Small and home-office businesses are ill-served by mainstream technology providers. They have specific needs that they must satisfy without the help of a corporate IT department or an outside consult­ancy. But aside from some recent products from Dell and Microsoft, their specialist requirements have been largely ignored.

I was therefore delighted to find a range of new software packages and services, some of them designed for small businesses, among the 69 start-ups showing their wares at last week’s DemoFall tech­nology conference in San Diego, California. Demo is a technology showcase held twice a year where companies each get six minutes to pitch their companies in front of venture capitalists, potential investors and reporters.