Posts tagged Sorry Brad

Below is a young start up freaks impression of Boulders TechStars lasted investment fliers.  So we ran them by our 2.0 experts to see if any of them hold water, will last or ever make money. Each of our guys write in a different color. We review Brad McCartys cheer leading squad.

It’s Techstars Boulder Demo Day-Here are the 12 start-ups by Brad McCarty

It’s been about 2 months since I stepped foot into theTechStars bunker to take a look at the magic behind this accelerator. In the time that has followed, I’ve gotten to see these startups grow, mature and develop into what they are today. What is that, exactly? They are the next big movers in technology.

Over the course of 13 weeks these chosen teams have had their ideas scrutinized, changed and ultimately polished in preparation for this day. On Demo Day, the teams will pitch to a theater full of investors, interested parties and technology pundits…and they’ll pitch to me too. While I’ve covered a good number of these startups in the past few weeks, you’ll have a chance to read about more of them as the day goes on. However, for now, here’s a rundown of all of the teams so that you can start picking your favorites.

FullContact – I First wrote about FullContact when it was known by its previous name of Rainmaker. The company specializes in using publicly-accessible data to automatically fill in the missing information of your contacts list. Beyond that, though, it’s a powerful search engine for people that will be able to find information, tell the person where it was found and also allow them to remove it if they so choose. Its focus, however, is on creating a massively powerful API full of information that other developers can use to integrate complete contacts with their applications.

This one is a loser because contact information changes daily in the business and real world. Anyone who has ever worked a client list know this…. No matter what it is, it takes hard tedious work to stay on top of who is who. This company has nothing new and it won’t work.

Aaron: This service kind of makes sense but if you’re not a techie who knows how to produce XML/vCard/Json then from my experiences most people would instantly be confused. I would also put my 2 cents in and ask where do they get this info? is it legal? I don’t want them grabbing anything from my social media, guess that goes you to show where our privacy lies in social media today. I must admit I like extra contact info in ACT and Outlook but like Jann says it’s constantly changing, business closing/opening, cellphone  plans getting outrageous to afford and people move and move alot. Is that included in their 3 cents/contact I doubt it.

Creative Brain Studios – For these folks, it’s all fun and games. At least after the work is done. Creative Brain Studios has solved the problem of device fragmentation when it comes to video game publishers. It has developed a product that will allow a game to be coded once and then deployed to literally a billion smartphones, tablets and computers.

Well, that’s nice, except this is another bandwidth eater that will bog down in an already short supply….. In case you haven’t heard …mobil devices are begining to crash. another loser.

Aaron: Is the developing app free? I couldnt’ figure it out, for such an nice sounding Game engine their website looks like it was made in 1995 aside from the image of the devices. Guess they’re working on it…

flextrip – When you’re taking a trip, the planning part is easy. Finding the right things to do is difficult. Flextrip is solving that problem by creating an API that travel companies can use to book activities via the world’s largest repository of choices. The company has been working with travel agencies already and flextrip should grow to the point that it is a branded feature of travel booking services.

We’ll see about that. Definitely not sold on this. I don’t see a beleaguered travel industry running out to try, yet another service with big promises for something they don’t need. Loser.

Aaron: lol, the planning is easy. PAAALEEASE! who runs these things. So far all these companies don’t even work do investors just throw out their money in hopes that they’ll produce returns. try it, Denver, CO tomorrow. Nothings going on. I know of at least 3 things though, Santa Fe Art walk, Denver Art museum Marvelous Mud, and Pirates!! ARRGH at the Nature and science museum, fun stuff for travelers right there. Just ask Aaron.

FlixMaster – It was only a couple of days ago that I first wrote about FlixMaster. The company has found a way to take the dead-end of online video and turn it into an immersive, branching-path experience. Instead of simply being able to watch a video, producers who use FlixMaster can create entire stories that viewers can choose themselves. In doing so, the company will be collecting massive amounts of data about user choices, and then providing that data back to the content creators.

Oh give me a break. Another video service that will do what?? choices? for what.? Jacking off, that’s what. It’s another way to get your ass fired while you are supposed to be working at your job.

Aaron: I think its supposed to give you the VH1 Popup video effect. OH BOY Just what I so wanted to pay money for. Again WHERE’S THE INFO ON THE SERVICES, I see nothing aside from what techstars paid for above.

GoSpotCheck – Brands are fighting a war for placement and shelf space inside of your local supermarket. GoSpotCheck is providing a way for brands to find out everything about their product’s placement, in real time, with the help of a crowdsourced workforce. The crowd earns real world cash by doing nothing more than taking photographs of specific brands, which are then fed to those brands for immediate information. What once would take months for brands to find can now happen in seconds.

I don’t think so. This might work at Whole Foods or with coupon savors or with people with a lot of time on their hands, but it won’t give a true picture. It will give a screwed picture. Besides super markets are very sophisticated in information retrieval. No one did their homework on this one. This is another hand job by the crowd source community.

Aaron: Yeah, this is for those people with way too much time, hey maybe the bums that hang out on the corner will have something to do now, oh wait they have to have cell phone, oh wait they do. Foursquare is a good example though as to what this company may be striving to be like. I’ll give 1 thumb up for now since it’s not something we can be apart of yet and there’s no information as to if it will cost anything to be apart of, especially as a business owner, who wants to pay for all this extra junk. Advertising hasn’t quite reached this level yet, but it might be interesting, it is surprising that people would actually do work for nothing, not even food or reference, but at least thing might be a way to get paid for the same process.

InboxFever – We all use email and we use it every day. But what if we could do more with it than simply sending messages? InboxFever has the answer, in allowing its customers to send emails that will actually control applications. So now, if you need to print something to three different departments, you no longer have to dig through a mass of print settings, you can simply send an email with something like ‘print to sales, accounting, me’ and the work will be done for you. Beyond that, the company should help to increase the longevity of expensive IT equipment inside of corporations by offloading that app-centric work to a central server.

OK this might work, but microsoft and Apple will have to sign off on it.

Aaron: Weee! More apps I would never use and probably cost money. I bet this is harder than learning a new software on top of that, but we’ll see.

Meal Ticket – OK, bear with me for a moment. Meal Ticket is “a mobile, social, web platform for foodservice distributors to better engage with their restaurants in order to increase customer acquisition.” In short, all of those things that you and I have used to interact with restaurants and businesses for ages should now be available to help foodservice companies work with their clients. I have to admit that I don’t know much about Meal Ticket just yet, but you can rest assured that we’ll find out all of the details.

Oh my God. We work with this industry every day and the last thing they want is to buy another fricken gimic to up sales to restaurants. They are barely hanging on and are cutting orders. This is a poor investment too.

Aaron: Agreed, but it is free or at least for consumers. Oh wait that’s already been in motion since the newspaper was invented called Coupons. I don’t think this will even compare to what it might turn out if you put a deal on your own website or at that on groupon. Maybe though. I guess people use it elsewhere, but it looks like only corporate restaurants participate. Let’s keep our business local Boulder!!!! Can’t emphasize that enough.

Mocavo – There’s something incredibly frustrating about trying to trace your family genealogy. Not the least of the factors is that just about the time that you think you’re going to find out important information you’re usually smacked straight into a paywall. Mocavo thinks that there is more value in allowing more people to trace their history, so the company has set up the first free system for doing just that. With the data it finds, it will be able to help other companies make more accurate connections.

Yikes!  Family genealogy comes down to detective work by the family Matriarch. The pieces do not fit together nicely and this one is hair brained.

Aaron: I searched for myself and it produced nothing… I use geni.com though and it’s DOPE! you can create a family tree for nothing and add all your family members history, contact info, photos, emails etc for free. On topic though,  Is this for free, I might try it out but can you only connect thorugh facebook, 99% of my family is not on facebook, especially the ones that are dead. Plus my last name is Smith, yes Smith, you’re gonna send me 10000′s of emails a week on results that are probably wrong. I guess Ill go set up another gmail account, wait, damn I’m already maxed out on my cell phone number in allowable accounts on gmail, maybe not hotmail though..

ReportGrid – If there is one thing that has annoyed me about analytics in the past it is the completely fragmented nature of how they are reported. While integrating with one system might be simple and easy, others are an absolute nightmare. ReportGrid is aiming to change the way that analytics happen by creating an API that makes it incredibly easy for SaaS vendors and technology platforms to give their customers deep analytics.

Maybe,  but there is a lot out there if you know where to look.

Aaron: Analytics that cost right… Hmmm. Who pays for analytics…. Anyone, Anyone… ever heard of stats from your web hosting company? or Google Analytics? We like our hosting stats cause they are the most accurate. Google analytics doesnt even compare and they’re google so hows this gonna compare. I’m guessing it won’t but hey someones gotta compete with google, more power to ya.

SimpleEnergy – I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you that I was rooting for these guys to succeed because they’re hometown heroes for me. SimpleEnergy was born in Nashville, Tennessee and exists to change the way that people save energy by shifting how utility companies engage with their customers. By using apps that compare your energy use with others, the company is hoping to shift the thinking of energy consumption from one of work to something a bit more engaging and entertaining.

Nope. People are already cutting back. Did anyone tell these guys at TechStars we are in an energy /economic crisis. Nobody is going to buy this.

Aaron:

SocialEngine – Social media managers are faced with loads of problems when it comes to making decisions in how to interact in completely semantic circumstances. What might be a complimentary statistic to one person could be read as disaster by the next. But with SocialEngine the idea is that managers will get solid, proven suggestions to help them manage and grow communities.

Another useless social media application. Jesus Christ.  I don’t think so. If you’ve read my opinion of SM you know it is not the saving grace of your business.

Aaron: Wow by the looks of their website I thought it was another green energy movement site. It must have come from Boulder, well aside from the big buildings. Oh wait it is a green movement, I don’t get it at first look. It says social all over it I thought it was another facebook or android app, is it? Still confused. Is this something that will shutoff peoples power remotely or something or just a place to talk about how your saving money by using one of those things you buy for your Christmas lights? Oh its a report. 8 people are needed on this board? Wow!  I guess they’re all investors that don’t do anything but fund it.

TruantToday – This is my company that I have wanted to see blow the world apart since I first met its 16 year old founder. Yes, 16. TruantToday fixes the broken truancy models for schools by contacting parents when students skip school. In doing so, it makes certain that the schools get the money that they are due and it goes beyond simply affording the opportunity of an education by making sure that students are actually there to get one.

First of all School districts all across America are broke and the last thing they are going to buy is something else to track errant children. Also, this kid is going to be the most hated kid in America if he succeeds.

Aaron: Another way to keep a guarded eye on our people, sounds like New World Order socialism to me. I still like that Pink Floyd song though. I’ll be they still keep building more Jails though, maybe we should invest in the opposite kind of thing, it probably will make more money. The truth hurts.

So there you have it. It’s the TechStars Boulder Demo Day lineup for Summer of 2011. We’re already in talks with the Seattle branch of TechStars to bring you all of the information about what’s going on with their fresh faces, so make sure you check back to TNW Insider for all of the details.