Today my focus is on game mechanics and how it can be implemented in non-gaming services
Gaming Mechanics are a construct of rules intended to produce an enjoyable game or gameplay. All games use mechanics; however, theories and styles differ as to their ultimate importance to the game. In general, the process and study of game design is the effort to come up with game mechanics that allow for people playing a game to have a fun and engaging experience.
Here's 10 ways gaming mechanics can be used in other services
1. Your service: The game. Start thinking of your service as a game and it’s easy to envision all the subtle and not so subtle ways to take advantage of game mechanics in your service — whether it’s a consumer offering or an enterprise one.
2. Status / reputation. People want status. It’s human nature. But the thing about status is, it has to be visible: both to the person who has it and to everyone else. The driver of the hot yellow Ferrari doesn’t drive it 20 miles per hour down the street so that he can see it: he drives it so that he can enjoy everyone else seeing him driving it. The easiest way to make status visible is through badges. Badges are simple and easy. Start with silver, gold, and platinum. Then add special badges – badges that are only available for completing a certain task, or in the case of a shopping site, a special, rare shopping cart for elite shoppers.
3. Gifting and reciprocation. Surprise: People love to receive gifts! In the gaming world, that means giving high status users free coins with which they can buy goods – not for themselves, but to send to other people. What makes gifts so powerful is they cause a very personal feeling of reciprocation. In the gaming world, the gift recipients will reciprocate – the key is that they have to pay in order to do so. So by letting your highest status users give away something to others (for free), you get revenue in return.
4. Hybrid monetization. Let your users choose how they want to pay you: with their time or with their wallet. As long as you get the money, you don’t care whether it comes from your user or from a third party who wants to pay you for access to that user. This doesn’t work for big purchases, but for small purchases, such as upgrades, it can be used to great effect. Let your user choose: they can pay you for the upgrade or they can watch an advertisement. It’s up to them. (Of course, you get to set the price on what the ad is worth.)
5. Leaderboards and points. People are competitive by nature. Associate points with actions so that people can earn points. Those points don’t necessarily have to convert into anything – simply making them visible (in the form of a leaderboard) gives them value.
6. Free stuff. Just like gifts, people also like to get good old free stuff. In the gaming world this comes in the form of “150 coins for logging in.” It feels good to get 150 coins for doing… well, almost nothing! Give people free stuff to get them to show up. Give away a little bit of what you offer (storage, for example) to users for completing certain tasks.
7. Make the virtual real. How do you make a virtual good feel real? Through look and sound. If you’re going to use coins, for example, give them the look and sound of real money. Animate them. Add accurate sound. That’s why Vegas casinos have all that sound of money – because even though you can’t touch it, you can hear it.
8. Social proof. One other thing that people want: social proof. When users see that their friends are doing something, they want to do it too. If 80% of people have purchased a certain upgrade, let the rest of your users know that: they’ll wonder why they haven’t.
9. Create scarcity. In games, this means things have a limited time – the special potion or weapon only has a life of a few minutes or a few hours. The same phenomenon can be implemented in non-game sites: coupons that quickly expire, countdown timers on items so that once they reach zero, the item is no longer available.
10. A/B test and track the metrics. Game designers are constantly running side by side experiments on everything from the look and feel of their virtual coins to the optimum path for a user to make a purchase in an online store. You can do the same even down to the animated versus non-animated buy button. The key is to measure the results like there’s no tomorrow and track the resulting metrics.
And these are indeed just 10 such methods...there most certainly are more and we would love to hear from you about them in the comments below
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Characteristics of a Successful Start-Up
Today my focus is on thirteen specific characteristics of a successful start-up...let's take a look
1. No politics. In great start-up cultures, everybody is giving everybody else credit. Ideas are judged on the merits, not on who came up with them. People feel comfortable that they will get their due. In not-so-great start-up cultures, everyone wants to make sure everybody else knows what he or she did, even if he or she didn’t do it.
2. It’s not a job, it’s a mission. Redfin’s CEO Glenn Kelman likes to talk about how invigorating it can be once you realize that you don’t have to be doing what you are doing. Great start-up cultures are comprised of people who could be doing a hundred other things, but actually choose to work themselves silly over the particular product or service their company is building. These cultures are often centered around the belief that the company is working on something important.
3. Intolerance for mediocrity. Great start-up cultures are psychically rewarding for A players and thoroughly awful for those who are not pulling their weight. Instead of performing to the least common denominator, great start-up cultures quickly reject those who are not meeting a high bar. Those who remain revel in the fact that they are surrounded by colleagues who are as good or, in many cases, better than they are.
4. Watching pennies. Great start-up cultures make every dollar count. Expenses are viewed with the same kind of discretion as they are on the home front. The beauty of the Amazon.com making-doors-into-desks tradition was not that it was cheaper (it probably wasn’t), but rather the mentality that it engendered that Amazon.com was a place that didn’t waste money on fancy furniture. In its early days, Intrepid Learning Solutions used to give out “Scrappy Awards” to employees that demonstrated superhuman abilities to save money. The CEO won one for renting a U-Haul and personally picking up and then moving in a free conference table from a local company that was moving. A cost-conscious attitude can be cool and, in great start-up cultures, contagious.
5. Equity-driven. Great start-up cultures create a sense that everyone on board is building something significant, an enterprise that will be valuable long-term. Employees want a piece of that future. Less optimal cultures are focused almost entirely on short-term cash incentives. That’s not to say that short-term cash incentives are always bad; in fact, in many cases, they can be helpful in driving toward short-term goals. But when employees are focused solely on cash and not the least bit interested in equity, that’s a sign that they may have lost faith in the business.
6. Perfect alignment. Great start-up cultures are well-aligned. The strategy makes sense and is aligned with the vision. People are doing what they are good at and in the right roles. Every employee, from the CEO to the office manager, is on the same page. McKinsey, the well-known consulting firm, developed a good framework for assessing alignment.
7. Good Communication, Even in Bad Times. Transparent communication is a hallmark of a great start-up culture. No one is confused about the vision and where the company is headed. Communication is open and free-flowing. Hard issues are addressed directly, not ignored. Every start-up goes through ups and downs. The tendency is to not want to share bad news. It’s not as much fun. In great start-up cultures, communication to all stakeholders actually increases during the down times.
8. Strong leadership. The leader of a start-up should the “cultural soul” of his or her company. A good leader takes that responsibility seriously and leads by example. I love this quote by former Secretary of State and Army General George Marshall about the importance of leading by example and maintaining a positive attitude. “Gentleman, enlisted men may be entitled to morale problems, but officers are not. I expect all officers in this department to take care of their own morale. No one is taking care of my morale.”
9. Mutual respect. In not-so-great start-up cultures, the business guys think the technical folks are more interested in cool technology than in building what the market wants. The technical side of the house thinks the business side isn’t smart enough (or technical enough) to understand what the market wants. The architects look down on the devs who look down on QA. The sales team thinks marketing isn’t doing its job in generating leads. Everyone thinks the sales team is overpaid and should be selling more. In great start-up cultures, everyone shares a mutual respect for what each party brings to the table and celebrates wins from wherever they come. Heated but healthy debate leads to decisions that are accepted, even if not everybody agrees with them.
10. Customer-obsessed. Great start-up cultures are manically focused on defining who the customer is, what the customer wants/needs, and what the customer will value enough to pay for now. It starts well before a single line of code is written. These cultures value talking to as many potential customers as possible before a product is conceived. They make customer feedback a key part of the process once the product or service is delivered. Great start-up cultures are rarely surprised by customer issues because they are proactive and process-oriented about understanding everything they can about their customers.
11. High energy level. You can literally feel it when you walk into a great start-up culture. The room has energy. There’s a buzz. Doors are open. Whiteboards are filled with hieroglyphics. People are getting stuff done. Meetings are short and to the point. You might trip over a dog.
12. Fun. Start-ups should be fun. In great start-up cultures, everyone reinforces that fun is happening, even if it isn’t at that particular time. Employees tell their friends how much fun they are having. Whining is unacceptable.
13. Integrity. Great start-up cultures do not cut corners. They maintain the highest integrity in the way they treat customers, handle employee issues, write code, and go about their daily business. They have integrity when it is easy and, more importantly, when it is hard. This kind of integrity should not be confused with lacking toughness. Integrity in this sense means having a team with enough confidence in what it is building, and then delivering to customers, that cheating in any form, or even just going halfway, is unacceptable.
So what do you think? See any potential in these characteristics or do you consider these fluff? Either way do let us know below
1. No politics. In great start-up cultures, everybody is giving everybody else credit. Ideas are judged on the merits, not on who came up with them. People feel comfortable that they will get their due. In not-so-great start-up cultures, everyone wants to make sure everybody else knows what he or she did, even if he or she didn’t do it.
2. It’s not a job, it’s a mission. Redfin’s CEO Glenn Kelman likes to talk about how invigorating it can be once you realize that you don’t have to be doing what you are doing. Great start-up cultures are comprised of people who could be doing a hundred other things, but actually choose to work themselves silly over the particular product or service their company is building. These cultures are often centered around the belief that the company is working on something important.
3. Intolerance for mediocrity. Great start-up cultures are psychically rewarding for A players and thoroughly awful for those who are not pulling their weight. Instead of performing to the least common denominator, great start-up cultures quickly reject those who are not meeting a high bar. Those who remain revel in the fact that they are surrounded by colleagues who are as good or, in many cases, better than they are.
4. Watching pennies. Great start-up cultures make every dollar count. Expenses are viewed with the same kind of discretion as they are on the home front. The beauty of the Amazon.com making-doors-into-desks tradition was not that it was cheaper (it probably wasn’t), but rather the mentality that it engendered that Amazon.com was a place that didn’t waste money on fancy furniture. In its early days, Intrepid Learning Solutions used to give out “Scrappy Awards” to employees that demonstrated superhuman abilities to save money. The CEO won one for renting a U-Haul and personally picking up and then moving in a free conference table from a local company that was moving. A cost-conscious attitude can be cool and, in great start-up cultures, contagious.
5. Equity-driven. Great start-up cultures create a sense that everyone on board is building something significant, an enterprise that will be valuable long-term. Employees want a piece of that future. Less optimal cultures are focused almost entirely on short-term cash incentives. That’s not to say that short-term cash incentives are always bad; in fact, in many cases, they can be helpful in driving toward short-term goals. But when employees are focused solely on cash and not the least bit interested in equity, that’s a sign that they may have lost faith in the business.
6. Perfect alignment. Great start-up cultures are well-aligned. The strategy makes sense and is aligned with the vision. People are doing what they are good at and in the right roles. Every employee, from the CEO to the office manager, is on the same page. McKinsey, the well-known consulting firm, developed a good framework for assessing alignment.
7. Good Communication, Even in Bad Times. Transparent communication is a hallmark of a great start-up culture. No one is confused about the vision and where the company is headed. Communication is open and free-flowing. Hard issues are addressed directly, not ignored. Every start-up goes through ups and downs. The tendency is to not want to share bad news. It’s not as much fun. In great start-up cultures, communication to all stakeholders actually increases during the down times.
8. Strong leadership. The leader of a start-up should the “cultural soul” of his or her company. A good leader takes that responsibility seriously and leads by example. I love this quote by former Secretary of State and Army General George Marshall about the importance of leading by example and maintaining a positive attitude. “Gentleman, enlisted men may be entitled to morale problems, but officers are not. I expect all officers in this department to take care of their own morale. No one is taking care of my morale.”
9. Mutual respect. In not-so-great start-up cultures, the business guys think the technical folks are more interested in cool technology than in building what the market wants. The technical side of the house thinks the business side isn’t smart enough (or technical enough) to understand what the market wants. The architects look down on the devs who look down on QA. The sales team thinks marketing isn’t doing its job in generating leads. Everyone thinks the sales team is overpaid and should be selling more. In great start-up cultures, everyone shares a mutual respect for what each party brings to the table and celebrates wins from wherever they come. Heated but healthy debate leads to decisions that are accepted, even if not everybody agrees with them.
10. Customer-obsessed. Great start-up cultures are manically focused on defining who the customer is, what the customer wants/needs, and what the customer will value enough to pay for now. It starts well before a single line of code is written. These cultures value talking to as many potential customers as possible before a product is conceived. They make customer feedback a key part of the process once the product or service is delivered. Great start-up cultures are rarely surprised by customer issues because they are proactive and process-oriented about understanding everything they can about their customers.
11. High energy level. You can literally feel it when you walk into a great start-up culture. The room has energy. There’s a buzz. Doors are open. Whiteboards are filled with hieroglyphics. People are getting stuff done. Meetings are short and to the point. You might trip over a dog.
12. Fun. Start-ups should be fun. In great start-up cultures, everyone reinforces that fun is happening, even if it isn’t at that particular time. Employees tell their friends how much fun they are having. Whining is unacceptable.
13. Integrity. Great start-up cultures do not cut corners. They maintain the highest integrity in the way they treat customers, handle employee issues, write code, and go about their daily business. They have integrity when it is easy and, more importantly, when it is hard. This kind of integrity should not be confused with lacking toughness. Integrity in this sense means having a team with enough confidence in what it is building, and then delivering to customers, that cheating in any form, or even just going halfway, is unacceptable.
So what do you think? See any potential in these characteristics or do you consider these fluff? Either way do let us know below
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Silicon Valley's 20 Hottest Tech Start-Ups
Continuing on from last time, today my focus is on 20 of the Hottest New Start-ups in Silicon Valley
1) Bump - Bump Technologies lets you exchange contact info and other data with other people by tapping your phones together
Founders: David Lieb, Andy Huibers, and Jake Mintz
What it does: Bump is pretty simple -- it lets you exchange contact info and other data with other people by tapping your phones together. It partners with other app developers to build that feature into their products.
Why you should watch out for it: For some reason, people can't get enough of how neat this function is. It is built in to PayPal's latest app, and completely stole the show in all the coverage of the app's release. Being tied to PayPal is a huge deal in and of itself, of course. That and the huge number of anachronistic business cards we receive make us think this could be big.
2) Dropbox - Dropbox is a tool that helps you sync your files across all the computers and other devices
3) Twilio - Twilio lets developers integrate phone calls and texts into apps
1) Bump - Bump Technologies lets you exchange contact info and other data with other people by tapping your phones together
Founders: David Lieb, Andy Huibers, and Jake Mintz
What it does: Bump is pretty simple -- it lets you exchange contact info and other data with other people by tapping your phones together. It partners with other app developers to build that feature into their products.
Why you should watch out for it: For some reason, people can't get enough of how neat this function is. It is built in to PayPal's latest app, and completely stole the show in all the coverage of the app's release. Being tied to PayPal is a huge deal in and of itself, of course. That and the huge number of anachronistic business cards we receive make us think this could be big.
2) Dropbox - Dropbox is a tool that helps you sync your files across all the computers and other devices
3) Twilio - Twilio lets developers integrate phone calls and texts into apps
Monday, September 27, 2010
New York's 10 Hottest Tech Start-Ups
Today my focus is on 10 of the hottest tech start-ups in New York. Let's have a look:
1) Gilt Groupe:
Founded: 2007
Venture raised in ’09: $43 million
This fashion retail Web site sells designer goods at sample-sale prices.
“It’s a fundamentally different way of selling merchandise that has a lot advantages for brands and consumers,” said co-founder Kevin Ryan.
Gilt’s members have to be invited, adding to an air of exclusivity to the site, where deals are deep, such as a pair of Testoni shoes at $500 instead of $2,000. Also innovative: The site schedules its sales — everyday at noon new ones begin for 36 hours.
“New York is the only place you want to set this company up because the brands are here,” Ryan said.
Measure of success: The company went from $25 million in revenue in 2008 to $107 million last year. Ryan predicted $500 million in 2010. With that kind of growth the company has gone from eight employees to 380, and it is making a big push into Tokyo.
2) Foursquare
Founded: 2009
Venture raised in ’09: $1.35 million
Creators of the pioneering social-network startup Dodgeball are back with another venture named for a schoolyard game.
Foursquare members are plugged into a network of users who share their whereabouts and interests in a given city.
“It’s a fantastic tool for exploring really dense areas like New York,” said co-founder Dennis Crowley.
Members can access tips and reviews from other members, and GPS technology allows them to explore their immediate surroundings. There’s even a game element as people earn points, badges and titles. For instance, members who frequent an establishment the most become the “mayor” of that locale.
Why they’re in New York: Crowley said one of the city’s top draws is its economic diversity, as opposed to the cliquish Silicon Valley, where everyone is in the business of startups.
“There’s a lot more mixing of people in different industries in New York and it just breeds a different kind of person,” he said.
Measure of success: Foursquare’s growth has been “absurd,” Crowley said. The company launched in March and is up to 275,000 members. Membership rose almost 70 percent last month. “The next Twitter,” is one common phrase hurled at the company
3) Animoto
Founded: 2006
Venture raised in ’09: $4.4 million
“We make awesome easy,” said co-founder Stevie Clifton.
Animoto does this with its automated video generating platform, in which users, pros and amateurs, upload their content — music, images — and then press create video.
“Beautiful productions at the click of a button,” Clifton said.
Why they’re in New York: “I’m not sure Animoto could have started anywhere else,” Clifton said. The company’s founders either lived here or wanted to live here, he said.
Measure of success: The company is going strong and breached the million-user mark late last year, and now it has 1.2 million registered users. Sixty to 70 percent of its revenue comes from pro accounts that cost $250 a month. For less-serious editors, the site offers basic services free.
4) Hunch
Founded: 2009
Venture raised in ’09: $2 million
This startup wants to be your “smart friend,” the one you go to for advice when you’re in the market for a car, stereo, computer or whatever.
Users can turn to Hunch.com for that kind of support whether pondering what religion best suits them or what tea to drink. The site can make 100,000 recommendations across 5,000 topic areas, according to co-founder Chris Dixon.
It works by leading users through a list of questions, and then generating a recommendation based on their responses. The number of questions it answers grows as users contribute to the site.
“It’s a system that gets smarter as more people use it and contribute to it,” Dixon said.
Why they’re in New York: “Besides New York City being the greatest city in the world, several Hunch co-founders were already here or were interested in living here,” Dixon said. “Add to that an incredible talent pool and a vibrant and growing tech scene, and you’ve got a great combination for startup success.”
Measure of success: It topped more than 1.2 million users before it reached six months old, and is compiling a useful database on consumer behavior.
5) OLX
Founded: 2006
Venture raised in ’09: $5 million
Co-founder Fabrice Grinda is blunt about how inspiration struck him — or didn’t.
“I didn’t have brilliant ideas so I decided to steal other people’s brilliant ideas and take them to places around the world where they weren’t done before,” he said.
That’s how he came up with OLX, an online classified site akin to Craigslist.
Why they’re in New York: Grinda said there’s an argument to be made that the company should be closer to Silicon Valley, but hey … he loves New York.
Measure of success: Grinda would be happy with being the No. 2 such site in the U.S., while it’s No. 1 in the rest of the world, 90 countries and 40 languages.
6) Yext
Founded: 2006
Venture raised in ’09: $25 million
Yext bills itself as the next Yellow Pages, but it’s more like the Yellow Pages on speed dial. Yext partners with small businesses to advertise them across the Web and charges the companies only for business it directs their way — what co-founder Howard Lerman called “pay per action.”
Businesses such as auto repair shops or hair salons pay Yext for relevant phone calls based on whether potential customers say keywords such as “oil change” or “highlights.” Customers call on a monitored Yext-enabled number listed in the ad.
Why they’re in New York: A Big Apple base gives Yext access to the advertising capital of the world. There’s also a certain pride in trying to make it here. “People said we were crazy for trying to build a tech company in New York,” Lerman said.
Measure of success: Yext is a $20 million a year revenue company right now, with eyes for more.
7) AppNexus
Founded: 2007
Venture raised in ’09: $5 million
AppNexus is a platform for advertisers to use Internet ad exchanges, which are basically markets for eyeballs on the Web.
Advertisers bid against each other in real time for the ability to direct a message at a single Web surfer. The trades take 50 milliseconds to complete.
“The Wall Street version of the Internet is going to explode, where people can buy and sell ads like stocks,” said Michael Rubenstein, AppNexus’ president.
Why they’re in New York: “New York is most known commercially for Wall Street and Madison Avenue. If you thought of a company that merges the two, advertising and trading, where better to start that company?” Rubenstein said.
Measure of success: AppNexus is investing in its infrastructure to handle a surge in trading. It handles up to a billion such trades a day and expects that to grow twentyfold.
8) Pontiflex
Founded: 2008
Venture raised in ’09: $6.25 million
This startup says it’s the first “cost per lead” marketplace in the world, meaning advertisers pay it only when potential customers sign up through ads that Pontiflex helps place online. It’s part of the growing accountability in advertising movement at the city’s core.
“We allow advertisers to run ads on the Internet where they only have to pay when people sign up as opposed to click on it,” said co-founder Zephrin Lasker.
Why they’re in New York: Aside from a base in Dumbo with easy access to Madison Avenue, Lasker said the city can act like a boot camp for startups. It forces you to step up your game.
Measure of success: Pontiflex has deals with about 800 publishers and almost 150 advertisers, and expects to triple its revenue, which it would not disclose, this year.
9) RecycleBank
Founded: 2004
Venture raised in ’09: $28.25 million
This green Internet tech startup partners with cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles and Houston, to track how much residents recycle.
“I was looking for something socially responsible to dedicate my professional skills to,” co-founder Ron Gonen said of the company that has grown into a global entity.
The company equips recycle bins and garbage trucks with RFD chips to monitor waste, and it calculates the ecological savings. Residents can track their recycling efforts online, and they are rewarded with up to $400 a year in points that can be redeemed for goods through business partners, such as Whole Foods, CVS and a number of local businesses.
RecycleBank earns 50 percent of the savings cities accrue.
Why they’re in New York: The company has offices worldwide, but is based here. That’s because Gonen started the company as an MBA student at Columbia, which was also a seed investor in the startup.
Measure of success: The company had deals with 10 cities in 2008, and now partners with 50 cities around the world, reaching 600,000 households with 1.5 million more coming online shortly. Gonen was optimistic RecycleBank would add New York City to the list this year.
10) bit.ly
Founded: 2008
Venture raised in ’09: $2 million
Sharing links to content from your favorite Web sites can be cumbersome when there’s a long string of words, backslashes and coding. Bit.ly solves that URL mess by shortening the links.
The service can be used by regular Joe Web-surfer who wants concise links for Twitter posts, or it can be used by media pros who want to gauge how their content is circulating online, and if they’ve gone viral.
“By creating bit.ly links, users are able to view real-time traffic to their content, and track statistics and trends,” said Andrew Cohen, general manager at bit.ly.
Why they’re in New York: Cohen had a simple reason for what sets the city apart: New Yorkers.
Measure of success: “It’s become one of the largest sharing platforms on the real time Web,” Cohen said. It’s gone from 11 million clicks a month in July 2008 to 2.4 billion last month. The company is working on a number of revenue generating possibilities, including an ad-driven video-sharing site, bitly.tv, that features the Web’s top viewed content.
As you can see from this list...these companies were merely started by normal people like you and me...except these people had a vision...do you share such a vision or perhaps you'd like us to view your own firm? Anyhow do let us know your views in the comments section below
1) Gilt Groupe:
Founded: 2007Venture raised in ’09: $43 million
This fashion retail Web site sells designer goods at sample-sale prices.
“It’s a fundamentally different way of selling merchandise that has a lot advantages for brands and consumers,” said co-founder Kevin Ryan.
Gilt’s members have to be invited, adding to an air of exclusivity to the site, where deals are deep, such as a pair of Testoni shoes at $500 instead of $2,000. Also innovative: The site schedules its sales — everyday at noon new ones begin for 36 hours.
Why they’re in New York: Gilt counts 400,000 New Yorkers among its membership of 2 million. Ryan was on the ground floor of the ad firm DoubleClick when Google paid $3.1 billion for it in 2005. He’s among the city’s most successful entrepreneurs.
“New York is the only place you want to set this company up because the brands are here,” Ryan said.
Measure of success: The company went from $25 million in revenue in 2008 to $107 million last year. Ryan predicted $500 million in 2010. With that kind of growth the company has gone from eight employees to 380, and it is making a big push into Tokyo.
2) Foursquare
Founded: 2009Venture raised in ’09: $1.35 million
Creators of the pioneering social-network startup Dodgeball are back with another venture named for a schoolyard game.
Foursquare members are plugged into a network of users who share their whereabouts and interests in a given city.
“It’s a fantastic tool for exploring really dense areas like New York,” said co-founder Dennis Crowley.
Members can access tips and reviews from other members, and GPS technology allows them to explore their immediate surroundings. There’s even a game element as people earn points, badges and titles. For instance, members who frequent an establishment the most become the “mayor” of that locale.
Why they’re in New York: Crowley said one of the city’s top draws is its economic diversity, as opposed to the cliquish Silicon Valley, where everyone is in the business of startups.
“There’s a lot more mixing of people in different industries in New York and it just breeds a different kind of person,” he said.
Measure of success: Foursquare’s growth has been “absurd,” Crowley said. The company launched in March and is up to 275,000 members. Membership rose almost 70 percent last month. “The next Twitter,” is one common phrase hurled at the company
3) Animoto
Founded: 2006Venture raised in ’09: $4.4 million
“We make awesome easy,” said co-founder Stevie Clifton.
Animoto does this with its automated video generating platform, in which users, pros and amateurs, upload their content — music, images — and then press create video.
“Beautiful productions at the click of a button,” Clifton said.
Why they’re in New York: “I’m not sure Animoto could have started anywhere else,” Clifton said. The company’s founders either lived here or wanted to live here, he said.
Measure of success: The company is going strong and breached the million-user mark late last year, and now it has 1.2 million registered users. Sixty to 70 percent of its revenue comes from pro accounts that cost $250 a month. For less-serious editors, the site offers basic services free.
4) Hunch
Venture raised in ’09: $2 million
This startup wants to be your “smart friend,” the one you go to for advice when you’re in the market for a car, stereo, computer or whatever.
Users can turn to Hunch.com for that kind of support whether pondering what religion best suits them or what tea to drink. The site can make 100,000 recommendations across 5,000 topic areas, according to co-founder Chris Dixon.
It works by leading users through a list of questions, and then generating a recommendation based on their responses. The number of questions it answers grows as users contribute to the site.
“It’s a system that gets smarter as more people use it and contribute to it,” Dixon said.
Why they’re in New York: “Besides New York City being the greatest city in the world, several Hunch co-founders were already here or were interested in living here,” Dixon said. “Add to that an incredible talent pool and a vibrant and growing tech scene, and you’ve got a great combination for startup success.”
Measure of success: It topped more than 1.2 million users before it reached six months old, and is compiling a useful database on consumer behavior.
5) OLX
Founded: 2006Venture raised in ’09: $5 million
Co-founder Fabrice Grinda is blunt about how inspiration struck him — or didn’t.
“I didn’t have brilliant ideas so I decided to steal other people’s brilliant ideas and take them to places around the world where they weren’t done before,” he said.
That’s how he came up with OLX, an online classified site akin to Craigslist.
Why they’re in New York: Grinda said there’s an argument to be made that the company should be closer to Silicon Valley, but hey … he loves New York.
Measure of success: Grinda would be happy with being the No. 2 such site in the U.S., while it’s No. 1 in the rest of the world, 90 countries and 40 languages.
6) Yext
Founded: 2006
Venture raised in ’09: $25 million
Yext bills itself as the next Yellow Pages, but it’s more like the Yellow Pages on speed dial. Yext partners with small businesses to advertise them across the Web and charges the companies only for business it directs their way — what co-founder Howard Lerman called “pay per action.”
Businesses such as auto repair shops or hair salons pay Yext for relevant phone calls based on whether potential customers say keywords such as “oil change” or “highlights.” Customers call on a monitored Yext-enabled number listed in the ad.
Why they’re in New York: A Big Apple base gives Yext access to the advertising capital of the world. There’s also a certain pride in trying to make it here. “People said we were crazy for trying to build a tech company in New York,” Lerman said.
Measure of success: Yext is a $20 million a year revenue company right now, with eyes for more.
7) AppNexus
Founded: 2007Venture raised in ’09: $5 million
AppNexus is a platform for advertisers to use Internet ad exchanges, which are basically markets for eyeballs on the Web.
Advertisers bid against each other in real time for the ability to direct a message at a single Web surfer. The trades take 50 milliseconds to complete.
“The Wall Street version of the Internet is going to explode, where people can buy and sell ads like stocks,” said Michael Rubenstein, AppNexus’ president.
Why they’re in New York: “New York is most known commercially for Wall Street and Madison Avenue. If you thought of a company that merges the two, advertising and trading, where better to start that company?” Rubenstein said.
Measure of success: AppNexus is investing in its infrastructure to handle a surge in trading. It handles up to a billion such trades a day and expects that to grow twentyfold.
8) Pontiflex
Founded: 2008Venture raised in ’09: $6.25 million
This startup says it’s the first “cost per lead” marketplace in the world, meaning advertisers pay it only when potential customers sign up through ads that Pontiflex helps place online. It’s part of the growing accountability in advertising movement at the city’s core.
“We allow advertisers to run ads on the Internet where they only have to pay when people sign up as opposed to click on it,” said co-founder Zephrin Lasker.
Why they’re in New York: Aside from a base in Dumbo with easy access to Madison Avenue, Lasker said the city can act like a boot camp for startups. It forces you to step up your game.
Measure of success: Pontiflex has deals with about 800 publishers and almost 150 advertisers, and expects to triple its revenue, which it would not disclose, this year.
9) RecycleBank
Founded: 2004Venture raised in ’09: $28.25 million
This green Internet tech startup partners with cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles and Houston, to track how much residents recycle.
“I was looking for something socially responsible to dedicate my professional skills to,” co-founder Ron Gonen said of the company that has grown into a global entity.
The company equips recycle bins and garbage trucks with RFD chips to monitor waste, and it calculates the ecological savings. Residents can track their recycling efforts online, and they are rewarded with up to $400 a year in points that can be redeemed for goods through business partners, such as Whole Foods, CVS and a number of local businesses.
RecycleBank earns 50 percent of the savings cities accrue.
Why they’re in New York: The company has offices worldwide, but is based here. That’s because Gonen started the company as an MBA student at Columbia, which was also a seed investor in the startup.
Measure of success: The company had deals with 10 cities in 2008, and now partners with 50 cities around the world, reaching 600,000 households with 1.5 million more coming online shortly. Gonen was optimistic RecycleBank would add New York City to the list this year.
10) bit.ly
Founded: 2008Venture raised in ’09: $2 million
Sharing links to content from your favorite Web sites can be cumbersome when there’s a long string of words, backslashes and coding. Bit.ly solves that URL mess by shortening the links.
The service can be used by regular Joe Web-surfer who wants concise links for Twitter posts, or it can be used by media pros who want to gauge how their content is circulating online, and if they’ve gone viral.
“By creating bit.ly links, users are able to view real-time traffic to their content, and track statistics and trends,” said Andrew Cohen, general manager at bit.ly.
Why they’re in New York: Cohen had a simple reason for what sets the city apart: New Yorkers.
Measure of success: “It’s become one of the largest sharing platforms on the real time Web,” Cohen said. It’s gone from 11 million clicks a month in July 2008 to 2.4 billion last month. The company is working on a number of revenue generating possibilities, including an ad-driven video-sharing site, bitly.tv, that features the Web’s top viewed content.
As you can see from this list...these companies were merely started by normal people like you and me...except these people had a vision...do you share such a vision or perhaps you'd like us to view your own firm? Anyhow do let us know your views in the comments section below
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Promoting New Ventures Through Blogs
Ever wondered how useful blogs can be for promoting and marketing new start-up ventures? Well allow me to give you 3 examples of companies that have used blogs to effectively market their products and services to the general audience.Let's get started then, shall we
SeatGeek analyzes millions of ticket transactions and can predict ticket prices for upcoming events. With this large data set, SeatGeek’s blog posts analyze trends in ticket prices similar to how Nate Silver analyzes political polling data over at FiveThirtyEight.
SeatGeek includes shareable charts and detailed descriptions on how the data is collected on topics that appeal to their users. They have earned huge distribution successes with these posts, especially in analyzing MLB ticket data. Buster Olney, a top tier ESPN baseball analyst, recently included SeatGeek’s analysis of where Alex Rodriguez’s 600th home run will land on his exclusive weekly column.
SeatGeek Co-Founder, Russ D’Souza, commented “Our blogs are an outlet for us to look at our ticketing data in exciting ways and to offer unique insights into the top stories in sports and music. In addition to our blogs, we are continuing to open up and share our data through new pages that offer daily ticketing updates. For example, if you are from Boston you can now discover detailed data on Red Sox ticket prices without having to wait for us to publish a post.”
How to use SeatGeek's Strategy
Use data from your product to create unique infographics and charts. Brand them with your company logo and encourage readers to share these posts with others.
WePay - gives honest startup advice drawn from personal experience
“Paul Graham says that good startup founders can be described in two words: relentlessly resourceful. I agree, but I would add two words of my own: arrogant and naive. Arrogant enough to get in the ring, and naive enough that you still think you will win after you feel the first punch.”- Rich Aberman from “5 things I ‘knew’ (or should have known) before starting a company, but didn’t fully understand until now”
WePay helps people collect money online; right now, they focus on helping groups like roommates, fraternities, clubs, sports teams, reunions, etc. collect and manage money. WePay’s blog highlights the usual product updates and use case examples, but the founders also write posts about what they have learned while starting a company after college.
When a startup that has raised a significant round offers detailed, personal advice and admits the mistakes they’ve made along the way, other startups listen. WePay’s articles consistently reach the front page of Hacker News and generate a non-trivial amount of signups for the young startup.
“People want to read about startups, so that’s what I write about” says Rich Aberman, co-founder of WePay. “I know that if I write a good post about starting a company, a lot of people will read it. But the article before it and after it are usually product-specific, and there’s always a sign up button in view. I’m not saying that’s why I write about startup stuff, but it certainly doesn’t hurt”.
How to use WePay's strategy
Write honest and personal posts about your startup journey. Don’t leave anything out; admit mistakes you have made along the way to spur discussion within the startup community.
BazaarVoice - promotes products by focusing on related topics
Bazaarvoice has provided tools for businesses to integrate customer product reviews to their websites since 2005. As an established startup, Bazaarvoice is consistently introducing new products and updating existing solutions.The social media and blogging team for Bazaarvoice has developed a unique method of announcing product updates. Instead of forcefully announcing new features, they craft blog posts on related topics in the space and demonstrate their product’s contributions to that space, focusing on word of mouth marketing. For example, in a recent post on Facebook’s like button, Gerardo Dada breaks down the value of a Facebook fan and shows how Bazaarvoice’s SocialConnect product amplifies the reach of a business’ Facebook fans.
Ian Greenleigh, Bazaarvoice social media manager, states “blogs don’t have to be ‘salesy’ to be promotional. The pieces that get the most traction and positive word of mouth across all social media channels are the ones that lend unique insight, offer the eye of an expert, or address common problems. Mention your brand’s offerings where it makes sense within this context, but don’t make them the sole focus of the posts you’re writing.”
How to use Bazaarvoice's strategy
When promoting a new feature or product, don’t write like a list of release notes. Instead, write a post on a tangential topic that demonstrates the power of your new feature. Remember, your blog can’t be all about you!
So can you offer any other methods to market web-services using blogs? Or do you perhaps feel blogs are not the right method to promote web start-ups? Either way do let us know in the comments below
Saturday, September 25, 2010
New Ventures - Xooglers
Right, so as I had mentioned earlier...allow me to post some of the New Ventures started by Ex-Google Employees (also known as Xooglers)...so let us begin:
1) Ooyala
Ooyala is a platform for online video publishing and monetization. Founded by ex-Googlers Sean Knapp, Bismarck Lepe, and Belsasar Lepe in 2007, it links ads to video content, and provides a host of additional enterprise-level features, including analytics and mobile delivery.
Since launch, Ooyala and its video platform Backlot have been used by major companies to manage and monetize their video assets, including Dell, Electronic Arts, Hearst Corporation, and Telegraph Media Group.
2) Dasient
Planting malware on innocent websites is a convenient way for cyber-criminals to distribute viruses without e-mailing each of their victims individually. The sites that they target often end up remaining on the blacklists of security software and search engines even after they’ve removed the problem.
Dasient helps sites by monitoring for malicious code so they won’t end up on the dreaded blacklist. Two of the three founders who launched the company in 2009 are former Google employees. Neil Daswani was a Google security engineer manager and Shariq Rizvi was a member of Google’s Webserver and App Engine teams. The third founder, Ameet Ranadive, is a former McKinsey strategy consultant.
3) TellApart
Brought to you by the guys who founded the Google AdWords API team in 2004, TellApart works with a company’s own e-commerce data to identify their best customers and predict who will be their best customers in the future. It also creates customized display ads for those customers, and serves them off-site.
4) Cuil
It’s not surprising that Anna Patterson, a former architect of Google’s search index, went on to create a search engine. It is, however, unusual to find a search engine that departs from the standard list of blue links. Cuil algorithmically clusters results so that a search for “Abraham Lincoln” creates separate report pages for the “USS Abraham Lincoln,” “President Abraham Lincoln” and the “Abraham Lincoln Brigade.” In addition to traditional search results, it combines the documents to create a “report” with information groups and key words within the topic.
5) FriendFeed
FriendFeed allows users to share photos, articles, and other media in a news feed for their friends to “Like” or comment on. Sound familiar? After shamelessly borrowing the startup’s key features, Facebook bought FriendFeed in 2009, taking with it FriendFeed co-founder and Gmail creator Paul Buchheit.
6) Redbeacon
Redbeacon is like a souped-up version of Craigslist that helps users locate qualified service providers for nearly any job. Users submit the type of work to be done, along with the required time frame, and local professionals compete for the work with price quotes and availability.
When a user chooses who they want for the job, Redbeacon allows them to book the service online. It’s not quite the startup you would expect from founders Ethan Anderson and Aaron Lee, who were responsible for launching Google’s video product before the Youtube acquisition in 2006, or from Yaron Binur, who led the development of Google News.
7) Mixer Labs
The co-founder of Mixer Labs was also a co-founder of Google’s Mobile Team, and was the first project manager of Google Mobile Maps. Mixer Labs’ GeoAPI service helps developers integrate location into their apps.Twitter apparently decided it could also use this kind of assistance; it purchased Mixer Labs in December 2009.
8) Howcast
All three of the Howcast founders worked on the Google Video Team at one point or another. Their startup focuses on producing instructional videos — everything from “How to Cope With Boring Office Work” to “How to Induce Labor Naturally” — and claims to be approaching two million downloads across iPhone, iPad, Android, and Blackberry phones.
9) MyLikes
MyLikes gives anybody with an online social network the opportunity to sell advertising. Users sign up to give personal endorsements for specific products, which are posted on their Twitter and Facebook accounts. Every time a friend clicks on an endorsed advertisement, MyLikes either pays the poster or donates to her selected charity.
Co-founders Bindu Reddy and Arvind Sundararajan aren’t the only ex-Googlers who believe in the idea. The company is also backed entirely by former Google personnel.
10) Weatherbill
A lot of insurance companies offer umbrella insurance, but few offer rain insurance. Former Google employees David Friedberg and Siraj Khaliq created Weatherbill to cover companies with revenue streams that can be drastically impacted by an unexpected change in the weather.
Event planners, ski resorts, snow removal services, and tourism-related businesses that live and die by weather conditions can use the service to save the day. The entire country of Barbados, for instance, used Weatherbill to offer visitors $100 for every day that the weather was considered anything less than perfect.
11) Doapp
Doapps founder Joe Sriver was Google’s first user interface designer. The company aims to “develop consumer and business apps — for websites, desktops, and mobile devices — that help you do useful things, make you more productive, and enhance your online life.” It also happens to be the developer behind the beloved Whoopie Cushion App.
12) reMail
ReMail provides advanced e-mail search capabilities for the iPhone. At least it did, until Google purchased it from founder Gabor Cselle in February. Proving that you can never really leave Google, Cselle re-joined the Google team as a product manager after the acquisition.
13) Aardvark
Another startup founded by ex-Googlers, only to be acquired by Google, Aardvark takes your questions and finds people in your own social network to answer them. Instead of spamming your inquiries to all of your online friends, which you could do without any help, Aardvark finds the friends and the friends of friends who are most likely to have the answer. That way, you can annoy a select few with questions about their favorite Denver restaurants instead of alerting those in your network who have never even been to Denver.
Google paid $50 million for the company in February 2010 — the service is still a Google Labs project, but it could become an integral part of Google Search or Android.
14) Hawthorne Labs
Apollo is a newspaper for the iPad, but cooler. It’s just one of the products from startup Hawthorne Labs, and features an algorithm that learns what articles and sources you enjoy, and helps you discover new content based on your personal preferences and viewing history. Co-founder Shubham Mittal previously worked for both Microsoft and Google, but for the purpose of this post, we’re claiming Hawthorne Labs for the Xooglers.
15) AppJet
Two of the three founders of AppJet were Google engineers. And since Google acquired AppJet eight months ago, they’re working for Google again. The team, which created real-time document collaboration software called EtherPad, joined the now deceased Google Wave group.
And that of course is only 15 of the startups by Xooglers....I'm sure you have heard of more, so why not let us all know too? Please leave your comments in the section below
1) Ooyala
Ooyala is a platform for online video publishing and monetization. Founded by ex-Googlers Sean Knapp, Bismarck Lepe, and Belsasar Lepe in 2007, it links ads to video content, and provides a host of additional enterprise-level features, including analytics and mobile delivery.
Since launch, Ooyala and its video platform Backlot have been used by major companies to manage and monetize their video assets, including Dell, Electronic Arts, Hearst Corporation, and Telegraph Media Group.
2) Dasient
Planting malware on innocent websites is a convenient way for cyber-criminals to distribute viruses without e-mailing each of their victims individually. The sites that they target often end up remaining on the blacklists of security software and search engines even after they’ve removed the problem.
Dasient helps sites by monitoring for malicious code so they won’t end up on the dreaded blacklist. Two of the three founders who launched the company in 2009 are former Google employees. Neil Daswani was a Google security engineer manager and Shariq Rizvi was a member of Google’s Webserver and App Engine teams. The third founder, Ameet Ranadive, is a former McKinsey strategy consultant.
3) TellApart
Brought to you by the guys who founded the Google AdWords API team in 2004, TellApart works with a company’s own e-commerce data to identify their best customers and predict who will be their best customers in the future. It also creates customized display ads for those customers, and serves them off-site.
4) Cuil
It’s not surprising that Anna Patterson, a former architect of Google’s search index, went on to create a search engine. It is, however, unusual to find a search engine that departs from the standard list of blue links. Cuil algorithmically clusters results so that a search for “Abraham Lincoln” creates separate report pages for the “USS Abraham Lincoln,” “President Abraham Lincoln” and the “Abraham Lincoln Brigade.” In addition to traditional search results, it combines the documents to create a “report” with information groups and key words within the topic.
5) FriendFeed
FriendFeed allows users to share photos, articles, and other media in a news feed for their friends to “Like” or comment on. Sound familiar? After shamelessly borrowing the startup’s key features, Facebook bought FriendFeed in 2009, taking with it FriendFeed co-founder and Gmail creator Paul Buchheit.
6) Redbeacon
Redbeacon is like a souped-up version of Craigslist that helps users locate qualified service providers for nearly any job. Users submit the type of work to be done, along with the required time frame, and local professionals compete for the work with price quotes and availability.
When a user chooses who they want for the job, Redbeacon allows them to book the service online. It’s not quite the startup you would expect from founders Ethan Anderson and Aaron Lee, who were responsible for launching Google’s video product before the Youtube acquisition in 2006, or from Yaron Binur, who led the development of Google News.
7) Mixer Labs
The co-founder of Mixer Labs was also a co-founder of Google’s Mobile Team, and was the first project manager of Google Mobile Maps. Mixer Labs’ GeoAPI service helps developers integrate location into their apps.Twitter apparently decided it could also use this kind of assistance; it purchased Mixer Labs in December 2009.
8) Howcast
All three of the Howcast founders worked on the Google Video Team at one point or another. Their startup focuses on producing instructional videos — everything from “How to Cope With Boring Office Work” to “How to Induce Labor Naturally” — and claims to be approaching two million downloads across iPhone, iPad, Android, and Blackberry phones.
9) MyLikes
MyLikes gives anybody with an online social network the opportunity to sell advertising. Users sign up to give personal endorsements for specific products, which are posted on their Twitter and Facebook accounts. Every time a friend clicks on an endorsed advertisement, MyLikes either pays the poster or donates to her selected charity.
Co-founders Bindu Reddy and Arvind Sundararajan aren’t the only ex-Googlers who believe in the idea. The company is also backed entirely by former Google personnel.
10) Weatherbill
A lot of insurance companies offer umbrella insurance, but few offer rain insurance. Former Google employees David Friedberg and Siraj Khaliq created Weatherbill to cover companies with revenue streams that can be drastically impacted by an unexpected change in the weather.
Event planners, ski resorts, snow removal services, and tourism-related businesses that live and die by weather conditions can use the service to save the day. The entire country of Barbados, for instance, used Weatherbill to offer visitors $100 for every day that the weather was considered anything less than perfect.
11) Doapp
Doapps founder Joe Sriver was Google’s first user interface designer. The company aims to “develop consumer and business apps — for websites, desktops, and mobile devices — that help you do useful things, make you more productive, and enhance your online life.” It also happens to be the developer behind the beloved Whoopie Cushion App.
12) reMail
ReMail provides advanced e-mail search capabilities for the iPhone. At least it did, until Google purchased it from founder Gabor Cselle in February. Proving that you can never really leave Google, Cselle re-joined the Google team as a product manager after the acquisition.
13) Aardvark
Another startup founded by ex-Googlers, only to be acquired by Google, Aardvark takes your questions and finds people in your own social network to answer them. Instead of spamming your inquiries to all of your online friends, which you could do without any help, Aardvark finds the friends and the friends of friends who are most likely to have the answer. That way, you can annoy a select few with questions about their favorite Denver restaurants instead of alerting those in your network who have never even been to Denver.
Google paid $50 million for the company in February 2010 — the service is still a Google Labs project, but it could become an integral part of Google Search or Android.
14) Hawthorne Labs
Apollo is a newspaper for the iPad, but cooler. It’s just one of the products from startup Hawthorne Labs, and features an algorithm that learns what articles and sources you enjoy, and helps you discover new content based on your personal preferences and viewing history. Co-founder Shubham Mittal previously worked for both Microsoft and Google, but for the purpose of this post, we’re claiming Hawthorne Labs for the Xooglers.
15) AppJet
Two of the three founders of AppJet were Google engineers. And since Google acquired AppJet eight months ago, they’re working for Google again. The team, which created real-time document collaboration software called EtherPad, joined the now deceased Google Wave group.
And that of course is only 15 of the startups by Xooglers....I'm sure you have heard of more, so why not let us all know too? Please leave your comments in the section below
New Ventures - Microsoft Ex-Employees
Today my focus is slightly different as I will be looking at start-ups that have sprouted through ex-employees of Microsoft. So let's get started shall we
1) Cupidtino
Yes, Cupidtino, the dating site for Apple fans, was co-founded by ex-Microsoft program manager Mel Sampat (oh, burn). According to the site, “Diehard Mac & Apple fans often have a lot in common — personalities, creative professions, a similar sense of style and aesthetics, taste, and a love for technology.”
2) Picnik
Picnik is an easy photo editing website that was recently acquired by Google. The co-founders, Darrin Massena and Mike Harrington, both worked as development managers at Microsoft, where they “took turns managing each other.” CEO Jonathan Sposato also worked at Microsoft as a senior manager in the consumer division. Before joining Picnik, he started a desktop application app company called Phatbits, which was also purchased by Google.
3) DocVerse
DocVerse is a company that was created by ex-Microsoft employees to share documents created on Microsoft software. But it was recently purchased, as so many startups are these days, by Google.
The service allows real-time sharing and editing of Microsoft Office documents. The plan after the acquisition was to “combine DocVerse with Google Apps to create a bridge between Microsoft Office and Google Apps.”
4) Cranium
Whit Alexander and Richard Tait, the founders of the popular board game Cranium, met at Microsoft. In an unusual move for ex-Microsoft employees, they took their startup business offline. The idea was to develop a board game that offered so many activities that everybody would be good at some portion of it. Their success allowed them to put a hefty $77.5 million price tag on the company when they sold it to Hasbro Inc. in 2008.
5) Stack Overflow
Joel Spolsky, a former member of Microsoft’s Excel team, is the co-creator of this popular Q&A site for programmers. He is also the co-founder and CEO of Fog Creek Software, the author a blog that has been translated into more than 30 languages, and has written four books on software development. Technically that’s at least two more startups for the ex-Microsoft team, but we figured he could only be on the list once.
6) Glassdoor
Glassdoor is a database of anonymously posted information about salaries, interviews, and jobs. You can search by region, position, or even by a specific company (there are, for instance, currently 441 Microsoft interview posts, with questions, on the site). Since the only way to get full access to salaries and reviews is to post one of your own, the content is constantly growing.
Robert Hohman, the co-founder and CEO, started his career at Microsoft. Rich Barton, the other co-founder, is also an ex-Microsoft employee. But he co-founded Zillow.com which we’ll cover later in this post.
7) RealNetworks
In 1995, RealNetworks created the Internet’s first audio streaming program, RealAudio. RealAudio led to RealVideo, which is today known as RealPlayer. Founder Rob Glaser worked at Microsoft for about 10 years prior to starting RealNetworks.
8) Symform
Praerit Garg and Bassam Tabbara are another co-founder pair that left Microsoft together. Their company, Symform, provides online storage for small businesses at a low cost by allowing them to trade inexpensive local storage for cloud storage. Data is divided into fragments, encrypted and sent to random nodes in the system. It’s more affordable than traditional online storage companies because there is no data center infrastructure.
9) Hawthorne Labs
Co-founder Shubham Mittal worked for both Microsoft and Google before starting Hawthorne Labs, which earned his company coveted spots on both ex-employee startup lists. Hawthorne Labs’ first product, Apollo, is a newspaper for the iPad that learns what articles and sources you enjoy and helps you discover new content based on your personal preferences and viewing history.
10) Zillow.com
Zillow.com provides a “zillion” data points about real estate, the market for the place you rest your head at night (zillion + pillow = zillow). Users can look up information on 93 million homes as well as search homes for sale, homes for rent, recently sold homes, and mortgage solutions. Co-founder Rich Barton founded Expedia.com within Microsoft in 1994. The other co-founder, Lloyd Frink, also worked at Expedia before it spun off of Microsoft.
11) Valve
Valve is the creator of Steam, the world’s largest online gaming platform. The company also creates its own games. The first one, Half-Life, has been named the “Best PC Game Ever” by PC Gamer on three separate occasions, and has won more than 50 “game of the year” titles. Founder Gabe Newell spent 13 years at Microsoft before founding Valve in 1996. According to his profile on the Valve site, his greatest contribution to Half-Life was his statement, “C'mon, people, you can’t show the player a really big bomb and not let them blow it up.”
12) Corbis
Bill Gates isn’t exactly an ex-employee of Microsoft, but he’s not really an “employee” now either. Therefore Corbis, the image resource site he founded more than 20 years ago, qualified for this list. While Corbis will likely never live up to its older sibling, having offices in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia and customers in more than 50 countries worldwide is nothing to scoff at.
13) iLike
Co-founder Ali Partovi joined Microsoft by way of acquisition when he sold LinkExchange for $265 million in 1998. He founded iLike, a social music discovery site, with his twin brother Hadi, who had also been on the founding team of the company Tellme Networks (also acquired by Microsoft). Nat Brown, a third co-founder, worked for Microsoft but never sold anything to them.
iLike was acquired by MySpace in 2009.
14) Swipely
Swipely, which launched publically just last month, aims to be “an online service that turns purchases into conversations.” In other words, it automatically shares your credit card purchases across your social networks. Founder Angus Davis was acquired by Microsoft along with his first startup, Tellme Networks, in 2007. He left to start Swipely in 2009.
15) Kashless, Inc.
Companies often give discounts to big groups. With Kashless’s Tiprr, you can get the group discount without necessarily knowing the members of your group. Like Groupon, users receive a daily e-mail with local deals. Unlike Groupon, the deal gets better as more people opt in. The company also runs Kashless, the website, which facilitates recycling by hosting posts for free stuff. The ex-Microsoft founder of the company, Martin Tobias, previously founded a digital media services company called Loudeye Technologies.
Can you think of any other start-ups by Microsoft's ex-employees? Do let us know if you can think of any or if you'd simply like to add some info - feel free to comment in the section below
I'll be adding a similar list of Google's ex-employees and their new ventures later today...Be on the lookout!
1) Cupidtino
Yes, Cupidtino, the dating site for Apple fans, was co-founded by ex-Microsoft program manager Mel Sampat (oh, burn). According to the site, “Diehard Mac & Apple fans often have a lot in common — personalities, creative professions, a similar sense of style and aesthetics, taste, and a love for technology.”
2) Picnik
Picnik is an easy photo editing website that was recently acquired by Google. The co-founders, Darrin Massena and Mike Harrington, both worked as development managers at Microsoft, where they “took turns managing each other.” CEO Jonathan Sposato also worked at Microsoft as a senior manager in the consumer division. Before joining Picnik, he started a desktop application app company called Phatbits, which was also purchased by Google.
3) DocVerse
DocVerse is a company that was created by ex-Microsoft employees to share documents created on Microsoft software. But it was recently purchased, as so many startups are these days, by Google.
The service allows real-time sharing and editing of Microsoft Office documents. The plan after the acquisition was to “combine DocVerse with Google Apps to create a bridge between Microsoft Office and Google Apps.”
4) Cranium
Whit Alexander and Richard Tait, the founders of the popular board game Cranium, met at Microsoft. In an unusual move for ex-Microsoft employees, they took their startup business offline. The idea was to develop a board game that offered so many activities that everybody would be good at some portion of it. Their success allowed them to put a hefty $77.5 million price tag on the company when they sold it to Hasbro Inc. in 2008.
5) Stack Overflow
Joel Spolsky, a former member of Microsoft’s Excel team, is the co-creator of this popular Q&A site for programmers. He is also the co-founder and CEO of Fog Creek Software, the author a blog that has been translated into more than 30 languages, and has written four books on software development. Technically that’s at least two more startups for the ex-Microsoft team, but we figured he could only be on the list once.
6) Glassdoor
Glassdoor is a database of anonymously posted information about salaries, interviews, and jobs. You can search by region, position, or even by a specific company (there are, for instance, currently 441 Microsoft interview posts, with questions, on the site). Since the only way to get full access to salaries and reviews is to post one of your own, the content is constantly growing.
Robert Hohman, the co-founder and CEO, started his career at Microsoft. Rich Barton, the other co-founder, is also an ex-Microsoft employee. But he co-founded Zillow.com which we’ll cover later in this post.
7) RealNetworks
In 1995, RealNetworks created the Internet’s first audio streaming program, RealAudio. RealAudio led to RealVideo, which is today known as RealPlayer. Founder Rob Glaser worked at Microsoft for about 10 years prior to starting RealNetworks.
8) Symform
Praerit Garg and Bassam Tabbara are another co-founder pair that left Microsoft together. Their company, Symform, provides online storage for small businesses at a low cost by allowing them to trade inexpensive local storage for cloud storage. Data is divided into fragments, encrypted and sent to random nodes in the system. It’s more affordable than traditional online storage companies because there is no data center infrastructure.
9) Hawthorne Labs
Co-founder Shubham Mittal worked for both Microsoft and Google before starting Hawthorne Labs, which earned his company coveted spots on both ex-employee startup lists. Hawthorne Labs’ first product, Apollo, is a newspaper for the iPad that learns what articles and sources you enjoy and helps you discover new content based on your personal preferences and viewing history.
10) Zillow.com
Zillow.com provides a “zillion” data points about real estate, the market for the place you rest your head at night (zillion + pillow = zillow). Users can look up information on 93 million homes as well as search homes for sale, homes for rent, recently sold homes, and mortgage solutions. Co-founder Rich Barton founded Expedia.com within Microsoft in 1994. The other co-founder, Lloyd Frink, also worked at Expedia before it spun off of Microsoft.
11) Valve
Valve is the creator of Steam, the world’s largest online gaming platform. The company also creates its own games. The first one, Half-Life, has been named the “Best PC Game Ever” by PC Gamer on three separate occasions, and has won more than 50 “game of the year” titles. Founder Gabe Newell spent 13 years at Microsoft before founding Valve in 1996. According to his profile on the Valve site, his greatest contribution to Half-Life was his statement, “C'mon, people, you can’t show the player a really big bomb and not let them blow it up.”
12) Corbis
Bill Gates isn’t exactly an ex-employee of Microsoft, but he’s not really an “employee” now either. Therefore Corbis, the image resource site he founded more than 20 years ago, qualified for this list. While Corbis will likely never live up to its older sibling, having offices in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia and customers in more than 50 countries worldwide is nothing to scoff at.
13) iLike
Co-founder Ali Partovi joined Microsoft by way of acquisition when he sold LinkExchange for $265 million in 1998. He founded iLike, a social music discovery site, with his twin brother Hadi, who had also been on the founding team of the company Tellme Networks (also acquired by Microsoft). Nat Brown, a third co-founder, worked for Microsoft but never sold anything to them.
iLike was acquired by MySpace in 2009.
14) Swipely
Swipely, which launched publically just last month, aims to be “an online service that turns purchases into conversations.” In other words, it automatically shares your credit card purchases across your social networks. Founder Angus Davis was acquired by Microsoft along with his first startup, Tellme Networks, in 2007. He left to start Swipely in 2009.
15) Kashless, Inc.
Companies often give discounts to big groups. With Kashless’s Tiprr, you can get the group discount without necessarily knowing the members of your group. Like Groupon, users receive a daily e-mail with local deals. Unlike Groupon, the deal gets better as more people opt in. The company also runs Kashless, the website, which facilitates recycling by hosting posts for free stuff. The ex-Microsoft founder of the company, Martin Tobias, previously founded a digital media services company called Loudeye Technologies.
Can you think of any other start-ups by Microsoft's ex-employees? Do let us know if you can think of any or if you'd simply like to add some info - feel free to comment in the section below
I'll be adding a similar list of Google's ex-employees and their new ventures later today...Be on the lookout!
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