Last month we kicked off our new speaker series, Sessions, in Washington, DC with a crowd of about 250 people. Speakers Shane Green, Co-founder and CEO of Personal, and Timothy Chi, Co-founder of Blackboard and Founder & CEO of WeddingWire, shared how they moved from ideas to action and answered a number of more tactical…
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One of the startups we showcased at last week’s Tech Cocktail Baltimore mixer, viaPlace, has been making waves on the East Coast. Their white-label location-based services provide dynamic content – including augmented reality – based on your physical location and interests. Is it any wonder why viaPlace has been nominated for Baltimore’s Hottest Tech Competition…
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The evolution of search continues. In addition to the new business ideas that have cropped up imitating/borrowing from the aesthetically pleasing UI of Pinterest (see: Linstagram or Pinstagram), there exists a new user expectation for browsing. Naturally any item that can be searched visually soon will be, if it isn’t already. Added exposure to a…
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Instead of dreaming of a rosy Silicon Valley where all roads lead to startup success, young Singaporean students are being thrown into the Valley’s entrepreneurial trenches. The National University of Singapore (NUS) Overseas Colleges program sends students to Silicon Valley, as well as Philadelphia, Beijing, Shanghai, Stockholm, India, and Israel. There, they study entrepreneurship-related courses…
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Did you know that due to deregulation you can change your energy provider? Not all that many people in America do according to Power2Switch founder Seyi Fabode. When he moved to the U.S. he noticed this right away and took it upon himself to create a place for consumers to address this problem in Power2Switch. We’ve…
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If you watch the NBC show The Apprentice, you might recognize the name Aaron Altscher – he appeared on the show a few years ago. The Baltimore-area native has worked at several startups, had a couple of successful exits, and teaches entrepreneurship. Just in case that’s not enough to make you feel like a total…
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“I owe you a beer.” If you added up all the instances someone has said this to you with the times you’ve made this promise to someone else, you would arrive at a number larger than anything ever seen by man. It’s the default favor recognition phrase. The problem is – in the era of…
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There’s an unspoken rule that every social circle has a DPP (Designated Party Planner). It’s one person, and one person only. If ever this person were to fail to formulate the day or evening’s plans, the balance of said social circle falls into a paralyzing state of disarray. There is great power in this role, but…
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Having been a part of starting and growing local startups for the better part of a decade, few people have as good a feel for the Baltimore startup scene as Ron Schmelzer. From a baseball cap apparel company to a IT marketing intelligence firm, Schmelzer’s business ideas have changed, but his companies’ location hasn’t. Now onto his seventh year in…
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Over the past 70 years, the classroom has transitioned from the blackboard to the overhead projector to the whiteboard – and now to interactive whiteboards. With all of these products, the teacher has been the primary user. However, the student with the old, chalky blackboard 70 years ago is still using the same, old-fashioned notebook…
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Singapore’s Joyful Frog Digital Incubator held its inaugural demo day on Friday, with frog memorabilia in abundance. Part of the TechStars’ Global Accelerator Network, the 100-day program offered mentorship, office space, and around $12,000 in funding. It’s a success story for the Singapore government, which is incredibly supportive of startups: the incubator had grants from…
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Project management is not for the faint of heart. If you can successfully shepherd a complex, months-long project with multiple stakeholders from beginning to end, you have the skills, should you ever want to start a new career, of a world class cat herder. The hardest part of project management, of course, is just keeping…
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Baltimore-based entrepreneurs Dan Sines and Josh Spears believe they have solved the problem of “what to do” by disrupting the way people search for things to do. Their new company, Woofound, is like having a best friend that knows where to find all the fun places to go, whether you’re in your hometown or a whole new…
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A disproportionate amount of life – business especially – seems to live in the last minute. Plans change, you find yourself in Boston for the weekend, and you need a place to stay. You need to be assured you’ll get a good night’s sleep and be stationed in a central part of the city, all…
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Taking on a web business in 1997 was new frontier, especially in the Midwest. Based in Chicago, Cars.com was created to offer a rich online classified advertising experience around automobiles. Bill Swislow, the Senior Vice President of Product at Cars.com, was there from the beginning, from concept and startup phase to the point when Cars.com…
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Whether you’re single, in a relationship, or married, it can be hard to find someone to do activities with. If you’re a big opera fan but none of your friends are, or you want to try archery but your spouse balks at the idea, you can get stuck in a rut, not doing favorite activities…
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Two months after the iPad 2 debuted in March, around 40% of users surveyed said their iPad was their primary computer, up from around 30%... Read More
There are a number of startup accelerator and incubator programs in the United States. We are fans of these programs (not to be confused with... Read More
We are excited to announce the participating startups for Tech Cocktail's South by Southwest (SXSW) event: #Startuplife Celebration presented by .CO. It was one of... Read More
With our Startup Mixology Conference coming up next week followed by our classic Tech Cocktail DC Summer mixer which will showcase a handful of early-stage... Read More