Crunchies - NYC Represent

I just read Allen Stern's CenterNetworks post "My Votes In the Crunchies Awards Contest". (I am still catching up on some old blog reading from the holidays.) He mentions that he voted for UpNext for Best Bootstrapped because he likes what we are doing and because we are NYC based. Thanks Allen.

On that note, below is a list of the other NYC companies up for awards. If you want to vote local, here are the Silicon Alley companies.


Viewdle - Best Technology/Innovation Achievement

Based in NYC with a couple European offices. Viewdle is a media platform for doing everything with video.

Etsy - Best Design

Etsy is an online marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade. Based in Brooklyn, NY. I thought they should have also been nominated for Best Consumer startup.

Iminlikewithyou - Best Use of Viral Marketing

Assuming this is based in NYC. Saw them present at the NY Tech Meetup. Thought they were a shoo in for Best Time Sink Site, as that appears to be the mission statement.

College Humor - Best Time Sink Site

Still going strong. Part of IAC or, I guess now, part of 1/5th of IAC. They have the most billowy offices in Manhattan.

DonorsChoose - Most likely to make the world a better place

While it is hard to vote against any of the nominees in this category, DonorsChoose.org has been doing some remarkable things to help public school. Not only are they NYC based, but the company was started by teachers at a Bronx public high school.

Tumblr - Best new start-up of 2007

Great tumblelog site for quick and easy sharing of yourself. David Karp and his team have done a remarkable job and the growth they have achieved is fantastic.

UpNext - Best bootstrapped start-up

3D map of Manhattan. Can't get more NYC than that.


Best of luck to all these companies. If I have left anyone out, please make a note in the comments and I will update the list.

(Click here to vote)

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The Crunchies - Vote for UpNext!!!

We were pleasantly surprised to see that we were nominated for The Crunchies under the category "Best Bootstrapped Start Up". Click on the badge below to vote for us!



We are up against some very cool companies who have done some impressive work with limited resources. Best of luck to all the nominees.

We would like to thank Techcrunch, GigaOm, VentureBeat and Read/WriteWeb for nominating us and for hosting the awards.

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LifeAt: Down to the building level

The movie Gone Baby Gone begins with a voice over by Casey Affleck where he talks about community; the block you grow up on, the people who live there and the community it builds. It is an ideal that oftentimes gets lost in the towering urban cities we see today.

A new startup in New York, LifeAt, is working to change that. We are always looking at new startups that are approaching local in different innovative ways. At UpNext, we focus on cities. Other sites focus on neighborhoods. LifeAt starts at the building level. By creating individual secure websites for apartment buildings, LifeAt is trying to bring community to neighbors. In NYC, your building is oftentimes your "neighborhood" and knowing those around you builds that community.

In their words...

LifeAt creates private, password protected websites for exclusive use by members of residential communities. Residents use LifeAt sites to communicate with neighbors; post classifieds; and rate and review local retailers, restaurants, & delivery services. Property managers and building developers use the sites to post news and updates for residents and to attract potential buyers and renters. The success of each site is fueled by the active participation of its membership.

It is a novel twist on an age old idea. It looks like they are growing rapidly and I look forward to having them in my building. Perhaps down the road, UpNext and LifeAt can work together to bring building communities together with local neighborhood businesses.

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Updates

We went into silent mode back there for a while. Usually, the blogging dies down when we are iterating on features and working on make the user experience better. But a lot has been happened in the last couple weeks, we had to give an update.

1) UpNextNYC (FB App)

We officially launched the UpNext Facebook Application. Still waiting to get listed in the directory but just click on the link above and it should take you directly to the FB App.

Enjoy all the same functionality of UpNext.com within Facebook. The only difference is the size. Add the application, invite your friends to join you and share and discover the city together.

2) UpNext: Wicked 3D Maps of NYC on Facebook

We got a nice write up in TechCrunch last week, just before the Thanksgiving holiday. I think that is the first time we got "wicked" 3D map but we will take it.

Thanks Erick for taking the time to meet with us. Good stuff.

3) Interactive Local Media 2007 (ILM:07)

I will be speaking at ILM:07 on a panel on mapping. The official topic is "Maps: They're Not Just for Driving Any More". Ian White of Urban Mapping is on the panel with me. I heard him speak at the Where 2.0 conference and he definitely has some great ideas about maps. Looking forward to hearing what he has to say and hopefully making my own contribution to the discussion.

Feel free to introduce yourself at the conference. I will be there all day on Wednesday and Thursday. Would love to meet more people in this space.

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UpNext and Facebook

Over the last couple weeks you may have noticed a Facebook login on our home page. This login allows you to access your Facebook network through the UpNext main site. Let me give you a little insight into why we do this.

Here is how we see user progression on UpNext.

1) Kicking the tires - Users enter without registering

We are a new website and people need to get to know us. So we let users just see what UpNext is all about before setting up a profile.

Just "Enter Now" and have fun flying around New York and exploring the city. There is enough value in the site for these non-registered users to bring them back for more.


2) Taking the test drive - Registered Users

Users now want to access the full capabilities of UpNext. Creating a profile allows users to share their city by writing reviews, rating businesses, adding favorites and marking places they have been. The information is now easily accessible in a user's profile.

On the flip side, other UpNext users can now see user contributions in a contextual basis. The profile description, favorite quote, even profile picture, provide contextual information around content, making it more valuable to others.


3) Buying the car - Building a social network




Since a big part of discovery comes from your friends and extended network, we make it easy for users to make this happen.

Users can import contacts from any of the popular email applications. Or simply type in a friend's email address and ask them to join UpNext.

This allows users to share their city within a network. More importantly, it allows users to see reviews and favorites from people they know and trust.


But people spend a lot of time setting up and managing social networks on other sites. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and the list goes on and on. So rather than force users to redo all their previous work, we simply leverage the existing social connection of the user.

Facebook API and Open Social are both tools that we can use to make life simpler for users. We don't believe our users actually care about the intricacies of either; they just want it to happened. So we will continue to make it easy for users to leverage these networks.


4) Avoid being a lemon - Keep users happy

At this point, users have "bought" UpNext and have driven it around for a while. The focus here is to keep users happy and add value through every use. We continue to add new features and improve existing features to keep users happy.
We solicit and encourage user feedback through direct emails, blogging and by reach out to the community. Having bought a car in the past, I know the worst feeling is sitting in that car 5 months down the road and realizing you bought a lemon. So we focus on not being a lemon.

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Bootstrapping Inspiration

There are a ton of internet startup books in the world. Searching for "start up" on Amazon returned 107,315 titles. Among the choices are books that profile the rise and (sometimes) fall of companies during the dotcom bubble. Some are standard "How To" books. I am sure there is even a Start Up for Dummies out there.

While all these can be useful resources, sometimes true inspiration comes from examples outside your industry.

I recently read Rebel Without a Crew (or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker with $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player). Written by filmmaker Robert Rodriguez (Desperado, Spy Kids), Rebel chronicles his adventures in making his first feature film, El Mariachi for $7,000.

There are some great example of thinking outside the box to make things work. Some of my favorites:

• He only had 1 belt for strapping blood pellets onto actors and it is a chest belt. So in the movie everyone gets shot in the chest. (SMS only allows 140 character --> create microblogging)
• He volunteers for a month long experiment at a pharmaceutical lab. Essentially, he is signing up to be a lab rat. For Rodriguez this is a Godsend. He is able to raise $3,000 for his movie, he saves money because the lab feeds and houses him for a month, and he has a month off to focus on writing his script. (I imagine this is similar to being an entrepreuner in residence at a VC firm sans the possible drug side effects and hourly blood draws.)
• He shot every scene in one take to save on film costs. This forced him to plan out his shots ahead of time and edit on the fly in his head. Flub and miscues were later edited out by cutting to different shots. This "quick cutting" was later deemed ingenious and stylish. (Craigslist probably started simple and basic out of necessity but is now praise for its minimalist and bare layout.)

While capital can certainly make life easier; the restriction of little to no capital can result in inspiring products.

The book is well written and is a fast read. I think you will find many parallels between low budget film making and internet entrepreneurship. At the very least it will help get your creative juices flowing while giving you a break from the tech rss feeds.

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NYC Startup Camp - We won

The last two days, we were at NYC Startup Camp. It was a great event filled with excellent speakers and great discussions.

We also had a chance to meet a ton of New York based start ups. It is great to see such a vibrant tech community in NYC.

One of the events for the camp was the Best Startup Contest. It was structured like a speed dating event. Each startup (about 25) had a table and camp attendees went around to each table for a 5 min demo/pitch. Attendees then voted for their favorite startup by giving the company a wooden nickel.

The voting came down to the wire and we just edged out BricaBox for first place. (Keep an eye out for BricaBox and its founder Nate Westheimer. They are doing some very interesting work over there.)

Here is what we won: A Sun Fire X4200 Server









We were handed a large cardboard image of the server similar to the oversized check lottery winners receive. I got some interesting looks walking home with a big cardboard picture of a server.

Overall, the event was a success and we had a great time. We want to thank the organizers for bringing Startup Camp to the Big Apple. Looking forward to the next one.

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