Android Developer's Challenge Round 2

So, in case you haven't been following along- the top 50 winners of the Google A.D.C were all qualified to compete with one another in a second round to try to land in the Top 10 or 20 for another prize. So, we added several great members to our international team, worked very hard, and entered round 2 on August 5th. We don't know exactly when the results will be announced, but hopefully within the next 2-3 weeks.

So I thought my life might slow down after this Challenge was over, but I have more than ever to do to get Cooking Capsules ready for launch.

For one thing, we've got serious capsules to manufacture! So we are seeking food industry sponsors to team up with who have some killer recipes for us to try and are excited by what we're doing. So if you are with a food related company- let us know if you'd like to sponsor a block of shows! We want to cook your stuff and feature your brand!

Gosh, I'm not even going to go into all the other volumes of things to be done. I drew a big mind-map of it yesterday. It's crazy. But good-crazy. Exciting-crazy.

I am so grateful for all of the people with help, advice and contacts to offer. It's amazing how this really keeps things moving forward in crucial ways it couldn't without this wonderful eco-system of people who are helping directly or indirectly. It's pretty interesting and wonderful how many people are excited about it and willing to help.

Anyway, cross your fingers my ADC partners and I win Top 10 or 20 in Phase 2!
And also that Cooking Capsules connects with some cool sponsors soon.

Stay tuned!
Mary Ann

Techcrunch "Mobile Wars" Roundtable

I had a great time yesterday at the Techcrunch Roundtable and party.

It should be said that I would do a few things differently if I could do it again- namely, be on time. I arrived a little late (post introductions) and had to navigate where on the panel I was to sit. I'm not gonna lie. I felt bad and was quite embarrassed. I waited it out a bit in the audience until I could sneak up and claim my seat (once I could spot where it was, which was a task). Once I achieved that and began to decompress, I managed to get a few words in edgewise.

This panel definitely dispelled any myth that women talk too much (although this post might not). I probably should have been prepared for the Hardball style format, as the name of the thing was "Mobile Wars". I can't help but wonder if it were a panel of 19 women and one man (if there was a way to find 19 female mobile industry execs) how it would have been different. Firstly it might have been called "The New Mobile Landscape or Ecosystem" and perhaps it would have been a more nuanced discussion, rather than the framing some of the panelists put around it with statements like "Nokia is irrelevant" and "I need Android like a hole in the head". The responses I have to those statements: "Nokia is by no means irrelevant" and "Maybe you don't need Android, but the industry does."

That said, it was an incredibly impressive roster of people on the panel, and the opinionated shop banter was very entertaining. Squeezed (quite literally) in between a Yahoo exec. and the CEO of Loopt, I think it's safe to say I was the newest to the industry on the roundtable.

As a sef-titled "Overnight CEO", I'm admittedly not too practiced at public speaking- it is a fear I am facing and a skill I will need to develop, as I am increasingly being asked to speak. I did alright. I said a few things (besides umm). Here are some things I said followed by some I would have said if...umm... I'd pursued the airtime/possessed the finely honed interrupting skills of some of my distinguished colleagues:



Here I would have elaborated on Android and the other platforms.

I said on the panel, "it is hard to know where it (Android) is going". This is true, but should have been paired with: Android (which hasn't even come out yet) is changing the mobile landscape and creating a domino effect of companies opening up the industry. This is no small task (so cut them some slack), and while it remains to be defined what 'open' will mean, since there are many players with many interests, Android will run through multiple carriers on multiple handsets. This is extremely significant. It is very akin to what Microsoft did with Windows, that Apple didn't do (But of course I view Android as becoming a superior OS to Windows).

Apple is extremely successful, even if they are only a fraction of the market, so for them tying software with only their own (brilliantly designed) hardware made sense. Apple tying themselves exclusively to one carrier (ATT) in the U.S., well, that only made sense in the context of a closed environment, which it was. This closed environment is only now shifting- and again, the shift to a more reasonable and open environment, it seems, is being spearheaded by Google, the O.H.A., LiMo, and now Nokia with Symbian. Not to be ignored or flippantly disregarded is the global market share and importance of Nokia, and it is extremely interesting this move they've made recently to buy Symbian.

Even Apple's app store, or at least the timing of it, seems to me to be a reaction to Android. Greater openness is the promise of all of these companies and alliances, but there are undoubtedly many layers of politics, there is bandwidth ownership, there are carriers who are going to have to take an immediate creative and progressive approach if they hope to remain relevant, and there are a ton of companies who want to get in on distribution. Who will win? Whomever is the most realistic, flexible, forward thinking, strategic and progressive.

Okay so I would have said some of that and maybe more. If I could have. But there Was. No. Way.

Also I would have addressed Robert Scoble's comment (which I didn't at all, but it's posted below) on the missing apps and opportunities. Political and travel were two he mentioned. He's so right. There are loads of lifestyle utilities missing from the space now. It is saturated with certain categories, and there is room for so much innovation. I wonder where all of the useful utilities are? That is why I came up with Cooking Capsules. People eat. People are confronted with the question of what to eat. Everyday. People are busy. People would cook more if it was made easier. Games can make life fun, but good mobile utilities will make life fun and easier. I agree, Robert! Where are the useful apps? There are a few out there, but they are still missing, as Robert says, from many wide open categories.




And when that question from Twitter came in, and Erick re-phrased it to be essentially the question he asked of a VC on the panel before (What is missing? What categories aren't people thinking about that they should be?), I answered it with four words. These I would not change. They were the most interesting set of words I'd said all day. And given the audience reaction, I guess they agreed.
(for context see the minute from 2:20-3:20 in the below clip)

I stand by it.

It's true.

Erick Schonfeld will cook with his phone.





Big thanks to Erick, Techcrunch and the event sponsors.

It was an honor and a blast.

-Mary Ann

ps- Next time, should there be one, I will be annoyingly early, speak up more (read: interrupt), and will undoubtedly have more to say about Android and the industry (since a lot happens in mobile in a week, month and year).

Google I/O update and killer media coverage

I'm admittedly a bit behind on blogging. So much has happened! The Google I/O conference was wonderful- I've been meaning to post pictures. I got to meet a lot of great people from Google, such as Dan Morrill, as well as many of the other Challenge winners. It was so much fun and we got really positive feedback. Two of my challenge partners were here from out of the country, so I got to meet them in person. They are now back home in India and Holland and we are working hard with the rest of the team to try to place Cooking Capsules in the Top 10 and prepare it for market.

I was interviewed by a Japanese journalist from Nikkei publications, and showed up in an article I couldn't read. The translation software made it a rather amusing read, but it is a real honor. My PR friends tell me this is like the Wall Street Journal of Japan. Speaking of the WSJ- Cooking Capsules got a nice mention in Smart Money magazine (the WSJ magazine), but apparently they don't archive the articles for long so the link is now broken (so I sadly removed it from our press page.)

Then the July issue of Wired came out with what I consider to be the first really comprehensive article about Android and it's eco-system. And they placed Cooking Capsules first of their top picks for Android apps! The design and editorial illustration at Wired has always impressed me. I love the way they make the featured apps look so tangible- like something you could hold in your hand. It makes me want to snap it in there with some of the others and take them for a spin! (It is funny developing pre-device release.)

I have to admit I look at the Wired article in the magazine and online nearly every day to make sure I didn't dream it. I considered buying a million copies and wallpapering my office with page 138s, but instead I've pulled my head out of the clouds (as much as possible) in order to focus on the task at hand- which is making Cooking Capsules the best it can be along with an amazing team of developers and content makers. There is volumes to be done and a lot to be figured out, but I'm committed and so are the people I'm working with. We want Cooking Capsules to change the way people cook.

-m.a.c.

Google I/O conference

Today and tomorrow the Google I/O conference is being held at the Moscone Center here in San Francisco. My Android Challenge partner, Muthu Ramadoss is here from Chennai, India. We have some celebrating to do!! Also attending is Travis Choma, a talented developer who has joined our "Phase 2" Challenge team and is here from Amsterdam for I/O and the Apple Dev. Conference coming up. We've all three had a chance in the past few days to get to know each other in person, which has been great.

Both guys have plans to stay in San Francisco for several weeks. It should be a busy and interesting time at I/O and beyond.

It will be nice to meet some more of the people in the Android community, most of whom I only know from message boards and e-mail.

Our team still has a crazy amount of work to do yet for Phase 2, but we are off to a great start, and I/O will surely provide additional inspiration!

Maybe I'll see you there :-)

-MAC

WE WON!!!

I am reeling! Today I was notified that Cooking Capsules has won the first phase of the first ever Google Android Developer's Challenge, which means wonderful professional recognition and $25,000 of seed money.

We were one of fifty teams to win out of 1,788 entries. We are so delighted and honored, and cannot wait to further build the application for Round 2.

This is a peak moment if I've ever had a peak moment. I am so passionate about this idea, which I've been developing for some time now, and I'm thankful that the panel of judges from the O.H.A. and Google Inc. understand the great utility and widespread appeal of the "Capsules" concept too.

Thanks to Google (especially those on the Android team), the O.H.A., and my friends and family who have supported me and helped me form ideas. And most thanks, of course, to my Challenge partner, Muthu, in Chennai, India for matching my insane hours to make the application "go". I look forward to many more crazy hours this month to refine and enhance Cooking Capsules for round two!

Wish us luck!!

-Mary Ann

Fingers crossed!

Well, I am going to bed tonight, hopeful that I will find a happy e-mail about the Android Developer's Challenge results in the morning. The results are expected this week, but it was left a little open ended, so who knows. All the teams are on pins and needles wondering what the panel of judges from the O.H.A has decided. Hopefully they were hungry when they looked at ours. We meant to put that in the accompanying "read me" file: "Please do not eat within 4 hours of viewing our application". heehee!

Baked Brie with Port Sauce