Wavee, a next generation online shopping platform, recently announced the launch of FUSE, a revamped consumer focused online shopping experience. Wavee has been redesigned to further enhance the online shopping experience through increased product variety and guaranteed lowest prices on the Internet. Wavee is the next evolution of online retail and online auction business models as it combines the opportunity to win products at up to 90 percent savings and the ability to purchase an item at a price below other e-commerce sites. From the cost-conscious shopper to the risk-oriented auction bidder, Wavee customers now have the best chance for scoring the greatest deals on the hottest products offered anywhere on the Internet – guaranteed.
Band Metrics, an ATDC company, was featured this past weekend on NPR’s On the Media in a segment called,”Charting the Charts” by Mark Phillips. The program, which aired on over 100 U.S. radio stations yesterday and Saturday, was also released globally as a podcast via NPR Worldwide, and featured Robert Levine of Billboard, Chicago Tribune music critic and author Greg Kot, Chris Molanphy of Idolator and Duncan Freeman of Band Metrics. It’s a must listen for anyone interested in the evolution of how an artist’s popularity is measured, as Mark eloquently states, Band Metrics looks “more like the tools of a web savvy political campaign. And maybe that’s what the chart of the future needs to be – a tool for organizing communities, and if it works, it would transform and replace the whole idea of (music) charts.”
Neurotic Media, the leading provider of online and mobile entertainment download solutions, has announced the launch of its 2009 Holiday MP3 Special promotion. The promotion includes a private-label mini-site with over ninety top-quality well-curated downloads of Holiday classics and standards, coupled with private-label plastic cards, all available for unbeatable rates.
“What better gift to give out for the Holidays than the empowering gift of music?” says Meredith Marconi, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing at Neurotic Media. “Music carries great tangible value for the user and it communicates edginess about your brand. You can give music away using plastic cards that are custom-branded for your company, redeemable on a mini-site that is also custom-branded for you – and on which you collect priceless information about customers and partners during the login process.”
Neurotic Media deployed a demo-site that showcases the special-rate catalog. The catalog features selections such as Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker by the London Symphony Orchestra, and other standards such as Silent Night, Deck the Halls, Joy to the World, Ingle Bells, and much more.
“A good example of how the program can be used is the idea of a Gift-with-Purchase incentive program,” Meredith adds. “If your average customer spends say $100, is it worthwhile to spend a few dollars to incentivize them to spend $150? And, capture their personal data in the process and enroll them in your mass email list?”
The program is offered to various size businesses during the Holiday season, and the mini-sites offered through the program will be live until the end of Q2 2010. Interested parties are invited to contact Meredith Marconi at Neurotic.
Band Metrics announces today that it has received an investment from the Georgia Tech Edison Fund, an early-stage technology fund managed by ATDC.
“We’re thrilled about the investment and grateful to the ATDC, as the investment will assist us in completing our initial product offering for our public beta release later this year, and continued development in 2010,” stated Duncan Freeman, Founder and President of Band Metrics. “Additionally, we could not have asked for a better investment partner, as the ATDC, one of the nation’s leading university-based technology accelerators is committed to Atltlanta’s thriving technology community, and helping startups become successful companies.”
Savannah ATDC member CommerceV3 (former Color Maria) announced last week that it will merge with Timberline Interactive located in Middlebury, VT. The combined company will unite a proven online store platform with a vast array of e-commerce marketing services. CommerceV3 is an on-demand e-commerce solution for creating and growing web storefronts and has been a member of the ATDC since 2004. Timberline is a web marketing service provider who customizes solutions for direct marketing companies and online retailers. The merger of these two companies creates a powerhouse of web marketing and online business opportunities.
CommerceV3 president Nathan Focht recognizes this as a new and unique opportunity for merchants. “The CV3 platform has always had a strong feature set to help customers grow their sales, but this merger puts us ahead of the curve. The team at Timberline is masters at tuning web stores for maximum growth. They have a huge playbook for making money online”.
“Our team was already working in the CommerceV3 environment to grow orders and sales for many of our clients,” says Bud Reed, founder of Timberline. “In many ways this merger was driven by our focus on the customers. It gives them even more technology options and streamlines website launch and development process”. Reed, who launched Timberline Interactive ten years ago, is retiring from day-today operational duties but will continue in an advisory role to provide strategic direction for the combined companies. Be on the look-out for further development of the new company.
Savannah ATDC member company Balaya announced today that it will launch its flagship product, Tick-it, with The Savannah Morning News. The Savannah Morning News licensed Tick-it to expand their online brand and provide their customers with a way to link local news and information from SavannahNow directly to computer desktops. The deal will enable Balaya to gain exposure to the more than 400,000 unique visitors access the newspaper’s digital network.
Tick-it is a personalized communications hub that organizes web content and group conversations into private, secure information channels delivered directly to computer desktops. Tick-it is a persistent communications application that enables publishers and media outlets reach readers first with content and information. Running like a news ticker across the desktop or accessed via mobile phone, Tick-it blends the best elements of social networking, email, and RSS technology to deliver stronger brand engagement and create new revenue streams.
Congratulations to Balaya on finding a great partner like The Savannah Morning News to launch Tick-it.
ATDC member PlayOn! Sports and the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) and announced the launch of the GHSA Digital Sports Network, a partnership providing multi-platform distribution of Georgia high school sports content, beginning in Fall 2009. Postseason coverage of all, yes all GHSA sports, will be made available to fans in a variety of live and on-demand formats across television, broadband, DVD, and download-to-own.
The initial content will contain archived prior-year playoff and championship events in football, basketball, volleyball, and wrestling. Inaugural events for the 2009 season are four football games from the Corky Kell Classic, on Saturday, August 22 at the Georgia Dome. Full game, on-demand access for these premier matchups (Starr’s Mill vs. Etowah; Brookwood vs. McEachern; Camden County vs. Grayson; Walton vs. Norcross) will be available on GHSA.tv immediately following the conclusion of play. Additional fall events will include postseason play in football, volleyball and softball.
Congrats to PlayOn! as they continue their drive to provide the tools necessary for media companies, academic institutions, and sport associations to produce high quality video coverage of live events that don’t get TV exposure.
SkyBlox a Wi-Fi platform that provides retail businesses Wi-Fi access services coupled with an advertising tool to drive sales announced the closing of an angel round of funding. The funding came from SGIO, a private equity firm out of Florida that specializes in early stage technology companies made the investment. While the total amount of investment was undisclosed, a $1 the first $100,000 allocation was sent via Twitpay.
Founded in 2008 by a group of EarthLink’s former muni wi-fi team, SkyBlox is Atlanta’s leading application for neighborhood wireless networks and the source for real time information about those neighborhoods. Skyblox has expanded and now offers service in Austin, Chicago, and Denver. With the recent funding to build out the SkyBlox platform you may see them in your city soon.
BLiNQ Media is a social media advertising company that maximizes advertiser performance across social media networks by targeting and optimizing campaigns based on consumer data. They differentiate themselves via a technology that makes use of large amounts of consumer data for better targeting and optimization. I like what they are doing. A lot.
Founded a year ago the company bootstrapped its way to a nice customer base, growing revenues, and profitability. Great team of founders that has worked together in the past. I am very excited that Dave Williams and the rest of the BLiNQ team have joined ATDC and will be moving to Tech Square. Dave is pretty pumped himself and excited about the new direction of ATDC.
In the not too distant future there will be a host of new entrepreneurs and companies joining the ATDC community. For a moment I want to welcome BLiNQ.
Preparis has developed the first subscription-based workforce preparedness platform designed to protect businesses and their employees from terrorism, natural disasters, pandemics, workplace violence, and other 21st century threats. They recently launched their ACTION Platform. It is a turnkey SaaS solution that delivers online analytics, certifications, training, information, and notifications, information and response instructions to over 200 potential threats. Accessible via a company’s intranet, the Internet and mobile devices worldwide, the ACTION Platform enables global executives, management teams, and all employees to make it through crisis events at a moment’s notice.
Preparis has an interesting back story. The company emerged out of CEO Armistead Whitney's experience in New York City on September 11.
We are pleased to have Preparis to be part of ATDC and look forward to working with them.