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Techstars Investor Day: Afternoon Wrap Up

Here’s a wrapup of the Techstars companies who presented in the afternoon, today at Techstars Investor Day:

Kicking off the after-lunch demos, occipital - they aim to be a revolution in how we organize and categorize photos. They can do some pretty freakin’ cool things with Photo visualization and organizing photos, including geotagging, finding landmarks in your photos, and showing a panoramic view of those photos.. Check them out at Occipital.com.

Appx is telling us about their platform for alternative asset managers. They’re built on salesforce.com. Their product allows fund managers to track fundraising, deals, and manage their portfolio. Check them out at APPX.com.

Next up is BuyPlayWin. They’re the worlds first Tournament marketplace. Buy a product, any product. Play a game, any game, against a computer, or against another player. Win, and you get your product for free. Either way, you still get your product. Check them out at BuyPlayWin.com

Emily Olsen is presenting Foodzie. Foodzie is an online marketplace for artisan food producers to sell their products. Foodies can purchase Niche products from Artisan Food Shops across the world, and get them shipped right to their door. Check them out at Foodzie.com.

Last to present at Techstars IDay is Travelfli. They are online tools to solve problems for frequent fliers. They’re the only website that can monitor your reward points, and email you when a free trip becomes available . Check them out at TravelFli.com.

Techstars Investor Day : Morning Wrap Up

Today is Techstars demo & Investor day. Ten of the companies from the 2008 Techstars class are presenting their work for the summer to an audience of 150 investors in the Boulder, CO area.

Here is my wrap up of the teams that presented in the morning.

Gyminee demoed their fitness-centered social network. Their system provides fitness motivation and accountability through the social network. Check them out at Gyminee.com

Next up, my team, Ignighter demoed our product, Ignighter.com. Ignighter.com is Group-to-Group dating. We create tools allowing groups of young people in metropolitian areas to meet other groups of interesting young people. Check us out, at Ignighter.com.

Susan Mernit and Lisa Williams are demoing their application, WhozAround, takes the ease of on-the-fly use of twitter, and the scheduling capacity of iCal, and makes it easy to schedule meetups with your friends and network. Check out the WhozAround Facebook Application.

Devver was the 4th to present. Devver makes tools for ruby hackers to increase productivity. They take developer tools that normally run in a span of several minutes, and run them in a matter of seconds. Their tools give developers 75% of their testing time back. That can translate to up to $30K savings for a team of 4 every year. Check them out at Devver.net

Samantha Murphy rounded out the morning, with her presentation of The Highway Girl. The Highway Girl is a traveling video podcast, featuring guests in the Music, and Technology professions. Check them out at The Highway Girl.

“So here’s to the crazy ones”

Last night at Techstars, Ben Casnocha spoke about his experiences as an entrepreneur. Ben is easily the most impressive 20-year old you’ve ever met. At the age of 14, he was already selling software to local governments. Although young in years, he is rich in experience, and was very well-spoken and composed throughout the night.

Although Ben navigated several thoughts during his talk last night, the overarching theme that Ben emphasized was that he did not take the Textbook approach to his life. He learned by doing.

Ben used the text from an early Apple ‘Think Different’ ad as analogy for entrepreneurship, his ‘outside-the-box’ lifestyle, and his opinion that one’s life work should be measured in net impact, not in the amount of money that you make: (text below)

“Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones,
We see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world,
Are the ones who do.”

More than any other mentor at Techstars, Ben was easy to relate to because of one thing: his youth. I found myself relating to his ‘think different’ / ‘throw out the textbook’ theme. On my last days doing corporate work back on the east coast, everyone thought I was crazy to leave, although some confided to me in private they were proud of me and wish they had made bolder career moves when younger.

Turns out the best decisions aren’t the easiest, but they’re what make the bold stand out. I don’t remember learning that in school.

“So, here’s to the crazy ones… Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones that do.” ~ Apple / Think Different

Running for your life

The last month I’ve been participating in the Gyminee Techstars Running Challenge . You can see our progress below.

At the time of this post, I’m in 2nd place with 59 miles, behind, the ever elusive Krista Paul. Brad Feld is in third place (hey, the guy’s got a treadputer, who can compete with that!?).

Gyminee Challenges have been a huge motivation, keeping me in shape, while I’m out here for the summer at Techstars. A little friendly competition goes a long way, who knew?

Watch out Krista, I’m only 3 miles behind you.

Hello World!

And… we’re back. Owocki dot com has survived the move to a new host!