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Is The Vertical Approach To Enterprise Software Enough To Help You Win The Market? Contributed article by Boris Wertz, founder & GP of VersionOneVentures.

In the new era of enterprise software, the winners will be purpose-built, vertically sliced tools.
Hiring Only the Best? Big Mistake Contributed article from FreshBooks.

Don't be fooled: The best person for the job is not always the one with the hottest skills or the biggest reputation.
Ask This, Not That: Smarter Interview Questions For Better Hires Part 3 of 3, contributed series from Amy Kelman, lead of Zendesk's customer success.

Interviews shouldn't feel like pulling teeth. Here are a couple tips for livening up those dreaded conversations and recruiting an all-star team.
How To Hire Like A Pro Part 2 of 3, contributed series from Amy Kelman, lead of Zendesk's customer success.

If you manage anything, there's probably a mountain of resumes sitting on your desk. Overwhelmed? Here's a strategy for efficiently finding the amazing needles in that haystack.
The Perfect Hire Starts With The Perfect Job Posting Part 1 of 3, contributed series from Amy Kelman, lead of Zendesk's customer success.

The art of the effective job posting is an often overlooked and vital piece of assembling a great team. Follow these five steps and find the perfect new employee.
GroupTalent Grabs $1M From Founders Co-Op, Menlo & Others To Help Businesses Connect With Top Technical Talent Today, it seems that everyone you know has their own startup. While this might be good for the economy long-term, it also has the makings of a talent drain...To help simplify the job search for the technically proficient, GroupTalent has developed a matching engine that automatically pairs talent with relevant projects and vice versa.
Select the Right Cloud Provider for Your Startup in 7 Steps At Panorama9, we moved our development environment to the cloud in 2010 and made some errors early on by thinking that our previous experience with hosted environments could be directly translated to a cloud environment. Below are some of the lessons we learned along the way.
Panorama9 Rolls Out MSP Program To Support Its Cloud-Based IT Management Platform "We want to make it easy for them [MSPs] to get paid on a recurring revenue basis... And since the founders of the company are veterans of the MSP market, our company has a unique understanding of the challenges they face."
Cloud IT RMM Vendor Panorama9 Launches MSP Partner Program Because it’s a cloud-based SaaS IT management platform (with no capital investment required), and it offers a free trial, Panorama seems like it would be easy to test out on a few clients, particularly for a channel company just testing the waters of offering managed services.
Panorama9 Offers Partner Program Option to Aid MSPs with Volume Discounts The expanded go-to-market strategy lets Panorama9's partners take full advantage of the features and benefits of the company's IT management platform.
FreshBooks Cloud Accounting Lets You Track Expenses And Send Invoices On The Go For those of us with no accounting background whatsoever, FreshBooks is a great way to track these important transactions. Now that I can take care of these things on the go, it’s just that much more of a valuable service.
5 Tips For Building A Two-Sided Online Marketplace Contributed article by Boris Wertz, founder of Version One Ventures.

If you are building an online marketplace, how do you survive the tough times when you’re trying to get traction and build out your supplier and consumer communities? Here are five tips...
4 ways to incite love — not anger — when changing your product Contributed article by Alexander Aghassipour, Chief Product Officer and co-founder of Zendesk.

People get used to doing things a certain way, and getting comfortable with any change takes time. From a software development standpoint, this means that successfully launching a major design improvement or UX change involves more than just writing good code.
Combine Help Desk With Asset Management to Save Clients' Money While cloud-based asset management tools can identify vulnerabilities, they offer little oversight for their resolution. As a result, IT support teams or solution providers typically need to manually track the status of any vulnerabilities and user issues that arise. This not only increases the workload for an already busy department, but also carries the risk that a critical issue might fall through the cracks.
Want the Best Enterprise Software? “Date It" Contributed article by Zendesk's CEO & co-founder, Mikkel Svane.

Today’s dating world is transformed by both changes in culture and technology which lift many cultural barriers. When we talk about the “consumerization of the enterprise,” similar changes have occurred.
14 Tips for Selling Software and Services Online "Try to get a well-respected publication to test your solution/offering," suggests Allan Thorvaldsen, CEO, Panorama9, a cloud-based IT management platform. "This will validate your product (if it is any good) and generate traffic towards your Website for no cost."
The Enterprise Cool Kids No, this isn’t a guest column by Aaron Levie. Though he and his startup Box, the poster child of the “sexy enterprise,” are definitely included in the bunch. “You should definitely kick Aaron off the list. Just to mess with him,” Zendesk founder Mikkel Svane commented when he heard what we were writing.
Why Free Is Bad: Businesses Should Be Happy To Pay For Key Services Contributed article by Mike McDerment, CEO & founder of FreshBooks.

Late last year Google Apps for Business eliminated its free version. You might think this is a bad thing for small business owners. Everything free is good, right? Wrong.
Inside Zendesk's Tranquil Mid-Market Office Space The three co-founders, chief creative director, and O&A designers envisioned a humble, uncomplicated, airy, and charming space where people could breathe, thus the use of white space, high ceilings and calm colors.
Zendesk's Calm Space Takeover at Mid-Market In 2011, Zendesk moved into a 42,000+ square foot office on mid-Market and took over multiple floors to support their growing business. The culture is very informal and relaxed, so the space needed to be something that reflects and enables the same.
With phone calls from real people, is devops finally getting its day in the sun? One company with a feature-rich online dashboard for IT administrators is distinguishing itself further by offering to have its employees call its clients’ IT people when issues arise, rather than just send emails or texts, and thereby show devops people some much-needed respect.
Panorama9 ‘Pager’ Boosts Channel Response Where Panorama9 touts differentiation, however, is in its flexibility. That cloud technology gives the firm the ability to cater to mobile, Mac OS X and Linux platforms, as well as Windows environments.
Panorama9 IT Management Platform Intros Perfect Pager The Personal Pager alert takes Panorama9’s existing email and text alerts a step further. IT administrators will receive a call from a live human who can inform them about which server or service is down, when it happened, and what, if anything else, is going on inside their network, according to the company.
Source Metrics Social Media Inbox Helps Marketers Manage Brand’s Social Presence Many businesses lack the skills and knowledge to properly market themselves and their products across social platforms like Facebook, Google+ and Twitter — that's where companies like Source Metrics come in.
Another Social Media Inbox? Source Metrics Says This One’s All About ‘Actionable Mentions’ and Breaking Down Data Silos The idea of a new social network listening tool may not set anyone’s heart aflutter, but CEO Scott Lake said the real selling point is the fact that the inbox is integrated with Source Metrics’ other services.
The Anatomy of a Social Marketing Campaign: 5 Steps to Success Contributed article by Scott Lake, CEO & founder of Source Metrics.

With so many social media platforms, it's easy to get bogged down in the details. Keep a clear head by following these five steps.
Awesome Tips for Entrepreneurs from CEO of @FreshBooks Robert Scoble interviews FreshBooks' CEO, Mike McDerment from Half Moon Bay, CA.
No VC: FreshBooks CEO Sees Risk Capital as Too Risky Mike McDerment was shacked up in his parents’ basement in Toronto when the first venture capitalist called. It was 2006 and the entrepreneur was in his fourth year of work on FreshBooks, Web-based accounting software he’d created for small businesses.
Zendesk Investor Sees Fresh Potential in Panorama9, Value In Cloud Panaroma9’s U.S customer base has grown 20 percent each month since its platform made its debut outside Denmark in April this year. The company will use the newly obtained capital to boost sales in North America and continue fleshing out its product with new features.
Don’t Do It! The Gimmicks Developers Use to Make Their Apps Stickier Contributed article by Boris Wertz, founder of Version One Ventures.

There’s a vast market for apps that tap into the human desire for self-improvement. But Boris Wertz of Version One Ventures says designers need to avoid relying on trendy gimmicks to woo potential users.
Panorama9 Seed Funding of $900k to Expand its US Sales Presence, Add Features to its Cloud-Based IT Platform After two years of successful organic growth, Panorama9 has finally secured $900,000 in seed financing from Denmark private investors to help continue its growth and expansion in the U.S.
Panorama sets its sights on investment krone Cloud-based IT management platform Panorama9 has raised $900K in seed financing from private investors in Denmark. The company offers a dashboard that small to medium businesses can use to monitor and control all IT operations in their network.
Panorama9 Raises $900K From Danish Investors Panorama9 has developed a cloud-based dashboard to provide technology managers with a snapshot of all events happening across their entire enterprise. CEO Allan Thorvaldsen was a founder of SoftScan ApS, a software-as-a-service provider acquired by Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ:SYMC), of Mountain View, Calif., in 2009.
End-Of-The-Year IT Checklist for Startups Contributed article by Allan Thorvaldsen, founder & CEO of Panorama9.

As we hit the end of of 2012, the pace of business may slow momentarily, making it a good time to take stock of your startup’s IT assets, spending and future plans.
Tips to Streamline Your Ecommerce Customer Service You might think the term "customer service software" automates resources to those who need help. But Zendesk enables a business to present a wide variety of options, including social media posts and phone calls, so customers can choose the option they want.
Fix Your Customer Service After testing out five possible solutions, ModCloth settled on Zendesk, cloud-based customer service software that also offers reporting and analytics. Why Zendesk?

"The ability to customize responses, tag interactions, and collect data on a granular level were super compelling," says Griffith.
Customer Service: The Be All & End All A recent whitepaper by Zendesk, a vendor of cloud-based customer service software, found that:

An issue that is resolved within 24 hours, at the first point of contact -- something more likely to occur when all customer communication vehicles are in-sync -- can be up to 170 percent less costly than an issue that takes 48 hours to resolve.
The Next Big E-Commerce Wave: Vertically Integrated Commerce Contributed article by Boris Wertz, founder of Version One Ventures.

Web-only brands are vertically integrating the retail value chain, including manufacturing, branding, and distribution. Here are three reasons why vertically integrated commerce is an attractive retail model.
4 tricks for designing data-heavy applications Contributed article by Toke Nygaard, Chief Creative Officer at Zendesk.

While big data makes for useful applications, it can also stand in the way of clean, usable interface designs. With more and more web applications built upon mountains of data collected in the cloud, how can you deliver all that data without turning the resulting application into a visual train wreck?
Small businesses tap into cloud for efficiency With so much data stored, cloud companies can also dive deeply into customers' usage patterns for information that may prove useful. For example, FreshBooks offers a feature that compares your business' performance with competitors in several benchmarked areas, including how long it takes you to get paid and the average invoice size.
3 Ways to Get Paid Faster Earlier this year FreshBooks sifted through this data, plotting certain key phrases against the quickness of payments to determine what phrasing works best to get you paid quickly.
The Twitter Tax and Zendesk: How Tech Companies Affect the City Zendesk, which moved to Market Street in August 2011, was the first company to take the tax break and submit a “Community Benefits Agreement” that details how the company will support the local community. Soon other big companies such as Twitter will also submit proposals (which are due by January 31).
Today In APIs: ZenDesk Radar API, AT&T Developer Summit and 20 New APIs Customer support software provider Zendesk has announced Radar, a real-time push notification framework to enable integration of messages into any application. The Radar framework is open-source and consists of a server side application and API, powered by Node.js.
Cloud IT Management Service Panorama9 Launches Linux and Mac Support Cloud-based asset management platform Panorama9 officially launched support for Linux and Mac OS machines on Wednesday, broadly increasing the amount of hardware covered in the still very young IT management dashboard.
5 Ways to Get Your Small Business Success in 2013 Contributed article from FreshBooks.

As the calendar flips to another year, it’s the perfect time to take stock of your business and make some important changes for an even better year ahead. Here are five simple things you can do to start the year off right.
Five steps to optimize your social media campaign in real-time Contributed article by Scott Lake, CEO and co-founder of Source Metrics.

Running a campaign is like playing for a sports team. Waiting until the end of a campaign to perform analysis is like skipping a game and then checking the highlight reel afterwards. As a team member, you need to be on the field influencing the final score.
Source Metrics Offers Social Marketing Optimization and Analytics Platform Started in 2008, Source Metrics focuses on the metrics of leads, sales, click-throughs and conversions, presented in real-time by property. The aim, the Ottawa-based company said, is to answer the question "what works and how well?"
Source Metrics Releases Integrated Social Media Tool Kit Source Metrics, a social marketing optimization and analytics provider, has launched a new platform designed to give marketers social publishing, campaign management, listening, and analytic capabilities in one solution.
SourceMetrics Launches Platform For Measuring Social Media ROI For online marketers looking to make an impact, it can be hard to determine what actually generates revenue.

Startup SourceMetrics is looking to address this problem by launching a tool for real-time return-on-investment analysis of social media campaigns.
Six Tips For Navigating The MDM Jungle A product such as VerifyCloud, which ensures the integrity of photos taken with smartphone cameras, could be useful to field inspectors but is less clearly applicable to a boardroom, for example. IT managers should be prepared to choose multiple products, as even alleged "end-to-end" solutions might not serve all needs.
Effective Software Asset Management in 4 Steps Contributed article by Allan Thorvaldsen, Panorama9 CEO.

While inventory tasks may be taxing, the costs can be even higher when businesses don’t know what software assets they have. Here are four reasons why it makes sense to establish an effective software asset management practice...
FreshBooks adds balance sheet generation to feature list ...This sort of report is more than your average small-business or start-up owner would be able to create on their own without using some sort of application or asking for a report from an accountant.
Zendesk Believes New Design is Way to Lasting Customer Service Peace Zendesk proclaims its redesigned platform will set "a new standard in the consumerization of the enterprise."
Best iPhone Apps for Business Finance If you prefer to do your small business financial management and accounting online, the FreshBooks iPhone app makes it easy.
This Week in Small Business: An Elevator on the Moon FreshBooks introduces an iPhone app to do billing on the go.
Cloud Accounting: A New Way To Streamline Financial Operations Now referring to itself as a cloud accounting service, FreshBooks lets very small enterprises get their feet wet on invoicing and accounting in a way that’s much more feasible than using QuickBooks.
5 Apps To Help You Swing Back Into Productivity Mode As a small business owner, my company has been using FreshBooks for some time for everyday accounting purposes. There are few cloud-based tools that make invoicing as easy, and dare I say, kind of fun.
20 Best iPhone and iPad Apps This Week Aimed at small businesses and freelancers, this aims to help them create invoices, store expenses details and track time spent on projects, with all the data stored on the FreshBooks server for access on multiple devices.
New FreshBooks mobile app enables on-the-go accounting The new mobile version enables professionals to create invoices, document expenses, collaborate on time sheets, and organize expenses and process payments as they happen. This can prevent backlog and a miserable end-of-month spent catching up.
FreshBooks iOS app offers 'at-a-glance view' for SMB accounting FreshBooks's new iPhone app is intended to make small business accounting much more accessible and simple at the same time.
Freshbooks Invoicing and Then Some Service [Finally] Launches iPhone App I've been a long time Freshbooks user. The online invoicing, expenses, and time tracking service makes it very easy to create professional invoices and get paid faster via PayPal integration. To thank its users, and to grab even more users away from popular services like Intuit and Outright, Freshbooks has repurposed itself as the 'cloud accounting specialist' and launched a native iPhone app.
FreshBooks small business accounting service launches an iPhone app Just like the online service, the FreshBooks app allows you to create professional invoices and get paid right from your iPhone. It's extremely useful to be able to log your hours and keep track of your expenses on your iPhone when you are working offsite. If you've completed your work and are ready to close out a project, you can submit an invoice before you leave the client's office.
Cloud Accounting Startup FreshBooks Launches An iPhone App, So Users Can Do Invoicing On The Go In the past, small business owners would have to wait until they got back to their offices to do certain accounting tasks, like entering time or tracking expenses from on the job. With the new app, FreshBooks users can now instantly create invoices, manage client information, track time that they’ve spent with clients and expenses, create estimates, and get reports based on the information they enter.
FreshBooks Launches iPhone App One of its greatest strengths is its library of more than 70 third-party add-ons--apps that can automatically send data to FreshBooks.

FreshBooks is also notable for its support policy: Subscribers can talk to a customer service representative, free of charge, during East Coast business hours (9 a.m. to 6 p.m.) Mondays through Fridays.
5 Ways Consumer Apps Are Driving The Enterprise Web Contributed article by Mikkel Svane, CEO and co-founder of Zendesk.

Consumer focused apps like Facebook, Twitter and iTunes have become mainstream and expectations around applications are radically changing. Since the software I use every day at home and on my phone are so friendly and easy to use, why is my expensive business application so cumbersome and stodgy?
Vancouver: Hollywood North’s tech scene is growing, growing, not yet grown Americans might think of Vancouver in many ways — but typically not as a tech startup mecca.

Just don’t ask the venture capitalists who take the 3-hour flight north from Silicon Valley. They have their own thoughts about Vancouver startups, but they’re not likely to reveal them to you. They’re too busy trying to snap up undervalued Canadian companies.
Change management: four key components to track Contributed article by Allan Thorvaldsen, CEO and co-founder of Panorama9.

Before you can understand the impact of change in your environment, you've got to understand exactly what's in your environment. Having a clear vision of the big picture right down to the small details of every user and device is the critical foundation for any change management strategy.
Grow Conference aims to create a little Silicon Valley North Now in its third iteration, GROWConference began two years ago after Landa recognized the relative lack of investment in Canada's tech sector and wanted to start bringing players from both sides of the border together to help fill that gap.
Escape From Silicon Valley? Debbie Landa is the founder of Dealmaker Media, whose Grow Conference takes place in Vancouver next week. We caught up with Landa to learn more about why she thinks venture capitalists and startup founders alike should learn to get over Silicon Valley and look elsewhere to build, or invest in, businesses.
Seven Secrets to Master the Art of Invoicing Contributed article by Stuart MacDonald, Chief Revenue & Marketing Officer of FreshBooks.

While invoicing and the follow-up may be irritating necessities on the road to getting paid, there are some simple things you can do to improve the way you invoice, make sure you get paid on time, and increase your cash flow.
Is The Silicon Valley Bubble Forcing VC's To Invest Elsewhere? Landa believes that the hyper-valuations of startups in Silicon Valley are driving smart VC’s to look for startups beyond Silicon Valley, where valuations are lower. Hiring and retention are both easier outside the Valley too. As Landa says, “it just seems smarter to invest, or at least diversify outside of Silicon Valley.”
The new summer vacation: 8 ways to build your business during downtime Contributed article by Stuart MacDonald, Chief Revenue & Marketing Officer for FreshBooks.

While the slow pace can be a disconcerting for the freelancer, it can also be a great opportunity to revisit your business toolbox – including your skills, capabilities, technology, and marketing. Savvy small business owners know they can use the downtime to make their business more successful when things get rolling again.
Defrosting The Great White North’s Startup Ecosystem “Canadians need to stop complaining when a company moves anywhere,” says Debbie Landa, the founder of Dealmaker Media and Grow Conference in Vancouver. She believes that if they supported the companies, instead of heralding Canadian-ness, successful companies that make a solid exit would be more willing to put back into the community.
Small Revolution: Cloud Levels the Playing Field Contributed article by Jack Newton, CEO of Clio.

Access to affordable, enterprise-grade software tools have enabled a new type of entrepreneur to emerge, leading some to call this the biggest change in the employment landscape since the industrial revolution.
How To Maintain Security In a BYOD world Allan Thorvaldesen is CEO and co-founder of Panorama9. He is a serial entrepreneur with more than 20 years experience in IT and device management. Here, he outlines ways in which to formulate an easy-to-follow Bring Your Own Device policy (BYOD policy)
6 Ways to Keep Your Small Business Data Safe Jack Newton, the CEO and co-founder of Clio, a Vancouver-based company that offers web-based practice management software for solo practitioners and small-to-medium sized law firms, offers six tips on how any type of small business can better protect its data from a security breach.
7 Simple Strategies to Get Paid Faster and On Time Contributed article by Stu MacDonald, Chief Marketing & Revenue Officer of FreshBooks.

It's hard to anticipate all the administrative aspects involved in being a small business owner; the primary one being how to get paid on time. There is indeed an art to mastering one's billing and we're happily sharing the secrets to success.
Solving IT headaches with a monitoring dashboard in the cloud "Most of these tasks are tedious, repetitive, and you don't want to spend too much time doing it," explained CEO Allan Thorvaldsen. "It's not fun patching, it's not fun monitoring, it's just something that you need to do."

Thorvaldsen wants to make this process not only easier, but also more accessible to small- and medium-sized businesses that may not have a dedicated IT staff. And instead of completely replacing other security and management software, Panorama9 has been designed to integrate with existing suites.
Zendesk, Startup Panorama9 Team Up for Cloud-based IT Help Desk Any Zendesk ticket created by Panorama9 includes detailed information about the issue, along with useful links to the Panorama9 dashboard. This gives IT pros complete visibility into the IT environment and a powerful set of tools needed to troubleshoot and resolve any issues.
Panorama9 Review Panorama9 takes on the time-consuming task of collecting information and organizes them in an amazingly intuitive interface for the IT manager. Even if it's only one person managing the entire business IT infrastructure, the platform makes it simple to see at a glance what is wrong, and to get up-to-date detailed information about the machines.
7 ways BYOD will boost your business Contributed article by Jack Newton, CEO of Clio.

While IT managers may cringe each time they hear “can you help me connect my iPad to the company server,” here are seven reasons businesses should embrace the consumerization of IT.
How the cloud helps build agile companies and encourage experimentation Contributed article by Jack Newton, CEO of Clio.

With subscription-based pricing and low cost of entry, SaaS gives companies the freedom to innovate with their software choices and run with what works.
Let Panorama9 monitor your Windows machines and network Takeaway: If you have a Windows-only environment and have the budget for it, Panorama9 can do a great job of monitoring your IT infrastructure.

One of the more unique features of Panorama9 is the Live Feed...This could be a great help in troubleshooting an issue on either a server or a desktop.
Panorama9 Launches IT Dashboard, New Feature in the US Panorama9 is a Danish startup that focuses on general-purpose IT solutions in the cloud...Their platform is targeting small to midsized enterprises’ IT administrative tasks, covering a pretty long list ranging from inventory management and distribution, to the more creative obligation of monitoring the monitoring system.
Farewell, coffee cards: Madrona bankrolls mobile loyalty rewards startup RewardLoop The RewardLoop system could replace the paper-based stamp cards that you often see at coffee shops, pet stores, car washes and other retailers. Consumers who download the RewardLoop app collect “virtual stamps” on a “virtual stamp card” at participating retailers, and then can cash those in for rewards.
Vancouver’s RewardLoop gets its own reward: $1 million in investment A Vancouver startup that has replaced old-fashioned customer loyalty cards with a codes that can be scanned into smartphones to track loyalty points has just raised $1 million from a Seattle-based venture capital firm.
RewardLoop Raises $1M for QR Code-Enabled Loyalty Programs RewardLoop, a startup offering a nifty new approach to customer reward programs, has raised $1 million in Series A funding...RewardLoop started commercial trials of the technology in August, and LaPorte says the funding will help it expand the merchant network more aggressively.
Building a Successful Mobile Email Campaign This essay is adapted from 14 Essential Mobile Marketing Tactics, by Igor Faletski and James Sherrett.
eBook: Mobify's 14 Essential Tactics for Mobile Engagement Optimizing for mobile engagement is not always easy, thanks especially to the changing interfaces, screens and sizes of mobile devices. Still, the objectives remain the same: Provide relevant information or tasks in an accessible and user-friendly format.
Monetize your social site without annoying your users Skimlinks CEO, Alicia Navarro, outlines how companies can monetize their site without putting them at odds with their user base.

"If you implement your monetization strategy with care, it’s possible to maximize revenue potential and keep members happy...Whether you use sponsorships, ads, affiliate marketing, premium memberships or a combination of these strategies, the following tips will help you monetize your forum or social site."
BlackBerry Goes Bust With App Maker Contributed article by Clio CEO, Jack Newton.

Lawyers used to be big fans of BlackBerry devices. So why is it that a startup that caters to smaller law firms built an iPhone app instead? The answer lies in RIM’s approach to the consumer market.
What the new iPad means for design Igor Faletski, CEO of Mobify, writes about what the new iPad retina display means for website owners and what's coming down the design pipeline.

"The precise rendering of images on the Retina display reveals rough edges across the Web. Text may be pin-sharp, but put that text alongside photos, and those images don't look so hot. Logos appear blurred. Even shopping cart buttons become grainy."
Why One Canadian Developer Won't Build BlackBerry Apps Contributed article by Jack Newton, CEO of Clio.

As a young startup launching a cloud-based platform called Clio, we needed to select which mobile client(s) to support and decided to skip the Research In Motion BlackBerry. Opting not to develop a BlackBerry app hardly sounds like a tough decision today. However, this was 2007 and the mobile landscape was a vastly different place.
3 Key Metrics for Evaluating Your Mobile Ecommerce Site Igor Faletski, CEO of Mobify, writes about the ABCs of mobile metrics.

Looking at the ABCs provides a good snapshot of how a mobile website attracts customers, moves them to consider an action, and finally gets them to complete a desired action.
Panorama9 sets up shop iin Bay Area Allan Thorvaldsen, a serial entrepreneur who co-founded and sold his third startup, Softscan, to Symantec in 2009, is bringing his latest venture from Denmark to San Francisco.

Panorama9's goal is to provide IT managers with a one-screen dashboard of all their on-premises and cloud-based assets.
Vancouver-based business woos big-name clients For a small shop with only 25 employees, Vancouver-based Mobify has an impressive list of clients, including Starbucks, Lululemon, Bosch, Conde Nast and Siemens.
Mobify: Google, Starbucks, Lululemon Sign Up With Vancouver-Based Mobile Media Startup We'll see more and more websites becoming app-like and in a year or two that'll be the (standard) for anybody who wants to do business on the iPad.
Mobile Made Easier Using HTML5 technology from vendor Mobify, ideeli, a fashion and home members-only e-retailer, launched an m-commerce site in November 2011 that includes the gesture, speed and social features and functions it believed would give it an edge. And it's paid off.
Mobify sees opportunity in mobile world So far, 20,000 companies have gone mobile through Mobify, including Starbucks, Lululemon and Conde Nast publications including Wired, GQ, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker.
Pinterest Partner: Yes, They’re Making Money from Pins Skimlinks CEO Alicia Navarro told Mashable, “Affiliated networks help companies monetize their sites and there’s nothing illegal or wrong about it. It’s common, effective and smart. It should be celebrated.”
Clio Gives Lawyers the Keys to Cloud Computing Clio may indeed turn computer infrastructure costs into history (for solo or small law firms).
Making Your Website Mobile Device Friendly Brandie Kajino hosts this podcast for small business owners who want to learn the “who” and “how” of mobile-friendly websites. Her guest is the founder of Mobify, Igor Faletski, who shares an overview of this market-leading provider of mobilification* services.
Apple's App Store: An economy for 1 percent of developers Contributed article by Igor Faletski, CEO of Mobify.

Just because the App Store is huge doesn't mean it makes sense to build an app.

The Apple App Store will certainly be part of the mobile commerce ecosystem, but it will be a small part that shrinks proportionally over time for the following reasons...
Skimlinks Founder: Actually, Merchants Love Pinterest Skimlinks founder Alicia Navarro said, merchants are fine paying for affiliate links through Pinterest—because the site sends tons of traffic and it needs revenue to survive.
Mobify launches tablet optimization tool for websites I think that solutions like Mobify...will make sense over time because the same native apps are changing the expectations of consumers, who’ll increasingly want more of a tablet app experience wherever they go on the web.
Mobify Optimizes Your Website for Tablets, and Bigger Bucks Having a tablet-friendly website is rapidly rising up the tick list of must-haves for anyone selling online. Mobify takes the hard work out of desktop browser to mobile or tablet browser conversion, fine-tuning and optimizing your site along the way.
A Cloud Niche for Every Trade: Leveling the Playing Field for SMBs One real opportunity in cloud services for SMBs is going niche. And one service that’s gotten a recent boost is the legal domain, empowering small firms with specific cloud services from Clio.
Pinterest does disclose it modifies links, and we shouldn’t blame it for making money "...There is something to be said for a startup like Pinterest making an effort to simply make money early on."
Skimlinks CEO: We Have a "Happy Relationship" with Pinterest Skimlinks CEO Alicia Navarro video interview
What I learned from teaming up with Google Contributed article by Igor Faletski, CEO of Mobify.

Recently, I was invited by Google to participate in “Mobilizing Mobile” in Mobile, Alabama. Below you’ll find four key take-aways from teaming up with Google. I believe they can be applied by any startup, in any industry.
5 Paradoxes Shaping the Future of Mobile Commerce Contributed article by Igor Faletski, CEO of Mobify.

With that growth comes a new set of user behaviors and consumer trends. What’s the reality when it comes to the new mobile commerce landscape? Here are five facts that will have striking implications for the future of mobile commerce.
How to Hack the PR Machine Contributed article by Rebecca Reeve, seven steps for bootstrapped start-ups to hack their PR with DIY tactics.
2012: The year websites optimize for tablets ...In talking with Mobify’s CEO Igor Faletski, one thing that stood out to me was that almost all of Mobify’s work has been to optimize sites for smartphones last year. Very few customers have thought to optimize their websites for tablets like the iPad. Instead they have relied on native apps or just a desktop version of their website.
Clio Grabs $6 Million To Help Bring Small Legal Practices To The Cloud While the legal industry has been largely perceived as being slow to adopt modern technologies, Clio’s opportunity lies in helping transition the many small practices out there to the cloud.
Clio raises $6M to manage your law firm & keep your client’s secrets safe By using the cloud, Clio not only keeps project management costs low for lawyers, but it can also offer file storage systems and internal networks that are more secure than small law firms could afford to implement themselves.
Mobile email: Six tips for building a campaign that works Contributed article by Mobify CEO, Igor Faletski, part 1 of 3:

As consumers are increasingly browsing, shopping, and interacting with brands on the go, mobile commerce presents a powerful opportunity. However, any new opportunity brings its own set of challenges. Mobile users have specific needs and biases that you have to consider in your email marketing.
Keeping Up With the Shop-Dashians While seven out of 10 luxury brands on the list have set up mobile applications for Apple iOS-powered devices such as iPhones and iPads, less than a third let shoppers buy on the go. Those that ranked feeble...might provide a potential client list for mobile-app developer companies like the startup Mobify.
Cater to the Mobile Marketplace Contributed article by Mobify CEO Igor Faletski:

With the mobile user base continuing to grow, it's essential to provide what your users need.
Mobile social media: Four tactics for mobile sharing Contributed article by Mobify CEO, Igor Faletski, part 3 of 3:

Social and mobile are natural partners. Mobile devices are already the focal point of how people communicate with their circle of friends directly and social networks are a simple extension. With the saturation of smart phones, social networks are now accessible to us at any time, anywhere.
Case Study: The Seamless, Threadless, Experience We ask Igor Falestski, CEO of Mobify, how his company seamlessly integrated the mobile site for US t-shirt brand Threadless and created one of the one of the “ass-kickingest” sites around!
Mobify Brings Mobile Commerce to Online Merchants Faletski emphasized that mobile commerce will continue to grow for the next several years, so rather than a quick fix to convert your site for mobile devices, he suggests online merchants take time and do the job right.
Four critical ways mobile search is different Contributed article by Mobify CEO, Igor Faletski, part 2 of 3:

Search on a mobile device is fundamentally different than search on the desktop. Whether you’re running a multi-million dollar PPC campaign on AdWords or optimizing for organic search traffic and inbound leads, it’s critical to understand these differences and what drives the mobile searcher.
Google Mobile Initiative GoMo Launches in Mobile. Where Else? Google sees yet another opportunity in this growing trend beyond search, mobile OS and social network, and organized GoMo, a service that helps owners make their website mobile friendly... One company represented at the 3-day event is Mobify, a platform for converting your desktop website to a mobile website.
Powering the Mobile Retailer Mobify, a "software as a service" company whose dozen or so clients include the retailers Lululemon, Threadless, and Bonobos, is taking advantage of what it sees as a hot and emerging sector for merchants: mobile websites for consumers who want to shop anywhere, anytime on their smartphones or tablets.
ClipSync wants to take videos viral, moment by moment ClipSync Moments gives viewers the ability to share videos with friends on social networks. But instead of sharing a link to the entire video and having their friends search for the part it refers to, ClipSync attaches comments to a specific moment in time.
It's Time For Web Marketers To Cater To Mobile Users Igor Faletski, Mobify CEO, discusses how web marketers can plan for mobile.

By 2014 the number of mobile web users is projected to surpass the number of desktop web users. And those mobile users have specific needs and biases that you have to consider in your marketing.
ClipSync Lets Viewers Share the Best Clip of a Video ClipSync Moments is making it easier than ever for viewers to share their favorite moments and start a conversation.
What’s the Future of Social TV Look Like? ClipSync sees tremendous potential in the real-time entertainment sector, leading the charge in social TV. Itzik Cohen, founder of ClipSync, has uncovered a way to actually create value around social TV, increasing engagement and producing real results for content publishers.
Mavenlink Raises $3.9 Million for External Collaboration Service Mavenlink, launched about 20 months ago, has more than 130,000 users and has been adding 15,000 users per month. The company, which targets small and medium-sized businesses, has built its service particularly through the Google Apps Marketplace, where it is one of the highest rated project management apps.
Mavenlink Online Collaboration Growing, Gets Funding When you think about online collaboration, popular options such as Basecamp, Chatter or Google Docs likely come to mind. But there’s another rising star in the space garnering the attention of investors and customers alike...
Mavenlink raises $3.9M for start-to-finish project management tool “The workforce that businesses need today is more flexible than ever. A growing number of telecommuters, freelancers, consultants, and outsourced services are replacing the traditional 9 to 5,” Mavenlink CEO Ray Grainger said.
LiveChat Founders Buy Out Investor Naspers, Regain 60% Stake The founding team of LiveChat, which delivers real-time software and web analytics solutions for e-commerce sales and support teams, has completed a management buy-out to regain control over the company, TechCrunch has learned.
Rypple Lets You Reward Employees On Big Screen A social software specialist in tracking and rewarding employee performance, Rypple recently introduced Rypple Flow, which provides a version of the Rypple activity stream optimized for display on big screen TVs. It came along at just the right time for e-book retailer Kobo Books...
Rypple Flow Is Social HR Management On A Big Screen Start-up Rypple brings social networking tools to human resources departments, upending practices like the often-dreaded annual performance reviews.
8 Apps to Help Keep Tots Safe Launched just in time for back-to-school season, Moby shows where children check-in privately, so their parents always know where they are.
Moby's private location sharing hits Android "...Moby is making good on its promise to connect families no matter what devices they may be carrying."
Apps Rush: What’s new on the app stores Android app Moby is the latest app looking to help people share their location privately with friends and family
A service that lets you keep track of our kids/family If you are on vacation at a resort, how do you keep track of where your kids are? Moby has a solution for that. Rob Goehring, Co-Founder & VP of Product Management and Marketing, shows it to me while we sit out back at the Ritz in Half Moon Bay.
Moby’s Private Location Sharing App Released for Android Moby is a private system, so you only reveal your location to people you trust. It's a simple setup that's easy to turn on and off, and now that it's cross-platform, your friends and loved ones don't need to have the same type of phone for it to be usable.
Keep track of your loved ones thanks to location-based technology You've all heard or asked the panicked question: Where are you right now? On average, kids get their first cellphone at the age of eight. Why not add an app that can help keep up-to-date locations on where all your family members are?

Introducing MyMoby, a new app that helps parents keep tabs on their loved ones.
LucidChart Nabs $1 Million From 500 Startups, 2M Companies, and K9 Ventures LucidChart, a web-based diagramming application, announced today that it has raised $1 million in seed funding from 500 Startups, 2M Companies, K9 Ventures, as well as several angel investors.
5 ways to keep your rockstar employees happy Contributed article by Rypple CEO, Daniel Debow:

When Google interviewed its employees about what they valued most at work, none of the extravagant benefits made the top of the list. Neither did salary. Instead, employees cited access to “even-keeled bosses who made time for one-on-one meetings, who helped people puzzle through problems by asking questions..."
LucidChart, the Multi-purpose Web App That Simplifies the Way You Create Charts, Diagrams, and More With its simplicity, speedy, interactive, powerful, and feature-rich tools, LucidChart simply blows away the competition from the likes of biggies like Google or Microsoft in its capabilities.
Jive Apps Seek, Enterprise Rigor, Consumer Cool "If companies have installed Jive, that means they get and understand social and this way of doing business that is much more open and transparent," said David Stein, a co-founder and co-CEO of Rypple.
Consider LiveChat as a Way to Boost Online Sales Chat rooms and live chatting has such a juvenile reputation, one of deceit and frivolous conversation. But in e-commerce, live chatting can turn its reputation around, and yours. Consider utilizing a live chat function as a way to reach prospective customers before they reach your website, or move on to your competitor’s.
Tools That Can Help When There Is Too Much on Your Plate ...[Mavenlink] is one of several online or cloud-based services that do all this and more, including tracking budgets, expenses, billable time and invoicing. They all differ in interface, capabilities and emphasis, and each seems to have its advantages for different types of project-management challenges. But in playing around with some of them, it’s clear to me that any one of them can be invaluable in planning and executing projects, especially those that involve interrelated tasks.
LiveChat Offers Facebook Integration The capability will allow LiveChat’s clients to gather personal information about visitors to their sites...(e-commerce sites) will be able to use information from an unknown shopper’s profile to provide better customer assistance.
See Business, Management, and HR Videos Like to watch flash mobs? I think they're great fun. Rypple sponsored a flash mob at the HR Tech Conference in Chicago. They wanted the attendees to know that work does not have to be boring. They succeeded as far as I'm concerned
Social Performance Platform Rypple Comes To iPhone The Web-based social performance platform Rypple is now available on the iPhone, the company is announcing today. Like the desktop-sized website, the new mobile application will allow managers to give real-time feedback to staff, provide coaching, track goals and publicly recognize colleagues for doing great work.
Rypple Takes Office High Fives to the iPhone Through the app, employees won’t have to wait for the next workday to congratulate a colleague or talk about an important issue. They are also able to check their feeds to stay updated of the company’s whereabouts or post a status in real time to say thanks for a job well done.
LiveChat Brings E-Commerce Support to iPad, iPhone Businesses that augment their e-commerce efforts with LiveChat's real-time software and Web analytics tool would do well to check out the recently launched LiveChat for iPad, which lets users respond to Web site visitors, keep track of online traffic, and monitor chat sessions.
6 Tips for Providing Better Online Customer Support LiveChat CEO, Mariusz Cieply, discusses how customer satisfaction has long been the Holy Grail for retailers, and how social media now brings a whole new significance to customer satisfaction.
Seven Keys to Productivity in the Human Cloud Seven tips designed to help independent professionals leverage cloud-based tools from Ray Grainger, CEO of Mavenlink.
Meet the Microworkers: A new breed of online worker is paid by the task Ray Grainger, a former partner at Accenture, says freelancers who specialize in niche skills are able to find higher-paying work in the U.S. He created Mavenlink, an online workspace for independent workers so they can easily collaborate with others, keep track of multiple projects, and network with other professionals.
My Favorite Tool for Collaborating Entrepreneur Paul Gladen explains how he uses Mavenlink to work on projects with his employees, contractors, and clients.
LucidChart Takes Cloud-Based Diagram Collaboration Offline Offline capabilities overcome one of the major shortcomings of cloud applications. But what about when a diagram is being created collaboratively with other team members?
Can Facebook and Google+ Coexist? Mariusz Cieply, the CEO of LiveChat, says that his company hopes to offer its services through both Facebook and Google+ in the near future, so that companies can, for example, provide post-sales tech support through video over Facebook or Google Hangouts.
LiveChat Delivers a Customer-Service Edge It's no secret that we've entered the era of the connected consumer, where information and merchandise are available at the click of a mouse or tap of a screen. Today's consumers truly expect instant answers; a convenient world where everything is as quick and easy as Amazon's one-click shopping.
MobSmith Launches Turnkey Mobile Ad Creation Platform The mobile advertising space is a multi-billion dollar market and startups and companies are battling it out for a piece of this very large (and growing) pie. Today, MobSmith is launching as a turnkey mobile ad creation platform to help advertisers create rich media, interactive ads for mobile phones.
Mavenlink Integrates Collaboration, Project Management and Invoicing The soup to nuts approach to project management seems to set Mavenlink apart from other project management tools that handle only parts of the overall project process.
vChatter takes Chatroulette mainstream with new user discovery features vChatter caused a flurry of interest recently when it launched a stand-alone site that is essentially a family-friendly version of Chatroulette.

CEO Will Bunker, who previously founded dating site Match.com, (has a) vision to make vChatter “The world’s largest coffee shop”.
Vchatter takes video chat outside Facebook walls As a Facebook app, the service has seen impressive growth since its launch in May, with 2.5 million active monthly users. But it’s now betting on growth outside Facebook, by providing personal URLs or website addresses for users, akin to the profile pages they have on other social networks like Twitter or MySpace.
Twitter Drops Tweets Into Users’ Streams: A Visual First Look Twitter client and social media dashboard HootSuite is Twitter’s sole partner in this new advertising experiment. Twitter will be testing this form of advertising among HootSuite’s 900,000 users, before trying it out on Twitter.com.
Zendesk's Twitter Integration Shows Your Customers That You're Really Listening Through a user-friendly interface, your business can now converse with clients on Twitter, move the conversation to Zendesk, email, or another platform, and get significant value out of the microblogging site.
LiveChat Livens Up Its Features Mariusz Cieply, LiveChat CEO said, "It's no longer about waiting for a Web site visitor to click on a chat button. E-commerce sites and brands can now initiate the conversation with their potential customers."
Zendesk for iPhone gets Twitter, multitasking support Zendesk for iPhone gives your staff mobile access to customer support tickets, allowing them to monitor or respond to tickets while on-the-go, whether customers contacted you through e-mail, Twitter, or your company’s Web form.
Lonely Planet consolidates forum, contributor feedback Lonely Planet has turned to online customer feedback to improve its products, implementing Zendesk help desk software to streamline information from its forums and wider community.
LiveChat Unveils Triggers and Conversion Meter Features LiveChat is the provider of a powerful live chat software that helps businesses talk to website visitors, or you, the customer. Now, the real-time software and Web analytics tool company has introduced two new features to help initiate the conversation between a website and a visitor,
Making Customer Support Sexy: Zendesk’s Help Desk Lovefest “If we have one core strength it is to be in absolutely fanatical love with our customers,” says Maksim Ovsyannikov, Zendesk’s vice president of product management, who hosted me for an interview last week. “And all of the organizations that come to Zendesk have this one thing in common, that they want to be in love with their customers.”
Zendesk for iPhone hits 50K downloads in 4 months Zendesk is a help desk ticketing system for both small and large businesses. Their developers recently updated the Zendesk iPhone app (free) with iOS 4 compatibility. Incredibly, the company boasts 50,000 downloads of their app within 4 months.
Start-Up Village Emerges in SoMA's 410 Townsend The technology start-up scene is rebounding strongly from the recession. That's evident at 410 Townsend Street in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood.

Zendesk CEO Mikkel Svane says the building's location—a block from the Caltrain station—is a plus, and prospective hires often go from one start-up interview in 410 Townsend to another.
10 New Education Companies to Watch (Plus 3 More for Extra Credit) Einztein (has) a team of PhD experts review what's out there in free and open course content, and to help people find the best. This is something that's really needed as it can be hard to find and evaluate what's out there.
No mindless chatter here: Online apparel retailer ScotteVest gains sales via live chat ScotteVest began offering live chat several months ago, and now the retailer engages in 160 chats per week, 25% of which result in a sale. “If we didn’t have LiveChat, those 25% may not have purchased,” Jordan says. “Our return rate is only 11%, when traditionally it’s around 25% or more for apparel retailers,” he says. “LiveChat is a big reason for that.”
Zendesk Hosted Customer Help Desk Offers Many Methods of Support Zendesk is a hosted customer help desk service that’s easy to deploy while remaining quite amenable to customization. The service supports multiple methods of providing support, multiple channels through which customers can access that support and multiple routes through which an organization can access and interact with the underlying data.
Help desk firm Zendesk solves problem of how to grow The company is currently “spending for growth,” adding 40 people during the last year, Svane said. Available jobs will be in engineering, marketing, business development, support and sales.

“It is very exciting. Coming to San Francisco and working with the local people here and our advisers has made us think bigger and more aggressively, and really push the envelope. That has really pushed our growth,” he said.
Lonely Planet consolidates forum, contributor feedback The Zendesk deployment ultimately consolidated Lonely Planet’s forum, which has 870,000 contributors at time of writing, on a single platform rather than the mixture of in-house and out-sourced technologies previously used by the tourism giant.

Lonely Planet developers used the Zendesk API to build a new front-end tailored to its customer base, both online and through mobile platforms.
Einztein Knowledge Network Catalogs Virtual Courses from Around the Web More and more universities are putting video courses online but combing through various collegiate and organization web sites looking for videos is tedious. Einztein gathers videos and virtual courses from across the web for easy keyword and category-based browsing.
Rackspace Enables 'Fanatical Support' with Zendesk “Zendesk makes a world of difference,” says Damian Green, product operations engineer of Rackspace.

By offering its customers an additional means of interaction, Rackspace solidified its customer service in improving its customer interaction without devoting more resources.
The Connections Conference Makes History: Gathers Gods of Mobile, Cloud and Virtualization Best described as a one-stop expo, the Connections Conference will unleash its prowess as the penultimate and pioneer in cross-platform events. Mobile, cloud and virtualization will be this conference’s centerpieces, taking on the burgeoning areas of enterprise.
Why Online Education Needs to Get Social Marco Masoni is a lawyer turned educator who co-founded Einztein.com to address the related problems of searching for good online courses and real-time coursework interaction.
Create Flow Charts and Wireframes Collaboratively With LucidChart The real magic is in the app's collaboration features.
LucidChart Steps Up Online Business Diagrams LucidChart is truly a great visualization app that's well worth taking for a spin in the free version.
5 Reasons Virtual Teams Fail Whether creating or communicating the vision, the team leader must be able to do so effectively, using tools such as Cohuman and Mavenlink to further a more cohesive team and work process.
Twitter Begins Publishing Ads in Users' Streams The company will start with a smaller pool of its 175 million users by showing the paid tweets only to people who use HootSuite, a popular third-party client. The Vancouver-based startup, which has amassed a following of more than 900,000 users, will get a cut of the revenue, while Twitter will sell the advertising
Are You Headed for a Twitter Chernobyl? It’s tough to navigate this world when so much is out of your control, but there are elements of your social media strategy that you can and must manage. I recently spoke to Ryan Holmes, the CEO of Vancouver-based HootSuite, a popular social media dashboard for groups, who offered five tips for tweeting entrepreneurs.
Social Media Marketing and Security with Hootsuite Hootsuite is making a lot of cool moves in the market lately...They have their finger on the pulse around security and how to safeguard the integrity of a brand's online (and offline) presence.
5 Recommendations for Assembling a Successful Team of Freelancers The surge of independent contractors is a relatively recent phenomenon which has been fueled by the web and an incredible array of cloud-based tools. Below are a few recommendations for ways to work with freelancers that will scale no matter the size and scope of your project, from Mavenlink CEO, Ray Grainger.
Coworking, Online Social Collaboration Create Community Mavenlink co-founder Sean Crafts sees a market opportunity in partnering with the operators of coworking spaces--shared office spaces where sole practitioners come together to share office space, equipment, and each other's company.
Einztein Launches PhD-Curated Online Education Search Guide "We see the trend toward offering free online courses as an opportunity to create an online knowledge network where online learners and providers (including academics) can connect their favorite courses to relevant knowledge and information, exchange resources with other members sharing their academic interests, and join like-minded learners to explore their academic concentration."
vChatter Launches A PG-Rated Version Of Chatroulette The new destination site brings social video chat outside the walls of Facebook. The service, which requires you to sign in with your Facebook credentials, allows users to pick who they want to meet based on geography, gender, and age. By factoring demographic data into the equation, vChatter claims to actually be able to create valuable matches of users for video-chat

Rsquared Communication, 2009-2013