On December 4th 2007, Avvenu was acquired by Nokia. This means that the Avvenu services will now be provided by the world’s leading mobile communications company. With Nokia’s global stature, the Avvenu service is available to more people than we could ever have reached as a startup.

I’m impressed with the direction Nokia is taking to transform itself into the next generation Internet company. With my role on the Avvenu transition complete, I accepted the position of Head of New Businesses, reporting to Ilkka Raiskinen.

The New Businesses team analyzes and explores service business opportunities outside of current Services and Software scope using Nokia’s existing assets in new service solutions. The New Businesses team resides in the Context, Advertising and Emerging markets service line, but the scope expands to explore new possibilities in all service lines.

I’m extremely excited with my new role at Nokia and am looking forward to the challenges ahead.

Two weeks ago I joined Avvenu, Inc. as CEO. We’ll start a company blog shortly. Meanwhile, I wanted to add a more personal perspective to the company news release. Several friends were surprised that I did not go to an open source or media company. In truth, I certainly looked at opportunities at several, and at some companies with more traditional products and services as well. In the end, Avvenu captured my imagination and passion for the same reasons that VA Software/OSDN did: incredible market potential, a highly talented and fearless team, and a companywide hunger for leadership.

Over the past couple of years, the developers at Avvenu have built a very strong remote access platform, enabling consumers and business users to securely access their home and office computers directly from their web-enabled mobile device or computer.

I’ve been associated with startups before, and the VC’s can make or break a company, regardless of its potential. So, I took a hard look at Avvenu’s pedigree. Avvenu is backed by two tier 1 venture capital firms, Charles River Ventures and Worldview Technology Partners. Both VC firms have in excess of $1B+ under management, both have extensive portfolios, and both have had some of the biggest and well known exits in the past few years. Avvenu is also backed by Motorola, a key business partner.

Today, many of us in the industry think of technology as being either consumer or business, but not both. I believe that consumer and business technologies, much like open and proprietary software, are quickly converging and introducing new business models. I’m thrilled to be part of this innovative young company that will play a key role in facilitating this convergence and the shift to seamless mobile lifestyles.

I was just reading Deloitte Research’s Technology Predictions for 2006, a 20 page pdf report. It is quite inciteful and it’s free. Here are Deloitte’s 10 emerging technology trends / predictions.

1. Search engines will challenge email as the leading digital application.
2. Research and development will become more collaborative as business, government and academic institutions increasingly work together on new innovations.
3. Offshoring as a way of minimizing costs and optimizing efficiencies will continue to grow in popularity.
4. Classrooms of the developed world will incorporate more digital aids in their instruction.
5. Open source will pose an ever-greater challenge to the established software model, impacting both providers and end users.
6. Governments will increasingly regulate the Internet.
7. Technological advances such as speech recognition and voice synthesis, along with improvements in artificial intelligence, will change the way humans interact with computers and computers interact with each other.
8. Products will become less static with the launch of many more devices, from cameras to cars, that can be upgraded remotely.
9. The gap between those with digital technology and those without will widen and put undeveloped countries at an even greater disadvantage.
10. Those technologies that permanently change human behavior will continue to be the most profitable.

The report includes recommendations from Deloitte’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications industry group on how to take advantage of these emerging trends. I really like the last one. Perhaps it is time I came up with a new idea that permanently changes human behavior. Or at least find the opportunity to work closely with someone that has such an idea.

In today’s article in CNNMoney.com entitled Is Slashdot the future of Media?, an idea was floated that Slashdot, and even VA Software, should be snapped up by another media company.

But it seems to me that any media company aiming to go deep into the modern world of user-generated media might want to think about buying this gem. Investment bankers, take heed.

Not only that, but whomever bought VA Software would be buying critical DNA — knowledge about what software the world is using. Sourceforge.net has essentially no competition, so effectively it has created a marketplace of producers and consumers.

Perhaps, my suggestion on January 3, 2006 in VA Software sells Animation Factory. Is there more to come? that VA Software divest of its media assets has been taken to heart and articles such as this are great ways to drum up interest. Or maybe VA Software itself is for sale and pushing its hottest media properties Slashdot and Sourceforge along with its affinity with Open Source, as the reason to buy the entire package.

I was very surprised to see that VA Software had sold the Animation Factory assets to JupiterMedia. This brings an additional $9.35M cash to the company, bringing the total equity to approximately $55M. Is this a single event, or is this the start of a strategy to re-invent the company? I hope it’s a re-invention. This is what I’d also like to see.

1. Quickly grow the equity by selling off the rest of the e-commerce business (Thinkgeek).
2. Divest of the media business (Slashdot, freshmeat, Newsforge, ITMJ and Linux.com), but keep Sourceforge.net.
3. Change the name of the company to Sourceforge Corp, — there is far more brand equity in Sourceforge than VA Software.
4. Change the stock ticker symbol from LNUX to SFRG.

Steps 1 & 2 should yield at least another $50M to $100M cash. Maybe Novell or Red Hat would be interested in the Linux.com url. If done correctly it would free up a significant server farm that could be used for the new Sourceforge on Demand ASP solution. By keeping one or two of the media ad sales team, revenue from ads on sourceforge.net would be easily accomplished. The cash on hand might very well be used to purchase companies that fit with the sourceforge business and result in faster company growth.

Of course this is wishful thinking. As the former executive who turned around OSTG, I would like to see VA Software succeed at last, and see OSTG become a part of a larger media business where it can take advantage of media synergies.

Technorati Tag: Open Source, Software, Slashdot, Sourceforge, Media

A recent article in CIO magazine The Don’ts & Do’s of Creating an Inspired Workplace made some very good points. The Do’s in the article are common sense practices all managers should follow, however the article didn’t go far enough. I believe in establishing a corporate culture that lets everyone, not just management, participate in the organization’s success and survives any particular manager.

There are three basic cultural approaches I’ve used in the past that have worked well.

The first is elimination of fear. Once people understand that every idea they have deserves consideration, and they will not be shot down for raising it, their passion for improving the business will manifest. Many employees are afraid to raise ideas for fear that their boss will respond with ridicule or apathy. The open door management policy is largely a myth. To make it real, it’s important to acknowledge all ideas. Let employees know that even if an idea is, at this point in time impractical, it is still worthy of consideration nevertheless.

The second is communication between people — not just top down. I’ve seen many cases in which employees say they can’t get something done because a peer is not cooperating. More often than not, they’ve not communicated with each other. They get signals from management that empowerment is only top down. Establishing a culture where people are expected to communicate with each other and commit to each other goes a long way to fueling successful business gowth.

The third is respect. Several of the Don’ts and the Do’s from the article in CIO magazine are manifestations of the disrespect/respect behavior. Respect is a behavior that must come from the leadership of any organization, and must be demonstrated by the entire management team and expected of everyone. Treating all people in an organization with respect and dignity will forge a healthy relationship between the individual and their employer. The consequences of a culture of respect, may not directly translate to better or faster growth or even higher profits, but it will ultimately make sure people feel good about the contributions they make or are asked to make.

Recently, I led the turnaround of a high-tech online media company. This turnaround would not have been possible if not for the team of individuals who were inspired to work together toward a common set of goals. Eliminating fear, fostering communication and emphasizing respect set the stage for the turnaround.