Finally, we would like the thank TechCrunch and contributor Jason Kincaid for all the positive coverage during this and prior launches. TechCrunch is considered a leader in news and technology websites and we would like to express our appreciation for their continued support of our Canadian start-up. See you on SmibsNet!

Corresponding with our launch into Public Beta, Smibs has sent the top venture capital firms a copy of our ‘Un-Business Plan’ for our application, Doorbell. This is a business plan like no other, in that we are not seeking investment or raising capital. Recently Smibs has been receiving some interest from investors to which we respectfully decline.  The ‘Un-Business Plan’ is our counter-offer, signifying our intention to remain independent and focused on helping small businesses rather then maximizing the bottom line for potential investors.

 

The Un-Business Plan

 

At Smibs, we are dedicated to the growth and development of small businesses. We take pride in the software we produce and we have seen the applications save our current users’ time and the frustration associated with routine business processes. We know that there are hundreds of business tools on the web, all vying for attention and your money and we hope that our ‘Un-Business Plan’ shows our commitment to the owners and employees of small business. 

Take a look at the ‘Un-Business Plan’ yourself and know why we truly believe in our motto, to help your business ‘Grow Smart’.

Screen shot of portfolios being reordered

This solved everything, except for one little nagging issue. While the indicator had to be there for slow connections, the average time for this re-sort was fractions of a second. The moment the new order was saved, the cover would disappear. I wanted our users to be able to get back to work as soon as possible, rather than being slowed down by in-the-way animations. The consequences of this decision were dark flashes over your portfolios when a user would re-sort.

It turns out the solution was to slow things down. After adding some effects it now fades in over a second, and then fades out over a few seconds. While this would seem like two seconds wasted, no one seems to have a problem with this. In fact, we have received great feedback about this effect. Many people ask me if all the portfolio stuff was coded in flash, to which I can answer, “nope, just good old fashion javascript.” Next time I’m faced with  a confusing interface problem, I’m going to ask myself if the action has to be this fast. Maybe the best way to optimize the program is to slow it down.

——————
What other examples have you seen of software slowing down for the better?

It took a few late nights and more then a couple pots of coffee, be we have successfully launched SmibsNet and Doorbell into Public Beta.  We definitely need to thank the tireless work from our programmers, designers and writers that helped to release the software.  Our gratitude also goes out to Yellow Pencil and Toybox Media Inc. for technical and media support during our launch process.

We also would like to recognize all the great feedback we got from our users while in Private Beta.  Your suggestions helped us to create a truly intuitive and interactive product.

We certainly appreciate all the press coverage we have been receiving so far from influential blogs like TechCrunch, TechVibes and Ryan A Graves.  Here some of the things they have been saying so far:

“I created an account and found the entire process to be fairly painless. Setting up my personal profile and creating a company was simple – the interface is friendly and easy-to-understand.” Mack Male, TechVibes.com

“This is exactly the type of startup that will work and survive in this economic environment. They have a product that will help so many small business work more efficiently and provide value to these businesses.” Ryan A Graves, ryanagraves.com

If you get a chance, please check out our newly designed website and sign-up for an invitation to the Public-Beta release of SmibsNet and Doorbell!

Today we are excited to announce the invite-only Public Beta launch of SmibsNet and Doorbell! Inspired by the advice of our testers, we have worked hard since our Private Beta launch in June to refine our product to meet the unique needs of our users, maximizing the efficiency and usability of our interface and applications.

As I mentioned, our Public Beta will be invite only, giving our current users the ability to invite their friends to join them on our system and to find out how SmibsNet and Doorbell seamlessly integrates networking as well as contact and opportunity management.

We built SmibsNet and Doorbell because we saw a need for “sales software for non-sales people”— now we want to know your needs. Instead of building and perfecting our system in isolation, we want you to help us create an evolving product, tailored to its users.

Hope to see you all very soon on SmibsNet!

Peter Urban
Founder
Smibs Inc

View Press Release: http://www.smibs.com/media/media.html

 

A big thank you to the TechCrunch team and happy birthday for their third anniversary!

So we decided to create Doorbell

Doorbell is the first sales software that is truly dedicated to what we call Non-Sales People. Creative professionals, IT service providers, consultants and other professional service providers can only devote a fraction of their time to actively selling their services. They have to dedicate small portions of their time in-between client projects to win the clients and projects they need and to grow their business in a smart and focused fashion. In service organizations it is increasingly common that all employees become ‘part-time sales people’ i.e. at social functions or when working on-site with a client. Doorbell is an easy to use, elegant and affordable web application that enables all employees in small and medium-sized businesses to take the driving seat in their sales vehicle without distracting them from their actual work. Another clear distinguishing feature is that Doorbell seamlessly integrates into SmibsNet (see below), where sales opportunities, contacts information and tasks can be shared to collaborate on an opportunity with team members from inside and outside the company. Starting with a free plan, Doorbell will be available based on a usage dependent and very affordable monthly subscription service. You can sign-up to join the Doorbell private beta at http://www.getdoorbell.com

The business network that gets things done

SmibsNet is a social business network that focuses on getting the things done that really matter: Winning clients, finding new talent, collaborating across organizations and Growing Smart. On SmibsNet, individuals and businesses can invite each other to collaborate right within the network. Smibs applications – like Doorbell – are fully integrated, turning SmibsNet into a powerful platform for self-promotion and business interaction. The Smibs Lounge is your personalized dashboard within SmibsNet. It provides quick and easy access to all personal and business contacts, as well as tasks, messages and applications. SmibsNet is fast, easy and free to use. You can sign-up for the SmibsNet public beta (starting in June 08) at http://www.smibs.com

Completing the picture with Buzzer

Buzzer is a personal Smibs application that helps people to stay in touch with their personal network. It inherited Doorbell’s contact, relationship and task management power so a user can ‘work’ with her contacts by managing related information, relationships between contacts, tasks and documents. Buzzer is integrated with SmibsNet: Smibs Friends are live-linked contacts that are automatically updated in your Buzzer when they change their contact information in their SmibsNet profile (i.e. a new address after moving). Buzzer will launch simultaneously with Doorbell. A free plan will be sufficient for most users, and a payed plan will satisfy even the most social ‘Power Buzzers’.

Oh, and who is behind Smibs Inc.

My name is Peter Urban and I am the founder (and Chief Executive Smibson) of Smibs Inc. I am an entrepreneur with 17 years of experience in starting and growing businesses from the ground up. As founder and president of the Plainpeak Group, I have consulted in the areas of strategic marketing and corporate communication for several Fortune 500 companies such as DaimlerChrysler, SAP and BASF and large public sector organizations such as the Government of Alberta (Canada) as well as countless small and medium-sized businesses. I recently moved from Germany to Canada (Edmonton / Alberta) where I live with my wonderful wife Christy and two lovely dogs. I enjoy fine art photography, design and art in general as well as cycling and running and the odd round of Squash during the long Albertan winters (all currently neglected to get Smibs started).

You can follow me on twitter for timely updates or check out my LinkedIn profile – soon to be replaced by my SmibsNet profile – for my professional background.

Forrest Zeisler is Co-Founder and Chief Systems Smibson at Smibs Inc. Forrest’s former position as software engineer at Plainpeak soon lead him to share Peter’s vision of software that helps businesses Grow Smart. His passion for technology, his talent for elegant and efficient solutions and his exceptional drive to achieve engineering excellence resulted in the invitation to become Co-Founder and lead system architect at Smibs Inc. Forrest lives and works in Edmonton and you won’t believe it, but when he’s done ’smibsing’ at his day job he relaxes with working on some ‘artificial intelligence programming experiments’ – weird hey?

Stay in touch or contact us for more questions

You can follow Smibs on twitter or join our Smibsonians Facebook Group to stay in touch. Please leave a comment on this post or send us an E-mail to support [at] smibs [dot] com if you have any questions, ideas or suggestions.