Start-ups, Startup Jobs and Emerging Technology in theHUB: Boston and Cambridge area.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Zync, Inc.
Company URL: www.zync.com
Citation URL: http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/071228/0343741.html
Formation Date: September, 2006
Funding status: Seed Stage
Investors: Launchpad Ventures
Founders past companies: PureSpeech, Ucentric Systems, Cognio, Sapient
Industry: Consumer web, local events, social networking
Description: Social recommendation system that helps people find relevant local activities based on user psychographics and people with similar interests.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Lookery
Company URL: http://www.lookery.com/signup/
Citation URL: http://venturebeat.com/2007/07/26/lookery-the-facebook-advertising-networkwith-lots-of-data/
Formation Date: 2007
Funding Status: Seed Stage
Investors:
Founders or Execs past companies: Compete, MyBlogLog
Industry: Consumer Web, Advertising
Offering Description: Lookery provides demographic marketing services in and around social networks. We’re working to fix the the basic economic problem that social networks face: great user profiling but unpredictable ad inventory.
Sonian Networks
Company URL: http://soniannetworks.com/
Citation URL:
Formation Date: 2007
Funding Status: Seed Round
Investors: Private Investors
Founders or Execs past companies: Dialogic, Intellireach
Industry: web infrastrucure
Offering Description: The latest innovation for hosted email archiving and e-discovery is here. Sonian removes the burden of compliance and storage management for all electronic communication.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Grrasp.com
Company URL: http://www.grrasp.com/
Citation URL:
Formation Date: 2007
Funding Status: seed
Investors: ?
Founders or Execs past companies: Markem
Industry: Consumer Web, Wireless
Offering Description: Wireless oriented web site.
SecondRotation
Company URL: http://www.secondrotation.com/
Citation URL: http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/clean-break-second-rotation.ars
Formation Date: 2006
Funding Status: Seed
Investors: ?
Founders or Execs past companies: Pay Pal, Cambridge Information Systems, Boston Compliance Systems
Industry: Consumer Web
Offering Description: By making it easier to get cash out of old consumer electronics, we magnify the impact of sustainability by helping folks participate in the mission whether they care about it or not, (i.e. if you care only about the cash, fine, here's the cash - if you care about the mission too, fabulous - here's cash and a mission! :) ) and thus, just like Ben & Jerry's, The Body Shop and others, we put the power of business to work in making a social difference.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Sharing the Seed Corn in 2008
Reading an a blog focused on Start-up Ventures in India I came upon this excerpt about a " farmer whose corn won top awards year after year. When a reporter asked about the secret of his success, the farmer attributed it to the fact that he shared his corn with his neighbors. Why, the reporter wondered, would the farmer want to share his seed when those neighbors also competed with him for the prize? The farmer’s reply was, “The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grew inferior corn, cross-pollination would steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors do the same.”
Boston has not been known as a place where the start-up community 'shares the seed corn'. However that is changing and anyone involved will attest to an increased energy and camaraderie within the early stage venture populace.
One important issue that directly relates to cross pollination (non Compete agreements) is being Championed by Bijan Sabet a VC with the Newbury St. venture firm Spark Capital.
Evidence of entrepreneur community is all around us: BetaHouse PodCamp WebInno OpenCoffee Andala TechCocktail Boston Boston Media Makers Techcrunch Boston Meetup
Social Media Breakfast Cambridge Enterprise WEb 2.0 Meetup and many more.
More sharing, communication, cooperation and networking will strengthen our start-up DNA and propagate future companies. So I look forward to 2008 and seeing the results of the rising energy and cross pollination taking place in the early stage community here in theHub. Get out there and rub some anthers! Happy Holidays to All
ts
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Genotrope Launches: Boston area jobs in Emerging Technology and Startups
Saturday, December 15, 2007
RightsAgent
Company URL: http://www.rightsagent.com/
Citation URL: http://www.xconomy.com/2007/12/14/all-user-generated-content-doesnt-want-to-be-free-a-qa-with-cambridge-startup-rightsagent-about-its-new-approach-to-copyrighting/
Formation Date: 2007
Funding Status: Series A
Investors: Venrock, Highland Capital Partners
Founders or Execs past companies:
Industry: Web Publishing
Offering Description: RightsAgent is a provider of copyright management solutions for user-generated content. The initial release of our platform allows publishers to register where they publish online, consolidate their work into a personal feed for their readers to subscribe to, and perform copyright transactions with those who wish to license their work.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Zingdom/Convoq/Applied Messaging shutters doors
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Twitter might not exist without help from a Boston Software Icon
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Alluvial Labs
Company URL: http://www.alluviallabs.com/home.html
Citation URL:
Formation Date: 2007
Funding Status: Bootstrapped?
Investors:
Founders or Execs past companies: CombinatoRx, SAS Institute
Industry: Web Infrastructure, Software
Offering Description: Alluvial Labs builds software to help manage the flow and analysis of knowledge across networks of researchers, investors, and markets.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Matchmine
Citation URL: http://gigaom.com/2007/12/05/matchmine-made-for-the-multidimensional-you/
Formation Date: 2007
Funding Status: Series A
Investors: The Kraft Group
Founders or Execs past companies: m-Qube, eCredit.com, Predictive Networks, Dimensional Insight, Kraft Group Sports Properties
Industry: Consumer Web
Offering Description: matchmine lets you discover a whole new world of music, movies, video and other cool stuff that match the tastes of the one-of-kind inner you. How? Your MatchKey™ lets you capture your personal interests and media preferences and take them with you to get what you want across a growing list of partner websites and applications.
the Tech hiring Crunch
The key point for hiring companies was, once you have identified the right candidate, you have to move fast to bring them on board . Also, good companies find a great candidate first and do not try to fit them into a job description. And lastly, candidates from start ups are very valuable, yet hard to attract to the larger companies.
The Bubble did not Burst, it leaked.
This information paints a much different picture than the horrible nuclear winter we all remember with crashing paper values and losses of jobs.
My take away is that the underlying trends were sound and increased communication, personalization, disintermediation etc... would have a lasting effect, but the gold rush mentality overcame reality and it crashed to a halt.
Another interesting point is that 70% of those firms have received funding within the last 3 years and are significant in the current mergers and acquisition activity. Please read the linked article for the details.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Treedia Labs
Company URL: http://www.treedia.com/index.html
Citation URL: http://www.motorola.com/mediacenter/news/detail.jsp?globalObjectId=8149_8078_23
Formation Date:
Funding Status: Seed?
Investors: ?
Founders or Execs past companies: Pro CD, Pulvermedia, BBC News Interactive
Industry:Internet Infrastructure
Offering Description: home of Treedia, a Web service platform that powers services such as Podcast.com. Treedia enables consumers to find, enjoy and share digital entertainment delivered via RSS feeds such as podcasts, videocasts, photos, blogs, music, news and more.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Foneshow
Company URL: http://www.foneshow.com/
Citation URL: http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9685025-2.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=Webware
Formation Date: 2006
Funding Status: Series A
Investors: Masthead, CEI community Ventures and the Small Enterprise Growth Fund of Maine
Founders or Execs past companies: Yahoo, Angel Networks
Industry: Mobile Application
Offering Description: Foneshow delivers audio content directly to your cell phone. With automatic notification, the content is always fresh; it's great for news, finance, and sports programming. Foneshow doesn't require a data plan or a smart phone.
Friday, November 30, 2007
User submissions of Startups
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Kinset
Company URL: http://www.kinset.com/
Citation URL: http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/10/21/a_shopping_trip_aisle_by_virtual_aisle/
Formation Date: 2006
Funding Status: Self Funded
Investors: Self Funded
Founders or Execs past companies: LiveVault, Concord Communications
Industry: Consumer Web, online shopping
Offering Description: Kinset is the leader in the development of 3D immersive online stores. Our software allows shoppers to shop inside virtual stores that stock thousands of SKUs and feel like the stores at their local shopping center. Shoppers can chat with store clerks, and shop with friends. It is designed to appeal to shoppers who enjoy shopping, and prefer shopping in stores to shopping on web pages.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Carbonrally
Company URL: http://www.carbonrally.com/
Citation URL:
Formation Date: 2007
Funding Status: ?
Investors: ?
Founders or Execs past companies: Orange
Industry: Consumer Web
Offering Description: Reduce global warming by taking quick & easy challenges.
Compete with others in your area and around the world.
Friday, October 26, 2007
BigSwerve
Company URL: http://www.bigswerve.com/search/
Citation URL:
Formation Date: 2006
Funding Status: Seed?
Investors:
Founders or Execs past companies: EMC
Offering Description: BigSwerve is a great new service that organizes and captures what people say when they comment on blog posts. While reading blogs is a great way to get a fresh perspective or keep up on the latest events, you are missing half the conversation if you don't read the comments. Until now, keeping up with comments or people whose comments you find particularly insightful has been tough to do ... Bigswerve changes that.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Punchbowl Software
Company URL: MyPunchbowl.com
Citation URL: http://venturebeat.com/2007/10/02/mypunchbowl-lands-seed-funding-for-online-invitations/
Formation Date: 2006
Funding Status: Seed Round
Investors: Intel Capital and eCoast Angels.
Founders or Execs past companies: Adobe, Bose Corp.
Industry: Consumer Web
Offering Description: a new web application for online invitations and party planning. MyPunchbowl provides software for every stage of planning. With MyPunchbowl.com you'll actually enjoy planning while saving time.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Change is in the air for old guard Boston area VC's
I would love to spill the beans, but to do so would compromise my ability to gain info in the future. The company is in stealth for the time being but one of the founders is a known blogger, so I will let him break the story.
Update: The company is Viximo and is now well on it's way.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Did Boston VC's let the the seed corn rot?
With the VC's in Boston taking a powder, the field became infertile and now is in need of some serious fertilization. Adam pointed out that while the Boston VC's waited out the downturn, the ecosystem withered. We know that while nothing was going on here, there was still activity in Silicon Valley, ie... PayPal IPO 2002, Google IPO 2004, etc... The end result is that Boston is now playing catch up in the Web space. Another issue that has compounded the problem is that the continued activity in Web businesses out West has created a class of investors that does not exist here. A lot of companies are funded by angel investors that are seasoned Web entrepreneurs using significant amounts of cash to seed the next generation of up and comers. We don't have the equivalent here.
So on the one hand you hear "we didn't get burned when the bubble burst", what that means is that we didn't participate in a major field of innovation (actually turned down deals that went to SV) and now we don't have a bull pen of founders to build companies in this space.
Flimp Media Inc.
Company URL: http://www.flimp.net
Citation URL: http://inbrief.prweekblogs.com/2007/10/18/flimp-media-introduces-digital-canvas/
Formation Date: 2006
Funding Status: Privately Funded
Investors: Private Investors
Founders or Execs past companies: Environmental News Network (ENN.com), Lycos.com, Roots Inc (acquired by Novozymes), TJX Companies, Inc.
Industry: B2B, Web Video Marketing Technology
Offering Description: Flimp Media, Inc. develops next generation hosted software platforms for web video and rich media direct marketing, sales and communications. We also provide web video marketing services and technical support to clients. Flimp Media’s patent-pending Digital Canvas video microsite technology provides users with the ability to quickly create and distribute self-tracking rich media (flash) microsites called Flimps without any programming or technical skills.
Friday, October 19, 2007
EnvIO Networks
Company URL: http://www.envionetworks.com/
Citation URL: http://www.dmwmedia.com/tags/envio-networks
Formation Date: 2007
Funding Status: Series A, Stealth
Investors: Matrix Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners
Founders or Execs past companies: Winphoria, FusionOne Networks
Industry: Mobile Application
Offering Description: We're delivering a product that defines a new category of mobile application, bringing content to subscribers in new and innovative ways. Socially Oriented?
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
StylePath
Company URL: stylepath.com/shop
Citation URL:
Formation Date: 2007
Funding Status: Self-funded
Investors: Self-funded
Founders or Execs past companies: Smarter Living, Lycos, Ascend, Lucent, Gap, Opt-Intelligence
Industry: Consumer Web, ecommerce
Offering Description: StylePath’s visual search technology matches people to products based on their personal taste, and creates social networks for people of all styles. This patented process simplifies on-line shopping by offering more accurate product recommendations.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Genotrope integrates BUZZ in theHUB
Genotrope's novel approach uses the concept of "corporate DNA" to match individuals and companies. Find a company first, then find a position in the company.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Paul Graham Gets Vague when Boston needs analysis
I believe he is referring to his type of start ups which are mostly Web 2.0 consumer plays, but the Boston start-up market would be better served if he used his powers of analysis to more thoroughly evaluate the issue. Just making a general statements about Boston VC's not understanding start ups, will not move the mountain. It reminds me of Scott Kirsner prodding the top tier Boston VC's to open up to entrepreneurs and start blogging, when the old guard is rolling in IPOs from Airvana, Starent Networks, Bladelogic, Netezza, Constant Contact, AcmePacket and the Q2 IPO numbers are equivalent to Silicon Valley. Things are changing but it is hard to see it when the old ways have been successful.
I am hoping that if he can delve into data regarding the price of slaves in ancient Greece and Rome to support an essay regarding the variations in income in modern society, then a more thorough analysis comparing the Boston and Silicon Valley VC communities could lend more credence to the discussion than generalities. My wish list would include topics such as sector preferences and expertise, per-capita and company density comparisons to IPO or funding levels, and a discussion on why the perception is that CA. can market and Boston cannot. Could there be some insight into Microsoft's problems and the fact that is run by people from the Boston area? So many possibilities!
I always look forward to a new essay at http://www.paulgraham.com/index.html and if a future article can shed more light on improving the Boston start-up market, I am all for it. I realize that Mr. Graham may not take up the challenge presented here, so if anyone else would like to delve into the details, please do so, as it is well beyond the scope of my abilities to attempt the project. I look forward to the results.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Inquisix
Company URL: http://www.inquisix.com/
Citation URL:
Formation Date: 2007
Funding Status: Pre Funded
Investors:
Founders or Execs past companies: Verdasys, Wis.dm
Industry: Business Web
Offering Description:
Inquisix is the new web sales tool for every business sales professional. It automates and improves upon the business networking sales reps do today.
Inquisix is not about more contacts or better contacts but meeting better contacts!
Acquia
Company URL: http://www.acquia.com/
Citation URL: http://www.bostonphp.org/content/view/83/
Formation Date: 2007 stealth mode
Funding Status: First Round
Investors: North Bridge Venture Partners
Founders or Execs past companies: Pingtel
Industry: Open Source Software
Offering Description: Open Source Software and Services
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Peermeta
Company URL: http://www.peermeta.com/
Citation URL:
Formation Date: 2007
Funding Status: First Round
Investors: Sigma Partners, Kepha Partners
Founders or Execs past companies: Arrowpoint, Airvana, Tatara, Sycamore
Industry: Mobile Applications
Offering Description: Peermeta is leading the charge into a new era of mobile innovation and user experiences. We are changing the way disparate forms of media are personalized, distributed and consumed.
Autovirt
Company URL: http://www.autovirt.com/
Citation URL:
Formation Date: 2007
Funding Status: First Round
Investors: Sigma Partners, Kepha Partners
Founders or Execs past companies:
Industry: Storage and Data Center Infrastructure
Offering Descripton: AutoVirt is developing state of the art solutions to the problems of Data Migration and File Server Consolidation.
LocaModa Inc.
Company URL: http://www.locamoda.com/
Citation URL:
Formation Date:
Funding Status: First Round
Investors: Dace Ventures, Sumitomo
Founders or Execs past companies: Symbian, Prodigy International
Industry: Mobile Interactivity
Offering Descripton: LocaModa enables interactivity between mobile phones and out-of-home networks via the web.
Buzzwire
Company URL: http://www.buzzwire.com/fm/home.action
Citation URL:
Formation Date:
Funding Status: First Round
Investors: Spark Capital, Matrix Partners
Founders or Execs past companies: Software.com, Monster
Industry: Mobile Application
Offering Descripton: Your world of streaming internet content.
Audio. Video. Live Radio.
All on your mobile phone, on demand.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Technizzel
Company URL: www.technizzel.com
Citation URL:
Formation Date: August, 1 2007
Funding Status: Angel
Investors:
Founders or Execs past companies: GreatPoint Energy, Lux Capital, Nantero
Industry: Consumer Web Publisher targetingHigh School Science/Engineering Education
Offering Descripton: Technizzel is an online publication designed to inspire young people
to pursue careers in engineering and advanced technologies. Focusing
on fields such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, and engineering,
Technizzel incorporates age-appropriate explanations and images in
order to attract even the most non-science oriented readers. The word
"Technizzel" represents a combination of two cultures: Technology and
Pop Culture (Thanks, Snoop).
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Assembla
Company URL: http://www.assembla.com/home
Citation URL:
Formation Date: 2006
Funding Status: Seed Round
Investors: Angel
Founders or Execs past companies: PowerSteering Software, Centerline Software
Industry: Web Infrastructure and SAS dev tools.
Offering Descripton: Assembla provides tools and services for building software with high-velocity global teams.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
TrustPlus
Company URL: http://www.trustplus.com/
Citation URL: http://masshightech.bizjournals.com/masshightech/stories/2007/06/04/story3.html
Formation Date: Mid 2007
Funding Status: Seed Round
Investors: Brad Feld, Will Herman
Founders or Execs past companies: Genetic Anomalies
Industry: Consumer Web
Offering Descripton: With TrustPlus you can view the reputation of others and build your own reputation anywhere on the Web.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Grazr
Company URL: http://www.grazr.com/
Citation URL: http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/18/grazr-10-blasts-off-into-the-future-of-rss/
Formation Date: mid 2006
Funding Status: $ 1.5 Million Seed Round
Investors: Angels
Founders or Execs past companies: EMC, Andover.net
Industry: Consumer Web , Blogging feed tools
Offering Descripton: Grazr is a free publishing tool for feeds. It lets you quickly and easily display RSS, RDF, Atom, and OPML files on any Web page so they can be viewed by any visitor to the site.
Friday, September 7, 2007
DailyHomeowner.com
Company URL: http://www.dailyhomeowner.com/
Citation URL:
Formation Date: H2 2006
Funding Status: Bootstrapped
Investors:
Founders or Execs past companies:
Industry: Online Real Estate
Offering Descripton: Search Homes for Sale, Move-in / Move-out Tools, Change Utilities, Helpful Links Local Business Directory & Reviews, Find a Local Real Estate Agent, Local Events, LocalTalk
MyPerfectGig
Company URL: parked www.myperfectgig.com
Citation URL:
Formation Date: 2007
Funding Status: First Round
Investors: NorthBridge, CommonWealth Capital
Founders or Execs past companies: BrassRing, DirectoryM, BeFree
Industry: Web Service, Online Jobs
Offering Description: My Perfect Gig’s (MPG) mission is to be the “sourcing intelligence ” company by offering the right mix of market intelligence and quality candidate sourcing. MPG will improve the efficiency and quality of the online recruitment experience for both employers and candidates.
Boston TechCocktail lives up to its name.
Peter Glyman - Geezeo
Shawn Ward - Geezeo
Jay Meattle - Compete.com
Brian Balfour - ZoomInfo
Top Tier VC's tolerated buzzed out java engineers, mobile technology moguls mingled with facebook widget developers, bloggers scooped some stealth company details and did I mention, the cocktails were plentiful. There might even have been some business done as bootstrapping start up founders took the opportunity to do their elevator pitch to willing listeners.
Anytime the Boston web start up community can get exposure to each other and some of the investor community, good things may happen.
Again congratulations to the organizers for filling a much needed void in bringing the web community together.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Incelligence
Company URL: www.incelligence.com
Citation URL:
Formation Date: 2005
Funding Status: Seed
Investors:
Founders or Execs past companies: AMCC, Transwitch, Microsoft, digiCHOICE, Rational
Industry: Mobile/Wireless
Offering Descripton:
Incelligence provides an end-to-end solution for the development and delivery of mobile phone applications that enhance or expand existing revenue/business processes for companies in the Enterprise, mPublishing and mCommerce markets. Our Mobile Application Factory is a highly automated combination of processes and patented technology which enables the conversion, mobilization and distribution of customer content to virtually any Java-enabled mobile phone, in an easy-to-navigate format.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
SNIF Labs
Company URL: http://www.sniflabs.com/
Citation URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/business/yourmoney/05novel.html?ex=1343966400&en=a627abfa22e8c410&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
Formation Date: 2005
Funding Status: Seed?
Investors:
Founders or Execs past companies: MIT Media Labs
Industry: Consumer Electronics, Consumer Web
Offering Descripton: Snifftag Adding recently-invented motion sensing circuitry and developing proprietary analysis software, the team created a powerful tool that could at once monitor the activities of a pet and provide a social connection among people.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Enough with the Boston Start-up Inferiority Complex
Wake up people, we have IPO's and liquidity events popping all over the place.
2Q 2007 Venture-Backed IPO Metro Region Breakdown
*Number of Total Venture-
Venture-Backed Backed Offering
Metro Region IPOs in the U.S. Size ($M)
Boston 6 548.1
San Jose 6 608.0
Other US 3 545.6
New York Metro 2 170.4
See Boston tied with Silicon Valley..... feel better?
Here is a list of IPO's off the top of my head.
Acme Packet
Airvana
Starent Networks
BladeLogic
Netezza
Salary.com
TechTarget
Virtusa
Filed for IPO:
Constant Contact
Equallogic
Liquidity Events:
Tabblo purchased by HP
Silverback purchased by Dell
AppIQ purchased by HP
Symantec buys Relicore, Imlogic
Citrix buys Reflectant, Ardence
Microsoft buy Softricity
Oracle purchases Profitlogic
I'm sure I didn't get them all, feel free to add to the list. So anyway, things aren't that bad. TheHub does not need to be playing catch up as some have suggested.
The point is, the Boston/Cambridge area has strengths in certain areas such as the old reliables: infrastructure, enterprise software, storage and communications as well as the up and comer sectors of mobile applications, wireless technology, gaming, Rich Media and Video Blogging/Podcasting.
But if you are in the Web 2.0 space, don't fret, we also have the archetype early stage VC program, so just get picked up by Y Combinator and move to Silicon Valley if you feel compelled to do so.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Zindicate
Company URL: http://www.zindicate.com/
Citation URL: http://blog.nextnewnetworks.com/index.php/2007/07/23/boston-media-makers-in-the-house/
Formation Date: 2007
Funding Status: Seed?
Investors: ?
Founders or Execs past companies: Kino-Eye.com, TopTenSources, RocketBoom
Industry: Comsumer Web, On-line Video, Vlogs
Offering Descripton: cool and creative video supported by online advertising
Monday, August 13, 2007
Ben Franklin was a Hacker
He came up with the ideas that later became some of the big ideas of the web:
Napster: He created a network of individuals that shared media (books) The Junto was interested in a wide range of ideas, from economics to solving social woes to politics to science. But they could not turn to books to increase their knowledge or settle disputes, as between them they owned few tomes. But they recognized that via the Junto's combined purchasing power, books could be made available to all members.
Linkedin: Active in the community, [Franklin] founded a discussion group called the Junta (1727). "The Junta was like a modern day networking group founded by Franklin to create ties with serious business connections.
He was a prankster.
He liked puzzles.
He was an entrepreneur. He retired at age 42
He was a publisher and most assuredly would have been a blogger.
He was an open source inventor. "In a philanthropic gesture, Franklin never patented any of his inventions, saying, "I never made, nor proposed to make, the least profit by any of them." It was a matter of principle with him that, as he had benefited from past inventions and discoveries, present and future generations should be able to benefit freely from his inventions." http://www.historynet.com/
He used social engineering: Using myriad persona's such as Timothy Wagstaff, Franklin would write letters to various publications with the intent to change or form public opinion.
He had erratic sleep habits staying up into the dawn, and napping 20 minutes at a time anytime he became tired.
He was a musician.
Xconomy
Company URL: http://www.xconomy.com/
Citation URL: http://www.93south.net/index.php/2007/08/09/who-says-east-coast-startups-cant-get-funding-tech-blog-lands-an-a-round/
Formation Date: 2007
Funding Status: Seed Round
Investors: Common Angles, private investors
Founders or Execs past companies: MIT TechnologyReview, Riga Ventures, Swapthing.om
Industry: Online Media
Offering Descripton: Xconomy is dedicated to providing business and technology leaders with timely, insightful, close-to-the-scene information about the local personalities, companies, and technological trends that best exemplify today’s high-tech economy.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
iScrybe
Company URL: http://iscrybe.com/main/index.php
Citation URL: http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/02/iscrybecoms_pap.html
Formation Date: 2006
Funding Status: Series A
Investors: Strategic investors--Adobe Systems Inc. and LMKR
Founders or Execs past companies: Elixir Technologies, Pakistan
Industry: Consumer Web
Offering Descripton: Scrybe™ is a groundbreaking online organizer that caters to today's lifestyle in a cohesive and intuitive way.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
DimDim
Company URL: http://www.dimdim.com/
Citation URL: http://venturebeat.com/2007/02/02/the-new-video-players-kyte-dimdim/
Formation Date: July 2006
Funding Status: First Round
Investors: Draper Richards, along with Index Ventures and Nexus India Capital
Founders or Execs past companies: Advanced Internet
Industry: Consumer Web
Offering Description: DimDim is the Open Source web conferencing company
Monday, August 6, 2007
MidProfile Corp.
Company URL: http://eb.midprofile.com
Citation URL:
Formation Date: 2006
Funding Status: Seed round
Investors: Founders
Founders or Execs past companies: Blackpearl Software, Rshtech
Industry: Mobile SOA applications
Offering Descripton: the software enables eBay users to create and submit live listings in all selling formats directly from mobile phones or PDAs.
Bandsintown
Company Name: Bandsintown
Company URL: http://www.bandsintown.com
Citation URL: http://mashable.com/2007/06/08/bandsintown/
Formation Date: Jan 07
Funding Status: Self Funded, Seeking Angels
Investors: Self Funded by Founders
Founders or Execs past companies: Dreamvex
Industry: Consumer Web
Offering Descripton: Bandsintown is a social network that connects more live music fans with more local live music, through friends, recommendations, and discovery.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Goloco
Company URL: http://goloco.org/greetings;guest
Citation URL: http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/103272/Everybody-Into-the-Carpool
Formation Date: 2007
Funding Status: Seed Round
Investors: Angels
Founders or Execs past companies: Zipcar
Industry: Consumer Web
Offering Descripton: GoLoco is a service that helps people quickly arrange to share rides between friends, neighbors, and colleagues. GoLoco also helps you share trip costs online.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
UpDown
Company URL: http://www.theupdown.com/
Citation URL: http://www.thealarmclock.com/mt/archives/2007/07/bostons_updown.html
Formation Date: 2007
Funding Status: seed round
Investors: Swiss angel investor Joachim Schoss
Founders or Execs past companies: Boston Consulting Group, Experience.com, Harvard MBA's
Industry: consumer web financial
Offering Descripton: financial social networking Its strategy involves starting a hedge fund using community-based investment strategies derived from its web site member community.
Flipkey
Company URL: http://www.flipkey.com/
Citation URL:
Formation Date: mid 2007
Funding Status: Stealth
Investors: ?
Founders or Execs past companies: Compete.com
Industry: Consumer Web
Offering Descripton: We started FlipKey to help expand the vacation rental market by providing a platform to highlight professional reputation and trust. There are 6.5 million vacation homes in the U.S. and less than 10% are rented to travelers looking for a great place to stay.
Conduit Labs
Company URL: http://www.conduitlabs.com/
Citation URL: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/21/conduit-labs-closes-55-million-series-a-funding/
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/07/22/will_boston_ever_catch_up/?page=2
Formation Date: 2007
Funding Status: First Round $5.5 M
Investors: Prism Venture Partners, Charles River Partners
Founders or Execs past companies: Ambient Devices
Industry: Online Gaming
Offering Descripton: We're building cool social entertainment destinations for you and your friends. We are bored of the same old social networks, virtual worlds, and MMOs.
GuildCafe
Company URL: http://www.guildcafe.com
Citation URL: page 2 http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/07/22/will_boston_ever_catch_up/
Formation Date: 2006
Funding Status: First Round
Investors: IDG Ventures
Founders or Execs past companies: Eprise
Industry: Consumer Web, Gaming
Offering Descripton: GuildCafe was founded to give online gamers a space where the content is created for them, by them. It is GuildCafe’s mission to be a premiere online community, uniting all members of the multiplayer universe on a Web 2.0 platform so they can express their gaming alter-egos and share information with one another. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, GuildCafe was formed by a team of highly experienced online media and computer games veterans.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Blurgl
Company URL: www.blurgl.com (no info)
Citation URL:
Formation Date:
Funding Status: ? Stealth
Investors: ?
Founders or Execs past companies: WTB Systems
Industry: Consumer Web
Offering Descripton: Boston-based startup focused on collaboration and sharing for small groups
Wherecast
Company URL: parked
Citation URL:
Formation Date:
Funding Status: 2007 stealth mode
Investors: ?
Founders or Execs past companies: MIT, Harvard, UC Berkeley
Industry: Mobile Applications
Offering Descripton: Wherecast is a location-based services startup
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
HiveFire
Company URL: http://www.hivefire.com/
Citation URL: http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2007/07/09/story3.html
Formation Date: 2007
Funding Status: Seed Round
Investors: ?
Founders or Execs past companies: Google, Microsoft
Industry: Consumer Web
Offering Descripton: online news
Thursday, July 12, 2007
SiteSpect
Company URL: http://www.sitespect.com/
Citation URL: http://www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-news/e-commerce/41629.html
Formation Date: 2004
Funding Status: SiteSpect is privately held and funded.
Investors: ?
Founders or Execs past companies: Worldmachine
Industry: Web Analytics
Offering Descripton: SiteSpect is a web site optimization solution that enables marketers to increase conversion rates through A/B split and multivariate testing.
Bzzster
Company URL: http://bzzster.com/
Citation URL: http://www.somewhatfrank.com/2007/03/bzzster_for_sim.html
Formation Date: 2H 2006
Funding Status: Seed
Investors: ?
Founders or Execs past companies: Compete.com
Industry: Consumer Web
Offering Descripton: Bzzster is a way to recommend videos, news, blog posts, etc to friends really quickly. Our goal is to make Bzzster! the best way to recommend links.
Geezeo
Company URL: https://www.geezeo.com/user/login
Citation URL: http://www.atlasventure.com/newsandevents/news.cfm?id=1734
Formation Date: 2H 2006
Funding Status: Seed Round
Investors: Angel
Founders or Execs past companies: Gainskeeper, Nerac
Industry: Consumer Web Financial
Offering Descripton: Geezeo is a social finance application that helps you make educated financial decisions.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
VC Link Love for Mark Andreessen's pmarca.com
With sites trying to rate VC's , level the playing field between entrepreneurs and VC's, alternative investment approaches , entrepreneurial minimalism , books like Founders at Work and many other stories of "Vulture Capitalists" showing the negative side of the VC world, the VC's were over joyed to have someone portray them in a positive light. An inspiration to the saintly toilers.......
"We should not only be thankful that we live in a world in which VCs exist, we should hope that VCs succeed and flourish for decades and centuries to come, because the companies they fund can do so much good in the world -- and as we have seen, a lot of the financial gains that result flow into the coffers of nonprofit institutions that themselves do huge good in the world."
Maybe they were starved for affection. In any case I imagine that the reality exists somewhere between gushing adulation and the experiences of this panel.
Avalere quietly acquired by Iron Mountain
BLOG POST : Steve's IT Rants
Iron Mountain quietly bought the assets of start-up Avalere, who had some pretty big and interesting plans in the area of data categorization and classification. Those ideas turned out to be much bigger than their funding source, however.
Friday, June 22, 2007
SpotScout
Company URL: http://www.spotscout.com/
Citation URL: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/01/07/startup_eyes_online_marketplace_for_open_parking_spaces/?page
Formation Date:
Funding Status: First Round
Investors: ?
Founders or Execs past companies: Navimedix, Aveksa
Industry: Consumer Web
Offering Descripton: At SpotScout we believe that, if given the right tools, individuals and communities can solve their own parking problems by creating virtual markets for parking information. Whether a parking garage, a private space, or a space on a street, our software enables space seekers to acquire timely information on space availability before arriving at their destinations.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Auraria Networks, Inc.
Citation URL:
Formation Date:
Funding Status: First Round
Investors: Matrix Partners
Founders or Execs past companies: SpringTide Networks, Enterasys
Industry: Communications Equipment
Offering Descripton: Auraria Networks, Inc. is a company dedicated to providing unique solutions to problems that businesses and other organizations have with content; particularly in an on-line or continuously connected world. We will make products that allow one to realize the full potential of the content that exists in a networked world and profit from it in many ways.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Dreams
Got me to thinking that this was one of the great things Y-Combinator is doing for theHub area (Boston/Cambridge and environs).
Paul Graham is re-enforcing creativity, innovation and thinking outside of the (container of your choice), required for a thriving start up market place.
This is a good thing. Especially, if you look at the VCs from the area. The top tier, are very good, but very conservative and more comfortable with Communications and Enterprise Software. When it comes to web properties, one fund is heads above the rest, General Catalyst. The rest are lacking significant next generation Web offerings. You would think the angels might be taking up the slack but one look at the CommonAngels profolio, shows that their thing isn’t the WEB 2.0 type company. Old money, old thinking I guess.
More power to PG and anyone else that can help create a more vibrant environment for fostering start up companies in theHub.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Third Screen Media Inc., Acquired by AOL
Company URL: http://www.thirdscreenmedia.com
Citation URL: http://www.bizreport.com/2007/03/third_screen_media_to_power_fox_news_mobile_ads.html
Formation Date: Q3 2005
Funding Status: Acquired for profit
Investors: TD Capital Ventures, Blue Chip Venture Company.
Founders or Execs past companies: M-Qube, Britemoon, Fast Channel, CollegeLink.com
Industry: Mobile Advertising
Offering Descripton: TSM|Network, the world’s largest, single-source mobile ad network and MADX, the only web-based, mobile ad management and delivery platform that connects agencies, publishers and carriers.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Care.com
Company URL: http://www.care.com/
Citation URL: http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2007/05/05/local_net_firm_aims_to_match_families_with_tutors_sitters/
Formation Date: 2006
Funding Status: Series A
Investors: Matrix Partners
Founders or Execs past companies: Upromise, theladders.com
Industry: Consumer Internet
Offering Descripton: We understand the difficulties and struggles you face when trying to find the right care and services for your families, yourself, and your home.
Friday, May 4, 2007
Quattro Wireless
Company URL: http://www.quattrowireless.com/
Citation URL: http://www.rcrnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070503/FREE/70503009/1012
Formation Date: Late 2006
Funding Status: Series A $ 6 M
Investors: Highland Capital
Founders or Execs past companies: M-Qube
Industry: Mobile Application Advertising
Offering Descripton: hopes to help publishers create mobile Web sites that offer compelling content as well as interactive advertisements.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
StartupAddict.com
Company URL: http://www.startupaddict.com/
Citation URL:
Formation Date: 2-2007
Funding Status: Bootstrap
Investors:
Founders or Execs past companies: Scout Productions
Industry: Micro Finance, Start Up Marketplace
Offering Descripton: Social Networking Platform for Startups, Post your Idea and get funding, buy and sell start up companies
Monday, April 30, 2007
Back to the Bubble....... Not..............Quite
Most recently Tabblo an on-line photo sharing and printing company was acquired by HP.
In 2006 Onfolio was acquired my Microsoft. Don't quote me but I think it was less than a year old with less than 10 employees.
In april of 2006 SiteAdvisor was acquired by Mcafee. SiteAdvisor was founded in April 2005
So it is obvious that we are entering a bubble again right! Not really. The difference is that all three companies had proven teams and founders that had previous experience.
Tabblo's Antonio Rodriguez had previously founded two other companies.
Onfolio was founded by J. J. Allaire of Allaire and Cold Fusion fame.
SiteAdvisor was founded by two past founders of Vividon and an X VC from Bessemer.
The point of this post is to show the difference between 2000 and 2007. Better ideas, better founders, better value propositions.
Wis.dm down but maybe not out
www.wis.dm.com
Thursday, April 26, 2007
I know Y Combinator and CRV Quickstart, you are no Y Combinator. (lower risk, more capital)
Even though this article compares the two, funding Michael Phillip's Mobeus, CRV Quickstart has demonstrated just how different they really are from Y Combinator. At the outset, CRV Quickstart was mentioned in the same breath with both TechStars and the prototype early stage venture fund YC. This may be a stretch to focus on the similarities, when the structures of the firms determine that different types of opportunities need to be considered.
Michael Phillips is a proven serial entrepreneur that took his last company Speechworks, all the way to an IPO. Not a bad investment at all, he is the prototype candidate for funding by the VC’s. But why put him through the Quickstart program? Well for CRV, it is not a bad idea to quickly tie up a deal with a bridge loan, knowing that there is a high probability that Mobeus will get funded, therefore locking in at least a 50% of the series A investment with a proven CEO. But it doesn't look at all like a YC deal. Maybe they will mix in some higher risk founders as they go along. It must be fun and informative to be able to see all the ideas from hundreds maybe thousands of decks coming across the transom.
The Mobeus investment does seem to validate the potential problems mentioned by Josh Kopelman and Fred Wilson concerning the ability of larger VC funds to manage the deal flow required of seed funding.
It reminds me of the Comcast phone commercial where the guy with all-over tiger tattoos is re-calling the tattoo parlor to get his tattoos removed , hoping that his new phone service will produce a new answer. It doesn’t and you hear the tattoo artist tell the guy “ you a tiger now”.
Well at this point, naming a new program and vetting some emails does not make you a YC (that link is hilarious BTW) , and it looks like it may not be so easy to lose your stripes. For now CRV is still a tiger. I am hoping to see some deals come out of Quickstart that look more like YouTube or Reddit, but betting on proven winners can't really be faulted, it is just not that similar to YC.
And what is with the Entrepreneur Idol contest. What is next a Vett - T-Shirt contest judged by Seth Godin?
Friday, April 20, 2007
80108 MEDIA
Company URL: http://www.80108.com/
Citation URL: http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/current/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003568645
Formation Date: H2 2006
Funding Status: First Round
Investors: General Catalyst Partners, IDG Ventures Boston, Khosla Ventures
Founders or Execs past companies: CCBN, NetGenesis Corp, Comet Systems, Bolt, Inc
Industry: Wireless
Offering Descripton: We're a mobile media company that creates and distributes timely, bite-sized local mobile content. We’re building a unique social media network of independent mobile correspondents, knowledgeable folks who are on-the-ground, in-the-know, and ready to share their secrets and selections.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
I'm in!
Company URL: http://www.imin.com/imin/hybrid.jsp
Citation URL: http://www.boston.com/yourlife/articles/2007/02/27/fly_a_mig_swim_with_sharks_theyre_in/
Formation Date: 2006
Funding Status: First Round
Investors: Annex Ventures
Founders or Execs past companies: Starwood Hotels, UPromise, National Leisure Group, Netspoke, SkillSoft
Industry: Travel Website clearing house
Offering Descripton: I’m in! is a new kind of website that helps groups organize trips and events. We enhance existing friendships and create lasting traditions through a fun and interactive online experience.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Visible Measures Corp.
Company URL: http://www.visiblemeasures.com/
Citation URL: http://www.visiblemeasures.com/media_venturebeat.htm
Formation Date: mid 2006
Funding Status: First Round
Investors: General Catalyst
Founders or Execs past companies: Infraweb-Creative Aspects, WiseUncle, Priceline - Toys R Us, SavaJe - Sonic Software, Aptegrity,
Industry: Web Infrastructure Video
Offering Descripton: Breakthrough Internet Video Measurement Solutions
TechStars Jumps on the Y Combinator bandwagon
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
ScanScout Inc.
Company URL: http://www.scanscout.com/
Citation URL: http://masshightech.bizjournals.com/masshightech/stories/2007/04/02/story4.html
Formation Date: 2006?
Funding Status: First Round
Investors: Angels, First Round Capital, General Catalyst
Founders or Execs past companies: Jupiter/Media Metrix, Scientific Atlanta, Groove Mobile, eBay,
Industry: Video Advertising
Offering Descripton: seach engine for online video content.
Wis.dm Shutters doors (now has been revived)
Monday, April 16, 2007
Paul Graham is "Selling" the Children
YC doesn't care about the product or the business, the value is in the individuals themselves. The PG strategy is a beautiful and subtle plan to skim the cream of the best developers out of the labs of Stanford and MIT etc.. It has been said that on average the acqusition price of developers is $1-2 million apiece. Now consider what Mr. Graham has said about the best ones...
"Economically, this is a fact of the greatest importance, because it means you don't have to pay great hackers anything like what they're worth. A great programmer might be ten or a hundred times as productive as an ordinary one, but he'll consider himself lucky to get paid three times as much. As I'll explain later, this is partly because great hackers don't know how good they are. But it's also because money is not the main thing they want."
So if Y Combinator sees 200-300 company applications a year, with 2 founders each, he is developing a relationship with 600 of the brightest most ambitious young technologist every year. Some are 10x and one may be the 100x code monster. So YC is building up a "farm team" worth $600+ million every year. Obviously, this a concept and all that talent cannot be monetized, but you get the idea. With a $ 5k per employee investment YC is getting $ 3 million of raw talent for $ 15 grand, plus 6-10% of the company. A no brainer investment.
Someone else has realized how beautiful a recruiting strategy this is for the YC portfolio, as I see at least one other start up trying to take advantage of the "overflow". Why not all Great Hackers get picked by Y Combinator
So the next time you see a 40ish looking guy strolling the campus and attempting eye contact, don't be surprised to find he is trolling for "Googlebait"
Disclaimer: This is not a critique of the YC business model. I believe that it is a good thing overall and serves a vital role in fostering the entrepreneurial spirit. We're just making a point and having a little fun doing it.
Mobeus
Company URL: http://www.mobeus.com/ place holder
Citation URL: http://www.sigmapartners.com/portfolio_wcon.php
Formation Date: June 2006
Funding Status: first round
Founders or Execs past companies: Speechworks, Groove Mobile
Industry: wireless
Offering Descripton: voice activated wireless application
Mobil Oriented Start ups 8th Ring, Mobicious, Inc.
Company URL: http://www.8thring.com/
Citation URL: http://simeons.wordpress.com/?s=8th+ring&searchbutton=go%21
Formation Date: may 2005
Funding Status: Seed Round
Founders or Execs past companies: Maven via ATG via Lotus, Action Engine via Boingo via Openwave
Industry: Wireless
Offering Descripton: stealth?
Company Name: Mobicious, Inc.
Company URL: http://beta.mobicious.com/
Citation URL: MassHighTech
Formation Date: Jan 2007
Funding Status: Seed Round
Founders or Execs past companies: Savaje, m-Qube
Industry: Wireless
Offering Descripton: an easy way for people to discover the best content, services, and applications available for their mobile phones.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Dropbox
Industry: Online Backup, Syncronization and Sharing
Founders Past Companies: Accolade, Bit9,
Funding Stage: Y-Combinator Funding
Whats up with Buzz Boston
The hope is also, to receive information about companies from readers and the many people in the Boston area interested in the start-up market place. The format for the information will be minimal. Company name, funding status, incept date, where the founders are from...past companies etc.. the industry , and general product information. The idea is to promote , acknowledge wish well, the many companies springing up in the Boston area.
This blog has been incubating as an idea for a while, but after meeting one of the founders of Magnetk recently, their story finally tipped the balance into action.
This relates to a couple of posts by Dharmesh at Onstartups regarding the merits of Silicon Valley/Frisco versus the Boston area. It turns out the three founders of Magnetk are Stanford graduates that moved to Boston to start their company. So using their reverse migration as an example that the Boston startup scene is viable and can attract top talent away from the "frothy" west coast market, Buzz Boston is born.