As most entrepreneurs and small business owners can attest to, issues on social media can crop up quickly. Appearing on the scene nearly as quickly are startups promising to serve as the one-stop shop for managing all things social. The most recent is the aptly named Social Defender, which has more than 500 users despite…
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EnergySage founder and CEO Vikram Aggarwal got the idea for his clean energy information and education startup from a rather unusual place: the lumber yard market. While investing in a lot of different industries for Fidelity, he began working on a big project: consolidating the lumber yard market that supplies custom home builders – “We…
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Dollar Rubber Club, Dollar Shave Club, Trunk Club, CakeStyle, Wittlebee, MeUndies. What do all of the aforementioned have in common? Subscription-based retail. The latest entrant into this space is KLUTCHclub, a health and wellness focused delivery service. Starting at $16 per box, the Chicago-based startup offers Saavy-Boheme African Black Hand Soap, Yu-Be Moisturizing Skin Cream,…
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There are a lot of startups out there that want to make gift giving easier. NoBadGift is universal wish list that accepts donations towards the items on your list, and GiftCaddie is a universal wish list heavily used by moms and girlfriends. Giftiki is a group gifting platform that pools money to be turned into…
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The Daily Muse, one of our former Tech Cocktail NYC showcased startups that provides career and job advice to women, launched Company Muse in February to give job applicants an inside look into companies. “A big predictor of whether an employee stays with a company is based on company culture,” Kathryn Minshew, Founder and CEO…
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The thump of the yellow pages hitting your driveway may eventually become a thing of the past. In April, AT&T sold a majority stake in its yellow pages business for around $1 billion, and the new owner wants to explore digital distribution. According to one equity research firm, the nostalgic yellow directory is being threatened…
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Whether it’s a website contracting out virtual chores (oDesk) or real ones (TaskRabbit), resources abound for entrepreneurs to outsource or crowdsource their most minute tasks. Whereas Elance and its brethren have been accused of leading a race to the bottom, Fiverr beat them all there. “For less than $100 a month, I estimate that I…
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Jay Miletsky was a traditional marketing/advertising guy and self-described big brand person. He had his own marketing agency in NYC with some pretty big clients – Hershey’s, NBA, Washington Mutual. Several years ago, one of his clients, Asco Energy, which is a division of Emerson Electric, wanted to publish videos privately, rather than on YouTube. …
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Crowdspoke launched to be the news site for every imaginable community, with curated content and tweets around everything from iPhone 4S reviews, to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, to even Tech Cocktail. But that vision has been replaced; here’s why. Warning Signs. Late last year, a handful of (competing) news apps launched, and Crowdspoke…
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In my opinion, creating or updating support materials is a total nightmare! Almost every company I know had to create a knowledge base – basically, a manual of how to use their product. But I can almost guarantee no customer ever used it. For a customer, it’s easier to press the Contact Us link to…
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Happy almost-summer! Before diving into the mobile app updates, great news to share if you can’t manage your email inbox – and if you love sports. If you are a typical entrepreneur, your inbox is overflowing day in and day out. SaneBox, makers of the cure to inbox madness, just released a new, very useful…
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When it comes to the recruitment process, sometimes words on a page just don’t cut it. You want to ensure you’re getting the best candidates for the job, but how can you give job seekers a feel for the position and requirements when you’re limited to pen and paper? Enter Ongig, a new job board…
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Online auction sites are all the rage. We’re not talking about the old standby, eBay – we are talking about the rise of a new kind of auction that allows you to bid on people. Two DC-based startups, BizGravity and HugeFan, provide their own unique web-based platforms that let you bid on and win “meetings”…
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Seva Call, which connects you to local businesses over the phone, launched publicly in the DC area today. Washingtonians can now log onto Seva Call and submit a request for an accountant, real estate agent, computer repairmen, mover, or other professional. Based on ratings, call analytics, and other feedback, you get matched with up to…
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Online photo albums are so 2011. Social slideshows that let you share photos backed by music are very 2012. Bringing us into this year is Slide.ly, an instant slideshow creation tool that lets you take photos from all the popular sites like Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Picplz and Picasa, mix them together with music from YouTube…
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Unroll.me launches today to let you unsubscribe from email lists with a flick of the wrist. Just connect to your Gmail, Yahoo, or AOL account, see a list of subscription emails automagically appear before your eyes, and mark the ones to get rid of. You can also click that curved arrow to shoot the email back…
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Two months after the iPad 2 debuted in March, around 40% of users surveyed said... Read More
This post is part of Tech Cocktail’s “Healthy Entrepreneur” series,... Read More
This post is part of Tech Cocktail’s “Healthy Entrepreneur” series,... Read More
After two and half years of helping to foster entrepreneurship, the Startup... Read More
Lux Alptraum is a woman of many talents: writer, sex educator, and CEO. Her... Read More
