What you need to know - Wednesday 9/29/10

koofers-com

Startup/Business

Joined Vator on March 20, 2009

Koofers.com provides an interactive community that serves the academic needs of college students through information sharing. Students benefit from collaboration with their peers and the experiences of former students. Many helpful services span the entire academic calendar from course selection through final exams, and include collaborative note taking, course & instructor ratings/grade distributions, and an online library for sharing past exams & study materials.

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Koofers - where were you when I was in school? Koofers started at Virginia Tech, with a campus rollout in 2007. In that one year, it became the third-most visited site by students, behind Facebook and MySpace. The reason? It allows students to make the relatively opaque process of class and teacher selection fully transparent, by providing grade distributions and teacher feedback to allow a student to shape their individual class schedule, based on their own needs and style (e.g., “I am fine with exams, but I hate teachers who give tons of quizzes”).

Once a student has started the semester, Koofers provides help by offering access to a collective repository of study guides, past exams, etc. This is something schools have had for over a century, but these vaults were only available to small groups of students (e.g., a fraternity). Now, those tools are available to all students. Koofers also supports ongoing communication between students and teachers through its community tools.

The reaction at its alpha deployment at Virginia Tech, coupled with positive feedback this Spring from a quick pilot during the last week of the term at the University of Maryland (where 1000+ users signed up), gives the Koofers team confidence that they have a winner here.

Koofers will deploy to 30+ schools this Fall 2008, to provide themselves a bigger test bed, and then look to launch more broadly in the Spring.

Redux

Startup/Business

Joined Vator on April 24, 2008

Welcome to Redux, our humble endeavor to change the world. Admittedly that does sound a bit cliché, and truth be told we don't actually think that the world is such a bad place as it is, yet there are a few areas that we have chosen to improve. Namely, allowing you to discover entertainment, people, and products that actually mean something to you. As much fun as casually prancing about the web is, wouldn't it be nice if you could spend less time prancing and more time actually enjoying what you want? It would be nice. To the point, nice is what Redux is all about.

Using generous portions of analytical science, Redux gets you connected with stuff that appeals specifically to you. We call it a "Discovery Network", and we're excited to have you try it.

Our technology may be complex, yet our mission is simple. We are here to help the online generation relive a time before the clutter of this so-called "sequel" to the Web rendered your senses jaded and numb; a time when you can interact with an endless world of amusement and curiosity at your leisure while bonding and getting to know others in the process.

5min Media

Startup/Business

Joined Vator on July 17, 2007

5min Media is the Web's largest video syndication network with more than 30 million unique visitors across its 800 partner sites. The company provides publishers with a comprehensive video platform that includes access to premium content from its library of more than 200,000 vertically segmented videos from thousands of the world's largest media companies and professional independent video producers. Founded in 2007, the company is headquartered in New York City. For more information, visit http://solutions.5min.com.