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.

Tag: iPhone apps

GlueCon 09: My Interviews with VCs Brad Feld and Seth Levine

May 14, 2009 / / 0 Comments

While I was reporting from the first-year Glue Conference the past few days in Denver, I had the opportunity to interview two of the guys behind the scenes in launching and planning this great event: Brad Feld and Seth Levine, partners in VC firm Foundry Group, which is based in nearby Boulder, CO. (Actually, of the two, Seth was more involved in Glue, while Brad was the main guy behind launching a sister event called Defrag, which is held in the fall in Denver, the first one being in November 2007.) 

I had noticed in the days leading up to Glue that Foundry Group had announced a new investment (Gist, whose founder was at Glue), then I saw two more investments they announced on their blogs while the event was going on (Medialets and CloudEngines). So, I decided to see if I could interview both Brad and Seth during breaks on Day 2 of Glue to learn about these latest new portfolio companies of theirs.

Brad (left photo) and Seth typify what I’ve called before The New Face of Venture Investing — a post I actually did in December 2007, which specifically called out Brad. BradFeld   I’ve also written previously about Seth, in a post from June 2008 called The Best Advice I’ve Seen Lately on Using Startup Advisors. They are both really nice guys, wicked smart, and doing great work helping many entrepreneurs build successful startups in a place that…well, is not Silicon Valley.  Yes, they’ve proved in spades that it can be done. SethLevine And, unlike your typical VCs, they do believe in investing outside their own backyard — as is the case with all three of their latest investments.  Sure, many of their portfolio companies are in Colorado, where a lot of innovation is going on (which they’re involved in on a day-to-day basis — including the TechStars program, which they helped launch).  But they’re also smart enough to know great ideas and great teams can live anywhere. I love the way they get involved in these events of theirs — they’re right in the middle of it all, very much a part of the “community” that each of these events they’ve launched really has become. It doesn’t take long to realize that both these guys are “people persons” through and through.

I spoke with Brad first, about the Gist investment, which had been announced the week before, and in particular about the investment they had just announced early that morning, on Day 2 of Glue: CloudEngines.

• Download the MP3 of my interview with Brad Feld.

Later the same morning, I spoke at greater length with Seth, primarily about Foundry Group leading a $4M Series A investment in Medialets, which had been announced on Day 1 of Glue.  We also spoke a bit about an earlier investment of Seth’s in the advertising space, AdMeld.

• Download the MP3 of my interview with Seth Levine.

For more about the Glue Conference, see my Twitterstream for the past three days.  I must have tweeted darn-near a couple hundred times!  And I saw this morning after I was back in Minneapolis that conference organizer Eric Norlin said he’d just read through all the tweets on the event — 62 pages total!  You can find the whole shebang by going to search.twitter.com and entering “gluecon” in the search box. It was a very successful event by all accounts.  I’m really happy I was part of it, and have already said I’ll sign up for next year! 

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.

Whatever Happened to Apple’s ‘Push’ iPhone 2.0 Update?

July 13, 2008 / / 1 Comment

I’m kinda pissed at Apple. (And I guess at AT&T, too — but then I’m always pissed at them.)  I mean, being a longtime Apple customer and a loyal iPhone user and all, not to speak of being an AT&T wireless customer since the beginning of time (I have the whole freaking iPhone package, including unlimited text messages).  So the point being, I bought into the whole deal here — okay, Apple?  You and your buddies at AT&T should really like me. Manpushingcar_3

But I just think they treated their existing customers shabbily this time around.  First of all, they never really communicated directly to me (neither firm) about what to expect regarding the upgrade to version 2.0 of the iPhone software, in the week approaching The Big Day.  I had to rely on what was being reported — and it wasn’t all that obvious, actually.  But I did read in a couple of places (can’t remember just where) that the upgrade would be handled by Apple doing a "push" of the v2.0 update to all existing iPhone customers (only those who were "official," of course, meaning signed up with AT&T here in the U.S.). Well, it never happened — still hasn’t. Not a word, and it’s now Sunday morning.

I finally got tired of waiting yesterday. About 11:00 Central Saturday morning, I was chatting with a buddy who told me how he got the update, and it had gone without a hitch for him. So, I went ahead and tried his approach. I hadn’t even tried to go "pull" it down — I was waiting for this "push" that had been promised!

First, on Thursday, I had downloaded iTunes 7.7  — which I’d read somewhere was required first, before I could use the iPhone 2.0 update. No sweat — that happened without any issues.  But I found it strange, come Friday morning (I had figured the 2.0 software wouldn’t be available till then), that I still had not seen the "push." So, I clicked on "Software Updates" in my Apple menu, and was surprised to see it tell me nothing was available — that I was all up to date. (Lies!)  But I figured, hey, they must be overwhelmed right now, or waiting to update existing customers till all new customers could be served (which is another customer service topic, but I won’t get started on that). Iphone20screen

So I thought, okay, apparently Apple did tell the press that this "push" was coming — so just be patient, I reasoned.  What’s the big hurry? I would never even THINK of going and standing in line for a new phone myself, just to be first.  So, why should I care when I actually get the 2.0 update to my current phone?  Except all the hype about the flood of new apps coming — which I couldn’t use without the new software update — was getting deafening. I was itching to get some on my damn phone and try ’em!

Like a dutiful little Apple fan-boy, then, here I was sitting and waiting for this "push" they were going to do to us — and I get super busy, putting in a 15-hour day on Friday. But, heck, I would have broken for a message from Apple!  So, here comes Saturday morning, and I find that the update IS in fact out there for us "old" iPhone users to "pull" down, and that other people already have it!  Shees, I’m a laggard. Apple has left me sitting here looking like an ass, waiting for their damn "push"! 

I had synced my iPhone earlier Saturday morning, expecting maybe to see when iTunes popped up on my Macbook that "You do not have the current iPhone software – do you wish to upgrade?" — or some such message.  Never happened. On the contrary, it said "your iPhone is up to date"!  Weird, I thought, maybe Apple’s servers were still screwed up from the barrage of the day before.  Then, I hear my buddy ask, "So, do you have the new iPhone software yet?  Some of these new apps are cool."  I ask him, "How the heck did you get it?"  He tells me, and it’s really strange.  Get this — even though the message on iTunes tells me I’m up to date, I have to click on a button there that says "Updates" and — lo and behold — I will THEN be able to get my blessed update.  WTF kind of usability is that?

So, natch, now that I become aware of this strange situation, I click.  In another blast of user unfriendlieness, there’s no feedback that anything at all is happening!  So, there I am, wondering WTF to do.  But it had warned me on the initial screen that "This will take a while" (mentioning it had to back up all my stuff first). So, I figured I’d better just leave it alone, that something was happening in the background — and that I should just leave my Macbook and tethered iPhone combo sitting there while I hit the shower.  Some twenty minutes or more later, I came back to find the process was successful, and the two apps I’d previously downloaded on my Macbook the day before (remember, I had iTunes 7.7 so I could do that), were right there on my third "home screen," just like they were supposed to be!  Typepadiphoneapp_2
Those apps were the free Typepad app — so (you guessed it) I can now enter posts from my phone to this blog! — and the free myLite Color Strobe and Flashlight, a "Utilities" app, so I can be the life of the party at my next rock concert. [Okay, I don’t go to many, but I definitely want to be ready… 🙂 ]  Myliteicon

Alas, what to make of this whole mess?  I don’t care about the snafu related to so many people not being able to activate their new iPhone 3Gs on Friday in the stores — I’m talking about the way the software update was handled for existing customers.  It sucked.  I agree with at least one other blogger who said it should have been offered by Apple FIRST to their current, loyal users, well ahead of the onslaught of the iPhone 3G debut on July 11. Instead, they treated us as not important — didn’t even communicate to us about it directly. And, if they’d have gotten that out of the way first, it would have greatly lessened the burden on the servers for the 3G activation process.

Don’t get me wrong — my 2.0 update process went smoothly.  I have my "new" iPhone, I love the apps I have so far, and I will be getting a lot more.  But, then, there are things I don’t like about the App Store process, either — the slowness of them getting new, approved apps up there (I know of several that aren’t there yet and should be), the way they handle consumer reviews, and more. But don’t get me started — that’s a topic for another post.

Maybe I’ll do that one from my iPhone (thank you, Typepad app!) — though it will understandably have to be a lot less keystrokes than this one…  🙂

UPDATE: Whoops, meant to include this link to Declan McCullagh’s post on a CNet blog from Saturday afternoon: Apple iPhone v2.0 software on Saturday: Still M.I.A.

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