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Originally published on 05/13/2002
I first covered Good Technology in September 2000. At that time, the company was making an MP3 player for the Handspring Visor expansion slot. The product was a yawner, and Good soon killed it. The company returned to its core vision, as summed up by its celebrity VC, John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins: "There's no point in selling devices if you're not also selling services."
Fast Facts:
Good Technology
www.good.com |
| CEO |
Danny Shader. Last job: CEO, Accept.com
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| HQ |
Sunnyvale, CA
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| Employees |
100+
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| Market |
Enterprise wireless data services
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| Funding |
$60M in two rounds; B leads were Kleiner Perkins and Benchmark. Not actively raising C round yet.
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| Profitable? |
No, and won't disclose projections
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| Fun fact |
Danny Shader bears a striking resemblance to David Schwimmer (Ross on Friends).
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Today's plan is ambitious: to compete with the Research in Motion (RIM) wireless data service. While Good also makes a great handheld device, the G100, to compete with RIM's BlackBerry, focusing on the device misses the point. The Good service, which currently uses the same Mobitex data network that RIM does, will run not just on its own device, but also on a BlackBerry (with Good's software transplant) as well as other devices on different wireless services, Good's CEO Danny Shader told me.
The company's flagship service tightly binds Outlook accounts to wireless devices. It synchronizes Outlook's calendar, contact list, and most importantly email (including folders and attachments) with a handheld, over the air. There is no need to ever "dock" a Good device to a computer to synchronize it. The benefits to enterprise IT departments (Good's customers): no more cradles or end-user software to install, which reduces management time and expense, and no users confused by out-of-sync desktops and handhelds. The company also has a service to get intranet data to wireless devices.
Can Good infiltrate RIM's market? RIM is working on improving its service, already has a GPRS device, and certainly has a head start in the enterprise wireless market. But Good's focus on supporting a major proprietary system (Outlook), over any wireless link, on any device with a wireless modem, positions the company well for growth.
- Rafe Needleman
email: rafe-needleman@catchoday.com
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