Our setting. (Photo: Yelp)

Pop-ups are ever popping up about the city like so many mushrooms after a rainstorm, so it was only a matter of time before we saw one just for fashion startups. The New York City Economic Development Corporation has just announced that it'll be collaborating with retailer Story  on a competition dubbed Project Pop-Up NYC. It's targeted to both up-and-coming retailers and (more importantly for our purposes) innovative fashion tech startups.

Up to three winners will get their very own pop-up within STORY's Chelsea outpost during the month of September, which of course coincides nicely with Fashion Week. They'll also win PR support, mentoring and "exposure at key industry events." That last bit sounds a bit fuzzy, but the right mentor is a pearl beyond price. As many as eight other companies will also get display space.

Judges include Bonobos CEO Andy Dunn, High Line Venture Partners' Shana Fisher, and Lucky editor-in-chief Brandon Holly.

The criteria:

Being an existing fashion retailer and/or fashion-related technology company; able to support a pop-up store with saleable merchandise (retailers) or a demo/showcase (fashion technology companies) during the month of September; be based in New York City; have been in business for at least one year; and have annual sales or sales projections of over $25,000.

STORY's whole schtick is to operate as kind of a "permanent pop-up," constantly rotating out not just its wares but its look and feel, as well. And as we noted back when it opened, it's always had a very startup-like approach.

As for the NYCEDC's angle, well, there's this little gem from Bonobos' Andy Dunn and included in the NYCEDC's statement: “Having made the decision to call NYC home for Bonobos has been one of the critical factors in our success." No way is fashion tech taking hold in anywhere but the fashion capital of America--not on Mayor Bloomberg's watch, by God.

Applications are due July 30 and available here.

Mr. Caucci. (LinkedIn.com)

As former undergraduate residential advisors, Rob Caucci and Jeremy Pease have mediated many a dispute. The common theme? All too often, it was money: One roommate just wasn't chipping in for the weekly post-rager cleaning supplies. After experimenting with two other ideas, they've finally pivoted into a solution in the form of SpaceSplitter, a soon-to-launch platform designed to strip all the awkwardness out of communal living. 

Mr. Caucci told us that three years ago, the pair started a company selling enterprise software to college housing and residential life departments. Then they pivoted and built an eHarmony for roommate matching, before finally landing on the concept of SpaceSplitter. “We realized that the main problem [roommates] have is embracing the mutual dependencies that exist within the roommate relationship,” most importantly finances. Mr. Caucci explained: “Are you paying the bills on time with the roommates? Do you chip in for all of the products that these roommates collaboratively consume?”

That’s what SpaceSplitter hopes to address. Private beta launches in May, with public beta planned for the first week of June. They’re currently bootstrapping--thanks in part to revenues from the old enterprise software solution--but they hope to raise and close a $675,000 round of seed money sometime this summer. Mr. Caucci is still full-time at Booz Allen Hamilton, but hopes he’ll soon be able to devote all his time to the startup. Mr. Pease graduates in May, but he is currently executive director of Pace University's Seidenberg Creative Labs.

Here’s what private beta testers will see when they log into the platform: Ourlist, the first of several planned features. Mr. Caucci called it “essentially a household shopping list for the products that roommates collaboratively consume.” That list might include, for example, two packages of toilet paper, four rolls of paper towels, and a container of Clorox wipes.

This is where SpaceSplitter really starts to look useful, because the company has partnered with Soap.com and Drugstore.com. Users order whatever they need and the platform splits the cost, with those partners fulfilling the orders and kicking a commission to SpaceSplitter. Mr. Caucci expects this, for the time being, will serve as the company’s primary revenue driver. Roommates get what they need and neither owes the other money; vendors get customers; SpaceSplitter gets paid.

“We’re trying to create this ‘set-it-and-forget-it' type mechanism, where these roommates are collaboratively procuring these products they’ve always collaboratively consumed,” Mr. Caucci told us. He added, “We want to make the process by which these roommates procure those products much more efficient than it’s ever been.”

Eventually, they’ll add an expense tracker allowing roommates to split and pay bills like rent and utilities.

Asked why roommates might use SpaceSplitter as opposed to, say, a Google Docs spreadsheet or even the back of a napkin, Mr. Caucci pointed to his own experience and the horrible awkwardness of anything less than absolute openness:

“I lost $2,200 one time when one of my roommates was shorting our landlord for the last five months of the lease and there really wasn’t any transparency going on. The value proposition we have to offer roommates, in my opinion, is really transparency within that relationship and really the ability to hold one another accountable.” He added, “At times it feels like you may be nickel and diming these roommates, and it’s super awkward to go up to them and say, ‘Hey man, how about that pizza? Are you ever going to pay me the $5 you owe me?’”

Of course, there’s no way to solve every roommate squabble, because there’s no way to automate away crazy, bad manners, or body odor.

Everyone on the startup bus

So you're a young social sales analytics platform. You know cloud computing is a hot market, but it isn't easy to break out from the pack and get noticed.

When a rock star like Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is in town, perhaps giving a talk at the Jacob Javits center tomorrow as part of the CloudForce expo, you've basically got one chance to make a big impression.

You could try slipping him your pitch deck in the elevator or maybe rapping your way to an M&A. But the smart money is to get him to come to you, and that means making a splash.

We found this amazing offer on Zaarly today:

$10 for "groupies" to join me at Cloudforce NYC on Wed

Help a new startup make an impact. Walk the show floor and wear a hoodie and enjoy the East's largest Cloud Expo! Keep hoodie and get $10 in cab fare. Meetup at 8am. Registration FREE.

We pinged the seller to ask for some details. "Sure. Social sales Analytics. Recently launched on appexchange and looking to make a splash at the event. Technique worked well for us at Dreamforce. Would like the help!"

There is nothing Betabeat loves more than the smell of a freshly printed startup hoodie, but sadly, duty calls at the old blogsphere. We'll update when possible with pics.

TAKE MAI $$$$

As Betabeat has been pointing out, Occupy Wall Street presents sort of a gray area for Startupland. Sure, both parties waive their anti-corporate banner proudly and the rhetoric of disruption can be used interchangeably. But bootstrapped, self-interested Ayn Rand-o-philes and Zuccotti Park's concern with economic inequality don't necessarily see eye-to-eye.

Thankfully higher authorities have decided to weigh in on one problematic area. In fact, the entire Ethicist column in this weekend's New York Times magazine is devoted to it.

An anonymous inquirer from New York City writes:

I support Occupy Wall Street and am appalled by the behavior of the corporations they’re rallying against. While I do not work on Wall Street, my small start-up is financed primarily by one of the biggest Wall Street companies. Am I a hypocrite who should resign immediately?

Ariel Kaminer's answer? In short: eh, life's a compromise. And this is one of them. Also: good luck extricating yourself from the big finance:

"If you decide that your current situation is morally untenable, then yes, you should quit. But be forewarned: even such a bold action will not prevent Wall Street from enriching itself off you. The financial industry is so vast, and so inextricably entwined in every aspect of our lives, that to stand apart from it you pretty much have to go off the grid — no possessions, no transactions, no nothing."

Why do we get the feeling Ms. Kaminer might have read an issue or two of Occupy Wall Street Journal?

Even I need help sometimes.

This is a guest post from Will Cole, co-founder of the social discovery service, KnowAbout.It

You've made the leap and are doing a startup. It's just you and your co-founder, and you're pushing out code on a daily basis. Fast, fast, fast. You're well versed in the rules of agile development, have tried out 10 different feature and bug tracking tools, but you're still falling back on email as a primary way to communicate changes to your product. And remember that bug you talked about over the phone three days ago? Yeah, that never got fixed. Here are five tips on how to organize your project without compromising too much on speed.

1- For new features, new layouts, new anything, read and memorize Ryan Singer's Introduction to Using Patterns in Web Design. More importantly, you have to buy into why this is important. After a long conversation about a new feature immediately sketch out a design following these steps. If you're an amazing developer (or are as lucky as I am and work with an amazing developer) sometimes you'll get out of a meeting and the feature is ready in 20 minutes. It's still worth going back and documenting this with design patterns after the fact. More on this in #2.

2- With only two people, feature and bug tracking software can feel like more trouble than it's worth. There is one important reason to continue doing it: keeping good records. I like Pivotal Tracker, but there are plenty of good options that are free or affordable on almost any budget. Even if a bug was fixed 10 minutes after an email exchange, go back and write the bug up and mark it as cleared. There will come a day when that bug creeps up again and you'll be able to flip the switch that it needs attention again. There will come a day when you want a new hire, contractor, or potential investor to see the evolution of your product. You can continue with emails and note cards, but keep these records even if it feels like a hassle now.

3 - Take testing seriously. If you don't have a QA environment set up, you need to pick out low traffic times and test like your reputation depends on it. It does. Set up a check list for major changes to your product. With every major bug fix and enhancement, run through those same critical actions first, and then obsess over the specific change made. Don't wing it and don't ignore potential collateral damage. The only thing more impressive than two people pumping out an impossibly hard project, is two people pumping out an impossibly hard project that works the first time you use it.

4- If Google Analytics doesn't include your key performance indicators, build those analytics systems in house. We couldn't afford the email analytics packages on the market, so we built them. This initial investment of your time will pay for itself 10x over the lifespan of a project, and will be a pivotal part of your prioritization process for steps 1 and 2.

5- If a live bug is continuously being pushed down the prioritization list, consider nuking the feature all together. If it's not important enough to get fixed after a few release cycles or weeks, just get rid of it. This is true regardless of your team size, but it matters even more when it's just the two of you. There is no one else to pull off a project to give this attention. Your analytics and user feedback will serve as confirmation of this decision.

You're moving so fast with two people that you'll often feel burdened by process. Make sure you're balancing light weight process with good documentation and some semblance of routine. This works for me. How does your two person team pull it off?

Monday - Must make a note of how this all began. I was staring down at the subway tracks, where my broken Blackberry was blinking its last gasps of life. The fifth phone I’ve lost this year. Noticed that as the sound of its clicking keys receded from my brain, a enormous calm came over me. Certainly my employer, one of the few reputable investment banks left in this town, would be happy to replace it. But not sure I really want it back. An enormous energy began welling up in my brain. Realized that what I need is a way to figure out exactly what I was doing in the moments before I dropped, then kicked, my Blackberry under the oncoming A train. Like one of those black boxes they have to on airplanes to record what happened before the crash, but this would be for my own life. Maybe, I found myself thinking, I could create a mobile app to do this. It could be a sort of personal archive, a security system and a social network. Suddenly realize I’m standing on the platform with a massive erection.

Tuesday - Cornered the squirrely looking IT guy who is always standing alone in the smoker’s corner playing with his iPhone. Sidled up and made casual conversation, sports, weather, then mentioned I had an idea for an new app that I thought seemed promising. “Is it a game?” he asked, not bothering to look up from his phone. Felt my temperature rising, but tried to remain calm and explain that it was a mobile, local, social network for users to archive, share and discuss moments of crisis in their lives. “You gonna make it?” he inquired. Took a deep breath and explained that I was looking for someone who knew about computer programming and thought that maybe he could help. He told me about an event happening the next night, Find a Co-Founder, that some friends of his from the start-up world were planning to attend. A rush of excitement comes over me. Must go home and work on a name.

Wednesday - Arrive early to the hip East Village rooftop bar where the Co-Founder event is being held. Took the day off work and purchased new iPhone, Droid Incredible, iPad and Galaxy tab. Joined a dozen social networks and improved my Klout score by six points. Haven’t slept in 36 hours. Read the complete archives of Fred Wilson, Paul Graham and Brad Feld. Experimenting with names for my app. BlackBox.com, Blckbox.me and Box.ly seem like front runners. A group of young, pale men arrives and head to the bar. I sidle up and hit them with my pitch. “I don’t see how you would tie that into daily deals,” says a tall, pimply one. “Do you have a LaunchRock page?” asked a fat, bearded one.  Explain that there is a huge market opportunity here, and recount the story of having to replace my Blackberry five times in a single year. If I could quantify the moments before each phone was lost, I explain, what might I learn about myself? “You have a Blackberry!” says the fat one, laughing. Explain that I’m a executive at a large bank. The group goes silent for minute before the pimply one blurts out, “Are you looking for a co-founder?”

Thursday - Emails are piling up from the office but I ignore them. Stayed out till 4am talking with @wizdev, I think his real name is Derek, the fat one from the bar, who I have taken on as my co-founder. Caught a few hours sleep and woke up to draft my pitch deck. @wizdev is a member of a new-coworking space, Bubble House, and has arranged for us to meet a prominent venture capitalist. According to Derek we should aim for a $500,000 seed round and then, six months down the line, an A round at $5 million pre. Need to get traction among influencers. Thinking @CharlieSheen might have a few moments he would like to review with BlackBox.me. Realized I know his broker and am reaching out for an intro.

Friday - Today is officially my last day as a banker. Have moved into Bubble House and stayed up last night having “idea jam” with my new office/roomates. @wizdev says the our seed round is on Angel List now and that the attention has been “huge”. Hoping to blow out the seed round to maybe $1 million and get the app ready in time to launch at SXSW next year. Fingers crossed that my girlfriend understands why we need to cancel our vacation to St. Barts. Trying to sort out the difference between Ruby and something called Mongoose DB. Considered e-mailing some of my old co-workers from the bank to let them know what I’m up to and ask for some input, but decided they would steal the idea, as our bonuses are not what they used to be. Plus, I haven’t felt this free or excited in years. #winning #byebyebanking #startuplife

Saturday - Disaster! Met with @wizdev’s VC friend, who turned out to be associate, not principle, not partner. He said that his firm has already invested in a similar service which is set to launch later this month. Also turns out Black Box has been trademarked by a daily deal service targeting the African-American surprise birthday market.  Domain names are already taken for BlackBox.com and BlackBox.me, a social network for the BDSM crowd. Told my girlfriend about postponing our trip, she asked why I hadn't been home in days or, apparently, going to to work. Explained about the start-up and quitting the bank. Strangely, she began to cry. Felt a bit strange myself. Left the house for a long jog to collect my thoughts (track my progress on Runkeeper). Decided it's time for a pivot.

Sunday - Woke up this morning to find one of my office mates at Bubble House has “rooted” my Android devices and jailbroken my Apple ones. Claims he was “liberating” them, but I’ve lost my notes from the last week and can’t seem to use either to connect to the web. Had a dream last night: I was wearing roller skates and doing some sort of dance routine. The crowd was chanting, “Pivot, pivot, pivot” and I jumped in the air, spinning around, but didn’t come back to the ground. I floated up through a opening in the roof and soared higher and higher. Woke up and realized the best part of the airplane ride is all the stuff that happens before the crash. Decided to change course and create world’s best flight simulator for tablet. Need to call @wizdev but all my phones are broken. Think I’ll go down to BestBuy and pick up a new Blackberry.