Tools to combat email overload, get a better weather forecast, and more
"New in Chicago" is just that: a listing of businesses getting off the ground in and around Chicago. Please send us your startup announcements. Email is best: [email protected].
Crain's contributor Robert Loerzel brings you news of fresh local startups every Tuesday on Crain's blog for Chicago entrepreneurs.
ZigMail: Launching today in a beta version, this free Web application from Chicago's Outhaul LLC aims to combat personal email overload. It organizes, summarizes and archives shopping, financial and transactional emails into a separate ZigMail account, helping people to go straight to important messages, while filing others for later. "We're all frustrated over our in boxes being clogged," said Michael Kennedy, who co-founded ZigMail with consumer products and retail marketing executive Richard Gerstein, communication design expert Eric Wagner, and user interface experts Orin Fink and Jeff Janda. Mr. Fink and Mr. Janda are partners at ThirdWave, the Chicago digital media and Web design agency behind this beta release.
Weatherist: Launched in December, this website offers "The Most Probable Forecast" for local weather by reviewing other forecasts, grading them based on real-world measurements, and displaying the highest-rated data. "With so many different weather services available, you never know which forecast is the most accurate or which forecast to check," says co-founder Dave Chung, explaining that Weatherist offers "only the most accurate data available." During this beta period, Weatherist has forecasts for 10 cities: Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Boston; Chicago; Denver; Des Moines, Iowa; Minneapolis; Orlando; San Jose, Calif.; and Washington. Mr. Chung is working out of Weatherist's Chicago office, while his co-founder, Chicago native Brendan Kolber, is based in Denver. After they presented Weatherist at a Technori pitch event in Chicago, Technori guest blogger Rachel Hyman wrote: "Out of all the startups that pitched, this was the product with the most widespread appeal. They just have to show people that weather can be interesting, which they did well at the pitch by visually demonstrating with a graph how Weatherist trumps existing forecasts in accuracy."
Marathon Books: Two years after starting this Palatine-based marketplace for used college textbooks, Eric Wallor launched a new site on Jan. 24. "The business has been growing to the point where we knew we needed a new website," Mr. Wallor said via email. People can offer to sell their old textbooks — either directly to Marathon or in a marketplace. There's no listing fee to put a book up for sale, but Marathon charges a 15% commission if someone buys it. "We developed our new website so we could help people not only across the country, but really so we could be the go-to place to buy and sell your textbooks and books in Chicagoland," Mr. Wallor says. In select Chicago-area communities, Marathon offers delivery and pickup service for book sales.
Phaxio: This Northbrook startup lets Web developers build faxing capabilities into their systems with a simple code. Co-founders Josh Nankin and Howard Avner say they came up with Phaxio after dealing with the frustrating experience of trying to send faxes to a doctor's office and running into technical difficulties. As they note, despite the fact that faxes are an "outdated technology," some businesses still use them. "We began to wonder why there wasn't a Web service that could easily solve the issue the doctor's office was having," they write on their website. "So we did some research. What we found were fax APIs (application programming interfaces) that required awkward code constructs. . . .To make matters worse, almost every one had a pricing chart that left us feeling dizzy." Phaxio sends faxes for 7 cents a page, with no monthly fees or hidden charges, according to the website.
Menchie's: Menchie's shops serve up frozen yogurt in 26 states and one international market – Canada. Now, they're in Illinois, too. The first local Menchie's opened recently at 1929 Sheridan Road in Highland Park. More are on the way. The chain's website says shops will open soon at Randhurst Village, 1027 N. Elmhurst Road, Mount Prospect; 1364 Patriot Blvd., Glenview; and an address to be announced later in Naperville.
Bread & Wine: This American bistro and market is now open at 3732 W. Irving Park Road in Chicago's Irving Park neighborhood. The restaurant features an open kitchen, where diners can see their meals being made. The retail area sells locally made jam, chocolate, sea-salt caramel, pickles and various dry goods, as well as wine and beer. The menu includes items such as a chorizo burger and pumpkin-seed-crusted tofu. The chef is Curtis Gamble, a veteran of Pittsburgh's restaurant scene, and the owners are Lisa Fosler Kelly and Jennifer Wisniewski.
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