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TriNet Simplifies HR for Startups.

The PageWoo team attended the TriNet luncheon last week at the Start Engine offices in Westwood and we were pleasantly surprised by what we learned! Paul and Cassandra enlightened us on how outsourcing our HR needs, especially as our company grows, will free up our HR department to focus on the success of the company’s direction instead of tedious paperwork and legal. They showed us their team approach and broke down the most useful and important issues that startups will be facing. It is definitely a good idea to make sure you know if your workers are legally considered independent contractors or employees. California especially is cracking down on this distinction. They also touched on healthcare trends for small employers, benefits deferred compensation and the best practices for workers’ compensation. Check them out at http://www.trinet.com 

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New Reality TV Show at Start Engine Stars PageWoo Entrepreneurs

Bringing reality TV to startup.com, PageWoo will be one of the first 10 companies featured in a new TechStars show that starts shooting today at the Start Engine incubator in Los Angeles, CA, for Bloomberg TV. And to make the show even more entertaining, PageWoo Co-Founders Jason Crilly and Holden Steinberg are married. To bring you the inside scoop, we captured this PageWoo interview about the show, their new one pages for small business marketing, the Start Engine 90-day incubator program, and the love story behind the story.

When asked about being part of a new reality TV show,Holden Steinberg explained, “We had no idea. We came in for our interview, and there were 20 cameras and no one said anything, and we just sat down and there was a mic over my head.” You can also watch this funPagewoo VIDEO Interview with Jason and Holden that marks one of their first on-camera interviews.

When asked about what it’s like to work with your husband,Holden shared, “Jason and I are both very opinionated and we butt heads frequently. But it's always in an effort to get to the best product. One thing about working with Jason is that I never have to question his dedication. I always know that at the end of the day we are really both fighting for great results and we just have two different approaches to getting them.”Similar to PageWoo.com building one-page Marketing pages for small businesses to attract clients, this couple was drawn to each other from the moment they met. Jasonexplained with a big smile, “We met at a party in Malibu, and she was on a date with another guy, and we left together.” After dating for about 1 ½ years, the couple was married. Jason explained their connection, “She’s phenomenal. She’s funny. She’s really smart, and I always had a problem because every relationship I had I got bored at 6 months, and I’ve never been bored a day with her.”

After testing different social media concepts for small business, Jason and Holden have developed PageWoo, as new one-page Marketing engine that can help you launch a campaign in minutes over the web without developers.Holden explained, “PageWoo is About Me for Marketing. What we allow people do is instead of just connecting all your social media to one page, we take it a step further and allow people to download, buy now, visit, donate and a variety of different action items…..People really responded to the idea of a page that asked people to visit them or gave them a coupon or a deal, but they always wanted to customize more than we had the ability to give them because our software just wasn’t that focused.”

As PageWoo starts their three-month incubator program atStart Engine, the system is in a private beta mode, and they’re looking for brand ambassadors to test the product. If you’re interested, go to PageWoo.com, and contact them to apply. Holden explained their early stage approach,“We’re focused on offering the service for free until we hit on the points that are real pain points for people and those are the things that they feel like it’s worth paying for it.” Jason added, “We’re looking really strong now. We’re looking to have thousands if not 100,000 users by the time we get out of the program.”As this new service goes viral, PageWoo could be the Evernote of 2012.

When discussing potential celebrity clients, we saw the first signs of a couple’s disagreement that you might see on the new reality TV show. Jason explained, “We already have some celebrities that we’re working with like Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber,” and then Holden quickly jumped in to say, “Well we’re not there yet.” Another perfect example of a potential client shared was Kevin Winston, who is the founder of Digital LA, the hottest digital entertainment networking group in southern California. Holden shared,“Kevin is a perfect candidate because he does all these events. His website is not his forte, but he’s phenomenal with social media. He takes fantastic photos, and has all this great content, but where does he put it and get someone to register for his events.”

To share more about this exciting Start Engine Program for entrepreneurs, Jason explained, “Start Engine is this awesome program put together by Howard Marks, formerly of Activision, he’s putting together an incubator in Los Angeles that is going to take tech companies, give them mentors and all these different elements to help them be successful in 90 days. We’re the first inaugural class of Start Engine, and we’re really excited to be here.”

Howard Marks, Co-Founder Start Engine

And Start Engine is very excited to have PageWoo in their rapid incubator program. Howard Marks, Co-Chair of Start Engine and CEO of Gamzee, shared, “What drew me to PageWoo were several things – they have a lot of talent, they have passion and they have a mission to help small businesses that is very attractive. When you look at businesses and entrepreneurs, sometimes you think it's more of a project. It’s something they’re going to do, and if it doesn’t work, they’ll do something else. I look for people who have mission oriented passions that they are really dedicated and committed too. PageWoo is more than just a startup, it’s a mission that they have.”

After watching the internet bubble burst in 2001, it’s exciting to see the tech world coming back strong in Los Angeles with startup incubators like Start Engine and cool new companies like PageWoo. Stay tuned for the TechStarsreality show on Bloomberg TV,  follow @PageWoo and we’ll check back with Jason and Holden to see how they're doing after their 90-day program.

© Liz H Kelly, @LizHKelly, National Digital Entertainment Columnist, Sunrise Road Media,http://sunriseroadmedia.com

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TechCrunch meets PageWoo!

Today, Start Engine, the L.A.-based accelerator that’s the focus of a new reality TV show, is announcing its first round of startups. The show, which comes from Cameron Casey, producer of the TechStars reality program on Bloomberg TV, will again film entrepreneurs in a documentary-style format as they make their way through a tech accelerator program.

Start Engine, the incubator founded by Howard Marks, co-founder of Activision, and investor Paul Kessler, founder of the Los Angeles Film School, partnered with the show’s producers in the hopes that the new series will bring increased visibility to the participating companies. The rapid accelerator offers four 90-day cycles per year, each culminating in the nerve-wracking Demo Day events, where the founders pitch a roomful of top angel investors and VCs.

As before on TechStars, Demo Day is where each season will wrap. However, the new show plans to become a multi-season series, and plans to revisit the founders again after some time in a“where are they now?” type of segment.

Startups accepted into the program, which include anything from mobile apps to social discovery sites, will receive up to $20,000 in funding, space in Start Engine’s Westwood offices, educational seminars, mentoring sessions and access to investors.

Before, the TechStars companies may not have known they were defining a new genre of reality TV programming, but those inducted into Start Engine’s first class knew exactly what they were getting into. Though participation in the filming is optional, many have signed on precisely because of the exposure such a program will provide.

The new class includes the following companies:

BrandStand – Born at a BlackBerry hackathon in Boston, Co-founder Jason Hitchcock was motivated to join Start Engine after working in a Y-Combinator company and moved to L.A. the day before the program began. The app is a comparison voting service that measures consumer sentiment and allows users to promote their brand preferences. Players earn awards and prizes for their engagement by participating in location-based focus groups with their friends.

GonnaBe – This company is comprised of three advertising professionals who worked at national agencies including Made by Many (UK), DDB, McKinney, and Team One in El Segundo (where they met) on brands such as Lexus, Nationwide Insurance, Anheuser-Busch, Travelocity, Skype, AOL, Sherwin-Williams, Coldwell Banker, and Ritz-Carlton. GonnaBe is a social app connecting like-minded people based on interests, location and time. Users simply enter what they’re looking to do, when and where, and GonnaBe will show others looking for similar things, as well as deals that match their interests.

Hypemarks – Social discovery site that helps users find the best sites to check out, recommended by friends or people with similar interests. Users simply connect their social services at sign-up and Hypemarks will automatically curate activity and create recommendations through a stunning visual display for each user.

Outlisten – From three musicians founders, including one, Jeff Ponchick, who’s an ex-reality show editor, Outlisten is a mobile app and website for live concerts that creates a media memory of user recordings taken from their smartphones or digital cameras. Outlisten syncs multiple videos via waveform, creating an entirely new online concert experience.

PageWoo – This one comes from Co-founder Jason Crilly, an F-16 Crewchief for the Air Force who taught himself to code so he could build a social network for pickup basketball games in his neighborhood. His Co-founder, Holden, is also his wife, which should make for some interesting TV. PageWoo allows any user to create a marketing page for their product or service online without having to hire a developer or designer. Through PageWoo’s simple, streamlined interface, users can brand their pages with logos, upload files, add pictures, link all their social media and contact info, and then track visits, clicks and social sharing activity.

PROnoise – Community for independent musicians that helps them acquire fans, promote themselves, and sell their music. By establishing a highly interactive musical community that encourages viral sharing, PROnoise provides tools for emerging artists to make money and get attention.

Sandalbay Life – Founder Neil Malhotra was formerly Co-founder and CTO of Acclaim Games with Howard Marks, previously designed interplanetary trajectories at NASA JPL, and studied as a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow at Caltech. SandalBay Life is a personal health and fitness platform that empowers consumers to know and manage their health through intelligent smartphone, tablet and web applications. The open interface integrates bio-sensor data from multiple sources, including wearable smart phone-connected devices, through Sandalbay’s API.

StretchE – Discount directory that publishes Groupon-like deals in the form of coupons for local merchants. StretchE.com provides businesses a sustainable way to attract local customers by offering coupons close to home and a loyalty program to foster customer retention.

thrdPlace – Web and mobile platform that enables members to create and support community projects. thrdPlace matches member needs with their community’s resources, helping them crowdsource funds, materials and labor and empowering them to impact their community.

One additional startup, which is currently in stealth mode, is creating a mobile platform that lets users instantly connect with everyone in their immediate vicinity.

The TV series will appear on a network first, then online afterwards, starting sometime in early 2012.

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Simple, streamlined marketing pages.

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Welcome To PageWoo!

We are super excited to be launching PageWoo! PageWoo is just like About Me but for marketing. With our site you can create streamlined, plugged-in, dynamic, marketing pages in minutes. So whether you need people to buy now, download, donate, visit, sign up, or register we have you covered. If you think PageWoo could help you, sign up to become one of our brand ambassadors and get our software free! All we ask is that you use the product as much you can and tell us what you think and what you need!

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STARTENGINE ANNOUNCES CREATION OF ADVISORY BOARD AND $15 MILLION INVESTMENT

(www.StartEngine.com), a rapid accelerator focused on helping Los Angeles-based technology startups build a solid foundation for success in 90 days, today announced the formation of an advisory board which will provide thought leadership and counsel for the company and its growing portfolio of startups. Joining Start Engine co-founders, Howard Marks and Paul Kessler, on the board are Governor Gray Davis, Hayward D. Fisk, John Maatta, General Merrill A. McPeak, and Greg Suess.  In addition, co-founder Paul Kessler will lead efforts to structure investments and launch a $15 million investment fund for Start Engine companies.

“Being able to leverage the tremendous experience of a former governor, a United States Air Force General and three extremely successful corporate executives is a huge advantage for our company and our startups,” said Howard Marks, co-founder of Start Engine. “The creation of an advisory board and Paul’s investment are two more examples of our commitment to growing the Los Angeles tech community and contributing to it at the level it deserves.”

Start Engine’s advisory board will assist the company in helping find new mentors and new entrepreneurs, as well as connect them with top officials at local universities and local government.  The founding members of the board include:

Governor Gray Davis (Ret.) – Davis served as California’s 37th Governor from 1999-2003 is currently of counsel in the Los Angeles office of Loeb & Loeb, where he provides strategic advice to clients on numerous matters. He is also a Senior Fellow at the UCLA School of Public Affairs and regularly speaks before various academic and civic groups. Prior to serving as Governor, Davis served as Chief of Staff to Governor Jerry Brown (1975–1981), California State Assemblyman (1983–1987), California State Controller (1987–1995), and the 44th Lieutenant Governor of California (1995–1999).

Hayward D. Fisk – For nearly 20 years, Fisk served as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), a Fortune 150 company, with responsibility for its legal activities. Previously, he was Vice President and Associate General Counsel for Sprint Corporation, where he held various legal and executive positions for more than 20 years. Fisk has also written and spoken extensively in legal journals and before professional groups on the subjects of law department management, managing inside/outside counsel relationships, controlling litigation costs, the use of technology in the courtroom, advanced trade secrets in business transactions, insurance strategies, the attorney/client privilege and corporate governance.

John Maatta – Maatta is the chief operating officer of the CW, overseeing the network’s business operations, including sales, business affairs, network distribution, legal, finance, and human resources. The CW represents the second network Maatta has been involved with from the early stages. He earned the distinction of being the WB’s very first employee, and made many of its initial distribution deals. He also sits on the board of Rochester Television Ventures, LLC and is the former Chairman of the Board and current board member of the Trader Vic’s Restaurant Corporation.  Maatta has been published in respected scholarly law journals on subjects of Hollywood and entertainment.

General Merrill A. McPeak (USAF, Ret. Four Star) – McPeak is currently the chairman of the EthicsPoint board of directors and is a director of DGT Holdings, Miller Energy Resources and Derycz Scientific. A career fighter pilot, he commanded NATO’s 20th Fighter Wing and was the fourteenth chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force from 1990 until his retirement from active military service in 1994. General McPeak also serves as chairman of the American Battlefield Monuments Commission (ABMC), the guardian of America’s overseas cemeteries and memorials honoring the service, achievements and sacrifice of United States Armed Forces.

Greg Suess – Suess currently serves as a founding partner of ROAR, a Beverly Hills-based management and consulting company.  At ROAR, Suess advises clients in a wide range of areas including content strategies, seed and growth capital, strategic alliances, licensing agreements, and marketing and distribution agreements. Suess is also Of Counsel to Glaser, Weil, Fink, Jacobs, Howard, Avchen & Shapiro, LLP, with an industry focus on general corporate law, media and entertainment. He is a member of the Milken Young Leader’s Circle and serves on the board of CampSouthernGround.org, Derycz Scientific, Inc. and Wizard World, Inc.

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Start Engine Gets Started!

In an unprecedented surge in startup support activity in Los Angeles this morning, another venture startup accelerator, Start Engine, formally launched this morning, applying the accelerator model to startup in the Los Angeles area. Start Engine, started by Activision co-founder Howard Marks and investor Paul Kessler, said today that it is looking to provide mentorship, funding, and other resources to startups in the area, starting with a first class in January. The accelerator is one of nearly a dozen startup accelerators in some stage of formation in the Southern California region to emerge in recent months. Marks said that Start Engine will accept thirty startups per session, which will receive office space, legal counsel, optional investment, and opportunity to participate in weekly dinners, educational seminars, mentoring, and more. Among the mentors involved are Josh Berman (co-founder of Myspace and CEO of Beachmint), Vince Broady (founder and CEO of thisMoment), Jay Herratti (CEO of CityGrid Media), David Hughes (CEO of Search Agency), Fred Krueger (CEO of Shoe Privee), and Ken Ramberg (founder of JOBTRAK and co-founder and president of GoodSearch). On the venture side, Greg Martin of Archer Venture Capital and Rick Smith of Crosscut Ventures are among the investors associated with Start Engine.

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Startups Return To Reality TV

Startup founders are the new reality TV stars. No, really! Today, the producer of the TechStars TV show on Bloomberg TV, Cameron Casey, is announcing his plans to film a second startup-focused reality show. This time, the show will follow a group of entrepreneurs out in L.A., courtesy of a partnership with the Start Engineaccelerator.

But here’s the big news: this time, the show is planned as a multi-season series for a network.

The TechStars reality show was apparently successful enough for Casey to give the format another shot. The producer is still shopping the show around to networks, however – there’s no distribution deal in place as of yet. But based on the success of TechStars, word is they’re veryconfident that a deal will be signed soon. And it will be for a five-year run to start.

The documentary-style program will follow the entrepreneurs enrolled in Start Engine, the L.A.-based incubator founded by Howard Marks, co-founder of Activision, and investor Paul Kessler, founder of the Los Angeles Film School. Start Engine is a rapid accelerator, offering four 90-day cycles per year, each culminating in the nerve-wracking Demo Day events, where the founders pitch a roomful of top angel investors and VCs.

At Start Engine, the goal is to launch over 100 companies per year, with sessions that include around 30 companies each. According to Kessler, this incubator is different because of its focus on the entrepreneurs. “This is the first effort on a really large scale that’s not driven by VC’s, but by the entrepreneurial spirit,” he says. He points to the program’s large line-up of mentors, as an example of that. Around fifty are on the Start Engine website, but many more are not. As for the companies themselves, teams (not individuals) are preferred and one on the team should be the technical co-founder. The founders are bright, well-educated and the experience of watching them go through the program should be inspiring to other entrepreneurs, says Kessler.

Casey approached Start Engine around 30 days ago about the idea, and Kessler  immediately recognized the opportunity to showcase L.A.’s entrepreneurial talent via this show.

“We were big fans of TechStars on Bloomberg TV,” he says, “so we’re excited to be partnering with Cameron to shine a spotlight on how innovation is created here in the City of Angels where the media, technology and entertainment industries converge.”

For those of you who watched TechStars, you’ll be familiar with the formula employed by the new show. It will document how entrepreneurs apply, get chosen, the mentoring process and finally, the big pitch. There have been complaints, however, that the “reality-tv-ification” of the startup process led to some inaccuracies which painted some founders in a bad light.

According to Casey, the accuracy problem is related to the genre itself. “This is a very challenging TV format to tackle,” he says. “Considering the series was documented in real-time following multiple teams, dozens of characters, and multiple story lines over nearly nine months of filming in total. Some stories may be out of sequence, but we try to tell each story as accurately as possible.”

In other words, it may be inaccurate, but it might not be wrong. Hmm?

Kessler adds, ”there’s always a risk [of a negative portrayal, but I’ll do everything in my power to do things accurately, and protect the companies and the folks associated with those companies.” He also notes that the applicants won’t be required to be on TV – if for some reason a company says they cannot, Start Engine will accommodate that. But that’s a bridge they’ll cross when they come to it.

Says Casey, “considering that Start Engine is both a TV series and a exercise in media training and marketing, I would hope that founders would appreciate the value, and jump at the chance of having the birth of their new business documented.”

The series will appear on a network first, then online afterwards, starting sometime in early 2012.

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Startup Fever

Hollywood has a serious case of start-up fever. First Ashton Kutcher and Lady Gaga emerged as tech investors. Then other celebrities got into the business ofmoonlighting as angels. Now Los Angeles is spawning all kinds of incubators and start-up accelerators.

The city now has IdeaLab, Launchpad.la, MuckerLab, StartEngine, UpStart.LA, Science, and Amplify, which just launched this week.

I talked with one of the managing directors at Amplify to get a read on what’s going on out there.

Cofounder Paul Bricault says the blossoming tech start-up environment in LA reflects what’s happening in the broader digital media ecosystem. “There are capital efficiencies in the market that have brought down the cost of creating a start-up,” he says. “What would have taken $5 million to get off the ground with a product developed and customers and traction several years ago now can take a few hundred thousand dollars.”

He says there also is more angel money in the market and larger venture capital firms that historically didn’t do early-stage funding are investing much sooner than ever before. As a result, more entrepreneurs are starting up in LA, feeding the incubator boom.

Celebrity involvement in tech start-ups has changed too, Bricault says. While stars previously stuck to endorsing companies for a paycheck, recently more of them have started investing in them. Today, with so many of their identities tied into digital media, more Hollywood insiders are taking a hybrid approach, both investing in and endorsing tech start-ups.

Kim Kardashian is one such example. In 2009 she helped launch Shoedazzle, an online shoe subscription service, and now the company is number 21 on Forbes list ofAmerica’s Most Promising Companies.

For tech entrepreneurs who like the idea of trying to harness Hollywood’s influence, LA is the spot–especially now that there’s a growing community of incubators and founders offering mentoring, seed money, and the chance to make key connections.

Amplify, for example, is renovating a 10,000-square-foot historic building in Venice—a veritable hot spot, considering Google just moved 500 employees there as well. It’s no wonder. Companies who set up shop there are getting a three-year hiatus on paying taxes to the city.

For what it’s worth, Amplify is now taking applications. Selected start-ups will get four months of office space, training, mentoring and support, as well as up to $50,000 in seed capital.