Freshfully, a Birmingham startup and winner of the 2011 incubate!(bang) business competition, has now launched its online marketplace at freshfully.com. Freshfully was founded by CEO Jen Barnett and Chief Technology Officer Sam Brasseale, both of Birmingham.

Freshfully sells food that’s grown or produced in Alabama. Consumers can search and browse for local products, see listings of farms and markets, and read articles and reviews of local food options.

Items for sale on Freshfully include a weekly sampling of seasonal, local fruits and vegetables from Moore Farms and Friends in Woodland, organic honey from Hewett’s Honey Farm in Duncanville, and Angus beef raised without hormones, antibiotics, or steroids, from Johnson Farm in Elba.

Freshfully is seeking more farms and producers to sell products on the site. “We’re like an eBay for farmers and other local vendors,” says Barnett. “We want to make it easy and efficient for consumers and farmers to connect.”

Farmers can contact Barnett to sell their local products at jen@freshfully.com or 205-983-6456.

Freshfully returns 86% of retail sales to farmers and producers. Traditionally, farmers receive only 16 cents of each dollar spent on food. Brasseale says, “We want to put more money back into farmers’ hands, so they can continue to provide fresh, local food. Consumers want it, farmers have it, and we want to put them together.”

Freshfully is located online at freshfully.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/freshfully, and on Twitter at twitter.com/freshfully.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Birmingham Author Launches Children’s Book App for iPhone and iPad

Birmingham, Ala.—October 28, 2011 – Local author and attorney Jenna Bedsole has released her first children’s book as an interactive app for iPhone and iPad. The book, entitled “Sam the Spider,” tells the story of a young spider who dreams of spinning a giant web and won’t let anyone stand in his way.

“Sam dreams big,” says Bedsole. “I want to encourage my kids to dream big, too, but it’s hard to find children’s books that really speak to the subject of setting goals and achieving them.”

The book is recommend for children ages 2-6, and includes playful animations and an optional voiceover that will read the book at the child’s pace.

“I also wanted kids to engage with Sam and his story. Seeing my children interact with iPad and iPhone applications gave me the idea to turn Sam the Spider into an app.”

Bedsole contracted with local app creators Motion Mobs to develop the app. Birmingham illustrator Jennifer King brought Sam to life with colorful illustrations of the hero and his friends. Local actor and comedian Christopher Davis added funny voiceovers for Sam, along with Bedsole’s own voice.

The application is available now for iPhone and iPad in the iTunes app store for $2.99. Parents and teachers can learn more about the book and its author, plus find activity ideas, at http://samspider.com.

Contact:
Jen Barnett
jenbarnett@thesprylab.com
SpryLab
2615 Arlington Ave S
Birmingham, AL 35205

Update: Freshfully is now live! Come check us out.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Incubate Bang Announces Winner of Inaugural New Business Competition

Birmingham, Ala – September 12, 2011 – A Birmingham startup that serves the local and organic food industries has won the Incubate Bang new business competition. Freshfully will receive $50,000 in development time and $30,000 in seed funding, as well as office space and business support from the competition’s founders, Laird Foret and Josh Adams of Isotope 11 and Bill Smith of Insight Card Services.

In return for their investment, the founders will own a portion of the winning company. “Our goal was to find a company with a viable high-tech business plan and a commitment to Birmingham,” said co-founder Bill Smith. “We were interested in a sound financial investment, but also an investment in the future of the city.”

The winning business plan was submitted by partners Jen Barnett and Sam Brasseale, both of Birmingham, AL. Their concept, called Freshfully, applies interactive and mobile technologies to help local food businesses reach consumers. The company’s web site will launch in winter, 2011 at http://freshfully.com.

“When we launched this competition, we had no idea what the response would be,” said Josh Adams. “How many Birmingham-area entrepreneurs would have a marketable plan at just the right phase of funding? The answer was, several. We were really impressed with what people brought to the table.”

Along with Smith and Adams, Laird Foret hopes to make Incubate Bang an annual competition. “Starting Incubate Bang was like sending out a message in a bottle. Now that we know who’s out there, we’d like to continue finding ways to help Birmingham startups succeed.”

Contact:

Laird P. Foret
laird@isotope11.com
205.742.9671 ext.200
529 Beacon Parkway West, Suite 105
Birmingham, AL 35209

Jen Barnett
jen@freshfully.com
529 Beacon Parkway West, Suite 105
Birmingham, AL 35209

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Many thanks to fluffybunny from Fiverr.com for this guest post!

Online deal hunting is more of an obsession for me than a hobby. Finding deals on all sorts of things–even those I thought I didn’t need–can take up a significant amount of time. While I would regularly browse my favorite sites “sale” and “clearance” sections, I could never seem to find the great deals that other people were getting. Then, on one Google searching expedition, I ran across the site fatwallet.com.

The site offers a few sections that I check daily. The first one is the “Today’s Best Deals” section, that includes a round up of all the best deals that people have spotted across the web. The specials include electronics, clothing, toys, jewelry, restaurant deals, and pretty much anything else that is sold online. I’ve found everything from sweaters from a major retailer for less than $2 to a lower price on my new laptop than I ever thought I would find. Users contribute deal ideas, which are then evaluated by staff. Many of the deals allow you to combine coupons with great prices to get even better deals. The site is very easy to browse, giving you a glance at the best deals online in just a few seconds.

Another section that I visit on a daily basis is the “Freebies Forum.” If you expect all freebies to be tiny packets of shampoo or useless giveaways, Fatwallet.com will prove you wrong. Things I have gotten from the site include a cosmetic bag stuffed with full-size products, free movie rentals, full-size grocery samples, a free bag of dog food, t-shirts, and even magazine subscriptions to magazines I actually want to read. There is always something new posted, and readers will write in and tell you about their success level with the various deals. Most deals require nothing more than your name, email, and address.

The other part of the site that came in handy during my Christmas shopping was the Store Coupons section. The site collects and categorizes coupons from a huge number of online merchants, and you can look up by store name to find out what they have to offer. As I purchased Christmas gifts, I found that many of the retailers I visited were offering some type of coupon. My finds ranged from free shipping to percent-off coupons–and even some that added free samples or other gifts-with-purchase to my order. I saved hundreds of dollars, simply by visiting the site before I checked out.

Fatwallet.com is my favorite site for online deals because it’s so easy to use and offers deals the stores where I love to shop. Whether you’re just collecting coupons and freebies or hoping to score a major deal on your next TV or PC, visit fatwallet.com first to see if you can save a few dollars.

Fiverr.com is a simple site where users offer things they’re willing to do for five bucks. I know what you’re thinking, but don’t worry, only a few offerings cross the line into PG-13 territory.

As soon as Stephanie at Infomedia gave me the link, I started thinking of ways I could use Fiverr (pronounce it “fiver”) to generate content for my site. After a rocky start (I bought a $5 logo), I started bookmarking people who would take a photo in front of a local landmark or otherwise write words in an interesting way.

I sent those people my new SpryLab logo (the good one, from 99designs), and forwarded them all fins via PayPal. In return, I met some awesome people, got a ton of great photos of my logo all over the world, a shot of my company name written in cappuccino foam, and a kanji stamp that I think says SpryLab in Japanese.

Of course, I also got the photo above, a creepy sock monkey with my logo photoshopped on it. Caveat chimptor. Watch SpryLab.com for more to come, including photos in France and England, and the logo on the side of a rally car racing across Europe.

Credits for my home page images:

• madmoo: cappuccino foam
• sing_ap84: New York/Times Square
• lupo1: Washington DC/White House
• amtsg: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia/Petronas Twin Towers
• disco7miel: Gulf of Mexico/view from seismic boat
• jace1234: Easter eggs
• bigred76: Tully, Australia/World’s Largest Gumboot

There must be hundreds of banking services that offer online savings accounts, thousands of tools for collecting money online, and millions of ways to save on online purchases. But none of them combines those features like SmartyPig, a niche banking site that lets you set unlimited savings goals and contribute to them on independent schedules.

Have you ever squirreled away funds for a rainy day or a major purchase, only to dip in whenever the mood or emergency struck? SmartyPig makes it easy to stay on track, because your savings aren’t in amorphous accounts, they’re in goals.

For example, SmartyPig goals I had last year included a dental procedure, plane tickets to Boston, and an HD television. We wanted to leave for Boston in mid-September, so I scheduled that goal to end on September 1st. Then I noted how often I wanted to contribute to that goal (monthly), and SmartyPig deducted the correct amount from my checking account each month.

What’s more, you can redeem your savings total as cash, or you can choose from dozens of major store gift certificates and get a lil’ extra added to your pot. For example, $1000 in savings becomes $1100 worth of stuff from Saks or $1030 from Amazon.

Finally, you can use social media or email to solicit contributions to your goals from generous friends. No one’s stepping up to pay for my vacation, mind you, but a kid with an upcoming band trip could probably find lots of enterprising uses for this feature.

But what I really love about SmartyPig is its warm and friendly personality. I’m a sucker for a happy animal mascot (e.g. MailChimp), but the real stars here are the employees. Even after a buyout by BBVACompass, the founders and others seem to still be on board, tweeting fun trivia and encouragements to save. Follow co-founder Michael Ferrari on Twitter at @mferrari or their main account @SmartyPig.

I wish I’d created SmartyPig.

What I love:

• simple execution of a complicated concept
• the pig’s peeps
• encouragement to save for a smaller purchase I’d typically finance (it’s the modern version of “layaway”)
• saying “SmartyPig” repeatedly in a funny voice when I’m planning my goals

What I’d change:

• share clear vision of how they’ll maintain their style if BBVACompass consumes them
• add financial rewards for referrals, even if it’s in gift card currency
• they have a strong marketing stance that folks aren’t saving enough. this is a spending economy, and they’re not offering IRAs, so they don’t need to belabor that point. market the awesome things savers are going to get do; market that you’re making dreams become reality.

Puddy and I shop at Costco almost every week. You nearly have to if you want to feed a 6’4″ 250-lb. pipefitter who works 8-12 hours per day. We have a regular list of groceries we replenish there–Basmati rice, limes, eggs, romaine lettuce, mushrooms, peppers, chicken breasts, hummus, milk, sandwich bread–but we often pick up one of their colossal bags of chips if they’ve got something new and interesting. (This is how I fell in love with Sweet Chili Rice Chips before they were unceremoniously yanked from the shelves.)

This past week, we went for chip’ins, the poorly named all natural popcorn chips from Popcorn, Indiana. (Seriously, what’s wrong with the name “Popcorn Chips,” and what punctuation mark is that between “chip” and “in” anyway?)

I expected a pretty run-of-the-mill corn chip with a lighter, crispier texture. What I got was the pure flavor of freshly popped popcorn. To top if off, the chips have a mere three ingredients: popcorn, sea salt, and sunflower oil. Popcorn is naturally whole grain, and these chips also have a bit of fiber and protein, but no gluten, trans fat, or saturated fat. A serving is huge–20 big chips for only 120 calories.

I wish I’d created chip’ins.

What I love:

• completely new flavor for a bagged snack
• no artificial ingredients
• low calorie, 0 bad fats, 9 grams of whole grains in a serving

What I’d change:

• the product name, for sure, especially with an awesome company name like “Popcorn, Indiana” (if you think of a better name, or at least one that doesn’t involve a non-existent punctuation mark, leave it in the comments)
• the chip’ins site; you’ve got a great new product with a lot of potential buzz, and you squander it by leading off with a bad QVC parody