Greetings, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another Friday.
I’ve only just found out this is a Bank Holiday, so I’ll just take up a few minutes of your time before leaving you to go waterskiing or something. In the meantime, here’s a short burst of North East tech and startup news comin’ atcha, like an annoying child shining a large Ben 10 torch into your face when you’re hungover. Or something.
USABLE CALLS IT A DAY
A few weeks ago, Betarocket featured a chat with Usable, the Ignite100 graduate whose platform enabled users to set, agree, change and track project requirements so they didn’t roll out of control like a tyre down a hill.
The team spent 18 months fine-tuning a platform that would present these requirements in a way that was easy-on-the-eye and made sense, and went beta in the summer. However, they’ve now announced they’re closing the product. They’re making that move today, although the company itself is still running.
In an email to customers, Usable CEO Alex Kavanagh said: “We’ve looked closely at the feedback that we’ve received and we know that the product isn’t working that well for most of you.
“I want to take this opportunity to thank you for both trying Usable Requirements and for any feedback that you’ve given us during the beta period.”
There’s a lot of talk in startup circles about knowing when to move on, and rolling with the punches, but all that’s just waffle until you actually have to make the decision yourself. Talking about it isn’t the same as actually doing it, and doing it ain’t easy.
As former project managers, the team behind Usable said they were confident they were creating a product that “solves the pain we had in the past”. But even then, it can be a frustrating and gruelling experience getting others to believe in your product as much as you do.
We’ll see where their experience takes them next.
TANGLED WEB
At around 8pm tonight, the Android app for Searchcamp startup Tangle will drop onto Google Play. Set up by Diego Carrea, Gianluca Carroccia, Lorenzo Pietrangeli and Mauro Toffoli, Tangle advertises itself as a dating app which allows you to “rewind time” and look up someone you might have met earlier in the day but not summoned up the guts to talk to.
The team met up in Durham during an Erasmus exchange in September last year, and joined the first Searchcamp batch a couple of months ago. Find out more about what Tangle can do on the website and get updates from its Twitter feed. And have fun in the exhilarating, promising and occasionally scary world of dating.
(Good lord. I think I’ve just made myself a bit ill with that last one)
INNOVATE, DAMNIT
We mentioned this briefly in the discussion about the Return on Innovation conference earlier, but we’ll give it another whirl here. On September 12, folk including Newcastle Science City and the Technology Strategy Board are banding together to present a one-day workshop on innovation called InnovateNE, which will feature 20 innovation experts doing speeches, workshops, one-to-one advisory sessions and an exhibition.
You can have a squint at the list of speakers here. Could one of them give you what you need to make something happen?
SAGE VS SWAY
This was doing the rounds a little earlier in the week, but here’s Sage One’s own Paul Lancaster deep in conversation with UK rapper Sway on Google Hangouts.
In a left-field move for an accounting service blog, Paul and Sway spend just under 20 minutes shooting the breeze on topics such as Soundcloud and his upcoming EP Wake Up.
Pop off to YouTube and watch it. I’ll just kick back here and wait until you’re done…
SOME EXTRA READING
Here’s a question: Is the current culture of entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley and beyond causing us to neglect real, exciting innovations? (Why Silicon Valley Funds Instagrams Not Hyperloops)
Pablo Fuentes shares some expensive startup mistakes with PandoDaily (Seven Dirty, Gritty, Real Startup Lessons That Cost Me $2million)
Last week, we mentioned a long blogpost of ideas called 57 Startup Lessons. Here’s Valleywag’s counterpunch (If Your Startup Isn’t Improving the Entire Human Condition, Fuck It)
I just learned a new term. It’s “piezoelectricity”. Here’s a story about someone that’s using it to charge a phone or computer wirelessly (An Inventor Wants One Less Wire to Worry About)
Flin Nortier discusses “emotional design” and argues why it should be used more widely (How Emotional Design Can Give Your Website Much More Impact)
Seen the internet.org video about “a new context for world discussions”? Here’s what was missing from the cut of JFK’s speech (What Internet.org’s Promo Video Cut From the Kennedy Speech It Quotes)
HEY YOU…
Check out the latest technology events in the North East by dashing off to Tech Diary. NOW.
Remember, you can share your own news or list your event by emailing john@betarocket.co.uk.
PS. Another Dark Knight casting, and again they pass me over. I can do edgy, damnit. There was this one time that someone jumped in front of me in the queue at TK Maxx, and I crinkled my eyebrows like a total badass. I didn’t let him see, mind, because I’d be making a scene and that would be rude. Still, I’m the dictionary definition of a tortured, brooding, edgy soul. My parents weren’t brutally murdered outside a theatre or anything, but when I was a kid one of our guinea pigs got sick and died when we were on holiday once and that’s pretty scarring, yo. I can even get through the first ten minutes of Up without crying *
* This is a lie.
(Headline Batman Pez photo by Dustin Gaffke, used under creative commons)