An article about Ossia from 2000.

1. Higher Calling
By JOHN M. MORAN
The Hartford Courant
December 05, 2000
Consider this common problem of modern message. If so, software opens a
communications: You urgently need to connection.
speak with three colleagues about a
"We're very much about connecting people
pressing business matter.
to people in real time," said Jon Wheeler,
Trouble is, the people you need could be Axiom8's vice president of marketing.
practically anywhere. Are they at their
"This is: `I need to find you. I don't care
desks? Telecommuting from home? In their
where you are, I don't want to know where
car with a cell phone? Carrying a pager? you are, I don't want to know what devices
Well, start dialing. With luck, you might find you have, but I want to be able to find a way
your co-workers before the business day to connect to you.' "
ends. Then again, you might not. The idea of instant access - anytime,
Axiom8, a Middletown-based software start- anywhere - is appealing to those who want
up, thinks it may have the solution in a new to connect. But it also strikes terror in those
messaging system that reaches out to who need to concentrate without
people regardless of where they are or what interruption.
communications device they're using. Axiom8's system can help with that, too,
The software product - still in development allowing users to carefully control when they
and as yet unnamed - stores profiles of can be reached, by whom, where and how.
people and their communications devices in Meeting with the boss? Put all incoming
a kind of super address book. communications on hold. Having lunch with
a client? Allow only emergency calls from
your spouse. Sitting at
your desk? Let
anyone through.
Home for the
evening? Incoming
from the boss and key
clients only.
In effect, Axiom8's
software gives those
making calls and
taking calls a way to
manage those
communications
without a
cumbersome
screening process.
Peter Sispodis, Axiom8's chief technology
Need to reach someone? With the click of a officer, said an effective communications
mouse, the software checks to see whether system should go beyond "connecting two
that person is available via pager, pieces of hardware together."
telephone, cell phone, e-mail or even instant

2. "I have a list of names. These are people I "Pre-scheduled meetings are fine," he said.
care about, these are people I want to get "The thing that people have missed is that is
ahold of. And getting ahold of them shouldn't not how ideas necessarily percolate through
be about how I do it. It should be about an organization."
`Click on the name and get me that person,' Although the software only entered its final
" he said. testing phases last month, Axiom8 already
If Axiom8's software only monitored people's has strong indicators that it is on the right
availability and arranged the contact, it track. One comes from Conning Capital
would be a step beyond where most Partners, which invested $10 million in the
technology now stands. But the company's privately held company in May.
vision extends still further by having the
"We met the Axiom8 crew last year. At that
software actually manage the point, they didn't even have a demo version
communication. of their product, but what they did have was
An impromptu virtual meeting can quickly a rather defined concept of what they
become a working session when wanted to do. And it struck us that it had a
participants can see each other's computer huge application for people who are
desktops, share documents, view video constantly in the business of having to
feeds and more. This capability takes online communicate with a variety of people," said
collaboration to a level that is impossible in Greg Batton, a partner at Conning.
conventional conference calls or virtual chat "So far, we've been extremely pleased with
sessions. the results," he said. "The potential is
Andrew Sispoidis, the company's chief enormous."
executive and Peter's brother, said the Another comes from Aaron Scott, a
software helps re-create the kind of informal
Hartford-based software equity analyst for
communication and brainstorming that gets
Tucker Anthony, an investment banking and
done in corporate hallways and cafeterias. brokerage house. Scott said Axiom8's
product is well positioned within the booming
market for software that helps people work
together in cyberspace.
"I think the next large wave of growth is in
collaborative services and software. And I
think Axiom8 is right in the middle of it,"
Scott said. "You've got file sharing, you've
got communications, you've got applications
sharing."
"I think that some of the existing players that
have products in the space are making
incremental advances. But Axiom8 has put
all the pieces together to make a giant leap,"
he said.
Part of the confidence in Axiom8's future
stems from the past successes of the
Sispoidis brothers in building successful
software ventures.
In 1990, they founded Changeling Software,
a developer of entertainment software. Its
flagship product was a strategy game called
Pax Imperia. In 1995, the brothers spun off
Heliotrope Studios from Changeling and
produced a well received follow-up game
called Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain.

3. The brothers continued to work for communications became increasingly
Heliotrope Studios for a couple of years after attractive, Andrew Sispoidis said. Ultimately,
it was purchased by THQ Inc., but then the company committed itself to a new
decided to once again start their own communications vision. About 40 employees
software business. The result was Axiom8 are developing the software. The first
(the name comes from a term for finished product is planned for release by
mathematical truths). The company now has mid-2001.
its offices in the historic and recently
"The idea is to drop the amount of
refurbished Wadsworth Mansion in processing power in your brain that goes to
Middletown. `How am I going to get ahold of this
Although Axiom8 initially looked at another person?' " he said. "The lower that barrier
games venture, the idea of using software becomes, the more likely you are to make
and cyberspace to facilitate other kinds of that connection."