DemoCamp IV

On Tuesday I demo'ed BackupMyMail at Bootstrap Austin's DemoCamp IV, and had a great time doing it.

DemoCamp is a quarterly(ish) event held by Bootstrap Austin that provides a forum for web developers and entrepreneurs to show off their new web applications. The rules are very simple: no powerpoint. This is for working (or sort of working) apps only. Sales and funding pitches are best left to other venues.

It's a great way to get feedback for that app you're developing. It's also a great way to see some of the really cool, under the radar stuff going on in Austin before it's ready for prime time.

For the 4th DemoCamp,  five new or developing apps were demo'ed:

Prefinery: Prefinery takes the pain out of collecting emails on splash pages prior to a product launch. Sounds simple, but think about it a while and a world of opportunities open up. I have a feeling this product will not be about splash page management when all is said and done, but rather something much bigger.

CloudFire: CloudFire is a welcome twist on photo and video sharing. In a nutshell, CloudFire searched for photos on your computer, serves them up to share with your friends over the net, thus eliminating the hassle of uploading to middleman websites like Flickr. The state of the art of photo sharing still sucks, so I'm glad to see this kind of innovation going on.

BackupMyMail: My own product, BackupMyMail, does just that: it backs up your web based email into the cloud. We currently support Gmail and Hotmail, but more providers are coming soon. We will also be backing up Tweets and Blogs in the near future. Today is the last day you can sign up for a free 30 day trial, so get to it.

Gelato: Gelato is a dating site mixed with a social media aggregator. The premise is that your personality is reflected in your online behavior. Your profile consists of your Twitter account, Facebook status, Netflicks selections, and lots of other stuff available on the web. When combined, you get a picture of what sort of person you're looking at. I'm not doing the service justice in my description - check it out when it gets out of private beta. This is a real breakthrough in dating sites, not a me-too. There will be challenges, no doubt, but for the right kind of person (very active on the web and looking for a date), Gelato looks to be just the ticket.

Minutes Notice: Minutes Notice is a system that allows local businesses (coffee shops, bars, restaurants,  anything really) to advertise across multiple outlets (Twitter, email, web widgets, RSS, etc) from one simple interface in real time. That last part is the most important. If a restaurant is having a slow period, they can blast out offers to customers in an effort to entice them to come in right now. Creating an offer is not much more complex than tweeting, and consumers can opt to receive these offers in a variety of ways through Youpons.net. You can choose to subscribe to a SMS feed of restaunart deals in the 78701 zip code, for example.  It's a simple, flexible, permission-based system that has a lot of potential.

All in all, it was a good time, and I think we all got a lot of good feedback on our products. Check it out next time at DemoCamp V.