Today the 2009 Techstars had their chance to show investors and the community the results from the intensive mentor-driven thirteen week program. Below is a summary of each of their eight minute presentations:
TakeComics seeks to be the iTunes of graphic novels. Users can search and purchase digital versions of their favorite comics from an online store and keep and organize these comics in a personal library. The company’s technology provides a positive online viewing experience on a computer screen or mobile device, including the options to expand text size or include subtitles. Along with simply reading a comic on a device, TakeComics provides many bonus features such as context sensitive menus that appear when a character is selected. Through this menu, a reader may access more information about the character (e.g. the Wikipedia entry) or buy additional comics or merchandise related to this character. The site also includes social features allowing users to maintain profiles and see how comics were rated by friends. TakeComics has developed a methodology to import even the most complex comic into digital format in a maximum of two hours – a service it will provide at no cost to publishers and represent the content in pertfect pixilation. The company is currently working to develop relationships with large and independent publishers.
Next Big Sound provides online music analytics and insight. The company provides online tools that show the key digital media metrics for bands – views, plays, fans and mentions – in a graphical interface (similar to what a site like Compete.com provides for web analytics). These metrics are currently not available in aggregate across different platforms anywhere else on the web. While online engagement and interaction are becoming more and more important to an artist’s success, reporting companies are still focused in the offline arena on metrics such as CD sales radio plays. According to CEO Alex White, when band managers or record label executives see witness the company’s visualization of data they all ask the same question while pointing to the highest peak on a graph: “What happened here?” Helping to answer this question is where Next Big Sound hopes to generate its revenue. Users will be able to get deeper insights via paid subscriptions (e.g. overlaying press mentions on a graphs of views for a particular band) than with the free version.
TimZon offers a simple way to share visual feedback online. Instead of attemting to explain a problem using only text in an email, a user on TimZon can capture a specific screen and use whiteboard tools to point out or highlight specific areas, all while providing an audio or video explanation of her questions or comments. Since the recipient can view the message at any time, TimZon’s product provides greater convenience than online meeting tools. An initial target market for TimZon is online customer support where TimZon can lower cost and save time while increasing satisfaction. Support professionals can record messages and send them to users, eliminating the confusion of trying to explain complex features via text and the resulting back-and-forth necessary to clarify. Companies may also allow users to provide feedback or ask questions via TimZon. The product is a SaaS model requiring no user installation and is sold on a three tier subscription model, and also offered in white label version. The company has 800 registered users to date.
SendGrid provides a solution for transactional emails, or the correspondence generated by web applications (e.g. Facebook friend notifications, Amazon shipping alerts, airline booking receipts). The company, boasting nearly 100 paying customers and 3 million emails per day, offers enhanced value over other transactional email options (marketing email focused companies or software) on several important vectors. First, SendGrid improves deliverability by an average of 20% through its expert system which is optimized for each specific ISP. The solution, which sits between the company trying to send the email and the customers, is also more scalable than an internal solution. SendGrid also makes it easier to customize the emails – adding such features as a company logo and links – and provides enhanced analytics to see the actions customers are taking with emails upon receipt (clicking, marking as spam). The product is offered on a tiered subscription model with a monthly fee and a cost per email.
Vanilla has provided open source forums since 2005 with the aim of creating a basic forum platform upon which plug-ins and customized backgrounds can be applied. To date, the company has tracked over 300,000 installations and the development of 450 plug-ins. Based on feedback from customers, Vanilla focused the enhancements for Vanilla 2 in two key areas: upgrading to today’s web and providing a hosted version. Vanilla 2 possesses a slicker interface that now includes features such as allowing users to click on and view specific conversations without refreshing the page. Similar to Wordpress, the company now provides its free open source product for download at Vanillaforums.org and offers a hosted version at Vanillaforums.com. The hosted version allows setup with essentially no technical savvy and generates revenue for the company in two ways: ad revenue on a free version and paid upgrades for additional features (e.g. customized look, single sign-on). The company also sees opportunities for revenue via affiliate partnerships and VIP hosting and services for large forums.
Rezora facilitates online marketing for real estate brokerages and agents. The company’s product provides a drag-and-drop interface for agents to create newsletters for their clients. Through Rezora, an agent selects a template and then searches and selects MLS listings that are placed within an electronic newsletter. Property photos and details are automatically laid out. The agent can also add links to other relevant content (e.g. articles from CNN.com or local media sources). The agent then selects individuals or groups to receive the email. After sending, the realty professional can access enhanced analytics to better understand which types of properties or specific listings each recipient viewed, allowing for highly targeted follow-up service. The company is currently focused on signing up brokerages – for which a customized branded product would be provided – as well as individual agents in cracking the $7 billion real estate advertising market.
Everlater offers an easy and fun way to record, share, and discover travel. There are many sites that allow users to share parts of their trips – flickr for photos, twitter for real time commentary, group emails for longer form writings. But each of these sites lacks the capabilities to create a cohesive narrative of trip with all relevant content stored in a single location. Everlater seeks to provide this integrated repository for trip related online content. The Everlater site also makes it easy to share this content via other networks like Facebook. The company is currently seeking to partner with tour operators who would be allowed to place branding on pages created by users from their tours. Other revenue streams include travel advertising, which pays a hefty $80 CPM, and merchandise including post cards and scrapbooks that users will be able to create from their Everlater content.
RETEL Technologies allows restaurants and retailers enhanced ability to monitor the quality and integrity of their services and employees using their existing security cameras. Upon receipt of a store’s video, RETEL has people tag the videos using a proprietary workflow solution. Once a video is tagged, custom reports are generated noting a variety of metrics such as store cleanliness or the location of employees within the store. A single store open 24 hours per day generates over 5000 hours of video in a month creating the need to identify specific time periods of video. When provided with a RETELL report owners and managers can zero in on particular time periods, saving many hours of manager time while improving the effectiveness of the video system. RETEL, which has worked with a handful of large retailers to date, offers its service for $199 per month per location. The company sees potential to partner with two types of companies offering complementary services – surveillance providers and mystery shoppers.
Spry promises “comprehensive insight for software projects.” The company’s tool provides an integrating tool for the myriad systems used in creating and tracking a software project (e.g. bug tracking, source code, planning software, etc.). Spry integrates the updates from all these systems into a single real time activity stream, much like a Facebook news stream. The product also provides the easy ability to zero in on a particular area of interest – for example only activity related to bug tracking, or only the tasks relevant to a specific individual. Spry also offers flexible reporting with varied levels of detail such as a complete activity report for a CTO or a broad view of what pieces are on-schedule versus delayed for a CEO. In providing a “unified project view” co-founder Chris Kilmer believes the company can alleviate the bungled communication that leads to the delay or failure of many software projects. The company’s product, which has been in beta for six weeks, is sold on a tiered subscription model.
Mailana seeks to differentiate a user’s inner circle on different online networks – those with whom he has strong relationships and communicates frequently – from more tangential members. Through Mailana, users would be able to see this inner circle across different networks visually and reach out to the inner circles of their trusted friends. Developed by Apple veteran Pete Warden, the application is currently in alpha testing for Twitter, Gmail and Outlook. Warden believes that these closer trust relationships can provide stronger connections than more general networks where the strength of a connection is largely ignored. Warden believes Mailana will allow users to “share what really matters with people that really matter.” The revenue model is still in development but enhanced ad targeting is expected to play a role.
