Helping great people build great companies

by James Wester

LevelUp is growing up. The payment app from mobile gaming company SCVNGR lets consumers pay at restaurants with their smartphones, and the company claimed its payment method is now approaching par with MasterCard, Visa, Amex and Discover. “Approaching” maybe, but LevelUp is only available in a handful of cities, so they may have a way to go before the big four card brands feel threatened.

This moment of hubris, a quality LevelUp has been cultivating with cheeky press announcements in the past year, is thanks to a new deal it has with Revel Systems, a maker of point of sale terminals. LevelUp announced that its QR code-based payment method will now be available as a payment option on all POS terminals from Revel Systems, offered alongside the other four major credit card brands. This is the first of what LevelUp hopes will be a series of such partnerships.

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by Kyle Alspach

What do you do when you get forced out of your superbly-designed office building because it’s about to be razed? Hold a paintball tournament inside the office, obviously.

That’s the plan at the 28,000-square-foot Cambridge office currently occupied by mobile tech startup SCVNGR.

The event, slated for next Friday night, is dubbed “Cubicle Assassins: SCVNGR Startup Paintball.”

“Seek refuge in a private office, just don’t get caught out in the open board room or a rival CEO will surely light you up,” says the event description on Eventbrite.

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by Peter Key

UXFlip won the Best in Show award for its presentation at the Phorum 2012 National Cloud Computing Conference on Wednesday.

The West Chester, Pa., company was one of 14 companies to present at the conference, which was put on by the Greater Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies at World Cafe Live in University City. The companies presented during the conference’s “Demo Pit” segment and the “Best in Show” winner was selected by audience vote.

UXFlip is developing a platform that allows mobile-app developers to manage their apps’ user interfaces from the cloud. The company was part of DreamIt Ventures’ last Philadelphia class and the description of it on DreamIt’s website is more illuminating than the company’s own website.

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by Sarah Cargill

ShowMe Founder San Kim joins us today to discuss how ShowMe, a mobile app that allows educators to record and share whiteboard lessons with students, is tapping into the knowledge of great teachers to deliver quality lessons to students around the globe. San Kim first developed the idea of a whiteboard-based online teaching technology while working as a tutor and classroom instructor in high school math, science, writing and more. ShowMe was founded in 2009 and took several years to develop into the simple and widely used app that it is today.

How is ShowMe currently introduced into the classroom? What are some of the primary teaching methods educators are adopting with the app?

Teachers use ShowMe in all kinds of different ways, from creating lessons for kids to watch at home, or recording ShowMes during class time, to even turning the table and asking the students to create lessons on what they’ve learned (“learning by teaching” model). We feature lots of these use cases and best practices on showme.com/blog.

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gettingsmart.com/blog/2012/03/qa-showme-founder-taps-into-the-great-teachers-of-the-world/

by Seth Priebatsch

Just good enough doesn’t cut it. Here’s how to identify, and test for, these very important qualities.

Let’s face it: People who work at start-ups are an unusual breed. We love jumping head-first into problems that we have no clue how to solve, we become more energized the longer we go without sleep (thanks Breathable Energy!), and perhaps the most unusual of all, we have this crazy drive to change the world.

These elements, coupled with the risk of joining a start-up, makes finding quality employees pretty difficult. But I think we’ve done a particularly good job at Scvngr and LevelUp, and I think a lot of this is due to the fact that we’ve identified four key qualities that are essential for the start-up world, and four fail-proof ways to test for them during the interview process.

So, here it is. All of our secrets revealed. The four qualities, why they’re important (I’ve elicited some help from my team for that part), and how to test for them.

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New York City is a hot startup hub.

After hitting the incubators, speaking with VCs and entrepreneurs, we selected 25 (very) early stage startups that are generating buzz in the tech community.

Some of them are positioned to blow up and become the next big tech titans.

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by David Hill

In 2011, the poster child of digital education was the Khan Academy, Sal Khan’s brainchild of over 3,000 lessons, but a new star is emerging for 2012 that’s taking Khan’s approach to the crowd. It’s a free whiteboard app called ShowMe that will currently play 1.5 million teacher-produced lessons. The first iteration of the app has been downloaded over 400,000 times. Now, with an updated version that empowers users to create, search and share lessons, it’s ready to emerge as a leader in the digital education revolution ushered in by the iPad.

ShowMe, like other whiteboard apps, captures what users draw on the iPad screen but it also records their voice. Creations are then stored and can be shared with others. For users, ShowMe capitalizes on the touch computing of the iPad, which feels more interactive than a mouse and keyboard, but it also provides the “pen on paper” look-and-feel. While glossy educational animations can do a lot to teach concepts, ShowMe captures more intuitive learning by showing handwritten sketches and notes as well as showing them revealed in real time. This lends itself to following along with the reasoning behind explanations that makes certain teachers so successful in helping students learn.

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SUNDAY, MARCH 11, 5:00 – 6:00

Capital Factory & DreamIt Ventures will play matchmaker to help you find a cofounder for your startup.

It’s hard to find a co-founder for your startup. Tell us what you are looking for and we will play the matchmaker. In just an hour, you’ll meet a dozen potential co-founders hand-picked for you. Please register ahead of time at capitalfactory.com/sxsw-cofounder

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Congratulations, you found your co-founder! Now the fun begins, but its not all rosy. Bringing on a co-founder is complex. Hear from founders, including Capital Factory & DreamIt alumni, on what to expect and watch out for when it comes to:
Equity & vesting
Divvying up responsibilities
Dealing w/ growth
Disagreements
Managing strong personalities
How do you handle or avoid a breakup?

Moderator: Mark Wachen (DreamIt NYC & Upstage Ventures)

Panelists: Jesse Pickard (Mindsnacks), Ray Grieselhuber (Ginzametrics), more soon!

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