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eHub Interviews PixPulse

Thanks to David Xue, creator of PixPulse for this email interview posted January 12, 2006.

eHub: What is your web application/service about?

PixPulse: PixPulse is a mobile media publishing platform for sharing photos and videos directly to mobile devices.  We want people to create, broadcast and share personalized media and daily life experiences on their own PixPulse Channel.

PixPulse is not a photo storing site or another social network

PixPulse is a mobile network for sharing “live” in-the-moment media with your friends who get to instantly view and comment in real-time. 

eHub: Why did you start this project?

PixPulse: Mobile media sharing isn’t interactive enough and carriers have made it too difficult.  Cross-carrier MMS just doesn’t work in the US and definitely not internationally.  We want to make it very easy for people to easily publish and share their mobile media.

PixPulse works on all mobile providers and all multimedia phones.  We currently have members in Australia who are sharing photos with friends in Italy.

eHub: How much time do you devote to its growth?  Do you have a day job?

PixPulse: We’re all having a lot of fun doing PixPulse and the positive feedback from our members have made it very encouraging.  *thank you all* PixPulse is my primary project and focus, but to pay the bills and feed the developers I have some other investments and savings funding our project.

eHub: How large is your team and what are your backgrounds?

PixPulse: The PixPulse team is a duo of David Xue and Jason Granum.  Here’s the 411 on us:

David Xue, Founder and CEO
David Xue is the founder of PixPulse.com, a mobile media network for publishing live in-the-moment photos and videos.  PixPulse supports all mobile providers for media sharing and allows people to broadcast their own mobile media channel.

Prior to PixPulse, David was a member of the founding team at Lockdown Networks, a Seattle network security startup funded by Integral Capital Partners and Ignition Partners.  Before Lockdown, David led product management for RealNetworks’ leading consumer service reaching over 1M subscribers where he launched RealOne Radio, the Internet’s first radio subscription service.
David received his BA in Business Administration from the University of Washington.  For more information, visit David’s blog at http://pixpulse.blogspot.com

Jason Granum, Chief Technology Officer
Jason drives the technology leadership at PixPulse and built a scalable mobile media platform.  Prior to PixPulse, Jason architected server performance management supporting 1200 backbone servers at Cingular Wireless.  Before Cingular, he architected the technology platforms for Lockdown Networks and Caesius Networks (acquired by QL2 Software)--both venture funded startups.  He started his career as one of the early team members at RealNetworks.

I want to give a shout out to my many friends to have helped to make PixPulse possible and successful:  Dima, Noah + others.  Many Thanks!

eHub: What is your design philosophy?

PixPulse: Clean and simple wins when it comes to consumer services.  We’re focused on our members and turning their feedback into helpful features.

eHub: What technologies are you currently using?

PixPulse: PixPulse is built on LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) and other open sources image and video libraries.  PixPulse leverages SMS since it’s universally accepted and supported by all phones.

eHub: If your project is live, what are the most requested features from your users/community?

PixPulse: Yes!  We did our public beta launch on October 31st—Halloween!  Users are asking how they can help to grow PixPulse more and get the word out to their friends.

eHub: Does your user base reside in a primary geographic location or is it distributed?

PixPulse: Since we launched in the US, our primary demographic is US mobile users, but international members are quickly catching and people in Italy visit our site like mad.  A lot of people are using PixPulse with their significant other or best friends--some of which are on different continents.

eHub: Where do you see the project heading in the next 6 months?  The next 2 years?

PixPulse: As 3G networks and 2+ megapixel camera and video phones sharply rise in 2006, people will begin to create an enormous amount of media.  I hope to grow the userbase over the next 6 months and become a media portal for mobile content.

eHub: What is the greatest challenge to your success?

PixPulse: Our next release will include very exciting new features to make sharing more interactive, smarter uploading and focused on the “mobile experience”.  Stay tuned!

eHub: What is the one thing you need to get to the next phase of the project?

PixPulse: Our next release will include very exciting new features to make sharing more interactive, smarter uploading and focused on the “mobile experience”.  Stay tuned!

eHub: Do you have a business model?  If so, what is it?

PixPulse: PixPulse is currently a free service to our members.  We will always offer a free service available to our members.  We expect to add premium services and content driven advertisements the second half of 2006.

eHub: If you’re able to disclose this information, how much traffic or usage do you see on an average day?

PixPulse: N/A

eHub: What is the one thing you’re most proud of about the project?

PixPulse: We’re really happy that it is out in the wild and that a lot of people are using it!  PixPulse offers a unique experience and I’m just happy that people appreciate what we are doing.

eHub: How would you describe the shift that’s occurring with the web right now to future generations?

PixPulse: There are more people connected to the Internet via mobile phones than computers.  Most people will experience broadband on their phone for the first time rather than a computer.  This has very far reaching consequences on how we will consume and also interact with data.

As an example, my friend in Korea sends about 1500 SMS messages a month and most people there do 100% of their email on their mobile phones since they are too busy to use a computer.  We’re clearly not there yet in the US yet.

eHub: What site(s) do you visit everyday other than your own?

PixPulse: Yahoo.com is my homepage.  I like gizmodo, luxist and a follow few marketing blogs.  I’m also a huge fan of real estate and architecture so I visit websites on new projects and residential/commercial architecture.

eHub: How many hours of sleep do you get a night?

PixPulse: Finding the right balance in your life is very important to sustaining a startup.  I average about 6.5 and can function perfectly on this only because I have a set schedule, workout 6 days a week and eat healthy.

Thanks to David Xue, creator of PixPulse for this email interview posted January 12, 2006.

Visit PixPulse
Originally added to eHub on Nov 30, 05

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eHub Interviews is a series with the creators of Web 2.0 applications and services by Emily Chang, author of eHub, designer, and co-founder and principal of Ideacodes, a strategic web consultancy in San Francisco that she co-founded with Max Kiesler.

Also see eHub Interviews in Japanese at CNET Japan