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It’s an exciting time of year for some of Austin’s newest tech startups. On Oct. 15 the 8th annual Innotech Beta Summit came to the Austin Convention Center and brought with it an opportunity for six young companies (or established companies with new products launching soon) to give six-minute presentations to a room filled with 300 tech professionals, bloggers, members of the media, and possible future customers.
The summit’s history is an impressive one, as its past iterations include everyone from Loku, which was later acquired by Groupon, to Spredfast, which recently acquired Mass Relevance in a social media marketing match made in heaven, to Spiceworks, which is now gearing up for its IPO. This year, six interesting companies pitched themselves to industry influencers in rapid-fire demos.
Design ready websites: Clarify
Clarify offers an AV file search platform to users, allowing them to capture media, analyze the data within it and discover actionable insights. In the company’s own plainspeak, “There’s a chasm that needs to be crossed. On one side is the fact of the abundant generation of all this (audio/visual) information… and on the other side is the potential of the world-changing ways developers can use it. To cross the chasm, video and audio must become just as searchable as textual information like web pages and word documents.”
Out-of-office patient tracking: Patient IO
Seeking to modernize the way patients, doctors and caregivers document and keep up with individualized care plans, we have Patient IO, a product of Filament Labs. Its primary goal is to distribute interactive care plans that “empower healthcare professionals to deliver treatment-specific tasks, reminders, and educational content directly to patients’ or their caregivers’ [mobile devices].” Put simply, Patient IO aims to make pamphlets and physicians’ scribbles a thing of the past, instead letting patients and their caregivers use their mobile devices to keep up with care plans in much the same way they do with other elements of daily life, like calendar appointments, personal reminders and alarms.
Easing team communication: Pingboard
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Speaking of calendars, reminders and keeping track of things in general, Pingboard’s HR software solutions focus on helping small-to medium-sized companies manage their offices. Offerings include a company directory, a vacation calendar and an employee database platform, all with a crisp, clean interface helping employees get to know each other and manage expectations with reason, and knowing when colleagues are and aren’t available.
Mobile dating for universities: Thread
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Online dating services are by no means showing any sign of disappearing anytime soon, and Thread, one such service based at UT Austin, seeks to focus solely on college students with an Android and iPhone app. The app presents users with ‘attractive’ classmates and their interests and connect anonymously, when the attraction is mutual a connection is made. Thread’s CEO is Zach Dell, son of Michael Dell.
Facilitating business connections while traveling: WingUp
[ibimage==31925==Medium==none==self==ibimage_align-left]Finally, there’s WingUp. “WingUp Travel app uses your social networks to make smart connections and receive real-time advice. WingUp shows you who you know, should know and could know wherever you go. See who’s in town or ask for instant recommendations on the road.” The app integrates with Trip.it, a trip itinerary organizer, and will launch on Android and iOS soon.
Grocery delivery app: Burpy
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As demand for local grocery delivery grows after early local successes from the likes of Greenling and Instacart, a college-based service has risen to the challenge. Burpy, a UT Longhorn Startup company made up of 5 undergrads, recently graduated from TechStars Austin and will present a demo on the 15th about its delivery app, which is available thus far in Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.
