Four Northwest Startups Presenting at DEMO: A Sneak Preview

The DEMOfall 09 conference, billed as “the launchpad for emerging technology,” kicks off today in San Diego, with company presentations and new product launches officially starting tomorrow morning. The Seattle and Portland, OR, metro areas are well-represented in the mix, with three Seattle-area startups and one Portland company scheduled to present their stuff. That’s all according to VentureBeat, which co-produces the conference.

It’s a big deal in the tech industry, and a great opportunity for a select group of startups. Here’s a little bit about each Northwest company that will take the stage:

—Intelius, based in Bellevue, WA, provides background checks and identity theft protection for consumers and businesses. Back in May, we reported that the company acquired Spock, the Silicon Valley-based people search engine, for an undisclosed amount. Intelius was founded in 2003 and is led by CEO Naveen Jain, the founder of InfoSpace.

—Point of Wealth Systems, based in Portland, OR, has developed a method that allows employees who make their money in cash and tips (waitstaff at restaurants, for example) to deposit their earnings into a secure register for savings, retirement, or investment purposes. Point of Wealth was formed in March 2008 to bring financial services to this new market.

—Symform, based in Seattle, has been honing its cloud data-storage product in beta trials (and a pre-launch version) since the spring. We first profiled the company back in February, and in April, Symform announced it had raised a $1.5 million Series A round from OVP Venture Partners. Its basic idea is to offer cheap, efficient, and secure data storage and backup services to small and medium-sized businesses.

—Enroute, based in Bellevue, WA, is giving a sneak preview of its product—a unified system to help businesses find the most efficient way of shipping packages from A to B. Enroute is one of the finalists from the Zino Society investment forum, which took place last Thursday in Seattle. It is in the running for a $50,000 Zino investment prize, to be announced within the next few weeks.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.