Five companies. Two minutes and thirty seconds. You know the drill. At Built In Chicago’s September launch event Wednesday night, a group of new entrepreneurs took the stage to pitch to an audience of fellow business builders, investors, and developers.
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All of last night’s presenters were first time entrepreneurs, and they all expressed appreciation for the opportunity to speak to the Built In Chicago community. “Built In Chicago is awesome,” says ComplimentKarma founder Aman Singh. “I’m here for the first time but I think I can never live without it again.”
Kevin Willer preceded the pitches to announce that they are still accepting applications for space at 1871, Chicago’s largest collaborative work space located in the Merchandise Mart. Visit www.1871.com for more details.
Next, Troy Henikoff of Excelerate Labs announced that their recent Demo Day (open only to investors and mentors) was so popular that they will be hosting a public one on Sept. 18 at the Second City. Tickets will be $25 and include food and drink. If you’re looking for more details, you can find them here. Last night’s attendees got a sneak preview as a handful of the Excelerate companies briefly introduced themselves and stuck around after the pitches to network.
The first pitch of the night came from Kyler Junkins and Jeremy Markham, two 19-year-old entrepreneurs who met in high school, live 15 minutes away from each other, attend North Central College and--get this--were born on the same day. Their company is a mobile app called DinnDinn, which aims to be a direct competitor to Foodspotting. Unlike the popular food photo app, however, DinnDinn differentiates itself with features such as a Virtual Fridge and Virtual Tongue, which allow people to sort through images based on their taste profiles. They came up with the idea one day when they were sitting in Junkins’ kitchen eating saltines and Nutella and snapping pictures on their phones. Struck by the contrast in tastes, they started throwing around ideas and landed on DinnDinn.
Next up was BirdFeud, a company that could take advantage of the millions of Twitter debates that rage on every day. BirdFeud is a platform for these debates, allowing people to choose sides in questions as relevant as “Democrat or Republican?” or as random as “Which actor would make the better Christian Grey?” I spoke with Product Director Andrew Parnell after the pitch, and he said his main goal right now is to find companies or advertisers to partner with to pose topical debate questions. According to him, the traditional banner ad model isn’t working, and BirdFeud gives marketers an opportunity to engage with consumers in a more meaningful way.
Coco Meers pitched PrettyQuick, a realtime marketplace for available salon and spa appointments, next. Here’s how it works: Consumers query PrettyQuick for spa services as soon as half an hour away to as long as a day away in their preferred neighborhood. PrettyQuick then scans their bank of recommended salons and returns a handful of bids to the customer, who can then choose which one to book. Currently, the company is working with six salons in Lincoln Park and the Gold Coast, but hopes to expand rapidly in the next few months to cover Chicago and then move into other markets. In the week and a half since PrettyQuick launched, the service has delivered 1.5 customers per salon per day. “That means a little over $200 in incremental business that we brought,” says founder and CEO Meers.
Following PrettyQuick was Singh of ComplimentKarma, an achievements startup that wants to reward employees for a job well done. The site enables coworkers to send virtual compliments to each other and allowing them to learn virtual incentives such as badges as they build their reputation as complimenters. This social network also makes it possible for individuals to earn cash rewards from their employers based on their activity. Now, as the company exits private beta, Singh is looking for paying customers who want to use the platform to reward their employees.
The final presentation of the night came from Brandon Passley, CTO of Vokal Interactive, a leading mobile design and and development agency. His new company is called the Mobile Makers Academy, and seems to be positioning itself as a sort of Starter League for the mobile set. The first quarter will start Oct. 1, and Passley says the are only accepting about 10-15 students in the inaugural class in order to work out any kinks that may arise. The quarter lasts 10 weeks with in-person classes twice a week including lectures, hands-on projects and mentoring from iOS experts. Currently, classes are intended for beginners or other developers looking to get into the mobile space. “In the future, we’re looking to do Android classes, mobile gaming, mobile design, as well as advanced classes,” Passley says.
See you in October, for the next Built In Chicago Launch at Rockit Bar & Grill.
