CaptureProof – The platform through which patients can securely and easily share photos and videos with their doctors.

HIPOM – A cloud-based solution that gives parents total control of the Internet access on all devices in the home.

Nexercise – A mobile app that makes fitness fun through the use of friendly competition, smart alerts and real rewards.

Pathful – A Web analytics platform that captures every visitor interaction with every element on a website automatically, making it easier for marketers and designers to understand visitor behavior.

Peoplematics – A cloud-based search platform that unlocks the data users store in the cloud with intuitive search and sharing across applications.

Project Fixup – A digital matchmaker that fixes people up on fun one-on-one dates.

SimpleRelevance – An analytics-driven email marketing platform that provides customized digital communication for every customer and every message.

SocialCrunch – The marketing data provider presents a new way to unlock the most provocative human insights for brands and their agencies.

Sqord, Inc. – The fitness platform that makes healthy, active play more fun for kids by allowing them to compete and earn points for everyday activities.

TradingView – A browser-based community for investors and traders to share and discuss their ideas.

Recently described as the job hunting child of eHarmony and LinkedIn, Good.Co helps people who aspire for greater meaning in their careers. The company helps users discover their unique personality mix, see how they fit with teams/peers, thrive in their current job or find a better fit. Today, the team finished the TechStars Cloud 2013 program. Let’s catch up with Samar Birwadker, founder and CEO. Try the service here with the access code goodcof&f.

Q: There are a few companies trying to build the same product as Good.co. Was there a personal experience that made you want to get behind the science on company / employee fit?
A: Completely. I took a new job early last year at an advertising agency. They had courted me for a couple of months and I had really done my research about them. A couple of months into the position, I felt like it was a terrible culture fit for me. I came from a strategy background and they were very far over on the creative field side. I wasn’t a good fit for them either. Someone else would have worked a lot better in that position.

Q: So how does Good.co match employees to the right employer or teams? What is the expectation?
A: Gen Y is changing the nature of the workplace. There’s a level of transparency that’s required at work now and you expect a certain level of self-discovery too. Coming from a consumer insights background, what we did was pull our SWAT team together. We have a brilliant psychologist on staff and we worked on creating a fun, engaging, and most importantly, accurate model of testing personality and behavior traits. Within fifteen questions in under three minutes, people can identify their personality archetype and they can also find out how their personalities match with their manager and team with a ‘fit score.’ We can advise them or help them find a job that are going to a solid fit. Using all of their data, we also created open source profiles of the companies too. If you were looking at your next job opportunity, it’s about your individual ambitions and goals. Our idea is to build an open-source culture graph where matching employees to employers is entirely seamless.

Q: Is there a serious market for this?
A:  Yes. 46% of all new hires will fail within their first 19 months of employment. That means nearly one out of every two new hires either quits or is fired in less than a year and a half. A failed employee averages the company a cost of $50,000. These employees weren’t necessarily bad people – they were simply a bad fit for the company and the team they were working with.

Q: I think anyone that has been in the working world for a significant amount of time can relate to working at the wrong company.
A: Right. The thing is, it doesn’t have to be that way! We have seven brave souls working round the clock. We have decoded the science behind workplace happiness using 20+ years of empirical research. Our tool is great for the employee, who is more likely to find a job that will become a long-term career. And it’s great for the employer, who will save themselves the time and money associated with bad hiring decisions.

Cloud Options, a company currently in TechStars Cloud’s second class, allows you to pre-book future cloud usage, securing lower prices on payment terms that suit you. They remove common enterprise irritations like a requirement to pay in advance or by credit card. Cloud customers can now accurately budget for their planned usage. Cloud Options is a product offering by Strategic Blue. I talked with James Mitchell, CEO and founder.

Q: Your service isn’t new and you already have paying customers. What was it about TechStars Cloud that compelled you to apply to the program?
A: We were looking for an incubator to guide us in sorting out our branding, to help us understand how to build processes and lastly, to have an organized way to seal our funding round. We had high expectations beginning the program and we continue to be blown away by everything we have learned during our time here.

Q: In GigaOM, you’re quoted as saying you foresee a world where you can secure a fixed price for your future cloud usage and not have to choose a provider that same day. How do you articulate your service to an audience unfamiliar with the lay of the land?
A: There’s a fundamental flaw in the economics of cloud computing and Cloud Options is fixing it. As an analogy, when you’re booking a flight, you don’t buy book a seat on every flight for the next  year on a particular route just for yourself, you prebook just what you will need. You also know that buying the ticket at the airport is a bad idea, as the price is higher if you don’t pre-book. The current cloud computing pay structures are a recipe for paying over-the-odds.

Q: What is the experience like for a user without the customization of Cloud Options?
A: Right now, cloud buyers either risk overbuying or they just buy on demand and miss out on the discount for pre-booking. Most cloud computing companies are selling most of their capacity at the “at the airport” price. This doesn’t suit anyone, not even the cloud providers as they can’t plan their capacity very well. We want cloud buyers to be able to book their cloud usage a brick at a time; we then pre-purchase entire walls of usage from the providers. A year is a long time for any business to predict their cloud needs. By offering a fixed price, in advance, for a few months of future usage, in the right currency, we allow the CTO to give a reliable budget to the CFO.

@TechStars NYC 2013 Class /via @eyc (read)

After series of pivots, @HaikuDeck scores $3 million to make presentation tools fun /via @GeekWire (read)  

@EveryMove just closed a $3.5M round of funding to keep empowering consumers to be recognized for healthy choices (read)

Lessons Learned From A Mobile App Developer feat. @MSAccel‘s @giftgiv /via @Forbes (read)

Taking you from zero to kitchen hero with @plated, currently in @techstars NYC. /via @nytimes (read)

Energy Department Announces Apps for Vehicles Winners, incl. @dash_labs, currently in @techstars NYC (read)

The 11 Startups Chosen For New York’s @TechStars 2013 /via @Forbes (read)

On Effort, Unity and Strength: @AdYapper to Join @TechStars NYC /via @BuiltinChicago (read)

@TechStars: The All You Can Eat Lobster Buffet /via @HuffPostBiz (read)

How We Got Into @TechStars by @AllysonDowney of @wee_spring /via @women2 (read)

@FashionProjct, The Site Making Online Shopping A Charitable Act, Raises $1.8M /via @TechCrunch (read)

@Plated raises $1.3 million in funding: Slotted to be the @warbyparker of the food industry /via Venture Wire (read) 

@AllysonDowney of @wee_spring On How to Network /via @HuffPostBlog (read)

Investors Stay Hungry for Online Groceries In Relay Foods Deal feat. @plated /via WSJ (read)

[VIDEO] Q&A with @ktrae of @techstars Boston /via Founders Workbench (watch)

@TechStars NYC alum @FrederickCook of @Moveline to Speak at NY Venture Challenge /via @xconomy (read)

[VIDEO] @Scobleizer interviews @immersivelabs (watch)

@PivotDesk cuts the ribbon on its office-sharing marketplace in NYC, San Fran, Denver, and Boulder /via @pandodaily (read)

Space Is a Bitch: @PivotDesk Helps Entrepreneurs Turn Office Scouting From Pain Point to Cakewalk /via WSJ (read)

@InGoodCo: the job-hunting lovechild of @eharmony and @linkedin /via @pandodaily (read)

@TechStars chooses serial Ed Tech entrepreneur for first Kaplan @EdTechAccel in NYC /via @upstartbusiness (read)

@PivotDesk expands to NYC and San Francisco, helping solve startup-specific problems with office space /via @tnw (read)

VF Profiles: Learning Without Borders: @Codeship CEO & Co-Founder, Moritz “Mo” Plassnig /via @VentureFizz (read)

Catching up with @Sketchfab Co-founder Alban Denoyel /via @Make (read)

Team @Jukely Joins @TechStars NYC To Iterate A Mobile App For Live Show Discovery /via @hypebot (read)

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Today, TechStars London has been approved as a Recognised Seed Competition in the UK; which combined with the Techstars total investment of £75k ($118k) effectively provides entrepreneurs sufficient points to qualify for a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) Visa.  TechStars London’s newly approved status will allow TechStars to offer any team from anywhere in the world a place on a TechStars programme and continued support locally after the programme.

The approval will allow TechStars London teams from outside of the EU, to work in the UK for up to 3 years and towards the end of this period, can apply to extend their stay by a further 2 years if they want to continue living here.  Furthermore teams, after 3 years have the right to apply for permission to settle in the UK if their business has created at least 10 new full-time jobs in the UK.  Partners and children of the teams can also apply for settlement.

The UK’s progressive approach to immigration for startups and entrepreneurs provides TechStars London the certainty required to accept teams from outside of the EU; knowing that TechStars can continue to support them beyond the 13 weeks of the accelerator programme in the UK.  Combined with tax incentives for both investors and entrepreneurs, the UK is becoming a real alternative for ambitious entrepreneurs from around the world while the US debates with its immigration policies.

Immigration policy and its impact upon the location of a startup when it is seed funded has an increasingly massive influence upon how and where the startup evolves.  An excellent example of this is GrabCAD from Estonia which participated TechStars Boston in 2011.  GrabCAD’s initial seed round in Estonia was less than 2% of the total $15m funds raised, yet 40% of their employees are based in Estonia.  Another example of this is the massively successful Huddle, who are one of the original members of TechCity community in London.  To date, Huddle have raised a total of $40m, of which 10% was raised locally in their seed and A rounds – yet today 75% of their employees are based in London.

If you are team from outside of the US and want to participate in TechStars’s awesome mentor led programme, don’t hesitate, apply to TechStars London today.

Early stage startups should generally remain flexible on valuation. If you set your valuation too high, you run the risk of filtering out investors you might really want.

When startups are focused exclusively on price above all, the best investors often self-select out. If you set it too low, you can send a signal that you don’t know what you’re doing. Either way, you’re signaling inflexibility and sending a message that valuation matters more to you than building the best possible team.

For startups, I generally advocate not going to the investor market asking for a specific valuation. Instead, go with a specific amount of money that you want to raise that is appropriate for your stage and your audience. Pitch your company and your vision and you will start the conversation off with excitement and opportunity.

Let the valuation come to you early on by going out to the market with extreme flexibility. Focus on looking for great investors. The response that I always recommend startups use when investors ask about valuation expectations early on is “I’m expecting it to be a valuation appropriate for our market and our stage, but I value the investors and what they bring to the table so I’m flexible.”

Recognize that many investors ask this question early on just to figure out if you have a clue or not, and they realize that they’ll ultimately drive pricing anyway unless there is heavy competition for the financing round.

The best way to build momentum is to get someone excited about what you’re doing. Often this person will turn into your “lead” investor. Then you can work with that investor to get an offer or negotiate a valuation. Of course there are some situations where you would eventually want to set the valuation.

For example, in a round where there is no clear lead investor but there is enough soft commitment around the table to complete the round, you can work with the most influential investor to set a mutually acceptable valuation. Then you would seek input from the second-most influential person, then the third-most influential, and so on down the line.

Generally speaking, you want to avoid going to market in a “valuation first” fashion. By remaining flexible, you’ll demonstrate that you value the investors you’re pitching to and you will start the conversation off on the right foot.

This post recently appeared on The Accelerators at the Wall Street Journal, where startup mentors discuss strategies and challenges of creating a new business.

Meet Don Burton, the new Managing Director of the Kaplan EdTech Accelerator, powered by TechStars. Don has a storied background that includes time as a Consultant at McKinsey and Company, an M & A Associate at Goldman Sachs and Director of Business Development for the Walt Disney, Disney Education Group. He founded ParentPartners.com which was acquired by Washington Post & Kaplan. He also served as President and CEO of the Global Education Network (GEN). He founded A-Ha! Learning Center, a play and learning center for children and their families in New York City and eebee’s Adventures, a baby media company.

Don is a life long entrepreneur and in addition to his own entrepreneurial activities, he’s an active angel investor. He invested in Late Night Labs that was recently acquired by MacMillan. He is on the advisory board for the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Don recently came to Boulder to spend time with our whole team. it was clear to us from his background that he would bring a unique perspective and a great deal of passion with him and everyone is excited to have him join our ranks.

Don just completed a whole series of Founder Information Sessions focused on the Kaplan EdTech Accelerator with the team from TechStars and Kaplan. Many founders had the chance to meet and interact with him. He has deep experience in the EdTech space and we are excited to have him onboard to run the Kaplan EdTech Accelerator program. If you’re considering an application, you have until April 14th, 2013 to submit your application. Time’s running out.

Currently in TechStars Cloud, Postmaster is a SaaS API for shipping that makes integration with UPS, FedEx, and USPS easy. They make it simple for e-commerce businesses to integrate a robust logistical pipeline that saves time and money on shipping. I called Luke Dodson, founder, to talk about the days leading up to demo day.

Q: How long has Postmaster been live?
A: Jesse Lovelace and I have been working on it for six months together and we just officially launched our public offering two weeks ago.

Q: Who can use Postmaster?
A: Our restful API makes creating a shipment, tracking a package, or validating an address a breeze. We use standard HTTP verbs to operate on resources and HTTP authentication to make authorization a snap. We have client libraries for Python, Ruby, PHP, Java and Go.

Q: The product is really technical. Which mentors helped you communicate what you’re selling?
A: Isaac from SendGrid has been a big help. He’s helped with key introductions and general feedback that’s been really instructive. He introduced us to the CTO of Shopify and we had a very valuable conversation. Isaac had suggestions on how to couch the offering to developers specifically since he does so much work in his day-to-day getting developers to adopt. Scott Petrie’s general business savvy and feedback has been really important He’s the kind of person whose life experience offers a lot to a young startup like us. There are so many incredible mentors but Isaac and Scott are the two that stand out for me.

Q: Crafting the pitch, what’s the story you plan to tell the audience on demo day?
A: We say, “Postmaster is a low-level rest API that simplifies integrations with FedEx, UPS and USPS.” We solve the developer painpoint of integration with those companies. You can think about it like Stripe, but for shipping. I come from an e-commerce background and understand the pain and cost associated with the industry. Driving down any kind of shipping cost is great for the bottom line. Jesse is more technical and understands the outdated headwinds better. It will be about communicating our combined expertise.

Q: What happens after demo day?
A: We will go home to Austin to set up our offices at Capital Factory, a co-working space and incubator.

Follow @postmaster_io

Cockiness is simply false confidence. It’s acting confident without anything to back it up. At first glance, cockiness and confidence can sometimes look very similar. But once you start asking for details, it becomes much easier to tell the difference.

When I’m in an investor meeting with an entrepreneur who says something that sounds cocky, I don’t immediately make a judgment — I just ask for backup on their statement. If the entrepreneur then goes on to say, “I’ve done this research, here’s some data, let me show you,” that’s confidence. A cocky person will respond with something along the lines of: “I just know it.”

I once met an investor who said he could tell if a startup was going to be successful within the first five minutes of meeting the founders. But of course, he had no data, no algorithm, no track record to back up his statement. Cocky people never say where their self-assuredness comes from, they’ll just assert something without supporting it. Once you start asking for details, you can sense that they’re hiding something. Confident people, on the other hand, are willing to answer any question and go deep on what they’re confident about. Since they’ve done the work, they don’t have anything to hide or cover up.

Another indicator of cockiness is that it usually sounds like bragging, whereas a confident person tends to come across as humble. When meeting with investors, your confidence and humility will shine through if you’ve done the work and have the data to back up your claims.

This post recently appeared on The Accelerators at the Wall Street Journal, where startup mentors discuss strategies and challenges of creating a new business.

Outsourcing is broken. It’s risky, painful and most projects fail. Currently finishing TechStars Cloud’s 2013 program, Ziptask is designed from the ground up as a virtual project manager for reliable outsourced work. I spoke with Shawn Livermore, founder and CEO, and Stan Miroshnik, COO.

Q: So you outsource outsourcing. That’s so meta. What’s your pitch?
Stan:  We provide a management layer for customers to outsource work without ever needing to speak with the end freelancers who do the work. We bring together illustrators, designers, developers, content managers, and SEO people to deliver an end-to-end solution. People outsourcing work just want to simplify their lives and it’s too cumbersome and complex. They end up in a place where they are fed up and say, “Fine, I’ll just do it myself,” or they hire a full time employee. It doesn’t have to be so complicated.

Q: You’re creating jobs and improving the economy, all the while guaranteeing the bottom line for companies. The competition is usually international and the customer has to manage their own relationships. How do you differentiate what you’re offering?
Stan: If you’ve ever tried online outsourcing, you know it’s broken. It’s broken because you don’t know the experience of the people you’re considering for the job, you have no barometer of quality and you still face the risks of the contractor disappearing entirely or delivering poor  work. It’s a nightmare. To frame the industry in the space, we’re becoming a layer on top of everything to manage the entire process of an outsourced project; communications, collaborating and payment.
Shawn: We’re a platform where customers come to find project managers who are experienced in a certain vertical or a platform used for a combination of customer and project management. We offer advanced tools that let our customers execute well. Imagine Basecamp, HipChat, PayPal, and QuickBooks in one single place, one single browser, one web app.

Q: Some customers have likely had a bad experience with outsourcing and are hesitant to try a new service. How do you reassure them?
Stan: Our competitors (elance, odesk, etc.) have essentially created a nice international payroll setup, but they stopped there. They’ve never prioritized a customer-friendly experience. The customer still shoulders the brunt of the pain of outsourcing. What’s more, even after years of these platforms being around, outsourcing is still very much subject to fraud and frustration. The platform we built between the customer and the person providing the actual work was designed from the beginning to focus on the customer and give him or her the most ideal outsourcing experience possible.

Q: The Cloud program ends in a couple of weeks. What’s happening now?
Shawn: Yesterday, we quietly rolled out the back office and were fortunate enough to receive coverage in Forbes. We’re planning to raise a seed round to spend mostly on customer acquisition and channel development.

Follow @ziptask