Blog

BGR took an in-depth look at Leap Motion’s revolutionary motion-control PC accessory last year, and we loved the accuracy and shocking reliability of Leap’s technology. The controller was only compatible with Mac computers at the time, however. In a recent post on the company’s blog, Leap showed off its upcoming Windows 7 and Windows 8 integration, which it plans to launch on July 22nd. An accompanying video shows how well Leap’s controller works with Windows for swiping, scrolling, zooming in and out, flipping through photos, drawing and more. It’s not quite Minority Report, but we’re getting there. Leap Motion’s full video follows below.

Continue reading…

Lighter Capital, a Seattle-based online lending company, has appointed Jeff Seely to its board of directors. Seely is a trustee on the Washington State Investment Board and a member of the board of directors of Concur, a publicly traded, Redmond, Wash.-based company that’s focused on employee spend management software.

PRESS RELEASE:

Lighter Capital, a pioneer of Capital-as-a-Service (Caas), providing entrepreneurs with rapid access to growth capital through revenue-based financing, today announced the appointment of Jeff Seely to its Board of Directors.

Seely is a trustee on the Washington State Investment Board, which oversees more than $70 billion of pension assets for state employees, and a member of the board of directors of Redmond-based Concur (Nasdaq:CNQR), a company focused on employee spend management software. Seely previously served as the CEO of Recruiting.com from 2008 to 2010, and was chairman and CEO of ShareBuilder Corporation from 1998 until 2007, when it was sold to ING Direct for $220 million. Prior to ShareBuilder, Seely spent 15 years in investment banking at Robertson Stephens & Co., Dean Witter and Smith Barney, where he focused on financings, IPOs, and mergers and acquisitions for financial services firms and consumer businesses.

“Jeff’s career has bridged the worlds of finance and technology in a very rare and highly successful manner, bringing a tremendous wealth of experience to Lighter Capital as we grow our Capital-as-a-Service offering,” said BJ Lackland, CEO of Lighter Capital. “His experience building a web-based financial services firm, being an investment banker to banks, and providing strategic guidance to pension funds and successful software businesses provides our Board with a veteran perspective that will be extremely valuable. I am very excited to have him as an active member of our board.”

Lighter Capital and Revenue-Based Financing is intended for early-stage businesses that have established success and are primed for growth, but are cash-constrained and need access to capital with no loss of control and no fixed repayment schedule. Lighter Capital has developed a software platform to automate the investment application and evaluation process, accelerating the loan process for entrepreneurs, while also improving Lighter Capital’s scale and investment returns.

About Lighter Capital

At Lighter Capital, we’re breaking down the barriers to small business growth funding. Our revenue-based finance model exchanges growth capital for a fixed percentage of the company’s revenues. This structure is more flexible, easier, and faster than traditional loans, making us “lighter” than the marble and mahogany of the antiquated banks. Since 2010, Lighter Capital has funded dozens of fast growing companies that had no interest in personal guarantees from a bank nor the dilution and control provisions from venture capitalists. Lighter Capital invests $50k to $1M into companies with revenues of $15k per month and up. For more information, or to apply, visit: http://www.lightercapital.com/

The post Lighter Capital Appoints Jeff Seely to Board of Directors appeared first on peHUB.

Libraries are generally where you go to check out books; not where you go if you want to write one. This is an old assumption that Librii — a concept for a community-based, digitally-enhanced series of libraries in the developing world — would like to flip on its head. TED speaker Jane McGonigal has given this ambituous project a big thumbs up.

Librii is the brainchild of architect David Dewane, and aims to bring to Africa the kind of open information exchange and collaboration space that is easily found in highly-wired regions of the world. In Africa, only 3% of the population has access to broadband internet — but Librii isn’t just a place where people can go to connect to the internet and access online books and resources. Built by local workers and staffed by librarians, Librii will also focus on knowledge creation, compiling the ideas, insights and designs of the local community. It will even generate revenue for the community.

Librii was incubated with seed funding from the World Bank Institute and recently ran a successful Kickstarter campaign, raising more than $52,000 for its inaugural location in Accra, Ghana. So what does this have to do with video game designer Jane McGonigal?

Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better worldApparently, McGonigal’s 2010 TED Talk – “Gaming can make a better world” — planted the distant seed of this idea.

Dewane tells Metropolis Magazine that, after watching McGonigal’s talk, he began playing her online game EVOKE, which empowered players to solve social problems around the globe by developing real world ideas for projects that could have a big impact. About 15,000 project proposals were submitted through the game — and Dewane’s proposal for Librii was selected as one of 25 top possibilities.

McGonigal is very excited to see the idea materialize in reality.

“Librii fills me with almost a giddy anticipation for the future,” she tells Metropolis. “I can’t wait to see the creativity that flows out of Accra when young people are able to share their art and ideas with the rest of the world. Because I’ve backed the Kickstarter project, I’m a subscriber to the first connected library. I’ll get a digital copy of whatever gets created first—a book of advice or a collection of children’s stories. The library will encourage and inspire all kinds of creation.”

McGonigal is highly inspired to see her idea for a video game spin into a powerful idea that could affect the future of libraries. “It’s the power of TED,” she says.

ViewRay Inc., a Cleveland-based medical device company, has raised $15 million in fresh funding, raising the total amount raised by the company to nearly $100 million. The company’s machinery, which can produce real-time images of cancerous tumors while the tumors are being treated radiation, raised what has been in its biggest round, a $45 million Series C, last year. ViewRay’s investors include Aisling Capital, Fidelity Biosciences, Kearny Venture Partners, OrbiMed Advisors and Siemens Venture Capital.

According to a company spokeswoman, ViewRay did not publish a press release in tandem with its new funding.

The post ViewRay Raises Fresh $15M for Its Medical Imaging Technology appeared first on peHUB.

Catherine Zeta-Jones announced last month that she would be entering treatment for bipolar disorder, and now the 43-year old actress is about to be released from a health care facility.

Zeta-Jones has sought treatment before a couple of years ago, which prompted her to go public with her struggle despite the potential negative affect it could have had on her career.

“This is a disorder that affects millions of people, and I am one of them,” she said. “If my revelation of having bipolar II has encouraged one person to seek help, then it is worth it…There is no need to suffer silently and there is no shame in seeking help.”

The actress was praised by husband Michael Douglas recently, who spoke about her while promoting a film at Cannes.

“She comes home tomorrow,” Douglas said. “She’s doing a really good job of getting balanced. I’m proud of her.”

Zeta-Jones spoke candidly about the disorder to InStyle Magazine last December, saying she hopes to remove the stigma attached to the word.

“It’s not easy. I’m not the kind of person who likes to shout out my personal issues from the rooftops, but with my bipolar becoming public, I hope fellow sufferers will know it’s completely controllable,” she said. “I hope I can help remove any stigma attached to it, and that those who don’t have it under control will seek help with all that is available to treat it.”

As the Senate debates bipartisan immigration reform legislation, the President and the Vice President hosted a meeting today in the Oval Office with young immigrants, also known as DREAMers, as well as with the siblings and spouses of undocumented immigrants. The meeting was an important opportunity for the President and the Vice President to hear directly from people whose families are affected daily by our nation’s broken immigration system.

The President and the Vice President were moved by the stories of courage and determination these young immigrants shared. The DREAMers shared how the deferred action changed their lives for the better and emphasized that they and their families need a permanent solution that will allow them to fully contribute to the country they call home. Their stories were both powerful and authentic, inspiring us all to remember the important task and responsibility we carry as public servants and members of the Obama administration.

read more

It may not be entirely what we hoped for, but today the NFL makes strides towards greeting the twenty-first century. Earlier we saw the big Xbox reveal which, among other things, reveals a partnership with the National Football League. The sport is the last holdout of major U.S. leagues to embrace the internet, but better late than never, I suppose.

Today’s show in Redmond, Wash. features a short video-taped appearance by commissioner Roger Goodell to talk of the new features that Xbox One customers can expect. However, it is only half of the story. Later in the day, the Surface team announces that the NFL will also be available to customers of the Microsoft tablet.

“The NFL is a great stage for Surface because Surface has the chance to help change the game — including how medical staff take care of players, coaches strategize, players learn, and referees, um, referee. This is a partnership that we’re excited to embark on” the Surface team tells us.

“The NFL is a great stage for Surface because Surface has the chance to help change the game – including how medical staff take care of players, coaches strategize, players learn, and referees, um, referee. This is a partnership that we’re excited to embark on” the company points out.

Now, of course, it is up to the league to make this work, and it has failed in the past to show that it has much knowledge of the web. Perhaps a new page has been turned.

Darius Rucker, formerly of Hootie And The Blowfish, has found a hit in his version of the old Dylan song “Wagon Wheel”. But some aren’t impressed with his rendition, apparently, and one naysayer took to Twitter to call him out on his move to country in a pretty despicable way.

User PQKullman wrote, “Leave country to the white folk,” to which Rucker replied, “WOW… is this 2013 or 1913? Ill take my grand ole Opry membership and leave your racism. Wow.”

It’s unfortunate that Rucker had to be on the receiving end of such a negative country fan, but he appears to be taking it all in stride. He later tweeted:

Gotta go to bed this has been hilarious tonight. If any hater thinks I care what u think. I don’t make music for u. So don’t listen.

— Darius Rucker (@dariusrucker) May 20, 2013

When one of Rucker’s followers commented, “Bet he wouldn’t say that to Nelly’s face,” Rucker shot back, “?Wouldn’t say it to mine, either.” And he makes a good point; social media sites, while good places to connect with people, are also havens for those who know they can hide behind a screen name. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as though cyber-bullies will be going away anytime soon.

NTIA’s Report on Broadband Availability is out. They have tracked availability from June 2010 to June 2012. Here’s the quick answer…

Broadband at the basic speed combination of 3/768 is available to 98.18% of the population, and 94.39% of Americans can subscribe to services of at least 10 Mbps

I’d like to remove that 3/768 track, but the NTIA explains why they track such slow speeds…

NTIA begins its analysis at the combined advertised connection of 3 Mbps downstream and 768 kbps upstream, which is the closest combination of speeds for which NTIA collects data that would allow a consumer to “access a basic set of applications that include sending and receiving e-mail, downloading Web pages, photos and video, and using simple video conferencing.”

I think it’s also important to know their definition of available; it’s a little non-standard…

For the purposes of NTIA’s data collection, broadband is “available” if it can be deployed to a business or consumer within 7-10 business days and without an extraordinary commitment of resources. This definition is in contrast to “adoption,” which means that a consumer or business subscribes to or uses broadband at a particular location. The definition of broadband does not specifically include price, latency, bandwidth limitations, or other factors that may impact a user’s ability to purchase or use the service.

What about Minnesota?

As always I’m most concerned with how Minnesota stacks up in the report. They include a list of the top 15 States with Most Broadband Access at 10, 25, and 50 Mbps. Minnesota does not make any of those lists. I guess on a silver lining note, we don’t make the worst list either. Minnesota also got no mention on a recent Akamai report that track speed and adoption.

About a week ago, Connect Minnesota gave a sneak preview on Minnesota’s broadband availability. (Connect Minnesota provides data to NTIA for their report.)

Last October, our data showed that there was 61.57% access across the state at the 10 Mbps by 6 Mbps tier (and 81.97% at the 10 Mbps x 3 Mbps tier, fixed platform; factoring in mobile broadband, we had 87.18% availability at this speed tier).

As of April 2013, we see an improvement of nearly eight percent: April 2013 data showed that 69.19% of Minnesota households have access to broadband at a minimum of 10 Mbps download by 6 Mbps upload (and 87.0% at the 10 Mbps x 3 Mbps tier, fixed platform; factoring in mobile broadband, we have 97.28% availability at this speed tier).

It’s great (really great!) to see a 8 percentage growth – and hopefully that will put us on track to make the Top 15 list in the future but it doesn’t help us rank today.

Outside of the Minnesota perspective, there were a few other points I found interesting…

• Almost 100% of urban residents have access to download speeds of at least 6 Mbps, but only 82% of rural communities can access these speeds. Almost 88% percent of urban residents have access to speeds of 25 Mbps. Only 41% of rural residents, less than half those in urban communities, have the same access. …
• approximately 5% of the population lives in areas with basic wireless broadband service, but no wireline broadband service. …
• The increase in wireline speeds is primarily a result of an increase in cable speeds, followed by a much smaller increase in fiber deployment.

There have been a lot of incredible videos to come out of Monday’s massive tornado that hit the Moore, Oklahoma area. This fits the bill, but it comes with a twist.

This guy filmed the tornado as it passed above his shelter. Crazy, right? I can’t even fault him for his vertical video – I mean, he’s filming a massive tornado. Only in the YouTube age, folks.

[Charles Gafford via reddit]

Google gave a presentation about Google+ and Search at Google I/O last week. With Google’s “social layer” becoming a bigger part of search and the larger Google ecosystem, this is probably one marketers will want to check out.

“In this session we’ll walk you through a series of techniques you can use to make your app and content shine on Google,” Google says in session description. “Using these techniques you can connect more directly with new and existing users on Google Search.”

Mountain View, California-based Adaptive Planning Inc., a maker of cloud-based business analytics software, has secured US$45 million in funding in a deal led by U.S. venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners. Bessemer was joined by the company’s existing investors, which include Canadian firm RBC Venture Partners, a backer of Adaptive Planning since 2008.

PRESS RELEASE:

Adaptive Planning, the worldwide leader in cloud-based business analytics solutions for companies and nonprofits of all sizes, today announced at its Accelerate 2013 global user conference that it has secured a major new round of $45 million in venture funding. Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP), a premier global venture capital firm, led the round, with existing investors ONSET Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), RBC Venture Partners, Cardinal Venture Capital, and Monitor Ventures also participating. Adaptive Planning will use the additional capital to scale its direct sales and partner channels in North America, expand into attractive new enterprise and international markets, and drive new product innovation.

“The addition of Bessemer as an investor is a great testament to our market leadership — to our exceptional customer growth, product innovation, and high levels of customer satisfaction,” said John Herr, CEO of Adaptive Planning. “We grew new software bookings by 90 percent last year with high capital efficiency. As such, we didn’t need to raise more capital, but did so to take advantage of a huge opportunity in front of us to build a dominant global presence in a rapidly growing market. What’s more, BVP is a great partner with an outstanding SaaS track record, and we look forward to working closely with them to maximize this business opportunity.”

As part of the funding, Byron Deeter, a BVP partner and an industry leader in cloud technology investments, will join Adaptive Planning’s board of directors. “We see the stars aligning with Adaptive Planning: the company is at the intersection of increasing cloud adoption, an acute market need for better analytics, and a customer base that is passionate about its products,” said Byron Deeter, whose firm is one of the leading cloud/SaaS venture firms with successful cloud investments in companies such as Box, Cornerstone OnDemand, DocuSign, Eloqua, LinkedIn, and Skype. “Combining cloud leadership in a huge and largely untapped market with a top-notch team to lead the company’s growth, Adaptive is poised to win.”

“Adaptive Planning is on an impressive trajectory,” added Sergio Monsalve, Partner at NVP. “The company has built and significantly expanded its cloud business analytics platform to empower finance and operational teams. Its unique ability to transform planning, consolidations, reporting and analysis has resulted in improved costs, productivity and critical business decisions for thousands of brand name customers worldwide.”

With 5x more customers than all other cloud competitors combined, Adaptive Planning has become the solution of choice for cloud-based corporate performance management (CPM) and business intelligence (BI). Addressing a $33 billion market, Adaptive Planning has more than 1,600 customers in 80 countries worldwide, with the number one market share and the top customer satisfaction rating among all cloud providers in its category.

“Adaptive Planning has always been very effective at anticipating and capitalizing on evolving market drivers to create strong demand. The rapid move to cloud computing, the rise of mobile computing, and the need to make better, faster, data-driven decisions have been great opportunities for the company,” said Terry Opdendyk, Founder and Partner of ONSET Ventures, which has been an investor in the company since its formation. “As an alternative to manual, spreadsheet-based processes and legacy on-premises software, Adaptive Planning is establishing a new standard for cloud-based BI and CPM solutions.”

“Adaptive’s rapid growth path is a function of its customers’ satisfaction,” commented Robert Antoniades, a Partner at RBC Venture Partners, an existing investor in Adaptive Planning. “The new infusion of capital will help accelerate the company’s market leadership, world-class product innovation, and global expansion.”

The funding announcement is part of the news announced this week at Adaptive Planning’s annual user conference, Accelerate 2013, at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco on May 21-22. The conference is the largest annual global gathering of cloud BI and CPM professionals, with approximately 500 Adaptive Planning customers and partners attending.

The news comes on the heels of an announcement last month of Adaptive Consolidation, a breakthrough new integrated cloud-based solution for comprehensive and intuitive financial consolidation and analysis. Adaptive Consolidation introduces powerful new capabilities, coupled with an intuitive user interface, that make incredibly complex and time-consuming processes appear to be easy. Businesses can close their books accurately, quickly, and painlessly, with intuitive definition of rules that are automatically applied to the consolidation process each period.

Adaptive Planning also introduced late last year its Adaptive Discovery solution, breakthrough new cloud-based visual analytics featuring interactive data visualization and alerting and an intuitive and highly interactive way for managers across an organization to access, analyze, and explore key financial and operational data. With Adaptive Discovery, CFOs, VPs of Sales, and other business leaders can quickly and easily gain insights into the underlying trends in the business, allowing them to make more intelligent business decisions that drive greater success.

About Adaptive Planning
Adaptive Planning is the worldwide leader in cloud-based business analytics solutions for companies and nonprofits of all sizes. The company’s software as a service (SaaS) platform allows finance and management teams to work together to plan, monitor, report on, and analyze financial and operational performance. With capabilities for budgeting, forecasting, reporting, consolidation, dashboards, and business intelligence, Adaptive Planning enables finance, sales, and other business leaders to make better, faster, more collaborative decisions that drive a true competitive advantage.
Adaptive Planning is used by over 1,600 organizations worldwide, from midsized companies and nonprofits to large corporations, including AAA, Boston Scientific, CORT, Konica Minolta, NetSuite, Philips, and Vail Resorts. The company is the 5th fastest growing software company in Silicon Valley on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ list; has the #1 brand in midmarket CPM; and ranks #1 in customer satisfaction in independent industry surveys. With customers and partners in 81 countries worldwide, the company has the strongest channel ecosystem in the cloud CPM space, with worldwide partners including Armanino McKenna, Intacct, IntuitiveTek, Plex Systems, SAP, and NetSuite, which offers a specialized version of Adaptive Planning as the NetSuite Financial Planning module. Adaptive Planning is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. and is funded by Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP), Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), ONSET Ventures, Monitor Ventures, and Cardinal Venture Capital.

About Bessemer Venture Partners
With $4.0 billion under management, Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) is a global venture capital firm with offices in Silicon Valley, Cambridge, Mass., New York, Brazil, Mumbai, Bangalore and Herzliya, Israel. BVP delivers a broad platform in venture capital spanning industries, geographies, and stages of company growth. From Staples to Skype, VeriSign to Yelp, LinkedIn to Pinterest, BVP has helped incubate and support companies that have anchored significant shifts in the economy. More than 100 BVP-funded companies have gone public on exchanges in North America, Europe and Asia. See www.bvp.com or follow BVP on Twitter: @bessemervp
About Norwest Venture Partners
Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) is a multi-stage investment firm that has partnered with entrepreneurs to build great businesses for more than 50 years. The firm manages over $3.7 billion in capital and has funded more than 500 companies since inception. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., NVP has subsidiaries in Mumbai and Bengaluru, India and Herzelia, Israel. NVP makes early to late-stage venture and growth equity investments across a wide range of sectors including: technology, information services, business services, financial services, consumer products/services and healthcare. For more information, please visit www.nvp.com Follow NVP on Twitter @NorwestVP
About Onset Ventures
ONSET Ventures (www.ONSET.com) specializes in providing start-up, follow-on, and intellectual capital to entrepreneurs and early-stage technology ventures to help transform world-class ideas into sustainable and valuable businesses, through a process of “venture craftsmanship.” The firm has backed over 130 companies since 1984 and has more than $1 billion under management.
About RBC Venture Partners
Established in 1997 and headquartered in Toronto, RBC Venture Partners is the venture capital investment arm of RBC (RY on the TSX and NYSE) with over C$250 million under management. RBC Venture Partners invests directly in early and growth stage software, technology and services companies targeting the financial services industry. For more information visit www.rbc.com/vp.
Contact Information
Contact:

GlobalFluency
Stephanie Evans
650-433-4163
[email protected]

Adaptive Planning
Derek Kober
650-810-2486
[email protected]

Adaptive Planning
650-528-7500
www.adaptiveplanning.com

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post RBC Joins in $45M Bessemer-Led Financing of Adaptive Planning appeared first on peHUB.

Audax Group said Tuesday it completed the recap of Chesapeake Research Review, which does business as Chesapeake IRB. Financial terms weren’t announced. Columbia, Md.-based Chesapeake provides independent institutional review board services to pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies, universities, academic medical centers, and hospital systems. Madison Capital Funding provided financing for the deal.

PRESS RELEASE

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Audax Group announced it has completed the recapitalization of Chesapeake Research Review, Inc., d/b/a Chesapeake IRB (“Chesapeake”). Headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, Chesapeake is a leading provider of independent institutional review board (“IRB”) services to major pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies, universities, academic medical centers, and hospital systems. Chesapeake performs independent reviews of proposed research projects and principal investigators to assure the protection and welfare of human subjects in clinical trials.

Geoffrey S. Rehnert, Co-CEO of Audax Group, said “Chesapeake operates an independent IRB with a leading reputation and a differentiated 21 CFR Part 11 compliant IT platform in a fragmented and growing market. We look forward to working with Dr. Felix Gyi and his team to grow the business organically and through strategic add-on acquisitions and expanding into adjacent services.”

Dr. Felix Gyi, Founder and CEO of Chesapeake, said “We are excited to partner with Audax Group as we embark on this new stage for our business. Their operational expertise and successful track record in sourcing and integrating add-on acquisitions will be an asset as we continue to build Chesapeake’s market presence as a leading IRB.”

Goulston & Storrs and Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as counsel to Audax Group. Shea & Associates, Inc. advised Chesapeake. Madison Capital Funding LLC provided financing to support the transaction.

ABOUT AUDAX GROUP

Audax Group, founded in 1999, is a leading investor in lower-middle market companies. With offices in Boston and New York, Audax has over $5 billion in assets under management in its Private Equity, Mezzanine, and Senior Debt businesses. For more information visit the Audax Group website www.audaxgroup.com.

The post Audax Recaps Chesapeake IRB appeared first on peHUB.

On May 8, Jodi Arias was found guilty of murdering her former boyfriend, Travis Alexander, in 2008. Alexander was found in his shower with his throat slit, his head shot, nearly 30 stab wounds. Now, a jury is deciding whether Arias will receive the death penalty or life in prison.

After being delayed for a bomb threat, the sentencing phase of Arias’ trial began last week. The jury has already heard emotional testimony from Alexander’s family, who stated that the murder had affected their health and brought on nightmares. Today, jurors heard from Arias herself.

According to an Associated Press report, Arias testified on her own behalf Tuesday morning. Though just after she was found guilty Arias had stated she would prefer the death penalty, she pleaded with the jury today to spare her life and sentence her to life in prison.

“My nieces are the closest I’ll ever come to motherhood, because I’m not going to have children of my own,” said Arias. “I’m not going to become a mother. Because of my own terrible choices, I’ve had to lay that dream to rest.”

Pot-eating pigs are the reality for some pork farmers in Washington state after the state legalized marijuana use late last year. You’re not going to get high from these bovine, but these pot-eating pigs are apparently delicious.

Reuters reports that Susannah Gross, a farmer outside of Seattle, has been feeding her pigs the leftovers of the marijuana plant. It’s an experiment that few farmers are participating in, but the results so far are encouraging.

Much like humans, pigs under the influence of marijuana eat far more food. This leads to pigs being 20 to 30 pounds heavier than usual. It also leads to the pigs being tastier than usual, at least to those who partook in a local “Pot Pig Gig” that saw the pork resulting from the pot-eating pigs being served as part of a meal.

The success of this initial program now has pot growers and farmers in Washington excited over the idea of raising chickens and cows on the leftovers of the pot plants.

Oh, and for those wondering, you’re probably not going to get high from eating animals fed weed waste. No studies so far have yet to find a link, but there’s not a lot of data out there to begin with. There will obviously be more studies once the use of weed waste as animal food enters the mainstream.

Tim Cook performed brilliantly in front of Congress today. He was authoritative, in breathtaking command of his facts, as he always is, and brought a unique perspective to each response. Senator Levin was out for blood, but “No one laid a glove on him,” as Phillip Emer DeWitt wrote for Fortune. He put his questioners to shame. His response to the question of whether Apple was violating basic rules of fairness was brilliant: “I am a fair person. Apple is a fair company. I would not administer [something that was unfair.]” This is no dime-a-dozen MBA or supply-chain guy. This is a man of unique character and exceptional intelligence with an opportunity to make his own mark, not just on Apple, but on history.

There are a few important things that he could do a this point in his tenure that I believe would advance his movement toward that destiny in a big way.

Make a Self-Deprecating Joke
Tim Cook is the stiffest scripted presenter since Neil Armstrong. But most people aren’t bothered by that. What bores them is his unconsciousness about it. If Tim simply let people know that he knows he’s a lousy presenter he’d instantly be a better presenter. He should start out WWDC with a killer self-deprecating routine acknowledging how stiff he is. Mock himself. People would love it. They would love him.

Run a Great Ad Series
Apple needs to get brave and bold and fun with its advertising again. Maybe it revives the Mac vs. PC campaign, but make it iOS vs. Android, and destroy Android over the inability to get the latest software updates, the malware problems, the privacy issues, the lack of ability to easily synch all of your content to all of your devices, the freeze-ups, the cheesy product lanches, etc. Alternatively, get inspirational and move people with the difference Apple products make in the lives of the blind, poor children in rural schools, entrepreneurs in the developing world. The medium is the message, and a bold company cannot stay cautious with its creative. Tim has to lead this charge.

Stop Delegating Big Announcements to Others
Tim has taken the delegating thing too far. Product announcements are the setting for the leader of the organization to demonstrate their excitement about the product and to make the argument for the product. When Tim delegates every element of the keynotes to his Senior VPs, and just bookends the keynote with opening and closing remarks, he can come across as dispassionate about the products, and illiterate on how they integrate with the overall Apple story and how they integrate with his vision.

Steve Jobs was like a litigator at a keynote — he made arguments — he made irrefutable cases for how the current class of products sucks, why they suck, what the fundamental problem is, and then he showed how Apple was going to fix it. He didn’t just say he was going to delight customers, he deconstructed how Apple would do it by taking them on an argumentative odyssey in which Apple was always the hero there to slay the dragons of mediocrity. It showed that he cared about delighting customers because he understood what frustrated them. That made him human to his customers, and for all his aloofness, Apple fans could relate to Steve Jobs because he showed them that he empathized with their problems.

Tim Cook has to do the same thing. He has to show that he uses the products. That’s his job. This delegation of major product announcements — wholesale — to others is either lazy or it’s based on a misguided sense of how you motivate your reports.

Make the Distinction Between Product Design and the Design of the Future
Product design and future design are two different things. Jony Ive can design the products of the future, but he can’t design the future of the company. Imagine President Kennedy hiring a “Chief of Vision,” instead of providing the vision himself. Tim Cook has to contemplate what his vision is for the future of Apple and he should stage a major event to articulate it.

Don’t Worry About Being Liked
Steve Jobs’ vision wasn’t his only strong suit. His willingness to fight for that vision and to be disliked if that’s what it took to make that vision real was as valuable as the vision itself. The sense of possibility that he emanated didn’t just show up in a new product. It showed up in his ability to get the product out the door six months earlier than anyone said it could be done. And he didn’t make that happen by worrying about being liked. At every level he showed people that human beings were capable of something more. He didn’t do that by appealing to their lazier angels. Delighting customers also means showing people that real things can get done, and get done much faster than they get done by all of the other companies that frustrate them in their lives — you know, the companies that are forever showing concept products that people love but that never make it to market. And to get things done like that, you have to mess with that inherent human tendency to slow things down. People don’t like it, until you show them what they’re really capable of. They might dislike you today. But they’ll love you in the long run.

There is zero reason — zero reason — that Tim Cook cannot earn a place in the pantheon of great American business leaders. But to do it, he’s going to have to stretch outside of his comfort zone.

San Diego-based Ambit Biosciences Corp., which discovers, develops and commercializes drugs to treat needs in oncology, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, has priced its initial public offering at US$8.00 per share. Listing on NASDAQ under the symbol “AMBI,” the company plans to raise US$65 million. Ambit has since 2000 been backed by U.S. and Canadian venture capital firms, including Apposite Capital, Avalon Ventures, Forward Ventures, Genechem, GIMV, GrowthWorks, Horizon, MedImmune, NovaQuest, OrbiMed Advisors, Perseus-Soros, Radius Ventures and Roche Venture Fund.

PRESS RELEASE:

Ambit Biosciences Corporation today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 8,125,000 shares of its common stock at $8.00 per share. Ambit has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,218,750 shares at the initial public offering price to cover over-allotments, if any. Ambit’s common stock is scheduled to begin trading on The NASDAQ Global Market on May 16, 2013, under the symbol “AMBI.”

The joint book-running managers for the offering are Citigroup and Leerink Swann. In addition, BMO Capital Markets is acting as lead manager and Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. is acting as co-manager.

This offering is being made by means of a prospectus, copies of which may be obtained from Citigroup Global Markets Inc., c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York, 11717, or by email at [email protected] or by phone at 1-800-831-9146, and Leerink Swann LLC, Attention: Syndicate Department, One Federal Street, 37th Floor, Boston, Mass., 02110, or by email at [email protected] or by phone at 1-800-808-7525.

A registration statement relating to these securities was declared effective by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on May 15, 2013.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

About Ambit Biosciences
Ambit is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of drugs to treat unmet medical needs in oncology, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases by inhibiting kinases that are important drivers for those diseases. Ambit’s lead drug candidate, quizartinib (AC220), is a once-daily, orally-administered potent and selective, inhibitor of FMS-like tyrosine kinase-3 (FLT3) and is currently under clinical development in patients with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and in newly diagnosed AML patients in combination with chemotherapy as well as maintenance following a hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). In addition to quizartinib, Ambit’s clinical pipeline includes AC410, an oral JAK2 inhibitor, and CEP-32496, a BRAF inhibitor licensed to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. Ambit’s preclinical portfolio includes a proprietary CSF1R inhibitor program.

Contacts:
Ian Stone or David Schull
Russo Partners
(619) 308-6541
(212) 845-4271
[email protected]
[email protected]

Robert Flamm, Ph.D.
Russo Partners
(212) 845-4226
[email protected]

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Venture-Backed Ambit Biosciences Prices IPO appeared first on peHUB.

In what may be one of the most non-surprising “news” of the year, members of the Westboro Baptist Church, professional life trolls that they are, have blamed the Oklahoma tornado tragedy on Kevin Durant, among other things.

Well, of course they did.

I mean, why else would destructive weather carve up the Midwest of the United States, if not for Durant’s support of Jason Collins? Had the Oklahoma City Thunder’s star kept his mouth shut about “glorifying gays” or something, the tornado cells that plagued the middle of the country would not have even happened. At least, that’s the gospel according to Fred Phelps, Jr, son of Pastor Fred Phelps, as you can probably guess. I’ll let his Twitter post fill in whatever blanks you may have:

OK Thunder’s Durant flips God by praising fag Collins.God smashes OK. You do the math.#GodH8sFags #FagsDoomNations #FearGod #GodH8sU

— Fred Phelps, Jr. (@WBCFredJr) May 21, 2013

God’s wonderful wrath in Oklahoma reminds me:#GodCursesUForFagMarriage #GodIsYourTerrorist #GodWillRepay #GodAvengesHisPeople #GodH8sU

— Fred Phelps, Jr. (@WBCFredJr) May 21, 2013

If these bastions of dignity decide to picket any of the upcoming memorial services related to the tornadoes, would anyone really be surprised? In other news, how insecure does one have to be to go to such extremes just to stay relevant? By now, it’s obvious this pleasant group does not care about perception. They only want the attention that follows their pathetic trolling attempts. Instead of getting upset by them, it’s also clear the best way to deal with such nonsense is to mercilessly mock it, much like the guy in the lead image is doing. If you’re a hacker, or know how to use hacker tools, I guess the Anonymous communication strategy, at least when it comes to entities they don’t like, is an option as well.

Not that we would condone anything like that.

Sprint-owed prepaid operator Boost Mobile unveiled a mobile financial services app called Mobile Wallet at CTIA Wireless in Las Vegas on Tuesday. This isn’t your typical near field communications (NFC) or QR code contactless payment setup though. Instead, Boost is combining its prepaid mobile services model with a prepaid cash account, providing a physical prepaid card that customers can use at the register.

Mobile Wallet was developed by Wipit, a mobile payments provider for people without bank accounts and credit cards. Its platform therefore makes an ideal fit for many Boost customers who rely on cash to make pay for their wireless service. The approach seems to emulate the mobile payments revolution going on Africa and South Asia, where mobile operators are become bigger financial services providers than the traditional banks.

Mobile Wallet allows you to pay bills and send money to family or friends in 135 countries through Ria’s cash transfer network. Soon Boost will also offer a digital check cashing service, which lets you scan in a physical check and deposit the funds in your wallet account. You can also transfer money between different accounts, and top off your Boost Mobile plan within the app.

What you can’t do is use the Wallet App to make a payment at store. But Boost and WiPit have gotten around that problem by issuing a Visa prepaid card to any customer that signs up for a premium account. The card draws directly from the Wallet account and is accepted anywhere where Visa is. Google reportedly considered adopting the same approach for its digital wallet but dropped the idea.

Of course, all of these services come with fees, many of which are rather steep. Paying bills costs anywhere from $2 to $5 per transaction, while Ria money transfer fees vary depending on amount and destination. Even loading money into the account costs $3, though once the money is there, you can spend it freely using the Visa card. Until the check cashing service goes live, customers can only load money into the account at authorized Boost dealer locations.

The app is available to Boost’s Android customers and is downloadable in Google Play, but initially Boost is only enabling accounts for customers in Los Angles, San Diego and parts of New Jersey. The company is planning a nationwide rollout by the end of the year.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The future of mobile: a segment analysis by GigaOM Pro
• Mobile payments: forecasts, technologies and opportunities
• The fourth quarter of 2012 in mobile