CNNMoney takes a look at the Winner of the $50,000 TechCrunch Disrupt Award, Soluto.
In a field filled with Web-based and mobile apps, Soluto stood out starkly. It’s old-fashioned, runs-on-a-computer software. But the startup trounced all others by tackling a universal problem: PC troubleshooting.
Soluto’s software monitors the PC it’s installed on for common annoyances — printing problems, crashy apps, resource hogs, and odd application hang-ups — and then offers a solution for fixing it. The cool twist is that Soluto’s solutions are community-generated. If one user, anywhere in the world, fixes a problem, Soluto can share that solution with others who have the same problem.
To pull that off Soluto created PCGenome, a global knowledge base of “PC frustration data.” That database can help users track down tricky hardware/software conflicts, a feature judges loved. “When we launched Google Desktop, we had a conflict with photo software on HP PCs. Took 2.5 months to track it down,” Google’s Marissa Mayer commented.
Soluto, now in beta, plans to use a “freemium” business model: When Soluto pops up with a troubleshooting fix, users will be able to make the fixes themselves for free, or they can pay for a service that will automatically fix problems.
Photo by Soluto.