Archive for the ‘Entertainment’ Category
How to build an enterprise app people will actually use
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012
These days it seems like everyone is building an app — not just consumer apps, but apps for the enterprise, too. Google and Salesforce.com, for example, are making hundreds of APIs available, and developers are seizing the opportunity to build on these as more businesses migrate to the cloud.
Whether it’s a project-management app or another Instagram, one rule is constant: A successful app must be deeply integrated with the underlying platform.
But what do I mean by “deep integration”? Think about your favorite smartphone app. Does it take into account the native capabilities of the phone? Does the camera open seamlessly? Can you use your fingers to draw and swipe? Can you easily share a game, photo, or drawing with a friend? The same questions and issues apply to enterprise apps because, let’s face it, if the application doesn’t seamlessly integrate with the product your users “live in” (like an email inbox), users will struggle to find value in it.
Take Yelp’s monocle feature for example. It works flawlessly with your phone’s camera, GPS, and map. You’re able to stay inside one application while accessing all the information you need — location, name of restaurant or bar, and diner reviews.
Now imagine a similarly deep integration between your email and CRM. A tight enterprise integration will pull contacts, calendars, and order history or active deals into the email inbox where workers spend the majority of their time. The same strategy applies to security apps, project management extensions, and more.
So, how can developers be sure they’re building something that will deliver value to users? Here are a few tips to ensure you’re building a deeply integrated (and useful) application.
1. Understand what your customers use and the integrations they need
Survey your current customers. Find out which email platform they’re using, which CRM system your sales customers interact with everyday, and the plethora of other cloud services customers touch on a regular basis. Once you know which platform to integrate with, take plenty of time to investigate what features are missing, which can be improved on, and most importantly which features your users rely on.
Once you’ve settled on a platform for integration, do some research to make sure the platform isn’t working towards the same feature. A good question to ask yourself is, does my product compete with the platform, or does it fill a need for a niche industry or specific job function? For example, Google Apps typically develops features that every user in a given organization can use. It’s pretty safe to say that they will not build an accounting product, since it touches only a few users in an organization.
And if your product already competes directly with the platform, make sure it plays on another level. Common ways to differentiate your app from an existing feature include building an improved user experience or enhancing the functionality of native features.
2. Understand the strengths of your team and product
If your product is the best-in-breed security software, stick with what you’re good at. Building on top of a new platform doesn’t mean reinventing the wheel. Your customers use your product because it’s good, and integration will only make the product more valuable to a larger user base. Stick with your niche and don’t lose sight of where you came from.
3. Take advantage of opportunities to integrate
Platforms like Google Apps and Salesforce — and iOS and Android for that matter — make hundreds of APIs available, so take advantage of them. If you can integrate calendar scheduling into your project management app, do it. If shared contacts would make your CRM easier to use, build off of the relevant API. There’s nothing worse than installing a third-party app and finding out the app contains little integration beyond “single-sign on.”
4. Does your integrated product make your customers more efficient on a day-to-day basis?
If you’ve come up with your strategy and can’t answer this question, you probably have some rethinking to do. Admins aren’t going to shell out for an app that won’t make their workers more efficient and productive. If your app adds another step to an already complicated process, it won’t gain traction with admins or end-users.
Building a great product is more than half the battle. Setting up a deep integration should be fairly simple as long as you know what your customers want and need. As time goes on and platforms like Google Apps and Salesforce mature and gain a broader user base, opportunities for even deeper integrations will appear.
David Politis is founder and CEO of BetterCloud, a developer of enterprise security and management tools that integrate with Google Apps. Follow David on Twitter @DavePolitis and BetterCloud @bettercloud.
[[Top image credit: chaoss/Shutterstock]
Filed under: dev, enterprise, mobile 
actually, build, enterprise, people
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The top 10 moments from DEMO Spring 2012
Sunday, April 22nd, 2012
We loved the technology we discovered at DEMO this week, but some of our favorite memories had more to do with half-naked, dancing entrepreneurs and role-playing games.
With an intro like that, you can’t not watch this clip:
Check out all the companies in detail and learn who won the semi-annual startup competition at the official home of all things DEMO Spring 2012.
Filed under: video 
2012, DEMO, from, moments, Spring
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Funding daily: let’s video chat with our robotic vacuums
Friday, April 20th, 2012
At VentureBeat, we come across a lot of funding news every day. In order to bring you the most information possible, we’re rounding up the quick-and-dirty details about the funding deals of the day and serving them up here in our “Funding daily” column.
Evernote may be grabbing $ 100M
File that in your Evernote notebooks, with the tag “that’s a lot of cash.” The popular note taking/organization service is Evernote apparently raising a new round of $ 100M at a $ 1 billion valuation. Meritech Capital partners is said to be leading the round. Evernote has already raised $ 95.5 million in funding, this new round would double its total funding.
Get social and chatty with Tango, it just raised $ 40M
Video chat app that could rival Apple’s Facetime, Tango just raised $ 40 million from Qualcomm Ventures and Access Ventures. The cross-platform app has snatched up 45 million users in the 18 months its been available.
Lifecrowd parties with a new $ 5M investment
Social events startup Lifecrowd has raised $ 5 million in its first round of funding from Lightbank, Bullpen Capital, Baroda Ventures, and Prism VentureWorks. Lifecrowd lets anyone create a social event, but curates its social calendar so only the best ones show up — no more lame meetups in someone’s parent’s basement.
BranchOut grabs $ 25M for a better LinkedIn
If you hate LinkedIn, but like Facebook, BranchOut has you covered. The service has the same functionality as LinkedIn, but operates on Facebook, so you can share business contact information and find jobs. BranchOut raised $ 25 million from Mayfield Fund with participation by Accel, Norwest Venture Partners, and Redpoint Ventures.
Robot vacuum producer Neato Robotics gets funding
Neato Robotics has just snagged $ 12.2 million in fourth round funding for its robot vacuum cleaner. Vorwerk Ventures and Noventi Ventures led this series D round, which will be used to grow the company’s business and launch a new vacuum model.
Insieme gets a $ 100M investment from Cisco
Cisco has invested $ 100 million in a networking startup called Insieme that was started by three Cisco employees. The company also has the option to pay $ 750 million more to buy Insieme, should Cisco choose. Insieme tackles issues in software-defined networking (SDN), a somewhat easier and less expensive way to deploy cloud computing systems.
NComputing raises $ 21.8M for desktop virtualization
Desktop virtualization and thin-client computing firm NComputing has raised $ 20 million in a new round of funding. QuestMark Partners led the round with existing investors Menlo Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, and Daehong Technew. The company has raised a total of $ 57.8 million.
Greenlight Planet raises funds for solar lights
Greenlight Planet has raised $ 4 million. The company provides solar lights for rural villages in Africa and India, hoping to replace the kerosene lanterns most off-the-grid villages use. ZA Associates led the round.
Treehouse snags $ 4.75M to teach you how to code
Codecademy competitor Treehouse has raised $ 4.75 million for its online coding school. The company offers classes on how to do web design, write JavaScript, and build iOS apps. The Social + Capital Partnership led the round, with Reid Hoffman and David Sze from Greylock Discovery Fund participating.
If you’ve got funding new for us, send it to tips@venturebeat.com
Filed under: deals 
chat, daily, funding, let’s, robotic, vacuums, video
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Social discovery service Banjo hits 1 million users in just 9 months
Wednesday, April 18th, 2012
From zero to one million users in nine months flat
Banjo founder and CEO Damien Patton has held a variety of jobs in his life, but the career experience that he believes is paying off big at his current startup is the time he spent head mechanic on one of NASCAR’s top teams. “Down in the pit, you learn a lot about how to motivate people to work at an extreme speed under intense pressure, and I think I’ve brought that experience to Banjo’s engineering,” Patton told us during an interview yesterday.
The Silicon Valley startup has hit 1 million users in just nine months. It lets users import all their social networks and quickly browse through all that information based on their location. In part, Patton says, the company’s rapid growth was based on mainstream approach. “We launched from day one on iPhone and Android. We made sure it was available in dozens of languages,” said Patton. “We didn’t chase the early adopters out in the valley, we focused on the average user.”
Banjo is part of a cadre of startups focused on surfacing relevant social information for users based on location. Sonar, Highlight and others are all playing in a space we like to call ambient awareness. Highlight recently raised a round of funding and Sonar launched on Android. But while there is a lot of potential in this area, there is also a lot of risk.
Many users still aren’t comfortable sharing their location or being introduced to strangers around them based on an algorithm. The recent controversy over the Girls Near Me app shows how bad things can get.
“We knew from the beginning that building a social discovery app around a location platform would mean having to think seriously about privacy,” said Patton. “Our policy has always been simple. We respect all the settings you have in place on your social networks. We don’t show anything to people who would not already be able to see it. And we never download or store you contact list.”
Filed under: mobile, social, VentureBeat 
Banjo, discovery, hits, just, million, months, service, social, users
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Funzio looking to raise $50M at $350M valuation for mobile games
Monday, April 16th, 2012
Don’t say mobile games aren’t hot. Funzio, the mobile gaming company behind popular iOS games Crime City and Modern War, is looking to raise a fat $ 50 million funding round at $ 350 million pre-money valuation, TechCrunch reports.
There are no official details from the company, but sources familiar with the deal revealed the information.
Like any smart game maker, the company offers addicting games for free with paid downloadable content. Once a player gets hooked on the game, they are likely to fork out small amounts of cash to enrich their game.
Funzio’s team has a pretty good track record, which might making raising that cash not all that hard. Chief executive Ken Chiu has already sold a startup to Zygna and worked for the company for around a year. He was also behind a successful Android gaming company called Storm8.
The $ 350 million pre-money valuation is comparable to Rovio, which last year raised $ 42 million at a $ 200 million valuation. It would make the company worth more than OMGPOP, which Zynga purchased for $ 180 million in March 2012.
So far, Funzio has raised $ 20 million from IDG Ventures, IDG Capital Partners, and Rick Thompson. The company is based in San Francisco, Calif.
$350M, $50M, Funzio, games, looking, Mobile, raise, valuation
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Wait, Ashton Kutcher might actually be a smart investor
Sunday, April 15th, 2012
Ashton Kutcher is a well-known celebrity investor in Silicon Valley, but many see him as just a marketing ploy, an attention-grabbing name. However, Kutcher could be more than the dimples that move product off the shelves.
When Kutcher first came on the investing scene, many were skeptical of his Silicon Valley chops. He didn’t have a technical background, other than his unfinished time as an engineering student. He didn’t have a business background. He did, however, have cash, so companies fell in line. Can you blame them? I mean, look at that face. And with That 70s Show and The Butterfly Effect on his resume, he obviously had the perfect recipe for a well-seasoned investor.
This past week, payments company Dwolla officially announced Kutcher as an investor in its latest round of funding. Earlier this year, Kutcher invested in Gidsy, a Berlin-based “Etsy for experiences.” He’s also put money into AirBnB as well as Zaarly, Hipmunk, and Kevin Rose’s small startup Milk, which got acqui-hired by Google last month. He’s also an investor in Fab.com, the insanely fast-growing daily deals site. Oh, and he might be playing Steve Jobs in an upcoming movie about the Apple cofounder. In other words, Kutcher gets around Silicon Valley.
Founder Ben Milne and the “Two and a Half Men” star sat down for a video interview on Silicon Prairie News (fun fact: both Dwolla and Kutcher were created in Iowa). There, something amazing happened: Kutcher revealed himself to be really smart.
Kutcher, who started investing five years ago through his fund AGrade, talked about investing as if he was an entrepreneur straight out of Stanford — like every other person you meet in the Bay Area. More noteworthy than his ability to throw down local jargon,was his honesty about not knowing all of the tech landscape. He explained that he was a consumer guy, a product guy. He looks at each investment from the same angle he looks at his acting roles.
“I break down a product the same way I break down a character I’m going to play. I try to get inside the mind of that person — the user, the consumer — and figure out why they’re doing something and what they want from it,” said Kutcher. “I spend a ton of time just using stuff and giving that feedback.”
The companies that tickle Kutcher’s fancy are the ones that solve “real-world problems,” things he might face in any given day. He even admitted that enterprise and business-to-business startups really go over his head. It shows. His latest investments have been in Airbnb, Zaarly, Hipmunk, Skype, Fourquare, Fab, and Spotify. It’s also worth noting that you’ve probably heard of every single one of those companies.
“If you look at what’s happening with Occupy Wall Street…you go okay, well it’s all fine to carry a poster…but who’s actually doing something to solve that problem?” Kutcher said, “When I was introduced to Dwolla, it actually presented a real world solution to an antiquated architecture. To me that’s a really attractive company.”
Kutcher is also active in his companies’ day-to-day. According to Milne, Kutcher talks with him via Skype often. He recalled pitching the actor in his father’s garage one day after reconnecting at a Startup Weekend event. The Dwolla founder came clean and admitted Kutcher’s name popped off the page of 400 potential investors he was given, but believes Kutcher adds more than just celebrity.
“Let’s be just honest about something. When [his] name shows up on a list it sticks out,” said Milne. “I know that Ashton as an investor is brilliant, and it took me awhile to understand that because I didn’t know anything about [him].”
Milne said he called Bo Fishback, founder of Zaarly, to see “what was the value,” and quickly discovered that “Ashton is absolutely brilliant on product.” During the pitch the two argued about Dwolla’s product and discussed focus using a white board. It seems Kutcher really is just a product guy, wrapped in a actor suit, lined with a lot of money.
“My ideas are just ideas like anybody else’s,” said Kutcher. “Some of them may be bad.”
Ashton Kutcher photo via Shutterstock
Filed under: VentureBeat 
actually, Ashton, investor, Kutcher, might, smart, Wait
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Google Drive leak confirms name, shows it will integrate with third-party services
Friday, April 13th, 2012
More details keep slowly leaking on Google’s upcoming cloud storage service, with diagramming service Lucidtree accidentally confirming the name Google Drive while also showing it will integrate with third-party services.
We first heard that Google would shortly launch a cloud storage service similar to Dropbox, Box, Microsoft’s SkyDrive, and Amazon CloudDrive in early February. At first we thought Drive’s offerings will most closely mirror Dropbox, which gives users access to cloud-connected storage on smartphones, tablets, Macs, and PCs. But now it also appears to add in a sprinkle of Box, which has a priority to integrate with many other third-party services.
Lucidtree accidentally posted the above page showing Google Drive integration yesterday, but it quickly got rid of the screen. Notably, Lucidtree CEO Karl Sun worked in a variety of senior roles at Google before he left for Lucidtree, so it’s likely his company was approached by Google pre-launch to add Drive access. We expect Google is approaching lots of third-party services so it can have a whole host of partners when it launches.
GigaOM said that Google Drive might finally arrive the first week of April. That prediction didn’t turn out correct, but now with this leak, Drive’s launch could easily come next week.
Via The Verge
Filed under: cloud 
confirms, Drive, Google+, integrate, leak, name, services, shows, thirdparty
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Verizon could save $1 billion with new $30 upgrade fee
Wednesday, April 11th, 2012
Verizon has been the last holdout on charging upgrade fees for some time now, but this morning it caved and announced existing customers would have to pay a $ 30 fee when moving to a new phone subsidized by a two-year contract.
It’s not a huge fee, but it could save Verizon around $ 1 billion annually before interest, taxes, and depreciation, reports BTIG Research. The firm reached the figure by estimating that Verizon would sell 33 million phones to existing customers over the next year. Some Verizon customers won’t upgrade to subsidized phones, so they won’t have to pay the $ 30 fee, but they will be paying a significantly higher unsubsidized price for their next device.
“We do not expect this to be the last move by Verizon (which still charges a lower fee than AT&T and Sprint) or other operators,” writes BTIG’s Walter Piecyk. “Could it be long before smartphones get their own additional upgrade “surcharge”?”
In comparison, AT&T and Sprint charge upgrade fees of $ 36, while T-Mobile (no surprise) charges the lowest fee at $ 18. Just like the unlimited data plans, which Verizon killed off last June, the company’s free upgrades were too good to last forever. The fee is small enough that customers won’t throw a fit, but it could still help the carrier recoup some of the costs it swallows when offering subsidized smartphones.
Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat 
billion, could, save, upgrade, Verizon
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Iran plans to cut itself off from the Internet permanently
Tuesday, April 10th, 2012
Iran plans to disconnect itself from the Internet and replace popular services like Google, Yahoo, and Hotmail with homegrown, Iranian services, according to a report in the International Business Times today.
The IBT writes that Reza Taghipour, the Iranian minister for Information and Communications Technology, announced the plans in a statement. According to the statement, the first phase of the project will begin in May, when the government will block access to Google, Hotmail, and Yahoo, replacing them with government services like “Iran Mail” and “Iran Search Engine.” Within five months, the country will effectively have lost all Internet access to the outside world, and Iranian residents will have access only to a government-controlled intranet.
The government is already accepting applications for Iran Web Mail accounts, which require you to enter a first and last name, postal address, and phone number. (Here’s an English version of that form via Google Translate.) We can guess that Iranians aren’t thrilled about the prospect of giving up Gmail for a state-sponsored (and presumably monitored) alternative.
Taghipour said the Internet “promotes crime, disunity, unhealthy moral content, and atheism” and that the government plans to eliminate these net-based “scourges.” Ars Technica adds that the country is also concerned about digital espionage and sabotage, a possible reference to the Stuxnet worm that damaged Iranian nuclear facilities in 2011.
At the beginning of what would become known as the Arab Sprint, Egypt took the then-unprecedented step of cutting off all Internet access. It was a short-lived move, however, with access restored after five days. Other countries have temporarily shut down SMS text messaging or limited Internet access for regions or cities, the advocacy group Reporters Without Borders states. “Shutting down the Internet is a drastic solution that can create problems for the authorities and can hurt the economy. Slowing the Internet connection speed right down is more subtle but also effective as it makes it impossible to send or receive photos or videos. Iran is past master at this,” Reporters Without Borders adds.
This isn’t the first time that the country has curtailed Internet access. In February, Iran cut off access to all secure web (HTTPS) connections.
The country has also detained and sentenced to death the creator of a photo-sharing site, Saeed Malekpour, an Iranian citizen and resident of Canada. A website and Twitter campaign to release Saeed Malekpour has drawn international attention, but it has not been updated since March 11, so Saeed’s fate is not known.
That’s a discouraging thought, especially on a day when the creator of another photo-sharing site, in a far less repressive country, earned a reported $ 400 million for his efforts.
Barbed wire photo: grendelkahn/Flickr
Filed under: VentureBeat 
from, Internet, Iran, itself, permanently, plans
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What does all the bad press mean for Groupon?
Sunday, April 8th, 2012
Groupon faced a deluge of bad press and unfavorable comparisons this week following its accounting restatement on March 30. This morning, I searched for Groupon and got this on Google News:
- Notice that Google News algorithms put the Enron logo next to a story about Groupon. I think I’ve made the Groupon and Enron comparison myself. In both cases, you had high-flying companies that focused on short-term growth while ignoring the underlying risks of what they were creating.
Delving in to Google News this morning, I found story after story of bad news about Groupon.
From The Los Angeles Times:
Five months after going public with much fanfare, daily deals site Groupon Inc. is facing fresh doubts on several fronts concerning its credibility and long-term viability.
Groupon’s headaches are growing more serious. Just days after an accounting snafu forced the discount website to reveal a greater-than-reported fourth-quarter loss, the company was slapped with a shareholder lawsuit accusing its top executives of a “fraudulent scheme” that “deceived the investing public” about the company’s prospects and business. As if that wasn’t enough, Groupon’s stock hit an all-time low Wednesday and it faces a probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In an editorial in the Chicago Tribune titled “Face plant of the day,” the company’s hometown paper was critical, but eschewed the Enron comparison:
Enron revisited?
Hardly.
…
What matters most is what happens next. Groupon’s executives need to repair their damaged credibility. They need to be forthright and provide a lot more information to allay the legitimate concerns of the investing public. In the filing for its public offering, the company admitted that its management team had “limited experience” with regulatory compliance.
…
Groupon has a lot of splainin’ to do. We’re hopeful that it will, with authority and integrity, thereby paving the way for more of the growth that Chicago and Illinois so desperately need.
One of the challenges of negative press like this is that Groupon is dependent on cash flow from selling new deals to pay off merchants from old deals.
The right way to think about Groupon is as a currency. Such constant bad press could create a confidence crisis in the Groupon currency. Small businesses who do the most basic due diligence (Google “Groupon”) will see the negative news and refuse to run new deals. It will exacerbate Groupon’s adverse selection problem, meaning only shakier and shakier businesses will run Groupons, increasing Groupon’s refund liabilities. (If you were on the fence about running a Groupon, the bad press will sway you toward not running one.)
Consumers will also stop buying deals. It could also lead payment processors like Chase Paymentech and American Express to terminate their merchant relationships, which would lead to cash-flow issues for Groupon.
If the Groupon currency market were as efficient as bond markets, this news would cause Groupon to collapse overnight like Lehman Brothers. Fortunately for Groupon, the market is not that efficient.
Groupon customers outside of the United States and Canada will also be hurt because Groupon generally holds onto their money until a Groupon is redeemed.
When Groupon collapses, it will cause some serious pain for Chase Paymentech and possibly American Express. I estimate that Chase has at least $ 500 million in chargeback liabilities if Groupon goes under. But because Groupon doesn’t accurately track which Groupons were redeemed, this liability could be much higher. Any consumer who has purchased a Groupon could claim they didn’t get what they paid for. I called on credit card companies to take a look at their exposure from Groupon months ago in a Bloomberg West appearance.
The biggest losers in a Groupon collapse would be the small businesses who run Groupons. As of the end of the 4th quarter, Groupon owed small businesses $ 520 million. The real figure is likely at least $ 100 million higher. These are people who can hardly afford to take a hit of several thousand dollars.
The other potential loser is Ernst & Young, the auditor that signed off on revision after revision of Groupon’s bogus financial statements. (Though I don’t expect Groupon to take down Ernst & Young like Enron took down Arthur Andersen.) I’m not ordinarily one to call for Congressional hearings, but E&Y deserves to be raked over the coals for sanctioning Groupon’s financials.
Oh, and a note to the Los Angeles Times: I fully expected this.
See my worst-case scenario of what happens if Groupon collapses. Also see my collection of Groupon stories following the restatement.
Disclosure: I have investments and several ongoing bets related to Groupon.
Rocky Agrawal is an analyst focused on the intersection of local, social and mobile. He is a principal analyst at reDesign mobile. Previously, he launched local and mobile products for Microsoft and AOL. He blogs at http://blog.agrawals.org; and tweets at @rakeshlobster.
[Top image credit: Robbi/Shutterstock]
Filed under: VentureBeat 
