1. 2009
The year that was

2. How to read this e-book?
For your reading experience to be optimum,
we recommend that you set your PDF viewer
on “Two Pages Continuous”.
Please consider the environment before
printing this document (save the baby
dolphins!).

3. The Pollenizer Book
Two years ago Pollenizer emerged
Then it grew
And grew
And keeps growing today
We are celebrating with a book
And hope you enjoy our journey

4. Overheard on Pollenizer’s IM
“
”
Wow - I blinked and 20 yammer
messages happened
Phil Morle
“
”
Just polished off some #homerhudson
icecream
Jon Tyson
“ Just be glad you’re still writing sentences
”
procedurally, and not object-oriented or
functionally
Simon Wright
“
”
Bad dad joke of the day...Hedgehogs?
Why can’t they just share the hedge?
Fleur Fletcher
Notes:

5. the business
5
5
is also the number of Jira issues that the Pollenizer team
creates or resolves per hour.

6. What Is Pollenizer?
A global team of technology leaders and innovators
We gather talent and focus ideas to We work in Australia, South Africa, US, Spain,
create energy and value. Switzerland, UK, Germany and India.
Our team is composed of globally experienced Our HQ is in Sydney, Australia where we began.
technology web veterans covering all aspects of a We have engineering teams in Australia, India and
web business including director level leadership, Europe.
product management, engineering, UX design, Our European HQ is in Zurich, Switzerland.
marketing, business development, HR and finance.
Our relationship with businesses is operational. We
We love to make our experience and passion won’t build a website and then leave the founders
available to other businesses with a view to building to manage it. We understand that web businesses
value. Our clients have access to our knowledge, are like living creatures that need to change,
acquired from the very real and often challenging evolving with the business as it grows.
experiences at companies such as Kazaa, Yahoo,
BBC, Naspers, Skype, Amazon and Xing. Pollenizer is a talent pool of people with all the skill-
sets required to run a successful web business.
Since we were formed we have: Our team will expand and contract to match the
business needs. We call it an “Elastic Team”.
• worked with 70+ web businesses
• grown from two to a global team of 50+
• created a stock portfolio of eight companies
• started two businesses from scratch
• worked on content, subscription, mobile,
SaaS, B2B, affiliate, media, social, and retail
web businesses.
6

7. We work with agile processes in business and
technology to release early and release often. This
brings businesses quickly to life and allows us to
act quickly on issues and opportunities. Release,
measure, learn, change, release.
We are size agnostic and love working with big
companies as well as single entrepreneurs in a
garage setting. In common for all is the “start-
up way”, it’s in our blood... agile, disciplined,
bootstrapped...
We tightly integrate web strategy and marketing
with product development to build products where
the technology creates great value and aligns with
the business model. By following our principle of
brutal focus, we can achieve success faster, avoid
common mistakes and concentrate resources.
Focus or fail. It’s that simple.
7

8. What We Do
Pollenizer helps build successful web businesses
Idea StartIng early growth FaSt growth
Research Building Technology Establish Dedicated
technology
Prototypes Operational Team Tech Team
Strategy Focus Customer Marketing Management
MarketIng
Development
Incubation Seed Capital Business Development Angel / Venture
BuSIneSS
Raising Capital Raising
8

10. Pollenizer Growth
Over the past 24 months we have...
grown from 4 employees to 55
worked with more than 70 companies
in 8 countries around the world
and sent and received over 1 million emails :)
In November, Pollenizer was a Deloitte Technology
Fast 50 Australia 2009 Rising Star finalist.
Technology Fast 50
Australia 2009 Rising Star
10

11. 4 194155
EMPLOYEES
1x employee
2x employees
10x employees
80 80 Countries we’ve
worked in
CLIENTS
70 70
60 60
50 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
10 10
0 0
COUNTRIES
SEMESTER 01 SEMESTER 02 SEMESTER 03 SEMESTER 04
Jan 08 - Jun 08 Jul 08 - Dec 08 Jan 09 - Jun 09 Jul 09 - Dec 09
11

12. Global Engineering Team
They take the risk out of offshoring
In addition to our engineers in Europe and Australia, “Like the rest of the Pollenizer team they have a
we have an operational team in Trivandrum, India healthy obsession with trends and technologies in
that works with Pollenizer clients on everything from the Web 2.0 sphere. We say they take the risk out
Quality Assurance (QA) testing and programming to of offshoring.”
project management.
They have grown over the past few years from a
business of two to a company employing around
40 staff. This phenomenal growth has been
powered by many strengths including personalised,
high-quality service and ongoing staff development
and training. ENGINEERING SERVICES
CTO Jagadeesh VN says three core values inform Web 2.0 Testing Solutions
their work; reliability, quality, and commitment. “We
produce deliverables that users can rely on, we Web 2.0 Solutions
offer quality workmanship and we are committed to
impeccable service,” he says. Open Source Consulting
The team uses Pollenizer tools and methodologies Remote Infrastructure Management
and has a Silicon Valley view of the world.
Enterprise Application Development
Meaning? “They know what our clients want and
are really interested in what our clients need,”
Pollenizer founder and CTO Phil Morle explains.
12

14. Overheard on Pollenizer’s IM
“ Its better I change my nickname to
”
something else. My mails are treated as
spam ;)
Jugs
“
”
I knew we could seduce @bruno out of
his leave if we mentioned kaizen :-)
Phil Morle
“
”
#posse locked off - release tomorrow first
thing India time
Jon Tyson
“
”
it’s pouring with lightning and thunder in
Zurich
Amir Suissa
Notes:

15. the fit
15 is also the number of yammer messages
sent by the Pollenizer team every hour.
15

16. SportsPassion
Pollenizer gets a guernsey
Description: Social media enterprise 3eep experienced new product design are the ones we should
SportsPassion’s suite of free online the depth and breadth of Pollenizer’s develop and which ones we should drop.”
community tools allow team managers expertise in getting its online community Pollenizer has also helped define and then
and teammates to better communicate SportsPassion off the ground. target SportsPassion market campaigns.
and collaborate, while sharing the fun
and spirit of their sport. From technology strategy and “Before you work with Pollenizer, you
implementation to product and market might think you know what you need to
development, the Pollenizer team played do,” Antulov says. “After you work with
an integral part. Pollenizer – if you really listen – you’ll know
what you need to do, and why. Then,
SportsPassion’s suite of free online comes the hard part. Doing it. Lucky they
community tools allow team managers help with that too!”
and teammates to better communicate
and collaborate, while sharing the fun and
spirit of their sport.
So how does Pollenizer help? 3eep CEO
Rob Antulov says the Pollenizer team
has the ability to take an entrepreneur or
business from the early concept phase
into development and then beyond, once
a product becomes live.
URL:
“
www.sportspassion.com “In any company, let alone in a start-
up, the real risk is that you try to do too
much,” Antulov says. “In a start-up that After you work with Pollenizer
can be particularly dangerous since – if you really listen – you’ll
there are so many things that are not yet know what you need to do, and
proven – so, you can easily expend scarce
why. Then, comes the hard part.
”
resources doing the wrong thing.
Doing it. Lucky they help with
“The cases where Pollenizer has helped that too!
us focus are numerous, ranging from
understanding which clients are the right ones Rob Antulov
to listen to, through to which features in a 3eep CEO
16

18. Getprice
Managing rapid growth
Description: Pollenizer’s ability to access in-house projects,” Hitchen explains. IT infrastructure
Getprice is a comparison shopping expertise to service a broad range of client assessments flowed from there, asking
engine which aggregates pricing demands was evident in its work with the question: Do we have the vehicle that
information from more than 600 consumer comparison website Getprice. It can carry us to where we want to get to, in
retailers in Australia and also provides also made it the prime and only contender terms of hardware, software and bandwidth
information about service levels for vying for the work. and is our development process optimal?
different retailers, covering warranties, The second focused on the marketing and
delivery time and charges, and product Getprice CEO Chris Hitchen explains why the consumer proposition.
and service reviews. This service is it is important having specific skill areas
available via an iPhone application, as available for hire within one company. Hitchen says Pollenizer also brings an
well as online. international perspective and part of that is
“You don’t want to have too many an international network, which would be
consultants or suppliers to whom you have important for many businesses.
to explain your business model,” he says.
“You are also opening up your business Getprice is all about helping someone to
and sharing very confidential information make the last few decisions about where they
so limiting that to one supplier where you want to buy a product. Shopping anyone?
can get a range of expertise was pretty
important for us.”
He says there aren’t that many businesses
around who can consult at the level
URL: Pollenizer does. “There are plenty of
“
www.getprice.com.au people who have good processes and
good analytical skills that can take you
through various problems and get you to ... there aren’t that many
an outcome, but there aren’t that many consultancies that live and
”
consultancies that live and breathe online breathe online as Pollenizer
as Pollenizer does.”
does.
Pollenizer’s brief was to find a better
Chris Hitchen
framework for Getprice’s development
processes. “We were growing very quickly,
Getprice CEO
with a lot of projects and we needed a really
tight framework around managing those
18

20. Perkler
Loyalty rewarded
Description: Perkler co-founder Dan Bisa has a mantra Searches can be tailored according to
Perkler.com is co-owned by Dan he sounds when asked about the work location and interest.
Bisa and partner Justin Barrie and is Pollenizer has done for his company,
the world’s largest loyalty program Perkler.com. Barrie says the aim is to create a nation of
community, with more than 1,800 Perklers – savvy shoppers that love saving
programs and 280,000 individual perks “Focus, focus, focus, baby!” money through the thousands of perks
listed on the site. The site provides offered by different companies and brands.
information about a range of programs, He explains further. “Mick [Liubinskas] has
from airline frequent flyer programs and helped us a lot initially in our strategy and in Perkler also has a mantra for itself:
restaurant discounts to free coffees at our sequencing of rolling out the product,
local cafes. and what the product should be focusing “Simplify the loyalty and rewards
on, the strands about how users go into the experience for consumers in order to
product, what avenues they are coming on create value for retailers!”
from and how to deal with that.”
An advantage for next steps is the sound
base of expertise on offer at Pollenizer.
Whether its extra developers, a QA team,
server-based guys or project coordinators,
they are available to scale the Perkler team
when required.
URL: “Pollenizer is very hands-on,” Bisa adds.
“
www.perkler.com “They don’t just write you a high level
strategy document and walk away.
Pollenizer is very hands-on,
“Mick gets his hands dirty with how we do the they don’t just write you a high
”
business and the actual running of the site, level strategy document and
the nuts and the bolts, with his very crucial
walk away.
experience backing the whole process.”
Dan Bisa
Consumers can find out everything they
need to know about a particular loyalty or Perkler Co-Founder
reward program through ratings, reviews
and a run-down on the available perks.
20

22. local.ch
It’s all about the people
Description: local.ch CEO Alfonso von Wunschheim local.ch is owned by Swisscom Directories
local.ch is the official online presence says Pollenizer’s work with the company and is the official online presence of the
of the Swiss yellow and white pages, has been threefold. The first mandate Swiss yellow and white pages, offering
offering search results in the country’s for Pollenizer was an initial technology search results in the country’s three
three language groups, French, assessment of the classified section of the language groups, French, German and
German and Italian. The preferred site. “That was the first introduction and Italian. The preferred online source for
online source for finding phone it went very well,” he says. “Phil [Morle] finding phone numbers, local.ch has more
numbers, local.ch has more than 6 and Bruno [Mattarollo] caught up with our than 6 million private and business listings.
million private and business listings. engineers rapidly, got to the key points and
helped us understand what was going on.”
The second tier of work involved Amir
Suissa who provided business development
advice. The third tranche of Pollenizer work
involves a four-month mandate for Bruno as
interim manager, as director of engineering,
to help local.ch implement development
methodology Scrum.
Asked about the strengths of Pollenizer, von
Wunschheim says: “The People. Period.
URL: “They are outstanding engineers and
“
www.local.ch business people but they are also great
people to work with,” he says. “That is the
reason we work with Pollenizer today.” He They are outstanding
cites Bruno’s brilliance as an engineer and engineers and business people
”
his capacity to integrate into the Swiss/ but they are also great people to
German environment by way of example,
work with.
given Bruno’s French, Argentinian and
Australian background. Alfonso von Wunschheim
local.ch CEO
22

24. Homer Hudson
Sharing the love
Description: It’s no secret that lovers of Homer Hudson Hills office. Other new icecream flavours
Homer Hudson firmly pitches itself at icecream become devoted followers. include Double Fudge Brownie Obsession
the top-end of the ice cream market That loyalty is something owner Lawrence and Choc Chunk Cookie Dough, as well
with flavours such as Chocolate Rock, Vincent wants to tap into and use to as Mango Madness, a premium sorbet.
Hoboken Crunch, Cookies and Cream, expand the premium icecream’s reach and
Vanilla Nirvana and The Digger. availability via the web. Over to Pollenizer. Indulge if you can.
Fresh ingredients, no artificial additives
and its locally made and owned status Vincent says the Pollenizer team has
further add to the appeal. begun work on an exciting social media
strategy for the product and he wants the
result to be a surprise. What he can say is
that the new strategy will allow a two-way
and measurable dialogue with consumers,
as opposed to a one-way and non-
measurable dialogue with mass media.
The aim is to encourage interactive
communications between the people
who love and consume Homer Hudson
icecream and the company that makes
and distributes it. Advocacy on the street
and mobile icecream sellers perhaps?
URL:
“
www.homerhudson.com And why did Vincent choose Pollenizer?
“They have had experience on really big
projects, access to the best technology ... [Pollenizer has] had
and experience in building communities,” experience on really big projects,
he says. “The Pollenizer setup also access to the best technology
”
combines to produce a good strategy with
and experience in building
cost efficiency.”
communities.
You can find Homer Hudson at selected
Woolworths, 7Eleven and Metcash/IGA Lawrence Vincent
outlets, or if you are lucky, in the resident
Homer Hudson Owner
Homer Hudson fridge at Pollenizer’s Surrey
24

26. Tangler
Adding value
Description: Pollenizer has been a persistent thread in Working with Pollenizer had a host of
Tangler allows real-time, persistent the evolution of discussion forum website advantages. “The people they put together
discussion into which contributors can Tangler and then with its latest incarnation, are a bright, motivated dynamic group
deploy rich media such as images, TanglerLive. of people who live and breathe web 2.0
videos and flash widgets easily. Topics social media and that is pretty important,”
can also be embedded on third-party Tangler itself allows real-time, persistent Kotze says. “Secondly, they are innovative
web sites. discussion into which contributors can and creative thinkers.
deploy rich media such as images, videos
and flash widgets easily. Topics can also “Establishing any startup is a bit of
be embedded on third-party web sites. rollercoaster with great highs and more
challenging moments and it’s good to
The explosion of social networking know that a team such as Pollenizer is
applications such as Twitter and Facebook there in the challenging times as well as
illuminated a need for an app that the good times.”
added to their features, one that allowed
breakaway, more in-depth conversations
to occur. TanglerLive was born. CEO
Alexander von Kotze elaborates.
TanglerLive incorporates many of the same
features that make our forums great, along
with a dead simple process for starting a
URL: breakaway conversation; the ability to post
“
www.tanglerlive.com in an ongoing conversation without having
to register first and built in systems to
share an interesting conversation with the The people they put together
myriad of social networks out there.” are a bright, motivated dynamic
”
group of people who live and
Pollenizer heavyweights Mick
breathe web 2.0 social media...
Liubinskas and Phil Morle had a hand
in conceptualising and then devising
Alexander von Kotze
TanglerLive. The technical team in India
then took over and engineered the product.
Tangler CEO
26

28. Linqia
How it connects
Description: Based in Barcelona, Linqia used Pollenizer Key decision makers at social networks
Linqia is a Social Network Marketplace for a technology assessment, product register to Linqia for free and specify what
that puts commercial partners in touch focus and QA. Linqia defines itself as “The type of opportunities they are interested
with social networks looking to raise Social Network Marketplace” and puts in receiving. Linqia approves commercial
capital. commercial partners in touch with social partners to present their opportunities
networks looking to raise capital. to selected social networks which Linqia
sends to the key decision maker via the
“As a start-up with limited funding and marketplace.
access to top talent, we were fortunate to
cross paths with the Pollenizer team who
could offer their services to our company,
maximising our chances of getting things
right,” Linqia CEO and Founder Maria
Sipka says.
“Phil Morle conducted a technology
assessment and confirmed the challenges
we ‘sensed’ were there and highlighted
opportunities to take our product offering
and engineering team to a new level.
“Over six months we launched two
URL: products much quicker than we were
“
www.linqia.com able to in the previous 18 months and our
team developed a strong foundation of
accountability and alignment.” Over six months we launched
two products much quicker than
Linqia works by presenting relevant we were able to in the previous
and interesting commercial partners to
18 months and our team
”
social networks who bring affiliate deals,
advertising, sponsorships, content, developed a strong foundation
new members, products and innovative of accountability and alignment.
technologies.
Maria Sipka
Linqia CEO and Founder
28

30. Overheard on Pollenizer’s IM
“
”
Good day with #homerhudson
brainstorming and product dev.
Peter Fellows
“ Pollenizer has been submitted to Deloittes
Rising Star competition. Big thanks to @
”
fleur for putting together a very good one
pager
Mick Liubinskas
“
”
So are you running the new Wii Sports
Resort this afternoon?
Andy Coffey
“
”
Seeing a Test invoice in#saasu @phil is
this a good sign?
Clare Hallam
Notes:

31. the team
31 is also the number of kilometres walked by
Pollenizer employees each day.
31

32. Mick Liubinskas
Founding Partner and Head of Marketing
Contact: As a web strategist, Mick brings
email: mick@pollenizer.com together customers, technology and
twitter: liubinskas business models to create profitable
businesses.
Mick’s portfolio includes: Known as ‘Mr Focus’, he helps
Lingopal, Posse, Mixin, Homer companies concentrate resources on
Hudson, Perkler, OzWeather, building simple, real value and providing
SportsPassion... excellent foundations for growth.
Mick led the marketing and business
Random facts about Mick: development teams for Kazaa and has
Born in Blacktown, west Sydney. run his own businesses.
Speaks English and Swahili.
Has a cat named Polly. Mick has worked with a number of
Likes to believe he’s a surfer. outstanding management teams from
Uses the F. word way too often... around the globe including Getprice,
F. for focus of course. Xumii, Photo Art Gallery, Blurb and
Believes that the Internet can be helped start mogeneration.
broken.
Likes people to guess where his last
name comes from.
“ I spent four months in Tanzania which felt like four wonderful years. Despite a scary
”
robbery and two bouts of malaria, it’s a time I’ll always remember for so many tiny moments
with wonderful people. Travel is the spice of life’s wonderful sandwich.
32

34. Phil Morle
Founding Partner and Head of Technology
Contact: Phil heads the technology division
email: phil@pollenizer.com and provides engineering and product
twitter: philmorle design leadership.
For five years he was CTO of the
Phil’s portfolio includes: massive and controversial Kazaa
BBC, Tangler, Linqia, Getprice, local. file-sharing application that was
ch, InteractiveTV, Naspers, Posse... downloaded over 300 million times and
had up to 5 million users online at any
one time.
Random facts about Phil: He is a specialist in managing
Born in Liverpool, England. technology teams in chaotic
Can surprise more than one graphic environments and bridging the gulf
designer with his Photoshop skills. between the goals of business and the
Thinks coffee is healthy and should technology to power it.
be drunk all day long.
Phil has recently advised a number
of web businesses including 3eep,
Tangler, Naspers, BBC, local.ch,
Lingopal, Linqia, Getprice, Posse and
mogeneration.
“ My first career was as a theatre director where I learned to make something magical
out of not very much and to survive at all costs. My final production was a large scale
physical theatre piece called ‘The Fantastical Adventures of Leonardo da Vinci’ for Perth
”
International Arts Festival. I haven’t changed. I still love big ideas and finding a way of
making them real.
34

36. Jagadeesh VN
Chief Technology Officer
Contact: Jagadeesh, aka Jugs, heads
email: jugs@pollenizer.com Pollenizer’s engineering team in
twitter: jugs Trivandrum in India.
Jugs has more than 10 years of
Jugs’s portfolio includes: experience in the telecoms, finance and
Lingopal, Posse, Spicks and Specks, transaction billing sectors.
Perkler, Mixin, Tangler...
His core expertises lies in designing
and architecting highly scalable and
high availability solutions.
Random facts about Jugs:
Born in Trivandrum, India. He is an evangelist of agile
Speaks English and Java fluently. methodologies and considers SCRUM
Recently found out that his nickname an inevitable process in software
was the main reason for some of his development.
emails to be treated as spam.
Jugs leads an operational team of more
than 40 technical engineers and has
worked with companies from the Top
100 Australian Web 2.0 Applications
2008 honours list.
“ I’ve been supporting the Indian cricket team for over 15 years. My relationship with
”
Pollenizer and Australia made things a little difficult but I’m still a proud supporter of my
national team :)
36

38. Amir Suissa
Partner, Head Pollenizer Europe
Contact: For more than 13 years Amir has
email: amir@pollenizer.com been a business builder, innovator
twitter: batmir and networker in the internet space,
co-founding Switzerland’s first financial
portal swissinvest.com in 1996, then
Amir’s portfolio includes: co-founding First Tuesday Zurich up to
Linqia, Posse, Mixin, local.ch... its sale to Xing in 2006.
He is a business developer at heart,
specialising in bridging technology
and business challenges, creating
Random facts about Amir: innovative companies, closing
Born in Jerusalem, Israel. partnership deals and providing fund
Speaks lots of exotic languages, raising advice.
unfortunately none of them are
computer languages. Amir has advised several web businesses
Likes long skype calls, preferrably late including Linqia, mixin, Posse, cellity (sold
at night. to Nokia) and local.ch.
Thinks Twitter is a virus.
“ My grandfather spoke and read 16 languages! I’m down to 4 and learning my 5th.
I don’t think I’ll be able to catch up though. If I tell you what I did in the Israeli Army
”
I’ll have to kill you, so better not. These days I prefer to spend my free time with yoga,
snowboarding, shamanism and very soon with our baby!
38

40. Jon Tyson
Chief Technology Officer
Contact: Jon is a CTO passionate about taking
email: jon@pollenizer.com ideas and translating them into focused
twitter: jtyson products that people love to use.
He has worked in GPS and GIS
Jon’s portfolio includes: development, smart card technology,
Lingopal, Posse, PaperFree, 3eep, banking and finance, and for the past
Mixin, BookingAngel, InteractiveTV... seven years on internet and mobile
technologies.
Jon has lived and worked in many cities
Random facts about Jon: around the world including Amsterdam,
Born in Bellshill, Scotland. Edinburgh, Phoenix, Melbourne and
Thinks French people are evil. Sydney.
Always has crazy haircuts.
Has a puppy, an under-renovation In Sydney, Jon headed engineering
house and a stamp collection. at Kazaa and was also based at
NICTA, Australia’s Information and
Communications Technology (ICT)
Centre of Excellence.
“ Originally from Scotland before moving to Australia in the summer of 2000 with one
”
case and no idea what to do next. Things could have been so different after deciding to
move back to the UK before taking a position at Kazaa two days before my visa ran out.
40

42. Bruno Mattarollo
Chief Technology Officer
Contact: Bruno has a passion for technology.
email: bruno@pollenizer.com He has a diverse background, both
twitter: bmatt culturally as well as professionally.
Before joining Pollenizer, Bruno
Bruno’s portfolio includes: worked for nearly four years as the
Hunome, local.ch, LocalBilling... CTO of Rising Sun Pictures, a leading
Australian visual effects studio. There
he transformed the software and
systems groups from support centres
to active participants in the success of
Random facts about Bruno: the company.
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Speaks French, English and Spanish. Prior to that, Bruno worked for
Thinks Ruby is truly a gem. Greenpeace International where he led
Can be found in Switzerland, the development of an organisation-
probably climbing a rockface. wide, truly global content management
system, with a team of developers
across three continents.
“ I’ve been lucky to spend time in Haiti, Ethiopia, El Salvador amongst other fantastic and
remote countries, visiting my family. I’ve lived many years in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
”
working for Greenpeace and the last few years in Australia between Bondi Beach and a
farm in rural New South Wales. I am not yet tired of travelling.
42

44. Pierre Sauvignon
Product Director
Contact: With a background as a system
email: pierre@pollenizer.com designer and product manager, Pierre
twitter: pierre_s builds products that are simple to use,
combining commonsense usability with
an elegant look and feel.
Pierre’s portfolio includes:
Lingopal, Posse, Homer Hudson, Pierre liaises with clients to determine
Perkler, OzWeather, Tangler... product goals and then with the
development team and designers
builds or renovates products.
Random facts about Pierre: He is a strong proponent of agile and
Born in Grenoble, France. iterative development.
Speaks French, English and a handful
of Spanish (dos cervezas por favor). Pierre has worked on a number of
Got his first computer at the age of web projects such as Homer Hudson
14. Icecream, Tangler and Lingopal and also
Likes to carry 20 kilos worth of been part of the development team for
lenses and cameras when travelling various mogeneration iPhone apps.
abroad.
“ I grew up in Cameroon, Africa. During our time there, my parents and I went through
”
2 coup d’etats. Therefore I spent a few days living in the safest place of the house: the
bathtub. It might be why I don’t like bath that much... ;)
44

46. Oliver Maruda Clare Hallam Jo Sabin
Web Engineer Accountant Online Marketing Manager
Oliver Maruda is a web engineer and I first heard about Pollenizer over dinner Jo is a hands on strategic marketer, with
communication designer, with a particular with neighbours where I was introduced for solid experience implementing operational
focus on user experience, usability and the first time to Phil. By the end of the main plans for web based businesses. She has
interface design. course I had offered to look at his MYOB file contributed to digital strategies and then
to check that it was set up correctly! played a key role in delivering results.
Taking a pragmatic approach to his designs,
whilst drawing upon his background in Some 18 months later I am the Office Building on her background in market
print and communication design, he helps Manager. At Pollenizer we have moved into research and PR, Jo has launched and
clients develop useful experiences for their the Cloud for bookkeeping and CRM using grown successful new brands and customer
products and services. Oliver volunteers as a Sassu and Salesforce, both excellent online acquisition programs across health care and
firefighter for his local community. solutions. professional services industries.
email: oliver@pollenizer.com email: clare@pollenizer.com email: jo@pollenizer.com
twitter: marcooda twitter: clarehallam twitter: roneo
46

47. David Soul Fleur Fletcher
Product Marketing Manager Online Marketing Manager
David has spent seven years working Passionate about media, Fleur started her
in technology businesses in software career in magazine publishing, but quickly
development, sales and marketing roles. realised digital was a whole lot more fun.
Prior to Atlassian, David developed software She’s fascinated with branding, consumer
for everything from mobile startups to the psychology and marketing strategies.
Department of Defense.
Recently Fleur participated in BootUp
He is also a regular contributor and avid Camp, where she learnt the trials and
member of the Internet and technology tribulations of setting up an online business
industry in Australia, including BarCamps in just two weeks. She also established her
and Silicon Beach. own web business at womensnook.com
earlier this year.
email: dave@pollenizer.com email: fleur@pollenizer.com
twitter: davidsoul twitter: fleurfletcher
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48. mogeneration
We put big ideas into small devices
SERVICES mogeneration is a leading Australian iPhone
and Mobile 2.0 development company.
Founded in 2008 by industry veterans Keith
Research & Development
Ahern and Tom Adams with the assistance of
Mobile and cross platform strategy Pollenizer, mogeneration has rapidly established
a reputation for quality and professionalism
Technology roadmap in all things mobile. Whatever your idea,
mogeneration can help turn it into a real mobile
Design and development (mobile sites product. For cross platform products, services
and smart phone applications) or strategy, mogeneration collaborates with
Pollenizer to deliver industry leading solutions.
Publish to iTunes, Android, app stores
and the mobile web mogeneration helps many local and
international companies with research,
Mobile marketing
business models, design, development and
Analytics and reporting product roadmaps. From games to social
networks, from physics simulations to photos
viewers, from business search to business
news, from finding cheap coffee to finding a
date – mogeneration consistently delivers top
quality, highly rated mobile applications.
URL: mogeneration provides consulting and
www.mogeneration.com development services for next generation
devices including the iPhone, Android,
Blackberry and Palm Pre.
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48

49. 49

50. Overheard on Pollenizer’s IM
“ Just met with the Yammer guys and
told them we love them. Ask for a few
”
features. e.g. how everyone must read
and like my posts.
Mick Liubinskas
“ We’re making a Web Week book with Web
”
Directions and Beyond Blue!! Yay!! Nice
work @tim #blurb
Jo Sabin
“
”
Logging out for OS X Security Update
2009-004. see you on the other side...
Alan Jones
“
”
Putting my financial knowledge to the
test - doing #marketpunter survey for @jo
Fleur Fletcher
Notes:

51. the insights
51 is also the number of Skype chats underway
every two hours.
51

52. Phil Morle Mick Liubinskas
Founding Partner and Head of Engineering Founding Partner and Head of Marketing
Sydney, Australia Sydney, Australia
A year ago we were seeing many businesses without a business We now live on a flat planet with a flat playing field for business. You
model that was understood. Those days have gone. The new can start a business with a niche focus, and stay there. You just take
economic climate combined with a wave of new-breed entrepreneurs your niche global. Digital marketing and distribution means you can
has created a new focus and a desire to build businesses around a find customers anyway, deliver cost-effectively and get paid instantly.
clearly articulated economic model. It’s not just that the game has changed, the whole way we live has
changed. For the customer, it means the best product for you.
In this world, ‘Build and deliver’ is old school and doesn’t work.
Entrepreneurs and companies are realising that running a web The other big change is the attitude to participating. Previously, the
business is more like raising a child. The job of building a web risk of making mistakes was greater than the potential benefit. Now,
business actually begins on delivery day and is not a single project the risk of not participating is lost markets (not just market share). It
but a million tiny decisions around a savagely focused idea. Daily love, also massively devalues billion dollar brands because they don’t have
relentless process, hard facts instead of assumptions and agility raise a meaningful relationship with their customers.
a healthy business.
“ The new economic climate with a wave of new- “ We now live on a flat planet with a flat playing field
”
breed entrepreneurs has created a new focus and a for business. You can start a business with a niche
”
desire to build businesses around a clearly articulated focus, and stay there.
economic model.
52

53. Amir Suissa Jagadeesh VN (aka Jugs)
Partner, Head Pollenizer Europe Chief Technology Officer
Zurich, Switzerland Trivandrum, India
The decisions have been made. Break the bank, drop your day job, Present-day technology trends are changing rapidly and new
recruit co-founders and hammer out an Alpha. The only constant in developments focus on constantly improving web applications and
your life from now on is change. This month’s predictions are next data management. Awareness about these new developments and
quarter’s distant ideas. If you don’t like that - eject now. If you’re still in, using the right ones in applications can mean the difference between
prepare for a roller coaster and go for it. product success and failure.
The best entrepreneurs are tenacious, relentless, have an iron will and Latest technology trends include cloud computing, server
cut to the chase. The key is the absolute ability to deliver. An idea virtualization, SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) and SAAS (Software
or a vision won’t take you far. At any given time 10 other people are As A Service). Each technology presents distinct opportunities as well
working on the exact same idea. You have to be obsessed with the as challenges. When used in the right configuration these new tools
iterative cycle of execution: Focus - Design - Build. Add to that some help save time and money. Pollenizer understands how.
insight, real customer needs, a portion of luck, being there at the right
time and you have a chance to succeed. May the force be with you!
“ From the outside, the life cycle of a web business “ When used in the right configuration cloud
” ”
is fascinating to observe. Working from the inside to computing, server virtualization, SOA and SAAS help
create one will absolutely engulf you. save time and money.
53

54. Do you want to talk web?
www.pollenizer.com/contact
The first coffee is on us :)
54

55. 55

56. Blurb
Make your own book
http://au.blurb.com/
This book, “Pollenizer 2009: The year that was”, was created using
Blurb.com’s creative publishing and marketing platform. Blurb enables
anyone to design, publish, share and sell high quality books.
Blurb is thrilled to support Pollenizer’s Yearbook project which
showcases the energy and dynamism of this company. We are
inspired by the ideas in this book, and we hope you are too.
Blurb is a company and a community that believes passionately in the
power of books: making, reading, sharing and selling them. Blurb’s
social and community features enable you to create and share Blurb
books with your friends and colleagues with ease.
Getting started is easy. Just checkout www.blurb.com, download
Blurb’s free, award-winning Blurb BookSmart™ software and get
creative adding photos, artwork and text. Once you make your book,
you can order one copy or many. Then share your book using badges
and announcements, or set your own price in the Blurb Bookstore -
either way we take care of the transaction and distribution. Use Blurb’s
bookstore and online marketing tools to market and sell your books,
and keep 100% of your profit.
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