In Columbus, Ohio this past weekend, Neustar sponsored Startup Weekend with the goals of promoting entrepreneurship and fostering fledgling companies. In addition, the event allowed Neustar to leverage a unique, modern platform for making .biz and .us domains more accessible and appealing to those who will drive the worldwide economy of tomorrow.
“Another successful Startup Weekend was brought to life by more than 70 participants and made possible by great sponsors,” said Nick Seguin, International Startup Weekend facilitator. “60-plus pitches on Friday night became 10 teams and seven functioning prototypes by Sunday evening. Nearly all of them went live on the web in some form as a .biz or .us domain, thanks to the sponsorship and guidance of Neustar’s Domain Name Registry Services team.”
Winners of Neustar’s $250 cash prizes for innovation included Eugene Kolodin, who was the team leader for the forthcoming website www.141it.biz, and Jason Blanton, founder of the forthcoming www.PluginsR.us.
“The idea for www.141it.biz originated when I used Twitter to quickly find a concert ticket for a concert that had already started,” added Kolodin. “There was nothing blocking me from directly communicating with the seller, asking questions and arranging a place to exchange. Our service retains the same casual and direct communication, and is tailored for rapid buying and selling. The name – 141it – refers to the amount of time buyers and sellers would have to make a transaction, which would be 141 minutes, and we hope that users looking to buy or sell an item quickly will ultimately think ‘I have to 141 it.’ We’ll be using our prize money from Neustar to build a prototype and test our vision for the marketplace.”
“A few people on my team, including myself, were having a problem finding quality plugins that added desired functionality to their sites and blogs – and we knew that many more people were probably having the same issue,” commented Blanton. “We then developed a platform that is community-driven to help solve our problem – and that of thousands more like us. After brainstorming several keywords and ideas, we came up with www.PluginsR.Us, which I believe accurately describes the directory we are building. It will give the community the chance to grow the directory, submit new plugins, and review existing plugins.”
“In a time of economic uncertainty, entrepreneurs always lead the way forward – and Neustar is proud to support them at one-of-a-kind events like Startup Weekend,” concluded Tim Switzer, vice president of Domain Name Registry Services at Neustar.
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