Archive for February, 2008

RingBranch Climbs The Telecom Tree

Published on February 27, 2008 in Startups. 1 Comment

I’ve been meaning to write about RingBranch for some time. But now that they’ve opened up some beat invites, it’s probably time to talk about them.

RingBranch is a relatively new Atlanta based startup. Basically the idea is a service that allows cell phone users to break free of their free minute circles and make more free calls. So if you have one of these cell phone plans that allows you to pick a phone number or numbers that you can make/receive calls from, using RingBranch you can effectively grow the number of phone numbers you can call to or receive calls from for free - free cell phone minutes that is.

How is that? RingBranch allows you to store up to 100 numbers that you can call from any phone by calling your RingBranch number. The beauty of this is that if your cell phone dies, gets stolen, etc. then you can still call your most important contacts. In fact, this is the impetus of RingBranch when co-founder and CEO Allen Graber was in New Orleans and he needed to call people but his cell phone was dead.

Even more important, I think, is the recent news that the U.S. Customs Service is seizing cell phones and downloading everything on them.  Yeah, that’s pretty scary but if you save all of your stuff on the network, then maybe you’ll be safe from this physical copying of your data. Of course that doesn’t stop these agencies from getting subpoenas on providers and downloading your information en masse.  But I digress…

I haven’t dug too deeply into this but the company says their technology is based on Microsoft technologies like .Net and SQL server. They’re also using some other telecom hardware and software but I’m not totally sure what that encompasses at this point.

Like I said, the company has opened up beta slots.  There is no cost, currently, for using the service although that may change as the service matures and moves beyond beta.  One can expect that this service will necessarily be priced less than “normal” per minute charges per carriers and is basically an arbitrage opportunity for RingBranch.

Also note that similar, but not identical, services may be obtained by using Grand Central (which is now owned by Google) or Mobivox.  Grand Central is free but Mobivox costs money to use.

The company has been self funded to date.  I suspect that will change at some point but the company has not shared any fund raising plans with me as of yet.

Disclosure: Allen Graber was an angel investor in my previous company but, as usual, that doesn’t mean I won’t abuse him. ;-)

Appcelerator Hits the Top 10

Published on February 25, 2008 in Startups and Technology. 0 Comments

I know, I know.  This blog is starting to become an Appcelerator fan boy site.  What can I say?  Jeff Haynie and crew are hitting on all cylinders.  I even opted to not talk about the latest addition to Appcelerator’s advisory board just to ease off some.  But Jeff isn’t making this easy.

The folks at Appcelerator (and Jeff himself) have announced that they made the Top 10 of TAG’s Most Innovative Technology Companies in Georgia.  At the TAG Summit on Wednesday Jeff is going to do a three minute pitch about his company (hmmm..  three minutes..  interesting amount of time - keep that in mind because you’ll be seeing that number again in a future post).

Too bad I can’t make the summit.  Speaking of which, you probably won’t see any posts from me between Wednesday and Sunday this week.  I’m occupied with some folks who are in town and we’ll be doing some crazy meetings while they’re here.  I’ll post details about this on my personal blog since it isn’t startup, entrepreneurship, or fund raising related.

Oh yeah, congratulations to Jeff and the Appcelerator crew.  Blah, blah, blah…  :-)

Angus McRae Gets Jiggy With It

Published on February 22, 2008 in Asides. 5 Comments

Well, look at this Angus McRae has launched his own blog.  Can’t say that I know of any other benefits consultant that has a blog.  Not that I’ve gone looking for any either.  Welcome to the blogosphere, Angus.  We’ll try not to abuse you too badly.  :-)

Appcelerator on Startup City TV

Published on February 22, 2008 in PR & the Press and Startups. 1 Comment

About a month ago, Jeff Haynie tweeted that he was heading out west for a filming of Startup City TV. Honestly, I didn’t know what Startup City TV was but now that I see Jeff was interviewed by Fritz Nelson, I get it. Fritz is a particularly nice guy who I had the pleasure of meeting many years ago. Jeff says the guy in the video is a dork (pretty sure he means himself and not Fritz). That might be true, but if so I want to be a dork too. Good job Jeff and the rest of the Appcelerator folks!

Gifts for the VC You Love

Published on February 20, 2008 in Other, Startups and Venture Capital. 1 Comment

So if you thought coming up with a company over a weekend was extreme, Andrew Hyde is upping the ante. During a plane flight they launched Startup Plane and came up with a new company - VCwear.com. They’ve even racked up a few sales apparently at $100/shirt. I told Andrew that I thought they could actually sell a bunch if they dropped the price but heck, what do I know.

Below are some of my favorite VCwear.com shirts. The first cause I like Snoop, the second would be better by changing “with” to “to”, and the third cause, well, it’s true. If they were cheaper I’d probably buy a few of the last one and send it to some “friends” of mine.




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