Nice Guys Finish FIRST

It's great to see two friends (and clients) finish first.

While I'm a few days late to the congratulatory circle, I have to say, it feels great to know that two very close friends, Thomas (Professor Mashup) Howe and Shai Berger (Fonolo) have captured very impressive crowns this past week in different competitions.

First was Thomas Howe winning the Broadsoft Voice Mashup Competition and the $5,000 cash prize. Then came Fonolo's Shai Berger wooing and winning the judges hearts and votes at the GigaOm Mobilize LaunchPad event. Jon Arnold elaborates on the win on his post of Friday.

As the agency of record and an advisor to both, the feeling is very euphoric. Howe is without question on a tear these days, winning business and awards. He's the kind of guy who could be the first PERSON ever to win a Fierce 15 award or similar as those awards usually go to companies.

As for Fonolo, Berger's performance at Mobilize earned him kudos from TechCrunch and others at the kick-butt conference in San Francisco when he debuted the new iPhone App that makes getting to the right person in a customer service or through a phone tree really easy. What's great here is that Fonolo is still at the stage where they are only angle backed, with a service that keeps getting the kind of attention that screams out CUSTOMERS are waiting in line to use it....Some lucky VC will be fortunate to get them.

Congratulations to two great friends who deserve all the success they will receive.

Update-> Luca has full coverage of LaunchPad @ Mobilize that was expertly assembled by Surj Patel (of eTel fame)