When I was thumbing through the executive summaries at the 5th annual SEVC back in March I paused to read the BrightWhistle executive summary a bit more deeply. I had been working with co-founders Greg Foster and Chad Mallory for a while and wanted to see how they presenting BrightWhistle at its coming out party. It was one of the best seed stage executive summaries that I have ever read and I have read a lot of them. Eric Gregg of TechMedia was kind enough to provide me with a digital image of Brightwhistle’s executive summary for publication here.
It was written about seven months after Brightwhistle was formed. The company had little operating history. Often times entrepreneurs struggle with adequately describing their companies at this stage. This is a great example that can serve as a template for others. Toward this end Greg offered to provide me with Word docs of both the BrightWhistle and StatSheet (which Greg also penned) executive summaries. They are below.
BrightWhistle Executive Summary
StatSheet Executive Summary
Cross posted from blog.weatherby.net
Exactly one week from now ATDC general manager will be taking the stage to kick off the 2011 Startup Showcase. Nina will be honoring nine outstanding ATDC startups. Before she does that Dr. Stephen E. Cross the Executive Vice President for Research at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Senator John Albers will be sharing their thoughts on Georgia’s support for the growth of the technology sector. In addition to all of this some of the most promising ATDC member companies will be exhibiting from 2:15 – 4:30 pm.
Over 400 people are already signed up to attend. Advance registration closes on Thursday. Buy your ticket now to save $5 off the cost at the door and avoid the onsite registration line.
Startup America is coming to Atlanta.
On Wednesday May 2 from 1:00pm – 4:30pm at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center in Technology Square senior White House officials are hosting a forum. The objective of the forum is to meet with entrepreneurs and hear directly from them on ideas and suggestions for reducing barriers and improving regulations to build a more supportive environment for entrepreneurship and innovation. In short they want to learn how to encourage business growth.
Officials attending the event include Deputy Administrator of the US Small Business Administration Marie Johns, Associate Administrator of Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Michael Fitzpatrick, Deputy Director of the US Patent and Trademark Office Teresa Rae, Senior Economist at the Council of Economic Advisors Ronnie Chatterji.
Entrepreneurs interested in attending the events can learn more by emailing reducingbarriers@sba.gov. Anyone unable to attend the Atlanta event can submit their ideas for reducing barriers to http://reducingbarriers.ideascale.com.
Cross posted to blog.weatherby.net.
Congratulations to the nine ATDC member companies selected as semifinalists in the 2011 GRA/TAG Business Launch Competition! Check out the great products these companies are bringing to you:
Arrivu – a software platform that lets a user build business applications in plain English without the need for a software developer.
AuditMyBooks – a subscription software service that automatically double checks small and medium business accounting records to detect errors and possible fraud.
Merlin Mobility – a mobile application that provides augmented reality for mobile instruction.
Nexpense – a mobile application that captures receipts with a camera phone and automatically submits expense reports online.
Pave Systems – provides a personalization platform for online publishers
Soket -is the command center for online promotions that offers local organizations one place to manage, monitor, measure and make sense of their promotional efforts and brand on the web.
Soneter – creates non-invasive meter technology that reduces water consumption and improves property valuation in the multifamily housing industry.
Telineage - provides a reliable and robust Caller- ID alternative to secure phone transactions.
TripLingo – a mobile application that provides more practical foreign language translations for the adventurous traveler.
The Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) and Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) selected 11 semifinalists out of 39 completed applications and over 80 entrants. The 11 semi-finalists are vying for finalist positions this week.
The final showdown competing for $50,000 in cash an over $400,000 in services will take place on May 24th from 7:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Sign up now to attend the finals competition. It’s a fantastic way to see great early-stage startup pitches.
Scoutmob today announced a $1.5 million round of venture capital funding from East Coast based New Atlantic Ventures. The company plans to use the funds to expand location-based mobile deals to ten additional US cities, hire about 50 people, and continue to build out it’s technology. Thanasis Delistathis of NAV will be joining ScoutMob’s board.
The quirky Scoutmob started out in early 2008 as SkyBlox by members of the former EarthLink Wi-Fi team. In 2010 the company did a nifty pivot/rebrand into the local flash commerce space launching in Atlanta. They soon expanded to New York and San Francisco. The most interesting thing is ScoutMob’s twist on the deal model. They turned it’s on it head.
They are the only company to offer deals free to consumers with no upfront cost. Deals are easily accessible with a location based feature for coupon activation. Merchants only pay upon a redemption at their business. Merchants and consumers have latched on to the innovative model, evidenced by 500,000 users attracted exclusively by word of mouth.
Congratulations to Scoutmob! We know those newly launched cities are going to love ScoutMob as much as the local Atlantans do!
This afternoon Mitch Kopelman and a small army of accountants from Habif, Arogeti & Wynne made their way to ATDC Tech Square to discuss the “Georgia Angel Tax Credit: How & When to Qualify.”
The Angel Investor Tax Credit was signed into law by Governer Perdue in June of 2010. It provides for a Georgia tax credit of up to $50,000 annually for investors in startup companies in Georgia. The credit equals 35% of the amount invested and is available for investments made in 2011, 2012, and 2013. Investments must be made in the form of cash in exchange for stock by an accredited investors that manage $5 million or less in capital.
In order for a startup to qualify it must be a partnership, LLC, or corporation located in Georgia that was organized less then three years before the investment is made. The company’s headquarters must be in Georgia and remain so the entire time the investor benefits from the tax credit. The startup must also employ less than 21 people, have revenues that do not exceed $500,000, and cannot have obtained more than $1 million in debt or equity. There are some industry limitations as well but generally speaking any technology company is eligible.
But here is the kicker, in order for a business to qualify as an eligible investment under the angel tax credit, the startup must register with the tax commissioner using Form IT-QBR prior to receiving the capital investment. Mitch co-authored an article on the angel investor tax credit that provides more detail with links to the regulations and required form.
The Angel Investor Tax Credit is a great move taken by the state of Georgia to promote the development of startups. Mitch and the rest of the HA&W team are doing a great job spreading the word to the startup community so they can take advantage of the program.
The ATDC Startup Showcase is a premier annual event in the Georgia technology community. More than 500 technology leaders, university leaders, investors, and aspiring entrepreneurs come every year to see ATDC emerging technology company members and graduate members exhibit their innovative technologies.
Each year ATDC member companies who have attained rigorous growth milestones are selected to graduate from the startup incubator. With ATDC’s new expanded mission 2011 is turning into a bumper year for graduates.
The 2011 graduating companies are:
- BLiNQ Media, a company that develops and markets industry-leading Facebook advertising technology and media solutions to agencies and big brands, maximizing campaign performance, operational efficiencies, consumer engagement and branding insights;
- Clearleap, a web-based content management and delivery platform provider that enables television service providers to stream video over existing broadband networks directly to IP connected set-tops, devices and TVs;
- Iconic Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company developing a protein designed to destroy diseased cells associated with vision loss caused by macular degeneration and certain cancers;
- Medshape Solutions, a medical device company focused on improving the treatment of human orthopedic conditions with a new shape-memory material;
- PlayOn Sports, a distributor of high school sports media that provides schools the ability to produce and broadcast events on a school branded video portal;
- Sentrinsic, an industrial technology company that develops fluid control products to increase energy efficiency, improve reliability and lower the cost of operating industrial equipment;
- SoloHealth, develops and deploys free health screening and information kiosks in retail locations nationwide, including its award-winning EyeSite® product and the next-generation SoloHealth Station™ which will screen for vision, blood pressure, weight, body mass index and provide an overall health assessment.
- Velocity Medical, a medical device company that develops a FDA-cleared oncology informatics platform for image-based cancer treatment planning and therapy response assessment which provides a complete picture of the patient over the entire timeline of their treatment; and
- WorthPoint, an Internet centric information and media company with the world’s most comprehensive resource of value data on art, antiques and collectibles that helps people accurately assess the worth of and learn how best to preserve, sell or buy collectibles.
In addition to celebrating the achievements of our graduate companies at the 2011 Startup Showcase, more than 50 technology startups will exhibit their technologies. Please join us to celebrate the successes of our graduating members and to meet the new up and coming startups that you are sure to hear more from in the future.
Each year the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) recognizes Georgia’s 40 most innovative technology companies. The winners are selected based on the degree of innovation, potential scope and financial impact, likelihood of success, and promotion of Georgia’s innovative efforts nationally and internationally.
This year 19 of the TAG Top 40 companies are ATDC members or graduates. The Top 40 companies also compete for a place in the Top 10, which are presenting today at the Georgia Technology Summit. We are very pleased that six of the of the Top 10 presenting companies have an ATDC affiliation. They are:
CardioMEMS
Damballa
ipTrust
Pardot
PhloSoft
ShapeStart
The remaining 11 ATDC affiliated companies that are exhibiting at the conference include:
BrightWhistle
Cardlytics
Digital Assent
EyeMail
ipTrust
Merlin Mobility
Pardot
Preparis
Scoutmob
TALENThire
Telineage
Transaction Tree
Vendormate
Congratulations to these ATDC companies for being recognized as leaders in the Georgia technology community and for bringing some of the world’s most innovative technologies to market.
The Global Mobile Awards announced today at the GSMA conference in Barcelona, Spain that Savannah based Urban Planet Mobile was selected as the Best Mobile Learning Innovation. Joining other winners such as Angry Birds, Apple, Blackberry, Ericsson, and Google, the GSMA noted Urban Planet’s “simple, genial yet exciting innovation; based on sound business models to reach the underserved markets.”
Urban Planet’s winning entry provides audio English language lessons to over 94 million PT Telkomsel subscribers in Indonesia via SMS. These English lessons were been developed specifically for mobile delivery and are capable of reaching 90% of handsets. Each lesson is sent as an embedded audio link that downloads as a ringtone, providing the opportunity for subscribers to daily hear English spoken by a native speaker. Because these lessons are priced affordably for the market and available to virtually every person, subscribers study anytime, anywhere. Within 3 months of launch, an astonishing 70,000 plus Indonesians subscribed to the service.
Congratulations to CEO & President Brian OliverSmith, who was on hand to accept the award, and the rest of the Urban Mobile Planet team.
Last Tuesday night at the Ferst Center for the Arts the awards ceremony for the Georgia Tech Reseach & Innovation Conference (GTRIC) was held. The winner of the 2011 Innovation Competition was Craig Tashman of LiquidText.
GTRIC brings together 400 Georiga Tech graduate students presenting their research to the Tech community. The event gives graduate students the opportunity to compete for monetary prizes for their research, in order to fund commericalization, continued research, or travel expenses for students to continue to make presentations across the country. This year the conference awarded a total of $85,000 in prizes, the largest being the Georgia Tech Edison Prize.
The Georgia Tech Edison Prize is a $15,000 award that goes to the winner of the event’s Innovation Competition. The Georgia Tech Edison Prize was established in 2010 to foster the formation of startup companies from research conducted at the university. Graduate students work closely with Georgia Tech’s ATDC Venture Lab arm to tune their ideas and presentations prior to the event. Approximatley 100 graduate students entered the Innovation Competition.
Cross posted from blog.weatherby.net
