DEMO 2012 – An entrepreneur experience & suggestions

Earlier this week, DEMO, considered as the launchpad for startups, was held in Santa Clara Convention Center and our company DocSync.Net was selected amongst other 81 vendors to showcase their wares at the show.  This blog talks about our experience and an amalgamation of some of the comments heard from other startups along with some comments on what can DEMO do to make this conference even better next year.

For the uninitiated, DEMO is like an American Idol but for entrepreneurs. Unlike American Idol, it only lasts for 2 days and winners only get one chance of 6 minutes to make their pitch along with an opportunity to showcase their products in the exhibit area. Every company comes with certain goals to the conference with launch publicity being number one followed by investor interest and partnership discussions.

Organization

The amount of preparation and the amazing efficiency with which this conference operates, I would like to congratulate not just the organizers but everyone else in the team for an excellent conference. Yes sometimes there are schedule delays and long waits for speakers but considering the number of companies doing live presentations, it is still amazing that conference works as well as it does.

Initial Feedback

For many companies this may be their first public showing of the product and hence it is a great forum to get initial feedback on your product and your pitch. Moreover the preparation that an entrepreneur has to go through to get ready for this including working with a demo coach, doing an on-stage and many off-stage rehearsals really prepares an entrepreneur well.

We also got to meet lot of other entrepreneurs who are also likely to be partners and users of our product. We got a lot of useful feedback from fellow entrepreneurs and managed to sign up a large number of beta customers. In that sense it was a successful event for us and probably for many other companies.

Sages and their feedback

After every six or so presentations, there was a sage panel of 4-5 experts giving their commentary on the pitches of various companies. Comparing it to American Idol, there were a lot of “Simon Cowell wannabes” in the sages and so entrepreneurs needed to have a thick skin while taking in the feedback. Most of the companies in a session were totally unrelated to each other and sometimes companies in pre funding were in the same session as a company in Series D round of funding thereby creating an unwarranted comparison.

The best sage panel, in my opinion, was the last one on Consumer wherein some of the sages looked at what was there and what can be done with the ideas and some sages like James Slavet of Greylock even made an effort to do some due diligence on his smartphone to see the background of the founders and taking that as part of his feedback.

Press and Buzz

Did Demo help companies in creating buzz? Yes it did but as usual the buzz varied from company to company as well as on how well the company leveraged the available resources.  We were lucky to get few articles written about us. Was there a lot of press at the show? Compared to last year, I felt that the press presence was somewhat light at the show with lot more press from IDG group of companies and not much from mainstream national media. However, I am hoping that as DEMO content spreads, it will create a more lasting buzz for many companies.

Investors

Meeting investors was not my prime goal but it sure was a goal for many entrepreneurs. I did get some interest from investors but I couldn’t guess as to how many investors were at the show and how many of them really made it to the exhibit area to meet with entrepreneurs. May be other entrepreneurs can chime in and share their experiences here especially the ones that came with that goal in mind.

What should be changed?

Rather than putting companies by broad technology categories, the companies should be classified by their stage i.e. Seed vs Series A vs Series B or by the amount of funding they are looking for. For example putting a late stage company like Fusion I-O in the same group as our pre-funded company DocSync was just a wrong fit. DEMO already has an example of that in Alpha Pitches and what I am suggesting is to make the similar changes to the overall agenda. In addition, the sages for each of the sessions should be actual investors who are interested in investing in this stage.

Read Full Post »

Mobile, Social & Cloud – How will these three trends of 2010 do in 2011? Part-II Social

Mobile Computing, Social Networking and Cloud Computing have been driving tech industry for 2010 and will likely continue to be the driver for this year. What differences, if any, will be felt in evolution of these trends this year. Here are some of my opinions and I sure would like to hear yours on these topics. Part-I of this blog dealt with Mobile issues while Part-II deals with Social Networking issues while Part-III will deal with Cloud Computing.

Social Networking Trends

The three big trends in social networking are:

• Social Everything
• Revenue models of social networking companies
• Social media analytics

Social Everything

First it was about social networking and then it was about social gaming and now it is about social everything including social CRM, social media, social politics and social shopping. Social concepts will become part of every application whether consumer facing or enterprise focused. Will it even be a stand-alone market longer term or just become part of every application? What new social trends will emerge next?

Revenue models

Facebook will go public and after initial euphoria, its valuation will become realistic. Facebook revenue model will continue to butt heads with governments and users’ privacy issues as Facebook becomes the darling of media agencies to precisely target everyone of us. Twitter will finally invent a new business model realizing that its value is in being a hub rather than a content site. Will Groupon become the fastest $1B revenue company in 2011?

Social media engagement and analytics

Every company that didn’t get on the bandwagon of social media will have no choice but to join the party and hopefully learn beyond passive Facebook fans and likes. Companies will learn to build communities and relationships with their users on social networks. Traditional market research will find a friend or foe in social media data as it will move from passive monitoring to detailed analytics. Social media analytics will likely help in predicting various product and services future in a real time fashion. What is your organization doing with social media data?

Conclusion

Unlike the past, Tech industry trends now start in consumer markets. Social media and its use is moving from consumer market into enterprise market and companies will have no choice but to embrace, adopt and analyze social media.

Read Full Post »

Mobile, Social & Cloud – How will these three trends of 2010 do in 2011? Part-I Mobile

Mobile Computing, Social Networking and Cloud Computing have been driving tech industry for 2010 and will likely continue to be the driver for this year. What differences, if any, will be felt in evolution of these trends this year. Here are some of my opinions and I sure would like to hear yours on these topics. Part-I of this blog deals with Mobile issues while Part-II will deal with Social Networking issues while Part-III will deal with Cloud Computing.

Mobile Computing Trends

The three big trends in Mobile Computing are:

• Android and Mobile Phones
• Tablets and iPad
• Apps Apps

Android and Mobile Phones

Android was the big news of 2010 and will continue its march into mobile dominance. However, as Android moves more into the mainstream, battery life, fragmentation, usability and app store issues will come in its way of total domination. Apple will innovate again this time improving speech interface and competing with Google on replacing our remotes, wallets and keys with mobile phone. In the mobile industry, the dominance for No.3 spot will be fought hard between Microsoft, Nokia and RIM. Who do you think will be the winner in the end?

Tablets and iPad

Tablet was the big news of 2010 but competition to iPad only arrives this year. Android may take the second spot and battle for third spot will be fought between HP’s Palmtop, RIM’s Playbook and a player we don’t know about yet? Having used iPad for the last few months, I think Tablets have the potential to replace laptops for many users. What are your experiences?

Apps Apps

Apps was the big news of 2010 with limited monetization but new business models will emerge making monetization easier. HTML5 will become viable for many content applications and start to become the trend of 2011. In fact, that is the only way Microsoft, Nokia and RIM can neutralize some of the momentum of Android and iOS applications. You can see over 70 conversations on Linkedin at http://linkd.in/h7hhr5 about this topic

Conclusion

Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS will continue its dominance for mobile phone and tablets but battle for No.3 spot will be fought between HP, Microsoft, Nokia and RIM.

Read Full Post »

What is iPad good for? How does it compare to smartphones and laptops?

After reading Wall Street Journal’s Walter Mossberg and a Microsoft diehard on how great Apple’s iPad is and then other influencers like Vivek Wadhwa deciding to craigslist their iPad, I decided to find for myself and share my experiences with other prospective buyers and customers of iPad.

Let us first understand few key differences or killer features of iPad before understanding its usage

• Orientation – The mere fact that laptop creates screen as a barrier between two people while iPad allows you to be at the same level as the other person, iPad is a better media consumption device for individual and a co-worker.
• Instant On and Connectivity – Brooke Crothers, in his CNET article about Four Killer Features identifies this as a key one and I fully agree that it changes everything.
• Battery Life – Being able to watch movies throughout the intercontinental flight and still have battery left over is an achievement that makes iPad ideal for media consumption of all kinds.
• Size and Weight – Weighing a mere 1.5 Pounds and the size of a standard notebook, it is much more portable than a laptop but not as tiny as a phone.

iPad is a media consumption device and most of us are consumers of media most of the time with occasional commenting and replies. However, if you are a media creator like a writer, movie creator or database entry person then iPad is a wrong device for you. Once we agree it is a media consumption device, let us compare it with other devices for different media types so that you can make a more informed decision on whether iPad is the best device for you or not. When I hear stories like my 3-year old and my grandfather who have never been comfortable with a laptop are now enjoying the company of iPad, it just confirms my assertion that it is a good media consumption device even for non techies.

In my opinion, Table 1 below is a comparison of how each of the three devices compare for various media consumption functions. A is the best with C being the worst and B in the middle. I will expand on these points in subsequent blogs and look forward to hearing your feedback on these.

Conclusion

iPad is not a media creation device but is a media consumption device. As a media consumption device, it sure beats a laptop or a smartphone. It is not a replacement for either of these devices but an attempt by Apple to create a new category that will soon be imitated by many vendors.

However, iPad needs some major changes like inclusion of Flash (unless Apple can hire Harry Porter to use his wand and have all of the Flash sites converted to HTML5 overnight), new applications written for iPad like multimedia textbooks beyond just PDF version of books and inclusion of camera and facetime like application.

Table 1 – Rating of Media Consumption for Laptop, Smartphone and iPad

Type of Media	Laptop	Smartphone	iPad	Comments
Web Surfing	A	C	B	iPad’s lack of Flash limits its use on many sites
Reading Newspaper & Magazines	B	C	A	Reading Newspapers & Magazines is really pleasant on iPad apps – consistent with Cooper Murphy
Reading Non-Text Books	B	C	B	Kindle beats iPad here for its size and screen type
Reading Text Books	B	C	A	Lack of multimedia content is limiting iPad here
Enjoying Music	C	A	B	Smartphone smaller size better for music listening
Sharing Pictures in person	B	C	A	Great screen and orientation of iPad makes it the best portable Photo frame
Watching Movies	B	C	A	Excellent battery life and great screen makes iPad the best in its class
Using Social Networking like Facebok, Twitter & Linkedin	B	B	A	Using these apps from a couch or bed is just so much better on iPad
Playing Casual Games	C	A	B	Depends on the type of game
Running Enterprise Apps	A	C	B	VDI makes it easy to remotely run Windows Apps on iPad
Using on Airplane	B	C	A	Finally you can watch a movie even in economy

Read Full Post »

Can you survive going back to Blackberry after iPhone?

I liked my iPhone, but for reasons that belong in a different blog, I switched back to Blackberry after almost a year. First, it was difficult but having been used to Applications, I started discovery of app store on Blackberry and was pleasantly surprised and somewhat disappointed. This blog is about my journey back to Blackberry for now.

Gmail Integration

First positive change was recognition of Gmail by Blackberry in the form of a Gmail connector that made it easier to use. On the other hand, native Gmail app from Google still doesn’t work well on Blackberry as delete keys don’t work, it is slow, doesn’t do push and consumes more battery. Similarly, contact and calendar sync work fairly well.

User Interface

Lots of nice icons have been created on Blackberry Curve but their usability is poor especially after working with beautifully designed icons of iPhone. Most of the time you have to read the description of the icons to understand what they mean – case in point Application, Games, Downloads, Setup just look so similar. Finding App Store on your Blackberry is a challenge – It has Applications and then Downloads menus. App Store is hidden under Downloads and that is where Apps come before you decide to move it elsewhere.  I just wish Blackberry pays attention to these details as much as it has paid attention to Email and the curves on its keyboard.

How many Apps does one need?

Coming from Apple iPhone experience, one needs lots and lots of apps and I had over 30 when I switched. However, Blackberry made me realize that I only really used less than 10 apps and so I came looking for applications that I really needed.

Communication/Social Applications

Besides Email, IM, and Facebook, Twitter was the missing piece and Blackberry just released a native app for Twitter that takes advantage of its push technology. It crashes sometimes but does work very well.

Navigation Applications

Google Maps is available and works well except that it drains battery if left on for a long time. Needless to say it is not as intuitive as Google Maps on iPhone. There is a good new app called Poynt that gives you neighborhood restaurants, movie theatres, gas stations and white/yellow pages.

Games Applications

Needless to say, there is no match here between iPhone and Blackberry and a lot of it has to do with the touch interface, developers’ focus and the target users. Blackberry now has many more native games besides Brick Breaker and a whole lot of third party apps are also available in their store.

Entertainment Applications

Pandora and Stitcher radio applications are both available on Blackberry and work well. The missing piece is an ability to have Apple’ iPod like functionality that can play the music from my iTunes library.

Conclusion

I am comfortable using Blackberry with my repertoire of  applications but just wish that browser experience was better on Blackberry; a feature I sorely missed in switching from iPhone.

Read Full Post »

Twitterization of our culture – Its Pluses and Minus and Lessons for Businesses

We all know what Twitter is but I couldn’t find a clear cut definition of Twitterization – a phenomena that is permeating cultures everywhere especially among the younger population. Twitterization, like Twitter, is real time but rather than just being limited to 140 characters (VoIP pioneer Jeff Pulver even has a conference dedicated to that), I would call it a byte sized communication whether it is 140 words or a short message or a picture or a video. Most dieticians recommend smaller but more frequent meals for weight loss kind of like what happens in twitter land.

Therefore, Twitterization is

• Real Time Communication
• Byte Sized Communication
• More frequent Communication
• Communication whose purpose is to build & support community

So let us see its impact on various segments of business and share your opinions:

• Twitterization of Media
• Twitterization of Marketing
• Twitterization of Customer Support
• Twitterization of Software Development

Twitterization of Media – Getting to news is fast and seeing the same article many times in your twitter feeds in a matter of seconds is common. We are well informed at least on the headlines, if not on the details. Media has adopted that culture very fast but in a race to be real time, the quality of communication has suffered. Grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and lack of fact checking have become commonplace; these problems are sometimes corrected but often aggravated by crowd sourcing. How has this affected our consumption of different types of media?

Twitterization of Marketing – Product development for companies can be done much more efficiently, but the down side is that people participating in your twitterization efforts will be self-selected. Therefore, one has to apply the right filters in selecting the right group in order to attract the most intended audiences. A product or company can rise fast but can easily fall faster too. So what are your experiences in twitterization of marketing at your companies?

Twitterization of Customer Support – This is one area that can be revolutionized for good if the companies are honest and supportive of these efforts; Comcast and Southwest serve as good examples. I have seen many a company fail at it or adopt it too late in the game. What is your experience with twitterization of customer support at places you used to call for support?

Twitterization of Software Development – The rise of Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android apps stores is creating a culture of software development that calls for churning out quick applications with ephemeral popularity. Just as developers are quick to churn out new applications, users are just as quick to use and toss them as well. Vivek Wadhwa wrote an article on “What’s better – Saving the world or Building another facebook app” and this may provide one of the answers to his questions.

While Twitterization undoubtedly has its benefits, one of the main concerns I have about it is the current and future impacts on the younger generation. The new byte-sized real-time culture that they are embracing with increasing frequency may have the effect of upsetting advancements in science and research, as these are avenues that require extended focus and concentration (the antithesis of twitterization).  Tell me what you think?

R. Paul Singh

Read Full Post »

10 Equations to describe Apple’s new iPad

I have been sifting through Apple’s web site and many of the news and blogging sites to learn more about iPad. Needless to say now that hype is reality, there are more negative comments than positive. There are lots of

• Will you buy it?
• How will you justify it?
• Which device is it most similar to?
• What are its advantage and disadvantage over other equivalent devices?

So, I have put together 10 equations comparing it to equivalent devices along with its major pluses and major negatives over the device. Tell me what you think?

• iPad = iPhone + bigger size – phone – camera

• iPad = iPod Touch + bigger screen – mobility

• iPad = iMac + personal touch screen – multi-tasking – hard drive

• iPad = Kindle + multimedia + interactivity – price

• iPad = Netbooks + personal touch screen – multi-tasking

• iPad = TV + interactivity + personalization – price – smaller size

• iPad = PS3 + touch screen + better UI – Blue ray

• iPad = Car entertainment system + portability + interactivity – one to a person – integration

I know these are only eight while I promised ten in the title. Now that you have read these, I am sure you have your list and so add it here and help make this list complete to ten. Thanks in advance.

R. Paul Singh

Read Full Post »

5 missed opportunities by Google in launching Nexus One

It is no secret that Google’s launch of Nexus One phone was less than stellar. Google had so many opportunities to become a game changer in the mobile phone market but missed most of it either because it was in a hurry to launch or just didn’t think hard enough to be different from Apple’s iPhone and others. Here is a list of my Top5 opportunities they missed. Let me know what do you think?

1)   New Data only Phone – Google was Industry’s only hope for creating a data only phone i.e. a mobile phone that worked exclusively on the data network wherein voice was just a data service running on VOIP (voice over Internet protocol). With Google Voice it had a chance to do so but failed to deliver a new experience and instead chose to just add Google Voice this as another application something Skype has been doing on many phones for a long time.

2)   Worldwide Launch – No mobile phone manufacturer, except RIM in a limited way, has ever succeeded in launching a phone globally on the same day. Google came very close with availability on its web site but missed a part of US, China, India and Korea by not having all GSM and CDMA support at the same time.

3)   Pricing Model – Google had a great opportunity to create a low price smart phone and break the mobile operator’s hold on multi-year contracts in the western world where mobile phone is subsidized by the operator. It could have subsidized the phone for a while and create a new pricing model. It could have become an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) if that is what it took to pay for the phone. Instead Google did whatever everyone else did but settled on taking smaller margin between itself and its partner HTC.

4)   Speech as a New Interface – Google came close but only got to a beta or alpha stage for using Speech as a new interface on Mobile. Another missed opportunity!

5)   Getting rid of Bluetooth Headsets – Despite various new styles, very few people like their Bluetooth headset but are forced to use it due to various handsfree driving laws. Google seems to be getting close to eliminating them with a better audio design but wait -  it does need a Car Kit that according to Google is still not available. Again in a hurry to launch!

Bottomline, Google missed an opportunity to change the mobile industry and just became a me too player challenging Apple’s iPhone. What do you think?

R. Paul Singh

Read Full Post »

In this decade, what changed us the most? Terrorism, Social Networking or Mobile?

When I reflect upon this decade which started with a dotcom bust followed by a terrorist attack  that changed all of our lives, I wonder what is one thing that changed us the most this decade. So, I came up with this list of 5 candidates and my conclusion. I invite you to come up with your list and reasoning.

No. 5 – Rise of China and India – China with its low cost manufacturing impacted the whole world in various ways and changed not just the face of China but many other countries. Y2K started India on a path to providing software outsourcing and made India a force to reckon with in software business.

No. 4 – Ecommerce – With well publicized failures like webvan and pets.com, Ecommerce finally became mainstream with Amazon leading the pack and brick and mortar merchants like Walmart fighting that battle.

No. 3 – Social Networking – Friendster may have been an early leader of the social networking phenomena but Facebook now is the new king of this hill and that changed all of our lives in many ways. Twitter, Linkedin, Myspace remain distant challengers.

No. 2 – Terrorism – The decade started  and ended with terrorist attacks in the US and terrorism continued its attack on other countries including UK and India.

No. 1 – Mobile Computing/Phone – If there is one thing that impacted us all worldwide the most and changed our lives this decade, mobile phone will take that honor this decade.

What do you think and Why? Share your opinions here.

R. Paul Singh

Read Full Post »

Confessions of a Blackberry Addict – Two miserable weeks with iPhone and then…

3 Blackberrys, 6 years and time for renewal of contract and hence decision time on whether to switch to iPhone or not! Despite my unpleasant experience at Apple Store, my kids convinced me to try iPhone in the name of coolness. I decided to give it a try for my 30 day trial and here are my findings.

First some reasons on why I even looked for alternatives to Blackberry after 6 years of great friendship

• After switching from Microsoft Entourage to Gmail, Blackberry sort of lost its advantage and got really slow to use
• With 3 browsers on my Blackberry – one from AT&T, second from RIM and third one from Opera, neither one really worked well
• Any third party app I loaded slowed the system dramatically

My first two weeks with iPhone were miserable at best. iPhone is a great platform but certainly not the most intuitive.

First, what I liked about the iPhone

• One of the most beautiful displays – emails and web pages really come alive and readable much like a laptop
• Best browser of any phone I have ever used – and believe me I have used many phones
• Best conferencing interface of any phone – even my mom can use it

Why was I miserable with iPhone in the first two weeks

• Very difficult to get to the top of the contacts and hence find a contact quickly and call
• Inability to make calls while driving except to the recent calls
• Typing without the keyboard
• Limited battery life

I was ready to return my iPhone until I met some friends who showed me some shortcuts that made things better. So much for intutiveness! For example:

• Right flick that brings search button – a universal search that can search contacts, email or calendar
• Getting used to Voice dialing and calling out names in the way my phone understands – now with 90% success rate of calling someone from my contacts while driving
• Just type and not worry about correcting until much later

Now with 30 days of usage behind me, I am turning to be an iPhone fan not fanatics. It is far from being an ideal phone but considering its other good features, I decided to keep it. Oh, yes I do have a 3GS!

Read Full Post »