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?

You can find single Twitter users in your city. You search single Twitter users based on age and location. You can add a detailed bio and upload photos. This will allow you to expand your Twitter persona by adding a more detailed bio and photos that show your best self. You can get someone’s attention by clicking the like button on their profile. The site then sends them an anonymous notification. When they log in, they’ll find out who liked them.

The founders cite numerous reasons to use PlentyOfTweeps including:

Twitter users tend to be well-educated, self-motivated, doers of interesting things.

Twitter gives you a unique window into someone’s life. A user’s Twitter activity stream can tell you far more about what that person is really like than some stock “long walks on the beach” online dating profile.

You can “like” anyone on Twitter. Including anyone from the single Twitterers near you to your favorite musicians, actors, writers, athletes and other fascinating people.

You login with your existing Twitter account. No need to think of another username and password.

The site was founded by Brad Bollenbach, who is a blogger at 30sleeps.com  and Mark Rainer, the founder of the site UsedCanada.com. The operate the site out of Vancouver, British Columbia (apparently in Mr. Bollenbach’s kitchen) and it was launched in October of 2009.

I think it has a great chance of catching on, and certainly the price is right.

Post from: GreatStartups.com

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.”

Once logged in, members enjoy special privileges and promotions within the community, and the MyLittleSwans Geo Friends tool and dedicated social networking platform allow like-minded travelers and groups to share their experiences through e-dialogues and messaging, images and video.

The My Trips feature will ultimately allow members to publish their itineraries and travel details directly to their iPhone or iPad. MyLittleSwans is a disruptive technology in that it literally saves money by cutting out the middleman for those who book with the select on-the-ground network of partners.

As the company states; creating a unique family journey that’s memorable for all the right reasons is a matter of insider knowledge, special access, the best local guides and a seamless itinerary. Without a trusted efficient online source, this can take hundreds of hours. MyLittleSwans avoids the predictable while simultaneously humanizing the research experience. MyLittleSwan vows to never book trips; it will, however, shed light on where and how to go, when to go (and when not to) and who are the best local insiders to call, much like a trusted globe-trotting friend.

Katrina Garnett is an active technology startup investor and her prior early seed and startup investments include Siebel Software and Salesforce.com (NYSE public company, trades as CRM). Her current Internet and mobile investments include Adchemy, (a leading online advertising and marketing platform) and Tapulous, (the leading Apple iPhone applications company with their Tap Tap Revenge music games with over 25mil users). Garnett also serves on the Tapulous board of directors.

Prior to MLS, Katrina was the Founder, Chairman and President/CEO of CrossWorlds Software Inc. from its inception in 1996 to a successful public offering on Nasdaq (CWLD) in 2000 and acquisition by IBM in 2001. Garnett has been featured twice on the cover of Forbes, selected by Fortune as CEO of one of their 25 top startup technology companies in 1997 and has been regularly interviewed by leading TV shows such as CNBC and CNN.

As for making the case for family travel, Ms. Garnett says it best in the sites Q & A section:
“Families that travel together develop lifelong bonds that don’t happen easily any other way. Let’s face it; life is not set up for families to spend quality time together – parents often both have busy professional lives. Kids have school, homework, extra curricular activities, sports, friends, and their online world. My kids’ schedules are as busy as any executive’s. The best way I know to have quality family time is to create it. To go somewhere together, away from meetings, internet, phones, TV, videogames, and iTunes. To see and do new things…together. Quality family time is precious. If you don’t create the opportunities, it will not happen. There are four breaks in the school year, at least in the States, and I started creating family holidays around all the school vacations–summer, Christmas, President’s week, and Spring break. Now it’s part of our lives, and our family life is much richer for it.”

We may not all have the budget to travel like Katrina Garnett and her family, but there are plenty of useful hints for travelers on any budget. Plus the site offers many ways to cut out excessive layers of cost, especially when traveling abroad. The site is extremely rich with information and presumably it will only get better. It is a perfect example of a site that is not necessarily breaking new ground, but still works because of its near flawless execution-A perfect marriage of expertise, passion and intelligence. Check it out.

Post from: GreatStartups.com

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.

Now in reading the content on the site it strikes me that most of the information on the site is useful to any gender. Articles about restaurants and wine in Melbourne or a discussion of the ferry that takes you from England to France or an art studio in Sydney would seem to appeal to everyone who likes travel and the finer things in life.

There are sections on handbags and packing that are more gender specific, but as a straight or otherwise male who loves to travel I found the articles very informative. I realize that one could argue the ‘Traveling with Children” section is more apropos for a woman as well but I have kids too.

I guess the key is that the articles are all written by woman so you get that perspective. But twitter updates on discount flights to Beijing are not (I suppose) only being offered to females.

I especially like the video podcasts they have on the site. They are free and as the site says you can use them as your free in-flight entertainment.

The site was just launched at the end of 2009, so you can expect these very talented ladies to get better and better. Not sure what the monetary end game is, but check it out, it is very informative and entertaining. And if you are a cultured guy, feel free to check it out-just don’t tell anybody.

Post from: GreatStartups.com

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