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Archive for App – Page 16

Freaky Fast Food

Posted by Ben Tobias

· Friday, September 18th, 2015

· No Comments

For the last decade, Amazon has claimed the title of king of the online shopping world. With the company seeing 2 billion orders from customers in the past 2014 fiscal year, they dominate the online market. While Amazon continues to announce further upgrades and innovations to their overall experience, the process of implementation and usage has been another matter, and many, smaller, smarter, and ambitious companies are hungry to accommodate customers in light of Amazon’s failures.

Putting a spin on Amazon’s concept, young millennial entrepreneur Max Mullen started Instacart in 2012 to provide customers with a simple and quick option for buying their groceries online. Mullen, who studied entrepreneurship at the University of Southern California in Los Angles, created a startup that partnered with stock grocery warehouses, and a fleet of branded vehicles to deliver the goods to customers on an order basis. In some cases, the delivery occurred within 12 minutes of the customers order! Investors quickly took notice of Max’s success, as by 2014 he received a 2 billion dollar valuation, and had already expanded to 15 major metropolitan areas.

Grocers are recognizing the power of the application as well, as customers purchase 2.5 times more product when shopping online. The software predicts similar grocery items the shopper may want, and as such has improved impulse buying for all grocery chains involved with the app. Instacart is already looking to innovate, as in April they added Petco to their retail roster. Instacart has realized that they can be so much more than just a grocery service, and is looking to the future in hopes to provide a better and quicker service than many of the larger online shopping companies.

Max Mullen showed the world that innovation doesn’t have to be an idea that nobody else has stumbled upon, on the contrary, he saw the need to improve on something that was already good, but could be made better with some slight tweaking. Just like the grocery market, there are other industries begging to be improved by the right person. Mullen defied those who said his idea would never work, and pushed through until he could claim success.

No Comments

Categories : App, eCommerce, Food, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Online Companies, Websites

Eko Devices

Posted by Andrew Claffey

· Friday, September 18th, 2015

· 1 Comment

The evolution of smart phone technology has modified so many functions of everyday life. It started with music, and quickly took over the necessity for computers, and then wallets. Now smart phone technology has the ability to allow doctors to move away from their signature accessory: the stethoscope- to a more modern sleeker version.

Eko Devices allows doctors to use a stethoscope attachment that amplifies the patient’s heart beat into a software program on smart phones. The key to this new advancement is core technology( the amplification device). The Core transmits the sound waves into the Eko application in which the sound is recorded and can be stored and filed under each patient.

Eko Devices was founded by three guys (Connor Landgraf, Tyler Crouch, and Jason Bellet) with a dream to modernize one of the simplest duties of a medical professional. They have received over 800,000 dollars in angel donations to get their company off the ground. The core system is available for purchase, and the application is available for all apple devices and coming soon to android. Currently Eko Devices is backed by countless industry leaders, and well known physicians.

These three young men saw a device that wasn’t dated by any means, but decided it was time to modernize it. I think it will be interesting to see how they adapt their business model to be conducive to other adapters, allowing the medical professional to take other vital signs right from their smart phone.

1 Comment

Categories : App, Education, Medical, Smartphone, Technology

Rival IQ

Posted by JP Popham

· Sunday, September 13th, 2015

· 4 Comments

“See what content is resonating with your audience. Refine and strengthen your content marketing strategy with competitive landscape insights”- Rival IQ. In the fast paced always updating world of social media it can be difficult to keep tract of what is actually ‘resonating’ with a companies vast audience. That is where Rival IQ comes in. Rival IQ uses a piece of software to collect data from all your companies social network pages. It then gives you a dash board of all your posts, comments, followers and likes and tells you what part of your marking strategy is working and what is not. But perhaps even more important than the personal evaluation of your company, Rival IQ gives you the option to analyze your competitors strategy and their social media numbers as well.

As an entrepreneur trying to compete for their share of the market, I believe that this tool is vital for the progression of a business. Instead of managing several different pages, making sure they are updated and ensuring the involvement of followers, Rival IQ takes this daunting task and breaks down into a simple set of numbers as well as personalized list of do’s and dont’s for each company based on the response each social media page is receiving. The market is based around customer satisfaction and value and Rival IQ takes these principles to the next level by giving you the information you need about your own company as well as your competition.

The ability to successfully analyze your competition is a difficult and coveted process in today’s market. Knowing what is wrong with your own company, often comes through finding what is right in your competition’s. By analyzing your competitors social media pages, Rival IQ gives you a clear picture of what you need to accomplish to take over a larger share your market. “Rival IQ searches the Internet, gathering data and content from multiple social network channels, thousands of websites and SEO ranking systems. We consolidate the data so you can easily filter to see how you and your competitors are performing to create informed marketing benchmarks”. In the quickly evolving market we live in Rival IQ does a stellar job of narrowing down someones marketing goals and options, without bothering the customer for insight or reviews. I see endless application that can come out of company like this and only wish I had come up with the idea first. Clink on the picture for more info.

4 Comments

Categories : App

Tags : Social Media

Reinventing the Wheel – Literally!

Posted by Lizzie Parsons

· Thursday, September 10th, 2015

· 4 Comments

Bicycles are great solutions to get you where you need to go, with the benefits of being environmentally friendly and faster than walking. However, there’s one major drawback – pedaling a bicycle can be hard work, especially for long distances or routes with lots of hills (basically anywhere in western Pennsylvania!). So that’s where the Copenhagen Wheel comes in.

The Copenhagen Wheel was developed by a team of robotics engineers and designers from MIT specifically for Copenhagen, Denmark – a city known for its bicycle culture. This innovative team wanted to take some of the work out of bicycling by turning a regular bike into a smart electric hybrid. Many of the team members have had previous experience with popular startup tech companies. Add this experience to a visionary marketing team and some venture capital investors, and you get the startup Superpedestrian.

The Copenhagen Wheel

The Copenhagen Wheel works by replacing the back wheel of your bike with the Copenhagen Wheel, which is then connected to an app on your smartphone. A small servo motor and control system is hidden in the wheel’s sleek red casing. This system captures your energy as you brake or go down the hill and then lets you use this energy pedal with 3-10 times the normal power of a bike! This allows you to go up hills easier and go further, faster. Even cooler is the fact that the Copenhagen Wheel learns how you pedal and can keep track of your fitness, while riding just like a normal bike. If you don’t believe me, check out this video to learn more about the Copenhagen Wheel.

Clearly the old wheel has met its match! Superpedestrian is busy getting the Copenhagen Wheel ready for market and it should be widely available within the next year.

4 Comments

Categories : App, Fitness, Great Ideas, Manufacturing, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Outdoors, Smartphone, Technology, Transportation

Snapchat: The “Peek-a-boo” Social App.

Posted by Zack Unkenholz

· Monday, December 15th, 2014

· 4 Comments

One day while Evan Spiegel was in a product design class at Stanford University, he came up with an idea for an app that would allow people to send pictures that could only be seen for a limited period of time. He used the idea for his final project in the class and his fellow students loved it. Spiegel teamed up with his friend Reggie Brown to work on the app. Brown designed the ghost logo of the company and together they came up with the name “Picaboo” because the picture would be seen for a few seconds and disappear just like a person’s face in a game of peek-a-boo. Later on they brought in Bobby Murphy, a fraternity brother of Spiegel. Together, the three of them left college and launched their app under the name “Picaboo”, but later changed it to “Snapchat” and relaunched the app. Changing the name made it easier for people to understand exactly what the app was, and it proved to be a wise choice.

Snapchat has done extremely well and is used to send more than 500 million pictures and videos a day! Facebook saw the threat of Snapchat as the number of people in the same demographic as Snapchat users was going down that they needed to put a stop to it. Facebook offered Spiegel 3 BILLION DOLARS to sell his company to them, but he refused like a boss. It was a smart choice, because snapchat is now valued at over 10 billion dollars!

Although the company has had many lawsuits against it and there has been a lot of controversy surrounding image retrieval and where all the pictures go, the company continues to grow and Spiegel has done a great job of making the right decisions and keeping everything under control. It will be interesting to see what he will be doing with the company in the future as he tries to make new improvements to stay in the battle of the best social app.

4 Comments

Categories : App, Uncategorized

Khoa Phan: 6 Seconds of Fame

Posted by Zack Unkenholz

· Monday, December 15th, 2014

· 1 Comment

Khoa Phan is an artist who started using the app “Vine” in 2013. At the age of 23 he started using the app to market his own skills and sell himself to marketing companies and advertising agencies.

Vine is a video making/social media app that allows people to take and upload 6 second videos to their accounts. Vine videos can be sent through sites like Facebook and twitter. Much like youtube, Vine has made a few people a lot of money. Many people have been found through Vine and some have been hired to be in movies and commercials. Khoa became an internet sensation with his stop-motion videos, a series of many extremely short clips or pictures put together to create one video. Using his artistic abilities, Khoa made a name for himself in the Vine community. Many big name companies approached Khoa for artistic ability and his internet fame to create commercials and ideas for how their companies could use vine to sell their products.

Khoa was named Mashable’s “Vine’s most creative stop-motion video maker” and named Forbes’ 30 under 30 for marketing and advertising.

Khoa has worked with big name companies like Snapple, Coke, MTV, UNICEF, HBO and even Peanuts to create stop-motion videos of Charlie Brown and Snoopy the Dog. This freelance Vine editor has made a name for himself, not just in the online community, but also in the big time marketing community. It will be interesting to see where he takes his stop-motion art and creative advertising next.

Here is a link to one of his videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhB_whIDwwQ

1 Comment

Categories : App, Art, YouTube

Wasselni: Uber for Gaza

Posted by Caleb Jakiel

· Monday, December 8th, 2014

· 3 Comments

When you think about Gaza, a country with fierce political and business restrictions, it does not seem to be the best place for an entrepreneur to start up a business. Mariam Abultewi is a young entrepreneur who, despite these restrictions, was able to create a business that provides lots of value to the citizens of Gaza.

Wasselni is the name of her business and it is similar to the ride sharing company Uber, but has some key differences. This ride sharing application allows people to find nearby taxi drivers and facebook friends willing to give rides. The main difference from Uber is that Wasselni does not allow people to get rides from strangers, only facebook friends and registered taxi drivers.

Some of the challenges that the company faces is the country’s lack of a 3G network, limited electricity, and a blockage on the boarders of Gaza. Regardless of these limitations, Wasselni has still grown into a successful company and seems to have a bright future.

3 Comments

Categories : App, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Technology

Summly

Posted by Turner Delmaso

· Thursday, December 4th, 2014

· 3 Comments

Nick D’Aloisio is a 19 year old internet entrepreneur from London England. His father was a lawyer and his mother was a business executive so there were no programmers in the family. D’Alosio was inspired by Steve Jobs and Apple to get into technology and began to teach himself how to program and code. In his early programming career, he released apps such as the finger treadmill, an app that would turn your screen into a treadmill and allowed you to work out your fingers. Another one of his early apps was an app that was a picture of wood and when the user touched the screen, it would make a knocking sound. He is best known for his app Summly. Summly is an application that will condense news articles and other articles so that they only cover the key facts and important stuff. The user is able to decide which keywords to search for in articles as well as decide where the articles come from. One can keep up with their favorite sports team as well as reading about the stock market all in one app.Only after a month of publishing Summly, the app had over half a million users in 28 different countries. Summly has been taken off of the app store after it was acquired by yahoo. The app was transformed and is used in various web apps owned by Yahoo. D’Alosio started teaching himself how to program and write applications when he was 12 years old. At the age of 15 he developed Trimit, the precursor to Summly. After receiving several investments, from celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher, and a rather large one from a Hong Kong Billionaire, he successfully developed Summly. D’Alosio was acquired by Yahoo for $30 Million, and this year he won the Apple Design Award. As well as writing multi-million dollar applications, and working as a computer programmer, D’Alosio has managed to complete high school and is currently studying at Oxford University.

3 Comments

Categories : App, Smartphone, Uncategorized

The Innovation Of Music Through Spotify

Posted by Connor Grieb

· Wednesday, November 26th, 2014

· 6 Comments

Spotify is a music listening app that has transformed the world.

Spotify was created by, 31 year old Daniel Ek, as an application to allow the user to listen to any music and create playlists without paying anything. The way Spotify makes money is through advertisements in between songs.

Originally, Spotify started out solely on computers. In 2013, things changed, Spotify launched an app to allow smart phone users to also stream music. In 2013, Spotify had 24 million active users that streamed over 4.5 billion hours of music. This completely transformed the consumers experience in the music downloading industry but has reduced the profits of artists around the world, because nobody has to buy the songs anymore.

I believe Spotify is in trouble the next several months because of the growing number of artists pulling their albums off of Spotify. For instance 2 weeks ago, Taylor Swift, pulled all of her songs from Spotify to increase her profits by having fans pay full price for the new album, 1989, which just came out. Swift made a smart move, but it could start a movement by artists around the world to remove their songs from Spotify and all other free music listening applications.

Daniel Ek, founded his first company when he was only 14 years old. He has the drive of an entrepreneur to do whatever it takes to succeed. He is currently worth $400 million dollars and is making a significant difference around the world through the evolution of streaming music.

In entrepreneurship, your age doesn’t matter, your drive for success is what will carry you farther than ever before.

6 Comments

Categories : App, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Music, Technology

Tags : Apps, Music, Songs, Spotify

iCracked.com

Posted by Sarah McCracken

· Friday, November 21st, 2014

· 5 Comments

In January 2010 AJ Forsythe launched his iphone repair business, iCracked.com, along with Anthony Martin and Leslee Lambert. AJ got the idea for this business after breaking his phone countless times and finally deciding to try and fix it on his own by ordering parts online. He was a junior at California Polytechnic State University at the time and decided to take a chance and “go for it.” The business started on their campus and within a year grew from serving one university to serving 65 universities. They currently have 109 locations worldwide which is impressive considering the company is only four years old.

The business is run on a turn key business model similar to that of a franchise. Cracked is comprised of iTechs who are equipped with the marketing, training parts, operations manuals and backend support to successfully repair iPhones and other Apple devices at any of the iCracked locations. Their company also offers mail-in services, wholesale distribution, iPhone buyback and refurbishing and has just recently entered the retail space.

One of my favorite parts about this company, and what I find most unique is that the repair men, “iTechs,” come to your house to fix your device. They liken the importance of fixing your broken phone, to fixing a broken down car, and say they are the Triple A for phones. iCracked currently has 295 employees and 1079 iTechs located all over the world. To ensure the quality of their service all of the iTechs are trained and overseen by the iTech manager who keeps in constant contact with all of the locations. iCracked.com capitalizes on the inconvenience of mail in repairs, or traveling to the nearest Apple store and offers customers something no one else does. Not only is this a much more reliable option than bringing your phone to that repair kyosk in the mall, but it makes it one step more convenient for the customer by bringing the repair right to their door.

Forsythe has a passion for giving back to the community and has done just that by opening a retail space in Long Beach, CA which will be run by youths ages 18 to 21 who have outgrown the foster system, whose wages will be subsidized. They refurbished a 1920s era hotel into a retail space and above the offices they created rooms for the youth to help them in their transition out of the foster care system. They train the youth and teach them skills to help them become responsible adults. A few of these youths will be hired to work in the retail space of the store and will be managed by a former iCracked repair technician. I admire Forsythe’s extreme success and unique business idea as well as his desire to give back to the community and help people who are often overlooked. His story is an inspiration because he was my age when he started it all.

5 Comments

Categories : App, Smartphone, Technology