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Five Questions with….SoftShell
By Mark Evans | September 26, 2008
My mother is a Luddite with a capital “L”. But the reality is she’s pretty typical of the 60+ demographic that find computers far from user-friendly.
What’s interesting is that for all the hype about Web 2.0, meeting the computing and Web needs of a huge population hasn’t received nearly as much love or attention.
London, Ont.-based SoftShell is looking to fill the “senior’s void” with software that makes using a computer simple and easy to use. Sitting on top of Windows, Softshell lets people do four things and four things only: e-mail, games, photo-viewing and Web browsing. There’s no bells and whistles. It’s no-frills computing.
At first blush, SoftShell looks like a no-brainer given the market is potentially huge. There are, however, two major challenges: developing a business model where people pay for the software directly or indirectly; and getting distribution, whether direct through retail channels or deals with computer makers.
SoftShell hopes to take an interesting forward by seeking $200,000 in funding from the Dragon’s Den - a venture capital reality show now in its third season. SoftShell co-founder Stephen Beath wouldn’t spill the beans on whether SoftShell was successful but he did answer Five Questions with….
Q: So, how did SoftShell get started?
A: Our story started two years ago. For me, my family thought about getting my grandmother a computer to keep in touch. There was no way I was going to give her a Windows or Apple interface – the fonts are tool small and there’s too much going on. We looked around for a simple interface so we could e-mail. There was nothing around so we decided to build an interface.
We want to get this generation that had been left behind by current computers engaged. We had alpha version of the software. It is an interface that takes over the whole computer. It provides e-mail, games, photo viewing and Web browsing - the four most popular things that seniors are interested based on our research. It puts really simplified easy high-visible intuitive interface on those functions and strips out a lot of the functionality.
Q: Where are you in terms of development?
We have had an alpha version for eight months. We have been in beta testing of the past eight months. We have been testing with individual users, retirement homes, senior centers and geriatric centers. The software will be publicly available on Monday. You can download it for free from our Web site.
Q: What’s SoftShell’s business model?
Eventually, we are going to go with a two-tier system. You can pay or maybe you can have an ad-supported or partnership-supported version. We could build Skype into it. If the user goes for a Skype subscription, maybe Skype could pass along $5.
Q: How much money are you seeking from the Dragon’s Den?
A: We asked for a $200,000 investment on the show. We now have a product people love, we see it as marketing issue. We are looking to hire a marketing focused CEO; that would be the main purpose of that money to promote software and get us into other channels. It would be amazing to go into Future Shop or Shopper Drug Mart and see the product.
Q: Are there are companies focused on the seniors market?
A: There is a couple – none quite like ours. There are two Silicon Valley start-ups. Presto and Celery.
Technorati Tags: dragon’s den, softshell
Topics: Five Questions With..., Software, Venture Capital |
September 26th, 2008 at 8:43 am
marketing step #1 - get on national TV to do a product demo!
September 26th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Cool info, thanks! My mom is 83 and uses a computer for exactly those things (minus games but add text editing). Funny thing is that the family got her a Mac because we were sure that this would be an easier experience for her. Well, it hasn’t been. Or more to the point while it may have been ‘easier’ than using a windows based machine her experiences with a Mac have been punctuated with as many (if not more) problems despite easy of use. Part of that came down to software issues (file management - ‘where did XX go?’ - and memory issues were the other problems).
so… if SoftShell would work on a Mac, then we’d really have something to make mom happy! (course, she’ll be following me on twitter and telling me to call my sister!)
September 29th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Funny, I work with many younger people (I am 62) and I am amazed at what they don’t know about computers. I get all my friends, young and old, calling me on how to fix their PC.