Vator.tv and The Funded have partnered to host "Juice Pitcher," a unique event to find and present the most promising early-stage startups.
Unlike other gatherings where presenting companies are chosen by a select few judges, we launched an open peer-voting system, whereby the 10 presenting companies were chosen based on peer voting as well as input from Adeo Ressi, The Funded founding member, and Bambi Francisco, founder and CEO of Vator.tv
After a three-week contest akin to an open casting call, the Juice Pitcher competition attracted 132 companies and more than 3,000 votes were cast.
We won't announce the top 10 presenters until this evening. But they are among the top 20 vote-getters.
Here are the top 20 companies that won the popular vote. RentCycle, Spreezio, Qless, IDniti, Thumbtack, dSpot, TribeVibe, HearPlanet, GadgetTrak, UMapper, Nomadesk, Viralogy, Cloudmach, Webvanta, WhichBox Media, Amplified Analytics, Giftventure, Network Hippo and Educator.
Tune in here to watch the startups present along with keynote speakers like Aaron Patzer of Mint.com and Munjal Shah of Like.com who will share advice with entrepreneurs, live from San Francisco. We'll also be hosting an episode of Juice Box, a live version of our popular show, VatorBox.
The show airs tonight from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm PST. See you here.
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Steven Loeb
Startup/Business
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Webvanta is hosted content management system that enables designers to deliver sites with powerful back-end capabilities, without having to contract with a programmer. We believe that web site creation will move to a SaaS model, and that the existing hosted CMS offerings are either too simple or far too expensive.
Webvanta offers the power of a CMS such as Drupal, with the ease of use of a hosted service like Wordpress.com. As a fully-supported, integrated solution, we provide a higher-quality, easier-to-use environment for both web designers and site owners.
Webvanta gives designers all the tools they need to make their sites look exactly how they want, using the same HTML and CSS tools they are accustomed to, while making it easy for the designers' clients to maintain the site. It is the first such service to make it truly simple for a front-end designer to incorporate custom database structures and sophisticated back-end features.
Startup/Business
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HearPlanet turns your cell phone into an audio guide to the world.
Get iPhone App Here: www.HearPlanet.com/appstore
Get Android App Here: http://bit.ly/hpandroidapp
We provide an immersive experience that connects you to your surroundings and delivers information in a way that doesn’t distract or slow you down.
HearPlanet organizes information from a multitude of sources and delivers it in audio format, making it easy to consume when active and mobile.
600,000 users have installed the HearPlanet iPhone/iPod Touch application and we cover 300,000 locations worldwide. We organize vast amounts of content from numerous sources and instantly deliver what’s most relevant to users. HearPlanet tells you what’s right around (using geolocation) and offers comprehensive search for everything else.
Apple has featured HearPlanet in national iPhone ads including full-page spreads in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
“Like having a tour guide in your pocket..." National Geographic Adventure
"The best kind of travel guide – one that requires no reading…” United Airlines
“If you like to go sight-seeing when you travel then you’ll love HearPlanet.” Salon.com
“Get the scoop on landmarks, historic sites and more - in countless cities worldwide - without taking your eyes off the sights.” Apple Ad Campaign
Startup/Business
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Thumbtack helps you accomplish the personal projects that are central to your life.
Whether you need to paint your home, learn a new language, or plan your daughter's birthday party, Thumbtack is the easiest and most dependable way to hire the right professional for your projects.
Get started by answering a few questions about your specific needs. Within hours, Thumbtack will introduce you to several available and qualified professionals. Compare custom quotes, reviews, and profiles and hire when you’re ready.
By connecting customers like you to the right pros, we enable independent professionals to grow their businesses and do what they love. We’re proud that many of our pros have doubled or even tripled the size of their businesses through Thumbtack.
Thumbtack is available nationwide for more than 700 project categories.
Startup/Business
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About WhichBox Media
WhichBox Media is a Software provides a next generation content creation, management and monetization, online publishing, social networking, and social media technology platform, built for publishers and media companies, businesses and the enterprise, organizations, educators. The turnkey whichbox™ Platform isn't an "app" or other singular-focus application. whichbox™ is a fully integrated and feature-deep Platform designed to empower content-rich organizations to manage multiple domain verticals from a single dashboard, manage their content, and its distribution and syndication. Unlike so many great ideas on the web, at whichbox™, monetization is not an afterthought -- it is coded into the whichbox™ DNA.
WhichBox Media Selected by AlwaysOn as a 2010 OnMedia Top 100 Winner
Recognized for creating new opportunities in marketing, branding, advertising, and publishing. Inclusion in the OnMedia 100 signifies leadership amongst its peers and game-changing approaches and technologies likely to disrupt existing markets and entrenched players. (http://whichboxmedia.com/whichbox-media-selected-alwayson-onmedia-top-100-winner)
Startup/Business
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Meet your mobile toolbox. Getable is like a remote control for equipment management. We let construction professionals order and manage equipment from their smartphone. We let rental providers increase overall utilization of their assets. The company serves the tool & equipment rental industry, a $32B space that is projected to grow to $46B by 2016.
Startup/Business
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UMapper makes it easy to create, manage, distribute and monetize online maps.
UMapper is currently in Beta and serves millions monthly map views. Our customers include National Geographic, StarTribune, Boston.com, Sacramento Bee, Cookie Magazine and many others.
With UMapper you can:
Background
UMapper is an offshoot of Advanced Flash Components, based in Denver, CO. With several years of experience building custom components and interactive maps for a diverse audience of developers, designers and end-users, the Advanced Flash Components team has built up a strong expertise in interactive map technology and rich Internet application development.
Startup/Business
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Educator.com is an e-learning supplement for high school and college students. We find effective teachers and open their classrooms to the world. Current subjects include Algebra, Calculus, Statistics, Biology, Chemistry, and Computer Science, with Trigonometry and Physics coming soon.
Calculus: Integration by Parts
Chemistry: Empirical and Molecular Formulas
Educator is trying to equalize education in the world through the power of technology and the internet. Right now we are pairing eager learners with excellent teachers in an efficient learning environment that is available to all regardless of geographic or economic limitations. By continually adding courses along with a competition-based pay system for our teachers, we hope to find the best instructors and make the world their classroom.
Startup/Business
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Amplified Analytics aggregates and analyzes online customer product reviews. Our algorithms deliver granular and normalized research data, that we make available to our customers through stand-alone Social CRM tools for Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM) and Customer Business Intelligence (CBI) to enable them to improve their customer's experiences.
We produce and publish unbiased and consistent Product Reputation Ratings. A Product Reputation is an aggregate summary of customer experiences with a specific product. Product Reputation Metrics measure delta (the difference) between the customer's expectations and experiences with a product.
Startup/Business
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Network Hippo is a relationship management service for individuals and small businesses. We gather information about your contacts from social networking websites and the web, integrate with and analyze your email communication, and help you manage your sales and new leads.
Stay in touch with the people who matter most.
Startup/Business
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QLessTM: The Mobile Queueing, Marketing & CRM Company
The average American spends more than 2 years of her/his life waiting in lines. A line is an age-old invention to move demand from a time when it exceeds supply to one in which it does not. It is a lossy and wasteful one, for many prospective customers leave while they wait, and many become frustrated. Selected one of the Best Business Innovations by the 2009 American Business Awards, QLessTM uses mobile phones to eliminate the need to wait in a particular place in space while waiting (in time), with no special-purpose hardware or software needed.
QLessTM is a virtual line management system that allows guests to hold their spot in line using their cell phones. Guests enter the virtual line for a table or appointment from their phones, the web or via a hostess, and then receive phone call or text message updates letting them know when they are ready to be served. QLessTM is interactive: guests can call or text at any time for on-demand updates, can push themselves back in the line if they need more time, or leave the line. Mobile queueing serves as an opt-in point for highly targeted, local & timely mobile marketing, and the data collected creates the new category of mobile CRM, opening up a wealth of service personalization possibilities.
Try one of our demos by calling 877-4-0-LINES
877-4-0-LINES (877-405-4637877-405-4637 ) . More information available at http://waitinginlinesucks.com .
We conservatively estimate the total available market for QLess at over $36billion/year. 2+ years of each American life lost waiting represents 6.9% of the average work-life expectancy, or $936 billion of the GDP lost yearly that could be reclaimed with QLess, an independent validation of the tremendous value of solving the waiting problem.
Benefits
End-User
> Enables customers to join a line remotely.Join “virtual waitlists” by calling or text-messaging from their cell phones,by instant-messaging (IM), or through the Web.
> Gives consumers room to roam.Pursue whatever activities they want, wherever they wish, while QLess holds their place in line
> Promotes Public Health.By dispersing customers, there is less waiting in crowded environments where germs naturally spread.
> Lets customer tweak their arrival time.Consumers can “push back” their place in line any number of minutes. Everybody else’s wait gets adjusted accordingly.
> Plan ahead. Obtain estimated wait-times (which QLess calculates automatically, even factoring in no-shows and turn-aways along with other wait-time elements).
Business
· Increased customer satisfaction.Our customers have experienced a surge in positive reviews in sites such as Yelp, and these mention QLessTM.
· Increase revenues. Allow customers to shop while they wait. American shoppers spend about $1/min while shopping at a mall.
· Reduce no-shows by 15% to 40% & turn-aways by 75%. Freedom increases patience, and QLess acts as a digital tether to reel prospective customers into our customers' businesses when the business is ready to serve them.
· Brings the power of web analytics to brick & mortar shops. Average wait time, customer outcomes(served vs. abandoned, ...), customer geography, customer return rates customer by customer, per wait time, day visited, time visited, employee, unprecedented visibility into what makes customers tick.
· Mobile Marketing. 80% to 96% of QLess users provide us with their cell phone numbers. Users can opt in to SMS &/or voice coupons, news & more.
· Personalization. QLessTM allows customers to personalize their every interaction with each patron, keeping track of previous visits and preferences (language, …).
· Maximize throughput. Active dynamic scheduling eliminates appointment-based scheduling in favor of appointments updated in real-time based on the duration of prior appointments and real-time mobile communications.
· Can be deployed anywhere lines form. No specialized software or hardware necessary. Because QLessTMis a hosted Web application, all a customer needs is a laptop, tablet or phone and an Internet connection.
· Learns over time.Gets smarter and smarter. Sophisticated algorithms allow QLessTM, to project increasingly accurate wait times based on real-time and historical data. QLess proved that wait time forecast accuracy predicts customer return rates.
· Allows simultaneous and remote viewing of the Queue. Any number of users can log on and manage the line simultaneously. Perfect for remote oversight.
· Environmentally Friendly. By shifting ticket generation from the physical to the virtual,companies no longer need to print tickets or keep physical pagers.
Advertisers
QLess allows advertisers to reach customers:
Ø with unprecedented targeting capabilities, based on:
o the customer’s exact location at the time of receiving the ad
o what they are trying to do at the time of receiving the ad
o their purchase history and lifestyle
Ø at a time when they are waiting, and thus receptive to distractions;
Ø as they are entering a point of sale (e.g. retail establishment).
Customers
QLessTM has been successfully deployed at a number of award-winning restaurants, DMVs, colleges, retail stores, healthcare, transportation, and government facilities, including the City of Austin, and has freed more than 100,000 users from standing in line. QLess will be soon deployed at a number of leading facilities in the gaming, theme park and beauty industries, too.
The Team
The team includes an award-winning Ph.D. and veteran entrepreneur from MIT, Caltech and McKinsey who's already grown another company from conception to profitability, an experienced technology leader from Yahoo who has already grown a number of successful start-ups and an experienced sales team.
Traction
QLess has grown revenues by an average of 200% per year since launch. Customers range in size from small independent restaurants to T-mobile. Testimonials include:
“I think overall it’s a very good system. Customers really like it. The day we had a really long wait, everything was perfect.. On a 1 to 10 scale, I’d give it a 9. Educating people [about their wait] helps tremendously. It’s perfect, it really is.”
--Patricia Rogers, Citizen Services Director, Office of the Mayor, City of Nashua, NH.
“Any simpler and it would do it itself!... At our Divisional Staff meeting Sherry had some very complimentary things to say about Qless and it’s staff as well. We would like you to consider us a strong reference for your firm should you wish to provide my contact info to any potential opportunity.” –John Barker, IT Director, Motor Vehicle Registration.
QLess is a great friggen idea!
--Mike Schroepfer, VP Engineering, Facebook
More testimonials can be provided upon request.
Press
QLess has been featured in Mashable, the New York Times blog by Freakonomics authors, Nation's Restaurant News, QSR Web (Quick Service Restaurants), the American Academy of Family Physicians, Mobile Marketer, Aviation Week, Chain Store Age and blogs around the world. See qless.com/press for details.
Startup/Business
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tribevibe tracks and measures the impact of content across the social web.
tribevibe helps you bang your drum, keep the beat, and see how loud you are.
Startup/Business
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Cloudmach delivers 3D graphics and gaming experience of modern console games to users of online social and casual games.
Cloudmach requires no downloads and no installations. It worksinstantly in the browser, unlike products from Second Life and Imvu.Among other things, this differentiator allows Cloudmach to naturallyintegrate into Facebook and other social networks. Cloudmach offersimmersive 3D graphics that provide a much more realistic environmentthan 2D competitors like Yoville and Pets Society.
Startup/Business
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DealPair offers you amazing social deals published directly by your local merchants. We help you put money back into your pocket by offering huge savings of 30-85%.
Experience more of the great things in your neighborhood without paying the list price at restaurants, bars, local events, sports, health and fitness, salons and many more!
It’s time to get out and enjoy more for less - socially!
This is SF_BayArea launch to begin with.
Startup/Business
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SpreezioTM is a mobile/web-based shopping company that specializes in driving consumers to local merchants, service providers, and retail sales reps. Think of us as Priceline on steroids enabling shoppers to make a coupon for almost any product or service! We accomplish this through unique real-time purchase requests sent from a consumer's Smartphone/PC to businesses, which ensure that customers get the best possible local deals.
Startup/Business
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RewardMe is a mobile technology that utilizes gaming mechanics to get customers addicted to local stores. With a unique combination of low-cost equipment and mobile software technology, we take the success factors of Farmville and apply it offline to increase repeat customers and referrals for Restaurants.
RewardMe integrates a gaming-mechanics focused loyalty and engagement program that allows local stores to interact with their customers more while incentivizing actions like more visits, referrals, and feedback by giving them points. Users can get points for each purchase and referrals, and can redeem these points for real rewards such as a free drink, free appetizer, or a VIP membership. Stores can grant different points based on when the user checks-in (such as giving double the points during slower hours) and the frequency of check-ins (such as giving them 20% off for the next month if they checked-in 4 times within 30 days). Stores can also grant reoccuring points for successful referrals between two users. This will enable local stores to know exactly how many times their customers buy, refer, and communicate, and create a stronger relationship between businesses and consumers.
The current version of RewardMe utilizes a combination of QR Code Scanning technologies, GPS security verifications, and physical billfolds and card stands that act as our check-in equipment. Users can only check-in as they are paying within the store, which creates actual purchase behaviors. RewardMe has a powerful admin built in for store owners to setup robust check-in, referral, points and reward systems within minutes on their phones and web app. Besides allowing users to get points and rewards, we allow users to check-in and publish their activities on other networks like Facebook, FourSquare, and Yelp.
Startup/Business
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Nomadesk is a European SaaS company, founded in 2004 and focused on Business File Sharing & Synchronization technology. We are leading developers of cloud software for sharing and synchronizing digital documents, allowing foremost business users to edit, share, synchronize and secure files from anywhere – online and offline!
Our company maintains datacenter facilities in Europe (Frankfurt, Amsterdam) and USA (Asheville – NC) for our European and American customers, respectively.
Nomadesk mainly targets resellers, service providers and system integrators, who offer the Nomadesk solutions to their clients – usually under a proprietary name, or brand.
Nomadesk is part of UnifiedPost, an international BPaaS provider of integrated business process optimisation solutions including complete document delivery and processing solutions, complemented by payment, financial supply chain, credit management and secure e-identity solutions.
Startup/Business
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RelayRides is the world's first peer-to-peer carsharing service. Our revolutionary service provides the technology, infrastructure and marketplace for car owners to securely and conveniently rent out their vehicles when they are not using them personally. This provides people seeking convenient transportation with a new option, and makes it easier for urban dwellers to enjoy mobility without owning a car.
As the average US car is driven only 66 minutes a day, RelayRides represents the first opportunity for car owners to monetize this underused asset. By providing the infrastructure, technology and marketplace for car owners to rent out their vehicles, RelayRides gives current car owners the means to monetize a largely underused asset. By enrolling in RelayRides, owners turn a car from an expense into a cash machine, with average profit of approximately $3,550 annually (net of depreciation costs).
How RelayRides Works:
Car owners list their vehicle on the RelayRides website, designate availability, rental price, and who may rent the vehicle (via Facebook and other social networks). Car renters browse available vehicles on RelayRides.com, reserve a car by the hour or day, and swipe an issued card over a card reader sensor on the vehicle for access during rental.
To streamline the rental experience, gas and insurance are included.
Startup/Business
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We have re-invented gift giving. Giftventure is a personal treasure hunt. A child receives personal
letters from a fantasy character that lead to a gift you hide.
When the gift is discovered, it is no longer just a present; it is a
well-deserved reward at the end of an exciting and educational journey!
The company is an opportunity to build a scalable, protectable, high-margin, and viral entertainment services company as the first mover around a new product category called Giftventure. The company uses proven technologies in a patent-pending manner to address a new market ($2.2B) that is comparable to the greeting card industry ($10B). There are numerous expansion opportunities as well, such gift bundling (e.g., partner with Amazon), merchandizing (e.g., custom wrapping paper and lunch boxes), corporate promotions, children’s destination web site and international development.
Joined Vator on
Founder and CEO of Vator, a media and research firm for entrepreneurs and investors; Managing Director of Vator Health Fund; Co-Founder of Invent Health; Author and award-winning journalist.
Joined Vator on
