Category: Internet

Herramientas para medir velocidad de carga de una web

Desde siempre los tiempos de carga de una web a sido una de las cosas mas importantes para que los usuarios vuelvan a visitar un sitio web ya que nadie se va a esperar mas de 10 segundos en que tu web se cargue. Es por eso que les traigo las mejores herramientas para que pongas a prueba tu web y así sepas que es lo que hace que cargue tan lento tu blog/web.

Tools Pingdom

La herramienta online mas completa sin dudas, aparte de mostrarte el tiempo total de carga, te muestra individualmente cada uno de los elementos de tu pagina (en forma de grafico de barras), desde que hace contacto con tu servidor hasta que descarga el ultimo elemento..

Muy util sin dudas ya que su gráfico de barras nos permite apreciar el orden en que se cargan los elementos, su tiempo y su peso.

http://tools.pingdom.com

WebWait

WebWait realiza iteraciónes o cargas de tu web, por a cada carga te arroja el tiempo que tardo y una vez finalizada las iteraciones te devuelve el promedio. Por defecto tiene 5 iteraciónes pero puedes colocar las que quieras e incluso el tiempo entre cada iteración.

Una vez que finalicen las 5 iteraciónes te mostrara en una tabla tipo excel tus datos. También te da la posibilidad de probar varias webs para hacer una comparación y hasta visualizarlo en un gráfico como el siguiente.

http://webwait.com

Page Speed

Mas que una herramienta para medir la velocidad de carga, es una herramienta de optimización muy completa. Es una extensión para firefox realizada por google que corre sobre firebug .

Page Speed utiliza una puntuación ideal de 100 a al cual si no llegas te ayuda con un par de modificaciones que van desde graves (de cambio urgente) a leves.

http://code.google.com/intl/es-419/speed/page-speed/download.html

Extensión de Firefox para medir el tiempo de carga

Lori es una extensión que como vemos en la imagen nos da el tempo que tardo en descargar el primer byte (1.180s) y la carga completa de la pagina (3.143s) con su peso y el numero total de solicitudes.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1743

Extended Statusbar es muy similar, otra opción a tener en cuenta.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1433

Mostrar el número de consultas a base de datos y el tiempo que toma

Con pegar el siguiente código en el footer (pie de pagina) tenemos el numero de consultas de la pagina y el tiempo.

Consultas: < ?php echo get_num_queries(); ?> – Tiempo: < ?php timer_stop(1); ?>

April 23, 2010
Connect Inducts Software Pioneer Peter Preuss to Entrepreneurial Hall of Fame

people, Peter Preuss, Connect

Bruce V. Bigelow wrote:

Connect, San Diego’s non-profit group for technology innovation, officially inducted software industry pioneer Peter Preuss into its Entrepreneurial Hall of Fame during a luncheon yesterday that recounted his life story—from a nerd growing up in postwar Berlin to a successful technology entrepreneur and prominent patron of both education and cancer research.

Preuss is the eighth inductee in a pantheon that includes some of San Diego’s biggest names in entrepreneurship and technology innovation, including Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs, cancer researcher and venture capitalist Ivor Royston, Idec Pharmaceuticals founder William Rastetter, and SAIC founder J. Robert Beyster.

“The criteria is that they built great companies, but they also gave back to the community,” said Connect CEO (and Xconomist) Duane Roth.

Peter Preuss

Preuss was close to completing his doctoral thesis in mathematics at UC San Diego in 1970, when he started a software company that enabled programmers to create pie charts and other graphics on the 10-megahertz “supercomputers” of that era. The company, known as ISSCO (Integrated Software Systems Corp.) grew to be the nation’s leading independent software company then specializing in data representation graphics and graphical information systems, with 32 offices worldwide and two public stock offerings. ISSCO was acquired by Computer Associates in 1986.

Preuss told the luncheon audience that he focused his energy on cancer research after a family member was diagnosed with a brain tumor. With what he described as “entrepreneurial hubris,” he said, “I was absolutely convinced that if I put all my energy into it, that we will find a solution” to cancer. In the process, he founded the …Next Page »

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April 23, 2010
Car Games Explode onto the Net

Racing games and other games involving cars are immensely popular on the net. There is an enormous variety of car games available online that can be played for free in your browser right away without having to download anything onto your PC. Of course, Grand Theft Auto 4 has just been released on April 13, but don’t worry if you haven’t got a PlayStation 3 because you can play many other racing games online.

There are F1 games, racing games, difting and drag race games, pimp my ride games, games that test your parking skills and trail games in which you must use your truck to demolish other cars and scale obstacles along a trail without crashing your car badly enough to blow it up. There are bird’s-eye view car games, but also a number of excellent 3D games such as the popular game Cab Driver. So go and have fun and race, upgrade, pimp, or demolish your cars online!

April 22, 2010
Medir popularidad en Internet y Redes Sociales

Si frecuentas mucho las redes sociales tal vez te interesaría saber que tan popular eres en facebook, twitter o si tenes un blog, fotolog ver que tal le va y como esta posicionado.

Medir popularidad en Twitter

La mayoría de estos sitios miden la popularidad de tu cuenta en twitter teniendo en cuenta varios factores, la cantidad de seguidos y seguidores, tweets, cuantos te listan, menciones “@tucuenta” y tambien tienes dos buscadores de tweets para ver individualmente cuantos votos o retweets tienes..

– Twitter grader
– Twitterholic
– Tetweeetrank
– Twinfluence
– TwitterFriends
– Tweetlevel
– Klout
– Tweetvolume
– Topsy
– TweetMeme
– Tweetstats

Medir popularidad en Facebook

Al igual que twitter, en facebook el tener miles de seguidores no te asegura ser popular en esa red. Lo que importa es que tanto interactuan tus seguidores contigo y el nivel de repercusiones que tienen tus acciones dentro de Facebook. Estas herramientas te ayudaran a descubrir eso:

– Facebook grader
– F-brity

Medir popularidad de una pagina web

Medir la popularidad de una web ya es algo mucho mas amplio, aquí entran a jugar un poco mas de factores, cantidad de visitas, posicionamiento en buscadores, cantidad de comentarios, paginas vistas, tiempo de los usuarios en tu sitio web, enlaces a tu web, cantidad de seguidores en todas las redes sociales, etc…

Estas son algunas aplicaciones que te lo resumirán todo en una pagina para no tener que recorrer cada servicio de internet para ver tu posición (como es el caso de alexa, pagerank, alianzo, Del.icio.us, digg, Quantcast, etc).

– Test Everything
– urlmetrix
– Popuri.us
– Site Information Tool
– Emezeta Rank
– Trafficestimate
– Statbrain
– Xinu Returns
– websitegrader
– Feed Compare
– Socialmeter
– Quarkbase

April 22, 2010
OpenCandy Gets $5M in Round Led by Google Ventures

funding, Software, Internet

Bruce V. Bigelow wrote:

OpenCandy co-founder Darrius Thompson confirms in an e-mail that the San Diego-based startup, which operates a kind of online marketplace for open-source software, just raised $5 million in a series B round of venture funding, which was reported today by TechCrunch.

The new $5 million round was led by Google Ventures, and in a winking sort of way, Thompson tells me, “I think you hinted in the past that you could see us having a deep relationship with Google. Good insight!” Also participating in the round are existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and O’Reilly AlphaTech. (The company raised $3.5 million in its first round.)

As I reported previously, OpenCandy operates a Web-based network that allows a software publisher to advertise its product—and to offer it as optional download—while a user is installing another program available through OpenCandy’s website. During the installation, OpenCandy’s system suggests other software that the user might want, with the idea of helping software publishers to distribute their products and services. OpenCandy also emphasizes that its system is consumer friendly because users must actually choose to download the optional software offer. It’s not an automated process that installs additional software whether you want it or not.

So how will OpenCandy use its proceeds?

Thompson says in his e-mail: “It’s all about scaling now. As mentioned… scaling in our current market and segment and then beyond. A good portion of the proceeds would be utilized to hire great individuals that can help us scale in a way that reinforces and builds upon the great foundational culture we’ve set. Finding great talent in San Diego is a key focus for us right now.”

Thompson also says he’ll have more to say in a few weeks, so stand by.

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April 21, 2010
VCs Add $10M to Imagine Communications

Digitial Video, funding, Venture Capital

Bruce V. Bigelow wrote:

Digital video developer Imagine Communications, a five-year-old startup based in San Diego with R&D operations in Israel, says it has raised $10 million in a Series C round of venture funding from Columbia Capital, Carmel Ventures, and Court Square Ventures—all existing investors. The company, which has now raised more than $34 million, says the new funding will be used to expand its support of customers that are multiple system operators and accelerate its commercial deployment for the MPEG-4 digital video technology standard.

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April 21, 2010
How Much Less AT&T Is Sucking [At&t]

Sure, sure, AT&T added another 1.9 million subscribers and activated 2.7 million new iPhones. But the most interesting slide in their earnings statement was the one detailing, statistically, how much less they suck. With graphs and stuff. More »

April 21, 2010
Confident Technologies Makes Its Debut in Restart of Vidoop’s Security Software

Network Security, Software, Web

Bruce V. Bigelow wrote:

Curtis Staker tells me that Portland, OR-based Vidoop had a Web security idea that was just too good to let die. So Staker, a veteran software security executive, helped to acquire Vidoop’s assets in January, moved the software development operation to Solana Beach, CA, near San Diego, and today is launching the reincarnated business as Confident Technologies.

What’s the idea?

Instead of requiring online users to gain access to a secure website by providing a username and password, Confident Technologies has developed an alternative authentication process based on recognizing images. The company says its technology generates a unique, one-time access code each time a user seeks access to a secure website, yet Confident’s approach also is intuitive and easier for customers to remember.

Staker says the human brain has an easier time remembering images and broad categories, such as dogs, airplanes, and flowers, than remembering lengthy strings of letters and numbers—especially when many users must keep multiple user-password combinations for all the different sites they log onto. In terms of intuitive simplicity, Staker says, if you’re searching for your car in a big parking lot, is it easier for you to remember your license plate number, or what your car looks like?

image grid

In announcing its business debut today, Confident Technologies says its approach makes life easier for online users by providing a randomly generated image to protect online transactions and sensitive information. With “image-based verification,” a user selects categories of images that are easy to remember, such as cars, airplanes, and insects, the first time he or she registers with a website, such as an e-commerce or online banking site. Then, every time the user logs into that website, he or she is presented with a grid of randomly generated images—each with a randomly generated number or letter overlaid on the photo. A user simply identifies the images that fit the previously selected categories.

Confident Technologies says its authentication software can work …Next Page »

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April 21, 2010
Signature Genomic Gets Sold for $90M, DreamBox Bought by Netflix CEO, The $7M Madrona Man, & More Seattle-Area Deals News

Roundup, deals, acquisitions

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

A very wide range of deals were done this week in the Northwest, ranging from small tech partnerships and fundings to a large biotech acquisition. Methinks the action will pick up in the next month before summertime.

—Bellevue, WA-based DreamBox Learning, an online math education startup, has been acquired by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and the Charter Fund, a nonprofit VC firm. Financial details weren’t given, but the deal includes a new $10 million investment in DreamBox. Hastings is a board member of Microsoft and an educational philanthropist. DreamBox is one of several companies leading the way in online “adaptive learning” technologies for kids.

—Seattle-based Airbiquity formed a partnership with Tokyo-based Hitachi Automotive Systems to develop wireless telecom systems for electric vehicles. Financial terms weren’t announced. The deal is part of a broader effort to establish a global infrastructure for wirelessly connected vehicles and intelligent transportation services.

—I took a deeper dive into Seattle-based Madrona Venture Group’s recent investment in Searchandise Commerce, an e-commerce and paid search company based in the Boston area. The $7 million deal is the brainchild of Brian McAndrews, Madrona’s newest managing director and the former CEO of aQuantive.

—Seattle Genetics, the cancer drug developer based in Bothell, WA, and Genentech, the U.S. unit of Roche, have extended a licensing agreement for developing “empowered antibodies,” as Luke reported. Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ: SGEN) will receive $9.5 million upfront, plus milestone payments and royalties on sales of any FDA-approved products, while Genentech will pay for developing and marketing the drugs, which are designed to be more potent cancer-cell killers.

—We summed up the top 10 venture deals for companies in Washington state in the first quarter of 2010. Leading the way in terms of dollars were Visible Technologies and BlueKai (more than $20 million each), while mobile-app startup Zumobi managed to sneak in $7 million under our noses. Only one out of the top 10 deals was a Series A financing.

—Spokane, WA-based Signature Genomic Laboratories is being acquired by PerkinElmer (NYSE: PKI), the Waltham, MA-based scientific instrument maker. The deal is worth a whopping $90 million in cash, as Luke reported.

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April 21, 2010
Oracle Acquires Phase Forward, Diax Collects Up to $12M from Paul Capital, Agios Gets $130M from Celgene, & More Boston-Area Deals News

Roundup, deals, funding

Erin Kutz wrote:

Acquisitions, partnership agreements, and early round financing for some stealthy operations made it a busy deals news week for us.

—Third Rock Ventures, a Boston firm focused on investments in life sciences companies, plans to raise $400 million for its second fund, according to an SEC filing. The firm closed its first fund, with $378 million, in 2007.

—Waltham, MA-based scientific instrument maker PerkinElmer revealed it agreed to acquire Spokane, WA-based Signature Genomic Laboratories for about $90 million in cash.

—Foundation Medicine, a company that’s focused on fighting cancer by testing for genetic traits in a tumor and matching them with treatments, reported that it pulled in part of a $25 million Series A funding round. The startup is incubated out of Boston’s Third Rock Ventures, which also led the financing. In February, Ryan was the first to report that former CombinatoRx (NASDAQ: CRXX) CEO Alexis Borisy was leading Foundation.

—Catabasis Pharmaceuticals, a Cambridge-based startup run by Sirtris Pharmaceuticals veterans, revealed in a regulatory filing that it pulled in $7.7 million of a planned $39.7 million financing. The stealthy operation is developing treatments for inflammatory and metabolic diseases by leveraging the protective effects of omega-3 fatty acids.

—Cambridge’s Agios Pharmaceuticals nabbed $130 million from Summit, NJ-based Celgene (NASDAQ: CELG), in exchange for an exclusive option to license and develop Agios’ experimental cancer drugs, for a certain span of time. The deal essentially makes the Cambridge company Celgene’s cancer metabolism drug unit without outright acquiring it.

—The Daily Grommet, a Lexington, MA-based e-commerce company that promotes consumer products with online videos, has raised $3.4 million in Series A funding. The financing included …Next Page »

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April 21, 2010
Partovis to Step Down at MySpace

people, Internet, startups

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

Ali Partovi and Hadi Partovi, co-founders of Seattle-based social music startup iLike, are stepping down from their senior executive positions at MySpace. The news was reported by All Things Digital, TechCrunch, and other outlets. MySpace acquired iLike last August, and the Partovis were promoted to senior vice president roles under MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta. But Van Natta left the company earlier this year after a reported dispute with his News Corp. boss. It sounds like the Partovis, entrepreneurs who also have active investments in companies including Facebook and BlueKai, will transition out of MySpace in the coming months.

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April 20, 2010
Should Google Be Broken Apart?

The consumer group Consumer Watchdog is planning to ask the Justice Department to “launch an antitrust action against the search giant and seek remedies including a possible break up,” reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The group will host a press conference in Washington, D.C. tomorrow where it will argue that there’s enough evidence to warrant antitrust action from the feds.

“We, as an organization, have concluded that there’s enough evidence on the table to warrant this, to go beyond the reactive steps that the regulatory agencies have followed up until now,” said John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog.

The paper points out that the Justice Department doesn’t have to do anything just because of what a consumer group says. On the other hand, this call for action is coming on the heels of other issues, like Google’s plan to buy AdMob, its ongoing battle with publishers and authors over Google Books, and some trouble in the EU over whether it ranks competitors fairly in searches.

“Consumer group to call for Google break up” [SFGate]

April 20, 2010
DreamBox Learning Bought by Netflix CEO (and Microsoft Board Member) Reed Hastings and Charter Fund—Some More Context

deals, startups, Education

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

Score one for online education. Bellevue, WA-based DreamBox Learning announced today it has been acquired by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and the Charter Fund, a nonprofit venture firm. The price was not disclosed, but the deal includes a new investment of $10 million in the company, which will be used to advance DreamBox’s e-learning technology, content, and distribution in U.S. schools.

DreamBox Learning makes online math education software for schools and homes that’s aimed at young kids from kindergarten to third grade. The interface is sort of like an adventure game, including stories and activities that involve pirates, animals, and dinosaurs. The patent-pending technology behind the “game” assesses each student’s mathematical understanding, provides appropriate hints and encouragement, and selects personalized activities for the student.

It’s part of a broader trend in which companies are developing programs that adapt to how individual kids learn—through different types of games or visual activities, say. New York-based Knewton, another educational tech company, just closed a $12.5 million funding round yesterday. “You’ll hear a lot on adaptive learning over the next few years as customizing learning for the individual student continues to emerge as a megatrend in education,” says Jason Stoffer, a principal at Seattle-based Maveron who focuses on investments in education and e-commerce.

DreamBox is recognized as an innovator on the adaptive-learning curriculum side. “I have evaluated many companies in the K-12 e-learning marketplace and DreamBox Learning clearly stood out,” Hastings said in a statement. “They have already shown strong results in a short period of time, and the DreamBox Learning platform has the best underlying adaptive technology, giving every student the opportunity to thrive.”

Hastings is now chairman of the board of DreamBox Learning. A couple things you might not know about him: he’s an educational philanthropist (and former U.S. Peace Corps math teacher) who served as president of the California State Board of Education from 2000 to 2004; he also serves on the board of directors of Microsoft. As part of today’s deal, DreamBox also gains two more board members: Kevin Hall, the CEO and president of Charter School Growth Fund, and John Danner, the co-founder and CEO of Rocketship Education.

DreamBox Learning was founded in 2006 by Lou Gray and Ben Slivka, and had raised more than $7 million in angel capital, according to media reports. Neither Gray nor Slivka appears to be with the company as of today.

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April 20, 2010
The Fastest Internet In the World? It’s In Berkeley [Speed]

Just in case internet iPhone celebrity Jason Chen needed another reason to feel smug: his alma mater, Berkeley, has the highest internet speeds of any city on Earth. More »

April 20, 2010
TvTube – Ver TV Online gratis

Se tem por hábito ver TV online, então o TV Tube é o site ideal para si. Com mais de 1000 canais disponíveis, o TV Tube permite-lhe ver tv gratuitamente online através do seu browser.

O TvTube acolhe uma selecção de serviços que oferece os melhores canais de tv do mundo, sem a necessidade de efectuar qualquer registo ou download de software adicional.

Poderá encontrar canais temáticos como por exemplo música, desporto, entretenimento,filmes ou notícias e ainda é possível adicionar o canal aos favoritos, discutir o canal no Twitter directamente do TvTube, avaliar o canal e encontrar canais semelhantes.

Para além dos filtros por tema, poderá ainda filtrar os canais de tv por país onde pode facilmente encontrar vários canais nacionais. Neste site vai encontrar canais de todos os países da Europa, Norte da América, África, Ásia, Caraíbas, América Latina e muito mais.

WebTuga – Boorlix – TugaTronica – WebTuga TV – GameTuga – AppleTuga – TugaSport – MobileTuga – DeskmodPT – Ate Tem Piada – Blog dos Famosos – Alojamento Nacional

WebTuga – TvTube – Ver TV Online gratis

April 20, 2010
Learn How EMC, Microsoft, and Other Technology Giants Are Navigating the Evolving Healthcare Landscape at Next Week’s Xconomy Forum

Health IT, deals, cloud

Ryan McBride wrote:

Big technology companies are playing a major role in shaping the health IT field here in Boston and beyond. That is why we’ve asked healthcare leaders from EMC and Microsoft to present their insights at our “Healthcare In Transition” forum next week at the MIT Media Lab (register here).

EMC, for instance, is exploring different ways to open its “Atmos” cloud computing and storage platform to the healthcare sector, aiming to enable hospitals and doctors to look beyond the walls of their internal data centers to store and manage digital information. Health IT entrepreneurs are already finding ways to make EMC’s cloud platform an integral part of their businesses. One such entrepreneur, Hamid Tabatabaie, will be at the forum to tell the story of his startup, Newton, MA-based LifeImage.

We know that many Xconomy readers—including entrepreneurs, investors, technologists, and others—are at various stages of finding or pursuing opportunities in healthcare (and that may be why seats for the forum are filling up so fast). With this in mind, we’re packing the afternoon with conversations and presentations from more than a dozen health IT leaders from VC firms, big tech companies, startups, and academia. And due to popular demand, there will be three breaks (including the first hour before the program begins and the reception afterward) in the agenda for face-to-face networking among presenters and attendees. Our overall goal is to highlight the ways IT entrepreneurs can build successful ventures while improving healthcare.

Our readers understand that there are lots of reasons to be part of the health IT industry today. For one, U.S. healthcare spending swelled to $2.5 trillion last year, and there are opportunities to use IT inventions to eliminate billions of dollars in costs from this system. We’re not just talking about electronic health records here, and many of the presenters at “Healthcare In Transition” will show us the next generation of Web, wireless, and cloud innovations that could spark a revolution how healthcare is delivered. This is one of those unique opportunities to (really) improve peoples’ lives while building a great business.

There’s never been a period in this country’s history when lawmakers, healthcare providers, and corporations have all been so interested, all at the same time, in what health IT entrepreneurs can bring to the table. Next Monday, we’re bringing together many of these folks together at the MIT Media Lab. So we hope to see you there talking it up with the good people from EMC, Microsoft, Partners HealthCare, and other important outfits with big plans in healthcare!

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April 20, 2010
The Man Behind Madrona’s Investment in Searchandise: Lessons in VC, Company-Building, and Selling to Microsoft

Venture Capital, Internet, people

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

If you live in Seattle and follow technology trends, you know who Brian McAndrews is. If you’re a Boston techie, though, it’s possible that you don’t. Luckily, you have Xconomy to help bridge the gap between East and West. (Bear with me here.)

McAndrews is a relatively new managing director at Madrona Venture Group, a Seattle-based VC firm, and he led the $7 million investment in Beverly, MA-based Searchandise Commerce announced last week. It is his first deal with Madrona. In a previous life, McAndrews was the chief executive of Seattle-based aQuantive, the digital advertising and marketing company, before becoming a senior vice president at Microsoft.

I’m always surprised by how many people outside Seattle don’t know the story of aQuantive (myself included, until I moved here). This company built some of the pillars of online ad-placing and tracking technology, went public in February 2000 (talk about good timing—any later and it might have folded), and was bought by Microsoft for $6.4 billion in 2007—the largest acquisition Microsoft has ever made. McAndrews led aQuantive for eight years and was in charge of the sale and integration. He ran the advertiser and publisher solutions group at Microsoft before leaving the firm in early 2009.

Last week, I spoke with McAndrews about a range of topics: what makes Searchandise Commerce a compelling company for Madrona; his personal investment philosophy; the broader future of venture capital; and a little more about the aQuantive and Microsoft story.

McAndrews (see photo below), a Harvard University alum, says he first became aware of Searchandise Commerce through its current CEO, John Federman, and his board members Ross Goldstein, co-founder of DFJ Gotham Partners, and Sarah Fay, the former CEO of marketing agencies Carat, Isobar U.S., and Aegis Media North America; Fay had been an aQuantive customer for years.

What intrigued McAndrews about Searchandise is that it combines e-commerce and online product search with the kind of display advertising and positioning found in offline retail, where you’ll walk into a Best Buy or Whole Foods and see certain products or shelves arranged to make them more prominent to consumers. (Manufacturers and advertisers pay some $20 billion a year for this kind of positioning.) With Searchandise Commerce, a manufacturer of flat-screen TVs, say, can bid to improve its ranking within a paid search engine like Buy.com.

This pays off in the real world as well as online. “A huge number of people search online even if they buy offline,” McAndrews says. “What’s appealing to retailers is that the vast majority of people who come to their sites don’t make a purchase.”

Searchandise aims to change that. As my colleague Wade previously reported, the company was founded in New York in 2000, and was formerly called Decidia and Guidester. In 2008, Federman started as CEO and moved the company to the Boston area. The firm’s strategy also shifted away from product navigation tools and towards paid search. McAndrews calls the company’s recent direction “an important wave of product search,” and he notes that it’s the kind of approach that would make sense to a huge e-retailer like Amazon.com. “It’s a very ripe area, though …Next Page »

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April 20, 2010
Washington’s Top 10 Venture Deals of the First Quarter—and Some Reactions

VC, startups, Lists

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

The first three months of 2010 are in the books. The dreaded tax day has passed. Time to look back at the top 10 venture capital deals in Washington state so far this year, and see what the trends are. What kinds of companies are getting cash? Who’s unable to attract the loot, and why? (For more context, you can also read my colleague Bruce’s latest rundown of the national VC numbers here.)

First, here’s the list of the top local deals, compiled from the Xconomy Seattle archives, with an assist from the MoneyTree Report (PricewaterhouseCoopers, National Venture Capital Association, and Thomson Reuters), Dow Jones VentureSource, and CB Insights. I’ve included the stage of each deal if it was disclosed, as well as links to our prior stories about the companies:

1. Visible Technologies (Bellevue, WA), $22 million, Series C (story).

2. BlueKai (Bellevue, WA), $21.4 million, Series C (story).

3. Calistoga Pharmaceuticals (Seattle), $15.2 million, second tranche of Series B (story).

4. NanoString Technologies (Seattle), $15 million, second tranche of Series C (story).

5. Infinia (Kennewick, WA), $11.5 million (story).

6. Halosource (Bothell, WA), $10 million, Series D (story).

7. Avvo (Seattle), $10 million, Series C (story).

8. New Travelco (Seattle), $9.8 million, Series A (story).

9. Zumobi (Seattle), $7 million (this news comes from the MoneyTree Report; the company tells me this is its third round of funding; see related story here).

10. HemaQuest Pharmaceuticals (Seattle), $6 million (story).

Looking over the companies, they come from a wide variety of disciplines. Five companies are from the software sector (Internet and mobile), three deals went to biotechs (although two were second tranches from rounds announced last year), and two cleantech companies raised cash. But seven of the top 10 were mid-to-late-stage deals, Series C or later, while only one was a first-round funding (New Travelco, the stealthy online travel startup from ex-Expedia execs). The relative dearth of funding for young companies around Seattle remains a concern I hear often, and entrepreneurs are increasingly turning to angel investors or bootstrapping as viable alternatives to raising venture capital.

Meanwhile, Seattle-area investors see the overall funding results from the first quarter as encouraging, but they’re being cautious (and realistic) about the long-term prospects of the sector. “The investment level wasn’t solely dependent on the one big deal, which sometimes happens. A number of companies in the Northwest are getting larger financings completed, and angel and entrepreneurial activity in the marketplace is strong,” said Andy Dale, managing director of Seattle-based Montlake Capital (formerly Buerk Dale Victor), in a statement. “We still need high-quality, successful M&A and some local IPOs to demonstrate that the asset class can make money for long-term investors.”

Chad Waite, managing director of Kirkland, WA-based OVP Venture Partners, added in a statement, “We are encouraged by these numbers and are staying focused on building great companies within IT, biotech and cleantech with a concentration in the Pacific Northwest.”

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April 19, 2010
Massachusetts is the Unsung Hotbed for Video Games, MIT Conference Panelists Say

innovation, startups, video games

Erin Kutz wrote:

When it comes to the video game industry in Massachusetts, “we have a major brand problem,” says Jason Schupbach, the creative economy industry director of the Massachusetts Department of Business Development.

“We have an amazing technology community here, but we don’t have a huge history of consumer-facing brands being based here,” he said at a panel discussion on Friday at the MIT Sloan Business in Gaming conference.

The result? The state’s $2 billion video game industry isn’t growing at the rate it could be. Massachusetts’ many colleges produce a slew of talented gaming professionals with skills in both the development and design facets of the industry, but many graduates flee to states more better known for creating hit video games, like California, panelists said.

Many of the Massachusetts technology companies focus on the infrastructure side of video games, and don’t have the flash of the consumer-focused companies that make big names like World of Warcraft or the Halo franchise. Massachusetts companies, by comparison are “really unsexy. A lot of the great talent wants to work for sexy businesses,” said Brian Balfour, co-founder and VP of product marketing at Viximo, a company that provides virtual goods products for social networking, online dating, and casual gaming sites.

“It’s almost like ‘I want to graduate and move to the big leagues,’” said panelist and former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, who founded a gaming and entertainment company, 38 Studios, in Maynard, MA in 2006. (This was one of many baseball references he used during the roundtable. Schilling also likened state tax assistance for the video game industry to “steroids” for the economy, in the way that a similar film tax credit has brought movie makers to the state and boosted local businesses.)

Schilling, who had the ability to self-fund his company to the tune of $30 million, said the lack of financial support at the government level for gaming could deter young startups in the space. “If this state doesn’t find a way to bring tax credits to this industry, the best possible scenario is that this industry will stagnate,” he said. But tax credits are only a piece of the puzzle, he continued. Tax incentives in the form of payroll breaks wouldn’t affect small, young startups, which could better benefit from subsidized office space and grants, he said.

Schupbach, who Wade interviewed in October (and who will be leaving his position in May for a post in Washington, D.C.), said the state’s financial woes would most likely prevent it from offering a tax break to the industry in the next few years. Still, he says startup programs such as business plan competition MassChallenge, as well as startup workspaces and incubators, could spur more video game companies to get started in the state.

Panelists also noted that non-compete agreements at startups, which prevent employees from seeking jobs at competing companies for a fixed amount of time, have stalled the industry. The hiring clauses are not enforceable in California, making it easier for people to switch jobs, which helps the state recruit and retain video game developers. “Why would they come here [to Massachusetts] to have handcuffs slapped on them?” asked Bob Ferrari, vice president of global publishing and business development at Sanrio Digital, a company focused on social gaming and the publishing of interactive entertainment for the Hello Kitty brand. He’s also VP of business development at the company’s joint venture partner, Typhoon Games.

But, this is a problem that the industry doesn’t need lawmakers to fix, and can tackle at a grassroots level, Ferarri and others said. Even though it is legal in Massachusetts to use those clauses, startups and their investors should stop requiring employees to sign non-compete agreements, the panelists said.

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April 19, 2010
Glympse Rolls Out Facebook Tie-In, Looks to Gain Traction in Location-Aware Social Networks

Mobile, Software, startups

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

Question: Where is Glympse? Answer: Getting more socially connected.

The Redmond, WA, startup, which makes location-based software for mobile phones, is announcing today it has integrated its service with Facebook. This means consumers can automatically share where they are in real-time with certain friends and contacts in their social network via their iPhone or Android smartphone.

It’s not a custom deal with Facebook, but it takes advantage of the social network’s capabilities and reach. The integration allows anyone who has the Glympse service to have their location pop up on a map within Facebook so their friends can see where they in real time. The move “will help in the distribution” but doesn’t generate direct revenue, says Glympse co-founder and CEO Bryan Trussel. “It’s a breadth awareness and usage play for us.” Translation: it could help the company grow, and in a big way.

The idea behind the company is that your friends, family, and business contacts can get an immediate “glympse” of where you are, automatically and dynamically (your position moves on the map; see photo below), for a certain amount of time that you set. So you don’t have to text or call them saying you’re going to be a few minutes late, or you just left the house. About a year ago, we pointed out that the main challenge the company faces is getting a critical mass of consumers to use the technology—and then figuring out how to get paid. A pretty familiar road for any Internet or mobile startup.

Since then, location-based mobile services have exploded, with the rise of map applications on smartphones, more widespread adoption of smartphones themselves (and “social phones” like the new Microsoft Kin), and the popularity of location-based social networks like Foursquare. Other companies in the sector include Loopt, Brightkite, uLocate, Pelago, and Google with its Latitude service.

“People are expecting their phone to know where they are, and to filter information based on their location,” says Trussel, who had a 16-year run at Microsoft before starting Glympse. In terms of building a reliable and mainstream location-sharing service, he says, “We set out to be the quickest, lightest, simplest way to do it.”

Trussel says Glympse has kept true to its original vision from the company’s founding in 2008. Now it is being flexible about how it is approaching things like integrating into all the online social networks. For example, the fact that Facebook is soon coming out with its own location-sharing service doesn’t seem to concern Trussel. “We look at Facebook not as a competitor but as a great social network we can integrate into,” he says. “The more larger networks are built, and even built around location, the better for us.” One question for startups like Glympse, though, will be whether Facebook will try to “own” its location-based services itself, or keep the software platform open for application developers to build on.

The Glympse app remains free, and is available on Windows phones as well as the iPhone and Android phones; a BlackBerry version is coming soon too. It sounds like location-based advertising will be a big part of Glympse’s business model, as well as licensing its technology to partners (presumably wireless carriers and handset makers). Trussel declined to comment on the company’s partners, revenues, number of customers, or funding plans. Last year, he said Glympse had been angel-financed and had a half-dozen employees.

“We feel we’ve hit critical mass now,” Trussel says. “We’ve filed the IP patents. We have breadth on the platform, we’ve got the social network integration, and we’ve distinguished ourselves in the location space, where you can share as much or as little as you want…The good part for us is, the opportunity is much greater than the resources we have.”

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April 16, 2010