Internet Tech Boston

Here’s another take on a web startup – one that comes with a 7,000 sq ft storage facility and a fleet of delivery trucks. Meet Fetch Storage. Ok, it’s not really a web startup. As cofounder Jesse Mastro puts it, the team at Fetch is seeking to bring new technology, like personal online inventory management, into “old models” like the property storage market. Just like SaaS products storage your digital stuff in the cloud and allow you to select what you need, when you need it, so Fetch does for your physical things utilizing, a personalized web based control panel and a fleet of delivery trucks.

The team is currently looking for funding, and is doing so along with the many teams participating in the Mass Challenge. They’ll need that funding if they ever hope to grow beyond their initial Boston-based geographic location. But it’s not just the physical infrastructure they’ll need. . In order to make this work, a smart automation of the way items are checked in, stored, requested, scheduled for delivery and arrived on time is not something for the faint of heart. Actually, I’d say that getting cheap storage space and delivery trucks is probably not one of their largest problems.

But the cofounding team of Jesse along with Brij Patel and Christian Baxter are off to a great start, with a few employees and over 100 paying customers, including several local businesses such as the Boston Metro Newspaper, that uses Fetch to store the paper’s back issues. I met up with Jesse and Christian at WorkBar Boston, who were kind enough to let us record our meeting in their lounge during one of their free co-working days.

Everyone’s excited about new mobile applications these days, and that includes me. After covering the guys at Peekaboo Mobile earlier this spring, I was happy to spend time with Jacqueline Thong, CoFounder and CEO of UbiqiHealth, developers of mobile and web based tools for patients with chronic illness to better track  and monitor their conditions.

Ubiqi currently has one product in closed Alpha test with 40 migraine sufferers. The plan is to prove out the hypothesis that patients will actually use mobile applications to track their conditions on a day to day basis, and then roll out new applications geared toward other chronic illness. Sounds like the beginnings of a platform play. Think Facebook game platform meets 21st century medicine in the form of a symptom tracker in your pocket. Just slap on a new skin and viola – you’re tracking painful joints caused by arthritis rather than painful migraines.

With a 4 person virtual team that originally met in business school in France (of all places), and is now inconveniently located in LA, Minnesota, London, and Boston, Jacqueline told me that Ubiqi is self funded with enough runway until next spring. They’re doing side projects to bring in cash to lengthen their runway, but their big bet is being placed on the numerous business plan competitions that they’ve entered. Ubiqi was a finalist in North Bridge’s seed funding competition, and is currently a finalist in both the Cartier Women’s Initiative, and in Mass Challenge.

Regarding plans for future revenue, Jacqueline told me they’re confident that patients would pay for access to the app, as a result of surveys and market research, but Ubiqi also plans to sell aggregated, anonymized data to drug makers and other interested parties.

Baydin is a local startup building plugins to improve the way we use email. A former TechStars graduate, Baydin has launched a few different products to make using email better in MS Outlook – Unsearch, which won this year’s Enterprise 2.0 Launchpad competition , and Boomerang, the “email snooze button.”

I visited Dogpatch Labs to meet with both of the guys that comprise Baydin – founder Alex Moore and Mike Chin, to learn what’s new with this startup.  Timing is everything in life, and I was happy to learn a couple of big new developments at this emerging company. First, Baydin has recently launched a Gmail version of Baydin, and I was treated to a beta version, which can be seen in the video below. You can view and download the Boomerang for Gmail beta here.

Second, in the video below, Alex also discusses the next big thing that they’re working as a new game related to “getting people to inbox zero.” When I asked Alex to elaborate on how he’s bringing game theory to the typically mundane task of email, he told me that most people check their email first thing in the morning, and now they’ll have to do it “on the clock.”

This post was originally released at BostInnovation.com, a platform to help startups in Boston succeed by connecting local innovators and increasing communication. Thanks to Greg and Kyle at BostInnovation for their support.

Greenbean Recycle is a startup looking to change the way people think about recycling. Even if you don’t know what a Reverse Vending Machine (RVM) is, you’ve probably used one. An RVM is the machine you drop your recyclable beverage containers in, and get a printed receipt that you turn in for refunds at a store cashier. Greenbean has joined the MassChallenge competition to fuel their idea of marrying RVM technology with wireless Social Media and eCommerce capability to personalized the recycling process and make it “cashless.”

Greenbean joins the list of local clean tech startups, like Big Belly Solar, that are focusing on ways to insert conveinent recycling stations into the daily lives of the busy urban eco-friendly set.  So, I sat down with Shankar Sahai, the founder of Greenbean Recycle, to learn more about his vision, and what progress has been made since the initial forming of the team to compete in the MassChallenge.

In 2010, EditMe has gone from a wiki platform, to website CMS for online communities, to internal collaboration software. Matt Wiseley and I gave a case study presentation to the Lean Startup Circle Boston on how we’ve tried to applied the concepts of Customer Development and Lean Startups to our existing business.

We don’t have all the answers on what makes a successful pivot, and if you watch the video below you’ll see that we got a lot of great help and advice from John Prendergast, the LSC Boston organizer and the people in attendance.

View the Slides

Watch the Video

Recently, I sat down with Michael Fruzzetti and Ben Dolgoff, co-founders of newly minted Peekaboo Mobile, an application for  Apple mobile devices that uses your GPS location to send you deals and offers at retail stores nearby. By combining two ideas that have become hugely popular in 2010 – local coupons a la Groupon, and GPS-aware mobile applications, it’s no surprise that since their launch on the Apple App Store in early March, 2010, Peekaboo has quickly amassed 400 users of the service in the Boston area. More importantly – they’ve secured relationships with around 65 businesses such as Beacon Hill Athletic Club, The Good Life, and Boston Common Coffee, who use Peekaboo’s online coupon management system to post deals and offers directly to the Peekaboo community. As COO Dolgoff explains, “things like Groupon are a ‘thought-out buy.’ You need to be in front of your computer and make the purchase online. Peekaboo Mobile is all about ‘real time deals.’”

With backgrounds in Finance, the initial career path put Fruzzetti on Wall Street as a trader, before returning to Boston, reconnecting with fellow Suffolk grad Dolgoff and forming an umbrella company ByteVentures that they’ve used to create several internet business. Peekaboo Mobile is their 4th venture together.

They realize they’re under stiff competition from the many “Groupon-clones,” as well as New York-based Postabon, which recently secured a $1.05 million round from Spark Capital and has presence in Boston, New York, and San Francisco. But, the Peekaboo duo feel they have a strategic advantage when it comes to the competition – the thriving, vibrant, and helpful community that surrounds entrepreneurs here in Boston.

Currently housed in the entrepreneurial frat house HangOut Labs, and planning to secure angel or seed funding from one of the many startup competitions such as Mass Challenge, both Fruzzetti and Dolgoff are supremely optimistic on their future outlook, with plans to bring their currently offshore development team in-house, and expansion to other cities in the near future. As Dolgoff explains, “there really is a community here. People who actually want to help. We’ll expand to other cities, but our homebase will always be here in Boston.”

What do you think of a “real time deal” service on your mobile phone? Is this a service you’d use, and do you think it will affect buyer behavior when out shopping? Leave your opinion in the comments, below.

Recently, Eric Paley from Founder Collectives sat down with Tim Healy, the CEO, Chairman, and Co-Founder of EnerNOC. The hour long conversation, which was sponsored by the great folks at VentureFizz, is important for two reasons.

1. Boston needs to celebrate our success stories in our backyard. EnerNOC is a great example.
2. This video is a must watch for any entrepreneur – it is very inspiring and it includes lots of lessons learned.

I’ve blogged about VentureFizz in past. I feel that Keith and team are doing terrific work in gathering and organizing the great tech entrepreneur community here in Boston. Be sure to watch the video below and also check out other great content on the VentureFizz site.

Last Thursday, I went down to the Boston Lean Startup Circle to listen to Austin and Cheryl from Pinyadda discuss their experience doing Customer Development. My colleague Matt Wiseley calls this going to “church for startups” – a place to reflect on the principles and methodologies that guide our everyday actions as entrepreneurs, with a like-minded community. It’s good for the soul.

Whether or not you’ve “got religion” when it comes to Lean Startups, here’s an interesting case study by a pair of folks from a local Boston startup that actually have been practicing the methodology for the past 9 months or so. Austin and Cheryl from Pinyadda.com share their experiences with Customer Development in the video below. Apologies in advance for the lousy camera work.

If you’re a local startup and interested in learning more about building your minimum viable product, or Customer Development, join us for our next meeting in April where Matt and I will be giving a case study on EditMe’s Customer Development experiences.