Press Release - Year To Go (http://www.yeartogo.com)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information, contact Jared Loftus

at 601-520-7177 or jared@yeartogo.com

Media Advisory

Baton Rouge Team Creates Goal-Setting Startup on the StartupBus

BATON ROUGE, LA (March 9, 2011) –

Four Baton Rouge entrepreneurs participating in the StartupBus competition - Dr. James Davis, co-founder of Peoplenetz; Brian Jackson, Creative Design Director at Nerjyzed Entertainment; Logan Leger, an LSU SEI Fellow and owner of NewAperio; and Jared Loftus, owner of Tiger District and Taco de Paco - have developed a socially-integrated goal visioning site that helps users map out goals, stay accountable to those goals, and get their friends involved in the process. YearToGo.com is a collaborative networking application that allows goal-setters to increase the likelihood of accomplishing their goals by sharing them. By connecting to Facebook and Twitter, the site will seamlessly facilitate peer encouragement and searching of others with similar goals. A mobile app will send reminders of deadlines and use gaming practices to encourage continued utilization of the site.

Terry Jones of the Regional Innovation Organization said “The national StartupBus competition is an excellent opportunity to showcase our region’s entrepreneurial talent and the great support and vibe of our entrepreneurial community to the rest of the nation.  The Baton Rouge team is working hard around the clock to win the competition and is looking good.” RIO and the Baton Rouge team invite everyone to come out hang with some really cool technology entrepreneurs from around the country for free food and drink at 6:30 at Embassy Suites located at 4914 Constitution Avenue.  The StartupBus is an entrepreneurial adventure that places twenty-five strangers traveling together on a bus over forty-eight hours from different destinations to Austin, Texas for the annual South by Southwest® festival. The Participants form teams and build business plans based on ideas presented when they first get on the bus. They complete the business plans during the trip and once at the festival, the top teams present their ideas to venture capitalists in an attempt to receive funding. The team from Baton Rouge is traveling on the bus originating in Miami. They will be stopping in Baton Rouge tonight as they join the StartupBus that started their journey in New York City. 

Barron H. Harvey, Ph.D., CPA, Dean and Frank Ross/KPMG Endowed Professor, School of Business Howard University stated, “This is a very special opportunity and I am very happy to have an HUSB alum (Brian Jackson) holding up the banner.”  Chris Washington, Vice President of Membership for the Howard University Alumni Association added, “I have known Brian for some 20+ years.  I am really excited to have a fellow Bison as part of this event.”

You can help their chances in being selected as one of the top teams by going to http://www.startupbus.com/ref/24 and playing the stock market game that allows you to use virtual funds to invest in their company found here: http://startupbus.com/game/startup_game_profiles/46

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Support Brian Jackson aka @MrBCFX in the 2011 Startup Bus Challenge

Greetings from Brian Jackson and the 2011 Startup Bus Challenge team from Baton Rouge. 

As some of you are already aware, I was selected along with 4 other people from Baton Rouge to take part in the 2011 Startup Bus Challenge.  Basically 30 strangers get on a bus in Miami, come up with 6 ideas, develop them, and enter a challenge to pitch these ideas in Austin at SxSW.  We just boarded the bus and are about to start pitching ideas.  Feel free to follow me on facebook and twitter (@MrBCFX) as I embark on this incredible 48 hour journey.  

So here is the fun part!  This is a big portion of the Startup Bus competition. There is a stock market game that is associated with all of the buses. Anyone can play (It's FREE). Please pass it along to anyone you think would be willing to help.

To do so - go to this link:

http://www.startupbus.com/ref/24

You need to register on the site (you can do it through Facebook)

Once you register, go to http://startupbus.com/game

Click on "Startups" in the top right of the page.

Scroll down and find "Year to Go"

That's my company. Please buy as many shares as possible in the stock with the money you were given when you registered (probably $100). If you want to really play the game, click on your name in the top right and it will bring you to your profile. If you click on the link at Firm Experience or Badges, it will tell you what you can do to get more money and advance in the game.


Here's more in-depth information from the founder of Startup Bus:

There are two reasons why we have developed this game: 

1) we get you as buspreneurs focussed on certain activities that matter and 

2) to get an audience involved in this experience as, well -- why not.

You can read the game rules here: http://startupbus.com/game/rules

Basic concepts you need to understand

- Your startups share price grows at 1% an hour, but if you achieve milestones, it grows faster. Your share valuation is based on your share price and the *number of shares people hold in your startup*. So it's like a very simplified version of demand and supply (maybe too simple) and it's probably better regarded as a confidence metric in your startup by the audience. Meaning, the more people that buy stock in your startup, the more impressive you are.

- As a team, you want to ensure all the milestones are met. For example, here is an example list of milestones for one of the teams: http://startupbus.com/game/startup_game_profiles/39. Note that these milestones may change and more be added

- As a player, people will try to raise money by completing badges (listed on your user profile -- here's mine http://startupbus.com/game/user_game_profiles/58). However the goal of the game is to make as much money as possible, so simply generating cash won't do that: you need to invest it. That's why players need to smartly invest so they can maximise their investment. Some startups may grow faster than others (like how NYC has as they were setup earlier) and some may experience some bad luck through an Act of God (which results in a drop in share price - TBD).

We've put a lot of thought into the game mechanics, so we hope this game will be fun for people not on the bus. But I won't go into that as I don't want to encourage you: the entire point of the game for you as a buspreneur is to meet the milestones. And for what other better reason then to make you grow more to make your shareholders happy.

How to meet your milestones

- do what it states. Don't get it from reading the rules? Email team@staetupbus.com and we'll explain it. For example, you need to create a Twitter account so emailing us the alias means we can register it in the database.

- email team@statupbus.com with the evidence or the details. This goes out to me and all the conductors and we'll action it as soon as possible.

- if necessary, we may need to get your conductor to physically verify.

One last thing. As I've already told you, we have a sponsorship commitment tied to the game. So you could all *please* log into the game with your accounts, and request the cash linked to a Hollrback account creation as seen in the header of the game https://skitch.com/liako/ruag1/mail-1012x420 (previously was at the footer as a firm upgrade).

  And please, tweet about the service and encourage people to sign up to it via (http://hollrback.com/startupbus/). Note: if you want the cash as a player, you need to log into the same email as the one used on StartupBus.com

Good luck.

Elias Bizannes
http://eliasbizannes.com

Coming to a freeway near you: http://startupbus.com