Being new to the neighborhood here in the Bay Area, we thought it was time to have a little housewarming. So as we noted a few days ago, we’re inviting all fans and friends of Xconomy San Francisco to an open house tomorrow night (that’s Friday, August 13). The festivities start at 5:00 p.m. We’re … Continue reading “Put Xconomy San Francisco’s Open House on Your TGIF To-Do List”
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/
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Plastic Logic Closes Book on Que Reader
Mountain View, CA-based Plastic Logic announced this week that it will not proceed with production of its Que ProReader e-reader device, a prototype of which was demonstrated at the International Consumer Electronics Show in January. The large-format, $650 device was to have been similar to the Amazon Kindle, except with a thinner, color, plastic display … Continue reading “Plastic Logic Closes Book on Que Reader”
If You’re Just Joining Us: Eight 1/2 Weeks of Bay Area Innovation Stories, Xconomy Style
We’re still pretty new to the Bay Area, having turned on our San Francisco site just eight weeks ago Monday, on June 14. Our web stats tell us that quite a few of the people who visit every day are arriving at the site for the first time. So as a quick introduction, I thought … Continue reading “If You’re Just Joining Us: Eight 1/2 Weeks of Bay Area Innovation Stories, Xconomy Style”
10gen Expands to Bay Area
New York-based 10gen, maker of the MongoDB open-source distributed database much beloved by Web developers and software engineers, said today that it’s opening an office in the San Francisco Bay area in order to “meet the demand for support and services among the growing MongoDB user base.” The Bay Area office will include engineering, support, … Continue reading “10gen Expands to Bay Area”
InDinero Co-founder Sees “Humungous” Market in Small Business Expense Tracking
As the summer term for Paul Graham’s Y Combinator incubator program builds up to its climax—“Demo Day” pitches to investors on August 24—Xconomy San Francisco is profiling selected “YC S10” startups, beginning with inDinero. Jessica Mah had a problem. She was running a managed hosting company, renting Web server space to small businesses. Demand was … Continue reading “InDinero Co-founder Sees “Humungous” Market in Small Business Expense Tracking”
LearnBoost Unveils Free Online Gradebook for Teachers
Last month I met with Rafael Corrales, CEO of a small San Francisco startup called LearnBoost, and got the inside story about the company’s audacious plan to help teachers and schools by bringing Apple-style elegance and simplicity to the educational software market. Today LearnBoost took the lid off the first component of its grand plan: … Continue reading “LearnBoost Unveils Free Online Gradebook for Teachers”
Nanosys Raises $25 Million, Unveils Three-Pronged Deal with Samsung
Palo Alto, CA-based Nanosys, the nanotechnology startup that has struggled to regain altitude after a high-flying debut in 2001, is switching on the afterburners this week. To finance a move to a larger facility where it will have more space to manufacture its nano-engineeered materials for lighting and digital displays, the company is about to … Continue reading “Nanosys Raises $25 Million, Unveils Three-Pronged Deal with Samsung”
Skype to Seek $100M in IPO
Luxembourg-based Skype, formerly a subsidiary of eBay (NASDAQ: [[ticker:EBAY]]) in San Jose, CA, has filed S-1 registration papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission in preparation for an initial public offering. The company, in which eBay still holds a 35 percent stake, hopes to raise $100 million in the offering on the NASDAQ exchange. In … Continue reading “Skype to Seek $100M in IPO”
Solazyme Raises $52 Million
The South San Francisco company that pioneered the idea of using algae to make biofuels, Solazyme, said today that it has raised $52 million in Series D financing. New investor Morgan Stanley and Braemar Energy Ventures led the round, which also included all of the company’s major existing investors—CTTV Investments, Harris and Harris Group, Lightspeed … Continue reading “Solazyme Raises $52 Million”
Mark Hurd’s Real Legacy at Hewlett-Packard: Reverticalization
The somewhat lurid circumstances surrounding Mark Hurd’s resignation Friday as chief executive of Palo Alto, CA-based Hewlett-Packard have left plenty of room for gossip. Hurd stepped aside after a board investigation into a sexual harassment claim by a former marketing contractor; the board cleared Hurd of the harassment allegation, but found that he’d fudged expense … Continue reading “Mark Hurd’s Real Legacy at Hewlett-Packard: Reverticalization”
IPOs Go Up, LinkedIn Finds a Nice Fit, Google Goes for a Slide, & More Bay Area BizTech News
Last week was another busy one for venture fundraising and acquisitions in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Fortunately, I got a lot of help this week from my San Diego colleague Bruce Bigelow, who reported on several stories affecting the Bay Area. —On Friday, Google confirmed earlier press reports that it had acquired San Francisco-based … Continue reading “IPOs Go Up, LinkedIn Finds a Nice Fit, Google Goes for a Slide, & More Bay Area BizTech News”
$7.4M Shines for Redbeacon
Redbeacon, a San Mateo, CA-based Web service where consumers can request price quotes from local service providers such as plumbers and personal trainers, said this week (PDF) that it has closed a $7.4 million Series A round of venture financing. Mayfield Fund and Venrock led the round, and Mayfield managing director Raj Kapoor and Venrock general … Continue reading “$7.4M Shines for Redbeacon”
How to Banish Business Cards: A Ranked List of Digital Options
Business cards are the scourge of anyone trying to go paperless. Sure, the basic concept is brilliant: a business card provides a compact, easily transferable storage location for all of the key data about another person. But it’s a mystery to me why the traditional paper business card, a descendant of the 17th-century visiting card, … Continue reading “How to Banish Business Cards: A Ranked List of Digital Options”
C2Call Raises $2M
C2Call, a Dortmund, Germany-based Internet telephony company whose CEO, Martin Feuerhahn, operates from the startup’s Mountain View, CA, office, said today that it has raised $2 million in Series A venture funding. Taking part in the round were Draper Investment Company, High-Tech Gründerfonds, and angel investor Klaus Wecken. Using C2Call’s software, Internet users can embed … Continue reading “C2Call Raises $2M”
$1.6M for Recurly
Recurly, a San Francisco-based maker of software that automates online subscription billing and payments for small businesses, has raised $1.6 million in seed funding, according to a report in VentureWire. The round was led by Polaris Venture Partners, with participation by Dave McClure’s 500 Startups, FreeStyle Capital, Michael Dearing’s Harrison Metal, and angel investors. Recurly was … Continue reading “$1.6M for Recurly”
LinkedIn Connects with mSpoke
Pittsburgh, PA-based mSpoke, which has developed “adaptive personalization” algorithms that deliver more relevant content such as RSS feeds to consumers, has become the first-ever acquisition for Mountain View, CA-based LinkedIn, according to a company announcement dated August 4. CEO Jeff Weiner said in the announcement that the seven-year-old professional networking company is “actively investing in solutions … Continue reading “LinkedIn Connects with mSpoke”
Reports: Google to Buy Slide
According to unattributed reports last night in TechCrunch and the New York Times, Google plans to acquire Slide, the San Francisco-based maker of social applications and games for Facebook, Myspace, and other social networks. The reports vary as to the likely purchase price: TechCrunch says $182 million, the Times says $228 million. Founded and led by … Continue reading “Reports: Google to Buy Slide”
Money for the Middle Stage: Part 2 of a Conversation with Scale Venture Partners
I sat down last week with Kate Mitchell and Rory O’Driscoll, both general partners at mid-stage venture firm Scale Venture Partners in Foster City, CA. The firm was interesting to me because it lives up to the name: The folks at Scale don’t invest in early-stage startups, where the nature of the product is often … Continue reading “Money for the Middle Stage: Part 2 of a Conversation with Scale Venture Partners”
Making Customer Support Sexy: Zendesk’s Help Desk Lovefest
If it weren’t for unhappy customers, San Francisco’s Zendesk wouldn’t be in business. After all, the company makes Web-based help desk software that’s used by thousands of companies to track, and ideally resolve, complaints submitted by their users. But Zendesk probably didn’t think that a plan to impose steep price increases, announced more than two … Continue reading “Making Customer Support Sexy: Zendesk’s Help Desk Lovefest”
You’re Invited to an Open House Celebrating Xconomy’s Arrival in San Francisco
We may be little bit behind schedule with this, given that we launched Xconomy San Francisco on June 14, but hey, it’s never too late to throw a party. All of our new friends and fans in the Bay Area are cordially invited to an August 13 open house at Xconomy’s new San Francisco headquarters—which … Continue reading “You’re Invited to an Open House Celebrating Xconomy’s Arrival in San Francisco”
VigLink Grabs Wheel at DrivingRevenue
San Francisco based VigLink, a maker of automated affiliate marketing software for Web publishers, said yesterday that it has acquired Chicago-based competitor DrivingRevenue. VigLink investors Google Ventures and First Round capital “more than doubled” their investments in VigLink in order to finance the acquisition, according to a blog post by VigLink CEO Oliver Roup. He … Continue reading “VigLink Grabs Wheel at DrivingRevenue”
Investors Send $15M to YouSendIt
Campbell, CA-based YouSendIt, whose software allows companies to use the Internet to securely transfer files that are too large to be sent by e-mail, announced today that it has raised $15 million in Series D funding. New investor Adams Street Partners led the financing round, which also included existing investors Emergence Capital, Sigma Partners and … Continue reading “Investors Send $15M to YouSendIt”
Lessons for Budding Angel Investors from Y Combinator’s AngelConf: Part 2
On Monday I published the first part of a double-header post excerpting the most interesting talks from last week’s AngelConf event at Y Combinator in Mountain View, CA. Attended by some 120 nascent angel investors—very few of whom looked more than 35 years old—the conference was designed to give a group of experienced angel investors … Continue reading “Lessons for Budding Angel Investors from Y Combinator’s AngelConf: Part 2”
Lessons for Budding Angel Investors from Y Combinator’s AngelConf: Part 1
You’ve been a part of the startup world for a while, and you’ve had a successful exit or two. You have some money laying around that you don’t know what to do with. You feel a vague sense of owing something back to the technology community, and you want to keep a hand in the … Continue reading “Lessons for Budding Angel Investors from Y Combinator’s AngelConf: Part 1”
Floodgate Gathers $73.5M Fund
Floodgate, the Menlo Park, CA-based micro-VC firm run by “super angel” Mike Maples, has raised $73.5 million for its third investment fund, according to a regulatory filing published today. The fund has 11 investors, according to the filing, and is more than twice the size of Maple’s $35 million second fund, raised in 2008. Floodgate, … Continue reading “Floodgate Gathers $73.5M Fund”
Pancetera Gets $5M, New CEO
Pancetera, a Santa Clara, CA-based maker of software for managing backup and storage across virtualized environments, announced today that it has collected $5 million in Series A funding from Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and Onset Ventures. Henrik Rosendahl, the former head of Thinstall (acquired by VMware), has been named as the new CEO of Pancetera, … Continue reading “Pancetera Gets $5M, New CEO”
A Rival for the iTunes App Store, a Data-Driven Dating Service for Facebook, a Pair of Social Gaming Deals, & More Bay Area BizTech News
What summer doldrums? The startup launches, venture financings, and M&A deals were flying about as fast as they come last week. —I got the inside story on OpenAppMkt, a new marketplace for Web apps for the Apple iPhone, from co-founder Teck Chia. The service, which went live on Friday, is similar to the iTunes App … Continue reading “A Rival for the iTunes App Store, a Data-Driven Dating Service for Facebook, a Pair of Social Gaming Deals, & More Bay Area BizTech News”
Verient Picks up $3M
San Jose, CA-based Verient, which makes payment processing software for Web merchants, has raised $3 million in a round of equity-based financing that could total as much as $5 million, according to a July 28 regulatory filing. The identities of the funders have not been disclosed, but the company’s existing investors included DoCoMo Capital and … Continue reading “Verient Picks up $3M”
OpenAppMkt: The Return of the iPhone Web App?
Few people remember it now, but for the first year after the launch of the Apple iPhone in June, 2007, there was no App Store. The device came with a few built-in or “native” apps like a calendar, a clock, and a notebook, along with a couple of third-party apps like the YouTube player and … Continue reading “OpenAppMkt: The Return of the iPhone Web App?”
Softbank Bets $150M on Zynga
Zynga, the San Francisco-based maker of wildly successful Facebook games such as FarmVille and Mafia Wars, has picked up a $150 million investment from Japan’s Softbank, the two companies announced last night. The companies also unveiled a joint venture, Zynga Japan, that will develop and distribute social games in Japan, a market where Zynga has … Continue reading “Softbank Bets $150M on Zynga”
Overshooting and Undershooting: Scale Venture Partners’ Kate Mitchell and Rory O’Driscoll on the VC Pendulum Swing
Part of the point of opening Xconomy San Francisco last month was to put our ear to the ground in the world capital of venture investing. Toward that end, I sat down earlier this week with Kate Mitchell and Rory O’Driscoll. They’re both general partners at Scale Venture Partners, a Foster City, CA-based firm that … Continue reading “Overshooting and Undershooting: Scale Venture Partners’ Kate Mitchell and Rory O’Driscoll on the VC Pendulum Swing”
Disney Buys Playdom, Adobe Buys Day, & More Mid-Week Deals News Around Silicon Valley
It’s been a busy week already when it comes to acquisitions and venture deals in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. There’s too much going on to write it all up separately, so here’s a quick rundown: —After operating for just two and a half years and raising $76 million in venture funding, Mountain View, CA-based … Continue reading “Disney Buys Playdom, Adobe Buys Day, & More Mid-Week Deals News Around Silicon Valley”
LearnBoost Bets on Better Tools for Teachers
San Francisco-based LearnBoost made a splash earlier this week with news of a $975,000 venture financing win. But much of the news coverage focused on the fact that four major venture firms, plus an assortment of angel investors, had participated in the relatively small financing round. To get more of the story behind the startup’s … Continue reading “LearnBoost Bets on Better Tools for Teachers”
$8.8M for BuzzLogic
San Francisco’s BuzzLogic, operator of an online ad network that targets display ads to relevant blogs, said today that it has closed an $8.8 million Series B venture financing round. The funds come from Adams Capital Management and Ackerley Partners, the same firms who supplied BuzzLogic’s $9.6 million Series A round. BuzzLogic also rolled out … Continue reading “$8.8M for BuzzLogic”
2Wire Picked Up by Pace
Pace PLC, the UK-based provider of digital pay TV technologies, said yesterday it will acquire San Jose, CA-based 2Wire, which makes the broadband cable modems deployed in homes by AT&T and other telecommunications companies. Pace will pay $475 million for 2Wire, which had raised nearly $200 million in venture financing since its 1998 launch, according … Continue reading “2Wire Picked Up by Pace”
Triangulate Raises $750K for “Data-Driven Dating” on Facebook
If you’re at least a casual Internet user, there’s already lots of information about you laying around in semi-public databases. Twitter knows what types of people you follow. Netflix knows what movies and TV shows you like. Foursquare knows where you check in. Pandora knows what kinds of music you like. Facebook knows who your … Continue reading “Triangulate Raises $750K for “Data-Driven Dating” on Facebook”
Terrafugia Shows Off New Design for Flying Car
A future replete with flying cars inched a bit closer today. At the AirVenture air show in Oshkosh, WI, aerospace startup Terrafugia of Woburn, MA, took the wraps off the latest prototype for its Transition “roadable aircraft,” which has folding wings that make the vehicle compact enough to drive right off the tarmac and onto … Continue reading “Terrafugia Shows Off New Design for Flying Car”
$975K Boost for LearnBoost
San Francisco-based LearnBoost, which makes gradebook and lesson-plan software for teachers, said today on its blog that it has raised $975,000 in financing from Bessemer Venture Partners, Charles River Ventures, RRE Ventures, and Atlas Venture. The startup says it aims to take business away from established teacher software providers like Blackboard and Pearson with a … Continue reading “$975K Boost for LearnBoost”
Xconomy Syndicates Local Technology, Biotech News to The Bay Citizen
I’m extremely pleased to report that selected articles from Xconomy San Francisco are now appearing at The Bay Citizen, San Francisco’s nonprofit online news source. Under a partnership agreement worked out this month, The Bay Citizen will republish several Xconomy stories every week, bringing additional technology and business perspectives to to the startup publication’s already … Continue reading “Xconomy Syndicates Local Technology, Biotech News to The Bay Citizen”
Flybridge Leads Convoke Round
Convoke Systems of San Francisco said today that it has closed a $5.5 million Series B venture financing round led by Boston-based Flybridge Capital Partners and boutique investment firm QED Investors. Convoke makes an online system that simplifies the process of registering and tracking consumer and commercial debt as it is sold, repackaged, and resold. … Continue reading “Flybridge Leads Convoke Round”
Flipping Out over Flipboard, Going Geo-Loco, Grilling Silicon Valley’s MacGyver, & More Bay Area Biztech News
Last week’s business and technology news ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous—sometimes both in one story (Flipboard’s new iPad app is pretty amazing, even if it didn’t work for half of the people who downloaded it). —After visiting Palo Alto, CA-based Nanosys, I wrote a feature explaining how the nine-year-old nanotech firm is finally … Continue reading “Flipping Out over Flipboard, Going Geo-Loco, Grilling Silicon Valley’s MacGyver, & More Bay Area Biztech News”
Boston’s Skyhook Will Map Tweets, Check-ins at San Francisco Marathon
“Knowing where someone is in real time—particularly if you have some context around that—is an incredibly valuable marketing opportunity.” So said Union Square Ventures partner Fred Wilson at a conference on geolocation in San Francisco this week. But sometimes it can be difficult to visualize that value—to imagine how proximity might translate into profit. Thanks … Continue reading “Boston’s Skyhook Will Map Tweets, Check-ins at San Francisco Marathon”
Flipboard, Off to a Shaky Start, Could Still Grow Into One of Tablet Computing’s Killer Apps
[Updated, see page 2] Say a reviewer goes to a performance of the latest Broadway extravaganza, and the elaborate stage machinery breaks down before the show even starts, forcing everyone to go home. This actually happened to me once, at a showing of Sunset Boulevard in New York. It probably wouldn’t be fair for the … Continue reading “Flipboard, Off to a Shaky Start, Could Still Grow Into One of Tablet Computing’s Killer Apps”
$12.6M Validates Validity
Validity, a San Jose, CA-based maker of fingerprint sensors for identity verification on electronic devices, said this week that it has raised $12.6 million in Series D financing. New investor Panorama Capital led the round, which also included existing investors Crosslink Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, TeleSoft Partners, and VentureTech Alliance. According to a company statement, the … Continue reading “$12.6M Validates Validity”
Going Geo-Loco: Lessons on the Mad Scramble to Exploit Location Data
When you’re a cartogeek like me and a conference on location-based services is going on six blocks away from your own home, you sort of have to go. So I spent part of my Wednesday at Geo-Loco. This was a gathering of entrepreneurs and developers debating how to build profitable businesses around the petabytes of … Continue reading “Going Geo-Loco: Lessons on the Mad Scramble to Exploit Location Data”
Flipboard Finds $10.5M
Flipboard came out of stealth mode with a bang today. The Palo Alto startup launched a new iPad app designed to reformat users’ social media streams, such as Facebook and Twitter updates, in the form of an interactive magazine. The company also announced that it has raised $10.5 million in Series A venture funding from … Continue reading “Flipboard Finds $10.5M”
How a MacGyver of the Semiconductor Industry Plans to Rescue Nanosys
Jason Hartlove has a name and a rakish mug worthy of a soap-opera star, a resume that any Silicon Valley engineer would envy, and a bit of swagger as a turnaround CEO. He co-invented the optical mouse at Hewlett-Packard, ran a 3,000-employee manufacturing operation for HP spinoff Agilent in Malaysia, and set South Korea’s struggling … Continue reading “How a MacGyver of the Semiconductor Industry Plans to Rescue Nanosys”
Google Energy Strikes First Deal—A 20-Year Wind Power Contract in Iowa
If you’ve crossed the U.S. Midwest by car recently, as I have, you may have noticed a new kind of crop sprouting up amidst the corn and soybeans: wind turbines, thousands of them. Now, some of the electricity those turbines produce will be going to Google Energy, a new entity set up by the Mountain … Continue reading “Google Energy Strikes First Deal—A 20-Year Wind Power Contract in Iowa”
GE Spurs Smart Grid Investing, Evernote Opens Its Trunk, Zendesk Touts Twitter, & More Bay Area BizTech News
It’s an Xconomy tradition: for the benefit of readers who may be too busy to keep up with us from day to day, we offer regular roundups of our news coverage from the past week. Typically we publish two separate roundups each week: one for life sciences news, and one for financial deals and general … Continue reading “GE Spurs Smart Grid Investing, Evernote Opens Its Trunk, Zendesk Touts Twitter, & More Bay Area BizTech News”
Epocrates Re-files for IPO
Epocrates, the San Mateo, CA-based software company that makes healthcare-related mobile applications for doctors and nurses who use iPhones, Android phones, Blackberry phones, and other information devices, restarted the initial public offering process on Friday submitting a new S-1 registration form to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company has raised $86 million in venture … Continue reading “Epocrates Re-files for IPO”