Day 1 of NYDisrupt startup finalists in the location category surged the stage with Karizma, SpotOn, Sonar, Arrived, and Gnonstop Gnome all pitched their wares. Geo-location continues to be a red hot space for startups and although GetAround won the overall NY Disrupt, Sonar was my personal favorite with no exception. Sonar is a mobile app that takes data layers from Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare and recommends who in the room is relevant to you.

Sonar gives the ability to connect with people in a social or business context depending on your desired goal. By interrupting your social graph and network it’s a pre-qualification of people in the room. If you have difficulty breaking the ice or networking at tradeshows, seminars, and competition then this app can make relevant recommendations for you. If you are looking for your next wife (creepy in a way) or trying to find your a startup founder may be or your future wife. Sonar uncovers the hidden connections you miss everyday, in real time, in the palm of your hand.
The one problem I see with the company is simply the name itself. If you conduct a search like the name of this post Sonar mobile you will find hellosonar.com which is a similar mobile app but not the one in this article which is sonar.me. This may be an additional barrier of entry from an SEO and marketing standpoint. Sonar.me I think is a highly effective name for the service but you need to be found at the end of the day. Read how to quadruple your mobile app signups by changing to the right name.

Continuing on with the features, Sonar gives the ability to connect with people in a social or business context depending on your desired goal. Think of it as a prequalification of people in the room and a recommendation of who your next startup founder may be. The current state of the web is drastically different than a few years ago.

Today our online world continues to influence our offline world. I constantly connect with people in person who’s twitter feed or webinar I have seen in the past. The authenticity and transparency the web now brings is truly inspiring for getting real world business done. Just think how powerful your rolodex will become when using sonar in realtime at events and then keeping track of those relationships on hashable.

Hashable keeps track of your real world connections based on your online connections and was funded by Union Square Ventures. In closing, Sonar continues to add additional data layers from social network services and apps around the web making your real world “sonar” in a room more effective. Sonar could be an easy exit play for the founders because of the value added service this could lend to fouresquare and Facebook. I could actually see Facebook buying Sonar, Hashable and Foursquare.

Start it Up National Entrepreneur Summit kicks off today with with celebration of
entrepreneurship in true New Orleans style with a crawfish boil and jazz concert. Over the course of the next seven days, the nation’s brightest entrepreneurial minds will exchange ideas, participate in investment pitch opportunities and grow their networks.

This year’s Entrepreneur Week participants include top executives from Google and HP, as well as Jim Coulter of TPG Capital and MBA students from leading universities, such as Berkley and Cornell. Best of all, any entrepreneur who is so inclined can participate and learn from the experts.

Driven by the entrepreneurial momentum that has fueled the city’s rebirth, NOEW, an initiative of The Idea Village, will feature a unique program of world-class activities including over 45 business workshops, investment pitches, networking events, keynote speeches and interactive discussion sessions. This high-impact week of service, networking and collaboration redefines New Orleans as a laboratory of innovation and a model for national best practices by connecting students, entrepreneurs and thought leaders.

Stay tuned as the week unfolds.

Zaarly is a proximity based, real-time buyer powered market. Buyers can make an offer for an immediate need and sellers then cash in on an infinite marketplace for items and services they never knew were for sale.

What the heck does that mean? If you want a special road bike and might be willing to pay $300 bucks for one post it to Zaarly and a seller may be on your doorstep in 30 minutes.

This could be a brilliant business model for on-going news coverage. Think about news coverage on outlandish ebay items from the eccentric to the weird. Zaarly will allow this to happen in real time and we all know how crazy some people can be. More populated areas will clearly benefit from higher deal consummation between buyer and sellers.

The company is focused on what is called the “buyer-focused marketplace” and is almost ready to launch. Zaarly, not even a month old and just scored a million dollars to help scale from a group of Angels that reportedly included Ashton Kutcher. Connecting buyers and sellers based on proximity is a unique spin on the traditional market space business model. Certainly inline with the social / mobile revolution. This is definitely a startup to watch with definite clones soon to follow.

The Video below is a TechCrunch Interview at with the founder of Zaarly at SXSW.

Spring Demo 2011 Day#2 got underway this morning with the following companies presenting in the social media technology category.

eLive the first company lets everyone talk with friends while watching video. From your browser you can record your voice while adding links, pictures, or videos from external sources. Friends can join you for for a multi-cast and viewers can tune in live and/or revisit your creation as a video. Think of mocking up Youtube with your

FetchFans.com from Fetch Plus Asia Pacific, Pte. Ltd.
FetchFans, a media design application, computer generates highly interactive custom branded Facebook pages, Twitter and blog backgrounds for companies with multiple holdings to effectively and efficiently brand advertise through the social networks.

GutCheck from GutCheck
Is an innovative DIY web application for conducting qualitative research, which enables one on one chat interviews with target market consumers, at 10% of th cost of other traditional methods. In minutes you can be connected w/ a specific demographic targeted consumer. As cheap as $40 bucks
HeyStaks from HeyStaks

Ecobe.com from ecobe (Alpha pitch)
This is a BRAVE & BOLD startup in the search engine space. Ecobe proposes to give back 75% of its’ search engine’s advertising profit to content providers. Basically the company charges a 25% commission for allowing content creators to leverage a search engine’s profits to monetize their content. Currently focused on the Korean market space. 250K in funding to date this is building proof of concept. This will be interesting to watch

Marginize from Marginize
This is a pretty sweet product. Marginize adds a social layer to the entire web. Use Marginize as you browse to discover what other have said about any webpage you are seeing and join the conversation. Seed provided from TechStars. Atlas Venture, Longworth Venture Partners, and other top VC & Angel Investors.

Next Island virtual world from Next Island
This was Linden Lab’s second life all over again with better graphics enjoy and an eye toward monetizing virtual wares. It boasts a real cash economy & time travel. Players can explore, go on adventures, hunt, craft, socialize w/ friends, have professions that can yield them real cash & time travel to place like Ancient Greece.

OneGoodlove.com from Ongoodlove.com
The eharmony for gay / lesbian community. Done with easier to use UI and matching technology.

Pixable Photofeed (on iPad) from Pixable.
A better way to browse through photos on Facebook. A free app for iPad it provides personalized streams of photos, like “top photos of the day” and displays them in full size format. Pixable’s wonderRank technology analyzes dozens of variables associate with a Facebook account to intelligently rank and discover photos.

Speaku from Speaku (Alpha Pitch)
a real-time topic-based information network. The application enables contributors to be discovered, tracked and interacted with in real-time.

SocialReplay from Silentale
Helps businesses invest in social media extract key strategic information through qualitative data & analytics of their facebook page and twitter accounts.

Thoora for Tablets from Thoora
This app would be a pleasure to use on a table. It quickly curates and shares beautiful, naturally search-friendly, self updating content for tablet devices. Finds the best topical content from millions of social and traditional media sources. Thoora put the user in control, with tools to refine, re-order, re-rank & prioritize the content.

TrendSpottr from Trendspottr
a search and curation service for twitter and facebook. TrenSpottr takes real-time data streams filters, aggregates and publishes the top trending headlines, videos, images, phrases, hashtags and places for any search term or topic of interest. The goal is to cut through the clutter.

Viafoura from Viafoura
drives continual dialogue among online consumers through a patent pending system that utilizes split screen video debate, text and gaming reward system. Targets user commenting like Disqus & Pluck.

The Geco from The Geco (Alpha Pitch)
embedded utility that helps increase revenue for of online retailers.

A new social networking startup call Heykiki is using crowd-sourcing to connect local instructors of like-minded neighbors, instructors, teachers, athletes and workout friends. This could be useful if you are looking for a local piano teacher close to your neighborhood or trying to find a yogo or hiphop buddy.

Users make connections with practice buddies and instructors to schedule individual or group activities based on location, while instructors can gain access to a broad, targeted network of members. Kiki embodies the spirit of life. Kiki represents enthusiasm, zest and curiosity. Kiki likes to explore and discover the possibilities. Kiki likes to be surprised. Kiki loves life.

The 11 second elevator pitch for Heykiki would be simply:

• You know nothing – LEARN.
• You know a little bit – PRACTICE.
• You know something -TEACH.

The Startup story of the company is an interesting one the founder got together with a group of people in a bustling park and started to notice all the hobbies and activities taking place. One person in the group wished he could play a guitar again, while another person acknowledged running would be nice but she hates running alone….BINGO – HeyKiki is born!



HeyKiki allows you to pursue and improve upon existing interests and learn new ones while getting to know like-minded people. Users make connections with practice buddies and instructors to schedule individual or group activities based on location, while instructors can gain access to a broad, targeted network of members.

Well, 2010 is firmly behind us and thankfully so for most businesses in the broader economy. 2010 certainly had some technology startup sweet hearts last year mainly in the “location check-in” and “local deals” space (Foursquare & Groupon respectively). Groupon had rumors swirling of a $2.5 billion acquisition that lead to a $6 Billion offer from Google with a full out refusal from Groupon.

This leads to a 2011 prediction of Groupon either going public or continuing to raise large amounts of private equity. Groupon has scaled as the fastest Internet startup in history which in itself is mind boggling.

2010 was also the year of the tablet led by the Ipad and sending Apple’s market cap whizzing past Microsoft for the first time in history. Speaking of Microsoft, it will continue to trail innovation in 2011 and continue to struggle in the mobile market. If Win 7 mobile didn’t have the Xbox tie-in it may have already died. Next is e-readers, as e-readers and tablets scale to critical mass the price points will converge to affordability and features for both. Although I personally feel there is room in the market for both and I’m still a fan of the black and white “digital ink” patent the Kindle has (more of a book feel). Android and Apple will continue to be clash of the Titans throughout 2011.

Facebook valuation will hit nose bleed territory as it also attempts to go public. I remember laughing about the company being valued at $15 Billion back in 2007, I’m not sure I can get use to a $80 Billion or more valuation.

The SEC had trouble in 2010 trying to adapt with companies like SecondMarket and SharesPost. This is a story that will continue well into the future. 2011 on a macro business level will be ripe with acquisitions and consumer sentiment will start to rise out of the doldrums (generating income and spending). As house foreclosures lessen and banks write them off the balance sheets the housing market will show it’s first sign of life in four solid years. Jobs will gain close to 3/4 of a percent bringing unemployment between 9 – 9.2% by end of the year. Keep your chin up because 2011 will be the last year for solid deep discount deals.

The final and most important trend of 2010 and prediction for 2011 is the death of the VC and the rise of the Seed Angels. Okay, maybe I’m being a little dramatic VC’s are not likely to die anytime soon but they are shifting business models rapidly to stand the onslaught of lower barriers to entry to fund and launch a startup. Probably my favorite of 2010/11 is 500 startups along with my classic favoritate Y combinator