It was the first day of SVOD 2008 Technology Investment Conference today and I was on the judges panel for Internet startups. Of the companies I reviewed, two stood out:
TabUp is a personal organization system for anything in your life. Think reminders, calendars, tasks, music, bills--the works. It is visually compelling, provides lots of customization options, and seems easy to use. TabUp has a few areas for improvement, though, including a user interface that fits those of us who are no longer in the 5-15 year old range, a stronger business model (even a novice can see the potential in revenue based on the targeted and information-rich demographic, but TabUp didn't do a good job at communicating it), and a change of their key message: TabUp should not be about "keeping tabs" but rather about being "as simple as a tab" or about "taking control over your life." 'Keeping Tabs' may work in Russian but I suspect something got lost in translation on its way to the US.
TuneStory stood out as a nicely designed, cool feature--one fraught with risk. TuneStory basically lets iPod users share song ratings with their social network on any application they use. Like a song? Give it a star rating and next time you sync, your rating will show on your friends' playlist. They're currently developing the application for iPhone. TuneStory is basing their revenue model on share of the downloads and on targeted ads...but the risk is immense as the model stands because TuneStory, in essence, has put all their eggs in one basket: As soon as a competitor (Mufin, Project Playlist, or iTunes itself) adds cross-platform rating, TuneStory may be gone. Not to mention their reliance on partnership-based deals. I really want to see these guys succeed--they're sort of the Russian version of the American dream...but I suspect either luck or some work will be needed first.
Overall the caliber of companies was impressively high although the presentations' quality often low--almost certainly due to the difference between European and American business-case presentation styles. But more about that in a seperat post.
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