Friday, March 11, 2011
Interview with Matthew Smith, Nevolution
For Friday's interview, we thought we'd hear the pitch from Matthew Smith, the CEO of Los Angeles-based Nevolution (www.nevolution.com), a very early startup developing an "app store" for PCs.
What is Nevolution all about?
Matthew Smith: Our company, Nevolution, has spent the last 18 months developing our first product Avennu, which is essentially an app store for PCs. People have become quite spoiled with the app store accessibility on their phones, Mac launched an app store for the laptops and desktops, but nobody has brought this experience to the largest PC user base, which is Windows.
What kind of software can people buy from your app store?
Matthew Smith: We are currently building out relationships with developers and publishers, but we cater to all genres of software, both commercial and free.
How far along are you in terms of launch?
Matthew Smith: We're in closed beta currently, and we're currently opening it up stage by stage, inviting people in week by week.
How are you funded?
Matthew Smith: We're bootstrapped, and we're looking at potential partners for our next stage of fundraising.
What's your background and how did you decide to start the company?
Matthew Smith: I got together with one of our other partners. We've been friends since we were two years old. We had this idea of creating a netbook app store, then we brought the whole team together and kind of looked at the model. We decided that, if we're building this for Windows anyway, there isn't any reason we'd make this netbooks only, because people who own netbooks also own desktops. Netbooks are not their only point of computing. So, let's make something optimized to manage their software lifestyle across all of their PCs.
What were you doing before Nevolution?
Matthew Smith: My four development partners are all Trojans from USC who graduated from the school of computer engineering, two who actually hold Masters. I myself actually came out of the auto industry. I'm just a nerd at heart, and a big fan of technology. For me, this was a dream project, to be able to work with these really talented technical guys and to bring my business sense into the mix.
Thanks!