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Sharpcast

Image:sharpcast.png
Industry	Internet, Computer software
Founded	Palo Alto, California, 2004
Headquarters	Palo Alto, California , USA
Products	Sharpcast Photos, SugarSync
Website	http://www.sharpcast.com/ http://www.sugarsync.com

Sharpcast is a Palo Alto-based startup specializing in data synchronization software. Their main product, SugarSync, is an application which syncs files among multiple computers as well as on a personal website.

Sharpcast and its applications Sharpcast Photos and SugarSync have received substantial press. [1] [2] [3] A number of people have suggested that Sharpcast could be the company to create the next Killer App. Most notably, Sharpcast has been praised by influential individuals such as Walt Mossberg who writes technology stories for The Wall Street Journal, Business 2.0, CNET, USA Today and more.

Company History

Sharpcast was incorporated in 2004 by Gibu Thomas (CEO) and Ben Strong (CTO). In 2005, Sharpcast received a first round of $3 million from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Selby Ventures. In February 2006, Sharpcast unveiled Sharpcast Photos, a tool for synchronizing images between multiple devices including PCs and mobile phones. One month later, Sharpcast finished a second round of venture capital funding from Draper Fischer Jurvertson, Selby Ventures and Sigma Partners for a total of $16.5 million.

Management

Aside from Gibu Thomas and Ben Strong (above), Sharpcast is lead by:

• Domingo Mihovilovic (Vice President, Engineering)
• Vince Jones (Vice President, Operations and Finance)
• Minesh Shah (Vice President, Marketing)
• Mark Dixon (Vice President, Products)

Product History

Sharpcast’s first product was Sharpcast Photos, which was software designed to make it easier for people to view their photos on multiple devices and share them with friends via the Internet. This product was the precursor to Sharpcast’s larger, more ambitious project, SugarSync.

SugarSync is Sharpcast’s newest product and while it is currently in closed beta testing, the company plans to launch the product March 2008. The software is designed to sync all of user’s files (documents, media, photos, etc.) across as many machines as desired. Newsweek editor N'Gai Croal dubbed SugarSync an "interesting solution" even before its launch for its ability to "automatically sync your documents, photos and multimedia files to the company's servers and any machine you designate."

In 2006, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington said about the company's field: "It the future. The question is whether Sharpcast will be part of it or not. If they execute, they will be."

SugarSync also works as an online backup utility and users can access all their data from a personalized subdomain on the SugarSync website under the structure of username.sugarsync.com.

SugarSync differentiates itself from competitors by employing an integrated and intelligent automatic refresh of its sync. Unlike many competitors, SugarSync does not require users to schedule weekly updates of synced files. Instead, SugarSync constantly monitors changes to files—additions, deletions, edits—and syncs these changes with any other linked devices as well as the SugarSync servers.

In addition, in December 2006 Sharpcast inked a deal with Alltel for their product to be the "standard and exclusive" sync tool for the wireless carrier's Windows Mobile-enabled smartphones.

Features

Of Sharpcast's many features, the most notable is its Universal Sync platform. The platform is the structure for its sync product.

Universal Sync platform

The Sharpcast Universal Sync platform is Sharpcast's universal media synchronization engine. The company calls it the industry's first true "push" synchronization, offering numerous advantages including:

1. Media transcoding which supports a variety of device types in constrained computing and network environments
2. A high fault-tolerant storage service with industry-strength encryption
3. Deep handling of specific media types and a rich web front-end for secure remote access to files
4. Integrated e-commerce server for flexible CRM including user account management, credit card billing, promotions, email and integration with 3rd-party systems and services
5. A software development kit and APIs for extending the system and connecting to 3rd-party applications and services.

Awards

• Red Herring Top 100 winner, 2006
• SuperNova & TechCrunch's Top Connected Innovator, 2006
• DEMO '06 Presenter