Tops Friendly Markets, is a 130+ combo regional food & pharmacy chain in upstate New York and Pennsylvania, who recently launched the Rx Timer Caps® to their pharmacy customers by offering caps free with any prescription during the months of January and February, 2012.

To celebrate their 50th anniversary this year, Tops is introducing 50 New Ideas “designed to make shoppers’ experience fresher and better,” and has identified Rx Timer Caps as better idea #1!

Traveling on business often took television producer Kaylyn Thornal across the country. During her downtime on locations, the Los Angeles resident would try to catch local sporting events or look for local nightlife.

Finding that information on the run, however, was often difficult and time consuming.

“I just realized that I kept needing the same info,” Thornal said. “Simple information, like, ‘Where do I park? Where do I grab a bite to eat, or where do I get last-minute tickets if the game is sold out?’ I wanted to find local places and not places where the stadium wants you to go. The idea really came from that.”

In April, Thornal and her partners started with a soft launch of Fanzooloo.com, a one-stop sports and entertainment website with information generated by its users and local businesses.

Last month, Thornal stood in front of a crowded room at California Lutheran University, where she gave a 30-second pitch to possible investors during a meet-and-greet event organized by Maverick Angels LLC.

Entrepreneurs like Thornal who are hoping to find funding sources might have had trouble over the past few years finding backing from banks. That’s where “angels” step in, said CEO and co-founder Julia Dilts.

For the past six years, Westlake Village-based Maverick Angels has mentored business owners and provided access to millions of investment dollars through its network. To date, the group, which consists of high net-worth individuals who invest in startup and early stage companies, has backed 100 businesses in the U.S. and Europe.

While the group of investors has backed a variety of products and ideas, about 60 percent fall within the tech industry.

“The idea is to be industry-agnostic,” Dilts said. “We will look at anything that will give us a multiple return on that investment, but we have seen a lot of movement in the tech industry, which really encompasses everything from software and biotech to fashion and other consumer products. We always like to see the cross-pollination of different industries.”

Dilts, a former magazine editor, started the local chapter with her husband, John, an attorney, in 2006 after years of making their own investments on various startup companies. The company now has 27 investors making several multimillion-dollar deals every year.

Dilts took over as CEO after her husband died in August 2010.

Each month, the group holds an investment accelerator class open to entrepreneurs of every level— from those who just might have an idea scrawled on a napkin, to a business owner who has developed a product and plan but needs more investors to help them get to the next level, Dilts said.

During the “boot camp,” business owners learn the finer points of pitching and preparation and also receive mentorship and training from investors and other entrepreneurs who were chosen by the group.

“A lot of people don’t know how to articulate the idea, and we give them the confidence on how to turn that napkin idea into a reality,” Dilts said. “We will work with them to help them make the best pitch possible, but they definitely have to reach many of those critical benchmarks first before they can even come to us.”

Participants can then apply for a “deal line-up,” which is held a week after the accelerator class. There, six to eight investors will listen to business owners’ 10-minute pitches.

At a recent investor accelerator class in Westlake Village, nine entrepreneurs listened as Maverick Angels President Patrick Henry demonstrated the finer points of the “elevator pitch.”

Each entrepreneur then made on-the spot pitches for their product and received feedback from Angels representatives and other workshop participants.

At the end of the day, one participant had the opportunity to present his pitch and received critique and feedback from Angels officials and fellow entrepreneurs.

The group meets with six to eight companies a month, but only three or four make it to the arena meeting. There, all 27 sponsors, including “super angels,” listen to the entrepreneurs deliver a 10-minute presentation of their business portfolio.

An average angel investment round could bring in $250,000 to $2 million for the entrepreneur. Angels on average invest about $25,000 to $50,000, but super angels might invest more, Dilts said.

“This type of investment is definitely a risk, and these sponsors probably won’t see any return in their investments until three to five years,” Dilts said. “That’s why there is always constant feedback and we expect the entrepreneurs to update us regularly.”

It typically takes 60 to 90 days from the application process to secure funds from investors, but Henry said the group is working to cut that process time in half.

Lisa O’rell and her business partner Yaneth Acosta decided to attend Maverick Angels’ open meet-and-greet event at CLU with the hope of obtaining more information about the accelerator class.

The women pooled $300,000 of their own money to develop Skinmetro, software that allows beauty experts help their customers pinpoint a personalized skin regiment based on available products.

“There is so much potential for our product given the billions of dollars spent in the cosmetic and retail industry,” O’rell said. “Once we are picked up by major brands, then we will be able to move forward. To get there, we need investors.”

With her 30-second pitch at the CLU event, Thornal won an all-expenses paid spot to an accelerator class.

Since its soft launch last year, Fanzooloo.com has doubled its users and gets 300,000 hits every month. In July, the company also developed an app and now plans to execute an official launch and hire more employees.

“We hope the Maverick Angels can get involved to provide mentorship through our growth process, but also help in our sales and marketing and our plans for expansion,” Thornal said.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA, Mar 06, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — AnyMeeting, the completely free web conferencing and webinar service, today announced a faster way for first-time users to get a meeting started with AnyMeeting Now. Now, even those who do not have an AnyMeeting account can start a meeting immediately, on demand.

Simple and easy to use, first-time users just click the “Start A Meeting Now,” button on AnyMeeting’s home page to instantly start a meeting. Users can then send out email invitations with the conference call information included, bring attendees in, open a presentation to share, and get the meeting started. Unlike other web conferencing solutions, there is no software for users or their attendees to download, and no long-term sign up or credit card information required.

AnyMeeting has also achieved a milestone in reaching over 120,000 registered users, growing almost 600 percent over the last 12 months. AnyMeeting has done this by establishing a strong presence in the SMB market, which is expected to account for 50 to 70 percent of the global video conferencing market in the next three to four years, according to Frost & Sullivan.

“As we continue to grow, we are breaking down the barriers to entry that new users typically experience when they first try a web conferencing service,” said Costin Tuculescu, president and CEO of AnyMeeting. “Now, visitors new to AnyMeeting can immediately get a feel for our service and begin to experience the power of web meetings, without having to register.”

AnyMeeting Now allows first-time users to jump right in and get familiar with the service and the majority of AnyMeeting’s features. Frequent users are encouraged to register for a free account to access all of AnyMeeting’s features. For more information on AnyMeeting and AnyMeeting Now, please visit www.anymeeting.com .

About AnyMeeting

Based in Orange County, California, AnyMeeting brings the power of web meetings to everyone by making the tools free, simple and easily accessible. AnyMeeting offers a complete online meeting service built on the company’s proven Software as a Service platform. Meeting hosts are able to invite up to 200 attendees per meeting with no time limits, and enjoy a full range of features including integrated video conferencing, screen sharing, application sharing, recording and social media integration. AnyMeeting is the best choice for small businesses, independent professionals and just about anyone who can benefit from online meetings. Current investors include Tech Coast Angels, Pasadena Angels and Maverick Angels. For more information, please visit www.AnyMeeting.com .

        Media Contacts
        AnyMeeting, Inc.
        Bob Menzies
        714-253-7724
        bobm@anymeeting.com

By Adrienne Burke, Forbes Contributor

Nearly $100 million in seed money was pledged last year to startups and creative projects through the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.com–just one of many websites now dedicated to matching projects with people who have some means and desire to support them. What Kickstarter donors got in return were things like “thank you” credits in films, DVDs, tee-shirts, flowers, cookies, and concert tickets. Federal and state securities laws prohibit these startup operations from offering equity to their investors. The good feeling that comes from supporting innovation seems to be the main reward for many people who hand over cash to support the schemes of others online.

But what if there was potential for a financial return on these crowdsourced investments? If startups could offer stock to their small-stake supporters, some (including Amy Cortese in this New York Times Op-Ed) predict that the practice of crowdfunding would explode, opening up far more resources to entrepreneurs, spurring innovation, and creating jobs.

That’s exactly what the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act (HR 2930) aims to achieve. The bill, which Forbes contributor Scott Edward Walker explained in detail here last month, has the support of President Obama and was passed by an overwhelming majority in the House in November, but has been hung up in the Senate ever since.

Portfolio.com and Reuters reported on Tuesday that Senate majority leader Harry Reid announced plans to push the legislation forward. According to Reuters, the bill would:

Create a regulatory framework to let private businesses use crowdfunding … to raise up to $2 million annually from investors pledging no more than $10,000, or 10 percent of their annual income.

Though a report in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month suggested that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission might stand in the way of the bill, Reuters reported yesterday that:

The SEC is considering updating its own rules to foster capital formation. Earlier this month, an SEC advisory panel urged the agency to relax outdated rules that trigger public financial reporting for companies, but it stopped short of backing crowdfunding, citing concerns about investor protection.

In a TechCrunch interview at the Techonomy conference last November, AOL founder Steve Case pointed out the irony in current rules that limit investing to the accredited, noting that you don’t have to be accredited to go to Las Vegas and lose $10,000 at a table in an hour.

But “there are real concerns,” as Cortese noted in her Times Op-Ed:

The S.E.C. must balance its dual mission of facilitating investment and protecting investors, and as we all know, snake-oil salesmen are alive and well on the Internet. Furthermore, Wall Street banks are likely to fight any efforts to encourage crowdfunding because it cuts them out of the equation. But the potential rewards outweigh the risks. With such sums, the hazard to any single investor is limited. And information is more freely available today than in the 1930s, when the regulations were written.

Just how great is the potential of the policy to spur economic growth? A Capital Creation and Crowdfunding Conference in Los Angeles next month promises to explore “how the rising private markets will lead the nation toward an era of economic prosperity.” And the industry publication The Daily Crowdsource is hoping to figure it out for us. They’re using the crowdfunding platform RocketHub to raise capital to conduct a crowdsourcing market research report.

“Organovo’s advanced bioprinting platform can replicate essential biology for research, drug discovery and development and, eventually, for therapeutic applications,” stated Keith Murphy, chief executive officer of Organovo. “We have found success in achieving early revenue through strategic collaborations, and this funding will allow us to extend the reach and uses of 3D bioprinting through growth and innovation in the coming years.”

Organovo will continue the business of Organovo, Inc., headquartered in San Diego, as a wholly-owned subsidiary under the leadership of Organovo, Inc.’s current management team, headed by Chief Executive Officer Keith Murphy. In completing the Merger, Organovo issued approximately 22.4 million shares of its common stock to the holders of Organovo, Inc. common stock. The merged company will be quoted on the OTC markets and on the OTCQB under the symbol “ONVO” beginning Tuesday, February 14, 2012. 

The securities sold in the private placement have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933 and may not be resold absent registration under or exemption from such Act. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. This press release is being issued pursuant to and in accordance with Rule 135c under the Securities Act of 1933.

About Organovo Holdings, Inc.

Organovo is a three-dimensional biology company focused on delivering breakthrough bioprinting technology and creating tissue on demand for research and medical applications. The company’s NovoGen three-dimensional bioprinting technology is a platform that works across all tissue and cell types. Organovo’s NovoGen MMX Bioprinter was selected as one of the “Best Inventions of 2010″ by TIME Magazine. Organovo is helping pharmaceutical partners develop human biological disease models in three dimensions that enable therapeutic drug discovery and development. Organovo’s bioprinting technology can also be developed to create surgical tissues direct therapy. Organovo leads the way in solving complex medical research problems and building the future of medicine. For more information, please visit http://www.organovo.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

Any statements contained in this press release that do not describe historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on current expectations, but are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. The factors that could cause actual future results to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties relating to the Company’s ability to develop, market and sell products based on its technology; the expected benefits and efficacy of the Company’s products and technology; the availability of substantial additional funding for the Company to continue its operations and to conduct research and development, clinical studies and future product commercialization; and, the Company’s business, research, product development, regulatory approval, marketing and distribution plans and strategies. These and other factors are identified and described in more detail in our filings with the SEC, including, our current reports on Form 8-K. We do not undertake to update these forward-looking statements made by us.

SOURCE Organovo Holdings, Inc.