The startups formerly known as The Guys in the Booth and twistcone have joined forces to form a new company called Playtend.
The Guys in the Booth, founded in 2009, were a team of two iOS developers while twistcone, founded in 2010, was a small creative studio. The merger brings together founders Christopher Taylor and Victor Johnson from The Guys in the Booth and Zara Gonzalez Hoang from twistcone as three new partners under Playtend.
Being a home owner is tough enough in this current economy and finding contractors to do home improvements or remodeling shouldn’t have to stress you out even more. Finding a home service provider you know, like and trust can be daunting, but local Minneapolis startup Referral Buzz might have the answer to your woes.
There are a vast number of review sites that provide information and feedback on potential providers. But exactly how much confidence can you put into anonymous Internet reviews? After all, most review sites let just about anybody post a review. Even sites like Angie’s list, who promotes that reviews “come from real people like you,” aren’t entirely useful if you’re looking to get firsthand feedback from people you both know and trust.
Minneapolis-based mobile software developer Livefront recently unveiled a new mobile device testing lab called FinalPass.
The local resource contains a growing inventory of mobile phones and tablets for testing iPhone, iPad, Android, and Windows Phone applications on a variety of form factors. The lab was put together to supplement the barrage of testing already done by most developers on emulators.
No interview procedure is perfect. Shifting through endless piles of resumes is time consuming and that’s before the actual interview process. As a means of vetting the un and under-qualified, many employers are seeking more efficient methods for pre-screening applicants.
Hyier is a local beta startup providing on-demand video recording service for companies to supplement and streamline their current interview procedure. Co founder Derek Buschow had the idea from experiencing firsthand just how flawed the interview process can be when he was applying for jobs while still in college. Now an entrepreneurship graduate from the University of St. Thomas, he dreams about making a difference in the hiring industry.
While not meant to be a replacement for interviewing but rather an effective means to pre-screen applicants, Hyier lets companies create a job in the system, including questions for individual candidates. The applicants are notified via email and using it’s web interface, can record a response to be sent directly back to the employer. A quick demo provided by Buschow showed an extremely simple and smooth interface that makes it easy to use for both parties to engage.
Social networking has become a global phenomenon. With networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (amongst many others) — people are able to interact with humans across the globe from the comfort of their own home 24/7.
But with all these new means of digital communications, what happens to the real world interaction?
Whooznear is a new mobile startup founded by Richard Perry with the intention of bringing new people together by connecting them through a social platform. Although smartphones have become a catalyst for decreasing face-to-face communication, Whooznear is actually targeting smartphone users to increase real person to person physical communication.
Shortly after releasing version 1.0 of their iPhone app last December, local startup DriveAlternatives has just launched an Android version of their alternative fuel station database.
Finding alternative fuel can be difficult enough in the city — especially when traveling long distances, one must always be mindful of when and where their next refill will come from. Founded in 2009 by Kavi Turnbull (CEO) and Ben Talberg (CTO), DriveAlternatives claims to have one of the most complete and up-to-date databases of alternative ( E85, Electric Vehicle Charging, Biodiesel, CNG, LPG, Hydrogen ) fuel stations.
DriveAlternatives mobile apps make it easier for green drivers across the nation to find the right fuel at the right time, and with Google’s Android now the number one smartphone OS, they’re making it even more convenient.
Livefront, a Minneapolis web and mobile software development firm, has spun off a private investment fund called Crowdwise Equity.
The fund trades stock equities on public exchanges, but is unique in that the fund’s trading strategy and positions are determined exclusively by software.
The investment software that forms the basis of the fund has been in development and testing for three years inside Livefront. The software works by gathering investment and sentiment data across the web and then uses various models and pattern analysis to reveal trading opportunities.
“We’re excited to spin-off a company from something that for so long was just an idea,” said Mike Bollinger, owner of Livefront. “We have been working on this investment strategy for a long time as an internal side project, and we’re excited to see where it goes outside of Livefront.”
The software was written by Sean Weiser, Sam Kirchmeier, and TECHdotMN co-founder Mike Bollinger—all members of Livefront and now partners in the new fund. In addition to the founders, the fund currently has one outside investor. “We’ve seen a strong interest in this venture, and we’ll be talking to people interested in investing in the fund late spring 2011,” said Mike. Investors must be accredited and will be accepted by invitation only.
As a sister organization of the Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA), the Minnesota High Tech Foundation (MHTF) was created in 1985 to promote and support Minnesota’s technology-based economy through education in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
To fulfill the mission of strengthening Minnesota’s future technology workforce and encourage high standards in education, scholarships are available for students in STEM disciplines. At this years Tekne Awards, nearly 1,000 watched as nine beneficiaries each received $2,000 MHTF scholarships to assist their pursuits of STEM knowledge.
Applications for the next round of general $2,000 STEM scholarships have closed, but thanks to a generous donation by Thomson Reuters, the Minnesota High Tech Foundation is offering one final $10,000 scholarship specifically for undergraduate Computer Science majors.
In the wake of Facebook privacy issues, one Minnesota startup aims to bring meaning to the phrase “control of your information.”
Most people have several email addresses, at least two phone numbers, one current address (along with numerous previous ones) and somewhere between five and twenty online accounts that this information is scattered across. If an address or phone number were to change, the information in those accounts would become stale. Because of this, information handled this way can become unmanageable and people tend to lose control of it. Gimigo was created to overcome this very problem.
It was around 1996, when the Internet was just becoming mainstream, that online privacy began to enter the conversation. Then, in 2000, a $1.7 billion merger threatened the sanctity of personal information when DoubleClick, an Internet advertising delivery network, acquired consumer data-collector Abacus Direct. The fear was that that the combination of Internet surfing data and personal consumer habits would lead to online profiling.
It was throughout this era that Jeff Giesener began to envision a different relationship between Internet advertisers and web surfers. Giesener, a VP of DoubleClick who reported to the CEO, fundamentally believed in the ethics behind protecting the consumers’ personal data. He also saw the the commercial value in enabling the same consumers to retain their digital rights and control their online shopping preferences.
It might be educational for the other entrepreneurs in the community to know this isn't YC and the s...
Author: Casey AllenGood for you... congratulations! The Twin Cities is a great place to lead this charge. If you can ...
Author: Darren CoxCongrats, Heroic!
Author: Dana SeversonJustin and team rock.
Author: GraemeThickinsCan you elaborate on that?
Author: Jeff Pesek