One of the great things about being a startup company is the ability to progress business decisions quickly. uTest is no exception whether it’s launching a new version of our platform or, in this case, something completely silly.
A few of the team members here are fans of the HBO series Entourage (and we test for several media companies) so we occasionally chat and speculate over the show. My most recent speculation, which drew some criticism from my team, is that the star of the show, Vincent Chase, played by Adrian Grenier will fall from grace to unfortunate circumstances (i.e. death or coma) as the series comes to a close this summer (9/11 on HBO). The team is I’m so confident in this outcome that I even posted the offer to take wagers on Twitter. Don’t get me wrong, I love Adrian’s acting and Vincent’s character but he’s being too selfless, even for Vince.
Of course, none of the uTest crew took me up on it but not long after my original offer did Todd Garland from @BuySellAds.com take the bet.
The stakes: I’m putting up one uTest Express Bronze test cycle [click here for pricing] against a similar value of advertising credits on BuySellAds.com (This is great since we already use their platform for advertising our suite of products).
I’m curious to hear everyone else’s speculations on the show, favorite Mr. Chase quotes (either of them), and suggestions for how we should use our BuySellAds credits.
Like Magic vs. Bird; like Tupac vs. Biggie; and like the Brooklyn Dodgers vs. the LA Dodgers before them. TechCrunch contributor and leading academic, Vivek Wadhwa, and Boston Globe journalist, Scott Kirsner, squared off in a classic east/west battle that rippled across the Twittersphere and bloggerverse.
A bit of personal background before I share my thoughts:
I was not in attendance at last week’s MIT event, so my take is based upon their subsequent posts and tweets
I’m an avid reader of both Kirsner and Wadhwa, and have heard both present in person numerous times
I spent eight years in NYC’s startup scene; lived in Boston for the past four years; and I’ve spent about 1/4 of my time in the Valley for the last five years (I also grew up in the tech hot spot of Kalkaska, Michigan if that helps)
But after several days of watching this debate bubble up and boil over, here’s my take from the front lines:
Meh.
Yeah, that’s it. I’ve listened to these arguments from Wadhwa before and I find them mildly interesting and, at times, true. I see Kirsner taking on the mantle of defending the Boston startup scene and a small part of me cheers his call for meaningful proof points.
Conversely, when I hear Boston-area entrepreneurs being defended as equal to their NYC or Valley counterparts, I’m mortified to discover that some believed I needed to be defended in the first place. But more than anything else, I think the debate misses for 5 reasons: Read more…
The OnDemand event in Palo Alto provided the stage where the top Internet companies disrupting the enterprise converged with the incumbent pioneers in cloud computing and SaaS. Kicking off the two-day event with keynote Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com CEO who ignited the on-demand revolution, sure set the bar high!
These days were packed with investor roundtables, CEO showcases, and panel discussions on the trends and opportunities in SaaS and cloud computing services.
Lucky for those of us who couldn’t make the show, all the presentations (including Marc’s!) were recorded and can be viewed on the video archives site. Check out uTest’s below! For a list of a few other great sessions, continue reading after the bump.
I’m proud to share with you that uTest took home the Top Innovator Award at the New England Venture Summit by youngStartup Ventures last week. The award recognizes cutting-edge companies driving the future of innovation in tech, life sciences and clean-tech sectors, and we’re excited to be among them.
As one of the winners, Doron was invited to present at the exclusive Summit, where a select group of 450 entrepreneurs and investors gathered to be the first to meet the next wave of forward-looking companies.
After giving his presentation about uTest’s on-demand testing model and his entrepreneurial journey, Doron also walked away with the top honor for Best Presenter at the event!
For anyone looking to deploy an app across multiple mobile platforms and a gazillion different handsets, one massive problem awaits them: QA. uTest solves this problem with an army of testers across the world. Crowdsourced QA… Problem solved. (Click here to see Doron’s presentation.)
And that’s not all! Doron was able to connect with multiple partners, prospects and top media outlets, including Mashable’s Ben Parr (@benparr), editor in chief at IntoMobile.com Will Park (@willpark), ReadWriteWeb’s Dana Oshiro (@suzyperplexus), as well as participated in a couple great video interviews with bnetTV’s Michelle Sklar (@bnettv) and GoMo News’ Cian O’Sullivan (@gomonews) which are posted below!
Take a peek at the video interviews below to learn more:
Calling all Massachusetts-based startups, entrepreneurs and innovators! Tonight is October’s Mass Innovation Night down at the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation (Moody Street, Waltham).
If you’re in the area, it’s a good event. We’ll be there, so if you see a uTest name tag, tap us on the shoulder and introduce yourself. These monthly launch parties are great because they’re FREE for everyone and connect innovators & entrepreneurs with the media, the marketplace and each other using social media. So help spread the word!
The Twitter hashtag is #MIN7, and twitterville is already buzzing with news and cool attendees. Tonight, startups and larger companies alike will showcase new products to a live audience. Check out tonight’s October innovators.
Networking starts at 6:00 p.m. and the main event runs from 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. And if you find you just can’t pull yourself away, there’s an after-party at Biagio’s, 123 Moody Street, upstairs in the Plush Lounge.
In case you missed The Big News, uTest was just named to InformationWeek’s First Annual Startup 50. As you may have guessed, the award was given to the top 50 technology startups, most of which were in the SaaS business.
After several days of online voting by InformationWeek readers and thorough vetting by their editorial experts, winners were selected based on the following:
• Innovation and the ability to inject new ideas into business processes (that’s us)
• Value, reflected in lower costs, increased sales and higher productivity (check)
• Enterprise-readiness - i.e. whether the product/service scales (ditto)
We don’t like to brag (much), but based on the criteria, we felt we were a strong candidate. Of course, none of our recent successes would be possible without our global community of QA professionals and our customers. The skill and scope of our testing community continues to draw the attention of the media, and subsequently, dozens of new customers looking to test their web, desktop and mobile applications.
Once more, a big thanks to all of our customers, testers and anyone who voted for us as one of the top technology startups to watch. Much appreciated!
What do Flickr, LinkedIn, Pandora and uTest all have in common? Before they hit it big, they were invited to share their ideas at Dealmaker Media’s Under The Radar conference – the premier event for up-and-coming startups.
As part of the “Applications Track” segment, Doron Reuveni, our fearless leader, will be discussing the future of crowdsourced software testing (uTest of course) this Friday in Mountain View, California. Out of hundreds of applicants, uTest will be one of twenty-four companies presenting their ideas for a select audience of entrepreneurs, investors and technology journalists.
Now in its eleventh year, Under The Radar has catapulted many of its past attendees (well, not literally) to much greater successes. In fact, over the past three years, companies selected to present at the conference have gone on to raise more than $1.36 billion in funding, or an average of $14 million per company.
And so although we view our community as the future of software testing, we’re more than happy to be under the radar (for now anyway).
Big buzz this week around the halls of uTest (ok, we don’t actually have halls at uTest HQ, but it does make for a pretty word picture).
Don’t get me wrong, we’ve gotten more media coverage in the last few months than most start-ups receive in their entire lifetime. In the last month alone, uTest has been written up by such tech media stalwarts as TechCrunch, eWeek, InfoWorld, StickyMinds and TechTarget. It’s safe to say the uTest secret is out.
And yesterday, we made our Forbes.com debut in an insightful article about starting a business during a recession. Our fearless leader, CEO Doron Reuveni, was interviewed by author, Melanie Lindner for her piece about 10 start-ups success stories. It’s a great write-up that offers some sources of hope and practical tips for you current and future entrepreneurs.
As is the case with all of our wins — whether they’re with media, investors, awards or new customers — we know that it’s a direct reflection on the testers and customers who have helped uTest become what it is today. And we thank you sincerely.
We’re always on the lookout for ways we can improve. Have big ideas, small suggestions or general feedback? Drop us a comment or shoot me an email. We want to hear from you.
One of the great things about being a startup company is the ability to progress business decisions quickly. uTest is no exception whether it’s launching a new version of our platform or, in this case, something completely silly.
Calling all Massachusetts-based startups, entrepreneurs and innovators! Tonight is October’s 
