Featured Startup on Azure and Windows 8 - eyeMe

Twitter came out with an app this weekend that sends six seconds of video to communicate what's happening in real time to a user's group of friends and followers. Social startup eyeMe has a range of socializing applications for social sharing, including creating voice messages and the option to layer text on to photos in all the social media platforms where communities use images, sound and text to connect.

eyeMe founder Glenn Outerbridge positions this a tool that companies can use to engage with the consumer.  He thinks the big play will be in voice and audio. 

Company, Founder & App Information

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

Glenn Outerbridge: I’m Glenn Outerbridge the Founder and CEO of eyeMe.

BizSpark:  What did you do before creating your company?

Glenn Outerbridge: CEO of a custom software development company serving small and medium businesses.

BizSpark:  What is your company’s mission?

Glenn Outerbridge: To provide social software tools that allows consumers and companies to engage

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

Glenn Outerbridge: eyeMe lets users take a photo, add an audio caption and share it on Twitter, Facebook, email or in-app. Users can also send voice tweets to Twitter and voice posts to Facebook

BizSpark:  How did you get the idea for your app?

Glenn Outerbridge: The idea came from our life in photos feature that is part of one our other projects. I thought it would be a cool and engaging feature to add audio captions to photos and share them.

BizSpark:  In 140 characters or less, tell us what your customers love most about your app:

Glenn Outerbridge: The audio features for photo captions and the audio tweet and post functionality.

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

Glenn Outerbridge: We are self-funded to date.  Currently exploring a seed investment of $750k. 

BizSpark:  How many employees do you have?

Glenn Outerbridge: Four employees

BizSpark: How many of your employees are developers?

Glenn Outerbridge: Three are developers

BizSpark:  Which platform are you building on?  Why?

Glenn Outerbridge: Windows 8 and Windows Phone on Azure.  I see a tremendous opportunity to be part of the birth of Windows 8 and providing eyeMe app with the unique audio and photo features.

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

Glenn Outerbridge: I see opportunities to provide even more social features that allow brands and consumers to engage in different ways. I believe voice/audio will play a large role.   

BizSpark:  What do you think about the BizSpark Program?

Glenn Outerbridge: The BizSpark program offers developers unique opportunities to not only develop great applications but to also gain visibility in the marketplace.

BizSpark:  What specific value are you getting from BizSpark beyond the technology?

Startups: We are able to tap in to Microsoft technical experts for guidance and company exposure.

BizSpark: What advice do you have for young Software entrepreneurs?

Glenn Outerbridge: Keep things simple and don’t try to deliver too much in version 1.0

BizSpark:  Who’s your role model and why?

Glenn Outerbridge: NA

BizSpark:  What has been your biggest “aha” moment since founding your company?

Glenn Outerbridge: You need a lot more than a great idea to be successful.

Why did Outerbridge pick Azure?  

BizSpark:  Tell us about the structure of your Azure-based solution.

Glenn Outerbridge: We are hosting a multi-platform application on Azure and using shared web services

BizSpark:  How is Azure implemented in your solution?

Glenn Outerbridge: In addition to the shared web services we are using multiple servers and worker rolls to maximize speed and performance

BizSpark:  How did you get excited about Azure?

Glenn Outerbridge: From your evangelist Taylor Cowan.

BizSpark:  What were the Azure features that prompted you to decide to build on Azure?

Glenn Outerbridge: Worker roles and the flexibility of deploying additional sever instances.

BizSpark:  What advice do you have for companies that are thinking about building in the cloud?

Glenn Outerbridge: Building in the cloud offers tremendous scalability and flexibility for deploying solutions.

BizSpark:  What is the one thing that you would like readers to take away about your Azure app?

Glenn Outerbridge: The eyeMe app offers consumers and brands fun and engaging photo and audio features.