Think Big Accelerator Spotlight: Dwayne Brock of Kansas City Startup Kahootz

How many calendars do you have? If it takes you more than five seconds to answer that question, you’re not alone. Dwayne Brock, CEO and co-founder of Kahootz, along with his wife Annie, had the very same problem.  

With too many calendars to keep track of, the idea of Kahootz, a unifying calendar among many platforms, was born.  The Kansas City-based startup is a consumer-focused online calendar platform that provides users with easier ways to combine, share and manage all obligations and profiles on one easy-to-maintain social-based platform. Kahootz also enables user-controlled, privacy-enabled, permission-based business-to-consumer markets through event promotion syndication.

“It was [Annie’s] idea,” says Dwayne Brock. “She put together the idea for Kahootz, but there wasn’t any business model or revenue producing stream.  That’s where I came in.”

Ever since the realization of their great idea and natural collaboration, Dwayne, a veteran manager of the medical supply and pharmaceutical sales industry, found himself in his first entrepreneurial endeavor to build and create Kahootz.  As he puts it, “I became an entrepreneur by default”.

Through networking and connections, Kahootz came in contact with Think Big Partners and, more specifically, the Think Big Partners Accelerator.

The Think Big Accelerator started its 22-week journey on Tuesday September 25^th, 2012 in order to help six startups launch their businesses faster, better and smarter. The six startups that make up the first accelerator class united from all regions of the U.S.—from Kansas City to New York to Los Angeles.

Each startup in the accelerator has had its own unique experience so far.  In Kahootz’s case, the accelerator process has involved developing and building the web and mobile based platforms for the calendar-centric app. 

In addition to guiding developers and the vision for Kahootz, Dwayne has also continued to work and manage a 16-state medical supply sales and distribution territory.  Dwayne reiterates, “Ultimately, I’d love to make Kahootz my full-time job, and we’re growing at rate where it needs to be. But we’re funding this 100% ourselves so far. Basically, I’m working one to fund the other.”

Though he has been pulling double duty, Dwayne feels that it is all worth it in the end.  “Kahootz brings something to the table that no other calendar platform does.”

Think Big Accelerator in Full Swing in Kansas City

We hit the ground running yesterday with our first Think Big Accelerator class.  The entrepreneurs from New York City, Los Angeles and Kansas City all came together to finally meet one another (as well as Think Big Partners) face-to-face.  The energy was high.  The coffee was plentiful (as was the paperwork).  And the first day of the accelerator seemed to pass by in a blink of an eye.

We are extremely excited to welcome our first accelerator class to the bizperc coworking space, a new office that these startups may start calling "home".  A warm welcome to Keyzio, Kahootz, inCharge, Phone2Action, H2OCloud and WeeJay--the six members of the original Think Big Accelerator class!

These six startups have quite an autumn (and winter) ahead of them.  Think Big Accelerator's 22-week program will truly test these entrepreneurs' strengths and weaknesses and put their big ideas to the test.  With ongoing mentorship, collaboration, startup services, field trips and in-depth discussions and solutions on a weekly basis, we're pretty confident that these six startups will come out stronger, better and more profitable in just 22 weeks.

Accelerator members were invited on a tour of the bizperc coworking space. 

Johnathan Block of H2OCloud (left) and Connor Sweeney of WeeJay (right).

Jeb Ory of Phone2Action. 

Let's just say Day 1 was already quite productive...

Sarah Snyder (left) and Emily Leeper (right) help with accelerator logistics.

Parker Hills of Keyzio (left) goes in-depth with Blake Miller of Think Big Partners (right).

Follow these startups along the accelerator journey.  Stay tuned on our blog for more news and updates about each of these companies and how they're progressing in the Think Big Accelerator! It's going to be a wild ride.

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ANNOUNCING: The Six Startups to Participate in the First Think Big Accelerator Class

We are excited to finally announce the six startups accepted into our first accelerator class, which is to begin on September 25, 2012 at our coworking space, bizperc, in Kansas City, Missouri.

Think Big Accelerator opened its first application window on June 14, 2012 for tech-focused, early-stage startups interested in launching a business faster, smarter and stronger within a Midwest accelerator program.  The accelerator focuses on technology-based businesses with consumer-facing services, software, web services, apps and supportive solutions, to participate in the program.

We have accepted six companies from across the nation to participate in our 22-week accelerator program:

• H2OCloud (New York, New York): H2OCloud is a cloud-based application that connects music fans to bands in a mobile-based platform.  H2OCloud helps bands create more revenue through better marketing, smarter asset management and improve the overall fan experience and artist-fan interaction.
• inCharge (Kansas City, Missouri): inCharge is a kiosk-based mobile phone charging station that provides digital out-of-home targeted advertising to the consumer.  inCharge’s initial focus is high teledensity overseas markets.
• Kahootz (Kansas City, Missouri): Kahootz is a consumer-focused online calendar platform that provides users with easier ways to combine, share and manage all obligations and profiles on one easy-to-maintain social-based platform. Kahootz also enables user-controlled, privacy-enabled, permission-based business-to-consumer markets through event promotion syndication.
• Keyzio (Kansas City, Missouri): Keyzio has been defined as the Match.com for real estate for two people who don’t know they are trying to find each other. The Keyzio platform connects people and helps them find, buy and sell real estate that may not normally be available through MLS.
• Phone2Action (Los Angeles, California): Phone2Action uses location-based mobile technology to instantly connect constituents to their lawmakers making in-the-moment advocacy easier.
• Weejay (Kansas City, MO): Weejay is a virtual jukebox application that allows customers to control music in particular venues through mobile devices. Weejay’s venue management feature dashboard enables total control of music for a specific venue and creates better revenue opportunities for venue owners to enhance the overall patron experience. 

“Once again, we were overwhelmed by both the quality and the quantity of applications we received,” said Think Big Partners co-founder Tyler Prochnow.  “While the quality of their ideas alone were impressive, even more impressive was the quality of the entrepreneurs.  Several of the class participants are repeat founders who have already achieved a high level of success in other ventures.  We are confident that they will add significant value to the formal program we have established.” 

The first Think Big Accelerator class will start its 22-week program on Tuesday, September 25, 2012, capped by a Demo Week in January of 2013.      

Think Big Accelerator typically takes 6-8% equity in participating companies with an $18,000-$24,000 investment.  Additionally, there will be an alternative track for those who are not interested in funding but would like to participate in the accelerator program to receive its benefits. 

"We are especially excited to be able to attract a different type of entrepreneur to Kansas City," said co-founder of Think Big Partners, Herb Sih. "The Think Big Accelerator Program will enable entrepreneurs who could not uproot their lives and move to another city for four months to build and launch companies while still maintaining other life obligations at some level. We took cues from executive MBA programs, combined them with accelerator best practices, then bolted on an innovation factory mentality.” 

To learn more about our Think Big Accelerator, please visit www.thinkbigpartners.com/accelerator.

Follow me! @AllisonThinkBig