In this interview, I had the opportunity to sit down with Dirk Morris, Co-Founder & CTO of Untangle. Untangle provides an open source, integrated network gateway solution for small businesses, which includes spam and spyware blocking, web filtering, anti-virus protection, firewall, VPN, and numerous other features. These applications are critical for small businesses, but most other solutions on the market are too complex or too expensive to be implemented by small companies with limited budgets and IT expertise.

Untangle integrates all of these existing open source network gateway applications into a single application, which can be run on a single server with a simple user interface. Their entire core offering is free, making it a great solution for small businesses, but they do have a monetization strategy which includes commercial add-ons, such as tech support and server hardware.

Dirk shares about the tremendous opportunities Untangle has had to reach small businesses, largely due to the fact that their entire product offering is free and open source. He also shares about his personal background and career path, which began on the engineering side, but quickly led him to exciting entrepreneurial and business opportunities. He gives some great advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, including how to find and develop relationships with advisers and mentors, which are crucial when starting a company.

Last month, Untangle announced the addition of a couple of new technologies. First was their Re-Router Technology, which allows their software to run in the background on a standard Windows desktop, protecting all of the computers in the network without the use of a dedicated server. OStatic provides a good overview of the benefits of this new technology. They also announced their new “Silver Bullet,” which is a free USB stick that comes pre-loaded with the Re-Router tech, allowing for a quick demo of its capabilities and an easy way to get started. The VAR Guy gives his take on the Silver Bullet here.

Untangle has also worked on initiatives to utilize Linux and open source software to refurbish old computers for use in schools, helping children and minimizing waste…it’s great to see startups who are active in the community!

Below is a demo of the Untangle software:

To check out more, visit the Untangle demo site.

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These days, internet connections are fast, storage is cheap, and on-demand applications (think Gmail) are everywhere…meanwhile, local hardware requires cash, maintenance, and overhead…so why not store everything in the cloud? This is what Egnyte provides: an online server that enables simple and secure file storage, sharing, and backup, for a fraction of the cost.

They have a lot of competition in this market, but are aiming to differentiate themselves by targeting small and medium sized businesses instead of consumers. SMBs need to have lots of centralized storage, collaboration with business partners, and backup/protection of data, but typically cannot afford the local hardware required. Egnyte provides all of this, with extra focus on reliability and security.

In this interview, Vineet Jain, Co-Founder & CEO of Egnyte, discusses the details of the tech, the market, and their most recent press announcement: the integration of their product with the iPhone, allowing users to share and access all of their files on-the-go, while effectively providing limitless storage on a device with very little local memory. This provides great business utility to the iPhone, broading its use beyond the consumer space.

The company would be an interesting startup case study, given that they’ve attracted over 1000 customers in 8 months, and closed their first round of funding just 3 months ago. Below you can check out a detailed demo of the product, which showcases every feature on a laptop…and on the iPhone too, of course.

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Many startup companies in the “garage operation” stage want to appear larger and more professional when interacting with customers by phone, but they do not have the money to invest in the hardware required for a conventional PBX phone system.  Other startups have distributed operations, with employees working on cell phones from home or on the road, and want to enable effective communication between employees and with customers.  RingCentral addresses these needs by providing a virtual PBX phone system, which includes multiple extensions, toll free numbers, automated greetings with menu trees, dial-by-name directories, and call and voicemail forwarding.  You can use their online interface to create “rules” that define call routing based upon time of day, number dialed, type of caller, or whether the call was answered.  Your greeting could say “Press 1 for technical support, press 2 for sales”, etc, but all options could forward to a single cell phone!

In this interview, Praful Shah gives a detailed overview of the RingCentral features and pricing, and provides some great examples of both large and small companies that have used their product. He also gives an overview of his own unique role in the company as VP of Strategy, and what responsibilities the position involves.

There have been some great reviews of the product, and it was even recommended in Timothy Ferriss’s The 4-Hour Workweek as a good solution for automating receptionist activities and professionally managing business calls while traveling and working remotely. This year RingCentral closed a second round of VC funding, so I’m sure we’ll hear plenty more about the company in the months to come! Check out a recent post on Expand2Web for a great overview on virtual phone systems and the benefits for small businesses.

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