The whole team at Nitobi is honored to have been picked as one of 5 companies out of 80 to present at the Launch Pad event at Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. I get 5 minutes to convince a panel of judges and the crowd (voting in real-time with sms) that PhoneGap is the hottest technology product launching at the event. It’s described as “American Idol” for business…no pressure;-)
“For 2009, we continue the tradition of showcasing innovative and promising new companies at Web 2.0 Expo. While the definition of a launch has gotten cloudy in this age of public betas, we’re looking for new companies or products that make us take notice. And while venture capital has been the focus in past years, the reality of the market is that companies must gain the attention of customers. So our judging panel and criteria this year focus more on what is essential and transformational in today’s market than on ability to get funded. Along the way, we’re sure the VCs in the crowd will find several startups they’d like to talk to!”
Good luck to the other presenter and I hope we all manage to provide some value or at least entertainment to the crowd.
The event is at 1:15-2:15pm Thursday April 2nd in the Keynote Room (Ballroom - 3rd Level).
I have 2 free passes is anyone is interested. Just leave a comment or email me.
I was recently asked to help out Jiibe, a start up client of ours, with a fun project. They’ve created Jiibe Connection, a video contest where you try to match a job seeker to the appropriate employer. The three employers are from three actual Vancouver companies including (obviously) Nitobi.
Here’s my entire interview with Darren and Julie.
I’m not doing so well in the results, but that’s just because the jobseeker isn’t cool enough to work at Nitobi. What do you think is holding me back as an employer?
a) my beard
b) my sarcasm (notice the interviewers laughing during my interview)
c) the fact Nitobi doesn’t go bowling as company
d) none of the above
Anyway go watch the video and vote for me and Nitobi!
BlackBerry announced a new fund to encourage mobile applicationand development.
Research In Motion (RIM) (TSX: RIM; NASDAQ: RIMM), RBC (RY: TSX; RY: NYSE) and Thomson Reuters (NYSE: TRI; TSX: TRI; LSE: TRIL; NASDAQ: TRIN), today announced plans to launch the BlackBerry® Partners Fund, a US$150 million venture capital fund, to invest in mobile applications and services for the BlackBerry® platform and other mobile platforms. The Fund is to be co-managed by JLA Ventures and RBC Venture Partners.
Agnostic to both stage and balance sheet, the BlackBerry Partners Fund will not restrict the development of mobile applications and services to any single mobile platform or any specific industry segment. The Fund will be designed to advance the industry by fostering development and driving the entrepreneurial spirit to create the most innovative mobile offerings for customers.
There’s not much more than that. The have official site with a link to the press release and an email address. I sent them a message about a cool project we’re working on here but haven’t heard anything yet.
[Update] Rick from JLA (VC involved in the fund) they will support biz plans focused on any mobile platform and they are getting a lot interest, 845 msgs to date! I’m stoked Rick’s blogging about this, it just went from a weird big co blank page plus press release shutting me out to a human on the inside with a blog talking to me.
Dave Johnson will be giving a talk on JavaScript and DOM Design Patterns at Community One.
There is a hole in the current knowledge and practice of user interface development, even though most Ajax developers confront UI development on a daily basis. Although design patterns have been around for a while, little attention has been paid to the HTML Document Object Model (DOM). This presentation uses several concrete examples to explore the need for and application of DOM design patterns.
This presentation shows why DOM patterns are consequential, given the complex and often misunderstood interplay between the DOM, DOM events, and JavaScriptâ„¢ technology-particularly event ordering, bubbling and capture, and event triggers.
In this presentation, attendees will learn how to use the JavaScript programming language to write succinct, useful libraries that address key DOM design patterns such as composite controls. They will leave with an understanding of how DOM design patterns can help speed web development and result in more-robust solutions. They will also learn about various repeatable patterns that can be applied to DOM scripting, specifically how DOM events and JavaScript technology work together.
Mark your calendars for Monday, May 5th at 11am. CommunityOne is free and you also get the first day of JavaOne for free so you’ve got no excuses!
That same day we’re going to be hanging out and participating in the RedMonk unconference track. Our areas of focus are going to be the business of RIAs and some advanced topics in Ajax development.
The RedMonk Unconference: expect a rich mix of open source, dynamic languages, development in general, Java, social media high jinks, and all of the usual things you’d expect from the industry’s first open source analyst company. This year we plan a Rich Internet Panel (with JavaFX, Adobe, Nitobi, and other folks) and a discussion about the Mylyn Eclipse personal productivity IDE, with a special appearance by Atlassian’s Mike Cannon Brooks. This is the CommunityOne unconference by you, for you, so please come along and set the agenda.
We’re pretty excited to be starting a new project that allows users to make low cost calls and sms with their existing phones over VOIP. The client is Verb Exchange another Vancouver startup that specializes in VOIP. They originally went down the .Net path but have now selected Flex/AIR for the user experience and platform portability.
With Tabrio, users choose from web, desktop or mobile access to place high-quality long distance calls or send and receive SMS text messages to anywhere in the world. It utilizes existing networks to provide best-of-breed call quality, while still offering VoIP’s significant cost savings. Additional features allow users to synchronize their contacts, send instant messages, and perform web searches from directly within the application.
“Tabrio targets the millions of people around the world who need a better way to stay in touch. Our goal is for those people to download Tabrio and understand it immediately,” says Christian Jensen, VP, Products and Services, Verb Exchange. “That’s where Nitobi excels. Their work will translate directly to more users, higher customer satisfaction, and increased profits.”
The interactive UI is being developed with Adobe Flex, a Flash-based rich Internet application (RIA) development framework, and the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), a platform that enables RIAs to run on the desktop. Flex and AIR were chosen for the ability to deliver highly interactive applications that deploy consistently in all major browsers on Mac and PC.
I’m in a rush to get out the door to NY and Europe…but stay for more updates on this exciting app.
Guy Kawasaki just posted an interesting article that contradicts conventional wisdom on which entrepreneurs are your best bet for success, old or new. Based on some of the companies and founders I’ve seen going around Web 2.0 I’d tend to agree with a bunch of his points, some seem a bit harsh and may only apply in certain situations;-)
How to Change the World: In Search of Inexperience
Superficially, it’s hard to fault this â€back the proven entrepreneur“ theory. For one thing, from a venture capitalist’s point of view, if you fund a serial entrepreneur and she succeeds, you “knew†that she was proven. If she fails, at least you backed someone for a good reason—that is, she was proven—so your limited partners shouldn’t get too bent out of shape.
That’s a lot better than backing a first-time entrepreneur who fails—then you are just stupid. (Also, if you back a first-time entrepeneur, and she’s successful, you take the credit: “It’s because of my hands-on coaching and guidance.â€) But, just as Glenn wrote, if you think about it, great, world-changing companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Apple, eBay, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, and YouTube were zero for three according to the official venture-capitalist spec sheet: Proven team, proven technology, and proven business model.
I could see slipping into the comfort zone of pas success being one of the biggest reason’s a second time entrepreneur would work as hard and might not make it:)
The whole team at Nitobi is honored to have been picked as one of 5 companies out of 80 to present at the Launch Pad event at Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. I get 5 minutes to convince a panel of judges and the crowd (voting in real-time with sms) that PhoneGap is the hottest technology product launching at the event. It’s described as “American Idol” for business…no pressure;-)