Key to MobileDay win: Everyone has phone

BOULDER — MobileDay Inc.’s chief executive Jim Haid didn’t seem at all surprised when an audience of business professionals at the Boulder Theater picked his company’s mobile application as the Innovation of the Year.

“Everyone here does conference calls,” he said, looking out over the milling crowd at the Boulder County Business Report’s 13th annual IQ Awards event held Oct. 3. “Everyone here has a mobile phone. Everyone here who has tried to set up a conference call on their mobile phones can relate to the frustration, the pain.”

Haid’s Boulder-based company has created a mobile app for iPhone and Android smartphones that provides one-touch entry into conference calls for hosts and guests. The conferences can be set up directly from the phone’s calendar.

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When the event’s panel of judges met backstage to pick winners in each of six categories, MobileDay didn’t even prevail in its mobile-apps category. But when audience members texted the number of their overall favorite, Haid’s intuition was correct.

“I’ll absolutely get that app,” said Kayla Trimble, a recruiter at Bolder Staffing Inc., who voted for the winner. She spends her workday on her phone, tracking down candidates for technical positions. “We all use our calendars, and this alleviates having to log back in each time. Anyone on the phone that much knows that gets old.”

MobileDay has yet to charge for its service, but Haid counts on a solid revenue stream when his three targeted customer segments see the value.

“For corporations, we can make sure their employees are using the cheapest numbers for the calls,” he said.

MobileDay is a natural choice for conference-service providers, Haid said, “many of whom don’t have a mobile solution in a mobile world.”

And for the end-user, he said, “we will offer lots of premium services: Pre-meeting activities, chat functions while the call is in progress, and post-meeting organization of the information.”