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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One of the 500 Startups companies launching this week, Talkdesk turns your browser into a call center – a way to provide quality customer support without throwing away half your company budget. Based on Twilio’s technology, Talkdesk lets you make and receive calls, record and transcribe them, and integrate with services like SalesForce and Zendesk…
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Last March at SXSW, Tim O’Reilly called Fluidinfo his favorite startup. Three years earlier, Robert Scoble said it was “unfundable” but “world-changing” – yet Fluidinfo has since raised $1.3 million from investors including Esther Dyson and O’Reilly himself. Why is Fluidinfo garnering such praise, and why is it so hard to understand? Fluidinfo is basically…
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It’s not mind control, but new technology out of Denmark comes close: Senseye is working on eye tracking software that lets your eyes control your phone. The software uses your smartphone or tablet camera to detect where you’re looking on a page. Based on that, you can scroll, click on icons, and play games –…
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Despite its name, startup Contactually is not about keeping track of a list of contacts, but about managing long-term relationships. Founded in July in DC, Contactually stores information on your email contacts and syncs with Salesforce and Highrise CRMs. But more importantly, it adds value throughout the life of a relationship. When you email a…
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Personal finance startup MyJibe, which demoed at our first Bloomington mixer, just announced their acquisition by Utah-based MoneyDesktop. MyJibe helps you set aside spending money while still reaching your finance goals, and connect with financial advisors in real-time. Its cofounders, Mike Langellier and Brandon Dewitt, will join MoneyDesktop and integrate their product with their acquirer’s,…
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How you ever wondered what happens when a patent’s claims cover the activities of a software company and its customers? Can their collective activities violate a patent even though they are not officially working together towards a common goal? Well, the answer is “maybe.” Last Friday, the court that hears appeals in all U.S. patent…
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When you are busy running a company – or getting one off the ground – time is precious. If you can avoid reinventing the wheel, you do – and this is especially true when it comes to figuring out what products and services to use. From software to phone systems and social media marketing tools…
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Financial planning tools may not be the stuff of riveting headlines, but they are vital to the welfare of scores of people who put their trust in advisors. And inStream Solutions, a client financial management platform in private beta, is now a vital tool for 200 firms/offices, representing almost 40,000 high-net-worth households and their $50…
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Last fall, Colorado suffered a devastating wildfire. As the flames spread, they left a trail of tweets, Flickr photos, and collaborative Google maps – disconnected information that was constantly changing. This natural disaster was the inspiration for Crowdspoke, a news platform centered on topics where users vote stories up and down – and a useful…
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According to FullContact, my first name is Kira, my last name is M. Newman, I’m female, and I live in Washington, DC. Other than the middle name blip, that’s pretty accurate, considering I left DC only two months ago. You can see what FullContact knows about you here. FullContact helps developers enhance their app’s contact…
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We’ve all seen videos of young kids adeptly navigating the iPad’s touchscreen, but could the Apple device bring more than play? Jesper Lodahl certainly thinks so, as he sees his 4-year-old daughter Laura – with the help of a few iPad apps – do basic reading, tell time, and even teach him Spanish words. Lodahl’s…
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Online music services are gaining popularity, and they can be the gateway to millions of listeners. But indie bands may have trouble breaking into Pandora channels, Turntable.fm rooms, and Spotify playlists. Chicago startup SoundOff.fm wants indie bands to be heard. According to its founders, “SoundOff.fm was started to give indie artists a real chance at…
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There are currently 3.3 billion people living in cities – and that number is only growing. In the next five years, the urban population is expected to increase well beyond half the world’s total. Most of these urbanites are likely going to live in haphazardly-designed cities with a poor quality of life. But MIT’s new…
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Smartling, the language translation service for websites and apps that we previously covered, has launched a new service for small businesses today. The New York startup updated its platform with new features, like a style guide and a glossary for translators, and a new interface targeted at small businesses and non-technical staff. “The meek and…
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Sick of daily deal sites yet? We stumbled across a new one that is actually pretty interesting. So, in yet another twist on the daily deal site, we have 3 week old NYC-based startup Stampede.It. Their group buying site is for digital goods and services like mobile apps, social games, ebooks, and web apps. So…
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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