CrowdCare is looking for an Android Application Developer with strong programming skills and an addiction to solving hard problems.

The Intermediate/Senior Android Developer should have in-depth knowledge developing on the Android platform and supporting various flavours of the Android operating system.

Mandatory Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Engineering, or Information Systems
• In-depth knowledge of Android
• Experience with graphical user interface and layouts
• Experience building and publishing Android Apps for phones, tablets or other Android-based devices
• Experience dealing with Android Device and Operating System Fragmentation
• Strong design and analytical skills
• Exceptional attention to detail
• Experience working in an Agile environment
• Ability to work under tight deadlines and pressure
• Good team player
• Willingness to take on responsibilities and Commitment to Deliver
• Passionate about mobile devices and technology

Nice to have:

• Cloud Messaging
• Eclipse/SVN/Git/CVS
• REST/XML/SOAP Web Services
• J2EE/JPA
• AJAX/JSON/JQuery/HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript
• Database experience – SQLIte/MySQL/PostgreSQL/Oracle/SQL Server
• Google TV, Smart TV

Unique Perks:

• A chance to work on a world-changing product with a passionate and experienced founding team
• Exciting Start-up Environment where you will always be learning
• Opportunity for hands on development and exploration of virtually every new cool Android device on the market.
• Company sponsored lunch every Friday for all employees
• Stock options

If this might be you, contact us at careers at mantellavp dot com

MVP was founded through collaboration between Basecamp Partners and Mantella Corporation to support the creation of early stage technology ventures in Ontario. Established in 1946, Mantella Corporation is one of the largest and most established privately-owned commercial real-estate developers in the Greater Toronto Area. Now led by President and CEO Robert Mantella, the company manages a prestigious portfolio of commercial and industrial buildings, as well as prime development properties in the region.

In the early days of 2012, a small startup called Dollar Shave Club unleashed the greatest startup video of all time upon the unsuspecting Gillette wielding world.  The video was titled “Our Blades Are F***ing Great” and it masterfully combined elements of Old Spice’s classic “Man-Your-Man-Could-Smell-Like” campaign with more traditional notions of rugged blue-collar American individualism.  More than five million views on YouTube vaunted Dollar Shave Club into the mainstream.

This brings me to today’s news – Flixel, a MantellaVP portfolio company and a leader in the emerging “living photos” or Cinemagraph space, has released what is in my humble opinion the 2^nd best startup video – the release coincides with Flixel Verion 2 hitting the App Store.  One of the Flixel co-founders, Mark Homza, in conjunction with actress Cassandra Sorokopas (and production team Randy Cole, Adam Zivo), has created a video which feels like an Instagramed music video mixed with a love story in the vein of Joel and Clementine from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  Congratulations to Mark and the team.

Mark’s video demonstrates to me the power of the Flixel app, as well as the broader implications of the emerging Cinemagraph movement, for mass artistic and commercial expression.  Historically new mediums rose to prominence over long time horizons.  Joseph Niepce created the first photographic image in 1827 but it took another 136 for Kodak to release the mass-market instant color Polaroid camera. Sony put out the world’s first digital camera, the Mavica a full 154 years after Niepce’s breakthrough.  In the five short years since the release of iPhone we have seen improved versions of traditional mediums (photos/videos) gain mass acceptance (Instagram/Viddy et al.).  What we haven’t seen are fundamentally new visual mediums, mediums made possible by rise of the high powered mobile computers we call phones.  With Flixel, and the broader Cinemagraph movement, we will.

You can read the press release here:  http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/786439

Fragmentation of the Android ecosystem is making it difficult for developers to build and monetize apps.  Right now only 2.9% of all Android devices are running the most recent version of the OS, Ice Cream Sandwich.  Older versions of the OS still dominate with Gingerbread at 63% and Froyo at 23%.  Fragmentation creates a poor consumer experience (i.e. apps don’t work) and combined with low cost phones, is attracting a down market consumer.  Android apps are being monetized at just $0.23 for every $1 of Apple App Store revenue.  Given this, Android’s share gains are not translating into developer mind share.

Forking is a less widely known issue but it may prove to be even more important.  When Amazon released the Kindle Fire they took Android’s Gingerbread iteration and built a custom OS on top of it.  Amazon does not intend to update the OS on Google’s release schedule and the Kindle Fire does not support the Google appstore as the device is connected to Amazon’s app store.  As such, while Amazon’s device is “built on Android” it is completely disconnected from the ecosystem and will continue to be going forward.  The forking trend is rumoured to be picking up speed after Google bought Motorola Mobility.  Android OEMs are scared of being held hostage by Google and are working to build their “own” versions of Android.  I would imagine that all the big players (HTC, Samsung etc…) have formed internal OS groups to ensure they have a backup plan if Google continues to tighten the screws.

So will the conventional wisdom turn out to be true?  Does Android’s growing market share mean it is destined to “win” the smartphone wars?  For now I am going to dodge the question and state that regardless of who wins, this is a big opportunity.  Valuable companies are going to be built to deal with these issues.  Startups need to look at the problems in the chaotic Android ecosystem and build elegant solutions.  The problems are getting worse and the time is now to start fixing them.

In addition to these private sector sources, the Canadian government has a wide variety of programs designed to help startups.   Some of these programs (IRAP, SR&ED, FedDev, CMF) are well known and have been utilized by hundreds of startups.  I am not going to explain the details of these programs but, if you need information on them, feel free to email me at rsamuels@mantellavp.com and I can provide you with a brief overview and put you in touch with an entrepreneur who has utilized each funding source.

Interestingly, there are dozens of other programs that are not as widely known but can still offer startups substantial help extending their runaway.  To this point, our good friends at MaRS have built a comprehensive database that covers nearly all of the funding sources available in Canada (the database is located here and given that it has ~100 entries for just Ontario, it is well worth exploring).

After reading through the Ontario section I found 3 new funding sources that I was unaware of which offer the possibility of substantial external capital.

Eastern Ontario Development Fund – This program provides a grant of up to $1,500,000 to companies located in Eastern Ontario to fund up to 50% of economic development projects valued at $100,000 or more. The program is targeted at relatively established companies that have a minimum of 3 years of operating history and 10 employees or more.

Export Market Access – This program will cover up to 50% of the costs of “developing export sales”.  The program is targeted at later stage startups, as it requires sales of $500,000 and 2 year of corporate operating history.  Eligible costs include trade shows, marketing tools, market research and bidding on foreign projects.

Innovation Demonstration Fund – A grant of between $100,000 and $4,000,000 (50% of costs) is available for companies with pilot stage “green” technology that will provide Ontario with a significant competitive advantage and is globally competitive.  While the program is designed for “green” technology it appears to include anything that is “globally significant”.  This process sounds like it could be slow given that the project needs to be reviewed by the Ministry, an inter-ministerial review team, an external panel and others.

If anyone has utilized funding sources that they want to recommend to the community please feel free to post a comment below or message me (rsamuels@mantellavp.com / @RussSamuels)

“…we are in the middle of a dramatic and broad technological and economic shift in which software companies are poised to take over large swathes of the economy [emphasis added]”

Sitting at at the head of the Valley’s hottest VC fund, Andreessen Horowitz, and having co-founded Netscape and Opsware, Mr. Andreessen is in as good a position as anyone to observe and comment on such trends.

The point of this blog post is not to argue against Mr. Andreessen’s thesis – especially since, its undoubtedly true – but rather, to take a look at a smaller trend that falls within his broader argument: in the coming years a number of successful startups will appear to be hardware companies (particularly in the eyes of consumers).

This is a non-consensus view.  Think about it, nearly all of the hottest startups in the recent cycle have been software only: Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, LinkedIn, Groupon and Pandora. Investors have been ringing the “software only” bell for 10 years and for good reasons: no inventory costs, faster cycle times and above all, low capital intensity.

Given all this, why are we on the verge of a Hardware Renaissance?  I think the broad trends are well understood and include: the rise of low cost Asian manufacturing, the movement towards universal smartphone penetration (as smartphones will often be the “brain”) and the ability to quickly and easily update hardware over-the-air.

Below are four examples that demonstrate the point.  The first is a clear success story, the second is an emerging success story, while the third & fourth are looking really promising.  Each demonstrates a creative pairing of low cost hardware with smart software.

Square – Jack Dorsey’s follow up to Twitter is a small, square shaped dongle that plugs into an iPhone and allows anyone – yes, anyone – to accept credit card payments for 2.75%.   The company is giving away the dongle and as of October 2011 had signed on 800,000 merchants (which is approximately 10% of the Visa & Mastercard accepting world!) and was on track to do $2 billion in gross payments.  Square is combining a simple low-cost hardware package with an insanely smart software backend and the result has been mass adoption faster than anyone thought posible.

Jawbone – Most people know this company simply as the maker of a stylish Bluetooth headset.  After Mr. Andreessen’s fund invested $49 million in March of 2011 observers began to take notice of Jawbone’s larger ambition, namely, wearable computing.  The firm’s second wearable device, the “Up”, has stumbled due to quality issues but otherwise has generated serious buzz online.  At $179, the device is comparable to Fitbit but with a high-end, jewelry inspired design.  The device ties into a lifestyle management software platform online and intelligently helps consumers live healthier lives.

Twine – In recent weeks an obscure Kickstarter project which looks to be a plastic bar of soap has captured the imagination of early adopters.  Twine raised just shy of $500,000 from 3,500 backers (avg. cost of $142) to produce the Swiss Army knife of programmable sensors.  The device is adept at detecting movement, temperature, IR, moisture, and has a number of switches and inputs. Consumers will be able to let their imaginations run wild and program their Twine’s to do thousands of tasks.  The hardware is a plastic rectangle with off the shelf components inside of it, which is to say, its low cost and simple to build.  The real brains are in the cloud (a DIY platform for consumers to program their sensors).

SurfEasy (MantellaVP portfolio company) – Everyone knows that Internet “privacy” is a big issue but nobody knows what to do about it (and no, quitting Facebook is not an option).   At next week’s CES show in Las Vegas, Chris Houston and his team will unveil their radically simple solution: the SurfEasy USB key.  Pop the USB key into any computer and SurfEasy provides you with fully encrypted access to the Internet – and not just any kind of encryption, this is Bank grade tech. SurfEasy ensures that no data is left on the computer your surfing on and that nobody (hackers, your spouse etc…) can identify who you are!  The stick retails for $59.99 and sits in a credit card sized holder so that it can live inside your wallet and be with you wherever you are: a friend’s house, the office, or the local Starbucks.  SurfEasy quickly pre-sold about $70,000 worth of product on Kickstarter earlier this year and is now taking pre-orders from the general public (first batch ships on February 20).  SurfEasy has done a great job combining an insanely complex backend system with a simple and low cost hardware package.

In conclusion, software is eating the world but often that software is going to come packaged in beautiful, low cost and/or simple hardware.

Feel free to post comments & questions below or message me on twitter (@RussSamuels)

Thanks,

Russell (@RussSamuels)