At the end of a call today with a nascent mobile advertising company, the entrepreneurs described me (fairly) as having dumped “a bucket of cold water” on their idea. When I spoke at a local event a few weeks ago on “location-based services and the mobile ecosystem” (slides below), an attendee pointed out that I continue…
If you’ve been following our recent investment activity here at Founders Co-op, you know we love social games (e.g., Big Door, Massively Fun) and developer platforms (e.g., Urban Airship, PHP Fog). Today we’re excited to announce an investment that takes these themes to a whole new level: Zipline Games. The mobile games business is exploding: depending continue…
I’ve been very skeptical of Microsoft’s ability to play a significant role in the exploding smartphone marketplace. Despite the company’s incredibly strong position in the enterprise, Windows Phone 7 has so far been promoted as a consumer offering, with snazzy UI tricks and lots of built-in social media, apps and photo-sharing goodness. But between Apple’s consumer-delighting continue…
That quote jumped out at me in an announcement this week from Ireland-based NewBay that they’ve decided to set up their US headquarters here in Seattle. To be honest, I hadn’t heard of NewBay before this news found its way into my feed reader, and I can’t vouch for the quality of their “digital lifestyle continue…
If you’ve been paying attention to the massive disruption underway in the mobile ecosystem (think iPhone, iPad, Android, app stores + platform wars) you’ve probably gotten the message that carriers aren’t what moves the market any longer. Operating systems (iOS, Android, BlackBerry, WebOS, Windows Phone 7, etc) and the app ecosystems they support are where continue…
I’ll be attending CTIA for the next few days – I’m on a panel Thursday afternoon and have a bunch of meetings lined up on behalf of Founders Co-op portfolio company AppStoreHQ – but I’d love to connect with anyone at the show who’s interested in the Android platform, the mobile developer community and the continue…
Android apps at AppStoreHQ Just spotted on Hacker News: Google Labs has just released an Android app + game called Open Spot that shows a map of open parking spots (as reported by drivers). Their description says it all: Open Spot works by letting people who are leaving parking spots share their spots with people continue…
I’ve been spending a ton of time in the mobile world lately, mostly on behalf of Founders Co-op portfolio companies AppStoreHQ and Urban Airship, and the deeper I get in the mobile ecosystem, the more perplexed I am by Apple and Google’s behavior toward the iPhone and Android developer communities. With iPhone (the high-end pioneer) and Android continue…
Before all you fanboys out there get your backs up, let me start by saying that Apple gets full credit for blowing up the mobile software business and creating an entirely new market for software entrepreneurs. The iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad / iTunes juggernaut is one of the most awesome technology ecosystems ever continue…
Fascinating news today from Ford (by way of Mashable’s Christina Warren): the automaker has just released the first version of their SYNC AppLink platform, allowing hands-free voice control of Android and BlackBerry applications to drivers of SYNC-enabled Ford cars. The company is working on an API for developers who want to tie their smartphone app continue…