99designs - Connecting Designers from Around the World

Vishal Sharma Tuesday, July 15, 2008 , , , , , , , , , , , 0 comments

Today we showcase an exciting and a successful venture co-founded by, Mark Harbottle in 2008 from Melbourne, Australia, 99designs - it connects thousand of designers from around the world with clients who need design tasks completed fast, and without the usual high cost and limited choice you get from most traditional design firms.

In a recent email based interview with Mark, he gave insights into his venture and how he is progressing with it. This is what he has to say:

• Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?
I’m 34 years old. I have a degree in computer systems engineering. I started my working life as a programmer, but I eventually found I was much better at online marketing, which back in 1995 was an area not many people had explored.
I’ve worked with pure internet businesses for 13 years now. The first 4 years after I graduated I worked with one of Australia’s first internet companies, and the last 9 have been spent working on my own businesses. I started sitepoint in 1999 with a business partner in Canada, and I launched a new company earlier this year called 99designs.
I live in Melbourne with my wife and two little girls. When I’m not running around after two kids and two businesses (I’m not sure which is harder) I’ve usually either escaped to the footy or I’m at the gym battling to keep fit.

• What services do you provide for your customers?
99designs can be used to source any custom design work, so logo designs, business cards, web page designs, brochures, t-shirts, banner ads and so on. The difference between 99designs and your typical design firm is that we have access to a large community of designers who contribute to the outcome of your design rather than a single person.
The way it works is like this…
Say you want a logo designed for your business - you post your requirements on 99designs.com for $39 USD and nominate the amount you wish to pay for the finished design, say $300 USD. Designers from around the world view your requirements and start producing designs for you. Over the course of a few days you guide the designers by communicating what you like and dislike about their work. At the end of the process you choose your favourite design, pay the designer the amount you nominated (in this case $300 USD), and you walk away with a finished design.
We currently have around 16,000 registered designers, growing at 100 a day, so there’s no shortage of creative inspiration and variety.

• Who are the people behind this and how did it get started?
The original concept that 99designs is based on was founded by a group of passionate designers within the sitepoint.com forums. These particular designers needed an outlet for their work and they loved challenging each other so they would seek out small design projects and compete to produce the best design.
We noticed that this activity was gaining in popularity within the forums so we invested in building an online platform to better manage the design process and help bring new projects to the table for the designers. We ran a proof of concept for 18 months before deciding that it had enough legs to spin off into a new company.
So you could say our users founded the idea, we just crafted it into a business.

• What is the main objective/mission behind your venture?
Our objective is to build the biggest designer community on earth. The designers really are the core of our business, so our goal is to provide them with a friendly, professional, and secure environment where they can compete on a level playing field, show off their work, improve their skills, communicate with peers, and build relationships with new clients. We already have many designers from around the world who make their living through 99designs.com.

• What type of customers you are targeting?
As I mentioned 99designs is a community of designers but when business is transacted it’s also an online marketplace, and like every marketplace you have two sides to target – buyers and the sellers. For 99designs, the buyers are the clients seeking design work, and the sellers are the designers selling their services - so we obviously need to cater to both.

• How many people are using your services?
In the 4 months since we launched 99designs has grown to over 35,000 registered users, around half are designers. Traffic has grown from just 1.5 million page views per month in February 2008 to over 6.2 million page views a month in July 2008. It really is going gang busters.

• What sort of marketing you are using to spread the word?
Apart from ad hoc promotions on our sister site (sitepoint.com) we haven’t done any outbound marketing at all – the uniqueness and simplicity of the service we provide and the fact that we’ve disrupting the multi-billion dollar a year design industry has meant that word of mouth has largely been responsible for our growth to date.

• How are you measuring the success of your venture? Are their any special mechanisms/tools in place to monitor the progress?
Yes, we measure the success of our venture based on a number of key metrics. We have an online dashboard that’s linked to our user database via a number of reports and graphs that provide an instant view of everything that’s going on in the business. We also use third parties tools like Google Analytics to measure traffic and track referrals.

• What is the monetizing/revenue model? Is their any new model, which is being tried?
We charge a $39 USD listing fee to upload your design brief to 99designs.com. That gives you access to our design community who will view your brief and decide if they want to participate. The designer is paid directly by the customer once they produce a design they’re happy with. That’s the way it works now, but we’re moving towards a slightly different model where we charge a small success fee at the end of the process and handle the whole transaction. This will simplify things a lot for everyone.

• Which are the main competitors or major players in this market segment?
There are a few competitors popping up and drawing inspiration from 99designs, however by being first to market we’ve very quickly established a critical mass of both designers and clients and claimed the #1 spot in this space. Obviously we’re working hard to protect our position and continue to grow.

• What are the main technologies used behind this venture?
99designs is built using commodity open source tools, Apache, PHP and MySQL. The site is hosted on Amazon's virtualized clustering product, EC2. Thanks to a number of cutting edge tools, the site can scale up or down virtual server resources based on time of day and traffic demands. This has allowed 99designs to survive a sustained growth that would have outgrown conventional setups several times.

• What is your operating environment (operating system) and what type of database you are using?
The development and production servers run Linux. The database servers run MySQL 5 with Innodb.

• The conventional computing model is shifting to Cloud computing. How do you see the future of business changing with the use of this technology?
I see the major change being the lower barrier for entry for small startups. Garage-based companies can now develop applications in weeks that can handle huge volumes of traffic and only pay for what they use. Avoiding significant infrastructure costs up front means less risk, and more funding for innovative ideas. The ability to scale on demand means smaller outfits can hope to deal with the volumes of traffic that sites like Digg and Facebook can deliver without having to provision entire server farms ahead of time.

• What do you think the government (federal and state) should do to improve the culture of innovation?
At a federal level they shouldn’t be removing access to key government funding initiatives such as the Commercial Ready Grant. Start ups need all the help they can get and grants such as these are vital for their survival.
In terms of encouraging established businesses to innovate I think if your company has a proven history of success there should more in the way of incentives to encourage you to do more to drive innovation, whether that be via new grants, tax offsets, or rebates.
On a state level, they should be providing incentives for businesses who hire more people not penalizing them – so abolishing payroll tax would be a good start.

• If you are given an opportunity to change the nation, what 3 things would you do?
I would improve our health care system buy looking at examples of what’s working and what’s not working overseas. I would do something about the rising cost of living and housing affordability. And lastly I would build desalination plants around the country, funded by introducing a ‘water tax’ for excess water usage. Seems logical to me.

Thanks Mark for sharing your thoughts with us. All the best for future.

For coverage on other Australian startups, innovation, tech trends check this out and our coverage on interviews can be found here

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Coastal Watch - Surf Reports & Live Streaming Vision for Beaches in Australia

Vishal Sharma Monday, July 14, 2008 , , , , , , , , , , 0 comments

Today we showcase an exciting and a successful venture co-founded in 2000 by Ex-MD, Mal Jago, who now has a digital consultancy business Earworm Consulting, from Sydney, Australia, Coastal Watch - provides accurate surf reports for beaches around Australia and live streaming vision.

In a recent email based interview with Mal, he gave insights into this venture . This is what he has to say:

• Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?
Spent 15 years as a Foreign exchange Dealer before a sea change in 2000 into Coastalwatch

• Please tell us about your venture/company?
Surfcams at beaches to provide surf reports and conditions to surfers/boating/ Surf Life Savings

• Who are the people behind this and how it started?
 Chris Lane- Surfer and IT guru wanting to avoid getting up at UNi and wasting his time getting
to beach and find no waves.

• How long it took before it was up and running?
1-2 years established 1998.

• What services it provides it for consumer or customers?
Streaming surf cams/Surf Reports/ Swell Forecasting/ Surf news/Mobile phone data/ iPTV

• What type of customers were are targeting?
Surfers, Boating, Surf Life Saving and really anyone with a interest in the beach and water ways

• How many people were using your the services?
450k Uvs/month

• What sort of marketing you are using to spread the word?
Mainly done via word of mouth and through key sponsorship deals.

• How did you measure the success of your venture? Are their any special mechanisms/tools in place to monitor the progress?
Traffic against other sporting sites online as well as weather and news sites.

• What was the monetizing/revenue model? Was their any new model, which was tried?
Shifted from start as advertisers were slow to move spend online with audience. So content sales to mobile/ web dev initially then display took over as major revenue model. Also ran a community radio model, as it was a free service and expensive to run people could opt in to become a member with no extra service. Professional people were happy to as they know how expensive it is to run a business and we saved them considerable time in doing the sport they love.

• Who were the main competitors or major players in this market segment?
Major sports portals with large franchises behind them. Other weather/surf sites

• What are the main technologies used behind this venture?
IP cameras and streaming software, but alot of the infrastructure was custom built or adapted.

• Were you using lot of open source tool sets for this?
Yes we did.

• What’s your thought on being an entrepreneur? How tough was it to start a venture in Australia?
Being early to market seeing such huge potential as did many others and the constant validating your story and keeping the dream alive. Not being apart of the major publishers and being massively under financed made it very difficult.

• What’s your thought on the start-ups culture and innovation coming out of Australia especially in media and telecom?
Always so exciting the last 2 years as more serious money enters the space. But its super competitive and many good ideas dont make it.

• What do you think the government (federal and state) should do to improve the culture of innovation and the telecom industry?
Broadband/Broadband/Broadband.

• If you are given an opportunity to change the nation, what 3 things you will do?
Poverty/ health / education all the things Government should be.

• How often do you catch up with others trying similar things and where do you catch up? Do you have dedicated communities in your city?
Go to as many events as i can and touch base with a good network of people.

• Do you have any advice for people who want to start their venture?
Believe/ passion/ planning/ good investors

• Which City you were based in?
Sydney

Thanks Mal for sharing your thoughts with us. All the best for future.

For coverage on other Australian startups, innovation, tech trends check this out and our coverage on interviews can be found here

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Plasq - Creating Software Applications for Mac and PC

Vishal Sharma Tuesday, July 08, 2008 , , , , 0 comments

Today we showcase an exciting and a successful technology business co-founded by Keith Lang, from Canberra, Australia. plasq - Best known for “Comic Life”, is a software company that create applications for Mac and PC. It’s a bit over 3 years old and gained recognition in the Mac community when Comic Life was bundled with all new Macs for a period of a year. plasq has also won various awards for it’s software and works hard to design fun, intuitive and creative visual applications.
In a recent email based interview with Keith, he gave insights into his venture and how he is progressing with it. This is what he has to say:

• Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?
Keith Lang, Co-Founder of plasq. I’m a musician by training, with a Bachelor Degree in Classical Music Composition. I was involved in audio software for quite some time, on the musicians side of things, before getting involved in the software side.

• Who are the people behind this and how it started?
Robert Grant, Cris Pearson and Keith Lang founded plasq – based initially around a project to release software developed by a community of people. Musolomo was actually the first release, an audio application plugin built for live performance – coded by Airy André who would join plasq officially at a later stage. The next release was Comic Life -- an application that lets users turn their digital pictures into comic strips and share the fun results.

• How long it took before it was up and running?
The first released product Comic Life had been in production for about 3 months prior, with the original idea by Robert Grant. Then Cris Pearson and Keith Lang joined Rob to improve the user experience.

• What is the main objective/mission behind your venture?
To create intuitive, meaningful software that lets people express themselves.

• What services it provides it for consumer or customers?
Fun Software!

• What type of customers you are targeting?
Anyone with a reasonably modern computer. And now also iPhones and iPod Touch’s.

• How many people are using your services?
Millions.

• What sort of marketing you are using to spread the word?
Some Google Adwords, some online sites. We’ve never bought magazine or other traditional media ads.

• How are you measuring the success of your venture? Are their any special mechanisms/tools in place to monitor the progress?
We have various ad tracking schemes to follow the initial click on an ad, to download.

• What is the monetizing/revenue model? Is their any new model, which is being tried?
We are mostly traditionally shareware based. That is, download the software, trial it for 30 days, if you like it then purchase a serial number or the software has its features reduced after the trial.

• Which are the main competitors or major players in this market segment?
We have many excellent competitors, from large companies with overlapping applications like Power Point with it’s callouts/balloons, to online sites which offer some of the features of Comic Life.

• What are the main technologies used behind this venture?
Most of our applications are coded in Cocoa, which is a Objective-C based language that Mac applications usually use. The PC ports (versions) of our software use C+, I believe.

• What has been the most easy to use, out of box and helpful technology?
Most of the Apple technology has really improved in leaps and bounds over the last 7 years, and so now offers a really pleasant and efficient development space.

• Are you using lot of open source tool sets for this?
Only for our website, and occasional ‘generic’ things in the applications.

• What is your operating environment (operating system) and what type of database you are using?
I’m not sure what kind of database actually – we have various things for different needs. We use Mac OS X primarily.

• What’s your thought on being an entrepreneur? How tough it is to start a venture in Australia?
plasq is an unusual company in that we work across continents. Only a small part of plasq is in Australia, and the company itself is an LLC in South Carolina, US. We have people in Norway, France, both sides of the US and work with artists in Austria, Japan and South America.

My personal thoughts on starting a venture in Australia is that people think locally too much. We set ourselves up using free online services like Skype, and have functioned for years using online collaboration tools. Of course, this does not suit every industry, but there are many functions of a company where better talent could be found around the world, or in another part of Australia.

• What’s your thought on the start-ups culture and innovation coming out of Australia especially in media and telecom?
There’s some startups in this country in the media and telco space – but to be honest I believe a lot of them eventually leave for the US, because it’s a hub for this kind of work. Another factor is that this country has such poor internet access. The fact we don’t have affordable broadband for everyone is hurting Australia, in my opinion.

• The conventional computing model is shifting to Cloud computing which is comprised of SAAS, PAAS and IAAS (infrastructure). This has resulted in changes to conventional monetising model? How do you see the future of business in terms of technology and revenue model?
Cloud and desktop/Mobile applications will continue to blur – but I’m not sure how the infrastructure will affect it.

• What do you think the government (federal and state) should do to improve the culture of innovation and the telecom industry?
Subsidise broadband for everyone.

• If you are given an opportunity to change the nation, what 3 things you will do?

  • Subsidise Broadband so that everyone has access to it.
  • Get kids involved in computer development early on, not just users
  • Put serious money into Solar Power research
• You are a prolific and a well-established blogger and podscaster. How do you manage this with work?
Well, I’ve just changed my blog to UIandus.com, which is focussing much more on User Interaction design than my previous blog. The resulting overlap should help both my work and blogging.

• How often do you catch up with others trying similar things and where do you catch up? Do you have dedicated communities in your city?
I’ve recently moved to Canberra, from Melbourne for personal reasons. Melbourne has quite a good technical community, and they often meet for social lunches etc. under the umbrella of organizations like tequp.com Canberra has a much smaller community, and tends to focus on Government work, rather than entrepreneurship. I get to San Francisco about twice a year, and really enjoy meeting all the movers and shakers there.

• Do you have any advice for people who want to start their venture?
Don’t think you have to spend money to get started. Beg, borrow what you need and start making customers early on. Listen to what they say, and measure your results to improve your strategy. Trust yourself when designing – build the things you want to use and then also ‘eat your own dogfood’. We have found Government grants to not suit us, sometimes it seems better to just build something small you can sell, then scale up to the final idea. Software is great for this because you have very few material costs during the startup period. Build a team of positive, realistic people who are not too similar to one another. Try to find a business-minded person with some experience. Scale up slowly and always have a plan B. Talk to the people who have been successful in your industry as they’re often happy to share their insights. Remember that the customer experience is the main focus at all times. Whenever you spend effort or money, measure the results afterwards. Make sure you are enjoying it most of the time!

Thanks Keith for sharing your thoughts with us. All the best for future.

For coverage on other Australian startups, innovation, tech trends check this out and our coverage on interviews can be found here

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Morfik - Development Tools for Rich Internet Applications

Vishal Sharma Monday, July 07, 2008 , , , , , , 0 comments

Today we showcase an exciting and a successful technology business co-founded by Aram Mirkazemi, from Tasmania, Australia. Morfik - a commercial vendor of professional software development tools. Morfik was established to address the need for an integrated high-end development tool that empowers software developers to leverage their existing skills to build Rich Internet Applications without the need to master Web technologies such as HTML/CSS/HTTP/SOAP etc.

In a recent email based interview with Aram, he gave insights into his venture and how he is progressing with it. This is what he has to say:

• Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?
I am a professional software developer with many years of entrepreneurial experience in developing commercial CAD systems and Web Application Development tools. My interests are Rapid Application Development (RAD), Integrated Development Environments (IDE), Rich Internet Applications (RIA) Using Ajax and emerging technologies, protocols and standards.

• Who are the people behind this and how it started?
After a very successful venture in Electronic Design Automation (CAD) that resulted in an Initial Public Offering in 1999, myself and Sharam Besharati (another former Protel employee) started Morfik in 2000.

• How long it took before it was up and running?
Our vision of using the web technologies to develop applications that rival the desktop was considered by many as too radical and unachievable in year 2000. Developing an integrated professional tool to achieve our vision necessitated inventing several new techniques and enabling technologies without circumventing existing standards. It took five years of research and development before all pieces of the puzzle fitted together and we were ready to deliver the first public beta of our flagship product.

• What is the main objective/mission behind your venture?
To help software developers who have missed the professional Web development opportunities to join the game and leapfrog to the top.

• What type of customers you are targeting?
Software developers who are not active in web application development, as well as existing web developers who prefer to use a professional Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

• How many people are using your services?
We have had over 10,000 downloads to date

• What sort of marketing you are using to spread the word?
Internet marketing mainly

• How are you measuring the success of your venture? Are there any special mechanisms/tools in place to monitor the progress?
Number of licenses sold!

• What is the monetizing/revenue model? Is there any new model, which is being tried?
We prefer the simplicity of the long-established sale of software licenses. Should there be a demand we will also consider offering a simple subscription model similar to Microsoft’s MSDN.

• Which are the main competitors or major players in this market segment?
The main players are Microsoft, Adobe and Google. However, only Microsoft offers a commercial Integrated Development Environment. Microsoft, Adobe, and Google promote different exclusive technologies. As a development platform, Morfik follows the established standards and is more inclusive. Morfik applications can incorporate some of the technologies promoted by these players. So while commercially competitors, technologies offered by these vendors do not necessarily compete with the Morfik platform.

• What are the main technologies used behind this venture?
Compilers, Relational Database, Web Servers and W3C standards.

• Are you using lot of open source tool sets for this?
No

• What is your operating environment (operating system) and what type of database you are using?
The development environment is Microsoft Windows. Morfik web applications can run both on Windows or Linux based operating systems including Mac OSX.

• What’s your thought on being an entrepreneur? How tough it is to start a venture in Australia?
Being an entrepreneur is one of the greatest and most fulfilling journeys in life. It is very easy to be an entrepreneur; you just need to work hard!

• What’s your thought on the start-ups culture and innovation coming out of Australia especially in Software?
There are great Australian software start-ups that are world class. But unfortunately they go mostly unnoticed until they have success oversees. This has resulted in a cultural gap between start ups and the support infra-structure that helps them get started.

• The conventional computing model is shifting to Cloud computing which is comprised of SAAS, PAAS and IAAS (infrastructure). This has resulted in changes to conventional monetising model? How do you see the future of business in terms of technology and revenue model?
With cloud computing now being well on its way to deliver computing as a utility, businesses need to change their focus from IT infra-structure to business intelligence and automation. The market will no doubt experiment with new revenue models and over time the right model will emerge. In terms of software development tools no significant change in revenue model is necessary. The simplicity of either sale of licences or a subscription models will serve the purpose.

• What do you think the government (federal and state) should do to improve the culture of innovation and the telecom industry?
They are already doing a great job with the R&D tax rebate and export marketing grants. The federal and state governments are the largest user of ICT technologies. My advice to them is to look at home first otherwise in many cases you will be paying a lot more to buy Australian technology from overseas!

• If you are given an opportunity to change the nation, what 3 things you will do?
I will invest in that which will put Australia in the forefront of globalisation.
I will reward all innovation by assisting in its commercialisation.
I will reward productivity through profit sharing.

• How often do you catch up with others trying similar things and where do you catch up? Do you have dedicated communities in your city?
We are regular visitors and exhibitors in Information Technology conferences and forums around the world. There are no dedicated communities in our city.

• Do you have any advice for people who want to start their venture?
Don’t talk about it, just do it.

• Any external funding – from VC, Govt, Self funded
Morfik is self-funded

• Which City you are based in?
Hobart, Tasmania

Thanks Aram for sharing your thoughts with us. All the best for future.

For coverage on other Australian startups, innovation, tech trends check this out and our coverage on interviews can be found here

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The Podcast Network - World's First Podcasting Business

Vishal Sharma Monday, June 30, 2008 , , , , , , 0 comments

Today we showcase an exciting and a successful technology business co founded by Cameron Reilly , from Australia,The Podcast Network - World's First Podcasting Business.

In a recent email based interview with Cameron, he gave insights into his venture and how he is progressing with it. This is what he has to say:

Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?
I'm 37, stunningly handsome, brilliant, and like long walks on the beach.

What is the name of your venture/company?
I'm the founder of The Podcast Network, MODM, Geeks Who Care, Twittories and The Church of LOTU.

Please tell us about your venture/company?
Where to start?The Podcast Network - the world's first podcasting business. We currently produce over 80 podcasts with a monthly audience of about 500,000 people from around the world.
MODM - a monthly networking event for the digital media industryGeeks Who Care - a charity based on getting geeks together to use their geekful powers for good in their local communities.
Twittories - an experiment to get 140 people to collaborate on writing a short story using Twitter
The Church of LOTU - a church for atheists and critical thinkers.

Who are the people behind this and how it started?
Let's focus on TPN. My co-founder was a guy called Mick Stanic but he left the business about a year after we started it in Feb 2005. TPN was formed off the back of the podcast Mick and I started doing in Nov2004 called "G'Day World", which was the first Australian podcast (which now makes it the longest running Australian podcast).

How long it took before it was up and running?
It took us about two months from the day we came up with the idea to start something to launching the site.

What is the main objective/mission behind your venture?
To build a 21st century global media company that can change the world.

What services it provides it for consumer or customers?
Audio and video podcasts mainly, but we recently published our first book (in both paperback and e-book formats).

What type of customers you are targeting?
Intelligent people who want to change the world.

How many people are using your services?
about 500,000.

What sort of marketing you are using to spread the word?
Just word of blog.

How are you measuring the success of your venture? Are their any special mechanisms/tools in place to monitor the progress?
We look at the stats.

What is the monetizing/revenue model? Is their any new model, which is being tried?
We're selling advertising. Not much of it yet, but that's the plan.

Which are the main competitors or major players in this market segment?
The entire radio industry, the entire television industry, and everyone with a podcast.

What are the main technologies used behind this venture?
The interwebs. And a microphone.

What has been the most easy to use, out of box and helpful technology
Wordpress rocks.

Are you using lot of open source tool sets for this?
Yes it's 100% open source.

What is your operating environment (operating system) and what type of database you are using?
Linux and MySQL.

What's your thought on being an entrepreneur? How tough it is to start a venture in Australia?
I love being an entrepreneur. Australia has advantages and disadvantages, the same as anywhere else.

What's your thought on the start-ups culture and innovation coming out of Australia especially in media and telecom?
There aren't enough of them.

How do you see the opportunity in mobile space? Do you think iPhone (closed) and Google's Android based (open) platform will be the two major players going forward?
I think mobile is huge and yes, Apple and Google will be the key players moving forwards.

The conventional computing model is shifting to Cloud computing which is comprised of SAAS, PAAS and IAAS (infrastructure). This has resulted in changes to conventional monetising model? How do you see the future of business in terms of technology and revenue model?I'm just a media guy. Software business models don't interest me much outside of what I have to pay for it. I think Microsoft are screwed though.

What do you think the government (federal and state) should do to improve the culture of innovation and the telecom industry?
Get out of the way, mostly. And perhaps create some incentives for start-ups (like a tax break or two).

If you are given an opportunity to change the nation, what 3 things you will do?
I am changing the nation (and the world) every day.
Here's my plan:
1. Run a large media company.
2. Start a new political party.
3. Use the media company to start a new political party.

You are a prolific and a well-established blogger and podcaster. How do you manage this with work?
It is my work.

How often do you catch up with others trying similar things and where do you catch up? Do you have dedicated communities in your city?
I started MODM about a year ago in Melbourne for that very reason. It was a monthly catch-up at various bars in Melbourne. This year I'm launching it nationally.

Do you have any advice for people who want to start their venture?Do it. Stop making bullshit excuses and stop listening to your spouse. Just pull your socks up and do it.

Thanks Cameron for sharing your thoughts with us. All the best for future.

For coverage on other Australian startups, innovation, tech trends check this out and our coverage on interviews can be found here

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Emotiv - Control Gameplay With Your Thoughts, Expressions & Emotions

Vishal Sharma Wednesday, June 25, 2008 , , , , , 0 comments

Today we showcase an exciting and a pioneering technology startup from Australia, Emotiv Systems - Control Gameplay With Your Thoughts, Expressions & Emotions. It is co-founded by Nam Do, Professor Allan Snyder, Dr. Neil Weste and Tan Le, president of Emotiv Systems.

I recently did an email based interview with the president Tan Le on the progress of their venture. This is what she has to say:

- Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?
Before joining Emotiv, I, along with Emotiv Systems CEO, Nam Do, co-founded and ran SASme, a pioneer in providing SMPP platforms and one of the companies responsible for the creation of Australia's SMS application market. I’ve also worked with one of Australia's leading law firms, Freehills.

In 1998, I was named Young Australian of the Year and voted one of Australia's 30 Most Successful Women Under 30. I graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws (with Honors) from Monash University.

I also was a Goodwill Ambassador for Australia in Asia, and a Patron of the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development Program. I’ve been an Ambassador for the Status of Women since 2001, and I’ve also been appointed to a number of Boards, including Plan International Australia, Australian Citizenship Council, National Committee for Human Rights Education in Australia, and RMIT Business in Entrepreneurship.

- Please tell us about your venture/company?
Founded in 2003, Emotiv Systems is a pioneer in brain computer interface (BCI) technology. Its mission is to create the ultimate interface for the next-generation of man-machine interaction. It does this by evolving the interaction between human beings and electronic devices beyond the limits of conscious interface. Emotiv creates technologies that allow machines to take both conscious and non-conscious inputs directly from the brain. These technologies include a hardware and software platform that is being licensed to application developers and other third parties worldwide. We recently announced the world’s first consumer neuroheadset, the Emotiv EPOC™ as part of a complete product offering for consumers. Emotiv is headquartered in San Francisco and has R&D facilities in Sydney, Australia.

- What is your key-product?
Our key-product is the Emotiv EPOC, a neuroheadset that allows players to control gameplay with their thoughts, expressions and emotions. The notion of brain-controlled gaming has long been a dream and a goal of the gaming industry. The Emotiv EPOC is a high-fidelity neurosystem and is the first affordable, wearable, neuroheadset specifically designed for the video gaming industry. Engaging, immersive, and nuanced, Emotiv-inspired game-play will change the face of electronic gameplay by making it possible for games to be controlled and influenced by the player's mind. The Emotiv EPOC will include the neuroheadset, game content published by Emotiv that showcases the unique features of the headset and access to the Emortal, a next generation online portal that unleashes the full potential of the headset. Consumers can also experience any of their favorite PC games through the neuroheadset, by using the Emotiv EmoKey, which allows the user to link any detection to any action in the game.

- Who are the people behind this and how it started?
Emotiv was founded by four people: Nam Do, Professor Allan Snyder, Dr. Neil Weste and myself. Nam is our CEO and his background is strategic planning and management and he’s also an expert in IT and multimedia. Prior to forming Emotiv, Nam co-founded and ran SASme together with me. At the age of nine, Nam was selected to join a special program in mathematics and physics at the National School for Gifted Students in Vietnam. In 1995, Nam won one of Vietnam's most prestigious scholarships for study abroad. In 1996, Nam came to Australia's RMIT University under a scholarship program for students with exceptional academic ability and leadership potential. Nam was honoured in SmartCompany’s list of Australia’s Top 10 digital entrepreneurs in 2007.

Prof. Allan Snyder is an internationally known and recognized neuroscientist. He has been concentrating his energies on this field for the past 20 years. In 2003, he made a major scientific contribution by demonstrating that it is possible to access the non-conscious mind by turning off the conscious mind using trans-cranial magnetic stimulation. He was also the first to describe the way light travels along optical fibres, thereby paving the way for today's worldwide telecommunications network. This historically significant contribution earned him the 2001 Marconi International Prize, the "foremost prize in communication and information technology." He also received prizes such as the 1997 International Australia Prize, the 1996 Massey Prize and medal of the British Institute of Physics and the Thomas Rankin Lyle medal of the Australian Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Neil Weste is one of the most successful engineers/entrepreneurs that Australia has ever produced. In 1977 he started his career at Bell Labs, where he worked on early VLSI design tools (i.e., the MULGA suite), and he went on to become the head of the entire Bell Labs VLSI Department. Neil is a pioneer in chip design. His book, The Principle of CMOS and VLSI Design, was the first book on CMOS design and is now considered the bible for all chip designers around the world.

It all started when Nam, Allan and I sat together at a dinner talking about Allan’s research he was doing with autistic people. He talked about the conscious and the non-conscious part of the human brain. We talked about the way how humans interact with computers and thought it would be incredible if the next generation of human beings would not only be able to communicate with machines on a conscious, but also on a non-conscious level. This would create a far more natural, intuitive and rich experience for the user. And this became our mission: To create the ultimate interface for the next-generation of man-machine interaction.

- How long it took before it was up and running?
Our company was found in 2003 and we announced the final form factor of the Emotiv EPOC in February 2008.

- What services it provides it for consumer or customers?
The Emotiv EPOC uses a set of 16 sensors to tune into electric signals naturally produced by the brain to detect player thoughts, feelings and expressions. Emotiv uses proprietary, patented algorithms to formulate detections of activities from the reading of EEG signals. These detections can determine a user’s expressions, feelings and thoughts and are broken down into three categories:

The Affectiv™ Suite monitors players’ emotional states in real-time, providing an extra dimension in game interaction by allowing the game to respond to players' emotions. It can be used to monitor players’ state of mind and allow developers to tailor difficulty to suit each situation.

Second, the Cognitiv™ Suite reads and interprets players’ conscious thoughts and intent and can differentiate between multiple conscious thought commands. The Cognitiv suite reads the player’s thoughts and intent, such as lifting an object, and sends commands through the API to levitate the object in the virtual world.

Third, the Expressiv™ Suite uses signals measured by the neuroheadset to interpret players’ facial expressions in real-time. It provides a natural enhancement to game interaction by enabling game characters to mirror the reactions and expression of the player in real time, including complex non-verbal expressions.

- What type of customers are you targeting?
Emotiv is currently focusing on developing solutions specifically for the electronic games industry, its solutions will enable games to respond to the players’ emotions and expressions, and allow players to manipulate objects in the game using the power of their thoughts. This entirely new interface will dramatically change the gaming experience by making it more immersive, intuitive and personal.

- How many people are using your services?
The Emotiv EPOC will be launched in the US by the end of the year 2008. So far, we’ve already received several thousand pre-orders for the headset.

Since the announcement of the Emotiv development platform as an open standard, we have received more than 1,500 downloads of the Emotiv SDKLite™ - a free, downloadable tool that provides developers with a complete development environment to take advantage of, and integrate seamlessly with, all the functionalities and features of the Emotiv EPOC.

- What sort of marketing you are using to spread the word?
Emotiv has developed a very well rounded marketing strategy and plan, utilizing a variety of tools online and offline to reach our targets. For example, through the Emotivate page and the EPOC fan page on Facebook, we have over 500 friends. Additionally, we’ve built a very content rich website for consumers and developers to understand what the company is doing. We are engaging the developer community directly through a media-rich e-newsletter and have a multi-faceted PR campaign incorporating several different markets.

- What government resources have you used to help your business? And have they made an impact?
The Australian Federal Government's Commercial Ready Grant contributed to the funding of breakthrough research activities in Australia.

- Have you sought any funding?
We have raised $13.4 million to date.

- Which are the main competitors or major players in this market segment?
There are no other companies in the market that created a BCI with a similar performance as the Emotiv EPOC.

Thanks Tan for sharing your thoughts with us. All the best for future.

For coverage on other Australian startups, innovation, tech trends check this out and our coverage on interviews can be found here

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2Vouch - Linkedin of Australia

Vishal Sharma Monday, June 23, 2008 , , , , , , 0 comments

Today we showcase an exciting and interesting startup from Melbourne, Australia, 2Vouch - a social recruiting site that helps employers and recruiters find hard to reach people. It is founded by Riges Younan.

I further explored about 2Vouch and how Riges is progressing with his venture in a candid interview with him. This is what he has to say:

• Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?
I am currently founder and CEO of 2Vouch a Social Recruiting site. I have over 12 years of professional executive search and recruiting experience gained in Sydney, Melbourne, London and New York. I have been responsible for the successful launch of five start-up recruiting offices for various firms as well as the development and deployment of sophisticated sourcing techniques & processes that lead to superior results for clients. I bring deep industry knowledge and extensive sales, marketing and management experience to 2Vouch.

• What is the name of your venture/company?
2Vouch – vouching is what we are asking our members to do when they recommend someone they know and trust for a job.

• Please tell us about your venture/company?
2Vouch is a social recruiting site that helps employers and recruiters find hard to reach people. It uses social networks to provide referrals to people who would consider a better opportunity if it is presented by someone they know and trust. Customers pay 2Vouch for successful placements, and 2Vouch rewards the referrer with cash incentives.

• Who are the people behind this and how it started?
Over a decade of executive recruiting experience has clearly shown that referrals are the best source of talent. Many firms having informal internal employee referral programs and every professional has received calls saying “Hey, I’m trying to find an xyz person, do you know anyone?”. The process, technology and tracking of those referrals, however, were ad hoc and inefficient. So we decided to help solve the problem of sourcing people in talent-short industries (like IT, engineering, etc) by building a web based system that uses referrals, social networks and rewards to bring employers & recruiters together with “passive candidates” automatically, quickly and cost effectively and 2Vouch was born!

About a year ago I met Jeremy Samuel via a ‘referral’ and after an hour lunch we decided to work together, Jeremy has made a extraordinary contribution to building 2Vouch and we make a great partnership.

Jeremy brings over 11 years experience in marketing, sales, product and project management and consulting in the information technology and telecommunications sector. He has launched three start-up businesses, delivering large scale projects, business strategies and has been responsible for selling complex technology solutions to leading corporate clients. Jeremy has a Master of Science in Cognitive Science and an MBA.

• How long it took before it was up and running?
2Vouch was incorporated in September of 2006 and is due to launch in July 2008.
What is the main objective/mission behind your venture?
Our Vision: 2Vouch will provide high quality & relevant referrals for every professional job vacancy in the world

• What services it provides it for consumer or customers?
2Vouch offers employers and recruiters the ability to reach passive candidates who come with personal recommendations. We deliver wide distribution of their job listings through blogs and social networks and provide tools to review and manage referrals. Best of all, client’s pay nothing until they hire or place someone.

For professionals, the offer is cash rewards (and enhanced social capital and network standing) for referring people they know and recommend to job opportunities. We allow members to automatically track their referrals and payments, manage their contacts, show interest in positions and apply directly if they wish. The system allows referrers to donate some or all of their referral reward to a charity of their choice.

• What type of customers you are targeting?
Companies wanting to hire skilled and professional talent, and recruiters looking for the same talent for their clients. Our focus initially will be the ICT community.
Professionals – People who like to help friends/colleagues (and be rewarded both financially & reputationally for it)

• How many people are using your services?
N/A launch in July 2008

• What sort of marketing you are using to spread the word?
2Vouch will be promoted primarily on line via email, pay-per-click advertising and content distribution to a wide range of publications and blogs. The online promotions will be supported by a tiered publicity campaign that will focus on reaching key influencers directly, providing targeted relevant stories to industry specific publications and general publicity to the business press. We have also built partnerships with key associations, charities and business schools.

• What is the monetizing/revenue model? Is their any new model, which is being tried?
We are introducing an innovative Pay Per Hire Model. If free to use and advertisers only pay when hire or place someone. We also provide a money back guarantee

• Which are the main competitors or major players in this market segment?
We have competitors in the UK and US

What are the main technologies used behind this venture?
Our platform is written in Python under the Django framework. We use a range of open-source development tools and databases along with some key commercial tools.
What has been the most easy to use, out of box and helpful technology? n/a – it’s all custom development

• What is your operating environment (operating system) and what type of database you are using?
We have a mix. Some of the platform runs on Linux and some tools use Windows. Our main database is on PostGRE.

• What’s your thought on being an entrepreneur? How tough it is to start a venture in Australia?
My view is that there is a major gap between the 3F / Angel round and the VC round when seeking funding in Australia. This is a very challenging growth stage and access to sufficient capital to get to scale and compete with global offerings is challenging.

• What’s your thought on the start-ups culture and innovation coming out of Australia especially in media and telecom?
I attended the Aussie top 100 Web 2.0 apps launch in Sydney recently, and I came away with a very reassuring sense of community with the Web 2 space. There are some very interesting businesses being built in Australia that are world class. There seems to be a great willingness among web2-preneurs at various stages to share ideas, lessons and information to help the community as a whole develop. Let’s hope that the investment community backs theses ventures.

• Do you have any advice for people who want to start their venture?
Talk to customers first, understand their problems, find out how much they would pay to solve that problem and then try and solve it. Fail fast, cheap and iterate.

• How many business partners you have?
None

• Any women business partners?
No

• Any external funding – from VC, Govt, Self funded
Received a COMET grant. Then self funded.

• Which City you are based in?
Melbourne.

• Do you have any business advisor/mentor?
Yes and we are about to announce some high profile people joining our team very soon.

Thanks Riges for sharing your thoughts with us. All the best for future.

For coverage on other Australian startups, innovation, tech trends check this out and our coverage on interviews can be found here

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Intresto - Intelligent Rearrangement of Stone

Vishal Sharma Friday, June 20, 2008 , , , , , 0 comments

In our ongoing coverage of startups coming out of Australia and interviews with CEO's, Media Personalities, Philanthropists, and VC’s, today we showcase an exciting venture and story of an entrepreneur from building industry, Malcom Lambert founder of Intresto - Software for Intelligent Rearrangement of Stones

I did an email based interview with Malcom to explore his thoughts on the progress of his venture and new emerging trends. This is what he has to say:

• What is the name of your venture/company?
Intresto Pty Ltd. The name is derived from “intelligent rearrangement of stone”, something people have been doing for thousands of years but only now do we have the computing power and computer science techniques to allow software to take over the difficult part of the procedure which is the 3d geometric shape fitting of irregular objects.

• Please tell us about your venture/company?
A self-funded tech start-up company developing software for use in the construction industry.

• Who are the people behind this and how it started?
I am the sole owner and director. I worked for some years as an atmospheric physicist with the Australian Antartcic Division where I gained experience with the measurement and analysis of geophysical properties. I then built a house in Tasmania, party out of irregular pieces of stone, and realised there's a problem builders have had for thousands of years and only now do we have the tools to solve that problem. So I set about to develop software which could mimic the way a stone mason builds a drystone wall.

• Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?
Studied physics at UNSW then worked in Narrabri, Antarctica, Tasmania and Germany as an atmospheric physicist before changing careers to inventor/entrepreneur.

• How long it took before it was up and running?
Company incorporated in January 2007 and the project is still in the R&D phase.

• What is the main objective/mission behind your venture?
The main objective is to use computational power rather than industrial power to help build durable structures from locally sourced raw material. To do this Intresto is developing software which will automatically fit together a collection of irregular polyhedra into a regular shape according to general rules of structural stability. The software, interfaced with appropriate scanning hardware, will increase the viability of unprocessed stone as a building material. Unprocessed stone has been extracted from a quarry after blasting but hasn't be subject to any sort of cutting, grinding or heat treatment. It is a very low embodied energy material meaning very low levels of energy are required to produce it. Used as a building material its production results in about 1/10 the greenhouse gas emissions compared to processed and manufactured products such as dimension stone, concrete and brick. The production of just one product, concrete, accounts for 5% of the world\'s greenhouse gas emissions. If unprocessed stone can be used instead of concrete in the construction of sea walls, river levees, landscaping, houses, etc. then it will play an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

• What services it provides it for consumer or customers?
The aim is to provide designers and architects with a tool which will make it easier for them to specify a very low embodied energy building material. The software will allow builders to use a cheap, in-situ building material in a wide range of projects. The software will also allow engineers to design and analyse large civil engineering structures constructed from unprocessed blocks of stone each weighing many tonnes.

• What type of customers you are targeting?
Civil engineers, architects, building and landscape designers, builders, coastal protection authorities and the back-yard landscape artist.

• Which are the main competitors or major players in this market segment?
The manufacturers of building products such as concrete blocks and bricks. These are often very large companies which have the difficulty of differentiating their products due to the low-tech nature of their industry.

• What are the main technologies used behind this venture?
Proprierty software developed by Intresto and a purpose-built 3D scanner using opto-electronics componentry.

• What has been the most easy to use, out of box and helpful technology?
“Blender” open source 3D graphics and animation package. Takes a while to learn how to drive it but it's free and great for producing animated clips to demonstrate potential uses of emerging technologies.

• Are you using lot of open source tool sets for this?
Yes, in particular the Java development tools. Also open source applications like the Gimp and Open Office which are good to keep costs down when starting up.

• What is your operating environment (operating system) and what type of database you are using?
Java based application is being developed to enable the software to be used across platforms.

• How often do you catch up with others trying similar things and where do you catch up? Do you have dedicated communities in your city?
About once per month in the Sydney CBD I meet with other tech start-up entrepreneurs at the informal Open Coffee meetup group.

• What’s your thought on being an entrepreneur? How tough it is to start a venture in Australia?
It's easy to start but if I wasn't self-funded for a while I would find it very tough to keep going. Might have to ask me in a couple of years how tough it is to be successful.

• What government resources have you used to help your business? And have they made an impact?

Have you sought any funding? I often use the government subsidised seminars and workshops at the local Business Enterprise Centres which are very good for people new to the world of business. I have made one unsuccessful R&D grant application but will apply again.

• What do you think the government (federal and state) should do to improve the culture of innovation and the telecom industry?
Definitely reintroduce a broad-based R&D grants scheme to replace Commercial Ready which was scrapped in the recent budget.

• How many business partners you have?
None

• Any women business partners?
No

• Any external funding – from VC, Govt, Self funded?
Self funded.

• Do you have any business advisor/mentor?
Yes.

Thanks Malcom for sharing your thoughts with us. All the best for future.

For coverage on other Australian startups, innovation, tech trends check this out and our coverage on interviews can be found here

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Sticky Tickets - Online Ticketing and Event Registration

Vishal Sharma Wednesday, June 18, 2008 , , , , , 0 comments

Today we showcase an exciting and interesting startup from Sydney, Australia, Sticky Tickets - an online ticketing and event registration web portal. It is co founded by Matt Freedman, Jay Gaibisso and Dany Gruosso.
I further explored about Sticky Tickets and how Matt is progressing in a candid interview with him. This is what he has to say:

• Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?

I’m Matt Freedman and I’m the CEO of Sticky Tickets, an online ticketing and event registration web portal. We are based in Sydney, Australia and our site currently services all of Australia. I am also the Chairman of eMarketing business Redback Solutions which I founded in 1999.

• Who are the people behind this and how it started?

The business was co-founded by myself and Sydney entrepreneurs Jay Gaibisso and Dany Gruosso. Jay hired the IMAX during the FIFA World Cup in 2006 to watch Australia v Brazil but couldn’t find a simple to use, self service online system to handle the ticket selling and payments so brought on Dany and myself to help him develop and realise the idea.

• How long did it take before it was up and running?

After initial planning and developing the idea through late 2006, Sticky Tickets was formed in early 2007 and the site was launched in July 2007. The actual development time was only around 4 months once the market research was complete and scope of the functionality of the site was developed.

• What service does it provides for consumer or customers?

It allows anyone that is running an event to sell tickets to it or handle registrations. We’ve created a very simply process of joining up as an organiser for free, creating and listing your event, marketing you event and managing the ticket sales, ticket delivery and invoicing.

It takes all of the admin nightmare out of the ticketing process, so event organisers can their time on the higher value tasks of managing and promoting their event.

It can be used for a very diverse range of events from business lunches, charity events, fashion shows, movie nights, theatre and even for private events where someone just needs to collect money from the other attendees, like a birthday or bridal shower.

Most importantly it add eCommerce facilities to organisations that not in a position or don’t want the hassle of building their own payment gateways into their websites.

It doesn’t matter how big or small your event is. We have had people use for a 4 person dinner, through to the Sydney International Boat Show who will have thousands of people buy tickets online.

• How many people are using your services?

We have hundreds of event organisers current using the site with new organisers joining everyday. There are thousands of registered members buying tickets through the site daily, many of which are return purchasers and use the site as a what’s on for local events.

• What sort of marketing you are using to spread the word?

Much of our marketing has been through targeted online advertising such as Google Adwords. We have also implemented a very successful word of mouth campaign and increase the spread of this with a referral program.

Our organisers are our best salespeople, spreading the word for us. We are finding that our rate of growth is accelerating as we bring on board more organisers.

• What is the monetizing/revenue model? Is their any new model, which is being tried?

For free events, there is no charge at all. If we process a credit card, we charge a small transaction fee that the organiser can choose to include in the ticket price or add onto the ticket. It is a low margin, high volume business.

• What are the main technologies used behind this venture?

The site has been built using ASP.NET and MS SQL. The site utilises an infrastructure that can handle massive growth with any decrease in performance.

• What has been the most easy to use, out of box and helpful technology?

The site itself has been custom built to handle the specific (and changing needs) of our market. In other areas of the business we utilise as much off the shelf software as possible. Salesforce.com has probably been the most useful out of the box solution for handing enquiries, opportunities and customer support.

• What’s your thought on being an entrepreneur? How tough it is to start a venture in Australia?

Being an entrepreneur is great!! I love it. But it is certainly a personality type. The main thing to consider when being an entrepreneur is that you are going to have to work hard, you have to try and focus on one idea at a time (because the ideas just keep coming) and once you have got the idea off the ground, you need to hand over the control or management to someone who is better suited to the details of day to day business management.

• What Government resources have you used to help your business? And have they made an impact? Have you sought any funding?

I’ve found as an entrepreneur, the amount of time and paper work to get any sort of government assistance is usually counter productive and it’s easier just to do it yourself and do it the way you want to do it. Private funding is much more successful and available. We have several private investors that have contributed funds and expertise to enable us to get the business off the ground and continue to grow it.

• Do you have any advise for people who want to start their venture?

  • Try and learn as much as you can before you start doing anything.
  • Make sure your idea has a sound revenue model
  • What ever your budget is, half you revenue forecasts and double the time frame. If you can still make it viable, then its worth a go.
  • Look for ideas that can run on autopilot, ie use technology and outsourcing to deliver the product. Stay away from service based models (ie selling hours for $). You aim should be to grow the biggest income generating business with least amount of people. Most people try and grow the biggest business employing the most people.

• Any suggested reading material?

Books

  • Secrets of Internet Entrepreneurs Exposed, Dale Beaumont – it features me, so I’m a bit biased, but it also has some great stories and ideas from 13 other internet entrepreneurs.
  • The E-Myth, Michael Gerber – an oldie but a good. Set up your business with automated systems and the end goal in mind.
  • The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell – all you need is a social epidemic to make an average business into and exceptional business.
  • Anything from Seth Godin – he is truly the permission marketing guru.

Blogs

For coverage on other Australian startups, innovation, tech trends check this out and our coverage on interviews can be found here

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Ben Barren - Co Founder of Gnoos

Vishal Sharma Wednesday, June 18, 2008 , , , , , , , 0 comments

In our ongoing coverage of startups coming out of Australia and interviews with CEO's, Media Personalities, Philanthropists, and VC’s, today we showcase a successful venture and an exciting entrepreneur Ben Barren, co founder of Gnoos - Australia's Largest Blog Search Engine for Consumers and Enterprises.

I recently met Ben through our common friend Duncan Riley. I was highly impressed by his breadth of knowledge and enthusiasm. I followed up with him to do an email based interview with me to explore his thoughts on the progress of his various ventures and new emerging trends. This is what he has to say:

• What is the name of your company, the people involved, and can you provide some background on the venture?
Red Lion Ventures Pty Ltd owns Feedcorp Pty Ltd and Gnoos Pty Ltd. Red Lion Ventures was co-founded by Michael Leone and Ben Barren. The business has doubled revenue in the last 3 quarters so we’re hitting a real growth spurt.

In early 2005 Michael and I believed there was a great opportunity around enterprise RSS; This is when companies such as Feedburner, Newsgator and Technorati were flourishing and sites using RSS like MyYahoo, Flickr, and Delicious started to thrive. We wanted to localise this opportunity.

Feedcorp deals with our enterprise customers in the community arena. Gnoos relates to our Aussie blog search engine in the consumer space, whose business model is a mirrored deployment of the index running intelligence and syndication offerings for our clients who want to track when their brands and topics of interest are mentioned on Aussie blogs and twitter feeds.

In November 2007 the business also brought in Peter Burley as Shareholder + CEO of Feedcorp as an experienced media, online and management professional. Pete has previously worked setting up Fairfax Digital, ninemsn, and Vividas.

Our fulltime headcount has grown from 4 employees to 9 with the majority of those (6 FTE) being in engineering, as well as hiring an experienced CEO Peter Burley.

• Please tell us about your venture/company?
Gnoos has the largest index of Australian blogs and media RSS feeds – currently indexing 150k feeds : Which it then uses the power the Gnoos blog search engine to provide Australian blog only results; The unique business model is that blue chip Australian companies pay to access the blog and social network intelligence from the data, which includes when their company and product names were mentioned.

Gnoos also powers extensive content syndication for large media companies wishing to publish popular Australian blogosphere content. Clients log into a custom branded web based secure extranet with their own branding and set of topics and keywords. This is a unique offer in the intelligence and content syndication space. By indexing 150k media and blog sources, gnoos indexes far more content sources than competitor offerings.

We aim to grow this to 1m feeds within 6 months, at which time we aim to have a new consumer version of gnoos (finally) available, as well as a developer API so they can mashup the Aussie blogosphere and widgetise the content. Blog search in itself is not a business, as technorati proved. Blog search didn’t solve a real problem, and didn’t package up a digestable RSS product in the way FriendFeed or Dave Sifry’s new Offbeat Guides seem to.

• Please define metrics for success for your business?
We look at traditional business metrics : Proposals out to market; Percentage likely to close and Forecast Revenue and Cashflows, with tracking of expenditure against this. It was important our business was already due diligence ready with audited financials, and appointed accountants and lawyers. You need to be always ready.

We are on track for over $1m in revenue for CY 2008, with more than half of that revenue locked in. Since Facebook hit mainstream adoption, brands realise they need to have a social networking and web 2 product in their portfolio. We are looking to go to the next level of the business through launching a new version of gnoos, an API for the Australian blogosp