Startup Roundup: Phroogal, BluePrint Healthcare IT, Inkwhy, Accreditrust, Text Engine
Phroogal: Phroogal (Elizabeth) has embarked on a national campaign called “Road to Financial Wellness.” Founder and CEO Jason Vitug said that the campaign comprises a series of grassroots and social media events aimed at turning local money discussions into a national conversation on financial wellness. The mission is to hold 30 events in 30 locations in 30 days to record, curate and share the financial stories of people in an effort to educate others and inspire them to take action.
There will be a Road to Financial Wellness event in Elizabeth on June 4, 2015. The four-hour session is intended as a celebration of financial empowerment. It will include networking, educational seminars (modeled after the Ted Talks), panel discussions and Q&As. Vitug said that he will talk about his entrepreneurial journey, and the audience will also learn from Tiffany “TheBudgetnista” Aliche and her Live Richer Challenge.
BluePrint Healthcare IT: BluePrint Healthcare IT (Cranbury) and the Children’s Specialized Hospital (Mountainside) were named in April as the co-recipients of the 2015 Microsoft Health Innovation Award in the “Patient Engagement” category.
The awards, which were announced at the 2015 HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition, in Chicago, recognize health organizations and their technology solution partners for using Microsoft devices and services in innovative ways that enhance the quality of patient care, improve clinician productivity and electronic medical record (EMR) optimization, and streamline clinical and business processes.
BluePrint makes Care Navigator, a Web- and mobile-based customer-relationship-management (CRM) platform that provides real-time care coordination engaging the entire care team — including the physician, patient, family, and community caregiver. Children’s Specialized Hospital, the largest pediatric rehabilitation hospital in the country, treats children affected by brain injury, spinal cord injury, premature birth, autism, developmental delays, and life-changing illnesses at 13 sites throughout New Jersey.
Inkwhy: Janice Dru, founder and president of Inkwhy, was selected to pitch at the Lady Drinks “pitch the money” event in early May. Lady Drinks hosts a monthly networking event designed to support the South Asian female entrepreneur or business-minded woman. This platform, cofounded by journalist and TV anchor Joya Dass, helps to build businesses, introduce better practices and realize synergies through workshops, panel discussions and networking. The event took place at the offices of the law firm Lowenstein Sandler in New York City, and featured five women with five pitches. While Inkwhy didn’t win the contest, one of the angels on the panel told Dru to keep in touch with her.
Dru also pitched at a Startup52 contest in New York last week, and was one of five winners out of 17 who participated (there were originally 40 applicants). The event took place at the Grove School of Engineering, The City College of New York. Dru also informed NJTechWeekly.com that she will also be appearing at the Princeton Entrepreneurs’ Network Startup Competition on Friday, May 29.
Accreditrust: Accreditrust Technologies (Warren), the global service provider for curating secure credentials, appointed Joe Kaplan as senior vice president of sales and marketing. He is a seasoned veteran who will take charge of sales, marketing and business development. Kaplan, who was recently a senior market development executive at Post Foods and cofounder and CEO of a real-time golf technology company, is joining Eric Korb, president and CEO, in solidifying Accreditrust’s position as a leading organization for delivering sustainable trust through portable and verifiable digital credentials.
The EdTech website “Getting Smart” included Accreditrust in its list of 20 “high impact EdTech enterprises,” which it selected from among the 270-plus startups that had presented at the ASU+GSV Summit in April.
Text Engine: Eric Bryant, owner of Text Engine (Bedminster), has applied for a Chase Mission Main Street Grant. Text Engine brings you the richness of the entire Web through text messages. With Text Engine, you can get weather, news, yellow pages, movies, flight status and more. The company needs 250 votes to move to the next level of the grant process.
Bryant also has relaunched his Indiegogo campaign. “The first Indiegogo campaign generated 39 funders for a total of $367,” he said. “In addition to raising funds, I received a ton of value from our first campaign. I made some great connections, got a chance to learn about and support some other fabulous entrepreneurs, and demonstrated proof of concept. In addition, I attracted the attention of VCs, business advisors and developers, opening up new revenue streams for our app.
“As a result of our first campaign, my business partner, Shari Sloane, and I have been able to bring Text Engine to Manila, Philippines; Kampala, Uganda; and Bucharest, Romania. And the Almat Group, a Brooklyn real estate company, has licensed the code and is working to get Text Engine up and running in Nigeria!”
