Hi Everyone,
We wanted to check in briefly to keep you posted on the latest RunKeeper news. . .
RunKeeper Beta Program
We have had an informal beta program up to this point with a very small group of RunKeeper users who test new releases before they are live, help us shape new features and stomp out bugs. As we grow and accelerate our development efforts, it feels like a good time to formalize this program. This means there are a select number of beta slots available to interested users.
Selection criteria:
- must be a RunKeeper Pro user
- must have done at least one activity in the last 30 days
- must have at least 25 activities completed in total using RunKeeper
- must be eager to test new builds, thorough with your testing, and provide detailed feedback
We expect that there will be far more interest than there are slots available, so don’t be disappointed if you are not initially selected. We will keep a waiting list and plan to shuffle people through as slots open up.
Interested users should send a note to support@runkeeper.com with ‘beta tester’ in the subject.
Funding
We are proud and excited to inform you that we raised our first round of outside capital—$400K from an incredible group of investors including LaunchCapital (Boston-based seed fund), Dave Balter (BzzAgent CEO), Don McLagan (former Compete.com CEO), and a handful of other individual investors. Some press coverage of the funding is here and here.
The reasons for raising were twofold:
1) As you know, we’ve got a huge product roadmap to get through, and we wanted to accelerate our development efforts and get there faster.
2) In addition to the money, the investors who are participating are incredibly accomplished and bring lots of relevant skills and knowledge, and we are as excited about the people involved as we are about the cash.
It has been a long haul since I quit my job to start RunKeeper in May 2008, and there is no question we could not have gotten this far without all of you! Thanks so much for the terrific support, and we are thrilled to continue to evolve RunKeeper together.
LeWeb Startup Competition
The LeWeb Startup Competition is sneaking right up, December 9th and 10th in Paris. As we mentioned previously, we were one of 16 teams selected to present out of several hundred that applied. Stay tuned, we expect to have a couple of big product announcements when we are on that stage! Sufficed to say it may be a good time to get into the beta program (hint, hint).
Mashable OpenWebAwards Voting Reminder
Finally, if you haven’t been voting for us in the Mashable OpenWebAwards, there is still time to do so! The link is here and you can vote once per day between now and December 13. If you want a daily reminder, send a note to support@runkeeper.com with ‘daily reminder’ in the subject.
That’s all of the news for now!
Jason