NextPlex Private Beta Launches In Rochester, Tracking Entrepreneurial Progress Just Got A Whole Lot Better

Julian Baldwin May 13, 2012

NextPlex Building an entrepreneurial community requires an information architecture that lends itself to bridging connections between experienced and first-time entrepreneurs. This is important because it’s a real challenge for aspiring and first-time entrepreneurs to get connected to the ecosystem.

Most of the time people just don’t know where to begin and so their exploration into the world of entrepreneurship is delayed. To avoid this from happening, one of the most useful things you could do for aspiring entrepreneurs is provide them with a set of information that will enable them to connect with other nearby entrepreneurs.

This information comes in the form of lists of local entrepreneurs, their companies, the events they attend, and things of that nature. Tools like Meetup and AngelList seem to already be taking care of some aspects of this curation process. Meetup is a great way to start a group to find other people with similar interests and maintain a calendar of events. AngelList is a great source of information for finding other entrepreneurs and their companies. One problem, though, is the information needed by the entrepreneur is spread out and not available in one location.

Bringing it all together in one location can have a remarkable impact on how community is perceived. That is the unique value created by NextPlex, a community building platform founded by Lail Brown and Terran Birrell. Knowing both of these guys personally, they are dedicated to helping smaller cities grow entrepreneurial communities by providing a set of online tools for monitoring what is going on locally.

For more info on NextPlex, see this post by Alex Zapesochny.

To Support Or Not Support The NYS Angel Investment Tax Credit?

Julian Baldwin May 10, 2012

Tax incentives don’t always work.

For example, when corporate taxes are slashed by the Federal government an intelligible person might hypothesize that income tax revenues will go up in the quarters to follow. Why is this a sound hypothesis? Since companies have more financial resources at their availability, they can either hire new employees or increase the wages of existing employees. The idea is the deficit generated by the initial tax cut will balance with revenues seen by a growing labor force.

If all goes well, the unemployment rate will decline and lead to increased consumer purchasing power, which leads to increased sales tax revenues. If both income tax and sales tax revenues go up, the corporate tax cut has done its job. But if neither go up, you will see an increase in the size of the national debt. This can result when companies decide not to hire new employees or leave the wages of existing employees unchanged.

In hindsight, tax credits that start out as to-do-good programs, can in fact turn out to be to-do-harm programs. So we should ask ourselves, could any undesirable outcomes result from the NYS Angel Investment Tax Credit that has been under review for quite some time now? It’s certainly possible. But we have no way of knowing until we run the experiment.

The incentive is designed to encourage high net worth individuals to put forth risk capital by allowing up to 35% of their investments made between $100K and $1M to qualify for tax deductibility. What could possibly go wrong? I don’t know. Maybe the incentive promotes whimsical investment decisions and leads to a situation down the road where unanticipated strain is placed on the availability of “smart” early-stage investment capital. This could result in greater difficulty for the entrepreneur to detect meaningful capital providers to help them grow their company.

On the flip side, everything could work out for the benefit of the entrepreneur. Lots of new companies could be started, helping to generate new jobs and propel the economy forward.

Ultimately, this one is for you to decide, but I’ve already signed the support letter so you can partially blame me if legislation is passed and shit hits the fan a few years from now..

New York State ranks second in the nation for overall sponsored research, yet lags woefully behind its peers in seed and angel investment. In Central New York, venture capital investment is a mere $27 per capita, versus the $933 U.S. average. We must do more to regain our preeminent role as a leader in innovation and business growth to ensure job creation and a more diverse statewide economy. Establishment of this incentive will help us achieve these important objectives.

Enactment of an angel investment tax credit will create an environment that promotes private, individual and corporate investment in promising emerging businesses; enables us to better leverage our R&D assets; and keeps companies in New York, rather than be lured by out of state investors who tie proximity to their locations as a condition of their investment.

The proposed New York credit would provide a refundable 35 percent credit on investments ranging from $100,000 to $1 million in qualified business enterprises. The credit would be capped at $7 million per year for three years, leveraging more than $20 million in investments, annually.

The experiences of North Carolina and Wisconsin are strong evidence of the effectiveness of such a credit. North Carolina’s program led to investments in startups of more than $273 million based on the availability of $48.5 million in credits between 1999 and 2007. With the implementation of Wisconsin’s credit, angel investments increased more than fourfold in its first four years, from $5.3 million to $22.1 million.

As the economy improves and New York State takes significant steps to be “Open for Business,” now is the time to enact an angel investment tax credit to breathe life into New York’s early stage tech-based businesses.

Web And Mobile Software Accelerator StartFast Announces First Class Of Companies

Julian Baldwin May 10, 2012

Over the past seven years we’ve seen accelerators sprout up all over the country. Many of them are focused on supporting companies building internet and software products. In 2005, it was Y-Combinator in Mountain View, CA and whose graduates are now guaranteed funding come demo day. In 2007, it was TechStars in Boulder, CO and who now has city specific programs setup (Seattle, Boston, NYC) and growing affiliate network. In 2008, it was DreamIt Ventures in Philadelphia, PA and who now has additional programs in NYC and Israeli.

Where there hasn’t been an accelerator of this kind, until now, is in Upstate NY. In four days, StartFast will launch with nine companies in its first class. Selected from a pool of more than 300 hundred applicants, the startups headed to Syracuse for the summer will be traveling from as nearby as Ithaca and far away as Tel Mond, Israeli. The 13 week program ends on August 16th with a demo day for investors and fellow entrepreneurs to gather around the companies.

Mozzo Analytics (Syracuse, NY and Philadelphia, PA) MozzoLinks extracts all the
links from your gmail. In one glance, you will see an organized summary of your
links, searchable by people, topics and time. All your links, right at your
fingertips.

PadProof (Orlando, FL and NYC) The photos you want, in the palm of your
hand. A proofing app for the moments that matter, built to go anywhere you
go. Preview, share and purchase your photos from your photographer with the
swipe of a finger.

BitePal (Ithaca, NY) BitePal makes getting a restaurant discount fast and easy. No
payments, printing, or registration necessary. You simply choose one of the deals
we offer, provide your cell phone number so we can send you a confirmation
message, and then show this message to the waiter at your table once you are
done eating.

Cayo-Tech (Tel Mond, Israel) ‘Guard My Angel’ is a mobile application that
watches over you without compromising your privacy. Whether you are walking
alone in a dark alley, getting on a cab, or anytime you feel you need someone at
your side, in the case of an emergency, we will notify your family and friends
with the information they need to help you.

RevoPT (Ithaca, NY) Web and mobile applications to make physical therapy more
personalized and more effective. RevoPT brings a simple, personalized, and
interactive home exercise program that keeps patients accountable and
increases the efficiency and effectiveness of rehabilitation. (Website under
development)

Tivity (NYC) A social network for people looking to find, schedule, and share
active lifestyle activities with people around them.

Streamspec (Syracuse, NY and NYC) a next generation, image based Internet
advertising company.

CanVita (Denver, CO and NYC) The visual and evolving CV for the era of the social
web, Canvita showcases your evolution and best work in a fun and intuitive
way.

YouGift (NYC) A celebration platform for gifting anything, combining greetings
and gift cards sent via social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.

Designed for Doers- Rochester Startup Weekend

Kelley Eberhardt April 23, 2012

This weekend software developers, business enthusiasts, graphic designers, and students will come together for a 54 hour event aimed to cultivate ideas and produce a web or mobile application that could form the basis of a business. Open to the public, Rochester Startup Weekend will begin at 5pm on Friday (4/27) and run through Sunday, at the Eastman Business Park (200 W. Ridge Road, Rochester NY). Check out UNY Startups’ CoFounder Michael Kruk with Rochester Startup Weekend co-organizer Javaree Walker discuss the event in this TV interview with 13 WHAM News:

The Attendee Experience: Ideas, Teams, Competition, Judges, and Prizes

Participants will form teams and have an opportunity to pitch their ideas to a panel of Rochester-based Investors, including CEO of Excell Partners Inc. - Theresa Mazzullo, and President of the Rochester Angel Network – James Senall. Prizes will include: a cash prize of $3500, 3 months of free office space, free legal entity formation by eminutes.com, $2500 in marketing services from GTTS marketing.

What (else) you can expect:

An opportunity to learn and acquire new skills. Access to new information, and ideas.

A chance to network with local mover and shakers, mentors, and employers. As well as, collaborate with your future Cofounder, or build your Startup team.

Insightful advice and tips from Serial Entrepreneur/Investor Guest Speakers:
- Aaron Newman (Founder -Techrigy)
- Mikael Totterman (Founder – iCardiac)
- Adam Grossman (CIO – Auction Direct)
- Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks

“The Start” of your startup:
- “Over 36% of Startup Weekend startups are still going strong after 3 months. Roughly 80% of participants plan on continuing working with their team or startup after the weekend.” – StartupWeekend.org

Food, Community, Innovation and Fun

Whether it is your first time joining the conversation, or the fifth startup you’ll found- this is an event you’ll definitely want to attend. This past January, Tech Crunch published an article highlighting the impact of Startup Weekend in 2011. The event has seen over 21,316 attendees, 202 cities, 67 countries, 260 events, 2817 startup teams, over 100+ jobs, and $30M+ total company funding, and continues to grow and make an impact. Do you really need more reasons to attend? Come check it out for yourself!

*Click for event schedule +tickets (ps: Ticket Special: 1/2 off event admission! Students, that’s $24)

Location? It’s on RochesterIsOpen.com

Kelley Eberhardt January 20, 2012

Longtime slogan, “location, location, location” continues to strongly hold true in today’s real estate market. But how do prospective homebuyers find these locations? While the unappealing pastime of opening the newspaper and circling open houses in red ink still exists, homebuyers are increasingly demanding more efficiency. We want details, pictures, specifics- we want the open houses readily available on our computer screen; and we want it now.

Fortunately enough, today’s homebuyers have other options beyond the printed press. RochesterIsOpen.com is a locally based startup in Upstate New York. Founders, Joe Ryan and Patrick Bayer teamed up in January 2011, to bring to you RochesterIsOpen.com, BuffaloIsOpen.com, and SyracuseIsOpen.com. The website delivers and displays every open house listing to it’s users directly from the MLS. For a new homebuyer, this is a tremendous benefit; by simply clicking onto RochesterIsOpen.com, they have access to high quality photos, and videos of numerous open houses specific to our region, within an instant. Free of charge, this service is certainly one every future homebuyer should take advantage of because it will save you time and money every second you use it.

The service provided by RochesterIsOpen.com, is in many ways comparable to shopping online. You’ll save yourself the time of shuffling through the isles by browsing the website first. When you find something you really like, you can then choose to go into the store and try it on before you buy it. The main concept of going to a location because you know what you are looking for and where to find it remains true. The media and video option on the site truly allows its users to get a feel of the home, and an idea of what it might be like to take a walk through it. The site is easy to navigate and is straight to the point; there are no gimmicks or hidden sale motives; simply open houses ready for viewing.

With the real estate market being as tricky as it is, it can be extremely difficult for homeowners to realize the benefit RochesterIsOpen.com holds for them as well. While the newspaper is the “go-to” for listing your home, its important for sellers to realize this is becoming an outdated method. New homebuyers are constantly interacting with the internet and media, and its important that sellers get on the scene. By listing your home on RochesterIsOpen.com, you can eliminate the headache of individuals going into your home for an open house, which they aren’t even interested in. In addition, you are also providing photos and videos on the web that can ultimately broaden your audience. Suddenly, buyers can see your home any day of the week, any time, as many times- not just once, when the open house date is listed.

Wishing you a successful closing, homebuyers please: DO watch this video. Do go to RochesterIsOpen.com. Do have fun, and most importantly, DO meet Stuart Openhaus, the mascot of this high quality and reliable startup.

13 Management Tips For Entrepreneurs

Julian Baldwin January 20, 2012

Anyone who has managed anything knows coordinating the set of tasks needing to be accomplished by an entire group is not trivial. People work at different paces, enthusiasm wanes, unexpected events arise, and so the overall trajectory of any project is subject to a lot of uncertainty. To combat these uncertainties, the number one thing managers need to be concerned with is how to cultivate a working environment that promotes the successful completion of various tasks going on simultaneously – this means keeping employees happy, energized, and wanting to fight to achieve the broader mission because they believe in the company and its goals.

This past Wednesday, I attended Pathways to Entrepreneurial Success as one of the panelists and took notes as Dave Mammano, the founder of NextStepU and BackToLearn, gave his advice on how to manage groups of people. Most of what you’re about to read comes down to making sure the quality of interpersonal life in and around the organization is set to a high standard. The trick is not so much in setting the high standard but rather in how to consistently execute on that standard, especially as the company grows. Not surprisingly, mostly for the simple fact we’re human, entrepreneurs know what they should do but don’t always follow through on what it is they should do.

So here is a list of tips as a little reminder of some of the things you should consider if you’re playing a management role inside of a startup.

Recognition – when an employee does something well, give them the acknowledgement they deserve so they are encouraged to do it again in the future.

Field trips – take employees outside the office during what otherwise would be a normal workday to give them a break from the routine, a chance to gain a fresh perspective, and to let them get to know each other a little better over more casual conversation.

Performance reviews – no one can possibly do better without feedback, so managers should give employees an honest critique of how they’re doing at least annually if not quarterly.

Eat with the best – the philosophy behind this tip is to spend lunchtime eating with A players who can become A+ players instead of focusing on trying to get C players to become B players at best.

Do it right from the beginning – when employees show up for their first day of work make sure they already have an email account setup and a stack of business cards waiting so they can start to feel integrated right away.

Kids – ask your employees when their kids birthdays are so you can send them a card in the mail with a gift card inside or some other small gesture, this way they appreciate the company their parent works for.

Rhythmic alignment – pay close attention to what needs to be accounted for so employees feel they are on the same wavelength as you, especially during times of high stress and deadlines approach.

Live core values – establish a set of core values and stick to them with every interaction you have with employees with the hope they’ll all treat each other with the same level of respect.

How was the weekend – ask this question to employees as they roll through the door on Monday and not to just ask it but rather because you’re truly interested in hearing about how they enjoy spending their free time.

Respect – in some ways going back to live core values, always remember respect is a two-way street that if not handled with care can generate a lot of waste inside of an organization.

Explain why you acted differently in response to advice – some employees are comfortable giving their boss advice on how to do certain things better, so as not to discourage this kind of feedback in the future explain why you chose to act otherwise at that moment in time.

Over the top – when an employee has an anniversary, helps the company reach a quarterly sales record, or does anything worth celebrating in general, makes sure to leave an unforgettable impression as you celebrate, reward, or congratulate them.

No jerks allowed – an employee with good skills and a bad attitude that can spread further throughout the organization is a lot worse for the company than an employee with less than ideal skills but a great attitude and appreciation for learning.

Why entrepreneurship matters right now …and how the west was won

Sean Branagan January 16, 2012

Notorious outlaw and beloved folk hero during pioneering of American West, Billy the Kid was really just a kid just trying to survive.

Some people have asked me if I really think that entrepreneurship is the solution for the recession and the American economic woes we have right now.

My answer is: IN PART.

New business ventures and startups will create jobs, but I don’t believe entrepreneurship will generate the volumes and kinds of jobs that we need to pull our economy out of this current situation. (See Steve Ratner’s charts from MSNBC’s Morning Joe program about this.) It won’t solve the problem of our out-of-control national debt, but it will help develop a new source of tax revenue and create wealth in our country. It won’t cure the affliction of this new strain of structured unemployment that we seem to have – where people who want to work are not skilled or interested in the job openings that exist. We need a multi-purpose plan to solve this. I know this and have written about it. I don’t pretend to have the solution, but I have some ideas.

I believe American Entrepreneurship will certainly help our economic situation in two important ways.

Startups will create new jobs

At first, new ventures will immediately create jobs for the founders who seek to start these businesses. They will be working, creating, producing and hopefully finding sources for income for their activities, in the form of customers paying them, investors backing them and/or competitors buying them out. If they work hard and are lucky, they will create wealth for themselves, their investors and their communities in the process. This is the good side of capitalism. (Yeah, Capitalism!) This will take some time, but we need to do this now, everywhere and often. This I believe.

Over time, these startups will create new long-term jobs. Kauffman Foundation research shows that startups and young companies generate nearly all the net-new jobs in our country in the last few decades. This is true even when factoring in the high failure rate of startups. Some of the largest, fastest growing companies in America right now are young companies. We need more.

Aside from this direct benefit, we need entrepreneurs and their startups to set a new tone in our country: to educate us, to empower us, to inspire us.

Startups remind us of our American pioneering spirit

We love the story of the successful, self-made American entrepreneur:

We have all heard the story about the college-dropout who starts a company with his friends in a dorm room, defies the odds and becomes a billionaire. Yes, that happens.
We love the rags-to-riches stories: Started sweeping floors (or in the mail room) and then goes on to buy out the company or start a competitor. Or better yet, we love the immigrant version of the story: came to this country penniless and builds a business through hard work, tenacity and access to opportunity.
We also love the image of the visionary who pronounces a new world order and then creates a company to make that vision into reality. Hollywood stuff. Love it. It happens too.
Then there’s the story of the scientist – or the genius in a garage – who discovers something amazing, works in obscurity for years and then finally finds success with a little company that grows into a juggernaut in technology or medical innovation.

These stories are just like our American legends of the pioneering days: like Casey Jones, Daniel Boone, Davey Crocket, and Wild Bill Hickok. And cult heroes, like Sitting Bull and Geronimo, Billy the Kid and Jesse James. We love these stories.

But the real pioneer heroes of the West were the men and women who left their lives, defied the odds, overcame amazing adversity and started new lives in ways small and large. For every one of these famous heroes there are thousands who did truly heroic, pioneering things. They were the ones who really advanced our country and made us who we are. And we did it again in the Great War and World War II. Our pioneering spirit is the heart of American-ism; it’s what attracts people to come to our shores.

That’s why we need to encourage American entrepreneurship. We need to motivate hundreds and thousands of pioneering men and women to seek new opportunity and better lives. We need to debunk some of the myths about what makes someone an entrepreneur. (SeeSaras Sarasvathy’s video on this. Great!) There are different types of entrepreneurs and different types of startups. We need them all.

In developing all this entrepreneurship and innovation, we will certainly create new heroes and legends. But more importantly, if we make entrepreneurship pervasive, understandable, supported, and a real option for more people, we can create a generation of doers and activators who can take charge of their lives, their futures and the future of this country. The end result will be a booming economy and a bold new American era, with activated, participating citizens.

This Great Recession can become the crucible for learning, working and innovating. There is a pattern in this American experiment in democracy and capitalism:

Great adversity produces Great American moments. It’s our moment.

About the Author: Sean Branagan (@sean_branagan) is a serial entrepreneur, technology marketer, consultant, educator and speaker on marketing, online and digital media and technology startups. In February of 2011, he started a new role to create a Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Original post.

Learn Faster With Brainscape

Christopher Henty January 12, 2012

Computers and technology provide wonderful tools for discovering new things. With the Internet, for example, we have access to more information about almost anything.

But computers and computing technology—which now include smartphones and portable tablets—are about more than just finding new information. The late Steve Jobs believed that computers could be used to expand the scope of human minds: “Computers are the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds,” he once said. And he believed that we could all use computers to more efficiently learn and process information.

Brainscape, a startup based out of New York City, provides an easy tool to do just that. Brainscape offers digital flashcards that you can view and download on your computer, iPhone and iPad. If you want to quickly learn and digest new information (and actually remember that information), flashcards can be an excellent resource for this purpose. That’s probably why I witnessed a lot of peers at school spending hours upon hours putting in the time and effort into creating flashcards (after all, repetition is the “the father of all learning.”)

With Brainscape, however, you can throw away the paper index cards and instead devote more time to learning the material that you need to learn. Brainscape offers ready-to-go digital flashcards on an array of different subjects—from U.S Geography to Sports Trivia.

For high school students in particular (or anyone that wants to improve their vocabulary), Brainscape is a great way to prepare for the SAT with their “SAT Vocabulary” deck, which has nearly 1,400 prepared vocabulary flashcards.

Brainscape is also perfect for those looking to learn a new language. Studying a language often involves establishing a baseline foundation of understanding—and often, the only way you can get to that point is through constant repetition. What makes Brainscape an incredibly useful app is that it makes that “study and repeat” process a lot easier, as it uses algorithms to create flashcards that change in response to the concepts you seem to be struggling with.

So if you are interested in learning Spanish, for example, after you flip a flashcard over to see the “answer” to a particular concept or question, Brainscape will ask you to rate how well you know the material on a 1 (Not at All) to 5 (Perfectly) scale. Brainscape will then use those confidence ratings to determine how often a card should appear in the deck in the future (if you answered a 1, you’ll start to see that particular card quite a bit until you’re confident enough to select a higher rating).

I tried this process out using the Brainscape app on my iPhone and, needless to say, it really works—as long as you’re honest with your confidence rating, you start to recall things quickly because the app forces you to.

Brainscape currently has over 40 different subjects for download in the app store (paid and unpaid). Check out Brainscape and let them know what you think!

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