ShoutNow.com launches its revamped service at the Atlanta-based ShotPut Ventures Demo Day. ShoutNow enables quick and simple broadcasting of your voice to contacts on Twitter, Facebook or their phones.

Consumers use it to cancel practice, announce a ‘Baby on Board’, tell a funny joke or share new songs.  Business users can complement or replace their low-click email or expensive direct mail campaigns for event reminders, special deals or announcements to telephones.  The service provides audio hosting, list management and detailed campaign analytics.

The beta launch of ShoutNow includes an improved user interface, caller id, opt out, list management,Twitter and Facebook sharing, campaign analytics and a new credit system integrated with PayPal.  Future improvements include an iPhone, PalmPre and Android app, Shout survey abilities, widgets, audio emailing, uploading, and computer microphone recording.

ShoutNow was founded during the Indianapolis Startup Weekend in December of 2008 and launched an alpha version of the product in January of 2009.  ShotPut Ventures, a startup accelerator in Atlanta, GA, invested in and mentored ShoutNow as part of its inaugral summer class. Team members include Dan Melton, Darby Frey, Joel Smith, Graham Peck, and Molly Butters.

In our old system, it was impossible to blast a shout out 10 times because you have to pay each time before it processes.  If an error happens, the shout doesn’t go out. In our new credit system, its possible to repeatedly send a shout out to a list of numbers if your credit balance is high enough.

Today, our client sent out their first campaign, which started processing.  Due to the length of the message and number of phone numbers, the processing screen took longer than normal, appearing to be frozen.  We failed today by not providing a stronger user interface indicating that the Shout was in progress of being sent.  Because the system appeared to hang, the shout was resent multiple times, and it got delivered multiple times.

What are we doing to fix this from happening again?

1. Provide a stronger User Interface after the campaign has been sent to show progress as the shout campaign is delivered
2. Disable rapid sending of the same message to the same list within 5 minute intervals
3. Ability to cancel a shout as its being delivered

We sincerely apologize for our epic fail today.

Dan, Joel, Darby and Graham

Update- June 28 6:13 pm EST

We found the bug today.  Apparently, our server configuration is setup to sort of ‘autorefresh’ a request after 60 secs.  Essentially, if a request takes too long to process, it sends it to another processor.  The campaign in question took way longer than 60 secs, resulting in multiple posts of the same data.  Here is an excerpt from an awesome post that helped us figure it out (http://www.opensourcery.co.za/2008/05/15/nginx-reading-the-fine-print/):

• nginx sends the request to any one of the mongrels specified in upstream. It will wait for the mongrel to complete and return a response that will be sent back to the client. However, it will not wait forever, it will wait for proxy_read_timeout which defaults to 60 seconds. What happens after 60 seconds. You might be inclined to think that the timeout will be communicated to the client in the form of a nginx error… I did. It appears not.

We have several upgraded fixes planned to prevent this happening again…its going to be a long night of code!

Baker & Daniels (North)
5:00-6:30pm
600 E. 96th Street, Suite 600
Indianapolis, IN 46240

Here is a recap of what we have accomplished since our launch during Startup Weekend Indianapolis in December 2008:

• Brought 8 strangers together in a room for 54 hours to launch a company
• Engineered a rapid voice messaging system which handles unlimited levels of traffic
• Designed a UI that is intuitive and fun to use at level of tech-savvy
• Became the valued provider and established vendor relationships with multiple enterprises
• Invited to present during the Startup Riot conference, SXSW BarCamp
• Designed, Created and Launched a social voice marketing iPhone app
• Attended and launched the ShoutNow iPhone during SXSW
• Sponsored the 32Bit Party during SXSW

Details about the event are below.

Baker & Daniels (North)
5:00-6:30pm
600 E. 96th Street, Suite 600
Indianapolis, IN 46240

See you there!

Also, here is a helpful video Dan created which will walk you through the install steps.

Please send us an email at help@shoutnow.com if you experience any problems along the way. Otherwise, Darby will just be busy watching back episodes of The Tyra Show he missed during SXSW.

What You’ll Need

Before beginning the installation process you’ll need:

• The ShoutNow-aif.zip file for the application
• The Shoutnow_adhoc_distribution_profile.mobileprovision file for the application
• Your Device: the iPhone or iPod Touch whose UDID you emailed us previously
• The computer you normally sync with your Device

Installing the Application

1. If you have the ShoutNow-aif.zip and Shoutnow_adhoc_distribution_profile.mobileprovision files in an email, save them to a convenient location, such as your Desktop.
2. Drag-and-drop the Shoutnow_adhoc_distribution_profile.mobileprovision file onto Library ? Applications in iTunes.
3. Extract the ShoutNow-aif.zip file. To do this, right-click the ShoutNow-aif.zip file and select Extract All… . Step through the wizard and accept the defaults by clicking Next.
4. Find the .app folder (usually AppName.app).
5. Drag-and-drop the whole .app folder onto Library ? Applications in iTunes.
6. Verify that the application shows up in Library ? Applications. Note that it will not have its normal icon.
7. In iTunes, select your Device under Devices, choose the Application tab, and make sure that the new application is checked.
8. Sync your Device and start Shouting!

Keep Shouting!

We submitted the app to the Apple store on Monday for approval. We are hoping this process will only take a couple days to allow for the app to be available in time for South by Southwest in Austin (more on this later).

Getting Started

Download the app either directly from your iPhone or from a link which will be on our home page and will take you to the Apple Store. Once the app is installed on your iPhone (software 2.0 or higher) you will create a ShoutNow login to record and upload your messages to the public timeline. Note: While an iPhone and login is required to record messages you don’t need one to listen to them!

Tag it, Tweet it, Share it

Once you record your message you are able to name it and tag it with keywords. You can also instantly play your message back before posting it.

You can also sync your shouts with your twitter account. This is just an option, so if you don’t twitter, don’t fret- you can still Shout! If you do twitter, simply enter your twitter login info when asked for it your Shouts will automatically update on your twitter feed. No more pesky character limitations. Phew! Once you have tweeted your shout your friends can listen to your message on the ShoutNow public timeline even if they do not have an iPhone or a ShoutNow account. Access is unrestricted and totally free!

As you add Shouts to your timeline you can go back and view them on your Shoutbox page listed by the date they were recorded. They will be saved and you can continue to tag them, tweet and share them with your friends.

What’s next?

We will roll out the iPhone app first and release versions for other platforms as quickly as possible. Our excitement for the iPhone launch has reached a boiling point this week when we submitted the iphone app to the Apple store for approval one week before our attendance at South by Southwest.  Ideally, we would love it to be up for download (is that an oxymoron?) in time for the start of SXSW Interactive. We are all optimistic but we know how fickle the Apple store people can be. Nobody on the ShoutNow crew has any nails left. (Except Sonal because hers are too pretty to chew).

SXSW

We are pleased and excited to be invited to be co-sponsors of a popular annual party at SXSW- the 32 Bit party which is taking place on Monday evening, March 16th. In previous years, the party has been knows as 16 Bit, 8 Bit, etc… In addition to ShoutNow, the sponsors include Automattic, Get Satisfaction, Gowalla, Laughing Squid, Lullabot, Plinky, Sticker Giant, Zynga and 30 Boxes. If you are attending SXSW Interactive and are interested in going to the party, please contact us on my.sxsw for info.

We will keep you posted and as soon as the app is approved we will let you know! Be sure to follow us on twitter @shoutnow for updates as they happen.

Keep Shouting!

If you have made chocolate chip cookies from scratch, you can appreciate how many ingredients it takes to make them successfully. Just one forgotten ingredient, or too little or too much of something and the delicious treat will fail to delight.

Twilio has perfected the recipe for the open telephony API platform and investors, developers and customers alike have taken notice.  An announcement broke yesterday in TechCrunch that Twilio closed their first round of funding (amount unknown) led by Founders Fund and Mitchell Kapor. The cash infusion will be used for sales and marketing and infrastructure services. In addition to TechCrunch, posts appeared on GigaOm and TelephonyOnline and included details about Twilio’s new customers including Cheetos, Earth911, Tumblr and Sony Music.

It gives us a warm, fuzzy feeling to know that investors and customers are excited about Twilio. If you can stomach the cookie recipe analogy again, I will suggest that ShoutNow is a cookie and Twilio is a special ingredient (I’m thinking baking powder) that you can’t taste, smell or see, but if forgotten the cookie would be inedible. Twilio is that necessary ingredient that makes ShoutNow tasty.

ShoutNow users don’t always know what kind of technology is delivering their shout instantly to 30 or 500 or 8,000 phone numbers and that is okay. We want to make sure users don’t even think to ask and Twilio is ensuring that will always be the case.

Congratulations, Twilio! Keep it up!

-ShoutNow

Bonus: Delicious Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Startup Riot 2009

We can try and be calm and collected and pretend that we’re sooo cool. But what the hell, we are EXCITED!! ShoutNow has been accepted as a presenter at Startup Riot in Atlanta. Dan will have 3 minutes & 4 slides to present our concept, service and the investment opportunity to a room of 400 of the best and most connected angel investors, VCs, press and bloggers. Contain ourselves? Why bother. Woohoooo!!

Ok, deep breath.

This is a good time to let you, our faithful followers, know that we are going to be seeking a small round of angel funding. This will allow us to develop the next set of features that will allow you to use ShoutNow in even more fun and awesome ways. I don’t want to give too much away, but just imagine if you could send Shouts to your Facebook contacts without needing to look up their phone numbers. Sound fun? We hope so.

Look for Dan at the Startup Riot on Wednesday, February 18th. Check out their website here for more information. They will be recording all presentations and we will be sure to get it posted as soon as it’s available. Check back soon!

Keep Shouting!
Molly

2008 was a big year for ShoutNow. That was supposed to be a joke- I hope some of you laughed. It was a short year considering we formed on December 5th and launched our beta site on December 15th. Nevertheless it will go down in history as the year ShoutNow debuted on a web browser near you.

So far our Beta has been great. We have sent over 3000 shouts. We have a few repeat customers, including Rainmakers, a statewide networking group based in Indianapolis, who have found ShoutNow useful in reminding their members of events.  Lorraine Ball an organizer of many of the Rainmaker events and founder of RoundPeg an Indianapolis based Marketing and PR firm has had this to say about using ShoutNow during the beta:

<<We have used Shout Now several times since launch a month ago. Each time with great results.  The first time was for a last minute party  - 75 calls made, and 15 people who missed the email invite showed up. The second was a reminder for a business event - 1,500 calls and more than 150 attended the event.  Many would have come anyway, but this additional call definitely boosted attendance for a networking event on December 30th. And finally my favorite story.  A client attended a weekend trade show, and came home with about 100 leads.  While he is going to mail follow up packages, and send an email, we tested Shout now.  Within 5 minutes of the “Shout” he got a call from one of the prospects, quoted a project and closed the deal. >>

Of course, it wouldn’t be a beta and we wouldn’t be a startup if there weren’t a few bumps along the way. One of the features we plan to roll out will be a caller id enhancement. Currently the number that displays when you receive a Shout from someone is 317.215.5012. This is a Grand Central number that when called back routes to yours truly. This is in place for a few reasons and the enhancement will have to include a number verification step for security purposes. Use your imagination.

Another great result of our Beta was some positive blogosphere coverage on Mashable. This was a great preview of what we hope is to come once we do a full media launch in February. Now, if only we can get all those bloggers phone numbers… We also had some great chatter on Smaller Indiana. If you aren’t a Smoosier yet, I definitely recommend checking it out. There were great comments and questions from folks.  Some of these questions helped shape our meeting with the nice folks at Baker & Daniels, so we thank you! A sampling of these questions include, but are not limited to, the following. Answers, as best as my non-legal brain can muster are included:

• QUESTION 1: You guys don’t have a user agreement or terms of service up on your site. What’s the deal with that?
  ANSWER: We have it now! w00t. This is a beta service and we launched the company in a weekend. This was something that needed a little more time to get hammered out. We’re still fine-tuning the legalese and expect to fully cover our mutual arses tout suite.
• QUESTION 2: Are you afraid of voice spammers sending messages to people who don’t want to be called?
  ANSWER: In a word. No. The National Do Not Call list prevents telemarketers from voice spamming. This leads us to Question 3
• QUESTION 3 Do you require people using ShoutNow to cross-reference the National Do Not Call registry?
  ANSWER: This is a complex questions and officially, we’re still researching this one to make sure we can communicate a complete answer to our audience. Theoretically, we believe we are not offering a service which promises to check the registry and it is the responsibility of the marketer to check the list and be up to date on state and federal telemarketing regulations.

We are really pleased with the way the first month has gone and we hope for those of you who have used ShoutNow you are, too. For those of you haven’t yet- what’s stopping you? We want to hear from all of you! Please email any of us anytime- firstname <at> shoutnow <dot> com with questions, feedback, ideas, etc.. ShoutNow is a communication tool so we are a little obsessed with wanting to know what you think. We’re like that person you dated in high school who always wanted to know what you were thinking. All the time. A penny for your thoughts? Ok, let’s not go crazy, we’re a startup. We’re on a budget.

Ok, this post is getting long. I probably lost most of you at “legalese.” For those of you who stuck around, here’s a treat. It’s also a reminder to slow down on those slick roads! You can ignore this video if you live in the 408, 510, 415, 213 or 310- unless you’re really bored at work. Which clearly you are if you’ve read this far.

Enjoy… Snow Driving Fail

Keep Shouting!

-Molly

Voice Messaging for Groups: Top Services Compared

December 29, 2008 - 8:43 pm PDT - by Jennifer Van Grove

Even though it’s not a new concept, sending voice message blasts to a group of people
appears to be a service on the rise. We’ve decided to break down four sites with
distinct offerings in the hopes that you can easily find your preferred option for sending
rapid voice messages to groups.

From freemium to premium, and simple to robust, you’ve definitely got options should
you opt in favor of voice message broadcasting.

We’re really curious how many people are actually using these services and for what
purposes. We’d love to hear your thoughts about each service, your personal experiences,
what you love or hate about group messaging, and whether or not you’d want to receive
one of these messages. Leave us a comment and let us know what you think.

ShoutNow

ShoutNow is the newest, and simplest, addition to the space. The service, which
was launched over the course of Indianapolis Startup Weekend in December, uses
a pay-per-message model to let users send voice messages to a group of recipients.
All you have to do is visit the website, enter your phone number, record your message,
enter the phone numbers of recipients, pay your tab, and you’re done.

At 99 cents for a 1 minute message to up to 10 contacts, ShoutNow offers a relatively
cheap, but professional alternative to other freemium plans that include advertisements.
The site doesn’t appear to offer much in the way of additional features, like creating
groups of contacts, but we can assume that is just a side effect to being brand new.

Phonevite

Phonevite, an older and more robust service (that even offers an iGoogle gadget),
tackles the voice-message-to-many challenge slightly differently. You’ll need to
create an account and verify your phone number, but once you do you can import
contacts, or add them manually, to create groups. Once you’re all setup, you can
take advantage of the free account that lets you create up to 25 calls, each with an
ad promoting Phonevite (premium services are available starting at $25 and remove
ads from calls).

To create a message just select to record via web (requires download) or phone, say
your message, add contacts, and customize options like sending the message via
email as well. Your message will be delivered with caller ID, and should you opt to
include RSVP options for events, each recipient will be given the opportunity to select
1 for yes, 2 for no, or 3 for maybe, as well as record a response to the sender.

Tatango

Tatango is a multitasking service that takes on both voice and text group messages,
and is a perfect option when 140 characters just doesn’t cut it. Like Phonevite, Tatango
offers users a free plan with advertisements tacked on to messages.

With Tatango, users create groups and use the group name to quickly alert a group of
people with a text or audio message. Groups can also be promoted across social sites,
like FriendFeed and Facebook, making it easy for event organizers and group coordinators
to get an opt-in list of interested parties. Tatango’s additional features include the
ability to review sent messages, customize settings per group, send group invites, create
a flash widget, and automatically syndicate updates from an RSS feed.

When you’re ready to create your audio message from your phone, just text VOICE to
68398 and Tatango will call you so you can record your message. For members with
more than one group, Tatango will text you back, before calling, with selection options.

Tatango’s smooth interface, dual service, group customization options, and social site
promotion options, make this site a joy to use and an incredibly useful option for
organizer types.

Pingercast

Positioned more towards artists and celebrities with a large audience, Pingercast,
by Pinger, lets you broadcast your voice message to anyone who wants to hear it
for free. Once you sign up, you’ll be walked through the process of creating a
subscription widget for your website. Once you’re done with that you can upload
an audio recording, or create one via web or phone. You can also customize the
SMS message users will receive once they subscribe to your voice updates.

Even though we originally thought the service was voicemail spam, I can
immediately see a value in subscription-based voice messaging. As a group
organizer, I can add this widget to the group site and members can subscribe
to updates (should they choose to do so), and I can start recording informational
messages on dates, times, events, and locations for group meetups. This
particular option would save me some time and it’s completely opt-in, so I wouldn’t
feel like I was harassing anyone.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, acilo