Startups To Watch - ContextMedia

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http://www.contextmediainc.com/
Shradha Agarwal and Rishi Shah were writing an article on out-of-home media for their university's business magazine in 2006 when it dawned on them: This would make a great business. TV screens had become de rigueur in taxicabs, shopping malls and high-rise elevators. But the Northwestern University undergrads saw an untapped opportunity to bring multimedia content to a more targeted audience: patients in waiting rooms.

"My grandmother passed away young from diabetes complications," Agarwal says. "Rishi's father is a diabetes specialist. We saw how small bits of information at the right time and place can make a huge impact."

Their idea was to sell doctors' offices prepackaged video segments containing tips on diet, exercise and other lifestyle tweaks patients could make to improve their health. A TV screen in the reception area would broadcast this programming, modeled after segments on shows such as Today, while patients waited for appointments.

To test the idea, Agarwal, Shah and classmate Derek Moeller bought TVs and DVD players, culled content from the internet and distributed the equipment and "shows" to 50 doctors in five states.

The feedback? "This is great. We love it. The information is so useful," Agarwal recalls doctors saying. Patients were sold, too. They appreciated the suggestions, and the videos were helping them ask their MDs better questions. There was only one hitch: Because insurance companies don't reimburse patient education, the physicians had no budget for the service. In other words, no sale.

After considering, then nixing, the nonprofit route, the 'treps decided to offer content free of charge to healthcare professionals and to sell advertisements that would air between segments. Shah and Moeller dropped out of college to launch ContextMedia in Chicago, with investment from family and friends. Agarwal joined her co-founders full-time in 2008 after graduating from Northwestern ahead of schedule. (Moeller left the company in 2009.)

Because it's what they knew best, they started with diabetes. To obtain quality one- to five-minute edutainment videos, they partnered with health-content creators such as the diabetes platform dLife. "Commercial breaks," which last 15 to 120 seconds, make up 25 percent of the content ContextMedia streams into waiting rooms. Among the company's advertisers: health-food companies, gyms, retailers, pharmaceutical companies and makers of medical devices.

ContextMedia became profitable its second year in business. Revenue has grown 100 percent year over year since 2010; the company is on track to clear $10 million in EBITDA this year. ContextMedia's videos reach 50 million U.S. patients a year and serve 4,000 hospitals, private practices and other medical waiting rooms, including those at Yale, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern and Harvard. The company employs 45 people, including five in its New York office, which opened in 2011.

Agarwal, now 28, is chief strategy officer. She credits ContextMedia's success with the variety and specificity of its library, which contains thousands of videos. The company has content for cardiology, rheumatology, neurology and urology patients and targets the videos streamed to each office based on patient income, ethnicity and medical literacy. "It's always relevant, and patients aren't watching the same thing over and over," she says.

But Agarwal and CEO Shah, 27, aren't satisfied just building a health-media empire. They want to help others succeed, too. Using their personal savings, they started angel investment fund JumpStart Ventures in November 2011. To date, JumpStart has invested more than $1 million in 19 startups working to solve U.S. health and education problems.

"Companies in healthcare and education really struggle to catch the attention of venture capitalists because they're not very sexy industries to be in," Agarwal says. "So we decided, where better to put our fund than to help other entrepreneurs build their businesses?"


[Via - Entrepreneur.Com]

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Move over, Uber, two Bay Area startups have found a new ways to rent cars out.

Daily Advice Link - How I Increased Sales 350% With Press-Releases  

There are few investments less sensible than car ownership. A new purchase loses close to 9 percent of its value the minute it leaves the dealer's lot, according to automotive-information site Edmunds. Further, most cars sit idle the majority of the time.

Two San Francisco-based startups, RelayRides and Getaround, are working to change these inefficiencies--and snag a piece of the nation's $20 billion car-rental market. Similar to Airbnb, both companies facilitate peer-to-peer transactions through which car owners can rent out their vehicles to those who need them by the hour, day or week. Owners set the rental price for their vehicles; both companies say the average rental runs $8 to $12 per hour and lasts 40 hours.

The model offers big savings for customers--generally half of what a local car-rental agency would charge. Plus, the range on offer allows renters to get exactly the vehicle they want, whether it's a pickup truck or minivan for a jaunt to IKEA or a Porsche or Tesla for a night out.

The business model would not have been possible without a new class of insurance created for this purpose. Every individual's car is insured for $1 million against collision and accident coverage. "When we say the service is all-inclusive, that means the vehicle is covered should something go wrong," confirms Andre Haddad, CEO of RelayRides. "Owners like the peace of mind. And as a customer, considering you usually have to pay extra for insurance with a car rental, this is a big deal."

Founded in 2008, RelayRides operates in 1,500 U.S. cities. Getaround, which launched in 2009, has cars in San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, Austin and Portland, Ore. While their business models are similar, the companies are executing them in subtly different ways. RelayRides is a big believer in the face-to-face meeting between car owner and customer to pick up keys and sign paperwork. That said, the company does offer a mobile access kit for qualified car owners and allows anyone to use General Motors' OnStar system to remotely unlock GM vehicles--pointing to an acknowledgement that many users may not want to be directly involved in the exchange.

The meet-and-greet is also an option with Getaround (minus the paperwork), but that company would rather see owners install "Carkits" that allow renters to unlock the vehicles remotely and access a hidden set of keys through its iPhone app. "We focus on the app," says Sam Zaid, Getaround's co-founder and CEO. "The way we see it, we want to provide a service, and the app is the most efficient way to achieve that."

The nascent car-sharing industry is not without challenges. Cars have long been sold as "a product that is closely associated with who you are," says Arun Sundararajan, a professor at the NYU Stern School of Business, explaining that letting strangers in can uncomfortably infringe on that identity. Perhaps, but RelayRides and Getaround are banking that their financial appeal will help car owners get over it.

[Via - Entrepreneur]

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http://mailigen.com
Regardless of size, shape or form, whether that’s a mom-and-pop shop you’re running or a conglomerate, marketing is an integral part of any business. One marketing strategy that works, if properly implemented, is e-mail marketing. If that got you furrowing your eyebrows in protest, and since I’m a betting man, I’d bet that you’re one of the many people who think spam has killed the effectiveness of e-mail campaigns. Viagra, Bangkok pills … I’m sure you’ve got your fair share already.

The very purpose of e-mail marketing can be broken down in four: maximize your ROI (return on investment), build a trustworthy brand, drive sales and boost social interaction. Inasmuch as a good percentage of the global population is equipped with a working e-mail address, e-mail marketing is one of the simplest and most cost-effective marketing methods. But remember, it has to be done properly and a trustworthy e-mail marketing software definitely helps.

A web-based online marketing application, Mailigen helps you create (surveys, newsletters, sign-up forms) and analyze (through real-time reporting tools and Google Analytics integration) your e-mail marketing campaigns. It provides a wide range of templates to choose from and an option to create your own. Other features include:

• easy-to-navigate design editor powered by drag-and-drop technology, eliminating the need for coding and other design skills
• auto-responder
• API (application programming interface) integration for managing lists, sending out campaigns and gathering data
• targeted e-mail campaigns, meaning, you send out certain newsletters to certain groups depending on their interests
• setup wizard for creating lists and campaigns
• social media sharing buttons
• high deliverability rate stemming from trusted ISP relationships
• customer-centric support team

Depending on the number of subscribers you have, Mailigen pricing starts at $10 monthly. You also have an option to test drive the software for 30 days absolutely free. You can choose to pay monthly or as you go. For longer-term sign-ups, discount rates are offered, too – 10% for 6 months and 20% for 12 months. SMS/text messaging can, as well, be included in the subscription. Message rates, of course, vary by country and provider.

If you’re too busy to personally manage your e-mail marketing campaigns, Mailigen offers pro services like campaign management, e-mail marketing audit, e-mail template design, segmentation and list management, dedicated IP and IP certification. You can even subscribe to its standard features for free forever by creating a 5000 Epic Free Account.

[Via - NicheGeek.com]

JustBecause Is One Hot App This Holiday Season

 BizHacks - How To Use Bitrix24.Com As A Free CRM, Intranet And Task Manager.

http://www.justbecauseapp.com/

If you’re an entrepreneur, when launching a startup, one of the early challenges involved are getting the word out about your product or service, letting your target consumer know of the benefits that come with it and getting people to try it out – all in the name of converting them into lifetime customers.

On the other hand, if you’re somebody thinking of sending a gift to someone special, one hurdle you need to clear is figuring out what this trendy friend of yours would be thrilled to receive. And this means ensuring the gift isn’t something he/she already received from someone else, which, needless to say, can sometimes be a tough one to pull off.

JustBecause, a newly launched iPhone app, bridges the gap between the two. With JustBecause, users can now offer their friends gifts from startups worth $10 to $100 for just $1. Yes, you read right – for just $1!

Why? Well, startups are more than glad to dole out freebies here and there (in the hopes of turning a first-time user into a permanent consumer, what else?), and simply charge the expense against their customer acquisition funds. And because the gifts are from startups, as a consumer, you can rest assured that these products or services are stuff most people haven’t tried yet.

According to Matt Hartman, co-founder of JustBecause, the app was spun from his first startup, ReferBoost, an apartment referral social lead generator. To encourage apartment residents to write reviews and post about the buildings they lived on, they gave out gift cards, usually from Starbucks.

Meanwhile, Uber, one of the startups currently in JustBecause’s lineup, was trying to acquire customers in Chicago. This, then, prompted Hartman to talk to Uber. Uber thought the idea was interesting and provided him with some cards. The limiting factor though was the number of buildings Hartman had on his system. This, in turn, led to the idea that is now JustBecause.

JustBecause requires a Facebook login. Gift codes provided only work for first-time users, and for the gifts to be shared, the sender posts to a friend’s wall. SMS sharing is something that might come into play in the future.

Based in Chicago, JustBecause is, at the moment, working hard to expand its current startup roster. To download the app, visit their website at www.justbecauseapp.com.

[Via - Uncommon Business Ideas]

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Savings.Com Story

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http://savings.com

When Loren Bendele started online coupon company Savings.com in 2007, he wondered why traditional paper coupon companies didn't have more of an internet presence. It was a simple idea that filled a niche in an established market.

While his marketing plan initially was designed to attract customers, it also was meant to gain the attention of prospective acquirers--and it did. In June 2012 Bendele sold Savings.com to Cox Target Media, parent company of Valpak, for a reported $100 million.

"We always thought the traditional coupon players would be looking for ways to migrate their business," Bendele explains. So he intentionally built his company to sell.

Ken Wisnefski, meanwhile, has flipped two companies and now runs Mount Laurel, N.J.-based WebiMax, which provides internet marketing services such as search engine optimization. His first tip on building a business to sell? "You should treat [each company] as though you are going to keep it for 100 years," he says.

In other words, starting a company with the intention to flip is not so different from starting any company, but it does come with its own set of guidelines.

"With very few exceptions, startups get bought, they don't go public," says Nat Burgess, president of Bothell, Wash.-based Corum Group, which provides mergers and acquisitions advice for the software industry. "The ones that go public go through so many funding rounds and recapitalizations that they are thoroughly vetted by the time they file for IPO. For the other 99 percent of startup companies, proper planning and strategy are critical to a successful sale. Without a good business, quality team and solid execution, there is no exit."

Nate Redmond, managing partner at Rustic Canyon Ventures in Santa Monica, Calif., was one of the venture funders of Savings.com. He stresses that the business itself is more important than any exit strategy. "Rarely do we make an investment with the stated intent to sell," he says. Instead, the investment decision is based on market conditions, competitive position and company execution. "The best companies are bought, not sold," he adds. "We believe it is important to keep the focus on the long-term horizon until buyers come calling."

However, nearly every entrepreneur and investor who has been through a sale says there are crucial ingredients to any exit plan. Above all, the company needs an easily adaptable product or concept, clean books, good old-fashioned buzz, delegated authority and attention to the customer mix. Finally, the details of daily management have to support a company's long-term growth. "Startups get acquired because the acquirer believes they can scale up the company," Burgess says. "If the company is held together with duct tape and baling wire, it won't scale. Even though they start small, entrepreneurs have to think big from day one."

[Via - Entrepreneur]

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Olympic Entrepreneurs - Nick LaCave/Chocomize

Hot Tips - The Best Free Business Tool You (Probably) Don't Know About.



http://www.chocomize.com/

Olympic achievement: Competing in men's rowing, 2012

Making his Olympic debut this year, Nick LaCava is one of three co-founders of Chocomize, a custom chocolate bar company.

With college buddies Eric Heinbockel and Fabian Kaempfer, LaCava launched the company in 2009, when the three couldn't find jobs after graduation. He continued to train for rowing while starting the business, unsure if the Olympics would ever be within reach.

"Sometimes the last thing you want to do after a hard training session is go to work, but I always enjoyed my time at Chocomize, and it gave me a way to take my mind off of rowing," he said.

The Chocomize trio saw opportunity in the candy business, particularly one that was customized to customers' tastes.

The problem? "We didn't know anything about making chocolate--although I have a notorious sweet tooth--but we figured it out pretty quickly and got things up and running in a short period of time," he said.

With Chocomize, customers can add up to five different toppings to their milk, dark or white chocolate. The toppings include marshmallows, cayenne pepper, gummy bears and even crystallized rose petals. And the possible combinations are (almost) endless: More than 300 million, to be exact.

But last year, LaCava made a tough decision to leave Chocomize in order to focus on training for the games. "It was a hard choice because making the Olympics was never a guarantee and things were going really well at Chocomize," he said. "Making the Olympics was something that I had been dreaming [about] and working [toward] for many years and I felt that if I didn't give it 100% of my focus I would regret it the rest of my life."

LaCava's team of four didn't medal in London, but they placed 8th overall and he was able to live out his Olympic dream.

Meanwhile, Chocomize continues on its path of success. The business increased its sales by almost 100% between 2010 and 2011, Kaempfer said.

[Via - CNNMoney.Com]

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http://www.mobimunch.com/

Food trucks are here to stay, and nowhere was this more evident than at an Off the Grid event last spring in San Francisco. The 35 trucks, tents and carts that made it through the application process took over Fort Mason Center's parking lot one nippy Friday evening, dishing out steadily dwindling supplies of empanadas, kalbi and mango-sticky-rice popsicles to a ravenous crowd.

In the midst of the aromatic chaos sat the Chairman, a Zagat-rated truck famous for its pork-belly Chinese bao (steamed buns). It was the first of dozens of trucks developed by Mobi Munch. Founded in 2009, Mobi Munch aimed to streamline the mobile food industry with a turnkey platform that standardizes every part of the operation--from vehicles and food sources to securing permits and negotiating with event promoters and office parks.

The goal, according to CEO Josh Tang, is to make every chef and restaurant owner feel they need a truck, just as they do a website. "Trucks are the one sector of the food-service industry that's still growing, and until now, there's been no regulation, and a lot of missed opportunities," he says, speaking from his downtown Los Angeles offices.

The Mobi revolution began with customized trucks, rebuilt by a manufacturing partner from the chassis up with features such as next-generation cloud-based POS systems and onboard generators. The low-mileage, late-model trucks are crash-test and sanitation certified, then leased out for as little as a year. If a chef strikes gold with a menu, Mobi can scale quickly, rolling out a fleet in two weeks.

The company recently launched MobileCravings.com, a nationwide food-truck private-lot booking system, to help its customers secure locations for their rigs. Tang is even looking into new engine technology to help power onboard kitchens more efficiently.

In the last three years, Mobi Munch has grown to 20 employees, scored a round of $7.8 million in funding and signed on pilot corporate clients such as Red Robin and Rubios, along with food-service companies like Aramark and Centerplate.

"We're not thinking linear growth," Tang says, stressing that Mobi's services not only help independent young chefs build a brand with lower risk, but also enable veteran restaurateurs to test new neighborhoods at a fraction of the cost of a commercial lease or advertising campaign. The end result is that consumers can try out more creative menus at a lower price. Who doesn't have an appetite for that?

[Via - Entrepreneur]

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Points.Com Review

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Points.com

Credit card rewards, frequent flyer miles, gas, drugstore, convenience, supermarket cards – these things may have something in common: loyalty program points that you can redeem. If you’re a loyalty rewards enthusiast and you have all these and more, tracking all those points on your own can be very tedious, if not confusing, time-consuming and possibly error-prone. But then again, not knowing how much points you already have on each may mean missing out on free stuff you’re already entitled to cash in. Not a very savory idea, huh?

Points.com is an online platform that allows you to make the most of your loyalty reward programs. At Points.com, you get to track all of your account numbers and corresponding balances at a glance. If you’re like a lot of people still stuck in the technology of the ‘90s, no need for Excel spreadsheets that you need to update on a regular basis, especially if you’re saving those points and miles for a particular reward. Or better yet, making sure they don’t expire before you get the chance to redeem them.

And if, for some reason, you can’t redeem your points, you can always sell or trade them with other Points.com users. If you’re missing out on a few points to claim a particular reward, you also can buy the needed points from fellow users. You can even exchange your points for gift cards to your favorite restaurants, retail stores, travel outlets and more.

To get started with Points.com, all you need to do is click on the Try It Now button on the homepage, select your favorite loyalty rewards programs to see how your personalized home page would look like. Familiarize yourself with the Points.com surroundings, the ins and outs, and when you’re ready to join the group, click on Sign Up on the upper right hand side of the page.

[Via - PickyDomains.com]

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AffinityLive Review

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http://www.affinitylive.com/

Technology is moving fast, and in business, those that keep up are usually the big guys with fat purses. The small and cash-strapped ones, unfortunately, are stuck with outdated technology from the 1990s, like Excel and Access, for the basic work to get done. This doesn’t do much for productivity, and in this fast-paced environment businesses find themselves competing in, efficiency is what clinches the deal. While SAP and Oracle have long been providing enterprise solutions to tackle this problem, their costs are way too high for small businesses that might not even need the complex solutions these software innovators offer.

To address this pent-up demand in the professional services sector (independent contractors and consultants rendering unique or technical functions such as accountants, appraisers, recruiters, researchers, translators, medical centers, law firms, etc.), Geoff McQueen, a serial entrepreneur with an engineering background, founded AffinityLive.com, a startup based in San Francisco. AffinityLive allows you to manage your data and work in the cloud, providing an integrated end-to-end solution from prospecting to payment.

Aside from the centralization of multiple manual tasks, AffinityLive includes interactive work scheduling that gives you an overall feel for how busy your team is on a given day and whether you’re all geared up to meet a deadline. It also has an intelligent e-mail capture and indexing feature that automatically captures client e-mails, including attachments, from different inboxes and indexes them in a searchable repository linked to projects, sales, tasks or any pertinent part of the system.

With AffinityLive, workflow and business processes are dynamic and structured but not too structured to thwart the overall receptivity and creativeness of your people. Integrated with Google Calendar and Microsoft Exchange, your meetings and appointments are forwarded to your calendar, whether that’s on your desktop, your mobile phone or your web-based browser. And with social integration like Twitter, LinkedIn and Yammer, managing your business has never been easier.

AffinityLive comes in three price packages. Boutique starts at $49 per month for two professionals. Team is priced at $119 monthly for five professionals, and Company is tagged at $249 a month for ten professionals. For every additional professional, just add $29 to the monthly subscription fee. You can even try AffinityLive absolutely free for 30 days. No credit card requirement, you’re sure to be up and running in a matter of minutes.

[Via - PickyDomains.com]

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Crowdfunding Startups - SmallKnot

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http://smallknot.com/

How much do you love your local coffee shop? Enough to help its owner buy new tables and chairs?

The team behind crowdfunding venture Smallknot wants to take the "buy local" movement one step further. The new site aims to be a Kickstarter for small businesses, helping mom-and-pop stores raise capital for specific projects.

Smallknot's goal is to change the way people think about their local retail economy.

"It's a platform for funding, but it's also a tool for engagement," says Ben Rossen, one of Smallknot's three cofounders. "What we're trying to do is facilitate offline relationships."

Like on Kickstarter, participants indicate how much they need to raise to carry out a given project, such as installing a new air conditioner to accommodate summer customers or buying equipment for an expansion. In return, merchants offer rewards. Some of the current goodies include a private dinner party for 18 (available for a $600 "investment" in Brooklyn restaurant Beer Table) or a food tour of New York's Chinatown (yours for a $75 contribution to the Saucey Sauce Co.).

It's all-or-nothing: If the target isn't hit, the business doesn't get any money. Smallknot profits by taking a cut of the cash in successful fundraising campaigns.

"One of the things that's really important to us is that this does not feel like a donation," Rossen says. "There's a reason we use the word 'investment' all over the site, even though it's not perhaps the most traditional use of the word. The idea is, as a user, you get more back than you put in."

[Via - CNNMoney.Com]

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TrunkClub Review

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http://www.trunkclub.com/

Unlike women, most men don’t see shopping as a social activity. As a matter of fact, for various reasons ranging from lack of time, no idea what type of clothing look good on them, lack of confidence in their capacity to wear styles that look good on them, issues with body image that stem from being overweight or underweight, a lot of men hate shopping.

Brian Spaly, co-founder of venture-backed clothing company Bonobos, has taken on the reins of what used to be an ailing Trunk Club as CEO. Trunk Club, founded in 2009 with a business model that ended up in quality control and customer service nightmare, has since flourished under Spaly’s leadership. Trunk Club’s target clientele are, well, men, especially executives who value time over money. Trunk Club doesn’t charge for a fitting and consultation. Just like Barney’s or Saks Fifth Avenue, the company makes money by buying in bulk and selling at retail. But what makes Trunk Club’s existing business model stand out is the customer service layer that gives them an unfair advantage over their peers.

So generally, once a client steps into a Trunk Club office (that is, if he’s got the time to do so), he is greeted by a sales person who also happens to be a professional stylist. The stylist then asks questions regarding his lifestyle, work, what he does with his time, what he wears, how he wants to look, etc. The fitting process is an opportunity for the stylist to further profile his customer and know his exact measurements. Depending on the client’s needs, the stylist can work with him on a recurring basis.

Now, if a customer can’t be bothered to step into a Trunk Club store, the company sends a box of items for him to try on and play with. If none fits or he doesn’t like any of the items, he simply puts everything back into the box and returns it at no charge. The stuff he feels like keeping, he keeps, a nd once the box finds its way back to the Trunk Club headquarters, his credit card automatically gets billed.

If the stylist’s service is free and a client gets custom-selected items delivered at his door anytime he feels like it without being charged a cent more for any item he chooses to buy, why would he shop anywhere else? Exactly the words Brian Spaly would tell his staff every morning.

[Via - Madconomist.com]

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The Slow Growing Startups - MyWedingWorkbook.com

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http://www.myweddingworkbook.com/

Company: My Wedding Workbook

Location: Denver, Colo.

Annual sales: "Low six figures."

When a local angel investor expressed interest in funding the development of their web-based project management software called Planning Pod in April 2011, business partners Jeff Kear and his co-founder Steven Feingertz got excited. They were taking on well-established competitors like Basecamp and could have used the money. But it turned out that the investors, who were going to pony up $20,000, wanted a 20% the company in exchange, plus 20% of annual revenues; the investor would have four additional opportunities to buy 5% of the firm for about $5,000. Their instincts told them to back away. "It would really cripple us," says Kear.

The two entrepreneurs had been investing revenues from their first successful product, My Wedding Workbook, into building the new one. "I would rather bootstrap it and use the revenue we're already bringing in to bump it along," he says. And that's what they did, offering their tech contractors equity instead of paying development fees. "Our developers now have a vested interest in the success of the company and have shown great initiative," says Kear. Plus, the four-employee firm has freed up cash for marketing.

[Via - CNNMoney.Com]

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Cool Startups - DealFlicks.Com

Gotta See: CMS - How To Choose Content Management System



http://www.dealflicks.com/

Seeing movies in theaters is a pastime a lot of people love to do. But nowadays, doing so has become really expensive, and a lot of folks would rather spend their limited income on other things.

Enter Dealflicks, a Los Angeles startup that is currently in beta mode. Dealflicks aims to revolutionize the entertainment business by connecting movie theaters with movie enthusiasts, allowing theaters to sell empty seats at a discount, generally 40% to 60% off the regular ticket price. This way, movie theaters make money off what would otherwise have been a no-sale, and customers get to enjoy movies for less.

Now before you go about jumping up and down, take note, there's a catch. You only get to specify the day and vicinity you want to see the movie, not the specific movie house or time. The moment you purchase the ticket, the site will inform if you're supposed to head on to the theater two blocks away right at that very moment or if the movie is going to be a movie-and-dinner kind of thing.

Launched in mid-April of this year, Dealflicks has raised $47,500, and this summer, they're planning to expand in Santa Cruz, California, in El Campo, Texas, cities in the Bay Area and Virginia.

Like most startuppers, Dealflicks founder, Sean Wycliffe, had his own set of problems to face before Dealflicks was finally ready to take off. With a business background under his belt, he was no programmer. The developers he contracted with eventually all became busy with other stuff that he was forced to learn programming himself. Wycliffe insists he's still bad at programming but better to know who's good and who's not, what technologies must be used and how long things normally take. Currently, Dealflicks has two developers, three co-founders and eight interns.

Wycliffe would consider himself successful only once Dealflicks starts generating a seven-figure revenue stream and joining forces with the top 10 movie theater chains.

[Via - NicheGeek.com]

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CMS - How To Choose Content Management System

Here's a short video about how to choose CMS (content management system) from BitrixSoft. BitrixSoft is primarily known for it's intranet solutions, where it's number 2 right behind Microsoft. BitrixSoft's latest project is Bitrix24 - enterprise social network that offers free crm, free file storage, free project management, and other business tools that are free to companies with 12 employees or under.

Bootstrap This - 29+ Sites That Help You Save Money

1. Bitrix24.com - Free CRM, planner, project manager, document sharing (limited to 12 employees)

2. PickyDomains.com - Pay per result naming service, $50 for domain/name/product line, slogan.

3. Reddit/Freebies - Community moderated daily updated freebies list.

4. AppSumo.com - Groupon clone for buying enterprise software.

5. JetRadar.com - Low airfare meta searchengine (searches through 700+ airlines to find best deals normally available through direct purchase on airline sites only).

6. SideJobTrack.com - Free invoicing.

7. MoneyBookers.Com (Skrill) - PayPal alternative, cheap way to accept online payments/credit cards (25 cents + 3%, please refer to site for exact details)

8. Kodesk.com - Office sharing. You can both buy and sell extra office space, including by the hour.

9. PRLog.com - Free press-release distribution.

10. InternMatch.com - Own slaves legally.

11. RetailMeNot.Com - Discount coupons, business section available.

12. OpenOffice.Org - Free MS Office alternative.

13. WaveAccounting.com - Free online accounting SaaS

14. SysAid.com - Free helpdesk software. ZenDesk.com is worth paying for.

15. CouchSurfing.com - Yes, I do want to let complete stranges sleep in my house for free (so I can do the same when I travel).

16. SubmitYourStartup.Com - Partly outdated list of sites that accept startup submissions.

17. Vator.Tv - Social network for startups

18. LowerMyBills.com - Loan/Insurance/Internet Provider/Phone Carries comparison service.

19. Score.Org - Free consulting from retired entrepreneurs (available in certain areas only).

20. Logaster.com - Free logos. Bad English gratis.

21. 99Designs.com - Cheaper alternative for design work. Designers hate the site, so it must be good.

22. MinuteBox.com - Hire doctor/lawyer/coffee enema expert - pay by the minute. Lots of experts, typical pay is around $2.50 a minute. Not sure, but there's probably some sort of minimum required.

23. HelpAReporter.Com - Free publicity (pitch your business directly to journos working on certain stories).

24. AVG - Free antivirus.

25. Weebly.Com - Free website creator.

26. GotFreeFax.com - Send free fax online. Limited to 3 pages, US and Canada only.

27. RememberTheMilk.com - Free To-Do list, iPhone and Android support.

28. Zamzar.com - Free online file converter. Let's pass a law that mandates that only one extension (how does .file sound) is allowed!

29. Join.Me - Free webcast/webconference SaaS.

P.S. I have not included eBay, Skype, etc. since everybody knows about those. Did I miss something? Send me a message.

In-Depth Startup Profiles - Chegg.Com

When it launched in 2007, Chegg quickly became known as the Netflix for textbooks. Rather than spending $100 or so on a physics or biology tome used for one semester, students turned to Chegg to rent books for as much as 80 percent off the cover price. The startup’s bright orange boxes became as recognizable on college campuses as Netflix’s red envelopes are in living rooms. Chegg received glowing press coverage for disrupting a stodgy industry and saving students hundreds of dollars a year. Venture capitalists fell for the idea, putting more than $140 million into the company by early 2010.

That’s when Dan Rosensweig, the former head of Activision Blizzard’s Guitar Hero franchise and previously a Yahoo! executive, took the helm. He quickly realized that Chegg, for all the positive attention, was a money pit. The company was approaching $100 million in annual revenue but hemorrhaging cash. Chegg bought any book requested by a user, regardless of its likelihood of being rented again. It also spent heavily on shipping and on a warehouse in Kentucky. After a review of the business, Rosensweig found that Chegg was six months away from going broke. “The company was truly at risk, it just didn’t know it,” says Rosensweig. To fix things, he raised an additional $75 million, hired a new finance chief, and culled the textbook catalog, keeping only titles he knew could earn back their purchase price.

Then he turned to Chegg’s other, more existential threats. The iPad made its debut shortly after Rosensweig took charge, setting in motion a rapid shift toward digital consumption—including e-books. Around the same time, a number of young technology companies began reimagining education, building online platforms for student-teacher interaction and other services that displace the textbook as the nexus of the classroom. “There’s a huge opportunity for teaching oneself and a huge opportunity for learning online,” says Pooja Sankar, chief executive officer of Piazza, which is developing a question-and-answer forum for students and professors.

Though textbook rentals remain the source of most of the company’s $200 million in sales in 2011, Rosensweig is preparing for a time when students no longer buy—or rent—printed books. He’s spent around $50 million on six acquisitions over the past two years. His aim is to turn Chegg into a digital hub providing everything a college student needs, from homework help to discounts on dorm room decorations, and “to save them time, save them money, and make them smarter.”

To create what he calls “the largest connected network of students,” Rosensweig and his 350-person team plan to begin testing an enhanced Chegg.com on June 1, giving them the summer to work out kinks before the back-to-school traffic boom in August. The site weaves together all the services Chegg has bought or developed. Students can log in using their Facebook credentials, giving Chegg.com information about a user’s connections on the social network and where they go to school. A freshman interested in economics can see reviews of all the relevant classes offered by her university and the professors who teach them, information powered by CourseRank, a 2010 acquisition. Once she knows her schedule, Chegg offers her options to rent or buy the books on her syllabus, in digital or physical form. When classes begin, Chegg acquisitions including Cramster, Notehall, and Student of Fortune let her share notes with classmates, download study guides from professors, and contribute to Q&A forums offering homework help. Chegg is also following the lead of Apple and building an app store where third-party developers can sell their education-related software.

Some of the new services are marketplaces, where Chegg facilitates transactions between students. A person struggling through a biology assignment can pose a question about mitosis, and another student might volunteer to answer for free or charge a few bucks, with Chegg taking an undisclosed cut of the proceeds. Other products require a monthly subscription fee, and the site will also include daily-deal-type offers. Chegg also generates money from Zinch, a site acquired in 2011. It’s a free service that helps high school students narrow their college search and find their perfect university. College recruiters pay Chegg to connect with the students that show interest in their school. In total, Rosensweig estimates that Chegg’s non-textbook sales will double as a percentage of total revenue this year from last, though he won’t disclose specific numbers.

One area Chegg isn’t counting on for immediate growth: digital textbooks. The company recruited a small team of Israeli engineers to create an e-book reader built on the new Web standard HTML5, allowing customers to download texts to any device with a browser. It’s not Chegg’s main focus, however. Rosensweig says the digital textbook market will remain small for some time, and he prefers to steer clear of Apple and Amazon.com, which sell proprietary textbooks for their own popular tablets. Chegg also passed up an opportunity to buy Kno, a company founded by former Chegg CEO Osman Rashid, which was building an education-focused tablet, according to three people involved in the discussions but who declined to be identified because the negotiations were private. Kno abandoned its tablet as the iPad gained popularity.

Chegg’s new website is like what Facebook might have become had it remained limited to universities, says Michelle Hummel, CEO of digital marketing agency Web Media Expert. Students and educators are “looking for something other than Facebook that’s more targeted to their needs,” she says.

[Via - BusinessWeek]

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http://www.limos.com/

In the fall of 2007, T.J. Clark sat down with three former colleagues from Hotwire.com to assess business opportunities in the travel industry. One jumped out at him. "Those last few miles of the trip were way behind the times," he says. "We couldn't figure out why nobody had modernized the experience in the town-car category."

Deep into the internet era, town-car and limo services still worked pretty much the same way they had in the age of Donkey Kong. If you were a regular business customer, you probably had a service to go to the airport and back, and you knew the driver like you did your barber or dentist. But establishing a relationship beyond your home base was an ad hoc process. It involved scoring leads from friends or colleagues, dealing with scraps of paper with phone numbers and scrawled first names, then getting a suspicious voice at the other end of your cold call. It felt more like finding a bookie than planning business logistics.

There were no national or even regional brands in the category--even today, no company has captured as much as 1 percent of the town-car industry, estimated at $1.3 billion in revenue in 2012, according to research firm IBISWorld--and virtually no online booking. Prices tended to be high compared to taxi service. And the quality of the rides fluctuated from surprisingly luxurious to unendurable.

A former intercollegiate swimmer at Notre Dame and then a Chicago trial lawyer, Clark moved to San Francisco to join the Hotwire team led by college friend Karl Peterson, then stayed on when IAC bought the company in 2003. Four years into his corporate career, he was ready for another ride on the startup roller coaster.

In early 2008, he and his team bought the Limos.com URL. They set out to build a network of providers who would agree to the company's strict standards in return for inclusion on its website. They traveled extensively, attending conventions, visiting with proprietors and taking hundreds of rides to validate the quality of car companies.

Their technology team created software that would instantly aggregate prices from every provider in their database who was willing to make the trip requested by a consumer. A feedback feature ensured that unacceptable performance had instant ramifications. Since launching in early 2008, Limos.com has grown from four employees to 55; revenue rose to more than $6 million in the first two years of business.

There are now more than 2.5 million registered users. Many are booking leisure trips--anything from wine tours to prom night--and the average fare in that category is about $500, making it a sizeable chunk of income. Meanwhile, half of the Fortune 500 companies have at least 50 registered users.

"We're making three big bets," Clark says. "We're betting on accessing both leisure travel and business travel in the existing town-car market, and we're betting on moving people from taxis to town cars. All we need to have is one of them pay off. So far, they all are."

That doesn't even include a larger potential market of business travelers who are using Limos.com to replace rental cars. In most cities, the cost of booking Limos.com cars ends up comparable to renting one--without having to pay for parking and gas. "There's also something nice about showing up at a meeting in a town car, as opposed to figuring out where to park," Clark says. "Less stress."

The number of potential customers who will be exposed to Limos.com will grow exponentially this month, when more airlines and hotel chains add a link to the site from their booking confirmation pages. "We think 2012 will be the year of the private car," Clark says. "It'll be the fastest-growing segment of the travel industry. And we'll be the brand that reaps the benefits."

[Via - Webiot.com]

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https://www.logaster.com/

A lot of people wonder (and you may be one of them), why do companies need logos? And why do these companies sometimes spend thousands of dollars for a logo? The answer is simple: Logos help in branding, in creating an identity for a company, an identity that is easily recognized by consumers. As for why companies spend thousands for a logo, they probably are not aware there is a service called LOGASTER.

LOGASTER is an online design software and logo maker that allows users - mostly SMEs (small and medium enterprises) - to create their own professional-looking logos in a matter of minutes, regardless of a user's designing or logo-making experience.

Creating a logo with LOGASTER involves the following basic steps:

1. Select your profession or business type. This is to ensure that unrelated logo designs are filtered out.

2. Choose your logo. In this step, you will be given a wide range of logo choices. And once you've made your choice, you're ready to work on editing the text, size, font, color and other features of your logo.

3. Once the logo is created, you can try it out on envelopes, business cards, letterheads and more. You can even choose to download a 70-pixel logo for your website, all for free.

The moment you're completely satisfied with your design, for the price of $4.99 a month, you get to create and edit your full-sized logo, create new logo designs, product designs, company giveaways like pencils, lighters, memo pads, etc. Basically, what LOGASTER hopes to accomplish is save users' time and money while not compromising customer satisfaction and overall quality.

[Via - MadConomist.com]

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The Business Of Design - The Macbeth Collection Story

Daily Advice Link - Free Logo Service

http://themacbethcollection.com/

Company: The Macbeth Collection
Location: Dayton, N.J.
Annual sales: $26 million

Dress designer Margaret Josephs decided to be a full-time mom soon after having her son in 1996. "I couldn't take being away from him," she said. At the time, Josephs was also looking after her three stepchildren.

"My home was cluttered all the time. I decided I needed a storage solution," she said. And while she was at it, she decided to start a decorative storage products business.

In 1998, Josephs pursued her first idea -- decorative metal buckets. She went to Home Depot, bought a few plain metal buckets and painted them. She supplied 20 to a local store. "They sold out in two days," she said. "I thought I was on to something."

Josephs expanded from buckets to painted and decoupage trays, and other home accessories. A year later, orders were coming in so quickly that Josephs recruited her nanny and others in the neighborhood to make the products.

In 2000, she got her first big order, $40,000, and the business "exploded," she said. Two years later, "The Macbeth Collection" -- a name she picked because it sounded regal -- crossed $1 million in sales.

Her business today generates about $30 million from licensing agreements and direct sales. Her products are sold in major retail stores such as Barnes & Noble, Bed, Bath & Beyond, and soon in Target.

While she's enjoying her success, Josephs admits it's been hard to juggle being a mom and an entrepreneur. She's made it work because "women are amazing multitaskers," she said.

Her now 16-year-old son is "so proud," she said. "He calls me the 'Rock & Roll Martha Stewart.'

[Via - CNNMoney.Com]

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http://www.punchcast.com/

Facebook is going public. Pinterest is gaining a lot of traction too, with Tokyo-based Rakuten Inc. pledging an investment of $100 million with the site. Is it the era of social media? Canadian startup Punchcast sincerely hopes so.

Punchcast is a social media platform (see Bitrix24.com review) that aims to bridge the gap between Facebook and YouTube. At Facebook, relationships are founded upon people you know offline while YouTube and Twitter, according to Punchcast, are “overloaded beyond the point of practicality.” Statistics estimate that 60 hours of video is uploaded into YouTube every minute, which equates to about a century in just a matter of 10 days, practically an avalanche of information if not effectively sorted through.

The idea of launching Punchcast was conceived when CEO and founder Conor Lynch could not find connections on Facebook with whom he could potentially share his interest in English literature and Roman history. Punchcast aims to create a space for anybody from whatever background, whatever walk of life where he can share just about anything out there and get validation from people with the same interests.

Punchcast uses information filtering algorithms to connect like-minded users. Since January, the site has accumulated 3,500 users by targeting niche groups like BMX bike enthusiasts. If the company becomes successful, one can only imagine the groups of people that will benefit from Punchcast’s effective filtering methodology.

We'll have to wait and see.

[Via - NicheGeek.Com]

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