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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DC-based metaLayer is offering a way to help organizations and individuals find what’s buried in their world of files and conversations. Say goodbye to big data problems – the startup’s suite of products visually manages images and text to help you deal with data overload on your own terms. The metaLayer Dashboard is a new…
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What do you do with your old smartphone when you get a new one? Turn it in to the retailer? Chuck it? Give it to your kids to play with? Recycle it? While we all have the best of intentions when it comes to recycling, when it come to our phones – well, they are…
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During my freshman year in college – way back in 1993-94 – I somehow always knew where the parties were before and during the weekend. And somehow, everyone knew to ask me. Looking back, it just amazes me that information like that spread – and was accurate – as we were relying on a very…
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One way we sort through clutter on the Internet these days is reading reviews, but reviews themselves are becoming cluttered. A new product from Klaggle, called ReviewRite, helps the best reviews rise to the top. “Klaggle will combine the high review volume of Yelp with the quality and trustworthiness of JD Powers and Angie’s List,”…
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Independence – freedom from the control, influence, support, aid, or the like, of others. Independent financial advice – for the last 50 years, only 15% of Americans had access to it. Even with arrival of personal financial software in the 1980’s and ’90’s, the percentage didn’t change. Most Americans were on their own in regards…
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Unless you have kids in school – who inevitably bring home the latest and greatest virus – chances are you have no idea what sundry illnesses are making the rounds. At our Tech Cocktail DC mixer last night, Baltimore-based startup SickWeather demo’d their beta site, which seeks to make that information easily accessible. As the…
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After a full day of DCWEEK’s Core Conference, join us at Tech Cocktail’s mixer at DCWEEK – the last DC mixer in 2011 where we’ll showcase 18 local early stage startups. And enjoy some cocktails, of course. Thanks to all of our sponsors for making this event possible: Deloitte, Applied Predictive Technologies, Hoffman CFO Consulting, Browser Media, Mapquest,…
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You know how Amazon always seems to find great products you’ll like, based on your browsing and purchasing behaviors? DC-based Converge is applying this concept to your social networks so you can discover people you don’t know yet, but probably should. Founders Collin Anderson and Dan Snyder (not to be confused with the Redskins’ owner)…
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As criticism of daily deals abounds, more merchant-friendly options are springing up: daily deal auctions, social advertising, and loyalty cards 2.0. Another option is the Chicago-based startup playOccasion, founded in August, which offers a marketplace for businesses to sell “occasions.” Available in DC and Chicago, playOccasion is currently focusing on sports and fitness events, like…
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If you take photos (and I am guessing that all of you reading this do), check out DC-based startup ClingPhoto, which allow you to easily upload images from your desktop to create custom sized, high quality printed photos that cling to any indoor surface. That’s right – no tape, pins, or nails. They rely on…
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DC startup Umba Box made its first monthly shipment in October, surprising women with lip balm made with distilled herbs, a zipper pouch/glasses case, and hand-dipped beeswax birthday candles. These handmade products were crafted by designers like Stewart & Claire, Herriott Grace, and SevenWhiteRabbits. You can buy Umba Box packages like this by the month,…
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Ray Madronio worked for 2 years with a housing provider in New York City building a network of rental properties. He is also a certified realtor in New York. So when it came time to work on a startup, housing was an obvious choice. Local Bigwig, cofounded by Madronio in 2010, is a platform for…
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Over 50 million Americans between the ages of 13 to 25 live and breathe on Facebook. These same students spend an average of 2 hours connected to this dominant social media site everyday, yet schools and districts across the country block the site due to fear, the threat of cyberbullying, and potential misconduct. Startup TalkChalk…
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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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TroopSwap.com, a DC-based startup that offers daily deals exclusively to military families, has raised $925,000 in new funding from several prominent angel investors. We are very excited for them, as we first covered them in May and then showcased them at our Tech Cocktail DC mixer in June. “Tech Cocktail and the DC tech community…
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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