DreamIt Ventures announces 14 startups in its Philly Fall 2012 class

DreamIt Ventures managing partner Kerry Rupp speaks at the kickoff event Friday at Quorum at the University City Science Center.

DreamIt Ventures, the nationally-acclaimed local accelerator that has expanded to New York, Israel and most recently, Austin, announced its fifth Philly class today. Out of 14 startups, three were previously based in Philly and one came as far as Sydney, Australia.

At the accelerator’s kickoff event at Quorum at the University City Science Center Friday, managing partner Kerry Rupp said that more than three-quarters of the entrepreneurs in the latest class have had a startup before. She also offered a few other pieces of trivia: one entrepreneur is a professional violinist who has performed at Carnegie Hall, one is a rapper and one was an NCAA assistant football coach.

Five of the startups are part of DreamIt Access, the accelerator’s minority entrepreneurship program with Comcast Ventures.

The companies had their first pitches Saturday and started working in the University City Science Center today.

Here are the startups, as described in the release, with our comments in italics:

• Altair Prep, Philadelphia, PA:  Dynamic, performance-based homework platform to analyze learning trends and customize curricula. See our previous coverage here.
• Applique, New York, NY:  Making building iPhone and iPad Apps as easy as using PowerPoint.
• Betterific, Washington, DC:  Crowdsourcing platform for consumers to submit ideas and suggestions to improve products and brands.
• brandREP.me, Los Angeles, CA:  Crowdsourcing brand marketing campaigns to student brand advocates.
• Brideside, Chicago, IL:  Discover, pick and purchase bridesmaids dresses.
• CallGrader, Denver, CO:  Collect marketing analytics and rich data off the phone calls.
• Charlie, Chicago, IL:  Rock all of your important meetings, pitches, conferences, and phone calls with Charlie, a mobile app that arms you with the important information on your contacts right when you need it.
• CloudConfidence, Philadelphia, PA:  Analytics-driven cloud monitoring and management platform.
• FlagTap, San Francisco, CA:  Increase engagement by easily creating and managing on-site reward offers. Users aggregate reward points from all sites in the FlagTap network and redeem them in the FlagTap store.
• mor.sl, Washington, DC:  A personalized recipe recommendation platform based on your tastes, allergies and cooking skill.
• Peeractive, Sydney, Australia:  Addictive social commerce technology that uses real-time analytics to engage shoppers and drive impulsive purchases.
• The Whoot, New York, NY:  Short-term social planning for the night ahead.
• Tripkno, New York, NY:  Social, e-commerce travel guide that modernizes the way travelers find things to do.
• Zenkars, Philadelphia, PA:  Online retailer of used cars that offers a new & peaceful buying experience. Zenkars’ cofounders currently attend Wharton and expect to get their MBAs in 2013. Cofounder Venkat Jonnala says the team is working out how to get class credit for their work on Zenkars.

Mentors for the Philly Fall 2012 class include TicketLeap CEO Chris Stanchak and DuckDuckGo founder Gabriel Weinberg, according to a presentation at the kickoff event.

Demo day for the startups will be Dec. 5.