Anyone who tries to snag one knows how difficult it is to get a ticket to the New York Tech Meetup. This month, half the room was filled with first-timers. Could be because it’s August and the regulars who know how to work the system were all on vacation. Or maybe they were watching it via live feed from the comfort of their homes, where they could both check out the goings-on and hang on Tinder at the same time, because as we know, the wireless at the NYTM is – let’s be nice and just say it would awesome were a reliable wireless network to be made available at one of the premier tech events in NYC, especially when a hashtag is provided. We mention Tinder because many of the presenting companies did. Or no doubt wanted to, so we did our best here to do it for them. Onward to the presentations…
Caliber
Caliber help connect you with people you don’t know but should and whom you wouldn’t ordinarily meet – for work, for networking, for job hunting. It’s simple: you swipe right or left, depending if you’re interested in connecting or not. Not unlike Tinder. The app gives you information like their titles and roles at a company, blog posts, etc. Very useful for events, too, so you can see who’s attending, and decide whether or not you’d like to hook up. For professional reasons, of course. In short, it’s the Tinder for professional relationships.
Slide Joy
Slidejoy “How many of you are familiar with Tinder?” asked Slidejoy’s Robert Seo. There was a considerable show of hands “We have nothing to do with Tinder,” said the former Marine. What SlideJoy does do is bring you beautiful content, deals and ads to your lock screen, moving away from those banner ads that we’re all so good at ignoring – and users get paid in the process. Users slide left or right, and the app learns their preferences, and yes, that part does sound suspiciously like that Other App. The big difference, as Seo pointed out: “users get paid, not laid.” Users can also opt for how they want to get paid – or donate their earnings.
Zenly
“Apartment hunting in NYC hunting is a pain in the ass,” said Zenly’s Isaac Palka. True, and most of the listings you find are either too good to be true, which means they’re either not real or gone before you can get there. Zenly vets their listing and shows you only apartments that are actually available for rental, like the $3495/month one-bedroom they used in the demo. You also get a video tour of the apartment, so you can “count the closets so all you ladies know how much room you have for shoes.” Zenly lets you do it all, sans brokers, from the search to the paperwork, so you’d never have to leave the comfort of your couch to find locate the abode it’ll be next inhabiting. Of course, they only show empty apartments and as we all know, the good qua more affordable ones are already rented before the prior tenant has moved out, but still, this ain’t your father’s Craig’s List. It’s not a Tinder for anything, but will give you more time on Tinder – from the comfort of that same couch.
Zola
Zola calls itself a wedding registry for Millennials, and of course you can swipe left or right when deciding which gifts you’d like to add to your bridal registry. Sheesh! It’s customizable and figures out the number of gifts you need to request, based on your number of guests. Need a big ticket item, like a bed? Guests can chip in and it’s yours – hopefully. The gift tracker allows you to have the gifts delivered immediately, or if you’re moving to a new place, it’ll hold them until you’re situated.. Get a gift you don’t really want/need? Through Zola, you can automatically return it – without the gifter’s knowing it – and trade it in for something else, or cash. It’s weddings only right now, but no doubt baby showers and graduation gifts are coming, too, in not too long a time.
Social Rank
Social Rank is the easiest way to identify, organize and manage your Twitter followers – and better understand them. You can also sort them by Most Engaged, Most Valuable, Most Followed, even alphabetically. So heads up, marketing departments: this might be valuable, no? Social Rank will let you know d) all of the above, and you can take the kudos and dole out the rewards.
Ringly
Ringly helps you stay connected, in style. It’s smart jewelry – specifically, rings, of course, that connects with your phone to let you know about messages, calls, etc. that are coming in. Let’s face it: there are those times when can’t reach for your phone, say, if you’re in a meeting, but if it’s a call or message or Tinder alert that you can’t miss, your ringly will vibrate, light up or change color and you can decide whose message or call you want to take. It’s programmable and customizable. In other words, never miss a Tinder message again. Good news: the rings themselves are actually quite stylish, and this is one of the smallest wearables out there. It will integrate with 20 different apps, including Uber and calendar alerts, so that if/when you’re in a meeting and have to be somewhere else soon, it’ll let you know that you have to start wrapping it up. The charge lasts for two to three days, depending on how popular you are, and the ringly box itself is the recharger.
Oh, those kids from Stuyvesant. They were back this month with two hacks.
Cartwheels
For the record, Cartwheels was a NYC Big Apps People’s Choice finalist. You know all of those foods trucks and food vendors you see all over town? How do you keep track of them, especially if you have a favorite who never seems to be in the same place twice? That’s what Cartwheel is doing: providing their locations, differentiating them by type, offering ratings and reviews (and health violations) and listing menus and specials. Available for iOS and Android, founder and recent high school grad Benjamin Attal plans on continuing on the project even when he hits college.
Frozen Syntax
Frozen Syntax is a browser-based tactical strategy game in which players plan simultaneous turns by writing situational AIs for their units in Lisp. It’s not the typical kill-all-your-enemies stuff. Oh, note to self: if you decide to play and are looking for a worthy opponent, look for people with ‘math’ in their handle. If your literal endgame is just to win, look for players with ‘xxx’ (or Tinder, no doubt) in theirs.
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters is hardly a startup, but they did introduce a new technology that allows multinational corporations and companies that do business internationally to stay compliant with US tax regulations. In other words, it’s a CYA software that saves time on taxes and compliance. May not have been the sexiest presentation, but it’s useful stuff.
MongoDB
MongoDB was the Alumni Demo of the Month, offering a sneak peak at their upcoming web service that offers single click provisioning of MongoDB on Amazon’s EC2. So now you can do upgrades in mere minutes and in just five clicks (sorry, no swipes in this presentation). It’s still in beta but launching in the next few weeks.
My Mini Factory, powered by iMakr
My Mini Factory is Europe’s largest platform for downloading free 3D printable objects. Downloads are free and all have been vetted and curated. But the big news that the company shared at the Meetup is their Scan the World project. Take pictures of landmarks, upload them to MMF, and if/when people print them, you make money. In case one or two of you out there want to go for it, send your photos to stw@myminifactory.com
The answer: three.
