We're in San Francisco today for the Intuit App Showcase and we'll be live blogging all day. There are 30 talented developers here to pitch their apps that solve small business challenges to group of VCs. At the end of the day, we'll award $100,000 in prize money to three winners.
Bang the gong (literally--there's a guy in a fur vest and leg warmers and a Viking hat banging a gong) the game is on!
Agile Ship has taken the stage to start the day. They've built an impressing shipping app that saves time and money for small businesses who use QuickBooks; the logic in the app eliminates errors and enables a business person to quickly and accurately manage end to end process of shipping. They guarantee you'll be able to ship with 10% less cost than you get on your own. We like their bright purple t-shirts sporting the line "Make Ship Happen."
HireFlo makes small businesses better at hiring by using the app. If you're asking "where do I place my job notice? How do I handle resumes?" HireFlo might be for you. HireFlo first publishes your job notice to Simply Hired and other free sites with a single click. It also recommends a series of actions you might take including sharing on Linked In, Twitter and Facebook to spread the word. The app also enables you to view a history of any interaction the candidate has had with your company. With a few pieces of JavaScript pasted into your website, applicants can see all job openings that you have. The next feature up is helping employers write better job specs. Pretty cool.
Now Costavior is on stage. Costsavior enables any company maximize profit. This app has a nice, clear integration with QuickBooks and provides a wealth of financial information based on a company's data. It also educates business owners on key measures are and why they are important. This app is for business decision makers who want to play with scenarios and really understand how to improve their bottom line.
AtDuty is a field service app. The head office can send work orders to field reps' phones with full job information. The field service rep can quickly review the day's jobs and input start and finish times. An electronic signature closes the job. Writing the information back to QuickBooks closes the loop. Sweet!
TransactionPro Importer allows you to import information like invoices and journal entries from Excel or .csv file into QuickBooks Online. They've already had 10,000 customers using an SDK variant of the app. You can easily map fields from an existing list or create your own fields to your import files. This should save time and improve accuracy for business owners!
ProOnGo on stage now. 1036 expense apps in the world and we need another? Yes! They cover four phone families, there's an always-in-sync workflow, and full QuickBooks compatibility. Everything you create flows to your manager's mobile device for immediate approval (or rejection). Use your device's phone and snap an image of the receipt and that gets sent along. The expense is quick to file and approval takes literally just a second. All of the line item data is captured in QuickBooks. Impressive!
Now a man in a towel has taken the stage and is covering himself with shaving cream while Vivaldi plays. He's sculpting shaving cream on his face and hair to create characachures . . . an old man, a satyr. It's a little weird to watch this but it's fun. A wipe of his hand and a new face emerges. This guy is like a mime whose medium is shaving cream. The audience seems to be enjoying it. Now he's writing the Intuit brand across his chest to great applause.
