Author Archives: Mike

Spring 2010 AlphaLab Demo Day in Pictures

Posted on June 15, 2010 by Mike| 1 Comment

This week we welcome the next class of passionate entrepreneurs to AlphaLab for the start of the next session of our program. With that in mind, we take a look back at the most recent Demo Day with a few pictures of the event.

AlphaLab’s Demo Day is the opportunity for our “graduating” AlphaLab companies to present to an audience of investors, potential partners, and other key individuals from across the country. Attendance was standing-room only and the companies all did a great job with their presentations, continuing to raise the bar for the next AlphaLab class.

Innovation Works President and CEO Rich Lunak welcomes the audience with some opening remarks.

John Ganotis of DeviceKnit

Rodrigo Carvalho from Black Locus

Karen Anderson of 80 Degrees West Interior Design

Don Charlton, founder of The Resumator (far right)

The Shoefitr team (who also was featured on CNET.com’s Web Crawler Blog)

Derek Wahila, along with Regina Parundik and David Wells, from Photo Synesi

Startup Pittsburgh provides a round-up of the event on their blog as well.

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iTwixie Article on Portfolio.com!

Posted on June 14, 2010 by Mike| Leave a comment

(photo by Matt Bulvony / Pittsburgh Business Times)

iTwixie was recently profiled in an article that appeared on Portfolio.com, where founder Rebecca Gaynier tells the story of why she wanted to start iTwixie as well as the exciting things that are currently going on with the company.

Read more about this Winter/Spring 2009 AlphaLab alumnus over at portfolio.com!

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ModCloth Raises $19.8 Million

Posted on June 2, 2010 by Mike| 1 Comment

Congratulations go out to our friends at ModCloth, who have secured the biggest raise in the Pittsburgh area so far in 2010 for the amount of $19.8 million.

CEO Eric Koger has spoken to AlphaLab participants on several occasions: sharing his experiences in starting the company as well as technical and business strategies that helped make them a leading online clothing destination.

You can find more information about the investment as well as Eric’s comments in the Pittsburgh Business Times article online.

ModCloth is an Innovation Works portfolio company and arguably the fastest growing startup in Pittsburgh – increasing its headcount by five times in two years to 138. The company sells retro and vintage clothing from independent designers.

Congratulations again to Eric, Susan, and the entire ModCloth team!

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Application Deadline is Thursday, April 8th!

Posted on April 5, 2010 by Mike| Leave a comment

We’re in the home stretch of our application cycle for the Summer/Fall 2010 session of AlphaLab!

The deadline for submission is 11:59 PM Eastern on Thursday, April 8th.

To submit an application, visit our application overview page and click “apply now”. Once you create a login, you will be able to save your progress as well as download a PDF version of the application.

For any questions, please contact us at application (at) alphalab [dot] org!

Good luck!

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Announcing an Additional Set of Office Hours!

Posted on March 9, 2010 by Mike| Leave a comment

We’re pleased to announce that we are opening another set of “office hours” for those interested in our Summer/Fall 2010 session of AlphaLab!

The response to the previously announced office hours has been terrific – so much so that they have already “sold out”!

Monday, April 5th from 12:30-2:00 PM is when we’re holding the additional office hours session here at AlphaLab. The meetings will be 20 minutes in length with members of the AlphaLab team to talk about your concept as well as ask questions and discuss the AlphaLab program.

While we encourage you to attend them in person, we also would like to welcome those who aren’t located in Pittsburgh to participate via conference call.

To register, please visit our registration website. Two slots are available for a given 20-minute time period. If a particular slot is grayed out, it has already been reserved. Please limit your team to one time slot.

Good luck!

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Information About AlphaLab Summer/Fall 2010 Application “Office Hours”

Posted on February 15, 2010 by Mike| Leave a comment
We will be holding “office hours” that will allow applicants to meet the AlphaLab team and ask questions about AlphaLab and the application process. In order to ensure we spend some 1:1 time with each applicant, we are asking interested applicants to schedule a timeslot with us in advance. The “office hours” are current scheduled for the following dates/times:
Thurs, February 25th  1:00-2:30 PM
Friday, March 19th  9:00-10:30 AM
Weds, March 31st  5:00-6:30
We’ve provided a method to allow interested individuals to schedule themselves for an office hour slot at the following site: http://www.doodle.com/tr8rwc4i2g9azzqy. Two slots for a given 20-minute time period exist. If a particular slot is grayed out, it has already been reserved. For any issues or questions, you can e-mail application (at) alphalab [dot] org.

As mentioned previously, we will be holding “office hours” that will allow applicants to meet the AlphaLab team and ask questions about AlphaLab and the application process. In order to ensure we spend some 1:1 time with each applicant, we are asking interested applicants to schedule a timeslot with us in advance. The “office hours” are current scheduled for the following dates/times:

  • Thurs, February 25th  1:00-2:30 PM
  • Friday, March 19th  9:00-10:30 AM
  • Weds, March 31st  5:00-6:30 PM

We’ve provided a method to allow interested individuals to schedule themselves for a meeting slot via online reservation. Two slots for a given 20-minute time period exist. If a particular slot is grayed out, it has already been reserved. Please limit your team to one time slot.

For any issues or questions, you can e-mail application (at) alphalab [dot] org.

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Now Accepting Applications for Summer/Fall 2010 AlphaLab Session!

Posted on February 9, 2010 by Mike| 1 Comment

We’re happy to announce that we are now accepting applications for the Summer/Fall 2010 Session of AlphaLab which begins June 14th, 2010!

We’re also pleased to let you know that we will be holding three “office hour” sessions for individuals who would like to meet and discuss their concept with members of the AlphaLab team. The dates and times are as follows:

  • Thurs, February 25th  1:00-2:30 PM
  • Friday, March 19th  9:00-10:30 AM
  • Weds, March 31st  5:00-6:30 PM

We’ll provide information on the structure / format and how to register soon. Check in with the blog and our Twitter account for more information.

In the meantime, create your ID and start filling out your application today! The deadline for application submission is 11:59 Eastern Time on Thursday, April 8th.

Good luck!

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Lessons from an AlphaLab Participant

Posted on December 24, 2009 by Mike| Leave a comment

doncollab

(Don Charlton, seated center)

Don Charlton, the creator of The Resumator, has written about some of his most important takeaways from participating in the AlphaLab program during the Winter/Spring 2009 cycle. We love having Don as a member of the AlphaLab family and The Resumator continues to grow, attracting customers including some high-profile Web companies such as Dropbox, Posterous, 37 Signals, and Evernote.

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AlphaLab Alum Skill-Life Attends White House Announcement on Social Entrepreneurship

Posted on July 1, 2009 by Mike| Leave a comment

skill-life

Felix Brandon Lloyd, President and CEO of Skill-Life, was invited by the White House to be present for remarks by President Barack Obama highlighting innovative social entrepreneurs around the country.  Felix remarked that “to be included in a group of social entrepreneurs that the President says are creating the most innovative solutions to our communities most challenging problems, is humbling and inspiring.”

The remarks were made by the President to call upon organizations to work together as well as to call attention to the $50 million innovation fund that is part of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act.  The President thanked the attending organizations, saying “… today, I want to recognize that pioneering spirit and thank you all for the contributions that you’re making to our communities.”

Felix believes that the $50 million fund will “help take social enterprises like Skill-Life, Inc. to higher levels as will the fact that the President has established an Office of Social Innovation.”

Skill-Life, an alum of the Summer/Fall 2008 cycle of AlphaLab and 2007 Echoing Green Fellow, is developing a game-based platform through which tweens earn real-life rewards as they play games to teach life skills such as financial literacy, nutrition, and citizenship.  Skill-Life plans to release a beta version of their CentsCity product later this month.

For more information check out the Official White House Blog as well as the President’s complete remarks.

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AlphaLab Summer/Fall 2009 Application Cycle is Now Open!

Posted on March 23, 2009 by Mike| Leave a comment

alaba

On Friday afternoon we began to take applications for the Summer/Fall 2009 AlphaLab session which starts on June 15th, 2009!

We’ve introduced a new phase of our application cycle this time around:  Early Action.  What is Early Action and what’s it all about?

Early Action is a great opportunity for applicants to be considered and potentially accepted earlier in our general application cycle.     Some highlights include:

  • Early Action applicants will be invited to a meet-n-greet event with AlphaLab staff where they can interact and ask questions.
  • Early Action candidates that are accepted to AlphaLab will be able to get an early start on working on their companies and have early access to AlphaLab resources.
  • If an applicant is not accepted as part of AlphaLab Early Action, they will be re-considered as part of the general application period.

Check out the Early Action FAQs for additional information.

Want to see the questions without having to start an application?  Check out the PDF of our application questions.

The Early Action deadline is April 17th, 2009.  Our general application deadline is May 15th, 2009.

For questions or issues, please send an e-mail to apply (at) alphalab [dot] org.

Good luck!

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