Read on…

PS we’re hiring too

I’d also like to thank those who helped get the word out on short notice:

• Jason Falls
• Jay Garmon
• Nick Huhn
• Brendan Jackson
• Michelle Jones
• Richard Stump
• Joe Vance

Photo Credit: Louisville@Night originally uploaded by twelscher

I’m excited to announce that ParkVu is opening an office in Louisville, Kentucky. I’m sure that surprises more than a few people. In a blog post in the very near future I’ll get into the motivations and mechanics of our choice of Louisville over some of the more ‘traditional’ choices but right now what we really want to do is introduce ourselves to the ‘ville and start hiring.

ParkVu is a mobile consumer media company. We develop products for the Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Maemo platforms along with OS X and Windows. We’re heavy users of Amazon Web Services and use a collection of different languages due to the platforms we support.

We’re immediately looking to fill the following positions based in Louisville:

• Senior Software Developers (C#, Java, Objective-C, C++ or similar)
• Tester/Quality Assurance Developer
• Community Manager
• Office Manager

Come celebrate with us:

When: 5 PM, Tuesday, March 9th
Where: O’Shea’s (map)
RSVP: Here

And if you’re interested in the any of the above positions, make sure you talk to Terry or myself on Tuesday or send an email to careers@parkvu.com. We look forward to meeting you.

BlackBerry, Android, Apple and Windows Phone 7

I’ve been a long time user of BlackBerry devices, from the very first “Inter@ctive Pager”, the 850, to my primary device today, a Javelin 8900 with at least one BlackBerry from every major RIM epoch along the way. In short I’m a huge fan.

Today’s consumers have unprecedented choice when it comes to choosing a smartphone. Recently, the details of Windows Phone 7 were made public along with the news of Nokia and Intel teaming up. With increased competition from handset manufacturers and the carriers, the consumer wins and that’s a good thing for everyone.

I’ve used devices from Apple, Nokia, Motorola and HTC running Android, iPhone OS, Maemo and WinMo. Each has it’s own strengths but if I have to write an email longer than a few words I definitely want to be on RIM hardware but that’s not the case if I have to write software for a mobile platform. RIM is the last platform I want to be on.

I don’t think it is any secret that RIM’s development tools are by far the worst on the planet. That crappy experience extends beyond to the JDE to other aspects of building and developing for the BlackBerry platform.

Today RIM faces a fork in the road — a giant, prickly fork. Will it react quickly to increased market competition or keep its head in the sand until it is no longer relevant? Here’s my wish list of things RIM should fix now in an effort to attract developers to its platform while retaining its current flock:

1. Fix the cold war era JDE. While it is a blast from the past to code in the JDE, bringing it on par to the productivity of competing platforms isn’t an option anymore, it is necessary. Providing an enjoyable and productive development environment would be a really good idea. Spend some time in the other environments to see what you’re up against, I think you’ll be shocked. About as shocked as developers who come to the BlackBerry platform are when they fire up the RIM tooling. The Eclipse plug-in is a step in the right direction but there’s a long way to go. Design time UI previews anyone?
2. Fix the OS. I prefer RIM’s approach to threading and background processes over its competitors however the OS itself feels antiquated, that’s because it is. 5.0 is yet another step in the right direction but RIM needs to start taking some leaps. Forget about Apple, have you seen Windows Phone 7? Now change your underwear and get cracking on a new, sexy UX stat.
3. No more secret APIs. RIM already requires code signing to do anything useful on the platform, that same signing should give you access to all the APIs. The era of RIM being able to create more interesting 3rd party apps (GTalk, Facebook, etc…) than its developer community has to end. No more secret, special access APIs. It’s all or nothing time.
4. Embrace your developers, don’t compete with them. The best way to scare developers away from your platform is to create the fear that you’ll eradicate them in an instant, senseless act. For example there are several Twitter clients available for the BlackBerry: TwitterBerry and SocialScope are two that I’ve used quite happily myself. So why alienate those developers by releasing a RIM Twitter client? Now perhaps there was a good reason why you felt your user base required a RIM provided Twitter client, but in the absence of some explanation and details, it just looks like a dumb move. RIM you need every developer you can get right now, chasing them off your platform  by competing with them doesn’t just kill a handful, it scares the crap out of your entire developer ecosystem.
5. Work on a Mac. Why doesn’t the JDE work on a Mac? Head to a DemoCamp and count how many Windows machines you see. My guess is that you’ll find you’ve lost more than a few would-be developers because they weren’t willing to fire up a VM to use your tools.
6. Fix AppWorld. This is a biggie. AppWorld blows and everyone knows it. Do whatever you need to do with the carriers to make AppWorld pre-installed on every device. Fix the payment process so it is as frictionless, if not better than the iTunes/AppStore process. Innovate here, connect developers with their customers. Recognize that most mobile app developers are small shops. Jump on the Lean Startup/Customer Development/Metrics bandwagon and enable us to interact, to measure and respond and I promise you both developers and customers will beat a path to your door.

Ok RIM, I’m rooting for you, I really am. I haven’t dumped my device or sold my stock but I need to some action and I’m afraid I’m not the only one.

“We don’t do focus groups,” he (Jonathan Ive) said firmly, explaining that they resulted in bland products designed not to offend anyone.

Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, Apple, BBC News, July 1st, 2009

Yup focus groups suck for product design. Henry Ford knew it. His customers wanted a “faster horse”, they didn’t dream up the automobile. It’s not that they weren’t capable of conceiving the car it’s just his customer base weren’t product designers, they just wanted to get from point A to B quicker. Ignoring the potential of radical animal husbandry for a moment, a “faster horse” described the solution but wasn’t necessarily the actual solution.

I experienced this in spades when founding Covarity. Our first product was a high-falutin’ liquid credit platform. It was designed by a committee of experts: commercial lenders, syndicated lenders and regulatory bodies. The faster horse in this case was to shorten the time from credit requirement to decision. Facts were cited how a good chunk of business default because of inadequate captialization. The lenders around the table felt shortening timeframes and providing thorough and predictive analysis was good for both themselves and their customers.

Proudly we took the product out to trial but time and again I was finding our pilot sites weren’t using the product. Frustrated, I found a credit manager who was willing to let me shadow him for a while. Anxious to see him using the product I kept suggesting we run some accounts through. But time and again he was too busy to fire the app up as he gestured to his overflowing inbox of faxes and mailed in financial statements from his borrowers.

Normally this was my cue to find a coffee or stake out a place for lunch but he told me that it was “margining day” and he’d be a while so I hunkered down with my BlackBerry and started to reply to my own overflowing inbox. Then something happened.

I watched in amazement as the loan officer took financial statement after financial statement and highlighted them with an array of colors while feverishly making notes in the margins. Then he transcribed the statements into Excel. We got to talking about what he was doing, why adjustments were needed and the shocking frequency of analysis. He explained how this process took a huge bite out of his time and prevented him from working with his clients or landing new business.

Yep credit decisions could be sped up but that really wasn’t the field’s problem nor the burning issue. The key to satisfying both lender and borrower’s need appeared to be freeing up time by automating data (gasp) re-entry, called spreading in the biz, and the analysis associated with asset based lending appeared. Further investigation in the value chain proved out and refined the concept and the rest is history.

So talk to your customers, understand their problems and look to them for improvements,  just don’t build any faster horses.

MoTh #3 was a pretty decent success. There were people with apps shipping in the iPhone App Store, BlackBerry AppWorld and Android Marketplace. Various pros and cons of each platforms were discussed. Ok it was mostly therapy and commiseration.  We even had a hardware person out.

Speaking of therapy and commiseration, a spirited copyright discussion ensued.

But most importantly a connection was made. A software company looking to extend their product line with mobile apps was able to pick the brains of a wide range of developers. Even better, they met a contractor who can help them out with their product strategy and build their app. Our work here is complete.

The next MoTh will be Thursday, October 1st at 4PM. Come on out, good stuff is starting to happen.

MoTh is an informal monthly get together for the Wireless Community in Waterloo.  Come on out if:
* you’ve built a wireless company (large or small)
* you’re building a wireless startup (large or small)
* you’re thinking about building one
* you’d like to join a wireless startup
* you just want to have a beer on a Thursday afternoon

The point of MoTh is to build a stronger wireless community in Waterloo. From the original MoFo announcement:

Waterloo has a up swell of wireless companies, I guess that really isn’t a surprise. We’re interested in building a stronger wireless (startup) community here. Sure at some point we may be in competition with each other for talent, space, etc… but I’ve seen firsthand how a tight community can benefit everyone. So if:
* you’ve built a wireless company (large or small)
* you’re building a wireless startup (large or small)
* you’re thinking about building one
* you’d like to join a wireless startup
* you just want to have a beer on a Friday Thursday afternoon

Hope to see you Thursday, August 6th, 4PM at McMullens. Patio if it is nice or inside if it is cold/rainy.

ParkVu is developing software applications that deliver on the promise of the mobile Internet experience by giving users the freedom to access their data at any time from mobile devices. It is the developer of i2b, the first application to give BlackBerry users remote access to their iTunes library.

Everything we do is dependent on the cloud so you’ll get a lot of exposure working with the Amazon Web Services (EC2, SQS, SDB and S3).

The first position is for a mobile developer. You know your way around at least one platform (e.g. RIM or Androiod) and are open to exploring more. See: http://www.waterlootechjobs.com/jobseeker/jobdetails.aspx?id=2785

The second position is for a solid .NET developer. You’re comfortable with asp.net and WCF. See: http://www.waterlootechjobs.com/jobseeker/jobdetails.aspx?id=2784

A while back I mentioned building a Wireless Community of Startups, but this time less talking and more doing. So there’s MoMo (Mobile Monday’s), Wireless Wednesdays. MoTh just didn’t have the right feel so MoFo it is.

Waterloo has a up swell of wireless companies, I guess that really isn’t a surprise. We’re interested in building a stronger wireless (startup) community here. Sure at some point we may be in competition with each other for talent, space, etc… but I’ve seen firsthand how a tight community can benefit everyone. So if:
* you’ve built a wireless company (large or small)
* you’re building a wireless startup (large or small)
* you’re thinking about building one
* you’d like to join a wireless startup
* you just want to have a beer on a Friday afternoon

Join us this Friday, May 15th at 4PM at the Heuther. On the patio if it is nice, or upstairs if is raining.

Hope to see you there