Rated five stars in Apple’s app store, the app uses location-based technology, time stamps, and other digital inputs to analyze behavior and determine the best way to motivate individual users. It uses “experience points†as a benchmark, not miles ran, minutes walked, or calories consumed. For example, users earn medals for aerobics on a rainy day, points for exercising with a buddy, or spot rewards just for using the app. The rewards are highly targeted advertising, and the Silver Spring, Maryland-based Nexercise gets paid by the companies to give them away. “We call it motivation in your pocket,†Young says.
The Medicine Men
OnceLogix, a company in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, founded by Trinity Manning, Rod Brown, and Tyrone McLaughlin, provides software solutions for the healthcare industry. Their breakout product, Sharenote, provides Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant security to simplify client care at behavioral health organizations. Sharenote is used in more than 200 practices by clinicians who need to keep an audit trail of electronic health records.
The Restaurateur
Ola Ayeni founded Eateria, a digital loyalty marketing tool, to assist restaurant and other hospitality operators with retaining customers. Using e-mail, social media, and mobile apps, Eateria rewards returning customers with coupons instead of just deep discounts as daily deal sites do. The software provides owners with redemption information and ROI reporting.
The Romantic
Does technology kill relationships? Not so, says Zuhairah Scott Washington, 35 (pictured), a Harvard-educated lawyer who founded Kahnoodle in 2011 to encourage sustainable relationships. The iPhone app (it can also be used on iPad and iPod) uses gamification to intrinsically motivate lovers to speak each other’s “love languages.†Her affiliate revenue business model has won pitch competitions with Distilled Intelligence and Focus 100.
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