DiscoveringStartups -Tech Startup Reviews

We provide easy online acoustic guitar lesson videos online.

We are the only guitar lesson site that has simple acoustic strumming versions of hit songs where the teachers sing and the students are encouraged to do the same. All other sites teach much more complicated parts with no singing.

Learning basic guitar is a goal of many people around the world, but because of either the cost or distance from private teachers, it is not possible. RhythmStrummer.com offers low-cost lessons that can be accessed from any computer around the world at any time of the day.

Through selling access to individual song lessons or monthly subscriptions to our technique library.

No thoughts at the moment. Very interesting!

Please visit their website to learn more: http://rhythmstrummer.com

LELA Media Inc.’s premier website (www.iaam.com) is the Teen Entertainment & Life Skills Multimedia Network. iaam is an interactive online community for teenagers that provides valuable information on money, career, entrepreneurship, self confidence, and overall success for teens through interviews with professionals, interactive games, multimedia contests, life-skill blogs, videos, photos, and music. iaam is like Nickelodeon on a financial and life-skill mission.

Our website is the information and entertainment aggregator for high school & college students. Most of our content is created by teenagers and college students. iaam.com takes an edutainment approach to financial education, career choices, and healthy lifestyles. Parents and teachers are also encouraged to join the community to view and participate in parent and teacher forums. iaam uses entertainment to spark creativity and inspire teens to be unique and successful in all aspects of life.

iaam can become Yahoo for teens and is getting press from English and Hispanic educational and mainstream media. Teachers are introducing the life skills sections to their students as they realize how effective the edutainment approach can be.

iaam.com will monetize by selling cause-based sponsorships and advertising to corporate and individual sponsors. The secondary source of revenue will be an online store. iaam is soliciting sponsorships from parents and wealthy individuals who care to make a difference in teenagers’ lives.

No thoughts at the moment. Very interesting!

Please visit their website to learn more: http://www.iaam.com

Merge.fm is an app that exposes fans to the creative experience of their favorite music artists, establishing a new revenue channel for a music industry in need of new business models with the growth of the internet. Check out our website for a demo!

Merge.fm lets music artists dominate their songwriting process. Unlike a blog, twitter account, or facebook page which makes them do extra work on top of making music, merge.fm improves songwriting first. Then as a bonus they can engage fans with almost no extra time commitment. So the kicker is that artists can let fans be there when they are writing great songs simply by giving them access as they work on their music. Our song versioning tech makes this simple and scalable.

With this approach, the growth of the internet is an advantage because we are allowing artists to sell an experience that only gets better with more sharing and at larger scale, giving merge.fm the potential to be a highly scalable point of value for digital music. With half a million serious music artists each with a loyal fan base in the target market, this is at least a $5 billion/year market opportunity.

Unlike most internet music startups, merge.fm does not charge music artists for its services. Fans are the customers and they currently pay to subscribe to their favorite artists on merge.fm. Part of the revenue goes to us for providing the platform, and part goes to the artist for providing the content.

No thoughts at the moment. Very interesting!

Please visit their website to learn more: http://merge.fm

EqualApp is an affordable new online college admissions resource that provides parents and students with animated lessons, application tools, community features and support services.

Our “virtual college counselor” decreases stress, saves time and offers applicants the personalized guidance needed for an edge in the process — all for less than 10% of what the average private consultant charges for a comparable advising package.

Applying to college can be confusing, expensive and stressful. Support is limited and many resources – like private consultants and guidebooks – are either too expensive, not personalized enough, or both.

EqualApp’s expert-approved programs make applying to college easy (and fun). Designed for today’s connected applicant, EqualApp is a comprehensive admissions solution – at an affordable price.

Both the number of high school graduates continuing to college – as well as the number of applications submitted – continues to increase. Meanwhile, the average student to guidance counselor ratio in U.S. public high schools is nearly 500:1.

Students and parents are searching for support during the college admissions process – and EqualApp is a resource that can be trusted.

EqualApp charges an annual subscription fee of $99. Applicants can also purchase additional support services – like an essay review or private phone consultation with a former admissions officer.

No thoughts at the moment. Very interesting!

Please visit their website to learn more: http://www.equalapp.com

Audimated is a social platform, which helps artists and fans share, discover and monetize music. For the first time, a music community gives fans the ability to make money sharing their favorite independent content, while giving artists the tools they need to make money in their music career. Artists submit their musical works and products for sale and allow their fans to become commission based sales affiliates for that content.

Audimated differentiates itself by revolutionizing the independent music industry with a new model for compensating artists and distributing music. With Audimated, both the artist and fans get paid for creating and sharing the music respectively. When fans refer new sales to the artists, they earn a small commission on each transaction. In this way, the most dedicated fans and the most talented artists can share in success of the musician’s career by working together. By compiling a suite of online music tools for artists and empowering the fans with the ability to be the sales force for the content Audimated will establish itself as the go to destination for the independent music industry.

Currently there are over thirteen million active artist accounts on MySpace (US only) and in 2009 $3.4 billion dollars were spent on independent music in the United States alone. The numbers do not take into account the underground or unregistered transactions that occur in the music industry nor the countless other artists around the world who are not on MySpace. In addition, as the price of home recording equipment continues to decline, the number of people creating and marketing music will continue to increase. This creates an ever-expanding supply of new artists, each of which will need increasingly more marketing to be heard.

Audimated charges a ten percent transaction fee and up sells premium services to artists and fans who want enhance their experience on the site.

No thoughts at the moment. Very interesting!

Please visit their website to learn more: http://www.Audimated.com

Easyhi is a unique self-expression platform, allowing users to easily create and share stunning Video & music ecards, helping users to connect and engage in a fun, creative and environmentally friendly way.

Easily send amazing personalized video, music or webcam messages to distant loved ones (e.g. a Happy Birthday greeting, or a loving video message, when scheduling a video call is difficult – Military families, businessmen and women, friends and loved ones in different time zones, etc…) – users can upload their photos as backgrounds. Each ecard is loaded with social buttons, an embed code, and can be published to your blog, social account or website.

Activities are virtually infinite – Users can support their favorite causes, music, movies and pop idols with customized fan pages (e.g. http://bit.ly/biebers) promote their businesses, or YouTube video ads, launch campaigns to save their favorite TV shows, plug a video channel, share memorable playlists with friends & colleagues, embed, share and market media, widgets & content in a web application that is here to connect, excite, listen and evolve with its users.

Creativity. Helping users interconnect in a more creative and expressive way.

Easyhi introduces a new method for users to express themselves, to discover, mix, share and engage with other users, using their favorite online media (Photos, Videos and music) allowing for easy interaction and fast distribution and promotion of user generated content and personal messages. an instant, fun and creative content sharing service.

We are constantly adding new features, with a library of pre-made themes, Facebook photos integration, online invitations, Html5 support, Facebook app, multilingual versions and more, to be added in the next few weeks.

Easyhi Bridges the gap between social media interaction, the growing use of online videos as means of communication, music and game consumption and sharing, while personalizing the sharing experience itself.

With social commerce features, an in the works white label ad-platform, and many many more things to come, our unique approach, coupled with a real love for creativity and self expression, and the numerous ways our platform can benefit users, and the various partnership options, Easyhi has what it takes to stand out.

Based on the Freemium model, advanced features and tools will be available to paid premium members
Easyhi’s specific categories and targeted use of the platform, greatly enhances affiliates and advertisers reach of varied and very focused demographics, offering added value to partners and users alike.

No thoughts at the moment. Very interesting!

Please visit their website to learn more: http://www.easyhi.com

Instinctiv has developed a next generation desktop music player with a host of features that make enjoying, discovering and sharing your music easier than on any other player.

Instinctiv’s built in audio fingerprinter automatically tackles the task of fetching cover art and correcting song metadata tags. Our proprietary content recommendation engine drives new music discovery by intelligently suggesting new artists, songs and concerts in your area in-line with your musical taste based on your listening patterns. Built in social sharing allows you to share the music you’re listening to with your friends on all your favorite social networking sites (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.). The data our player collects also allows for very targeted marketing based on specific user patterns and our content delivery network.

With the Desktop player currently live, we’re working on development of apps for every mobile and desktop platform – with first run apps already launched for Nokia in the Ovi store.

Instinctiv makes money on affiliate sales of song downloads, concert tickets and technology licenses.

No thoughts at the moment. Very interesting!

Please visit their website to learn more: http://instinctiv.com

Rober Media is a family of websites that is family run. theCHIVE, the THROTTLE and theBRIGADE are run by Leo and John Resig and their two cousins Rick and Bob. theBERRY is run by John and Leo’s younger sisters, Emily and Megan

theCHIVE is home to the best funny, viral and interesting photos from around the world and is the largest photoblog in the world updated with over 100 posts published per week. The photo galleries are in a one-stop-shop scrolling blog form and not in a clunky slideshow. Rober Media is different because it is a family run blogging business. The first Family of the Internet.

We are big, but we plan on world domination. ALL the content of our sites is viral in nature, and all our posts go viral in some capacity.

Advertising and eventual merchandising!

No thoughts at the moment. Very interesting!

Please visit their website to learn more: http://www.thechive.com

HOPSports has been identified as “the future of school-based physical activity” for today’s youth.

HOPSports is a LA-based, award-winning educational media network, content library and Production Company. HOPSports has developed a novel solution for win-win partnerships for K-12 in schools and after-school programs nationwide. With an emphasis on accelerated learning, HOPSports unique platform restores and revitalizes endangered physical exercise and movement programs.

The HOPSports Training Systems (HTS) delivers 21st century physical education, and reflects twenty years of leadership and experience training elementary, middle and high school students. HOPSports merges media with digital technology by offering cutting-edge training concepts interspersed with health, career, and additional ancillary educational content. Each exercise is presented by celebrities chosen for their ability to capture the target audience’s rapt attention. The roster of presenters includes Olympians, Hollywood celebrities, professional athletes representing the NFL, NBA, and MLB, and NGB’s-USA Volleyball and USRowing.

With the increasing awareness of childhood obesity on a global basis on the rise coupled with the First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Campaign – there is tremendous amount of media attention everyday about getting young and old alike more physically active. HOPSports has created a solution to this epidemic and have caught the attention of industry experts on a global basis.

We make money buy selling our solution to schools, community based organizations that care about health and wellness. We serve large populations and will soon be coming out with a home version of our product. Our sales have doubled every year with the majority of our income derived from foundations and grants.

In our first 36 months, HOPSports reach has extended from zero to approximately 1.5M youth served weekly in schools, after-school programs, treatment and military based sites nationally and globally. Currently in approximately 650 sites in 42 states, HOPSports projects an anticipated growth of 4M Youth served per week in 1,000 sites by December 2010.

No thoughts at the moment. Very interesting!

Please visit their website to learn more: http://www.hopsports.com

PosterBurner allows users to upload pictures and have them printed as custom posters.

PosterBurner uses the highest quality materials to create posters and ships them anywhere in the world within 24 hours.

Every house has at least one poster, canvas, or large framed print hanging somewhere.

Our revenues have grown 25% each month in 2010.

No thoughts at the moment. Very interesting!

Please visit their website to learn more: http://www.PosterBurner.com