We also spoke with Sanjay about Gravity.com (formerly Blue Rover Labs), an LA-based startup that received $10M in VC funding last year and is entering a space that CrowdGather has been monetizing for years (we wrote about both companies a few months ago).

Here’s our interview with Sanjay:

There’s been a lot of interest in your company lately, so much so that Internet Review recently listed you as a company to watch in 2010. What is generating all the buzz?

I am not sure what has really happened in terms of the increased following for our company and the stock, but I would guess that it is part of a renewed investor interest in Internet companies as the engine to drive the future economy. When we first became a public company in April 2008 there was little to no interest in small companies in our sector among public investors.

Can you put some metrics behind this interest? Exactly how much have the indicators spiked lately?
Our stock (OTCBB: CRWG) has hit $2.00 today on over a million shares of volume. This is compared to $0.70 in May of last year when we raised our last financing. At that time our average volume was less than 10,000 shares per day.

For those who aren’t familiar with CrowdGather, how would you describe your business model?
We are focused on building a robust content network around forums. These are message-board communities that exist on every conceivable topic under the sun. We acquire them outright and then create vertical channels in order to achieve critical mass for advertisers and ad rep firms that do business with us. In essence we are as much a real estate driven model as we are a technology one. We buy assets with the potential for generating recurring cash-flows and we keep working towards getting higher payouts until we pay off the properties. Once we have done that the cash-flow becomes ours in perpetuity as long as we maintain and grow the communities.

Many tech companies are pursuing VC funding these days, but you’ve taken a different path. Can you explain it for us?
As a long time executive at small public companies and as a former member of the securities industry, I know the public markets quite well. I didn’t have much of a relationship with the VC and angel investment communities so my decision to go public via a reverse merger was a trade-off of doing business with the “devil you know” versus the one you don’t. Basically an entrepreneur is taking the risk that it will be easier to find capital as a public company- even a small, illiquid one in the beginning.

How did this approach work out for you in the early days?
My confidence was tested when the markets began to collapse in the summer of 2008, a few months after we became public, but we have hung in there and managed to keep raising small amounts of capital to drive our growth.

For entrepreneurs who are curious about this approach, would you say it is better than approaching VCs? How does it affect exit prospects?
It is not necessarily a better approach. As I mentioned, it is a function of comfort and access to capital. I felt my prospects were better among investors who look for growth companies that are public. As far as exit prospects, the irony is that by being public you are already at the finish line because you have a market available for your shares to be bought and sold. The problem can arise when you have insufficient trading liquidity in your shares, or if your market capitalization drops below what you believe your company should be worth in a financing or exit round.

How about the regulatory process? Is it still difficult and expensive to navigate?
There are higher costs to being public- that is for certain. As far as difficulty, the key is to surround yourself with team members that know what they are doing. I have been fortunate in finding the right Board members and advisers in order to reduce the cost of outside consultants.

Let’s talk about competitors. What do you think about Gravity.com? They seem to be entering a market that you’ve been working in for a couple years now.
Gravity.com is exciting for us because they demonstrate that VC’s believe that there is value in conversations that reside on forums. Gravity has been blessed with a $10 million first round and a sharp team of ex-Myspace executives, but they are in private beta right now so I am not in a position to comment on what they intend to do exactly. If they are a standalone offering then they will be limited, but if they are focused on helping the owners of existing communities, as we do, then the sky is the limit.

Raising over $10M from several blue-chip VC firms is impressive. Knowing the industry as you do, why were they able to raise so much?
$10 Million for a first round is an impressive amount considering the economy. It is more than twice as much as we have procured in financing even though we have been around for longer than they have. I believe that the excitement in Gravity.com stems from the caliber of their management team coupled with the simple logic of the fact that forums predate the Internet and they are not going anywhere any time soon. Facebook and Twitter have tremendous value for real-time, surface discourse, but if you want to dive deep into a subject and really ‘geek out’ — you will find yourself on a forum seeking the wisdom of the experts in the crowd. Your FB buddies will not help you come up with an alternative methodology for balancing the ecosystem on your nano-planted tank, but a visit to a site like our aquaticplantcentral.com will almost overwhelm you with depth of knowledge. When people are ready to take the training wheels off their Internet experience they will end up on forums. We are the help desk of the Internet.

Since you are both operating in a similar space, has the recent interest in Gravity benefited CrowdGather in any way?
I joined my first message board in the 90’s; I acquired my first forum in 2002; I created an LLC around that site in 2003; I started building a network of sites in 2007, and I finally made it my full time focus in 2008. The only place I have seen us mentioned in the same context is on TrendSlate.com. I do point their existence out to our shareholders as proof that there is professional investor interest in their sector, but I am not sure of any other crossover. Their approach could be fundamentally different and based more on technology and analytics rather than old fashioned community building.

Any plans to reach out to Amit, Jim, Steve and the rest of the Gravity team to talk about the industry?
I would welcome a conversation, especially since it is interesting that both CrowdGather and Gravity have Indian CEO’s and are both are based in Southern California. I believe that a discussion is more likely to occur after they launch since they are probably in a private beta for strategic purposes.

Follow Sanjay on Twitter @crowdgather

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Last week, Steve Jobs’ iPad launch highlighted perhaps the greatest manifestation of the company’s legendary reality-distortion field that we have seen to date. Apple and Steve went into the iPad launch with a negative trifecta of no domain name, no issued trademark, and no FCC approval. Despite these deficiencies we all saw the Emperor resplendent in a decadent outfit projected from the incandescent glow of a 10 inch tablet.

I say this while being fully aware of the initial criticisms that have surrounded Apple’s last few paradigm-shattering product launches. There is no doubt in my mind that they have and will overcome all that is in front of them, but like previous product launches, the iPad illustrates yet again Apple’s aggressive corporate practices and their belief in the power of their ability to bend reality to fit their needs. The moniker “Jesus Tablet” has been aptly used to describe the messianic nature of the iPad and perhaps it is well deserved not only for the creation of a compelling consumer-oriented computing device, but also because their corporate maneuverings assume that they really can walk on water. Considering the obstacles that still stand before them, bringing this product to market without a few controversial moves will require a leap of faith.

Do they even own the domain name?

Let’s first consider the domain name, iPad.com, which was issued in 1997 to Martine Bejasa of New Jersey. On January 28th, 2010 – the day after the unveiling of the iPad – there was a change in the WHOIS record. Could Apple be the new owner and Martine the newest Apple millionaire? I hope so, as this domain name predates all trademark filings and would have no problem showing up on page one in Google searches for the rest of its natural life if left independent. The new owner is cryptically named “Enero 6”, or January 6th, which might refer to the date that Steve Jobs and his crew decided that they would begin the fight to call this device the iPad.

Three’s company, especially in Trademark disputes

Next, calling their device the iPad was an interesting choice for Apple considering that the Trademark is disputed by not one, but by two other parties and logic would dictate that there is a high likelihood that they will not be issued the trademark. Since when has logic mattered to Apple? A company called Mag-Tek has been selling keypads in commerce with the iPad name for several years now, but Fujitsu has made progress in splitting the iPad trademark for the use in tablet computing for themselves and convinced the USPTO to reopen the trademark for their use in February of 2003. Their application is pending and they have had a Windows CE tablet available for purchase under that name since 2002.

Fujitsu's iPAD device, which is sold in the United States and other areas.

As a recent story on this subject quips, “….Mag-Tek is selling the IPAD under a valid trademark, Fujitsu is selling its iPad with a pending trademark application and Apple has announced (and plans to sell) its own iPad with no trademark at all.” (another story on this here)

Apple needs to convince the USPTO that their iPad is similar to its iPod franchise and that its use of the name iPad will not confuse Mag-Tek’s keypad customers. This is if it can first convince them that Fujitsu is not the rightful owner despite having a pending trademark application on and off since 2003. For skeptics who believe Apple is doomed to failure, one need only take a look at what happened when Apple went up against the rightful trademark owner of the iPhone in 2007. Cisco caved in and agreed to a settlement with Apple that must have been pretty lucrative for them. Apple gets what Apple wants.

And then there’s the FCC

Finally, there is the issue of not having a valid FCC clearance to market or sell the iPad device. This was also the case when Apple introduced the iPhone several years back, but the FCC gave them what they wanted within 30 days and they were good to go. Pundits believe that Apple’s recent moves to allow VOIP services on the iPhone may be a sacrifice to regain the FCC’s good graces after the controversy surrounding their decision to keep Google Talk off the iPhone. Based upon historical precedent- the FCC should rubber stamp their application well before the expected launch date of April 27th.

We shall see how events unfold, but Apple has been here before and Steve Jobs has never been caught naked between the announcement of a new product and its actual launch.

Follow Sanjay on Twitter @crowdgatherTweet

Seesmic launched in 2008 as a “video for Twitter” product, but after that approach didn’t gain enough traction they quickly pivoted in 2009 and became a solution to help users aggregate their various social-networking accounts (similar to what Tweetdeck and Brizzly are doing).

What is interesting is that Seesmic has been quietly gaining traction and they are now a company that everyone in the social-networking space should be watching very closely — for three reasons. The first is their recent acquisition of ping.fm. This acquisition not only gives users the ability to update multiple social networks through a single Seesmic application, but also provides Seesmic with a wealth of user data. The second is their significant investment in the mobile space. User acquisition for social networks used to begin at the computer and the mobile app was merely an extension of that experience. That model is slowly shifting, and in the future users will decide which apps to use on other platforms based on what they experience on mobile devices. Finally, there are rumors that as Twitter continues to have uptime-performance issues, applications like Tweetdeck and Seesmic will fill that gap and provide a service that allows users to continue communicating when Twitter is down. This is interesting because if Seesmic adds more infrastructure to their service, they are in a position to rival Twitter as a stand-alone, realtime application.

These trends are still emerging and who really knows whether they will position Seesmic for success anytime soon. Nevertheless, with lots of user data, a growing foothold in the mobile space, and the need for an infrastructure partner, I’d have to wonder whether Google is considering Seesmic as an acquisition target. If that is the case, is Seesmic’s inclusion in the Nexus One Campaign actually Google’s initial pilot for something much, much bigger?

Time will tell, but in the meantime, congrats to the Seesmic team on a great month thus far.

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Unique online shopping experiences have been popping up all over the place in this down economy, but for the avid deal shoppers who are looking for the ultimate experience, Bidzilla might be just what they’ve been waiting for. We’ve heard reports that the company, which has been flying under the radar these last few months, is now growing fast and “profitable”.

The surge in timed penny-auction websites over the last year has been nothing short of mesmerizing, and the combination of gaming, urgency, and huge discounts on expensive products have made this a hot space for investors and entrepreneurs. Swoopo has emerged as the #1 player, but not without certain flaws in their bidding model — flaws that Bidzilla claims to have addressed as it now surges forward.

While Bidzilla’s basic auction type is the same one we’ve seen on other sites such as Swoopo, they’ve added other features that make the experience more enjoyable and fair for everyone.

First, they’ve added a rewards program that gives away items for free just for participating, so users can still get the items of their choosing even if they don’t actually win an auction (Swoopo has been criticized for this). The program works by giving credits for bidding, which can be spent on Bidzilla’s rewards store. The more users bid, the higher the reward level, and higher reward levels allow users to earn points faster. Bidzilla also provides a leaderboard that recognizes and gives bonuses to the users who save the most each month.

Next, the company has made changes to the Auto Bidder that makes it completely fair to those who use it. On Swoopo, “BidButler” has been famously criticized for overbidding and driving up prices through so-called BidButler “duels”. A duel occurs whenever two users activate Swoopo’s BidButler tool in the same auction. The result is that the two BidButlers instantly place all of their bids until one of the two reaches a stopping criteria. Since other users cannot contribute any bids during that time, the users with BidButlers carry all the weight of bringing the price up when there is a duel. Bidzilla has completely eliminated this situation with their “Auto Bidder”, which is designed to act like a human. It selects a time randomly (below 10 seconds) every time a bid is placed. Then if the timer hits its time before a bid is placed, it will bid. This way a user who activates Auto Bidder is not forced to bid every single time another bid is made, even if other users have Auto Bidder on as well. Just like a human, most of the time the Auto Bidder will not bid, but rather allow others to bid up the price (thus conserving bids and not draining all of them in a matter of seconds).

Finally, Bidzilla has created an in-auction chat and the ability to take notes on other players. These features contribute to the amount of strategy that goes into bidding because they allow you to get to know the other users and learn their behavior. Users who can really figure out what strategies other bidders are using, can use that information to save tons of bids and therefore be very successful.

This is all on top of a really innovative website design with multi-window capability within a single browser page and customizable features that make the user experience much better.

The company still considers itself to be in a learning phase, and they’re soliciting lots of feedback from users. If you have any good suggestions, be sure to post them in the comments below. One of the co-founders will be reviewing these and potentially offering free bidding credits to anyone who is especially helpful.

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The campaign actually launched a few weeks ago, but it appears to be an effort led by the MySpace UK office, which explains the minimized publicity here in the US (and the spelling of the word “favourite”). UK-based design blog h-oo-k.me has some screenshots and additional details.

Users login with either MySpace ID or Facebook Connect, and then the technology does the rest. The experience is terrific, and in the example of the 50-cent video, the size of the picture frame even changes based on the shape of your photo (see how our TrendSlate logo rendered in the screenshot below).

You can also set one up for a friend and send it to them, or create one for yourself and share it. The result looks incredibly realistic, although we’ve heard that this version featuring Sean Percival is actually the real thing.

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This is a banner week for MySpace. In addition to this ongoing competition, the MySpace Developer Challenge launched earlier today with $50k in prizes and a suite of APIs that should lead to some of the most creative applications ever created for a social network. Its also a huge blue-ocean opportunity for developers.

This year, the MySpace Journal the competition is open to users in both the US and the UK, making it a truly international competition.

Judges for the competition include:
- Robert Thomson (Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal)
- Owen Van Natta (CEO of MySpace)
- Rebekah Brooks (CEO of News International)
- Adrian Monck (Managing Director and Head of Communications of the World Economic Forum)
- Rebecca McQuigg (2009 winner of “MySpace Journal” contest)

Here’s the full press release:

MYSPACE, WALL STREET JOURNAL AND THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM TO SEND ONE MYSPACE USER TO DAVOS AS ‘CITIZEN JOURNALIST’

The Winner of the “MySpace Citizen Journalist” Competition to Report Back from Davos for the Global MySpace Community

LOS ANGELES – December 18, 2009 – MySpace today announced its second annual “MySpace Citizen Journalist” program in partnership with The Wall Street Journal and the World Economic Forum giving one MySpace user the opportunity to become a special correspondent at the world’s most prestigious conference, the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2010 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland. The “MySpace Citizen Journalist” winner, chosen by a panel of experts, will join the Davos press corps and leverage the MySpace platform to report on conference news and interview world leaders about issues relevant to the global MySpace community. This year MySpace will expand the contestant pool and accept entries from users in the United States and the United Kingdom.

“We’re pleased to offer one MySpace user the assignment of a lifetime,” said Owen Van Natta, CEO of MySpace. “MySpace, the Wall Street Journal and the World Economic Forum are providing the unique opportunity to allow one user to experience one of the world’s most thought provoking events from the front row. The bar was set incredibly high last year and we’re thrilled to see what exceptional entries we receive this year.”

The “MySpace Citizen Journalist” competition encourages users in the US and the UK to upload a video at http://www.myspace.com/myspacejournal explaining why they should be chosen to travel to Davos and represent the global MySpace community as the special correspondent. A panel of expert judges including Robert Thomson (Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal), Adrian Monck (Managing Director and Head of Communications of the World Economic Forum), Owen Van Natta (CEO of MySpace), Rebekah Brooks (CEO of News International) and Rebecca McQuigg (2009 winner of “MySpace Journal” contest) will select the winner while the MySpace community rates their favorite submissions.

Applicants must explain why they deserve to report from the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos as well as answer one of the below questions:

· Name two issues – one global and one local – in which you’ve been actively engaged over the past year. What have they taught you about your impact in the world?

· Which country caught your attention most this year? What are the primary issues facing its citizens and how would you resolve them?

· What pressing global issue has been underreported? Why is the international community neglecting the topic? How would you draw attention to mobilize support?

“Recognizing the continued influence of social media, the World Economic Forum has extended a call to action to our online community at MySpace. This year’s theme, ‘Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign, and Rebuild,’ represents the diversity of voices at Davos, and we are thrilled that MySpace users can play such a large part,” said Adrian Monck, Head of Communications of the World Economic Forum.

“MySpace Citizen Journalist” winner will receive:

· All expenses paid travel to/from Davos, Switzerland

· Invitations to the Young Global Leaders opening conference and various media events

· Attendance at private meetings with editors from the Wall Street Journal and News Corp executives

· The opportunity to document the experience in written and video blogs on MySpace and the Wall Street Journal online

· Syndication of their MySpace blog via WSJ.com

“MySpace Citizen Journalist” winner will submit daily blogs and video logs documenting their Davos experience via http://www.myspace.com/myspacejournal. The winner will upload conference pictures and interact with other reporters on-site including top Wall Street Journal reporters and the hundreds of global leaders attending the event.

For more information on the “MySpace Citizen Journalist” competition please visit http://www.myspace.com/myspacejournal.

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About MySpace

MySpace is a technology company connecting people through personal expression, content, and culture. MySpace empowers its global community to experience the Internet through a social lens by integrating personal profiles, photos, videos, mobile, messaging, games, and the world’s largest music community. MySpace is a division of News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV). For more information, visit our press room.

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If there’s one thing that is more surprising than the opportunities this competition creates, it is the initial lukewarm response from the developers who would ultimately benefit the most from it. MySpace has opened up a tremendous amount of data and realtime APIs , there are tens-of-millions of users involved, and the amount of investment in infrastructure from MySpace and their partners is significant. But since the initial December 9th announcement at LeWeb, there hasn’t been much said about it within the blogosphere and among the developer community.

Although there’s a lot to get excited about, the lack of attention among developers is somewhat understandable. The economy is leading many development shops to scale back and devote resources to one or two platforms. And with mobile, Twitter, and Facebook generating most of the hype (and funding), decision makers tend to take a “wait and see” approach to new platform opportunities. The nature of MySpace’s user base is also unique when compared to other social networks, and besides a couple social-gaming companies (e.g. Zynga, Playdom, et al) there aren’t many clear models for engaging MySpace users en masse. And to be fair, the competition is only now getting started after the holidays, and COO Mike Jones indicated on December 23rd via Twitter that the company had already begun to see submissions trickle in (although company sources tell us they haven’t yet seen a deluge of new applications, but this will likely change).

But developers we’ve spoken to are nevertheless slow to respond to this opportunity, and this reluctance is misguided for three reasons. First, there are the numbers. In the example of MySpace vs. Twitter, MySpace’s userbase is still 2-3 times larger than Twitter’s in the US. That means more potential engagement (and revenue) for applications built at this stage, which could also have huge possibilities for applications that socialize content beyond the MySpace website. Second, there’s the opportunity for substantial revenue. MySpace’s user data is still of great interest to record labels, movie studios, and blue-chip brand advertisers, all of whom might be willing to pay a little more than the .99 cent application du jour that most developers are building for iTunes. Lastly, there is simply less competition on MySpace’s platform at this time, giving early entrants a huge competitive advantage if their application catches on.

With more users, more revenue potential, and less competition, this blue ocean of an opportunity might very well be one of the best bets of the year. Developers who might have at first discounted this MySpace’s platform should take a second look and consider the opportunities.

As the competition progresses, let us know if you or anyone you know has entered the competition with an innovative idea and we’ll be sure to follow up.

Update: Here are the contest details (released this morning) via that MySpace developer blog.

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You can explore the application here and download the screensaver here.

This isn’t the first realtime view into MySpace to hit the market recently. Earlier this week, Collecta released a realtime search application dedicated exclusively to MySpace’s stream data.

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We managed to snap a few pictures while the facilities team took the old one down, and unfortunately many of the letters crumbled in the process. This was a tragedy in my opinion, because that logo is a piece of internet history. Fortunately, the most important part, the original triangle & circle symbol (pictured in the shopping cart), is in safe hands. After some sleuthing by some friends, we managed to get a tipster to reach out to TrendSlate with the disposal location. It is now residing in a safe place while we decide what to do with it. Stay tuned…

We’ve also considered holding our very own AOL-logo design competition, since the design community has been 50/50 on the version AOL decided upon last month. More on that later. For now, enjoy the pics..

Have an idea of what we should do with the old logo? Share it in the comments below.

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Los-Angeles based Mobile Roadie has developed a product for musicians to connect with their fan base over the iPhone. Simply put, this is a very good idea, and the product looks terrific.

For under $400, musicians can have their very own customized iPhone app that can be downloaded from iTunes. Once a fan installs the app, they can view photos, stream music & YouTube videos, get tour dates, and even interact with other fans. And since the application integrates all the disparate communication channels that artists manage on a daily basis, it makes it a lot easier for fans to stay up to date without needing to go to multiple websites.

There’s also a monthly-service charge that begins at $29, but the Mobile Roadie FAQs suggest that artists need not worry about the ongoing costs. The app will help them make up for these in ticket & music sales. Artists can also recoup costs by opting to charge fans for downloading the app on Apple’s iTunes store (a quick scan of the current Mobile Roadie users on iTunes shows that 2 out of the 12 12 out of 74 are charging). Mobile Roadie’s infrastructure can handle up to 1 million downloads.

Update: Mobile Roadie is offering 20% off the setup fee for the first 3 TrendSlate readers who sign up. Use coupon code TRENDSLATE

There’s a lot of opportunity ahead for Mobile Roadie, as well as a few challenges.

The target market is great, since Apple’s iPhone user base (which continues to grow) has lots of synergies with music enthusiasts. The company also has good connections within the Southern-California investor & entrepreneur community. It is led by Michael Schneider, who is affiliated with the newly-formed Launchpad LA “incubator”, a seed-stage VC firm. Mobile Roadie’s pricing is great, considering that it would cost $5-10k to develop even a simple app that may not look right and would still need to be supported. Other similar services like Kyte are also quite pricey. Mobile Roadie‘s app has terrific usability and ongoing support at a good price.

As for hurdles they’ll need to overcome, one is the approval maze of iTunes’ App store. Although there are signs of improvement, the speed at which applications are approved could create bottle necks in Mobile Roadie’s process. Another challenge is selling the service to bands that are already very active online. While the app makes it much easier for die-hard fans to get lots of information in one place, for artists it is yet another channel they’ll need to manage while only reaching a subset of their fan base (and this one has recurring costs).

It’ll also be interesting to see how the company handles ongoing revenue. If Mobile Roadie successfully brought 1,000 artists on board (quite a climb from here), it only yields $750k in first year revenues (setup + monthly fees) and $350k in recurring revenues in the second year. Assuming a 20% profit margin that’s only $150k in upfront profits and $70k recurring (and this is before we take attrition into account). One way they could respond to this is by expanding outside the music industry (e.g. celebrities) — something they may already be considering since the pricing tab on their website has a “non-musicians” section and they’re bringing in new creative talent to build apps (update: confirmed, see comments below). Another approach is to find ways to collect affiliate commissions for ticket & music sales.

Despite some of the challenges ahead, Mobile Roadie has a great product, an experienced and connected management team, and the right market. This is definitely one SoCal startup to watch. Tweet