Tech BizNow - August 4, 2008

We need to know what's going on with the 'Skins at all times, so it's a major relief that Mobile Posse just signed a deal with STATS Inc. to give users up-to-the-second sports scores on mobile devices (besides other info). We met Leader of the Posse Jon Jackson at his McLean office yesterday to hear about the deal and see what else the 20-person start-up is up to.

Mobile Posse is a white label platform (eg, you might see someone else's logo on it) that providers your cellphone with everything from news to horoscopes, along with ads and special offers from brands like Apple, Gatorade and Jiffy Lube that adapt to users' preferences over time and appear on the phone's home screen. "Only 20 percent of mobile users log onto a network even once a month, so we try to take advantage of the one screen that they see dozens of times a day." Jon tells us Mobile Posse, which has received $10.5 million in funding from Columbia Capital, SoftBank Capital and Court Square Ventures, is currently available on Ohio-based Revol Wireless, but is in negotiations with a major nationwide carrier.

Jon takes his mission literally, so he seems to have his own posse. He was born in Taiwan, but grew up in Fairfax when his dad was stationed at Ft. Belvoir, then went on to George Mason. He worked with Project Greenhouse at AOL that invested in Internet start-ups such as Travelocity, iVillage and Motley Fool. He was also CTO at Frederator, before launching Mobile Posse (a name the father of two jokes selected because it sounded cool and was available for $7.99 on GoDaddy). That saves him money for a number of hobbies, including running and biking and buying the occasional video game that he will then not open for weeks.