UGC for Your Cell Phone - Powered by Mobixie

Content is king. Everyone knows that. Mobixie rides on that WAP wave.

Israeli based Mobixie developed a proprietary IP network that allows downloading and sharing free content: videos, ring tones, screen savers, games and graphics. The service is available to users with a data plan from their carrier and a 2.5G java enabled handset.

In addition to free download, an upload feature enables users to contribute content to everyone, or store personal content on Mobixie's server to free handset memory. Users can also share content by sending SMS links, including friends without Mobixie. SMS links do not contain the actual file and enable the recipient to download the file without size limitation.

Based in Tel Aviv, Mobixie is a private company founded in 2006 by Boaz Dremer, Gal Blank and Noam Aharon. Most recently, Mobixie was among top 5 finalist in the Best Startup Competition held in March 2007 in Israel by Microsoft, KPMG and TheMarker.

Facebook Platform - A Great Example For Business Symbiosis

As if it was timed, following my post on Business Symbiosys, Facebook announced the release of Facebook Platform on Thursday (5/24), which is a great illustration of the Symbiosis concept. Since the announcement Facebook has been portrayed as the "MySpace Killer".

From Facebook's press release:

On Thursday, the Palo Alto, Calif., company will announce a new strategy to let other companies provide their services on special pages within its popular Web site. These companies will be able to link into Facebook users’ networks of online friends, according to people familiar with the matter.

For instance, an online retailer could build a service in Facebook to let people recommend music or books to their friends, based on the relationships they’ve already established on the site. Or a media company could let groups of users share news articles with each other on a page inside Facebook.

Get more coverage at: Mashable, Techcrunch and Read/Write Web

Keep an Eye on Celltick and MusicGenome

MusicGenome developed a system for identifying musical taste, based on artificial intelligence. The analysis is done by using personal details and a personality questionnaire filled out by customers. The system enables music sites, companies and stores to offer titles suited to their taste. Founded in 2000, the company is led by Dr. Dan Gang and Prof. Daniel Lehmann and based in Israel.

CellTick delivers Active Content Marketing in a simple, smart, cost-effective package called “LiveScreen”. The Celltick LiveScreen system capitalizes on the most precious unused real estate—the handset screen—allowing content providers and advertisers to broadcast targeted content to millions of idle mobile phone screens, turning them into a network of personal billboards. Established in 2000, the company is now led by Stephen Dunford and headquartered in the UK and Israel. Check out their Demo.

Adap.tv Gets Video Advertising Right

Hate watching those not-so-short ads before getting to your video of interest?

Adap.tv recently launched its video advertising platform, matching advertisers to video content elegantly.

How does it work?
Adap.tv scans the video content displays contextual ads at the bottom of the video player while the video is being played. Their systems analyze the video's text meta data such as title, description and tags and combines it with speech recognition to make the right match to the advertiser. Then, Adap.tv tracks the user response to the ads in real time adapting ad categories to user behaviour.

Chances of survival are high
A deal with Amazon and Shopping.com puts Adap.tv in a great starting point as they can pull from a deep barrel of contextual ads. Another great advantage is having a major video platform in their corner, Israeli Viral video site Metacafe.com.

The deal with Shopping.com is not a coincidence, considering the CEO's background. Adap.tv was co-founded by CEO Amir Ashkenazi, the ex-founder and CTO of Shopping.com. Founded in 2006, the company is privately held and headquartered in San Mateo, CA.

Rumors say that youtube is working on a similar solution (in house) as well as ScanScout who recently raised a first round of $7 million.

See the ad below in the Adap.tv demo:

Business Symbiosis vs. Natural Selection

Definitions of 'symbiosis' (simbe-osis, -bi-) - The American Heritage® Dictionary

1. symbiosis (n.) A close, prolonged association between two or more different organisms of different species that may, but does not necessarily, benefit each member.
2. symbiosis (n.) A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence

Why don't we see this more often in the business world?

Companies could benefit greatly by cooperating with one another, especially when it comes to early stage startups where life span is short and resources are limited. Instead, natural selection brings many of these early stage companies to extinction.

Some examples for "Mix and Match" come to mind:

• Israeli Start ups sutree.com and 5min.com who stood up from their stealth mode. There's a lot of overlap between these two. Sutree brings the content and depth but lacks the friendly interface and easy-to-use navigation offered by 5min.A cooperation between the two would create buzz and most likely extend their air time.
  
  
• Another example is the small Israeli company MyPixTrix, clearly an example of a one feature company. Sure, it's a very cool feature and it might even get some traffic - but wouldn't it be much better if it was integrated into Webshots or Picasa Albums for example? How about Incredimail? The small company gets the backing and protection of the big one and the killer feature gets the exposure it deserves, which creates value for the community.
  
  
• Zlango, the creator of an icon-based language for text messages (ZMS), and Fontip, developer of (FMS) – Font Messaging Service, both work hard to get user adoption (both companies were also founded in Israel). They could cannibalize each other fighting for OEM agreements with service providers, or join forces under the umbrella of the "next generation of text messaging" and start from a much stronger point in terms of developer resources and market share.
  
  
• I can go on and on, but I think you got the point by now :-)
  

I might be naive - business Symbiosis happens a lot through biz dev initiatives and M&A deals - but you don't have to agree with me. When it comes to web start ups, millions of VC dollars are spent trying to get a little slice of a pie and re-inventing the wheel, rather than thinking out of the box to combine forces for the benefit of both the companies and the users.

Special thanks to internet entrepreneur Elizabeth Katz for planting the seeds for this post.

Get discount coupons on the go with PDway

Still in stealth mode, Israel-based cellular applications developer Pdway has raised $3M from "a private investor active in the real estate market." This is the second round, following a $1M investment last year.

The company has developed technology that enables the distribution and use of coupons at points of sale through cellular handsets. The founders created cell phone based application that enables the customer to search for various coupons for both planned and impulse sales. PDway plans to analyze the behavior of its customers at retail points of sale to personalize coupons. It has registered several patents in the US.

The company's business model is built on profit sharing with coupon companies, and to this end the company has established agreements with the 10 largest coupon companies in the U.S.

Pdway was founded at the end of 2005 by Omri Kohl and Yuval Madar and has recently opened an office in Manhattan to launch in the US.

Read more at the globes.

Tools of the Trade - Real Estate

I usually cover Tech, Media and Energy but after reading a couple of books on Real Estate, I couldn't resist the temptation.

Whether you're a real estate investor or a single home owner, below is a short list of tools that will make your real estate work easier and more productive.

• Zillow - the leader of the pack. Allows users to get rough estimates of the valuation of their home by searching compatible properties in the neighborhood.
  
  
• RealEstate ABC - recent competitor of Zillow, owned by Internet Brands. RealestateABC allows users to adjust property values for a particular property and factor: Interior, Exterior, Lot Size, View, Privacy/Noise and Local Market Conditions. (see TechCrunch review)
  

• Cyberhomes - Owned by Fidelity National Financial, includes valuations, ownerships and mortgage records on over 100 Million properties. You'll also find an online home valuation tool, community info, school info, maps and more.

• vFlyer - A small start up in San Francisco, vFlyer enables users to quickly create professional-looking classified ads and post them to classified websites. Learn more through their product tour. Alternatively, check MyNeighborhoodAgent.

• HouseFront - The site was down at the time I wrote these lines, but I recommend taking a look. Housefront offers mobile access to house values. Simply text the address of any home to HOUSE (46783) and recieve a text message with the estimated value, bedrooms, square footage and year built - for FREE.
  

• Trulia - a real estate search engine. Trulia has some really cool features: find homes for sale from across the web, read the real estate city guides (i.e. New York), find popular trends by using heatmaps, and hear what people are talking about through Trulia's mini social network.
  

• Foreclosure Homes - detailed and useful foreclosure listings aggregator. The service is not free, but a 7 day trial is available.
  
  
• HotPads.com - if you are looking to rent an appartment, I would start from Craigslist, but Hotpads will put things in proportion. Find rental and corporate housing listings and post listings for free. Hotpads recently raised a $2.3 round, so there's probably more cool stuff on the way.
  

Special thanks to Nicole Nicolay (cool name) from Effektive Solutions, who dilligently helped in putting together this list. If this was helpful/ informative, let me know which "Tools of the Trade" you'd like to see in the future. Also, feel free to comment on sites that didn't make the list.

UPDATE: Pay attention to RedFin, who combines MLS listing information (homes for sale) with historical sales data (homes already sold) into a single map. As reported by TechCrunch this morning, RedFin will be on 60 minutes tonight. See the video coverage here.

LPI - An Israeli TechMeme

Every hour new posts are being added to thousands of blogs and news sites, but finding a tailored source that combines all the most relevant content for any particular topic area exclusively is a real challenge, especially for niche areas such as 'Israeli technology'.

Search engines, meme trackers and news community sites are only as good as the algorithms and people they harness, which can range from very effective to poor depending on the individual needs of users.

In response to the lack of detailed sites concerning technology in Israel and its vast innovation, Launchpad Israel was conceived that 'mashes-up' the most relevant sites and data from around the web according to the areas of jobs, startup news, business listings, business news, tech blogs and web company blogs. The result is a humanly crafted destination for gaining a clear, efficient and exhilarating glance of the technology society in Israel.

LPI is less than a year old and was created by Israeli-Australian Adrian Wajsbrem who I recently got to E-Meet. Adrian is currently in Australia after having been in Israel for almost two years. Using open source CMS software, Adrian is now working on a new service that can be very beneficial for early stage companies.

LaunchPad's recent addition is a press release publishing service for those wishing to elicit white papers about themselves or their companies. Using LPI's service, companies have a way to initiate discussion on-site, use widgets to communicate with readers and follow the reactions to their products on the web.

As Adrian mentioned in a recent email:

"I am hoping that LPI will be a destination for journalists to discover stories about Israeli high-technology and I am working to achieve that goal."

The service is given for no charge at the moment and news releases can be attained easily after publication by journalists and end-users. Of note, after submitting his press release to numerous organisations, the manager of an Israeli jobs oriented blog stated "traditional media outlets that reacted did so without publishing anything. On the other hand, the site garnered much attention by appearing on the LaunchPad Israel homepage."

Other press release services include:

• PR Log - more of a press release database and browser for journalists, free.
  
• PR Newswire Israel - about $80 per one-off press release submission.
• PR Net - a rather new player in Hebrew.
• PR Leap and I-Newswire - both free.
• Other paid services.

To submit a press release with LPI, create an account first and then submit. To access the Venture Capital Cafe feed on LPI, click here.

AqWise Performs the Water Miracle

Israeli headquartered AqWise provides advanced biological wastewater treatment technologies, recycling a simple concept that has been used for years in fish aquariums.

AqWise uses a patented technology called AGAR® (Attached Growth Airlift Reactor), which increases capacity and nutrient removal in waste water treatment plants, utilizing advanced bio film technology. The technology has been described as "building condominiums for Bacteria".

According to the company website, the AGAR process uses a polymer cylinder that, when placed in wastewater treatment ponds, clusters microbes that consume contaminants. The water can then be safely discarded or used to irrigate fields.

The AGAR process can be used in intensive municipal plants and extensive lagoons, from fish-farms to food industries, from pulp and paper plants to chemical plants. The process allows to expand existing waste water treatment plants while using the same biological reactor, therefore, it reduces the cost of upgrading, the project duration, and the area required for additional reactors.

AqWise's first effective plant was completed for the Israeli town of Yavneh and it processes the total needs of its community. The company's products are implemented in over 20 sewage treatment plants in the US, Canada and Latin America.

AqWise is led by CEO Eytan Levy (42), the founder and a Partner at Israel CleanTech Ventures. The company was founded in 2000, has 18 employees and received a $4M round in 2006. Recently Elron aquired 34% of AqWise's shares.

Take a sneak peak at AqWise's purifying process

While i'm working on some posts...

I recommend listening to Gotan Project. I've just seen them live at Warfield (SF) and quickly became addicted to the mix of tango and electronic music.




A few words on the band:

Gotan Project is a musical group based in Paris, consisting of musicians Philippe Cohen Solal (French), Eduardo Makaroff (Argentine) and Christoph H. Müller (Swiss, former member of Touch el Arab). They formed in 1999. Their first release was Vuelvo Al Sur/El Capitalismo Foraneo in 2000, followed by the album La Revancha Del Tango in 2001. Their music is clearly tango, but also uses electronic elements such as samples, beats and breaks.

Also recommended: Zero 7, Groove Armada, Morcheeba , Thivery Corp, and Safari Duo

SpeedBit's Speedy Growth

Tired of staring at a motionless movie player while waiting to watch videos online?






Israeli startup SpeedBit, creator of the popular Download Accelerator, has found a way to innovate and leverage the exponential growth of videos online.

Delivering high quality videos to fast to the end-user has become a real challenge even for the big video sites such as YouTube and MetaCafe. These performance barriers slow down the adoption of the online rich media.

SpeedBit's latest product, SpeedBit Video Accelerator improves the viewing experience of streaming videos by alliviating the frustration of 'movie freezes' and buffering problems. The product claims to increase the video download speed from 400 to 1,000 percent, using patent pending multi connection technology to accelerate the caching of streaming videos.

In addition, the technology even allows users to view films on YouTube without disruption while BitTorrent is downloading at full speed - something that was technically almost impossible before the introduction of the new software. More features can be found here.

According to CEO Ariel Yarnitsky, the new product has attracted 1 million users in two weeks, and 20-30K new users are signing up every day. The product is downloadable for free and is not being monetized at the moment. However, Yarnitzky has several plans to cut the coupon by offering a premium service for the accelerated downloading of video files from iTunes. Using SpeedBit's technology, a film that normally takes three and a half hours to download from iTunes will take only 22 minutes.

Speedbit was founded in 1999 by Yerach and Idan Feigenbaum (father and son) and currently has 30 employees. Speedbit is funded by Pitango venture capital and Yossi Vardi (founder investor of ICQ).

Download the Video Accelerator here.

How does it work?

The coolness factor

For more strips go to: Dilbert.com

Boost Virality of Website Content - Introducing "Wildfire"

Israeli startup Gigya, developer of social-sharing tools, was recently nomintaed as one of the hottest startups by KillerStartups.com. (In case you were curious, other names on the list included YoName, CambrianHouse, Xing and Ganges).

Gigya's latest product, Wildfire, is useful tool for both social networkers and bloggers.

Wildfire enables the one-click posting of content to social networks such as MySpace or Xanga. This functionality lets users share content such as videos, slide shows, music, games, and widgets without leaving the content provider's site, replacing the clumsy copy/paste technique.

"We are already bringing social-sharing tools directly to consumers via
our Gigya Webmail product. Now, with the debut of Wildfire, our website
partners can provide dynamic-sharing functionalities directly to their
users," said Eyal Magen, Gigya's CEO.

Wildfire claims to boost the sharing and posting of website content via social networks, blogs and emails. Without leaving a website, users can one-click post directly into their profile or blog, increasing distribution of content and length of user session.

Gigya was founded in November 2006 and is backed by Benchmark Capital and First Round Capital.