StartUp Monday: Intercom

Startup Monday is ABCey’s weekly post that features some of the best and brightest companies in the Bay Area. They are often companies that we have our eye on or have worked with in the past & would like to share with friends and followers of ABCey events!

We are really excited about this gem we found! Intercom is designed to increase sales and foster customer loyalty, by combining all aspects of helpdesk, email marketing and automated marketing! Its goal is to let companies start meaningful dialogue with customers depending on who they are, and how they’re using an online product. It’s a whole new dimension in customer service, and designed by former employees of Facebook, Apple, Google and Amazon, they must have something special!

Using a simple JavaScript code on your website or app, developers can use this product to track customers as they sign in. Using this data, companies are able to interact with customers more easily, with on-the-spot messages divided based on customer demographics! Intercom looks at many descriptors of customers online behavior as to more effectively interact with them. This is beneficial for the company and the customers because the company learns how to make the customer happier!

Reviews say Intercom is easy to use and the pricing is refreshingly transparent! They are aiming to replace platforms such as Zendesk for customer support. We are really excited about it because as connoisseurs of digital marketing strategies, we love to see innovative new ideas that make it easier for companies and customers to interact and engage!

Would you use this tool for your next website or app? Do you think it’s helpful for customers? We’d love to hear what you think in the comments below, or on Facebook and Twitter!

Startup Monday: AirHelp

Let’s give a warm welcome to San Francisco to a long awaited startup idea, AirHelp. The best apps are the ones we didn’t think we needed, but after genius’ like AirHelp’s founders Henrik Zillmer, Nicolas Michaelsen, Greg Roodt and Morten Lund create it, we don’t know how we lived without it. That’s exactly what AirHelp did for the commercial airline industry!

We aren’t the only ones who think so. AirHelp opened it’s San Francisco office in March after helping tens of thousands of clients in Europe last year, and last weekend beat out more than thirty other tech-startups for a Cloud computing technology called Spark at the Collision Conference in Las Vegas (Congratulations)!

The aviation, law and technology experts at AirHelp are using their skills working for the wary traveler. AirHelp gets people the money they are owed by airlines from their cancelled, overbooked or delayed flights. Users fill out a quick form on the website, and the company does the heavy-lifting needed to make the claim go through. If successful, AirHelp and the user get paid. We think this will be very successful to help busy American’s get the most of their travel experience.

Hopefully you don’t have to this use regularly, but here at ABCey we can definitely appreciate how great it’s going to be to have an app on our side for our next travel nightmare. The skies the limit when traveling becomes one step easier! Check them out here.

Do you think you would try out this app in order to get back that extra couple hundred? Please let us know in comments on Facebook and Twitter!

Startup Monday: EXEC

It seems like there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. We don’t know about you, but often times cleaning gets pushed to the bottom of our list. Exec can help solve that problem by allowing you to book home or office cleaning service instantly from your iPhone or web.

Exec only uses the best supplies to keep your family and pets safe, and absolutely no chemicals are used. Their cleaners also have quite a few tricks up their sleeves – like using mineral oil instead of stainless steel polishing chemicals. It’s hard to find a good housekeeper, but their cleaners must pass rigorous cleaning exams, and they’re all fully vetted. They’ll send you a tag team of two to get your place twice as shiny!

It’s a no-fuss solution to all your cleaning woes, with payments being made online! Not to mention, they‘ll come back and clean for free if you don’t love it. Exec Cleaning is fully bonded, licensed, and insured. They’ll even help you clean out your house when you’re moving!

Exec was nominated as one of the fastest rising startups for the 2012 Crunchies Awards. They’ve also received attention from companies like Forbes, The New York Times, Inc. and The Huffington Post. Exec is now serving San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego, Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Chicago, and Washington DC with plans to expand to other cities in the U.S!

Download their app and book a cleaning right from your phone, and see when the cleaners are on the way. We can’t wait to try Exec! It’s such a simple and accessible idea. Have you tried them? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or on Facebook or Twitter!

5 Apps You Need For A Flawless Thanksgiving

As the big day quickly approaches, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Don’t fret… ABCey has gathered 5 apps that include everything you need – from recipes to menus to grocery lists – for you to whip up a Thanksgiving meal like a pro.

1. CHOW’s Thanksgiving Dinner Coach | Free | This virtual dinner coach is your key to a stress-free holiday. A calendar breaks down what you have to do each day and the app generates a grocery list based on the recipes you choose. It even tells you how long it will take you to prep on each day. At no cost, this app is a must-have for anyone hosting a feast.

2. KitchenPad Timer | $1.99 | This visual kitchen timer lets you set up to 9 timers at once. Set separate timers for turkey, stuffing or gravy so you can forget about them and worry about other things.

3. Appetites’ Easy as Pie featuring Evan Kleinman | $19.99 | On Thanksgiving, pie is the star of the dessert table. This app includes 20 different recipes along with step-by-step videos. We can’t wait to try the Chai Spice Pumpkin and the Butterscotch Toffee pies.

4. Leftovers | $0.99 | Once the meal is finished, you are guaranteed to have tons of leftovers. With this Leftovers 4 Day Throw Away app, it’s easy to know what you should toss or save.

5. Bing Food & Drink | Free| Bought too much of a few random ingredients? This Bing app will find a recipe that uses up the extras-just input what you have, and the app will search recipes that include those foods. There are also thousands of recipes culled from popular recipe websites, cookbooks and celebrity chefs. And, there is a wine encyclopedia with information on over 1.5 million wines, so you can plan your meal’s drinks, too.

Which app will you be using? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook & Twitter!

Tech Tuesday: Pro Party Planner

Tech Tuesday highlights the best and brightest ideas in the tech world. ABCey would like to recognize these up and coming companies for their innovative ideas and ability to think outside the box!

If you’ve ever planned an event, then you can understand that it’s a massive undertaking. There are literally hundreds of things to organize, plan and create before the actual event. Here at ABCey, we’ve stumbled upon a new party planning app, Pro Party Planner that may help make this process a bit easier.

Regardless if you’ve ever planned a party or if you’re a professional, the Pro Party Planner App is an amazing tool. It helps keeps track of your guests, budget and logistics. Once an event is added, you can begin adding people to the guest list. The best part is you can add guests directly from your contact list or Facebook.

There are many other great features that come with this app such as a planning module that allows you to edit the menu, entertainment, and party favors. You can design a venue floor plan with drag-and-drop seating charts for attendees or delegate important tasks to your organizing team. There’s also a helpful party timeline that provides alerts and reminders as the event approaches and includes a unique Augmented Reality module that will let you visualize all your information directly on the location’s pictures!

With all these amazing features, it’s hard to believe this app only costs $4.99 at the Apple app store. Go ahead and give it a try! Leave us a comment below or on Facebook & Twitter. Tell us how this app worked for you!

Tech Tuesday: What’s Shakin’?

Tech Tuesday highlights the best and brightest ideas in the tech world. ABCey would like to recognize these up and coming companies for their innovative ideas and ability to think outside the box!

Hey all, What’s Shakin’? For us, it’s an awesome new social media app for all of us on the go!

We know, you’ve seen too many social media apps come and go before returning to the Facebook & Twitter mainstays. But What’s Shakin’ is definitely catching our eye and keeping us interested in events across the country! Sometimes, sifting through all the junk on your homepage (and there are a LOT of ridiculous posts!) is just too much. You want to hear what people are saying about a concert in Texas or a college football game in New York. That’s when you use What’s Shakin’!

Just type in or pinpoint a location on your map, select a radius, and you’ll instantly see what other users in that area are saying! Become part of the conversation about your favorite show’s season finale in your hometown and it’s almost like you’re there. That’s because you’re not following people- you’re following places!

Do you think What’s Shakin’ could catch on? Would you use this app? Tell us in a comment and on Facebook & Twitter!

Tech Tuesday: Would You Eat A Stranger’s Leftovers?

We repeat: would you eat a stranger’s leftovers?! LeftoverSwap, a San Francisco-based startup, thinks you might.

After a large, hearty meal, handing over your leftovers to a friend or someone in need isn’t that big of a deal. Yet when the process is standardized in the form of the app LeftoverSwap, sharing leftover food moves from an afterthought into a grey area.

The service is designed to cut down on waste from uneaten food and allow those in need to buy the leftovers cheaply. Simply take a picture of those last few pizza slices and someone in the area will pay to come get them. LeftoverSwap claims that what they’re doing is good for people, the environment, and communities… but are they right?

LeftoverSwap, like many other peer-to-peer tech services, has been on the bad end of public criticism. The online community is not shy about showing their disdain for what they call “disgusting meals” from “unstable strangers.” San Francisco Health Officials maintain that it is illegal to sell food in the city without a permit and that “leftover food is a huge source of food-borne illness.” LeftoverSwap’s CEO asks users to trust in their common man, a practice he says will support community-building through the trust-forming relationships built when people share food.

What do you think of the LeftoverSwap app: does it spread community love or just food poisoning? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section or on Facebook and Twitter!

The 5 Innovative Ways to use Apps in Event Planning

When it comes to event planning, technology can either help you or set you back a few paces. ABCey has hand-selected the apps we find most useful when we’re putting on your flawless event. These apps are great for any occasion but have found their long-lost calling in the event planning world!

1. Get Together Remotely | Whether you’re across town or across the country, it’s near impossible to get everyone in the same place at the same time. Get through the planning process with ease by downloading a conference call app like UberConference! This app is free, customizable, and lets you send files from Evernote and Box through the call. That’s what we call multitasking!

2. Be a Task Master | To-do lists are great, but having a communal to-do list is even better! Skip the Post-it note and create a list that’s on your computer, your phone, and all your colleagues’ devices. We suggest Wunderlist because you can invite others to collaborate on tasks and check the group’s progress in the activity center.

3. Track it Down | Sometimes, an emergency coffee run is just necessary. Keep track of all the little out-of-pocket expenses piling up with XpenseTracker. This app holds photos of receipts and describes each expense in detail. After the event, the app uploads the expenses to your computer in Excel format.

4. Be the Bouncer | The guest list is one of the most integral parts of event planning and production- you have to keep your guests happy! The Attendium app makes sure you never skip a beat from downloading guest lists from Excel and e-mail to making sure staff, VIPs, and attendees feel welcome and taken care of.

5. Stay in Command | While a walkie-talkie app may sound unnecessary (and dated,) Voxer is worth a download before your event begins. With the ability to send and save voice messages as well as texts, it’s the only live push-to-talk app where you’ll never miss a message. Your coworkers will thank you in advance!

Which app would be most helpful to you? Tell us in a comment or on Facebook and Twitter!

Startup Monday: Wedding Party

Startup Monday is ABCey’s weekly post that features some of the best and brightest companies in the Bay Area. They are often companies that we have our eye on or have worked with in the past that we would like to share with the friends and followers of ABCey Events.

The days of leaving a disposable camera in the table centerpiece are over! The perfect app for your wedding is Wedding Party, which allows guests to share the photos of your big day in one easy location. Let the party begin!

This app is a must-have for any wedding! Wedding Party helps you create your wedding’s very own website displaying wedding information, gift registry, and (of course!) your pictures. Whomever downloads the app and uploads photos will find them shown on the website in realtime! The app makes one cohesive wedding album to share with friends, family, and guests filled with a unique blend of professional and candid shots that tell your complete wedding story. The pics can be used to create a timeline of events, like saying the vows and cutting the cake, and to create Facebook albums.

Photosharing is just the tip of the iceberg. Use Wedding App to make place cards, keep a guest book, and interact with your guests. You’ll be able to see every single moment from the happiest day of your life through the eyes of your loved ones. This app will be the best (free!) gift you can get.

What do you think of Wedding Party? Is it a good fit for your wedding? Let us know your thoughts in a comment or on Twitter and Facebook!

Top 5 Springtime Apps

When you think about the word “spring”, your first thoughts are probably about flowers, picnics, baseball season, and the Easter Bunny! We can now add Top 5 Springtime Apps (app developers think of everything!) At ABCey, we’ve put together a short list of apps that’ll make your spring more enjoyable, fun, and…efficient.

1. Oh, Ranger! ParkFinder: Take advantage of the great outdoors while it’s still sunny (and before it become unbearably hot)! This app goes above and beyond usual search engines, such as Yelp and Google, in providing important information that can enhance your park experience like nearby attractions, seasonality, phone numbers, and even lodging and concession information if you want to make it an overnight trip!

2. Strava Cycling: We love San Francisco because there are plenty of beautiful trails to bike, like the famous Golden Gate Bridge. While there are hundreds of other fitness apps around, Strava Cycling was made specially for cyclists so you can be confident this app is a worthwhile investment. Strava Cycling provides users with not only more cool places to bike but it also tracks your fitness stats as you explore parts of your city or as work on your own health.

3. Eat St. by Food Network: Here in the city, there are a lot of great places to eat but sometimes, they’re difficult to find because they’re always moving around! Eat St. is a neat app that keeps you updated with the locations of mobile food trucks in North America so you won’t have chase that delicious Korean-Mexican fusion taco again.

4. CraigsPro+: Time to roll up your sleeves, because blooming flowers and bluer skies also mean springtime cleaning is near. CraigsPro+ is an amplified, sleeker version of the virtual ad board, Craigslist. You can use this app to find quick cleaning services (if cleaning really isn’t your thing), sell your old winter coats or promote your garage sale after you’re done.

5. Grill-It!: Pretty self-explanatory, but pretty helpful too! Our mouths all water at the thought of perfectly-grilled steak with the juicy, slightly burnt corn-on-the-cob on the side but let’s be honest, grilling is sometimes harder than it looks. Download this app to get tips and tricks, recipes, and detailed instructions to play host to your next barbecue.

We hope these apps will inspire you to try some fun, new things this spring! What are some of your favorite springtime activities? Would you ever use any of these apps? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook & Twitter!