Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Category: Innovation (Page 28 of 77)

DEMO 09 – Interview With DEMO Presenter Silverstone Solutions

Graeme Thickins of Tech~Surf~Blog interviews David Jacobs, founder of Silverstone Solutions, at the DEMO ’09 conference, which was held March 1-3, 2009, in Palm Desert, CA.
At this DEMO, which has to be about my ninth or tenth, I saw a product pitch I never thought I would: for an application that actually saves lives. Silverstone’s “Matchmaker” is a clinical app that lets transplant organizations manage their Kidney Paired Donation program. The founder, David Jacobs, told a poignant story of how he lost a brother to kidney disease and, later, had to deal with getting a transplant himself. He saw firsthand the difficulty medical centers have in matching donors to recipients and, as a longtime software professional, saw it as a problem that software could solve. (I apologize, the first 30-60 seconds of this interview got clipped off — okay, I must not have hit the on button at first! — so, we join David in mid sentence. But I think you’ll get the gist of what this life-saving startup is all about.) Note: Silverstone later was awarded one of seven “DEMOgod Awards.”

Silverstone-DEMO09-350w

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DEMO 09 – Interview With DEMO Presenter Jadoos

Graeme Thickins of Tech~Surf~Blog interviews Afrus Tavakoli, CEO, and Lukas Rosenstock, CTO, of Jadoos at the DEMO ’09 conference, which was held March 1-3, 2009, in Palm Desert, CA.

The concept of a remote control for the web was, I’ll have to say, something I hadn’t really thought of till I heard about this next company, whom I interviewed on Tuesday: Jadoos. Their remote control is all about helping you manage your identity online. The company’s backend technology they call a cloud-based web operating system. Their remote control shows up in your browser window at the upper right, a nicely designed visual UI with icons that click to access various web apps, features, or sites. I spoke with Afrus Tavakoli, CEO (left), and Lukas Rosenstock, CTO.

Jadoos-DEMO09-350w

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DEMO 09 – Interview With DEMO Presenter 7 Billion People

Graeme Thickins of Tech~Surf~Blog interviews Mark Nagaitis, CEO of 7 Billion People, at the DEMO ’09 conference, which was held March 1-3, 2009, in Palm Desert, CA.

I’d been wanting to get to this company since hearing their on-stage pitch Monday morning, and I finally got a chance on Tuesday afternoon when, for once, their booth wasn’t mobbed. Talk about a company with an interesting naming strategy: some think names beginning with “A” are good, to get you to the front of the alphabetical listings — well, this outfit jumped even ahead of that by using a number. A big number. I asked CEO Mark Nagaitis to tell me more about his firm’s new approach to personalized online shopping.

7BillionPeople-DEMO09-350w

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DEMO 09 – Interview With Cazoodle: Future DEMO Presenter?

Graeme Thickins of Tech~Surf~Blog interviews Govind Kabra, CTO of Cazoodle (a future DEMO “hopeful”), at the DEMO ’09 conference, which was held March 1-3, 2009, in Palm Desert, CA.

I was pinged late Monday by a DEMO attendee, Govind Kabra, who wanted to give me a look at his startup’s new search technology. My first thought was, gee, I hardly have time to cover the official presenters here…but I thought, what the heck, I admired his tenacity.  So, I emailed him back before I went to the DEMO Jam Session Monday night and told him to find me at breakfast Tuesday morning. I was about chow down with Don Dodge and couple other folks when he introduced himself, and I learned he was from the University of Illinois. I told him, with that bloodline, I definitely wanted to hear more. So, after I ate, we sat down in the back of the big room just before the lights were to be lowered for the start of another big day at DEMO, and I let him tell me what his startup is doing to disrupt the apartment search business.

Cazoodle-DEMO09-350w

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DEMO 09 – Interview With DEMO Presenter Always Innovating

Graeme Thickins of Tech~Surf~Blog interviews Gregoire Gentil, CEO, and Marivi Lerdo de Tejada, PR strategist, of Always Innovating at the DEMO ’09 conference, which was held March 1-3, 2009, in Palm Desert, CA.

On the second and final day of DEMO, I continued in the Pavilion area (during the breaks from the conference sessions in the main room). There was no way I’d have time to interview all 39 presenters, but I just had to catch Always Innovating to hear more about their “Touch Book.” I chatted with Gregoire Gentil, CEO and founder, and PR strategist Marivi Lerdo de Tejada to learn more after seeing their very excellent pitch on Monday afternoon.

AlwaysInnovating-DEMO09-350w

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