Our favorite #StartupRadar pitches, part 2

Here's the rest of our rundown on some of the coolest startup pitches we heard at our SXSW #StartupRadar event.

Startup: Waze The details: Based inPalo Alto,Calif.; launched 2009

Their story: Wave is part GPS, part Siri, and part traffic reporter. When users enable app, available on iPhone and Android, it detects their speed and location. Waze crunches that information to generate warnings for other drivers if there’s a slowdown or traffic jam. If you want to report an accident, simply wave your hand over the phone and speak to it.

Launched in 2009, Waze has drawn $67 million from investors, including VC powerhouse Kleiner Perkins.

Their goal: “If you can actually can use social media to do something that changes how people drive, then you’re seeing a really important change,” says Waze communications director Michal Habdank-Kolaczkowski.  Ultimately, the crew hopes people will use the app to help each other save time and gas on the road. 

Startup: Rockify The details: Based in Austin, founded in August 2011 Their story: Entrepreneur Joel Korpi wants to bring back old-school MTV, the channel that featured actual music videos instead of reality television shows. Korpi's Rockify.tv, still in private beta, aims to be a video Pandora, helping smartphone and tablet users discover content.  

The secret sauce: Rockify plans to tap your social graph to figure out what type of music you're likely to like.

** Startup: GroupWink The details: Based inAustin, founded May 2011

Their story: Founder Dustin Maxey wants to turn group messaging into group dating. GroupWink lets users tag friends they’re hanging out with, create groups, and check out what other groups in the area are doing. You can search groups by topics like “dance,” “chill,” “have drinks,” and can the choose age ranges and gender of other groups you'd like to meet up with.   The goal: Maxey says he wants to “mimic the natural process” of meeting people. “Group are everywhere around the town,” he says. The app, currently in beta aims to bring those groups together in a techie but organic fashion.

** Startup: ApartmentList.com The details: Based in San Francisco, launched September 2011

Their story: CEO John Kobs and co-founder Chris Herndon left their jobs in finance to create an apartment-recommendation engine lets users to hone in on a neighborhood, price, and type of apartment they’re looking to rent. The site has partnered with services like Rent.com and Move.com to aggregate listings. It’s pretty basic so far: type in your location and you can start filtering the picks based on the price range, bedrooms and bathrooms, and features like on-site parking and pet-friendliness.  It'll also show you top-rated restaurants around the area and popular neighborhoods that your friends frequently "check in" on through location services like Foursquare. The startup currently has 25 employees, 15 of whom focus on the technology behind the service.

A unique twist: ApartmentList has a social arm. If you’re interested in a listing or neighborhood, you can connect through Facebook and share your list of prospects with friends who can give you their two cents.  The crew calls it "digitizing what people do in the real world." -Laurie

Our favorite #StartupRadar pitches

CNNMoney Tech set up shop in the CNN Grill beer garden at SXSW and held an open pitch session. Dozens of very cool startups stopped by. Here's Part 1 of the rundown on our favorites.

Startup: Tabbed Out The details: Based in Austin, 25 people, launched 2010

Their story: Running a tab at a bar is easy; closing it out at the end of the night is the tricky part -- especially if you're at a mobbed event where everyone wants the check at once, or if you're in the "forgetful" stage of your evening recreations. Tabbed Out's iPhone and Android apps link directly to merchants' point-of-sale systems. You can open your tab on your phone and -- here's the best part -- close it out when you're ready. Including remotely. At the end of the gig, hop in a cab and pay your bar bill on the way home. There's lots of competing mobile payments systems; Tabbed Out's secret sauce is that they've struck integration deals with POS system makers and now cover 80% of the market. For merchants, it's a turnkey deployment.

The next goal: "We have to get to thousands of merchants. The key thing we get from consumers is 'I like it, but it's not in many places,'" says CEO and co-founder Rick Orr. Tabbed Out is now in 450 venues across 34 states. Its goal for 2012 is to scale and become ubiquitous.

** Startup: StarMaker Interactive The details: Based in San Francisco, 15 people Their story: StarMaker's iPhone karaoke app has more than 2 million active users. The app is free; songs go for 25 cents to 95 cents each. The platform really took off when the company added a game layer with scoring and prizes, product manager Reed Kavner says. 

Their biggest surprise: "Users are much more comfortable sharing recordings with strangers than they are with friends," Kavner says. StarMaker's "share your recording on Facebook" feature gets middling use. When the company launched its own community boards, sharing took off.   

** Startup: PublikDemand.com The details: Based in San Francisco, 3 people Their story: Founder Courtney Powell is a serial entrepreneur who had a rotten experience with Time Warner Cable. "They charged me for a modem that I never had and auto-drafted $900 out of my account," she says. "It took me three months to get it back." From that came PublikDemand, a complaints platform that aims to unite irked customers to collectively demand resolution to shared problems.  

The fledgling site has one proof-of-concept demand featured at the moment, a request that AT&T stop throttling its "unlimited" data plans. Powell plans to expand significantly over the coming months, focusing exclusively on large, "Fortune 1000"-sized companies. 

"Long term, we'll be looking at things like integrations with Salesforce.com," she says. "We view it as a retention tool. If a company chooses not to change a policy, we'll help users move that set of business to their competitors."

What's next: Seed fund/incubator 500 Startups just took on PublikDemand.com, which is in the process of moving from Austin to San Francisco.  

** Startup: Nicely Noted The details: A just-launched solo venture based in Austin Their story: It's Netflix for stationary. For $18 a month, Nicely Noted will send subscribers 3 letterpress cards, stamped and ready to mail. Founder Perry Nelson, who scouts designers at stationary shows, says she likes the concept of a Web venture that helps reconnect people to the art of handwritten letters. 

Sneak peek: Nicely Noted is currently in a limited trial stage, but CNNMoney readers can sign up with the invitation code "envelope."

Startup: LiveOn.com The details: Based inKansas City, 10 people, went beta in October, full launch later this month 

Their story: LiveOn.com aims to be a virtual locker for photos, stories, videos and other digital memorabilia.

"My grandmother passed away and I went to the estate auction. I realized at the end that the things I most treasured were all these old photos and letters her husband had written during the war. I thought, if I passed away, what is there for my son to access?" says founder and CEO Jonathan Whistman.

Fun fact: Google's ultra-high-broadband project, which launches in Kansas City later this year, is sparking an entrepreneurial renaissance in the area, Whistman says. "It's started the community thinking about what can you do when there's no limits on bandwidth."

** Startup: Baydin The details: Based in Mountain View, Calif.; 4 people

Their story: Baydin's Boomerang e-mail management app helps you cut through your inbox deluge by scheduling messages. If you want to save an important note to deal with later, you can "boomerang" it: pick a time and it will vanish from your inbox until you've scheduled it to reappear. You can also set follow-up reminders to alert you at the times you choose. The software works with Gmail and Microsoft Outlook. 

Their pivot: Baydin has been around since 2009, on a journey CEO Alex Moore describes this way: "Lost the founder, got new founders, changed the product ..."

The latest iteration seems to be sticking. Boomerang just crossed the 1 million downloads mark and helped Baydin draw a round of seed funding. "I drove Dave McClure to his auto mechanic and pitched him on the way," Moore says. "He was our first investor."  -Stacy

SXSW world records: Grilled cheese and footed PJs

What happens when geeks party? World records -- the sillier the better.  

GroupMe got much buzz at SXSW for its grilled cheese stunt, which brought Takeru Kobayashi --Japan's famed eating champ and long-time holder of the coveted hot-dog eating record -- to Austin to competitively chow down. The goal: Set a new world record for "most grilled cheeses eaten in 1 minute."

Turns out that's pretty easy to do, since there was no official record. TechStarsNYmanaging director Dave Tisch scarfed down four, giving him a brief grasp on the title. His glory run was fleeting: Kobayashi was next up and took down 13 sandwiches.

The competition was chronicled on RecordSetter.com, a site that lets people document records for anything they can imagine. It's now got a whole stack of SXSW records, including "Tallest Tower Of Beer Caps" (14), "Most Business Cards Handed Out In 30 Seconds" (15 -- that seems very beatable) and "Highest Score Earned On Level 1 Of 'Angry Birds' While Blindfolded" (29,590 points).

But my favorite weird record-setting stunt is the giant footed PJ party that the Austin Caravan crew threw in their RV part. I heard about it from LaunchRock cofounder Zachary Melamed, who helpfully shared this photo of LaunchRock team members Sean McCullough and Brandon Dohman rockin' their footie fashions. 

The goal was to set a new record for "World's Largest Footed Pajama Party." I have no idea if they succeeded, but I admire the impulse. -Stacy

Sean Parker/Al Gore SXSW drinking game

Sean Parker's sitdown with Al Gore was so packed that most attendees ended up in the simulcast tent a half-mile away. Where the buffering was ... not awesome. So not awesome, in fact, that people were catching every third sentence.

My colleagues at CNN Tech report that a drinking game broke out. Among the myriad rules: If you can finish the interrupted sentence, you're off the hook. Otherwise, bottoms up! -Stacy

Photo: Taylor Davidson of Narratively

CNNMoney took over the CNN Grill last night for a "Tech on Tap" bash, where we got to escape the press room bunker and hang out with some of our favorite entrepreneurs. We had Facebook, GroupMe, Contently, Automattic, Storyful and scores of others in the house, with DJ Protégé running the soundtrack.

Here's the night's best photo: Startup Weekend founder Andrew Hyde and  GoodPenny chief strategy officer Andy Ellwood celebrating ... we're not sure, actually. Maybe the fact that the sun finally came out after the weekend's much-tweeted-about torrential deluge. -Stacy

Photo: CNNMoney

Melvin is a 4G hotspot at SXSW. Here's his story. 

Photo: CNNMoney

The GroupMe Segway posse is ready to rumble.

#StartupRadar pitch session

Photo: CNN's John Nowak

Our open pitch session netted dozens of very cool startups in a huge variety of fields: payment systems, fun apps and social services, among others. We'll have writeups on our faves up on the Tumblr by tomorrow. Huge thanks to everyone who came out!

Today's #StartupRadar: What do top VCs want right now? Come hear from 500 Startups, TechStars & SV Angel. 4pm at the CNN Grill beer garden. -Stacy & Laurie

Live code (+ beer) at SXSW

NYC has many awesome startups, but 10gen -- ie MongoDB -- gets a special place in my heart for being the geekiest.

It's an open-source NoSQL database that powers many of the biggest Web 2.0 services, including Foursquare, which has its 1 billion+ check-ins logged in MongoDB software. 4sq has one of the splashiest deployments, but it's not the biggest. That title might go to Shutterfly, which has some 10 billion records stored. 

At SecondMarket's #SMAustin series, 10gen's Nosh Petigara, the company's chief strategy director, broke out the live code to demo location app building on the fly. Afterward, I chatted with him about the company's growth: When he joined two years ago, 10gen had six people. Now it's up to 100 -- half in NYC, 40 in the Bay Area, and the rest scattered. And they're hiring across the board.

Want to learn more about MongoDB? Stop by the company's weekly open office hours/hack sessions. -Stacy

Photo: Edward M. Pio Roda for CNN

Our debut #StartupRadar had Gowalla's Jonathan Carroll & Andy Ellwood and GroupMe's Steve Martocci telling the story of why their startups decided to sell. 

Tomorrow's installment: Come pitch CNNMoneyTech on your startup. 4pm at the #CNNGrill.

#StartupRadar at the CNN Grill

SXSW is filled with panel discussions and fireside chats. But we don’t want to talk at you; we want to talk with you -- so we’re holding “office hours” each afternoon at the CNN Grill at 207 San Jacinto Blvd.

We’ve got a group of top entrepreneurs, investors and industry influences. We’ve also got beer. Bring your questions and join the discussion. It’s first come, first serve; come by around 3:45 if you want a spot. Follow #StartupRadar for any updates and changes and to join the conversation.

Friday 3/9: 4-5pm Topic: When to sell your startup -- and why we sold Attendees: Andy Ellwood (Gowalla; now Facebook), Jonathan Carroll (Gowalla, now Facebook), Steve Martocci (GroupMe; now Microsoft/Skype)

Saturday 3/10: 4-5pm Open pitch: Come tell CNNMoney about your startup Sunday 3/11: 4-5pm Topic: What do VCs want right now? Bring your questions and find out. Attendees: David Lee, SV Angel, David Tisch, TechStars NYC; Tony Conrad, True Ventures; Dave McClure, 500 Startups Monday 3/12: 4-5pm Topic: Diversity in Silicon Valley. It’s been three months since CNN’s Black in America 4 documentary aired, following the NewMe Accelerator’s first cohort. What’s the latest in the startup scene? Attendees: Hajj Flemings, Gokit; Wayne Sutton, NewMe; Tristan Walker, Foursquare

Come join us! -Laurie & Stacy

Aaron Schildkrout, HowAboutWe.com co-founder 

6 pitches and a pitcher of beer

Jason and I decided to tape a segment on problems and solutions in the tech world. It always seems like techies are trying to solve problems. When we spoke to Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, he said he was trying to crack communication. Now he's trying to solve the problem of payment by allowing everyone the ability to make and accept credit card payments with Square. At SXSW, walking around with a camera is basically like walking around with a venture capitalist (which we also did). Startups are hungry for press and funding.

With so many ideas, it seemed like a decent idea to gather a couple of these entrepreneurs and have them pitch their product and the real world problem their app would solve.

So we did it SXSW style which meant there was beer involved. 

Startup founders had the amount of time it takes to pour a beer to pitch their idea.  We heard six pitches, six solutions, and six startups got beer -- all in about 15 minutes.

I'd say that's #winning. 

-Laurie 

How to get a job with a blog post

In the Hilton lobby at SXSW, I caught up with the guys from Hipmunk, an innovative flight-search site that's growing at a dizzying pace. Launched just seven months ago as a summer project, Hipmunk has already inked direct partnerships with a handful of airlines, expanded into hotel searches and landed $5 million in venture capital.

Hipmunk drew attention right away with its new approach to flight-search results: One page, easily scannable by price or time, color-coded by airline and sortable by criteria like "agony" (long layovers = pain). The interface was created by two developers, co-founders Adam Goldstein and Steve Huffman.

But companies like Mint.com illustrated how critical a slick design is to luring in users. Hipmunk now has a freelance designer, 25-year-old Paris resident Sacha Greif, working on the site.

How'd he land the gig? By redesigning the site himself, for fun, and writing up a blog post pointing out all of Hipmunk's flaws.

"Here’s my shot at  'improving' the Hipmunk UI," Grief wrote in his blog. "This redesign is of course completely unofficial."

"He went and made mock-ups, and all of us saw the post independently and e-mailed each other saying 'we should do that!'" Hipmunk marketing coordinator (and mascot designer) Alexis Ohanian recalls. So instead of hunting around for a designer, Hipmunk simply hired Grief as a contractor. He's still based in France, coordinating remotely with the rest of the San Francisco-based crew.

Hipmunk's iPhone app developer came to the staff in a similarly serendipitous way. Danilo Campos found Hipmunk, loved it, and started pitching the founders to let him build the company's iPhone app. They held out at first, thinking they should vet firms and hire an experienced iPhone developer, but Campos kept hitting them with wireframes and ideas. So they let him have at it -- and the app Campos pulled together on the fly took home a "best design" award at last month's Launch 2.0 competition. He's now a full-time team member at Hipmunk.

"Did you ever get a resume from Danilo?" Ohanian asks Goldstein. He shakes his head. "Do you have any idea if he went to college?" Another head shake.

So there you have it: How to get a job, Web 2.0-style. Skip the job boards, the resume and the networking. Find something you love and explain how you'll help make it even better. -Stacy

Angry Birds creators <3 Angry Birds cupcakes

photo by Laurie, demonstration by Jason

As you can tell from past posts, Stacy, Laurie and video producer Jason are out at SXSW this week, writing stories and producing videos. But clearly they haven't forgotten about us!

When they met Peter "Mighty Eagle" Vesterbacka of Angry Birds (coolest. title. ever.), they showed him a picture of the Angry Birds cupcakes I made for Julianne's birthday.

Of course, when Jason emailed this photo to me, I totally geeked out. Angry Birds creator looking at Angry Birds cupcakes on our Tumblr, now posted to Tumblr....I think we've officially achieved the "uber meta." And I may never wash my cupcake pan again. -Belinda

Photo: John Nowak

Foodspotting had a breakout year at SXSW last year -- and recently got $3 million to expand. Its goal: to catalogue "all new foods in the world" 

Photo: John Nowak, CNN

CNN photographer John Nowak captured in one image all the essentials of today's NYxSW meetup: Crowds, coding and beer. For our full coverage of the event, check out "Barely hatched, startups take flight at SXSW"