October 2011
2 posts
9 tags
Aural Computing: Siri, Zazu, Qwiki and Cognitive... →
A post written by our friend Andrew Davis over at Tipping Point Labs
14 tags
How they stack up: Disrupt, Launch and DEMO
Jeff Taylor, founder of Monster once gave a talk in which my biggest take away was to “Be Present”. We took this to heart in attending conferences like Disrupt, Launch and DEMO and have gotten our team access to resources that have rocketed the company forward. We wrote this post to share our experiences, both good and bad with each of these major new technology conferences. We’ve been lucky to...
September 2011
4 posts
14 tags
Zazu, at your service!
10 things Zazu can do to improve your mornings!
Zazu has evolved from its launch as an alarm clock with a voice. Today Zazu gives a user access to a variety of information that helps them get through their day. Here’s the low-down on a few ways to make Zazu work for you!
Still groggy from the morning? Shut off the alarm and listen to Zazu, by pressing play at the bottom of the home screen, while...
17 tags
18 tags
9 tags
Presenting Zazu Mornings at the 2011 Fall DEMO...
Ringing in our 7th week here on the West Coast this year, the Zazu crew is prepping for an exciting presentation this week at the 2011 Fall DEMO conference on Wednesday.
We’re looking forward to sharing some of our most recent work done in the digitally connected space and are very excited to share how we’re helping users make better use of their personal information on stage.
Our...
August 2011
5 posts
15 tags
10 Lessons From an Early-Stage Mobile Startup
Zazu started as a fairly balanced team with both developer and business oriented founders. But as we began to bring on more team members, all of them ended up being developers, rightfully so, as we were still in the product construction phase. In our journey through the last year, we’ve learned a lot while creating different products, networking, and exploring innovative marketing methods. We’ve...
11 tags
StartupWeekend: Boston based Zazu makes... →
From the website of the organization that brought us all together!
9 tags
Bostinnovation: Zazu’s New App Wants to Turn You... →
A great write up by the folks over at Bostinnovation!
12 tags
Mornings rejoicing everywhere, Zazu now available...
We’re excited to announce that Zazu Mornings is now available on the Apple AppStore! Zazu now provides integrated access to your personal information on any major smartphone device. The technology integrates a user’s calendars, local weather, deals, personalized news, and custom internet content. The recently launched applications include the original Zazu Alarm functionality and a newly released...
Dr. Pascal Chesnais joins Zazu as Chief Scientist!
We’ve been incredibly lucky to have a diverse team of interns and employees working on Zazu. This year however, we’ve been even more fortunate to grow with talented and vested team members.
We’re excited to announce that we’re bringing on one of our strongest supporters, Dr. Pascal Chesnais, as Chief Scientist. You may be wondering why a mobile startup needs a Chief Scientist, but a quick gander...
March 2011
1 post
9 tags
February 2011
2 posts
8 tags
Zazu @Launch!
So we spent a few days this past week at the first Launch event at the San Francisco Design Center. Courtesy of Jason Calacanis, we got a sponsored table in response to Marc’s comments on HN. We were looking forward to showing off the first versions of our new iPhone application and chatting more with the startup community while there.
It was an awesome event to meet new startup founders...
9 tags
Zazu's heading to Launch.is!
Wow, things are flying by at an incredible pace, it’s a shame we haven’t been able to update you guys more often but we’ve been focusing on improving the android application and rolling out an iPhone version for those of you who worship the Apple god.
The great news is that we’ve been invited to Launch.is! We’ll be in SF starting the 21st, hit us up if you’re...
November 2010
3 posts
9 tags
Why Android?
We’re often times asked why we chose Android as the first platform to launch Zazu on. There were a number of reasons that can be summarized quite easily:
Android was easier to program for. When we started out back in December, iPhone was inherently incapable of running a simple non-invasive app like an alarm clock. Android on the other hand came preset with an alarm content provider.
Back...
4 tags
Why our blog sucks
So we owe you a fair explanation, and that is that we’re too busy. Yup, that’s all we’ve got for you…
Stay tuned and you’ll see updates to this thing soon. In the meantime, we like our twitter page and facebook pages
5 tags
October 2010
2 posts
6 tags
MassChallenge Conclusion
Well it was an awesome run at MassChallenge! We were so happy to have been selected as one of the 110 Finalists, and want to congratulate our fellow winning finalists!! Some of you have wonderful ideas and are excited to hear some of your next endeavors will be especially with this ‘herring’ of a prize!
While at MassChallenge we have gained so much support from the Boston start up...
13 tags
And we're live!
We’re happy to say the time is here. Zazu is now officially published on the Android marketplace! Tweet this and tell all your friends! The app is available for free and additional features such as calendar integration, advanced RSS controls, better voices, etc. will be released shortly!
Of course we can’t do anything without trying to have a bit more fun. To celebrate our launch,...
September 2010
1 post
6 tags
Zazu a winner of the PepsiCo10!
Definitely feeling great about this, the official press release was sent out this morning at 8 a.m.
Zazu was named one of 10 winners of the PepsiCo10 program (of which 450 people applied!) who will have the opportunity to work together with PepsiCo and it’s brands on unique pilot programs that leverage PepsiCo resources.
We wrote earlier about the opportunity we had to pitch at the PepsiCo...
August 2010
6 posts
4 tags
Share some info with us! →
A few quick questions on your mobile app consumption habits!
6 tags
WatchThis video was filmed to provide an experiential feel of the environment we work in here at MassChallenge. We have found that immersing ourselves in this nurturing environment has helped us continue to grow tremendously as a start-up. And we like to keep our fans updated :)
-Brendan
2 tags
Updates from the perch!
The summer has been quite busy, indeed we were finalists in the PepsiCo10 in NY and actively participating in the MassChallenge accelerator here at home in Boston. We’ve been working our tails off on the mobile application and its getting so close we can feel it! We have about 200 beta testers trying out the application right now and are getting all kinds of feedback, the not so good kind as well...
30 tags
Android: A New Army of Smartphones
The Google-led operating system on the Newest Smartphones is taking the industry by storm.
The Android operating system is definitely the rookie of the year in the Smartphone market. It’s growth in the last year has shown that it is serious competition to Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s Blackberry. According to market-research firm Canalys, Android share hit 14% in the second...
An Evening with Google!
We got to show off the Mobile App at Google offices in Cambridge last night to an audience of about 200 people. Some great questions and great people that we got to meet with afterwards at Characters Bar!
July 2010
7 posts
13 tags
PepsiCo10 Challenge
So we applied to the PepsiCo10 like we did with the many competitions and programs we apply to as a bootstrapping venture. I had a little bit more fun applying to this competition as their seeming corporate ‘request for proposal’ was a way for us to think of a unique way to show the value of Zazu to a company like PepsiCo with a massive brand portfolio. We put together a video...
WatchSome great news! Zazu was recently named one of 110 Finalists in the 2010 MassChallenge Competition. It was an exciting journey, from the first round when we went around Boston reaching out to the community for endorsements – which led us to making new friends and reconnecting with old. On behalf of all of us at Zazu we’d like to thank everyone in the community who have shown continuous...
PepsiCo Summit 2010
More great news! Zazu has been selected as one of 20 finalists to present at the PepsiCo Summit in Purchase, NY!!
450 teams applied and the final 20 will have the opportunity to share how their technology will benefit PepsiCo brands such as Quaker and Tropicana. Winners of the competition get access to run pilot campaigns for Pepsi brands! Who’s ready to wakeup with Tropicana or Quaker?
3 tags
MassChallenge Round 2!
More good news! Zazu has also moved forward in the MassChallenge competition and will be pitching to Judges next week! For those of you who are not familiar with MassChallenge, it is a global start up competition and accellerator that looks to connect and provide resources to entrepreneurs in the area. 100 winning ventures will receive office space in their new space in the Fan Pier building...
PepsiCo 2010 Challenge
Seems we made it to the next round of the 2010 PepsiCo Challenge! Looking forward to putting together a great 3 minute video on how we can work together with Pepsi!
5 tags
Zazu's growing!
Boy are we making great progress the past few weeks. We’ve aggressively been improving the beta app on a weekly schedule - something that has taught us a lot about managing expectations and driving home deliverables on a weekly basis. We’ve been receiving great feedback: positive, negative and at times quite constructive too! A lot of credit will be going to them for helping us fine tune the app.
...
June 2010
5 posts
Enthusiastic Hacker Needed!
Zazu is the smartest damn alarm clock. Running on a user’s Smartphone, Zazu is an application that verbally reads your calendar, weather, email, news and favorite blog posts as you get prepared for the day. Using RSS feeds and iCal formats, we are able to accept virtually any information to ensure you hear just what is important to you.
The Zazu Dev Team is looking for an enthusiastic,...
While You Were Sleeping... Zazu was being Printed...
The alarm clock race is heating up — we are officially “the threat to staking out bedside real estate!”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/technology/personaltech/10ALARM.html?scp=1&sq=zazu&st=cse
TCD Recap
Arriving in NYC for the 2010 TechCrunch Disrupt event brought back too many memories from when I used to work for Merrill. Almost too ironic that the conference took place in old Merrill offices!
We went to the conference both to volunteer and to showcase Zazu at Startup Alley. We elected to help out because we thought it’d be a great way to meet new...
TechCrunch Disrupt
It’s picture time!
iZaazu, getZazu, & Zazu: MHT Top 5 Startup to...
Woo hoo! We are excited to announce that we have been nominated as a Top 5 Startup to Watch from Mass High Tech for June. Congratulations to Cykod.com, Fashion Playtes, Sustainable Minds, and TaskRabbit as well!
May 2010
6 posts
"We're so Lean, even our Poster Leans"
Q: What do you call wild entrepreneurs, nauseatingly bright-colored lei’s, and an intriguing idea at TechCrunch Disrupt?
A: A spot on Yahoo! NewsBytes!
Woke up this morning and got myself some...
Hey Zazu flock,
The Zazu Team is heading to NYC this week to take part in a little Disruption (TechCrunch style). Tony Stark, aka, Marc Held, has been hustling and bustling to get Zazu all pretty and presentable to show off on Monday, May 24 in the Startup Alley.
To get prepared, Marc likes to spend sleepless nights catering to The Punit’s demands, eat salad with his hands and play “Diva...
Enthusiastic Hacker Needed!
Enthusiastic Hacker Needed! Helping you get prepared in the morning, Zazu is a smartphone alarm that reads you the important information you need to get ready for the day. Your calendar, weather, to do list, traffic, news, blogs, all customizable by you!
The Zazu Dev Team is looking for an enthusiastic hacker to help out around the house with Android Development and implementation of program...
Inspired by Iron Man, Zazu Makes Mobile App for...
Zazu’s been getting quite a bit of love from our friends in Boston. Check out an article written up today on Zazu at Xconomy Boston!
Space at the Zazu Perch at Hangout!
Zazu is currently working at the Hangout Space in Downtown Boston with 6 other local startups including Pinyadda.com, Bostinnovation.com, The Second Glass, Hangout Industries, Nannigins, Peekaboomobile.com! We have quite a few extra desks that are available to be rented out for a cost that is very very affordable and a steal for the location we are in. The environment is amazing and just right for...
Cinco de Mayo: A Day of Celebration (for Zazu)!
Video Blog #1 — Cinco de Mayo!
Hey there,
We have some exciting news that we are thrilled to share with you! Uno, Zazu will be partying in the Big Apple and presenting in the Startup Alley at Tech Crunch Disrupt later this month. — we hope to see some of you there! Dos, we have just hired our first employee, a smart aleck with a programming knack; welcome aboard Nathan Heaps...
April 2010
1 post
Mornings on Autodrive
Ever find yourself in the midst of a shower not remembering when you woke up and how you managed to find yourself there? Howdo we end up in this state of ‘Morning Autodrive’ and what determines the “speed we’re driving at”? We wake up many different ways; happy, sad, tired, groggy, confused, or ready to go. We think to ourselves, “Did I sleep well?”, or “What’s in store for me...
March 2010
1 post
New Digs & Board at Work
Pictures of our Making of: T-Shirt Giveaway and a look at our new place in The Hangout. Pretty snazzy, eh?
February 2010
1 post
Launching a New Company and Getting Early Customer...
Lessons from the Edge — Intro:
I attended the Bain Capital Ventures event at Babson/Olin College this past week. I always enjoy hearing the startup stories of seasoned entrepreneurs and try to “learn lessons from the edge” by listening to their experiences and applying it to our situation. Leah Busque and Jason Jacobs had particularly useful insight because they have recently...
December 2009
7 posts
Mass High Tech Startup Watch: Five you should...
Zazu was just showcased in Mass High Tech’s Startup Watch: Top 5 to follow! (Referenced as iZaazu) Head on over to see some of the other awesome startups, including those by some of our friends (Higut and Blank label)
About Startup Weekend
Startup Weekend recruits a highly motivated group of developers, business managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists and more to a 54 hour event that builds communities, companies and projects.
Founded in 2007 by Andrew Hyde, the weekend is a concept of a conference focusing on learning by creating. It is known for its quick decisions, ‘out of the box’ thinking (oh no, the...
A Look at our Early Stage Dev
Oh the memories!