M.

Michael Sampson
Global VP of Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Foldera, Inc.

(I really must talk to Buzz about using ActiveWords for that comment signature instead of typing it everytime!)

Michael, you mention an offline client- this is great news and would alleviate the primary concern that I (and I’m sure others) have about access to my important data. It’s not necessarily a trust issue as much as needing access to the data, even at those times when a connection to the web is not available. I’d love to help you test that client when you need it.

Oliver, that’s great news that you guys are working on mobile access, which in my opinion is going to be critical to your users, especially with the growth in the mobile computing segment recently with PDAs, smartphones, and now UMPCs. I believe you will also need a mobile client, preferably on the Windows Mobile platform which is the platform of choice for mobile devices based on sheer numbers. The email notification method you mentioned is interesting but will not enable users to really work with their data when away from their desk. I’d be more than happy to talk to you about what you are doing. Either of you feel free to email me anytime at

jk AT jkontherun DOT com.

Seeing as how Michael brought my name up I thought I’d chime in and give you a preview of my planned roadmap for Foldera’s mobility strategy. Incidentally, this is the first time I’ve discussed these plans publically, so you might consider this something of a scoop.

Hot on the heels of the full scale beta release will be simple messaging from your Foldera account to one or more mobile devices of your choosing. Basically, we’ll be enabling SMS messaging from the application to notify you when you have new Foldera content and what that content is.

This will differ from simple signalling in a few key ways, the most important of which will be your ability to select what kind of content merits a notification message. For example, if you want to know about any new email in your Foldera account you can enable messaging for that feature. If you don’t care when a new appointment has been added to your calendar, you can simulataneously have email notification on, calendar event notification off.

There will be nearly limitless ways for you to configure your personal notifications, including by priority, time, and potentially even by individual (so that the really important people on your list trigger notifications whereas garden variety email does not). This last though we are still looking into so don’t hold my feet to the fire for that one – at least not the first week!

Following notifications we’re looking into richer data coming to your mobile from your Foldera account – whether we’ll enable document uploads to things like Windows Mobile or Symbian smartphones is yet to be decided, though for sure we’ll support some kind of MMS or email upload to push pictures and other filetypes from your Foldera account to your phone.

The next phase will be direct Foldera access via mobile devices; this of course means that you’ll be able to log in, browse, enter data and extract data from your Foldera account all with your mobile device.

Ultimately, because we (as people passionate about mobility) probably agree that even the best phones still leave something to be desired in the I/O department, I intend to work towards the development of a mobile device specifically optimized to work with Foldera.

In many ways, it was the carrot of working on the development of this device that was my motivation for leaving the highly sought after Executive in Residence position I’d secured six months prior and trading the fame and glory of the VC lifestyle for the 20 hour days of start-up trench warfare that entrepreneurs like Richard (Foldera’s CEO) and I seem to love so much. I consider the opportunity to be working on the physical development of a new kind of communication and information management tool to be a once in a lifetime opportunity so you can imagine how passionate I must be about this project, particularly knowing how fanatical people like you and I already tend to be where shiny toys are concerned.

As with everyone at Foldera working on the PC application, I’m always interested in feedback, particularly from someone that’s been playing with mobile devices since they weighed 30 pounds, so please get in touch with me if you feel so inclined; I’m sure your input would be very helpful.

Regards,

Oliver Starr, SVP of Biz Dev and Chief Mobility Officer/Blogger Foldera Corporation

PS: Readers interested in the inside story of Foldera can get a glimpse of what it’s like to be on the Foldera team by checking out Foldera’s blog at http://foderablog.com

Happy to discuss further,

Michael Sampson
Global VP of Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Foldera, Inc.