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Archive for September, 2010

We’re Sorry!

Posted by admin On September - 24 - 2010

To our readers, users, companies, and friends: we’re sorry!

Due to an emergency situation with our team, we were not able to properly maintain the website over the last two weeks. We assure you that DiscoveringStartups is still very much active, and will resume normal publishing starting today. Please keep looking forward to the usual 4- 15 startups every business day and we look forward to announcing the September contest winners shortly!

-The DiscoveringStartups Team

Discovering Startups News

Fanminder.com – Social and Mobile Fanbase Marketing Service

Posted by admin On September - 6 - 2010
fanminder.com - Social and Mobile Fanbase Marketing Service Logo   Company Fanminder
    http://fanminder.cm
  Founded: November 2008
  City: Los Altos, California
  Country: United States
  CEO: Paul Rosenfeld
  Founders: Paul Rosenfeld, Tracy Grover
Category: Marketing/Advertising   Funding: Angel
Tags: mobile, mobile marketing, local mobile, local, small business, marketing, advertising   Employees: 2-5
         

What does Fanminder do?

Fanminder helps customer-loving local businesses turn ordinary customers into raving fans. Send automated mobile coupons, offers, updates, and tips to your fans instantly on their phones and via Facebook. Grow your fanbase using our tools and tips. Track all revenues so you always know how you’re doing. All in one place.

How are they different?

Our deep insights into small businesses help us create a service that dead-simple to use and affordable.

Why could Fanminder be BIG?

Fanbase Marketing will grow to an $8Billion market by 2014 due to the explosive growth of mobile marketing and social networking in general. Fanminder is positioned to be the leader in this space because of our seasoned leadership team, our growing strategic partnerships and ability to partner with small business aggregators, and our raving fans who drive our sales via word of mouth.

How they plan to make money:

We already make money via a monthly subscription that starts at $25 for unlimited # of texts. We charge by the level of fans, similar to Constant Contact.

Our thoughts:

No thoughts at the moment. Very interesting!
Please visit their website to learn more: http://fanminder.cm
2-5, Angel, Marketing/Advertising

DealsNear.me – Find And Share Local Deals

Posted by admin On September - 6 - 2010
DealsNear.me - Find and share local deals Logo   Company DealsNear.me
    http://www.DealsNear.me
  Founded: March 1, 2011
  City: Chicago, Illinois
  Country: United States
  CEO: Levi Bergovoy
  Founders: Levi Bergovoy
Category: Marketing/Advertising   Funding: Seed/Friends & Family
Tags: Local deals   Employees: 2-5
         

What does DealsNear.me do?

DealsNear.me is a local deal discovery service. It collects and displays deals and offers from local businesses, filtered by distance and deal type.

How are they different?

We focus on the actual deals (not coupons or gift certificates) being published by local businesses on a multitude of new platforms such as Twitter, Foursquare, Gowalla etc. – We then tag those deals to the address of the business so users can find deals near them. A neat, slightly twist on the ‘local deal’ angle. Real deals, thousands of them, being published each day by local businesses. As far as I know, no one else has done this for local deals on Twitter.

Why could DealsNear.me be BIG?

Local advertising is a huge market, hundreds of billions of dollars. Advertising options for small to mid-size local businesses haven’t really changed much: newspaper, radio or TV ads. If it were a minor announcement, they would perhaps put something the window. These new platforms, such as Twitter and 4sq. are revolutionary for these businesses, provided they have an audience. Most businesses don’t, and they often abandon usage. We aim to help them and ourselves and if we can aggregate this deal info, it would put us in a very critical position in a rapidly changing and growing space.

How they plan to make money:

Premium accounts and a self service ad system to allow businesses to make sure their deals will be seen.

Our thoughts:

No thoughts at the moment. Very interesting!
Please visit their website to learn more: http://www.DealsNear.me
2-5, Marketing/Advertising, Seed/Friends & Family

MotorsportReg.com – Registration And Event Management For Motorsport Events

Posted by admin On September - 6 - 2010
MotorsportReg.com - Online registration and event management for motorsport events Logo   Company Pukka Software
    http://www.MotorsportReg.com
  Founded: 6/1/2003
  City: Los Gatos, California
  Country: United States
  CEO: Brian Ghidinelli
  Founders: Brian Ghidinelli
Category: Web Apps/Tools/Widgets   Funding: Bootstrapping
Tags: events, automotive, saas, racing, motorsport   Employees: 2-5
         

What does Pukka Software do?

MotorsportReg.com is a membership management and event registration service for motorsport driving and social events organized by car clubs, racetracks and individuals in North America. We make it easier and more fun for organizers to manage events by helping with everything from memberships to payment processing to email blasts.

Events include autocross, driving schools, club and professional races and rallies organized by groups like the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), BMW Car Club of America (BMW CCA), Porsche Club of America (PCA), Audi Club, Miller Motorsports Park and Road America.

How are they different?

MotorsportReg.com is primarily used by volunteers who organize events because they are passionate about cars, motorcycles and karts. Because motorsport events have a unique set of domain-specific requirements that must be met to guarantee safe and fun events, organizations really need custom software but can’t afford to buy and don’t have the time or skills to build.

Leveraging our own experience in organizing and attending events, we’ve built a multi-tenant SaaS architecture tailored specifically for these kinds of events and we’ve delivered professional customer service to organizers who are usually forced to DIY with limited resources.

Why could Pukka Software be BIG?

For every televised professional motorsport event there are thousands of fans who want to experience the same thrill and excitement of piloting their own vehicle. Our event organizers serve those who aren’t happy watching from the grandstands. While car culture originated in America, today it is a growing global phenomenon.

How they plan to make money:

We make a small commission on each online payment. We offer a free plan but 85% of our customers have upgraded to a paid plan. We also have secondary revenue streams with insurance, lodging and other partners.

Our thoughts:

No thoughts at the moment. Very interesting!
Please visit their website to learn more: http://www.MotorsportReg.com
2-5, Bootstrapping, Web Apps/Tools/Widgets

DNSimple.com – Simple Hosted DNS

Posted by admin On September - 6 - 2010
DNSimple.com - Simple Hosted DNS Logo   Company DNSimple
    http://dnsimple.com
  Founded: 07/01/2010
  City: Malabar, Florida
  Country: United States
  CEO: Anthony Eden
  Founders: Anthony Eden
Category: Web Apps/Tools/Widgets   Funding: Bootstrapping
Tags: domain, dns   Employees: 2-5
         

What does DNSimple do?

DNSimple provides hosted DNS and domain management.

How are they different?

DNSimple is built by developers, for developers. We provide a powerful API, a clean web UI and focus completely on DNS and domain management.

Why could DNSimple be BIG?

The DNS market is a well established market that has been around since the early days of the Internet. Everyone needs DNS and a lot of the providers have not kept up with current customer demands. Few provide useful APIs and simple interfaces. Bottom line: we are building a solid company that will be profitable early on and that will grow in an organic and sustainable fashion – this is what will help us succeed.

How they plan to make money:

The service is a paid service with plans at $3/month for 5 domains, $10/month for 50 domains and $50 for 500 domains. We are also preparing to launch domain registration at between $12 and $15 per year.

Our thoughts:

No thoughts at the moment. Very interesting!
Please visit their website to learn more: http://dnsimple.com
2-5, Bootstrapping, Web Apps/Tools/Widgets

ContractorGallery.com – Homeowners Comparison Shop Home Contractors

Posted by admin On September - 6 - 2010
Contractorgallery.com - Homeowners comparison shop home contractors Logo   Company Contractorgallery.com
    http://Contractorgallery.com
  Founded: 11/17/2009
  City: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
  Country: United States
  CEO: N/A
  Founders: Jason Walesh, Jay Gmeindl, Paul Bruno
Category: Digital Content (Blogs, Websites)   Funding: Bootstrapping
Tags:     Employees: 2-5
         

What does Contractorgallery.com do?

We let contractors register all of their services, load photos and we let homeowners search our whole database of contractors.

How are they different?

We are free and unbiased. Being free for home contractors we are quickly becoming a big service with over 5000 contractors.

Why could Contractorgallery.com be BIG?

Our biggest competitor is a $200 million a year company. We have improved on their model and now are just under %10 of their database size.
We also have in the works a image search, to where anyone can search photos by category. Hopefully these images will show up in google image search etc.

How they plan to make money:

We are working with affiliate programs and going to use AdBrite’s photo advertising system. We also have a custom ad system that lets advertisers choose the category they want to be seen in, the time of the package and if you want local to national packages.

Our thoughts:

No thoughts at the moment. Very interesting!
Please visit their website to learn more: http://Contractorgallery.com
2-5, Bootstrapping, Digital Content

August Editor’s Pick: BidNerd.com

Posted by admin On September - 3 - 2010

As part of our ongoing Editor’s Pick series, we are happy and proud to announce BidNerd as our Discovering Startups Editor’s Pick for August.

BidNerd is a bidding marketplace for services. Basically, think eBay but for oddjobs and other various services that you’d normally contract out. BigNerd is appealing to us at DS because it is applicable to such a large consumer base. Virtually everyone has had the experience of trying to get price quotes from service providers in areas they have no domain expertise (plumbing, electrical, cleaning, etc.). The truth of the matter is, people usually have to go on faith that they are getting a good deal (or a few anecdotal data points from friends). With a live bidding system like BidNerd’s, normalized market forces will be applied to get a much closer to market rate – effectively saving consumers time and money. We love the idea of BidNerd’s service and wish congratulate them on being our Editor’s Pick for August. Best of Luck BidNerd! Read more about them here.

Congratulations BidNerd!

For more information, please click here.

Winners & Finalists

LetsLawyerUp.com – The Edge For Law Students

Posted by admin On September - 3 - 2010
LetsLawyerUp.com - The edge for law students Logo Company Lawyer Up
http://www.LetsLawyerUp.com
Founded: 2002
City: New York, New York
Country: United States
CEO: Elura Nanos, Esq. & Michele Sileo, Esq.
Founders: Elura Nanos, Esq. & Michele Sileo, Esq.
Category: Other Funding: Self-Funded
Tags: law school, law students, 1L, tutoring, LSAT Employees: 6-15

What does Lawyer Up do?

We take tough, dry legal concepts and breaking them down into simple English in an understandable and fun way. Our team of Lawyers conduct personal and group training sessions for la students (live and via videoconference, webinar, and telephone) and we also give fun and informative seminars to law students, entrepreneurs and new lawyers. Our target market was traditionally law students, and we have a thriving tutoring business; over the past two years, we’ve expanded the target market to include professionals who need to know about law and lawyers, but need straightforward, accessible information at less than a law firm price tag.

How are they different?

There simply is no other company that provides personalized services to current law students. Several companies exist that provide blanket test-prep assistance for the bar exam- but their services are usually presented via video tape, and are not at all personalized. We are the only company that specializes in helping students on law school final exams on a relatively large scale. Plus, we’re an oasis of fun in the desert of legal boredom.

Why could Lawyer Up be BIG?

Our target market has money to spend and the incentive to spend it. They’re freaked out, confused, and in the most competitive atmosphere they’ve ever encountered. We have no direct competition, and universally, when students experience us, they are addicted. We’ve actually had students physically drag us to ATM machines and desperately ask, “how much do I have to withdraw to get you to spend the afternoon with me?”. We’ve had students lie to their peers about working with us, because they consider us the ultimate secret weapon and don’t want to give up their edge. And to make matters even better, the number of law students in the US (currently about 200,000) goes up every year.

How they plan to make money:

We’re currently amidst a major expansion. Here’s what we’re doing:
1. We’ve partnered with Pieper Bar, a major NY bar review company. Working together with them will allow us to have a physical marketing presence at many more law schools.
2. We’ve expanded to working with professionals. Our whole team is great, and Elura & Michele are especially lively public speakers. By taking our unique style to the masses, we’re doing what we do best (explaining law) to more people who want to know about it. By doing this, we’ve created a new webinar series called “How to Wrangle Your Lawyer”.
3. Writing: We’re writing a series of books and booklets for students and professionals.
4. Study Products: Study stuff is big business. We’re developing an iphone App, and we can create related study materials such as flashcards, charts, etc.

Our thoughts:

No thoughts at the moment. Very interesting!
Please visit their website to learn more: http://www.Lets.LawyerUp.com
6-15, Other, Self-Funded

WomenSanFrancisco.com – Community Site For Women

Posted by admin On September - 3 - 2010
womensanfrancisco.com - Community site for women in San Francisco and the Bay Area Logo   Company San Francisco Women
    http://www.womensanfrancisco.com/
  Founded: 07/01/2010
  City: San Francisco, California
  Country: United States
  CEO: Alex Genadinik
  Founders: Alex Genadinik
Category: Social Networking   Funding: Self-Funded
Tags: women, san francisco , social media , community , sf , sf moms , professional women , volunteering   Employees: 1
         

What does San Francisco Women do?

Community site for women in San Francisco to help women find exercise buddies, mom groups, and professional networking for women

How are they different?

Free meetup style platform that caters to local women

Why could San Francisco Women be BIG?

Due to cost structures, there is nearly 100% profit margin, and I will be able to constantly innovate on how to create the absolute best product for women. It will fulfill every need of local women.

How they plan to make money:

Monetization will be through ads and local sponsorship. I want to keep the business always free in order to out-compete any larger companies.

Our thoughts:

No thoughts at the moment. Very interesting!
Please visit their website to learn more: http://www.womensanfrancisco.com/
1, Self-Funded, Social Networking

August Finalists Announced!

Posted by admin On September - 3 - 2010

As part of our ongoing award series, we are happy to announce the three monthly Best-Of Discovering Startups Finalists for the month of August. The winner of the August contest was TerranExchange, and is featured here.

These companies however have received exceptionally significant responses – garnering thousands of votes from our readers combined. Those achievements are by no means insignificant and deserve to be showcased here accordingly.


 Webpage FX is a web development firm, specializing in internet marketing, PPC campaigns, and SEO – things that virtually every internet startup rates as very important.  Read more here.

Kembrel is a flash-sales site for college students. There are many Groupon-like companies out there, but Kembrel is positioning itself to take advantage of the lucrative college student market. College students are quite attuned to specific brands, and Kembrel is in a unique position to go after this marketplace.  Read more here.

TheGabrielInstitute provides a very interesting service: they predict how individuals will behave in teams. The idea is that they will better be able to predict how people will work together, so  managers can make better informed decisions when tasking projects. Very interesting! Read more about here.

We are proud to announce these August finalists and are excited to present them with these Discovering Startups awards!



Winners & Finalists
 

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