Startup of the Day - Eitbit

The BizSpark startup of the day is Eitbit Ltd, based in Finland. You will find below an interview with Timo Poikolainen, Managing Director of Eitbit Ltd. All the best to them and congrats for being the startup of the day!

Website: www.eitbit.com.

Interview with Timo Poikolainen, Managing Director of Eitbit Ltd

Who are you?

I’m Timo Poikolainen, managing director of Eitbit Ltd and an entrepreneur.

How do you feel being the most promising ‘company of the day’ per Microsoft?

I was really delighted when Eitbit was nominated. This is a great opportunity for us.

How did you get the idea? What s the genesis?

When I was first introduced to .NET it really carried me away. I have implemented software with numerous programming languages and techniques but .NET and C# really hit me; coding had never been so much fun. And because I was not developing .NET software in my work, I decided that my own company should concentrate on .NET development. We have some legacy games on our web site that are not developed using .NET, but also future games will be .NET and XNA based.

What do you sell? What is your company’s mission?

We are offering free, ad-funded applications and low-cost games to people all over the world. And for corporation customers we offer software development services.

What is your market?

For our own applications the whole world, but for software development services we are primarily focusing into European countries; smaller time differences make project communication easier.

Funding history? VCs? BA?

We are privately owned and privately funded.

Growth? Internationalization?

It seems that we are really living in a global village because users of our applications are international – domestic users are a minority. Finland is quite a small market any way so we don’t think that even a small IT company should concentrate only on a domestic market.

Which platform are you building on? Why?

We are developing software on different .NET platforms; mobile, desktop, server and XBOX360. Currently we have only published desktop applications but we will publish applications for other platforms in the future.

Do you have any Software IP? Is there something that you’re the only one to do on the market?

Nowadays it is difficult, if not impossible, to be the only one doing something on the global market. Our goal is to offer focused, high quality, user-friendly and cost-effective applications and solutions.

Where do you see opportunities today in the Software/internet areas?

Games and applications might benefit more from community features. Also user-friendliness is becoming more and more important all the time.

What about the BizSpark Program? What do you think? Are you going to join? Why?

I really recommend BizSpark to other startups also. You get very good value for your money and time; lots of information, connections and of course – software licenses. Also support from Microsoft has been great; we have received many invaluable hints and advices from Microsoft representatives.

Any advice to young Software entrepreneurs?

You can do the initial release of every product only once so never – never – release anything incomplete. This can’t be emphasized too much. If you or your usability testers are not happy with some feature of your application, don’t release it – fix it first, because it is very likely that actual end-users are not too happy about that feature either. The first impression is all that matters in today’s software business; a disappointed customer won’t easily give a second chance. This is something also some of the bigger players are still learning the hard way – if they learn it at all.