Just yesterday there was a New-Startups.com team meeting at our local watering hole, but upon arrival each of our team members spent 10+ minutes driving in circles and from parking lot to parking lot to find a place with vacancy. A frustrating ordeal that we’re sure you experience as well from time to time. We covered a parking app in 2011 called ParkMe (formerly Parking in Motion): A Free App that recommends the cheapest and closest parking around you, and it surely would of came in handy yesterday for us.

Utilized in over 200 US cities, 30 Canadian Cities, and 100 cities, ParkMe, notifies users on parking rates, hours, entrance points and occupancy information. And since our initial discovery of the parking solution the Silicon Beach based company has realized funding, substantial growth, important app updates, and delivered an impressively fun guerilla marketing campaign at SXSW, check out the video below to see how it all went down.

ParkMe was started in 2009 with Co-Founder and current CEO Sam Friedman from his garage after getting fed up with the state of parking in Santa Monica. After being late numerous times for meeting due to the nuisance of looking for parking, he looked to revolutionize the problem for everyone. We were lucky enough to follow-up with Co-Founder and CEO Sam Friedman on startup life in Silicon Beach, ParkMe’s growth and tech in general.

Q&A with Sam Friedman: CEO & Co-Founder of ParkMe

What and where is the Silicon Beach Community?
Well that’s just one of the monikers that has caught on. There are others ie. Tech Coast, LATech, etc. Silicon Beach signifies the West Los Angeles (Santa Monica, Venice, Culver City) startup scene, and ParkMe is one of a large handful of companies making noise out here.

How does being a part of the Silicon Beach Community help ParkMe?
Parking is a major concern not only in our town, but in the greater LA area. I am a Santa Monica native, and the parking situation has gotten increasingly worse here every year. We are home to one of the most visited tourist destinations in the world, and parking problems and traffic is at an all time high. We work directly with the city of SM to get downtown visitors better parking information.

What does working out of Silicon Beach feel like?
We’re blessed to inhabit one of the world’s most beautiful places, mere steps away from the beach. Our company just moved offices to the famous 3rd Street Promenade, which is in the heart of downtown. There are so many other great startups that we work and carouse with, like Uber, BetterWorks, Wheelz to name a few. There’s a palpable sense of communal energies between these startups, and a genuine rooting interest for everyone to succeed.

Why did you change your company name to ParkMe?
It happened very naturally, once we started aggressively pushing our parking app towards users and away from B2B. Parking In Motion (PIM) is very much name we’re still fond of, but ParkMe more clearly states the value we give to drivers. Our app takes the thinking out of the annoying process of finding a space, and the shortened name really explains it all.

In your opinion how important is branding for a startup? And what should an entrepreneur be aware of when picking a name?
Branding is very important so long as you have a good product to back it up. Making consumers aware of who you are only works as long as they can depend on what you’re selling. MORE

How has ParkMe, the app, been updated over the past year?
We started out by aggregating off-street parking lots and garages, and currently possess robust data in over 26,000 locations in the US, Canada and Europe. We also work with cities to provide live occupancy data to our app, just as we’ve done with the city of Santa Monica. Finally, we are starting to add REAL TIME on-street data, which determines the availability of parking on a block-by-block basis. We’re about to launch this system with the city of Austin, and couldn’t be more excited.

What place do you think RFID will have on the iPhone5 in relation to ParkMe?
Improvements to technology can only be viewed as an enhancement to the parking industry. When people don’t have to worry about getting a ticket validated, or having enough change to pay for parking, they can think about more important things. Being able to seamlessly find and pay for parking through a car’s intelligent dashboard is what we’re working towards.

How have you enticed users to crowdsource parking information?
Much of the data we get comes from crowdsourcing in our top cities. We’ll pay someone to go out and photo a given area, and this strategy has worked very well thus far. We encourage our users to send back data through their phone if they notice a lot has closed or a rate has changed.

How did ParkMe obtain and utilize Series A funding. What should startups learn and be aware of when receiving funding?
ParkMe (formerly Parking In Motion) received funding from two of the most prominent investor groups, Fontinalis Ventures and IDG Ventures. Our initial investment was in the low seven figures, and we are about to close a similar round (Series A ½ if you will). Most of funding went directly to software engineers and coders, as well as additional on the ground data collection. MORE

Describe How ParkMe has grown and evolved since its launch?
My co-founder Alex Israel and I started this company in my garage as a response to our frustrations of getting ticketed and being late to meetings because of parking. In the past three years we’ve become the leading provider and static and real time parking data, licensing deals with navigation companies and third party app developers. We currently employ 15 people and have ample opportunities for growth.

There have been quite a few sites popping up trying to become the web space for Instagram, such as Ink361 and Pinstagram. Now, Instadash is the newest platform to enter the space, and to us, it will eventually be the clear favorite in this realm.

Created in just 12 hours, yes you heard right – just 12 hours, Instadash was developed by Arno Smit and Magnus Johansson during Stockholm’s Startup Hack as “The missing dashboard for Instagram”. Through the web app you’ll be able to view popular photos, check out your own photos and profile, keep up to date on your stream, leave and read comments, follow new Insta-gramer’s, back up your photos to Dropbox, and explore in a Pinterest inspired design.

As you would expect, the layout is similar to your favorite pinning site, where you can quickly scan photos in a clean grid format. And by encompassing the site in a clean white design with subtle UX elements, the focus gets brilliantly put on the pictures without distractions. Clicking on any image will let you “Like”, leave a comment, read other comments, see other likes or follow the user quickly and easily.

One of the great features of the site is its location view. User’s that have tagged the location of the picture will allow Instadash users to see other Instagram’s taken in the same area. Seeing what images were taken in a given area opens up a great deal of new exploration and photo taker’s that might be worth following. The location features is an implementation that we’ve not seen done well by any other Instagram web platform, check it out below.

Although the web application is not fully finished, with quite a few add-ons coming on soon, the clean layout and tools enabled by Instadash will surely make it your web app of choice for Instagram exploration. We were told some of the add-ons will include:

• Infinite scrolling of images, so you won’t be limited to the 30 most recent,
• Facebook and Twitter integration,
• Search functionality,
• and functioning responsive design so it will be enabled for use on the iPad.

From handy tools such as easy saving of images to your Dropbox, all the way to the simple, clean and elegant design of the web app, we have to say it’s by far the most delightful Instagram experience we’ve been lucky to experience. Once the additional features and a few bug fixes are implemented in the next few days, we think Instadash will be a place you’ll come to love as well explore Instagram on the web.

Are you a startup looking to get some testers on board to find out where your idea has flaws or where it can use upgrades? BetaPunch, is a Baltimore based new business that connects startups with beta testers, while letting them video record their screens and get paid to test.

Unlike other beta testing sites, like BetaBait and StartUpLift, BetaPunch adds a social and community component into its workflow. Testers can be rated by startups and their reputation can be boosted on the site for other startups to overview. Beta Testers can also be rewarded by the startup for providing sound feedback. So, if you are a startup founder, when should you use BetaPunch? According to founder Ross Nochumowitz:

“We are available at any stage of the process. Whether you just want feedback on a simple landing page to collect emails, your site concept, or if your web application is 100% developed. It doesn’t matter. Feedback is necessary at all stages of the game, but I think it is more important in the beginning stages of it.”

Currently 527 Beta Testers have signed up and have attracted over 150 startups such as Dvour, Crowdtilt and Resumonk. Check out the video here to see a Pinstagram beta test. We were lucky enough to meet up with Ross and discuss what goes into successful beta testing and how BetaPunch is making the process easier with useful feedback for startups.

Q&A with Ross Nochumowitz (Founder)

Who is Ross Nochumowitz?
I am the founder of BetaPunch.com. I studied communications and Media Studies and played lacrosse at Goucher College (a small liberal arts college in Towson Maryland). I have always had a passion for Internet startups. My full-time job is as a licensed bail bondsman for my family business Big Boyz Bail Bonds in Baltimore Maryland.

In my spare time I spend most of my time reading startup news, promoting BetaPunch, and working with my developers on improving my service and user experience.

How does it help startups?
BetaPunch is a tool that helps startups get video recorded feedback from beta testers or early adopters. Startups get to physically view users interacting with their website, and listen to them voice their opinions about various elements of their service or site.

I feel like written feedback doesn’t really motivate the startup founder to iterate and make improvements. In a lot of instances, with written feedback, you can’t see the whole picture. With video screen recorded feedback, it’s as if you are sitting in the room watching an unbiased person review and navigate through your website.

Why did you start BetaPunch?
I started BetaPunch when I read about an article in TechCrunch that featured a site called: BetaBait. Here is the link to that

The site, at the time, inspired me because I really thought the idea of connecting startups with beta testers solved a significant problem for the startups. Startups can’t get off the ground without users. And they can’t get an idea if their product will be successful without user feedback. I also knew there was no shortage of startups being born on a daily basis so I knew the market was growing for a service like BetaPunch.

I thought the idea was brilliant, but their execution was sub-par. I figured I could execute better in various aspects. I truly believe ideas are worthless if you can’t execute on them which is what ultimately motivated me to create BetaPunch. So many people think in order to have a great startup business you need to have the most original idea that nobody has ever thought of before. That is just not the case. Look at Google; they were not the first search engine. And look at Facebook; they were not the first social network. They are just doing it better than everyone else!

How is BetaPunch different from the other platforms that deliver beta testers?
BetaPunch is largely different from other platforms in that we use screen recording capabilities to review web applications. We also strive to create a community where it is easy to give and receive feedback.

We are currently developing a widget that startups can embed directly into their websites and get video recorded feedback without the tester needing to come to BetaPunch first. The widget will allow the startup to offer their own unique incentives for beta testing as they pertain to their startup.

The tester will be able to launch the recorder, run their test, then copy and paste the link they are given back into the widget. All beta tests submitted via the widget will be posted directly to the startups discussion page on BetaPunch to view at any time.

This will allow for more targeted feedback as the user will have found the startup’s website on their own due to their personal interest in it (not because they heard about it on BetaPunch or some other startup listing website).

How does BetaPunch work?
BetaPunch is simple. Once you sign-up you can act as either a beta tester, startup owner, or both. As a beta tester you can either discover new startups via our search function, gallery and our daily email blast. Or, if you have a startup, you can submit it to our database for free. As a startup owner you will be given your own discussion page for beta testers to launch our screen recorder from and submit feedback to.

In the near future, startups will no longer be able to submit their startup for free. However, all startups who signed up prior will remain on the site and get access to our widget free for 30 days for being early adopters of BetaPunch.

The pricing for the widget and listing on BetaPunch will be $30 for a 30 day testing period and will allow up to 30 video reviews by beta testers. Once you submit your startup to BetaPunch your listing will remain on our website as long as you want it to. You will only have to renew the code for your widget every 30 days.

What do Startups do wrong when testing? What could they do better?
Often times, startups are showing their products and services to the wrong people. Many startups don’t do real beta tests. They simply show their family and close friends what they have and of course they all tell you that they like it.

Another mistake startups make is not showing their product quickly enough to potential users. They spend so much time and money developing before they know if there is any actual interest in what they are building. It is so important to create the most basic version of your service or site, MVP (minimum viable product),and do tests before you dig yourself in too deep of a hole.

Is there a science to beta testing?
I don’t think there is a science but there are many things you can cover when beta testing a startup’s website. The main things I like to focus on when beta testing a startup are: design, usability, and overall site concept. Beta testing does not have to be overly technical.

Remember, you don’t need to have a programming or tech background to offer feedback for a startup. In fact, that makes it worse if you do. Startups get the best feedback from potential users and customers – not programmers.

If you’re part of a Canadian startup team and developing amazing new ideas and technology, there is an accelerator program that you just have to be aware of. INcubes, is holding applications for its second INtake and the deadline is tomorrow (May 15, 2012). So if you haven’t applied yet, head over to their website and get yourself applied into what could be the best 3 month curriculum your startup could ever face.

INcubes is a Toronto based incubator and accelerator for Canada’s most innovative internet entrepreneurs. Through hands on experience, teams are taken from a place of high-risk to a low-risk investment for their first round of funding. Startups graduate on Demo Day with an investor package, qualifications for seed capital, and Series A Funding.

We were delighted and fortunate to meet up with INcubes founder and CEO Ben Zlotnick to discuss the state of incubators in Canada, INcubes itself and what it takes to win an opportunity to join an accelerator of your choice.

Q&A with Ben Zlotnick

Where did you get the idea to start INcubes in Toronto?
I have been on both sides of the table, as an investor and as a business founder. I was running another company and also incubating and investing in an experimental startup at the time when incubators and accelerators first caught my interest. In looking at what resources were really available for startups in Toronto, I realized that Toronto was without the type of accelerator that would help companies like what I was incubating. Luckily I was working with A. Traviss Corry who has practical experience in all this. One day I said to him, “I think I want to start an incubator.” He just about jumped out of his seat and we’ve been pushing it forward ever since. I then started to rally what I found to be incredible support from the investment and startup community. In just one INtake of graduates, INcubes has been ranked among the best incubators and acceleration programs in Canada.

Why are there not as many incubators in Canada let alone Toronto as compared to the US or even San Francisco?
Well, I think it’s a cultural thing. American’s are risk takers, and so are their investors. It’s much easier for a Startup with an out-of-the-box idea to get private funding in the US. That’s been our biggest challenge at INcubes and that’s also why we have been successful in creating this particular type of acceleration program in Canada’s business centre. Canadian investors are more conservative, and our challenge has been to really seek out the most innovative thinkers across the globe and then use our success to implement what we need done.. We’re at the place where we’re offering a real alternative to the brain-drain of early tech entrepreneurs needing to move south. We think we’re giving something very important to Canada.

How did INcubes get started and what successes have come about from those that have been accepted into its program?
From my previous business I was in a position from a network perspective to rally the support needed. As for the success’ that have come from our program, we just graduated our first INtake this winter and all are showing great success and moving forward with their plans. Stay tuned.

What benefit would a startup get from being a part of INcubes?
INcubation gives your Startup private offices in the heart of Canada’s business district downtown Toronto during a 3 month INtensive Acceleration Curriculum, in an optimum collaborative work environment, and complete business development advisement by mentors and experts, all leading to Demo Day and INvestment. Our strict curriculum of Road mapping, Research, Planning, Mentoring, and Qualifying, leads even the most out-side-the-box models from a status of high-risk to a status of low-risk for our INvestors. We are very selective, and INcubes assists some of the most extraordinary talent in Canada.

How does INcubes work?
It starts with an application process. We receive hundreds of applications for each INtake. This INtake we are choosing 6 to 8 companies. Those startups then go through a 3 month acceleration program, that ends with a graduation on Demo Day, which presents their investment offerings on stage to a room of some of North Americas most important tech investors. The incubation program then continues as an alumni program, which is essentially, ongoing checkINs, investor relations, advisement, legal and financial support.

Who and what goes into deciding what projects get accepted?
Applications are panel reviewed. Some we decide on ourselves, and some we shop around for due diligence, using our extensive network of over 60 mentors and advisors who are the utmost experts in their specialties. Our sector focus crosses many vertical markets, but we’re very strict in our criteria that we only accept business that is based around a valuable online technology ip, with an integrated revenue model, a fantastic team, and one that can demonstrate some proof points of successful traction in their chosen market.

What should an entrepreneur know before applying for an incubator and/or what should they make sure they do when applying?
There is never any harm in applying. In fact, we’ve helped a lot of people with great ideas just from talking with the during the application process, even though they were not ready for our program. Before applying they should know, that they will need to show their long-term plan and that they must show some kind of traction in reaching some of the earliest goals of that plan.

The deadline is May 15 for this round, when will the next one begin?
This program starts June 11th 2012, with a demo day on September 12th 2012.

Whats the biggest lesson you’ve learnt from running your own startup(s)? And what startups have you been apart of?
Never give up. Be ready to pivot. Surround yourself with the best people. Keep in touch with everyone you have networked, because you don’t know who will best help you achieve your goals.

Over the last 10 years, Louis Monoyudis has worked with the likes of Calvin Klein, John Varvatos and Tommy Hillfiger, but like most designers he then wanted to develop his own collection. However, unlike most designers, he decided to build a virtual place for fashion designers and the crowd to interact on preproduction decision. In February he launched Cut On Your Bias.

Described as a “crowd-sourced social-commerce platform for womenswear, menswear and home items, that allows consumers to interact on preproduction decisions with the designers themselves, creating an opportunity for virtual collaboration between consumer and designer.” Cut On Your Bias lets fashionistas vote every week for their favorite items from a rotating set of designers. From various fabrics, color, cuts and silhouette’s, consumers decide on their favorite combinations that should be produced.

Once all the votes have been compiled the design with the most votes are made available for pre-order purchase in limited edition. Only 25 – 50 of the items will be sold the following week. Designers handle the production and shipping, while consumers are delivered their purchase in 8 weeks or less. Louis Monoyudis says:

“Besides the rare instances of couture or bespoke, consumers have no interaction in the dynamic decisions that shape fashion. The most exciting aspect of being a designer is the selection of silhouette, fabric and color. Why not allow consumers to take part in that process and engage with their friends online while doing so?”

Cut On Your Bias is creating custom design portfolio’s and shopping experiences that ensures the consumers get limited edition collections. If you’re a fashionista, what better way to get your opinion and favorite piece then putting forth your ideas on what you think is best.

In partnership with XConnect, we are very proud to bring you their video series in which we will share advice, interviews and insights from founders, entrepreneurs and stratups that explores the relationship between a specific industry and how it is being affected by technology. XConnect, a thirdocean project, aims to contribute and support the tech space and our overall economy by bringing together industry executives and influential consumers to build awareness and encourage positive change.

In the above interview Karim Kanji meets with Jeremy Friedburg, Partner at SpongeLab Interactive. Spongelab Interactive, a Toronto based company devoted to immersive learning through educational games and interactive media. While Jeremy has been extensively involved in scientific education outreach programs, teaching students and the public about genetics & cell biology, and consults on a number of textbooks & major interactive educational exhibits created for the general public. Jeremy has taught for 10 years at a number of Ontario Universities including the University of Western Ontario, the University Guelph, Wilfrid Laurier University, University of Waterloo, and the University of Toronto.

It’s 7:37am, the sun is just peeping out, birds are chirping, but all you hear is BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, no its not the sound of the police, it’s the sound of the alarm that only makes you want to hit snooze. If you don’t use a classic alarm clock and use your mobile to trigger the start of your day, we’re sure you’re only native options are the traditional ring tones that come with the device – not the most pleasant way to wake up.

UNIQLO WAKE UP is an app / screensaver that should hook your attention because it’s the new way you should experience waking up, an enjoyable way. The free app creates sounds dynamically based on the current weather conditions with musical arrangements by Cornelius and Yoko Kanno, who is responsible for songwriting in some classic video games, like everyone’s favorite: Cowboy BeeBop. These amazing musicians compose fun and enticing ways that will uplift you out of your bed, or so we think, making waking up an enjoyable experience.

The beautiful and fun musical app is worth giving a try, but we should worn you because it works in the background while you sleep, expect significant battery loss. Grab it here, from the App Store.

We use a lot of different tools to do various tasks and different platforms to make working easier, but “A better tool doesn’t make a better craftsman, but a good tool makes working a pleasure.” iA Writer is an iPhone, iPad and Mac app that makes writing a focused experience instead of a tools heavy application wonderland. Focused on minimalism, the app – which has already sold over 300,000 copies, finds the pleasure in writing and “lets you keep your hands on the keyboard and your mind in the text.”

The popular Mac based app has now built a network so you can take your writing to any device and not have to worry about transferring files, searching or ensuring the correct content is being used. Designed by Information Architects, iA Writer comes with iCloud and Dropbox integration to ensure as you write anywhere it gets updated on all your devices. But it’s the sheer minimalism of the application that we love.

iA Writer has done what very few apps can do: removed the needless elements so you can focus on the task. Oliver Reichenstein of Information Architects says:

“iA Writer has no preferences. It is how it is. It works like it works. Love it or hate it. Its unique FocusMode allows me to think, spell and write at one sentence at a time. iA Writer is fast; it works without mouse. It automatically formats semantical entities such as headlines, lists, bold, strong, block quotes written in markdown.”

With innovative keyboard extensions, high resolution font experiences, customized text editing and wireless printing, iA Writer is the quintessential and most useful writing tool we’ve used. And now it’s available for all your favorite Apple devices with device connectivity. Get iA Writer for the iPad, iPhone and Mac at the App store.

Although meant for kids, we know everyone will get a kick out of using the Doodle Table Cloth. In Ontario there is a franchise called Jack Astors, they let you draw on your paper covered table while you have dinner with friends. There’s been countless times when dinner talk starts to peter out, but luckily a handy crayon would be near by to draw away until conversation starts back up for our team. Now kids love to do this, but designers, developers and pretty much anyone can bring the opportunity to draw stuff in the dining room home with the Doodle Table Cloth.

Made with 100% pre-shrunk cotton and printed to look like a giant graph paper with accompanying printed holes and red margins. The table cloth also comes with 8 washable markers and cleans right up in your washing machine. Children can draw while they eat, while user interface designers can be in another place where work can’t hide: It will now be uber-easy to put together a workflow diagram while eating and having your significant other preying for attention. While kids will have another place to express themselves creatively and what better way to encourage them with a dinner table they can draw on.

There are countless times where ideas come about and need to be set forth visually, the Doodle Cloth will let you express creativity at any moment even while eating supper with friends and family. Although not the most elegant dinner table accessory, it sure is a fun accessory.

A multitude of dating sites have popped up over the past few years to battle the likes of Match.com, eHarmony and Plenty Of Fish – some promise to help find love with those near by, while others are a bit off the wall: like find love based on shoes you buy. theComplete.me is a new way to find love: via your social media data.

theComplete.me has launched a Facebook app that analyzes your Facebook social graph and other social sites to find compatible matches for you. Using a Pinterest style interface, the app looks through items such as: Likes, interests, messages sent, profiles viewed, and connections to find possible companions. And for an even more immersive experience the application can also connect into your Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, Foursquare, GoodReads, Instragram and Photobucket accounts.

Once a compilation of possible dating partners are provided, users can click into each profile to see what you have in common so you can message them and possibly find love. Where theComplete.me is able to be better then the other new pop-up dating sites, is its integration with social media. No dating sites have had the entire compiled experience of a dating platform integrated into social life to determine compatibility. A sneaky little add-on as well is that the site will provide users the ability to attach their eHarmony, Match.com or Zoosk ID’s to their profiles to aggregate results and direct message these users for free instead of using the big-boys sites’.

We think there is a great place for dating via social media, it takes away the painful task of answering a series of questions and looks at what you do, rather than what you say you do or are. With some user interface upgrades and cleaned up styling, we think theComplete.me dating idea could be the future eHarmony.

What do you think? Would you use social media analytics as a basis for finding love?