Startup Roundup: Clever Commute, Startup Valley, FocusedBuyer.com
Clever Commute: Joshua Crandall, founder of Clever Commute (Montclair), says he has released a new version of The Inside Track that can be given to dad or grad for father’s day or graduation.
The Inside Track is a suite of tools used by riders on the Long Island Rail Road, Metro North and New Jersey Transit. The Inside Track– delivered via email, Twitter or text message– predicts track numbers for commuters at NY’s Penn Station via analytics and models. It also offers geo-location so riders can see a real-time map of a train’s location; algorithms that monitor for signs of trouble on the line—such as police actions or weather– and alert impacted commuters; and improved and automated cross-line and cross-carrier sharing of user generated information.
A new user profile allows time of day and day of week controls over alerts as well as “snooze” alerts, to stop alerts for a set period of time.
Startup Valley: NJTechWeekly.com spoke to Daryl Bryant of Startup Valley (Saddle Brook), about what has been happening with his crowdfunding site as the company waits for the rules being developed by the SEC.
Bryant said, “We’ve really moved along as far as the development of our platform and portal. Also, we’ve also reached out and developed some powerful strategic partnerships, such as an alignment with a broker-dealer. We’ve developed some relationships with affinity groups that will allow us to connect startups to people with similar interests. We’ve gotten a lot of companies signed up on our website; I think there are about 50 deals on there so far.” The companies can’t raise capital just yet, but they are cleared [to be on the site] and ready to go [as soon as they can legally raised capital], he said. Startup Valley also has about 2000 investors signed up on the site.
NJTechWeekly.com asked Bryant what he is hearing about the progress of the rule-making, and he said, “We’ve heard rumors that the rules are already drafted and they are in the inbox at the SEC waiting for review. We are hopeful that by the end of the year we will see these rules” published.
Bryant, who is on the board of the Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship at Montclair State University, recently went to the White House as part of a Champions of Change ceremony. Thought leaders who had leveraged or revolutionized crowdfunding were honored, and there was a roundtable discussion about what crowdfunding might achieve in the future, he said.
FocusedBuyer.com: FocusedBuyer, whose co-founder and COO is Orange native and current Somerset County resident Tom Middleton, launched its B2B website in Beta in May. The site is an Internet buying and selling platform, designed to support (efficiently, affordably and safely) the growing trend to conduct commerce online. The startup is based in the Lehigh Valley and is initially concentrating on small to medium sized companies there.
Using the system, companies can initiate requests for quotations and proposals, create or receive offers, finalize negotiations, issue purchase orders, acknowledge contracts, store and retrieve data at line item detail level, track performance, manage disputes and facilitate safe electronic payments, the company said. The application includes business owner or management oversight for tracking and analysis of transactional data, for category and project spend capture, and for invoicing and payables processing.
The site makes use of the company’s proprietary Precious Payment settlement process, one of many payment options available. The company said that this settlement software allows for a self-directed, personalized, secure transaction-based process that is mutually agreed to and executed by FocusedBuyer.com Buyers and Sellers.
“Buying and selling is about matching purchaser requirements with supplier capabilities and capacities to create the perfect mutual contract from the most efficient seller for a secure transaction without surprises,” said purchasing industry veteran Donald C. Jean, FocusedBuyer cofounder and CEO.
