Mr. Black

In this Internetty bubble we so rarely leave, it's easy to forget that millions of people in urban areas are within range of a functioning WiFi connection, but can't necessarily afford it. New York-based startup KeyWiFi wants to help change that, by allowing individuals to rent out their unused WiFi connections for a nominal fee to those who can't afford Internet.

"Most hotspots are only used for a few hours a day, and rarely to full capacity," reads KeyWiFi's mission page. "With KeyWifi, this unused bandwidth does not become idle, but available to whomever you want, whenever you desire. This means individuals, families, and businesses can use the internet in a collaborative fashion that radically reduces waste and cuts costs for all."

In order to help them launch this project, they've started a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, asking for a total goal of $20,000. The team has already created the backend, which allows users to share their WiFi without buying new hardware or downloading clunky software. KeyWifi is entirely web-based, but they're looking to raise the funds to help build out the U.I. "We have proved out our 'backbone' technology that lets us share wifi securely," they wrote on the campaign page. "Now we are completing our 'front end' technology: the system that allows anyone to sign up to share wifi."

Much like room rental service Airbnb or car sharing services like City Car Share, KeyWiFi is all about efficiency. It essentially does the same thing for your WiFi as Airbnb does for your apartment: rents it out to people when you're not using it. It's certainly an interesting idea, but one that will really only work in urban areas with already existing WiFi infrastructure.

While the concept of renting out your wireless network might make you a bit uncomfortable, KeyWifi insists that it's entirely safe and equipped with top of the line encryption and security services. And it's certainly safer than sharing your WiFi password, which in some circles is considered "more personal than sharing a toothbrush."

"Think of all the spare WiFi not being used all around you and the people who might want to use it," KeyWiFi CEO Adam Black told Talking Points Memo. "The digital divide is within 100 yards of where you live. That’s a problem."

Hook 'em! | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Wikipedia)

HILL COUNTRY. Made in NY: Austin will celebrate New York based tech startups at South by Southwest on March 11 from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. at the Fast Company Grill at Cedar Door in the Texas Capital. The event will be hosted by Gust, and the New York Tech Meetup and will be attended by over 250 NYC based startups. RSVP here. You might even be able to get there in a real NYC yellow taxi.

GroupMe is also heading to Austin for SXSW to keep you connected to your fellow conference-goers. Start a group on the GroupMe SXSW landing page and get exclusive updates, news and a chance to win prizes.

Be sure to RSVP for the GroupMe Major Rager end-of-the-weekend celebration at Cedar Street Courtyard featuring DJ sets from the likes of COMA and Nancy Whang of LCD Soundsystem.

Pixable is going to SXSW with a special section dedicated to the interactive conference based on what's happening, where you should be and what's most popular "#SXSW Live Feed" is a real time stream of all #SXSW tagged photos on Instagram and Twitter and "#SXSW Popular" is a showcase of the most shared and liked pics.

PIIIIIING. Sonar, the mobile app that shows hidden connections to the people around you based on the information you publicly post online, is going to SXSW with an Android App in beta. And that's not all—new features are also live including a people tab, to show users whose around no matter what the venue may be, Facebook and Twitter location data integration to show more people with more context and the entire app has been reengineered under the hood for improved speed and power.

GIRLS. GirlDevelopIt now has over 2,300 members and will be on hand at SXSW celebrating women in tech with a totally unofficial All Girl* Dev Brunch. The nerdettes also announced that classes in San Francisco are open for enrollment.

*Boys allowed.

ISPs 4 U AND ME. KeyWifi, the disruptive little startup spearheading the effort to bring Internet access to all by sharing hotspots, came out on top at the Silicon Alley Battlefield event at the New York Entrepreneurs Business Network. Betabeat believes uninhibited access to information is a good thing, so it's nice to see KeyWifi win with a refined pitch after struggling to connect with judges at last month's Common Pitch.

TESTING 1-2-3. After over a year of beta testing, Broadcastr 2.0 is available in the iOS app store and in the Android Market. Broadcastr allows users to " find memories, insights, and enriching information about eclectic and everyday places on every continent on Earth." New features include imprived filtering options, a gallery view, curated story collections and more intuitive map browsing.

ADITUDE. Solve Media heard our prayers and has come up with a way around 30 second ads for online videos that are sometimes only half that length. With Solve Media's solution, viewers will be able to type a sponsor's message in a text box to bypass the commercial. Users will be less frustrated and sponsors will know that their message was heard instead of playing to nobody while the intended target is making a sandwich.

CHA-CHING. Covestor, an investment management company that basically lets users see the transactions of pro traders and copy their moves, is joining forces with SlashDeclare, a cooperative movement of financial services companies calling for fairness and transparency in financial markets.

Covestor’s Next Invest, a virtual conference, is set for March 20 and 21 where Charles Lewis Sizemore, of the Sizemore Investment Letter, will talk about "using content to build a money management practice."

LIFE COACH. "It is time for you to stop stalking your exes and start living your life!" proclaims LifeGunk, a startup that touts itself as "the world's first life-management network." LifeGunk allows you to maintain schedules, take notes, log goals on your calendar, and send yourself reminders. When you accomplish one of your goals you can even give yourself a checkmark. Sort of like Google Calendar—but more patronizing. LifeGunk is currently self funded. Investors—get in while you can.

45 RPM. Turntable.fm is rolling out new features including a private chat function, improved search and a guest list so you can see how else is is jimmying to your jams. Best of all, there's a new free iPhone app—gratuitous guitar solo goes here.

MAXIMIZE. Clickable just made some big expansions to their senior leadership team as they plan to continue their rapid growth as a platform that combines search and social across Facebook, Google, Twitter, Foursquare, Bing and LinkedIn. Dave Fall joins Clickable as COO, David O. Smith as CRO, Sanjay Gupta as senior director of engineering and Brian Tucker as the VP of agency sales.

WORK FOR CHANGE. Gawker is looking for a new creative director with coding proficiency. Apply Here. Hyperpublic needs a web developer who's comfy with MongoDB, Javascript and JQuery. Throw your hat into the ring. Betaworks wants a senior backend engineer and architect for contract or full-time. Expertise in Python, Mongo and AWS is preferred. Tell 'em why it should be you. GetGlue, the social network for entertainment, has an opening for a senior product manager with 3-5 years experience and a social media presence. Apply here. Signpost, the "Google AdSense of local commerce," is on the prowl for a new publisher development manager. Strong business acumen and three years of marketing/sales experience gives you a good shot. Shoot. Work Market, a labor and HR management platform, backed by Union Square Ventures, is looking for a back-end Java developer, operations engineer, community manager and many other positions. Check 'em out here. Foursquare has internships for young, budding techies on the software engineering and community fronts. They've also got more than a few job openings. Check it all out here. And last but not least, Boxee wants to pay an intern on their product team. If you're based in NYC apply here.

Sharon Schneider, founder of Good Karma with Common cofounder Alex Bogusky (right) and a big ol' bag of cash.

Brooklyn Bowl, the hippest bowling alley east of the East River, was invaded—not by bushy beards and skinny jeans—but by New York techies vying for the approval and adoration of a brutally scrutinizing panel at last night’s Common Pitch, an uncommon sort of pitch competition for startups with a collaborate consumption bent.

Nine startups, narrowed down from an initial pool of about 70, pitched the panel—including a two time Grammy winner, Foodspotting cofounder and Fast Company editor—for a shot at $3,000 (in singles), expert advice from strategist Daniel Karpantschof and other prizes. Each startup had five minutes to make their pitch. If they went over, cofounder Alex Bogusky would throw a yellow penalty flag (read terry-cloth dish towel) to let them know they had 30 seconds to wrap it up. Panelists would then react and tell the presenters what they liked—or didn’t.

Onto the pitches!

Cofounder Chris Kieran went to bat first for his startup Zoko which he described as “Kickstarter for parties.” The idea behind Zoko is to mitigate the barriers that prevent people from entertaining. Their research showed that folks are more willing to host parties if guests chip in. But, passing a hat around or hitting up friends and guests for money can be a mood killer. Zoko’s workaround is very similar to Kickstarter: hosts set a minimum fundraising goal, potential partygoers pledge, and all the money is in the host's pocket before they even go shopping. If there’s not enough interest and the goal isn’t met, no money changes hands and the party simply doesn’t happen.

To date Zoko has 910 users and has played a part in planning 410 parties. Beta testers at Yale are hosting over 20 parties a week and Zoko earns seven percent of all cash collected.

Next, Brooklyn Bowl heard from Doug Krugman of Web Thrift Store who opened up with the startling fact that collectively, Americans have $700 billion worth of stuff that they don’t use and don’t need. The big idea behind Web Thrift Store (the judges thought the name was very “web 1.0 by the way) is that any nonprofit can operate thrift store without the cost, a storage facility, staff or physical retail space.

Mr. Krugman said it works like this: find someone who wants your stuff. They pay the charity directly, you get a prepaid mailing label, box it up and the USPS takes your trash (his treasure) off your hands. You get rid of your junk, an awesome charity gets cash, reuse is increased and the world becomes a slightly better place. Just rename it and we’ll have an awesome innovation on a $13 billion dollar biz.

Will Dennis came out next to tell us all about Spinlister, a truly democratic service that matches would-be cyclists with the bike of their dreams. Individuals (just like us!) can list their bike with details and photos and wait for an interested party to rent their bike. Think Airbnb or Zipcar but with two wheels and no pillows. Rentees can search based on location, price, category and size. Once they find a bike they like they can connect with the lister and set up a time and place to make the exchange.

But the fun only starts there: Spinlister has a social component too. The site naturally draws people with similar interests who can post for group rides and map out their favorite routes.

Spinlister is already in 70 cities in over 20 countries and have over 2,000 bikes listed. There are roughly 100 million bikes in the U.S. and one billion in the world. As Mr. Dennis said, “the infrastructure is there, we just need to connect it.”

Spinlister was the was the crowd favorite and won a bag of cash that had been circulated through the crowd, collection plate style.

On deck was Adam Black who wants to put an end to the digital divide by enabling ISP subscribers to share their unused bandwidth with KeyWifi. Mr. Black said that 85 percent of all bandwidth is wasted. When we’re not home, at the office on weekends, the internet is on, but we’re not online. Mr. Black wants to create a network of shared internet access that doesn’t require software, hardware, contracts or any other scary words.

Mr. Black said that anybody and everybody can rent and transmit their unused bandwidth to people within their proximity. Unfortunately, the technical details of how KeyWifi would work were not made clear before Mr. Black’s five minutes were up. There is a pilot project happening in Queens right now. Betabeat and the panel loved the disruptive nature of this idea, we just want to know more about how it... works. Bandwidth for the masses!

Common Pitch NYC winner and Good Karma founder Sharon Schneider came out and showed off how she’d come up with to solution to basically every problem any parent has ever had when it comes to dressing their little ones in clothes that fit. Good Karma is basically a central repository for clothing for kids. It provides busy parents with the right size baby clothes delivers a a bundle of seven outfit right to their door right when they need them. Bundles come in three different price and quality levels and range from brands like Gymboree at $28 a month to Oilily and comparable brands at $79 a month.

Good Karma partners with schools who encourage parents to clean out their closets and donate ill fitting baby clothes. Parents get a tax deduction, the school makes money and Good Karma has an inventory. Win, win, win.

All the clothes are sent out in reusable shipping containers and washed with Selestial soap. What happens when stained clothes come back with permanent stains and can’t be reshipped? They’re turned into bibs and rags.
Both the panel and the crowd loved Ms. Schneiders’s presentation—they picked hers as the number one pitch—but she ran afoul of one judge who said the only fault he could find was in the name. “Cheesy in an unhelpful way,” he said.

With a tough act to follow, the cofounders of Unum came out with big ambitions to make the fashion industry care about their social and environmental impact. In an effort to “find common ground between those who already care and those who don’t think its that improtant, Unum challenges users to come up with designs that other users vote upon. popular designs will then be produced using leftover fabric pieces. Designers get a chunk of the profit but they are required to donate some proceeds to charity.

The panel’s reaction was tepid as one panelist described it as “kind of a cool idea.” If the presenters spent more time on the nuts and bolts of the concept, they might have found a warmer reaction.

Next, former Lehman Brothers employee John Zimmer came up to pitch Zimride even though he really didn’t need to. The San Francisco based startup just got funded for $7.5 million. Mr. Zimmer explained that 80 percent of the seats in cars on America’s highways are unoccupied. That’s why he founded Zimride, which allows users to find a driver with empty seats and book a ride just like you would a bus, train or plane ticket.

Zimride is a social marketplace for drivers and riders who can see each other’s profiles and decide if the ride is one they’re willing to take. If it takes off, Mr. Zimmer believes Zimride will help take cars off the road, reduce traffic wait times and help people make new friends. In fact, Zimride has been the catalyst for more than one relationship already—but please guys, it’s not a dating site.

A pitch from Itemology, founder Engin Erdogan closed the evening as he also explained that we just own too much stuff. Mr Erdogan, whose platform allows users to digitally inventory their belongings explained that self-storage in the U.S. takes up enough space to cover Manhattan three times. The goal of Itemology is for users to really assess what they own in an organized and visual way. The site shows you the total worth and weight of your items and will pull images and information from the web (that you can later replace) so you and others can take stock of your stuff.

Itemolgy runs on a “freemium” business model. Users can trade, buy and sell their things and Itemology takes a small fee. Users are encouraged to rethink ownership and increase reuse.

Common, based in Boulder, Colorado, describes itself as an accelerator for social entrepreneurs. As Mr. Bogusky put it, last night was all about showcasing “how social technologies can help us share more and consume less.” And ideally make a little scratch along the way, of course.

via LaughingSquid

FUNDING FUN. Who is surviving the seed stage slaughter? General Assembly, obviously, which raised $4.25 million from some Russian billionaire and other folks. Crowdtap, the on-demand user testing service, just raised a $7 million Series A financing round led by the Foundry Group. "The funds will be used to help continue the rapid growth we have experienced in our first couple years and continue to build a world class platform to help brands connect to, manage and market with their influential consumers." AppFirst, the "next generation application problem resolution system for the application performance management market," announced it closed its Series A for $4 million, led by Javelin Venture Partners. "FirstMark Capital and First Round Capital, original backers of AppFirst, also participated in the financing agreement."

STEALTH RUMBLINGS. Philip Kaplan, a.k.a. Pud of FuckedCompany.com, just sold his startup TinyLetter to MailChimp and is banging away at another, Fandalism, which is some kind of tool for musicians of all types. Fandalism has 197 fans on Facebook, but when's it coming out? "Within the next 4 weeks-ish, hopefully. Sorry for the delay."

FEATUREFUL. Onepager, the About.me for businesses, is now freezy. As the startup announced last night at New York Tech Meetup, among other features: "We got rid of the 14 day free trial.  Users now can make their own Onepager site for free and keep it indefinitely. We now have a dashboard for users that will allow them to see their visitor analytics. These analytics include views, sources, and keywords. Small business owners now have the ability to add a 'subscribe' area on their website to collect email addresses.  The owners may then send newsletters out directly to their subscribers from the Onepager dashboard."

RESTART. Reddit became a startup again, spinning out from under Conde Nast, and has some big things planned.

STILL HERE. KeyWifi, the bootstrapped wifi-sharing startup, continues to send newsletters, which seems like a good sign for an extremely ambitious startup. And they have some news: "We're providing wireless services for the Contact Summit in October. We're also supporting the efforts of a new collaborative community, NYC Shared Squared."

TO DO. New Work City is ramping up on events. Check out the Instagram meetup tonight, aided by new NWC member Snapr. "Five up-and-coming Instagramers on the NYC scene (mostly street photography, architecture, cityscapes) will be presenting 5 photos, discuss the story behind them, technique, etc, then have a Q&A." Then, of course, head to a bar. That's how NWC does. Don't forget Video Hack Day at General Assembly on Saturday.

WE'RE GOING TO NEW YORK CITY! Philly-and-New York-based mobile payments start-up Venmo will be setting up full-time shop in New York next week on the heels of announcing some new iPhone app features including the most commonly-requested passcode lock, which lets you lock the Venmo app with a four-digit PIN "in case your cat gets a hold of your iPhone." You can also now scan a credit card by snapping a picture and check a box to check in on Foursquare when you split a bill.

INCREDIBLE JOURNEYS. New York start-up KeyWifi is trying to get people and businesses to share their wifi hot spots, bringing it up against security issues and legal challenges and other logistical hurdles. Betabeat spoke to founder Adam Black some months ago and we were not encouraged that the idea would ever get off the ground. But there's been some movement: today the start-up announced three new hires. "KeyWifi is also feverishly growing, updating our technology and growing our customer base.  To make this happen, our high-spirited, company founder, Adam Black, expanded the arsenal of KeyWifi talent with Product Director, Tom Hughes, Senior Technology Officer, Justin Fields and Community Development Manager, Jenn Lackey."

TONIGHT. Disruptive start-up Covestor is hosting a networking event at Union Square Ventures; the start-up had to increase capacity to 60 spots due to high demand and it's now sold out again. The speaker is Covestor model manager and founder of investment firm Global Equity Analytics and Research Services LLC, Robert Gay. Also, Skillshare/Svpply house party is going down tonight at 407 Broome; it's also oversubscribed.

TOMORROW. A few of Betabeat's favorite things... Turntable.fm Dance Party at New Work City, which has become a DJ battle with Seattle, aaaaand the second-ever East Village Tech Meetup as well as this summer's hackNY demo fest.

HIRING: Turntable.fm seeks a Python developer: "You've got to have incredible technical chops, the ability to solve the problems that come with designing a large-scale consumer- facing app and thrive in the dynamic environment of a true start-up." Twitter seeks a biz dev, Minus seeking interns, designers and devs.

SUMMER RELEASES. Silicon Alley's 500Startups ambassador Tout goes editorial; releases Email Template Library. The Lollapalooza app and the Dexter app are now integrating GroupMe. Fitness loggers can now race remotely by connecting their Runkeeper to their Fitocracy. Web habit spy Voyurl now breaks down browsing data into fifteen different categories.

"SNAP Interactive, a leading social application developer in New York, announced a number of new key mobile features for its flagship AreYouInterested.com social dating application... New features include Real-Time Notifications that alert members instantaneously when a potential match is nearby, Spotlight where singles can purchase slots to gain significantly more exposure (and dates!) and Front-Facing Camera where iPhone users can take and send photos while participating in live chat."

Husband-and-wife powered start-up Subjot has a bookmarklet.