Startup Profile: iPic Innovations
July 28, 2009
iPic is a socially-inspired Internet ecosystem and service - a better way to interact and share with people online. It builds on the growth of Web Services and Social Networking and delivers a more personalized and life-like online social experience.
A new desktop design concept combined with the associated iPic Cloud Service provides more intuitive access to web-based applications and raises online security, privacy, and sharing to higher levels than were previously possible. Instead of a single-person browser-based experience, the Internet becomes an application-independent multi-player community experience.
Q. Why did you start the company? A. We saw an opportunity to capitalize on the emergence of several significant enablers to create a new ecosystem for online recreational activity. Our goal is to develop the infrastructure for a new kind of online experience and then open it up to the user community to evolve it and to use it as a platform for lots of new socially-oriented apps.
Q. What blogs do you read regularly? A. I read thefunded.com, engadget, gizmodo, cnet, techcrunch, techdirt, and wired pretty regularly. I listen to or watch geekbrieftv, tekzilla, TWIT, This week in Start-ups, and Macbreak Weekly.
Q. What was your least favorite job? A. One summer I worked as a groundskeeper at a golf course. Lots of manual labor in the hot sun! I think that experience started my mantra of “There must be a better way to do this.”
Q. What is unique about your company’s culture? A. We’re a global start-up, which is pretty rare. However, with the power of Skype, it’s pretty easy to stay in close touch. There’s an 8-hour time difference between Dallas and Istanbul so we try to keep to a routine of checking in at the beginning and the end of each of our days, even if there isn’t anything significant to discuss, to keep the communication lines open.
Q. What are your goals for the company? A. As mentioned previously, our goal is to establish an infrastructure for a new kind of hybrid hosted+local Web services platform and then open it up to the user community to make it what they want. As far as the future is concerned, we think that the ecosystem we’re developing will be pretty compatible with the strategic goals and operational strengths of a lot of Service Providers (of many different types) so we’ll be nurturing those relationships as we grow.
Q. Anything you want to make sure is included in your startup profile that I haven’t asked or covered? A. Even though we launched our company right before the worst economic meltdown of the last half century, it was still the right thing to do at the right time. We’re well positioned to lead our market as the economy recovers.
| Where is your startup based? |
Dallas, TX and Istanbul, Turkey
|
|---|---|
| Name | Gordon Quinn |
| Title: |
CEO & Co-founder
|
| quinn@ipicinnovations.com | |
| LinkedIn Profile: | http://www.linkedin.com/in/gordonquinn |
| Company: |
iPic Innovations, Inc.
|
| Web Site: | http://www.ipicinnovations.com/ |
| Company Founded: | Monday, April 28, 2008 |
| Key Executive: |
Gordon Quinn, CEO & Co-founder
|
| Key Executive: |
Tunc Kahveci, CTO & Co-founder
|
| Funding to Date: |
$300K of seed funding from our development partner, ARDIC, Inc., plus too much bootstrapping!
Preparing to seek our next investment round beginning in August, 2009. |
| Number of Employees: |
6
|
Startup Profile: Traxo
June 17, 2009
We’ve known Andres and Andy with Traxo for quite a while. In fact they were the first company to cowork at the Big in Japan offices back in July. Since that time a lot of exciting stuff has happened with their team.
Traxo (www.traxo.com) is a travel service that allows users to automatically collect their travel itineraries from popular travel sites and share their upcoming and past travel plans with trusted friends. Traxo shows you where your friends have gone and which friend you should contact to ask for travel recommendations. Traxo also allows you to keep up with where your friends are going and alerts you when your travels are about to overlap with someone you know. The site is currently in private beta and will be launching publicly later this Summer.
Traxo was one of 50 companies selected for the fbFund. fbFund is a $10 million fund providing seed capital and mentorship to companies building applications that interact with the Facebook. The fund is backed by Accel Partners and Founders Fund and administered by Facebook.
They were over 400 applicants and Traxo was one of only three travel companies and the only company in DFW to be selected as a Finalist. Here’s a list of the other finalists.
Traxo focused on building a two-way Facebook integration that 1) allows users to bring their Facebook information and social graph to Traxo and 2) also allows members to share their travel plans within Facebook. Traxo knew Facebook would be a great fit when the team noticed that a tremendous amount of what their friends were sharing on Facebook was travel related.
Twenty out of the fifty companies selected will also be participating in their 2009 REV incubator program (similar to Y Combinator and Techstars). A total of $500K in seed funding was awarded to this class of winners in the form of convertible notes with a discount for future rounds (vs. last year where winners received non-recourse grants).
We’ve literally watched the Traxo team hard-at-work so we’re happy they’re being recognized by Facebook as a top social application. It’s basically like getting the ‘Good Housekeeping’ seal of approval for the social media space. And not surprisingly it has opened the door to a number of new partnership and investor discussions.
When I spoke with Andy this week he and Andres were traveling to Austin. He asked me to mention that if anyone is thinking about applying for the next round of the fbFund they would be more than happy to share any of their insight and experiences.
| Based: |
Dallas
|
|---|---|
| Founder: | Andres Fabris and Andy Chen |
| Title: |
Co-founder
|
| andy.chen@traxo.com |
|
| Twitter Profile: | http://twitter.com/traxo |
| Company: | Traxo |
| Web Site: | http://www.traxo.com |
Startup Profile: ParaTweet
June 4, 2009
Dallas based ParaTweet was founded earlier this year to help people use Twitter. People kept asking Micah Davis how to utilize Twitter in their day-to-day lives. With most applications centered around the web or phone, there hasn’t been much in the way of an answer so he built http://ParaTweet.com. (@ParaTweet) ParaTweet is a real-time, full screen display of tweets pulled from any #tag or search term(s). It also provides moderation capabilities that allow for any tweet to be approved or disapproved prior to showing on the screen. Since #tags aren’t exclusive for use, they can often come with inappropriate, irrelevant or spam content. This is where ParaTweet’s moderation and filtering can help by only displaying relevant and appropriate tweets to a live audience.
Q. Why did you start ParaTweet? A. Wanted to use Twitter to help make some live events interactive but couldn’t find a good resource to accomplish what I was looking for.
Q. What blogs do you read regularly? A. Texas Startup Blog http://texasstartupblog.com To stay in the loop on the local startup scene. TechCrunch http://techcrunch.com Overall tech news and pulse of the startup landscape. 37 Signals http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts Quality writing on startup culture and best practices
Q. What was your least favorite job? A. Any job that was entrepreneurial. :)
Q. What is unique about your company’s culture? A. Everybody gets to weigh in on product development.
Q. What are your goals for the company? A. Just to build a valuable product with a friendly user experience. Our initial app focuses on making Twitter more integrated and useful for any type of live experience. (ie - event, conference, church or venue)
Micah is looking for your help. Got an idea for ParaTweet? Some crazy mash-up, out there application, or something just plain fun?! He is always up for stuff like that (even if it leads to potential partnerships).
| Based: |
Dallas
|
|---|---|
| Founder: | Micah Davis |
| Title: |
Co-founder
|
| Phone | (682) 521-5886 |
| micah@paratweet.com | |
| Blog URL: | |
| LinkedIn Profile: | |
| Twitter Profile: | http://twitter.com/paratweet |
| Company: |
ParaTweet
|
| Web Site: | http://paratweet.com |
| Company Founded: | April 1, 2009 |
| Key Executive: |
Aaron Garcia, Co-founder
|
| Key Executive: |
Court Simas, Co-founder
|
| Key Executive: |
Nick Zadrozny, Co-founder
|
| Funding to Date: |
bootstrapped
|
| Number of Employees: |
5
|
| Yearly Revenue (2007): |
0
|
| Estimated Revenue (2008): |
0
|
| Estimated Revenue (2009): |
20000
|
Startup Profile: Uvizz
May 27, 2009
We normally try to profile only Texas-based startups but on occasion we like to break our own rules.
We recently had a chance to connect with Val Papov at uVizz based out of Oklahoma City. uVizz, short for You-Video-Buzz, is a viral marketing application for social networks (FaceBook, Bebo, Friendster).
Texas Startup Blog: What is your company elevator pitch?
Our key distinction is that social network users are in charge of both ad creation and ad distribution. Advertisers specify how much they are willing to pay for a unique targeted ad view. We give 70% of the payout to the users and we keep 30%. We never compensate users for their actions. Instead, we compensate them based on the actions of the friends they’ve shared the video with. We enable casual video creators to engage their social cirle with a brand, but we also supercharge the viral spread for successful video creators.
Value Propostion to Advertisers: Ability to engage social network users, Ability to lock the cost of a unique exposure to a traget user
Value Proposition to Social Network Users: Opportunity to create, share and monetize their participation in viral campaigns. Ability to engage with favorite brands.
Texas Statup Blog: Why did you start the company?
Val: After identifying the problem with social network advertising, I asked some of my friends to join me in finding the solution. As a team, we examined the problem further and then built uVizz, which we believe is the answer. I joined because of the opportunity to have an impact. My friends come from an entrepreneurial background. We strongly believe that uVizz is a winner.
Texas Statup Blog: What blogs do you read regularly?
Val:
VentureBeat
AdAge
TexasStartUpBlog
AVC
InsideFaceBook
iMedia Connection
The SocialTimes
Texas Statup Blog: What was your least favorite job?
Val: It’s hard to say. I’ve enjoyed every job I’ve had (starting from line cook to senior manager) and I believe I’ve made a positive impact to the people and the companies I’ve worked with. Probably, the one time I was waiting for the clock to strike 5PM was an internship in college where I was writing two-line company profiles.
Texas Statup Blog: What is unique about your company’s culture?
Val: We are a team of four and all decisions have been made unanimously. We spend a great deal of time discussing different perspectives and reconciling various points of view, but at the end of the day we make the decision when everyone is onboard and then we focus on relentless execution.
Texas Statup Blog: What are your goals for the company?
Val: Our short-term goal is to launch Beta in mid June. We already have a number of paying beta clients lined up. The real-life campaigns during beta will help us validate the concept, the system and our key business assumptions. Post beta, we will focus on several strategies for market and user penetration, which should result in exponential growth in clients and social network users. Ultimately, our goal is for uVizz to become the leading marketplace for viral marketing and user-driven advertising.
Texas Statup Blog: Anything you want to make sure is included in your startup profile that I haven’t asked or covered?
Val: Your readers should check out our short video that explains the problem we are trying to solve:
| Where is your startup based? |
Oklahoma City
|
|---|---|
| Name | Val Popov |
| Title: |
Founding Member
|
| Blog URL: | http://www.facebook.com/pages/uVizz/74516801052 |
| Twitter Profile: | http://twitter.com/val_uvizz |
| Company: |
uvizz
|
| Web Site: | http://www.uVizz.com |
| Company Founded: | February 6, 2008 |
| Key Executive: |
Filip Koutzev, CEO
|
| Key Executive: |
Matt Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer
|
| Key Executive: |
Mike Katchourine, CTO
|
| Funding to Date: |
$150K from founders + family and Friends
$100K award from www.I2E.org |
| Number of Employees: |
3
|
Startup Profile: Dallas Partners
May 26, 2009
Skip Howard is the Managing Director of local start-up: Dallas Partners. Skip and his staff focus on custom software development, state-of-the-art CMS based website development, professional corporate intranet development, SEO/SEM, and social media identity management. They work with large, medium and small companies across the US. Recent projects include the development of a friend-sourcing tool use exclusivly for facebook, niche application product launches, and social networks.
Texas Startup Blog: Why did you start the company?
Skip: Usually people that get involved in a start-up have something in thier blood. When someone talks about problems they are having, I immediatly begin thinking about solutions and my blood starts pumping. It’s not just enought to solve a problem, but it is critical to solve it well. Specifically, I realized that most of the tech companies out there sell a product and walk-away, or they ust give poor customer service. I believe that regardless of the industry in which one operates, there has to be that extra effort and a genuine sense of partnership. Doing so will not just lock-n success, but over the long run, will create a ‘visionary company’.
Texas Startup Blog: What blogs do you read regularly?
Skip: TechCrunch (www.techcrunch.com), Make Magazine Online (www.makezine.com), VentureHacks (http://venturehacks.com/), Blog Mavrerick (http://blogmaverick.com/)
Texas Startup Blog: What was your least favorite job?
Skip: Being the Vice President of a software company dedicated to security technology in higher education. In some ways, it was also the best experience. - Who you work with is worth so much more than Money.
Texas Startup Blog: What is unique about your company’s culture?
Skip: We do the right thing even if it will cost us money. We do what we say. We are tring to bring back the values that create the success in America. Sadly, I think that is uniqie about us.
Texas Startup Blog: What are your goals for the company?
Skip: Why are we here? To make life better. That’s it. It’s a pretty big reason for existing and we use our resources to fulfill our purpose. We listen, innovate and deliver more that what is expected. Most importantly, we view our clients as partners. We believe in it so strongly, we put it in our name: Dallas Partners.
Texas Startup Blog: Anything you want to make sure is included in your startup profile that I haven’t asked or covered?
Skip: Even though we offer unmatched technical experience and can deliver for our clients, we are also about building the entrepreneurial community. I personally attend (and serve on) different organizations dedicated to the promotion of entrepreneurship in Dallas, Tx. We are also members of the Dallas Regional Chamber, the North Dallas Chamber of commerce, and the Google Adwords professional association.
| Based in: |
Dallas, TX
|
|---|---|
| Interviewee: | Skip Howard |
| Title: |
Managing Director
|
| Phone | (214) 717-5157 |
| service@dallaspartners.com | |
| Twitter Profile: | http://twitter.com/sphoward |
| Company: | Dallas Partners |
| Web Site: | http://www.dallaspartners.com |
| Company Founded: |
March 23, 2006
|
Startup Profile: Team Support
May 21, 2009
I had a chance to chat with Robert Johnson about his Dallas-based startup: Team Support. Working with Kevin Jones and Eric Harrington the company offers a customer service application designed for software companies. They have merged an enterprise level help desk application with a sophisticated bug tracking system to create a single application that the customer service, product development, and quality assurance teams can use to support customers and create new products.
Texas Startup Blog: Why did you start the company?
Robert: “Based on our experience running another very successful software company, we realized there was a need for a tool which helps integrate the customer service and product development teams. Too many companies have developed very distinct silos which prevent communication and end up making the customer and internal staff members suffer. It simply doesn’t make any sense to us that the customer service team uses one application (a “help desk”) while the product development and QA teams use another (a “bug tracker”). Our experience is that a great deal of the software bugs and product feature requests come from the people who use it every day – the customers – and that having a single tool that is used by both the development and customer service teams just makes sense. We are fanatical about customer service and hope that TeamSupport will help other companies be successful.”
Texas Startup Blog: What blogs do you read regularly?
Robert:
- Texas Startup Blog - Interesting to read about the trials and tribulations of other entrepreneurs in the local area.
- TechCrunch - Good source of general tech and VC information.
- 37 Signals – While I don’t always agree with their design and company philosophies, they have certainly done a good job and have grown a nice company in the SaaS world.
Texas Startup Blog: What was your least favorite job?
Robert: “I sold my last company in 2006 and the following year was tough. It was very hard to go from being a CEO to being a small cog in a large machine. 6 months in I was promoted to a VP level sales role in our corporate parent, and that was extremely hard for me - I no longer had any say on the product, service, marketing, etc. - Just a sales number to meet. I had a great team and we did well, but it was the least fun I’ve had at any job and I didn’t last very long past my agreed upon contract.”
Texas Startup Blog: What is unique about your company’s culture?
Robert: “I don’t see TeamSupport as particularly unique in our culture, but maybe that’s just because I’ve always run companies this way. Everyone on the team has a great deal of latitude in what they do - I provide the general direction, but I generally stay out of the way for the execution unless they need my help. I’ve found that some people work VERY well this way, but others crave more direction and micro managing. Naturally, the employees we tend to attract thrive in this environment!”
Texas Startup Blog: What are your goals for the company?
Robert: “We would like to continue growing TeamSupport organically and eventually add some additional SaaS products to our portfolio. Unlike many startups, we didn’t start TeamSupport with the single-minded goal of being acquired. TeamSupport’s business model is solid and we believe strongly that people will pay for good software.”
Texas Startup Blog: What didn’t I ask you?
Robert: “While it is certainly an interesting time to start a new company, and many people think we are somewhat nuts for doing a startup now, I think it is a great time to be in our business. TeamSupport is a product which will increase customer satisfaction at companies and that has a direct positive impact on the bottom line. If companies can support their clients better and have better internal communication, they will consistently beat their competition, and TeamSupport provides that edge.”
Screenshot from TeamSupport.com:
| Based In: |
Dallas, TX
|
|---|---|
| Interviewee: | Robert Johnson |
| Title: |
President
|
| Phone | (214) 295-5211 |
| RJohnson@TeamSupport.com | |
| Blog URL: | http://blog.TeamSupport.com |
| LinkedIn Profile: | http://www.linkedin.com/in/johnsonrobertc |
| Company: |
Muroc Systems, Inc.
|
| Web Site: | http://www.TeamSupport.com |
| Company Founded: | May 1, 2008 |
| Key Executive: |
Robert C. Johnson, President
|
| Key Executive: |
Kevin Jones, CTO
|
| Key Executive: |
Eric Harrington, COO & VP of Sales
|
| Funding to Date: |
Privately funded.
|
Only in Texas: Revolution Ropes
January 30, 2009
Ever since NTAN (the North Texas Angel Network) began officing in our coworking space at the INFOMART we have met some very interesting entrepreneurs. Earlier today we were visited by Sandy Stephens the president of Revolution Ropes. Evidently there are scores of competitive ropers (i.e. using a rope to lasso cows and stuff) around the country. Sandy invented what he calls the ‘xcelerator’ which allows cowboys to decrease ‘misses’ by increasing tip follow through, more distance, less bounce and better tip visibility. He estimates the total market size of ropes at around $60MM in the U.S. Who knew. Anyway, it isn’t everyday we see a real live cowboy even here in Texas. Sandy with the Hulk and his rope:
Startup Profile: The Garland Group
October 30, 2008
Based in Dallas, The Garland Group is lead by Brad and Henry Garland. Their company was originally strictly a security/compliance consultancy for financial services. The financial services space is a pretty secretive one and they want to change that. The result was Banktastic.com, a knowledge networking site that allows people in the space to come together, ask questions, and help each other.
Q. Why did you start the company?
A: To change the world of course. ;) Our industry is imploding before our eyes. Mortgage crises, economic downturn, etc. are hurting and not helping one another out at the community level is a large part of the problem. We wanted to find a way to encourage transfer of knowledge.
Q. What blogs do you read regularly?
A: Standard tech blogs (Techcrunch, RWW, BNet) Blogs on psychology, communications, business. Lots of Banks/CU/finance blogs.
Q. What was your least favorite job?
A: TGI Friday’s as a bus boy.
Q. What is unique about your company’s culture?
A: Compared to our competitors we’re entirely remote, we care more about the people than the technology, and we like our weekly game of MSPT (mandatory spontaneous PIG tournament).
Q. What are your goals for the company?
A: I’d lean towards our company as a lifestyle company but if the right opportunity presented itself I would definitely hear what the person would have to say. But, we like what we’re doing right now. We making new friends and connecting with people.
Q: What didn’t I ask?
A: The Garland Group is the company but Banktastic is strictly a product we offer. Also, we are going through a rebranding of the platform to be able to offer these networks in other industries as well. If you need more pictures, check out flickr or http://blog.banktastic.com/
| Where is your startup based? |
Dallas, TX
|
|---|---|
| Name | Brad Garland |
| Title: |
CEO
|
| Phone | (214) 502-9876 |
| brad@thegarlandgroup.net | |
| Blog URL: | http://blog.banktastic.com |
| LinkedIn Profile: | http://www.linkedin.com/pub/bradgarland |
| Twitter Profile: | http://twitter.com/bradgarland |
| Company: |
The Garland Group
|
| Web Site: | http://thegarlandgroup.net |
| Company Founded: | January 1, 1981 |
| Key Executive: |
Brad Garland, CEO
|
| Key Executive: |
Henry Garland, Chairman
|
| Key Executive: | |
| Funding to Date: |
Self funded.
|
| Number of Employees: |
13
|
| Yearly Revenue (2007): |
900000
|
| Estimated Revenue (2008): |
1200000
|
| Estimated Revenue (2009): |
1500000
|
Startup Profile: Ijustfinished.com
Based in Bryan College Station, Ijustfinished.com is lead by Renee Giroux and Jeremy Lang. The company is an online social community that engages in the conversation of books. They have a diverse group of readers and book reviewers bringing the publishing the world and book lovers together to talk about books they love. As well as creative, informed book reviews, readers can tune in to an interactive weekly radio show “Coffee with an Author” to engage with favorite authors. Then watch a weekly podcast from everyday readers discussing what they are reading on “Conversation of Books”. Active forums, and reader profiles are another popular area with members.
Q. Why did you start the company?
A: Long story, I love books, wanted career change, had epiphany, and shazaam the site was born.
Q. What blogs do you read regularly?
A: not enough, I get several from Publishers Weekly, Authors on Tour,NPR, NYTimes, Web Site Magazine, and several topical book blogs. They are all part of staying current.
Q. What was your least favorite job?
A: Social media/marketing. There has to be a better way.
Q. What is unique about your company’s culture?
A: Book lovers are the coolest smartest people on the planet. They are each unique but speak the same language. We have members who are in India, Egypt, England, you name it, and they are all excited and passionate about the conversation of books!
Q. What are your goals for the company?
A: To have 1000 users a day by the end of 2009, have the social media aspect (Phase II) in place and a steady following community participating. Also to have brand recognition at trade shows and events by May 2009, and 2000 listeners to “Coffee with an Author” every week. Making money and being solvent is high on the list as well.
Q: What didn’t I ask?
A: Our website, www.ijustfinished.com, is a social community that engages in the conversation of books. We have an amazing, diverse, group of readers and book reviewers. We send them ARCs/galleys and they submit reviews to the site, as well as help get the conversation going on our forum. We have a large forum that is organized by author, and encourage open conversation about their books. We also profile an author and a review weekly. We are have two weekly podcasts: “The Conversation of Books” a video podcast talking to everyday readers in the real world about what they are reading, and “Coffee With an Author” a weekly audio podcast interviewing authors in a casual conversational style. We would love to interview your authors, and discuss their latest books! We are also members of the social marketing community (myspace, facebook, gather.com, etc..). Our following has become very loyal and active. They are passionate about books, and reading. Our site is open for conversation of all books, but we do have a large following for all types of fiction, chic lit, and fantasy/sci fi, non-fiction as well as mainstream bestsellers. We would love to help you market your authors. We are seeking ARCs/galleys that you are interested in having reviewed, and are always looking for authors to feature and/or interview. Your author would automatically be added to our forum, and if they have any interest, guest blogging is always welcome. Feel free to contact us in order to send ARCs/galleys, or to schedule interviews/ or blog tours. Samples of our reviews, interviews, or the blog are available at the site, or can be sent directly, upon request.
| Name | Renee Giroux |
|---|---|
| Title: |
Founder
|
| Phone | (979) 255-1720 |
| booklover@ijustfinished.com | |
| Blog URL: | http://www.ijustfinished.com/blog/ |
| LinkedIn Profile: | |
| Twitter Profile: | http://twitter.com/ijustfinished |
| Company: |
Ijustfinished.com
|
| Web Site: | http://www.ijustfinished.com |
| Company Founded: | April 9, 2008 |
| Key Executive: |
Renee Giroux founder
|
| Key Executive: |
Jeremy Lang founder/developer
|
| Key Executive: | |
| Funding to Date: |
We have not secured any VC as of yet. We have funded totally out of pocket. We are not seeking funding.
|
| Number of Employees: |
4
|
Startup Profile: The OtherInBox
October 29, 2008
Based in Austin, Texas and lead by Joshua Baer and Mike Subelsky, the OtherInBox is an angel-backed company that offers a new way to manage email overload. You probably have an “other inbox” already, and it’s probably a Yahoo or Gmail account that you give out because you don’t want receipts, newsletters, social networking notifications and spam to clutter your main email. OtherInbox introduces a clever twist. Instead of just having a single email address such as johnsmith23@gmail.com, each user gets assigned their own domain name such as johnsmith.otherinbox.com or a vanity domain like johnsmith.com. Any address @johnsmith.com goes to your OtherInbox, so you can easily give a different email address to every website. For instance, Amazon gets amazon@johnsmith.com and Facebook gets facebook@johnsmith.com. Without having to set up any folders or rules, your email gets organized so that it’s easy to jump right to the messages you care about. If a website sells your email address to spammers, you’ll be able to tell and can BLOCK it with a single click.
Q: Why did you start the company?
A: OtherInbox changes some fundamental assumptions about email. Traditional email programs expect me to read every single message. OtherInbox starts off by assuming that I am going to get more email than I have time to read. Having one email address is designed for an Internet where I can trust every website that I give it to. But we all know that some websites that I think I can trust will actually send me spam. Traditional email assumes each message is sent by a person and that I need to read it. OtherInbox knows that most of the emails are not from real people and does something smart with the message so that I don’t have to deal with it.
Q: What was your least favorite job?
A: Wow, I’ve been so fortunate to work for myself since I was in college - my first company that I sold a couple of years ago was a “dorm room dot com” that I started while attending Carnegie Mellon University. Beyond that, I have worked with so many great people along the way. So, I have to say that nothing comes to mind as a bad job - not even sacking groceries as a kid growing up in Nashua, New Hampshire (it was a really good gig to have a young teenager!)
Q: What is unique about your company’s culture?
A: Keep it lean. We believe in hiring the best of the best employees to focus on the core aspects of our business and outsourcing non-core functions whenever possible. This results in a smaller, leaner team of higher quality individuals. Everyone here is performing a critical role and has an important voice in our community. Cutting edge technology. We’re built on Ruby on Rails and hosted on Amazon Web Services EC2 and S3. Our front-end is built in the SproutCore Javascript MVC framework. We’re in the process of switching from Subversion to Git. We believe in open source technology. Best place for Ruby on Rails developers.
We’re building the best place for Ruby on Rails developers to work in Austin. In addition to great people and a great work environment, competitive salary and first-class benefits - OtherInbox also believes in personal and professional development. We host the monthly Austin On Rails user grou p and sponsor the annual Lone Star Ruby Conference. Each summer, we send every developer to RailsConf in Portland. The big picture. And we also realize that we’re part of a bigger community and need to do our part. We donate 1% of our profits to charity and match employee donations. Together, we donate 1% of our working time to charity as well (which works out to one day per quarter). We do our part for Austin, TX and for our planet.
Q: What are your goals for the company?
A: The happiest customers. The happiest employees. The biggest profits. 1 million users by the end of 2009.
- Don’t make a human read a message that a computer can read instead
- Don’t try to make a computer read a message that only a human can read correctly
- The consumer is always in control
- Be Transparent
- Make email fun again
OtherInbox is currently in private beta, but made its public debut at the TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco in early September 2008. If you would like to signup to participate in the private beta, we’ve created an exclusive invite just for the Texas Startup Blog readers, so please go to http://beta.otherinbox.com/signup/texasstartupblog as there are only 50 invites available.
Where is your startup based? Austin, TX, USA
Name Joshua Baer
Title: Founder and CEO
Phone (512) 857-7325
Blog URL: http://blog.otherinbox.com/
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.joshuabaer.info/
Twitter Profile: http://twitter.com/otherinbox
Company: OtherInbox
Web Site: http://www.otherinbox.com
Company Founded: 1 January 2008
Key Executive: Mike Subelsky, Co-founder and Hacker
Funding to Date: We have a handful of Angel Investors, including the founder and CEO, Josh Baer. Baer does plan to seek VC funding through a Series A in late 2008.
Number of Employees: 16
Startup Profile: Blue Ambit
Frisco based Blue Ambit is lead by Ed Buckley and John Lodmell. This two man, bootstrapped startup offers a hosted executive dashboard and scorecard tool that brings the cost, performance and profit benefits of business intelligence to a wider audience. Blue Ambit provides a simple way for teams to reduce costs and increase profits by quickly detecting and addressing problems, identify opportunities, making better informed decisions and staying in close touch with each other. They manage the whole back end so their customers don’t have to. They can aggregate information from many sources and we give our customers a really effective way to stop chasing down information and enable them to take action from the data.
Q: Why did you start the company?
A: Blue Ambit was born out of our frustration with existing business intelligence, outsourcing software, workflow management and communication tools failing to provide timely, accessible and actionable information to those that actually need it to deliver performance. We formed the company to serve two key under-served audiences: small to medium businesses; and functions where different companies or organizations need to work with each other to get things done such as in real estate, facilities or services management and business process outsourcing.
Q: What blogs do you read regularly?
A: Feld Thoughts - http://www.feld.com/blog/ I’ve been reading this for two years getting to understand the world of tech start ups and funding while I plucked up the courage to leave corporate life. Lateral Action - http://lateralaction.com/ I love creativity and innovation and I especially love the cartoony characters in this. Presentation Zen - http://www.presentationzen.com/ One day I hope that my presentations will be as informative, clear and persuasive. TED Blog - http://blog.ted.com/ Total mind expansion and Sir Ken Robinson totally changed my views of my kids’ education.
Q: What was your least favorite job?
A: I’ve enjoyed every job while I was setting up an operation, delivering a product or project and figuring out how to do it……and I’ve hated every single job from the minute I was asked to “run the engine.”
Q: What is unique about your company’s culture?
A: We attended a comedy improv class together when we started the company and find that we use a lot of the rules in our day to day interactions. You’ll need to read Truth in Comedy to find out more. Both of us led the implementation of alternative workplaces at our previous employer and have developed a mobile/cafe working lifestyle.
Q: What are your goals for the company?
A: Survive the next year or so through consulting and subscription income, plus possibly some additional funding. Exit in three to five years with a sale that allows us to hit our personal investment horizon and do other projects.
Where is your startup based? Frisco
Name Ed Buckley
Title: CEO
Phone (214) 601-9296
Blog URL: http://www.workplaceengineering.com
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/edbuckley
Twitter Profile: http://twitter.com/roddyroo
Company: Blue Ambit
Web Site: http://www.blueambit.com
Company Founded: July 1, 2008
Key Executive: John Lodmell - COO
Funding to Date: Bootstrapped through to concept and beta
Number of Employees: 2
Startup Profile: Tracer Detection Technology
Based in San Antonio, Tracer Detection Technology Corp, is lead by Jay Fraser, Jack Taylor and Bill Kavanagh. Tracer is a high-tech security company commercializing distinctive and patented solutions for corporate and government security. Its primary focus is its anti-counterfeit security system for documents & products. The Company is currently funded by the DoD for its covert surveillance chemical track, trace and locate technology targeted at the government and Intel Community. Program successfully completed pending Final Report.
Q: Why did you start the company?
A: Company evolved out of a technology transfer demonstration project for which I was program manager. Original intention was to commercialize unique applications of an environmental testing technology. An opportunity to position the technology for law enforcement applications shifted our focus.
Q: What blogs do you read regularly?
A: ThreatsWatch (I write for it), Counterterrorism Blog (top notch analysis on world events), Texas Startup Blog (not for the “obvious” reason but because it covers material of a local nature that I need to read.
Q: What was your least favorite job?
A: Telemarketing for a chimney cleaning service
Q: What is unique about your company’s culture?
A: We all share the vision of our CEO (me). Our unique difference is that we are remotely managed and geographically dispersed. When I moved from NY to Texas, operations of the company continued seemlessly. In fact, we’re in the process of finalizing a significant (and successful) contract for the government.
Q: What are your goals for the company?
A: Current: Finalize funding round(s). Next year: Complete commercialization of our patented anti-counterfeit solution; secure follow-on funding from the government for our “covert surveillance” technology. Years 3&4: Drive the business and expand customer base. Exit: Position the company for acquisition by a larger company in the security field as the industry consolidates.
Where is your startup based? San Antonio
Name: Jay Fraser
Title: President
Phone: (210) 582-5818
Blog URL: http://www.threatswatch.org
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jayfraser
Twitter Profile:
Company: Tracer Detection Technology Corp.
Company Founded: 7 April 1995
Key Executive: Jay Fraser, President
Key Executive: Jack Taylor, Chief Marketing Officer
Key Executive: Bill Kavanagh, Mgt. Advisory
Funding to Date:
● Approximately $500,000 to date
● Personal Capital: approx. $350,000
● Pvt. Contracts/U.S. grants: $1.25 million
Number of Employees: 6
Yearly Revenue (2007): 18,000
Estimated Revenue (2008): 908,000
