October 2010
2 posts
3 tags
Happy yellow website tracks prices; tells you when...
Looking to spend some cash? happybuy.com helps stretch the bling farther:happybuy lets you browse Amazon, iTunes, and the Apple App Store for good deals, and also lets you search for specific things. It uses historical data and clever predictions to figure out whether sale items are actually a good deal or not. The pimp has been looking for ways to expand his personal possessions without breaking...
3 tags
Phone Halo: stop losing your stuff like a crappy...
Today’s startup won’t stop your bitches and hoes from running away, but it WILL keep track of your keys and cellphone!
Phone Halo is a combo physical device + application for your Blackberry, Android, and (soon) iPhone. The idea is pretty slick: the bluetooth device periodically talks with your mobile phone. When they get separated — the phone makes note of it, and records...
September 2010
6 posts
3 tags
NEW: One sexy bitch of a personal video publishing...
What if you could turn a YouTube channel into a professional looking video site with a couple clicks? Well, you can, dawg!
Vidcaster is in private beta right now.
The site lets you import videos from a youtube channel, set a logo for your site, configure a theme, then you instantly get a nice looking functional website showcasing your videos. You can customize, add ads, configure with CSS,...
4 tags
IdeaOffer: a crowdsourcing marketplace with...
IdeaOffer is an interesting crowdsourcing marketplace, to say the least.
IdeaOffer uses real money (via PayPal) to motivate some serious crowdsourcing. I was able to Facebook connect and start using the site immediately. I answered one question about whether or not protein drinks were worth bothering with (which will net me $1.00 if my answer is chosen) and I created an offer to pay someone...
4 tags
Hacker Dojo Startup Fair: Sep 23rd 4pm-9pm
Startup Fair at Hacker Dojo is an event for entrepreneurs and early-stage startup companies to demo their products to angel investors and other entrepreneurs for valuable feedback, customer development, and possible investment opportunities.
Deadline for application has passed and startups are now being chosen. Stay tuned for updates on the event, as well as notification for the next Startup...
4 tags
Measy
Just like walking into the finest brothel, Measy lets you easily shop based on size, color, and “easiness”. Granted, the service is made for electronics and gadgets (not hookers), but we here at VenturePimp are quite pleased nonetheless.
The main claim to fame is that the site makes the process of selection fun and easy. I tried it out, and it was relatively painless and fun...
5 tags
Skydera: impressive feature-set for managing...
Skydera provides a power interface to control Amazon EC2, Rackspace, GoGrid and Slicehost. The systems lets you manage one’s entire cloud infrastructure with powerful tools such as monitoring, provisioning, log management, and the automation of common tasks.
After using the system, I can indeed confirm the existence of many pretty charts, graphs, bells, whistles, and more. It is apparent...
6 tags
Appointment Reminder: Simple idea, amazing...
So, my dentist’s assistant calls me today (one day before my appointment) to confirm like usual. Just as is my typical arrogant-skilled-engineer response to every situation, I think to myself: I could build an app to solve this simple problem.
Then I stumbled on to Appointment Reminder today. They nailed it. Nailed it like a hooker with a self-esteem problem. Well done, team, well...
August 2010
13 posts
The Fridge
The Fridge wants to be your private social network:
With all of the privacy concerns around Facebook in the past few months, it was inevitable that new startups would rush in to fill the perceived need for private, tightly managed social networks. The Fridge is a cute, Y–Combinator–backed contender in that space. It offers up a simple service with a pretty clean interface and the basic...
PopFeedback
PopFeedback wants to make it easier for entrepreneurs to get feedback from their customers:
PopFeedback offers you a floating bubble that prompts users to give feedback. When they click it, it expands into a targeted micro–survey — something like “How would you feel if this feature was removed?”. Assuming it’s not too invasive, it’s a pretty good idea. Collecting feedback from users...
MessageParty
MessageParty lets you start a location–specific chat room:
This is an iPhone app that lets you create a chat room that’s targeted at a specific location, like a classroom or a concert venue. You just sign in with Facebook and away you go. You can see what conversations are happening nearby, and there’s also a room for the city you’re in right now. It’s pretty neat. At...
Barcode Hero
Barcode Hero wants you to shop with your friends:
The idea here is that you install a barcode scanning app on your iPhone (Android coming soon) and use it next time you’re out shopping. You’ll get easy access to price comparisons and product reviews — ho hum, I know. The neat twist is that Barcode Hero adds some interesting social features to the standard price comparison model.
...
Hello
Howdy, folks;
There will be no entry today — The Pimp is feeling under the weather and could do with starting the weekend early. See you Monday.
Nicereply
Nicereply wants to help you improve the emails you send to your customers:
Now, I generally try to focus on consumer web sites here on Venture Pimp, but Nicereply is too good of an idea to pass by. The idea is that you, writing emails for your company, add a unique link to your emails that prompts recipients to rate the message. They click that link and are able to rate your email (1-5 stars)...
jummpp.in
jummpp.in wants to help you figure out something to do:
The idea here is that there’s probably lots of things you’d be into doing, but you’re not married to any of them. jummpp.in makes it easy to suggest potential things to do and share them with your friends on Facebook. If the idea has any merit, your friends can say they’d be into it. When the time comes, you can set...
Readshout
Readshout wants you to share what you’re reading:
Just drag the bookmarklet to your browser’s toolbar, and whenever you come across something interesting, Readshout it to share it with the world. Whenever you’re looking for something interesting to read, hop on over to the web site and see what’s hot.
The idea here is a bit like Readness — users like you and me share...
OhLife
OhLife wants you to remember your life:
It’s sort of like a private blog, but very lightweight and with an interesting hook: rather than you going to OhLife whenever you feel like writing about something, OhLife sends you an email every night at 8 PM, asking you what you did that day. The idea is that a quick email is pretty easy to write, even if you’re not in front of an actual...
Whereoscope
Whereoscope wants you to know where your kids are:
Whereoscope is an iPhone app that monitors your kid’s current location, and lets you see where they are and where they’ve been. You can set up alerts of various sorts to let you know when they make it to a pre-defined destination, or if it seems like they’re not updating anymore, and you can even have it let you know if they...
KeyTweet
KeyTweet wants to make sense of your Twitter stream:
KeyTweet rummages through your Twitter stream and tries to figure out what the most interesting links are — things that many people are talking about. At first glance, it looks like it does a pretty good job: two of the things it highlighted for me are wave and marriage, and that seems about right.
The interface is straightforward, if a...
IActionable
IActionable wants to bring game mechanics to, uh, everything:
IActionable is offering an API for developers to build around that makes it easier to add game mechanics to their apps. Events are pushed into IActionable, which keeps tracks them for users and awards achievements at certain thresholds. Sites can pull a complete list out per user and display them. It’s pretty straightforward....
SmartPointment
SmartPointment wants to change the way appointments get made:
Have you ever tried to schedule a meeting with a busy person using Google Calendar? Isn’t it great that it can find a free block of time that works for both of you? SmartPointment is kind of like that, but for businesses — hair–dressers, mechanics, that sort of thing. Businesses can push their available appointment times to...
July 2010
12 posts
The Great Movie Experiment
The Great Movie Experiment is a fun way to rediscover movies you like:
It’s sort of like “Am I Hot Or Not” (warning: extremely dated reference!) for movies. You’re shown the posters for two movies that are duking it out for your praise, voting for one of the two being the better movie. (If you haven’t seen one, you can click “I Haven’t Seen It”...
Transloadit
Transloadit wants to raise the bar on file uploads:
File uploading is one of those things that’s completely integral to a lot of web experiences, but very difficult to do well, and not fun at all for developers to spend time on. It’s hard to debug, hard to test, and hard to give progress feedback to users. Transloadit has put the time into making a fantastic uploading service so...
2 tags
DODOcase
Special thanks for Daniel Brusilovsky for this guest post while The Venture Pimp was on vacation.
DODOcase is the ultimate iPad case.
There are tons of iPad cases, so how do you know which one is good. Simple — you get the best one. Check out DODOcase, a case made out of bamboo, and book bindings, the DODOcase is definitely worth your money.
DODOcase has been praised by many, including...
ChumpChump
ChumpDump blurs the line between game and handy-dandy utility:
The idea here is that we all follow too many people on Twitter, and most of them are just wasting our time. ChumpDump presents one of the people you’re following and asks you to save or dump them. If you dump them, you’ll unfollow them immediately. It’s a fun way to cull your follow list. Interestingly, you can see...
mergefm
mergefm wants you to get in on the music-creation process:
Here’s a cool idea: take the sort of behind-the-scenes content you’d usually get on special edition concert DVDs, and get it live on the web. Hrm.
That’s sort of what mergefm is like. You can browse participating artists and hear songs as they work on them, starting with rough demos and moving through revisions until...
Bolder
Today’s challenge: find out how Bolder wants you to make your community a better place.
The idea is sort of like GroupOn mixed with, uh…well, I’m not quite sure. Every few days, a new challenge will appear, sponsored by a local business. If you do the challenge, you can claim a reward. Today’s challenge is to buy local, and if you do that, you can get a free chocolate from...
CuteFund
CuteFund is a mutual fund and a game:
Well, right now, it’s actually just a game — until they get licensed, CuteFund can’t take your money. But here’s the pitch anyway: you invest your money in CuteFund, where users like you vote on stocks, saying whether you think they’ll beat the standard S&P 500. You can say how long you think your forecast is good for, and...
bln.kr
bln.kr wants you to share the music you make (and hear music made by other folks):
The primary audience of the site is artists who want to spread their music around — something like mp3.com or MySpace were, back in their respective heydays. All you have to do is upload your tracks, and away they go. bln.kr tracks how many plays and downloads each track gets, and has popular tracks organized by...
Trendero
Trendero wants to help you be a trendsetter:
Have you noticed a trend picking up? Are people constantly whipping beverages out of their pockets or endlessly talking about some sort of supernatural-themed novel? You should let Trendero know.
The idea here is that you can report up-and-coming trends, verify that they’re actually happening (“Seen it!”), and most interestingly, find out...
Startup Digest
Today’s entry is a bit meta, but it’s a gem worth sharing: StartupDigest is a Twitter feed and weekly email newsletter that can keep you in the loop about startup news and local events.
The weekly newsletters focus on local information, while the Twitter feed is all about general startup news. The local info is available for a few dozen cities now, with more launching all the time...
Mixest
Mixest wants to bring you indie music you’ve never heard before:
It’s a super simple music discovery service that intentionally has very few things for you to adjust. As soon as you hit the site, music starts playing. If you’ve heard it before, click the More Obscure button to make sure you never hear it again. If you like something, click the heart so can find them again...
Vacation Day
In celebration of Canada Day yesterday and Independence Day on Monday, your loyal Venture Pimp is taking today off. See you next week.
June 2010
13 posts
Tips and Trip
Tips and Trip doesn’t want you to forget all those little places you discovered n your vacation:
The idea is pretty straightforward: on any vacation, there are always big ticket items you’ll remember forever — say, visiting Disneyland, or the hotel you stayed in. But most trips are made up of lots of little discoveries, nifty places you really liked and would like to see again. Tips...
Appswell
Appswell wants anyone to be able to help make an iPhone app:
The general idea is that lots of non-developers have good ideas for interesting iPhone apps, but they don’t have the resources to bring them into existence. Appswell lets people post descriptions of their ideas that other people can vote for or comment on. The site is simple, but it gets the job done. More interesting is the...
Fitalytic
Fitalytic wants you to start exercising and tell the world about it:
The idea here is that whenever you do any exercise, you tweet about what you did. If you follow the generous formatting rules that Fitalytic supports, it’s able to pull that data out and make pretty charts showing your progress over time. The front page of the site shows recent updates from other users, so you can really...
Feedlooks
Feedlooks wants your RSS feeds to keep their personalities:
Feedlooks is a new feed reader that does something pretty novel: rather than showing your RSS feeds as amorphous blobs of anonymous text, it shows you each article as it would appear had you visited the actual site. The goal? To let the visual design of blogs shine through, even for feed readers. Unrelated side effect? Readers still...
Snubbr
Snubbr is an opinionated shopping site:
Users post questions (“What are the top 3 Bluetooth headphones, and why?”), and Snubbr forwards the questions on to so–called experts, who respond with their recommendations. The answers are generally well–written, and Snubbr links to sites like Amazon so you can buy directly from the site.
So, what makes an expert? Snubbr looks at online authority —...
BlipSnips
BlipSnips wants your videos to get to the good bits:
BlipSnips is offering up a friendly user interface for linking to particular sections of YouTube and Vimeo videos online. You can add as many links as you want, and the just show up in a list under the video, where you can jump to them, copy a direct link for sharing, or “Like” on Facebook. You can even embed your BlipSnips video into your...
Wedoist
Wedoist wants to bring game mechanics to project management:
Wedoist is a light-weight project management app with some game-like features to motivate you to engage with it: there are badges you can earn for completing a certain number of tasks, for example, and there’s a delightful chart of daily progress on all pages. When I’m using Wedoist, I want that chart to go up and to the...
Mouseflow
Mouseflow helps you see how people are using your website:
It’s a tiny snippet of JavaScript code that you add to your website and records what people do there. Once it’s installed, you get a dashboard showing real-time user activity. You can see heatmaps to see where people are clicking, or viewport heatmaps to show what parts of your site are actually visible on-screen.
User...
TheaterAdvisor
TheatreAdvisor is sort of like Yelp for live stage shows:
The site could use a bit more visual polish, but the layout is quite functional. When you first hit the site, you see recent reviews, and if you’re just browsing, it’s easy to narrow things down to a specific area or theater. There’s a list of shows so you can see what’s playing, and a list of theaters so you can...
Readness.com
Readness.com wants to find news for you:
They’ve adopted the “scrobble” idea from last.fm: scrobbling indicates your interest in something, which tells the site that it’s relevant to you. You install an extension (Google Chrome only, at this point), which adds a button to your browser toolbar for sharing the page you’re currently reading. Pages you’ve...
Brightspoke
Brightspoke is building a one-stop shop for bike enthusiasts:
I love the layout of the front page: it’s easy to read, tells me what the site is for, and exposes all of the available functionality — and that’s saying something. Brightspoke has a lot to offer: in addition to a searchable database of bikes, there’s a lots of educational material to clue you into what matters...
TestSoup
TestSoup wants to be king of the flash cards:
It’s an online flashcard system with a library of pre-made flashcards for sale. The cards are well put together, and cover things like GMAT, GRE, and the SATs. Best of all, if you want to study on the go, they’ve got iPhone, Android, and Blackberry apps.
TestSoup definitely has one thing going for it: speed. The interface is quick to...
CookUp Books
CookUp Books lets you create personalized books for your kids:
It’s actually a very interesting idea: you start off with a pre-made book and then personalize it by changing text and adding your own pictures. When you’re done, they print it and mail it to you. Voila! Before you know it, you’ve got a book that’s customized for your kid. They have quite a few books to...
May 2010
12 posts
Plenty of Tweeps
Plenty of Tweeps is taking 140 characters and trying to make matches:
Basically, it’s a meta-site built around Twitter that provides some functionality that it lacks: it makes it easy to find eligible folks who live near you, put up some photos of yourself, and have private conversations that aren’t constrained by Twitter’s 140 character limit.
If you can look past the name,...
KittehRoulette
It’s the Friday before a long weekend, so let’s have some fun: KittehRoulette offers up an addictive, never-ending stream of adorable kitties:
If you go to the site, you’ll see a cute cat video and a big “next kitteh” button to move onto the next one. You won’t want to stop clicking — it’s the perfect site for browsing from your iPad.
The site may be...
nowmov
nowmov is a real-time stream of videos that are being passed around the Internet:
You’re presented with a never–ending playlist of YouTube videos, pulled from public tweets (and other sources too, someday). You never know what you’ll see: music videos, silly memes, news clips — it depends on the mood of the day. If a major world event is happening, things are much more likely to be...
micromobs
micromobs lets you create build group discussions around a topic or social group:
Once you sign up and join a group, you’ll see all of the activity shown in a Facebook-style stream. Messages can have links and photos attached to them, and you can search through messages if you’re trying to find something in particular.
The most popular topics and users are shown in the sidebar,...