Frank Keeps Me Focused and Working Hard

This guy never lets me slack off. Talk about micro-management, geez.

January 28, 2010 | Filed Under Frank

Leave a Comment 

What Will iPad Advertising Look Like? 5 Crazy Ideas That Might Actually Happen.

Although we’re spending most of our time building and making our product better (it’s really starting to look good, btw), we still like to keep an eye out for what other people are doing that’s creating a buzz in the tech space. Of course, when it comes to buzz, no one can get Silicon Valley (as well as  the rest of the world) going crazy like Steve Jobs and the the rest of the Apple crew down the road in Cupertino. The most recent example of this is the launch of their new iPad, which Steve Jobs has said “will be the most important thing that he’s ever done”.

All of us here at isocket are crazy about gadgets (especially Zak), but what has really got us talking are all of potential ways that advertising will be implemented on something as versatile, mobile and innovative as the iPad. Here lately there’s been major mobile advertising deals inked by both Apple (who bought Quattro Wireless) and Google (who bought AdMob), which only further fuels our interest on how all of this iPad advertising business is going to shake out.

Today at lunch we all quickly brainstormed a bit about how this new iPad could potentially be leveraged for mobile advertising and as with most of our brainstorming sessions, a few crazy ideas made their way into the conversation. So, here are 5 iPad advertising options we felt that we might be seeing sometime here in the not-so-distant future:

  1. Advergames: The idea of in-game advertising is nothing new, but it’s going to be taken to a whole new level with the iPad due to it’s amount of  screen real estate and the fact that it’s a gamer’s dream (which has already been proven with the iPod Touch). I’m picturing going to a piece of content and being able to play a game right inside of an ad zone as opposed to downloading it, running it and being taken away from my current experience. If you like the game (that’s being brought to you by Best Buy), you can buy it from the iTunes store, or continue to browse away as you were before you started playing.
  2. True Real-time/Location-based Ad Placements: I take the Caltrain from San Francisco to the office every day and I have to either pull out my laptop to hop online or somehow limp along with my Blackberry (yes, I actually have a Blackberry). If I had an iPad I would not only be able to easily work the web on the way to work like a pro, but I could also potentially be targeted with very relevant and very real-time ads. For instance, I could see browsing through the SF Chronicle to catch up on my SF news only to see an ad that lets me know that the Starbucks in Burlingame is doing a buy one get one free deal this morning only until 11am. It could do this due to the fact that my iPad is always on, always up-to-date and always location-aware. Kinda creepy, but kinda cool, too.
  3. Advertising Outside of the Box: Like most other tech geeks out there, I enjoy using my laptop while watching TV. Sometimes it’s because I’ m looking up more information about what I’m watching, but most of the time I’m using it as a distraction from the commercials. Although taking this 2-screen approach is becoming more and more popular, the ease and innovation of the iPad is what’s going to make this type of behavior go mainstream. This will turn the current setup of a laptop for distraction to an iPad for collaboration. This also means that various apps and online experiences are going to be built specifically to be used on the iPad as a way to bust the boring content of TV into a more fun and interactive environment. To begin with, this will allow for an advertiser to extend the 30 second spot into something more meaningful (and trackable) on the iPad. In the future there could be specific brand-sponsored apps that you could interact with throughout a TV show that would be able to make the show commercial free (think behind the scenes content during American Idol).
  4. Interactive Product Placements: Watching videos on an iPhone is OK, but by beefing up the screen size to nearly 10″ the iPad is going to make it a whole lot better. This will mean that all kinds of content (both professional and user-generated) are going to be watched a lot on this new platform, which will also bring about new ways for producers to monetize this content through advertising. One method, for example, would be if you could click on Jack Bauer’s watch, phone or bullet-proof vest as a way to find out more info about the products and to potentially purchase them directly through the iPad. Although you could probably do this now with a laptop, the fact that the touch screen is available on the iPad makes it a much more favorable medium for this type of interaction.
  5. Tap To Remove Ads or Anchored Ads: These feel like they would be a little bit on the obnoxious side, but if it means that I can now read the New York Times for free on my iPad, then I would probably be all about it. I don’t foresee these types of ads being sold into a particular ‘ad slot’ like you see now, but instead would be directly anchored to various pieces of content that are being read, viewed, etc. on the iPad. For instance, there could be a different type of ad covering each article (except for the title and summary) in the New York Times based upon what the article is about, who is reading it and where they are reading it from. To read the article that is hidden beneath the ad, you would simple tap the screen and it would disappear to reveal the content that’s below (which would be very trackable and useful information). Also, another option that’s similar to these ‘tap to remove ads’ would be an anchored, floating ad that you would move around the page as you scrolled through content. This ad would change depending on what all of the same information as the tap ads, but would never fully leave the page. Like I said, these are fairly obnoxious, but I could see them being created in the bear future.

So, there you go. These are the 5 (not-so) crazy advertising ideas that we came up with for the new iPad, so feel free to let us know about any other ideas that you come up with, too. Looking forward to hearing what you come up with.

January 27, 2010 | Filed Under Advertising

Leave a Comment 

Teaming Up To Find Some Web Devs at the HackerDojo Job Fair in Mountain View, CA

This past Saturday me and the rest of the isocket crew were up and moving bright and early so that we could head down to the HackerDojo in Mountain View for their Hacker Job Fair. The concept of the this particular job fair was a little different than most of the others that we have been to as the hackers who were looking for jobs were the ones showing off their stuff at the booths, not the companies who are looking to hire.

We’re huge supporters of what they’ve got going on at the Dojo, which is why we decided to be a sponsor of this event (which was their first ever job fair). While we were there we met all kinds of people who were doing some really interesting stuff and even though a select few fit the mold of what we’re looking to hire for here at isocket, it was great to see and hear about what some of them were working on. Personally I met a guy who had built a homemade 3D printer, a couple guys who had created some really cool iPhone/Android apps and even a woman who had a way to turn gestures into MIDIs. Like I said, there were a lot of interesting people there.

Check out the pics and video of some of the action below and also be sure to check a cameo appearance by Boomer, one of our office dogs. She was probably the most popular chick there.

January 18, 2010 | Filed Under Events, The Startup Journey

Leave a Comment 

Getting Our Recruitment On At The Stanford BASES Technology & Entrepreneurship Career Fair

As I mentioned yesterday, we’ve put our recruitment efforts into high gear now that we’re ready to get our growth on.

Yesterday we packed up and headed off to Stanford for the BASES Technology & Entrepreneurship Career Fair for the day and as a result we met some really solid candidates who could potentially be a great fit here at isocket. Time will only tell if they end up becoming part of our team, but the only way that we’re going to find the types of developers we’re looking for is to get out of our office and go find ‘em.

As you’ll see in the video below (or over here on YouTube), I had a brilliant idea on how to make us stand out from the other 30+ companies that were also there recruiting yesterday and even though it might not have worked perfectly, it was definitely a great conversation starter.

January 15, 2010 | Filed Under Events, The Startup Journey

Leave a Comment 

Career Fairs, Hackathons and Meetups, Oh My!

One of the most important things that we’re focusing a lot of our time and energy on right now is hiring some world-class developers. When you’re in the stage that we ‘re in right now meeting some devs who want to work on some serious (yet fun) game-changing stuff is the name of the game, so we’re kicking our hiring into high gear by hitting the road. Here are some things that we’ve been involved in and will be involved in as time goes on and we continue our hunt for the best-of-the-best and if you’re making your way to one of these, too (or know of something that we should have on our radar) please let us know in the comments so that we can connect up.


SiliconValley NewTech Meetup (in Palo Alto)
We headed out to the SiliconValley NewTech Meetup last week to look for some talent. We met some amazing people, got some decent leads on a few developers and hung out with Vinnie Lauria, who has now been running the meetup for four years! If you are ever looking for some great connections in the tech scene, Vinnie is the guy you need to know.

As you can see to the left, we’re actually a sponsor of this event now — we’re more than happy to help out Vinnie with what he’s doing with this event. It’s always free and it’s always packed, so be sure to RSVP early.

BASES Technology & Entrepreneurship Career Fair (at Stanford)

We’re all heading out to the BASES Technology & Entrepreneurship Career Fair over at Stanford this afternoon from 11am-4pm so that we can mix and mingle with some of the uber-smart Stanford students. As you all probably know, one of the main reasons that Silicon Valley became Silicon Valley is because of Stanford, so needless to say there will be a lot of talented developers that we are looking forward to meeting while we’re there.


The Hacker Fair (at Hacker Dojo)
This upcoming Saturday, January 16th me and the rest of the isocket crew are heading out to The Hacker Fair, which is being hosted at the super-cool Hacker Dojo in Mountain View. We’re happy to be a sponsor of this event that takes the normal, everyday job fair and flips it upside down by allowing the hackers to man the booths and the business recruiters to do the shopping.

If you’re planning on heading out to any of these events be sure to find us. We’ll be the one’s rockin’ the isocket swag.

January 14, 2010 | Filed Under Events, The Startup Journey

Leave a Comment 

More Wall Space Means More Whiteboards

After moving into our new office space we quickly noticed that there just weren”t enough whiteboards to go around. When you pair up all of the ideas that are popping into our heads with the fact that we now have 50+ feet of wall space (on just one wall), it only made sense for us to find a quick, easy and hopefully cheap solution to cure our whiteboard woes.

To solve this problem we first took a look at buying really nice whiteboards that would last forever and that were so beautiful and pristine they looked like they belonged in some type of art-deco museum in Paris. I think that they were actually magnetic and made out of porcelain. Yeah, crazy stuff. This route would have cost us several thousand dollars, which basically blasted us right out of our acceptable budget.

After we ditched that over-priced idea (we are a start-up, you know) we decided to take a more economical route which consisted of us buying several sheets of white shower board and a bunch of brackets from Lowes near Burlingame. This option was MUCH cheaper (only $11/ 4×8 sheet) and even though we will probably have to replace them in a few months it’s still better than biting off a huge chunk of change for the other, fancier option.

Check out the video below or over here on YouTube to see some sweet of the sweet whiteboard action and keep your eyes open for cameos made by Boomer (the dog) and our cleaning crew (it was getting late).

January 13, 2010 | Filed Under The Startup Journey, isocket team awesomeness

1 Comment 

Meet Vinoth Gopinathan, The Newest Member Of The Team

About a week ago we added Vinoth Gopinathan to our team as a super-intern, so I thought that it was only appropriate to interview him so that all of you could get to know him a little bit better. One thing that I learned about Vinoth after reading his answers to my questions was that he’s freakin’ hilarious, which you’ll soon find out as well.

1.  Hey Vinoth, I’m glad that I could drag you away from your laptop for a couple minutes so that we could officially introduce you to the world. Speaking of the world, where are you from anyways? Give us a link to Google Maps if you can – we’re all pretty last these days.

Hey Hup! I’m natively from Chennai, India but moved to Singapore for my 6th grade. Just for your information and for others who are unaware, Singapore is NOT part of China! Its a tiny country south of Malaysia.

Now a junior at the National University of Singapore doing Computer Engineering.

2. Can you tell us all a little bit about what it was like growing up there? I know that you haven’t been in town for too long, but what would you say are the biggest differences (besides the fact that you can now eat at IN-N-OUT Burger anytime you want)?

Well Singapore is a privileged country – safe and prosperous. So all I have to care about was to study and have fun (while my dad funds it). Singapore has a very unique culture since people from different races and religions are living there. Chinese, Indians, Caucasians, Malaysians. Had loads of friends in the 10 years I was there and had different gangs for shopping, eating out, movies or just chilling out.

If you ask me about differences, I would say the culture. Singaporeans, though modern, are still conservative. The first thing I noticed about the people in the valley is that they are so friendly! I always have random chats with people on buses and trains! (Once on the train I met this Vietnamese man who had fled his country during the Vietnam war and entered the US illegally!) Its definitely an interesting and fun experience.

P.S. YEAA I LOVE IN-N-OUT BURGERS! Oh wait, doesn’t my religion forbids me from eating beef?

3. How did you end up here at isocket? Meaning, how did you find us and how did we find you? I know that you’re pretty tall, but I’m sure that it took more than that for us to find you, right? Side note: exactly how tall ARE you?

I would say it was an “accident”. Really!

I am under a scholarship program by my university back in Singapore, where entrepreneurial students are sent to California, Pennsylvania, Sweden or China for a year long stint at a startup company. We work full time and in my case, take evening classes at Stanford University. Cool right?

So I had applied for this program, got through and was waiting for calls from the top 3 companies I had chosen. One fine day I get an email from my coordinator saying I was offered an interview with this company called isocket. I had NO clue about isocket then, but I decided to accept the interview. Did a bit of research to find out more about the company and I was really impressed by the founders’ background and their recent round of funding. Spoke to Zak over the phone and I was the chosen one! Now you’ve got to ask the guys how they found me and their side of the story.

I am 6’4” btw. I am sooo tall back in Singapore that I trip over children, unintentionally miss my not-as-tall friends who walk past me, ram into the hand grabs and doors of buses and trains, etc.

4. Considering that you’re now working with us, I’m going to take a wild guess and say that that you were attracted our vision for what the future of the advertising world looks like. What would you say gets you the most excited about what we’re doing?

I think the idea and concept behind the company is great! But even before I got interested in the whole idea behind the startup, what really got me excited was the passion John and Zak had. I had not met them in person other than a few Skype chats, but their achievements over the past couple of years was what really attracted me to join isocket in the first place. It gave me the confidence that my time at isocket wont be “just another internship”.

5. If you were to arm wrestle our CEO John Ramey, who would win? (hint: these 3 words will help you out – OVER THE TOP)

He’s my height and twice my size! I might end up breaking a bone or two!

Update: Looks like Vinoth was right (although he didn’t end up breaking any bones). See the video below or over here on YouTube.

6. Name 3 things that you definitely want to do/see/experience in the Bay Area before you head back home and why.

I’ve got more than 3! But well here are the top 3:

7. Ok, last question – tell us one thing about you that most people would think is weird. For instance, if I were to answer this question I would say that I have to talk to other people in elevators, even it does seem slightly awkward.

I can’t think of anything weird but I have crazy ideas all the time! Which means I love playing pranks on people. Once during the exams period I told my close friend that I was going out with this pretty girl in college. He, wanting to come to the restaurant and surprise me, took a cab from his room and rushed to the restaurant in 30 minutes, only to find out I had decided to go somewhere else. He then took a cab to the new place but couldn’t find me there as well. He wasted 3 hours that day.

I was actually just Face-tubing in my room. (playing on YouTube and Facebook)

8. Anything that I missed? Feel free to tell us anything else (within reason).

Since I am from Singapore, let me give you a crash course on Chinese.

Zai Jian!! (pronounced sai as in pie and chi-en)

It means bye bye!

January 7, 2010 | Filed Under Uncategorized

Leave a Comment 

Frank Helps Us Solve All Of The Tough Problems

If you ever wondered how some of the more serious problems that we face here at isocket get solved, I wanted to give you a little insider information on how it goes down. Basically, when me, John, Zak or anyone else here at isocket find that we’re stuck in a rut and just can’t seem to get things figured out, Frank (my Pug) is there to help us push through.

As you can see, there’s nothing that Frank can’t get us through — he’s one heck of a team player.

January 7, 2010 | Filed Under Frank

2 Comments