Bill Morrow, founder of the Angels Den based in the UK connects startups with investors from around the world everyday. The Angels Den can help great startups get funding no matter what country they are in. This is BIG. So, basically, the startup completes the Angels Den’s business plan, pays approx. $800, and starts connecting with investors. Bill says they are busier now than ever and that investors *need* a place to invest their money versus collecting next to nothing with respect to interest income from banks.

More from the site:

The process of finding business funding doesn’t have to be as complicated as it’s made out to be. All that most people searching for investment need is a little divine inspiration from an Angel to provide the funding needed to help their businesses grow and flourish.

TV programmes like Dragon’s Den have promoted the concept recently, but it doesn’t have to hurt! We’re not sadists. The process is painless and you will not be mauled by Dragons or made to feel small by stuffy bank managers. We will guide you through a simple and jargon-free online process that puts your idea in front of a wealth of experienced successful business people in complete confidence. There is no red tape and no pressure. Angels Den is not authorised to and does not offer investment advice or make any recommendation regarding investment. Our structured formats and powerful search criteria enable a potential investor to find out exactly what they need to know quickly and accurately. Everyone gets a fair chance and the decision is up to the Angel.

Stephanie Frasco & Hermioneway are definitely NOT ugly at all Two very fun, intelligent, and ambitious ladies. Stephanie is the Community director at eFactor & Hermioneway does a little show called TechFluff They stopped by startupLUCKY for a quick chat before hitting the town in NYC.

Oh yeah and **Valentina** made a quick appearance.

There is a rumor they’ll be at The Gallery Bar, Lower East Side tonight…YO! They will be heavily guarded so, be careful.

Have a fantastic weekend ladies!! cheers~

SXSWi 2009 Sarah Vela interviews Ann Cotter of Cooking Capsules , a mobile application that teaches you how to cook in a three step process: Watch a short clip, shop, and cook! Sounds simple enough right?! Cooking Capsules has hit it off with the press and has been featured in: Wired, The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, Time magazine and more.

FAQ

Q: Why is it called Cooking Capsules?

A: Because we have “encapsulated” each of our recipes into an easy-to-use mobile format.

Q: Will there be more recipes?

A: A: Yes. Our first collection consists of four French-inspired and four Northern Indian recipes, but over time we will bring you all different types of cuisine, including more classic American dishes.

Q: Will the selection vary?

A: Yes. Our free Taster Collection is half French-inspired and half Indian inspired, but we will continually branch out into other types of cuisine, including more classic American dishes.

Q: Can I get Cooking Capsules on my iPhone?

A: Currently Cooking Capsules is only available for Google phones such as the T-Mobile G1. There will be more Google phones coming out this year and beyond. We also plan to bring Cooking Capsules to the iPhone in the future and we are looking at other platforms as well. Stay tuned to our website for the latest news.

Q: What is Android?

A: Android is an operating system developed by Google and it’s partners in an organization called the O.H.A. (Open Handset Alliance) which consists of a variety of industry leaders including carriers and device manufacturers (such as HTC who makes the G1 for T-Mobile)

Q: Why would I want to download a Cooking Capsules collection if I can find thousands of recipes online?

A: Because one tap takes you to a valuable and entertaining how-to video demonstrating how to make the given dish, another tap provides a shopping list, and a third tap breaks each step down into a simple checklist- all in the palm of your hand.

Sponsored by:

Sarah Vela & Aruni Gunasegaram founder of Babblesoft.com talk about startups, sxswi, being a mom entrepreneur and more!

More about Babblesoft:

Babble Soft, LLC is an Austin, Texas based company specializing in technology products that help make new parents’ lives easier. The Founders launched a high technology company in 1997, which is still operating today. After leaving their last company, they had some babies and couldn’t help but start another one!

Please check out our News page for current press mentions of Babble Soft. If you are a member of the press, please review our Press Kit for recent press releases and images. If you are interested in leraning more about our founder, Aruni Gunasegaram, please feel free to check out her blog at entrepreMusings.

In October 2008, we welcomed into the fold a new partner, Nicole Johnson! She is our new VP of Product Development. To learn more about Nicole, please visit her site at Pick Nick’s Brain, where you will learn all about how to get your baby to sleep. You can keep track of your baby’s sleep patterns using Baby Insights and show Nicole your reports, and she can help you figure out your baby sleep problems!

Sponsored by:

Chris Skaggs founder of SomaGames is excited to launch their first game “G” on the iphone app. store coming very soon! Chris talks to us about being a startup, raising funding, recruiting a team, and refining the business as you go. Chris is an awesome guy and a dedicated entrepreneur who can share lots of wisdom with startups, we highly recommend you watch this NOW!~ thx

About Soma Games

It’s tempting to make up a grand sounding story of Soma’s founding, but the truth is better – and far more grand in the long run.

Soma was created in direct response to what we like to call “God’s nudge.” One day an article appeared in the news talking about a new trend, Christian video games. Following the link lead to the Christian Game Developers Conference(http://www.cgdc.org/). Registering for the event lead (within about 10 minutes) to an invitation to go to Boston and appear on TV (View Here) – to discuss Christian video games and how this trend mashes up against games like Grand Theft Auto. Literally in the course of a single week, Soma Games came into being and the story continues…read part one here: Soma Story.
What’s with “Soma?”

In Greek, soma means “body” as in, you know, the church. However, you might not know that in Hindu mythology, Soma was a drink that not only was imbibed by the gods, but also seems to have made them gods. While you have to stretch it a bit, there’s something like “living water” even in this myth. But our favorite triple meaning looks like this – “Soma” was the mood altering drug taken by everybody in Brave New World (‘a gram is better than a damn…’) and acted as the opiate of the masses. From there, the double connection to Christianity and video games is fairly easy to catch.
What Soma Games is NOT

While Soma Games is a group of Christians making video games, we’re not what you might call a “Christian Video Game company” and it’s important for us to be very clear about this to avoid inaccurate expectations. We’re making games that will be founded upon, and informed by Christian thought and the Christian understanding of reality – however, we don’t plan on making games that teach Christian theology. There are no scripture references, no Biblical characters and no telling of the Jonah story – other companies have been there and done a fine job. We hope to try something a little different.

If you want to keep up to date on developments inside Soma Games, just pass us an e-mail address at info@somagames.com. We would never dream of selling it – we’re shocked, SHOCKED, that you would even suggest such a thing…

Fred McCoy, founder of Jilt.us is on a mission to create a media outlet focused on positive news, fashion, culture for the African American community. Fred is passionate about focusing on the positive things in life and sharing his vision with as many African Americans as possible. Just to be clear, Jilt.us is open to anyone.

Fred says that startups should: “Always be talking about what you’re doing” and “Always act on your ideas”

Watch now!

If you would like to be interviewed on startupLUCKY: CLICK HERE!

Jeff Pulver speaks about investing in people who have a dream. Jeff says he looks for people who’s “karma he can feel” and are absolutely driven who are doing something absolutely disruptive and or crazy.

Here are a few quotes from Jeff from this interview:
“Unbound passion is unstoppable”
“Believe in yourself”
“The next person you meet may change your life”
“Being lucky is an integral part of being”

If you would like to be interviewed on startupLUCKY: CLICK HERE!

Ezra speaks with Davendra Patel founder of iDesktop.tv about their experience at Seedcamp, Paris.

So what is iDesktop.tv?
iDesktop.tv is an incredibly cool dynamic web 2.0 application, with a terrific modern design, that brings you a better way to search and watch YouTube videos. Not only but you can download YouTube videos!

This is basically adding functionality and experience to what “should be” there. The possibilities of the site reach far beyond that. It gives you the chance to create your own environment for watching video clips, saving them and sharing them with friends.
What makes iDesktop.tv unique?

Designing iDesktop.tv we followed one primary idea – to bring normal desktop application experience to the browser – windows that can be dragged, resized, minimized in a tray, drag’n'drop of videos between players and results, standard menus – all with one goal – to make the richest web application for viewing and managing video content! You will be amazed by the flexibility and fabulous design of the website. It is user friendly and easy to navigate but also has great functionality.

Why we created iDesktop.tv?
The main goal of iDesktop.tv is to provide users a convenient way of browsing through the enormous amount of online videos and to improve the experience – help them manage their favourite ones by saving them in playlists, downloading them onto the PC and many, many other options.

We believe the best way to please our visitors is to give them the freedom to choose and manage as much as possible. Giving them a completely new point of view on a web application – something never seen on the internet!

The various content and popularity of YouTube are indisputable but iDesktop.tv gives you the opportunity to manage that content in many possible ways:
Features / Benefits

The awesome @JillHanner rocks out with her LUCKY out for this weeks weekly review. Jill covers a few of the most recent startups who received funding and highlights from startupLUCKY interviews featuring: PetMD.com , Spot.us , Radian6.com , and TechCrunchUK .

>>>>Happy SXSWi, we hope you all get LUCKY!<<<<<

If you would like to be interviewed on startupLUCKY: CLICK HERE!

Alex De Carvalho is one of these guys that you automatically love immediately when you meet him. He is down to earth, humble, and is a crusader for the startup/tech scene in Miami. Alex is an adjunct professor at the University of Miami (teaching social media etc.) and he is the *Godfather* of South Florida web and technology meetups, including Refresh Miami, BarCampMiami, MobileMondayMiami, and Social Media Club South Florida. If you are in the Social Media space and headed to Miami, you will definitely want to meet Alex!

Please visit Alex’s blog to learn more.

More from his site:

I am the co-founder of StartPR, an online tracking service for reputation management, blogger relations, and brand monitoring. StartPR helps you to notice and engage with people who are mentioning you and your products online.

I am an adjunct professor at the University of Miami; I occasionally teach a semester-long class on social media. Students from the School of Communication, including aspiring journalists and PR professionals, explore social media topics and case studies involving online identity and expression, community engagement, brand building, and citizen journalism. I work with the Knight Center for International Media as well on a number of projects.

I consult to businesses on their use of social networks and social media to build community relationships and brand.

Finally, I organize regular South Florida web and technology meetups, including RefreshMiami, BarCampMiami, MobileMondayMiami, and Social Media Club South Florida

Would you like to be interviewed on startupLUCKY?

David Cohn, founder of Spot.us joined us and gave an awesome interview. Spot.us is a site dedicated to “research & development” and delivery of community journalism in the San Fransisco Bay area. David says that Spot.us is actively going out to local meetings and listening to the citizens of San Fransisco and asking them what stories they want covered. In short, journalists will post a story they would like to cover based on local demand and set a price for their time & energy to write/cover the story. Then, the community can come in and donate any amount of money they would like to give in order to get the story covered.

“Journalism will survive the death of it’s institutions” Lisa Williams

Spot.Us is a nonprofit project of the Center for Media Change and funded by various groups like the Knight Foundation.

We are an open source project, to pioneer “community funded reporting.” Through Spot.Us the public can commission journalists to do investigations on important and perhaps overlooked stories. All donations are tax deductible and if a news organization buys exclusive rights to the content, your donation will be reimbursed. Otherwise, all content is made available to all through a Creative Commons license. It’s a marketplace where independent reporters, community members and news organizations can come together and collaborate

Spot.Us was founded by David Cohn and made possible by a generous grant from the Knight Foundation. Spot.Us has also drawn on support from individual funders like yourself, a fantastic team of advisors, designers (who used the frealy available FamFamFam icons) and developers of Hashrocket. We are proudly hosted by Engine Yard. We are an open source project and you can contribute on Git Hub

>>> If you would like to be interviewed on startupLUCKY: Click me!

Ezra asks Mike Butcher of TechcrunchUK what he is looking for in covering a startup in the UK and Europe. Mike says most startups are not great at explaining the “problem they are trying to solve” and are not “explaining who their competitors are.” Mike says, “you must focus & communicate on solving a real problem.”

Mikes advice fro startups: “Don’t just dribble out what you are doing” or “Learn how to pitch & actually practice your pitch!”

TechCrunch UK & Ireland is a blog covering Web 2.0 and Mobile start-ups. TechCrunch UK is part of the TechCrunch Network, which includes country-specific blogs for France and Japan.

TechCrunch UK & Ireland is edited by Mike Butcher. Mike has written for UK national newspapers including the The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times and magazines including The New Statesman. He is a former editor of New Media Age magazine, the leading new media weekly in the UK, and The Industry Standard Europe and he has launched or re-launched several media web sites. In 2000 he was nominated as NetMedia’s European Internet Journalist of the Year. In 2004 he was voted ‘One of the 100 Innovators of the UK Internet Decade’ by GfK NOP, the fourth-largest custom research business in the world. In July 2008 Mike was put at No. 47 out of the Top 100 people in London’s creative industry the UK by The Independent newspaper and The Hospital Club. He has appeared on BBC News, Sky News, Channel 4 and Bloomberg, commenting on technology and new media. In August 2008 TechCrunch UK was named the best “Web 2.0 and business blog” in the UK, by the readers of Computer Weekly magazine. Mike’s personal blog is mbites, while he Twitters as @mikebutcher.

Ezra Butler & Salman Malik have an interesting conversation discussing architecture, eco-friendliness, entrepreneurship, while standing on a sidewalk in Paris.

Salman Malik says, “running a profitable business is a way of showing that you are in fact providing value”, “you’ve got to give in order to get”, and “figure out how to make something better for someone”.

Awesome interview!

Kris Mathis, Founder of SponsorPitch just may be onto something really big with his “Sponsor 2.0″ concept. Are you trying to get sponsors for your event? Are you a fundraiser? Would you like to post your pitch and have sponsors come to you? Watch this now and learn more!!

SponsorPitch started out as a pretty simple idea. We were looking to find a sponsor (or two) for a few local concerts. We had a 20 page proposal with lots of fun buzz words like exposure, demographics, ROI, activation, signage, value in kind, sponsor level, and exclusivity. It turns out, the proposal was the easy part, getting the attention of potential sponsors was another story. Figuring a fancy sponsorship video might do the trick, we set our eyes on where to place it. A typical social network didn’t seem like our audience. And YouTube seemed like a good choice, until we realized we’d be somewhere between Britney videos and beer pong tricks. So with a little time on our hands and a lot of hardwork…..whaalaaa and welcome to SponsorPitch!

SponsorPitch will a) bring traditional proposals to life in a whole new way, b) provide brands with an easy way to find relevant opportunities, and c) allow marketers to expand their professional network — all in our endless effort to give you a “Sponsorship 2.0″ experience. In the end, we aim to create a professional community that allows brands and sponsorship properties to connect and collaborate in the most efficient, innovative, and transparent manner possible.

Way to go Twitter team!!

From TED.com:

In the year leading up to this talk, the web tool Twitter exploded in size (up 10x during 2008 alone). Co-founder Evan Williams reveals that many of the ideas driving that growth came from unexpected uses invented by the users themselves.
About Evan Williams

Evan Williams is the co-founder of Twitter, the addictive messaging service that connects the world 140 characters at a time

Ezra & Oren discuss Victoria Beckham, Digg, Twitter, and how Hypick.com is helping people share their interests online in a focused & fun way. These guys are funny as hell!! WATCH NOW

What’s HYPick?
HYPick is an easy way to post and share information with others on various subjects such as News, Health, Tech, Sports, Style, Showbiz and some of the Not Safe For Work stuff. You can even jump straight into the Random topics and have your say on just about anything that’s on your mind. The most active topics get featured on HYPick’s homepage. No good vote, bad vote system, just real people participation! The HYPick community decides what the top stories are, we just let it happen.

We’ve developed a little Firestarter to help your content reach a whole new audience. By pasting our Icon anywhere on your site, your audience can take your content much further. Because HYPick‘s community is passionate about having their say, an entirely new discussion is created about your content and linking back to you!
Who’s HYPick?

HYPick is really a community of passionate individuals whose opinions are what make the social sphere go round. The team that made HYPick come to life consists of 3 individuals Oren Todoros Co-Founder and social media strategist, Hilton Sher Co-Founder and Senior Web Developer and Adam Gitin, Web Developer

Yosi Taguri sat with Ezra Butler at a Beer Tweetup in Tel Aviv and spoke about his latest venture, sex, and food.

I am not going to add anything else to this post. Just *WATCH THE DAMN THING* It’s *HILARIOUS*

Yaron Samid, serial entrepreneur and founder of TechAviv, sat down with Ezra Butler and talked shop.

From TechAviv site:
TechAviv is a global organization of Israeli hi-tech entrepreneurs and investors that gather monthly in Israel, New York, Silicon Valley and Boston to showcase, discuss and help fellow Israeli startups. Each month three member startups demo their products, followed by bi-directional Q&A with their local peers. Casual networking happens before and after the demos. Our mission is to bring the Israeli hi-tech community closer together and to leverage our collective experience and contacts to help fellow Israeli entrepreneurs succeed worldwide. Together we’re building a global support system for Israeli startups.

This is our blog covering the up and coming players in the booming Israeli hi-tech startup scene.