As an enthusiastic writer and reader, I’m excited for the release of Quotogram, an app for discovering, organizing, and sharing quotes. You can view recent, popular, or your friends’ quotes, and search by author, keywords, and tags. If your favorite quote is nowhere to be found, you can submit it (or correct any misquotes). The…
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Entrepreneurs tend to have really interesting back stories, but I’ll go out on a limb and say it’s super rare to meet one who went from attorney to retail manager to entrepreneur. “I started working at Best Buy because I kept asking my little brother for discounts,” said Will Fuentes, CEO and co-founder of Lemur…
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Chito Peppler served for 20 years in the U.S. Navy, but lately he has traded his uniform for the casual dress of the entrepreneur. “After serving in the military, I wanted to start my own business. I knew how to take orders – now I wanted to be able to make them,” says Peppler. Peppler’s…
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This morning HelloWallet announced that they closed $12 million in Series B funding. Chicago-based Morningstar, Inc. invested $6.75 million and DC-based TD Fund (TDF) invested $4 million. Existing investors and new investors also participated in the round. Morningstar and HelloWallet plan to co-market their services to employers and 401(k) providers. I had a chance to…
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The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, published by DC-based Bethesda Softworks, is one of the most successful games of the past year. The action role-playing game is the 5th installment in the Elder Scrolls series, and according to Eurogamer.net, by December 16, 2011, 10 million copies have been shipped to retailers and already it has raked in…
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When Jay Chahil started working in DC, he’d go out to lunch with coworkers every day – like most young professionals. “I began to realize that everyone else was pretty much doing the same thing and missing out on meeting new people. I also noticed a lot of people eating alone,” he said. “I wanted…
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It is certainly no secret that raising money for your startup requires that you have a proven product, a solid customer acquistion strategy, and a sustainable business model. If you’re in DC, though, you have a bit of an uphill battle, as Uppidy founder Josh Konowe shared with me yesterday. If you’re not familiar with…
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A freshly minted startup here in DC called CoFoundersLab officially launched this past November (on 11/11/11) to fill a void in the startup world: They are a matchmaking platform for tech entrepreneurs, which actually grew out of a successful meetup group. In a highly entertaining call with Cofounder Shahab Kaviani this morning, he articulated what…
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The University of Maryland is home to one of DC’s most active angel investor groups. In 2011, members of the Dingman Angels wrote checks for 9 companies, making 2011 the network’s most active year since its founding in 2004. Investments included Brazen Careerist, Cirrusworks, HugeFan, Nexercise, SevaCall, Spinnakr, Spotflux, Veenome, and YouEye. “Dingman Center Angels’…
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You have got to love a startup that is named after a pet…wait for it…wombat. Womply Founder and CEO Toby Scammell lived in Australia for 5 years, and during that time, Womply (the pet) lived in their backyard. They didn’t so much take care of it as live alongside it. “We went out and said…
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It’s Friday. Your plans just fell through. It’s 8pm – the night isn’t getting any younger. You’ve worked hard all week, and you’re determined play. You don’t know what to do. More accurately, you don’t know what there is to do. Sponto does. This DC-headquartered, location-based social networking mobile app allows users to see what…
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A new tech accelerator is coming to town: Fortify.vc, a venture fund from Virginia, will begin accelerating some of its portfolio companies at The Fort in DC. The Fort’s launch is supported by a grant of $100,000 from DC mayor Vincent Gray. Initial startups will include Venga and Social Tables – you’ll find them over…
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As our world gets smaller, online communities are becoming more and more ubiquitous. I’m not talking about huge social networks like Facebook, which target everyone, but more focused communities that target a specific niche. We just ran a post on Scoutzie a couple of hours ago, which brings together mobile designers in one place –…
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Earlier this year Tech Cocktail covered the DC-based immediate response service provider/contact platform Urgnt.ly. Today, they have officially launched. Under the old model, in order to get an appointment with a service provider (the cable guy, electrician, tow truck service, etc), you’d have to first locate the provider’s phone number, make the call, fight through some…
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It’s a fresh new year, but some of us might not be so excited about returning to the same office we were at in 2011. As you reflect back on the year behind you, do you find yourself thinking about new challenges or a change of scenery? How can you make it the best year…
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DC-based startup KikScore created a patent-pending Confidence Badge and online trust score platform that enables small online businesses and non-profits to demonstrate trustworthiness through data and information. Last month, they released the findings of the first KikScore Online Trust Survey. Kikscore co-founder Raj Malik, a lawyer-turned-entrepreneur, said, “The main takeaway from the survey is that website…
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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
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
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
Coming off of one of our biggest Tech Cocktail mixer events in Chicago this past week, which showcased 14 early-stage start-ups, we thought it would... Read More