Tech Coast Angels of Orange County held its inaugural Celebration of Entrepreneurship on March 10, when San Juan Capistrano-based Globe Chat took the overall prize in the Fast Pitch competition.
The app will receive $20,000 from the local angel group. The top prize was based on the best presentation and being the “most fundable.”
It has taken $1.2 million to get Globe Chat from the original idea to its imminent April 1 launch, $800,000 of which was founder and chief executive Kevin Strom’s own money. The app translates messages into more than 40 languages in various contexts, including one-to-one, private group, and public global chat environments. It will launch in nearly 200 countries and be available through Android, Apple and Windows devices.
The company is in discussions with the United Nations and the U.S. State Department to help overseas teams and ambassadors, according to Strom.
Strom said he was excited at the timing of the competition, because it came so close to the launch, which took five years to achieve. The Tech Coast Angels investment will be spent on growing and expanding the company, including its software servers, he said.
More buzz about the startup is imminent. On March 30, Globe Chat will be featured on “Innovations,” a Discovery Channel series hosted by actor, director and environmentalist Ed Begley Jr., according to Strom. Fifty commercial spots are scheduled to air soon on channels that include CNN and the Travel Channel.
Globe Chat also won the audience favorite award at the TCA event and will receive one year of free office space at Real Office Centers in Newport Center.
Firm Expands to Bay Area
An OC-based startup recently expanded into the San Francisco Bay Area. Digsy, based at Chapman University’s Leatherby Center incubator, is a free, on-demand butler service that helps startups and medium-sized businesses save time finding commercial real estate.
The company uses its software technology and a network of licensed local commercial real estate agents—who serve as “search butlers”—to help businesses find space and negotiate rents with property owners.
The expansion enables Digsy to serve San Francisco; Silicon Valley; the Peninsula, including San Mateo and Palo Alto; and the East Bay, including Oakland.
The visibility Digsy gains by being in the entire Bay Area is a big step forward for the year-old startup, said Chief Executive and co-founder Andrew Bermudez in an email.
“Digsy is putting itself and its business model ‘on blast’ by entering into the Silicon Valley market … If we’re making it in Silicon Valley, we feel we can make it anywhere else. The traction we have in the Bay Area can be amplified as well—by attracting more clients, top talent and investors.”
Digsy already has helped Bay Area company Zendrive, a startup that recently raised $13.5 million, find and negotiate a new office space in San Francisco, one of the tightest real estate markets in the country, Bermudez said. And it helped startup Vulcun, which raised $12 million last year, find and lease space in San Francisco.
Digsy raised $650,000 late last year to fuel the expansion in the Bay Area and other markets it hasn’t yet announced, according to Bermudez. Funding was led by K5 Ventures in Newport Beach and also included investors Gordon Stephenson, a board member of Seattle, Wash.-based online real estate database company Zillow; Tech Coast Angels; and other angels.
Bermudez was a commercial real estate agent for 15 years and former senior vice president of Lee & Associates in Irvine. His co-founder is software technologist Alex Bloore.
He said Digsy closed more than 110 lease transactions in the past year and is now working with more than 350 businesses to lease space.
Partnership Grows Logistics Provider
Ladera Ranch-based logistics and transportation advisory startup 2PL Advisors LLC has formed a partnership with Indianapolis-based enVista, a global supply chain consulting and IT services firm.
2PL Advisors will expand into freight bill payment, audit services, and parcel contract negotiation to extend its offerings in domestic freight transportation, according to President and Chief Executive Ryan Holland.
The company works with large and midsized companies to evaluate domestic freight transportation options and connect them with freight carriers and solutions without fees or brokerage.
2PL was fully launched in February 2015. Its name is a play on the industry term 3PL, or third-party logistics, which refers to a middleman or broker between the shipper and the carrier. 2PL is short for second-party logistics, reflecting the direct relationship between a shipper and carrier, which Holland’s company provides.
Holland said the company hasn’t yet accepted outside funding and that he’s so far self-financed it.
