Over the course of this year I’ve seen early stage presentation venues ranging from Launch in San Francisco, Startup Riot in Atlanta, Demo Day here in Austin, and many recurring angel forums in between in Austin and Atlanta. It’s good to see now that Venture Atlanta has added an early stage segment to its agenda. This fall institution, held in the Georgia Aquarium, is one around which all the local sponsor dollars have coalesced, and it draws investors from across the country. It’s got that good old-fashioned Georgia boosterism, as you can easily see on the Twitter stream #VA2011. (Caution, there’s a Fairfax County, VA ballot initiative that seems to be using the same hash tag.) But, that’s the style that secured the 1996 Olympics and has paid great dividends for the city over many decades.

VA historically has been the showcase for the later stage firms that could have been said to be warming up their IPO roadshows, and the investor mix was a good match for that. Adding startups to the stage should attract investors who play at that level and should add some pizzazz to the overall event. I’m not quite sure if it will rise (or sink perhaps) to the level of Launch where a notable on-stage jurist interrupted one presenter with: “Stop there, I’ll write you a f**king check.”

I was unable to attend due to showing a product myself at the Texas Wireless Summit, but my son Jesse (@jessebdyer), the CEO of NightRaft, graciously volunteered to attend and file a first-hand dispatch for TechDrawl. Here are his observations as a VA first-timer:

It’s 955 miles from Atlanta to Austin but the tech scenes in each city are a world apart. T-Shirts vs Suits really sums it up. The laid back, imaginative, vibrant and fun atmosphere of Capital Factory Demo Day showed the Austin tech scene at its best. The high-brow, high-tech, more regimented and community celebratory atmosphere at Venture Atlanta is a spot-on reflection of Atlanta’s tech scene. You’re in a bigger city, more formal, and one working hard to rebound from an economy overly dependent on real estate and banking.

Atlanta deals remain purely B2B focused and stocked full of really bright Georgia Tech talent. (Editor’s biased note: that last clause is a redundancy!) The heavy fingerprint from ISS still touches the start-up scene in Atlanta with data security the big theme of the day. CodeGuard, which had an excellent demo cartoon, won the audience choice prize for its innovative time machine web security product.  If you want to compete for funding against deals like that in Atlanta you’d better have a SaaS model, some real customers in your pocket, and maybe even a few patents to show for your work.  All the presenting startup companies can be found here.

There was one company that works in social media, Soket, which is a SaaS based web and social relationship manager for small business.  Out of the 20 companies here only two uttered the words Foursquare, Twitter, or Facebook!  Abundant Closet, which allows women shoppers to take their wardrobe everywhere was one of three B2C / B2B hybrids.

One app development company, RappidApp, made an appearance; it is a new entrant in the “design your own app from home in your pajamas” space.  It’s Savannah-based team has a lot of personality that came across very well on stage.

TripLingo presented a cool travel language app, but otherwise mobile is not on the radar here in the ATL, quite the opposite of the ATX.

Software solutions carried the day.  There is no shortage of great companies based here solving some interesting & unique niche problems: expense account dining, internal idea sourcing, apartment water metering, smart grid data analysis, & legal document discovery to name a few. They most jaw dropping technology on display was the augmented reality instructional tool presented by Merlin Mobility – a product of Georgia Tech’s world-renowned lab in that specialty. With adequate funding Merlin will definitely be a company to watch.

The Atlanta angels sounded pretty positive today.  In an interactive text poll of the audience 32% of the angel investors present said they planned on investing between $100k – $500k over the next 12 months in Atlanta companies.  Let’s hope that adds up to a big aggregate number.  There is no shortage of solid B2B offerings in Atlanta but “early stage” in this town is bit further down the path than places like San Francisco, and to some extent even Austin and NYC.  Bootstrapping by already seasoned entrepreneurs is definitely the norm.  The big B2C ideas are not at home here, but solid B2B ideas definitely are.

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According to the 2011 MoneyTree report published by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC and the National Venture Capital Association, seed and early-stage venture deals accounted for 48% of total deal volume nationally in the second quarter of this year. Total venture capital investment in Georgia increased 43% in Q2 of 2011 compared to 2010. As the state’s largest investor forum, Venture Atlanta is responding to the changing investment climate and demand for access to early stage investment opportunities by incorporating an Early Stage Showcase into this year’s expanded conference format.

This year’s conference, held October 25-26 at the Georgia Aquarium, will kick off on day one with 18 seed stage companies presenting their business plans to hundreds of angel investors, venture capitalists, private equity investors, investment bankers, entrepreneurs, and industry executives. In addition to presenting on stage, the companies are to benefiting from mentoring and coaching by veteran, seasoned CEOs and venture capitalists.

The companies selected to present during the early stage showcase are:

• Abundant Closet
• CodeGuard
• Dinova
• IdeaString
• Jigsaw Meeting
• LIFT Retail Marketing
• Technology, Inc.
• Merlin Mobility Corporation
• NextInput
• OrcaTec
• Pindrop Security
• Proximus Mobility
• rappidApp
• ShapeStart
• Social Fortress
• Soket
• Soneter
• TripLingo
• Verdeeco,, Inc.

“Dedicating a full day of the conference to early stage companies is a direct response to investor demand and a pronounced uptick in entrepreneurial activity within Georgia,“ said Ashish Mistry, Managing Partner, BLH Venture Partners and Venture Atlanta board member. “We are seeing some extremely innovative people and businesses begin to surface and are excited with the prospects of expanding our portfolio with some of these new companies.”

For the conference agenda and full slate of presenting companies at Venture Atlanta 2011 or to register for the event, please visit www.ventureatlanta.org.

Having heard tales of “Huey’s famous Name Tag” around town, he decided he definitely wanted a flashy one for himself.

Hannah whipped up some .jpegs in his signature black and yellow and he was off to hit the streets.

See Huey’s original nametag here and visit ElectRuel.com to learn more about Ruel’s platform.

Don’t forget to vote November 8, 2011!!

The Birthplace and Smack Dab Studios have a long history of working together – their content paired with their trust in SDS made the Birthplace, yet another, slam-dunk for rappid’s platform. Last Spring, Hannah and Liz approached the JGL team for brainstorming on ways to implement the App and how to make it fun for all ages. After a few chatty moments of explaining to them how the App would work – ideas were flying out of everyone’s mouths.

We could do a walking tour and mark all of the places around Savannah that are important to Girl Scout history. Oh! Let’s do a tour of the garden with those “square doohickey things”.

And that’s exactly what we did!

Over the past four months the Birthplace and Smack Dab Studios have worked together to build an App with features that include:

•    Notable quotes from Daisy
•    A comprehensive Girl Scout History walking tour of downtown Savannah with points of interest integrated on a map-view in direct relation to your GPS location
•    A listing of house tours times, special events & hours of operation
•    Area Savannah weather.
•    An interactive QR Code guided tour of the side and rear gardens.

All of which is live in the App store and FREE for download here.

Yesterday, Liz stopped by the house to check out the installation of the Garden Tour. The interactive and educational piece adds more to the App than any of us had imagined. It is safe to say, Juliette Low being the innovative woman she was would be proud and impressed by the technology going on today right in her own back yard.

The stakes have been installed in both the side and rear gardens of the museum house.

Girl Scouts enjoying the App. Juliette Low would be proud of these innovative girls!

To learn more about the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace visit thier website.

As we crossed Broughton St. we shrieked with excitement to see this Pedicab sporting Savannah Magazine’s rappid App and stopped for a photo op!

If you don’t have the SavMag app yet – pick it up for FREE here.

rappidApp™ targets marketing agencies and the technology community. The product appeals to both entrepreneurs and corporations.

To some, this duality could be interpreted as a lack of focus but for rapiddApp, it is their core strength. Hannah Byrne is owner and chief creative officer at rappidApp, and she is neither right-brained nor left-brained. Instead, she is that rare combination: the “whole brained.”

Byrne studied Music, English, and History. She is a self-taught developer who left Corporate America in 2004 to start Smack Dab Studios, an award-winning full-service Web development firm based in Savannah, Ga.

Just as web content management systems like WordPress have simplified website management for the Average Joe, Byrne and her team created rappidApp to bring mobile content management to the masses.

“Web development and design is our primary strength, but our passion is mobile app development,” says Byrne.

Mobile is a good place to put your passion. Mobile networks are available to 90 percent of the world’s population, estimates The International Telecommunication Union. Additionally, the use of mobile apps appears to be eclipsing that of desktop and mobile web consumption.

According to mobile analytics company Flurry Analytics, the daily time spent in mobile apps surpasses desktop and mobile web consumption.

The company used proprietary data and data from comScore and Alexa that included 500 million aggregated, anonymous use sessions per day across more than 85,000 applications to perform their analysis.

But if you’ve ever downloaded an app, and been disappointed by its poor interface or less than impressive content, you are not alone. A study by Localytics found that one in four apps downloaded is tried once, and subsequently discarded. There were 10.9 billion downloads in 2010 and theoretically more than 2 billion of these were tried just once and abandoned or deleted!

Clearly, mobile users expect something more than just a website optimized for a smart phone. rappidApp’s promise is creating apps with intuitive navigation and outstanding graphics. Savannah Magazine’s app (iTunes), powered by rapiddApp, is an example of just how usable a rappidApp-powered app can be.

“Our platform delivers so many features that we are waiting for the industry to catch up, particularly as customers become more demanding of their app and it must be more than, better than, and different from the website.”

Named a Georgia Trend “40 Under 40” in 2010, Byrne says, “Technology is moving so quickly. It never ceases to amaze me. We can walk into a meeting and walk out an hour later to a new technology development.” With a hint of a smile, she continues, “Everyone is clamoring for QR codes right now. Give it 18 months and we’ll remember them fondly, like the 8-track.”

When asked what the future holds, Byrne is like any other entrepreneur with the proverbial 15-hour day. Having bootstrapped so far, Byrne is open to the idea of raising seed money but only if the fit with the investor is right.

The company’s six-month plan includes a forecast of aggressive adoption. “If there’s an investor out there looking for a slam-dunk in mobile technology, they should call us for a demo,” Byrne declares.

“When we demo the product, the prospect usually becomes a client – they make the leap when they see the possibilities – because they understand why they want it and need it,” she continues, giving credit for the intelligent design to developer and Atlanta native Jeff “Huey” Huelsbeck. He is the brains behind-the-scenes at rappidApp.

“We built stuff for clients for years, which prepared us to build our own product,” says Huelsbeck. Going native is part of the appeal of rappidApp. Native is better, according to Byrne and Huelsbeck. “Native apps provide a consistent experience for the user, regardless of smartphone.”

rappidApp™ is currently available for iOS (iPhone, iPad and iPod), with the Android release expected in Fall 2011.

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“These days, mobile devices are like wallets, almost everyone has one. In an effort to obtain information more quickly, applications like this make life easier,” Randy Mertz, President of ORACAL said. “This is part of an ongoing effort to interact more closely with our customers and make information more accessible.”

Stay informed about new products, wrap academies, contests, giveaways, latest case studies, pictures, helpful tips, and events via the Twitter feed within the app. Join the nation of tweeters and tell others about your projects and experiences using ORACAL vinyl. Need vinyl? Check out the integrated Google maps to find an authorized ORACAL distributor near you.

Based on GPS coordinates, users can search for a distributor based on their exact location, by state or country. Google-based maps or lists provide distributor contact information, point-to-point driving directions, and with a click of a link, allow them to visit the distributor website for additional information. Increase your productivity today and download the first sign industry app of its kind from the Apple store today; it’s free!

A division of ORAFOL International, Black Creek, Ga.-based ORACAL USA manufactures and markets a wide range of industrial tapes and pressure-sensitive graphic, printing, and reflective films used in signage, screen printing, digital imaging, and traffic & safety applications in the United States, Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean. For more information, product samples, or to locate an Authorized Oracal Distributor, contact ORACAL USA at (888) 672-2251 or go to www.oracal.com.

And with the rappidApp by local designer Smack Dab Studios, you don’t have an excuse not to anymore.

“We literally had a client build an application from concept to finished in two weeks,” enthuses designer Jeff “Huey” Huelsbeck.

You don’t even haveto learn a programming language with rappidApp. With its easy web-based graphic interface, you can develop a mobile presence without becoming a coding nerd. While currently only available for the iPhone, Smack Dab hopes to roll out Android and Black- berry versions later this year.

rappidApp™ produces true native functionality and offers a Live Publisher function, which maximizes CMS capabilities. Integrated with the Titanium framework by Appcelerator, the rappidApp™ platform creates a native app with remarkable ease of use. Cloud-based hosting provides data redundancy for optimal up-time. All app interface elements and content are cached locally to the device for immediate use even when offline.

“rappidApp™ is a great example of how Titanium is being used to create the next generation of mobile apps,” said Jeff Haynie, co-founder and CEO of Appcelerator. “This particular content management system makes designing and updating native mobile apps easier than ever.”

Each time the app is launched from the mobile device, updates and changes are delivered to the user. Control of the content is completely in the hands of the rappidApp™ subscriber, allowing them to decide what content and graphics their users receive and when. Once a mobile app is live in the App Store, changing content does not require a re-submission to the App Store, taking the guesswork out of marketplace approval processes.

Watch the Demo Video

“This new mobile app platform delivers a robust content management system, which means that anyone who can navigate the web can now create a native app,” said Hannah Byrne, owner and chief creative officer at rappidApp™. “There’s no need to pay $30-$50K for a custom app. There’s no need to hire a team of developers. Now, any user can simply create their own apps, upload their logos and graphics, enter content and manage everything through rappidApp™’s web-based Live Publisher. Best of all, users can build apps in just a few hours. Once live in the

App Store, content and graphic changes appear real-time, there’s no need to re-submit to the App Store each time you want to make a change to your app content.”

This new mobile app development platform is on the forefront of emerging mobile technology and provides users with a comprehensive list of integrated features and functionality. Users can build and manage every aspect of their mobile app through the browser, eliminating the need for a complex development process, multiple high-end developers and unknown scope-creep that is typically associated with custom native app deployment.

Key features include native capabilities like integrated Google maps with geo-location, GPS plot-points and the ability to create custom “routes” that display on map views. Additional views include content pages, lists and an integrated scanner with QR Code functionality. All content can be edited with a WYSIWYG editor, along with the ability to enter HTML for even more advanced formatting, embedding images, video and widgets for social networking.

The rappidApp™ platform also allows users to upload graphics, icons, images and logos to a media library so that assets can be used throughout the app. Users can also create custom backgrounds for further branding, and assign a custom color palette for links, buttons and more.

“rappidApp™ puts the power of interactive information in the hands of targeted users,” said Byrne. “These are native apps, not simply RSS readers or views of mobile browser pages. Native apps provide a rich, consistent user experience and utilize the full functionality of mobile devices.”

rappidApp™ is currently available for iOS with an anticipated Android release expected in Fall 2011. rappidApp™ was created by Smack Dab Studios, an award-winning full-service Web development firm based in Savannah, Ga.

The company expects to continue to roll out highly anticipated features this year such as push-notifications, content import (for mass entry of data/plot points on maps), third party ad-serving, in-app purchasing, satellite map views, form creation and submission, location check-ins/loyalty programs, social network integration, robust reporting and more.

The SaaS pricing model starts at $375 per month with a $2,995 setup fee. A monthly subscription fee includes continued feature enhancements as well as technical support.

“A mobile presence is essential for success in today’s business environment, and choosing the right mobile platform to deliver your app is critical,” said Byrne. “Not unlike a web presence, mobile apps must change and grow to meet your business needs. The ability to create and manage your unique content in real-time is key to the success of any app.”

For more information about rappidApp™, visit www.getrappidapp.com.

SAVANNAH, Ga., May 10, 2011 – An iphone application will accompany the City of Savannah’s latest documentation project and exhibition, Ebb and Flow: Life & Community in Eastern Savannah. The application uses a variety of features, including integrated Google maps and a QR Code Scanner to enable visitors to the Ebb and Flow exhibition at the Telfair Museums to access additional information related to exhibition pieces.

The application was developed by Smack Dab Studios along with the creative team that produced the Ebb and Flow publication.

“We developed this app with two goals in mind – accessibility and preservation – ensuring that a large swath of citizens and visitors can experience Savannah in a new way,” said Michelle Hunter, project manager. “The project does a fine job of uncovering new voices and revealing old historic images that otherwise linger unseen by the general public.”

The iphone app is a digest of the Ebb and Flow project’s website, savannahneighborhoods.org. The QR Code Scanner feature enables patrons visiting the exhibition to scan wall labels and access information explaining the importance of the item displayed. App users can also access a map of East Savannah, click on a red Google marker, and view supplementary imagery and verbiage related to the project area. Ebb and Flow is available for download on the App Store.

“The use of emerging technologies is natural given consumer behavior, specifically, the growing use of smartphones to find information. The collaboration between the Telfair, the City, and Smackdab Studios demonstrates how creative professionals can devise applications for existing processes while expanding the artist’s ability to impact and serve their audience,” said Hunter.

The Ebb and Flow Exhibition and publication is the result of a City-sponsored documentation project. The publication will be unveiled with a book signing and reception on Thursday, May 19, 2011, at 5 pm at Telfair Museum’s Jepson Center, 207 W. York Street. The event is free of admission charges and open to the general public.

Other Ebb and Flow related programming includes:

* The Ebb and Flow exhibition, which will be displayed from May 7 and July 17, 2011 at the Jepson Center, will incorporate historic images and ephemera.

* The Ebb and Flow lecture series will feature Dr. Martha L. Keber lecturing about “Keep off Jim Crow Cars:” Streetcar Boycotts in Savannah on May 25, 2011, 12:30 pm at the Jepson Center and Dr. Charles J. Elmore moderating a panel discussion entitled, Great Expectations: Baby Boomers in Eastern Savannah on May 26, 2011, 6 pm at the Jepson Center.

* A June 2 screening of the Ebb and Flow documentary that involved area young people in the pre- and post- production phases.

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About the City’s Documentation Projects: Two to three years in length, Documentation Projects support preservation, create awareness, and give access to new “voices” in our community. To date, projects have served more than 22,000 persons. Ebb and Flow is the third in the City’s neighborhood history series.

The Ebb and Flow Exhibition and Lecture Series are organized by the City of Savannah and Telfair Museums with generous support from the Georgia Council for the Arts, the Historic Preservation Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, and the Savannah Community Foundation. Additional support provided by AWOL and Live Oak Libraries.