Startup Talk: The Venture Center Goes ‘Mainstream’

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VENTURE CENTER GOES ‘MAINSTREAM’
The Venture Center will host its popular Build•IT! Founders Fireside Chat Tuesday, September 1st beginning at 6:00 p.m. The doors will open for drinks and hors d’oeuvres at 5:30.

This month’s guests are the co-founders of Mainstream Technologies, one of the largest software development companies in Arkansas. Recently, Mainstream was named to the “Inc. 5000” list of the 5,000 fastest-growing privately-held companies in America for 3 years in row (2012-2014).

John Burgess, Mark McClelland and Jeff Byers, co-founders of Mainstream, were working full time jobs when they scored their first development contract. Launching their company with that contract in 1996, they have evolved to a top level software development company.

The fireside chats have been very successful in allowing seasoned Arkansas entrepreneurs to communicate their stories of success.

According to Lee Watson, President & CEO of the Venture Center, “There are great entrepreneurial successes in the technology sector right here in Central Arkansas. The Venture Center is excited to highlight and celebrate these stories as we work build the next generation of successful technology businesses in Little Rock and around the state.”

The Build•IT! Founders Fireside Chat is one of the many monthly events that the Venture Center offers to members and guests. The cost is $10 for non-members and free for members. Learn more about the Build•IT! Founders Fireside Chat this month at The Venter Center website.

PRESIDENT WANTS SUPERCOMPUTER CAPABLE OF ONE QUINTILLION CALCULATIONS PER SECOND
When President Obama signed an executive order in late July to establish the National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI), the goal of the project was to build the world’s first exascale supercomputer by 2025.

According to the Brooking Institute’s TechTank portal, the initiative aims to solidify U.S. leadership in the field of high power computing (HPC) by creating demand for HPC software and hardware developers. Though today’s supercomputers are relatively rare, the ultimate goal is to expand the applications of HPC and bring them into mainstream use.

Brookings writers Jack Karsten and Darrell West wrote in a recent blog post that scientists already work on research projects that generate massive amounts of data. The Human Brain Project uses computers to simulate the brain’s inner workings, the Large Hadron Collider collects data on high-speed collisions of subatomic particles, and climate models map global atmospheric conditions at increasingly finer resolutions.

The proposed exascale computer represents a significant increase in supercomputer performance. It would be capable of completing one quintillion floating point operations per second (1018 FLOPS, or one exaflop). This would be nearly 30 times more powerful than the world’s current leader, China’s Tianhe-2.

IDC LOWERS SMARTPHONE FORECAST
According to a new mobile phone forecast from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone tracker, smartphone shipments are expected to grow 10.4% in 2015 to 1.44 billion units.

The updated forecast is lower than IDC’s earlier prediction of 11.3% year-over-year growth in 2015. IDC now expects to see a noticeable slowdown in smartphone shipments in 2015 as China joins North America and Western Europe in a more mature growth pattern. However, steadily falling average selling prices (ASPs) will fuel steady growth through the end of the forecast period, with global shipments reaching 1.9 billion units in 2019.

China remains the focal point of the global smartphone market in 2015, although the results haven’t been as positive as in previous years. As the largest market for smartphones – China consumed 32.3% of all new smartphone shipments in 2014. Shipments are forecast to grow just 1.2% year-over-year in 2015, which is down from 19.7% in 2014. China will remain the largest market for smartphone volumes throughout the forecast period. However, its share of the overall market is expected to drop to 23.1% in 2019 as high-growth markets like India continue to expand, IDC said.

Despite Apple’s continued success with its variants of the iPhone, Android is still the top operating system with a 81% share of the market in 2015 carrying forward until 2019, IDC said. On the device front, phablets (smartphones with 5.5″-7″ screens) will continue to drive shipment volumes in both emerging and developed markets.

TECH PARTNERSHIP CREATES WORLD’S LARGEST WI-FI NETWORK
Wi-Fi service providers iPass and Devicescape recently joined Wi-Fi networks to create a global network of some 50 million hot spots, which the companies and industry watchers are calling the world’s largest Wi-Fi network, according to online industry publication RCR Wireless.

Under the terms of the alliance first announced on Aug. 10, Silicon Valley-based iPass will integrate the Devicescape Curated Virtual Network (CVN) into its global Wi-Fi network, allowing iPass customers access to Devicescape’s amenity Wi-Fi network of over 20 million hotspots worldwide.

“We’re proud to soon be able to offer our customers access to over 50 million hotspots around the globe,” said IPass CEO Gary Griffiths. “With a global population of over 7 billion data-hungry people, and estimates of over 28 billion smart devices in use by 2020, seamless global connectivity delivered via a standard format and user experience will be fundamental.”

CRANFORD CO. SETTLES INTO THE CREATIVE CORRIDOR
Cranford Co. announced that it is relocating its office space in downtown Little Rock. The company said it will occupy the corner space of the Arkansas Building at Sixth and Main.

“We are thrilled to make this next step in our agency’s growth,” said Ross Cranford, who founded the agency along with his brothers Jay and Chris in July 2014. “As longtime supporters of Downtown Little Rock and the Creative Corridor, it’s incredibly exciting to see all of the energy returning to this vital section of our city.”