Symform Adds $8M, Sees Strategic Investor on Horizon in Cloud Backup

Competition in the cloud storage business is definitely ticking up a few notches. Yesterday, we saw the official unveiling of Google Drive, the long-rumored online file-storage service that could draw customers from a huge base of people already using the tech giant’s e-mail, photo, and document software. Other companies jumped out ahead of that announcement, … Continue reading “Symform Adds $8M, Sees Strategic Investor on Horizon in Cloud Backup”

Asteroid Mining: Metals are Valuable, but Water is the Real Prize

Planetary Resources, the new company started by wealthy entrepreneurs and space experts to mine asteroids, hopes to make bundles of money by hauling precious metals like platinum back down to Earth. But there’s something more basic that the company says is far more valuable: water. Asteroids are known to carry stores of water, and drawing … Continue reading “Asteroid Mining: Metals are Valuable, but Water is the Real Prize”

Voyager Leads $1.3M Round in Chirpify, Turning Tweets Into Sales

Twitter has become a revolutionary way for celebrities and brands to communicate with fans and customers. Now, investors are hoping to pump up the messaging platform’s potential as a sales channel. That’s the thinking behind today’s Voyager Capital-led $1.3 million investment in Chirpify, a Portland, OR-based startup that can turn tweets into miniature digital storefronts. … Continue reading “Voyager Leads $1.3M Round in Chirpify, Turning Tweets Into Sales”

Asteroid Mining? Yeah, It’s Possible—With Enough Money

An all-star group of investors, entrepreneurs, and space experts is gearing up to unveil Planetary Resources, a new company that focused on mining asteroids for precious elements. It’s not the first time that wealthy people have set their sights on a space mission, but this one is definitely more complicated than sending a few space … Continue reading “Asteroid Mining? Yeah, It’s Possible—With Enough Money”

Amazon’s Fight Against Content Middlemen: Books, TV, Movies, Games

The publishing industry was rocked last year when Amazon.com, long the most important retailer in books, got serious about becoming a publisher. No longer content to control a few niche imprints, Amazon took aim at the big publishing houses’ cash cows by directly signing up best-selling authors and hiring an industry insider to run the … Continue reading “Amazon’s Fight Against Content Middlemen: Books, TV, Movies, Games”

Big Fish Games Paid Nearly $12M in Stock for Self Aware Games

Updated 6:20 pm We now know how much stock in Big Fish Games changed hands for the Seattle casual gaming company’s recent acquisition of Oakland, CA-based studio Self Aware Games. A new regulatory filing by Big Fish, posted earlier today, shows that nearly $12 million worth of Big Fish shares were issued for the acquisition, with … Continue reading “Big Fish Games Paid Nearly $12M in Stock for Self Aware Games”

Microsoft, TechStars Unveil New Program for Azure Cloud Services

Updated 3 pm with correction Microsoft is taking its relationship with startup accelerator TechStars to another level. Today, the software company revealed that it’s sponsoring a second startup program based around the TechStars model, this time for companies that use Microsoft’s Azure cloud-computing service. That’s in addition to the Microsoft-TechStars accelerator based on the Kinect … Continue reading “Microsoft, TechStars Unveil New Program for Azure Cloud Services”

Ex-MSFT, AOL Exec Gounares Tackles Datacenter Software with Concurix

Microsoft veteran and former AOL chief technology officer Alex Gounares, who once served as Bill Gates’ top technical assistant, is back in the Seattle area and jumping into the startup scene again with Concurix, a still-forming company that plans to sell next-generation operating system software for big datacenters. Concurix is still in the very early … Continue reading “Ex-MSFT, AOL Exec Gounares Tackles Datacenter Software with Concurix”

Voyager Co-Founder Godreau at New Firm with Ex-MS, Yahoo, AOL Execs

Updated 4/16 Enrique Godreau III, a founder and former managing director at Seattle’s Voyager Capital, has resurfaced at a new venture firm where he’s working closely with former Microsoft executives who recently left high-profile jobs at AOL and Yahoo. In fact, the firm—-GSharp Ventures—appears to be so new that the only real thing I could … Continue reading “Voyager Co-Founder Godreau at New Firm with Ex-MS, Yahoo, AOL Execs”

Clipboard’s Gary Flake: Out of the Lab, Building the Personal Web

These are the boom years for the personal Web. Think of a relationship, an interest—hell, even a mundane personal task—and there’s probably at least one connected tool for the job. And more are being built all the time. But which one of those profiles represents the real you? It’s probably some combination of your professional … Continue reading “Clipboard’s Gary Flake: Out of the Lab, Building the Personal Web”

Wavii Makes Search More Human (Like Google+ Should)

He surely didn’t know it at the time. But Adrian Aoun’s godson, who lives in London and just turned 5, has been supplying the Seattle entrepreneur with inspiration for years. The setting is their regular video chats, which have allowed Aoun to watch the kid’s mastery of language take hold—and even do a little casual … Continue reading “Wavii Makes Search More Human (Like Google+ Should)”

Big Fish Games Bets on Freemium Games, Streaming Service

When Paul Thelen started Big Fish Games—“just in my bedroom, coding games,” he says—the Internet was just beginning to transform the way people got their entertainment. And it was a very big deal: Instead of heading to the store and forking over a few $20s for a disc in a colorful box, you could test … Continue reading “Big Fish Games Bets on Freemium Games, Streaming Service”

Mobilisafe Study: Android Apps Show More Security Holes

Chalk up another one for those control freaks at Apple. In a recent study of small and medium-sized businesses, Seattle startup Mobilisafe found that security vulnerabilities on Apple’s mobile devices were largely tied to the company’s iOS platform. The apps that run on those devices, subject to Apple’s picky curation policies, barely registered as security … Continue reading “Mobilisafe Study: Android Apps Show More Security Holes”

Nathan Myhrvold: Patent Wars “Vindication” for Intellectual Ventures

The mobile computing revolution and the latest waves of big consumer Web companies have put more muscle behind the patent wars in technology—from Steve Jobs declaring he would spend Apple dry to kill Android, to Yahoo reprising its role as IPO-eve litigant by hitting Facebook with a lawsuit. It’s surely made money for lots of … Continue reading “Nathan Myhrvold: Patent Wars “Vindication” for Intellectual Ventures”

Urban Airship Beefs Up Location Service Following Acquisition

Last fall, mobile app service startup Urban Airship scooped up location-services partner SimpleGeo for a bargain price. The two companies already had been working together, but now we’re seeing the real fruits of this consolidation as Urban Airship details its plans for new location services. By adding SimpleGeo’s location data to its services, Portland, OR-based … Continue reading “Urban Airship Beefs Up Location Service Following Acquisition”

Microsoft’s Kinect Accelerator: The Real Scoop on the Lucky Few

Microsoft is building on the momentum of its one surefire consumer hit, the Xbox video-game system, by expanding its motion- and sound-sensing Kinect controller into fields far beyond gaming. That’s where the Kinect Accelerator comes into play—it’s a hybrid program that gives startups access to Microsoft technology and top-flight mentors, while running entrepreneurs through a … Continue reading “Microsoft’s Kinect Accelerator: The Real Scoop on the Lucky Few”

Four to Watch in Mobile Payments: Google, Apple, Amazon, & PayPal

It’s not happening just yet, but in the next few years we’ll start to see much wider adoption of mobile phone-based consumer payments in the U.S. It’s kind of a numbers game at this point—there just aren’t enough phones in the market right now enabled with near-field communications technology that will make paying for groceries … Continue reading “Four to Watch in Mobile Payments: Google, Apple, Amazon, & PayPal”

Alliance of Angels: How Yi-Jian Ngo Sifts for Startup Gold

When he worked at Microsoft, Yi-Jian Ngo got to work on high-profile projects like the Windows Azure cloud-computing platform and the hosted version of Microsoft Office. But when he left Redmond to dive back into early stage companies, Ngo had to spend some time gaining a little on-the-ground experience. And so he found himself north … Continue reading “Alliance of Angels: How Yi-Jian Ngo Sifts for Startup Gold”

Cloud Software Startup Opscode Adds $19.5M to Fuel Growth

More money is pouring into Seattle-area enterprise computing startups. Today’s exhibit is Opscode, a cloud-computing software provider that just scored $19.5 million in new venture financing. The funding round, led by Bellevue, WA’s Ignition Partners, will help Opscode grow its engineering team, which already has a branch office in Raleigh, NC. Previous investors Battery Ventures … Continue reading “Cloud Software Startup Opscode Adds $19.5M to Fuel Growth”

Movies via USB Drive? Digiboo’s Download Kiosks Land in Seattle

We’re suddenly living in the age of the digital kiosk. If cashing in your coins or renting DVDs wasn’t enough, there’s now apparently a fancy-cupcake dispenser and a computerized coffee machine that spits out decent java. So it’s not much of a stretch for the people at Digiboo to think air travelers will want to … Continue reading “Movies via USB Drive? Digiboo’s Download Kiosks Land in Seattle”

Zipline’s Moai, Already Earning Revenue, Opens Up for More Devs

While the latest class of mobile, social, location-discovery hopefuls continues spelunking for actual users, the mobile gaming sector keeps plugging along and collecting, you know, revenue. Today’s example is Zipline Games, the Seattle-based startup that makes its own games, as well as the Moai game-development platform. Although it’s a young company, Zipline has already been … Continue reading “Zipline’s Moai, Already Earning Revenue, Opens Up for More Devs”

EMC-Isilon Acquires Storage Software Partner Likewise

One of the biggest recent acquisitions in the Seattle area is paying some more dividends today. EMC’s Isilon storage division, which was added to the IT behemoth in a $2.25 billion deal two years ago, is now acquiring Bellevue, WA-based Likewise Software. No price was given in the announcement from Likewise CEO Barry Crist, and … Continue reading “EMC-Isilon Acquires Storage Software Partner Likewise”

Amazon Buying Warehouse Tech Company Kiva Systems for $775M

Updated 3:30 pm Pacific Amazon.com is calling on armies of robots to help it get the most out of a rapidly expanding national distribution system—and those robots already work for some other well-known names in retail. The Seattle e-commerce pioneer (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AMZN]]) announced Monday that it plans to buy Kiva Systems, a supplier of planning … Continue reading “Amazon Buying Warehouse Tech Company Kiva Systems for $775M”

Concur’s Steve Singh, DocuSign, Founder’s Co-op Among WTIA Winners

Even South by Southwest hangovers and the start of March Madness couldn’t keep people away from the Washington Technology Industry Association‘s annual Industry Achievement Awards, held once again at the Showbox Sodo. But if you couldn’t join the hundreds who made it for last night’s show and shindig—or just cobbled together too many drink tickets … Continue reading “Concur’s Steve Singh, DocuSign, Founder’s Co-op Among WTIA Winners”

Apptio Adds $50M to “War Chest,” Plans to Double Sales Bookings

Looks like those predictions about a boom in IT infrastructure companies might not just be idle talk. Apptio, a Bellevue, WA provider of IT management software for large companies, has raised another $50 million in financing to grow its worldwide footprint—a notable sum of cash for a Seattle-area tech company. The financing will help Apptio … Continue reading “Apptio Adds $50M to “War Chest,” Plans to Double Sales Bookings”

Dwellable’s Vacation Rentals, Built For iPad, Take On the Uglyweb

It’s amazing how many different industries are still wandering around somewhere in one of the desolate cul-de-sacs of Web 1.0—low-quality photos, weird tables, endless lists of links. Adam Doppelt, a co-founder of the restaurant-rating app Urbanspoon, ran into all of those hurdles when he was researching vacation rentals for a family trip. But it took … Continue reading “Dwellable’s Vacation Rentals, Built For iPad, Take On the Uglyweb”

Microsoft’s ChronoZoom: One Web Page, 13.7 Billion Years of History

One of the hardest things to figure out when you hang around Microsoft Research demos is how or when any of this amazing stuff will ever see the light of day. Hell, even Microsoft Research director Rick Rashid thinks the department’s real value is in being a stockpile of ideas, and not so much a … Continue reading “Microsoft’s ChronoZoom: One Web Page, 13.7 Billion Years of History”

Bellevue Eyes IT Degree, Appature Hires CFO, DataSphere Raises Cash

A few tidbits of Seattle-area tech industry news to get you warmed up on this snowy, miserable day: —Bellevue College is researching a possible four-year degree in information technology, and is looking for help from employers with an online survey about their needs in IT education and training. It’s a very early effort, but there … Continue reading “Bellevue Eyes IT Degree, Appature Hires CFO, DataSphere Raises Cash”

Microsoft’s Mayhem: Remote Controls for Everything (Eventually)

Even the biggest gadget freaks out there—you know, the guy with three phones, two tablets, multiple game consoles, TVs galore—faces a pretty pedestrian-seeming problem. Despite all of the mind-boggling things our hardware and software can accomplish these days, these devices still don’t play very well together. A new Microsoft project called Mayhem, quietly available for … Continue reading “Microsoft’s Mayhem: Remote Controls for Everything (Eventually)”

Microsoft’s Future Factory Shows Off its Latest Ideas

In Rick Rashid’s eyes, the biggest reason to have a huge corporate research division isn’t to feed a conveyer belt with fancy new products. Instead, the head of Microsoft Research says, basic research serves as more of an insurance policy, something to keep a company alive in a constantly evolving industry. “We’re really here to … Continue reading “Microsoft’s Future Factory Shows Off its Latest Ideas”

The Canary Mask: From Side Project to Orders in a Weekend

About a week ago, Jerome Healy’s idea for creating cheap, durable, reusable filter masks for developing countries was pretty much just that—an idea. He’d developed some prototypes of the masks for an industrial design project while at the University of Washington, and even took a few variations over to India to research whether people would … Continue reading “The Canary Mask: From Side Project to Orders in a Weekend”

Seattle Times Rolling Out New Paid Mobile Apps, Hints at Paywall

The Seattle Times plans to offer premium paid Web apps for tablets and smartphones in late April, part of an emerging digital strategy that also has the family-owned newspaper hinting at a possible paywall for traditional website access. In a press release, the newspaper said the upcoming “tablet and smartphone editions” were built in the … Continue reading “Seattle Times Rolling Out New Paid Mobile Apps, Hints at Paywall”

New CEO Takes Flux Drive’s Magnetic Energy-Saver Out For a Spin

It’s easy to forget that Washington’s economy, for all of its prowess in software, is driven mostly by manufacturing—namely Boeing, still easily the state’s largest private employer. But there’s plenty of opportunity in things a little less grand than, say, a jetliner. Consider Flux Drive, an angel-funded company based in Sumner, WA. Founded by mechanical … Continue reading “New CEO Takes Flux Drive’s Magnetic Energy-Saver Out For a Spin”

SocEnt Weekend: Business Ideas That Can Make a Difference

When they set out to start a business, plenty of entrepreneurs hope to change some slice of the world by solving a problem, making their customers happy, and giving people jobs along the way. And that’s plenty of work on its own. But some companies, says longtime mobile entrepreneur Michael “Luni” Libes, see business as … Continue reading “SocEnt Weekend: Business Ideas That Can Make a Difference”

Z2Live Acquires Big Sandwich, Sees More Console Guys Going Mobile

If you wanted to illustrate the massive changes rippling through the video-game industry, you couldn’t do much better than Z2Live‘s acquisition of Vancouver, BC-based Big Sandwich Games. As a standalone studio, Big Sandwich was mostly focused on games for the traditional at-home consoles like the PlayStation or Xbox. In that side of the business, a … Continue reading “Z2Live Acquires Big Sandwich, Sees More Console Guys Going Mobile”

Glympse Keeps it Simple, Racks up 2.5M Users

When building a technology product, a lot of people fall into the trap of larding it up with a boatload of features. Former Microsofties Bryan Trussel and Steve Miller, who co-founded the location-sharing app Glympse, know that impulse well. When they built their first prototype, they filled it with little tricks and widgets. It could … Continue reading “Glympse Keeps it Simple, Racks up 2.5M Users”

Tableau Taking More Steps Toward Possible IPO

Updated 12pm Pacific 2/23 Tableau Software is taking more steps toward a possible initial public offering of its stock, a move the data visualization company has publicly entertained for some time. The nearly 10-year-old company doesn’t seem to be in a rush, however, with its venture capital backer saying next year is the timeframe being … Continue reading “Tableau Taking More Steps Toward Possible IPO”

UW’s Matsuoka Stays at Nest, Brain Research Center Gets New Director

Multi-talented scientist Yoky Matsuoka is making it official: She won’t return to the University of Washington, choosing instead to focus on her new job as vice president of technology for Silicon Valley “smart thermostat” startup Nest. It’s a loss for the UW computer science and engineering department, but not a huge surprise. Matsuoka—a past winner … Continue reading “UW’s Matsuoka Stays at Nest, Brain Research Center Gets New Director”

Mobilisafe Study: Outdated OSs, Vanishing Devices Hamper Security

As if they didn’t have enough headaches to deal with, here’s some fresh fear, uncertainty, and doubt for small-business IT guys: Employees are not going to stop hauling their smartphones to work, and you probably don’t have a good idea of just who is tapping into your system. That’s the word from Seattle startup Mobilisafe, … Continue reading “Mobilisafe Study: Outdated OSs, Vanishing Devices Hamper Security”

Xconomy’s Timmerman Wins National Journalism Award

Xconomy’s national biotech editor, Luke Timmerman, has won a national award for column-writing from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. It’s the first national journalism award for Xconomy, which was founded in 2007 and now operates a six-city network of news sites focused on business innovation. The award is for Luke’s weekly BioBeat … Continue reading “Xconomy’s Timmerman Wins National Journalism Award”

King of the Web: A Quirky Fame Contest Primed for the Young & Savvy

This week, if you were looking in the right corner of the Web, you could have stumbled across a curious thing—a fun little video-blogging contest had escalated into a full-blown international incident. A Swedish guy named Felix Kjellberg, who has amassed a following on YouTube for his freaked-out reactions to horror video games, was in … Continue reading “King of the Web: A Quirky Fame Contest Primed for the Young & Savvy”

Couple Fire Opens Lovey-Dovey Social Site (Yes, for Valentine’s Day)

Even with a ton of digital tools at your disposal, it’s still a little difficult to get all mushy online. Texts, instant messenger conversations, and e-mails are private, but pretty fleeting, while more lasting things—tweets, Facebook posts—tend to be out in the open. Google Plus has made limited sharing a bit easier with its concept … Continue reading “Couple Fire Opens Lovey-Dovey Social Site (Yes, for Valentine’s Day)”

nFluence Rounds up $3M to Create Avatars of Advertising

Most consumers have made a bargain with the digital tools and services in their life: give me something useful, and I’ll give up some of my information. Sure, there are overreaches and controversies that cause companies to pull back. But overall, we’re firmly on the path of giving up more and more of our personal … Continue reading “nFluence Rounds up $3M to Create Avatars of Advertising”

Voyager Capital Co-Founder Enrique Godreau Leaves Firm

A big change at Seattle’s Voyager Capital: co-founder Enrique Godreau has resigned after nearly 15 years, as the VC firm seeks to raise a $125 million fourth fund. Co-founder Bill McAleer says the decision was Godreau’s. “He’s making a personal transition. He wants to go pursue some entrepreneurial and philanthropic interests that he has,” McAleer … Continue reading “Voyager Capital Co-Founder Enrique Godreau Leaves Firm”

WTIA Awards: Try These Kids’ Games and Pick a Scholarship Winner

Angel investors and venture capitalists spend a lot of their time beating the bushes for that next great tech genius and entrepreneur who is destined to change the world. This seems like a pretty good place to get some super-early scouting done: the Washington Technology Industry Association’s award for Technology Leader of Tomorrow. As a … Continue reading “WTIA Awards: Try These Kids’ Games and Pick a Scholarship Winner”

Werner Vogels on How Amazon Web Services Wins: Fast, Flexible, Cheap

It can be pretty dizzying to tally up the scope of Amazon Web Services, a potentially $1 billion business that serves up critical cloud computing infrastructure for a big slice of the digital economy. Even keeping up with the number of individual services the company offers can be a challenge—and Amazon CTO Werner Vogels wants … Continue reading “Werner Vogels on How Amazon Web Services Wins: Fast, Flexible, Cheap”

UW Incubator: Ground Zero for Doubling Startup Spinouts in 3 Years

In a typical year, research at the University of Washington will spawn about a dozen promising young companies. In the next three years, the school’s new president wants to see that output double—and ground zero for a lot of those startups will likely be a new incubator space unveiled this week. When renovations are complete, … Continue reading “UW Incubator: Ground Zero for Doubling Startup Spinouts in 3 Years”

UW Opening “New Ventures” Incubator to Support Spin-Offs

When the University of Washington hired Michael Young to be its new president last year, one qualification that stood out was an impressive record of spinning out companies from his previous employer, the University of Utah. Today, the UW is taking a step toward fulfilling some of that promise by opening its New Ventures Facility, … Continue reading “UW Opening “New Ventures” Incubator to Support Spin-Offs”

Candid Advice for Founders as Kinect Accelerator Deadline Hits

Long hours, breakneck deadlines, high stakes, and conflicting advice—it’s all part of the package when entrepreneurs submit a few months of their life to an incubator program in hopes of creating the next big thing. Not surprisingly, some groups crumble under the pressure, says TechStars Seattle director Andy Sack. “The number one risk facing your … Continue reading “Candid Advice for Founders as Kinect Accelerator Deadline Hits”