Bright Idea
Bright Idea: Robo Hops
Wouldnt it be great to have a home-brewing machine that made making beer about as easy as constructing an espresso? Yes, it would, said brothers Bill and Jim Mitchell and Avi Geiger, who went out and built the machine and then built a company to make and market it. The PicoBrew Zymatic is about the…
Bright Idea: What’s For Dinner?
Creating a grocery list can be as stressful as shopping itself, especially if youre on a budget and providing for a family. Creating a shopping list of healthful foods can seem near impossible when your wallet is on a diet. Mary Egan, a former SVP at Starbucks, believes in a stress-free food-shopping experience. Last year,…
Bright Idea: Predictive Analysis
As the big data phenomenon continues its march toward business world ubiquity, many enterprises are compiling as much information as possible on their customers, on their operations and anything else that seems potentially relevant. But what to do with that data once theyre collected? How can they be used to make high-level, effective decisions? Enter…
Bright Idea: Boogio Takes a Leap
Make your shoes smart. That is the tagline on Boogios marketing material. And smart here doesnt necessarily mean stylish. Boogio (boogio.com) isnt selling footwear. Its selling a means of making shoes provide information that could enhance ones enjoyment of recreational activities or even save a life. Boogio is an insole sensor that captures body movements….
Bright Idea: Get the Picture
A hand-me-down guidebook may lead travelers to a shuttered storefront. Hashtags may hint that something is #delicious but dont necessarily provide directions or answer questions. Enter social travel guide Trover. Its an image-sharing site (trover.com) and app with content produced by explorers for explorers, compete with GPS-tagged recommendations to help travelers decide where to go…
Bright Idea: Innovega’s iOptik system
There were plenty of Google Glass competitors at this years Consumer Electronics Show, the annual expo and bellwether of tech trends. But the iOptik system from Bellevue-based Innovega stood out for its ambition. Where Google Glass offers a small digital display in a corner of the users vision, iOptik takes a different tack. Through a…
Bright Idea: SNUPI Technologies & Wally
The so-called internet of things, in which objects transfer data without requiring human interaction, is so hot that Google recently invested $3.2 billion in Nest Labs, which sells a smart household thermostat that learns the owners behavior to reduce energy use. This infatuation isnt lost on SNUPI Technologies, which is debuting its Wally home-sensing network…
Bright Idea: Data Processing
We give people an unfair advantage, reads a T-shirt worn by Stephen Purpura. Thats the marketing mantra of Context Relevant, the Seattle startup Purpura launched last year. The company says it offers that edge by using machine-learning technology to quickly uncover critical relationships from among massive amounts of client data. Our product allows companies to…
Bright Idea: Reigning Cats and Dogs
After selling his cigar-importing business for half a million dollars in 1999, Darryl Rawlings used the money to found Trupanion, originally called Vetinsurance, in Canada. Trupanion expanded to the United States in 2007 and claims to be the only exclusive pet insurance company in the world. It offers health coverage for cats and dogs in…
Bright Idea: Oscilla Power’s plan to harvest wave energy
Entrepreneurs whove tried to tap the energy of ocean currents have typically failed because the currents are so powerful that they eventually destroy most systems relying on turbines and other moving parts. Seattle-based Oscilla Power Inc. thinks its wave energy harvesters have solved the problem. A chain of low-cost iron-aluminum rods are tethered to a…
Bright Idea: Out to Launch
Amid the proliferation of new approaches to launching startups, you can add this one from Seattle-based Be Labs. While venture capital firms might screen a hundred startups before choosing one to support, Be Labs turns the process on its head, studying social trends to identify business opportunities and then creating companies to address them. Take…
Bright Idea: Illuminating Decision
Jonathan Junker and Seth Grizzle saw the light in 2008 when most business owners werent seeing even a glimmer at the end of the recessionary tunnel. The two architects founded Graypants Inc. as a way to tap their seemingly boundless creative energy. In that first year, they continued working at separate Seattle firms while moonlighting…
Bright Idea: Water, Water Everywhere
The sprint from idea to revenue-generating company might be standard operating procedure in the tech realm, but even a mobile-app developer or social-networking site might have trouble keeping up with Alexandra Abraham and her startup, DripCatch Inc. It began with the idea for DripCatcha tray to collect water that drains from racks of glasses. Without…