Pinblu Launches

Do Manufacturers need a social commerce network for doing business? Miami-based Pinblu (http://pinblu.com) thinks so and launched (earlier today) the first "secure Social Commerce marketplace" with an advanced review & rating system. "The U.S. is the No.2 manufacturer and still has no Social Commerce marketplace for manufacturers to do business", said Gino Pacini V., the CEO/Founder of Pinblu. "We need to take the social networking concept to the next level. When you integrate the purchasing of products and services via a social networking platform, the opportunities that lay ahead for Pinblu are endless", Mr. Pacini said. He cites the success of Alibaba, the China-based networking site for manufacturers. But, unlike Alibaba "wanna be" startups (Tradesparq, Diytrade, HD Trades, Globalsources, Tradekey) that have emerged during the past couple years, Pinblu is charting a global mission. "Our geographic focus is the world, not just China," Mr. Pacini said. "And our business focus is both B2B and B2C". Pinblu is targeting the SMB market, since many small and medium sized manufacturers lack an online sales platform. Pinblu will initially cover several key industries: electronics, jewelry and apparel. Pinblu's "advanced search" engine enables you to search metadata on products/services by category + subcategory, then seamlessly "track/message/connect" the manufacturers of specific products found in the search process. BRUNI PR will be pitching the Pinblu story to our media contacts....

YouNow "ElfYourself"

This Christmas season, one of out of every ten Americans will "Elf" themselves thanks to OfficeMax's "ElfYourself" campaign, one of the "most successful viral campaigns of all time". (AdAge). Since 2006, half a billion people have "Elfed", or pasted their photos on dancing elves. This Season, many will also do "ElfYourself" videos on OfficeMax's media partner -- YouNow, the hot "American Idol" style video platform that now has 2.1m fans on Facebook. NY-based (www.younow.com) now has over 200,000 monthly users, many of whom come to discover "hidden gems" (TechCrunch) among the thousands of amateur performers appearing every day on YouNow. How can you "ElfYourself" on YouNow? "Transforming into an elf is as easy as jumping into one of the Elf Yourself channels and going live! Once your elf transformation is over, easily share it with your family and friends for all to enjoy. After sharing your broadcast, you are eligible to enter the Elf Yourself Sweepstakes for a chance to win the $3,000 grand prize OfficeMax gift card and the $250 OfficeMax weekly prize gift card! Simply click the “Enter Now” button, fill out sweepstakes form, submit and you’re entered! Camera shy" Here's a link to their blog and a video explaining the "Elf" process: http://blog.younow.com/post/35633663998/elf-yourself-live-for-a-chance-to-win

BRUNI PR was in the dark like most of Silicon Alley this week. But, for just nine hours. The biggest challenge wasn't our Net connection (Road Runner, which performed very well) or AT&T (despite 1 our 4 cell towers out). It was the Media, which focused totally on Sandy all week. It's tough to pitch stories that aren't related to Sandy right now... Some Alley companies turned their plight into PR gold. Fab.com, which was run out of CEO Jason Goldberg's apartment this week, garnered a ton of positive coverage. Others, like Centzy, a hot "pricing search" startup, managed to "buddy up" and share office space with startups in areas not affected by the storm.

PhotoLikeIt Launches

BRUNI PR's newest client blows away Pixable and other "keepers" of your Facebook photo Likes. Just launched, PhotoLikeIt (www.photolikeit.com) is a killer FB photo analytics tool for FB fanatics, photo lovers and others who like to keep "score". PhotoLikeIt is "the iPhone mobile app for Facebook photos". PhotoLikeIt ensures you never miss out on the latest and best photos posted by your friends on Facebook. The app automatically updates you on your friends’ latest, most liked and commented photos for today, this week and this month. Unlike Pixable, which pulls photos only from timelines, PLI pulls from entire photo albums. A monumental computing task. Some interesting stats from PLI, which has already seen a spike in downloads since launching this week. Here are some stats on FB photo enthusiasists who downloaded PLI: - 200+ photos are uploaded daily in user network. - 1100+ likes daily in user network on photos. - 300+ comments posted daily in user network on photos. - 40% of photos don't get any likes. - 70% of photos don't get any comments. - 6+ likes are received on average on every photo uploaded. - 1+ comments are received on average on every photo uploaded.

GREENROOM LAUNCHES -------------------- Bruni PR's newest client is Greenroom, which launched yesterday with major coverage in Mashable, All Things Digital (Wall Street Journal) and other news outlets/blogs. Greenroom (www.greenroom.com) is the first social media platform that enables celebs/sports figures/experts to have one on one video and phone conversations with fans/followers/readers. Greenroom pushes the envelope of video platform technology and has signed a huge roster of stars/celebs, including Olympics gold medalist Sanya Richards-Ross, NFL star Ray Rice, NBA star Ty Lawson, author Jackie Collins, comedian Adam Carolla, and others.

Internet Week: Party Like It's 1999

What was my Internet Week highlight? The Webutante Ball 2012 was the must attend event of the week, and BRUNI PR was in the house. I haven't seen Silicon Alley party like this since the heady days of the '90s. The Webutante Ball took me back to the days of Josh Harris and his famous loft parties. Though not everyone was in a gown and black tie, it was a great way for Alley entrepreneurs (and their dates) to celebrate another year of prosperity in the Alley. Reece Pacheco, the founder of Shelby.tv, was rightfully crowned King of the Ball this year. Shelby is one of the coolest video sharing sites around right now. Last year, it was Dens Crowley, of Foursquare fame. Sort of like the passing of the baton from one group of startups to the next.

Accelerators Are The Rage in the Alley

Why are accelerators so hot right now here in NYC?

The simple answer is "time compression".   Accelerators speed up the entire process of startup incubation by offering "mentors" who can school the young entrepreneurs, based on their own expertise and wisdom. 

The best accelerator around, in my opinion, is Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator.  Tomorrow, ERA 2, the second class to "graduate" will demo at the ERA Demo Day.  BRUNI PR, a mentor for last year's ERA 1 class, will be on hand. 

I'll be keeping on eye on STYLYT, which has already received some nice coverage in AdAge.  Basically, it's way for young female shoppers to create their own "collections" in collaboration with designers/brands.

LocalBonus and Dibsie are also interesting and could disrupt shopping. And, Appy Couple is founded by a couple vets of Web development and offers a do-it-yourself app kit.

Here's an overview of the ERA 2 class (from TNW News):


ERA’s new class includes startups from a diverse cross-section of industries, ranging from mobile and payments to fashion tech and e-commerce. But regardless of genre, all of these startups are looking to create disruptive companies in New York. Here’s the full 2012 winter class that will greatly benefit from the accelerator’s mentorship, $25,000 investment, free co-working space and more:

Appy Couple

Appy Couple lets you quickly, easily, and affordably create a gorgeous mobile app to share all the excitement of your wedding with invited guests. The Appy platform populates a mobile app in real-time, and includes features like picture uploads, virtual champagne, countdown, and geolocation.

Cinchifieds

Cinchifieds is the world’s simplest marketplace. Users catalog what they’re interested in buying or selling, and Cinchifieds does all the work, delivering matches directly to you. Cinchifieds makes buying and selling a cinch.

Dibsie

Dibsie makes it easy to find, organize and discover products online by integrating social networking with powerful search capability. Dibsie streamlines the process for discovering and sharing products by allowing users to search thousands of retailers and brands, then bookmark favorites for sharing through a mutually-curated catalog.

LocalBonus

LocalBonus allows consumers to use their existing credit and debit cards as their loyalty card at local merchants and gives merchants an easy way to deploy a rewards program to build customer loyalty.

Pictorious

Pictorious is a photo-sharing game that creates a fun way to explore the world, meet new people and earn awesome rewards and prizes. Pictorious also helps brands and merchants engage with and attract customers.

ShareRebate

ShareRebate is a referral tool that helps mobile app developers get more downloads. The referral tool seamlessly integrates into any mobile app and starts to offer users of the app rewards for recommending the app to friends and family.

Stray Boots

Stray Boots turns the walking tour on its head through its cell phone-guided, interactive urban games in cities throughout the U.S. Stray Boots curates the games and delivers them to customers’ phones via its proprietary software, taking urban explorers on an adventure that’s more fun, engaging and flexible than other ways to explore the city.

STYLYT

STYLYT is redefining the way fashion brands acquire loyal fans. Partnering with contemporary and boutique brands, Stylyt launches collaborative fashion design campaigns that allow any user to customize an item in a collection, vote on user entries and even choose the winning design entry to be manufactured and sold.

Wizpert

Wizpert is a real-time platform that instantly matches people who need advice with experts who are qualified to provide it on a wide range of topics from parenting to relationships and nutrition. Wizpert offers immediate access to a simple, helpful form of human communication. Talking.

WowWombat

WowWombat is an event sponsorship marketplace that provides an easy way for businesses to find and interact with their target audience. A business selects events to sponsor based on the demographics they want to reach and scale they can afford – while event organizers post event details to receive sponsorship.

NYC@SXSW

Who will win the battle for Buzz at SXSW?

The blogs (TechCrunch and Mashable) have anointed HighLight and possibly Sonar.me as the breakout stars for this year. But, my bet is on an NYC startup called Mobli, which will be releasing a new iPhone version of its app in Austin. Mobli is the hottest social media network around that no one has heard of -- yet. This cutting edge mobile app enables users to experience and share event-centric photos/videos and info. DiCaprio and Lance Armstrong are among Mobli's investors (and avid users).

Startups to Watch in 2012

So, which are the young NYC startups to watch in 2012? Here's my picks among the newborns in the Alley:

Fab.com
OnSwipe
Nestio
YouNow
Mobli
Taboola
EventNow
72lux
Shelby.tv
Pixable
Clothia
SonarMe
CityPockets
Solve Media
Lot18
BridesView
LocalResponse
Zaarly
TaskRabbit
SkillShare
Adkeeper
Conductor
CityMaps
UpNext
Centzy
BuzzTable
Kogeto
Kickstarter
CodeAcademy
GirlApproved
HeTexted

What do I base this on? Trust me, I've seen my share of startup pitches over the past year. About 12 NY Tech meetups (about 80+ pitches) , 10 UltraLight Startup meetup (60 pitches) , the ERA Accelerator program (10 or so young babes incubating) , three NY Video Meetups and a couple Fashion 2.0 meetups (and a slew of other meetups I can't even remember from this past year).