“Plutora was conceived from real world experience while dealing with the non-existent Enterprise IT Release Management software problem,” explains Sean Hamawi, director and co-founder of Plutora. “Our experiences as executives delivering complex systems within large financial services institutions over the last five years and with no other direct product offerings meant this market was ripe for disruption.”

Hamawi and his colleagues saw a need for a simple and transparent way to manage the flow of features from business stakeholders through various IT environments, ultimately culminating in a release to customers. The IT landscape was also becoming more complex through multi-sourcing arrangements, multiple vendor involvement, globally distributed teams and a move to cloud-based services. Passionate about building a better solution, the executive-assembled team at Plutora left their corporate roles to build the startup. Plutora, which is a member of the Rackspace Startup Program, is a privately-held company since 2012.

“We started out doing this via various spreadsheets, intranets and extranets, which were updated manually,” says Hamawi. “Maintaining these disparate sources just wasn’t working and was eventually abandoned. This often resulted in costly delays and failed releases. Every other tool we explored didn’t do what we needed or was bloated with features we didn’t need. So, we built the Plutora software and application platform from the ground up on Rackspace. We came to the conclusion that Rackspace was the leader in cloud hosting solutions. We felt that the flexibility, scalability and level of control that Rackspace offers was the best cloud solution for Plutora and our customers”

Looking ahead, Hamawi says, Plutora will focus on growth.

“At Plutora we are building software using deep subject matter knowledge of the problems we are solving. We are passionate about these problems and our solution as we have lived through the pain of bad process and lost efficiencies,” concludes Hamawi. “User feedback has validated our passion through stellar product feedback, and when your users are telling you that you’re onto a ‘winner’ you know all that hard work will pay off. This is going to be a busy year for the team at Plutora. Our core focus will be on customer acquisition, product marketing, product development and hiring talented people.”

The Rackspace Startup Program continues to provide more and more startups with a world class open cloud computing platform upon which to build their businesses. Contact the Space Cowboys to find out how you can get the rocket fuel to launch your startup.

“When I relocated from Oxford to London for my job, I found it is expensive to buy new furniture to furnish my apartment,” explains Trung Huynh, founder and man of many hats at RentHouseMap. “Looking on Gumtree or eBay for secondhand furniture, the price is usually increased by the cost of delivery. I was wondering whether anybody in my neighborhood was selling stuff that I needed and soon realized that there was no existing platform that enabled sellers and buyers to trade stuff easily in their local areas.”

RentHouseMap, a member of the Rackspace Startup Program, was then born as a location-based trading platform for sellers to trade with buyers in their local areas in the UK. Initially RentHouseMap has five categories including Properties for Rent, Properties for Share, Furniture for Sale, Electronics for Sale and an employment section. Soon Huynh, RentHouseMap’s CEO, CTO and COO, recognized all those categories were too broad to focus on and decided to thin the herd, and focus purely on rental and shared properties.

“RentHouseMap is passionately aimed to solve existing problems in the property search market,” says Huynh. “At RentHouseMap, we think browsing page by page is not the right way to search for properties. Our customers care about property location. Thus we believe the customers will have a much better user experience if properties are displayed on maps, the central focus at RentHouseMap. The second problem that we want to solve is the dispersion of property listings from an overwhelming number of portals. And the third problem is spam, validity and availability detection. We hope to solve this by crowd-sourcing.”

So, if you’re searching for a rental or shared property in the United Kingdom, the RentHouseMap search engine can save you some time by bringing them all together and allowing you to view wanted properties on maps in the neighborhoods you’re are interested in living in.

And in 2013, RentHouseMap will focus on growth and raising awareness, Huynh says.

“I am trying to market RentHouseMap to more people, adding more data and property filters,” he says. “We are working on ways to monetize the site in 2013 and make many more people aware of RentHouseMap. Regarding product development, RentHouseMap will soon have full data coverage over Great Britain and many more property filters.”

The Rackspace Startup Program is here to help entrepreneurs in the early stages of startup. If you are involved in the startup movement, the Space Cowboys would like to hear from you. Drop us a note and let us know what ideas you are building in the open cloud.

If you answered yes to any of these questions, Taxi for two, a United Kingdom-based startup and member of the Rackspace Startup Program, is building a solution for sharing taxi cabs in London. It’s a mobile phone-based service that enables people who are going in the same direction to easily and safely get in touch, with no mobile phone numbers shared between parties, and arrange to share a taxi. It works on any mobile phone with an Internet connection.

Taxi for two is the brainchild of founder and Managing Director Garry Prior a UK-based Rackspace employee. He has been involved in the mobile and Internet industry for 15 years and previously held the position of Head of Apps for O2. His experience in this role, and his deep understanding of the power of mobile location-based services, led him to cook up the original idea of a taxi-sharing service. Nick Bishop, co-founder and experienced web developer, came on board shortly after, impressed by the initial concept development work.

“I approached Nick and asked him to help me build Taxi for two,” explains Prior. “After several months we had a version ready to launch, to start testing out market demand. We went live during the Mobile World Congress in February 2012, where Taxi for two was featured as the official event smartphone app.”

The launch was supported by mCrumbs, an augmented reality specialist that was responsible for Taxi for two being the featured app at the 2012 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Since launch, the co-founders have showcased the service at several events in London. Taxi for two has been well-received by the collaborative consumption movement, which praises its ability to encourage people to live more sustainably.

“We genuinely believe there’s a big market opportunity here, a chance to change the way people travel via taxi,” says Prior. “There are lots of taxi-booking apps such as Hailo, the Black Cab App, already in the market, but we believe we’re the only people looking to make taxi sharing more effective. Longer term the same principles and technology could be applied to car sharing, although there are already a number of companies operating in this space.”

Taxi for two has also received a number of positive reviews in the online and offline media. Rachel Botsman, a high profile social innovator who writes, consults and speaks on the power of collaboration and sharing through network technologies, has encouraged her Twitter followers to use the service. Taxi for two has been mentioned in London’s Daily Telegraph, Look Magazine and Metro News; online at Mobile Entertainment and Watch My Wallet; and on the American online news site, The Huffington Post.

What’s going on right now at Taxi for two you ask? Prior tells us, “We are testing a number of marketing approaches right now. Clearly as a start-up we have virtually zero marketing budget, so every penny has to count. The challenge we face is building sufficient demand within targeted geographic areas so that taxi sharing starts to work. There’s no point of one person logging on to share a taxi if there’s no one else looking to make a similar journey at a similar time. We are also continuing to develop the product itself, and looking at how we can utilize Facebook and Twitter integration to drive the social word of mouth effect.”

Prior says he is looking at the year ahead as a prosperous one for Taxi for two.

“As already mentioned, it’s important we start to gain a foothold within key geographic areas. London is an obvious market for us, so I’d like to see us have some kind of presence at the major train stations and airports,” Prior concludes. We’re also looking at ways to address the business-travel market, which could be through partnerships with companies directly or potentially with people running local businesses. By the end of 2013 I’d like to see Taxi for two well established and starting to generate revenue through charging a small fee every time someone arranges a taxi share through the service.”

Are you an entrepreneur involved in an accelerator, university program or backed by a venture capital firm? If so, the Rackspace Startup Program can assist you in launching your business by providing a world class open cloud computing platform powered by Rackspace and backed by Fanatical Support™. Just talk with the Space Cowboys!

Within the startup movement, all things are possible. There are plenty of events happening globally in May 2013. The Rackspace Startup Program is here to keep you up to date with valuable information on events and happenings inside the global startup community. What follows is a partial list of global startup events complied by the contributors of StartupDigest:

Amsterdam
Open Coffee Amsterdam @ Bovendebalie
Event Tech Circus

Austin
Co-Founders Wanted May Meetup
RISE Week Austin 2013

Baltimore
gb.tc Tech Crawl at Oriole Park

Brazil
Digital Week ESPM
Lean Startup Machine Rio de Janeiro

Barcelona
Startup World
BCN Tech Demo Day

Berlin
Startup Safary
Heureka Conference 

Birmingham, UK
Kick Campus – Startup Careers Fair
Birmingham Launch48 Weekend 

Bogota
Flisol Bogotá 2013
EXPO MiPyme DIGITAL 2013

Boston (Marathon Tragedy Fundraisers)
The One Fund Boston 2013
Stay Strong Boston
GiveForward Boston

Boulder, Colo.
Boulder Startup Week
Entrepreneurs Unplugged: David Cohen

Brazil
Startup Camp
Lean Startup Machine Rio de Janeiro

Buenos Aires
NoSQL Essentials
Curso de Performance Marketing

Cardiff
Youth Enterprise Nation

Chicago
Social Media Masters Summit
ITA CityLIGHTS Awards Gala

Copenhagen
Creative Copenhagen
CONNECT Denmark – Pitch Training and Screening

Dallas
2013 TeXchange One to Watch with Brad Feld
Startup Weekend Dallas

Detroit
MobiDevDay Detroit 2013
Michigan Growth Capital Symposium

Dublin
How to Build a Startup 2
MBA World Trophy

Gainesville, Fla.
SF CIED: Strategic Planning for Entrepreneurs 
Business Showcase 2013 

Guadalajara
iTuesday

Hamburg
Lean Startup Meetup
Night of the Startups

Helsinki
Startup Weekend
Startup Bootcamp

Hong Kong
Evernote Hong Kong 2013 DEVCUP Meetup
DrinkEntrepreneurs HK

Houston
Houston Geek Gathering
SURGE Day

Hungary
BarCamp – Budapest Bank Startup Competition
Business Espresso

India
SiliconIndia Mobile Application Conference New Delhi
Git Training Workshop Bengaluru

Indianapolis
Lean Startup Circle

Iowa
TechBrew Cedar Valley
Startup Ames Spring Party

Israel
Tel-Aviv Startup Pitch Bootcamp
Mini Seedcamp Tel-Aviv

Istanbul
Etohum Cafe
Webrazzi Startup ’13

Italy
Digital Week
Startup Weekend Cagliari

Kansas City
KCDC
Pipeline Open House

Latvia
TechHub Riga Monthly Meetup
Garage48 Ventspils

Lexington, Ky.
Lexington Open Coffee
Lexington Venture Club

London
Start Build Grow
Introduction to HTML & CSS Weekend Workshop

Los Angeles
The Future of Disruptive Entertainment
StartupWeekend LA

Madrid
Investor Day Passion IE
IE Venture Day

Manchester
The Art of New Business
Creating Great User Experiences with Apps & Devices

Melbourne
Clojure
CocoaHeads

Miami
Interactivity Digital 2013 Conference
Continuing to Build Steam…Meet John Sculley

Montreal
TheFounderProject Mentor Meetup
RailsBridge

Munich
IxDA Sessions with Aarron Walter
Scala Drinks

New York City
Office Ninjas
Funding the Best in Global Innovation III

New Zealand
Innes 48 Hour Startup Competition
Maori Business Leaders Awards

Omaha
Big Omaha 2013

Orlando
Venture Pitch Orlando
BarCamp Orlando

Orange County, Calif.
Startup Weekend Riverside
VC in the OC

Oslo
Web Rebels
Startup Weekend Oslo

Ottawa
Students and Start-ups 15
Startup Weekend Ottawa

Paris
AngelHack Paris
Tech Startup Jobs Fair Paris

Philadelphia
Developer Friday @ Hive 4A
Philadelphia iPhone/iPad Boot Camp

Philippines
Geekcamp Baguio 2013

Phoenix
Startup Book Club
Startup Bootcamp Phoenix

Pittsburgh
Angel Resource Institute: Due Diligence
Girl Develop IT Pittsburgh: Spring Social

Raleigh/Durham
Analytics Camp
ProductCampRTP

San Diego
Startup Ideation Bootcamp
Lean Startup Machine San Diego

Scotland
Growing Fast Within Government (Edinburgh)
RookieOven (Glasgow)

Seattle
AngelHack – Seattle
Get a Real Job! A Job Fair for Startups and Techies

Seoul
BeLAUNCH 2013
VCs meet Startups

Singapore
Singapore PHP User Group Meetup
Lean Launchpad@Singapore Briefing Session

Silicon Valley
500 Startups’ MamaBear Conference
Startup Weekend Space

Stuttgart
bwcon: Rechtssprechstunde
Webmontag 

Taipei
Startup Jobs Asia Launch Party
Experience Google Apps

Tampa
The Titans of Florida
GitFlow

Thailand
WebMob Thailand: April 2013 Meetup
Graphic Designers & Creative Meetup

Tokyo
Super Hackathon
Lean Startup Machine Tokyo

Toronto
Barrie Startup Weekend
Startup Grind Hosts Rob Ruffalo of OMERS Ventures

Vancouver
CUTC Infect Vancouver – Conference & Hackathon
Vancouver Startup Weekend, Disruptive Tech

Washington DC
Day of Fosterly
Co-Founders Wanted of Rockville 

Startups…get involved with the movement and participate in an event in your community. There is no better time than now to build or strengthen your network. Networking with other entrepreneurs allows you to form and maintain a strong circle of contacts that will serve you well for years to come. If you are an entrepreneur with a new idea in cloud computing, an application that makes people’s lives better or the next big thing online, drop the Space Cowboys a note and let us know about it. The Rackspace Startup Program is looks forward to hearing all about it!

Cheersable is out to make it easy to clink glasses with friends, despite location. Cheersable, a member of the Rackspace Startup Program, has created a new app that enables friends to send and share drinks nationwide. Its database boasts 4,000 partners restaurant locations, which guarantees there’s always a convenient place for the recipient to pick up a beer, a glass of wine or a cocktail, wherever they live. Whether you’re celebrating a birthday, a new job or just catching up, Cheersable helps celebrate those cheers moments and share them with friends, even if you can’t be there in person.

Marco Aponte, founder and CEO, says Cheersable came to fruition from him wanting to celebrate over drinks with friends scattered across the country.

“I was born in Austin, went to school in Georgia, and am currently living in San Francisco. I have friends across the country and wanted to be able to celebrate moments with them. I was sitting at a bar in San Francisco and saw that it was my best friend’s birthday in Austin. I did the obligatory Facebook post, but wished I could do more. I looked down at my beer and Cheersable was born. You already connect with friends over drinks, so we give you the ability to do this with friends anywhere.”

Sometimes it’s tough to stay in touch with your friends across the country. Cheersable takes the online gifting process and makes it hassle-free for both you and your friends. Cheersable allows you to send a drink, and your friend can decide where to redeem it. Cheersable provides the best of both worlds; you get to say cheers to friends and they can enjoy their drink at any partner restaurant.

Some of the inspiration for Cheersable came from Aponte’s restaurant business background and his interest in the social dynamic around people gathering for drinks.

“I and my two business partners, Sachin Gangupantula and Chris Barnett, started working on this business about eight months ago,” explains Aponte. “I have a background in the restaurant space so it was always fascinating for me to see how people come together around drinks. Three guys, one fun idea and the determination to do what most thought was impossible. Isn’t that how most great companies start? We believe that friendship, like beer, is a terrible thing to waste. So don’t waste any more time, and reach out to your friends across the nation and celebrate ’Cheersable‘ moments! Our entire team is passionate about helping people creating meaningful social experiences.”

The social aspect of meeting up for drinks is the perfect excuse to get back in touch with friends you haven’t seen in a while or surprise someone who lives in a different area. Life gets so busy sometimes, so the Cheersable mission is to help people slow down, make time for friends who are important to them, and enjoy spending some time over their favorite beverage. This allows people to stay in-touch with friends anywhere.

Aponte goes on to say that the Rackspace Startup Program has helped Cheersable on several fronts.

“In addition to the great visibility from Rackspace, the main thing we’ve been amazed by is their willingness to help. They offer great mentorship to start-ups through advice and perspective as a company who has been there. Starting a business is hard, but getting support from their Fanatical Support team has been invaluable. Chris, our CTO, has worked closely with their team to move our entire infrastructure over to Rackspace and their tech staff is the best of the best. We have a small team at the moment, so being able to defer the task of helping with migrations and scaling saves us valuable time. Finally, we’ve had some great networking opportunities at several events so they’ve also help us grow our network in the startup community.”

And, now, Cheersable’s mobile app is ready to rock and roll and spread good cheer nationwide, Aponte adds.

“Our app just launched on Android, and we are working on our iPhone app, which will be out in less than two weeks,” concludes Aponte. “We’ve gotten great feedback from our early beta users so we’re working on additional social features to make Cheersable even more useful. From the business side, we’re aggressively growing our restaurant and bar network, which will provide more options for people to stay connected. This year, we are focused on building the best experience for our users and making sure they celebrate friendship with Cheersable.”

Cheers from the Rackspace Startup Program! We can assist you in launching your business by providing a world class open cloud computing platform powered by Rackspace and backed by Fanatical Support™. Just talk with the Space Cowboys!

Veteran startup guru Jason Seats, Managing Director of TechStars Cloud, was back for his second season and was extremely excited to showcase his group of 12 entrepreneurial companies that presented their ideas to a packed house at the Charline McCombs Empire Theater. As Seats has told us before, the secret sauce to the TechStars program is, “Mentorship – that’s what this program is all about.” And in his TechStars Cloud Demo Day 2013 introduction at the Empire Theater, Seats exclaimed, “We take our mentor relationships pretty seriously. It’s not unusual for there to be lifelong relationships between mentors and teams.”

And here is the TechStars Cloud Class of 2013:

Cloud Options – allows you to pre-book future cloud usage, securing lower prices on payment terms that suit you. Cloud customers can now accurately budget for planned usage.

conspire – analyzes email data to understand the strength of your connections, allowing you to find the strongest path in your extended network to reach anyone you need to talk to.

DataRobot – an app for building the most accurate predictive models. It’s a “model search engine” that finds the best possible modeling algorithm for a given modeling problem.

drifty – makes cloud-based HTML5 development tools that let anyone easily create cross-platform mobile apps and websites with products Codiqa and Jetstrap.

Good.co – helps people who aspire for greater meaning in their careers. Users can discover their unique personality mix, see how they fit with peers and teams and thrive in their current job or find a better fit.

parlevel – provides intelligent solutions for the vending industry, with devices and powerful web-based management systems that give vending machine operators full control of their business to maximize profits.

Postmaster – a SaaS API for shipping that makes integration with UPS, FedEx and USPS easy for ecommerce businesses. They can integrate a robust logistical pipeline that saves them time and money on shipping.

Skit! – with this app, anyone can use their latest photos, Facebook friends or quick drawings to share an impressive animated story.

threat stack – a security platform that provides a simple and affordable way for businesses to monitor their computers and networks for threats and respond to incidents.

TrueAbility – a technical assessment tool that allows IT professionals to demonstrate their skills in a simulated environment.

ZeroVM – is a cloud hypervisor that advances virtualization with three game-changing concepts: process level virtualization, converged cloud storage plus compute and hyper-elasticity.

ziptask – designed from the ground up as a virtual project manager for reliable outsourced work.

Are you an entrepreneur with the next big idea in cloud computing? If so, the Rackspace Startup Program can help you in launch your business and provide a world class open cloud computing platform powered by Rackspace and backed by with Fanatical Support™. Just talk with the Space Cowboys!

His first stab at entrepreneurship was building a company that focused on designing e-commerce websites for global customers, which he launched in 2000. Being an entrepreneur for many years, not all of his startups have been successful, but his persistence has been consistent. He has served as the CEO, CTO and co-founder in all of his endeavors. And, in January of 2013,  he published Your Reference Referral Machine, a complementing piece for CircleFive on how to generate leads and grow your audience using the company’s product and written for small and medium sized business to boost their inbound marketing efforts.

A serial entrepreneur, online marketer and startup specialist with the ability to adapt quickly, Ross took the time to talk to the Rackspace Startup Program about what it takes to launch a startup through brand messaging, online marketing and technology. He knows what it takes to build a business from the ground up – he’s done it several times in the past and has improved those methods over the years. What follows are Ross’ thoughts on managing his team, customer expectations, brand messaging and the clock in order to build a successful startup:

What is the branding strategy at CircleFive?
This was one of our biggest challenges. Our product has two familiar pieces, surveys and social sharing, built into one. Getting our brand and messaging succinct was a pain. I would dare say it might have been the hardest part thus far. We even hired a branding specialist early on! Not something I have ever worried about with other projects.

Some people only saw customer surveys while others focused on the Facebook shares. Both were correct, but the real value comes in the magic of how we do them both. Getting that across quickly and simple is not easy. We are always trying to refine our elevator pitch to make it shorter.

Our message of “referral marketing” seems to resonate with the majority of our target market and video has been big. We will be doing more and more video as we move along.

What was the plan for customer acquisition?
We spent much time talking with people face-to-face in our city during the validation phase. They gave us the feedback that shaped our product. Once it came time where we could actually make sales, we went to them first.

We thought we might be able to continue that trend of direct sales for a long time. As it turned out, the pricing required to sustain direct sales was too much. We decided we had to make the transition to online sales instead.

The switch required us to build all the necessary areas of our site to make it self-service. This took more time than we hoped (it always does).  Now we are online sales with the occasional in-person meeting to help onboard a customer if they need a little help.

What were CircleFive’s biggest lessons learned?
The right people are important, the right team built by those people is crucial. And, nothing cures problems like revenue.

What business challenges did you run into?
As I mentioned above, branding and messaging have been the hardest parts. Along the way it was decided that one of the founders was going in another direction, which was a bump we did not anticipate or enjoy.

What business wins has CircleFive achieved?
We earned the opportunity to participate in BoomStartup, Utah’s startup accelerator. We started that three-month process with zero lines of code and got to MVP and first revenue by the last day. We raised some seed funding quickly and continue to grow.

What were the ‘What to Do’ and ‘What not to Do’ while building your startup?
Be sure to set realistic expectations in product development and then keep firm goals and deadlines. Things start to creep a little and then before you know it you are 30-plus days past goal.

What were the good and the bad of establishing CircleFive?
The good is the mentors and advisory board we put together. Great group of minds around the table!

The bad is the clock – there is never enough time to do all the things you want to.  Resist the urge to approve your pet features and leave it to customers.

What straight up business advice would give to a startup?
Advice from customers is so important… but only the ones who do not flinch when you say “If I come back tomorrow morning with what we discussed today will you give me a credit card number?”  We learned that everyone has an idea of what you should create, but only listen to those who will put their money where their mouth is… that is your market.

Get great group of mentors and advisors, and lastly, hustle.

The Rackspace Startup Program thanks our favorite high-tech mountain man, Ross Walker, for taking the time out of his busy schedule to enlighten us on what it took to build a successful startup and for sharing his vast entrepreneurial experience. For more insight on hosting your startup on the Rackspace open cloud platform backed by Fanatical Support™, contact the Space Cowboys today.

“It all started about 10 years ago when I began working in the tax preparation industry,” explains Roger Chinchilla, CEO of Refundo. “I realized that as a tax preparer I was being limited on the products I could offer based on the tax software I utilized. This in-turn resulted in high costs for my clients, the taxpayers, who had to deal with the fees imposed by the software companies and banks. So I decided do something about it. My team and I decided to bypass the middlemen and offer a similar product without the ‘junk fees,’ helping not only the tax preparer make more money, but also helping the taxpayer save money.”

Refundo, which runs its mobile banking platform on the Rackspace open cloud as a member of the Rackspace Startup Program, noticed how excited its clients were about how much money it helped them save, and the team realized that the problem did not end there. Most of Refundo’s clients do not have bank accounts and prefer to receive their tax refunds via one of the Refundo products. The underlying reason behind this is the recent financial system crisis; financial institutions began targeting those who maintained low account balances by introducing some new and not very transparent fees, which resulted in an increasing number of people with no access to traditional and the most basic bank products.

“With the same theme in mind as with the tax Industry, we decided to tackle these social problems head on with an incredible mobile banking experience that also eliminates unnecessary junk fees,” continues Chinchilla. “Our goal is to empower the underserved with technology and provide them awesome tools to improve the way they bank, and maybe even the way they live. Having dealt with the struggle ourselves, we can understand our audience’s frustrations and feel their pain. We believe that the under banked as well as the unhappily banked, deserve a real and fresh alternative to banking as they know it. ”

Refundo has a dedicated sales and support team focused on the tax software aspect and is armed with an enthusiastic and passionate group of individuals committed to delivering an unmatched banking experience. It introduced a private beta of its revolutionary mobile banking service at the well-known TechCrunch forum Disrupt in 2012. Since Disrupt, team Refundo has launched the new mobile banking platform for all of its customers to use. Clients can open a bank account in less than 30 seconds not only to receive their tax refunds, but also to deposit, withdraw and transfer money via Refundo’s exclusive interface. Call it Refundo’s take on Social Banking. For the first time ever, users will be able to open a bank account using their Facebook credentials and smartphone. The mobile app includes a Social Activity Feed which allows users to check out purchases their friends have made public or deals they’ve tracked down. Summing-up, Refundo has combined the local community bank with innovative technology.

“Ingenuity is what started Refundo in the first place, so the revolution does not end here,” concludes Chinchilla. “Our plan is to introduce our great product to the rest of the world. We are actively seeking partnerships in Latin America and Canada with established businesses, where the percentage of underserved customers is significant and keeps rapidly increasing every day. Three of our four founders are first generation immigrants who understand the underserved community in LATAM better than anyone else. Equipped with groundbreaking technology, awesome products and a clear understanding of the market, our team is the best for this particular mission.”

Do you have a startup that’s part of an accelerator, university program or funded by a venture capital firm? If so, the Rackspace Startup Program can provide the rocket fuel you need to launch your startup on a world class open cloud computing platform backed by Fanatical Support™. Just drop the Space Cowboys a note.

“Approached to build a dog daycare system for a new family-owned dog daycare, the idea for PetExec was sparked,” explains Paul Naro, PetExec’s President. “We saw the need for something more modern than what was available. We thought that the idea of a web-based dog daycare management system just might work. After a bit of discussion and several prototypes and revisions, PetExec was born. Our very first customer, Stay & Play Pet Resort in Fargo, ND continues to thrive today with the help of PetExec.”

As business evolved, PetExec realized that it needed to consider technologies that would allow it to cater to a new breed of customers – those who are somewhat tech-savvy.

“In 2006, when we started thinking of the idea of PetExec, we wanted a solution for dog daycare owners, which use technology to not only record activities, but appeal to a particular audience,” continues Naro. “At the time, most people were forced into hosted solutions that would only work with specific operating systems. Basically, all of the work would need to be done in the same location. This was far too limiting for our customers, since many people in the dog daycare business are high energy, mobile and need access to information at several areas, inside and outside the facility, to conduct business. We also wanted a secure portal for the two-legged owners for making appointments, messaging, updating statuses, etc.”

PetExec, a member of the Rackspace Startup Program, quickly outgrew hosted solutions that only worked with specific operating systems, and now it puts its trust in a hosting provider that has stayed on the cutting edge offering best of breed open cloud technology. “We chose Rackspace for its commitment to Open Source and its reputation for support, which really is truly amazing,” says Naro. “We currently have eight VMs running Ubuntu with our own PostgreSQL cluster. As our business grows and our infrastructure gets more complex, we have an excellent growth path within the Rackspace Open Cloud framework.”

PetExec now serves customers across the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Paula Mosteller, who handles PetExec’s Customer Fulfillment says, “We have enjoyed steady growth and are excited to work with other companies who share a unique vision in the pet care market. We will always be challenged to offer new apps, advanced features and as many ways as possible to keep track of our busy customers’ furry clientele. When we hear barking on the other end of the phone, that means business is good.”

Passion to do the very best for PetExec customers, who they refer to affectionately as ”Pack Mates,“ has driven the team from day one. Many of their ideas are the driving force of new features built into the PetExec platform. Customers are encouraged to share ideas and help to continue to grow and improve PetExec. Pack mates keep the PetExec team on their toes, and they, along with new technologies and other fresh ideas, keep PetExec both challenging and exciting.

“Each fall, we project our growth and activities for the upcoming year, but keep our options open for a few surprises,” concludes Mosteller. “Some goals include frequenting more trade shows and expanding our training and coaching programs. Additionally, we have several ‘treats’ for our customers including new features, apps and other productivity enhancing tools. We are always excited to hear about new technologies, and thrive on staying current and exchanging ideas with our pack mates. We feel confident that 2013 will be another fantastic year for us.”

Are you an entrepreneur involved in an accelerator, university program or backed by a venture capital firm? If so, the Rackspace Startup Program can assist you in launching your business by providing a world class Open Cloud Computing platform with Fanatical Support™ powered by Rackspace on which to build it. Just talk with the Space Cowboys!

Within the startup movement, there are plenty of events happening globally in April 2013. The Rackspace Startup Program is here to keep you up to date with valuable information on events and happenings inside the global startup community. What follows is a partial list of global startup events complied by the contributors of StartupDigest:

Austin
Interact ATX Expo
Austin All-Girl Hack Night

Baltimore
IA Summit 2013

Barcelona
Startup Job Fair

Berlin
Grand STARTUP Slam
Deutsche Gamestage

Birmingham, UK
WordPress Birmingham April Meetup
Digital World 2013 – The Data Revolution

Bogota
Automatisa 2013
12 FESTIVAL DE LA IMAGEN

Boulder, Colo.
Startup Vision Bootcamp
TEDxCU

Brazil
Startup Weekend NEXT Brasilia

Chicago
FundingPost: Early-Stage Venture Investing
Technori Growth Summit

Columbus, Ohio
StartupTech Open Accelerator

Copenhagen
Copenhagen Media Startup Weekend
Growing Games – Strategy and Business Models

Des Moines
i2iowa Investors and Innovators Forum
PITCH & GROW XII – PROMETHEUS

Detroit
Founder Campus & eDetroit: Kickstart Your Digital Marketing
Founder Campus: The Art of the Cold Call

Dublin
How to Build a Startup
Brio Conference

Gainesville, Fla.
Software Architecture Symposiums International
One Spark

Hamburg
Prezi Day Europe
Lean Startup Meetup

Helsinki
HelsinkiOS/CocoaHeads Developer Meetup
HealthSPA Cluster Event 0.2

Houston
CreatorSpace Computer-Aided Design & Manufacturing User Group

Hungary
Colabs Startup School (Miskolc)

India
StartupWeekend Delhi
Lean Startup Machine Bangalore 

Italy
Filarete Healthy Startups
Inaugurazione Incubatore Knowbel

Kansas City
KCKCC Innovation Summit
Kansas City Startup Weekend

Latvia
Python User Group Riga Meetup
Я.Субботник — Conference for Frontend Developers in Riga

Lexington, Ky.
Velocity Information Session
Codepalousa

London
London Startup Weekend
Cloudathon – Hack The Cloud With Rackspace

Los Angeles
Technori Pitch LA
Startup Grind LA

Madrid
Open Space Sprint 0, Antes de Empezar
TEDx Change

Manchester
Bootstrap Business Club
Sir Terry Leahy – Manchester Business School Vital Topics

Melbourne
Melbourne Silicon Beach Drinks
WordCamp

Miami
Makin Bacon – API Hackathon 

Montreal
Open Data Exchange

Munich
Munich StartUp Accelerator – Part II
Startup Weebend München

New York City
Fintech Hackathon
Hack’n Jill: Mastering the Technical Interview

Orange County, Calif.
MongoDB March/April Madness Hackathon

Orlando
Startup Weekend Orlando
One Spark

Oslo
Startup Love Day at Vestfold Innovation Park
Entrepeneurs Week @ Oslo Municipality

Ottawa
Introduction to App Design for Beginners
Startup Grind Ottawa

Paris
Conférence: L’innovation par le Business Model
StartupBootCamp Open Pitch Day

Philippines
World Startup Report in Philippines
Startup Weekend Manila 2013

Pittsburgh
Startup Weekend
ReWork & Thrillmill: Scrimmage in the Rustbelt 

Raleigh/Durham
VCIC Finals
Cherokee Challenge Application Deadline

San Diego
Brad Feld Meets San Diego Tech Founders
4th Annual CSUSM Quick Pitch Competition

Scotland
Health 2.0 Manchester
An Evening with Kiltr

Seattle
Startup Grind Seattle
GoGreen Seattle Conference

Seoul
20130405 International Game-Biz Party
Evernote Hackathon Seoul

Silicon Valley
A Guide to Getting Angel Investing
Innovate@Berkeley Startup Fair

Stuttgart
Startup Lunch Stuttgart
BleibGesundCamp

Taipei
ALPHA Camp: Growth Hacking
OSDC 2013

Tampa
Cloud Architeture Symposium
Startup Weekend NEXT

Tokyo
Tohmatsu Venture Summit 2013
2013 Entrepreneur Workshop

Toronto
Introduction to 3D Printing
Lean Startup Machine Toronto

Vancouver
BCIC New Ventures Seminar
The Art of Leadership

Washington DC
DC Startup Weekend
DC Tech Meetup: Student Startup Demos

Startups…get involved with the movement and participate in an event in your community. There is no better time than now to build or strengthen your network. Networking with other entrepreneurs allows you to form and maintain a strong circle of contacts that will serve you well for years to come. If you are an entrepreneur with a new idea in coud computing, an application that makes people’s lives better or the next big thing online, drop the Space Cowboys a note and let us know about it. The Rackspace Startup Program is looking forward to hearing all about it!