Startups

See who’s winning Spotlight’s $10K ‘Internet Games’ [Startup Roundup]

Plus: Beacon & Lively gets mentioned in the New York Times.

startup roundup

WHO’S MAKING MOVES?

VUID, the makers of the Spotlight app that gives cash prizes to users who get the most likes, are running a clever marketing campaign inspired by “The Hunger Games.” It’s called the Internet Games and $10,000 is at stake. Each week until the end of December, half the competitors get eliminated and each week, the top three users with the most likes get to remove or award 250 likes to any competing user.

Transportation app Uber is letting users donate $5 through their app to No Kid Hungry, an anti-hunger campaign. On Thursday, the company is also delivering lunch from Top Chef restaurant Sbraga. Proceeds from “UberLUNCH” will go to No Kid Hungry. Will that bring the company some good will amid their PR mess?

Brett Harned, the guy behind Happy Cog’s national digital project manager conference, will no longer be a full-time Happy Cog employee, he announced on his blog. He’ll do freelance digital project strategy and focus on running 2015’s Digital Project Manager Summit.

Kinglet, the Baltimore-based marketplace for desks in offices, raised $500,000 to expand to Philly and Washington, D.C., our sister site Technical.ly Baltimore reported. The business is similar to the now-defunct Philly startup OpenDesks. OpenDesks was run by Chris DiFonzo, who’s now in New York City working at McAfee.

The Aster Center, a Delaware-based company focused on eating disorder treatment, is applying to DreamIt Athena, DreamIt Ventures’ women entrepreneurship program, our sister site Technical.ly Delaware reported.

The first Philly Startup Leaders Bootcamp, an education series on how to launch a startup, is now over. Eighteen people completed the bootcamp, according to Neeraj Bagga on the PSL listserv. Watch all the videos from speakers like AboutOne’s Joanne Lang and Arcweb’s Chris Cera and see the curriculum here.

The bootcamp was meant to prep for the PSL Accelerator, which aims to help startups grow. Apply by Dec. 31 here.

 

WHO’S RAISING FUNDING?

All the DreamIt Ventures Philly startups that demoed on Demo Day last week mentioned raising rounds between $500,000 – $1.5 million, except for Ishqr, SpotIt BuyIt and Pico. For more DreamIt Philly coverage, check out our sister site Technical.ly Delaware who recapped the demos of Nfoshare and Cnverg, both startups with ties to Delaware and our story on how more DreamIt startups are choosing to stay in Philadelphia.

 

WHO’S GETTING BUZZ?

Beacon & Lively, a wearable tech startup, got featured in the New York Times in a story about the rise of wearable tech companies. The company is also pitching at New York’s FashInvest fashion tech conference today.

Companies: Aster Center / Kinglet / VUID / Guru Technologies / Beacon & Lively / DreamIt Ventures / Happy Cog / Philly Startup Leaders

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