DEMO 2007 Profile: Eyejot, Inc.

Okay so who among us has never sent an email that was misconstrued, misinterpreted or misunderstood? How many of us – either as a sender or receiver of an email message has caused or witnessed some fairly serious communication problems because the tone or main premise of the message was not clear? Well, if you fall into either camp, eyejot might be for you. Eyejot is the namesake service debuted by EyeJot, Inc., a Seattle-area company. It allows users to instantaneously send video-emails to other individuals or to groups – with no client software needed. It works on any PC or laptop with flash and to use eyejot all you’ll need is a web camera and five minutes to sign up. The company says the service combines the best of email and video chat and bills the service as “the first comprehensive, client-free video-messaging platform” and is targeting both personal and business users. To that end, of course, it works with social network sites, like MySpace and it can handle “genuine business applications” such as BlackBerry or any phone that can play video files.

EyeJot got some really good press in the past week – a Wall Street Journal mention and photo, a “Top Five Innovations” award from CNET and the estimable Larry Magid included them in his CBS News.com report from DEMO.

I can see some practical applications or uses for the road warriors out there. For one there is the time zone and language barrier that could be overcome with eyejot. Here's another idea: I for one, hate calling my wife when I am on the road while she’s back at the ranch, minding our three kids, cooking, cleaning, shopping and otherwise, as she did while I was in Palm Desert, braving 10 degree weather back here in New England. I dread those phone calls and sometimes hope I get voicemail in these situations. However, I’d also pretty much never email her from the road - too impersonal. EyeJot is a great solution for this “problem” - the recipient gets to hear your voice, see you smile, etc. and that's a whole lot better than an email. So, will these ideas support a business model? If I am a betting man, I'd say I doubt it.

DEMO Profile: jyngle

Brevient Technologies is a Milwaukee-based tech company that offers CRM, web and audio conferencing products. Hardly unique right? Well, at DEMO, Brevient went in a different (consumer) direction as it unveiled jyngle, a free voice and SMS service that allows users to create, send and receive messages from large groups via the web or their mobile phones. Jyngle is the brainchild of CEO (and youth soccer coach) Matt Lautz, whose “light bulb” moment came when he was frustrated by trying to keep his soccer teams’ players (or more likely their moms) informed – via email or multiple phone calls -- of last minute field changes, rain outs, etc. With jyngle, Lautz, and quite possibly, many other coaches around the U.S. will be able to update their teams, co-workers, clients, classmates, friends, etc. of last minute itinerary, game, meeting or social gathering changes or other important news in near real-time. It is an interesting concept and I’ll be trying it out with my son’s baseball team this spring for sure. Lautz told me that scaling Brevient’s business to support jyngle was a “no brainer” – they already had the infrastructure in terms of hardware and software engineers in place to support jyngle. He also said he’s gotten some interest from VCs attending DEMO and he thinks jyngle could represent a third of his company’s revenue over time.

Doings at DEMO

Didn't make it to DEMO this year? Curious about what some of the most innovative companies and technologies that showed their wares out in Palm Desert? Well, if you are interested in reading an unbiased report of the cooler products, services and sites now available, check back with us over the next few days as we provide a capsule view of a few of the things that caught my eye. There was a lot of talk about whether or not the “next Google or YouTube” happened to be among the 68 companies who got their six minutes of fame on stage at DEMO. I won’t go so far to say that this is likely, but I will go out on a limb and say that at least a few of these companies will either become tech industry house hold names, attractive acquisition targets or at the very least, new additions to the list of “must have” products or services in the coming months.

Bring The Bling

Feeling the need to defend myself, err, shed some light on what is really happening at DEMO 2007 – the coming out party for a number of promising companies and cool applications – there is simply no truth to the Jay-Z sighting rumor. Other than some big name journalists and tech industry luminaries, there wasn’t a “celebrity” in sight. Late in the day, however Bling Software (gotta love the name right now, but wonder if it has staying power and will sound very 2005 in a few months) demonstrated some very visually compelling applications for mobile phones. Bling’s CEO Roy Satterthwaite and Vice President, Products, Mike Uomoto conducted the demo and showed an application they have built for BarryBonds.com. They were joined by Bonds’ Web designer Anthony Phills. Near the conclusion of his six minutes of fame, Satterthwaite paused somewhat awkwardly and welcomed onto the stage, not Jay-Z, but the embattled Mr. Bonds himself. Barry strolled on stage, gave a big smile and a wave to the crowd and thanked Bling for bringing his application to market. I have it on very good authority (Bling’s PR guru Christine Cefalo, a former colleague and a friend of mine) that Bonds spoke with AP, BusinessWeek and Forbes about his work with Bling prior to going on stage. I’m sure Bonds felt relieved to be talking to technology reporters and for once, did not have to answer the dreaded steroids questions or make predictions about how many “dingers” he will hit this year. Either way, Bling looks like one of DEMO 2007’s home runs.

DEMO 2007: Not Just For Start-Ups

Interestingly, of the 68 companies here at DEMO 2007, there are more than a few that most would consider to be “household names” in the tech sector. They include Alcatel Lucent (on stage now as I blog), Seagate (also a major sponsor), Symantec, SupportSoft and Wyse Technology. Whether this signals a dearth of viable candidates from the pure start-up and early stage companies out there, or DEMO show organizers wanted to give a nod to the larger, more established and publicly-held companies out there and acknowledge the significant technology innovations they are bringing to market, is debatable. Either way there is a great mix of participants here and I suspect this trend will continue in future DEMO events.