Tuesday
Jul202010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010 at 01:50PM This Week in Startups #65 Global Meetup
Jason Calacanis hosts This Week in Startups: Global Meetup
00:01:00 Meetup.com recently created a global platform and found their initial success with Howard Dean's campaign in 2004
Create Your Opportunity - .CO is the new web address that gives you a truly global, recognizable and credible option for branding your online presence.
00:11:15 London – James Kennedy (Organizer) - Lieven Van Marcke – gnuTrade - is a financial trading company that brings you new ways to trade the markets and a completely new type of trading screen that also features a play before you trade game. Allowing you to learn before you spend real money but eventually when you are ready allows you to switch to real trading on their own platform. >20k registered users and they want to raise $800k
Feedback – It's a great way to learn at your own pace, Tyler (a prior trader) asks about execution time, which is 3-4 seconds but will improve with the new infrastructure planned. The domain name is bad (Jason bought NewTrade.co for them), get a professional designer and improve your color palate for version 2
00:29:30 Madrid – Javier Rincon (Organizer) – Raphael – JaraTech - Recruiting from outside the organization is an expensive and inefficient way to fill roles. It can, according to some estimates, cost between five and seven times as much to recruit someone from outside the organization than it does to promote from within. Our tools will help you filling this gap.
While talent management and succession planning elucidate and manage the long-term development of human capital, our employee performance management tools are designed to help managers get the most out of their staff. You will be able to set goals according to personal ability and strategic objectives, assessing employee performance and attributing reward accordingly.
Feedback – You are in the right space and you can save companies a lot of money. CraigsList is still winning but there is a lot of room to improve.
00:41:50 Rotterdam - Pascal Lindelauf (Organizer) – Ins & Outs - There's tons of product information sites out there. We know. But on almost all of them, the focus is on selling the item or finding the store that sells the product at the best price. Reviews and opinions are second-class citizens. And even if they have a prominent place, then the reviews and opinions are written by the occasional consumer.
We found that there is actually no place for a product expert (being someone who works in that particular product business or simply a product enthusiast) to have his voice heard and showcase his expertise.
Feedback – Great domain name and branding, consider dropping the voting and using a score and curating the reviews similar to Metacritic. Pay someone to summarize others reviews, there are plenty of opinion but not enough curration.
00:58:45 Maldives - Shafiu Hussein (Organizer) – Ask Jason – What are the barriers for a VC or Angel to invest in a company a long ways away?
Answer – Generally VC and Angels won't invest in companies over an hour away, some will travel by plane short distances but you need to find someone local. Try build an Angel investment community by finding someone successful in your area and play to their ego. Because, you live in such a romote location take a successful (locally oriented) idea from another country (like Groupon) and create it in your country. Play to your strengths which is little competition you could easily start a podcast and provide lead generation for the tourist industry.
01:12:30 Pittsburg – John Ganotis (Organizer) – Held at AlphaLabs an incubator that looks like a good deal ($25k for 5% and maintaining a significant presence in Pitt for 5 years). - Nick – Shoefitr – Shoefitr helps people find the perfect fit with 3d imaging, they scanned 440 running shoes and have the fit down to a milimeter.
Feedback – The idea is brillant, what was the moment you created up with the idea? All 3 founders are athletes and are acustomed to buying shoes online, they would try them on in a store and then go find them cheaper online. They originally wanted to scan shoes and peoples feet but realized that wouldn't work so they developed scanning and comparing shoes. Jason recommends working out a deal with Zappos who is already considering the product. Landing Zappos will bring in all the other deals, the business model is based on small commission per sale.
01:27:00 Paris – Kirsten Winkler (Organizer) set a new benchmark for the global meetups with @TWiSTParis and TwistParis – YooCasa – Is a gaming / fun site for family members to spend quality time with each other when one person is away. Targets the 2 – 10 years olds because kids like to experience things at that age not talk.
Feedback – Great Idea, what platform is it built on? Adobe which allows for a very robust experience. You may want to integrate a mobile app. It already works with the droid.
01:37:00 Charlotte – Les Porter (Organizer) – Sara Branson – XceedMD – Electronic medical records SaaS delivered in a way that Doctors prefer, streamlines to fit the examination, product is in beta and has been used for over a year and is 70% complete, pricing will be monthly per Doctor.
Feedback – definitely the industry is moving in this direction but the government regulation maybe a not so fun hurdle.
01:50:00 San Deigo – Craig Stern (Organizer) – held at eBoost Consulting – Jason Kirby – Amaranth For Africa – a plant that provides 75% of daily nutrition, it's oils are widely used and has a harvest time of 60 days and it's not commercialized, the plan is to bring microfranchising to Kenya and help bring local companies together.
Feedback – You are teaching people to fish which is always a good approach, go to Kickstarter or IndieGoGo to help seed your idea.
02:04:40 Los Angeles – Marriage - will be the wedding and marriage network. We're sitting on some great real estate here, so we decided to share it with members of our community. Engaged and married couples, along with wedding and marriage professionals, will be able to have their own exclusive marriage.com page and blog.
Feedback – The domain name is unreal I'm sure it is worth a lot but my expectations are to get all the tools I'd need to get married, the domain name brings with it high expectations. You may want to get a celebrity face to help get traction but this may not be your best idea for this site.
02:29:00 Shoefitr wins the second Global Meetup award for best pitch and product.
Sept. 22nd will be the next Startup Meetup focusing on Asia
02:34:30
00:01:00 Meetup.com recently created a global platform and found their initial success with Howard Dean's campaign in 2004
Create Your Opportunity - .CO is the new web address that gives you a truly global, recognizable and credible option for branding your online presence.00:11:15 London – James Kennedy (Organizer) - Lieven Van Marcke – gnuTrade - is a financial trading company that brings you new ways to trade the markets and a completely new type of trading screen that also features a play before you trade game. Allowing you to learn before you spend real money but eventually when you are ready allows you to switch to real trading on their own platform. >20k registered users and they want to raise $800k
Feedback – It's a great way to learn at your own pace, Tyler (a prior trader) asks about execution time, which is 3-4 seconds but will improve with the new infrastructure planned. The domain name is bad (Jason bought NewTrade.co for them), get a professional designer and improve your color palate for version 2
00:29:30 Madrid – Javier Rincon (Organizer) – Raphael – JaraTech - Recruiting from outside the organization is an expensive and inefficient way to fill roles. It can, according to some estimates, cost between five and seven times as much to recruit someone from outside the organization than it does to promote from within. Our tools will help you filling this gap.
While talent management and succession planning elucidate and manage the long-term development of human capital, our employee performance management tools are designed to help managers get the most out of their staff. You will be able to set goals according to personal ability and strategic objectives, assessing employee performance and attributing reward accordingly.
Feedback – You are in the right space and you can save companies a lot of money. CraigsList is still winning but there is a lot of room to improve.
00:41:50 Rotterdam - Pascal Lindelauf (Organizer) – Ins & Outs - There's tons of product information sites out there. We know. But on almost all of them, the focus is on selling the item or finding the store that sells the product at the best price. Reviews and opinions are second-class citizens. And even if they have a prominent place, then the reviews and opinions are written by the occasional consumer.
We found that there is actually no place for a product expert (being someone who works in that particular product business or simply a product enthusiast) to have his voice heard and showcase his expertise.
Feedback – Great domain name and branding, consider dropping the voting and using a score and curating the reviews similar to Metacritic. Pay someone to summarize others reviews, there are plenty of opinion but not enough curration.
00:58:45 Maldives - Shafiu Hussein (Organizer) – Ask Jason – What are the barriers for a VC or Angel to invest in a company a long ways away?
Answer – Generally VC and Angels won't invest in companies over an hour away, some will travel by plane short distances but you need to find someone local. Try build an Angel investment community by finding someone successful in your area and play to their ego. Because, you live in such a romote location take a successful (locally oriented) idea from another country (like Groupon) and create it in your country. Play to your strengths which is little competition you could easily start a podcast and provide lead generation for the tourist industry.
01:12:30 Pittsburg – John Ganotis (Organizer) – Held at AlphaLabs an incubator that looks like a good deal ($25k for 5% and maintaining a significant presence in Pitt for 5 years). - Nick – Shoefitr – Shoefitr helps people find the perfect fit with 3d imaging, they scanned 440 running shoes and have the fit down to a milimeter.
Feedback – The idea is brillant, what was the moment you created up with the idea? All 3 founders are athletes and are acustomed to buying shoes online, they would try them on in a store and then go find them cheaper online. They originally wanted to scan shoes and peoples feet but realized that wouldn't work so they developed scanning and comparing shoes. Jason recommends working out a deal with Zappos who is already considering the product. Landing Zappos will bring in all the other deals, the business model is based on small commission per sale.
01:27:00 Paris – Kirsten Winkler (Organizer) set a new benchmark for the global meetups with @TWiSTParis and TwistParis – YooCasa – Is a gaming / fun site for family members to spend quality time with each other when one person is away. Targets the 2 – 10 years olds because kids like to experience things at that age not talk.
Feedback – Great Idea, what platform is it built on? Adobe which allows for a very robust experience. You may want to integrate a mobile app. It already works with the droid.
01:37:00 Charlotte – Les Porter (Organizer) – Sara Branson – XceedMD – Electronic medical records SaaS delivered in a way that Doctors prefer, streamlines to fit the examination, product is in beta and has been used for over a year and is 70% complete, pricing will be monthly per Doctor.
Feedback – definitely the industry is moving in this direction but the government regulation maybe a not so fun hurdle.
01:50:00 San Deigo – Craig Stern (Organizer) – held at eBoost Consulting – Jason Kirby – Amaranth For Africa – a plant that provides 75% of daily nutrition, it's oils are widely used and has a harvest time of 60 days and it's not commercialized, the plan is to bring microfranchising to Kenya and help bring local companies together.
Feedback – You are teaching people to fish which is always a good approach, go to Kickstarter or IndieGoGo to help seed your idea.
02:04:40 Los Angeles – Marriage - will be the wedding and marriage network. We're sitting on some great real estate here, so we decided to share it with members of our community. Engaged and married couples, along with wedding and marriage professionals, will be able to have their own exclusive marriage.com page and blog.
Feedback – The domain name is unreal I'm sure it is worth a lot but my expectations are to get all the tools I'd need to get married, the domain name brings with it high expectations. You may want to get a celebrity face to help get traction but this may not be your best idea for this site.
02:29:00 Shoefitr wins the second Global Meetup award for best pitch and product.
Sept. 22nd will be the next Startup Meetup focusing on Asia
02:34:30
Reader Comments (8)
The video portion leaves out 3-4 of the last pitches. Is there any video of the last 45 minutes of the show?