Posted on October 21, 2008, at 3:36 pm .
We ended up having 13 developers present last night at the first annual BlackBerry Cool 15, but it turned out to be the lucky number. The drinks were flowing, the room was full, the applications were great and everybody seemed to have a good time. Before I get to thanking everyone who made this possible, I’ve got some announcements to make.
During the BBDC Keynote Today, Rick Segal of the BlackBerry Partners Fund announced that they had added a third Category to the BlackBerry Developer Challenge: The People’s Choice Award. The BlackBerry Partners Fund chose the People’s Choice winner based upon the winner of the BlackBerry Cool 15, Nobex’s Radio Companion for BlackBerry. I’m thrilled that we played a (small) part in helping Nobex receive a $150,000 debenture. Congrats, Nobex, you earned it!
Rick Segal also made on-the-spot offers to two other BlackBerry Cool 15 developers, BeamBerry and SmrtGuard. Way to go!
If you didn’t present at the BlackBerry Cool 15 this year, make sure you sign up next year, or you’ll be missing out on some serious cash.
BlackBerry Cool 15 Thank yous
Posted on October 20, 2008, at 8:22 pm .
WHERE: Session rooms California 7-9 (across from the Mobility Pavilion)
WHEN: 8pm-9:30pm (after the Welcome Reception)
It’s almost time for the BlackBerry Cool 15! We have a have a full list of developers ready to present their innovation applications and ideas to a packed audience and distinguished panel. Here’s a list of the presenters:
Evgeny Lebanidze, BeamBerry
James Shannon, DevelopIQ
Fred Potter, BerryStore
Kyle Kemper, Vayyoo
Amit Kumar, Ubiquitous Systems (Social Scope)
Robert Kao, SmrtGuard (PeeKaWho)
Arun Nagarajan, Pyxis MObile (SmartFlicks)
David McCormack, ExSafe
Jason Mace, Energy Corporation Of America
Beth Marcus, Zeemote
Michael Russo, Polar Mobile
Ron Espinosa, Azure (Zala)
Jamie Julius, Nobex Technologies
(if I’m missing anyone please remind me!)
We also have Rick Segal and various members of the BlackBerry Partners Fund attending eager to hand out offer sheets to the right developer.
We’re also GIVING AWAY TWO BLACKBERRY STORMS! One to the winner of the BlackBerry Cool 15 and one to a lucky audience member. So make sure to attend! The BlackBerry Cool 15 starts promptly at 8pm, and there’s only enough room for 150 people!
Posted on October 17, 2008, at 2:07 pm .
We’re now a weekend away from the BlackBerry Developer Conference, and I couldn’t be more excited. Mike Lazaridis keynote, hands on with the BlackBerry Storm, and the BlackBerry Cool 15. Oh wait, that reminds me, we’ve been talking about the BlackBerry Cool 15 all week, and we haven’t mentioned what the prizes are. Developers take note:
RICK SEGAL OF THE BLACKBERRY PARTNERS FUND will be participating as a judge and taking a keen interest in the applications presented. He will have offer sheets in hands and he is looking to spend, spend, spend.
WE’RE GIVING AWAY TWO BLACKBERRY STORMS! That’s right, not one, but two BlackBerry Storms will be given away at the BlackBerry Cool 15! While one will obviously be going to the developer with the best application, we haven’t decided what to do with the other one yet. Maybe give it to a lucky member of the audience? We’ll see…
You now have NO REASON to miss the BlackBerry Cool 15. Meet us at the Marriott Hotel in session rooms California 7-9 at 8pm on Monday, October 20th (right after the welcome reception). We’ll see you there!
Register for the BlackBerry Cool 15
More information about the BlackBerry Cool 15
A special thanks must go out to Rick Segal, Mike Kirkup and everyone at RIM/BlackBerry Partners Fund that has turned this wishful thinking into a reality.
Posted on October 16, 2008, at 10:38 am .
If you’re excited about the number of cool BlackBerry applications you’ve heard about recently, it probably has something to do with the BlackBerry Partners Fund, the $150 million venture capital fund announced at WES. I would ask you to look no further than the BlackBerry Developer Challenge and the BlackBerry Cool 15 as examples of their pedigree. Today they announced the addition of two new members to its investment team: Marc Faucher and Matt Golden.
“Marc and Matt add competencies that perfectly compliment the knowledge and
experience currently resident within the members of the BlackBerry Partners Fund management team,” said Kevin Talbot, Co-Managing Partner of the BlackBerry Partners Fund. “With these appointments the BlackBerry Partners Fund has further solidified itself as the preeminent source of venture capital for mobile application or service developers.”
Both Marc and Matt have a variety of experience from other venture funds, as well as major wireless players like Bell, Ericsson and Tira Wireless. Welcome to the team, guys!
(via MobileSyrup)
Posted on October 16, 2008, at 9:21 am .
The BlackBerry Parnters Fund, the fine folks who are sponsoring the BlackBerry Cool 15, have announced the finalists of the BlackBerry Developer Challenge. Maybe you’ve heard of it? It’s only the biggest BlackBerry developer contest ever, with prizes for each category and the top two developers receiving two $150,000 investment opportunities.
You can see a brief description of each finalist after the jump. The winners, of course, will be announced at the BlackBerry Developer Conference. I was excited to see FreeRange’s AP Mobile News make the cut, as it was one of the best apps we spent time with at CTIA.
BlackBerry Developer Challenge Finalists
Posted on October 15, 2008, at 5:37 pm .
We’re less than a week away from the BlackBerry Developer Conference, which means that we’re less than a week away from THE BLACKBERRY COOL 15! Since our initial post about our first developer focused event, a lot of excitement has been floating into our inbox. We have some updates for you, so we thought now would be a good time to fuel the fire:
First off, we’ve confirmed the time and place. The BlackBerry Cool 15 will take place on Monday, October 20th, from 8pm-9pm, in breakout rooms California 7-9 of the Santa Clara Marriott. This is right after the welcome reception on the Mobility Pavilion, and we’ll be making sure to carry on the relaxed atmosphere with adult beverages and snacks.
We also have two new judges to introduce: Blogger Troy D. Brown of BlackBerryNews.com and Rick Segal of the BlackBerry Partners Fund! We’re particularly excited to have Rick joining us, as he is eager to break open the vault and cough up some term sheet love for the BlackBerry Nation. Cha-ching!
We’ve also had a lot of interest from developers who would like to demo software that doesn’t quite meet our pre-1.0 release state. We’ve thus decided to open up the BlackBerry Cool 15 to software that is still in ‘back of napkin’ state or went 1.0 as recently as September 1st. Bring your PowerPoint presentation, your napkin scribblings, a working build or a healthy dose of charisma — if you want to participate, we want you there!
Now for the fun stuff — the prizes. While we can’t make any announcements yet (sorry), in talking with Rick Segal today, it was decided that the prize had to be something “different”. Stay tuned!!
Register for the BlackBerry Cool 15
More information about the BlackBerry Cool 15
Posted on October 9, 2008, at 3:04 pm .
UPDATE: Just got an email from Rick Segal, member of the BlackBerry Partners fund, confirming that he can also participate as a judge! This is great news for all developers participating, as I’m sure he’s looking to break open the vault and cough up some term sheet love for the BlackBerry Nation.
We’ve had a long history of being excited about being excited for the BlackBerry Developer Conference since it was first announced back in May. Our excitement reached a high point last week, when we told you of our participation in the BlackBerry Partners Fund Developer Challenge and the What Makes a Great Mobile Application? panel. I’d now like to formally introduce another DevCon event that can’t have us any more excited: The BlackBerry Cool 15.
The BlackBerry Cool 15 is an event we’re running to give exposure to BlackBerry developers with innovative and “cool” software ideas while providing them with a relaxed forum to interact with other like-minded people. The BlackBerry Cool 15 is a celebration of the BlackBerry development community and a good excuse to have a great time! Here’s how it will happen:
* We’re looking for 15 registered DevCon developers willing to display their innovative, pre-1.0 software release in front of an audience at the BlackBerry Developer Conference.
* Each of the 15 selected developers will have 1-2 minutes to pitch their idea or application, followed by 2-3 minutes of questioning by a judges panel.
* After all the developers have made their pitch, the audience members will vote on the best BlackBerry application. The winner will receive some great prizes which will be announced shortly.
* The whole event will be filmed and eventually displayed on BlackBerry Cool for the entire BlackBerry Nation to see.
The BlackBerry Cool 15 is being sponsored by the BlackBerry Partners Fund, which will supply both the adult beverages and developer prizes (thanks guys!). Our judging panel is a ‘who’s who’ of the BlackBerry blogging world, comprised of Al Sacco from CIO.com, Kevin Michaluk from CrackBerry.com, Hayden James from Pinstack.com (unconfirmed) and yours truly.
The BlackBerry Cool 15 is going to be a great time so make sure to come. It will take place on Monday, October 20th after the DevCon opening reception (more specific details to follow). Are you a developer interested in making a pitch to a room full of VCs, RIM employees and peers? REGISTER NOW!!!
Posted on October 2, 2008, at 2:45 pm .
October is here and that means we’re only a few weeks away from the BlackBerry Developer Conference, which is running from October 20-22nd. Not only is the BlackBerry Cool staff excited to make time with all the BlackBerry Developers out there, we’re also participating in an official capacity.
Our boy Kevin from CrackBerry also broke some exciting news yesterday when he reported that the BlackBerry Developer Conference is going to be littered with free BlackBerrys for attendees! I know for a fact that BlackBerry Developers are always in need of a few extra BlackBerrys for testing, so this should make everyone happy (oh please let them be BlackBerry Storms!). I’ve also heard a rumor floating around that the two Best of Show $150,000 Developer Grand Prizes might be doubled!! That’s over half a million in prizes, folks, and that doesn’t even include the prize money for the individual Developer Challenge categories!
UPDATE: Just got an email from Rick Segal of the BlackBerry Partners Fund. He loves the idea, and is going to sponsor us!! Still not sure about the name (post some suggestions, please), but for now the BLACKBERRY COOL 15 IS ON! More info to come!
There’s one more thing I wanted to float by you, though. Even though the BBDC is all about developers, with so many of them at the show, it’s going to be hard for many to get the exposure they need. BlackBerry Cool has been thinking about running an event during the BlackBerry Developer Conference… an event (maybe) called the BlackBerry Cool 15. Here’s the idea:
- We get about 15 registered developers all in one room with an audience.
- We’ll give them 1-2 minutes to pitch their idea or application, followed by 2-3 minutes of questioning by a judges panel.
- After all the developers have made their pitch, the audience members vote on what was the best BlackBerry application.
- We’ll film the whole thing and give all the developers great exposure, and some cool prizes to the winner.
What do you think BlackBerry Nation? Does it sound like a (ahem) ‘cool’ idea? Post a comment and let us know. We’ll see you in Santa Clara!
Posted on August 20, 2008, at 4:13 pm .
We talked with Rick Segal from the $150 million BlackBerry Partners Fund recently to go over the broad strokes of the venture capital initiative, as well as some of the finer points about the firm’s goals and their partners. Currently, they’re taking applications not just for BlackBerry developers started, but any mobile software projects. With the iPhone and iPod App Store in full tilt, this is a ripe opportunity for entrepreneurs to tap not only the lucrative BlackBerry scene, but all mobile platforms. Any developers out there who really want to catch the the Partners Fund’s eye should check out the competition they’re running at the BlackBerry Developer Conference in October, where winners will get upwards of $150,000 in investment prizes…
Take a listen to our interview with Rick Segal from the BlackBerry Partners Fund and excerpts behind the jump!
Posted on August 18, 2008, at 1:20 pm .
The BlackBerry Developer Challenge was announced last week, and they really seem to be reaching out to folks all over the world (yes, even you, Australia). Charlene Maina, technical product manager at RIM, was particularly enthusiastic about Kenyan development.
“I have what some may call a naïve belief that Kenya is a haven of untapped potential,” Maina said. “Look around at Kenyans making it in the diaspora: I am a firm believer that restrictions of the mind result in restrictions in performance. I am hoping that my belief that a compelling idea can come from Kenya will fuel the right developer to see beyond themselves as a Kenyan developer and more as a developer who the world is demanding a service from.”
Application deadline is September 30th., and the winner will be announced at the BlackBerry Developer Conference on October 21st. and 22nd. There are five categories to compete in: most innovative game, most innovative multimedia application, most innovative personal productivity application, most innovative enterprise application and most innovative Web application. While the competition might be BlackBerry-only, the hosting BlackBerry Partners Fund still have $150 million of venture capital available for all platforms.
(via NetworkWorld)
