By: Co-Editor, RB:

Besides adult entertainment, dating sites have maybe been some of the most successful and well-suited businesses for online commerce. Match.com and eHarmony.com are wildly successful businesses as are many niche dating sites.

Indeed, we previously covered a company that, among other things, has a dating site for those in recovery from substance abuse.

Playing off the name of the successful dating site plentyoffish.com comes a startup called PlentyOfTweeps.com. Like plentyoffish, it is free.

PlentyOfTweeps.com bills itself as the dating for Twitter users.

How does the site work?
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By: Co-Editor, RB:

When I was a child, I went on a family vacation twice a year. We traveled every spring and summer, at least until my dad lost his job when I was 14. However, many of my friends were left home with grandparents or (in the case of my rich friends) nannies. Taking children on vacation is a relatively new phenomenon. Times have changed; family travel is maybe the most important and fastest growing segment of travel today.

Renowned Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Katrina Garnett recently launched MyLittleSwans.com. The goal of the site is to save substantial time and eliminate layers of fees for discerning global travelers and families.

Designed for all types of users, the site caters to those who like to do a lot of research and seek out a lot of advice, as well as to those who prefer a more turn-key experience – and because MyLittleSwans eliminates third party costs, users not only save time, but can also save a substantial amount of money.

Garnett founded My Little Swans in October 2007 and has invested more than $2,250,000 of her own personal capital in the creation of this business. 2008 was focused on building the site and writing and uploading content, 2009 was focused on offering limited memberships to gain live user feedback. With strong roots in Silicon Valley, Garnett was well aware that the software is a key component, making MyLittleSwans not only extraordinarily efficient, but also able to support “the next big thing” – that is, whatever comes after Facebook and Twitter – via what they deem “superlative content management systems.”
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By: Co-Editor, RB:

The way media is consumed in this country has become extremely specialized and fragmented. First cable television exploded on the scene to offer programming geared towards specific groups, Nickelodeon for kids, Lifetime for woman and so on.

The Internet takes that fragmentation a bit further. There are sites for kids, seniors, napkin folding, and salad forks. So when a site claims to be a female friendly travel site, they are seeking a larger demographic than most specialized sites.

Holidaygoddess.com bills itself as the Internet’s freshest female-friendly travel website edited by over 30 women from around the world whose career adventures include Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Dolly, Harpers Bazaar, Grazia, Rolling Stone and even Mad magazine.

Holiday Goddess is a travel website, e-magazine, Facebook page and Twitter feed for women who live for their holidays and need to know the best deals and secrets, and real-person tips. It is women sharing their classified travel information with other women.
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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:

Not all fundraising and charitable organizations are long-term ventures. Moreover, these charities have the infrastructure and capital base to last as going concerns. However, many fund-raising/charitable efforts are short-term efforts to raise money for a specific purpose. For example, raising money for individuals with cancer, raising money for accident victims, or raising money for an injured firefighter.

In these circumstances, keeping overhead down and reach donors quickly and efficiently is paramount.

A Chicago based web startup called GiveForward.org is providing an answer for these situations. Started in August of 2008, GiveForward.org provides free personal fundraising pages to individuals to raise money for friends and family members battling illnesses like cancer.

The Chicago Tribune has called GiveForward.org “The future of medical fundraising in the Internet Age.”

GiveForward.org helps individuals raise $10K, $20K and even $30K + to pay for their friends medical expenses. It gives people an easy way to help their friends and loved ones when they need it most.

By incorporating social media such as Facebook and Twitter to help empower users, GiveForward.org raises money from people all over the country for good causes. It is turning the idea that social media is frivolous on its head.

Co-founder Desiree Vargas, worked as a specialist in collegiate entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City and as an independent consultant for Arabella Philanthropic Investment Advisors. Her passion for philanthropy and the role that young and small-scale donors can have on our communities has been a cause celebre. When not working, she spends her time inventing new recipes that don’t always work, walking her golden retriever, Ellie, and going to Zumba. Desiree likes Hangar One, cheese, and kicking Ethan’s butt in bar trivia.
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By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:

NewTek, the manufacturer of industry-leading video and 3D animation products, redefines HD portable production and takes its show on the road to New York City (November 17) in a customized MINI Cooper outfitted with a miniature HD studio-on-wheels that underscores how the company’s latest products and technologies are shattering the barriers to HD live production and delivery. The tour started on October 27, 2009.

The MINI Cooper was chosen as it illustrates the small footprint of NewTek’s powerful network-quality products. It is powered by NewTek TriCaster XD300 portable live production and 3PLAY multi-channel HD/SD slow-motion replay systems, and features a multi-camera switcher, live virtual sets, titling station, audio mixer, three-camera ISO recorder, video editing, 3D motion graphics and more.

Sign up to attend an event at to see NewTek’s first full demonstration of TriCaster XD300 with all of its live production capabilities implemented, including live switching, live full HD streaming, live virtual sets, multiple effects layers and much more. NewTek will also feature 3PLAY, a portable multi-channel HD/SD slow motion replay system. Each event showcased Canon’s XH G1S high-definition camcorders. Event guests also had and have the opportunity to participate in question and answer sessions with NewTek training and production experts. In addition, the MINI Cooper HD live production vehicle, the first of its kind to include HD broadcast and streaming, will be on display at each location.

Your can see the groundbreaking presentation and car when they are in New York City:
Tue, Nov 17, 2009 – 2:00PM
Manhattan Center
The Grand Ballroom
311 West 34th Street
New York, NY 10001

NewTek enthusiasts will be kept up to date on daily events, special presentations, and crew antics via streaming video, pictures and blogs on the tour Web site , Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Digg.

By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:

As Americans continue to refine their palates, the Internet has provided a haven for foodies. The Food Network website is one of the most heavily trafficked sites on the Internet. Other sites like Gourmet.com and Epicurious.com are among the most popular sites of any kind. Moreover, foods once considered exotic or strange, such as sushi, are now ubiquitous.

This heightened interest in food has made the act of going out to eat an important part of many people’s lifestyle. Discussing and rating restaurants on the Internet has become a hobby for some and a living for others. With the rise of Twitter, more and more people are commenting on their latest food adventures.

Now comes iAte.com to help organize what all these folks are tweeting about. iAte pulls restaurant reviews and food talk from Twitter. When a Twitter user sends a tweet mentioning a restaurant, iAte imports the tweet, identifies the actual restaurant mentioned, and makes the conversation brow-sable and search-able by restaurant. Behind the scenes a natural language processing system analyzes every tweet mentioning food from any user on Twitter. The system attempts to determine whether a restaurant is mentioned in the tweet, and finds the specific restaurant that was mentioned. By matching a tweet with a restaurant, iAte makes it easy to see all the tweets that are about a specific restaurant.

Twitter users can also tell iAte to import a tweet to their iAte profile by mentioning @iAte in their tweet. Even if iAte can not identify the restaurant, the tweet will automatically be added to the users eating history. If the restaurant is not automatically matched, the user also has the ability to manually match the tweet to a restaurant

Visitors to iAte.com can see trending restaurants for their area, search reviews, view their eating history, and see the most popular restaurants of their friends and followers.
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By: The Editor
This next startup is what I consider a “rough and raw” concept. Not necessarily is a bad way, however, I think its success will depend on the ability to gain some real traction. The site must gain popularity in order to have a real chance at success. I love the concept and that is why I decided to write about it.

Ijustsawyou.com is located in Rockwall, Texas and just launched on 08/1/09. The concept is very simple and has happened to most of us on more than one occasion.

Let’s say you are out at a restaurant, shopping mall, ball game or any social environment and you notice someone that peeks your interest? You also see that they notice you back. What happens next is typical; nobody says a word to each other. They type of occurrences happen quite often.

With Ijustsawyou.com, you can now post a “sighting” entry. With a little luck, if the other person checks the website and looks for you, they could read the entry, see that you were interested and send an e-mail, therefore, making a potential connection. The data entries fields include date, time, location and description fields to assist the reader in identifying themselves as the potential sighting. All of the major cities for all fifty states are currently available. Expansion would include specific pages for colleges, high schools, special events, etc.

In short, again, I love the idea; it’s a matter of getting people to buy into the concept. Organic growth is great; however, they will need a very large advertising budget in order to make this a household name. We will follow them (no pun intended – Twitter) as I am always excited to hear about growth of any business we mention on GreatStartups.com.

Ijustsawyou.com – you actually just might get a second chance at love.