Company: uTest, Southborough, MA
Entry Submitted By: SHIFT Communications
Company Description: uTest is the world’s largest marketplace for software testing services. The company provides real-world testing services through its community of 14,000+ professional testers from 150 countries around the world. More than 400 companies – from web start-ups to enterprise software firms – have signed up for the uTest marketplace.
Nomination Category: Company Categories
Nomination Sub Category: New Company of the Year

Nomination Title: A New Global Community - uTest

1. Tell the story about what this nominated company achieved since January 1 2008 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Would the theory of crowdsourced software testing actually work in practice?
That question was answered with a resounding “yes” in 2008 by uTest – the
world’s largest software testing marketplace. The company introduced an
innovative alternative for customers to test their Web, desktop and mobile
applications through a QA community. Through uTest, these companies achieve
real-world testing coverage across location, language, operating system, browser
and experience. And because uTest is truly on demand, these companies pay only
for approved bugs.

The uTest community now includes 18,000+ QA professionals from 152 countries
around the world. And since uTest’s general availability in August of 2008,
this community has discovered more than 21,000 defects. To further demonstrate
the crowd’s capabilities, uTest introduced the “Bug Battle” – a quarterly
competition that rewards testers with cash prizes for finding bugs in selected
applications. For instance, a recent Bug Battle resulted in 1,000+ testers
comparing Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.1 and Chrome for functional, technical
and GUI bugs.

As the uTest community expanded, so did its customer base. The idea of
leveraging this QA crowd to compliment in-house testing teams appealed to
hundreds of start-ups, enterprises and non-profits. In the last few months
alone, uTest added innovative customers such as Intuit, CarsDirect, Thompson
Reuters, Seesmic and the University of Illinois.

Expanding Business:
• uTest doubled its number of customers, bugs reported and revenue from Q2 to
Q3, and again from Q3 to Q4.

• In December of 2008, uTest secured $5.2 million in Series B funding from
leading venture capitalist firms, Longworth Venture Partners and Egan-Managed
Capital. This infusion of capital has enabled the company to invest in further
growth and expansion through marketing and sales, as well as investing in its
platform and community of testers.

• More than 30 customers – including innovative organizations like Intuit,
Thompson Reuters, Babylon, Optaros, OwnerIQ and the University of Illinois –
adopted uTest’s services during the fourth quarter alone. These companies use
uTest to compliment their in-house QA resources and improve their real-world
testing coverage without adding headcount. The company recently surpassed 100
customers since its launch.

• During 2008, the uTest community expanded from 1,000 to 14,000+ QA
professionals from 152 countries around the globe. Additionally, uTest has also
expanded its internal team by 80%, including a new Vice President of Marketing &
Community Management and a Sr. Director of Engineering.

Product Innovation:

Not only did uTest revolutionize the idea of using a global community for
software testing, they also had the following product innovations in 2008:

• Beta launched proprietary platform in April, general availability launch in
August.
• Integrated with popular bug tracking systems, including Jira, Rally and Bugzilla.
• Added features that enabled customers to better build their own virtual QA team.
• Began offering vertical support for testing gaming applications.
• Enhanced communication tools between testers, uTest and customers.
• Enabled greater reporting around tester coverage.

2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

uTest 2008 wrap-up Press Release, uTest Closes 2008 on a High Note:
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Utest-939883.html

Tech Crunch coverage on uTest’s first round of funding, uTest Gets $1.7M for
Crowd-Sourced Quality Assurance
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/18/utest-gets-17m-for-crowd-sourced-quality-assurance/

New York Times picks up IDG report on uTest going live, New Service Applies
Social Networking to App Testing
http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_852573C4006938800025749B0049671B.html

TechRepublic blog on uTest delivery of QA on-demand, uTest delivers QA on-demand
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/programming-and-development/?p=727

Mashable announcement of uTest going live, Global Software Testing Network uTest
Opens to All
http://mashable.com/2008/08/19/utest/

SearchSoftwareQuality.com coverage of uTest going live, uTest pilots on-demand
software testing, QA service
http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid92_gci1299402,00.html

uTest Series B Funding Announcement, uTest Secures $5 Million in Series B Funding:
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Utest-925977.html

Tech Crunch Coverage on $5 million in funding, uTest Raises $5 Million More For
Crowdsourced Bug Testing
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/01/utest-raises-5-million-more-for-crowdsourced-bug-testing/

Wired coverage on $5 million funding, Crowdsourcing: Now With a Real Business Model!
http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/12/crowdsourcing-n.html

VentureBeat coverage of $5 million funding, uTest raises $5M for crowdsourced
software testing
http://venturebeat.com/2008/12/02/utest-raises-5m-for-crowdsourced-software-testing/

Boston Globe coverage of $5 million funding, UTest secures $5 million in funding
http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2008/12/utest_secures_5.html

PC World’s article on uTest’s ‘Browser Battle’ gets picked-up by the Washington
Post, Browser Bug Report: Chrome Buggier Than Firefox or IE
http://www.pcworld.com/article/155292/browser_bug_report_chrome_buggier_than_firefox_or_ie.html

*Washington Post pick-up:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/10/AR2008121002916.html

InformationWeek coverage on Browser Bug Battle, Internet Explorer Has Fewer
Software Bugs Than Firefox, Chrome
http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/browsers/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212400545

3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader of this nominated company:

Doron Reuveni co-founded uTest in 2007. Since its inception, uTest has provided
testing and usability services to web and mobile companies worldwide. Doron is
an expert in web-based technology, software application QA, business solutions
and professional services.

Prior to uTest, Doron was the senior vice president of Technology at Enigma
Inc., delivering large scale software implementation solutions while managing a
global team of professional software engineers, testers and project managers. He
has more than 20 years of experience in software and solution development,
delivering software solutions to Fortune 500 companies as well as innovative
start-ups.