What happens when you mix Tech Cocktail with SXSW? A day so chock full of action, it’d make Michael Bay blush. And it should come as no surprise that at the center of this action is some of this year’s most buzz-worthy tech startups.
Beginning at 7:00pm on Saturday, March 9th, we’re thrilled to be showcasing 27 (updated) 29 of the hottest startups from around the world as part of Tech Cocktail’s SXSW Startup Celebration sponsored by CEA and .CO. Attendees will have the chance to interact face to face with the startups, enjoy an open bar, mingle with a few thousand of their closest SXSW friends, and some other surprises along the way (hint: ninjas).
Prior to the Startup Celebration, our startups will be showcasing their products/services during Tech Cocktail’s Power Hour Pitch Jam in front of a panel of high-profile judges; including investors, press, fellow entrepreneurs, and thought leaders. Startups will have the opportunity to win a slew of great prizes* across several categories including Best in Show (early stage & funded), Most Innovative, and Best Design.
* Please contact Zach if your organization would like to be an official prize sponsor
People’s Choice Award
But before the event begins, we want to know what you think – who is SXSW’s Hottest Showcasing Startup? Let us know your thoughts by answering the poll at the end of this post (ends at 11:00pm local time on March, 8th). The startup with the most votes will walk away with the title of SXSW’s People’s Choice Award, and along with it, a slew of great prizes.
The Startups
Alice Receptionist (Las Vegas, NV, Funded)
ALICE Receptionist is poised to revolutionize visitor management for office buildings and commercial buildings. A.L.I.C.E. which stands for A Live Interactive Communication Experience enables businesses to present live customer service video agents on any number of kiosk, video displays and other digital signage devices, enabling 2-way or 1-way video interaction with customers and employees.
BetterDoctor (San Francisco, CA, Early Stage)
BetterDoctor builds web and mobile apps that help you find the best Doctor, Dentist or Optometrist based on specialty, insurance plan and location. Each BetterDoctor is verified and highly rated by patients. Nationwide coverage with 600,000 doctors.
Carbon Audio (makers of the Zooka) (Portland, OR, Early Stage)
The Zooka is a Bluetooth® tablet speaker that was designed to improve the sound quality of your media while remaining as portable as the mobile devices themselves. Its dual 30 mm speakers provide an omni-directional sound field which can fill any room with clear, high-quality audio.
Connect for a Cause (New Orleans, LA, Early Stage)
Connect for a Cause functions similar to eBay, except the inventory consists of individuals as represented by their professional profiles (a la LinkedIn). The platform allows users to select and raise money for any nonprofit in the country. The higher the winning bid for each meeting, the more money goes to the selected nonprofit.
Delve (New York City, NY, Early Stage)
Delve is a personalized, curated list of stories for each employee within an organization, and a private social layer which enables professionals to share relevant stories with their colleagues. It saves professionals time and improves the flow of knowledge inside organizations.
ElectNext (New York City, NY, Early Stage)
ElectNext delivers the political data layer on top of traditional news coverage. We can point to a handful of historical moments in which the advent of new technology ushered in a new era in American politics. In 2012, the game-changing technology in politics was unquestionably ‘big data’.
Evzdrop (Chicago, IL, Early Stage)
Evzdrop is a location-based interest network that lets people stay connected to what’s happening at places in real time. It’s a free iPhone and Android app and Web platform that allows users to “eavesdrop” on places to get an inside look at what’s happening through the people who are present and posting about what’s going on at any given moment.
Fleksy by Syntellia (San Francisco, CA, Early Stage)
Fleksy makes typing as easy, natural and fast on a mobile as it is on a laptop. A huge step up in productivity when using a touch screen. This technology will enable mobile devices to become real content creation devices, and achieve wider user adoption and use.
Guide (Miami, FL, Funded)
Guide turns online news, blogs and social streams into video so you can watch your favorite content instead of having to read it. To do this, there are two things at play. First, the Guide Engine leverages a sophisticated algorithm to allow users to view any website posts that use RSS feeds such as blogs or news websites in a new TV episode style format. As our system evolves, it will get progressively more intelligent at handling the unique ways that authors communicate. Second, Guide then transforms and combines the text, photos, comments, and video media from the blog posts, online news and social feeds that it has indexed, resulting in the creation of a full screen video experience that feels like a news-style TV show.
Homesnap (Washington, DC, Funded)
Fusing unrivaled big data, dead simple home search and a built-in social graph with the magic and fun of its iconic feature – just snap a picture of any home to find out all about it – Homesnap’s mobile real estate platform is unique. From casual browsers to serious buyers to professional agents, Homesnap makes it simple and fun to discover and share homes in the real world or right from your couch.
iLumi Solutions (Dallas, TX, Early Stage)
iLumi brings light to life giving you full control to tune and program the color and brightness of your lighting all through a convenient mobile app. The patent pending series of Bluetooth enabled multicolor LED lights create amazing lighting experiences, pay for themselves in energy savings, and give you an advanced lighting control system that’s as easy as screwing in a light bulb.
InfoActive (Chicago, IL, Early Stage)
InfoActive makes it easy to create mobile-friendly, interactive infographics with live data. The online platform offers a simple interface for users to drop streams of information into gorgeous, data-driven stories. InfoActive cuts the cost of producing engaging content and makes web publishers happy.
Late Labs (San Francisco, CA, Early Stage)
Late Labs is a marketplace to connect developers with side project time with interesting companies that have resource needs.
Medicast (Atlanta, GA, Early Stage)
Medicast is a location-based service that allows users to request a doctor anywhere–whether they are at home, their place of business, or at a hotel–in order that they can receive fast, compassionate, and effective treatment without the need to call a primary care physician and attempt to get a same-day appointment and without the hassle of sitting in a crowded waiting room for hours on end at an urgent care facility.
Memoto (Linköping, Sweden, Early Stage)
The Memoto camera is a tiny camera and GPS that you clip on and wear. It’s an entirely new kind of digital camera with no controls. Instead, it automatically takes photos as you go. The Memoto app then seamlessly and effortlessly organizes them for you. Giving you a photographic memory of your life.
Mr. Arlo (Atlanta, GA, Funded)
Mr. Arlo is the best way to discover, collect and organize travel plans that fit your personality and budget. Using beautiful photos, sophisticated technology and intelligent recommendations, Mr. Arlo simplifies discovery, planning, collection and collaboration to create travel experiences that are unique and personalized, all with a low price guarantee.
Now (New York City, NY, Early Stage)
Now uses its users current location to check the local social pulse. The free iOS app tracks trending concerts, galleries, parties, restaurants and more, and creates crowd-sourced photo albums to show what’s happening. It is a public platform where users can share their best experiences happening in their city and see how popular they are.
Phone2Action (Kansas City, MO, Early Stage)
Phone2Action amplifies people’s voices to effect change. We help advocacy groups, trade associations, candidates, and interest groups engage supporters with in-the-moment calls-to-action. Our mobile solutions increase the effectiveness of grassroots advocacy efforts with our proprietary text-message activation system, giving your supporters the opportunity to quickly engage through their mobile devices. We deliver customizable emails directly to elected officials and we allow you to fundraise, acquire new members, communicate with supporters and transfer to mobile most political activities you used to do via web.
Plotter (Cleveland, OH, Early Stage)
Plotter is the first social network for maps. Not only does it bring much needed features to mobile maps like viewing multiple plotted locations at once, it lets you crowdsource and discover maps from friends and experts. Finally, a map app that does more than search and directions.
ReelGenie (Washington, DC, Early Stage)
ReelGenie revolutionizes family history storytelling through its intuitive, web-based collaborative platform. Users are guided through the process of crafting the story, adding content, and sharing with relatives and friends. The result is a high-quality movie quickly rendered, easily shared, and never forgotten.
Revolights (San Francisco, CA, Early Stage)
The patented Revolights bike lighting system consists of two narrow rings of LEDs that mount directly to each wheel using a series of clips and ring spacers. Lithium-ion batteries, bracket-mounted to the front and rear hub, supply power to the LEDs. The batteries are slim and lightweight, and can be charged via USB. A small, fork-mounted magnet and an integrated accelerometer provide speed and orientation data to the rings. This allows the LEDs to illuminate only when oriented at the front or rear of the bicycle.
ReWork (Boulder, CO, Early Stage)
ReWork helps exceptional professionals find meaningful work by connecting them directly to job opportunities with companies who are making a positive social and/or environmental impact. Both ReWork Talent and ReWork Clients are screened and vetted to make sure that both skills and culture fit are present. Currently, this is done manually and offered as a direct recruiting service, where clients pay a percentage of the first year salary when a match is made.
RollTech (Las Vegas, NV, Early Stage)
Rolltech is a technology company that endeavors to change the way the worlds 100 million + bowlers play, watch and interact with the sport. The concept is simple yet undeniably powerful – give bowlers the opportunity to join the rest of the technological and social media fueled world by offering automatic, real-time score and stats tracking, sharing, challenging and redeemable points earning. Rolltech will also solve a major industry pain point by giving centers unprecedented access to their in-center customers through our Center portal. Rolltech has received funding from angel investors as well as the Vegas Tech Fund, as its 10th investment.
Speek (Washington, DC, Funded)
Speek provides super simple, free and visual conference calls. Choose an easy-to-remember personal link (i.e., speek.com/YourName) for your calls, instead of fumbling for a traditional phone number and PIN. Click the link to start or join a call from your phone, a web or mobile browser, VOIP or SMS. Once you’re on the call, know who’s joined, know who’s talking, share files, view social profiles, and comment, mute and add/remove participants.
Splenvid (San Francisco, CA, Early Stage)
Splenvid provides a way for users to collaborate with their friends and family to create rich and compelling video narratives. Pictures, videos, and messages from different users are automatically consolidated into a single video experience. Splenvid removes the hassles of video creation by making it an easier, and more enjoyable, experience.
Tista Games (Washington DC, Early Stage)
Tista Games is the HBO of Games: a platform for regularly scheduled episodic games that keeps players engaged and monetizing for years, not just weeks. We distribute our games through the cloud (with no download required) and release new episodes like television shows: for example, on Tuesdays at 6pm. By using our episodic model and game development experience, we can validate hits at 20% the cost of traditional game developers.
Yappem (Sheboygan, WI, Funded)
Yappem is a unique, social platform that empowers and rewards users who want to interact, support, and share their daily brand and product experiences with their friends. Yappem users will earn coins for sharing their input and experiences as these can be redeemed for cash (via gift card) rewards from their favorite brands and retailers. Users will become more rewarded and informed customers for sharing their product & brand experiences with their friends and family on Yappem.
Zoomdata (Reston, VA, Funded)
Zoomdata is the next generation data visualization system that easily allows companies and people to understand data visually in real time. We stream process your data into an array of visuals in real time, we are data agnostic, and the product is easy and beautiful.
ZoomTilt (Cambridge, MA, Early Stage)
ZoomTilt is a crowd-sourced marketplace, distribution and analytics campaign toolkit provider for branded entertainment video content marketers.