For more information click here.

Join Phone.com as we celebrate at the SBA dinner, October 9th 2013 at the NY Hilton.

For more information, please visit the NY Enterprise Report website or download the 2013 NYER SBA Invitation (pdf).

Startupcamp brings together 4 startups in the communications field that under strict time rules present their company to an audience of hundreds and address some tough (and not so tough) questions from an experienced panel of judges.

Phone.com was also the provider of the polling app that allowed the audience to text and vote for their choice of best of the 4 in real-time and projected onto the big screen.  It’s always nice to see that in action and proud of our team for doing it well.

At Phone.com we work with startups and with entrepreneurs of all kind all the time. We our-self are still a young and energetic company and to feel the spirit and excitement of innovation (in any industry and not only our own) is refreshing and that is what we all felt it in the room at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.

Plus, when an event has a lot of good wine, beer and hot hors d’oeuvres and also a keynote by an industry leader (this time Yahoo’s senior VP Jeff Bonforte sharing some of Yahoo’s new vision and especially management style do’s and dont’s) StartupCamp  is certainly a cool place to be.

A few words on the startups presenting:

Perch- an “always on” video conferencing screen for offices and mobile workers positioned as the tool for improving culture in organizations. Perch is optimized for user experience,   auto correct outages etc.  It is always two way and has unique IP enabling mic optimization when a person is near it and speaking. In beta now but expected to be in the app store next week – free for teams and value add fee is the biz model.

TextGen- the claim: anything you can do with an IVR you can do with text.  Creating text between you and your customer. TextGen allows any number to receive texts. Will sell as an add-on to voice service.

Perzo – the question Prezo answers is: what is your personal (family and close friends) network? If LinkedIn is for business and Facebook for friends/social;  Where do you feel comfortable to share family private information?? Prezo brought together email, Facebook , presence and voice chat and other existing platforms and built a secure communications network for privacy can best be describes as a client that aggregate existing communication tools with a new slick UI.

Alice receptionist – subsidiary of winTech LLC – great virtual receptionist solution using two way video communications between the lobby of an office and the employees anywhere and in any office.  Uses motion detection or Identification etc. Also offer info like maps etc to the visitor. Market is enterprises and government etc and looking to channel partners.  Already have 60 paying customers worldwide. Price ranges from $5.5k to $8k or $12k much based on the hardware used.

I recommend you check out all of these solutions.

And the winner was… Well, all were winners (but Alice got the most votes)

We look forward to be at Startupcamp#9 in South Beach this coming winter.

StartupCamp highlights the innovations of early-stage entrepreneurs building young companies in the communications and collaboration arena. The event offers these companies the chance to pitch to the large audience of industry experts, media, investors and prospects attending ITEXPO West in Las Vegas.

Last winter in Miami, StartupCamp7 featured an extraordinary interview with John Sculley, with New York’s VerbalizeIt declared the winner of the pitch competition. The startup has since gone on to be featured on ABC’s SharkTank.

StartupCamp8 may introduce the next amazing technology and Phone.com is proud to once again co-sponsor this incredible event.

StartupCamp8 is collocated with ITEXPO Las Vegas
Dates: August 27-29, 2013
Time: 4:00 PST
Location: Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, NV

Jeremy will be addressing social media and customer service on a panel titled:  Successfully Implementing a Social Media Strategy for Better Customer Engagement.

For more information visit the ITEXPO website.

Phone.com CEO, Ari Rabban will be speaking at this event on June 12 2013.  For more information click here.

Time: 10 am – 6 pm, 6/20

Location: The Altman Building on 18th between 6th ave and 7th ave in Chelsea

NY Business Expo & Summit 2013 is a highly disruptive event that brings together c-level executives, entrepreneurs and investors from the tri-state area. It is a vital platform to help you succeed as a business owner. Our mission is to teach, connect and inspire you!

“Securing the TriState Region as a Technology hub”

Other participants will include representatives from the state, academia, Intel Corp and Verizon.

This event will take place at the Woodbridge Hilton in Iselin, New Jersey.

For more details click here 

It’s always difficult to stand out at trade shows with so many other companies vying for peoples attention. But Phone.com rocked with some great promotions, t-shirts, and mustachioed coffee mugs ensuring our little both was always crowded.

I find these events invaluable when it comes to learning what peoples first impression is about your product. They’re a treasure trove of information! For a company like Phone.com who’s entire presence is online, it’s easy to lose sight and sometimes forget how the real world perceives your product. Especially one like phone service where there are so many different “types” of phone companies out there. I would argue that conversations at a trade show can have the same impact as a focus group on your marketing message, and usually at a far lower cost.

Marketing messages should evolve not always due to changes within a company, but external changes within your market. It becomes evident especially during trade shows that people instantly want to compare your product with others they may be more familiar with (after all it’s a phone service). And although we all hate to compare ourselves to others in our space, it is often the easiest and fastest route towards helping individuals understand your product. Sometimes it is our so called competitors that are the ones spending the lions share of money to educate users about our technology. This is why being perfectly clear on how we differentiate yourselves is of utmost importance.

Something I found surprising on Thursday were the number of people who wanted to compare Phone.com to Skype. Sure, maybe we both allow calling over the internet, but that’s about the only similarity we share. I also like to keep an eye on the word “VoIP”, because for a long time large phone companies were giving VoIP a negative connotation saying its “unreliable”. This might be why many VoIP providers started calling their services “cloud based”, but perhaps it’s really the same thing…. meaning we all use the Internet to connect to our services. Is that VoIP? It was clear from the people I spoke to at NY Tech Day that the term VoIP is widely understood and rarely a negative term….. so VoIP for the win… but personally I still prefer “Communications in the Cloud”…. it sounds cooler but it is also more appropriate. VoIP is a technology not a service type. Also, Phone.com does not require you to have broadband and “Internet” nor a computer unless you want to.

Explaining what Phone.com does, our service, our features, in relation to the rest of the phone service universe isn’t the easiest. We are truly a unique company with a feature set unmatched by most competitors and with a unique pricing model. I would encourage anyone reading this to contact Phone.com if you have any questions about our service, what it does, how it works, and how it compares to services you’re already familiar with.