• Mama J’s
• Mansion Five26 Restaurant and The Hippodrome
• Lift Coffee Shop
• Waller & Co. Jewelers
• Nick’s Produce
• La Difference
• Shockoe Espresso
• Urban Farm House
• Fountain Books
• Very Richmond
• Union First Market (James Center)
• Strawberry Street Vineyard
• RVA News
• Shield’s Market
• Plan 9
• Carytown Bicycle Company
• Agee’s Bicycle (Carytown)
• Conti’s Bikes (Carytown)
• World of Mirth
• Mongrel
• Grove Avenue Pharmacy
• Yellow Umbrella
• Saxon Shoes
• Franco’s (Short Pump)
• Daily Grind (Short Pump)
• Village Bank (Midlothian Branch)
• Buford Pharmacy
• Crossroads Coffee and Ice Cream
• Maymont
• Richmond Times-Dispatch

Stickers will also be available at Friday Cheers through June.

Editor’s note: Last week we highlighted some RVA crowdfunding projects that needed your help to succeed. Today we have a guest post from an RVAer whose crowdfunding project has massively succeeded, and it’s not even over!

By Alison Quigley

You and I both know Richmond is full of innovative minds.  We see it every day in local businesses, paintings on the sides of our buildings, and even just passing conversations. Richmond breathes creativity. But how often do you have a business idea and just let it go. Maybe you don’t have the time, money, or clear path of how to make it happen. I’m here to tell you about an unbelievable project that could make you think twice next time an idea crosses your mind.

Cole and Kelly Flournoy, are two of the hardest working people I know.  They grew up here in Richmond, went to high school together, and recently got married. A few years ago, they packed up their lives and moved 3,000 miles across the country to build up their app-based startups in Silicon Valley.

Working from home, they were constantly dealing with cords and wires taking over their desks. Every time they wanted to move their MacBooks to another location, they would have to unplug monitors, keyboards, speakers, power cords, and more. If you own a Mac you understand why this is annoying. After dropping cords behind the desk for the last, they knew there had to be a better option. The thing was, there wasn’t a better option. That’s when Cole took matters into his own hands and sketched out an idea of what the ideal solution would look like and ZenDock was born!

Zendock is a unit that has one single plug that goes into the side of your Macbook and then a cord that runs to a base, hidden conveniently behind your desk. The base is where you can plug in the various cables. We have versions available for MacBook Pro, MacBook Retina, and just announced MacBook Air!

This is the point where most people get back to their busy lives and forget about what could’ve been.  If you know Cole, you know that wasn’t an option. So he did some research and decided to put it up on Kickstarter, a social crowd funding platform. Over the last year, Kelly and Cole worked around the clock to get the prototype developed with freelance employees they hired on Elance. They handmade cables and put the protoypes together themselves, all the while tweaking to perfection. They also roped me in to handle Public Relations. I work at the Martin Agency as my day job but this has really been an amazing and irreplaceable learning experience that I wouldn’t trade for the world.

We set our Kickstarter campaign live on April 9^th and gave ourselves 30 days to reach our goal of $40,000.  The funds we raise will allow us to start production and get ZenDocks into our customer’s hands.  This Friday (May 10^th) marks the end of our campaign and it has been an incredible ride. We hit our goal within 3 days of launching and with 48 hours left, have raised over $95,000! We’ve received a ton of positive feedback from our fans and couldn’t be happier with the campaign!  We also want to make sure we’re sharing our story and encouraging others to tap into their entrepreneurial side. You might surprise yourself, RVA. We sure did.

Please check out our Kickstarter page and help us close ZenDock out with a bang by spreading the word! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/coleflournoy/zendock-the-best-dock-for-your-macbook

I’m not sure what’s going on, but how can you argue with the message (I do spend all day, nearly every day) in RVA.

We went through Kickstarter and Indiegogo, the leading crowdfunding platforms, looking for Richmond-area projects not yet fully-funded to highlight.

If you’re not familiar with the sites, they both allow individuals or groups to set up a campaign and register backers. With Kickstarter, if the goal isn’t met, the project “fails” and no one is charged for their contribution (and the project gets no money). On IndieGoGo, a project can still receive funding if its goal isn’t met, but with higher processing fees if it’s set up for “flexible funding.”

Here are a few RVA projects that you can help succeed:

Project: The Coalition Theater by Richmond Comedy Coalition
Goal: $25,000
Current funding: $17,590
Time left: 67 hours
Description: The RCC is raising funds to outfit a downtown space as a venue for live comedy shows and classes. The group has been around since 2009 and has twice won Style Weekly’s Best Local Comedy Group designation.

Project: Keep Cake Alive by Candy Valley Cake Company
Goal: $20,000
Current funding: $9,525
Time left: 6 days
Description: A local cake pop company is looking for funding to establish a retail location and food cart. The company has been in business since 2009 and specializes in gourmet cake pops with character.

Project: Science Team: An Independent Feature Length Motion Picture
Goal: $15,000
Current funding: $3,556
Time left: 11 days
Description: “Science Team is a satirical independent film about a national organization, called Science Team, whose main purpose is to maintain interstellar peace and protect America from the many alien threats that seek to destroy us.”

Project: FeastRVA Campaign
Goal: $9,500
Current funding: $270
Time left: 45 days
Description: FeastRVA was established in 2011 as a way to support creative projects in our community with a fundraising dinner, where creators present ideas and diners vote for their favorite. With this project, they hope to solidify the organization and ensure the events can continue to grow.

These are just a few of the projects out there, of course, and you can see a full list of local projects on Kickstarter and Indiegogo yourself (the search works on Indiegogo, there are some unrelated projects on that page). If you find something worth sharing, let us know at rvacreates@gmail.com or on Twitter or Facebook!

• Coming up this weekend: A chance to get creative at Chalk Up The Town 2013
• We love this CBS 6 piece about how RVA pride was born three years ago: http://wtvr.com/2013/04/05/holmberg-how-rva-pride-was-born-three-years-ago/
• Creativity comes in many different shapes and sizes – it even comes in cake: http://www.timesdispatch.com/business/economy/trade-names-shyndigz-s-owners-create-niche-in-dessert-caf/article_52937dc4-fb3d-53e5-aa16-1983cda05900.html
• Work It, Richmond took a recent look at the state of entrepreneurship in RVA: http://www.timesdispatch.com/workitrichmond/news/the-state-of-entrepreneurship-in-rva/article_1e828c3a-a384-11e2-8386-001a4bcf6878.html
• Speakeasy, a mobile phone application designed to help restaurants get better feedback from customers, is the winner of the Greater Richmond Chamber’s second annual I.e.* startup competition: http://www.timesdispatch.com/workitrichmond/news/speakeasy-wins-i-e-competition/article_69cd6e56-a6fb-11e2-bb9e-001a4bcf6878.html

• Did you know that when Legend Brewing Company poured its first draft in 1994, it was one of about 540 craft breweries in the United States? That number is almost 2,800 today. Read here to learn more about how Legend is adjusting to the growing market.
• Coming up this month: A chance to make a video game in just 48 hours at RVA Game Jams
• Quoted: “The capacity to innovate — the ability to solve problems creatively or bring new possibilities to life — and skills like critical thinking, communication and collaboration are far more important than academic knowledge.” — Tony Wagner, Harvard education specialist, quoted in this piece in The New York Times by Thomas Friedman
• On the radar: New to RVA this year is RVA Streets Alive, taking place downtown on June 22^nd. This event is about closing streets to cars and opening them to the public — for one day — to create a whole new healthy, sustainable and vibrant city street experience.

There will be special tasks, secret themes and limitations to add to the challenge and inspire game designers and developers to tap into their creative reserves. This game jam is for independent, professional, amateur and student designers alike.

The event provides a welcoming and encouraging environment where designers of all skill levels can show off their talent and learn from one another.

Kickoff is 7 p.m. on April 26 at 1657 W. Broad St. It’s free and open to the public! Also, refreshments will be served, so if there wasn’t enough incentive to go already…well, there ya go.

For more information or to RSVP to the event check out www.rvagamejams.com.

It’s the week after TEDxRVA, and with that positive energy, I think all of us here in Richmond are eager to hear about creative things that have been happening right here in our own city in the past week or so. Here’s a look:

• The newest cover of the latest Greater Richmond Grid magazine highlights many different uses of the RVA.
• Thursday’s Envision This Challenge brought new ideas to life for Shockoe Bottom and Shockoe Slip.
• The Richmond Young Writers, a group that helps those ages 8 – 17 improve their writing skills, got some help from last year’s i.e. contest.
• Some takeaways from last week’s TEDxRVA.

• Oh, the possibilities: Venture Richmond has created a site about all that there is to do on RVA’s wonderful riverfront. Happy exploring!
• The VCU Southern Film Festival is back on the big screens this February. The Making of “Lincoln” sounds pretty neat, in our opinion.
• Did you know the nation’s largest outdoor sports and music festival takes place right here in RVA? If you want to learn more about it, the full schedule for Dominion Riverrock (happening this May) was released this week.

• Good dining is not hard to come by in RVA. RVANews made a list of ten of 2012’s best new restaurants.
• A local entrepreneur saw an opportunity with the booming craft beer business for a portable canning operation.
• TedxRVA is heading to Richmond this March. The theme? Create!
• Pastries, pies and breads, oh my: Church Hill is becoming a baking destination with three new bakeries opening within blocks of eachother in the last two months