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TODAY'S COCKTAIL OF TECH STARTUP STORIES:

Tech Cocktail

The latest cocktail of emerging technology news, people, startups, products, and innovations for the true tech enthusiast.

Borrow, Sell, and Build Community with Spare to Share
Failure Not an Option for Cluzee, Anish Patwa Marches On

Borrow, Sell, and Build Community with Spare to Share

12:00:22 PM

Guest Author

Think of it as the 21st century version of a grocery store bulletin board. Remember those boards that had the little cards where you could write (like with an actual pen) an ad, along with contact information, for something you were interested in selling or buying? We're talking long before Craigslist became the primary marketplace for such things. Now, with the hyper-local movement in full swing, a couple of entrepreneurs have come up with a smarter platform where friends and neighbors can lend/borrow/rent/sell with minimal risk involved.

Spare to Share is the brainchild of three entrepreneurs who, combined, bring a variety of skills and experience to the table. Greg Jaros has over 25 years of diversified experience in business operations, product development, application development, and information analytics. Prior to Spare to Share, he co-founded two other companies. Gint Rudis has had the entrepreneurial bug since childhood, and worked as a yield curve trader and a data/financial services management consultant. Last, but certainly not least, Samir Patel has over five years of experience in program management in the software and electronics space, primarily focused on internal and external client satisfaction.

The Spare to Share team wanted to create an online platform where people could exchange items, within a hyper-local setting. The platform aids people in connecting with others in their neighborhood, school, place of business, etc., who may have items they need. It also allows users to keep an inventory of items they are willing to share or sell.

The Spare to Share Mission (from their website):

Spare to Share will help people to make smarter ‘buy vs. access’ decisions when looking for items, space or services, allowing them to save money, make money (or goodwill), reduce waste & strengthen ties to the community.
We will accomplish this by creating a mobile database of items that people own but rarely use, and would be willing to share, rent or sell to family, friends, neighbors & people with which they have some real or implied level of trust within their local, social networks.

The platform offers a couple of unique features that are overlooked by their competition. First of all, it allows the user to keep and manage an inventory of items that they are offering. Unlike posting a one-time ad, it makes it easy for the lender/seller to see what items they have available, and for the potential borrower/buyer to look at everything in a particular person's inventory. A seller might have an item that the buyer didn't even know he needed!

Security was another concern in creating Spare to Share. Users can only share items with people who they invite into their personal network using a unique invite code. No need to meet a stranger at Starbucks to make an exchange happen.

Spare to Share will be showcasing at Tech Cocktail's Startup Mixer in Chicago on July 25^th at 1871. You can also vote for them for Who is Chicago's Hottest Showcasing Startup? The winning startup will go on to the next round and get the chance to qualify for Tech Cocktail Celebrate, our new national startup competition held in Downtown Vegas on October 23 - 25.

Guest author Kristin Pryor @kristinpryor is an archeologist by day and budding entrepreneur by night who is enthusiastically navigating her way through the DC startup space. She has an unending passion for learning and is never satisfied with the status quo. Her current obsessions include wine, hiking, and Downton Abbey.

The post Borrow, Sell, and Build Community with Spare to Share appeared first on Tech Cocktail

Failure Not an Option for Cluzee, Anish Patwa Marches On

10:00:18 AM

Will Schmidt

Over the last year, the road for Cluzee, a product from Anish Patwa and Tronton LLC, has not been paved in gold. But then, rare is the road that is free of speed bumps in the life of a startup.

The moment of importance comes when these startups have to deal with difficulty: their true entrepreneurial spirits are shown. So we got in touch with Cluzee, after covering them last year, and saw the true colors of Patwa, Tronton, and Cluzee: failure is not an option for them.

Tech Cocktail: Are you making solid progress attaining your initial goal to provide users the same services they could expect from a real assistant?

Anish Patwa: The obvious answer is that we are still not there. It will take a while to physically replace a human assistant, so our long-term competition is strongly outlined for us. Our short-term competition, Google Now and Siri, is not slowing us down as we work toward that goal.

Moving forward, we are adding more people to the team, growing Cluzee, and making the platform more attractive. We have tons of good features in the app, and we receive plenty of positive feedback from our users.

However, at the end of the day, we still have a lot of work to do - there is always more to be done.

Tech Cocktail: And what would you say to those who have been dissatisfied with Cluzee?

Patwa: Just like any app, we do receive negative comments. Let me first say that it is difficult to address all of them because we lack the relevant context surrounding the complaint - what devices they use, what exactly happens, etc.

However, we always listen and respond to the constructive criticisms people want to offer. That includes replying to their comments both physically and with the countless updates we have been rolling out on the platform.

Tech Cocktail: So, what changes have you made to Cluzee in the last year?

Patwa: One of the biggest points of change has been adapting Cluzee to understand natural language better. We wanted to give it a personality so it could actually talk about different things, like who the US president is. Our users want to talk to Cluzee on a daily basis like they would a friend.

On the back end, we have spent time beefing up the coding. That requires a lot of time and manpower, but it is how we will make Cluzee more relevant and user-friendly in the long term.

Tech Cocktail: Are you still confident in your decision to develop only on Android OS?

Patwa: Definitely, and in the short-term, we will remain on Android. Our users are happy with the Android choice, and we have been able to build freely on it over the last year. There is a Windows desktop version in development, but the business side of things is currently taking a bit longer than anticipated.

Cluzee will be featured at Tech Cocktail’s Chicago Mixer & Startup Showcase on July 25th.

The post Failure Not an Option for Cluzee, Anish Patwa Marches On appeared first on Tech Cocktail