Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

Minnov8 Gang 63: A Conversation on Cloud Computing

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Talk about cloud computing is on the lips of people from startups to enterprise to the government, and Minnesota has a world-class thought leader right here in our midst. The Minnov8 Gang chatted with George Reese about his perspectives, books, upcoming events, and what he thinks about software-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service and how API’s fit in to this whole shebang.

Hosts: This Week’s Show Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music by Midnight Music Quartet and the tune is, “Sweet Lorraine”.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:00:22 — 34.8MB)

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About George Reese (@GeorgeReese):  George Reese is the founder of two Minneapolis-based companies, enStratus Networks LLC (maker of high-end cloud infrastructure management tools) and Valtira LLC (maker of the Valtira Online Marketing Platform). Over the past 15 years, George has authored a number of technology books, including MySQL Pocket Reference, Database Programming with JDBC and Java, Java Database Best Practices, and Cloud Application Architectures.

Throughout the Internet era, George has spent his career building enterprise tools for developers and delivering solutions to the marketing domain. He was an influential force in the evolution of online gaming through the creation of a number of Open Source MUD libraries and he created the first JDBC driver in 1996—the Open Source mSQL-JDBC. Most recently, George has been involved in the development of systems to support the deployment of transactional web applications in the cloud.

George holds a BA in Philosophy from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management in Evanston, Illinois. He currently lives in Minnesota with his wife Monique and his daughters Kyra and Lindsey.

Discussed during the show notes:


Activ8: Event Management for Small Business

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Activ8 is a new Twin Cities-based event/class registration service targeted to the small business’ that has a limited (or no) no web presence but those who offer services in the areas of dance, karate, gymnastics, or fitness studios are perfect potential users as are individual instructors in fitness, music, yoga, or tutoring.

One of the great things about the internet is how it’s so perfectly geared to make the inefficient more efficient. The creator of Activ8, Marc Kermish, is an athlete who saw a lot of inefficiencies in event management with athletics service providers (and many others) and has delivered a web application that can dramatically simplify the entire event management process.

Activ8 enables the posting of any sort of event, class, or gathering that requires a participant to purchase a ticket. The event organizer can post their event, class or gathering, collect participant information and payments via credit card, and then communicate with their participants throughout their event planning process. Activ8 does not charge the event organizer for the use of its service but instead, takes a small fee from every participant transaction.

After I was initially contacted about Activ8, and knowing that the event management space is fairly crowded, I poked around the site and app to look for potential competitive advantages Marc might have and was pleased to have two which leapt out at me. …  [Read More…]

Soltrite: HD Videoconferencing

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soltriteWhether you call it video teleconference, video telepresence, webcamming, or just video chat – Soltrite does it. Soltrite is a Minneapolis based startup company founded by Scott Colesworthy, a Minnesota native and man of many hats with a track record of wins in the communication systems integration space.  His first company, SPC Communications, originated in the 90’s and focused on voicemail. From there the company branched out into call center technologies under the name Soltris. At the peak in 2000 there were 42 employees and $7 million in annual sales before ultimately, both companies were sold to Avtex in 2003 for an undisclosed amount. Avtex, in turn, was acquired by the Pohlad Family of Companies in 2008 where it remains to this day within their IT portfolio (Marquette Technology Group).

After the sale of SPC/Soltris, Scott took a startup hiatus but his entrepreneurial spirit remained restless and decided to get back into the game, starting where any seasoned entrepreneur would: research.  After hunting down the best identifiable opportunity with respect to his domain expertise, interest, and background, he found Vidyo – a small New Jersey based co with a patented video conferencing solution (that just so happens to power Google chat).  He narrowed in on the specs and did his diligence, noting “Vidyo fits to a ‘T’ the principals Clayton Christenson lays out in his classic book titled “The Innovators Dilemma“”. In August 2009 he inked a license agreement with Vidyo to repackage the technology and deliver it to the mass market under the trade name Soltrite.

Soltrite delivers high quality multi party video conferencing over the ubiquitous public internet and provided the hardware device already has a webcam installed, there is no additional equipment to buy although a quality USB headset is recommended.   Videoconferencing has been around since the invention of the television via two-way closed circuit, spanned into radio frequency with the help of NASA, struggled through early stage telephony experiments, and matured in the 90’s manifesting itself into mainstream apps like Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, Skype, et.al.. …  [Read More…]

A Demo-licious Evening at Mobile Twin Cities

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mobiletwincitiesThe relatively new mobile group Mobile Twin Cities, self described as “a group of technology enthusiasts…meeting to discuss trends and software on all mobile platforms.”gathered last night at the Refactr offices in Minneapolis. This group founded and organized by local developer Justin Grammens of Recursive Awesome (Full disclosure; Justin and I are also partners at Localtone Systems) hosted a night of mobile platform demos which was dubbed “Demo-licious”. Judging by the larger than normal crowd, that included developers, designers, marketers and mobile enthusiasts  it was a great success. The mantra that Justin continues to chant “No programming experience needed! Android, Blackberry, iPhone, Palm, Symbian and Windows Mobile enthusiasts are all welcome.” seems to be working.

The evening was chocked full of demos of apps and projects that leaves little doubt that mobile development in the Twin Cities is more than warm, if not downright HOT! I would like to have seen more apps that reach more phones and platforms than just iPhone and Android, but the evening didn’t disappoint in highlighting some useful or potentially useful tools.

Following Breon Nagy’s demo of the latest Android device, the Motorola Droid (which I finally got to play with…nice phone, slide out keyboard ain’t great.), from the evening’s sponsor Verizon. Here’s the run down of demos...

mixmobi_logoMixMobi-Lisa Foote and developer Kelly Heikkila presented this DIY mobile couponing application. You can see a complete Minnov8 walk-through in our earlier post about MixMobi.

logoSudden Deals-Julian Reytel walked the group through this SMS based discount service. Based on geographical location a user can be alerted about special discounts from participating businesses. It’s currently limited to restaurant and bar businesses. I would suggest there is much more potential opportunity awaiting Sudden Deals beyond these two verticals. Perhaps malls, shopping areas or even shopping circulars offer a more diverse number of consumers.

bpg_logo3D Light Racer-Robert Green the group’s gamer extraordinaire and owner of Battery Powered Games (fun t-shirt as well) showed off just one of his latest game apps. Think Tron for you Android device. I heard many hushed comments behind me about how addictive this game is….  [Read More…]

Redliner: Document Collaboration Made Easy

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redlinerlogo_175x40After a long bout of scheduling conflicts and Swine Flu, we finally caught up with David Womeldorf, VP for Redliner.com.  Redliner is led by CEO Jerry Grabowski, and brought to life by a small team of experienced developers.  With a decade of previous web/tech startup experience, David joined the Redliner team approx. a year ago, back when this technology was still in concept form.

Plain and simple, Redliner is a document collaboration, group editing and approval solution.  There’s only so many ways to make this space sexy, but after experiencing it and playing around for a while, I’m not going to lie – I’m a little turned on. And this baby is still in beta!

Let’s start with the dashboard:

RedlinerDashboard …  [Read More…]

DoApp Making Big Strides with ‘Mobile Local News’ App

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DoApp-MobileLocalIf you’re a TV news station, newspaper, or online news site, you probably should get to know Minnesota startup DoApp Inc.  For those of you in our local tech community who already know of this firm (it launched early in 2008), you may find this fact amazing: on a search for “DoApp” in the Apple® iTunes® App Store, you’ll see the company now has — count ’em — no less than 84 apps published, available for download.  Now, you may have known DoApp only for utility and game apps, with which it had early success soon after the App Store launched in mid-2008.  The firm ended 2008 with well over 3 million downloads of those apps — 11 of them are now in the store (and most have been updated multiple times). But what are those other 70-some apps (and counting)?

Well, throughout 2009, DoApp has been busy on another front:  its “Mobile Local News” app, which is an ad-supported iPhone app it co-developed with partner Inergize Digital Media of Minneapolis.  The latter is also helping DoApp market the app, primarily signing up TV stations initially, which brand the app for their own use in their local market.  And each of those branded versions of the app is distributed via the App Store to consumers, who download them for free.  DoApp also has the app available for the Android mobile platform, with Blackberry and Palm Pre versions coming soon.  (By the way, DoApp’s first customer for the iPhone mobile news app was our own WCCO-TV, Channel 4.)

Now, however, I learned from the DoApp folks at the recent MIMA Summit (where they did a demo), that they and their partner Inergize are spreading their wings even further — now offering to build and publish branded versions for newspapers and other publications, as well as online news sites.

DoApp is now touting its Mobile Local News as making citizen journalism easy. It says 50% of internet users will be generating content by 2010, and that 100 million Americans now get their news from a mobile device.
In a newsletter it just distributed, DoApp says this: “Now it’s easy for readers (and writers) to create user-generated content with Mobile Local News. With our app, you can connect with a television station or newspaper and be part of the news-making process. No press credentials required! DoApp’s Mobile Local News is the first and only local news platform to provide user-generated content. You can easily upload video, photos, and text from your mobile device. Report the news as it’s happening!”

DoApp-logoAs you might expect, DoApp is touting its Mobile Local News as a tool for “citizen journalism.”  Get this:  it says 50% of internet users will be generating content by 2010, and that 100 million Americans now get their news from a mobile device. They don’t cite a source for those numbers, but they square with what I’m hearing elsewhere.Inergize-logo

In a newsletter DoApp just distributed, it says this:

“Now it’s easy for readers (and writers) to create user-generated content with Mobile Local News. With our app, you can connect with a television station or newspaper and be part of the news-making process. No press credentials required! DoApp’s Mobile Local News is the first and only local news platform to provide user-generated content. You can easily upload video, photos, and text from your mobile device. Report the news as it’s happening!”

To get more perspective on these recent developments, I asked DoApp founder (and early Google employee) Joe Sriver if he’d answer some questions, and he was kind enough to agree. Here is that email interview: …  [Read More…]

Adaptive Avenue’s Next Generation Ad Technology

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header_1 Adaptive Avenue is a twice-patented online advertising technology that takes the concept of a display advertisement to the next level through a uniquely engaging experience. Such ’smart’ ad technologies represent the forefront of online advertising — they strive to improve relevance, consumer engagement, click-through, and conversion rates. In the case of Adaptive Avenue, the format is achieving a 2-4X (multiplier, not percent) increase in click-through rates — with better qualified prospects for conversion – relative to increasingly ineffective static display ads.

Traditional display advertisements constantly seek the ultimate hook — designed to be catchy, relevant, and timely. Their sole objective is to capture the attention and imagination of a (publishing) website’s visitors long enough to prompt a click on the graphical ad that steers traffic to another, completely independent (advertising) website — which, ideally, is a targeted landing page. At this point, there are numerous desired outcomes depending on the objectives of the advertising campaign, not limited to:

  • conduct a transaction/purchase
  • provide personal data in the form of a “lead”
  • offer feedback or take a survey

However, the reality here is that, more often than not, display advertisements under-deliver. Why? Because they don’t authentically engage users or offer them any real value. If viewers aren’t simply ignoring ads, they’re blocking them or defrauding them — thus the believably low click-through/conversion rates (based on the standard measure of clicks per one thousand impressions). It’s no wonder that most web surfers report an increasing aversion to online ads or have conditioned their viewing habits to ignore them. True, there have been notable improvements to the display ad model over the years — specifically Cost-Per-Action (CPA) pricing, contextual ads, and niche networks — but there’s still a long way to go before display ads become as effective as they can (and should) be!

So — what’s the Adaptive Avenue advantage? …  [Read More…]

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Buy the Change and Local Tweeps

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buylocalBuythechange.com & Localtweeps.com are two websites created and co-founded by local tech startup Monkey Island Inc. entrepreneur Zack Steven. While these initiatives are miles apart in their application and scope, they share the same DNA: hyperlocal, community-driven services focused on generating both financial and social capital.

Buythechange.com, which launched around 3.5 years ago, is a localized social commerce network that helps people buy and sell products/services with their community friends and next door neighbors. It also aims to promote local businesses – as opposed to faceless corporate enterprise – say for example, one owned & operated by an out of area central office. Hyperlocal is the mom and pop shop down the street, the independent contractor neighbor, or the local food shelf. When products or services are posted “for sale” on the site, a specific geographical network (neighborhood/community) is alerted, which fosters more personalized connections than a craigslist model by simply removing the anonymity factor. This form of commerce enhances social bonds which lends itself to more meaningful long term relationships, commercial and otherwise.

There are three membership levels: a free Basic membership which allows people to post goods and events, a $24/year Personal membership which allows people to post services (as well as goods and events), and a $120/year Business membership which includes a business profile and posting of unlimited goods, services, jobs and events. The social cause comes into play when a portion of the membership fee (33-50%) is donated to a local non-profit of the members choice, and then(optionally) the cause is added into the member’s profile, further shaping the identities and intentions of each individual member. Simply put, Buythechange.com is “classifieds with a conscience”. …  [Read More…]

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DIY Mobile Coupons with MixMobi

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mixmobi_logoThere’s no doubt that mobile marketing is hot right now and one of the hottest segments is mobile coupons. While there are multiple services providing the design and delivery of those coupons, Kwingo‘s Lisa Foote and her partners saw a need for a “do-it-yourself” option for businesses. Enter their new sister company MixMobi.

Currently in private beta with a public launch scheduled before the holidays, Minnov8 got a look at the new service. In an effort to develop a product that answers a need first and foremost, Foote explained that MixMobi was born out of feedback from Kwingo customers who were looking for easy production and distribution of a coupon campaign.

lisafooteShe noted that MixMobi delivers three important benefits. “Immediacy; the ability to design and deploy a coupon without the need of a graphic designer or agency. Ease; anyone can design a coupon. There are no programming skils needed. If you can send an email you can design and launch a coupon.” and finally she noted, “Reporting; once the coupon is launched tracking can begin in a matter of minutes via an easy to read dashboard.”

The MixMobi program allows for the user to log onto an account and create campaigns with the use of simple text fields, drop-down menus, and templates that can include user artwork and colors. Once the coupon and campaign are created a link to the coupon is generated. That link can be immediately deployed via Twitter, or by simply cutting and pasting the link into an SMS message, email, websites, etc. “We started with Twitter because of the ease of deployment” noted Foote. “More services are on the way.” The coupon is viewable on any web enabled device…and with the multitude of platforms out there right now, you know this is not always the easiest of feats.  (See the demo video below.)

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8vLfSVuDZM

The principals at MixMobi, including Foote, Brad Roberts, and Kelly Heikilla, are looking to monetize their service in two ways. First, by targeting small to mid-size businesses who can purchase and design campaigns at varying levels of service. For example, $19.95 will allow a business to launch 2 offers per month with up to 2500 page views each. “We feel this is a very competitive price point in this space.” noted Foote. Of course, what’s a web start-up without a free-use level. MixMobi offers such a beast with one offer per month and 1000 page views.

The second road to profit for MixMobi is the targeting of large agencies or retailers who wish to purchase a software license that allows them to launch multiple campaigns across multiple brands and time frames.

The shakedown of MixMobi is privately underway with three clients and will be for at least 30 days. So far, “Feedback has been positive.” according to Foote, and she hopes to see it live in time for the holidays…which in retail terms could mean as soon as Halloween.

‘RAIN Makers’ Event to Attract Angel Investors from Far and Wide

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Members of the largest multi-state network of angel investor groups in the country will gather in Minneapolis for the 6th Annual RAIN Makers Conference (http://www.rainsourcecapital.com/rainmaker/conferenceinfo.cfm) on September 23-24 at the new Hilton in Bloomington. Sponsored by St. Paul-based Rain Source Capital (http://www.rainsourcecapital.com/), this event has been held in other cities throughout the Upper Midwest in previous years. In addition to members of the RAIN funds network of angels, this is the first year that members of the Angel Capital Association (http://www.angelcapitalassociation.org/) are also being invited. RAIN Source Capital is partnering with the ACA, which is dubbing the event a regional meeting for their organization, to encourage networking and sharing of best practices in investing and syndication.
RAIN Source Capital anticipates more than 100 angel investors representing its 23 funds across eight states will be in attendance, along with investors of other angel investment organizations. The company told me they expect a larger representation from the Twin Cities this year, of course, since the event is being held here. Any active or would-be angels (accredited investors) are welcome to register for the event, and RAIN said entrepreneurs may also register, although they will not be allowed to attend the second-day (Thursday) morning sessions.
Minnov8 is a media partner for the RAIN Makers Conference.  Steve Borsch and myself will each be attending portions of the event, and we’ll have a table where we plan to do some audio and video interviews during breaks. (I’m returning from DEMOfall in San Diego late the night of the 23rd, and will attend RAIN Makers the morning of the 24th.)
The first day of the event, actually just the afternoon, will feature sessions devoted to trends in angel investing, due diligence tools and techniques, corporate governance/board service, valuation and deal terms, and patent landscaping, followed by a reception. One the second day, there will be a session in the morning devoted to four companies making presentations, chosen from among RAIN Source’s portfolio companies. The presenting firms have received an investment from at least one RAIN fund (angel network), but are now being syndicated to the rest of the fund network for additional financing.  Those companies are:
• Inovus Solar http://www.inovussolar.com (Boise, ID) — This company has pioneered the next generation of outdoor street and area lighting that reduces dependence on the grid, power bills, maintenance bills, and CO2 pollutants. Its SmartPole™ and Visia™ LED retrofit product lines come from the minds of people who helped build companies like Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft. and CH2M Hill.
• Ntractive http://www.ntractive.com (Grand Forks, ND) — Ntractive launched the latest release of its product, Elements CRM 2.0, on July 21st, 2009. The release of Elements CRM 2.0 has garnered significant attention and recognition from Apple and the Mac market, including the honor of being named an Apple “Staff Pick.” Elements CRM is a Customer Relationship Management solution built on a new “hybrid” platform, which is part desktop and part cloud. Elements CRM is currently available on the Mac and iPhone.
• Pranah Storage Technologies http://www.pranah.com (Stillwater and Mendota Heights, MN) — Pranah designs and manufactures scale-out unified storage systems for the SMB market, in the under $50K market segment, the fastest growing part of the data storage industry. Its hardware and software systems are purpose-built for data storage, designed and built domestically, delivering simple, scalable, and flexible network storage. The efficient design behind the Pranah product makes it the most complete network storage system available in a 1U footprint.
• Recon Robotics http://www.reconrobotics.com (Edina, MN) — The company launched the Recon Scout® throwable reconnaissance robot in the local, county, and state police/SWAT market. Building on that successful start, it continues to design, develop, manufacture, distribute, and support miniature robotic systems. The company’s robots are specifically designed to provide real-time information in hazardous or restricted space areas, for military, police, and commercial markets worldwide. It has now sold more than 500 of its Recon Scout family of robots, has recently won a large military order, and has distributors in 28 countries.
After these companies present, in what’s being called a “Syndication Showcase,” attendees will divide into four breakout groups to discuss due diligence and investment recommendations relating to each of those firms.  The afternoon of day two will feature panels focusing on the topic of exits, including M&A, the current market, and analysis of some of the RAIN Funds network syndicated investments and their exit potential.
Cosponsors for this year’s RAIN Makers Conference include the Blandin Foundation, Cimarron Capital Partners, Development Capital Networks, MN Deptartment of Employment & Economic Development, Oak Ridge Financial, Deloitte, Sage Group, ESD Group, Quazar Capital, Ethicon/J&J, Gray Plant Mooty, Granite Equity, Sofia Angel Fund, and South Metro Investors.
More About RAIN Source Capital
RAIN Source is a multi-state network of investment funds that are made up of angel investors who are interested in supporting growing companies. The company helps bring together like-minded angel investors to form individual RAIN funds, and then provides these funds with a process for due diligence, legal templates, management support, access to deal flow, and other resources.
RAIN funds share expertise, deals, and experience between and among RAIN Source Capital’s multi-state network to support growing companies throughout the area.
RAIN Source Capital works with angel investors in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and other areas, where it expects to form additional RAIN funds in the next year. There are currently 23 RAIN funds located in:
• Minnesota – based in Alexandria, Grand Rapids, Worthington, Willmar, Montevideo, St. Cloud, Mankato, Northfield and Minneapolis.
• Iowa – based in Cedar Falls, Mason City, and Rock Rapids.
• North Dakota – based in Grand Forks, Fargo, and Bismark.
• South Dakota – based in Sioux Falls, Brookings, and Sisseton.
• Idaho – based in Boise.
• Montana – based in Kalispell.
RAIN funds range in size from seven to 61 members, who have pooled anywhere from $500,000 to $2 million for each fund. Each RAIN fund determines what industry(ies) it will focus on, and the type and level of financing to provide, based on the interests and expertise of its members. Each group or fund uses the proven RAIN fund model, with support from RAIN Source Capital’s headquarters staff, for identifying potential deals, performing due diligence, making investment decisions, and monitoring those investments.  The RAIN fund network currently has more than $33 million invested in 55 companies.
For more information about the RAIN Makers Conference, please call Dawn Lundquist at RAIN Source Capital at 651-632-2140, or email her at dlundquist (at) rainsourcecapital (dot) com (dlundquist@rainsourcecapital.com).

RAINmakers-logoMembers of the largest multi-state network of angel investor groups in the country will gather in Minneapolis for the 6th Annual RAIN Makers Conference on September 23-24 at the new Hilton in Bloomington. Sponsored by St. Paul-based Rain Source Capital, this event has been held in other cities throughout the Upper Midwest in previous years. In addition to members of the RAIN funds network of angels, this is the first year that members of the Angel Capital Association are also being invited. RAIN Source Capital is partnering with the ACA, which is dubbing the event a regional meeting for their organization, to encourage networking and sharing of best practices in investing and syndication.

RAIN Source Capital anticipates more than 100 angel investors representing its 23 funds across six states will be in attendance, along with investors of other angel investment organizations. The company told me they expect a larger representation from the Twin Cities this year, of course, since the event is being held here. Any active or would-be angels (accredited investors) are welcome to register for the event, and RAIN said entrepreneurs may also register, although they will not be allowed to attend the second-day (Thursday) morning sessions. RAINsource-logo

Minnov8 is a media partner for the RAIN Makers Conference.  Steve Borsch and myself will each be attending portions of the event, and we’ll have a table where we plan to do some audio and video interviews during breaks.  ACA-logo(I’m returning from DEMOfall in San Diego late the night of the 23rd, and will attend RAIN Makers the morning of the 24th.)

The first day of the event will feature sessions devoted to trends in angel investing, due diligence tools and techniques, corporate governance/board service, valuation and deal terms, and patent landscaping, followed by a reception. One the second day, there will be a session in the morning devoted to four companies making presentations, chosen from among RAIN Source’s portfolio companies. The presenting firms have each received an investment from at least one RAIN fund (angel network), but are now being syndicated to the rest of the fund network for additional financing.  Those companies are: …  [Read More…]