AlphaLab News

New App Monitors Your Health Stats And Interprets The Data

Apps are more than fun and games. AlphaLab, a “startup accelerator” based in Pittsburgh, has created “VitalClip,” a small device that plugs into an iPhone and allows users to measure their vital signs to give them a snapshot of their general health and well-being. Plenty of apps that measure your health and wellness are available, but according to CEO Steven Radney, in his explanation on the AlphaLab blog, many “activity monitors only give you information about activity and you have to extract meaning from that yourself.” VitalClip claims to be the first that combines your personal health history with other environmental factors to make it easier for users to understand and regulate their health.

AlphaLab alum NoWait is one of five companies vying for the “Classic” prize at this year’s SXSW Interactive festival, the huge annual Austin, Texas, gathering of music, movie and tech types. As a “classic company” it means they are more than a year old and are up against some big names including Comcast’s XFINITY TV, and Nike’s Nike + GPS. The winner will be announced March 13.

Pittsburgh startup Careerimp, creators of Resunate and online career services tools, has taken ownership of the Regional Internship Center (RIC) of Southwestern, Pa., a move that will give the site an undecided edge as RIC continues to facilitate the demand for career development and internship opportunities in the region.

A year after an undisclosed angel round, Uptown start-up Careerimp Inc. made its first acquisition, taking over the assets of the Regional Internship Center of Southwestern Pennsylvania from the Coro Center for Civic Leadership.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Careerimp, which developed Resunate, a web-based resume improvement tool, intends to maintain the Regional Internship Center’s internship job board, said Mona Abdel-Halim, director of sales and marketing.

Governor Andrew Cuomo has invited a raft of advisors to help him decide where the next billion-dollar package of subsidies, incentives, and investments should get sent in order to change the trajectory of Buffalo. He’ll have UB President Satish Tripathi, Taurus Capital Partners principal Howard Zemsky, and the regional economic development council they chair. He’ll have Bruce Katz of the Brookings Institution, whom Cuomo has known since their days in President Clinton’s Department of Housing and Urban Development. He’ll have the mayor, the county executive, the legislative delegation, and all the economic development agencies that will actually manage the tax breaks, grants, and other handouts. And he’ll have plenty of folks alternatively yelling at and beseeching him from Rochester, Syracuse, Binghamton, and the other communities in Upstate New York that didn’t get a billion-dollar promise in his State of the State address. Withal, there are so many capable, smart and forward-looking people tasked to work on Buffalo’s economic challenge that it seems almost unfair to enumerate the obstacles to their success.

For innovators and entrepreneurs, Pittsburgh can be the perfect place for a soft landing. It’s a real alternative to the west coast, the mecca that beckons tech visionaries wanting to make it big. But for Shoefitr, a start-up company specializing in a proprietary web application for online shoe sales, Pittsburgh is – pardon the phrase – a perfect fit.

Some of the best inventions arise from a very real -- and common -- need. That's exactly how three graduates from Carnegie Mellon University got the idea for their startup. Channel 4 Action News anchor Sally Wiggin shows how it may be the answer to finding the right shoe online.

The Startup America Partnership is Steve Case's private-sector endeavor to spur new job creation in partnership with the Obama administration. On December 8, the Partnership announced that 23 new companies have committed resources to help startups get going. Portfolio.com has compiled a list of the most intriguing new companies and those that have committed the most resources.

‘Tis the Season to give, and that is no exception when it comes to business. But true giving is more than just providing Black Friday deals and special offers to draw customers during the last hurrah of the 4th quarter. Many businesses are taking time out to focus on those in need.

At Reece International, our goal is to provide job training for women in need through World Vision’s Help Women and Girls program. A portion of the proceeds from my coaching sales this month are being given to World Vision with a goal of providing job training for 20 women in need through my 12 Days of Experts Project.

In his inauguration speech, President Obama paid homage to entrepreneurs. The path to greatness, he rhapsodized, has been paved by "the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things--some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom."

Almost three years later, it's clear he was spot on. Entrepreneurship has been one of the precious few bright spots in a terribly gloomy economy, and this new generation of entrepreneurs, both intentional and accidental, has taken it upon themselves to keep things chugging along. At the same time, starting a business gained serious cool cred.

In its ongoing mission to take the hassle out of hiring, The Resumator now has a Facebook app that allows companies to accept applications directly through the social networking site.

It’s part of the company’s plan for more integration with social media, said CEO Don Charlton. The system also works with LinkedIn and that network’s “Apply With LinkIn” program. For those that don’t remember, The Resumator is a software-as-a-service company that created a resume and hiring management tool.

NoWait, creators of a really cool App designed to help eliminate long waits at popular restaurants, are asking their Twitter followers to recommend those they think could use their queue management and mobile marketing solution. As part of their new “Tweet to Eat” sweepstakes, participants also have the chance to win a $50 restaurant gift card for their efforts.

If you’re a small business owner and you’ve been thinking about using social media to help generate leads and drive engagement, there are definitely a few key takeaways from their campaign you should consider.

When President Obama traveled to Pittsburgh last month to meet with his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, entrepreneurship and the potential it has to drive America’s economic revival were on the minds of many. Less than a week after the death of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, the President remarked at the IBEW Training Center in the South Side, “The story of America’s success is written by America’s entrepreneurs; men and women who took a chance on a dream and they turned that dream into a business, and somehow changed the world … that spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation is how we became the world’s leading economic power, and it’s what constantly rejuvenates our economy.”

America’s entrepreneurial success relies on risk-takers who make up their minds to imagine and innovate. The Pittsburgh region has no shortage of such visionaries, and a select group of them call 2325 East Carson Street home – at least for 20 intensive weeks as they fast track the launch of new companies by participating in Innovation Works’ AlphaLab program. AlphaLab provides mentorship, office space and funding to help incubate up to 12 tech start-ups annually. There are two AlphaLab cycles each year. Since its launch in 2008, this tech-accelerator program has incubated 39 companies with 100+ individual entrepreneurs taking part.

John Ganotis, the founder of DeviceKnit, joins us today. His website focuses on content that explains how to combine different hardware and software devices including old devices that may be lying around the house collecting dust. According to DeviceKnit, “John was always tinkering and taking apart electronics throughout his childhood, which piqued his curiosity and inspired him to maximize the potential of the gadgets he purchased by exploring how they could be used together.” I’ll let John himself describe a little bit about how he sees DeviceKnit.

The Pittsburgh Central Keystone Innovation Zone (PCKIZ) awarded $100K to five promising young companies located in the Uptown section of the Greater Hill District.

The grant funds will assist in patent applications, software and personnel expenses, and general development efforts for the following companies:

Last year, the guys at Shoefitr noted a surge in use of their online shoe fitting application on the Monday following Thanksgiving, otherwise known as Cyber Monday for its burst of Internet shopping.

They're not retailers, but the Oakland start-up's team wants to ease the pain of shoe shopping with an application designed to help compare the fit of styles across various brands. And apparently shoppers who discovered the Shoefitr tool on retailers' websites were quick to see the possibilities.

The difference between an employee and an entrepreneur is not the “Why didn’t I think of that?” heard around bar stools and coffee tables worldwide. It’s “Why didn’t I do that?” We all have million dollar ideas, entrepreneurs simply make them happen while everyone else waits for their palm to meet their forehead so they can exasperatedly proclaim that their golden opportunity was swiped away. As my father is fond of saying, “The opportunity of a lifetime comes by every day”. Take Shoefitr for example.

Recently, Sharp Skirts founder Carla Thompson had some harsh words for ForbesWoman on the subject of the intersection of the women-in-business beat and lightweight traditional “women’s interest” stories. She called out a number of recent stories in a post on the Sharp Skirts corporate blog and came to a pretty damning conclusion.

“The ForbesWoman Twitter profile descriptor is ‘a magazine and Web site for career-minded women who mean business.’ So why are they writing about naughty Halloween costumes? Or our breeding and shopping habits? I increasingly feel like I’m reading a copy of Look magazine, circa 1957.”

Corissa always loved making jewelry. But it was an expensive and time consuming hobby. To make anything, she had to buy beads and other materials and then sit for hours to figure out designs that would work. She hit on the idea of designing jewelry online, and searched for sites where she could do it herself. But she couldn’t find any sites that offered this.

When she realized that that she probably shared this problem with millions of others who are involved in the do-it-yourself jewelry market, she realized she had a new venture opportunity on her hands. With her degree from the Art Institute in Pittsburgh, Corissa (and her husband Nick McClay) had the skills to build such a site. And MakerCraft was born!

As Y Combinator is to Silicon Valley early-stage entrepreneurs, so is AlphaLab to Pittsburgh. We have a thriving early-stage entrepreneurial community, due in no small part to our local startup accelerator.

AlphaLab provides $25,000 in seed funding and entrepreneurial mentorship to 12 startup companies per year in two cycles. Twice a year, Demo Day showcases these startup prodigies.

As Y Combinator is to Silicon Valley early-stage entrepreneurs, so is AlphaLab to Pittsburgh. We have a thriving early-stage entrepreneurial community, due in no small part to startup accelerator, AlphaLab.

AlphaLab provides $25,000 in seed funding and entrepreneurial mentorship to 12 startup companies per year in two cycles. Twice a year, Demo Day showcases these startup prodigies.

CPP, Inc. (CPP.com), an industry leader in research, training, and organizational development tools including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) assessment, and Careerimp, Inc., makers of innovative web based resume building and screening software Resunate (Resunate.com), today announced the two companies have partnered to integrate information from the Myers-Briggs® tool into Resunate's resume optimization technology, helping applicants gain insight into fit and personality compatibility of jobs for which they are applying.

Getting his first look as a journalist what makes Pittsburgh a Top Americas “City of the Future” (ranked as such this April by Foreign Direct Investment – or fDi – a publication of the Financial Times) was Michal Kaczmarski, who recently moved from his native Poland to London to join fDi’s staff as senior reporter/markets editor. Kaczmarski was in Pittsburgh from Oct. 15 – 19, hosted by the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, the marketing affiliate of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development.

The PRA planned a robust agenda for Kaczmarski’s time in Pittsburgh and introduced him to a number of companies, organizations and individuals that are defining Pittsburgh as a true “city of future.” Among those were Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center and ETC spin-out companies; Google Pittsburgh; Innovation Works and its AlphaLab young entrepreneurs; robotics company RE2; Precision Therapeutics; the Center for Connected Medicine; SnapRetail; and CareerImp, both of which are affiliated with the Pittsburgh Technology Council; AquaTech; and SEEGRID.

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Shoefitr, an early-stage technology company that helps online shoe shoppers find the right fit, has received $1.2 million in funding from Maryland-based Vital Financial LLC and Pittsburgh investor network BlueTree Allied Angels. Innovation Works, a seed-stage investor in Pittsburgh-area startups, also participated in the round.
Shoefitr has been growing steadily since spinning out of Carnegie Mellon University and 'graduating' from AlphaLab, one of the country's top accelerator programs which is run by Innovation Works.

"This investment will allow us to accelerate our momentum," said Shoefitr CEO Matt Wilkinson. "We currently have a number of great customers and partnerships with shoe manufacturers such as New Balance, Saucony, Brooks and other top brands. In fact, we're on-site right now implementing several new customers. This round of funding will help us get the message out about our offering to more potential customers and partners. We are just scratching the surface with what kind of virtual fitting implementations we can offer consumers and this funding will help us achieve our full capability."

AlphaLab alumni company Shoefitr has reached a new milestone in its growth closing on a $1.2 million series A funding round.

Investors were Wexford-based investor network BlueTree Allied Angels which put in $500,000; Maryland-based Vital Financial LLC for another $500,000; and early stage investor Innovation Works for $225,000. Of the Innovation Works money, $25,000 of it was from the company’s involvement in that group’s startup accelerator AlphaLab.

You’ve got a game changing, teeth rattling idea. You’ve come up with the perfect name for your business. You think you’ve got everything covered. And that’s when you realize you need a logo.

You could contact local advertising agencies but there’s a pretty good chance you won’t be able to afford them. You could try freelancers but that would mean you’d have to sift through dozens (if not hundreds) of designers before you finding the one you want. You could design the logo yourself but, since you aren’t a designer, that’s probably not such a good idea.

How can you create a logo that doesn’t suck? The folks at 8020select.com, a new company launched out of AlphaLab, Pittsburgh's Startup Accelerator, might have just the solution.

A global B2B tracking platform for small to medium businesses. A life sciences tool kit to get breakthrough drugs to market faster. Crowd-sourced graphic designs and couriers. A mobile health solution to help people better manage diabetes.

This is just a sampling of the 12 startup companies that presented during the AlphaLab Demo Day and i6 Preview, an event that has grown in size (and audience) to include up-and-coming entrepreneurs in the i6 Innovation System.

Yesterday in Pittsburgh, Innovation Works’ AlphaLab startup accelerator program launched another 6 companies at its demo day. Twice a year, up to 6 promising companies are selected to participate in the 20 week program. The current group of companies has been at it since June and have worked with mentors, advisors, and the Innovation Works team to develop their business models and plans.

AlphaLab has been in operation since 2008 and has invested in 39 companies with over 100 participating entrepreneurs. AlphaLab has been recognized as one of the top accelerators in the U.S. and joined the TechStars Network as a charter member earlier this year.

Tuesday was not only the unveiling of AlphaLab's latest startups it was also peek at companies developing at Carnegie Mellon University. Through a partnership between Innovation Works and CMU and funded by the feds, the i6 program has been working with startups to help them commercialize ideas born out of the university and its students.

Six of these companies presented to the crowd gathered for Demo Day. Click through the pictures to the right to see the new companies.

Tech CEOs stepping to the stage for Innovation Works' AlphaLab Demo Day and the i6 Agile Innovation System Preview on Tuesday had about five minutes to sell complex technologies to an audience of potential investors and partners.

With time short, many sped through jargon-filled PowerPoint presentations and grainy video endorsements to cut to the heart of the matter: how their products can help to revolutionize an industry or improve daily life on an individual basis.

After 20 weeks of work the six startups in the AlphaLab program had their game faces on for Demo Day.

The program is the culmination of the accelerator program that is run by seed-stage investment group Innovation Works. The companies have been toiling away on the South Side to not only put business plans in place but to finish products and secure customers.

On October 11, 2011, the President's Coucil on Jobs and Competitiveness traveled to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to participate in a roundtable discussion with members of the city's entrepreneurial community.

Richard Lunak, President & CEO of Innovation Works, reflects on the discussion focused on ways to improve the success of high growth companies.

Technology companies across the U.S. are taking on more capital.

More than $6.95 billion was invested in 876 technology companies nationwide by a combination of venture capital firms, private equity or angel investors and economic development entities. That compares to 850 receiving $5.3 billion a year ago, according to the MoneyTree Report, released Wednesday by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data provided by Thomson Reuters . For the first nine months of 2011, more than $21.2 billion has been pumped into 2,725 companies, up from 2,648 receiving $17.68 billion for the comparable period in 2010.

Hooman Radfar says entrepreneurs need three things to succeed: persistence, persistence, persistence. “The world of entrepreneurship is a world of no’s. No, I don’t want to invest. No, I don’t want to buy your product. No, you can’t do it,” says the founder of Clearspring. “The most successful entrepreneurs I have met face the word ‘no’ with courage. Instead of stopping, they try to learn from the experience and improve their pitch, product, or – frankly – approach to business.” He says it’s that persistence in the face of adversity, that willingness to continue to stretch and learn, that separates the good from the great.

Finding qualified talent just got a whole lot easier…and cheaper. On Monday, Pittsburgh-based software startup, Resunate, launched APPLY, a free Web-based tool designed specifically for small businesses to help them attract the right candidates for their open positions.

“Over the past six months, we’ve been working on a product to help small companies find the right talent,” Ayan Kishore, CEO and co-founder of Resunate, explained. “APPLY is a widget that any company can use on their website.

There is a lot of focus on the notion of being a lean startup in the Pittsburgh software and Web startup community, meaning focus on cost control, building a product quickly and getting to market, securing early customers and then turning out updates based on customer feedback.

With that in mind I caught up with John Ganotis, founder and CEO of DeviceKnit, a Website to help consumers figure out ways to re-use or connect the gadgets we all have lying around.

There's a few things you ladies can do when you are hunting for a necklace to match a new outfit.

1. You can rifle through your jewelry box searching for the necklace that you bought that one time way-back-when for Tim's brother's friend's babydaddy's twice-removed-cousin's wedding only to find it hopelessly knotted up with various other necklaces and chains in such a remarkable fashion that not even a sailor could untie them, at which point you grab the mangled mass of jewelry and whip it angrily into the garbage. Not that I've ever done that. Ahem.

2. You can choose a necklace from the store that sort of matches your outfit, even though it's not exactly what you were hoping to find.

3. Use the new iPad app created right here in Pittsburgh by Pittsburghers: MakerCraft!

There were more ties than normal at AlphaLab Tuesday morning.

The typically casual startup accelerator kicked it up a notch for a meeting with members of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. With the likes of Steve Case in attendance and other members of the administration, needless to say it was more formal than usual.

There may have been important people in the room, but there was still work to be done at AlphaLab’s startups and developers at MakerCraft and VitalClip were hard at work while the meeting was going on.

Since we last checked in with Uptown-based startup NoWait the company had about 10 restaurants using its customer management platform and was participating in a Michigan business pitch competition. Since then, a lot has happened.

I caught up with CEO Robb Myer last week at AlphaLab for Open Coffee. Since April the team has been busy securing more than 30 restaurant customers and going international with a pizzeria customer north of the border. The company, which is an AlphaLab alum, is in trials with some large chains and if those turn to sales, “it could be really big,” Myer said, without going into more detail.

Co-founders of LeftRight Studios Geraldine Yong and Khang Toh were looking for a way to honor the memory of Apple Inc.'s Steve Jobs, since if it wasn’t for the products he envisioned and created, the Pittsburgh-based mobile gaming company wouldn’t exist.

The studio, which just a few weeks ago launched a mobile gaming platform, MogiMe, for iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads, started as an AlphaLab company that made iPhone games. To remember Jobs and the influence he had on them, the LeftRight team created a group of virtual products that users of MogiMe can download and use to dress their avatars like Jobs in his now iconic black mock turtleneck.

It was another morning fueled by caffeine and filled with good conversation over at AlphaLab, and today's Open Coffee Club gave me a chance to catch up with MakerCraft, one of the current crop of startups at the accelerator.

When we last spoke to company co-founder Corissa McClay, the team was still doing focus groups and working on the app, which allows users to easily make custom jewelry and then easily purchase it. Those who are craft-inclined can buy a kit and assemble their design on their own, or, if you're like me, you can buy pieces and have the company assemble them.

So we’ve been hearing rumblings for weeks that President Barack Obama would be making another visit to Pittsburgh, and today the details appear to be firmed up. He’ll be on the South Side at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local No. 5 for a meeting of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness Oct. 11.

The meeting will follow a citywide blitz of members of the council, who will be holding “listening and action sessions” at different locations. South Side accelerator AlphaLab will be one of these sites, according to the White House.

To launch a new company in Pittsburgh, sometimes all it took was Steve Jobs on stage in California with a new Apple product in his hand.

The tech giant has a small office on Carnegie Mellon's campus, an Apple store in Shadyside and other retail spots in suburban malls. But the greater regional effect of the death of Mr. Jobs -- Apple's co-founder, visionary and most recognized brand -- was in the tech firms and moonlighting projects that exist only because of products that the digital demigod helped create.

Carnegie Mellon spinoff RhoMania of Shadyside built an app for Apple's iPad tablet to help users find the perfect wine pairing. VitalClip, a startup enrolled in the Innovation Works AlphaLab incubating program on the South Side, has built an accessory for Apple's iPhone that monitors vital signs. Shadyside-based Wizzard Software, one of the few publicly traded tech firms in the region, works in the podcast market -- a medium practically born from Apple's iTunes audio store.

WHAT: An iPad app for casual-dining restaurants to manage seating. Restaurant hosts or hostesses put the customer's phone number in the app and notify the guest via text message when a table is available.

Customers are free to leave the restaurant until they are notified, at which point they can cancel their table or tell the restaurant (also by text message) they will be there soon.

Restaurants can also use the system to send thank-you messages to the guest and invite them to join reward-type programs by texting a response. The restaurant does not retain customer phone numbers unless customers opt-in to their programs. Restaurants can connect multiple devices to the platform, including their iPhones.

Apple cofounder Steve Jobs' passing Wednesday will be felt keenly in Pittsburgh, where his influence and revolutionary thinking sparked a burgeoning high-tech industry.

Jobs will be remembered as the larger-than-life visionary whose efforts helped create and recreate the home computer in the 1970s and 1980s, started NeXT Computer and turned Pixar into a force in the movie business before creating the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

"It's a huge loss to the technology industry," said Sean Ammirati, COO of ReadWriteWeb and a leading light in the Pittsburgh tech industry.

Since we last checked in with South Side-based LeftRight Studios, a lot has happened for the AlphaLab alum.

The company, which started as a branded mobile gaming design house, has publicly released its mobile gaming platform and with it is introducing a name change.

The platform and the company are now going by the moniker MogiMe.

By the time NoWait CEO Robb Meyer made his way to PNC Park on Wednesday for the 3 Rivers Venture Fair, he was on his third attempt to woo investors in three cities over two days.

He flew to Pittsburgh shortly after presenting the company's app -- which helps restaurants reach patrons via text message -- to an angel investors group in New York. Mr. Meyer said meeting investors face-to-face during a time when funds available for startups seemed to be drying up was more than worth the two-day frantic rush.

People do things for non-obvious reasons. Careerimp is an example of a for-profit company that grew from roots in the non-profit social innovation world. The company’s CEO and founder, Ayan Kishore, went from trying to tackle some of the world’s greatest labor issues as a non-profit initiative to solving a simple and prevalent problem – the lack of technology to help job seekers in the tedious process of applying for jobs. Oh, there is lots of competition providing solutions, but they all focus on the employer. True to his roots of cheering for the small guy who is unemployed and in need of help, Ayan wanted to use his technical prowess to help those that need help the most – people seeking jobs.

For the would-be entrepreneurs out there, applications are now being accepted for the winter/spring cycle of AlphaLab.

The South Side startup accelerator accepts up to six teams twice a year to participate in the program. Over a 20-week period the teams form companies, get a crash course in entrepreneurship, and ready products/services for market all leading up to Demo Day when the teams pitch to investors.

Bored on the Metro during rush hour, sitting around at the dentist, or while waiting to meet a friend? Here’s a fun twist on a mobile app that will keep you occupied: MakerCraft Jewelry lets you select from a collection of beads and charms and drag and drop them to create a personal jewelry design. You can order it pre-assembled, or as a DIY kit with custom instructions.

Corissa McClay had two passions as a young girl: working with computers and making her own jewelry.

As an adult, McClay is combining those two diverse passions to create MakerCraft, a startup business she hopes will one day help customers design and customize their own jewelry via a mobile app.

McClay’s startup is one of six currently housed at AlphaLab, a business accelerator program located in Pittsburgh that is part of Innovation Works (IW). The mission of IW is to drive economic development in Southwestern Pennsylvania through direct investments, business expertise and hands-on support.

If you don't own a smart phone, you might be wondering why those small black and white squares are appearing on everything from billboards to business cards.

However, those who own the latest Droid or iPhone may know that those squares are a code for fast facts.

A pair of locally grown events promotion websites are headed into beta testing with wider launches of their services each company said this week.

First up is Wawadoo, an AlphaLab alumni company, that is an events recommendation engine meant to answer the question: What do you want to do? With the beta test the company is looking for feedback on design and functionality. Once a user registers for the site the system will feed in events based on user preferences. That part of the company’s model has been discussed here in the past. Remember Demo Day?

You’ve heard of infrastructure as a service, platform as a service, and software as a service. BlackLocus, a venture-backed company with operations in Austin, Texas and Pittsburgh, Pa., adds something else to the mix: pricing as a service. The offering is geared toward online retailers: BlackLocus’ service analyzes price competition for a merchant’s wares. The company says the resulting insight into the competitive landscape helps online stores optimize pricing and rank favorably in price comparisons.

This week we have been looking at some of the unusual names given to Pittsburgh tech companies and the reasoning behind the selections. For some, it was the need for a URL. For others, it was based on who the end user would be, and, in other cases, it was what sounded right and reflected a certain amount of fun.

If done right, a name can become ubiquitous and even a verb — just ask Google.

When Burgatory opened at the Waterworks Mall in January, the restaurant's staff used clipboards to track who needed a table. But the new burger place was slammed, with waits at some points stretching past two hours. "We knew immediately that we needed help," said co-owner Mike Hanley.

Within weeks, the restaurant switched to iPads connected to a system developed by a South Side company that could send texts to customers' cell phones when their table was ready, a change that allows would-be diners to shop or get other chores done instead of being trapped in a line at the restaurant door.

Sometimes inspiration for a name hits in unexpected places. Like on the drive to Red Robin.

It was on such a drive that The Resumator founder and CEO Don Charlton and his wife were throwing out potential name and tag line suggestions for the business idea Charlton was mulling.

Not even the stifling heat this morning could curtail the good conversation and networking to be had over at AlphaLab’s open coffee.

The South Side accelerator opens its doors regularly for some the region's tech types and entrepreneurs and this time around it was also the first introduction of the latest class of start-ups. The teams all have a pitch down and vision, but it’s still early and changes may be in store but here is a preview of it thus far.

Hobbyists may have provided the first demand for 3-D printing, but while DIY enthusiasts were creating online communities to make their own action figures and knickknacks out of plastic, industrial manufacturers were discovering how new materials and techniques in 3-D printing could change the way they make commercial products.

PITTSBURGH -- Many people love new gadgets, and some of the latest inventions are being made right in Pittsburgh.

Flat screens and smart phones are one thing, but Channel 4 Action News anchor Andrew Stockey found some even more cutting-edge ideas.

Some of the things that are on the horizon include the world's first practical jetpack. The Martin jetpack is a recreational vehicle, turning the fantasy of flight into reality.

The region’s tech innovators took center stage on the evening of June 20th when journalists from The Daily Beast, Popular Science, Federal Times, iPad news source TheDaily.com and NBC’s Atlanta affiliate traveled to Pittsburgh to learn firsthand about some of the city’s unique IT and digital technology companies. Held at the headquarters of Net Health Systems in the Strip District, the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance’s Information Technology & Digital Innovation Mixer provided these national journalists — in town for Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) annual InfoTech Media Fellowship — with an opportunity to get up close and personal with some of the enormous tech talent in our region.

Businesses can get almost anything they need "as a service" these days. Platform as a service (PaaS), software as a service (SaaS), mobility as a service (MaaS). A company called Black Locus out of Carnegie Mellon University has developed a service for automated pricing optimization and revenue management solutions for online retailrs. They are calling it pricing as a service (PraaS?).

BlackLocus is attempting to deploy advanced machine learning and revenue management techniques in a cloud-based service that would give small and medium businesses the same types pricing knowledge and advantages that industry leaders like Amazon deploy. Competitive product pricing for long-tail merchants online is a difficult goal to accomplish. Black Locus attempts to take the guesswork out of the process.

GenevaMars is a local startup creating interactive educational cartoons for iOS and Android platforms. We’re currently looking for an experienced Unity3D game programming whiz to join our team as a partner. Expert knowledge of programming for iOS and Android is also highly desirable. The following skills are huge pluses: web development, 3D modeling.

In today’s print edition we told you about the $2.5 million series A raised by Oakland (at least for now)-based BlackLocus. One of the Texas venture capital firms involved in the deal— he called too late to be included in the print story, but I am never one to pass up an interview opportunity — took some time to tell us what it was about the company that caught their attention.

First of all, Morgan Flager, partner at Silverton Partners, said the firm was intrigued by the growth trends seen in e-commerce, especially in the small- to mid-sized specialty merchants — just the companies BlackLocus is targeting.

You’re a runner and you hate going shopping for new running shoes. You have done your research and decided to try a brand of running shoe that you have never tried before. The best price is usually online so, that is the route you decide to purchase your new running shoes.

Here is the problem. You wear a size 10 in your current brand and model of running shoes, but will you be a size 10 in the new brand?

A podcast of CareerImp’s interview on TechVibe Radio 104.7 FM News Talk is ready for your listening pleasure along with interviews with SmartSolution Technologies and some awesome SEO tips from Catalyst Connection.

Finding a running shoe that fits perfectly can often be a time consuming task. All the more frustrating, then, when that favorite pair of shoes eventually wears out, particularly since 40 percent of the time, shoe sizes are not equivalent across different brands and models. Hoping to ease the burden of having to find replacements for worn shoes that have now been discontinued, Shoefitr recommends footwear based on the style and fit of an owner’s most recent running shoes.

If you want to do something, then Wawadoo's personalized content site for events in the region may be the ticket. The site provides information on concerts, art galleries, universities, zoos, restaurants, all types of activities on any day of the week or year. And it's Pittsburgh centric.

The gang at GenevaMars LLC are settling into various new digs, either home offices or with CEO Charles Kim at the Project Olympus incubator space in Oakland, and getting started on the next installment of their children’s app Zachy the Robot.

The first episode of the company’s educational interactive show hit the App Store June 8 and so far there have been hundreds of downloads and at least one blog review, Kim said. The company is awaiting more reviews and the traffic spikes that accompany the buzz.

The "Pandora of wine", Rhomania is starting a company that seeks to enable anyone to be a wine pro by creating a database of personal preferences:

RhoMania seeks to strip through much of the pretentiousness surrounding wine and educate wine amateurs and enthusiasts alike about what they really enjoy about wine. Through tastings designed by statisticians Mike Finegold and Andrew Thomas, RhoMania is collecting the vital data necessary to develop algorithms that will give wine consumers an easy way to choose a good wine.

Zachy the Robot – Episode 1: The Leaning Tower of Robocity ($1.99) by GenevaMars, LLC is the first installment of Zachy the Robot and his friends, the Ultimate Repairbots.

The animated characters teach the concept of structural support, especially in buildings. There is even a song or two along the way to provide some review of the concepts. This app is similar to the Brainpop apps, but surpasses them by adding an interactivity component.

If a recommendation to friends is the best promotion a customer can offer a business, then customers should be rewarded for sharing their praises.

That's the philosophy behind Devotee, a mobile application launched by Duquesne University graduates Matt French and Kevin Holesh that uses social media to encourage and incentivize consumer loyalty at small, local restaurants

GenevaMars claims to want to become “Disney for Touch Screens.” To pursue this they have put together what seems to be a very elite team; an MBA with TV and Film experience, a CMO with an MBA, and an MFA to write the scripts. The team is about to release their first product, an animated cartoon that teaches while it entertains kids. Zachy the Robot will go through a number of adventures while trying to save Robot City. GenevaMars has positioned its primary product at the front of at least two revolutionary new trends:

Gamification was the word of the evening Wednesday at discussion hosted by Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center.

The term, for those that have managed to avoid it, refers to the growing popularity of incorporating game mechanics into activities, whether its badges earned through check-ins on applications like Foursquare, or other points based rewards programs or even social gaming like FarmVille.

Have you ever visited Zappos.com? Or any clothing buying site? I love to shop online, but I shop for books, or electronics, or household items. Why? Because a book is a book is a book is a book. If I order Penguin’s “Jane Eyre,” I know exactly what I will get. But clothes or shoes? There are two barriers for me to shopping for clothes online. One is the fit. Years of experience in department stores has taught me that what looks great on the mannequin or on the hanger might look hideous on me. With shoes, it’s all about the fit.

AlphaLab company The Resumator raised $700,000 toward its web-based social recruiting and resume-tracking tools. The round was led by Rincon Venture Partners with assistance from Innovation Works.

In a series of frequently-aired Microsoft commercials, all sorts of people -- a bored couple in an airport, a multitasking businessman in a coffee shop, a frustrated mother trying to take a decent family picture -- solve their life problems by going "to the cloud."

Amazon and Google recently launched their own clouds for consumers. Apple is expected to announce plans for its iCloud today.

Which all leads to the question: What is a cloud? And should we all be going there?

The real genius behind Rhomania is that the idea doesn’t require much genius. Co-Founders Darren Olson and Kevin McEachern simply found a big money problem they could solve and solved it. The problem: a simple wine list doesn’t make people want to order more expensive (and, for the restaurant, more profitable) wines. We all know this, when we look at a long wine list we tend to find a type we like (e.g. Chardonay) and order one of the cheaper ones. This isn’t necessarily because we can’t afford or wouldn’t pay for a more expensive bottle, but because we don’t know enough about them to determine whether they justify the excess price. That means that the very high margin, high cost bottle that the restaurant has had in stock for a year stays on the shelf (even though we would have loved it) and we’re drinking a very mediocre low profit bottle.

Cloudfab is one of the services that have popped up to give creators and inventors a low-cost way to create a small run of items, turning 3-D files into products on-demand. The company can print one prototype or thousands for a production run, including this robot exoskeleton prototype Cloudfab built for DARPA for an educational robot in the Smithsonian. "The future we want to make is where all those ideas everyone has, whether kitchen-ware or lab-ware, are able to be produced from a prototype to full mass production," CEO Nick Pinkston says.

"Good ideas are common," the aptly named British humorist Ashleigh Brilliant once said. "What's uncommon are people who'll work hard enough to bring them about."

Thank goodness, then, for the entrepreneurs on our annual list of 100 Brilliant Companies, who have coupled genius and execution to fantastic -- and, in many cases, fantastically lucrative -- ends. We picked 10 areas, some that have been booming for years (mobile tech, seniors) and some that are just now hitting their stride (social shopping, startup-to-startup), and spotlighted some of the most innovative and inspiring companies in each. The brilliance runs the gamut, from a deal site aggregator recognizing a void in a crowded sector to a service that simplifies the notoriously difficult process of creating an app.

An hour's wait at BRGR in East Liberty now can be spent without all the, well, waiting.

The popular East End gourmet burger bar is one of 13 businesses using the services of NoWait, a startup company on the South Side that specializes in helping casual-dining restaurants better manage waiting lists through a cloud-based technology and text messages on cell or smartphones.

It’s a tough job market out there, but there are companies still looking for talented people.

And there is one local start-up that wants to help you find that job.

BancVue, the leading provider of innovative products, dynamic marketing, and data-driven consulting solutions to nearly 1,300 community banks and credit unions around the country, today announced the firm was named a “Best of Show” winner at the FinovateSpring 2011 Conference.

It took about four hours for 15 companies to ask for $23.2 million.

They might just get it, too.

After all, last year a group of companies with similar provenances (assistance from Innovation Works) raised $193 million in funding. That money, which is known as follow-on funding, came from venture capital firms, angel investors, corporations, the federal government, commercial lenders and state and economic development agencies.

So this morning there was another installment of the Open Coffee Club — Pittsburgh, tech-centric networking that is usually hosted at the AlphaLab incubator on East Carson Street. As with previous events, there was a good crowd, if a little thinner than the previous coffee clubs, but with Demo Day and the Innovation Works annual meeting earlier this week, my guess is a lot of people were either on networking overload or had work to catch up on.

In Pittsburgh yesterday, AlphaLab, the three year old startup accelerator program which is part of Innovation Works, one of the most active seed-stage investors in the country, hosted their annual demo day launching five new startups. Innovation Works has created such successes as ModCloth which has raised $19.8 million in funding and mSpoke which was acquired by LinkedIn. AlphaLab was ranked 15th in our USA Startup Accelerator rankings and earlier this year they became part of the TechStars Network.

For those who have been wondering why there is not a simple online system that shows events and places to visit based on an individual's likes and dislikes, Wawadoo is the solution.

The startup website compares events with the "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" ratings of users to provide relevant recommendations based on the question: What do you want to do?

It’s Demo Day for AlphaLab companies, the culmination of 20 weeks of work feverishly developing and honing ideas into what they hope will be the next “it” start-up.

Shoefitr allows you to find a shoe that is similar in size and shape to a pair of shoes you already own. For example, say you’re into Nike Free Runs but they discontinued the model you like. You tell Shoefitr and, using the site’s 3D scanning system and shoe database, it finds a pair that matches the size and shape of the shoe you like. The 3D scanning system is based on the same systems used to scan feet for orthotics.

Pittsburgh-based The Resumator, which aims to “take the hassle out of hiring”, has secured $700,000 in funding led by Rincon Venture Partners, with Paige Craig, ff Venture Capital and Christopher Muenchhoff participating.

The Resumator is a graduate of the May 2009 AlphaLab program, a startup accelerator program run by seed stage investor Innovation Works, which also participated in the round.

Apps + loyalty rewards = Devotee.

By marrying social media and mobile apps with a rewards program, recent Duquesne University graduate Matt French and current student Kevin Holesh have shaped careers for themselves.

The folks over at AlphaLab are celebrating another feather in their cap, with the South Side incubator making a list of the top 15 U.S. start-up accelerators as ranked by Kauffman Fellow Aziz Gilani, which worked with the blog Tech Cocktail and the Kellogg Graduate School of Management on the project.

Contegix, a managed hosting and Internet infrastructure company, today announced NoWait as the winner of the Start-up, Boot-up^TM competition. NoWait, a cloud-based seating management service for restaurants, is one of dozens of start-up companies that were vying for the more than $75,000 in “Enterprize” technology tools and office space. The Start-Up, Boot-Up competition was created out of Contegix’s passion for entrepreneurship and the company’s knowledge of the unique challenges in starting a technology business.

The wait to get into Village Whiskey has been a bit legendary since its opening in 2009. Three-hour waits on Friday nights aren’t uncommon and the smug denial of the hostesses have rankled more than a few.

Now there’s an app to help with that wait. Pittsburgh based NoWait helps hosts and hostesses manage the wait list using text notifications to alert guests that their table is ready.

There are a number of startup accelerator and incubator programs in the United States. We are fans of these programs (not to be confused with pure co-working spaces) as they offer entrepreneurs a way to spend a few months laser focused on a single idea. Through the accelerator or incubator they receive mentoring, guidance and a small amount of funding in return for a small stake in the company. With all the startup accelerator programs popping up across the country we were curious to find out which programs would offer the biggest bang for the time, money and effort spent in the program.

The Resumator, a North Shore-based start-up whose software helps subscribers promote their job postings and manage resumes, has closed on a $700,000 funding round, marking its first investment from outside the Pittsburgh region.

Sending a job application into the digital cloud can batter the best of resumes, a dilemma that one startup hopes to resolve.

With so many job seekers on the hunt, employers are resorting to applicant tracking systems (ATSs) that automate the resume screening process, explains Mona Abdel-Halim, co-founder. Some applications use semantic technology to rank candidates based on the relevance of their experience. Careerimp's platform, Resunate, applies "Semantic Intelligence" by matching job experiences against job descriptions to create a smarter resume.

Who has bought shoes online that turned out to be the wrong fit? About one in every three customers, according to field surveys. Returns of the ill-fitting shoes create customer frustration, spew additional carbon dioxide (approximately 8,500 tons) into the atmosphere, and cost retailers more than $600 million in 2008 alone.

Enter Shoefitr, an online shoe-fitting startup created by three Carnegie Mellon alumni: Nick End, CIT’06; Breck Fresen, SCS’09; and Matt Wilkinson, CIT’06.

Resunate is a web app that helps job seekers create resumes that attract the attention of recruiters.

Creating a perfect resume that highlights all your qualifications is no easy task. There is a very good chance that all us of have gone through that ordeal at least once in our career. The resume templates available at Resunate were created by decision makers – employers and career coaches who read a lot of resumes everyday.

A pair of Pittsburgh start-ups with both AlphaLab and Carnegie Mellon University ties walked away with funding after competing in the Rice University Business Plan Competition last weekend.

If you’ve ever applied to a job, you’ve had to submit a resume. It’s an annoying yet necessary step in the job application process. But, as the first representation of your skills, it can often have the most bearing on whether you’re called for an interview or not.

To combat this painstaking task, and even make it enjoyable, a local startup called Careerimp has launched a new web application called Resunate that is turning your resume into a real competitive advantage.

Everyone refers to my home city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as the “Steel City.” This nickname paints an image of glowing steel mills busily cranking out America’s infrastructure. It’s true that Pittsburgh deserves much credit for helping build our skylines and railroads during the industrial boom, but behind our contemporary nickname is a hidden, dirty little secret: We don’t produce much steel anymore.

Pittsburgh entrepreneurs looking for legal advice are getting help through two programs that are initiating a collaborative legal model for growing companies in the region.

Innovation Works' is offering AlphaLab companies legal services through a new program called AlphaLaw, which partners the legal services of Cohen & Grigby with the AL startups, helping them surmount legal obstacles that might otherwise slow early company growth.

In a rambling two-story loft on the South Side, Paul Fireman is changing the way major publishers sell their books to readers.

We all know one main problem with getting your shoes from a website is: the fit. Different brands fit differently, and you never quite know how the shoes will fit until they arrive at your doorstep. In fact, one in three shoes purchased online get returned. That’s not only frustrating for you, but also for the company selling them. Well, ShoeFitr.com is designed just for that problem!! To help you find the right NEW shoes, the site first asks you about your OLD shoes: what brand and size they are. Then, Shoefitr recommends a replacement shoe, and it’s confident it will fit you the first time. That’s because Shoefitr uses a 3D scanner to measure the insides of hundreds of shoes. Right now, you can only use Shoefitr at the Running Warehouse.

Over a series of lunches late last year, David Kalson, a Downtown attorney, and Jim Jen, director of AlphaLab, a South Side incubator for technology startups, tried to figure out the reasons for the gap between promising business ideas and thriving commercial enterprises.

Among their theories: Good legal advice and services are costs that fledgling startups typically can't afford.

Buying shoes over the web is rather like running your first marathon: painful.

The problem with buying shoes (or any kind of clothing) online is that you can't be certain that they will fit.

The result is a lot of trial-and-error, and millions of dollars spent every year shipping returned goods (and their replacements) between buyer and seller. There has to be a better way, and there is. It's called Shoefitr.

This past weekend I was on the judging panel for SuperConf where nine startups were presenting and one company completely blew me away. As I watched Matt Wilkinson demonstrate ShoeFitr my jaw hit the floor.

Nick Pinkston of Squirrel Hill believes 2011 will be the year for his online custom manufacturing venture, CloudFab.com.

His company allows customers to use three-dimensional printing technology to design customized parts online, have them manufactured and shipped.

Tim Kern and Chris Allen like to think they might be onto the Internet's next big thing.

They've cornered the market on quirky names with Wawadoo, short for "What do you want to do?" Whether their online program, which recommends local events based on users' preferences, becomes a Twitter-like phenomenon is another matter.

Elizabeth Jackson is different from other 17-year-olds.

"Most kids are like, 'Ooh, a computer! I can go on Facebook,' " the Ligonier Valley junior said. "They don't think, 'What a cool piece of technology!'"

Jackson, on the other hand, has long been interested in how technology works.

A few weeks ago I was sitting at my desk putting together a list of things to do – or trying to put together a list of things to do in Pittsburgh for the weekend. It was right after Christmas and there was no Steelers game that weekend so it was a little challenging. There is always something to do in Pittsburgh but we try our hardest to write about NEW things to do in town and that can occasionally be a challenge. Just as I was about to pack up the lap top for the night (geek speak for throwing in the towel) I received an email from a friendly fellow… one of the founders of Wawadoo.

AlphaLab, the three-year-old start-up incubator on Pittsburgh’s South Side, is getting a boost in national recognition as a charter member of the TechStars Network, launched today in conjunction with President Obama’s StartUp America Partnership.

Composed of 16 organizations by invitation-only, the network aims to connect start-up accelerator programs across the country to pool resources such as mentorship opportunities and potential investors as well as best practices for the organizations involved. The network brings together the three TechStars accelerator locations — Boston, New York and Boulder, Colo. — with others with a similar philosophy. TechStars, one of the more well-known accelerators, was founded in 2006 by a group of start-up investors and entrepreneurs.

Last July, during the Global TWiST meetup (#65) Shoefitr took top honors, they beat out some tough competition in particular Yoocasa. I was recently able to connect with Nick and Matt two of the founders and I thought this might be a good time to see what they’ve been up to. If you don’t remember they use 3D technology to take the pain out of sizing the right shoe when purchasing online..

Foursquare's great for letting folks know where you are/ that they can come steal your stuff, but no one's gonna come hang out/ rob your house until they’re convinced you're sufficiently full of Bud Ice. For an app that'll inform everyone where you are and what you're guzzling, get Beerby.

Beerby (which oh-so cleverly rhymes with “nearby”) is a Steel City-dev’d iPhone/Android app that helps pin down top-notch brews by tracking where drinkers are at/ what they're drinking and sharing that info en route to earning achievements, turning pub-hopping into kind of a game, but not The Game, even though that dude’s already hit, like, 120 Bars. Once you’re in, their map’ll tell you what drinkeries are nearby, and a tap on any of them lets you see what other Beerby members've drank there/what they thought; more than 40,000 beers are in the database, complete with info on each brew and brewer, even though all you really need to know about that Sam Adams dude is “goatee”. As it's tied into foursquare, you can see where your buddies’ve checked in, and in lieu of Mayor-style badges, they're doing "badgers", well-dressed digital weasels denoting accomplishments: drinking 10 Imperial IPAs earns you the badger-in-white-plastic Imperial Stormtrooper while sucking down a Colt .45 nets a Lando-garbed Billy Dee Williams, which will immediately try to hand you over to the Stormtrooper one.

Rob Myer, founder of NoWait, proposed a Web service that helps you minimize the annoyances related to getting a seat in a casual dining restaurant. Jason Wilburn of software development company, BlenderHouse, offered to use predictive technology to solve a $20 billion problem of the health-care industry -- waste from health-care documentation.

The Resumator, a startup dedicated to simplifying the hiring process for businesses, has landed $100,000 in seed funding, the company told VentureBeat.

The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania company has developed web-based social recruiting and applicant tracking tools that let you do everything required to attract and select new hires. The Resumator lets you easily advertise open positions via social networks, post positions to free job aggregators (potentially saving money by avoiding expensive job board sites) and create branded sites for applicants.

Some people still call Pittsburgh the Steel City.

But with an unemployment rate nearly 2 percentage points lower than the national average, 1,600 technology companies and a growing population — the city has largely moved on from its industrial roots.

"The entrepreneurial environment demands that you take calculated risks and absorb their consequences. No matter what your role, embracing risk is crucial to progress in any startup operation." These characteristics embody the entrepreneurially effervescent founders of Career Imp and Device Knit – two fledgling companies that have attained higher ground after receiving resources and institutional support from IW's AlphaLab, a one-of-a-kind incubator for regional innovative tech startups.

Pittsburgh may not be Silicon Valley, but the state's second-largest city hopes to recapture some of its former steel-era glory by becoming a hub for technology start-ups.

I know, you may be 5 layers of neon-green acrylic away from overdosing on your custom design addiction. Too bad, it’s about to get 1,000x worse. Ponoko and CloudFab have teamed up to combine the goodness of 2D laser-cut design and the multi-dimensionality of 3D printing to bring you… Personal Factory 4.

This is probably one of the best ideas to happen in the diy-fab scene yet. Ponoko has always been the source for custom laser-cut design. Now, they bring material suppliers, fabbers, creators and DIYers together to release the 4-headed hydra of product design delight.

Shorter wait times at restaurants. Coupon deals with a doughnut company. iPhone games for beer drinking.

Though the fruit trays were well-stocked Friday morning at the annual AlphaLab Demo Day, visitors may have left with stomachs rumbling. Many startups incubating with the Innovation Works program this year developed businesses that can help find food in faster, cheaper and high-tech ways.

Five companies made their pitches at the annual event, a 12-minute make-or-break moment to woo investors and find a future as they leave the nonprofit venture capital firm's program. Companies that presented have one month left in their 20 weeks as part of the AlphaLab program that allows tech startups to set up shop in office space on the South Side.

What do you use FourSquare for the most?

If you are like me, you’re probably checking into bars and other establishments to earn badges, mayorships and share with your friends. The problem with FourSquare though is that there isn’t any context about what you are doing there. Beerby solves this problem by letting you share exactly what you are drinking with your friends.

It was Demo Day Friday morning at AlphaLab, where more than 100 people crowded into the South Side incubator to see the first official presentations of the latest cycle of new start-up companies.

The theme of this cycle of companies was social media, specifically developing ways for businesses to capitalize on their followers or fans within existing social networks and how to engage customers in the growing mobile market.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded a $199,404 research grant to BlenderHouse to investigate automating the creation of clinical progress notes with machine learning (Award Number 1R43LM010775).

Phil Anderson and Shawn Wall see the world in points and levels.

Points for completing everyday tasks, and, once those goals are met, leveling up — ahead of all their friends, of course.

Simple nametags were not enough for the crowd filling this week's Project Olympus show-and-tell. Instead of just writing a given name -- how boring -- some attendees included a Twitter handle.

The 10th demonstration of Carnegie Mellon University's early-stage, high-tech companies featured innovators who aspire to mimic Twitter's enormous success, even if the explanations of their concepts quickly exceeded 140 characters.

Ah, beer. You’re my solace and my comfort in these trying times and I love you. But how do I find you, especially the odd and unique members of your extended family? Thankfully, there now exists BeerBy.

OK, raise your hand if you order running shoes online.

Now raise your hand if that pair that fit best has been changed, updated or discontinued.

There’s a new application available (so far only on runningwarehouse.com) that might be able to help you guess right, or at least better direct your guessing, the next time you have to order an unfamiliar shoe online. Tell the ShoeFitr application what model and size shoe you have already worn and know fits your foot. The program will tell you what size in the new model you want to buy is the closest size to the one you already have. You can also look at a 3D model showing where the new shoe will be looser or tighter than the model you are currently in and from there, you can better decide if the shoe under consideration will work or not.

Between December and January three friends quit their jobs. Over the previous year and a half they had spent their free time laying the groundwork for their new company, Shoefitr. The three Carnegie Mellon grads have used an expensive proprietary technology to measure hundreds of shoes and build a database of shoe sizes. Shoefitr is a platform used to translate the true fit of shoes across brands and models. The potential is to get consumers the right shoe the first time and save on shipping costs.

There is a shift going on in how people expect to find information online and Vasco Pedro, CEO of Bueda, wants his company’s core technology to be at the center.

“We want to understand the world’s information and be a part of the institutional shift from search to match,” Pedro said.

Bueda has developed technology that helps computers make sense of the meanings of words. When applied to data mining, that means the computer can tell that if one person uses the words “auto insurance” and another person uses the words “car policy,” those two people are talking about the same thing.

For ShowClix Inc., providing an affordable and easy-to-use alternative to entertainment behemoth Live Nation

John Ganotis and Jordan Messina want to be the geeky friend you turn to when you want to make electronics work together in ways not mentioned in the manufacturer’s manual.

Like when you’re wondering how to turn your iPhone into a remote, or stream online video through your laptop projected onto a wall and controlled with a Wii remote.

The two plan to do this with the public launch of DeviceKnit.com, a project of their company, 25eight Inc. The site had a soft rollout July 8, and the two, along with an intern, are working on getting the word out.

One of the biggest hurdles to selling online is the competition that small businesses face from larger e-tailers who have the obvious advantage of size and volume.

That's where Pittsburgh's Black Locus comes in. For a small monthly fee, the startup is providing software assistance to give online retailers the information they need for competitive pricing, marketing and inventory management, explains Rodrigo Carvalho, CEO.

Each member of the iTwixie network may see herself through the lens of “I’m so random!” — the mantra stamped on each page of the social networking site — but collectively they aren’t.

It’s that aggregate knowledge of the inner workings of the 8- to 14-year-old girl that Rebecca Gaynier and iTwixie’s other founders are banking on to create a revenue model for the social networking site designed for tween girls.

The three founders of Southside-based Shoefitr are out to change the way people buy shoes.

Demo Day at AlphaLab featured recent program grads DeviceKnit, 80 Degrees West Interior Design, Inc., Black Locus, PhotoSynesi, and Shoefitr. Let’s go ahead with a description of each of the companies before I get into the nit and grit of who stood out (after all, you may want to judge for yourself).

Shoes are one of those things that can take a leap of faith to buy off the Internet. Sure there are online retailers like Zappos that offer free two-way shipping, but if you're in a pinch to get the right size the first time around, there's a new company that just might help you do it.

Shoefitr, which demoed its technology at Thursday's AlphaLab incubator demo day in Pittsburgh, Pa., is attempting to solve the size problem by feeding shoes through a 3D scanner. This results in the company having a 3D model of the shoe that's accurate to .25mm. These scans are then organized into a database of about 400 shoes (and growing) that can be cross-referenced when consumers are buying from Web retailers that have employed the company's fit finder.

Ziv Baum often uses the term "space" as a synonym for "market"; he says that mobile technology is "the space that I live in."

The space you're in - and who knows you're there - has been Mr. Baum's specialty since he co-founded Zipano Technologies one year ago as a project looking to make on-the-go Internet users more comfortable with sharing their location.

I decided to go way back to one of the first callers of Ask Jason (TWiST #5), I contacted Don Charlton, Founder of The Resumator. Don called in to ask, how do I create buzz for a non-sexy product (recap)? It looks like Don is doing a great job and starting to create that buzz around the not so sexy product of online recruiting.

A large percentage of content that users deal with on a daily basis is created by other users. Every minute more than 90,000 videos and images are uploaded to YouTube, Flickr and other social media websites, yet this represents a relatively small revenue percentage when compared with traditional media. We believe that one reason for this is the publisher's lack of ability to understand high density content that lacks the adequate description. With mobile platforms providing users with easy methods for rich media upload, this problem will rapidly increase.

Can software solve the world's problems?

Innovation Work's latest class of Alpha Lab startups gets the ball rolling with new ideas for everything from do-it-yourself interior design apps to helping amateur photographers take better pictures and consumers find a shoe that fits online.

My company The Resumator is a graduate of the Innovation Works AlphaLab program. AlphaLab is an acceleration program for startup companies. (some use the word “incubator”, but this name is usually frowned upon by the programs). Acceleration programs are designed to provide entrepreneurs with early-stage capital, guidance and connections. Other programs include Y-Combinator and TechStars. I thought I’d share a few things that I learned during my time at AlphaLab to hopefully encourage you to apply to participate in one these programs. The experience is incredible, and the knowledge you gain will be invaluable.

The founders of Pittsburgh-based LeftRight Studios, a mobile game developer, are celebrating the quick, but not altogether unexpected, success of their iPhone game smackBOTS, which this week broke the top 100 free applications available at the Apple App Store.

In the AlphaLab offices on East Carson Street, there is something infectious in the air — optimism.

It’s the optimism that can only come from an entrepreneur and an optimism that may seem counter to the pessimistic economic environment. But, there it is, in companies that, despite the recession, are trying to find ways to start up.

The Resumator helps you save time and money on hiring by instantly replacing the inefficiency of your HR inbox with an online recruiting platform for promoting jobs and reviewing resumes.

An invitation to an AlphaLab open house is a show and tell for startups taken to a new level.

This month the third crop of Alpha Lab companies offered potential investors and inquisitive others a preview of the latest innovations in software, entertainment and mobile technology. About 120 people attended the South Side event to hear from six companies.

Pittsburgh-based startup incubator AlphaLab hosted its Fall demo day earlier this morning. Created by seed funding group Innovations Works, AlphaLab provides 6 promising startups with funding, office space and business advice over a 20-week mentorship program. Today's event showcased half of those companies and was similar in format to YCombinator, Techstars and Launchbox Digital demo days. Investors, entrepreneurs and advisors clamored to get a peek at these early-stage companies.

Unveiling ideas for web-based software, entertainment technology, and GPS navigation, a crop of young micro-companies will present the results of a 20-week incubator program at AlphaLab's Demo Day, to be held in Pittsburgh October 14 (2009).

At the turn of the twentieth century, Pittsburgh really was held in the same regard that Silicon Valley is today. Entrepreneurs like Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Mellon, George Westinghouse, and John Baptiste Ford & John Pitcairn, Jr were creating companies around entirely new industries. While the companies they started remain today, those industries are certainly not as high-growth as they were more than a hundred years ago. However, the entrepreneurs have left a number of great assets behind in Pittsburgh that the city continues to capitalize on to this day.

Jeremy Herrman's T-shirt is the epitome of nerd humor, featuring a cartoon of a CTRL key donning a police hat, brandishing a baton and chasing an ESC key.

It's also particularly appropriate given the tech startup he and two partners, Alex Moore and Jim Keener, launched last year.

Chogger (www.chogger.com) is a Web site that allows users to view, draw and share their own comics. Though the concept might conjure images of costumed heroes or Sunday newspapers, the trio believes comics have the potential to be much more.

Most conceptions that are wedding-related are born nine months later.

But the baby that came from Will Smith and Barb Katora-Jarosinski's Dec. 2007 wedding was conceived by her nephew, Spike Katora, and was born in April, 15 months later.

The baby was Vivo, a new company that allows people to broadcast their events live over the Internet.

The problem that needed to be solved for the wedding was that Mr. Smith's parents, who were celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary at their home in Winnsboro, La., were elderly and unable to be on hand for the nuptials in Pittsburgh. Even though they couldn't be here, they wanted to witness the ceremony.

Innovation Works’ welcomed its third wave of AlphaLab  startups this month,  a powerhouse group that has raised the bar and attracted entrepreneurs from across the country.

“We are very excited about the potential of this new AlphaLab class,” says Jim Jen, director. “Many of them have already made significant progress on developing their products and they have hit the ground running to build their businesses. The high quality of this group demonstrates the continued momentum of the AlphaLab program.”

Jason Wilburn had two start-ups on his resume last year. But his interactions with Pittsburgh’s entrepreneurial scene had been minimal.

He and partner Michael Cham’s half-year in Innovation Works’ business incubator, however, gave them a BlackBerry full of contacts critical to building BlenderHouse, their seed-stage applied learning software company.

“Everyone we’re involved with now, we met through AlphaLab,” Wilburn said, adding the company is close to securing its first round of funding. Their time in the lab also has given their East Liberty company a “stamp of credibility” as they court investors, Cham said.

Rebecca Gaynier was getting ready to go on.

In the next 15 minutes she would be running through her slides, her charts and even a short video to persuade someone in the room to invest $250,000 to $500,000 in the Internet company she started to cater to girls between the ages of 8 and 14.

"I feel like I'm on 'American Idol,'" she said as she put on her wireless microphone.

Those 15 minutes capped a 20-week program with Innovation Works' AlphaLab that gave Ms. Gaynier's new company and five others a shot at getting off the ground using the expertise of others who have started companies before them.

Today Pittsburgh-based startup incubator AlphaLab is holding their demo day where each of the companies present their products and/or services. AlphaLab runs a 20-week program which includes office space, mentoring and strategy development. Here’s a brief overview of each of the companies. Let me know in the comments if you would like me to get interviews or more information on any of the startups.

Don Charlton was ahead of the game when he went into AlphaLab five months ago and started his Web site -- TheResumator.com.

Generally, the Innovation Works incubator program for Internet entrepreneurs deals with companies that haven't gotten off the ground. But the 31-year-old McCandless resident had been tinkering for a while with a plan for a site to do the work typically handled by clerks in human resources departments and was ready to plunge in.

In the first years following its founding as one of four centers in Pennsylvania’s Ben Franklin Technology Partners, Innnovation Works concentrated on providing seed financing to tech start-ups, with perhaps the occasional follow-on investment. While IW still focuses on start-ups, their range of services and support has expanded exponentially.

Such as: It now offers grants to assist local universities in commercializing promising new technologies and provides funding to support the formation of angel investor networks. A human resources professional on staff helps portfolio companies identify and hire key staff. And IW has recently launched AlphaLab, a discrete South Side facility that provides emerging software and IT companies with capital, space, mentoring, networking opportunities and links to other investors.

Six new startups have joined AlphaLab, a software incubator on the South Side that fosters the growth of software, Internet and entertainment technology companies in the region.

Created by Innovation Works, the most active investor in seed-stage companies in Pittsburgh, AlphaLab companies participate in an intensive, 20-week program and receive a $25,000 investment, office space and business mentoring from a team of industry experts.

A tech business incubator has "hatched" its inaugural group of six companies. The startups spent 20 weeks at AlphaLab, which is based on Pittsburgh's South Side. AlphaLab Director Jim Jen says the goal during that time was for the businesses to come up with a test version of their product so that they could get feedback, and begin to attract potential investors. Jen says he thinks the six businesses were largely successful in meeting that goal.

AlphaLab has launched six companies as a part of its 20 week summer and fall program.

The company, which acts as a catalyst for launching next generation software in entertainment technology and Internet-related companies, will be providing funding hands-on business assistance, access to advisors and free office space to all of the companies within its program, most of which are related to, or based on, the use of user-generated content.

On Tuesday, October 28th, I had the privilege of attending the final presentations for the first six “graduates” of AlphaLab.

Quick perspective – AlphaLab is an offshoot of Innovation Works, a quasi public/private endeavor dedicated to the formation of start-up businesses in western Pennsylvania. These companies typically are high-tech in nature and AlphaLab is basically looking for the next FORE Systems.

AlphaLab, a catalyst for launching next generation software, entertainment technology and Internet-based startups, recently opened its doors to investors and other members of Pittsburgh’s entrepreneurial community to come in and check out its first group of six companies. Founded by active seed-stage investor, Innovation Works, the AlphaLab program gave this group of entrepreneurs funding, access to a network of expert advisors, and free office space as part of an intensive 20-week program located on Pittsburgh’s South Side. All six of the companies in the first round have created some really cool technology and have bright futures as entrepreneurs.

They had 20 weeks and an initial $25,000 investment of seed capital to transform talking-point concepts into technology-driven startups.  Then Tuesday morning the first class of technology entrepreneurs from AlphaLab, a new project of Innovation Works to accelerate the formation of software, Internet, and entertainment technology companies in southwestern Pennsylvania, presented their companies.

Pittsburgh has some resources for people that want to start businesses, especially technology businesses.  I have attended some of the work shops at the Tech Council, definitely worth a few hours of your time.

I just wanted to highlight AlphaLab (they have a blog here).  I mentioned AlphaLab recently because they have a really great office on Carson St. and were kind enough to host the reception for this years PodCamp Pittsburgh.

I am at AlphaLab’s very first Demo Day, when each of the six companies that have been incubated over the last six months presents what their company is all about.  There is a great crowd here - I would guess close to 150 people crowded in their Southside location on Carson Street - STANDING ROOM ONLY.

There’s been a bit of back and forth on what the best place to start a technology company is these days. The conventional wisdom these days is that the place to start and run a technology company is Silicon Valley. The key reasons put forth to justify this is money, talent, and expertise. If you’re initially choosing where to move and start a company, Silicon Valley seems to be the right choice based on the confluence of these factors – but I would argue that in some cases these advantages are not that strong and there are just as good reasons to start it elsewhere.

Add one more asset to the region’s growing cache of entrepreneurial resources. Earlier this month, Pittsburgh’s largest and most-active seed-stage investor, Innovation Works (IW), officially opened the doors of its AlphaLab program on East Carson Street in the South Side. With the launch of AlphaLab, IW selected six promising teams of entrepreneurs to participate in an intensive, five-month-long program that will provide all of the essentials for rapid product development and entrepreneurial success out of the gate.

When Felix Lloyd's wife, Jordan Bookey, was hired by Google as programs manager for global diversity and talent inclusion, the couple were put off by the price of living in Google's hometown of San Francisco. On learning the search giant had a facility in Pittsburgh, they came for a visit and decided that the city on the Point suited them better than the city by the bay.

The first six companies that will receive funding and mentoring at a Pittsburgh incubator for Web and software-related firms were identified Wednesday.

Six new startups are among the first class of software companies accepted into the AlphaLab program at its new state-of-the-art incubator on the South Side.

A new and interesting product development accelerator has been launched in Pittsburgh:

Innovation Works announces the launch of AlphaLab, a catalyst for the next generation of software, interactive game design and Internet-related companies.  Innovation Works created AlphaLab to help companies rapidly develop their technology, gain user feedback from early alpha or beta releases and move toward successful commercial launch.  

It's not a revolution, but progress in Pittsburgh does proceed, one node at a time. It's not political progress, but -- here and there -- economic development progress.

Last Friday, Innovation Works (IW) announced the creation of AlphaLab, a rapid-product development accelerator for software, game development and internet-related startups. As mentioned in these articles in the Pittsburgh Business Times and Tribune-Review, we are hopeful that AlphaLab will serve as a focal point for software developers in the Pittsburgh region, and can help launch some of the next wave of software, gaming and web-related companies.

You don’t have to spend too much time getting to know me before you learn that I grew up in the 60s and 70s in Pittsburgh. Then, Pittsburgh was a gritty mill town. My favorite field trip was to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, which I remember as a stately black stone building. In recent years, the building was sandblasted to its original creamy white. Makes me wonder how much soot went through our lungs in those days.

f you were looking for something to get excited about in the Pittsburgh start-up economy, here’s someting for you. InnovationWorks has just launched their new software/internet/games start-up incubator, AlphaLab.

Have an idea for a software or internet product that you think you could launch in six months with a little investment and hard work? Submit an application

AlphaLab in Pittsburgh has now joined yCombinator and TechStars as a startup launch program. AlphaLab’s deal is a bit more enticing since you receive $25,000 for only 3% equity in the company. TechStars takes 5% equity in your company for $15,000 and yCombinator gives you $15,000 for about 6% if you have 2 founders.