Silicon Valley transplant founds start-up Staxup

Wednesday, November 10, 2010 | Source: Concentrate

It all started with a search for a wireless card for a desktop computer. Brendan Doms had just moved to Ann Arbor from Silicon Valley last spring and needed a cost-effective-yet-reliable Internet connection. The options were plentiful but the system that provided feedback on them wasn't as dynamic. That led the young serial entrepreneur to start working on Staxup.

"I saw a lot of room for improvement," Doms says. "So I just took my idea and made it."

Staxup creates a rating system for a variety of products and topics, showing how certain products stack up to similar choices. The new Ann Arbor-based website provides a quick, visual alternative to reading product reviews using aggregated web info. Think of it as sort of a Kayak for product reviews.

Doms got the website up and running earlier this fall. He is focusing on a viral marketing campaign of search engine optimization and social media to promote it over the next year. He hopes to harness advertising and referral sales to places like Amazon to create enough revenue to make it a self-sustaining business. If that plan works out, he expects Staxup to make its first hire in 2011.

Source: Brendan Doms, founder of Staxup
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.