Startup Drinks at the Surly Girl Saloon

Ben recently posted about the upcoming Columbus Startup Weekend. For those of you interested, there is a related event that will be held tomorrow evening, Columbus Startup Drinks, at the Surly Girl Saloon starting at six. It looks like it's a good opportunity to connect with like-minded startup enthusiasts.

Initial Funding and Three Unexpected Lessons Learned

Contributed by: Patrick Murphy founder Brand Thunder

We’re happy to announce our initial funding from TechColumbus. It’s truly a great moment that’s helping make browser customizations a more available marketing tool. As a quick reflection, and for the benefit of other startups working toward their funding, here are three unexpected lessons learned from this process.

1. Coach-ability – Our investors wanted us to listen more than we talked. From the Entrepreneurs in Residence to the investment advisors, they all stated they looked for entrepreneurs that could take advice. Too many startups ask for advice, but then refuse or ignore it. They want to help you succeed. And early on, they look for that willingness to accept the help.

2. The Story in 10 Minutes or Less – It’s got to be a refined story, and that happens over a lot of lunches and phone calls. It starts with close friends and family, evolves to the professional network and gets polished with the investors. Ten minutes is the most time we had in a formal presentation. It forced us to be clear and concise – and ultimately, it worked.

3. Validation – It takes a lot of thick skin to keep the drive to build an unproven and unknown product – and there are moments the confidence wanes. This initial investment is concrete proof that others see the potential of our idea. Now, we not only have funds in the bank to build the product, we’ve received an emotional deposit that’s fueling our energy and spirits. Coming into this, we didn’t realize the importance of the psychological victories.

Show me the money - companies to watch - $400k invested in local start-ups

TechColumbus announced that four start-up companies in Central Ohio will receive investments to help them grow their businesses. The investments have been made through the TechColumbus Regional Commercialization Fund and TechGenesis Grants, which are financed by the Ohio Third Frontier Program and local investors.

“These investments will help these four local start-ups further develop their products and strategies so they can succeed in the global marketplace,” said Ted Ford, president & CEO of TechColumbus. “The ultimate goal is to identify and assist companies, like these, that have high-growth potential to be very successful, to generate substantial revenue, to attract further investment, and to create high-wage jobs throughout the region."

These investments are part of a $22.5 million initiative – known as TechStart – that will drive the launch of new technology-based companies in Central Ohio over the next three years. TechGenesis Grants are designed to help very early stage companies and precompany commercialization opportunities validate their market and their product. The TechColumbus Regional Commercialization Fund is designed to invest services and money in companies that exhibit the best opportunities to build a scalable, high growth company that can attract follow-on capital. Both funds are available to technology companies, including IT, healthcare, advanced materials, and others, in the 15-county Central Ohio region. To date, TechColumbus has invested $2.0 million in 15 companies as part the TechStart program.

The following company received investments from the Regional Commercialization Fund:

Brand Thunder LLC (Dublin, OH) $250,000 – Brand Thunder has simplified internet browser customization which allows corporate brands to easily maintain a more persistent presence with their internet consumer which results in more frequent visits and increased revenue. Through a simple software installation, end users can change the look and feel of the internet browser and enjoy an immersive experience from their favorite sports team, music group, movie, and television show or internet site. Built in collaboration with corporate brands, the custom-browser themes feature official logos, colors, content and functionality, but can also extend capabilities to incorporate video, music players or other internet widgets. Current clients include the NHL, NCAA, Go BIG Media, The Huffington Post, Starpulse and Universal Music.



The following companies received investments from TechGenesis Grants:



ColdPhase Corporation (Pickerington, OH) $50,000 – The Coldphase Corporation has developed a more efficient and cost effective way to package and ship products that need to remain cold. The Coldphase Corporation Packaging System (CCPS) changes the way climate controlled shipping occurs by keeping the packaged product at a consistently cold temperature longer than any product currently on the market; saving transportation dollars by extending the time available for the shipping cycle and using sturdy, reusable, and recyclable materials.

Got Game Media LLC (Pickerington, OH) $50,000 – Game Media is a sports information software organization. Its mission is twofold: To improve how colleges and universities recruit and attract high school student athletes; and, second, to become an advocate for high school athletes and their parents. GotGame has software tools and services that take the guessing out of being recruited and finding the right recruit.

ODSM, LLC (Westerville, OH) $50,000 – ODSM is developing a noninvasive, portable, method of determining orthostatic hypo-perfusion of the brain. The main objective is the prevention of falls which are commonly caused by brief drops in blood pressure in response to standing up from a prolonged recumbent posture. Such falls are a common cause of hip fractures, head injury and litigation.

Company Contacts:

Brand Thunder LLC– Patrick Murphy/614.408.8202/patrick@brandthunder.com

Cold Phase – Joseph Altomonte/614.755.5405/joe@coldphasecorporation.com

GotGame Media LLC – MarKel Snyder/614.402.1636/markel.snyder@gotgamemedia.com

ODSM - Tracy Amigo/tamigo@lyntekmedical.com

Columbus Startup Weekend Coming

RICK ADAMCZAK

Daily Reporter Staff Writer

Starting a new business can be daunting, but doing it in one weekend is a challenge beyond most people's imagination. Regardless, more than 100 Columbus-area information technology specialists will take on the challenge this summer.

The city is scheduled to host a 54-hour networking event designed to link software technicians and business developers wanting to start new technology businesses.

The event, Columbus Startup Weekend, is part of a national series of such events that began last year.

Columbus was chosen through voting on the event's primary Web site, www.startupweekend.com.

"They try to identify which city has interest in doing this and they contacted us about whether we can pull this off," said Chris Anderson, start-up specialist at TechColumbus, a Columbus organization that promotes the area's technology development efforts.

TechColumbus will host the event at its offices on July 18-20.

"One unique piece we'll offer is that we have tech labs and platforms right here on site," Anderson.

He said between 100 and 140 people are expected to attend the event and that there already are 50 people registered for the event.

The concept of the event is to bring IT specialists together with entrepreneurs, businessmen and people specializing in marketing to essentially transform an idea into an application in 52 hours.

Attendees will select ideas and then break into teams to develop the application, create the marketing strategies and chart the revenue model.

Teams consist of entrepreneurs, software developers, attorneys, marketers, designers, sales professionals and others working together to create multiple businesses from scratch all in one weekend.

Not that organizers are expecting the next Google or Yahoo! to be formed during that short period, but if nothing else, some long-term networking relationships should be formed.

"The companies that have been created (in other cities), there has been some interest from big players. I don't know if we'll see any venture capital interest," said Anderson. "We could see five or so individuals move on something that's viable."

Since its inception less than a year ago there have been similar events held in 15 cities, including London and Hamburg, Germany. Five other cities, besides Columbus, are scheduled for this year.

Columbus has received nearly 400 votes through the StartUp Weekend Web site, whereas North Carolina's Research Triangle has 190 votes.

"I've never seen a city rise so fast in a mere matter of hours," said Raymond Angel who runs the events for Startup Weekend LLC.

Much of the voting for Columbus has been spearheaded by local IT bloggers, Anderson said, noting that many of those individuals work in the IT field in the Columbus area.

"The majority of people who are going are people who are employed somewhere else and are looking to move on or start their own company. Or, they have started a company and are looking for help," Anderson said.

The event will start with short presentations by entrepreneurs who will describe the business idea.

"People will then gravitate toward the ideas that they are interested in and want to develop," said Anderson.

Even if no businesses are formed, he said that the Columbus IT community will benefit in the long run.

"The primary focus is on the IT side, the software development. Getting the idea person together with the software developer," said Anderson. "We want the two groups interacting, the software people and the business developers. Our role is to help any company think through the competitive landscape."

He said there are not many resources in the Columbus area to help link software developers with business developers.

"I think a lot of relationships will develop after this," said Anderson. "This sounds like a great opportunity to help talented software developers network with people who know how to develop a business model."

Web consultant Andrew Hyde of Boulder, Colo. created StartUp Weekend last year when he decided to bring his friends together for a spontaneous project.

The cost to participate is $40. For more information, visit: http://startupweekendcolumbus.eventbrite.com/

Ben's note: Since this article was written more people have singed up bringing the total to 70

Spotlight on emerging Columbus Tech Companies

Here's a few to check out:
Great Migrations
www.GreatMigrations.com

"My firm develops state of the art software translation technologies. We help people modernize their legacy applications using our unique tool-assisted rewrite methodology. We have been refining our technology and successfully delivering migration projects for over twenty-five years. Our approach is proven to dramatically reduce the cost and risk of software migration without sacrificing quality or control. Our present focus is to respond to a more recent problem: the migration of large Visual Basic and classic ASP systems to .NET. Moving legacy applications to a new platform delivers major competitive benefits to those with the vision to take advantage of what the new platform has to offer."

ClaritySoft
http://www.claritysoft.com/

ClaritySoft provides Contact Management Software and CRM for Small
Business. Our solution is the fastest and most cost effective path to
CRM for small companies. Typically our customers can have their
companies live on ClaritySoft in less than a 1/2 day.

Bostech Corporation
http://www.bostechcorp.com/

..helps businesses seamlessly share, exchange, and transact critical information with their customers, suppliers, partners, and employees.

The ChainBuilder® enterprise integration platform from Bostech is a world-class software solution for enabling internal and business-to-business software systems and databases to exchange information. ChainBuilder combines the ease of point-and-click graphical consoles with the power of flexible customization to enable application-to-application, business-to-business, database-centric, Web Services, EDI, and multi-channel retail application integration.