Everybody Helps

Your Success First Leads to Ours

Once in a while I will see a question from a user or a comment on a blog post wondering how we will make money or will we charge for the use of CrossLoop down the road.

I had addressed it here (the product, as is, will always be free and we plan to add premium services) before but let me do it again for the benefit of the hundreds of thousands of new users since then and with more insight into the team, its philosophy and culture which is all around a term I call "collateral success".

Generally all corporations are built around the core objective of maximizing shareholder wealth/value. I argue that it does not focus on users first. Our philosophy of collateral success focuses on our users first - make you successful first and we are confident, we will be successful. Think personal professions - would you choose to follow your passion and incidentally make money or would you prefer to do something and devote a significant amount of your life focused on your paycheck first?

There are business models that can measure and monetize this but more as we move along our product roadmap and make some exciting new releases soon.

Based on that philosophy, our last  big release was all around providing experts and professionals in anything computers - technical support, training, etc. - tools to be able to quantify and personalize, market and monetize their reputation. Here are some good examples of some of our CrossLoop professionals who are leveraging it:

OnClick Tech Support:
1) They provide remote support with CrossLoop and here is their CrossLoop badge: http://www.onclicktechsupport.com/remotedownload.htm
2) They are using Craigslist to advertise their service with their custom URL (click on the CrossLoop logo): http://duluth.craigslist.org/cps/604835940.html

When you click on his profile here (or through his Badges on the above links), you will notice the number of sessions he has logged now with different individual clients - he is building up a very impressive reputation with some good customer testimonials that aid in getting them more business.

Robert Plumer
1) CrossLoop Badge on his blog here
2) His profile and custom URL on CrossLoop: http://www.crossloop.com/RobertPlumer   

I intend to feature creative technical support and training CrossLoop professionals here on our blog. If you have an active profile with our Badge on social networking sites, classifieds, your blog etc. - email me at least two links, like above, at mrinal [at] crossloop.com. I will work on getting them up here and again - hope to get you some more promotion.

Think of me as your marketer and if you really like what I do - I welcome tips through the small widget on the left sidebar below :)

Good Afternoon and Good Luck!

CrossLoop Raises $3 Million, Releases Web Service

I have to be honest that this is one post that I am very excited to write about - so here is the most exciting update from your team on its anniversary:

1. We raised $3 Million in a Series A financing led by El Dorado Ventures.
2. We are releasing Version 2.0 -€“ a brand new site with a complementary free web service that seamlessly ties in with our popular software.

Let me start with some quotes relevant to this event for us.

"€œTechnology makes people more productive and efficient, but it also comes at a cost. The average consumer spends hours each week addressing computer problems," said Lisa Alderson, President and CEO, CrossLoop, Inc. "€œWe are pleased to be working with El Dorado because they share our vision of dramatically changing the time-consuming and often expensive process that consumers and small businesses go through to get basic computer help today."

With this investment, Tom Peterson, General Partner at El Dorado Ventures, joins CrossLoop's board of directors.

"€œSince launching last November, CrossLoop has seen rapid adoption with hundreds of thousands of user sessions connecting people in over 150 countries worldwide," said Tom Peterson. "€œWe are excited to partner with the CrossLoop team to help them achieve their vision of solving the frequent computer support problems that every computer user has experienced."

You might have noticed that we celebrate our users - stories, hugs and more - so this celebration would be incomplete without a couple. According to one service provider, " I've been waiting for Crossloop for 6 years! We've tried every remote desktop sharing software out there and our client base cannot use any of them - they're far too complex. This has changed the dynamics of our entire company. My happy customers are now jubilant customers, and support call length has been reduced from an average of 1 hour to 15 minutes!"€

And Yes, people are going green with CrossLoop! As Mark says "€œGrandma loves it! She's 80 and crashes her computer regularly ... its 180 miles to her house to make it right, or just 5 minutes on CrossLoop. Beat that for reducing our carbon footprint!"

CrossLoop Version 2.0 is Live!

Apart from a brand new design, as always, you will be able to download the CrossLoop utility for free, but now, there will also be the option to create/log in to your FREE CrossLoop account.

What's new?

In response to frequent requests from those in the business of hardware, software and application support/training, we have created free CrossLoop accounts.  You can now:

• Create a FREE account to view your session history
• With an account, create a dynamic public profile page and reserve your custom CrossLoop URL - here is mine for example and No - I am not an MS Office Expert :) Once created, your profile can be used to promote your expertise anywhere on the web.Your profile will update 'automatically' every time you have a CrossLoop session!
• With the account, log in to the client every time you have a CrossLoop session to record and track your session history and statistics.
• Use the CrossLoop Badge to promote your expertise: The CrossLoop Badge, which also updates with each session, can be pasted on any site, blog (like on this blog - see mine on the right on our side bar or here ) or social networking site (such as MySpace - You can add us as a friend here on it and advertise your business with a CrossLoop Badge with a comment like me). Furthermore, you can generate leads when someone clicks on 'Contact Me' on it
• Capture testimonials and referrals easily. When logged in to the client, the new post-roll for each session enables you to capture customer feedback:
  • Rate the person who helped you or whom you helped
  • Use tags (keywords) that describe the purpose of the session
  • Add comments to review the session 

Continue using CrossLoop as you always have but now you can build your credentials with each session!

It is live now at http://www.crossloop.com

With a Good Morning and Good Luck, here is the demo video:

Behind Every CrossLoop Session Survey - Lurks Dmitry

Many of you probably have received an email from Dmitry. If you haven’t, try addressing the survey after a CrossLoop session, to him. He joined us recently as our User Advocate.

If we have not said this enough - we love to hug and delight our users ..... wherever and whenever possible. Parallely, listen and learn from you, be available as individuals and not a faceless corporation - Dmitry joined the team to do exactly that.   

He discovered CrossLoop just when he was about to start his M.B.A program a couple of months ago. He claims it is the best thing to have happened to him since birth! By practice, he is a software engineer and not a marketer - so I am tempted to believe him .. what do you think? :)

Dmitry started his career in the software industry when he was 16 years old. He worked at Parametric Technology Corporation as an intern at the testing/integration department. He then moved over to SolidWorks and interned there as a software developer intern. After finishing his Bachelors in Computer Science degree he ended up working full time as a software engineer for about 3 years. A total of 9 years of software development experience and now here he is - toiling hard with us and in class. If he tries to sign you up for a cause, in that Session Survey response email, to request his professors to give him an A+ since he works so hard at CrossLoop, I would think twice.

Good Night, Good Luck and here's to a wonderful Thanksgiving to all in the US.

Please Meet Lisa - CrossLoop's New CEO

A while ago, probably one of my first posts on this blog, I had this post entirely on the team. You may have noticed that we have been very focused on interacting with you, listening to you, building relationships with each and everyone of you, whenever possible and making sure you interact with real people, not just a company.

I am extremely excited, delighted and ecstatic to introduce all of you to our new CEO - Lisa Alderson. Tom (Rolander), who was our founding CEO, is probably one of the happiest since now he is free to focus on technology and work bringing the best of class products and services to you. Apart from giving you some fun information about her, the one thing that does excite us a lot about her is that she believes in the same philosophy of how we interact with our users - We Care!

[Make sure you click on the mug shots to read the numbers on her banner, not to mention that we spent a lot of time for the professional photoshoot, the lighting effect and the makeup.]

Her big passion is adventure travel.  Lisa has been to 35+ countries… some favorite trips include jungle trekking in Malaysia, exploring ancient ruins in Cambodia, Egypt, Greece and Ecuador, and scuba diving in Belize and Honduras. She’s fluent in Spanish and is an avid outdoor enthusiast.  She now has two young boys, so “adventure travel” is now more about getting two little ones into a minivan for a roadtrip to San Diego!

Lisa loves building companies.  She started her first company at the age of 19 and has now helped launch 6 companies – mostly in the consumer Internet and digital media space. To learn more about her professional background, you can read more here on our team page.

Good Afternoon and Good Luck!

CrossLoop at Seshasayee Institute, India

There is something extremely inspiring for a small company when we 'bump' into a user who is very enthusiastic about our product and wants to take an initiative to unleash its power - L.Ramkumar was one such user.

He saw the power of CrossLoop through its ease of use and how it could be leveraged in a country like India by the final year computer science students at Seshasayee Institute of Technology, Trichy, Tamil Nadu. On his request to hold a lecture remotely for the students there (India is ranked #14 across our user base of 130+ countries, not to mention that we also have a localized version of CrossLoop in Hindi, the national language of India), I jumped on it since there is a huge potential to create a level playing field in technology, with technology by those who know technology.

I believe that there is always someone better than another person in a particular niche. Stanislaw Jerszy Lec sums it up well - "The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him." If we consider technology - that niche could be writing code in C++,  using digital imaging softwares or the more complex ones like SAP or something as simple as creating folders in your webmail - not to mention one's expertise and knowledge in fine tuning computers, removing spyware, installing software or maybe your knowledge of keyboard shortcuts in Excel or advanced tools for search.

I can go on and on but now with CrossLoop

• Anyone can help someone i.e. knowledge transfer is made really easy. For example, now that my father knows how to search on the Internet, he can teach his friends how to do it.
• Anyone can teach a class of students in urban or rural areas from anywhere on any subject
• Anyone can use it effectively for technical support or training independent of their customer's technical expertise

I thank Mr. Ramkumar. Mr. Sivakumar, the Chair of Computer Engineering Department, Mr. Ravindhren and all the students for the invitation and organizing it so well. The students were really engaged since they came up with some very insightful questions. I have put up some pictures from the session and my apologies for my hair being a little out of control - it was a late Friday night :)

Good Afternoon and Good Luck!

Putting a Face to CrossLoop

One of the key reasons for the CrossLoop Blog is to be able to have conversations with our users and build a long term relationship with each and everyone of you over time, if possible. We want to know you and we want you to know us.

The first attempt to do so was this blog post on our team here

Here is an introduction in motion - taking it the next level one step at a time - on the 'Everything CrossLoop' channel. Show me some love and make my first shot at Hollywood worth it by adding us as your friend, subscribing to the channel and leaving some comments.

If you have a video with your CrossLoop story, email it to me - it will go up on our blog, the CrossLoop channel on YouTube and will also be embedded on the Global Response to CrossLoop map

People, like you, behind CrossLoop

As a company, we believe in building technology that brings people closer to one another and empower others. So, one of the things we want to do moving ahead is be ‘live’, ‘personable’ and really connect with our users and very importantly, have a lot of fun doing so.

One great way to start might be with personal introductions, something beyond the normal work bios, to the small group working away on bringing CrossLoop to you.

But first, for the benefit of all the readers, let me share a little about the genesis of CrossLoop.

CrossLoop came about when Tom Rolander's father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

Tom wanted to stay as close as possible to his parents as they dealt with this disease but Tom lived in Pacific Grove and his parents lived in an apartment in Seattle. To leverage the power of the Internet to shrink this distance, Tom needed a simple solution to help his mom and dad with their PC. So, he built one. This pre-cursor to CrossLoop allowed him to remotely drive various applications like photo slide shows to help his father with his memory, use free communication tools like Skype to visit with him regularly and configure webcams that allowed each side to see one another as they talked. The same technology was then used to empower the entire family to always be 'in the loop’ with their father even though they all lived many miles apart. From this personal need, flowed the version of CrossLoop that you see today which has no learning curve or knowledge of technology required. With one click - one can securely and privately share screens!

Now that you know that, let’s introduce you to the rest of us before we come back to Tom – he goes last and you will know why when you get to him.

Bob Silberstein - Bob got hooked on to contradancing a number of years ago, where he discovered a love of traditional music as well as dance. This led to swing dancing, Argentine tango, and more recently to forming a band, the Crabapples, where he play mandolin and piano. They play for contradances, company picnics, parties, and just for the fun of it. So if you need music and fun anytime, call the Crabapples!

Lee Lorenzen - Lee starts businesses for fun (he’s started over 18!) and is an evangelist for entrepreneurism who likes to talk others into taking the start-up plunge. He really does do that – as some of us can confirm. And of course since certain pressures come along with the “startup territory,” he likes to relieve stress while talking on the phone, by balancing on his Bongo Board (or IndoBoard).

Joe Stark also known as JoeS - JoeS likes to go fishing and camping when he can get away but spends most of his time trying to keep up with 6 grandkids. Yep – that is a lot of work!

Joe Wein also known as JoeW - JoeW loves music, from reggae and African to Bossa Nova and Jazz. His collection spans decades from vinyl to MP3. We believe he will retire well with that vinyl collection on ebay!

Matt Lorenzen – Matt enjoys road trips and once drove from Monterey, California to Alaska with a few friends (over 50 hours in the car). When he is not working or taking care of his 100 lb. silver lab, Rick, he and his wife Emily like to go to Lake Tahoe to wakeboard in the summer and snowboard in the winter.

Mrinal Desai – Mrinal loves playing Darth Vader with his 9 month old daughter, who surprisingly enough loves to dress up as Princess Leia. If he is not meeting new people at his local Starbucks, he is dancing away with his wife on some 80s music. He has knack for doing doing face plants while learning to snowboard. We are hoping Matt will give him a hand soon. Also he is working hard to be able to run at least 3 miles without collapsing (which would be easier if he quit smoking but then he likes the Darth Vader sound effect that comes with it) and Tom has offered to help – here is why.

Tom Rolander - Tom’s free time is filled with a myriad of unusual hobbies and interests. He has had his pilot’s license since high school and is an avid marathoner, completing 87 marathons( yup – that is not a typo!), including the Big Sur, Boston and NYC marathons this year. Every summer he does a cycling tour of between 400 and 1000 miles. He is also an accomplished calligrapher and enjoys digital photography. Tom makes birthdays very special. For his 40th, he did a 40 mile double traverse of the Grand Canyon in one day; and for the big 5-0, he took a trip to East Africa and ran the Mount Meru Marathon in Arusha in addition to flying chartered small planes over the Serengeti and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

Now you know why we all wanted to be featured before Tom.

Guessing who is who in the pictures is left to you :)

Now that you know us better, don't hesitate to Skype us, leave comments to say Hellooooo!