By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:
Want to find a dance partner near you? Want to find a workout partner near you? Want to find a tennis partner?
A new website called CribSocial.com can help you. This Bay Area startup, which was launched in November of 2009, provides a platform where people with similar interests can connect and socialize offline through activities in their neighborhood.
While many social websites such as Facebook and MySpace are mostly viewed as indoor activities that are enjoyed alone in your house or apartment, CribSocial.com encourages offline interaction, indeed that is the entire point of the site.
It’s free service which allows people to create and participate in social activities in many different categories such as dancing, hanging out, sports, education etc. People can look for a dance partner, hiking groups or simply someone interesting to hang out with. Besides the individual activities users can also create social groups that meet regularly as well as one time special events such as a sports event or music concerts.
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By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:
Today, I will discuss a site that can be an extreme help to our readers and small businesses and startups everywhere. The site is called docstoc.com.
Docstoc.com is the premier online community and marketplace to find and share professional documents. Docstoc provides the platform to upload and share documents, and serves as a vast repository of free and for purchase legal, business, financial, technical, and educational documents that can be easily searched, previewed and downloaded.
Docstoc, Inc was founded by Jason Nazar and Alon Shwartz. Its product was subsequently launched to the public in November 2007. It is backed by the venture capital firm Rustic Canyon. They founders also received funding from the co-founders/investors in MySpace, LowerMyBills.com, Mp3.com, PriceGrabber and Baidu. The company is located in Santa Monica, California.
Docstoc also provides technology through various APIs and Widgets to help facilitate the sharing and promotion of documents across the web. The site has popularized the use of embedding documents throughout the blogosphere and mainstream media.
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By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:
As my readers know, this space does not focus solely (or even primarily) on gadgets or the latest technology craze. We focus on startups and issues affecting startups and small business. However, I was recently tipped of to the latest offering from Skullcandy.com. The company that recently launched new earbuds, and based on the fervor in which people espouse the “coolness” of Skullcandy’s other products, this interested me.
As an iPhone user and a user of many things Apple, I am consistently intrigued with how other users defend and protect their mode of headphone (be it earpuds, noise cancellers, etc.). Moreover, the type of headphone (or earbud) one uses can apparently say something about one’s style. Skullcandy has been wildly successful reaching that market.
Skullcandy is a privately held company based in Park City, Utah. Skullcandy designs headphones, mp3 player watches, audio accessories and other audio-enabled lifestyle products, such as backpacks with built-in speakers and iPod controls. Skullcandy also collaborates with select brands to integrate its audio technology into products from snow helmets to outerwear, apparel, packs and bags. Skullcandy gear is sold worldwide through top retailers, specialty outlets.
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By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:
Professionals and students alike can now leave the laptop behind and share files securely thanks to Sayabit.com. The service is a free links-based file storage web service, which shortens and redirects long URLs while providing web and click analytics.
Launching in beta in October of 2009, Sayabit.com also allows users to upload and share images, documents and videos securely for real-time conversion into trackable URLs.
Small businesses and individuals now have an affordable solution for secure virtual storage and it is in the “cloud”. Sayabit.com, pronounced “Say A Bit” also acts as a new and free virtual filing cabinet and personal organizer that gives users a new mode to manage and access files anytime, anywhere, whether it is a PC or mobile device.
Serial entrepreneur Ken Huang, also the co-founder of Webnotes Inc., is on a mission to offer solutions that enhance life beyond the screen and bring people back together in the real world.
Sayabit.com is powered by SayagleTM, a Cambridge, Massachusetts start-up, which is planning its beta launch of a first of kind location-based social networking marketplace later on in the first quarter of this year. Sayabit.com is a stand-alone product that integrates seamlessly with Sayagle to enhance its mission of giving people access to important information beyond the screen.
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By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:
I am one who has always been skeptical of personal coaches and self-help gurus. However, there are organizations in this space that are doing good and valuable work. EntrepreneursSource.com is one of those organizations.
Franchising’s leading career and business coaching company recently launched a free, innovative online virtual coaching experience. The virtual coach elicits ideal income, lifestyle, wealth and equity dreams from visitors. While defining their objectives in a series of questions, a picture board dramatically builds on the screen allowing people to visualize what they aspire to attain through business ownership. Once the series of questions have been completed, the virtual coach helps identify the type of investment that could ultimately provide personal fulfillment.
Additional enhancements to the site include a blog that will be routinely updated with business buying tips from company leadership and more than 100 pages of valuable insight into entrepreneurialism. Studies show more than 70 percent of the U.S. population looks to be self sufficient rather than working for somebody else but only 5 percent of the population actually accomplish the feat. The problem is that many of them call it quits before they even get started.
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By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:
In the famous Chinese Restaurant episode of Seinfeld the maitre’d continually barks out the patrons names as their table becomes available. The cast waits for hours for their table before finally giving up. Just when they leave the restaurant the maitre’d yells “Seinfeld, Four!”
I thought of that episode while checking out a new website Textaurant.com. The Seinfeld episode demonstrates how quaint we used to be about dealing with dining options and wait times. The first advancement I remember is when restaurants began to use beepers so they could beep you when your table was ready. But the range was limited and you had to be ready right away so you could not wander off too far anyway.
Other restaurants have used the Internet and technology to deal with wait times. The Shake Shack, which is a wildly popular burger stand in Madison Square Park in New York City, uses a “Shack Cam” so patrons can monitor the wait online.
Textaurant.com offers a more comprehensive twist. It is a Massachusetts based company that acts as a web-based waiting list and as a management application for busy restaurants that consistently have their patrons waiting for tables.
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By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:
We have not spent too much time on this blog talking about gadgets. This space has mostly focused on service related Internet sites. However, today we have something very interesting to show you. Anyone who has dropped his or her phone in a pool, toilet, or puddle will be able to relate to this.
Karen Wildman and Lisa Holmes are sisters originally from Oregon. The idea for their product was conceived when they saw a sad boy who dropped his gameboy in a pond. The sisters realized that since electronics are everywhere and people take them everywhere, a product that protected against water damage would be great. So they set out to invent a solution… and they did!
Karen Wildman has struggled with hearing loss since she was a baby. She knew a lot about drying out hearing aids from sweat, rain and other moisture. But when she realized she could apply her drying technique to other small electronics and started saving her children’s and friends’ gadgets, she knew she was on to a big idea.
Starting small and funding the project themselves, Karen and Lisa took five years to develop their product, which is now being sold online and in retail stores — including at major outdoor supplier REI. The two mom inventors are currently reveling in hearing about the countless iPods, cell phones, digital cameras and other gadgets their product has saved.
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By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:
This blog has covered many Startups that are involved in the travel business. Pitchup.com (a UK based company that helps find campsites in the British Isles) , Eagle-Mountain-Outfitters.com (a Montana wilderness adventure company). However, a new site called Tripsourcing.com is most similar to the previously featured site, Localyte.com.
Localyte.com seeks to connect travels with so-called Localytes who are located in the travel destination and provide useful information.
Tripsourcing.com takes this concept a bit further. While Localyte.com is more of a community, Tripsourcing.com is more commercial. Launched in beta earlier this month and based in Quebec, Tripsourcing.com offers the first real time itinerary planning community and a tool to manage your trip diary and to find what’s make locals proud of their area.
They provide for incentive for users to explore and share their neighborhood, so they reward members with what they call Doll trips. Members earn Doll trips and can then purchase e-coupons offered by the tourism partners. You can also transfer them to other members.
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By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:
Founded by Mark Harbottle of Melbourne, Australia in 2008, 99designs.com is a wildly successful and growing company. The site connects thousand of designers from around the world with clients who need design tasks completed fast, and without the usual high cost and limited choice you get from most traditional design firms.
99designs is the #1 marketplace for crowdsourced graphic design for small business. Crowdsourcing is a growing trend as the recession and recent wave of downsizing have forced many corporations to eliminate in-house services and use independent contractors instead. Buyouts and layoffs have pushed many skilled professionals into the freelance marketplace. 99designs.com is right in that sweet spot as is among the leaders among sites providing a global workforce of freelancers to small business.
Its Ready-made logo store has thousands of professional logos available for customization and sale right off the shelf while its Design Contest Marketplace enables businesses to quickly and inexpensively source custom designed logos, websites, business cards or any other graphic design work by launching design projects to a global community of over 160,000 members. 99designs.com sees a new design uploaded every 10 seconds and pays out over half a million dollars to its design community every month.
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By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:
In the old days, in-depth market research typically required retaining a market research fund and spending gobs of dollars to get the information you needed.
AskYourTargetMarket.com is a New Jersey based startup (currently in beta) that allows you to create your own market research surveys in minutes using simple self-service tools. Launched in September of 2009, you can send those surveys with one click to your target market without a contract or even a phone call. You select the precise demographic segment of the AskYourTargetMarket.com consumer panels whose opinions you seek. Best of all, it’s inexpensive with surveys starting at $29.95 - a price that the company estimates is 95% less than the going rate charged by market research firms and competing online survey software companies.
Several years ago, David Handel and Lev Mazin set out to break down the cost barrier that has kept target market research inaccessible to the vast majority of small businesses, entrepreneurs, and students.
The project proved to be a huge success. Online influencers began embracing the model as an inroad to an industry that has been ruled by corporate tycoons and expensive market research firms for decades.
