Why do startups choose Microsoft technologies? We decided to ask them, and share the results. This is the first in a series of ongoing interviews we’ll be conducting with Chief Technology Officers from our partner companies. Our intent is to showcase the advantages and key differentiation that the Microsoft platform and various technologies have enabled.
Our first interview is with Rolf Kaiser, the CTO and one of the founders of iBloks, a maker of 3D advertising software and unified service based in San Francisco, California. Founded in August of 2005, iBloks set out to pursue its vision of social innovation and revolutionize 3D experiences for brands and people everywhere. Through its creative, fun and easy-to-use 3D digital media service, it is pushing the creative boundaries of advertising agencies, publishers, and brand advertisers. And in doing so it is creating a new way to connect brands to their customers — and letting consumers interact with a brand in a very engaging and viral way. So far, millions have already experienced iBloks, and big-name brands are now iBloks customers or partners today, including ATT, Fox Entertainment, Microsoft, Sprite, and many more.
Microsoft Startup Zone: Why and When did you first choose the Microsoft Platform?
Rolf Kaiser: When we started in 2005, we had been hearing a lot about Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), codenamed Avalon. And I knew that the applications we were trying to build would be something that WPF would be well suited for – particularly since our application deals heavily in media and 3D. It is very important that the application be visually stunning for the consumer. That is right up the alley of WPF. As it turns out, timing was great, we were able to get our application off the ground and be the first consumer multimedia application certified on Windows Vista, and an early adopter of Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation.
While there was definitely some learning along the way, it worked out extremely well. In some ways we were ahead of where some of the tools were, but with the support of Microsoft developers, it was a really, really good decision we made because it enabled a small company of under 15 people to ship an entire application and web- based service so quickly. If we were trying to build it with another platform, it most likely would have been impossible. It enabled our designers and developers to really work in tandem — something the WPF team and Microsoft overall are really great about.
MSUZ: What one MSFT technology is most critical to your business model/success, and why?
Kaiser: WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) — no question. We use a lot of other Microsoft technologies including the Windows Media Format SDK, the Direct X 9 SDK, DirectShow, and Silverlight but importantly, WPF has enabled us to build an application that is clearly far different from anything else out there. Specifically, its strength in 3D visualization is amazing — it enables you to do some really cool innovation that benefits how graphics and applications can be brought together.
MSUZ: What have been the key benefits of using Microsoft technologies?
Kaiser:The biggest one for us has been the ability to really separate the design from the development process. A lot of times, if you are trying to build an application the “old way”, a designer might spend weeks and months doing comps, then give it to a developer, who would then try to build an interface that looked reasonably like the comps. It would be an extremely slow handoff. The developer couldn’t really do anything until he or she got a quality design, and after that, the designer’s ability to contribute really came to an end. WPF really enables us to do both of these concurrently. Microsoft has done such a good job of separating the procedural code behind the markup with WPF — much like you separate HTML from JavaScript in the web world. This sort of paradigm in WPF makes it really easy for a designer to continually refine the design throughout the process. As a result, you get things that look much, much better and designs really turn out the way you want. And you can do it with fewer employees — it really works well with small firms like ours trying to build something from scratch. We were able to launch a very elaborate application in six months — you could try to do that with Windows Forms, but it might take two or three years. This is game-changing, it is completely different.
MSUZ: What Microsoft technologies will you support or integrate in the future, and why?
Kaiser: We are looking at a number of things such as Windows Live Services. The Windows Live team is doing a lot of interesting things, with exposing APIs for Contacts, Spaces, etc. And we’re at the very beginning of our Silverlight experience (really, the last two weeks). So it’s really too early for me to provide much of an assessment. Feel free to ask me again in six months!
MSUZ: If you had to do it over again now, would you still pick Microsoft as a platform for your solution?
Kaiser: Absolutely, no question, would not even hesitate. It was the technology platform of choice, and WPF that enabled so many things — we could not have done it the old way.
Rolf Kaiser's Background
Rolf was previously Lead Program Manager for MSN Entertainment at Microsoft, where he managed the development and launch of the MSN Music Service. In 1999, he co-founded MongoMusic, Inc. and was Vice President of Development, helping to build a revolutionary technology that would create a database of over 300,000 songs categorized by musical attributes. This type of approach was the first of its kind, and in 2000 the company was acquired by Microsoft, which currently holds a number of patents relating to this work. Rolf has engineering degrees from both the California Institute of Technology and Stanford.
For more information, read the iBloks success story: iBloks Creates 3D Digital Media Platform for 'Personalized' Entertainment.
