for the rebound. Even more important, they need to be prepared for every side of an exit – the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Last Thursday, Dealmaker LA’s Strategy Series focused on “Exits in 2010″ (hosted by the team at Rustic Canyon Partners) where we heard insight from those who bought, sold and negotiated startup acquisition in the past few years about what it takes to line up your company for a potential acquisition.
Thanks to the team at TechZulu for creating a great “highlight reel” (BELOW).
* Brett Brewer, President of Adknowledge and co-founder of Intermix Media
* David Travers, Principal, Rustic Canyon Partners
* Shawn Colo, Co-Founder & Head of M&A, Demand Media
* Jason Kay, Monkey Gods (Former COO, Flektor – Acquired by FOX Interactive)
* Michael J. Montgomery, President, Montgomery & Co., LLC
Who Was in the Audience?
A huge thanks to everyone who attended. Some of the folks who mixed n’ mingled with us that night:
Next up, school will be in session October 6 with our first WORKSHOP funding boot-camp for startups. Think VCs should be throwing term sheets at you? Think again… The Workshop is your chance to get your hands on actual cap charts and term sheets. Ask questions, get answers. REGISTER.
I just received one of the cutest emails (did I ever think I’d say “cute” when referring to starting startups?).
Drue Kataoka is getting hitched this weekend, and instead of dooming guests to the aisles of Bed Bath and Beyond, they’ve asked for help funding their startup, Aboomba, through a startup registry.
Items include feeding developers, taking Tim Draper for lunch and oodles of Red Bull. Check it out.
Here’s the email and a video of the happy couple explaining their mission:
My fiance and I are launching a stealth-mode startup– and also getting married in five days at Stanford. So we created the world’s first “Startup Wedding Registry.” No crystal, flatware, or blenders here. Instead, we’ve invited our guests to feed an engineer for a day ($273), feed a VC lunch ($291) or provide lattes for a week ($129).
We created a tongue-in-cheek (but truthful) look at the toils of starting a Silicon Valley company, refracted through the prism of a wedding. We hope that it will involve and entertain not only our guests, but a larger web audience. We want to be open– anybody (not only our guests) is invited to suggest an item to add to the registry (through posting a comment).
The top 3 funniest (but real) suggestions will receive a 750 ml wine bottles of Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir (our wedding favor, which is custom-designed for the wedding), and will be specially featured.
…Now I just have to chime in here, Drue. Skip the lattes, girl. Go for drip coffee. Way cheaper and your future VC will appreciate the thriftiness!
From video to music and games to news, everyone and their mother is looking for better ways to monetize online content…and it’s starting to pay off.
New monetization models are taking shape as consumers rapidly embrace virtual currencies, micropayments, free to play, premium content. But its not as simple as it sounds… Before you make any moves, you need to understand which model is right for your audience, how consumers behave within the new models, and the key tactics required for successful implementation.
Last week, we took over Zune L.A (if you haven’t hung out in this space – look for any excuse to do so, it’s amazing!) and were joined by 140+ LA entrepreneurs, geeks, media/entertainment execs, VCs and more to have a real talk about hype-free, proven models to monetize.
Check out the video of the panel discussion (moderated by our friend, Jason Nazar) below:
Connect with the Speakers:
- Keith Richman, CEO, Break.com (linkedin profile)
- Paul Yanover, EVP & Managing Director, Disney Online (linkedin profile)
- Larry Fitzgibbon, EVP, Demand Brands/ Demand Media
- Ro Choy, Chief Revenue Officer, RockYou (linkedin profile)
- Jason Nazar, CEO, Doctstoc (linkedin profile)
Who else joined us? Some of the attendees included:
- Omid Ashtari, Creative Artists Agency
- Azat Aslanyan, VP of Technology, MySpace Music
- Don Dodge, Emerging Business Team (Collaboration), Microsoft
- Yaosh Ho, Director, WW Digital Media, MGM
- William Quigley, Managing Partner, Clearstone Venture Partners
- Ophir Tanz, CEO, GumGum
Imagine being Jimmy Wales in 2001 and selling the idea of an online encyclopedia written by, well, anyone.
Regardless of how accustomed we are to today’s truly participatory web, much of the culture of collaboration we experience today was sparked by Jimmy’s push to launch an edit-able, community driven collection of information more vast than any shelf-full of hard cover Encyclopedia Britannicas.
Andrew intro’s his conversation with Jimmy Wales with a quote I love: “how do you get people to care about something before it’s something?” Wikipedia’s contributors and editors are a passionate community – and though some posts and edits have been debated, the ability for passionate experts to post information for public consumption and continuous updating is truly amazing.
If you’re embarking on an online movement of your own, creating a community-driven initiative, or simply trying to understand what incentives it requires to fuel crowdsourced projects or user-generated content – this is a must watch.
Andrew Warner Interviews Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia:
About Andrew Warner: Andrew is an entrepreneur and the brain behind Mixergy. He continues to nab terrific interviews with some of the best entrepreneurial minds and success stories out there – and asks them very pointed questions about how they did what they did so people like you and I can learn from others’ experiences.
Among them are Neil Young, CEO of iPhone game developer phenom, ngmoco and Jane McGonigal, Director of game R&D, Institute for the Future and Bart Decrem, Chief executive officer, Tapulous (Tap Tap Revenge, anyone?.
Some of the people listed are responsible for literally shaping the future of business and entertainment through videogame theory and understanding the ‘culture of play,’ but some of the others’ creativity is shown by identifying something much smaller: something fun and addictive – like touching your screen to the pulsing beat of Lady Gaga.
Mark Suster, startup veteran and Partner at LA-based venture firm GRP Partners was on FOX News today talking about elevator pitches cocktail party pitches.
Essentially, Mark says you’re more likely to meet potential business partners and investors at networking events, so instead of feeling like the only pitching mound is a VC boardroom, be prepared to give a cocktail party pitch.
Similar to an elevator pitch, Mark outlined the following tips using a coffee company idea as an example… fitting since GRP was an early investor in Starbucks:
* Define the problem.
* Define the solution.
* Know the target market and be able to express the market opportunity.
* And….
* Energy and enthusiasm about your idea. If you don’t come off excited about the opportunity, how do you expect others to?
* Be human… Don’t hid behind buzz words and industry jargon. Being over technical can make a VC fear you’re over-compensating for something else (like a lack of solid business understanding).
* Say what you want… What’s your “ask?” Do you want introductions, investment dollars, advice? No one’s going to turn around and make offers to help you if they don’t know what you’re looking for (even in my experience, I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to say, “soooo… what do you want from me?”)
