First TechStars Company Launches: MadKast

madkastlogo.pngThe first batch of Techstars (a Y Combinator like incubator) startups are launching. MadKast is the first out the door. They’ve made a dead simple way to increase distribution for your blog with one line of javascript or one click for Blogger and TypePad.

With the widget, you can easily let visitors share your entire blog posts via email, mobile MMS, or through any of the social bookmarking services. The widget also maintains a list of emails and phone numbers you’ve contacted in the past to make sending new links to friends really easy. AddThis (which we use) has a similar widget, but focuses on an exhaustive list of social bookmarking services.

madkast.pngMadKast’s widget also offers an analytics package that tracks which posts are shared most often and what other blogs your readers are visit.

They plan on monetizing through splitting revenue with bloggers from contextual advertising sent along with the shared post or links. Charging for more complex analytics tools is another option.

MadKast was started by Doug Ludlow, Johann Moonsinghe, Tony Restuccia, and Josh Larson, the team originally behind Zemble.com, a mass text messaging service. They brainstormed the idea for MadKast while in Colorado applying for TechStars. TechStars is an early stage startup program that provides seed financing and mentorship in exchange for 5% in equity.