The FDA outlines draft guidance on AI for medical devices
The agency also published draft guidance on the use of AI in drug development
Read more...Everything about this year's Vator Splash Oakland was bigger and better than before. It was long, had a bigger venue, had more speakers and more attendees.
Keeping in the same light, we also expanded our usual top 10 startups to 15 this time around. And, once again, we had a great group coming up on stage to present their ideas.
Here are the 15 companies that competed to be the winner of the first ever Vator Splash Oakland competition:
OppSites empowers municipalities and professional planners to identify sites where increased economic opportunity exists, and broadcast that information to the investment community.
The company allows Investors and Developers to find investment opportunities that may not be publicly listed, and learn about development priorities and incentives.
OppSites was the winner of the grand prize at the competition.
ShopPad allows retailers to deliver beautiful shopping experiences to their customers on any device.
Its SaaS solution solves the multi-channel problem by integrating with a retailer’s E-Commerce store. Once installed, ShopPad provides native support for smartphones, tablets and in-store kiosks.
The company was the winner of the People's Choice Award.
Enplug is a next generation digital out of home network that operates a network of over 200 interactive displays located in high traffic venues such as bars, restaurants, cafes, and other retail locations. Its social media billboards are instantly interactive, allowing venue patrons to engage with the displays using nothing but their mobile device and existing social media account.
The company was the runner up for the top prize behind OppSites.
Brimes Energy is the creator of product called the Jellyfish, which is a machine that harvests the energy of ocean waves and converts it into usable energy.
Its “Ride the wave” technology uses a moving centroid design that increases the harvesting efficiency.
Brimes Energy was given a prize for being the startup with the boldest idea.
KidAdmit allows online submission of school application and enrollment forms.
Schools can review applications, manage applicant waitlists, and quickly communicate with parents. The parents are able to search for schools by specific criteria and apply directly using KidAdmit.
KidAdmit offers a neutral environment for parents to narrow preschool choices based on the criteria that are most important to them. It provides a non-biased platform that lists all of the early education options.
Spot Labs provides a software platform that extends the Android ecosystem to public touch screen devices. It allows brands to Leverage their digital assets while integrating with existing sales, marketing and loyalty systems to extend the benefits of their online experience to their physical locations.
The company provides the hardware and application, will monitor its performance, and will fix the issue if anything goes wrong.
iPriceCars is a Search Engine for cars, kind of like how Kayak.com is for airlines or hotels.
The company makes it easy for a car owner to price and sell their car by giving them multiple listing optionsand enable buyers and sellers to make better decisions using data analysis.
It includes inventory aggregation for search, pricing analytics for consumers, real time pricing and pricing updates.
Alum.ni is a private network for alumni that enables them to crowdsource their dreams and questions and to receive help from their fellow alumni.
It transforms alumni communities into networks of experts and connectors, bringing real value to networks of trust. In addition, Alum.ni creates value for administrations by helping them manage their community, through premium features, and for HR, through HR accounts and paid job postings.
Sellegit is an online Dutch Auction marketplace, which makes local buying and selling engaging, efficient and safe.
The company protects its customers and increases the adhesiveness of its users with its credit system. Sellegit’s auction platform enforces a price-dropping mechanism, making the transaction process more efficient.
LocoMotive Labs develops game-based learning applications for struggling learners, including those with special learning needs. It covers the entire Common Core Standards for Pre-K to second grade.
Through the service, parents receive activity reports via mobile messenger and email, as well as printable activities and long-term assessment reports.
The team is also developing Todo Math, a tablet-native, personalized math learning service for children to practice early elementary math at home and at school.
NextUser empowers marketers to deliver automated multichannel user experiences that are relevant and timely leveraging the company's proprietary user profiling and decision engine.
It brins together individual solutions to leverage sophisticated user profiling and dynamic workflows, empowering marketers to deliver automated multichannel user experiences that are timely and relevant, without technical resources.
EasyNDA is an non-disclosure aggreement management service. Ot provides a single source to the company and their team for current and approved NDAs with an integrated mobile e-signing processes that eliminates business development delay due to NDA execution mechanics.
The service is configurable with accounts, managers, and users. Attorneys can be members of multiple entities to facilitate the multi-client relationships of outside counsel.
Flickflyer is a mobile app for digital sellers and buyers who are constrained to traditional, time-consuming marketplaces.
The Flickflyer app provides a B2B/B2C social marketplace where sellers can record and upload video listings from their smartphone, unlike the competition. Its product delivers a simpler, more intuitive and engaging platform that saves sellers time, and gives buyers the confidence to make purchasing decisions.
Clef replaces usernames and passwords online. Instead, it recognize a users by their smartphone, instead of anything they have to remember or type to make logging in faster, safer, and much easier.
Users create a profile that never leaves their phone. Clef hen uses that profile to generate a new digital signature every time they log in to a website. The phone can be synced with Clef Wave to send their signature and identify themselves.
Automa Systems uses big data and machine learning to enable a fully automated trucker-shipper marketplace.
The company has built a machine learning algorithm to fully automate dispatch and maximize vehicle ROI, i.e. reduce fuel, maintenance, labor and maximize utilization. The algorithm is built on Apache Storm and scales horizontally to optimize very large vehicle fleets.
(Image source:
The agency also published draft guidance on the use of AI in drug development
Read more...The biggest focus areas for AI investing are healthcare and biotech
Read more...It will complete and submit forms, and integrate with state benefit systems
Read more...Startup/Business
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Automa uses big data and machine learning to enable a fully automated trucker-shipper marketplace.
Startup/Business
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ShopPad allows retailers to deliver beautiful shopping experiences to their customers on any device.
Our SaaS solution solves the multi-channel problem by integrating with a retailer’s E-Commerce store. Once installed, ShopPad provides native support for smartphones, tablets and in-store kiosks.
In 2013 over $16M of mobile transactions were placed through our platform.
Today, with over 15,000 ShopPad-powered stores, we leverage our aggregated network of stores to help retailers solve problems of scale in areas of conversion, marketing, identity, iBeacons and beyond.
For more information, check out theshoppad.com
Startup/Business
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Overview:
Alum.ni is a private network for alumni that enables them to crowdsource their dreams and questions and to receive help from their fellow alumni.
Alumni networks are strong networks where members share a sense of kinship and desire to 'pay it forward'. Today's alumni solutions, however, are complex and boring. Alumni are turning instead to Facebook and LinkedIn groups. But these platforms are not really designed to solve the needs of alumni: namely to identify relevant contacts, receive help or mentorship, and identify career opportunities.
Alum.ni basically transforms alumni communities into networks of experts and connectors, bringing real value to networks of trust.
In addition, Alum.ni creates value for administrations by helping them manage their community (through premium features) and for HR (through HR accounts and paid job postings).
We launched in January with Columbia University alumni and have seen great growth rates (30% weekly growth) and engagement rates (over 150 questions answered; 30% MAU).
Revenue Model & Market Opportunity:
Users offer gifts to alumni who solve their questions in the form of either: A donation (to the alma mater or another non-profit) or a gift certificate. Alum.ni takes a 6% cut on each transacted reward.
There are over 490 million alumni with BAs in the world, turning the total addressable higher-edu. market for gifts to a potential of $1.3 billion.
Alternative revenue sources include:
• Subscription Fees - Admins pay a subscription fee for premium features.
• Commissions - Commissions on event ticketing and membership dues.
• HR - Headhunter accounts and paid job postings.
User Testimonials:
“I have an investor from Columbia Business School reading my script. I also met with a potential producer and another woman filmmaker - all as a result of the site!” Kieren van den Blink, Columbia University, Barnard College, BA ‘95
“Thank you for your dedication that we not onlyresource share but that in doing so ourdreams come true.” Dayanara MarteColumbia University, School of Public Health, MPH ‘10
"Really love what you guys are working on. Think there's a huge need for a tool like this. Looking forward to connecting with you and others." Nick Mistretta, Columbia College '12
Startup/Business
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We’re pivoting because of the recent success of our prototype
The Jellyfish is now capable of producing electricity, desalinate sea water or both.
Our product is the Jellyfish. It's a machine that harvests the energy of ocean waves and converts it into usable energy. We have recently reached 55% absorbtion efficiency. No other commercial wave technology has claimed efficiency numbers higher than this.
Wave energy has an available 30kW to 80kW per meter of coastline. To visualize this number, imagine a man walking on the beach parallel to the waves. For every step he makes, the available power in waves can provide electricity to 5-8 homes.
We also have a manufacturing facility in place ready to build the Jellyfish.
We are currently in talks for our in ocean testing pilot.
Startup/Business
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Sellegit is an online Dutch Auction marketplace, which makes local buying and selling engaging, efficient and safe.
Startup/Business
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iPriceCars is a Search Engine for cars, just like Kayak.com is for airlines or hotels. In addition, we make it easy for a car owner to price and sell their car by giving them multiple listing options.
The purpose of iPriceCars is to enable buyers and sellers make better decisions using data analysis.
The entire process is skewed in favor of the car dealer and whereas there are a number of products/ services being designed to make car buying easier, iPriceCars actually makes selling a car easier.
So here’s what we do at iPriceCars:
We believe that although about 8 million cars are listed for sale at any given time, there are 250 million cars actually available in the market.
So think of us as kayak.com meets linkedin & Zillow.
Startup/Business
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One sentence description
NextUser is a Marketing Automation and Analytics platform for B2C websites that help marketing tools to work in harmony and increase engagement, conversion and lifetime value.
Business Description
NextUser bridges the gap between Business Intelligence and Customer Relationship Management; providing the next generation analytics and marketing platform that improves the on-line customer experience and maximizes conversion and lifetime value.
By bringing together individual solutions (CMS, email, advertising, etc.), NextUser leverages sophisticated user profiling and dynamic workflows, empowering marketers to deliver automated multichannel user experiences that are timely and relevant, without technical resources.
Vision
NextUser tackles the universal marketer's challenges around user engagement, data management and campaign execution. Historically, companies have relied on individual solutions to affect holistic customer behavior.
By enabling them to work in concert, marketers can deliver messages to the right audience at the right time. Our technology goes a step further, allowing marketers to contextually adapt customer experiences based on key drivers: user behavior, KPIs, engagement, location, device, etc.
Problem
Marketers are challenged with the following aspects:
Solution
We solve the Universal Marketer’s challenge: data management, user engagement and campaign execution:
Startup/Business
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Clef replaces usernames and passwords online. We recognize you by your smartphone instead of anything you have to remember or type to make logging in faster, safer, and much easier.
The New York Times describes logging in with Clef as "magical" and with dozens of sites adding Clef login every day, the experience is spreading to more users every day.
Passwords pit human memory against the brute force of computers — passwords can get longer and more complicated, but eventually we're going to lose. Clef wraps the security of public key cryptography in a mobile app that makes logging in fast and simple. Walk up to any computer and point your phone to be logged in instantly.
After launching in June of 2013, it took 16 weeks to add the first 100 sites using Clef. By February, more than 1,000 sites were protecting their login with Clef, and by the end of March there were more than 2,400.
The only security that matters is the security we use, and, traditionally, additional security slowed down user signups and return logins so marketing and growth teams fought to keep them out of products. Clef escapes the tradeoff in usability by letting a mobile device do all of the work — protecting sites from security breaches while actually increasing signups and retention.
Public key cryptography is used by engineers and security experts every day because it's the strongest way to identify yourself. Clef uses that same standard process, but makes it approachable and simple enough for anyone.
For more information, check out getclef.com.
Startup/Business
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Flickflyer is a mobile app for today’s digital sellers/buyers who are constrained to traditional, time-consuming marketplaces; the Flickflyer app provides a B2B/B2C social marketplace where sellers can easily record and upload video listings from their smartphone, unlike the competition. Our product delivers a simpler, more intuitive and engaging platform that saves sellers time, and gives buyers the confidence to make purchasing decisions.
Key Benefits:
- Use smartphone to record and upload video/photos
- Use #hashtags with listings for easy search and distribution
- Connect w/Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter
- Share on Craigslist, eBay, and any forum via site-generated HTML flyer
- View engagement with video/page analytics
- Communicate with sellers in real-time through in-app messaging
Our team believes in better connecting, communicating, and transacting more effectively through mobile video technology. With Flickflyer - It's as easy as Shoot, Upload, Sell!
The iOS app available at:
Startup/Business
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OppSites connect the government and real estate sectors in a $250 billion annual marketplace. OppSites provide the real estate sector with valuable insight into real estate development opportunities aligned with community goals.
OppSites promotes strategically important, commercially valuable, yet underexposed markets with standardized municipal data, to enhance transparency and efficiency while maximizing investment and revenue. Investors find underexposed opportunities, reduce risk, and get an edge on their competition.
Our product:
Maximizes economic development priorities with speed and efficiency
Implements economic, political and community planning goals
Increases revenue and the value of the tax base
Saves staff time and money with a cloud based software that is easy to update
Increases government transparency by providing data in a familiar searchable map interface
Leverages local assets and investments for greater ROI
Enhances services of planners and economic development organizations
Generates leads
Builds professional networks
Enhances marketing efforts by promoting opportunities directly to an international investor network
Cities & Municipalities
Cities maximize economic development by sharing local knowledge, and promoting development priorities on a national scale. With the click of a button, cities can share valuable information that investors need to know about what they would like to see built, and where. This national exposure helps cities attract partners to development priorities that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Investment Community
For investors, brokers, and developers, OppSites is like having a personal relationship with every city. Investors use OppSites to find underexposed development opportunities and follow preferred cities to learn about opportunities before they hit the market. To reduce risk, OppSites delivers real time civic and market intelligence about strategic opportunities, community goals, priorities, and incentives.
The OppSites team of specialized urban design, real estate, and technology professionals is passionate about solving the economic development challenges facing cities and real estate investors. Our expertise drives the innovation and power of OppSites.
Startup/Business
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Whether it's the pain of team members simply knowing whether or not you have an NDA in place or the pain of knowing which NDA is your "current" NDA and who can sign it, or the mundane mechanics of print, sign, scan, upload - EasyNDA is the solution.
Creat a Single Source of Truth for your team or company. One place to go to know. "Do we have an NDA with...?" "Is our NDA with expired...?" "Where can I get a copy of our latest NDA...?
One source. One truth. Easy and efficient.
Upload the NDA of your choice. Word or PDF. EasyNDA will turn it into a digital template ofr you and your team. Universal access. A single source of truth. Click, sign, send.
Use EasyNDA Templates to create quick, all-digital, NDAs from your tablet or computer. No paper, no pen. Click, sign, send.
EasyNDA creates mutual NDAs, quickly and efficiently. With a few clicks, select, adjust the terms to suit your need, sign and send.
On your tablet, on your phone, in any browser. EasyNDA is all digital all the way. No paper needed. Click, sign, send. Done.
EasyNDA sends completed NDA PDFs to both parties automatically. Store them wherever you like. Or connect your DropBox, Box, or Evernote account and EasyNDA will autmoatically store an additional copy to your cloud. Oh, and we'll remember to send one to your attorney.
Startup/Business
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We bridge the gap between online and physical worlds by providing a software platform that extends the Android ecosystem to public devices.
Location owners benefit by leveraging their investments in online and mobile to optimize their in-location experience.
Developers benefit by having a way to impact the physical world in a way they never had before.
Upload your applications to your private app store:
Push the applications to your touch screens (of any size) or any subset of touch screens segmented by custom tags:
And now you have a native Android app running on networks of public touch screens, with everything managed from a web portal:
For a video showcasing this technology being used in Kroger retail stores, please see our i-wireless case study video below:
Startup/Business
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Enplug's Plug & Play mini device turns any digital display into an interactive and real-time marketing tool for businesses. The Enplug App Market lets businesses choose a variety of content to display ranging from the brand's live social media feeds, product videos, news feeds, weather, and more. All content and apps are easily managed in Enplug's online portal.
350+ companies use Enplug to improve customer engagement, increase referrals, and strengthen their brand. Featured in the Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, Fast Co., TechCrunch, and named CSQ Magazine's Top 10 Innovators.
Startup/Business
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LocoMotive Labs develops award-winning game-based learning applications for struggling learners, including those with special learning needs. The team is developing Todo Math, a tablet-native, personalized math learning service for children to practice early elementary math at home and at school.
Problem/Solution
In the US, 40% of all school children start kindergarten behind grade-level expectation in mathematics. The gap is just widen in the school system - 58% of US children fail to meet math proficiency at 4th grade. Learning math requires many hours of repetitive practice. There are few options to master early elementary math other than spending long hours of paper-based math practice. Traditional paper math services (e.g., Kumon) require heavy adult involvement to encourage children’s practice or to assess children's progress. This setup often fails to reduce child’s frustration and math anxiety.
Todo Math is
Startup/Business
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KidAdmit allows online submission of school application and enrollment forms. Schools can review applications, manage applicant waitlists, and quickly communicate with parents. Parents can search for schools by specific criteria and apply directly using KidAdmit. We are quickly advancing schools by connecting them to today’s tech savvy parent. We are starting with early education with the clear vision to go forward into K-12 and beyond.