Under The Radar: The Business of Web Apps : Graduate Circle (3/...)

Additional notes from the Under the Radar event - Graduate Circle track.



(not so much in my domain - so raw comments as is)

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http://www.3tera.com/

Key messages:

• "The Next Google Won't Own a Server"
• "Scalability"
• "Everyone should have access to scalable infrastructure - and should pay only for what they use"
  

A service that allows your to have a world class (Google level) scalability without owning hardware.

Utility Computing : 3Tera's AppLogic grid operating system eliminates the binding of software to hardware through virtualization.

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http://www.nirvanix.com/

"...
Nirvanix is the premier “Cloud Storage” platform provider. Nirvanix has built a global cluster of storage nodes collectively referred to as the Storage Delivery Network (SDN), powered by the Nirvanix Internet Media File System (IMFS). The SDN intelligently stores, delivers and processes storage requests in the best network location, providing the best user experience in the marketplace. With the ability to store multiple file copies in multiple geographic nodes, the SDN enables unparalleled data availability for developers, businesses and enterprises.
..."

(comment: I worked hard in the past making SDN mean something else).

They claim they manage to show 3x improvement in performance VS Amazon S3.

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http://www.q-layer.com/

Q-layer introduces the Virtual Private Data-Center

"...

Q-layer provides software for datacenters to enable the Virtual Private DataCenter (VPDC). With Q-layer, datacenter managers can provide their customers with a simple, self-service portal for datacenter provisioning. This allows customers to visually configure their datacenter with a simple drag-and-drop interface, including servers, networks, and SAN and NAS devices for storage. Datacenter managers can also integrate any other virtual appliances into the Q-layer Datacenter Abstraction Layer (DAL), to enable simple end-user provisioning of any service provided in their datacenter
..."

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http://www.transerainc.com/

They provide virtual call centers solutions.
Pay for what you use based on a subscription model.

---

E.T.

Technorati Tags: Event, undertheradar, software,

Under The Radar: The Business of Web Apps : Aggregation (2/...)

Additional notes from the Under the Radar event - Aggregation track.

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https://www.docsyncer.com/

Want to be in the center in a all document management of the organization and people.

They offer:

• Migrating to online document editor - as GoogleDocs
  
• Collaboration and remote access to users
• Enterprise search - find your documents in the organization

The new service has already over 4M documents.
They claim for an automatic upload and sync process as well as easy to adopt from a user experience perspective.

In the future they would like to work with additional online editor (Zoho and such).
Offline capabilities are on the roadmap.

The panel tried to ask some hard questions about collaboration, versions, security and offline capabilities.
I do not think they are trying to solve these issues, which could be consider as a 'platform' for this domain.

I liked their visual design (did not use the service yet).

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http://www.kwiry.com



A service that allow you to 'text'/SMS/voice/eMail yourself for reminders.
They focus on SMS as it the most use and simple scenario.

The eMail you receive - with you note + marketing/ads information.
Collaborations, sharing and other srvices are available as well.

Comments from the panel:

• A simple scenario such as trying SMS yourself during driving - so you could read and learn more while you are in the hospital... Well - this is why they have the voice interface as well.
• Does text messaging used by non-teenagers? They claim there is a growth in SMS usage across all generations.
• The business model and the capability/potential of driving people to go to websites of advertisers. Kwiry call it "Call for Action".

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http://www.orgoo.com

Would like us to us argoo as our "communication cockpit".

different IM/eMail/Chat accounts managed in one screen.

Video chat and other advanced features (presence, profiles and such) are available as well.
A demo of 4 people doing a video chat at once.
Video chat was a nice feature as well. As well as the easy embedding in facebook/MySpace.

Conversations using different medium (IM, SMS, eMail) are being aggregated and shown as one eMail stream on the screen.

Cool mashup.

Do I want one service have all my username/password information?

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http://www.pageonce.com/

One personal page that has access to all your data (as far as they think it is relevant).
Fast setup for common web portals and services.

Again, do I want one service have all my username/password information?

The panel was focusing on security topic.
Pageonce said they are using bank level security. In addition, most people as using a small set of user/password set and they can now be aware of all the activities done by their 'identity'. So, it may help you to find if someone is abusing your account.

The idea of having all your info on one server was not well received by the panel.

Well - you could start with aggregating eMail, airline, newspaper, amazon and such first and later on decide if you would like to go and put your bank info.

Private beta available on http://www.pageonce.com/utr.htm

---

Overall - all the services are trying to make all our information more available.
Will it create more noise or will it allow us to focus on the more important things... ?

To be continue.


E.T.

Technorati Tags: Event, undertheradar, software, microsoft, orgoo, docsyncer, kwiry, pageonce

Under The Radar: The Business of Web Apps (1/...)

Today I am at the Under the Radar event.


Some comments from the first session.

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http://www.splashtop.com

Interesting virtualization software that tries to make the experience of starting working on the PC as simple as open your mobile phone/PDA. They showed a demo of booting a PC and have some apps running with in 12 seconds. (cool if you like Linux apps). The Windows XP was booting in the background...

It seems that 'hibernate / sleep-mode' is doing some of this things al ready - as long as you have no problem with Power. Is it greener or safer to have the PC off.

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http://www.elastra.com/

Sorry - Did not understand what, how and why they are doing what they are doing.
I tried.
So - here is an image that may help you.

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http://www.jumpbox.com/

Presented a solution for the consumer / small business solution for virtual computer that could run on top of the current OS and virtualization apps.
The demo included 'easy' configuration process.
There is a nice collection of open source apps and tools as part of the 'box'.

This make 'playing' with new and open source application easy and less risky.
However, it is not free.

Support is optional and on top of the package (~$200 per instance per year).
The support is for the jumpbox and not for the applications on top of it.

I think it could be a great 'sandbox' for POC and demos, before running the applications on your hardware.

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http://www.universant.com

They (re)worked the main business processes and application functions and offer them as a open source platform.

From my experience in enterprises it is hard to offer 'one size fits all' and have most of your customers happy - especially in the SMB market.

---

Overall - the potential is clear.
It was interesting to see the focus on the consumer and SMB markets. Especially the consumer one. Running virtual OS / computer for non-business reasons is interesting.

Time to juice the laptop...

To be continue (if I find a power source...)

E.T.

Technorati Tags: Event,undertheradar,software, microsoft

Notes from Momentum Growth Conference (8/8)

Notes from Momentum Growth Conference.



Buy, Sell, Hold? - Yes, You Have Mo' to Think About
You've grown your company. You're making money. What's next? IPO, acquisition, or just keep walking. In this session, hear about the exit strategies that momentum companies have to think about, and plan for, today.

TSX - Ungad Chadda, Vice-President and COO
Thumbplay - Are Traasdahl, CEO & Founder
Microsoft - Marc Brown, Director of Corporate Development
IMVU - Eric Ries, CTO

(no links, sorry, Blogger really needs to improve linking and adding image capabilities...)

The panel agreed the focus should be on building a real business.
They disagree on what does it mean...

Nice quote: "companies do not fail due to lack of technology - they fail due to lack of customers..."

Building a dream-team is the key step in building a real business.

First hires for technical or product driven companies - should be in the marketing area - as you need to generate lead and to make the market ready for your branding and product.
(???)

Executive team of a start up changes with the phases of the company.
The role of the executives changes as well.

The transition from 'traffic' or # of users to monetization is not trivial (duh...).
Partnership with a market leader or a company the complete your value offering is a logic step.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Done.

It was a long & good fun day...


E.T.

Technorati Tags: Event, Web 2.0
, dealmaker, undertheradar, tsx, thumbplay, microsoft, imvu

Notes from Momentum Growth Conference (7/...)

Notes from Momentum Growth Conference.




Ones to Watch


Adify - Larry Braitman, Co-founder and Chairman


Tumri - Hari Menon, CEO


Turn - Jim Barnett


Again - 6 minutes per presenter - too fast for me to Blog about at real time...However -

Turn has an interesting model (as well as a good presentation) to enables advertisers and publishers to buy and sell online advertising in an advanced market that automates targeting. Turn eliminates the need for manual targeting and provides bidded CPA, CPC and CPM pricing for graphical and text ads. Through its revolutionary targeting and innovative pricing models, Turn simultaneously delivers amazing simplicity, dramatically better relevance, and maximum revenue for advertisers and publishers.

From Turn site:

• Demo and introduction to the concept
  

• Automatic targeting. Traditional manual targeting is time consuming, frequently ineffective, and not scalable. Turn eliminates the complexity of manual targeting and managing keywords with technology that automatically selects the best graphical or text ads for any placement. By automating the process, Turn can find subtle patterns of performance that manual targeting would otherwise miss and respond much more quickly to changes in performance.
• Blended targeting. Turn uses sophisticated algorithms to blend more than 60 relevance variables rather than just one or two, the common practice of most networks. This is critical because relevance and advertiser performance require targeting beyond just text on the page. Targeting must combine elements of category targeting, audience and user behaviors, and innovative new targeting methods in order to optimize performance.
• Bidded CPA pricing model. Turn has revolutionized the traditional CPA model by utilizing a bidded market. By offering CPA, CPC, and CPM to the advertiser and using effective CPM (eCPM) ranking on behalf of the publisher, Turn aligns the business goals of the advertiser, publisher, and ad network.

Automatic targeting is an interesting approach.
I think it is powerful model, however as it is 'automated', it is based on parameters and assumptions. It would be interesting to learn how flexible and 'self learning' this system really is.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To be continued...Maybe...


E.T.

Technorati Tags: Event, Web 2.0
, dealmaker, undertheradar, turn, adify, tumri

Notes from Momentum Growth Conference (6/...)

Notes from Momentum Growth Conference.

What Advertisers Want, What Businesses Need
The online advertising game as we know it is changing. Established players are scrambling to determine methods and metrics - how do widgets and time spents stack up against pageviews and eyeballs? Innovators are moving quickly and land-grabbing on their own. Since many consumer-facing companies depend on advertising for their revenues, and big-budget brand advertisers employ media buyers, the lack of agreed-upon standards could be a big problem. Are shortcomings leaving ad money on the table?


Google - Brett Crosby, Senior Manager, Google Analytics


VideoEgg - Adam Klein, President


Aggregate Knowledge - Paul Martino, CEO


Real Branding - Mark Silva, Principal & Founder


ComScore - Nick Tabbal, Senior Vice President

Still there are too many different definitions and ways to measure activities, effectiveness and other subjective parameters.

One of the logical comment that was (finally) made was that business owners (the ad publishers) are interested to understand how the online activity (and their investment) actually effect their business.
How to provide them with this data and contect (or at least make them comfortable with the data) is still debatable...

"Actional-analytics": the concept of modify the site/service on-the-fly based on activities of the users. Example such as Amazon's "People who bought this also bought these items...", may be the next generation - shorting the time from feedback/data/analysis to action.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To be continued...Maybe...


E.T.

Technorati Tags: Event, Web 2.0
, dealmaker, undertheradar, Google, VideoEgg, ComScore, Real Branding

Notes from Momentum Growth Conference (5/...)

Notes from Momentum Growth Conference.

Thinking Outside the "Bubble"
So you have the Big Mo' - now what? A good company can rest on it's laurels, but the truly great companies are those who strategize to grow, expand, adapt and reach that next level. Momentum companies have to think beyond the bubble of Silicon Valley to Main Street USA and even out to the roads of Ulan Bator. Hear from experts about what it takes be great outside the Silicon Valley bubble.


Hi5 - Ramu Yalamanchi, CEO



Bebo - Xochi Birch, CO-founder & President



Best Buy - Martin Nyman


ThinkLondon - David Riches, Director, North America


Topix - Chris Tolles, CEO


During a long discussion about success and Tipping Points, the following parameters mentioned:

1. Luck
2. Mix of available capabilities allow the company to leverage luck.
3. Industry readiness
4. Market readiness
5. Luck
6. More luck (and then some...)
   

If you know what your user do and need, you can understand what will they need in the future (maybe...) and build something they will want and need in the future. If you are a head of the curve - you may be able to create a tipping point in customer engagement - driving success.

Statistics are very important to be able to measure health of the communities as well as status versus the competition. (It seems every company has a internal numbers and KPI as well as external numbers to through at the PR team...)

Stay relevant (and being paranoid really help).
Embrace change, be agile, be ready to trash things you have and love, based on what your users and future users needs and want.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To be continued...


E.T.

Technorati Tags: Event, Web 2.0
, dealmaker, undertheradar, bebo, thinklondon, hi5, topix

Notes from Momentum Growth Conference (4/...)

Notes from Momentum Growth Conference.

Partnerships - Relying on the Kindness of Strangers
Small companies pursue big companies for partnerships -- they need credibility, access to markets and channels, and the means to scale. Whether for distribution, marketing, development, monetization strategy, or just leveraging existing APIs, teaming with a giant is the strongest route to building an empire. Learn from those who've negotiated on both sides of the table what it takes to get a deal done and how to make it work for you.


Meebo - Seth Sternberg, CEO


Kayak - Drew Patterson, VP Marketing


Photobucket - Peter Pham, Vice President, Business Development


SAP - Jens Weitzel, Sr. Director, Business Development Global Ecosystem & Partner Group


The discussion provided some (basis for) partnerships examples and points of views:

• Value swap - offer cross traffic, (missing) features, etc.
• Build together - instead of buying technology - work with the technology providers as partners to create the capability, needed by both.
• Have a mentality of "everyone is not a competitor" - build honest relationship early on with other companies - including other start ups. Find areas where others may have better value proposition (tools, experiences) to your users and work with them.
• Partner with companies that 'will be around' in the future.
• People - integrity, trust and personal connection is important - as you will work with these people closely. Do not partner with someone you do not feel comfortable closing a deal with a handshake (as a first step...).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To be continued...


E.T.

Technorati Tags: Event, Web 2.0
, dealmaker, undertheradar, meebo, SAP, kayak, Photobucket

Notes from Momentum Growth Conference (3/...)

Notes from Momentum Growth Conference.

Ones to Watch


Leverage Software - Mike Walsh, CEO and co-founder



Moola.com - Arlen Ritchie, President and CEO



mShopper - David Gould, CEO



Multiply - David Hersh, VP of Business Development

6 minutes per presenter - too fast for me to Blog about at real time...
Interesting...
I may have another look into it later on.
Especially on Multiply. As the feedback from the panel clearly showed that they miss the value proposition of Multiply, except Martin Nyman (Best Buy) - who made some comments about multi-generation challenges.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To be continued...


E.T.

Technorati Tags: Event, Web 2.0
, dealmaker, undertheradar, Moola.com, mShopper, Multiply

Notes from Momentum Growth Conference (2/...)

Notes from Momentum Growth Conference.

Freelancer/author Sarah Lacy chats with Tina Sharkey, Chairman, Babycenter.com

• Communities are about looking for solutions for needs (current, long term), sharing interests and about human connection.
• The audience is growing and change all the time - do not expect to have a winning formula that could last long...
• Find out where your audience live and serve them there - eMails, online, RSS, newsletter, etc... Fine tune the messages based on 1-to-1 marketing concepts.
  
• Be true to your core.
• Statistics: 8M unique users in 10 counties. Revenue from eCommerce (larger) and media business (profitable).
• The company is part of Jonson & Jonson. It was bought from eToys when eToys declared bankruptcy in 2001.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Imeem - Steve Jang, VP, Marketing and Business Development
Sugar Publishing - Brian Sugar, Founder, Publisher and CEO
Slide - Keith Rabois, VP, Business Development
Babycenter.com - Tina Sharkey, SVP Instant Messaging & Social Media
RockYou - Ro Choy, Vice President of Business Development

• In a discussion on users loyalty - both Slide and RockYou agreed (and it did not happen a lot) that the main challenge was to get the 'first time' users, as users are not switching to much after they invested in creating content and learning a system.
• It is important to know the demographics of your service - as advertiser require depends on it.
• People are going where other people (friends) are. The features are secondary.
• The debate between reach or niche went on... It was claimed that "viral engagement" allows you to go for a wide reach, while building engagement with focusing on niche (using a dedicated application). FaceBook was mentioned many times as the platform allow you to achieve this.

Overall - after over an hour of 'buzzwords exchange' it seems everyone are still looking for ways to put some logic into their success as well as define the next steps and trends.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To be continued...


E.T.

Technorati Tags: Babycenter, Event, Web 2.0
, dealmaker, undertheradar, community, babycenter, slide, rockyou, imeem, Sugar Inc

Notes from Momentum Growth Conference (1/...)

Notes from Momentum Growth Conference.

How I Got Mo' - Momentum Company of the Year
Ellen McGirt / Paul English (Co-Founder & CTO of KAYAK).

• Building a service around technology and most important - customer service.
• A team of 30 engineers and 9 Biz are supporting 20M transactions per month.
• Every inquiry is answered by a person.
• The development policy is that a developer can develop a new feature only when there are no open issues with the the current features/codes this developer is responsible for.
• Spending a lot of time on usability testing - as the technology is allowing to modify the experience very rapidly and cheaply.
  
• Facebook is a great social platform which brings a lot of value and power to small companies to start with.
• Ways to create customers momentum - Google ads, affiliate programs, word of mouth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Business Models That Drive Momentum
Find a high-paying job. Find a telephone listing (for free). Make a coffee table quality book yourself. The internet has enabled a number of niche businesses to flourish quickly. These momentum companies have found a need and are serving it well. What were their secrets of success and how do they plan to keep the momentum?

Blurb - Robin Goldberg, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Development
TheLadders.com - Robert Turtledove, CMO
Gaia Online - Craig Sherman, CEO
Jingle Networks - Lyn Chitow Oakes, SVP Marketing

• Great businesses are based on passion and on personal pain...
• Business models emerge from feedbacks and conversation with the user's community. The users will let you know what they need and for what they are willing to pay for it.
  
• When a business offers a great service and provide proofs, the users are willing to use and pay part of the service - marked as 'premium'.
• Raising capital has to based the market, real needs and expectations , shared by the founder and the investors.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To be continued...


E.T.

Technorati Tags: Office 2.0, Event, Web 2.0
, dealmaker, undertheradar, KAYAK, undertheradar, FastCompany

In-video Search and Ads

I would like to share with you some thoughts and questions I had during the “Under The Radar Entertainment and Media” Conference yesterday.

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Notes:

There is a need for in-video search capabilities, both for people and for business. For people – it will allow finding relevant movies from large catalogs and aggregated sites, and even easy navigation to a specific frame within these movies. For business – it will allow a new type of monetization models on top of user-generated-content.

Some of the issues related to ads within Internet-videos (pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll) are very similar to mainstream TV. People do not like ads and would skip them if they have a chance. I know I skip them by using Tivo. (I learned that there are already tools for skipping ads within these movies as well…)
Some ads are not related to the show or even the show content is harmful to the marketed brand.

Most companies I saw so far are using Adobe Flash as the delivery format. Using Flash allows merging the movies and the ads into one experience. The main experience I saw so far were textual ads Vs. multimedia ads (a movie within a movie). Encapsulated experience (the information is presented within the player) Vs. Open experience (the ads send the viewer to a Webpage).

Another trend is developing the ads using an ‘ad market place’ where creative professionals and amateurs ‘compete’ on advertisements projects.

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My thoughts:

• Advertising within content (video, feeds, etc.) becomes more relevant as the content available via many portals (destination sites).
• People will continue to skip ads (manually or with some help from independent technologies) while advertisers will continue to push their messages across channels.
• Advertisement agencies leverage creativity from many sources, with a low cost.
• How can content producers be compensated for their content when it been used as a marketing vehicle?
• From “Who own the channel?” to “Who own the clip?”
  

An interesting example for an ad from my friend Craig Cmehil:

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is the new interesting in-video company I saw.
(http://www.pluggd.com/)
With a very interesting text search capability, based on the audio track analysis, as well as "heat map" navigation concept for the scrollbar.
(And again… where was I…)


E.T.

Technorati Tags video, event, marketing, multimedia, undertheradar