What I want to talk about is the stunning designs we did on this website, with Helena taking the reigns and really doing something spectacular. Starting with the brand, we completely revamped the styles and design from the existing demo site.  The brief was simple: follow the clean lines of the swiss Metro style (recently popularised by Microsoft), make it trustworthy, easy to use and intuitive.  I’m really proud of what we’ve done here, and there’s still a lot more in the production pipeline on functionality on where we want to take it.

The development on this project was definitely a team effort.  Our front end team lead by Shane then went to town and built in some stunning visual transitions and made it easy to follow.  Dave head up the back end team and I’m pretty sure that everyone of the devs had a chance to write some code at one stage.  (Alas, I’m no longer allowed!)

So what is Public Beta?

Public beta follows closed beta and is the final live testing phase we go through all our applications before we do our hard launch and go “live”. Our PR and media campaigns kick in at the “live” stage. This lets us track and monitor organic growth of the application and mitigate any final unknown bugs by reducing the impact to the public. It’s a pretty amazing accomplishment, having taken hundreds of development hours and hundreds more of design hours to get here.

Where to from here?

The next stage for Moneysoft is completing private beta and then executing on our marketing plan to gain traction and users.  From there, it’s anyone’s guess but we’ve got big ambitions for this money managing business.

Until then, check it out at www.moneysoft.com.au – it’s free to try

The post Launching moneysoft into beta – making money manageable appeared first on Blue Chilli.

Sydney, 8^th April 2013 – Sydney Venture Technology firm BlueChilli is proud to announce its partnership with Lean Startup Machine (LSM) Sydney, which commences its workshop on Friday, 19 April, through Sunday, 21 April 2013.

Lean Startup Machine (LSM) is an intensive three-day workshop where entrepreneurs and innovators use Lean Startup principles to validate ideas for new products or services.

Throughout the weekend, participants will be put through a very intensive process that will push entrepreneurs to new limits and will surely shatter some perspectives on what is capable. Participants will be coached by local VC’s, investors, successful entrepreneurs, and the Lean Startup Machine team on how to apply the methodology.

“The weekend on the whole was invaluable to me personally and to the business idea itself.” said LSM alumnus James Nathan. Since LSM, Nathan was accepted into the World’s Largest Startup Accelerator; The Founder Institute, and later received his first investment from BlueChilli for his start-up Food Orbit a service enabling leading restaurateurs to connect and trade with local farmers, promoting a transparent food marketplace.

BlueChilli is sponsoring the prize of two BlueChilli start-up advisory mentoring workshops to the teams that have emerged as the top two winners of the workshop.

Commenting on the partnership, Elisa Chan, Marketing Manager at BlueChilli said, “BlueChilli is proud to be a part of LSM Sydney and with our company goal of building 100 start-ups by 2016, I believe this is a great opportunity for LSM winners to leverage the expertise of our start-up advisers”

The Sydney Lean Startup Machine workshop is limited to the first 50 people who register in order to maintain an intimate learning environment. Visit the LSM website to register now and don’t miss out!

About BlueChilli:

BlueChilli is a venture technology agency, a company that combines software development, marketing, branding and business development skills with investments in online start-ups – a strategy called venture technology. BlueChilli has made 23 investments and is on track to invest in 100 start-ups by 2016.

BlueChilli is a registered trademark.

About Lean Startup Machine: Lean Startup Machine has hit all major markets including New York, Boston, London, Singapore, Sydney, Sao Paolo, Istanbul and Toronto to train over 7,250 entrepreneurs and innovators. Lean Startup is a methodology that was made popular by world renowned author Eric Ries. The methodology has been known to save entrepreneurs much time than would otherwise be wasted. Companies that use lean techniques include Facebook, Zynga, and Dropbox. LSM provides participants with tools, techniques, resources and knowledge designed to help early stage companies identify their key market and iterate products quickly.

The post BlueChilli Partners with Lean Startup Machine Sydney appeared first on Blue Chilli.

I chose a darker tone for the navy blue, which represents the power and professionalism. The yellow/gold tone has been used which symbolized wealth, success, and high quality. Gold is also used to represent the best of the best, top quality and superior value. When you see gold in branding, you can believe that the product or service associated with it is solid and reliable, valuable and worthy of use.

I combined a bolder and thinner sans serif typeface with tracking between the letters to give the distinction between the token and one and giving it a more professional and clean look.

The symbolism of the shield represents the protection, privacy, and the security that Token One has. The shield can also be viewed as a castle parapet, which is a protective wall or earth defence along the top of a trench.

The result is a strong and dependable brand that people can trust, a must in a business that protects and authenticates user identities. What do you think?

The post Building the brand for TokenOne appeared first on Blue Chilli.

I went with a retro, old style typeface as I needed to appeal to both producers and restaurants. The Producers would be drawn to the retro typeface is reminiscent of old retro food grocers and stores. The Clean high-end and simple typeface logo without a logo mark appeals to restaurants due to the elements of trust and reliability. Finally the use of a star in the logo represents the quality in the business/products.

Originally I started off with a lined retro department store logo but after testing it didn’t reach well into the target markets. The outcome was instead of incorporated the lines for the old style department store, I used elements such as the less detailed horizontal lines, banner element, and tagline to give a shape to the logo and therefore more depth.

Overall the FoodOrbit logo is a powerful and modern brand that will work for two very different industries.

The post Connecting two markets together with the FoodOrbit brand appeared first on Blue Chilli.

The post Welcome Divvy – solving carparking in built up cities appeared first on Blue Chilli.

• The development of Chilli Source, Bluechilli’s internal systems for building great tech businesses
• The fact that in the last 3 years, over 23 startups have been built by his uber awesome skills
• He is a big part of the reason the company Bluechilli was named 3rd most innovative company by BRW this year

Over the next 5 years, Jeremy and his team will be responsible for building over 100 new tech startup businesses.   Well done JP!

The post Jeremy wins top technologist of 2013 appeared first on Blue Chilli.

Sally joins our successful front-end development team and will be helping turn the creative vision put together by Helena and Bianca in to a gorgeous user interface.  Will and Herman are helping our founders with technical support and product development.

The post Will, Sally and Herman building awesome startups appeared first on Blue Chilli.

In the release, Greg Ellis, the current CEO of REA Group (Realestate.com.au) publicly announced his investment in Housl and joins a strong team which includes Daniel O’Brien Director of CBRE Asia Pacific and the CEO Stuart Rutherford who joined Housl from a notable background which includes McGrath property where he was instrumental to the growth of the company.

Growing a strong team is one of the most important things we focus on during the Growth phase of the business development here at BlueChilli (lead by Catherine Eibner).  Other startups in our portfolio have attracted National sporting CEOs, heads of “the big four” finance companies, Celebrity Chefs, heads of marketing for national ASX100 companies with press releases due out for these in due course :)  The connections, mentoring and leadership these team members bring to our startups is incredible.

What excites me greatly about this, is the strong trust and interest these awesome people have for startups, which is a combined factor of the general maturity of the startup ecosystem as a whole but also shows great confidence in the BlueChilli model.

This friday at Beta “booking the board”, we’re going to hear from the CEO and founder of Dimmi, Stevan Premutico on how he built a dream board for his startup.  His board includes chairman, Macquarie Group division director Glen Butler while notable nonexecutive directors include Facebook Head of Australia and New Zealand William Easton, LinkedIn Managing Director of Australia and New Zealand Cliff Rosenberg and (former) Group Managing Director of Telstra Applications and Ventures Deena Shiff, some of whom are individually invested in the online venture.  If you’re interested, come past after 5pm on Friday for a few beers and pizza c/o our friends at Ninefold and listen to what will be a fascinating talk.

The post Building an awesome team appeared first on Blue Chilli.

Recently awarded 3rd place in BRW’s “most innovative Australian companies of 2012”, HOUSL is a complete online real estate identity verification system and solutions platform that enables tenants to apply for rental properties instantly using their mobile phones.

Greg Ellis joins a strong team that already includes Daniel O’Brien Director of CBRE Asia Pacific and CEO Stuart Rutherford. Rutherford brings a wealth of senior management experience from key roles with companies including McGrath Estate Agents, Fosters/CUB and Levi Strauss & Co, which included time based in the U.S. market.

Ellis commented, “HOUSL will revolutionise how the Real Estate industry locally and globally, approaches the identification and evaluation of prospective tenants and buyers in the market. In comparison to the existing players in this market, in my view HOUSL is light years ahead. My experience in this area is testament to the quality of the product, and I’m excited to be an investor as real estate is just one application for this technology”.

“One of the attractions of the system is the simple manner in which it will help property managers in becoming more efficient and making more informed tenancy decisions. Rather than build a product which only solves half the problem, HOUSL provides solutions on both sides of the fence, for both the agents / agencies and tenant applicants. Put simply, it solves many current problems and frustrations for both agents and tenants” says CEO Rutherford.

Co-Founder, Daniel O’Brien said “Given the uptake of mobile technology and peoples’ reliance on making time consuming and frustrating tasks streamlined and fast, the market for HOUSL is incredible.

“Our initial roll out targets the Eastern States of Australia where there are approximately 1,600,000 new leases signed every year. That alone will provide a significant revenue stream” Daniel added.

With aggressive goals to secure a large slice of the market, HOUSL have launched a competition where the winning tenant will receive 1 Year’s free rent (more information and competition details can be found on the website: www.housl.com).

HOUSL will also offer the capability for advertisers to specifically target its customers, and at the most critical times. HOUSL knows when a tenant applies for, and agrees to sign a lease, so home and contents insurance companies, removalists, and utility connection companies etc, will be able to reach these tenants directly, at the critical moment of the lease process. It is extremely powerful information.

HOUSL was built by Sydney technology incubator BlueChilli, and is backed by strategic partnerships with Deloitte Digital’s GreenID platform and Ninefold.

The post CEO of REA Group invests in Real Estate Software Company HOUSL appeared first on Blue Chilli.

1. The most important thing is to design with a brief

A brief is used for designers to know what they need to design for the client’s needs and their business. Without a brief, designers are overwhelmed by the amount of the freedom that they have and could design a brand, which does not fit around the business target audience, which results to scrapping the original design and starting again. Working without a briefing on client work is just asking for a disaster.

2. Designing for yourself and not the target market

Clients and designers are often guilty of analyzing a design based on their personal tastes and not the target audience.  You need to know, and even love, your target audience.

3. Not doing enough research

Allocate some time to research so you can understand the context of the business, who the primary and secondary competitors are, how the logo will be used, and the target audience.

4. Showing too many options

This is one piece of advice that I wish I took into account when I first started designing as this common mistake is made often. Clients will only use one of the solutions so there is no point in wasting time and effort in creating multiple options. If various concepts are shown, sometimes a client may ask to combine 2-3 logo’s together which will result in an un-successful logo.

5. Not being able to explain your design

Designers cannot explain their reasons with “I designed it this way because I think it looks good”. Every pixel of the logo must be thought of and have a reason behind it going from colours chosen, fonts chosen, graphics, etc. Every element must have a concept behind and reason behind it, this also shows the client that you have done the research to reach the target audience and company.

The post 5 Mistakes Designers make when creating a logo appeared first on Blue Chilli.