Earlier this week, we hosted our second community class. Chris Bergman, CEO and founder of ChoreMonster, spoke on Gamification. He emphasized the importance of REAL game design being more than just a point system.

If you weren’t able to make it, we’ve shared some clips of his talk here.

ChoreMonster is a suite of web and mobile applications that allow parents to create chore “adventures” for their children, establishing ownership of responsibilities in a unique and engaging way. Founded by Bergman and Paul Armstrong, ChoreMonster was a member of The Brandery’s Class of 2011. Since then, they’ve met some huge milestones, including having over 300,000 chores completed on their platform. Their continued success has garnered a lot of media attention, both here in Cincinnati and on the national level. ChoreMonster has been featured in Mashable as well as the New York Times.

For more information on upcoming classes and the link to register, click here.

“If you travelled by air for the wonderful holiday weekend, you might have been faced with the hell that is the typical airport car rental experience. There are the lines, the hassles, the constant upsells, confusion around cost of gas and insurance, and about 15 pages of paper that you have to sign before being able to pick out your car and leave the lot… Airport car rentals are a big business — more than $10 billion a year, by some estimates — but the experience is pretty bad all around. Which means it’s time for disruption!”. Read more on TechCrunch.

This past Saturday, 25 students from Miami University’s Entrepreneurship and Interactive Media Studies programs spent the day at The Brandery learning what it means to be successful in startup life.

Highlights of the day included:

• Introduction by Altman Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship Mark Lacker
  • How interns can add value in the startup world
• Skype conference with Miami Alum and Entrepreneur Sam McBride of SafeMart Home Security Systems in Chicago
  • “Figure-it-out” mentality
  • Google keyword search tool challenge
• Lunch with Venture-for-America Fellows
  • Challenges and Experiences of working in the startup world
• “Nerd Whisperers” with Julian Miller and Matt Duch of Ontract
  • How to communicate within a team of techies and non-techies
• Words of Wisdom from Hunter Hammonds of Impulcity
  • Do more faster
  • Get used to the feeling of failure
    • …and try again
• From the VC’s point of View with Rahul Bawa of CincyTech
  • Stages of startup
  • What investors look for
    • Meeting milestones
• Wrap-up: How to balance startup life
  • Importance of prioritization
  • Dept. of Justice Inbox Overflow challenge on dealing with overwhelming amounts of work/change/uncertainty under a deadline

Mary Dieglio, a junior at Miami and current intern at The Brandery said:

“It was especially cool to hear from Julian, Matt, and Hunter. A lot of what has made these guys successful wasn’t sitting in a classroom but figuring things out themselves by doing, failing, and trying again.”

Jessica Reading, Assistant Director at Miami’s Page Center for Entrepreneurship, said:

“Holding the workshop at the Brandery connected students to the feeling of beingin an entrepreneurial environment, the best classroom setting we could have asked for. Our hope is to continue preparing students for real-world experience by working with those successful in the field already.“

It is amazing to see a group of young, talented, bright people willing to spend their Saturday investing in their futures. The Brandery is committed to working with local universities to foster the growth and innovation in Cincinnati.

What is IEEE? The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is the world’s leading resource for technical innovation and professional networking in the fields of electrical engineering, electronics, and computing. University of Cincinnati has a student run, IEEE branch on it’s campus.

What is a hackathon?An event in which computer programmers and others in the field of software development, like graphic designers, interface designers, project managers and computational philologists collaborate on software projects. Rob Rieman, UC IEEE President, hosted a Hackathon at The Brandery on Friday, November 2nd with a great turnout of college students. We are excited to host these events and provide a new venue for these students to collaborate between themselves and immerse in the broader startup community. Hackathons are a great way to grow the tech base in Cincinnati and to expose the tech talent already existing in our city. Here’s what some of the students had to say:

“What better way to blow off steam from a hard week of graduate work and club activities than to go to an off campus networking event with tech savy individuals. Got me off campus, got to enjoy some good food, drink, friends, and network with some amazing individuals. Also a more relaxed environment to pitch yourself for possible future employment. No way you can build these kinds of relationships at a career fair or general networking event.” –Jon Lockhart, PhD Candidate – EE Systems.

“I was able to get a little bit of my homework done with the help of the developers. A lot of things you learn in school are applied in the real world.” – Adam Wilford, Computer Engineering Student.

You have to BUILD your company’s BRAND EQUITY…. AND there are processes to do so.

Mike Bott talked through the ins-and-outs of branding for your startup company last night. The working session included background into understanding WHY building brand equity is important, examples of the POWER of strong brands, the process by which to BUILD your equity pyramid, and the nuances of a brand’s promise versus a brand’s characteristics.

The crowd included people in publishing, technology startups, medical device companies, agency designers, and large corporate types.

It was a great class with working take-aways and relevant information. BIG THANKS to Mike Bott for putting the presentation together and kicking off the first class of the NEW Brandery Community Class series.

Next up! “Gamification” with Chris Bergman, the CEO/Co-Founder of ChoreMonster.

CALLING ALL CINCINNATIANS!!

REGISTER NOW!!! Click the link below to register for each event.

Dates: listed by class; Time: 5:30pm-7:00pm; Cost: $20/person/class.

11/12: Branding 101

11/26: Gamification

12/5: Social Media for Startups

12/10: Inspiration is all around

12/17: Financing a small business

1/7: Technology for your company

1/14: Top 10 legal mistakes

1/22: Nerd Whisperer

1/23: How to get startup famous

1/28: Tweet about it #startups

Startup Grind Cincinnati is excited to announce our first event at The Brandery on Thursday, December 6, 2012. Cincinnati entrepreneurs, investors and supporters are invited to hear Tim Schigel, the Chariman and Founder of ShareThis, the largest ecosystem for sharing and engagement across the web, speak about his experiences growing a company in Cincinnati. Tim has been on the forefront of digital media technology and the burgeoning Cincinnati tech scene. He served as a Director at Blue Chip Venture Fund; he was highly involved with the growth of Nielsen Buzzmetrics, the leading platform for measuring sentiment on blogs and forums, and Third Screen Media, the first mobile advertising platform.

Cincinnati is the land of big brands. Home to 10 Fortune 500 Headquarters including Procter and Gamble, Kroger and Macy’s, we boast over 450 area firms involved with marketing, product development and design. With one of the largest collections of Brand and Consumer Marketing talent in the world, there is not a better place for a consumer- focused startup.

In recent history, violence, gangs and serious racial tensions tainted downtown Cincinnati and the surrounding communities. Due to targeted infrastructure investments, expanding real estate opportunities, the construction of urban parks, the community is creating a live-able and exciting urban center for individuals and businesses. The changes the city is seeing are dramatic and the potential of the area is tangible. It is clear that the past few years have marked a turning point for the downtown areas of Cincinnati.

To couple with these amazing new developments, the low cost of living in Cincinnati makes startup life significantly more sustainable than in larger startup hubs, WHILE retaining a shockingly high quality of life. Downtown Cincinnati and the surrounding areas are becoming hubs of engagement, collaboration, creativity, and learning.

The pressure is ON, entrepreneurial world. To continue the development of Cincinnati, we need value creation; new jobs. We need to channel the great energy of our area into startup successes.

Join us for the inaugural Startup Grind on Thursday, December 6th from 6pm-8pm at The Brandery (1411 Vine Street). REGISTER NOW as space is limited. Meetup page.

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