The Post Money Value

Academic Earth - Super Brains Direct to You

Academic Earth is an amazing place for you to fill your brain with some excellent lectures from some of the world's best.  Well worth spending time here.

(Thanks, Mom!)

Windows 7, The Musical

PhotoPeach, an online slide show out of your photos offering, is brought to you by the closed beta they won't let me in people from Notaland.

Both of these properties, PhotoPeach and Nota have great about us pages, etc, etc.  Nicely done, especially the kid with a Nikon camera.

Anyway, if you want to elevate the, I dunno, overall umph of your product, grab some screens shots and then go watch this one for inspiration.  I had the tears streaming 10 seconds in. Really.

[Side note: The Nota site appears, based on the blog, to have garnered some good reviews from educators. It's probably worth checking out if you can wrangle a beta invite.]

(Thanks, Mom!)

The Killer Meme - Alive and Well in 2009

What would technology coverage be without somebody, somewhere, saying that this rumored thing is going to be the killer of that existing thing.  Welcome to 2009, everything is fine, situation normal.

Matt Hickey, the freelance writer over on Cnet's Crave blog, gets rolling with "Dell's rumored smartphone: Look out RIM". 

The choice little blurb:

"And that's who Dell will likely be going after. Consider this: your company has Dell servers, so what if Dell offered a special Dell suite of Dell software to connect your Dell servers to your Dell smartphones? Something like what RIM offers, but more compatibility with the Dell ecosystem many businesses already have. "

Memo to Matt: It's called Active Sync and Windows Mobile has been doing this for years.  Other Memo to Matt: That 'something' RIM offers (the BES server) runs fine (like in my office) on a Dell Server. It's completely compatible with the Dell ecosystem.

While the headline may garner snickers from Waterloo (and probably Austin), the 'special Dell secret sauce' idea is, well, is not something we've seen from Dell. Ever. The other point is simply that the "ecosystem" young Mr. Hickey talks about is mostly irrelevant considering the integration points of interest would be Exchange or Lotus Notes. That's the stuff the users would want and that gets me back to Active Sync and whatever the Notes equivalent is as well as the aforementioned BES server. 

All of which is software and all of which runs perfectly fine in the Dell ecosystem. This, of course, is precisely what Dell will tell you. It all runs great on our hardware which you can buy from us. More power, cheaper price, what's your credit card/purchase order number.

Dell makes good hardware at a great price. That's what they do. I owned (via a thoughtful gift) that Dell music player. It played music. It's wasn't an iPod "killer" or a Creative "killer" rather a good piece of hardware that worked.   Good stuff, great price. Simple.

Lesson/Observation for you: If you are doing mobile applications and want to ride on the coattails of the industry at large, look to Active Sync and the associated API/SDK as well as RIM's SDK offerings.  You will find both offerings helpful in your creating a great application/service that tie into the ecosystem that matters.  I'd be careful about looking for the "killer" thing as defined by some. Rarely does it turn out that way.

We can put a man on the moon but

For a number of years, I've made the argument that while there is plenty of cutting edge innovation and plenty of Web 2, 3, 4, and 5 dot oh stuff happening, we don't spend enough time trying to tackle the really basic oops type problems.

Consider the simple issue of you being in a meeting or giving a talk and your cell phone goes off.  On a smart phone, it knows where you are and generally knows your schedule (esp. if you use a RIM device).  So, why not have a simple feature (or app) that I can set which mutes the phone except for emergencies, etc?

Check out who your tier one customers could be by watching this video.  Uh huh, there's a couple of bucks (pounds) a month customer.

Symantec Goes Back to School (Kindergarten)

There are a zillion (maybe more) tools out there to create online presentations, videos, demos, etc.  And companies with a few coins in the bank typically have a few options to make something good. Not amazing, maybe, but good.

Consider the shiny new web site rolled out by Symantec's new offering GoAnywhere.  Dead center in the middle of the page is the 'welcome' video.  Yowsa!   I'm somewhat sure that Don Kleinschnitz, VP & GM Symantec GoEverywhere, is the voice/person behind this epic drama.  You might say good on them for being cheap. Or you might say, are you kidding me?  The sound of the keyboard clicking between PowerPoint (Key Note?) slides was that nice home style touch but overall, Symantec  might have considered getting some interns from, say, a local Kindergarten, to put this together. The kids in finger painting class would have done better.

Lesson for you:  You do not have the luxury of lots of money and time. If you create something this boring/dry, you make the product pitch 10x harder which, as a start-up, you can't afford. Be careful. Symantec can take the hit, you can't.

Consider chasing down one of the Woot guys. One of them has the perfect voice over style. While it may not work for everybody, this video was great.

Guys with a ton of money produce a yawn and scrappy little start-up produces hilarity.

Sums up, exactly, the world we live in, eh?

Where's my snow shovel? <sigh>

If you have an MBA (or not)

Go spend 15 minutes and watch this. 2004!

(see if you catch the key thing he says)

The New Employee Reality (SkyGrid)

Techcrunch, specifically Michael Arrington, wrote a post about some ex-employee of SkyGrid making a twitter snit about her employment.  Lots of interesting lessons and observations for you and your start-up.

Before we get to that part, I'll just offer up a respectful disagreement that these types of blog entries do anything to enhance Techcrunch.  Trying to be a mini-Valleywag really takes away for the core value I suspect many people get from reading TC. No long speech about standards or journalism, etc, as it's his gig and he can do whatever he wants.  Just seems to me there are about a billion other useful stories TC and it's hard working founder could offer up which would be 1000% more useful.

Anyway, on to your start-up.  Angry employees is a reality of any company. Rarely is life perfect at most companies. In fact, it is so rare that you will see 'great places to work' or spreads about this or that company's great culture making headlines versus this behavior being the norm.  So you have to expect some variation of this 'incident' will happen to you and your happy nest sometime.  Here are my suggestions after watching these incidents from various perspectives and on all sides of the table.

First, be fair. I know, your fair is my outrageous and wtf does that mean but I'll say it again anyway; be fair.  If somebody is backing up the truck and hauling computers out the back door, call the cops, but in most cases, go with being fair.  This can mean things like pay adjustments, some extended benefits, use of an email account, etc.  You want to be able to say you were fair and these days fairness will count for something.

Second, go see a lawyer.  Oh put the Taser down, I'm not insane. Before you press the send key, sign the papers, do whatever, go see a friendly lawyer for a 30 minute chat on what is going on, what your options are, and how it should be handled.  If you spend the time with a entrepreneurial focused lawyer like Rob Hyndman, you get both the dispassionate view of an outsider but also some concrete thoughts on how to handle most situations. I've maintained forever that a good lawyer will save you tons of money and gray hair in the long run.  This is just another example of where they can help.

Third, put it in writing. It's nice to go out for a coffee and try to talk things over.  That is all well and good but make sure you have a document that the other person can read when you are done. It should be something that basically covers what you spoke about.  Stay on script is overly controlling but generally speaking to what is in the document and just being human about it will cover it. Then let the document be the guiding actionable.

I'm probably generalizing a massive amount here but given the up close and personal 'people issues' I'm watching and/or dealing with, I'm fairly confident if these three basics were followed to some degree, maybe the heat would come down a fee degrees in the kitchen.

Bonus: SkyGrid.

Ignoring all the noise, I'd suggest you check out SkyGrid's home page for some interesting observations. First, it is nicely done. Click on the more buttons. Nicely done.  There is the buy now button so good on them for get the money now. I can't say if this is good/better then try before you buy but points for trying to get that cash.

And then, for fun, click on the buy now button.  Yeah, you are seeing that correctly; 14 days to get a user name and password.  VC backed, millions raised, two PhDs and a pitch about being this super cool, fancy, high tech service.  I would think that the PhD in Cognitive Psychology (Walt) would tell the PhD in Computer Science (Rok) that people generally don't like coughing up 5 hundo for something and waiting two weeks for a name and password.  But, whatta I know, I'm still trying to verify I graduated kindergarten.

Lesson for you: Watch that call to action. If you take a credit card payment, people are going to expect a bit of instant gratification or something close.

[Extra Bonus: Lord, people, let's all get along, eh? Michael Arrington is not the Anti-Christ and does not deserve this any more then you do, shezz...]

Shoeboxed - Low Tech solution for a High Tech World

Techcrunch has an interesting story about a start-up called Shoeboxed. This is a company where you mail in all your receipts and business cards and they scan/categorize them for you. You can then retrieve them for tax purposes, contacts, etc, etc.  The free version is where you scan them yourself with other plans based on volumes, if you want their pre-paid envelopes, etc.

Many echo-chamber living geeks will have a tendency to laugh at this service/company but when you think about the masses who a) don't have a scanner or b) don't know they have a scanner and then you add the brain dead easy process of stuffing receipts in an envelope, you can see the possibilities.

What's interesting to me is wandering the web site. Click on lots of various pages and you get generally the same message and call to action. It's well done.

And it is a loud message to you that start-ups making life easier or removing a pain point will usually have legs.

How to Know Your Product Doesn't Matter

Silicon Valley Insider has a story about Facebook recruiting former Google employees.  In the story, they show an email thread sent by Glenn Handler (Facebook guy) to the mailing list of X-Googlers.  Nicholas Carlson, the SVI reporter makes the attempt to protect Glenn's email address by blacking it out.

You will, however, notice that Glenn's AIM handle, "ghandler7", got missed.  Of course, given that Glenn wanted that ghandler thing bad enough to put up with the 7, I'm guessing the FB email is ghandler @.

Next time, Nicholas, show AOL some respect and black that name out.

[Bonus: Facebook is hiring in Toronto. Call/Email Glenn but improve your chances by not mentioning my name.]

Microsoft and the Canadian Boogeyman

You can always tell when a product is in trouble. Especially when my former employer is involved.  Consider the continuing (and entertaining) saga of President Obama and his BlackBerry.  He wants to keep it and it appears he's going to get to keep it albeit with some security enhancements and a reminder to avoid sending the classified daily threat assessment back to the buds in the windy city.

Not content to accept that pesky detail, MSFT fields their man in Washington DC, Randy Siegel.  Randy manages to get a particularly sloppy reporter, Andrew LaVallee of the Wall Street Journal, to cough up a hairball, sorry, story about "some experts are questioning whether the Research In Motion device will provide enough security for the president."

Andrew does an amazing job of finding these experts. Tracks them down from every corner of the globe. Who'd he get?  Randy "a Microsoft enterprise mobile strategist who works on federal government projects."

Here's what Andrew's "expert" had to say:

Microsoft, however, has questioned the wisdom of the president relying on a device whose maker is based in Canada. “You would be sending your data outside the country,” says Randy Siegel, a Microsoft enterprise mobile strategist who works on federal government projects. “We wouldn’t want the casual musings or official communications of the most important person in the world being intercepted by others.”

Even if RIM routed information through a U.S. data center, the devices aren’t built to NSA’s security specs, he says.

RIM declined to call Randy a FUD machine or bitch slapping this guy for the Canadian Boogeyman nonsense.  All very Canadian polite like (I love this country).

I'm not Canadian and don't work for RIM so I'll do it.

First, you can be sure the White House Communications Agency (the department who deals with this stuff) has more than a clue about encryption, US/Canadian data centers, and what can/can't be done on any communications device. And they've probably had a word or two with the Prez and/or his chief of staff. 

Second, to keep up with friends (sending 'casual musings'), the president isn't going to be sending encrypted emails anyway unless he plans on outfitting them with secure devices. Not likely.  So in that scenario, email passing through Iceland with a side stop in Botswana is just as vulnerable to interception as your email going through a data center in anyplace USA.  Andrew, you didn't ask the 'expert' about this?

Third, who's the we, there Randy?  Personally, I'm all for the President cranking up Twitter and sending some tweets out telling this or that congressman to chill out. Let's have some transparent 'musings' out there so everybody stays on the same page. Works for me. This is overblown and a clear attempt to create some spooky situation where Waterloo, Canada is thought of as a hot bed of mail interception.  Microsoft FUD comes to mind but that would be harsh.

And, besides, everybody in Waterloo is way too busy trying to get a Pro Hockey team to be worried about the President of the United States pinging his buddies in Chicago.  Priorities, Randy, priorities.

Andrew LaVallee gets a full raspberry for not a) finding an actual expert and b) putting  some effort into this story by separating what we all already know about unsecured email (it's all open) and the solutions for the secure communications (there are many).

Randy Siegel gets points for pulling this off, however.  Wag-Ed will be sending a little something over later in the week, Randy, nicely done.

Bonus Observation: Nothing much changes.  We probably still have $500 toilet seats and $100 hammers brought to you by government spending. Now, we're about to see General Dynamics sell the government $3,500 smart phones along with a  Microsoft 'strategist' working on gov't projects. The mind boggles....

[Bonus Snarky Shot: When Microsoft officially kills the Zune, does that mean all the employees can bring their iPods back to work? Just wondering...]

[Note: Wag-Ed is a nickname for Microsoft's PR agency.]

Hat tip to Silicon Valley Insider where I first saw this story.

Insider Tip for Developers

Read the blogs of QA/Testers.  If your own test people aren't saying it, they are probably thinking it.

A good place to start is Lana Fly's blog.

Here's a nice clip:

"1) Look at the developer - Understand your developers - Goal here is to find bugs, so I am listing traits to look out for. Note: i have made up these categories - so take them with a grain of salt :)

The Cowboy's - these guys are the worst. They pump out code like no tomorrow - a lot of code turn. They don't think or plan what they are doing. They break other peoples code a lot, and they think they are the shit. What makes these dev's different then the principle/architect devs is that they never learn. Its like they keep going in circles. They can just as easily write code and then delete it and write it again, but with no improvement."

and...

"Half Ass Dev - their bar is "it barely works". Everything they do is half ass. If you try a test, only the main scenario works and everything else is broken. Usually these devs have a chip on their shoulder or they are managers of other dev's. They either have been at the company for a long time, or they have had crappy testers in the past. They think they are soo smart... reason i say this is because they are willing to leave their code half done, because they will just pass off the rest of the work to their reports. They are in for the big bang (look at what i did, but with minimal effort) and make the direct reports to clean up their mess"

Personally, I think this is the real hidden gem of blogs. Up close and personal with the people who really do the work. Rock on, Lana.

Free can make you money

I've had a number of people ask for my opinion on Open Source and would VCs (specifically yours truly) fund "Open Source Projects."  When I get into the meat of the question, what is really being asked of me is would I fund a for profit, let's make some coin company that uses Open Source code.  My answer has always been yes with some long winded extra explanation around it.

Adam Smith, one of the founders of Xobni had written a blog entry entitled "What Open Source Can't Do".  Originally when the title zipped into my reader, I thought it was going to be a rant. As it turns out it is a great super mini-manifesto on how money CAN be made in the world of Open Source.

"LogMeIn, which filed to go public in 2008 is basically VNC with a web only client side and central servers that will facilitate NAT traversal across firewalls. Various VNC developers had written software to do this but nobody was willing to maintain the servers. That’s created a business opportunity and a competitive advantage against open source alternative."

and

"But it’s an opportunity for entrepreneurs, and one that will grow in the age of web services and web experiences. Ask yourself: what open source software exists that solves a big problem in a large market?"

Well said, Adam.  Read it all here.

CES - Another One That Got Overlooked

There are days when you just can’t make this stuff up.

www.cell-mateus.com is where you can get all the details.  And if you are looking for a good example of marketing spin:

Priceless.

The Great Bagel War

[Don’t delete/move on just yet, there are a few interesting things related to start-ups/venture capital in here]

As you may know we at JLA have two offices; our world HQ in Toronto and an embassy in Montreal.  We also have an office I maintain in Air Canada Airbus 320s. Unfortunately, the misguided souls in Montreal have only ever been exposed to a thing called a “Montreal Style” bagel.  Naturally, this kid from the east coast (aka NY) is on a mission to help educate my partners on real bagels. 

I’m going to be in Boston on Sunday doing some code review/practice on a possible investment and will either zip down to NY and pick up H&H bagels or grab some from Rosenfeld’s in Newton Center, MA.  We have a 9:30a team meeting on Monday with the Montreal contingent as well as our partners from RBC. This will be a perfect time to education the group on what a proper bagel looks, feels, and tastes like.  6a out of NY (or Boston) and we’ve got hot Bagels at 9:30a in Toronto. I love my Air Pass.

The bagel war got me thinking about opportunities beyond just the obvious: Type “best bagels in Boston” or “best bagels in NYC”, into Google, read through reviews on Yelp, Chow, etc, go with the preponderance of the evidence and that’s it.

Imagine you land in Boston (or NY) and you want ‘the best bagel’.  All you have is your Blackberry (or Apple thingamajig).  You can use the browser and do what I suggested above, or scroll through various sites, etc, but on that little box, it’s a pain.  There has to be an opportunity in here, right?

First, there is your own social network. You can do the ‘going to new york’ routine and let see if you get any responses.  I’m betting that somebody reading this will tell me how good (or not) Roesenfeld Bagels are.  Or I could, tonight, put this bagel thing as my status on Facebook, post a bagel question on LinkedIn (and probably get thrown off), etc, but it’s not the way the masses think. We are spontaneous. We start jonesing for that bagel and we want it now. Yes, you could hit Twitter with this as soon as you start to twitch with a bagel need.

Second, there are tons of review sites. As I mentioned, Yelp, Chow, Judys book, ZipLocal, etc.  The problem is that I’m not going to scan em all during my Bagel fix requirement especially on that small screen. Sure, I’ll get the GPS to point me to Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts but that’s about the limit.

There are scary sites that tell you more than you ever want to know. Absolute Bagels in NY? They make them the old fashion/correct way: Boil em.  They are historic and lots of big shot experts on authentic bagels always point you to Absolute.  Unfortunately, the city of New York and Absolute Bagels have a difference of opinion when it comes to inspections.  Mice and Personal cleanliness seem to be of concern.

So, tons of information out there.  I believe getting all of this data to you and I when we need it most, etc, remains elusive. The challenge is harnessing all this computing power we collectively have to take my request and crunch all of the data, real time, with an answer. 

The problems here are big.  Yelp and crew will barf if they are being screen scraped for somebody else’s application. Even if you could figure out a way past that, next up would be parsing the ratings, blending them, adding fun stuff like who had rats roaming the hallways, and then getting it to you. Plus add some extras like where you are, what time it is, etc.  Maybe I’m not near place A which is the best but I’m around the corner from place B which also got great ratings, etc.

All of these issues also cries out for standards galore.  A standard way for addresses to be put ‘out there’ with geo-codes.  A “real people” system where you and I could sign up and universally be validated as a real person regardless of what site we want to interact. Plus our reviews are ours which could be used in other places.  Microsoft tried this with a project called Hailstorm. A more apropos code name you couldn’t find after watching the hailstorm of criticism dumped on the company.  There other open ID things happening but we aren’t there yet.

The best bagel thing is laughable as a specific problem to solve, I agree, but the larger infrastructure problems, the bigger ways to mash data and present it, certainly are problems worth solving.

So, anybody been to Rosenfeld’s recently?

ShowStoppers and the Art of Paying to Mess Up (Telnic)

At many of the major tradeshow events like CES, Macworld, etc, there is an event called ShowStoppers.  You can read more about this event here but the quick snapshot is that it is touted as an invite only event where the press can (along with a 1000 of their) meet some exciting companies up close and personal.  For the most part, this isn’t a bad gig. It is well organized and based on the people I saw in attendance, delivers the press/bloggers that you’d want to interact with. You pay for a booth/table and, at first blush, it seems companies were getting their money’s worth.

Since I am not a member of the press nor an “A” blogger, they must have made a mistake and invited me anyway.  The event was held at the Wynn in one of the ballrooms.

There were a bunch of companies there all doing their demo thing. Bug Labs (http://www.buglabs.net/), for example, was there in addition to the pod they had over in the Sands Convention Center. In general, most of the companies were very smart about key messages, demos, freebies, etc. 

Well, almost.  Meet Telnic. Telnic is the new top level domain (.tel) which is supposed to be that one stop place for you to put all your contact and other relevant information so that, in effect the Domain Naming Service (DNS) can become one giant telephone  book.  This story is meant to point out a bunch of “don’t do that” type observations, especially if you are going to pay for the event as they did at ShowStoppers.

I went over to the table and picked up the brochure. As I usually try to do, I step back to take a read to see if I am a) interested or b) need additional information.  In this case, I did my usual but a company rep immediately jumped out at me.

Telnic: Can I tell you about the company?

Me: No, that’s okay, let me read the brochure and see if I have questions, thanks tho.

T: Well, the brochure isn’t very good and doesn’t really explain what we do.

M: Ahh, okay, what do you do?

The person proceed to tell me that having rick.tel is perfect to always have a single email address that, no matter where I moved to, etc, I could just give this one out.  You mean like Gmail or Hotmail, I said?  Well, sort of, yes, but they could go down or go out of business and then where would you be. 

We went back and forth on exactly what Telnic and this service could do until this person said “Well, I’m the PR person who set this all up so you might want to speak to somebody in the company.  Given there wasn’t anybody (at that time) around, I said I’ll come back.  For grins, I did come back later and watched a number of people speak with this person all getting pretty much the same speech I got.  I heard 4 times “The brochure isn’t good” or a variation of that theme.

Lessons for you:

• Investigate things like ShowStoppers with a very critical eye. I usually think most are questionable but I was favorably impressed with Showstoppers.  If done right, you can get some good visibility from these special events.
• Know what you are talking about. I dunno, seems to make sense to me.  Personally, a PR person not having a solid talking points paper (at least) and basically telling me the company brochure is worthless, well, not a good use of funds or people.
• Sign me up! Lord, this is the one that is the dumbest of all. Not having me walk away with a .tel account loaded up and ready to brag about it was just stupid.  All those press people/bloggers, etc.  If you have a service, sign me up.  Especially in the case of Telnic. The pain in the ass surrounding all their sign up process, well, wasted opportunity on the part of the company.  If you have a mobile app, like say a music player (Slacker), put it on the device right there.
• Ditch the paper.  You can’t afford this as a start-up, I know, but I’m going to say it anyway. Give me a little memory stick with your material, demos, videos, etc, instead of a pile of paper.  Some of those old word lame reporters at this event complained about having to use them, etc.  <sigh> All I can say is that having a memory stick with all the materials on it was a smart thing the ShowStoppers people did. It included everybody’s materials.  If you, however, have somebody more important than me show up, have a memory stick with the goodies.

The iToaster

Recently, I was giving a talk at a class of business students.  We were discussing “new ideas”, where they come from, how to get them, etc.  As an exercise, I proposed the following:

You are a product manager and you’ve been tasked to come up with the next Toaster for GE.  The existing lines already have the obvious; wide slots for bagels, one sided toasting, deep slots to accommodate large slices, etc, etc.   You need to do something to break out and make your toaster the best and hands down winner for toaster of the year.

I went around the room asking for suggestions.  We talked about a whole bunch of features including the laughable “internet connected” toaster that, while the bread was toasting, gave you the morning weather, traffic, etc.  Different heat settings, colors, number of slots, etc, all were discussed.  This went on until one kid in the back piped up with the following:

“My sister is a goof, she likes toast basically burned and she never puts the setting back to something reasonable. Why not have 4 settings that could be set by people. Then my dip sister could burn whatever and not screw the rest of us.”

Brotherly love. The secret to new ideas. Who knew…

Authenticity - Revisited

All three of you will remember last year when I pointed out the lack of authenticity some web sites use when putting up pictures of the happy workers. Enter Xobni.

I visited the team and checked off the people (and the dog).  As 2009 rolls forward, a friendly reminder that authenticity can (and does) play well.

The Great Trade Show Debate

Every year, good times or bad, there is always a debate after the CES/Macworld run over the merits of tradeshows and their value.  This year was no different.  I was at CES and I can tell you, first hand, the floor was “dead” if you compare it year over year or look at the gaping holes on the trade show floor, or use the no taxi line at the LVCC south hall as indicators.  I’m not sure this tells the whole story so here are some comments and observations you might find useful.

Start-Up? No mobs meant more focused exposure (maybe)

I know I’ll get debate on this but it seemed to me that many of the smaller guys got lots more attention from a much more focused group of attendees.  RIM (small company in Waterloo, Canada) had a good size booth with pods for ISVs to show stuff off.  The booth was ‘packed’ virtually all the time but it wasn’t mobbed to the point nobody could talk to anyone.  I spoke to a number of the companies inside the booth and they all said they were very happy.  Others at the Sands or small 10x10 booths generally shared that people who came in, were not just tire kickers but people who made the effort to get to the show and really wanted information, etc. Many felt it was a better show at least for them.

Just Phoning it in

Engadget, TechCrunch, Boy Genius, Blackberry Cool, etc, had the show covered all over the place. “JK on the Run” was another great blog.  So, the big question I had was simple. Did I see anything the zillions of geek phreaks missed?  Obviously, the answer is yes since you can’t expect it all to get covered.  For example, Gentec International was showing off a Digital Picture frame.  The big deal here is that is takes an inbound email which contains a photo and deals with it.  It just gets displayed. It’s designed to send/receive email from the picture frame.  Pretty smart and the expected evolution of the frames. The idea that grand kid can send grand parent an email with a photo (from a phone, flicker, etc) and it just shows up on the frame as a new photo is an idea that is about time.  My point here is that there were things I saw that didn’t make the blogging world (for a million reasons) so, in general, I think showing up is important.  If you can’t? The blogging world will cover 95% of products release as well as trends, etc.

Little Guys Trend Price and Features.

A knock off electronics company (Nextar) was showing off a micro projector. Engadget picked up on it (making the coverage point I was previously mentioning).  I went through the Hong Kong, China, Singapore booth areas and (surprise) found a manufacture of the device.  In decent quantities, I could get better pricing Nextar was offering.  I point this out because Nextar is driving low cost but with a little work, you can find out where pricing really is.  A big brand might say something is whatever price but I assure you that you can hunt down the folks making the guts or knock offs to understand exactly where features, price, etc, is going.  This has never changed in all the years I’ve gone to CES.

To go or not to go?

If you are launching and/or trying to sell a new tech toy, I’d say yes.  You can do it prudently as well as finding some interesting ways to get some coverage.  Just be ready to take orders. I know marketing and PR people will tell you all about press and this and that but for me, take orders is the go/no go. Clickfree who has a super set of back up products were taking orders. They announced the Clickfree Transformer and were taking orders.  The transformer product is basically a USB cable you plug into any hard drive you have laying around then plug it into your computer.  Instant, hands free, no touch, dead simple, back-up server.   The USB cable has firmware in it. There are no other parts or software.  It’s pretty cool.  They had show specials and they were taking orders.  Hardware or software, take orders or don’t go to the show.  I know broad statement but start with if you ain’t selling you ain’t going as your opening position when everybody in the company wants to go to Vegas.

We are Live: On Everybody’s MacBook

I’m on the WiFi (which is really poor) at the Venetian Hotel. 56 MacBooks are also on the WiFi and 45 of them have wide open, sharing access to the documents folder.  Get’s better.

You’ve probably heard of:

wagged (PR firm)

benq

usatoday

wired

They’ve got PC’s I can see documents on, share printers, etc.

The trust factor here in Las Vegas at the CES event is really amazing and I’m humbled to be part of it. So much so that I’ve dropped all the passwords and access restrictions on my machine so I could join and give out some love and trust.  There, I feel better.

<rolling eyes>

CES Bound

I’m headed to CES, typing this while flying to San Francisco for some meetings then over to lost wages.  Here are some interesting tidbits on costs.  Airfare is for me N/A as I have an Air Canada flight pass.  On Sunday, I made the call to hit CES for a couple of days (more on why in minute).  I used Hotwire to see what car/hotel packages were available.  I do the car thing because sometimes it’s just cheaper than the round trip cab fare and the lines/times, etc, work out.

Hotwire got me into the Venetian with a rental car for 3 nights for $339 all in.  Travelocity showed the Venetian at around $170 a night so I was pleased. I wasn’t surprised at the availability but was (pleasantly) surprised at just how low the prices really were. The car gets me out of cab lines and (in this case) is cheaper than the two cab rides. I walk to the convention so no other transportation costs.

I decide to head out to CES to walk a couple of the key spots where I can get a sense of costs, trends, and what the Asian markets are up to.  The first place I hit is the area between the Las Vegas Hilton and the Las Vegas Convention Center.  The exhibit space between these two facilities is home to foreign (non-US) countries and the country booth.

For example, Taiwan will have a big chunk of space with a bunch of companies inside the subsidized space.  It is here you can find the knock offs of whatever the big boys are showing in the main halls.  Last year, somebody was showing off the 16gig min-SD card, quoting quantity pricing.  Today, I have one ($60) in my BlackBerry.  16 gigs of storage on my belt.   Knowing that last year was a big data point for one of our portfolio companies as well as something built into the thesis about storage/pricing on mobile devices.   

The second place I go to are the big boy partner booths. Typically, Microsoft, Oracle, RIM, etc, all do this. Anybody with a platform/API story will having developers/ISVs/Partners showing off what they are doing. It’s a cheaper way of getting booth space and gives you a focused view on what’s hot/flavor of the month for MSFT, etc.

The third place I go are the theme spots (GPS or RFID or whatever) that the show’s producer creates. These are places within the larger sections of the show floor.  So you’ll have at the Sands Expo center “PC stuff” but sub sections on 3-D graphics (I’m making this up as an example).  The show daily points these mini areas out and typically the new/upcoming items show up here. They are more like pods/stations vs. booths but again, it’s cheaper for the company and you can get a good look at lots of new companies.

I’ll be there a couple of days and will try to report anything I see that could be on interest to you and your start up.

An Exercise with Users

My best friend has a target of a great place to live under the general theory of Work to Live and not the reverse.  The web site used for the dreaming/planning is put together by the real estate company on the west coast called Windermere.  The web site is here.  It is nicely done. The interface, search, scrolling, integration with maps, etc.  It’s all really good.

After playing around with this site for a very long time, I had to ask the obvious: What’s missing or what are the next cool features that would either enhance this site or, if I was going to compete, what would I do differently.

In doing this exercise, I also wanted to make a point to class I was teaching on start-ups and those pesky users. 

I showed this web site to some 14 – 16 year olds. They were on Facebook, text messaged all the time, etc, etc.  The typical profile.  After playing around, I asked them, what would make this site more useful. Note the terminology: more useful.  Two notable items from these kids: being able to text message request for information from the site and being able to launch a VoIP call from the site to ask.

Next were a different two kids and after showing them the site, I asked “what would make this cool”.  Notable answer: Plotting where my friends live by hooking into FaceBook.  These two didn’t even flinch about privacy, etc, rather just said it and then got all into what you could do.  It lead to a conversation about creating a mash-up using the mapping product and putting virtual graffiti on people’s houses but that’s for another commentary.

Up next, 26 – 31 year olds with the same useful question. Notable was overlaying schools and other demographic information into the search/filters.  Probably obvious I know.  When I asked if making a phone call via the site or texting the agent directly, it was generally, naaah, an email is fine. The other notable for this group was adding the inventory of rental properties.

Different couple of people and the “make it cool” question got me: scheduling appointments on the site linked to my Google calendar.  When asked about texting/VoIP, naaah, email is fine.

I grabbed a couple of 56 year olds. The useful question got me the 31 year old’s stuff plus the real estate pricing/value trending. In addition, being able to plot (turn off/on) malls, parks, etc, to get a feel for the neighborhood. I asked the same two, now tell me what would be cool.  After the discussion of cool vs. useful (take note, this happened), I got “click on a property, send it to my Blackberry and when I’m in my car, I get driving directions to it.”  If you have Telenav application on your device, this would actually pretty cool. Probably useful.

There were others from the 26- 56 groups such as you putting in what you can afford or whatever a ‘pre-approved’ mortgage said you could afford and filter on that, etc.  Most of these suggestions were variations on search refinement.

Somewhere in a garage, somebody is slaving away trying to make the next “cool” real estate/house search/mash-up thing.  You have to wonder who the target will be and what the cool vs. useful features will be.

See you on the ground.

Put the (Nuclear) Winter Coat Away

The first day back into my office brought that always cheerful Venturewire update right into ye ol Inbox. Doom. Gloom. Death. Destruction. Vermin. Pestilence.

And that was the good news. 

On the other hand, the  Ontario Centres of Excellence announced 8 funded entities. Here’s the snapshot from the press release.

C2C Link (Hamilton) – This McMaster University start-up makes optical crystal chips that efficiently convert laser light from one colour to another. The company’s technology is the only known method for producing commercially viable green and blue optical chips. Industry experts believe these chips will be the driving force behind a new generation of laser-based displays so advanced that they will even replace LCD-based TVs and monitors, due to better quality and greater energy efficiency.

Echologics Engineering (Toronto) – According to an International Water Supply Association study, 20 to 30 per cent of drinking water produced gets lost on the way to the tap. A December 2007 Sustainable Asset Management study estimated that total water lost in the US alone is 23 million m3 per day – roughly the equivalent of 9,200 Olympic-size swimming pools. Leaks are considered to be the major cause of this water loss. Echologics Engineering Inc. is developing and commercializing technology to reduce leaks in water distribution systems.

IPeak Networks (Kanata) – IPeak Networks has developed a solution for improving the performance of applications across wide area networks like the Internet. IPeak's technology dramatically reduces packet loss and boosts file delivery speed. The results include smooth and uninterrupted VOIP calls and video transmissions, and increased realism for online games. In December 2007, the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation voted IPeak one of Canada’s Top 10 technology companies.

Kneebone (Toronto) – Kneebone Inc. offers proprietary software and related services to corporate clients seeking to make their marketing more effective. Marketing performance measurement tools make it possible for clients to measure the impact of their marketing initiatives, helping them maximize the return on their marketing investments. 

Nulogy (Toronto) – Nulogy Inc. develops supply-chain management software for logistics and contract manufacturing companies. Its flagship PackManager product provides real-time labour, production and inventory information, helping businesses operate more efficiently. Nulogy has received several accolades, including winning a 2008 Red Herring Award for being one of the most innovative and promising companies in Canada.

Regen Energy (Toronto) – A building’s 15-minute peak demand can account for 20 to 50 per cent of each month’s electricity bill. Regen has developed a wireless controller that automatically manages electrical peak demand levels for commercial heating and cooling applications, potentially reducing energy consumption at peak demand by up to 25 to 30 per cent. Historically, optimizing peak demand has only been an option for large commercial operations that could afford complex building automation systems. Regen controllers promise to bring better energy management to smaller organizations.

Skymeter (Toronto) – Skymeter Corporation is a Toronto-based company that provides vehicle-use information using a combination of in-vehicle sensors and a patented data processing system. Potential applications of its system (either available now or in development) include road-use charging, parking metering, location-based marketing and pay-as-you-drive insurance.

Sysomos (Toronto) – Sysomos Inc.’s patent-pending technology can monitor the entire social media space, including blogs, social networks, online forums and news sources. Customers use the company’s data analytics services to monitor how their products and brands are perceived online, and gauge customer reaction to ad campaigns and media coverage – all in real time.

6 of those puppies are right here in Toronto.  So, put away your nuclear winter coat and wear a sweater instead.  Things are getting funded..

Congrats to all the above companies and to John MacRitichie the director business development at OCE. You can learn more about OCE here.