Author Archives: Stephanie Schlegel

With Halloween less than a week away, this weekend will likely be a big hit amongst costume, candy and party lovers. When you’re out and about celebrating, don’t forget to check-in to your favorite location based application.

Foursquare launched a series of badges, pictured below, that encourage users to check-in to the Halloween festivities they participate in. In order to receive a badge you need to wish friends “Happy Halloween” when checking-in and are welcome to share a picture while rocking out Gangnam Style, showing off your Katniss inspired look or any other costume you choose to wear this year. The company is also offering an extra treat if more than 10 friends check-in together at one location.

Although not all users are incentivized purely by pretty badges, those that are will enjoy the latest additions to their badge collection over the next few days. Have a safe and happy Halloween!

No, social media cannot wash your car but thanks to the various tools out there, my car is about to be washed for me and I don’t even have to be there. Although daily deal sites like Groupon, Google Offers and Living Social have lost some of their shine, they offer a unique opportunity to introduce consumers to something they’ve never used before. There is potential for a marketing goldmine.

Thanks to Living Social, I’ve been introduced to a reasonably new online service, Cherry. Although the name doesn’t make it very clear what they do, the site allows users to request a car wash. Unlike traditional car washes that require you to bring your car to them, Cherry brings the car wash to you. Simply park in a publicly accessible space, check in with your car’s current location, and unlock your car doors to have the interior cleaned. Doesn’t get much easier than that. They will even send you a text message when someone arrives to wash your car so if you can wait until someone is there to unlock your car.

In mid-April, Cherry received $4.5 million in funding led by Shasta Ventures with additional participation from Founders Fund and angel investors including Shervin Pishevar and Bill Lee. The company also launched an iPhone app that allows users to request a car wash directly from their phone.

Cherry currently is available in various locations across the Bay Area and only costs $29.99 including tip. If you happen to see this post in the next day or two, you can purchase a voucher from Living Social that will only cost $10 for the same service. They’ve already passed 1,300 vouchers sold so there are a lot of dirty cars out there needing some TLC, mine being one of them.

Photo Credit: Original Batmobile at Southern California Car Wash via clusterflock

It’s an exciting week, it’s the Web 2.0 Expo in New York City! In addition, it’s my first trip to New York City and I’m enjoying experiencing the local tech scene.

Since arriving, I’ve had the pleasure of learning quiet a bit about what the city is doing on both the social and technology front. Coming from San Francisco, a huge technology hub, it’s easy to assume that the rest of the tech world is very similar. In Silicon Valley, there are new start-ups launched everyday and an amazing amount of entrepreneurs, engineers, marketers and more to support a robust technology atmosphere.

This morning, I sat in on a presentation by Seth Pinsky, President of New York City Economic Development Corporation, as he outlined the key efforts New York City is working on to keep key technology talent in the city as well as attract entrepreneurs and engineers away from the better known technology hubs like Silicon Valley. From incubators that provide low rent office space to city-funded angel investors to local training programs and competitions, NYC is committed to moving the tech start-up talent to the East Coast.

One part of this effort is geared specifically at education institutions to attract and foster science and engineering talent in New York City. The program, dubbed Applied Sciences NYC, is even asking institutions to submit and RFP (request for proposal) and the city will provide property to build on and develop from the ground up. So far, more than 25 top tier institutions have submitted proposals.

As the session closed, I asked what I think is a key question: can this model be applied beyond New York and the technology sector. Seth very much believed that it can and should although his focus in 100 percent NYC right now.

What do you think? Is NYC in a good position to attract the talent they need? To learn more about Applied Sciences NYC, click here.

Fashionistas around the globe have probably already stumbled across the wonder that is Moxsie.com. I’m a casual shopper and frequent online deal finder but a fashionista, I am not. Imagine my excitement when I stumbled across an ad on PerezHilton for a bag that I instantly fell in love with (yes, I just admitted my guilty pleasures, bags and celebrity gossip).

The ad directed me to Moxsie.com, a Palo Alto based shopping site that helps visitors discover independent fashion designers. The products available are well priced, well made and most are wearable. I selected my bag and quickly purchased it and I learned something even more exciting than the opportunity to find unique products. I discovered that with each purchase, a portion of the proceeds are donated to a charity that the shopper can select from a preset list. There is no additional cost to the consumer and the charities are close the the heart of the designers and Moxsie team. What a great way to enjoy your shopping and give back at the same time.

If you click through the ad on Perezhilton, you get 15% off your purchase instantly. Happy Shopping!

There is no limit to the quantity of iPhone apps out there. From apps that make silly noises to apps that calculate your tip on a dinner out, the selection is almost limitless. A new app, Zoetica, launched today offers a solution for those interested in the nonprofit world (an interest of mine). The Zoetica iPhone app aggregated nonprofit tech and social change blog posts, making sure the content is at your fingertips at all times. Continuing with the nonprofit theme, the application is free of cost in the iTunes store.

What makes Zoetica different than other news aggregators is that Beth Kanter, Social Media and Nonprofit expert, hand selects the blog feeds that are ultimately aggregated into the app, ensuring the user will receive the most relevant information in the space. The app was created through a partnership with AppMakr and is in itself an example of the possible use of such a tool for a nonprofit. The service makes app development possible for groups with limited budgets and limited tech skills, something many nonprofits can use. AppMakr offers different price points that allow for almost any marketing budget to include an app in the plan.

For more information about the application as well as possible uses for nonprofits, please visit Beth Kanter’s blog