7 Hot Mobile Startups to Watch in 2013

1. ZocDoc

Disruption: Changing how patients find doctors and book appointments, allowing them to do so via a mobile app or the Web.
Headquarters: New York City
Founded: 2007
CEO: Cyrus Massoumi, who previously served as Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Co.

Why they're on this list: m-health is a hot area, yet much of the innovation is focused on the care-giver side of the equation. How do you give doctors secure access to patient charts from their iPads? How do you gather data, wirelessly, from medical devices to fine-tune care? How do you enable secure remote access to MRIs and CT scans?

ZocDoc tackles a major pain point for patients: Finding a nearby doctor or dentist who accepts your insurance isn't as simple as it should be, especially when you travel. And actually booking an appointment anytime in the next month or so can be an almost Herculean task.

ZocDoc searches by insurance, location, specialty, gender, and even languages spoken. Users can also see verified reviews, doctor qualifications and professional statements, as well as photos of the doctors and their facilities. By revealing what ZocDoc calls the "hidden supply" of appointments--including the 10-20 percent of appointments that are cancelled at the last minute -most ZocDoc patients see a doctor within 24-72 hours. Not bad.

This isn't strictly a mobile service, but the greatest value of this service will likely be realized by travelers using it on their smartphones.

Funding: $95 million in three rounds of funding from Goldman Sachs, DST Global, Bezos Expeditions, Founder Fund, Khosla Ventures, Marc Benioff and SV Angel.

2. InVenture

Disruption: Providing a standardized global credit score for anyone with a mobile phone, which has the potential to revolutionize the financial-services sector in emerging markets.
Headquarters: Santa Monica, Calif.
Founded: 2011
CEO: Shivani Siroya, who was formerly a financial consultant with Health Net.

Why they're on this list: 2.5 billion working adults worldwide lack access to financial services. While the concept of micro-loans earned Muhammad Yunus a Nobel Prize, huge barriers still exist that prevent entrepreneurs in the developing world from raising capital.

InVenture has created an SMS-based app for low-income entrepreneurs in emerging markets that does two things: First, entrepreneurs with no access to financial services now get a simple and easy-to-use accounting tool to help them manage their businesses via text message.

Second, and more importantly, as entrepreneurs text InVenture their daily spending expenditures, InVenture takes this data, plugs it into their proprietary algorithm and then generates a credit score, which will provide people operating in the informal economy with their first opportunity to access financial services from established banks and micro-finance institutions.

Funding: InVenture has raised an undisclosed amount of early funding and has secured several grants.

3. Tagwhat

Disruption: Pioneering location-based, mobile marketing and social networking.
Headquarters: Boulder, Colo.
Founded: 2009
CEO: Dave Elchoness, who previously founded and served as CEO for VRWorkplace; before that, he served as an IT director for Qwest.

Why they're on this list: Tagwhat leverages your mobile device's built-in location sensors to deliver Web- and social-networking content about the places around you. The strategy of tying LBS to social networks is a smart one. Most LBS vendors simply try to push advertisements or coupons or other stuff we really don't want at us.

With Tagwhat, smartphone and tablet users can now geo-locate Web content and deliver it to nearby mobile users in seconds. Tagwhat automatically applies algorithms to identify and associate related contextual content including Facebook pages, Foursquare venues, Twitter streams and, of course, commercial offers. The result is a geo-tagged, connected Web that dramatically increases the volume of localized content available to mobile users.

Tagwhat's primary revenue streams are branded channels (subscriptions paid by publishers) and affiliate revenue through third-party services, which are only viewed if selected by users, rather than being pushed at them.

Funding: Friends and family seed funding.

4. FuzeBox

Disruption: Challenging incumbent videoconferencing vendors by delivering videoconferencing from the cloud; unlike competing solutions, this cloud-based videoconferencing platform was designed to work on iOS and Android devices.
Headquarters: San Francisco
Founded: 2007
CEO: Jeff Cavins; prior to FuzeBox, he served as President and CEO of Loudeye Corporation, which was acquired by Nokia.

Why they're on this list: People hate virtual meetings because they are difficult to access, unreliable, unsophisticated, and so often simply feel unprofessional.

FuzeBox delivers HD-quality (1080p) videoconferencing, with content sharing. The service is accessible from smartphones and tablets, and it integrates with enterprise telepresence solutions, such as Polycom and Tandberg.

According to FuzeBox, the problem with other videoconferencing systems is that they are "screen-share based, not cloud-sharing based." Thus, they can't deliver 1080p HD video. They don't integrate with telepresence systems, and users on smartphones and tablets can't host the conferences.

Customers include Amazon.com, CBS, University of Phoenix and Verizon.

Funding: $20 million in Series A funding from Index Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Insight Venture Partners.

5. aSpark

Disruption: Accelerating the enterprise adoption of consumer-led technologies, such as mobile and social media.
Headquarters: New York
Founded: 2011
CEO: Raj Patil. He was previously with MphasiS, an HP company, where he played several key roles in its growth to over a billion dollars in revenues. He was the President of a division with more than 17,000 employees, and prior to that led global sales as the chief sales officer.

Why they're on this list: The enterprise is struggling to figure out how to safely and cost-effectively adopt new consumer-led technologies (cloud, mobile, social media). The company has three pre-packaged apps, the most interesting of which is Panorama, which allows organizations to deliver focused content to users (CRM info, marketing data, ERP info, etc.) in a magazine-style format.

They also offer a "Mobile Backend-as-a-Service" platform that streamlines the process of building mobile apps. The platform has a user-engagement module, which helps enterprises tailor messages and content for specific users, and a mobile context service, which leverages location-based information from the user's mobile device.

Funding: Approximately $1 million from angel investors and aSpark's founders.

6. Message Bus

Disruption: Upending email and mobile marketing with a data- and analytics-centered approach to messaging.
Headquarters: Corte Madera, Calif.
Founded: 2010
CEO: Jeremy LaTrasse, who serves as both CEO and CTO. Previously, LaTrasse was a co-founder of Twitter and served as director of operations.

Why they're on this list: Message Bus argues that current email and mobile marketing practices are similar to CB radios--where the sender blasts a message out and hopes someone out there, anyone, receives it.

While CB radios have mostly been replaced by mobile phones, email marketing remains wedded to the old broadcasting model.

Message Bus proposes replacing this model with a data-driven approach, which actively manages the relationship between senders and recipients. "With email, your reputation is only as good as the last message you sent, and in the highly competitive and often abusive/adversarial relationship between senders and recipients, it is very easy to make mistakes where you are suddenly viewed as a bad sender," a company spokesperson wrote me. "And surprisingly, the data is there -- if you as a sender choose to collect and act upon it. Further, good actors should be rewarded just as bad actors are punished."

Message Bus' cloud-based messaging infrastructure unifies email, social and mobile communications and bases communications on data collected on user behaviors and preferences.

Funding: $14 million in two rounds from North Bridge Venture Partners and included True Ventures, Ignition Partners, James Lindenbaum, Tim Young and Jesse Robbins.

7. Payvia

Disruption: Pioneering m-payments, which could radically challenge the credit card industry.
Headquarters: Los Angeles
Founded: June 2012
President: Darcy Wedd, who previously served as COO of Mobile Messenger.

Why they're on this list: m-commerce is a promising, but (at least in this country) underperforming space. Despite the negative perceptions that dog m-commerce, payvia has already processed more than $2 billion in m-payments since it launched this past June.

Payvia also played a big role in campaign fundraising in the 2012 Presidential election, serving as the engine that powered mobile fundraising for both the Obama and Romney campaigns. They were the only company in 2012 approved by the FEC to handle SMS-based contributions.

Payvia offers a number of payment options, linking to credit cards, PayPal or simply tacking a purchase or donation onto your mobile phone bill. Payvia is designed to work both on the Web and, more importantly, on smartphones. When paying via smartphone, Payvia detects your device and its phone number so you don't have to enter credit card information, you simply enter a PIN. For desktop-based Web payments, you enter your phone number instead of credit card info, and you are texted a one-time PIN for security purposes.

Funding: Payvia is backed by an undisclosed amount of early funding from Silverlake Sumero, Montgomery & Co. and Trinity Ventures.

10 Hot Social Media Startups to Watch

10 Hot Social Media Startups to Watch

1. 9Lenses

What they do: Provide cloud-based "Social Enterprise Performance Software," which unlocks employees' critiques of their companies, as well as their ideas for improving the companies they work for.

Headquarters: Leesburg, Va.

CEO: Edwin Miller, who is also a Managing Partner at (i)SAGE and who previously served as President and CEO of Everest Software.

Founded: 2010

Funding: The company is backed by $1 million in angel funding.

Why they're on this list: 9Lenses intends to change how C-level execs communicate with their workforce. Every CEO knows his or her company isn't perfect, but it's tough to get constructive criticism from those in the know--employees. 9Lenses' "interview apps" are designed to open up employee thoughts and ideas in a way that is positive and engaging, giving CEOs the chance to respond and act in a way that isn't defensive or conflict-driven.

The platform comes with more than 100 prepackaged surveys. Companies can also gain insights into specific events, such as possible mergers, and they can use the surveys to identify workflow bottlenecks, encourage data-driven decision making and facilitate strategic planning.

Market Potential and Competitive Landscape: We're not aware of any direct competitors to 9Lenses. However, it indirectly competes with the consulting industry and with more traditional Enterprise Performance Management tools.

For many social media startups, their business models are a bit nebulous. There are tons of great social media concepts out there, but few proven ways to monetize those concepts. 9Lenses looks like a possible exception.

Customers include HP, Raytheon, CoreSite, Oracle and Parata Systems.

2. BeFunky

What they do: Provide a photo-editing platform.

Headquarters: San Francisco, Calif.

CEO: Tekin Tatar, who was formerly Business Development Manager of McCann Relationship Marketing.

Founded: 2007

Funding: $2 million in seed and Series A funding from Golden Horn Ventures.

Why they're on this list: As blogging, self-publishing and photo-sharing through social media all continue to grow, more and more people are seeking photo-editing tools. These people don't want to spend a ton of money on something like Photoshop, and they want something that is easy to use. BeFunky intends to meet those demands.

Market Potential and Competitive Landscape: BeFunky isn't the only game in town. Aside from incumbents like Adobe, alternatives such as PicMonkey will give BeFunky a run for its money. BeFunky claims more than 5.8 million active users.

3. Bloomfire

What they do: They provide an "intranet solution that is reminiscent of Pinterest, to address the knowledge sharing, collaboration and content management issues that are plaguing modern businesses."

Headquarters: Austin, Texas

CEO: Craig Malloy. Malloy sold his previous companies, ViaVideo and LifeSize Communications, to Polycom and Logitech, respectively.

Founded: 2010

Funding: In March 2013, the company secured an $8 million second tranche of its Series A round, bringing the company's total funding raised to $18 million. Austin Ventures, Redpoint Ventures and CEO Malloy are the investors.

Why they're on this list: Bloomfire's software unites information silos across cloud, social and mobile platforms with a centralized user interface that enables workers to instantly connect with subject matter experts and relevant content across their organization, promoting anytime, anywhere collaboration.

The goal is to make collaboration and information sharing easy, while also promoting collaboration among workers and departments that wouldn't communicate otherwise. Bloomfire argues that it creates a "Pinterest-like experience," which is highly visual and intuitive. Too many enterprise collaboration/content management tools are cumbersome . If Bloomfire can truly deliver a simple Pinterest-like experience, it's a step in the right direction.

Market Potential and Competitive Landscape: Gartner predicts that by 2016, 50 percent of large enterprise organizations will have internal social networks. Bloomfire believes that the content management, messaging and social enterprise markets will soon exceed more than $40 billion in combined annual revenues.

Bloomfire competes with both startups and incumbent collaboration and content management providers. These include Microsoft (Yammer and Sharepoint), Jive, Huddle, Basecamp and others.

Bloomfire has more than 220 paying customers (including Etsy, Kellogg's, Comcast, Bechtel and the Make-a-Wish Foundation) and claims more than 65,000 corporate users worldwide.

4. CrowdTwist

What they do: CrowdTwist helps brands recognize and incentivize their most influential fans or customers, helping to build brand loyalty.

Headquarters: New York, N.Y.

CEO: Irving Fain. Before CrowdTwist, Fain ran the digital marketing and social platforms for Clear Channel Radio Digital.

Founded: 2009

Funding: CrowdTwist raised $6 million in Series A funding at the end of 2011 in a round led by SoftBank Capital and Fairhaven Capital. kbs+p Ventures and Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments also participated.

Why they're on this list: CrowdTwist looks at customer behavior holistically, rather than, say, just by measuring social media sentiment and Web traffic. It attempts to measure every way a customer interacts with a brand whether online, via social media or when a customer purchases merchandise in a physical store, giving businesses a much more granular knowledge of their customers than was previously possible.

A major part of what CrowdTwist helps brands discover is customer loyalty. Once the most loyal and valuable customers are discovered, CrowdTwist then helps brands reward them with unique experiences and VIP access. For example, top Miami Dolphins fans can earn the chance to run the team flag onto the field before a game.

Not only do these rewards help a brand by building loyalty, but they also trigger word-of-mouth support.

Market Potential and Competitive Landscape: There are a million and one loyalty programs out there, everything from airline mileage programs to credit card cashback programs. Additionally, companies like Belly, BadgeVille and BigDoor all compete with CrowdTwist.

CrowdTwist says that what sets it apart from competitors is the emphasis not on rewards, but on rewarding the right people. Customers include the Miami Dolphins and FOX.

5. Evzdrop

What they do: Evzdrop tries to cut through social media clutter by leaning on "place" as a key filter. Users can get a collective snapshot of what's happening at a place of interest in real time through the people who are at the location.

Headquarters: Chicago, Ill.

CEO: David Rush, who was previously a partner at private equity firm Sopris Partners. Before that, he was a vice president at Iconoculture (acquired by Corporate Executive Board) and a VP at PostX (acquired by IronPort).

Founded: 2012

Funding: $500,000 from angel investors

Why they're on this list: We like the idea of a social network built on place. If you've ever wanted to eavesdrop in on one of your local watering holes (the ones with pool tables) to decide whether or not it was worth stopping in, you'll appreciate Evzdrop. Something like this could help you measure the vibe of a place at any moment in time.

Or as their PR rep wrote: "On Twitter, you follow people; on Evzdrop, you follow places. The app connects people based on a shared interest in a particular location, whether that's a retail store, gym, stadium, hotel, airport or restaurant." As opposed to chief competitor Foursquare, you don't have to be socially connected with the people there to see what's going on.

Market Potential and Competitive Landscape: According to Gartner, the Location Based Services (LBS) market will annually generate revenues of $13.5 billion by 2015. Main competitors include Foursquare and review sites like Yelp.

Unlike Foursquare, users follow places rather than people who happen to be in those places. Versus traditional review sites, such as Yelp, Evzdrop has taken steps to block fraudulent reviews and to factor in time. Users of Evzdrop can't post reviews once they've left, so you avoid stale reviews that don't match up with a specific slice of time.

We've all been to a place that's dead on a Wednesday evening, but absolutely hopping on Friday night. Traditional reviews don't typically capture that. Evzdrop tries to capture the feel of the place at any given moment in time. To accomplish this, Evzdrop uses geofencing technology to ensure that only people currently at a specific location can post reviews or comments.

Customers include the Blue Man Group, Ruth's Chris and the Chicago Architecture Foundation.

6. Nestivity

What they do: Nestivity helps brands and individuals build communities with their Twitter followings.

Headquarters: Los Angeles, Calif.

CEO: Henry Min, who was previously employee number 18 at Razorfish and who later worked for Digitas, where he served in a leadership role on the American Express interactive account.

Founded: 2012

Funding: The company currently has angel funding and is in the process of seeking Series A funding.

Why they're on this list: Despite its clout in the social media world, Twitter is a big, disorganized mess in many ways. That's both a strength and a weakness. Nestivity seeks to bring some of the advantages of other social media platforms (such as the ability to create closed, tight-knit communities) to Twitter.

Nestivity allows you to curate topics and host discussions in easy to follow threads, rather than searching the Twittersphere one hashtag at a time.

Market Potential and Competitive Landscape: We're not aware of direct competitors for Nestivity yet; however, what's to stop Twitter or any number of Twitter tie-ins, such as Hootsuite, from adding a feature like this?

First-mover advantage could be a big deal here, but Nestivity will need to quickly secure the resources necessary to make that advantage pay off.

7. Nexgate (formerly Social IQ Networks)

What they do: Provide a suite of cloud-based services that help companies discover and audit social media accounts. Then, once visibility is established, Nexgate helps companies protect their brand-run accounts and applications on the social Web.

Headquarters: Burlingame, Calif.

CEO: Devin Redmond. Before Social IQ/Nexgate, he served as the global Vice President for Product Management, Corporate Development, Business Development and Marketing at Websense.

Founded: April 2012

Funding: Just recently (on April 9), Nexgate closed a $3.5 million Series A round from Sierra Ventures. This builds on the $1 million in seed funding they previously secured from Windforce Ventures, Deepak Kamra of Canaan Partners and other angel investors.

Why they're on this list: The biggest problem with social media in the enterprise is that it's become a central communication channel for businesses, yet there is a complete lack of governance surrounding it. Many brands own and run hundreds of accounts on social networks. Unlike other communication channels and infrastructure, enterprises don't have visibility into most of these accounts, nor can they enforce unified security, compliance, and acceptable use policies on them.

We've seen plenty of instances of social media missteps blowing up in a brand's face, such as the Gap's Hurricane Sandy fiasco. Fixing that problem is a big deal.

Once Nexgate's suite of cloud-based services discovers social media accounts, it helps companies audit them and wrap policies around them. This helps companies protect their brand-run accounts and applications on the social Web. The suite integrates directly into social networks to help enterprises deal with social account sprawl, account auditing, account access protection, application control and content control across security, compliance and acceptable use.

Nexgate comes with preconfigured policies that regulate data and applications and enforce archiving. Two newly added policies automatically detect anything that may run afoul of new FDA regulations for pharmaceutical companies and FINRA regulations for financial firms.

Market Potential and Competitive Landscape: The social media security market is starting to heat up. Nexgate will compete with other startups, such as Actiance and SocialWare, and don't be surprised when incumbent security vendors move into this space.

Customers include Backroads Travel, Imperva, City of Memphis, Conrad Caine, Dome9, Porticor, Rosetta Stone, and WatchDox.

8. prollie

What they do: Provide a tool that measures social media influence, one that tries to measure the quality of a person's contributions to social media networks rather than just how frequently that person posts and how many followers he or she has attracted.

Headquarters: New York, N.Y.

CEO: Mike Fabbri, who formerly worked as a social media strategist for several luxury brands at advertising agencies Carat and Vizeum.

Founded: March 2011

Funding: $500,000 in seed and angel funding. Investors include Frank V. Sica and Allen Cutler.

Why they're on this list: We've found that often, a high Klout score (Klout being a competitor) is almost invariably associated with the most annoying people in a particular network, those who compulsively overshare. An alternative tool, one that focuses instead on quality, is therefore a good idea.

According to Fabbri, "Influence scoring is an inept way of measuring how qualified a person is on social media. It's easy to game and usually gives undue attention to celebrities, rather than people with true talent."

Prollie's goal is to uncover qualified people to friend or follow on social networks based on your specific interests. Prollie's algorithm evaluates users based on skill, efficiency, and usage of each social network and assigns a letter grade to represent quality and talent on social media, not influence or reach.

Prollie also provides a user-focused search platform that lets people search by interest, network, grade level, and location.

Market Potential and Competitive Landscape: The most direct competitors are Klout and Kred. The main reservation about this space is the fact that no one has figured out a surefire way to monetize businesses like this.

9. Shiftgig

What they do: Shiftgig enables better connections between employers and job candidates in the restaurant, hotel, nightlife, and retail verticals.

Headquarters: Chicago, Ill.

CEO: Eddie Lou, who was previously a general partner with OCA Ventures.

Founded: August 2011

Funding: Shiftgig raised $3 million in its Series A funding in October 2012 from I2A Fund, FireStarter Fund, and Red Barn Investments, as well as prominent angels such as Sam Yagan, CEO of Match.com; Brian Spaly, CEO of Trunk Club; and Ken Pelletier, CTO of Groupon.

Why they're on this list: The verticals Shiftgig targets tend to have very high turnover. A social media tool like this could certainly reduce turnover and, perhaps, also reduce the costs associated with a high-turnover labor force.

We like Shiftgig's model and its target market. After all, most bartenders don't tend to find work on Monster.com. What seems to be missing, though--at least on first glance--is the kind of review/recommendation engine that benefits consumers of services like Yelp and even Amazon. Part of why there is high turnover in these sectors is that employees are often poorly paid and even exploited (and employers have plenty of legitimate gripes about unreliable employees too). If Shiftgig can shine a light on those problems, and then deliver that info back to employers and employees alike so they can improve, it could really have an impact.

We were initially skeptical about including Shiftgig in a roundup intended for a CIO and IT audience. However, it does serve as an example of just how disruptive social media promises to be in coming years.

Market Potential and Competitive Landscape: We don't know of any direct competitors. Heck, many restaurants still mainly advertise openings with a sign in the window.

Since its launch in January 2012, Shiftgig claims it has attracted more than 6,000 businesses and 200,000 job candidates. Businesses include high-end restaurants such as Graham Elliott in Chicago and Morimoto in New York, as well as casual restaurants like Chipotle. Other named users include Holiday Inn, Hyatt and the Hard Rock Hotel.

10. SocialFlow

What they do: SocialFlow's products give businesses and brands ways to increase audience engagement. It also ties performance goals to the company's social media strategy.

Headquarters: New York, N.Y.

CEO: Missy Godfrey, who was previously a Managing Director of North Sea Partners.

Founded: 2009

Funding: $19.4 million from Fairhaven Capital, SoftBank, RRE, AOL Ventures, Betaworks, Highline Capital and a number of prominent angel investors, including Ron Conway and Mike Lazerow.

Why they're on this list: As companies develop social media engagement strategies, two distinct challenges emerge. During the initial phase of use, businesses must figure out how to publish effective content. Later, after companies have invested real resources into their social media efforts, they need tools to optimize and manage content, and to encourage real engagement with followers.

SocialFlow relies on Wall Street-like analytics to rigorously optimize social publishing and advertising. Cadence, SocialFlow's social media publishing platform provides the data-based intelligence companies need in order to publish the most relevant information at the right time. As engagement varies throughout the day, Cadence listens to real-time conversations and helps determine which of a company's messages is most relevant to the audience in the moment. The predictive analytics used by the platform also help customers control the frequency and reach of the messages.

Crescendo, SocialFlow's "attention buying platform," attempts to find out exactly where audience attention is going to be most convertible and most cost-effective in order to execute ad buys in real time. Crescendo uses the real-time conversations of a target audience to identify key words to target outside audiences. With this approach, Crescendo can target underutilized keywords and win impressions at lower costs. To provide the highest quality targeting, Crescendo partitions the ads based on a variety of interest-based segments, rather than one-dimensional demographic filters. SocialFlow claims that by taking advantage of emerging opportunities to capture attention as interests and behaviors shift, their platform delivers high conversions at low cost with heightened brand awareness and retention.

Market Potential and Competitive Landscape: Competitors include TayKey, GraphEffect and Bottlenose. SocialFlow has an impressive customer list (Wal-Mart, Pepsi, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Gawker, Volkswagen, and Al Jazeera), a good amount of VC funding and are in a high-growth sector.

Now, it's your turn to vote for your favorite social media startup. After voting closes, we'll rank everyone on this list based on voting, the management team, funding, viability of the business model, the ability to attract customers and more.

New fitness centers cater to aging baby boomers

 Baby boomers, the generation that vowed to stay forever young, are getting older, designing senior-friendly gyms and becoming their own personal trainers.

In exercise havens for the over-50 set, the cardio machines are typically low impact, the resistance training is mainly air-powered and some group fitness classes are taken sitting down.

At Welcyon gyms, founded by husband-and-wife boomers Suzy and Tom Boerboom, the average age of members is 62.

"The environment is really designed for those 50 and over," said Suzy Boerboom.

The couple created Welcyon, which has locations in Minnesota and South Dakota, in 2009. It has no tread-mills and no free weights and workouts are customized to members' levels of fitness. A smart card sets resistance, counts repetitions and adjusts workouts.

An important attraction for many boomers: background music is a combination of '40s, '50s and '60s tunes played at a much lower volume than in traditional gyms.

"It was something I could manage," said 66-year-old Bill Zortman, one of an estimated 78 million baby boomers, defined as the group born between 1946 and 1964, who make up about 26 percent of the U.S. population, according to U.S. Census reports.

His thrice-weekly workouts at a Welcyon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, consists of riding a bicycle or using air-powered resistance machines to strengthen his legs, arms and back.

"They make sure I'm not overdoing it," Zortman said of the staff, who Boerboom said are often boomers themselves.

The absence of clanging free weights also cuts down on the racket, Boerboom said, noting that many people over 50 prefer a quieter gym.

Group fitness classes for boomers are also modified.

"We're just beginning to develop a group fitness interval training program," Boerboom said. "It will be four to six people and low impact."

The American Council on Exercise says many of their fitness professionals are baby boomers who specialize in working with older adults.

"People in their early 60's are becoming personal trainers and group fitness instructors," said Todd Galati, ACE's director of credentialing.

But they are far from the majority, as the average age of ACE's 50,000 certified fitness professionals is 42, and more than 37 percent are over 40.

"Every year I talk to newly certified personal trainers, retired from their career in another field, who want to help people their age become more fit," Galati said.

A recent study published in JAMA Internal Medicine showed that a sample of baby boomers had higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, obesity and high cholesterol than their parents' generation.

"There is a big bad myth about the boomer generation being more fit," said Dr. Sheldon S. Zinberg, founder of Nifty after Fifty fitness centers for older adults. "In fact, the boomer generation is less fit than their parents were at same age."

The chain has locations in Arizona, California, Nevada, Texas, Virginia and New York. Its programs target muscle power, muscle strength, reaction time, balance and cognitive skills, he said.

"At age 40 people lose 0.8 to 1 percent muscle mass each year. By age 60 this accelerates to 1.5 percent," Zinberg said.

At Nifty after Fifty, group fitness classes range from yoga and Zumba to seated volleyball and cane fu, a self-defense class in which participants use a cane.

As with Welcyon, there are no tread-mills. "We used to use tread-mills, but we had people falling off," Zinberg said. "We use recumbent stair steppers, among other exercisers."

He advises people to get fit in their 40s and 50s, "and when you do become older, enjoy a supervised, customized program."

Boerboom said Welcyon plans to open more gyms later this year. "There are over 70 million of us boomers," she said, "and we have to take care of ourselves."

100 most creative people in the world 2013

http://www.fastcompany.com/section/most-creative-people-2013

Shopping cart-mounted tablet detects nearby items and offers recipes in real time

Hellmann’s Recipe Cart campaign used NFC technology to immediately suggest meal ideas to shoppers as they walked past other ingredients. Sales rose by almost 70 percent.

Regular readers of Springwise may remember the Hellmann’s mayonnaise campaign in Brazil that printed recipes for those who purchased the mayonnaise, using the other items also being bought as ingredients. Unsatisfied with stopping there, the company has returned with the Recipe Cart, which uses NFC technology to immediately suggest meal ideas to shoppers as they walk past other ingredients.

The campaign was the brainchild of digital agency CUBOCC, who fitted shopping carts at the Pão de Açúcarshopping center in São Paulo with touchscreen devices. When consumers placed a jar of Hellmann’s mayonnaise in their cart, the tablet detected where they were in the store through NFC tags located on each aisle. For example, if they walked past the vegetable section, a video of a summer salad with mayonnaise began to play on the screen, while those next to the fish were recommended a fish, onion and mayonnaise bake. If they liked the recipe they could interact with the display to find the location of the necessary ingredients in store, or share the meal idea with friends over social networks. Some 45,000 customers were involved in the campaign and – according to Hellmann’s – sales rose by almost 70 percent. The video below shows the Recipe Cart in action:

Although the campaign lasted only one month and focused on one specific product, could this idea be expanded to include a wide database of recipes targeting multiple consumer groups, given its apparent success?

Hungry for Growth, Arabic Foods Taste Success in Global Markets

Few businesses can claim as meteoric a rise as Just Falafel, an Arabic restaurant chain. From four stores in 2010, the Abu Dhabi-based firm had more than 650 franchises across 15 countries. Sales have grown from 18 million dirhams (US$5 million) to 45 million dirhams (US$12.2 million) between 2011 and 2012. The firm receives up to 300 franchisee requests on some days and it has nearly a million Facebook fans. "We are growing exponentially," says Fadi Malas, Just Falafel's founder and CEO.

Malas is one among a clutch of Middle Eastern entrepreneurs that are successfully persuading palates in the west and elsewhere to Arabic fare as healthy alternatives to fast foods and a worthy complement to other cuisines. Others include Saudi Arabia's dates and gourmet foods company Bateel, Lebanese confectioner Patchi, and a Dubai-based shawarma chain Wild Peeta. The recent Gulfood event in Dubai drew 4,200 exhibitors from 110 countries, a record in its 26-year history.

Even as the new brigade of Arabic food marketers stress the health attributes of their offerings, they face several challenges as they grow. For one, many western consumers view Arabic foods as "street food," a perception rooted for some in the Middle Eastern food trucks at university campuses in the U.S. and elsewhere. Second, established competitors could raise concerns about the quality standards and hygiene of Arabic foods. To overcome those, Arabic food marketers must spread awareness about the health benefits, pay close attention to quality, secure the best locations and avoid head-on confrontations with entrenched players, say experts at the Wharton School and elsewhere.

Marketing channels in the west differ significantly from those in West Asia and elsewhere, notesBarbara Kahn, Wharton marketing professor and director of its Jay H. Baker Retailing Center. As Arabic food chains face competition in new markets, they need to understand local market practices, retail supply chains and appropriate pricing, according to her. "These are very important issues and the reason other companies failed (e.g., Carrefour, Walmart, Tesco) at least initially when entering new global markets," adds Kahn, whose research interests include brand loyalty and consumer behavior in seeking variety.

Big Growth Lies Ahead

The gains could be large if Arabic food marketers get their global growth strategies right. Worldwide, Middle Eastern full-service restaurants are poised to grow their combined revenues from US$31.5 million in 2011 to US$42.2 million by 2016 (based on 2011 exchange rates), or nearly 40%, according to Euromonitor International, a London-based research services firm specializing in consumer markets. Middle Eastern fast foods are on a faster growth track, and Euromonitor forecasts a 73% growth in their sales, from US$15 million to US$26 million between 2011 and 2016. They will see their biggest growth in their home markets of the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, followed by Western Europe, Australasia and North America, according to the data projections.

Just Falafel's Malas is acutely aware of the big markets that await Arabic foods, and the obstacles on the way. A former banker who last worked at Chase Manhattan Bank in London before turning entrepreneur in 1996, he chose to innovate his way into new markets. Traditional falafel is a deep fried vegetarian ball of chickpeas or beans wrapped with salads and sauces in a pita bread. Malas sees his falafel sandwiches fitting in nicely with the growing shift to vegetarian foods and as "an addition to existing food categories instead of eating away [market share] from burgers and pizzas."

Malas "reengineered" the falafel to develop some 10 variants to suit different cuisines like Italian, Mexican, Indian, etc. He did have to overcome "resistance" from skeptics as he introduced falafel burgers and other fare. Getting prominent retail operators to open Just Falafel outlets was also difficult because of the street-food perception, he says. Eventually, acceptance replaced skepticism, "and we proved we can innovate in food," he adds. Today, he works 18 hours a day to keep up with the expansion pressure, and has a staff of five processing franchisee applications.

Just Falafel's network spans the Middle East and the U.K. This past January, Just Falafel opened an outlet in London's Covent Garden. It plans 19 other branches in the U.K. and Ireland, including in university cities like Cambridge. Next, it is looking at India, where it is putting together a joint venture to open outlets in Mumbai, Chennai and Ahmedabad. "India is a sweet spot for us, where half the population is vegetarian," says Malas. He also sights the U.S., Canada and Australia as his near-term growth markets.

Health Benefits Lead the Caravan

The record attendance at Gulfood is evidence of the expanded global market for Arabic foods, says Mark Napier, its show director. The event drew more than 75,000 trade visitors from the food industry. "Many of our international visitors come to Gulfood explore new Middle Eastern flavors that they can introduce in their home markets," he says. The number of exhibitors from the Middle East looking to trade in global markets has grown exponentially, he adds.

Napier says the health benefits of Arabic foods were a big attraction. Arabic foods use ingredients like olive oil and sesame seeds that have a multitude of health benefits. Dates are a local delicacy, and are popular for their sweet taste and their nutritional properties, as they are rich in amino acids, dietary fiber, essential vitamins and iron.

Of late, people have begun to recognize the health benefits of camel milk, consumed both plain and as an ingredient in gourmet chocolates, says Napier. Camel milk is witnessing rising demand in United Arab Emirates (UAE) supermarkets and restaurants, he says. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates camel milk trading could be worth $10 billion in the near future, he informs.

"Consumers are getting more adventurous in the type of fast foods they are eating, especially falafel, and we are seeing chains from the Middle East gaining critical mass," says Michael Schaefer, head of beverages & foodservice at Euromonitor in Chicago. Middle Eastern foods have been around in the U.S., the U.K. and Western Europe for a long time as fast foods, but Schaefer now sees more attempts to make them mainstream.

Building Global Brands

The growing popularity of Arabic foods is good news also for Wild Peeta, a four-year-old Dubai-based firm founded by two brothers. Wild Peeta's specialty is shawarma, a Middle Eastern grilled meat preparation shaved of vertical, rotating spits and served with breads and salads. "We wanted to create the world's first global shawarma brand," says Mohamed Parham Al Awadhi, a cofounder. "It is the most popular sandwich thanks to the Greeks, the Arabs and the Turks," he adds, referring to shawarma's patron base.

Al Awadhi wants to grow his brand's popularity, but grow its retail footprint cautiously, chastened by some early setbacks. Wild Peeta initially opened two outlets in quick succession, but they did not take off as planned because of wrong location choices and had to close, he says. "We grew too fast and didn't give ourselves too much time to learn," he adds.

The initial experience "grounded" the Al Awadhi brothers. Wild Peeta reopened in Dubai in March at what Al Awadhi rates as a better location; he says it is less expensive than the first two and more accessible. It plans to open a second outlet, but that will take shape after consolidating the gains from the current location.

Notwithstanding his caution in expansion, Al Awadhi is convinced that Arabic foods will find a bigger place among international cuisines, but that will take time to gain critical mass. "If raw fish found global traction and people are lining up to pay a lot of money for it, then we can sell Middle Eastern food," he says. "It took a long time to bring sushi to where it is today. Middle Eastern foods need time and they will be among the leading foods in the world."

Wild Peeta is actively using social media to promote its food, and has created an online community of loyal fans. As he eyes the U.S. as one of his future markets, Al Awadhi says he would choose places that already have Middle Easterners and communities "where people are open minded," listing San Francisco and New York.

New Markets, New Challenges

However, Arabic food marketers may face unfamiliar challenges in their new markets. "As with moving to any market, the vendor must learn local customs, cultures and regulations," says Kahn. "Many food chains have failed with moving to new global markets because they do not understand this." For example, the best locations will be most likely already occupied, she notes. "Putting a store in the wrong location can lead to failure - e.g. locations where people tend to work and not live, and hence do not shop for groceries." Here, understanding consumer behavior is critical, such as whether they drive and how often they shop, she adds.

Getting consumers to acquire new tastes is also not easy. "Changing consumers' food habits is very difficult," says Kahn. However, many ways exist to promote a new cuisine, especially if it is healthy and tasty, she adds. "Social media, public relations campaigns and food/restaurant events may help build awareness."

"If a company enters a new market and there is entrenched competition, the competitors will do what they can to thwart the new entrant," says Kahn.

Competition from international brands is familiar territory for Middle Eastern marketers, says Malas. His home market of the UAE has the second highest penetration by global brands after the U.K., he points out. "We already operate in an ecosystem that is at par with the most developed markets in the world."

Focus on Quality, Perceptions

Despite the new buzz around Arabic foods, Schaefer does not expect dramatic changes in how western consumers respond to them. The branding efforts of eatery chains like Just Falafel will elevate the perception of Arabic foods to "better quality fast food, not fine dining." He puts them in the basket of "fast casual" food chains, which have limited menus but with better quality than street food and fast food. He says Mexican food chains have done precisely that, and done it well.

Here, Schaefer cites Chipotle, a chain of Mexican eateries that is popular in many U.S. cities. Such chains have emphasized the use of fresh and high quality ingredients, and designed their restaurants for consumers to see their food made in front of them. "Chipotle came in and offered a fresh and simpler take on the process," he says, noting its "almost fanatical insistence and emphasis on quality and showing where the food is coming from." Nothing short of that model will help higher-quality foods grow demand in the U.S., he adds.

The growth will be gradual for Arabic foods in western markets, says Schaefer. The earliest converts will be in big cities like New York City, London and Chicago, where people are familiar with Middle Eastern food, he says. "Even a tiny fraction (in market share) is going to mean big numbers," he adds. "I see Arabic foods taking that path."

Bloomingdales Installs Body Scanners to Help You Find Jeans That Fit

Lauren Indvik1 hour ago

As any woman can tell you, shopping for designer denim is a miserable affair. Sizing has long been inconsistent across brands — an Ann Taylor "6" might be a Diane von Furstenberg "10," for example — but in the jeans department, where there is a need for a more precise fit, the inconsistencies are particularly aggravating.

Enter Me-Ality, a self-billed "digital sizing station" recently installed in six Bloomingdales locations: the 59th Street flagship in Manhattan, Roosevelt Field Mall (N.Y.), Chevy Chase (Md.), Santa Monica Place (Calif.) and South Coast Plaza (Calif.). The stations take 10- to 15-second body scans of shoppers, matching their measurements against those of in-store and online merchandise to recommend brands, styles and sizes likely to fit and flatter them best.

Completing a scan will deliver a print-out and an online profile that shoppers can reference to find recommended sizes and styles for present and future purchases. Presumably (though Bloomingdales has yet to confirm this) only brands that have provided sizing information to Me-Ality will be included in the list of recommendations, a roster that includes, in the denim category, J Brand, 7 For All Mankind, True Religion, Hudson and Citizens of Humanity.

Me-Ality isn't, of course, the only company tackling the fit problem. Startups like TrueFit, which works with Macy's and Oscar de la Renta, and Clothes Horse, which works with Bonobos and Nicole Miller, have developed algorithmic tools that help shoppers choose sizes based on how clothing from multiple other brands fits them. (If you wear a size S sweater at J. Crew and a size M at Banana Republic, for example, it might recommend you purchase a size M sweater at Bonobos.)

Me-Ality has already been set up in some 70 U.S. retail locations, including stores and malls, but this is the first time the scanners have appeared in a department store environment, according to a statement from Bloomingdales. Thus far, the spread of systems like Me-ality's has been impeded by brand integration and the cost of the scanners themselves, though the latter has fallen in recent years, enabling piloting programs like Bloomingdales'.

Startup finds niche in digitizing physical mail

San Francisco (CNN) -- A driver of a white Prius with a giant, red plastic flag affixed to its side is rolling through the hilly streets of San Francisco, undelivering mail from mailboxes.
The driver is not a thief. He and the car are part of a startup called Outbox that is attempting to pick up where the embattled United States Postal Service leaves off -- by digitizing physical mail.
The driver, dubbed an "unpostman," visits Outbox subscribers' homes three times a week, flipping through a thick ring of keys to open the wide variety of entryways and mailboxes. He collects the letters, bills, magazines and advertisements that were deposited there by official postal workers and delivers them to a warehouse. There they are opened and photographed, and the resulting digital files are sent electronically to the recipient through the Outbox website or iPad or iPhone apps.
The idea is that for $4.99 a month, someone can make their pesky physical mail disappear (assuming they can resist the urge to peek in their mailbox between pickups). Using a mobile device or computer, Outbox customers can organize mail in files or forward them as e-mails, ask to be unsubscribed from junk mail, have unwanted items destroyed or request that important mail, such as a wedding invite or a postcard, be re-delivered to their home.
The company already has more than 600 customers in Austin, Texas, and starting Tuesday it's rolling out in its second city, San Francisco.
Creating a shadow, reverse postal service may not be the most efficient way to improve the struggling mail system, but Outbox is unable to intercept clients' mail any sooner in the process. The company has met resistance from the United States Postal Service, which has refused to collaborate with Outbox or let its workers pick up mail directly from local post offices.
"From a startup perspective, we can wait on no one," said Outbox co-founder Will Davis.
Outbox's legal 'gray zone'
Even though Outbox is forging ahead without the blessing of the USPS, Davis said he has a lot of respect for the federal agency and would welcome any attempts to work together.
It's a sentiment that does not yet seem to be mutual.
"The Postal Service is focused on providing an essential service in our mission to serve the American public and does not view Outbox as supporting that mission," the USPS said in a statement. "We do have concerns regarding the destruction of mail -- even if authorized by the receiver -- and will continue to monitor market activities to ensure protection of our brand and the value and security of the mail."
Circumventing the Postal Service has been a way to get Outbox up and running. But tampering with mail is a federal offense, and there may be questions about the legality of a third party removing mail from a mailbox, even with permission.
Davis argues that once a piece of mail has been delivered, it becomes just another unregulated piece of paper. An Outbox employee taking mail with permission would be no different from having a neighbor pick it up while you're out of town, he said.
"Innovation happens in the gray zone of deregulation," said Davis. "We're operating in that gray zone."
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service declined to comment on whether the practice is breaking any laws.
Security and privacy also will be a concern for any company handling mail filled with sensitive financial and personal information. Outbox says its employees undergo more thorough background checks than Postal employees. It uses 512-bit encryption and device recognition to prevent digitized mail from falling into the hands of someone other than the intended recipient. Any unwanted physical mail is shredded and recycled.
Can the Postal Service catch up?
The Postal Service has been slow to innovate and adapt to new technology on its own, in part because of constraints such as the 2006 legislation that prohibits it from entering into new businesses.
The USPS also faces serious financial issues. In 2012, the agency had $15.9 billion in losses and in early February it announced plans to cease Saturday mail delivery this summer in an attempt to save $2 billion.
The Postal Service has also been watching technology steadily eat away at its core business for years. The volume of mail handled by the USPS dropped from 202.8 billion pieces a year in 2002 to159.9 billion in 2012. First class and standard mail are decreasing as bill payments, statements and marketers migrate online. One bright spot has been an increase in shipping and packages, the result of the growing popularity of e-commerce.
"They face a lot of challenges that are not of their own making," said John Payne, chief executive of Zumbox, a digital mailbox company that deals directly with large companies. He agrees that the Postal Service needs to innovate to stay relevant and thinks they're starting to try harder to partner with innovative companies.
Outbox isn't waiting on the Postal Service's call. New, nimble and relatively tiny, the startup can begin experimenting with new ways of handling mail that would take time, and possibly congressional action, for the Postal Service to do.
"We've done what they can't do without trouble, Davis said. "We're able to play by different rules."
Making money off mail
Just because the USPS isn't making snail mail a profitable business doesn't mean it can't be done. In addition to charging $4.99 a month, Outbox has plans to eventually deliver ads through its apps. They wouldn't be banner ads, but rather would appear just like another item of scanned mail.
The company would be in a unique position to know what catalogs, fliers and brands a customer likes or marks as junk, and could charge companies that wanted to reach specific demographics.
The companies currently filling up mailboxes with fliers have already been experimenting with online alternatives. If Outbox attracts enough customers and its ads are effective, it could become an alternative to sending ads through the U.S. Mail.
"As time changes the marketers evolve," said Jerry Cerasale, a vice president at the Direct Marketing Association. "The more precise they can be means less waste, less money spent on advertising, and more response."
Outbox's Davis also believes that once his company has saturated an area, it will be in a great position to handle same-day deliveries for e-commerce companies like Amazon. Eventually Outbox will also try tiered pricing for work addresses, and extra features such as forwarding individual pieces of mail to other addresses, he said
For now it's focused on polishing its service and logistics. The company has big-name backers like venture capitalist Peter Thieland is planning on closing a "sizable" second round of funding in April. After San Francisco is fully staffed with unpostmen, Outbox plans to bring its service to New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington.
Davis isn't worrying yet about competitors. "No one is crazy enough to do what we're doing," he said.

Open source distiller uses solar energy to make salt water drinkable

Eliodomestico is an eco-distiller that uses solar power to make salt water drinkable.

Smarter Trends - Helping to encourage the development of smarter connected cities.

We’ve seen numerous efforts over the years to purify water and make it safe for drinking, but it wasn’t until just recently that we came across one invention designed specifically with desalinization in mind. Sure enough, Eliodomestico is an eco-distiller that uses solar power to make salt water drinkable.
Created by Italian designer Gabriele Diamanti, Eliodomestico is an open source project designed to provide safe drinking water for people in developing countries. Essentially, the device works like an upside-down coffee maker to produce five liters of fresh water every day. Users begin by adding sea water in the morning. Over the course of the day, the heat of the sun causes steam to rise into a water-tight boiler. The steam is then forced down through an expansion nozzle and condenses against the lid of a collection basin. At the end of the day, users can remove the basin, which is full of fresh water and designed for transport on the head. In the video below, Diamanti explains the premise in more detail:
Eliodomestico is made from widely available materials and requires no electricity or filters; maintenance is simple, Diamanti says. So far, it has already won a Core77 Design Award and was a finalist at the Prix Émile Hermès 2011 competition. Social entrepreneurs: one to get involved in?
Website: www.gabrielediamanti.com/projects/eliodomestico

Digitized magazine subscriptions for business waiting rooms

Foli aims to bring waiting room literature up to date by enabling businesses to offer customers a selection of digital magazines only at their physical location.

We’ve already seen The Silent History iPad novel use location detection to unlock extra content as part of its engagement with readers. Now Foli is using the same technology to bring waiting room literature up to date by enabling businesses to offer customers a selection of digital magazines that only becomes accessible at their physical location.
Foli offers access to titles ranging from Vanity Fair, GQ, Wired, CountryLiving and Traveler magazine. Businesses signing up first check to see that Foli is available in their region – it is currently aiming to increase coverage across the San Francisco Bay area – and set up their location as a Foli browsing spot. Customers can then be directed to download the app for free from the App Store when they’re at the premises, where they will be able to access content from Foli’s collection. If they haven’t finished reading an article while at the location, they can save it for later and access it even when out of range of the Foli spot.
Foli helps companies to bring their complimentary magazine and newspaper offerings up-to-date by enabling mobile device owners to access premium content from their seat while they wait or dine. Could this work in your part of the world?
Website: www.getfoli.com