A Newport Beach-based startup that helps small businesses book their unscheduled appointments during slow and off-peak periods just closed a $2 million-plus “Series Seed Preferred” round with preferred shares for investors that typically would be offered in a Series A raise.
UnBOOKed Appointments Inc. will use the funds to expand its launch and scale the platform—which runs on all devices—among other things. The platform integrates with all scheduling and back-office computer systems through a “Deals Now” button provided to businesses to be used in online directories, search engines and social media. Its customers include appointment-based service providers, such as spas and beauty salons, coupon sites, and publishing sites.
Investors in the round for UnBOOKed included Grant Van Cleve, president of OC Tech Coast Angels, and Tim Stanley of San Mateo-based Sierra Ventures. The round was led by Boca Raton, Fla.-based Sherrin Capital LLC.
Appointment-based services is a $2.5 trillion market, according to UnBOOKed co-founder and Chief Executive Steven Pfrenzinger. The equivalent of 30% of the market value is estimated to be lost to unsold time slots, according to the company.
Pfrenzinger built UnBOOKed’s platform to be independent, though it’s compatible with other scheduling systems, and the startup is engaging in partnerships to help itself scale, he said. One of its first partners is Atlanta, Ga.-based Bizlink. The partnership will launch officially in the next few weeks, Pfrenzinger said. UnBOOKed provides a revenue share to its partners, depending on the value of the partnership.
“In this case, [Bizlink] has thousands of providers, so they save us from going out and individually recruiting providers,” Pfrenzinger said.
If one of UnBOOKed’s customers uses Bizlink to schedule services, UnBOOKed can save that company key strokes and keep its day-to-day calendars more current, which makes it easier to get the providers’ promotions in front of potential consumers, he added.
Win Is Music in Their Ears
A startup that makes customized playlists based on a person’s location and activity won first place in The Cove’s inaugural Startup Weekend June 24 to 26. Nearly 150 entrepreneurs attended the event.
The Cove is the physical space of Applied Innovation, University of California-Irvine’s innovation institute. The event was part of the national Startup Weekend organization, which puts on 54-hour events to provide hands-on training to entrepreneurs. Participants create startups with team members they meet on a Friday night, then pitch on Sunday night. Teams are mentored by local entrepreneurs.
WeGroove won first place locally and got to choose from three prizes: three months of consulting from the Irvine office of TriTech, plus a co-working space at The Cove; free coaching from entrepreneur, author and coach Ash Kumra; or the opportunity to pitch at a June 27 investor event sponsored by OC Tech Coast Angels and K5 Ventures, an early-stage venture fund in Newport Beach. WeGroove chose the first option.
Team leader Forest Agostinelli, 24, is a UCI doctoral student in computer science. His team coalesced in an entrepreneurship class taught by Professor Ramesh Jain.
He originally came up with the idea for WeGroove through his experience as an “avid” music enthusiast, he said. As he was making playlists, he said he discovered his enjoyment of the music often correlated to the time of day, what he was doing, and where he was.
Agostinelli came up with the idea to use the GPS sensors built into smartphones, plus users’ listening histories, to keep track of the context in which people listen to music.
The startup uses its “Context Aware Music Engine” to eliminate the inconvenience of shuffling through the hundreds or thousands of songs in a music library to find the right one at any given time.
With the growing popularity of music-streaming services, such as Spotify, people have access to more music than ever, exponentially increasing the variety of playlists people can build, Agostinelli said. WeGroove would like to partner with Spotify and other music-streaming apps in the future so subscribers would get access to all the songs in the services’ libraries through WeGroove, he added.
The next goal is to get WeGroove “to real users and get their feedback,” he said.
China Connections
One of the largest telecommunications equipment manufacturers in the world is coming to Irvine from Aug. 17 to 18 to meet with tech startups at The Cove. China-based Huawei is sending some of its executives to discuss potential business opportunities at incubator EvoNexus’ first “MarketLink” event in Irvine.
The deadline to apply is July 15 at https://evonexus.org/programs/marketlink/apply-for-marketlink. Those selected will get a private, 50-minute session with Huawei executives. The event is being sponsored by The Cove, EvoNexus at The Vine in University Research Park, and Irvine Company.
Huawei ranked No. 228 on the Global Fortune 500, with 2015 revenue exceeding $60 billion, according to the company.
