Ryan Under Development

I’m in the process of being acquired by Snapfinger. It’s a big change for me, but I’m very excited about this opportunity. Kudzu Interactive, the parent company of Snapfinger.com, just announced a 7 million dollar round B funding with Norwest.

I’ll be coming in as a VP of Innovation (which is simply our name for the B2C side of things). I’ll be in charge of Snapfinger.com, Snapfinger Mobile, and all other things “Snapfinger”. We recently were mentioned in New York Times, TechCrunch.com, WSJ, and the Atlanta Business Chronicle! Pretty exciting days right now.

New York Times

TechCrunch.com

Atlanta Business Chronicle

In honor of the 30th anniversary of the release of Pac-Man, Google created a logo on may 21st, 2010. Totally awesome and original. Best logo ever.

I’ve been wanting to write about Apple’s stance on developing for the iphone. It’s a very hot topic and has irked quite a few developers (not to mention large corporate entities, eh hem, Adobe).

First, Apple has a complete ban on Flash on their iphone os platforms. This covers ipad and the iphone. Here is their reasoning:

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

Bottom line is that Jobs thinks that flash is insecure, slow, unreliable, etc, etc. It won’t run well on a limited power device. Maybe…

He claims that adobe as a company is “closed” where as apple is open. Job says “adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true.” He goes on to explain this. I completely disagree.

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Irina recently purchased the wifi iPad (my 3G comes in a few weeks). I have to say that I am quite impressed with this little device. It’s about three in the morning here, and I’m still playing with it.

Typing on it is a bit challenging. I can tell it will take some time to get adjusted to it. It is blazing fast. Steve jobs was not bs’ing about that. I truly do think that this will be a game changer for the consumer market but also for the lifestyle businesses that many people make a living with. I foresee a whole lot of apps that will be released for small businesses owners looking to run their business and personal lives with one simple device. Gaming will obviously be a big player but I think other application categories will be important as well… more so than was on the iPhone.

I’ve been extremely busy over the past few months with my latest work at Kudzu Interactive. We just released several apps in the app store including one for California Pizza Kitchen. If you have an iphone, you can download it here.

I’m going to start vlogging on youtube. I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time, and I’ve finally started. Over the next year, I’m going to document my experiences. I won’t do it every day, but my plan is to post once three times a week on a regularly scheduled interval.

I’ve also started working on a new internal project. I don’t have a whole lot of time right now for it, but I’m spending a few hours here and there researching and meeting with people. I’m very excited about it, but can’t really talk about it now. As the project progresses, I’ll add more details. Stay tuned.

I live in Atlanta. It’s an easy living city with low cost, but there just aren’t as many technology companies here. Google has a small office here. Microsoft has a sales office in Alpharetta. I think there are a few other tech companies with some sort of office here, but for the most part, there are just a lot of banks, health care, and marketing companies. And if you want a job in the Government, you’ve come to the right place. For technology-minded people, it can be challenging at times.

I find it hard to meet interesting technology people, so when I do, i go out of my way to become friends. That means attending start-up groups, going to lunches with people, late night phone calls, or whatever. Sometimes it feels like a full time job just to keep making those contacts. But Atlanta just isn’t a San Francisco. My Atlanta-based technology entrepreneur friend Blake Byrnes recently explained how he is does not have the option of moving to San Francisco, but “wants to be involved with start-ups and is doing what he can to make them work here”. That’s quite a bold statement, but he is an extremely bright and ambitious individual so I believe he can make things happen anywhere. For Atlanta-based technology people, that will need to be our rally cry.

I recently joined Startup Atlanta. It’s a great group that meets once a month and is geared towards Atlanta based entrepreneurs, investors, journalists, etc. Each meeting, there are new companies which present their new company and pitch their product or service. They have 5 minutes to present and then some time for Q and A. The key here is that these are INNOVATION-based startups. Which means that it’s not really for web marketers but those people behind the actual creation of technology. There is another group called atlanta web marketers.

“Startup atlanta is a non-profit organization with a 10 year mission to advance the INNOVATION-based Startup Ecosystem in Atlanta and the surrounding regions.”

Twitter: @startupatlanta

50 Presenting Entrepreneurs each with 3 Slides and 4 Minutes to give their pitch. I learned about this while attending the Microsoft Bizspark Incubation Week. What attracted me most to this was their screening policy. Only people serious about entrepreneurship or those wanting to invest are allowed in.

I recently discovered the best pizza in Atlanta: Antico Pizza Napoletanna. The freshly made dough, premium quality ingredients, 1000 degree wood-fired ovens imported from Napoli, and gregarious italian pizza masters make for something truly special.

They make their dough daily and stay open until the “dough runs out”. The problem is that if you don’t go during a few hours around lunch or dinner time, you don’t eat. If you are lucky enough to find a seat in their cramped “kitchen” (yes you literally eat in their kitchen), forget about asking for a plate. They don’t have any. I’m not sure they even have silverware.

I recently stopped by there at 3:30pm, and of course the place was packed. Who eats lunch at 3:30? Apparently everyone who couldn’t get in at noon. As I was pulling in there were three other cars waiting to park. Out front, I met the owner who was turning people away saying that they won’t have dough until this evening after 6:00pm. In the 2 minutes I was there, I saw him turn away 6 cars. I guess that’s a good problem to have: too much demand. They control the dough supply.

The funny thing was that I thought about just going somewhere else. Get some pizza or something from another establishment near my midtown condo. After all, there are tons of good restaurants near my centrally located home. Then I thought of their pizza and it’s truly addictive qualities. I’m now writing this post to keep my mind busy until 6:00pm so I can drive back over and order a “Capricosa”.

Dogs at Play

Showing just a quarter of the office space

Jeff and Brett hard at work

I’ve moved my office to Monroe drive. It’s bigger and a better deal on rent so that’s great. It’s 1600 square feet with a kitchen and two conference rooms plus plenty of space for desks in the main area. And we now have a patio and grill!

I don’t have a whole lot of pictures, but I’ll upload more soon. Right now, I’m headed out to buy some new office furniture for the space.