Online Polls and Voting
December 31, 2009
Since launching ShopSavvy back in 2008 we have participated in one or more online polls or votes each quarter. I groan a little each time, but at the end of the day we need the exposure winning might create. For example, last year we were nominated for a Crunchie by internet voters, but ultimately lost out to imeem (ahem). More recently Tim O’Reilly’s team pitted ShopSavvy against our primary competitor in something called the O’Reilly iPhone Smackdown. About the same time we found out we were also nominated for the CES Mobile App Showdown. Both contests relied solely on internet votes.
Of course we have a small advantage in these sort of internet based polls/votes - we have millions of users. Any time we get into one of these online contests we ask our users to vote. For example, we created a bit.ly link for the O’Reilly vote and sent it to a segment of our users via a push message. We kept the message live for three days sending more than 61,000 voters to the O’Reilly website to vote. Click here to check out the stats for yourself. Ironically about 10% of these folks voted for our competitor because they viewed the request as ‘SPAM’ (which it sort of was, but hey the app is free so we should be able to ask a favor every few months). Earlier today we got a note from O’Reilly explaining that they had taken down the poll (we were winning by about 80% or so). Here is the note:
Thanks for your note and apologies for the confusion. We pulled the smackdown because there was lots of bot traffic skewing the results. It seems that our web team implemented the smackdowns with fairly naive, casual poll software. Votes are handled by simple <a> links with only modest cookie-based attempts to prevent multiple votes from the same machine, all of which means that they’re quite susceptible to skewed results via bots. In this case, it looks like a bot or spider stumbled into the page and kept pounding both vote links. I’ve removed this smackdown from the site and will hold off on additional smackdowns until we find out more and/or get a more robust poll solution in place. We’ll give the smackdown another try then. Again, sorry for the trouble.
I suspect they weren’t used to so much traffic. We reached out to them and shared the bit.ly stats so they could determine that the source of the traffic was most likely from actual voters. Of course it is a little frustrating that we used our ‘goodwill’ to generate votes only to have those votes discarded. I doubt we can ask these users to vote for us a second time for the same contest.
The CES Mobile App Showdown is still underway (8 days left). We are currently in first place with 16,457 votes. We have limited the number of users who have received a push request to vote for us so that we don’t swamp the CES servers. I couldn’t help but feel that it was silly that we had to limit the number of requests so that we didn’t skew the votes too much in our favor (as we did in the O’Reilly vote). As long as these sort of votes/polls persist we will happily participate, but I wouldn’t mind some sort of multilateral agreement whereby we would all agree not to have online votes/polls. How about you?
Where should we draw the line?
December 18, 2009
I was driving to Nacogodoches (network coverage is spotty at best on Highway 175) when I saw a Google alert for ShopSavvy (our barcode scanning price comparison application). One of my heroes, Tim O’Reilly, had written an article titled ‘Why Using ShopSavvy Might Not be So Savvy.” When I tried to click on the article to read it while driving down the road (I don’t recommend driving while reading, but I couldn’t resist) I went through a zone without AT&T Edge or 3G coverage (too bad I didn’t have my Verizon Droid). For the next 35 minutes I imagined what Tim had written - driving down the highway in East Texas waiting impatiently for my iPhone to switch from ‘Searching’ to Edge or 3G. When I finally got enough service to load his post I was surprised.
Tim wrote that ShopSavvy reminded him of “the fundamental shortsightedness of so many of our economic decisions, that flaw in human nature that makes us seize on temporary advantage without thinking of the long-term consequences.“ He suggested that pursuit of the lowest price will ‘hasten the demise of many retailers’ and ultimately result in increased prices.
First, I think Tim’s premise is flawed. Eliminating mega-retailers won’t increase prices - the internet will make sure of that. Second, to suggest that applications like ShopSavvy are somehow to blame for the demise of mega-retailers is sort of silly. If mega-retailers are on the way out it won’t be the fault of applications written by a tiny company in Dallas, Texas. Why did Circuit City fail? Circuit City did not lose to the internet, it lost to Best Buy. Best Buy stores were better stocked, easier to navigate, staffed by employees who seem to care and often have great deals. For every purchase I make online I make four in a local retailer like Best Buy. If Tim is worried that ShopSavvy somehow takes away from mega-retailers I think he should realize that the real culprit is the internet itself.
The moment the internet was created retail shopping was forever changed. The internet made information about products and pricing available to anyone with a computer and more recently anyone with a smartphone. Savvy shoppers have been checking online retail prices from the very start (see Amazon.com). I wish Tim’s article had been titled, “Why using the internet to shop might not be so savvy.” Ironically ShopSavvy can provide a retailer with the ability to understand and respond to a shopper’s behavior. Shoppers who just use the internet are simply lost from the retailers perspective. I would argue applications like ShopSavvy might be the BEST thing to happen to local retail in a long time.
At the end of the day I don’t agree with Tim’s premise, but I could respect it more if it called out the real culprit. Tim explains that he rarely shops in physical stores, “I do most of my shopping online, and I love the convenience. But when I do go to local stores to browse physical products, I make sure to buy there, even if there’s a better price online. I’m paying a little extra for that right to walk up and touch the product before I buy it.”
I have a dirty little secret I would like to share with Tim: 100% of retail shoppers know that they can buy everything cheaper online. They don’t need ShopSavvy to explain this to them. ShopSavvy organizes information (reviews, pricing and inventory) about the products our users are interested in buying. Ironically, the most compelling part of ShopSavvy is how it helps users discover local prices and inventory. Our data shows that users spend 75% more time clicking on local prices than online prices. They want to know that the store next door sells the same item for less AND has it in inventory. If shoppers were to follow Tim’s advice they would be compelled to buy an item regardless of price. If I was a retailer and saw Tim coming into my store I would mark everything up 500% knowing he would pay the markup.
I suspect mega-retailers would prefer that Tim do more of his shopping in their stores even if he continued to buy most everything online. I don’t think they would be offended at all. If he shopped in Best Buy he might be surprised that Best Buy would match online retailers like Amazon.com. Mega-retailers like Walmart, Target and Best Buy all focus on price. They claim to have the best prices, they price match and they offer in-store deals all of the time. Some retailers like Nordstrom focus on service - I buy clothes at Nordstrom because they help me buy clothes - I do not buy clothes at Macy’s because they focus on price. Retail is changing - the internet started it. ShopSavvy won’t be the demise of retail. Anyway, thanks for the mention Tim (surely we will get a few more downloads because of it).
ShopSavvy 1.1 Released (better iPhone scanning)
December 15, 2009
Just a quick note that ShopSavvy 1.1 has been released for the iPhone. Here is the download link: ShopSavvy 1.1 for iPhone. The latest version includes:
- easier scanning (with aiming bars)
- scanning hints (progress and tips)
- support for Europe (international bug removed)
- support for Touch (we heard you loud and clear)
- all user reported bugs (price alerts and others)
Here is the deal. With each release you can get new ratings from users. Our ratings sucked on 1.0. Take a minute to download and rate us again – this time try giving us five stars. It helps us keep ShopSavvy free. Here is a video:
Would Your Startup Be Better Off in Silicon Valley?
December 10, 2009
By Guest Poster: Sanjay Sathe, Founder and CEO, RiseSmart
When I was looking for a change as a senior executive at Dallas-based Sabre in 2006, I got firsthand experience with outplacement services and with searching the Web for jobs. I was surprised by how frustrating and time-consuming it was to use the major job boards (even the ones supposedly geared to executives).
So I stopped looking for jobs and decided to start my own company. It’s called RiseSmart.
RiseSmart applies fresh thinking, powered by technology, to update outplacement and job search services for the needs of today’s employees. We meet jobseekers where they are today – online – delivering personalized job leads and helping them to make the most of social networks, among our other services.
Starting with just two employees, RiseSmart has grown since February 2007 to more than 50 employees. We have earned the outplacement accounts of Fortune 500 companies, and we are generating millions of dollars in revenues. While we still have much to accomplish, our vision is coming together.
But one choice I made in order to pursue this vision was particularly difficult. I left my longtime home in Dallas to move RiseSmart to San Jose.
I am a native of India, and Dallas is the only place in the United States I’ve ever lived. I had children in Dallas schools and a wife who had built a strong circle of close friends.
So, why did I move my startup to Silicon Valley? And should you do the same?
Benefits of Starting Outside the Valley
The answer, as with many difficult decisions, is “It depends.”
Early-stage startups can be very successful outside of the Valley. RiseSmart was headquartered in Dallas for our first 18 months before moving in July 2008, and I think being in the city played to our advantage in important ways.
First and foremost, it enabled me to tap my local business connections, earned over many years, to attract both seed money and initial customers. We were able to raise $1.25 million in angel funding in our first year, something that would have been far more difficult for me to achieve outside of Dallas.
Dallas is also a major corporate hub – a great place for selling our outplacement offering. The first Fortune 500 clients we landed were Dallas companies, and this local success is ultimately what laid the groundwork for RiseSmart winning institutional funding.
Finally, I think because the Dallas startup community is much smaller than that of Silicon Valley, it is very close-knit. When there are potential synergies between two companies, you try to make them work – as opposed to saying, “Let’s do lunch” and moving on to something else.
Different Stages, Different Needs
But when it was time to raise our first round of institutional funding, it became clear pretty quickly that we might need to move our headquarters to get it.
For the most part, it’s simply a numbers game. VCs generally like to be in close physical proximity to the companies they fund – and there just aren’t as many VCs in Dallas (or even all of Texas) as there are in startup hubs like the Valley and Boston.
This difference in sheer numbers has secondary consequences, too. For example, in RiseSmart’s experience, we found that many Texas VCs were focused on the enterprise software and telecom sectors. Silicon Valley VCs entertain ideas from a broader set of industries.
I also think it’s safe to say that, with fewer dollars to go around, VCs outside the Valley are more likely to wait for the “sure thing.” Unfortunately, this can lead to missing out on the next big thing.
This problem is not unique to Dallas. Boston, for example, is the second biggest startup hub after Silicon Valley – but Facebook had to move from Boston to the Valley to get funding, a story that is not at all uncommon.
Ultimately, we determined that RiseSmart needed institutional money to scale our operations, and we got this financing from Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), based in Palo Alto. Upon receiving an initial $3 million investment from NVP, we moved our headquarters to Sunnyvale in July 2008, and later to San Jose.
NVP joined Menlo Park-based Storm Ventures to provide RiseSmart with an additional $4.6 million in funding in October of this year.
What’s Best for You?
So, that’s my story. But what’s the best decision for you?
Here are my top four reasons for moving to Silicon Valley. If none of these apply to you, you should consider staying put.
1. You can’t find the necessary talent where you are now. Unquestionably, there are more geeks per square foot in the Valley than anywhere else. But plenty of major cities – particularly those with good universities – boast more than their share of talent. The talent in the Valley has more experience working in startups, which is a major plus. But it’s also a double-edged sword, as you’ll encounter more individuals who have become cynical as a result of their experiences.
2. You can’t get the necessary financing where you are now. If you’re a good salesperson with a good idea, you should be able to get angel funding wherever you live – because there are rich people everywhere. But when it comes to institutional funding, there are only a handful of startup hubs, of which Silicon Valley is by far the largest. If you want to live in Austin or Boston or Raleigh-Durham, by all means, go after money from those VCs first. But your best bet for landing meaningful dollars is the Valley.
3. You can afford it. It’s no secret that the Valley is prohibitively expensive. This is a really good reason to not move to the Valley unless you are independently wealthy, or until you score VC funding to at least sustain yourself. If you move to the Valley on a wing and a prayer, it can really hamper your efforts to start a company – because what are you going to live on until it takes off?
4. There’s no compelling reason to be somewhere else. All things being equal, Silicon Valley is the place to be for technology-oriented startups. But all things aren’t equal, are they? Perhaps your family would be miserable if you moved. Perhaps your startup is focused on a specific industry, like entertainment, and you’d be better off in an industry town like New York or Los Angeles. Every situation is different.
Wherever you end up, I wish you the best of luck in making your startup dreams come true. The relentless pursuit should continue.
Austin steals Gowalla (Gowalla Raises $8.4M)
December 9, 2009
Josh Williams left Dallas (Southlake actually) and moved Gowalla, his social location based mobile application, to Austin. Previously the company had raised $1.6M and combined with the latest $8.4M round the company has raised a cool $10M since 2007. Investors include Greylock, Maples and Shasta. According to the company “50,000 users have joined the service since it officially launched 10 weeks ago. In that time, users have created and checked in at 150,000 locations in over 8,500 cities in 100 countries.” Amazing traction for ten weeks, Josh really has a winner on his hands. Congrats guys! Sadly I will have to wait until SXSW to catch up with the Gowalla team since I don’t get down to Austin as much as I would like.
I haven’t had a chance to download Gowalla, but I will be grabbing it from the app store later today. Have you downloaded it yet? Here is the iPhone download link.
Startup Happy Hour Tonight (in two hours)
December 7, 2009
You may have noticed I haven’t been publicizing our regular happy hour events very far in advance. Last month I was in San Francisco and couldn’t make it and this month we have been swamped with our iPhone app launch. We are, indeed, hosting the Startup Happy Hour tonight at the INFOMART. The drinks start flowing at 5PM and we will go until 8PM. The event should be fairly intimate - due primarily to the fact that I haven’t given much advanced notice. If you are entrepreneur, angel investor or generally interesting person come and hang out - who knows you might meet someone as interesting as yourself. Please take a minute to RSVP: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4897643/ (oh and there are a lot of you who refuse to get a Yahoo account - go ahead, it only takes a minute).
The CueCat is Back! (just spelled differently)
Remember the :CueCat? The company devised a non-standard barcode that could be placed anywhere. If a user scanned the barcode they would be redirected to a website. Of course the CueCat was a commercial failure. It was dubbed “The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time” according to PCWorld Magazine.
Well the CueCat has been reborn (once again here in North Texas) and is now called Qyoo (pronounced “Q” or “cue”). I rarely spend ANY time being negative on this blog, but I after watching a long form news piece on Qyoo I can’t help but comment. The Qyoo folks have created a ‘new’ 2D barcode. Of course 2D barcodes have been around since 1994 and are standard on almost ALL shipping packages throughout the world. Companies like NeoMedia and Scanbuy have attempted to convince marketers to locate 2D barcodes on print, television and outdoor advertising. These efforts have been successful in Japan, Korea and France. In other places, namely the U.S., their efforts have been less successful. I have written about 2D codes or QR codes in context to our own barcode efforts here.
Qyoo claims that QR codes (the industry standard 2D barcode) are difficult for cell phones to read. This patently false. 2D codes are VERY easy for cell phone cameras to read. You don’t need a fancy auto-focus camera, instead almost all cell phone cameras produced since 1994 have the capability to read a QR code. So why would Qyoo try to solve a problem that doesn’t exist? Well, they are actually trying to solve a different problem: CONTROL.
You see, anyone can create a 2D QR code that links an image on a package back to rich media (a website, a video, an audio track, whatever) for FREE using a QR code. Why? The company that created them, Denso-Wave, decided to release the standard to the world for FREE. The format’s specification is available royalty-free from Denso-Wate. As a result, International standards organizations have adopted the open QR code standard including AIM International (Oct 1997), JIS X 0510 (Jan 2999), ISO/IEC 18004:2000 (Jun 2000) and ISO/IEC 18004:2006 (Sep 2006). QR codes have de facto standards to allow for encoding of URLs, contact information and other data types. You don’t need to pay Qyoo to create these 2D codes. You will see more and more 2D codes on packages, but they will be the free variety. 1D codes UPC/EAN codes took off because they were standard and FREE. If someone had tried to charge manufacturers for a 1D code there wouldn’t be 1D barcodes on 100% of the stuff you buy today.
If marketers REALLY wanted to link their packages, billboards and print ads to websites they could simply use a QR code generator, embed the links and include them - for free, today. The problem is that most US and EU marketers decided it was easier to simply write the URL in their ads. In Japan it is easier to print a 2D code than try to use Japanese letters (Kana/Kanji) in a URL. Are you getting the picture? 2D is big in Japan because there are more than 1,945 Japanese characters. Imagine trying to remember the characters in a Japanese URL? If you can scan the 2D code to the left you will find Qyoo’s website. Qyoo will control their 2D codes - you will have to pay for the privilege of using them. The one to the left is FREE.
Of course the real problem with Qyoo is that another little company has already entered the 2D ‘tag’ space. You might have heard of them - they are called MICROSOFT. Microsoft calls their 2D code a ‘tag’. Microsoft, like Denso-Wave, has released the reader and the creator for commercial and non-commercial use for FREE. Microsoft launched tag back in 2007 and began included them on DVDs. I wish the Qyoo people all the best, but I really believe that we don’t need another proprietary barcode standard - instead I think we need more stewards of the existing open standards. Build really great tools for marketers around the existing standards. Use QR codes or Microsoft’s Tag and build something great.
Partners and Hardware are hardwork!
November 30, 2009
Michael Arrington the king of tech blogs announced that he would be building an internet connected touchpad he 
would call the CrunchPad. Today he announced the ‘end’ of the CrunchPad in a post titled, “The End of The CrunchPad“. The project was ambitious for the lawyer turned blogger, but admirable. The net/net of the story is that Mike needed help developing the CrunchPad and decided to partner with a company called Fusion Garage lead by Chandra Rathakrishnan. Mike and Chandra (through their respective corporate entities) would own the intellectual property jointly and with Mike owning the CrunchPad trademark exclusively.
Mike had two choices when he began building the CrunchPad a) find a company to design and build the CrunchPad and pay them for their work (i.e. work for hire) or b) find a company like Fusion Garage and partner with them (i.e. shared ownership of resulting intellectual property). The cheapest solution would be to partner with someone, but the trade off is that you now are in business with someone else. You have to share the upside, downside and decision making with someone you may not know very well. The more expensive solution would be to pay someone eliminating the complications related to bringing on a business partner.
So what went wrong? According to Mike, Chandra has decided to take over the effort, eliminating Mike from the project. You can read the details of the dispute in Mike’s post. I have had a little experience dealing with Indian and Chinese design-build companies and ironically have had a similar experiences. The main issue is that Americans have a western viewpoint on the entire concept of intellectual property, while most Indian and Chinese firms don’t. Chandra and his team seem to be trying to ’steal’ the intellectual property to most readers of this post (and of Mike’s post). Most Indian and Chinese readers wouldn’t really understand why Mike is so upset. Our friends in the east have a very different view of property rights as well as the entire idea that someone can own knowledge or ideas.
Building hardware is very different than building software. My father’s company builds 3d seismic electronic equipment for the oil and gas industries. He goes to GREAT lengths to ensure that no one (here in the US or overseas) can copy his equipment. Chips are polished to remove manufacturer markings. The boards are encased in black silicone to conceal the circuitry. The silicone is laced with radioactive material to prevent an x-ray from working. The world we live in is not always friendly - taking precautions to protect your intellectual property is one method of preventing people from stealing from you, but it isn’t the only method.
The other method is to remove ALL incentive to steal. For example, we spent hundreds of man-hours developing barcode scanning technology for smartphones (iPhone, Android, RIM and Windows Mobile). We thought about protecting our IP by applying for a worldwide patent, obfuscating our source code and employing a number of tricks to protect our ideas. At the end of the day we decided it might be better to make our technology FREE. That’s right, just give it away. There are a few ‘catches’ in our license, but in general we decided that giving it away would be the best means to protecting it. Our implementation of ShopSavvy is what differentiates us from our competitors - not our barcode scanning technology.
Currently the CrunchPad is dead and Mike is entirely within his rights to sue the pants off of his partners. My advice, and he is not asking, is that he forget what is ‘right’ or ‘fair’ and starting thinking about what it would take to get the CrunchPad into the market. He never planned to make much money off of the device (I suspect most of the profit would be related to the search field on the browser) so why not figure out a way to launch the CrunchPad, while allowing his ‘partners’ to do the same under another brand or name. Just a thought…
ShopSavvy this Black Friday!
November 26, 2009
If you are like millions of Americans you will head to the mall tomorrow to take advantage of all of the holiday sales. Of course, Black Friday doesn’t have to be for suckers. Make sure you bring along ShopSavvy. ShopSavvy can help you determine if you are getting a good deal. If ShopSavvy shows a lower price from another retailer (online or local) ask the retailer to price match. Best Buy and Walmart will price match other local stores as well as some online retailers like Amazon. Download ShopSavvy here.
- Technology to Help Navigate Black Friday Sales – New York Times
- ShopSavvy Prices and Locates Better Deals – LifeHacker
- How to shop on the go this holiday season – Gigaom
- How to prepare your iPhone for Black Friday – ReadWriteWeb
- Use your iPhone to get best holiday deal – TMC
- Six iPhone Apps to Make Black Friday Less Painful – Cult of Mac
- Shelly Palmer covers ShopSavvy – Huffington Post
- At Checkout, More Ways to Avoid Cash or Plastic – New York Times
- Scan Bar Codes with your iPhone – Tonic
- Shopsavvy finally comes to iPhone – Washington Post
- ShopSavvy arrives on iPhone – MacNN
- iPhone Apps: ShopSavvy – ghacks.net
- ShopSavvy arrives on the iPhone – jkOnTheRun
- Apps (ShopSavvy mention) – CBS News Sunday Morning
Help us keep ShopSavvy free!
November 25, 2009
Obviously I have been busy promoting ShopSavvy for the iPhone and my posting has suffered. I will be back in the game in December. Anyway, in the meantime I could use some help with the promotion. If you have a blog or website and can spare a few pixels we would love it if you could put one of these badges on your site. Just link to http://bit.ly/shopsavvyiphone and we are in business (I have asked our folks to add the badge on this site). The badges are located here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexmuse/sets/72157622875134326/ They look like this in various sizes:
Note to App Developers: Always test in the wild!
November 24, 2009
We have been working on ShopSavvy for more than a year. Initially released on Android a year ago we finally released our iPhone version last week. Yesterday we went into Best Buy and watched more than 20 people try to scan barcodes with ShopSavvy. We learned a lot! Why didn’t we do this a week earlier? There were some bugs/issues we already knew about (i.e. we found them ourselves), but there were scores of issues that we didn’t understand. First, women want immediate feedback - they want to know the app is doing something. Even my own wife was frustrated by the lack of feedback. Second, have you ever noticed how many barcodes there are on retail packaging today? There are a million. Check out the side of my new HTC Tilt2. There are six barcodes, but there is only one UPC code. The UPC code is the important one - i.e. tied to pricing.
The lesson I learned about building apps is to take them into the wild and watch users. Take videos. And then come back and honestly assess what happened. Each thing you learn is an opportunity to make your app better. We took more than an hour of footage last night and I suspect more than a few of the lessons we learned will make their way into the version 1.1 update. Here is the ‘cut’ version that doesn’t include many of the lessons (i.e. we don’t have to share all of our warts):
ShopSavvy Users at Best Buy
November 23, 2009
Video I took of ShopSavvy users at Best Buy (more details here):
We need your help to punk Best Buy!
Last week we were notified by Best Buy that we exceeded the cap for their product API. ShopSavvy is the FIRST remix partner to exceed the usage caps (despite the fact that we have tried to filter and cache queries to reduce load). When we got the call from Best Buy we were a little concerned they were going cut us off. Instead they increased our cap. ShopSavvy users can feel free to keep shopping. Oh and while we are on the subject, you guys are going nuts – our server traffic is up 4X. We brought in two additional 4 core servers this week to take care of the additional traffic.
In celebration of our great relationship with Best Buy we have decided to hold a ‘Scan Mob’ at the Park Lane (store 58) on Monday night. Show up with your iPhone or Android phone and start scanning at 5:45 and get a Best Buy Gift card. Here are the details: Best Buy Scan Mob.
Got an iPhone or Android phone and live in Dallas? We need your help. We are planning to host what we are calling a Scan Mob (sort of like a Flash Mob) TONGIHT. Here are the details:
We thought it might be fun to have a bunch of ShopSavvy users (or potential ShopSavvy users) show up at an unsuspecting Best Buy store at a particular time and have every start scanning items. We would then run around and film everyone scanning items. Here is the idea:
- Everyone shows up at 5:30PM at Best Buy
- At 5:40 everyone picks up an item and scans it (with audible beep)
- Filmers (using iPhone video in landscape mode) will run around an ask ‘what are you doing’ to each scanner
- You should answer saying something like ‘Saving with ShopSavvy’ or something snarky
- Everyone who gets on film scanning will get a Best Buy gift card from me (i.e. make sure we film you)
My objective would be to get 20 people or so (maybe more if we can promote this). I don’t want to do this too far in advance (i.e. someone might get mad or try to stop us). So if you can make it let us know by RSVP’ing on the Upcoming Page we will keep you in the loop on any changes.
If you DON’T live in Dallas you can STILL participate. Just install ShopSavvy, show up at a Best Buy and get someone to film you. Just a short 10 second video. Have someone ask you, “What are you doing?” You should answer, “Saving money with ShopSavvy!”. Email your video to sales@biggu.com. FYI – you don’t have to wait until Monday – you can do it today.
RSVP Here: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4887580/
Time and Date: Monday November 23, 2009 at 5:30pm
Location: Best Buy – Park Lane (Store 58)
9378 N Central Expressway
Dallas, Texas 75231
ShopSavvy wins Under the Radar!
Last week I jumped on a plane and headed to Mountainview (Microsoft Campus) to present at the Under the Radar Mobility Conference. ShopSavvy was head-to-head with very cool iPhone applications from around the country. Guess what? With a perfect score from the judges ShopSavvy came out on top. As the winner of the ‘best app iPhone award’ from Under the Radar I won an HTC Tilt running Windows Mobile (slightly ironic). Anyway, we are using it to test our Windows Mobile version of ShopSavvy. I wanted to thank Debbie Landa for the invitation and the judges.
Download ShopSavvy:
For iPhone: http://bit.ly/shopsavvyiphone
For Android: http://bit.ly/sslatest
Seven companies in 48 hours!
November 22, 2009
Entrepreneurship is rocking in Dallas this weekend. As many of you know we hosted Startup Weekend Dallas this weekend. Mike Orren has the full story here. This evening six startups debuted including:
- 1-800-LAW-GUNS is a legal referral system that uses a telephone system to match people who need a lawyer with lawyers available to talk to them NOW.
- MEETUPSPORTS™ is a web application that gives anyone who wants to play any sport the ability to find other people to play it with–it makes games happen. MeetupSports locates similarly-skilled players near each other who are available to play a sport, locates them via the web or smartphone, bringing them together.
- 1FTP will allow you to: Store all your FTP credentials in one place. Use a single login for access to all of your FTP accounts. Easily share access with others, without sharing your FTP passwords.
- PickyPlates is a recipe service that learns what food you like and dislike based on your favorite ingredients. You tell PickyPlates what ingredients you like and dislike and we learn about your food preferences and recommend recipes based on your favorite ingredients.
- OpenWishlists: Making wish lists easy to share.
- ActivePub: Collaborative Scientific Review
- DriveLegal 24/7 is a software compliance management program that enables trucking companies to monitor drivers. The goal of the company is to develop a program that reduces the amount of time administrative time to ensure each driver is in compliance and a way to stream line the process
- And existing company (and event sponsor) Woopra created an iPhone app.
