Colorado SmartCamp Winner Works to Bring Attorney-Client Relationship Online!
Colorado held their SmartCamp event September 10th at accelerator partner Galvanize in Boulder and finished the evening by awarding an innovative legal advice technology startup the winner!
Congratulations to Congo for creating the first online free market solution for the legal industry. Clients can schedule an appointment with an attorney in less than 60 seconds (think Zocdoc for attorneys ).
How does Congo work? With three simple steps Congo takes away the pain of searching for a lawyer by streamlining the search process, delivering the information and credibility needed to make an informed decision. Attorneys are licensed, vetted and have no history of malpractice. When I say simple, I mean simple.
Step 1. go to www.congo.io - find an attorney for DUI, Criminal Law, or Business Law
Step 2. Book an appointment
Step 3. Connect by phone or video
Congo was originally a school project that started in a CU-Boulder Entrepreneurial class in the Spring semester of 2013. . Their long-term vision is to bring the entire attorney-client relationship online.
Congo leverages IBM Softlayer in their solution and is learning more about how Bluemix can benefit their mission.
Congratulations again to Congo. Follow their story on Twitter at congo_io.
For a complete look at application deadlines and public SmartCamp events, click here: http://www.smartcamp2015.com/cities/. Stay tuned for more SmartCamp stories in your city.
San Francisco SmartCamp Winner Revolutionizes Farming!
I loved seeing the San Francisco Smart Camp live! First I got to see Jason and then I got to see amazing solutions on style, live streaming, farmers, and more!
For farmers, understanding farm conditions can be quite cumbersome, that's why we're excited about San Francsico's SmartCamp winner FarmHub who has just made it that much easier!
In the city of tech, winning this stage of SmartCamps is no small feat, congratulations to FarmHub for their innovative solution that makes monitoring agricultural fields easy and efficient.
How does it work? With FarmHub's weather stations and web solutions, you can connect dozens of field sensors to the cloud without the hassles of cumbersome technology. Gaining remote access to real-time conditions across the farm is as simple as turning it on.
FarmHub measures conditions like: air temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction, rainfall, solar radition and UV Index, visible light intensity and soil moisture. The hardware even provides camera snapshots of crop fields.
Let's hear from the founder.
"The IBM mentorship was really top notch. Very seasoned investors who listened and looked at what we had done. The review team cut to the chase with very targeted, constructive criticism that we are immediately taking action on at FarmHub. We are excited to go to the next stage and continue to gain benefit from the IBM Smart Camp program." Louis Thiery
Congratulations again to FarmHub. Follow their story on Twitter at @farm_hub.
For a complete look at application deadlines and public SmartCamp events, click here: http://www.smartcamp2015.com/cities/. Stay tuned for more SmartCamp stories in your city.
Los Angeles SmartCamp Winners Rethink Healthcare Coordination and Business Communications!
Los Angeles held their SmartCamp event September 9th at accelerator partner Amplify.La in Venice Beach and what great talent they saw!
Despite the amazing turnout and number of competitors, it was clear that this city needed to choose not one SmartCamp winner, but two.
Congratulations to Yosko and BizTexter, two innovative startups who are leading the way in taking a new approach to healthcare coordination and business communications.
Who are these game changing young companies? Yosko is a mobile care coordination platform for hospitals aimed at reducing the amount of errors during patient hand-offs, and BizTexter provides an intelligently automated text message customer service and follow-up marketing system for businesses. It is an affordable and easy to deploy app/cloud hybrid mini-CRM hosted on IBM Softlayer and integrated with Bluemix API's.
How do they work? Yosko is based on three important pillars which reflect the everyday hospital workflow: 1) seamless access to the existing hospital electronic system, 2) structured hand-off modules and 3) instant team communication. Yosko boasts a signature user interface with every functionality optimized for maximum efficiency.
BizTexter is an app which uses artificial intelligence for answering frequently asked questions and handling most of the triage questions coming from customers. The app does a great job answering questions like: Are you open? What is your address? Having any specials deals right now?
We were pleased to see the Los Angeles SmartCamp pack a full house at Amplify.La, when asked what he thought of the event, here's what one of the judges had to say, "Your Finalists are all solid. Being an accelerator, we see many, many pitches of course. The six we saw here today are all top notch, among the best we usually see."
Here's what an audience member had to say, "I had no idea IBM was doing all these great things - I though you sold hardware. I'm part developer, part business consultant and move from idea to idea very fast - I can see Bluemix as a great way for me to try my ideas quickly."
Congratulations again to Yosko and BizTexter. Follow their stories on Twitter at @YOSKO and @BIZTEXTER.
For a complete look at application deadlines and public SmartCamp events, click here: http://www.smartcamp2015.com/cities/. Stay tuned for more SmartCamp stories in your city.
Singapore Startup Makes Waves in Creating Innovative Internet of Things Smart Grid Technology!
Some exciting Internet of Things news out of Singapore this week! Congratulations to gridComm for winning this week's Singapore pitch competition and moving along to the next virtual challenge stage of IBM SmartCamp 2015!
So what is GridComm all about? To put it simply, they are building energy-aware smart devices that react to conditions on the electricity grid and implementing an Internet of Things network based on the existing power grid. That's why we say they are absolutely making waves in building Smarter Cities!
To put it more specifically, gridComm aims to transform cities into smart cities by providing the power line communications semiconductors, devices and systems that enable the transformation of the electricity grid into a smart grid. By connecting utilities to their customers, gridComm's semiconductors, modules and DIN Rail PLC modems help transform meters, streetlights, homes and industrial buildings, and other appliances into energy-aware, "smart devices," which react to conditions on the grid.
The Singapore team was very excited to award gridComm the winner after hearing an excellent pitch, watching the team remote control a street light, and for their commitment to a smart nation initiative!
gridComm plans to host their startup on IBM Softlayer and use analytics from Watson and Bluemix.
Again, a warm congratulations and thank you to gridComm and to all startups who participated in this year's IBM SmartCamp Singapore!
Follow gridComm's story on Twitter at @compareandshare. For a complete look at application deadlines and public SmartCamp events, click here: http://www.smartcamp2015.com/cities/. Stay tuned for more SmartCamp stories in your city.
Reimagining Optometry in Chicago! Smart Camp Winner!
Just when you thought getting an appointment with your optometrist was going to take months, a new healthcare startup comes along and completely reinvents eye-care from the comfort of your own home!
Congratulations to Opternative, the winner of this year's SmartCamp kick-off event held in Chicago on August 26th!
The Opternative team has created the first-to-market eye exam and prescription company that costs less than a traditional refractive eye exam. In just twenty-five minutes or less, you can get a quick eye exam with nothing but a smart phone and a computer. A digital eye glasses prescription is provided in less than twenty-four hours, and you can then shop for glasses or contacts anywhere.
Opternative is registered with the FDA and has undergone studies that have proved it just as accurate as an in-office eye exam.
What does Opternative have to say?
"Eye exams for glasses and contact prescriptions are just the beginning. We envision a world where technology allows patients to connect with doctors to make all aspects of vision care more convenient, accessible, and even fun!" (https://www.opternative.com/about)
Thanks for participating in Chicago's SmartCamp event Opternative!
Follow Opternative's story on Twitter at @opternative. For a complete look at application deadlines and public SmartCamp events, click here: http://www.smartcamp2015.com/cities/. Stay tuned for more SmartCamp stories in your city.
Are you the next CitiMobile Challenge Champion? Registration is open now!
Can you help to transform banking as we know it? The answer is YES and here's how...
IBM is proud to be a strategic sponsor of the Citi® Mobile Challenge - a quest to find developers and designers to create new and innovative FinTech solutions with Citi's digital platforms. After successful events in the US, Europe, Middle East and Africa, the Citi® Mobile Challenge is now starting in Asia Pacific and is hosting Demo Days in Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangalore and Sydney - and registration is open now!
Using Bluemix, you can apply your skills to develop, design and impress in two categories:
Consumer solutions: create innovations which give consumers personalized, intuitive products and services that transform how they think about banking.
Business solutions: develop new financial technology tools and services to meet the needs of small businesses, large corporations, institutions, organizations or governments.
Developers using Bluemix will be ahead of the game with a platform as a service (PaaS) that gives them simplicity, speed, agility and critical tools - all without the overhead of setting up the underlying architecture. And, as strategic sponsor, IBM is there each step of the way, giving Challenge participants a wide spectrum of face-to-face and virtual product education, consulting and coding assistance by top experts - throughout the competition.
Finalists will compete for an opportunity to take their technologies into production with Citi’s support, plus a share of USD $100,000 in cash awards and a suite of services from Citi Mobile Challenge sponsors. Selected participants will showcase their concepts at live Demo Day events.
So, be a part of the banking transformation! Go to http://www.citimobilechallenge.com/ to register for the Citi Mobile Challenge (registration closes September 2, 2015). Rally your team and get everyone registered to use Bluemix here: https://ibm.biz/IBMCMCAP15
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