Startups to Watch
While the world may be on the cusp of apocalypse there are also many startups to watch in 2012. We wanted to share some of the most interesting start ups to watch in the technology industry this year. Some of these have already gained some recognition in 2011 and we believe that many of them will become household names as the year progresses.
Startups to Watch | Dwolla
Dwolla hit the ground running last year by becoming one of the first companies that allows users of social media sites to easily purchase products by linking their bank accounts to their Dwolla account. As a matter of fact, they transferred over $1 million shortly after forming their online business. Its no surprise either seeing as transferring money over social networks and making purchases was something that needed to happen, Dwolla just gave the people what they wanted, securely.
So whats the fee? Mashable breaks it down in their article about startups to watch:
Payments of up to $10 are free and anything larger costs $0.25 — which is cheaper than paying a credit card fee.
In December, the company launched a new feature called Instant that lets users pay on up to $5 of credit while waiting for bank transfers from their accounts, making this process instant.
Startups to Watch | Skillshare
Heres one of my favorite startups to watch for the new year, because a lot of us out there use the new year to develop new hobbies or learn new skills, if this is you then Skillshare is your place. This site is an online community for offline classes and tutorials. As a matter of fact this startup has enabled many people to quit their day jobs and become full-time entrepreneurs!
Skillshare may not be accommodating your area yet, but be on the lookout.
Startups to Watch | Eventbrite
Although this particular tech group started roughly five years ago, only recently has it seen a lot of growth. Its a ticketing service, here are some stats from Mashable:
- It’s on a growth streak. Last year it sold about 11 million tickets. This year it sold about 21 million.
- It’s being taken seriously by big events. This summer, for instance, it handled tickets for a Black Eyed Peas concert in New York City’s Central Park in addition to 458,000 other events (more than twice as many as last year).
- It’s expanding internationally. Eventbrite opened a London office in October and launched localized versions of its platform in Ireland and Canada in December.
- It’s offline. A new iPad app lets event organizer sell tickets through Eventbrite at the door.
- It could IPO. In a ZURB podcast this summer, Eventbrite CEO Kevin Hartz said that Eventbrite could file as early as 2012. “We have to continue to perform to very lofty expectations to do that,” he said.
http://mashable.com/2012/01/08/6-startups-to-watch-in-2012/
Startups to Watch | Codecademy
A lot of people, including myself, find coding for webpages daunting and esoteric. Codecademy tapped into this fear and made coding into a fun game-like activity, that is much less esoteric than one would normally imagine. Codecademy is the company to take product launch notes from as they were able to sign up over 200,000 people up for coding classes within 72 hours of their product launch. Thats why we chose them as one of our startups to watch this year.
Startups to Watch | LevelUp/SCVNGR
LevelUp was introduced by the tech company SCVNGR to give its users a mobile experience similar to the Starbucks App, which allows users to use their phones to purchase things at stores while racking up rewards points and gaining discounts. LevelUp is a loyalty program that links to a debit or credit account that then creates a custom QR code that can be scanned at the register. The app already has over 100,000 users and has signed up 1,000 companies.
Startups to Watch | Bottomline
We know you, our readers, may also have the inside scoop on some startups to watch this year, so please share them with us!
Image attribution: http://vimeo.com/skillshare