Celio is a venture-backed mobile technology startup on the verge of releasing their new, exciting flagship product: the REDFLY Mobile Companion. To learn more about the release and the company, we recently spoke with Kirt Bailey, CEO of Celio.

Silicon Slopes:  Tell us a little bit about Celio Corp and what your company does.

Kirt Bailey: Celio Corp is a mobile device company that has a wealth of expertise in the mobile computing industry. We’re working to drive the smartphone category by creating a world where information can be accessed from anywhere and your smartphone becomes the only mobile computer you carry.

Our first product is the REDFLY Mobile Companion which we introduced at the CES trade show in January. That product has already won a CES Innovation Award for Enabling Technology. It’s a clamshell designed product that includes an 8" display, a full function keyboard, and a touchpad mouse that acts as an extension to the Smartphone. It’s 1x6x9 inches and weighs two pounds. It offers over eight hours of battery life, boots instantly, and can charge the smartphone via USB.

REDFLY is very unique - it changes the resolution of your smartphone display so that applications, web sites, email, and attachments all have more room to play.
REDFLY has already received a great deal of press. It’s appeared in nearly 400 articles and was recently featured on the front page of the technology section of the New York Times. It’s definitely getting the market’s attention.

Silicon Slopes:  How many employees currently work at Celio? What kind of growth are you anticipating?

Kirt Bailey: Currently we have just under 30 employees, and we’re growing rapidly.

Silicon Slopes:  How was your company founded and how was the concept developed?

Kirt Bailey: I was formerly with Intel Capital where I led radio semiconductor investment in mobility markets worldwide. In that capacity, I lead investment strategy for the UMPC markets and was keenly aware of the size and growth the mobility market is experiencing.

The product concept was proposed by Ed Ekstrom at vSpring Capital, who subsequently provided the initial funding. The company was founded by myself and Colin Cook, our CTO. We have since assembled an excellent team with a clear go-to-market strategy for success.

Silicon Slopes:  When do you anticipate the availability of your flagship product, the REDFLY Mobile Companion?

Kirt Bailey: We will be shipping our first REDFLY units at the end of March. We’ll be giving our first test units to industry reporters towards the middle of March and we’ll debut the shipping product at the CTIA trade show in Las Vegas on April 1.

Silicon Slopes:  Talk a little bit about what channels you will be using to distribute the REDFLY Mobile Companion.

Kirt Bailey: Since our initial target is the enterprise market, we’re working quickly to establish partnerships with the integrators and resellers who serve that marketplace best. That effort is moving along rapidly. We are also well along in the process of establishing a number of vendor partnerships. We’ll be announcing several of those in the coming weeks, and those partnerships are going to be key in our efforts to make REDFLY a pervasive solution.

Silicon Slopes:  Who is your target market?

Kirt Bailey: Our initial target is the enterprise market, where REDFLY has the greatest benefit to mobile employees who need better options for their smartphones. The REDFLY is ideal, since it doesn’t introduce any new OS platform or security risks—so the $499 price tag makes it a great value for corporate users. We anticipate there will be a fair amount of demand from consumers as well, especially given the early response we’ve received from the press.

Silicon Slopes:  What future advances in technology are going to directly affect your company and increase the need for your products?

Kirt Bailey: We’re envisioning a world where all digital content is available through an Internet connected smartphone. The smartphone is quickly becoming the primary mobile computer, and the market is rapidly shifting to a more usable smartphone interface. We’ll be helping to drive this innovation, and we have plans for an entire line of products that enable mobile, desktop, and other displays to wirelessly link to the smartphone, so that users have access to all varieties of digital content and applications using a larger display and a full keyboard, and mouse. We’re fulfilling the vision of the future smartphone today, and we’ll continue to support and drive that market category as mobile computing progresses.

Silicon Slopes:  Your company was recently funded by vSpring Capital, a very active investor in Utah. Tell us why you chose them and how they are helping Celio grow.

Kirt Bailey: vSpring has been with us since our seed funding. They have strong expertise in the areas of enterprise software, networking, communications and mobile computing. vSpring's strategy is to be the first investor in companies such as ours that can serve as a perfect launching pad for additional investment from national venture capital firms later on.

Collectively, the vSpring team has founded and served as officers or board members for more than 75 companies. They’re track record is very strong, and they’ve been a great partner for us.

Silicon Slopes:  Who are your main competitors? How are you keeping track of them? What are your advantages over them?

Kirt Bailey: Our primary early competitor was the Palm Foleo. That product was on the right track, but because it required the introduction of a new platform, it ultimately didn’t succeed. We’re compatible with all existing and new Windows Mobile applications, and the market is responding with a lot of enthusiasm to the advantages that brings.

While not a true competitor, the next most similar solution would be the very small, lower-end ultra mobile computers. Those answer some of the same kind of needs, but they’re yet another computer to secure and maintain and monitor—and we’re seeing a great advantages of simply making full use of the computing power your smartphone already brings. So we have a very strong market position.

Silicon Slopes:  Tell us about your experience with recruiting talent to Utah. What are the biggest stumbling blocks?

Kirt Bailey: Thus far we’ve had very good success attracting the people we’ve needed. Most recently, we’ve been very excited about the addition of Mark Christensen, of Intel and Intel Capital, and Sam Arditi, most recently of Marvell, to our company’s board. Both of them are executives who’ve been very instrumental in the advancement of mobile computing, and we’re extremely pleased for their expertise. As for stumbling blocks—we envision rapid growth, and we know that Utah’s ability to attract senior talent is going to be a critical issue for us.