Below you’ll find Vlad’s full bio, as well as the video interview we did a few weeks back. We hope you enjoy the interview and gain some insights. And be sure to follow RingCentral on Twitter (@RingCentral) and like them on Facebook! RingCentral is also hiring a summer public relations intern this summer.

And as an added bonus, RingCentral has posted two summer internships on the newly launched Teens in Tech Jobs! If you’re interested in either becoming a Social Media Intern, or a Public Relations Intern, head over to Teens in Tech Jobs and apply today!

Vlad’s full bio:

Vlad Shmunis is the founder, CEO and Chairman of RingCentral. Mr. Shmunis brings over 25 years of telecommunications industry and management experience to RingCentral. Prior to RingCentral, Mr. Shmunis founded and led Ring Zero Systems – a leading desktop communications software company. Ring Zero shipped over 25 million copies of its product through partnerships with leading PC manufacturers (IBM, HP/Compaq, Toshiba, et al) before being acquired by Motorola (NYSE:MOT). Prior to Ring Zero, Mr. Shmunis was a Director of Software Engineering at Ampex where he led development of a pioneering digital video equipment line. Mr. Shmunis holds Bachelor of Computer Science, Magna Cum Laude and Master of Science Computer Science degrees from San Francisco State University

Today, we are thrilled to announce the beta launch of Teens in Tech Jobs!

With Teens in Tech Jobs, bringing great opportunities to hard-working prospects is simple. You put in the job information, such as title, location, company, and description. Then, you just input payment information and for only $15 a month, your job posting will be in front of a community of passionate, young entrepreneurial teenagers.

We encourage companies of any size to check out Teens in Tech Jobs, and not overlook high school students, who may not have tons of experience, but have the eagerness to learn, and ambition to make things happen. And we’d like to thank our launch partners: WePay, Backplane, Kiip, AppHero and SEOmoz.

As always, if you have any problems, questions, concerns, or just want to say hello, we’re a quick email away. Thanks for supporting Teens in Tech Labs and young entrepreneurs worldwide!

“NextGen Conference is going to be an exciting day! There are AMAZING students, entrepreneurs, and engineers attending. The audience is incredible this year.  The speakers will be superb.  You don’t want to miss out.”

All prior NextGen Conferences have sold out. Moreover, they have included speakers such as Peter Thiel and Ashton Kutcher.

The confirmed speaker list for this year includes:

• Keith Rabois (COO of Square)
• Josh Elman (Greylock, Former Product at Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Zazzle)
• Sahil Lavingia (CEO of Gumroad)
• Daniel Brusilovsky (Founder/CEO Teens in Tech)
• Mazy Kazerooni (President of Tracks.by and Lil Wayne’s Digital Manager)

Sign up now since there are only 10 5 tickets left before the conference becomes sold out! Use promo code TeensInTech for a 33% off tickets!

We all know that smartphone use is on the rise. Out of teenagers alone, the number of smartphone users has tripled since 2008 to around 25%. When most people hear smartphone, they immediately think about iPhones or Androids. Most people don’t consider the third major type: the Windows Phone 7.

Microsoft was late to the game with Windows Phone 7, releasing it in 2010. Since then, these devices have slowly gained market share. I became a WP7 user at the end of last year when I upgraded to the HTC Radar, and have really enjoyed the experience. With new releases, like the Nokia Lumia 900, there has never been a better time to consider a Windows Phone.

The UI

Microsoft went in a new direction with the interface for the Windows Phone. Unlike iOS and Android, where you are greeted with pages of square app icons, the WP7 uses what Microsoft call the Metro user interface. The main feature of this interface is Live Tiles, which are tiles that display constantly information. This takes away the need to launch an app, making it easy accomplish more tasks in less time. The keyboard featured in WP7 is the best I have ever used on a mobile device. The overall experience on a Windows Phone is smooth, with little to no lag time when switching between screens and launching apps.

The Hardware

Microsoft has set the required specs for Windows Phones, so there is almost no variation between phones. All phones have a single core processors, 512 MB of RAM, and 480 by 800 displays. Since these specs were set in 2010, they now seem trivial when compared to duel or quad-core phones with more RAM and higher resolution displays. However, try not to read too much into the specs; as I said above, the user experience is slick. All phones also have a dedicated camera button, which is a nice feature you can use to take pictures without having to unlocking your phone. Just another example of Microsoft simplifying tasks.

Apps And Zune

Apps are a major category where the Windows phone falls short. While OS level apps such as IE, Mail, and Calendar work great. Yet, WP7 does not have nearly as many apps as iOS or Android. Core apps like Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, and most recently Skype are available, but others such as Pandora, Dropbox, and Google Voice are not offered. Third party apps attempt to substitute this gap. Looking forward, apps will become an increasingly large component of the OS in WP8.

On a final note, Microsoft has developed superb Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. This should increase the selection of apps drastically. On the gaming side, WP7 takes advantage of the Xbox ecosystem, and lets you earn gamerscore on the go! On the other hand, games like Angry Birds Space Edition and Draw Something are not yet available. Windows Phone gives you your music, videos, and podcast though there Zune app. To use the Zune app, all your content has to be organized via Zune.

I love my Windows Phone and would recommend it to anyone! Codenamed Apollo, the next update of Windows Phone, has a lot of questions attached to it. However, if you are not worried about the future proofing yourself, I would definitely advice you to keep an open mind to Window Phone.

TiE Youth Conference will consist of two panels, as well as ample opportunities to network with attendees. Founder of the TiE Youth Conference, Sameer Vij, describes the event as,

“A great opportunity for youth interested in entrepreneurship. We have a powerful set of speakers that will be able to engage and inspire our high school and college students audience!”

The first panel, titled ”Inspiring Young Entrepreneurs,” includes Gotham Chopra, son of Deepak Chopra and founder of Liquid Comics, Annie Chang, founder of LOLapps, Vikas Gupta, founder of Jambool, and Cameron Cohen, a 13-year-old app developer. This panel of young entrepreneurs will be moderated by Tim Draper, Founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

The second panel titled “Young Entrepreneur’s Guide to Getting Started,” includes Kevin Surace, founder of Serious Energy and Inc Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2009, Sakina Ariswala, founder of Campfire Labs, and Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures and Co-founder of Sun Microsystems.

Along with two informative panels, there will be ample opportunities to network with other young entrepreneurs and professional in the tech field.

Visit the TiE website to purchase tickets, which cost $2o.

Similar to SuperHappyDevHouse, Hack the Future provides participants the opportunity to collaborate and learn from each other. This event is the ideal opportunity to try your hand at learning a programming language or meet other teens interested in technology. Moreover, mentors with deep technical knowledge attend to provide support for participants. Mentor Brian Skinner explains,

“A lot of learning to program is trying things out on your own and seeing what happens, but the great thing about Hack the Future is that if you get stuck, there will be a team of mentors nearby to lend a hand.”

At the end of the day, the value of Hack the Future is exposing young people to a variety of technologies and inspiring them to think about being innovative. Without exposure to interesting work in a field it is hard to become inspired. In conclusion, Hack the Future is a perfect opportunity for young people to learn about technology from experts and collaborate with their peers.

Innovation isn’t easily defined and it’s hard to convey that to students. Innovation classes need to be very different from typical classes in high school, which teach students skills. (It should be noted, that I don’t think this is bad, but this method doesn’t work for the Innovation class.) To be an innovator, entrepreneur, different thinker, or just someone who sets out to change something for the better, there’s a very important requirement. It’s not tangible and it’s not easily taught. It’s a mindset. Just like audio technicians or programmers need a “troubleshooting mindset,” innovators need an innovation mindset. Innovation I teaches this mindset, so let’s see what that class is like.

Innovation I

“Welcome to Innovation I,” says the instructor during the first class, “just like the philosophical readings you encounter in an English or History class, this class is going to test the limits of your mind.” The instructor just did a fantastic job of establishing the class as a big deal, but we’re jumping the gun. The thought process for Innovation I must start long before day one. As most educators and students will understand, the majority of class curriculum is designed around tangibles, specifically memorizing facts. 2 + 2 = 4. Shakespearean sonnets have quatrains and a couplet. 1776 was the year the Declaration of Independence was created. It was also a leap year. You get the point.

Innovation I has no facts to memorize. It also has no tests. Stay with me, hyperventilating out-of-the-book teachers, it gets better! Innovation I eases students (and teachers) into the process as an interdisciplinary course. Let me explain by jumping back to day one of the class. Students, having written their interests on the board (which will likely become their companies later in the process), will hopefully be able to form teams around their interests. Assignment number one, here we come! Tell the teams to research a company similar to their interest. For example, if someone picks programming as their interest, they might want to research Twilio. If someone picks twenty-first century charity, they might want to research Charity: Water.

• Hint #1: The instructor should begin the process of “filtering” ideas here, because as I mentioned before, these ideas will probably become the students’ companies. So, if a student picks nuclear technology as their interest, as I imagine your school frowns upon nuclear testing within the building, this may be a good idea to filter and suggest they choose something more feasible.
• Hint #2: To keep the class interesting, keep the ideas current. A team’s idea should be current enough so they can research a company that is innovating now, not a company that was innovating twenty years ago and now they’re a massive company slowly dying. To (almost) ensure this, you could focus the Innovation classes on tech, but you don’t have to.

Before the students start their research, bring in an English teacher and/or a business teacher to teach them how to research properly. Then, once the research is completed, have the students turn it into a thesis-based paper. Encourage the students to have an opinion on the company they researched. It doesn’t matter what the opinion is, any opinion is fantastic. Don’t hand out a rubric. Does life have rubrics?

Hopefully you’re beginning to get the idea. I’m not including a full curriculum for the class in this blog post (though I will likely create and publish one soon), but from what I’ve said so far you can likely discern how this class is a bridge between a classic style of education and the not-so-classic idea of an Innovation class.

The purpose of the class is to bring students to a mindset where they can understand how and why companies and products are developed. Through projects, papers, games and whatever else you see fit, students need to begin to realize that companies are not formed overnight. They need to see how to turn fun ideas, or passions, into realistic products that benefit the marketplace, or better yet, products that benefit humanity. Students need to be brought together with other like-minded students spanning the gamut of skills needed to bring an idea to life. The Innovation classes facilitate this, but once the students are brought to a tactical understanding of how “creating something” works, the class must allow room for the students to expand their minds and become true innovators on their own. Say hello to Innovation II and Innovation III.

In the next post in the “Educating Innovation” series, I’ll write about Innovation II and Innovation III.

Keep in Touch With Project Members

During the school year, it can be quite difficult to keep in regular contact with the other members and participants in your entrepreneurial projects you have taken on. From homework to studying for exams, it’s common to have a more than packed schedule at this time. Spring break can be a great opportunity for you to not only get in contact with them, but also to handle many issues that may have gotten swept under the rug over the past few months. In addition, this is a great time for you all to collaborate on plans for the rest of the year.

Make a Plan for the Rest of the Year

For many of you, spring break is a natural point to check in on the new year and make adjustments. With many taking SAT tests and Advanced Placement tests, the rest of the spring will be a time of less contact that the beginning of the school year. For this reason, it’s smart to use this spring break to make a call to action for the rest of both your teammates and you for the rest of the year. This should include group responsibilities and how you will make use of the upcoming summer. This will prevent you from making spontaneous decisions in a hectic time. This may seem unfeasible in just one week. However, you must remember that this plan should be only an outline. There will be pitfalls and even changes in who is involved with the project; those are changes you can’t always plan for.

Create/Work On Your Home Office

During the year, you’d be surprised where I’ve set up shop for getting some writing and productive work in. Since my home office is well, at home, I am not always at my desk as much as I would love. I’ve made impromptu business meetings during rowing practice, had a videoconference while working on an English project at a coffee shop, and shot out some of my favorite articles while in the car on my way to complete some errands. For this reason, my home office has fallen to disuse and is now a bit unwelcoming with the piles of papers that have been collected on it. If you want to make your home office welcoming for the coming summer season, where it will be of use a bit more, use spring break to make it the office of your dreams. Even if you don’t have one, spend this spring break creating a great place in your home that will be your work base.

Improve Your Work Experience

As an entrepreneur, you should remember that most entrepreneurs aren’t born with a business or company at their fingertips. It takes experience that must be accumulated over years. If you are interested in blogging and writing for example, a field I am in, make this the time to approach websites and seeing if you can get your start or improve your experience with them. Many websites, including Problogger’s own job board, are great places to find opportunities for writing. Mashable also has a very high quality job board that offers opportunities from interning to full jobs. Teens in Tech has a job board and we always welcome new writers who have a passion to learn and work!

Most Importantly: Relax!

With all of these tips on productivity, it’s important to remember to just relax. This should be a time of vacation. You may be thinking to yourself, “How will relaxing make me a more productive person?” You may be surprised to find out, if you spend this time clearing your thoughts, you will have more of a drive to get back to work on both your project and your school.

Now make the most of your spring break!

Every year there are startups working on amazing, innovative, and interesting ideas. The following are three startups which are working on exactly that and that you should keep an eye on for 2012.

Dekko

Currently in stealth mode, there is not much information out there on Dekko, but from the information there is it seems Dekko is working on some very unique and intriguing technology.  To quote from Dekko’s website: “Dekko is working to let us see our content in the world, through a screen, not just on the screen. This will initially be via smartphones & tablets but will eventually expand to eyewear and other systems.”  Dekko is currently developing a technology which gives you instant information for anything you see through your phone or tablet camera and even more intriguing, through your eye glasses.  Dekko has received funding from various investors, most notably Justin Timberlake, and it will be interesting to see them reveal more about their next generation technology later in the year.

G3Box

G3Box was founded by four Arizona State University students in 2011 looking to make a positive impact in less fortunate areas lacking medical facilities.  G3Box is creating medical facilities in these areas by “the conversion of steel shipping containers into low-cost, modular, and mobile medical clinics.”  G3Box is a creative, but simple idea that has the potential for great impact in areas of medical need and it will be interesting to keep an eye on them and to see how they grow and impact these regions.

Skillshare

Skillshare is a very intriguing startup.  Skillshare’s motto is “learn anything from anyone” and the idea is to transform cities into a huge campus and allow anyone to start their own offline classes on any topic they would like and those interested can join.  Skillshare recently raised $3.1 million in a Series A round of venture funding led by Union Square in August of 2011, the company plans to use the funds for “talent and expansion” and opening offices in other cities.

It All Started with Angry Birds…

When we look back at gaming on the App Store, it seems that the biggest craze last year was Angry Birds. The bird slinging game that could quiet even the noisiest toddler and teen alike was a hit from the start. While it will be undeniable to say that Angry Birds popularity has leveled off over the past few months, the developer Rovio is still quite successful, gaining huge revenue since the game’s creation. Rovio knew how to appeal to every user. Angry Birds was available in both free and paid versions, resulting in more than half of all Angry Birds users eventually going over to the paid version.

Additionally, Rovio understood that to stay popular they needed to diversify editions. Now there are classic, seasons, and Rio versions. This brought many users back for more fun. Rovio also knew that they must dabble a bit outside the gaming, and even the out of the mobile, realm to gain complete success. Rovio created a myriad  of Angry Bird gifts and apparel available in store and online. More developers followed soon after with similar concept games including Tiny Wings. However, iPhone gamers drift between games, trading their Angry Bird addiction for something new.

Words with Friends: Smart Gaming

iPhone gamers are starting to actually use their brain!

I overheard this quote from an iPad user while grabbing some WIFI one afternoon. When we think about it, it’s a funny but true statement. Aside from the time passing Angry Birds sessions and Fruit Ninja battles, iPhone gamers are finding mentally stimulating games fun again. When we look at a couple of years ago, Scrabble probably wasn’t the biggest party on the block in terms of excitement. However, games with similar (some have said stolen) concepts like Words With Friends are more popular than ever. Is it the fact that it isn’t a physical game, that you can play with friends from across the world? Or is that it isn’t actually called Scrabble? Why it is so popular, we don’t know. Whatever the reason is, WWF is a gaming craze that we can expect to stick around for a while longer.

Draw Something and The Future

As the industry grows, brain stimulating games are becoming more approachable for the younger crowd. Draw Something is a recent example of this. The game involves a modern-day version of Pictionary. Gamers go back and forward to see who can guess the word and keep the streak going. It offers the right amount of brain stimulation and the same amount of excitement. Draw Something’s concept also takes a lot from the success of Words With Friends, play the game at your own pace. Unlike many other traditional games which require an immediate response, Draw Something and Words With Friends allow you to play the game and come back later.

As we look on in the gaming industry, it’s safe to say that we don’t know what to expect. Developers are finding great ways to find the next best trend to incorporate in their apps. Developers and entrepreneurs alike are dreaming the next big hit on the App Store. Users are always intrigued by getting in on the next gaming trend. We’ll just have to wait to see how things shake out.