Can Toronto-based serial entrepreneur Daniel Debow create the “Twitter of audio?”
Product Hunt’s Ryan Hoover dubbed Debow’s latest project, Dialog, with that tagline following its public launch late last month. It’s just one of the useful metaphors to describe Dialog. The web-based app is akin to a 24/7 live talk show featuring myriad hosts. Anyone with an account can launch a live call-in conversation, invite their guests, and manage who joins and who leaves with administrator controls.
Anyone else can listen-in to the conversation live, or play it back on-demand afterward. Debow hosted me for a conversation on the platform on Friday morning. Listen to that chat here [skip to 6:20 for the real start]:
Debow is a well-connected entrepreneur and startup investor in Toronto’s tech eco-system. He and David Stein sold their human capital management software, Rypple, to Salesforce.com in December 2011. After working there for several years leading the emerging business division and launching programs like Salesforce Wear, he departed to return to Toronto and launch a new startup effort.
That company, Helpful, is a video messaging app for the enterprise. Listen to the call recording to hear how Debow is managing his time between Heplful and Dialog. I was also able to ask him about several hot-button topics and his experience at Salesforce.
You’ll hear Debow discuss:
- The Canadian startups that Salesforce acquired in 2011-2012 and what they’re doing now. Including Radian 6’s Marcel Lebrun and David Alston.
- His personal investments in Canadian wearables firms Thalmic Labs and Nymi.
- The issue of keeping intellectual property in Canada despite the trend of American tech firms acquiring startups here.
- Would Amazon HQ2 be a good thing for Toronto?