Posts

Million Cat Challenge Reaches Halfway Milestone

/in /by

Million Cat Challenge Reaches Halfway Milestone
“The Million Cat Challenge is a map for change.” … “The lifesaving work of the Million Cat Challenge and the mind-shift they are creating is extraordinary,” said Amy Zeifang, Maddie's Fund board chair and executive leadership team. … shelter …
Read more on UC Davis

Augmented reality maps out tech's next mind-bending trip
Augmented reality maps out tech's next mind-bending trip … While startups like Meta, Magic Leap and Atheer have been making the most visible progress in augmented reality so far, technology heavyweights are also eyeing it. … If Meta CEO Meron …
Read more on Post-Bulletin

Students to pitch business ideas at CCPS Biz Challenge live event

/in , /by

Students to pitch business ideas at CCPS Biz Challenge live event
The Westminster High School sophomore, the Carroll County Public Schools Biz Challenge finalist from the school, has proposed a business selling salt panels. They are placed on walls and are said to help with respiratory issues, such as asthma and …
Read more on Carroll County Times

America's Immigration Policy Is Systematically Killing Our Future
We are the “melting pot” of human ideology that has ultimately led to new ideas, a nearly insurmountable economy, and a beacon of hope for all. However, it is clear that the epitome of being “American” is both beautiful and simultaneously under duress.
Read more on Forbes

David Lazarus: AT&T merger won't help the public
"The captains of our communications industry have clearly run out of ideas," he said. "Instead of innovating and investing in their networks, companies like AT&T and Comcast … If they put the kibosh on this latest round of consolidation, as was the …
Read more on Fresno Bee

Google's Own S.J. Airport, $1 Billion Bracket Challenge, Crowd funding & Go Seattle!

/in , /by

Google’s Own S.J. Airport, Billion Bracket Challenge, Crowd funding Jamaican Bobsled & Go Seattle!
Video Rating: 0 / 5

Electro Scan Inc. Selected as a Finalist Presenter at 2nd Annual Statewide Sierra Nevada Innovation Challenge

/in , /by

Chico, California (PRWEB) June 24, 2013

Electro Scan Inc., a global innovator of leak detection instrumentation, Smartphone, and Cloud-based applications, has been selected to compete among 50 finalist companies from throughout California vying for a GLOBIE award as the 2013 Most Innovative New Product in non-metro California.

Presented by Innovate North State, the Innovation Challenge is scheduled from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on June 27 at the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company’s prestigious “Big Room” auditorium in Chico CA.

A GLOBE Award will be presented in each of five industry categories, including Food and Ag, Web and Information Technology, Cleantech, Manufacturing, and Healthcare.

The Sierra Nevada Innovation Challenge is the only statewide Most Innovative Product Competition focused principally on California businesses located outside of San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and San Diego. Each finalist is charged with demonstrating in a 6-minute presentation format how their new product will change the world, an industry, people’s lives or the environment in a positive, meaningful way.

In March 2013, Electro Scan Inc. was awarded the prestigious Joseph L. Abbott, Jr. Award for Product Innovation by the National Association of Trenchless Technologies (NASTT) at the organization’s No-Dig event.

Over 70 industry experts from throughout California will be on-site serving as judges including CEOs, media representatives, angel investors, venture capitalists, university and government officials and corporate executives.

According to Innovate North State Managing Director Jon Gregory, who serves as the Executive Producer of the event, “the Sierra Nevada Innovation Challenge represents a once-a-year hotbed of the best innovation occurring in emerging markets of California.” He continued, “We were impressed with Electro Scan’s game-changing innovation and are honored to have the company compete as one of the finalists.”

“We are delighted to have our Company recognized for its ground-breaking solutions,” stated Chuck Hansen, Electro Scan’s Chairman and CEO. “Electro Scan’s ability to evaluate existing, newly repaired, and relined sewer for defects, leap-frogs legacy visual inspection techniques that has been around for almost fifty years.”

About Electro Scan

Electro Scan Inc. is a leading global provider of leak detection instrumentation and cloud computing applications that meet the technological needs of water utilities, commercial businesses, residential customers, and engineering organizations worldwide. Electro Scan offers the next generation in condition assessment evaluation technologies that allow customers to manage, protect, operate and certify their infrastructure. “Like” us on Facebook.

About Innovate North State

Innovate North State – a public/private partnership driven by CEOs of leading California North State businesses – was established in early 2012. Innovate North State’s goal is to assist the region’s most innovative companies who have the largest growth potential garner a larger share of their national and global markets resulting in a more vibrant regional economy. It focuses on 5 key industry sectors: Sustainable Agriculture and Food; Manufacturing and Consumer Products; Cleantech and Environmental; Web, Mobile, and IT; and Healthcare and Medical Technology. With the mantra of “connecting to compete” Innovate North State’s strategy involves helping innovative companies connect with each other and also to vital resources located outside the region, making the North State the most economically competitive non-metropolitan region in the U.S. by 2017.







Related Angel Investors Press Releases

GetGoals Selected as a Finalist Presenter at 2nd Annual Statewide Sierra Nevada Innovation Challenge on June 27

/in , /by

Chico, CA (PRWEB) June 25, 2013

The Sierra Nevada Innovation Challenge is the only statewide Most Innovative Product Competition focused principally on California businesses located outside of San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and San Diego. Each finalist is charged with demonstrating in a 6-minute presentation format how their new product will change the world, an industry, people’s lives or the environment in a positive, meaningful way. Over 70 industry experts from throughout California will be on-site serving as judges including CEOs, media representatives, angel investors, venture capitalists, university and government officials and corporate executives.

According to Innovate North State Managing Director Jon Gregory, who serves as the Executive Producer of the event, “the Sierra Nevada Innovation Challenge represents a once-a-year hotbed of the best innovation occurring in emerging markets of California.” He continued, “We were impressed with GetGoals’ game-changing innovation and are honored to have the company compete as one of the finalists based on their solution to people’s need to effectively achieve goals and ultimate productivity to choose, create and live their best lives.”

“We are honored to share GetGoals with the prestigious Sierra Nevada Innovate Challenge audience and compete for the 2013 Most Innovative New Product. GetGoals’ vision is to empower every internet-connected individual on the planet to live their best lives via achieving goals and building desired habits” says Founder and CEO Katie Elizabeth.

ABOUT GetGoals

GetGoals’ mission is to empower people to create positive change in their lives via achieving goals and actualizing desired habits. The mobile and web platform supports the structure and motivation that allows users to most effectively pursue their best selves and ultimate productivity. The proprietary technology combines behavioral science, gamification and social connectivity to ignite and sustain motivation within a framework that is customized to each individual’s success style.

ABOUT INNOVATE NORTH STATE

Innovate North State (http://www.innovate-northstate.com) – a public/private partnership driven by CEOs of leading California North State businesses – was established in early 2012. Innovate North State’s goal is to assist the region’s most innovative companies who have the largest growth potential garner a larger share of their national and global markets resulting in a more vibrant regional economy. It focuses on 5 key industry sectors: Sustainable Agriculture and Food; Manufacturing and Consumer Products; Cleantech and Environmental; Web, Mobile, and IT; and Healthcare and Medical Technology. With the mantra of “connecting to compete” Innovate North State’s strategy involves helping innovative companies connect with each other and also to vital resources located outside the region, making the North State the most economically competitive non-metropolitan region in the U.S. by 2017.

-###-







More Angel Investors Press Releases

SyTrue Has Been Selected as a Finalist Presenter at the 2nd Annual Statewide Sierra Nevada Innovation Challenge on June 27

/in , /by

Chico, CA (PRWEB) June 25, 2013

SyTrue™ has been selected to compete among 50 finalist companies from throughout California vying for a GLOBIE award as the 2013 Most Innovative New Product in non-metro California. A GLOBE Award will be presented in each of five industry categories, including Food and Ag, Web and Information Technology, Cleantech, Manufacturing, and Healthcare. Presented by Innovate North State, the Innovation Challenge is scheduled from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on June 27 at the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company’s prestigious “Big Room” auditorium in Chico CA.

The Sierra Nevada Innovation Challenge is the only state-wide Most Innovative Product Competition focused principally on California businesses located outside of San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and San Diego. Each finalist is charged with demonstrating in a 6-minute presentation format how their new product will change the world, an industry, people’s lives or the environment in a positive, meaningful way. Over 70 industry experts from throughout California will be on-site serving as judges including CEOs, media representatives, angel investors, venture capitalists, university and government officials and corporate executives.

According to Innovate North State Managing Director Jon Gregory, who serves as the Executive Producer of the event, “the Sierra Nevada Innovation Challenge represents a once-a-year hotbed of the best innovation occurring in emerging markets of California.” He continued, “We were impressed with Sytrue’s game-changing innovation and are honored to have the company compete as one of the finalists. We strongly feel that SyTrue™ is an important solution that addresses the most pressing challenges in Healthcare.”

“SyTrue is a breakthrough in physician workflow by capturing complete and accurate clinical documentation while identifying and correlating other critical data points that provide insight into care. Achieving a world where information is presented rather than sought will have a profound impact on a healthcare organization’s quality of care, reputation, and profitability.” said Kyle Silvestro, Founder and CEO of SyTrue.

SyTrue’s Platform as a Service (PaaS) utilizes intelligent search technologies to identify specific patient types in unstructured or structured data, which require physician follow up or needed care. SyTrue’s business and clinical intelligence platform has created a pathway for physicians to be proactive in providing needed care while improving outcomes and patient satisfaction.

SyTrue’s solution seamlessly integrates and structures disparate information, producing a truly longitudinal and comprehensive view of the patient population from transcribed reports. The platform allows providers to gain unparalleled insights into patient populations while improving care. SyTrue represents a major leap forward in medical search and clinical analytics technology, while improving reimbursement for physicians.

SyTrue, Inc.

SyTrue™ uses intelligent natural language processing to create vastly more usable data (from unstructured and structured sources) in seconds. Currently focused on medical record data from transcribed physician reports using or not using an electronic medical record system, SyTrue™ allows health systems, physician groups, clinical researchers and pharmaceutical companies to mine their multi-sourced clinical data. Until now, only billing or EMR-keyed data was usable this way. SyTrue™ in short, creates a longitudinal record for patient populations (from multiple systems) and makes it usable in seconds. http://www.sytrue.com.

Innovate North State

Innovate North State (http://www.innovate-northstate.com) – a public/private partnership driven by CEOs of leading California North State businesses – was established in early 2012. Innovate North State’s goal is to assist the region’s most innovative companies who have the largest growth potential garner a larger share of their national and global markets resulting in a more vibrant regional economy. It focuses on 5 key industry sectors: Sustainable Agriculture and Food; Manufacturing and Consumer Products; Cleantech and Environmental; Web, Mobile, and IT; and Healthcare and Medical Technology. With the mantra of “connecting to compete” Innovate North State’s strategy involves helping innovative companies connect with each other and also to vital resources located outside the region, making the North State the most economically competitive non-metropolitan region in the U.S. by 2017.







More Angel Investors Press Releases

The Crucibles Bike Program in a Race to Win $25,000 through State Farm Neighborhood Assist's Facebook Challenge

/in , /by


Oakland, CA (PRWEB) April 05, 2013

The Crucible, West Oakland’s premier industrial arts and educational space, has been selected as one of 200 finalists in the State Farm Neighborhood Assist™ program. Chosen from over 3,000 submissions, The Crucible’s “Bikes for West Oakland” project is live on Facebook, with all Facebook users eligible to vote for the cause up to ten times a day. The forty causes that receive the most votes by April 22, 2013, will receive a $ 25,000 grant to implement their respective projects.

“Bikes for West Oakland” embodies the heart and soul of The Crucible’s community initiatives. Comprised of Bike Fix-A-Thons, the Earn-A-Bike Program, and Art Bike Frame Alteration classes, The Crucible’s Bike Program builds viable job skills, helps community members gain access to goods and services, bolsters health, and sparks creativity. The program impacts over 700 youth and 2,000 community members in the West Oakland area each year. A $ 25,000 grant from State Farm would enable The Crucible to purchase materials, compensate instructors (many of whom live in the neighborhood), and expand the program to serve even more Oakland residents.

To support The Crucible’s “Bikes for West Oakland” initiative, visit the State Farm Neighborhood Assist Facebook page, install the application, and click on the “Vote” button up to ten times in a row. The voting phase is open from April 4 – April 22 and winners will be announced on April 29.

State Farm Neighborhood Assist is a crowd-sourced, national philanthropic initiative that lets communities determine where grant funding is awarded, exclusively through Facebook. The initiative utilizes the State Farm Youth Advisory Board to vet submissions for causes and allows Facebook users who download the free State Farm Neighborhood Assist application to vote for the final 40 grant winners. The Crucible is one of only three causes in Oakland that are in the running to win $ 25,000, and Bikes for West Oakland is one of only three bicycle-related causes nationwide.







Find More Crowd Sourcing Press Releases

LifeCounts Selected as A Finalist Presenter at 2nd Annual Statewide Sierra Nevada Innovation Challenge

/in , /by


Chico, CA (PRWEB) June 27, 2013

LifeCounts has been selected to compete among 50 finalist companies from throughout California vying for a GLOBIE award as the 2013 Most Innovative New Product in non-metro California. A GLOBIE Award will be presented in each of five industry categories, including Food and Ag, Web and Information Technology, Cleantech, Manufacturing, and Healthcare. Presented by Innovate North State, the Innovation Challenge is scheduled from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on June 27 at the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company’s prestigious “Big Room” auditorium in Chico CA.

The Sierra Nevada Innovation Challenge is the only statewide Most Innovative Product Competition focused principally on California businesses located outside of San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and San Diego. Each finalist is charged with demonstrating in a 6-minute presentation format on how their new product will change the world, an industry, people’s lives or the environment in a positive, meaningful way. Over 70 industry experts from throughout California will be on-site serving as judges including CEOs, media representatives, angel investors, venture capitalists, university and government officials and corporate executives.

According to Innovate North State Managing Director Jon Gregory, who serves as the Executive Producer of the event, “the Sierra Nevada Innovation Challenge represents a once-a-year hotbed of the best innovation occurring in emerging markets of California.” He continued, “We were impressed with LifeCounts’ game-changing innovation and are honored to have the company compete as one of the finalists based on their solution to help consumers optimize their financial lives for better spending and savings management.”

“The Sierra Nevada Innovation Challenge is an exciting opportunity to showcase the most innovative technologies and companies being cultivated in Northern California, and we are pleased to be selected alongside a talented field of entrepreneurs,” said Nicholas Howell, CEO and founder of HowellCorp, the organization which provides LifeCounts.

ABOUT LIFECOUNTS

LifeCounts, provided by HowellCorp, is a subscription-based online personal finance service enabling users to optimize their financial lives. Users can securely link their financial accounts from varying institutions to the LifeCounts platform and receive spending insights, customizable alerting and notifications and goal management tools. It leverages thoughtful information organization, predictive content generation and a strong analytical engine to provide users with meaningful insights about their financial lives. LifeCounts employs bank-level security and is dedicated to responsible data management. LifeCounts does not distribute any data to marketers or third parties and does not have any advertisements. For more information about LifeCounts, visit http://www.lifecounts.com.

ABOUT INNOVATE NORTH STATE

Innovate North State (http://www.innovate-northstate.com) – a public/private partnership driven by CEOs of leading California North State businesses – was established in early 2012. Innovate North State’s goal is to assist the region’s most innovative companies who have the largest growth potential garner a larger share of their national and global markets resulting in a more vibrant regional economy. It focuses on 5 key industry sectors: Sustainable Agriculture and Food; Manufacturing and Consumer Products; Cleantech and Environmental; Web, Mobile, and IT; and Healthcare and Medical Technology. With the mantra of “connecting to compete,” Innovate North State’s strategy involves helping innovative companies connect with each other and also to vital resources located outside the region, making the North State the most economically competitive non-metropolitan region in the U.S. by 2017.







Leveraging Consumer Data is Biggest Challenge Facing Online Marketers in 2014, According to Annual StrongView Marketing Trends Survey

/in , /by


Redwood City, CA (PRWEB) December 17, 2013

The good news is marketers plan to increase their budgets on activities that increase customer engagement through more relevant and timely campaigns; however, the bad news is they say their lack of ways to quickly access and apply high quality, comprehensive data continues to thwart their efforts.

This is according to StrongView’s “2014 Marketing Trends Survey,” which provides unique insight into how businesses plan to prioritize marketing dollars, programs and channels in the New Year.

The survey results shine a bright light on the widely held challenges presented by the plethora of data now available to marketers. In short, while brands are capturing more customer and industry data than ever before, marketers report common problems in accessing and leveraging it in the most meaningful ways. However, these challenges are not stopping those marketers from increasing their spending on customer engagement: a whopping 93% plan to increase or maintain marketing budgets for the year. This is up from 89% in 2013. Email marketing, social media marketing, search marketing, display marketing and mobile marketing top the list of areas for increased spending in 2014.

“While we saw a strong desire to engage with customers at a more personal and meaningful level in our survey this year, marketers remain hampered and frustrated by an inability to access and leverage all the data being generated by a growing number of marketing channels,” said Shawn Myers, vice president of marketing at StrongView. “Effectively engaging customers with what we call ‘Present Tense Marketing’ requires an in-depth understanding of the customer’s context at a particular moment in time, and that can only be achieved with the strategic use of all available data.”

SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS

    40% cite accessing and leveraging customer data as biggest email marketing challenge; 36% lack of resources; 32% developing more relevant engagements.
    44% have goal to improve engagement; 36% to improve segmentation and targeting; 31% to grow opt-in lists.
    93% plan to increase or maintain marketing budgets in 2014; 46% plan to increase.
    52% plan to increase email marketing spend; 46% social media; 41% search; 36% display.
    57% of email lifecycle marketing to be focused on loyalty; 53% on welcome; 50% winback.
    59% plan to integrate email with social; 55% with mobile; 23% with display.
    55% of marketers chose Facebook as the most valuable social channel; 18% LinkedIn; 10% Twitter; less than 5% named Pinterest, Google+ or Instagram as most valuable.

MARKETERS CITE DATA QUALITY AND LATENCY AS NEW DATA CHALLENGES

In last year’s StrongView 2013 Marketing Trends Survey, marketers reported facing challenges with managing data and integrating it with other channels. This latest survey goes further to uncover the biggest challenges to leveraging data, with quality (22%), latency in its availability to marketers (16%) and lack of strategy (15%) topping the list. Data access and the ability to specifically leverage web behavior (34%), shopping behavior (25%) and customer sentiment (23%) were particularly vexing to marketers. Demographics (53%), purchase history (49%) and web behavioral data (31%) were used most often in campaigns. The challenges surrounding the use and understanding of data were highly noted in responses to almost every question.

INCREASING ENGAGEMENT THROUGH GREATER RELEVANCY IS A MAJOR INITIATIVE

Across channels, marketers report that a key objective in 2014 will be to increase engagement with customers, primarily by creating campaigns with higher degrees of relevancy based on contextual clues. StrongView recommends that marketers achieve relevancy by developing campaigns that adopt the tenets of “Present Tense Marketing,” whereby marketers adapt in real time to a customer’s present tense or current state, putting the next marketing action in the proper context of their activities.

EMAIL MARKETING REMAINS STRONG

The stalwart channels of email and search marketing remain principal avenues for marketers to reach customers, with social media marketing continuing to rise in importance. More than 50% of marketers plan budget increases in email and 46% in social marketing in 2014; 41% of marketers plan to increase search spending, up from 39.8% in 2013.

Respondents reported intentions to increase spending for automated email programs such as lifecycle (34%) and triggered events (38%). Of the marketers who plan to increase spend on lifecycle email marketing programs, 57% plan to focus on loyalty programs with 50% indicating a focus on winback efforts and 53% on welcoming new customers. These and other data support marketers’ plans to make strides in customer engagement in the coming year.

LARGEST SOCIAL PLATFORMS CONSIDERED MOST VALUABLE

While the investment in social channels overall to engage customers is set to increase in 2014 (46%), marketers overwhelmingly and, not surprisingly, name the largest social platforms as their most valuable channels.

Facebook ranked among the top three by 81% of marketers, Twitter by 67%, YouTube by 48% and LinkedIn by 44%. Pinterest, for example, though noted as valuable to some degree by more than 85% of respondents, was listed as a top three most valuable channel by less than 13% of marketers. Highly popular Instagram was only ranked in the top three by 10% of marketers, though 86% saw some value.

SURVEY INFOGRAPHIC

An infographic highlighting key findings is available at: http://www.strongview.com/2014surveyinfographic.

SURVEY DATA

Full survey data is available at: http://www.strongview.com/2014marketsurvey.

ABOUT THE SURVEY

The StrongView “2014 Marketing Trends Survey” was conducted in conjunction with SENSORPRO. The poll, which gathered feedback from 386 business executives across all major industries, was conducted from November 18 – 27, 2013.

ABOUT STRONGVIEW

StrongView’s cross-channel marketing solutions provide enterprise marketers with the tools, services and insights required to effectively engage today’s constantly connected customers. Combining a powerful cross-channel campaign management solution with market-leading data access and analysis, StrongView’s Marketing Cloud enables marketers to understand the current context of each customer and respond in real time with relevant messages across email, mobile, social, display and web.

A champion of “Present Tense Marketing,” StrongView is committed to delivering solutions that reflect the new reality of the technology-empowered customer. Based in Redwood City, CA and backed by leading venture capital investors, StrongView has been helping global brands in retail, travel, finance, entertainment and online services overcome the limitations of other marketing platform providers for more than a decade.







Find More Venture Capital Press Releases

Gust Presentation – Innotribe Startup Challenge 2012

/in , /by

Gust Presentation – Innotribe Startup Challenge 2012 Gust is the global platform for sourcing and managing seed and early-stage equity investments. Its infra…
Video Rating: 5 / 5