Sitemasher is Named a Finalist for the Red Herring Top 50 Canada Award

Sitemasher is Honored Among This Year's Most Promising Private Technology Ventures in Canada

C-Level Executives and Venture Capital Leaders Join for Second Annual Conference in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, September 15-17, 2008.

August 26th, Montreal, Quebec, Red Herring Magazine has named Sitemasher a finalist for the "Red Herring Top 50 Canada" award, a prestigious list honoring this year’s most promising private technology ventures in Canada. The Red Herring editorial team used an intensely competitive process to select the most innovative companies from a pool of over 300, leaving 100 finalists vying for this prestigious award. The names of all 100 companies short–listed as finalists for the "Red Herring Top 50 Canada 2008" can be found online at: http://www.herringevents.com/canada08/Canada50.html

For over 10 years, The “Red Herring 100” awards, open to private technology companies, are given to the top 100 tech companies, based upon technology innovation, management strength, market size, investor record, customer acquisition and financial health. Adding to the success of our yearly North America 100, Europe 100 and Asia 100 events, Red Herring Canada will provide an opportunity for the Top 50 companies to deliver their message at the Red Herring Canada Conference in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, September 15-17, 2008. Throughout several months leading up to the announcement, hundreds of companies in the telecom, Web 2.0, software, hardware, biotech and energy related industries sent their submissions to qualify for the award.

The nominees are rigidly evaluated on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, technology innovation, quality of management, execution of strategy, and integration into their ecosystem. This unique assessment of potential is measured by a review of the actual track record and standing of a company, allowing Red Herring to see past the “buzz” and make the list an invaluable instrument for discovering and advocating the greatest business opportunities in the industry.

About Red Herring
Red Herring is a global media company uniting the world's best high technology innovators, venture investors and business decision makers in a variety of forums: a leading innovation magazine; an online daily technology news service; technology newsletters, and major events for technology leaders around the globe. Red Herring provides an insider's access to the global innovation economy, featuring unparalleled insights on the emerging technologies driving the economy. For more information, visit http://www.redherring.com/

About Sitemasher
Established in 2007, Sitemasher is a SaaS-based platform for building, managing, and optimizing sophisticated websites. Phil Calvin, chief technical officer, began developing Sitemasher in 2005. He was intent on transcending traditional website building platforms and Web content management system (CMS) solutions by providing an integrated, search-engine friendly platform to address the entire website lifecycle. Ron Moravek, chief executive officer, joined the new corporation in August 2007 along with Curtis Terry, chief financial officer and chief operating officer for Sitemasher, both from Electronic Arts, Canada. Eric Dorgelo, vice president of development, joined the team from Rockwell. Nicole Denil joined Sitemasher from Microsoft Corporation. Eric Carlson became the sole venture capitalist and partner in December.

Sitemasher in Business in Vancouver

Recently, Ron Moravek was interviewed by Curt Cherewayko from Business in Vancouver - published on August 19, 2008:

Video game company co-founders take career leap into Internet space

Duo’s Sitemasher wants to move web development from server room to boardroom

Two Relic Entertainment founders have left the video game industry to venture into the entirely different world of website optimization.

Ron Moravek and Curtis Terry, who left Relic after it was acquired by THQ Inc. (Nasdaq:THQI) in 2005, formed Sitemasher Corporation, last November.

With a staff now of 26 at its Vancouver headquarters, Sitemasher is launching a commercial version of its website optimization software this fall, following a year of development and pilot projects.

It hopes to make website development code obsolete in much the same way that Windows made consumer need for the MS-DOS command prompt obsolete after its release.

Although most progressive companies have at least a rudimentary website, Moravek said not every company knows the programming language that operates its site.

“Businesses are moving their whole world online,” said Moravek.

“Whoever can take the voodoo out of websites and enables businesses to go online more easily... could be really successful.”

CTO Phil Calvin is the chief architect behind Sitemasher’s technology. He’s best known as the founder of Motivus Software, a remote access marketplace company that Citrix Systems acquired in 2004.

Read the full story on BIV's interactive site here.

Or preview the full color story here (JPG image).

Join Sitemasher at Web 2.0 Expo in New York

Sitemasher is excited to be attending and exhibiting at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York. This event is happening September 16-19th, 2008 at the Javits Center.

Web 2.0 Expo was launched to connect the builders of the web with the brightest minds, hottest ideas, and most valuable tools - and with each other. New York has long been where the world's biggest industries go online, and as Web 2.0 grows up and gets serious, the time is right to convene the East Coast web communities under the umbrella of the next generation web. It's time to come together to learn, share and network. And it's time to celebrate the size, power, and innovation of the East Coast web industry.

Web 2.0 Expo is for the builders of the next generation web: designers, developers, entrepreneurs, marketers, business strategists, and venture capitalists, people who have experiences to share and a passion for learning - the hot new thing, lessons from failures, innovations and inspirations, and the practical applications of all of the above.

Download map and visit Sitemasher at booth #1544 - check out our innovative SaaS product for building, managing, optimizing, & hosting sophisticated websites - without the need for programming.


Read more on Web 2.0 Expo in New York here...

Sitemasher up 25 Spots in Canada's Start-up Index

Sitemasher is up 25 spots in Canada's Start-up Index on Techvibes.com website. In August 2008, Sitemasher placement is 111th out of 306 Canadian Start-ups. Last month, Sitemasher placement was 136th.

The index ranks Canada tech start-ups based on an average of Alexa and Compete traffic rankings. City lists and other details are available on the Start-up Index page.

The criteria for companies to appear on the list:

• Located in Canada


• Not a public company


• Is a tech company; either hardware, software, web app/service, or mobile

Read more on Techvibes blog post "Canada Start-up Index - August 2008".

Sitemasher to Unveil Sitemasher Site Network

We’ll be unveiling our newest addition to the Sitemasher product family – Sitemasher Site Network – in the near future, so I’d like to explain the concept. Sitemasher Site Network allows you to network multiple websites in order to share assets among the sites without duplicating pages, graphics, styling, and so on.

What problems does Sitemasher Site Network solve?

Over the past few months, I’ve met with countless companies that deal with not only the pain of managing their corporate parent website, but also the pain of updating their many regional websites. There is duplication of information and assets among websites, and maintaining all of that duplication is burdensome.

Any company with several websites has to look for ways to let information flow or be inherited from the main corporate website (the parent site) to the many sub websites (the child sites). Now think about that – can you imagine trying to keep pace with hundreds of websites instead of just one? Tools such as WordPress and RSS feeds enable companies to share articles, and some companies use custom XML or data-entry tools to make changes to user interfaces, and so on. However, these complex, custom systems are often cumbersome, and merely sharing articles is pretty limiting.

So we shared the concept on Sitemasher with early adopters and asked them to give us their “wish list” in order to change the way multi-site companies run their online businesses. Here’s what they said:

• What if I could have parent pages from a corporate website that could share site assets (logos, movies, forms, graphics, styling, and content) to related child websites?
• What if I could publish or update any kind of content to any number of websites in real time, through a system of parent-child sites?
• What if I could make all of these changes without having to make changes to multiple sites?

The solution!

Sitemasher Site Network allows the corporate parent site to create several common assets just once – such as advertising, branding, forms, search functionality, and labeling – and then publish these common assets to the libraries of all the child sites. The child-site creator can then create their customized website from a blank canvas and simply place the parent-site assets onto the page where they see fit.The critical point here is that once placed, the parent site is still connected to the child site and can update the assets at any time. And if you look at the breadth of an offering like this, you can do something as simple as I described here – publishing a connected library – but you can also create parent templates with locked assets that only the parent site can change. Plus, the number of sites you can publish to is virtually unlimited.

Coming soon

Sitemasher Site Network will be available in the Sitemasher product by late August 2008.

Have questions or want to be influential in this product’s feature development? Then send an email message to Ron Moravek, Sitemasher’s CEO, at Ron@sitemasher.com.

Sitemasher Attends Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference

The Sitemasher crew (Phil, Ron, and Nicole) attended the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WWPC) to discuss Sitemasher's recent entry into the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program with Microsoft's Emerging Business Team.

Sitemasher was invited to join the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program as a result of winning the Microsoft Blue Sky Innovation award. The program is designed to accelerate the success of high-potential software startups around the globe by providing access, guidance, and support for the Microsoft platform. Accelerator companies are selected to join the program based on their innovation, high growth potential, funding, platform decision, and strategic importance to Microsoft.

Microsoft is really excited to have Sitemasher within the portfolio of high-potential startups, according to Dave Drach, Managing Director of the Emerging Business Team at Microsoft.

Because Sitemasher's product portfolio is aligned with Microsoft strategy, there is ample opportunity for partnering, so after discussing business plans with Dave, the crew from Sitemasher moved on to talk to potential partners.

As Ron explained, “It's really invigorating to have Microsoft and partners get excited about Sitemasher's mission. It seems like everybody that builds, manages, or owns a website can relate to the problems we're trying to solve. Having that kind of response at an event like this is huge! The Microsoft team and partners were really enthusiastic.”

Sitemasher Launches Comic Strip to Illustrate Website Pains

Sitemasher's "Web of Pain" addresses struggles with traditional website design and content management systems.

Sitemasher takes a novel approach in debunking the myth that building and managing websites has to be painful by spoofing traditional methods in its comic strip "Web of Pain," officially launched this week.

Meet Sam, Ned, Vinny and Zoe, four characters who are in constant conflict trying to get websites built, running, and updated … yesterday! ... replicating an all-too-common scenario that plays itself out in companies worldwide on a regular basis.

When he began formulating the idea for the Vancouver start-up company, Phil Calvin, chief technical officer, decided that implementing and owning a website shouldn't have to be so hard, and he set out to solve that dilemma with the Sitemasher product.

The comic strip is a way of addressing common frustrations website designers, developers, and owners experience as they spend days, weeks, months, and in some cases years building and maintaining websites. The characters of "Web of Pain" embody the day-to-day obstacles that occur when building and managing websites.

"Through our 'Web of Pain' characters, we try to convey the pain of all the individuals involved in the website lifecycle….from the website builder struggling to produce better websites faster and less expensively to website owners trying get the most of their IT investment," said Ron Moravek, chief executive officer.

Sitemasher will be updated with new comic strips biweekly with the intent of not only giving people a chuckle when they identify with the four stereotypical characters, but also driving potential customers to Sitemasher's website to try the pre-release version of Sitemasher or simply sign up to receive future comic strips.

Asked why Sitemasher went with a subtle marketing approach versus a more traditional style, Nicole Denil, vice president of Sales and Marketing commented, "We wanted to make solving website pain pertinent yet fun. Most people can relate to the pain around building or owning websites, so we wanted to make those pains come to life through our characters."

This subtle marketing method has caught on. Microsoft and IBM have taken similar approaches, with their focus less on technology and more on the people who use the products. "With the landscape changing on how people engage in technology, more decision-making power lies in the hands of the people who actually use the software," Denil said. "Not only does our cast of characters act in the strip, but they are now part of the Sitemasher crew … we consult with their personas even while we build our product."

The comic feed has different ways for the user to subscribe; via an RSS feed, a comic widget that is embeddable into multiple platforms such as MySpace, Blogger, TypePad, WordPress, iGoogle, LiveJournal, Tagged, Multiply, Freewebs, Netvibes or a widget available via Facebook's application directory.

Sitemasher is asking readers to submit real-life web pain stories that could be used for future episodes and they can win prizes.

To view or sign up to receive the "Web of Pain" comic, visit www.sitemasher.com/comic/ .

The comic strip launch closely follows Sitemasher being chosen by Microsoft for its Blue Sky Innovation , which recognizes leading innovation developed on a Microsoft-based platform. Sitemasher was elected from more than 100 submissions by independent software vendors (ISV) across the country, recognized for its unique SaaS-based delivery model, broad market appeal and its integrated web offering. ISVs were judged on the unique use of technology, the real-life challenge they are solving and the market potential.

About Sitemasher
Established in 2007, Sitemasher is a SaaS-based platform for building, managing, and optimizing sophisticated websites. Phil Calvin, chief technical officer, began developing Sitemasher in 2005. He was intent on transcending traditional website building platforms and Web content management system (CMS) solutions by providing an integrated, search-engine friendly platform to address the entire website lifecycle. Ron Moravek, chief executive officer, joined the new corporation in August 2007 along with Curtis Terry, chief financial officer and chief operating officer for Sitemasher, both from Electronic Arts, Canada. Eric Dorgelo, vice president of development, joined the team from Rockwell. Nicole Denil joined Sitemasher from Microsoft Corporation. Eric Carlson became the sole venture capitalist and partner in December.