Rich Martell founded Floxx.com, previously known as FitFinder, a location based anonymous micro blogging social network, in April 2010. The site is based on the concept of anonymously posting both a location and description of an attractive person whom one has spotted; this post is then immediately placed on the FitFeed, where it can be viewed by anyone.

The idea came about after Martell and his rugby friends would text each other when they spotted an attractive girl in the library. They took this idea and expended on it so the whole world could see.

Rich has been compared to Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook who created Facemash (rated students hotness against each other) one drunken night gaining huge traction overnight, tons of views, which then put him in hot water with his uni after crashing the servers. Rich created the FitFinder site overnight and by 9am the next morning the library at UCL (University College London) was full of students using the site. That day saw over 2,000 hits which overwhelmed the uni servers.

As word spread, Rich had requests from other universities around the UK to be added to the site, so their students could use FitFinder. One month later and the site had 50 million hits and was in 50 universities!

This caused the university to harshly fine Rich £300 for “bringing the college into disrepute.” They also demanded that the site be taken down or they would withhold his degree. After spending 3 years working towards the degree he decided to take it down and get his degree, with plans to re-launch the site after he graduated in the summer.

The young entrepreneur felt that he had just scratched the surface with FitFinder. He is entrepreneurial by nature as he comes from a family of entrepreneurs in both his parents. The story of FitFinder made a lot of noise and gained a fair amount of press. One article was read by Doug Richard, a former Dragons’ Den panelist. He was impressed by the demand that the product had shown in it’s short life time. This is when things got serious.

Doug introduced Rich to big time, US investor, Kevin Hall. Together Doug and Kevin became founding angels for Floxx.com which was launched in January 2011. The site was renamed to appeal to a more global audience as the word ‘fit’ is mainly a British term and has different connotations in the US for example.

It has been often compared to Facebook because of the way it was conceived, but it seems more of a Twitter mixed with Match.com.

Rich gives 3 tips to other aspiring entrepreneurs:

1.) Get smart advisors on board early
2.) Be passionate about your business idea and make it happen
3.) Don’t take no for an answer. Never give up!

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TEDx is Coming to Sheffield

September 9, from 1.30pm – 6pm

TEDx is an annual event where some of the world’s leading thinkers and doers are invited to spread ideas worth sharing. The theme for the Sheffield TEDx is “Not Business As Usual” and it will focus on entrepreneurship. This is a great event for hard working business professionals who need new insights to recharge their business. Get full details at TEDxSheffield.com.

How to Make a Million Before Lunch

September 9, from 6pm – 7.30pm

Presented by Rachel Bridge – Enterprise Editor, The Sunday Times September 9, from 6pm – 7.45pm
Rachel Bridge is a writer, journalist and public speaker specialising in entrepreneurship, start ups and growing businesses. She is the Enterprise Editor of The Sunday Times newspaper and has written three books about successful entrepreneurs: How I Made It, My Big Idea, and You Can Do It Too. As part of the MADE Festival, Rachel will be performing her one-woman show, HOW TO MAKE A MILLION BEFORE LUNCH. This is a great event for those who want to laugh and gain new insight into entrepreneurial thinking at the same time. Get full details at MadeFestival.com.

MADE IN 48 Hours

September 10 + 11

School for Startups Doug Richard, Andrew Davis & Joost de Valk September 10 & 11 from 8am to 7pm
We will be running a 2-Day course in launching a business online and how every aspect of your business is changed by leveraging the connectivity provided by the web. This practical/tactical hands-on course happens September 10 & 11 and its perfect for business owners that currently have no web presence and for those who have a website that fails to engage customers or close sales. Get full details at SchoolforStartups.co.uk.

BUY TICKETS

Want to receive £30 off your ticket? Simply enter the discount code PASSPORT when ordering your ticket.

*Please note: limited availability on the TEDx and Rachel Bridge events, they are first come first served.

MADE in 48 Hours Event Speakers

Andrew Davis is one of the UK’s leading social media strategists, trainers and entrepreneurs. He started his career at digital radio station BBC Radio 1Xtra, before he was headhunted by Myspace.com to help launch its UK arm in Marketing and Content. His extensive work in community development and digital marketing led to his inclusion in the Guardian newspaper’s 2007 ‘Minority Report’, a shortlist of the Top 30 most important ethnic minority contributors to the British media. Andrew’s continued success for MySpace was again noticed the following year, when he became the only entrant to make it into the list for both Media Week’s ’30 under 30′ (a rundown of the industry’s younger and most talented media individuals in the UK) and Broadcast magazine’s ‘Hot Shots’ (a selection of media insiders tipped for future success).

Joost de Valk is a seasoned online marketer with a world class reputation for Web Development and SEO. Over the last 5 years he has been a regular speaker on this subject at all of the major industry events. Joost has worked with a long list of clients ranging from large corporates, such as eBay, Conrad Electronic and Salesforce.com, to smaller web based ventures. He continues to contribute to several Open Source projects including WebKit, the core of browsers like Safari and Chrome, and WordPress. He has written over 20 plugins for WordPress which, combined, have had more than 2.5 million downloads. Recently Joost developed QuixApp.com – a powerful browser tool that has been featured on hundreds of websites including Mashable, Lifehacker and Web Worker Daily. He is a co-host of the weekly WordPress podcast, WP-Community, where he converses with luminaries like Pete Cashmore of Mashable and Matt Cutts, head of web spam at Google.

Doug Richard’s School for Startup
Start Here! Starting & Growing a Successful Business
In partnership with B|SEEN & NACUE

On February 8th 2010, Birmingham University will host Doug Richard, serial entrepreneur and original BBC2 Dragon, and the School for Startups team to hold their much esteemed “Start Here! Starting & Growing a Successful Business” masterclass.

About the Event
Doug will be delivering an interactive seminar, incorporating ‘live’ on the day delegate case studies, video examples, lectures, and Q&A sessions.He will provide an insightful introduction to how to succeed in business and address the essential questions that entrepreneurs should ask themselves before investing time and money into an idea:

• How to write the perfect business model
• How to identify your product and your market
• How to start an affordable marketing campaign to increase your sales leads
• How to treat the recession as an opportunity, rather than a threat
• How to make money and secure investment

He’s an entertaining host who will leave you feeling inspired, refuelled and buzzing with new ideas! And yes, you can be coached by him for the day!

Tickets: Register Now! Spaces Limited

The following discounted ticket prices are available via NACUE or one of the
B-SEEN partnership universities; Birmingham, Aston and Birmingham City.

Ticket Type Cost £’s Discount Code

* Students £15 D1
* Academics £20 D2
* Entrepreneurs / Businesses £40 D3
* B|SEEN Students £10 D4

Ticket Booking Link: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/514062575/BSEEN

NB. Proof of student & staff status will be required on the day at registration. Failure to present your valid ID will result in none entry to the event.

You are guaranteed to leave this event with new ideas, enthusiasm and energy!