Three Technology Companies that Impressed us [2008 Recap]

There are companies and there are companies that run @ the speed of light. Apart from operational execution or technical greatness, they work in all dimensions of the business – be it forging partnerships or creating entry barriers -  these companies did surpass our expectations.

We could have done Top 10 list, but if you constraint to 3, you will have to really think hard and filter out the best among the lot.

Flying High

Here is our list for 3 categories: Enterprise, Mobile and Internet.

Enterprise: Zoho

2008 witnessed the validation of cloud model with both Google and Microsoft announcing their plans to clog the air. Even after all thy hype surrounding Google docs/Microsoft’s Azure, Zoho kept it’s focus on the execution and launched an entire portfolio of apps that a SMB’s IT department just cannot ignore.

Significant achievements in 2008:

• Marketplace for Apps
• Zoho mail goes offline (before Google)
• Launch of Zoho Docs

Building products is one thing, but building kickass ecosystem that show fingers to competition is another – that’s what Zoho did in 2008.

The next important step for Zoho is to integrate it’s products under application suite – right now, the entire stack is too overwhelming and confusing.

Mobile:  TringMe

Launched in 2007, TringMe has emerged as a strong player in VoIP space – they just executed the game. What’s impressive about the entire execution plan is the ‘release early, release often’ mantra that TringMe followed – they almost had new features every other month and many of them had a ‘wow’ effect among the audience.

Owing to the product architecture, they were also one of the discussed products among VoIP bigwigs.

Surely, Tringme is one startup to watch out for!

Significant achievements in 2008:

• TringMe launches worldwide numbers – Get a US number without any hassle!
• Build your own Mobile VoIP solution – TringMe opens it’s MobileVoIP API
• TringMe Introduces SMS based VoIP solution

Web: Rise of In.com

Within few months of launch, In.com is emerging as a major threat to the existing content portals. While one can argue that they are just diverting traffic from existing sites to one common domain, what really impressed us was the overall execution in doing the same.

The site was well promoted across Network18 platform (TV/web) and at the same time, in.com kept adding useful features (e.g. scheduled mail delivery). Neat UI, content quality surely serves as a great hook in order to increase stickiness.

Significant achievements in 2008:

Well, the traffic says it all:

The challenge for them is of course, to sustain the traffic and move up the ladder – they have exhausted all their ‘current resources’ (i.e. all top performing websites are now part of in.com), so improving on stickiness is the next deal for them.

What’s your opinion on these companies? Do you agree with our list? What’s your list of 3 companies that impressed you?

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Tags: 2008, recap