Alec Saunders SquawkBox

Montreal's Mobivox has just raised an $11 million series B financing. Existing investors Brightspark Ventures and Skypoint Capital participated, as well as IDG Ventures Boston, IDG Ventures Vietnam and IDG Ventures China.  According to CEO Stephane Marceau, the funds will be used for marketing and expansion into asian markets.  In addition, Mobivox today unveiled a new website and new features for their service. 

So, what do they do?  If you can remember Wildfire, then you'll have a fair idea. This is how Mobivox works:

• Contact any person by simply dialing a local number and saying the name of the person you would like to call to the automated attended (the aptly named VoxGirl) - eliminating the need for long authorization codes, passwords.
• Call from any phone to use Mobivox. Just register online and start making calls in minutes from your mobile, PC or landline. No hardware or software is required.

It's that simple.  Plus VoxGirl can give you access to an array of other easy to use features.  Want to add another party to your call?   Press * and tell VoxGirl to add that party to the call.  How about FMC scenarios like handing your call off from a mobile device to a landline?  Press * and tell VoxGirl to transfer the call.

Perhaps the most important feature though is the very economical business model.  Calls between MobiVox users, or between MobiVox users and Skype users are free.  Calls to non-MobiVox users are charged at very economical VoIP rates (I chatted with my son in Southern Ontario for 1.9 cents per minute).  And all calls are to a local dial-in number.  Combine that with a calling plan that gives unlimited calling to specified numbers (like Rogers MyFive, or T-Mobile MyFaves) and users can pretty much eliminate egregious cellular rates for ever.

Wildfire died, primarily because of the outrageous cost of its business model and spotty voice recognition.  It was an idea before its time.  In Mobivox, it looks as if that decade old vision has been resurrected with a viable business model and technology platform, and this time around the market may be ready for it.

Congratulations to Stephane and his team in Montreal — both on their successful fund raise, and impressive offering.

The Season 2 opener of the Dragon's Den had been sitting on my PVR for a week when I finally sat down to watch it last week.  I didn't see any of Season 1, but after all the hype I decided to see what this program was all about.  The premise is simple — every week entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to a panel of five wealthy people, and the winner is the idea that gets funded. 

In this episode:

• Mastermoves Core Trainer — a simple ab trainer and videos, which has sold 1,500 units already.
• Bikini Zero — a website that offers tech news delivered by bikini clad girls, with advertising projected on the bikinis.
• Ultimate Sports Puzzles — sports trivia puzzles sold at the check out stand at your local grocery. 
• Banana Guard – a plastic sheath that protects the bananas in your brown-bag lunch from being mashed.  Over 700K sold to date. 
• Adult/Baby Toilet Seat — A toilet seat with a hidden baby seat in the lid.
• Automatic Closing Fastener — a new zipper for pants with a button attached to the handle.  
• Goatee Guide – a men's shaving template for producing the perfect goatee. 
• Rockpower – The Solar Powered Rock - you'll have to figure this one out for yourself.
• Rhinobag - an inexpensive collapsible dumpster, sold at retail.

Frankly, I didn't think much of the show.  

1. Most of the contestants ideas were one of dorky, stupid, or easily copied (a web site that projects advertisements on bikinis?  C'mon CBC!).  
2. There are too many entrepreneurs presenting which means that the Dragons offer very little insight into their thought processes.  In most cases the reason for rejection was that the entrepreneur was asking for too high a valuation, which, given the small asks and the advanced stages of some of the businesses, left one with the impression that the Dragons are simply greedy.
3. Finally, the winning concept, the Rhinobag, won because the Dragons had all rented dumpsters in the past to solve their personal garbage disposal problems.  But how often does an ordinary person rent a dumpster?  Large scale residential trash disposal is a small segment out of the overall waste disposal business, and these very succesful entrepreneurs should have been able to spot that.

Sorry guys.  The Dragon's Den isn't worth missing a hockey game, or an episode of House or BattleStar for.  As they say on the show, "I'm out".