Friend Trusted won Startup of Month follow by Muzzley & Openlearning at Pitch demo day on May 18 hosted by SVEntrepreneurs.

Winner: Friend Trusted, Inc.

Silicon Valley based Friend Trusted Inc. was founded in 2013 to make it extremely easy to obtain home improvement services quickly and efficiently. The service offers users a free personal assistant that guides them through the home improvement maze from project inception to completion: all while finding them the best provider at the best price with the most convenient delivery method possible, their smartphone.
Founder’s profile:

Darwin Widjaja (Founder / CEO)
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Owner of a pink colored house, and that’s why we created Friend Trusted to save you from bad contractors. Bsc in Computer Science from UT Austin,
Msc in Software Engineering from CMU, and passionate about building software to enrich people’s lives. Created TripNTale.com and RioSf.com

Brenton Marrelli (Founder / CEO)
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Entrepreneur and aspiring philanthropist. Over 10 years software engineering experience with proven success creating and leading complex and practical client / server / mobile applications. Strong both technically and in business.
I have my BS in Computer Science and Mathematics from the University of San Francisco (’02) and MS in Software Management from Carnegie Mellon University (’07).

Message from founder:
SV Entrepreneurs has given us the boost that we need! Connections are being made, and we realize that we have something to give back and share with fellow entrepreneurs.

Runner: Muzzley

Muzzley (http://www.muzzley.com) is a middleware in the cloud that allows humans through their smartphone interact with any devices/appliances/software. This means that your common day appliances, such as your TV, set top box, computer, etc… can be multi-remote controlled and can interact in different ways with your smartphone. Your smartphone can become your driving wheel for a game, or your microphone to ask a question at a conference, or your pointer or dashboard/monitor. Muzzley provides an array of functionalities for your appliances in an easy to use environment. Third parties can integrate with muzzley through the muzzley sdk’s.

– Incorporated in USA since January 13
– Raised: $1M
– B2B Business focused on Telcos/Internet Tv provider’s
– Launched a free to use platform for developers at the March 13
Founder’s profile: Eduardo Pinheiro

In this tech industry for the past 13years, strong software development background focused on joining technology with business. A serial entrepreneur with 2 companies founded in the past.

Message from Founder:
“A numerous network in your linkedin is usefull if you don’t promote the relationship. You’ll be amazed when you find out what you can give and absorb to/from that relations in sventrepreneurs events.”

Job Opening:
Business developers with strong tech market at experience for:
– USA
– Middle east
– Japan

Runner: ‘openlearning.com’

OpenLearning provides a social and collaborative area for teachers to create courses, which are based around the principles of student autonomy, diversity of learning materials, open-ness of resources and social interactivity.
Join a public course: https://www.openlearning.com/courses/BUS832911

Founder’s profile: Adam Brimo

Adam Brimo is the 2011 Choice Magazine Consumer Activist of the Year, co-founder of openlearning.com and a recipient of the 2011 UNSW Alumni Graduand Award. In December 2010 Adam started Vodafail.com, which attracted over 19,000 complaints from Vodafone customers, nation-wide media coverage and resulted in a $1bn mobile network upgrade.

In 2011 Adam founded mijura.com with Prashant Varanasi and Melissa Ran to develop a widely used and innovative team management application. Adam then joined world renowned UNSW A. Prof Richard Buckland to found openlearning.com, a social online learning platform. Over 15,000 students have joined courses, including the first massive open online courses from Australia and Malaysia.

Message from founder:
It was fantastic to be selected by the judges and their feedback was really valuable. OpenLearning has now been used by students from around the world and it’s exciting to bring our story to Silicon Valley and meet other entrepreneurs.

About SV Entrepreneurs and Startups

Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs and Startups is Silicon Valley’s largest Entrepreneur community, a productive forum to network, find funding and learn how to monetize innovative mobile and internet applications. The group welcomes everyone who seeks to meet other entrepreneurs, founders, hackers, developers, funding groups and leaders of mobile/Internet industry – including Android, iOS, WP, HTML5, Cloud, Facebook, and Chrome. It is also a place to help individuals, especially developers and engineers to become successful Entrepreneurs. The groups hosts monthly activities like Pitch and Demo days (monthly), Entrepreneurs / Co-Founders Mixers, SVE Accelerator Sessions / Boot Camps, Startup Contests and various social events.

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