A brand new dating app has hit the scene and is on a mission to make dating great again. VENUE, unlike current dating apps available these days, gets people offline and off the couch so they can enjoy local events with their matches in real life. You may remember Venue from their pitch at Early Risers last Winter or perhaps from their Kickstarter which they launched earlier this year. We’ve been tracking Venue’s progress, and we’re excited to announce that they are set to launch next week!
You’re probably familiar with the popular dating app Tinder. After using Tinder, Venue founders were inspired to create an app that encourages users to stop swiping through endless pictures of potential mates by getting matches out on real dates at local events. The app works through four simple steps. An app user picks a local event they are interested in on a night where they don’t already have plans. Other app users who are also interested in that event pop up as possible matches, and then users can decide who they’re attracted to based on other users’ photos. VENUE handpicks local events like beer tastings, food truck rallies, and sporting events. Users simply choose the event they are interested in and then they move to match with others who chose the same event. The app prevents the endless chatting that sometimes prevents matches from actually meeting by limiting the chat function to eight hours before the event — just enough time to say hello and coordinate the meeting. Matches can judge each other’s actual chemistry rather than by who has the best one-liners.
Access to the app, which is compatible with iOS (an Android version is coming up soon), can be found on the iTunes App Store August 24, 2017.
For additional information about Venue, please visit their website, or say “hey” on Facebook & Instagram.
Congrats to the Venue team!
Finally. A place to store your things at the game or concert. Millions of fans each year attend games, concerts, and other live events but have no space for storage of personal items. Coats, purses, hats, gloves, blankets, sunglasses, keys, wallets, phones, etc. are either stored on the floor, held in your lap, or placed in your pocket, leaving you feeling uncomfortable and inconvenienced as you take in the show.
The Neet Seat is a first-of-its-kind device that easily slips over a stadium or arena seat and provides a place to store your items, keeping them clean and providing you a greater level of comfort as you watch. This patent-pending product is easy to install and easily transportable. Just fold it up and put it in your pocket. So free your hands, relax, and enjoy the show – with the Neet Seat.
Zach McHale, the founder of Neet Seat took home the $25,000 prize at this year’s Flyer Pitch competition. He’s now ready to take his business to the next level and is using KickStarter for market validation of his stadium storage solution.
Neet Seat is on pace to exceed its $5,000 goal with just under a month to go in its campaign and under $1,000 left to raise. You can be one of the first to score this awesome product for as little as a $25 pledge on KickStarter. Zach hopes to start shipping in November–which is just in time for those who want to #GiveDayton this holiday season!
This post originally appeared on Marty’s Turf blog on the website Gravely.
Marty Grunder, Owner of Grunder Landscaping.
I often hear from smaller or younger landscaping companies who want to know how in the world they can keep from losing out on coveted jobs to the big guys in their market. They don’t have the big outfits’ advertising budgets or the instant name recognition that comes with them, and they don’t have their impressive operational facilities or seemingly endless fleets of trucks. How, they ask, can they possibly compete?
I understand their concern, but it’s worth remembering it was David who slew Goliath—a daring young guy managed to take down an armored giant by aiming his slingshot just so and hitting his opponent at his most vulnerable spot.
If you’re a smaller or younger company who wants to compete with the giants, you need to take aim at what they can’t do as well as you. Then find your slingshot and fire away.
Be responsive. When prospects call for a consult, get right back to them and—assuming they’re a good fit for your company—offer to come out that day. If they need a project done right away, work overtime to meet their deadline. If there’s a problem with a job, go to the property yourself to address it and move mountains to make it right. If a client calls you in a panic because they have a tree limb down in their yard and a party that starts in an hour, help them clear it and don’t charge them for it. The bigger a company gets, the harder it becomes to stay responsive and nimble. Use your smaller size, and the flexibility that comes with it, to your advantage.
Be personal. Cultivate your relationships with prospects and clients and show them they’re not just a name and a number to your company. Send them handwritten thank-you notes. Remember their interests and milestones. Maybe they mentioned in conversation their love for Ohio State football; work the team logo into your design plans. Come across a book you think they’d find interesting? Amazon it to them. Stop by on occasion to check in on them and their property. Cell phones and email are convenient but nothing can compete with the personal touch.
Be exceptional. Always exceed your clients’ expectations every step of the way. Look around at the jobsite where you’re working. Are there tasks that wouldn’t take your crew long to accomplish but would catch your client’s eye? Could you air-sweep all the hard surfaces, not just the ones you dirtied? Could you add seasonal color? Plant some bulbs? On a slow day, send your crew over to your top clients’ properties to do mini-cleanups. Taking these extra steps will cost you much less than it will pay you—not only will it earn you your clients’ loyalty, but it’ll also get you the best advertising of all: word of mouth.
Be confident. No small part of competing with the big guys is believing you can and making others believe in you. Dress neatly, keep your trucks clean, and deliver professional proposals. Hire a professional photographer to capture your work in the best light and feature the images on your website. It only takes a few impressive pictures and some flattering testimonials for prospects to form their initial opinion of you and for you to get your foot in the door.
Now go get your slingshots ready!
Marty’s Turf is a monthly column written by Industry Business Consultant and Owner of Grunder Landscaping, Marty Grunder. Each month, Marty provides a piece of business advice for Gravely landscapers to help grow their businesses. For more information about Marty and his services, please visit www.martygrunder.com.
Ocean is a top-tier accelerator in the Midwest as has just recently located to a brand new office space in downtown Cincinnati at the heart of Cincinnati’s startup eco-system. Each year, hundreds of applicants looking to scale their high-tech startup in the market apply to join the Ocean program – half coming from outside the Cincinnati area with an additional third from outside the United States. The Ocean program has produced 26 alumni companies in its first three years with some outstanding results – over $6.5 million in capital raised and over 65 jobs created since 2015.
Ocean will select up to 10 high-tech companies for Class 4 who will each receive $50,000. The Ocean program, which runs from January – May 2018, features access to over 100 mentors, off-site founder retreats, access to our brand new 7,000 sq ft office space downtown and participation in Ocean’s commercial and spiritual curriculum.
1. Value Proposition
2. Revenue Model
3. Investor Readiness.
Ocean prides itself on graduating companies who are prepared to enter the marketplace and who know how to communicate with the capital markets. However, what continues to differentiate Ocean from other accelerator programs is the unique emphasis placed on faith and the holistic development of the founder. Ocean places a unique focus on the founder by investing time coaching them on how to invest in their faith and relationships while simultaneously building their business.
Applications close November 1st. APPLY for Ocean Accelerator Class IV here!
Visit our website for more information.
If you have any questions, please contact our Program Director
Ian Smith
The July edition of Early Risers, our monthly morning pitch event, brought 5 bright, young entrepreneurs to the stage to share their exciting and innovative products and solutions.
Not sure what Early Risers is all about? Check out more info and register to join us in August!
Know what Early Risers is, but you missed this month’s event? Check out this awesome write-up local business owner & podcaster Jon Umstead crafted to recap his experience:
The series of announcements in April regarding the redevelopment of the Dayton Arcade were some of the biggest news stories of the year. The former shopping center is planned to be redeveloped over the next several years and become a hub for arts, entertainment, and innovation– Check out Miller Valentine’s website for floor plans & renderings of the space!
Our friends at Indigo Life are working with the developers of the Dayton Arcade to help them understand more about the community’s interests & desires. This survey is an opportunity to directly engage in the redevelopment plans and impact decisions being made about the future of the Arcade.
If you haven’t been following along, here are the series of articles that ran in April:
Activated Spaces is now accepting applications for the Pop Up Office Project. This new program builds on the success of the Pop Up Shop Project, which was launched in 2011 to activate first floor storefronts. Selected Pop Up Office tenants will receive a short-term lease option for downtown office space, a small stipend to help offset startup costs, as well as professional services support from the volunteer team.
Interested business owners should fill out an application, which can be done online at www.activatedspaces.org, or downloaded and emailed to Jen Cadieux at [email protected]. The application deadline is 5 p.m. Friday, August 25.
This round of the Pop Up Office Project will host up to three companies in recently renovated space on the eighth floor of Liberty Tower (120 W. Second St.). The Activated Spaces team has partnered with the ownership at Liberty Tower to remodel a traditional office suite into an open, non-traditional, collaborative space. Project supporter, Business Furniture, has kindly loaned office furniture to outfit the space as well as donated their time for space planning and layout of the Pop Up Office.
Started in 2011, the Activated Spaces Pop Up Shop Project has launched 24 new businesses (15 of which stayed open past their initial pop up period), filled approximately 21,000 SF of previously vacant space, and created 41 jobs. As this program continues to celebrate success, volunteers looked at other ways to continue to support downtown’s revitalization. Thus far, Activated Spaces has been focused on activating first floor, retail space by providing tenants with a short-term lease and below market value lease rates. Now the program will also activate office space through a shared office model.
Since 2011, more than 120 startups have launched downtown. Several recent initiatives and projects are building on this momentum, including Start Downtown, Dayton Startup Week, the plans for the Dayton Arcade, and partnerships between The Entrepreneurs Center, the Air Force Research Lab, and the Wright Brothers Institute. The Pop Up Office Project is envisioned as another resource that will help provide a supportive environment for the growing downtown startup community.
The Activated Spaces Pop Up Project is driven by volunteers from the young professional organizations UpDayton and Generation Dayton, with support from the Downtown Dayton Partnership and other community volunteers. Activated Spaces is part of the Greater Downtown Dayton Plan, a strategic blueprint for the future of downtown.
Those interested in volunteering with Activated Spaces should e-mail [email protected].
Local startup Skuld, LLC announced is officially a semifinalist in the 43North startup competition. The Tipp City startup are in the running for a portion of $5 million in startup funding to be awarded. The competition, in its fourth year, is part of the state of New York’s Buffalo Billions economic development effort focused on growing the economy of Buffalo.
In 2015, there were 11,350 entries which took over three thousand hours to review. After changing to a stringent demanding data driven entry process, this year there were over five hundred entries and 134 companies advanced to the semifinals. Skuld was the only semifinalist from Ohio. More than a quarter of the semifinalists were from New York. 23 were from California and 9 were from Massachusetts.
Skuld, LLC is focused on disrupting the metal casting industry. They are the only company in the United States offering near net shape steel lost foam castings and are the only known company in the world offering this technology in stainless and low carbon steels. Skuld also offers thin walled ductile iron going down as thin as 0.070” which gives it the ability to use castings to replace stampings.
Their most innovative process is their Additive Manufacturing Evaporative Casting process. In this process they use 3D printing to replace expensive tooling by 3D printing a plastic form which is then vaporized during the casting process to leave behind an exact replica. They are presenting more technical details on this process at the upcoming MS&T Conference this October in Pittsburgh.
Mark DeBruin, chief technical officer, explained, “Current metal 3D printing technology has limited alloys and often unpredictable properties because you are essentially microwelding together metal powder. Our process allows nearly any metal alloy to be cast and gives standard properties. Yet, it still permits you to eliminate tooling and go from computer drawing directly to obtaining a part.”
Later in July, Skuld will have twenty-five minutes to pitch their business plan to representatives of the startup competition in hopes of advancing to the October finals. The top prize winner will obtain $1 million in startup capital while second place gets $600K and third through eighth places receive $500K. All eight top winners will also continue to compete for another $300,000 in follow-on financing.
We will continue to follow Skuld on their journey in the 43North competition!
The following post originally appeared on new Startup Grind Dayton Chapter Ambassador & Dayton Tech Guide intern Austin Rain’s LinkedIn. Access the original post here.
Did you miss the July Dayton Startup Grind fireside chat with Eric Fulkert? That’s ok, we forgive you!
Who’s Eric Fulkert? He is the CEO of Campus Suite, a school communication platform and is also the COO of Soundstr, a hardware device that helps businesses pay fairer music licensing fees based on actual music usage. Soundstr recently landed $1 million in early-stage equity funding to support their endeavor to disrupt the music industry.
Eric’s been self-employed since he was 22 years old. He leverages that experience, as well as his knowledge of software and hardware ventures to provide insight and advice to startups that are navigating the path of technological entrepreneurship. He does this through Founder’s Institute in Cincinnati, advising startups and walking them through the steps of building a business that will last.
Now that you’ve got the run-down on his background, here are some highlights from the event:
Eric shared the importance of “knowing your customer’s customer”. If you know how your customer works and who they serve, you are better able to solve the problems they are facing.
He also spoke about managing remote teams. Campus Suite has numerous team members in several different countries. Eric spoke about the importance of clear communication and the tools that have helped his team grow. “With clear expectations and honesty, we have been able to build a great team”, he said.
Along those lines, he mentioned that it is “critical to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you and then support that team once they are there”. He went on to describe how valuable it is to be available to your team. “If you’re not accessible, you won’t see the opportunities that are waiting there for you. If you make yourself approachable and accessible there are amazing things that can happen for all parties”.
In one part of his talk, Eric shared his opinion on the key quality of a successful entrepreneur. “Being comfortable with risk is by far one of the most important characteristics you can have. You are going out and putting it all on the line. If you aren’t comfortable with that risk, you probably aren’t fit for entrepreneurship”.
When asked to share a process that he practices every day, Eric highlighted BPMN (business process model & notation), a tool he uses to understand all businesses. “I can’t stress enough how important it is to understand business and technological processes. If you can map out a process from beginning to end, which helps you understand problems and find solutions to those problems, you will be golden.”
Lastly, what does the future look like for Eric? He’s eager to continue raising money for Soundstr as well as welcoming the fall cohort for Cincinnati Founder’s Institute.
Also, a shout out to our venue sponsor – SparkBox, for providing a great atmosphere for the entrepreneurs and Dayton community attendees.
To check out our future events, click here.
Austin Rains, Startup Grind Dayton Chapter Ambassador
We decided that we’ve been sitting on this little secret of ours long enough. We are proud to introduce to the world our proprietary sensor! Thought our system architecture was simple before? We just upped the ante – unlike traditional systems that require multiple types of costly sensors, we’ve built an affordable package that is capable of every occupancy sensing function you need.
*Final aesthetic design still under revision process
Well, we can let you in on a bit of the magic. Our brilliant electrical engineer discovered a new sensor that has yet to be utilized in our field and immediately went to work. He found that not only is it able to track occupancy, but it can track the direction of traffic.
Thought your traditional sensors could do the job just fine? While they are able to detect movement, this application is actually very limited. Since it only detects movement it is unable to tell whether a person has actually entered or left a room, only that someone had entered its line of sight. Also, since they are passive, they are only active when someone is in motion. If someone is sitting still in a room, these passive sensors would not register movement and go into a “sleep mode” which results in incorrect occupancy data, leading to what are now unnecessary errors in analytics and frustrations among team members when seeking an unoccupied space.
Our new sensors are always active meaning they’ll never skip a beat in getting the data you need. We’ve leveraged the directional sensing to double as a people counter. By strategically placing them above entranceways, the sensor is able to detect when someone is moving into or out of the space and keeps track of the number of people still in the space. When there are multiple entrances, the sensors work in tandem with each other on the backend to ensure real-time accuracy. This capability also works with open office floor plans. Simply designate the boundaries of what you will consider to be the space and we can strategically place sensors to work in tandem to specifically cover the area.
As an added bonus, we’ve added integrated lighting control to our proprietary sensors as well! Your Facility Management Team still has control over timing and how they want it to operate such as some lights remaining on for the duration of the day, lights turning on 10 minutes before a meeting or turning off 10 minutes after, etc. Adding the integrated lighting control simply means that you no longer need to have a third party lighting control system, which is one less thing you need to check off your list. You’re welcome.
For more information on these innovative new sensors and our other products, visit www.greenspacemeetings.com or email us directly at info@greenspacemeetings. We look forward to hearing from you!
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Dayton, OH 45402
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