Sept. 9 - 10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Slick conference calling app UberConference has integrated its service with hot startups Evernote and Box, a sign it’s dedicated to making conference calling smarter and more useful.

UberConference’s goal is to make conference calls not as painful as they usually are with cloud-based software. It recently launched an enterprise-class version of its offering and new iPhone and Android apps. Now it is lining up partners to make the experience better.

“The direction we’re going is to be more collaborative,” Craig Walker, CEO of UberConference-parent Firespotter Labs, told me while demoing the new features. “We’re always asking ‘How can we make this more powerful?’ We’re excited to be partnered with these two great companies.”

With Box or Evernote integrated into the software, workers can collaboratively edit documents while on a conference call and then share the results with team members. At the end of a call, links to the notes and files used during the meeting are included in the call summary. Notably, UberConference is one of the first partners to integrate with Evernote Business. Walker said he will likely add Box and Evernote support to its mobile apps eventually.

On top of adding handy Box and Evernote Business integration, the UberConference team has also added international calling support for more than 40 countries across Europe, South America, and Asia. Basically, the company has made it so if you are located another country besides the U.S., you don’t have to pay for often-expensive rates for international calling to the U.S. Instead, you’re able to dial an in-country local number to get into a conference. International support only works for UberConference paid accounts.

Walker said the company’s next big additions will likely be a full-fledged iPad app and a native app for Android tablets.

UberConference-parent Firespotter Labs, based in Pleasanton, Calif., has raised $18 million to date from top tier investors Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures. The company is also the brains behind the apps NoshList, Nosh, and Jotly.

Photo via UberConference

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Inventive conference call service UberConference, from the inventor of Google Voice, has launched new apps for iOS and Android, a move that will make conference call experiences better even if you’re a highly mobile worker.

UberConference won the top prize at TechCrunch Disrupt New York last May because its premise of “reinventing the conference call” is attractive for workers who hate traditional conference calling. Recently, UberConference introduced a new enterprise-class version of its software that increases conference size to 40 people, outboard dialing to join a call, call recording, and more.

Just like their web app counterpart, the new UberConference apps on iOS and Android allow you to add additional people to a call, mute the line, put “earmuffs” on other people on the line, and turn call recording on and off.

“With the modern worker being mobile much of the time and dependent on their devices to conduct traditional business functions, we knew that it was important to give them all the tools and functionality of UberConference in a slick app for their smart phones,” Firespotter Labs CEO Craig Walker told VentureBeat via email. “Now a user can be anywhere and quickly start an UberConference by clicking a few names from their address book. UberConference will dial out to each of the parties and bring them into an instant conference call.”

UberConference-parent Firespotter Labs, based in Pleasanton, Calif., has raised $18 million to date from heavy hitting investors Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures. The company is also the brains behind NoshList, Nosh, and Jotly.

Check out a few more photos of UberConference on iOS in the photos below:

Photos via Firespotter Labs

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Restaurant waitlisting app NoshList has launched a new premium version that includes table number assignment, unlimited texting between a restaurant and diners, analytics, and more.

NoshList helps restaurants ditch clipboards and buzzers, notifying diners instead via text messaging that their tables are ready. The host or hostess uses the NoshList iPad app to keep track of diners, send them messages, and estimate wait times.

The NoshList service launched in February and hit 1 million diners seated in 75 days. Now, after nine months, the service has seated about 4.5 million diners and is used by more than 1,600 restaurants in the United States. Big-name NoshList clients include Red Robin and Buffalo Wild Wings.

NoshList Premium features include:

• Unlimited Two-Way Texting
• Table Number Assignment
• Large Party Functionality
• NoshGuest Autofill
• In-App Statistics
• Designated Local Phone Number
• 30-Day Exportable Analytics
• Weekly Email Summaries

Regular NoshList will remain a free service, but NoshList Premium will cost $49 per month per restaurant.

“There’s absolutely no way in which pen and paper, yelling, or buzzers can be innovated to drive sales, relay guest preferences, or deliver a better guest experience,” Cody Rose, director of restaurant services for Firespotter Labs, told us via email. “And for decades restaurants have clung tight to these antiquated methods because there was no alternative.”

NoshList-parent Firespotter Labs, based in Pleasanton, Calif., has raised $18 million to date from Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures. The company is also the brains behind UberConference, Nosh, and Jotly.

Check out the video below for more on NoshList:

Firespotter Labs has introduced a new enterprise-class version of its UberConference software, a visual reinvention of conference calling from the creator of Google Voice.

UberConference won the top prize at TechCrunch Disrupt New York in May because the premise of “reinventing the conference call” is attractive and the software is polished and smart. UberConference calls show who is talking at the moment, mutes lines of people who aren’t speaking, and generally tries to fix any of the weird quirks that plague every conference call.

“With companies spending over $3 billion annually in the U.S. on audio conferencing, users deserve a better experience than what they’ve put up with for the past 30 years,” Craig Walker, CEO of Firespotter Labs and creator of Google Voice, in a statement. “UberConference Business offers entire organizations an experience far superior to any other conference calling service available today.”

UberConference Business also promises the following features that make it stand out from its regular product:

• Increased Conference Size: Have up to 40 people on a single conference call.
• Outbound Dialing to Join: Check the outbound calling box when you schedule your conference call and ÜberConference Business will automatically dial you and the other participants when it’s time for your call.
• Call Recording: Record any or all of your ÜberConferences. MP3s are available for each recording and saved as part of the call summary.
• Start Without Me: Set up a conference call without having to be on it.
• Removal of Branding: Remove the “this free conference call is provided by…” messaging at the start of every call.
• Dedicated Support: Chat or email with us if you have questions.

UberConference Business incorporates the full set of features from UberConference’s regular products, including the visual interface, Evernote integration, “social caller ID” with LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+m and Twitter info, and “earmuffs” that let people create breakout conversations. Additionally, the business version of UberConference can be downloaded from the Google Apps Marketplace, which makes it possible to access an UberConference account from the Google Apps menu bar.

UberConference-parent Firespotter Labs, based in Pleasanton, Calif., has raised $18 million to date from Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures.

More on UberConference can be viewed in the video below:

Firespotter Labs, the creator of services including UberConference and Jotly, has raised $15 million in its second round of funding, the company announced today.

The company’s UberConference service promises to reinvent the conference call and it won the top award at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012. While Firespotter has other services, the new funds will mostly be targeted at UberConference, which is spearheaded by Google Voice creator Craig Walker.

“Craig is an accomplished serial entrepreneur in the communications industry, and he and his team are uniquely positioned to build the next generation of communications services,” said just-named Firespotter board member (and former CEO of Sling Media) Blake Krikorian, in a statement. “The communications space is changing dramatically and we’re excited to be working with Firespotter to usher in those changes.”

The new round of funding was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from prior investor Google Ventures. In total, the company has raised $18 million.

Check out videos for UberConference below:

The company has identified  four main problems with teleconferences. First, of course, there’s dealing with the conference number itself, and then the authentication PIN number. Then there’s the problem of determining who is on the call, and the related issue — particularly on conference calls with larger groups — of knowing who is speaking. And finally, there’s the noise that inevitably interrupts when too many people are on speakerphone, or are taking the call in a busy location.

UberConference allows teleconferencers to dial a number (no PIN required), see who is calling in, and determine who is currently talking. The organizer can instantly tell when one or more participants are causing feedback or noise, and mute them. The organizer can even cut select participants out of sections of the call (UberConference calls it “earmuffing”) if needed for confidentiality reasons.

A particularly helpful feature is the ability to click on a participant and see their social overview, taken from popular networks: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. That’s a feature I’ve wanted often enough on calls with participants from multiple divisions or companies.

Currently, UberConference is free, but in the future the company will “offer a premium version of the service with more features and different pricing options.” The interface is simple and gorgeous, although you wonder how well it would scale for very large conference calls.

Walker is a serial entrepreneur. After selling GrandCentral to Google in 2007 for around $50 million, turning that service into Google Voice, and then spending some time as entrepreneur-in-residence at Google Ventures, Walker left Google in mid-2011. He has not gone far, however; the incubator behind UberVoice, Firespotter Labs, is funded by Google Ventures.

GrandCentral was not Walker’s first internet telephony service, nor his first sale to an internet giant. Walker also ran DialPad in in the early 2000s, selling it to Yahoo in 2005. Obviously he can’t stay away from the telephony space.

Here’s a humorous look at the rational behind UberConference:

And, a more sober overview of the service itself:

Photo credit: Barnaby Kerr Photography