One of the interesting startups we found at NY Tech Day is called Business Leads. It’s a company that helps businesses to find good leads by using people who are active in social media, and for those socialites to earn bounties by providing leads to businesses.

Mobile Brain Bank took a chance on the service and set up our first post. Find good leads for us and start the bounty hunting.

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Perhaps you remember how we were stranded in New York last fall because of superstorm Sandy. One of the new paths for Mobile Brain Bank was formed back then. We identified a gap in the energy market for smart mobile solutions, serving many consumer and business customers as well as internally improving efficiency inside utilities and smart grid providers.

Right when Sandy started blowing, we intended to attend the New York’s Advanced Energy conference 2012. It never took place as the water started rising dangerously on the West side of Manhattan. The conference was postponed to May 2013, and began today.

The Mobile Brain Bank crew spent our day in Javits Conference Center talking to a range of companies, research institutions and universities. Lots of progress in the field of energy, and we are there to speed it up big time!

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We attended this annual startup event in New York on April 25, 2013. They claim to be ”World’s largest tech startup event”. Don’t know if it’s true, but some 400 startups and over 10,000 visitors did fill Pier 92 pretty nicely.

Mobile Brain Bank’s dear colleague Elance was one of the main sponsors of the event, and many of the startups admitted that they are not there to lure investors, but to hire tech talent. Finding good technical staff is in many cases a bigger threshold for success than access to seed capital. Naturally we were there to discuss outsourcing the mobile sw projects to qualified and verified Mobile Brain Bank mobile development companies.

Thanks for a great show and see you next year.

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Finland.org, news site for Finland’s Embassy in Washington and Consulates General in New York and Los Angeles, together with their Facebook page and Newsletter lifted Mobile Brain Bank on their cover this week. We are honored and thankful.

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We’ve spent the week attending Distributech, a Smart Grid conference, in San Diego. Since last summer Mobile Brain Bank identified Energy as an industry that would benefit from adding mobile apps to their B2C and B2B interfaces.

During the show we met with dozens of companies in both pre-booked meetings, as well as in networking events and the show floor. Here are some of the highlights from the conference.

Southwire Company in Georgia the number one manufacturer of wire cable in North America. They are one of the pioneers in this industry who’ve realized the power of a mobile front end. Their Partial Reel Calculator, Conduit Fill Calculator, Proof Positive Copper app, Voltage drop, are examples of apps created for Southwire’s business users. All of the apps are well done, and it amazed us to hear that they’ve actually been developed by local Carrollton high school students. Southwire takes pride in taking care of the community, and they’ve launched something called SWEA (Southwire Engineering Academy) to address local needs. Another SWEA program is called Twelve for Life which helps at-risk students in Carroll county schools by providing employment while attending school. The students will have a guaranteed job with wage as long as they stay in school and finish. Such admirable corporate responsibility.

At another both, Aclara announced a mobile experience that offers electric, gas and water utilities an integrated, user friendly way to engage with consumers. It’s a turnkey solution for iOS and Android devices that performs a wide range of apps from usage tracking, to paying your utility bills, outage reporting etc. Each utility can brand the app in their own look and feel, and launch to customers in their familiar colors.

Esri is a company name that popped up here and there. They are offering a mobile geographic information system (GIS). This software is used by utilities for mapping their networks such as water pipes, electricity grid etc. Esri offers a SDK for developers to build apps on top of the map. The SDK is currently available for Android, iOS and Windows 6.5. A Windows 8 version will be released later this spring.

Smartcom is a leading M2M service provider with an solution integrating thermostats, metering, security, logistics, ATM, lighting, vending machines – any connected machine you can imagine, into a coherent wireless network.

Countless companies showcased their meters, readers, thermostats etc. There is an abundance of connected devices out there, most of lacking a mobile user interface. Attending the show made us even more convinced that mobile software has a bright future in Energy, Smart Grid and Smart Home.

If you have an existing mobile solution to offer in this space, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Petra (a) mobilebrainbank.com

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I used the holidays effectively and completed my MBA thesis for Aalto University School of Science and Technology (previously Helsinki University of Technology). The title of the thesis is ”The Network Theory of Power explained in relation to Network Brand, perspective of a software developer community”. The software developer community in question is Mobile Brain Bank.

I have been interested in networks already before founding the Mobile Brain Bank. During the Nokia years I started many initiatives, always needing to prove my case first. Proving the case usually meant getting enough mass behind the idea, hence networking. Open innovation, open source software development, standardization, licensing, platform stickiness, research promotion, these are all elements of networking, and using the power of the network for achieving a goal.

But who sets the goals? Who pulls the strings?

I started by looking into the Network Theory of Power by Manuel Castells, and the Theory of Network Gatekeeping by Karine Barzilai-Nahon. I made notes and studied how these theories relate to Mobile Brain Bank. Pretty soon I realized that as a network, Mobile Brain Bank has a unique character, it is a network held together by commercial opportunities for developers. It is not a social network, nor is it an ideology. From this, I concluded that the study would be incomplete unless I recognize the business aspect, and soon found a perfect anti-thesis: the theory of Network Brand by Teemu Moilanen.

These two theories (Castells and Moilanen) provided the theoretical framework, and Mobile Brain Bank the case. I concluded the paper with eight points:

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Join Dog’Y'Dog, the coolest dude in New York City, while he gets ready for Christmas on Manhattan finding the true meaning of joy and happiness through new friends.

The short film Dog ’y’ Dog Christmas introduces a new animation and game character Dog’Y’Dog, a young and curious dog hurling around Manhattan in an effort to create himself a cozy Christmas Eve.

The video is created by Leningrad Cowboys and Anima Vitae, and Leningrad Cowboys’ version of Christmas in Hollis plays a major role in the film.

Dog’Y'Dog is another prime example of software, animation, game development and music talent coming from Finland. Mobile Brain Bank cooperates with Leningrad Cowboys and Anima Vitae on the project in North America and Finland.

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Leningrad Cowboys together with Anima Vitae, one of the leading animation studios in Nordic countries, released a Holiday Season film Dog’Y’Dog Christmas. This animated short film tells a story about the busy days leading to Christmas Eve and how Christmas spirit is best found by working together with others.

“It felt natural to base the story in New York. The hectic, Christmassy Metropolis contrasted with the serenity and tranquility of the Holiday Season created a fascinating setting for the film”, says Sakke Järvenpää, the leading persona behind Leningrad Cowboys.

The band has fond memories of the city, including performances at MTV USA Video Music Awards in Radio City Music Hall and at the legendary CBGB club, as well as filming scenes for the cult movie ‘Leningrad Cowboys go America’.

The short film Dog ’y’ Dog Christmas introduces a new animation and game character Dog’Y'Dog, a young and curious dog hurling around Manhattan in an effort to create himself a cozy Christmas Eve. Leningrad Cowboys’ version of Christmas in Hollis plays a major role in the film.

“I wanted to use this short and fun film to remind people about how joyful it is to begin a shared Christmas celebration even while working hard for creating the Christmas Eve experience for yourself and your family”, adds the director of the film, Luca Bruno of Anima Vitae.

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Petteri Pasanen, CEO / Anima Vitae, mob. +358 40 500 0571, petteri@anima.fi
Mikko Hultman, Manager / Leningrad Cowboys, mob. +358 40 735 1790, mikko@leningradcowboys.fi
Petra Söderling, PR representative USA, mob. +1 (917) 291 2533, petra@mobilebrainbank.com

Dog ’Y’ Dog: www.dogydogofficial.com
Press Material: http://www.anima.fi/?p=1704

Leningrad Cowboys
Leningrad Cowboys became world known from an Aki Kaurismäki movie ‘Leningrad Cowboys go America’, released in 1989. This cult band famous for their outrageous vintage hairpieces and long, pointy shoes, has toured over 60 countries and performed over thousand gigs. Their latest feat is the album Buena Vodka Social Club from 2011 www.leningradcowboys.fi

Anima Vitae
Animation studio Anima Vitae is best known for the movie Niko – The Way to the Stars / The Flight before Christmas in USA. It was released in 2008 and sold to 118 countries. The sequel, Niko 2 – Little Brother, Big Trouble, was released in Finnish theaters October 12, 2012. Anima Vitae signed a contract with the Max Howard Consulting Group. Academy award winner Howard created and ran studios for Disney in London, Paris, Orlando and Los Angeles, working on some of Disney’s most memorable films including Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King. www.anima.fi

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When preparing for Slush 2012, we got interviewed about our experiences since Slush 2011. Apparently we can call Mobile Brain Bank a ”Slusher” from now on.

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We are happy to announce that Smart Grid Executive Mr. Vesa Koivisto, M.Sc. (Eng) and MBA, has joined Mobile Brain Bank as a Partner.

Vesa brings with him a strategic, deep professional experience from the Energy industry, where he has held a number of leadership positions in an internationally operating utility. He has an extensive background in retail and distribution operations of electric power industry and has most recently worked with a wide range of Smart Grid and Smart Home technologies and solutions, both from utility and vendor perspectives. Vesa also brings proven experience from strategy and business development and execution – from creating product and service roadmaps to launching of new, innovative solutions and acceleration of growth through strategic, international co-operation networks and alliances.

Mobile Brain Bank has operated commercially from the beginning of 2012. As we continue to offer global developer match-making services through www.mobilebrainbank.com, we are also focusing around three specific industries: Energy, Finance, and Communications.

Vesa brings with him an outstanding topical expertise for Energy and Smart Grid business, as well as a proven experience on business development to enhance other focus areas. Vesa works out of Mobile Brain Bank’s New York office.

Happy faces, Vesa Koivisto and Petra Söderling signing the contract today.

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