Image via CrunchBase
I am an advisor with AlphaLab, our local Pittsburgh business accelerator, and if you have a killer startup idea and are looking for the motivation to just GTD, I would strongly encourage you to consider applying to be a part of the program. I have participated on the selection committee for all the [...]
It was 2007 when Aaron Tainter, an associate at our firm, and I put together the first OpenCoffee Club meeting in Pittsburgh. I read an article about a global movement to put together a networking event for entrepeneurs/startup-types to meet with investors (large and small) in an un-conference, no agendas and name tags format.
And now [...]
Having likely raised much more equity from angel investors than anyone else in the Pittsburgh region, Mel Pirchesky, President of Eagle Ventures, is a long-time Pittsburgh entrepreneur. He’s raised over $60 million of equity for more than 30 deals from individuals located mostly in the Pittsburgh region. He completed a $9 million financing [...]
Zipano wants to be the central clearinghouse for control of your personal data that you share online. “The debate about privacy is really the debate about control,” said the founder of Facebook – and Zipano wants to give that control to the user in an easy, flexible, intuitive way.
Their first product, Locaccino, is a Facebook [...]
Vivo, which started out its life as a hardware company, is next up. They are building a platform to allow live online broadcasting. (AlphaLab has a livestream running based on the Vivo solution – but it is closed to the public – sorry guys, BIG FAIL. OPEN IT UP!).
The idea is not a new one [...]
Post-break, the room is full – SRO. Next up:
NavPrescience, a CMU spinout, is looking to build a smarter GPS solution that learns from the user. By using predictive and personalized routing, they aim to make your GPS device (which is likely to be your mobile phone in a few years) much smarter.
The company is taking [...]
LeftRight Studios is all about building fun, compelling mobile games. Geraldine Yong is presenting for the team; these are some very compelling gritty gaming guys who have just rolled out their second game for the iPhone.
Their first big hit was smackBOTS, a digital version of the plastic analog favorite, Rock’em-Sock’em Robots.
These guys have done a [...]
fooala is building what it calls “Food 2.0″ – making it easier for restaurants to access their customers and diners to find the food they want to eat. They want to “sell food the right way on the internet.”
The founding team out of CMU is big and successful (if not enthusiastic enough – David, light [...]
First up is CloudFab, a company I have been close to since its inception. I was initially very skeptical about the prospects for the success of this company, but I am very impressed with what the entrepreneurs, Nick Pinkston and Steve Klabnik, have been able to build.
The idea is to democratize “distributed desktop manufacturing” by [...]
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 – Demo Day for the 3rd AlphaLab class! It looks like a great lineup of startups, perhaps the best yet, and they are more prepared and drilled than any other class to come out of here. I am looking forward to seeing how they do and giving some candid feedback on [...]