Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

  • Home
  • Minnov8 Gang Podcast
    • Complete Podcast Posts
    • MP3 Archive of All Episodes
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

Minnov8 Gang 395 – Can Tech Save The News?

February 25, 2017 By Steve Borsch

Several good tech stories this week but, once again, we dust-off our “Gang Mentality” segment to ponder a question after the president of the United States inaccurately calls out major news organizations as “fake”. That question is: Will technology provide the answer to real vs. fake news, or will it take human intervention?

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson
Music: Slow Day Blues by A to Z Guitars under a CC by 4.0 License

The Podcast
https://media.blubrry.com/minnov8/minnov8.com/site/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/20170225_M8_Gang_395.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 54:30 — 32.7MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Past Week’s Top Minnesota Stories
  • Virtual nurse app Sense.ly raises $8 million from investors including the Mayo Clinic
  • St. Paul aims to attract more innovation and technology jobs
  • 100 Technology Job Openings In Saint Paul Area
  • Comcast debuts Tech ETA feature to narrow down when cable guy will arrive

Gang Mentality: Will technology provide the answer to real vs. fake news, or will it take human intervention?

  • BuzzFeed Tries to Break Readers Out of Their Social-Media Bubbles
  • Expanding Fact Checking at Google
  • Check Out Alphabet’s New Tool to Weed Out the ‘Toxic’ Abuse of Online Comments
  • Trump is a media troll – so stop feeding him
Other Top Tech Stories
  • Google
    • Google Just Discovered A Massive Web Leak… And You Might Want To Change All Your Passwords
    • Google just cracked one of the building blocks of web encryption (but don’t worry)
  • J. Walter Thompson Intelligence’s Weekly Tech Roundup
    • Who is J. Walter Thompson?
  • The Era of Thinking Computers is Here, says Ginni Rometty, Leader of IBM
  • No, Robots Aren’t Killing the American Dream
Cool Thing of the Week
  • Phil: ZeTime smartwatch hybrid
  • Tim: Worona – WordPress to mobile app solution
  • Steve: Trump Troll Doll Sculpture
Upcoming Events
  • The Complete List of 280+ Tech, IT, and DevOps Conferences in 2017
    • The list as a Google spreadsheet
  • Tech Cities 2017, March 3rd, U of MN Carlson School
  • Mobile Twin Cities, March 14th, BuzzFeed Offices.
  • Midwest PHP 2017, March 17-18, Radisson Blu Mall of America
  • Enterprise Rising Conference, March 30th
    • Use the code Minnov82017 for 21% off your admission
  • IoTFuse Conference 2017, April 21st, Mpls Conv Ctr

Filed Under: Minnov8 Gang Podcast Tagged With: Google, mobile

DoApp Inc. Is Acquired by MN-based Newscycle Solutions

June 13, 2016 By Graeme Thickins

DoApp-logo-175wDoApp has gone and done it — and, yes, it’s cool.

The highly successful Minnesota mobile startup has been acquired by Newscycle Solutions, a 500-employee Bloomington MN-based firm that “develops and delivers software technology to empower the global news media industry.” DoApp has developed more than 1,500 mobile apps for the news publishing and broadcast industries.  All DoApp employees will join Newscycle. The acquisition closed on June 10, 2016; the price was not announced.

DoApp was founded in early 2008 by former Google employee Joe Sriver and a small team. It has been entirely self-funded and profitable for six years. Newscycle Solutions is made up four merged companies and is owned by Vista Equity Partners, based in San Francisco, which was the most active firm in the M&A business last year. (Within the past two weeks alone, it acquired Marketo and Ping Identity, deals valued collectively at $2.4 billion.)

Newscycle describes its mission as “enabling news media to thrive in a rapidly transforming market in order to protect the integrity of information and create more informed individuals and stronger communities.” Newscycle has more than 750 media company customers in more than 30 countries around the world.

DoApp founders

DoApp’s founders: Wade Beavers, CEO (left); Dave Borrillo, board member and former COO (right), now VP mobile at CoreLogic; and Joe Sriver, Founder (foreground).

DoApp CEO Wade Beavers will become president of the company’s mobile unit. Joe Sriver will become chief mobile architect. Another founder and board member, former COO and CTO Dave Borrillo, previously joined CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX) when that company acquired DoApp’s real-estate mobile platform in late 2014. He is now VP of mobile innovation for CoreLogic, working from Rochester MN where he has a team of developers. (See my post about that asset acquisition here.)

I asked Wade Beavers for a comment on the Newscycle acquisition:

“I love that another Minnesota company found our technology to be a great fit for them. This is just the beginning of what we’re going to do with tech and Minnesota talent.”

By my quick count, I’ve published at least 10 blog posts involving DoApp over the years, beginning in 2008. Most were published both on my personal blog and Minnov8. Some of these posts were extensive stories about the company’s development and progress over that time.  Here are just a few from recent years:

• AdWords Is Too Complex, Says Original Google Team Member – Here’s His Better Solution: ‘Adagogo’ (Oct 2013)

• While You Weren’t Looking, DoApp Inc. Has Been Quietly Building a Powerhouse Mobile Business (Aug 2013)

•  Minnesota Mobile Developers Clocking Millions of Downloads (May 2010)

All posts published on Minnov8 relating to DoApp are located here.

My HUGE congrats to the DoApp team!

[Disclosure: DoApp is one of the companies in my client equity portfolio. I helped launch the firm in 2008, serving as its VP Marketing.]

The complete text of the news release follows. The link for that release may be accessed here at Newscycle’s web site.

_______

NEWSCYCLE Solutions expands mobile business with DoApp acquisition

Purchase of mobile technology company enables NEWSCYCLE Solutions to accelerate its focus on mobile news and advertising solutions for media companies

Bloomington, MN – June 13, 2016 – NEWSCYCLE Solutions (“NEWSCYCLE“), a leading provider of software and services for the global media industry, today announced it has acquired DoApp, Inc., a mobile application development and mobile ad network company.

With over 500 customers using the DoApp platform, the company has developed more than 1,500 mobile apps for the news publishing and broadcast industries. The DoApp product portfolio includes DoApp Mobile Publishing and Advertising, a platform for media companies to deliver content on mobile devices through native apps and the mobile web. DoApp also developed the self-serve mobile advertising solution, Adagogo, providing local advertisers a fast and simple tool to reach customers across mobile news, sports and weather apps. DoApp’s latest offering, Readful, is a mobile news content sharing and curation platform.

NEWSCYCLE will integrate the DoApp mobile technology into a newly formed mobile product pillar, enabling the company to expand its mobile offerings for digital publishing, advertising and audience management.

“The DoApp acquisition allows NEWSCYCLE to extend our efforts in helping media companies embrace mobile-first workflows and build new mobile revenue streams,” said Preston McKenzie, CEO of NEWSCYCLE Solutions. “By adding the DoApp mobile development expertise, technology platform and ad network to the NEWSCYCLE portfolio, we further expand our ability to introduce new value-added mobile solutions to our combined client base.”

“Mobile is an important focus for media companies competing in a digital world,” said Wade Beavers, President of Mobile at NEWSCYCLE Solutions and former CEO of DoApp. “We look forward to combining our efforts to offer an even wider range of innovative mobile solutions to the global media industry.”

DoApp was founded in 2008, and today the company has a diverse set of media customers in local television, radio and newspaper publishing markets. Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the DoApp development and business operations team will join efforts with the NEWSCYCLE team in Bloomington, Minnesota. DoApp’s customers will continue to receive the same levels of high-quality service for all mobile products while also gaining the benefits of NEWSCYCLE’s global resources and experience.

“DoApp has led the way for media companies to be the best in their markets with an awesome mobile experience that hasn’t been matched,” said Wade Beavers. “Becoming part of the NEWSCYCLE family will allow us to create a more complete experience that will take publishers forward and connect them to their audiences across all devices.”

The transaction closed on June 10, 2016. Financial terms have not been disclosed.

For more information, review the FAQs.

About DoApp

DoApp Inc. designs mobile applications (apps) and websites for the broadcast, radio, and newspaper industries and has built a mobile ad network that enables local businesses to quickly and easily advertise on mobile and tablet devices. The company, based out of Minnesota with teams in both Rochester and Minneapolis, focuses on making apps “cool” and easy-to-use, and has been featured in numerous publications, including Forbes, MSNBC, Bloomberg Business Week, ESPN Magazine, iPhone Life, and many more. DoApp’s complete product portfolio encompasses mobile entertainment, productivity, and lifestyle apps. The company is one of the largest app development providers and has numerous patents that are representative of the DoApp’s continued innovation in the world of mobile.

[Note: This post first appeared on my personal blog, GraemeThickinsOnTech.]

Filed Under: News & Events Tagged With: Minnesota, mobile

App Developers, NativeX Has an Education for You

February 11, 2016 By Graeme Thickins

Graphic: VentureBeat

Graphic: VentureBeat

If you publish apps (and it’s hard to find a company these days that doesn’t), you’d better be up on the new science — and art — of App Store Optimization. Yes, say hello to another acronym: ASO. We all know about SEO — it’s such common practice, we do it like breathing. But when the whole world has gone mobile, when everyone and their mother are publishing apps, if you aren’t into ASO – well, you’re falling behind. It’s a major new focus for app developers and publishers, and one of our most successful Minnesota startups is ready to take you to school on it.

ASO is the direct result of a phenomenon VentureBeat calls “invisible app syndrome.” In a post today, it explains: “With over 1.5 million apps in each app store, it’s easy for apps to disappear and never be seen… App Store Optimization (ASO) can bring your app out of hiding, placing it squarely in front of the customers who need or want it, and keep them clicking through.”

St. Cloud-based NativeX is an experienced player in helping app publishers NativeX-logooptimize for the app stores. You know them well. We’ve certainly written about the company before. It lately describes itself as “the premiere ad technology choice of top-charting mobile games and apps.” It has an expert team of engineers, data scientists, account managers, and designers, and has been recognized as a leader in effective monetization and user acquisition.

NativeX has been an innovator as well in redefining native advertising for mobile games and apps. (Worth mentioning here is that this Minnesota-born startup has been profitable for 12 straight years. Yes, you read that correctly. We grow ‘em good here in the cold North – where the firm began life under the name Freeze.com.)

An Upcoming ASO Webinar: “Money for nothing, clicks for free”
VentureBeat is hosting a webinar on February 18th on App Store Optimization. It’s sponsored by none other than NativeX, who will be participating along with Aaron Kardell, founder of Minneapolis-based real-estate apps publisher HomeSpotter.

From the post about the event (where you can register): “Mobile app developers are fighting a fearsome battle every day. As mobile continues to be second nature for us, publishers are releasing countless new apps on a daily basis — almost 1,500 a day are added to Apple’s App store alone. However, only a few will gain the undivided attention of the public.”

ASO Best Practices
In addition to sponsoring the upcoming webinar, NativeX just released an ASO white paper, which is all about best practices to help publishers improve app store visibility. WhitePaperTitle-NativeX-ASOIt’s the first in a two-part series. Part 1 focuses on Search Ranking optimization. Part 2 will focus on improving Chart Ranking.

RyanWeber-NativeX

Ryan Weber, NativeX

“With the millions of apps already in the app stores,”  said Ryan Weber, NativeX cofounder and chief product officer, “many developers have experienced the crushing reality of publishing an app that never finds an audience because the audience never finds the app.”

VentureBeat says this about the new white paper: “It takes effort and insight to implement the kind of ASO that makes a measurable difference, but the experts at NativeX have broken that process down to four steps.”

Ryan Weber adds: “67% of app users say the last app they downloaded was found through typing their inquiry into the app store search, making search the dominant organic app discovery method. Improving search ranking within those stores has become one of the most critical ASO requirements for publishers.”

Weber said that NativeX published the white paper to answer the questions most relevant to app publishers about ASO and how to improve their app store visibility. Specifically, here are the questions it addresses:

  • What is ASO?
  • What motivates users to download an app?
  • How are users finding/ discovering apps?
  • What impact do paid installs have on organic installs?
  • What do you need to measure for effective search discovery?
  • How do you pick the right keywords?
  • What tools are available to help with keyword selection?
  • How does relevance, difficulty and popularity affect keyword prioritization?
  • What are On-Page and Off-Page influence factors and what improves search rank?
  • How do you optimize paid campaign delivery for the purpose of influencing Off-Page factors?
  • What can you do in your app to influence Ratings and Reviews to improve ranking and conversion rate?
  • What are best practices for optimizing your app store click-through & conversion rates?
  • What tools are available to help with AB Testing to determine best assets to use?

VentureBeat published an extensive report  a couple of months ago on App Store Optimization. In a post describing that report, it says, “App publishers who implement ASO can realistically expect a 20% lift in organic downloads, and can in some cases double or even triple their organic downloads. That’s huge, and reduces overall cost per acquisition of each mobile user.”

That report sells for $499. But you can get a pretty darn good education for free by reading NativeX’s two-part white paper series mentioned above.

Then you can not only be on your way to increasing your own downloads, but you’ll be ready to help your mother when she’s ready to publish her first app, right?

——-

[Note: This post first appeared on my personal blog, Graeme Thickins On Tech.]

Filed Under: Marketing Innovation, Mobile Technology, Startups & Developers Tagged With: Apple, Google, mobile

Minnov8 Gang 343 – ‘Zap’ Your Payments With Ojezap Pay

December 19, 2015 By Steve Borsch

ojezap-pay-mainApple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay, Walmart Pay, CurrentC (and more long-standing mobile payment platforms like PayPal & their apps) are all jockeying for position to become the mobile payments platform.

Now Target is reportedly working on its own mobile payments, too and we talked about it in our top Minnesota stories section. Then we thought, “Hey! What if the five us start Ojezap Pay?” since Julio Ojeda-Zapata is today’s guest-host and, with his huge net worth from all those lucrative ‘netcast’ appearances on TWiT, we figure he could cover any losses by writing a check.  😉

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins, Phil Wilson and Julio Ojeda-Zapata.
Music: Texas Flood by Jim Hale under a Creative Commons License

The Podcast
https://media.blubrry.com/minnov8/minnov8.com/site/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/20151219_M8_Gang_343.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 58:22 — 34.2MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Story Links
Past Week’s Top Minnesota Stories
  • Insite Software snaps up Minneapolis tech company Storyworks1
    • Storyworks 1
  • Target Faces Major Data Leak Just Two Weeks After Settlement for 2013 Breach
  • Secured2 Lands Funding & Partnership from TASC
    • ‘Data shredding’ startup lands investment from benefits company
Other Top Tech Stories
  • Last-Minute Budget Bill Allows New Privacy-Invading Surveillance in the Name of Cybersecurity
  • Amazon
    • More than half of Americans will do ‘most’ of their holiday shopping at Amazon
    • Airline execs say Amazon is looking to lease planes for shipping service
    • Amazon tells customers: Throw away unsafe ‘hoverboards’
  • Apple
    • Nuance wants to build the power of Siri into every app
    • Apple is about to take even more control
    • The search for Apple’s next big thing
    • Apple Offers Free Overnight Shipping on Dec. 23rd
Steve’s Security Tip of the Week
  • TIP: Ransomware is coming to OS X and you need to learn how to protect yourself. Now.
    • What is ransomware?
    • Here is how to protect yourself (Steve’s post: Mac Ransomware is Close & You’re at Risk)

🎅 Cool Things for the Holidays 🎄

  • Phil: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
    • ‘Star Wars’ Smashes Thursday Night Box Office Record, Prepares For Galactic Opening Weekend
  • Tim: The Hateful Eight movie
    • Also shot in Panavision Super 70mm & their Roadshow widescreen viewing event is coming to AMC Edina starting Christmas day
  • Graeme: The world’s smallest camera drone has a price to match its size
    • Mention: MN-based toy drone company: QFO Labs
  • Julio: 360fly virtual-reality camera lets you shoot 360 videos
    • Watch them with Google Cardboard
  • Steve: Audio-Technica ATH-M50x Professional Studio Monitor Headphones
Upcoming Events
  • MinneAnalytics does Marketing Analytics – again! (MAMA2), January 22, Medtronic Mounds View Campus
  • The Complete List of 250+ Tech, IT, and DevOps Conferences in 2016
    • The list as a standalone Google spreadsheet

Filed Under: Minnov8 Gang Podcast Tagged With: #IoT, Android, Apple, mobile

Minnov8 Gang 320 – #IoT Goes Mainstream … or Not?

July 11, 2015 By Steve Borsch

iot-gang-mainTarget Stores has an Internet of Things concept in San Francisco? We discuss that and a bit about Apple Homekit, Google’s Project Brillo and Microsoft’s Windows 10 and Azure as IoT platforms. With Target in the game as a mass market retailer, does this mean IoT has hit the mainstream? Find out on this week’s show.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson (Graeme Thickins is off).
Music: Walking the Streets by DJ Ecklectic Mick under a Creative Commons License.

The Podcast
https://media.blubrry.com/minnov8/minnov8.com/site/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/20150711_M8_Gang_320.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 56:21 — 33.3MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Download or listen link

Story Links
Past Week’s Biggest MN Stories
  • Target opens a ministore for the Internet of Things
    • Inside Target’s Tech Funhouse and Search for Its Next Billion-Dollar Business
    • Experience Connected Home Technology Like Never Before at Target Open House
  • Medtronic made ‘smartest companies’ list
  • Minneapolis ranks fourth nationwide for digital health VC funding
  • CoCo to open co-working space in northeast Minneapolis
Other Top Tech Stories
  • Is Android the New Windows?
  • Analysis: Microsoft is Scaling Back on Windows Phone Dramatically
  • Microsoft to devs: We want your iOS and Android apps
  • Apple’s HomeKit Is Promising, But It Needs More Work
  • Apple Music Review: Behind a Messy Interface Is Music’s Next Big Leap
  • Steve Jobs trailer: watch an unrecognizable Michael Fassbender in the first extended look
  • Tampa, St. Louis, and Orlando Remain the Top Cities for Malware in the First Half of 2015
Steve’s Security Tip of the Week (SSTotW)

TIP: Critical Adobe Flash Security Updates. Uninstall Adobe Flash (or at least update) NOW.

  • no-flashWhat happened: Controversial company Hacking Team was hacked & security researchers around the world dig through the hacker’s release of gigabytes of data. In that data, researcher Brian Krebs discovers Hacking Team was exploiting a previously unknown hole in Flash: Adobe to Patch Hacking Team’s Flash Zero-Day
    • Brian Krebs Update just before this podcast’s recording: Adobe To Fix Another Hacking Team Zero-Day (two days later)
  • Complete overview: How spyware peddler Hacking Team was publicly dismantled
  • How to Uninstall Flash
    • Brian Krebs knows how to stay safe online…but even he has uninstalled Flash
    • Use these uninstallers:
      • Windows
      • Mac
      • Google Chrome uses its own Flash player. Here is how to disable it.
        • Or use this Chrome extension: Flash Control
      • How to Uninstall Flash Player in Linux
Cool Thing of the Week (CTotW)
  • Phil: Visual The 3D social media app for virtual reality. Coming soon to Samsung Gear VR and Oculus DK2.
  • Tim: CTotW update! BBC Micro Bit computer’s final design revealed
  • Graeme: (not on this week)
  • Steve: iClever® 6-Port 50W 10A Fast USB Desktop Charger – $26
    • Monoprice MFI Lightning-to-USB 6” cables for $7.99
    • Monoprice has multiple types of USB cables too
Upcoming Events
  • Conversations About The Future Of Advertising, July 15th, Fine Line Music Café
  • JoomlaDayMN, July 18th, Mall of America
  • MinneDemo 20, July 23rd at The Depot, 6pm
  • Prestige Conference, August 1-2, U of St. Thomas Mpls
  • MinneAnalytics conference on “Financial and Retail Analytics,” Carlson School, August 12th
  • Twin Cities Startup Week, Sept. 8-13
  • Converted2015 (LeadPages conference), October 20-21
  • “LeanIn2”: MinneAnalytics Healthcare & Life Sciences Conference, Oct 23rd

 

Filed Under: Minnov8 Gang Podcast Tagged With: #IoT, Android, Apple, mobile

Minnov8 Gang 310 – Why I Love Steroids

April 25, 2015 By Steve Borsch

julio-steroids-mainThough we’ve never actually seen our guest-host, Julio Ojeda-Zapata, take anabolic steroids—nor have we experienced, or even heard about, any ‘roid rage incidents he has been in—we do know he’s incredibly strong and ripped which will help him continue to lift all the tech gadgets he receives when they arrive.

Most importantly, Julio is quite passionate about Ignite Minneapolis, has delivered a fun and delightful presentation at the 2012 event, and we kick of this week’s show discussing the Spring 2015 event he attended. Maybe he’ll present on ‘roids at Ignite Minneapolis in October?

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Julio Ojeda-Zapata (Phil Wilson is off).
Music: Blue Bird Bluegrass by Phil Botic under a Creative Commons License.

The Podcast
https://media.blubrry.com/minnov8/minnov8.com/site/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/20150425_M8_Gang_310.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:06:34 — 39.1MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Download or listen link

Story Links
Past Week’s Biggest MN Stories
  • Ignite Minneapolis recap (Julio)
    • Ignite Minneapolis: a hot ticket to perfect hair
    • Ignite Minneapolis speaker events growing in popularity, frequency
    • Ignite Minneapolis gives shy people 5 minutes of fame
  • JAMF Software’s Relo shifts you from Android to iOS
    • Minneapolis company makes Android-to-Apple breakthrough
    • JAMF Software Announces Relo™ — Now It’s Easier Than Ever to Switch to the Apple Platform
  • Officials: MCA Testing Suspended Due To Cyber Attack
    • L.A. school district demands iPad refund from Apple
  • St. Anthony: Danish computer scientist found love and business in Twin Cities
  • Comcast | Time Warner Cable Deal
    • Franken last year on Comcast deal
    • Comcast announces Time Warner Cable deal is dead
    • Once Comcast’s Deal Shifted to a Focus on Broadband, Its Ambitions Were Sunk
    • Comcast / Time Warner Cable / Charter Transactions Terminated
    • Charter Explores Bid for Time Warner Cable
  • Minnesota ‘Mompreneur’ Launches Parent App and Crowdfunding Campaign
Other Top Stories
  • Google officially announces its mobile network service: Project Fi
  • Say hi to Fi: A new way to say hello
  • 1,500 iOS apps have this serious security flaw. Find out if your iPhone’s at risk.
  • Apple Watch Update:
    • Apple Watch: Loyalists who couldn’t wait line up in West Hollywood
    • Apple opens up the Apple Watch App Store with “more than 3,000 apps”
      • Apple Watch App Store (3,000+ apps)
      • Thousands of Apple Watch apps have been made without using the device — will they be any good?
      • Enterprise software vendors ready Apple Watch apps (even Microsoft! – click those PowerPoint slides!)
    • iFixit’s Apple Watch Teardown
    • Put A Gold Band On It

Steve’s Security Tip of the Week
  • Update! Update! Update!
    • Just this past week have included:
      • Critical Updates for Windows, Flash, Java
      • Security updates for several Apple products (e.g., AppleTV; OS X Yosemite; Safari; etc.)
      • Sucuri Security Advisory: XSS Vulnerability Affecting Multiple WordPress Plugins

Cool Thing of the Week
  • Tim: Joshua Topolsky’s new podcast, “Tomorrow”
  • Graeme:  How to Clean Up Your Messy Android and iPhone Contacts
  • Steve: Anker 40W 5-Port High Speed Desktop USB Charger for $26
    • To go with it I bought five of these 4-inch Lightning cables
  • Julio: The new MacBook

Upcoming Events
  • Wordcamp Minneapolis 2015, April 25-26th, University of St. Thomas
  • Twin Cities Code Camp 18, April 25th, UofMN Murphy Hall
  • R&D Tax Credits, April 29th, TreeHouse Health
  • LeadPages Open House, April 30th, 251 1st Ave N, #200
  • Appapalooza, May 3rd, Mpls Conv Ctr
  • The Nerdery Overnight Website Challenge, May 2nd-3rd
  • Whole View: A Framework for Overcoming Innovation Myopia, May 5th
  • MedTech Investing Conference, Loews Minneapolis Hotel, May 6th
    • Non-profits announced
    • The Teams
  • MHTA Spring Conference, May 7th, Guthrie Theater
  • The Geekettes’ All-Women Hackathon, May 16-17

Filed Under: Minnov8 Gang Podcast Tagged With: Android, Apple, Google, iPad, mobile

Minnesota ‘Mompreneur’ Launches Parent App and Crowdfunding Campaign

April 22, 2015 By Graeme Thickins

karla-lemmonKarla Lemmon has done it. She’s left a successful corporate career as a product manager to pursue her dream of becoming a tech entrepreneur and marketing her own app — an app for which she’s convinced there’s a big need.

little-peanutLittle Peanut on the Go is a personal-assistant mobile app for parents to help them stay organized and connected when they or their children are away from home. It lets parents create packing lists and to-do lists, build care schedules to share with caregivers, and connect with their children while they’re away with updates and photos. Little Peanut on the Go just became available this month, first in the Google Play App Store for Android devices. It’s expected to be available very soon in the iOS App Store. (UPDATE: it’s there!)

This month was also Karla’s official start date for taking the reins of her own firm, Karimack Productions LLC, on a fulltime basis — and beginning the process of marketing her new app. She says she’s had several business ideas over the years, “but Little Peanut on the Go is the idea that gave me the passion to actually pursue entrepreneurship.” Read more about Karla’s story in her own words on her blog.

Previously, Karla was employed by Honeywell for a dozen years in a variety of progressively responsible positions. Most recently, she was a program manager, where she managed all aspects of a SaaS communications application, including product design and development, marketing, pricing, usability and quality testing, and deployment. Karla has a mechanical engineering degree and also holds an MBA from the University of Saint Thomas. Read more about her background on her LinkedIn profile.

I first learned about Karla’s new venture last fall when I attended and reported on the 2014 “MobCon” mobile conference in Minneapolis. In my recap of the event, I wrote about how she took first prize in the startup pitchKarlaLemmon-MobConStartupWinner competition — going up against some pretty smart guys! — winning $25,000 in cash and services in the process.  As I said at the time, I was pretty blown away with the quality of her pitch and her app.

While Karla was self-funding the development and testing of her app, she realized she’d need to raise some funds to begin the marketing process once the app was available for download. But how? After considering various options, she chose to do a crowdfunding campaign — but not on Kickstarter or IndieGoGo, where it can be hard to get noticed. Rather, Karla decided to use a site designed specifically for women entrepreneurs: Plum Alley. Her campaign to raise just a modest $7500 is underway there, and it’s doing well in the short time it’s been live. Read about Karla’s decision to go with Plum Alley in a recent blog post she wrote.

Care Schedule

Packing ListPostsTo Do List

So, tell your mommy friends — and grandparents, too! Have them download the app. And, let’s see if we can help Karla reach her funding goal. You can support her project right here on Plum Alley. Creative, smart, hard-working Minnesota women entrepreneurs like Karla deserve our support!

Also, be sure to follow Little Peanut On the Go on Twitter, and Like the app here on Facebook.

Filed Under: Innovation, MN Entrepreneurs, Mobile Technology, News & Events, Startups & Developers Tagged With: Android, crowdfunding, iOS, MN Entrepreneurs, mobile

Teen Girls Making Apps for Fun, Prizes, and Solving World Problems

April 10, 2015 By Graeme Thickins

Mark your calendar for a great community event on the afternoon of Sunday, May 3, at the Minneapolis Convention Center. “Appapalooza” is an annual happening that highlights the work of teams of teen girls — 40 teams this year! — organized by Technovation[MN]. These middle and high-school students are tomorrow’s entrepreneurs!

TechnovationMN-girls

The teams develop concepts for mobile apps, learn how to code the apps, and then pitch their apps to members of the community. The local teams have been working on their apps since February and are competing to be selected as one of ten teams who are flown to Silicon Valley to pitch to VCs there, and have a chance to win $10,000 to commercialize their app.

Technovation[MN] is a community organization made up of an awesome group of dedicated volunteers, ShawnStavseth-200wheaded by executive director Shawn Stavseth (pictured). Shawn is senior director of product development at Edina-based Bluespire Marketing. (Also on the Technovation[MN] board is our Minnov8 colleague Phil Wilson, general manager of BuzzFeed’s Minneapolis office.)

This great organization came about because of Code Savvy, a nonprofit that inspires kids and teens to learn to code.

These young women have put thousands of hours of work into their apps, looking to solve real community and world problems. Come hear their pitches! The event is free and open to all. Just register here.  Donations are of course welcome! That you can do on the Technovation[MN] site, or at the GirlsWithPhones-375wevent.

NOTE TO LOCAL COMPANIES: Still needed are donations of prizes for drawings (iPads, anyone?), and also giveaways for the girls — how about some of that great conference swag you give away at your own events? Hit the contact link on the site and tell Shawn what you have! It’s a great community relations opportunity, and to show your support for these hard-working girls. A contribution to the future of Minnesota, indeed. You could end up hiring some of these smart kids when they get out of school!

—————

Here’s the complete text of the event news release:

Technovation[MN] Appapalooza: “Tapping Into an Aptitude for Apps” Event for Young Women May 3 at Minneapolis Convention Center

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., April 9, 2015 – Minnesotans are invited to celebrate young women in technology by attending the Technovation[MN] Appapalooza event on May 3, 2015 from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the Minneapolis Convention Center, 1301 Second Ave S.  The Appapalooza event features young women participating in the Technovation Challenge, a global technology entrepreneurship program.

Technovation[MN], which launched the Technovation Challenge in Minnesota in 2013, inspires girls in middle and high school to dream up, design, code and pitch mobile phone apps that help their communities. The Technovation Challenge program is designed to attract and encourage the next generation of women technology entrepreneurs. Technovation[MN] is an initiative of Code Savvy, a non-profit catalyst with programs that inspire a diverse new code-savvy generation.

This year Technovation[MN] exceeded its own expectations with more mentors, schools, teams and students than last year. The number of mentors and coaches grew from 15 in 2014 to 120 mentors and coaches in 2015; from 11 teams with 40 students in 2014 to 40 teams with more than 150 students in 2015; and from five schools in 2014 to 25 schools participating and supporting the Technovation Challenge. The girls have spent nearly 10,000 hours working on new apps to improve our world.

Since February 2015, the teams of girls have imagined, designed and built their mobile apps to compete in the international app-building challenge. Teams can choose to build an app for a non-profit or address a teen or women’s issue.

The Challenge culminates with the May 3 Appapalooza event where participants will “pitch” their apps and unveil their work. Ten teams from the United States and other countries will then be selected to fly to Silicon Valley, CA to present their app ideas to real venture capitalists; the winning team will be awarded $10,000 to help commercialize their app.

“We’re working to close the gender gap in computer science by teaching girls across Minnesota how to code and how be successful entrepreneurs,” explained Shawn Stavseth, Executive Director of Technovation[MN]. “Designing mobile apps is real and tangible for these girls because their cell phones are something they use every day. We want girls to understand the powerful role that technology can play in solving world problems.”

The May 3 Appapalooza is free and open to the public. Donations are welcome. Register to attend the event by visiting https://www.eventbrite.com/e/appapalooza-celebrating-young-women-transforming-the-world-one-mobile-app-at-a-time-tickets-16408537377.

Filed Under: News & Events Tagged With: mobile

Quantifying the Hype: A Data Analysis of #CES2015

January 14, 2015 By Graeme Thickins

CES-signThink of it as the morning after. Actually, it was the Monday following the week when 2015 International CES ended, on a Friday. I was scrolling through my email, trying to decompress — feeling some pride in surviving multiple weeks of being blasted with hundreds (thousands?) of PR pitches from an absolutely cuh-razy variety of exhibiting companies, from all over the globe. The blisters on my feet weren’t hurting so bad anymore. Whew! Things were finally starting to… slow… down.

Part of this decompression process is always trying to form in my head my overall opinion of the show — this after writing a couple of posts (and shooting a ton of photos), but no one person can ever really write enough posts to describe their entire experience at this thing. Which begs the question, how the hell do I summarize yet another year of this massive tech-product sensory overload? It is not easy netting it out!

As luck would have it, however, along comes one last, lonely email pitch, from a smart PR guy in New York (Jay Kolbe, Managing Director of SparkPR). I’ve never met him, but I’m liking what I’m reading. He’s telling me what he has today is “the most comprehensive data set you’re going to find about CES, with regards to what was actually ‘talked about’ and ‘seen’ in the last week online, via mobile and across Twitter.” Music to my ears!  He’s summarized it for me… with real data!

So, what follows — pretty much word-for-word — is what he proceeded to tell me in that email pitch. I asked him if he had any charts to support his summary, and he quickly complied.  The data, and the charts, are from Amobee Intelligence, a digital marketing company that developed an intelligence technology platform, which is described at the end of this post. (Amobee is, you guessed it, a SparkPR client.) Herewith, that data summary, which supports a lot of what I had observed with my own eyes (and heard and read) at the show. But it gave me more insight than I could possibly have gathered on my own… and nothing beats real data, ya know?

Samsung, Sony, and LG made the biggest impact at CES, but not necessarily for what they actually showed during the event. In several instances, awareness for these brands was driven as much by what they didn’t bring to the event as to what they actually displayed. TVs and computers were strong, as always, but washing machines (yes, WASHING MACHINES! as in the “Internet of Things”) and Wearables were as prominent as ever. And the auto industry continued its growing involvement with the event, mostly on the strength of talk about self-driving cars.

Brand-Related_DataConsumedatCES2015

Samsung indexed as the most “seen” brand online, via mobile and across social, during the week of CES. From curved computer screens, to SUHD TVs with enhanced LCD backlights, to washing machines with built-in sinks for washing delicates, what made Samsung stand out was the sheer volume of products that they brought to the event in Las Vegas. Also gaining them notice was their renewed focus on the “Internet of Things.” By 2017, Samsung is projecting that 90% of their products will be connected to the Internet.

Mobile Products and Washing Machines: Top of the Class at CES

While rumors that Samsung would debut the Galaxy S6 at CES proved untrue, that phone still caused a sizable amount of online chatter, driving speculation that they were showing the smartphone privately to carriers at the event. Galaxy S6-related interest represented 11% of all the Samsung awareness around CES.

Nearly as ubiquitous, Sony had 71% as much CES-related consumption as Samsung between January 6-9. Among the Sony products generating interest were what they claimed was the world¹s thinnest 4K TV, Playstation Now (an app that lets you play popular video games from the cloud without needing to buy a console), an HD action camera with 4K video, and the relaunch of the iconic Walkman — now reimagined as a high-end HD music player with Bluetooth headphones for serious audiophiles.

[A note from Graeme: But don’t buy one of those – buy one of these.]

As with Samsung, much of the discussion around Sony was for the highly anticipated Xperia Z4, which wasn’t publicly shown at CES, as many hoped, driving discussions online that accounted for 24% of all Sony-related awareness at CES.

Another brand making waves was LG, which had 61% as much CES awareness asSamsung during the event. LG was a brand that did unveil its big smartphones at CES, with the bendable LG G Flex 2 accounting for 22% of all LG-related consumption at CES. Other hits included seven 4K OLED TVs with Quantum Dot Displays and an extremely popular Twin Wash washing machine, which pragmatically allows you to get two loads done at once. There was also a semi-mysterious smart watch built for Audi that allows you to unlock your car, among other functions.

Computing Always Strong at CES

Meanwhile Intel had 37% as much related awareness as Samsung over the course of CES. 12% of Intel CES related consumption was around Curie, the button sized platform meant to power the next generation of wearable devices, with another 6% of Intel¹s awareness at the convention related to RealSense. While RealSense is already in the market, much of the focus in the Intel keynote was around both practical and imaginative applications for the camera recognition system. Intel also made a big splash with their announcement that they¹d be devoting $300 million to improving workplace diversity in their workforce.

Lenovo managed to draw 16% awareness as Samsung, driven by their lineup of Tab 2 A7 tablets, Flex 3 laptops, and the S41 Notebook – all budget devices. Blackberry had 13% as much awareness as Samsung, largely around the announcement of QNX becoming an “Internet of Things” platform and around BBM messaging coming to Android Wear. It appears that their embracing of IoT is helping return Blackberry to prominence.

There was 12% as much consumption around Asus as Samsung, almost exclusively around the Zenfone 2 phablet.

Auto-Related_DataConsumedatCES2015

Autos Show Well at CES

For the second year in a row, self-driving cars made the biggest impression at the event. With 11% as much awareness as Samsung, Mercedes-Benz made a splash with their self-driving car prototype, the F 015 Luxury in Motion. Meanwhile, Audi had 10% as much awareness as Samsung, around their own autonomous car and the previously mentioned LG watch prototype.

There was 46% as much CES-related awareness around BMW as around Mercedes-Benz, primarily for the BMW iHome Charging Service for electric cars and their experimental ActiveAssist technology, which literally makes it impossible to crash your car when you¹re parking it. NVIDIA had 31% as much CES awareness as Mercedes, mostly around Drive PX platform that identifies objects from up to 12 cameras at once, and will be used to power self-driving cars. Volkswagen had 30% as much CES awareness as Mercedes, around their Golf R Touch touch-less gesture-controlled interface concept and semi-automatic Park Assist feature.

[A note from Graeme: See my post about the VW press conference.]

At slightly lower of a profile, Ford had 19% as much CES awareness as Mercedes-Benz, mostly around their SYNC 3 communications and entertainment system, with such features as improved voice recognition. Similarly themed, Parrot had 13% as much CES related awareness as Mercedes-Benz — around The Simple Box, their connected automotive infotainment solution. Android Auto also had 13% as much CES awareness, as brands like Volkswagen, Kenwood, Parrot, and Pioneer integrated Android Auto into their products.

Making less consumer focused news, Toyota had 8% as much awareness as Mercedes, on the heels of releasing 5,680 patents around their fuel cell technology, in an effort to promote “unconventional collaboration.” Finally, Chevy had 4% as much awareness around their last-minute decision to unveil the 2016 Chevrolet Volt at CES, instead of the Detroit Auto Show a week later.

Like Dark Matter, Apple Was Part of the CES Conversation Even When It Was Unseen

Apple had 9% as much CES awareness as Samsung, not because of what they presented at CES (because they never do), but because their products were being compared to products that did launch at CES. For instance, there were several competitive products to Apple¹s automated home center called HomeKit, and numerous smart watch competitors to the upcoming Apple Watch.

Subjects_DataConsumedatCES2015

Top Topic Areas at CES Driven by Wearables

Moving on to the top CES associations by subject matter, if 2014 was the year Wearables arrived at CES, 2015 was the year that Wearables arrived front and center. There was more awareness around Wearables than any other topic at CES this year. In fact, there was 54% more awareness around Wearables than around any other product area, with related subjects also dominating the list. There was 33% as much CES-related awareness around Smart Watches as around Wearables, 28% as much around Internet of Things, 27% as much around Self-Driving Cars, and 22% as much around Drones as around Wearables.

[A note from Graeme: To keep up on the world of wearables, here’s a great resource.]

Apart from areas that are directly related to the “Internet of Things,” there was 65% as much CES-related awareness around Smartphones as there was around Wearables, with the Asus Zonefone 2 and LG G Flex 2 leading the charge. There was only 27% as much CES awareness around Tablets as there was around Wearables, with 24% as much around Cameras at the event.

On the TV front, there was 48% as much CES-related awareness around 4K and 44% as much related awareness around Curved TVs as around Wearables, indicating that 4K may be the next must-have product in that industry.

——————-

About Amobee: The above data was compiled by Amobee Intelligence (formerly Kontera), a company that helps brands understand the world’s content and customers’ interests. Its Intelligence platform analyzes the content being read and consumed on the Web, on social platforms, and on mobile devices. This historical and real-time information is used to provide marketers with trends and actionable insights for marketing strategies. Each day, the company cross-correlates the consumption patterns of more than 2 billion content items as they are seen and read by consumers across the web, mobile, and social digital ecosystem.

Core Technology & Platform: Amobee’s Marketing Intelligence focuses on surfacing both real-time and historical interest trends and patterns based on what content people actually “see” and consume across the entire digital ecosystem. Its Brand Intelligence technology is based on several proprietary semantic, statistical, and linguistic algorithms that analyze and correlate consumption of social, web, and mobile content. This real-time platform examines on a daily basis what consumers see and their content consumption patterns as they view and consume across more than 400,000 websites, 550 terabytes of video, 1.4 billion tweets, 450 million articles, 550 million images, and more than 300 billion phrases, to quickly aggregate actionable insights on more than 27,000 interest topics, 8,000 celebrities, 12,000 locations, and 350,000 products.

[Note: This post first appeared on my personal blog, GraemeThickinsOnTech.com.] 

Filed Under: Innovation, News & Events Tagged With: #IoT, Apple, IoT, mobile

Minnov8 Gang 294 – The CES Lounge Singer

January 3, 2015 By Steve Borsch

lounger-singer-mainGraeme is headed to Las Vegas for the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show and will be performing his lounge act, no doubt. (Actually, he’s working with some of his Minnesota clients showcasing their offerings at the show, but who knows?).

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson (Graeme Thickins is off).
Music: Handful of Stars by Midnight Music Quartet. Brought to us by the podsafe Music Alley.

The Podcast
https://media.blubrry.com/minnov8/minnov8.com/site/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/20150103_M8_Gang_294.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:10:06 — 41.1MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Story Links
Past Week’s Biggest MN Stories
  • Minnesota launches new website tracking government spending
  • Consumers like super-sized smartphones, but carrying them around…
  • Phablets catch fire for the holidays
Other Top Stories
  • CES and the Internet of Things
    • ‘Internet of Things’ products to grab the spotlight at CES 2015
    • Here’s what to expect from CES 2015
    • SmartThings & The Opening CES Keynote Address
      • Livestream on Monday, January 5th at 8:30am Central
    • ‘Internet of Things’ is soft target for hackers
  • Blu phones
  • HP sells Palm trademarks; brand could be resurrected with new smartphones
  • Google posts Windows 8.1 vulnerability before Microsoft can patch it
  • Twitter’s ‘While You Were Away’ Recap Feature Is Rolling Out To Many Users
  • Google Strikes an Upbeat Note With FCC on Title II
  • Microsoft is building a new browser as part of its Windows 10 push
    • History of Internet Explorer
  • Prying Eyes: Inside the NSA’s War on Internet Security
    • Skype. How big *is* the back door? (Steve’s blog post from 2008)
    • Darkmail – End-to-end encrypted email
      • Dark Internet Mail Environment paper by Ladar Levinson (PDF)
Steve’s Security Tip of the Week

Top Five Security New Year’s Resolutions

1) Use two-factor authentication whenever possible

  • What is two factor authentication?
  • List of sites using two factor authentication

2) Use a password manager

  • 15+ Best iPhone Password Manager Apps
  • Gang’s favorite: LastPass

3) Be smart, and safe, with your computing

  • Top Ten Safe Computing Tips (for MIT Students)

4) Encrypt your hard drive, especially on your laptop!

  • BitLocker on Windows
  • FileVault2 on OS X

5) Use a VPN

  • Five Best VPN Service Providers
  • Ultimate VPN list
Cool Thing of the Week
  • Phil: The Om/One Levitating Bluetooth Speaker
  • Tim: Alcatel’s new Pixi smartphone can run Windows, Android, or Firefox OS
  • Steve: Blue Mikey
Upcoming Events
  • Educelerate Twin Cities Demo2, January 14, 2015
  • GameCraft, January 23-25, UofM
  • Date Night: How Data Science Leads to “I do”, February 3, 2015  (tickets)
  • MinneDemo 19, February 5th, Guthrie Theater (tix released Jan 27th & Feb 2nd)
  • Hennepin County Geo Code, February 21-22
  • Mobile March, March 26th, 2015
  • IoT Fuse (Internet of Things event) March 19th, 2015 (tix here)
  • MinneBar 10, April 11th, Best Buy HQ
  • Twin Cities TechPulse 2015 – April 21, 2015

Filed Under: Minnov8 Gang Podcast Tagged With: Android, Apple, Google, Microsoft, mobile

Next Page »

Search

Minnov8.com Is Now An Archive

As of April 2017, Minnov8 posts and podcasts are now an archive as this site is no longer actively published. Thanks to all of you who have been reading and listening since our founding in 2008!

Minnov8 Post Categories

Connect with Minnov8

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Minnov8 Gang Podcast

Copyright © 2025 · Log in
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.