Deal Radar 2009: CrossLoop

Online tech help is plentiful, but solving a problem or getting a direct answer to a question can be cumbersome: describing what is going wrong with your computer or application is not always easy and frequently involves a long chain of emails or chats among users who can’t see one another’s screens. The desktop sharing

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Deal Radar 2009: OrecX

In this installment of Deal Radar, we follow a company that is working in line with a theme I addressed in a recent Forbes Column, commercializing open source. Chicago-based OrecX helps businesses record phone conversations using open source software. Founded by Bruce Kaskey and Bruno Haas in 2005, the company is focused on making call

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Deal Radar 2009: Vontoo

Vontoo, the world’s first permission-based, on-demand voice messaging system, was founded in 2005 by Dustin Sapp and Bob Compton. Headquartered in Indianapolis, the company was created because the founders felt there was a lack of personalization in telemarketing. Accessible from any web browser, Vontoo offers a unique service: people who receive calls actually want to

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Deal Radar 2009: Adayana

One of the recent aims of Deal Radar 2009 is to feature entrepreneurs who, undeterred by job losses, a consumption slowdown and a faltering global economy, are bravely moving forward with plans to start their own companies. Adayana, which develops interactive training programs delivered through web sites and software as well as classroom-based courses, was

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Deal Radar 2009: Talend

Talend provides open source data integration software with data quality solutions that complement the data integration. Through the open source model, the company aims to make data integration available to all types of organizations regardless their size, level of expertise or budget, using the company’s flagship product, Talend Open Studio.

Deal Radar 2009: SnapMyLife

SnapMyLife, a mobile social media site, was founded in April 2008 by George Grey and David Chang. The company was initially a side ‘project’ on their first venture, mobile content directory Mobicious.com, when they noticed that many users were submitting their own user-generated content to the site. The ‘project’ took off immediately and soon became the pair’s

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Deal Radar 2009: Central Desktop

Central Desktop is a web-based collaborative tool that allows users at small and mid-sized businesses to share information and communicate in real time with others in their workgroups. Users can also manage projects, coordinate tasks and share files on their own time by using this collaboration platform, whose features include web and audio conferencing, wikis

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Deal Radar 2009: CollegeNET

Harvard, Syracuse and the University of Toronto are just a few North American institutions reporting that a record number of students have applied for fall 2009 admission. But as the economy flounders and endowments drop, more students than ever are also applying for financial aid. One company aims to make it both easier to apply

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