Graeme Thickins on Tech

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: IT/Software (Page 25 of 58)

Hints of What’s Coming at DEMO ’09

February 16, 2009 / / 0 Comments

As noted to the right in my sidebar, I'll be reporting from the DEMO conference coming up soon in Southern California. I always look forward to this time of year. I think it will be my seventh or eighth DEMO event in a row (they're held twice a year), and maybe my tenth overall. DEMO is "The Launchpad for Emerging Technology."  DEMO-09-logo+dates
Nowhere else can you get a reading on what's coming in tech better than you can at this event. Click in that graphic to the right for details about registering.

DEMO prides itself in finding the "diamonds in the rough" before anyone else. Over the years, this event has been the site of the first launch of such ventures as Palm, Java, TiVo, and E*TRADE in the mid/late '90s, and, in more recent years, Salesforce.com, VMware, Six Apart, OddPost, IronPort, GrandCentral, and Glam Media, to name a few. 
DEMO says it focuses "on real products ready for market—regardless of their geography." Presenting firms hail from many countries.

DEMO-TheMomenContinues

So, who attends this thing?  Media and bloggers, VCs, business development professionals, IT executives, and new technology firms from all over the world.  DEMO says 15,000 people have attended their events over the past
19 years. Read more here: Who Attends DEMO? Here's a sampling of companies the people of DEMO have told me will be attending the upcoming event on March 1-3: Deutsche Telekom AG, August Capital, Meakem Becker Venture Capital, First Round Capital, Allegis Capital, Motorola, Google, Hitachi America, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Symantec, UBS, NYSE, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, VentureBeat, Business Week, Forbes, ABC, eWeek, North Bridge Ventures, NTTCOMWARE, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Verizon, Alcatel-Lucent, SVB Capital, Mayfield Fund, Granite Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, and more.

What kinds of firms will be pitching?  Well, DEMO doesn't let out much in advance of the show — certainly not the list of presenters. That's a big secret. (Companies actually have been dropped from the event if they leak that they're presenting. And we press attendees, of course, have to honor that embargo as well.) The list of presenters is only released the Friday night before the event, which kicks off with a Sunday night reception. (I always post that list of presenters as soon as it's released to the press, so watch this space on the evening of February 27th.)  But the DEMO producers did provide me with an interesting set of stats on the DEMO '09 presenters, represented in a couple of charts. So, here's a Breakdown of DEMO '09 Presenters by Market Segment and Funding to Date:

DEMO-09-stats But should we really be expecting much excitement at DEMO this year?  Isn't the economy in the tank?  Does innovation really move ahead in these times?  You bet it does!  And the DEMO blog cites recent examples of that from the 2001 downturn. Sure, there will be fewer attendees, and fewer presenters. For the last several shows, we've seen about 65 presenters on average doing their six-minute pitches at each event. This time, it will undoubtedly be less, maybe may even fewer than 50. But I guarantee you we'll be hearing some of tomorrow's big winners, on stage for the first time. Because we always do. And the anticipation of that is, frankly, really exciting to me, and to the rest of 500+ who will be attending. It is an extremely upbeat affair, every single time.

There are some great updates being posted on The DEMO Blog, by Chris Shipley, Executive Producer, and other staff members.  Here are three recent posts:

• Two Panels Just Announced for DEMO '09 … VCs on one, past DEMO company CEOs on the other
• Smart Money Takes a Flight to Quality … "yes, it's a great time to throw a conference that launches new technology products, spots trends, and celebrates innovation"
• Making a Lasting Impact … about how one past DEMO presenter, battery company Boston Power, is growing rapidly

And give a quick listen to a podcast about DEMO '09 recorded on January 29 by my friend Keith Shaw of Network World and Carla Thompson of the Guidewire Group.

Your intrepid reporter: pumped and ready. I can't wait to live-tweet DEMO '09! I did somewhere between 200 and 300 newsy tweets at the last one — so (fair warning) get ready for the firehose!  And I'll be doing podcast interviews for the first time, too, with my whiz-bang new toy: a studio-quality handheld recorder. I'm gonna give it a go in the way of some short, ad-hoc interviews of presenting company founders, VCs, and various luminaries wandering the great hall, the pavilion, and (of course) the hallways. And I'm told I can upload these pretty quickly to my blog, giving those of you who can't be there at least a near-realtime sense of what's going on at DEMO.

Will you be going to DEMO '09?  If so, let us know in the comments! (And let's try to meet up face-to-face.)  If you can't make it, what would you most like to see covered? What answers would you be seeking if you were there? What you would most want to get out of the event?

Minnedemo Was Great … Now, How About Those Business Models?

February 8, 2009 / / 5 Comments

If you're part of the Minnesota Internet and software community and you missed Minnedemo on Friday night, you must be bummed — as several of you told me from afar as I was tweetin' it … :-)  Minnedemo-logo
[Evidenced by this clip from my twitterstream that night, which shows a few of those who were talking back at me in real time.]  You missed a great event.  No worries, though, because myself and my buddies at Minnov8 posted lots of audio and video recorded at the event for your listening and viewing pleasure.

Minnedemo_Tweet-outs

But, for those of you who were there, how many of you noticed what I did?  Namely, the almost complete lack of the presenters talking about their business model?

I have something to propose for future Minnedemo pitches: how about, as part of the 7-minute presentation, a new rule is instituted that states a minimum of one minute of that has to be devoted to explaining the business model? Is that an unreasonable request? Even thirty seconds would be a welcome addition.

Now, I realize the traditional audience of Minnedemo is developers, listening to their fellow developers on stage presenting their cool, new code creations.  Elegance in app design and functionality have been the focus of pretty much every presentation I've seen at these events.  Or features.  Or UI design.  But, is not the end-game in all this something that might actually be commercially viable, too?  That is, a business that could make it in the real world?  From where I sit, more and more business people and investors have started to attend these quasi-quarterly events.

I don't mean to imply that none of the presenters on Friday night has a business plan. Of course, all but the very newest, coolest projects must have one, right?  And it would then follow that these presenting companies would have to have a business model for how they will make money.  They just didn't talk about it Friday night — or, in most cases, even mention it.

I say that's a big thing missing from Minnedemo. What do you think?  Should presenters be required to talk more about such things?

Where I’ll be Tonight: Minnedemo! Look Me Up…

February 6, 2009 / / 0 Comments

For all of you readers, followers, and friends lucky enough to be in Minneapolis right now — yes, February is good for something! — it'll be All The Tech You Can Handle tonight at our quarterly Minnedemo event, mixed in a with a frosty brewski or two. BeerMug
Myself and a couple of my buddies from Minnov8.com (Steve Borsch and Tim Elliott) will even be there doing video and audio interviews for our next podcast — so get ready to have a mic shoved in your face while you're navigating that beer mug… 🙂

For the details of what's happening, here's the post I did on Minnov8 earlier this week:

Emerging Minnesota Software and Internet Technologies to Take the Stage on February 6

Entrepreneurs, software developers, and computer professionals of
all stripes will be rubbing shoulders again this Friday evening with
other hopeful company founders, VCs, angel investors, bloggers, and
media people from throughout the Twin Cities and other parts of the
Upper Midwest.  They'll
be gathering for what's become a not-to-be-missed quarterly geek-fest
called Minnedemo.

minnedemo-logo Billed as "the Twin Cities’ premier technology demo
and networking event," it features free beer, pop, munchies, and lots
of conversation, with product demonstrations mixed in between. The
latter are delivered from the stage of an auditorium with theater-like
seating. More than 200 people are expected to attend.

Minnedemo is being held for a second time at Intermedia Arts in
Uptown’s Lyn-Lake neighborhood, and will kick off about 6:00 p.m. this
Friday, February 6, with demos starting about 7:00. (Intermedia Arts is
located at 2822 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55408.) According to
Minnedemo organizer Luke Francl, "All are welcome, just please remember
to RSVP online." The web site for registering (again, it's free) is http://minnedemo.eventbrite.com/. 
This quarter's event will feature ten demos — five, then a break, then
five more. Most demonstrators will be launching their products or
showing off their creations for the very first time. Here they are
alphabetically:

actionchess-logo65wAction Chess
is a game app for the iPhone, described as a cross between Tetris
Attack, Tetris, and the classic board game Chess. The developer claims
it "makes your brain work in interesting ways." It will be released for
the iPhone in the coming weeks and will be demoed on stage. (Martin
Grider will present.)

amo-logo1Association Manager Online
(AMO) is a new web application from local development shop ArcStone
that let members, staff, and administrators of associations and
non-profits manage tasks (such as sending emails, posting documents,
collecting payments, etc) in a secure manner from any internet browser,
whether at home or work. (David Carnes will present)

bevpost-logoBevPost
is a site that lets consumers select coupons for their favorite adult
beverages and have them delivered directly to their cell phones, so
they can redeem them at their local liquor store and save cash. (John
Ballatine will present)

enstratus-logoenStratus
is a brand-new startup that's addressing the "confidence" questions
businesses naturally have as they move their systems into Amazon EC2
and other "cloud computing" environments. The company, recently
launched by the founders of successful local software firm Valtira,
provides a suite of cloud infrastructure management tools that enable
companies to automate the secure deployment, scaling, monitoring, and
disaster recovery of their cloud computing infrastructure. (George
Reese will present.)

loudclick-logoLoudClick
is a free website builder program that people can use to build web
sites around their interests together, all without the need of a
techie. (Alex Huff will present.)

nabbit-logoNabbit
lets you identify a song you hear on the radio using your mobile phone.
Just text Nabb and include the call letters of the station you're
listening to. The service will fetch the song information for you and
deliver it to your account page on its web site. The company also
recently introduced a native iPhone app. (Norton Lam will present.)

re-searchr-logore-searchr
is a social search app that lets you "find stuff easier" online. It
helps you get search results from people you trust, using data from
your friends to influence the re-searchr score presented on top of your
search results. Another feature pushes your questions out to your
social networks, where your friends can then answer or comment; the app
then lets you push back their answers or comments for others to see. 
(James Ostheimer will present.)

sendoncue-logoSendOnCue
is a browser plugin that lets you schedule email delivery for later. It
integrates directly into your email or webmail client. Send an email
reminder at a later date and time. Slow down a conversation by delaying
when your reply is sent. If you work odd hours, you can adjust the time
your email is sent. (Aaron Kardell will present.)

socialbrowse-logoSocialbrowse
is a YCombinator-funded startup that provides social bookmarking with
discussions in the browser. It lets you share and discuss the web in
real time, and see what's good on every page. It  combines your social
network with your everyday web browsing. You can share and discuss any
page with a single click. Pages you share or comments you make are
automatically sent to other users in your network. You receive
real-time updates of cool links shared by people you like. (Zack Garbow
and Dave Fowler will present.)

ZippyStat (no web site yet) is a simple online service to
record and monitor nearly any type of information such as your gas
mileage, business cards collected, "poops by your newborn," books read,
miles run, etc. (Kelly Heikkila will present.)

This Minnedemo event is sponsored by:
• New Counsel
• Split Rock Partners
• Sierra Bravo
• Tightrope Media Systems
• The Foundation
• VISI

In a first for Minnedemo, this entire event will be video recorded, courtesy of TJ Kudalis from Internet Broadcasting.
And, I'm told, monitors will be located in the networking area for
those that can't squeeze into the limited seating in the auditorium. In
addition, Minnov8 will be recording interviews throughout the
networking portion of the evening, with the help of 612Authentic, also
a first.  For more information, see the Minnedemo web site.

MInt.com Launches a Free iPhone App That’s (are you ready?) Actually Useful

December 22, 2008 / / 2 Comments

Tired of iPhone apps that are a mindless waste of time?  Ready to try doing something with that expensive little pocket communicator of yours that's actually productive and useful?  Better yet, an app that might even improve your financial life in these times, when so many of the faithful must be staring at their AT&T wireless bills and thinking "WTF? What was I thinking?" 

Well, bunky, do I have an app for you: the Mint.com personal finance app. The news of its launch hits the wire today, but the company posted about it on Friday, and at the same time alerted us bloggers… many of whom I suspect were looking for something — anything! — positive to write about. That was sure the case with me, so the announcement struck a chord. Mint.com-iphoneapp

The Mint.com app does seem to stand out as something that could change people's lives for the better. I mean, I like identifying a tune on the radio with Shazam just as much as the next guy. But does it really move me forward in my life in any real way?

With the Mint app, we're talking real, live JINGLE, baby!  Money, scratch, dinero, green, benjamins, clams, smackers, wonger, moolah, cabbage, lettuce, loot, dough, bread. 

That's right, Mint.com is promising us this app will actually…pay us, not cost us. For more on that, you need to get into their blog post linked above, which is entitled: "Putting Money in Your Pocket in Time for the Holidays." 

Talk about a blog post for the season! Yes, they're talking to all you masses of iPhone-toting, last-minute Christmas shoppers out there…

What Can You Do With It?

Here's how Mint describes their new tool:

"Our iPhone app delivers the same simple yet powerful experience you get from our web service — right to your phone, and updated automatically. Discover the comfort and joy of having access to your financial information anywhere, anytime… "

Specifically, the company gives these examples of what the app lets you do:

• Check your credit card balances from that seemingly endless checkout line.
• Monitor your gifts budget in real time, in case your loved ones are burning up the plastic at another mall.
• Stay on top of your finances while traveling. You’ll know if your paycheck cleared without navigating your relative’s dial-up service.
• Watch your investment performance, distributions, and dividends. Helpful in deciding when it’s okay to sell and realize those capital losses, sadly.

And, yes, I know what you're all thinking…but they say they have that covered, too:

• Security Feature: Rest assured that you can disconnect iPhone access from your Mint.com Profile should your iPhone ever be lost or stolen.

How They Did It and Why

I asked Mint's crackerjack PR firm, AtomicPR, some questions about how the firm developed the app — because, at first, I was actually more interested in that aspect of the story, having been so close to iPhone app development throughout 2008 with our local startup DoApp Inc.  I hear all the time about companies, big and small, wanting to do iPhone apps, and I know full well the time and expense that can be involved in developing a really good app. So, I fired off some questions to them. Lo and behold, the founder and CEO, Aaron Patzer, was right back at me with some answers.

Q (me): Who Developed it?  A: "The Mint.com iPhone application was developed internally by Mint developers."

Q (me): How long did it take?  A: "The entire project took a little less than two months from concept to App Store, with really 4-5 weeks of core development by two engineers — one front end, one back end."

Q (me): What's been Mint's story with mobile up to now?  A: "We delivered our first mobile feature –  outbound SMS bill reminders, low balance alerts, budget alerts — 15 months ago.  Our second was inbound SMS.  Any Mint user — even those without an iPhone — can text 'bal' to shortcode MYMINT (696468) for their real-time balances. That came out in October. The iPhone app was scheduled right behind that."

Q (me): Why iPhone?  A: "About 40% of Mint users have iPhones (from a survey we did), with half of the remaining 60% planning to buy an iPhone within the next 6-12 months. The overlap between Mint.com and Apple usage is ridiculous."

Q (me): What about an Android version — any plans?  A: "As a general rule, we will support any mobile platform that more than 20% of our users are using.  First, SMS (almost 100% of people have that), second iPhone (40%) of users, and then we'll take it from there."

Thanks, Aaron.  So now, I'm curious: how many of you iPhone users out there would seriously not use a free app like this?  Of course, you must sign up for Mint's service first, which is a bit of a commitment. But they say that only takes five minutes, to link the service to all your accounts. 

What do you think, are you gonna do it?  Or have you already?  In my case, I downloaded the app, and that will now incent me to sign up for Mint…  :-)  Amazing, the power, the pull of the iPhone.

The Clear and Simple Solution to the Current Downturn: The Entrepreneurial Economy

December 20, 2008 / / 2 Comments

The big answer to our current economic plight is not a new one: it is staring us right in the face. It has brought us out of many a recession before this one, and it will do so again. It is simply this: the ingenuity and perseverance of the American entrepreneur. Something never be taken lightly! 

I was delighted to recently stumble across a blog post from GrowThink entitled The "Downturn" — Keeping Things in Perspective, by the firm's founder, Jay Turo.  It is so good, I just want to do everything I can to spread it. GrowThink-blog
I *so* wish I would have written it, because this every message has been going around in my head for some time now. And it's a message I guarantee you won't get from the mainstream media!

I wanted to call it out here as required reading.  What you should get out of it is this: stop paying attention to the "woe-is-me" media … flight negativity with every bone in your body … and do everything you can to support our country's strong, ever-committed entrepreneurial economy.  It is THE major source of new jobs and wealth creation in this country, and we all benefit from it greatly in myriad ways, directly or indirectly.  It has been, and will continue to be, what makes our economy grow, and our country great.  And no recession can hold it down!  People, layoffs are about the past — the entrepreneurial economy is about the future…and change, positive change!!

I believe the year 2009 will bring great things, and I'm very proud to say I'm a supporter and believer in American Capitalism.  It is the best political and economic system in the world, and it's a strong now as it ever was.

UPDATE 12/22/08: I was delighted to see that my friend Brian Solis wrote an *absolutely awesome* post on TechCrunch the day after I posted the above, called Fear Kills Businesses, Dead.  It's a great complement to what I'm saying here in my post.  There are so many reasons for businesses to be positive — yes, right now — particularly if you're a lean, mean, nimble tech startup!  Read this post by Brian, and take it to heart!  It even quotes my friend and past client Steve Larsen, who used to be based here in Minnesota.  (See an article I wrote on Steve earlier this year, which appeared on "Chief Executive" magazine's site: Zen and the Art of Startup Maintenance.)

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