FotoJelly is a PaaS whose vision is to make it easier for people to share photos when participating in events & group activities. Our “secret sauce” is in how we incorporate context through location data and integration with event services to increase the value of our content to our user community in general, event hosts and marketers. Being in BizSpark, along with our participation in Founder Institute, accelerated our ability cost effectively deliver our first product, FotoJelly for Windows Phone, which was released July 12^th

In addition to developing with Visual Studio, we use Azure & SQL Azure for data storage, hosting servers from a Microsoft partner (SingleHop) and Office 365 for email & collaboration. There are a lot of competing products that were made available to us, many of them at no cost. But the relatively seamless integration and our familiarity across the various platforms won us over.

And while we’ve had several mentors as well as potential investors question our decision to be “Windows First”, the development and cloud platforms have been advantageous in terms of finding great technical resources and iterating quickly. And, we believe that the devices we plan to support (Windows Phone 7/8, Xbox, Windows 8 Tablet) will require less effort to adopt technically (i.e., we can build off of what we’ve already coded). Combined with Microsoft’s expected marketing of Windows 8, I think we are making a good bet in riding that wave.

Currently, I’m bootstrapping the company, but have applied to both Bing Fund and the Azure Accelerator. The journey thus far has not been without challenges, but I’m super excited about what we’ve accomplished thus far and really appreciate the support BizSpark has given to the startup community.

This video details the very first startup Demo Day at San Quentin Prison, the very first to ever happen in a California State Correctional Facility. 

Could this start a new economy? Could we see a new trend where people who really do want to fund new jobs, and new ways of making money, actually invest in a group of people whose ideas could change their cities, the country, and the world? Those in prison, some of them at one time serving life sentences, are being taught how to work with technology and build a company without access to the Internet, so that they can help their communities as they return to society.

According to Beverly Parenti, Co-founder of The Last Mile, "We teach business principles, technology, social media, and entrepreneurship skills to a very select group of men. Our mission is to increase post release success and reduce recidivism."

It's unclear if participation in the program enables the men to return to society, of if they were already granted this permission and then found the program. In any case, it's an inspiring few moments of video for your early morning or evening, depending on where you are in the world.

How does a brand new logistical data company get up and running in Microsoft BizSpark? Turns out you can use a little bit of searching on the web, and depend on your business savvy partner to get ahead. But it's not easy. Many people in parts of the developing world will want to stay focused on using Excel spreadsheets and calculators, when all they really need is a quick cloud-based data solution. 

Our BizSpark member Carlos Eduardo, tells the story of starting Pratical One.

One year ago, my partner and I created Pratical One. Here’s why after some careful research and market positioning, we decided to go forward with the idea to automate the process that manages and exchanges data for cargo transport.

Last August, my business partner Rejane and I were feeling that it was the perfect time to start our plan.

Rejane’s a well-known professional in the logistics market and has worked for the biggest players for more than 15 years. I’ve been developing systems since I was a teenager.

After working on big companies, we thought that we knew how to make Pratical One happen.

Right? Yeah, not so much.

The first challenge was mine to handle as the more technical of the two. It was clear to us that we should use cloud computing. It’s cheap, easy to access and multi-platform. However, after all the years programming on ASP, what would that mean for the business?

How do I change a completely rock-solid business model into something that depends on the cloud? How do I develop? Do I use C# or VB.net?

For all those questions, friends and search engines. I can’t count how many times I’ve spent searching about ways to develop my system. And what to do when I had an error? Blogs, forums and all things possible were all I had to find the answers.

With the basic system ongoing, we went to market, trying our first customer. We have a system, we have expertise on IT and logistic, we have contacts. It should be a piece of cake, but there was a big BUT.

The market is kind of conservative. They are used to doing things on Excel and telephone, so why would they shift to a paid model in a convenient software solution? It’s not as easy of a sell as it looks. Many of them would ask, “Why change the process?”

So we realize that it will take time to show and prove people about the gains of moving to Pratical One. They can be more accessible, more reliable and efficient.

We are now harvesting the first crops. We knew that it wouldn't be easy, and will never be.

As an entrepreneur, the biggest thing that I've learned so far was that with the right information, a good partner like Microsoft, and the work of my business savvy partner, it’s possible to handle the unknown. As an IT guy, I had never thought about marketing, legal, account and other matters, but my will to win makes me move forward.

The only way to be successful is to be able to everything at first. It teaches you about the business and it helps you understand your customers.

Actually I think our ability to be adaptable will define the future. We are creating a big company. 

How does Desiree Vargas Wrigley, founder of GiveForward, raise capital? It must be particularly different for social good startups, since they traditionally work in a low scale market, or so people think.

Our friends at TechCocktail caught up with the GiveForward founder and asked her about how to raise money as a social venture.

Desiree Vargas Wrigley - GiveForward - Tech Cocktail Conversations

After reviewing the pitches of the top 20 startup applicants for the India Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure, the judges have decided on the first class. 

The team in India wrote this blog post yesterday to announce the winners: 

The competition was excitingly fierce. After a few rounds of screening, the top 20 applicants were called to present before the panel of judges. This happened a few days back. “This was a rigorous yet exciting process, not just for the startups, but for all the judges as well,” said Rajesh Raju, Managing Director, Indo-US Venture Partners. Recounting his experience, Rajesh said: “Not only did I get to hear some incredible ideas, I got the opportunity to meet some really smart people. It is heartening to see the increasing risk appetite in India--more and more bright people are now giving up well paying corporate jobs to become entrepreneurs! This is an extremely encouraging sign for an investor like me.”

Finally, after several rounds of screening, the judges unanimously selected the top 11 startups that will form the inaugural class of the Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure in India: AmplyfyMe, Caeruz Ventures, CipherGraph, CloudInfra, Gameizon, HireRabbit, NowFloats, Plustxt Mobile Solutions Pvt. Ltd, Sparsha, Whitesharkk & World Without Me. Each of these companies clearly stood out in their business value proposition, their strong technology or product, and a strong team that can execute on the idea and build a sustainable long-term business.

Congratulations to the winners.