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.

Sayabit.com allows you to upload, store, and share your images and documents, transfer large files seamlessly via email, twitter and instant messenger, password protect your important images and files, shorten and redirect long URLs, know when and where your files are being viewed, personalized URLs to easily share all your files at once, access the historical performance of your links and files, monitor Twitter conversations about your links and files, and unlimited memory capacity to store as much as you want.
“Sayabit offers a secure platform for multiple team members to collaborate and share project iterations”, said Charlie Huang MIT grad student and Sayabit co-founder. “There were days when I had no access to a PC but a link texted to me let me securely review our presentation and share feedback with team members in real time. Not to mention the extensive IP tracking that let all team members know who was doing their work!”

Post from: GreatStartups.com

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.

She remembers being distraught when Hurricane Katrina hit because she wanted to employ the same practices we used every day with the few dollars that she personally had to give. But, there was no easy way to give directly to a family wanting to rebuild. Her and her colleagues talked openly about how much more we would give if we knew money wasn’t being lost in the bureaucracy. She thought to that there should be a site where people can give directly to people and causes they care about. Eventually GiveForward.org was born.

A review of the site sees also kinds of spirited individuals stuck on horrible situations not of there own making. With GiveForward.org caring and giving people can reach these people and give then the financial support they need.

Post from: GreatStartups.com

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.

Post from: GreatStartups.com

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.

The iAte.com folks claim that restaurant conversation is moving away from dedicated review sites and onto sites like Twitter and Facebook. While that may or may not be true, (I personally think that there will always be a place for the professional restaurant critic) iAte is the first site to organize this restaurant review content.

iAte states that it has 50% more new real-time restaurant review content than any other restaurant review site including Yelp.

You can search by restaurant, food, or usernames, or you can search for everything in a specific address, city or zip code. The site provides real time information, so if there is a specific special menu item or deal at restaurant you will know about that day.

Due to the limitations of Twitter, the usefulness of the information provided in tweets is mostly general comments. There is a lot of “that restaurant was awesome” and “going to Cheesecake Factory”. But perusing comments gives you a general idea what people are saying and in that regard the site is fun and helpful.

Post from: GreatStartups.com

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.

Post from: GreatStartups.com