Roundtable Recap: April 15 – Small Is OK; The Goal Is Profitability

This morning I worked with four new entrepreneurs, all at the early stage of validating who their customers are and building their businesses.

Up first was Martin Calle and his company OraQuel. Martin worked for years on product development for companies like Procter & Gamble and Frito-Lay, but eventually wanted to create a product that would be his own. >>>

April 15 Roundtable Recording

In case you missed it, here is the recording:

Roundtable Starting In 30 Minutes

Today’s roundtable is starting in 30 minutes, at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST/8:30 p.m. IST. Click here to join in.

Smartphone Ecosystem (Part 8): Operating Systems, Part 2

By guest author Nalini Kumar Mappala

The year 2009 has been the coming-out party for Android. There has been a lot of innovation as well as regular updates with exciting features. The scene at Microsoft, on the other hand, has been lackluster. Updates to Windows Mobile were incremental and more service updates than feature upgrades. Microsoft plans to change the situation by starting over on a clean slate with Windows Phone 7. This move is commendable and promises to make Microsoft’s product lean and agile. >>>

IPO In China: Made-In-China.com President Joseph Wong (Part 1)

Joseph Wong is the vice president of Made-In-China.com, which was developed and is operated by Focus Technology Co, Ltd. Focus Technology is a pioneer and leader in the field of electronic business in China and was founded in 1996 with the mission of enabling clients to decrease costs and increase sales and profits with effective Web-based solutions

SM: Joseph, where do you come from? What is the story that led you to Made-In-China.com?

JW: I come from Hong Kong and I joined this company in 1999 as an engineer. I have been responsible for the operation and quality side of Made-In-China.com since 2000. >>>

Smartphone Ecosystem (Part 7): Operating Systems, Part 1

By guest author Nalini Kumar Muppala

Opinions differ on what capabilities a device needs to have in order to be classified as a smartphone. In every case, such features are well beyond what can be found in a feature phone. An embedded operating system (OS) empowers a smartphone to perform tasks that were previously known to require the capabilities of a personal computer (PC). Apple famously put a PC-class OS in the iPhone and declared that this act would revolutionize the industry. It sure did. >>>

College Bootstrapping Buddies: Grasshopper Cofounders Siamak Taghaddos And David Hauser (Part 7)

SM: Is RingCentral larger than you are?

ST: Not necessarily, but I can’t say for sure. The only thing I really know about them is that they have raised a couple rounds of venture capital. I never look at competitors and worry about what they’re doing. I don’t believe they are much bigger than we are. >>>

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