Author: Wade Roush

Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco. Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.) I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia. I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats. My personal site: waderoush.com My social media coordinates: Twitter: @wroush Facebook: facebook.com/wade.roush LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waderoush Google+ : google.com/+WadeRoush YouTube: youtube.com/wroush1967 Flickr: flickr.com/photos/wroush/ Pinterest: pinterest.com/waderoush/

Intermolecular Aims for $200M IPO

San Jose, CA-based Intermolecular, which uses combinatorial chemistry techniques to help clients in the semiconductor industry speed up their research and development, filed S-1 papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission today in preparation for an initial public offering. The seven-year-old company says it hopes to raise $200 million in the offering—perhaps providing some liquidity … Continue reading “Intermolecular Aims for $200M IPO”

Epocrates Rolls Out Electronic Health Records System

San Mateo, CA-based Epocrates, a provider of medical reference apps for mobile devices, has long been working on a full electronic health records system for physicians’ offices. This week the company announced that the “first phase” of its EHR system is available. It’s a Web- and mobile-based system tailored for practices with 10 or fewer … Continue reading “Epocrates Rolls Out Electronic Health Records System”

Oracle Buys Inquira

San Bruno, CA-based Inquira, a maker of call center management software, has been acquired by Oracle, the Redwood Shores, CA-based database giant announced last night. The financial terms of the acquisition weren’t disclosed; Inquira had raised roughly $30 million in venture backing from Investor Growth Capital, Partech International, Sutter Hill Ventures, and Walden International. “The … Continue reading “Oracle Buys Inquira”

How I Decide What to Write About-And Why I Might Not Cover Your Company

Dharmesh Shah, the co-founder of HubSpot and the author of the blog OnStartups, shared a post last week that really hit home. It was called “Dear Friend: Sorry: My Heart Says Yes, But My Schedule Says No.” Dharmesh explained that his e-mail inbox is perpetually overloaded with requests from people who want to meet with … Continue reading “How I Decide What to Write About-And Why I Might Not Cover Your Company”

National Science Foundation Unveils a Startup School Modeled on Steve Blank’s Lean LaunchPad

Incubator madness has reached all the way to Washington, D.C. The National Science Foundation announced today that with the help of private-sector partners, it plans to put at least $5 million per year into a new program, the Innovation Corps or I-Corps, aimed at helping university scientists and engineers build startups around their technologies. The … Continue reading “National Science Foundation Unveils a Startup School Modeled on Steve Blank’s Lean LaunchPad”

Hearsay Social Gets $18M

San Francisco-based Hearsay Social, which helps large, multi-location companies coordinate social media marketing activities by their branch managers, said today that it has collected $18 million in Series B funding. New backer New Enterprise Associates led the round, which was joined by existing investor Sequoia Capital. The company launched in February with $3 million in … Continue reading “Hearsay Social Gets $18M”

drchrono’s iPad App for Doctors Wins “Meaningful Use” Certification

Drchrono, a Y Combinator-backed startup in Mountain View, CA, that offers an iPad-based electronic health record (EHR) system for physicians, said today that its software has been certified by a group responsible for determining whether practices using the software are eligible to collect incentive payments from the Department of Health and Human Services. InfoGard, an … Continue reading “drchrono’s iPad App for Doctors Wins “Meaningful Use” Certification”

Instructables, A Mecca for Makers, Reflects Eric Wilhelm’s Passion for Building Stuff—and Telling the Story

People who work hard, the old saying goes, often play just as hard. But for many tech entrepreneurs, the converse is also true: all that play sometimes generates new ideas for work. That’s definitely the story behind San Francisco-based how-to site Instructables, which grew in part out of founder Eric Wilhelm’s obsession with kitesurfing. Wilhelm … Continue reading “Instructables, A Mecca for Makers, Reflects Eric Wilhelm’s Passion for Building Stuff—and Telling the Story”

Read It Later Bookmarks $2.5M

Read It Later, the San Francisco startup behind the popular Web content-saving tool of the same name, revealed yesterday in a blog post that it has collected $2.5 million in funding. Foundation Capital, Baseline Ventures, Founder Collective, and Google Ventures pitched in, according to founder Nate Weiner, who adds that he’s no longer a solo … Continue reading “Read It Later Bookmarks $2.5M”

Nodeable Raises $2M

San Francisco startup Nodeable, which is building a cloud analytics system with a friendly user interface modeled on social networking sites, said today that it has completed a $2 million Series A funding round led by True Ventures. The startup, whose system is currently in closed beta testing, is also backed by Crosslink Capital. “Nodeable’s new … Continue reading “Nodeable Raises $2M”

WePay, Violin Memory, True U: The 1-Minute Summary of Last Week’s Bay Area BizTech News

We usually bring you our review of the previous week’s business and technology news on Monday. But yesterday was so full of breaking news (Airbnb’s huge venture round, Innovalight’s acquisition by DuPont) that I just didn’t have time to write it. So, at the risk of dwelling on what’s now ancient history, here’s what we … Continue reading “WePay, Violin Memory, True U: The 1-Minute Summary of Last Week’s Bay Area BizTech News”

Taulia Collects $8.5M

Taulia, a San Francisco startup whose Web-based system helps suppliers of goods and service get paid faster by their customers, announced today that it has closed a Series B funding round totaling $8.5 million. New investor DAG Ventures led the round, which was joined by existing investors Matrix Partners and Trinity Ventures. The company said … Continue reading “Taulia Collects $8.5M”

$8M for WhiteHat Security

Santa Clara, CA-based WhiteHat Security, a 10-year-old company that provides website security for e-commerce, financial services, information technology, and healthcare companies, has collected $8 million in new funding from new backer Investor Growth Capital. Brian Mulvey, a vice president at Investor Growth Capital, has joined the company’s board. Previous investors Altos Ventures, Garage Technology Ventures, Horizon … Continue reading “$8M for WhiteHat Security”

Assistly’s Pricing Gamble: A Case Study in Freemium

At last week’s True University startup school event at Berkeley, Alex Bard, CEO and co-founder of San Francisco-based Assistly, moderated a session on freemium business models; his panel of startup veterans spent an hour delving into the pros and cons of offering free products as a way to drum up new business. It turns out … Continue reading “Assistly’s Pricing Gamble: A Case Study in Freemium”

DuPont Scoops Up “Silicon Ink” Maker Innovalight

One of the many tasks confronting the energy industry, if we’re to have any hope of sidestepping a climate catastrophe, is to dramatically increase the efficiency of photovoltaic cells, so that more of the sun’s energy can be converted into electricity. Sunnyvale, CA-based Innovalight has developed a material it calls “silicon ink” that’s helping in … Continue reading “DuPont Scoops Up “Silicon Ink” Maker Innovalight”

Another $20M for Motif Investing

Motif Investing, the San Mateo, CA-based startup developing a new investing portal, disclosed its $7 million Series A round round just weeks ago. But today the company says that it has raised $20 million more, in a Series B round led by new investor Ignition Partners of Seattle. The round was joined by existing investors … Continue reading “Another $20M for Motif Investing”

Massive $112 Million Venture Round Pumps Up Expectations for Airbnb

Apparently, the world is full of people who own homes or condos but would rather rent them out than actually live in them. And it has an equal number of people (perhaps the same ones) who’d rather bunk in someone else’s home when traveling than stay in a hotel. That’s the basis for the burgeoning … Continue reading “Massive $112 Million Venture Round Pumps Up Expectations for Airbnb”

The CliffsNotes Version of True University—The 2-Day Startup School from True Ventures

After I wrote a long article profiling the unusual culture at True Ventures, the San Francisco-based early stage investing fund known for its investments in startups like Automattic, GigaOm, and KissMetrics, the firm invited me to attend True University, a two-day conference on startup-building tactics at the University of California at Berkeley. (Well, the truth … Continue reading “The CliffsNotes Version of True University—The 2-Day Startup School from True Ventures”

Violin Memory Hints at IPO Plans, Makes A Come-From-Behind Bid to Replace Disks with Flash in Enterprise Storage

It’s not your everyday startup CEO who shows up at Xconomy San Francisco’s office in cowboy boots, claims that he’s going to take over a $23 billion industry, and then hints that an IPO is in the offing. But that’s exactly what Donald Basile, CEO of Mountain View, CA-based Violin Memory, did this Tuesday. The … Continue reading “Violin Memory Hints at IPO Plans, Makes A Come-From-Behind Bid to Replace Disks with Flash in Enterprise Storage”

“Going Directly At The Beast”—WePay Takes on PayPal with New Tools for Online Merchants

WePay emerged from the Y Combinator venture incubator in late 2009 with a plan to make it simpler for people to round up money online from groups of other people; think of a carpool driver collecting gas money from his riders, for example. Well, you can still use it for that. But as it turned … Continue reading ““Going Directly At The Beast”—WePay Takes on PayPal with New Tools for Online Merchants”

Traackr Closes $1M Round

Traackr, a San Francisco startup whose software gives marketing and public relations professionals a way to identify and rank “influencers” on the social Web, said today that it has closed a Series A funding round totaling $1 million. Backers included Launch Capital, Tollman Capital Partners, and individual investors Robbie Vann-Adibé, Qamar Aziz, Christopher Muenchhoff, and … Continue reading “Traackr Closes $1M Round”

Thrutu’s In-Call Media Sharing App Comes to the iPhone

Since March 3, when Palo Alto, CA-based Thrutu introduced its Android app for sharing photos, contacts, and map locations during a voice call, more than 250,000 Android phone owners have downloaded the app. That’s a lot for an Android app, so Thrutu vice president Liz Rice seemed pretty happy when I spoke with her yesterday. … Continue reading “Thrutu’s In-Call Media Sharing App Comes to the iPhone”

Nevro Raises $58M for Anti-Pain Device

Menlo Park, CA-based Nevro, which is developing a neuromodulation device for the treatment of chronic back and leg pain, said yesterday that it has raised $58 million in a Series B financing round led by new investor Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation. Existing investors Aberdare Ventures, Accuitive Medical Ventures, Bay City Capital, Mayo Clinic, MPM … Continue reading “Nevro Raises $58M for Anti-Pain Device”

Adchemy Aims to Overhaul Search Engine Marketing By Killing the Keyword

Google is broken. Not in a fundamental way, of course. Given that Google’s search and advertising services are the glue holding the whole Web economy together, you’d know it if something were truly malfunctioning. But Google’s advertising program has a basic flaw, at least according to the executives at Foster City, CA-based Adchemy. It’s a … Continue reading “Adchemy Aims to Overhaul Search Engine Marketing By Killing the Keyword”

Shopkick, Assistly, D-Rev: The 1-Minute Version of Last Week’s Bay Area BizTech News

We ran a full complement of startup profiles last week, but on top of that, Bay Area tech companies announced so many funding deals (including some real whoppers, like Jawbone’s $70 million round and Evernote’s $50 million round) that it makes you wonder whether everyone was scrambling to get term sheets signed before all the … Continue reading “Shopkick, Assistly, D-Rev: The 1-Minute Version of Last Week’s Bay Area BizTech News”

MoboTap Collects $10M

San Francisco-based MoboTap, maker of the Dolphin Web browser for Android devices, has raised $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital, with participation by Matrix Partners, according to various press reports. According to Dow Jones VentureWire, MoboTap is at work on an iOS version of Dolphin, which includes gesture-based features … Continue reading “MoboTap Collects $10M”

$20M for SeaMicro

According to a June regulatory filing that went largely unnoticed until this week, Sunnyvale, CA-based low-power server builder SeaMicro has raised $20 million in a Series D financing round involving existing investors existing investors Crosslink Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Khosla Ventures, and at least one unnamed strategic investor. SeaMicro raised $15 million in September … Continue reading “$20M for SeaMicro”

LetterMPress: An iPad App That Brings New Meaning to Movable Type

If you’re a follower of this column, you know that I write a lot about apps for the iPhone and iPad. It’s not just because I’m an Apple fan. It’s also because these revolutionary touchscreen-based devices are attracting some of today’s most creative developers, who are writing software unlike anything we’ve ever seen on other … Continue reading “LetterMPress: An iPad App That Brings New Meaning to Movable Type”

“Coolsculptor” Zeltiq Plans IPO

Zeltiq Aesthetics, a Pleasanton, CA-based medical device startup, filed registration papers yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission in preparation for an initial public offering. The company has developed a non-invasive procedure, called “CoolSculpting,” that uses cold to eliminate fat cells beneath the skin. The company hopes to raise up to $115 million in the … Continue reading ““Coolsculptor” Zeltiq Plans IPO”

D-Rev Applies Silicon Valley Design (and Business) Thinking to the Developing World

“I am not convinced that I would put my child in an incubator that is made of car parts.” That’s Krista Donaldson speaking. She’s the CEO of Palo Alto, CA-based D-Rev, and the quote says a lot about the non-profit organization and its philosophy on designing healthcare equipment for the developing world. You may have … Continue reading “D-Rev Applies Silicon Valley Design (and Business) Thinking to the Developing World”

$50 Million for Evernote

Evernote, the Mountain View, CA-based provider of a popular online notekeeping system, revealed today that it has raised $50 million in new funding. Sequoia Capital led the round, which was joined by Morgenthaler Ventures; both were previous backers of the company. Sequoia Partner Roelof Botha, formerly a board observer at Evernote, has assumed a full … Continue reading “$50 Million for Evernote”

Jawbone Collects $70M from J.P. Morgan

San Francisco-based Jawbone, known for its Bluetooth headsets and desktop speakers, said today that it has obtained $70 million in growth financing from J.P. Morgan Asset Management, bringing its total venture funding to $170 million. Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman said in a statement that the new funding will allow Jawbone to “be even more aggressive” … Continue reading “Jawbone Collects $70M from J.P. Morgan”

Cloudflare, Ignite, Zettaset, Karma: A Mid-Week Funding Roundup

Usually, stories about venture funding rounds go straight into the “News Xpress” section of Xconomy. But once in a while there’s a day with so many funding announcements that we decide to round them up in a quick list instead of publishing a bunch of separate items. Today was one of those days. —San Francisco-based … Continue reading “Cloudflare, Ignite, Zettaset, Karma: A Mid-Week Funding Roundup”

Crittercism Wins Funding

San Francisco-based Crittercism, a startup offering a plugin that helps developers track and debug their iOS and Android mobile apps, said today that it has obtained seed funding from a syndicate including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Google Ventures, Opus Capital, Shasta Ventures, AOL Ventures, and individual investor Lucas Nealson, an early engineer at Facebook. … Continue reading “Crittercism Wins Funding”

When Complaining Customers Hit Twitter and Facebook, Assistly is There

Alex Bard likes to start off his description of Assistly, the San Francisco startup where he’s CEO, with an old quote from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. It goes something like this: If you make a customer unhappy in the physical world, he might tell six friends. But if you make the same customer unhappy on … Continue reading “When Complaining Customers Hit Twitter and Facebook, Assistly is There”

RentJuice, Facebook-Skype, and Lean Startups: The 1-Minute Version of Last Week’s Bay Area BizTech News

Time for a few highlights from Xconomy San Francisco’s infotech and energy coverage during the short post-holiday week: —If you’ve ever heard the phrase “Lean Startup,” you’ve probably also heard of Eric Ries, who invented much of the customer-focused rapid iteration model while he was IMVU’s chief technology officer. Last week I sat down with … Continue reading “RentJuice, Facebook-Skype, and Lean Startups: The 1-Minute Version of Last Week’s Bay Area BizTech News”

Ardelyx Collects $17.6M

Fremont, CA-based Ardelyx, which is developing small-molecule drugs to treat gastrointestinal disorders, has raised $17.6 million in Series B funding in a round that could go as high as $22.3 million, according to a regulatory filing last week. Ardelyx’s previous investors include CMEA Capital and New Enterprise Associates (NEA).

Zynga Adds Five Mobile

San Francisco-based social game developer Zynga said in a blog post Friday that it has acquired Five Mobile, a Toronto, Ontario-based maker of mobile applications for enterprises and brands. Five Mobile co-founder Ameet Shah will head Zynga’s new Toronto studio, the company said.

Shopkick Uses the Sound of Rewards to Bring Smartphone Owners into Bricks-and-Mortar Stores

Shopkick is a startup on fire. Its CEO, Cyriac Roeding, is busier than the heads of companies a hundred times Shopkick’s size; it took me about eight months to get a 30-minute appointment with the German-born engineer and entrepreneur. The day I finally visited the company, which occupies a cramped office above a downtown Palo … Continue reading “Shopkick Uses the Sound of Rewards to Bring Smartphone Owners into Bricks-and-Mortar Stores”

Will Apple’s iCloud Finally Kill Off iTunes and End the Scourge of Sync? My Week in Apple Hell

Xconomy has been around for four years now (our birthday was June 27) and I used the same white plastic MacBook that whole time. It was a great little machine—but despite a memory upgrade, two battery transplants, and a new keyboard (I’m pretty hard on keyboards), it just wasn’t pulling its weight anymore. The OS … Continue reading “Will Apple’s iCloud Finally Kill Off iTunes and End the Scourge of Sync? My Week in Apple Hell”

$6M for Motif Investing

Palo Alto, CA-based Motif Investing, a stealth-mode startup building a consumer-oriented online investing platform, said today that it has raised $6 million in Series A financing in a round led by Norwest Venture Partners and Foundation Capital. Founded by a former Microsoft executive and a former hedge fund analyst, the company has revealed few details … Continue reading “$6M for Motif Investing”

Amazon Backs ParAccel

Campbell, CA-based ParAccel said today that it has raised an undisclosed amount of new financing from Amazon and existing investors Menlo Ventures, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Bay Partners, Walden International, Tao Venture Capital Partners, and Silicon Valley Bank. While ParAccel has shifted its headquarters to the Bay Area, the company still operates in San Diego, making … Continue reading “Amazon Backs ParAccel”