Cellwand Wins Big at Silicon Valley Launch Showcase

I've got a nice shout-out here for a Canadian company that just got some great recognition down in Silicon Valley. The company is Ottawa-based Cellwand, and I've been following them for ages. For sake of transparency I am a shareholder, but they really do have a proven business model and I write about them when there's a good news story to tell.

As I often say, Canada has some really strong tech/telecom companies, but they typically struggle to raise money and get attention from the right kind of people in the U.S., which is the market they are ultimately targeting.

Last week, Cellwand participated in Launch, a showcase event for VCs run by SVASE - Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs. Overall, 30 companies made the final cut across 6 categories, and a winner was picked for each one. Cellwand was in the Nextgen Internet/Mobile category, and they came out on top as the "company most likely to succeed" in that space. It's always nice to win, but especially so for a Canadian company pitching Silicon Valley VC's. How can you not want to wave the flag about that?

You can read more about Cellwand's news here, and while you're at it, check out their flagship offering #TAXI. It's been quite successful here in Canada, and they're making inroads for the U.S., and hopefully this award will help move things along.

Regarding the Launch awards, I'd also like to extend an honorable mention to Toronto-based Fonolo. They made the grade for the 30 finalists, but did not top out in their category. It's still good news for them, and continues a nice run they've been having in terms of industry recognition.

SIP Trunking Webinar with Mitel - June 30

Just a shout-out to let you know I'll be doing a webinar on SIP Trunking that's sponsored by Mitel on June 30. I've done a few things around this space recently, and there's a lot of opportunity for both enterprises/SMBs and carriers. I'll be exploring these facets and others on the webinar and I hope you can join the call.

The webinar is part of Mitel's Discovery Series and they sent their first email notice about it this morning. You can get all the details here, including a link for registration (and yes, it's free).

You can also get the details in the Discovery Series section of their website. Either way you're just a couple of clicks away, and by all means, spread the word to anyone who wants an update on SIP Trunking - thanks, if you can.

Slim Pickings for Acquisitions These Days

Not sure if it's just me, but inspiration for blogging has been light lately, and not much seems to happening. A couple of acquisitions from the past few days seems to support this, for what it's worth.

First, a couple of Canadian companies made a move. On Monday, Ottawa-based Natural Convergence announced its acquisition of Toronto-based NewStep Networks. Both are pretty small players, but I can see the fit. NewStep's FMC capabilities help extend NC's silhouette platform to mobile devices, which should be a good value-add for cost-conscious SMBs.

On the same day, SabSe Technologies announced their acquisition of Jaxtr. I've never heard of SabSe, and while Jaxtr is popular with the mobile crowd, it's never been something I've had much need for.

Blockbuster deals are hard to come by these days, and this is about as exciting as things get right now. Small deals, small companies, relatively unknown companies - not much to talk about, right?

While these are just two data points, a couple of things come to mind that bear watching for future deals in this space.

First, small companies really struggle in tough markets (particularly in Canada). They usually make a move when they run out of cash or fail to get enough traction - and sometimes these happen in tandem. NewStep had a lot of Bell DNA, but always struggled to be understood, and demand for FMC has been slow to materialize. Natural Convergence, on the other hand, has the resources of Wesley Clover behind them, and likely figured the time was right to make a strategic move like this and bulk up to become a stronger player in what's becoming a crowded, but fragmented market.

I never followed Jaxtr that much, but I do know they are one of many players chasing the market for lower cost calls and messaging on mobile phones. It's a huge opportunity, but needs big time volume to turn a profit. The news talks about their user base of 10 million, which no doubt is the carrot for SabSe. Looks like Jaxtr will complement their own offerings, and they'll try to leverage that community for value-added services.

So, what's interesting about these deals is that no valuations were disclosed. That's not so unusual, but you just know the buyouts couldn't have been that much. The last deals of note in this space - Acme buying Covergence and BroadSoft acquiring Sylantro - were smaller than one might have expected, and it just shows how hard it is to get a good buck these days out of a deal.

Aside from the fact that small companies are often happy to sell in a down market - or even have to sell to remain viable, there's something else that strikes me about these deals, especially Jaxtr. In essence, Jaxtr is an application, and one that beyond saving some money for subscribers, doesn't have that much inherent value. I've always been skeptical about building a company around an application, unless the end game is to sell it to a large platform provider.

What worries me is this - if this is Jaxtr's fate, how many other applications plays will follow as the screws tighten in this market? I know it's just software at the end of the day, and it just reinforces a basic reality of the IP communications space - barriers to entry are low, and so too for exits. Unless you can have Skype-like communities, it's really hard to make these type of businesses valuable long-term. I don't really know what the answer is, but I do know there are lots of startups out there like Jaxtr, and I'm sure we'll hear more stories like this in the second half of the year.

The Mark - Canada's Newspaper 2.0?

The Mark is a Toronto-based news portal that just launched a couple of weeks ago. It offers a mix of current events news/analysis along with independent insights/perspectives about all kinds of topics, including tech. I'd say it's Canada's version of the Huffington Post, but so far, it's not quite as cheeky or satirical. I very much like what I see so far, and perhaps this is a sign of what the future holds for the press.

Unlike most portals that aren't an extension of a newspaper, The Mark has the look and feel of a newspaper - which to me is a good thing. What I mean is that it has a healthy mix of straight up news reporting/analysis plus a strong contingent of opinion drawn from an extensive roster of thought leaders.

That works for me, since the opinion pieces must pass through editorial review - just like they would at a newspaper. Sorry if I seem to harp on this in my posts, but I think it matters. For the most part, I'm ok with blog posts from people I know and trust, but if you don't know the source, I'd say you'll put more stock their post if it runs on a site like this than if you just saw it on their personal blog. In my books, this goes a long way to producing and distributing the kind of content that people will pay money for, and I believe that's going to be the basis of Newspaper or Publishing 2.0.

With that said, here's my news. I've been added as a Contributor to The Mark, and my first piece is running now. The article is dated May 29, but wasn't actually posted to The Mark until Friday afternoon - I guess that's the price you pay for waiting to go through editorial reveiew! Anyhow, it's an updated version of a post that ran on my blog recently, and I'm happy to say that it required very little editorial tweaking. In the future I'll submit original content as topics come up, but will also adapt existing posts where it makes sense to publish them in The Mark.

So after you read my article, feel free to comment, and by all means explore the portal. It's still in Beta, so all feedback is welcome. I for one am glad to see The Mark come about, and hope it gets the traction they're expecting. It's too early to tell if this really is a 2.0-style template, but the pieces are there, and time will tell.

MeDe8 - Thought Leadership Portal/Advisors Announced

We're all trying to find new and creative ways to grow in this economy, especially us indies. I've been looking at a number of new ideas - some have come to me, and I've found some others. Over the next week or two, I expect to have a few new things to share about these opportunities, and am starting with one right here.

I've been in touch recently with a U.K.-based outfit called Mediate Group. They launched their thought leadership portal a few weeks back, and I've been invited to join their Advisory Board. Their website doesn't have much public content yet, but that's coming. A core concept they use is R2M - route to market - and with the help participating analysts, their goal is to demonstrate thought leadership along these lines for tech companies.

You can read more about MeDe8 and today's Advisory Board announcement here. MeDe8 is aiming for a global reach, which certainly helps my R2M plans, and I look forward to contributing there soon.

May Media Roundup

Was pretty busy this month media-wise and producing content for print as well as podcasts. For now, I'll summarize things that were posted in May, and add the rest as they go live. First, a few media citings...

- ITWorld Canada - Your Next IP PBX

- Business Week - Hello, an Avatar is Calling You

- FierceVoIP - What's Skype Really Worth?

- Voxilla - Mobivox Helps Providers Leave the Race to Zero Behind


On Tech Target's Unified Communications Portal, I had 3 Ask The Expert writeups (registration required, but can provide text if needed)...

- What will change for our employees when they start using VoIP?

- How will VoIP impact the quality of phone calls on our network?

- What is the biggest hurdle in an efficient IP telephony migration?


Finally, on TMCnet, my regular bi-monthly Service Provider Views column ran...

- What Service Providers Can Learn From CSI and Television

- What Service Providers Can Learn From MetaSwitch

What Service Providers Can Learn From MetaSwitch

My current Service Provider Views column on TMCnet is running now. It's the third in my series of takeaways from last month's MetaSwitch Forum in terms of service provider implications. This time it's the company itself - MetaSwitch - who I think offers a pretty good template for doing the kind of things that service providers need to do to be competitive.

To understand why I say that, please read the article, which you can access here, and as always, I'd love to hear your thoughts.