John Braun is a happy man these days. As President of Chicago area based TIP Solutions he has not only completed raising $650K in funding but also has been winning Chicago entrepreneurial competitions.
“Last month we won ‘Best In Show’ at the BNC Tech Pitch competition and ‘Best in Show’ at the BNC Medical Pitch competition. Then,” he went on, “we were the winner of the Funding Feeding Frenzy “Shark Cage” ‘Best of Show’ award. It has been a busy month.”
Braun says that TIP Solutions overall mission is, “to change the way the world answers a phone call.”
“The ‘TIP’ in TIP Solutions means, ‘Talk In Private’” explained Braun, “and right now we have developed a suite of features we are very excited about. The first is called VIC, or ‘Very important Contact’”
VIC is a downloadable app for Android based phones and is a call blocker that can block phone calls, texts and emails permanently or for a set length of time.
Mr. Braun explained that VIC isn’t available for the iPhone because Apple’s architecture for the phone makes it impossible to implement. “Apple has made it impossible to do what we are doing with Android and one of many reasons we like the Android operating system,” said Braun.
“If you know you are going to be locked in a meeting all day and don’t want to be distracted, VIC gives you the silence you need. “ He went on to explain that VIC can be configured to for groups, categories and syncs with your calendar. “If you are heading into a meeting, VIC recognizes that from your calendar and lets you work without being distracted.”
Braun went on to explain that they did an extensive survey of 1200 smart phone users to develop their product and that two more features are going to be announced soon but not before their current negotiations are over with twio if the biggest handset manufacturers on the market.
“We are currently in negotiations with Motorola and Nokia and have an NDA with both of them,” explained Braun, “and when we are done with our negotiations we can announce our full feature set.”
TIP is currently a 25 person team and is looking to raise another $2 Million in a second round. “Based on our current success we are confident of finding the right venture partner soon.”
