BizSpark Startup of the Day - Yomomedia

The BizSpark startup of the day is Yomomedia, based in the US. Below you will find an interview with Dana Kirk and Gaird Schlesinger, co-founders of Yomomedia. All the best to them and congratulations for being the startup of the day!

Website: www.yomomedia.com

Tell us who you are and your role in the company:

Dana Kirk (President) and Gaird Schlesinger (VP Interactive). Along with several colleagues, we are the founders of Yomomedia. We both have extensive backgrounds as front-end guys, with overlapping roles in business development, interactive product management, creative design & marketing.

What did you do before creating your company?

Our company is Mighty Digital and Yomomedia began as one of our projects. We've been consulting and developing web apps for clients for 15 years. We always intended to create our own products and going mobile is the latest extension of that work.

How do you feel being the most promising ‘Startup of the Day’ per Microsoft BizSpark?

We are honored to be selected. We've worked hard on our product and to receive this kind of recognition inspires us to keep going. Guess we're doing something right.

What is your company’s mission?

Do a little dance, make a little app, get down tonight. (We don't have a formal mission statement) We're just trying to create quality apps that people like to use and make things a little easier for them.

How did you get the idea for your company?

The original idea came from Robert Simon, Yomomedia's Chairman. It was right before the iPhone came out. Windows Mobile was the perfect operating system for what we wanted to do - build an application that would aggregate all your news, podcasts & rich media in one place, allowing you to say when and how often to update it. At the time smartphones were great viewing devices but not good for browsing. Download and playback was a more attractive option. If you could download overnight, it would be on your smartphone for true on-demand playback. That has grown into our latest version on Windows Phone 7.

Tell us about your funding history. Are you currently looking for funding? If so, how much?

We are a completely bootstrapped operation.

How many employees do you have? How many developers?

There are 5-6 people on the Yomomedia team at any given time. 2-3 developers, including Mateusz Grzegorzek, the top mobile programmer in Poland and Dimas Begunoff, the chief code-slinger at Mighty Digital.

Are you hiring?If yes, what are you hiring for and where?

We're always looking for top-notch, passionate engineers. We've got ideas for other products lined up behind Yomomedia.

Which platform are you building on?Why?

Currently we're on Windows Mobile 6.x and next on Windows Phone 7. Windows Mobile was within our reach and fit our resources (that bootstrapping thing), with the key feature being background operation. We're developing for Windows Phone 7 because we think this OS gets a lot of things right. People will be happily surprised.

Where do you see opportunities today in the Software/Internet area?

Definitely mobile, and mobile/cloud/desktop inter-connected services. It used to cost a lot to start a company or get an idea off the ground. So much time, money and effort was spent setting up a business before engineering could even start. Now great ideas come from all over - small teams & startups with great products and less obstacles. More opportunities to be the next big thing.

What do you think about the BizSpark Program?

The BizSpark program has been a huge catalyst. The flip-side of bootstrapping is access to resources. BizSpark solves that by giving us access to software and key technical personnel. We would definitely recommend startups take advantage of this great opportunity. A big "thanks" to the Microsoft guys.

Do you have any advice for young Software entrepreneurs?

Less Reddit, more code. Also, do what you love to do and don't let anyone tell you it can't be done. And if you're not loving what you do, move on to something else. Life is too short.

Who’s your role model?

Dreamers, doers and builders. The people who go for it and take that shot. They’re the true role models...and not just the ones who "succeed". It's everyone who's willing to make that leap and go for it.

What’s the ONE THING you would like readers to take away from this interview?

What are you waiting for?