The Atlantic Covers Happstr

…Robinett’s project reflects the feeling of euphoria and possibility that seems to emanate from Startupbus. The company is called Happstr, and it’s a geo-tracking site based on the concept that people who are around happy people become happier themselves. “There are studies that have shown even a third degree friend with a higher happiness level improves your own happiness by 6 percent,” Robinett says; comparatively, “happiness only goes up 2 percent for a $10,000 raise.” Why not an app to track happiness, then? “The site we’re building has a button that says ‘I’m happy.’ You click it and it asks you if you want to say why; you can say why or not, and we use the reaction to buid a heat graph and see what areas are the happiest. If the neighborhood over there is happier, you can go there and get a boost.”

Go read the full article!

We Did It. RateMyClass Has A Working Prototype.

We have officially launched our StartupBus prototype. As a lean team of 2 and after working only 3 days, we are happy to say that we achieved much more than we thought we would have. Here is what we were able to accomplish:

  1. A really clear vision, mission and assessment of our target.
  2. Detailed wireframes and necessary planning documents.
  3. A mostly functioning mobile app based on a Ruby on Rails framework and custom Javascript components.
  4. A sexy website landing page.
  5. A 2 minute pitch video shot on location at LSU with b-roll from REAL college students.
  6. A social media campaign including a Facebook page, Twitter page, and Twitter hashtag campaign that college students across the country are already participating in.
  7. T-shirts and stickers to get this thing viral.

Again, We are a LEAN TEAM OF TWO. 

RateMyClass.com   |   Facebook   |   Twitter

ZOMG. So much happiness.

Mariel Hemingway, esteemed actress, author, and television host tweeted about us today! We love Manhattan, yoga, and healthy living and are elated the happiness is spreading!

Hemingway Tweet

What would a MLB pitcher do for the Children’s Cancer Center?

Would you let a child shave your head and tattoo your scalp?

Maybe you would if you knew it would mean a large check for a cause that is near & dear to your heart.

Former MLB pitcher and 2000 Olympic gold medalist Todd Williams is betting that people will be willing to donate at least $5,000.00 to his favorite charity Children’s Cancer Center, and he is using Give or Dare to do this.

According to Todd, using Give or Dare gave him just the excuse he needed to do something big for a cause he is passionate about. He agreed to a dare minimum of $5,000 knowing that amount can do a lot of good for the center, even though he is feeling quite confident that his dare can get help generate at least another zero on that figure.

Give or Dare, one of the 2012 Startup Bus‘s newest startups, launched their first official charity dare on Saturday, March 10, 2012 at the SxSWi Conference, landing their first pledge within minutes – providing some immediate validation for their startup idea.

Gaining actual paying customers is the ultimate goal of any startup.  And given the tight time-crunch and other challenging conditions, these passionate “buspreneurs” focused on actual paying customers instead of simply collecting emails with the hopes of launching.

Isn’t that what Startup Bus should be all about?

 

Gaggle Helps You Keep Tabs on Your Friends at SXSW

We set out to build a way to capture and share a story about your experiences through digital media, but did lots customer testing on and off the bus and found that there was a big pain point in the noisiness of social feeds.

Gaggle is a mobile app that filters your social feeds to only people you care about in that instant. You’re at SXSW with a bunch of your friends – you care a lot more about what they are saying than anyone else. Gaggle solves this problem by letting you form ad hoc groups of people whose updates you really care about. It collects just their posts from across all social networks and makes sure you don’t miss anything.

We are excited to launch Gaggle tonight, just in time for SXSW! Just sign up, create your Gaggle, invite your friends and you’ll be able to see just what they are doing! After SXSW, you can relive the experience and create more Gaggles anytime you are with your friends. Whether it’s on a hike or a trip to Chicago — Gaggle becomes THE place to keep up to date with the people you really care about.

Check out our demo video on YouTube.

Sign up now at getgaggle.com

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