2015-03-24

Most people do not think about startups when they hear the words Las Vegas, Nevada. Sin City, as it’s widely called, is known for its bright lights, extravagant day and night clubs, endless casinos, and waking up the next morning wondering what happened the previous night.

Despite it’s reputation, Las Vegas’s cost of living (a fraction of what you would spend in cities like San Francisco and New York), state incentives for small business, numerous co-working spaces, and it’s unique, thriving, and collaborative startup scene make it one of the upcoming tech hubs many startups are moving or considering to launch.

In 2012, CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh, launched a revitalization project investing 350 million dollars of his own money to help rejuvenate downtown Las Vegas through entrepreneurship and technology that helped catalyze the growth and popularity of the startup scene.

Here are 50 startups from early stage to thriving in Las Vegas you need to know about. Do you see any missing? Let us know in a comment!

The Catalyst

1. Downtown Project

The Downtown Project was founded in January of 2012, and is an umbrella organization that functions as the equivalent of a holding company encompassing a variety of investments across technology, small business, arts and education, and real estate.

The company has allocated $350 million to propel the revitalization of Downtown Las Vegas. The goal and purpose of Downtown Project is to help make Downtown Las Vegas a place of inspiration, entrepreneurial energy, creativity, innovation, upward mobility, and discovery.

In addition to investments, Downtown Project also owns around 65 acres of land, and owns and operates several properties in the downtown area.

The breakdown of the $350 million investment is:

$200 million to real estate and development

$50 million to small business investments

$50 million to VegasTechFund, the tech investment arm of Downtown Project

$50 million to arts and education

The Fund

2. VegasTechFund

This 50 million dollar investment arm of Downtown Project is a seed stage investment fund empowering passionate founders to build community in downtown Las Vegas.

VegasTechFund invests a little bit differently than other funds out there, and basis a large amount of it’s decision on an investment on not only the founders passion and vision, but the downtown Las Vegas community evaluation and support of a startup and founder.

Before you can even begin to discuss an investment opportunity, the fund asks that you visit downtown Las Vegas and go to some of the events, and meet some of the people in the community. They look at their city as an incubator and invest in companies that not only have a great startup, but want to help build upon that vision.

Fintech

3. OrderWithMe

OrderWithMe empowers retailers by helping streamline their back office operations while providing innovative solutions to create unique customer experiences within retail.

The core product aggregates the demand of small, independent retailers all over the country so together they can act as one large national account to their suppliers. OrderWithMe manages and aggregates all of their purchase orders, invoices and payments.

The founders had previously run their own small business, and understand their customers needs and problems. With a focus on changing the future of retail they worked with Zappos to help them open their first physical store.

To date the company has raised 37 million in funding and will continue to build out their success as they launch new projects with both well-known and small business retailers.

4. Mining Stock Valuator

Mining Stock Valuator (MSV) is set to revolutionize the way people invest in gold and silver stocks, and is the first high-tech app specifically targeting gold and silver stock investors.

Launched in December 2014, their web application connects users with their potential investments by supplying a unique insight into the mining world from real-time stock data and key metrics, to compelling charts and interactive maps.

The information investors need require a large amount of time to gather, since every stock needs to be researched individually. MSV saves investors time by gathering everything and putting it into one place. They provide both a 100% free version of the application and a more advanced premium version.

5. Zuldi

The days of wrong orders, and waiting around for your waiter or waitress are over! Zuldi is a mobile payment processing system designed to improve servers efficiency at restaurants and nightclubs that is integrated via cloud with major global point-of-sale systems.

Zuldi is super easy for a business to install with minimal hardware overhaul. A business simply leases a box with the entire system including iPods. Servers use the touch screen technology right at the table so the customer’s order gets sent correctly and quickly to the kitchen, accepts payment, and emails a receipt.

In addition, the platform gathers valuable data for a business, such as purchases and demographic information.

Health

6. Turntable Health

When is the last time you heard the words healthcare and fun in the same sentence? Oh yes, probably never! TurnTable is a healthcare startup that making primary care and prevention fun, cool, and effective with a mission to expand to speciality and hospital care around the world.

They are an innovative, membership-model primary care clinic focused on prevention unlike typical primary care delivery models. They have three notable innovations:

First, they changed the payment model from fee-for-service episodic “sick care” to a flat membership fee for all-you-can-treat access to their care team. This encourages people to be seen when they are well, so they can stay that way.

Second, they have a unique team-based model that incorporates doctors, nurses, social workers, and health coaches to treat a patient in an integrated and holistic fashion.

Third, with their partner, Iora Health, they have implemented a custom electronic health record system that identifies patients at risk for disease and allows their team to proactively reach out to them to keep them out of trouble.

This model saves money in terms of ER and speciality costs, improves outcomes such as hypertension control and smoking cessation, and results in vastly happier patients.

7. Lucine Health Sciences

Ineffective and unsafe medications cost healthcare payers billions annually. To help solve this problem, Lucine Health Sciences launched as a social-benefit company with a mission to improve healthcare through their custom research and health databases of credible health information to consumers, physicians, and industry.

Leveraging the power of social media, they are at the forefront of providing medical consumers with the latest research news, social communities, and research participation opportunities.

They specialize primarily in women’s health, and post market and clinical outcome studies in their direct-to-patient health media and online research.

Marketing, Social Media and Content

8. Banjo

Banjo is a live digital capture of everything that’s happening in the world in real-time.

Banjo analyzes billions of signals per second, sourced from nearly every social network in the world, and organizes them by time, location, and content to provide users with an unprecedented level of understanding about the world around them.

The startup’s computing power allows them to capture, store and leverage the world’s signals at warp speed, and perform over 100 quadrillion computations per hour on about 50 thousand social posts per minute to be able to make content available in real-time.

Banjo currently powers anything related to breaking stories, but in the future the team sees the platform essentially like a crystal ball, informing you immediately when something important happens, fills the gaps, and instantly gets you the information you need to make faster, smarter, and better decisions.

9. Catalyst Creativ

Catalyst Creativ is an experience studio that produces immersive, educational experiences for brands, cities and movements. Aiming to increase engagement, their work helps brands tell their stories in more impactful ways.

In Downtown Las Vegas, their signature experiences monthly are called Catalyst Week and Creativ Week that are 4 day, fully programmed, themed experiences for 30 leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs in various industries.

Their productions aim to inform, involve, and inspire by bringing educational content to audiences through workshops, activations, and important conversations. There new app “Catalyst Connect” just launched in Las Vegas, and will be expanding to cities worldwide. The app bridges communities of individuals with common interests to link up, then sync up and collaborate.

10. Ginx

Former NFL player, Gerome Sapp, leveraged his experience as a professional athlete to make the leap into the tech world, and founded a social app called Ginx.

Ginx is a photo sharing app with patent-pending technology around the use of and asterisk symbol in front of hashtags (ex. *#throwbackthursday) allowing social media users to be visually social with large communities of people around shared hashtagged ideas and conversations during set time frames that expire.

Users can participate by uploading photos they think best represent a hashtag, and can up or down vote images of other users to crown a person as “Star” of that hashtag. What hashtag are you going to try to own?

11. Digital Royalty

Digital Royalty is a social communication and education company that develops digital integration and social media strategies for corporate and entertainment brands, professional athletes, celebrities, sports teams and leagues with a goal to empower brands to be human and inspire personal connections.

The company’s online courses were created to train entire corporate workforces how to navigate and use social media effectively. What is unique about their team is each individual from the CEO to interns have their own unique personal brand. The company is now growing their team domestically and internationally.

12. Post Launch

Having a strong and consistent web presence online is essential for your business, but also takes a lot of time to plan and maintain. Post Launch is a web presence marketing firm for all things needed to make your company, mobile app, brand, or service most effective and visible online.

What separates them from other digital marketing agencies is the team’s vast experience in online marketing, their primary focus on customer service, and a real-time dashboard for their clients to see exactly what is happening with their campaigns at any given time.

As of February 1, 2015 they are the largest firm of their type in Las Vegas, and have achieved this growth in just a short 18 months since launching, surpassing companies that have been in business for over a decade.

13. LaunchBit

Raising $960,000 in their initial round of funding in 2012, LaunchBit is a customer acquisition software for B2B companies that integrates with ad networks such as niche blog networks and email newsletters to help them generate high quality leads from their target audiences.

They’ve worked with companies ranging from startup to Fortune 500 and allow users to see real-time stats for each campaign to determine performance in individual publishers, determining which to block and which to keep.

The provide users a services team to help them analyze results and optimize where resources should be spent. In September of last year, LaunchBit was acquired by BuySellAds.com for an undisclosed amount, and continue to operate as usual.

14. 1Media

1Media is an intelligent system that allows celebrities and influencers to quickly develop an owned-media presence on the web. It includes cutting-edge social and search marketing intelligence and intuitive analytics.

The gamification platform transforms fans into marketers and enables the influencer to engage with them in more meaningful ways at scale.

The startup believes that renting space on social networks is find, but by creating an owned and operated site you control it puts you in the driver seat and in long-term control of your brand. The companies plan long-term is to build a “megasite” without the need for hundreds of journalists.

Sports

15. Mitoo

Mitoo takes the messy admin out of recreational sports and make it easier for people to find and play sports. The team at Mitoo has spent the last 2 years focused on the team experience and hit 1.6 millions total users.

Mitoo helps sports leagues grow, stay engaged, and improves player experience integrating with tools users are already using.

They are about to launch the Mittoo 2 mobile app which allows players to find local leagues, league admins to communicate with their team captains easily, and teammates to message each other directly through a group chat resulting in high engagement and more players. Think whatsapp for teams!

16. Fandeavor

Fandeavor is the marketplace for fans who wouldn’t typically have access to buy curated sports travel packages and incredible game day experiences. The company was founded by two former Zappos employees wanting to bring great customer service to the sports world.

Their experiences range from all-inclusive travel packages that include hotel, flight, transportation, tailgate & tickets to unique VIP experiences for everything from college sports to pro sports, and more.

17. Rolltech

This mobile app startup created for bowlers ranging from beginner to professional that automatically tracks your score, allows you to compete against your friends, and earn rewards as you bowl.

Once you get to a Rolltech enabled location, all you do is put in your lane and position, and the app will automatically track and analyze scores and stats in real time so you can keep track of and improve your game.

If you feel confident, the app lets you challenge other Rolltech users, talk trash, work on your game, and track league play. It’s like carrying a trainer around in your pocket that also gives you points to play, and on performance that can be redeemed for all sorts of prizes.

Media and Production

18. The Downtown Podcast

The Downtown Podcast’s mission is to create an impactful change in people’s perception of Las Vegas by highlighting the intelligent and creative personality of the Downtown Las Vegas community through a weekly filmed and televised podcast in Downtown Las Vegas.

With over 100 episodes under their belts, they bring what’s happening and the who’s who of Las Vegas to an energetic live audience that includes guest interviews from both local and non-local influencers. This startup is different because it is run and operated by all volunteers.

Each volunteer has a common goal to produce and provide the best late night talk show in Las Vegas, and grow from there. They have a live audience, and bring on guests and musicians they believe will encourage viewers to become more engaged in the community and their own endeavors.

19. Variables of Light

Variables of Light is a high end film production company and Nevada’s first virtual reality studio.

The companies name stems from the belief that storytelling is more than just pointing a camera at something, but instead is a combination of both art and science. Starting only 8 months ago, the company has become the fastest growing production company in the state of Nevada.

They plan to broaden the market this month by becoming Nevada’s first virtual reality studio, and already have a few larger clients interested in the concept. They believe virtual reality will become the next big wave of film production in the coming decade.

20. Creating Genius

Creating Genius is a digital magazine and emerging media hub focused on the lifestyle of entrepreneurs, business leaders, and creative minds from around the world.

Their mission is to help more dreamers become doers by creating an aesthetically appealing publication filled with real stories and insights from real entrepreneurs and business minds. They do not consider themselves a news outlet, but rather an emerging media brand focused on stories, not news.

In the past 6 months the magazine’s readership has grown times 10, and are partnering with tech and startup hubs around the globe. Their content educates and targets entrepreneurs and business leaders, while also providing intel for VCs and accelerators. Stories are in, and news is out!

21. Fremont East Studios

This full service production company based in the heart of downtown Las Vegas produces large scale projects, full-length features, commercials, music videos, as well as smaller projects. They use the media arts to tell stories.

Fremont East is easily differentiated by their state of the art facilities, creative talents, and passionate staff. This startup is bringing the creative visions of writers, artists, directors, and producers to life.

Fremont East Studios is currently in preproduction for two Feature Films, one being an international action-thriller taking place in 5 countries, and the second a comedy horror shooting exclusively in Las Vegas.

Commerce

22. Tealet

Tealet serves as a marketplace platform for independent tea growers to sell their tea directly to wholesale buyers around the world. The platform provides full service to its tea grower clients including optimized marketing through storytelling and media, international logistics, and online payments.

Consumers can have tea that is in season shipped directly to their home by purchasing a subscription package. Tealet’s mission derives from a non-profit organization and serves as a social enterprise to empower members of the global tea industry.

The brand’s strength comes from a community that has been built through face to face connections around the globe and social media. This community is a movement of conscious consumers that want to change how agricultural commerce happens through transparency.

23. Walls 360

The marriage of art and technology is always a beautiful thing. Walls 360 creates on-demand wall graphics for artists, designers, photographers, and brands from around the world. From company logo, art, or your favorite cartoon or movie character, they will print and ship your order the same day.

Their graphics are printed on premium re-positionable fabric material that will stick to almost any surface, from laptops, windows, and of course walls without losing their stickiness or damaging the surface.

Walls 360 gives you high quality prints from the same large format 8-color digital printers used to create high-end artist prints. Their product is U.S. made, and shipped globally.

24. Terra Exports

Terra Exports is a fresh fruit trading company, that sources fruits globally, year-round. Although based in Las Vegas, their team thinks and acts globally, and is 100% virtual with team members located across the globe.

Terra Exports buys and sells fresh fruits in bulk, and currently ships from 23 different countries, and imports to 28 countries.The startup has had 750% growth since 2012, and plans to open more divisions globally to continue to bring quality fruits to your table, while bringing opportunities to farmers around the world.

Terra Exports only sources from top growers in each region. Terra Exports employs experienced, committed, and competent fruit experts who know the industry and the demand that comes with it to connect you with a productive and profitable trading program. I bet you didn’t expect to find a company like this in the desert!

25. Catherine’s Table

Catherine’s Table was born from wanting to be able to comfort people and turn that feeling into an enterprise. They represent soulful dining that is expressed through tableware and accessories they sell made by artists and at small craft-based businesses across the U.S.

The items are made by artists across America who craft the goods with clay, glass, slate, metal, and cloth. Along with the item, the company introduces the artists through photos, stories, and pictures of their functional art.

This startup provides a very unique and heartfelt gift option, including wedding registry, and introduces new artists and new items to their line throughout the year.

26. Stitch Factory

Stitch Factory is a fashion co-working space in the heart of downtown Las Vegas to fill the hole for designers and fashion entrepreneurs. The space has a design studio set up with large cutting tables, various dress forms, and a plethora of industrial sewing machines for members to utilize.

The space also provides educational classes from Introduction to Fashion Design to Basic Sewing 101. Stitch factory also offers production services, for designers that don’t want to hand make every single item.

If they didn’t do enough already, this startup has an online shop where consumers can buy apparel and dress forms. They are a “one-stop-shop” for everything fashion, and are driven by a mission to help those in the fashion industry to the next level.

27. 9 Pockets

Ever need an extra pocket when you are out and about? How about 9? 9 Pockets is an exciting story as the idea was designed and launched out of The Stitch Factory (mentioned above).

9 Pockets is a lifestyle brand featuring subtly eccentric clothing that was inspired by going against the norm and embracing weird. 9 pockets launched with it’s initial idea of creating a shirt with 9 pockets that would not only be a walking conversation starter, but a highly convenient article of clothing.

With the eccentricity of Las Vegas and it’s notion of exploring fashion, they company launched in what some might say a perfect location open operations.

28. PetChow

PetChow is a startup focused on pet technology products to help pet owners and pets live a more secure, interactive, and healthy lifestyle. Composed of a team the genuinely cares for pets, they understand a pet owner’s challenge to feed, monitor, and interact with their pet when they are at work or not home.

PetChow, a Smart Pet Feeder, is the solution to this problem which allows pet owners and pets across the globe to be able to access, feed, monitor health data, and interact with their pets. They even included a feature where your pet can call you through the feeder and mobile application.

PetChow is planning to raise capital through a crowdfunding campaign via seedkicks.com early Summer this year.

29. SkyworksAS

Skyworks Aerial Systems provides robotic solutions with a current focus on using drones to resolve business pain points. With advanced aerial robotic techniques, intelligent embedded systems, and software architecture, they create safe and efficient drones for industrial and scientific use.

Their approach to aerial robotics is different from the current drone industry’s focus on hobby drones for photography or lifestyle use. Instead, they offer a fully integrated and modular unmanned aerial system for research and industrial level uses with a toolbox approach to the drones.

The startup’s plug-and-operate devices allow the user to develop a wide range of applications such as thermal imaging, hazardous material detection, and 3D mapping without compromising the flight-worthiness of the UAV.

The technology touches IoT (Internet of Things), cyber security, artificial intelligence, and advanced manufacturing. This is not a toy!

30. Unbelievable Testing Lab

This startup began in China when founder Token Hu began experimenting with TYVEK® paper by DUPONT™ (a light weight, rip resistant material). Unbelievable Testing Laboratory (UTL) creates tech driven footwear and also features Tyvek wallets.

They launched their initial product The Light Wing Trainers shoes on Kickstarter in 2013 and surpassing their initial goal of a mere 15K and raised 142K instead. They now have headquarters in both Las Vegas and Shanghai.

Drawn to Las Vegas by the community built by Downtown Project and Tony Hsieh, Vegas now hold their sales and marketing operations. Their shoes are durable, fashionable, and much lighter than the average running shoe.

The company also donates a portion of it’s profits from every pair of shoes to ensure local schools are provided with quality science teachers, due to their strong passion for science.

Tools and Solutions for your Business

31. Zirtual

The days of needing your executive assistant to be in an office are over, and Zirtual in two short years has become the leader in providing busy professionals with high quality virtual executive assistants.

In January, 2013 the company raised 2 million in Series A between Tony Hsieh, VegasTechFund, and Mayfield Fund, and now this month as announced that it will be hiring more than 100 full-time virtual assistant employees.

This matchmaking service pairs busy professionals from new entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 executives with trained and vetted US based virtual executive assistants.

A client can choose from various monthly plans based on their needs and have a wide range of tasks from online research, emails, scheduling, event coordination, and more handled by their virtual assistant.

32. Launch Key

LaunchKey has killed the password. LaunchKey is the first fully decentralized authentication platform for the post-password era that turns mobile devices the end users already own into powerful smart keys, providing them and applications with multi-factor authentication, password-less login, and physical access capabilities.

Because of LaunchKey’s decentralized architecture this same technology can be applied to securing enterprise users and applications, and can even be implemented for offline use cases and physical access control like opening car doors, hotel rooms, accessing vaults, or validating your identity in real-time to prevent security breaches from social engineering.

LaunchKey is a completely anonymous service and has no knowledge or storage of user information. After being in R&D for 2 years, they are going to market this year, and have some exciting announcements lining up in regulated industries, hospitality, and some of our favorite internet destinations.

33. ALICE Receptionist

If you are a receptionist you might not like ALICE. ALICE Receptionist is a virtual receptionist system that allows businesses to regain control of their front lobby. The technology allows employees to connect with visitors in the lobby easily from the convenience of their desk.

If employees are away, visitors can contact them via phone, direct-to-mobile, or leave a video or voice message. ALICE Receptionist comes in a form for every type of business as a wall mount, kiosk, desktop system, and software option for touch screen devices.

The technology allows a single virtual attendant the ability to manage multiple location. With reasonable pricing and a fairly quick return on investment, you might be seeing ALICE Receptionist in many more offices you visit.

34. Mint Locker

It’s a fact that most of us HATE doing laundry and avoid it at all costs. Local Las Vegas area startup Mint Locker realized the problem of wasting time having to do laundry, so they invented a locker system to change up the dry cleaning industry, making it more convenient for users.

With locker locations around the Las Vegas Valley, customers drop their laundry in a secured locker that requires a unique 4 digit pass code, and place their order online, via text message, or with their mobile app.

The customer receives an email or text response when their order is ready to be picked up with a 1 to 2 day turnaround time. The startup’s CEO attributes their growing success from growing partnerships with larger corporations such as one of their most recent partnerships with Centurylink.

35. Tracky

Tracky is an application that boosts productivity by getting rid of Internet clutter, and brings email, chat, task collaboration and file sharing to one location.

The application that offers collaboration between groups, people, and project discovery, secure online chat, group task management, and quick access to cloud-based documents raised $1 million in seed funding.

Though Tracky has high competition, it has the ability to help companies and individuals organize work, social connections, and to-do’s on a one dashboard.

Tracky is composed of an element called “Tracks” that are short pieces of information others can comment on or implement, and users can specify which members they want to be able to view each track.

They have a few other features that are just too long to write about here, so go check them out if you want to learn more.

36. Teamly

Teamly is a social performance management solution designed for companies to help to engage, retain, motivate and align their employees. The solution allows important conversations such as about products or customers to become part of a manageable task list.

Teamly makes performance reviews quick and less painful through capturing real-time performance from activity with goals, recognition, and tasks. Drive company goals which are posted to the newsfeed where co-workers can comment.

Teamly also allows for recognition of employees through the Enterprise Social Network to praise colleagues for success, and captures these moments allowing users to build their reputation.

37. JobHive

JobHive is a hiring automation platform that makes it simple for employers to source great talent, screen candidates, and track applications. JobHive offers simple and easy to use hiring tools to post jobs to 20+ job boards and actively reach out to candidates, view video cover letters, and a social applicant tracking system for staying organized.

JobHive also offers job seekers the option to record video cover letters to stand out, and Guaranteed Response™ notifications to know the status of their applications. The teams vision at JobHive is to make the hiring process human.

JobHive breaks down the barriers in online hiring between employers & job seekers by emphasizing the human element of hiring. They aim to fundamentally change the way people think about getting a new job or hiring a new employee.

JobHive combines exceptional customer service, with user-friendly tools, and a growth strategy that creates meaningful relationships with employers and job seekers.

38. Wedgies

Wedgies.com is an effective way to conduct a poll on your website or social media account. Users can sign up, ask a question, add some options and an image, and share it out. Wedgies collects the results for users in real time.

Trying to find a poll that you can embed on your website, that works on mobile, and that you can share to Facebook or Twitter is not easy. Wedgies is the only technology that works across all of these different types of platforms.

The Wedgies team will be adding more channels where users can embed polls. They recently added a Tumblr integration that allows users to drop in a poll directly into their Tumblr dashboard so that their followers can vote. Wedgies has already seen a lot of engagement through that channel.

39. CrowdHall

CrowdHall was created as a solution to enable politicians, public figures, and organizations to hold town halls (aka Q&A’s) online.

Unlike other options out there, the platform can be used to curate and moderate questions as they come in, allowing the respondent only to respond to the themes or queries that are most important to them.

In a nutshell, participants ask questions or post ideas, they vote their favorites and share, and then the public figure or organization provides answers and learns.

The platform allows the audience to feel engaged and empowered, increases transparency, or obtains data and analytics that allow the user to understand trends or priorities.

40. WorkingOn

Are you ever curious about what others on your team are working on? As its name implies, WorkingOn provides simple status reporting for your team, integrating with various tools such as GitHub, Asana, Slack, HipChat, the command line, and email, so everyone can quickly understand what others are working on while remaining in flow.

The startup just launched a chrome extension that allows team members to share what they are working on without being interrupted. It has a work calendar that allows you to see when the team was most productive. It allows for chat integration for real time status ups, and allows organizations to ditch status meetings by sending out an email each day of what was accomplished the prior day.

41. Youtronix

Have you ever had a great idea for a product or application but instantly thought to yourself “Well, it’s a cool idea but I can’t make this and I don’t know anyone that can help me make this.” Youtronix was launched to keep these great ideas alive and help the idea person bring their products to market.

Their team is will develop and bring the product to life through planning, design, software, hardware, and even manufacturing as they are partnered with San Diego based manufacturer Quality Systems Manufacturing.

They allow customers that do not have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend to be able to bring their concept to life, and keep all ownership of their ideas. If you aren’t sure that an idea is feasible, they offer a free consultation with no risks attached to help you determine if the venture is worth moving forward.

Education and Learning

42. CheckiO

Are you looking to learn or sharpen your Python programming skills? You will love what CheckiO has created if you answered yes! CheckiO is the game created for coders to learn, and to teach others Python programming. The game also allows seasoned coders to give advice to help out beginner programmers.

The team credits their community as the most important part of their startup. For example, if you have an interesting idea or hard task, you can convert it in the CheckiO mission on the website, and thousands of players will help you to solve this task! Pretty cool right?

They have built a great Python community, and plan to add other languages, such as JavaScript, and the team let us know they have a secret project that they will reveal in the coming month that the team describes as “so awesome they can’t even express it in words”. I don’t know about you, but we are excited!

43. JusCollege

We all know that planning group trips is not an easy feat. JusCollege makes it easy for groups to plan, book, and organize their social experiences. They are technology company focused on solving the group travel and event problem, currently serving over 1500 organizations from 124 universities.

JusCollege has a passionate, mission-driven team that wants to make social experience better for their customers. JusCollege has only taken $255k in funding and has sold over $15M in trips and events in just a 3 year period.

Their margins have increased more than 2X in the last 6 months without raising pricing, and continue scaling at the current pace without taking outside investment, giving them an upper hand for their next round sometime in 2015.

44. Discotech

When you want to party in Las Vegas, most people don’t realize you have to plan your night in advance. Discotech is like your very own virtual nightlife promoter.

The mobile app allows users to discover events, reserve bottle service, purchase pre-sale tickets, and sign up for guest lists at nightlife venues in different cities, and is free to download on iPhone and Android app stores.

They save users the time and hassle of having to hunt down nightlife promoters and haggle with them to get the best deals.

Discotech is the only app that allows guests to access all forms of entry into a venue, and they recently signed an exclusive partnership with Wantickets, the largest nightlife ticketing provider in the U.S., that will allow them ticketing inventory to the largest nightlife venues in the country.

The app is currently live in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and San Francisco, but will be launching in a variety of new cities this year.

45. Urbane

If you have the travel bug, you understand the frustrations of trying to figure out where to go and explore when visiting a new city.

Urbane is revolutionizing city maps by replacing names (ex. Los Angeles) with locally crowd-sourced adjective (ex. rich and famous) in fun and informative ways so users can understand which neighborhoods to explore or move to. The have created maps of major cities across the world such as London, Seoul, New York, Vancouver, Sydney, Las Vegas and many more.

Urbane’s website maintains 100,000+ monthly average users, and are interested in making their platform a third-party verification process to understanding new cities, specifically in the real estate sector to agents helping consumers find neighborhoods to relocate.

46. Wellthily

This Las Vegas based startup is on a mission to redefine wealth through health for travelers.

They believe when you travel you should not comprise the comforts of home, and have created Roam Well Guides for unique cities in the U.S. that arms you with tips about what to check out in that city that promotes your health and wellness.

They provide concierge grade services at a micro and macro-local level from seeking safe running routes to where to work out. Wellthily partners with select hotels in certain cities to convert their properties into wellness retreats. They also host pop up health and wellness based classes and events in select locations.

Vegas and You

47. Life Is Beautiful

Life is Beautiful is an inspirational company on a mission to helping people conquer fears and chase their dreams, that is most well known by their signature project, The Life Is Beautiful Festival, that launched in 2013 attracting more than 60,000 patrons its first year.

The festival can be described as Coachella meets The Edinburgh Fringe Festival with a splash of Top Chef and TED Talks. It takes place in a 15-block area right the heart of Downtown Las Vegas, and with a focus on inspiring people to see the world differently through 4 components: music, art, food, and learning.

Their website is a place to connect those in search of inspiration and change, with content filtered by social need on a vast variety of topics. Life is Beautiful has already announced its dates for the 2015 festival which is set to happen in downtown Las Vegas, September 25-27. This startup will help remind you just how beautiful life truly is.

48. Delphi Village

Las Vegas’s best kept secret has been its breathtaking landscape for outdoor enthusiasts and nature lovers. Located just 45 minutes outside of Las Vegas, Delphi Village will be the first permanent transformational village dedicated to hosting and producing events year-round.

The goal of Delphi is to transform the way we relate to the land, to ourselves, and to our community. It is a symbiotic network of communities, non-profit organizations, and for-profit corporations utilizing best-practices and proven business model advantages of some of the highest grossing and fastest growing industries.

It is a transformational entertainment complex with an amphitheater and venues hosting festivals, events and retreats, with an outdoor adventure outpost. As if this wasn’t exciting enough, Delphi will offer a rewards-based volunteer program based off of what they call “Karma Credit” that can be exchanged for event tickets, accommodation rentals, concessions, and lots of other features within the village.

A true oasis in the desert of Las Vegas, this startup is a must watch and must experience for travelers.

49. Unlokt

No other person knows a city quite like a local. Unlokt is that word of mouth from the locals in the form of an app, website, blog and publication. They help locals get to know their city by curating the local hot-spots all in one place, and everything happening at those spots in real-time.

Users can quickly browse through curated hotspots and effortlessly find an awesome spot to grab a bite, fall in love with a new after work happy hour, or find an event happening this weekend at their favorite taco joint.

Only spots that are loved by locals gain access to this platform, making them a trust source that has gained a loyal following. Businesses that qualify benefit from the ability to post things that are going on at their spot.

After a year of launching in Vegas, the team is making plans to expand to other major cities across the US, along with several new app releases with some amazing additional features, and a new local special edition publication is in the works.

50. The Hunt Las Vegas

Who doesn’t like a good scavenger hunt? The HUNT Las Vegas launched as an interactive tour company that specializes in custom experiences encompassing only the unique adventures you can find in Las Vegas, Nevada. All of the HUNTs are created around their clients ultimate Vegas “bucket list”, and no two HUNTs are the same. If you want a customized adventure for your group, a unique team building experience, or an unforgettable birthday or bachelor(ette) party, the HUNT is an exciting solution that will bring you the Las Vegas experience through an interactive game. Your inner child will love you!

The post 50 Las Vegas Startups You Should Get To Know – From Early Stage To Thriving appeared first on Founders Grid.

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