StartUp Beat

Today’s technology funding and acquisitions news roundup:

Education

StormWind Secures $4 Million in Series Preferred Funding to Grow HD Video eLearning

Enterprise

AlienVault Lands $8 Million Series B Funding Round Led By Trident Capital

Ecommerce

Posted by startupbeat at 02:01 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with Tealium co-founder Ali Behnam. The San Diego, California–based company was founded in 2008.

SUB: Please describe what Tealium is, and the value proposition you offer to the enterprise.

Behnam: Tealium is a provider of tag management solutions for the enterprise. Over the last decade, as online marketing has matured, we’ve seen an explosion in the number of web page tags that digital marketing vendors—web analytics providers, affiliate marketing companies, etc.—require customers to embed on their web sites. Over time, these tags have grown out of control. The average enterprise web site today has 30-to-40 different vendor tags on their web properties. Deploying and managing these tags have become a huge burden both for marketing and IT. Tealium provides marketers with a simple way to add, modify and edit these tags on their own through an easy-to-use web interface. No longer do they have to rely on overburdened IT departments to implement their online campaigns. The benefits are huge across the organization: reduced IT costs, increased marketing agility and performance, improved site speed, and better privacy protection. 

SUB: What are your target markets?

Behnam: Our target market is really any company for which the web is an important channel. Given our methodology, we excel at handling high-volume sites and brands that have multiple web properties. We see a lot of interest from ecommerce, news and media, travel, and financial services sites. We have customers across the board, including Citrix Online, The Finish Line, Inc., Fox Networks Group, Lincoln Financial Group, US Auto Parts, Big Fish Games, and many more.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?

Behnam: The number of tag management players has really increased over the last year as people begin to understand the real benefits of tag management. Here in the U.S., our competition is primarily TagMan and BrightTag. Oversees, we see competition mostly from local companies such as TagCommander in France and ExactTag in Germany.

SUB: What differentiates Tealium from the competition?

Behnam: We understand that enterprises today are serving a global market. As a result, we’ve invested in a platform that’s truly global and is optimized to handle website visitors worldwide, not just in any given region. For example, if a site visitor is from Belgium, we make sure that our application is running from a server farm in Belgium or at least close by. Our differentiators are our massive scale, high performance, a deep feature set and an intuitive user interface that is designed specifically for marketers.

SUB: When was the company founded and what were the first steps you took to establishing it?

Behnam: Tealium was founded in 2008. We have a background in web analytics consultancy. It was during several consulting engagements that we realized the tremendous pain that many enterprises had when it came to tagging. One of our early customers was in the process of deploying Omniture SiteCatalyst on their web site and the internal cost estimate just to add the Omniture page tag amounted to 12 months. We built an early prototype of our solution for the customer and deployed them in two weeks via a single universal tag. That was the genesis of our product and entry into the market.

SUB: What was the inspiration behind the idea for Tealium? Was there an “aha” moment, or was the idea more gradual in developing?

Behnam: We knew there was a tremendous pain point among companies actively engaged in digital marketing and analytics. When we saw how much time and value our solution provided, we knew we had something special. Today, the tag management market is in full swing. We expect 2012 to be the year that tag management really captures the attention of online marketers and ecommerce professionals. It’s become one of those solutions that makes a lot of sense to everyone across the organization.

SUB: What have the most significant obstacles been so far to building the company?

Behnam: As with any business, finding talented people who can contribute right away is always a top priority. We have been fortunate in that respect. A big challenge really has been educating the market. Tag management is new and at first, people really didn’t believe it. Now, we get a lot of people coming to us and so the education process has become easier. 

SUB: You recently raised $1.1 million in Series A funding. What are your plans for the funds?

Behnam: The funds will be used in several areas: product development, account management, and sales and marketing.

SUB: Do you plan to raise more outside funding in the near future?

Behnam: We have no immediate plans for additional funding.

SUB: What are your goals for Tealium over the next year or so?

Behnam: The market for tag management is red hot and still relatively new. Enterprises are starting to see the great value that our solution delivers across the organization. Our goals have not really changed from last year: to create the best tag management solution possible for marketers and business users. Measurement is a marketing function whereas up to now, tagging has been owned by IT. We plan to help eliminate that disconnect and continue our success into the new year.

Tealium – www.tealium.com

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Today’s technology funding and acquisitions news roundup:

Healthcare

Glooko Raises $3.5M To Connect Glucose Meters To iPhones For Tracking Diabetes (via TechCrunch)

Web/Content

SnagFilms Closes New Financing Round

GetHired Nabs $1.75 Million To Launch Its Video-Centric Recruiting Platform & Job Board (via TechCrunch)

Enterprise

Solera Networks Raises $20 Million in Series D Funding Led by Intel Capital

Cloud

Cloud-Based Legal Management Platform Clio Raises $6 Million in Series B Funding

Posted by startupbeat at 11:41 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

This week’s list of Angel, Seed and Series A funding announcements:

Polar Mobile – $6 million

BuzzDoes – $750K

Fantasy Shopper – $3.3 million

Mykonos – $4 million

OneSchool – $750K

Endorse – $4.25 million

955 Dreams – $3.25 million

drchrono – $2.8 million

Shoply – Undisclosed

Posted by startupbeat at 09:38 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Today’s technology funding and acquisitions news roundup:

Ecommerce

Shoply Aims To Socialize Ecommerce, Raises Seed Funding From Top Notch Investors (via TechCrunch)

Enterprise

Posted by startupbeat at 08:29 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with LockerDome co-founder and CEO Gabe Lozano. The St Louis, Missouri–based company was founded in 2008.

SUB: What are your target markets?

Lozano: Our bread and butter is still the 6-18U club program sports market. We work directly with the program directors of the best club programs in the country, who then evangelize their program’s LockerDome network directly to their athletes, coaches and parents. For example, we work with over 50 of the top 100 amateur soccer programs in the U.S. and nearly 500 major programs nationwide. We additionally work with professional athletes to launch celebrity athlete networks, where their fan base can interact with them.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?

Lozano: Given our heavy focus on club programs, our largest competitors are still the traditional team management platforms, such as eteamz. In the consumer part of this space, there are several startups that have taken a crack, such as Weplay and Takkle, but none that have yet developed a critical mass of users.

SUB: What differentiates LockerDome from the competition?

Lozano: LockerDome is the first company in club sports to successfully demonstrate the value in a strong hyperlocal play within a global community. On a global level, individuals create a single profile that encapsulates their entire sports life—from the age of five to when they first experience the joy of sports competition to their parenthood when they vicariously relive the experience through their kids—and far beyond. Further, we’re the only dedicated sports site thus far that has successfully brought together little league athletes, parents, and coaches side-by-side with professional athletes.

SUB: When was the company founded and what were the first steps you took to establishing it?

Lozano: In 2008, but it’s only been the last few months that we’ve begun to move with serious velocity. We wasted a lot of time working on a huge business plan and other areas that equated mostly to non-productive motion. Additionally, it’s a tough market to crack, so we’ve done a lot of tweaking our approach, working to get the implementation right. There were two things initially we really needed to prove out before taking the next steps: how we were going to get the best athletes to care, and demonstrate that our platform is valuable enough for someone to swipe a credit card. Through a succession of directional tweaks, we accomplished both goals at once with the introduction of LockerDome Networks.

SUB: What was the inspiration behind the idea for LockerDome? Was there an “aha” moment, or was the idea more gradual in developing?

Lozano: Our goal from day one has remained the same—we want to be the de facto identity layer for a person’s sports persona. Instead of a single “aha” moment, it’s been a gradual evolution of an idea that first originated from being involved in competitive baseball for 17 years. In particular, I was highly frustrated that 100 percent of the content and communication in sports happens in complete silos. Even though it’s been a haul, we’ve stuck with this market because sports have two key facets that make them particularly unique and valuable—people are more passionate about sports than anything I’ve ever seen and sports are one of the only things that completely transcend international borders. The passion and global appeal—combined with a huge market that is prime for disruption—make for an incredibly interesting opportunity.

SUB: What have the most significant obstacles been so far to building the company?

Lozano: Raising capital and building a strong team for a consumer web company in the Midwest has been significant challenge. We’ve been fortunate enough to locally recruit a fantastic team and attract the financial resources needed to take meaningful steps forward.

SUB: You recently raised $750K in Angel funding. What are your plans for the funds?

Lozano: Continue to expand our team and further ramp up our marketing efforts.

SUB: Do you plan to raise more outside funding in the near future?

Lozano: Absolutely. We’ve already received significant inbound interest from investors based on recent progress. We will be opening up another formal raise in the near future.

SUB: What are your goals for LockerDome over the next year or so?

Lozano: Grow.

LockerDome – www.lockerdome.com

Posted by startupbeat at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today’s technology funding and acquisitions news roundup:

Web/Content

HelloWallet Raises $12 Million in Series B Funding from Morningstar, TD Fund, & Others to Accelerate Growth

955 Dreams gets $3.25M to re-imagine mobile publishing (via gigaom)

Social Media

House Party Raises $5.3 Million in Series C Funding to Accelerate Business Growth

Healthcare

drchrono Closes New Funding Round Led by Yuri Milner; Google's Matt Cutts Joins as New Investor

Posted by startupbeat at 08:54 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Today's technology funding and acquisitions news roundup:

Mobile

Skyfire gets $8M to stream mobile videos without any wait (via VentureBeat)

Social Media

33Across Acquires Social Publishing Giant Tynt

Ecommerce

Posted by startupbeat at 06:53 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Today’s funding and acquisitions news roundup:

Mobile

500 Startups Grad OneSchool Raises $750K For College Student-Focused App (via TechCrunch)

Onavo’s Data-Compressing Mobile App Raises $10 Million Series B From Horizons, Motorola Ventures (via TechCrunch)

Web/Content

Fitbit Closes $12M in Series C Funding Led by Foundry Group and True Ventures

CouchSurfing gets more cash as Point Nine Capital becomes its first European investor (via TechCrunch Europe)

Social Media

Posted by startupbeat at 09:04 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From July 1, 2011...

Editor’s Note: This is a Q&A series from StartUp Beat that features entrepreneurs who have successfully guided their startups (or multiple startups) to maturity. It is a complement to StartUp Beat’s coverage of early-stage startups and an effort to provide further insight into the experiences of tech entrepreneurs.

Skimlinks co-founder and CEO Alicia Navarro is one of the few female tech entrepreneurs in London, having launched Skimbit.com in Australia before heading over to Europe to immerse herself in the world of tech startups, where she adapted her business quickly to launch Skimlinks.com.

Alicia's vision for Skimlinks is to see online publishers rewarded for the role they play in informing purchase decisions, by removing the technical and administrative complexities that hamper would-be affiliates. This, she believes, will help evolve affiliate marketing into a mainstream ubiquitous revenue model.

Alicia worked for over 10 years in internet applications, designing and launching mobile and internet-based applications in Australia and the UK. She has a Bachelor of Information Technology and the University Medal for Computing Sciences from the University of Technology, Sydney.

SUB: What was your first entrepreneurial venture?

Navarro: My first entrepreneurial venture involved a foray into the beauty industry, manufacturing and selling lip gloss! In Australia, where I grew up, there’s an initiative called Young Achievers, where high school students get together and go through a life cycle of a business. We came up with the idea for a lip gloss range for men and women, and I became the managing director of Pout Lip Gloss. Within six months, we’d made a 320 percent profit, and we won Venture of the Year in the program. I was hooked.

SUB: What prompted you to start Skimlinks? What was the inspiration for the company?

Navarro: Skimlinks was actually born from an entirely different business. I had started Skimbit—a social decision-making tool back in 2006, but it wasn’t getting the traction we had hoped for. In the course of conversations with my customers, I had identified a need for an automated revenue stream for online publishers wasn’t being met by the market. We had actually built a technology internally to monetize the content on our own site, and we realized it was a great product that we were in a good position to offer to other online publishers. The financial crisis was underway—it was the perfect incentive we needed to make a massive change and move quickly. We pivoted, and launched Skimlinks in late 2008.

SUB: Was there a point at which you knew Skimlinks would hit it big?

Navarro: It’s dangerous to assume you’ve ever hit it big, but there was a moment when I thought we had a viable business on our hands—during the first year, when we quickly started getting amazing traction with big-name clients.

SUB: Was there a “tipping point” (for lack of a better term) when Skimlinks really picked up steam and where it started growing exponentially?

Navarro: Opening an office in the USA this year was a big moment for us. It has really changed how we were perceived in the US market, and it’s coincided with a great amount of growth and traction we’re seeing now.

SUB: What were the first steps you took to establishing Skimlinks?

Navarro: Skimlinks was the easy bit – that was just a pivot. The biggest challenge was starting a business (Skimbit) in the first place. I had to make a conscious change in my career; like turning down permanent jobs to take up flexible contract work, and I curtailed my lifestyle so I could afford to run a business at the same time as working. Eventually I gave up my job entirely – that was a big step!

SUB: If you had it to do over again, what would the first concrete step to establishing Skimlinks have been?

Navarro: If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t necessarily do anything differently, but there is one thing I’d definitely do again: getting myself involved in the startup community. Building a company is a stressful and lonely process, and being involved in a supportive community makes a world of difference to your sanity. It was one of the best things I did.

SUB: What were the most significant obstacles to growing Skimlinks to maturity?

Navarro: Growing the team has been one of the biggest challenges. Every time we’ve had a significant expansion, it’s necessitated a change in how the company is run. So, going from seven team members, and then growing again from 15 was a pretty significant change, and each point of growth came with its own challenges, within the leadership, our processes, and our culture. I think we’ve done a good job of it, but it didn’t come without its obstacles.

SUB: What kinds of outside funding did you raise?

Navarro: We have raised equity financing from Sussex Place Ventures, NESTA, The Accelerator Group and a number of angel investors.

SUB: What was the metric/milestone that indicated to you that Skimlinks had moved past startup stage?

Navarro: Well, we hired a full time financial controller and we keep her busy, so I guess the day we hired her was that point of transition. That kind of role is a luxury that startups don’t usually invest in.

SUB: What were the most important lessons you learned about entrepreneurship while building Skimlinks?

Navarro: It never gets easy, but it never stops being fun.

Posted by startupbeat at 02:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today’s technology funding and acquisitions news roundup:

Mobile

Polar Mobile Raises $6 Million for HTML5 based publishing platform (via GoMoNews)

1-Month Old BuzzDoes Scores $750K For Mobile App Marketing Platform (via TechCrunch)

Web/Content

TRUSTe secures $15M for increased online privacy management (via VentureBeat)

Ecommerce

Fantasy Shopper becomes one of Europe’s hottest startups with $3.3m from Accel and NEA (via TechCrunch Europe)

Enterprise

Mykonos Helps Companies Battle Hackers, Raises $4 Million (via TechCrunch)

Posted by startupbeat at 12:03 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

This week’s list of Angel, Seed and Series A funding announcements:

PandoDaily – $2.5 million

CliqSearch – $1 million

AppAddictive – $1.2 million

Adzuna – $777K (approx.)

Kiwi Crate – $5 million

Peecho – $750K

Code 42 Software – $52.5 million

Posted by startupbeat at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today’s technology funding and acquisitions news roundup:

GreenTech

Posted by startupbeat at 11:13 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Company: Unrabble

Website: www.unrabble.com

Founders: Kevin Watson, Chris Rickborn, Marc Slack

Year Founded: 2009

Twitter: @unrabble

Brief Company Description: Unrabble is a cloud-computing hiring software solution that helps hiring managers make their next great hire. It’s an entirely new, and better, approach to the hiring process. It saves time and money by better qualifying candidates, automating core hiring tasks, automatically ranking top candidates based on skills and verifying claims made through social networks, thus saving hiring managers from candidates who stretch the truth.

By Kevin Watson, CEO and co-founder

Product Overview

Unrabble is a pure cloud-computing solution that simplifies and redefines the process of hiring new employees. Unrabble was created for a new class of end user who must make hiring decisions, but doesn’t have the time or resources to do it quickly, effectively and inexpensively. Unrabble is not regimented HR enterprise software, a job board, or a legacy-style applicant tracking system for processing resumes. Unrabble is an innovative new approach to hiring.

Unrabble makes it easy to create a new job posting, instantly broadcast the job to your social networks, publish it to job boards of your choice, and then quickly identify the most highly qualified candidates as they apply from multiple sources. Unrabble removes the need to invest in expensive HR software and significantly reduces reliance on HR staff and professional recruiters. Unrabble is the first solution of its kind to put hiring in the hands of the decision maker and unchain hiring from back office, administrative and expensive third-party services.

One of the most notable differences in Unrabble’s approach to hiring is the complete shift away from the traditional resume to the new generation of online profiles. Using Unrabble, job candidates create an interactive profile that details their entire career history rather than emailing or uploading a resume. This gives the candidate the opportunity to do things a traditional resume cannot do, such as connecting to their social media profiles, integrating video, explaining job transitions, ranking their skills and bragging about their accomplishments (bragging is supported by a unique feature called Micro-references that allows candidates to have very specific accomplishments verified by their professional network). There’s so much more to people these days than can be summarized in a resume and Unrabble’s profile allows candidates to tell their story in the way a resume never could. To make the process easy, candidates can import their LinkedIn or Facebook profile and then simply fill-in the additional information required by Unrabble.

As this rich profile information flows into Unrabble, hiring managers can easily identify candidates that match their needs. Profiles can be analyzed and researched in ways that would have typically required significant time and even phone interviews to accomplish. Unrabble automatically ranks job applicants based on an array of criteria including skills, career preferences, and other specializations to quickly identify the most qualified and best fitting candidates.

Another time-consuming part of the hiring process is communicating with candidates and including co-workers in the process. With Unrabble, you can communicate with candidates using built-in messaging functionality that eliminates the need to make redundant phone calls or disclose your email and phone number. Colleagues can easily view, comment on and rate candidates so that hiring managers can see a quick consensus.

Recently, Unrabble announced new enhancements including job distribution capabilities, which allow hiring managers to publish job openings directly to sites such as StartUpHire, Indeed, SimplyHired and social media sites.

Other new features include options for businesses to create a branded landing page for job candidates and a branded careers page for multiple job openings.

Founder’s Story

Prior to Unrabble, I was the Chairman and CEO of Verid, one of the largest providers of identity verification software to the financial services industry. I led Verid’s raising of over $20 million in equity prior to the company’s sale to EMC in 2007. Before Verid, I was the co-founder of C/max Capital where I led investments in Verid, Adjoined Consulting and About.com, all of which had highly successful exits.

After Verid was acquired, we spent a lot of time reflecting on what made that business not only highly successful, but also a great place to work. We realized what a great group of people we had there, but the conversation quickly turned to how difficult it was to put the group of people together. Since Verid was less than 50 people at our biggest, we were never big enough to justify a full-time HR person, so each executive was responsible for their own hiring—which meant we could either spend our days flipping resumes, or hire recruiters to do the leg work for us. Having done a little of both, we all agreed that the hiring process was broken. So looking at what caused so much pain in the hiring process, we put together a plan for a product that would break away from the traditional resume and actively engage candidates in the process. Thus the idea and vision behind Unrabble was born.

Marketing/Promotion Strategy

Our initial target market is SMBs, which represents over half the workforce according to U.S. government statistics. Even in today’s poor economy, SMBs create over 1.3 million open positions every month. Startups, especially, can benefit from Unrabble’s software that offers a unique and better alternative to legacy resume tracking and screening systems.

We continue to promote Unrabble through web advertising and social media.

Unrabble is available as a free 30-day trial at www.unrabble.com.

How Unrabble Differentiates Itself from the Competition

There are many differences between Unrabble and the competition, the key being that all of the legacy applicant tracking systems (ATS) simply parse text-based resumes and score candidates based on keywords embedded in the resume. These keyword base systems are highly susceptible to being gamed by applicants, and do thus not accurately give users a feel for a candidate. Further, existing ATS were designed for HR professionals, not for managers and operators of businesses. Thus they focus more on managing the process rather than helping users make better decisions about candidates. Plus, unlike competitive products that still require hiring managers to work with a printed stack of resumes, Unrabble is profile-based and eliminates the need to print hard copies.

Business Model

Startups and other businesses can sign up for the Basic Version of Unrabble at $29 per month. The Pro Version is priced at $49 per month. Businesses are conveniently charged on a month-to-month basis and no contract is required.

Current Needs

At Unrabble, we’re continuing to grow. We’re always open to hearing from interested and motivated investors.

Unrabble – www.unrabble.com

Posted by startupbeat at 01:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today’s technology funding and acquisitions news roundup:

Social Media

AppAddictive Raises $1.2 Million For Drag-And-Drop Facebook Page Builder & Ad Platform (via TechCrunch)

Motorola Mobility’s Shaker Investment A Sign Of Mobile Virtual Clubs To Come (via TechCrunch)

Web/Content

Job Search Engine Adzuna.co.uk Receives £500k Investment Backing from Index Ventures

Kiwi Crate Announces $5 Million Series A Funding

Gaming

Trion Worlds Closes $85 Million Strategic Growth Financing

Mobile

Constant Contact Acquires CardStar, Inc.; Adds Mobile Loyalty Technology to its Suite of Online Marketing Tools to Help Small Businesses Grow

Cloud

Peecho Lands $750,000 For Its ‘Cloud Print Button’ (via TechCrunch)

Symplified Closes $20M Venture Capital Round

Enterprise

Tidemark Secures $24 Million Series C Funding Led by Redpoint Ventures Accelerating Cloud Analytics

Posted by startupbeat at 10:47 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Dear StartUp Beat Readers,

While the site is technically not "blacked out", StartUp Beat joins the chorus of thousand of other web sites protesting SOPA and PIPA legislation by conducting an editorial black out and not posting any new stories today. Instead, we're linking to a very insightful article by Mashable's Lance Ulanoff about the possible consequences of SOPA:

SOPA Will Take Us Back to the Dark Ages

...and a "take action page" from Google:

https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

SOPA would negatively affect countless web sites, and indeed permanently alter what we have come to know (in most countries) as a free and relatively open Internet. For small sites like StartUp Beat in particular, it could be devastating....

...StartUp Beat will be back with new stories tomorrow, but in the mean time, consider what legislation like SOPA could mean for all of us.

Thank You,

Brian Kovalesky, StartUp Beat Editor

Posted by startupbeat at 09:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with Blippar co-founding director and CMO Jess Butcher. The London–based company was founded in August of last year.

SUB: Please describe what Blippar is, and the value proposition you bring to the mobile market?

Butcher: Blippar is the first marker-less image-recognition platform for smartphones designed to convert real-world media, brands and products into instantaneous digital experiences.

Through one free app on a smartphone, Blippar opens in camera mode and becomes a ‘lens’ through which real world branded objects, such as press adverts, billboards or retail displays, logos, packaging or even landmarks can become content-rich, interactive experiences.

Experiences might include: An augmented reality overlay, web links, location-based service, digital graffiti, gaming, couponing or sales promotion.

Our technology is best suited to ‘high passion’ sectors such as sport—or entertainment, enthusiast-hobbies and topical debate. In appreciation of this, we integrate with the popular social platforms through in-app mechanics—whereby every ‘blipp’ experience is one tap shareable via email, Facebook, Twitter—to actively encourage peer-to-peer sharing content. These mechanics are particularly attractive to groupings and communities such as sports fans who wish to share exclusive content around teams, results, latest news, fan-games and the sports personalities they idolize. Recently, we worked in partnership with Southampton FC to create a blipp that allowed their fans to ‘Join the Huddle’ as well as purchase memorabilia and tickets from their m-commerce site. We are continuing to expand on this with a number of other sporting brands in the pipeline.

SUB: What are your target markets?

Butcher: Our target market is anyone with a smartphone—the youth through to the older ‘late’ adopters, both male and female. It is the content that is of course critical to the attraction of our technology to each demographic—whether a compelling game or exclusive piece of music content for a teenager or a valuable coupon for a grocery-shopping mother. Offering exclusive content from gaming, m-couponing to live feeds and polls we always aim to provide content targeted to specific segments.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?

Butcher: We don’t really perceive ‘competition’ as such. There are other image-recognition and augmented players in the market but business models and technological solutions are widely divergent.

SUB: What differentiates Blippar from the competition?

Butcher: Although there are other businesses exploring the fields of image recognition and AR and utilizing them for gaming, educational tools and fun, Blippar alone has successfully seen the scope to use the technology to breathe life into the somewhat ‘tired’ traditional advertising mediums of press advertising and outdoor—plus reinvigorate on-pack and in-store branding efforts. By focusing on these channels and this usage, we are building a targeted, aware audience of consumers who expect and indeed seek brand and media engagement through the platform.

SUB: When was the company founded and what were the first steps you took to establishing it?

Butcher: The company was founded in April 2011. There was an extensive period of product testing to research the capabilities of the tech and with some rough early demos we started courting early advertising partnerships. The culmination of this effort led us to our launch partner Cadburys in which we produced ‘Qwak Smack’, an AR gaming mechanic played off their product packaging. The rest, as they say, is history.

SUB: What was the inspiration behind the idea for Blippar? Was there an “aha” moment, or was the idea more gradual in developing?

Butcher: Blippar, the platform for brands, was conceived in the pub when ‘playing’ with a £10 note on which we’d managed to augment our CEO’s head... then potential for users to engage with brands was explored and the hard work began.

SUB: What have the most significant obstacles been so far to building the company?

Butcher: Inertia and lack of creativity. The former is the ‘wait and see’ approach by some brands unwilling to take too many risks. The latter is just as dangerous—as doing boring things with the technology will not aid its mass consumer adoption. We don’t want to be in the position of QR codes where three years down the line, there is still less than 15 percent adoption. We have to push constantly for our partners to push the opportunities and give us great content to shout about.

SUB: You recently raised a Seed funding round. What are your plans for the funds?

Butcher: Our seed funding will allow us to scale up, increase head count and invest in more scalability for the platform, with a view towards expanding internationally.

SUB: Do you plan to raise more outside funding in the near future?

Butcher: Very possibly! We are very open minded at this stage.

SUB: What are your goals for Blippar over the next year or so?

Butcher: Global growth and mass consumer-adoption through the continued adoption by great brands, offering really great experiences and content through the technology.

Blippar – www.blippar.com

Posted by startupbeat at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today’s funding and acquisitions news roundup:

Web/Content

CliqSearch Raises Angel Financing and Launches the Beta Version of Its Social Knowledge Engine and Directory With Over 1 Million Business Listings

SendGrid Raises $21 Million Series B Round

Cloud

AppDynamics Secures $20 Million in Series C Financing Led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Ecommerce

Online Marketplace For Designer Fashion Boutiques FarFetch Raises $18M From Index Ventures (via TechCrunch)

Posted by startupbeat at 10:34 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From July 8, 2011...

Bio: Paul King, founder, president, and board director, Hercules Networks/GoCharge—maker of a self-service mobile device charging kiosk that contains multiple charging tips for a convenient, powerful and safe charge for cell phones, blackberries, iPhones and other mobile devices. Mr. King is the founder of Hercules Networks and a graduate of Carnegie Mellon, Magna Cum Laude. He was the founder of International Sales Team Realty generating more than $40 million in annual sales. He developed Chase Mortgage and New Wave Title Company in Sunny Isles Florida prior to commencing with Hercules. He was named in the top 25 Entrepreneurs under 25 by Business Week magazine 2009.

SUB: What was your first entrepreneurial venture?

King: I started a tennis camp when I was 18. It was a lot of fun. I got 20-25 kids per week for 6 weeks. We picked them up and dropped them off every day and worked with them from 10am-4pm. I was hooked after that experience.

SUB: What prompted you to start GoCharge in the first place?

King: My phone was always dying while I was out. My friends had the same issues. I knew there was a demand for it.

SUB: Was there a point at which you knew GoCharge would hit it big?

King: I was recognized as a 25 under 25 Entrepreneur by BusinessWeek. That, and when Bacardi launched a 50 bar NYC network with us.

SUB: Was there a “tipping point” when GoCharge really picked up steam and where it started growing exponentially?

King: Not really. It’s been a steady growth since we started.

SUB: What were the first steps you took to establishing GoCharge?

King: Think a lot about the business plan, and then meet with investors to gauge interest. Luckily, those meetings turned from 'learning' to them actually wanting to invest.

SUB: If you had it to do over again, what would the first concrete step to establishing GoCharge have been?

King: Probably to focus on one market at a time, and execute it effectively before moving to the next market. For example, get machines into as many bars as possible, then move to coffee shops, etc.

SUB: What were the most significant obstacles to growing GoCharge to maturity?

King: Getting the right team together; Capital cost to build machines.

SUB: What kinds of outside funding did you raise?

King: About 2.5 million from private investors.

SUB: What was the metric/milestone that indicated to you that GoCharge had moved past startup stage?

King: Major brands like AT&T, Sprint, and Bacardi working with us.

SUB: What were the most important lessons you learned about entrepreneurship while building GoCharge?

King: That it’s a journey. Very tough. And you have to have stamina to make it. But it feels really good once you do.

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Today’s funding and acquisitions news roundup:

Marketing/Advertising

Brainient raises $1.8 million to scale its video ad performance platform (via TechCrunch Europe)

Web/Content

Sarah Lacy’s PandoDaily launches with $2.5 million in funding (via GigaOm)

Young Polling Startup Pollbob Acquires Older Site Misterpoll (via TechCrunch)

Cloud

Symantec buys cloud email service LiveOffice for $115M (via VatorNews)

Posted by startupbeat at 10:42 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

This week’s list of Angel, Seed and Series A funding announcements:

Thumbtack – $4.5 million

Tealium – $1.1 million

Cinemacraft – $900K

Kwaga – $1.55 million

AppTap – $4 million

Posted by startupbeat at 11:49 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Today’s funding and acquisitions news roundup:

Ecommerce

Fab.com Buys FashionStake (via PEHub)

Mobile

Acacia Subsidiary Acquires ADAPTIX, a Pioneer in 4G Wireless Technology, for $160 Million

Posted by startupbeat at 09:58 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Today’s funding and acquisitions news roundup:

Web/Content

Kwaga, creator of WriteThat.name, is completing a $1.55 million Series A round of financing from private investors advised by the Financière Fonds Privés

Mobile

AppTap Secures $4 Million in Growth Capital from Syncom and New Atlantic Ventures

Marketing/Advertising

Mobile Advertising specialists StrikeAd announces $3m second round finance from venture capitalists DFJ Esprit

Ecommerce

Jumio pockets $25.5M for Netswiping payment service (via VatorNews)

Cloud

Posted by startupbeat at 09:36 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Company: Clever Zebo

Website: www.cleverzebo.com

Founders: Josh Krafchin, Igor Belogolovsky

Headquarters: Los Angeles

Year Founded: 2011

Twitter: @cleverzebo

Brief Company Description: Clever Zebo is a group of web marketing strategy experts who love growing small businesses by helping them find their voice and make it heard online.

By Igor Belogolovsky, co-founder

What We Do

We’re online marketing strategy all-stars. We specialize in SEM, SEO, email, content marketing and conversion funnel optimization.

What Makes Us So Awesome?

We’re actually pretty darn good at helping companies make money. We’re not automatons who just plug away unthinkingly at one channel or another; we focus on the big picture to make you successful. We’re really, really interested in learning new businesses and helping them grow, whatever it takes.

Founders’ Story

Jointly, Josh and I have been kicking butt at online marketing for 15+ years. We’ve managed more than $100 million in ad dollars, created millions in new revenue through partnership development, search marketing and conversion funnel work, and developed web strategies for killer brands like Amazon, Sandals, Aeropostale, Quicken Loans and Rocket Lawyer.

How We Differentiate from the Competition

Clever Zebo brings big-agency expertise and strategic thinking to small businesses. We don’t ask growing businesses to fit into a cookie-cutter “package” that ignores their real business needs. We know that every business is unique and that their online marketing strategy needs to be as well. We focus, in particular, on early-stage startups and offline businesses that need to go digital. Rather than limit ourselves to only one online marketing channel, we leverage multi-channel and multi-discipline expertise to help companies optimize revenue starting from traffic generation through lead capture and all the way to revenue generation.

Business Model

We offer two service levels.

Audits: We work closely with clients on one-off projects to dissect one channel (typically SEM, SEO, marketing automation, or conversion funnel) or their entire online marketing presence to identify weaknesses and areas of opportunity.

Retainer: Starting with the creation of strategic vision and action plan, we act as an outsourced member of companies’ marketing team, handling all aspects of a particular marketing channel or function.

Current Needs

Clever Zebo is profitable and growing, though we would entertain capital investment for building capacity and enabling accelerated growth. We are actively looking for strategic partnerships with tech companies offering online marketing products and always want to talk to talented consultants.

Clever Zebo – www.cleverzebo.com

Posted by startupbeat at 01:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today’s funding and acquisitions news roundup:

Social Media

Social Entertainment Network GetGlue Raises $12 Million In New Financing (via TechCrunch)

Mobile

Mobile Media Platform Cinemacraft Extends Series A Round With Investment From 500 Startups (via TechCrunch)

Web/Content

CapLinked wants to modernize startup investment, takes new money from new investors (via VentureBeat)

Payoff.com Raises $2M, ‘Gamifies’ Personal Finance Management (via TechCrunch)

Finance/Investment

Flagship Ventures Closes $270 Million Early-Stage Venture Capital Fund

Posted by startupbeat at 11:31 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Company: ServisTree.com
Website: www.servistree.com
Founders: David Cohen and Adam Weizer
Headquarters: Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Year Founded: 2008
Twitter: @servistree
Brief Company Description: Merchants, retailers & other biz utilize @servistree 4 socmed mktg, giftcard/loyalty programs, creditcard proc & more http://bit.ly/sPbbZg

By David Cohen, co-founder

Product Overview

Helping businesses of all sizes grow to their full potential, ServisTree.com allows companies to immediately merge the worlds of marketing, loyalty and social networking. Shoppers can tap into loyalty programs and redeem gift card offerings from local businesses via their smartphone, virtually ending the days of carrying all the cards around in a wallet or purse.

Merchants turn to ServisTree.com when they want to incorporate the Paycloud smartphone loyalty program within their business operations. The Paycloud app is available as a free download from Apple’s App store and Android’s market. Paycloud eliminates the need for consumers to carry reward cards and coupons. This allows consumers and ServisTree.com retailers an immediate and seamless transaction, eliminating the need for consumers to remember or carry reward and gift cards for each retailer. Furthermore, consumers will be able to instantly sign up for a nearby participating retailer using the Paycloud app, notification for loyalty program sign-up, allowing for immediate rewards upon their visit and checkout on their smartphone. This would increase the likelihood of consumers buying from a retailer that participates in the Paycloud network and allowing the retailer to differentiate itself from competitors.

ServisTree.com also improves cash flow and receivables for merchants through advanced payment acceptance tools with personalized services and next-day funding available from leading banks. What’s more, our vCheck technology eliminates the need for lengthy and sometimes unreliable payments through the postal service with print-ready check payments securely processed over the web.

Mobile and social marketing programs eliminate the frustration business owners often feel with today’s highly technical and social elements of customer relationship-based marketing. ServisTree.com text-messaging services are available to help businesses pull in customers during slow periods, and companies can also stay in touch with fans through their preferred social networks with a host of social marketing platforms.

Founders’ Story

Along with Adam Weizer, I successfully grew Cyril’s Bakery into one of the leading suppliers of frozen bakery products to the foodservice and retail industries. A lifelong entrepreneur, I took over the small frozen bakery products company in 1987 and turned it into one of the leading suppliers of frozen bakery products. Twenty-eight years later our products are sold through 36 distribution channels throughout the Southeast U.S., Caribbean and Latin America. Adam Weizer joined Cyril’s Bakery in 1997 and currently serves as executive vice president.

During the struggling economy Mr. Weizer and I grew frustrated with the limitations and obstacles selling products through distributors. With the desire to diversify, we discussed many different business models until we realized how specialized technology based companies sold services utilizing independent sales organizations. After many months of research we discovered a need for a responsive service-based company that would meet the demanding expectations of other business owners. The seed was planted and ServisTree.com began to grow, with products designed to provide value through targeted business services ultimately delivering profitable results.

Marketing/Promotion Strategy

ServisTree.com is most beneficial to retailers, merchants and businesses that have anywhere from one to 20 locations, either regionally or nationally. These are businesses that are looking to compete with some of today’s leading brands but may not have the similar budget for marketing, loyalty, credit card processing and other operations-critical functions. These are also businesses that want to focus on growth while being mindful of their budgets. With almost 30 years in the foodservice industry, our management team is focused on leveraging those relationships to create a network of users from frozen yogurt shops and coffee houses to restaurants and other service-oriented businesses. But ServisTree.com is perfect for any small-to-midsize business that sells to patrons with an emphasis on customer service.

How We Differentiate from the Competition

We have an extensive background working in the foodservice industry. In addition to our delicious baked-goods products, we are known throughout the industry for impeccable customer service and automation through technology. In fact, when the economy took a downturn in 2008, many of our customers initially relied on this automation and customer service for on-time deliveries and operational efficiencies. This combination of technology and automation, along with unparalleled customer service is truly what differentiates ServisTree.com from its competitors. Adding to this mix are the thousands of relationships we’ve built within large distributors and merchants in the foodservice industry. An obvious starting point to launch ServisTree.com is to leverage these relationships.

Business Model

In today’s business landscape, it’s important to take advantage of social media marketing and loyalty programs that are effective for both the merchant and end user. But for a smaller merchant who’s focused on running their business, social media can be daunting to say the least. Plus, loyalty is what differentiates a good business and what really keeps customers coming back. ServisTree.com built a business plan around focusing on implementing these two areas for smaller merchants so they can take on and compete against some of today’s biggest brands.

Current Needs

Right now ServisTree.com is focused on brand awareness and leveraging its deep relationships within the foodservice industry. Success will be based on awareness and marketing that illustrates a need for this type of service and family of products.

ServisTree – www.servistree.com

Posted by startupbeat at 03:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today’s funding and acquisitions news roundup:

Enterprise

Austin-based Socialware lands investment from high-profile venture firm CrunchFund

Tealium Secures $1.1M in New Funding to Fuel Further Innovation in Enterprise Tag Management

SohoOS’s Small Business Management Suite Gets An $8M Vote Of Confidence (via TechCrunch)

Web/Content

People-hiring service TaskRabbit acquires service-auctioning site SkillSlate (via VentureBeat)

Marketing/Advertising

Eyeview Raises $5.2 Million For Personalized Video Ads (via TechCrunch)

ThinkVine Secures $8 Million in Series C Funding Round

Affine Systems gets another $5M for semantic video ad software (via gigaom)

Education

Ampush Media Acquires One Of Bill Gates’ Favorite Education Startups, Academic Earth (via TechCrunch)

Mobile

Posted by startupbeat at 12:53 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with FreeShipping.net CEO Tom Caporaso. The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Middletown, Connecticut–based Clarus Marketing Group.

SUB: Please describe what FreeShipping.net is, and the value proposition you bring to ecommerce.

Caporaso: Freeshipping.net is an interactive coupon site where users can go to earn badges and trophies, vote on coupons and communicate with other users, all while saving money on their purchases.

The online coupon space as it stands has been overdone. We knew in order to do this well and engage consumers, we needed to be drastically different. Our value is that we are more relevant to the community of savers. We wanted them to know they have an influence in how they save and providing both a social and gaming component accomplished that.

SUB: Who are your target markets?

Caporaso: We wanted to appeal to those who do most of their shopping online, usually consisting of women age 25 to 54. But with the unique components we have evolved into the site such as the gaming, we are hoping we will also appeal to men in that age range.

The economy is still on the mend. Any product that can save consumers money is sure to be welcomed by the public. FreeShipping.net is a free option for online shoppers. So while we had an initial target audience in mind, we know that will expand organically once word spreads among consumers.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?

Caporaso: In general, any other couponing sites could be considered competition. However, no one has built anything quite like FreeShipping.net in terms of the social and gaming components. Most other coupon sites simply post most, if not all, coupons that fall into their inbox, creating an obstacle for the consumer to find the deal they will most likely use. We look for the best deals on the web, and then let the consumer determine the value of that deal. Did the coupon work? Did it save you money? How was the website experience? Would you recommend it to others? The interaction within the site allows consumers to make an impression and voice opinions while obtaining information from others about deals, coupons and other ways to save.

SUB: What differentiates FreeShipping.net from the competition?

Caporaso: We find a lot of coupon sites are generally overly-crowded web pages and difficult-to-navigate experiences. So, we wanted to create an elegant and simple way to find the best coupons on the web and we believe we have accomplished this with FreeShipping.net.

We stand out from the status quo coupon and deal websites by making the process fun and social. When we started building the product the holiday season was approaching—the site is a direct response to consumer demand for more engaging and easier ways to save money while shopping online.

SUB: When was the company founded and what were the first steps you took to establishing it?

Caporaso: Clarus Marketing Group, the company behind FreeShipping.net, has been around for about 10 years. Founder Vincent Villano purchased the flagship URL, FreeShipping.com, in 2001, with an initial public launch in early 2002. The site was a response to the consumer pain of paying shipping charges on online purchases. With a subscription-based product background, he knew he could build a great product that would benefit consumers as well as alleviate the financial burden websites face by offering free shipping.

Clarus Marketing Group is your quintessential startup love story. The company started in our founder’s extra bedroom then moved to a more luxurious spot: the garage. The next big move was to an office space above a local deli called Chicken Cutlet. They never needed a clock to keep time because you could always tell when it was lunchtime from the smells of the deli below. In 2011, Clarus Marketing Group moved to an official office space in Middletown, Connecticut. Now with almost 25 employees, we still like keep the startup feel making it an open, creative and employee friendly space. At Clarus, we know about hard work and our competiveness is what keeps us in the game with larger Internet companies. That competiveness also comes in handy during our random in office putt-putt tournaments or company-wide Whirleyball games. If you have never seen 25 competitive people in bumper cars with lacrosse sticks trying to make a basket with a softball-sized whiffle ball, let me know—I’ll invite you to the next outing.

SUB: What was the inspiration behind the idea for FreeShipping.net? Was there an “aha” moment, or was the idea more gradual in developing?

Caporaso: The team at Clarus Marketing has been building subscription-based innovative consumer products for 10-plus years. Our focus has always been on easing pain for consumers and when we looked at the coupon space we saw nothing but obstacles. So, we focused on these key pain points and built out the experience.

Development was definitely more gradual as we had to identify each negative point associated with online coupons and how best to alleviate that pain. We also needed to understand current consumer behavior in the coupon space and how we were going to make FreeShipping.net different from other couponing sites out there. We knew it needed more than just savings to entice online shoppers so we incorporated the gaming and social elements.

When we started looking into gamification, we knew it would be difficult to build so we decided to partner with Badgeville who did a lot of the heavy lifting in the social and gamification aspect of the site providing us the opportunity to focus on what we do best: saving consumers money.

Plugging in the Badgeville service allows us the flexibility to cater to the engagement goals we want to encourage.

SUB: I know it’s early, but what have the most significant obstacles been so far to building the company?

Caporaso: The biggest obstacles are ones I think most Internet companies face: increasing traffic flow to the site and getting our brand out there. The Internet is a convoluted space filled with information and never ending offers of how to save money on online purchases. Succeeding in such a crowded and competitive area calls for aggressive marketing and PR tactics, along with keeping our products fresh and innovative. That’s what we do best so it’s all about executing on our strategy at this point.

SUB: You officially launched at the tail end of last year—why was this the right time for your public launch?

Caporaso: What better time to launch a coupon site than in the midst of the busiest shopping season of every year? We wanted to be present in the heat of the holiday season and let shoppers know we are out there and by launching our beta site then, we accomplished that.

SUB: How has the company been financed to this point?

Caporaso: Our founder, Vincent Villano, purchased the flagship URL, FreeShipping.com in 2001. The company was completely boot-strapped until early 2011, when Norwest Venture Partners, a leading global investment firm based in Palo Alto, took an interest and invested in Clarus Marketing.

SUB: Do you plan to raise more outside funding in the near future?

Caporaso: No.

SUB: What are your goals for FreeShipping.net over the next year or so?

Caporaso: The coupon space first and foremost is all about delivering great deals to the end consumer. However, we believe there’s a lot of room to not only do that but deliver a more engaging and useful product while providing a robust community that rewards a variety of different behaviors.

Another goal would be for the site to essentially become purely consumer driven and operated. All we need to do is provide them with coupons, and then based on their votes they decide what goes or stays causing us to add similar deals. From there, the cycle continues.

Just like any other Internet startup, we ultimately want to grow our user base. To do that, we are totally focused on delivering a successful consumer experience. To steal the “Field of Dreams” concept: Build a great product and the consumers will come.

Posted by startupbeat at 02:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today’s funding and acquisitions news roundup:

Ecommerce

Thumbtack raises $4.5MM Series A financing

Marketing/Advertising

Neolane Secures a $27 Million Financing Round to Expand Global Adoption of Its Conversational Marketing Technology

Web/Content

BuzzFeed Nabs $15.5 M In Funding (via ADOTAS)

Enterprise

Posted by startupbeat at 01:15 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

This week’s list of Angel, Seed and Series A funding announcements (the first of the year!):

Trapit – $6.2 million

Piazza – $6 million

Coursekit – $5 million

GrabCad – $4 million

Aisle50 – $2.6 million

Seismic Games – $2 million

IFTTT – $1.5 million

RJ Metrics – $1.2 million

Spool – $1 million

Nimble – $1 million

LockerDome – $750K

NumberFire – $650K

Buyosphere – $325K

Blippar – Undisclosed

Posted by startupbeat at 02:37 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Today’s technology funding and acquisitions news roundup…

Since the launch of Apple’s Siri virtual assistant, AI apps have garnered a lot of attention…and funding. That list now includes Trapit, an AI-based personalized search and web organizing tool, which announced today that it has raised $6.2 million in Series A funding. Both Siri and Trapit originated from the same AI collaboration between DARPA and SRI. The project was originally known as CALO—“Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes”—and looks like it could be the next step in the evolution of search and web browsing.

Moving from artificial intelligence to human intelligence, Piazza—a social network meant to connect college professors and instructors with their students—has raised $6 million in Series A funding. Social apps for college classes has been a hot sector lately, with funding announcements recently from a number of companies doing similar things. Palo Alto-based Piazza’s round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners.

Other funding and acquisitions announcements:

Enterprise

Nimble Marks Successful Launch Year With Dynamic Growth, Seed Investment and Accolades

Cloud

No Cable Killer After All: KIT digital Buys Assets Of Sezmi For $27 Million (via TechCrunch)

Web Content

NumberFire grabs $650K to heat up sports stats (via VentureBeat)

Ecommerce

Buyosphere raises $325K, relaunches as Q&A for shoppers (via VentureBeat)

Posted by startupbeat at 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Company: CoupTessa

Website: www.couptessa.com

Founders: David Horn and Francisco Gonzalez

Headquarters: Miami

Year Founded: 2010

Employees: 40

Twitter: @CoupTessa

Brief Company Description: Unique daily deal site specifically for women, delivering discounts of 50 to 90 percent off high-end merchant services and products.

By David Horn, co-CEO

Website Overview

CoupTessa is a daily deal site specifically tailored for women. Our site offers significant discounts for higher-end products and services that are in demand by discriminating female consumers. With percentage discounts typically ranging from 50 to 90 percent, we provide consumers with enticing offers, and merchants with a steady supply of sophisticated repeat customers. We are currently offering deals in five major United States cities, and our users can choose from merchants including spa/salon providers, dance and exercise classes, and dining at popular restaurants.

Founders’ Story

CoupTessa was created by myself and another former executive at Morgan Stanley, Francisco Gonzalez. I enjoyed a successful tenure at Morgan Stanley, and ended my career as the global leader of sales and marketing for some of the firm’s wealthiest clients. During a walk near my home in the Dominican Republic I encountered Francisco, and we began discussing possible business ventures. We were intrigued by the daily deal website model and decided to focus our business efforts on a certain population segment. We chose women consumers due to their considerable buying power and brand allegiance. From this chance meeting on the beach, CoupTessa was formed.

My 40-year career included work as a private financial advisor to wealthy international clients and management firms. I also co-founded Graystone Partners, a $4.4 billion consulting firm purchased by Morgan Stanley. In addition to my duties with CoupTessa, I also hold several executive-level positions with capital management-related firms. I’m a graduate of Stanford University and earned my law degree at the Chicago-Kent College of Law.

After his work at Morgan Stanley, Francisco founded and continues to run SeatMaestro.com, a travel-focused content site. After his studies in the U.S., he moved to Romania where he built a real estate holding company to build or acquire developments throughout the country. He holds a bachelor’s degree magna cum laude in manufacturing engineering from Boston University and an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.

Marketing/Promotion Strategy

Much of our success can be attributed to strong word-of-mouth marketing among satisfied customers and merchants. The entire buzz and consumer base we have created was built organically, mainly through our popular referral program that allows consumers to easily email or Tweet deals to friends and then receive substantial credits towards future purchases. We have also promoted subscriber acquisition through strong advertising on Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Bing, and Pandora, focused on very upscale women in those demographics where we chose to do business.

Our service is mobile enabled, and features a free app for use by iPhone, Android, and Blackberry platform users. The app allows the purchasing of spur-of-the-moment local services without the hassle of printing coupons. Consumers simply need to show the deal on their smartphone to the partner merchant upon redemption of the services.

Another aspect of our promotion strategy is the considerable media exposure we have generated, with write-ups appearing in publications including the Boston Globe, Time Magazine, The New York Times, and Forbes.

Competitive Differentiators

I believe CoupTessa boasts several key differentiators that set it apart from an increasingly crowded “daily deal” space. Our customer service is better structured, with a regional sales staff that meets with partners in person, instead of simply using an impersonal call center. This arrangement allows CoupTessa to build longer-term partnerships with the very best local merchants. We are also focused on quality, not quantity, so the female customers are not inundated with offers. We average around 60 deals a month per city and our staff works diligently to find the right merchants and the perfect deal. Our business is more of a “boutique” style, compared to the mass market operation of other competitive sites.

Customer loyalty and satisfaction with every individual deal is enhanced by the extra research our team performs. We offer detailed information about every merchant and service, so customers can quickly determine if a given deal is right for their specific needs. I know competitive daily deal sites take a much more mass-market approach, and simply cannot match our more tailored service.

Business Model

We employ a daily deal business model where consumers pay a certain amount for a service that is a substantial discount compared to normal pricing. We have a wonderful regional sales force that works with select local merchants to arrange deals and develop the optimal discount and offer details. We have earned multiple millions of dollars in revenue for 2011, and the company is completely self-funded.

I attribute the long-term growth of CoupTessa to the satisfaction of customers who receive a great deal at a quality merchant that is geographically close to their location. Growth is also boosted by our partner businesses’ ability to attract new customers who are very likely to become repeat purchasers. Merchants are eager to present CoupTessa offers as they know our deals attract a perfect demographic audience with substantial disposable income.

Current Needs

We’re on the lookout for top talent to help expand operations throughout the United States. Regionally-located sales representatives are currently needed in Atlanta, Boston, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and Philadelphia, with more cities coming on line every month.

CoupTessa – www.couptessa.com

Posted by startupbeat at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today’s technology funding and acquisitions news roundup…

Early-stage funding announcements today were led by ‘Groupon for groceries’ daily deals site Aisle50, which has closed a $2.6 million funding round. It’s the latest niche entry in the daily deals business, but it may be one of the more useful of the bunch everybody need to shop for groceries (unless you’re wealthy or can convince someone to do it for you) everyone’s life. The company was founded in June of last year.

Social media revenue generator Moontoast (I will add this one to the entries for Best Startup Name of 2012) has told VentureBeat that it has raised a new, $6 million, round of funding. It’s noteworthy because it allows those with significant followers on Facebook, Twitter, etc. to offer products through an integrated interface where followers don’t need to navigate away from the page, according to the company. This integrated approach is a growing trend as brands seek to monetize social media channels (see StartUp Beat’s Q&A Monday with Ecwid, which offers something similar).

Other funding and acquisitions announcements:

Mobile

Synchronoss Acquires Miyowa, Adding Social Networking Capabilities to its Mobility Platform for Connected Devices

Enterprise

Maxymiser Raises $12 M For Its Website Testing & Optimization Solution (via TechCrunch)

IT/Connectivity

Mindspeed Technologies to Acquire Picochip

Posted by startupbeat at 10:01 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

A Q&A with Life360 co-founder and CEO Chris Hulls. The San Francisco–based company was founded in late 2008.

SUB: Please describe what Life360 is, and the value proposition you bring to the mobile market and to family safety technology.

Hulls: Life360 provides mobile and web solutions for family safety. We are primarily known for the Life360 mobile app that lets you know where your family is located, when they need help and what is on their minds using our cross-platform FamilyChannel group chat feature. While we think that social and entertainment applications are great, we saw there was an unaddressed need for a utility app that would help you keep your family safe. By having family safety as our focus, the Life360 app has already proven helpful to some of the 10 million people who have relied on us during natural distasters such as the Japanese tsunami and the East Coast earthquake last year. 

SUB: What are your target markets?

Hulls: Life360 is useful for anyone with a family. Unlike some social apps, our user base isn’t primarily early adopters in big coastal cities, but we’ve instead seen widespread adoption throughout the country—and even internationally, although over 90percent-plus of Life360 users are in the U.S. Looking at age and gender, we’ve seen that moms are the ones that tend to get Life360 first and then the rest of the family comes on board. 

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?

Hulls: The carriers all offer their own versions of family locator services to their network subscribers for an additional fee. There are also emergency-focused startups such as Guardly that offer some similar services but are not directly competitive with our comprehensive product. In general, we think all of the activity is great as it validates the huge business opportunity. 

SUB: What differentiates Life360 from the competition?

Hulls: We feel that it is important that our app is free and that is why we are the largest and fastest-growing mobile family safety application. We’ve worked hard to design an app that is easy to use for all members of your family and provides value in both daily life and emergencies. 

SUB: When was the company founded and what were the first steps you took to establishing it?

Hulls: The company was founded at the end of 2008 but we didn’t launch our app—the Android version—until late 2009. We got our start with Google’s first Android Developer Challenge, which we ended up winning. They awarded us with a $300,000 grant which allowed us to take our first steps in growing the business.  

SUB: What was the inspiration behind the idea for Life360? Was there an “aha” moment, or was the idea more gradual in developing?

Hulls: The Life360 team came up with the idea after seeing how many families were desperate to connect with each other following Hurricane Katrina, but had no good means of doing so. We figured there had to be a better way to stay in touch with your loved ones both every day and in emergencies by leveraging mobile technology.  

SUB: What have the most significant obstacles been so far to building the company?

Hulls: I think there’s a misconception that anyone can just make an app. I believe it’s particularly difficult to create a mobile application that adds real value into the lives of your customers. It took a while for us to nail down the family locating piece without draining too much battery life, and future improvements on that front will come with phone hardware upgrades. 

SUB: You recently raised $3.5 million in Series A funding. What are your plans for the funds?

Hulls: Most of the funding will be used for expanding our team, especially on the technical side. We’ve done well with hiring so far but you have to be aggressive about getting the best talent possible, especially in a competitive landscape.  

SUB: Do you plan to raise more outside funding in the near future?

Hulls: We are pretty set where we are now but we also want to be opportunistic about good terms given all the uncertainty in the larger economy.  

SUB: What are your goals for Life360 over the next year or so?

Hulls: As smartphone adoption continues to increase, we want to make sure that we are in a strong position to become the de facto app that everyone uses to turn their phone into the ultimate safety device. Optimistically, some people are saying that smartphones will account for 50 percent of new phone sales this year. Others say the figure is more around 20 percent. Either way, within households, there is plenty of room for growth until we get to the point where everyone in the family unit is using a smartphone. In regards to the product, we’ll continue improving usability as we know that engagement is key for us. 

Life360 – www.life360.com

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Today’s technology funding and acquisitions news roundup…

Today’s funding announcements are all about companies that help the end user make the web work better (or more personally) for them. A good illustration of this is IFTTT, a startup that helps users pull together various web services and social media functions into one sharing and saving interface. The company announced today that it has raised a $1.5 million Seed round. The name stands for “if this then that”…and I love the URL for its “About” page: http://ifttt.com/wtf.

On the social media front, GrabCad, a social community and marketplace for mechanical engineers, announced today the closing of its $4 million Series A round. Niche social communities like this are not new, but are getting new attention from investors as the social media landscape shifts toward more specialization. Boston-based GrabCad was founded in 2009.

Today’s other funding and acquisitions announcements:

Web/Content

Eved Raises $9.5 Million to Expand and Scale Internet Marketplace for Meeting and Event Industry

Co-Founder of Square Jim McKelvey Joins LockerDome's Board of Directors and Invests

Cloud

Accellion Secures $12M Investment for Expansion from Riverwood Capital

Gaming

Seismic Games Launches Social Gaming Studio, Raises $2M From DFJ Frontier (via TechCrunch)

TransGaming Acquires Oberon Media's Interactive TV & Connected TV Division

Mobile

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A Q&A with MixRank co-founder and CEO Ilya Lichtenstein. The San Francisco–based company was founded in May 2011.

SUB: Please describe what MixRank is, and the value proposition you bring to advertising.

Lichtenstein: MixRank is marketing research software that automatically identifies the most effective ad copy and traffic sources for any market. Instead of spending time and money blindly testing different campaigns, advertisers can use MixRank to better target their ads and get more, higher-quality traffic.

SUB: What are your target markets?

Lichtenstein: Our product works best for performance advertisers—businesses that are looking for measurable results like conversions and sales rather than branding or awareness. The more than 4,000 advertisers building campaigns on our platform range from small ecommerce merchants to SEM agencies to large lead gen companies.

SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?

Lichtenstein: Our biggest competitors are large enterprise research companies like Nielsen or Comscore.

SUB: What differentiates MixRank from the competition?

Lichtenstein: We’re taking marketing data that has previously only been accessible to huge brands and making it available to advertisers of all sizes. We’ve also developed technology that automatically generates actionable suggestions and media plans. Instead of showing a lot of random data, we can dynamically identify the advertising strategies that will be the most successful. 

SUB: When was the company founded and what were the first steps you took to establishing it?

Lichtenstein: The company was founded in May 2011. We applied and were selected for Y Combinator, a fantastic early stage accelerator program that was incredibly valuable with all aspects of getting started.

SUB: What was the inspiration behind the idea for MixRank? Was there an “aha” moment, or was the idea more gradual in developing?

Lichtenstein: Before this startup, I was running an affiliate marketing business, and faced many of the same problems we’re solving today with MixRank. There was no single “aha” moment—I gradually started writing code to automate the work I was doing as a marketer, which eventually came to form the prototype version of our product.

SUB: What have the most significant obstacles been so far to building the company?

Lichtenstein: Our biggest challenge is staying humble and scrappy. A startup is such a rollercoaster, but raising money is only the beginning and should not be equated with success. We’ll need to maintain the bootstrapping mentality that has served us well so far. 

SUB: You recently raised $1.5 million in Series A funding. What are your plans for the funds?

Lichtenstein: We’ll be using the funding primarily to hire engineers as well as overhaul and expand our crawling infrastructure.

SUB: Do you plan to raise more outside funding in the near future? 

Lichtenstein: We’ve been fortunate to have some fantastic investors who add tremendous value join us on this journey, and we would certainly be open to talking to more investors who can be very valuable at some point in the future. But right now, our focus is on revenue. We’re hoping that most of our funding will come from customers rather than investors.

SUB: What are your goals for MixRank over the next year or so?

Lichtenstein: 2012 will be a very important year for us—the year we move on from being a very early stage product to a real company. We’ll be significantly growing the team and building even more exciting and sophisticated products.

MixRank – www.mixrank.com

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Today’s technology funding and acquisitions roundup…

And we’re off and running in 2012 in technology funding and acquisitions! Philadelphia-based BI software provider RJ Metrics has raised $1.2 million in Seed funding. It’s particularly notable because the investors include at least one customer (check out the story on TechCrunch). The company was founded in 2009.

Mobile image recognition and augmented reality platform Blippar also closed a Seed round, amount not disclosed. Qualcomm Ventures led the round for the UK-based startup, which was founded in 2010. The Blippar platform is intended mainly for enhanced mobile advertising (at least for now). Pretty cool technology.

Finally, later-stage social music sharing service SoundCloud has raised a new round of funding that may be as large as $50 million, according to various outlets. The Berlin-based company was founded in 2008 and has raised several rounds of funding prior to this new one.

On the acquisitions front, Toolbox.com, described as a “social network for IT professionals,” has been bought by Ziff-Davis. Before ZD, the site was owned by the Corporate Executive Board. Toolbox.com has been around since 1998…would it then be the original social network? It’s the fourth acquisition for ZD over the last year. In other acquisitions news, managed web host Voxel was acquired by fellow host and IT services provider Internap for $30 million. New York City-based Voxel was founded in 1999.

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A Q&A with Ecwid CEO Ruslan Fazlyev. The startup is a spinoff of Ulyanovsk, Russia–based Qualiteam Software, which was founded in 2001. Ecwid launched in September of 2009.

SUB: Please describe what Ecwid is, and the value proposition you bring to ecommerce.

Fazlyev: Ecwid is an instant store builder that easily adds an online store to any website, blog or social network page. Our widget works with existing sites, takes less than five minutes to set up, and allows users to sell on the web, Facebook and on mobile devices. 

SUB: What are your target markets? 

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With today being the official New Year’s holiday, things are quiet on the technology funding and acquisitions front, with one exception. Coursekit, which is bringing an interesting social media concept to the college classroom, announced that it has completed a $5 million Series A round to kick off 2012. The company, which was founded by University of Pennsylvania undergrads, landed $1 million in Seed funding in May.

Happy New Year from StartUp Beat!

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