1 00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:03,600 - Well, here we are at, where are we exactly? 2 00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:06,040 - We're in San Jose at the Adobe headquarters 3 00:00:06,040 --> 00:00:07,800 and there are nice three big towers 4 00:00:07,800 --> 00:00:09,240 in the middle of downtown San Jose. 5 00:00:09,240 --> 00:00:11,440 - And as everyone can see, you're a visitor here, 6 00:00:11,440 --> 00:00:12,620 as am I. - Visiting, yeah. 7 00:00:12,620 --> 00:00:15,260 - And why don't you introduce yourself really briefly? 8 00:00:15,260 --> 00:00:19,140 - So I'm Andre Charland, founder and CEO at Natobi Software. 9 00:00:19,140 --> 00:00:20,840 - And what do you guys do exactly? 10 00:00:20,840 --> 00:00:23,020 - We really focus on building rich internet applications. 11 00:00:23,020 --> 00:00:25,760 So we have a suite of Ajax components. 12 00:00:25,760 --> 00:00:27,800 We provide support for those. 13 00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:30,660 We also do professional services around user interface design, 14 00:00:30,660 --> 00:00:33,980 usability testing, and software development. 15 00:00:33,980 --> 00:00:36,200 - And then how about your Robot Replay? 16 00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:38,520 - And Robot Replay is a usability testing tool. 17 00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:40,540 So it lets you watch user sessions on your website. 18 00:00:40,540 --> 00:00:41,920 You put a snippet of JavaScript on. 19 00:00:41,920 --> 00:00:43,700 You can watch session playbacks. 20 00:00:43,700 --> 00:00:44,840 You can watch the mouse move around. 21 00:00:44,840 --> 00:00:47,320 It's kind of like a screencast, but it's all Ajax-based. 22 00:00:47,320 --> 00:00:49,140 And then we also do Flex, 23 00:00:49,140 --> 00:00:52,200 the error development services also for our customers. 24 00:00:52,200 --> 00:00:56,020 - And there's a plane going overhead. 25 00:00:56,020 --> 00:00:58,320 - Yeah, we're in the hotbed of technology here. 26 00:00:58,320 --> 00:01:03,140 - So was it Robot Replay that, 27 00:01:03,140 --> 00:01:06,080 I think like when I was at the Zen conference recently, 28 00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:08,300 I was telling you that you guys were mentioned. 29 00:01:08,300 --> 00:01:10,740 And I think they were using Robot Replay to do like 30 00:01:10,740 --> 00:01:12,800 training videos or something. 31 00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:13,840 - No, they're using Spotlight. 32 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:15,740 - Okay, so tell us about Spotlight. 33 00:01:15,740 --> 00:01:18,120 - So Spotlight is like a pre-recorded 34 00:01:18,120 --> 00:01:20,160 or like kind of programmed screencast. 35 00:01:20,160 --> 00:01:21,880 It's like a little JavaScript call-out bubble 36 00:01:21,880 --> 00:01:24,000 or DHML thing that floats around your page 37 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:26,040 and kind of blurs areas out 38 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:28,180 and then gives you focus on areas you want to see. 39 00:01:28,180 --> 00:01:29,000 And you can animate it. 40 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:30,000 It can go through buttons 41 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:32,120 and pages and stuff like that. 42 00:01:32,120 --> 00:01:34,140 Yeah, so I know Bell Helicopter is using it 43 00:01:34,140 --> 00:01:36,820 to do some training sessions on the internet. 44 00:01:36,820 --> 00:01:38,460 - And so basically you can sort of like, 45 00:01:38,460 --> 00:01:40,840 say like here's the way you would click on something. 46 00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:41,920 - Yeah, it'll step the user through 47 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:43,720 and like pop a bubble out next to the UI element 48 00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:44,640 you're trying to focus on. 49 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:46,600 Say, you know, click here to do blah, blah, blah. 50 00:01:46,600 --> 00:01:47,560 Next, go here. 51 00:01:47,560 --> 00:01:48,400 - Right, right. 52 00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:49,700 - You can walk user through a form or something. 53 00:01:49,700 --> 00:01:51,080 - And so the other stuff that you guys, 54 00:01:51,080 --> 00:01:53,600 so you got the robot replay and the Spotlight. 55 00:01:53,600 --> 00:01:55,760 And then, you know, to put it in my own words, 56 00:01:55,760 --> 00:01:58,000 and then you guys also sell like Ajax widgets. 57 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:00,280 - Yeah, and then we have a framework of, 58 00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:03,340 I guess, yeah, Ajax components. 59 00:02:03,340 --> 00:02:05,020 We have a really rich grid, tree grid, 60 00:02:05,020 --> 00:02:06,320 which is like hierarchical grid, 61 00:02:06,320 --> 00:02:10,740 trees, menu components, combo box, that sort of thing. 62 00:02:10,740 --> 00:02:12,180 - And so like, what's the market for that? 63 00:02:12,180 --> 00:02:14,820 Like what, you know, usually people think about RIAs. 64 00:02:14,820 --> 00:02:16,440 I think you and I have had this discussion 65 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:18,040 like five times in recorded mediums. 66 00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:18,880 - Yeah. 67 00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:19,880 - So let's have it again. 68 00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:21,540 Like, what are the types of people 69 00:02:21,540 --> 00:02:23,320 who buy these components? 70 00:02:23,320 --> 00:02:24,960 - Tend to be large enterprise customers. 71 00:02:24,960 --> 00:02:27,120 You know, building behind the firewall type applications, 72 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:31,080 accounting systems, inventory management, tracking systems. 73 00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:32,800 You know, really the kind of bread and butter 74 00:02:32,800 --> 00:02:34,740 of enterprise applications used to be desktop applications. 75 00:02:34,740 --> 00:02:35,580 - Right. 76 00:02:35,580 --> 00:02:37,300 - You know, similar stuff to what you'd see 77 00:02:37,300 --> 00:02:39,020 in like a flex component set, 78 00:02:39,020 --> 00:02:41,340 all those sort of components, but all in JavaScript. 79 00:02:41,340 --> 00:02:42,820 - Right, and you know, being sort of like 80 00:02:42,820 --> 00:02:45,900 a third party outside person, it seems like, 81 00:02:45,900 --> 00:02:47,400 I mean, hopefully you can look into 82 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:49,160 many different developer communities, right? 83 00:02:49,160 --> 00:02:50,000 - Right. 84 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:51,520 - And so like, I mean, first off, 85 00:02:51,520 --> 00:02:52,740 before I assume I know what they're like, 86 00:02:52,740 --> 00:02:55,900 what would you say the different developer communities are 87 00:02:55,900 --> 00:02:58,320 that you guys are using widgets 88 00:02:58,320 --> 00:03:00,800 that you're doing RIAs into? 89 00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:02,280 - Who are using RIAs? 90 00:03:02,280 --> 00:03:04,280 - Like for example, I guess I will preload it. 91 00:03:04,280 --> 00:03:07,780 I would say like, there's sort of like Microsoft developers, 92 00:03:07,780 --> 00:03:10,420 and there's like Java developers, and web developers, 93 00:03:10,420 --> 00:03:13,460 and like, it's interesting to have a third party perspective 94 00:03:13,460 --> 00:03:14,620 on like those different pools, 95 00:03:14,620 --> 00:03:17,420 'cause they tend to be very myopic and insular, 96 00:03:17,420 --> 00:03:19,720 and not really knowing about each other so much. 97 00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:21,240 - Yeah, I mean, it's hard to put them in buckets. 98 00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:23,520 I mean, we sell server-side libraries 99 00:03:23,520 --> 00:03:24,720 for all our components too, right? 100 00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:26,400 So we have a Java, which has, you know, 101 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:29,100 has struts, servlets, JSF support, all that kind of stuff. 102 00:03:29,100 --> 00:03:31,460 We have a .NET library, which is really improving 103 00:03:31,460 --> 00:03:32,460 for this quarter's release. 104 00:03:32,460 --> 00:03:36,200 We have PHP libraries, and classic ASP even, 105 00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:38,920 we still sell those, and ColdFusion libraries. 106 00:03:38,920 --> 00:03:41,080 So those are the kind of developers who support. 107 00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:44,200 Our biggest customer base tends to be in Java and .NET. 108 00:03:44,200 --> 00:03:45,260 That's where we get the most sales. 109 00:03:45,260 --> 00:03:49,260 Those are people kind of doing bigger enterprise sales. 110 00:03:49,260 --> 00:03:50,340 - The time has come, Andre. 111 00:03:50,340 --> 00:03:52,500 - The time has come. 112 00:03:52,500 --> 00:03:54,340 - And is there much crossover between those, 113 00:03:54,340 --> 00:03:56,300 or are they basically like, 114 00:03:56,300 --> 00:03:58,960 like the Java people buy the Java stuff? 115 00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:00,540 - Yeah, like the Java people and .NET, 116 00:04:00,540 --> 00:04:02,260 people tend to kind of stay in their own worlds. 117 00:04:02,260 --> 00:04:03,760 We do get some crossover from time to time, 118 00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:06,900 people telling us they're working with PHP on one project, 119 00:04:06,900 --> 00:04:09,100 and maybe ColdFusion on the next, or something like that. 120 00:04:09,100 --> 00:04:09,940 - Right. 121 00:04:09,940 --> 00:04:11,080 - Yeah, they tend to be pretty distinct. 122 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:12,840 And then, you know, there's a good spread 123 00:04:12,840 --> 00:04:14,300 between the real enterprise, you know, 124 00:04:14,300 --> 00:04:17,700 it's big corporate internal developers, 125 00:04:17,700 --> 00:04:19,220 ISV selling to those guys, 126 00:04:19,220 --> 00:04:22,440 and consultants tend to be the people who buy our products. 127 00:04:22,440 --> 00:04:23,280 - Right, right. 128 00:04:23,280 --> 00:04:25,680 And then, so finally, you guys are up in Vancouver, right? 129 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:26,520 - We are up in Vancouver. 130 00:04:26,520 --> 00:04:29,680 - And so what is the RIA scene up there like in Vancouver? 131 00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:30,560 - It's pretty good, you know? 132 00:04:30,560 --> 00:04:33,780 - Yeah, there's a lot of JavaScript developers there, 133 00:04:33,780 --> 00:04:36,240 a lot of designers, like a lot of designers, 134 00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:38,100 pretty good Flash community, too. 135 00:04:38,100 --> 00:04:41,300 And there's more and more Flex stuff going on all the time, 136 00:04:41,300 --> 00:04:43,760 too, and we're involved in the Flash meetups. 137 00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:45,960 Quite a few Rails guys, also. 138 00:04:45,960 --> 00:04:47,260 We do a lot of Rails at Motobi, 139 00:04:47,260 --> 00:04:49,600 and there's a good community there for it, too. 140 00:04:49,600 --> 00:04:51,440 - And plenty of good bars and things like that, right? 141 00:04:51,440 --> 00:04:54,200 - Lots of great bars and restaurants, close to Whistler. 142 00:04:54,200 --> 00:04:56,700 - And you guys are, you guys' offices are downtown, right? 143 00:04:56,700 --> 00:05:00,540 - Yeah, right downtown in Gastown, so it's kind of like the old cobblestone street. 144 00:05:00,540 --> 00:05:05,920 - So is that, are you guys just like wildly successful or is that like a normal place to have offices? 145 00:05:05,920 --> 00:05:08,000 - That's where there's a lot of high-tech companies right now. 146 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:09,380 - Right. 147 00:05:09,380 --> 00:05:12,300 - You know, you're like in an older, kind of funkier building with like windows that open, 148 00:05:12,300 --> 00:05:13,920 it's bright and kind of open space. 149 00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:16,760 But rent's not necessarily crazy cheap, so. 150 00:05:16,760 --> 00:05:21,300 - Do you guys have some fun name for it, like Silicon Snow Hills or something like that? 151 00:05:21,300 --> 00:05:24,420 Like, you know, in Austin, everyone likes to call it the Silicon Hills, 152 00:05:24,420 --> 00:05:27,360 and in New York, they're like Silicon Alley versus Valley. 153 00:05:27,360 --> 00:05:29,540 But has Vancouver come up with a name for a-- 154 00:05:29,540 --> 00:05:31,260 - No, we have. We should get started on that. 155 00:05:31,260 --> 00:05:32,860 We just call it Gastown, you know? 156 00:05:32,860 --> 00:05:34,520 - That's right, just like in San Diego, right? 157 00:05:34,520 --> 00:05:38,720 - I don't think there's enough geeks overall in Vancouver for it to be cool to be a geek, you know? 158 00:05:38,720 --> 00:05:41,240 It's not like in San Francisco, you sit down at a dinner table, 159 00:05:41,240 --> 00:05:44,500 and probably half the people there work in some kind of web tech company. 160 00:05:44,500 --> 00:05:47,240 It's not like that in Vancouver, so you're still just a geek. 161 00:05:47,240 --> 00:05:49,460 - Well, great. Well, thanks for giving us the update there. 162 00:05:49,460 --> 00:05:50,500 - All right, thanks.