SendMyBag Launches in US

CNBC's Phil LeBeau reports on the launch of Sendmybag.com in the U.S. The service will ship bags internationally for a fee that's lower than most airlines charge. 
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=

Partake : This App Saves Marriages + Relationships

Married and live-in couples can now share their expenses easily with the first ever Personal Finance app designed just for them. It's called Partake. (https://getpartake.com/) Partake is the first app that lets you sync your bank accounts and credit cards so that you don't have to manually enter each expense. Just open the app, select your bank, and login with your online banking credentials. The entire process is secure and only takes a few seconds. Partake never stores your bank credentials, and uses industry-grade 128-bit AES encryption to protect your data. Your transaction data is kept private, so only you can see them. Your wife or partner will only see the ones you split. Partake, available in IOS and Android, just launched last month and is already getting a lot of traction among Techies here in NYC and in the Valley.

ADstruc : The Future of Billboards

When top OOH (Out-of-Home) advertising execs want to see the future of their business, they visit a 19th Century industrial loft in NYC's Soho, home of ADstruc, the most advanced AdTech platform for planning and buying-selling OOH ads. CBS Outdoor, Lamar Outdoor Advertising and Clear Channel execs have all visited ADstruc. Ad Agency CEOs too. Michael Roth, CEO of IPG, visited and invested $2m in the 4-year-old startup. IPG's Rapport unit now uses ADstruc for all their OOH media buys. "By streamlining the process, ADstruc enables agency account teams to maximize their time spent on client service and results, rather than on Excel, PDF maps, and Photosheets," CEO/Founder John Laramie said. "We built the entire plumbing system for the OOH industry and it’s now ready to connect with other media and platforms." ADstruc currently covers over 90% of the U.S. OOH inventory and is on track to handle over $200M in OOH sales/transactions this year. In partnership with Clear Channel, Lamar, and CBS Outdoor, along with hundreds of independent, regional owners across traditional and digital formats, media buying agencies can fully automate their planning and buying of OOH media. In Q1 2014, IPG invested in ADstruc because it believes outdoor advertising is transitioning “to a more digital channel." Magna Global, IPG’s research arm, estimates the OOH market will grow by 4.8% in the U.S., up to $7.3 billion in 2014.

FinTech Saves Wall Street

Four tech start-ups in New York raised in excess of $100 million last month. Betterment, Paperless Post, LearnVest and Squarespace raised about $25-30 million each in the latest round of financing. The first quarter of this financial year has already seen several New York-based firms raising record sums of money from venture capital and equity funds. Digital Ocean, Integral Ad Science and Kaltura all raised millions of dollars, saying they would like to expand overseas. The hottest sector for VC investing is FinTech. Betterment, which raised $32m in a Series C round, has pioneered "Robo Advisor" investing, where computer algorithms replace financial advisors. While money managers charge 1.50%, Betterment charges 0.15%, saving investors a lot of money. Personal Finance is the fastest growing area, but there are many new FinTech startups that are disrupting Wall Street as well. ACE Portal, which has NYSE Euronext backing, is pioneering a platform for Private Securities offerrings, taking advantage of the new JOBS Act regs on equity crowdfunding. ACE's founder Peter Williams is part of a new breed of ex Wall Streeters who see opportunities at the nexus of Tech and Finance. Ultimately, the FinTech boom could help reshape NYC's Wall Street Financial district. I visited the new BitCoin Center near the NYSE. The proximity of its "mining" servers to the Exchange is noticeable. Eventually, all those financial transactions handled by humans will be totally automated. The Age of "Robo Wall Street" is here.

2013 Was the Year of Native Ads/ CONTENTLY

2013 Was the Year of Native Ads. This new ad medium got only $1.9b of the Ad Pie, but garnered a lion's share of attention from the Ad Trades, Ad reporters and even the FTC, which has Native Ads in its sights Who invented this business? A hot 3-year old startup called CONTENTLY. These fathers of Brand Publishing, (www.contently.com) are now a BRUNI PR client. As NYT's David Carr points out, Contently "has raised $2.3 million in financing, developed a roster of 27,000 writers, grown to 24 employees and has 40 Fortune 500 companies among its clients..." Their motto is "make stories, not ads"...you'll be hearing that mantra often in 2014 on Madison Avenue and beyond.

"What's in your Stash for tonight?" You might overhear that buzzphrase at the upcoming CMJ Music Fest in NYC. NYC's hipsters are downloading "Stash", a hot new iPhone app for bookmarking (or "stashing") and sharing all kinds of NYC Nightlife, Culture, Sports and Film/Entertainment events. It's the first real Mobile Events app to hit NYC. Young New Yorkers hate to be told "what's cool". Events guides/apps (Flavorpill, Thrillist, and even that new one, Sosh) dictate "what's cool.", Stash is total Democracy. The Stash members decide what to "stash" and share with their friends on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Think Pinterest for Events and Culture. Crowdsourced Events advice. Stash is going viral fast. Since launching last Spring, 300,000 NYC events have been viewed on Stash. About 20k events are "stashed" monthly by Stash users. Stash currently covers over 100 NYC area venues. They love Stash too.. During the last 30 days, 8,000 users purchased tickets for venues straight from the app. Stash is designed primarily for the Mobile Experience. Young New Yorkers make their NightLife and Culture decisions -- On The Go. "Good Times are Hard to Find", is the Stash motto.

AgFunder Launches Sept. 23rd

Modern Farmer predicts it will "Kickstart" Agriculture with the "world's first equity based crowdfunding platform for Ag investment opportunities". Only accredited Investors will be allowed to invest in its AgTech projects, which will be thoroughly evaluated and approved before listing. NY-based AgFunder (www.agfunder.com) launches next week. Numerous AgTech companies and investors have already signed up as beta users .http://beta.agfunder.com. Modern Farmer predicts it will "Kickstart" Agriculture with the "world's first equity based crowdfunding platform for Ag investment opportunities". Only accredited Investors will be allowed to invest in its AgTech projects, which will be thoroughly evaluated and approved before listing. NY-based AgFunder (www.agfunder.com) launches mid-September. Numerous AgTech companies and investors have already signed up as beta users .http://beta.agfunder.com. AgTech Investing is booming. CB Insights recently reported that $100m+ was invested in AgTech last year, a record. CB Insights concluded: "Agriculture Technology companies (Ag Tech) have hauled in as much VC and angel investment ($100M) as more celebrated areas like transportation tech (think Uber, Lyft, RelayRides). AgTech has also pulled in 2/3 of the amount that has gone to (and which may evaporate from) App Discovery Platforms." What's AgFunder's key advantage? How can it tap into this AgTech investment trend? Modern Farmer sums it best: "Although AgFunder’s model is based on the FundersClub (just like Kickstarter), if a project isn’t up to par, it won’t get funded. And that’s an important detail," says CEO/Founder Rob Leclerc.

It's the mother of all Hackathons. The AngelHack Global Hackathon. I attended the AngelHack NYC competition a couple weeks ago and have never seen anything quite like it. A small army of devs working for 24 hours fueled by Red Bull. The result was Kronicle, a cool new how-to video app platform that was the finalist. But, it's more than an app. It's a startup that will be chosen along with 29 others around the globe to join the AngelHack Accelerator in SF for two months of schooling. Can Hackathons be the new point of inception for startups? I think so. That's why BRUNI PR is working with AngelHack, co-founded by Greg Gopman and Sabeen Ali, two very smart techies who practically invented this biz a couple years ago. AngelHack organizes hackathon competitions for web developers and entrepreneurs, called AngelHacks, where they can learn developer tools, meet new friends, and receive funding and mentorship for their startup ideas. In 2013, AngelHack will organize 100 hackathons, bringing together 15,000+ developers in 50+ cities. Winners from every city are put through the AngelHack Accelerator Program, where we mentor them for 12 weeks before bringing them out to Silicon Valley to raise investment and introduce them to incubators. Previous winners have gone on to attend Y-Combinator, AngelPad, TechStars, 500 Startups, and others.

LUMINOSO/ TIME magazine called it the "next big thing" in Big Data a year ago. They were right. Everyone is using Text Analytics, a process that derives high quality information from text. The Drug Industry has seen breakthroughs result from Elsevier and other publishers opening up vast archives. Brands such as MARS, Microsoft and 7-Eleven, and ad giants Omnicom and WPP are using Text Analytics A Cambridge, MA based company called Luminoso is spearheading the latest advances in Text Analytics and Visualization.. Luminoso has raised substantial seed capital and has several major clients --- and hasn't even launched yet. With clients such as MARS, Aegis Media and British Telecom, this "graduate" of the MIT Media Lab is already disrupting Big Data. "We go way beyond sentiment analysis to discover actionable knowledge," the company's website declares. "The Luminoso API constructs models of language that let computers understand the meaning behind the words" Luminoso can also look into real-time trends. Luminoso generated attention at SXSW with their Twitter analysis of the buzz around that event. Luminoso (www.luminoso.com) launches on April 15th.

MAIA Yogurt

MAIA YOGURT ----------- Can you use Social Media to build the biggest yogurt brand in the US? We'll find out in the coming weeks as Maia Yogurt comes to NYC. Maia's CEO is betting that he can expand from a handful of locations featuring Maia (including Whole Foods in Tribeca, Fairway in the UWS and other key spots) into a city-wide penetration of all supermarkets and grocery stores... by enlisting the help of yogurt lovers. Maia's huge advantage over Choban and others is Authenticity when it comes to pro-biotics yogurt. 100 million strands vs. 50-60 million for Chobani per tablesspoon. It's the most high tech yogurt around. Started in is apartment in the UWS, Hamilton, its founder/CEO has outsourced production to a PA-based food processing plant and invaded several states (including Conn. and upstate NY) with great success. He personally hawks the yogurt and locations. He doesn't advertise or spend money on PR (not yet). Maia is driven by Social Media and has built a community of fans and followers through its Facebook page and Twitter. Check out Hamilton's latest email instructions to Maia Community fans and you'll get the "flava": Step 1: Facebook post: (and make sure to like our page if you haven't yet!) All NYC friends! The best yogurt around, @Maia Yogurt, can now be found at the Tribeca & UWS Whole foods. Pick up some today...nutritious and delicious Step 2: Twitter: All NYC residents. It's time to try the newest yogurt on the market -- delicious and healthy @ Whole Foods: UWS and Tribeca @maiayogurt #maiayogurt Step 3: Instagram: (download attached photo) Caption: Introducing Maia Yogurt, the best around. Now on shelves at Whole Foods -- UWS and Tribeca. #maiayogurt

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).

NanoRacks Rides Soyuz Progress

The hottest startups aren't all on Planet Earth. NanoRacks, a hot space research startup, had several payloads on the Soyuz Progress rocket that successfully launched Sunday. Kudos to Near Earth, a NY-based financial adviser firm, that is helping NanoRacks down here on Earth. They know how to "launch" Space startups.