One of the most popular events at last November's Web 2.0 Summit was Launch Pad, a session devoted to introducing important startups to the community. In the spirit of Web 2.0, ETel is organizing its own Launch Pad, to spotlight a new technology or business model in the IP telephony industry. The ETel edition of Launch Pad will be a part of the conference's "opening ceremony," kicking off ETel with a bang the evening of Tuesday, February 27. ETel Launch Pad is co-organized by Om Malik and co-produced by GigaOm.

Participants include:

GrandCentral Communications Craig Walker, CEO & Vincent Paquet, COO

GrandCentral Communications is a personal communications company that gives consumers unprecedented control over their phone calls by integrating all existing phones and voicemail boxes into one through the GrandCentral number. GrandCentral has developed the most comprehensive feature set available and works seamlessly across all existing telephone networks, systems, and devices.

Jive Software David Hersh, CEO

Cellcrypt Rodolfo Rosini, CEO

Cellcrypt is a privately held company based in London, UK, with offices in California. The company was started in 2005 by an experienced team backed by a strong technology advisory board.

The focus of Cellcrypt is to provide voice and VoIP security products to enterprise and government users. The growth of user mobility and the need for greater privacy is driving sweeping changes in the way workers communicate, creating opportunities for innovative technologies. Cellcrypt's flagship solution is a software suite aimed at those who need to speak across different networks and domains while having a comprehensive end-to-end encryption.

Peerant Serge Kruppa, CTO

Peerant is the developer of a peer-to-peer applications platform that brings the power of Web Services and the elegance of the Ruby language to IP telephony, enabling new intelligent services to be deployed on-demand over any existing network, from Asterisk to Skype.

MySay – Sean O’Sullivan, CTO

When you've time on your hands.
When you've something to say.
You can listen, have fun,
and make friends on the way.
So dial up the number for
the all new Mysay,
and answer the riddle
How are you today?

Flat Panel Phone Company Moshe Maeir, Chief Flattening Officer

The Flat Planet Phone Company has developed the Flat Planet Phone System which will enable anyone to open their own phone company in less than an hour for only $199.00. "We do the Back Office -- You Sell." The Flat Planet Phone System provides advanced phone services such as hosted PBX, mobile to VoIP connectivity, disposable numbers, virtual IVR, and many more.

Flat Planet partners receive their own branded web site and all the tools to market the Flat Planet services under their own brand name. The system includes a complete hosted softswitch, billing, and customer management system. With the unique Flat Planet business model, no additional investment, equipment, or manpower is needed.

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