Tech~Surf~Blog

DEMO Spring 11: Just have to shout-out about the "People's Choice Award" winner -- GutCheck!

A fitting end to my blog coverage of the great DEMO Spring 2011 event last week is one about a personal favorite of mine that pitched at the event: GutCheck. They're about "Real-time qualitative market research."  I spoke to these guys several times at the conference but, unfortunately, in the rush of things, I never audio-recorded one of our chats.  But, being a marketing guy through-and-through from early in my career, this one rang the bell for me as soon as I heard about it. Turns out it rang a few other bells, too.  In fact, it rang the gong!  GutCheck won the big-enchilada prize of them all: the "People's Choice Award," which gives them $1 million in media value from IDG. To say these guys were elated would be an understatement.

GutCheck is about providing "consumer insights in a matter of minutes." They didn’t think it was fair that qualitative insight was reserved just for those with big budgets, big resources, and extended timelines. So, in 2009, they "leveraged the Internet and other technologies to blow up the market’s conventional wisdom and create an on-demand tool for gathering insight." GutCheck’s goal is simple: to be the leader in DIY qualitative market research. "By making qualitative research accessible to the masses, we're giving marketers and others the unique opportunity to surround any of their ideas, concepts, strategies, etc, with feedback," the company says.

The attendees of DEMO themselves vote for the People's Choice Award -- as opposed to the DEMOgod awards, which are awarded to one company per category (so five total). I immediately posted the list of DEMOgod winners to my event live-blog -- they were announced on stage just prior to this award. No one quite seems to know who those darn DEMOgod voters are, but everyone knows that GutCheck got voted for their award by the folks in the audience. That's pretty darn convincing. GutCheck obviously impressed. And I loved what CEO and cofounder Matt Warta (left in the photo) said from stage: "We love startups!"  What he's referring to is the special appeal of their service to early-stage firms, which by nature hunger for feedback from consumers or end-users.

How fitting: at an event for startups, a presenter that makes life easier for startups to find their mojo and go to market more effectively, wins the big award.  Friends, it doesn't get any better that that!  Congrats to Matt, and to Marshall England (head of marketing), holding the check at right in the photo -- you guys rocked it!

                                                                                                                     

DEMOfall 2010: A Chat With SocialSmack About a New Way to Engage with Brands

Get ready to hear the phrase "Props and Drops" a lot, at least if SocialSmack has anything to do with it.  I heard last week these guys would be here at DEMOfall, and I knew I'd have to interview them.  This startup, based in Austin, TX, is all about giving consumers a better way to express themselves about the brands they interact with on a daily basis.  I had a great chat with Matt Curtin, founder and CEO.

• Download or listen to Graeme's interview with SocialSmack about a new way to engage with brands... (MP3)"

 

Exclusive: Robert Stephens Talks About His New Role as CTO of Best Buy

Earlier this week, I sat down for coffee with Robert Stephens, founder of Geek Squad, to chat about a number of things, and we decided to do an impromptu audio interview.  I realized later it was almost three years to the day when I'd first met Robert, at an event where he was honored as Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2007 Minnesota Cup reception at the University of Minnesota -- and I blogged about that, quoting from his great talk. I'd also heard him speak before at other local events, where he's always a favorite. I have much admiration for the man, not just because he's the spiritual leader of 25,000 geeks and has a real passion for technology, but because he's a marketing genius. What's more, he's really funny and entertaining. I also find it fascinating that he began college as an art student, then switched to computer science (coming to the U of M for that, from his native Chicago). I've since seen Robert at many of our local tech "barcamp" events, MInneBar and MinneDemo, for which he and his employer of the last eight years, Best Buy, have provided much support. Hats off to them for that. (As Robert likes to tell it, "Geek Squad acquired Best Buy in 2002.")  

But, this day, I thought it would be a great opportunity to let Robert tell us about the new role I knew he'd recently been promoted to -- that of Chief Technology Officer, reporting the CEO of Best Buy.  I knew something was coming, because he hinted so in a meeting with me and my colleague Steve Borsch during the summer.  There was no Best Buy press release announcing his appointment, which I guess is common for them, but I actually confirmed it a few weeks ago when I hit Robert's LinkedIn page. (He told me he didn't want any hoopla around being named to his new role, that he'll be happy to get recognition when he has some results to talk about.)

We recorded a 21-minute interview, where Robert touched on an array of topics.  He talked about technology trends, and how his job is translating those into actionable intelligence for Best Buy.  He spoke about his developing relationships and partnerships with companies like Google and Facebook, and how he really finds Best Buy a dynamic place to work, giving him a "palette, and a canvas." He also tells the inside story about how was first asked to be CTO, involving a trip to New York with CEO Brian Dunn on the company jet to meet with Eric Schmidt of Google. Robert also talks about what motivates him, how he thinks more like a startup guy, but has the unique advantage of such big resources at Best Buy -- and the abilily to open doors anywhere. "I have the best job," he says. "I get to travel the world and visit all these companies." He said over the next five to ten years, "we'll be exploiting the four screens." In that regard, he talks in particular about how one of those, TV, is coming into an new exciting phase. "I like sitting on the main chess board," he said.

But let's get to it... 

• Download or listen to my complete, unedited interview of Robert Stephens, CTO of Best Buy... (MP3)"

 

Minnesota's W3i Lights Up the ‘Net with Its Latest App News

(This post first appeared on Minnov8.com, a site about web & Internet innovation in MInnesota.)

Okay, so there’s this company named Apple that I hear makes phones. And people tell me there’s been, uh, a bit of news lately about some new phone of theirs?  Well, that media firestorm didn’t stop Minnesota’s W3i from deciding to jump in with some news of its own, which is actually related to the exploding ecosystem around Apple mobile devices.  That would be apps.

St. Cloud, MN-based W3i is in the app distribution business — in a big, profitable way (33 successive quarters thereof).  But till now that business has been all about desktop apps, and Windows only. Well, mark down yesterday as the day they entered the world of mobile, with this bombshell: W3i Launches New Incented Mobile App Distribution Service for iOS App Developers.  A separate version of the release, for consumers, gets more to the benefit: Consumers Can Now Earn Rewards for Installing Apps.  Those rewards, my friends, would be cash — for consumers who register at a W3i site called Apperang.com. 

Naturally, app fanboys and girls everywhere loved the news — after reading about it on some of the sites they frequent the most.  TechCrunch (MobileCrunch) ran this story: Apperang Pays You Cash to Download iPhone Apps… Ka-Ching!  And VentureBeat (MobileBeat) ran concurrently — amazing how that happens — with their take: Get paid to install apps with W3i Mobile Solutions and Apperang.  Numerous other sites and blogs picked up on it immediately, and Twitter was going crazy on it (just search on hashtags #apperang and #w3i).  [Oh, sure, there was a story in the Mpls StarTrib last week, too, but that didn't light up much of anything... <rimshot>]

I asked the CEO of a local app development company for his reaction to this W3i news, from a business perspective:  ”The model and integration W3i has developed for desktop distribution has been a huge success in the past, so I wouldn’t bet against them on making their mobile version a success,” said Wade Beavers, CEO of DoApp Inc. “For developers wanting to get a core base of users fast, it makes sense to use this service. The key will be how long those users keep your app, because that’s where the return on investment is.”

I also asked one of Minnesota’s most experienced iPhone app developers for his reaction: “Will app publishers readily jump to use this type of service? Small developers, maybe,” said Bill Heyman of CodeMorphic. “But small developers may not have budget to support this type of promotion… Will it be enough to hit the tipping point for more organic sales because of a higher App Store ranking? Well, ultimately, it would depend on how much a company wants to spend to buy a ranking.”

But, actually, W3i signed on some pretty successful big developers for its private beta before the announcement yesterday (the service is now in public beta).  That list of launch advertisers — just those that let W3i use their names for PR purposes — includes these firms, with the name of their app in parentheses: Big Stack Studios (Sigma), Inert Soap (FingerZilla), Booyah (MyTown), Gist (Gist), Thinking Ape (Kingdoms at War), Flixster (Movies), Slacker Inc (Slacker Radio), xCube Labs (My Health Records – Health n Family), and infinidycorp (Zombies vs. Aliens).

I’m sure we’ll be hearing about a lot more, as W3i tells me they are crazy-busy now following up with other app companies who are inquiring.

(Disclosure: the author has had a consulting relationship with W3i for providing PR services.)

My Live-Blogging of the MIMA Event Featuring Virgin America

Here's the page where my live-blog posts appeared, in real time last evening, May 19, 2010. Porter Gale, VP of Marketing at Virgin America, gave a great talk.

To do live-blogging at events, I use a great tool designed just for this purpose called "ScribbleLive." I've done so at several events over the past year or two, such as DEMO Conferences, Blogwell/Minneapolis, MIMA Summit, and others. (And I'll be live-blogging at the Glue Conference next week in Denver.)  It lets me comment as things happen.

My on-site coverage of this MIMA event began soon after I arrived at the Solera restaurant and nightclub, on a gorgeous evening in downtown Minneapolis. The entire live-blog is now archived at the page link above, in chronological order.

A Chat with Infusionsoft - DEMOspring10 Presenter

As the extended lunch session on the Pavilion floor at DEMO wound down on Tuesday, I had the opportunity to get some time with two of the cofounders of Infusionsoft, a company I had just seen present in the Enterprise Technologies category. This company was introducing its new "Email Marketing 2.0" platform, which sure caught my attention.  I interviewed the cofounder and CEO, Clate Mask (right), and cofounder and VP-Customer Experience, Scott Martineau.

• Download or listen to Graeme's interview with Infusionsoft (MP3)"

DEMO Spring 2010 Announces Presenting Companies

As is my custom, I’m publishing the list of DEMO presenters as soon as it’s released.  What follows is an excerpt from the press release that just hit the wire:

---------

The DEMO conference, the world-renowned launch platform for some of the most notable emerging technologies introduced over the past two decades, today announced the lineup of 65 companies that will share their never-before-seen products and value propositions to the technology community at DEMO Spring 2010 on March 21-23 in Palm Desert, California (JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort).

The DEMO conference opens a window into technology's future, and this year the event will feature some of the most promising new products and prototypes from a variety of different industries including Social and Media, Cloud, Enterprise, Mobile, and Consumer Technologies.

DEMO Spring 2010 is also excited to have VentureBeat Founder and CEO, Matt Marshall, on board as DEMO’s new executive producer, who has evaluated and selected leading-edge innovations to launch on the DEMO stage.  

In its second year, sitting alongside the demonstrating class of DEMO Spring 2010, the Alpha Pitch program will feature 13 early-stage entrepreneurs and pre-launch mode companies that will have 90 seconds in the spotlight to share their prototypes to the critical DEMO audience. To have qualified for the program, each company must be pre-revenue, and have received no more than a seed round of funding.

You can still register to attend by going to the DEMO web site.  Live broadcast over the web will be available through a partnership with DEMO 08 demonstrator and former DEMOgod award winner BitGravity, for registered qualified members of the press.  Qualified members of the press may request live viewing access via www.etouches.com/demovideo. Videos from live DEMO Spring 2010 presentations will also be available within 24-48 hours after each presentation on DEMO.com.

---------

As always, I will be covering the event on-site, posting some audio interviews as I can, and also live-blogging the entire proceedings, as I did for DEMOfall ’09.

And now, ta-dah!  Here’s the just-released list….

DEMO Spring 2010 Demonstrators:     

ABJK NewCo, Inc.; Austin, Texas; www.zosh.com                                                                                  

AirSet; Berkeley, California; www.airset.com                                                                                          

AppVoyage; San Jose, California; www.appvoyage.com                                                                                   

AppWhirl, Inc.; Mountain View, California; www.appwhirl.com                                                                 

bloson; Cambridge, Massachusetts; www.bloson.com                                                                           

BlueSkies Hospitality Management Systems (HMS); Pendleton, Indiana; www.blueskieshms.com             

BrandFolium Corporation; Sunnyvale, California; www.brandfolium.com                                                  

CalendarFly; Pelham, New York; www.calendarfly.com                                                                           

Closely, Inc.; Denver, Colorado; www.closely.com                                                                                 

Cloudscale, Inc.; San Mateo, California; www.cloudscale.com                                                                

Democrasoft; Santa Rosa, California; www.democrasoft.com                                                                

DigitalScirocco; Seattle, Washington; www.digitalscirocco.com                                                              

Everloop; Danville, California; www.everloop.com                                                                                  

eXaudios Technologies; Ramat-Gan, Israel; www.exaudios.com                                                             

FathomDB; San Francisco, California;

www.fathomdb.com

Fliptop; San Francisco, California; www.fliptop.com                                                                              

General Inspection, LLC; Davisburg, Michigan; www.generalinspection.com                                            

Genieo Innovation; Herzlia Pituach, Israel; www.genieo.com                                                                    

GlideTV, Inc.; Pleasanton, California; www.glidetv.com                                                                          

GreenNurture; Tempe, Arizona; www.greennurture.com                                                               

gwabbit; Carmel Valley, California; www.gwabbit.com                                                                            

Hillcrest Labs; Rockville, Maryland; www.hillcrestlabs.com                                                          

InfoDome; Oakland, California; www.InfoDome.com                                                                              

Infusionsoft; Gilbert, Arizona; www.infusionsoft.com                                                                              

Invested.in; Thousand Oaks, California; www.invested.in                                                                        

InVisage Technologies, Inc.; Menlo Park, California; www.invisageinc.com                                                                                                                     

MightyMeeting, Inc.; Setauket, New York; www.mightymeetings.com                                                       

MiniMash, Inc.; Oakland, California; www.minimash.com                                                             

my6sense, Inc.; Herzeliya Pituach, Israel; www.my6sense.com/                                                               

NetToons, Inc.; El Cerrito, California; www.nettoons.com                                                            

Network Hippo, Inc.; Ottawa, Ontario; www.networkhippo.com                                                                

nyoombl, Inc.; Palo Alto, California; www.nyoombl.com                                                                         

Phone Halo; Santa Barbara, California; www.phonehalo.com                                                                  

Pi Mobility; Sausalito, California; www.pimobility.com                                                                            

Rebtel; Stockholm, Nacka Strand; www.rebtel.com                                                                                 

Sharetivity; Palo Alto, California; www.sharetivity.com                                                                            

SocialWish; Brooklyn, New York;

www.socialwish.com                                                                                            

Solvate; New York, New York; http://solvate.com                                                                                   

Supercool School; San Francisco, California; www.SupercoolSchool.com                                                          

Sutus, Inc.; Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada; www.sutus.com                                                            

Tastr, Inc.; San Diego, California; http://xpenser.com/                                                                            

Teneros; Mountain View, California; www.teneros.com                                                                            

Value-Centered Solutions, Inc.; San Pablo, California; www.inoutcash.com                                             

VenueGen; Morrisville, North Carolina; www.venuegen.com                                                                    

ViaCLIX; Los Gatos, California; www.viaclix.com                                                                                               

VIC Wave Communication, Inc.; Victoria, British Columbia; www.vicwave.net                                           

VISIARC; Stockholm, Sweden;

www.visiarc.com and www.mobiledocuments.com                            

Vivox; Natick, Massachusetts; www.vivox.com                                                                                      

Voxofon, LLC; Houston, Texas; www.voxofon.com                                                                               

Widgetbox; San Francisco, California; www.clickturn.com                                                                      

Zerista, Inc.; Denver, Colorado; www.zerista.com                                                                                   

DEMO Spring 2010 AlphaPitch Companies:

flinc; Dieburg, Germany; www.flinc.mobi                                                                                               

Immitter; Los Angeles, California; www.immitter.com                                                                              

KarmaKorn; Lindenhurst, Illinois;

www.KarmaKorn.com  

MEDL Technology Co., Ltd.; Mongkok, Hong Kong; www.medltech.com                                                

neverend media; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; www.neverendmedia.com                                                   

R3 d.o.o.; Maribor Slovenia, Europe; www.mmatcher.com                                                                      

PERMISSIONtosend; Denbigh, Wales, UK;

www.permissiontosend.com

SocialOrbits, LLC; Chicago, Illinois; www.SocialOrbits.com                                                        

Systems Thinking Institute, LLC; Cedar Creek, Texas; www.systemkey.net                                               

TicketPlayground.com; Plantation, Florida;

www.ticketplayground.com

ThickButtons; Palo Alto, California;

www.thickbuttons.com

Yumit; Madrid, Spain; www.yumit.com                                                                                                   

UppyMedia.com; Alameda, California;

www.uppymedia.com                                           

ZURB; Campbell, California;

www.zurb.com

An additional excerpt from the press release: In addition to the exciting companies that will take the stage, DEMO will host some of the single most influential entrepreneurs, organizations, and venture capitalists in the industry to participate in panel sessions on the key themes for the show, including:

- Social and Media

- Cloud

- Enterprise

- Mobile

- Consumer Technologies

Matt Marshall, Executive Producer of DEMO, will lead these panel discussions throughout the multi-day conference.

---------

I'll be at DEMO for the entire event, which starts late afternoon Sunday and goes through Tuesday evening.  If you'll be in attendance, I look forward to meeting you!

Podcast: Fine-Art Site Socurio Makes the Community the Curator

At a recent Club Entrepreneur lunch downtown, which is held at the wonderful, old Minneapolis Club, I had the opportunity to meet one of the cofounders of a unique startup. [Club Entrepreneur is a monthly lunch event run by my longtime colleague Rick Brimacomb. I wrote a post about the event here. For more info, email: rick at brimacomb dot com.]  The name of that cofounder was Ion Skillrud, shown at right in the photo. (And, yes, I said at the time I'd never seen that first name of his spelled that way!) The name of his startup is Socurio, which is a new kind of "creative marketplace and community for fine art."  I learned his cofounder, Sasha Koehn (left in the photo), was based in LA.  I thought there must be an interesting story here, and I was right -- with both a Minnesota and Wisconsin connection.  So, when Ion followed up with me, I suggested the three of us record a podcast sometime -- which we were able to do yesterday, via Skype conference call.

What's really different about this online art marketplace is that it bridges a real gap the founders see between art and the consumer. The latter being you and me: admirers of art, but not artists ourselves. The vision for Socurio -- its differentiation, they say -- is that it's a "refined" art marketplace, where the art is already filtered by the community. 

Other art sites are loaded up with all kinds of clutter.  Here, the big idea is this: the community is the curator.  Art buyers are obviously a key target for the  site, but even those with just an appreciation and no big budget play a key role.  Because the really cool feature, the founders say, is that you don't just buy art on Socurio -- you collect ("celebrate") art, on your own page on the site, viewable by all visitors to the site. Anyone can join the site for free, and we also talked about the site's revenue streams, which include a share of transactions, as well as advertising.

So, take a listen to the interesting startup story of Socurio. And also hear about the first "ARTintended" event they held, which was their launch event in LA last week. The podcast is about a 20-25 minutes long. Here's the MP3 file:

• Download or listen to Graeme's interview with the founders of Socurio (MP3)"

Show notes:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Socurio/35785193539
Twitter: www.twitter.com/socurio
Blog: http://blog.socurio.com
Flickr pix from launch event: www.flickr.com/photos/39330436@N06/sets/72157623634964200/
More about the "ARTintended" events: http://blog.socurio.com/p/artintended.html

I'm Liking This 'Spark Radio' App - and It's from a MN Startup

Is it possible to design a radio app that delivers the ultimate radio experience, complete with visually stunning graphics and social media capabilities, too?  Minneapolis’ own Handcast Media Labs LLC thought so, set out to prove it, and just launched the result on the iTunes App Store a couple of days ago.  It’s called Spark Radio (press release), and works on the iPhone and iPod Touch. It’s available for $5.99 at this link at the App Store.

I grabbed it the day it came out and have used it multiple times since, in a variety of situations — at home, on a road trip, even in a foreign country (Iowa) — and I must say I’m impressed.  Right now, I’m listening to a great station that’s all Grateful Dead all the time, which I discovered via the app. It’s called RadioIO Dead, and “Big Boss Man” has been my favorite track so far.  I’m on wifi in my motel room at the moment, and the sound is perfect — and I’m not even using an external speaker.  On the way down here to Des Moines, I used the app via my iPhone on AT&T’s 3G network (note: I was in the passenger seat!) to tune in multiple stations, including WSL in Chicago, and the sound was way better than any station I could tune in on the car radio.

Spark Radio not only gives you tons of station choices and social media features designed to make radio listening more interactive, but it also features visually stunning animations. Far out, huh?  Its robust, visual radio tuner uses the guide from a company called RadioTime.com to give you access to more than 10,000 terrestrial and Internet-only radio stations worldwide.  Handcast says it’s adding new stations to Spark Radio daily, and will support more than 30,000 stations by April.  You can listen to precisely what you want to at any given time — music, talk radio, sports events, public radio, or special programming from around the world.  Its elegant interface lets you search for stations or programs by keyword, location, or the station URL, and you can browse programming by genre or location. (I’m still looking for two of my fav genres: rockabilly and surf.)  A GPS component lets you find local stations in any given city based on current GPS coordinates.

I took the opportunity to dial up the founder of Handcast Media Labs, Terry Anderson, whom I’d met in 2008, to ask if he’d be up for an interview. That follows.

Graeme:  Terry, I know you’re no newcomer to interactive and Internet marketing here in Minnesota. Give us a synopsis of your background.

Terry Anderson:  Well, I’ve been involved in technology for almost 30 years now.  I founded e.Media group in 1995 and we were one of the early interactive agencies in the Twin Cities, with a lineup of really great national clients.  That was incredibly fun.  I sold that agency in 2004 (it's now known as Idea Park) and have been involved in entrepreneurial ventures since.  I got energized by the iPhone platform in 2008 and have been working in that sphere since then.

Graeme:  How did you come to start Tiny Wonder Studios, and then Handcast?  And tell us about the rest of your team.

Terry Anderson:  Tiny Wonder is a division of Popular Front, an incredible interactive agency here in the Twin Cities.  I’m involved as a consultant and helped form the new entity and create Pixi, their first iPhone app.  I’ve been close friends with Laurence Bricker of Popular Front since we were young. Laurence is a true visionary in the interactive world and it was great to collaborate with him once again.  HandCast Media Labs is my own startup, specializing in iPhone applications.  I needed a place to pursue my own ideas, so started HandCast in the spring of 2009. We’re trying to push the limits of technology and creativity.  There are a number of people involved, but the nucleus includes Greg Sharp, a visionary and longtime partner of mine, and Jesse Hemmingway, who is simply the best developer I’ve ever worked with.  It’s an incredible group and we’ve been collectively pushing the boundaries for a long time now.

Graeme:  I grabbed that first app from Tiny Wonder, the Pixi drawing app (see screenshot), right when it came out.  Refresh my memory — when did that hit the App Store?  And how has it done since then?

Terry Anderson:  Pixi was developed as an experiment and hit the iTunes store about a year ago. (It’s available for $1.99 at this link on the App Store.)  We wanted to learn the intricacies of iPhone development and start figuring out what it would take to successfully market an app on iTunes.  It’s a beautiful and highly creative application.  It continues to sell moderate amounts on the store, but we never really put enough marketing energy behind Pixi.  We get comments all the time that Pixi is the best app on the store and we know we have a significant audience if we can reach them.  Look for a Pixi re-launch in the upcoming months.  We have some very exciting things planned.  One thing we’ve learned is that iPhone apps need a formal marketing plan, just like any other consumer product.  There are simply so many applications available on iTunes that you need to find a way to become visisble.  We’re excited about the future of Pixi.

Graeme:  Did you develop any other apps after Pixi, either for the iPhone or other mobile platforms?

Terry Anderson:  Before we began work on Spark Radio, we began a prototype of what I’ll describe as a geo-spatial game.  That project has been put on a back-burner for now.  I believe if we can make it work, it could be a mega-hit.  But the scope is very substantial and we decided to focus on titles we could get completed in a reasonable period of time.  Stay tuned.

Graeme:  So, let’s talk now about the Spark Radio app. What made you decide to do a radio app? What did you think you could bring to this category that others weren’t doing already?  Aren’t there tons of streaming radio apps?

Terry Anderson:  When we launched Pixi, we were overwhelmed with the number of people who asked if the Pixi animations could possibly interact with music from the iPhone or iPod.  It turns out that Apple has made that impossible.  We began looking at other ways to make that happen and came up with the idea of streaming radio, where we have control over the audio stream.  We knew that including graphic visualizers would give us a point of difference from the competition.  We also got very excited about the idea of global radio, and decided to include some social features to support that idea.  I think it’s fascinating that someone in South Korea is listening to a hip-hop station out of Paris.  We’re in love with that idea.  The decision to do a radio app was fairly pragmatic.  My research showed that this was a very lively niche within iTunes and that people were looking for quality.  While there were a number of products out there already, we felt that nobody had really developed a robust product with an elegant user interface.  We knew that if we made the experience more fun for listeners, we could succeed.  We launched two days ago and are already #32 on the iTunes list of best sellers, so I think we called that one correctly.  We’re very proud of the product and have some great enhancements coming.

Graeme:  How long did take you to develop Spark?  And do you have plans to do versions of it for any other platforms?

Terry Anderson:  It took us eight months to develop Spark Radio.  That was complicated by the fact that our lead developer broke his collarbone somewhere in the middle of the project!  He took a bad fall on his bike one night and it was impossible to have someone take over his part of the project.  So, say seven months if you eliminate the injury.  That was a tense time, but it all turned out well.  We have always planned to do an Android version of Spark Radio.  We’re very excited about Android and hope to support it in parallel with iPhone.  We have some concerns about the graphics performance on Android, but we’ll figure that out as we go.

Graeme:  Being a longtime promotion guy, you have a pretty cool giveaway going on now for the Spark Radio app.  Tell us about that.

Terry Anderson:  I hate to call it a promotion.  We’re simply giving away 500 iTunes gift certificates ($10) to friends as a celebration of our launch, so they can download Spark Radio for free.  If your readers want to participate, they can email us their name & email address and we’ll send them the gift certificate.  It’s a way for us to show appreciation for all the great friends who have supported us over the years.  They can send their info to sparkgift (at) handcastmedia (dot) com.

[Blogger's note to the FTC: no freebie coupon here -- I bought my own app!]

Graeme:  So, Terry, what’s next for Tiny Wonder and Handcast?  What growth plans do you have for your ventures?

Terry Anderson:  As I mentioned, we have great plans for Pixi, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it on the bestseller list by summer.  The success of Spark Radio has been overwhelming, but we’ll keep working until we get to the top of our category.  HandCast will be developing a new title soon and we’re also pitching some ideas that are too large for us to execute on our own.  Given the success of Spark Radio, we’re being contacted for some very interesting contract work as well.  It’s all good.

———–

Thanks, Terry.  A company that develops apps “designed to entertain the senses” can’t be all bad.  And I like how Handcast further describes its vision as “empowering users to explore their own creativity by meeting their entertainment-on-the go needs.”

You can learn more at the Handcast Media Labs web site, and you can follow Spark Radio on Twitter and on Facebook.

My Talk on Blogging and Social Media at 'Club Entrepreneur'

I gave a presentation on blogging and social media recently to the monthly lunch meeting of our local "Club Entrepreneur," which was launched within the past year by Rick Brimacomb. About 60 people attended, more than they'd had at previous meetings, so we got to meet in the larger, main dining room of the Minneapolis Club -- which is just awesome (quick iPhone photo included here, which I shot afterwards).

What a treat to present in such an historic place!  The date was February 4, 2010.  After the event, I uploaded a pdf of my 64-slide deck to SlideShare: I titled the talk, Why Launch a Company Blog and Use Social Media.

I originally created the presentation in Keynote on my Mac, with lots of nice transitions and builds, which you can't see on the SlideShare pdf, of course.  You can in the QuickTime movie of the Keynote file that I also created, but that's 238 megs, so I won't expect you to download that... :-)

(Note: A shout-out to authors David Meerman Scott, Debbie Weil, Brian Solis, Ann Handley, and Tara Hunt, whose work I cited in parts of this presentation. They are all heroes of mine.)

Also, I audio-recorded myself making the presentation, with my little whiz-bang podcast machine -- my Olympus LS-10. So, if you'd like to listen as you go through the SlideShare pdf, here's the MP3 file:

• Download or listen to Graeme's presentation at the Minneapolis Club, "Why Launch a Company Blog and Use Social Media (MP3)".

The talk was 45 minutes, with about 12 minutes additional of Q&A at the end. You can't hear some of the audience questions very well but, overall, the recording turned out better than I thought it would -- I just tried it as an experiment, setting the device on the projector table (mounted on a mini-tripod), about 12-15 feet away from me.  It worked well, though next time I'll get closer to the LS-10, so the volume level will be a little better.

If you'd like to have me give this presentation, or a variation of it, at your company, or as part of a workshop for a group of employees, please hit my email link at the top right. Thanks!