The early 2000 years saw the emergence of the BlackBerry as the next generation connected PDA. Virtually every VC was carrying one. Even though the BlackBerry’s installed base was only in the hundreds of thousands, it was clear that e-mail would become the killer application on the new wireless platform (as it had on every other platform). While BlackBerry was the emerging leader in the enterprise space, the consumer market was wide open. The wireless carriers had also deployed GPRS – while it was slow, it provided the data network needed to enable wireless data applications like e-mail.

At TeamOn, we had developed a unique e-mail technology where we could access virtually every proprietary e-mail system out there – from AOL, Hotmail, Compuserve to even corporate e-mail systems such as Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes. Through a lot of hard work and some luck, our team had reverse engineered all of these e-mail systems – feat which was unique among all the wireless e-mail providers. We had also invested a considerable effort in making the provisioning of the user’s e-mail application incredibly easy. Most users only had to enter their e-mail address and password to provision their e-mail account. No more asking users for their POP mail server settings – something most users had no clue about. No user would have the patience to enter all this information on their handset so ease of provisioning was imperative to our success.

Our unique capabilities soon caught the eye of T-Mobile who we signed up to deploy our wireless e-mail solution across all their handsets. At around the same time, RIM was also looking to extend their reach into the “prosumer” (mobile professional) space. We began discussions with RIM initially to license our technology to enable RIM to provide a solution to the mobile professional user. However, as we started gaining traction, RIM soon approached us to acquire the company. The prosumer market was too strategic for RIM and without our technology RIM would not have a compelling solution. They could also take out a potential competitor and better yet make sure none of the other handset vendors gained access to our technology.

Being acquired by RIM was a good exit for TeamOn. BlackBerry was a clear leader in the emerging wireless e-mail market. Through RIM we had the opportunity to get our technology deployed with the largest wireless carriers throughout the world. In the end, the sale turned out to be a good decision for both TeamOn and RIM. The TeamOn e-mail technology, now offered by RIM as BlackBerry Internet E-mail has over 2 million users validating the technology we had built. And RIM was able to extend its market leadership position from the enterprise space to the prosumer market despite fierce competition from Windows Mobile and Palm.