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MIT Sloan School of
  Management
Reunion Startup Showcase
      Class of 2011
Introduction
For the aspiring entrepreneur, MIT Sloan was a dream. We brainstormed with our Entrepreneurship &
Innovation cohort, fleshed out our visions for the MIT $100K, and prototyped our products with help
from the many labs and resources across campus. We listened to inspiring speakers every day through
our various clubs and classes. We had sudden access to industry veterans, investors, and professors --
who encouraged us to pursue our ideas, however crazy they seemed. And we were surrounded by
smart, passionate peers who were just as jazzed up about startups as we were.

"One Year Out" showcases some of the entrepreneurial activities of the members of the Class of 2011 --
one year after graduating from MIT Sloan. While this project includes alumni and significant others
(SOs) who have joined or founded startups, we realize that many of our other classmates plan to pursue
entrepreneurship down the line. This is just the beginning.

We would like to thank our sponsors, who, in the MIT spirit, enthusiastically supported us just a few
weeks ago when we pitched them this idea. Special thanks to Jackie Wilbur from the Master's Program
Office; Bill Aulet and Patricia Fuligni from the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship; and
Kathryn Hawkes from the MIT Sloan Alumni Relations Office.

Continue dreaming and doing!
Companies
1.    Adherean                            20.   OnChip Power
2.    Altaeros Energies, Inc.             21.   Paperless Post
3.    Anomaly Action Sports               22.   PK Clean
4.    Beansprock                          23.   RoomStory
5.    Box, Inc.                           24.   Sabi
6.    Cannonball                          25.   Sanergy
7.    Cinetics                            26.   SilverRail Technologies
8.    Coffee Meets Bagel                  27.   Socrative
9.    Curisma                             28.   SPOON Fashion
10.   Dympol Inc                          29.   SpotProperty
11.   Flagship VentureLabs                30.   Sunglass
12.   The Founder's Market                31.   Testive
13.   The Galahads                        32.   Thrive Labs
14.   Ginger.io                           33.   ThriveHive
15.   Gotham Bicycle Defense Industries   34.   TinyPass
16.   Jamela                              35.   Underbrella
17.   Lark                                36.   VisionScope Technologies LLC
18.   Local Hem
19.   Locu
•   Adherean
•   What We Do: Medication adherence failures are responsible for 10%-25% of hospitalizations, which
    translate to $100B in costs every year.
    We have a novel digital technology to increase medication adherence by incentivizing patients to
    stay on track with their meds. Comparable to a home pregnancy tests, our Healthcheck device tests
    for medication metabolites to see if the patient has been taking their medication and taking
    enough medication. Rather than a yes/no answer, though, our device encrypts the outcome of the
    test into a short reward code patients can pass on via SMS, smartphone, or web to receive instant
    incentives.
    We are now working with top-tier insurance payers and pharmaceutical manufacturers to put
    together a program exploring the use of our technology to increase adherence among patients with
    long-term chronic conditions that require daily therapy, such as Type II diabetes with complications.
•   Words of Wisdom: Focus on market first, then a protectable innovation to address that market.
    Figure out what the next inflection point is in the value curve for your company and take on a
    quantity of money aimed at getting you to that next inflection point.
•   Number of Employees: 5 / Funding State: Seed Funding / Friends and Family Round / Sloanies or
    SOs: Josiah Seale, Co-Founder / Company Contact Information: www.adherean.com / @adherean /
    info@adherean.com
•   Altaeros Energies, Inc.
•   What We Do: Altaeros Energies is developing an easily transported and rapidly
    deployed airborne wind turbine that provides cost competitive power at remote
    military, industrial and community sites. Altaeros replaces diesel generators and
    eliminates their associated fuel logistics, reducing power costs by up to 65%.
    Altaeros is lead by a team out of MIT and recently unveiled its first fully functional
    proof-of-concept system. The company adapts well-established blimp and
    traditional wind turbine technologies to capture the much more powerful and
    consistent winds fund above 500 ft. Altaeros is the recipient of a USDA SBIR grant,
    a California Energy Commission grant, and the 2011 ConocoPhillips energy prize.
•   Words of Wisdom: Start-ups involve a lot of good days, and a lot of bad days - stay
    focused on the long term goal, ignore most of the skepticism that comes your way,
    and keep it real.
•   Number of Employees: 5 / Funding State: Seed Funding / Friends and Family
    Round / Sloanies or SOs: Alain Goubau, Co-Founder & Operations Lead (SO of
    Adah Chan) / Company Contact Information: www.altaerosenergies.com / /
    info@altaerosenergies.com
• Anomaly Action Sports
• What We Do: Co-founded by US Ski Team Olympic gold medalist
  Ted Ligety and MIT Sloan MBA Carlo Salmini, Anomaly Action Sports
  is the home of SHRED and SLYTECH, athlete driven and performance
  based brands that provide premium and stylish eye and head wear
  as well as unparalleled protective gear for action sports.
• Words of Wisdom: Passion allows you to overcome the (many)
  struggles. So make sure you love what you do...
• Number of Employees: 11 / Funding State: Equity/Debt / Sloanies
  or SOs: Carlo Salmini, Co-Founder / Company Contact Information:
  www.shredoptics.com / www.slytechprotection.com /
  @ShredOptics / info@shredoptics.com
•   Beansprock
•   What We Do: If a blind man asks for your help distinguishing a lemon from a lime, telling him it’s
    yellow is not going to help. Yet this is the same advice we often get when choosing a job. Google
    search “do what you love” and 285 million results come up. That’s great. But with over 10,000
    professional jobs to choose from, how are you supposed to know where you’ll be happiest? At
    Beansprock, we’re building tools to give you the vision you need to make smarter, more-informed
    career decisions.
    We have a free unique web-based recommendation engine to help you find jobs that are
    algorithmically determined to maximize your happiness and success. Using recent advances in
    collaborative filtering, our algorithm takes into account who you are as a person rather than just
    what’s found on your resume. We don’t arbitrarily tell you what you should be or what you are
    suited for. We break it all down across three categories, identifying where you’re most likely to 1)
    be happy, 2) outperform, and 3) make money. Thinking of taking that new job? We’ll show you
    how your results change, and how that career move sets you up for the future.
    Whether you’re actively searching for your next career move, or simply looking for confirmation
    that you’re on the right track, Beansprock is the only data-driven solution for you.

•   Words of Wisdom: Keep on keepin on
•   Number of Employees: 2.5 / Funding State: Pre-Funding / Sloanies or SOs: Cameron Levy, Founder /
    Company Contact Information: www.beansprock.com / @beansprock / cameron@beansprock.com
• Box, Inc.
• What We Do: Founded in 2005, Box provides cloud content
  management for more than 11 million users and companies ranging
  from small businesses to the Fortune 500. Box’s dynamic, flexible
  content management and collaboration solution empowers users to
  access and share content online, and gives IT professionals
  unprecedented visibility into how content moves within their
  organizations and beyond. Content on Box can be shared internally
  and externally, accessed through iPad, iPhone and Android
  applications, and extended to partner applications such as Google
  Apps, NetSuite and Salesforce.
• Number of Employees: 500 / Funding State: Series D / Sloanies or
  SOs: Weisen Li, Business Development Manger / Company Contact
  Information: www.box.com / @boxhq /
• Cannonball
• What We Do: “I turn on my computer, I wait impatiently as it connects, I
  go online and my breath catches in my chest until I hear three little words.
  You got mail.” - Meg Ryan in “You’ve Got Mail” Do you remember what
  email used to be like? Fall in love with email again. Cannonball brings you
  back to the joy of discovering and sharing what’s waiting in your inbox.

• Words of Wisdom: "If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but
  make allowance for their doubting too, If you can meet with Triumph and
  Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same, If you can push and
  hold on when there is nothing in you except the Will, then you are a
  Founder…"

• Number of Employees: 2/ Funding State: Pre-Funding / Sloanies or SOs:
  Raffaele Colella, Co-Founder / Company Contact Information:
  www.cannonball.io / @thecannonballer / raffaele@cannonball.io
•   Cinetics
•   What We Do: At Cinetics, we help people create captivating video through
    controlled camera movement. CineSkates, our first product, is a set of wheels that
    transform a tripod into a dynamic video dolly. Fast Company may have put it
    best, "CineSkates pull off sophisticated-looking camera moves with the nudge of a
    finger".
    We now have a growing product line that includes CineSquid, an incredibly strong
    suction cup camera mount, and miniSkates, the first product of our mini line for
    small cameras and camera phones.
    Cinetics was launched in 2011 through a record breaking crowdfunding campaign.
    Based in Austin, TX, we are now hard at work on the next revolutionary products
    to help you put your cinematic ideas in motion!
•   Words of Wisdom: Find your passion. Then give it everything you've got.
•   Number of Employees: 7 / Funding State: Crowdfunded / Sloanies or SOs: Justin
    Jensen, Founder; Allison Jensen (SO of Justin Jensen) / Company Contact
    Information: www.cinetics.com / @cinetx / info@cinetics.com
• Coffee Meets Bagel
• What We Do: Coffee Meets Bagel is a new social dating
  service that introduces members to one quality single
  per day at noon.
• Words of Wisdom: Just do it! Always test your idea
  before spending the time to implement it.
• Number of Employees: 4 / Funding State: Seed Funding
  / Friends and Family Round / Sloanies or SOs: Arum
  Kang, Co-Founder and CEO (SO of Marc Piette) /
  Company Contact Information:
  www.coffeemeetsbagel.com / coffeeMbagel /
  arum@coffeemeetsbagel.com
•   Curisma
•   What We Do: In a world full of mass-market brands, so-called tastemakers, generic
    marketing, coupon focused sites, and unfiltered list of products, it is difficult to
    find cool products you actually love. Curisma makes discovering new products
    easy, fun, and personalized.
    On our platform, you can create a centralized wish list and share the items you
    want from different websites with only one click. You can also follow people with
    similar styles to easily find new products you love.
    Finally, Curisma learns each user’s taste over time using social data, intent and
    observed data, as well as product metadata into uncannily "spot-on" product
    recommendations.
•   Words of Wisdom: Choose your cofounder based on common passion. Rethink
    your marketing strategy
•   Number of Employees: 3 / Funding State: Seed Funding / Friends and Family
    Round / Sloanies or SOs: Fatma Yalcin, Founder / Company Contact Information:
    www.curisma.com / @curismaTR and @curisma_daily / founders@curisma.com
• Dympol Inc
• What We Do: Dympol combines lifestyle, social, and cause marketing to
  grow charitable giving by making it socially and economically rewarding
  for all. In e-commerce, social networks, mobile devices, and 3rd party ad
  networks, we link costs to results.
   Charitable Checkout is the first application built on our unique cause-
   marketing platform: When fans give to celebrity or brand-endorsed
   causes, they get brand-sponsored discounts and are publicly thanked by
   their heroes in social media.

• Words of Wisdom: Pivot, take small steps, try out different ideas before
  customers before committing large amounts of resources behind an idea.
• Number of Employees: 4 / Funding State: Seed Funding / Friends and
  Family Round / Sloanies or SOs: Arjun Nair, Founder / Company Contact
  Information: www.dympol.com / @dympol / jziskrout@dympol.com
• Flagship VentureLabs
• What We Do: VentureLabs is the first institutional platform for accelerated
  innovation and parallel entrepreneuring. Conventionally, the acts of
  technology invention, company conception and entrepreneuring are
  conducted serially, separately, and slowly – often by distinct individuals. In
  Flagship VentureLabs, these processes are interwoven, accelerated and
  iterated by teams across parallel internal projects. The goal is to generate
  breakthrough technologies and fist-in-class new ventures – enterprises
  with the capacity to solve global challenges, disrupt large markets, and
  shape a better future for the world. Over the past 12 years, the
  VentureLabs team has conceived and launched 25 pioneering companies.
• Words of Wisdom: Work hard, have faith, treat others like you would like
  to be treated, and everything else will work itself out.
• Number of Employees: 8 / Funding State: Prefer not to say / Sloanies or
  SOs: Erdin Beshimov, Principal / Company Contact Information:
  www.fsvlabs.com / /
• The Founder's Market
• What We Do: We are a crowd-funding platform for tech
  startups. Our goal is to have startups funded quickly and
  painlessly, by tapping the wisdom and capital of the
  crowds.
• Words of Wisdom: Its funny, but once you decide to launch
  into it, its really not intractable! To quote Goethe "Boldness
  has genius, power and magic in it". So go for it! And more
  power to us all.
• Number of Employees: 2 / Funding State: Pre-Funding /
  Sloanies or SOs: Swati Chaturvedi, Co-Founder / Company
  Contact Information: www.thefoundersmarket.com / /
  info@thefoundersmarket.com
• The Galahads
• What We Do: The Galahad’s mission is to build a
  community of generous, powerful, self-fulfilled and
  financially successful women entrepreneurs through
  mastermind, mentorship and adventure.
  We believe that the creation of such a group would serve
  the development and advancement of women worldwide.
• Words of Wisdom: Do real work. Dont plan too much.
• Number of Employees: 2 / Funding State: Bootstrapping /
  Sloanies or SOs: Erica Dhawan, Founder / Company Contact
  Information: www.thegalahads.com / @GalahadsSS /
  erica@thegalahads.com
• Ginger.io
• What We Do: Ginger.io, a spin-off from the MIT Media Lab, uses passive
  data from mobile phones and machine learning to build a "check-engine
  light" for patients and doctors. Our system is designed to provide chronic
  patients and their caregivers with better care, and providers with objective
  real-world data about their patients. We're working with leading
  researchers and clinicians, and exploring how we can enable more
  effective population management. Recent write-ups in Businessweek
  (http://buswk.co/nurse-in-your-pocket) and The Economist
  (http://econ.st/bodys-check-engine-light).
• Words of Wisdom: Focus on doing one thing right; you'll fool yourself into
  thinking you can do more. Don't do it.
• Number of Employees: 10 / Funding State: Seed Funding / Friends and
  Family Round / Sloanies or SOs: Karan Singh, Co-Founder / Company
  Contact Information: www.ginger.io / @ginger_io / hello@ginger.io
• Gotham Bicycle Defense Industries
• What We Do: Last summer, our friend got hit by a car. He was riding
  his bike home at night after a thief stole his bike light. His story isn't
  unique. 1 in 3 city bikers have had their lights stolen and 80% of
  bikers frequently forget their lights at home. We're MIT bike geeks
  on a mission to make city cycling safer. Our first product is the
  world's first theft-resistant bike light. $84K on Kickstarter.
• Words of Wisdom: You don't need VC. Make products and sell
  products.
• Number of Employees: 2 / Funding State: Kickstarter / Sloanies or
  SOs: Brad Geswein, Co-Founder; Slava Menn, Co-Founder /
  Company Contact Information: www.bikegotham.com /
  @bikegotham / yo@bikegotham.com
•   Jamela
•   What We Do: The premium US skin care market is $2.2B and has experienced increased growth
    despite the economic downturn. The fastest growing segments are organic, which will double in
    size by 2015, and premium moisturizers/anti-agers. Small brands are growing 3x faster than their
    larger counterparts, as consumers start turning to boutique brands and unique products.
    We are a fair trade high-end cosmetics company positioned at the intersection of the fastest
    growing segments of skincare. Our first product, Argan oil, is a facial moisturizer and anti-ager that
    comes from a tree that only grows in Morocco. The oil has such amazing moisturizing and anti-
    aging properties that people in the cosmetics industry call it liquid gold. We are introducing the
    products to a new channel, US spas, and entering in an un-tapped category, facial skincare. We will
    first start with pure Argan oil that will be incorporated into spa treatments and sold for
    retail, extending to a unique line of specialty essential oils from Morocco.
•   Words of Wisdom: It's easy to find help, but it's hard to find help that is worth the management
    time that you must put in to find results. Be wise about how you accept help and advice, otherwise
    it can really waste a lot of your time.
•   Number of Employees: 2 / Funding State: Pre-Funding / Sloanies or SOs: Daria Kaboli, CEO; Vimala
    Palaniswamy, COO / Company Contact Information: www.jamelaoil.com / / jamelaoils@gmail.com
• Lark
• What We Do: Sleep better and wake better with LARK.
  LARK is a revolutionary silent alarm clock that wakes you
  refreshed, and lets your loved one sleep undisturbed, and also
  monitors your sleep and coaches you to improve it with a
  comfortable wristband and your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.
  Designed with the top sleep experts who train Olympians to break
  world records with sleep- you too can improve your
  health, happiness, and performance, with sleep. Available at
  www.LARK.com and any Apple Store.
• Words of Wisdom: Work hard. Sleep well.
• Number of Employees: 20 / Funding State: Series A / Sloanies or
  SOs: Julia Hu, CEO; Jeff Zira, Product Manager / Company Contact
  Information: www.lark.com / ourlark / info@lark.com
•   Local Hem
•   What We Do: Local Hem is an e-commerce platform for brick-and-mortar women's
    boutiques. Boutiques owners often have a difficult time setting up and maintaining
    their own e-commerce sites, and, if they manage to setup a website, very few
    online shoppers are able to find it. Boutique shoppers, on the other hand, lament
    that they can't shop their favorite boutiques either because they live too far or the
    store hours aren't compatible with their work schedules.
    Local Hem offers an easy, efficient way for boutique owners to "setup shop"
    online, and bring their boutique's brand to the attention of an entirely new set of
    customers. Local Hem allows shoppers to discover and shop boutiques that they
    otherwise would have never heard about or have the opportunity to visit in-
    person.
•   Words of Wisdom: Know what you do really, really well. When things get tough, go
    back to that and build from there.
•   Number of Employees: 3 / Funding State: Bootstrapping / Sloanies or SOs: Colleen
    King, CEO/Founder / Company Contact Information: www.localhem.com /
    @localhem / colleen@localhem.com
• Locu
• What We Do: Locu was founded by a team of MIT
  researchers who are passionate about data and
  ambitious enough to aspire to bring structure to
  complex, messy data sets that pose a challenge
  for human intelligence, never mind artificial
  intelligence. Locu's first stop: local data.
• Number of Employees: 13 / Funding State: Series
  A / Sloanies or SOs: Rene Reinsberg, CEO; Marc
  Piette,COO / Company Contact Information:
  www.locu.com / @LocuInc / info@locu.com
•   OnChip Power
•   What We Do: OnChip Power designs and manufactures advanced power electronic
    systems. Our very high frequency (VHF) power converters utilize proprietary
    techniques to achieve a 3-order-of-magnitude jump on present commercial
    practice. The radical increase in switching frequency reduces the size, weight, and
    cost of the power converter required in the majority of electronic products.
    OnChip's proprietary VHF designs create a compelling value proposition for space
    constrained applications. Initially, we have chosen to focus on LED lighting, where
    our small, reliable, low cost power supplies help enable commercially viable
    lighting solutions. In addition, we are developing products for a "brickless" laptop.
    OnChip closed an A-Round in February 2011 and expects to have products in the
    market Q4 2012.
•   Words of Wisdom: Only start a company if you have a passion for the idea and
    believe in (and trust) your team. Be persistent -- keep moving and keep the
    company alive long enough to get lucky.
•   Number of Employees: 12 / Funding State: Series A / Sloanies or SOs: Vanessa
    Green, Co-Founder and CEO / Company Contact Information:
    www.onchippower.com / @vlgreen / vgreen@onchippower.com
• Paperless Post
• What We Do: Paperless Post is redefining the tradition of paper stationery
  by enabling people to send customized invitations and greetings with the
  same thought and care as previous generations, only online. Users can
  choose from hundreds of free and premium card designs, customize with
  photos and other features, share via email or social media platforms and
  track responses. Paperless Post is headquartered in New York and recently
  completed a Series B fundraising round with RRE Ventures, SV Angel, Tim
  Draper and others.
• Words of Wisdom: It sounds obvious, but when joining a startup, find one
  that's a good people and culture fit for you. Do your due diligence to make
  sure it feels right.
• Number of Employees: 40 / Funding State: Series B / Sloanies or SOs:
  Jamay Liu, Mobile Product Manager / Company Contact Information:
  www.paperlesspost.com / @paperlesspost / inquiries@paperlesspost.com
•   PK Clean
•   What We Do: Plastic Waste is everywhere: only 7% is currently recycled, with the
    rest mostly being landfilled. PK Clean solves the problem of plastic waste entering
    landfills, by turning it into fuel. Using our patented and award-winning catalytic
    depolymerization process, we can convert plastic waste into oil. It costs us $25-
    $30/bbl to convert plastic to oil, which can be sold for over $100/bbl. PK Clean's
    process is sustainable, resulting in a high energy payback of 14:1 and zero
    emissions. We produce a light and low-sulfur fuel, which is cleaner than regular
    fuel. By converting all our landfilled plastics into oil, PK Clean could replace 25% of
    annual U.S. auto oil consumption - paving the way to zero landfill and energy
    independence.
•   Words of Wisdom: Founding startups is all about people and passion. Stay true to
    your vision and find the right types of people who share your passion!
•   Number of Employees: 12 / Funding State: Debt, Grants, Equity / Sloanies or SOs:
    Priyanka Bakaya, CEO/Founder / Company Contact Information: www.pkclean.com
    / @pbakaya / info@pkclean.com
•   RoomStory
•   What We Do: We at Roomstory.com aim to revolutionize the way Indian
    consumers decorate their homes. Instead of roaming the markets looking for that
    perfect home accessory, they can now buy different brands from the comfort of
    their homes. Everything you need for your home, from Kitchenware to
    Bathware, Décor to Furnishing, is available with us. We also understand that
    buying for the home involves more than just the right products and are therefore
    taking precious care to build a great customer experience. In time we expect to fill
    gaps in the branded home decor market in India with our own private labels.
•   Words of Wisdom: Take a break sometime, ~7 day work weeks are hard to sustain.
    Talk to a lot of people, and even though chances are that each one will tell you
    something different (so carefully choose what you want to do with the advice)
    you'll probably get something good out of most of them - a fantastic
    connection, useful advice, or some funding even.
•   Number of Employees: 5 / Funding State: Pre-Funding / Sloanies or SOs: Nipun
    Virmani, COO / Company Contact Information: www.roomstory.com / Room_Story
    / support@roomstory.com
• Sabi
• What We Do: Sabi is a new creator of unique health and wellness
  products. We take our name from an ancient Japanese philosophy
  that exalts everyday life. Our products are inspired by an ideal: that
  life’s regular, day-to-day tasks deserve to be elevated. At Sabi, we
  envision a world in which every person is fully engaged in every
  moment of their life.
  Our mission is to create products that are intuitively and beautifully
  designed in order to infuse life’s daily rituals with delight.
• Words of Wisdom: If you believe in yourself they will come
• Number of Employees: 5 / Funding State: Series A / Sloanies or SOs:
  Founder (SO of Liron Wand) / Company Contact Information:
  www.sabi.com / https://twitter.com/#!/Sabi_brand /
  customercare@sabi.com
•   Sanergy
•   What We Do: Sanergy makes hygienic sanitation sustainable in Africa's slums by
    making it accessible and affordable. Starting with the slums of Kenya, where 8
    million people resort to open defecation and unsanitary pit latrines, and where the
    4m tons of waste are dumped in nearby rivers, Sanergy’s “build – collect –
    convert” approach solves the sanitation crisis in a sustainable manner.
    Our low-cost Fresh Life Toilet provides users with a hygienic and dignified
    experience. We franchise Fresh Life Toilets to locals, who run them as viable
    businesses. We collect the waste daily and convert it into organic fertilizer and
    renewable energy. In five years, Sanergy aims to serve 500,000 people through
    6,000 toilets.

•   Words of Wisdom: Accept that you, alone, do not have all the answers to succeed.

•   Number of Employees: 42 / Funding State: Seed Funding / Friends and Family
    Round / Sloanies or SOs: Lindsay Stradley, Co-Founder; Ani Vallabhaneni, Co-
    Founder; David Auerbach, Co-Founder / Company Contact Information:
    www.saner.gy / @sanergy / info@saner.gy
•   SilverRail Technologies
•   What We Do: SilverRail Technologies is solving the last of the big travel problems;
    Global Rail Distribution. SilverRail has already achieved many industry firsts:
    building the world's first global rail platform ‘SilverCore’; and winning awards
    along the way like PhoCusWright’s Travel Innovator Award.
    Backed by top-tier venture capitalist, heavyweights including Canaan Partners,
    Sutter Hill Ventures andAccel Partners, SilverRail is perfectly positioned to change
    the online travel industry for the better.
    Rail is the single fastest growing sector of travel today, driven by four factors that
    are creating a perfect storm in travel: 200 mph trains replacing regional air travel,
    rail markets deregulating and creating competition, 90% environmentally cleaner
    than air travel, and $200bn a year invested in infrastructure - 2x the investment in
    the commercial air industry. Come join the SilverRail team, and be a part of
    changing the future of travel.
•   Words of Wisdom: No matter how it feels, set your own personal boundaries to
    allow you to have a life as well as a start-up
•   Number of Employees: 23 / Funding State: Series B / Sloanies or SOs: James
    Harland, CFO / Company Contact Information: www.silverrailtech.com /
    @silverrailtech /
•   Socrative
•   What We Do: Socrative - The standard for measuring student success
    Socrative is a smart student response system that empowers teachers by engaging
    their classrooms with a series of educational exercises and assessments. Our
    platform is super simple to use and takes seconds to login. Socrative runs on
    tablets, smartphones, and laptops, and is now being used by over 300,000
    students and teacher across the US and the world.
    Teachers login through their device and select an activity which controls the flow
    of questions and games. Students simply login with their device and interact real
    time with the content. Student responses are visually represented for multiple
    choice, true/false and Short Answer questions. For pre-planned activities a teacher
    can view reports online as a Google spreadsheet or as an emailed Excel file.

•   Words of Wisdom: It's a roller coaster find your way to be happy throughout it all
•   Number of Employees: / Funding State: / Sloanies or SOs: Amit Maimon, CEO /
    Company Contact Information: www.socrative.com / @socrative /
    support@socrative.com
•   SPOON Fashion
•   What We Do: SPOON, a New York City based women's contemporary clothing
    label, was founded in 2011 by designer Randi Spoon. In early 2012, Randi
    partnered with fellow Bostonian Alexis Przybylski Lawton after having been
    introduced by family. Randi and Alexis quickly developed a unique bond and
    established a shared vision for SPOON. Their common interests and diverse talents
    made for a seamless collaboration.
    Randi and Alexis' combined design sensibility imparts an easy-chic, effortless and
    feminine sophistication. They are passionately dedicated to quality craftsmanship
    and creating clothing that embraces a free-spirited elegance for modern women.
•   Words of Wisdom: Always return to your gut instincts when making decisions
    related to your business, and be sure to learn from your mistakes.
•   Number of Employees: 2 / Funding State: Seed Funding / Friends and Family
    Round / Sloanies or SOs: Alexis Lawton, President and Co-Designer (SO of Brent
    Lawton) / Company Contact Information: www.spoonfashion.com /
    @spoonfashion / alexis@spoonfashion.com
•   SpotProperty
•   What We Do: SpotProperty is a deal spotter for real estate, focused on helping
    patient buyers or prospective investors find the right home at a great price.
    How it Works: we analyze every for-sale property in the US against our database of
    20 million+ for-sale and sold homes over the last 10 years. Our proprietary
    algorithm detects homes that are likely a good "deal" relative to the market or are
    likely to have good returns for an investor. When the user is ready to go see a
    property, our experienced agents walk them through the process and help them
    buy their home.
    This is a huge market ($5-10B/year) over the next few years as the housing market
    recovers and short sales and foreclosures work through the system.
•   Words of Wisdom: You have two jobs: 1) Break through walls. 2) Focus relentlessly
    on the user experience.
•   Number of Employees: 2 / Funding State: Bootstrapping / Sloanies or SOs: Luke
    Behnke, Founder / Company Contact Information: www.spotproperty.com /
    @spotproperty / info@spotproperty.com
• Sunglass
• What We Do: Sunglass helps designers build
  better, safer, greener products by enabling them to
  seamlessly collaborate in real-time with any user in any file
  format in their familiar browser, and choose from a
  universe of pay-per-use cloud-based community-generated
  apps including heavy simulation/analysis executed in
  parallel on the cloud.
• Words of Wisdom: Start. Seek big problems where you
  have real advantage.
• Number of Employees: 11 / Funding State: Seed Funding /
  Friends and Family Round / Sloanies or SOs: Nitin Rao, Co-
  Founder / Company Contact Information: www.sunglass.io
  / @sunglass_io / nitin@sunglass.io
•   Testive
•   What We Do: Everyone has taken at least one exam that impacted the course of
    his or her life: GMAT, LSAT SAT. The process of preparing for these exams is time
    consuming, demoralizing and hasn’t changed much in 30 years. Testive helps
    students get better faster in preparation for these exams.
    Testive brings the qualities that make private test prep tutoring so effective into
    the online arena. We combine an experience that starts adapting to students from
    the first question they answer and surround that with an experience designed to
    keep the student engaged. Giving students the right question at the right time and
    keeping them coming back is like giving someone the right weights at the gym and
    getting them on a workout schedule: it works.

•   Words of Wisdom: If you don't love it to death, don't start it.
•   Number of Employees: 4 / Funding State: Seed Funding / Friends and Family
    Round / Sloanies or SOs: Tom Rose, Product Visionary; Miro Kazakoff, CEO /
    Company Contact Information: www.testive.com / @testive / janet@testive.com
• Thrive Labs
• What We Do: Thrive Labs is a strategy and visioning firm that creates
  unique, disruptive spaces in order to connect human talent and purpose
  with the world's most pressing problems. We design Labs in which high-
  potential leaders can pause to recollect, reimagine, and re-envision their
  future. We run customized Labs for individuals, teams and companies at
  inflection points to match their capacities and their passion with what the
  world needs. We believe that when this happens, people - and their
  institutions and society - THRIVE.
• Words of Wisdom: The best way to find out whether it'll work or not, is to
  try it.
• Number of Employees: 1 full-time; operate on a network-based model /
  Funding State: Prefer not to say / Sloanies or SOs: Priya Parker, Founder /
  Company Contact Information: www.thrivelabs.co / @PriyaParker /
  priya@ThriveLabs.co
•   ThriveHive
•   What We Do: ThriveHive gives local businesses a plan to market their business and an easy-to-use
    platform to build and measure it all.
    The complexity of local business marketing is exploding, but the time that small business owners
    have to manage their marketing hasn’t changed. Today it is critical to know what marketing
    activities you should be spending time on and what can wait. We believe the answer to this
    question is different for every business so we build a custom marketing plan that’s right for you.
    ThriveHive’s marketing platform is easy to use so that anyone can market like a pro.
    Knowing what to do isn’t enough; you need an easy and time saving way to manage all your
    marketing. We provide you with a marketing platform that enables you to build and measure your
    marketing.
•   Words of Wisdom: Thing big. Make things happen.
•   Number of Employees: 7 / Funding State: Seed Funding / Friends and Family Round / Sloanies or
    SOs: Adam Blake, Co-Founder and COO; Max Faingezicht, Co-Founder and CEO / Company Contact
    Information: www.thrivehive.com / @thrive_hive / info@thrivehive.com
•   TinyPass
•   What We Do: TinyPass is a flexible ecommerce solution that provides publishers a
    variety of models to charge for content, as well as analytics and consulting services
    to ensure they reach their maximum revenue potential.
    We built TinyPass to help content producers and publishers charge for their work.
    We’re the only paid-content platform that offers publishers the ability to charge
    for access in whatever way makes sense for their unique content and their unique
    audience. Whether you want to set up a metered paywall for your entire site or
    sell access to individual videos or articles, you can use TinyPass to charge for
    access to your content in whatever way you think will work best.
•   Words of Wisdom: If you're joining a start up as an early employee, don't focus too
    much on your equity stake. The most important things to consider are the field
    you'll be working in, the connections you'll make, and the skills you'll learn.
•   Number of Employees: 8 / Funding State: Seed Funding / Friends and Family
    Round / Sloanies or SOs: Whitney Braunstein, Director of Marketing and Strategy /
    Company Contact Information: www.tinypass.com / @tinypass /
    info@tinypass.com
• Underbrella
• What We Do: Underbrella is a line of high tech fashionable women’s
  underwear made with performance fabrics. Our patent-pending
  fabric technology pulls moisture away from the body and the
  hydrophobic outer layer protects clothing so that nothing ever gets
  through to clothes. Our products are carried in 17 boutiques
  throughout the US and Canada and have been sold online to 44
  states and 10 countries. We currently offer panties and are
  expanding to include bralets and bodysuits in the fall of 2012. We
  are based in Providence, Rhode Island.
• Words of Wisdom: Don't run out of cash. Take advice from mentors
  but ultimately follow your own instincts
• Number of Employees: 4 / Funding State: Series A / Sloanies or SOs:
  Sharon Ruggieri, Co-Founder / Company Contact Information:
  www.underbrella.com / @Underbrellas / sharon@underbrella.com
•   VisionScope Technologies LLC
•   What We Do: VisionScope has brought the gold-standard diagnostic tool for joint pathology out of
    the operating room and into a physician’s office.
    The current diagnostic standard (MRI) is expensive, often leaves uncertainty around surgical
    necessity, and rarely assists surgical case planning.
    Today, with VisionScope Imaging (VSI™), the first patient evaluation can conclude with a definitive
    diagnosis and a clear treatment plan. By allowing direct visualization of the joint cavity under local
    anesthesia, the company’s product improves patient care, reduces health care costs, and improves
    physicians’ bottom line .
    VisionScope's patented technology is based upon the integration of leading-edge imaging
    electronics and single-use accessories. With miniaturized optics – housed within a 1.4mm diameter
    endoscope – the VisionScope system is designed to maximize high-definition visualization in
    minimally-invasive applications.
•   Words of Wisdom: Keep your head on a swivel, you never know if that person you bump into at the
    gym is going to turn out to be a great hire. Never be afraid to admit you were wrong and learn
    from your mistakes.
•   Number of Employees: 7....prolly 8 or 9 by the time of the pitch :-) / Funding State: Prefer not to say
    / Sloanies or SOs: Jeff Blake, Director of Finance / Company Contact Information:
    www.visionscopes.com / / media@visionscope-tech.com
MIT Sloan School of Management: mitsloan.mit.edu
Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship :
entrepreneurship.mit.edu

For more information on any of the companies, please feel free to
contact them directly




Slideshare deck and reunion startup pitch event organized by:
Whitney Braunstein, Raffaele Colella, Jamay Liu

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MIT Sloan Reunion Startup Showcase Class of 2011

  • 1. MIT Sloan School of Management Reunion Startup Showcase Class of 2011
  • 2. Introduction For the aspiring entrepreneur, MIT Sloan was a dream. We brainstormed with our Entrepreneurship & Innovation cohort, fleshed out our visions for the MIT $100K, and prototyped our products with help from the many labs and resources across campus. We listened to inspiring speakers every day through our various clubs and classes. We had sudden access to industry veterans, investors, and professors -- who encouraged us to pursue our ideas, however crazy they seemed. And we were surrounded by smart, passionate peers who were just as jazzed up about startups as we were. "One Year Out" showcases some of the entrepreneurial activities of the members of the Class of 2011 -- one year after graduating from MIT Sloan. While this project includes alumni and significant others (SOs) who have joined or founded startups, we realize that many of our other classmates plan to pursue entrepreneurship down the line. This is just the beginning. We would like to thank our sponsors, who, in the MIT spirit, enthusiastically supported us just a few weeks ago when we pitched them this idea. Special thanks to Jackie Wilbur from the Master's Program Office; Bill Aulet and Patricia Fuligni from the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship; and Kathryn Hawkes from the MIT Sloan Alumni Relations Office. Continue dreaming and doing!
  • 3. Companies 1. Adherean 20. OnChip Power 2. Altaeros Energies, Inc. 21. Paperless Post 3. Anomaly Action Sports 22. PK Clean 4. Beansprock 23. RoomStory 5. Box, Inc. 24. Sabi 6. Cannonball 25. Sanergy 7. Cinetics 26. SilverRail Technologies 8. Coffee Meets Bagel 27. Socrative 9. Curisma 28. SPOON Fashion 10. Dympol Inc 29. SpotProperty 11. Flagship VentureLabs 30. Sunglass 12. The Founder's Market 31. Testive 13. The Galahads 32. Thrive Labs 14. Ginger.io 33. ThriveHive 15. Gotham Bicycle Defense Industries 34. TinyPass 16. Jamela 35. Underbrella 17. Lark 36. VisionScope Technologies LLC 18. Local Hem 19. Locu
  • 4. Adherean • What We Do: Medication adherence failures are responsible for 10%-25% of hospitalizations, which translate to $100B in costs every year. We have a novel digital technology to increase medication adherence by incentivizing patients to stay on track with their meds. Comparable to a home pregnancy tests, our Healthcheck device tests for medication metabolites to see if the patient has been taking their medication and taking enough medication. Rather than a yes/no answer, though, our device encrypts the outcome of the test into a short reward code patients can pass on via SMS, smartphone, or web to receive instant incentives. We are now working with top-tier insurance payers and pharmaceutical manufacturers to put together a program exploring the use of our technology to increase adherence among patients with long-term chronic conditions that require daily therapy, such as Type II diabetes with complications. • Words of Wisdom: Focus on market first, then a protectable innovation to address that market. Figure out what the next inflection point is in the value curve for your company and take on a quantity of money aimed at getting you to that next inflection point. • Number of Employees: 5 / Funding State: Seed Funding / Friends and Family Round / Sloanies or SOs: Josiah Seale, Co-Founder / Company Contact Information: www.adherean.com / @adherean / info@adherean.com
  • 5. Altaeros Energies, Inc. • What We Do: Altaeros Energies is developing an easily transported and rapidly deployed airborne wind turbine that provides cost competitive power at remote military, industrial and community sites. Altaeros replaces diesel generators and eliminates their associated fuel logistics, reducing power costs by up to 65%. Altaeros is lead by a team out of MIT and recently unveiled its first fully functional proof-of-concept system. The company adapts well-established blimp and traditional wind turbine technologies to capture the much more powerful and consistent winds fund above 500 ft. Altaeros is the recipient of a USDA SBIR grant, a California Energy Commission grant, and the 2011 ConocoPhillips energy prize. • Words of Wisdom: Start-ups involve a lot of good days, and a lot of bad days - stay focused on the long term goal, ignore most of the skepticism that comes your way, and keep it real. • Number of Employees: 5 / Funding State: Seed Funding / Friends and Family Round / Sloanies or SOs: Alain Goubau, Co-Founder & Operations Lead (SO of Adah Chan) / Company Contact Information: www.altaerosenergies.com / / info@altaerosenergies.com
  • 6. • Anomaly Action Sports • What We Do: Co-founded by US Ski Team Olympic gold medalist Ted Ligety and MIT Sloan MBA Carlo Salmini, Anomaly Action Sports is the home of SHRED and SLYTECH, athlete driven and performance based brands that provide premium and stylish eye and head wear as well as unparalleled protective gear for action sports. • Words of Wisdom: Passion allows you to overcome the (many) struggles. So make sure you love what you do... • Number of Employees: 11 / Funding State: Equity/Debt / Sloanies or SOs: Carlo Salmini, Co-Founder / Company Contact Information: www.shredoptics.com / www.slytechprotection.com / @ShredOptics / info@shredoptics.com
  • 7. Beansprock • What We Do: If a blind man asks for your help distinguishing a lemon from a lime, telling him it’s yellow is not going to help. Yet this is the same advice we often get when choosing a job. Google search “do what you love” and 285 million results come up. That’s great. But with over 10,000 professional jobs to choose from, how are you supposed to know where you’ll be happiest? At Beansprock, we’re building tools to give you the vision you need to make smarter, more-informed career decisions. We have a free unique web-based recommendation engine to help you find jobs that are algorithmically determined to maximize your happiness and success. Using recent advances in collaborative filtering, our algorithm takes into account who you are as a person rather than just what’s found on your resume. We don’t arbitrarily tell you what you should be or what you are suited for. We break it all down across three categories, identifying where you’re most likely to 1) be happy, 2) outperform, and 3) make money. Thinking of taking that new job? We’ll show you how your results change, and how that career move sets you up for the future. Whether you’re actively searching for your next career move, or simply looking for confirmation that you’re on the right track, Beansprock is the only data-driven solution for you. • Words of Wisdom: Keep on keepin on • Number of Employees: 2.5 / Funding State: Pre-Funding / Sloanies or SOs: Cameron Levy, Founder / Company Contact Information: www.beansprock.com / @beansprock / cameron@beansprock.com
  • 8. • Box, Inc. • What We Do: Founded in 2005, Box provides cloud content management for more than 11 million users and companies ranging from small businesses to the Fortune 500. Box’s dynamic, flexible content management and collaboration solution empowers users to access and share content online, and gives IT professionals unprecedented visibility into how content moves within their organizations and beyond. Content on Box can be shared internally and externally, accessed through iPad, iPhone and Android applications, and extended to partner applications such as Google Apps, NetSuite and Salesforce. • Number of Employees: 500 / Funding State: Series D / Sloanies or SOs: Weisen Li, Business Development Manger / Company Contact Information: www.box.com / @boxhq /
  • 9. • Cannonball • What We Do: “I turn on my computer, I wait impatiently as it connects, I go online and my breath catches in my chest until I hear three little words. You got mail.” - Meg Ryan in “You’ve Got Mail” Do you remember what email used to be like? Fall in love with email again. Cannonball brings you back to the joy of discovering and sharing what’s waiting in your inbox. • Words of Wisdom: "If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too, If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same, If you can push and hold on when there is nothing in you except the Will, then you are a Founder…" • Number of Employees: 2/ Funding State: Pre-Funding / Sloanies or SOs: Raffaele Colella, Co-Founder / Company Contact Information: www.cannonball.io / @thecannonballer / raffaele@cannonball.io
  • 10. Cinetics • What We Do: At Cinetics, we help people create captivating video through controlled camera movement. CineSkates, our first product, is a set of wheels that transform a tripod into a dynamic video dolly. Fast Company may have put it best, "CineSkates pull off sophisticated-looking camera moves with the nudge of a finger". We now have a growing product line that includes CineSquid, an incredibly strong suction cup camera mount, and miniSkates, the first product of our mini line for small cameras and camera phones. Cinetics was launched in 2011 through a record breaking crowdfunding campaign. Based in Austin, TX, we are now hard at work on the next revolutionary products to help you put your cinematic ideas in motion! • Words of Wisdom: Find your passion. Then give it everything you've got. • Number of Employees: 7 / Funding State: Crowdfunded / Sloanies or SOs: Justin Jensen, Founder; Allison Jensen (SO of Justin Jensen) / Company Contact Information: www.cinetics.com / @cinetx / info@cinetics.com
  • 11. • Coffee Meets Bagel • What We Do: Coffee Meets Bagel is a new social dating service that introduces members to one quality single per day at noon. • Words of Wisdom: Just do it! Always test your idea before spending the time to implement it. • Number of Employees: 4 / Funding State: Seed Funding / Friends and Family Round / Sloanies or SOs: Arum Kang, Co-Founder and CEO (SO of Marc Piette) / Company Contact Information: www.coffeemeetsbagel.com / coffeeMbagel / arum@coffeemeetsbagel.com
  • 12. Curisma • What We Do: In a world full of mass-market brands, so-called tastemakers, generic marketing, coupon focused sites, and unfiltered list of products, it is difficult to find cool products you actually love. Curisma makes discovering new products easy, fun, and personalized. On our platform, you can create a centralized wish list and share the items you want from different websites with only one click. You can also follow people with similar styles to easily find new products you love. Finally, Curisma learns each user’s taste over time using social data, intent and observed data, as well as product metadata into uncannily "spot-on" product recommendations. • Words of Wisdom: Choose your cofounder based on common passion. Rethink your marketing strategy • Number of Employees: 3 / Funding State: Seed Funding / Friends and Family Round / Sloanies or SOs: Fatma Yalcin, Founder / Company Contact Information: www.curisma.com / @curismaTR and @curisma_daily / founders@curisma.com
  • 13. • Dympol Inc • What We Do: Dympol combines lifestyle, social, and cause marketing to grow charitable giving by making it socially and economically rewarding for all. In e-commerce, social networks, mobile devices, and 3rd party ad networks, we link costs to results. Charitable Checkout is the first application built on our unique cause- marketing platform: When fans give to celebrity or brand-endorsed causes, they get brand-sponsored discounts and are publicly thanked by their heroes in social media. • Words of Wisdom: Pivot, take small steps, try out different ideas before customers before committing large amounts of resources behind an idea. • Number of Employees: 4 / Funding State: Seed Funding / Friends and Family Round / Sloanies or SOs: Arjun Nair, Founder / Company Contact Information: www.dympol.com / @dympol / jziskrout@dympol.com
  • 14. • Flagship VentureLabs • What We Do: VentureLabs is the first institutional platform for accelerated innovation and parallel entrepreneuring. Conventionally, the acts of technology invention, company conception and entrepreneuring are conducted serially, separately, and slowly – often by distinct individuals. In Flagship VentureLabs, these processes are interwoven, accelerated and iterated by teams across parallel internal projects. The goal is to generate breakthrough technologies and fist-in-class new ventures – enterprises with the capacity to solve global challenges, disrupt large markets, and shape a better future for the world. Over the past 12 years, the VentureLabs team has conceived and launched 25 pioneering companies. • Words of Wisdom: Work hard, have faith, treat others like you would like to be treated, and everything else will work itself out. • Number of Employees: 8 / Funding State: Prefer not to say / Sloanies or SOs: Erdin Beshimov, Principal / Company Contact Information: www.fsvlabs.com / /
  • 15. • The Founder's Market • What We Do: We are a crowd-funding platform for tech startups. Our goal is to have startups funded quickly and painlessly, by tapping the wisdom and capital of the crowds. • Words of Wisdom: Its funny, but once you decide to launch into it, its really not intractable! To quote Goethe "Boldness has genius, power and magic in it". So go for it! And more power to us all. • Number of Employees: 2 / Funding State: Pre-Funding / Sloanies or SOs: Swati Chaturvedi, Co-Founder / Company Contact Information: www.thefoundersmarket.com / / info@thefoundersmarket.com
  • 16. • The Galahads • What We Do: The Galahad’s mission is to build a community of generous, powerful, self-fulfilled and financially successful women entrepreneurs through mastermind, mentorship and adventure. We believe that the creation of such a group would serve the development and advancement of women worldwide. • Words of Wisdom: Do real work. Dont plan too much. • Number of Employees: 2 / Funding State: Bootstrapping / Sloanies or SOs: Erica Dhawan, Founder / Company Contact Information: www.thegalahads.com / @GalahadsSS / erica@thegalahads.com
  • 17. • Ginger.io • What We Do: Ginger.io, a spin-off from the MIT Media Lab, uses passive data from mobile phones and machine learning to build a "check-engine light" for patients and doctors. Our system is designed to provide chronic patients and their caregivers with better care, and providers with objective real-world data about their patients. We're working with leading researchers and clinicians, and exploring how we can enable more effective population management. Recent write-ups in Businessweek (http://buswk.co/nurse-in-your-pocket) and The Economist (http://econ.st/bodys-check-engine-light). • Words of Wisdom: Focus on doing one thing right; you'll fool yourself into thinking you can do more. Don't do it. • Number of Employees: 10 / Funding State: Seed Funding / Friends and Family Round / Sloanies or SOs: Karan Singh, Co-Founder / Company Contact Information: www.ginger.io / @ginger_io / hello@ginger.io
  • 18. • Gotham Bicycle Defense Industries • What We Do: Last summer, our friend got hit by a car. He was riding his bike home at night after a thief stole his bike light. His story isn't unique. 1 in 3 city bikers have had their lights stolen and 80% of bikers frequently forget their lights at home. We're MIT bike geeks on a mission to make city cycling safer. Our first product is the world's first theft-resistant bike light. $84K on Kickstarter. • Words of Wisdom: You don't need VC. Make products and sell products. • Number of Employees: 2 / Funding State: Kickstarter / Sloanies or SOs: Brad Geswein, Co-Founder; Slava Menn, Co-Founder / Company Contact Information: www.bikegotham.com / @bikegotham / yo@bikegotham.com
  • 19. Jamela • What We Do: The premium US skin care market is $2.2B and has experienced increased growth despite the economic downturn. The fastest growing segments are organic, which will double in size by 2015, and premium moisturizers/anti-agers. Small brands are growing 3x faster than their larger counterparts, as consumers start turning to boutique brands and unique products. We are a fair trade high-end cosmetics company positioned at the intersection of the fastest growing segments of skincare. Our first product, Argan oil, is a facial moisturizer and anti-ager that comes from a tree that only grows in Morocco. The oil has such amazing moisturizing and anti- aging properties that people in the cosmetics industry call it liquid gold. We are introducing the products to a new channel, US spas, and entering in an un-tapped category, facial skincare. We will first start with pure Argan oil that will be incorporated into spa treatments and sold for retail, extending to a unique line of specialty essential oils from Morocco. • Words of Wisdom: It's easy to find help, but it's hard to find help that is worth the management time that you must put in to find results. Be wise about how you accept help and advice, otherwise it can really waste a lot of your time. • Number of Employees: 2 / Funding State: Pre-Funding / Sloanies or SOs: Daria Kaboli, CEO; Vimala Palaniswamy, COO / Company Contact Information: www.jamelaoil.com / / jamelaoils@gmail.com
  • 20. • Lark • What We Do: Sleep better and wake better with LARK. LARK is a revolutionary silent alarm clock that wakes you refreshed, and lets your loved one sleep undisturbed, and also monitors your sleep and coaches you to improve it with a comfortable wristband and your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. Designed with the top sleep experts who train Olympians to break world records with sleep- you too can improve your health, happiness, and performance, with sleep. Available at www.LARK.com and any Apple Store. • Words of Wisdom: Work hard. Sleep well. • Number of Employees: 20 / Funding State: Series A / Sloanies or SOs: Julia Hu, CEO; Jeff Zira, Product Manager / Company Contact Information: www.lark.com / ourlark / info@lark.com
  • 21. Local Hem • What We Do: Local Hem is an e-commerce platform for brick-and-mortar women's boutiques. Boutiques owners often have a difficult time setting up and maintaining their own e-commerce sites, and, if they manage to setup a website, very few online shoppers are able to find it. Boutique shoppers, on the other hand, lament that they can't shop their favorite boutiques either because they live too far or the store hours aren't compatible with their work schedules. Local Hem offers an easy, efficient way for boutique owners to "setup shop" online, and bring their boutique's brand to the attention of an entirely new set of customers. Local Hem allows shoppers to discover and shop boutiques that they otherwise would have never heard about or have the opportunity to visit in- person. • Words of Wisdom: Know what you do really, really well. When things get tough, go back to that and build from there. • Number of Employees: 3 / Funding State: Bootstrapping / Sloanies or SOs: Colleen King, CEO/Founder / Company Contact Information: www.localhem.com / @localhem / colleen@localhem.com
  • 22. • Locu • What We Do: Locu was founded by a team of MIT researchers who are passionate about data and ambitious enough to aspire to bring structure to complex, messy data sets that pose a challenge for human intelligence, never mind artificial intelligence. Locu's first stop: local data. • Number of Employees: 13 / Funding State: Series A / Sloanies or SOs: Rene Reinsberg, CEO; Marc Piette,COO / Company Contact Information: www.locu.com / @LocuInc / info@locu.com
  • 23. OnChip Power • What We Do: OnChip Power designs and manufactures advanced power electronic systems. Our very high frequency (VHF) power converters utilize proprietary techniques to achieve a 3-order-of-magnitude jump on present commercial practice. The radical increase in switching frequency reduces the size, weight, and cost of the power converter required in the majority of electronic products. OnChip's proprietary VHF designs create a compelling value proposition for space constrained applications. Initially, we have chosen to focus on LED lighting, where our small, reliable, low cost power supplies help enable commercially viable lighting solutions. In addition, we are developing products for a "brickless" laptop. OnChip closed an A-Round in February 2011 and expects to have products in the market Q4 2012. • Words of Wisdom: Only start a company if you have a passion for the idea and believe in (and trust) your team. Be persistent -- keep moving and keep the company alive long enough to get lucky. • Number of Employees: 12 / Funding State: Series A / Sloanies or SOs: Vanessa Green, Co-Founder and CEO / Company Contact Information: www.onchippower.com / @vlgreen / vgreen@onchippower.com
  • 24. • Paperless Post • What We Do: Paperless Post is redefining the tradition of paper stationery by enabling people to send customized invitations and greetings with the same thought and care as previous generations, only online. Users can choose from hundreds of free and premium card designs, customize with photos and other features, share via email or social media platforms and track responses. Paperless Post is headquartered in New York and recently completed a Series B fundraising round with RRE Ventures, SV Angel, Tim Draper and others. • Words of Wisdom: It sounds obvious, but when joining a startup, find one that's a good people and culture fit for you. Do your due diligence to make sure it feels right. • Number of Employees: 40 / Funding State: Series B / Sloanies or SOs: Jamay Liu, Mobile Product Manager / Company Contact Information: www.paperlesspost.com / @paperlesspost / inquiries@paperlesspost.com
  • 25. PK Clean • What We Do: Plastic Waste is everywhere: only 7% is currently recycled, with the rest mostly being landfilled. PK Clean solves the problem of plastic waste entering landfills, by turning it into fuel. Using our patented and award-winning catalytic depolymerization process, we can convert plastic waste into oil. It costs us $25- $30/bbl to convert plastic to oil, which can be sold for over $100/bbl. PK Clean's process is sustainable, resulting in a high energy payback of 14:1 and zero emissions. We produce a light and low-sulfur fuel, which is cleaner than regular fuel. By converting all our landfilled plastics into oil, PK Clean could replace 25% of annual U.S. auto oil consumption - paving the way to zero landfill and energy independence. • Words of Wisdom: Founding startups is all about people and passion. Stay true to your vision and find the right types of people who share your passion! • Number of Employees: 12 / Funding State: Debt, Grants, Equity / Sloanies or SOs: Priyanka Bakaya, CEO/Founder / Company Contact Information: www.pkclean.com / @pbakaya / info@pkclean.com
  • 26. RoomStory • What We Do: We at Roomstory.com aim to revolutionize the way Indian consumers decorate their homes. Instead of roaming the markets looking for that perfect home accessory, they can now buy different brands from the comfort of their homes. Everything you need for your home, from Kitchenware to Bathware, Décor to Furnishing, is available with us. We also understand that buying for the home involves more than just the right products and are therefore taking precious care to build a great customer experience. In time we expect to fill gaps in the branded home decor market in India with our own private labels. • Words of Wisdom: Take a break sometime, ~7 day work weeks are hard to sustain. Talk to a lot of people, and even though chances are that each one will tell you something different (so carefully choose what you want to do with the advice) you'll probably get something good out of most of them - a fantastic connection, useful advice, or some funding even. • Number of Employees: 5 / Funding State: Pre-Funding / Sloanies or SOs: Nipun Virmani, COO / Company Contact Information: www.roomstory.com / Room_Story / support@roomstory.com
  • 27. • Sabi • What We Do: Sabi is a new creator of unique health and wellness products. We take our name from an ancient Japanese philosophy that exalts everyday life. Our products are inspired by an ideal: that life’s regular, day-to-day tasks deserve to be elevated. At Sabi, we envision a world in which every person is fully engaged in every moment of their life. Our mission is to create products that are intuitively and beautifully designed in order to infuse life’s daily rituals with delight. • Words of Wisdom: If you believe in yourself they will come • Number of Employees: 5 / Funding State: Series A / Sloanies or SOs: Founder (SO of Liron Wand) / Company Contact Information: www.sabi.com / https://twitter.com/#!/Sabi_brand / customercare@sabi.com
  • 28. Sanergy • What We Do: Sanergy makes hygienic sanitation sustainable in Africa's slums by making it accessible and affordable. Starting with the slums of Kenya, where 8 million people resort to open defecation and unsanitary pit latrines, and where the 4m tons of waste are dumped in nearby rivers, Sanergy’s “build – collect – convert” approach solves the sanitation crisis in a sustainable manner. Our low-cost Fresh Life Toilet provides users with a hygienic and dignified experience. We franchise Fresh Life Toilets to locals, who run them as viable businesses. We collect the waste daily and convert it into organic fertilizer and renewable energy. In five years, Sanergy aims to serve 500,000 people through 6,000 toilets. • Words of Wisdom: Accept that you, alone, do not have all the answers to succeed. • Number of Employees: 42 / Funding State: Seed Funding / Friends and Family Round / Sloanies or SOs: Lindsay Stradley, Co-Founder; Ani Vallabhaneni, Co- Founder; David Auerbach, Co-Founder / Company Contact Information: www.saner.gy / @sanergy / info@saner.gy
  • 29. SilverRail Technologies • What We Do: SilverRail Technologies is solving the last of the big travel problems; Global Rail Distribution. SilverRail has already achieved many industry firsts: building the world's first global rail platform ‘SilverCore’; and winning awards along the way like PhoCusWright’s Travel Innovator Award. Backed by top-tier venture capitalist, heavyweights including Canaan Partners, Sutter Hill Ventures andAccel Partners, SilverRail is perfectly positioned to change the online travel industry for the better. Rail is the single fastest growing sector of travel today, driven by four factors that are creating a perfect storm in travel: 200 mph trains replacing regional air travel, rail markets deregulating and creating competition, 90% environmentally cleaner than air travel, and $200bn a year invested in infrastructure - 2x the investment in the commercial air industry. Come join the SilverRail team, and be a part of changing the future of travel. • Words of Wisdom: No matter how it feels, set your own personal boundaries to allow you to have a life as well as a start-up • Number of Employees: 23 / Funding State: Series B / Sloanies or SOs: James Harland, CFO / Company Contact Information: www.silverrailtech.com / @silverrailtech /
  • 30. Socrative • What We Do: Socrative - The standard for measuring student success Socrative is a smart student response system that empowers teachers by engaging their classrooms with a series of educational exercises and assessments. Our platform is super simple to use and takes seconds to login. Socrative runs on tablets, smartphones, and laptops, and is now being used by over 300,000 students and teacher across the US and the world. Teachers login through their device and select an activity which controls the flow of questions and games. Students simply login with their device and interact real time with the content. Student responses are visually represented for multiple choice, true/false and Short Answer questions. For pre-planned activities a teacher can view reports online as a Google spreadsheet or as an emailed Excel file. • Words of Wisdom: It's a roller coaster find your way to be happy throughout it all • Number of Employees: / Funding State: / Sloanies or SOs: Amit Maimon, CEO / Company Contact Information: www.socrative.com / @socrative / support@socrative.com
  • 31. SPOON Fashion • What We Do: SPOON, a New York City based women's contemporary clothing label, was founded in 2011 by designer Randi Spoon. In early 2012, Randi partnered with fellow Bostonian Alexis Przybylski Lawton after having been introduced by family. Randi and Alexis quickly developed a unique bond and established a shared vision for SPOON. Their common interests and diverse talents made for a seamless collaboration. Randi and Alexis' combined design sensibility imparts an easy-chic, effortless and feminine sophistication. They are passionately dedicated to quality craftsmanship and creating clothing that embraces a free-spirited elegance for modern women. • Words of Wisdom: Always return to your gut instincts when making decisions related to your business, and be sure to learn from your mistakes. • Number of Employees: 2 / Funding State: Seed Funding / Friends and Family Round / Sloanies or SOs: Alexis Lawton, President and Co-Designer (SO of Brent Lawton) / Company Contact Information: www.spoonfashion.com / @spoonfashion / alexis@spoonfashion.com
  • 32. SpotProperty • What We Do: SpotProperty is a deal spotter for real estate, focused on helping patient buyers or prospective investors find the right home at a great price. How it Works: we analyze every for-sale property in the US against our database of 20 million+ for-sale and sold homes over the last 10 years. Our proprietary algorithm detects homes that are likely a good "deal" relative to the market or are likely to have good returns for an investor. When the user is ready to go see a property, our experienced agents walk them through the process and help them buy their home. This is a huge market ($5-10B/year) over the next few years as the housing market recovers and short sales and foreclosures work through the system. • Words of Wisdom: You have two jobs: 1) Break through walls. 2) Focus relentlessly on the user experience. • Number of Employees: 2 / Funding State: Bootstrapping / Sloanies or SOs: Luke Behnke, Founder / Company Contact Information: www.spotproperty.com / @spotproperty / info@spotproperty.com
  • 33. • Sunglass • What We Do: Sunglass helps designers build better, safer, greener products by enabling them to seamlessly collaborate in real-time with any user in any file format in their familiar browser, and choose from a universe of pay-per-use cloud-based community-generated apps including heavy simulation/analysis executed in parallel on the cloud. • Words of Wisdom: Start. Seek big problems where you have real advantage. • Number of Employees: 11 / Funding State: Seed Funding / Friends and Family Round / Sloanies or SOs: Nitin Rao, Co- Founder / Company Contact Information: www.sunglass.io / @sunglass_io / nitin@sunglass.io
  • 34. Testive • What We Do: Everyone has taken at least one exam that impacted the course of his or her life: GMAT, LSAT SAT. The process of preparing for these exams is time consuming, demoralizing and hasn’t changed much in 30 years. Testive helps students get better faster in preparation for these exams. Testive brings the qualities that make private test prep tutoring so effective into the online arena. We combine an experience that starts adapting to students from the first question they answer and surround that with an experience designed to keep the student engaged. Giving students the right question at the right time and keeping them coming back is like giving someone the right weights at the gym and getting them on a workout schedule: it works. • Words of Wisdom: If you don't love it to death, don't start it. • Number of Employees: 4 / Funding State: Seed Funding / Friends and Family Round / Sloanies or SOs: Tom Rose, Product Visionary; Miro Kazakoff, CEO / Company Contact Information: www.testive.com / @testive / janet@testive.com
  • 35. • Thrive Labs • What We Do: Thrive Labs is a strategy and visioning firm that creates unique, disruptive spaces in order to connect human talent and purpose with the world's most pressing problems. We design Labs in which high- potential leaders can pause to recollect, reimagine, and re-envision their future. We run customized Labs for individuals, teams and companies at inflection points to match their capacities and their passion with what the world needs. We believe that when this happens, people - and their institutions and society - THRIVE. • Words of Wisdom: The best way to find out whether it'll work or not, is to try it. • Number of Employees: 1 full-time; operate on a network-based model / Funding State: Prefer not to say / Sloanies or SOs: Priya Parker, Founder / Company Contact Information: www.thrivelabs.co / @PriyaParker / priya@ThriveLabs.co
  • 36. ThriveHive • What We Do: ThriveHive gives local businesses a plan to market their business and an easy-to-use platform to build and measure it all. The complexity of local business marketing is exploding, but the time that small business owners have to manage their marketing hasn’t changed. Today it is critical to know what marketing activities you should be spending time on and what can wait. We believe the answer to this question is different for every business so we build a custom marketing plan that’s right for you. ThriveHive’s marketing platform is easy to use so that anyone can market like a pro. Knowing what to do isn’t enough; you need an easy and time saving way to manage all your marketing. We provide you with a marketing platform that enables you to build and measure your marketing. • Words of Wisdom: Thing big. Make things happen. • Number of Employees: 7 / Funding State: Seed Funding / Friends and Family Round / Sloanies or SOs: Adam Blake, Co-Founder and COO; Max Faingezicht, Co-Founder and CEO / Company Contact Information: www.thrivehive.com / @thrive_hive / info@thrivehive.com
  • 37. TinyPass • What We Do: TinyPass is a flexible ecommerce solution that provides publishers a variety of models to charge for content, as well as analytics and consulting services to ensure they reach their maximum revenue potential. We built TinyPass to help content producers and publishers charge for their work. We’re the only paid-content platform that offers publishers the ability to charge for access in whatever way makes sense for their unique content and their unique audience. Whether you want to set up a metered paywall for your entire site or sell access to individual videos or articles, you can use TinyPass to charge for access to your content in whatever way you think will work best. • Words of Wisdom: If you're joining a start up as an early employee, don't focus too much on your equity stake. The most important things to consider are the field you'll be working in, the connections you'll make, and the skills you'll learn. • Number of Employees: 8 / Funding State: Seed Funding / Friends and Family Round / Sloanies or SOs: Whitney Braunstein, Director of Marketing and Strategy / Company Contact Information: www.tinypass.com / @tinypass / info@tinypass.com
  • 38. • Underbrella • What We Do: Underbrella is a line of high tech fashionable women’s underwear made with performance fabrics. Our patent-pending fabric technology pulls moisture away from the body and the hydrophobic outer layer protects clothing so that nothing ever gets through to clothes. Our products are carried in 17 boutiques throughout the US and Canada and have been sold online to 44 states and 10 countries. We currently offer panties and are expanding to include bralets and bodysuits in the fall of 2012. We are based in Providence, Rhode Island. • Words of Wisdom: Don't run out of cash. Take advice from mentors but ultimately follow your own instincts • Number of Employees: 4 / Funding State: Series A / Sloanies or SOs: Sharon Ruggieri, Co-Founder / Company Contact Information: www.underbrella.com / @Underbrellas / sharon@underbrella.com
  • 39. VisionScope Technologies LLC • What We Do: VisionScope has brought the gold-standard diagnostic tool for joint pathology out of the operating room and into a physician’s office. The current diagnostic standard (MRI) is expensive, often leaves uncertainty around surgical necessity, and rarely assists surgical case planning. Today, with VisionScope Imaging (VSI™), the first patient evaluation can conclude with a definitive diagnosis and a clear treatment plan. By allowing direct visualization of the joint cavity under local anesthesia, the company’s product improves patient care, reduces health care costs, and improves physicians’ bottom line . VisionScope's patented technology is based upon the integration of leading-edge imaging electronics and single-use accessories. With miniaturized optics – housed within a 1.4mm diameter endoscope – the VisionScope system is designed to maximize high-definition visualization in minimally-invasive applications. • Words of Wisdom: Keep your head on a swivel, you never know if that person you bump into at the gym is going to turn out to be a great hire. Never be afraid to admit you were wrong and learn from your mistakes. • Number of Employees: 7....prolly 8 or 9 by the time of the pitch :-) / Funding State: Prefer not to say / Sloanies or SOs: Jeff Blake, Director of Finance / Company Contact Information: www.visionscopes.com / / media@visionscope-tech.com
  • 40. MIT Sloan School of Management: mitsloan.mit.edu Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship : entrepreneurship.mit.edu For more information on any of the companies, please feel free to contact them directly Slideshare deck and reunion startup pitch event organized by: Whitney Braunstein, Raffaele Colella, Jamay Liu