Pinger

Sector: Mobile applications, telephony, VoIP

Headquarters: San Jose, CA

Management: Co-founders Joe Sipher and Greg Woock were both formerly with Handspring.

Funding: $3 million from Kleiner Perkins, November 2005.

Secret Sauce: Pinger’s provides a simple, viral mobile voice messaging system—thanks to the modern miracle that is VoIP. Pinger gives users a local number that’s stored in their mobile phone under a speed-dial assignment. By pressing P (keypad number 7) when they want to use the service, the phone dials the local Pinger number. Pinger then prompts users, who says the name of the person they want to call (phones must have the contactee’s details stored, such as e-mail address and phone number).

Pinger uses voice recognition (from Tellme) to look up the details. At a second prompt, users speak their message into the phone. Pinger sends the audio message to the recipient’s e-mail account or phone through an SMS audio file. Recipients can listen to the message immediately or later—just like a text message.

Once a Pinger users leave a message with someone, recipients get a message via e-mail asking if they want to sign up and helping them through the process. Pinger users have a settings dashboard, which can be managed from the Internet. Choices include types of alter, how messages are sent, and so on.

At every step, Pinger is designed for easy use. Because it is carrier independent, its simplicity is helping it stand in favorable contrast with other products, including Coremobility’s vnotes, which is limited to those using Sprint services. Revenue comes from users, who begin seeing charges after the tenth message. With texting finally catching on in the U.S., companies with simple, effective services like this will have no trouble building followers. As competitors enter the fray, separating the good from the bad and the ugly will prove the challenge. Pinger’s KISS philosophy gives it a great competitive advantage.

Seen and Heard: Techcrunch’s Michael Arrington reports, “This is a serious company with a dead simple, viral product in the mobile voice messaging space.” The San Jose Mercury News’s Silicon Beat reports, “So, here [Pinger] stands in favorable contrast with other products, including that of Coremobility ‘vnotes’ product…. Sprint has launched that on millions of phones, but you have to be a Sprint subscriber to use it.”