Altaide Valley

Demo 09: a must!

Definitely, without any discussion, Demo is a must go or a must apply.
This event is a 3 days dedicated to 6 minutes. Maybe your 6 minutes in fact, to show the attendance how your company, your product, your website, your application will bring innovation.
The event will take place in March 2009, from 1st to 3rd in Palm Desert, California.
Whatever controversies (lot of show business here sometimes), or any comparable events at same period, Demo is a springboard. There are a few place that focuses that much on giving the possibility to launch your brand new thing, you proud entrepreneurs!

There are a lot of Conference with a Start-up Contest in many web or other mobile conferences. But Demo is the big thing, so be ready if you wanna make it big! Some companies presented there (Salesforce.com, Six Apart, VMWare...), starting being identified. For some others, was also the possibility to find some buyers (Cisco, Adobe, Google, who knows...)!
Demo will be a good opportunity to see if the so called "crises" has a impact on entrepreneurship...

Happy Holidays!

Entrepreneurship is hard but exciting. Investors make projects become a company.
The secret sauce is not always perfect, but life is not. So we should never forget that it's all about passion, vision, development, hard work, and sometimes fun. We need fun!
Just wanna thank all of you that made this first 10 months at Altaide Valley incredibly rich and positive.

Can't wait to make 2009 still so creative... and successful (my wish...)!

LeWeb is tomorrow: time for some announcements like French Tech Tour, ParisBeta and GeekTrip#3!

There we go. Tomorrow is D-Day, LeWeb is back for 2 crazy days. I could say 3, coz Open Coffee Paris is proposing today at the Opus Cafe a Before LeWeb Party, starting 7PM. Register here.

This Conference really inspired me last year, and the existence of Altaide Valley started there...

So now we have 3 very exciting events to announce:

French Tech Tour in Silicon Valley with French Trade Office in San Francisco: 10 French Startups to be selected for a one week program in June 2009. CEO's of the chosen companies will be flown to the US for exclusive meetings with the Valley's potential partners, startups, and VC's. The Tour will also include a Public Conference dedicated to Valley's Tech Startups CEOs and culminate in an evening soiree. This Tour is organized by French Trade Office in San Francisco, in collaboration with Altaide Valley. If you're interested, let's meet then at LeWeb, at Altaide's booth, or meet Gatien Gachet from French Trade Office who will be there specially back from San Francisco. Check the 2008 Tour Blog here.

ParisBeta:it's a brand new startup mixer inspired from SF Beta managed by Christian Perry in San Francisco.

We want more space in Paris for startup to talk but most of all show their products, websites, applications, whatever! Have a feedback straight from curious and enthusiastic audience. The #1 will take place in January, we look for 5 startups ready to launch at this time.

Nice location and great sponsor to be announced, we wait for you now!

GeekTrip#3: almost 30 people interested to come with 2nd chapter we organized last month, already 4 guys on Board ready to go...

Q1 will be an interested period to discover Silicon Valley, we have some thoughts regarding a new cycle to come.

If you wanna join, tell us, we will have same format and just 10 guys to drive in California!

We plan to organize it mid February, just after Mobile World Congress in Barcelona... No risk if any are interested to go in Silicon Valley for a mobile focus, and can't make it just one week after... stay tuned!

Altaide Valley is Microsoft BizSpark Network Partner!

BizSpark is a new Microsoft innovative program that unites Startups with entrepreneurial and technology resources in a global community with a common goal of supporting and accelerating the success of a new generation of high-potential Startups.

Altaide Valley is now declared as Microsoft BizSpark Network Partner!
If you're interested in joining this innovative program, just let us know and we'll support you to submit your startup!

Orange Camp in Florida: I'll be there!

Could not make it for more than 2 years while I was in charge of mobile business... I have always known that the Orange Camp is THE PLACE TO BE if you wanna accelerate your business flow with Orange.
One to one meetings, pitch spots, networking, short conferences: I think I wall have really interesting time over here!

I will represent 2 smart companies there. Tell me if you have any interest!

(FR) Petite revue du GeekTrip sur LCI

Plein Ecran S05E13
Video
Envoyé par LCIWAT sur wat.tv

Cédric Ingrand a filmé l'équipe du GeekTrip pendant une journée... Pour vous donner une idée du contexte!

Mobile can be smart and useful: check Dial2Do

I discovered Dial2to at Microsoft Launch 08 Conference in Montain View.

Dial2Do lets you do common tasks by just calling a number and speaking. Use it to send EMAIL or TEXT messages, record REMINDERS to help you remember things, post updates to your TWITTER or JAIKU stream and LISTEN to your favourite internet content. It’s easy and handsfree. A voice to text machine!

I received some news from them recently regarding new features:

• Some cool new commands - you can now post *and* listen to your email, calendar, twitter, friendfeed, blogs, evernote, i want sandy, mosio and more                         
• Some fun, simple content to listen to: Huffington Post, TechCrunch, New York Times, Yahoo Finance, etc. And if you really must, Perez Hilton!                         
• Roll-your-own commands: if you don’t like what we’ve provided - make your own! You can now make your own commands in Dial2Do and have something happen - post to a URL, send an email or read you some RSS content                         
• An improved layout to assist your navigation around the site

I asked few questions to Ivan MacDonald, CEO few days before last Mobile2.0 Conference in San Francisco...

So just to give a good example on what a great mobile application could be, some simple questions:

- What is Dial2do? 

Dial2Do is a phone-service for drivers. It lets you get things done safely and conveniently by just using your voice. You can send Text Messages, Send and Listen to Email, Create Reminders, Update your Twitter stream and use a range of other services by just calling a number and saying what you want to do.

- Could you tell us few words regarding Dial2Do background? What's the story behind the product? 

Well we looked at where people spend so much of their time - in the car. Over 80% of Americans commute to work.  I myself drive every day and of course some of my brightest ideas for things I should do come to me during this time :)  Without Dial2Do, this time is typically spent listening to the radio or maybe making phone calls. But that's about it.  So many ideas for things you should do come to you during that time, but you can't act on those ideas, especially with the increasing Hands-free safety legislation in the US and elsewhere.  So we wanted to make a service that would be kind of like the 'drivers assistant' a number you phone when you want to get something done.  It might be something simple, like creating a little reminder for a thought that just came into your head, or you might want to listen to your email to check for a particular message from someone, or add an event to your calendar.   We wanted to offer "One number to get things done."

- What is your vision of mobile space and how being successful in it! Is profitability a reachable target? 

Great new interfaces and 3G are finally making mobile a reality for data driven services.  Of course they don't really help during the time you are driving for 40-90 minutes per day. So we think that Voice activation has a huge future.  In fact users expectations that they can get things done while mobile, increases the opportunity to voice activate the services they use the most.  And of course the jury is still out on what kindof business models users like for mobile services.  We don't think there is a 'one size' fits all in the great debate about flat-rate subscriptions -v- pay as you use -v- advertising but we do think that if you create a compelling service that people use/call several times a day you can monetize it profitably.

- We met in Silicon Valley the first time. You come regularly. Are you looking for things you don't have in Europe and why?!

Well about 75% of our users are in the US right now and we have focused there which is maybe unusual for a startup from Ireland.  But the US is a good opportunity for us, Hands-free legislation has really just started to kick in in California and elsewhere just this year, so our offering is being received well by users.  Also, so many of the companies who are partnering with are in Silicon Valley, so it makes sense for us to be there.

There's some additional ideas around that product. My 10 cents (let's be optimistic).