Gazelle Lab –
Bringing Innovation to
Tampa Bay

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

By Ramona Hurley

During tough economic times, technology is often seen as the one bright spot. In the United States this past year, technology jobs outpaced the overall rate of new employment almost four times. So it goes without saying, a community rich in innovation and technology is a sustainable community that prospers, in good times and bad. For this reason we are elated to share the story of Tampa Bay’s Gazelle Lab. Formed in early 2011, Gazelle Lab describes itself as a community initiative, which is true in every aspect of its program. They are a member of the very successful TechStars Network, founded by two of the most respected technology investors and entrepreneurs, Brad Feld and David Cohen, and are a mentor-driven, three-month, seed stage investment program with the goal of developing Tampa Bay’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Simply put, they are a 90-day business accelerator that helps competitively chosen start-up companies take root and grow. Luckily for each of us, they have set their sights on doing great things for Tampa Bay, like building a stronger entrepreneurship community, creating a seed stage pipeline for start-ups, and creating more jobs.

Aligned with USF St. Petersburg, Gazelle Lab was founded by Brent Britton, Bill Jackson, John Morrow, Marvin Scaff and Daniel James Scott, all with incredibly impressive credentials and each bringing exceptional experience to the participants who are selected to participate in this intensive, all-in program. Legal maven Brent Britton has been helping start-ups for 20+ years in Boston, San Francisco and the Silicon Valley, New York, and Florida. Bill Jackson is a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the Director of the Sustainable Entrepreneurship & Innovation Alliance at USF St. Petersburg’s College of Business. The students of this USF program whose students assist the companies selected to participate in the Gazelle Lab 90 Day program. John Morrow is the Entrepreneur-In-Residence with the Sustainable Entrepreneurship & Innovation Alliance at USF St. Petersburg. Marvin Scaff is a highly experienced software entrepreneur and technology innovator; and accomplished entrepreneur, visionary and author Daniel James Scott, named “one of 10 who make Tampa Bay’s economic outlook brighter,” (St. Petersburg Times) round out the group. This is a very successful entrepreneurial team of advisors that anyone would want to spend three months with to make his business outlook brighter. The affiliation with the students at USF St Petersburg’s College of Business is a key component in the foundation of Gazelle Lab. An initial goal was to determine how best to integrate the students with the overall entrepreneurial community and it became clear they needed to become a part of the highly regarded TechStars Network to accomplish this. The students provide an incredible asset to the companies in terms of research and helping the businesses prepare for “Demo Day” where each business gets an 8 minute pitch in front of angel investors and venture capitalists from all over the country who will check out the technology and listen to their pitch. The USF St. Petersburg students have the tremendous advantage of graduating with the experience of having been an integral part in building a business from the seed stage; and the contacts made along the way are invaluable.

Here’s a quick overview of the Gazelle Lab program.

1) Gazelle Lab only accepts up to 10 companies into each program. It’s hard to get in. You have to be among the best, and if you do get in it means you are something special.

2) Gazelle Lab fills the startup funding gap by providing just enough capital to get you off the ground (up to $18,000). 3) Gazelle Lab fills the experience gap by bringing together the best and brightest mentors for the participating companies’ benefit for the three month program. With this much talent in one place the businesses are off to an incredible start. Plus they have the assistance of the USF St. Petersburg students for free.

4) Gazelle Lab companies get immeasurable benefits that come from introductions and connections to potential partners, customers and investors, including the Demo Day event that they organize and for which they make sure you are skillfully prepared to be at your best.

5) In exchange for this tremendous opportunity, Gazelle Lab receives a 6% equity stake in each company in the form of “founders stock” or common stock. Ultimately for Tampa Bay, it’s about creating more jobs. They want to see these young businesses take root and hopefully remain in the Tampa Bay area. This is just the type of thing our community and business leaders should rally behind. It’s about building an entrepreneurial community and investing your time and resources. We have to remember, success also begins with giving back.

Gazelle Lab is accepting applications for the next 90-day program expected to start in the first quarter of 2012. If you think you’ve got an exceptional idea for a start-up business, this could be the chance of a lifetime. Many of Florida’s most successful businesses started out as an idea that an investor believed in, supplying the necessary cash and mentoring at a crucial time to allow that burgeoning company to blossom into an economic powerhouse. Especially in tough economic times, when banks are reluctant to loan money to companies that don’t have rock-solid balance sheets, private investment companies such as venture capital firms and “angel” investors fulfill a crucial need.

It’s our pleasure to introduce the inaugural class of six companies (in no particular order) that were chosen by Gazelle Lab. Each presented their business on Demo Day at Mahaffey Theatre on November 17, 2011.

Teburu. If you own a restaurant, bistro or bar and would like to optimize your online business, Teburu may just be the solution to optimizing your online ordering. This fully integrated system is designed to run all aspects of your online business. It’s simple to use, cost effective and cutting edge, giving restaurants a big advantage. Teburu allows you to reach your customers with a completely customizable web presence that puts the opportunities of online ordering systems, online table reservation systems and mobile phone based ordering solutions at your fingertips.

Founders Leon McIntosh and Greg Ross-Munro worked together at a software company and realized how lacking the current technology was for an online ordering system. More and more people turn to their mobile phones, tablets and computers to satisfy a need such as ordering dinner on the way home from work or making a reservation, so the need was evident. The catchy name, Teburu, is the Japanese word for table. The Japanese, by the way, have been using mobile phone and web ordering systems for over 10-years now, thus the inspiration for Teburu, and the development team is based right here in Tampa. For the consumer, it’s as easy as turning to the app on your mobile phone to place online orders for delivery or carry-out. You can choose the nearest location and customize your order down to the condiments you like on your burger. Orders are processed securely and the restaurant staff receives the order via a print-out and on-screen notification. Audio and visual cues also signal restaurant staff that your order has arrived.

Chances are good that if you don’t have a mobile application for your business you might be losing out on a large demographic of customers that embrace this technology. “Gazelle Lab was an amazing opportunity,” shared Leon McIntosh. “We received a great outpouring of support and guidance and the process was extraordinary.” For more information visit www.teburu.com; or email founders@teburu.com; or call 813-389-2970.

Red Hawk Interactive

Red Hawk Interactive is a Tampa-based company created by co-founders Sean Davis and Aubrey Goodman. They have created a video distribution platform called ChannelShift™ that allows content creators who normally distribute content over DVD to manage and distribute their videos across multiple Internet TV platforms to consumers like each of us who would pay a small monthly subscription for access. ChannelShift™ gives these content creators the ability to create their own micro-channels using an advertising-free business model. For the consumer, they are providing truly a-la-carte programming as they are currently focused on bringing independent shows, sports, home fitness and other types of high-quality content to market.

Davis and Goodman have two immediate goals for the company. First, they are working to bring a-la-carte programming to consumers over Internet TV, and secondly, their aim is to solve a distribution problem for companies who currently receive only advertising revenue, as this would offer a completely new stream of income. For consumers a-la-carte programming has been desired for a long time, but the technology has not been able to deliver this in a robust manner. For the content creators who currently distribute over YouTube or other types of platforms, the revenue from advertising has been painfully small. Additionally, those companies that distribute over DVD are seeing a significant drop in their market share. Red Hawk Interactive sees the introduction of this new distribution platform as the solution to these problems.

As Sean Davis shared, and every company that participated in the Gazelle Lab Demo echoed, the hope for Tampa Bay is to develop its reputation as an entrepreneurial community, much like that of Austin, Indianapolis, Boston, or Boulder. As more startups get off the ground and become successful, the more attention it brings to our area, resulting in more investment funds and more startups. This surely would equate to more jobs and a more prosperous Tampa Bay. For questions regarding investor relations, email founders@redhawkinteractive.com; or call 813-220-3310. For sales information, email sales@redhawkinteractive.com.

AutoIQ. How many times have you been driving in your car when your “check engine light” comes on, but your car seems to be running just fine? For most of us who are unable to throw open the hood and diagnose the problem, the founder of AutoIQ, Bret Tobey, hopes to soon introduce the answer. AutoIQ creates a health record for your car by listening to your vehicle and anonymously contacting local repair shops so they can bid on the work needed.

For the automobile owner, you will plug the product into the car’s OBD (On Board Diagnostics) system. Then you download the AutoIQ app at no charge to your smart phone, link the app to the OBD via Bluetooth technology and you’re up and running. AutoIQ listens to your car through the OBD transmitter and the app, and notifies the driver when something is wrong. If the issue requires a mechanic, a message is routed to local repair shops to request a quote, which you can then review and feel confident that the cost is fair.

Repair shops have the challenge of how best to find new clients – and how to stay top of mind until the time when they actually need their services. AutoIQ hopes to provide the answer to this dilemma. By signing up for the AutoIQ service, they will receive a notice when a potential client in their area needs a quote. The shop would then send a quote based on the OBD code, car demographics or any other pertinent information. Over time the shop will also receive information on how to improve its selection numbers based on feedback from the drivers.

Founder Bret Tobey grew up in the Tampa Bay Area and hopes the Bay Area will take an active role in getting more excited about new innovations and start-up companies. “We couldn’t have built the company and gained the support we have been given without Gazelle Lab and the platform they provided,” stated Tobey. “We also gained additional partners as part of the process.” For information and investor interest you can reach Bret Tobey by email at founders@autoiq.co, or by telephone at 727-753-8454. www.AutoIQ.co.

Kngroo. For those who love to explore the most interesting people and places in a city that make it special and unique, Kngroo is for you. Founder Jeff Baird is in the Entrepreneurship program at USF St. Petersburg. A former football player for the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, he has circumnavigated the globe with a knack for always finding new and better ways to do most things. Deciding to pursue his love of innovation, Baird was accepted into the Gazelle Lab program and is based in Tampa. “Gazelle lab offered excellent mentorship which was invaluable to a young entrepreneur like me. If there was someone I needed to know they put me in touch,” shared Baird.

Kngroo is an interactive mobile application that transforms normal metropolitan landscapes into fun, exciting and adventure-filled gaming platforms. The company connects people with local businesses using a unique, location-based interface that rewards exploration, promotion and repeat patronage.

For the participant, Kngroo is said to solve boredom and satisfy natural human yearnings for affiliation and recognition. For businesses, Kngroo mobilizes thousands of potential customers to their location who are rewarded for going to new places, trying new things and then it documents their adventures online.

The Kngroo application is sufficiently different from competitors’ as it is proactive (meaning that it directs each user to a future location, as opposed to merely reflecting one’s current location). It also uses an interactive gaming overlay to encourage users to learn about the establishments they are visiting which results in conversation between businesses and consumers, making the process of “checking-in” more enjoyable. Additionally, your check-in location is actually verified, unlike current GPS technology which is not accurate enough to verify when a user is physically present inside an establishment. Their goal is to become the first company to effectively monetize mobile check-ins. For more information about Kngroo visit kngroo.com. You can also follow them on Twitter @kngrootalk or Facebook at www.facebook.com/kngroobook.

Leads Direct. Leads Direct is a Tampa-based company founded by entrepreneurs Jeffrey Baird and Dustin Holbrook. They are a pay for performance lead provider to niche service-based verticals. Their first product to market is PropertyManagementDirect.com that brokers the relationship between property managers and property owners. It essentially connects property owners with property managers in a new way, simplifying the entire process and providing a solution for those owners that are searching for property management services online. Property owners use the site to learn about property management, learn how to hire a manager, interact with other property owners, get advice and find the right property management company for their needs. The property management companies then receive high quality leads and only pay for the leads that were generated on their behalf. They are provided with an advertising tool that only charges when leads are generated -- with complete cost controls. It also manages budgets and offers targeted ad distribution by geography.

The company goals are clear. They are currently securing first round funding that will be used towards building out the business infrastructure needed to support rapid sales growth across nine major cities by the end of the first year. Next they will focus on hitting financial profitability by the end of month nine, with a target of $1M in gross revenue generation by the end of the first year. Future goals are set at recognizing revenue growth to $6.8M and operating profit to $3.9M by end of year three.

The good news again for Tampa Bay will be a positive impact on the local economic landscape by providing more jobs to the area. By being a part of the Gazelle Lab program and participating in Demo Day, they have received a number of interested investors seeking more information about the company.

For more information call 1-855-Leads-Direct or email bsmith@leadsdirectinc.com. Visit them at www.LeadsDirectinc.com.

Dropost.it Dropost.it wants to change the way you share gifts by allowing users to drop gifts for friends at their favorite locations. These gifts are somewhat like virtual gift cards that show up when you visit a particular venue. The service uses the geo-location capabilities in modern smart phones to know when you’ve arrived, and will then ping you about the money your friend left for you. For example, you show up for dinner at a favorite restaurant and get a message that says, “Happy Birthday, your dinner is on us…love, Mom and Dad.” This message can be written out or recorded as a video. The service works on top of PayPal currently, but plans for mobile wallet integration are on the company’s roadmap. A particularly interesting feature of their service is how it will recommend which gifts you should buy. The service accesses social networking data from Facebook, and soon, Foursquare and Twitter, to make suggestions as to the venues and merchants that your friends and family members favor. This aspect is designed to add back the emotional layer of gift giving by removing gift card remorse.

Founder and CEO Ty Mathen is both highly energetic and goal driven, and cofounder and COO Orrett Davis is a biotech scientist turned entrepreneur. Their goals are to become the top platform for digital gift cards and find success in Tampa Bay. Mathen has a special passion in that regard and hopes to be able to inspire and give back to the community. Just a year ago he was over 250 pounds, out of shape and hating his job. He decided it was time to change his life so he put together a plan that involved a healthy diet and exercise. He lost considerable weight and gained stamina and also put together a successful mobile app called TagTexter. His daughter was also part of a five-year dream that is on the way. He quit that job, too, and has not looked back since participating in the Gazelle Lab program. For more information contact Ty Mathen and Orrett Davis at founders@dropost.it; or call 813-482-3165. www.dropost.it.

As Robert F. Kennedy said, “Only those that dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” We wish Gazelle Lab and each of these companies tremendous success in 2012.