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Favorite iPhone apps of the mobile CEO set (...and more)

E-mail | Print | Comments () Posted by Scott Kirsner February 3, 2010 07:31 AM

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Mobile Monday Boston, which organizes regular networking shindigs for folks who work in the mobile industry, held its first CEO dinner on Monday night at Post 390 in the Back Bay. The evening was organized by Matt Gross and Kate Imbach, the two prime movers behind Mobile Monday, and about 15 or 16 CEOs attended, including Ted Morgan, CEO of Skyhook Wireless, Chuck Goldman of Apperian, and Seth Priebatsch of SCVNGR. The only venture capitalists in the room (no surprise here) were three gents from Flybridge Capital, which was footing the cost of the dinner.

I moderated a wide-ranging discussion over dinner, and so didn't take many notes, but here are a few tidbits:

Jeff Bussgang of Flybridge asked the assembled CEOs about their favorite iPhone apps. Here's what he got:

- Goldman said his is MouthOff, mainly for entertaining his kids. (You hold the iPhone in front of your mouth, talk into it, and an animated mouth moves in synch with your words.)

- FitnessKeeper CEO Jason Jacobs said his is Orbit, which helps you navigate between many pages of apps on your phone.

- Imbach put in a plug for Sleep Cycle. You put your iPhone in your bed and go to sleep. It analyzes your sleep patterns, and wakes you up when you are in the ideal phase of your sleep cycle.

- Morgan said his favorite app is OpenTable, for making instant restaurant reservations when he's on the road.

- Priebatsch said he's fascinated by the game Augmented Reality Ghost Hunter, though he cautioned that it can be spooky when played late at night.

Greg Raiz of Raizlabs mentioned that his Brookline development shop is working on two or three apps for Apple's just-announced iPad device, mainly to show what they can do with it. Raiz also mentioned Drinks on Tap, an occasional gathering for Boston-area iPhone developers, which I hadn't yet heard about.

There was quite a bit of discussion about Foursquare, and whether the start-up's location-based "check in" idea will eventually get built into apps like Yelp or Facebook, rendering Foursquare irrelevant. (Here's the Foursquare page for Post 390.)

Some of the local start-ups people were buzzing about that weren't present: Nexage, a mobile advertising company; Survey on the Spot, for gathering feedback on cell phones; Pongr, another mobile marketing start-up; and Locale, an Android app that can change your phone's settings automatically based on where you're at (no rings while in class, for example).

tags Apperian, Chuck Goldman, FitnessKeeper, Flybridge Capital Partners, Greg Raiz, Jason Jacobs, Kate Imbach, mobile, Mobile Mondays, SCVNGR, Seth Priebatsch, Skyhook Wireless, Ted Morgan

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About Scott Kirsner Scott Kirsner was part of the team that launched Boston.com in 1995, and has been writing a column for the Globe since 2000. His work has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Newsweek, and Variety. Scott is also the author of the books "Fans, Friends & Followers" and "Inventing the Movies," was the editor of "The Convergence Guide: Life Sciences in New England," and was a contributor to "The Good City: Writers Explore 21st Century Boston." Scott also helps organize several local events on entrepreneurship, including the Nantucket Conference and Future Forward. Here's some background on how Scott decides what to cover, and how to pitch him a story idea.

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