Startup of the Day - Hyzonia
The BizSpark startup of the day is Hyzonia, based in United Arab Emirates. You will find below an interview with Maryam Alimardani, Co-founder and CEO of Hyzonia. All the best to them and congrats for being the startup of the day!
Website: www.hyzonia.com.
Interview with Maryam Alimardani, Co-founder and CEO of Hyzonia.
Tell us who you are and your role in the company:
Cofounder and CEO in Hyzonia. Other founders are Reza Ayati, the COO??? and Homam Hosseini as CTO.
What did you do before creating your company?
Prior to Hyzonia, I was involved in another co-founded company in telecom industry working as sales and marketing director there too.
How do you feel being the most promising ‘Startup of the Day’ per Microsoft BizSpark?
It’s an honor. We won Microsoft Technology Award 2009 among 22 Arab countries and recognized as “Startup of the Day” in BizSpark. It’s great.
What is your company’s mission?
Designing and developing a web platform for “Adver-gaming as a Service”.
How did you get the idea for your company?
We wanted to decrease the pain of interrupting ads by offering an entertaining solution to users and marketers. We looked for a solution that marketers engage their target audience while users have fun.
Tell us about your funding history. Are you currently looking for funding? If so, how much?
Hyzonia has been funded by me and Reza and now we are looking for $2M external investment to support our scaling and growth.
How many employees do you have? How many developers?
We are 6 including 3 full-time co-founders. 3 developers and designers.
Are you hiring? If yes, what are you hiring and where?
Yes. We are currently looking for web graphic designers, web developers and sales and marketing executives for our office in Dubai/U.A.E.
Which platform are you building on? Why?
Hyzonia is built on .NET technology. The server side platform is Windows 2008 and SQL Server 2008. In the client side we are extensively using JavaScript. Hyzonia has a grid architecture, the communication layer between different modules of the grid has been built by WCF. .NET provides a consistent experience for developers, the extensive support of web services in .NET enabled us to employ SOA throughout the system. Windows 2008 and IIS7 have provided us the configurability and manageability we needed. In the client side we like the JavaScript support in Visual Studio, especially in VS2010, it makes everything faster.
Where do you see opportunities today in the Software/internet area?
With everyone spending more time online and with faster and more reliable internet access, internet household penetration and internet advertising spent has increased and gaming has become a ubiquitous experience, and as a result, the share of minutes spent on online gaming is increasing tremendously.
What do you think about the BizSpark Program?
It’s a fantastic resource for startups. BizSpark has been a great advantage for us and it has boosted our productivity.
Do you have any advice for young Software entrepreneurs?
We live in information era and advices are out there. Immerse yourself to this pool by subscribing to relevant communities and blogs. Attend to meet ups and events to know the people in your industry. Keep executing and growing is the key to success.
Who’s your role model?
I am not sure if I can call them role models, but I admire entrepreneurs who turn their startups to great success and offer fantastic case studies for new startups.
What’s the ONE THING you would like readers to take away from this interview?
Be quick, launch early and continuous, ask for help and keep on shaping your business model to get the market/product fit.