Author: Gregory T. Huang

Tom Daschle, Former Senate Majority Leader, Talks Healthcare Reform (but Not Health IT)

Health IT, policy, law

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

On Wednesday morning, I stopped by the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Seattle to hear Tom Daschle, the former U.S. Senate Majority Leader from South Dakota, give the keynote talk at the 10th annual “Breakfast with Champions” fundraiser, organized by the King County Bar Foundation. His main focus: healthcare reform.

I don’t usually report on policy issues—or politicians—but I’m making an exception here because healthcare reform is of pressing importance to a lot of people in the local innovation community. And a growing number of them are thinking specifically about the role of health IT in shaping the future of healthcare, especially given the Northwest’s expertise in software. What’s more, Daschle recently became a senior policy advisor to DLA Piper, a global law firm which has a strong presence in the Seattle area. He is also a member of the firm’s governing global board.

In his talk, Daschle, 62, helped frame the healthcare debate that’s been going on in the other Washington for the past 14 months. It wasn’t really a nonpartisan treatment, but he did lay out some clear problems with the nation’s current healthcare system—there are too many citizens who lack coverage and access, it’s too costly (“Starbucks spends more on health than on coffee”), and it lacks transparency (“you can’t fix what you can’t see”).

The goal of reform, as he sees it, is to put in place a new system that delivers high-quality healthcare to all citizens at a lower cost than today. Easier said than done, of course.

What struck me, coming from my perspective of reporting on the tech community every day, was how little health-IT came up in his talk. Sure, it’s just part of the solution, but Daschle only mentioned electronic medical records once—when he said 20 percent of U.S. healthcare dollars are spent on paperwork, and yet only 13 percent of doctor’s offices have an electronic health records system in place. What he didn’t get into was how much these systems could potentially improve the quality of healthcare, not just the cost.

Nevertheless, Daschle said he thinks healthcare reform as it’s currently proposed has a 50-50 shot at passing. It’s not an issue that will go away until it is successfully resolved, he said.

In closing, he quoted Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela, trying to inspire Americans to do the right thing and to accomplish something that might seem impossible. “It’s time to do our job,” he added.

Comments | Reprints | Share:

March 12, 2010
WildTangent Teams Up with Playdom to Deliver Ads in Social Games

Gaming, Internet, Partnerships

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

This week has been surprisingly quiet for Seattle-area gaming companies, even though the annual Game Developers Conference is going on in San Francisco. Well, OK, Kelly Ripa plugged PopCap’s flagship game, Bejeweled, on “Live with Regis and Kelly”—but does that really count?

Here’s some more substantial news. Redmond, WA-based WildTangent, one of the elder statesmen of the local gaming scene, announced today its new advertising platform, called BrandBoost, is being used by Playdom in its popular Facebook game, Tiki Farm. Playdom, a social game developer based in Mountain View, CA, has other Seattle-area connections as well. Last week, the company acquired Bellevue, WA-based Offbeat Creations for an undisclosed price and is merging the startup with Playdom’s existing Seattle studio.

The deal provides some validation for WildTangent’s advertising model, which it has been pursuing for a couple of years now. The model essentially gives gamers the option of playing for free if they view a 30-second ad—similar to the Hulu advertising model for TV. WildTangent gets a cut of the ad revenues from the game developer; advertising makes up about half of WildTangent’s total revenue. The Playdom deal is the company’s first big placement of its advertising platform in a social game.

Last year, WildTangent’s founder and former CEO Alex St. John gave me a rundown of the company’s efforts in ad-sponsored play. But it sounds like it has progressed quite a bit since then. Sean Sundwall, WildTangent’s director of corporate communications, says revenues for 2009 grew by 40 percent over the previous year, and the company is profitable. He says that other game portals use banner ads, but that most companies haven’t gotten as far as WildTangent in offering ad-sponsored play.

That’s in part because it takes a lot of time and money to make this kind of advertising work in the gaming world. To that end, WildTangent has a sales force of more than 30 people based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. They have the experience and credibility to compete for the attention of major brands, Sundwall says.

Looking back over the history of WildTangent, it’s been interesting to watch how it has shifted from developing and publishing games to distributing them and selling ads, and from PC and downloadable games to online games. “We’ve evolved to be where the eyeballs are going,” Sundwall says. Today, that means casual games on Facebook, MySpace, and other social websites.

WildTangent is led by CEO Mike Peronto, a company veteran who has been at the helm for about 18 months. The firm started in 1998 and has raised more than $50 million in venture financing from Madrona Venture Group, Advanced Technology Ventures, Greylock Partners, IDG Ventures, and others.

Comments (1) | Reprints | Share:

March 12, 2010
How Seattle Companies and Innovators Can Change the World: Come Find Out on March 29

ideas, people, startups

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

There’s no crying in baseball—or in innovation. Yet I’ve been hearing a fair bit of lamenting around town about how Seattle startups or venture capitalists are not making the top-whatever lists (Wall Street Journal, Technology Review, you name it) of most innovative companies or investors around the country.

Who cares? The city that brought the world Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing, McCaw Cellular, RealNetworks, Starbucks, and any number of other game-changing companies, should not be too worried. It should, however, be motivated. And it is.

That’s why we’re gathering an elite group of technology and life sciences leaders to talk about how to spot the biggest, most promising ideas in their fields, and how these ideas could really change the world, at our half-day Xconomy Forum, “What’s Your Breakthrough Idea?” on March 29 at the University of Washington. (Tickets are going fast, but there are still a few left at our special saver rate—you can register here.)

This is about thinking big as a community. But it’s also about the realities around making the biggest ideas work—building the right teams for the right companies, understanding who the customers are, handling competition, and so forth. And although the focus will be mostly on Seattle-area companies and leaders, the impact that we’re talking about here is decidedly global.

Here’s a little more about the program and speakers for March 29 (topics are subject to change):

—Nick Hanauer of Second Avenue Partners will open with a keynote about the mental calculus behind identifying a true breakthrough idea, versus a really, really good idea that probably won’t get traction. Nick doesn’t think of himself as a technology guy, yet some of his blockbuster investments happen to be in tech—Amazon, aQuantive, Insitu. (There’s a lesson already: don’t think in terms of your specialty area, think about an aspect of society that could be radically changed.)

—Christina Lomasney of Modumetal will talk about how growing the right kinds of “nanomaterials” could help reinvent the steel industry—and how this will impact energy efficiency, transportation, and defense. She might also tell us a thing or two about what she learned from her time at Boeing.

—Mick Mountz of Kiva Systems (from the Boston area) will discuss how mobile robots are transforming the logistics and operations of warehouses, especially in the e-retail business. Kiva’s robots move shelves of inventory around automatically and are able to help staff distribution centers for companies like Staples and Zappos (now part of Amazon).

—Steve Seitz of the UW’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering will talk about a breakthrough idea from computer vision (and maybe about creating 3-D virtual worlds …Next Page »

Comments (2) | Reprints | Share:

March 11, 2010
Evri Acquires Radar Networks, Redesigns Semantic Search Website

startups, deals, Internet

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

Seattle-based Evri, a Web startup focused on semantic search and discovery, announced today it has acquired San Francisco-based Radar Networks, the maker of Twine.com. Financial terms weren’t given, but both companies are backed by Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital. Radar Networks is also backed by Fuse Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and angel investors.

This is big news in the emerging semantic search sector, where companies are using advanced algorithms to understand content on the Web and connections between online entities like people, places, and products. Twine is well known for giving consumers a way to find and organize information online, and share it with people they trust. In the merger, Evri is gaining Twine’s development team, which is being consolidated in Evri’s San Francisco offices, where CEO Will Hunsinger is based.

Evri has also redesigned its website to be more intuitive for consumers. It’s an interesting evolution for a company that was incubated by Vulcan in 2007 and has mainly focused on partnerships with media organizations such as the Washington Post, The Times of London, and Hearst, helping their readers find related content and browse for information.

“We’re striving to deliver a search engine that proactively discovers the most interesting, popular and trending stories on the Web, filtering out the clutter and delivering information to consumers in timely, relevant and intelligent streams,” Hunsinger said in a statement. “With the acquisition of Twine and the launch of our new consumer site, we’re making good on the intuitive discovery experience we envision for the Web.”

Comments | Reprints | Share:

March 11, 2010
Regence BlueShield Buys Kinetix

deals, VC, health

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

Seattle venture capital firm Maveron announced today that Kinetix Living Corp., one of its portfolio companies, has been acquired by Regence BlueShield of Washington state. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Kinetix, which was founded in 2000 and based in Seattle, provides customized health and nutrition programs to corporate customers and individuals. Regence is the largest health insurer in the Northwest and Intermountain region, with more than 2.5 million members in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah.

Comments | Reprints | Share:

March 10, 2010
How Google’s New App Store Impacts Microsoft, Amazon, and Startups

Software, Internet, Analysis

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

Google announced last night that it has officially opened an online store for outside developers to sell their business software applications. The Google Apps Marketplace offers cloud-based software that is integrated with Google Apps—things like Google Calendar, Google Docs, and Gmail for businesses. (That might be a record for the number of Googles in one sentence.) Developers will give Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) a 20 percent cut of each app sale, on top of paying a one-time, upfront fee of $100.

The move is widely viewed as an effort by Google to compete more strongly with the core business software sold by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). The announcement happens to come just a few days after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer laid out his company’s plans for cloud-based software in a sweeping talk at the University of Washington. It also comes on the heels of Google’s acquisition of DocVerse, a collaborative software startup whose technology could help connect Google Docs with Microsoft Office.

And what about Amazon’s cloud computing platform? Thousands of startup developers use Amazon Web Services (AWS) to store data, and to host and manage their applications. But Google’s new app store doesn’t stop any developer from also using AWS. Rather, developers can still use AWS for back-end IT services and now market their software through Google Apps. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) itself doesn’t have a business-app marketplace, though it is rolling out mobile “active content” for consumers in its Kindle store later this year.

In fact, Google and Amazon both provide cloud “infrastructure”—software platforms for developers and companies to use as much or as little cloud-computing resources as they want, without the expense and hassle of maintaining their own servers. Microsoft’s cloud platform, Azure, is getting in this game as well, but it’s not entirely clear how much Microsoft intends to tie developers into its cloud products. Microsoft’s core business thinking is rooted in proprietary desktop-based software and distribution partners—which isn’t a bad model, but how well it transfers to the Web developer ecosystem remains to be seen.

Bottom line: tech startups can now use a hybrid of Amazon and Google cloud services to develop, host, and market their software. This could potentially unseat Microsoft as the king of business software—but it’s still early in the game. (Though surely Oracle, IBM, and SAP are paying close attention too.)

Meanwhile, there are 50-some apps already available in Google’s app store. Among them are products from at least three Seattle-area companies that we follow regularly:

—Concur, a Redmond, WA-based maker of corporate travel and expense management software, is offering an expense-reporting service for small businesses through the Google …Next Page »

Comments (10) | Reprints | Share:

March 10, 2010
NW Energy Angels Names Director

cleantech, Investors, people

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

Seattle-based Northwest Energy Angels announced today it has hired Margo Shiroyama as its new executive director. Shiroyama is a veteran of the Washington Technology Industry Association, Northwest Entrepreneur Network, enterpriseSeattle, and the Washington Biomedical Device Innovation Zone. Martin Tobias and Jeff Morris founded Northwest Energy Angels in 2006. The angel group provides early-stage capital to cleantech entrepreneurs and helps connect investors with promising startups. Its members have invested a total of more than $2 million in 16 companies.

Comments | Reprints | Share:

March 9, 2010
Chuck Thacker of Microsoft Research Wins Turing Award, Talks Future of Mobile Interfaces

Computing, people, Awards

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

One of the founding fathers of the personal computing era, Microsoft Research technical fellow Chuck Thacker, has won the Association for Computing Machinery’s A.M. Turing Award, which is often called the “Nobel Prize of computer science.” The award, which was announced today, comes with a $250,000 prize, sponsored by Intel and Google.

Thacker, 67, was awarded the prize for his design of the Alto, the first modern personal computer with networking capabilities, which he built while at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in the early 1970s. It had a TV-like display, which enabled the development of the modern graphical user interface, as well as connections to outside devices like servers and printers. Although the Alto was never commercialized, it influenced generations of PCs in the decades that followed. Thacker was also cited for his contributions to the Ethernet local-area network, the first multiprocessor workstation, and a tablet PC prototype.

I spoke with Thacker by phone this morning—he’s based at Microsoft Research Silicon Valley. “I was actually flabbergasted when I was told” about the award, he says. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d win.” That’s because the Turing Award traditionally has been given to theoreticians or software experts, not hardware people. The previous Microsoft winners of the Turing Award are the late Jim Gray, Butler Lampson of Microsoft Research New England, and Tony Hoare of Microsoft Research Cambridge in the U.K. (Thacker is also a recipient of the Charles Stark Draper Prize and the John von Neumann Medal from the IEEE.)

Thacker says the most interesting thing about the Alto computer was that “it was a complete system.” It connected to servers that stored information remotely and to printers that produced documents. Although the hardware looked “quaint” by today’s standards, he says, the software behind it persisted. In particular, the user interface—keyboard, mouse, how you interact with programs—looked a lot like what we still use today.

So I asked him how he thinks computing interfaces might evolve in the future, given how little they’ve changed in 30 years. Thacker says he thinks about it from the point of view of what computers have not been able to do so far. “One thing I can’t do yet is talk to my computer,” he says. “I can’t carry on a conversation, and I’d like to see that.”

A second area of intrigue is computer-controlled cars and transportation. “I’m not that great a driver. The dents in my door demonstrate that,” Thacker says. “Computers should drive.” (He says he has followed the DARPA Grand Challenge competitions for driverless vehicles for the past few years.)

Given his work at Microsoft Research in tablet computing in the late 1990s—which helped lead to Microsoft’s first Tablet PC—I asked Thacker where he sees the field …Next Page »

Comments (1) | Reprints | Share:

March 9, 2010
Z2Live Rolls Out Voice Chat for iPhone Games, Announces New Mobile Game Community

Gaming, Entertainment, startups

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

This week is nuts for videogame companies: the annual Game Developers Conference starts today in San Francisco.

Z2Live, a Seattle-based social mobile gaming startup, kicked off what is sure to be a busy news week for local companies by making a couple of notable announcements. First, it unveiled a “voice chat” feature for games on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad—this will let players talk to their friends while they’re playing a mobile game. (I haven’t seen the demo yet, but it sounds like it could be interesting.)

Second, the company has hired Lou Fasulo, the former head of publishing for Sonic Boom and senior exec at Vivendi Universal Games and AT&T Wireless. Fasulo will oversee Z2Live’s development of what it calls a “next-generation mobile game community,” which it plans to open in the next two months.

Z2Live’s CEO and co-founder David Bluhm calls Fasulo “one of the best business minds in mobile gaming.” (Bluhm also told me recently that he thinks the term “mobile gaming” will soon be redundant.)

The company’s core technology is a software platform for developing multiplayer social games on mobile devices. Its gaming canvas runs the gamut from simple casual games like Solitaire to complex multiplayer games like Call of Duty. But Z2Live’s real value is not just in the “plumbing” to allow multiplayer gaming to happen, but potentially in the deeper understanding of gaming communities—things like how to grow a community, how to encourage more social interactions, which metrics to track, which game mechanics developers should focus on, and, of course, how to make money from all of this.

“In theory, this could change the trajectory of game community growth—making sure the game itself is designed with the community in mind from the start,” Bluhm told me last month in an exclusive interview.

Stay tuned for more news from other local game companies.

Comments (3) | Reprints | Share:

March 9, 2010
Google Buys DocVerse, Madrona Backs ShopIgniter, ISB Gets Mystery Gift, & More Seattle-Area Deals News

Roundup, deals, VC

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

In the week since Google’s acquisition of Picnik, the Northwest deals scene came back to earth a little bit. But there was a decent amount of activity in software, Internet, mobile, and cleantech, much of it from Oregon-based companies.

—Seattle’s Institute for Systems Biology received a five-year, $6 million gift from a venture capitalist in California who wishes to remain anonymous, as Luke reported. The cash will be used to help the Institute move to a new facility that’s twice as large as its current location, recruit new faculty, and support research on personalized medicine, biofuels, and global health.

—DocVerse, the collaborative-document software startup that was founded in Seattle but moved to San Francisco in 2008, was bought by Google for an undisclosed price. The startup’s technology might help Google Docs work (or compete) better with Microsoft Office. DocVerse was started in 2007 by former Microsofties and MIT alums Shan Sinha and Alex DeNeui.

—Portland, OR-based DeltaPoint won $170,000 in angel investment capital at an annual Oregon Entrepreneurs Network startup competition. The company is developing diagnostic software that performs “virtual biopsies” on suspected cancers.

—Medford, OR-based UpWind Solutions raised $10 million in Series B funding, according to an SEC filing. The investors weren’t disclosed, but the form lists Michael Linse of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Mark Lewis of MissionPoint Capital as directors of the company. UpWind provides operations and maintenance services for utility-scale wind projects

—Bellevue, WA-based Ignition Partners participated in a $23 million growth equity round for San Francisco-based Cloudmark, a mobile-messaging security firm. The round was led by Summit Partners and joined by Nokia Growth Partners, both new investors.

—Scott Kveton, the co-founder and CEO of Portland-based mobile startup Urban Airship talked about his company’s recent funding round from True Ventures and Founder’s Co-op. But even more interesting was his account of his team’s guerrilla marketing tactics (involving donuts and danishes) outside the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference last summer, which helped Urban Airship connect with customers early on.

—Portland-based ShopIgniter scored $3 million in Series A funding led by Madrona Venture Group in Seattle. Former Madrona venture partner Matt Compton has become ShopIgniter’s CEO, and Madrona co-founder and managing director Tom Alberg has joined the company’s board. ShopIgniter started in 2008 and is looking to meld the worlds of commerce and social media in a new way.

—Seattle-based Vulcan Capital, Paul Allen’s venture outfit, participated in a $15 million Series E round for Audience, a Mountain View, CA-based voice processing semiconductor firm. New Enterprise Associates, Tallwood Venture Capital, and VentureTech Alliance also participated in the funding. The round follows another infusion of $15 million about a year ago.

Comments | Reprints | Share:

March 9, 2010
BuddyTV’s Andy Liu on the One That Got Away, and What He’d Ask the God of Business

Internet, startups, people

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

Andy Liu knew something most people didn’t. When I asked him to name his favorite Seattle-area company that he’s not involved with, he said “Picnik” without hesitation. “That’s the one I’d want to be in,” he said. “I’m a big fan.”

That was on February 26, three days before Picnik, the photo-editing site, announced it had been acquired by Google in the biggest story of the year in the local Web startup community. But then again, Liu would know about these things ahead of time. He is a noted entrepreneur and angel investor, and the CEO of Seattle-based BuddyTV, all at the baby-faced age of 33.

BuddyTV has been a darling of the local Internet scene as well. Founded in 2005, the startup was backed by Charles River Ventures, Gemstar-TV Guide, Madrona Venture Group, and others. Its TV fan site draws about 6 million visitors a month, and has been ranked in the top three fastest-growing websites in the U.S. for the past few months, by comScore. BuddyTV offers TV-related news, articles, games, videos, and fan gossip.

“Our grand vision is to build the most compelling fan experience for any TV show,” Liu says. That means if you’ve just watched an episode of “24” or “American Idol,” say, you’ll go to BuddyTV.com to hang out and chat with other fans and read posts about the shows.

Yet this is clearly a challenging time—and a crossroads of sorts—for the startup. To date, its business has been 100 percent dependent on advertising revenues. In the current recession, the company has been forced to look at other revenue streams—things like virtual currency, virtual gifts, micropayments, subscriptions, and lead generation. In short, getting users to pay for something they’re used to getting for free. (Sounds familiar to the struggles facing journalists on the Web.)

“We’re at a place where we don’t need financing,” Liu maintains. “We can choose our own destiny.”

To understand what that destiny is, though, it helps to know Liu’s background. A Seattle native, he worked at AT&T and Boeing (and a few other places) before he founded and ran a startup called NetConversions for five years, through the Internet boom and bust. He turned the company profitable and sold it to aQuantive in 2004. The price was several million dollars, and he made enough to embark on a new career as an angel investor. But before doing that, while still in his late 20s, Liu took a break to travel the world. While he was in Peru—he doesn’t know “if it was the mountains, the altitude, or the beer”—the idea came to him for BuddyTV.

Liu and his co-founders had a thesis: people were watching TV in a different way from ever before, and the social Web was starting to take off. “Let’s do something super different. Let’s be in a space with slow-moving competitors,” he says. Thirty days after leaving aQuantive, in 2005, he started BuddyTV.

The first year was rough. Liu says the group’s thesis was probably correct, but the …Next Page »

Comments (1) | Reprints | Share:

March 8, 2010
How to Build a Profitable IT Company: Three Questions with Laplink CEO Thomas Koll

Software, IT, Leadership

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it. I’m talking about migrating people’s files and programs from their old computer to their new computer. Sure, IT guys do this for employees all the time, but who knew you could build a profitable and sustainable business around it?

Meet Laplink, a Bellevue, WA-based company that was founded in 1983. Back then it was DOS instead of Windows 7, of course, but the basic idea is the same. If you get a new PC, you want to transfer your files, settings, and applications from your old machine to the new one. But if a company does this manually, it can cost hundreds of dollars and several hours of labor per machine. Laplink says its flagship software, called PCmover, can do the same thing across a whole company or organization much more cheaply and efficiently—and it works across different PC brands (like Dell, Toshiba, and HP) and different operating systems.

Its big customers include EMC, IBM, FedEx, Lockheed Martin, Lucent Technologies, Pfizer, SAIC, Xerox, and numerous universities and government organizations. So although there is plenty of competition in this part of the IT-management sector, the company seems to be doing something right.

“Last year Laplink really emerged as the world market leader in PC-PC migration,” says CEO and chairman Thomas Koll. He notes that the firm also makes business software for things like erasing hard disks safely and syncing files between PCs and Macs. Koll joined Laplink in 2003. Previously he was the CEO and chairman of Burnaby, BC-based Infowave, and before that, vice president of Microsoft’s network solutions group, where he managed the company’s business with telecommunications firms.

I recently asked Koll (see photo, left) a few questions about running a company that’s not the flashiest around, but is making money by solving real business problems, unlike a lot of firms, especially newcomers. Here’s a sampling of what he had to say:

Xconomy: Is there something unique about Laplink’s strategy?

Thomas Koll: Yes and no. Yes, we are unique, because we are building a franchise around PC migration, where we claim not only worldwide leadership, product innovation and thought leadership. We are also unique because we are growing and building our business without help from venture capital firms. This might curb the growth rates, but it creates an independent strategy that is geared to long-term profitability and not the quick exit. With our expertise and a highly experienced employee base, we are unique in that we can react to market needs in a very quick way. Where it might take other companies much longer to create a new product and take it to market, Laplink is able to do this quickly—satisfying the needs and wants that ebb and flow in today’s market.

One example of this was a strategic decision to include an …Next Page »

Comments (1) | Reprints | Share:

March 8, 2010
DeltaPoint Wins OEN Angel Investment

Angel Capital, startups, events

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

Portland, OR-based DeltaPoint has won $170,000 in the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network’s angel investment competition today. DeltaPoint is developing diagnostic software that performs “virtual biopsies” on suspected cancers, starting with breast cancer. The company was a finalist in the OEN event’s “launch stage” category. Portland-based Enjoy Life, which says it is the producer of the first authentic, premium Sangria in the U.S., took home $25,000 as the winner of the “seed stage” category.

Comments | Reprints | Share:

March 5, 2010
Seattle’s Loss: DocVerse Bought by Google (Maybe as a Bridge to Microsoft)

deals, Software, acquisitions

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

It’s the second notable Google acquisition in these parts, coming on the heels of Seattle-based Picnik getting bought by the search giant earlier this week. DocVerse, a collaborative-document software startup founded in the Seattle area in 2007 by former Microsofties and MIT alums Shan Sinha and Alex DeNeui, has been acquired by Google, according to a company blog post. Financial terms of the deal weren’t announced.

Here’s the catch, from a Seattle perspective. DocVerse moved to San Francisco in the summer of 2008, mostly because its founders thought the Bay Area is the best place to grow a successful startup, and its investors were there. It’s hard to argue with their results. (Sinha gave Xconomy four reasons why the San Francisco area is for startups like what Hollywood is for moviemakers.)

In a blog post today, Sinha talks about the deal and the culture fit between DocVerse and Google—a bit similar to Picnik CEO Jonathan Sposato’s comments on “how Google works” from earlier this week. “What impresses us the most about the Google team is that they all share the same philosophy—giving people the tools to work the way they want. From the moment we started talking with them, it was clear that there was a lot of shared DNA in how we approached solving people’s problems,” Sinha writes. “We’re looking forward to the opportunity to scale our vision at Google. Our first step will be to combine DocVerse with Google Apps to create a bridge between Microsoft Office and Google Apps.”

This last bit is intriguing, from a big-company perspective. DocVerse’s software enables Web-based collaboration within Microsoft Office staples like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. One question is whether Google really cares about the DocVerse product as a way to connect Office with Google Docs—or compete better with Office—or whether it’s just buying talent at this point. You can read the official Google blog post here.

Comments | Reprints | Share:

March 5, 2010
UpWind Solutions Raises Cash

deals, energy, VC

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

Medford, OR-based UpWind Solutions, a provider of operations and maintenance services for utility-scale wind projects, has raised $10 million out of a $29 million round of Series B preferred stock, according to a regulatory filing. The investors weren’t disclosed, but the SEC form lists Michael Linse of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Mark Lewis of MissionPoint Capital as directors of the firm. UpWind is led by president and founder Bo Thisted. The company works with wind energy project developers and owners over the lifetime of their turbines or wind farms.

Comments | Reprints | Share:

March 5, 2010
Amazon, Cozi, Pathway, Talyst, and VholdR Among Winners at WTIA Awards Bash

Innovation Community, startups, Awards

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

Pardon me if I’m still a little hung over, but last night was a blast. Eight hundred techies packed into the Showbox SoDo in Seattle for the 15th annual Industry Achievement Awards organized by the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA). The awards recognize excellence in local tech companies, and the winners were selected by a distinguished panel of judges too long to list here.

Here’s a quick rundown of the awards:

—Talyst won in the “commercial product or service” category, beating out Apptio and Concur (two very worthy business software firms). As I described in a feature story last summer, Bellevue, WA-based Talyst makes software that helps pharmacies manage the flow of medications in hospitals, clinics, assisted living facilities, and correctional facilities. CEO Carla Corkern also spoke at the WTIA’s healthcare IT event last September.

—Seattle-based Cozi won for “consumer product or service of the year,” edging out Cheezburger Network and Picnik (two of the most popular Web startups in town). Cozi, which raised $5 million from a new strategic investor last month, makes Web-based software to help busy families plan activities and chores, manage to-do lists and schedules, and communicate better. Last summer, CEO Robbie Cape talked with me about some of the company’s big partnerships (with Dell and Gannett, for example) and his startup philosophy.

—Seattle-based VholdR won for “breakthrough startup of the year,” beating some stiff competition from DreamBox Learning and Gist. VholdR makes high-def wearable video cameras and software for skiers, explorers, and other sports enthusiasts to share their stories of action and adventures, through an online video community. The idea for the company dates back to 2003, when founders Marc Barros and Jason Green won third place in the University of Washington business plan competition.

—Amazon Web Services (AWS) beat out Azaleos and Hubspan for “service provider of the year.” Earlier in the day, Steve Ballmer spoke about Microsoft’s cloud computing strategy, but Seattle-based AWS has been leading the field since 2006, at least for startup developers looking to rent flexible Web-based data storage and processing power to run their Web services. Amazon vice president Adam Selipsky talked about how Amazon’s cloud computing platform works, at another WTIA event exactly a year ago.

—Pathway Medical Technologies edged out Neah Power Systems and Powerit Solutions for the title of “innovative manufactured product of the year.” Kirkland, WA-based Pathway sells a device that helps doctors drill through and vacuum out blockages in leg arteries. The company has gone through an up-and-down year, as Luke reported in an in-depth feature last fall, but it seems to be adjusting to a challenging healthcare market. Pathway was co-founded by Tom Clement in 1998 and is now led by CEO Paul Buckman.

—Last but not least, Washington State Employees Credit Union won for “information technology department innovation,” OneBusAway won for “best use of technology in the government, nonprofit or education sector,” and Ruby Damper, a 7th grader at Orca school in Seattle, won for “technology leader of tomorrow.”

Comments | Reprints | Share:

March 5, 2010
Summit, Ignition Back Cloudmark

deals, VC, Security

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

Cloudmark, a mobile-messaging security firm based in San Francisco, has raised $23 million in growth equity led by Boston-based Summit Partners and joined by Nokia Growth Partners, Ignition Partners, and Industry Ventures. Bellevue, WA-based Ignition was an existing investor, along with Industry Ventures, while Summit and Nokia are new investors. The deal is Cloudmark’s first new funding round since 2004, and it helped the company acquire Silicon Valley-based Bizanga, which makes a message-processing software platform, last month.

Comments | Reprints | Share:

March 4, 2010
Seattle 2.0 Goes from Calbucci to Cabala

Internet, startups, people

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

Seattle 2.0 founder Marcelo Calbucci said today he has named television reporter Jennifer Cabala the new president and editor-in-chief of the organization, in charge of business and editorial content. Cabala previously was a TV journalist with KING 5 and Q13 (Fox) based in Seattle. Calbucci says he will continue as a blogger and advisor to the site—which focuses on blogs, features, and events around the local startup community—and will assist in the transition to the new management.

Comments (1) | Reprints | Share:

March 4, 2010
Steve Ballmer at UW: Is This Microsoft’s Cloud Computing Strategy, or Just Internet Software?

Software, IT, strategy

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

The first sign that Steve Ballmer was in the house came when I saw a cop car parked outside the University of Washington’s Computer Science & Engineering building. Then there were the paper signs telling you where to line up for his 10 am talk today.

The Microsoft CEO doesn’t make many local public appearances, so it was a rare opportunity to see him speak about company strategy at the UW. It was his first talk in the Allen Center, which was jam-packed and standing room only. His focus today was supposed to be on “cloud computing,” but it was really much broader than what most people call cloud computing these days. It was more about Internet software in general and Microsoft’s vision for reinventing itself in the era of the Web. (What this says specifically about Windows Azure—Microsoft’s cloud computing platform currently being rolled out—I’m not quite sure yet.)

In fact, my broadest takeaway is that there’s still a lot of ambiguity out there around what cloud computing means. I thought techies had come to a consensus on a definition. The basic concept allows companies and developers to pay as they go to rent data storage and processing power to run their applications, as a cheap and low-hassle alternative to maintaining their own servers. But I was wrong. My conclusion for now: cloud computing is really a term that’s so nebulous, it has become meaningless.

But back to Ballmer’s talk. I’ve always been struck by how much the Detroit native talks like a regular guy. Booming voice, yes; tough businessman, of course; but dressed in a red polo sweater and khakis and extolling the virtues of Internet computing and services, he really seemed to be enjoying himself up there.

Some low-level Kremlinology: I wondered if what Ballmer didn’t say would be more telling than what he did. Regarding competitors, he did mention Google at least twice. He also mentioned Amazon’s Kindle software (but not Amazon Web Services), and even Apple and Research in Motion (BlackBerry) once each. On the other hand, there was no mention of VMware, IBM, or Nokia. Also, Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie (the original champion of Azure) was present, but didn’t speak.

Here are my immediate reactions to Ballmer’s talk:

He called the cloud—which I take to mean the modern Internet ecosystem—“the gift that will keep on giving.” He also emphasized, “The inspiration for what we’re doing now starts with the cloud. Windows Azure and SQL Azure start with the cloud as their design point…This is the bet, if you will, for our company.” He laid out pretty much the company’s entire strategy in terms of the cloud—in mobile, search, entertainment, devices, professional software, servers, and social networking.

This is a radical shift from the company’s outward thinking just five or six years ago, …Next Page »

Comments (2) | Reprints | Share:

March 4, 2010
Offbeat Creations Bought by Playdom

deals, Gaming, acquisitions

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

Bellevue, WA-based Offbeat Creations, a developer and publisher of Facebook gaming apps, has been acquired by Playdom, the social gaming company based in Mountain View, CA. Financial terms of the deal weren’t released. Offbeat Creations is best known for its dice game, Super Farkle. Its founders, Chia Chin Lee, Robert Reichner, and Tom Fakes, are joining Playdom in leadership roles, and its 12 developers and designers will join Playdom’s existing 15-person Seattle studio.

Comments | Reprints | Share:

March 4, 2010