Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Anjan Contractor of iSpire Talks about His Startup

Anjan Contractor of iSpire Talks about His Startup

Where are you from originally?

I am originally from India but lived in Columbus, Ohio for 7 years before I moved to
Austin 4 years ago.

What university did you go to?

I went to Ohio State University.


What brought you to Austin?

My first job.


What is the idea behind your startup?

A state of art mechanism that we developed in our spare time has potential to
generate energy from the traffic flow.


What need does it fulfill?

It generates free energy, which can be used for the traffic lights, road lights, display boards or fed to the electric grid.


What exactly does your product do?

Our product- Roadside Dynamic Generator (Rd-Gen) can be installed underneath the pavement. When vehicles pass over Rd-Gen, it can generate electricity. It can also enhance traffic safety.


Who is it for?

The US department of transportation, Wal-Mart, Simon Property Group, Central Parking
Corp. and similar.



What was the most challenging aspect of starting up a business?

Getting seed funding.



What is the next step for you and your startup?

We will develop a prototype and test it.


What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?

"If you throw enough things on the ceiling, something will stick."


Best regards,
Hall T.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Mark Spilotro of iKnowWare Talks about His Company

Mark Spilotro of iKnowWare Talks about His Company

Where are you from originally?

18 years in Bloomington, Indiana .... Chicago's North Shore before that


What university did you go to?

Indiana University... Home of CEO's John Chambers/Cisco and Mark Cuban/Owner of the Dallas Mavericks graduated from IU's SOB (School of Business)


What brought you to Austin?

Oracle Corporation in 1999 - part of a "SWAT" Team as the "Internet Changes
Everything"


What is the idea behind your startup?
At Oracle E-Travel we used 'Salesforce.com' and I could NOT generate an Invoice, see Inventory, look at Projects, and personalize what I wanted to see in business.


What need does it fulfill?

Elimination of costly "silo" applications. The need to simplify and unify all
business communications based on the individual workers role and privilege.


What exactly does your product do?

An easy to use, fast/secure and personalized mobile internet view of business
functions of Marketing, Sales, Inventory, Project/Tasks Management, real-time
reporting, Case/Knowledge Management, and messaging. iKnowWare my Sales are... iKnowWare my Inventory is... get it


Who is it for?

Small to Medium (SMB) businesses who want to simply "Turn On Your Business" with ease of a Swiss Army Knife with deep personalization in industry language for high adoption and utilization (and ROI of course!)


What was the most challenging aspect of starting up a business?

People... its all about People (motivate, listen, inspire, lead by example, each as
an owner) and focus to simplify Process for productivity and profits to exist.


What is the next step for you and your startup?

Growth capital of $5M and a secured credit facility of an additional $5M; grow to
$184M by 2012; launch 2 more innovative products.


What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?

Find Mentors, great Advisors, and use iKnowWare!
the three i's if iKnowWare.... Innovation, Information, as delivered via the
Interactive Internet. Use iKnowWare as it gives your Team the transparency to
execute, deliver, and reduce the number of mistakes made as you grow. Check out this article.


Best regards,
Hall T.