Search Mojo is a B2B-focused search engine marketing company.  Like any good marketing firm, they handle the entire funnel process for lead generation – from pay-per-click marketing and search engine optimization to landing page creation, conversion tracking and analytics.  Founded in 2005 by Janet Miller, a online marketing veteran, Search Mojo’s eight staff work out of their new office off the Downtown Mall behind the Lexis Nexis building (what is the name of that building?).  Of course, per the rules of online marketing, their staff is very active in social media and can be found on Twitter here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

orderTopia is new on the scene – launched at the end of last year by Dan Epstein and Brian Williford.  You may have already met Dan while eating Downtown – he’s also the owner of Eppies.  They have a pretty ambitious goal – the re-think the whole point-of-sale systems and ordering processes of restaurants and retail stores.

Currently, new businesses have to invest in expensive touch-screen computers or complicated software (think QuickBooks) as well as purchase bar code scanners, computers etc.  These systems are expensive to install, difficult to maintain and rarely integrate with a store’s other operations (like online ordering).  orderTopia hopes to change all that by offering a cloud-based point-of-sale system that easily integrates with a merchants website as well as connects to customer’s social profiles.  The cloud POS runs on cheap hardware (i.e. a laptop or iPhone) and maintenance and upgrades are handled automatically behind-the-scenes (picture the difference between purchasing Microsoft Outlook and using Gmail).  And because the software already lives on the Internet, its an easy step to connect with customers where they hang out – Facebook, Twitter etc.

orderTopia is already up and running with several local merchants including Revolutionary Soup, Mellow Mushroom, O’Suzanna and more.

Hotelicopter began as VibeAgent, a Darden Incubator company started by MBA grads Adam Healey and Charles Seilheimer.  The plan was to create a social hotel search engine based on user-generated hotel reviews and “vibe ratings” (i.e. romantic, adventurous, classy etc.).  They raised 3 million dollars in funding at the end of 2008 and promptly moved in to some of the best office space on the Downtown Mall.  In April 2009 they changed their name to “Hotelicopter” and launched a new website with an april fools marketing campaign that went viral and brought them national attention.  The new focus of the website is to provide the largest selection of hotel search information by aggregating all the other travel search engines (orbitz, travelocity etc.).

Rowdy.com is a social networking and content site for Nascar fans.  Yes, outside of the University and downtown Charlottesville, Nascar is really really big.  In additional to providing blogs, forums, news and other social networking tools, they also produce a lot of their own original content – including videos and podcasts.  Rowdy is run by Rusty Speidel for the Street and Smith Company with offices downtown on Water St.  From the website:

Rowdy.com is the place NASCAR fans can express themselves, meet others and can stay current on the sport’s hot issues and talk about racing…or anything else. We aspire to be a next-generation social networking site where we make it easy for fans to express themselves on what they love most–racing, and most importantly, be themselves. Fans can blog, show off their favorite photos and videos, and of course, listen to Rowdy’s take on the sport, either via podcast or streamed on the site.

Cloudbrain is a digital media software company. Their flagship product, TidySongs, uses an online database to automatically organize and clean up your iTunes songs.  Cloudbrain has seven employees working out of their office above Christian’s on the Downtown Mall and does all development, sales and marketing in house.  They are also responsible for several local projects including CurbPlaces and FirstWednesdays (is it ok that I’m talking in third person) and the social media projects CollegeRuled and SaveTheSongs.org.

Follow Cloudbrain on Twitter here.