Varick Street
Graduates
Best Vendor
BestVendor helps people at startups and small businesses make faster, smarter purchasing decisions through social recommendations. Our vision is to become the first place you go whenever you need to figure out what to buy for your business, much like Amazon is for books and Yelp is for restaurants.
Our initial product is a give-to-get community in which you share and rate a few products you use in your business. Then you can see what products and providers everyone else uses and recommends, including companies in your industry and individuals in your social network.
Jeff Giesea, CEO
jeff@bestvendor.com
bestvendor.com
Brainscape
Brainscape is a web and mobile learning ecosystem dedicated to helping you learn faster. Our core study experience is based on a scientifically proven repetition algorithm that maximizes memory retention, and it can be used for drilling any fundamental concepts in languages, test prep, and other private or institutional learning settings. The vision of Brainscape is to eventually weave our learning ecosystem into the fabric of the web - to make learning efficiently and absurdly easy.
Andrew Cohen, CEO
acohen@brain-scape.com
www.brain-scape.com
CBInsights
CB Insights is a technology and information services company providing clear, reliable, structured information on high value private companies. CB Insights created a proprietary sourcing method that closely tracks high-value private companies, offering private equity, venture capital, investment banking, wealth managers and corporate and angel investors access to fast, comprehensive private company intelligence. Founded in 2008, CB Insights joined the Varick Street incubator in July 2009. Since that time, it has added three staffers, one NYU-Poly alumnus among them.
Anand Sanwal, CEO
asanwal@cbinsights.com
www.cbinsights.com
Clifton Charles
At Clifton Charles, the passion is fitting men with the perfect custom-made dress shirt. Leveraging the best in algorithmic technology with cotton, trusted advice and unparalleled customer service, Clifton Charles is revolutionizing the way men buy dress shirts. Customers can order shirts to meet their specifications, measurements and style needs at cliftoncharles.com, or attend measuring events featuring the Charles’ Angels, the company’s trained custom shirt experts. These nationwide events have attracted corporate partners including Johnnie Walker. Clifton Charles isn’t just about creating the perfect custom shirt, it’s about creating the perfect customer experience. Clifton Charles has grown from two employees to 10 and has raised $400,000 from private investors.
Clifton C. Berry, Founder
cliff@CliftonCharles.com
www.CliftonCharles.com
CreativeWorx
CreativeWorx is an online solution that dramatically improves the operations of creative organizations. Leveraging innovative technologies developed at Adobe, CreativeWorx will forever change the creative process for organizations that include advertising agencies, Fortune 5000 Marketing Departments and small-medium design shops. The results are reduced costs, additional revenue, and improved client satisfaction.
Mark Hirsch, Founder
mark@creativeworx.com
www.creativeworx.com
EcoLogic Solutions Inc.
Founded in 2005, EcoLogic Solutions uses, manufactures and distributes environmentally preferable institutional cleaning products from its headquarters at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. EcoLogic’s product formulations — all of which are non-toxic, non-polluting and utilize plant-based or microbial technologies — have attracted some of New York’s top restaurants and major corporations as clients. The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, French Culinary Institute, The Durst Organization, Batali & Bastianich restaurants and NBC Universal are among EcoLogic’s client base, and as of June 2010, EcoLogic products have moved into all New York-area Chipotle locations. EcoLogic raised $700,000 in capital to date.
Anselm Doering, Founder and CEO
info@ecologicsolutions.com
www.EcologicSolutions.com
Ecological, LLC
Ecological develops and implements sustainability action plans for real estate portfolios, buildings and tenants in order to reduce costs, improve efficiency, achieve regulatory compliance and increase value. The company’s Comprehensive Sustainability Services, including metering and monitoring, in-depth audits and analysis and retrofitting, help clients turn sustainability efforts into profit centers. In June, Ecological announced a strategic alliance with Cushman & Wakefield, the world’s largest privately held commercial real estate services firm. Ecological’s strategy provides for ecologically conscious development that is both financially sound and a positive force in the community. Founded in 2008 in partnership with Joseph Grano and former New York Governor George Pataki, Ecological joined the Varick Street incubator in July 2009. The company has grown from five employees to 20, and raised nearly $3 million in private funding.
Anthony Sblendorio, Co-Founder and CEO
asblendorio@ecologicalgroup.com
Brian King, President and COO
bking@ecologicalgroup.com
www.ecologicalgroup.com
Effective Coverage, LLC
Multi-family owners lose millions of dollars every year as a result of 22 million uninsured rental units. Effective Coverage recognized the need for comprehensive renters’ insurance programs and designed an easily accessible web-based platform to solve that problem. Its suite of products is competitively priced and helps both tenants and property owners achieve sustainability and profitability through risk management. Effective Coverage partnered with respected insurers such as Travelers, Selective Insurance Group and Bankers Insurance Group to support its offerings nationwide.
Eric Narcisco, Founder
narcisco@effectivecoverage.com
www.EffectiveCoverage.com
Fig FoodTM Company, LLC
Joel Henry started Fig Food™ to improve the health of people and planet through delicious, organic, plant-based foods by creating recipes with his wife in their kitchen. The company will introduce its first product offering, comprised of four ready-to-eat soups and three condensed soups, in fall 2010. The line contains the lowest sodium levels in the category and represents the first organic soup launch in an eco-friendly, BPA-free carton. Whole Foods Market recently selected all seven Fig Food™ soups for national distribution. After 18 years in corporate food and beverage, Joel incorporated Fig Food and joined the incubator in July 2009 and has raised $900,000 from angel investors.
Joel Henry, Founder
Joel@FigFood.com
www.FigFood.com
Hotlist.com
The Hotlist is one of the first geo-social aggregators to provide real-time information on where friends are and what they’re doing. The site’s technology gathers location-specific data from sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google and Yelp to calculate the popularity of specific events based on a user’s networks of friends. A custom “hotlist” is generated, showing the places and events where users can connect with friends in person. What began on a whim while its founders were attending New York University has grown into a company with 45,000 users and high-profile funders, including a recent $800,000 investment from Centurion Holdings.
Chris Mirabile, Co-Founder and CEO
chris@hotlist.com
Gianni Martire, Co-Founder and COO
gianni@hotlist.com
www.hotlist.com
iQ4
iQ4 Corporation develops and sells a social media software platform for academic, government and private sector research markets and is sold as software as a service (SaaS). By combining communication, collaboration and connecting information in one place, iQ4 is designed to enable products, services, research and development to constantly evolve in response to juried information. iQ4 is a comprehensive application platform that integrates web 2.0 and desktop office technologies and is designed to be intuitive, agile and provide a corss community single point of reference. iQ4 is focused on Universities, High Schools, Secondary School, Government and Private Sector organizations.
Frank C. Cicio, Jr
iq4.com
iTB Holdings, Inc.
iTB operates an electronic fixed income brokerage platform leveraging the Internet to help customers navigate and execute in the global bond markets. It strives to be a trusted partner for both retail and institutional clients by deploying technology to create market transparency, educational content, as well as social investing communities to unite investors worldwide. iTB joined the Varick Street incubator in August 2009 and has raised in excess of seven figures in investment capital.
Michael Chuang, Founder, CEO
michael@itradebonds.com
www.iTBexchange.com
LifeEnsured
M.J. Beck Consulting, LLC
M.J. Beck Consulting (MJB) provides economic and strategic consulting services to the power and utilities industries. From energy market modeling and analysis to corporate strategy, MJB offers solutions geared to clients’ needs today and into the future. Founded in 2006, the company employs alumni of some of the top specialist power and utilities consulting firms. Clients include utilities, project developers, regulators and power producers, as well as fellow Varick Street incubator tenant Wind Products.
Michael Beck, Founder and Managing Director
mike.beck@mjbeckconsulting.com
Jonathan McClelland, Director
Jonathan.Mcclelland@mjbeckconsulting.com
www.MJBeckConsulting.com
nrelate
nrelate is an Internet technology company that provides relevant, related content to online publishers. nrelate’s algorithm mines content on individual sites and across the Internet to integrate and aggregate related stories and news items to enhance the user experience and maximize page views. Depending on the specific needs of the web publisher, nrelate software can integrate content from the web publisher's archive, its partners or the entire blogosphere to give better context to online content. Founded in July 2009 and a Varick Street tenant since November, nrelate has since jumped from two employees to 10 and raised $200,000 in funding.
Neil Mody, Founder
neil.mody@nrelate.com
www.nrelate.com
Nude Barre
Nude Barre designs and manufactures hosiery and active undergarments for dancers and performers. Founded by an actress and professional dancer, Nude Barre’s product line includes 15 distinct shades of nude to look as natural as possible on different skin tones. Nude Barre specialty undergarments offer unique netting, color matching, quick-dry and antibacterial properties to prevent unattractive sweat marks, odors and stains. Founded in 2009, Nude Barre has grown quickly and is poised to partner with professional dance companies, sports dance teams, cheerleaders and Broadway performers.
Erin Carpenter, Founder
erincarpenter@nudebarre.com
www.nudebarre.com
PatientPlus
Founded in March 2009, PatientPlus is a subscription-based online platform for dentists and primary care physicians. With its first product rollout scheduled for the third quarter of 2010, PatientPlus is poised to offer online appointments, reviews and social networking to help doctors expand their practice by improving the patient experience.
Murat Cannoyan, Founder and CEO
cannoyan@gmail.com
www.PatientPlus.com
Pixable
Pixable offers a fast, creative, affordable way to turn Facebook content into printed memorabilia such as photo books, calendars or posters, which are printed, packaged and delivered. Users can seamlessly import photos and captions from Facebook, Picasa or Flickr, and the entire process can be completed in minutes. Founded by three graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Pixable relocated to New York City and joined the Varick Street incubator in November 2009. The company has expanded rapidly from four employees to 19, raised $600,000 from angel investors, and $2.5 million from Highland Capital Partners.
Inaki Berenguer, CEO
inaki@pixable.com
Andres Blank, COO
andres@pixable.com
Alberto Sheinfeld, CTO
alberto@pixable.com
www.pixable.com
Rentricity Inc.
Rentricity is a renewable energy company that uses unique energy recovery turbine generator configurations to transform the untapped energy in various man-made water processes into electricity. The energy recovery systems – called Flow-to-Wire – convert excess pressure in water mains and other similar pipes into clean electric power. A single Flow-to-Wire system produces between 30 and 300 kilowatts of electricity, enough to power 50 to 500 homes. Rentricity’s first commercial installations will be commissioned in 2010 with the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and the City of Keene, New Hampshire. Since joining the Varick Street incubator, Rentricity has generated more than $500,000 of revenue and recently received a grant from the New York State Energy and Research Authority (NYSERDA) to provide system-wide assessments (at no cost) to New York State’s largest water systems including New York City.
Frank Zammataro, Founder
info@Rentricity.com
www.rentricity.com
Social Amp
Social Amp bridges social media and e-commerce to deliver social commerce solutions at scale. The Social Amp Platform allows online retailers to instantly socialize their sites with simple social tools (plug-ins) powered by open social clouds like Facebook’s Open Graph. Since its founding in 2008, Social Amp has attracted clients including Levi Strauss, 1-800-Flowers and Discover Card.
Matt Sunbulli, Founder, CEO
matt@socialamp.com
www.SocialAmp.com
Sollega
Sollega™ makes it faster and simpler to switch to solar power by reducing the non-module costs for solar arrays. Founded in 2009, the company’s first product is the InstaRack™, a solar module mounting system that cuts installation costs by up to 50 percent. This solution provides the solar industry with the ideal racking solution for commercial flat roof applications. InstaRack™ is made in the USA from recycled materials and is recyclable. The company has added four staffers in New York since joining the incubator in December 2009.
John Humphrey, Founder
john@sollega.com
Elie Rothschild, Founder
elie@sollega.com
George Schnakenberg, Founder
george@Sollega.com
www.sollega.com
ThinkEco
ThinkEco, Inc. develops easy-to-use energy efficiency solutions for homes and businesses. The company’s patent-pending modlet (for “modern outlet”), features intelligent engineering and algorithms to provide a simple, low-cost and installation-free method for saving money and energy on electronic appliances. The modlet was recently awarded Best in Show at the 2010 CEA Line Show, and it was selected as a finalist in the i-stage competition in 2009. Over the past 12 months, the company successfully completed a Series A financing round and has grown 240 percent in size.
Jun Shinmada, PhD
jun@thinkecoinc.com
www.ThinkEcoInc.com
Torch Films
Torch Films is a global film financing, production and distribution firm. The company was founded in 2008 and joined the Varick Street Incubator in July 2009. In September 2009, Torch Films released its first feature film, Marina of the Zabbaleen, to positive reviews and accolades from The New York Times and others. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and won a Muhr Award at the Dubai International Film Festival.
Tim Hobbs, Founder and CEO
tim@torchfilms.com
Ori Dov Gratch, Founder and COO
ori@torchfilms.com
www.TorchFilms.com
Wind Products
Wind Products Inc. (formerly AeroCity) develops and sells wind energy conversion products and services for residential, commercial and industrial property owners. The company’s first product —the ButterflyWind Turbine, a 3kW-rated vertical-axis turbine designed for urban environments – will be installed in select locations throughout New York City as part of a small wind pilot program sponsored by the New York City Economic Development Corporation. In fall 2010, Wind Products will introduce Wind Analytics, a software providing highly specific analysis of wind conditions to help customers place turbines for maximum return. Wind Products has been awarded $1.25 million in New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) grants. Since joining the New York City Accelerator for a Clean and Renewable Economy (NYC ACRE) in July 2009, Wind Products has added five staff positions and raised $500,000 in private capital.
Russell Tencer, CEO
rtencer@wind-products.com
www.wind-products.com