The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Buyou

Quick Pitch: Buyou is a virtual mall for the iPad.

Genius Idea: Puts popular stores in one simple interface, saving you from having to download and shop on different retail apps.

For Krish Jayaram, shopping on an iPad seemed more complicated than it should be.

“It’s really inconvenient to shop on iPad apps because you have to seek out individual apps for each store, learn to navigate each one and then sign up to get updates from each store,” Jayaram, founder of Buyou, told Mashable.

That’s what led Jayaram to develop Buyou – a free iPad app that puts popular stores onto one simple interface for a seamless shopping experience.

Users can search through 32 popular stores on Buyou, and browse through featured items, sale items or different categories to find what they like. They can share their favorite items on Facebook and via e-mail, or add them to their wish list. Buyou’s wish list lets you save items from different retailers all in one location.

The more you search, the more the app learns about your likes and dislikes. Buyou provides the stores with this information, and sends you updates about items you’re interested in.

Although you can search for items, Buyou redirects you to the store’s original website if you decide to buy something. The company receives an average of 6% commission for each purchase made from the app.

To save time searching for updates from your favorite stores, Buyou incorporates the retailers’ social network activity right into the app. The “Social” button takes you to one screen that filters a retailer’s activity from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Launched in April, Buyou’s storefronts include Banana Republic, Express, 1-800-Flowers.com, Gap, Zales, Nine West, Oakley, Sharper Image and Wine.com. The company is in the process of adding 125 other stores.

What do you think of Buyou? Tell us in the comments.

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

More About: bizspark, ecommerce, online tools, shopping

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The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Prezi

Quick Pitch: Prezi creates presentations on a single zoomable canvas.

Genius Idea: The cloud-based software allows you to zoom in and out of your presentation, helping to explain your ideas.

Prezi, a cloud-based presentation software, is an alternative to the PowerPoint presentation. It helps you create visually engaging presentations using a single zoomable canvas. Instead of separating your ideas into different slides, you can instead add them to one space.

When it comes time to present, you can either show the big picture or zoom into the small details.

Users can import and edit text, shapes, drawings, images, PDFs, YouTube videos and PowerPoint slides onto their Prezi canvases. They can also group similar items or add layers to prevent clutter.

Once a path is created to connect ideas, the canvas is ready to be presented online or offline, from a computer or iPad.

“Prezi is about giving people the ability to think creatively and outside the box,” Peter Arvai, CEO of Prezi, told Mashable. “Arranging your ideas into one single space helps you and your audience realize the connection and relationships between your ideas.”

Prezi’s collaboration feature makes it easy to edit presentations with other users in real-time.

Presentations made with the startup’s free service will also be available on Prezi’s website for anyone to reuse. To make presentations private, users must purchase the “Enjoy” package for $59 a year, or the “Pro” package for $159 a year. The Pro package also lets them edit Prezis offline.

Prezi was launched in 2009 and now has more than 10 million users. The company has raised $15.5 million in funding, with investments from TED Conferences and Sunstone Capital.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, ferrantraite

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

More About: bizspark, presentations, Prezi

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The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Reserve My City

Quick Pitch: Reserve My City makes it easy to book restaurant reservations on your Foursquare to-do list.

Genius Idea: A seamless way to make reservations at the restaurants you discover on Foursquare.

Discovering restaurants and adding them to your Foursquare to-do list is easy –- but forgetting to actually go to those restaurants is even easier.

That’s why Eugene Leychenko founded Reserve My City, a Foursquare add-on that lets you book restaurant reservations. The add-on makes it easier to finally make it to the restaurants you discover and to explore other hotspots nearby.

Whenever you find a new restaurant and add it to your to-do list, Reserve My City immediately sends you a personalized e-mail with the restaurant location and a “Reserve Now” link that lets you make reservations on OpenTable.

Based on proximity to the restaurant and your individual taste, the e-mail also includes recommendations for places to grab a drink before dinner, and places to enjoy dessert after dinner.

Here’s what the e-mail looks like:

“Reserve My City is a real seamless, frictionless way of going from ‘Okay I found this place’ to ‘Now I’m actually going to this place,’” Leychenko told Mashable in an interview.

Developed in January, Reserve My City is currently working on a “look-alike” feature – if a Foursquare user adds a restaurant to their to-do list that is not on OpenTable, Reserve My City will recommend a similar restaurant that does accept reservations through OpenTable.

The startup has about 500 users. In the future, Reserve My City plans to base its business model on partnerships with businesses such as dating and travel websites.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, bagi1998

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

More About: bizspark, Reserve My City

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The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Buzzdoes

Quick Pitch: Buzzdoes rewards app users who recommend apps to friends.

Genius Idea: A word-of-mouth marketing tool for apps.

With thousands of mobile apps being released each month, it’s difficult for a new app to get noticed. That’s why Buzzdoes aims to turn app users into app distributors.

The add-on and marketing tool for apps encourages users to recommend their favorite mobile apps to friends. For each successful recommendation, Buzzdoes rewards the user with cash, free apps, vouchers, and other prizes.

“App users can become your best marketing tool to increase downloads and quality users, while helping friends discover new apps,” Assaf Kolirin, CEO of Buzzdoes, told Mashable.

When developers add Buzzdoes to their apps, it shows users a list of their Facebook friends, email addresses and the number of Buzzdoes credits they can receive for each friend who downloads the app.

With one click, Buzzdoes automatically sends a download link for the app in an email or Facebook message to friends the user chooses. Users only receive Buzzdoes credit if a friend downloads the app directly from the link.

To make sure recommendations are real and to prevent spam, Buzzdoes sometimes limits the number of friends to which a user can recommend an app.

“Buzzdoes is not about spreading apps to thousands of friends,” says Kolirin. “It’s about choosing the right friends and making real recommendations.”

Depending on the add-on package, developers have to pay a one-time setup fee to incorporate Buzzdoes in their apps.

The cost-effective tool charges the developer a minimum fee of 25 cents for each successful recommendation or app download. Half of the amount goes to Buzzdoes, and the other half is used to reward the app users.

If recipients don’t use their rewards, they can choose to donate them to charitable causes.

Launched in January, Buzzdoes has raised $750,000 in funding and is incorporated into 300 apps. The company will soon allow users to recommend apps to their friends on Twitter.

Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, akinbostanci

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

More About: bizspark, Buzzdoes

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Name: Apptopia

Quick Pitch: Apptopia is a marketplace where developers can sell their apps.

Genius Idea: A mobile app exchange that helps broker the sale of mobile apps, including selling and transferring ownership, code, users and revenue.

Apptopia is a marketplace for developers to sell their mobile apps — including code, users and revenue — after they move on to another great idea , incur other responsibilities or just want to make some additional cash. The startup says the average app on its site sells for $7,500.

For the most part, Apptopia is a self-serve platform like eBay or Amazon. Developers just sync their developer account when they sign up to list an app. When an app sells, however, Apptopia does help broker the sale. For instance, it works with the buyer and seller to transfer the code.

“For the first time, mobile app developers now have a legitimate exit strategy and buyers looking to get involved in the mobile industry have a new investment opportunity,” Jonathan Kay, founder of Apptopia, told Mashable during an interview.

Interested buyers can search for apps in several categories, including education, business, photography, games, lifestyle, healthcare and fitness and medical. Each app listing includes reviews and ratings and provides information about the total revenue, total downloads, the number of downloads during the best and worst months, the current bid amount and the time left to buy.

For each app sold, the company takes 15% of the sale and may eventually charge a listing fee price of up to $50.

Apptopia has raised $500,000 in funding and launched its first non-beta version today.

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

More About: apptopia, bizspark

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The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Egg Drop

Quick Pitch: EggDrop is a neighborhood marketplace.

Genius Idea: An app that lets users post items to sell or give away, browse items and arrange pickups, directly from their smartphones.

Primarily designed for local transactions, EggDrop’s free app allows users to post and search for items within an 80 – 100 mile radius of their current location. In just one click, users can also share their posted items on Craigslist, Twitter or via e-mail.

It works a lot like mobile, local marketplace Zaarly, but its focus is on Craigslist-like listings, whereas Zaarly also facilitates micro-employment.

Posting an item for sale is fast and hassle-free – just press the “sell button” and use your smartphone to take a picture or choose a picture from your phone’s photo library. Then name the item, set the price and add a short description. Once you post your item to the EggDrop community, you are given the option to share the post with your social networks.

“It’s as easy as taking a picture with your smartphone of the item you want to sell and adding a price to it,” Dan Zheng, CEO of EggDrop, told Mashable in an interview.

If you’re looking to find or buy an item in your local area, EggDrop gives you two ways to do so – the “browse” button searches for items based on category, photo or location and the “search” button finds a specific item near your location. Users can also choose to sort items by distance, popularity and the time left in the sale. For privacy reasons, EggDrop only provides a rough, not exact, location of all users.

To find out more information about an item, users can “Ask a Question,” which will immediately notify the seller. All questions and answers are publicly visible to EggDrop users.

If you find an item you’d like to purchase, click “Make an Offer” and enter the amount you want to pay. The seller can either accept or decline the offer in real time. EggDrop does not allow users to make payment transactions via the app. If the seller accepts an offer, they can work out payment options with the buyer and arrange a time and place to meet for the exchange using EggDrop’s built-in private messaging feature.

So far, the most popular items for sale on EggDrop are cellphones, electronics, furniture, bicycles and video games.

EggDrop has a reputation system that lets buyers and sellers give feedback using “karma.” If sellers are trustworthy and helpful, users can give them positive feedback by clicking “Life Saver Karma” or “Good Neighbor.” The more positive karma sellers have, the higher their scores are.

“EggDrop is all about connecting local buyers and sellers in a local setting,” says Zheng. ”Reputation and identity are important and our reputation system is there to ensure that our users get a better, safer experience when using the app.”

EggDrop was launched in July 2011 and has raised $1 million in funding. Although the company does not have a business model yet, it is considering offering premium services to local businesses and shop owners that want to sell items.

The app is available for iPhone and Android devices and users can browse, but not sell, items on EggDrop’s website.

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

More About: bizspark, eggdrop

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