Techgrity

The company name becomes your intellectual property at the moment you incorporate your startup as an LLC or a Corporation. Sole proprietorships need to trademark the name to protect it. Select it well – marketers will tell you that you will be selling your name, more than your products. Actual incorporation fees in many states are below $100, if you do it yourself. Don’t pick a company name until you are certain that you can get the comparable domain name, so Internet brokers won’t hold you hostage.

Internet Domain Name.

This name (www.domainname.com) is just as critical as the company name, and the two should match as nearly as possible. Significant differences will confuse your customers, and open the door to imitators and scam artists. Internet domain names can be acquired from most hosting providers or Network Solutions, for as little as $10/year each.

Social Media Accounts.

Immediately go to relevant social media sites and grab the same name, even if you never plan to use the accounts. Many companies like Sears, Coca-Cola, and Twitter have already been hurt by people using company names they don’t own on social sites. These days, every business needs a blog, so sign up your domain names accounts on TypePad, Wordpress, and Blogger, or all of the above, before someone starts blogging in your name.

Patents.

Remember that ideas cannot be patented, only novel implementations. But the application or provisional application has to be registered before you disclose the details to investors or consumers, or the implementation will be deemed un-patentable. Patent attorney fees start at around $5K.

Trademarks.

A trademark is a name, phrase or logo that tells the consumer the origin of the goods and distinguishes your goods from those of your competitor. Trademarks require a federal trademark registration from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The cost for a single trademark is around $300.

Copyrights.

No registration and no cost is required to secure a copyright on written, audio, or video material that you create to be attributed to your company. Still, it is recommended that you add the familiar ©Copyright 2010 symbol at the beginning or end of each media and document segment.

Trade Secrets With Employment Agreement.

Companies often use non-patentable but important trade secrets to run their business. These trade secrets need to be documented and coupled with an employment agreement, to keep them from migrating to your competitors when employees move on.

Business Plan.

Your business plan holds the keys to your kingdom, so you don’t want it in the hands of competitors. If you need early reviews or assistance by people you don’t know well, get them to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement first. A sample agreement is available for free download from my website.

In cost, all of these elements of intellectual property may be acquired for a few hundred dollars (or a few thousand with an attorney), if you act early and quickly. Later, good intellectual property can be worth millions when your company valuation is set for investment purposes, or when the company is acquired or sold. In between, you need it to survive.

By now, a lot of people agree that the next big thing in the world of technology will be in the realm of the internet of things. When every single device you own will be able to talk to one another and make smart decisions based on those interactions. That includes lights, TV’s, fridges, cars, doors, microwaves, basically - everything little thing that can, will be connected.


Sensinode was one of the companies that was aiming to make this a reality by developing a standards based technology because otherwise you would end-up with a lot of proprietary protocols which prevents scaling that the internet of things really needs.

Through this process, they have developed NanoStack and NanoService products that helped to connect all sorts of nodes in an internet of things network. It took over seven years to bring the technology to maturity and at this point the company became an attractive purchase.

Which has basically led to the purchase by the British ARM, a multinational semi-conductor company, whose processors and chips can be found in Apple, Samsung, Nokia (Microsoft) devices.

However the company has always been known for trying to be present in as many devices as possible and this goes in-line with the purchase as they are really getting ready for the internet of things. After all, this market is predicted to grow by nearly 30 billion devices, according to research conducted by IHS.

ARM is planning to offer Sensinode products to their existing and new clients, which gives a very large base for the startup. According to Adam Gould, the CEO of Sensinode,“The ARM architecture together with Sensinode’s software technology covering 6LoWPAN, CoAP, and OMA Lightweight M2M with advanced security will provide a compelling solution for Internet of Things developers.”

The company has been around for a while and received funding from Tekes as well as Series A in 2010 and Series B in 2011. One of the latest investments was done by Conor VC, so this was definitely a rather fast exit for them.

We have reached out to both Conor VC and Sensinode for further comments and perhaps a hint at the deal size and will update the story should we find out more.

Startup: Chicago Startup Doggyloot Raises $2.5M In Funding (Chicago Tribune)

Doggyloot, a Chicago-based pet products e-commerce company, said Monday it has raised $2.5 million in funding.

Northbrook-based Origin Ventures, which has invested in local tech companies such as GrubHub, led the round. Chicago-based Sandbox Industries, which operates a venture fund called the Sandbox Advantage Fund, also participated.



Doggyloot was developed as an internal project at Sandbox, which incubates its own startups in addition to investing in companies. Marbles: The Brain Store, the retail chain, came out of Sandbox. Doggyloot, which offers deals on pet products for members and sells other items on a subscription basis, grew out of Dashmob, a now-defunct Sandbox company focused on highlighting real-time, location-based deals at nearby merchants.

Post Credits

Post Site: http://www.zdnet.com/

Post Arthur: Angelica Mari

Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/angelicamari

If you were offered an opportunity to do something you love every day even though the odds for success were heavily skewed against you, would you go for it?

I recently had to make this decision and it was one of the toughest i’ve ever made. I had two options: continue a career path that provided amazing long-term opportunities and stability or pursue a unique opportunity as a co-founder at a technology startup that provides no stability, more than doubles the number of working hours, and pays nothing.

Spoiler alert: I went for it.

It all started about eight months ago when I went to Startup Weekend Tampa. Being relatively new to the Tampa Bay area, my expectations were to dip my toe into the startup community and make a few connections. What happened next was completely unexpected…

During the 54 hour event I pitched an idea called EXMO, built a team, iterated on the idea, gathered feedback and spoke to potential customers. When it was all said and done, we gave the final pitch on Sunday evening where we won first place. To make things even crazier, since we won a Startup Weekend event during Global Entrepreneurship Week, we were entered into the Global Startup Battle. We only had 24 hours to create a 90 second video for the contest. We somehow ended up scripting, shooting, and editing the video in 7 hours. While we ultimately lost, it was a great experience. At the time of the weekend, the idea for EXMO was to be better connect people at events (conferences, conventions, seminars, etc.) and keep them aware of what’s going on, all while making the event organizer’s job easier.

Shortly after the event and the contest madness, the team shrunk from six down to two. Over the course of the months that followed we started building the product and were able to get an early version on iOS out the door for a local event. We received great feedback and that’s when we knew we were onto something. For the months that followed that event, we continued to roll out new features, made an android app, and released a completely self-service web app for event organizers. This all culminated into our public beta announcement onstage at the following Startup Weekend Tampa in June. Since then EXMO has powered dozens of events from Florida to California. We’re continuing to test the platform, roll out new features, and spread the word. Currently, we are working towards our big public debut at the end of September and are trying to get some sleep in every now and then. We’ve completely bootstrapped the venture (only $2300 spent to date!) and have already started turning revenue.

So why did I turn down the safe path for a risky one? There are a multitude of reasons, but I believe they ultimately boil down to a few main themes:

Impact – We’re working on building a product from the ground up that could potentially impact millions of people. To me, that is nothing short of fascinating and I want to make that happen.

Passion – Being passionate about something is more than just a phrase. The reality is that passion is a prerequisite. I wake up each morning knowing that this is a problem I want to solve. There are great days and there are terrible days, but it’s my passion that keeps me going.

Experience – In my short time as a startup founder I’ve learned that entrepreneurship is more about the journey then the outcome. I’ve been exposed to challenges and opportunities that have impacted my life, both professionally and personally.

Learning – I’ve always been a big proponent of continuous learning. Running a startup takes everything you have and in return you will learn things that no classroom could ever teach you. I want to learn everything from how to effectively pitch investors to building an amazing user experience. Knowing that the harder I work, the more I learn motivates me.

People – Getting involved in the startup community is a unique experience in itself. Learning, getting feedback, and asking for advice from like-minded people is a powerful thing. The relationships I’ve built are invaluable and I look forward to creating more.

Outcome – I know that at the end of this journey I will come out a wiser, more experienced person. While yes, the potential financial rewards of starting a company are nice, I’m intrinsically motivated to make this venture a success.

It’s worth citing that some of the skills and experiences I gained from my prior employer helped get me to where I am today. I’m a little over a year removed from college, but I’m quite fortunate to have gotten the start that I did at my prior employer. I was in an intense leadership development program at an outstanding organization. The people were great, the culture was fantastic, and the opportunities were plentiful.

But at the end of the day, I still had a drive, no an urge, to do more. While I planned to start a venture sometime after the program, I couldn’t turn down the opportunities in front me. I won Startup Weekend Tampa, built an amazing network in the Tampa Bay area, had great advisors, partnered with an amazing technical co-founder, and found a problem I wanted to solve. I always told myself to wait for the right moment to start a venture, but in life sometimes there isn’t a right moment. Entrepreneurship has been a part of my family for generations and I’ve had the bug since I was a young child. I believe that if you’re confident in your team and their abilities, you can achieve anything. I’m confident in what we’re capable of and know we can make an impact.

While I fully understand the risks of my decision, I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was ECSTATIC for what awaits. Taking a leap like I just did requires a person to be completely honest with their self; they must leave any form of an ego at the door. With that said, I’m giving myself one year to either start turning significant revenue or raise funding. Failure is very real and statistically is the most probable outcome (9 out of 10 startups fail). While failures are learning opportunities, I plan to do everything possible to make this venture a success.

I’m 100% vested in this venture and am pursuing my passion. I’ve significantly downsized my lifestyle (no income), turned down the opportunity to live in the heart of NYC in corporate housing for my former employer, and moved into a 3 bedroom house with another tech startup founder. I’m completely committed and am putting myself in an environment that will help provide the catalyst to really get things going with EXMO. Ultimately, this was a huge decision that will have an even larger impact on my life. I consulted dozens of people from family to local entrepreneurs to people I barely know, all to get straightforward advice on whether or not I should take the leap. Surprisingly enough, over 70% of them were supportive of the move. Now I’m on the other side; I’ve made the jump. The best part? I now have 168 hours in a week that I get to decide how I want to spend on building the company. Even after all the sleepless nights, endless hours of testing, sales calls, design mockups, and demos, I love it more and more every day.

EXMO is on a mission to make events easier to organize and more interactive through mobile apps and activity walls.

Throughout my journey, I’ll be using this blog to share my insights as a first time startup founder. You can also keep up with our progress at www.getEXMO.com

Let’s do this!

Startup: Startup NoRedInk Raises $2M In Venture Capital (ChicagoTribune)

When Scheur's ninth-graders turned in compositions with error-ridden sentences like the one above, he would dutifully mark every extraneous comma and misplaced modifier. But his students didn't seem to be processing the feedback. Some just glanced at the grade without bothering to look over his comments. And many repeated their mistakes in subsequent papers.



Frustrated with the broken feedback loop, Scheur started tracking common grammar errors and posted a Craigslist ad seeking an engineer to build a Web-based tool that students could use in the classroom. That project turned into a startup, NoRedInk, which is expected to announce Thursday that it has raised $2 million from investors such as Google Ventures and Chicago-based Hyde Park Venture Partners.

"I'm really excited that we're going to stay a free, personalized app," Scheur said, noting that more than 12,000 U.S. schools are using NoRedInk. "We're not worried about charging, but just focused on building these tools that help kids with every misconception of grammar."

Startup: Startup NoRedInk Raises $2M In Venture Capital (ChicagoTribune)

NoRedInk presents grammar drills in a short quiz format, displaying sentences that students correct by changing punctuation marks or rewriting a word to fix its tense. Dick and Jane are nowhere to be found in the sentences, which instead reference characters from pop culture, such as "Twilight" and "The Hunger Games." Teachers, meanwhile, can customize the assignments to target problem areas and view a color-coded dashboard that tracks individual students' progress.

Scheur, 33, left his eight-year teaching career in 2012 to focus full time on NoRedInk and relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area. He said he's not thinking about how to generate revenue from his company, whose product is free.

"We're super lucky that (our investors) buy into the big picture of what we're trying to do for schools and education," Scheur said. "So our sole focus is on adding value and building user engagement. We're not at all focused (on) anything to do with monetization. We're just all focused on content."

Catapult welcomes Scholastica
It's back-to-school time, and Catapult, a shared office space for startups in the River North neighborhood, is bidding farewell to its latest graduate and welcoming its newest class member.

Catapult opened in late 2011 in a space donated by Foley & Lardner LLP, and offers six-month leases for startups that are past the idea stage and generating revenue or have raised venture capital. When openings come up, tenants interview companies that want to join.

Catapult held its third such selection process last week, looking for a startup to replace TempoDB, a cloud computing company that has been there since May 2012. Its successor at Catapult will be Scholastica, a startup that makes an online publishing platform for academic journals.

"There's this sense of momentum that I felt with the Scholastica team and their business," said Justin DeLay, TempoDB's co-founder and chief marketing officer. "And I think there is, to a certain extent, a bit of a Catapult culture, which is, everyone here is here to build a big business and a business that matters. You can sense a certain seriousness in (the) founders."

TempoDB, which was founded in December 2011, makes technology that stores and analyzes large amounts of "time series data," or time-specific information captured by thermostats and different types of sensors. The company is planning to expand its team of six full-time employees, and "it wouldn't have been fair or in the spirit of Catapult to try to overstay our welcome," DeLay said.

Three-year-old Scholastica, meanwhile, is ready for somewhat more permanent digs after having worked out of apartments, coffee shops and the office of a River North software firm. The startup's three founders are former University of Chicago graduate students in separate disciplines (sociology, political philosophy, history) who traded the academic track for an entrepreneurial one.

"The great thing about Catapult is, everyone who's there has some traction," said Scholastica co-founder Rob Walsh, who also heads product design. He added: "We can bounce ideas off of them and they can bounce ideas off of us."

Scholastica plans to move into Catapult next month. The space houses 13 companies, and TempoDB will be its 10th graduate. Foley & Lardner has invested in several companies through a fund made up of contributions from partners. The firm's primary interest, though, is courting fast-growing startups as clients.

"At the end of the day, they're always more interested in building legal business than their investments," said Galen Mason, special counsel at Foley and a Catapult co-founder. He added: "There's an appetite and a need for big-firm lawyers … to really roll up their sleeves and understand how to work with these digital technology companies and lean companies. Catapult is the tip of the iceberg."

One of Google Inc.'s GOOG -1.00% top Android executives has left the company for a little-known Chinese phone maker, furthering a change in leadership at the company's mobile-software division.

Hugo Barra will help with a new push by Xiaomi—pronounced sheow-mee—to develop its international business and be responsible for its strategic cooperation with Google, Xiaomi said Thursday. Xiaomi, based in Beijing, has grown quickly in the world's largest smartphone market by offering inexpensive Android devices with top hardware specs.

Mr. Barra's departure comes a few months after Andy Rubin, who was in charge of the Android operating system, stepped down to work at other projects at Google. The change in guard occurred despite Android's dominance in the smartphone industry.

Mr. Barra, a vice president in charge of Android's product management, was one of the most visible under the new Android chief, Sundar Pichai. He recently appeared at a San Francisco event where Google showed off its new Nexus 7 tablet computer and was onstage at the company's I/O developer event in May.

Mr. Barra started at Google in 2008 after the company bought voice-recognition firm Nuance Communications Inc.NUAN +4.26% He became the director of product management for Android in 2010 and soon rose to prominence under Mr. Rubin.

The announcement of Mr. Barra's departure comes a day after the disclosure that Google co-founder Sergey Brin and his wife Anne Wojcicki have split. Ms. Wojcicki's sister, Susan, is a senior vice president at Google.

According to people familiar with the matter, Mr. Barra and Mr. Brin have both had a romantic relationship this year with Amanda Rosenberg, a marketing manager for the Google Glass product, the company's new line of high-tech eyewear developed under Mr. Brin. The timing and status of those relationships is unclear. Mr. Barra had considered leaving Google in the past few months, two of these people said.

Ms. Rosenberg is one of the company's most visible evangelists for the Google Glass product, who, like Mr. Brin, is often spotted sporting the device at social events in the technology industry.

Mr. Barra and Ms. Rosenberg couldn't be reached for comment. A spokeswoman for Mr. Brin and Ms. Wojcicki said on Wednesday, "We can confirm that Anne and Sergey have been living apart for several months. They remain good friends and partners." A spokesman at the Silicon Valley company confirmed Mr. Barra's departure and said: "We'll miss him at Google and we're excited that he is staying within the Android ecosystem."

The hiring was first reported by website All Things D, a unit of Wall Street Journal parent News Corp. Xiaomi's business model doesn't revolve around the hardware it sells, but rather software, service offerings and accessories. The company, which uses its website as its primary sales platform, offers an array of accessories as diverse as multicolored batteries, casings, hats and even dolls of Xiaomi's rabbit mascot.

It also now offers a set-top box that streams licensed Internet content for television sets and is integrated with the software the company runs on its phones, which are based on Google's Android operating system. The hiring of Mr. Barra shows Xiaomi has ambitions to grow beyond China. In April, the company made its first foray into markets outside of the Chinese mainland, selling its phones in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

In a statement posted on Google's social-networking platform, Mr. Barra wrote: "I'll be joining the Xiaomi team in China to help them expand their incredible product portfolio and business globally…I'm really looking forward to this new challenge, and am particularly excited about the opportunity to continue to help drive the Android ecosystem."

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Startup: Twitter Buys Online TV Start-up Trendrr (TimesofIndia)

Post Credits

Post Site: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech

Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/toi_tech

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Post Credits

Post Site: http://www.startupsmart.com.au

Post Arthur: Rose Powell

Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosepowell

Post Credits

Post Site: www.forbes.com

Post Arthur: Robert Hof

Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/robhof

Like on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RobHof

The 15 Finalists Are:

24me

From: Ganey Tikva, Israel
Quick pitch: “The Next Generation Personal Assistant”


Admitted.ly

From: New York, United States
Quick pitch: “Ultimate online college advisory tool for high school students, their parents, and guidance counselors”


Candobaby

From: New York, United States
Quick pitch: ”The first App to offer an easy system to document all a child’s milestones, and turn them into exquisite, professionally printed photo baby books, straight from an iPhone!”


Heystack

From: Hertzelia, Israel
Quick pitch: “The right way to meet the right people”


Instabug

From: Giza, Egypt
Quick pitch: “Instant bug reporting tool for mobile apps”


Jackpocket

From: New York, USA
Quick pitch: “A fortune in your pants.”


Jampp

From: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Quick pitch: ”Jampp solves the App Promotion puzzle.”


Neomatix

From: Tel Aviv, Israel
Quick pitch: “Electro-Optic solutions for drivers and vehicle fleets”


nextSociety

From: New York, United States
Quick pitch: “Your ultimate networking tool.”


Pandadoc

From: San Francisco, United States
Quick pitch: “Send, Receive, Annotate, and Sign Digital Documents”


RareWire

From: Kansas City, MO, United States
Quick pitch: ”The only 100% cloud-based native mobile app development platform.”


Tales & Tours

From: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Quick pitch: “Your personal tourguide in your pocket”


Taxi Startup

From: Talinn, Estonia
Quick pitch: “The evolution of the taxi industry”


Ukky

From: Utrecht, The Netherlands
Quick pitch: ”Create a beautiful baby photo book from your iPhone in a snap.”


Zoobe

From: Berlin, Germany
Quick pitch: “Zoobe creates free to use applications for smartphones, that turn personal voice recordings into animated video messages.”

Post Credits

Post Site: Northwestern Mutual via www.forbes.com

Post Arthur: Lisa Wirthman

Lisa Wirthman writes about business, sustainability, public policy, and women’s issues. Her work has been published in The Atlantic.com, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Fast Company, Investor’s Business Daily, the Denver Post and the Denver Business Journal.

Follow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/LisaWirthman