Entrepreneurs Converge and Create in 7th Annual Kansas City Startup Weekend

This past weekend was the 7^th annual Kansas City Startup Weekend and what a whirlwind it was! For those unfamiliar with the event, it is one of many global Startup Weekend events aimed at empowering entrepreneurs and creating viable, ready-to-launch companies…all within a 48 hour timeframe! Here’s the basic framework:

-          Speakers, mentors and entrepreneurs converge in a shared space

-          The entrepreneurs pitch their ideas

-          The best ideas organically arise via popular consensus

-          Teams are formed around the ideas

-          The next two days are a mad frenzy to create the next big thing!

According the Startup Weekend site, the 11 teams created this year were:

• Gitalytics: Github Analytics
• Pluginy: Specializes in dynamic content optimization and helping non-technical and IT professionals make changes to website content as efficiently as possible.
• Antler Atlas: The first website that allows hunters to upload pictures of their big game trophies and tag them geographically, without giving up the location of their honey-hole!
• Aqualife: Pairs your water bottle to your iPhone to ensure you don't get dehydrated.
• Shopily: Simplifies the retail experience for consumers and provides rich insight into behavior for marketers.
• LittleHootz: The digital scrapbooking app that makes it easy to create, archive and share all the unexpected and hilarious things your kids do and say. 
• Mingle: A digital networking application that makes making the connections you need fast, easy and efficient.
• Open Gardens: Open Gardens connects growers and communities to nurture collaboration and  promote sustainable living.
• All Dogs: Dog breed matching web and mobile app.
• Code Your Own: Website to build your own customized code learning experience. 
• Vidspective: The First-Person Video Marketplace.

Of the 11 teams that participated, the overall winner was LittleHootz. The idea, created and pitched by team leader Lacey Ellis, struck a chord in its potential uses for parents, teachers and other scrapbooking enthusiasts.

Second place went to Aqualife (whose website was down at the time of writing), an app that monitors how much water you’re drinking by syncing with your water bottle. Third place went to Vidspective, an application which will monetize behind-the-scene access.

Code Your Own was awarded crowd favorite, it also striking a chord with its ability to empower novice and professional coders alike by providing a clean, easy-to-use platform that only utilizes what you need.

We celebrate the speed, drive and passion of these entrepreneurs. They are adding to the growing startup economy, and we look forward to seeing what they will do with their newfound notoriety.

Oohly: Buy Products Straight from Your TV

Long gone are the days of waiting. It’s all about instant gratification. If we want an answer to a question, we just Google it. If we want to know what movies our favorite actors star in, we visit IMDB. Shouldn’t our purchasing process be just as fast?

Leawood, Kansas-based startup Oohly seems to think so.

The developers of Oohly have created an app that connects to your TV and streamlines the buying process. Read on to discover the closer-than-ever future of purchasing products from your TV...even those products you see in your favorite television shows. 

About Oohly

You’re watching your favorite TV show—let’s just say it’s Mad Men. You see Betty Draper wearing a stunning red dress and you think to yourself, I want that! Using the Oohly app—and without interrupting your show—you can see what Betty is wearing and where you can purchase it. The app provides links that connect you directly to the retailer so you may buy the dress if you choose.

To learn more about this process, watch this Oohly video:

Oohly Presents - EXTRA GONE WILD! from Oohly on Vimeo.

Why Oohly Reigns Supreme

Kansas-based startup Oohly, featured on Forbes.com and TCMnet.com, is truly the first of its kind. And with half of American viewers using the Internet while watching TV (perhaps they’re purchasing products!), it’s a wonder a startup like this hasn’t come out sooner. Oohly solves many prominent problems within the advertising and marketing world.

Solving the Problem of Product Placement

Commercials are falling by the wayside because viewers simply skip through them thanks to DVR and TiVo.  In order to solve for this, marketers have beefed up television product placement.  To fulfill product placement promises, brands are woven into a TV show’s storyline without the viewers even realizing it.  Other times, when done incorrectly, product placement can feel less organic.  Director David Lynch has nothing but negative things to say about the topic. Many criticize that product placement disrupts the story and is a feeble attempt for replacing commercials.

With Oohly, product placement may be a thing of the past. All product information is embedded in the TV show’s metadata. All you do is select a character and voila! You now have all the information that you’d get from a commercial (and more!). Except now, the viewers are in control!

Governance Issues

Right now it seems that product placement is the only way to get around the DVR issue. Marketers and advertisers are at a loss. Content developers don’t like having to create a storyline about a specific product and viewers don’t like commercials invading their TV shows. Policy makers want disclosure. The Federal Communication Commission thinks the public should know when it’s being influenced by advertisements. The rule states:

"When money or other consideration for the airing of program material has been received by or promised to a station, its employees or others, the station must broadcast full disclosure of that fact at the time of the airing of the material, and identify who provided or promised to provide the consideration."

Oohly bypasses this issue all together. Oohly users choose to seek further information about the product. They aren’t unwittingly sold a product because of sponsorship from a brand—they can choose to get more information (or not)! Wouldn’t it be nice to watch Mad Men without an ad for Gillette in the middle of it?

Oohly isn’t just convenient for consumers and TV viewers.  It’s a necessary step in the streamlined buying process. If this piques your interest, keep your fingers crossed because Oohly is still searching for partners!

And in the meantime, I’ll still be trying to figure out where Betty Draper got that dress...at least until Oohly comes around.