Kevin, while living in India at the time, saw an opportunity to get his company in front of one of the nation’s premiere accelerators, 500 Startups, a seed fund and startup accelerator program that provides early-stage companies with up to $250K in funding, access to mentorship and unique networking events.

He aimed to pitch WalletKit in a unique and attention-grabbing way to spark Singh’s interest in the platform, which he believed would power the future of mobile wallets.

Quirk, an international marketing agency, suggests that “Using one’s handset as a financial tool, or the mobile wallet is an interesting concept which is becoming increasingly popular and integrated across consumer platforms. Not only does it allow users on the move to access financial accounts, but also plays an integral part in the development of digital commerce and banking.”

“The mobile wallet is proving especially effective in developing countries where desktop access to the Internet and banking opportunities are still a privilege, yet mobile accessibility is extremely high,” according to Quirk.

WalletKit aims to capitalize on this growing trend by helping businesses with adoption, enabling the design of aesthetically pleasing, Passbook-friendly coupons, tickets, passes, and gift cards without coding knowledge.

Using their virtual pass builder, businesses can create passes from scratch and track metrics including clicks, opens and downloads. “At Walletkit, we make it super simple for companies to integrate with mobile wallets like Passbook, Google Wallets, and other similar mobile wallets,” says Kevin William David.  “Apple does not have a specific type of notification format so we have our own API that companies can integrate with different mobile wallets which is not too expensive or time consuming,” he notes.

Learn how WalletKit got noticed and funded by 500 Startups while based in India and why Kevin believes you must never give up, even when you fail.

How I Got Started:

Apple Passbook is a mobile wallet available to iPhone software. It helps you store gifts cards, movie tickets, coupons, store cards, etc. in your phone. So when you go to Target or Starbucks, for example, the app knows exactly where you are and a coupon will pop up on your iPhone screen at the exact time and location that you need it.

There are a lot of mobile wallets other than Apple Passbook such as Google Wallet. We realized that there are going to be a lot of adoptions for consumers like us to use Apple Passbook.

We wanted to help companies that wanted to adopt Passbook and make it simple for them. We knew the market was so huge that we could connect to different mobile wallets because this is potentially the way people will manage tickets and stuff a couple of years from now. So we decided to start right now and create a central platform for businesses to create, manage and deliver digital boarding passes, tickets, store cards, coupons for mobile wallets.

The team of ex-Googlers launched Upstart with a simple idea – to help you do what you’re meant to do.

The idea is simple. Backers can invest in promising college graduates for a small share of their future income. The company’s ultimate goal is to provide capital to individuals who have the potential to impact their communities, while generating a meaningful return to backers.

Upstart is the future of “pre-seed” funding.

The best part is this: Each upstart receives the funding, which can be used for startup costs or to pay off accumulated loans or debt, and later pays their backers a percentage of their revenue based on the revenue they earn. Backers also take on a mentorship role to provide guidance to young entrepreneurs at each stage.

“On one side, it allows people generally early in their careers to essentially shift income from their future—sort of borrow from their future selves if you will—and bring it into the present to give them a bit of economic freedom to pursue what they really want to do, which typically means to become an entrepreneur,” Upstart’s CEO, Dave Girouard notes.

“On the other side, you have people that contribute the money, which we call backers. It’s the opportunity to invest in an individual instead of investing in the stock market or in startups or in other things that have lots of risks. You can actually invest and support one person in their career goals. And if they do really good, you can benefit from it,” he says.

Upstart is funded by First Round Capital, Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund, Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Collaborative Fund, Correlation Ventures, and CrunchFund. Individual investors include Eric Schmidt, Marc Benioff, Mark Cuban, Scott Banister, Joe Liedmandt and Andy Palmer.

Learn why Dave Girouard left his role at Google after eight years, where he was President of Google Enterprise and VP of Apps, to help young entrepreneurs pursue their dreams — and what he believes is “key” to winning.

How I Got Started:

I was at Google for eight years, working as president of Google Enterprise, and had a lot of conversations with some younger people who were in this sort of stage of their life when they’re deciding what they wanted to do next.

I sensed a consistent theme where a lot of younger people wanted to be entrepreneurs. They had real goals and desires to become entrepreneurs … somebody that wants to drive their own career and make it happen on an unproven path.

Yet, many of them felt forced to take jobs they didn’t really want because they needed the paycheck. They needed to pay off loans, or credit cards or other things they accumulated during school. My thought was that we need more people to be entrepreneurs; we need more people to take on risks early in their career. So what if we could give them just enough money to provide a buffer or maybe to retire some debt, and at the same time give them the support of backers who have some of the right experience and can help them with their path?

That’s the notion of Upstart; it’s to help people pursue what they really want to do, and it’s a recognition that the economy has really changed. You can’t just depend on getting a job in a big company and having a safe career for a long time. It just doesn’t work that way anymore.

In 2011, Tracy Osborn decided to improve the DIY wedding planning process and create WeddingLovely.com, an online platform that provides paid subscribers with a wedding checklist, personalized advice, wedding inspiration, access to a directory of over 1,800 local vendors, reminders, and a wedding website.

Learn how Osborn started her first venture (WeddingInviteLove) that led to the development of WeddingLovely and why she believes that “slow and steady wins the race.”

How I Got Started:

I started out as a web designer. At the moment I kind of do everything, but before I was a web designer. As a web designer, I loved invitations. I wasn’t getting married or anything like that, but I just loved wedding invitations because they’re examples of really beautiful designs. So I decided I wanted to create what would turn into our first vendor directory — WeddingInviteLove, a wedding invitation and designer directory.

I also taught myself how to program in order to launch a very, very basic directory. I started working with vendors and in January 2011… I’d probably say [startup costs were around] $100. It was very, very low because all I had to do was use a very cheap online server, and everything else I used was free.

WeddingInviteLove started taking off; we received coverage by Swissmiss and a couple other publications. That’s when I decided to start launching more vendor directories and open more categories of vendors. Then I eventually launched WeddingLovely.com and started working with brides and grooms directly.

For a monthly subscription fee (or one-time fee) WeddingLovely delivers a guided online wedding-planning experience, sending timely e-mails with to-do lists, and tailoring advice and suggestions to help streamline decision making. Couples are connected to a network of curated wedding vendors to quickly and easily find services in their budget, location, and style. In addition, couples can share their planning progress with friends and family through an automatically created wedding website.

As her platform gained in popularity Luca wanted to expand her influence as a motivational speaker by speaking to youth on realizing their potential and the importance of being oneself amid a myriad of influences from friends and family to the media.

“I am a voice for my generation, never letting them give up on themselves, and empowering them to be proud of who they are,” said Luca. That message struck a chord with young teens who tuned into her show and listened to her speak in her hometown.  So much so that last year she published How to Be a Teen on the Move, a book targeting teens to deliver strategies and tips to help young adults follow their dreams.

Learn how Lenore Luca found her voice at an early age and why she vehemently believes that teen entrepreneurs should never give up.

How I Got Started:

When I was 16 I landed a summer internship at a huge Internet radio station. After that summer I realized that I wanted to create my own online radio station too. So I did some research and created Teen Groove On the Move in October 2010 — a teen interview music site where listeners can stay up-to-date on hot new music and on-air local celebrity interviews.

I started broadcasting every Wednesday at 7PM EST and tried to follow the format of mainstream radio. After booking different celebrity guests on the show and having listeners call in from around the world I realized that I had a voice.

So I wanted to use my voice in a good way and positively influence everyone. That is when I started to to speak to high school and middle school kids about making positive choices in their lives, which led to me writing my first book: How To Be A Teen On The Move.

The young entrepreneur also faced an even larger dilemma — pioneering a new business concept that was not yet at full-adoption or maturity in her local market — India. Bhatt insists that the concept was virtually unheard of.

“In India, personal branding as a structured industry is yet to arrive though many people at senior level have started working on their personal brands through their websites and social media taking the help of SEO and website (building) companies, according to Dr. Amit Nagpal a New Delhi, India-based social media trainer and personal branding consultant. 

Yet despite the challenges, Bhatt created Panache and later re-branded her consultancy to focus on a more lucrative and responsive niche. Learn why Bhatt started a personal branding business and why she believes passion, respect, and self-conviction are essential to business success.

How I Got Started:

Panache, a personal branding studio, started off as a corporate grooming studio, offering image management consultation, services and workshops.

I started Panache in 2007, when the concept of image management was virtually unheard of across India. Corporations were struggling to acquaint themselves with the right exposure to global corporate trends and etiquette know-how.

In 2011, I then decided to re-brand Panache and transform our offering as a boutique grooming studio into India’s premier personal branding studio. I realized that sooner or later the concept of presenting a professional image will not be enough to ensure professional nirvana. I envisioned a corporate society where a select few will bask in the glory of such professional nirvana solely on the virtue of their powerful, personal brands. This was the turning point of my business.

Go Try It On, a free fashion and style social networking application, allows users to share style inspiration and advice with other users, including famous bloggers and fashion brands. Users can also browse trends, “heart” their favorite looks and products and add them to their personal Shopping List.

“Whether you live in a city or very rural area you can access this whole world of fashion and style. It’s on your mobile device; while you’re waiting in line at Starbucks or waiting on the bus [you can] be inspired and hopefully bring a little bit of what is fun and magical about fashion to your life every day,” said Evans.

Learn how Marissa Evans developed a social networking app to solve everyday style problems faced by women and why you shouldn’t count out the small things that make up the bigger picture.

How I Got Started:

I was working with a digital agency and consulting with big names like Delta, Samsung, and IBM… In [the process I was] learning a lot more about the mobile space and how brands were thinking about mobile [space]. I was also paying a lot of attention to the different startups that were starting to innovate in the mobile space like Foursquare… and I was thinking about all of the functional elements of what the mobile device was doing and how it was changing behavior.

[Around the same time, as a woman] a personal challenge I would deal with [regularly] was the idea of getting ready alone. I would notice that when I was with my girlfriends whenever we would get ready together everyone would ask each other: “What do you think?” or, “Do you like this?”, and give this [sic] second opinion. And when I was home alone, I wouldn’t have anyone to ask.

I would often take a picture with my iPhone and text my sister and ask her for her opinion and she would be driving or busy and not able to answer me. So I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if you could somehow leverage this idea of a mobile social network where you could create a marketplace where people come and go and get real-time opinions and help each other out?

The reality show features thirteen women — among them being two aspiring young entrepreneurs: Harvin Eadon and Meyer Eadon, who are learning the in’s and out’s of starting a business – She Blames Me, a jewelry collection inspired by naysayers.

Harvin, a Clemson graduate with a masters degree in social work from the University of South Carolina, created the jewelry collection with her younger sister Meyer, also a University of South Carolina graduate with a degree in fashion merchandising and retail management background. Combining their love of fashion and art the two sisters decided to turn their personal challenges into profit by designing and selling accessories inspired by (and named after) their biggest critics.

We’ll take you behind the scenes with Harvin and Meyer to talk startups, family business and the naysayer inspiration behind their company. Learn how the two outspoken sisters started their business, She Blames Me, to thank critics by name.

YFS Magazine: Why did you decide to start a family business?

Harvin: We wanted to be ourselves and we’re not 9 to 5′ers. We do our best work at 3 am. Sometimes we like to sleep ’til 1 pm.

We are who we are, and we got so tired of trying to hide who we were (and blowing it) that we just decided that it was in our best interests to create a business that allowed us to be who we are.

YFS Magazine: How did you develop the “She Blames Me” concept and brand?

Harvin: She Blames Me started out as a perspective prior to turning it into a brand. My sister and I, and even my mom, we have a tendency to love spray tans and really blonde hair, and six plus inch heels, and things that make us definitely not blend in with wallpaper. We feel that all women whether they want to admit it or not, never want to be overlooked, and certainly don’t want to be unappreciated.

So, the way that She Blames Me came about was we’ve always kind of caught a hard time for kind of marching to the beat of our own drummer. We dress a little bit differently, and like I said, we like things to be extreme … and people give us a hard time about that.

For example, when we first moved to Atlanta, Meyer [my sister] and I went out to a bar to meet a friend. We were talking to the bartender. Our backs were to the crowd … and out of nowhere this brunette in flats came running over and shoved Meyer out of her bar stool … out of nowhere. I have [sic] no idea who this girl is. Meyer has [sic] no idea who this girl is. We have [sic] no idea what her problem was… Meyer [was ready to go in] for the attack and I was like Meyer, “No! Calm down.” I was like “Buy her a shot.”

Meyer was like, “What?”

[Reluctantly] she did, and I handed the girl her shot [and said], “Don’t ever, ever be that jealous of anyone ever again. It’s not becoming and you’re too cute for that. Don’t be mad at us for it. Just ask us where we got it.”

I looked at Meyer and said, “Look. She just blames you.”

From then on we’ve had this whole She Blames Me concept and we feel like it applies to so many girls. The whole thing is; you cannot be nags and haters. Critics are the exact same thing as followers … so put them in your rear-view and thank them for following so close behind.

YFS Magazine: What is your best success story to-date?

Harvin: The show — Big Rich Atlanta — inspired a few pieces in our line. Well, one in particular, because you know we named each jewelry piece in our line after an actual person who gave us a really hard time…

In other words, we have the mole in your special circle, the undercover blackballer, she is close. She is a “Ginny”. And, so we have the “Ginny” piece (“Ginny”, yes, she was a real, real great person to me). We just thank people who really go out of their way to make your lives miserable [because] somehow you realize that the struggle is love, and it’s only a pathway into really finding yourself, and owning yourself, and being proud of yourself.

So, with the show (Big Rich Atlanta), it helped inspire a few more pieces. We actually started She Blames Me before this show even came along, and the agreement was that typically they don’t feature businesses in reality shows like this because they can come off very gimmicky, but ours just happened to be so much of our story line, and who we are that it kind of went right on in.

Also, we have a fashion show on the show. We partner up with another designer for it so you’ll get to see a lot of She Blames Me in Big Rich Atlanta.

Setareh’s unique approach to job listings starts with personalization. Myfuturejob.net aims to offer personal and professional support to online job-seekers that is not readily available through other job listing websites. Setareh’s mission is to ultimately become a go-to online resource for Gen Y professionals.

The Gen Y job site explains that, “the formative years of your career path can sometimes be hard to interpret.” Therefore, their mission is to provide an all-encompassing site that offers insight on the ‘how to and why moments’ every young professional experiences during their job search.

Learn how Candice Setareh gained a personal interest in aiding young professionals on their journey to career bliss and why staying true to one’s brand is the most important piece to the entrepreneurial puzzle.

Company: Myfuturejob.net

Founder: Candice Setareh

Location: Beverly Hills, CA

Industry: Other

Startup Year: 2012

Startup Costs: Undisclosed

How I Got Started:

After graduating from college, I was working full-time, and was planning on applying to graduate school. After applying, I realized that I had applied for all the wrong reasons. Instead, I wanted to pursue a career that I was more passionate about.

So, I started brainstorming about what I wanted do for the rest of my life. I recalled utilizing a number of different online job platforms at once to help me during this process, yet I was constantly frustrated by the lack of personal and professional career support that was available in one space.

I quickly learned that my friends and peers shared in my frustration. So, with much delight, I was constantly thinking of ways of improving the [job search] platform, and providing career support. That was the beginning of my path to creating myfuturejob.net, an online career resource for aspiring men and women of Generation Y.

We understand that the formative years of your career path can sometimes be hard to interpret. Our mission is to provide an all-encompassing site that offers insight on the “how to” and “why” moments every young professional experiences during this time. My hope is that myfuturejob.net inspires people to dream big, reach their full potential and achieve their professional dreams.

A new breed of entrepreneurs aim to capitalize on the “wanderer” in us all. In fact, it is a good time for travel startups, according to recent reports. “The travel industry can expect a healthy upswing in the coming year, according to a recent survey …”

“When travelers were asked to project their travel plans for 2013, 23% of respondents stated they intend to travel more frequently compared to 2012.” The travel-minded startups that are poised for success will “solve a real pain point, focused on planning, booking, or information on-the-go,” according to PandoDaily.

So before consumers finalize travel plans, book their next hotel, schedule transportation by land, air or sea these five jet set startups aim to help them along the way. From travel inspiration to mobile apps and travel experience enhancement find out which travel startups made our must-watch list this year:

1. Peek.com

Co-founded by Ruzwana Bashir (Co-founder and CEO), a travel junkie that has navigated her way through 40 countries, Peek.com aims to help travelers answer one important questions: “What do we do when we get there?”

Peek.com aims to help travelers discover and book amazing things to do in their destination city. Based on the premise that an unforgettable trip is built on special experiences you share with friends and family, Peek realizes that these activities are often difficult to find and even more challenging to book.

Peek.com aims to change this by offering a carefully curated selection of high-quality activities, display them beautifully, and make them easily bookable online via computer, tablet or mobile phone.

Ultimately the startup is dedicated to making travel planning more enjoyable by focusing on quality, one-stop-shop ease of use, custom itineraries and customer service. Learn more at www.peek.com.

2. Hipmunk.com

Co-founded by Adam Goldstein, an MIT graduate, and Steve Huffman — a co-founder of the social news site, reddit — Hipmunk aims to offer a better flight search and hotel booking platform for travelers.

The travel search site plans to take the agony out of travel planning by targeting people who are overwhelmed with pages of irrelevant search results.

Dedicated to creating a better user experience Hipmunk presents flight search results in a visual “timeline” that allows people to select the best flight for them at a glance.

Hotel results are shown on a map so that people can view where in a destination they will be staying and the landmarks near them.

Hipmunk wants to put the fun back into travel planning. Learn more at www.hipmunk.com.

Since the website’s launch in July 2011, the Wish.co.uk e-commerce business (think Groupon without the expiration issue) sells 95 percent of all zombie experience tickets in the United Kingdom.

The site reportedly turned a profit within six months of its launch and earned approximately $1,613,500 (1 million British pounds) in its first year of operation.

Kershaw and Pavlovich found early success by directing their small staff of contract employees to address customer concerns in a timely matter and focusing their own efforts on what they do best: online marketing and conversion rate optimization.

The Anti-Groupon Approach

Groupon, the deal-of-the-day website that features discounted gift certificates usable at local or national companies, snags customers by offering heavily discounted deals on specific items. By contrast, Kershaw and Pavlovich built the Wish.co.uk platform to offer a fun experience at a fair price, with a focus on great customer service.

Where purchasing a Groupon deal can sometimes be an exercise in reading fine print or cutting through red tape, the two entrepreneurs aimed to make doing business with Wish.co.uk a seamless experience. This approach allowed the co-founders to carve out a unique niche, which frees it from the need to attempt to compete with “big box” retailers, and instead concentrate on offering fun experiences its customers will enjoy – and recommend to their friends.

Their emphasis on fun has also allowed Wish.co.uk to buck the trend of non-essential services suffering sales downturns during economic hard times as customers tighten their belts. The pair attributes their success to the fact that their services represent a form of low-cost escapism to a stressed populace. Kershaw and Pavlovich point out that their fun-themed experiences are less expensive than booking a weekend at a hotel.

Optimizing the Website

A visit to the Wish.co.uk website can be jarring if you’re not prepared. A ghoulish zombie figure reaches out from the browser page as if in an attempt to grab you and pull you into its grasp. This attention-grabbing display advertises the site’s most popular offerings – an assortment of zombie-themed challenges. The bright colors and ready navigation add to the ease of the visitor’s experience. However, if you need help, chat assistance is a click away, and available during business hours.