Inspired by the success of “design your own” sites like Republic Bike and Nike ID, Moniker co-founder Kevin Tully recognized the opportunity for guitars to be the next customizable product. “Like bikes and sneakers, guitars are one of those personal items that people like to show off, so I thought the idea of customization would be well received, especially by musicians who are creative people to begin with,” Tully says.

Moniker compares the process of buying a guitar to choosing a new car: you can find a model with one or two of the features you’re looking for, but you will not feel like you’re getting exactly what you want without special ordering. Tully says the hope of he hope is that their hope for 2013 is for their business model to fully allow guitar players to create an instrument that shows something about their musical and visual style. And because Moniker guitars start at an incredibly affordable price, these aren’t just for the multimillionaire rock stars.

Since being founded in 2011, Moniker has grown from a “maniacal obsession” to a successful business. For Tully, the most challenging aspect of developing Moniker has been establishing a high level of quality through the Internet. While sound may be easy to convey online, it is hard for a guitar player to get the feel for an instrument over the Internet. But if you have seen a Moniker guitar in action, that high level of quality is evident. “The most rewarding part of developing Moniker Guitars so far has been watching musicians play our guitars live and seeing people in the crowd respond to the music. It’s an awesome feeling to see that something you’ve made is being used to make other people happy,” Tully says.

Moniker Guitars has been working with IDEA for the past year and a half. As a Northeastern University alum, co-founder Dave Barry was able to connect his Venture with IDEA and use the mentors, coaches, and other services IDEA provides. Tully states that IDEA has helped Moniker not only with necessary funds to launch their website and production, but also for guidance and advice through challenges: “I can say with 100% confidence that we would not be where we are now without help from IDEA. Northeastern as a whole has influenced Moniker so much. We have two incredible co-op students working with us now and even our accountant in Austin is a Northeastern graduate!”

Moniker was recently featured on MSNBC’s program “Your Business,” which gave them widespread exposure and helped them reach a more broad audience. Moniker was also featured in this year’s SXSW conference in Austin, Texas. Take a look at their MSNBC segment here.

As a part of their Kickstarter campaign, Moniker is offering an Early Bird Special, as well as opportunities to take a guitar-making class or have a guitar named after you! The money they hope to raise will fund the equipment and tools needed to efficiently manufacture quality and affordably priced semi-hollow guitars.

IDEA is very proud to have been a part of Moniker’s success and is looking forward to watching this Venture continue to grow!

“Every single person you meet every single day knows something you don’t. Always ask questions and never be content with what you already know because there’s always so much more to learn. Co-op is first and foremost a learning experience – so take out your earbuds, step out of your cubicle and talk to someone. If you don’t leave the office every day smarter than when you entered it, you’re doing co-op all wrong.”

– Audrey Shaughnessy works in The Boston Consulting Group’s financial department. Audrey has enjoyed BCG’s social impact partnerships and hopes to pursue a career in strategy consulting for social enterprises in the future, which has made her experience invaluable.

“Leadership begins at the entry level, not just at the top tier. In a multilevel management company, take command and execute your tasks well, and know that your director will listen to your thoughts on making clients successful. Producing high quality, client-ready material accelerates you to the top, allowing you to take advantage of your short time on co-op.”

– Kevin Walther works in the corporate responsibility practice group at APCO Worldwide. Kevin assists on communication and media strategies for various Fortune 500 companies.

“Always do what you enjoy most. Pursuing natural curiosities fosters an unparalleled eagerness. This drive is fueled by a happiness advantage that will accelerate you to inevitability meet and exceed your most ambitious goals. Also, keep in mind that remaining humble while standing up for learned intuition and promoting positive change takes practice but is crucial for achieving long-term success.”

– Matthew Saitta is currently on the Deal Team at Hercules Technology Growth Capital. While in Palo Alto, one of Matt’s most beneficial experiences while exposed to buy-side high finance has been strengthening his technical financial skills.

“First impressions are absolutely critical. Make sure that you hit the ground running from day one. (From minute one, really.) Ask questions and learn the ins and outs of the company and your clients. Finally, staying at the office a little later during your first week will establish that you are hardworking, responsible and most importantly, can be trusted to see tasks through to completion.”

– Libby Kober, currently co-oping at Full Picture PR in New York City, has learned to forge relationships with significant players within the fashion and entertainment sphere. She has had the opportunity to attend NYC’s Fashion Week and work on events for Victoria’s Secret and Revlon.

On Wednesday, February 20, IDEA: Northeastern University’s Venture Accelerator hosted the sixth NEXPO, a showcase and celebration of some of Northeastern’s brightest entrepreneurs and Ventures. Over 500 students, investors and startup enthusiasts registered to attend the event, which was held in Northeastern’s Cabot Athletic Center. This is a big leap from the first NEXPO, which took place in the smaller Curry Student Center Ballroom and hosted around 100 guests and ten Ventures. This time around, IDEA is proud to have showcased 38 of its Ventures and welcomed guests from eight different universities, including some first-timers all the way from Providence. IDEA’s Ventures enthusiastically presented their businesses or services in ways that appropriately reflected the startups themselves, complete with music, promotions, and even a few furry hats and feather boas.

U-Turn recently completed a Kickstarter campaign, hoping to raise $60,000 in financial backing for the Orbit. While U-Turn was confident it would reach its goal, it was completely unprecedented that their venture would pledge nearly four times that. Their campaign raised nearly $234,000 and landed U-Turn on Kickstarter’s top 40 Most Funded List By Design. U-Turn co-founder Peter Maltzan found the the campaign process very rewarding, saying it was “great getting all kinds of support and gratitude from the vinyl lovers out there.” The Kickstarter campaign was more of a relief than a stressor for U-Turn, especially after working for over a year on the Orbit. While the Kickstarter enabled the online audiophile community to watch U-Turn’s every move, the team feels that they have grown very positively from participating in the campaign.

U-Turn first became involved with IDEA in the spring of 2012, when the venture was awarded a prototype grant through IDEA. Peter said that this helped U-Turn adequately prepare for the Kickstarter campaign: “The prototype grant was what allowed us to get any traction at all in developing the Orbit. Soon after that, IDEA steered press coverage our way, which was very helpful. We were given exposure with which we could build a small fan base, and this was necessary during the first crucial days of our Kickstarter campaign.” U-Turn sees 2013 as a make or break year and is looking forward to setting up their online store and producing the orders they procured through Kickstarter.

IDEA is very excited to have been a part of U-Turn’s success so far, and is looking forward to helping the venture continue to grow!

The five-minute pitches spanned a variety of industries, including medical innovations such asBiolom, Inc. and Akrivis Technologies, LLC and mobile technology platforms like Presskit.toand PreApps, LLC. Each venture took a different approach to their pitch, and all were engaging and creative.

While Pitch-a-thon is a valuable event for IDEA’s ventures as practice for future business pitches, it is also a very rewarding event for investors and other members of the Northeastern and IDEA communities. The investors were asked to rate the Quality of Pitch and Quality of Concept for each venture, which provided all with beneficial feedback. Presskit.to was ranked highest for Quality of Pitch with a 4.2 out of 5, and Biolom, Inc was the winner for Quality of Concept, also with a 4.2 out of 5.

Northeastern’s President Aoun stopped by and was impressed by the quality of the pitches he heard. While it is well-known that Northeastern values its innovative and experiential learning environment, President Aoun appreciated the extra value that IDEA provides, and urged ventures to “keep doing what you’re doing.”

Chris Wolfel, the CEO of IDEA, was very pleased with the event’s outcome: “The turnout at Pitch-a-thon shows exactly how far IDEA has come over our three-year existence. It was great to see 25 investors come out to see the 19 incredible pitches of our ventures.  We look forward to seeing where these ventures and the IDEA program will go in the future.”

If you would like any information regarding the ventures involved with Pitch-a-thon or IDEA: Northeastern’s Venture Accelerator, please do not hesitate to contact Chris Wolfel.

Sean describes PreApps as “the exclusive place to preview new and exciting apps coming soon for iOS, Android, and Windows 8 and Mobile.” He says that through his own industry experience, he has experienced the struggles that developers face and wants PreApps to make the process of app exposure much easier. Developers can load their app profile onto the PreApps platform for free and in turn build an online following. PreApps also offers premium analytics and marketing services, which can provide additional exposure and customer insight to developers. Now for the first time, app users and enthusiasts can explore, preview, rate, and download apps before they are released in the App Store. A push message can even be sent to a user’s phone as a notification of the app going live.

PreApps understands that it is easy for an app to get lost in the sea of new releases. Additionally, Sean says that some of the best developers are great at developing, but aren’t as knowledgeable in marketing. From his own experience, Sean “found out firsthand how difficult it was to market new apps… If you could generate enough pre-release buzz to boost your sales for the first four days of your app’s release, this could help you get higher rankings and even more exposure.”

2013 is set to be a very big year for PreApps. According to analytics firm Flurry, between Christmas Day and New Years Day over 50 million iOS and Android devices were activated, and 1.76 billion applications were downloaded. This means an increase in potential users and an ever-growing market. PreApps is very optimistic based on the results of other startups, and is “looking at a 3-5 year time frame to start to realize major growth.” PreApps is also hoping to expand to international markets in India, Southeast Asia and Latin America, as mobile app usage is rapidly growing in these regions.

PreApps says that IDEA has connected them to great mentors and advisors, and has provided the necessary resources they needed to expand and succeed. To further expand their venture, PreApps has created the Boston Meetup.com networking group App Demo and Drinks. On January 24 PreApps will be holding a launch party which will be open to app developers, technology executives, media and other invited parties. At the event, PreApps is set to announce a $1500 cash prize contest to the app developer who posts the top rated app on PreApps.com by March 2013.

IDEA is excited to have been involved in the growth and success of PreApps so far, and is looking forward to its future accomplishments. For more information regarding the January 24 PreApps event, please follow the link above or contact Sean Casto at casto@preapps.com.

The application rewards users on Facebook for posting quality posts that engage their friends. Users are given a score based on the level of this engagement. These “influential” users are then able to cash in their points for prizes. Brands provide their products as prizes with the hope that these influential users will be converted into customers and will promote the brand to their friends.

The application is heavily integrated into the Facebook platform, which allows for a minimal change in users’ behavior. Points are assigned at an individual level and then compared to what the user could have potentially earned based on their friend count. This allows for a fair comparison across the spectrum of Facebook users.

Lyle first saw an opportunity when he saw his younger brothers competing on Facebook to see who could receive the most likes and comments. It was at this moment that SplashScore was born.

While at times it has been challenging for Lyle and Sean to balance their work on SplashScore with their “daytime” jobs, creating a business from scratch and receiving positive feedback from customers has been a truly rewarding experience for them both.

Today, Lyle and Sean hope to reach 10,000 monthly SplashScore users so that they can begin to work with national brands and acquire seed funding. Recently, they wrapped up the Facebook Beanpot, a social media competition between Boston schools to see which school could create the most “buzz” on Facebook.

The competition was a tremendous success- generating over 50,000 likes and comments within just two days. Lyle and Sean plan to hold a similar contest next month at a national level.

Lyle credits IDEA with helping to secure funding and legal services and providing mentorship. In this capacity, Lyle feels IDEA has been an “invaluable resource.”

This is the challenge IDEA’s Investment Officer Matthew Saitta and his Investment Committee face as they prepare to award the most grant money ever since IDEA’s inception.

This year, IDEA: Northeastern’s Venture Accelerator is embracing one of its greatest goals to date: granting over $200,000 to promising ventures coming out of the Northeastern program. The funding process, facilitated through the Gap Fund, gives ventures the opportunity to apply for up to $10,000 per round and is designed to “close the gap” in business development. Funding is awarded to ventures after a month-long review of their business plan, milestones, and capital needs. Add in thePrototype Fund, a competition that awards $1,000 grants to promising prototype concepts, which brings a total of $245,000 that IDEA will grant to Northeastern students, alumni, and faculty.

Gap Funding is one of IDEA’s signature programs designed to help launch ventures into a successful business and onto the next level. Ventures in the Go stage apply for funding by submitting a financial plan, which is then reviewed by the Investment Committee. The IC then determines which ventures pitch to the Advisory Board for capital. Identifying ventures to receive funding is one of the toughest tasks the IC has to accomplish.

“We aren’t just giving money for the sake of giving it away. We want them to have a sustainable plan because we are funding businesses with alumni-donated funds,” says Saitta. “Our biggest challenge is making sure we are funding the right ventures.”

Saitta and his committee first identify the major needs for capital of each venture applicant. Saitta distinguishes what they’ve accomplished, their outlined goals, and how gap funding fits in their picture. For some, gap funding is the perfect fit, but for others, it’s not. Most importantly, Saitta wants to ensure that gap funding isn’t all about money, but equally a constructive learning experience.

“We are funding ventures that we anticipate are going to be successful. If they succeed, we are successful, but if they fail, we need to make sure that they learn from those failures. Our return is a function of the success of the venture and experiential learning. We want our Gap Funding to be a win-win. This is our goal.”

To date, IDEA has funded $200,000 to ventures through Gap Funding. As IDEA grows, the landscape of funding participants has transformed to include new industries, new groups, and new college representation.

As a startup itself, IDEA’s Gap Funding has evolved dramatically over the past year. For Saitta, he cherishes the future of this program through a personal framework.

“Meeting with the ventures and lending them a hand inspires me to continue helping them progress through the Gap Funding process. The opportunity to invest in our ventures and help them succeed and grow, both as a business and as people, is where our work at IDEA is truly valued.”

Akrivis placed in the top 26 out of 1,237 applicants. Throughout the four month long program, Akrivis had access to mentorship and training, media opportunities, and other resources to expand their business.

The entire IDEA team congratulates Akrivis on their achievement and wishes them continued success in the future!

About Akrivis Technologies
Akrivis Technologies, LLC is a privately held life sciences company founded in 2009 and committed to the development and commercialization of products and services for the early detection and treatment of serious human diseases. Akrivis’ main asset is its proprietary Z–TECT™ Technology Platform which provides ultra sensitive detection and accurate quantification of biomolecules present in the zeptomole range (10E–21 moles), therefore allowing the detection of less than a thousand individual molecules. In addition to supporting in vitro and in vivo diagnostics, Z–TECT™ can also serve as a novel platform for the targeted delivery of radio– and chemo–therapeutic drugs for cancer treatments. Potentially providing far safer and more efficacious targeted delivery therapeutics, Z–TECT™ could have a major impact on the emerging field of “Theranostics” which combines cancer therapies with companion in vivo imaging diagnostics. Learn more at www.akrivis.com

About MassChallenge
MassChallenge is the largest-ever startup accelerator and competition, and the first to support high-impact, early-stage entrepreneurs with no strings attached. The competition is open to anyone in the world, with any new startup, in any industry. Every entrant receives training, feedback, PR and networking support via expert volunteers from partner organizations. 125 of the highest-potential startups receive 3+ months of intensive mentorship and other free resources, including office space and targeted introductions to customers and funding sources. The very best startups are identified by expert judges to receive cash awards toward launching their businesses along with enhanced PR and privileged access to top investors seeking to place seed capital to work in high-growth firms. Learn more at www.masschallenge.org

Q. First and foremost, for those not familiar with Layla, what exactly do you provide?

A. Layla is a revolutionary system that measures the amount that you smoke to inspire and motivate you to live a healthier lifestyle.  It allows the smokers to better understand their habit, and be guided with more effective methods to reduce or quit.

Q. Where did the idea for this product come from?

A. When I used to smoke, I never realized how much I was actually smoking, how much I was spending on it, and when I was smoking. After nicotine patches and gum didn’t work, I tried a new approach to quitting. I gave my cigarettes to the convenience store lady that sold me my cigarettes. Her name was Layla. I told her to only let me have 5 cigarettes a day, but not to stop me if I wanted more. She made me aware of how much I was smoking, how much I spent on it, and how close I was to reaching my goal. The following week, I reduced to 4…then 3… then 2 and finally I had quit. Gradual reduction was less scary then jumping off a cliff and quitting outright. By understanding my behavior and smoking trends, I was able to combat my smoking habit more effectively.

My good friend Daniel Trostli, is an engineer and thought that everyone should have their own personal Layla. He thought my method of quitting was so amazing that we started to brainstorm ways to make it an option for everyone. That day, Layla was born.

Q. What is the team’s educational background?

A. My major is in Business with a concentration in Entrepreneurship, I focus mainly on business development and customer validation. Daniel graduated as a Mechanical Engineer and he focuses on product design and rapid prototyping.

Q. You recently participated in AngelHack – what’s the background behind that event? Can you tell us about some of the success you had out there?

A. Angelhack is a fantastic hackathon headed up by Greg Goppman. It was started 2011 and has already spread internationally. We were fortunate enough to place in the national finals, for which we were flown out to compete in San Francisco among the likes of the Googleplex and AOL HQ.

Q. How did you become involved with IDEA?

A. We’re constantly tinkering and iterating on our first product. We expect a few more revisions before we launch, and are hoping to have something out the door in early 2013.