Saturday, October 20, 2007

Lootpig is "one deal a day" website selling stuff at prices below retail

What Company is Offering:
Lootpig is "one deal a day" website selling stuff at prices below retail by getting our items directly from the source or wholesaler and cutting out the middleman. Thus saving you money! We list a new item everyday at 6:00am EST and this item is available until its sold out or 5:59am the following day. Should the item be a popular hit and we have lots in stock we might decide to sell it for another 24 hours.
How It works:
Lootpig features a new product every day that’s available for your purchase, which will only remain so for 24 hours. The site is run by Bright Sparks Group LLC, a marketing/sales company which claims it has connections to wholesalers, thus being able to provide you with the product at a reduced price. You can also accumulate Pig Point by logging into the site and making purchases. These Pig Points can be redeemed for merchandise, and in addition Lootpig makes special offers for select members (the site features Bronze, Silver, and Gold levels of membership based on how many Pig Points you have accumulated). Site registration is free.
More at:http://www.lootpig.com/

He Made Millions With Ducttape

It’s sticky, and many Americans have a roll, just in case, but a number of resourceful entrepreneurs have made duct tape the focus of their businesses.

Garett Croft Stenson was broke and living with his parents in Portland, Ore., after college when he crafted a few wallets out of duct tape — a hobby he had learned in his dorm room. Mr. Stenson brought them to a local market to sell for $8 to $15.

The small, thin, brightly colored wallets were a hit, to the point where demand was outpacing supply. Soon Mr. Stenson was hearing from stores interested in selling his product and selling his wares at art shows nationwide.

“I thought, this could be a real business,” said Mr. Stenson, who was spending up to 90 hours a week making wallets. “I made the decision to take on an S.B.A. loan and hire people to help produce them. It evolved from something handmade for a street market to, ‘Let’s go big with this.’ ”
Five years later, Mr. Stenson’s business, DB Clay, is manufacturing a thicker type of duct tape in China and hoping to make at least $500,000 in sales this year. And he is not alone.

Dozens of small businesses make wallets, handbags, jewelry and other products out of duct tape.
More at:More at:http://www.dbclay.com/

Via-Uncommonblog

Vocalocity has raised $8 million

About Company:
For cost conscious small business owners who need a new expandable phone system and want to save money, Vocalocity has an affordable, no maintenance PBX that can be set up in minutes. Unlike expensive traditional systems, our solution ties together high quality voice services and features once only affordable to big companies -- the only equipment you need is phones.

How Much They Got From VCs:
They announced that they have raised $8 million in Series A financing. Noro-Moseley Partners was lead investor with added participation from Pittco Capital Partners, Imlay Partners and Vocalocity management.

Who Will Get Benifit Their Service:
Micro enterprises gain a full set of voice communications tools from Vocalocity including auto-attendant, voicemail to e-mail, follow me roaming, music on hold, simultaneous ring, conference calling and call queuing. This feature-rich phone system is as easy to set up and administer as e-mail and with self-configuring VoIP phones and online management, businesses can have a new phone system up and running in minutes, not hours or days.

More at:http://www.vocalocity.net/

SocialMedia has raised $3.5 Million In VCs Funding

What Company is Offering:
SocialMedia Networks provides a comprehensive suite of tools and services for developers building applications that run on open social platforms, including Facebook and MySpace. By fusing social analytics, monetization, and promotion into one product, SocialMedia Networks is ushering in the era of ad networks and platforms. Developers of social applications take advantage of SocialMedia Networks services, and advertisers can use the proprietary self-serve marketplace to start and manage their campaigns 24/7.

How Much They Got From VCs:
They announced that they have secured Series A financing of $3.5 million. The investment was led by Charles River Ventures, and additional investors include: Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape and Jeff Clavier, founder and managing partner of SoftTech VC.
More at:http://www.socialmedia.com/

With "HelloTxt" send one message To All, Twitter, Jaiku, Yappd, Meemi, Beemood and Tumblr

What Company is Offering:
HelloTxt is an aggregated messaging system that lets you compose one message and send it out to most popular micro-blogging services, including Twitter, Jaiku, Yappd, Meemi, Beemood and Tumblr, which was recently funded.
How It Works:
As soon as you go to the homepage, there’s a text box for you to insert your message. The right side bar lets you choose which services you’d like to send your message to. You’ll need to provide a username and password for each service. There don’t seem to be any actual HelloTxt accounts, so your messages won’t be saved on HelloTxt, and you’ll essentially need to go to the homepage, sign on, and agree to the terms and conditions every time you go to the site.
More at:http://www.hellotxt.com/

ReverbNation

What Company says:
"We bring together artists, fans, venues, and record labels to forge relationships around the music that sustains us. Even in the age of the internet, music is still enjoyed both live and recorded, and still travels from fan to fan. ReverbNation is here to provide the online environment in which those relationships can thrive".
New Features:
ReverbNation now has a new profile option just for marketing purposes. The new profiles are to be used by Record Labels and Management Companies for the promotion of all the artists on their label. ReverbNation offers tracking and metrics as well, so you can see how the online marketing is going.

Offered with these profiles are free FanReach email management tools, a way to set up an Artists Roster with their associated songs, a consolidated show schedule for all your artists, a New Releases area, a Street Team function for encouraging web users to help you spread the word, and a customizable widget for the promotion of your artists.
This widget offering is TuneWidget, which ReverbNation launched about a month ago. It includes a cross-promotional tool that lets you display a recommended artist at the bottom of the widget. This plays into the whole new profile that ReverbNation is now releasing now.

More at:http://www.reverbnation.com/

Wuala is a new way of storing, sharing, and publishing files on the internet

What Company is Offering:
Wuala is a new way of storing, sharing, and publishing files on the internet. It's a free desktop application for Windows and Mac that brings you a convenient and secure online storage. Unlike traditional online storage systems, Wuala is decentralized and can harness idle resources of participating computers to build a large, secure, and reliable online storage. This new technology has a number of advantages and it allows us to provide you a better service for free.
How It Works:
Wuala is decentralized and uses the hard drives of its members to store all their files. Of course it’s not as brute as it sounds; the concept is indeed novel and smartly executed. Wuala users agree to share some of their hard disk space in exchange for space on other people’s idle drives. All data is partitioned and encrypted, to dispel concerns about privacy or irresponsibility. Each file, moreover, is stretched across multiple hard drives, thereby insuring that fragments couldn’t possibly be pieced together and retrieved. Users start out with 1 gig but can more space on their hard drive to get more storage. Files can be accessed even if your computer’s offline and there’s a public area for sharing your documents with the world. Wuala works with Mac and PC.
More At:http://wua.la/

Create Your Own World And Rule It With "VastPark"

What Company is Offering:
VastPark is a virtual content platform that enables you to create and deploy your own 3D virtual world within minutes. Play with ideas, add physics, trial concepts and publish them online. You might not have used 3D before, but you can do this.
How It Works:
VastPark is free for everyone, you can purchase for $19 a Pro Creator account, giving you 1GB of storage and bandwidth for two years. As a member, you can create your own world and tap into other worlds within one seamless framework. This means virtual content can be transported across different communities without the necessity of downloading different software. VastPark incorporates metagames, widgets, 3D building functions, scripting tools, and texture mapping. There’s no currency lock-in either, so creators can make up their own marketplace and economic systems. VastPark is currently in beta, and it’s free to download.
More at:http://www.vastpark.com/