Coolhouse Labs recently worked with its first crop of startups. / Elizabeth Price
Meet the five companies Coolhouse Labs has funded as its first round of startups in Michigan.
The incubator in Harbor Springs chose these five businesses to receive mentoring, resources and $25,000 each in seed funding through its first group of entrepreneurs and company founders who went through a 10-week intensive program to build their startup this summer. Each was chosen for its ability to solve a problem or provide a service that people need, and each is online-based for the greatest flexibility and efficiency.
Every Last Morsel
Every Last Morsel is a community marketplace connecting growers with local consumers who want access to fresh food. For instance, if your orchard has more apples than you can pick or your garden has produced bags of zucchini you can't use, post on Every Last Morsel to sell it to local neighbors and consumers who are interested in buying their produce super-locally. It's designed to be useful for everyone from the Traverse City apartment-dweller to the large-scale cherry farmer. Its mission is to help create a more responsible and democratic food system.
Project Travel
Project Travel is a global network designed to connect student travelers with travel opportunities, allow peers to fund educational travel in a crowdfunding process, and also provide a recruitment and retention platform for universities and travel programs for students. In essence, it streamlines the sometimes expensive and labyrinthine process that can take place for students searching for ways to travel internationally for educational purposes.
Lorious
Lorious is an online marketplace that connects startups, entrepreneurs and small businesses who are struggling with specialized skills like product design or web and mobile development with the people who have those skills, like experienced developers who can help them on a freelance or bid basis. Or, developers can work in tandem with each other to solve problems that require more input or knowledge.
Novi
Novi is an intelligent news reader that allows users to follow stories across news sources and with timelines. Coolhouse Labs co-founder Jordan Breighner describes it as like Twitter for news stories; you can follow a whole story instead of a person. Novi suggests news you might be interested in and uses an editor-guided algorithm to select reputable and credible news sources.
TRNK NYC
TRNK NYC is part furniture and home store, part design inspiration site--all geared toward men. The idea was born when two roommates in New York wanted to furnish their new apartment, but found that most design and home stores were really focused on female customers. Well, just as the office is no longer a male-only domain, the home is no longer only for women. So they decided to start their own content and commerce destination online to help other men create character-filled and inspired homes. They search for products from small American craftsmen and also offer home and entertaining advice.
Kim Eggleston is a Michigan-based freelance writer and editor.
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