Quotidian Ventures

Wow, New York, what an amazing week! We are still recovering from the conference over here at Quotidian Labs, but I am happy to say my voice is slowly returning. We are so grateful to everyone who helped make our booth at TechCrunch Disrupt the place to be! 

First, a huge “thank you” to our friends at SPiN who generously allowed us to use their ping pong tables, and to their super fun staff who may or may not have beat us at ping pong more than once.

Thanks to Casey Opstad, our incredible chalk artist who graced us with his presence to draw live portraits of our awesome ping pong pro players!

Our supremely talented photographers Zach Jopling, Samantha Marble, and Ilya Savenok rocked our photo booth- here’s proof…

We had a blast hanging out with the amazing crew that kept us company at the Quotidian Ventures Startup Village: Tripl, FieldLens, Amicus, Clip, SponsorHub, Knodes, Docracy, BrightNest, Matchbook, WeHostels, Locu, BrassMonkey, Artsicle, Videolicious, and HackNY. 

Also keeping us company were the lovely ladies of ImageThink, quick draw artists Heather Klar and Nora Herting.  If you missed the conference and live feed, or just felt like your brain might explode from too much awesome content, check out the gallery below for a distilled down version of session highlights. 

In hackathon news…Congratulations to Ave B Labs, who snagged the Knodes hackathon prize of 1,000 $1 bills, and a $250 JetBlue credit for YourQ, a hack with a super-slick UI for getting answers from your personal network based on relevance and location (in cases where location is relevant). Watch their demo here.

The Knodes Honorable mention went to Frank Denbow for his his hilarious hack “Unfriend.ly”.

Finally, a thank you to the TechCrunch disrupt team who worked tirelessly to make sure everything ran smoothly, in particular, the lovely Leslie Hitchcock and Jamie Quiocho. Thanks ladies! 

And now- we are beach bound for the holiday weekend to recover from all the awesomeness- we suggest you do the same. Happy barbecuing! 

Why you care: 

Starting (and running) a company can lead to reams of paperwork. Docracy aims to make the paperwork in your life free, trustworthy, and collaborative, so you can minimize your legal bills and maximize your ability to handle the other 999 things on your plate.

Nearing the one year anniversary of their big win at the 2011 TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon last May, the Docracy team has a lot to celebrate. Founder Matt Hall graced us with his virtual presence from across the river at their Brooklyn office to answer the important questions that keep us up at night. 

Behind the Magic:

John and Matt ran a mobile company Larva Labs before getting so irritated by dealing with contracts that they decided to write a prototype of Docracy at a hackathon. It won and through people they met there they eventually were able to work on it full time.

What’s in a name? 

It used to be called “Dococracy” and miraculously the shorter Docracy was available, so we jumped on it. I’m so happy that was resolved early as we’ve struggled with names in other projects.

Its like this for that: 

It’s GitHub for legal documents, with free e-signing.

Their teams this big: 

4, including founders.

Company Theme Song: 

Don’t know, but we have several animated gifs that are probably some sort of mascot.

Your team’s ping pong skill level from 1 (novice) to 10 (fierce): 

Probably a 3.

The company Docracy wants to be when it grows up: 

GitHub? Hard to say.

You totally hate to brag but…

The best example of how Docracy works is the AIGA documents for designers: http://blog.docracy.com/post/18616831831/aiga-standard-agreement-for-designers-now-on-docracy They’re a great set of designer friendly documents that you can now easily customize and sign on the site.

Describe the best part of working in a startup:

Getting to do every kind of job and (almost) no meetings. 

Do you feel like your startup has benefited from being based in New York? How so?

The community here is very supportive and generally populated by people who want to live in NY first, and found a startup second. It makes for a great mix of people.

Describe the moment of inspiration when your idea for your startup was born.

We received an NDA from a small tech company in our previous startup and I got so irritated that I was going to have to read yet another NDA in a word doc. It drove us crazy that there wasn’t a better way.

Disclaimer: Quotidian Ventures is an investor in Docracy. 

Docracy is made with love in Brooklyn, NY. Find out what their up to on their blog, or by following them on twitter. Find them in person at the TechCrunch Disrupt NYC Hackathon this weekend, or at the Quotidian Ventures Startup Village from May 21-23rd. 

Why You Care: Fickle decorators- this one is for you. Artsicle makes it super easy (and affordable!) to rent pieces of all shapes and sizes from local and emerging artists month to month- so you can change your mind as often as you’d like. When you find the perfect addition to your home that you never want to let go- you don’t have to- buy the pieces you love in just a few clicks. 

Co-founder Alex Tryon dishes about quitting her day job, pulling all-nighters to launch product, and how NYC is intrinsically tied to Artsicle’s DNA. 

Behind the Magic: Alexis Tryon (CEO, @AlexisTryon) & Scott Carleton (CTO, @ScotterC). Alexis has been passionate about art since childhood, and after a few years at American Express knew it was time to find her way back. Scott has a background in nuclear engineering, but found himself with the itch to build something from scratch so he started learning Ruby on Rails. They left their day jobs to found Artsicle in November 2010 and never looked back.  

Quirky story/fun fact about your company name?  We came up with more names than I can count - MoCA, Artconomy, Auture - and tested them out on people along the way. We knew Artsicle was the one to keep when people would come up to me and say “I’m sorry, I can’t remember your name - but you do Artsicle right?”. 

Its Like This for That: It’s like Netflix for Art 

Number of employees: 4

Company Theme Song: I Wanna Dance with Somebody - we’re still honoring the memory of Whitney. 

Ping Pong Skill Level from 1 (novice) to 10 (fierce):  Mostly 3’s, with a 6 1/2 in the mix

Company Artsicle Wants to be When it Grows Up:  Zappos. We want to bring art collecting into the 21st century - with expanded access, price transparency, and most importantly top notch customer service. 

You Hate to Brag but…We’re excited to be showcasing a group of our amazing artists this summer at Gallery Bar - stay tuned for an invitation to a killer summer kickoff party! 

The Day We Launched:  We launched the first version of Artsicle as an art rental platform on March 1st, 2011. We’d done a few pre-release interviews and knew press would be hitting early that morning. Around 10pm the night before we (just Scott & Alex at this point) felt like we had all the kinks worked out, so the real work started - adding artwork for over 30 artists by hand. At 5am the first article hit and we had to stop uploading because we were getting slammed with questions on live chat. At 1pm, March 2nd, a group of 40 MBA students from Chicago walked into Dogpatch Labs and asked if we would talk to them about what it was like to start a company. We were blurry eyed, un-showered, in Artsicle hoodies, and about 15 hours overdue for a meal - so I have a feeling they got the idea of what startups are really like! 

Describe the moment of inspiration when your idea for your startup was born. Like many startups, Artsicle didn’t start as what it is today. Initially, we were building a side project focused on micro-finance for artists - a kickstarter for the visual arts of sorts. We quickly realized that didn’t serve our real goal - of getting original artwork on more walls, with more artists able to make a living on their work. Instead we launched a simple, curated online gallery. A few months later we had our “aha moment”: people aren’t afraid of buying art online, they’re afraid of buying art! We asked ourselves how we could sell art without the scary, commitment part and art rentals were born. 

Do you feel like your startup has benefited from being based in New York? How so? Artsicle is the kind of company who’s DNA is tied to this city. NYC has some of the best artistic talent in the world, so highly condensed that it makes it hard for artists to break through the noise. We’ve been able to build relationships with an incredible art community, recruit top quality talent (both in artists and for our team!), and work with some of the pickiest art consumers in the country. As they say, if you can make it here you can make it anywhere! 

Disclaimer: Quotidian Ventures is an investor in Artsicle. 

Artsicle is made with love in NYC. Keep up to date by following them on twitter. We recommend playing the Artsicle Discovery Game (like Hot or Not for art),  we’re totally addicted!. 

Every week we bring you a glimpse into the startup life with profiles of young companies to watch!

Why You Should Care: Because they know the value of your social networks better than you do- and are dedicated to helping you realize it’s potential. They have recently partnered with Quotidian Ventures to create the Knodes Fund, a $250,000 fund to support amazing products and entrepreneurs who have implemented the Knodes API. Applications begin May 1st! 

Knodes co-founder Ron tries to scare us out of quitting our day jobs (not gonna happen), and demystifies the meaning of BDAAS (its not what you think).

Behind the Magic:

Ron J Williams aka @ronjdub is a Brooklyn native, active mentor, speaker, comedy lover and consummate question asker. He reps for education reform, loves speed (motorcycles, snowboarding) and can hold his own in a cypher. He brunches HARD. He thinks he invented the word “consistify.”

John Goodwin aka @johnnygoods builds stuff that makes lives better. Because he wears glasses, he usually builds that stuff with a computer. Sometimes he builds that stuff in a kitchen with fire.  Brooklyn-born but variously raised, John is made for startups even though he used to work for the Man.  He DEFINITELY coined the term BDAAS (pronounced Bad Ass)…Big Data as a Service.

Knodes founders Ron (left) and John (right) show off their fancy swag. 

What’s In A Name? We always crowdsource feedback on names. An early leader in the running was Whyzome or Yzome as in the “why” chromosome. Correction: this was never a leader in anyone’s mind except Ron’s. And further, people categorically panned every other name we came up with. Crowd UNfavorites included Knowdar, YoNome, Knownome, smartPoke, and Wonkly. We didn’t even have Knodes on the list. At the 11th hour about 2 days before demoing in front of NY tech meetup crowd, we pulled Knowledge Nodes (for CS concept of nodes) together into Knodes.

It’s Like This for That: Knodes is like Twilio for Social Data-based insights.

Number of Employees: 3

Company Theme Song: Tangerine (Remix) by Big Boi 

Ping Pong Skill Level from 1 (novice) to 10 (fierce): 6, sober. 8, buzzed. 2, tipsy.

Company Knodes wants to be when you grow up: Any company Jeff Bezos would be proud to sit on the board of.

We hate to brag but…We are on track to turn on our first 3 major API customers and declare revenue this summer.

In one word describe the fuel your team runs on: Possibilities (read: caffeine)

How do you stay inspired with the ups and downs of startup life? We keep a firm grasp on WHY we are building. We constantly check in to make sure we are enjoying the ride. We have an extended family of smart people who tell us like it is. And we take time to celebrate the small victories.

What advice would you give to someone considering leaving a corporate job to launch a startup? Don’t do it. Don’t leave your stable, well defined career. Don’t leave your 401K because you’re in love with startups, the concept. If any of this made you actually consider not leaving, then SERIOUSLY don’t leave.

Knodes is made with love at Quotidian Labs in New York City. Follow them on twitter! 

Disclaimer: Quotidian Ventures is an investor in Knodes.

Every week we bring you a glimpse into the startup life with profiles of young companies to watch!

From top, clockwise: The cool room; Astor the office dog; Happy birthday Brian! 

Another exciting week at Quotidian Labs. Here’s what you missed! 

• Operation Make the Stage:Knodes and Quotidian Ventures have both submitted panels to Internet Week NY 2012. In Knodes’ discussion, The Super Social Graph: More Than Likes + Faces, which features the illustrious Ron Williams, Ron will feed you popcorn as he enlightens us with his not-so-secret plans to use the enormous amount of social data that currently exists to do something more meaningful than show you faces of friends of friends that liked the same site as you. The Quotidian Ventures panel, How Hiring is Like Dating, and How to Get Lucky features an awesome cast of recruiting experts and founders who have conquered the trials and tribulations of early stage hiring, including David Lifson of General Assembly, Seth Bannon of Amicus, Jonathan Basker of Betaworks, and Doug Chambers of FieldLens. Please vote up! 
• The Nap Cool Room: The new it location at Quotidian Labs. Complete with beanbags, and don’t worry, the table is just a secret compartment for our video games. 
• Decorating for the indecisive: We can’t wait for our white walls to get a major upgrade in coming weeks when we get decked out by Artsicle! We had a lovely consultation and  have played the discovery game for hours on end. An awesome way to decorate with out the commitment of having to buy pieces! 
• Facebook <3 instagram: In case you have been under a rock this week- you’ll know that Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion. News quickly spread through the labs, leading to our Overheard at Quotidian Labs moment of the week: “The tech bubble has finally burst.” 

Disclaimer: Quotidian Ventures is an investor in Artsicle. 

Each Friday, we bring you a shenanigans-filled update on the happenings from Quotidian Labs.

Behind the magic: Caren Maio, Matt Raoul, and Mike O’Toole are veteran apartment renters who have become deeply acquainted with the stress and time-consumption of apartment hunting. They set out to streamline this process with Nestio, a web and mobile app that provides users with an easy way to organize listings from any site in one central place, collaborate with roommates and friends, and see additional information on every listing saved. Nestio graduated from the first NYC class of TechStars, an elite mentorship-driven start-up accelerator and seed fund. The Nestio team was part of the TechStars reality show that aired on Bloomberg Television in Fall 2011.

Why you care: Apartment hunting in NYC is your number one most hated activity. Coordinating with your busy roommates is next to impossible, and Craigslist is full of lies. So are realtors. Face it - the forces of the real estate industry are against you- but Nestio is here to help.

Nestio founder Caren Maio talks about her team’s past life in advertising, why picking a company name from the Scrabble dictionary isn’t the best idea she’s ever had, and how Nestio is determined to help you find your next dream apartment as painlessly as possible.

What’s in a name? We ran through the Scrabble Dictionary in an attempt to come up with something quirky and fun - to no avail. We all really liked the word “nest,” and wanted that to be the root of whatever name we came up with. One day we were rattling off names and one of us blurted it out - Nestio. That was it.

It’s Like This for That: It’s like TripIt for Real Estate

Number of employees: 5

Company Theme Song: See link.

Ping Pong Skill Level from 1 (novice) to 10 (fierce): Are negative numbers allowed?

Company you want to be when you grow up: Nestio. All grown up.

Tell us about an exciting recent success you can’t help but brag about:: We recently made an awesome new hire. He’s a good friend, a really smart developer, and also a great designer. We’re thrilled to have him on board! 

In one word describe your best startup/entrepreneurial asset: Team.

What one person or asset would you describe as your team’s secret weapon? We’re solving a real pain point for our users - and that’s amazing. Apartment hunting can be a terrible, daunting process - and we’re committed to fixing that. We’re very familiar with the problem we’re solving, and every feature of our product was created from actual problems we’ve experienced at one time or another on our past apartment hunts.

What did you do in your “past life” and how did it prepare you for starting a company? The three of us (Caren, Matt & Mike) come from the advertising industry, but we were all doing various things and have very different, but complementary, skill sets (strategic, creative, and technical backgrounds, respectively) that blend together perfectly. We’re always learning from each other and we have a great time in the process.

Nestio is made with love at Quotidian Labs in New York City. Follow them on twitter! 

Disclaimer: Quotidian Ventures is an investor in Nestio.

Every week we bring you a glimpse into the startup life with profiles of young companies to watch!

Vote to help our panel Make the Stage for Internet Week NY!

Hiring is a lot like dating. You go on a seemingly endless parade of first dates that lead nowhere with candidates that looked like something special on paper, but lack that special something in real life. And you can totally tell their profile picture is from 6 years ago.

You are searching for someone you really click with, someone whose strengths compliment yours, but don’t necessarily overlap. Someone who will laugh at your bad jokes, and tell you when you have food in your proverbial teeth. A designer who tells you “no” because they know better.

Early stage hiring is just one hurdle on a long list of those that founders face. Building a great team takes patience, perseverance, and good karma. Anticipating your long term needs can be challenging to start with- but what about when non-technical founders are faced with hiring a lead developer? Or when a technical founder is charged with hiring for a business development position?

We know it’s tough out there.

Join us as we share war stories and hear the experts weigh in on what you can do to attract better talent, know it when you’ve found it, how to make it last.

Panelists include:

• David Lifson, Director of Student Outcomes, General Assembly
• Doug Chambers, CEO, FieldLens
• TBC
• TBC
• TBC

Moderator: Pedro Torres Picón

Vote to help our panel Make the Stage for Internet Week NY!

Behind the magic: Founders Dave Small, Matt Sena, and Doug Chambers have a combined 463 years experience in the worlds of enterprise application development, commercial construction, and finance. Because they are old. Very old. But don’t let their old age fool you; they are the perfect trio to tackle big problems in a massive industry.

Why you care: FieldLens has their work cut out for them. They plan to eliminate a $40 billion waste of resources in the construction industry. How? By building fun mobile apps that make communication on job sites second nature, and eliminating the antiquated workflows that breed miscommunication and cause costly mistakes.

We had the chance to catch up with FieldLens founder Doug and get some answers to our burning questions.

What’s In a Name?
It’s a funny time to discuss our name because we are currently getting bombarded with godaddy expiration notices for all of the domains we bought back in June of 2011 when we were trying to come up with a name. We knew we wanted Field-something or something-Field, because we are solving Field collaboration and communication breakdowns in the Construction Industry. Suffice it to say we are now receiving hilarious reminders of the names that didn’t make it: Field4Ward, FieldLinked, FieldSharp, etc.

It’s Like This for That:  It’s like Yammer designed specifically for the Construction Industry.

Team Size: 8 plus two great partners: Charming Robot (UX & Design) and Touchlab (Android Development)

Company Theme Song: Lita Ford - Kiss Me Deadly (it’s a long story)

Ping Pong Skill Level from 1 - novice to 10-fierce: 2 (at best)

Describe in one word the feeling you had with your first funding: Beginning.

Company you want to be when you grow up: In a lot of ways Salesforce - they revolutionized a business process and turned themselves into a platform that has enabled a ton of innovation (and success) for other technology companies.

Tell us about an exciting recent success you can’t help but brag about: We are close to releasing our first product and the feedback from customers regarding our user experience has been outstanding: “looks so easy to use,” “design looks great,” and “it’s beautiful” are real feedback. It is incredibly gratifying because we are working really hard to solve difficult problems but still provide an app that feels as fun as the best consumer apps on the market.

If your company was bought by Google for $50 million, what’s the first thing you would do? Day 1: Drink Heavily. Day 2: Start another one.

What has been the most exciting or rewarding moment since founding FieldLens? There is not one moment, but there is a theme surrounding the most rewarding moments: team building. Doug and Matt are best friends, so the day we decided to have a go at this was awesome. Adding Dave was a watershed moment: not only did we find a technical co-founder, Dave is a perfect fit in terms of attitude, work ethic, and experience. Partnering with Dan, Chris & the Charming Robot crew as well as Kevin & the TouchLab crew were critical successes too. And seeing the hard work of Gordon, Joe, Cory, Joanna, and Jennifer come together to form FieldLens is incredible every day.

Disclaimer: Quotidian Ventures is an investor in FieldLens.

FieldLens is made with love in NYC at Quotidian Labs. Stay up to date by following them on twitter and checking out their killer blog. For more info about FieldLens, see their awesome coverage in Business Insider.

Every Tuesday we bring you a glimpse into the startup life with profiles of young companies to watch!