Saving Trees and Startups – PrintEco, BizSpark, & CloudShare
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Arpan Shah is co-founder of PrintEco, a Microsoft BizSpark startup company that helps companies and consumers alike save paper and minimize their environmental footprint.
How does PrintEco do it? An add-on for common applications like IE, Excel, & PowerPoint. Just selecting File —> PrintEco optimizes for efficient printing.
Arpan tells me customers don’t want to have to think about reformatting their work, so PrintEco has automated the process. With just one click, any of your documents, presentations, or web pages can transform into environmentally friendly, printer ready formats. If for any reason you decide you don’t like the new version, you can return to the original instantly.
Their product offerings don’t end there, however. PrintEco also has a product named PrintEcoAnalytics. This is a web-based dashboard that tracks PrintEco’s financial and environmental impact. You can see how much money, how many pages, trees, and CO2 emissions you have saved.
PrintEco has been on the fast track largely due to help from Microsoft BizSpark, a program that helps startups succeed by giving them access to software development tools, connections to key industry players, and greater market visibility.
Arpan found BizSpark through a random web search. 80% of PrintEco plugins are developed for Microsoft platforms; he tells me “joining was a no-brainer” for his company. Arpan has nothing but good things to say about the BizSpark experience: “It’s so great the way they’re reaching out to the startup community like this.”
When PrintEco was in the development stages, Arpan was looking for something to help the company do compatibility testing for their add-on across all types of platforms. A quick search through BizSpark partners led him to CloudShare.
“Honestly, CloudShare was really unique in its offering, introductory pricing, and capabilities. It was the obvious choice for us. I didn’t see anything comparable. It’s such a great product for startups, in particular, because of its affordability.CloudShare has already paid itself back 10x over.”
PrintEco has product enhancements in the pipeline — a PDF sharing option for example — and Arpan sees both BizSpark and CloudShare as playing integral roles in the company’s future development.
Currently, PrintEco is only using CloudShare for testing and development, but as their client base grows they will need tools that scale out with them. So when they need demos and POCs, they will use CloudShare.
CloudShare in one word? Arpan replied, “Heavenly.”
This post was also featured on the Microsoft BizSpark Contributor Blog here.
Arpan Shah is CEO & co-founder of PrintEco, a VC-backed start-up out of Chicago, IL. PrintEco was founded in 2010 out of frustration with wasteful printing found in homes, schools, and the workplace. Arpan’s mission is to eliminate wasteful printing through easy to use software. He recently graduated from the University of Illinois and enjoys working in the intersection of technology & sustainability. He has been featured in publications such as CNET, ZDNET, & FastCoExist.
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