Editor's Note:
Microsoft BizSpark is a global program that helps startups succeed by
providing technology, business and technology consulting, access to its
vast marketing and partner network, and fostering a BizSpark community.
This article is part of a special series
that features some of the 45,000 startups that have joined the BizSpark
program with an eye toward creating successful businesses, jobs and
superior value.
REDMOND, Wash. — Jan. 25, 2012 —
“Where are you?” is one of the most ubiquitous phrases in text messages
and phone calls. A number of location-based apps have tried to help
mobile users address the question, but only Microsoft BizSpark startup echoecho
has created an easy, intuitive solution that works anywhere in the
world, using any leading smartphone. The mobile app helps users find
their friends simply and easily, while helping protect their privacy as
well as their device battery life — and without having to join yet
another social network.
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“More than 100 billion ‘Where are
you?’ text messages are sent each year in the U.S. alone — and that
doesn’t count texts in the rest of the world, or the number of times
people say the phrase out loud during a phone call,” says Nick Bicanic,
CEO and co-founder of echoecho. “Finding each other in the physical
world turns out to be a really big problem, even more so with the GPS
generation, and we are in business to find real solutions to real
problems.”
Answering that common “Where are
you?” question might seem trivial. But so-called social location mobile
apps suffer from several serious inadequacies, which can compromise your
privacy and identity while draining your phone battery and annoying
your friends. The echoecho app launched in September 2011 overcomes
these drawbacks.
“There are multiple check-in
apps, and many more that share what you’re planning to do, and what
your friends are planning to do, broadcasting location outward,” says
Bicanic. “But the outcome of all of these technologies is ultimately you
needing to find another person in the real world. We came at the
problem from that direction, using a ‘pull’ rather than a ‘push’
approach, allowing you to ask ‘Where are you?’ and getting a quick
answer. Other apps rely on your friend announcing ‘Here I am!’ to no one
in particular, whenever they feel like it. In essence they can at best
tell you where your friends were or will be not exactly where they are, right now.”
Broadcasting
your location raises serious privacy concerns, even if you’re
broadcasting only to an existing social network, and it could quickly
drain your smartphone’s battery. Efforts to make broadcasting more
selective usually involve setting up a new, specific social network.
“Other
approaches consistently ignore the basics of privacy, permission and
preference, which echoecho addresses directly,” says Bicanic. “And
echoecho is designed around the social network already in your pocket:
your address book.”
Making Connections
An
echoecho connection takes only one or two clicks. You tap any name in
your address book, and echoecho sends out a request to your friend,
letting them know you’re looking for them. As soon as they approve, both
parties see their locations on a map, as well as locations of nearby
meeting places. You can even discuss plans in the EchoChat feature. Even
if your friends don’t have echoecho installed, they will receive a text
message form of a “Where are you?” question and they can reply and see
the map without downloading the app. Everyone involved remains in
control of what location information they share, as well as when and
with whom they share it.
“Sometimes, people
hearing about echoecho for the first time miss how we’re different, or
why they might find our approach revolutionary,” says Bicanic. “But we
think texting your location is like dancing with your phone number. How
many times have we all found ourselves caught in endless loops of ‘I’m
here, where are you?’ ‘I’m waiting for you, where are you?’ and so on. I
overhear these conversations every day.”
Common scenarios where echoecho can be particularly useful include the following:
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Picking someone up at an airport, in front of a business or at any venue that’s unfamiliar or with multiple entrances
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Arriving at a restaurant to meet friends, but not seeing anyone you know
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Locating someone at a concert, in a conference hall or at a shopping center
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Meeting someone on the fly for coffee or a meal
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Letting someone who’s already in transit know that a meeting place has been changed
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Finding your group if you’re a latecomer at the wrong locale
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Getting lost and having a friend guide you remotely to your destination
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Getting a BizSpark Boost
The
echoecho back end was built on Microsoft SQL Server 2008, and the app’s
original application programming interface (API) was designed in
Microsoft .NET. Still, echoecho had no plans to port its app to Windows
Phone, due to doubts the platform could support the features needed. A
conversation with a key BizSpark executive at a Silicon Valley event
changed those assumptions and led to echoecho being invited to join
BizSpark.
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“After meeting with a few people
in the extended BizSpark family, what I thought wasn’t possible turned
out to be very possible in Windows Phone 7.5, ‘Mango,’” says Bicanic.
“While I’ve always been a big admirer of Microsoft development tools,
Microsoft isn’t known for its user interface elegance and beauty — but
the new release is awesome and delivers a solid user experience. The
BizSpark team was invaluable at helping us navigate Microsoft’s complex
hierarchies to get quickly to the right people to answer our questions,
and they provided insightful suggestions throughout the process.”
BizSpark
also helped echoecho find a Windows Phone developer — not a Microsoft
employee, but someone working externally — who was so skilled and such a
good fit with echoecho’s culture that the company is working to hire
him full time.
Although echoecho’s .NET
foundation was extremely stable, with downloads in more than 170
countries and adoption increasing, Bicanic was concerned about strain
under load. “We wanted additional stability and a performance boost
capacity when necessary, which meant moving our .NET architecture to the
cloud,” he says. “Luckily, before we chose a hosted server solution, we
discovered Microsoft SQL Azure.”
Going From Talking to Turnkey in 60 Days
With
more BizSpark facilitation, echoecho embarked on a migration to SQL
Azure simultaneously with its client-side development. Thanks to the
robust tools and rapid access to expert guidance in using them, echoecho
completed its Windows Phone port in record time, along with migrating
its service to Windows Azure.
“In less than two months of calendar time, we went from initial discussion to a full port and deployment of a Windows Phone app and
a full deployment of live service on Windows Azure, including a
database and applications,” says Bicanic. “Now that our entire echoecho
service is on a super-scalable, multiple-redundancy, cloud-based system,
we are confident that when massive usage spikes come, our service won’t
stumble.”
Charting a Future Course
While
echoecho currently is focused on building its consumer-to-consumer
(C2C) acceptance and credibility, the company will likely leverage its
C2C success into business-to-consumer (B2C) solutions that it can
monetize.
“Being able to deliver enhanced
privacy, permission, preference and location has enormous potential to
ease pain points in a number of markets, helping companies do things
faster, easier or that were previously impossible,” says Bicanic.
For
instance, instead of automatically blocking a person’s debit card when
used in a different country, a bank could use echoecho to verify the
identity of the debit card user, instantly and more securely. A mobile
carrier or operating system maker could integrate echoecho into its
offerings.
“When you’re as lean and small as
echoecho, you don’t have the luxury of employing a bunch of specialists;
everyone has to share the same vision, be multiskilled and wear many
hats,” says Bicanic. He and echoecho co-founder Andrew Wanliss-Orlebar
build on a decade of working together on diverse projects, including
other technology startups and an award-winning documentary film.
“We were able to massively accelerate our development at echoecho
largely because Andrew and I are so in sync we often finish each other’s
sentences, and we’re both able to flip seamlessly between creative,
technical and commercial perspectives.”
From Social Location to Societal Impact
This
complementarity extends to the co-founders’ longer-term plans for
echoecho, as well. “It goes well beyond helping people work out where to
meet for a drink in a big city,” says Wanliss-Orlebar.
Adds
Bicanic: “For instance, in developing countries people don’t care about
becoming ‘mayor’ of their local coffee shop. They need to find buyers
for their goods, potable water or the guy selling mobile phone airtime a
street corner away. Worldwide, peer-to-peer commerce — designing a way
for people to do transactions in person — is not facilitated by any
existing location-based apps, but these are ideal opportunities for
echoecho. In the end, it’s important to us as a company that we’re doing
things right, and that the problems we’re addressing aren’t frivolous.”
“I
believe that everyone’s just scratching the surface of what you can do
with location,” says Bicanic. “People are extremely uncomfortable with
anything they perceive to be Big Brother tracking-type solutions, so
making people comfortable with sharing their location with their friends
in relevant, simple ways will actually allow us to build things we
haven’t even thought of yet.”
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