Venture Pimp

Happy yellow website tracks prices; tells you when to buy stuff; news at 11. (happybuy launches today!)

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 10:30:59 -0700

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 the Pimpy Bank, and this looks like a good place to check. I’m adding it to my list of sites for cheapskates, and I’ll be hitting it up on a regular basis.
It’s not without its flaws — for example, it was touting the new Apple TV as having huge savings ($99 instead of $249) despite the fact that it was actually a real price cut, rather than a sale. However, for something that just launched today, it looks pretty sweet. Now if you don’t mind me, I’m off to buy an iPhone charger for a cent.

Phone Halo: stop losing your stuff like a crappy pimp

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 12:33:54 -0700

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 the GPS coordinates. So if you lose your phone OR your keys, it will alert you as to exactly where.

The device sells for $59.95, and the application is free. It weighs only one ounce, and can be easily slipped on your keychain. Plus, the device has a little “alert” button that makes your phone ring. How cool is that?

NEW: One sexy bitch of a personal video publishing service

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 14:52:05 -0700

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, add static pages, plugin modules and more. Plus, you get all sorts of analytics and nice back-end management features.

This is neat, and sounds like something I would have used in the past if it were available to me. The pimp looks forward to the public launch!

IdeaOffer: a crowdsourcing marketplace with blatant cash motivation. The Pimp is Impressed!

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:12:00 -0700

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 35 cents for a 10-second review of my website.

As any good pimp knows, money makes the world go round. IdeaOffer seems like it has figured out an effective way to construct a crownsorcing platform, and we’re impressed. Read more how the site works.

Hacker Dojo Startup Fair: Sep 23rd 4pm-9pm

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 16:20:00 -0700

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 Fair!

Measy

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 10:00:00 -0700

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 changing the slider, answering various questions, etc. It felt a little like doing one of those “Which Twilight character are you?” quizzes. (And there is nothing wrong with that, stop judging me.)

The result page was satisfying as well. It gave me my results, a Panasonic DMC-ZR1, and told me why it was chosen, which I found impressive. I could see the score for each of the metrics I specified, and, I could click a link for even more details and how they claims were backed by experts. Well done.

Measy was originally a site called Glassbooth, where voters could similarly select candidates for the 2007 election. We’re glad to see the success of that concept evolve into a hot startup to pimp!

Skydera: impressive feature-set for managing multiple cloud systems

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:52:55 -0700

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 the service really shines when one has many instances to manage: Skydera has features to automate instance setup, includes a library of trusted images, handles all monitoring, and reduces the chorework that is often associated with managing multiple server instances.

Skydera launched as beta on July 19, 2010 and based on the buzz, appears to be quite worthy of some serious pimping.

Appointment Reminder: Simple idea, amazing execution

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:24:00 -0700

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 done.

The service is designed for businesses just like my dentist, small law firms, massage parlors, and other professional service industries. For a monthly fee, one schedules the appointments in their system (using a modern AJAX interface, compares well to Google Calendar). The system then reaches out to clients using SMS and voice calls to confirm appointments as appropriate.

The service officially opens in October, but you can sign up for the beta test now. Plans start at $9 a month (for 10 appointments) and include a plan that costs $79 a month (for 300 appointments per month).

Appointment Reminder was built by an American-born entrepreneur, Patrick McKenzie, who is now living in Japan.

Venture Pimp is being guest written by Brian Klug for the month of September.

The Fridge

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 09:26:00 -0700

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 functionality that made us like Facebook in the first place. Sure, there are no apps, but there’s a good space for conversation, and you can keep a lid on who can see your content.

In addition to posting messages, you can also upload photos, and The Fridge is clever enough to notice YouTube or Vimeo addresses in your messages, so they get embedded as players. It’s simple, and it works pretty well.

Of course, it’s certainly not without problems: the UI looks good, but it has some serious annoyances. In particular, the CSS buttons make the interface useless from the keyboard, which is a bit of a pain for curmudgeons such as myself. It also doesn’t gracefully fall back in the absence of Flash, so if you’re using a flash blocker, you’ll see some weirdness.

Overall, though, The Fridge looks like a good implementation of the inward–facing social network concept that seems to be all the rage (see my write–up on Micromobs earlier this year). If you’re looking for a private space to share Facebook-y sorts of content, take a peek in the The Fridge.

PopFeedback

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 09:17:00 -0700

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 is important, even if it’s hard to do, and I’d wager that your average user is much more likely to answer a single question when prompted, rather than to write an email or head on over to UserVoice*. Of course, I have my own small venture in the floating–bubble–on–your–web–site category, but I like the idea.

If you’re building something new, or looking to iterate on something you already have, PopFeedback seems like it’s worth investigating. You get 3 surveys for free, but after that, it’s $9/month for unlimited surveys.

Follow them at @PopFeedback, and check out their Upside Down Labs blog.

* Yes, let’s ignore the mild irony of PopFeedback using the ubiquitous UserVoice feedback tab on their homepage, rather than their own product. PopFeedback seems to be aiming for a much more structured approach than UserVoice generally provides.

MessageParty

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:24:57 -0700

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 this point, there’s not many people using it, but if it gets a user base, I can see it being a pretty interesting place to check out.

I really like the idea of these location–specific conversations. TimeinB5 is a startup that’s doing something similar, but targeted at people waiting around in airports. It’s a bit funny to let people socialize by being antisocial and playing with their gadgets, but such is life. If you can stumble across an interesting new friend from the comfort of your iPhone, well, that’s pretty nifty.

Follow them at @messageparty.

Barcode Hero

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:36:12 -0700

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.

For starters, the things you scan get posted to Facebook, so your friends can see if you happen to be looking at something they’re interested in, and maybe offer up some recommendations. If you happen to really like a product, you can write a recommendation about it and share it with your friends, and if you do a lot of shopping in a particular category, you can earn achievements — who wouldn’t want to be crowned the king of small kitchen appliances?

Barcode Hero is a fun spin on barcode scanning. I’m installing it on my phone now, and I can’t wait to start bombarding my Facebook stream with consumer bliss.

Follow them at @barcodehero.

Hello

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:40:43 -0700

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

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 08:47:49 -0700

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) and add a personal comment.

The interface is quick and attractive, and there’s a pretty thorough API available for accessing all of your data. There’s a live demo for you to play with the administration interface and get a feel for how the system works. It feels very solid.

Feedback is very important, and this seems like a way to lower the barrier to entry for end-users. In the future, I can see this expand to offer some sort of reward for sending feedback, but it’s already a great idea.

Follow them at @nice_reply, and check out their blog for status updates and integration hints.

jummpp.in

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 09:13:00 -0700

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 a date for the activity and make it happen.

I think this is interesting because it mediates one of the most annoying parts of trying to schedule anything with a large number of people, which is often something akin to herding cats.

jummpp.in has a weird name, but it’s a good idea (and an adorable mascot). I think it might work better as a in-Facebook app, rather than a separate web site that integrates with it, but we’ll see. Next time you’re trying to plan an event, try starting out here.

Readshout

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 08:56:32 -0700

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 what we’re reading, which is then shared with everyone else. Unlike Readness, though, Readshout is more focused on interesting articles rather than news.

So, when does the other shoe drop? What’s the point of these services that push things you find interesting to me? Personally, I think this sort of thing is perfectly suited to iPhones and similar ilk (although magazine-style displays on the iPad are certainly gaining steam, too). Most days, I probably have 15–20 minutes of idle reading time, standing in line–ups or waiting for something. Once I’ve gone through my limited feed subscriptions in NetNewsWire, I’m pretty much at a loss for what to read next. A lot of people have had success with Instapaper, but that requires an upfront investment in figuring out what to read. A service like Readshout is just perfect for this: “show me something interesting with no effort, please.”

At this point, the audience is entirely nerdy, so the articles are heavily skewed in that direction, but expect that to change as the user base grows. Watch that happening by following them at @readshout, and wish them luck.

OhLife

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 09:59:41 -0700

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 computer. To keep things interesting, those “What did you do today?” emails include a random entry from the past. It’s a cool idea that might help engender some reflection.

I love this idea. I kept a blog pretty religiously about 5 years, but eventually, as I spent less and less time in front of a computer (and more time in front of a phone), I found that blogging was the last thing I wanted to do when I finally sat down with my laptop. Keeping my engaged by doing everything through email is a nifty idea.

I’m a sucker for a beautiful web site, and OhLife definitely fits the bill. The design is sharp and attractive, simple but with great details. I’m not sure how much of an audience is out there for this, but I can definitely imagine them gathering a devoted following. I can even imagine upselling people to physical products — OhLife journals, maybe, pre-filled with however many entries you’ve already written.

Follow them at @TeamOhLife.

Whereoscope

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 10:09:00 -0700

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 happen to be nearby.

There’s a bit of a creepiness potential here — the idea of parents monitoring their child’s every move is a bit odd. However, for younger kids (who happen to be lucky enough to have an iPhone — spoiled brats!), this seems like a good way of giving them freedom to roam while retaining a safety net.

I think there’s a fine line to walk here, and the key is using this in exceptional situations, not watching your kids every move. Of course, whether the kids like it or not, it seems pretty inevitable that these sorts of services are going to take off.

Follow these guys at @whereoscope, and check out their Facebook page.

KeyTweet

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:50:00 -0700

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 little unpolished: click the Sign in with Twitter button, authenticate yourself to Twitter, and KeyTweet works its magic. It’s fast and easy.

I love it when software is clever, and sorting through vast streams of data offered by services like Twitter is only going to get harder as time goes on. If KeyTweet’s relevance stays good, and maybe gets supported directly in some Twitter apps, I can really imagine it catching on. In the meantime, watch for this space to heat it. It’s brilliant.

IActionable

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 10:37:44 -0700

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. As a developer, the key thing here is that IActionable offers a model that makes sense for this and saves the hassle of trying to figure out a good implementation of this on your own.

The idea of bringing game mechanics to other activities isn’t new, but it’s certainly catching on. Wedoist (http://venturepimp.com/post/704962028/wedoist) offers project management with achievements, for example. I think this strategy has a lot of merit as an engagement tactic, especially during the crucial first few days of a new user’s experience.

Follow them at @iactionable.

Note: you’ll have to request access to get started with IActionable, but it’s a pretty straightforward process. The Venture Pimp just loves game mechanics, so drop me a line if you end up using IActionable. I’d love to see what you make with it.