Events

AppDirect Report from TechCrunch Disrupt SF

By Gretchen Dukowitz / October 1, 2012

A virtual mountain of articles, tweets, and other updates came pouring out of the recent TechCrunch Disrupt conference here in San Francisco. To cut through the noise, we got some quick, key takeaways from two AppDirect team members who were there, Paul Arnautoff and Ajit Dansingani.

This year, both Paul and Ajit were struck by the focus on enterprise solutions. "The exhibit space was consumer and mobile focused, but there were definitely pockets of enterprise companies there, and a few speaker sessions talked about enterprise software," Ajit says. "One of the best sessions was called 'How Enterprise Got Sexy.' It covered how startups are able to iterate faster on their products, and therefore offer a far better solution to enterprises than traditional vendors."

He continues, "In one example the panel covered, a company was using the 2007 version of an on-premise collaboration product, presumably because new versions don’t come out that frequently, and when they do, it takes a long time to migrate. Keep in mind that the product was probably developed in 2005, so the company was using a product that was effectively seven years old. It was completely outdated in terms of usability and functionality. Rapid iterations and instant migration to the latest version are the main reasons enterprises are now much more willing to buy from startups and cloud companies."

"I found one point very interesting during the 'Investor Perspective' panel," Paul adds. "The session featured investors from Google Ventures, Cowboy Ventures, SV Angel, Sequoia Capital, and Greylock. They were asked if there were any areas left for continued innovations in ecommerce, and quite a few agreed that marketplaces are primed to make a large impact in the coming years."

Of course, all of this is great news for enterprise application developers in general, and AppDirect's developer community in particular. To see some official TechCrunch Disrupt coverage, click here.