startups

Below are five of the newest startups according to Killer Startups for the period ending May 14, 2008. Check out previous Killer Startups posts.

Susuh.de - Service Yourself

Berlin may have more of a reputation for bawdy cabarets, graffiti and a trendy 'It' status as the next Paris/Prague, but its creative endeavors aren't limited to spray cans and spandex. Take Susuh, for example. Susuh is a new startup that caters in services. This is fitting for Berlin, who's seen its share of unemployment problems and has been teetering on the brink of bankruptcy for years.

WhatsUpInRuby - Following the Conversation

What's up In Ruby is the first of a series of niche sites that gives you insight into the conversations going on within a specific context, and then takes you to where those conversations are taking place. They find the best sources, filter out the noise, tell you what's going on, and send you on your way. If you're curious about a certain topic go ahead and search for it. What's up in Ruby follows hundreds of Ruby and Ruby-related blogs to deliver you the latest in conversation from the Ruby world.

Markthisdate - Share Your Favorite Events

Markthisdate is a Holland-based site that allows you to download the calendars of your favorite events directly to your favorite calendar program and thereby keep tabs on your favorite things. There are a number of calendars to choose from, for example, the Beijing Olympics, and you simply have to click "add to my calendar" when you would like to download the times and dates of an event to your icalendar.

FriendFeedLinks.com - What's Hot on FriendFeed

The idea behind the popular site FriendFeed, is finding new and interesting links, articles, sites, etc via your friends. It's an exercise in sharing the Web 2.0 way. Until now, there surprisingly hasn't been any FriendFeed memetrackers allowing a Digg-style popularity index to showcase the most viewed items. However, a clever Frenchman decided to change this and made his own FriendFeed memetracker aptly called FriendFeedLinks.

PlantWire - A Flickr Flower Garden

Gardening gets the 2.0 treatment with PlantWire. The site uses publicly licensed Flickr photos to identify flowers and plants. Currently, their floral database contains over 300 plants and over 6000 images. Plants can be searched for by tags, colors (using the ever so handy color pixel grid), and by name, using the search bar. The site uses both common, vernacular names alongside scientific names picked for the USDA GRIN Taxonomy database.

Below are five of the newest startups according to Killer Startups for the period ending May 9, 2008. Check out previous Killer Startups posts.

3DegreesInc.com - Carbon Calculator

3Degrees is a site that focuses on protecting the environment by supporting clean energy and carbon reducing projects. The name comes from the scientific projection that in 2100 the earth's temperature will rise by 3 degrees Celsius which will cause huge environmental issues that will affect society. 3Degrees is a great site to visit and educate yourself on the impacts of pollution and ways in which you can reduce your negative contribution.

Below are five of the newest startups according to Killer Startups for the period ending May 5, 2008. Check out previous Killer Startups posts.

Friv - Games, Lots of Games.

Like the thrill of beating your friends, colleagues, and family at online games? Or do you just like games in general? If so, check out Friv. Friv may not sound like much, but you'll be surprised. Enter the site, and you'll be greeted with a load of tiny screen shots from a screen full of games. You can drag your curser over each screen shot to learn the name of the game and decide if you want to play. Click on the game that tickles your fancy and start playing.

iLocker - Store Important Documents

The last time you had a locker may have been high school, but that doesn't mean that using one now is anachronistic; you just have to find one to match your needs. Allow me introduce iLocker. iLocker is an online safe to store important text documents. The web application encrypts the text using a password of your choice and their own encryption method. Once the text is stored away, iLocker does not save any information linking you to the locker, including your name or password.

Surchur - Search Multiple Sites

Surchur searcher sans the new fangled web 2.0 spelling—is a meta search engine. It pulls up results from several different search engines, aggregating them into one space for you to read and compare. Using it is simple: enter your query, choose the category you want to search through—all, pages, news, pictures, videos or products and hit Surch.

Nuebbo - Virtual Business Cards

Communication both personal and business wise is largely done on the web now. For many people the best way to get in touch with them is by email so Nuebbo helps you organize your contacts by organizing them as virtual business cards. Have you ever lost your phone and therefore lost all of your contacts? Having all of your contacts at Nuebbo ensures that you will never lose them, that you can always access them and that the information will be current.

Onstageportal - Online Project Management Solution

OnStagePortal is an online project management solution that allows for easy group collaboration on all project tasks. Share documents and track changes, preserve and organize important correspondence, coordinate calendars, assign project tasks, monitor progress, streamline customer communication and customize the dashboard to preserve your company's brand. OnStagePortal is available as a free advertising supported solution or as a well-priced version without advertising.

Monkiri is a new Indian startup that offers a simple way to capture screenshots from anywhere online and blog about them instantly. Monkiri is in the same category as leader Skitch except without most of the Skitch features. Depending on your perspective, the lack of features may or may not be a bad thing.

You install a browser plugin in IE or Firefox and then when you want to grab a screenshot, just hit the browser button, highlight the area and you are done. The screenshot is then uploaded to your Monkiri blog and you can add more information about the screenshot or post it immediately.

Monkiri works with Windows while Skitch is Mac only. If all y ou want is a way to grab screenshots and share them, or for a simple scrapbook, Monkiri works well. Forcing users to use Monkiri for their blog will limit the success the tool has. If they allowed simple publishing to any blog (similar to how Skitch works), Monkiri would potentially see a more rapid user adoption.

Although I am an entrepreneur, for the past two weeks I have also been active press as I covered parts of Ad:Tech San Francisco and Web 2.0 Expo also here in San Francisco. Having done this for the past two weeks as well as a few earlier conferences, I have learned a few lessons and would encourage all entrepreneurs to spend some time working as a member of the press.

Lesson 1 - Know how your company is being marketed especially by your PR firm and people in general

I was shocked by many of the ways in which I was contacted by PR people before Ad:Tech. Below is a real email I received, as you can see I don't have to edit this to avoid naming the company, you will see why.

Subject: Please consider our press release

Best regards, Gaby

And that is literally it. The message had a .docx attachment, the press release in theory I guess, I don't generally open word doc attachments from strangers. Oh and did I mention that Gaby sent this message to all the press at the same time, as one large to: list, so I now have the email addresses of many of the other press who were covering Ad:Tech San Francisco this year.

Where do I even begin with how horrible this is. MORE »

Below are five of the newest startups according to Killer Startups for the period ending April 30, 2008. Check out previous Killer Startups posts.

MyLifeOfTravel - Travel Journal and Research Tool

My Life of Travel is a free web-based travel blogging site that is also designed to be a useful travel research tool. On mylifeoftravel.com, users can keep a record of their trips, by integrating unlimited photos, an interactive Google map, YouTube videos, and of course text. Photo uploads are automatically compressed by the built-in upload too, to save time when traveling. The interactive map is also created automatically, based on a user's journal entries.

Myhappyplanet - Language Exchange Network

Myhappyplanet is an online social network for people interested in learning a language in exchange for the teaching of their own language. This approach allows native speakers from around the world to brush up their conversational skills and learn about other cultures while talking to each other and teaching each other. The service is completely free and just requires a quick registration.

CreateDebate - Where You Can Debate Without Qualms

The beauty of the web is its democratism. Anyone given a computer can profess their views and expound upon the themes that really matter to them. CreateDebate is a new site devoted to, well, debate of course. It gives everyone their very own soap box. You can express your ideas and views and expect to be contested. It's like high school debate, only on the web, and your fellow debaters may be a little bit more well versed in their subjects. Or not. Most of the debates on site take the form of either or, for example Shoutwire or Digg, and Hot Model or actress.

Streamzy - Streaming Music Search Engine

Streamzy.com is a very fast and easy to use search engine that searches for music that can be streamed directly in your web browser making it unnecessary to download anything. They also claim to be working on some additional functionality that will allow users to also search for and stream videos in the near future. A quick test of the site proved that it is very fast, easy to use, and gives an impressive number of results for a wide variety of music.

MeadMap - Mead Does Online Note Taking

You probably recognize the brand Mead from your school days. They manufacture paper supplies, notebooks, and Trapper Keepers, among other things. They've recently taken up the mantle of sustainability and launched an online mind-mapping application tool called simply MeadMap. MeadMap offers a collaborative note taking service with pre-made templates for students to organize their notes for study. The dashboard provides an array of tools available at the click of your mouse.

Below are five of the newest startups according to Killer Startups for the period ending April 28, 2008. Check out previous Killer Startups posts.

JustStolen - Fight Crime, Register Your Property

Thievery is a global problem. You buy expensive electronics, jewelry, etc, and chances are they'll be stolen. JustStolen aims to help you get your stolen items back. The site, which was created by police officers, offers user an easy way to register goods in order to facilitate their recovery in case they become lost or stolen. Once police recover items, they can consult JustStolen to find the appropriate owners.

SHIPtool - Compare FedEx, UPS, DHL, USPS

Moving cross-country, shipping goods for your small business, or even sending Christmas gifts can become quite a headache if you want to make sure you pick the fastest and most cost-efficient method. SHIPtool.com is a new site that will help you to quickly and easily find the best carrier for your needs. From the site's front page, enter basic information like the ship-from and ship-to cities and zip codes, and number/size/weight of your packages.

Jygy - Mobile Social Networking

Cross your favorite social networking page with a mobile phone and you get Jygy. On the one hand, Jygy offers you mobile access to all the major social networking sites, so you can constantly check in on your profile page and update information. On the other hand, Jygy provides services on its own home site. You can network via text message, poll your friends, start a mobile chatroom, or, if you are technologically inclined, create a "groove"- your own mobile service (like a "joke of the day" or television forum).

Descubrerural - Activity Travel Directory

If you are planning on traveling to Spain you must visit Descubrerural. Descubrerural is a site that is dedicated to helping tourists find great accommodations in their price range. When you visit the site you automatically see a search engine where you can choose filters such as location, type of accommodation, and price. You can also browse by tags such as: biodiversity, natural park, families, routes, etc…. When you find an accommodation or activity that interests you, you can click on it to find out more details, a map of the location and the locations rating out of five stars.

GraphicLeftovers - Cash in on Rejected Art

GraphicLeftovers is essentially an online scrap yard for pieces of rejected design. Designers, illustrators and others of their ilk, can use the site to sell off their unwanted or merely unused works to willing bidders for the best price. Buying necessitates that you purchase credits, the lowest denominator being 10 credits for $13, with 26 credits going for $33, at the moment.

Before I rip, I'd like to say that the growth that Silicon Alley Inisder (SAI) has seen since their launch is amazing and eye-popping. In less than a year they have already pushed into the Technorati top 50 blogs online and their traffic growth has been spectacular. In a chat with Federated Media VP Neil Chase, he called the blog an, "amazing story." Hats off to them!

Now let's get down to this discussion about their latest list. They are out today with their, "SAI 25: The World's Most Valuable Digital Startups." Clearly this is a linkbait list and it's worked. Erick Schonfeld at Techcrunch takes a look at the valuations and calls the list a "guessing game." Erick suggests that the list is based on the top 25 private Web companies. Perhaps that would have been a better name for the list but clearly wouldn't be as sexy as to rip off the "startup" moniker.

I asked the CN readers back in January how they define the term "startup" and most seemed to suggest it was based on time, funding, ipo, etc. But c'mon Blodget, Kafka, Frommer, is Facebook really still a startup? Funding in the $300 million range, hundreds of employees, worldwide offices and they are a startup?

I've read all the pages on the site (your welcome Sun) and I don't see any definition of startup. It'd be great to learn how you decided who to list and who got left off. Even at the most basic definition, once you raise a considerable amount of funding, startup no longer applies.

Here are just a few of the hundreds of real startups here in NYC alone: BricaBox, BeenVerified, UpNext, Hakia, Aviary, KickApps, Magnify.net, Snooth, Blip and Mogulus.

Other notes:

• I like how Powerset made it into the Top 50 -- sans the TC pimpings, no one would even know about this un-launched startup.
• Mahalo at $150 mil? Where's the calculation for this?
• Isn't TheLadders a SAI company? Live 4 years, hundreds of employees, etc.?
• No eBuddy, Meebo, Zoho, Prosper, PlentyofFish, CafeMom? I could go on for hours...

It is good to see some non-U.S. companies on the list and I applaud your efforts to try to determine valuations on companies where English isn't the first language. Overall though, I am disappointed and was looking forward to this list to see what the SAI team came up with. Perhaps CN will need to put together a call for the top 25 "real" startups.

Yesterday we took a look at why booth babes are a bad decision for technology companies at a trade show. So what advice would I give to a company which is considering having a booth at a trade show? MORE »

I haven’t blogged much about entrepreneurship lately but I got the “itch” to do so as I was reading a thread of emails on the nextNY list about an entrepreneur who was thinking about hiring a lawyer for an employment contract.

There are a few times that a startup should seek counsel when putting together documentation: MORE »