BizSpark Startup of the Day - Soluto

The BizSpark startup of the day is Soluto, based in Israel. Below you will find an interview with Tomer Dvir, Co-founder and CEO of Soluto. All the best to them and congratulations for being the startup of the day!

Website: www.soluto.com

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

I’m Soluto’s co-founder and CEO. Ishay Green (our CTO) and I founded Soluto in late 2007.

What did you do before creating your company?

I was the CTO of MDG Medical.

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

It’s very exciting for us, as we receive plenty of support through the BizSpark program. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the BizSpark team for doing such a great job helping start-ups that want to base their technology on Microsoft platforms. In our case, it definitely helped us build our technology on the Microsoft stack.

What is your company’s mission?

We want to make PC users happy by making their PC experience frustration free using very deep technology and the wisdom of the crowd.

In 140 characters or less, tell us what your company does:

We develop software that analyzes PCs and improves them using the wisdom of the crowd.

How did you get the idea for your company?

Ishay and I have been PC users since a very young age and we were simply tired of being so frustrated from our PC usage experience. A few basic things just didn't make sense to us. First, why don’t our PC's do what we ask them to do, when we ask them to do it? Second, why do our PC's become increasingly sluggish and unresponsive the more we use them, and so quickly after we buy them? And third, why do we have to think twice before installing additional software, for fear of it having a negative effect on our PC? We then realized that we could build technology that could undo this state of affairs. And so we did.

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

We’re not looking for funding at the moment. We have received Seed and Round A funding.

How many employees do you have? How many developers?

Since we won TechCrunch Disrupt we’ve been steadily growing to accommodate for the amazing demand. We have 29 employees right now, vast majority is R&D.

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

We always looking for exceptional software engineers experienced in developing low-level, complex systems. We don’t have any specific open position right now.

Which platform are you building on?Why?

We have a whole stack of technologies, starting with device drivers written in C++, through a .NET service written in C# and a WPF user interface, and that’s just the client application. We also have a web server based on .NET and SQL-Server that hosts our PC Genome – the database that includes all the information gathered from PCs worldwide, that will be published online for free very soon.

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

The key opportunity we see is in making users' computing experience frustration-free. We believe we are developing technology that can dramatically improve the current state and have a major positive impact on users' daily usage of their PC's. The PC Genome will help consumers choose the right software and hardware for them, and will also allow vendors to understand the most burning problems with their products.

What do you think about the BizSpark Program?

I think it’s great that Microsoft allows young entrepreneurs to use its platforms for free. It opens up the competition with other open sourced and free platforms, allowing choice, which is very important in my opinion.

Do you have any advice for young Software entrepreneurs?

We demonstrated our product and pitched to many many people, all of whom helped us shape our product. Don’t be afraid to share your thoughts, it’s a key element in improving.

Who’s your role model?

Gil Shwed.

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

Believe in yourself, invest in your technology because it is the most important asset you have. Tell your story to as many smart people as possible.